A WOW Moment - August 6th 2020

What was that? That looked like an internet thing. Are we on? Hopefully, there's no glitches. It says live. But I don't have the internet password. Oh, did you? I don't remember. Yeah. I don't know the internet thing.

Here we are. I was scared of you. Hey, your cute shirt. That's it, my new shirt. Your new cute shirt. A new cute shirt. Why do you have my necktie on anyway? Because it's close to the back and it's small.

It's really nice. Where is that? It's right before change. Where are we going today? It's before him. I know we're in Michael's house. We do. Well, I just need to put the tabbies on. I bought you something.

Part of my problem is I can't see. As I was just looking, I was looking under here and not. I wasn't using the glasses. I was doing this. So you're seeing the blurriness of me. Yeah. And what happens if I use the glasses, right?

Encouragement, Church Attendance, and Hebrews 10:24-25

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our Bible study. Tonight, we are in the college and career room. So thanks, Shara. Thanks, Shane. Thanks, college and career.

I really keep it neat in here, too. I haven't been in here in a while. I think that's mostly probably Shara's doing. Probably so. I keep it clean. Yeah, whose cup is that? Get it.

Come on. Clean up after yourself. Clean up. Clean up. 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.

So yes, everybody's voting. So we wanted to steer clear of all that. And Rachel, our guest, had a great idea to come into the annex and use the college and career room. And it feels good in here. So double plus for that.

But tonight, our guest is Rachel Shipley. I'll have to say she's probably been a witness since she was small.

Funny story, Carol was my nursery teacher when we joined. Really? And now I work along with her inside nursery. So it's really fun. The nursery used to actually be out here. And she was my teacher when I was a kid.

Now you're a boy. She and I talk about that all the time. It's a sweet thing. But she has loved watching me grow up. So I'm just hanging out with her. She's a wonderful lady. She's a hostess.

Do you think I could come up a little bit more? Sure. We're going to, hold on just a second. We're going to move this. Because you can push me up to the side more, Mercedes. Yeah, let us know if you can't hear us.

Because I'm soft-spoken. There you go. That ought to work really well. That's actually closer than it is when we're in the lounge. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. You'll be able to hear us better. Yeah. OK, anyway, so our guest tonight is Miss Rachel Shipley.

And I'm Vicki. I think you remember me. Sorry. That's Mercedes. OK. Our camera woman. Right here. I think you remember her, too. But tonight we have asked Rachel to join us. Actually, Rachel volunteered some time ago.

We're just not getting her on because of schedules and other things. So everybody's busy.

I was like, I'm going to wait until you get back from your town trip. Right. I'm a full mom, baby. Right.

So here we are. And it couldn't turn out to be a better evening, actually. It's beautiful outside. And the election's going on. Go vote, people. So go vote. You've got about 25 more minutes. So, Rachel, usually we want to know what people's go-to verses are.

And I understand, after talking with you and also kind of knowing you, you have several. Right. But tonight, what is the verse that you would like to study?

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

So I want to talk about something a little more uplifting, and I wanted to talk about encouragement and just kind of I picked two verses. Well, two verses out of Hebrews and then one out of Ephesians that I wanted to talk about tonight.

Just my perspective. I wanted to give my perspective on encouragement, especially in light of COVID right now. I know a lot of people are living in fear, which 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 making that a habit, I guess, because we weren't meeting for so long. Right. It's now gotten hard for them to get back into the, I guess, routine.

Right. Meeting up for worships and making sure that you're still serving within your church body. So I just wanted to kind of give my which these two verses are a little bit different from that, but just what I thought on that.

Hopefully it can encourage people to do right. So it's Hebrews 10, 24 through 25.

10, 24, and 25. Mercedes, will you read the scripture, please? 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 in all the more as you see the day draw near.

That's great. That's exactly what you said.

Yeah. So I took our spiritual gifts test a long time ago, and one of my highest things was encourager. And so I was like, 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 there's so much scripture on encouragement, and it comes in different scenarios, I guess. 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.

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. A lot of times in the Old Testament it is more of a strengthening thing. Right.

And then there's comfort and encouragement as well, which 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 those are the three different things.

I think this one in particular is more of a warning, but then also that we are warning you because it says, as the day draws near, meaning Christ's return, that it's important that we I think it's vital to our spiritual life to come together for worship.

I think that that's important, and which I know during quarantine we did that. I needed that big time. Bad. And so we missed each other, and so I think that's a big part. But then, 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 says, wow, 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 I saw that more during quarantine than anything.

Warning Against an Unbelieving Heart and the Need for Daily Encouragement

Well, you know, once you separate from your church family or your family, you have a tendency of strife. And you could also have a tendency of starting to believe lies because I know I had a problem with believing myself and not believing my fellow sisters in Christ.

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 tell me, no.

Because those brain bullies, 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 just insecurities. And she was like, yeah, brain bullies suck.

That when your brain is telling you one thing, just how important it is to combat it with truth. Yes. And that's why scripture is so important and each other. Because, I mean, 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 bullies talking right now. Right.

Well, I know that it's also not only just within yourself, but it will feed off onto your family at home. Right. And it can be very negative for somebody in your house. That needs positivity. 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 as well as your spouse.

That's such a good point. I mean, think about, like, we encourage each other in the church body, but sometimes you're the only witness and someone's in church. Right. In a sense, you're also encouraging that person to do what is right.

That's not a regular.

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

I don't know what you're talking about. You have to remember, Mercedes, that time. Where were we?

Walk the walk. If you're going to walk the walk, you have to talk the talk. Yeah.

Or if you're talking the talk, you've got to walk the walk. Yeah.

If you're talking all this stuff about being a Christian and following the Lord and all that stuff, you have to have the walk also.

You can't just say the scriptures and use the words. Exactly. You know, put your little daily Bible verse and stuff. Right. Oh, my gosh. It's got to show in your actions as well. You just hit the nail on the head.

How many people do you see? This is all full of it, but forgive me. It happens a lot. How many people do you see posting little scriptures and stuff when you're going? Who did you share that? I want to ask some of those people.

Who did you share that from? Yeah. Four of the ones. Scripture out of context. Yes. Honey, that's a whole other ball of wax.

That's people's ignorance showing, which some of it is just needs maturity in there. I think another friend of theirs would share the daily Bible verse all the time just kind of as an encouragement. So that friend encouraged the other friend.

What does that mean? 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?

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

Hebrews 3, 12 and 13. 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 God, but encourage each other daily while it is still called today so that none of you is hardened by sin's deception.

Right. Actually 14 too. So, for we have become companions of the Messiah, if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. Okay, and 14.

I see that. I don't just have the time, but you can tell that scripture was not an edited book, if you will. I was like, Paul just has these long run-on sentences.

He's just going on and on and on.

I need to put commas and stuff.

You can just tell that it's a pure letter. It's somebody's words. It's not somebody came in and fixed it up.

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. Right.

Which they wrote that then, so you can, when you're talking about end times, we're even closer now to that.

Then they were then for sure. And he was warning them.

Scripture does say you don't know the time or place, so it is important to take that seriously. Every day.

Yeah, Scott and I were on the conversation the other day of repenting.

We just got on the subject of repentance.

I looked at him. I said, I don't know how often you repent, but I find myself doing it quite often throughout the day. I told him, I said, if I have a bad thought, I'll be like, I am so sorry, Lord. Take that from me.

You know what's funny is you notice that stuff now. Yeah. But before salvation, you didn't. My little sister, she just got saved. And we were talking that night that she got back from and said, I've already caught myself slipping up.

But you recognize it now.

Yeah. That's what's so cool. And it's so important to teach them, because I know when I was a baby Christian, as soon as I got saved, 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. I'm not good at this Christian thing. So it's so important to teach them what grace actually is. And know that there they are. Yes, exactly. Like you said, you notice it more then.

So it's even worse then. It's like you realize how totally depraved you are and where you need to grow and stuff. So it's beautiful to be able to see that. It shows you that there actually is regeneration in your heart.

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

Yay! Conviction is good. Yeah. And then sometimes it doesn't feel very good. And then finally understanding scripture, too, is something else. That's so big. You know, that she said, I was like, yes. So she gets it.

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

She pulled one from Matthew about the light on the hill and explained what she thought it meant. And I went, whoa, yes. That's how you do it. Oh, good.

Sorry, super sidebar. No, that was a good sidebar. That's a good thing. Are you all still there? You all born in Ephesians? Yes. My other verse was Ephesians 4. Some people can't really hear us. Wait a minute.

Is it me?

I'm talking louder. Okay, y 'all let us know if you think it's us. It's because we forget that it's there. So we're talking to each other? Because we're just sitting here chatting. I'm sorry, guys. Me?

Maybe Andrew will be able to boost it up. 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. Sorry, friends. But, um...

Aw, Jennifer, don't send a crying face. Tara said, I can't really hear y 'all. And Jennifer said, me either, crying face. All right, let's move on to... Ephesians 429. Ephesians 429. The Verizon commercial.

Can you hear me now? Jennifer said, she said, I hooked you up to my TV and turned it up to 100 and still can't hear you. 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. Oh, there I go, looking under my glasses again. Why have them on if we're going to do it like this? 429. We will, uh, we will get Drew Bob on it. I'm really sorry, because this is actually really fun.

It's a really good study.

Ephesians 29, correct? Yes.

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

My translation, it says, let no unwholesome talk, so foul language, just same thing. 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 I've had to work on gossip, but not in the sense of gossip of, oh, did you see what she wore kind 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?

And I immediately, this person had kind of a reputation of not falling through on things. So I mean, it was like, Ooh, there, no, don't, you know, don't choose them. They don't fall through on stuff. Like I don't want them flaking on you, blah, blah, blah.

And then, but then I was able to name strengths as well. And I was like, but they're also a really hard worker and stuff like that. Well, the whole time I was talking to this person goes, okay, well that's not gossiping.

And I was like, okay, if you say it's not gossiping more than likely I was gossiping. And so I told, I felt convicted by that. And so I told Josiah that night and 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, I don't think that they needed to know that they tend to have kind of a flaky personality. Like they don't fall through on things. 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, our flaws and stuff, well then none of us would be qualified for ministry.

And so I would rather someone find my strengths and say, yes, here's their strength for them, why I think they would do well on that, focus on that and run with that. So just like that kind of stuff, 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.

Or even when we're correcting each other, it should, your word 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. So, well,.

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 I would be like, I don't really think they're in a place right now. Maybe you should talk to them about that. Or they have served in the ministry, but I've, this particular person, I could have gone without saying there, there was no reason for me to say that they, it would have been fine.

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

But know too, that you're a warm one. In other words, if it's, if it's,.

For example, you have a young lady come up to you and say, I was thinking about going out with so-and-so Saturday night because he asked me to go to McDonald's or whatever. And if you know the history of this young man, I feel like it is your place to be honest.

Right. Because when you know some negatives about somebody, I'm not saying you need to thrive on the negative parts of the person.

Or let that be what defines them.

Right. Right. But I think that it is also your responsibility to warn someone if that is the case. Also, like if somebody would have warned me that Mercedes doesn't take good notes at staff meetings. That's not funny.

I have warned her. The first three months. I didn't take any of them. I know. I would be like, Mercedes, what happened at staff meeting today? But you have to understand. Did you write anything down? I've been to them.

Lots of them. 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, I was like, okay, I'm not going to be at one of their staff meetings, so you write down any big points that I need to know, especially pertaining to you, so we can keep you organized.

Okay, I'm going to do it.

And he takes a notebook and stuff. He doesn't ever pick up the pen. He just talks the whole time.

And so then I'll ask him what she finally just told me. And he goes, I don't know, ask Char. She's the one that takes the notes and sends them out and stuff. I don't know how Char does it.

It's so stressful when she says, I got to go to the bathroom. You take notes. And I go, Char. I don't work. You just have to pull out the major points.

Everybody speaks too fast. And I hear so many conversations all at once. I can't just focus. There are a lot going on. We sat down one night.

Mercedes just forwarded Char's notes. Yeah. Don't give her any cheats, Quinn. But, you know, when we sit down to plan things for WOW, I'm sitting there. As a matter of fact, we had a WOW lunch not long ago, me and Mercedes and the coordinators that I have in place.

And I was like, okay, what about this date? And so I was writing down stuff. Well, then I come back and it's like, well, so-and-so's that weekend. This is that weekend. And I'm thinking, why don't I know these things?

Why didn't I have these dates written down?

I just have a problem with your mind. What is going on in the church? Because this one doesn't know.

So now 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, I pull out my calendar now.

In your defense, there is a lot going on here in staff meeting.

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 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've got Sharquita over here, and then you've got Mercedes right here. And Mercedes is talking to Josiah, which is right here. And you've 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? It's amazing. Sharquita can pick it all up, too. She's like, mm-hmm, yeah, mm-hmm.

She just gets up to a little point. And still can talk. Yes, she does. She is the multitasking queen.

And then pins go flying across the room. That's the love in our church. We have it. It's great. It's wonderful, actually. So, how did we get on that? Right. We really went sideways.

We were talking about even if you want to focus on their strengths, sometimes you've got to, that if you need to warn against maybe a bad blonde, somebody did that. I guess you've got to be comfortable to say it in front of their face, too.

Yes. It doesn't classify as gossip. Right. Which I'm not a confrontational person, so there's very few things to talk about. You won't be talking to anybody. You want my opinion about what? Mm-mm.

Should we have sweet tea or no sweet tea? I don't know. Ask somebody else. But that's, yeah, that's very minute, too. Some things that you can be asked your opinion about. I had a big, big, big problem.

I mean, I'm a woman, and I work for the government. You want to talk about gossip? Work in an office with 100 women. I did that for 17 years.

Women just naturally do that to us. We're so opinionated, and we do tend to be more passive-aggressive than men, 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 underneath my breath.

And be done with it. Yes. It's very fine. Right. Right. I did have to give somebody that same piece of advice on a mission trip one time, though, because we were, somebody was, it was one of our first Bahamas mission trips, so I'm pretty sure the girl I was talking to doesn't even go to church anymore, but it was the newbie.

We were butting heads, and, like, we had just reached that, like, end-of-the-week goal where you just kind of get some tension, starts getting high and stuff, 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, 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. And I told her, I was like, you can fight, because she was like, she was like, that person's not safe, they don't need to be on this trip, 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. You can find one good thing about them that they've done good this week and focus in on that. Right. And so, and she did. She was able to once she got out of her feelings.

And so, but that, but, I mean, I use that for myself, too, even when I get, because we get annoyed with each other. We're a church family. We do that, just like you would with your, any other family member.

And so, but you can always find a strength, and instead of focusing on their weaknesses that you feel like you take so personally, you feel like they've wronged you. So, I think when you focus more on those strengths, then there is, that does keep that unity.

So, within the church body.

And that encouragement when you do need to talk to them about something that they need to work on.

That was good. It's funny. I told you. I was like, I'm not going to talk very long. She said she's not a chatty Kathy.

She's not a chatty Kathy. Before we started this, I think we're about finished anyways. But before we started, Rachel was saying, well, you know, I don't talk real loud, and I don't talk a lot.

And 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. 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 I would go home, I'd be like, please don't talk to me. Like, I don't want to be around people.

That's how I was as a massage therapist.

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. She wants. Now I'm like, we can hold adult conversations. Yes.

I'm not guessing what you're trying to say right now. No, well, we can play charades if you want. Oh, please. Oh, my gosh. Are you thirsty? Looks like you're thirsty. Oh, I got it right. My daughter would just be like.

That's her means of communication. 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 a little baby language. But when she gets really tired or she's just frustrated with me, she just starts.

And I'm like, I'm ignoring you.

I can't handle your whining. Yeah, you can't entertain it. 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. I hope you have enjoyed. By the way, a pastor, I believe, is popping up as Wynton Baptist. Okay. Because you know he does that. He says Sadie's is taking notes from no one. Oh, no.

No, she's not. No, she's not.

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

And then Jennifer says, I'm the only one using my outside voice. Oh, well, that's true too, Gwen. She said Josiah doesn't leave many words for her. He uses them all up. Well, I hope y 'all have enjoyed tonight.

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

I hope that if you hadn't looked at that verse in the way that we discussed it tonight, I hope that it has given you a vision of how to apply it to your life. And I hope that in some way or another, it will help you or benefit you in some way in the future.

So, I want to thank y 'all for joining us tonight. And I hope everybody has a great evening. Thank you again, Rachel. And this has been a wow moment.