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Transcript

She Wakes Breakout Session | Jessica Andrews · Life Community Church

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: Check, check, check, check, check.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: Check.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: Check.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Check game.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: So talk more here.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: More here than here.
• 0:17
  unknown: Okay.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wait, just oh, very good.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hi.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: How is everyone?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: They were making fun of me because I have like 10 different things up here.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, your slides are on your phone, your slides are on your other iPad.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm like, well, my notes are on my computer.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because switching between seemed daunting.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, good morning.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you're here.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Worship was so good.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I could just sit.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I always, when Casey and I talk about worship ever, I'm always like, it's just when we sing like the songs of heaven.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you when you join with the angels when you're singing what they're already singing, it's the best.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, my name is Jess Andrews.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: My mom's here, so I'm gonna say my name is Jessica because that is just like your name is not Jess.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I have been at Life Community about 13 years.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: My husband and I came here and we had known Jamie and Kelly, and just we don't even live in Columbia.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, that's real.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's real commitment.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We are from South County, we live in Oakville, but we've been here for a while.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: We love our church, we love this community.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have three kids.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is where I'm like, and hey, did it go?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't go.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, hey, doing it.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we have three kids.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: My oldest is Graham, he's 12.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's in middle school, it's a whole thing.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my middle is Scout, she's in fifth grade, she's little like fireball, amazing, does not care what people think.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's I'm so thankful.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then my youngest is Zayn, he's seven, and he is adorable.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And just coming into his own.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We have a little dog, his name's Bogey.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: We have three geckos because you need each child needs their own reptile, right?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: My my brother used to breed geckos, and therefore, everyone got one.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so just a little bit about me.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have I got married when I was 30, we had kids, but before that I did a lot of mission work.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So um my mom is here, she's amazing.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: My mom and dad run um, or they started Oasis International.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a um ministry to refugees.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so my whole life, I'm a pastor's kid.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've just always learned about ministry, and ministry is what ministry is.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Ministry is um in the church, and ministry is you know, to help people, and some people have their own ministry, and some people um, and then I when I graduated from high school, I went into um an organization called Youth with a Mission.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh missions organization.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a missionary and doing ministry, and I, you know, it was very like this is my category of what I do.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I got married and I had three kids, and my ministry seemed very different.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was a stay-at-home mom, and with every child that I've had, I've had a big identity crisis a little bit.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone else in the room?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's not just me.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was very like, whoa, everything is different.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like we got married, and I uh I had Graham about a year afterwards.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had uh taught English as a second language at um Afton High School, and I loved my job, and I felt a ton of purpose there.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I had these students who really needed me and loved me, and I would like meet with my principal and get a review, and she'd be like, You're doing great, but here's some things that you can do better.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then I became a stay-at-home mom, and no one told me anything.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, you're like, I had conversations and now I'm home, and this baby just looks at me and he's cute, but also I don't know if I'm doing it right.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I just started to, you know, crave purpose.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in my mind, I didn't have a calling anymore because of no no fault of my parents or church, but the way I grew up, it was ministry and calling was over here.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a few that are called into the ministry because it was very sacred and secular.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: But as I, and again, with every kid, it was a and I would have postpartum, and it was just like this is not this is not a fun, winning, exciting time.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is really, really hard.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like there's gotta be more than just calling and ministry over here.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like God has something for me where I'm at.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I started reading this book.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have I always have a stack of books that I'm reading, but I started, my mother, everyone.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um I started reading this book called Um Praying Circles Around Your Children by Mark Patterson.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um he was just he said, you know, I just I realized I didn't want to be a famous pastor.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be famous in my home.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like when God, when I read that, that God was like, I have called you to be famous here.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've called you to this home, to your children and to your neighborhood.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Will that be enough for you?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, ooh, I don't know.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: A, I don't know my neighbors because I'm only with this baby right now.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: But um it took me on a journey.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um when I decided, okay, so slides, I should do this.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to differentiate between our identity and calling.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So like we have identities, we have a lot of identities.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a mom, I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, I'm a teacher, I we have a lot of things that we do that are a part of our identity.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we're all called.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: We have a calling on our life.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And when God created Adam and Eve, he didn't create them to um, he didn't create them so his life would be easier, right?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: We have a there are a lot of cultures, like when you think about the Greek and the Roman gods, humans were meant to ease the load of the gods because the gods wanted to sit up in wherever they were and eat grapes and not have to do anything.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Our God, the creator of the universe, he wants to partner with us.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: He put Adam and the E Adam and the Eve, Adam and Eve in the garden to cultivate the garden, to work the land, to name the animals.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't just want them to uh like, hey, obey me and shut up and make my life easier.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was a partnership.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what he said was that he wanted them to rule and reign.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the words rule and reign, those that's it's royalty talk, right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: So he's not saying to us, like, you're my servants, you're my slaves, although servanthood is a huge part of Christianity.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I want to partner with you, I have a job for you.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't work if we aren't in it together.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're queens, right?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're queens, there are kings.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um He is here because He has a job for you to do, and it doesn't have to be on a pulpit, on a podcast, on a whatever.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: You are called wherever you are.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think so many times in the world that we live in, we are obsessed with feeling significant, right?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: We are obsessed with someone who has influence, the influencers.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God has given you a place of influence no matter where you are.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your influence, your people that you're called to might be the three little kids for me.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was the three little kids in my home.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was a challenge, but that was where God had me.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't saying, like, hey, I'd like you to raise these kids quickly so you can get on with your ministry.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's not it.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your kids feel that when they're, you know, my mom's just trying to like get me out of the house so she can do her holy work, you know.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so work is a part of what God's called us to.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're kings and queens, um, you're called to work, and you're called to rest.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is another thing in our world that we're not very good at is rest.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you actually Sabbath?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: What's that exactly?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, in the Jewish world where Jesus is Jewish, in the Jewish world, Sabbath was ordained from the very beginning in Genesis, all the way through.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sabbath is a day of rest.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sabbath is integral for your ability to do your calling, for your ability to do work.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Who's been burnt out before?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I all of you, come on.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we've all been burnt out.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't rest, and that's not God's way.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So God implemented calling, work, and rest.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um 1 Peter 2 9 says we're a royal priesthood and a chosen people, a holy nation.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: He also says we're a peculiar people.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, sometimes the ways of God look strange to the rest of the world.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like rest is not one of those things.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think we as Americans often um feel a lot of pride in our busyness, like you wouldn't believe.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I have 75 games this weekend between my four kids.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be at all of them.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I won't even sleep, and I'll love it.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, you don't.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You don't even love it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lie.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I think we have this pride in I'm so busy and that makes me important.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that makes you burnt out later.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that again, that's not God's way.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So um, because we're a royal priesthood, the best thing about not the I don't know, I'm not royalty, but I am in the Lord.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: But when you when you hear about royalty and how sometimes these kids and grandkids they don't necessarily have the closest relationships with their parents, but they do have access.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we have access to the creator of the universe because we're his chosen people, because we're his queens, because we are his princesses.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we combine royalty, ruling with God, and priesthood with serving God.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have the ability.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the priests in the Old Testament were commissioned by God to serve him.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: They had a special duty.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: We all have a special duty.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: We have a special job.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are called wherever we are to serve him.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Tim Keller calls work rearranging.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love this, rearranging the raw material of God's creation in such a way that it helps the world in general and people in particular to thrive and flourish.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you want that for yourself and for your friends and for your kids and for your family?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see them thrive and flourish, not because they have some um spiritual uh task, but because they know the creator of the universe.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I want them to thrive and flourish because they know their calling, they know their identity in Christ.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So God's call us to work and cultivate our land where God has you.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So right now in my life, I am a preschool teacher.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't always seem very um spiritual.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's at a little Christian preschool, but there, I mean, I'm blowing a lot of noses here.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of miss jazz, miss jazz, miss jazz.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I love it.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: But there are days where I'm like, this is not Lord, I was a missionary.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, are you kidding me?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like it there are other things that seem more spiritual.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: But God has called you, and He called this is how He commissioned the disciples.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I can't read backwards.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28 says to all of us, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this sounds really churchy and spiritual and theology-ish, but it's not.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's basic.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of verbs there.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Go, make disciples, baptize, teach.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: He promises that his presence and his spirit will be with us wherever we go to do whatever he asks us to do.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we need to just take that mandate and say, okay, I'm called.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, God, how do I do this for real?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I'm called to go and make disciples, but I'm just with these three and four-year-old preschoolers.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: They don't understand the gospel.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they sure do.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a piece of their heart that longs to know the creator.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Every single person has a desire to feel loved, to belong.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So every single person that you meet, you have an opportunity to offer them that.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're not necessarily giving them the gospel in four points every time you see them.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking with Cindy Rodriguez last night, and she goes, you know what?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just a smile.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just need to let someone know that you see them.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: We go about our days a lot of times, and we don't even look people in the eye.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Someone's making us our coffee and we pay, we move on.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how much it means to someone to just say, hey, how are you?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: How's it going?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Have like a two-second conversation.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: People are people.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: People want to be acknowledged, people want to be valued, and you are called to do that.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: You are called and equipped.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: God says He's with you wherever you go, wherever you go.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been in your hair lady's chair before?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or you're a hair lady stylist, I mean.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I worked at hair lady, it's not the right word.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I worked at Studio Bronco with Jodi for about eight years, and I was the front desk person.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I love I love a salon day.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But sitting in the chair, I was I was captive to whatever this kind person was going to say to me.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there were days where just their love and kindness and presence was so encouraging to me.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not like they were like, let's do a devotional right now, Jess, while your hair's processing.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, that wasn't happening.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it was eye contact, it was touch, it was kindness, it was genuine interest in my life.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do for what do you do for a living?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Are you a chiropractor?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you know exactly what I'm talking about.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're able to feel and sense things, and you get to bring healing along with it.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there are times where it's like you're doing that intake with your patient, and it's physical, but there are so many spiritual, emotional things that happen in that intake where you're able to bring encouragement, and you you also in your line of work, you also get to say, like, hey, but also you need to stretch, you know, like we can do this here, but you need to stretch.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we all have ability wherever we are.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um is it gone?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so now that you know you're called, how can we cultivate the calling he has for us right where we are?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes we don't like the seasons of our life.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone else?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: See?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Honesty.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, every kid that I had, it was like I had this period where I was like, this is hard, I don't like it.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm not good at this, my pants don't fit.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: This is terrible.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think it's okay.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be honest with the Lord and say, God, this season of life is really, really challenging.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what to do.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how to do it, and I don't know.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's not into like, he's not a PR guy where he's trying to like spin it for you.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, but if you do this over here and shine it up, you know, it might be great.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's okay with you being honest.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Life is not the Christian life, it is not about avoiding suffering.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: You look at the life of Jesus, he set his face toward the cross for us.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: He and he said, I don't want to God, but I'll do it.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your will be done.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: But if it if it's possible, take this cup from me.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do it.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are seasons of life that are very hard.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have had to care for a parent or have had to care for someone that was you know sick and suffering?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not easy, it's not anything that you would pick.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can God give you joy in that season?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Can God give you purpose in that season?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: But there are some times, some seasons in our life that are painful, that are just difficult.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to lie to the Lord and be like, thanks, God, this is great.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, you can you can be honest.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: God, this is hard.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like it.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I know that you're good, and I know that you are going to be with me.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: That is always the promise.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: He will be with you wherever you go, and he will equip you for whatever you need to do.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I already talked about this.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I probably should have put this up in the front, but we talk about sacred and secular a lot.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my dad gave me this book a long time ago, and um it's the sweetest.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: My my dad's and my mom, they're like the best people ever.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they're always what I love about them is I have seen them grow their whole life.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're not the same.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: They allow the Lord to work in their lives and change their hearts all the time.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: All the time.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So my dad gave me this book, and it's Oceola McCarty's Simple Wisdom for Rich Living.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this woman, I believe she's in her 90s now.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: She may have passed, but she was a laundress, and she did laundry from the age of eight and into her 80s by hand.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And she did, I think in the book she does talk about how eventually she gave into a machine and didn't do as good of a job.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you're like, oh my gosh.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: But she talks about how um work, the work that God gave her to do was a blessing.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, none of us are going, I mean, when I think about laundry, I want to die.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, it never goes away.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is eternal.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: As Jesus, so is laundry.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm sorry, Lord, I should never compare it to you to laundry.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But um I just want to read a little excerpt for you about her.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: The way she just her whole first chapter is called work.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are responsible for the way we use our time on this earth.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to be a good steward.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I start each day on my knees saying the Lord's Prayer, then I get busy about my work.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: I get to cleaning or washing, and I find that my life and my work are increasing all the time.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed beyond what I hoped.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Every now and then we would get tired of the routine of washing clothes.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: We would sing or tell stories.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we went to the soda fountain or to a movie for entertainment.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: The change of pace always did me good.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: But she never despised the work.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes in our honesty, we get to a point where we're like, I hate this.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm over this.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is not um, it's not serving, it's not serving me.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: That phrase is all the rage right now.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is it serving you?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is it serving you?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know what?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're to serve other people.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Our job is to serve others.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: If we are, if all of us are constantly talking about what doesn't serve us, nothing ever gets done.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're self-centered people.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she also talks about the importance of community.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think that all people are equal, but that doesn't mean that all people should have the same things.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think the Lord intends for everybody to have the same.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some have more and some have less.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's no cause to get jealous.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can have what you are willing to work and sacrifice for.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: But if somebody has more, that is no cause to think hard of that person.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: You have to learn to accept what you have.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Building community is not that hard.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: It just takes ordinary friendliness.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: The woman who took me to the doctor when my arthritis got bad is a checkout person at my grocery store.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: When she helped me with my groceries all those years, we spoke.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't stand there looking at the floor or the ceiling.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: We became acquainted.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And in our world where we never have to have an awkward moment because we can pull out our phone, where we never have to take a step into someone else's space to see if they're okay, we have to we have to realize that we're on mission everywhere that we go.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're on mission and have the opportunity and the blessing and the privilege to be Jesus to somebody else who doesn't know him.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just did a little bit of research, and we have a lot.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: My parents work with refugees, but we have a lot of people in the St.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Louis and in Illinois area who they're from other countries.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: They've they may or may not know the name of Jesus, or they may or may not only see Christians as the people who are protesting and telling other people they're terrible.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: They have may only know Christians as what they see on TV, and that is not how I would like to be portrayed.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um Revelation talks about people from every tribe and tongue and language worshiping Jesus.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not um trying to have a room of people that all look the same.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: He does not want people who all speak the same language.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: He deserves, he's the creator, he deserves the praise of all people.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he desires that.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: He desires people from every country who speak every language.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever been in a worship service where there are people who are worshiping in another language, but it's the most beautiful thing you've ever experienced because it's a taste of heaven.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: So your encounters with people who don't look like you reverberate back.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Your encounter with the person here might cause them to have a phone call with someone in their home country that says, Mom, I just met this Christian person.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were so nice to me.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't what I thought it was gonna be.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been taught A, B, C, or D, and it was different.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes we feel like the world is really hard and we have to get away.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's all the rage to have a homestead and to like go, and there's nothing wrong with being going away.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I think sometimes we feel like the world is a scary place and we have to get away from it.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not God's way.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is not the way of Jesus.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus made paths through Samaria, the hard place, the place where people would throw rocks at the Jews, what hated them, hated them, and he went through on purpose.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes, yes, it's important to get away with the Lord and have solitude and all of those things, but we can't run away constantly when the world is difficult.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Esther was born into a time that was very, very difficult.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, You were called for such a time as this.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: You were here, your kids, your family were born into this time on purpose.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid and don't run away.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um so what does it mean to cultivate?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I was looking into farming, which is not what I do normally, um, and I like to like plant flowers and whatever, but cultivating land is different.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of, it's on a larger scale, but I I really love that it was broken down just into simple things.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um I haven't referenced this yet, but Garden City is I got a few few things from this book.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: John Mark Comer wrote it, and he just talks about how God has called us.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're always trying to go back to Eden, the Garden of Eden, but also that God created community.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just a garden, but it's a garden city.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a job, everyone has a role.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's important that you know that your calling is in your job, is in your work, is wherever he's called you to be.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to know what season of life it is for us.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Are you in a season of life where um you're a stay-at-home mom and your kids are little and you're just trying to function and find the joy in it?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: And there's I love my kids.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's joy with children all the time, you know.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's hard.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Those those seasons with littles, little bitty littles is difficult.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So know the season you're in and ask God, God, what are you doing with me in this time?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: What do you have for me during this time?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um too many things.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, soil.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot about growing and soil in the Bible.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting because you're like, Jesus was a carpenter, like he wasn't tilling the land, but um God talks about seed that falls on soil.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: So as you're talking, as you're thinking about cultivating your calling, you have to know what your heart soil is like.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have soil that is ready to hear from the Lord?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Are you constant?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are you in the word of God regularly?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you that's how you have good soil.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're hearing the word of the Lord and you're doing what it says.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are you prepared?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what he's saying?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of us, so this is part of my preschool class.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's a book called Pumpkin Jack, and you um carve a pumpkin and then you put you seal it in here, and it gets real nasty and moldy, but the kids are like, that's amazing.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then it grows a pumpkin.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty cool.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: You really don't have to do much with it.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: But um I just wanted you to see like there's soil in here, but it's not the greatest soil.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I haven't done anything with it yet.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the depth here is struggling.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I need to repot it, don't I?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's just kind of sitting on top.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can see there's a lot of seeds just on top.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there are times where God moves us to different ground.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like the church.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like the church is growing, we have to move.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: We need space.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: This needs more space to grow.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes we're God is asking us to have a little bit more depth than we have.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're all on a journey in our faith.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we're just getting that like one-minute devotional, maybe while we're going to the bathroom.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's real life.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but sometimes God's calling you to a season of greater depth where you're gonna be studying, where you're gonna be looking into his word a little bit more, where you're gonna be asking God, search me, Lord, and know my heart.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Show me if there's anything that I'm sinning against you.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Show me my heart, God.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he might ask you to go a little bit deeper.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: You might need to be repotted into a different spot.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um organic matter.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need fertilizer.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: So fertilizer stinks, doesn't it?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like manure.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there are things that come into our life that are messy, but therefore are growth and are good.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there was a time growing up that my mom and or my mom invited this girl to live with us.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she was older, like I was in like 18, and she was in her early 20s.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I did not like her.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: There was nothing wrong with her, but it was taking attention away from me.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: But she was awesome, she loved the Lord, she was great, but it was it was compost coming into my life that that made me grow.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: It made me see my heart.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I do not like not having all the attention in my own home.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I am not a fan of this person.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes things come into our life.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, sometimes we have to add it ourselves.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have to add, it's just like working out.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: We have to do the hard thing, we have to drink wheatgrass shots or whatever.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, I mean, you know, we do a lot of gross, difficult things to look good.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's true.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many spoonfuls of collagen do I need to put in my coffee so I don't have wrinkles?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: A lot.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we have to add things into our lives to help us to grow.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have to take things out.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, after we after we add the the organic matter, God, we're always tilling the ground.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: God's always gently, he's a gentle God.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels like your heart's being ripped out, but he is gentle.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: He is a gentleman, and he he always asks permission.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I feel like I need to say that, but God is a God who asked for consent and he asked for permission.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: He asked to um, hey Jess, will you let go of this?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you don't want to, but I'm asking you to, and it's for your good.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's very, very hard and very, very painful.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: But he is a good God and he is a gentleman.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes tilling means you need to go talk to someone.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: I am a huge believer in counseling.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have the Holy Spirit, and he is the the counselor.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: He is our uh the Greek word, I believe, is paraclete, and it's someone who walks alongside of us, and that's who the Holy Spirit is.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes God, the Bible talks about godly counsel all the time.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is please go to counseling.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Please, if you need counseling, go to counseling.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you need the chiropractor, go to the chiropractor.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you need the doctor, go to the doctor.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid to get deep.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid to let God go to some challenging places.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love counseling.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone many, many times.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, watering.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was supposed to put water in there.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Water your plant.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Pretend there's water in my picture.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um watering is so important, and watering can be so many different things.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are you watering?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you in a church?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are you in a small group?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Are you studying the Bible?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have good community?
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have people who are pouring into your life?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have people who are going to tell you, I was a miss.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you do that?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Please, like, your good friends who love you, not people who are gonna nitpick you, but accountability is important.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, removing the rocks.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: What has God asked you to remove?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, sometimes we can be really legalistic about these things where we're like, I'm not, I'm never gonna do this again.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: In the 80s, I don't know if anybody was in the church, but like we burned our secular CDs a lot, and then we would buy them again.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit though.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are things that God might ask you to remove from your life for a time, and that's okay.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, when you remove rocks, even pretty ones, even things that are cute and whatever, it's for a time, but it's for your good because you want your soil to be good, because you want your heart to be cultivated, because you have a calling on your life that will affect other people.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm running out of time.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: I how is that possible?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the Bible talks a lot about giftings and callings and you know, jobs.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are jobs, there's apostles, there's preachers, there's teachers, there's um there's a spiritual gifts test.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do it, see what, see how your personality lines up with those things in the Bible.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I already said this.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: There are five billion people who don't know Jesus in the world.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to partner with us, he wants to be a part, he wants you to be a part of you recognizing your calling so those people are reached.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this I just don't want to miss out on this.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we believe a lot of lies as women sometimes that we're not good enough, or I'm I'm not enough, or what I'm doing is whatever.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, social media ruins everything.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I just want you to think about, we're gonna take just a few minutes to repent and confess.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Confession and repentance, the Bible says confess your sins one to another so that you may be healed.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: So when we confess to each other, I don't like my calling right now.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like it.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm running away from my calling.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I'm supposed to do, but I'm running away.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do it.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or I don't know what my calling is, I don't know how to bring Jesus into conversations in my life.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: When we confess, lies lose their power.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy loves to manipulate and control.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, the battlefield is always our mind.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: What we're believing.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you believing a lie?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna take just a few minutes, and I'll play a song so it doesn't seem awkward.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to take time to talk to the Lord, and I want you to take a minute if you need to confess to your friend, or you want to say it out loud, I don't care.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: However, you do it.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: But when we repent and we confess, we can move forward.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Repenting means you turn away, you turn away from your sin and you go in another direction.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we're just gonna take some time.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you I'm I'm gonna pray at the end that God would renew and spark a fire wherever you are, that you can say, God, I am so excited to go to my job at wherever, because I have something in me that I am gonna share with the front desk lady.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna share it with the coffee lady.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna smile at the grocery worker.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: So wherever, wherever you are in that journey, so God, as we take this time to just be quiet before you, Lord, would you show us where we can repent?
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Would you show us what we can confess?
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: And God, would you show us how to turn away and move in the other direction?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just take a minute.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: God, I just thank you for these women.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I just thank you that you know their names, you know their faces, and you have a plan.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: You have a plan for their life exactly where they are.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, God, we give you permission to speak to us.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: We give you permission to show us where we have missed it, where we've despised the place where we are, the calling that you have for us.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we ask that you would ignite a passion in our heart to do what you've called us to do, to go and make disciples, to love the lost.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: God, we're so grateful that you would partner with us, just like you did with Adam and Eve.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: God, help us to cultivate a garden city.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to see the ways that we can bring life and love and joy to the people around us.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I thank you for the lives that will be touched because these women say yes to you.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Any questions?
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Does anybody have anything that they want to share that God may have said to you?
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Does anyone feel empowered to go back to their place of calling?
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're just missed.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much, guys.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, thank you.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like I had another bottle of water in here and the tea.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you know that.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like here, your hands perfect.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's not it.