Session 3: Living stones, chosen and scattered

Jeff Reed all right hey everybody welcome to scattered jeff here founder of the church digital um and the music faded out right at a perfect time hey we're hanging out here listening to chill hop on on youtube and i love how that zoned out right at the exact moment i'm excited about today's conversation we're digging into acts two no no that's the next bible study sorry i'm just i'm so excited i'm already mentally moving on to what's next and it's like be in the moment jeff i'm told that so often by people jeff be in the moment stop planning ahead we're going through uh first peter we're going to be looking at first peter as part of our scattered bible studies and it's interesting sunshine uh gas games me too evidently sunshine is a plan ahead type person and a look ahead needs to be in the moment uh feeling that and so excited sunshine thanks for jumping on here uh with us we've we've got wordy girl we've got david's daily show we got jill uh we got we got we got a full house some first timers here on on with scattered before we come on before we get them on just hey you know what i'll just go ahead and bring them on anyway um hey guys actually uh let's go ahead and do this oh jill i forgot to tag you uh let's make sure this is gonna work awesome hey jill let's get a mic check on you first can you say something perfect awesome jill literally stumbled in while we were doing the countdown and was like

Gilldares Yeah, hi everyone.

Jeff Reed ooh, I forgot to tell Jill in advance to come early and do a mic check. So I'm glad things are working. Hey, so real quick, let me walk through what Scattered is. Scattered is we're doing a regular Bible study. We stream it on Twitch and it's recorded. It's a great conversation that we have, but the heart of this conversation is the deep dive that we do going through the Bible study, going through the scripture. But on top of that, the material that we discuss here is broken up into daily devotionals and study guides so that other people can go through it, podcasts and social media content, and oh, so much good things, video shorts and reels and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The good news is we've probably got about 50 people that are going through scattered 1 Peter right now with us, as near as I can tell. I was telling the group earlier I spent way too much time last night working on getting the scattered devotional daily devotional into facebook and instagram i was really wanting it to like go through facebook messenger and instagram dm and uh in america whatsapp meta considers us marketing even though it's a solicitor don't get me started like it's just this screwy thing and so finally figured out how to do it if you look at our shorts uh every morning the the devotional the two minute devotional is is read and uh is part of the shorts and the reels that going through uh facebook and a whole bunch of meta and all that other instagram and all that stuff that's what no sleep will get to do for you i've got a bunch of people sitting around here that aren't talking and this is a this is good because i'm going to shut up at some point and they're going to start to actually talk and share a little bit about what's going on with them i tell you what we're gonna um jill jill get to you in a second but uh with respect because i've never met this guy before uh i've got david uh in in the house so david's daily show man thanks for thanks for coming on today and being a part of this

David's Daily Show hey absolutely i've been i've been loving what i've been seeing so absolutely

Jeff Reed now i you know david i actually know absolutely nothing about you other than the fact that you were very vocal in session two. In last week's stream, you were vocal from the chat room. And so there was so much greatness you were bringing via chat. I was like, hey, man, let's get them on the stream. What's your ministry? What do you actually do?

David's Daily Show yeah so um actually i'm i don't necessarily do ministry um i do i guess i do ministry um i do uh like linking the word and and god through video games and stuff like that uh my the the way that i do things is very organic um so when when i stream

Jeff Reed Okay.

David's Daily Show on twitch and stuff like that it's not all up in your face christianity or anything like that it's you know welcome in let's make this place feel like a home and then let's bring it up organically And let's talk about it. So I've been working a lot with people in that space, like Romans. Pastor North Hill was, you know, my childhood pastor growing up. So learning a lot from him and stuff like that. And I've really wanted to do this for a super long time. And so being able to finally get going on streaming and teaching everybody my experiences and stuff like that is incredibly important to me.

Jeff Reed very cool and so yeah david uh most of us are not like the in up in your face type but the type of person that what you're describing yourself as is is what we would describe as as a digital missionary a missionary that's called to to serve in digital space like for you video games and romans is is a friend and others and and so yeah like that's the more the merrier on that and so excited to dig in with you uh here in the study uh and then i i invited in at the last minute i invited in jill hey jill uh maybe you want to take a moment may introduce yourself a little bit and

Gilldares Hi.

Jeff Reed and uh what you're what you're calling or what your ministry is digitally

Gilldares Yeah. Yeah. I'm Jill. I'm in the UK, uh, in England. Um, I've come across this discord platform and Jeff kindly gave me a really good insight into the amazing work he's been doing. I belong to a digital church called Lux and my background has been nursing primarily and a lifelong kind of scuffle with trying to be creative and not really getting to fulfill that as much as I would like and so I call myself a bit of a frustrated artist and that's been expressed through authoring books and have some pastoral backgrounds and I I suppose a people person I'm very keen I'm very keen networker and not necessarily an extrovert But, you know, I give myself to that and then I go and hide and revive myself. So my missionary mission has been a thing for my whole Christian life since I've been 15 years old. And just reaching people with good news, hope and respecting and loving people in that process. And as a Brit, I guess we are quite reserved and we don't do any Bible bashing, really. We're not into all that. So, you know, I really do want to meet people where they're at. And discipleship as well beyond faith is such an important thing. And so digitally, my current passion is to find a community of Grammys

Jeff Reed Hmm.

Gilldares and equip them to be an instrumental person in their family to reach the geeks in their world and to really love on them and disciple them. And so my passion is to create a community where the Grammys are equipped to disciple their geeks. And so I'm learning about geeks and gaming. I have a vision for a game concept which is fully articulated but I'm not capable of creating a game. I just need to find the right team for that to happen. But, yeah, I'm a discipler and I love people and I had a love-hate relationship with nursing but really decided that I was in nursing because I love people.

Jeff Reed awesome hey and and the the room keeps jill it's great to great to have you on board uh druzy is

Gilldares Thank you.

Jeff Reed saying i'm not going to put it on druzy but uh saying she's got a great heart and her game is so dope uh okay so congratulations druzy says you're dope uh you know druzy does he does not say that

Gilldares That's good.

Jeff Reed about me uh i've never actually heard druzy's called me dope so congratulations uh the accent though i'll be honest like i'll do whatever she tells me to do like i just i i could listen to british accents all day long uh so with that and so we've had some some others uh come come in the room here a little bit um uh we've we've got um wordy girl now wordy girl is is at an airport in Oregon Portland and so there's some there's some noise in the background wordy girl is

WordiGirl All right, hello.

Jeff Reed self-conscious she doesn't want to be a bother she just needs to unmute and talk when she's got the the hammer that she's going to drop and it'll happen three or four times through the stream I'm sure but feel free to unmute and talk it's it's not that loud with that anything you want to just say to open up here very cool i know it's funny i was actually it was word of girl was we

WordiGirl Yes, sorry for this. I hope I don't sound too bad. i've been told before that my like at home setup is like asmr quality so when i don't have it people are like you sound weird so uh sorry for the background noise and all that stuff but i'm happy to be here and i'm glad there's so many other people here so that more people can talk

Jeff Reed were on maybe 15 minutes before and i literally i was like this is the most nerve-wracking moment right here because it's like you're supposed to get three four or five people i have no idea if they're actually going to show up where the girl could just be you and me and we'll figure it out if so and and and so love the fact that everybody's come come on board with this um now will pog you've you've been on you were here a couple weeks ago so good good to see you again and then we've got Hear Journal. Hear, H-E-A-R, Hear Journal. For us, the HEAR journal, it's a very simple way to do Bible studies. And so we love reproducing that within the church digital. We read any scripture, and it's H-E-A-R. Highlight what's going on with the scripture. Explain what's going on with the scripture. Apply what's going on to the scripture to our lives, and then respond. Now that we've applied it, where is God leading us, and how are we responding to God in that moment? And so it's very four simple ways to be very conversational about studying Scripture together. And I, for one, am excited to go through this with my new friends and making Leighton and Ian jealous. Oh my gosh, if those guys were here today, I don't know that I've got—I don't have enough squares. like i don't have the layout i would have had to have you know programs a little bit on the fly so anyway um we're gonna dig into it um you know what um david do you mind open us up in prayer

David's Daily Show uh yeah dear god as we explore your word today and explore the meanings behind what you have set your authors to do i just pray that you give us the correct guidance and speak through us as you would to pastors and youth group leaders as we deliver your message to the masses. God, we've got we've got quite a quite a crew today and I just ask that you you bless every single one of them and fill their hearts with the Holy Spirit as we embark on this journey together and all with all that

Gilldares Mm.

David's Daily Show being said in Jesus name Amen

Jeff Reed Amen. Awesome. Thank you for that. So here, let me pull up the scripture. If you're following at home or interested in this, we've produced a HERE journal online. And so you can, you know what? I'm going to move this around a little bit on the fly because I want to throw comments up. And yeah, it's going to be a thing there. We can make that work. And then I was all set for four people. No, it's good. I'm so glad you all are here. All right, so that'll work for now. Let me get this out of the way. All right, so you can go to the website at thechurch.digital.journal. thechurch.digital.journal, and you can access it here, journal as well, where you can go along with us, and you can write out the H-E-A-R, the highlight, the explain, the apply, and also the respond, as God is leading you to do that, but we're going to be looking at, well, that was the wrong thing, we're going to be looking at Acts, I did it again, 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2,

Gilldares So, let's go.

Jeff Reed 1 through 10. And so you can see that right here. Will Pogg, can I ask you, would you mind reading the scripture with us here?

Will sure 100 100 you want me to just read just read the all 10 verses

Jeff Reed Go for it, my friend. Yes, sir, if you don't mind going all the way through it.

Will okay okay sounds good oh you want me to read okay uh i'll read it off my my bible here uh

Jeff Reed What's on the screen, or if you have a different translation, it's fine.

Will yeah yeah uh let's see sure i can i can i can read from the screen okay rid yourselves therefore of all malice deceit hypocrisy envy and slander like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk so that by by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the lord is good as you come to him the living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in god's sight you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ for it stands in scripture see i lay in zion a stone a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame to you who believe then this stone is precious but to those who do not believe the stone

Jeff Reed Hmm.

Will and the builders the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone uh and and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense they stumble because they disobey the word and to this they were appointed uh but you are chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for god's own possession to proclaim the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light once you were not a people but now you are the people of god once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy

Jeff Reed okay so some of you this may be the first time you've heard the scripture read the scripture didn't prepare some of you i.e david probably have a couple theses of notes ready to go to discuss and is ready to go into town on it. So first thing we're going to do, we're going to highlight what stands out for you in this passage, looking at, I started to say Hebrews, 1 Peter 1 to 10 here, 1 Peter 2, 1 to 10. What stands out? Sunshine Games, feel free to throw some of that in chat right here as well. I would love to throw that up on the screen. But what stands out? What do you want to highlight? If you were literally highlighting your scripture right now, what would you be highlighting on the scripture? And feel free to read in whatever translation you have.

WordiGirl yes so i'm gonna go first people have cleared out a little bit but it's probably still kind of loud i'm gonna try to um speaking of literal highlights this is one of my favorite scriptures

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl And right now it is highlighted, the ninth verse here.

Jeff Reed Ninth verse.

WordiGirl My favorite is, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Like, that's one of my favorite scriptures. Some of you guys might know me by Wordy Girl. I also go by like Sandra Peculiar sometimes, the Peculiar Jeweler, I do that. So Peculiar is one of my favorite words and it's in the scripture here. And I just like how it just shows that we're like set apart and God is calling us forth because there is darkness everywhere and we are in darkness, but he's calling us into his marvelous light so that we can reflect that light and shine others as well.

Jeff Reed I had forgotten you're the King James. it's interesting you know it's it's king james old-fashioned language you know the these and the those but i so much like that generation over people um it's much more relevant maybe for today

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed not to kind of uh over speak towards that but but very cool uh [a friend in chat] jumping in hey my friend

Gilldares Yep.

Jeff Reed good to see you um on a trip in uh pennsylvania and so very cool man uh we will have this on demand for you uh later on down the road anybody else what what stood out

David's Daily Show yeah for me it was that it was that first passage uh i think i think wordy girl put it in the chat like you the rid yourself therefore of all malice deceit hypocrisy hypocrisy envy and slander like it's just you guys got to get your act together like again like i said last week like it's like you're coming home from college and dad's setting those ground rules and he's like hey man you're

Jeff Reed I don't know.

David's Daily Show not going to be here forever so your job is to get in here and get out like so kind of get your act together and but it also shows like at least to me is that peter in this at that moment he was talking to a select few people but when it comes to this he's also admitting hey everybody's guilty of something you know and and no matter what that is especially becoming you know born again through christhood and and stuff you know you got to get rid of it you know cutting off those dead branches so to speak so that that really stood out too

Jeff Reed yeah it's it's interesting sunshine games uh pipes in uh that her favorite was also

Gilldares Hmm.

Jeff Reed verse 9, called out of the darkness into the light. You know, I would ask David, you know, as you said, verse 2, like newborn babies, once again, it's, you know, okay, dad taking behind the woodshed. We had that conversation last week on second read and third read. I do kind of feel, okay, maybe it's not that, but it's like the coaching thing. I kind of see what Layton was talking about, but we're talking generation in nine. We're talking newborn babies, uh, as well. Like it's, it's interesting how some of the, uh, age, uh, analogy imagery kind of is, is rolling through here, uh, through, through the scripture. And so maybe let's keep an eye on that moving forward. Somebody else, what stands out?

Will yeah like my comment was going to be uh around verse oh sorry go ahead

Gilldares I like

Jeff Reed Go, go, Jill.

Gilldares Okay, thanks Yeah, just the phrase Living stone As we come to him as a living stone It's a beautiful image Always reminds me of A book by C.S. Lewis Where he talked I think it was the Oh, which one was it? Where the ground opens up and and there's an underworld called bism and he sees he sees live jewels inside the crevasse and um it's like it's like an organic building and and every stone connects with each other and and it's almost like cells of an organism so um we all affect one another we're all bathed in the same kind of um the same kind of cellular fluid which is which we all affect we all change it by our ways by our thoughts by our actions and um we nurture or we or we um corrupt one another depending on how we how we respond and we've got to be mindful of those that we're connected to right immediately around us and those farther away from us we're all connected living stones it's an amazing analogy

Jeff Reed you know it's that the idea of living actually also repeats all over the the new testament just even hearing the living stones although in fairness i did watch all of the uh marvel cinematic universe what if three seasons last night and so i immediately went of course to the uh the gauntlet which okay not in the biblical context but the um talking about living stones the living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is the spiritual act of worship there's so much living versus dead kind of parallel in the sacrifice of that through the scripture so excited about that um jill like how what for you what's what's the main takeaway i'm just curious a little bit here. Like what, what are you feeling here with this passage?

Gilldares um i think i think it's it's it's about community it's definitely about community um for me that's a real challenge at the moment so i am missing it but i also understand that when when you want to plug in you don't just plug into something for the sake of it you need to to belong. And this is about recognition that you all have the same seal, the same DNA. I think it's community for me. And of course the foundation of all of that is Jesus.

Jeff Reed all right i'm excited to hear where we're going next will what you got will are you up

Will Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah, for some reason, I lost some audio there. But, um, my, my, the, the highlight for me, uh, was verse two of chapter two, uh, you know, it says, uh, like newborn infants long for this, uh, pure spiritual milk that by you may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Now I like the imagery, you know, in chapter one, we were born again, right? It talked about us being born again, and he sort of reiterates this idea that as we're born again, we should be like newborn infants who long for spiritual milk and that longing, that utter dependence of our parents. As newborns, we are 100% dependent in our parents or caregivers, whoever's taking care of us, and in the same sense, we're called to be 100% dependent and longing for what God has for us, what he wants to teach us, what he wants to feed us in his word.

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Will And it's a very humbling idea as well because we tend to try to be independent. We tend to try to be strong, smart, know everything, and God calls us to be newborn infants when it comes to our relationship with him and our seeking of him and our desires. And it's also an encouragement because sometimes people feel like they need to know everything or they need to be 100% equipped to do what God has called them to do. And that's just not the case. He's calling these newborn infants who are 100% dependent on him. so i like this continuation of you know hey you were born again and since you were born again you're a newborn infant who depends 100 on in your god right so so yeah yeah

Jeff Reed yeah so cool oh by the way [a friend in chat] is saying hello [a friend in chat] where what what continent are you are you europe now is he is he check or is he is he new zealand right now i don't know um let us know

Will hello [a friend in chat]

Jeff Reed where you're hailing from these days uh but uh love love having [a friend in chat] around right now there is uh i i love the idea i love what you're describing here you know as i look at the scripture from from top to bottom you know verse one uh you know is the dad still you know taking shots at you behind telling you what to do laying it down like it is rid yourself of all malice deceit hypocrisy envy and slander rid yourself of it you don't need that negative crap just get it out of your life By the way, that's really hard to do. You probably can't do it. Speaking of not doing it, like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk. Like newborn babies who aren't capable of doing anything at all, that's how we should be living our life. not as somebody who's going to work hard to achieve the grace in God's love, not to earn it, but to realize that we are useless and only in result of that. Now that you've tasted that the Lord is good.

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed I love this, by the way, as you're talking about living stones. Joe, you were living stones, right, as I recall? Yeah, as you, because this, for me, this was it. as you come to him, as that newborn baby, as somebody who is useless, as you come to the living stone, you cannot do anything. You are dead to self, Romans. And as you come to the living stone, who was rejected by men, but is precious in God's sight, you too need to be, we need to recognize that you are a living stone as well, which means you're going to be rejected by men. So, um, the standard is too high for us to meet. Like, let's just roll through this to make sure I'm just, cause I really want to, this is so beautiful of a picture, right? Verse one, we can't do it. Impossible. Verse two, rather than trying, you got to go back to being a six-month-old and let God take care of you. And you're going to recognize that in verse 3, God will take care of you. And as you come to the person who is the living stone, who is rejected by men, you will also be rejected by men. All right. As digital missionaries, as people who do ministry in digital spaces, this has got to draw an interesting parallel, right? Like, as you're hearing these words, how do you map and apply? Like, how does this scripture inspire or challenge your ministry of what you're doing in digital space?

David's Daily Show i think um a big one is is especially when it comes to like that um like being a newborn baby and stuff like that it has to do a lot with a lot of people say like practicing law practicing medicine and stuff like that well every because you're never a pro at it and so that also works with faith. So because we're supposed to act as newborns in faith, we're always going to be practicing it. We're never going to be pros. And so kind of allowing people, especially in digital ministry, to kind of challenge your view, I feel like is a very healthy thing because it makes us

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

David's Daily Show look at new perspectives. We bring up new passages and we learn that way rather than like, you know, he said before being malicious being that hypocrite of oh well my i it's the word of god so it's right no matter what and stuff like that and actually being able to explain it to people in a very uh a very civil way and stuff like that is is better than than again being

Gilldares Aliteration.

David's Daily Show malicious and so just learning to practice rather than preach it at the people is is really something that's been popping out

Jeff Reed practice than rather preach it at the people there's that that's a that's a really interesting what's what's that what's it called that word it's using the same three p letters that like what's it's uh alliteration alliteration yeah there you go all right very good you're uh he's

WordiGirl Alliteration, yes.

Jeff Reed He's a closet Southern Baptist pastor, recovering, moving more towards his digital ways. So very good, David. Love it. Anybody else? Like, what's the challenge? It's interesting. I'll just see here some comments in chat. Sunshine, I keep thanking the cornerstone. Jesus is that cornerstone who was rejected. The cross is, and he's become that cornerstone. Without Jesus, we just fall apart, the centerpiece of everything. was rejected and discarded, so true there, we got [a friend in chat] sharing, come to Jesus as a living stone, and you will never again be just another brick in the wall, Pink Floyd, thank you, I'll enjoy that song, that music, I hadn't gotten there on my own, man, so thanks, thanks for bringing that in, it's, okay, everybody else in the room is significantly younger than I am, gel maybe i'm not not putting numbers on that sorry but let's like like [a friend in chat]'s older than i am by far he blows me away is pink floyd even on y'all's radar does anybody like listen to pink

Gilldares Mm-hmm.

David's Daily Show Yeah.

Jeff Reed floyd yeah okay it's like that's not like you know taboo or old school or like you know not cool

Will I can admire it.

David's Daily Show It's considered, like, classic rock.

WordiGirl I'm familiar with it, yeah.

David's Daily Show It's considered, like, classic, like, 90s grunge rock.

Jeff Reed okay

David's Daily Show But, yeah. Yeah, we still listen to it.

Jeff Reed okay so i used to be a dj for a modern rock radio station back in the 90s and the fact that you compared pink floyd to 90s modern rock um i'm not sure we can be friends man like you just took four negative steps down in the relationship just with that that that right there, man. All right. Well, I'm kidding. We're back, but that's a warning, okay? Somebody else, what stands out as we're looking at this? How do we map this? How do we apply this to what's going on in our personal ministry careers, in our life?

Gilldares I think that the idea of being a living stone means flexibility, willingness to be adjusted, willingness to be reorientated, redesigned. So the only stone that won't change is the cornerstone. My son is an architect and one of the great skills of architecture is that is being able to retrofit something which exists. So you are able to respect the character, but you also bring some new expression to that building without destroying the original intent. So I think being able to be repositioned, and that happens in seasons of our lives, being taken out of one wall, put into another wall, It's not comfortable, but you never know where you're going to be placed. And that's the exciting thing about our walk with God. And in terms of digital mission, I think for me, I thought I was going to do one particular thing, but it's been a much bigger, circuitous way around to where I now am. And it's a slightly different target group. And I've got to be cool with that because I feel I've been led here.

Jeff Reed it's interesting with your your son being an architect it was an architect that that has

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed I mean, some parallels to that. I hadn't really picked up on the scripture. See, I lay in Zion. For instance, for it stands in scripture, see, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone. Is there significance to Zion in this moment? Mm-hmm.

David's Daily Show So I'd say Zion is the church. So I think when it comes to this, like Jesus himself is the foundation and we're all bricks on the church's wall. And this is how I've imagined it. We're all a part of a different wall, but we're all the same church. And so just because we're not in the same spot as everybody else doesn't mean that you know we're not still where we need to be and where god's chosen us to be so that's that's just how i looked at it

Jeff Reed okay anybody else like what's the what's the context of of zion in that see i lay in zion a stone a chosen and precious cornerstone

Will well jesus was the beginning right he's the he's the he's the b he's the beginning of

Jeff Reed Alpha and Omega beginning and the end.

Will yeah yeah he's he's he's he's he's where i mean in the beginning there uh there was the word the word was with god the word was god uh and then he came in the flesh he became god among us you know amongst us and and uh emmanuel and and and now uh through his death and resurrection

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Will god has set him as the cornerstone of his church and his kingdom and he had ever since then god has been building that kingdom up brick by brick stone by stone he's been building up his church it's like this beautiful house right as as the beautiful spiritual house as as the scripture says and you see that that analogy all throughout scripture uh about god building his church expanding his kingdom building building building um and so and it's all centered on jesus right so that's the way

Jeff Reed yeah

Will i see it

Jeff Reed wordy girl do you have something you look like you were about to say something yeah

WordiGirl Yes, well, I feel that Zion is a very important place. like how sunshine games says is holy so it's like that's the holy land you know israel drew and that is where christ was born and where the ministry technically started so i feel that it

Gilldares Yeah.

WordiGirl is significant like locations can be significant as well and just like how you guys were saying it was just bringing in the just emphasizing there that that was where jesus started at all basically um with his birth

Jeff Reed is is Zion this is this is honestly

Gilldares Hmm.

Jeff Reed the moment where i would look at some of my biblical scholar friends and and ask this question is zion a real place like is is zion on the map in in 50 a.d do you guys know i'm asking yeah yeah

WordiGirl i believe it's the mountain i guess i believe it's the mount zion that's what i believe it is

Jeff Reed okay so how how how far is mount zion from where they are i wonder i i don't i don't have the

David's Daily Show yeah, Mount Zion.

WordiGirl yeah let me

Jeff Reed answer to that if somebody wants to google it in this moment um but the the fact is is that they're they're separated i mean the whole the whole purpose of this is that the church is dispersed and scattered yeah so the the there is an interesting parallel i think mount zion

Will Yeah, they're not in Zion. Yeah, they're not in Zion, right? Yeah.

Jeff Reed mount zion is real mount zion is a place they are dispersed from it um they are separated from it They are separated from where the church is. Now, the cornerstone started in Zion, but even the people of Zion, even the people of Jerusalem have, I mean, at this point, they killed him.

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed They killed Jesus. The sacrifice has already happened. This is well after. This is 50 years after his death. And so, they're even killing his followers. And so when the, when the words are said, the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Like there's, there's literal speaking of, of that, where the people who were in the physical, physical, you know, location rejected them.

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed It's that much harder to stay connected to the faith when you're separated, when you're dispersed, when you're discarded, which is how many of these Christians from a distance felt.

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed They felt like they were isolated and alone.

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed As digital missionaries, do you—listen, I'll speak for me. I struggle with feeling distant and alone and isolated. And it's funny, like even my lead pastor actually may be watching this video, but I joke about him all the time. I'm like, dude, you don't even know what to do with me because he can't he can't quantify digital ministry in a box. I'm not the typical type of person. And listening to all of your ministries of what you do, you're you're not the typical type of type of people in a box. Do you do you feel that pain as being digital missionaries and as doing ministry in digital spaces?

Gilldares Definitely.

Jeff Reed Definitely.

David's Daily Show Absolutely.

Jeff Reed You want to talk a little bit about that, Jill?

Will and in many cases we're not just we're not just different we're just we're not we just not when we can't just not be fit in the box but we can almost feel like uh you know uh the stone that builders rejected in ministry right like like we feel like jesus is the ultimate stone that was rejected uh uh you know that that the builders rejected but i feel like digital ministry in and

Jeff Reed Sure.

Will of itself is rejected by the by you know by by generally by the established or you know traditional church right and this isn't like oh you know traditional church bad no i i believe in it find a local church do you know uh serve your local church but i i feel like digital ministry i'm talking about digital ministry specifically it's so it's it's it's i feel like it's almost rejected by regular church, right? So...

Jeff Reed yeah Jill you were you were about Will that was great Jill you were saying something

Gilldares I wouldn't say so much rejected as completely oblivious to the value of what you're about.

Jeff Reed okay

Gilldares Complete lack of understanding and we are finding connection here but you might be one in a community of a real life church in which the language that you have for what you're doing is so alien. There's just no resonance at all. I'm excited to find much more than I realize is going on in this space, but it's taken me a while to find it. People will look at me and I am the oldest one here, I know I am. People look at me and think what have you got to do with gamers and geeks and who do you think you are? Learning discord? Wasting your time retire and enjoy his family that's that's not the words I hear but that's the vibe I get

David's Daily Show yeah it's it's really foreign um especially when you're trying to talk about it in like public spaces especially like when people are like oh what do you do and you kind of explain to them what you do on twitch and they're like oh so you just talk to yourself for you know three four five hours a day and it's like yes but no um and so i feel like i i kind of agree it's not it's not that

Gilldares *gasp*

David's Daily Show we were necessarily rejected it's that we weren't even considered um and so finding that space that we have and kind of turning ourselves into cornerstones where we're at is is definitely

Jeff Reed Yeah.

David's Daily Show like it's foreign it's foreign to a lot of churches

Gilldares well that's the word peculiar again isn't it so we should sell we should celebrate the peculiar out the peculiarity of being these innovation from frontline edgy leaders and you know god wants us here i know he does we are we are behind the curb we're not we're not we are early jeff i get what you're saying when you say that but we're not early when we look at silicon valley and everything that elon musk is doing we need to catch up

Jeff Reed Ecclesia, the gathering of Christians, Christians, is anti-change because they are holding to their theology. And theology, more often than not, is grounded in history, where it was in the past. Well, that's not how we do it here. Growing up, that's not what church looked like. Church is destined to be behind, and that's not being disrespectful to god and and worship in any way but it's it's man's application of it sorry send send hate mail to wordy girl wordy girl would love to have that conversation with you um i'm kidding don't do that i did i did that once joking to to jay early on like maybe five six years ago i was like yeah you know what send hate mail send it to jay and jay ended up getting blown up and i'm like dude don't literally send hate mail to jade like anyway sorry back scene um but this this idea of um actually i have no idea where i was going with that it's grounded in in traditionalism and like that there's there's some things that i'm wrestling with and i'm not quite sure i want to say this publicly and i'm i don't i need to keep digging in it but i've been wrestling with this idea that the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious rite of the time,

Gilldares Okay.

Jeff Reed were very grounded in that traditionalism that did not have room for Jesus, and that it wasn't so much maybe that Jesus' theology was radically different than what they were saying, as much as it was them not even recognizing the potential that Jesus is the coming of all the prophetic things that were in place. You know, [a friend in chat]'s actually talking here about Daniel, vision in Daniel where the stone broke through the Statue of Nebuchadnezzar. Like, you know, [a friend in chat] lives in a different realm on some of this stuff, and I love the prophetic nature of that. But that's just it. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were grounded in that same traditional realm. that didn't have room for that, because it's always been this way. We're always waiting. We've got these incredible rituals where we're waiting for Jesus to come. He can't actually be here. It's not time. We don't have the ritual set for Him, and we've got to—and that's where it makes what we're doing, to me, so radical, according to church realm, because church realm doesn't have a check box to establish and to say this is what we're, you know, this is what to call this. And this is how we treat these people. But it's interesting to me that we are living stones are being built. Where does it say here? Okay, so if God is the living stone, if Jesus is the living stone is the cornerstones then then we are also living stones that will be discarded like it's not a oh and you may be discarded uh you know if if you're not if unless you like play it safe if you play it safe then then you're if you if you you know the holier you are the more radical you're going to be perceived the more likely you're going to be discarded in a big way Um, if you're not living holiness, then you're not living radical life, which means there's no change. And so you're not going to be discarded. It's, it's almost like celebrate the isolation, the pain, celebrate the, the difficulty, celebrate the being the discarded, celebrate being scattered.

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed What does that do to you?

WordiGirl I will just say, because I know that you said earlier that sometimes it can be painful to feel so alone and isolated and not feel accepted and stuff. I personally used to feel like that, but like that word peculiar, I just embrace now to just stand out. It is good when I find like-minded people. But even if I don't, the good thing is not to get discouraged, even if you don't find anybody else. Because sometimes we just have to do what God tells us to do and try to reach who God wants us to reach, even if there's nobody out there in the field with us. As it says, the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few, and sometimes you might not see another laborer in the field, but that doesn't mean you stop picking.

Jeff Reed hmm it doesn't mean you stop any other thoughts

Gilldares I've had a song in my head which is very old I dare say nobody's heard of it but I'm struggling to find out where to post any comments, I can't see a way of doing it and the song

WordiGirl You have to be on Twitch also.

Gilldares oh okay, right, forget that but the song is Dave Bilbrough

Jeff Reed we find value in twitch don't don't don't don't tweet that okay go ahead go ahead chill

Gilldares Next time. Okay, but if you want to look this up later, it's an old song by a guy called Dave Bilborough, called An Army of Ordinary People, and it's lifted exactly from this passage.

Jeff Reed interesting

Gilldares But I will read, shall I just read one verse from it?

Jeff Reed Do it, please.

Gilldares Yeah, it says, a new day is dawning, a new age to come, when the children of promise shall flow together as one. a truth not long neglected but the time has now come when the children of promise shall flow together as one a people without recognition within a destiny scene well that's that's here now called to a heavenly vision his purpose shall be fulfilled come let us stand strong together abandon ourselves to the king and his love shall be ours forever this victory song we shall sing It's about a new day as being seen and understanding our identity as carrying this promise.

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Gilldares And when you asked this question about Zion, I thought, well, for me, Zion represents promise because it was about the children of promise. And the difference is saying there's this gap between what we have and what we are becoming and what we want to do and what we haven't yet accomplished is this gap between the fulfillment of the promise and the promise that we've been given that's faith and um i think we've got to

Jeff Reed Say that again. Say that again, Jill.

Gilldares the gap between what we have been give what we believe we've been given and what we have at the moment is there's a gap the the gap between what we believe for and what what will be

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Gilldares fulfilled the the gap between those two things is faith and we are children of promise so our our destiny is to live in this tension between uh the identity he's put inside us and the one that we've yet to fulfill and the people around us if we if they're not understanding what we're here for who

Jeff Reed Very.

Gilldares we are what we're about that's the tension though i expect we ought to believe will accompany us every day of our life because we're in tension we're on the edge we are people without recognition in that song people without recognition that's okay god gets soul glory.

Jeff Reed Yeah. I'll tell you, I don't think anybody's surprised by this, [a friend in chat]. thanks jill uh dave bill bar is a friend of mine um dude freaking knows everybody it's it's amazing

Gilldares Wow.

Jeff Reed man well well said there um any any other any other thoughts on this

Will well i like i like your i like your phrase you know celebrate being scattered right uh it's it's there is there is an enormous reason to celebrate being scattered right we believe in what we believe because because the church was scattered right the the reason we

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Will believe in what we believe the reason the gospel reached us and our families or or the area that that we lived in is because the gospel scattered from Jerusalem, right? And so I think, and in today, being scattered means not just being in isolated places in Southeast Asia,

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Will but also online, right?

Jeff Reed yeah

Will Scattered online. And so we should celebrate that. So I thought, I think that's pretty cool.

Jeff Reed will i'll even i'll even go a step further here um it's it's either acts 8 and i did mean to say acts that time it's either acts 8 or acts 16 i'm pretty sure it's acts 8 where stephen is is murdered. And the Christians are being persecuted. And their persecution is literally strong enough to chase them out of Jerusalem. And the Bible is very clear on saying that the Christians shared the gospel on the journey, quote unquote, as they went. And so the persecution did not silence the Christians. The persecution, some biblical scholars that I've heard would say the persecution was the motivating factor that got the church out of Jerusalem. It was actually

Will it was the catalyst it was the catalyst yeah it was like yeah

Jeff Reed very intentional. It was the catalyst. I mean, I hate to say, Stephen, dude, you needed to die so that Christianity could expand beyond Jerusalem to the point of where it is today and started to take roots outside of that home core group church area. For us as digital missionaries and digital churches, I love the fact that Drewzy's on here. The stuff that he and Mark are doing in there with Lux and all the other digital churches and digital missionaries, we need to be persecuted in this situation. It is expected for us to be in this difficult situation. We cannot do it on our own. God never promises that we can do it on our own. We're called to be holy in this situation and dependent on Him, dependent on God, so that God can use us. We need to be the catalyst in this moment to allow God to use us, to be able to set the standard, to be able to set the ability for future digital missionaries, for future gamers, for future Discord users, for, you know, future writers, future content creators, to be able to use this space healthily. We're not healthy.

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed Well, guess what? Neither was Steven. He was dead. But there was a reason, I'm sorry, that the AI is totally going to pick that up. Neither was Stephen. He was dead. But God used that in incredible ways to define the church today. And as we're recognizing that, hey, it kind of sucks right now, today, but God's doing something today that is going to make tomorrow incredible. And that's that, what's promised and where we are, there's that faith gap. That's what you were talking about, Jill, right? And so we may feel it, the isolation. We may feel the separation. We may feel like we want to die at times. But the reality is, is that we can do it through God and our dependence on Him in that situation. Does that make you feel better?

Will Yeah, amen.

David's Daily Show yeah um just to add on to that you know in a world that's filled with chaos and and war and and everything like that um there was a pastor i can't remember his name but he was like you know the world's crazy right now and that's that's the that the chaos is conforming to the norm right now so if you want to be a rebel pick up your bible and be a christian because that's the only rebellion left and so when i think of being scattered and stuff like that i feel like you know that's that's exactly what they're talking about you know being a rebel going against the

Jeff Reed yeah

David's Daily Show grain and and that that's that's the truth it's really the only rebellion left

Jeff Reed well said

Gilldares yeah

Jeff Reed so we've highlight we've explained maybe we've applied Let's dig in. As we're looking at this scripture, we can't do it. The standard's real high. We can't do it on our own. We need to take a childlike faith in here and be dependent on God through it, realizing that as he was discarded, so will we be discarded. How does, this is interesting, [a friend in chat], I think I'm reading that right. There's some words I don't understand in the Bible. That's why I go to church and have the preachers preach to me. There's some, is that [a friend in chat]? Oh, sorry, I'm seeing that look like an eye in tiny font. I'm blind. But man, that's interesting. I mean, I would challenge you on that. Read the scripture and just start to ask questions, bro. Even some of the things that we're doing in here, I think are a great opportunity to ask some questions of it. I love, I love, I love me a good sermon. I love pastors in that, but don't get dependent on other people telling you scripture, dig into it yourself. And really, that's the beauty of the HEAR method, because a lot of it is sitting down and working through Scripture together, sitting down and working through Scripture individually as well, and doing that research on your own. It's interesting, Sunshine Games—oh, actually, both of that—use so many different translations to help me understand the words. Of course, that's one thing. And then there is RightNow Media, which is an excellent source of that as well. I think if you do the church.digital slash RightNow Media, the church.digital slash RightNow Media, you get a free RightNow Media account. We're giving them away. We've had a partnership with them for a while. So if anybody's looking for that, the church.digital slash RightNow. And hey, you know, [a friend in chat], you've got a friend in Ohio. cool all right let's yeah all right i am back all right ha i got nothing remember last week when my internet died at right about this time and um i honest to god true story

David's Daily Show It's that Metro PCS Wi-Fi, man.

Gilldares mm-hmm yeah

Will oh my my internet died my internet died too and i was i was worried it was me

Jeff Reed no i honestly got a true story my internet dies at the same time every week um on that and so it's it's it'll die tuesday afternoons and it'll die wednesday morning yeah okay yeah thank you wordy girl i see this on here now the church.digital slash right now media um i yeah i was i was let's do this pivoting back sorry application uh whatever that long thing that he had uh is no longer on my screen so i can't put it up because this is technically a second tweet uh second stream but let's let's dig into it as we're reading this scripture we've highlighted it we've explained it how do we apply some of these lessons let's look back at the scripture and start to figure out as digital missionaries, as people that are displaced, as people that are scattered, what is the idea, how can we apply some of these learnings, just apply some of the scripture to our lives? Who wants to go first?

WordiGirl I think that we should just continue to know that we are a chosen generation and a peculiar your people. So we need to just remember that even though sometimes it can feel like we're a bit isolated, we are helping others feel less isolated by bringing them into these digital communities. And just lean on the people that we have so that we can have that support. But just also know that sometimes it's not going to be like completely everybody's here, everybody's on board. Sometimes we are going to have to go out there. And like you said, sometimes we will be persecuted. Sometimes we will be alone. But we have to just keep going. And we have to just do what God wants us to do.

Jeff Reed love love that just keep keep going uh keep doing what god wants us to do [a friend in chat] does share coming back around the short version uh application we come to god as living stones just as we are, so let's be less judgmental. I mean, according to the scripture, we're a baby sucking on mother's milk. It's hard to be judgmental when you can't even raise your head. So, somebody else, what are we feeling here? How do we apply this scripture to our lives?

David's Daily Show I don't think it's just kind of remember who you are momentarily. so don't you know we talked last week a lot about like pharisees and how um the modern church

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

David's Daily Show especially when it comes to the older generation of churchgoers are kind of turning into those hypocritical pharisee-like officers in their church and just learning that you know god has cast us out to be oddballs to be the weirdos and stuff like that and so just just be accepting

Jeff Reed yeah

David's Daily Show nobody's perfect and we we want to find the imperfect people and we want to bring them to christ and so just sticking to that um that message of you know nobody's perfect and love everybody

Jeff Reed that's hard right especially when loving everybody especially when some of them have discarded you um it's it's a hard thing to do and i'll just be honest i it's it's probably one of my biggest

Gilldares Mm-hmm.

Jeff Reed struggles is or loving the people who discarded me um but but i i do hear you on that somebody else what's uh what's a uh an application point here

Will I think when we think of applications, you know, practical applications of whatever we're reading in the Bible, we tend to think about, okay, what is this practical thing that I can do, right, to apply what I read in the Bible? And I feel like in today's passage, it would be beneficial for us to think, what are the practical things that we can believe in order for me to apply what I'm reading, right? we we we can believe a lot of things about ourselves and a lot of those things could be lies depending on where what our what our you know mental state is and what what is uh you know what we what we keep telling ourselves right and i feel like the application here look at what god has called us look at look at how god has defined us right you are a chosen race you are a royal priestly a holy nation right set apart um you are a people of his own possession right um you you you belong to god um you are you were separated by god you're a royal

Jeff Reed did he freeze

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed we're having bad internet days

Will oh

Jeff Reed you're back man

Will no hello hello

Jeff Reed yeah

WordiGirl Can you hear us?

Jeff Reed he was sounding good when he said it can you hear us yeah we're back

Will uh okay okay are we back yeah i think i think i think i'm getting into that that that time of the the night here brazil where my internet starts dropping you know and being inconsistent so um so where was i anyway so like uh what's a practical thing we can do believe the right things about yourself right and and and and and take take take take note of how you're thinking

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Will and and when you're praying uh or when you feel discouraged or when you're walking along those days live as if you believe in what god has called you right and and and and again he's called you chosen he's called you a royal priesthood he's called you a holy nation separated set apart and and you are his possession and he loves you i mean we're gonna get into that later but he loves you he is love nothing can separate you from his love these are all truths of the bible that we can believe about ourselves that we can apply on our daily lives right and uh to fight against negative thoughts, negative, negative beliefs, you know, limiting beliefs sometimes that we might have about ourselves, right. And so, so yeah, so I figured one, one thing that we can apply from today's passage is not just something we can do, but let's, let's, you know, things that we should believe about ourselves or it's about identity, the right identity that we give ourselves, right.

Jeff Reed yeah um i i i love that sunshine games is actually echoing some of what you were saying um facts i'm not perfect uh it's hard to love everyone but but god shows mercy in that and as he shows mercy, we are to show that mercy as well. Go ahead. I cut somebody off. I'm sorry.

Gilldares I was going to say, you were saying earlier that Jesus is the cornerstone, but he was rejected so we will be rejected however if you think of it you're going to claim that we can also claim that the stone that was rejected who became the cornerstone then we also who've been rejected will become a cornerstone of that which we are pioneering so let's have

Jeff Reed yeah

Gilldares of it both ways.

Jeff Reed that Jill that's that's an incredible point if you're gonna if you're gonna give God your failures I say this all the time if you're gonna give God your failures that means that you can give God the successes but if

Gilldares - Yeah.

Jeff Reed you're gonna claim the successes for your own then you got to claim the failures as well, the down and the up. But the promise here is that we will be the cornerstone. And so God will use us in ways that is glorifying to Him.

Gilldares Yeah. - Amen.

Jeff Reed And so to strive and to live a life according to that, realizing that we will be rejected, but the one who we are dependent on will not reject us. The one who loves us will not and will never, has not and will never reject us. I love that. At this point, I'm not even sure who went and didn't go on application here did everybody go we all good awesome i um for for me there's a good night good night [a friend in chat] um i uh or good morning if you're in new zealand or whatever is going on in your life my friend more power to you um i for me it's the the i have to be okay i know that the rejection um that god defines is much higher than that um i have to love those that rejected me and and it's it's it's making myself this bible study is making myself be aware of that is is that i i have to love my uh the rejecters as as much as god loves me when i've rejected him and so it's it's that that's the grappling thing for me that that i'm dealing with right now But I love this. So highlight, we've highlighted things, we've explained some scripture, we've applied it to pretty detail along the way. In this moment, what do we feel like God is leading us to? So applying is more of, okay, this is what we're going to do, but ours is respond. What's the prayer to God? What is God asking you to do through this situation, and how are you going to reply to that? Part of this we should really go back and even talk about last week. Maybe we will afterwards, but how are we—actually do that. If you were available and did the study last week, feel free to share what the response was last week, if you remember, and then how that compares to where we are this week. Who wants to go first? I made it hard by throwing in last week's wrinkle. Wordy girl, do you remember what yours was last week?

WordiGirl um sorry an airplane just blew overhead so i wanted to stay muted for a second um so i think

Jeff Reed Oh, no problem.

WordiGirl it was that you said that there was um you're saying what i said that i was going to try to do

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

WordiGirl applying it yes so i said just i think it was that i said that i was going to try to keep loving and keep you know as we were saying that uh genuine love that non-hypocritical not holier than thou but just genuinely loving one another as brothers so yes i i tried to do that well in fact where i am right now um i was trying to show love to a friend who has been going through a lot in her life and has a small child as well um so i just wanted to you know spend some time support and show love to her and in this digital space it's funny because i never met her in person we actually worked together virtually online at a job that neither of us are

Jeff Reed Hmm.

WordiGirl any longer working at but we made that connection and i was trying to be there for her during these times even though i was very far away um but she told me that i really did help her when she was going through these things even as far away as i was so just seeing that um in this world you know uh in our digital missionary world um we can make an impact

Jeff Reed yeah

WordiGirl even if we don't know even if we don't see it right away even if it doesn't seem like it you praying for people you being there for people you chatting with people sometimes that can help more than you even though yes yeah

Jeff Reed so much value in that relationship thank you for sharing that somebody else as we're looking at with the scripture that we've been discussing this week, what is God, what's our response to God in this situation? What is God calling us to do and how are we responding to that?

David's Daily Show at least to me, what I'm hearing is, hey, it's okay to be the weirdo. It's okay to not conform to the mold. And scripture is echoing that by saying, God made you exactly the way that he wanted to and he gave you a specific mission in response to how he made you and so you know you're

Gilldares Yes.

David's Daily Show you might be the weird one you might be the one that everybody kind of shies away from but find your people you know and especially when it comes to us in digital ministry you know that that can take a minute.

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

David's Daily Show But once you are firmly planted, you know, with a specific group of people and stuff like that, you realize, hey, I might be weird, but all these people are too. And I'm absolutely loving, you know, the message that we're spreading. You know, we're bringing people closer to Christ and stuff like that. Stuff that, you know, the church said we could never do. It's stuff that people said, well, that's ridiculous. Why would you want to communicate with somebody across the world like Jill? And seeing all of us come together and stuff like that, we're a bunch of weirdos, man, and we're embracing it in the name of God. And that's what I got from this.

Jeff Reed that's awesome uh [a friend in chat] here uh i wish i could give you all a hug and tap you all on the back. Yeah, so very, very good with that. Somebody else, yeah, and yeah, very, very cool.

Will Appreciate it, [a friend in chat].

Jeff Reed I kind of like, I'm an introvert. I don't like when people touch me, but I appreciate the heart behind what you're saying, man. Like that, that's really good.

Will Hey, I'm Brazilian. I'm Brazilian, and we're huggers, so it works out.

Jeff Reed Yeah, you can give Will like my hug. Like he'll two-hucks the hug.

Will I have to be careful, especially if I'm in America. Cause it's like, it's like we, we, we hug everybody and, and, uh, especially like between men and women too, that's, that's where I have to really be careful, you know?

Jeff Reed oh yeah

Will Right. So, so like, you know, here, here we're, we're hugging and we're, we're, yeah, we're hugging

Jeff Reed yeah

Gilldares Yeah.

WordiGirl Well, I'm a hugger, I don't mind hugs, hugs.

Jeff Reed the yeah

Will and kissing each other. And it's just like, uh, okay. You know, in America, it's just like, here's, here's my hand, but yeah.

Jeff Reed I'm in I'm in my well just to amplify so you can appreciate I'm in Miami which might as well be Latin and South America, and so, you know, the Hispanic cheek kiss,

Will Yeah.

Jeff Reed double cheek kiss, you know, I had a, I literally, I had a woman I was talking to the other day, my wife's in the room, and so she's gonna wig out as she hears me say this, but literally, I had a woman I was talking to the other day, and she put her hand on my knee, like, in conversation, not in like a, not in like a affectionate way at all, just kind of like emotionally like talking and she's very expressive with her hands and that hand ended up on my knee. And I about jumped out of my chair like, ain't no freaking way I'm not doing,

Will I mean,

Jeff Reed anyway, that is not what this is about here. Let's come back. What is God applying us to do? What, I'm sorry, how are we responding to what God is inviting us to do in this moment? What is the, what's our response towards it? Who needs to go?

Will And I go back to my, you know, the second verse, you know, for me personally, you know, to be like newborn infants who long for pure spiritual milk. And, you know, the word that I get from that is, you know, dependence and this necessity that we have for God. And that goes in complete, that's a contrast to our incessant desire to control everything, right? And so that really, you know, that hits me personally with, you know, my situation, my current reality of life. and and and how i need to uh let go of that grip um and and and have total dependence on him

Jeff Reed Yes.

Will and so yeah that's that's definitely uh what has i guess touched me this week so yeah and being hopeful being being being hopeful and and and content in the midst of it all right not be not be try being joyful being grateful being content not not always me you know oh this is tough oh you know not complaining to other people not you know it's just it's it's it's it's just utter dependence on god and you know and being you know and and uh uh yeah just just just just being content, so yeah.

Jeff Reed you don't see a lot of negativity coming from babies

Will Yeah, no, no, no.

Jeff Reed there is not much not much negativity in in that environment um who's left jill did you share

Gilldares So I think I take the last verse. Actually, no, sorry, I've gone over into 11. I keep going on to 11 in my head. um okay okay yeah so it's because of all that we've read it says abstain from the passions of

Jeff Reed give us a preview you you can do it levin's next week but i mean shoot we write the rules here

Gilldares the flesh which war wage war against your soul and this is for me because of all that we've just

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Gilldares discussed i must abstain from the drive to strive because that's the one that gets me and um it does it was it wages war against my soul it takes my peace it robs me of the joy of creativity so um i need to make sure that my my source is coming from him his the spirit through my spirit

Jeff Reed Hmm.

Gilldares which is flourishing my soul and making me a light making me fruitful making me a witness and all my works will come from that and if I keep it that way then my mission will be fruitful and a joy

Jeff Reed I, um, I think I'm guilty of, of overthinking, overanalyzing, over, um, complicating, um, over emotionalizing. Um, you know, I probably part of, um, getting burned is you have your hard on your sleeve and you're very quick to get beat up. And, um, I, I think at this stage of my life, um, I don't know if God's saying toughen up or if I just need to trust him more and, and let go of, of some of the, the baggage. Um, I've had plenty of people in my life tell me I need to let the baggage and the baggage is hard so um but yeah i um i want to thank you all today's been been a fun bible study and so we've gone through it's interesting we've got you know obviously three countries represented uh at least four four different time zones just kind of looking at the screen david where are you based out you're in ohio is ohio central eastern yeah you just you're

David's Daily Show uh eastern

Jeff Reed that close to being being the fifth time zone but but no you're not um but so no i man i appreciate

David's Daily Show yeah

Jeff Reed i appreciate you all um and uh i know we had uh i'm sorry the three three continents i was i was actually counting um uh [a friend in chat] on that who was who was remote but no listen i i actually know we had three we we got three now because because jill and uh and will jill and will so four and counting [a friend in chat] i i love the fact that digitally we can gather people together like this with different

Gilldares Mm.

Jeff Reed contexts different exposures different generations and have a conversation like this um i try this is the thing i always tell people try doing what we just did like in physical space there is something about digital tearing down the generational boundaries and allowing people to connect more openly uh towards it and and so man i just want to thank you all for for being part of the conversation here you are welcome to to join us in the next study uh and so i'll include information uh for you all uh you'll you'll get tagged in our discord server either me or or baruch my associate will get with you and and get some information uh jill i need to get some things from you be just be on the lookout on that but um we'll be invited to join us next week next week we'll be looking at the second half of um uh i started say acts two i did it again second

Will Yes, sir, sir, sir, sir.

Jeff Reed half of um and then i said romans what it's first peter two it is late and i'm tired i've used too

Gilldares It's late.

Jeff Reed many words today. I tell you what, Will, can you close this out in prayer?

Will Dear Heavenly Father, thank you. Just thank you, thank you, thank you that we can get together with you from all over the world, quite literally all over the world, thousands and thousands of miles apart. But we're here together talking to each other as if we're in the same room and we're talking and learning about you and trying to to the best of our abilities to grow in you so that we can be a light to those and be a blessing to those around us, whether that be online or just right next to us, our neighbors. And so thank you for the study. Thank you for your word that is living and breathing and that teaches us and always has something to teach us no matter every time we read it. And just thank you for every single one who participated here today and everybody in chat who is listening as well. Go with us tonight and bless each and every one of us. You know our desires and our wants and our desires and our needs. And I ask that you cover those and bless us and provide the way you always do. Thank you for everything. Thank you for your son and what he did for us. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.

Jeff Reed amen awesome hey thanks y'all for coming hope to see you next time I'll be reaching out to follow up with you as well and if you're looking for more information on the study thechurch.digital slash scattered alright thanks everybody have a good week

Gilldares Thank you, bye.

Jeff Reed bye everybody