Politics divides people like few other topics. We ask how people of faith should engage with the political world without losing themselves in it. A frank conversation about conviction, compromise, and keeping perspective when everyone is shouting.
01Should Your Faith Shape Your Politics?
It is one of those unwritten rules that most people absorb growing up: never mix religion and politics. Keep them in separate boxes. Church on Sunday, voting booth on Tuesday, and never the two shall meet.
Jenny Mariner, a secondary school history and politics teacher and member of Frontline Church in Liverpool, took that conventional wisdom and turned it on its head during this Crowd Church talk. Her argument, drawn from Mark chapter 12, was both direct and nuanced: your faith should absolutely shape your politics — but perhaps not in the way you might expect.
02The Trap That Still Works
The passage Jenny explored is one of the most well-known in the Gospels. Mark 12:13-17 describes a moment where the Pharisees and Herodians — two groups who normally had very little in common — teamed up to catch Jesus out. They approached him with flattery and then dropped their loaded question: "Is it right to pay the imperial taxes to Caesar or not?"
It was a perfect trap. If Jesus said yes, he would alienate the Jewish crowd who resented Roman occupation. If he said no, he could be reported to the Roman authorities for sedition. Either answer would damage him.
Jenny pointed out that this tactic has not gone away. "This is still something that happens to powerful figures today. Think about the US election that we've just had. People are asking questions in interviews, but it's not really about the answers. It's about trying to find ammunition. Can I get that sound bite which makes them look bad?"
Jesus saw through it immediately. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. He cut straight to the heart of their attitude rather than engaging with the surface-level question.
03Closed to Conversation
Jenny paused on that moment to make a broader observation about how people engage with political and social issues today. "Unfortunately, I think there are many today, especially online, who are coming from a similar position. We're actually closed to the idea of having a debate."
She highlighted the role of algorithms in reinforcing this. Search engines and social media platforms feed people content that aligns with what they have already shown interest in. The result is an echo chamber where "you hear a lot of the same bias, the same point of view, and you get this idea of everyone agrees with me. I must be right."
This applies to Christians too. "Even if you're a Christian watching this today, you can still fall into this trap of thinking that all other Christians must agree with you. And if they don't agree with you, then you're the one that's right and God's got something he needs to teach them."
The truth, Jenny suggested, is that committed Christians who love Jesus can and do hold different political views, vote for different parties, and prioritise different issues. The first challenge she laid down was simply this: are you open to conversation with people who think differently from you?
04Give to Caesar, Give to God
Jesus's answer to the tax question has echoed through two thousand years of political thought. He asked to see a coin, asked whose image was on it, and when they said Caesar's, he replied: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
Jenny unpacked the layers. On the surface, Jesus was saying pay your taxes. But there is a much bigger principle at work.
"I think he's actually saying we need to honour our government, even if we don't like them," Jenny said. "Do you know, the Roman government was a colonial oppressor. They believed in slavery. They believed in military expansion. They're ruling Israel because they've won wars. They're oppressive. And those taxes the taxes that Jesus is saying should be paid — they're going to fund all of that bad stuff."
Yet Jesus did not say withhold your taxes because the government is unjust. Instead, he drew a line of responsibility: "It's your responsibility to pay a tax. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. It's his responsibility before God what he then does with that money. That's how it works."
Paul reinforces this in Romans 13:7: "Give to everyone what you owe. If you owe taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, then revenue. If respect, then respect. If honour, then honour."
Jenny acknowledged how difficult this is. "What if I don't like Boris? What if I think he's wrong? What if I think he should be providing more for the people of our city?" The biblical position, she argued, is what she called "radical submission" — respecting the office of leadership even when you disagree with the person holding it. "We are to respect and honour the rank, if not the person."
05When Disobedience Is the Right Call
Jenny was careful not to present this as absolute. There are exceptions. "When following the government undermines you fulfilling the core principles of your faith, then I think you can disobey the government."
She pointed to Daniel, who refused to worship the ruler because it violated the commandments, and was thrown to the lions. She pointed to Christians in Nazi Germany who hid Jewish families or smuggled them out of the country, choosing "the higher value of life and protecting life over honouring a government that was clearly going against God's principles."
But she was equally clear that these are exceptions. "We're not facing murderous governments intent on genocide. Most of the time for us, it's more about being personally transformed and seeing the systems changed from within."
06What Has God's Image On It?
The second half of Jesus's statement — "give to God what is God's" — is where Jenny landed with the most force. If Caesar's image is on the coin and therefore the coin belongs to Caesar, then what has God's image on it?
"According to Genesis, the first book in the Bible, that is us. We human beings are made in God's image."
So if you must give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God, then Jesus is asking a much bigger question than whether or not to pay taxes. He is asking: is your whole life submitted to God?
"Jesus is saying that religion should absolutely be brought into politics. That you are called to use your body, your voice, your vote, your talents, your skills to stand up for God and his principles. And sometimes that will cause you to stand out from the crowd in an unpleasant way."
07Respectful and Radical at the Same Time
Jenny brought the talk home with what she called the most obvious example of this balance: Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
"He was deeply challenging to the government. He caused a change in the laws of the land in which he lived. And yet he always obeyed the laws." In his day-to-day life, King followed the racially segregated Jim Crow laws, even when they were humiliating and dehumanising. But he protested peacefully, persistently, and with enough moral force to reshape an entire nation.
"The point is that you can be respectful and radical at the same time," Jenny concluded.
08Four Challenges
Jenny closed with a recap that doubled as a call to action. First, examine your motives. Are you open to respectful conversation with people who disagree with you? Second, identify the biblical principle behind the issues that matter to you. Do not just have an opinion — understand why your faith leads you there. Third, respect and obey the government as a general rule, except in genuinely extreme circumstances. Fourth, if you are a Christian, recognise that your whole life — not just your Sunday mornings — belongs to God, and that includes how you engage with the political world around you.
"So, what is your issue?" Jenny asked. "What is the thing that makes you passionate? Maybe you want the government to do more to protect the environment. Maybe you think that there should be better funding for healthcare for the elderly. Or more support for children who are living in poverty. What's the biblical principle, and how can you use your gifts and talents to bring a change while still showing respect to the government?"
It is a question worth sitting with. What would it look like to be both deeply respectful and deeply challenging in the area that matters most to you?
Topics in this talk
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foreign hmm um my me so this well hello and welcome to crowd church there we go uh hi and welcome how you doing that kind of snuck on me a little bit quicker than i was expecting to not gonna lie um but there you go we'll get the intro nailed at some point i'm sure uh we are an online church for those that don't see the point of church but want to know more about jesus and how he can help us live a more meaningful life for those of you who don't know me my name is matt edmondson and i get to lead and pastor this amazing online church yes you heard that right we are an online church and why not right now it doesn't matter where we meet or how we meet just that we get together so it's really great that you're here with us thanks for joining us on line make sure you say how's it in the comments come say uh say hello let us know where you're watching this stream from be great to hear from you now i know many of you watching this are new to crowd right so just to give you a bit of context we are part of frontline church we're based in liverpool here in the uk and we are just here to inspire you about jesus and how amazing he is so please feel at home with us now if you are watching this live you can like i say join in using the comments below the live stream say hi let us know what you think ask your questions debate all of that good stuff uh all i'm gonna ask is that you just do it a little bit respectfully that's it right now if you are watching the replay of the live stream you can of course also use the comments as we do monitor them you can also message us using the whatsapp number in the corner of your screen and we especially love it when you send us your photos uh like send us your pictures of what you've been up to send us your videos let us know how you're watching this live stream what are you doing right now send us a picture just be aware that if you send them there is a strong chance i may well show them on the live stream not guaranteeing it but you know uh just be aware that if you send stuff in we may show it uh so just like i say send us a photo of where you are right now how are you watching this stream i'm giving you an excuse for a selfie so get straight into it uh as well as doing all of that why don't you give us a like comment or a share if you're happy to do so it's always great if you share the live stream out as it enables us to reach new folks around the world connect with new people we've connected with people recently as far away as california the philippines i mean some exotic places let me tell you so it's great to connect with new folks uh from around the world so do say hi okay so let me tell you what is coming up in today's uh church live stream in a few moments time we are gonna hear from the amazing jenny mariner and jenny is going to be sharing with us about politics and religion and should religion and politics mix together you're not going to want to miss this this is a great talk by jen who also happens to be as well as a christian she is an uh a history teacher and politics teacher so this is what she does day in day out so i'm looking forward to hearing her viewpoints on this especially given what has happened in the us of a recently right so uh do stick around for that after jenny has shared with us on religion and the two things that we should never ever talk about i was told as a kid and she's gonna talk about them in one one message uh after that we're gonna have a brief time of worship worship worth it worship which i will talk about uh more in a little bit after jenny has talked then we of course gonna have the catchup video uh where josh is gonna basically apologize to you uh that's that's what's gonna happen in this week's ketchup video and we're gonna aim to finish around quarter to five five o'clock somewhere around there but first if you have been to one of our streams before you may have noticed something that is a little bit different we have changed our name that's right we have changed it from frontline city to crowd church and i'm going to dig deep into why we've done this more next week so do stay connected with us as you you know as i'll jump into that a little bit more next week as to why we've done that but if you don't know our story we started off as a small church plant this time last year in the city of liverpool here in the city center we met in a coffee shop and so when we did that frontline city made an awful lot of sense right because we met in the city but then of course covid hits and changes everything including how we do church so we moved online we loved it and so over the last few months we've been trying to understand how to do digital church and as a result we've decided to stay as an online church so frontline city didn't really make sense anymore so we've changed the name to crowd church oh yes but as you would expect there is an awful lot more to this story which we are going to get into next week so do join us for that because there's some really great stuff coming up in that whole name change thing so let's see how's everybody getting on uh over here uh what's matt crew put here i'll do it okay so matt's offered to cut my hair for me um and i've said no and it's oh you've got to oh you've got your oven on that's why you're in a sauna okay fair play uh it's good that you're here matt it's good that every one of you is here like i said do come say hi in the comments and without further ado i am going to introduce to you jenny mariner now jenny mariner is a beautiful lady who is married to jack and jenny will explain jack uh if you've not met jack before he actually was on the live stream a couple months ago and jenny and jack marino have been members of frontline for as long as i can remember they're part of the leadership at frontline and jenny is just a beautiful beautiful lady who is always very very wise i always enjoy listening to what jenny has to say she always tackles the controversial topics very very well and this week is no exception as she's going to look at church and politics and how christians should uh let their faith shape their politics or should they even let their faith shape their politics all of that and more is coming up so uh grab your notebooks get yourself ready and welcome jenny mariner good afternoon my name is jenny it's an absolute pleasure to be with you this afternoon i've not contributed to this afternoon online service before so i thought i would start by giving you a little introduction to myself and i'm married to jack he was with you a couple of weeks ago he was talking about is it okay to be angry we've got two small children at home and i spend some of my time with them and when i'm not with them i'm also a secondary school history teacher so i teach a level politics as part of that and that is our segue into our topic for the day which is church and politics it's a famous mantra isn't it that you must never mix religion and politics that church and state should stay separate but as we look at mark today i want to suggest to you that religion that your faith should absolutely shape your politics your beliefs who you vote for how you interact with your government how you protest and so on so let's get started by reading from mark 12 verses 13 to 17 and it says later they sent some of the pharisees and herodians to catch jesus in his words they came to him and said teacher we know that you're a man of integrity you aren't swayed by others and you pay no attention to who they are but teach the way of god in accordance with the truth is it right to pay the imperial taxes to caesar or not should we pay or shouldn't we but jesus knew the hypocrisy why are you trying to trap me he asked bring me daenerys and let me look at it they brought him the coin and he asked them whose image is this and whose inscription on it caesar's they replied then jesus said to them give to caesar what is caesar's and to god what is god's and they were amazed okay so who are we talking about in this passage well first off you've got this group the herodians we don't know very much about they're only mentioned a handful of times in the bible but we do know about herod who was the king of the jews at the time and he's in direct conflict with jesus because you've got the current king of the jews and then someone who is being suggested as the messiah the savior of the jews so he sees jesus as a political threat so i'm here to take his power and these herodians are out to try and actually catch jesus to prove that he is a threat and then you've got the sanhedrin who sent them matt talked about the sanhedrin a couple of weeks ago and they're the religious authority in jerusalem so again you've got this conflict between people who have authority and jesus who speaks with authority their goal is to catch him to trap him out and to find an excuse to arrest him and to execute him do you know this is still something that happens to powerful figures today think about the u.s election that we've just had people are asking questions in interviews but it's not really about the answers it's about trying to find ammunition sometimes can i get that sound bite which makes them look bad which will make it to the evening news can we knock them off their pedestal depopularize them exactly the same thing is happening here and jesus knows what's going on he's not soft he wasn't born yesterday he says to them why are you testing me he cut right to the core of their attitude rather than their actual question why are you testing me what's going on in your heart he knows that actually no matter what he says they're not really interested in having a discussion with him and unfortunately i think there are many today especially online where who are coming from a similar position we're actually closed to the idea of having a debate did you know that if you get a lot of your news and information online then there are actually like algorithms in most like search engines social media browsers and so on that are feeding you things that link to ideas or what you've already been interested in they want to do that to keep you online to advertise to you but the the kind of side effects of that is that you hear a lot of the same the same bias the same point of view and you get this idea of what everyone agrees with me i must be right like anyone who doesn't agree with me well they're an idiot aren't they in fact i want to suggest that even if you're a christian watching this today you can still fall into this trap of thinking that all other christians must agree with you and if they don't agree with you then you're the one that's right and god's got something he needs to teach them the truth is that within any group even within christians you find people who support different views who vote different ways for different reasons i said that i was going to say how your faith should impact the way you vote and i do think it should um and you know we'll get onto more of that later but i would never actually dream of telling you how to vote because i think you get christians committed christians who love jesus as members of all different political parties voting for all different political parties it depends on what issues are most important to them on the figures and leaders at the time on maybe their interpretation of scripture on certain issues and i just want to challenge us to to be open-minded to that to be open to discussion with people okay that's your point of view you voted for that person why let's have a conversation about that let's think about engaging and understanding someone's reasons rather than just trying to catch them out so there you go that's my first political challenge how do you respond to people that are different to them to you sorry do you respect them for thinking differently do you want to have a great political debate or do you just want to hear people bounce back at you what you already think do you just want to see people that you disagree with trip and fall and be humiliated that certainly is not jesus's attitude yeah he calls them out he says why are you trying to trap me but then he does actually engage in the conversation with them he's happy to talk to them he answers their question so how does he answer their question well he takes the issue out of the political debate and he applies a biblical godly principle the way god's kingdom works in the world god's way of doing things and i think that's what we need to do in our politics they say should we pay our taxes or shouldn't we this was a huge topic a massively controversial question the sort of question that could start riot stop paying caesar his taxes what questions are like that today for us think about covid guidelines should we follow the guidelines should we go further than the guidelines should we are they should we do less we think they're too controlling we should do less what about abortion do we support abortion do we campaign against it what about the nhs does it matter if it's privatized or europe should we be in or out of europe there's loads and it's easy to give an answer jesus could have just said yes pay your taxes but he knew the issue wasn't exactly the issue and he uses the opportunity to teach god's perspective on things he says whose image is this on the coin whose inscription caesars they replied and jesus said to them give back to caesar what is caesar's he's answering with a let's take a huge issue today like abortion you could say to me do you agree with abortion and i could just say well to be honest on the whole no i don't that's an answer but it's quite close there's no discussion there's no value there's no explanation or i could say well firstly the bible tells us that life is from god and that i should do whatever i can to protect that and secondly the bible tells me that we should speak up for the vulnerable and the marginalized and those who can't speak for themselves so in the issue of abortion yes i believe a woman has a right to their body but i would say that that unborn baby is the vulnerable one who can't speak to themselves and actually i would agree with defending the right of that unborn baby and allow it life where that's possible and reasonable it's a more long-winded answer but it explains and it gives a biblical value jesus gives the biblical principle give to caesar's what it sees us okay so he's saying we should pay our taxes but like so what most of us do that anyway right but i think why this passage is quite well known and quite common is that there is a wider principle here that jesus is getting at that in fact most of the time with most things we need to obey the law of the land in which we live in fact brace yourselves for this one i think he's actually saying we need to honor our government even if we don't like them do you know the roman government was a colonial oppressor they believe in slavery they believe in military expansion uh they're ruling israel because they've won wars they're oppressive and those taxes the taxes that jesus is saying should be paid they're going to fund all of that bad stuff that uh that rome is doing but jesus doesn't say do you know what it's okay because they're a bad government so don't pay your taxes because your taxes are going on bad things what he says is it's your responsibility to pay a tax give to caesar what he sees as it's his responsibility before god what he then does with that money that's how it works and there's a verse in romans 13 verse 7 that backs it up it says give to everyone what you owe if you owe taxes pay taxes if revenue then revenue if respect then respect if honor then honor so this verse in romans is actually going further and saying that only should we obey the government we should also respect them and honor them ouch if you don't like if you don't think they're worthy of respect and honor then ouch what if i don't like boris what if i think he's wrong what if i think he should be providing more for the people of our city what about the families around me who don't have anything well jesus is saying we are called to radical submission obeying the government giving them our respect and our honor because they are leaders and they have been put into these positions of power and authority that is quite counter-cultural isn't it where most people are doing the best they can to pull down authority figures and point out what's wrong with them the bible's saying honour them show them respect pray for them pray that god changes their mind about policies if you want to pray for the person in position of leadership cry out for them but actually and i heard this once and i think it's it kind of cuts to the heart here it says we are to respect and honor the rank if not the person ultimately we must we submit to and respect our leaders whoever they are okay so i'm going to submit to them i'm going to respect them because they're our leaders are there any exceptions to that are there any times when we can disobey our government well yeah i think that there are when following the government undermines you fulfilling the core principles of your faith then i think you can disobey the government if you look at the story of daniel he did not bow down and worship the ruler because he wanted to worship god he didn't want to violate the ten commandments and that caused him to be thrown to the lions didn't it or what about nazi germany when you had christians hiding jews away or smuggling them out of the country again those people were choosing i would say the higher value of life and protecting life over honoring a that was uh clearly going against god's principles but the reality is that these are exceptions we're not facing murderous governments intent on genocide most of the time for us it's more about being personally transformed and seeing the systems changed from within so most of the time you need to honor and respect your government and obey the law of the land in which you live but you know what jesus goes even further because he says give to caesar what he sees as but then he says and give to gods what is god's so think about it what has god's image on it well according to genesis the first book in the bible that is us we human beings are made in god's image so if you've got to give to caesar what it seizes and give to god what is god's that means that jesus is saying is your whole life submitted to god so jesus is calling out their motives he's answering their question with a biblical value and then he's saying are you submitted to god or are you just about obeying him but actually doing the best you can to assimilate into the society that's around you people often say that religion should be left out of politics but i think that jesus is saying that religion should absolutely be bought into politics that you are called to use your body your voice your vote your talents your skills to stand up for god and his principle his principles and sometimes that will cause you to stand out from the crowd in an unpleasant way and sometimes that will bring change for the good in our society take my view on abortion right it's not culturally popular part of me didn't even want to admit it online even in like a church context like this but what i was suggesting what i was saying is my interpretation of scripture is based on a biblical value and actually god is saying no you need to stand up and speak out for what you believe is right so now you might be a little bit confused because i'm saying on the one hand you need to obey the law of respect and on your government but on the other hand you need to use all your gifts and talents and skills to speak out for god's kingdom and for the truth can you do both okay so i where i want to bring this into land is to suggest that you can absolutely can show honor and respect to your government while also being deeply challenging and i think the most obvious example of that that all of us know of is dr martin luther king with his civil rights protest in the 50s and 60s he was deeply challenging to the he caused a change in the laws of the land in which he lived and yet he always obeyed the laws i mean if you know about the details of the civil rights protests then when they were doing things like the sit-ins black and white people eating at the same restaurant or the freedom rides where black and white people are on the same bus then those particular organized protests were actually breaking jim crow laws but in martin luther king junior's day-to-day life he followed those racially segregated laws even when they were humiliating even when they were dehumanizing for him personally and he protested in as peaceful and as honoring way as he possibly could and as i said he brought around major change and he's still famous for the powerful way that he did stand up to inequality so the point is that you can be respectful and radical at the same time so what is your issue why don't you type it in the comments now what is the thing that makes you passionate maybe you want the government to do more to protect the environment maybe you think that there should be better funding for health care for the elderly or more support for children who are living in poverty and lacking in food what's your issue what is the biblical and how can you use your gifts and talents to bring a change while still showing respect to the government just because they're the government so i'm coming i've come into land now but i want to just recap what i've gone through firstly what is your motive are you open to conversation are you able to be respectful of those around you who don't agree with you two what is the biblical principle on the issues that are important to you three always be respectful of the government and follow the laws of the land in which you live apart from in really extreme circumstances before if you're a christian if you've said god i want you to be in charge of my life then is your life fully submitted to him how can you stand up and be an agent for change even political change in our country so i hope that somewhat answers that question that absolutely religion and politics should mix they have um a lot to do with one another i hope that's interesting like i said do put your comments below and it's been an absolute pleasure to be with you thank you wasn't that fantastic thank you so much for doing that jen that was jen's first talk with us here at crowd and it was it was brilliant that she was she was willing to do that so thank you so much for coming and talking to us about politics really really good really helpful really clarifying i don't know what you found out about about what you found out i don't know what you thought about that uh but i thought that was a great talk um about that and very very challenging uh no nonsense right you've you've got to think it through you've got to think it uh think about what uh what jen said so what about you what was your takeaway from that talk what did you get out of it what do you what are you chewing on right now even if you're not a christian right what what are you kind of thinking about and if you are a christian where have you been challenged because yeah it's a challenging thing right to get into this kind of thing so uh do have a little bit of a think about that as we go into our time of worship now if you're new to the stream what we do after the talk is we we play a song we play a worship song it's going to go into a time of what we call worship now you may not want to sing along which is fine uh if it's safe to do so and you want to you're more than welcome to sing along and the lyrics will be on the screen um but wherever you're at in your faith journey we're just going to use this time now to either think about the songs of the songs the words of the song or we're going to think about the words which jenny has talked about and just chew on it and mullet and just give it space to breathe in our thinking what do you think about it what were the takeaways of that now the song that we're going to do now the song that we're going to play the worship track is called the lion and the lamb and let me give you a bit of context about this song uh it talks about the second coming of jesus and when he comes back the second time we get this amazing picture uh in the bible of the whole world being like transformed in an instant right every king every kingdom will see him and be left in no uncertain doubt that he is the returning king that he is king jesus right we're just gonna know and ultimately uh the bible talks about how we will all bow down before him in other words we will all see that actually our own power our own uh accomplishments whatever they are will not be anywhere near to the magnitude which he had every single sort of sort of bow down into into worship because it will just pale into insignificance do you see what i mean and we're going to have to stand before him and give an account for our lives because we're all going to see him and this song talks about kings and kingdoms bowing down but also individuals and the song uses two animal metaphors to describe jesus in the song which is worth knowing about the first one is the lamb jesus is a lamb now in the old testament uh the lamb would be sacrificed for the sins of the person so a person would commit sin or commit wrongdoing throughout the year and they would go to the temple and they would sacrifice a lamb and the lamb would symbolically take the sin and the punishment for that person upon it and that's why it had to be sacrificed because the ultimate punishment for sin was death and that is what jesus did for us right so scripture talks about him being the lamb uh the lamb of god and he talks about how jesus took upon himself our sin and he paid the penalty for that sin everything that we did wrong he died right but we know he didn't just die we know he rose from the dead and so the second picture this song uses is a picture of a lion the exact opposite of a lamb right not a meek mild little lamb no no the lion is fierce and it is a king and everybody knows it and jesus is both the sacrifice but he is also the conquering king and as we think about politics and as we get in into this sort of line of thinking i find it's always very good just to center my thoughts on the fact that actually it doesn't matter who the prime minister is or isn't or who the king or queen is or isn't what matters is that jesus is still lord so as we sing this song uh like i say just just mull on the words sing along if you can do and i'll be back when it's finished he's coming on the clouds kings and kingdoms will bow down every chain will break as broken hearts declare his praise for who can stop the lord o almighty our god is the lion the lion of judah he's roaring with power and fighting our battles every knee will bow be for him our god is the lamb fill out that was slain for the sin of the world his blood breaks the chains and every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb and every knee will bow be for him open up the gates make way before the of kings the god who comes to save is here to set the captives free for who can stop the lord almighty he's roaring with power and fighting our battles every knee will bow be for hair our god is the lamb below that was slain for the sin of the world his blood breaks the chains and every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb o everyday will be lord almighty you can stop the lord almighty you can stop the lord you can stop the lord almighty you can stop the lord o my team you can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord he's roaring with power and fighting our battles every knee will bow before our god is the lamb the lion that was slain for the sin of the world his blood breaks the chains forever [Applause] this well what a great song thanks again jonathan grace for doing that uh it's a really powerful song isn't it talking about jesus being the lion and the lamb the all-conquering king and just remembering that when it comes to the politics of of our of our world and of our nation right and just sort of thinking that through so uh what did you guys put in the comments whatever your takeaways are write them in there now let's have a look at what you guys think uh what did matt put here trust in god in all decisions put your thoughts to him in prayer very very good uh very true uh very true sharon says thanks for the talk jen dave says thanks for talking all very good uh very very powerful to i'd i must have heard that talk three or four times because i actually edited this video so we had to put the little slides and stuff in there just get something out of it every time i watch it not gonna lie great video and i think very very needed in the church today to understand politics especially when politics is such a divisive issue and jen did touch on that you know we're not we're not looking for ammunition here uh we're looking for ways to you know bring change and bring unity uh rather than division anyway uh so i'll tell you what i'm gonna do now uh as you guys are just finishing up typing i am gonna bring on josh with this week's catch up and then i will be back in just a few seconds i'm looking for the little button on my pad here which i actually turned on this week thanks for a reminder uh so here's josh for catch up hello and welcome to this week's sunday catch up for those of you who don't know me allow me to introduce myself my name is josh edmondson i am a student at the university of saint andrews studying theoretical physics for those of you who never watched the stream before or are new here welcome we love having you it's great to to virtually see you here let me just quickly explain what catchup is so catch up is that part of the stream where we look at videos sent in from members of the community just so that we get to see what everyone's been getting up to throughout the week now before we get any further let me deal with the elephant in the room i know that some of you are probably thinking josh what on earth is that on your face i know i know it's pretty bad it's this is like three weeks of me trying incredibly hard to grow a bid and it's just not happening me and a couple of my friends right decided that we would do this whole no shave november thing just for just for a joke we've done it the past few years this year it was no different we were like okay let's do this whole night shave november thing and so this is this is the result and i do apologize but i figured you know if there's a time to try and grow any semblance of facial hair it would probably be at university outside of the range of my mum and dad's tweezers because i did not fancy having each hair plucked out of my face one by one this week has been it's been a pretty normal week i think i'm getting closer now to the end of semester one i've actually only got one week of teaching left and then it's sort of exam prep and then exams so yeah this this this whole semester has just flown by but today is a special day some of you might know why if you don't it's my birthday today happy birthday me to take a leaf out of the book of matt crew but that's enough from me let's get on to this week's catch-up videos so i'm in town seeing a client start cycling home get to the liverpool empire in liverpool if you know it tire blows out so i've now spent the last half an hour walking home probably got another 20 25 minutes to go hashtag first wall problems right and despite all the noise and the traffic it's actually quite a pleasant walk had to reschedule a few meetings but you know what we're still happy and smiling so zoe what have you been up to this week absolutely nothing been stuck in my room from with isolation you're not with isolation in isolation now i'm just studying for a test that i just found out about so today is our josh's birthday 19th birthday and the first one he's not spent with us so happy birthday josh so we've made these brownies for you which we will eat later in celebration there's one here for you but it will probably go off by the time you arrive so i might have to great thank you very much for sending those in i love watching the catch-up videos we love watching the catch-up videos so please please please please send in your catch-up videos to the whatsapp number that you will have seen throughout this service honestly i do really enjoy seeing all the catch-up videos that you send in and i would love to have a bit more of a diverse selection of ketchup videos to put into this video that's all from me i hope you have a fantastic week and i will catch you next time very good thank you sir now there was one video that i forgot to send to you josh and that's my bad and that's partly because it didn't come through on the system until after you've done all the catch-up stuff and that's this one from mr matt crew let me play this catch-up video that was missed sausages food sausages ah dear i'm just wetting myself laughing as matt singing about the sausages oh that was brilliant and you know what i loved in that catcher video it is josh's birthday let me play this i don't know if you can hear that um i'm hoping you can right so it is josh's birthday today uh happy birthday to you josh and i love the fact that in that montage your mum sent you a photo of a video of brownies which zoe made for your birthday which you're not going to get to eat so i thought the jazz version of happy birthday would be appropriate oh yes happy birthday so happy birthday to you son and many many more now uh it is keone's birthday coming up this week uh keone is going to turn 18. so happy birthday to you keone i know a few of you have celebrated your birthday this week i was just frantically looking on facebook to find out whose birthdays it was and i can't find it for whatever reason so if it is your birthday this week and in the coming week happy birthday this is for you a little bit of jazz oh yeah anyway i could play that all day long it's just so cool isn't it uh so let me tell you what is coming up next week and in the next few weeks because you're not going to want to miss what's going on next week like i say i'm going to be talking about crowd uh let me just turn that happy birthday there we go next week we're going to be looking at crowd and why we've called the church crowd and what what we're expecting to happen what what we plan on doing and all that sort of stuff so that's going to be really really interesting do come and join us for that really really psyched about what's going on here and really excited by it so we'll talk more about that next week the following week is the 6th of december which makes it the first weekend of december oh yes so let's have a bit of a christmas jingle i feel like a radio presenter with all this music going on in the background uh the first weekend of december notoriously my household and i we've gone out and bought christmas tree and that's the weekend we put our christmas decorations up and we start to celebrate christmas the good news is that celebration we are bringing to crowd oh yes we are so on the 6th of december we will be starting our christmas series so on the 6th of december we will have um a season of dreams by the amazing phil watson followed by a season of joy which malcolm trish morgan uh are going to be doing for us they're going to be speaking at um and then after that we are going to be having a christmas the final one just before christmas is called a season of hope now very own john harding is going to be doing that so we've got some amazing speakers phil is just brilliant and very very funny malcolm trish are just some of the loveliest people uh you will ever meet on the face of the planet genuinely lovely lovely people and john is just you know john's cool he's just quintessentially cool isn't he and so we've got some great speakers and sally birch and i will be leading the christmas services we're gonna have games for kids uh we're gonna have all kinds of madness and craziness going on as we usually do around christmas so you definitely going to want to connect with those put the dates in your diaries invite your friends along do watch parties do whatever it is that you do and come and have some christmas festive fun we'll sing carols and we'll do all the usual christmas stuff that we do so do come and join us for those really can't wait because you know i'm starting to get in the christmas spirit i don't know about you i'm starting to feel a little bit festive now uh now we've sort of got through uh josh's birthday we can start to think about christmas which is how it works in their house so i hope you're gonna join us for those uh what's matt put here what a great service day thanks everyone remain blessed no thank you uh dave wrote i am thankful for the men and women god has called and placed to serve in politics at local and national levels that's very very true um you know the bible tells us to pray for our government and it tells us to pray for our government before we complain about it just want to put that out there uh we've had enough of clever people without a conscience now let us see what honest god-fearing men and women will do i might be robbing a quote here that would be really unlike you dave if you did do that but no very very true and uh i if you do serve in politics and in the political arena whether it's national uh whether it's local whether it's in our nation and other people's nations god bless you i appreciate it is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world to do and we do pray for you and very very grateful for your service to the public so keep on doing that anything else that i can i'm just scanning through all the comments here uh dave also wrote i think einstein said those that believe in polit those who believe that politics and religion do not mix understand neither which i thought was a great quote i like that quote so absolutely i hope that's i hope i've quoted that right actually now put it on there uh excellent choices for christmas preachers yes absolutely they uh it's gonna be good it is gonna be good i'm looking forward to phil watson's talk i'm not gonna lie he's such a legend such a funny fella so yeah really really looking forward to that okay so it is 4 48 i think that's basically everything from us i hope you've enjoyed today's service hope you've connected with god hope you've got a lot out of it on the website on the new website crowd.church you can go on there and there is a place where you can put your uh prayer request so if you do have a prayer request if there's anything you would like us to pray for just go onto the website fill out that form and we will pray for you or text us on this number in the corner of the screen uh or just add it to the comments if you don't mind it being public we would love to pray for you especially if you have never really encountered christ before and you need well you just need god to do something be great to meet him wouldn't it and we just uh we would just enjoy praying for you so do fill in the form on the website text us on this number here or get in touch with us by email however you want to do it we would just love to hear from you and connect with you and pray for you if we can so make sure you do that make sure you come back next week as we carry on looking at how jesus totally inspires us and how really he is how he really is the key to living a meaningful life god bless you have a great week wherever you are and we will see you again
