Are you searching for something genuine and impactful in your life? Welcome to Crowd Church, where we embark on a quest to discover how Jesus helps us live a more meaningful life.

In this week’s service, John Harding guides us through an incredible journey on the Road to Damascus. Picture this: Saul, a man fervently opposing Christians, has a life-altering encounter with Jesus that changes everything.

👉 This is more than history. It’s a reminder that Jesus is actively transforming lives today. Whether you’re questioning, seeking, or have been on this path for a while, this talk speaks to all hearts. ❤️

🤔 Ever felt like church isn’t quite your scene? We understand. But here’s the thing - Jesus is the ultimate source of inspiration and change. At Crowd Church, our mission is to be a space for those looking for answers and inspiration. 🕊️

📖 Join us as we delve into Acts 9:1-31 and witness the astonishing transformation of Saul into Paul. It’s a story of redemption, purpose, and the boundless love of Jesus.

—

If you're seeking to grow your church or be part of a growing, vibrant church or just wondering what a church should look like and what to expect at church, don't miss this talk. Join us for a live stream or online service at Crowd Church, where we're committed to helping you grow your faith and find meaning.

So, grab a cup of coffee, find a comfortable spot, and join us for this thought-provoking service. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and reflections in the Livestream or in comments section below.

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In Acts chapter nine, we read the story of a man called Saul.

Saul of Tarsus.

Saul, a zealous, radical young Jewish man who had been commissioned by the Jewish

religious leaders to find Christians.

Jewish converts to Christianity, to round them up.

To take them back to Jerusalem for trial and basically even

use lethal force if necessary.

And that's what Saul did, and it would seem he was really rather good at it.

He earned a reputation to be feared amongst these Jewish converts to Jesus.

A highly trained, highly motivated, highly effective, and resourced agent of the

Jewish nation, acting on behalf of the nation, attempting to crush, wipe out this

new branch of Judaism called Christianity.

Well, why was Saul doing that?

Why had he been commissioned to do that?

Well, basically for thousands of years for the Jewish people, they had been

promised by God, a new leader, a new king, a deliverer, one who would free them

from oppression and would reign forever.

That's what the prophets of old had foretold.

And so the people were waiting for, longing for, praying for

this, this Messiah, uh, who would come and rescue them.

Then along came Jesus claiming to be that very person that Messiah,

the one promised by God and foretold by the prophets of Old.

He met every single criteria.

He fitted the description of the Messiah perfectly and so many Jewish

people, they could see that and, and so they accepted Jesus and

they received him as their Messiah.

They weren't becoming Christians in their own eyes.

No, they weren't converting to some new religion.

They were in their eyes true Jews who'd received this promised Messiah, not an

a king of an earthly kingdom, freeing them from, um, earthly oppression, the

Roman occupation, but a king of a new spiritual eternal kingdom freeing them

from the slavery of sin and death.

This is Jesus and his followers at the time.

You know, they weren't at that time called Christians.

That came later, they were called the way followers of the way.

We see that in acts.

Now many of the Jewish religious elite were not happy about this.

They wanted to squash, crush, stop this new thing from happening to

keep hold of power for themselves.

And so they set out persecuting the, the followers of the

way, the believers in Jesus.

They had them arrested, imprisoned, killed for blasphemy.

After all the, the confession of these followers of Jesus was the, their Messiah.

Jesus was no less than God in human form.

So they tried to stop this blasphemy, and that's where we

pick up the story of Saul today.

And Saul is setting out to do just that.

He's on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus in Syria.

He's carrying official papers.

He's got a team, he's got resources.

He's gonna try and wipe out this rebellion, this blasphemy, and as he

drives his horse out of the city towards Damascus, he's blinded by a light.

He's literally struck blind for three days.

He couldn't see.

He's thrown off his horse.

He hits the ground.

He, he, he heard a voice.

Everyone heard the voice, a voice calling him by name.

Saul.

Saul, why do you persecute me?

It was the voice of Jesus.

It's a dramatic story.

It's an impressive story.

In fact, we still talk and use that phrase today, don't we?

We talk about a Damascus road conversion of seeing the light.

We use it to talk of someone who's had a complete turnaround in

life, a Damascus road conversion.

And in this conversion Saul's name is changed to Paul, the Apostle Paul

and the Apostle Paul then went on to write what most of the New Testament.

He, he went on to lead countless people into relationship with Jesus.

He went on to plant churches right across the ancient Near East through into

Europe, probably second only to Jesus in his influence in shaping the way.

This new movement of believers, a remarkable man, a remarkable

conversion, a remarkable turnaround from persecutor to pastor, from

church destroyer to church planter.

If you are a Christian, a follower of the way, uh, you're probably

quite impressed by Paul, like I am, maybe even a little intimidated.

After all, we know that Saul of Tarsus was a brilliant young man.

Highly academic.

He trained under the leading Rabbi Gamaliel, uh, Saul was probably his

nickname from the Hebrew, meaning to inquire, to question, to learn, and

Saul was from a pretty impressive family, a, a true blood Hebrew.

He could trace his ancestry right back.

His father was most likely a Pharisee, and he was on some sort of fast track

into political, religious power.

When we first meet him he's holding the coats of the senior religious

leaders as they throw stones at Stephen, the first martyr for Jesus.

I think the word we might use of Saul in today's setting

might be the word privileged.

Privileged, someone who had made it to the top of an elite system

of which they were part of.

But Jesus disrupted Saul's plans.

Jesus reached out to Saul and rescued him, and, and, and as I say, it

wasn't like, you know, Saul did not.

Um, convert to Christianity.

Remember that title?

Christian hadn't yet been invented at this point in the story.

Rather, Paul encountered Jesus the promised Messiah, and so in

his eyes, he became a true Jew in, in the sense not converted.

But he was given a new mission and a new purpose to now reach the Gentiles, to

reach the non-Jews and to call them into relationship with Jesus Messiah, a job

he does with incredible fervor and zeal.

So in one sense, a remarkable man, a remarkable story.

But in another sense, Saul's story is no different to our story if you know Jesus.

You might not have been blinded by the light, or you might not have heard the

audible voice of Jesus calling you.

Few people do, but all of us were lost without Jesus.

All of us were going our own way, our own sinful lives

before Jesus reached out to us.

You know, if you were a Christian, you didn't find Jesus.

Jesus found you.

And he revealed himself to you and he called you by name and he gave

you a new identity and he gave you a new purpose and mission.

Saul's story is our story, and Saul went on from this dramatic encount encounter

to spend something like 14 years in obscurity and anonymity before he set

off on his first missionary journey to preach the gospel and to plant churches

after such a dramatic conversion.

14 years of seemingly nothing, but it wasn't nothing.

It was a period of serving, of preparation of training for Paul.

And then Paul sets off on his journeys.

By all accounts, he was incredibly successful and impactful in God's timing.

Now, I think it would be easy to look at the life and the achievements of

Paul and think we compare ourselves and think, well, I could never be like that.

We disqualify ourselves.

We think, well, I've never encountered Jesus like that, or I don't have

that sort of dramatic story.

Or maybe we think we don't have the training or the heritage or

the education or the family or the intellect of Paul, but I really wanna

challenge that sort of thinking today.

First of all, we all have a story, and Saul used his story really effectively.

In the book of Acts, we see that Saul repeats his story on several occasions.

He word for word.

He, he even gets the opportunity to share his story to high flying

Roman officials like Festus.

In fact, I think it's possible that Paul got to share his story

in Rome with Caesar, the top man.

Oh, that's just speculation.

We don't know that, but.

Saul had dual citizenship.

Saul was also a Roman citizen by birth.

That meant he had a legal right to appear on trial before Caesar,

and that is how Saul's story ends.

It ends with him under house arrest.

And so if he gave trial before Caesar before being executed, you can bet that

uh, Paul shared his story with Caesar.

Saul shared his story.

He used his influence, his position, his platform to share his story.

He also used his suffering to share his story and so he, he was able

to share his story because he was on trial, because he was under

arrest, because he was in prison.

We can all share our stories.

We all have a BC - a before Christ, and we all have a story of how we

encountered Christ and we all have a story after conversion and we can share

the difference that knowing Jesus has made to our lives is making to our lives.

Some people have incredibly dramatic stories how Jesus

rescued them from drugs and crime.

Some people like me have pretty tame stories by comparison,

but I love to share my story.

I love to share how we grew up in a Christian home, how my dad died

when we were very young, 18 months old, how we were really poor.

We, we were the poorest kids in school.

That is my bc but through that time, Even as a kid, I knew

God always provided for us.

And so at the age of six, someone invited me at Sunday

school to give my life to Jesus.

It made such sense to me.

And from that moment I've always known God is with me.

I've always known that God is for me.

Uh, and I've been able to ask him for his strength and his peace.

In the most challenging times of life, and he's given me that.

That's just something of my story.

We all have a story.

Let's share that story with others.

God wants to use that story.

So we can compare ourselves and disqualify ourselves.

One of the ways I used to disqualify myself was through my education.

I had such a bad substandard education through to 18, and you look at someone

like Soul of Tarsus, I mean, Tarsus was the academic center of the ancient

near East in modern day Turkey, and so he must have been like the creme

de la creme to have ended up studying.

Under Gamaliel in Jerusalem, and then you read Paul's letters like Romans and

Galatians, and you're like, mind blown.

Wow.

What intellect, what insight, what wisdom, what understanding.

But the thing I love about this is that God decided in his wisdom,

he decided to send Peter to lead the movement amongst the Jews.

And to send Saul Paul to lead the movement amongst the non-Jews, the Gentiles.

That does not make any sense whatsoever.

Why not send rough and ready Peter and educated Peter the fisherman to

the Gentiles, and why not send the rabbinically educated Saul to the Jews?

That's how we would've done it, you know, best Fit strategic alignment.

But that is not how God did it, and God arranged it that way so

that only he would get the glory.

Only God would get the glory that Paul would know, that we would know.

Paul's success was not down to Paul.

It was down to God's power at work within Paul.

God loves to use unqualified people.

He specializes in using the unqualified because then all

the glory and honor goes to him.

In fact, just as a little aside, um, I, I picked up from my studies recently,

um, in, in a document written in the second century, early second century,

not that long after Paul, a document called The Acts of Paul and, and, and

Theckler, uh, not scripture, not divinely inspired, but historically important.

And Saul here was described as a small, um, man with crooked

legs and a crooked nose.

He's described as having a uni brow and having bad eyesight.

I, I mean, basically he would've never made it on the stage of a megachurch

or onto preach a sneak on Insta, you know, right across the world today.

Jesus the same Jesus is still appearing to people, revealing

himself to people and bringing people into his family and his mission.

Few weeks ago, a guy turned up to our church on crutches.

Months and months earlier, he'd had a near fatal motorcycle accident.

He'd felt his self leaving his body and he was dying, and he cried out to God.

He said, God, save me.

Spare my life.

I'll go to church.

That church that he passed every day, that's what God did.

God spared his life.

And in hospital, he was in hospital a hundred days.

He came out of a coma.

And he started to tell the chaplain about what he'd said to God

about his experience and how he wanted to give his life to Jesus.

The chaplain led him to Jesus.

Uh, a few weeks ago.

He found his way to our church, a building he'd driven past

many times over the years.

No church background, no Christian experience.

Jesus reached out to him and rescued him.

I love stories like that, but you know, um, Right across the world today.

Today there are still persecutors of Christians and there are still

persecutors of Christians who are encountering Jesus in dreams and visions.

Iran, one of the strictest Muslim countries in the world, A country

where you would be in prison and beaten for being a Christian.

And yet, Iran has possibly the fastest growing church in the

world, a secret underground church, right across the world today.

Today, Muslims are converting to Jesus through dreams and visions.

And I have personally met a few people for whom that is their testimony.

That's their story.

Now, often they will have a very similar story.

Often they've been fasting through Ramadan.

These are really genuine, devout Muslims seeking God.

On the night of power towards the end of Ramadan, they have a dream.

In the dream, they are visited by a man robed in white.

When they ask him who he is, he tells them nearly always that he is

the way and the truth and the life.

And I've personally met a couple of people who came to Jesus - Isa

in that way through a dream.

In fact, a couple of years ago, I heard the story of a man who

was high up in ISIS, terrorizing Christians, murdering Christians.

Uh, it is estimated around 200,000 Christians are martyred

each year, even in today.

Today's society, 200,000 Christians martyred each year

across the world in our day.

And I heard this story about a guy who was so moved by how Christian Martyrs

died at the hands of ISIS, at his hands, that this ISIS jihadist met Jesus in

a dream and gave his life to Jesus.

And the missionary who told me this was saying that they were praying for

a thousand souls from out of ISIS.

What a Prayer.

Isn't that amazing?

I absolutely love that.

The religious leaders, 2000 years ago, at the time of Jesus, tried

to squash and wipe out his message.

They even had him killed, but they couldn't contain him.

They couldn't contain the gospel.

Saul was sent to persecute Christians.

He became a church planter.

Communist China tried to ban Christianity, but there are now probably

more Christians in China than there are Christians in France or Germany.

Growing at a rapid rate.

Nothing can stop The advancement of this new kingdom led by King Jesus.

The same Jesus that revealed himself to Saul has revealed himself to us.

He can reveal himself to you.

The same Holy Spirit that lived in Paul lives in us.

2000 years later, and the gospel of Jesus has not lost

any of its wonder working power.

The simple gospel message when we receive it transforms life

lives, turns lives around.

And your story is powerful.

Share it with someone because God wants to use you and your story for

his glory and for the advancement of his kingdom just like he used Saul.

Amen.

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 favorite podcast apps.

I kind of had this idea that God was supposed to save us, like he was

supposed to show up in a certain way in these times, and he was supposed

to just like remove us from this pain and suffering and like, why God

would you let these things happen?

Like not just one of these things, but like these layers of difficulty

and pain and disappointment.

I came to the realization like I'd always thought of God as a genie in a bottle.

If I just say the right Prayer and wish the right wish, he

should do this thing for me.

He should give me what I'm asking for.

And in return, I would spread his word and tell everybody that he

healed me and tell all his miracles and everybody would come to him.

And that was like the deal I had with him.

Well, welcome back.

Welcome back to Conversation Street.

Um, just a quick plug for that, the podcast, what's the story?

Um, if you into hearing, like John said, people's lives transformed.

It's brilliant.

Just loads and loads of stories of ordinary people living now

most in the uk, some America.

That their lives have just been changed.

Brilliant.

But back to the story, um, not the story.

Back to the talk today.

So Ruth, is there anything that really sort of jumped out at you

from the, the talk that you thought,

Yeah.

Lots, lots of bits.

That was good.

That was good talk, wasn't it?

Um, I, we did this in Sunday school a few weeks ago.

Um, when I was reading it then, um, it wasn't even what John said actually

just said, but, um, when Jesus, the first thing Jesus said was, why

are you persecuting me, didn't he?

Um, and I kind of thought, oh, But he wasn't persecuting you.

Jesus.

He was persecuting people, Christians, the people of the way, but I love

how that was, that was persecuting.

Persecuting his people, was persecuting him.

And I really, that really spoke to me that they're, they're one and the same.

They're part, they're part of him.

We're part of him.

Yeah,

I love that,

yeah, yeah.

When we get to know, we get to know Jesus.

He's, yeah.

The, the, we're, we're part of that, the way.

but he said, he said, you know, would you like bring the little

children to me because they're, you hurt one of these children.

You hurt, hurt me.

He doesn't leave us alone, does he doesn't, he didn't

come and talk and, and go.

He came and, and transformed.

yeah.

I love this talk and I, when we were, had a brief chat about it

before, um, I love it because it is just transformation, isn't it?

It's, we use it in everyday talk, not even Christian talk.

Oh, had a, did you have a Damascus Road?

You know, conversion did something.

Did you get this bolt of lightning?

Which, which all did, I mean, John didn't actually go into that too

much, but imagine being blinded for three days because you came

in contact with the living God.

It was pretty.

Pretty big deal, isn't it?

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Amazing.

And three days.

I was thinking that's, I feel like that's quite significant.

Significant, isn't it?

The whole three days because, um, Jesus was dead for three days.

Like the whole him dying on the cross and rising again.

That was three days.

And that's what hap that's what happens without, without him.

We're darkness.

We're in the tomb.

We're we are dead.

Um, and that's why, that's why we call born again Christians, aren't we?

Because.

We are, we It is, it's not just changing what you think or, or, yeah.

Or putting on some different clothes or going to a different

kind of college or school or church.

It's, we, we are different because God does something different in us.

He, yeah.

He takes us outta darkness into his light

Mm.

yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, it's like, um, John was saying that they weren't, weren't

called Christians at that time.

Cause it wasn't that they'd started a new religion.

They just found that Jesus was the Messiah.

He was the answer.

He took them on so that their transformation was that

their lives were transformed.

So Paul's journey was transformed instead of he, instead of killing Christians.

Or killing those of the way he was now telling people about the way, but his

life was going from, like you said, from being dead in his sins to, to

that to being raised up and to moving.

Moving on.

Hmm.

And he was still, he was sta not still the same person because he obviously, like

God makes us with personalities, isn't he?

And he, he, we are very individual to him.

And um, he.

Before he had this experience, he was so determined, so determined that he, you

know, he was persecuting, he was putting in prison and getting people killed.

And that same determination of personality was still there, but he was, he was

using it to how God purposed it, I guess, right in the beginning that he

was so determined if you read the rest of his story, um, he was still the same

person, wasn't he in that kind of way but this time he was determined to, to

tell people what happened to him and, um, and get people into a diff Yeah.

Into this different way.

Yeah.

Even all of his persecutions were so incredible, the things that happened to

him, but he, he was just too determined.

Yeah.

yeah.

And also, which I didn't realize, cause when John was talking, I wrote it down, he

said, 14 years, and I had a quick Google.

Such a long time from being, having this experience.

Um, and, and then, then you read all about his travels and things happening to him.

But there's lots that happened before that when he just, he got

to know the, the new church and.

I should imagine probably studied and realized, you know, through

God's, how, how that all that he'd learnt in the past was a fulfillment.

that it, even though we say it's like this, just Damascus road instantly, he

still was being transformed, wasn't he?

And it was a long time.

Yeah.

That, that, that makes me feel happy that, you know, sometimes just think,

oh man, God, it didn't, I didn't have an experience like that, but it was, it was

a big boom experience in terms of getting to know, you know, it literally knocked

him off his horse, but he still spent that time learning and hearing and being

prepared for what was coming forward.

Mm.

Yeah, but even, but that's lovely as well, isn't it?

Because Jesus is so interested in us and he wants us to be, spend

time with him being close to him.

He's not interested in, it's not as, it's not the things we do, is it?

It's, it's, it's been so he can show things at us.

He can show us things and, and teach us things and change how we are thinking.

And, Yeah.

I, I love that about him.

It's,

Mm-hmm.

it's us, isn't it?

And I like, um, he said, um, about Jesus finding Saul.

Like, Saul didn't find Jesus, did he?

Jesus found him.

I love that, because that's what he did for me.

Like

Mm-hmm.

he didn't just, he found me, but then he pursued me because I

was so stubborn and unbelieving.

He didn't just try once, he kept trying to, trying and trying until, until

I could believe, until I said yes.

Yeah.

It's not, it's not us that find him, it's him that he, he that finds us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

it's good.

I like Graham's put in the comments that, uh, how interesting that

he was blinded for a few days, but then he could really see

Hmm.

then yeah, then you could really see Graham.

Yeah.

And um, and like David, there's a big gap between his anointing

and him actually being king.

The God prepares us well, Jesus was, can you imagine being the son of God?

And being on the earth for 30 years before you perform a miracle.

I mean, I'd think about that sometimes and they just think the patience and all

the stuff going around, but even, even Jesus needed, I presume, preparation.

And um, and we can just take note of that, that he, he's preparing

us, preparing us for new mission.

Preparing

it was to, sorry, go on.

no, just preparing us to tell, tell our story

Yeah,

John was saying.

maybe it was to prove stuff as well to us and other people.

So, um, like if Jesus had just kind of come outta nowhere and done miracles,

that would've been pretty, pretty cool.

But he, people knew him as well, and they could, he was, he was living, I'm

trying to say like he was living proof that he, and he wasn't being con, he

wasn't contradictory to himself or, you know, People see you, don't they?

Every day in, in li in work and, and your family see you all the time.

It's, it's kind of like that you've, it's gotta be 24 7.

It's not just a Sunday thing.

It's gotta be.

yeah.

definitely.

It's gotta be a, a real thing.

Yeah.

Um, I'm talking about persecuted Christians as well.

Um, I've been reading a lot of, um, Richard Rembrandt, um, he's a, a Romanian

and he was like in prison, so, So for so, so many years, when as, um, when it was a

communist country and he, at one time he was in prison and he was there in their

solitary confinement for three years.

Three years, like not seeing anybody else.

Wow.

And I, I've often thought, wow, like what a waste of a man a life

because he was such a good speaker and like a bit like Paul, maybe he

was very int like very intelligent.

But nothing's wasted.

Is it?

Is it nothing's wasted.

And in those three years, God was, I don't know, just keeping him

and, and, um, speaking to him.

And I don't know, with things we, it's things we can't see does

just cause we can't see them.

It doesn't, doesn't matter, does it?

It's, it's this the stuff we can't see.

That's probably the most important.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Some of the times when we just think what God, why?

Why is it so?

mm

is it so quiet?

Why is nothing happening?

Yeah.

Why is it so hard?

Yeah.

Yeah.

God still works with us and like John was saying, all those stories,

it's always the persecuted where the church grows cuz we realize that

we can't do stuff without Jesus.

We have it cushy in this country, don't we?

Um, and sometimes perhaps like that guy that knocked off his bicycle, sometimes

it needs, it needs that, that shock.

We go past church and that's like physically we drive past,

he was driving past the church.

But sometimes in our, just in our lives, we go past things

every day and God needs that.

We need that kick up the butt to, to get to, to see him, get to meet him,

Yeah.

And it, it makes, yeah, and it makes us decide, doesn't it?

I was in Albania just a few y uh, weeks ago, and, um, the church we visited

is quite small, but the Christians there because it's, it's a hard

choice to become, to say yes, it's a hard choice to become a Christian.

It's, yeah, it's not an easy road.

And so the people that are in that church, they are, they are.

They've said yes.

And that is it.

So they're all in sometimes.

Sometimes when you don't have to be all in it, it is too easy to, to

cross over the other way, isn't it?

And

yeah.

To opt back out together or just take take parts of things.

Take,

All in is the, is the only way really.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I um, it's interesting that John said that they were followers of the way, cuz

I was reading before in the message and the message always up until, um, they.

Yeah, for quite a lot of the New Testament, he, it translates it as the

way that there are follows of the way.

Um, and that's what they were called.

Yeah, I like that.

That it is.

And that he said when, um, Muslims have had dreams that it's

often he said, who, who are you?

I'm the way, the truth and the life.

Yeah.

No, no other way around this.

Yeah.

I was, um, on a chat or something about someone's talking about God and

they were saying, well, it's a bit harsh on other religions, isn't it?

And it is, isn't it?

But God said, just come to me.

I'm the way.

The truth and the life there is, there is one.

There's only one truth.

And it took blinding light to knock Paul off his horse to find that,

and some of us need that as well.

And if, if you are, if you're there thinking, what, what is it about this

Jesus, what is it about Christians?

Why do they keep trying different ways to tell us this message?

This is why we do Crowd Church.

It's to bring this message to you to say this Jesus is worth finding out about.

Because it's that important.

It's here's the way, the truth and the life.

Um, I read again today about, um, so I don't know if it's sometimes some

of the stuff you read on the internet, you don't know if it's a quote, whether

it's true, but the logic of it is.

Definitely true of a man called Pascal who was a mathematician in about 1600s.

And there's a, a computer language called Pascal that people learn.

I learned a bit at university and, um, and he, anyway, he said, look, the

logic of it, the stats of it add up.

He said, we're only on the earth for 70, 80, 90, a hundred years.

Got infinity to be with God.

Look at, look at the maps of that.

It's worth it.

You know?

Be a Christian and have eternity with Jesus.

Don't be a Christian and miss out on that Salvation, have eternity without God.

If you just wanna play the odds of probability, it's worth.

It's worth knowing Jesus, but he's worth way more than playing the odds.

Yeah.

He's, John said something about that, didn't he?

Logical?

No, it made sense.

He said Yeah, because it does, it, it doesn't make sense in

like a, um, I think it took me a long time to become a Christian.

Well, not a long time.

I was 13, but considering the fact that I went to church

when I was, you know, from zero

Yes.

Yeah.

13 years is a long time, isn't it?

Um, and it took me a long time cause I, I.

Couldn't, for me, it didn't make sense that he would love me.

I couldn't, I could believe that he loved everybody.

Like it's in a kind of general sense.

Cause I knew that God was good, but didn't make sense to me that he would love me.

So in that way it doesn't make sense.

But everything else makes sense.

And what he, and if, but if you look at it in a different way, it does

make sense because he made me, so why would he make me if he didn't,

you know, if he wasn't gonna love me.

Um, he knew me before, before anybody else was born.

Um, he, he knew the plan.

He knew what Jesus was gonna do.

He knew what we were gonna do, and he still, um, followed his plan.

So it, it is logical.

He's, I think he is a logical God, isn't it?

He is, isn't he?

And it's all, there is a lot of math and stuff in the Bible and

I don't do that cause I don't do maths, but it is, he is logical.

But, um, the mind blowingness of it.

It feels like it's not logical, but that's also why maybe I'm on tangent now.

That's also why science is so people, people think you can't be

a scientist and be a Christian, but it goes, they go together.

fits together.

all together because everything was made by him anyway, and things couldn't

work in science if it wasn't for God.

So how can they to how can they be apart?

So yeah, I think.

It.

I know it.

Everything is logical about it, but at the same time, it's mind blowingly

logical, if you see what I mean?

Yeah.

When it comes to to person.

To person.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It, yeah,

I love, and, and on that, on that note of logical, it's also

great that God turns things.

On, on their head because, um, said, yeah, so there was this great Jew who

could trace his lineage all the way back.

And God says, okay, yeah, you've learned under the best people.

Go and speak to the Gentiles and Peter, this fisherman that we always say, oh,

he blundered through things and put his foot in stuff, but he's amazing, man.

Um, yeah, go and speak to the Jews.

And I love that he just, he, we can put our trust in him.

yeah.

It might not seem the, it might not seem the, um, not logical.

It might not seem where the facts, you know, I've studied all this.

I'll go here.

You just need to listen to what he's got for us and, and follow that word.

That's the, that's the important thing, isn't it?

Mm.

Yep, yep.

Everything I've done in my life is not logical that I've done it.

I think in a way, if you're looking at the world sense of logical,

because I can't, cause I'm, yeah.

Cause I'm just me, but I mean, I can't Okay.

Because this seems stupid thing, but I, I can go to a place, like a big car,

car park or something like that, right.

And I call my, go out of the door and turn right and go downstairs and I can't

find, I won't be able to find my way back.

Okay.

Cuz my sense of direction is horrendous.

But I've been like all around the world on my own.

How could I do that if Jesus wasn't with me?

Yeah,

That's one proof of my story.

yeah, yeah.

God's definitely used you hasn't he to take you to all over.

Just because you've,

Well, yeah.

I don't even, yeah, I mean, I hope that he's used me, but, but it's more,

it's always more rather than using me.

He's, he's blessed.

It's more, he is more blessing than anything else really.

Then he's done what he needed to do.

You just need to say yes, Don't you, and then,

mm

and yeah, it's, no, it's not a sacrifice really, when you come to think of it.

Not at all.

Yeah.

And I like the other, I know we need to finish.

He's talking about, kept talking about our story, didn't he?

That it's your story.

It's your story and um, um, that if you say your story, then nobody can really

argue with you because it's your story.

So I love that, that you, you don't have to be intelligent, like Paul.

Like, I'm not, I can't do that.

I can't argue with people about doctrine and stuff, but I can say what, what

God's done in me and my story, and I'm sorry, but you can't argue with

that because you know what's gone on in your life, haven't you, don't you?

Yeah.

Yeah, we're, yeah.

And we're the example of that, aren't we?

We are who we are because, because God has changed us.

Yeah.

And it, I've written on my notes here, a nice little square around it.

It's, our life has been turned around and it's our, yeah, it's our story.

Um, so if anything for, for those that know Jesus this week, just feel

encouraged to, to tell your story.

Like, like Ruth said, you can't, um, you can't argue with that cuz it's just

who we are and it's our, it's our life.

And those that don't, if you don't know Jesus, then find out

about people's stories that do

ask them, ask them questions.

You can send emails in to, um, if you just go to www.crowd.church

um, send messages in there.

There's a midweek zoom.

Come talk to us.

Um, God, God wants to get to, to know you and we won't get to tell you about

Jesus if you travel on the bus to work.

Get the, the, the what's the story podcast I've been doing those is I drive around

with my job a lot, so I have one of the podcasts on and listen just to ordinary

people telling their amazing stories about how God has, um, transformed their lives.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What have you got to lose?

That's the thing, isn't it?

As Graham said, I like that word Graham, like what we all said in church, doing

things with God rather than doing rather than without Him is the best thing.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

There's nothing to lose.

This is the thing.

Yeah.

And you could say, like I was saying, in Albania, there's physical

things like they would lose friends.

You know, when you're being persecuted, yes.

You lose physical things.

But like Dan said about the scale of eternity and now when you think, look at

it that way, there is nothing to lose.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think we've drawn to an end there, but thanks so much, Ruth.

I think, um, I think you need to come back on.

Again, perhaps there's another host.

Um, and next week, again, just to, to let you know, Sharon is doing

the talk on the power of healing.

So looking forward to that and I'm afraid it's me again next week, but

with the wonderful Matt, and I think we might do it in a new studio,

Yeah.

we'll be there in person talking to each other.

Ooh, very fancy.

So yes, looking forward to that.

So thanks very much.

Um, and God bless you all, and we'll see you next week.

Yeah.

Bye everybody.

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God bless you.