Session 2: Be holy, because the word endures

Jeff Reed all right everybody hey welcome we're doing another scattered today jeff here uh founder of the church digital we've got some guests coming on a little bit and before i get there i guess i should pay for my youtube uh music account because uh yeah ads is ads is fun so let me just go ahead and take the take the music out and uh and kill that it's nice uh i i chill hop is what i'm listening to now when i stream and uh and so i get it i get it on youtube and i the ad popped up on the screen that said hey you're watching the youtube video this is music you should try youtube music and so i was like yeah sure why not i'll try youtube music youtube music has a lot more ads i'm just i'm just saying in the grand scheme of music like youtube inserts a lot more ads into the music program and so take that as unsolicited conversation as we're walking into this i'm excited about today's conversation let me go ahead and bring uh leighton in and and wordy girl as well. Thank you both for coming back in as we are doing episode two. We're talking about the second half of 1 Peter chapter one. And so some of you may be watching, this is your first time on Twitch or starting to catch up. Scattered really is a new thing with us at the Church Digital. So let me just back up here a second. We're doing a Bible study right here. We're using what's called the HEAR method, where we're highlighting scripture, we're explaining what's happening in the scripture. We're applying that scripture to our lives, and then we're responding. What's God leading us to do in response of that scripture? And so, Wordy Girl and Leighton, you know, we're doing this on video. It's recorded. And then the Wonders of Artificial Intelligence is going to grab this and break it up into devotionals and Bible study and video and shorts and all sorts of material. First Peter is an incredible book. And as a matter of fact, Today I was having a conversation with a digital missionary who was like, Jeff, I've never, honest to God, Jeff, I've never looked at 1 Peter. I read 1 Peter all the time, read the Bible all the time. Jeff, I've never looked at 1 Peter through this perspective of being scattered and mapping that to how we are doing digital ministry. And so I'm excited to go through another step of the Scripture with these two here and to be part of this. And so I'm going to shut up now because I really, This conversations go better when I don't talk much, but I don't know, Leighton, wordy girl, as you're reflecting back off of the first week, what we talked about and like applying, responding in some of that, what were some of the lessons you learned from week one and how did it go this week, kind of applying that to your life?

Flatcap go ahead wordy girl

Jeff Reed They're looking at each other like, who's going to talk first? I'm not sure if it's supposed to be me.

WordiGirl I was going to say, you go ahead.

Jeff Reed Should it be me? Leighton, go ahead. We'll throw you under the bus first.

Flatcap all right well i had said uh you know what i was going to go apply was working on a blog post that I was going to get done by the end of the nine weeks. And then I just got so inspired. I actually went and wrote the rough draft of it already of, of, of putting that into

Jeff Reed Boom.

Flatcap place. It was, no, I just got to go do this. It's on my mind. I'm not going to let it linger. I was thinking I was going to be too busy in the, in this week. I wasn't even supposed to be here this week. It's just worked out that I can, and then I'll be gone the next three. So it was like, I was just figuring I'll get to it around Thanksgiving, you know, give myself plenty of time. And I was like, nope, nope, just moved into that. Now I'm going to get a couple of people to review it. And I already have people that I know I want to share it with. So that's really cool.

Jeff Reed awesome love that how about you wordy girl

WordiGirl well last time i feel that we were talking about um not focusing on the feeling so much as focusing on what god is telling us to do um so in this season of my life for a while i've been kind of like uncertain um of certain things so i just kind of leaned more into prayer and trying to you know keep praying keep going and figure out what god wants me to do i did um a couple of things that i had like deadlines and i was like okay let's buckle down and get this stuff done um and these were for christian clients so i am glad to get that stuff done so that they can get their stuff posted and share with the world i do a lot of things i um like i said uh jill of all

Jeff Reed awesome what let's turn this into a brief commercial what what do you actually do i don't think i know this

WordiGirl trades as i usually say so i'm like a freelancer and stuff like that so i have been uh working on

Jeff Reed oh that's right that's right we do remember that

WordiGirl editing videos and stuff like that as well and i do believe that you did have christian ninja on a show recently so some of that content as well yes i have been yes and it's really good

Jeff Reed yeah a couple couple weeks ago love love alan so you work with alan christian ninja awesome

WordiGirl the content that he's creating here

Jeff Reed very good no he's he's a he's a dynamic voice and it was i was actually discording with him and Layton and Stacey today, maybe an hour or so ago. That show was the right voice at the right time for us organizationally. And so hit at a right point, hit some good strong marks that we need to step into. And so excited about that. For me, my respond to last week was really just cutting out negativity and recognizing how much negativity affects my life. And so, you know, that was like the big hammer that was Swung Tuesday. And then right about that same time, I had one of my guests canceled that I was supposed to do a stream with on Tuesday. And I was like, well, you know what, I'm not going to schedule another guest last minute. Let me just, I'll just, you know, I'll talk about the Hear Bible study. And so in my mind, I was putting together just this show to talk about what we're doing here with Scattered. And the negative kind of voice, you need to address this, you need to look at this, you need to talk at this. And I did a show yesterday on the power of negativity and talking about just how it, I can't even think of my three points at this point, I'm putting myself on the spot. But ultimately, it destroys and where God cannot move when it's surrounded by negativity. And, you know, I used to, it was funny, I used to think, oh, that's just like pop psychology and it's not, that's not a spiritual. When you actually dig into scripture and read what the Bible says about negativity and how it dampens and prevents and stops the movement of God, it's scary how much I think we gloss over the power of what negativity is and that may be a conversation for a different day but go for it

WordiGirl yeah and i would say yeah that's what i was about to say it's it's getting into another study

Jeff Reed go for it yeah

WordiGirl already but i actually um a couple of years ago spoke uh at a church and talked about the power of words and how the power of life and death is in the tongue and a lot of people think things especially like um with zachariah when he was told you know she's gonna give birth some people think oh it was a punishment that they struck a mute so he can't talk but i'm like i feel that he

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl was such a high priest in the church and he was such an influential you know guy that i feel that maybe subliminally he could have started to block that if he was able to keep talking against that so i that's just my personal view on it like god was like okay be quiet so you cannot be speaking against this.

Jeff Reed So look for the Battle of the Tongue Scattered Bible Study happening in 27.

WordiGirl Yes.

Jeff Reed Not going to be today. I totally want to throw down. You can go back and watch my stream tomorrow or yesterday. There was some things about Jesus early in his ministry, battling negativity with the Pharisees and the Sadducees that, I'll be honest, there was a couple of things. I read that and I was like, I don't think I've ever saw that word before. And just an interesting new light kind of popped out for me as I was digging into the scripture. But hey, for today, we're not gonna explore, well, you know, negativity may pop up as a theme. I don't know, we'll see what God does. But in context that we really wanna dig into, not James, that's the next study I wanna do next year. But what we're gonna talk about today is 1 Peter. And we're gonna look at 1 Peter 1. And so we do have a, for those of you that are doing the study with us, if you're interested, We do have a journal online that we built into the Church Digital that you can access. You can read the scripture with us through the BSB, Berean Study Bible Translation, I think. And so it's on here as well. You can take notes. You can actually do the Here Journal yourself through that, and it saves it online. It's at the church.digital.journal. But for purposes today, I thought, man, let's just read through the scripture here and see where we end up. Um, I tell you what, wordy girl, before we get going, would you mind just like stopping and opening us up in prayer?

WordiGirl not at all thank you god dear heavenly father we come to you right now we thank you for everything you've done everything you're doing everything you will do we thank you for those who are in the chat right now those who are seated here to go over this word we ask you to bless our hearts and minds open our hearts and minds to receive your word open our eyes to look at this word in a new light, because no matter how many times we read your word, we know that there's always something else to be learned and applied from your word. And we thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Jeff Reed Amen. Awesome. So if you're in chat, if you've got some, some comments or things that you want to share, or maybe some things that are touching you that, that you want to share with us with love, uh, David's daily show is saying, yo, oh my gosh, I forgot the program. I'm covering up word of girl's face again i i i need to fix that i'm sorry word of girl i will stop that but

WordiGirl no worry i don't mind i don't mind at all

Jeff Reed i i i hate that uh and and it just it totally forgot and so i'll redesign it coming up but um leighton uh do you mind reading the scripture for us again like you did last week

Flatcap Sure, I can do that. Therefore, prepare your mind for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not conform to the passion of your former ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, Be holy because I am holy. Since you call on a father who judges each one's work impartially, conduct yourself in reverence or reverent fear during your stay as foreigners. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers. But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot, he was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth, so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply from a pure heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field, The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.

Jeff Reed Awesome. Thank you for that. Berean Study Bible, 1 Peter 1, 13 to 25. And so with the HEAR method, the first thing we're doing is we're highlighting Scripture. So we just read through that. Hopefully you had a chance to read it in advance. Wordy Girl, what's the Scripture that stood out to you that's a powerful, it's the tentpole, it's the thing that just jumps off the page for you?

WordiGirl Well, I usually love when it is, you know, the scripture compares to like armor and things like that. So 13 were just the the first one up on 13 that said wherefore gird up thy loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I feel that it's just very important for us to remember to guard our mind. And as it says, be sober. So that can be literal, like not, you know, being intoxicated to the point where you are clouded judgment, but also other things can cloud

Jeff Reed mm-hmm

WordiGirl your judgment. So it's just important for you to always be remembering that keep your mind clear, Keep your mind focused on Christ. Keep your mind guarded at all times.

Jeff Reed yeah it's funny that that almost gets back into the negativity angle right Because you're trying not to focus on that.

WordiGirl Yes, it does.

Jeff Reed You're trying to not let it. I compared it almost to a cancer where when I'm surrounded by that negativity and I don't

WordiGirl Yeah.

Jeff Reed address it, it festers and it takes me to a dark place and it kind of amplifies in a negative way and it restricts God from being present in my life. And so, you know, the call to be sober-minded and aware, that's beautiful. Leighton, what jumped out at you in this passage?

Flatcap The, uh, the do not there in 14, uh, followed by, uh, 14 to 16 really there. So not being conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. I mean, it's just like, you didn't know any better. Don't go back to what you used to do. Like, okay, like just, you know, there's going to be times where just like, you know, you're coming out of the desert or you're in the desert now. And you're like, oh, yeah, it was really good being slaves in Egypt. It was super. Loved that. Yeah, don't go back to the former ignorance you were in. You know better now. so so don't do that um but it's not only they don't do this it's the call i would say more invitation uh just as you are called your call you're called to be holy so be holy in all you do for it's written be holy uh because i am holy now i i think we've got a a bad inclination of what is holy mean we we think it we we treat it as holier than thou i'm superior to you as opposed to taking the i think the more hebrew idea uh from the language of set apart distinct and different so be set apart and different than every other thing that's around you so if we are to be set apart god is the one calling us to do this peter's reminding of the scripture that told us already

Jeff Reed yeah

Flatcap uh to do this it's an invitation of god to become something and he doesn't invite us to do something or command us to do something unless we have the ability to do it. So our ability to do it is already given to us by the invitation to do it.

Jeff Reed that's a that's a tricky statement i want i want to come back to that i i do i want i want to dig into um but just as he who called you is holy so be holy in all that you do be holy as, as I am holy. Um, because I, that in 2026 digital life, that's easier said than done. Right. And so kind of, kind of want to explore that. It's interesting. I was actually going to dig into the obedient children myself. And so once again, for the second week in a row, I'm keeping track late and stole mine. And so, um, let me, I will go first.

Flatcap so so you can go next you'll go first the next two weeks i won't be here

Jeff Reed I will steal it next time. And then you gotta, you gotta duck and try to figure it out. Um, yeah, this, this was interesting to me, though, uh, though you, through him, you believe in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him. Uh, and so your, your faith and your hope are, are in God. Um, it's the idea that we're, we're, we're separated from that. We're isolated from that. Uh, we're disconnected. The, the, The church at the time was disconnected from—the Jerusalem church was disconnected from the source. As a matter of fact, Christ raised, and this group of people, they were separated. They didn't get to see it. And so even with that, your faith and hope are still in God. The literal definition of faith is being able to see, to believe in something without seeing it. And these Christians were some of the first to really experience what faith was without actually seeing it and being a part of it in context of physicality because they were separated through the persecution. And so let me see if there's anything else here. For all flesh is like grass, and all the glory like flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall. But the word of God stands forever. And this is what the word was proclaimed to you. That's interesting.

Jeff Reed Flowers of the field wither, grass wither, and flowers fall. I mean, it's funny. Just the idea popped into my head. I don't know that I would consider this a highlight. But that's kind of like a downer statement, right? There's a little negativity in that. But the word of the God, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Like, how does that, and wordy girl, like you seem to be resonating with the negativity stuff and the words damage, the power of the tongue. How do we reconcile this not being a negative, but an uplifting statement? Because sometimes Christians, you know, we think we're uplifting and prayerful when we're really just slandering and libel and, you know, wicked, you know, Southern Baptist tongue. um and then there are times where you know we're we're actually like this is i i i want to believe it's in a in a prayerful state environment that leads us towards holiness but it it does have negative connectivity does this make sense like how do you filter i'm just curious how you filter

WordiGirl yeah yeah i totally get that so the way that i look at this this particular scripture is that

Jeff Reed that.

WordiGirl is less negative and more of they are pointing out yes the flowers of the field do fall yes the grass does fade that is something that everybody does see and that is something that everybody can relate to because most people have witnessed this happen but the word of the lord stands forever meaning that that is something eternal we can hold on to even when the things around us seem to fade and as I said flesh is like grass even our lives here it is just reminding us that yes the this this earth life is temporary but our soul is immortal and it is important for us to focus on word of god and on christ so that we may have everlasting life in him so i feel that it's more

Jeff Reed .

WordiGirl of just like pointing out yes this does happen but pay attention to this part um and i know i get what you mean it is a balance between uh negativity positivity negativity because there is something there's such thing as toxic positivity where people just act like everything is okay and there's nothing going wrong that like it's that's that's a little bit worse because it's like you're in denial almost it is good sometimes to acknowledge that there are bad things that are going on

Jeff Reed yeah

WordiGirl but the the power is that god is higher than that god is more powerful than that and god can help you get through that even if it doesn't look like the way you think it may look

Jeff Reed 100%

Jeff Reed as a matter of fact there's not

WordiGirl Yeah.

Jeff Reed there's not criticism in the statement um it's it's uh very um i mean it ends in an uplifting mode but it's in the note but it's grounded in reality right yeah uh all all flesh is is like grass and all glory is like flowers of the field uh the grass withers and the flowers die well that that's that's the circle of life uh and it moves us all you know i can start singing but like that's that's just the reality of how God invented the world. I'm actually thinking of a Saturday Night Live skit right now where Dan Aykroyd just screams out loud on a regular basis, Jane, you ignorant slut, which has nothing to do with this, but that is the exact opposite of what this is because poor Jane, who was often criticized, often in the show for the character she played where she was criticized for being an ignorant slut. Thank you, AI, for quoting me this, and God bless my brain for taking me there when we're talking about holiness, because that's not exactly where I thought we would end up going today. But the reality is, it's so funny. That negative contentivity is so baked into who we are. Yes, okay, that was a Saturday Night Live skit from the 70s, but that's not much different considering pop culture of where we are today in life. and just to be aware of how that holiness plays into our lives or how it should play into our lives if we're willing to. Let's get back here, because I know, Leighton, your verse...

Flatcap well i was i was going to add one more thing there with with the uh being scattered theme

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Flatcap they are scattered and so no matter where you are like well maybe it depends on where you are because southern hemisphere's going into spring at this point where we're in fall in the northern hemisphere but leaves are falling on the trees we are witnessing the withering of things that are happening right before our eyes as we're approaching this time of year. So as you're scattered, you're witnessing that you are wondering, you are having doubts, you are having all those things. So if you compare what looks like around you to the reality of God's word, they don't compare. Like one is something fleeting and going away and the other is an enduring thing. And so while you might be watching the world around you while you're scattered fall apart and depending on if this is before or after the temple collapse you're you're watching your whole world that you've known your whole life collapse what do you do in the upheaval you trust not in what you see and the reality of of life on this planet but you trust in god's word

Jeff Reed yeah how do we i mean let's let's build on that so we're we're coming off a scattered mentality with with the first six the first 12 verses you talk about it go back to session one and look at it but it's it's talking about how god is with us and god we are exactly where god put us to be and and this is what god has called us to do and and we are doing it and then it segues i mean let's let's actually i think i can click in here like let's uh let's actually you know go up and look at the last verses here. I can do this, right? Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect exiles of the dispersion through the areas according to the foreknowledge of God. Grace and peace be abundance to yours. Blessed be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy has given us new birth into a living hope of resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into the inheritance that is in heaven for you through faith shielded by God's power and salvation that is ready to be revealed in the time. This is your, oh, Leighton went away. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, that you may have had to suffer grief in various trials. So we're talking about trials and tribulation. We're talking about some issues that the people in the time are coming up to. So that a proven character of your faith more precious than gold, which perishes even through refiner's fire, may result in the praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Christ. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who foretold the grace come to you, to come to you, searched and investigated carefully, trying to determine the time and the setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you. when they foretold the things.

Jeff Reed Now announced by those who preach the gospel. Go ahead. You wanted to say something?

WordiGirl uh i just wanted to say i think laden might be in the waiting room again i don't know how it works

Flatcap There we go.

Jeff Reed Oh, let me check that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he is. There you go.

WordiGirl okay because mine froze as well it's weird it froze but when I went to reload then it's unfroze

Jeff Reed Sorry, they get stuck.

WordiGirl so I said oh I can stay in um but I guess the same thing happened that uh Leighton and he reloaded and then he got booted sorry

Jeff Reed yeah how my fault man uh it's it's the high quality at&t internet it's it's a it's a it's

Flatcap All right.

Jeff Reed a running joke uh within leadership how bad my internet is at the house and i have i have i have

WordiGirl well I also have 18 to eat so

Jeff Reed at&t fiber i have fiber coming to my house and and it it it's like clockwork it goes down the

WordiGirl me too

Jeff Reed same time every week it feels like and i almost i like i don't have budget for it i literally i

WordiGirl mmmm

Jeff Reed don't have money for it right now but my family wants me to get a second isp a second internet service provider to come into the house to to run internet because like you know it's so important for us and at&t just is not reliable but it's cheap so anyway that would be great um listen if

Flatcap Maybe just build a data center that you can just run and have free internet off of that.

WordiGirl *laughs*

Jeff Reed If anybody, all the AI bots, if you're looking for a free data center, I got plenty of space in the backyard and I don't mind. But the reality, Starlink as a backup, you know, friend of Proverbs, you are a friend of Pastor B. I'm sorry, I misread that quickly. You're not wrong. That's actually been one of the conversations we've had as of late. So, Leighton, we're in this season, you probably didn't hear much, but we're moving from verse 12, where they're scattered, they're going through tribulations, they're going through difficult times, right? These are people that are isolated and alone, and Peter's writing a letter that's supposed to encourage them. And then he goes straight into serious mode. Prepare your mind for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace given. As obedient children, do not conform. Like, I almost feel like Dad's yelling at me right now. And it's kind of like surprising me a little bit here. Give me some background on what's going on here.

Flatcap i don't know i feel more like it's a pep talk you know it it you know you know what you're facing Like, I've coached a lot, and so one of the things that you do before going off into, you know, whatever the opponent you're going to face, you assess the opponent. You know what the opponent is going to do. You talk about your strengths and weaknesses. I think this is like a pep talk to the dispersion, saying, hey, be sober-minded. Don't let the press reports about how good they are get in your head. you know, if it's an opponent you're facing on the field, you know, for sports. But here it is, don't give into what the pagans are saying about you, you know, set your mind on the hope that you

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Flatcap fully have in the grace revealed through Jesus Christ. Like it's where is your focus on? I don't know if you remember or ever watched Emmett Smith. I wasn't a fan of his on the football field. I was a fan of his in life. And one of the things he talked about is a lot of people go out there with the mindset of don't fumble the ball, don't fumble the ball. And what's part of the thing you're saying? Fumble the ball. So he said, hold on to the ball, hold on to the ball, hold on to the ball. And so it is a mindset that you have. Where's your focus? If your focus is on something don't do, you're still telling you, you're still saying the thing that you might not want to do. So let's put our focus back on Jesus. That's where it should be. So I see it more of as a pep talk, invitation. You've got this. Let me remind you of what you've got, what you already have. So just because you're scattered doesn't mean you're missing something.

Jeff Reed uh david's daily here not necessarily dad's yelling at us like you were saying uh but you just moved back in with parents after college and dad's laying down the ground rules that's awesome

Flatcap that's awesome love that love that

Jeff Reed come on get get your act together it you know i understand pep talk i i do um you know it's a

Flatcap yeah yeah

Jeff Reed It's a little bit of the Job to me. We talked about it last week where, you know, Job's held the faith great while, you know, his life literally is falling apart for 40 verses and 40 chapters. And then 41 pops up and Job questions God and God just opens up the can on him. Like, where were you? It does kind of feel a little bit of that. But all right. So we've got the pep talk. We're encouraged. Hey, you know what? God's God's with you. And this is what he's saying. But just as he called you to be holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy. I think, one, it's interesting that holiness is what is the challenge for a distributed, for the scattered Christians. Like, why is holiness so important that that's the instruction that is given? I mean, why does it matter what I'm doing? I'm separated. I'm in another country. I'm in another region. I'm in another space. I'm in another location. Why is holiness so important to a Christian?

Jeff Reed Wordy girl, you look like you're chewing on something.

WordiGirl well i feel that it's it's just important for us for our ourselves but it's also important for others who are looking at us so kind of like how leighton was saying earlier it's not holier than thou because that's a whole different thing we're not they're not saying be better than everybody but they're telling us to focus on god get our heart right be holy as as layton said it's not it's not impossible because it is an invitation which means we can do it and we are not to put it on ourselves as if oh i'm so holy it's more of be holy because i am holy and the i am

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl who said that of course god is the one who is holy so it's only through him only through christ actually the the the sacrifice of jesus dying on the cross is the only thing that makes us clean that makes us able to be holy and that is the only way that we are holy and that is um just how we have to go through life remembering that sacrifice that jesus made for us so yes while we are all sinners we strive to be holy because christ is holy when we accept him as our savior we know that it is not of our own works it is not of our own blood is not of our own anything but it is of god it is of christ's love for us and that is how we are holy

Jeff Reed throw this up on the screen. Friend of Pastor B, being a living, breathing word. It speaks to us where we need it. Pep talk, rebuke, instruction. How do we, and you know what, I'm just going to

Flatcap I'm glad.

Jeff Reed move this off of you right now, and I'm going to rebuild this while Leighton answers this question because it's really bothering me. Leighton, how do we be that level of holy on digital platforms?

Jeff Reed Like part of this analogy, we're comparing the early church,

Flatcap Yeah.

Jeff Reed the scattered church to us as digital missionaries. We're talking about being the light. She's saying it's important for us with our connection to God, but it's also important for others to see that so that we can be that living testimony. I don't know if you've seen the crap that's on Twitch.

Jeff Reed I'm not even talking about the dark channels of Discord. That's just in the gaming space. There's darkness all around us. There's scary stuff as a parent with teenagers. I work in an area that I hesitate for my kids to even be involved in. But this is the mission field. So how are we finding holiness?

Flatcap well i i think we're finding it the same way that peter is instructing and paul is calling too because i mean the corinthian church the corruption and the depravity that was all around them the the pagan celebrations that would have been happening the your guild is going to have festivals and activities and now you have to be set apart and different from that and non-participating in those things. So I think that's part of what it is. I really like to focus on the idea of set apart. I really think it helps us to figure out what we do better than to use the word holy. And it's not anything wrong with the word holy. I just find it more useful to give the implication of what it means to be set apart. So Sabbath day is holy. It's set apart. It's not like the rest of the days of the week. Why? Because we're not going to work. Why? Because we're trusting God. We're relying on him. We don't have to rely on ourselves. Uh, you know, so, so that's what the idea they're being built in, uh, is a part of it. So then it is evaluating the space and making determinations. But I also think we had, there's a lot of freedom in there that might be that wordy girl and I might be set apart in different ways from the standpoint of perhaps, and this isn't true, but perhaps I wanted to play horror video games and she's like no that's not where i could go uh i i would still going into there if i go into the horror video games i have friends who are over there who who are doing that uh you still set your part self apart from the others in the community how they're

Jeff Reed Okay.

Flatcap doing things how they're treating it how they're treating people in in that community uh you are still going to be set apart because you're different than the way the world is approaching things. There will be things you don't participate in. There is always going to be a line and you want that line to be clear and you want people to understand it from the way that we start everything that happens in our stream. How do we welcome new people in?

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Flatcap How do we tolerate people's language in the chat? And I don't mean everyone's is the same. I might tolerate foul language, but I will not tolerate abusive language. Other people might set the standard as no, I'm not going to allow foul language because I'm trying to reach younger people and I don't want that influence on them. So we're all going to be setting those, but we're going to do it from the standpoint of how do I set myself apart in the space from the way that is just everyone does what seems right in their own eyes to I am living as an example, bringing light into the space. And so I think that's what we're all trying to figure out how to do and apply of being holy the same way that we're imaging God in the space.

Jeff Reed that's a that's a big jump though right i mean it's the the idea of doing whatever we're doing in each other, whatever's best in our eyes. I'm not going to put a name, but I'm going to put a story on this. I had a boss. It was my first church boss. He was a pastor. He was an excellent man. He was an excellent pastor. Still friends with the guy. He's old at this point. I was young and he was old when we first started, you know, but this, this is a guy that I, I respect. And, um, he loved like horror movies. He would go watch horror movies with his kids. And like that, that was a connection point. I'm not saying like, you know, like I love MCU, like he lived and breathed horror movies. And like the, I'll be honest for me, the idea of watching Saw. No, thank you. Not interested. Like, you know, some of the horror stuff I can get behind, but, you know, because I'm more interested in the story other than, like, gore porn or whatever it's called. Like, I just, that's not me. I'm not judging the guy, but I am not, it's not, that's not where I am. However, one of my co-workers at the time in that season was grossly offended any time he would reference anything about these gory movies. And, like, wanted nothing to do with him to the point that he ended up leaving the church and going somewhere else because he was so turned off spiritually, emotionally, mentally at the idea that this pastor was embracing this ideology. Who's right and who's wrong in this story?

Flatcap well maybe maybe it's a uh more a matter of where the where you do the thing and where you minister because if he he is enjoying something that's fine if you're enjoying it you're not abusing it you're not doing other things that are you know displeasing to god yeah go enjoy horror movies and and spend time with your kids but if every sermon illustration and every time you preach you're talking about it to people who might not appreciate the same thing. Maybe that's where you missed it, but if instead you go to the conventions and you're trying to bring the gospel into those spaces because you have an appreciation for the same thing and you can speak the language of it, that's going to be more effective than just using a sermon illustrations to people who are going to be turned off by it.

Jeff Reed That's, yeah.

WordiGirl yeah so i would say also um if it was just that one person who was so turned off by it and not necessarily the whole church itself like if it was just that one person that could be a conviction of theirs or that could just be an issue that they have to deal with um but i will say that like like leighton was saying if that is the thing that is being used you know to help bring people who do like horror movies into the fold and help to illustrate things in a way that they can understand i don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that horror movies are being used but it is not for everyone some people have a target audience some people uh also might have a conviction that no i don't want to do anything to do with horror movies kind of like how he was saying before um if we're on twitch if he wants to play a horror game and then there's some you know twitch streamers who are like i don't touch horror at all and they feel they may feel convicted that might be the holy spirit might even convict them but i i am a person who believes that sometimes certain people know their limits and the holy spirit might know their limits as well

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl some people might have a higher tolerance they might be able to watch those horror movies and play those horror games and not fall and succumb to the devil's lies and instead they are empowered with the christ mindset while viewing the content and they can take from it the good kind of like how you said about the Saturday Night Live skit, like, you can find even gospel anywhere. But if somebody says, Well, I don't watch Saturday Night Live, that might be for them, you don't have to force them to watch it, if they feel convicted, or if they don't get anything from it is that's them. So I feel like kind of like how Leighton was saying, we all pray about it. we all follow the holy spirit concerning how we feel and not just everybody does what they think is right it's more of in the context of scripture in the context of how we interpret scripture and everybody does interpret it differently sometimes and yes there's a chance of people being wrong sometimes and that's why bible studies are important because if i see a scripture and think it's telling me to do something and you tell me your envision of the scripture i might might say, oh, I think I'm wrong. Okay. But it's, that's why it's important for multiple things. We have to pray to God about it. We have to be open to the Holy Spirit to convict us, to teach us, to lead us to certain things. And we also need to commune with likewise believers so we can kind of get all the perspectives and just, because we're all, you know, we're all in this walk together and we need to help edify each other glorify God and and teach each other learn sharpen iron all that so yeah I don't think it's like a clear-cut yes or

Jeff Reed That's good.

WordiGirl no

Jeff Reed Yeah, it's beautiful. David's actually preaching a sermon online. I'll share it here in a second in chat, but, you know, building on that, it's interesting. There's a, off of what you said, wordy girl, Billy Graham said, it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict, it's God's job to judge, it's us, it's the humans, it's the Christian's job to love, and, you know, in moments, you're talking about some of this, that's, to me, that's the thing that I cling to, because I don't understand what's going on in the lives of others. That's not my job. My job is to love them, and it's the Holy Spirit and the Father. That's their problem. That's not mine. And it's interesting. David actually builds on that. It's where your spirit is, not the avenue in which you choose to consume the spirit, but he moves on. This is, yeah, this is why God created us with different interests, to be able to find the lost sheep in those communities and bring them into the light in there to search for Christ. You, sir, I don't know you. It's a little weird. I'm looking at your boxers on your name, but that is profound, my friend. Thank you for sharing that, because right there, you beat at the drum, I think, of a lot of what's behind us as digital missionaries and what we're doing ministry-wise in these digital spaces, is that God's wired us in such a way, and our desire to be holy in these spaces hopefully is attracting others to step into the space, to join us, to be with us, to connect with us in a way. And maybe that's why Peter's challenging these scattered Christians thousands of years ago, be holy because God, for it's written, be holy because I am holy. It's fascinating how this ties in. Anyway, go for it.

Flatcap do you do you were you were when i was pointing this out to begin with you you said let's come back to to that idea and i do have another level of this that maybe people haven't thought about before in in the whole idea of be holy uh because i am holy if we go back to creation we are created in the image of god we are supposed to be image bearers of god we're supposed to be as representatives on earth so if god is holy we are just called to be his image bearers being who he is being

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Flatcap what he is if god is love if god is light i just just replace whichever one you want to focus on be holy as i am holy it's all a call back to the garden of eden to to creation to the design that we're created in the image of god we're to be image bearers of god peter's just telling you telling us we already know what the role we're supposed to do is we're supposed to image god wherever we go.

Jeff Reed as we're as we're pivoting off of this worded girl you have any any any more thoughts on the this we we have beat it like a beat it like a drum

WordiGirl got it everybody's got it even uh friends of pastor b um saying speak the truth in love telling them truth is love but enforcing truth is his

Jeff Reed that's hard right um it's that's that is a i would suggest that's a fine line to do digitally

WordiGirl yeah

Jeff Reed because you you want to show the love and the enforcing is is something that doesn't always translate well in digital space um you know it's it's interesting i i've i've had conversations

WordiGirl Yeah.

Jeff Reed with numerous church leaders and um about digital and physical and some of the challenges and blah blah blah and and and one of the key areas that physical church leaders struggle with the high level pastors church planting network leaders like like the the upper echelon the multiplying people um they struggle with the idea of discipline like what does church discipline look like in a digital environment in a twitch stream when you see somebody doing something wrong as a church leader what do you how do you discipline in that environment and and it's interesting like even the idea of of discipline with a heavy hand versus discipline of of loving

Flatcap What?

Jeff Reed and allowing God to actually speak louder than the heavy hand will. There's some really interesting paradigms that operate differently and digitally. And to be honest, like probably operate would be better physically if people would operate that way as well. But, you know, things don't necessarily, things take time to get. And, you know, I tell through the church, I say all the time, you're not wrong, you're early. That's the problem is we're still early in a lot of this transition because we're so far ahead in context of church culture. A lot of the physical churches, I don't want to judge everybody, but a lot of the physical church cultures just haven't caught up with it. Awesome.

Flatcap what oh i was gonna say do do we want to you know address the the idea of discipline as a whole

Jeff Reed Well, let's go ahead. Layton, you got something?

Flatcap because you have to be in relationship for discipline to actually happen

Jeff Reed True.

Flatcap because even in a physical church if you really don't have relationship and the church tries to discipline me i go down the road to the next church like it it does not happen unless someone

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Flatcap submits and the only reason someone submits is because they have a relationship so it just goes back to what i see is what the church has been missing that covid put a light on whether you're in physical space or digital we haven't been building relationship with people we've been giving them religious goods and services we need to build relationships with people if we build relationships with people we're going to be committed to one another regardless of what's going on in our lives if we need discipline i'm committed to you i'll submit to it if i'm not a

Jeff Reed yeah

Flatcap relationship i'm down the road

Jeff Reed and to be honest that place

WordiGirl yeah i feel like that's yeah go ahead no no no i was saying back when you um both you and i think

Jeff Reed no no go ahead wordy girl I'm much more interested in what you have to say yeah

WordiGirl it was david who were saying two sides of the coin but both of you were kind of saying this is kind of like dad is fussing at you or dad is giving you ground rules or whatever that's still dad

Flatcap Yeah.

WordiGirl so that feels like this is a relationship it doesn't feel like a random person who doesn't know you at all just telling you random stuff like there's a difference between that and that's why

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl i do agree with layton here um discipline in the digital space i feel that that's why it may seem more lenient at first and even some physical spaces seem lenient some churches will just like they want to be welcoming first. I feel that it's best to be welcoming first and to form relationships first and to share that love first. And as we get to know each other, as we get to get closer, it's more of, okay, I care about you as an individual and I see this in your life that may not be, you know, good. How about we pray about it? How about we work on it? And that can't really happen if you don't bring them in and you don't start that relationship with them it'll just feel like oh they don't like me and they leave especially if they are not christian a lot of times they think that any criticism any you know um advice against anything that they do or anything that they are is hate and that's something that i feel that christians as a whole need to get better with because sometimes they come across as hateful just preaching at people or just like blanket statements as opposed to like looking at these as individuals and trying to help indirect them and that is I feel that Leighton just right there and now on the head with the relationship because once you have that relationship established it's much more personal and it's much more intimate and it's even if it it hurts as it's like you know some tough love but it's love and um i feel that most people even who um i have connections with who they might not be christians but they feel a connection to me they feel that i am their friend and therefore Or they feel, you know, more comfortable when I'm able to, like, redress things because that relationship is there.

Jeff Reed And it's interesting how everything both of you have just said, caring for an individual, loving them, not judging, not taking wrath, but listening, building the relationships, it fills right into what 22 is saying. Like, we kind of took a—I kind of threw out a random thing on church discipline, and it still piles right back into where we were on Scripture. 22 saying, since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth, recognizing that we are where God wants us and that we are, you know, dad's going to take us behind the woodshed if he needs to, obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, those that are around you, love one another deeply from a pure heart. Not make sure that all Ten Commandments are held, not make sure that you pray the Holy Rosary 12 times a day, nothing from a work standpoint, nothing that we can achieve on our own. Holiness is tied to loving one another deeply from a pure heart. And while that's hard to do in digital platforms, in digital contexts, I feel like that's a lot easier to do digitally, really, than even in physical context. Or we have an opportunity to engage and love a whole lot more people via digital methods and show that light of Christ, the love of Christ digitally. Like, that's almost the rubber stamp, the approval, the, hey, here's the mantra, here's the thing that we are called to do digitally. Be purified through obedience to the truth and love one another deeply from a pure heart. How's this resonate with y'all?

WordiGirl yeah i feel like that that like you said it went right back to what we were saying um and i love the brothers it's like family love deeply pure heart pure heart and it's not just i'm holier than you be like me it's we are all trying to be like christ and we are all

Jeff Reed yeah

WordiGirl caring for each other and uh yeah

Jeff Reed we may have been taken out back you know behind the woodshed a little bit but the tone changed

WordiGirl yeah

Jeff Reed right for at this point and i'm willing to say i've got years of being taken behind the woodshed so i may be projecting my own issues on that go for it yeah

WordiGirl no no i mean well i was disciplined in a similar way um and you know it's not always um discipline is not like you said discipline is not always um there's different types of discipline and i feel that with different people it should look in different ways and also as we learn and grow we can learn um different ways to approach something so it doesn't always feel like an attack um i uh as a king james uh person who loves the King James Version. I like how the King James says, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit to unfeigned love of the brethren.

Jeff Reed what's what's the what's the adverb there on on what love

WordiGirl See that ye love, unfeigned love.

Jeff Reed unfeigned interesting

WordiGirl And see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

Jeff Reed yeah King James likes its adjectives and adverbs man

WordiGirl like, yes.

Jeff Reed like it it it goes after those descriptive terms so good

WordiGirl So unfeigned, just just to just in case, you know, even right here in the Merriam Webster says not feigned or hypocritical, genuine. So I do like that.

Jeff Reed what do you've got a full dictionary right there

WordiGirl I bring up dictionaries.

Jeff Reed you're cut you're coming ready girl dang

WordiGirl Obviously, I'm a wordy girl. I love that.

WordiGirl I love the words. That's why I love King James.

Flatcap Yeah, and I've got my concordance open that I'm looking up, what word is used there for pure heart, which is actually the same word that's used for blessed are the pure in heart in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. And I'm just like, wow, that's a connection.

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Flatcap You know, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Well, here Peter is calling us to have a pure heart, maybe so that our brothers who we deeply love we'll see God in us and see God. I don't know if Peter has that in mind or even knows Matthew, but I'm making that connection there between the two of those aspects of things.

WordiGirl I love the connections you make. That's one of the things in latent streams, I'm just like, you're looking up names, you're looking up Hebrew, you're looking up the Greek, you're looking up, I'm like, yes, this is a deep dive.

Jeff Reed it's it's definitely fun uh david sharing in i thought david was working but he's still piping in love it uh absolutely and i feel like that's what a lot of people who are uh in the infancy of their faith are wary of the most in physical church space. I hear more about the hypocrisy. This is not a new problem. This is a very old problem. I hear more about the hypocrisy in the church more than anything from non-believers. Jesus asked us to be shepherds, not police. That's interesting. Therefore, commanding us to guide, not judge. I've actually had a couple heated conversations with friends around the guy not judge love not judge uh but it's you know you look at at history um i can't think of the greatest it's uh brennan manning the greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is christians who deny jesus by their uh love jesus with their lips but deny them by their lifestyle that's what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable gandhi i think said i i love your christ i don't love your christians they are so unlike christ i mean there's um there's a history going back decades older than me of of go off the way go read genesis there's plenty of stories of where biblical people are supposed to do what they should do and they don't do what they should do um i mean there's freaking that's the the literally every it's written all over the bible um uh and and yet and yet here we

Flatcap News flash.

Jeff Reed are trying to be holy as as god is holy and trying to love as we are loved and trying to be pure and motive as god loves us pure and motive um and there's challenges right how do you i mean let's we're gonna we're gonna pivot a little bit so we're already with highlight where we explain this thing up and down i'm good there we're already kind of in applying um what i screwed up i failed i i did not do what i was supposed to do i was seen doing something i shouldn't have seen i've said something i shouldn't have said uh i blew my witness digitally in front of people persons or people what do i do how do i recover from that

Jeff Reed it's the stare off who's gonna flinch

Flatcap Well, I think admitting it

WordiGirl Thank you.

Flatcap is one of the greatest things that you can do, which has been one of the things that I have seen the church fail time and time again. Look at any of the names, and not ones that passed away and then stuff came out, but when somebody is accused of something, a church leader, the church defends the person and goes after the accusation and goes after the accuser, and whether that is because they're taking their cues from that person who has influence and they're doing it, the owning up to what you have done is not the pattern that we see church leaders do when they do something wrong. Admitting what you've done wrong. I mean, David is in some ways a good example, but David had to be led to admitting that he had done wrong with intervention from the leading of a prophet to get him to see what he had done wrong. But once he did, he fully owned what he had done. And too often the church is worried about its image, its reputation, losing donors, the fallout, the cost. And we need to start with admitting what happened, repenting of what it is. And repenting is a change of mind and a change

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Flatcap of position and a change of posture to move in a different direction to no longer go in the direction you were going. And just not often the way that things happen.

Jeff Reed Wow.

WordiGirl yeah i agree um one of the first steps is to admit if you know you did something wrong you're only looking worse when you're trying to cover it up or make excuses for it especially if you a couple of sundays ago were standing up there in the pulpit talking about other people doing and all that's doing is making the church look worse because it's it's almost like you said they're covering it up they're saying oh it's okay but yet when other people did it you criticize them and that's why i like this scripture 22 still saying that we love each other with a pure heart and as it says unfeigned love in the new i mean in the king james meaning it's not hypocritical

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl because a lot of times jesus will call them hypocrites those pharisees as david was talking about they still exist those people who think that they are holier than everybody they think that they're perfect because they're doing the repetition of how many rosaries a day all that stuff but where is their heart really and once it comes out that they have done something wrong um the the best thing to do is to admit repent and actually ask for true forgiveness and as leighton was saying change your ways if you know that this is not good what you're doing don't keep trying to hide it don't try to cover it up and keep doing it um admit use this as a learning lesson for yourself and for others of how you handle yourself how you how the church is supposed to handle how um god tells us to handle things and how you handle yourself and sometimes that means stepping down and yes if there's some people who step down and then they try to act like nothing ever happened i feel like the worst thing is when they act like nothing happened because it's like that's just ultimate hypocrisy in my opinion especially when you're supposed to be preaching to a sinful world and trying to get people to come to the church come to christ this is like you said half the reasons why so many people don't trust the church because they see all these things happening they see all this hypocrisy and it looks like a clown show to them it looks like a big circus of people who act like they're better than everybody but they have more problems than than the world this is how they see it we know that's not necessarily true everybody has problems but we as as christians are on display for the world we are supposed to be shining christ's light and that makes it where we should handle ourselves in a way that glorifies christ everything we do even when we do fall even when we do sin we should handle it in the way that christ wants us to handle it we should truly reprint we should have pure hearts and we should not be acting like it's just different just because who we are

Jeff Reed right that's beautiful you know i've i mean i've made mistakes in my life um i'm i'm not perfect uh i'm not i'm not worthy to be on this camera i'm not worthy to be talking uh about things and that was it was interesting that some of that came up in the in the negativity stream i did yesterday kind of bouncing off the first half of it um the reality is is that we're all flawed uh i think that that verse is for all have sinned not you know everybody else has sinned except for me and and fall short of it um and and all of that is worthy of death also in romans and it's it's funny how um through the recovery time of some of my mistakes and some of the things that i've made some of the errors. There are Christians that circled around me. There were Christians that embraced me and hugged me through the mistakes and helped me. I'll be honest, there were Christians that wiped their hands of me, and I've not really talked to since. And it was an interesting, I'm trying not to judge. It's even though it's years separated, it still is hard. It still is, you know, the scars are still fresh. Actually, I have a tattoo right here. I have a sticker right here. It says, sticky, it says, it's not a bruise, it's a tattoo. It's a bruise, not a tattoo. It's an exact quote. And that bruise, you know, is years old, but it still hurts. And it's hard as somebody who's recovering, as somebody who's made mistakes and has struggled as a result of those mistakes as somebody who i've talked about it i almost lost my wife i almost lost my kids i almost lost my marriage um to to then um to repent publicly to um embrace that and then to shift from it to come back around and try to to re-embrace the idea of god in a new way while having God's people do this to me is, is fascinating because some people, and, and, and to this day, I, I don't, to this day, I wonder if I'm in the right or the wrong because of how God's people are, are, are responding to me. And, and they, please, yeah, I don't, I don't want to say

Flatcap If I can, Jeff, can I add?

Jeff Reed what's in my mind. So please go ahead.

Flatcap Okay. As you were just talking about that and the process of it, I couldn't help but think about how Barnabas and Paul saw the abandonment of John Mark differently and how Barnabas, son of encouragement, is redeeming and coming alongside of John Mark, and you're no longer who you were. you have changed. You are worthy to be in ministry. I want you on my team.

Jeff Reed yeah

Flatcap I want to bring you along. And Paul was having none of it. And it split up the ministry combo that they were. But it does see, and I think Paul's in the wrong there, by the way. Yeah, that's just my bias. I'm just going to put my cards on the table.

Jeff Reed and and han shot first i'm sorry go ahead keep talking

Flatcap I'm biased. Paul was, yeah, Paul's 100% wrong. I'm just showing that. But it's redeemed anyway. God redeemed the wrong that was broken the relationship

Jeff Reed Right.

Flatcap by multiplying the team into two. And then later, it does seem like there is reconciliation between Paul and Barnabas and John Mark. But we don't know what transpired in between. We don't have that piece of it. We don't know how long it took. We don't know what efforts were put into that and sometimes i think when we go and read scripture we just see this story to this story we think it's a magical thing it just took place and it's it could be could be years in between so maybe some of those people are barnabas is around you and maybe some

Jeff Reed yeah yeah praying honestly just praying through that um it's it's interesting david david i don't

Flatcap of those people are are paul at the standpoint of i can't believe you did that i'm not ready but it still might come around like paul does later

Jeff Reed know who you are man but you've got an invitation to jump on the stream with us next week tuesdays at 5 p.m., wear pants. I would appreciate if you're wearing pants. That would be a good thing. But he has just been chiming in gold here while he's supposed to be working, and maybe in that way sin needs to be treated like in the digs. He's been talking, I posted earlier about 12-step, he posted about 12-step recovery looking a lot like a biblical process, and to be honest, it's not that far off from a biblical process. I'm not an expert on 12-step in that context, but um uh did layton do you know david

Flatcap uh no i don't believe i do i i've i've i've run it

Jeff Reed okay all right david i'll i'll grab your information i'll reach out to you we'll get

Flatcap yeah

Jeff Reed you connected

WordiGirl i have heard i have heard of david and i follow david but i haven't actually um i don't remember

Flatcap yeah yeah no no no no yeah

WordiGirl while watching any david streams but i do know no no i know that david was in a uh i think a ray

Jeff Reed is david secretly a spam bot a really good spam bot okay all right

WordiGirl train um with i'm watching people and stuff like that so uh yes yes pepsio knows david as well

Jeff Reed okay all right awesome

WordiGirl so i am following david i just never yeah pastor north yes of course

Flatcap Yeah, it's one of those things where you see certain people show up in other people's chats, and so you begin to build those relationships.

Jeff Reed yeah okay

Flatcap It's one we know of him, but we have not had any deep conversations yet.

WordiGirl yeah now watch the stream yeah

Jeff Reed the digital

Flatcap Yep.

Jeff Reed the digital reputation all right

Flatcap Yes.

Jeff Reed let's we're gonna we're wrapping this up a little bit all right so we've gone through highlight we've gone through explain we've gone through apply. I broke down, started crying, and now we're going to wrap up here a little bit and respond. What is God calling us to do? As we're looking at this scripture, how is God asking us to respond? What are we praying? What are we doing? What are we needing to do? Realizing that I'm going to be the guy that's like, hey, what was your response last week how did it go hashtag accountability can we still do hashtags is hashtag still cool not really um i don't know who wants to go first can i can i do that no i i i forget what all the cool kids

WordiGirl Yes, they are, yes.

Jeff Reed are doing these days um when i talk like that with my kids they're like dad and then they ignore me um seriously what what what what are we which response look like what what has god called us to do here layton you want to kick us off

Flatcap the focus on hope that's in that that we it was in a lot of passages we didn't really you know highlight the hope but i just kept seeing that popping up next to the and i even wonder my brain wants to go figure out if there's a chiasm in in in the structure here that peter has because he talks about hope because of a whole bunch of other obedience and stuff and then he brings hope back at the end of it uh that focus on hope and uh looking towards the hope that you have that's all in christ getting and that goes back to i was saying to begin with getting your eyes off of things. So both of you know, most of the people in my chat know I'm in the process of applying to churches. And I'm just trying to have this posture of having open hands and really saying, God, this is what I think you're calling me to. And it's got to be the right church. I'm holding on to the hope that you have prepared this, that you are doing this. And I'm just waiting to see what he does. And so it'd be so much easier for me to just focus on anything else and focus on those things and wanting it to go faster. And so I think that's the apply for me is focus on the hope I have, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of how this turns out or doesn't turn out. My hope is in Christ and my call is to be an image bearer of Christ and it doesn't matter whether that happens.

Jeff Reed so you're telling me that your response is wait

Flatcap Yes.

Jeff Reed nice i see i see how you kind of like slip that in the the very eloquently stated your response is actually to do nothing but wait on god how does that feel to know that you're completely useless in this situation like i'm kind of taking a side jab but at the same time there's reality in

Flatcap Oh, it is. It. Yeah. Yeah. No, I know. I know.

Jeff Reed that right?

Flatcap I know you are. And I appreciate that. Um, because it is, it is one of the hardest postures to have, uh, I like to be in control of things. I, I, I like to, and Jeff will know this more of, uh, at times, like I don't need anybody

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Flatcap micromanaging me and telling me what to do. I will meet my deadlines. They will all be done on time. I, I, I like, I just, I'll just take care of it. Um, I mean, I love relationship, love working with people, but I, I secretly want the control over every single thing that's going on around me. And I like the illusion of control, even when I don't have any, uh, I'll even lean into the illusion of control just to feel like I do. So yeah, this, I have no control and I'm just waiting and I'm just going along for the ride. Uh, that's why I have to lean into the hope, you know, in the same way that, um, I, I, I hated this example when I was a kid, but it's the one that is so comforting. Now the proof that you're going to, this is to Mo's,

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm

Flatcap The proof that you're going to lead the people out of Egypt is afterwards, you're going to worship me on this mountain. And I always thought that's the dumbest proof ever. Like, I don't need the proof afterwards. I didn't get it, but it's the promise. That's the thing that he's getting. He's getting the promise. And I'm like thinking of this as proof. No, he's got the promise that it there that it is which makes it proof that it will indeed happen and i just can't

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Flatcap imagine moses all the way through like how many plagues do i have to go through like like we've already done five surely this should be enough to get everything to happen uh it's it's that yeah i gotta wait till all 10 plagues happen and then yeah we're still not ready to cross the red sea I got to wait for fair to chase me down before I, and then, and then I don't get to go to the promised land. Cause we've got to wander around for 40 years. Cause you got me leading a bunch of numbskulls out here.

Flatcap If you hang out of my stream,

Jeff Reed Oh, I don't know why I thought that was so funny. I'm sorry, y'all.

WordiGirl I totally get it.

Jeff Reed But that was...

WordiGirl But yeah, that's such a good...

Flatcap if you hang out of my stream, that's my favorite derogatory term. I don't know if it's offensive or not, but I don't feel it is.

WordiGirl Yeah.

Flatcap but I say it in a way that can be

Jeff Reed I don't know who actually would be offended by the term numbskull, but somebody somewhere is offended by this.

Flatcap yes

Jeff Reed And so you can send email, any hate email, go and send it to Andy, A-N-D-Y, at thechurch.digital, and Andy will gladly handle all of that for you.

Flatcap send it to numbskull at the church.dig

Jeff Reed Numbskull.

Jeff Reed Oh, my gosh. Okay, wordy girl.

WordiGirl well um i believe that the application for this is just to i guess one of the things that we were looking at a lot was that pure hearted love um and that does come from ourselves to our brethren our friends our family and those who we don't even know yet um but it also applies to us that we um have that truth that we are rooted in christ we are loved by christ we are holy because he is holy he paid the price for us His word is eternal. And therefore, that is what we can hold on to, even though everything else may fall and fade. And taking that confidence as a promise, kind of like the Moses example, we can go boldly into the world knowing that whatever happens, as long as we are following god as long as we are following christ we are being his light his image amplifying his truth to those around us especially in the digital space then you know that's that's that's all that matters that we just focus on that what we are sent to do so um i believe the application that i have just i guess keep keep doing that keep loving there are some there are some um

WordiGirl relationships that i have that they're like people who come to me sometimes and message me and uh look for you know conversation advice look for um just fellowship and

WordiGirl i um just want to continue to do what god wants me to do regarding these um relationships help them to be healthy and just um you know i'm just looking for looking to god for the right things to say and do in these situations and to remember to just show that love and to remember to try to you know not holier than thou not anything like that but just be a reflection of christ to everyone that i come in contact with so

Jeff Reed So good, so good. being that reflection um for me it's um there's a verse up here we didn't get much into it but there is somewhere around the top here 13. um uh it talks about motive um therefore prepare your minds for action be sober-minded set your hope fully in the grace of christ obedient children do not conform uh but just cause you to be holy for the judges conduct yourself forever for layton am i am i crazy i thought there was a word where it talked about motive um i'm not seeing it now

Jeff Reed you know in the foundation yeah i maybe maybe it was in a pure motive um like um not having

Flatcap I'm not seeing it either.

WordiGirl What kind of motive do you mean? Because it could, well, it may be just like the pure heart, pure in heart, the pure hearted.

Jeff Reed ulterior motive for maybe it would probably build on the pure heart yeah pure hearted pure

WordiGirl Yeah, you probably, yeah.

Jeff Reed keeping the motives pure. I may have put one-on-one together to get there.

WordiGirl Yeah, and it makes sense because, maybe.

Jeff Reed Knowing you, wordy girl, you probably said the word motive in one of your discussions,

Flatcap Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Jeff Reed and I was probably like, oh, that's good. And so it stuck with me as I was trying to go back and find the scripture. But that's the negativity is grounded in judgmental and

Jeff Reed um not being pure in my motives um if if i'm pure in my motives i'm going to love people for what they do regardless of uh i'm going to love them as god sees them not how i see them and and judgmental and negativity is is me bucking against the system challenging that and and you know inserting myself and saying well i know better than god does and um i don't i may think i do but i don't and so uh man that's um that that's for me is going to be the thing uh keep keeping that pure heart in place well cool y'all um we're gonna wrap up i think here thank you for going through first peter one um the next the next scripture is and i'll send this out through other methods it's somewhere on here i'll have to i'll find it and send it but here it is uh 2 1 to 10 uh 1st peter 2 1 through 10 and so we'll be discussing that next week uh ian i'm sure we'll be back hopefully we can get will i think will was just out this week and he was coming back david it's going to be great to see you on camera meet you and and dig in with you my friend and so looking forward uh to you joining on that as well i'll send you information via discord in that channel in the tcd discord server and we'll connect and get y'all all set up for that but hey looking forward uh to that conversation as we're wrapping up here y'all um any closing thoughts um wordy girl anything as we're wrapping up

WordiGirl Just, just, I, this whole script, this whole first chapter has been so resonating. So, yeah, I just thank you for inviting me on and sharing this study with those in chat and those here on screen. And, yeah, thank you for this. It's very insightful.

Jeff Reed no you've been you've been a pleasure a joy you've been inspiring and and thank you i've personally i've loved getting to to know you more during this and looking forward to to the times ahead like like i said earlier my desire through the church digital is to do a lot more of these in the future, not just in Twitch, but start to spin off in other platforms and other digital communities. And so this is really the experiment, Layton, just kind of like the guinea

Flatcap Yep.

Jeff Reed pig, the beta. And so we want to do that. I've been accused in the past of working really hard and not depending on Scripture and prayer, and I do work really hard, but I do want to fall back on the Scripture as well, and so I've been inspired by the past couple weeks here. Leighton, anything on your side as we're wrapping up?

Flatcap uh well i'll just say like david was you know invested and wanting to share and in the chat pastor b also here if you would like to be on let us know we we have spots available to have six of us on at a time would love to have you do that uh participate in this as you can see we're just like we're loosely following the the the guideline here okay it overlaps over itself if you need

Jeff Reed Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Flatcap to do it more formally you absolutely can highlight explain apply respond you can do it that way or or we can do it like us we're just mixing it all together we're getting those elements in there we're just vibing off the conversation engage with the scripture where the spirit's leading it and then the conversations you're adding to by being there so if you'd like to you know and you And you don't have to be every week. I won't be here for the next several weeks. If I do show up in the next couple of weeks, it'll just be in the chat. I won't be able to be on screen. But there's a spot for you. And then, like Jeff was saying, if you like what we're doing here and you're like, hey, could you help me be able to do this? Absolutely let us know. It doesn't have to be on Twitch. If you want to do it with your church, physical church, we'd love to help you do it. We don't care. We just want to see this multiply because we think it'll impact people.

Jeff Reed Layton, tell them where you're going to be next week. Or why you're going to be where you're going to be next week.

Flatcap uh oh well i'm going on vacation next week so i will i will be in the caribbean with my wife uh we we travel so that nobody can get a hold of us when we're on vacation um i i made the mistake early on in ministry somebody passed away and we cut the family vacation so i can go do a funeral and my wife's like i don't want that i want us to be on vacation when we're on vacation. So we go out of country and we go on cruise ships. So I can't fly back and nobody can get ahold of me and do anything. The following week, I will be at REACH conference. It'll be a little bit earlier. It's later in the week. And the week after that, I'll be at Exponential Central in Chicago. So after I spend a lot of time hanging out with my wife for a week, I will then, as my wife says, go get my extrovert on, hang out at conferences, having as many conversations as I physically can until I collapse into bed and get up and do it again the next day.

Jeff Reed We'll see you next time.

Flatcap And I'm going to come back so energized and full. My wife just says, go. I know it'll be great when you get home, but you just go do your thing.

Jeff Reed yeah i i'm so glad he goes and gets his uh extrovert on so that i don't have to get my extrovert on i uh i have i've literally sacrificed my voice to uh conferences like exponential in in

Flatcap Yep.

Jeff Reed the past and so so so thankful leighton is is carrying that on and i can not uh because i am a closet closet actually i'm a professing introvert i i don't do the show as well the conference as well but hey listen uh we're gonna we're gonna land the plane thank you very much for hanging out with us leighton uh don't touch base next week like just disconnect bro and uh enjoy enjoy

Flatcap oh next week i won't be on vacation i won't i don't know that i'll have anything going on

Jeff Reed vacation yeah okay all right good good for you

Flatcap uh tuesday because the conference doesn't start till thursday there's some people trying to make

Jeff Reed yeah, yeah, okay, yeah.

Flatcap plans if i'm somewhere doing something i won't be here like that's like if there's a conversation for me to have in person i'll be doing that if not i'll i'll just be you know lurking in the chat Good to see you.

Jeff Reed Sounds good. All right, so we're gonna land a plane for Wordy Girl for late, and this is Jeff with The Church Digital. Thanks for hanging out with us here on Twitch today. Devotionals will land on Monday. You can check more information about the Bible study and the devotionals at thechurch.digital slash scattered. Thechurch.digital slash scattered. Okay, everybody, great. Have a great one, and we'll see you next time.

WordiGirl have a blessed one thank you

Jeff Reed Bye. Thank you, everybody.