Welcome to CROWD Church! In this episode, Anna Kettle delves into the profound concept of "The Power That Works In Me," exploring how Christianity is all about God's presence living within us. Through an in-depth analysis of Ephesians 3:14-21, Anna discusses how God's power at work within us can transform our lives and help us overcome challenges in ways that self-reliance and human effort alone cannot achieve.

Key Takeaways:

1. God's Power in Our Weakness: God's strength is often made perfect in our weaknesses. Instead of relying solely on our own resilience and abilities, we are encouraged to trust in God's supernatural power to sustain us, especially during challenging times. This power can manifest as patience, endurance, peace, or comfort, enabling us to navigate difficulties in ways we couldn't on our own.
2. The Infinite and Transformative Nature of God's Love: The passage from Ephesians 3 highlights the boundless dimensions of Christ's love and the fullness of God available to believers. This love surpasses knowledge and provides a foundation for experiencing God's power, which can transform our lives and circumstances beyond what we could ask or imagine.
3. Real-Life Application and Personal Testimony: Anna Kettle's personal testimony of experiencing peace amidst loss illustrates how God's presence can bring supernatural comfort and strength. This serves as a reminder that God's power is not just theoretical but can have a real, tangible impact on our lives, helping us endure and find hope even in the face of sorrow and disappointment.

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.

CROWD | Gods Power in Me

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I'm going to have to click. There you go. Say, how's it?

Sadaf Beynon: Hi. Hello.

Matt Edmundson: It's a very wide angle shot we've got of you today. But that's okay. That's okay. That's how it works. Right. So, uh, yeah. I don't know why it's gone funny, but it has. It's, we've just recorded, haven't we? It's a YouTube podcast. And it was all fine.

It

Sadaf Beynon: was all fine.

Matt Edmundson: And then, I think we just got a little bit complacent is what I think happened, but that's okay. Um, and I've just noticed there, look, it says Dan Orange.

Oh.

Matt Edmundson: Oh, we're going on today. Yeah, I'm not Dan Orange. For those of you watching on the widescreen version, I'm not Dan Orange. My name is Matt Edmundson.

Has it got your correct name for you? Yes, it has. Very good. What's going on today?

Sadaf Beynon: Um.

Sadaf Beynon: It's podcast, but when I get into it. You're still in podcast mode. Yeah, what is going on today? So we have a talk from Anna Kettle, all about, Matt, this is your cue.

Matt Edmundson: Uh, the power of God in me. So she's looking at God in me, part two, Christ in me, which we looked at part one last week.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Uh, and which was great actually, uh, cause I, not because I did the talk, I just want to point that out.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. It was, it was, it was good, a good topic.

Matt Edmundson: It was a good topic. Uh, I really enjoyed that. No, so we, in all seriousness, we looked at Christ in me, started looking at that last week.

Do you know?

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Are you sure?

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Which is good. So we've got the wonderful Anna Kettle, who is sharing, uh, the talk this week, which would be great. What's going to happen is we are going to play the talk. If this is your first time with us, by the way, a very warm welcome to you. Um, we are going to play the talk from Anna where she can talk about this, then we're going to come back for

Sadaf Beynon: Conversation Street,

Matt Edmundson: Conversation Street.

Yes, indeed. Well timed. Well done. So we're going to come back for Conversation Street and in Conversation Street, Sadaf and I are going to chat about. What was said in Anna's talk, talk about it, what it means for us, how it applies to us. We're going to go through a few. If you're watching the live stream, do join in with the comments.

Do say hi, let us know where you're watching from. Ask any questions you've got from today's talk in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. And we'll get into all of those after the talk, right?

Sadaf Beynon: Yep.

Matt Edmundson: Are you sure?

Matt Edmundson: It's interesting because normally you're behind the camera. You're not normally in front of it.

Sadaf Beynon: That is true. For crowd. Yes.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. So it's a, it's a special day. It's like you're a special guest.

Sadaf Beynon: Oh, thank you. Yeah, welcome.

Matt Edmundson: It's great to have you. It's great to have you. Always enjoy hosting crowd with Sadaf. So before we get into the tour, let me give you a few notices about what is coming up on crowd because this is, is this the last July talk?

Sadaf Beynon: It is. It is.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Mm

Sadaf Beynon: hmm.

Matt Edmundson: You know that for sure?

Sadaf Beynon: For sure.

Matt Edmundson: Okay. So I'm asking Sadaf because she plans everything, right? So this is the last live stream in July, which means the Not rocket science, the next live stream is in August. But what tends to happen in August, which we've done for the last

Sadaf Beynon: couple of years, at least, yeah, two or three years.

Sadaf Beynon: We still do church in the holidays.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, still got to do church, church is cool, we still want to do church. Um, so what we do instead is we do something called

Sadaf Beynon: Non Live Livestream.

Matt Edmundson: Hey, you're picking up on all the cues today, this is awesome, well done. That's right, we do the Non Live Livestream. Now, what this means is, um, We still do the talk, what we don't do is the conversation street, so you don't have, like today, there's Sadaf and I sat in a studio bringing Crowd Online Church to you.

We don't do that bit. Uh, we play the talk, which you can watch. And actually the talks in August are about,

Sadaf Beynon: um, they're on different Psalms. So we have four different Psalms, Psalms. How do you say it? Psalms. Psalms.

Yeah, so we have four different people speaking on four different Psalms.

Sadaf Beynon: We have Dan Rogers. We have Dan Orange. We have Ellie Light and The Josh Edmundson.

Matt Edmundson: The Josh Edmundson.

I know that because he recorded it last night.

Sadaf Beynon: But I'm not sure if that's the order. So if you're banking on that. Please don't,

Matt Edmundson: please don't bang on my door. So that's what's coming up in August, right? So it's a non live live stream. We're going to do all of that in August. So, uh, do stay with us, do join us, just join in those talks. Then in September, we'll be back in the studio, um, for at least September. There's some big changes coming in October.

Yes. Um, there are some big changes, which I can't tell you about just yet. Cause mainly we've not finalized them. Uh, and so. The team and I are meeting on Tuesday, looking at you, is that right? Yes, you are. Yeah. Okay. So we're meeting on Tuesday to finalize some of the stuff that's coming up. We will tell you about it as soon as we can.

Sadaf Beynon: Clear as mud.

Okay. Okay,

Matt Edmundson: well, as long as I've made it as clear as mud, that's the main thing. So, without further ado, like I say, we've got the beautiful Anna Kettle sharing with us today. She is talking, like I say, about the power of God in us and working through us. Um, Anna is an absolute legend. She's part of the team here at Crowd, so you know you're going to have a good time with Anna.

She brings some really interesting angles on what the Bible has to say and how it helps us in today's world. So, we are going to get into that, then Sadaf and I will be back for Conversation Street after this. Don't go anywhere. Make sure you get involved in the comments. I'm going to dig in and jump in, uh, while the talk's going on.

So, I will see you in there, uh, and then we'll be back. All right. Is it? Have I said everything?

Sadaf Beynon: You have. Well done. Okay.

Anna Kettle: Hi there, so this talk is called The Power That Works In Me, and it's part of our identity series. Um, so the first point I wanted to make right at the outset of this talk is that Christianity is all about God living in us, God's presence, his Holy Spirit, um, living inside of us as believers and how God really desires to make us his dwelling place.

Um, I wanted to start by looking at the scripture that goes with this talk, which is from Ephesians 3. I'll just read it out to you because it's a good starting point for what we're going to talk about today. It's part of Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church that he's working with at the time. And it says this, um, in Ephesians 3 from verse 14 onwards, it says, For this reason, and kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you might be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever.

You know, you need to be self reliant. And many people live this way and believe this these days. They believe that they have to handle all their own problems, take care of themselves, look after number one, you know, just relying on their own strength and abilities to get them through. And so it creates this very driven society where we work harder, we, you know, Do more hours, we earn more money, we push harder, we push other people harder, um, almost to the point of breaking point, and you can see that in mental health today, that we push and push ourselves and one another to achieve more and to [00:12:00] be more and to do better, and it's all based on this kind of idea of self reliance.

You know, and this mindset can so easily lead to burnout and frustration and, All kinds of mental health challenges for people because at some point that desire to overcome challenges and to be better and to do better is going to exceed all of our capacities. Like, we only can do what we can do, we're only human.

Sometimes we all need God's power at work in us to produce the changes that we want to see, either in ourselves, so that power to change ourselves from within, and to change the world around us to make life better. So we're talking about God's power in us and how that can transform us. Well, how does that look in practice?

Because I don't think it always looks the way you might imagine. You know, often we think of power as brute strength and force. You know, sometimes it looks a bit like sheer bloody mindedness. You know, just that sheer drive, that will to succeed. But actually when the Bible talks about God's power within us, it's not necessarily describing that kind of human thinking in terms of power.

So he's talking about a thorn in the flesh. And how he has this thorn in his flesh as he describes it, um, we don't know exactly what that is. Scripture doesn't tell us. In the passage, you know, we know that when he's writing this, um, he's been imprisoned for his faith by the Roman Empire and he's being held there against his will for his faith.

So, that's an interesting thing and, you know, there's other parts of scripture as well that we know about where it says that God is very able to heal both our physical and our emotional problems. For example, Psalm 103 verse 3 says, He forgives all your iniquities, He heals all your diseases. And Psalm 147 verse 3 says, He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.

So there's plenty of passages in scripture like that, lots of other verses that are similar that say that God is able to heal, God is described as the healer in many parts of scripture, and yet, in this case, he chooses not to heal Paul, or not in that physical way that he wanted him to. I wonder if you've ever had any situations where you've asked God to heal or fix something for you, and it seems like he isn't doing that, or he doesn't do it, you know, in a, in a way.

Why doesn't God do that? You know, it's a really valid question, and it's a question I've asked many times when I've prayed for healings for myself, for other people, and that's not necessarily happened. Certainly not in the timescale or the way that I wanted to see it happen anyway. But you know, maybe in those times, God is actually wanting to reveal his power to us in a different way in our lives.

Sometimes I think God's power in our weakness can look a lot, can look, can look like healing, or fixing a problem for us, you know, take a problem to God, we ask him to fix it, and sometimes he will do that, but often, It can also look like him doing something else. Sometimes God's power at work in our lives looks like us taking a problem to him, and him just giving us that supernatural patience or endurance that we might need.

I think there's loads of really good scriptures, um, across the Bible, loads of passages that talk about this in more detail, and I've pulled out just a couple here, so, um, one is in Isaiah 40, verse 29 to 31. It says, He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak, and then goes on to say those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

And to me, it's a really clear example of when God doesn't just fix it for us, you know, He, the Lord, it's not that following the Lord means that we'll never get tired or weary. It's, it's not that we're superhuman and that we get to kind of avoid all the human limitations that we live with. It's rather that we feel those things.

So again, it's this idea, not that we won't face problems, or opposition, or enemies, but that God comes alongside us and he helps us to overcome in those situations. You know, sometimes I think people have this idea that you can come to God as a Christian, um, Expect that being a Christian, that believing in God, that trusting in him, sort of somehow supernaturally exempts you from experiencing all of the everyday problems that we all experience as humans, that are all part of life here on earth.

He says, you will have problems of many kinds in this world. But don't worry, because I have overcome this world and I have given you peace. And so, again, he's saying to them that that peace doesn't come from not having problems, it comes from facing those problems, knowing that Jesus is with you, and that you're not alone in them.

You know, and there's probably examples in all of our lives where we already do this, and have already done that. I can think of one, um, in my own life over the last year, um, where, bleh. Like, I really knew that God's supernatural power was at work in me, to help me deal with something that I couldn't naturally deal with well.

And, you know, it was true, I remember when she said it, I thought, huh, yeah, I do feel at peace. I do feel at peace. Even though this isn't a situation I would have chosen. And it wasn't that I wasn't grieving or feeling sad, because those are really natural and normal human, healthy responses to loss. You know, we all feel sad in the face of loss.

So, for me, it wasn't about not feeling sad, it was about having that deep sense of peace, that God was still in control, that he still cared about us, and that he still had a good future for my family, even though that wasn't going to look exactly how we expected. And so, I could talk about this with other examples, but actually I'd really like you to To kind of think about it in your own life and just take a moment or two to reflect on maybe some times where life hasn't been easy and there's been challenges for you as well and how, even if those challenges haven't been avoidable or God hasn't taken those situations away, how might that power of God help you in the middle of it?

I pray that out of his glorious riches he might strengthen you and empower you through the Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all of the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide, how long, And high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that new might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

And this power is not just sufficient to get us through our problems, to get us through challenges and difficulties, but it's exceedingly abundant. It surpasses all that we could possibly ask for or imagine. Isn't that an amazing promise? You know, and this means that as a believer in Christ, you, I, we're not limited by our own strength.

And that, in essence, is what God's power at work in us is all about.

Matt Edmundson: Wow. That was an abrupt end. I really need to work on these transitions. Yeah. Welcome back. Welcome back to the two of us. And it's got my name right now. I can see on the screen, Matt Edmundson. Well done. So, Anna, thank you for doing that talk.

Very short notice, but she did a great talk. Really, really enjoyed that. So, uh, warm welcome to everyone of you that's mentioned in the comments, uh, from Nicola to Miriam to Andy, all of you guys. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for being with us here this evening. And, um, yeah, we've hopefully got the tech working a little bit better now.

You

Sadaf Beynon: got your name right on there, so.

I've got lots of notes. Let's start at the beginning and work our way through.

Sadaf Beynon: All right. So one of the first things she talked about was, um, this idea of self reliance, which is quite, um, contrary to what society teaches us. So what God, what we learn in the Bible, Um, as opposed to what society teaches us that we need to be able to, you know, be a super mom or a super dad or a super human in order to accomplish everything and still have time at the end of the day.

Yeah,

Matt Edmundson: super mom, super dad. Are you not a super mom? No.

Sadaf Beynon: I tried. It did not work.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I tried the super dad thing and I think I just, I just stuck with the dad thing.

Matt Edmundson: Made a lot more sense.

Sadaf Beynon: Yes, yes.

Matt Edmundson: So sorry, I interrupted you, go ahead.

Sadaf Beynon: No, no. Um, so yeah, I, I think that's, um, that was a really good, um, point to draw out, especially with the scripture that she, she shared at the beginning, the beginning from Ephesians about God's power in us.

So actually we don't need to be, um, self reliant. We don't need to be trying to do everything on our own, or even at least pretending to do everything on our own, because it's just not the way it works in God's economy.

Matt Edmundson: That's very true. It's interesting, isn't it? There's a, I think there's a, the kickback here, um, I think from people is to say, Well, aren't we supposed to be resilient people?

Being a resilient person outside of the grace of God. In other words, outside of, um, God's ability in you to do what you don't have the ability to do, right. Which I think is a great definition of grace. If people want to know, you know, what does grace mean? It means undeserved favor. Um, you know, and I use the example of the apostle Paul going to God, asking for the thorn in the flesh to be removed.

And God said, my grace is sufficient for you. In other words. My Ability In You To Do What You Don't Have The Ability To Do, is how I would term that. So, I think there's a difference between self reliance and resilience. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Would you agree?

And actually, if we allow that to take place and we stop trying to be self reliant, we realize that we are so we're able to do so much more than we would have had he been left out of the equation. And so it's like, you know, when, when you quote scripture, it feels very, um, I don't know, scriptury, like, you know, there's like this idea somewhere out there, but actually if you apply it and you walk in it, it's actually life giving.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's such a powerful thing, isn't it? And, um, Andy's put in the comments, we live in a, I'm just reading it off. Sorry. Sorry. Uh, we live in a self serving society. And I think. There's an interesting thing when we use the word self, so self reliant, self serving, selfish, it's all about the self, and I think as humans we tend to think First and foremost, think about ourselves, we try and pretend that we don't, but we do.

So it made it, it meant that I was a little bit more distrusting at a future business partnership. Does that make sense? Um, and so it's easy then to go, well, I'll just do it myself because I, you know, it's easier than doing it with somebody else kind of thing. And so I think we can become hard. I think we can become isolated.

I think that can lead to bitterness. When we just focus predominantly on doing ourselves.

And we're short sighted about something and part of the learning is understanding. Well, actually, I didn't quite see things through the way I should have. Yeah. Right?

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think so. I think you're totally right. It's an interesting one, isn't it? This, there is this tension between, and we keep coming back to it and I, I don't know how well I do it.

This tension between self reliance and resilience. And

He kind of, he was resilient. Um, and he had faith and he had hope because he had God's grace. Uh, we, you know, I, bless her. She shared the story last year of when she lost another baby. Um, it's been heartbreaking for those two. And, you know, I, I was, I was heartbreaking for them when, when we heard the news, we'd obviously been praying for them, just praying for a miracle this time, because, you know.

Yeah. Does that make sense? And I think, um, it's about where you put, I know I'm strong. I know mentally I'm, I'm pretty strong. I know physically I'm, I'm not the best specimen of the male species. I appreciate, no laughing.

Sadaf Beynon: With you.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I, I mean, I can have a certain confidence in myself, um, but I, it's easy to think that's all I need.

Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon: So, you know, the way God, the way God did it was he worked, and then he rested. And that's kind of how we are created. We are created to work and we're created to rest. And there's wisdom in knowing when to like what those boundaries are. And sometimes you can work straight through and burn out. Yeah.

Or you can have or you can be like, I'm going to work these days, and then I'm going to rest.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Following God's rules tends to work better. Miriam, just put in the comments if you've seen that. I love you guys so much.

Sadaf Beynon: Thank you, Miriam.

Matt Edmundson: Such a legend, Miriam. We love you. Yeah, awesome. Um, but yeah, I, one of the interesting things about, so last week we talked about Christ living in people.

I'm going to give you a few keywords that we've used in the past. What does that mean to, as a Christian Christ living in me? And it's quite an interesting revelation, right? And so, Paul talks about the thorn in the flesh being given to him so he doesn't become conceited because of the greatness of the revelation.

Because that's what we see in Paul's life. But no one really talks about it, just cover that bit up, because it becomes an easy thing just to throw off the tongue, right? And so there's again, another tension then that we face as Christians, I find, where there is the acceptance of the fact that that Paul had the thorn in the flesh and we are going through something more than, I mean, we all have our own fights and stuff to deal with.

Does that make sense? That the power of God in me what's the Paul said, that we would know the exceeding greatness of this power that's both in and for us the same power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, resurrection power, living in me, happy with that, right? And so why would that power then it would make sense?

Yes, it can. You know, God can through that power, but something doesn't seem to be shifting at the moment. But at the same time, I have to endure, I have to have faith. So there's, there's this real tension between acceptance and fight. I don't know if you've ever found that struggle.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think a lot of it means waiting on the Lord.

And I think that's where the tension grows, right? Because you're just expecting an answer. And But you know, the Lord, sometimes he gives you a yes, sometimes it's a no, sometimes it's wait, and um,

Matt Edmundson: oftentimes it's a maybe isn't it?

Because I think if that tension wasn't there, you would forget about it. And it wouldn't, it wouldn't have the same kind of, um, yeah. Power to push you spiritually.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon: Does that make sense?

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it does. It does. And I just think it's a really interesting tension that we have to fight and we have to face, um, between acceptance and fight just between saying this is the way it is versus the belief and faith in God that things can and possibly will change.

And I, I, it's not always like you say, you've got to wait on the Lord. You've got to find out what God is saying. It's interesting with the apostle Paul. Like I, I, I, I'm not. You know, diminishing any Christians here, myself, I'm probably diminishing myself more than anything, is just to go, Oh, this is my thought in my flesh.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah,

Matt Edmundson: that's not acceptance. That's the guy wanting to get rid of it.

Sadaf Beynon: That's persistence and that's

Matt Edmundson: persistence.

That's the guy. We don't know if he went a fourth time. And then that was the time God delivered him.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah,

Matt Edmundson: we just don't know. Yeah. But there seemed to be a persistence, there seemed to be a patience, there seemed to be an endurance, there seemed to be a willingness to fight. Yeah. And to seek God on what he was saying in that situation.

So I do like what you're saying, because it is waiting on God. God, what are you saying here in this situation? Right? Is this something that is the way it is? Or is this something that we need to fight for and change? And a fight might not be a very politically correct word right now. I appreciate that.

Sadaf Beynon: Um, yes, I think it might be a better way to put it, but actually, do you know that there's that, that story and I'm sure there's, there's different versions of it where there's that flood and this guy stuck on a roof and he's like, God save me, rescue me from the flood and then, you know, there's a helicopter that comes and he's like, no, no, no, God's going to rescue me.

And then. You know, different. Yeah.

Yeah. It's

Sadaf Beynon: kind of like that. You kind of just, you know, abdicate and be like, Oh, I can't do anything. I don't have anything in my power that I can do. It's all God. Yeah. But actually God's given us, um, brains and, um, we have, you know, we have, we have wisdom that he's given us and we need to exercise all of those things.

Um, but mostly pray and ask, ask the Lord what, what his will is in all of it.

And sometimes the instant happens. Yeah, you know, one of the most Beautiful words in the Bible, I think in the New Testament in the Gospels is a word suddenly, suddenly, you know, the woman with the issue of blood dried up after 12 years, suddenly, the Holy Spirit came upon them. And you're just like, I really like the suddenness.

I want more suddenness. Yeah,

just

Matt Edmundson: want more of those. But at the same time, um, you know, there's this great phrase, isn't there? Don't compare your ordinary with someone's extraordinary. In other words, We read books, for example, biographies, and it's just, there's a lot of sudden is going on, you know, like Heidi Bail, suddenly this happened and that happened, but you don't read about the three years in between where it was not great, or it was boring, or the mundane happened, or they had to do the washing, the kids, you know, had colds, one of them got suspended from school, whatever it was, right?

But you can still endure, and you can still have persistence here because of the graces in you. Yeah,

Sadaf Beynon: yeah. It was when Anna was talking, I was I was thinking about something, which I think you've kind of touched on now as well, that actually God's power is in us, is available to us all the time, not only in times when we're being stretched, but all the time.

And I think if we have that consistent relationship with him. day in and day out when the hard times come.

Yeah,

And having that peace that passes all understanding. You know, experiencing that more often.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Very good. Very good. I'm just going to the comments here, Andy, like the gym set up last week, Matt. Oh, yeah. Did you see last week's live stream? No. Did you not see the gym footage?

Sadaf Beynon: No.

Matt Edmundson: I thought that was a great example.

Thanks, Andy. I appreciate that. So just in case you don't know what Andy's talking about last week, I use the analogy of a glove. Okay. And in the sense that I showed a glove in my gym. Okay. And I encouraged the glove to lift up the weights, right. And the glove did not lift up the weights. I told the glove it was amazing and that it was wonderful, still didn't do it.

The analogy being clear that as Christians, we have a bigger life force and it's not until we allow God to work in us and through us, that we really start to fulfil the purpose of our life. So that's my analogy from the gym, that's what I'm just talking about, it's great. Everyone's going to go back and watch it now.

Do you know that went, that blew up a little bit onto, anyway, never mind. Uh, is this current theme continuing after the non live live streams? Says Andy.

Sadaf Beynon: Yes.

Matt Edmundson: Uh, we think, wow.

Sadaf Beynon: Not right away.

Matt Edmundson: Not right away.

Sadaf Beynon: Yes. No, I'm going to stop talking. Matt's going to do the talking.

Matt Edmundson: Oh, I am. I'm just looking at you.

Okay. So depending on what happens in October, more information coming soon. Genuinely, I'm, I appreciate I'm being a bit cryptic. Um, but we've got some really exciting changes and updates coming to crowd. And so it may be that we pause the wholeness series for a month in September to give us capacity to launch in October with all the new changes, right.

And so, um, so by doing that, we may do an easier workaround where the talks are concerned. We don't know, is the honest answer. It's 50 50, Andy. It might well be we just go, let's just carry on because it just makes an awful lot of sense. But there does seem to be a natural break, right? So if you remember with the wholeness series, we're going to look at five areas.

But to be whole as a person where nothing is missing, nothing is broken, we started off with spiritual health, because that makes the most sense to be spiritually healthy. And, you know, to understand the God who lives in you to understand identity, the fruits of the spirit, all those things that we've looked at over the past.

How many weeks have we been doing this?

Sadaf Beynon: Um, since Feb, I think. So however many weeks that is.

So we spent a good long time looking at spiritual health, which has been great. I've really enjoyed this part of the series. So but this what we have done is we've said, right, let's end the spiritual health part. Now, we're going to go into August. It just worked out that way, actually. It wasn't even intentional.

Sadaf Beynon: It wasn't intentional.

Matt Edmundson: Just worked out that way. So we've, we've ended the spiritual health. Look this week, so this week ends the spiritual health section. So when we pick up the series on wholeness, when we pick up what that means, nothing missing, nothing broke us, uh, broke us? Broken? I don't know what's happened to my speech today.

What does the Bible have to say about this, if anything? What's God's viewpoint on it, and what can we learn from that? Um, so if we don't start it in September, we'll probably start it in January, because I think if we, Do what we're thinking of doing in September, which we've not defined yet, which is why I'm not I'm not being cryptic.

We just don't know. When we launch the sort of new version of Crowd, Crowd 2. 0, in October, November time, I think it'll be good to do some talks around that, which then leads us up to Christmas. Christmas dominates everything in the Christian calendar, because why would it not? So it may make sense to start in January.

I don't know. It all depends on what Sadaf wants to do.

Sadaf Beynon: Yes. So

I want to point that out. Except for the live stream, we think is going to go up a notch in quality and value. Is that right?

Sadaf Beynon: That's the hope and the plan.

Matt Edmundson: That's the hope and the plan. So we really want to add to the live stream. So, um, the one change I think is going to happen that I can tell you about is I think from October, the live stream will start at 6.

30 or possibly 7. So there might be a slight change of timing. Um, I That's the one thing that I'm fairly sure is probably going to happen. So again, more information coming soon in September. So do stay joined. If you're not liked or subscribed to Crowd Church yet, make sure you do that because we will obviously keep you up to date with any and all changes.

So Andy, hopefully that has answered your question in a very roundabout sort of way. Yes, we are. We just don't know when it's going to start. I should have just said that.

Matt Edmundson: My

Sadaf Beynon: words

Matt Edmundson: are brokus, yes, thanks. Matt oversharing yet again. He never does that.

Never. Anyway, let's get back to Anna. Is there anything else on your little notepad there?

You just take your time, love.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. One of the things she was, she challenged everyone with, wasn't it? Like to think about how has God's power helped you in a time of difficulty. So Matt, why don't you take that?

Matt Edmundson: I was just about to ask you. I know. I know. That's

Sadaf Beynon: why I jumped in there.

Matt Edmundson: Get in with the questions first.

It was a time where we had to let a bunch of people go from the company, which I hated. Um, we halved in size literally almost overnight. I mean, it was all not great. But the one thing that I did do was what you said earlier, I waited on the Lord. I actually, do you know what I actually, I don't know if I've said, where did I say this the other day?

The one thing that I did do was I went into, Coffee Shop, which was underneath our office at the time.

Are

Matt Edmundson: you with us when we're on our assembly? Um, so underneath our office at the time was a coffee shop, famous High Street coffee shop brand, which shall remain lameless because I do not want to promote them on this show, on this show.

And that really, really helped me. Um, and I think it wasn't, don't get me wrong, it wasn't restored. That business never became what it was. Um, after that, um, it, it kind of went down and up a little bit, but it never sort of regained where it was. Um, but in the midst of that, I would say I learned more about me and about business than anything else.

It was such a valuable life lesson. And actually, if we'd have not gone through that, we wouldn't, I don't think we'd be sat here. Because I think we'd have made very different life choices. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so what about you?

But I think what I, um, from all of them, if I was to put it all together, being, being at the Lord's feet in it. is, and yeah, being at the Lord's feet. And like we were saying, waiting on him to kind of show you what's next, what's, you know, what does he want to do out of all of this has, um, I think was transforming for me.

And it's all a poor me. But actually, if you take your eyes off yourself and put them on the Lord, everything seems to fall into place. Whether we understand it or not completely, doesn't matter, but the fact is that if you're looking to him and thanking him for what you do have, rather than what you've lost, I think it's a much better place to be.

Matt Edmundson: That is so powerful, so true. And actually, if I'm, it's part of the reason not to plug our own stuff, but I'm going to plug our own stuff right now.

Sadaf Beynon: Yes, of course. Why not?

Matt Edmundson: Go for it. What am I going to plug?

Sadaf Beynon: Um, I'm going to just let you take it away. Cause it could be anything.

Matt Edmundson: It could be anything, right? We just don't know, do we?

Right. So that I mean, you talk about stories of resilience, you talk about stories of God's grace. And sometimes the stories are quite redemptive as in. I lost this, but God restored it back to me. Some of them are, this happened to me and it changed my life, but actually the trajectory I'm now on, life is just in a very different place and we've become very different people in good ways.

Um, but just hearing the sweetness and the, the, the, the sort of the love of God in the midst of all of that is quite, is inspiring. They genuinely are inspiring stories. And so if you haven't done so already, I really encourage you to check out the What's The Story podcast. In fact, if you just go to whatsthestorypodcast.

com, you'll find the whole podcast there and you can subscribe to that. You can listen to the episodes. Um, I know Anna's talked about her child loss. You've talked about, uh, your grief and your relationship breakdown on those. So they're all there, um, go and dig in and find out because they're super, super inspiring and um, you'll really, really enjoy them.

Isn't that right?

Sadaf Beynon: That is absolutely right. You should definitely do that. We do have some great stories on there and we have some great stories coming up as well.

Sadaf Beynon: We do.

Matt Edmundson: Oh, we do. That's a beautiful thing, isn't it? Um, so yes, uh, the boundless power of God, the exceeding power of his greatness is both in and for you.

As you believe the same power that he used in Christ when he raised him from the dead, that resurrection power lives inside us, the Holy Spirit himself, the power of God lives and breathes in us. And that is part of the revelation of all of this, that actually wholeness is about allowing the God in us to live in us, to work through us, to breathe through us.

And yeah, all of that good stuff, isn't it? And actually, the more we do that, The better off life seems to be, the more whole we become, uh, is the, is the bottom line. So, I'm aware of time. So, let's just wrap this up now. Uh, it is fair to say, like I say, in August, we will be doing the non live live streams.

Sadaf Beynon: We'll find out.

Matt Edmundson: The reason Sadaf is hosting today is because you wanted to get some podcasts recorded, isn't it?

Sadaf Beynon: So I helped Matt out, Matt helped me out.

Matt Edmundson: So Sadaf's like, Matt, if I host on Sunday, can we record some podcasts as well? Oh, the joys of working with Christians. Um, so yes, that's kind of how we've ended up, uh, hosting today, but it's been great to chat about this really soon. I get super encouraged by this kind of stuff.

Do you?

Sadaf Beynon: Sure. Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: What's your key takeaway?

Sadaf Beynon: Um, you know what? I think for me, it's a reminder that we need to be walking with the Lord all the time and relying on his power all the time too. It's far too easy to just wait for when things get really bad.

Matt Edmundson: That's so true. Very, very true. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed it.

If you are new to the Christian faith, I would like to know more about this Jesus we talk about. We would genuinely love to hear from you. Just go to the website. If I press this button, I think it's this one here. Look at that. It's like

Sadaf Beynon: magic. It's magic.

Matt Edmundson: Can you say it's magic in church?

Sadaf Beynon: Oh, no.

Matt Edmundson: Don't. Don't. Don't. Anyway, we would genuinely love to hear from you, whether you believe in magic or whether you don't. We don't.

Sadaf Beynon: Just making that clear.

Matt Edmundson: It'd be great to hear from you. If you've got any questions about the Christian faith, do reach out to us. We've been doing an alpha course, which has been, I've really enjoyed actually doing this alpha course.

That's the word. I knew there was a reason you were here. So yes, uh, if you'd like, like I say, if you'd like to know more, if you want to find out more about the ALF course or that sort of stuff, do reach out to us, let us know. And of course, if you're watching this and you are a Christ follower, then why not invite someone along to the ALF course?

They may be interested in doing it as well. We do it online, so it'd be great to see you there. But have a crack in summer, have some really, really restful time. Uh, I know I'm going to, what are you doing over August?

Sadaf Beynon: Um, hanging around, going away for a week, um, a bit of this, a bit of that.

Matt Edmundson: The power of bit of this, bit of that, that just sounds lovely.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, I'm not really a beach person. Well, but well done. I hope it's good fun.

Matt Edmundson: Bless you. All right, ladies and gentlemen, bless you. Have a fantastic week. Have a fantastic month. We'll see you in the non live live streams. But from Sadaf, is there anything else you want to say? No. Okay, from Sadaf and from me. Have a phenomenal summer. We'll see you again in September. Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church.

So if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out our website, www. crowd. church Where you can learn more about us as a church, more about the Christian faith, and also how to connect into our church community. It has been awesome to connect with you and you are awesome. It's just a burden you have to bear and hopefully we'll see you next time.

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