Young Women_What I Wish I Knew Then_a Message with Rhonda Stoppe

Young Women_What I Wish I Knew Then_a message with Rhonda Stoppe. 

Due to laryngitis I had to cancel my interview scheduled to air today. But I think this timely message will be a great substitute as I share from my heart all the insights to help young women step into adulthood with their eyes fixed on Jesus. 

Quote: "May His Word stir in your heart a passion to become all that He has planned for you to be from before the foundations of this world!"

Rhonda taught this message at an intimate outdoor young women's tea party for her home church's young adult ladies. 

Note: You'll hear a rooster crowing in the distance (repeatedly). But I feel like the rooster's crow only adds to the quaintness and intimacy of this event. 

Books Mentioned: Real Life Romance by Rhonda Stoppe (Harvest House Publishers). 

Please listen and SHARE with the young women in your life.

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"This podcast is for the purpose of mentoring only and is not a replacement for therapy. We suggest you seek out the help of a trained biblical counselor for help with your specific situation.”

Transcript

Rhonda Stoppe [00:00:01]:
Yeah. Competing with the rooster. Hope for an extraordinary life or how ordinary women live extraordinary lives. I I don't know how many of you ever read biographies about people that have lived and gone before you, but there are some incredible stories. And wave at me if you can't hear me if I get too quiet. There are some incredible historical accounts of ordinary women that God used in history, in their time to accomplish extraordinary things and to influence the world and their culture in an extraordinary way. And some of them just were simple. You think of Mary.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:00:47]:
She was 14 years old, probably around that age when God asked her to be the mother of his son. How incredible is that? An ordinary woman on an ordinary day, engaged to an ordinary man, and God reached down and chose her to be the mom of his son. I love knowing that story because oftentimes we think, oh, I'm just too young for God to use me yet. I'm gonna wait till I'm older. I'm gonna wait till I'm established. And and the reality is you guys are the perfect age for God to use you in incredible ways. The the things that God has accomplished so often, you know, Paul told the, Timothy, don't let anybody despise your youth. And you have to understand, in history, God has turned the world upside down through women who in their youth, in their younger years, gave everything they had for Christ.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:01:43]:
One of the stories that I I think of is Betty Scott Stamm. She was a woman who trusted God in the details of her life, and she was raised by Chinese missionary parents. She came back to The States. She went to Moody, and she met her husband, John. I think his name was John Stamm. And they decided, yeah, John, they were gonna go to China as missionaries together, and they did. And they had a little girl in 1934. Her name was Helen.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:02:08]:
But as soon as they got there, they had only been there a short time, and the Chinese communist came in and arrested them. And they marched them through the streets of China to their death. And she had her brand new little baby hidden, and they spent the night in a farmhouse. The farmer that had lived there had evacuated when the, communists were coming. And in that farmhouse, she wrapped her baby in a blanket and put some diapers in there and two $5 bills and left it with a note for someone to take care of her baby. And the next morning, she and her husband were marched into the streets and beheaded in front of everyone in China that was watching them stand for Christ. So why start off with such a terrible story? Well, because the influence that this woman's life had. She wrote before she left before she left to go serve the lord, her prayer in her bible said this, Lord, I give up my own plans and purposes, all my desires, hopes, and ambitions.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:03:09]:
I accept your will for my life. I give up myself, my life, my all utterly to thee to be thine forever. When we consecrate ourselves to God, this is Betty talking, we think we're making a great sacrifice and doing lots for him, but when really when really we are only letting go of some little bitsy trinkets we have been grabbing, When our hands are empty, he fills them full of his treasures. Betty Stamm had stayed at the home of a pastor, when she was a young woman, and this Betty had made an influence on their daughters. And she had actually sent a bible back to their daughter, after she had had left their home and they had stayed in contact. And that young girl that she connected with was Elizabeth Elliot. Elizabeth Elliott was a woman who ended up marrying Jim Elliott, and they went to the Ecuadorian jungle. And Jim Elliott ended up losing his life when he was sharing the gospel to the Ecuadorian tribes.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:04:10]:
But it was Betty Stamm's story and Betty Stamm's influence that gave Elizabeth Elliot courage when she lost her husband for the sake of the gospel. And if you know anything about these women's stories, the loss that they incurred shines so brightly their testimony of hope. After Jim Elliott and the other two missionaries passed away, it became a floodgate of people wanting to go to the mission field to share the gospel. Sometimes our trial is not about us. And sometimes, God uses the highs and the lows of our lives in ways that we never could have imagined. God says he wants to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or imagine. Everybody in our life, everybody wants our life to count for something. Maybe you just wanna be a a good friend, a good mom, a good woman, a good maybe whatever it is.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:05]:
We want our lives to count. I mean, just look at social media and you see people are like, look up here. Look up here. I'm I'm important. I matter. My life is important. Look. I can get into my zero size skinny jeans one month after my baby was born.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:18]:
I am somebody. All the things that we see on social media that people are, like, trying to say I matter. And it's more obvious in your generation than it ever was in mine or Karen's. We just had to deal with mean girls on campus at high school. You guys deal with mean girls scrolls. You deal with all comparing yourself even though you know what you're seeing isn't real. Their their lives aren't that perfect, they aren't always that happy, it still affects the psyche and the mental capacity. And there is a huge influence of depression, of loneliness.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:52]:
This is the most connected generation in all of history, and it's the loneliest. Why is that? Because the relationships, the friends that we have aren't real. We're not being real with each other. And that's where you guys get to have this place to connect, a place to be genuine, and a place to be real. But today, I want you guys to know there is a way to live the extraordinary life that God has planned for you, the abundant life that Jesus promises. So I'm gonna unpack, some principles from, the acrostic of the word hope. So you guys have your papers right there. And the first one is the h is hope in his steadfast love.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:06:37]:
Hope in his steadfast love. Psalm thirty three eighteen says, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love. He wants us to hope in who he is and in his love for us. He wants us to understand how genuinely he loves us. So often it's easy to think about God says he loves me. I believe it, but we don't really sit in the idea. And some of you are moms. And when you're a mom or an aunt of a child that you adore or a grandmother, you're captivated by that child.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:07:14]:
Even when that child has snotty boogers and they come up and wanna hug from you, you hug that child. And you you adore them and you love them in spite of those terrible two tantrums or whatever those things are. And that's just a a glimpse of how steadfastly God loves us. We can hope in his steadfast love for us. So the scripture that I'm gonna keep referring back to is Psalm 90. Where is it? Yeah. We, I lost it. Oh, there it is.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:07:49]:
We live our lives as a tale that is told. Psalm 99. We live our lives as a tale that is told. You're writing a story. Every choice that you make, every every thing that you devote your time and attention to, every yes you say to something and no you say to something else, there's a story of your life that's being written. I'm gonna be 64 years old in May, May first. '60 '4. It's a long life.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:08:17]:
Right? One more year till Medicare. But you look back on your life through the highs and the lows of your life, and you realize that God's writing a story through your life if you let him. And I know the woman I would be without Christ, ladies. I know I mean, I just I had this I had the saddest day yesterday because it was my sister's birthday, and she would have turned 65 yesterday. She died of an overdose in 2021, and it was I was at a bible study online, and my niece, her daughter, texted me a picture of me holding my niece as a newborn and my sister with her arm around me, and it just it just wrecked my heart. But we both had the same opportunities. We both were raised in a Christian home. My dad put us in Christian schools.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:09:06]:
My dad exposed us to the gospel. My dad gave us opportunities to follow Christ, and we made choices. And my sister wasn't a drug addict that was on the back streets homeless somewhere. She was a multimillionaire film producer, highly successful in the world's eyes. And the more success she gained, the more miserable she became because the things of earth cannot satisfy that longing of our heart because God created each of us to find our worth in his adoration for us. And when we run around trying to find it from everyone else, people will never measure up to our expectations, and that's really an idolatry. An idolatrous heart says, I'll just be happy if I could just get a husband that will adore me. I'll just be happy if my kids would just look good so I look good.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:09:51]:
I'll I'll just be happy if I could get that dream job. I could get that car. I could get that fill in the blank. None of those things will make us happy. And I'm telling you, watching my sister have $25,000,000 in the bank and watching it take her down a path of self destruction was the best learning experience for me and for my kids that we ever could have had because the things of this earth will never satisfy the longings of our heart. But we live our life as a tale that's been told. What is the story that's gonna be told about you? When you look back on your life, what are the high I mean, I I know my kids think I'm crazy. I get that.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:10:28]:
But they also know I love Jesus, and they know that I love them. And that little bit crazy that they always say, mom's a little bit crazy. I'll take it. But I know I know that they know that that without Christ, there's nothing in me that wouldn't be like everybody in my family. I come from a long line of addictions. I come a long line of divorce. There is nothing in me that would have made any different choice except Christ in me, the hope of glory. And that's the story of my life.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:10:56]:
And that's the story that God wants to write through your life. So I don't know how many of you have read this book. I love this book. This is my favorite book I've ever written because it is just love stories that are just unbelievable. But I wanna write since since we're here together and we're talking about writing the story of our lives, I'm gonna read a little bit of Steph and Kayla's love story. And I'm not gonna tell you all the part. It's super funny when Steph's trying to tell Steve he wants to date Kayla and Steve, like, literally tortures the poor boy. Tragedy strikes.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:11:26]:
At school, Kayla and Estevan spent every break together and enjoyed meeting for lunch. Estevan was happy to have the cute little blonde on campus because she was at homeschooled until this year and made it a point to walk her to each class. Estevan was very attractive and well known on campus, so the girls couldn't help but notice how much attention he was paying to the new girl. Many were surprised when Kayla explained how she and Estevan cared for each other, but were choosing to remain sexually pure until marriage. One day Estevan's mother died without warning. Kayla and Stef I'm gonna say Stef. They made me write Estevan because I Steve is in here too, and they're like, it's too confusing. Kayla and Stef were with some friends after school when he got the call.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:12:06]:
His father was working at a town, so Steb called Steve to meet him at home where his brother had found their mother. Amid Esteban's heart wrenching experience, Steve and I watched him press into his relationship with Christ, looking to Jesus in his grief. I remember telling Steve, how often do you get to watch the young man who loves your daughter walk through the biggest trial of his life? Steb was 17, 16, maybe 16. He was writing the Lord was writing a story through that tragedy in his life. Sometimes your trial is not about you. Sometimes your trial validates your testimony to a watching world. Steb was on that public high school campus, and he was a high profile, like, I don't even know what he would like, he did pep rallies. He was the guy that you know, he was deaf.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:12:51]:
And and and I remember right after his mom passed away in August, right, in September, he was nominated for homecoming king. And one of the things they have at Patterson High School for homecoming king is they have your mom escort you on homecoming rally. Sweet boy. And he came to me and goes, I know you're not my mom or anything, but would you escort me? He did not get mad at God that his mom died. He chose to press into his relationship with Christ, press into purity and not take my daughter to bed because forget you, God. I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do because you obviously don't care about me. He kept his eyes on Christ. And his his trial became a testimony because we're writing a story.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:13:42]:
You live our lives as a tale that's been told. What story will be told about you? After they got married, the foundation in Christ that Kayla and Estevan had built in their relationship was what carried them through the loss of their baby. They ached not being able to hold their little one in their arms, but they celebrated his or her entrance into God's kingdom. That Christmas, Estevan and Kayla sent out a Christmas card to help others understand their story. The card read, after five months of trying, we were able to conceive. We were thankful to have had the opportunity to hear our sweet baby's heartbeat twice. When at Kayla's twelve week checkup, we were unable to locate the heartbeat. We learned our baby had stopped growing.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:14:27]:
We were shocked and very sad, but the Lord gave us such a peace and joy through the whole process. We were so encouraged by the fact that our baby is with our Lord. Our end goal as parents is that each of our children comes to know and love God and accept salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this just means that our little one has passed bypassed all of that and is directly in the presence of our Lord. We're so overwhelmed by the love and support of our family and church family through the entire process. The Lord has revealed so much to us about his character through this. He taught he has taught us to trust him more and to have more of an eternal perspective. God has been so gracious to us.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:15:11]:
We also started helping with the college ministry in our church, and we're loving it. Such a great group that really knows really wants to know truth. We're praying the Lord would use us to spread the gospel more people in this age group in our town. Overall, this year has been such an encouraging, exciting, growing, trying, blessed, and peaceful time. Our marriage has been built up in Christ. That went that letter, that card went out to all of the people they worked with, the non believers. That testimony went out, and they live their life as a tale that's been told. It wasn't long after that that, Meredith I'm trying to remember the timing.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:15:49]:
I can't remember if Ivy was born before or after that. During that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Meredith got pregnant, had an ectopic pregnancy, living in a guy's dorm on at Master's University, and that was a huge traumatic thing if you know anything about ectopic pregnancies. Is the baby alive? Is the baby dead? It's in your fallopian tubes. Do we have to eliminate this pregnancy? I don't wanna eliminate this pregnancy.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:16:13]:
Doctor, can you tell me if the baby's dead or alive? No. We can't tell, but flippantly, just just eliminate the baby. You can try again. Meredith's like, what? And then they found a a precious Christian doctor that did a four d ultrasound in Meredith's fallopian tube and could see the baby had been had deceased and it was decaying. So it was it had already passed. So they had to they had to do whatever you do when you have an ectopic pregnancy. And then Charis comes to her mommy, and Charis says they had to tell Charis that they lost the baby. And and Charis goes like this.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:16:47]:
She was three. And then she goes like this, and she grabs Meredith's arms, and she goes, but you will hold it in heaven, like a three year old. Like, they didn't tell her that. She just knew that. And then Caris started praying for her mommy to get pregnant with twins. And guess what happened? Her mommy got pregnant with twins. And guess what happened? They didn't survive, and they're in heaven. And then Meredith got pregnant with another baby.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:17:11]:
And we were all so excited finally after Kayla had had that miscarriage and after Meredith had had the ectopic pregnancy and all the things. He and we we go to the emergency I'm sorry. The, what do you call it? Labor delivery room, and we go in. We converge on the the room, and Jake stops us. And he goes, hang on. Something's wrong with Ivy. Something we didn't expect. And Ivy if you know Ivy, she has something called golden heart syndrome.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:17:33]:
It was completely unexpected until she was born. And the doctor told Meredith, I'm so sorry I didn't catch this in your pregnancy because you could have basically eliminated the pregnancy. And Meredith's like, we would have done nothing differently. And Meredith and Jake had to process. They said she was deaf. She wasn't. Praise God. They had a it's a syndrome, so there was a lot of things that come up.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:17:54]:
She's had four or five surgeries already. She'll face more, so pray for Ivy. And then I was at their house. They're they're again living on campus. Jake's brother died in a motorcycle accident that year. Jake was going to seminary. Then Jake's also taking care of all these guys living in the dorm. Elijah was one of them.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:18:10]:
And all of this is going on, and then they bring this baby home. And these boys from the dorm converge on them, and they're so excited to welcome Ivy home. And then they all watch Meredith and Jake process this less than expected situation. We live our lives as a tale that's been told. And a lot of these young men, they were going to bible college. Some of them ended up going to seminary. But do you know what they learned while they watched Jake and Meredith go through this? They learned that they pressed in and they trusted the Lord even when life didn't make sense. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:18:46]:
Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. They learned more watching Jake process the death of his brother, process their losses, process Ivy's diagnosis, than they ever would have learned just going through their bible college books. It was a life lesson that God taught them, and Elijah was one of them. Elijah got to watch them live their marriage. And the thing that kept going through my mind as Meredith and Jake were going through this was the Bible said about the apostles that they went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the gospel. And now some of you are going, okay. You're talking about a lot of suffering and a lot of pain, a lot of bad stuff that I don't want to happen in my life.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:19:27]:
So if that's what trusting God's gonna get me, then I ain't gonna do it. Guess what? This is life for all of us. Life comes with highs. Life comes with lows. And the only safe place you will find yourself is in the center of God's will for your life. I mean, think about the children of Israel when they converged on the promised land and they were supposed to go in and the spies came back and dug, no, there's giants there. You don't wanna go in there. And the safest place for them would have been to go in and fight those giants because god was calling him to it and he would have given them victory.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:19:58]:
But they weighed out the cost. They counted the cost and they said, no. Thank you. And they spent the next forty years wandering in the wilderness because they didn't trust God. The safest place we find ourselves is in the center of God's will for our lives. And that's the safest place we find our children is in the center if you're if you have kids. So hope in the in his steadfast love. Number two is open his word.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:20:21]:
Understanding God through his word, Isaiah fifty five six. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Open his word. To know God and to understand who he is, you can't figure it out on your own. And there's a scripture where Jesus where God talks to the children of Israel to the people and he goes, you thought I was all together like you. Like, don't assign your idea of what god's like to my character. You don't know me.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:20:51]:
But god said, I want you to know me. I mean, think about it. The creator of heaven and earth wants us to know who he is, wants us to know his character. Why? Because the way you fall in love with someone is to know their character. Right? And God didn't say blindly follow me blind you know, Jesus said the priority of life is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, your whole being. But God didn't say just just love me, try harder. He said, I'm gonna show you who I am so that you love me for who I am, not for who you perceive me to be. And in the Bible, I've got I gave you a whole page on the names of God.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:21:31]:
We can go back through scriptures and we can go, what did David do? What did what did Sarah do? What did Elijah do? What did but but the reality is if you go back to all those familiar bible stories that you know so well and you can say, what did God do? How did God reveal his character? To Moses, he said, I am Yahweh. I am that I am. To, Elohim, he said that it first appears when he was when he created us. Adonai, he's lord, he's master. Jehovah Jireh, he's our provider. So I want you to keep this page. We're not gonna go over it right now, but keep this page. This is the God who loves you.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:22:09]:
This is the God who says, you can trust me. This is who I am. This is who I've revealed myself to be down through the ages. And when life doesn't make sense, I make sense. And he's the only one that can take all things and cause them to work together for good. The only one. And he doesn't do that for everyone. Only those who are called to his purpose.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:22:33]:
Only those who are his. God isn't responsible to make everything work out for people that reject him. But the safest place you can be is under the loving care of the almighty God who knows you by name, who sent his son to purchase you for his treasure. The greatest treasure God had was the precious blood of his very own son. And he sent him and he held back and did not rescue him, and he let him shed his blood and die for our sins. And then he raised him again three days later. And he offers to each and every one of us a relationship with him. The God of creation knows your name.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:23:16]:
There's a scripture where David says, who am I, oh god, that you should know my name? And what is my family that you have brought me thus far? You guys, I would have ruined my family. I would have ruined my marriage. I would have I would have harped on that poor man to give me everything that I thought he should give me to make me happy. I would have made him miserable. That's my that's my upbringing. That's that's my familiar. You know how some of the you guys, we've done, premarital counseling with some of you, and it's like, what is your what is your normal? That's my normal that you it's your job to make me happy. And if you don't, there will be hell to pay.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:23:49]:
That's who I would have been without Christ in me, the hope of glory. That's the marriage I would have destroyed. That's the children I would have raised for what you think of me. I want you to think better of me so my kids better shape up and do right so that I look good to you. I'm a people pleaser from way back. I'm a middle child people pleaser, and I would have lived to please everyone else and I would have ruined my family. That's who I am without Christ. But he reached into my life, and he rescued me from who I would have made myself be.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:24:22]:
Who am I, oh god, that you know my name? And what is my family that you brought me thus far? What are my children that even wanna live in the same town that we live in? That my grandkids wanna hang out with in spirit. That's not my heritage. That's Christ in me, the hope of glory. We live our lives as a tale that is told. What story are you writing? I love in Philippians three eight. Paul says, indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. So we had hope in his steadfast love, open his word. Let me stop here before I go back to that.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:25:11]:
So open his word. Here's the thing. Mary and Martha. Right? We all know their story. Mary's busy sitting at Jesus' feet. Martha's in the kitchen doing all the things. Right? And I'm a Mary. I'm like, I I gladly sit there then have to go figure stuff out in the kitchen because I'm gonna break or burn something anyway.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:25:26]:
But Martha is getting irritated that Mary's not in there helping her. And she's, like, have have you ever had an argument in your head? Like, you're literally so mad at somebody and you're just, like, waiting to tell them something, but you would never because you're a nice person. But, man, would I like to say it if I say this. And finally, Martha had enough, and she goes out and tells Jesus she tells him something. Will you make my sister get in here and help me? Because culturally, why is a woman sitting in here with all the men listening to you teach when she should be in here helping me in the kitchen? And what does Jesus say? Girlfriend, your sister chose the better thing. It's not that we don't appreciate the meal, but throw something in a crock pot and get out here. The king of kings is sitting in your living room, and you're busy folding the napkins into swans. You're missing Jesus.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:26:10]:
And when we wanna spend time with Jesus, that is the most important thing. But what is it? It's the word of God. John one one says, in the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's Jesus himself. In the book of Revelation, it says about Jesus when he's coming back, because he's gonna come back. It says, and his name is called the word of God. We have our Bible and we sit it right there and we go fold napkins into swans and we get caught up in the captivity of activity instead of being still and knowing that he is God, knowing who he is as he's revealed himself in scripture. When you sit down with your bible, lord, open my eyes that I might see wondrous things from your law.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:26:53]:
Lord, show me who you are. I wanna love you. I remember meeting people who were in love with Jesus, and I would say, oh, yeah. Me too. But I did not love Jesus like that, and I knew it. And when you see somebody straight up in love with Jesus, it makes you go, what's not right in my life? Because I want to love Jesus like that. But, you know, the Bible says you have not because you asked not. And so sometimes it's just asking God, I wanna love you like that, but I will love you selfishly every time.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:27:20]:
I will love you for what I can get out of you every time. I wanna learn to love you like that. The spirit of God is inside of me. It's inside of you if you've given your heart to Jesus as your Lord and savior. Lord, will you love you through me like that? Will you give me a love for you that is not all about what I can get from you? God will answer that prayer. God answers the prayer of the righteous. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous one accomplishes much. And I guarantee you, that is a prayer he's just waiting to answer in your life.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:27:51]:
And does it at one point in time that you never have to go back? No. It's constantly the things of this world are constantly stealing away our passions and our and our desires, and you have to constantly be coming back to who he who he is and asking him, help me to love you like that. I travel a lot more than I care to actually. You know, Steve had that stroke in on Father's Day in June. I have been less happy being away from him after that happened because I guarantee you that man, if he had a stroke in his chair, he's not gonna call anybody. He's just gonna sit right there and die in his chair. Guaranteed. And so when I'm gone, when I'm far back one time I was in Houston, and I was, like, really concerned about him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:28:27]:
And Diane Hamilton gave me her miles so I could get home that day. I came home. I only was gone one day, and I came back. But when we're when I'm away, he will text me. He is so funny. And he flirts with me, and he banters back and forth. And it is hysterical and creative and funny and flirtatious and charming. And if I'm gone for any length of time, every once in a while, I'll pick up the phone and I'll call him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:28:52]:
And I'm like, hey, babe. And he goes, yeah. I'm like, it's me. I know. I I just wanted to say hi. Are you okay? Yeah. I'm okay. Oh, yeah.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:29:00]:
But why'd you call me? Because I wanna hear your voice. Oh, okay. Dude, talk to me. Okay. What do you wanna talk about? That's just him. But when I'm on those texts, it's the funniest, cutest stuff that comes out of his thumbs. But what if I'm so stinking busy doing things for God? I'm speaking at that woman's event. I'm on I'm traveling.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:29:25]:
I don't have time. I'll look at that when I get home. Right now, I'm busy doing this. I'll read your text later. I would miss encouragement, laughter, joy, just uplifting, you know, if I'm if I'm don't get in the car with strangers. It's like, I've done it in Canada by myself at midnight. But I get advice from him. I get encouragement from him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:29:52]:
I enjoy him. But what if I'm just too busy to enjoy him? Because do you know how long it takes to read a text? Right? But we do that with the word of God. Oh, god. I'm just too busy to enjoy you right now. And we miss our charming lover of our soul beckoning us to come away with him so that he can whisper sweet nothings to our heart about how much he loves us and how much he wants to, encourage us as the days go and as we continually living our life as a tale that is told. So the next point is prioritize time with him. And it takes meaningful effort. It takes, deciding to go to those bible studies or, you know, it's like, yeah.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:30:40]:
It's easy to say, I'm just gonna study the bible on my own. I'm busy. Or I'm just gonna watch church online. In fact, after after COVID, there has been such a bent toward Christian consumerism where they watch church online because it's fine. I'm I'm I'm getting the message just like everybody else while I'm in my jambos eating my Cap'n Crunch, but but that is a consumer mentality. God didn't call us to consume. He called us to serve each other. He called us to serve him by loving him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:31:11]:
Jesus said the priority of life is to love God with all heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second command is to love your neighbor as yourself. He doesn't say go love your neighbor first. You can't. When you fall in love with him and this is right, then he loves them through you. And then it's done selflessly and not, I hope they noticed that I did that thing for them. Why didn't they even say thank you? You don't even care because God is doing it through you, and he gives you the passion to want to do it. But we have to prioritize time with him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:31:40]:
So, some of the women I am the closest to of all the years of my life are the women I've studied the word with, the women who I've been convicted with as I've studied scripture, the women who I've learned from their highs and their lows and their successes and their failures, the women that are real. And how do we be real with each other? We study God's word together and then we serve God. God, I know that I'm gifted in this area or I don't know what area I'm gifted in, but I wanna I wanna serve the body of Christ. One of the stories I'm thinking how long have I got? Oh, I should stop. Let me keep going. Okay. One of the stories I was thinking of was, there was a a an a handmaiden I mean, sorry, a maid in a asylum asylum. And there was a crazy lady that was in locked up in chains in her thing, and she was the enemy.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:32:29]:
And, like, literally losing her mind. And, when they would come in to take care of her, she would just lose her mind. She was just out of control. She was awful. And her name was Anne. And so this person felt bad for her. And so this person who was the the the cleaning person decided to bake her some brownies. And she took the brownies and she put them on the floor right outside of the and she was afraid she would throw them at her.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:32:55]:
So she put them on the floor and she said, Anne, I made you some brownies. I made them just for you, and she left them. And she was surprised, but Anne ate the brownies. And then she started bringing her more treats and talking with her. And she one day, she even got her to laugh and interact. And slowly as this maid was interacting with Anne, she realized that Anne was blind. Nobody had even known that she was blind. She was a young young woman that just they missed it.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:33:18]:
They just thought she was losing her mind. So the doctors, when they would come in to examine Anne, they would bring this maid in to calm her because they had become friends. And as they examined her and they saw that she was blind, a a school for the blind opened up, and they ended up getting her rehabilitated enough where she could go to this school. And Anne became a civil person that was functioning in the world. And then a letter came to an asylum, and the person who was in the asylum that that ran the asylum read the letter, and the letter was from a desperate father that said I my daughter is is she's blind, and she's deaf. And my next stop is to put her in asylum, but I need someone that can help me with her. And the guy in the asylum was like, I know who. And he called Anne, didn't call her, got reached Anne, and had Anne go to this family.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:34:11]:
It was Helen Keller. If you don't know who Helen Keller is, look it up. She's a deaf blind mute woman. Oh, Anne Sullivan. Anne Sullivan. And so one day, as as Anne reaches Helen Keller it's a long story. It's a great story. She lived her life as a tale that was told.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:34:29]:
And one day, when Helen Keller was being honored and then they honored Anne, and Anne said no. The honor goes to the the maid that made me brownies. You don't know. You don't know what your gifting is. It may be just making brownies and befriending someone that needs to be a friend. But we live our lives as a tale that is told. And if we're pressing into our relationship with Christ, if we are loving him, then he can love others through us, and he will astound you with the story that he will write of your life. Will there be regrets? Yeah.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:35:05]:
Are there things that you wish you didn't do? Yeah. Me too. But even the apostle Paul said, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies be ahead. I pressed toward the mark of the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. What do you think Paul had to forget? Oh, that he was standing there cheering them on while they stoned to death Stephen, the young man with the face of an angel. He held their cloaks and said, kill that boy. Don't you think that there would be times in the night when you know those things that you think of that you wish you didn't do or you wish you could take back? That Satan would torture Paul with those thoughts and he's like, no. Forgetting what lies behind.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:35:40]:
I'm straining forward to what lies ahead. I'm keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. I want God to write my story. Satan, I'm not gonna listen to that story because that's no longer who I am. Though our sins are as scarlet, he washes us whiter than snow. And he's writing a story. If you're his, if you have a relationship with him and and let me just camp there for a minute because I know it's easy to just think, like, well, I believe in Jesus. I believe.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:36:07]:
I know who he is. Well, it's like I believe in Santa and the Easter bunny too. Big deal. The Bible doesn't say believe like John three sixteen. Let's stop there. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Well, I believe. I believe that Jesus was God.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:36:22]:
I believe he was the son of God. I believe he died for my sins. I believe he rose from the dead. I believe he's in heaven. I believe he's coming back. I believe. Well, the Bible says the demons believe all that and tremble. That word believe is a one tone one point in time action with a continued result.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:36:36]:
It's a covenant. It's a it's a time where you said I am in need of a savior. I know I'm a sinner. All have sinned and consort of the glory of God. There is none righteous. No. Not one. I know I know my sin is ever before me.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:36:52]:
I want to ask Jesus to forgive me of my sins, to repent and to agree with God that I am a sinner in need of a savior. And I wanna turn from those sins, and I wanna enter into a covenant with God. That's what salvation is. When I married Steve, I didn't just sign a contract to be married to him till I didn't like him anymore. I entered into a lifelong covenant with him. That's the picture that Jesus gives of Christ as our bridegroom and we are the bride. We are entering lifelong covenant with our savior and lord. And when we do, the Bible says that he takes our heart of stone and he replaces it with a heart of flesh and he writes his statutes on our heart and he causes us to walk in his ways.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:37:33]:
Jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is light. If this Christian life is hard for you, you might not be doing it right. You might not be letting him do it through you. God didn't ask us to just practice Christianity so we could go to heaven when we die. There's gonna be Jesus said, in that day, many will say, Lord, Lord. And he's gonna go, I never knew you. That word knew you is a covenant term. I never entered into a covenant with you.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:37:55]:
I wanted to. I offered myself to you. I I spilled my blood to purchase you for my treasure to buy you back from hell in a handbasket, and you would not submit to me as your lord and your savior. I don't know you. Depart from me. I never knew you. There's gonna be a lot of religious people that Jesus is gonna say, I don't know you. I tried.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:38:14]:
You didn't want me. But I I did all these things in Jesus' name. That's what the Bible says. Well, I did all these things in Jesus' name. I cast out demons in your name. I healed people in Jesus' name. I did all these things in Jesus' name. And he's like, but we don't have a covenant.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:38:26]:
There's a lot at stake. It's not about what religion are you. It's about have you come to that one point in time in your life where you have said, I am a sinner in desperate need of a savior, and Jesus, I don't care what it cost me. I'm in. I forsake all to follow you. Jesus said that's true salvation. Forsaking all to follow him. And when you do, then he writes your story through you because the Bible says in Ephesians that he saved you and to good works that he ordained that you should walk in them.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:38:54]:
He He knows the plans he has for you to prosper you, not to harm you, to give you a hope in a future. He gives you the want to. God saves you, and he says, I put in you the will to do my good pleasure for you. And your life makes sense, and your life is completely in the center of his will. You are safer than you will ever be than in the center of God's will for your life. And I think the last one is enjoy. Enjoy him. Happiness in God is found in knowing him and loving him deeply.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:39:22]:
The Westminster Catechism says, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. God's desire for us is not just to be religious people that does religious things. God's people should be the most joy filled people on planet Earth because we get what life is about. When God created man, he breathed his spirit into Adam and Eve. And when they sinned in the garden, that spirit left them and left a big old hole in their heart. And he came to put his spirit back in those of us that surrendered to him as our lord and savior. And then we enjoy him forever. Our lives are designed with intention to magnify our creator and to experience the incredible hope filled joy that comes from a relationship with him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:40:11]:
When you embrace that, everything shifts, everything changes. So anchor that let that be the anchor of your soul. Hope in the Lord. Hope in his love. Open his word. Prioritize time with him and enjoy him forever. This is the whole purpose of your life. You're writing a story.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:40:36]:
We live our lives as a tale that's been told. Psalm 99. Memorize that. Psalm 99. Memorize that scripture and ask God to remind you. Because one day you're gonna look back, and you're either gonna look back and go that was a life well lived or you're gonna look back with regret. And my heart for each of you is that every single one of you would have no regrets. Let's pray.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:40:58]:
Father, I know I I saw that was a lot...