Welcome to our newest series - Origin! Pastor John Harding takes us through John 1:1-13 in this first episode, with the series all about Jesus.

Jesus. Just the name brings to mind so many images and ideas. For some, Jesus is a figure of history, a man who lived a long time ago and had a huge impact on the world. Others see Jesus as a religious figure, the Son of God who came to save humanity from their sin.

But who was Jesus really? And what happened at the start of the greatest movement in our history?

These are some of the questions that we'll be exploring in this series. Origin will look at the birth of the church and ask why this Man, Jesus, from 2000 years ago still has a major impact on the world today.

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Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Crowd Church.

Let me just check everyone's unmuted.

So it is a different host and different host today.

Um, it's my name's Dan.

Um, I have been on Crowd Church before, but I'm stepping in for Matt.

Uh, he's he's at a wedding today.

So if anything goes wrong, it's, it's pretty much all my fault.

I'm pressing the buttons.

I'm doing the talking, but to my, to my right on the screen, I've got

the lovely Chris and Sue Holcombe.

Who are gonna help me out and yes, help, uh, answer questions.

So people, please put your questions, comments, and we'll try to answer those.

So today we've got, um, the first in our new series called Origin.

So we are looking at, um, the gospel of John.

So it's the.

One of the four accounts of Jesus' life, um, in, from John's view.

So we're gonna start right at the beginning and this series goes right

through John's gospel, and then it goes through into the acts of the apostles.

So what the, the new early church did what they did with this amazing message.

Um, so are you looking forward to this, um, Chris and Sue,

nice to have you with us.

Very much.

Yeah.

Brilliant.

Nice to be here.

Yeah.

Thanks so much for taking part.

Thanks very much.

Um, we've got people in the comments got Matt.

Who's trying to, trying to stay awake.

Come on, Matt.

You can do this.

Got Dan Prior.

Um, here we go.

Yeah.

I got a few people listening in, so I think let's, um, start the talk.

Let's listen to, this is from pastor of Frontline Church in Liverpool.

So he's doing the first talk.

We'll go straight into a worship song and then we'll come back and we will have con

Conversation Street and we'll have a talk.

So as the talks going, please feel free just to put comments up questions

up and we'll try to answer them.

Here we go.

Great.

So the end of.

John chapter one verse one to 13 in the beginning was the

word and the word was with God.

And the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning, through him, all things were made without him.

Nothing was made that has been made.

In him was life.

And that life was a light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

Verse nine, the true light that gives light to every man

was coming into the world.

He was in the world and though the world was made through him,

the world did not recognize him.

He came to his own.

But his own did not receive him yet to all who received him to

those who believed in his name.

He gave the right to be called children of God, children, not born of natural

descent or a human decision or a husband's will, but children born of God.

This is how a man called John starts his biography of the

life of his friend, Jesus.

Now, I wonder if someone, maybe a friend of yours was to write up

your life story, your biography.

I wonder how they would start it.

I suppose it depends a little bit on how well they knew you.

Maybe if someone let's say my brother was writing my biography, not that he

would, I'm simply not that interesting or exceptional or influential, but if

he were to write my biography, he'd probably say something like this.

John Harding was born March 25th, 1977 into a working class family

in a Northern Pit Mining Town.

That might be how he would start it.

Now let's say I had four friends, all writing my biography.

Not that they would, I don't have that sort of status, but let's say they did.

They all might write something very similar to each other.

Unless one of my friends, the creative poetic, mystical abstract,

a little bit weird one, you know who you are, unless that friend took

a completely different approach.

Totally true.

As true as the other biographies, but different.

Unexpected a little bit left of field and that's like John's gospel Matthew,

mark, and Luke all write pretty similar biographies of the life of Jesus.

Matthew starts with Jesus' genealogy, his family tree, and he traces Jesus'

origins back to Abraham, the father of Judaism to show that Jesus is

the promised Jewish Messiah along awaited king to full of David.

mark starts his biography of Jesus with an ancient prophecy from Isaiah to show

how, uh, John the Baptist would prepare the way for the coming king for Jesus.

Luke, a doctor starts his biography of Jesus listing.

His research is methodology who is interviewed, how he's done a

thorough investigation, Luke, the methodical scientific, precise.

And then John says using the language of Genesis chapter one,

the language of the creation of the world, he says in the beginning was

the word and the word was with God.

And the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning, John's taken a completely different

perspective and approach and chronology.

In writing about his friend, Jesus, but don't miss the point.

There are four gospels, but actually there's only one gospel,

one fourfold gospel, the most read biographies ever written.

Why?

No one's ever gonna write my biography, but these four men put pen to paper

because they had encountered the most remarkable, the most influential, the

most important unique person imaginable.

They met Jesus, Jesus changed their lives.

They wanted the world to.

And so they recorded in their own words in their own way, from their own

perspective, the story of who Jesus was and John writing in the form of mystical

Jewish poetry, he starts by saying, you know, the creation of the world.

And you know how there was nothing, nothing, but God, and you know how God

spoke the word light and light came into the world and you know how God

spoke the word land and sea and sky and land sea and sky came into being at the

sound of the word John's saying, I've come to realize and believe that that

word in the beginning was a person.

And that person was Jesus Christ.

Jesus was there before the beginning of time or space, he was with God, the

father and God, the spirit, because he was God, he was God, the word speaking into

being creation from nothing to something.

And so through him, as we've read all things were.

That's the revelation of Jesus that John wants to share with us.

No wonder he wants to put pen to paper.

Upper PS.

But before we write this office, some ancient myth and therefore irrelevant

to our modern scientific world and our modern, sophisticated understanding.

I want you to see that John captures a deep and profound truth.

One simply beyond the REIT and limits even of modern science.

The truth that he captures is this.

Now there is something, there is matter time, space light, but once

there was nothing and for something to come from, nothing, there needed

to be something someone outside of time and space, something distinct

from matter and creation something, not physical, not contingent.

And John calls that something.

Jesus, the pre-existent word God.

It's mind blowing stuff, ancient cosmology that responds to

modern scientific questions.

People many people.

In fact, reading John's biography of the life of Jesus, they can

see that Jesus is special, unique, unlike any other person that has

ever walked the face of this planet.

But here in our reading, John explains why he gives us the most compelling

reason for why Jesus is so unique.

And it's this Jesus always has been Jesus.

Always will be.

He has distinct superior above and beyond the created order above and

beyond matter light time and space, all that stuff around you, the screen that

you are watching or holding, uh, the seat that you are sat on the body that

you are inhabiting the time that is passing as I speak the space that you're

occupying, all of that once was not.

And all of it was ceased to.

But Jesus is outside of that.

He was before all of that, the word in the beginning, the

uncaused caused the unmoved mover.

And John is saying to us, you know, uh, why the life of Jesus is so unique,

so different, so captivating, so life changing well for this reason.

The life of Jesus on earth is the story of what happens, what you get when you take a

preexisting creator, God who wraps himself in human flesh and blood human matter

and limits himself to what, 33 years in human years, walking upon the face of this

planet, literally from the highest heaven to the lowest physical place on earth.

John is gonna go on to say the word became flesh.

And dwell amongst us no, wonder, 2000 years later, we are still

captivated by this Jesus.

We're still talking about him.

We're still encountering him.

We're still being transformed by him.

This is the Jesus that John is introducing to us in his biography.

John won.

I wonder, have you encountered this Jesus?

John goes on to say that this Jesus, the preexistent creating

word, this Jesus in him was life.

Now, how should we understand that?

What does that mean?

When we read that in Jesus was a life?

Well, let me say right off the bat here, that it's a statement

bigger than our understanding.

It's sort of beyond.

Us, but when we grasp around for some meaning, and when we try and make

sense of it, we're gonna land on some thoughts that are some of the most

powerful ideas we will ever explore.

We're gonna be answering, responding to some questions that are some of the most

important questions that we will ever ask.

Like, how do we find real life?

How do we really live this life that we have?

How can we embrace and experience more life, a better quality of life?

We will find the answer to life, not in more education or more information,

not in, uh, uh, the right type of relationship with another person

or through more experiences or some sort of philosophy or theory.

John says no, no life is found in Jesus, Jesus, the preexistent

word who spoke matter and time and space into being the one ultimately

responsible for creating you.

John says in him was life.

In Jesus.

We find life now on one level, that's saying, well, we tend to

think of the physical matter atoms.

Elements protons, this primordial suit.

We tend to think of matter developing into life.

But John, right in 2000 years ago, he says, no, it doesn't work like that.

It's the over way round it's life leading to matter.

The only reason that we have something rather than nothing, the only reason that,

that something is ordered not chaotic.

The only reason we have life is because Jesus, the word was there in

the beginning, orchestrating it all.

And so that's why as a Christian, I am absolutely convinced of

this one truth more than anything else that when you find Jesus.

You find life when you encounter Jesus, you encounter life in Jesus is life.

And because Jesus is the source and origin and offer of life, that

means you are always gonna lack a sense of being truly alive apart

from Jesus, the author of life.

Our reading from John one ends with these words, Jesus was in the world.

And though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

He came to his, his own people, but they didn't receive him yet to all who received

him to all who believed in his name.

He gave the right to become children of God.

Jesus, the preexistent God, the one who spoke and brought

forth something from nothing.

Jesus came into this world.

But as amazing as that is it wasn't immediately obvious.

Not everyone could see Jesus for who he really was.

Some overlooked Him.

Some rejected him, some reacted so badly, so negatively that they had him killed

crucified as if you could ever really kill the word made flesh in whom was all life.

But that is what they did.

At least he allowed them to take his life from him for three whole days.

His own people, the Jewish people did not receive him.

They rejected him.

But then we read these incredible words.

yet to all who received him to all who believed in his name.

He gave the right to become children of God.

That's how we get life.

That's how we experience real life.

I'm talking about real life, quality life, life that lifts us

up out the rat race life that gives meaning and dignity and purpose.

We get that sort of life by receiving Jesus.

and believing in Jesus receive Jesus, the source of life, believe

in Jesus, the source of life, and something's gonna happen.

The, the only way John, the offer of this biography can describe

it is he says it's like this.

So when you receive Jesus, when you believe in Jesus, you

get born into God's family.

We truly become children of God.

And so the life that flowed through Jesus' veins becomes

the life flowing through ours.

We share in his nature because we are his children, Jesus existed before

and separate to time matter and space.

And he spoke those things into being he's a source of life.

So receive him believe in him and in doing so you will find his life.

I often say to Christians that how you see God, how you behold, God

radically impacts how you believe.

And how you behave behold, believe behave, get your beholding, right.

Get your gaze, right.

Get your vision right.

And you'll find you start to live in a transformed way.

Well, John had a vision, a revelation and experience of who Jesus really was.

It's a little bit bigger than some of us tend to think of

Jesus and we reduce him down.

Get a bigger vision of Jesus, the preexistent word, the one

in whom there is all life.

And you will find that you experience more of his life and

his power at work within you

christ our hope.

I do like that song.

It's great.

It's got a lot of, I believe a lot of truth in there.

So that talk was really good.

Wasn't it?

I really enjoyed that.

Um, a lot of, a lot of things to un pack.

Um, a lot of questions is before we sort of go into it.

Is there anything that sort of jumped out to you guys?

I really like, um, I like the message, uh, version of the Bible

done by Eugene Peterson and, uh, couple of phrases stand out in.

That passage from, from the translation of the message, uh, in

verse four, four and five, it says what came into existence was life.

And the life was light to live by the light, the life light

blazed out of the darkness, the darkness couldn't put it out.

The life light was the real thing and it sort of brings

it to brings it to life a bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like that.

It blazed out.

It's good.

Yeah.

Actually, while I.

Well, while I was listening to this, there's a song that particularly

resonates for me with this, which is, this is the air I breathe.

This is the air.

I breathe your holy presence living in me.

And it's that whole thing about that.

We are breathing that life in, you know, and that's God's presence

and it's your daily bread.

It's everything.

It's how, it's how you exist if you like.

And then I think, um, when I was hearing this, I was thinking.

Just breathing in life, um, as, as, as Jesus is, you

know, being breathed into us.

So we live out life.

It's it's, it's wonderful.

Really that idea of pre-existence as well.

You know, that whole thing of where it all came from.

Yeah.

It's great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I like that, that this, this thing that John brings out

that before was nothing only.

Before time before science before, before anything, he, he spoke the

word was there just like aching to come out and then it, it came

forth and, um, and we have creation.

We had Jesus that word.

Yeah.

And, and I guess then it's not just a, some sort of metaphysical thing.

Like.

I dunno.

We sometimes come across something called the monkey age on radio

four, and it's a whole load of, um, astrophysicists and, and scientists.

And you think, what are they talking about?

It doesn't make any sense.

And it's sort of vaguely interesting, but you think is this really relevant to me?

Yes.

But, but it, again, what, what, what we read in John is, um, what came

into existence was life and the.

Was light to live by.

So, so it has that relevance to us and, and it goes on and again, in message,

um, talking about becoming children of God, and again, he uses the phrase.

Um, but whoever did want him who believed he was who he claimed to be and would do

what he, he made to be their true selves.

Yeah.

Their child of God selves.

And, and it's that concept of.

I guess it isn't this sort of irrelevant thing over here.

That's a nice theory about physics and particles.

Um, it, isn't something that's being imposed on us by God, and we're not

being put into a sort of straight a religious straight jacket, but rather

there's a sense of release that we're designed to be our true selves and.

God, Jesus, the light of the world coming into the world allows us to be, um, our

true selves, our child of God selves, you know, which, which actually is there.

Therein is release.

Therein is, um, you know, fulfillment and, and happiness

in its, in its deepest sense.

Yeah, I suppose it makes sense if, if we are to believe this, that

God was before everything created everything, then it would be for

us, we would be at rest in here.

Wouldn't we?

Because that's what we were, this whole creation is about.

That's what we were, we were for.

Um, Yeah, we can, like you, you said we can do all this thinking and

metaphysical stuff and, and going off.

And it's great to think, and to, to delve deeper into stuff and to look into

all the details, but as that essence of, of who we are and who, who God is.

Um, and yeah, I like to, I, so two bits that sort of link in to this, so John

when he was talking at the beginning saying about, um, John's gospel was more

of a, um, he, he starts off like this talking about the life and life of God,

whereas Luke's gospel, he's very detailed.

So this happened and this happened.

Um, and apparently, I didn't know this before.

Um, I heard another talk, um, but there's, they often put different

symbols with the gospels and the symbol of John's gospel as an Eagle.

Because it's more of a looking over things.

Um, but it's not on, on the way to the church, went to this morning and had

the radio on and they had the song, um, uh, uh, oh, gone out my head.

Um, God is looking down on us, looking over us, um, at a distance.

I.

No, I, I don't agree with that.

So an Eagle might be up there looking down, but he's got good eyesight.

see right down.

So I like that, that, that John was, gives his overview of things, but he

gets into the, the, the details as well.

Um, I've got a few, um, questions here.

Um, so.

John.

Just, just go on, sorry, Dan.

Yeah.

To pick up that overview of the Eagle, the next verse in John 14 in the message.

Um, it's that combination of that overview that John gives us, but then

it says the word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

And it's that extraordinary collision, whatever of the, the metaphysical,

uh, gods out there yet coming.

Onto the earth in physical form and moving into the neighborhood.

Yeah.

And, and can still do that today.

Yeah, definitely.

But anyway.

Yeah, I know.

No, that's brilliant.

Yeah.

Not just, not just out there looking down and going.

Oh, gets involved.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, John talks, John pastor John, this is getting confusing, talking

about John's gospel , um, talks about.

The life and life of God and being alive in Jesus and only being alive in Jesus.

How, what, what do you, what do you say to that, that, do you

believe there's only life in Jesus?

I mean, we're alive, but what do you think he means by that?

To me, I think that's.

I think that's about recognition of who we are because of our creation,

you know, because God created us.

And I think if you don't, if you don't link up with that, if you don't accept

that, I mean, it's what John says in that gospel, but you somehow have

something missing that you could be just, you know, you're just flashing

bones and that the bit of you that is the created bit, the bit of you that.

Breathly breath breathed into you.

Um, and acknowledging that doesn't really make you complete

unless you acknowledge it.

Mm-hmm um, in, in the book of, so in, in the fictional book, Narnia,

when Aslan creates Narnia sings a, he sings a note and the note is a breath.

If you like, it's.

LA, you know, and you sing it.

And then, but everything started to become life with the sound of the, of the note.

And I found that a really good example of where that life growing, developing,

and becoming everything it should be was dependent on acknowledging that

you came from that, that one place.

Um, so no matter what time we were born in whether we were born right

at the beginning, we were Adam, we were Eve, or whether we are born now

that first time we take, you know, that, that moment of breath, that

moment of living, um, acknowledge it.

If you acknowledge where it's come from, makes you more complete.

And I think without that acknowledgement, you perhaps are still a little

bit living in a mystery world, a world that doesn't make sense.

Um, but that's, that's what it means to me and other people may not get that from it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And again, in the message, it says he made us to be our true selves.

Yeah.

Our child of God selves, not, not God.

We are God to begotten, not blood begotten, not flesh

begotten, not sex begotten.

And there's that, that sense of that is the way of things.

I mean, clearly it's not very popular, is it in, in modern society?

And that, that exclusivity in particular is not, not popular in

modern society where it's, it's very much more, um, you know, science yeah.

Science or do your own thing, provide it doesn't hurt someone.

Yeah, exactly.

That as long as it's yeah.

Do what's do what's good for.

Um, yeah, there's no sort of fixed, um, fixed models.

Isn't the right word, but no fixed line is there we're actually this?

Yeah.

Well, John is saying here, there is a fixed line.

The word was made flesh this, there is only one word there.

Wasn't another one.

Um, yeah, this is it.

Which makes to us who, who know this Jesus, that makes sense

that we can, we can rest in that.

Um, if you're listening to this and you just think, what on

earth these people on about then?

Um, well, keep, keep reading, keep reading on, we'll be going through these

in the next, um, few weeks, but you can, um, jump ahead and just, and find

out that John said something as well.

He said, we're still talking about this 2000 years on.

And I think that has got to mean something that it's not, um, stories that have.

Uh, you know, gone into the midst of time.

This is still people talking about it, living it, seeing

it transform their lives.

Yeah.

And I suppose you could say, as John has pointed out that all of the

gospels are the history, if you like done from different perspectives.

Yeah.

So if you are, if you are a much more sort of hard edged type um, analyst, if you

like in your mind, you like to have things a bit more cut and dried John is, is, is,

is more of the poets person, you know?

Um, but Luke is the doctor, you know, and, um, mark probably was around,

you know, related to that a lot of stuff that happened at the time.

And these are people that knew Jesus, you know, they knew who he was.

Yeah.

And those histories that are all valid, they're just different emphasis maybe

or different way of looking at things.

So I would urge if you find John difficult, although I find it

beautiful and quite, um, you know, uh, the imagery is lovely.

Um, and the knowledge is amazing.

That idea, you know, Thought that this was before everything, you know,

it's mind blowing, but if you, if you want to read the other gospels as

well, they do compliment each other.

They bring out the best in all of this, this, this knowledge.

It's great.

It's great.

We've got these four accounts that all, all link in, in some pickup,

um, different stories, some pick up the same story from different angles.

Um, yeah, not so.

Not something that perhaps not, I impossible for someone to have

written this and concocted this story, but very, very difficult.

Um, you know, it's, it's complex and, and all, uh, woven together.

Yeah.

Wove together.

And still, as you said, lives transformed both, both lives transformed

back then by in, in the disciples and the, and the early converts.

Most of whom went to their death for the sake of what they were saying.

Yeah.

But also now still lives being transformed.

And, um, you know, lots of people know amazing grace, you know, I

mean, John Newton was a, was a slave owner who, who, who, who, again, his

life was transformed and written one of the most famous, popular hymns.

The source of that was it.

Wasn't just.

He somehow became a nice guy when he wasn't a nice guy, actually very

much the source is, is this God given life, which is, was transformative

and, and is transformative.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Someone I was at, um, had do with some, some work friends on, um, last week and

the guy sat next to me said, we were just talking about, um, God and Christianity,

cuz he knows that's what I believe.

Um, and he said, Is it a, just a list of rules?

And I said, no, it's, it's, it's something that comes and changes us, transforms us.

I said, I wouldn't be, I know I wouldn't be this person without God.

He has changed me.

Yeah.

From the inside it's it's yeah, I think that's why.

Well, yeah, why we're still talking about these events 2000 years.

Aren't because everyone.

Talks about it gets to know this Jesus and gets to know

you can be changed transformed.

Yeah.

And I think sometimes people looking, looking in from the outside, uh, I think

that about some of our friends and perhaps some of our, our kids as well, actually,

they, they sort of like some of who we are and what we are and what we do and what

we stand for, but, but sort of either fail to see or don't want the source of it all.

Yeah.

Um, so quite like, oh, these bits are quite nice, but then aren't quite keen

in, in embracing or understanding that that only arises from, from this life

within this, from God, from, from Jesus.

Yeah.

You know, and without that, you don't, you don't have the other bit without

that, you know, and indeed maybe, maybe the whole country's falling into that

trap, to be honest, you know, yeah.

And a question that John Harding broached, well, I, I heard him talk at,

um, church this morning, but he, one of his, his sort of title, if you like

was how big is your vision of Jesus and what was really kind of striking to me?

And, you know, we can learn new things every day.

Can't we, we can read the same piece of scripture.

We could open John and read it tomorrow and think something different or get.

Different unusual, remarkable out of it another day, you know?

Um, but what struck me was that, you know, if you just take Jesus, the man

as he lived on earth and you, you read the gospels and you read what he did.

Um, and you don't know the beginning of John and you don't

know that he was there before.

He's part of your creation, our creation, the world's creation.

You've maybe just missed a moment.

You've missed a chance to, to know that when you depend on this man, Jesus, who

died for us, that you are talking about somebody that was there before the world

began, that has such power to start the world, to breathe the world into life, uh,

with God, the father and the holy spirit, and you are missing a trick almost if you

don't get that, this is so much bigger.

Then the man's life on, on earth.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

It's so much more than that.

My vision, sometimes I put God and Jesus into a box.

I do.

I do.

You know, I think, oh, you know, if I don't do the right things, somehow

God won't be as big as he could be.

Or, and, and it's just so limiting and it's exciting to know that my

vision can be just so much more.

If I just grasp that truth.

Yeah.

It's, it's amazing.

I mean, Matt's put it in the, in the comments he's put Jesus' fleshy.

So we've got this God that is outside of time.

That was there before anything was the God that created us.

The God that will come and roll this world up.

And take us outside of time to be with him if we know him, but then that same

God came as Jesus to be fleshy, to be on that world that he created and to allow

himself to be, to be beaten, to, and to be crucified that, yeah, you don't get, yeah.

It's the best story ever.

Isn't it?

You got the God that is above everything and then that same God came and spoke

and had these eyewitnesses, John that said that, that wrote down these things.

So we can, we can just catch glimpses of what it must have been like.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I guess then how, how that applies to other areas.

I was, um, you know, what came into existence was life and the life was.

life was light to live by.

Um, I was at a, a conference yesterday of Christian healthcare leaders.

Um, and actually one of the questions I asked was, you know, do Christian

healthcare leaders have something special that they bring to the party?

Or are there lots of talented leaders, you know, which clearly there are, but, but

actually when you look at Jesus' teaching.

It, it is so countercultural now.

And so countercultural for the NHS, I, you know, when you get into

it and start looking at starkly.

So, you know, and, um, much of the NHS is in a gray area of not quite

saying yes, not quite saying no.

And then you, you know, Jesus in sermon on the Mount saying, um, let

you yes be yes let you know, be no, you know, embellishing your speech.

With all the latest, fancy acronyms doesn't, doesn't make it true.

And, and, and actually in a conversation with a, with a colleague, you know, people

are worried about the NHS currently.

And, and actually he said, well, you know, the answer is God, you know, and, and, and

he said it was such conviction and, and such, you know, that, that is the answer,

you know, and, and actually that, that life comes into us as individuals and.

then.

There's very much a sense in which as we go out to wherever

we go out Monday, Friday, or in our neighborhoods or wherever it

is, then that life comes with us.

And that life can, I guess, through us energize and change the, the

organizations, the workplaces, the neighborhoods, the cultures

of, of where we are and that, so the light then becomes not.

uh, a personal thing, but something for an organization, a, a company,

whatever, and for society.

And, and if you lose some of that, actually you see the

difference as well, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

It, yeah, it affect, it affects all of us.

Doesn't it affects our, yeah.

Our daily life.

I was talking.

I think about being my, my son, um, just about, uh, about God and about the fact

that we can, we can look to other people.

We can see what God's done in them.

We can read, um, the gospels.

We can see what God did, uh, you know, on, on paper, what he did, um, to the lives

of the, the people in the early church.

But we can go straight to him as well.

We don't have to go through a structure or we don't have to just read about God.

We can believe in him and we can know him.

We can go direct to that word, to that life.

We can know that light and he just ask him, ask him to, to shine on us

and to us and, and highlight things that we're, we're struggling with.

Hmm.

As, as Crowd Church, we do, um, we have this online presence, but then we also

meet as well, um, to pray in the week.

If, if you've got speaking, speaking out there, if anyone out there that would

love would like us to pray for them, then please just send, um, your message in.

I might be able to press a button now, let's see if this works.

Look at that I got bottom.

Right.

Um, if you visit there or Instagram, um, you can just send a private message in.

We'd love to pray for you.

If you just, if you wanna know more about Jesus, if you are sick, if you've

got, uh, any, any worries, then please just let us know because we'd be,

it'd be our privilege to pray for you.

And we'd love to pray for.

There we go.

Yeah.

Um, we're, we're getting close to the end of today's.

I wanna say service, but it's not really service.

Is it?

Um, live stream it's called live stream.

Um, so we've got some more of this series coming up and we've

got Matt who normally hosts.

Who's a lot.

On top of things that I am, um, and he's, he's gonna be hosting next week

and he's gonna be doing the talk as well.

So I'm looking forward to that on grace and truth and

following on from John's gospel.

See if you want to, um, get a read on and, and look, look forward and see

what's gonna be happening next week, then, then read up and, um, send any

questions in, in advance so we can, we can have a look at them and, um, answer

Um, before we finish, is there anything else you'd you two, like to say thanks so

much for, for coming on and, and giving your, your great wisdom much appreciated?

No, I guess just, it is a challenge, isn't it?

That, that big vision of God who is just, you know, is important

and intermittent part of us, sort of whether we like it or not.

As, as, as the air we.

And that with, um, you know, without that we're, we are

missing out on, on something.

Yeah.

We're missing out on something.

Our, our workplace, our neighborhood is missing out on something, you know, great

Britain is missing out on something.

And, um, I, I suppose we're, you know, we're particularly aware of that this

weekend as we mourn the Queen's death and, and she's so clearly embodies what we're

talking about today that, you know, she had that life and that light within her

and the, and the source of who she was and her steadiness and her service and,

um, how she did things, um, you know, is so apparent and so many little stories

coming out where she's met with people and has just seen you know, she hasn't been

the, high and mighty queen, but has seen a need that that individual has and has

absolutely spoken into it or remembered something or sent a letter afterwards

or, um, yeah, lots of little things.

Yeah.

And, um, just reading a story today and, um, uh, there's a war surgeon called David

Knot who, uh, was invited to the palace and found himself sitting next to the.

But he'd just come back from EPPO in Syria and, and actually was, was in

the midst of post-traumatic stress.

Really traumatized.

Yeah.

And, and apparently the queen spends half the meal talking to one side and

half the meal talking to the other side.

And, um, uh, so she talked to the other person and turned around to, to this

guy, David Knot, and started conversation of sort of where have you been?

And, and he, he could barely talk cuz he was thinking, I've just

seen all these destroyed buildings.

Blown up children and I'm in these opulent things and, and, and the, the

queen picked up on that and, uh, called over, um, or, or had a little box of dog

biscuits handed to it by one of the staff.

Yeah.

And, and then passed them over to, to this surgeon and had one myself, I think,

and, and picked out the, the dog, the dog list and said, oh, these are the corgis.

And we started feeding the corgis and the table, the table and said, Oh, it's, it's

sort of so much easier just feeding the animals rather than chatting all the time.

Isn't it.

But it's just that sense of how she picked up his, you know,

she cared, she showed him grace.

She showed him love.

And how, how the light and the life John's talking about here 2000 years later is

the fuel that fueled our own Monarch.

Yeah.

And, and how that, how that in itself came out in these very touching,

caring little stories as well as the, as well as the big stuff.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

See, there's not many people you can that you don't know and you can hear

stories of, but you do, um, realize that she know, this Jesus didn't.

She, she did know that she was gonna be with her, her savior.

Yeah.

Yeah.

With her king now.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you very much.

And thanks everyone for thank you, tuning in.

Thanks.

Um, and we'll see you next week.

Yeah, that's great.

Thank you.

Thanks everyone.

Thanks.

Good night.