Session 4: Foreigners and exiles, and the example

Jeff Reed all right hey everybody welcome to scattered uh episode four season one here is we're digging into first peter you know last week i said i'm making sure my audio levels are good yeah i said i don't know 18 different books of the bible because i could not get it through my thick skull uh that we were studying first peter and so i am looking forward to diving into first peter again today we've got some guests uh coming in and uh and more coming in as well and so i have a feeling we'll have some others uh stumbling in excited uh to get into the word and get into this i'll say this before everybody comes on you know we are looking forward to doing more of these studies in in 26 and 27 excuse me uh this uh this study of first peter was really kind of a pilot But to get a feel for it, to see how it was going, if people would respond well. And y'all, the response has been great. People complimenting the different perspectives, loving the format of a Bible study on Twitch, and then feeding into discussions in their context, and daily devotionals available via all sorts of different platforms. You know, I had a bunch of people complaining out there, hey, Jeff, you don't do enough for Facebook. And I'm like, it's 2026, but it's okay. We'll lean into Facebook. And so now all the devotionals every day are available as Facebook stories and Instagram stories. So there you go. Take advantage of this on Facebook and Instagram. But we are definitely excited about pursuing and doing more of these. I'm talking about Facebook on Twitch. I really am an old grandpa. Like I have never felt older than I did just there at that moment. We've got a packed crowd here coming in backstage to talk about the study. Before we get going, let me explain a little bit about the HEAR method. All right, so we've got HEAR, highlight, explain, apply, and respond. That's the process that we use to study Scripture. It's a process. It's not the process. Is it biblical? It's grounded in biblical things, but so are other biblical Bible studies. And so there's nothing special about this one other than the guy who created it's a friend of mine. And I was like, hey, can i can i copy and he says sure and he didn't charge me a bunch of money to do that so that's the method we're using we we talk about scripture we highlight scripture what stands out to us we explain what's going on um jill is at the wrong link everybody um jill how do i don't even know where my mouse is right now jill check your dms in discord and i will get you uh the correct link so you can come to the backstage room instead of the Twitch front door because you're not where I need to see you right now, Jill. But hang up on Twitch. Go to the other link that you see in Discord. I'll get you that typed in there in a second. So it's highlight explain what's going on with Scripture. Apply. How do we apply that Scripture to our lives and our ministry? As well as respond. What is God inviting us to respond to? How are we responding to God's invitations? So, and we're going to talk about that, break it down, highlight, explain, apply, and respond. That's the method, the framework that we use to study scripture, or at least that I use to study scripture. And I would encourage you all to do that as well. But let me do this. Let me bring in, all right, in all seriousness, this is funny. My wireless mouse battery just died in this exact moment. I am like, I've got a cable. I'll be right back. okay so what was the comment about being the old grandpa and then when i went to grab the usb i uh cable it unplugged from the the desk and then it's you know it's the rectangle the old usbas and and it never say it never fails when you try to plug in the usba it's always the wrong way did you catch that spider-man in the spider-man movie um they they tried to uh spider-man plugged in um the usb in the wrong way and then everything in the spider-verse happened all because peter parker a had it backwards in the usb if he had done it the right way initially everything would have been fine i'm just saying like that stuff happens all right my mouse is still dead we we literally we're we're fine like five seconds ago here we go let's do this i'm gonna open up let's do we've got three so let's do three for now and then hey everybody um i'm gonna work with uh jill off camera a little bit so uh ian it's been a while why don't you uh introduce yourself you know, talk a little bit about what you do with the church digital and, uh, uh, and then wordy girl, as I'm working with Jill, why don't you do the same?

Ian Kirk Okay, well, hi, I'm Ian. I am in physical life. I am a pastor at a small church outside of Seattle. And I've been with TCD since, I think, 2018. Not quite when Jeff started it. And I am pretty much the troublemaker, especially in meetings. That seems to be my gift of asking hard questions, which nobody seems to like the answers to. I'm not sure what else to say. So wordy girl, you're at. You're up.

WordiGirl hello I hope you guys can hear me better I am wordy girl I'm kind of a Jill of all traits and do a lot of stuff and I am back home and I have my actual microphone now I needed to turn my lights up these was too dark in here but

Jeff Reed you sound much better than you did at the airport last week um god god bless her she was

WordiGirl Yes. Okay. I'm glad.

Jeff Reed um like that whatever we were talking afterwards that whatever headphone microphone you were using i was really impressed because usually headphone microphones when you're on the road is is pretty garbage uh but it came through came through great uh with with last week wordy girl has been a lot of fun. I've known Ian for, as he said, 2018 or so, somehow got connected right around the church digital season, and it's been fun getting to know, I mean, it's always fun hanging out with Ian, but Wordy Girl has been fun, getting to know better, really, just kind of within the past month, digging through the scripture here, kind of, love, respect what she's doing. And then we've got Jill. Jill, I'm going to bring you in. We didn't get to test your mic, but hopefully we get everything uh working now let's see how where did i put jill i put jill in the wrong spot there you go jill uh jill use your microphone uh let's see if you're working

WordiGirl Yes.

Jeff Reed no check your uh guest has muted there you go you're you're good now awesome hey jill i know you're

Gilldares Unmute, there we go. yeah hi there guys and I'm Jill in the UK live in the north of England and I am encouraged

Jeff Reed new uh let's just take a ball new you've been been around for a couple months with the church Digital. Take a moment, introduce yourself as well.

Gilldares by this amazing ministry platform and I just want to be part of your community inspired by the Bible. Looking forward to it.

Jeff Reed Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. This is fun. Like i was saying before we want to do more of these in 27 and beyond in different contexts to different books and things like that as well so look for more information on that coming soon if you're interested in leading whether it's in twitch or other platforms or other global contexts or other languages i am more than happy to to share our knowledge experience and uh technology to help make stuff like this happen uh in whatever your ministry context is so let's let's keep the conversation going and we are engaging uh by the way uh in chat uh and i rebuilt all my screens so it's not covering anybody's face i'm very very proud of that because that's really annoying me hi everybody glad you're here i won't i won't highlight everybody here but we got melanie uh coming in from the outside melanie's down actually closer to me now right now she's in orlando at the conference i believe the conference uh reach conference is today or maybe it's tomorrow but it's, it's coming up here real soon.

WordiGirl I think the REACH is this weekend.

Jeff Reed Is it the weekend? Okay.

WordiGirl I think so.

Jeff Reed Layton was, I guess Layton was there now for setup or something towards that. Uh, I, I, I never know. I, I, I don't, you know what, for a guy who's done the conference, I've talked about this before, for a guy who's like done the conference thing, I'm so like not the conference thing anymore. Like getting, getting there, all the energy talking, like I would use, I would do exponential. I would teach like seven breakouts facilitate all sorts of stuff my voice would be gone i'd be like like it's sounding like like death almost because i just i had no voice left like that's that's kind of done for me but i love layton because layton gets to do it and he has fun doing it so that's great uh awesome so love anybody else that's around and we certainly will be praying uh for oh here we go melanie does say it starts thursday i'm heading to orlando tomorrow i wonder what layton's doing in orlando out now? I think he's there. Maybe it's meetings with Reach or something in advance. But anyway, cool. So as you have questions or observations, or as we're going through the scripture together, we'd love for you to interject in the chat your thoughts. We've had some great thoughts hysterically, historically, from others. Hysterically, historically, I think both that works, from, oh my gosh, was it Mike?

Ian Kirk Sure thing.

Jeff Reed And Mike was actually on last week with us. No, David. David's David Show.

WordiGirl David's Daily Show, yes.

Jeff Reed Yeah, yeah, yeah. David's Daily Show was that, and some others. And so feel free to comment as we're coming along. I tell you what, Ian, do you want to open us up in prayer as we're getting started?

Ian Kirk gracious god we just thank you for bringing us together through the miracle that really is technology and being cross across our country and cross the pond and just the ability that we get to talk in real time about your word i pray that it builds each one of us up who are directly participating but also those who are going to be watching later that they are built

WordiGirl Amen.

Ian Kirk up in you and that we all gain understanding and insight that we did not have before. Continue to salt our words with your spirit. In your gracious name we pray. Amen.

Jeff Reed Amen.

Gilldares Amen.

Jeff Reed Thank you for that. Okay, so let's do this. Let's read the scripture together. Wordy girl, are you comfortable reading that out loud for us?

WordiGirl Sure.

Jeff Reed All right, let me, I can pull it up.

WordiGirl I will read from the screen.

Jeff Reed You want to read from the screen? That would be great.

WordiGirl Yes, because I'm going to be going to the these and those, if not. Alright, 1 Peter, today is chapter 2, verses 11 through 25. Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul. Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to the king as the supreme authority, or to governors as those sent by him to punish those who do wrong, and to praise those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good, you should silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Live as servants of God. Treat everyone with higher yard. Love the brotherhood of believers. Fear God, honor the king. Servants, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but even to those who are unreasonable. For if anyone endures the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God, this is to be commended. How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin and no deceit, was found in his mouth. When they heaped abuse on him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats, but entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Jeff Reed Amen.

WordiGirl He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his stripes you are healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Jeff Reed All right. There's some interesting parallels. There's some interesting dynamics in there. In America here today is Election Day, and so we may even get into some of that. And so we'll see what happens. We did not time it at all, having to do that, but it's interesting.

WordiGirl because that's what i was thinking when i was reading i was like wait a second this was planned

Jeff Reed No. No, no, no, no, no. Ian was, like, I want to tell you, don't make it about the U.S., but I do want to say this. Ian, Leighton, and I did this together. Ian can be my witness. Never once did I say, oh, hey, look, politics lines up with 1 Peter 2 on Election Day. So that was irony from top to bottom. And to be honest, it kind of called me a little bit on that myself. So I'll get into that here in a little bit.

Ian Kirk I think for me,

Jeff Reed But so let's do this. let's just start off here. So highlight, what's standing out in this context?

Gilldares I think

Jeff Reed What are you seeing in the scripture that is something that is a highlight to you, it stands out to you?

Ian Kirk okay, all right, for me, it was just realizing throughout the entire thread of the passage was

Gilldares Go ahead

Jeff Reed Go, Ian. You got it.

Ian Kirk conduct, how we behave towards others, and how that stuff, it, the end goal is to honor God and what we do um but just it just it was just that whole that whole thread of conduct

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Ian Kirk um whether it's the enemies or whether it's a master you know because i mean technically the

Jeff Reed sure

Ian Kirk word is you know we would generally use the word slave here um for that but i get why we changed it to servants but our the translators did um but i think it really and then of course then you go through the Christ example and it just really is about how we conduct ourselves in our daily lives.

Jeff Reed A lot of the things that I struggle with just as an individual level, and I'm constantly asking, especially when I'm going into leadership positions, is how am I posturing myself? How am I posturing conductings? I think part of that. Am I coming in too strong? Am I coming in too weak? Am I holding true to what I believe? Am I conceding and going weak into that? So I can feel conduct in here with this. Wordy Girl or Jill, I know one of you two got cut off. I'm sorry, but somebody else have thoughts? What stands out through the scripture here?

Gilldares For me, this is great as a principle, and I think I would see myself as a younger person following this very conscientiously and as a younger person seeing myself as responsible to elders and more experienced leaders. But I think it becomes challenging with age, with maturity or with experiences of poor leadership micromanaging that kind of thing it becomes very challenging and there are also extremes in which people might not be led well they might actually even be abused or taken advantage of and then you know there's the dangerous ground

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Gilldares in which people end up following people cultishly. So that to me becomes, this passage becomes very challenging and needs to be really unpicked with wise counsel around us because we have to know that we are being led well and feel safe and secure and Christ is the example and we must measure our leaders by that example. And test our followership accordingly.

Jeff Reed Hmm. Yeah, that's an interesting challenge. I'd love to, as we're talking about, you know, control and micromanagement, you know, your insight from Britain, I think, would be very interesting in this with the monarchy and the leadership style and the voice that you have as an individual. Flatcap is checking in, by the way. Good to see him from wherever. Good to see you, my friend. Enjoy Orlando. Hope you get at least Downtown Disney. What are they called? Downtown Disneyland? Disney now? Disney Springs? Get some dinner. Enjoy the town. Alright, Wordy Girl, did you have something that stood out to you?

WordiGirl Yeah, so kind of focusing on what everybody's focusing on, it is difficult for some people to, you know, what is considered submit to, you know, masters or those who are in leadership over us, especially if they are not doing what we think they should do or what even god necessarily thinks they should do in certain times um but i really pay attention to this um let's see 15 yes this says four well the king james says for so is the will of god that with well-doing he may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men so i feel that um sometimes it's not that we should be focusing on necessarily others and how it looks sometimes because some people feel like oh um especially like christians they take kindness for weakness they take um meekness and you know humility or like calm attitude like not lashing out not like getting back at somebody sometimes they take that as oh these people are weak but that's not necessarily true a lot of times it is more powerful to be what they would consider the bigger man and not like peddly get back at people and even if um you know thinking in the context of leaders, and like jobs and stuff like that, micromanaging, I have been working for a while in different places. And now there is a time where if God tells you to leave somewhere, you should leave there. But there are some places that I've been working that people think,

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

WordiGirl oh, they must treat you real good because I've been there for like over 11 years. That's not the case. It's just that if I feel that I'm supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be serving the customers. I am supposed to be here for whatever reason, being a light. Sometimes that is a challenge. But with God, I can endure. I can endure, even though, you know, it may not be the best of times.

Jeff Reed sure

WordiGirl So I feel like the scripture speaks to that.

Jeff Reed so if we could honestly i think we could spend a couple weeks just talking about the idea of christians not doing what jesus would do today's christians not doing what jesus would do um i got into that recently on a stream with um the professor over at and his wife over at liberty university uh the lows and but that's that's like that's that's like a whole other thing right where it's it's like you know if we look at what i remember i remember this is a very complicated thing francis chan did an opening in his book i think it was letters to the church francis chan his book that it was was talking about the story of acts i'm not actually sure what the title was. And, um, the, the, like the introduction is this crazy idea. And he's like, if an alien, uh, like a space alien, Francis Chan's talking about space alien, talking about the early church, but it's hilarious. Like if an alien were to land on a deserted island with a copy of the Bible and would have, um, were to read the Bible from cover to cover and understand the growth of the early church, and then that alien were to somehow make it to America and look at the church institution that's there, he would have no idea of the relationship between the two. I'm paraphrasing. I read it, you know, years ago. But the, you know, the general premise is there towards that. That, I think, is going to be interesting as we're getting into this. Are we to honor? Are we to respect? Are we to challenge? Are we to disrupt? What's our posture in and amongst all of that? Yeah, that's good. It's interesting. I would not, speaking of highlight, for me, I really, I did not plan on this. confession hour. I was not planning on saying it, but I didn't vote today. I'm not a political guy. I'll say it. And there are people around me. My family is very political-oriented, very political-minded. All my life, I've thought politics was a distraction to ministry. And I can quote you stories of Old Testament, especially when Elijah's, when the people of Israel are like, we want a king, we want a king. And Elijah's like, are you crazy?

Gilldares Hmph!

Jeff Reed You don't want a king? You've got God. And the people are like, we want a king, we want a king. And so Elijah gives them king, and he's like, you're blessed by having this, and this will be your curse. That's actually, there's a quote in Haggai that talks about that, that it's like the king you want is the blessing that you desire, and it's the curse that you will die with. And so I'm not, I'm not a politic guy, and I struggle because I read this, and it's like, well, am I supposed to be? Am I wrong? What is the role of some of this, of authority as we're looking into it? Now, it's interesting.

WordiGirl Well, personally, I will say, oh, I don't think it's necessarily bad for not to vote.

Jeff Reed Go ahead. Go, please.

WordiGirl now some people do feel like you have to vote it's a must but i know of some people who are even christians who were like well they feel led to you know not necessarily do it and whatever

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

WordiGirl like we were talking about the other week um sometimes if it's your personal conviction if god told you something then that's understandable for you um but if it's if you feel convicted in this way, like that, that's just you saying you don't want to do it, but this is convicting you that you should vote. That's another thing. So I feel like no matter what, you should just pray on it. Because, you know, it could be something.

Jeff Reed yeah i've got it's at a personal level i've got some some family members that are subtweeting me you know you know they're not they don't even know what subtweeting me means but they're they're subtweeting me on this stuff and it's like oh i i don't want to like i've just in my mind it's like i don't want to i don't want to go into a war but but it's interesting like they've never asked, they've never asked why. Like the people, it's, well, that's just what

Gilldares Hmm.

Jeff Reed you do. And it's like, well, no, I can respect that's what you do, and I'm not pushing against it. But at a personal level, I just really have looked at politics in my life and the distraction that it becomes and how it's torn apart, churches and organizations, and, you know, Especially, we talk about COVID all day long, a lot of the stuff that was surrounded in that. And to be honest, I think some of the things that the church needs to be called out on, we don't have really good answers for. Hey, Christian Ninja's in the building. Good to see you, my friend. And so it's, but this is just one of the things. I don't know. As we look at, you know, that's highlighting. We're kind of standing out with some things. Let's get into it. Are we berated by Ninja? Oh, my gosh. This is a blessing. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Um, let's, let's talk about this. We're looking at first Peter two, everybody. Um, what I'll put it on the screen for, for those are new guests that are coming in, but what else stood out to us? What, as we're looking at this, um, is, or let's start to explain what's going on in the context. So we, we highlighted, uh, it was, we're highlighting the scripture. We're highlighting, conducting ourselves. That was Ian, uh, how we're conducting and how we're posturing ourselves with honor among the Gentiles. Early Christians were dispersed, they were scattered in different areas, and they were having to honor the people, even though they didn't agree with what they were believing. And submitting yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Now, these were not God-led institutions, these were not God-founded institutions, these were like the opposite of, and they're saying, you are to submit to the institution even if you don't agree with that, even if you believe that it's wrong. And to the governor sent to punish those

Gilldares Mm-hmm.

Jeff Reed who would do wrong, for it's God's will that by doing good, you should silence the ignorance of foolish men. This is Peter describing to the dispersed Christians in the region, Mediterranean region, I want to say, towards that. We also talked about servants, submitting yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but even to those who are unreasonable for it, if anyone endures the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God, this is to be commended. So let's dig in here. As we're looking at this, let's explain a little bit why this stands out. Let's dig into a little more detail as we're processing through here.

Gilldares Wow, it's so challenging. very challenging I think I think it's got to be it's got to be a case-by-case evaluation with God in the situation either that because of the timing whether it's you know you the doors closed for that situation for you after a season or if indeed you can pour coals on somebody's head by being kind and when they don't deserve it, and that does something. Personally, I tend to move on if I can't add value. I just feel so frustrated by the situation.

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Gilldares I would not dishonor and I would not gossip, but I might not stay under that, under that, what feels oppressive. I admit, even as a child, if I saw, say, the Jesus movie, Robert Powell, back in the 70s, when you saw the scenes where he did not retaliate, he did not answer back, where he took all the abuse, and I was just wanting to say, tell them who you are tell them tell them why you're here why are you letting them mock you like that it was so it's so hard to watch and we our natural instinct is to jump to our own defense um but sometimes and i'll say this again even wordy girl i agree with everything you've said but i would also say there are times where you just have to uh say this is not right and so I guess our wisdom must be when is it not right and when is it right to stay under that

WordiGirl yeah i feel like yeah praying about it and being led of the holy spirit because sometimes it can

Gilldares I find this very hard

Jeff Reed Go ahead, wordy girl.

WordiGirl be very difficult i know but sometimes even if like i i heard where you said you want to like see results like if you're in a place and you know that things are changing because you're there it's a little bit easier because you can see it. But this, I think, is another thing that we were talking about a couple of weeks ago, where sometimes it's not immediate gratification. It's not immediate evidence of something. Sometimes you could have worked somewhere for like 20 years. And when you leave, you don't know how you impacted whoever was there. There could be people who came and went. There could be people who, you know, but if God has you in that moment, And even if you don't see it, you might not know what impact you have, but you may still have an impact. And it can be very challenging when you don't see it and you feel like it's useless, it's for nothing. A lot of people I know, it's just difficult because it's like, what's the point, especially if they don't, you know, see it. But that's why, I mean, it is a challenge. And I think that praying about it and even getting godly, seeking godly counsel from other, you know, Christians in the faith, if you are really, you know, concerned about something, it's good to talk about it.

Gilldares Hmm.

WordiGirl It's good to pray about it, get God's word about it. But if you feel like you're supposed to stay somewhere, even if it doesn't seem like you're getting, you know, the results you think you should be getting, it can be a challenge. But yeah, sometimes I think that's what the scripture is talking about.

Gilldares yeah

WordiGirl But yeah, you're right. Sometimes you do have to, you know, put your foot down, get out of there. But I feel like this scripture is talking about the times where, yeah, it's going to be hard, but we just got to endure, as it says.

Jeff Reed it's it's interesting i word a girl i think you said one of you said the word oppression And that is, yeah, it's, Jill, I think that's a really good description of the situation. You know, we've been, through this Bible study, we've been paralleling it to, like, us as digital missionaries not connecting with the Church. But this is almost a whole other level of where they're getting persecuted and where they're being separated, and they're just disconnected in this completely foreign land as refugees, you know, I guess probably a good way to call it. And the word from Peter, the word from the Lord is as refugees submit, this is not stand up and fight. This is not argue. This is not draw a line in the sand and say, who will come with me? This is not, you know, go claim your cross and die on it. This is almost different language from what we hear from Jesus a little bit, right? I mean, Jesus was always the guy who was turning the other cheek, and we never saw him fight. But Jesus was also the guy that turned over the carts outside of the temple, right?

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed And so, you know, there is manly anger that Jesus would talk against, and there's godly anger. And in this situation, he's telling these refugees that are scattered in this place to submit. What do you think the difference is at a scriptural level? Like, how do we dictate manly anger versus godly anger? How do we take, you know, all the language around slow to speak and gentle answer turneth away wrath? And there's so much of that in James. And then we've got Jesus flipping over an apple cart. they weren't selling apples, they were selling sacrifices, but you get to get the drill. What, how do we do that? How do we, how do we reconcile those two together? And what are we to take away practically for how we're living?

WordiGirl So, I do feel that a lot of people go to

Ian Kirk I think you have to

WordiGirl that turning over the cards.

Ian Kirk go back to verse

Jeff Reed Hey, Ian, Ian, I think you got a delay, bro.

WordiGirl Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Erin.

Jeff Reed No, no, no. Ian, let's let you go first because you do have the delay, but you do have a significant going to delay where you're answering a little behind. Go ahead and share, my friend, and then we'll get you reset afterwards.

Ian Kirk all right um so verse 11 talks about abstaining from the desires of the flesh And I think we often forget what those are. And pride, accolades of humanity, security even. And since we're looking at it, we have to see that Peter is kind of asking us first look at what our what desires of the flesh there are and that's one of our filters and we have to kind of operate through that lens of understanding how our physical how our earthly form our earthly issues often impact our ability to effectively work for and represent the kingdom

Jeff Reed okay um thank you ian um flat cap is is responding here been build relationships with people is the best way to impact them uh sorry to cut you off earlier wordy girl what uh were you saying Okay.

WordiGirl yeah i feel like a lot of people go to that turning over the carts turning over the tables um to show that yes jesus did get angry there were times but i feel that it is important to look at the context it is also important to look at that wasn't the only time jesus was angry about something and kind of like how jill was saying earlier there were a lot of times in the movie she was like say something do something and he wasn't doing it so i feel that it jesus was on earth for that long and recorded doing very many things so that we can kind of get a variety of an example because he is ultimately our our example so yes i believe there is a time to turn over the tables maybe more metaphorically um uh but that's not all the time and like i said in this and this um scripture this particular scripture we're looking at i feel like this does reflect some of what jesus did because he did live as a man he lived technically under the law as like a human he wasn't like breaking laws he wasn't like doing that um he of course did challenge some things that were like old traditions and things like that but that's something that the Pharisees tried to get him on some stuff like that but he wasn't just like totally lawbreaker going around doing all like anything he wanted so I think that this scripture is just showing that as as Jesus did honor all men love the brotherhood fear God honor the king even as we I think we did talk about this other time when he was saying render to Caesar what is Caesar's because they

Gilldares Hmm.

WordiGirl were trying to catch catch him on like oh so you're saying don't don't don't pay taxes like what are you talking about um he was basically saying well yeah we are humans we live here we have to you know follow the rules here um even if it seems like you know sometimes but like i said it is a fine line and sometimes you will get into the like okay where is the point where we

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl do draw the line where we do say i'm not standing for this um and the most important thing i could say is just pray about it i feel um and get seek that godly counsel because i don't think that this is another like a single catch-all thing like if you feel like you uh want to like i don't think it's like that. I think it's more of you need to know on a divine level what is best in that

Gilldares yeah

WordiGirl situation. And it's not just, oh, if you feel angry, do this.

Gilldares right

WordiGirl It's why are you angry? And where is that anger coming from? And even in the Bible, it does say anger, but sin not. So yes, you can be angry about something but it depends on how you approach the situation it depends on the outlying factors and it just depends on um you know several factors so i just think that being

Jeff Reed Sure.

WordiGirl led of the holy spirit at all times and being open to you know being calm being open to being calm because sometimes it's easier to just lash out burst out sometimes it's necessary but

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl many of the times at least even if you are supposed to take action first don't just fly into a blind rage i think it's best to assess the situation first and you know just like even how Jesus, when, wasn't that Peter who cut off the ear?

Jeff Reed Yes, yeah, Peter responded the night of the crucifixion,

WordiGirl Exactly.

Jeff Reed or I guess the night before the crucifixion,

WordiGirl Yes.

Jeff Reed by cutting off in the Garden of Gethsemane. His first reaction was to grab the sword and chop it off,

WordiGirl And this is very, and this is very contradictory of that, to see Peter writing this.

Jeff Reed and Jesus put it back on. Yeah.

Gilldares Huh?

Jeff Reed Yeah. You mentioned the Holy Spirit, and the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The thing that I always fall back on is how am I—and I'll make this about me right now—how am I showing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? I'll be honest, there are times in my life that I have not, I've done ministry not showing those things. I've reacted with people. I've led my family in ways that's funny. My family's walking around right now. They came home from school, and so they're here in this study right now. I've not operated, I've not treated my wife that way. I've not led my family, my kids that way. I've not shown respect to my parents. And with all the challenging authority that I do and all the disruption that I promote, I've not done it with that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. I've let other things, to be honest, the antithesis, the opposite of those things, for all that. Make it as messy as possible. Hurt as many people as possible. Put product over people. Get your way, hell or high water. And the funny thing is there's been seasons of my life where that's what ministry leaders wanted.

Gilldares Mm-hmm.

Jeff Reed That's what my bosses and pastors, because they were motivated the same way, to be honest. They weren't motivated by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. They weren't motivated. They weren't being led, in my opinion, they weren't being led by the Spirit. They were being led by extra biblical things, agendas on their own, donor satisfactions. I mean, we can pick that apart. But the idea of going solely after what is the Holy Spirit leading you to, which gets back to last week. Was last week all about holy, or was it Peter 1 that was talking, 1 Peter 1, that was all about holy? And if we're grounded in that holiness, and we're recognizing that we're broken as much as Christ is, that just allows us to be used so much better by Him, and directed in the path that He would want us to be in situations like this how do how do we map some of this to our own lives as digital missionaries like i mean we're talking about governing authorities uh in the scripture they're literally talking about um you know differences of government uh differences of religion how do we map this down to maybe some of the struggles that that we're seeing within church, interpersonal relationships, within what we're doing and the people we're serving with or reaching? How do we make this start to become a little practical for us?

WordiGirl Well, I will say that online, there are a lot of rules as well. And sometimes, you know, some spaces are not particularly accepting of certain messages and certain things like that. I feel that in this case, it's good to, you know, like if we are invited into a space, sometimes we might turn it down if we're not able to fully, you know, express the gospel or whatever we want to, you know, say or do to help others. But sometimes if we are accepted into that space, sometimes just being ourself and being a light and shining Christ through us, even if we aren't able to go to the full extent that we want to do, sometimes can be helpful as well because it can give people a taste and then they might want to follow up. So that's another thing about like judging the situation, trying to see if like praying about it. But there are times, there are some times where, you know, you might not want to tone down your message, which you shouldn't have to fully tone down your message.

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl But if you feel like, okay, God is leading you to do this, you don't have to tone down all of your message. But if you are led to be on a platform that will, you know, reach a lot of people,

Gilldares Yeah.

WordiGirl and you feel led to go there, sometimes you might have to follow those rules, those overhead rules, just so that you can get your foot in the door, so that you can be up on that pedestal, so that you can be introduced to all those people. And when that happens to me, I usually just pray that no matter what, whoever sees me, whoever hears me, whoever knows, whoever is here, that they get that spark of Jesus, that they get that hunger, that they want more, even if I'm not able to fully express the full extent. So that's kind of what I'm looking at the rules in the online space.

Jeff Reed Sure. I want to poke the bear a little bit on that. wordy girl with you. So, you know, Leighton said here, and I don't, I know you don't disagree with this, but I just, I want to see, get a little practical on, on how we do this, especially on Twitch. You're a content creator. You're, you understand this platform far better than I do. And so FlatCap responds here. And if you were in the room, he would say this, you know, it's very important to build relationships with people, build relationships with people is the best way to impact them. And so from a practical standpoint, I just want to dig in. Like, when you're on this platform, and we had Christian Ninja on here earlier, who's got a following as well and streaming and does that. And it's good with one-way communication. It is good with chat, with people coming back. And then, like, you know, we had that conversation with David one week. We saw him the next week. had some offline conversations. We tried to connect, and I saw in chat, Sunshine Games is having some timing issues where she's not able to join us, which is great. Sorry, would love to get you connected in another one moving forward. One, because the audience, we know this is real family. We know these are real people. I don't want to get into, are these real people? Because that's a wasted conversation. We're already doing it. How do we communicate? How do we show? Is it important to show? Should we give up the idea that these are real people? Like, do we bother with the argument anymore? Or should we just say our job is to be the cornerstone and crushed and we just know it's coming and move on? Like, what's our posture when the difficulties come at us? Do we defend ourselves? Are we to be as Christ and turn the other cheek? These are, to be honest, these are things I've wrestled with for 20 years, and I've wrestled with them a lot within the past couple. And so I would love some insight. I've been picking on wordy girl a little bit, but across the board. How do we posture ourselves in this position? Do we defend ourselves, or do we ignore it and realize that the battle is not in the public places, the battle's in the mission field? What do you all think about that?

Gilldares I think we have to go in knowing that it is a spiritual battle and be prepared for that and intercede for those times sessions, especially their evangelistic raids, that kind of thing, where people who are digitally evangelizing are exposed to some heavy stuff and they have to go in aware, prepared, equipped, armoured, all those things, have prayer partners if possible team ministry if possible and then they've they've got the they've got the round ministry within the team rather than having to be all things to all men on their own so

Jeff Reed Hmm.

Gilldares it's a spiritual war and i think knowing that it is going equipped and covered and then in the power of the Holy Spirit yeah take great care to be ready

Jeff Reed Word of girl, Ian, any response or thoughts on that? Go ahead, Ian. You look like you got something.

Ian Kirk Um, I think we have to, we, we go back to, uh, Peter's statement about not using our freedom to cover up evil either um i think i actually apply that to um our current political situation and honestly it's a political situation of all men through all history uh so it's not nothing

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Ian Kirk unique to uh today but oftentimes we struggle um with how to respond Because, I'll say this, especially we Americans, we have this almost idolatrous relationship with freedom, that we behave in such a way that is not honoring of God, that denies the freedom that Christ bought for us. uh and instead apply that to some kind of american iteration of freedom that somehow frees us from uh the bonds i was i was thinking of what you were what you said earlier about not how how you perceive yourself of not respecting others and um in certain situations you know the

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Ian Kirk the tree shaker so to speak and i think that is that's where that balance comes in we talk about or Peter talks about in 17, treat everyone with higher regard. And that is so important. I think perhaps that might even be our starting point. How are we viewing this person? Are we viewing them with higher regard before we insert foot into mouth?

Jeff Reed that's good what do we what do we think about that how how are we how does that apply to where we are are we um do we care about the person we're fighting with uh or that's that's wanting to fight with us you know it's i we can talk about trolls all day long but it's it's not even the trolls i want to focus on um it's it's it's it's the ones that just that just disagree or that don't understand um

WordiGirl yeah so what you were saying earlier about you know are these people real that's another thing now sometimes um online that's another argument people will be like well you don't know if they're telling the truth you don't know if this you don't know if that um we don't but you also don't know if a person in real life is telling the truth either.

Jeff Reed Yeah. Mm-hmm.

WordiGirl If they are asking you to pray for them, I feel like praying for them regardless of whether the situation they are saying they have is true or not, still you're praying for the person. Even if it's a troll, whoever's behind the account, you are praying for them as well. And with the arguing situation, yes, sometimes people just disagree. Sometimes they are trolls that are just trying to, you know, get under your skin. But that's another reason why I feel like the scripture is telling us to stay at our level, be calm. And sometimes, like it says, a gentle answer turns away wrath, because sometimes if they're literally just trolls or bullies, and you don't give them what they are wanting, then they will get bored and leave. If they're a genuine person who really disagrees, you also have to look at your own self.

Gilldares Hmm.

WordiGirl Are you arguing for the sake of just winning the argument? Or are you trying to help them see something that you feel will help their soul, help their life? Sometimes you have to know also when to agree to disagree. If you think that what they think isn't quite accurate, but they're here with you in your

Gilldares Mm-hmm.

WordiGirl chat, and you can continue to be a good example for them and pray for them. You don't have to outwardly say, well, I'm rebuking what you're saying. You can just pray for them. Because sometimes when you keep arguing with somebody, and I've seen this happen on a stream actually quite recently it was a christian streamer and they began to argue about a subject that personally i think that it is up to the individual um but they were arguing about it so much that the person just said okay thanks for your time and then the streamer is like well i hope you're not leaving i hope i hope uh this didn't you know cause you to just like unsubscribe and like leave it's like well sometimes i'm not saying we shouldn't you know have healthy debates healthy discussion but that's another thing is i'm just a a very high proponent of praying about something listening to

Gilldares Yeah.

WordiGirl the holy spirit because you need to know when it's something that you're supposed to keep saying or when you're just supposed to like tone it down a bit kind of like read the room judge the like what's going on you if you're just up here and you're like i'm gonna win i'm gonna win i'm gonna win like that's not the mindset if you feel yourself getting to that point i think you should kind of step back calm down a little bit because is this really about god anymore or is this about you winning a debate so yeah because sometimes it's like well i don't want to be wrong and i'm

Jeff Reed You know, you being right, that's so good.

WordiGirl just gonna like you know it's like this is not the great debaters sometimes we need to be like loving and we can show our we can show our opinion and if we really think they're wrong we'll be like okay well i believe this but guess what let's talk about something else like if you find that it's becoming just like this is a competition now i need to win i need to you know show i'm smart like that's becoming ego that is not even like and it's not helping them either it's not actually helping them to learn if even if what you are defending and what you're arguing is something you really believe they should sometimes the way you go about it will just make them just totally tune you out because they're like well i don't want him to be right now he's just like acting so cocky about it he's just like like you know there's a there's a way there's

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl a way so i feel like you just have to kind of take it one at a time like there's not like somebody in the chat said earlier there's no like set behavior for every situation but if you find yourself starting to feel like oh i want to be right then i think that that's time to check yourself

Jeff Reed Ian, I'm going to put you on the spot, because I know you have lots of conversations with physical churches and denominations. And, you know, more often than not, you've got people who probably have a higher authority on a scriptural hierarchy than you that don't agree with you. how how do you wrestle with that like you you always seem to i'm going to compliment you and then i'm going to ask you to you you are the most you're one of the most humble timid approach approachable people i know uh and so it's why i love i love working with you but like there's a reason why i don't want to go to conferences anymore because i just hate those conversations And I lose my cool and, you know, just like flames, those types of things. And it's like, you know, I just, I'm done with that. Like you are, I don't want to say you thrive in that, but you operate very well in those types of spaces. How do you do that? What do you, just how?

Ian Kirk Well, I will say my first training was in aerospace manufacturing where I would get yelled at, sworn at, have things thrown at me. At some point, you just kind of go, it's not about me, it's about them. And so that's my first initial response. And I think it was actually what really helped me was having a deep conversation with my senior pastor, who was in charge of me when I started the whole venue path.

Jeff Reed I'll see you next time.

Ian Kirk And it was by asking questions. And when the moment you start asking questions, it's, oh, this isn't about Ian winning an argument. It's about Ian trying to understand why, well, internally, I'm sure the response was, well, Ian's trying to understand why i'm right and ian's wrong um which i'll feed into that i have no problem doing that

Jeff Reed Yeah.

Ian Kirk but i've also had enough conversations to know that it's because they just don't understand and most pastors frankly don't have the time to understand and i've actually become more conscious of that becoming a full-time senior pastor myself going now I understand why they're not so we're not so eager to delve into it because I had the freedom to dig into it when they didn't um but we're we're starting the conversations are just starting you just it's the reality is is you or I understand that they don't understand it's honestly like having a conversation with a person who doesn't believe in Jesus is kind of like the same, often the same conversation I have with a physical pastor who doesn't believe that digital ministry is real.

Jeff Reed yeah it's interesting montana um here misfit it was an earlier conversation but the an earlier chat but it still applies here those types of conversations are not something that need to be live um we we invite them into a private call and and have the conversation and you know a lot of that parallels what is that icon by the way is that is that um more um anyway one of the one of the games. I can't. I'm blind. I have my glasses on. I don't know where my glasses are. That's another conversation.

WordiGirl it says war dogs this badge was earned by watching war dogs for 30 minutes

Jeff Reed All right. War Dogs? Yeah.

Gilldares I have no idea what to do with my friends, but I have no idea what to do with my friends, I have no idea what to do with them, but I have no idea what to do with my friends, but I have no idea what to do with my friends, but I have no idea what to do with my friends, and I have no idea what to do with my friends.

Jeff Reed Good for you, bro. But it is this idea of having it done in private, where I think there's a—I think that's a cultural shift that we as digital pastors and digital missionaries understand that maybe the physical church is not, that a lot of discovering Christ is now through community, not through the broadcast of that. And trying to taper those conversations slowly and gently, it's never as fast as I want it to be.

Gilldares Mm-hmm.

Jeff Reed Like, I just, I mean, it's just even today, I've got a pastor friend, a dear friend of mine, and I've known him and I've worked with him for 10 years, 10 years, in different contexts, through COVID and out of COVID, and God bless him, you know, he's younger than me and he's allergic to digital, like, has no understanding of it. And the sad thing is that if he were, he's so dynamic and he's so capable, if he were to pivot, it would be phenomenal. But for whatever the reason is, He just isn't. And so it's hard because a lot of times, you know, I see the possibility, I see the potential. I feel like God's leading me to help Him do this. And every conversation, every opportunity, every segue, you know, a lot of it has been me not communicating clearly. I don't want to blame it on Him. Some of is him just not interested, or to your point, Ian, him like, dude, I don't have time for this. I'm already burning it on both sides, running what I'm doing. I don't have time to dig into something else like this. It can be hard to, I think, to manage some of these relationships because we're expecting to see fruit quicker. God never moves on our time. God never follows our plans. Yet, strangely, if we concede and listen and allow him to drive, things tend to work out better. How do you all, how do we temper that in our lives? Because this is what I'm most guilty of, is drive. I had a pastor look at me maybe 10, 15 years ago and say, your drive is a sin, Jeff. And I went to his boss, and I'm like, do you really think I'm sinning because I'm driven? And he's like, no, you're fine. Keep doing what you're doing. So I don't know what that means. But how do we temper our drive, our plans? How do we stay dependent and broken on God? Can y'all tell me some stories in your own ministry or in your own life of how you've replicated and shown that?

WordiGirl I mean, I think it's good to be driven. I feel the problem is when you are driven to the point where when God is telling you something or telling you to wait or pivoting you somewhere else, you're ignoring God and you're trying to keep doing it your way. Because when you're driven for God and driven listening to God, being open to the Holy Spirit, that is powerful. It is when you're trying to go against God that you just start spinning your wheels, basically, because no matter how driven you are, if God is saying, you know, well, no or wait, because sometimes he does say wait.

Jeff Reed Hmm.

WordiGirl Sometimes he says go. Sometimes he says wait. And if you know that God is telling you to wait and you're going anyway, that's being impatient. But, you know, I think that it just depends on the situation. But I don't think having that drive itself is bad inherently. I feel like it can be a powerful tool when used in conjunction alongside God or dare I say behind God as he is, you know, leading you.

Jeff Reed Anybody else?

Gilldares I think planning to relax actually scheduling it is very important I enjoyed the work of John Mark Comer it's is a season I've been in the relentless the ruthless elimination of hurry etc i don't think i could live as dedicatedly peaceful and calm as he obviously has he's honed that to an art but um i think we owe it to ourselves to follow a rhythm and when it when it isn't fulfilled we quickly pull back to put that in place again and again and never berate ourselves for failing to rest but to plan to do so, to plan to include people and to, you say schedule, I say schedule, the people who are in the core of our lives deserve our very best and sadly in ministry they can often get the very least and the worst of us so yeah that that's that's so important to to plan margin to plan fun i mean i i call my ministry make fun of faith because it can be so relentless and it can be so dry and so so heavy i've been there i've nearly well i've burned out in ministry and a whole lot of other things on the back of that crush me at one stage in my life and so i know pace which we usually learn through age because our bodies start telling us to pace ourselves but actually we need that spiritually we need that emotionally we need it in our families and we need we need we need fun fun is so energizing i really believe that and i think digital ministry appeals to me because it is so fun it's so exciting creative it's energizing and when we're driven if we if the work feeds and fuels us then it doesn't actually cost us what what we think it would cost the work is play that's that's that's my dream to to have work which is play

Jeff Reed That's interesting. Let's open that up to the chat. How do you have fun in the ministry you're doing? I'd love to see some ideas on that. We've got 20-some people watching right now. What does fun look like in the ministry for you? I'm curious, because I'm up. I was telling Ian before, sometimes I feel like I'm like the grandpa. I have not felt like the grandpa before until I jumped on Twitch and Discord, and then I'm like, oh my gosh, get off my lawn. That's my dog. That's the dog I hate barking right now. I've got two dogs. That's the bad dog. The good dog's not barking right now.

Gilldares I don't know.

Jeff Reed But Wordy Girl, I would love to hear from you, and then I'm going to mute for a second until he's done. But let's dig into fun a little bit. How do you have fun doing this. You look like somebody who enjoys doing digital ministry, and I've seen the creativity you put in that. Is this fun for you? Unpack that a little bit.

WordiGirl It can be fun. And I know that a lot of people, I mean, there's some people who like to separate their, you know, work from play. And they're like, well, making what is fun into my work will then take the fun out of it, which is an angle. But I totally get what Jill is saying in, like, if work could be fun, that would be a dream. I personally think that I am a person where if all of the things, I do way too much stuff, as everybody knows. If all of the things that I thought were fun could be just my work, then, yeah, I would like that. I do have fun sometimes doing the ministry, and I will say it's not always 100% fun. A lot of people think that it is, especially because, I guess, sometimes I am the one who is trying to make it fun for other people, which doesn't necessarily completely give me fun and enjoyment. But I am trying to be, you know, a fun, friendly person who is helping to foster an environment of fun and joy. And so doing that, it can be rewarding to see the other people who, like, enjoy and have fun. And, yeah, I'm not going to say it's never fun. It is fun sometimes, you know, playing games, you know, chatting with people, you know, not making everything so serious and, you know, stoic. And that's another thing that sometimes I was talking to the person a while ago who was like, well, I went to this church and it was very boring and they're just like sitting there and it's boring. But then they went to another church, and this wasn't even online. And they were like, well, that one was exciting. And they're not a Christian, at least not right now. But that's part of my digital ministry. So I'm trying to, you know, keep the conversation going with them. And I also introduced them to online churches because one of the things they were saying was they're kind of busy and they don't really have, you know, time.

Jeff Reed Yeah.

WordiGirl And I'm like, well, you can fellowship online. They were like, oh, I didn't even think about that. So I think the fun part of online is that it kind of just feels like regular social media. like you could be scrolling and the good thing is you could be scrolling and see a fun video that might be like comedy scripture it could be a skit it could be you know a fun song and it could still be for god and i feel like it's important to show that christians can also have fun because the world loves fun and the first thing most you know secular people say is well if i become a christian it'll be boring you know i can't do anything it's like yes we can um there that's why i love also twitch because there are so many christians who are just playing a video game there are some people that i didn't even know were christian at first and then they start talking about god while they're playing the video games like well that's a way to get people to see oh oh i thought that you know Christians can't do anything. Well, that's not true. So yeah, that's, I like to embrace that

Jeff Reed Very cool.

WordiGirl kind of fun to show that, yeah, we're not boring.

Jeff Reed Yeah, we've got some people in chat that agree with you, Montana, Misfit. uh we have fun gaming uh there are a few of us that while playing we will ask others in the game if they want to pray if they want us to pray for them uh that that's that's cool uh hang sunshine games has been pretty vocal as well here hanging out with christian djs are very fun um and so i used to be a dj back in the day i actually i would have loved to be a twitch dj i don't i don't think once again it's not the face of a twitch dj but uh i love the fact that people are doing that Hey, we've got some raiders coming in. Thanks for whoever brought us in, In Man 1400, I think. So appreciate that. Much love. Thank you very much for coming in. Check that out if you can. In Man 1400. So cool. Hey, we're doing a Bible study right now on here where we are going through 2 Peter. And so we're 2 Peter chapter 2, if you want to open it up, 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 11 to 25. We're wrapping up here in a little bit, but thanks for jumping on, and much love to those hoes who came on. Where are we? Oh, by the way, we got a hug in, man, because evidently that's something that we all should do. Thank you very much. Very good. So, we've talked about, we've highlighted some of the scripture here with 2 Peter. We've explained some of what's happening in the scripture. talked a lot about following leaders when you don't agree. The people in the season were very—just to kind of review for those that are coming in— the people that 1 Peter was written to were dispersed Christians who fled Jerusalem after the murder of Stephen and some other political things that happened where Christians weren't safe in Jerusalem, and then they ran to some of the outer regions. And the book of 1 Peter was written by Peter the Apostle. and sent via, I can't remember the guy's name right now, it starts with an S, but a messenger actually took the letter around and read it into the house churches that were meeting in these areas. And so picture a living room with like eight or ten people huddled around, and this dude reading 2 Peter and telling them, you know, don't be discouraged. Jesus was persecuted just like you were. He was discredited, he was killed, just like you're being persecuted and tormented and hunted. And by the way, he rose and is now the cornerstone, and you are too the cornerstone. And so really some passionate scripture digging in. But we've been talking today a lot about politics and posture, and it's election day here in America, And we just happened to read a very kind of politically generated, motivated scripture talking about how we're following leaders and respecting authority. Given to Caesar what a Caesar is not in this scripture, but does follow with that. I think Wordy Girl said that as well. So we're applying this and hearing this, what do we feel like God's leading us to do in response of this scripture? We've talked about conducting ourselves with authority among the Gentiles, submitting yourselves to the Lord's sake over every human, to every human institution, for it is God's will to do good, live in freedom, but don't use your freedom as a cover-up, treat everyone with high regard, love the brotherhood of believers, fear the Lord, fear God, honor the King, serve and submit yourself to your masters. Like there's, this is a challenging scripture, especially in 2026 culture. What specifically is the Lord calling you to do in this, coming off of this? As in the audience, if there's some things that you've been challenged by in here, you want to put it in chat? I would love to see that too. But here in the chat. Highlight, explain, apply, and respond. What is God leading us to do to respond in this season. Who wants to go first?

Gilldares Well you're quite right when you say in 2026 this is very relevant and certainly in our culture it's becoming increasingly a cancel culture where you cannot have the ability to agree to disagree and and i think that as christians we must be able to do that and i'm looking at the end of this section where it says by his wounds you have been healed and if we can stand in the healing that his wounds have given us even though we have wounds ourselves the healing that comes to our wounds from his wounds should stand us in good stead without the need to avenge ourself in any way whatsoever.

Jeff Reed That's great. You know, I'm going to ask you, Jill, unpack that a little bit more. We have our wounds. We're wounded. And he bore our sins. He bore our wounds in his body. By his stripes, we're healed. What does that look like for you? Is there a personal story or application that you could tie to that?

Gilldares I would say yes, there's so many stories I won't go into the details at this point in the call but having been in an abusive marriage having had a narcissistic husband a failed ministry wrapped up in that failed marriage and knowing that all of that happened probably because I learned to swallow my feelings, my responses and not honour those things, which is where I came in at the beginning in honouring people that have no right to contain and oppress. But that's not entirely about leadership but it's certainly part of that. So there are wounds and those wounds will crush us and they will wither our soul if we do not find a way to apply the healing that comes from his wound into our situations that will then allow us to rise up into situations that crushed us once but now give us the authority in those same environments or relationships not under the same old situation but coming back to similar ones with the authority that then helps other people to find freedom we

Jeff Reed Wow.

Gilldares can help them with the our stories are a trophy if we are trophies of healing I don't know know if this is within the context of your session but when we come out from under something we can help other people come out from under that same thing themselves and so yes I feel

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Gilldares that the strength you see in more seasoned Christians who have turned over the pain is is a very powerful thing.

Jeff Reed yeah amen to that uh i forgive me after you said that about your husband our ex-husband i remembered that aspect i wasn't digging for that but thank you for sharing that uh up front um and it is it

Gilldares No problem.

Jeff Reed is true uh when you when you shine the light in the darkness you have to be ready to shine the light on yourself. And I do strongly recommend transparency in situations, hiding, hiding sin, hiding difficulties, covering things up. You know, Scripture talks about here about freedom and then using that freedom to cover up. Instead, using that to live in freedom, but do not use freedom as a cover-up to evil. Let's live as servants of God. And if we can be comfortable learning and using the situations. You know, I said once, and I used to be a youth pastor, and there was a student who was going through a dark situation. And I remember I told him that, you know, maybe God's putting you in through this so that you can help someone else to go through it. And, oh my gosh, his mother almost ripped my head off at the idea. Like, that's not a comfortable idea. But the reality is, when we read the Bible, we're reminded of stories of people that have gone through horrible experiences that we're learning from. And God uses these experiences throughout history to challenge us to look at it differently. Even the stuff that we're doing in digital ministry today, you know, I'm 50 years old. The reason I'm passionate about digital isn't so that I can reach people. It's so that my kids can reach people. I'm more excited about the work that Wordy Girl's doing than the stuff that I'm doing as old as I am. I'm the grandpa in this situation. And it's realizing and it's recognizing that it's not about me. You know, I have—I'm blanking on this guy's name right now.

Gilldares Mm-hmm.

Jeff Reed But I've got Fruit Loops, Funko Pop. Oh my gosh. Ian, you're going to have to help me. He started Leadership Network, part of the Exponential Group. My fruit grows on other people's trees. That's why I have the Fruit Loop here on my desk. I cannot think of this guy's name right now. He's dead now. So he's not going to be upset at me, but I tell his story all the time.

Gilldares That's okay

Jeff Reed but it was a man, he started an organization called Leadership Network that I used to work with and was very inspiring. But his phrase was, grow your ministry so it grows on other people's trees. Celebrate your ministry when it grows on other people's trees. And, you know,

Gilldares That's good

Jeff Reed we've always tried to position ourselves that way. But to do that, you've got to be broken, you've got to be transparent, you've got to be honest, you've got to be wide open to allow people

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed to buy into it and run with it, to allow God to use you in ways that are countercultural. Because everything about digital is you, is the desire to grow yourself, to get more followers, to get more, to grow, to become bigger, to become the best, the biggest, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's a hard thing to do, to take that mindset and twist it to the place where instead of it's about you, it's about others.

Gilldares Yes, that's great

Jeff Reed John 3.30, it's not about me.

Gilldares That's great

Jeff Reed I'm preaching about something else, y'all. I'm sorry. Somebody else. What else? How are we applying? Bob Buford. Thank you. Ian, it's all about the one.

Gilldares Yes

Jeff Reed But Ian pulled it up.

Gilldares and

Jeff Reed Bob. B was in my name. Bob Buford. Sunshine Games, let's say, in one, going after the one and leaving the 99 behind. And that is something I think digital does really well, where you're able to dig into the one and the conversation with the one in privacy, like we talked about, or public, you know, in some situations. Like, people are more transparent, we know this, in digital than in physical. But how else, looking at this scripture, how else is God inviting us to respond? As we look at this individually, what is God asking us to do? Anybody want to share?

Ian Kirk I've been wrestling with, as we've been going through this passage, like over and over again, I keep coming, uh, I keep coming to the end. So verse 25, um, and I think it's actually kind of a retread for all of us. We're always like sheep going astray. And, you know, uh, and we always get to return to the shepherd, the great shepherd. And I think sometimes whether it's in ministry or in life, we are harder on ourselves than we should be.

Jeff Reed Mm-hmm.

Ian Kirk And I'm pointing at myself because I know I'm one of those. And I think that we need to give ourselves the grace that Bob Buford, to name drop correctly, tells us about growing our fruit on other people's trees. It's just really allowing ourselves to trust that God will do what God will do, and we have done our part. Not that we can't do more, and not that we shouldn't do more, and seek to do more, and seek God's will in doing more, but that we i'll actually i'll personalize it but i uh need to surrender a lot more of that i have it under control or i need to control it but so that it produces more fruit um so that i think that's i think that's where i'm gonna sit for the for the week ahead

Jeff Reed Yeah, that's good. David's Daily Show couldn't join us this week, but he's jumping on. He's got a great line here. Blind trust is a terrifying thing, but there's no one I would trust more than God. Very well said. You know, and even in context of these people, they're scattered, they're dispersed, They're following legal systems and institutions that they don't want to be in, and Peter's telling them to trust and to follow. There's a lot of blind trust that's involved in that. Wordy Girl, anything stand out of you this week?

WordiGirl the main thing the main takeaway is the endurance part um and there is

Jeff Reed I don't know.

Gilldares Yeah.

WordiGirl another scripture that i believe um i i usually pull stuff up but it is that that says um serve as if you were serving god even if you're serving man serve because you know who the work is really for basically um so i i am just using this as um something that's setting me forth to continue to

Jeff Reed That's good.

WordiGirl do the work even when it may be challenging even when it may be difficult because um i know that if god is telling me to do this and god has put me here that it will avail to what god wants it to do, even if I don't presently see it, even if I don't see it ever. I know that that is what God wants me to do at this time.

Jeff Reed for me um i am actually i'm i'm looking here uh let's let's highlight a couple here uh forgot bible oh that's just quoting uh with goodwill we're in their service lord not the people i guess that's because ian quoted up here sorry ian was just quoting the scripture ian you want to highlight why on that were you just sharing or anything you want to

WordiGirl i think he was giving it because i didn't have it

Ian Kirk I was just, I was just giving it for...

Jeff Reed Okay. You were being the scripture reference for her. I see. Okay.

WordiGirl thank you

Jeff Reed Yeah, very good. Ian's got your back. He's got your six. Well said. Sorry, it's just a motion. Anyway, for me, I'm going to land on 24 probably a little bit for a while. He bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live in righteousness. There's still something in there, drive, pride, ego. You know, I had a pastor once tell me, he says, Jeff, you still smell of it. It was maybe five or six years ago, but it's funny. Actually, my new business, I call it Humble Disruption, and so you can visit the dot com i'm not selling it but it's it's it's centered around this idea of of disrupting humbly uh and so it's like okay i'm still going to be a i'm still going to be a jerk i'm still going to be the prophet that comes in and says hey this isn't working and here's the system by the way prophets never have friends find me a prophet in the old testament that had

Gilldares No.

Jeff Reed friends like it doesn't exist prophets never have friends prophets are hated we i talked about in a stream recently how, what was it, who was Jezebel Elijah? Elijah had the greatest day of his ministry career and 48 hours later wanted to kill himself. True story when you dig into it. Dude was doing the same up and down curve, you know, that I'm talking about being bipolar probably, like the same thing that I would have.

Gilldares I think.

Jeff Reed And it's fascinating that at a personal level, I still feel like there's some of that in me, and I'm trying to figure out—I'm just going to be transparent—I'm trying to figure out, as a leader of an organization that's thriving on many levels, how to not be the apex, alpha, apostolic guy that God created me to be, or maybe I am, and I need to taper it, or maybe I need to— Like, there's a lot of unknown for me right now, because the more I dive into Scripture and the more that I feel like things are happening in my life, I'm observing that over the past several years, especially with my health falling and coming back in, who I am is changing. How I lead, how I live is changing, and I want to stay broken before Christ more, because

Gilldares Yeah. Amen.

Jeff Reed I feel like the more broken I am, the more able He is to reshape me into what He wants me to be. God never breaks things and put it back in the same way. We never see that in Scripture. With every breaking, there's a reshaping. Saul becomes Paul. in the stories that are like that. And so I just want to be open and honest before God and let him continue to do things inside and outside of the Church Digital. It's an open book right now in many different ways. Well, cool. Where are we at today? As we're closing up and wrapping up here, Thank you guys for today, for jumping on. You know what? I will share this because David just said this. I saw it pop up. I think it's what we as humans are terrified of the most, the unknown, no matter how small the unknown world is in the world or in our lives. It can be the most formidable thing in that moment. Those are the times we need to ask God, what do you have for me to do today? Yeah. I have a prayer at A Simple Life, I've prayed this for 25 years, and I can tell you the stories about how God has moved in miraculous ways when I say this prayer. God, I am a stupid man. I am not smart enough to know what door you want me to walk through. Open the door so wide, I cannot help but fall into it, and slam every door shut, even though it hurts, that I know that's not for me. And, um, I've, I've loved, I've loved seeing what God does when I be stupid and allow him to, to do, uh, so that I don't have to. It's funny. I could actually parallel that to AI right now

Gilldares Yeah.

Jeff Reed because so much of what I do with AI is like, could you just do it for me? Like, I don't want to do it. Um, I know it's, that's taboo, a bad thing to say, uh, in content world of Twitch, but, um, it's like, I just, I just, God, just, just do this how you want to. And it's going to be better than if I do it anyway. But so good. Hey, as we're wrapping up here, and send all hate mail on AI to Andy, A-N-D-Y, at thechurch.digital. He would love that. Or Layton. Send it to Layton. Layton, L-E-I-G-H-T-O-N, at thechurch.digital. That'll be great, too. But as we're wrapping up today, any closing thoughts? Jill, anything as we're wrapping up?

Gilldares just thank you it brings everything to light again just to have the companionship brothers and sisters around the word thank you

Jeff Reed yeah yeah i um we're we are going to do more of these i am um i've been at a personal level i've been very encouraged by what's happening here uh i've got constant dms from people and emails and and connections and even people that aren't watching the live they're watching it on demand or they're engaging with the discipleship uh the materials that are uh the devotionals and things that are being sent out. This has been so, so good. I'm so encouraged by what's happening here. Wordy Girl, anything on your side? Nope.

WordiGirl just as always thank you for can you hear me oh yes thank you for hosting this um thank you to

Jeff Reed Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

WordiGirl everyone in the chat and also those who are um here on the screen with me being uh very loving and kind and just god bless you all and i thank you for sharing this uh moment

Jeff Reed beautiful Ian anything on your side

Ian Kirk Nope, I'm good. But yeah, I just say how much I love doing these things. With a new group of people who did it for a number of years, but now I get to do it with a new group of people, the same book, and it's a lot of fun. no

Jeff Reed did I meet you doing one of the not in the scattered Bible study but did I meet you doing a Bible study online ian no i've met a lot of people through doing these and i that was in the season i met you in the season where i was doing more of them i wasn't remember andy uh chino mage i met doing one of these uh jate erhart met doing one of these and so uh anyway it's good to know i um for more information on what we're doing uh the church.digital slash scattered get you information this Bible study will roll out Monday, what'll that be? That'll be the November 9th, Monday, November 9th. And so check that out, but we're doing last week's right now for the rest of this week. But appreciate y'all for joining us today. Thank you to Wordy Girl. Thank you to Jill. Ian, I believe Flatcap is joining us next week. We'll have to see if he's back from his world travels or not, but looking forward to having him back in the rains and leading out on Twitch like he is known and prone to do. But thank you for joining today with the study. Let me close this in prayer, and we're going to go. Heavenly Father, God, thank you for everybody who's watching this stream, part of this Bible study, engaging, and maybe looking at how to look at your word differently. God, as we read 1 Peter, may we see ourselves in the lives of the people who are scattered. who are dispersed, who are lonely and who are isolated. As digital missionaries, God, give us comfort, give us peace. As people who are trying to maybe even still discover who you are, God, maybe reveal something through scripture, a peace and a comfort that surpasses all understanding that we need to find in you. God, anybody that's on this screen, I know, would love to have a conversation about Jesus. And so please help find and help connect people with further questions to us along the way.

WordiGirl Amen.

Jeff Reed God, we love you. Everything that you've done in us and through us, we thank you for that. We look forward to what you have for us very soon. In your name, amen. Awesome.

Gilldares Amen.

Jeff Reed Listen, I'm not a Twitch guy, and so I know that I've been blessed by like two or three raids today, and I'm so thankful for that. I have no idea how to raid it on. Ian, do you have access to TCD where you can raid this on to somebody? No, no, you're not set up to do that because this is what Ian does.

WordiGirl uh you have to you can uh slash raid and then tag somebody

Jeff Reed This is what, I'm sorry, this is what Leighton would do right now.

WordiGirl um i am about to go live but you don't have to read me you can read another

Jeff Reed Tell me, tell me, how do I send them to you?

WordiGirl kisha streamer okay you can press uh exclamation i mean not exclamation point

Jeff Reed How do I send it to you?

WordiGirl slash in the chat are you on twitch

Jeff Reed uh-huh uh no i'm not i'm on my software but i guess i can log on real quick

WordiGirl Uh oh.

Jeff Reed i can do it i can do it we can keep talking i tell you i'm gonna put it on the screen right now so like everybody can say hey look at the idiot how stupid he is um let's do okay yeah so let's keep the volume down because it's good hey now we're looking at ourselves looking at ourselves all right i am anyway go ahead all right so i'm on right now

WordiGirl All right, so you can slash and then say raid, and then in the chat, and then tag at the channel.

Jeff Reed uh-huh

WordiGirl You can also do what David is saying, but I don't know if you're on the dashboard or if you're just in the chat.

Jeff Reed I'm just in the chat. David, I love you. I'm just going to do what she says. So what's your handle? Wordy Girl?

WordiGirl Where'd it go?

Jeff Reed All right. Y'all go hang out with Wordy Girl. Thank y'all. did that work

WordiGirl all right let's see i don't see it yet did you slash in the chat and then say raid

Jeff Reed I did I slash raid yeah R-A-I-D

WordiGirl and then say just put wordy girl without the uh app just let's see if it works

Jeff Reed it's I guess wanting brackets

WordiGirl no don't if you see it says the brackets just that's just telling you to put the username

Jeff Reed yeah just

WordiGirl don't put a bracket

Jeff Reed w-r-d-i-g-i-r-l

WordiGirl okay i see it yay you did it

Jeff Reed all right go have fun there if you're left watching this mess go for it bye everybody

WordiGirl all right so wait you can also click to rate them now or it will just take a long time to do it so it's up to you but yeah thank you bye

Jeff Reed okay bye then Thank you.