Are you searching for a beacon of hope amidst life's darkest hours? Join us for our latest talk, "Unshakable Faith In The Darkest Hours," where we take you on a transformative journey through Acts 14.

In this talk, we explore the trials and tribulations faced by Paul and Barnabas, two apostles who remained steadfast in their mission despite facing severe opposition. Their unshakable faith serves as a powerful testament to the strength that can be found in unwavering belief, even in the face of adversity.

Whether you're a regular church-goer or someone who's just starting to explore your faith, this talk is for you. It's not about religion—it's about finding a meaningful life, a community, and a sense of purpose.

Welcome to this week's Crowd 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 live stream.

I want to invite you to connect with us here at Crowd Church and there

are a few ways that you can engage

with crowd from any device during our live stream and if you're up for

it Why not invite a few friends over and experience the service together?

You see, church is all about connecting with God and connecting with others,

and one of the easiest ways for you to do that is to also join one of our

midweek groups where we meet 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 at www.

crowd.

church or you can reach us on social media at Crowd Church.

If you're new to Crowd or new to the Christian faith and would like to know

what your next steps to take are, well, why not head over to our website, www.

crowd.

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.

Wow.

Good evening.

Welcome to Crowd Church.

My name is Matt.

Beside me is my beautiful wife.

Hi everyone.

It's great to see you.

Great that you're here.

Uh, Wow.

Welcome to the studio.

We have changed the layout.

And it's your first time in the studio as well, isn't it?

It is, yeah.

I've been given instructions about what camera to look at when, so, uh,

Shall we try it?

Let's try it.

Let's see.

Look at that camera there and say hello.

Hi.

How am I doing?

Very good.

I'll look at that camera there and say hello.

And then we'll go back to that camera there and we'll say hello.

Uh, for those of you who are joining in going, what on earth?

We are in our new studio and we're still trying to figure out the tech.

We've moved things around slightly.

Let us know, do you prefer it this way, or if you've seen the other,

uh, live streams that we've done, do you prefer it the other way?

I think this is a bit better, a bit more intimate, but, um, I don't know why

I'm looking at you asking the question, because you didn't do it the other way.

Uh, but there you go.

Yeah, so welcome, warm welcome to you.

You've got Sarah in the comments, you've got Jenny, we've got Andy, Matt.

Hey guys, how you doing?

Sarah, good to see you.

Jenny, good to see you.

Andy, good to see you.

Obviously, and Matt, good to see you as well.

Matt Crew called me before we went live to say, Matt, there's a

spelling mistake on the thumbnail.

There is.

There is a spelling mistake on the thumbnail.

I'm very sorry, ladies and gentlemen, we will rectify that.

Spelling mistakes aside, welcome to Frontline, Frontline Church, welcome

to Crowd Church, it's not Frontline, Crowd Church is part of Frontline,

but welcome to Crowd Church, great that you're here, what have we got

this afternoon slash this evening?

So, we've got the lovely Dave Connolly speaking to us, uh, we've

been working our way through the Book of Acts from the Bible and he's

doing the next portion of that, um, I'm just looking at my notes here.

Um, after that we're going to tell you a little bit more about

our What's the Story podcast.

Um, and then we're going to have Conversation Street, which is basically

where me and Matt are going to take your comments and just talk around the

talk.

Talk around the talk.

Yeah, talk around the talk.

Absolutely.

Yes, we are.

I'm just getting my iPad set up here.

Sorry about this.

Um, for some reason it's not showing me the live stream.

So I'm hoping we are actually in fact live.

I think we are because I'm seeing comments on the screen over there.

Um, yes.

So yeah, we are working our way through the Book of Acts.

Uh, we've been doing this for a little while now.

Uh, and uh, we are taking our time.

We're just moseying on through.

We're not in a rush.

We're enjoying the Book of Acts.

Um, and so yeah, we've got Dave Con talking with us tonight.

You've actually heard the

talk.

I have.

Yeah.

I like to listen to it beforehand.

So I've got my notes here.

Things I'd like to talk about.

So and a very bright pink pencil I notice,

I nicked that from

downstairs.

Okay, so yeah, so we are going to get into Dave's talk.

As Sharon said, as we said at the beginning, we are going to do Conversation

Street afterwards, so be busy in the comments, write down your questions,

thoughts, ideas, all that sort of stuff.

Once I've got my iPad working, I will join you in the comments.

And yeah, we'll be back shortly.

So I'm going to push this button on here.

We are going to get Dave up.

I'm looking for the talk button.

There it is.

Uh, we're going to get Dave up and we'll be back soon.

Today, I want us to consider what the apostles preached as they went

throughout the world, declaring Jesus as their lord and resurrected saviour.

The focus here in the book of Acts is on the ministry work of

Paul and his co worker Barnabas.

They have been set apart by the Holy Spirit to travel through

various areas of the Roman Empire, preaching this good news message.

They have been going into Jewish synagogues proclaiming that Jesus is

the fulfilment of all of God's promises.

They proclaim that we are being forgiven and freed from all that

we could not free ourselves from.

Acts 14 opens by showing that Paul and Barnabas are going into more

cities proclaiming this good news.

They have a mixed response from those people who hear their message.

We read in Acts 14 verse 1 that Paul and Barnabas went into Iconium and, as

usual, went into the Jewish synagogue.

There we read that a great number of both Jews and Gentiles received

their message and become believers.

Yet we read in verse 2 that there are unbelieving Jews who are stirring up

trouble amongst the people and poisoning their minds against Paul and Barnabas.

What's happening here is that the enemy is using these people to

poison the minds of the people in order to turn their hearts against

Paul and Barnabas and their message.

This is what the enemy does.

Poison minds.

To turn them against the truth and against those who speak the truth.

Verse 4 tells us that the city of Iconium was completely divided.

Some sided with the Apostles and some sided with the opposition.

We go on to read in verse 5 how the opposition becomes so great that the

Gentiles and the Jews, along with the leaders of the city, start to

conspire to attack Paul and Barnabas.

and to kill them by stoning.

We read that Paul and Barnabas find out about the plot and

escape, so they go to another city.

And what do you think they do?

Well, verse 7 tells us where they continue to preach the gospel.

This is the same message, the same gospel.

In verse 9, Paul and Barnabas enter the city of Lystra and there they find

a man who's been lame since birth.

He's never walked.

The man was listening to Paul's preaching.

Then Paul looked at him, and seeing his faith, declared in a loud voice.

In verse 10, Stand up on your feet.

Immediately we read that the man jumped up and began to walk.

That must have been an amazing sight to see.

The crowd that was listening to Paul was so astounded.

But notice what these observers say, we read in verse 11, They shouted

in the Lycaonian language, The gods have come down to us in human form.

These people actually thought the Greek gods have come to earth.

They call Barnabas Zeus and they call Paul Hermes.

The priests of Zeus bring out oxen so that they can make a sacrifice to Paul and

Barnabas because they think they're gods and the crowd want to be part of this.

When Paul and Barnabas understand what the people are doing,

please note their response.

They do not accept this.

They do not receive the praise and the flattery of the people.

They are not happy about what is happening.

Paul and Barnabas's response is that they tear their clothes and

they run into the crowd to tell them to stop doing what they're doing.

Could we just pause for a moment?

I believe that there's a warning for us here today in this scripture.

It is so important that we do not make celebrities of our

pastors or worship leaders, etc.

Let's not turn them into gods or idols.

Their primary responsibility is to honour God in all that they do.

My friends, by all means, honour and respect them and be thankful

for their ministries, but let's make sure that we give all the honour,

all the glory, all the focus to God.

Let's return to our reading in the Book of Acts.

We read their message in verse 15 and 17.

People, why are you doing these things?

We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that

you will turn from these worthless things to the Living God, who made the heaven,

the air, the sea, and everything in them.

Can you hear the thrust of their message?

We are bringing you good news, that we are to turn from these worthless things

to the Living God, who made all things.

The good news is that we do not need to worship what has been created because

doing so is worthless, useless and empty.

Friends, if we are involved in the worthless things of this world, how

can we ever tell people to turn from the worthless things of the world?

We must show by our actions, our words and our attitudes.

That we value relationship with Jesus above the emptiness of the world.

With this response in Lystra, we would think that the rest of the time

would go well for Paul and Barnabas.

They are barely restraining the people from worshipping them, in verse 18.

But look at verse 19.

Some of the opposing Jews from Antioch and Iconium persuade the crowds.

They stone Paul and they drag him out of the city, believing that he was dead.

What a change in their opinion.

The crowd go from trying to worship Paul and Barnabas to declaring that

their actions are worthy of death.

After the crowd leaves, the disciples gather around him and we read that Paul

gets up and went back into the city.

Yes, that's right, he went back into the city.

Then, the next day, Paul and Barnabas leave for the next city.

Even stoning does not stop Paul.

We read they preach the gospel in the next city in Derby as well.

They don't stop, they don't think, we must be wise here, we mustn't be foolish.

What they thought is this is where God has called us to, and we know what God has

called us to say and do, so we must do it.

I want us to focus our attention on verse 21 and 22.

Paul and Barnabas return to Lystra, that's the city where

Paul was stoned, to Iconium.

The city where the crowds and the leaders were planning to stone them.

Where they escaped from.

Then to Antioch, where the people were stirred up against Paul and Barnabas,

and they were driven out of that city.

And yet we read that they returned to those same cities and met

with the disciples they had made.

At this point, are you wondering what Paul and Barnabas are going to

share with these new disciples after experiencing persecution and hardship?

What are they going to tell these disciples?

Well, verse 22 says this, We must go through many hardships

to enter the Kingdom of God.

Let me remind you, the point of going back was to encourage these

new believers, encouraging them to stay true to their newfound faith.

Paul and Barnabas message is this, It's necessary to go through many

hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.

Is that encouraging to you?

Does that strengthen you?

On the surface, I think my immediate response is that

it's not very encouraging.

You know, to be honest, my preference would be not to go

through hardship and persecution.

I don't want it to be hard to enter the Kingdom of God.

Yet, I want us to see why this is an encouragement.

Paul and Barnabas are meeting with these disciples.

I wonder what these new disciples thought when they saw Paul bruised and beaten.

What was Paul trying to tell these disciples?

I think he's simply telling them that nothing went wrong.

This was not a mistake.

We so often equate pain with making a mistake.

Paul is telling us.

That going through hardship for the sake of Jesus is not a mistake.

It is through our hardships, not our ease, that we will enter God's Kingdom.

I want to say it again, nothing went wrong.

There is going to be opposition, but the mission must continue.

We must continue to carry the good news of Jesus, whether it's received or rejected.

I think it would be true to say that.

Many Christians can have a tendency to think that if they encounter resistance

or hardship, something is wrong.

My friends, can I just suggest maybe it's just time to lean harder

into God and trust him even more.

Can I conclude with this?

One of my favourite quotes of all time is from a book I read

as a very young Christian, a book by a guy called Jim Elliot.

And the quote says simply this.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

It's such a wonderful quote.

That quote speaks so much of the heart of that man.

My friends, can I encourage you to be faithful to the call of God.

Take every opportunity he sets before you.

And trust Him, because He is faithful always.

God bless you.

Coming up, we have Conversation Street.

But before we get into that, here's a clip from our podcast, What's the Story?

Which you can subscribe to on all your favourite podcast

apps.

I

always think about what my husband said something to me early on.

If we don't get the answer for your health situation the way we want...

All we're doing is trading what we can't keep for something we can never

lose, and it made so much sense because I wanted that healing, but, you know,

any healing, any physical healing is only going to be temporary, and I

think God has His sights on something so much more permanent than that.

He's always been about seeking a relationship with us.

And he'll go to any lengths, you know, any cost to him, any cost

to us to have that relationship.

One of the real bonuses of having this long term health condition has shown

me is that what I really needed and wanted was that relationship and not

so much that healing that I started out thinking that was what I really needed.

Welcome back.

Welcome to Conversation Street.

Great that you are here.

Uh, like Matt Crew put in the comments, what I love about Dave Con is that

he fits his talks within 12 minutes, succinctly puts everything in.

I like that.

So other than the fact that it was 12 minutes long, what else did we think of

Dave Connolly's talk, Pastor Dave, who has been a friend of ours for a very, very

long time.

Yeah, I've got quite a few points that I thought would be good to pick up on, but

just listening to that What's the Story intro, I just thought it was interesting

that what that lady said really linked with that quote that Dave said.

The quote Dave said was He is no fool that gives what he cannot keep to gain

what he cannot lose, and she kind of said the same but in slightly different

wording, so apparently that wasn't

planned.

Definitely, well, I say that, um, Tanya who does all the clips, um, and does all

the editing may well have planned it, uh, but I, knowing Tanya, and I love Tanya

to bits, I don't think it was planned.

That would be my guess.

I will find out next week, actually, I'm quite interested.

That was the story episode with, um, I think her name is Lori

Ann, if I remember rightly.

Have you heard that episode?

No.

Oh, it's just as remarkable, uh, really compelling story that she has, um,

just later on in life found a heart condition, uh, and unless God does a

miracle, um, things aren't looking great.

So just the way she talks about that and the way she talks about her story

and her journey with God through it, um.

Just remarkable, um, Lori Ann, go check out that episode, whatsthestorypodcast.

com, um, you will be genuinely inspired, what a lovely lady, what a brave lady,

um, and yes, uh, that quote tied in very well with, uh, was it Jim Elliott, uh, he

is no, what was it, he is no fool to...

He is no fool that gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

There you go.

Yeah, roughly.

Roughly translated.

Uh, yes, no, cool.

So let's get into Conversation Street.

And, uh, let's dig, uh, yeah, Matt Crews as it is, Lori Ann, I thought it was.

Um, and, uh, Anna doing a remarkable job there with What's

The Story, uh, and the interviews.

Just some incredible stuff coming out.

I'm loving the podcast.

Genuinely loving the podcast.

But let's talk about, um, The talk, because that's what we do on Conversation

Street, we talk about the talk.

Uh, woohoo.

Uh, so, babe, um, sorry we are married, if you've just done this lately.

You don't call just anyone baby,

well Dan Orange maybe on occasion.

Um, but no, listen, yeah, if you've just joined us, welcome,

my name is Matt, this is Sharon.

Uh, we are some of the leaders here at Crowd Church.

Um, I say some, because one of the things that Dave said, and one of the things

that we've tried very hard to avoid is the celebrity culture of the pastor.

Um, which is, it's a lot easier to do when your church is smaller, like Crowd.

It's not so easy to do when you've got the mega church, you know, and everything's

geared around quite a charismatic pastor.

Um, yeah,

that was one of the points that I've got about four things I was like, Oh, I

could really do picking up on those and so Celebrity was one of those because I

think we have seen a lot of difficulties within churches where that is an issue

where everything kind of focuses more on the church leader or the worship

leader rather than actually on Jesus.

Um, but on the flip side of that, I thought.

Actually, sometimes it can, like if, if we're getting a lot of praise from

people, if we're doing something good, it can be easy for us to kind of get

into that, oh, I'm the celebrity kind of thing, or do you know what I mean,

just soak up the praise of people rather than going, hang on a minute.

It's, it's great to be encouraged, isn't it?

Yeah.

But there's a difference between encouragement and having that

whole kind of celebrity culture.

Yeah, there is, and it's a really interesting one, isn't it, about, um.

You know, where do you boast, uh, you know, where it's, it's, because here

at work, for those of you who don't know, I run my own company, in fact,

the studio is at my, um, warehouse.

Uh, we are in our warehouse as we speak.

Um, and so we have this studio here, I run a company, um, I get invited

to go speak all over the world.

I'm involved in stuff.

Um, it's easy.

To fall into this idea of building your own brand, right?

Which is, this is a really popular thing in the business world at the moment.

You need to build your own brand.

And there is some, I get why people are saying it from a marketing point of view.

You know, we need to build our own brand.

The CEO needs to have his own brand.

He needs to have his own Twitter feed and, uh, all that sort of stuff.

And I get it.

I do understand it.

I get the pull of it and the desire of it.

Um, but I felt challenged, I think, when we started Crowd.

to pull away from that, to stop building the Matt Edmundson brand

for want of a better expression.

And so haven't done that for the last two or three years and I have

to say it's been quite liberating.

Good, glad to hear it.

I don't know if it's helped us as a business, uh, I'm not gonna lie, I don't

know whether that's helped us or not.

Um, but I do get this desire, this pull to be the celebrity, to be the

leader, to be, uh, the person whose name is on the, you know, uh, on the

top of the document or whatever it is.

Whether that's as a pastor, whether that's as a business leader.

Um, and it's not wrong, obviously, because it is, well, it's our company.

It is, um, our name at the top of the piece of paper, um, but it's not about me

and church is not about the pastor, is it?

And this is what we talk about with the celebrity side

of things.

Yeah.

Like church should be about Jesus, about God, it's like he is celebrity in a

sense, but obviously a lot more than that.

Yeah, what do you think are some of the downfalls of the current sort of

celebrity pastor culture that we have?

Um, I think it's place, it's making an idol of things that it's like, um, the

way we're designed to be is with God is The one that we look to for everything.

He's meant to be our main priority and everything falls under that.

But with celebrity culture, I think we can tend to elevate people to a position

that they were never designed to be in.

So then it can go to people's heads.

So our affection is kind of misplaced.

And I think we can put, um, too much stock on what our expectations of

people and give, um, Yeah, put...

False expectations of people, um, but at the same time can lead them to then

getting proud and abusing power and all that kind of thing, which is not designed

for it, even though we tend to be drawn, we want to be liked, don't we, we want

to be encouraged, and I think, yeah, the Bible tells us to encourage each other.

But God's designed us to work in a certain way and he's not designed us

where we're like idolizing people.

Yeah, it's very true.

He's, uh, the Bible calls Jesus the head.

Um, so he's, he's, he's the head, isn't he?

And it's, it's, it's interesting, you know, there have been some high profile

pastors who have been in the media.

Um, who have for what, you know, one reason or another celebrity

culture has not helped them.

They felt the pressure of that they've either ended up having an affair or

there was abuse that came out of it.

And there's the problem when you put too much power in.

One person's hands, isn't it?

And so, um, it's, I get the need for leadership.

I do.

And obviously the Bible is very clear on leadership.

Um, but yeah, that celebrity culture, the lack of accountability, that

would be another thing that we see a lot in that culture, isn't it?

That, um, you, you start to become unaccountable for a lot of your actions

because it's like, well, no God.

It's when you use phrases like, well, God said, you know, well, God's told

me, I'm the pastor, God's told me we are to do dot, dot, dot, therefore there's,

it's very hard to argue against that if you're a lay person, I think it's, um.

And Jesus modeled the sort of leadership that is part of his

kingdom which is a servant leadership.

Yeah.

And he says, he said to his disciples that in the world leaders tend to lord it over.

Yeah.

People under them but he's like that's not the way this kingdom works.

Yeah.

To serve people and to lift other people up not lift yourself up.

Yeah,

yeah absolutely.

And this is what Dave was trying to draw out of that passage wasn't

it when The crowds were going, the gods have come amongst us.

I mean that, that's going to sound really good, isn't it?

I, you know, uh, God's using you that much that people think you are in fact God.

You know, and there's the miracles, the signs, the wonders, and all

that sort of stuff, which is fantastic, following them around.

The gods have come down amongst us, and they're like, no, no, hang on a minute.

Uh, this is, it's not right to call us gods, and I think, um, as leaders

we should probably Just take that on board, shouldn't we, really?

Oh, I've switched the wrong camera.

There we go.

Good camera switching, Matthew.

But no, we should.

We should definitely take that on board, shouldn't we?

And remember that this is all about God.

It's all about glorifying Him.

And when we lose that, when we lose that ability to do that, when

we stop seeing Him and start...

Falling back on our own ability to do stuff, then we've got,

um, we have got problems.

And it's not, like you say, it's not just related to celebrity pastors.

Um, I think it's, it's true in all walks of life, we can all fall danger of this.

Yeah.

Uh, Andy says here, God is CEO of all churches.

Like the language there, Andy.

Yeah, very big business language.

I think it's very, very true.

Um, uh, what's this Nicola said, never designed or sometimes wanted.

Uh, I'm assuming we're talking about the Celebrity pastor thing, I think.

Um, so yeah, it's...

It's one of those where, uh, we want Sharon back, thanks.

Just going through the comments, obviously talking about my dodgy camera switching.

So, celebrity pastor aside, um, what Dave said, there's this very interesting

phrase that he used about honouring your pastors and honouring your leaders,

which we do talk about a lot in church.

Now, this is going to sound like a really fascinating conversation,

given that we are The leaders, I suppose, of crowd in many ways.

Um, there's obviously there's Anna and Dan and people as well

who aren't on the live stream.

So it's not just us, just want to point that out.

There are other people involved, uh, just so we know.

Um, what do we, what do you hear and understand by the phrase honour?

So when you, when you, when we talk about honouring leadership,

what does that mean to you?

Good question.

Um...

I guess, to be respectful and thankful, and I don't think it's just within

the church context, I think that works within any context that we work in.

Yeah.

Um, that the Bible does tell us to, um, like pray for our

leaders, and yeah, there's that whole respect within leadership.

When they might not always be easy, it might not be easy to do that all

the time, and it doesn't mean that we, um, like if somebody's doing something

very wrong, it doesn't mean that we just gloss over it and pretend that's

not happening, but I think Yeah.

Just having that sense of respect and thankfulness.

Yeah.

For the good

things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think so.

I think it's a, Matt said that great answer.

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh, great answer.

And I think you did.

I think that's very good.

I think I, I dunno if I can add anything to it.

Um, I was,

So I think it's interesting that the Bible does tell us to pray for our

leaders, whoever they might be, and they need it, don't they, because they're

leading people, it's difficult, and also people as leaders, everybody's flawed.

They really need a lot of our prayers, and that's probably something I

forget to do on a regular basis.

But it's easy to moan about our leaders when they're getting it wrong and

doing a bad job, but actually we have a responsibility to pray for people.

Yeah, and actually you could argue other leaders doing a bad job because

the church isn't praying for them.

Especially like political leaders, um, you know.

Uh, it's always one of my favourite questions to ask

Christians who are moaning about.

The state of the country is like, it's great, but how much have

you prayed for them recently?

That's not to say our leaders are above reproach, they're not,

especially the political leaders.

And it's good to call, like you say, we call stuff out, you know,

there's, when it's a lie, it's a lie.

We've got to call that out.

You know, things like, um, putting refugees and asylum seekers on a boat

and shipping them off to another country is just, things like that are wrong.

And we should, we should, you know, call that out, shouldn't we?

But at the same time.

These are imperfect people who have an immense role and need our prayers.

And it's the same in church, you know, leadership, I think is one of those things

that everybody wants until they get it.

And then it's like, Oh, actually, this thing is not as good as

I thought it was going to be.

What do you mean?

I have to do things.

I have to sacrifice.

I have to serve.

I have to do this, that and the other.

Um, at least that's the leadership we feel we should be modeling as Christians.

I think the leadership that Jesus modeled is one of sacrifice

and service, like you said.

Not one of power and lording it over people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fascinating, isn't it?

Fascinating.

Um, so anything else on that?

Uh, I've got other points.

Yeah, let's go pick up on the other points, you go for it.

Let me do this.

Yeah, I think, I thought it was interesting that Dave was talking about

hardship and how Paul went and encouraged the, uh, the people that had become

Christians by, and his encouragement was to say, you're going to have a hard time.

I'm definitely with Dave on this one, would much prefer a lovely, easy time.

Yeah.

Um, we've just come back, well, not long ago, come back from holiday and

it was like so nice and relaxing.

Sorry, I'm losing a, uh,

has it fallen out?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, um, yeah, it was really lovely and relaxing and.

You know, and then you come back and it's like, all this stuff

going on and problems in your life.

Um, yeah, it would be nice if life was like one big holiday.

But the reality is it's not, um, but I think as Christians, we can sometimes

think that if things are going wrong, it can be like, Oh, why are they going wrong?

I'm following God.

Surely everything should be fine.

And I think sometimes things do go wrong because we've been stupid

or we've made the wrong decision.

But...

Mentioning no names live.

But

that's only a tiny part of the story.

If you look throughout the whole Bible, there's people who love God, who are

following God, and life is just hard.

Um, and they're doing, they're doing exactly what they've been called

to do, like Paul and Barnabas.

Um, they're where God wants them to be, but things just keep going wrong.

So I don't think we can judge.

Whether we're in God's will or not, or whether, you know, we've done

something wrong just because life's difficult and things are going bad

we kind of need discernment to know what's going on in these situations.

Sometimes it is just because we are directly in God's will and the Bible

talks about that we have an enemy.

Oh, I'm losing it again.

My ears must be small.

Um, yeah, we have an enemy who wants to pull us away from the truth, wants to pull

us away from God, and would do anything to try and do that, and we're living in this

broken world, so stuff is going to happen, and that's just a fact of life, which

I don't really like, but it's a fact of

life.

Yeah, no one wants it.

No.

No one wants it, but you, um, you can't get away from.

The fact the Bible talks about it and warns us against it, warns us

against it, warns us about it really.

Um, you're going to face hardships, you're going to face trials and

tribulations and persecutions and we're not immune from it, right?

Which is why

I think Dave, I think quite well pulled that out that on the surface of it, that

doesn't sound like an encouragement.

But actually, it is an encouragement because if you're going through a

hard time, it doesn't mean that you're in the wrong place or you're in the

wrong stuff or that you've missed it.

It might be that that's just the way it is right now.

Yeah.

That's very true.

Very true.

It's um, it's, we always say it's, it's very difficult to judge the will of God by

what you're going through in life, right?

Because again, the will of God is not about how you feel about it.

Um, and Dave talked about this, didn't he?

You know, I think if you have a good sense of mission, a good sense of purpose, it's

a lot easier to face those hardships.

So Paul, again, Dave drew this out in the talk, that Paul goes back to the place

that stoned him practically to death.

I mean, I'd have PTSD.

You'd have flashbacks, wouldn't you, when you sort of go

back to something like that.

But Paul heads back there to encourage the church at that place, doesn't he?

It's really interesting, his approach to that whole thing, um, I

don't think he was blasé about it.

No, you don't get that sense.

I don't get that sense reading scripture, but I get the sense

that he was fearless about it.

Do you know what I mean, he kind of, he had the sense of mission,

sense of call, he knew what

he was doing.

Yeah, which I think is another point on here because Dave as well brought

that out about that Paul and Barnabas knew what they were called to and

they were very much focused on that.

And he was talking about the different reactions of different

people to what they were doing and some people loved it and responded

to the message, some people hated it.

And it's like we can be doing what God wants us to do, but we're going to get

different reactions from different people.

But I get the impression that Paul and Barnabas were so focused on their call

and what they were meant to do, that it's almost like you can kind of drown out

these other voices, in a sense, and just kind of go, Okay, God's pleased with me.

That's all I need to focus on.

Yeah.

And forget about that.

And again, I think that's quite a good principle for life is knowing

what God has called us to do, which I realize can be a tricky subject.

Yeah,

that's a topic on its own, right?

Personally, I think from scripture, I get the impression that we've

Everybody's got this general calling which is a lot easier so things like

give thanks in all circumstances and if in all the work you're doing work

as if you're working to God so whether that's paid work or voluntary work or

whether you're at home with the kids whatever productive kind of stuff that

you're involved in it's like we're not working for people and for people's

praise but let's let's do it to God.

Yeah, so I think just that whole thing of knowing what we're called to

do, whether that's in a very general sense, uh, sometimes I think we can

possibly get too hung up on, Oh, I don't know what God's called me to

do and get a bit paralysed by it.

So it's just start with the simple stuff that we know is for everybody.

Work from

there.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, just going back to this, uh, back to the comments, Nicola says,

hardships make you who you are.

It's what you do with it that counts.

Very true.

Yeah.

Um, you can grow through what you go through, uh, is the

phrase I use all the time.

Uh, or you can just let it mess you up, I suppose.

And he said, as long as you're in God's mission, um, you're

heading in the right direction.

Yeah.

Um.

Which is very, very true.

And that again, coming back to calling, because like you say, a

lot of people get caught up on this.

You know, what am I called to do?

What's God's calling on my life?

And for some of us, in fact, let me say for the majority of us, That is a

lifelong process of finding out, right.

And I do think that just like Paul goes on this missionary journey, what we see

in Acts is like God calls Paul to go here, then to go there, then to go there.

And as Paul just knows this bit, he doesn't know all of this.

He just knows this bit and that tends to be how life is.

We just know the next little bit and somehow God works it all together.

But calling is, like you say, there are some general points to our calling.

And if you're wondering what your calling is, if you're wondering what

your mission in life is, and you're not sure, start with what you know, right?

And so, where exactly, where are you at?

And calling is a lot like a coin.

You know, I know we don't use cash anymore since COVID.

But if I had a coin, I'd show you but I've not seen a coin for a long time.

But on the British coins, we still have the Queen's head on

one side or now the new King.

And then we have the, you know, a specific value on one side.

And common to every single coin is the, is the crown, right?

That's common to every single coin.

So King Charles will be on every single coin at some point, right?

It was Queen Elizabeth.

Now it's going to be King Charles.

And for us as Christians, our lives, there are things which markers.

Which are the same for all of us.

So things like give thanks in all situations.

You know, there are certain things which we are called to do.

Live a life that is pleasing to God.

Um, there are all of these things, right?

Pray for your leaders.

We talked about that.

All of these things that, you know, are general things which we are called to do.

That's the crown side.

And then when you flip the coin over, you get the specific value of that coin.

The specific thing that it's, you know, it's denomination, what it's there for.

Um, and that's.

You know, these specific callings that God gives us, understanding

what that is for this season in life, this point in time, and it may

change over time, and that's fine.

But understanding that is not as important as you think it is, and it's

not as complicated as we think it is.

And I like what Andy said, we put it on the screen, as long as

you're on God's mission, you're heading in the right direction.

I actually think it's, if you're a Christian...

Who is praying and, you know, trying to do the right thing, you're, you're

listening to the voice of God as best as you can, you, you may not be perfect,

but it's actually, I think it's much harder to miss the will of God for our

lives than we, than we think it is.

Do you know what I mean?

If you are a Christian with the Holy Spirit inside you guiding you.

I wouldn't worry about it and stress about it too much.

So hopefully that's an encouragement to you if you're wondering about, you know,

what God, what does God call me to do?

If you focus on the royal side first, focus on the crown, focus on

the things of God, the other stuff becomes clearer as you go through.

That's my observation.

Nicola

says she's called to be awesome.

I do like that Nicola.

Zoe, my daughter, our daughter as well, well, you know, she's yours and mine.

Um, we've been working on these t shirt designs called Created Awesome.

I am created awesome.

It's just a burden I have to bear.

Um, it's, it's one of the phrases that I use on all the

podcasts that I'm involved with.

And um, so I totally agree Nicola, I'm called to be, we

are all called to be awesome.

We are created awesome.

Although

somebody did misread one of the t shirts recently and went, what's grated awesome?

Well

I take whatever I can get I suppose.

I'm grated awesome.

Created awesome is just a burden I've got to bear.

You've got to bear it, I've got to bear it, Sharon's got to bear it, we've all

got to bear it, it's just a burden.

Ksarar Sarar.

Hashtag First World Problems.

Dealing with awesomes.

That's awesome.

So what's next on your little list?

Uh, that's kind

of it really.

I'll work through.

Oh wow.

Did you have any?

Well, I mean.

Pick up on.

Yeah, there's A number of things, isn't there?

I mean, we've, one of the things, going back to the hardship thing, we've talked

a lot about that over recent weeks.

It seems to be a recurring theme in the Book of Acts.

God moves, God does a miraculous, but persecution, hardship, sufferings,

tribulations, trials, whatever language we want to use, life not

going the way we expect it to go.

Also seems to be one of the key themes of Acts, which is why we've talked

about it so much over the last few weeks, because you can't, you can't

read the book of Acts and think everything is rosy in life, right?

Um, I'm always amazed when, I mean, I don't do pastoral counselling that well,

mainly because when I sit down with people who are not happy that life's not going

well, and don't get me wrong, I understand it and there is empathy, you know, It is

hard, it is tough, but when life's not going well, but you kind of have this

entitlement belief that it should go well, I'm like, I really struggle with that.

I'm like, okay, so you're the one person that the Bible does therefore not apply

to because you can't read scripture and escape this, that life is in seasons,

that there's going to be ups, there are going to be downs, um, and God is with

us regardless, you know, and judging.

What God is saying, judging what God is doing on the basis of how I feel is always

a dangerous place to be and so So yeah, that's a reason why we've talked about

it so much If you've been following us on recent live streams, you can't escape it.

You just it can't it's in Acts It's just it's a theme of Acts, you know, there's

these amazing things happening, but there's incredibly hard things happening

at the same time and in fact, I remember a guy called Peter Daniels who was I

don't know if he's still around actually, Peter Dan, I assume he is, um, he became

a Christian, Australian guy, became a Christian, very wealthy businessman,

and he started going around doing these different, um, talks, just, you know,

some people would say it was self help, it's not, he brought the gospel into it,

really, I really appreciated his talks, um, from this wealthy business guys,

and he said, um, he was talking about problems, and he made this statement

which I've never ever forgotten, he said, if you've not got any problems in life.

You need to get on your knees and say to God, do you not trust me anymore?

And I thought that was a really powerful thing to say.

Do you know what I mean?

It's like, if you've not got any problems, does God not trust you anymore?

And I think, um, you know, God gives us things, doesn't he, to deal with

and, and, and to work through and to, to bring his gospel to, to the world.

So, um, yeah, I just wanted to round that, bring that, uh, in

there, just in case you were...

We're going to be talking about it again.

There's no doubt it's coming up a lot in Acts.

I think one of the things Dave, I think, said towards the end was about using every

situation just to press more into God.

And you could potentially say, well, is it, if we're going to

have all these problems as a Christian, is it actually worth it?

I think you're going to have problems whether, whatever faith

or whether you've got no faith.

And I kind of feel like it's better to.

Do that with God than without, but it also reminds me, I think there's a story that

Jesus tells about a guy who discovers that there's treasure in a field, so he sells

everything he's got so that he can buy this field and to get the treasure and

it's saying that whatever the price that we have to pay, that actually knowing God.

It's worth it.

It's actually worth it.

And it's sometimes, depending on what we're going through and where our

emotions are at that moment, it doesn't always feel that way, but I think it's

hanging on to that truth that actually, God, Jesus, he's worth giving all that

stuff up for because he is so much more.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And that's what Lori Ann makes clear in her podcast.

I don't know if you heard that at the end, she said, what she discovered

throughout that whole process was the relationship that she...

You know, it's just transformed her life was more important than the

healing that she started out to to get.

She, she, she started searching for healing and she discovered

relationship with God.

Whatever that means and looks like for her, you know, but she drew near to

God and in that met him in a very real and powerful way And, you know, is now

telling a story and encouraging people.

She's written a book called Divine Detours.

There's all kinds of stuff going on.

God is using her in that situation.

And I think, yes, press into God.

I think the only other thing from my notes, from what Dave was saying,

was that the gospel in the mind of the Christian is good news.

It means good news, right?

Not everybody receives it in the same way,

And that's, that's something else that we learned from this, isn't it?

It's like every, not everyone's happy to hear it.

And you might, you, you might go, well, hang on, this is the, the greatest news.

Why would you not want to, uh, understand this?

Why would you not want to receive this?

Because it's been so transformational for you.

It's been so life giving.

You know, this gospel, this Jesus who has changed our lives.

We think everybody.

Would be mind blown if they, you know, receive this gospel, but actually some

people don't receive it particularly well.

So some people will be like, yeah, whatever.

Some people were so angry with Paul and Barnabas that they

stoned him practically to death.

I mean, praise God that doesn't happen today.

Well, in this country.

Well, in this country.

It does still happen in many parts of the world.

It does happen around the world, but, you know, praise God not here.

Um, I don't think I've got a lynch mob waiting outside, waiting to

stone me for doing the live stream.

Um, but it, it, it is one of those things that we have to be aware of

that when we're sharing the gospel, when we're sharing the good news.

So when we put stuff out on social media, not all the comments are

positive, as we've discovered, right?

Um, and so when people put negative comments on the social

media, don't have a go at them.

Just invite questions, just ask them questions about what they've put

and start the conversation and see where it goes because you never know.

Um, but, you know, not everybody's going to receive the good news.

Not everybody's ready to receive it at that point.

And actually, for a number of people, it might make them angry and you,

we shouldn't be surprised at that.

Yeah.

Um, because the, by the gospel is actually also quite offensive

because it challenges you and it challenges your personal beliefs.

Um, and so I think.

Just be aware of that, and be sensitive to that, that maybe the person that

you're trying to share the gospel with at the moment, maybe now's not the

best time because it might make them angry, but we can lead with some kind of

questions, we can go into that a little bit further, but don't be surprised

always by the reaction that people have.

And we, it's like we don't have to control other people's reactions.

We're not responsible for how people react to the message, we just have

the responsibility to bring the

message.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

And one of the things that we'll see with Paul's journey is actually, um,

the way he brings the message differs between different people groups.

He is very aware of who he is speaking to, and he brings a gospel in a

way that's going to best connect with that people group, right?

Um, so it's not just a case of one message for everybody.

It's like understanding who's our audience, who are we trying to reach.

What's the best way to connect with them?

So we know for, with Crowd, for example, a lot of people who watch

it aren't, are unchurched people.

And if you're unchurched, if you're still searching in the Christian

faith, you're so welcome here.

And we love the fact that, you know, people come along, text us all the time.

Questions, which I just love.

A question is a stupid question.

I just want to point that out.

Love getting all the questions.

Um, but that has an implication.

That means when we, we don't always do a great job, but it means that when

we communicate, we try and communicate without all the Christian ease,

uh, that is, you know, prevalent.

Um, we try, if we use words like salvation or redemption or

all those sorts of words, um.

We, we at least try and explain what they mean because we're aware of who the

audience is or, you know, predominantly watching the, the, the live stream.

Um, what's really cool, uh, Pastor Alexander, who was also on the podcast.

If you haven't heard his story, you know, uh, Pastor Alexander from the Congo.

I know that there are people in the Congo watching crowd and it's

awesome, uh, that you are, you know, uh, and I just love that.

I love the fact that it goes global.

Um, but being aware of your audience and sharing the gospel.

Uh, we're going to see that as we go through, just a little heads up,

we're going to see that as we go through, which is going to be great.

So, so the message stays the same, but the method of communicating that potentially

changes.

You're a genius.

Love that.

It's all

about genius,

but you know.

She said it perfectly.

I'm just going to stop talking now.

In fact, here, just do this.

You go ahead.

I finished.

Oh, is that it?

Okay, cool.

That

was it.

Well it is coming up to the top of the hour so I think we will

close Conversation Street there.

So, Matt's in the comments, next week is about freedom

and relationship I do believe.

Matt you will probably know more than me given that you manage all of this sort of,

are involved in all of this sort of stuff.

Anna Kettle is involved next week, yes she is, Anna who hosts a lot actually.

Um, on Crowd, who is an absolute legend in her own right, is doing the talk

next week.

And we've got Dan and Ruth Orange who are hosting, brother and sister.

Yeah,

awesome.

They did it, they did it a few weeks ago together and we all thought this is really

cool, brother and sister hosting crowd.

And so they are back next week hosting crowd.

We've got the amazing Anna Kettle talking.

And so really, really looking forward to that.

Anna, Anna's just another one of those person you mentioned earlier on.

She's like, you know, because she's been through a lot.

You hear her story on what's the story you hear, you learn about

all the miscarriages that her and Andy, her husband have been through.

And she said the same thing.

I remember her saying, you know, If I didn't have God, I would still have

to face all of this, but without him, better with him than without him.

And so really looking forward to it.

Anna, coming on to the show.

Uh, we love Dan and Ruth.

We love, oh there's a lot of love in the comments for these guys, which is great.

Uh, so yes, do promote the Zoom, thank you.

Um, just like clockwork.

Do you want to promote

the Zoom?

Uh, yeah, if you'd like to connect with us more, we have a midweek Zoom, um,

where we just catch up with each other and pray for anything that's going on

with Crowd or with each other and, yeah, it's just a good chance to connect.

So how do people do that if they want to?

Uh, simple.

You just go to the website, which I think is this button here, there it is, uh, www.

crowd.

church, or you can reach us on Instagram or Facebook at

Crowd Church, uh, just DM us.

Do you like that DMM direct message or shoot us an email.

Uh, you'll also find on the website, crowd Church, you'll find the WhatsApp number.

You can reach us on WhatsApp by message.

Uh, I know some people do try and call, but we don't get, the calls don't

come through, but the messages do.

Um, so do messages on that and we'll send you the details of the Zoom and hopefully

starting in, I dunno why I looked at my watch , hopefully starting in October.

Because, uh, you know, now September, hopefully starting in October,

we'll be doing the post livestream Zoom on, after the Sunday service.

So after this service, uh, we'll be doing a 10 15 minute Zoom after the

service, just to catch up, uh, for any of you on the live stream as well.

There are some other things that we're looking into.

We will, of course, keep you updated with all the changes and stuff

coming, uh, as we continue to grow and, uh, just do this journey online,

which is, I'm loving it, actually.

It's quite nice.

It's nice and easy.

He says with three cameras pointing at him and lights and switches

and all that sort of stuff.

So, I think, shall we end it there?

Yeah, thanks for joining us.

Thank you so much for joining us, do join us, do make sure you like and subscribe

and we'll let you know what's going on.

If you haven't done so already, head over to the website, sign up to the

newsletter and we will email you all the good stuff whenever we are going live.

Thank you for joining in the comments, great to see you in there.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Conversation is always better.

Conversation Street is always better when you're involved.

Hashtag just saying.

But yes, stay awesome, because you created awesome.

It's cool to be awesome, that's what Nicola said.

I'm pointing that way because that's where the comments are.

I just realised, why is he pointing that way?

That's where the comments are in terms of my eyeline.

But no, great to see you this week.

Thank you so much for joining us from Sharon and myself.

Have a fantastic week.

Goodbye.

Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church.

Now, if you are watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button, as well

as that little tiny bell notification to get notified the next time we are live.

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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.

Bye for now.