A WOW Moment - September 10th 2020

You know what I noticed when you walked in on us? Are you okay? Your eyes were so white.

So white? Because his face is so dirty. Why did you wait until we got live to say stuff like that? They can't really hear you.

Yes they can. They can hear you. Well don't say it. We're part of it. Alright. I'm signing on so I can read stuff.

I don't like this kind of stuff. Why can't I do my videos like this? This is way more laid back. I'm on a couch. Everyone's laughing. I'm always so serious.

You just need to have somebody with you. I'm always by myself. That's true. I'm always by myself. Are we on the public page?

Well I am a teacher. It's true. I hope we're on the public page. One time I went to the wrong page.

My brother Jeff does that every other week. I only did it once. And here I am. Are we on the public page?

I can't tell. I see Lisa and Sandra and Rachel. Guys can y 'all hear us and are we on the public page? Yes it's the public page.

Can y 'all hear us? You need somebody with you.

That's part of the issue. I guess I can sometimes. Sometimes Sometimes I need to be by myself.

It depends on what I'm doing. If I'm doing a question and answer I can have someone with me. If I'm doing a Sunday night Bible study. No not your recorded things.

You don't need somebody with you. When you go live you need somebody with you. Because it's more laid back like you said.

And that's why I don't like this too much. Maybe y 'all can come do a question and answer with me. We'll do a question and answer with you.

Like Saturday? At 2 o 'clock? We'll be here Saturday at 2 o 'clock. It'll be at Caden's party though.

It's not Caden's party. It's Avery's party. And it's over at the 2 o 'clock. Then we've got to hit Hobby Lobby. We'll do that after we get there.

Or is it easier if we just do next Saturday? Let's ask

Mercedes. Next Saturday at Mercedes? Alright. I don't want to cram too much into my

Saturday. All of you guys that normally join me for question and answer on Saturdays. We will have some guests in a couple of weeks.

Yeah. I like how I got thrown into that one. Because you've been wanting me in there.

I see what you did there. Alright. Someone put in the comments if you can hear us please. Yes. Yes.

We hear you. What's wrong with your phone? I don't have any comments but okay. Well that's great. I didn't say nothing.

No one wants to talk to me. It's public. Alright. Anyways. Good evening everybody.

Welcome to our Bible study. As you can see we've already started lively conversation here in the lounge at the church.

I always forget what to call this room. I always want to call it the work room. It's a work room slash lounge.

Oh okay. Thanks Mercedes. That's right. Oh does it? Oh okay.

Well then I'm correct. I'm Vicki as you know. And everyone remembers Mercedes.

And if you have been on the Whitney page for any extended period of time and watched any of the videos or live feeds then you know the gentleman that's sitting beside me.

This is Pastor Josiah Shipley. Hey guys. You've been a pastor now for five minutes.

Let's see. Five minutes? I was there. It wasn't today. Most of his life actually.

It was after Meg's. It was after the shutdown. Three months. Did you?

Somebody else told us. Nobody told us. I thought for sure that Amanda is on there and so is

Uncle Jeff. Your Uncle Jeff. Anyway so tonight we have

Pastor Shipley with us and we're very pleased and honored to have him as our guest. So I don't have to go through the whole rundown of you've been going to church here blah blah blah because everybody already knows that.

That's why we're so happy and honored to have you tonight. We don't have to go through all that stuff. So Pastor the way this works is we ask you what is your favorite verse, your go to verse or a verse you've picked for the evening.

So what would that be? I picked Genesis chapter 50 verse 20. Mercedes will you read scripture please?

You planned evil against me. God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people.

So Pastor Shipley what is this your favorite verse? Okay well to answer that I've got to kind of set the background in context.

Is that okay? That's fine. Awesome. First off guys some of you may have heard me talk about this verse before.

I'll get to why it's my favorite. And of course in case there's anyone thinking I'm being silly when I say it's my favorite that doesn't mean

I think it's more important than any other verse. It's a verse in the Bible. It's just my favorite. In my opinion the most at least one of the most misinterpreted words in the whole

Bible is the word you. Anytime we see the word you we put our own name in there.

We want to personalize it. Yeah we want to personalize it. Which is very dangerous because for example if you bow down and worship me

I'll give you all you see. Satan said that to Jesus.

So it's really important we know who's talking and who they're talking to because that's not a scenario we want to plug ourselves into right?

So here Joseph is talking. Now if you know Joseph code in many colors maybe how you know him his brothers tried to kill him then sold him into slavery.

He was wrongly thrown in prison accused of rape or attempted rape all sorts of stuff.

And he eventually through God's favor rose to power in Egypt and became the second most powerful man there.

Well now here's where the story picks up. There is a worldwide famine.

Okay? People are going hungry but because of the Lord's providence and Joseph's wisdom Egypt where Joseph got sold into is the only nation on the planet thriving.

The only nation. Fourteen years after his brothers sold him into slavery his brothers come to Egypt begging for food.

They don't recognize him at first because it's been fourteen years and they thought he was dead. Imagine that.

Yeah. They thought he was dead. Also didn't he dress like He wouldn't dress wealthy.

He was the second most powerful man in Egypt and we know from Moses account when he left Egypt they dressed differently because when

Moses is approaching Jephthah as well the people saw that he was dressed as an Egyptian. So whatever that looked like and he walked like an

Egyptian. Talked like an Egyptian. So Jacob was the father there was eleven other sons at this point

Joseph's family was 70 people. All 70 of them remember that's going to be the nation of Israel.

Jacob's name was changed to Israel. That's going to be the nation of Israel. All 70 of them came to Egypt and begged Joseph for food who eventually revealed himself.

Well after Jacob the father dies the other brothers assume that Joseph is going to take revenge.

Right? Right. I mean that's what they assumed. Right. So this is at the end of Genesis all of Israel which is only 70 people at this time is now in Egypt.

They're in Egypt. They're there because they were starving and now they're in the most wealthy nation on the planet at this time.

And the brothers are worried. Verse 18 his brothers came also and fell down before him and said behold we are your servants and Joseph said to them do not fear for I am the place of God.

Don't bow down to me. Right? And this is what he says in verse 20. Joseph speaking to his brothers who sold him into slavery he says this as for you you meant or planned evil against me but God meant or planned it for good to bring about this present result the survival of many people that are alive today.

Now here's what's so amazing about that. It says you meant evil against me

God meant it for good. Or Holman you planned it for evil God planned it for good.

The same word used of what they did is the same word used of what God did. Okay? This is called compatibilism.

They planned an event for evil God planned that same event for good. There is a song, there's a couple of them, a very well meaning song that accidentally

I presume robs God of a little bit of glory in this instance. The song goes like this you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good.

And they get it from this verse. You take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good. Right, yeah.

The thing is God is not, God has never been surprised.

He's not a reactionary God. That's not who he is. He doesn't let bad things happen and then go oh

I didn't expect that and then adjust to it. He sees everything coming.

What they planned for evil, he had already planned for good. Not reacted and turned it and changed it to good.

He had already planned it for good. Now think about this. If Joseph had never been sold into slavery, what would have happened to his family?

They would have starved to death. Guess what nation would have never existed? Israel. Guess what

Messiah would have never been born? Jesus. Now, when you say it like that, it just gives you a glimpse into the way, just a small glimpse into the way

God sees things. Because he was sold into slavery, Israel had survived.

Every intention God has is for good. Every intention his brothers had were for evil.

Their evil intentions, God's good intentions, God's intentions went out every time.

Just like when Jesus was being beaten and mobbed. the hands of Pilate and Herod, I mean there was good that came.

You're quoting a verse that you don't know you're quoting or maybe you do. I do, I just can't remember. Acts chapter 4 26 and 27.

Exactly like you just said. In this city, Herod and Pilate, the Jews and the Gentiles which are really the

Romans, came together against Jesus to do whatever God's hand and God's plan had predestined to take place.

And it's exactly the same thing. It's a perfect analogy for here. Just like the cross,

Pilate, Herod, the Romans, meant evil. God didn't react and turn that to good.

Jesus Christ was slain before the foundation of the world. He had planned that event for good.

None of his plans were evil even though none of theirs were good. All of his were good, all of theirs were evil.

The reason why this is my favorite verse is because even the evil intention of my enemies, of myself,

God has a plan that's not reactionary nor is it dependent on me or anybody else.

God's plan won't be carried out because God is sovereign. This verse reminds me of God's sovereignty.

If you've never heard of the word sovereign, the word sovereign just means total control, all -powerful.

In ancient times, they would call the king of the land the sovereign because unlike the president, he had total control over all things, right?

So as for you, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. To bring about this present result, the survival of many people.

Now think about this. Those 70 people lived because God planned their evil actions for good.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, they were trying to kill him.

They were not touched. There's a million examples.

The whole Bible is like that. If he did that for Joseph, he does that for Vicki, Mercedes, and Josiah.

I did this in a Sunday night Bible study in person a while back. I just looked down and said, let's play this out in today's time.

And I didn't make people raise their hand, but I said, if you think about the first time you came to this church, for most of you, it probably was not either a good reason or wholly good intentions.

Maybe something bad happened. Maybe you came for the wrong reason. Whatever it is. But what was planned for, we can say evil,

God had already planned for good. He didn't react. He had already planned it for good. And if you just start thinking, right, if you just start thinking about the domino effect of what has all happened because of events like that, it gives you a

God perspective instead of a man perspective. It gives you a perspective of focusing on, you know, don't think about things down here, but set your mind on things above.

Well, that's hard to do because we don't have God's mind. But the Scripture gives us little glimpses like this of what that looks like.

Okay, since you said that, when I first started coming here, I was on the verge of leaving my husband.

And now here I sit doing a Bible study about this, and he's in another class. When I first started coming here, it's because my mom passed, and I was putting on my business hat to figure out who

I was going to talk to about the service being held here. And was not planning on walking back here.

Did not. It had no plans on coming back. But what Mercedes planned for evil, God had planned for good.

And now I'm sitting here. Right. I mean, it goes on. Go down to verse 24.

Joseph is 110 years old. What? Yeah. And Joseph said to his brothers, the ones who sold him out of slavery and tried to kill him,

I'm about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land that he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And when Joseph made the sons of Israel, remember Jacob's name got changed to Jeremiah, the sons of Israel swear saying

God will visit you and you will carry my bones from here. Okay.

So Joseph died 110 years old. They embalmed him and put him in a coffin in Egypt. Here's what's so amazing about that.

What's about to happen to the Israelites, they're about to be put in slavery for 430 years by the

Egyptians, the ones they can't even beg for food from. Yeah. Because Joseph dies and another pharaoh who didn't know

Joseph comes. Okay? So, in fact, if you read the very next page in Exodus chapter 1 verse 8, it's a different pharaoh.

What's amazing is, and I guess I'll turn there real quick. In Hebrews 11,

Hebrews chapter 11, some people call it the faith chapter, I guess. In Hebrews 11 verse 22, check this out.

Hmm. Where's Hebrews? There it is. In the back. Are we going to do the coffee joke or let it go?

I mean, the coffee joke is always a good joke. Hebrews. How do we know God likes coffee? His Bible says

Hebrews. Okay. Now, Hebrews 11, 22,

Mercedes jumps to read, right? You can read. Alright, Mercedes. Hebrews 11, 22.

Hebrews 11, 22. Vicki's in charge. This is kind of like Sunday night reading.

Bernie White makes me read almost every Sunday night and then says you have no excuse because Vicki makes you read every week.

Except last week because I said, hey Mercedes, can you tell Courtney to read? That was hilarious.

It says, By faith, Joseph, as he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the Exodus of the

Israelites and gave instructions concerning his backs. The Israelites are about to be put in slavery for 430 years.

But Joseph says, God will visit you and when he does, carry my bones from this place.

To a land that God will take you to. Romans 8, 28 says,

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose.

Yep. The other thing too I saw back in Genesis 50, 21 he goes on Joseph goes on to tell his brothers or his family or whatever,

Therefore, don't be afraid I will take care of you and your little ones and he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

He's humble. He's showing humility and compassion even though they sold him.

They wanted to kill him. We hold grudges for much less than that. Yeah, right?

Much less than that. And the humility to take care of their little ones.

I mean. That speaks volumes itself. I mean, in a way they are his family but in another way he hasn't seen them in 14 years and the last time he did he was in a caravan.

You know, they actually wanted to kill him but Reuben convinced them to settle for selling for slavery.

Come on Rebecca. Come on Rebecca. You're live. Come say hello.

Say hello. Rebecca says hello. Rebecca says hi. She's right there.

Lean over and say hello. That was so funny.

Y 'all missed it. It was great. You should have been here. So in summary, Genesis 5 -20 is my favorite verse because no matter what they or even myself have planned for evil,

God is not dependent on our actions to react. He has already planned it for good.

Just like the cross. Just like a million examples we can see in scripture. In your life.

Yeah. I mean if if they had not sold him to slavery, they would have starved.

There would be no Israel. There would be no Messiah. They would have starved. But because he was sold into slavery,

God didn't turn that for good. He had already planned that for good. There was already a plan and God's plan wins out every time.

Now I understand why this is your favorite. You've been telling me for a long time this is your favorite scripture and your favorite chapter is

Romans 8? Which is what she just quoted from.

Her favorite chapter is Romans. It is. It is. Romans 8. I mean just think about we know now if Mercedes Sorry Rebecca.

Mercedes listed the group of people God's talking to in Romans 8. For those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Those who love him and are called. Now Jesus is very detailed about those who actually love him, not just the ones who love him with their mouth.

But if you love me, you will keep my command. But for those who love God and are called according to his purpose, all things work together for the good.

It may not be what you see as good in the moment, but one day one day we're going to see things from God's perspective and not only will we agree that everything he did was good and even though the intentions of others were evil, we will see the big picture one day.

I mean 1st Corinthians 13 says one day we will fully know as I am fully known. We're going to know one day.

Joseph's brothers also assumed that he was going to repay them for all the suffering that they caused him.

So they assumed that you know, because it says if Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we have caused him.

So they assumed that he was going to repay them with the evil that you know they put on him.

And instead he did the exact opposite. Yep. Yep.

Okay. We've covered Pastor Shipley's favorite verse.

Now I have a question. The question is when it comes to generational sin is the generational sin per inflate from me from my father or is it from because the reason

I ask the question is because like Mercedes is adopted and everybody knows that we've done a

Yeah. So she don't even know her father. Yeah.

So how would she Explain that. Explain the concept of generational sin.

Is that what you mean? You get it. You understand me more than most people.

Okay. So when we talk about generational sin we first got to distinguish between Adamic sin.

Adamic meaning Adam. Some people call this original sin but the original sin was of course

Satan or Lucifer. Rebellion. Yeah. When we say

Adamic sin this is the doctrine of imputation. Romans 5 12 2

Corinthians 5 20 and 21. The best passages you can go read those on your own.

Romans 5 12 Romans 5 12 and 2 Corinthians 5 20 and 21

I'm probably going to say them in a second. Okay. Imputation has three stages in the

Bible. Adam's sin and the effects of that are imputed to all mankind. Okay.

It's important that it's Adam not Eve. Number two our sin is imputed on to Jesus on the cross.

And thirdly Christ's righteousness is imputed on those who believe on me. Okay. So impute it means to charge someone's account.

To transfer to someone else's account. That's what it means. Okay. That's what impute means.

That's exactly what it means. To charge someone else's account. If you read Romans 4 the word impute or charge or credited is used like 15 times in Romans 4.

Romans 4 is about excuse me, imputation. Thanks for the coke. So Romans 5 12 therefore as sin into the world through one man now

Josiah I thought Eve sinned first. She did. Just listen. As sin into the world through one man and death through sin in this way death spread to all men because all sin.

In Adam we die. Even though Eve sinned first, who did

God call on first? Adam. This is where He was supposed to be the leader of the house. It's where husbands, fathers needed to listen.

God approached Adam first. Sin was passed down through the man which is one of the reasons why it's so important that Jesus didn't have a biological earthly father but a mother.

That was one of my very first questions when I started learning. Because sin passed down through the man

He did not have the seed of the man, right? Right. So that's why when we read

Genesis 3 and God tells Eve through your seed the nations will be blessed and they will crush the head of Satan.

Biology 101 women don't have seed. What do you mean? He was foreshadowing the virgin birth.

Now so and then our sins impede on Christ.

2 Corinthians 5, 20 and 21 He became sin He who knew no sin so that we could become

His righteousness. So our sin was charged to His account. This is why Isaiah 53 says the

Lord was pleased to crush Him. Goodness gracious. His righteousness is charged to our account for those of us who believe.

Okay? That's His righteousness. So all that to say that's

Adamic sin. When we speak of generational sin, we're talking about the temporal, the not the spiritual, not the eternal effects of sin.

We're talking about the temporal effects of sin. I mean this is why I mentioned this example before we started. An overwhelming percentage of addicts had a parent who was an addict, right?

I mean what we're saying is this your sins do not just affect you.

Your sins do not just affect you. That is not true. Your sins have a great effect on those around you, particularly the ones around you most, i .e.

your children. Which is why Exodus 34 Um How about this is, okay, so this is after Moses wrote down the

Ten Commandments. If you've seen Melbrook's 15. Ten! Ten Commandments, yeah. And then he they made the gold calf.

He redid these. This is Exodus 34 verse 6

Yahweh passed before Him and proclaimed, The Lord, Yahweh, a God of merciful and gracious, a

God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means will clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to a third and fourth generation.

So notice here, the sins of the fathers have temporal effects on their children. Maybe even their children's children.

Maybe even their children's children's children. But the steadfast love and gracious of our Lord extends to a thousand generations.

Your sins of your father, all that, have temporal effects that do affect us.

Your sins, Vicki, my sins, Josiah, your sins, Mercedes, affect those around us. And if we're not careful and we allow them to be a habit, we can pass those on to our children without even trying.

And it takes a monumental effort for someone down that generation line to break that habit.

That's why Pastor Jeff always says, when I die, I'll win because those generational sins will die with me.

Whether it's addiction or whatever it is, those generational sins will die with me.

So that's what he means when he says that. He's saying that when I die, those sins will die with me because I have not passed those on to my children.

But they, from my grandfather, you know, great -grandfather, grandfather, father, all that stuff, they have all come.

And at some point, someone had to say, okay, those are with me. I'm 20 -something years old.

I'm going to struggle with those the rest of my life, but they will die with me. I will not carry them on. They will go to the grave with me.

Another example, another way to think about this, and if I get to talk too much, shut me out, Vicki. Another way to think about this,

No problem. are totally examples, not in a spiritual sense, but in a physical sense, where your sins affect others.

We think of Akin. He's the one that went to Jericho and took the gold and silver when

God said, take nothing. Remember? Who was punished? All of Akin's family.

Even the animals. Even their, not their pets, but even their livestock were punished. There are temporal effects that all of our sins have on other people.

I mean, you just think about when you sin and you drop the ball on something, the 10 people you were supposed to help that are now affected because of that.

That's part of being the body of Christ. If one body part's not working right, the rest of the body suffers.

Like your MCO? Like my MCO. I wasn't going to say it this time. Just like being a parent and knowing when the sin and things that I had committed when my children were smaller and then watching them struggle with that same sin.

Yep. Because they watched me. Yep. The beautiful and the good news about it though is where sin abounds, grace abounds even more.

I mean, you look here at the sins of the Father can pass down to the next children.

But God's steadfast love for a thousand generations. Let me give you an example.

Genesis chapter 6 says Noah alone on all the earth found favor with God. How many people is

Noah? How many people got on the ark? Eight. Did he say

Noah's wife or Noah's sons or their wives? No. Why? Because of his obedience,

God blessed him and allowed the family to get on the ark. You see my point? If our sin has effects on others, which it does.

But where sin abounds, grace abounds even more, how much more does our obedience have effects on others? Think of one or two people.

You can think of right now that their obedience to God has affected way more people. I mean,

I mean, the examples in our church are many. But you think about one person's obedience, how many people's lives they can impact because of their obedience.

It's our fault. Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. So yes, generational sin, your sin can have temporal effects on other people.

But your obedience can have even more, infinitely more effects on other people.

And really, that's one of the things that I have, I just saw it upstairs because I made a little board with it.

It says, yeah, never mind.

Man, that was great. I know, I lost it. It says something about act as if...

It's sitting right there. Oh wait, I have it on my phone. Wait, just a minute.

Hold please. You said wait? 189. Stop. You're not supposed to tell everybody your weight.

I feel like we need a commercial now. Yeah. A commercial. This is brought to you by Wynton Baptist Church, 6773

Macon Road. Come by on Sunday mornings at 1030 or Sunday evenings at 6pm, Wednesday nights at 630.

There it is. Oh, okay. Act in such a manner that you are living proof of loving

God. Yeah. Act in such a manner that you are living proof of a loving

God. That's good. But the thing is that if you do that, you don't know how much that speaks to people that just see you.

You know what I'm saying? Like, in my... where I work. I work for the county and I work in a county building, right?

I walk by people all day long and see people all day long that I don't know them.

I mean, I don't know them know them, but we know that we work in the same. Right.

But I would hope that because of my actions and the way that I carry myself and the way that I...

I would hope that they would know that I am trying to show the love of God. Not...

because I don't get to sit and talk to every single body that I come into contact with. Prime example, I talk to people all day long when they come in to get their divorce degrees or whatever.

And it could be for a parent or what... and I ran into a couple came in and he's going through a whole lot.

Anyways, but he's married to a woman now that is... they were together for seven years before they ever married because she didn't want to get all into the mess.

But this is what I reminded him. I said, even though you have a responsibility for your children, your wife should always come first.

And he just said that kind of to me. And I said, because without you living your life the way that you should live it, she will not do the same.

She will not follow and do what she... because they went to church and we already had that discussion.

And he... and she went to that and she started waving her face and she said, I so badly needed to hear somebody say that.

It all goes back to loving your neighbor as yourself. People will know by the way we love...

the world will know you're my disciples by the way you love each other. Or eat off your plate.

Or sip their coffee, which is really gulps. But... Did y 'all... Did we say

Josiah? We did not even say your name. See? Is there guilt on you?

That's a presupposition, right? No. No. Oh, man.

Good job. Presupposition. Brother Jake taught on presuppositions for several

Wednesdays and apparently one of his students learned in order to use it against me. That's okay. What you plan for you...

No, I'm just kidding. Well, were you finished with your explanation?

Oh, yeah. Because we got way off. Well, that's fine.

It's the Bible. To echo off what you said about a husband loving his wife, sometimes when you say something about that, about serving your wife more than your children, people look at you funny, but if you love your children, you'll set the best example for them as a man.

You've heard it many times. Your son will treat a girl the same way that you treat your wife.

But let's just go to the Bible. Ephesians chapter 5. Blank love your blank as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

Now, God could have used whatever comparison he wanted to use. He could have said mothers love your children.

That's Christ love the church and gave for her. He could have said grandparents love your grandchildren. That's Christ love the church. He could have said old ladies love your cats.

He could have used whatever comparison he wanted and he chose to say husbands love your wives as much as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

And the scariest word for a man in that verse is the word as.

Kathos Husbands love your wives just as in the same way.

That's what it means. Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved his church and gave himself for her.

That is a tall order. Yeah. That's a tall order. Man, right? Sanders.

He would have walked Sanders. Well, we are so glad that you all came tonight to our

Bible study. I know a lot of you are probably cooking dinner or cleaning up after dinner or whatever and you'll catch this after you get finished.

But I have enjoyed this evening. Pastor Shipley, thank you for coming.

This is fun. I like this stuff. And maybe you can come another time. Yep. Well, you know you're very busy, though.

Yeah, it's okay. I like this stuff. I'll make time for this stuff. This stuff.

It's Bible studies. It's good stuff. I get to be with friends. I kind of like this. Maybe I need to quit doing it by myself for real.

I'll see you all in two weeks. Saturday afternoon question and answer 2 o 'clock. Not this Saturday, but the next one.

Is that the 19th? Is that fair? Yeah. See you there. Thanks for coming tonight, y 'all.

I hope you enjoyed it. Bye, guys. Thank you. And this has been a wow moment.