Planning for 2021 - two key life goals to focus on (Part One)

foreign shepherds why this jubilee why your joyous strange problem what the gladsome tidings mean oh hey do see him in the mingling whom the cross of angels praise mary joseph lend your weight while our hearts in love we race is still oh jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride in the one horse open sleigh dashing through the snow in the one horse open sleigh over the fields we go laughing all the way bells on bog bogtail's ring making spirits bright what fun it is to laugh and sing a slaying song tonight oh jingle bells jingle bells jingle a one horse open sleigh one horse open sleigh a day or two ago i thought i'd take a ride and soon this fanny bright was seated by my side misfortune seemed as loud we got into a drifted bag and then we got upside one horse open ye um joyful and triumphant calm me come here come and behold him born the king of angels come let us adore him come let us adore him in christ sing choirs of angels sing in exultation sing all your citizens of heaven about glory to god in the highest christ lord so all the word of the father now in flesh appearing come let us [Applause] um me hello and welcome to crowd church for those of you who are new to our live stream my name is sharon edmondson and i'm part of the crowd team we're part of frontline church in liverpool and we're here for those who aren't sure about god or faith but who'd like to find out more during our christmas services we talked about the peace and joy that god brings and i hope that you experience some of that over christmas no matter what your christmas look like this year why not send us a photo now of what you've been up to over christmas you can send your photos to the number that you can see on the screen and we'll put them up for everyone to see if you don't have any christmas photos i think we took about one photo you could take a photo now of one of your christmas presents or a photo of how you're watching the live stream please do comment throughout the livestream in the comments section and feel free to share your thoughts whether you agree with what's being said or whether you disagree we just ask that you are respectful so let me tell you what's happening in our live stream today before our christmas services throughout december we were working our way through the book of mark from the bible and today matt will be continuing with this and he'll be looking at how jesus told some religious people that they were making a serious mistake and he'll be looking at how we can learn from this going forward into 2020 then we're going to play the carol joy to the world after that josh will be back with your catch-up photos and videos and we'll finish around 4 50 with the song old langzine well good afternoon welcome to crowd churches sharon said uh it's great that you could join let me just there we go it's great that you could join us my name is matt edmondson and uh merry christmas i hope you've been having a good christmas week how's it been going for you do let us know we've got some really great photos actually coming up uh later in the catch-up video but let's like sharon said uh do send us your photos now i'm hoping the glitching has stopped we did have a few glitches as we were getting ready then i'm not quite sure what was going on but you know it's christmas so hopefully it's resolved itself you know fingers crossed works at christmas it's a good business strategy just crossing your fingers okay so uh we're gonna get straight into the talk this week i am without my co-host sally who's uh not with us this week so sal if you're watching merry christmas we'll miss we miss having you on the stream uh and this week we are going to get into mark's gospel right we're going to get straight back into it so without further ado uh let's roll the intro i'm just going to line it up here on my screen let's roll the intro and we're gonna get straight into the talk so if you are here for the first time do join in with the comments if you're regular definitely join in with the comments i'll be in there it'll be great to see you uh in the comments let's get into mark's gospel okay so i have a question have you ever seen anyone make a serious mistake but whilst they were making that mistake they thought they were doing entirely the right thing let's take a look at an example now you can see what's coming right i mean so much so you can't stop watching can you you kind of matt why have you interrupted it let's let's have a look at the rest think what you want to think about this guy uh he had a job to do right and here's the thing he thought he was doing the right thing he thought he was approaching it the right way now we can see what's going to happen from the outside we can see this guy is making a serious mistake and of course we knew the roof would collapse in on him as a result but he didn't and we've all seen this in various ways haven't we in life somehow metaphorically the roof has kind of caved in on us in some way or another because of some errors that we made now in today's story from mark's gospel jesus is actually going to explain how we can easily end up being that guy if we're not careful jesus is going to talk about two specific pillars that we should be aware of not knocked down so the whole roof doesn't you know metaphorically cave in on us so let's carry on our conversation about and we read that jesus was approached by some sadducees now the sadducees were religious leaders they were educated and smart and because of because of that right even though they identified as being jewish they discounted some of the key jewish teachings for example it says in scripture sadducees religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead okay so this is one of those teachings that they didn't have identify with they didn't believe in life after death they didn't think that was part of god's plan now you know i'm no i'm no expert but that's a pretty big part of the jewish faith right but they chose not to believe it and this is interesting to me because today i think we kind of have the same thing happening right uh we have folks who will say for example that they are a christian but then disagree with some of the significant teachings of the christian faith such as the resurrection of christ or miracles and like the sadducees i think we do this because we don't like or agree with some of the teachings right and we think we know better we think we've got a better answer now i'm going to be totally straight with you as we are entering 2021 uh you're not going to like everything about the teachings of scripture you're not going to like everything that jesus talks or teaches about right and in fact jesus actually says we'll be offended uh with some of these teachings now how do we resolve this then how do people resolve this kind of offense or not agreeing or not liking a particular issue how do we resolve this dilemma well there are a number of ways one is the obvious people just walk away from the right but one of the most subtle things that i've seen uh which i find quite extraordinary both in my own life and and you know i'm not exempt here is that we find ways to adapt the teaching to make it more palatable palatable to our own life theory do you mean and one of the ways that we can justify doing this to ourselves is to be to become smart basically to use our education and use logical and you know on the face of it at least reasonable arguments or even riddles as to why the scripture or teaching is wrong and this is exactly what we see the sadducees doing right they go to jesus and they pose this question teacher moses gave us a law that if a man dies leaving a wife without children his brother should marry his widow and have a child who would carry on the brother's name so here's their problem right they they've got this scripture they don't understand it because it doesn't tarry with their idea of the resurrection right there's a disconnect so now they've got a riddle okay and here is their riddle well suppose there were seven brothers the oldest one married and then died without children so the second brother married the widow but he also died without children then the third brother married her this continued with all seven of them and still there were no children last of all the woman also died so tell us whose wife will she be in the resurrection for all seven were married to her that's an interesting riddle right especially if you don't think the resurrection is going to happen you kind of like well this argument kind of doesn't make sense how can this possibly happen therefore the resurrection doesn't work so this is their riddle that they're using to sort of justify their thinking right but here's the thing they reach the only conclusion possible to them right i don't understand it it doesn't make sense therefore it cannot be true now let me tell you i have lots of questions when i read the bible i struggle with some of the theology i find some of it i'm not going to lie well it's a little bit difficult to get your head around like why should i forgive my enemies well that doesn't make sense on the face of it it doesn't make sense why should i love everyone especially when i really don't like everyone right these are things these are teachings that i don't think are particularly easy to hear and you know what let's just park it here because i think when we have these questions i think it's okay i think we all have them and it's okay to have the questions and i think god can handle our questions and our doubts and our fears and our insecurities i think he enjoys it when we ask them and wrestle with them and search out the answers now other christians might struggle with this but god i think is okay but here's the thing right what i shouldn't do or what i hope i don't do is think to myself you know what i don't understand this therefore it cannot be true you see that would put way too much faith in my own intellectual abilities and not enough faith in the idea that maybe god is actually smarter than me that maybe there are things that i don't understand that maybe there is a god with infinite understanding and is therefore likely to have done stuff and said stuff that my finite brain doesn't yet know for example i am using a canon 90d to record this talk right i maybe get a little bit of the basics of cameras i do not get digital cameras at all but just because i don't understand it doesn't mean i don't have to believe that it works right of course i believe that it works hence the reason i'm using it so this logic of the sadducees just doesn't kind of make sense to me right this kind of i don't understand it therefore i don't agree with it and because i am smart and educated and can think of a riddle to prove why i'm thinking what i'm thinking is right confirmation bias therefore it cannot be true right so what did jesus think of their riddle was he stumped by was he caught out by it did he go you know what i never thought of it that way mr sadducee you are right no no you can see where i'm going can't you jesus actually replied to them your mistake your mistake is that i mean ouch what a way to start a sentence he just comes out and says it you are mistaken i mean there's no gentle break-in or anything he's just like bam there it is jesus is in fact telling him that they have been deceived that they have gone astray or wandered from the truth they have made a mistake that's what the word mistake means just kind of just you know wander away this isn't pleasant to hear no one likes to hear that they're mistaken do they but the sadducees did need to hear it i wonder if sometimes i need to hear it so what was their mistake and this for me is where it gets really really interesting jesus replied your mistake is that you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of god i mean this is on the face of it a very simple statement to make but actually is incredibly helpful for us when we have questions right uh that when we when we're looking for answers start with understanding the scriptures and follow on with understanding the power of god really really straightforward principle but why why these two things so let's start with the scriptures or the bible or as it's often referred to the word of god what do you think about the bible what is your opinion the bible now many folks around the world think that it is actually the inspired word of god whilst others have questions about the relevance the origins and the authority of scripture was it written by men or god or both there's lots of questions right but just about everyone acknowledges that the bible has been more influential on humanity and is still the most studied text in the world and in our study of scripture i think we can easily become like the sadducees in in today's story which is to basically take those bits of scripture that tie into our our own personal life philosophy but ignore the others or even worse denigrate those parts that we don't agree with now i know for me it is much easier to talk to people about the acceptance of god about the love of god because these are amazing topics it is a little bit harder to talk about sin and the fallen state of mankind because they're not very sexy are they but the trouble is you can't really understand the love of god without understanding the fallen nature of man so i need both now full disclosure here at crowd guiding principles is simply this we want to bring accessible but uncompromising theology now this just means that we love god's word we really want to understand what it means for us in today's society we believe the bible is the inspired word of god and that in the pages of scripture jesus is actually revealed right now given that our mission is to ins about jesus uh we are going to have to look at scripture to do that because that is where he's revealed as i said every week we're going to dig into it like today we're going to present a view or an idea will love for you to make up your own decisions uh make your own mind up but you know my job here is to make it inspiring my job here is to make it accessible and just present to you at jesus okay uh we want to do it in a way that encourages debate and allows you to ask your questions and bring your contributions which i know many of you do in the comments or via whatsapp or via the forms on the website or even by email right and as a church we are definitely going to tackle some of the bigger questions around the bible and around the christian teaching right we're going to look more on comfortable topics some recent ones include mixing religion and politics and and talks like forgiveness i mean these aren't easy things to hear or to talk about so here's the principle right that we can learn from the sadducees this is the one thing that i think they got right in this whole conversation when they had a question about the scripture they went to jesus to get now granted you would say these guys went to catch jesus out you know so when we do go to jesus with our questions um just be prepared for the answer that he gives right but this is a principle go to jesus without questions let him give us the answer just be prepared for it have i spent the time necessary to understand what the bible really has to say about something and here's the question right once i have done that am i prepared to submit to it if i don't like it that is what we call a mic drop moment because it's very difficult to do especially in the culture in which we live and the philosophy certainly in the west that we carry okay so jesus goes on here your mistake is that you don't know the scriptures and you do not know the power of god four when the dead rise they will neither marry nor be given in marriage in this respect they will be like the angels in heaven but now as to whether the dead will be raised haven't you ever read about this in the writings of moses in the story of the burning bush long after abraham isaac and had died god said to moses i am the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob so he is in fact the god of the living and not the dead you have made a serious error wow wow okay so here's the answer to that riddle right jesus reveals the actual truth of see the sadducees just took one verse concentrated on that one verse and took it out of context and jesus paints it in the whole context of scripture there's something that we can learn right he tells the sadducees that in fact the dead will rise that there is in fact a resurrection of what is going to happen in the resurrection so we know that jesus believes that there is going to be a resurrection he believes in life after death right and jesus also refers to moses he refers to scriptures and so we know what jesus thinks about that and the authority he places on them okay so if if this is the first principle that jesus gives us on how to avoid a serious mistake you know from wandering off or going astray or even being deceived to know or understand the scriptures what is the second one that jesus mentions jesus says your mistake is that you don't know the scriptures and and you do not know the power of god now this is interesting for me why would jesus say this i get right that he would say that they have misunderstood the i can get my head around that right because that's kind of obvious but why would he mention that they know the power of god that intrigues me because i think if you i mean fundamentally if you can sort of make the power of god disappear the rest of it just doesn't make sense does it i think the power of god is one of those things that people find the most offensive if honest with you and it seems like the sadducees didn't think that god was powerful the whole afterlife thing they didn't kind of go we've got an issue here with this seven brothers thing how does that even work i don't understand it therefore it can't be true but maybe what they should have said was i don't understand it but fundamentally is god powerful enough to make this work somehow yes he is okay now when we start to pick and choose scripture like the sadducees i think it's he begin to deny the power of god you know like jesus kind of stops walking on water and we start to tell the world that it was just a mirage or jesus didn't really feed the five thousand no no uh god didn't really split the red sea and it fascinates me how people try and explain away the power of god you see walking on water is not a problem when you consider the power of god if the paragraph this is not a big issue is it if our god can create worlds with just his words then walking on water is definitely not a problem let me tell you it's only a problem when we don't know or don't understand or start to deny the resurrection becomes eminently believable when you consider it in the light of the power of god right so let's look at things that the bible tells us about the and we will see why understanding the is really really a good thing to do the apostle paul who wrote quite a bit of the new testament he wrote to the church in rome uh in romans chapter one i am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power god that brings salvation to everyone who believes the gospel is the power of god that brings salvation or health or deliverance or wellness or even wholeness is a pretty good word to us who believe do you want to be whole do you want to be a whole complete person nothing missing nothing broken well the good news of jesus the power of god that brings that wholeness to you that's the gospel i mean we could just park on this all day literally it's incredible peter one of the disciples of jesus we often read about certainly in the gospel of mock he wrote in his letter to the church in ii peter he said grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of god and of our lord jesus christ and divine power has given to us all things all things that pertain to life and godliness in other words the good news of jesus the gospel is the power of god that brings us salvation and wholeness by giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness his power has given us all things that we need to end and live a meaningful life now let me ask you does that sound like a pretty good deal because you know what it sure does to me i didn't earn it i don't deserve it but that's the gospel god did it anyway i just have to believe i mean that's incredible right that's nice now notice that's the understatement of the of the year yeah well done now notice the link that peter highlights between the knowledge of god and the power of god he draws that link in this passage and i wonder if peter is remembering this conversation that jesus is having with the sadducees when he writes this because the knowledge of god well that comes from scripture right understanding the scriptures that's where god is revealed he is linking scriptures and knowing the power of god cheers peter thanks for nicely bringing this all back to me back together for me so we can wrap this up so there is a reason right uh we teach the uh uncompromising but accessible theology we want to understand the scriptures we want to understand jesus we want to be inspired about jesus but also we understand the power of god and what that means and what that means for us and how it relates to us and the mission that god has given to us you know to live that meaningful life which is why every week we are going to ask if there is anything that you would like prayer for it's our way as a digital church as a digital community to connect with the power of god uh so if you would like us to pray whether or not you're a christian regardless of what you have or haven't done in life then do let us know through the comments through the whatsapp or through the website just click the try prayer link at crowd.church we would love to pray for you okay so it's just good stuff when we do so uh let's bring it back to this conversation with the sadducees jesus by uh saying to the sadducees you have made a serious error right i mean a serious error it's a pretty clear blunt and to the point statement isn't it i mean fundamentally the sadducees were twisting ideas and theology they wanted scripture to marry up to their life philosophy they didn't they didn't see the need for the trip to god's thinking for them to go you know what god perhaps knows better they didn't see their need for a savior and herein lies the warning to us let's learn from this and not make this serious error as we enter 2021 it's a good place to start as we go into the new year lord help me understand this year scriptures like i never have done help me this year to understand the power of god like i have never done before you see at the start of the talk we watched a guy cave a roof in on himself and when we depart from the truth of the scriptures when we depart from the gospel and start to deny the power of god we become like that guy knocking the pillars down one pillar is truth truth of the gospel the scriptures are known the scriptures the other is knowing the power of god and we start to knock them down and chip in them until eventually metaphorically the roof caves in on us and we realize somehow in some way we have made a so let's not be that guy let's learn from the sadducees and work hard to understand scripture and understand of god joy to the world the lord is heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and nature joy to the world the savior and he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nation's proof the glories are disrighteousness you okay so hopefully you can now hear me no idea why that stopped working i've got a little green light now telling me thanks for letting me know rach uh it's working on facebook but not on youtube it's like we have gremlins in the system not quite sure what's going on there uh sound has gone yay uh are we back now i guess is my question can people hear me okay just write in the comments if you can hear me um we use this restreaming service and i'm not sure what's going on why it's gone funny today and seems to be glitching again uh i can hear you on facebook awesome thanks rach loving your profile picture there by the way so anyway we're back so yeah sorry about that we use this free streaming service which enables us to go to facebook and youtube at the same time and i don't think it's in a happy place today um i wish i could tell you it's my tech but apparently it's not so thanks for bearing with us and sticking with us i apologize a bit glitchy at the start and i'm hoping the sound is back on it's all good now yes good okay so as i was saying when you couldn't hear me it was really good too the best thing i've ever said so shame you didn't hear it as i was saying it's just been a really uh fascinating thing to try and put this week's talk together based on this talk with the sadducees that jesus has you know where they sort of pick and choose um about various things and about how jesus responds and deals with that uh just by telling them that you know they're mistaken i find it really challenging a good way to start this year just going back to basics just the fundamental basics of my christian faith right and um and that is what i should be doing so as i said in the talk hopefully you heard it if there's anything you'd like us to pray for do let us know you can let us know in the number in the corner of the screen here this whatsapp number you can text us anything you like um obviously that doesn't appear on the feed if you write in the comments it totally appears in the feed and people can see it and we are now going to ketchup oh yes ketchup has been away for a few weeks so it's good you're not gonna want to miss this let's get the ketchup going welcome to this week's sunday catch up oh why does josh even like this stuff zoe what are you doing gotta go 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 and i am a member of the team here at crowd church now it's been a little while since we've done one of these catch-up segments so let me just remind you what the point of this is so obviously with all the restrictions meeting up in person has been difficult to say the least and so what we've been trying to do is get videos and photographs in from the community showing what they've been up to just so that we have the opportunity to oh well catch up with each other over the past few weeks i finished my uni exams and i've come home for christmas which has been really nice seeing everyone again and admittedly not having to cook every night has also been an added bonus earlier on in this catch-up video i enlisted the help of zoe my younger sister to help me make this week's video one of the things i did was i sent her around i sent her around with this which is a handheld gimbal for the phone and i told us to go and extract catch-up videos from my family members please don't be dangerous yeah what have you been doing this christmas holiday piggies what have you been up to this cool have a nice day josh what have you been up to this christmas lighting uh i have been hanging out with my wonderful siblings and zoey love music i always love watching zoe wreak havoc with a camera it's always so so fun but that's enough for me let's get on to the catch-up clips great thank you very much for sending all those in if you would like to see your photo or video featured on catcher please send them in to the whatsapp number that you will have seen on the bottom of this screen throughout the service i love seeing your catch-up videos please please please do send them in we really love being able to see what everyone's been getting up to thank you very much for watching that is all from me i hope you've had a fantastic christmas and i hope you have a fantastic new year and i will catch you next time well there you go thanks for doing the ketchup video josh zoe it seemed like a good pairing there actually i quite enjoyed the little wandering around and thanks for sending all your photos and really really good to see them and of course we cannot uh leave this particular segment without saying happy birthday to sally butch and happy birthday to anna watson who both enjoyed their birthdays the same day as jesus so you're in good company girls that's for sure uh loved the little video did you see the little video of sal's new kitten um what's a king called percy percy the little kitten in the wrapping paper that's cute very very cute uh you know it's always good to have a cute cat video in your videos isn't it so well done well done uh what's matt been putting here josh your sister knows your password please change it that's true that's a dangerous place to be uh what did it matter i thought it was your internet connection maybe your hair is incompatible with restreaming yeah possibly matt i don't know i don't know i did you see the picture there of phil watson with the comb i don't know if that's you getting him that or whether he was just showing you that just to say you know i've got one finally i don't know uh that's just the way it is so very good love love love the catch-up segment it's good to have that back like josh said uh if there is i'm going to bring the whatsapp number oh there it is on the screen uh if you have any pictures video videos that you would like to see included in next week's catch-up video then send them to this number on the screen or you know somehow get them to me via facebook or however you want to get them to us just get them to us and josh can use them because between now and next sunday we have new year don't we oh yes and this new year is going to look very very different for just about everybody um especially us we normally have a household house full of people which obviously we can't do this year um so yeah it's going to be interesting so wherever you are whatever you're doing do send in your photos and videos of what you're doing on new year's because it'll be great to see them now because new year's is going to be very different uh like sharon said at the start of the service i thought it'd be really good if we played old lang zine this is something you can sing along with with your family if you like the lyrics are going to come up on the screen we're going to play that and i was looking up earlier i'm just going to bring it up here on my phone because i thought it was quite fascinating old lang syne literally means old long since or it's for the sake of old times it's been a long time since uh is what it's saying and the song is about basically two friends who are catching up sort of they've been friends for a really long time but they don't see each other that often and so they're kind of that they're just getting together and they're catching up um and so yeah it's it's it's sort of and the way that uh it talks about it is they're catching up in the pub in the pub can you believe that so i thought while we sing this song old lang's on it would just be good to think of friends do you know just friends that we've maybe not seen as much this year or because of covert because of lockdown and let's just remember them let's just be grateful for them even text them and just go you know what you are a legend totally grateful for you as we play this song um i appreciate we've been doing all of this digitally and it's been great so many of you have joined us over the last year and that's who i'm going to be grateful for but let me play old lang zine and then i'll be back should all the clintons be forgotten and never brought to mind should all the queens be forgot and days we'll talk my kindness yet for home a kindness should all acquaintance be forgot and never of kindness yet forever okay for old lang syne just love that song love it love it love it reminds me of new year every time and good to think about friends and people everywhere and just be grateful despite the crazy year that we've had um you know what we've got technology to at least connect with people like this which is great so super super grateful uh as rache said we remember all friends for old lang syne absolutely matt get a haircut mad edmonson i've booked your haircut with ben hurtaway and you said doorway thanks matt appreciate that we need to talk about your fascination with my hair at some point but that's just another story anyway uh thank you for bearing with us during the live stream i appreciate there's been some glitches that were unbeknownst to me but i appreciate you bearing with us uh all that's left for me to say i think is a happy new year i wish you a very very happy new year whatever you're doing uh stay safe celebrate you know wisely within the rules but you know celebrate the new year because 2021 is gonna be interesting when we walk into it uh full of faith and full of hope right you never know what's gonna happen when you live your life for christ and do what he has called you to do i never thought this time last year i'd be ending the year signing off from a digital church but apparently here goes who knew so if you're new to the stream normally the way we end the live stream is we're just gonna play what i technically call the outro it has got some christmas carols in there because it's still christmas uh as requested by sally last week and yes matt you did request old langs ein last week so just for you um we're gonna play some christmas carols some questions will come up on the screen sing along with the carols enjoy them love them get involved with them because it's christmas and let's enjoy the last of the christmas spirit happy new year to you all we will see you back here next week 4 p.m as we carry on our live stream we've got a bit of a mashup actually uh on next week's topic we've got answers from a few people that i've contacted here and they're gonna hopefully uh do me a little video answering some questions and so that's gonna be really fascinating uh when we get into that so we're gonna start the new year with a bang make sure you're here for it thanks for joining us thanks for watching all that is left for me to say is a very very happy new year bye for now come let earth receive a key let every heart prepare joy while fields sounding joy grace and the length of his righteousness and wonders of his love is of his oh come all ye faithful joyful and try come and behold him born the king of angels oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him christ the lord highest oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore adore in christ yay lord we greet thee this happy morning jesus to thee be your glory gift christ the lord glory to the newborn king peace on earth and mercy mild god and sinners reconciled joyful all ye nations rise join the triumph of the skies with angelico's proclaim is born in bethlehem heart the herald angels sing heaven earth lord christ the everlasting lord laid in time behold him come off spring the virgin's womb building flesh the godhead sea hail the incarnate sing glory to the newborn king feel the our peace hail the son of righteousness light and life to all he brings risen with healing in his wings mild he lays his glory by born and man no more may die born to raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth