Welcome to CROWD Church. In today's talk, Sharon Edmundson dives into the amazing truth that we're God's workmanship, each of us created with a unique purpose and significance. In her talk Sharon emphasises that, like a beautifully crafted cabinet made with care and intention, we're intricately designed by God. We're not here by chance; there's a divine purpose behind our existence. This weeks message shakes up the usual ways people think about self-worth, contrasting the biblical view with what society often tells us: our value doesn't come from what we achieve but from being God's creation, loved and cherished by Him.

Key Takeaways:

1. We are God's Workmanship: Just as a carefully crafted cabinet is created for a specific purpose, we are designed by God with care and intentionality. Our worth and identity come from being God's creation, not from our achievements or societal standards.
2. Balanced View of Self: The biblical perspective on human worth prevents both pride and low self-esteem. It encourages us to see ourselves with "sober judgment," recognising our value as God's creation while fostering gratitude and humility.
3. Purpose in God: Our purpose is not self-created but discovered through our relationship with God. By seeking His guidance and understanding His word, we can align with the specific roles and talents He has entrusted to us, using them to serve others and glorify Him.

If this weeks talk resonates with you make sure to check out everything we do here at CROWD church, from our weekly Sunday Livestreams to our Podcast show Whats the Story.

Discover Your purpose in Christ

Firstly, You can engage with Crowd from any device during our live stream, and if you're up for it, why not invite a few friends over and experience the service together. You see, church is all about connecting with God and connecting with others. Others, and one of the easiest ways for you to do that is to also join one of our mid week groups where we meet online together to catch up [00:01:00] and discover more about the amazingness of Christ.

You can also subscribe to our podcast called What's New? It's the story where we deep dive into stories of faith and courage from everyday people. More information about all of these things that I've mentioned can be found on our website at www. crowd. church or you can reach us on social media at Crowd Church.

If you're new to Crowd or new to the Christian faith and would like to know what your next steps to take are. Well, why not head over to our website, crowd. church, forward slash, next, for more details.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for is here, our online church service starts right now.

Will Sopwith: Nice to see you. Hello. Nice to see you too, Matt. Nice to

Matt Edmundson: see you as well. How are you doing this bright Sunday?

Will Sopwith: Yeah, I'm very good. Much better because you just lent me a pair of your specs. I didn't actually see anything because I forgot to bring my glasses.

So, uh, We are of the age, you may notice, oh, you haven't got yours on, yeah, when, uh, yeah, yeah, eyesight is, uh, is failing, weakly, in fact, but, um, but it is literally lovely to see you, uh, because I can,

Matt Edmundson: so. Because I can? I can see you, yes, it is. I actually don't need them for this, uh, this is fine. You are a young thing, though, it's true.

It's just more I can't read, like, I've no idea what my watch is telling me. Um, do you do that? I, I discovered this when I was in the States, right? Um, a few weeks ago that if it's really bright and sunny outside and I'm not wearing sunglasses, I don't need reading glasses. I can see perfectly.

Will Sopwith: Yeah, absolutely.

Matt Edmundson: Okay, so glasses, basically, I need them because I'm in the darkness. I'm sure there's a sermon in there somewhere.

Will Sopwith: It's the gloom of our climate, I think. That's the problem, that the quality of light. The quality of light. This far east and north in the, in the, in the globe is.

Yeah, yeah. Sending me blind. It has been awful. I mean, the weather, it's just. Yeah, in fact, I was walking, I was walking back from somewhere yesterday, I think, and there's this woman on the phone with her hood up, and it was drizzling a bit, and she was properly disturbed. She was just like, I'm so fed up with the rain, to whoever she was talking to on the phone.

Oh, bless you. Yeah, I feel like she's carrying the heart of the nation. Yeah, absolutely. What she'd planned for July, I'm not sure. But yeah, she was distraught. I haven't got that that far. But you know, it'd be nice to have a bit more

Matt Edmundson: sunshine. It would. It would be nice to have a little bit more sunshine, yes.

Is it, right? Yeah, according to the BBC. Uh, and, you know, we have an incredible football match later.

Will Sopwith: Tour de France is on as well. I don't know if you've heard of the cycling, but that was pretty awesome today as well.

Matt Edmundson: Tour de France, and of course, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Will Sopwith: Talking of sporting events.

Did

Matt Edmundson: you like our segway?

Will Sopwith: Yeah, that was an interesting, interesting segway. I mean, you look at that and you just think. Well, what is going on? I don't know whether anyone else shares that thought, but part of you is going, maybe that's not that surprising, which in itself is a ridiculous statement to make, but what is going on?

Matt Edmundson: It would be good. So, but, you know. Praise with everybody involved because I would not want to sort that out.

Will Sopwith: No, no, I mean, it is really interesting to see what the aftermath will be and you just, just, yeah, just pray for some wisdom and some leadership.

Yeah. On all sides actually to just go, guys, let's just do this properly. Yeah. And maybe dial down some of the rhetoric. And have an election that actually, uh, yeah, actually makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. That would be nice to see.

Matt Edmundson: Uh, very warm. Well, and on that note, uh, do pray for, for the states, obviously, with what's going on.

We've got Al Marshall in there. He says, uh, evening, you beautiful, beautiful men. Hello, you beautiful, beautiful men. Yeah, yeah. It's good to see Al in the comments. Uh, Matt Crew is saying that because the two ancient ones are involved, it's why we're two minutes late.

Will Sopwith: Yeah, right. Thanks, Matt. Also, nice to see you, you beautiful man, Matt Crew.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah,

Will Sopwith: absolutely.

Matt Edmundson: Exactly. But yes, the reason we're two minutes late is because we just got, we were, I was too engrossed reading the news, uh, and then the sound system wasn't working. And we had to fix that. So anyway, we're here now. It's all fine.

We're here. What are we talking about tonight?

Will Sopwith: So we are talking about God's purpose.

Matt Edmundson: God's purpose, indeed. Very good. So yes, we have the beautiful Sharon Edmundson, my darling wife. She is speaking to us tonight from the video room. So apologies for the video, by the way, for some reason, the colour is just a little bit off.

But yeah, have I missed anything? No, that's it. That's it. Let's hear. Let's hear. So I'm going to have to do this, actually, because I don't think that button's working on my pad. Technology. Here is Sharon's talk. Willem and I will be back after this. See you in the comments.

Sharon Edmundson: Do you ever feel like just another number in the crowd, wondering if your life is significant?

Have you ever struggled with your self esteem, or that your daily routine and efforts seem meaningless in the grand scheme of things? These are a couple of the questions that we're going to look at today but first I want to show you this picture. This is our friend Simon and he recently had a big birthday.

My husband Matt wanted to make him something special so he decided to make him a drinks cabinet. He found this amazingly naturally purple wood called Purple Heart. Which would not be everyone's choice of colour for a cabinet, but Simon is someone who likes things that are a bit different or quirky.

A gorgeous cabinet created as a gift for a specific person, um, purpose and person. Today's talk is based on the following verse, which talks about something that God has created. It says this, For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In Genesis it says this of the first man, then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils and the breath of life and the man became a living being. The Bible tells us that we're created by God on purpose, and we're made up of both physical and non physical elements working in harmony.

Dust is physical, the breath of life is non physical. These following verses spell it out more clearly. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. After God had created the world, the Bible says that he looked at what he had made and, and saw that it was good.

For example, many naturalists would say that we are purely physical, material beings, that we don't have a soul, and that when we die we cease to exist. We're here by accident for no purpose. Another view is that humans are both body and spirit but that the physical realm is bad and the spirit realm is good.

In our Western society, there can be a lot of pressure today for us to create ourselves. There are so many messages that shout out that we can be anything we want to be and do anything that we want to do. That may feel exciting to some, but it can be pretty overwhelming to others. I mean, sometimes I have trouble choosing which tea bags to buy in the supermarket.

Do I want this brand or that one? Do I want 80 bags or 120? Are they biodegradable or do they contain plastic? It can be exhausting. In the news there are some extreme examples of people trying to create themselves. For example, I saw one newspaper article recently that had the title, A girl in our school has decided she identifies as a cat.

What we believe about something always has an effect on how we behave towards that thing. If we believe something's of great value, we treat it well. If we don't think something is valuable, we don't treat it well. Matt is hoping that Simon will look after the drinks cabinet and use it for the purpose for which he made it because he loves Simon and he spent time to create him a special gift.

How do you feel about yourself right now? How do you feel about your body? Are you happy with it or do you wish you looked like someone else? A few years ago, I had a friend who I thought always looked good and she always wore dark colours. So I started to wear dark colours too. But I looked awful in them.

How do you feel about the non physical aspects of who you are? Are you happy with who you are or do you look at others and wish you were different? I reckon that everyone at some time in their life has felt or still feels insecure about who they are. It can sometimes be hard not to compare ourselves and our lives with that of others.

But comparing ourselves has a tendency to make us dissatisfied with our lot, feeling like a failure or jealous of what other people have. Um, but I mean, there is a reason that one of the 10 Commandments is don't cover, coveting, doesn't make us happy. Comparison can make us dissatisfied, or it can make us proud, um, that we are better than others.

When we really understand a biblical view of who we are, it helps to prevent us from becoming proud, but it also helps prevent us from having too low an opinion of ourselves. The Bible says, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

How would you feel if I told you that the biggest price possible has already been paid for you? What is this price? Romans says, If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? The price paid for us is God Himself, and not because of anything we've done to deserve it, it was paid because God loves us and because He made us.

So, no matter who you are, you are of immense value. The value is not based on how you look, your social standing, how high up you are in the social pecking order, or anything you've done. You're of value purely because you're God's work of art and he loves you. The Bible shows us that God doesn't intend for us to create ourself, but to discover who he created us to be.

So if you're confused about who you are right now, may I suggest asking your creator for the answer to that question? You may be thinking, hang on a minute, if we are created by God and God said his, his creation's good, why is the world such a mess? The Bible tells us that the world was created good but has become corrupted because of sin.

But when we're in the presence of the Holy Almighty creator of the universe, we see how far we've fallen. The whole of a creation is affected by our sin and doesn't work completely how it was intended. So now we suffer. Sometimes this is because of our own sin. Sometimes it's because of the sin of others, and sometimes it's just because the world we live in has become cursed.

It's all about us, but God's purpose for us is much bigger than that. It's part of a much bigger plan. Each part of our body is created for a purpose. For example, our eyes are created with the purpose of seeing. Our ears are created for the purpose of hearing. But as we saw earlier, we're not just physical, but we're non physical too.

God created each of us as a whole person, with a purpose. He's a general purpose for all of us, and a specific purpose for each of us within that. Let's look at our general purpose. After God had created people, He said this. Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

Our general purpose is to be in relationship with God and to rule on earth on God's behalf, following His ways, reconnecting people with Him. We submit to Him and carry out His work. To the modern ear, that might sound a bit oppressive, but it's really not. Many years ago I used to work as an occupational therapist and for a while I worked in one of the hospitals in Liverpool and I'd go around the different wards to see different patients.

If someone kind was in charge, that had a direct impact on the culture. It's the same with us and God. The Bible says that everything good comes from God, whose love and that his ways bring life and freedom. When we're living so that God is flowing through us, we bring God's culture of love, life and wholeness to each area that we're involved with.

Proverbs says, when the righteous thrive, the people rejoice. When the wicked rule, the people groan. Following God's way has a positive impact on society, it brings wholeness. God has something to say about every area of life. For example, after my husband Matt became a Christian, but before we knew each other, he knew that he wanted to get married someday, and to have a good marriage.

He also spent time around couples in church who did have good marriages, so that he could learn from them. And I'm very glad that he did, because he's an excellent husband as a result. God's general purpose for those who are married is that they have good marriages. What about our specific purpose? I mentioned comparison earlier.

I recently caught myself comparing myself with the many successful people I know, wondering if I'm missing it somehow. I don't think I'm alone in comparing myself. It's a trap that we all fall into from time to time if we're not careful. For years, I've been at an age where doctors look like they're about 12.

He said, What do you think, if a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety nine on the hills and go to look for that one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly, I tell you, he's happier about that one sheep than about the ninety nine that did not wander off.

I was so encouraged. I was also reminded of these verses which follow on from the ones I read before about not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought. They say, For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts according to the race given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it's serving, then serve. If it's teaching, then teach. If it's to encourage, then give encouragement. If it's giving, then give generously. If it's to lead, do it diligently.

God has a purpose for your life. We're all given gifts to develop and use for the benefit of others in service of God, as well as the benefit of ourselves. When we look at it from this perspective, other people's gifts and talents are not something to be jealous about, rather, they're something to be enjoyed.

So basically, if you think that life isn't fair, you agree with what the Bible says. We're all given different talents and abilities, and it's dependent on our ability to handle them. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work, and gave five bags more.

So also the one with the two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. Two of the men developed their gifts. They put them to work. They increased what they'd been given. The third one didn't do anything with what he'd been given, other than to bury it.

I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. The man with two bags of gold also came. Master, he said, you entrusted me with two bags of gold, see I have gained two more. His master replied, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things, I'll put you in charge of many things.

Let's look at what we've been given and make sure that we do something with it. The first two men were then given more because they did something with what they were given. Then the man who'd received one bag of gold came. Master, he said, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you've not sown and gathering where you've not scattered seed.

So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See here is what belongs to you. It was fear that stopped the third man from using what he'd got. I wonder what stops us from using what we've got. His master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. So you knew that I harvest where I've not sown, and gather where I've not scattered seed.

And throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now there are some parts of this parable which I realise are difficult for our modern ears, and hard to understand because of the cultural background. The cultural background is so different to our own.

So if you'd like to dig deeper into this and you'd like to know more, I can recommend a great book by Kenneth E. Bailey called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. It's not an easy read, but it's really interesting. So, how do we find what God's specific purpose for us is? I have a few suggestions, though they are by no means comprehensive.

For example, if you're married, find out what it says about being married. If you're single, find out what he says about that. What does the Bible say about managing money? What does it say about your work? In terms of specific purpose, I think it's a case of using what you have in your hand now and asking God to lead and direct you.

I think sometimes God only shows us the next step, rather than the whole picture, because if he showed us everything, we'd be off on our own running ahead, whereas he wants to walk and talk with us on a daily basis. So, in summary, the Bible shows us that we have great worth to God, that we're his workmanship, his work of art, and that he's a purpose for us.

We don't need to create ourselves. We don't need to create our purpose. We need God's help to discover who he's made us to be. This is good news.

Let us know in the comments below and let us know what you thought of Sharon's talk. Um, all based around the scripture Ephesians 2, 10, we are his workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works prepared. beforehand that we should walk in them, depending on which translation you read. I don't know what translation I've just quoted.

But it's one of them.

Will Sopwith: Lovely cabinet, by the way. Well done on the craftsmanship. And the being an excellent husband.

Matt Edmundson: What?

Will Sopwith: Love it when

Matt Edmundson: Sharon talks. Come off really well.

Will Sopwith: Very good.

Matt Edmundson: Maybe we should get Kate to come

Will Sopwith: do a

Matt Edmundson: talk.

Will Sopwith: No.

I couldn't possibly live up to the excellent that Sharon's just delivered.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, neither can I, to be fair.

And, and craftsmanship is a wonderful description of how God makes us. It. It's not something that's off a production line. It's not something that's kind of. Um, you know, done to the minimum spec for the kind of maximum profit. It's craftsmanship. Something craftsmanship is unique. It's bespoke. It's a wonderful description of who we are in Christ and and God's real love for what he's made in each one of us.

Each one unique. It's uh yeah, it's a beautiful concept.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I love that. I love that. I love I love the whole we're not on a production line thing. Uh and you just have to look at humanity and everyone is every one of us is unique. Yeah, uh, in our own, in our own special way. Yeah. Um, is it true we've all got unique fingerprints?

Will Sopwith: no, it's true, which is why they, you know, that that was what was used pre DNA for all the crime stuff. Yeah, they're unique, which is incredible.

Matt Edmundson: Incredible. And DNA is unique.

Will Sopwith: Indeed.

Yeah, very unique. Very unique, unique's, unique. You can't be very unique. .

Matt Edmundson: Sorry. .

Will Sopwith: Yeah. Unique.

Matt Edmundson: It's unique. Uniquely unique. . So I'm learning about science and language. German. Uh, it's always good. It's always good. So yeah, the, the, this word workmanship, um, craftsmanship. Or craftsmanship, if you're from the South.

Will Sopwith: timber. Yeah, first time I'd heard of purple heart. It looks amazing.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it is great, great timber. And it's actually the colour that you saw in the photo, that purple, that's the colour of the wood.

I didn't make it that colour. That's the actual colour that it is, which is why I chose that word for Simon, because if you know Simon, That's Simon. And so, um, so yeah, it's one of those. But when I made that cabinet, how long do you think it took me to make it? Weeks, I thought. Yeah, I counted it was 40 hours.

40 hours. Yeah, 40 hours. It's over 40 hours of time and labour went into that, most of which was sanding.

Will Sopwith: Was that to make all the, all the joints fit together the way you hadn't cut them properly or just, uh, just the finish?

The value is in the time that I took. Yeah. To make that, does that make sense? And this is why I love that analogy. So I shan't use that. I thought, well, I just, you know, you go and show off my ship, my workmanship. Why not? Uh, but actually it made me think, you know, when God created us, we kind of just get the impression.

It's like, there it is, but that's not what workmanship is, right? No.

Will Sopwith: No, no, absolutely. And, uh, so when I was, when I was young and, and maybe had a bit of pocket money in my pocket and my parents birthday would come round and I'd say, what do you want for the birthday? I felt all regrown up, like getting them a present.

That is just, that's an immense gift. That means so much more. And that is exactly God's workmanship in each of our hearts.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Excuse me one second. A bit of

Will Sopwith: hay fever going on here. Okay, I'll fill. Um

Matt Edmundson: sorry about that. But

Will Sopwith: yeah, and as Sharon said, that's that's quite a difficult concept and I think many of us struggle with that on a day to day basis.

Um really feeling that sense of God's value on us. Yeah. And and and his craftsmanship. Um it's it's hard to keep hold of. How do you keep hold of that day to day, Matt? How do you Remind yourself of that, that nature that you have in God. It's

Matt Edmundson: a really powerful question, isn't it? Because I think, I think like you say, it's a very easy thing to forget, you know, when you look in the mirror, you're looking at God's workmanship.

And the preacher unbuckles his seatbelt, stands up and goes, he looks like me. Because I'm created in his image. And I thought, well, theologically, I mean, you know. But I, I loved I love the child likeness of that. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? That, that initial response to say, actually, I'm creating in his image, I am his workmanship, I think is so easy to forget.

And Dave would go, no you're not. And I'd go, yes I am. He'd go, no, you can't be God's favourite because I'm God's favourite. And I'd go, no you're not because I am.

Will Sopwith: So seeing Dave, that's the way you remind yourself of God's perfect craftsmanship. Yeah, yeah, just

Matt Edmundson: all this dodgy theology. Which, of course, we're not, you know, we don't usually teach on crowd.

But no, I think it's, even just getting around people that are constantly reminding you that you are His workmanship. Um, that are constantly, constantly bringing that out, um, reminding yourself, you know, um, edifying yourself in the scriptures, building yourself up, remembering that, praying that through, and then just getting into situations, reminding yourself, actually, I am his workmanship here.

Will Sopwith: Yeah.

Will Sopwith: But yeah, it's, it's, you, you keep reminding yourself. I was, I was in church this morning and, uh, the, the reading and the, and the preach was, um, Psalm 8. And Psalm 8 talks about the magnificence of God and how, how mighty the creation is.

And, you know, it's poetry. It talks about some amazing things. And then it says, but yeah. Even with all that, you are mindful of man, of people, and you've made them just a little bit lower than the angels. Why is that? And, uh, and the message was all about, um, you know, despite that amazing ness. The uniqueness of people and when you when you've got eyes to see the uniqueness of everyone that you you meet on a daily basis, that is wonderful.

Photos and it was just amazing and he was kind of talking about the wonders of all the planets and how they're configured and all the rest and then the final slide of the whole talk was a photo of his lecture room of his students and having seen all that enormity and wonder and the scale of the universe, actually when he just showed this photo of, I mean, students, there was nothing special about them.

They were kind of leaning on the desk and some of them were smiling and some of them weren't even looking at the camera. You look at the kind of interest intricacy of those unique people and it just kind of hit you the, the complexity of people and the amazingness of personality and heart and, and story and history and potential and future.

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, absolutely. Love that. Love that. It's, I remember, um, reading, I think it was, it would have been in some concordance, probably strong, something like that, where I was looking at this verse, you are his workmanship. Um, that word workmanship can also be translated poetry.

And

Matt Edmundson: I love that, you know, God wrote a poem and I'm it.

Will Sopwith: I am God's poem. Do you know what I mean? That's brilliant.

You are his workmanship. And I think it's. Like you say, it's the most extraordinary thing and if God spanned the whole eons of space and time and thought 2024, Matt and Will, they need to sit in a studio somewhere talking about this. It just, it just blows my mind in so many ways. Do you know what I mean?

And you kind of think, well. Some people you do question, God, did you know what you were doing when you created them? I just, I do have questions.

Will Sopwith: Indeed, indeed. But on the

So there's this really interesting thing with humility that, um, I sort of come across every now and again, you know, that humility is. Sharon read the verse actually not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to. Um, but you ought to think of yourself to some degree in through the eyes of God.

That makes sense. So humility, I think, is seeing yourself through the eyes of God. So humility is not saying I'm worth less or I am. It used to be years ago. I'm such a worm, such a sinner and all that sort of stuff. Humility is saying regardless of how I feel about who I am. God's workmanship is who I am.

And I remember when all this happened in our house. I did not concur with Sharon's discovery about which clothes suited her or didn't suit her.

Will Sopwith: Well, you are the excellent husband, so.

Matt Edmundson: Well, yeah, I

Will Sopwith: might be

Matt Edmundson: slightly biased, but I'm like, You know, I did that thing where baby, you look, you wear a bin bag, you're going to look great, right?

So it's not the answer that I was supposed to give. So I remember this, but Sharon's, I remember cause we were, I run a beauty company at the time, right? You remember this, I run an online beauty company and we talked long and hard about what is beauty, what are the standards of beauty, especially when you think about the beauty industry and what the beauty industry is portraying as beautiful.

Will Sopwith: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. No, that's, that's brilliant. And when, when you meet somebody that's, that's brilliant. Obviously not being themselves, whatever they look like, whatever they wear, however much money they've got, there's something a little bit, and you meet someone truly authentic who is absolutely being themselves and they may look, you know, nothing photogenic about them, no tremendous clothes, but there's something about them and who they are.

I mean, yeah, for me, that's absolutely beauty. It's, it's somebody. Totally at home in their skin. Yeah. Rather than trying to be something. Yeah. Um, yeah, I get that.

Yeah. And I am very aware that my 17 year old daughter sees three or four thousand images a day at least. all projecting on her some kind of expectation. Yeah. What she should dress like, what she should look like, what she should do, what she should listen to, how she should act. And I, I find it very, very hard as a dad to look at that.

And so, and of course, as a dad, you, you want to combat that. You want to protect them. I don't know if they always listen to their dads. I don't. No. No, let's get this. Let's just say no. Um, but I almost felt like, I needed to almost write letters to my daughter just to say, actually, if you don't listen to me, listen to your Heavenly Father.

Sorry to be controversial. And there's no criticism or condemnation if you've had fillers and all that sort of stuff. But I just don't, I don't get it. I remember we, there was a guy who, I won't bore you with the story. I got it when I was in the beauty industry. I was very careful what we did and did not get involved with.

The other thing that I did actually, made a heck of a difference to the salon. As I said to all the therapists, let's go and get because we had a beauty salon, let's get every photograph that's up in our salon of women, especially, let's put them on the table. And let's lay them all out. And we did that.

Do you know what I mean? So like the ladies from Africa with the really long necks and the rings around them. Do you know what clients said when we did this? They didn't even realize that we'd done it, but they just said, it just feels a lot less oppressive and just a lot lighter in this space. Oh, that's brilliant.

That's brilliant. Fantastic. And all we did was just change the images from something that was unreal.

Will Sopwith: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Incredible.

Will Sopwith: Yeah, that is, that is incredible. That is incredible. It's kind of linked. It's a bit of a jump, but I'm really glad that Sharon talked about that verse about the body, the body of Christ and each one having a different purpose, a different set of gifts, the personalities, because that parable, I don't know whether you're the same with this Matt, but that parable about the talents, I think.

It's pretty extreme. And, and it can kind of pay attention if you work for me. Cause, cause this anxiety as individuals to say, I've got this huge responsibility to use everything that's God's given me. It's, it's, it's the Spider Man thing, isn't it? It's like to whom has given much, much more.

Matt Edmundson: Power.

Will Sopwith: Power has much responsibility.

If you've got something, then share it. Don't just sit on it. Um, share it. And it's not so that things go well with you. It's because actually we're in the context of the body. We're made in the context of this community of wonderful, beautiful, unique people as we've talked about. And when we begin to share what we have, um, the beauty just ups a level and, and when we don't see that what we have is good or different or unique and we don't share it, everyone else is worse off.

So I think those two, the parable of the talents together with the body of Christ, I think is a really important link of those, those two concepts. Yeah. No,

Matt Edmundson: I totally agree. It's, um. I always say that purpose and what the talents that God has given you, what is your purpose again, Sharon touched on this. For me, it's like a two sided coin, right?

Yeah, I've seen him on a five pound note. I haven't seen him on a coin yet. Um, but you've got the Queen's Head. And that is the common thingam of every single coin. There's, there's a purpose is like that there are things which are common to every believer, right? Every person. Um, yeah. The uniqueness of that coin is not found with the head on the back that just tells you who to whom you belong.

The uniqueness of that coin is found on it with its shape, its colour, who's on the front, the back, do you know what I mean, the number and all that sort of stuff. Now it doesn't mean that you're better than that person over there. It just means that's who God has made you be. That's really good. Yeah. And, and that's what's unique.

Whenever I've tried to do something off piste, shall we say. It

Will Sopwith: usually goes wrong. Outside of your excellence. Or competence maybe. Outside of my

Matt Edmundson: competence is a much better, and it's a very teeny tiny.

Will Sopwith: Skiing a very narrow piste. Yes, a

Matt Edmundson: very, very narrow piste. But it's when I've done stuff like that, when I've stepped outside of that to try and accelerate or try and do something that maybe God's not necessarily involved with.

Actually, you start to understand who God has made you. Yeah. And it's interesting, Paul starts every single letter, By saying, I am an apostle, or I'm a bondservant of Christ, he understood who God had made him to be and he sort of he understood his mission. And the longer he walked with Christ, the clearer that mission became.

And I think it's true in our Christian walk, actually, the longer we walk with Christ, the clearer that mission became. Yes,

Yeah. Um, and, you know, our prayer is that you've got community that you can explore that with as well. It's great to be able to come to others and say. I don't think I've got this particular strength, but I think I'm pretty good here. Or maybe just asking and saying, what do you think my strengths are?

Which is a fantastic question I use often with teams at work because, because we don't talk about each other's strengths and definitely not to each other. So actually asking somebody, what do you think is my strength or where, you know, the kind of unique beauty of who I am, maybe it's a different, harder question, but it's worth asking because you'll be surprised and you'll.

I think always be encouraged.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, absolutely. And usually my experience when I've asked questions like that is Sharon knows everything. So I'll come back to when I say, babe, I did this personality test and I did this, you know, whatever. And it's come out and said this and she's gone. Yeah, I've been saying that for four years.

So you, you know, you listen to your spouse, that's my top tip really, still learning all of this, but actually the Bible talks about itself as a mirror and bringing all of this back, the more you study scripture, the more you start to understand who you are, who God has created you to be, right? And the more that gets down into your soul, the more that affects and changes your life.

We're talking about identity, we're talking about wholeness. And I think if you, if you see yourself through the mirror, through the lens of scripture, through the eyes of God. That's such a wonderful foundation on which to build.

Will Sopwith: Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. Uh, I agree. And there's some fantastic examples in scripture of people.

You kind of keep coming back at it with all those different perspectives and ideas and keep measuring them up against what does God say? I mean, it's astonishing how rich, uh, the Bible is and how rich God's word is when we approach it, [00:56:00] uh, with open hearts and, and yeah, and prayerfully saying, God, help, help me understand, help me see, uh, what you're saying about who I am, help me see purpose in your word.

And when we do that, it's an incredibly rich scripture. Yeah,

Matt Edmundson: absolutely. So the challenge this week, ladies and gentlemen, put that scripture on your mirror, the Ephesians 2. 10 for you or his workmanship. Great in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that you should walk in. Good works.

It just says that in the scripture. Not, you know, not crazy works. Good. Um, I just want to point out what the Greek doesn't say. I'm talking to me more than anything. Um, but just remind yourself of that. And if you really want to go for it, when someone says to you, how are you doing today? Just turn around and say, I've got to be doing all right, because I am God's workmanship.

God took his time when he made me and just see what the response is from people. Yeah,

Will Sopwith: let us know because I'd, yeah, I'd be fascinated to know what sort of response.

Uh, next week, I've no idea who's hosting because I think I'm speaking.

Will Sopwith: Yeah, I can't help me, I'm afraid. You don't know. I was looking at it earlier, in fact, but it's completely gone. But there will be somebody hosting. And, and Matt will be speaking. Yeah,

Matt Edmundson: absolutely. And it won't be as good as Sharon's, obviously.

But you know, we'll be here. We're talking about what it means to we've been talking the last five weeks about what it means to be created in Christ. So this scripture about how our identity in him. Next week, we're going to start looking at this idea that Christ is in us. Hope of Glory. So Christ lives in us.

So we're gonna be talking about that next week. So make sure you like, subscribe and do all that good stuff. Come join us for our live stream next week. If you can, we broadcast 6pm UK time, which is usually 1pm Eastern Standard Time, depending on the clock changes, which aren't going to happen for a little while.

Do email us any prayer requests that you have. We do get a lot through every week. So do send us through your prayer requests. We'd love to pray for you, um, about anything that you're going through, or just, you just want somebody to stand with you in prayer. Um, or if you're sort of new to the Christian faith or you're contemplating the Christian faith and you want to know more about what that means, um, Um, or you want someone to stand with you in prayer because you feel like now's the right time.

We would love to do that as well. So just get in touch with us, www. crowd. church. All the information is on our website, just head over there and we would love to hear from you. Uh, but Will, anything else closing from you, bud?

Will Sopwith: Just Matt did all that without an autocue. It's just like it's so so in his heart.

Matt Edmundson: Enjoy it. And I love that. It almost rhymes. You are God's workmanship. Enjoy it and explore it. But make sure you do that. Come join us next week. That's it from me.

That's it from Will. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world. We'll see you next time. Bye for now. Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church. Now, if you are watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button as well as that little tiny bell notification to get notified the next time we are live.

And of course, if you are listening to the podcast, uh, the Livestream podcast, make sure you also hit the follow button now. By smashing the like button on YouTube or writing a review on your podcast platform, it helps us reach more people with the message that Jesus really does help us live a more meaningful and purposeful life.

That's it from us. God bless you. Bye for now.