The Power ofNegativity

Jeff Reed: And we're going to start. Hey, everybody, how's it going? Welcome to episode 380 of Becoming theChurch.digital. I am Jeff. Glad to be hanging out with you all today. I am wearing my pirate hoodie, Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jeff Reed: I'm going to let the music kind of jam out in the background. It's just going to be me today hanging out with y'all. We had a change of schedule on some things. We've got Chill Hop playing in the background. And so it's my new go-to. Rest in peace, Stream Beats.

Jeff Reed: He didn't actually die, but I can't find any of his stuff. So life goes on. But going to be hanging out today. I want to talk a little bit on a topic.

Jeff Reed: off the top of my head. I've been wrestling with some ideas. And in this new season of my life, I've become a little more unfiltered. I know, hard to believe, right? But just some things that I've been wrestling with personally. And I find it very therapeutic to wrestle with things.

Jeff Reed: on a live stream in front of other people. And so looking forward to having this conversation with you all. We do have some people hanging out with us on this stream. First off, we've got Mr. Pete. Mr. Pete, it's always good to see you, sir. I am here.

Jeff Reed: Mr. Pete's a digital missionary, usually a big screen. Not sure if today's getting broadcast in big screen or not. But he's always good. I'm first in line. Glad I brought my little chair so I can sit while I wait patiently. I appreciate that, Mr. Pete.

Jeff Reed: We also got Methos checking in from Ohio. Gator wrestling next week. I don't know if that's a shot, meaning you're coming down here to Florida. Or if you are actually going to wrestle a gator next week. I'm assuming there was a shot at Floridians like me and you're coming down to visit. If so, great.

Jeff Reed: Glad you're coming down. But no reason to get it personal. I'm just saying. You don't have to take shots. By the way, I am playing some of the music just in the background. I like having a little music in the background.

Jeff Reed: If it's too loud, let me know. I can adjust the mix. But I tried to get it. Oh, enjoyed wrestling with things on stream. Enjoyed wrestling with things. Methos, your comedy is deep, man.

Jeff Reed: I don't get your stuff. No, it's good. That's not me being critical, but your callbacks is very good. It just takes me a minute. I'm a little slow. on these things.

Jeff Reed: But thank you. Keep it coming. That's good. And Mr. Pete is hanging out with us in big screen. And so if you've got your VR headset on, you want to go look up Mr. Pete in big screen, go by, say hello. It'd be a good time.

Jeff Reed: Good stuff, good stuff. Hey, so some things that are happening this week. We launched theChurch.digital. We launched our Bible study. We're going through Scattered. We're calling it Scattered, but we're going through 1 Peter.

Jeff Reed: And it's interesting. We usually do it on Tuesdays. Last week was Tuesdays. We do the stream. It's interesting. Somebody's like, I don't understand what you're actually doing.

Jeff Reed: We do a stream on Tuesday. We record the stream. But the recording, it's not necessary for the Bible study, because the majority of the Bible study, all of the Bible study is really asynchronous. And so we've got people that are doing the devotionals that are generated literally around the planet, going through and reading 1 Peter together right now. And so, but we do the, so like last week, Tuesday, some of you, I believe, were on, we were on Twitch and reading 1 Peter 1, 1 to 12, right? And we were supposed to do the next section yesterday, and I've been really sick.

Jeff Reed: I've been really, like, under the weather, and that's the reason for the hoodie. I'm freezing in my house right now in Miami. Never been freezing in Miami in my life, but the past couple days have just been really, really hard. And so it was canceled yesterday. We'll do tomorrow afternoon, 1 Peter 1, 13 to 25. And you're welcome to come on and join us if you want to join the conversation live and help us literally write the Bible study material in the Bible study, doing the Bible study together.

Jeff Reed: You're welcome to do that. Just reach out, DM me directly, and we would love for you to come in. With the Bible study, we use a method called HERE. the HEAR method, where we read Scripture and it's an acronym, highlight what's going on in the Scripture.

Jeff Reed: E is explain what's happening in the Scripture. A is apply. How does that Scripture apply to your life? And R, what is God calling you? What's your response? What is God calling you to do?

Jeff Reed: And so that is... It's interesting. I'm seeing my mic settings were all screwed up. Hopefully, that's better. My defaults are off. I need to figure out how to reset the defaults because it keeps defaulting lower.

Jeff Reed: Anyway, H-E-A-R, highlight, explain, apply, and respond towards that. And so I know we've done this method. Speaking of virtual reality, we've done that in virtual reality quite a bit. We've done it at VR Church. Leighton's done it. We've taught it in multiple different formats.

Jeff Reed: And so it's really a simple way. you normally with Bible studies, especially as a bivocational, like pastors and teachers, the temptation is really to spend like 20 plus hours, 30 plus hours prepping for sermons. And to be honest, as a bivocational, we don't often have that kind of time. And so falling back on a hear method to help you process, but more than just you processing, to get... others to kind of own that philosophy of, okay, how do you hear this scripture and apply it to your life? It's really interesting.

Jeff Reed: The first talk last week, which we're going through right now, as we're talking about how we, as in 1 Peter, as we're Christians, even though we're scattered, even though we're separated by distance from the initial church in Jerusalem, we are chosen by God. And it starts to really get into that chosen aspect of knowing who we are, even though we're distanced, which, by the way, should be an incredible comfort as digital missionaries who are often scattered and separated from physical church support or... let's be honest, not understood from physical churches, to be able to fall back on the scattered nature, but understanding that even though we are not understood by the ecclesias that meet in physical space, that we are still chosen, and we are exactly where God wants us to be. And so what an encouragement. At least it has been for me going through that scripture.

Jeff Reed: It's interesting. I'll say this in the Bible study. I wanted to fact-check this. I have not had a chance to.

Jeff Reed: Actually, I'm doing a... You'll see it coming up here today's Wednesday. You'll see it tomorrow. I'm actually doing some cartoon reinforcement of what's going on here and kind of a cartoon retelling of the scripture together using AI. And it's just doing some interesting things. But when I was doing some AI research to generate the cartoon, I discovered some things. And the cartoon put in the background of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano.

Jeff Reed: And I was surprised. And the AI actually called out to be Vesuvius. And I was like, you know, sometimes AI, I don't know if you know this, AI kind of hallucinates a little bit. But I asked, I was like, it specifically said Vesuvius. And I was like, wait, that's Vesuvius there in the background. I had just watched, unrelated to this entire thing, there's a documentary on Disney Plus hosted by Loki.

Jeff Reed: Tom Hiddlesworth, where he goes back with historians and tracks down, actually, it's a deep telling of many of the personal lives of people that were killed during the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in like, I don't know, 80 AD, I guess somewhere around there. And I was like, wait, that's Mount Vesuvius. Are you telling me Mount Vesuvius is within context of the people that were in this surrounding area? And AI came back and said, yes, the people that read, the Christians that read 1 Peter, their lives were directly impacted by the Mount Vesuvius explosion.

Jeff Reed: That knowledge to me, this is not at all what I was going to say today. This is funny. But that knowledge, when 1 Peter is talking in chapter 1 and saying, you are separated from the church, but you are exactly where God wants you to be. And oh, by the way, you're probably going to die by natural disaster within the next 19 years. Within this generation, you're probably under lava.

Jeff Reed: Think on that for a while. Even though death is coming, even though turmoil and difficulties, you've been separated from your church, you're creating almost a new religion, or, you know, okay, not that, but you're definitely going outside the established norm of religiosity by supporting Christ in that time, away from the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and certainly embracing... By the way, your god died. He did come back to life, but you haven't seen it yet, and you don't have anyone around you that can support you. Oh, and you're going to be dead within 20 years by natural... Yeah, like, this is a really powerful, dark moment in the lives of these people. Actually, this does feed into what I wanted to talk about.

Jeff Reed: Anyway, I would love to fact check the Vesuvius angle. That I'm not sure on. But what I am sure on, it's very easy when scattered to fall back into...

Jeff Reed: Depression comes to mind. But it's more in context, not of depression. I think, you know, with me, we talked about this. I embrace, I have struggled with depression. And that's, in 2026, that's part of who I am. But for me, I think there's a difference.

Jeff Reed: And this is me processing out loud. There's a difference between depression and negativity. A difference between depression and negativity. uh depression as as a state that i am you know i'll be honest like it's hard for me to get out of bed in the mornings it is a constant state of of fight to to get going to get started in it um My body does not want to do what my mind wants to do. And as a result of it, it's very, very hard to stay in a depressive state.

Jeff Reed: But the thing that helps me to get out of the depressive state, but the thing that helps me... And the thing that, it was funny, that stood out for me in this first round of Bible studies, my R, how I'm responding to God. My prayer was coming off that was, God, God, please, God, please help me not to fall into negativity. No, I don't want this to come across new agey. That's not at all. That's not at all where I'm trying to go in this.

Jeff Reed: And we just need a positive outlook on life and, you know, look at more sunshiny. Like, I'm not trying to go pop psychology into that at all. But I can tell you. that negativity in my life festers. It takes me to a dark place. It mirrors not only internally where it affects me, but it causes me to bounce that off, to replicate, to show that.

Jeff Reed: It's interesting. Mr. Pete actually is coming in and saying as well, he's like, hey, I fight some of that too. I fight some of the depression.

Jeff Reed: of that. And man, Mr. Pete, I appreciate you saying that here in chat right now. The negative aspects of when I see things, it's very easy for me to replicate it. I'll be honest, and this is one of the reasons why I think I make a horrible church employee, because part of so much of what I want to do is countercultural to churches. And to be honest, I'm probably a little bit prophet, where I am very quick to say things that... probably doesn't really respect the church culture, and I apologize for that.

Jeff Reed: But it's kind of challenging them to see some things different. And when they don't, it's very easy for me to respond negatively. It's easy for me to get sucked in. And if I am, these are not positives, these are negatives. These are issues that are in my life. If I have people that are around me that are spewing negativity, once again, it's very easy for me to not only be taken to a dark place to internalize that negativity.

Jeff Reed: but it's very easy for me to replicate, to bounce that negativity off, to show that negativity to others. You know, it can even be said in a positive way. Oh my gosh, I'm praying that this church would change and then insert, you know, subtweet or, you know, subtle jabs and shots along the way. So even negativity can be framed. Christians are so good at that. You know, I'm guilty.

Jeff Reed: Even negativity can be phrased in a positive state. And it's something that in my own life I've become aware of that I need help working on. I need help to take steps not... internalizing the negativity. I need help not reproducing the negativity, replicating it onto someone else, whether it's gossip or whether it's full-on attacking in some context, even under the guise of being a prophet or trying to right wrongs.

Jeff Reed: There are ways to address and to handle things healthily, and being negative is not one. It's interesting. Well, actually, I wanted to look at, and so here's what I did. I pulled up some scriptures, some points that I wanna talk through in this stream. I would love for us to kinda talk through and start to look at maybe some ways in scripture that we see negativity being handled.

Jeff Reed: And to be honest, I think there is also some depressive states that we're going to see in some of these stories as well. So I'm interested in going through the conversation we're doing here. If anything, feel free to jump in chat. If this resonates with you, if this is on topic, if you feel like you connect with this, if I'm off base, feel free to share it as well. I am not...

Jeff Reed: I have vocally said many times, I am not the expert. I am not the expert on this. There are many things I do well. This whole state of mind for me, this depression type thing, this is really within the past two years, three years maybe. And so to be honest, I don't have much... much experience.

Jeff Reed: I actually fought that I was depressed for longer, I think, than I've admitted that I'm depressed. This is not depression. That's not where, no, just my opinion. Just say you're depressed and deal with it. Better to embrace it. Methos, I seem to fight confusion more than depression.

Jeff Reed: I'm sure it'll come for me someday. Oh, that statement's confusing to me. We need to talk about that. All right, let's get into it and see where the Lord leads us in this time. All right, so look, here's what I would say. Number one, negativity limits us.

Jeff Reed: I mean, shoot, even Jesus felt that. There's an interesting story. We've all heard this. A prophet is without honor in his own hometown. It's a biblical phrase.

Jeff Reed: It's interesting. I've quoted it and talked to others about it. Well, the backstory around that... was actually, gee, it's the words of Christ and the context. If you go back to Mark 6, it's in context of one of Jesus' calming on the storms. Mark 6, I'm reading from, I'm going to scan real quickly through the Berean.

Jeff Reed: Jesus went on from there and came to his hometown accompanied by disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. Where did this man get these ideas? What is this wisdom he has been given? And how can he perform such miracles like the calming of the seas? Isn't this the carpenter, son of Mary, and the brother of James?

Jeff Reed: That says Joses and Judas. I guess that's, yeah, Joses and Judas. I don't recognize the Joses in that. And Simon, aren't his sisters here with us as well? And they took offense at him. It's interesting.

Jeff Reed: Like, isn't this, doesn't this feel like the typical Christian answer? It's like, you know, being... sub-tweeting, maybe being a little positive while being negative, maybe being a little passive-aggressive, you know, towards this. This is just a normal guy. And Jesus responded and said to them, only in his own hometown among his relatives and in his own household is a prophet without honor. Which, by the way, is kind of a little passive-aggressive back, maybe full-on aggressive-aggressive.

Jeff Reed: This was early in Jesus's ministry. and so he could not perform many miracles there except to lay on a few of the sick to heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief, and he went around from village to village teaching the people. Now, it's interesting to me where Jesus heard the negativity, and he, cool, you don't want me around? I'm not, I'm not, I'm done.

Jeff Reed: That's not the way I'm wired, which to me is a little bit telling. Jesus saw the negativity as a limit, that he was not welcome, and rather than fighting it, rather than saying, screw you, I'm still going to do it, and I'm going to do it my way, he heeded the... You're not welcome here. And went. It talks about in Mark 6 that he went on to other villages and went on his way and did not show the miracles. But it's interesting.

Jeff Reed: He was amazed. I love this in verse 6. He was amazed at their unbelief.

Jeff Reed: Jesus was surprised. that the religious leaders, that the people that he had looked up to, the people that he sat underneath, the people that he saw in the temple growing up, the people that knew him, were not able to impress him. That surprised him. He was amazed at their unbelief, the Bible literally says. And so he dealt with it, but what I think is important, he moved on. negativity can be a deflator.

Jeff Reed: Negativity 100% is a deflator in my life. It takes the helium out of the balloon. It kills the conversation. And for me,

Jeff Reed: At this point in my life, Jesus was 30-something, and so he was still young in his ministry career. I'm not young in my ministry career, and to be honest, that doesn't surprise me in 26. I'm almost reverse of that. When there's a positive conversation around digital technology, I met with a digital pastor today of a physical church who told me some great stories, and I was like, dude, congratulations. You're one of the few right now. of an established church, normal church, that's doing incredible things digitally.

Jeff Reed: Keep going and enjoy the season, man. It's almost like the reverse of it surprises me. But for Jesus, this surprised him. For me, I would probably say I'm not that surprised, but we can't let the negativity of it continue. It's interesting. There was—oh, man, I can't think of the woman's name—

Jeff Reed: There's a woman who spoke at Global Leadership Summit. You know, this is what comes out of Willow Creek, Life Church now as well. Craig Groeschel hosts Global Leadership Summit. It happens every August. It's like Christian and marketplace leaders come together and leadership development kind of thing. There was a woman who spoke.

Jeff Reed: at this year's GLS, and she was talking about changing culture. And what her, that was her topic, changing culture. She's written a book on it. It wasn't released at the time, otherwise I would have bought it. But the changing, to change culture, you cannot change culture grounded in negativity because negativity shuts down change.

Jeff Reed: If you want to change culture, and this is the mistake that I've made in my life, which I think is interesting because Jesus in many ways models this. Jesus saw the negativity. Jesus shut down, well, Jesus was shut down by the conversation. And Jesus said, fine, but he didn't say, I'm going to do it to screw you and prove you wrong. He said, I'll go to where I'm welcome. I'm not being welcome in my own hometown.

Jeff Reed: I'm not being welcome in front of my family, I'm just gonna leave now. And I'll do it with someplace that's going to embrace and support what I'm saying. I'm gonna go where people are gonna recognize the truth and not be crowded by, not be confused, not be stuck in traditionalism and much of what the rabbis and religiosity was showing at the time. So it's really interesting, this idea of being shut down and not even acknowledging it, moving and going to where it is. So even though negativity can be a lid, even though it limits, don't let it stop. but recognize that your audience may need to change.

Jeff Reed: Your support system may need to change. You may need to get connected to people who can help you, who can support you, who can encourage you on the road that you're on. All right, so one, negativity limits, went through that, Mark six, one through six.

Jeff Reed: The other thing, this is 100% me, negativity isolates. Am I the only one left? I tell you, I can see this in me, and I have felt that way. Actually, I felt that way, that's the reason theChurch.digital exists.

Jeff Reed: I mean, I've told so many stories, but I was sitting around. I was in a physical church environment where I felt like I was the only one left, and I was the only person who believed the way that I believed. There was a lot of negativity in the environment. And somehow I managed to get around the table with two or three digital pastors and digital savvy Christians, guys like Jay Cranda over at Saddleback Church and a couple other people. It was episode 100. Actually, it was a reliving of the story, episode 100 of Becoming theChurch.digital.

Jeff Reed: And so you can go back to that episode and listen to hear the whole conversation. But it literally was sitting around a conversation with some people I don't often sit around with and was able to kind of share what God has been doing on my heart when I realized, hey, I need to create theChurch.digital to be the support system to help. missionaries like you all and digital pastors like you all to be that solution.

Jeff Reed: What's interesting is that the idea of, am I the only one left? No one's with me. I'm all alone. We see this in Scripture, too, by the way. And it was interesting. I was reading through some different options, and one of the options popped up, and I was like, I've never put this story together.

Jeff Reed: the way that it did, the AI did. When I was putting this, I was like, oh my gosh, that's a really powerful moment. So let's talk about 1 Kings. This is Old Testament, okay? Let's talk about Elijah. Was it prophets of Baal?

Jeff Reed: Elijah calls fire down from the sky. And fire comes down from the sky, literally eats up the offering. Prophets of Baal all have been, was it weeping and gnashing of teeth? They're embarrassed publicly. Elijah did what they could not do. God did what the God, little g God of Baal.

Jeff Reed: could not do. Queen Jezebel is ridiculously embarrassed. At the end of the day, this should have been, this could have been, arguably it was the biggest win of Elijah's life. You know, I talk about like the innovator sine wave curve, the entrepreneur sine wave curve. I love my life. I hate my life.

Jeff Reed: I can do this forever. I never want to do this again. You know, it's that, you know...

Jeff Reed: It's just like the up and down emotional curve that I live on at a personal level. This is what's interesting. You know, I knew that story about Elijah. What I didn't realize is actually coming up here in a chapter later. Fire calling down from heaven is 1 Kings 18, 1 Kings 19.

Jeff Reed: And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. 1 Kings 19, 3. And when he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. Verse 4. He sat under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, Lord.

Jeff Reed: Take my life, for I am no better than my father's. So... 48 hours, basically, 48 hours after calling fire from heaven and defeating the prophets of Baal, God, you know, obliterating the God, little g God of Baal, 48 hours later, he is wanting to kill himself because he is all alone. There, Elijah entered a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, he replies.

Jeff Reed: But the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left. And they are now seeking my life as well. Fast forwarding to verse 11, the Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Behold, the Lord is about to pass by. And a great mighty wind tore the mountains and shattered the rocks before the Lord.

Jeff Reed: But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak. He went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Jeff Reed: Suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, he replied. But the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well. By the way, you think you have a bad day.

Jeff Reed: You have never been, you know, your prophets have been killed with the sword and I am the only one left and they're seeking my life as well. Your bad day does not match Elijah's bad day there, okay? Let's just call fact the fact.

Jeff Reed: Nevertheless, I have reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees... I'm sorry. Nevertheless, Elijah says, I have reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed and whose mouths have not bowed to Baal and have not kissed him. So Elijah's found the 7,000 and is recognizing that even in the dark moments... There are some. You know, it's interesting.

Jeff Reed: What is it, the Jim Carrey meme? So you're saying there's a chance. That was, what movie is that from? Is that from, somebody will tell me. Oh my gosh, it's killing me. It's with him and Bridges, right?

Jeff Reed: I can just see him in the white tux right now with the animated GIF. All right, so you're saying there's a chance. With God, yes, I would say there's a chance. Historically, when we look at scripture, God has always presented a chance. As we've looked at history, God takes care of his people. So yes, I would say there's a chance.

Jeff Reed: That's really where so much of this comes. Negativity does isolate. Negativity is very easy to ensnarl, to trap, to make the depression amplified. A lot of my depression came from where I was physically unable to move. And the negativity of you're all alone, you're all alone was just gasoline on that.

Jeff Reed: The negativity when I'm emotionally disconnected, same way. Where I had a support system, I had a family, I had loved ones, I had digital relationships I could have fallen back on. But the negativity that was internal in me... reading the situation, by the way, the situation is rarely as bleak as you really think it is.

Jeff Reed: I mean, in context, we hear fear from scripture. Oh, I'm all alone. Oh, but no, there's probably 7,000, but I'm all alone. Oh, you know, yeah, God, you called the fire down. Like, you did some awesome work there. But kill me now, would you?

Jeff Reed: Because even though fire falls down from sky, I'm useless. Like, God, like, you can't do anything else for me here. I might as well just be dead. Could you kill me so that they don't actually get the pleasure of it?

Jeff Reed: What would that look like? What would it look like? What would it say about God? If, hey, you know what? We will. Yeah, I'll go ahead and take your life.

Jeff Reed: It really would have wasted all the stuff that I had done before. I know I took care of you then, but you're right. This is too big for me now. We showed up the little G God bail. But so we're not going to get, but that's all I can do. I'm done.

Jeff Reed: What would it say about God if he's like, yeah, you're right. This situation is too big for me. Man, thank God there's no situation too big for God.

Jeff Reed: What does it say about our faith if we go running with the tail between our legs, saying, yeah, just kill me now, God. This isn't worth it. This isn't... You can't use me. You can't fix this. You can't solve this.

Jeff Reed: What's scary in this instance is that a little negativity in the right environment can snowball all the way down. Now listen, I don't want to downplay what's happening to Elijah in this situation. where he had, I mean, he's going against the prophets of Baal. He's going against, oh, what's her name? The queen, Jezebel, and everything in that environment. And so dude was thrown through the ringer.

Jeff Reed: I get it. We talked about Job in the Bible study last week. Job was thrown through the ringer and stayed positive to God up until the last minute when he didn't. And then God ripped him a new one, Job 41 or whatever. God says, where were you when I invented the heavens and the earth? And basically the entire chapter is God just reading him the riot act for not having faith in God.

Jeff Reed: I see this in Proverbs. He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires. He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires. He rebels against all sound judgment.

Jeff Reed: You know, what's the story? Jonah even sits down under the tree and the tree dies. It withers. God just removes life from it because of the negativity that Jonah had in that moment. Ecclesiastes, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if one falls down as companion, it's quite literally describing...

Jeff Reed: Partnering. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up. But pity the one who falls without another to help him up. That's Ecclesiastes. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

Jeff Reed: But how can one keep warm alone? And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three is not quickly broken. That's Ecclesiastes 4, 9-12.

Jeff Reed: To do this alone is folly. To do this alone gives an opportunity for Satan to come in. to allow that negative thought to fester, to become infected, to come to the point where it impacts. Not talking new agey here. It's interesting. I had a pastor many years ago, maybe a decade ago.

Jeff Reed: He handed me this book, The Joy Bus. And, like, you know, I respect the pastor, but it was very kind of worldly, on finding joy in the moment, kind of worldly pursuit type book. And I read it, and I literally, I was like, I was like, I love the ideas of this, but, like, this is a, this was a... What am I trying to say? It was a secular philosophy type of book. It was not grounded in Bible and Scripture at all.

Jeff Reed: And he's like, Jeff, find Jesus. It was one of the first times somebody ever challenged me, Jeff, find Jesus in the book. And that's when I started to go back over and reanalyzing some of the philosophies that were secular in mindset, right? but matching it up with scripture, aligning where this makes sense. And so, whereas negativity and joy, like these are words that are often new agey and have often been secularized in business mantra, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The fact is, is that the theory behind this, once again, The secular realm is actually grounded in what the scripture is teaching.

Jeff Reed: The book that's irrelevant, quote unquote, to our lives has actually been solidified once again. Thank you very much, God. So that's where we are.

Jeff Reed: It's very easy for negativity in isolation to fester. Jesus literally, as he sent people out to share the gospel, he sent them in twos, sent them in pairs. Ecclesiastes is saying in here, two is better than one because they have a better return on labor than what one would.

Jeff Reed: If you're doing digital missions, if you're a digital missionary, if you're in digital church, don't do it alone. Bring somebody with you. I mean, literally scripture is telling you that.

Jeff Reed: Negativity, number three. Negativity, number three, it destroys. So number one, let's see, I just said it isolates. Number one, it limits. Number two, it isolates. Number three, it full-on destroys here.

Jeff Reed: So let's look at this. Let's talk about it destroying in context of grumbling. Now it's interesting with grumbling, I'm not even talking about like slander. I'm not talking about malice. I'm not talking about on the attack. Like for me, even just grumbling.

Jeff Reed: affects me negatively even grumbling it's it's like the um the front door drug grumbling is marijuana it probably doesn't this is so bad please don't quote me on this but grumbling is marijuana it probably is not going to make me fall into the deep end but it's going to make it's going to start me on something It's the thing that opens up the door to allows heavier drug use, heavier into play. And if you're doing marijuana and it's legal where you are, good for you. Don't do drugs. But my larger point. hate mail, send it to, you know what, send it to Andy at theChurch.digital.

Jeff Reed: Let's see if he's still checking that email inbox. But the fact is, is that grumbling can start. Grumbling is where complaining starts. Complaining gets into negative, which affects the spirit, which allows Satan an opportunity to bring even more in.

Jeff Reed: Grumbling doesn't do any good. Every environment I've worked in, grumbling has never been helpful. Now, it's funny. I used to, like, a couple times I was on unhealthy staff environments, and I would let people grumble. I would let people grumble to me because I thought I can help them work it out. So you can grumble to me, you can vent to me, just realize that part of that grumbling, part of that process is gonna be me listening and helping you work through it.

Jeff Reed: Like how can we take grumbling and spin it into a positive environment? Spin it for good, spin it to reconcile the situation. And what I would say is that I had that attitude The people who were sharing with me did not.

Jeff Reed: Grumbling, there's an attitude to grumbling that is different than reconciling. If people are coming to you with a state of grumbling and you're not... And you are the only one that's trying to help them reconcile the issues. They themselves are not being broken enough yet to help reconcile it. That's only putting, and what my experience was, it was added emotional weight. And all of a sudden now I'm carrying the burdens of many other people that I don't, I'm trying to help them reconcile, but they're not willing to reconcile and work through.

Jeff Reed: You know, it's like the, this is a bad analogy maybe, but it's like the husband and wife going to couples therapy. And the wife wants to reconcile, but the husband has no desire. He doesn't think anything's wrong. As a counselor, as a pastor, maybe some of you have been in that situation on either side, maybe as the counselor, pastor, or maybe you've gone through it with your spouse. Either way, you know that it's very hard to get somebody who doesn't want to do something to do it. And if the person's not willing to, like, if they're not in a posture of reconciliation, they're not going to.

Jeff Reed: if they're in a posture of grumbling and negativity, there is very little that can be done in that moment to reconcile, to shift it. By the way, once again, we do, we find this in Scripture. We look at 1 Corinthians 10.10, and do not complain, as some of them did. and were killed by the destroying angel. Okay, things got a little graphic. Got a little graphic there.

Jeff Reed: You got some people that were complaining and through the complaints, evidently they were tagged by the angel of death and quite literally killed as a result of it. Now these things happen to them as examples and were written down as warnings to us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. What are we talking about here? This is what's funny. We're actually talking about, in context, the manna falling from heaven.

Jeff Reed: We look at Numbers 21. They sent them out from Mount Hor. If I'm Hor, H-O-R, forgive me.

Jeff Reed: and along the route to the Red Sea in order to bypass the land of Edom. Old Testament here. People of God, the Israelites moving away from Egypt. But the people grew impatient on the journey and spoke against God and against Moses. You know the story.

Jeff Reed: Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food. I don't know, like I've eaten Egyptian food. I don't know what's better in context than Egyptian food. But, you know, people were dying in Egypt. And so they're running.

Jeff Reed: And quite literally, people are complaining that they're being negative. There's complaining about the quality of the food. We read this, Numbers 21.5. So the Lord sent venomous snakes among the people and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

Jeff Reed: You know, I often wonder what the Old Testament with God would do. I know it's the same God. He's a little kinder, gentler in 2026 than 6,000 years ago.

Jeff Reed: I really wonder how the Old Testament God would reply to the people of today in situations of that. Then the people of Moses came to Moses and said, we have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede with the Lord so he will take the snakes away from us. We're sorry about complaining.

Jeff Reed: Help us get rid of the snakes. So Moses interceded, and the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live. It's interesting that one of the churches I'm helping with right now is literally teaching this lesson to kids last week, this week, today. Today's the last day. So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole.

Jeff Reed: If anyone who is bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live. Philippians 2, 14 to 15, do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may be blameless and pure. Children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine as lights in the world. Isn't that it though?

Jeff Reed: When we're negative, does that dim the capacity for our light to shine? When we're, I mean, listen, I'm just gonna go ahead and say what came to my mind. Regardless, if you're an American, regardless of what side you sign with on the political regime, pro or con, any one person or party, does spouting negativity about the other side, does that make your light brighter?

Jeff Reed: Is that helping bring people to God? Or is that helping to chase people away from it? It's hard.

Jeff Reed: It's hard to look into the bifurcated nature of 2026, where we live in extremes. It's so hard to live life today and not be negative. I get it. I understand.

Jeff Reed: I truly believe that God cannot live in negativeness. I do not believe God moves in negativeness. I think that if we're really trying to make ourselves as little Christ, little C Christians, little Christians, little Christ, how can we do that with being negative?

Jeff Reed: Maybe sin is, or maybe negativity is the sin. And for me, if it is, the sin of negativity is the thing that breaks down the armor of God and allows a whole lot worse things to come in. Negativity, you know, I'm going to put on my philosophy hat. Negativity is a viceless crime, right? I mean, like, if I'm negative and I really don't say anything, I'm not gonna affect, like, if I don't voice my negativity, I sit on it.

Jeff Reed: I'm not affecting other people. I'm not being negative in front of them. But the negativity does affect my mindset. It affects my psyche. It affects my soul. It affects my outlook on life.

Jeff Reed: And pretty much that pessimism chisels away to my view of God. Jeff, you're telling me if you're negative, it can affect your view? Yes. Guilty.

Jeff Reed: In many ways, the negativity that I let in my life, unkept, festered. Infected. Like a cancer.

Jeff Reed: It affected my marriage. It affected my ministry. It affected my relationship with my wife, my kids, and my God.

Jeff Reed: And as somebody who has had that negativity in his life, I need to cut it out. But it's interesting. You can't just stop negative thoughts. You can't. I've tried. You've got to put something in its place.

Jeff Reed: The negativity... left to itself. I mean, I said it was a cancer, right? And so, quite literally, you need an operation where you cut the negativity out and you remove it like the cancer lump that it is, which leaves a void.

Jeff Reed: This is not going to be, it's a God-sized whole kind of cheesy moment. I'm not going to do that. But I do want to encourage us to look at Scripture. Okay, what is Scripture saying in this moment? Let's look at two things. Let's look at Philippians 4.

Jeff Reed: Be anxious about nothing. Be anxious about nothing. But in everything with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, prevent your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Jeff Reed: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So the peace of God is what we need. to protect our hearts and minds. How do we get the peace of God?

Jeff Reed: But in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. What's the exact opposite of negativity? Prayer, petition, with thanksgiving.

Jeff Reed: God, thank you for me getting fired a month ago. God, I know I can't really walk real well and I still don't have feeling like below my knees. And God, I know that I have trouble sleeping at night because of the pain. But God, thank you, I still have legs. Like, is that Thanksgiving?

Jeff Reed: God, thank you, I still have legs and they haven't had to cut them off. God, I know I need, like, I think I need coffee and caffeine, and I'm borderline addicted to this stuff, and everything that I enjoy as a foodie, all the stuff that I enjoy is now gone, and, like, I'm miserable emotionally, but thank you my family is still with me. God, I know that I'm a crackpot. probably with the majority of pastors who know me. And even my own church doesn't know what to do with me.

Jeff Reed: But thank you that I get to be the light in other people's lives who have a similar calling to mine. How do we find God in these situations? Simply put, Don't be anxious.

Jeff Reed: I can't feel my feet. I have an enormous amount of pain on a regular basis, and the medication puts me into drunken stupors, drug stupors, I should say, drug stupors and knocks me out. It has changed who I am emotionally and mentally.

Jeff Reed: But I get to do, I get to be, I get to show Christ to others. God, thank you. Finally, brothers, looking at Philippians 4, continuing on. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, think on these things.

Jeff Reed: Excuse me, all my allergies are kicking in. My kids mock me when I sneeze. I do have a mute button, but I couldn't reach it.

Jeff Reed: My son clocks my sneezes at 112 dB. It's the loudest sneezes. People often tell me, Jeff, you're the loudest person I've ever met. It's true.

Jeff Reed: I can casually talk without yelling. I can casually talk about 100 dB. And so my sneezes, if I really let go, forget about it.

Jeff Reed: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think of these things. For those of you that are trying to be a bridge, to help others reconcile.

Jeff Reed: We can't envelop that. We can't internalize it. If you're exposed to negativity through ministry, I mean, here's the put the life vest on yourself before you put it on others verse. You got to save yourself so that you're stable and can help. You've got to be thinking true, honorable, right, pure, lovely. You got to be grounded in those things or else you will succumb.

Jeff Reed: Romans 12.2, don't be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God is. This is a different translation, so I had to look at the screen for that one, but I was memorizing it in my head. Don't be conformed, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That renewing of the mind by keeping the negativity out, by the way, is how you're able to tell what is good, pleasing to God. It's how you're able to sense the will of God by not being negative, by being able to separate yourself from the negativity and allowing God to speak through that.

Jeff Reed: It's interesting. Yeah, I mean, I'll go ahead and say this one. Hebrews 10, 24. As digital ministry, we should know this one, 24, 25, and let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have been in the habit of doing.

Jeff Reed: but to let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. You know, a lot of pastors would use that, would quote that scripture to us as the reason that we should not be doing digital mission work and that we should not be doing digital discipleship. for a lot of me, I still don't see that in the Scripture. But what I do see is the opportunity to spur one another on, and the challenge to do that digitally, to use these communications channels, to use these digital communities as a way to spur one another on. and to make habits of encouraging one another in these spaces, and to not give up as we see the day approaching, Hebrews 10, 24, and 25.

Jeff Reed: And this one I'll end on for today. Proverbs 15, 1 says, Oh my gosh, what's going on with my nose today? I'm not having a good allergy day.

Jeff Reed: Proverbs 15.1, a gentle answer turneth away wrath. Mean words, harsh words stir up anger. It's hard. I struggle. Because like I said, negativity on the mirror. I'll bounce that back.

Jeff Reed: I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you send to me bounces off me and goes right back to you. I do that. If we're positive, I'm positive. If we're negative, it's very easy for me to replicate that anger and to show it back.

Jeff Reed: I am not good at the Christ-centered way of bouncing, of not bouncing, of showing Jesus, of being that gentle in that. I've learned over the years, it's funny, trolling I can handle. Like, you know, something asynchronous or something online, I can be gentle.

Jeff Reed: When somebody says something to me, like in a physical environment, oh, I don't wanna be like I'm a different person, but I'm much more likely to respond in anger in a physical conversation, in a face-to-face physical, like breathing the same air molecules conversation than I am online. Online, I tend to be much more patient, a lot more calm. I've learned over the years, like you gotta step away in separation. And online allows for that separation, which allows for level-headedness with me for the most part. I know it's interesting. Most people are probably the other way.

Jeff Reed: Online, they're more likely to go on the attack. But I've learned to kind of separate from that. I struggle. I struggle with doing that. And so, man, I would encourage you, pray for me as I'm going through this season, this stretch. And I would invite you.

Jeff Reed: Listen, we talk about this and more in these scattered Bible studies. If you are not... doing scattered with us i invite you to do that you can sign up at theChurch.digital scattered more information is on there uh if you want to like even lead the bible study we'll be producing a leader's guide right now theChurch.digital moving forward we're going to create we're going to always have i think one of these in the hopper scattered we're going to do through the end of the year, January. I think Leighton's talking about starting up Acts, and we'll probably start to talk with some others as well about doing some other online studies. And so, listen, would love to help amplify, help get you connected to God, help encourage you through Scripture.

Jeff Reed: A lot of the bluntness that you're hearing from me, a lot of the transparency, I'll be honest, that's theChurch.digital moving forward. I don't know how to do it any other way. And as I look at Leighton, as I look at Stacey, at Jason, at Anesh, at Ian, at the leadership we currently have, that's who we want to be. people who are broken, and even though we're broken, we're finding God and waiting for Him to reshape us.

Jeff Reed: And for me specifically, without negativity. If that's the one thing I've got to fix, if that's the one thing God's going to help me fix, if that's the one thing I'm going to ask God to fix me on in 2026, it's that right there. Help me cut the negativity cancer out of my life. and allow me to find you, to find joy, to find thankfulness instead, and to fill my heart, my mind with it. In many ways, I'm not the guy at age 50 who's going to be like, well, it all goes back to my parents. But the reality is, that's how I was raised.

Jeff Reed: And so I've got 50 years of this pre-programming crap, and that's hard. It's going to take more than a scalpel to cut that cancer out. And prayerfully through God, we'll figure out how to get there. So you can pray for me on that. I just realized as I was like two ways through that, I totally closed the window that had all of the comments that were going in. Oh my gosh, it looks like it was a really active conversation.

Jeff Reed: So I'm sorry for ignoring everybody on here. That's awesome. I was totally going to read it, but I'm not. What I will do is we're going to, I would say, go back and look at the chat as you're watching on demand. I can, I also, I can, we built it into theChurch.digital website, so the chat's on there as well and going up in real time. So as you're watching, even on theChurch.digital website, the chat can be timed and it will be on the screen.

Jeff Reed: engage in the chat um you know lexi it's it's great to see you again my friend mr pete methos flat cap i think's around um salvatore marines i don't think i know you my friend Thanks for coming on. It's interesting. Amplify. You don't hear a lot of Amplified Bible in 2026.

Jeff Reed: So I'm always good for an Amplify reference on that. By the way, Lexi, you can totally have Grumbling is Like Marijuana. That is my gift to you. Please, please never give me credit for that quote. I would greatly appreciate not having my name next to grumbling is like marijuana.

Jeff Reed: Now with this being said, the AI that does a lot of our social media graphics is totally going to analyze this and it's going to hear me say grumbling is like marijuana five or six times. So of course... the social media graphic is going to say, grumbling is like marijuana, Jeff Reed. And so that'll be hitting a social media feed near you, I'm sure.

Jeff Reed: But look, we're just a bunch of broken people here who are trying to find and do the will of God and to help others do the same. And I hope you'll join us on that. And I am...

Jeff Reed: Yeah, it's now the most important moment of this stream. Thank you. And with that, we're going to land. Hey, everybody. It's been great. Check out theChurch.digital.scattered next week.

Jeff Reed: Next week. That's what we're doing next week. Hold on. I'm coming back.

Jeff Reed: It was under this book, this really heavy book. That's why I couldn't get it easy. Next week, we're bringing in this guy, Stephen Lowe, who's a professor of digital ministry over at Liberty University. He's written, this is not his first book, I think this is his second or third book, but Biblical Foundations for Ecology of Digital Ministry. And so another book written on digital missionary, Dr. Lowe, Professor Lowe, he and his wife Mary, no strangers to theChurch.digital. They've been on several times before.

Jeff Reed: Very outspoken towards digital missionary in the digital missions, digital missionary, digital ministry in academia circles. I'm so excited. The book actually comes out, I think, a week from yesterday or a week from, by next week. I think day two comes out next week. So, okay, tomorrow is now Leighton's telling me. It comes out actually tomorrow.

Jeff Reed: Yay. And so we're having Dr. Lowe on the stream next week. Come on. It'd be a great conversation. Excited about that. It's weird.

Jeff Reed: I've actually, I've had a lot of conversations with Liberty University students lately. I can think of at least two or three within the past year. who are coming out of Liberty excited about digital ministry. And I've actually, I've been negative. I've been critical about Liberty University, about university and seminaries in general, not really emphasizing digital ministry and not understanding digital ministry.

Jeff Reed: thanks to some of the efforts by Dr. Lowe, as well as Sam, who we had on a couple weeks, the academia world is starting to pivot a little bit. And it's really exciting to me and being positive. It's exciting to me to start to see the fruit of that starting to now expand. And so, come on, let's talk to Dr. Lowe. It'll be Wednesday, 2 p.m. Eastern, same time next week. And then we'll also have the Bible study.

Jeff Reed: We'll be back on Tuesday. Tomorrow, I know I'm doing a stream. We're doing the Bible study. Flatcap, I know you're on as well right now in chat. You're... doing a stream recording on Twitch tonight or tomorrow night.

Jeff Reed: I vaguely remember seeing that on the schedule. I know YouTube's about 15 seconds delayed, so I'll probably see it in 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five. I tell you what, you can go to theChurch.digital slash events, theChurch.digital slash events, and that's kept up where it'll show you all the schedule of all of our live streams and things like that. I'll say it this way. We're getting ready to onboard three or four more content creators into theChurch.digital. I'll give you a tease.

Jeff Reed: Somebody says to me, Methos, was it you? No, it was not Methos. Somebody says to me, they said, Jeff, I meant to lead with this today and I forgot. Somebody said to me, Jeff, you guys are creating too much content. Like it was one of these days where Leighton and I did a podcast recording back to back and this guy was trying to keep up with both. He was trying to listen to both episodes and was complaining because he didn't have time.

Jeff Reed: He didn't have time to listen to both. And so where we're going, we're going to be creating so much content globally, you're not going to be able to keep up trying to listen to everything. And we're not even going to try. We're not going to do... what the MCU does where it's like, hey, you know, we're just, we're not gonna create content because you all can't keep up. We're not doing that.

Jeff Reed: Instead, yeah, flat caps got a stream today. You can check theChurch.digital slash events to keep up with that schedule. So what we did, I'm excited about this. We released a podcast. You can find it by searching for a TCD and it's called You Talk Too Much. And so based off of a conversation, I really wish I remember who I was talking with that was not complaining, but was like, how am I supposed to keep up?

Jeff Reed: What we've done is we've created a 20-minute cut of every podcast, every stream that we'll do. All of Leighton's streams, a 20-minute cut. A 20-minute of this stream and every stream that we do, 20-minute cut.

Jeff Reed: The Bible studies, a 20-minute cut. And any of the future content, DeMarcus's, we'll do a 20-minute cut, everything. It's 20-minute. That's a commute. For the average person, 20 minutes. And so if you can listen to us in your car on a commute, you can keep up.

Jeff Reed: Because it's true, we talk too much. And so you can find the podcast Apple and Spotify on the church, just search for TCD, you talk too much. And that'll help you get there. I'm pretty sure you talk too much as a show on the website. If not, it'll probably be a show on the website within the next 24 hours. All right.

Jeff Reed: But hey, we're going to wrap up. I should have opened with that, but thanks for it. Thanks for hanging out and appreciate you all. We'll see you next week with Dr. Lo. Y'all have a good one.

Jeff Reed: Bye.