Your Profession, God's Platform

But if you don't have that background, I travel extensively, and I meet hundreds of people a year on planes. And first of all, I always know that I'm on mission. So I've already prayed for where I'm sitting. I've already prayed for... You have expectation. You know somebody, God's got somebody coming your way. I know I'm not just there to eat and drink and watch movies, you know. Welcome to the Ignite with Mary Maguire podcast. How would you like to have the time of your life for the rest of your life? How would you like to defeat fear effortlessly, knowing for sure God is hearing and answering your prayers and directing your steps and making everything work for good? This is exciting. Here's the question. How would you like to ignite your life? Stay tuned. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ignite. We're here with Sherry Turpin, the pearls of Sherry from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, right in the middle of Jackson Hole, on the corner, almost... It's like a shiny light there in the little Jackson Hole, but also in the great stories across America, New York City, and beyond. And you can catch all that on our earlier version of this. This is actually Section 2. So if you didn't see Section 1, go back and watch that first, because then you'll really appreciate what we're saying here. Because we talked about our background, and here's Sherry and I— have not known each other. We met in a restaurant through a mutual friend, a wonderful friend, who introduced us. And within the first few minutes, Sherry's talking to me, mentioning about the Lord, as I do all the time. And here's, okay, we got to talk. And we had about a five-minute conversation, and I said, I've got to have you on my podcast. So, yay, barely, maybe it was six months ago that happened. And now we're on, and during our first few moments together, it's just like we're soulmates. It's just amazing how two people who have not spent their lives together are at the very same place and having the very same experiences and the same fun. And so we're here together to help you understand how easy it is, how fun it is to share your faith. Yeah, the one thing that you don't want to do, the thing that you avoid at all costs, the thing that drives you crazy, and you don't know what to say, and you think that you've got to come up with the words, and God says, just love on people. He did say, if they'll know you're my disciple by your love, and you can love on people. And that's all Sherry and I do, we just love on people. But after a while you get better and better at it. I joke sometimes, say, you know, when I first started shooting baskets, I couldn't hit anything. And then after a while I started switching them, it was pretty good. Practice does help, but you can do it from the first conversation, when you're just loving on them. But then you find ways where you can just say it so effortlessly. And Sherry does it with her jewels, she'll talk about that in a moment. I do it with car wax. he'll bless whatever's in your hand. If you're a housewife, if you're a doctor, if you're a professional athlete, if you're in the boardroom, you're in the sales presentation, you're in a waiting room, you're on the airplane, most times you're surrounded by people who are lost and they're not going to church. Right. They're blinded. And the only way they'll get unlost is people like us tell them God loves them. And we're not doing that very well. And that's why America's in the mess it's in. It's our fault. It's not their fault. They're lost. But by the grace of God, we'd be lost. And we're still just shades of gray. I mean, we're just so forgiven. God's grace is amazing. But when you love God, you realize how much he loves us. When he starts filling you with his love, you just can't help it. It's going to go out to the people around you. And I got to tell you, if you're not sharing your faith, you're not excited about God. And why would you not be excited about the God who made you, placed you in your mother's womb, has been with you all your life, knows your every thought, knows what you're going to say before you say it. His thoughts of you are like the grains of sand. He has that kind of intimacy with God, with you, and he still loves you just the same. And he wants you to be in heaven with him for eternity. And you can't tell that story to the people all around you who don't have a clue. That's our purpose. Our purpose is to live for God's purpose, to seek and save the lost. And Sherry does that every day. Now I'm going to let you talk most of this segment here. Just tell us your stories of how you do that so effortlessly. And it is effortlessly. It's just God directs you. Well, I wanna move on to something different. So I encourage all the listeners to go back to segment one and then get brought up to speed. So you'll find out a little bit about my story about being a professional pearl buyer. But the story that I get to tell on the floor of Pearls by Sherry, which is a retail luxury brand. So think about going into Chanel or Van Cleef or Harry Winston. So you come into Pearls by Sherry And within 10 minutes, you're going to hear an incredible story. I'm going to tell it to you now. So when people come in, they come in looking specifically for pearls. Pearls, the precious gems mentioned in the Word of God, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, pearls. The pearl is the only gem given through a living creature. You have to think about that. The living creature, like a horse or a dog, an oyster is a singular entity. It's a living creature. And that pearl, the beginning of it is through pain and adversity. So when God created the oyster, he created the oyster not to produce pearls. God created the oyster to filter about 700 gallons of water a day, to filter water for subspecies. Only one time in nature in 10,000 oysters does a pearl form. So what we have in today's world is man duplicating God's process, but let's go back to the oyster. When God created that oyster to filter water for subspecies, God foreknowing that inevitably in some oysters, something would float through the water as that oyster is filtering it and get lodged in, they have a meaty mantle. And it's like you or I getting a sliver. It's not going to kill the oyster. Sliver's not going to kill us, but it hurts. It has our attention. If we don't get that sliver out, it festers and the body begins a whole process to remove it. God foreknowing the oyster would be injured, also created that oyster with the ability to throw nacre, which is what the pearl is made of. That's what you're seeing. Hundreds of thousands of layers over years until that injury, that pain, that sorrow, that disturbance becomes something precious and beautiful. And so too, this story of creation parallels the story of humanity. Most of us here in the sound room on the video and Barry and myself and you listening, we're all old enough to have experienced an injury. And that injury can be a thousand different things. That injury can be a miscarriage. It can be the loss of a child. It can be a betrayal in marriage. It can be a divorce. It can be a handicap. It can be my life didn't turn out the way I wanted it. It can be an abuse. It can be a thousand things. Mm-hmm. But none of us go through this life without a cross, without an injury. And so God foreknowing that you and I would experience sorrow and injury that we would not be able to heal ourself, God foreknowing that day provided us too with a way of escape. And that's through the cross. That's through the death of His Son, the blood of Jesus Christ. And so God says, bring me that pain, bring me that injury, bring me that loss, bring me that disappointment, and leave it at the cross. And I will go back and do what you cannot do, because God can go back in time, and He can restore, He can redeem, and He can heal, and He can make what once was an injury and sorrow and painful, and He can make it the most precious thing in your life. And so I get to tell that story all the time. Well, we keep Kleenex, if you ever come to our... We keep Kleenex in every room. Right. because I don't believe there's ever been a person that's heard that story in that moment when God has ordained and he slows the outside of our store down and everything quiets because he has walked that person into my life to hear that message that that person is not broken. And just starts crying. And so we just like, we're, and we're like, it's okay to cry. Just ball your head off. We have Kleenex. It's so cool. When you discover that God has you, He has you. He's not disappointed in you. He's not discouraged with you. He has every hope and desire that your life is everything He wants it to be. And you rest in the fact that your Savior is awesome and there's no performance you have to do. You just have to rest in the loving arms of Christ. that story will naturally come out of you because you can't keep it in. And everybody listening knows that because we've all experienced that. And when Jesus says, if you wanna follow me, pick up your cross, he didn't say pick up Barry's cross. He didn't say pick up Katie's cross or Todd's cross. He said, I have my own cross. It's unique to me, right? Because he's chosen it for me, which means he's going to sustain me with that. I've never found a verse that says, lay it down. So I have found a lot of times, I'll just speak on my own behalf. I used to think that if my life wasn't going well or, you know, I'm in sales, so obviously, you know, if I'm not selling, if I'm not making money, I must have done something wrong. I must have displeased God. He's paying me back. This is, you know, from growing up in a non-Christian home, these were the messages that somehow I gleaned. that it was very performance-based. If I was good, God was good. If I did well, God blessed me. And then, you know, come to find out that, I mean, that's not even on the rule books. Like, it's not even—that's just not it. There's nothing I can do to disappoint God. And I think when you—when I discovered that, that my perception of God was wrong— That was up to me. That was on me to get in the Word and discover, well, who is God really? Like, not just what I think about Him, not the fundamental principles, but who is He as a person? And so I started reading the book of John, which I think is always kind of recommended, and I didn't try to gain any theological knowledge. I didn't try to learn any biblical slogans. I just wanted to examine God. Who was Jesus? And how does he relate to people? And you can't read that. I mean, John 4, 10 is like my favorite verse, you know, the woman at the well, right? And Jesus goes through Samaria. If you guys don't know it, go read John chapter 4. So Jesus is at a well because he has a divine appointment. And it's a divine appointment with a woman who comes to get water in the heat of the day, so she doesn't have to meet anybody. And who does she meet? She meets the King of Glory. I mean, she meets her creator and she doesn't know it. And he goes, you know, woman, give me a drink. And she, you know, you have to read it for yourself. I'm paraphrasing. But she goes, well, who are you that you're talking to me? And you don't even have a cup. And this is so poignant. He goes, if you knew the gift of God. Now, who is that gift? Jesus. And who it is that speaks to you now? Who's speaking to her? Jesus. You would ask of him. Who? Jesus. And he would give you rivers of living water. And right there, he says, if you will ask, I will give. And that's all through the New Testament. If you'll ask, I'll give. If you'll ask, I'll give. And so I, you know, for your listeners, I would not focus at all on, oh my gosh, I have to go evangelize or I have to go lead people to the Lord. Forget all that. Get to know Jesus first. And that will be an outpouring of rivers of living water that you cannot contain because it will be real. And you cannot put a lid on it. It does more than that. It's so true. And even when we're Christians, we have those... Um, situations, um, the wounds, um, and most people follow me. No, I talk openly about several of them, but we've had many of them, but you know, when you lose a daughter, you mentioned that's, that's one of those points of contention in a person's life. And we, we had that happen. You know, I was dying in the hospital, had a health issue, I was dying, all those kinds of things, never lost their joy. Um, yeah. God proves himself through those. I find people, when they have great joy, almost always, if not always, when I ask them and say to them, I suspect that there's some pain behind that joy, they'll almost always say yes, because we learn through the, God gifts us with those situations to learn who he is. So I want to skip right quick, too. I understand in the confines of your shop, and that's In fact, I hope I can remember some of the things you were just saying there because they're so special. I gotta go back and I gotta listen to this podcast again. I wanna use that. But on the general speaking, people watching this right now don't have a jewelry store. They don't have a store of any kind. They're just meeting people in restaurants or waiting rooms or in shops or what have you. And you have this infectious way of loving on them immediately. So talk to us a little bit about how the normal folk that are watching us today, people like me, that we're just going through life, how is that done on a practical basis when you're walking into a room, a store, wherever you're going? How is it that you so easily connect with them? How does that process happen for you? Well, I think some of that probably has come through, the ease of it would be through being a salesperson. So Barry, you can relate too. When you're selling and then some of your audience, I'm sure are in sales, whether it's insurance or retail or whatever, you learn people skills, right? So you learn how to start a conversation. But if you don't have that background, I meet, I travel extensively and I meet, hundreds of people a year on planes. And first of all, I always know that I'm on mission. So I've already prayed for where I'm sitting. I've already prayed. You have expectation. You know, somebody, God's got somebody coming your way. I know I'm not just there to eat and drink and watch movies, you know. So, um, I'll just share one, uh, really interesting. Uh, so I was in first class and a fellow sitting next to me and he's all in brand and designer stuff. And before we had even like pushed back from the gate, I think he'd had like two drinks. And so now he's on my radar. And number one, I'm kind of like, Oh, I hope we don't have a problem. Oh boy. You know, here we go. He's already flying. Yeah, but we, I think I asked him, I said, well, you know, are you heading home or were you in Jackson? You know, whatever. I just start the conversation like, oh, where's for you? And that most people like to talk, you know. So he started telling me about what he, and I said, well, what do you do? And so then he told me and I said, oh, and he's like, well, what do you do? I said, well, I have a store in Jackson. So then now we're both in business. And he's like, oh, good. I'm so glad, like we had like a four hour flight. He's like, I'm so glad I'm sitting next to you because there's so much I wanna know about business. And I must've said something profound, you know, before that. So he was like locked on. Well, so we get up in the air and he is now quite inebriated. Um, and so to me, I understand that as being pain. You're not a young man. I mean, I found out he was married, had, you know, had small children, um, if somebody's drinking at 10 in the morning, there's probably an issue there. So now he's on my radar and I'm just praying. And so I can't remember what, oh, I told, I started telling him about the oysters and mentioned God. And he, oh, foul language, foul language. And he goes, he goes, well, I wanna talk to you quite a bit. And I said, well, first of all, you'll need to lose that foreign language. And he goes, I'm not speaking in a foreign language. And then he's like, oh, okay. He goes, I'll work on that. And I said, not one word. I'm not talking about work on it, lose it. And so this is also part of the witnessing, right? In other words, it's that fishing. It's pulling in, letting go. Creating a desire in him and realizing He doesn't have control, right? So anyways, we get in, we're now about an hour into the flight, and I started really sharing the Lord through the oyster. And he goes, well, I'm a Christian. And I'm like, really? I go, well, tell me about that. And, you know, he just said, well, I have a Bible on my mantle, and he's completely serious. He went to church on Christmas and Easter. Yeah, and I go, well, what translation is it? And I said it on purpose, and he goes, it's English. And, you know, and like, and so we're having fun and I'm just, you know, you're creating that environment where I want him to ask. And so I finally said to him, I said, well, you know, tell me your faith journey. Like you say you're a Christian. Yeah. Tell me about that. Tell me about the time that you, and I actually now, I have not always done this, Barry, but the last two years, Christian or non-Christian, I now literally say, tell me about the time you invited Jesus Christ into your life to become your Savior. And sad to say, most Christians can't answer that, or most people that perceive themselves. And the important thing about that is not to, you know, criticize them, but to recognize if God has me sitting next to you, then it's my responsibility to actually share the gospel with you. Yeah, you're not there to affirm. That is why I'm on that plane, that day, that hour, that seat. Right. And so happy to say that I took him through the steps of becoming a Christian, and he did not get saved. He said he already was, but he heard the whole gospel. You have to know you're a sinner. You have no way to get to God. It's not works. And I took him through the fundamentals, so he's heard it. But those types of things happen all the time. If you are just mindful of what, number one, what's your mission, it's not car wax and cars, it's not pearls, it's not. If I could interject for a moment. Most Christians, real Christians, when they hear that kind of a story, the tendency to say, okay, and really basically affirm them in their belief that they are Christian. Because about 70% of Americans say they're Christian. They don't have a clue what it means, but they actually believe that, and that's their cop-out. I have one friend that I've been working with for 40 years. His wife is maybe close to dying right now. He said, well, she's okay. She's a good Presbyterian. You know, like, oh, well, that settles out, okay. Yeah. So you, but you do it in love. You're not attacking. You say, well, how did that happen? How did you become a Christian? And they'll talk and they'll reveal how lost they are. And those kind of conversations, you find them, they almost start pursuing you and asking you questions. And it's a dialogue. It's not a sales pitch. It's a dialogue because they have questions and they come out. And that's a God moment, time when God actually gives you the words, To say. You don't always have the words. And when you're lost for words, you're not lost for words because the Holy Spirit is always there. And Luke 12, 12 promises us that the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say when you need them. And that takes all the pressure off us. I think that's a key point, Barry. I think that's so good and so true. If you will just, in obedience, say something... you will find that the Holy Spirit will give you everything to say. Isn't it amazing? Because, you know, you're not perfect, I'm not perfect, none of us have done this long enough, but we can attest to the fact that like Moses coming up to the Red Sea, God didn't part it before he stepped into it. So if your fear, you know, if you want to overcome your fear, I would just start with, And then when you actually find that God gives you the words to say, it's just like being on this podcast. Like, I don't typically do this. And it's like nerve-wracking to me. And like, so before we started, I'm like, oh, Lord, I don't even know what to say. I don't even know how to articulate my story. Like, everything I do is on the fly. It's in the moment. So I can attest that God is faithful. But even before getting on the podcast, I'm just like, please let me have the heart of God and the mind of God. Please let me say something that's going to be beneficial to someone. And we just all live like that. We're just sinners saved by grace. We just are dependent on a wonderful Savior. And you'll find that if you'll throw yourself off that ledge, he will catch you. And if I can relate back, 50 years ago, I was with fear and trembling and nervous as could be and trying to figure out what to say. And I put all the pressure on myself. I still had results. God still honors whatever you do. But I was terrible at that. I was so bad at times. I actually remember saying, God, where were you? I had a live one. Why didn't you help me? I think he laughs at us. He has a great sense of humor. He puts up with us, and he lovingly just leads us along to the place. The same guy that did that. years ago, now I just laughing with people and I can't talk to anybody without bringing up the Lord in some way. You just can't help yourself. And laughing, and when you do it that way, it doesn't offend anybody. There's no offense and I've never offended anybody. You haven't offended anybody. We haven't been persecuted. Yes, around the world we've been persecuted, but this is the United States. And you don't get persecuted for telling people, you know God loves you? You know how much God loves you? It's just overwhelming. Do I have time for one short story? Sure, please. Very short. So I was at the Kennedy Center. I'm doing a lot in Washington, D.C. now. And just to show you, it doesn't matter who you're talking to. It can be from the White House to Hollywood, Dubai. We're all just people. We're all the same. All the same. At the Kennedy Center. at a very prestigious event. There's someone kind of talking over me to a person that I was with and they started engaging me in conversation. So I stood up because I've been sitting and I can't hear real well in crowded situations. And we were introduced, I have never done this in my life, Barry. I looked at him and I said, tell me about the time that you were born again. Because we were at a Christian event. Oh, okay. I've never done that. I would never think to do that. But sometimes the Holy Spirit nudges you and gives you the words to say. You've got to follow his lead. There was no thought. It just came. And he literally was like hit, hit. And he goes, I'm not saved. but he's in our environment, right? And so I go, well, why not? And again, it wasn't me. And so just to share that if you just are available, God, and I think what makes us so giddy is that we know it's not us. And to be used by the Lord, he doesn't need us. He can, if you miss that person, he's got somebody else because he's the hound of heaven, he's after them. But we miss out. We miss out on that story, that moment, and also the recognition that God just moved through me. He literally just overtook my body. And he had something to say to this man in that moment that people had been tried, like his wife. You know, I found out the backstory after. That was his moment. And he got born again. And it was also your moment. What did that do for you? That ignited, forgive me for saying that, that ignited your life. Yeah, for sure. You walked away and say, wow, God just used me. I mean, you follow God's lead. We'd say follow the nudge and you live in the fog. You live in the favor of God. You just did that with that individual. And one more person's in heaven today because you felt God's nudge and did out of character what you would never do ordinarily. But you heard his voice. You followed his lead. And look what happened. Is that great? It's so awesome. And, you know, most of these people we never see again. Like some sow, some plow, some water, some, you know. But we're all, you know, I think... The whole thing about witnessing is number one, knowing the Lord, loving him first. So work on you, right? Like work on yourself. And then get over the fear. And it's like anything. If you're a professional golfer, if you're a race car driver, like it doesn't matter what, there's still active disciplines you must take. Yeah. To move through the fear. Just love on people. It's so easy. You'll do it once or twice and you'll realize there's nothing, my gosh, there's nothing to be afraid of. I now, and I'm sure you do too, Barry. Some people, you know, I've led people to the Lord standing in my store. I've led people to the Lord constantly. years after beginning, right? And so they watch your life. It's God's timing. It's God's timing. You can't rush it. It's God's timing. Don't get in a rut about it. It's God's timing. I'll tell you one inside story. I'll make it really brief. But being in the pearl industry, I'm the only woman At the top of my field, there's 40 men. So 40 families from all over the world control the world of pearls. I'm the only woman. I'm the only Caucasian in that group. We're in Hong Kong at a massive conference table. Now, I've been a professional buyer for 30 years. So we're talking the long game here, okay? And I'm there, we're at this dinner, everybody's drinking and doing whatever. I have always tried to be very respectful. And so when I say grace in a setting like that, I just will very quietly and very quickly because I'm not trying to prove anything, right? And so they're all eating, drinking, and I just was beginning to bow just very briefly. And all of a sudden I hear a knife on a... glass. Ding, ding, ding. Everybody quiets. And the president of the Pearl Association stands up and he says, gentlemen, I think Sherry would like to say grace. Wow. 30 years. 30. Right? So sometimes our witness is simply by our life. Yeah. It's by being excellent at what we're called to do. It's by being honest. It's by being faithful. It's living out what he has put in. Live your faith out loud. But that opened up multiple people seeking me out privately, Muslims, Buddhists, I mean, you just go on and on. No Christians. And in the last five years. Everybody in that room, those 40 people, mega people, including people, you moved them all. Closer to God. Every single one of them, you move closer to God by your life, by your service, by the words, by the Holy Spirit speaking through you in that prayer. You're exactly where God wants you to be. Isn't that amazing? You've not been ashamed of the gospel. Maybe you've not been ashamed of the gospel. I have found every reason to be otherwise. You're awesome. I wish we'd go on and on. Maybe we'll have back again sometime. But you are amazing. But, folks, I hope you hear Sherry's heart. It's not a routine. It's not a job. It's not an obligation to... It's a relationship with Jesus Christ. And quite frankly, if you cement that relationship with the Lord and you really love Him, He is your first love. You love Him with all your heart, mind, and soul. What Sherry explains about her life will be your life. You can't help yourself. When you love him, it's inseparable. When you love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, you're going to love your neighbor as yourself. You're going to be as concerned for their salvation as you are your own. And he says, I ask nothing more of you for your entire life. That's all I ask. Because when you do that, you recognize that everything you say and do, every moment of every day, everything you say and do is moving. Everybody watching you and listening to you, you're moving them closer or further away from God. How are you doing with that today and every day? and when we allow the Holy Spirit to nudge us, and you know what the nudge is. He nudges all the time. The nudge, go speak to somebody. Speak to that stranger. That person's hurting. That person just found they have cancer. Call them. I don't know what to say. I don't have time. We have all these excuses. There's no excuse. Follow the nudge. You live in the fog. You live in the favor of God. Amen. You live in the promise of Romans 8.28. It says, when you live for his purpose, that's your purpose. When you live for God's purpose, to seek and save the lost, I'll make everything, count it. From now until you see him face to face, he'll make everything in your life work together for good. That's the end of fear. That's how you have the time of your life for the rest of your life. Sherry, you're awesome. We've got to figure out how to spend some time together and have you back sometime. But thank you for your heart. Thank you for the wide place that God has placed you and you're using it to the max. God bless you. Thank you. God bless you, Barry. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please let us know. Subscribe now to continue receiving my podcast and add your comments to help us attract more viewers. See you next time on the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast.