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The Gift of Adversity: How to Turn Your Problems into Strength
Episode 5116th January 2024 • CROWD Church Livestream • Crowd Church
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With this talk, we take you on a journey through the life of Apostle Paul, demonstrating how adversity can be a powerful tool for personal growth and strength. This service is a must-listen for anyone seeking to transform their challenges into opportunities for spiritual and personal development.

  • A Life of Journeys and Trials: Discover how Paul's extensive travels and hardships, including being stoned and jailed, reflect our own life's ups and downs.
  • The Power of Patience: Learn how Paul's time under arrest wasn't wasted but used for deep reflection and writing, inspiring us to find value in our struggles.
  • Embracing Solitude: Understand the importance of 'God space' in our busy lives and how solitude can lead to divine wisdom and clarity.
  • The Strength of Forgiveness: Understand the crucial role of forgiveness in overcoming adversity, as exemplified by Paul's ability to forgive those who wronged him.
  • Balancing Life's Burdens: Explore how Paul managed the challenges he faced, reminding us to balance our burdens with God’s guidance.
  • Unleashing Potential Through Trials: Discover how every trial and tribulation in our lives can be a stepping stone to unlocking our true potential.
  • Transforming Adversity: Learn how to turn life's adversities into strengths, following Paul's example of resilience and faith.


Transcripts

Matt Edmundson:

Welcome to this week's Crowd Church service.

Matt Edmundson:

We are a digital church on a quest to discover how Jesus helps

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us live a more meaningful life.

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We are a community, a space to explore the Christian faith, and a place

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where you can contribute and grow.

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Our service will last about an hour, and in a few seconds we will start

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with a time of worship, after which you will meet our hosts for our service,

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who will introduce today's guest.

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After the talk, we head into Conversation Street, where we look at your stories

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and questions that you've posted in the comments throughout the live stream.

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

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a few ways that you can do just that.

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Firstly, you can engage with Crowd from any device during our live

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stream, and if you're up for it.

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

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Church is all about connecting with God and connecting with others, and

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

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mid week groups where we meet online together to catch up and discover

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more about the amazingness of Christ.

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You can also subscribe to our podcast called What's It's the story where

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we deep dive into stories of faith and courage from everyday people.

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More information about all of these things that I've mentioned can

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be found on our website at www.

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crowd.

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church or you can reach us on social media at crowdchurch.

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If you're new to crowd or new to the Christian faith.

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Faith and would like to know what your next steps to take are.

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Why not?

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Head over to our website, crowd Church slash Next for more details.

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And now the moment you've been waiting for is here.

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Our online church service starts.

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Now, wow, good evening.

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Welcome to Crowd Online Church.

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My name is Matt Edmundson and beside me is absolutely no one.

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Now, if you're a regular to Crowd, you know that there's normally

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two of us side by side today.

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But Anna, my Co host is MIA, so if anyone's seen Anna, just give her a

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little nudge, tell her she's supposed to be here, she's not answering the

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phone, so I hope everything's alright.

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But that said, we will crack on.

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How has your Sunday been?

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Hopefully it's been good.

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Let's see what we've got going on in the comments here.

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You're going to have to join me and help me in the comments, folks, because

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if I'm flying solo I'm going to, I'm going to need that conversation.

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Do write, say hi in the comments.

Matt Edmundson:

Hi Miriam.

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Miriam's in the comments.

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Hey Miriam, how you doing?

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Tobias, even in first time joining the live stream, but have been

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enjoying the Alpha Series videos.

Matt Edmundson:

Tobias, great to have you, man.

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Great that you're here with us.

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Glad you've been enjoying the Alpha Course.

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They're great, aren't they?

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They're, not because we did them.

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I just want to point that out.

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They're great because they're great because it's Alpha.

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Great to have you, Tobias.

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Hi, Sarah.

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Hi, Keith and Peter from Spain joining us again.

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Great to have you.

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Week number two, guys.

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Welcome.

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Great that you're joining us.

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Whoop.

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Here we go.

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Yeah.

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Mine has been really special.

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According to Miriam, her Sunday has been good.

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Just jot in the comments.

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Let me know what you've been up to this Sunday.

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It'd be great to hear about it.

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I have been not that you really want to know, but I've been

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busily installing a diesel heater.

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For some strange reason, I decided that installing a diesel heater in my

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kitchen would be a good Thing to do.

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And test number one has worked pretty well.

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I'm not gonna like pretty stoked but it may means my hands out.

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You.

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It's good job.

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You can't smell my hands 'cause they do smell a little bit like diesel.

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What have you guys been doing?

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Enjoying your Sunday afternoon?

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Hopefully Keith and Peter also enjoying the alpha course here.

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You know what, this is great.

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Let me just mention this.

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If you are new to crowd.

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And you're watching this.

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So if you're new to the Christian faith, you want to know more about the Christian

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faith, you've got questions, want to explore it, do check out the Alpha Course.

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Now if you go to the website, I'm just going to check on

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the URL here, it's crowd.

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church, www.

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crowd.

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church.

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org.

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Let me put it up on the screen.

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He says, I think it's that one there.

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Yes, look at that.

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If you go, who says I can't multitask.

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If you go to crowd.

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church and click on, there's various links to get to alpha, but the best way

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to get to it, I think it's probably just to scroll to the bottom and the fourth

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link down says alpha course online.

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And then all the alpha series talks are there.

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Things like, is there more to life than this?

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Who is Jesus?

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Why did Jesus die?

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Why did we proclaim that as, Christians?

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What's that all about?

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How can I be sure of my faith?

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What's prayer all about?

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What's the Bible all about?

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Does God guide us?

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Who's the Holy Spirit?

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Making the most life.

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How do I resist evil?

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Still one of the most popular talks.

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And should we talk about our faith?

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Excuse me.

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Should we share it?

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Should we do all of those things?

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Does God heal today is a big question.

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Anna, who is MIA, answers that question, and in fact, Anna's just texted me.

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Shall we see what she has to say?

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Put my glasses on.

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Oh my gosh, so sorry, we went to Andy's Mums and I totally forgot I was on again.

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Just seeing this now, okay, for those of you who know Anna, give

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her some grief, because frankly, I think that's fair enough.

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She's gone to her husband's, to her mother in law's and is her husband, by the way.

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So hopefully they're all right over there.

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But yes we'll crack on, shall we?

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Today we have the talk by Dan Orange.

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Dan is one of the regulars here at Crowding.

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You can You can get your notepads ready.

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This is actually his first talk, which I'm really excited about.

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I've not heard it yet, and I'm really excited to hear it.

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I've been friends with Dan for a very long time, so super keen

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to hear what he's got to say.

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Now, we have been working our way through the book of Acts, and for

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you, if you're new, like to buy us with us, Acts is a book in the New

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Testament, after the four Gospels.

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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which chronicle the story of Jesus.

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And then you have the Book of Acts which chronicles the sort

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of the beginnings of the church.

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What happened after Jesus goes to heaven?

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What happens those sort of first few years in the church?

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That's what we find out in the Book of Acts and we have been

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busy working our way through it.

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It has taken a very long time.

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We were joking about this last week.

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It seems to have taken us a bit of an age, but we are getting there, which is good.

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But you know what?

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Even though it has taken a long time, I have really positively enjoyed it.

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It's been absolutely phenomenal.

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I've got a lot out of this Alpha Series.

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So Dan's going to do his talk on Alpha.

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Write your questions, write your thoughts in the comments below.

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And I will be back by myself because Anna's not joining me.

Matt Edmundson:

Matt, you're doing amazing.

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You're doing amazing on your Todd.

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Bless you.

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Thanks, Miriam.

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I will be back after the talk to do Conversation Street.

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So yeah, do get right in the comments.

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Do write your thoughts, write your questions, write your ideas.

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Down.

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It talks about 15 minutes I think, and then I will be back and we'll

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carry on a conversation about it.

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I'm just looking for the button on my notepad.

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I think it's this one.

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So I'm gonna push this.

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Here's Dan I'll see you in just a few minutes.

Dan Orange:

So on to Acts chapter 25.

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I thought I'd give a little recap of where things are up to in Paul's life so far.

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So Paul has completed many journeys visiting the Scattered early church.

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He's currently on his third missionary journey around the area of the

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Mediterranean and Middle East, traveling miles by sea and foot.

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Most scholars believe in his lifetime, he traveled and walked over 10, 000 miles.

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So he sailed and walked 10, 000 miles, which is pretty impressive

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even by today's standards.

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He spent that time teaching, spending time with the new Christians,

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the followers of the way that they were called at that time.

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He's already been stoned.

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He's been jailed.

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Shaved his head for a vow, but seen many miracles and many come to hear

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and know about this wonderful Jesus, the Messiah, the forgiver of sins.

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He spends lots of time in the synagogues teaching, questioning and

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preaching over many days each time.

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He didn't just come along, preach and dash off, he dedicated time

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and energy to the good news.

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He's already written some of the letters that we have in the Bible, the letter

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to the Galatians and Corinthians, and the letter to the Romans.

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He's approximately 53 years old now, and he's under arrest again.

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23 years after his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus.

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There's now a new Roman governor holding him.

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Felix had held him for two years, hoping for a bribe to give him an excuse to

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release him, and now Festus is in charge.

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Do you feel that your life has ups and downs, Paul must have, been those

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hard times, there, the times that, Often where God is teaching us, and

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in Paul's case here, protecting him.

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Let's read the first section, chapter 25.

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Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea

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to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders appeared before him

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and presented the charges against Paul.

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They requested Festus as a favour to them, to have Paul transferred to

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Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way.

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Festus answered, Paul is being held at Caesarea and I myself am going there soon.

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Let some of your leaders come with me.

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If the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there.

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After spending eight or ten days with them, Festus went down to Caesarea.

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The next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him.

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Paul had been held in prison two years so far.

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The Jewish leaders hadn't given up their petitions and desire to get rid of Paul.

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I'd like to pick out two things here.

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Paul has to be patient.

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He's got no choice.

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He simply can't do anything else, but he can choose how he is alone.

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Paul was stuck under arrest and couldn't do much, but he could have just sat

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and stewed in his own self pity.

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But he didn't.

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He spent his time listening to God, studying, and probably writing.

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In his next prison situation he wrote Philippians, Ephesians, so I don't know.

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He was just sat there doing nothing.

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I know in the time that we live in, it's rare, there's nothing to do or look at.

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I'm a dad, a husband, a business owner.

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There's always something to do, and always something to distract.

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Perhaps it's, Furtling on your phone, what a great word.

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My father in law used this word a lot when he was alive.

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What have you been doing, Roger?

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That's my father in law.

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Oh, just been furtling, reading an article on social media, playing online.

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Playing online Scrabble, just furtling.

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It can be good to keep our minds active but sometimes we need time

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from distractions, time on our own, time where it's easier for God to

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speak to us, less distractions.

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Let's slow down, take five minutes when it's just you and God.

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I'm speaking to you but also to myself.

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Every time I'm alone with God I think, why don't I do more of this,

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and I'm back in my life, and I've got to do this and got to do that.

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Put some God space in your diary.

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I have it now in my diary, it actually says God space.

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Siri will pop up and say God space, just to encourage me to stop the

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busyness of life taking over.

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Jesus says in Luke's Gospel, by your patience possess your souls.

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Let's not be so busy we miss out.

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I need to learn more patience, more listening.

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Second point is that these Jewish leaders had a grudge and they weren't giving up.

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They'd already put pressure on the previous governor for two years and now

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hassled the new guy for ten days straight.

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Persistence is a good thing, working towards an outcome is a good thing, if

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it's the right thing we're working for.

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I'm from Liverpool and I love this city.

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But in 1989 in Hillsborough, England, there was a horrific

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disaster of a football match where 96 Liverpool supporters died.

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The people of Liverpool, families and friends of those

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who died, fought for justice.

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There'd been incorrect allegations made, cover ups by the authorities,

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and the people of Liverpool, especially Liverpool supporters, were put down

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in the press and by the establishment.

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But they persisted, and the truth was eventually told.

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This took a long time, and a favourable outcome has now come.

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They didn't give need to give.

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They didn't give up.

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We need to strive for what's right by keeping up, but by keeping

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our focus on Him who is right, listening in the quiet times.

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Jesus said this famously, come to me all you who labor and are heavy

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laden and I will give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart

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and you will find rest for your souls.

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For my yoke is easy.

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And my burden is light.

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Rest in him and take his yoke.

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A little note from this is that we can give him our burdens, but we still

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need to take a yoke, a light burden.

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We don't walk around skipping with nothing to do, no work.

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We are to do his work, whatever that may be for us where we're at.

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We're not carrying around the things that are too heavy for our backs.

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That's what we put on God's shoulders.

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Not to do nothing, but we're to do his work.

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This applied to Paul too, so we can see it's not always easy.

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Jesus when he spoke those words was talking about all the oppressions

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and laws that the people at the time had put on themselves.

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We can put our own things on us that are not for us to bear.

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Give your troubles, don't have things that aren't for you.

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Some people can make it their life's work to take on the troubles of

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others, the worries, disguising it as empathy or compassion.

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We need to make sure we're just taking on what he's asked us to take on.

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On to the next part of the story which reads like this.

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When Paul came in, the Jews had come down from Jerusalem and stood around him.

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They'd brought many serious charges against him, but

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they could not prove them.

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Then Paul made his defence.

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I've done nothing wrong against the Jewish law, or against

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the Temple, or against Caesar.

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Fester, wishing to do the Jews a favour, said to Paul, Are you willing

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to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?

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Paul answered.

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I'm now standing before Caesar's Court where I ought to be tried.

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I've not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well.

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If however, I am guilty of doing anything disown death, I do not refuse to die.

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But in the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true.

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But if the charges brought against me by the, these Jews are not true, no one

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has the right to hand me over to them.

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I appeal to Caesar after Festus had confirmed with his counsel, he declared.

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You have appealed to Caesar you will go.

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Paul had to give God his troubles to trust him, but also to listen to God.

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I believe God gave him wisdom on how to answer and when to answer.

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He brought the law to his advantage so the Jewish leaders couldn't get to him.

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It may have seemed that this just prolonged things, but God used that

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time for Paul and for the church.

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In our lives we need to bring our concerns and our trials

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before God and ask for wisdom.

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To ask for him to move mountains when necessary, but we need

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to do what we can as well.

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In my own life, my son is having a lot of trouble at school with his education,

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and we're praying a lot about things, we're asking God for wisdom, asking

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God to come to speak to us and to Luke.

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And he has, and he's bringing his peace, and he's brought his peace

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to him and to us, but we still have to push and strive in this world.

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For the law says that Luke should have a good education

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in the country that we live.

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Me, my wife mainly, she's amazing, studying, petitioning, getting things

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done, submitting formal complaints if we have to, works not done,

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getting our counsel on board, etc.

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But in all this, God has to be our focus still.

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He's got to be the most important thing.

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Otherwise, we can just go.

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Off on a tangent and miss out, if God is our focus and we put our trust

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in him, then we can look back at trials and problems and rest in the

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decisions that were made, knowing that he has made, he has the best for us.

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Romans 8, 28 which Paul wrote in a similar situation to he is now, and we

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know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those

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who are called according to his purpose.

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Paul knew his rights on the earth.

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He knew he was a Roman citizen and that this meant he should be tried in Rome.

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This decision saved him.

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It stopped that trip to Jerusalem where the leaders plotted to kill

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him, but it also set off the chain of events that would cause him to be

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incarcerated for another two years.

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This is what I mean by knowing his word and resting in it.

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In those two years.

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Do you think Paul thought, why don't I stick to my guns, or why did I not just

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go to Jerusalem, it probably would have been alright, it probably wouldn't have.

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The last thing I want to mention is something that's not written here,

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but it is implied, it's forgiveness.

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I mentioned about fighting for the truth, for standing firm, in that we can

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come up against others that are against us, others that can and do hurt us.

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If we dwell on those things and deeds, they can occupy more than our noble goal.

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The fight can become a grudge and can eat away at us.

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This is where sometimes the hardest step has to happen.

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We have to forgive those that have done wrong toward us.

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Paul had plenty of people to forgive.

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Those that stoned him, those that lied to put him away, those that

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hurt and killed others around him.

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I've had people that have hurt my son with their I have to forgive, and

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it's hard when it's not even against you, it's against someone you love.

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The people of Liverpool have seen justice for what was said about them

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in the press and what I spoke about earlier, but without forgiveness

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there can still just be hurt.

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These grudges and strivings can bring anger, they can limit our

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life, they can occupy time, they can come in the way of our destiny.

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God can and does forgive.

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We need to take his example and we need to forgive.

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We need to give our fights to God.

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Don't let your grudge be your life.

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God in Jesus came and died that we may know freedom from sin

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and that we can be forgiven.

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All the things that we have done that are worthy of death have been wiped away.

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We've been forgiven much.

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It's for us to know that eternal forgiveness and ask for God's

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grace to enable us to forgive.

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Maybe we need to forgive those that are close to us.

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Paul, in his letter to the Romans, is speaking to some of the church

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members about others that have done wrong and been punished.

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Then he says, let's not add more sorrow to them that they can bear by holding

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back our forgiveness toward them.

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I've just read the autobiography of Bono from U2, and it's

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a really interesting book.

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And he has a Interesting and tricky relationship with his dad, Bob Hewson.

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Even after he died, he realised he needed to forgive him and

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to ask for his forgiveness.

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Here's the passage in his own words.

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Easter 2002, Ali and I visited the little chapel in Eze France, a fisherman's church

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with a hilltop view that has seen it all.

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From the baroque pulpit, a lone arm sticks out of the wall holding the cross, and

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a fishing boat hangs from the ceiling.

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After the service, sometimes improved I find if you don't speak the language that

Dan Orange:

well, I returned to the pews on my own.

Dan Orange:

I sat there and apologised to my father, Bob Hewson.

Dan Orange:

I had forgiven him for his own crimes of passion but I'd never

Dan Orange:

asked for his forgiveness for mine.

Dan Orange:

I'll never know if it was related to me asking for this forgiveness

Dan Orange:

in that little chapel, but after my father died something changed.

Dan Orange:

I felt I got an extra couple of notes on my range.

Dan Orange:

I felt I was becoming a real tenor as opposed to a pretend one.

Dan Orange:

I could ring those high notes like a church bell as

Dan Orange:

I had never hit them before.

Dan Orange:

Makes no scientific sense of course, but I've heard it said that when someone

Dan Orange:

close dies, they leave you a kind of passing gift, some invisible will

Dan Orange:

where you inherit a special blessing.

Dan Orange:

Bob Hewson's final gift to me was to enlarge the one he gave me long before.

Dan Orange:

I was now a true tenor, no longer a baritone, I only thought he was a tenor.

Dan Orange:

I thought it was a really interesting example of what forgiveness

Dan Orange:

can do for us in real life.

Dan Orange:

Sometimes the burden we're holding on to is unforgiveness and it

Dan Orange:

does literally hold us back.

Dan Orange:

Perhaps we need to come to him and cry out for his forgiveness.

Dan Orange:

And get that extra octave in our lives.

Matt Edmundson:

Welcome back.

Matt Edmundson:

Thank you, Dan, for that great talk.

Matt Edmundson:

Loved it.

Matt Edmundson:

Dan's first talk, ladies and gentlemen.

Matt Edmundson:

I wish I had a button on my desk at home, which gives a round of applause.

Matt Edmundson:

Don't have it here.

Matt Edmundson:

But it's great.

Matt Edmundson:

I loved it.

Matt Edmundson:

Loved it.

Matt Edmundson:

Loved it.

Matt Edmundson:

So Dan's tour, what did you think?

Matt Edmundson:

What did you take away from it?

Matt Edmundson:

Hello to you if you've joined us during the talk.

Matt Edmundson:

If you've joined us live, my name is Matt Edmundson.

Matt Edmundson:

I'm the pastor here at Crowd Church, just in case you want to know, and normally

Matt Edmundson:

there would be somebody sat beside me.

Matt Edmundson:

We would normally be co hosting the online church, but Anna she just,

Matt Edmundson:

let's just put it, she just forgot.

Matt Edmundson:

She just forgot she was hosting.

Matt Edmundson:

It totally slipped her mind, as these things do.

Matt Edmundson:

And so she went and visited a mother in law.

Matt Edmundson:

Which is, probably one of those God things really.

Matt Edmundson:

But needless to say, I will be able to reminder of this every week for

Matt Edmundson:

the next probably year or two really.

Matt Edmundson:

So it's not a total loss.

Matt Edmundson:

But yeah, if you've just joined us, welcome to Online Church.

Matt Edmundson:

That was Dan speaking Keith and Peter.

Matt Edmundson:

Brilliant talk, Dan.

Matt Edmundson:

Very thought provoking.

Matt Edmundson:

Thanks for sharing.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, I loved it.

Matt Edmundson:

We're going to get into it.

Matt Edmundson:

What did you like about it?

Matt Edmundson:

Some of the thought provoking things.

Matt Edmundson:

We have Pastor Alexander in from the Congo on Facebook joining

Matt Edmundson:

us all the way from the Congo.

Matt Edmundson:

I love technology.

Matt Edmundson:

So people from Spain, people from the Congo, people from the

Matt Edmundson:

UK, just all over the world.

Matt Edmundson:

Welcome to you.

Matt Edmundson:

Great that you're with us Pastor Alexander.

Matt Edmundson:

I hope you guys are doing well.

Matt Edmundson:

If you haven't heard yet Pastor Alexander's talk on, I say talk, his

Matt Edmundson:

podcast we recorded on what's the story.

Matt Edmundson:

So what's the story?

Matt Edmundson:

If you don't know.

Matt Edmundson:

It's a podcast where either me or Anna when she turns up, you

Matt Edmundson:

can see where this is going.

Matt Edmundson:

And Sadaf we get guests onto the show and we just interview them about their story.

Matt Edmundson:

And Pastor Alexander was over from the Congo, which was amazing.

Matt Edmundson:

And so I got a chance to sit down with him for about an hour and

Matt Edmundson:

just listen to his story about.

Matt Edmundson:

How I became a Christian, what it's like running a church in the middle

Matt Edmundson:

of a war zone, the hospital that's being built over there, some amazing

Matt Edmundson:

stuff, real, really great stuff.

Matt Edmundson:

And so if you haven't done so already, check it out.

Matt Edmundson:

You can find out more information on the website which I'll put on the screen.

Matt Edmundson:

Just click the podcast link or if you just want to go straight to it,

Matt Edmundson:

just type in whatsthestorypodcast.

Matt Edmundson:

com and that will take you to that specific section of the site.

Matt Edmundson:

Now what I'm going to do, I'm going to press my button there, in the

Matt Edmundson:

comments I have added a temporary link.

Matt Edmundson:

So given that I'm flying solo and we've never tried this before.

Matt Edmundson:

Let me just point out to you what's going on with that link and then

Matt Edmundson:

we'll get into Conversation Street.

Matt Edmundson:

If you are so inclined, if you click that link it's a temporary

Matt Edmundson:

link, it only lasts about an hour.

Matt Edmundson:

Bless you BadgerDragons is writing some really nice stuff in the comments.

Matt Edmundson:

If you click that link, it will take you to a page where you can copy a

Matt Edmundson:

URL, which will actually get you to dial into our live stream, right?

Matt Edmundson:

Now, bear in mind, it's going to ask you To approve your microphone

Matt Edmundson:

and to approve your video.

Matt Edmundson:

But if you do that, the computer here will ring and you will come up on my computer

Matt Edmundson:

and I can add you to The live stream.

Matt Edmundson:

That's in theory how it goes.

Matt Edmundson:

I have done this with other podcasts that we do and so I do know the technology

Matt Edmundson:

works, we've just never done it on crowd.

Matt Edmundson:

If you want to join me, if you've got something you want to share, if you've

Matt Edmundson:

got a question you want to pose, if you've got an idea you want to talk about

Matt Edmundson:

from Dan's talk, we would we'll try it.

Matt Edmundson:

We'll see how it goes.

Matt Edmundson:

I don't know how well it's going to work.

Matt Edmundson:

I genuinely don't.

Matt Edmundson:

I don't even know if any of you are actually that interested in dialing in.

Matt Edmundson:

But the link is in the comments if you want to join us.

Matt Edmundson:

Do so Dan's talk, what did you think of his talk?

Matt Edmundson:

I loved it.

Matt Edmundson:

One of the things that's been coming out of the Book of Acts is this sort of

Matt Edmundson:

theme and this theme is, It's very much a case of the Holy Spirit turns up, Jesus

Matt Edmundson:

goes, the Holy Spirit turns up and he starts doing some amazing things, right?

Matt Edmundson:

So as a Christian, we believe the Trinity exists, that God is three in

Matt Edmundson:

one, that he's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Matt Edmundson:

The gospels were all about God, the Son and Acts is really all

Matt Edmundson:

about the God, the Holy Spirit telling everybody about God the Son.

Matt Edmundson:

And what we see happening a lot.

Matt Edmundson:

As we see the Holy Spirit coming down, there have been some quite significant

Matt Edmundson:

encounters with the Holy Spirit.

Matt Edmundson:

People's lives change.

Matt Edmundson:

And what happens is the Holy Spirit empowers ordinary people

Matt Edmundson:

to do extraordinary things.

Matt Edmundson:

Sometimes that's working a miracle, sometimes that's just telling the

Matt Edmundson:

story, sometimes that's just actually surviving and living, to be fair.

Matt Edmundson:

And so the Holy Spirit comes down and he enables and empowers people.

Matt Edmundson:

He, in effect, gives them a mission.

Matt Edmundson:

He gives them a plan.

Matt Edmundson:

He gives them a purpose, a reason to live.

Matt Edmundson:

And what we see and what we saw today in Dan's talk was, although there is

Matt Edmundson:

a divine call, although there is this sort of divine plan that God gives

Matt Edmundson:

us, doesn't always mean it's easy.

Matt Edmundson:

And life can be complex and hard, but in, because we I suppose in our

Matt Edmundson:

modern day thinking, we're like if God's real and God's going to give

Matt Edmundson:

me a plan to do, surely he's going to make it easy for me to do it.

Matt Edmundson:

And life will be fun and a ball of laughter along the way.

Matt Edmundson:

And apparently there's not quite how it turns out, but God is with

Matt Edmundson:

us throughout the whole thing.

Matt Edmundson:

And in the complexity and in the nuances and in the difficulties

Matt Edmundson:

in we learn to trust him.

Matt Edmundson:

We learn to understand what it is that God's actually doing

Matt Edmundson:

in the midst of everything.

Matt Edmundson:

And we see this over and over again in the book of Acts.

Matt Edmundson:

It's this sort of constant theme, which I find quite staggering.

Matt Edmundson:

It's probably one of my biggest takeaways is actually God does amazing

Matt Edmundson:

things, but it doesn't mean that my life is going to be amazingly

Matt Edmundson:

easy, but I do get to make a choice.

Matt Edmundson:

I get to determine whether I keep going after God or whether I shrink back.

Matt Edmundson:

And so that seems to be the sort of the main theme, the main feel,

Matt Edmundson:

or one of them that we take from the, there are obviously others.

Matt Edmundson:

So that said, Dan then obviously talked, I loved his, this phrase that he used.

Matt Edmundson:

I wrote it down here, how he talked about the noble goal.

Matt Edmundson:

And now we have this noble goal, this sort of noble goal from God, this

Matt Edmundson:

calling, this plan, this thing to do this.

Matt Edmundson:

Sense of purpose, sense of mission.

Matt Edmundson:

I love that phrase, noble goal, totally stealing it, Dan, not

Matt Edmundson:

going to lie, thought it was great.

Matt Edmundson:

What is your noble goal, do you think?

Matt Edmundson:

Do you have a noble goal?

Matt Edmundson:

What do you think God's saying about that?

Matt Edmundson:

What's a noble goal for you?

Matt Edmundson:

And one of the things that happened then is, Dan then immediately starts

Matt Edmundson:

talking about forgiveness and how the pursuit of a noble goal, and for him,

Matt Edmundson:

The noble goal he was talking about was the stuff with Luke, his son, and trying

Matt Edmundson:

to sort out with the educational system here in the UK, how to fix something

Matt Edmundson:

that's quite broken for them, right?

Matt Edmundson:

And God love them.

Matt Edmundson:

They've been through it Luke, Dan and Lisa, just a really incredible

Matt Edmundson:

story really, but it's, and it's not over, so do pray for them.

Matt Edmundson:

But in the midst of that, so his noble goal is obviously to get this

Matt Edmundson:

educational thing for his son sorted out to fight for that to do his thing.

Matt Edmundson:

I loved his comment about how his yoke is easy and his burden is

Matt Edmundson:

light, we come to God and we give him his things, but it doesn't mean

Matt Edmundson:

we don't have a yoke to pick up.

Matt Edmundson:

It doesn't mean we've not got anything to do that.

Matt Edmundson:

We just float around.

Matt Edmundson:

I think it was a phrase he used.

Matt Edmundson:

I thought it was great, pondering around, floating around.

Matt Edmundson:

And yeah, I thought the noble goal is then linked to forgiveness.

Matt Edmundson:

The thing that we have to do is linked to forgiveness.

Matt Edmundson:

And one of the comments here that Miriam wrote, sometimes I don't know

Matt Edmundson:

how to forgive friends when they do the same things over and over again,

Matt Edmundson:

but God will be with me, so it's okay.

Matt Edmundson:

It's a really powerful thing, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

And we've talked a lot on Crowd about forgiveness.

Matt Edmundson:

We've had quite a few talks about it from Sharon, my wife, she's

Matt Edmundson:

done a few talks on forgiveness.

Matt Edmundson:

We had one from Jenny Taylor.

Matt Edmundson:

She talked about forgiveness, remarkable story.

Matt Edmundson:

She's had to forgive a lot.

Matt Edmundson:

And they're definitely worth checking out if you do struggle with the

Matt Edmundson:

topic of forgiveness do go dig those out there in the archives.

Matt Edmundson:

Again, just head over to the website, crowd church, the links at the bottom.

Matt Edmundson:

You can go to the website and search for Jenny Taylor, search for

Matt Edmundson:

forgiveness and the talks will come up and go into it in an awful lot more

Matt Edmundson:

detail because I think Dan's right.

Matt Edmundson:

I think sometimes we pursue these noble goals these things that seem righteous,

Matt Edmundson:

these things that seem good and we can get quite angry in the process.

Matt Edmundson:

And we can get quite bitter.

Matt Edmundson:

I think Dan said don't let your grudge become your life.

Matt Edmundson:

That's an amazing quote, that, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

Don't let your grudge become your life.

Matt Edmundson:

So let's think about that, right?

Matt Edmundson:

If we have a noble goal, whatever that is at the moment, something

Matt Edmundson:

that we're fighting for, something that we're striving for, something

Matt Edmundson:

that we're praying for, something that we're believing God for.

Matt Edmundson:

If we have a noble goal, is there an element of anger or bitterness or

Matt Edmundson:

resentment or something that could creep in and derail you in the pursuit of that?

Matt Edmundson:

It's a powerful question, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

And so then thinking that through and what that means and analyzing that, journaling

Matt Edmundson:

about it, God, what are you saying here?

Matt Edmundson:

I think is a, is really powerful because It can you can be trying

Matt Edmundson:

to do the right thing, but we can be doing it in the wrong way.

Matt Edmundson:

And unforgiveness, unfortunately, is one of those things that is trying to

Matt Edmundson:

do the right thing in the wrong way.

Matt Edmundson:

Okay, Keith and Peter, we've had mega problems.

Matt Edmundson:

Okay, not just problems, but mega problems in our church here in

Matt Edmundson:

Spain, causing anger and pain.

Matt Edmundson:

But we have all forgiven and moved on and think we're all stronger for it.

Matt Edmundson:

On Facebook there.

Matt Edmundson:

In fact, let me put that on there.

Matt Edmundson:

I can do this, can't I?

Matt Edmundson:

You can all read it as well.

Matt Edmundson:

There we go.

Matt Edmundson:

In fact, let me let me do that.

Matt Edmundson:

There we go.

Matt Edmundson:

'cause Anna's not here.

Matt Edmundson:

So yeah, so there's what Keith and Peter have said, we've had mega

Matt Edmundson:

problems in our church here in Spain, interestingly, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

If you've been around church for a while.

Matt Edmundson:

If you've been a Christian for a while, when we read about Paul's

Matt Edmundson:

story, his grief came from the Romans.

Matt Edmundson:

Felix Festus, throwing him in jail, trying to get bribes, trying to

Matt Edmundson:

get money, trying to win favour.

Matt Edmundson:

The Romans weren't doing him any solids.

Matt Edmundson:

But why, the Romans were the Romans, why would they, this is the

Matt Edmundson:

way that they thought about life.

Matt Edmundson:

What's interesting is a lot of what we read, a lot of the grief that Paul

Matt Edmundson:

was experiencing was from his own people, it was from the Jewish people.

Matt Edmundson:

Now that's not to, obviously, blame the Jews because I think that's just wrong.

Matt Edmundson:

But what tends to happen is the most hurt comes from people that we know, it comes

Matt Edmundson:

from our tribe, it comes from those around us, those that we're supposed to, press

Matt Edmundson:

into and those that we're supposed to trust and love and all that sort of stuff.

Matt Edmundson:

And it tends to be our tribe, though, our community that can

Matt Edmundson:

cause the most pain, the most harm.

Matt Edmundson:

And church is a classic example of this, I think.

Matt Edmundson:

It's one of those where those who are hurting, those who are wounded,

Matt Edmundson:

even those who are just living life, the church can actually

Matt Edmundson:

cause more problems than it solves.

Matt Edmundson:

And let's be real, I'm a big fan of the church.

Matt Edmundson:

I'm a big believer in the local church, especially, and I'm a big believer in

Matt Edmundson:

church being the hope of the world.

Matt Edmundson:

And I think church is marvelous and wonderful.

Matt Edmundson:

And I've 30 years while we do crowd, right?

Matt Edmundson:

But let me tell you, church is not perfect.

Matt Edmundson:

Because it's made up of imperfect people.

Matt Edmundson:

And actually, in church, we tend to find a lot of broken people as well.

Matt Edmundson:

And broken people and hurt people can hurt.

Matt Edmundson:

And it's just the way it works, unfortunately.

Matt Edmundson:

And so I tend to find if I go back throughout my own life, and Keith and

Matt Edmundson:

Peter, I don't know if you're, if this is what happened, I'm not saying this

Matt Edmundson:

will happen with your church at all.

Matt Edmundson:

But I'm just saying for me, the most hurt that I've experienced has come

Matt Edmundson:

from People in my tribe has come from Christians, close friends who are

Matt Edmundson:

Christians from church Christians.

Matt Edmundson:

And the, in some respects, they're the hardest people to forgive,

Matt Edmundson:

because they should know better.

Matt Edmundson:

And this was my thinking for a little while.

Matt Edmundson:

And they read the same Bible I do, they pray to the same God that I pray to you.

Matt Edmundson:

So how do they see things so differently?

Matt Edmundson:

How do they think this behavior is okay?

Matt Edmundson:

And of course, in that I have to go to God and go, maybe my behavior is not okay,

Matt Edmundson:

I have to be open to that possibility, which is, humbling to say the least.

Matt Edmundson:

And so yeah, how do you do that?

Matt Edmundson:

How do you deal with that?

Matt Edmundson:

And I think you can only deal with that through the grace of God.

Matt Edmundson:

And walking in the light of that and that forgiveness and understanding

Matt Edmundson:

actually that is a, that is what happens in church sometimes.

Matt Edmundson:

And I see a lot of people deconstructing faith actually as

Matt Edmundson:

a result of that, that they've got hurt from the church in some way.

Matt Edmundson:

And so walk away from their faith, which I heard a quote the other

Matt Edmundson:

day, which I thought was really fascinating on this whole thing.

Matt Edmundson:

They said that, walking away from church because of the way some Christians

Matt Edmundson:

behaved is like, You decide to stop supporting your football team because of

Matt Edmundson:

the way some of the supporters behaved.

Matt Edmundson:

Doesn't make sense, right?

Matt Edmundson:

I'm a big Liverpool Football Club fan because why would I not be?

Matt Edmundson:

But I am a big Liverpool Football Club fan, but I'm not a big

Matt Edmundson:

fan of all the supporters.

Matt Edmundson:

They do some insane things and and quite rightly have been

Matt Edmundson:

punished as a result of it.

Matt Edmundson:

But it doesn't mean I stop supporting Liverpool Football Club.

Matt Edmundson:

And the church is the same, it's got broken people in it

Matt Edmundson:

who do some insane things.

Matt Edmundson:

But it doesn't mean that the church actually That I should walk away from

Matt Edmundson:

that or that I should walk away from God.

Matt Edmundson:

It just does not make sense to me in any way, shape or form.

Matt Edmundson:

So hopefully that's helpful to somebody.

Matt Edmundson:

And thank you, Keith and Peter, for sharing about the problems

Matt Edmundson:

with your church in Spain, praying that it works out.

Matt Edmundson:

It's great that you've moved on great that you're stronger for it.

Matt Edmundson:

And it's one of those things I find in those periods.

Matt Edmundson:

I don't know about you guys, but for me, I come through it more and more.

Matt Edmundson:

aware of my own need of forgiveness just, and I'm very grateful

Matt Edmundson:

for God's forgiveness for me.

Matt Edmundson:

So I come through these things more aware of that and the grace

Matt Edmundson:

of God and the graciousness of God.

Matt Edmundson:

But I also sit down and try and understand, what can I learn

Matt Edmundson:

from what I've been through?

Matt Edmundson:

So if I go back to your question, Miriam, earlier about I don't know

Matt Edmundson:

how to forgive friends when they do the same things over and over again.

Matt Edmundson:

And again, friends, your tribe, right?

Matt Edmundson:

The people close to you, the people who should know better, surely, doing

Matt Edmundson:

the same things over and over again.

Matt Edmundson:

I think we just have to, but I think also at the same time, it makes

Matt Edmundson:

sense to put in place boundaries.

Matt Edmundson:

And boundaries aren't a bad thing.

Matt Edmundson:

If people are constantly hurting us, boundaries can actually

Matt Edmundson:

be quite a helpful thing.

Matt Edmundson:

It's one of those things where, there's a great book.

Matt Edmundson:

If you've not read it, there's a great book by Henry, oh, what's his name?

Matt Edmundson:

It'll come back to me.

Matt Edmundson:

It's actually called Boundaries by Henry, oh, come on, brain work.

Matt Edmundson:

Anyway, if you Google boundaries The book, it will come up, great book on boundaries

Matt Edmundson:

actually, super helpful, Christian guy, and a psychologist, very helpful to

Matt Edmundson:

understand about this idea of boundaries and what we should do and shouldn't

Matt Edmundson:

do where boundaries are concerned.

Matt Edmundson:

But like you say Miriam, God's with us, and so we just have to keep giving.

Matt Edmundson:

70 times 7, right?

Matt Edmundson:

Just keep going for it.

Matt Edmundson:

But I do have to be aware that I'm not putting myself in the same position

Matt Edmundson:

with them over and over again.

Matt Edmundson:

It, it makes a lot of sense.

Matt Edmundson:

So Keith and Peter here, because of the problems we encountered, we have

Matt Edmundson:

taken on the warden's job to try and bring change and bring us together.

Matt Edmundson:

See, I love that.

Matt Edmundson:

That is so cool because fundamentally, I think there are two responses.

Matt Edmundson:

It's interesting how we've gotten to this whole conversation about

Matt Edmundson:

church, but I think fundamentally there are two responses when

Matt Edmundson:

it comes to problems in church.

Matt Edmundson:

Response number one is to go, I'm out.

Matt Edmundson:

I've had enough.

Matt Edmundson:

I don't want to be here.

Matt Edmundson:

This is not what I signed up for.

Matt Edmundson:

And sometimes that's the right response.

Matt Edmundson:

But I often wonder if it's the easy response to walk away, to

Matt Edmundson:

just to, go and sit, I'm out.

Matt Edmundson:

The other response, what you guys have done, which I absolutely love is to go.

Matt Edmundson:

How can I make a difference now?

Matt Edmundson:

How can I get involved?

Matt Edmundson:

How can I help?

Matt Edmundson:

And so I remember we were talking about this yesterday, actually, my wife and

Matt Edmundson:

I are sorting through some Sharon, I say I, I can't really take that much

Matt Edmundson:

of the credit if I'm honest with you.

Matt Edmundson:

Sharon is, she is sorting out, hi Nicola, oops, sorry, just woke up.

Matt Edmundson:

Hopefully not from me or Dan's talk, just the way it is.

Matt Edmundson:

But yeah, Sharon, my wife, is sorting out the attic she's sorting out the

Matt Edmundson:

loft at her house, and that means all kinds of stuff is coming down.

Matt Edmundson:

And one of the boxes I had to sort through is, we call them memory boxes

Matt Edmundson:

in our house and it's just full of stuff that contains some kind of

Matt Edmundson:

memories and one of those memories was a t shirt and on that t shirt is was

Matt Edmundson:

a symbol of a hawk and it said Hawks.

Matt Edmundson:

And Hawks was was a kid's kind of church that we did.

Matt Edmundson:

My the problem was my kids were going to church every Sunday, which I wanted

Matt Edmundson:

them to do, but they weren't engaging.

Matt Edmundson:

They're about, about 10, 11, somewhere around there.

Matt Edmundson:

And they found church really boring.

Matt Edmundson:

So there's a problem.

Matt Edmundson:

There's a disconnect there.

Matt Edmundson:

And there, so I can look at the problem, I can go I just need to go

Matt Edmundson:

find a church where they can engage.

Matt Edmundson:

Or I can go what can I do to make a difference?

Matt Edmundson:

Which is what we did.

Matt Edmundson:

And so we set up Hawks, which was like a cross between, it was a cross between

Matt Edmundson:

army cadets and scouts and boys church and we did church for boys called Hawks

Matt Edmundson:

and Zoya and the other guys did something called Cookies, which was for the girls.

Matt Edmundson:

And honestly we dress them up in camouflage, give them Hawks t shirts,

Matt Edmundson:

rang them, we ran them ragged.

Matt Edmundson:

But what happened was they absolutely love church.

Matt Edmundson:

And even now people, and we're talking this was 10, 12 years ago, people

Matt Edmundson:

every now and again will still mention it, still had an impact on them.

Matt Edmundson:

And I guess the reason I'm saying this is not because I

Matt Edmundson:

think you need to set up Hawks.

Matt Edmundson:

The reason I'm saying this is because I love what Keith and Peter did here.

Matt Edmundson:

It's because of the problems, let's take on some roles here.

Matt Edmundson:

And then let's bring change that's going to bring us together.

Matt Edmundson:

Super powerful.

Matt Edmundson:

Love that attitude.

Matt Edmundson:

How can I solve the problem versus, and how can I get involved, rather than how

Matt Edmundson:

can I just either leave or complain?

Matt Edmundson:

Henry Cloud!

Matt Edmundson:

God bless you, Nicola.

Matt Edmundson:

That's it, the book by Boundaries Henry Cloud do check out that by Dr.

Matt Edmundson:

Henry Cloud.

Matt Edmundson:

That's the book.

Matt Edmundson:

Nicola, you're a legend for sorting that out.

Matt Edmundson:

So yeah, do check that out.

Matt Edmundson:

So hopefully Miriam, that's also helped on forgiving of your friends.

Matt Edmundson:

Like I say, if you want to know more, do check out the talks on forgiveness.

Matt Edmundson:

There's an awful lot more in there.

Matt Edmundson:

So yes, very good.

Matt Edmundson:

So I think what I'm gonna do is, I'm just gonna go through my notes.

Matt Edmundson:

I'm gonna put my glasses on because I can't actually see what I've written

Matt Edmundson:

without them because I'm an old man now.

Matt Edmundson:

Excuse me, I'll have a little drink.

Matt Edmundson:

Like I say, for those of you just joining us, my name is Matt, I'm

Matt Edmundson:

part of the team here at Crowd.

Matt Edmundson:

And like I say, normally there is another person with us, but Anna is not

Matt Edmundson:

here today, simply because she forgot.

Matt Edmundson:

I went to her mother in law's instead.

Matt Edmundson:

So if you see her, give her grief, because frankly, I think you can.

Matt Edmundson:

So just going through my notes here.

Matt Edmundson:

This idea that Dan, this phrase that Dan used, partnership, I thought was

Matt Edmundson:

interesting, seeing life as a partnership with God versus seeing life as a slot

Matt Edmundson:

machine with God, that if I just pull the right levers in the right order,

Matt Edmundson:

I'm going to get the right outcome, I'm going to hit the three cherries

Matt Edmundson:

or whatever it is and get my jackpot.

Matt Edmundson:

But rather seeing it more as a relationship, seeing it as a partnership,

Matt Edmundson:

Seeing it as something you do together, irrespective of whether life is,

Matt Edmundson:

whether you're mountain high or valley low, God is still king, isn't he?

Matt Edmundson:

He's still on the throne.

Matt Edmundson:

That was a really interesting phrase.

Matt Edmundson:

And I don't know how you view God.

Matt Edmundson:

I don't know how you see him, whether you are in church, whether you're enjoying

Matt Edmundson:

church, when you're enjoying your relationship with God, whether you talk

Matt Edmundson:

to him on a daily basis or whether you've never actually talked to him before.

Matt Edmundson:

Nicholas says, let me put this in the comments.

Matt Edmundson:

Or whether, like Nicola, you try and be a legend.

Matt Edmundson:

She is an absolute legend.

Matt Edmundson:

It's interesting how you view God.

Matt Edmundson:

Someone who is with you, someone who is a partner in life with you,

Matt Edmundson:

someone who is committed to you.

Matt Edmundson:

Versus someone who is absent, maybe, or a God that doesn't care.

Matt Edmundson:

Or a God that's not actually that interested in what's going on.

Matt Edmundson:

And I think the whole partnership thing, just throws a really, it's just

Matt Edmundson:

something worth thinking about actually.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah how's that going?

Matt Edmundson:

How's the relationship with God going?

Matt Edmundson:

I'm just going to scroll through the comments here.

Matt Edmundson:

If there's any other questions or any other thoughts that you've got, please

Matt Edmundson:

fire them in the comments now, and I'll do my level best to try and answer them.

Matt Edmundson:

It's been really interesting doing this solo actually.

Matt Edmundson:

Normally when I do these kind of things like podcasts, normally

Matt Edmundson:

there's always people with me.

Matt Edmundson:

So doing it solo is always interesting.

Matt Edmundson:

So I actually quite enjoy the challenge if I'm honest with you.

Matt Edmundson:

What's Nicola put here?

Matt Edmundson:

I like not using God as a slot machine, but as someone who wants to walk with you.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, I'm with you.

Matt Edmundson:

It's I think it's easy to fall into the default to forget God exists

Matt Edmundson:

until you need a prayer answered.

Matt Edmundson:

Rather than seeing him who wants to someone who wants to walk with you on a

Matt Edmundson:

daily basis who is constantly with you and understanding what that looks like

Matt Edmundson:

and feels like and seems can be quite tricky because I don't know about you,

Matt Edmundson:

for me, I can, I've run my own company, I run this church, but also I've got my

Matt Edmundson:

own business, we have two businesses, which I won't bore you with, Because it's

Matt Edmundson:

definitely not a sales pitch, just saying.

Matt Edmundson:

But I've got two companies.

Matt Edmundson:

It can take a lot to run them, right?

Matt Edmundson:

And you can get your head down.

Matt Edmundson:

And you just, you, my wife will often call me and go, do you realize what time it is?

Matt Edmundson:

And I'll have been doing some and I've got in the zone, in the flow, as they call it.

Matt Edmundson:

And eight hours can go by in a blink of an eye for me, just can.

Matt Edmundson:

And I'm just like, I get my head up and go, wow, that was incredible.

Matt Edmundson:

Where did that time go?

Matt Edmundson:

But not once during that time would I have thought about God, would I have

Matt Edmundson:

gone, God, what are you saying here?

Matt Edmundson:

Have you got any thoughts about this?

Matt Edmundson:

And actually just, I find that if I can somehow break myself from the

Matt Edmundson:

drive that is in me and just take a few seconds every now and again,

Matt Edmundson:

just to go, God, What's going on?

Matt Edmundson:

Or, what do you think?

Matt Edmundson:

Or, thanks for being with me, or just super grateful for this job, or super

Matt Edmundson:

grateful for this client, or just acknowledging that God is there makes

Matt Edmundson:

a massive difference when I do it.

Matt Edmundson:

Question, of course, is why do I not do it all the time?

Matt Edmundson:

If I knew the answer to that, I would let you know, write a book about it,

Matt Edmundson:

make a fortune, I'm not going to lie.

Matt Edmundson:

But yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Oh, bless you.

Matt Edmundson:

You have certainly raised the challenge, well done.

Matt Edmundson:

Thank you, Keith and Pete, I really appreciate that.

Matt Edmundson:

So let me tell you what is coming up next week, because normally I

Matt Edmundson:

would talk about this beforehand with whoever I'm hosting with, but

Matt Edmundson:

of course, not with Anna right now.

Matt Edmundson:

Let's have a look.

Matt Edmundson:

So next week, we are carrying on our conversation in acts.

Matt Edmundson:

We have, oh, here we go.

Matt Edmundson:

Yes.

Matt Edmundson:

I'm hosting again.

Matt Edmundson:

Yes.

Matt Edmundson:

Three in a row.

Matt Edmundson:

Good skills.

Matt Edmundson:

So you've got me again next week, hopefully with John Harding, who's

Matt Edmundson:

one of the pastors of the church here.

Matt Edmundson:

What a legend that guy is.

Matt Edmundson:

He's just moved house.

Matt Edmundson:

So hopefully he won't have too much dust on his face and all will be good.

Matt Edmundson:

And when he's not, oh I love that.

Matt Edmundson:

So well done Nicola.

Matt Edmundson:

When he's not walking with you, he's often carrying you.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Get that.

Matt Edmundson:

That's like that poem isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

Footprints in the sand.

Matt Edmundson:

So yeah, John and I will be back next week to host.

Matt Edmundson:

We have got Dave Connolly speaking about Acts 25.

Matt Edmundson:

We're carrying on with Acts 25.

Matt Edmundson:

So yeah, we've got Dave Connolly, just to let you know what's

Matt Edmundson:

coming up in the weeks to follow.

Matt Edmundson:

We've got Pete Farrington sharing with us, Will Sopwith love, Will Sopwith.

Matt Edmundson:

And then in one, two, three, four weeks time, we've got John Harding rounding

Matt Edmundson:

off our story and journey through Acts.

Matt Edmundson:

So yeah, four weeks to go until we finish Acts.

Matt Edmundson:

John's going to be rounding that off, which would be great.

Matt Edmundson:

And then, like I said, in the last week, next.

Matt Edmundson:

The next series we're kicking off is Becoming Whole.

Matt Edmundson:

It's all about becoming whole, which I'm really looking forward to.

Matt Edmundson:

I've been really enjoying doing the study on this and getting

Matt Edmundson:

all the teaching notes prepped.

Matt Edmundson:

Me and Sadaf, we've been talking a lot about it, which has been great.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, we've got that series coming up, Becoming Whole, so

Matt Edmundson:

do make sure you stay with us.

Matt Edmundson:

And I'll just close out the Acts series.

Matt Edmundson:

Hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.

Matt Edmundson:

If you've caught the tail end of it and you've just joined us,

Matt Edmundson:

a bit like Tobias did earlier.

Matt Edmundson:

Rewind.

Matt Edmundson:

They're all online.

Matt Edmundson:

You know what we have?

Matt Edmundson:

I'm always amazed, actually, how many people contact me and just say, Oh,

Matt Edmundson:

Matt, I was listening to the podcast.

Matt Edmundson:

Loved it, decided to go back to episode one.

Matt Edmundson:

And we're like 300, however many episodes into them or whatever.

Matt Edmundson:

I don't know what the exact number is.

Matt Edmundson:

And they just work through it one at a time.

Matt Edmundson:

I'm like, wow, that takes some dedication, but God bless you.

Matt Edmundson:

If that's you.

Matt Edmundson:

That's incredible, really.

Matt Edmundson:

So yes, make sure you do subscribe to the Crowd channel wherever you get it

Matt Edmundson:

from, whether you're listening on the audio and you're listening to this on

Matt Edmundson:

Apple iTunes, I didn't call it iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whether

Matt Edmundson:

you're on YouTube, whether you're on Facebook watching on CatchUp, or

Matt Edmundson:

whether you're joining us live, make sure whatever your platform of choice

Matt Edmundson:

is, you hit that and subscribe button.

Matt Edmundson:

You can of course go to the website, www.

Matt Edmundson:

crowd.

Matt Edmundson:

church, we'd love to hear from you.

Matt Edmundson:

And on there, there's a small form, where you just put your name and email address,

Matt Edmundson:

and we send you an email once a week, just letting you know what's coming up we send

Matt Edmundson:

you the links to what happened last week, plus what's coming up this week, just

Matt Edmundson:

so you stay all up to date and that's, we don't bombard you with email, we just

Matt Edmundson:

send out one a week, very occasionally we might send an additional one, but you

Matt Edmundson:

can sign up for that on the website, www.

Matt Edmundson:

crowd.

Matt Edmundson:

church, be sure to do that, we'd love to connect with you and it

Matt Edmundson:

just helps to ensure you don't miss anything that's going on.

Matt Edmundson:

Thank you so much for joining us today, thank you for all the comments and all

Matt Edmundson:

your thoughts, thank you for bearing with me, and yeah, welcome to Crowd Church,

Matt Edmundson:

where things, if technology don't always work out, the people might not always

Matt Edmundson:

do what they're supposed to as well.

Matt Edmundson:

Oh, I tell you what you can do just write in the comments as we close.

Matt Edmundson:

If you've got like the perfect one liner for Anna.

Matt Edmundson:

Kettle would love to hear it because I'm definitely going to be thinking

Matt Edmundson:

of a few just when I see it.

Matt Edmundson:

In forgiveness, obviously, there's, there's not a forgiveness issue

Matt Edmundson:

given what we're talking about, but there is a banter issue and taking

Matt Edmundson:

the opportunity to create banter.

Matt Edmundson:

Oh, bless you guys.

Matt Edmundson:

Listen, have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world, whether you're

Matt Edmundson:

in Spain, whether you're in the Congo, whether you're in the UK

Matt Edmundson:

or wherever you are in the world.

Matt Edmundson:

Thank you so much for joining me.

Matt Edmundson:

Have a fantastic week wherever you are.

Matt Edmundson:

I will see you with John next week along with Dave Connolly.

Matt Edmundson:

God bless you.

Matt Edmundson:

Bye for now.

Matt Edmundson:

Have a great week.

Matt Edmundson:

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

Matt Edmundson:

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

Matt Edmundson:

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

Matt Edmundson:

And of course, if you are listening to the podcast the live stream podcast, make

Matt Edmundson:

sure you also hit the follow button now by smashing the like button on YouTube or

Matt Edmundson:

writing a review on your podcast platform.

Matt Edmundson:

It helps us reach more people with the message.

Matt Edmundson:

that Jesus really does help us live a more meaningful and purposeful life.

Matt Edmundson:

So if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out our website www.

Matt Edmundson:

crowd.

Matt Edmundson:

church where you can learn more about us as a church, more about

Matt Edmundson:

the Christian faith, and also how to connect into our church community.

Matt Edmundson:

It has been awesome to connect with you and you are awesome.

Matt Edmundson:

It's just a burden you have to bear and hopefully we'll see you next time.

Matt Edmundson:

That's it from us.

Matt Edmundson:

God bless you.

Matt Edmundson:

Bye for now.

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