Welcome to this week's Groud Church Service.
We are a digital church.
On a quest to discover how Jesus helps us live a more meaningful life.
We are a community, a space to explore the Christian faith and a place where you can contribute and grow.
Our service will last about an hour and in a few seconds we will start with a time of worship after which you will meet our hosts for our service who will introduce today's talk.
After the talk we head into Conversation Street where we look at your stories and questions that you've posted in the comments throughout the livestream.
I want to invite you to connect with us here at Groud Church and there are a few ways that you can do just that.
Firstly, you can engage with Groud from any device during our livestream.
If you're up for it, why not invite a few friends over and experience the service together.
You see churches all about connecting with God and connecting with others.
One of the easiest ways for you to do that is to also join one of our midweek groups where we need online together to catch up and discover more about the amazingness of Christ.
You can also subscribe to our podcast called What's the Story where we deep dive into stories of faith and courage from everyday people.
More information about all of these things that I've mentioned can be found on our website www .crab .church or you can reach us on social media at Crowd Church.
If you're new to the Christian faith and would like to know what your next steps to take are, why not head over to our website www .crab .church forward slash next for more details.
And now the moment you've been waiting for is here.
Our online church service starts right now.
Well, good evening, our welcome to crowd church.
Great to have you here.
My name is Matt beside me is my beautiful, amazing, and all round just Fantastic wife.
Hi buddy.
My favourite co -host.
Fabulous thank you.
I'm really glad that you're here to be honest because beth, mae bebywyn ac yn y go Portuguese fy bob i ddawman .au شan hefyd y coen chi faus.
gemeiddiol.
angan retired hon, ac mae 'n amiga handnaethol...
My gone about my own ameg�� tra!
Mae gyda os umrifo yn ffyrru i 'r Christmrafó createden faint hyn.
Yf 'r defnyg ddungau.
Sleeper too.
Thank you for dragging yourself in.
Yeah, sorry.
I, and Dragon is, is a good word.
I look like I've been dragged to a hedge backwards, as they say.
But it's great to be with you.
It's great to be at church.
So thanks for joining us.
And thanks for joining in.
Do say hi in the comments.
Let us know wherever you're watching from in the world.
Always great to hear from you.
Always great to see what people are saying in the comments.
We've got Matt in there.
We've got Miriam.
Evening everyone, hope you're doing well.
Say yeah, do say hi in the comments.
We'd love to hear from you.
Now, what have we got coming up to say?
Tyddydd coment Hugh 때 yw 'r mewn i imposu loc.
At c Yw 'n pwery i 'n leir diad, yw cadw hyn a�raid o f demás, Ond i siel i pers gehawr wy Talking, siol, am stri â gwfoел.
cyfle i ran Jewsgain cyства lewnад, phyd am hynny, Okay.
TAT.
Okay.
We're going to TAT.
Oh dear, TAT's a good English word.
And it just doesn't really work in that context of it.
Bit of tat.
So yeah, we're going to talk about talk in something we call Conversation Street, which is a much cooler name than tat.
So yeah, do stay and join us for that after the talk.
So we've got that coming up.
One of the things that we do invite you to do as we go and listen to the talk as Peter chats on as we like Sharon said we're carrying on the book of X. Do write your questions, your thoughts or ideas in the comments.
We would love to hear from you.
And here anything you've got, our Ashton's in the comments, does anyone here also attend church physically just wondering that?
Yes, we do.
So, but wow, some of us do some of us don't.
Yeah, so I was in person church this morning.
Matt wasn't there because he wasn't feeling well and is I think using all of his energy now.
Because he's not been like this all weekend.
Saved it up.
I'm the crash in him.
It's just going to be.
Yeah, you went to in -person church, so crowd is connected to frontline church.
For those of you who don't know, which is a church here in Liverpool.
which is an in -person church, many congregations.
We look after the one that's online, which is just great fun.
And I know some people who are part, take us at the partakers.
Some people attend crowd, just attend crowd, it's their online church.
For a number of reasons really.
Number one, they might not be able to get to an in -person church building.
Number two, might not want to go to in -person church.
And number three, my actually just be the majority of people just looking at Christianity, looking at the journey and so just wondering what it's all about.
So wherever you are on the journey, it's great that you're with us.
So great question, Ashton.
Hopefully that answers your question.
So yes, it's a mixture.
That's a really unwinded way of saying it's a mixture.
But one of the things I live about crowds, something you don't see in person church, as we go through the talk you get to write your thoughts, questions and comments.
Awn Einstein Hadg.
Mae chi enghod whata te sa fi b cusha amd鍵 a angweld adeg movin a wrth am ddyma.
depending on the size of the church I guess.
Yeah and how are you know the preacher's post but I have a question or comment which you can do here so get busy doing that in the comments I'm gonna play the talk now and then Sharon and I will be back after this.
See you soon.
Hello crowd.
So today we are gonna be looking at Acts chapter 16.
We're going to read verses 6 through 40, but before I do that, let me just fill you in on what's just happened.
So Paul and Silas were met by a slave girl.
who was possessed by a spirit of divination and she brought her own there's a lot of money from her fortune telling.
But Paul casts this spirit out to of her her own.
which greatly infuriates the slave girls owners because now their hope of gain is gone.
So they took Paul and Silas before the magistrate.
straights, who then beat them up and through them into prison.
So let's have a look at what happens next.
Verse 6. Reading from verse 6, no we're not.
We're reading from verse 25, sorry.
About midnight.
This is in prison, pool and silas.
were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were on Fastened.
fast When the Jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that that he the was dead.
prisoners had escaped.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself for we are all here.
And the jailer called for lights and rushed in.
and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
believed and they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.
And they spoke the word of the Lord to to him and to all who were in his house.
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once.
He and all his family.
Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them and he rejoiced along with his entire household.
that he had believed in God.
But when it was day, the magistrate sent the police saying, let those men go.
And the Jaila reported these words to Paul saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go.
Therefore, come out now and go peace.
and pee.
But Paul said to them, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, man who are Roman citizens, and thrown us into prison.
And do they now throw us out secretly?
No, let them come themselves and take us out.
So the police reported these words to the magicians.
and they were afraid when they heard they were Roman citizens.
So they came and apologized to them and they took them out.
God and asked them to leave the city.
So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia and when they had seen the brothers they encouraged them them.
and departed.
Now I've heard this story quite a few times and I think when you're too familiar It's with very easy to actually miss what it's all about.
So for me, it's easy for me to come away from reading story this story.
with the idea that it was Paul and Silas' worship that freed them.
It was a singing that got I'm them out.
out of prison.
It was their worship that was the catalyst for breakthrough.
But I think when you take a closer look, it quickly becomes apparent that that wasn't really the case and there's a lot more going on in this story.
So firstly it was clearly a supernatural event.
Because immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened.
But even after that they were still in prison.
and they weren't actually freed until the morning.
Yes, they were taken up to the Jailer's house, but they hadn't been released.
And in fact, they even refused to leave when they'd been let go.
They were like, you can't just quietly let us out.
We're roaming citizens cities.
and we were unjustly imprisoned after being beaten.
So you come and publicly release us.
And We're not actually told why they were released or why it happened when it did.
So we don't really know how much it had to do with the earthquake.
Great.
So it doesn't appear as though this is all about God breaking them out of prison because they were worshipping him.
I don't think it's that it was the case God that...
was there listening thinking gosh guys these are some banging tunes this is my dream set list So you know what I'm gonna break you out of here.
And I think if you think about it from Paul and Barnabas perspective.
is I wonder what was going on in their minds.
Like I wonder if they had in mind.
and Peter's miraculous jail escape from just a few years earlier.
That time, an angel had appeared to Peter, a struck him on the side.
and told him to get dressed and follow him.
The angel then proceeded to lead him out of the prison right in front of the guards with the gate opening.
pinning for them of its own accord.
Now it would have been much less chaotic, it would have been much smoother if God could have just done that again, right?
I mean he even got Peter home in time for the prayer meeting that evening.
All that night.
But God isn't a genie in a bottle.
He's an offending machine and we like to think that God will behave in exactly the same way every single time we faced face.
with a problem.
So come on God, I'll pop the worship playlist on and you get to work.
If I do everything in exactly the same way, I'll get the desired result or we'll all happen the same as last time.
But this wasn't even paused.
last time in prison.
God didn't break Paul out of prison later on when he's in Rome, but we can safely assume that Paul was still worshipping God Then, there.
so all this really challenges this kind of formulaic idea that if I just sing a little louder My breakthrough is just around the corner and God will do what I want if I just sing the right song.
And actually I think that this kind of thinking can be crushing because if things don't work out how we want it to, who's fault is it?
It's yours because you didn't sing loud or at you didn't sing the right song, you didn't do things right.
Now don't get me wrong, and by no means wanting to downplay the significance of men praising God while imprisoned for serving him.
I mean it's phenomenal.
In fact, I think it's of such significance that I want to delve deeper and figure out how it is, why it is that prisoners is can consing be killed.
and praise God whilst in prison because of their very commitment to him.
It's challenging stuff, right?
Like I very much start with anyone listening to this is in prison right now for being a Christian, but is praise still is praise the first thing on your lips when you stub your toe or when you get a flat tire and you might think oh Peter, come on, stop.
It's just not realistic.
That's different, okay?
But I think if we look at um Some of Paul's words we get we get clues as to how it was that they could sing.
Like we don't know the lyrics of the hymns that they're Paul and Silas were singing.
But I don't think this is speculation.
If we look at Paul's words, we can be pretty sure about what it was that made him sing.
In Colossians 1 verses 13 to 14, these are words that were penned by the most way.
likely while he was in prison in Rome.
He says this, God has rescued rescued him.
us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins.
He says this, In prison, God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness.
That's phenomenal.
You listen to these men preach, preach.
Paul and Silas, and at the forefront of their minds and always on their lips was the story of how God had freed them from bondage to sin.
We see this anytime.
and they got a chance to share with people.
The gospel determined how they walked through suffering and hardship.
So much so that But even here in chapter 16, as they see their shackles falling off their wrists and the doors flying open, they seal that.
Not as an opportunity for escape, but as an opportunity for witness.
Their confidence and security in the gospel was so great that it caused them to pause and to consider what God might be up to.
And their actions here really just disturbed demonstrated me.
that they knew a sovereign God.
They didn't respond by saying, well we don't know if we're going to get an opportunity like this again.
So let's get out of here now.
Quick, this is that chance.
Let's go, go, go.
And so this isn't a story of how the power of their songs broke them out prison.
This is a story of of how the power of the gospel makes prisoners sing.
And I'm saying this about both the Christian who is suffering persecution, hardship or pain and the unbeliever who sees no way out of their bondage to sin.
You see this really is a trapus natwydi gen yn y preflussu hylwyd.
O a trapus da Ni ddad archidol iawnyll chi 'n ei ang себе a dimed a 'r ffys41.
Mae 'r ffm yn ang这个 o 'r ffisesti o bi chi 'n Yn gwli yn y Cl可愛 wedi iawn.
Jaith a Powr ar hogimos gallu.
Iun eraill incredibly ers gen.
dw yna fel miバ def Truly Yn gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n gweithio 'r ymwch i 'n free men regardless of whether or not God was going to break them out of prison and and free them from their physical fears.
shackles.
They were truly free men even sat there in chains and they knew it and they lived like I want to just share a verse from Isaiah 61, it's a very famous verse, so this is from the old testimony.
but Jesus actually quotes this in the New Testament and he claims that this is about himself.
So as I 61 verse 1 says, The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken to house.
proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
Jesus came to open prison doors and to free prisoners.
Now, I said that Paul and Silas were truly free men.
and spite being in chains.
And the true prisoner in this story is really the Jailer.
He was in bondage.
yn llawn medda f nawr y taethu 'r barche instantanaol anghydedd ar fel ein gwyna da ce spectaculare cross.
again and we are all in bondage to sin without Christ and sin only has power over for us.
us because we love it.
We love this thing that destroys us and destroys any chance of relationship with God.
And here we see that the Jailer he falls to his knees, with a repentant heart and he asks this question, what must I do to be saved?
And it's incredible.
How simple this answer is.
Paul and Silas' answer.
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
Going back to Paul and Silas, I think if we were to hear them sing like that today, we would very possible.
To be accused them of toxic positivity, you might have heard this phrase before.
And it certainly must have been pretty bewildering.
possibly infuriating for the other prisoners to hear them sing in these hymns in their shackles.
But I don't think these men I don't think Paul and Silas were in denial about the reality of the circumstances they found themselves in.
We see Paul in multiple places.
This is described to the realities of his sufferings.
Like in 1 Corinthians 11, he gives us an extensive list.
of his sufferings for Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 4 verses 16 to 18 he says, we do not lose Part, heart.
though our outer self is wasting away.
Our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light momentary The of affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
What about these in things?
Romans 8 verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.
So there is a difference, there is a very real difference.
difference between living in denial and we can all be prone to this.
This is...
something we want to avoid John Harding spoke about this a couple of weeks ago.
It's not good to live in denial, but there's a difference between that and then viewing your temporal circumstances through the perspective of eternal realities.
Paul and Silas' suffer forings a lot.
were dwarfed by the joy of the gospel and it would in fact have been a far greater denial to not recognise and allow their blood -bought freedom from sin, death and the devil to shape their response to the difficulties they found i themselves.
hyn, fwy Countertop Autom Fwy democrion can stwy ieth o dyn謎raethu sefan mynd eating Beth neud mewn i siwr yng Nghytaen Fear Mae reconoатfrobol ein onboard bagyearghiaf and what anxiety would be dispeled would lose their grip over my heart if I to were to truly cling more tightly to the truth of the gospel.
Because it might just be the greatest form of denial to look at the gospel.
to look at what Christ did for us on the cross when he purchased our freedom and then to say You have no power here.
You have no power in my despair.
I remember about two and a half years ago when our little boy was in the neonatal intensive care unit was meningitis.
I had no words in me me.
at the time to pray anything except for the word father.
That's as far as my prayers could get.
I'm drawing those sleepless days and nights.
I listen to a worship song with these lyrics.
It says, Because it's only from you, it's only from you, some things come only from you.
We can gain this whole world doing all we can do.
But peace, love and joy come from you.
Some things come only from you.
And that was a funny story.
immense comfort to me at the time, at the time of real agony and it looked like for a few days, like things were really Ina terrible.
boblu ac yn eisiauRIr gyda joiniau, beth oes i ym yn rhaid ar flair a pobl oed phol an geç We eu.
come only from God, not from our circumstances, matching our preferences, but from a God who who came to open prison doors and free us from our sin.
And if we go back to Romans 8 again.
again, We see towards the end of that chapter that Paul went on to say this.
If God is for us.
Who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for for us all.
How will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
It is God who who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised.
who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, as it is For written.
your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
No.
In all these o things.
peetarlo ynwer ein unalf SEAN nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That was the foundation of every hope that they had, so cling to to that the same hoop today.
Thanks for listening guys.
Well there you go that was Pete's talk.
I just love Pete's talk.
Yeah, I like listening to Pete.
It's just great, isn't he?
You get so many great quotes.
My favorite one being, I wrote it down here, and we put my glasses on.
The power of the gospel makes prisoners sing, which I thought was great.
So we're going to get into that.
Any questions, any thoughts yourselves do write them in the comments.
We will get to those included, Miriam, your questions about the Christmas service.
Well, I get into all of that, no doubt.
Hey, it's never too early to be planning back Christmas.
Apparently not.
Never too early.
We have to plan from July normally.
But anyway.
I do like to.
I love Christmas.
I do love Christmas.
Anyway, should we get into Pete's talk first?
Definitely.
Yeah.
What was still out then?
I've got a few bits, not necessarily in the order that he said them, but one of them was the whole thing about toxic positivity, which I thought it was a good making that link.
with kind of something in culture and I thought he made a very good point that them singing wasn't kind of going Oh yeah, everything's fab and we're having a great time and denying the situation.
But it's kind of looking beyond your situation.
fel unhywyd yn sefa diseases scrieg.
Oil gwybod yna citrus datfarfalli, Andre canfon YU.
ratedd omor?
Nina ni fan yn lic i ekbl ond zeis dom yzeid mynd o gyda a zeigen a lesio fe, maar â a 'r Thinkley?
wen hy喝r Winos am cyhoes hyr cywed刚dryd cain.
Cywo Bwda Sut eu bod bydd yny hwn hynny, yn hynny hynny.
Yeah, the gospel helps us look beyond our current reality to the bigger picture of.
Who God is and what he's done.
So yeah, that was something that stood out to me.
Yeah, it's really, and it's worth actually, I mean, Let's just talk about this now.
It's probably a good point where you know, God, go kill my enemies, give them what's going on in Israel at the moment.
I did want to say actually that we talked about this a little bit last week if you watch the livestream, me and Claire Gleir were hosting and we talked about what was happening in Israel.
And the truth of the matter was at the time I was really unaware of what was happening and it was only when I got back and I you started to see the news and you thought geez there's a lot going on here.
And so, yeah, do pray because we can neither condone terrorism, but at the same time, I'm very aware that Nall ni y gallan â feth yng Nghymru oeddów yn gwaith mewn gar certainesol oaz yn sgynnydol noir.
SEEGAIL – Monstung!
And we can have our opinions about it.
We can have our viewpoints, I suppose, but the bottom line is, I think, as Christians, we just need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and pray for Israel.
and those folks in Guarzer at the moment.
I'm speaking with a friend of mine.
I knew you had family over there but yeah just a lot going on.
Tiola ceraw o seddion?
Ni minnog ddynny.
Yeah, it's hard.
It is.
I mean, Ukraine Russia is still going on.
And there's all kinds of stuff going on around the world, isn't there?
And so I think And the Bible is not shy about talking about this stuff.
Very clear that actually all these things are going to happen.
And wars and rumors of wars and all that sort of stuff.
I'm not getting into whether this is in the end times because It's not my special team, not gonna lie.
But I do think we need to pray and pray Ipir for them.
ser ryd declaring y mêmes fydd hyn o sven fo mewn gallu aclev un ar ymg牓on fel deit.
At llbest, roedd y wind o sicr am 겹 diferente When you're aware of this, like what Peter said, you know, as he was talking, there is this eternal perspective.
This eternal truth, this eternal reality that says, in spite of all of what I see, in spite of what's going on around me, there is a truth here.
Yeah, a truth in the gospel that we can hold on to.
And I think actually that's super reassuring, isn't it?
Yeah, definitely.
Very good.
Sorry, I talked to you there a little minute.
Let's go back to what you're talking about.
Yeah, toxic positivity.
Yeah, it's not that we can very much I think the Bible encourages us to say how we're feeling about stuff, but not to stop there, not to get stuck in that, I think.
i ple picnicol i parlarau cyflyn.
Ale mandateol ac, rogau cyrefantau ryهgoorsetol pe دiwy.
Cymru cyமniig ar cymru cylple They medicu don't necessarily tell us what's true, they tell us how we feel about what's going on.
And they're part of being human.
It's great, but I think God does have a bigger picture for us, which I think can be encouraging when we are struggling.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we've talked about this a little bit on crowd before, this toxic positivity idea.
We do see in Christian circles, right?
So especially in what I would call the Word of Faith movement.
or the word of faith teaching, which I, you know, I've, a history with that, not an issue, but I do.
I do remember that out of that there is this ability to deny the reality that we're living because in.
we dance speak negatively about something as Christians because whatever we confess with our mouth It's going to happen.
It's almost like I can't say anything negative.
That to me is an extreme.
Yeah.
And that I would call toxic positivity.
Take that out of the church, put it into modern culture and you have positive mentalities, you have positive thinking.
And you know, We did a talking crowd church.
It must be what, 18 months to years ago now.
A call positive thinking is not enough.
And actually there's a lot of science behind this as well now.
And so if you're into positive thinking, God bless you.
I think it's good to be positive.
Yeah, but not at the expense of denying what's going on.
Yeah But and there is I've just I've caught myself in my head while I was gonna say then so let me reverse it About big butts Okay, there's a wise gonna say there's a big butt here You can't, the flip side of that is, we get so caught up in our emotions and so caught up in our reality that we refuse to accept to to be be.
a truth and we become victim to it and we stay down trodden by it and that's one thing you don't see happening here in prison.
No, that brings me onto another point that I picked up on where Peter's talking about two types of prisoner in this story and So the people who were physically in prison weren't actually the prisoners in this story.
It was the guy who was keeping them there who was more the prisoner and that how We can be physically free, but actually internally we can be a prisoner and I've definitely experienced that in my life before where I just just...
felt like I was constantly getting pulled back to the past because yeah all this stuff that I'd knocked out with, not brought to God, I didn't know how to deal with, but actually it's the gospel that set me free from those good news that actually on the inside made me free.
So I think is what these stories, another example of how we can be free, even if our circumstances are on the outside.
They look like we shouldn't be at all.
Yeah.
And it actually reminded me of a quote that I was just dipping in and out of a book this this week by Tim Keller has to do with work actually so completely released not is that every good endeavour book yeah fabulous book and it was just making me think because it on the outside it looked like pool and silence were this in this dreadful situation which they were, but they were still able to praise God and there's a quote from this book where Tim Keller is quoting a philosopher.
It's a called Nicholas Walter's stuff.
I think I've got very scribbled notes here.
And he's saying modern culture defines the happy life as a life that's going well.
yn f partrend and PearlION iawn perininga whegro, mae hyn varoi cheers i 'n bod yn 50 dayff o y somr eu cyfen byn de lydna no o bazan magda un a裁liannau cymaid o' y gallr זה a wedi rhגh o 'r igänsiddol o physz agreementudo bethциk Met fugor nwyyd y outlined â complètement humour yn licence, d extensions ayd o beth yn cy步 Иgw��, fyddai Mallor Kiwi.
Well he's he's put in the comments here we would like to thank our hosts for not singing this week.
You're welcome.
Claire and I sang last week.
Yeah, and it was not good on any kind of level.
It was not good and I do apologize again for doing that.
Especially if you watch Don't Catch Yep.
It.
No, we thought we could, well, we didn't think at all, but we could have, you know, pretended to act like Paul and Silas and just started singing our hymns out.
But we won't do that either, so you'll be spared Matt.
You'll be pleased to know.
But yeah, that's a great quote.
It is a great quote.
As you were talking, it reminded me of the speech by Dr.
King that I have a dream.
that my children we judge by the content of their character.
Which I think is quite an extreme.
You look at that and you think That I want my daughter to be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin.
And it was a great speech, you know, very inspired, but that phrase judged by the content of their character.
I don't know if we do that I stuff.
still don't think we do that.
Do you know what I mean?
I think in some respects we do the exact opposite of that.
In a lot of ways.
And yeah, so that just made me think of that one.
So I got a question for you.
Have you got an example from your own life where you've been like the prisoner.
Well on the outside it might have looked all great but actually on the inside you're the prisoner.
Yeah I think Before I became a Christian it would be an obvious, to me it would be an obvious and maybe not an obvious answer to everybody else.
In the sense that I was 18, I did well at school, I'd taken a year up, guys living in the States.
I was having a lot of fun in life and for you know from all windows it looked like life was good but I think internally I was all kind of wrapped up and I didn't really discover what that was all about until a few months later when I became a Christian.
And even then actually not straight away, it took several months for that sort of unravel.
Man i '조 ei bob bofal wrthau unrhybe o 'n clylaid affŵr weithyddi gyflun wndeog offerdiaid ythauwn gysf enn sefyll weekend.
had me deal with if that makes sense.
So one would be things like Toxic positivity, I think was probably something that I struggled with in a lot of ways.
The other thing that Pete said, which really resonated with me, was this formulaic idea of God that if I do A plus B then I'm going to get C as a result, you know, and I think that was me.
If I give, if I type, we like to call it typing in church, because because this is an old fashioned word.
But if I give, this type means to give, if I give some of my money, where the Bible says that he will give it back to me, press down, shake, and together, and run it over, he shall give to to me.
me, Luke 638.
And so that whole thing then became a formula.
So it's like, well, if I give 100 quid does that mean God's going to give me a thousand quid back?
And it was stupid thinking.
It was very, very stupid thinking because it became this God's slot machine that I, rather than someone who is worthy of my worship, rather than a God who is worthy of my gift.
For me, I want to give because I want to give and God blesses me back.
But that's not the reason for my giving.
But there was all those kind of things, you know.
Yeah, I think it's very easy to to do.
take something that's potentially a good principle as well and then tip it into the unhelpful because there is that sense in which God says, you know, give and it will be given to you.
But it doesn't necessarily specify If you give this amount, money you're going to get that amount of money you're going to come on this day and it's much more to do with relationship and that God He here.
is a good father and he wants to give good gifts to his children.
So, in the overarching scheme of things he's going to provide, but it doesn't mean that...
That's everything's going to be great all the time or that we're not going to go through times where there's lack because again Paul, I talked about today.
Mynd i 'w ygu call яid y savdra关 Staffethaf y skept hidd do fashiona henostu gallai 'u dyna, Chol ap imbynu 'r dystαν, mewn t Gigwyll단ull isiaeth i 'r ei Omweith.
Mig unwch denna, doeg 'r path faren a castan y swydd yn gallu am Wür Georgetown y offician cymgyi, lle de dy tos gweithio但 mae 'n unaithaz, wedi a gwaff y gallo gennydd You canadeau.
know, that's to overflow to other people out of, you know, love and appreciation for God.
Yeah, absolutely.
It is an intro, yeah, and this whole idea of the formulas with God.
That's the danger I think of testimony.
It's a danger of reading books.
And a lot of ways, testimony was designed to encourage.
So you tell the story of how God has been faithful.
And this is very biblical, right?
You tell the story in the Bible, you would actually build a memorial, you know, to remember that story.
And you would have a celebration, you would have a feasting, you would get together and tell each other stories and remember these things that God had done.
Ym yn ymwch, yw 'r ffethwll, ydy 'n ffethwll, ydy 'n ffethwll, ydy 'n ffethwll, ydy 'n ffethwll.
But we've taken that and translated that down to say, well, God did it that way in the past, therefore he will do it that way again.
And so you hear stories of people who do incredible things, right?
And they write it in a book or they come on the podcast level.
What's the story?
And they tell you the story.
And so there's a danger isn't there that in your life you go, well I'm going to like that's amazing what they did.
The classic one was the guy who came on Not onto the podcast, but he told the story of how God told him to give away his house.
So they gave away their house and lying behold, somebody gave them a house.
that was bigger and better than the one that they had and there's this sort of really amazing sort of supernatural story that sort of connects these two things together and so you kind of sit there and go well I want a bigger House.
house.
Therefore I'm going to give away my house and God's going to give me a bigger house and because he did it for them over there therefore he will do it for me.
And whilst there is some element of encouragement in the way that they told their testimony, we've then boiled that down to a formula.
So people have gone away and given houses away and lo and behold, they end up without the bigger house and it causes all kinds of problems.
Mae wna 'u, nhw hwyddo, ysh gairion yda yn rhywunio esta細, maeny ponir f Kenshammer pressu nem sanctionsrach cywnnig Ondoreg.
I42id, ac gwa confidentoedd.
Hwy yn yr âoli yn meswthem!
ma 'n bwysm大家 mi 아이 'w am mhtan cael sem a fyddiau jegaad a se goti, was like a church -related thing years ago and so I was like great I'll just go that and God's gonna provide the money for it and all the rest of it.
I didn't actually stop to...
Dogen o foiau 'r gael gmaybe.
Dynafal yw 'r powrnydd 'n gyphony!
Dyna bal i 'w fo ynild .神 llwy f Roeddrei gyhefo gan wentllion cyblygeothesiodd a conげ 'r removed created We sometimes still get it wrong, don't we?
But yeah, to be fair, it's me that gets it wrong more than you though.
This is why marriage works so well because I'm married to Sharon.
It just stops me getting it wrong most of the time, which is wonderful.
So same question back to you about prisons.
Have you been in?
Oh definitely.
I have probably talked about mine quite a lot before.
So I don't know whether about do it again but yeah even I think as a Christian not understanding how God and His kingdom really worked I'd like Mae 'n pysacles gwst mày ambientolень, a ni 'n postau, ac dynysuniaud ligaging against.
Mae 'n cweli wneud gwst iawn hwnnw no a 'r cynni, I think just from my own stuff that I got wrong, just that sense of bondage like oh god can't be pleased with me because of this is in this and IBoysだ, mae ymddeut eich pan chi 'n angh年ilu amfoddiад.
Mae grynfyr owna i middi wnaethau 'i acwnfa rhan neu i Sansarhaediaethau eich rappurant hynny a U rei fuatedos yn bell astfo 'n Dewl ribbon a 'r eu teitio dra, a o себе ar y ddol finna fwingryodd fel hall ymgynut christ wasnwch i dwedod糾.
Cl sıfyd e avaient yn dda me pięg a 'r minne failures Viv flames yn ei joy.
And I'm like, oh, the one hand I can understand it because this stuff that has happened that's made it onto the news is so big in your life.
Ie 思 ânod.
A ce written, mwais ond e Anderson sieth i dyn per yr â I'll life inde.
if they don't let go of it and I just had that feeling I think for the years of as if but a a kind of bungee was attached to my back and every time I tried me forward it would pull me back because of all this unresolved stuff that Agí amdwwch i un heb feithoad un effekchild, beth, osem oeddwl fel ceau fel ei wneud diorosoudnaer yn y fathers gen Онwkau rwy cael chi fel ei axas Makarayl Falcon… Mae 'r cyfrag anand yn embora eisiau hy Usingpopna hynid fy hynidadukt Instr pie, y hyn nhw ei greu i, Beth ni unless ymdwch chi fillo eiz wyran ond oescus yw asbytyal ym mplwydd i 'ch ews i But 'ig.
at the same time it talks about how loved we are and so yeah it is very freeing.
Yeah, absolutely.
Very good.
So what about you guys?
The toughest prison, oh here we go, Nicola.
The toughest prison to be in is your own brain and body.
Yeah.
What do you think to that?
Oh yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
I'm too well to say to that.
Yeah, nice treat.
How long did it take for Sharon to get used to Matt's interruptions?
I'm quite good at interrupting him as well.
They're all good.
It's very back and forth in our relationship.
And if it gets too bad, it just goes to stop.
So.
Let's go to Paul and Silas who were in jail.
One of the things that Pete was talking about here was when the earthquake came and the prison shook, they could have escaped that they chose not to.
Which I knew, look at it on the surface of things.
It's quite an extraordinary thing to happen, isn't it?
Yeah, I think my first response would have been, let's go.
Like, cheers God, leg it.
Yeah, it's like, okay, God's open this way, aren't that, let's just get out of it now, what we've got the chance.
Yeah, but there's a...
And again talking about freedom, I've mentioned this a few times on crap.
For me, the definition of freedom I really, really like.
that I think is really helpful in the context of Christianity as this.
A free man or woman has the ability to choose what binds them.
In other words, we are bound to something.
It doesn't matter how free we are, we are bound to something.
thing.
And we think that freedom is trying to escape that bondage.
And in some cases, it might be, but real freedom goes right, well, I'm going to be bound by something.
I'm going to be bound by that over there.
And in the context of the gospel, the thing that we're bound to is Christ.
So Paul talks about this.
He says, I am in chains to Christ.
I am in bondage to Christ.
I'm his bond servant, would be language that he would use.
And what we see here in this prison is Paul acting as a free man.
He's like, well, yeah, I can escape, but now I'm No, just...
no, I don't think that's the right thing to do.
You had the ability to choose what bound him and for me, what we see here in this story is real freedom.
The ability to choose that, whereas again what Pete was saying, if outside of that, the one thing that we are all bound to, to is sin.
And sin is destructive in many ways, but we like it and it's good.
And sin is just a Christian word.
Wait, in a lot of ways.
Oh, isn't it feels good?
It feels good.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm not telling you ghosts.
It's my messages here.
So this is Sharon interrupt me.
No, no, it's fine, but it feels good and we do these things, don't we?
And it...
but we're bound to it.
And so Paul uses this phrase a lot, you know, how can I escape this bondage?
which is what we see.
This is the freedom that Christ brings us in a lot of ways.
Yeah, free men.
We can choose what binds us.
And so you have to choose, I think, in life what binds you?
Is it your devotion to self?
Is it your devotion to Christ?
Is that what?
am i pracau cedw Yiw i 'w gyt yn cynwyd.
Cymda beithwa i dweud pobl gw Stellarws i ddiwerdd Because it's not always, I mean it's easy to say, I'm devoted to Christ obviously.
That's why I'm a Christian, I'm Jewish.
But the outworking of that is obviously because we're still quite selfish I think it's people sometimes But yeah, I just wanted to show now.
Why do you think so anyway the whole it's free?
a fin my Fera 'n tregau Mae haya bod ac ang Fal完全 eufficial wymp thyw yn vaifną holsaid This is God's provision.
God's done this miracle.
Let's just scarper.
Let's just scarper, God's yes.
done this miracle, let's just scop her.
Yeah, I think on the whole fight and flight thing, my tendency would definitely be on the flight.
Right, let's just get out.
Yeah, yeah, let's just this, yeah, I'm with you, I'm with you.
So, anything else on any of that?
I'm aware of the time.
Yeah, I think those were the main things that I kind of picked up on.
There were loads I think all the the scriptures that he gave to towards the end of saying, you know, okay, why could these guys sing even though they were in this really tricky situation and just looking at that how God's rescuers from the Kingdom of Darkness and how He's brought us into light and Yeah, not, you know, didn't write them all down, but that whole bigger picture thing is a good reminder, I think.
Yeah, absolutely.
And just to say, if you are going through something you feel like you're in some kind of jail right now and you're subscribed to the theology which says to sing a little louder and the gel doors will open and maybe they will, maybe they won't by your singing And it.
again, just to come back something that Pete just bought up on that because sometimes we subscribe to this type of theology and things don't happen and so then we have to either say, well, that's my fault because I'm not sun -loud enough, I've not believed hard enough.
or we say that's God's fault because I did my bit but God didn't do his bit.
And I just think that's very unhelpful places to be and I think you the the lesson that we learn is whatever situation we're in.
We can sing because of the gospel, regardless of what then happens.
And the other thing to say is, if there's a door which looks like a way of escape, like God is just supernaturally gone, There's the door open.
Doesn't mean you should always run through it.
Which is just very, very hard to hear.
Very hard to hear.
So, but yeah, I just want to say that.
It's not about you and your efforts.
It's not about how loud you sing or how...
Quite you sing, but it's about the fact that you can sing irrespective of what Joe you find yourself in because the ultimate Maggio, you've been freed from and that is the beauty of the gospel.
So let's have a look.
As someone who has an illness that reduces what I can do is, in fact let me add this to the comments, what I can do is very tough but I have the choice to live in this prison or find ways to live a good life with God.
God.
Yeah, yeah, long term illness is hard.
Yeah, very hard.
I think it partly.
Mae 'n wyned erioedd yn fod yn nhwn wnes i 'r bufllyn os fod ymildgiel aturf i mynol a yn 'r ddwy Const yw 'r ysgol.
Mae 'r yw 'r ysgol yn yna.
Mae 'r ysgol yn yna.
Mae 'r ysgol Religio yn yna.
gef ei ynettle straight na na weda fo beth maen edra ei minna!
mae swgen agda geringarom dydu lleorin.
Yeah, you can, it's the hardest thing to do isn't it?
And with a long term illness is like, God, what's your plan here?
Yeah.
What's your thinking?
It's very tough, you know, especially when there's pain involved.
You go, what's going on here?
What's your plan?
What do you want for me to do?
I don't know.
But in the midst of this, I choose to sing hymns and be grateful and be thankful.
It's very hard to do.
the bird it is ultimately what we have and I think it changes things.
Very good.
What else is Edmo's voice is going?
Yeah, so next week is my voice going very sorry Matthew.
So what is happening next week is we have who did I say was hosting and you are speaking?
Okay.
Yeah, fortunately I recorded it before my voice went.
So we're good.
Yeah, we're going to be carrying on next week.
Next week I am looking at Paul.
Paul carries on his sort of missionary journey and he ends up in Athens.
Yes, he does.
Speaking to a bunch of Athenian guys who have never really heard about Jesus before.
Usually we see Paul talking to Jews who understand who the Messiah is, they've heard rumors of Jesus and are very curious.
Next week he's talking to an audience that doesn't really have a clue about who Jesus is.
And so there are five things in this message that Paul draws out about being a Christian.
So five things that happen.
when you become a Christian and we're going to get into those really great talk actually.
If you want to sneak peak, Just on the website already, not the talk, but the actual, there's a big, well blog post about what it means to become a Christian, how do I become a Christian.
Going to take that, it was easy, because the notes had already done the article.
Cool.
So, we are looking at that next week.
So, do come and join us.
Make sure you like and subscribe and all that sort of good stuff and you'll get the notifications.
when we are live.
There's a reminder from Matt Crewe about the zoom which happens on Wednesdays, it's a clock.
Playing, Mae 'r rwb captr—arema i yw tebyn i 'ch dgar niemerseud lwm ki 'r car quería i fod i wedi lla知道 꼭 ond eu chi eu fy ein different gyd ar gyflにad situations.
izod ar hynny, Yeah, yeah.
Do come and join us if you want to find out more about that.
Just tell it over to the website www .crowd .church.
All find us on social media at CrowdChurch.
Reach out to us and we will send you the Zoom link.
On the website there is also a WhatsApp number which you can reach as on if you would like to connect with us on WhatsApp.
I know a lot of you guys do, a lot of questions come through WhatsApp.
which is great going to be sharing Jenny's story next week, which I'm really excited about in the talk.
Jenny who got baptized last week, as given us permission to share a bit of her story in the talk next week, and Jenny and I connected on WhatsApp.
That's how we first came across some of the videos, sent in a message over WhatsApp, started asking some questions, went back and forth.
We were dang me wrong, there were other things involved in this whole thing, but yeah, it was great, great, love that, so do come and hitch and story, but if you would like like to.
to reach out to us on the WhatsApp you can find the number also on the website www .crowd .church so yes Oh, clocks change in a fortnight.
That's good to know.
So let me just tell you what's happening coming up in the next few weeks.
I'm bomb fire night here in the UK, which is November the 5th.
If you're outside of the UK, we're going to have a non -live livestream.
Mainly because all the hosts have got plans for bomb finite and so we're gonna do things a little bit different in a couple weeks.
7th 2011ribot boi beröfigi amlan ond h Open Yeah, it's a bit of a weird one really, but it's just an excuse for a get together and some food really.
Yeah, it's a really bizarre story.
I don't know why we celebrate it, but it's just one of those things that we it's not really celebration It's just we just get fireworks and we get bomb fires going and we have a bit of a laugh So that's what happens in the UK.
So bomb find out will be a non -live livestream basically a non -live livestream is where we just send something out but we don't really have life host answering questions or comments which is also, Maryam, coming back to your question about Christmas, what will happen on the Christmas service?
So we've got a Christmas service Christmas Eve and then there's a New Year's Eve service.
Both of those will be non -live live streams.
Everything else will be as normal and Matthew crew to answer your question.
The last chapter of Acts, I think looking at the schedule you understand it could change, as things currently stand in the schedule is going to be the end of January.
Very.
So we're crawling.
We're crawling.
It feels like we're getting towards the end.
I've really enjoyed it.
You enjoyed it.
Wow, which bits have you not enjoyed?
That's maybe a bigger question.
Sort later.
I'm really intrigued now, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know about you.
Okay, so yeah, fireworks and food.
Boom, that's fireworks night.
Bonfire night, look, that's it.
There we go.
So let me take that off the screen.
Thank you so much for joining us wherever you are in the world.
It's been great.
Thank you Pete for doing that talk.
Love Pete's talk.
If you have been watching Ah, and catch it.
Why not come join us in the live streams where you can also join in the comments as we are going on.
Be great to see you there.
And of course, you can still reach us on that via the website via social media or via WhatsApp, whether you're watching live or on WhatsApp.
Be great to hear from you.
You cannot say e -mail us.
I just take the same.
Be great to hear from you, D .Connect.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Anything else from you?
No, just enjoy the rest of your day however much you've got left.
Yes.
Do that in a straight way, very much dependent worry about you on the road.
But yeah, that's it from us.
Thank you so much for joining us.
God bless you.
I'll see you next week.
I won't see you next week.
But down in the anorably the host so until then, bye for now.
Yeah, bye.
Or bless ya.
Now, by smashing the like button on YouTube or writing a review on your podcast platform, it helps us reach more people with the message that Jesus really does help us live a more meaningful and purposeful life.
So if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out our website www .crowd .church where you can learn more about us as a church, more about the Christian faith, and also how to connect into our church community.
It has been awesome to connect with you and you are awesome.
It's just a burden you have to bear and hopefully we'll see you next time.
That's it from us.
God bless you.