More of Jesus: Conference Session 2

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Arkansas Baptist Women podcast. This year we are focusing on what it means to be an Arkansas Baptist woman. A woman who loves the Lord, lives on mission for the gospel, is present in her calling, is trained and equipped to lead, and is sold out to Jesus. I'm excited to talk about life, ministry and our relationship with Jesus. So grab a cup of coffee and join the conversation. Hey, sweet friends, it's Andrea. I hope that your day is off to a great start. Today we are talking about more of Jesus and less of me. We're bringing our final installment from Arkansas Baptist Women Conference, where we gathered together to worship the Lord, where we prayed, where we sought the Lord, where the Lord met us, where he changed us, he transformed our lives. So many women just impacted by the gospel. So many women just experiencing that transformation that comes when we're in the presence of God and we say, thank you, Lord, for that. We're gonna bring you the final session today. We're gonna talk about what it means to have more of Jesus in 2024, what it means in our everyday lives for Jesus to just be at the center of our focus. And I know this content is gonna bless you. I know it's gonna challenge you. And here's my challenge for you as we listen to this content. What truth? Which truth? How many of the truths can you take from the word of God and apply them to the everyday aspects of your life? Let's be changed. Let's be transformed. Let's be all in with the plans and purposes that God has for us. Let's follow him, let's trust him. Let's love him with complete abandon. And let's watch him do more than we can ask or imagine. So enjoy this episode from Arkansas Baptist Women Conference as we talk about more of Jesus and less of me. [00:01:48] Speaker B: Then I put my faith in Jesus. Cause he's never let me down. He's faithful through generations, so why would he feel now? He won't. He won't. I've still got joyous. You got joy in chaos. I've got peace. That makes no sense. So I won't be going under. I'm not held by my own strength. Cause I built my life on Jesus. Cause he's never let me down. He's faithful in every season. And so why would he fail now? He won't. [00:02:58] Speaker C: Is there anybody who can testify to that? Amen. [00:03:00] Speaker B: He won't. He won't fail. He won't fail. He won't fail. Christ is my firm foundation. He's the rock on with everything around me shaken, I've never been, oh, I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus. Cause he's never let me down. He's faithful to generation. And so I would keep him. Now lift it up. He won't, he won't, he won't fail. He won't fail. He won't fail. [00:04:22] Speaker C: And let's let this be our confession today again, in a lot of what we've heard, but also in light of what we've seen the Lord do in our own lives. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Amen. [00:04:30] Speaker C: He's never left us, he's never forsaken us. We sing it out. [00:04:33] Speaker B: Every voice. Rain came and went blue. And my house was built on you. And I'm safe with you. I'm gonna make it through. Sing it again. Come on. Rain came and when blue mountains built on you. And I'm saving, I saved with you I'm gonna make it through. Rain came, rain came and went through. My house was built on you. Yes, I saved with you. I'm gonna make it through. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it through. Cause I'm standing strong on you. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it through. Cause my heart. My house is built on you. Christ is my the firm foundation. He's the rock on which I stand. With everything around me shaking. Oh, I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus. Cause he's never let me down. He's faithful through generations. So why would he fail now? Let it all. He won, he won't, he won't fail. [00:06:39] Speaker D: He won't fail. [00:06:44] Speaker B: He won't fail. [00:06:48] Speaker C: He. [00:06:49] Speaker D: Won'T. [00:06:54] Speaker B: He won't, he won't fail, he won't fail. No, he won't. [00:07:27] Speaker D: A thousand generations falling down in worship to sing a song of ages to the earth. And all who've gone before us and all who will believe. Sing the song. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name. It stands above the moon. Above all thrones and dominions. Our hearts and positions. Your name stand above. Come on. Every voice we sing in the angels cry. Holy. All creation cries. Holy. You lifted high. Holy. Holy. Forever. If you been forgiven, if you been redeemed. Sing the song forever to. [00:08:59] Speaker B: Come on, y'all, let's testify. [00:09:00] Speaker D: We sing if you walk in freedom and if you bear his name. We'll sing the song forever to live. We'll sing the song forever. Amen. And the angels cry holy. All creation cries holy. You are the light. Holy. Holy. Holy. Holy to the king of me. Holy you will be holy. Holy forever. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name, it stands above the moon. [00:10:25] Speaker C: Come on, every voice. Lift it up if you believe. [00:10:27] Speaker D: All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name, it stands above the moon. [00:10:39] Speaker E: Sing it again. [00:10:39] Speaker D: Your name, for your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name, who stands above the Lord of the throne? It's a miniature power in position. Your name, it stands above the mighty end. And cry holy. All creation cries. Holy. You will live today. Holy. Holy forever to the king of Jesus. Holy you will only be holy. Holy forever. You will only be holy. Holy forever. Holy. [00:12:21] Speaker B: Holy are you, Lord God almighty? Sing. Worthy. Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb. You are holy. [00:12:44] Speaker D: Holy. [00:12:48] Speaker B: Are you lord worthy, worthy is the lamb. Amen. [00:13:09] Speaker C: Amen. We praise you, Lord Jesus. [00:13:28] Speaker D: In the darkness we were waiting with all hope, with our light. Till from heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes to fulfill to a virgin king the word. From the throne of endless glory to cradle in the day. Praise the heart, praise the sun. We praise the spirit. I just to reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost. To redeem all creation. You did not despise the cross. For even in your suffering you stopped to the other side knowing this was our salvation. For sake you die. You die. Praise the father. Praise the son. We praise the spirit. Free in word. God of glory, my mercy. I pray forever to the king. [00:15:40] Speaker B: Come on. We sing every boat. [00:15:46] Speaker D: All of heaven held its breath till that stones moved for good. For the lamb had conquered and the devils from their tombs. And the angels stood in arms. For the souls of all who come. [00:16:07] Speaker B: Till the Father I restore the joy. [00:16:10] Speaker D: In the church of Christ was for let the spirit lift the blade. Now this gospel choose the world shall not heal shall not faint by his blood it is free. I am free. For the love of Jesus Christ who has resurrected me with God of glory let me all praise forever. To the Father we praise the Son, we praise the spirit. O God of glory. [00:17:51] Speaker E: Amen. [00:17:52] Speaker B: Let's give the Lord some praise today. [00:17:54] Speaker C: For what he's done for the gospel. Amen. And Lord, you are the name that is above every name. And because your blood was shed for us, because you were faithful to the point of death, even death on a cross, the Lord God has given you the name that is above every name. Because at the name of Jesus, one day every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to fail. Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. [00:18:34] Speaker E: And. [00:18:34] Speaker C: God, we thank you that that is the kind of God that we serve. A God that is acquainted with our grief, a God who came down to our level, made himself nothing and took on the form of a servante so that we might be reconciled with you. Oh, Lord, we just thank you for the gospel that is power to those who are believing. So, Lord, today we just pray that you would restore the joy of our salvation, God, that we wouldn't grow tired of singing about it, we wouldn't grow tired of hearing about it, and we certainly wouldn't grow tired of telling people about it. So, Lord, we just thank you for meeting us here today. Lord, we thank you that you are alive and well and that you are not far off, but you are right here with us today. So, Lord, as we are wrapping up singing to you, God, we acknowledge that this time of worship does not end because we're not singing. But, Lord, that the time of worship is continuing as your word is spoken to us. So, God, would your word and your spirit move in power right now. And, Lord, give us ears to hear what you have to say. And we pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus. That name that is above every other name. Jesus, we pray it all to you, Lord. And all God's people said, amen, Corey. [00:20:05] Speaker E: And Stephanie, because that's been some very, very powerful worship. So thank you for leading us so well and that. And I almost hesitate to jump in to what we need to do because did y'all understand the words of the songs that we were just singing? And even what he was praying, which was sort of like a sermon in the best way possible because it had music and it was short. So it's all good. But what I'm thinking is this, it's probably likely in a room with this many people that there's some of you in here who, this morning when I talked about living in defeat, you're like, girl, I've been defeated since I was born. And some of you are like, there's nothing. A little poison in my life. It's all poison. And there's good news and there's bad news. Which one do you want first? [00:21:15] Speaker A: Bad news. [00:21:18] Speaker E: The bad news is this. Y'all listen. The bad news is this. You can't fix it without Jesus. And I'm so afraid that often in the church today, and we don't do this on purpose, Lori, but I think it happens sometimes, is that people hear a message and they're like, okay, then. Now I'm going to do I'm going to do these four things or this checklist and duh duh duh duh duh. And I'm all about action steps and game plans, but I'm just feeling like the Lord wants me to make it super clear that there's no action steps that are going to save you. There's no three points that are going to free you up because what were we thinking, Corey? I have found freedom in what? I have found freedom in who? Jesus. And here's the deal, y'all. The church, sometimes we teach you good things, but unless you know Jesus, they're kind of useless. Are we okay on that? And the reason why we need to make that clear is because I just sometimes look in people's faces and I think she's missing the most important thing. And, y'all, I grew up in church, and I grew up as, like nine months before I was born, my dad was chairman of the deacons. We called him the fire marshal because we never left until everyone was out of the building. That's how I grew up. And I got married. I told you when I was young, I was actually 20, and I've been in church ever since. But here's the deal. I grew up with a lot of head knowledge of who Jesus is, but I had never actually started a relationship with him. And I want to testify to you that it is so frustratingly hard to live a christian life without Christ. Can I get a witness from anybody else? And I did that for a long time. And what happens is you have some days that go pretty good, and then you have some days that go terrible. And inside you can't figure out what's wrong. And when I was about 18, and I should have written it down and kept it, but I throw things away, so I don't know. But when I was about 18, I suddenly realized I don't even. It was. I was in my dorm room by myself in college, and it's like the Lord just said to me, you've never trusted me with your. For your salvation. And I was like, what? I have done all of these things. I was the queen of bobble drill. I'm still good. I can still find it faster than you. And I did all of those things. And guess what? I even had most of my life where I chose to live a christian life. And all of it, if I had died young, would have been for naught because I did not have a relationship with Jesus. And what I just want to start off before we ever go into the next part because we're going to talk about walking out your faith. And guess what? You can't walk out faith that you don't have. You can't. And so I don't know if you need to just let that sink in and let it. Think about it while we're talking this session. But y'all, this week, one of my husband and my best friends that we, we have a couple friends that, where we live named Ken and Sharon, and we walk with them five nights a week. We go for like a two and a half mile walk with them, and we kind of just talk life and we do those things. And on last Sunday, he was at church. He was doing all the greeting and seating people, and we went to lunch after church, and we took a walk that night, and we joked around about a procedure he was going to have the next day. And Monday night, at 01:00 in the morning, his heart stopped. He's 56, he's a year younger than me. We joked around about it a lot. But anyway, his heart stopped. That's not the first instance in my life in which I've had to see the brevity of life and how life is so precious and how you do not. We are not promised tomorrow, and how we better make the most of this opportunity. And what I wanna say to you today, and I don't even know, this was not in my plans, but here's the deal. God just prompted me to say this. Because if you're hearing this, you need to know if you know Jesus. Because, girls, you can walk out that door and not be guaranteed. And so can I. Just pray for us. Is that okay? And while I pray, as we get started, if you need to know Jesus, or you need to get that settled, just come on down here and somebody will talk to you. Okay, I'm gonna pray. And if you need to move, you come down here and somebody will take you out and just chat with you. And you can know for sure that you know Jesus, and you can start your life with him. And then you can come back in here and you can take notes on how to walk out your faith, because you'll finally have something to walk out. And you can have freedom and victory, because you're never going to have it. The bad news is you can't do it on your own. And the good news is you can know Jesus right now, today. So let me just pray and you guys move. Father, I pray for your holy spirit to move in this place. God. I pray against distractions. I pray against the enemy who is telling somebody right now, don't get up. The enemy is saying to somebody, don't get up. That's not you. And if you think it's you, it's you. You. And if you need to know Jesus, and if you don't know that you know him. Father, I'm praying that those people who don't know and who aren't sure would come down front, that they would take a bold step of faith. And I promise you, Father, that the rest of this room will celebrate every person who comes forward. We love you, Jesus, and we pray for your freedom and your power to move in this place. And can we say amen and amen? Give a hand to the few people that were able to make that decision. Because, by the way. Because, by the way, you don't have to wait till the end of a service to accept Christ. The service goes so much better if you just go ahead and do it, and then you come. Right, right. And so let's talk about something. Okay. I want to get a couple things done before I get into the actual message. Not that it gets much better than that of. Right. But I want to. I want to talk about a couple things really quick because people have been asking me, and I don't want to be confusing. So there's a resource table out there. I don't have books. I have transformational resources. Because my goal is never to give you more information because I could have died and gone to hell with a head full of information and no life change in my heart. So I'm very passionate about life change and transformation. So that's what my books are. So I told you a little bit about playbook for parents. It's the one that I used when I was doing all of those prayer times with the parents before the games. And it's just full of 130 something prayers straight out of scripture. You can pray them over anything. It's got an athletic look because I was using it with lost people whose kids played football, but you can use it for anything. Okay, got it. The purple one is expect more. It's the kind of devotion that goes for two or three weeks, and it is all about. Do you really believe that God can do exceedingly, abundantly more? You nod your head and he said, why don't you live like it? So this is. How can you live like it? Transformation is a process. So it's just over the course of a couple of weeks, how you walk through, beginning to live your life like you really do. Expect more from God. The power of one is the black one. And I'm going to mention it in a second, but I'll tell it right now. It's just. I'm going to mention it in a second, and then everything summed up is the green one. And you've heard me if you've ever heard me before. Does anybody remember me talking about my atheist neighbor named Trisha? She's the funnest stories in the world are about her. And most of us don't have the privilege of having an adult, lost person in our lives that comes to faith. But I do. And she was an atheist. She was a northerner. I told you, I'm a church lady from the south because I grew up in church. And when I met Trish, she was the opposite of me. So we have a church lady from the south, and we have a beer drinking, cigarette smoking, foul mouth talking atheist from New Jersey. And needless to say, that didn't mesh well. And so, and so I learned a whole lot about how do you, how do you build a relationship for the sake of the gospel with people who have, you've nothing in common with? Basically, I can take any of you in this room and we can go to lunch and we would be friends. I mean, you might not like me that much, but I'd probably like you more, you know? But we could. Because we have this much in common, right? We could just have a chat. We feel like I've talked to people in the hallway and thought, I feel like I've known you forever. You know, we have that much in common. But when you meet somebody like that, that's your exact opposite and kind of an angry person, then you just don't want to reach them, you know? But God placed them there. And I learned so much from that relationship. And I remember thanking the Lord for that, and he said, well, what are you going to do with that? And I was like, what do you mean? And so I wrote this. It's called everything summed up, and the subtitle is overcoming differences to love your neighbor as yourself. Because, see, that's what God tells us to do, love our neighbors yourself. And I don't have any problem loving my nice neighbors, but sometimes we think, love your neighbors yourself, unless you have a neighbor like Trish. And God said, no, no, no. I mean, Trish. And so I learned a lot about that. And then God made it clear, so I put it into the Bible study book, and there's like a leader guide and everything, because all of those principles, they don't just apply to an atheist and a christian. They apply to racial differences, cultural differences, socio economic differences, ethnic differences, religious background differences, all of those kind of differences. And we live in a world that wants to continually divide us and God wants to continually unite us. And so that's one of those. So I just wanted to give you the heads up on that. And then one other little piece of business is this. You can find me on social media. So when I get through teaching today, I'm going to start an invitation and I'm going to the airport and expect you all to pray that I make my flight because it's a little dicey. My friend that died in the night on Monday night. Funeral is tomorrow, so I really don't need to miss that plane or I just skip it and stay with y'all. Way more fun. But I've got to get back, so I'm not going to have time at the end to tell you things. And there's some cards on the resource table, and on the back of it is a text number. There's a phone number. It's like, if you want to get it and you've got your pin, I'll give it to you. It's 833-540-3959 and if you text the word join to that number, then you're joining a text community that I have in which I sometimes post, like, devotional thoughts or little videos, like just a little short teaching video. Or when I have new resources. There are two resources that are in here that I haven't had time to get out here. And so as soon as those come out, then, you know, you'd be like, the first ones or I sometimes I don't even text once a month, once a week. It's like once a month or so. So you don't get a ton of. You don't get a ton of messages. But if you text the word join to that, there's also a prayer community on there and you can ask for prayer and we'll pray for you. Okay, so all the business. So find me online. If you took pictures and you post it, tag me, blah, blah, blah. And now I want us to talk about the rest of the subject, the reason and the part that God gave me for us to dig into in our last few minutes together. We don't want to waste this. And this morning, we talked about death in the pot. And it was kind of the. It was kind of a fun message, but it's also kind of a negative message. Like, we. We need to evaluate. And, and several of you said oh, my gosh. I saw the poison like I see the death in the pot in my life. And. And I love that God reveals that to us because it's very powerful for us to recognize it so that we can do something about it. And so once we realize why. I'm talking fast, too, aren't I? Okay, are y'all, everybody shake out your hands. Get your pen ready. Y'all good? The fast pin. I found some fast pins. I'll put that in the text group. I got some good pins. Now, once we identify some of the things that are keeping us from experiencing more of God and living that more abundant life, then we kind of shift our focus in these next few minutes to how do we really get there? What do we need to do? And remember, we've already talked about it. The basis of all of it is to have a relationship with Jesus. But once you have that in place, then it's kind of like, what's next, right? What are some things we can do? Well, I was kind of praying about it and thinking about it, and the Lord kind of. I saw this video. I saw a video, and it made me think about the fact that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they walk in a room. Have you ever noticed that you can tell a lot about a person the way they walk in a room? You notice things about the way they walk. You notice things about the way they're dressed. For instance, every day you and I get up and we put on a certain. We put on, we choose what we're going to wear and if we're going to go to work. We don't usually put on our, you know, our ski clothes or our beach clothes or our even depends on where you work. But some of us get up and we put on workout clothes, hoping that at some point in that day, we're going to follow through and get a workout in, you know, or. But, sorry. But you see people and you recognize, oh, I bet she's off to work. She's got on a power suit, so she's probably got a meeting and she's going to, you know, power pose on them. Or does that make sense? So we see people and we immediately can infer some things about them. Well, interestingly enough, those are big indicators, so it's not just what we wear, but it's also the way we walk. And so I saw that video, and it kind of made me think about how interesting it is to see different kind of approaches to walking into a room. So I sent a few videos to Nick, and he was like, I was really interested to see what you were going to do with this, but check out these different walks and let's see what we can relate to in these. Okay. Oh, blessed, right? How many of you go out of your house in the morning? A lot like that. Like, I think I'm going to have a good day. Never mind. I'll just stay home. Right? It's like, okay, it's gonna be good. No, it's not. Okay, what about this one? Let's go to the next one. Okay. This is so good. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be a great day. [00:35:34] Speaker A: Whoo. [00:35:35] Speaker E: Somebody pulled the rug right out from under you. Yeah, we can relate to that. Okay. Also, Kristen Wiig is just funny. I'm sorry. Okay, next one. See what we know about this one. Isn't that the way a lot of us, we're walking through life, like, don't notice me. Don't notice me. Don't step too loud. Don't make the floor creak. Right. We're like. We're like leery of everything. Okay, now, most of us is this next one, coach, prom. Then most of us wish we were walking in like this because he. Oh, no, this one's funny. Wait a minute. Go back to that other one. Go back to the other. I forgot about that one. Okay. This one got me so tickled because I thought, oh, my gosh, I can relate to that. Like, some days Jeff's like, babe, I need you to come do this. And I'm like, okay, can you give me more information? He's like, I don't have time. I'm like, okay, I don't know. Am I counseling somebody? Which is not ever a good idea. Am I co. You know, what do you have me doing? So sometimes it feels like we're just blindly going through life, right? What's happening? I can't see. This is the way most of us wish we could walk into a room. Because when it's coach prime, it's got theme music, too. We're not playing it because I don't think I've got that. But here's the deal. Those are goals. I want to walk in with my own music. You know, like baseball players do. I want my own. I've often thought, what song would I do? But let's not talk about that. But anyway, and. And then I want you to think for a second that we're going to be making some spiritual correlations here. And so this is the way we wish we were walking spiritually, but in reality, this next one is the way that, spiritually speaking, more of us are doing. Yeah. Right or wrong. I mean, it's like, bless. Just bless. You know, once you start that twisted. Oh, it's terrible. By the way, if you Google models stumbling on a Runway, heavens to Betsy, there's so many videos because they make them wear the gosh awful shoes. And the funny thing about her, ironic thing, we won't say funny because I don't know who that is. And I just feel terrible for her, except for it's such a great illustration for us. But she looks great. Like, she's in fancy. She's in tour clothing. She's fancy. She looks beautiful. Her hair's done and she looks good, and she's attempting to look good on the outside. And she's probably like, I'm fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. And she's trying to catch herself. But you just couldn't course correct in time, could she? Thank you so much, Nick. The deal is this. What we wear and how we walk go hand in hand to identify to the world who we are and whose we are. That's why today we can. We're going to focus right now on walking lessons. We're going to talk about it's all about the way you walk and walk this way because the Bible brings a lot of correlations between walking and between the faith transformation process. Okay? And I love that. One of the verses, one of the verses that I love is second corinthians. I'm only going to mention it. You can jot it down, though, because it's such a good verse. Second Corinthians 214. Listen to what it says, which, by the way, I have a Bible and I brought it up here, but I printed all the scripture in really big font in my papers. So I'm reading scripture even though it doesn't look like it. So don't judge me, because if you judge me when I have the invitation, your spot is right there. Okay. So just because I printed it out doesn't mean it's not scripture. I just didn't want to read readers. Okay, so two Corinthians 214, listen to this. But thanks be to God. Listen. Who always leads us in Christ's triumphal procession. And through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. Y'all. This morning we talked about how sometimes we live in defeat for various reasons in our life. And what is this birthday right here? Thanks to God, who always leads us. Christ always leads us in triumph. He always leads us in triumphal procession. That's signed me up for that. Right? That sounds so good to me. That's such the opposite of what we were talking about this morning, and you kind of want to think a little bit. I read that verse, and I literally wrote in my notes, hash goals. These are goals of mine. I want to always be led in triumphal procession. I mean, talk about making an entrance or leaving a legacy or avoiding defeat and defeating the devil instead of being defeated by him. It kind of makes me ask the question of, how is it possible to be triumphant in every situation? How is it possible? It's the opposite of living in defeat. Right. Well, the solution. Listen to this. This is a good sentence. The solution to every issue that you face and feel defeated in is learning to walk in the spirit. It's learning to walk in the spirit. Whether it's a sin issue, a relationship issue, an internal conflict issue, whatever issue you face, it all comes down. If you want to be led in triumph, it all comes down to walking in the spirit. Now, the Bible talks a ton about that, and anytime we want answers to a question like this, Andrea, the best place we can ever go is back to scripture. So, do y'all remember me telling you about Trish, the atheist? The opposite of me. Atheist neighbor. Well, the first time that I met her, I brought up Jesus to her and invited her to church, and she said, no, blankety blank, thanks. And I was like, note to self, trish does not want to go to church. And I've never been cussed out for inviting somebody to church because I live in the south. And if we don't want to go, we at least just say no and talk bad about you behind your back, but we don't cuss you out. So Trish just laid it all out there and. And no, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And. And I don't have time to. I'm not going into a lot of Trish stuff except for this. I got to know where we finally found some common ground. I stopped bringing up Jesus to her. The power of one is the book that's all about bringing up Jesus in your everyday conversation with people that you don't know go to church. That's all it is. Because God convicted me a long time ago that we're all supposed to go out there and be a witness for Christ. But I wasn't doing a very good job of it. And I said, well, I'm not great. You know, Jeff has the gift of evangelism, and I don't do all the roman road, and I forget some of the steps and, you know, that kind of thing. And he just made it really clear to me that I don't necessarily have to go beat people over the head with my Bible, but I just need to bring up Jesus in my conversation, and then he can do the rest. And so I thought, okay, I can do that. So I made that commitment. That's why it's a 21 day challenge. Because if you kind of do something for 21 days, you get into that habit of it. And so I was in the process of all that when Trish moved in, and so I brought up Jesus to Trishen. Needless to say, on that day of the week, I wrote this did not go well. But guess what? It's still a win. Because it's not about how many people pray to receive Christ. Those are huge wins. But it's about how many times I'm obedient to do what he told me to do. Does that make sense? Because, by the way, I don't save anybody. You won't save anybody. The Holy Spirit does the work. It's our job to introduce them to the Holy Spirit. It's our job to introduce them to Jesus. To bring up Jesus. Jesus. And he made the point to me that you and I talk about what we're passionate about. That means if you meet me and we talk for five minutes somewhere, you're going to know I'm passionate about my family, my hubby, the kids, grandkids, church ministry, Jesus, Tennessee football, and a good shoe sale. Those things are all going to come up in about five minutes, right? Unapologetically. Because I love all of them. I'm passionate about all of them. I enjoy all of them. And the deal is this, when you say we're passionate about Jesus, but I would. Not to make you feel bad, but when was the last time you brought him up in a conversation? You know? And so this book is all of, like. Has a bunch of ideas. And I had shared about going to sonic before, but I'm going to use the Trish one today. So I had brought up Jesus to Trish, by the way, and she didn't like it. So by the next time that I talked to her, I don't need to bring Jesus up. I don't need to bring Jesus up, because forever, I know that when she rejects Jesus in that moment of that first conversation, that she's not going to forget. Shoo. The crazy lady across the street, she's the one that talks about Jesus, right? So she's a little bit scared to talk to me again. So the next time I talk to her, I'm just friendly. Maybe I take over some leftovers or I take over a, you know, a coffee cake I used to cook. I mean, I used to be a good cook, but who does that anymore, you know? But anyway, but back then, I made food, and I take over some food and start to talk to her about this, and. And Jeff starts to get to know them, and they start having a great competition. Not the bad kind, but the kind in the yard, you know, like the. Like. Because. Because it. See, y'all are so judgy. Y'all are judgy. But we. We had built houses in a new neighborhood, and it was. Who could get their yard to come up first? That kind of grass, people. That kind of grass and those kind of things. So we don't always have to keep bringing up Jesus because the lost world won't forget. Oh, that girl's the one that talks about Jesus. So I don't want to browbeat her. I just brought it. So then, though things start happening, then she'll ask me a question. How come so many people here do go to church, right? How come this, how come that? Because I was developing a relationship with her so that she began to feel free to ask me questions. And then, y'all, she eventually came to church and heard the gospel and then came to my house crying because she had never heard it before. And first of all, I said, I'm sorry, you were at church today? And she said, yes. You know what she said? I realized that. She said, I realized that if you live in the south and you tell people you don't go to church, they won't let their kids play with your kids. And I want true story. And I wanted my kids to have friends. Listen, this is so good. So she said, I thought, well, we were at a church at the time called long haul. She said, I thought, well, Jeff and Rachel's church is so big, so I'm just going to slip in on Sunday and sit in the back. Because she's moral. She wasn't going to lie about it. She said, I'm just going to slip in and sit in the back, and then I'll slip out. Nobody will see me. And then when somebody says, where do you go to church? I can say, oh, I went to a long hollow last week, right? So then her kids could have friends. But you know what Trish didn't count on? She didn't count on the fact that we had been praying that she would come to know Christ. And she didn't count on the fact that when she showed up at church just after the worship, which was good, because she would have totally freaked out if she'd seen everybody like, you know, we're slightly free in our worship at times. But she didn't count on the fact that when she snuck in that the pastor, unknowing to her, had felt led that morning to a simple gospel presentation based out of John 316. And he stood up and he did a simple gospel presentation, and it wrecked her world in the best way possible. And she comes to my house on Monday morning crying with, like, crying and saying, what in the world happened yesterday? And what is all of that about? How cool is that? And I got to explain it to her, and da da da da. And all of these things went on. And Trish came to know Jesus, and it was just awesome. But here's the deal. She had zero Bible knowledge. She had zero, zero religious upbringing to know that when you're a believer, you do certain things, and, you know, and guess what? I never told her. You should do this or you should do that. I prayed, lord, Holy Spirit, you do a work in her. You do a work in her. And every time she felt stirred about something, she would come and ask me about it. So she comes to my house and she goes, hey, I think I might should read the Bible. I was like, that's a great idea. Because every time that she came and asked me a question, I would say, that's a great question. Let's look in the Bible and see what it says. And so I would open the Bible and show her something. And she was like, what? That's in the Bible? And so she's like, are y'all tracking me? And so I took her. She said, will you take me to get a Bible? I said, of course. And she said, I want a big, honking, impressive one. And she said, do I have to get a little suitcase, too? And I said, I'm sorry, a suitcase? And she goes, you know, I see people carrying those things. I said, no, but if you want a suitcase, you can get one. But, y'all, it was after. It was after Trish decided that she needed to read God's word. Prompted by the Holy Spirit. I'm positive. And the Holy Spirit going to use the word to speak to her. Do you know what happened? Exponentially. Exponential growth happened. Exponential growth. And she still would come to me and ask me a million questions. And she. She decided to read through it chronologically and start a blog so she wouldn't give up on it because accountability is important. And she came over to me and said, hey, I threw it out there to people to see if anybody wanted to read the Bible with me. And 347 people are going to read the Bible with me. I was like, what? And by the way, most of her friends were law. Actually, all of her friends but me were law. And so 347 lost people are going to read through the bible for the first time. And so she said, I need to stay ahead of things, so I'm going to work a day ahead, and I'm going to send you all my posts so you can check them. I was like, oh, my gosh, I was sweating. I was like, that's a lot of pressure, you know what I'm saying? But, but y'all, that, that blog that year was, it was unbelievable to watch all that. And there's nothing quite like seeing the Bible through the eyes of, of someone who's never read it. It's great when it's a kid, but when it's a grown up with a lot of already knowledge and understanding, you know, like, understanding, it was. And she just read it and believed it. And I told y'all, told y'all before the story of, I'm just gonna tell it to you. It's such a good story. She comes into my house one day, busts in my house and brings her Bible and plops it on my counter and says, I'm done with that. I don't want it anymore. I said, really? What happened? She said, did you know that Moses doesn't get to go into the promised land? To which I responded, yes, I am aware of that. And she said, that burns me up. He has worked his butt off for those Israelites, been whining and complaining, and he prayed. He saved and one little mistake, and now he doesn't get to go into the promised land. I'm done with that. And she left my house. I fell in the floor laughing. I rolled around laughing, and I said out loud to the Lord, I said, God, thank you so much for letting me live right here in this day and time, because this is the best day of my life. She comes back in a little bit later. I hear the door open, and I just see a hand come in and get her bible and go back out. But all of that to say, that's just a fun story. It's true story. But all of that to say Trish's involvement with the Bible, because I had grown up knowing it even before I had surrendered my life to Christ. So I don't remember a day and time in which it wasn't a part of my life, but watching someone for the first time recognize and realize and believe the Bible, it cemented in me the power of God's word in a new and fresh way. And that's why when we have questions about how to live and how do we walk and how do we do, we just go back to God's word and he gives us all the information we need. So when you look at two corinthians 214, like I just told you, there's a word there that jumps off the page to me, and it's this one. But thanks be to God, who always leads. Who always leads. And God and the Lord kind of prompted me to notice that word because of this so often in my life. And see if you can relate. My relationship with Jesus has been a whole lot about taking Jesus with me more than being led by him. Anybody remember the skit? Remember the skit? And I'm not dogging whoever wrote it if they're your cousin. It was a good skit. Okay, whatever. But there was a skit that went through all of student ministry years ago where there's. There's a girl there and there's a Jesus figure standing in white that's just standing there. Jen, you nodding, okay. And just standing there. And this person, this girl guy gets a phone call and talking about a party they want to go to and. Okay, yeah, okay. No, I won't even tell my mom. You know, like, whatever. And, you know, it's, like, not the right party to go to. And then she starts to go out the door and she's like, no, Jesus, you stay here. No. Do y'all remember that skit? Is it just me? And she's like, no, Jesus, you stay here. And then everywhere she goes and Jesus stays right with her. And the whole point is, when you're a believer, you always have Christ with you. Are y'all. Are we tracking? And the issue I have with that is that we grow up thinking it's all about taking Jesus with me. But the Bible is abundantly clear in a lot of places that when we change our mindset to being led by him, being led by the spirit, this passage, Christ always leads us. Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel said he took me to the valley of dry bones. I've taught that in Arkansas before and led me around. The word lead led. Lead led is used over and over and over in scripture. And I think a lot of it is because as okay, let's be real. As women and Corey, you know, we can have control issues. Yes, because we get it done right. And we're the people who get stuff done. And so the whole thing about, is it more about taking Jesus with me or about being led by him? Him. Which one speaks to our control? Taking him with me, it's about me being in control. And being led by him is about him being in control. And that's where we come down differently on that. And so you might want to jot down and you notice I need to follow the leader. I need to be led by Christ. I need to stop having control issues and ask Jesus to lead me today. Ask the Holy Spirit to be in charge. Too many of us like the taking with idea better than the being led idea. And here's the deal. The good news is, when we choose to be led by him, then he always leads us in what? Triumph. He always leads us in triumph. He always leads us in victory. It doesn't mean life is always easy, and it doesn't mean it's always perfect according to the world standard, but it means it's always right when he's in charge. And then also what else we can do. Oh, I thought of this, too. When I'm living. When I'm living in defeat, the wrong person is probably leading. When I'm living in defeat, maybe the wrong person, the wrong person is probably leading. And so when you let jesus lead him, what the good thing is you're going to see is that you then begin to experience more light than darkness. Okay? So you get to choose light over darkness. And the Bible tells us that in him there is no darkness. John 812, Jesus spoke to them again and said, I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life. Does that never that mean you're never near darkness? No, it means you never walk in darkness. And there's a big difference. The darkness is always going to be around. But when I stay on the right path, then I get to stay in the light. Isn't that kind of fun? Have you ever gone camping with some kids in the dark, in the woods? What do we always fight over? The flashlight. Right. So you go camping with kids and you only have one flashlight. It's going to get tricky. And so maybe we've got to walk over somewhere and, you know, out in the woods it gets really dark because there's dark and there's dark. Do y'all understand the difference? Okay, so there's dark and there's dark and you're out in the dark with the kids and there's only one flashlight and you're trying to stay on a path because it's a little sketchy. If you get off the path and you're, the kids, kids are taking turns with the flashlight and you've got one kid that holds the light way out there and you've got one kid that's doing this with it, right. And meanwhile you're trying to keep everybody on the path. It gets hard when the light is not in the right place. Right. A lot of times we can think about God's word as a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path in that concept. Because when I'm in control of the light, you know, but when Jesus is in control, I can look down and I always have the light to step in. It's decent analogy. Priscilla Shire told an illustration that I love. I forgot what she was talking about. I just love this illustration. I forgot where we were too. Anyway. But definitely it was Priscilla that was talking. And she said back in the eighties that Michael Jackson was making a video for his song Billie Jean. I'm not advocating the theology of the song or anything like that. I'm just telling you a story. And so Michael Jackson was making a video of the song Billie Jean. And you can look it up and look at it. And I checked it out because I was so intrigued by this. And basically the video, he's singing Billie Jean. He's got his hat on. He's doing all kinds of Michael moves that you just kind of think there was just nobody else quite like him. And he's going through this downtown area. There's nobody else around. It's all black and white. Everything's black and white. And Michael's going through it. And as he touches things, a lamp post or he'll bump or they light up. Everything he touched is kind of lit and then it. Right. Is you with me? Black and white lit up. And then there's a portion of it where he goes down a. I think it's a road, not a sidewalk. I think he's going down a road. And it's kind of like a. What is it? Where there's a lot of squares. Cobblestone, something, pavers. I don't know. But there were squares. The road was just a bunch of squares. Okay. And as he's going, he's dance stepping, which I cannot imitate. I almost did right there. Right, but. And every step he takes, the ground lit up underneath him. Very cool. Well, the story goes that when he was making the video, he kept getting in the wrong squares. And he goes to the producer and he says, hey, I don't. I'm having trouble. I don't like remembering. I don't like having to step on certain squares. I want to be able to just freestyle. And the producer says, you're Michael Jackson. You can freestyle as much as you want to listen. But if you want the ground to light up under you, you have to go on the steps I designated because they're the only ones I pre litanous. And she told that story. And I was like, what? You and I have the freedom. God gave us free will. We have the freedom to make choices. And we can choose light over darkness. And we can choose to be full of the spirit or be full of the flesh. We can choose to surrender to the spirit and be led all of these things, and we can go a different path. But if we want to stay in the light, we need to go on the steps that God has designated for us. Is that not good? I like it. I like it. Okay, we have, like three minutes. Y'all stay with me. Ephesians five, six through 18. I won't read all of it. I'm just going to pull a couple things out of it. But it talks about, let no one deceive you with empty arguments. I feel like we talked about that this morning, right? Empty arguments, false teachings, those kind of things are deception. And it says, God's wrath is coming on. The disobedient become of those don't become their partners. And it goes on down to tell us not to participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. And then in verse 15, these are the verses I really want you to see. Be careful then, how you walk. Not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are even. So don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. And don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the spirit. So right here in those kind of three or four verses, at that point of the chapter, he's saying, be careful how you walk, exactly what we're talking about. And then he makes an illustration or an analogy or a correlation between being drunk on wine or being full of the Holy Spirit. Why listen to this? And we're on done. Is this number one? You can't be full of the Holy Spirit. If you're full of the world, you can't be full of the Holy Spirit and be full of the world. Okay? And that can be wine, or it can be greed or it can be selfishness. It can be anything of the world, okay? So you can't be full of the Holy Spirit and be full of the world. But also, is this because the Holy Spirit, listen, this is so good. The Holy Spirit will fill you only according to the room you make for him. In other words, you got to clean out your own closets before he will fill them. He doesn't come into your house and clean it out for you. He's at the door going, where? What all are you giving me access to? And I think that's a challenge for a lot of us who've been in the church, who call ourselves believers, is that we're like, lord, I'm giving you full control. I want you to lead me on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. But Fridays and Saturdays, not so much, right? It's like we think we can compartmentalize our lives and only give him access to part of it. And by the way, partial obedience is disobedience. And so it makes, it's a big deal. And when you think about, also, this is good, too. I love this. When you think about, why would he compare being drunk with wine and being full of the Holy Spirit? It says, if somebody's drunk with wine, is it all. Yes, it's obvious in the way they walk, in the way they talk, the way they act, what they say, all of these things. It's obvious. And people can listen. People can tell a difference because it affects everything about the person. We are supposed to be so full of the Holy Spirit that the same is true. Remember at Pentecost, in acts chapter two, they said, whoa, Peter. Peter was so full of the Holy Spirit that people thought he was drunk. He was like, people, it's only nine in the morning, and I'm not that he said, this is all about the Holy Spirit because it was so obvious that something was different about him. Now, the last thought, I want to leave you is all tied to this, and it's this concept. In our world, too many Christians or Christ followers are more concerned about not looking different from the world than they are and fitting in with the culture than they are about being led by the spirit. Ouch. Ouch. And here's why. Here's why we have fallen, slipped into this. This wrongful mindset of thinking that I can know Jesus and fly under the radar with my faith. So it doesn't really, it doesn't rock the boat of everything that's going on around me. And can I just tell you something? Stealth mode. Stealth mode, spiritually speaking, is not working to save the lost world. And your kids and your grandkids are going to grow up and have to find people to marry that are out there in that world. And it's our job to go out there and find those people and bring them to Jesus before our kids have to suffer the consequences. And here's the deal. Too many times, too many times, we have gotten this misconception that my standards as a believer should be higher than the world's, okay? And so the world standards are here. My standards need to be higher than the world, which is true. But I'm not supposed to base my standards on the world, because if my standards are higher than the world and the world standards are always going where down. Then where are my standards always going? We've never been called to have our standards based off the world. We've always been called to have our standards based off the word. The word is here. The word is unchanging. Okay? So the word word is here, and the world is here, and the world is. Oh, never changes. The world's constantly lowering its standards. What's happening to the gap? It's getting bigger. And this is why so many believers refuse to base their lives on this, because the gap between them and the world gets so large that it's super obvious. And that's when it starts to make a difference, because then it gives us opportunities to say, listen, I'm not judging you. This is just because I have Jesus in my heart. Like, I just do this because of Jesus. This is the way that Christ is calling me to live. It's a big deal. And this is a game changer. When we learn how to base our lives on this and our standards on this, our decisions on this, exactly what the word says when it says walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, says, live by the spirit, be led by Jesus. Last year, I had the opportunity to do women's events in Egypt, in Cairo and Alexandria, which, by the way, is a muslim country. I don't know if you understand that. 95% Muslim, 98% sometimes considered 98. And so they asked me, some our friends that lived there, and they said, hey, will you come and do some women's events? And I said, I'm sorry, you have women's events? Like, for christians, they're like, yes, we're going to say that an american author is coming, and they're. All of these people are going to come and most of them will be Muslim. And I said, I'm sorry, muslim women are going to come here, an american author talk about women's identity. And they're like yes, it will be so powerful. And I was like okay. And so we go to Egypt to do these events and I will tell you that I've never been more scared in my life and I've never been more intimidated and I've never been more sick because I prayed, lord, please empty me of myself and fill me with your spirit. And do you know what happened? He took that literally, if you know what I mean. And so I was very, very, very empty and physically speaking, which will also empty you out spiritually speaking. And I'll never forget driving through the literal Sahara desert and praying for a circle k and going over a rise. And there was a circle k and that was the only bathroom for like 4 hours story for another day because I'm running out of time. But God did great things in that and there's a whole lot more to it and all of that. But the long and short of it is, is that hundreds of women came to these events and I got to talk to them about identity in Christ and believing truth over lies. And there were certain things that I couldn't say and certain things that were okay to say. And when I asked for clarification when we were in Alexandria, I said now is it okay if I say this? And they said no, no, no, don't say that. And I said okay. I'm a little worried because I not super scripted and I'm worried that I might just go off and say something. And I said what would happen if I said that? And he goes well, I mean we could all be arrested and you know, shut down. I was like okay. So. And I said I don't get it, why is it different? He goes well, about a half a mile that way and he points over there because we were at the venue, he's over there is the largest mosque in northern Africa for training extreme Islam. And I said what does that mean? And he said well I think in your country you would call it. And I said I'm sorry, where is it? And he said about a half, well he said about 5 km, which is, you know, that way. And so the long and short of it is God opened some doors for me there that I never could have imagined. And it was very, very powerful and he did some good things. But only when you're walking in the spirit and being led by him do you, does that opportunity happen and that opportunity doesn't happen if I don't back here. When he calls me to start a prayer group for people in America, if I don't say yes here, I'm probably not going to get. Do you see what I'm saying? We don't just go out there and wait for a big opportunity to say yes to Jesus and be led by the spirit. We got to be doing it on a daily basis, on an ongoing basis. And when we do that, then every step of faith makes the next step of faith a little easier. Every step of faith makes the next step walking out. Your faith is the key. And understanding that it's not about where we're taking Jesus, but it's about being led by the spirit. And y'all, every day. Here's three things to do. Four things to do in the morning is get up in the morning and say, God, cleanse me of my sins and empty me out. Empty me of my flesh. And then you say, please fill me with your holy spirit. And then you ask for him to. To empower you through his holy spirit. So you ask him to forgive you, to cleanse you, to empty you, and to fill you and to empower you. Sorry, I added one. And if we get in the practice of doing that on a daily basis, there's no telling where he's going to take us. There's no telling who he's going to reach through us. And there's no telling how many Trishas are living down the street from you that just needs somebody to bring up Jesus so she can find him for herself. Thank you so much for having me. I want us to go into a time of prayer right now. I so appreciate your attentiveness and how you've been with me on every bit of what we've done. And Corey and Stephanie are going to come and play something because we really need to have just a minute to process. And I know I talked fast. I got all worked up and talked fast. But the deal is this time is too short and your life is too precious, and there are too many lost people on our watch. So it behooves all of us to be the believers who are living the Christ filled life and who are living a life that's surrendered to him. And so nothing else matters than those things in our lives. And so I want us to have just a minute here where you guys have a chance to respond to him, where you can, you can come and you can pray, and you can commit whatever you need to, and you can make a commitment. You can come in, somebody will pray with you. If you've been here and you didn't get up earlier and walk out because you needed Jesus, come down here and grab somebody by the hand, y'all. In your programs, in your notebooks, there's a little QR code. And this group loves to know what God did in your life. They love to know what your thoughts are, what you, you know, what you have to say about what he's done today. I hope it's been a good day for you. I pray that you've been blessed. I know I've been blessed. I needed this so desperately. So thank you to everyone of you for ministering to me today. But scan that QR code and fill that out. I think it's only a few questions. It'll take you 2 seconds, but y'all do that, and. And then you ask the Lord, what is it that he want me to respond? How do I need to respond today? What's the one thing, it doesn't have to be five things. What's the one thing that God's calling you to do differently? Because here's the deal, girls. We miss the boat if we walk out the same as we were when we came in. So let's take a minute and let's commit to being different, to letting him change us, to being led by him. You come. You fill that out, come down here and have a word, and then go back and work. Worship with them like maybe you never have before. We can stand, but I'm going to pray, and then I'm going to leave it with you guys to respond to the Holy Spirit as he directs you. Father, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for being with us in this moment, and thank you for your power at work in this room. I thank you for the lives that you saved earlier. Father, people are going to be in heaven because of what you did, and that is a glorious thing. We do not take it lightly. Father, I love you. I thank you and I praise you for all that you've done in this place. And it's in Jesus name. I pray that you would move in this room and you would give women the courage to respond to you however they need to. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. [01:11:16] Speaker B: I'm caught up in your presence. [01:11:23] Speaker E: And. [01:11:23] Speaker B: I just wanna sit here at your feet. I'm caught up in this holy moment. I never wanna leave. Oh, I'm not here for blessings, Jesus. You don't owe me anything. More than anything that you can do. I just want you and I'm sorry when I've just gone through the motions I sorrow I just sang another song take me back to where we started I open up my heart to you and I'm sorry but I've come with my agenda I'm sorry when I forgot that you're enough take me back to where we start I open up my heart to you. I'm caught up in your presence. [01:13:16] Speaker E: And. [01:13:16] Speaker B: I just wanna sit here at your feet. I'm caught up in this holy moment. [01:13:30] Speaker D: Never wanna leave. [01:13:35] Speaker B: Oh I'm not here and I'm here for blessings. No Jesus, you don't owe me anything. And more than anything that you can do I just want you oh I just want you and nothing else. [01:14:12] Speaker E: And. [01:14:13] Speaker B: Nothing else, nothing else will do. I just want you and nothing else, and nothing else, nothing else will do when we say I just want you nothing else, nothing else will do. We just want I just want you nothing else will do. Else and nothing else, nothing else will do. I'm caught up in your presence and I just, I just wanna sit here at your feet. I'm caught up in this only moment. I never wanna leave. I'm not here, oh, I'm not here for blessing. Jesus, you don't owe me anything. [01:16:48] Speaker D: More. [01:16:49] Speaker B: Than anything that you can do. I just want you. Your goodness is running out, it's running after me. Your goodness is running out it's running after me. With my life laid down I'm surrender now, I give you everything thing. Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me. [01:17:55] Speaker D: Mercy never fails me. From the moment I wake up until I leave my head, oh I will see of the goodness. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so, so good. With every breath that I am in, oh I will sing of the goodness of God. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire in darkest night. You are close like no other know. I know you as a father, I know you as a friend and I have been in the goodness of God all my life you have been faithful all my life you have been so good. With every breath that I am able. Oh I will say you're goodness and I. It's running after me. Your goodness is running after, it's turning after me. When my life lay down I'm surrender now, I give you everything. Your goodness is running out it's running after me. All my life you have been so every breath that I am gonna say, I'm gonna sing, I'm gonna say, all my life you have been faithful. And all my life you have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able. Oh, I'm gonna see all the goodness of God. What I see, what a goodness. [01:21:53] Speaker B: God is so good. [01:22:00] Speaker D: God so good. [01:22:31] Speaker A: Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you so much. You can be seated for just two more minutes. I just invite you to hang on for two more minutes. Just, can we just praise the Lord together? Can we just give him praise? Praise God. Praise God for who he is, his faithfulness, his love, his pursuit, his relentless pursuit. Over your life, over my life, over our lives. We say, he is so good. I thank you so much for coming. I thank you for your investment, being all in in this day. I thank you for loving well, for being patient, for being flexible. But most of all, I thank you for bringing open hearts and open minds for God to work in your life. And I believe that we have been changed by the power of God, by the application of God's word to our lives. And so let's go live that out. That full, free, abundant life, that more than we can ask or imagine. I have a couple of announcements to share with you. I know you're shocked about that, but they're good announcements. And so I want to just make sure that you are aware of a couple of things. Number one, conference 2025. Who's going to be there? That's what I'm talking about. I don't know if we'll have a chance to pull that up on the screen, but we are meeting at Geier Springs First Baptist Church next year, so we're going to have that room to spread out and grow. Let's just give it up for first Benton, though. Oh, my goodness. Incredible. Incredible host and hostesses. It's so good to be in your house. Thank you for letting us move in. We love you so much. To our volunteers, to Morgan, to Holly, to clay. Thank you so much. Nick, up in the balcony. Just, just so gracious. But next year, we're going to be at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church. Excited to have candy gallaty with us next year teaching the word. And Corey and Stephanie Epps, they're coming back. [01:24:28] Speaker D: Amen. [01:24:28] Speaker A: We cannot have conference. And, Corey, I think we're going to get you an Arkansas Baptist women's shirt. I think it's time. I think you're. I think you're in. [01:24:37] Speaker C: Yellow is my color. [01:24:37] Speaker A: Yellow is your color. We can fix you up. So we're so excited about that. September 20, 2025. Mark that on your calendar. Be sure and look in your take home bag. There is a gift from dayspring for you. You're going to love that. How many of us just were so appreciative of lifeway christian resources being here? Y'all listen, that's a big deal. They don't do that a lot, and so we're so very grateful for that. I hope you picked up a book, a Bible study. They're still open. There's more shopping time available, so make your way there to pick up your last minute things. Also, incredible t shirts this year for our Arkansas Baptist women merch. The online store is open, so stop by the merch table out here, scan that QR code, and buy a shirt, okay? The proceeds help Arkansas Baptist women. So you're gonna get a great shirt, and you're gonna help us continue to reach people for Jesus Christ. So we're super excited about that. How many of you have absolutely loved Rachel loving good. And hit her teaching. Praise God for that. So good. So good. She's on her way to the airport. We're praying that she makes her 04:00 flight. And so I trust that she will. But I know you'd like to hear that teaching again. And we're going to drop all the sessions on the podcast, okay? So starting this Monday, like today's Saturday. So Monday, what's going to drop are those powerful testimonies. Did you love those powerful testimonies? Would you like to hear those again, actually, in their entirety? We had to do some editing for time so you can, you know, subscribe, like, share. Those are our three key words with the podcast Arkansas Baptist women. It's available on any podcast platform. And as you subscribe, like and share, tell your friends about it. We want people to be connected with what's happening here in Arkansas. And so this week, the first week will be the testimonies, and then the next two weeks will be session one and session two. So go back, listen again, take those notes down, and share it with a friend. We do not want what happened here today to stay in this room. We are praying it will go back to your homes, back to your churches, back to your communities. And here's how that happens. We have to have change inside our hearts. So just trusting the Lord to plant what he did today in your hearts and in your lives, I'm so glad Rachel talked about that response code, that response card. We want to know how God worked in your life this day. So, you know, fill that out. And we have people that are going to follow up with you on that. So it's been a great day, and I'm so thankful for that. And I'm trusting the Lord just even right now, to plant in your heart and life the decision that you made. I have had the incredible privilege of serving as the women's ministry specialist at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention for ten years. Can you believe that? Such a privilege. Such a privilege. My joy to love you. My joy to serve you. Recently, I have accepted a new position with lifeway christian resources where I will serve as the director of women. And in fact, today is my last day at Arkansas Baptist. And so I am so glad that I got to go out worshiping, singing, praising the Lord with all of you. Tomorrow, I will drive to Nashville, and I will start at life way on Monday. But I want, I want to say a few things. Number one, this day is about more of Jesus, less of me. So we thank the Lord for that theme. Our, what we do here as Arkansas Baptist women, it has never been about one person and it never will be. It is about all of us collectively pursuing Jesus, trusting Jesus, walking arm and arm to the glory of God for kingdom impact. And I want to say a couple of words of thanks to some people in this room who have been at the front of that line, willing to walk alongside of each of us for the coordinators. In fact, I want y'all, if you're in the rooms, I want you to just come stand down front. I didn't tell you we were going to do this. They may be out packing stuff up, but if you're in this room, Lori, sherry, Sarah, Vicki, I want you to come right down here to the front. Come on down. Don't be shy. Come on down. These are your coordinators. These are people who lead teams, who lead initiatives. They do a lot of visioning. They do a lot of planning. They are hands and feet of Jesus to Arkansas Baptist women. And let's just be so thankful for these people. Vicki, come down here. Come down here. All right, so y'all stay right there. Sherry, Edward, our network leader, Sarah Mills, our encouragement ministers wives leader, Laurie Orman, our conference leader. Vicki Lee is our equipping leader for our ministers wives. If you serve on one of these teams, come down here. I want you to come down here. Come quickly. We do not have much time. If you have served on one of these teams in the past, Glenda, Aminette, if you're still in this room, get down here. I'm going to start calling you out. All right, I want you to see the video visual here. I want you to see the visual of all of these women called by God, gifted by God, deployed for kingdom impact right here, both now and in the past. We're so thankful for that. Janet, come down. All right, where are my Arkansas Baptist ladies? Where's Judy Shattucks? Hannah, come on down here. There you are, Judy. Okay, there you are. We have incredible, incredible people at the Arkansas Baptist state convention. They work tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that things like this happen. And we're so very grateful for them. Now, across this room, if you are a women's ministry leader, if you lead women's ministry at your church, I want you to stand up all over this room. We are so grateful for you. [01:30:49] Speaker D: You. [01:30:50] Speaker A: We are so proud of you. We're so thankful for you. The way you lead, the way you serve sometimes we know that people don't tell you thank you. We're here to tell you, stay up. Don't you sit down. We are here to tell you thank you. We love you. I've been on the phone with most of you this week. This week. I'm so grateful for each one of these leaders, y'all out in the lower churches doing the thing. Now, if you are here and you have, oh, goodness. Attended a women's event, an Arkansas baptist women's event. Would you please stand up? This should be everybody in the room. You're at an Arkansas baptist event right now. I know it's 03:00 but listen, you, you, I want you, I want you to hear this from my heart, my friends, you, each one of you have been used by God to make Arkansas Baptist women who we are today. It has never been one person. It has always been all of us loving Jesus, serving Jesus, more of Jesus, less of me. So as I transition out and in God's time, he'll bring somebody new. And we're not going to miss a beat, are we, ladies? We're going to keep loving. We're going to keep serving. We're going to keep sharing. We're going to keep just pursuing Jesus. Now, here's the good news. This is real good news for me. Lifeway is a remote company. So I'm going to live right here in Arkansas. And I, too, will always be an Arkansas Baptist woman. You cannot get rid of me. So I will be at conference, I will be at leadership events. I'll be at Econ. I'll be at annual meeting as my schedule allows. And here's the reason why. You are my family and I love you. And it has been the greatest joy to walk out life with you. So I want this to be said as I close out my time here, I want you to know that God loves you. He sees you, he has a plan for your lives, and you can trust him. You can trust him. So, my sweet friends, let's keep our eyes on the prize of Jesus, and let's live for that. Well done. Are we all in? All in. All in. [01:33:09] Speaker F: It's my turn. I'm Melissa Gastaway, and my husband serves Arkansas Baptist as the team lead for the evangelism and church health team. And when he knew that he was going to be out of state for this day, he texted me and said, hey, is there any way that you can recognize Andrea? And if you know me, you know this is like the worst nightmare right now. Okay? And I'm behind the scenes, but I think he was getting out of it because he just cannot admit this transition is about to happen. And so I think about the past ten years, because that's how long he's been at the convention as well, and our family has served. You have been a wise leader. Very wise. Very genuine. Very genuine. That's probably one of my favorite things. Things about her is she's just gonna say it and it's gonna be funny. You have always looked for the Lord's hand and some of the most difficult situations that we've all been through, and I've watched you do that with so much grace, and you'll always point back and say, jesus has got it. God's got it. He's got it. And you have just been such a blessing as black and b rights, moving people, moving women onto God's agenda. And that's what you have done. You've done it in my life. And I know you've done it in all these ladies lives as well. And as Arkansas Baptists, we're just so thankful for that. You've been. Your words have been like a honeycomb. Sweet, and they've been healing. And then Warren said, and can you think of something special to give her? And I was like, oh, okay. She loves cute jackets. She loves cute jeans. She likes comfortable, cute shoes. But as I was going back in some of our text messages, I'm one of those weird people that keeps them. And I'm looking at all our pictures. It's coffee and it's good food. Okay, we're not talking about Burger King here. Good food and fun times. And so we have a bag of fun things for Nashville. Don't worry. True food kitchens in there. [01:35:43] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:35:44] Speaker F: And I hope when you go to these places, you'll just remember Arkansas Baptist. We love you. We love you so much. We are cheering so loud for you. Come on, let's cheer. We are praying for you. We're praying for Jay during this new season that you're about to enter, that the Lord would protect y'all, that he would continue to have favor on y'all, and that this would just be a new place, a new transition into some new things thinks he's going to do for sure. And so, as I think about that sweet friend, we're so thankful for you. Thank you for serving Arkansas Baptist. [01:36:37] Speaker A: Well, well, I'm going to pray us out. Thank y'all so much. We could tarry all day long, but just know I'm grateful. Ten years ago, I had no idea the ride. And I tried to talk God and Doctor Tucker out of it, but there was no talking either one of them out of it. And today, it's my biggest, greatest blessing. I love you and I thank God for you. And Lord, we thank you for who you are and how you're so faithful to work, Lord, in ways that are beyond what we can see, comprehend, know God, but always in ways that are so good, Lord, so meaningful, so deep, so rich, God. And so we, we say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you for the journey that we've had. Thank you for the journey that is ahead. We know that you are the author and the perfecter. And so, God, we submit our lives to you. We put our yes on the table individually and collectively. Lord, may your will be done. May your kingdom come. And God, I pray for Arkansas Baptist women. I thank you for each woman in this room. I thank you for those that were not able to be in this room but wanted to be. And God, I ask your blessing. I ask your protection. I ask your provision, God. But Lord, I think just what's at the top of my list is that we would be all in with you, your plans and purposes, knowing God, that you're all in with us. And so we say, thank you. Great is thy faithfulness. In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray and all of God's people said, amen. [01:38:16] Speaker E: See you. [01:38:17] Speaker A: Love you all. Thanks for listening. I hope today's episode helps you embrace the full, free, abundant life that Jesus provides. Don't forget to follow, like and subscribe to the Arkansas Baptist Women podcast. If you would like more encouragement to help you grow in your faith, visit our [email protected], abw. Come back next time as we continue to talk about how we can worship, grow, connect, serve and share together. I can't wait to talk to you soon.