When life gets dark, where does your mind go? We explore the thought patterns and anchors that help people endure their hardest seasons. This is an honest conversation about what actually sustains us when positivity alone falls short.
01What Keeps You Going When Everything Falls Apart
There's a question that surfaces when life gets properly difficult. Not the everyday inconveniences, but the moments that knock the ground out from under you. The diagnosis. The betrayal. The loss that doesn't make sense.
The question is simple: what do you think about to get through?
Some people think about their kids. Others think about the people counting on them. Some just put their heads down and push through because they don't know what else to do. But what about Jesus? In the darkest hours of his life, what was going through his mind?
The answer, according to the book of Hebrews, is genuinely surprising.
02The Joy That Makes No Sense
Hebrews 12:2 puts it like this: "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame."
Joy. In the middle of a crucifixion. That doesn't compute on any normal scale of human experience.
The talk explored this apparent contradiction head-on. Jesus was heading to the most brutal form of execution the Roman Empire had devised. He endured it. He despised the shame of it. Those are real, raw, awful emotions. And yet the writer of Hebrews says he got through it because of joy.
"As odd as it sounds, despite the pain and the emotions, he found joy in the midst of all of this darkness."
So what was the joy? It was people. It was humanity. It was you and me.
"You and I are what got Jesus through the dark. Imagine that. As he is going through this whole affair, he gets through it by thinking of you and of me. That should tell you something right there of the value that God places on mankind."
03The Road to Golgotha
The talk walked through the crucifixion narrative from Mark's Gospel, combining accounts from the different Gospels to build a fuller picture.
The soldiers took Jesus into the palace and called together the entire brigade. They dressed him in purple, pressed a crown of thorns onto his head, and began mocking him. "Bravo, king of the Jews." They hit him, spat on him, and knelt in mock worship.
The language in the talk was direct: "These soldiers, spurring one another on to abuse somebody who has no ability to fight back, they're cowards. We'd call them bullies, plain and simple."
There was a personal reflection here that felt real rather than rehearsed: "When I was a kid I used to get bullied a fair amount. I had ginger hair, national health glasses which were glasses supplied by the government free of charge that were devoid of any kind of design aesthetic, I had asthma, so I wasn't strong and I wasn't sporty. I basically had all the characteristics of someone who would get bullied, and I did."
That vulnerability did something important. It connected the ancient story to lived experience. Bullying didn't stop two thousand years ago. It's still happening, and the same cowardice drives it.
04The Moment That Changed a Film Director
On the way to Golgotha, the soldiers forced a man called Simon from Cyrene to carry the cross. At the execution site, they offered Jesus wine mixed with myrrh as a mild painkiller. He refused it.
Then they nailed him to the cross.
The talk referenced Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, and specifically the scene where the nails are hammered in. Gibson chose to do a cameo in that scene. Not as a face on screen, but as the hands holding the hammer.
"When asked why he chose that particular scene, he simply said: it was me that put him on the cross. It was my sins that put him there."
The talk extended this: "It wasn't the Romans nailing Christ to the cross. It was us. It could have just as easily been my hands with that hammer and nail."
And here's the part that is almost impossible to hold together in your mind: "The very people nailing him to the cross, he gets through it by thinking of them."
Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing."
05The Response Nobody Expected
A contributor to the service reflected on that prayer with real honesty: "When I think about this passage, I try to imagine what I would have done in his place, what prayer I might have prayed. And I certainly can't imagine praying what Jesus prayed. In his probably his darkest moment, his moment of agony and distress and suffering, he asks God to forgive the people that have done this to him."
That response defies every natural human instinct. In a moment of profound injustice, the expected response is anger, bitterness, a cry for vengeance. Instead, there's forgiveness. Offered freely. Offered to the people who are actively causing the suffering.
This isn't presented as something we should find easy to replicate. It's presented as something worth noticing. Because it reveals something about the character of the person on the cross that goes beyond normal categories of good or inspiring.
06The Darkness and the Cry
The narrative continued through the hours on the cross. Passers-by hurled insults. The religious leaders mocked him. Even the criminals crucified beside him joined in.
At noon, darkness covered the whole land until three in the afternoon. And then came the cry that has echoed through twenty centuries: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
That cry is significant because it's a quotation from Psalm 22, which begins in despair but ends in trust. Jesus wasn't abandoning his faith. He was entering fully into the experience of human suffering, including the feeling of God's absence, which is often the hardest part of any dark time.
07What This Means for Your Dark Moments
The talk connected all of this back to the opening question. What do you think about to get through the dark times?
"The thing about the last few weeks of our journey through Mark's Gospel has been hard-hitting. The betrayal, the injustice, the greed of humanity. The Bible really gets into the hard stuff."
There was no attempt to minimise suffering or offer a cheerful platitude. Instead, the invitation was to consider a different framework for endurance. Not gritting your teeth and pushing through. Not pretending things are fine. But finding something, or someone, worth enduring for.
Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. That joy was relational. It was about people, about connection, about the hope of restored relationship between God and humanity.
08A Question for the Hard Days
If you're in a difficult season, this passage doesn't promise a quick fix. It doesn't even promise that the difficulty will make sense while you're in it.
But it does offer this: the idea that you might be more valued than you realise. That the God who endured the worst humanity could throw at him did so while thinking about you. Not as an abstract concept, but as the specific reason he kept going.
What would it change if you believed that? And on the days when everything feels dark, what is the joy set before you that might help you endure?
Topics in this talk
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hmm so this do my me well good afternoon welcome to crowdchurch it was it kind of left me hanging on for a little bit though i was expecting my picture to be on screen a little bit sooner uh but welcome sorry matt are you wanting a little bit more screen time this last yeah yeah make up those few seconds a little bit later on if we can that's great but i was just kind of like is it coming on is it not coming on uh so yeah welcome welcome to crowd church great to have you great that you're here with us uh joining us here on crowd church uh for those of you who are new to the live stream welcome we are a church for those that might not see uh the point of church we're looking for the answers for a meaningful life uh wherever you are in your christian faith wherever your walk you are welcome here as we dig into and understand why perhaps jesus is the most amazing inspirational figure in all of human history that's the plan that's what we're getting into yeah absolutely couldn't put it better myself matt yeah welcome everybody we hope you feel really really welcome here today we hope you join in please feel free to kind of put some comments in say hi tell us where you're watching from and we would love to hear from you and we've had a few people already say hi um hi to nicola and matt and james and dan hi patrick lovely to have us with you i think patrick says watching it on a smartphone this afternoon in this lovely spring sunday afternoon so very warm welcome to everyone do get involved lots of opportunities matt isn't there to get involved in crowd church there is absolutely and as you said sal commenting is one of the key ways that you can do that this afternoon absolutely you can comment you can like you can share it out whether you are on facebook or on youtube patrick is on youtube there's a few other folks on youtube so yeah it's great that we can do this to facebook and youtube at the same time still don't get how it works but it's somehow it works i don't have to worry about that bit and i'm just it just happened somehow i'm just glad that it just happened somehow i just click the button and start talking and then yeah i'm i'm fine i'm any more detail than that that's great absolutely absolutely so i'm going to put it on the screen before sal tells me to this is a whatsapp number if any of you would like to reach out to us through whatsapp uh you are more than welcome to do so especially if you would like us to pray for you about anything that obviously you do not want to put in the comments of youtube and facebook a number of folks do get in touch with us and say listen can you pray about you know whatever it is you would like us to pray about we would love to do that for you so you can get in touch with us via the whatsapp as we would love to pray for you uh and you don't you don't even need to believe in god for us to pray for you it's genuinely one of those we would love to do it so wherever you are whatever you need uh do get in touch that's a whatsapp number so do you want to point to it oh my gosh every week why look let me explain if you're watching this for the first time it's reversed okay this is reversed so i try and do it first time i can never do it there there you go new point to it matt matt's always able to do it first time i think go on matt you do why is it so hard for [Laughter] it's just hysterical and you'll be pleased to know ladies and gentlemen if you don't know sal sal is a school teacher yes she has senior teachers our kids on how to do all things educational so yeah fortunately that's not on the national curriculum so i'm actually alright with that one that's okay blurry hang on a second why is it doing this i'm just gonna reset there we go your hands there we go oh there we go we can see matt's haircut all its glory now yeah you'll be pleased no i had a haircut looking good looking fresh matt i'm liking it thanks i appreciate it it's nice to you know just go and get the whole thing locked off so especially if you feel like lighter in yourself do you think your head feels totally yeah yeah it's the way the future right so should we tell folks what's coming up today sal yeah absolutely um in a very short while we've got matt bringing us today's talk and that is about what gets you through matt will be talking about the next section in mark and what gets you through so that'd be brilliant i'm sure matt as as always no pressure this afternoon and then after that we will be having a bit of time of reflection we there will be a song which you can um listen to or join in with if you want to or not but it's a really good time to kind of reflect before after that we're then going to come on to a discussion the discussion will be all around matt's talk and what he's got to say today so that time of reflection is really really good to have a little think about the things that you want to draw out the questions you want to ask um and matt and i will be there to discuss those questions so do get involved in the comments yeah absolutely and then what we've got after that matt we've got to catch up haven't we that's our usual weekly yep from the very long head josh we've got our weekly catch-up video coming uh and that that we hope to finish i guess around quarter to five five o'clock somewhere between there is our usual target sort of end time so do stick around with us for the next 45 50 minutes or so uh and as sales said one of the really cool things about crowd one of the things i really love is after the talk uh we do do this thing conversation street and uh we do get to chat through some thoughts and ideas your comments your ideas so do keep commenting and do keep suggesting you know stuff in the crowd matt i'm just gonna have a little slurp of my tea i made the mistake of having a digestive biscuit just because this is what we call professionalism you know when you feel like your mouth is getting stuck to your teeth so just sorry sorry about that everybody just needed to have a little a little bit of a refresh there that's better as long as you're refreshed that's the main thing right yeah so we've got susan hey susan uh great with us yeah it's good to see you both absolutely it is so welcome along to crowd great you're here now should we jump straight into it should we just jump on right in i think we should let's hear what you've got to say this week matt yeah absolutely so this again for those of you new to crowd church we have been working our way through mark's gospel we are nearing the end of the journey through this through the story here it's been a long journey matt hasn't it it's been a long journey we've been doing this for over 18 months now so it's been going on a while let me tell you so we're about three or four weeks from the end i think something like that anyway um it's incredible how much we've been able to get out of this one book in the bible when you think about it and if you want to see any of the other talks you can find them on our website is that right matt all those other talks that we've done on crowd on that website you can absolutely so you are totally bang on so you can go to crowd.church if you want to see any of the uh other videos catch up and also find out a bit more about us uh if you'd like to know more just go to www.crowd.church to find out all of that information so as we've said right we're working our way through mark's gospel and we're now getting into the section where it's the crucifixion so this is kind of a follow-on from uh what we've been talking about over the last few weeks don't worry if you missed the last few weeks you'll catch ups really quickly so here we go let's carry on with mark's gospel we are going to read the story about the crucifixion today because we've got to that stage in our journey through mark's gospel and it's worth stating right here at the start before we read this story that it is not at least on the surface level a very joyful story and if you think about the last few weeks right sharon uh looked at how heading to the cross jesus was taken upon himself the anger and wrath of god sally looked at the betrayal of jesus by judas james looked at the injustice of his arrest and last week we looked at jesus's trial and understood how people pleasing decided the outcome of those events these have been some fairly hard hitting topics to talk about and to deal with the messiness and the horror of life right and the reality of the gruesomeness of it sometimes and you know what the bible really gets into the hard stuff the suffering the betrayal the greed of humanity and all its failings as well as all the amazing stuff of humanity so you know what we can be okay with the fact that this is hard and difficult to talk about so what do you do when life is like this and that's our question today isn't it what do you think about in the dark times what gets you through now i've heard and i'm sure you have heard stories of people who like me will have hard times thought about loved ones maybe their kids maybe their wife maybe their spouse whatever and that's what gets them through but what about jesus what does he think about that gets him through the dark times we're going to read this story of the crucifixion it's not a great time so how does he deal with it hebrews 12 2 says this looking to jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame jesus endures the cross he despises the shame of it those real and awful and raw emotions that jesus is feeling and must be feeling and we will we can think about that as we read through the story but he endures all of it because of what the bible says was the joy that was set before him it's a really interesting phrase isn't it this this whole idea of the joy that was set before him was what got him through so what's that joy well that joy is you and it is me it is humanity we are the reason that jesus chose this path and as odd as it sounds despite the pain and the emotions he found joy in the midst of all of this darkness and it's because of that and thinking about that that's what keeps him going and the amazing thing is you are that joy right you and i are what got jesus through the dark imagine that right as he is going through this whole affair as we read about the crucifixion he gets through it by thinking of you and of me i mean that should tell you something right there of the value that god places on mankind that's the gospel that's the good news so with that in mind let's work our way through the story now i've taken uh the accounts of the diff the different accounts from the gospels we've put them together to try and create a bit more of a complete narrative okay so here we go the soldiers took jesus into the palace called praetorium and called together the entire brigade they dressed him up in purple and put a crown plated from a thorn bush on his head then they began their mockery bravo king of jews they banged on his head with a club spat on him and knelt down in mock worship after they had had their fun they took off the purple cape and put his own clothes back on him then they marched him out to nail him to the cross and you don't need much imagination here to get the horror of what is happening and as i read about these soldiers you know spurring one another on to abuse somebody who has no ability it seems to fight back they're cowards aren't they they're acting big in front of each other we'd call them bullets plain and simple now i don't know about you but when i was a kid i used to get bullet a fair amount right i had ginger hair i had national health glasses which were glasses supplied by the government free of charge that were devoid of any kind of design aesthetic let's just put it like that right i had asthma so i wasn't strong and i wasn't sporty i basically had all the characteristics of someone who would get bullied and i did and you know what i am sorry if you were bullied too and that's affected you and cowards kind of do what they do and spur each other on and we see humanity at its worst in these situations don't we but i'm also encouraged because the bible is pretty clear on this matter as men and women of god we need to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves james talked about this a couple of weeks ago you know when he talked about injustice and bringing justice to the world we have to break the mould not perpetuate it we can't be like those soldiers and and and do all those horrific things there was a man walking by coming from work simon the cyrene the father of alexander and rufus they made him carry jesus's cross the soldiers brought jesus to golgotha meaning school hill they offered him a mild painkiller wine mixed with myrrh but he wouldn't take it and they nailed him to the cross now and without getting too graphic here i don't know if you have seen the movie the passion of the christ it came out around 2004 and was directed by the famous actor mel gibson right he was in all the movies when i was growing up and this movie paints a very a very harrowing but very real picture of the final hours of final hours of christ's life and in that movie there is a scene where jesus is nailed to the cross and in that clip you see the hands of the soldier you don't see the soldier just the soldier's hands with a nail in one and a big hammer hammering jesus's hand to the cross and that scene stands out because it was a cameo by gibson himself he didn't really star in the movie but he did this all you saw was his hand the hammer and the nails so when asked why he chose that particular scene he simply said this it was me that put him on the cross it was my sins that put him there and that's how you have to read this it wasn't the romans nailing christ to the cross it was us it could have just as easily been my hands with that hammer and nail and as crazy as it sounds the thing that jesus is thinking about that is helping him endure the cross despising the shame it's that joy that joy the set before him these people with the people the very people you me everybody the very people nailing him to the cross it's remarkable right so when they crucified him the roman soldiers took his clothes and divided them up four ways to eat soldier a fourth but his robe was seamless a single piece of weaving so they said to each other let's not tear it up let's throw dice to see who gets it they confirmed the scripture that said they divided up my clothes among them and threw dice for my coat the soldiers validated the scriptures and they nailed him up at nine o'clock in the morning the charge against him the king of jews was printed on a poster and along with him they crucified two criminals one to his right and the other to his left jesus prayed father forgive them they don't know what they're doing now this is a very well-known piece of scripture uh so here's my good friend lisa to share what she thinks about that passage what i love about this passage is what it tells me about who jesus was and who jesus is for us today he's just been horrendously tortured he's been humiliated he's been mocked and now he's hanging on a cross with nails in his hands and his feet and he's between two criminals and yet he hasn't committed a crime he doesn't deserve to be there he's done nothing wrong and when i think about this passage i try to imagine what i would have done in his place what prayer i might have prayed and i certainly can't imagine praying what jesus prayed in his probably his darkest moment his moment of agony and distress and suffering he asks god to forgive the people that have done this to them he asks god to forgive the people that have tortured him and the people that are murdering him what an incredible thing to do in that situation probably what you would expect anybody else to do is to be angry in that situation at the injustice and be praying and asking god why aren't you stopping this i don't deserve to be here why don't you do something about it or potentially because jesus knows that this is part of god's plan he knows that he's going to rise again he's going to have the victory as horrific as it is to go through he could have been tempted to pray to to his father and say father it's okay we know we've got the victory here we know that soon they'll see how wrong they are to do this soon they'll see what a big mistake they've made he doesn't pray that either instead it's this incredible moment of humility and grace and mercy and compassion all rolled into one and what that means for me today i feel is that when i mess up when i get things wrong when i'm not in a good place i know that when i come to jesus that he meets me with that same compassion it's that same love that same mercy and grace that's how he is towards me and that is an amazing thing people passing along the road jeered shaking their heads in mock lament you bragged that you could tear down the temple and then rebuild it in three days so show your stuff save yourself if you're really god's son come down from that cross how many of us do something similar if gods do this end world hunger stop the suffering if your god get rid of evil if your god come down from that cross if your god prove it it's an interesting thing isn't it when we when we compare some of the things that we do maybe now the high priests along with the religious scholars were right there mixing it up with the rest of them having a great time poking a fun at him he saved others but he can't save himself messiah is he king of israel then let him climb down from that cross we'll all become believers then even the men crucified alongside him joined in the mockery wow if he does this we'll all become believers then that's a total lie by the religious leaders not at all they would have just hung him back on the cross there's no doubt in my mind right i read this and you know what i have to ask him i have to ask myself would i have done any differently if i'd have been part of that crowd would i have joined in the mockery as well now i like to think that i wouldn't have done you know sat here in my comfortable chair and with the beauty of hindsight reading this but i think i probably would have i think i would have probably followed the crowd because you know what in all of this i realize that i'm english and if their english are very good at doing one thing they are brilliant at mocking it's part of our dna oh yes sarcasm kind of runs through our veins now sure some of it is in good humor and i like that type of humor i like the banter but i have to make sure that i don't find myself being like these other religious leaders and taking it too far and mock those whom i deem lesser than or those who are in a bad place or even worse mock god god if you're really god then blah blah blah blah it's mockery one of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him some messiah you are save yourself save us but the other one made him shut up have you no fear of god you're getting the same as him we deserve this but not him he did nothing to deserve this then he said jesus remember me when you enter your kingdom he said don't worry i will today you will join in paradise wow just wow here's dan to talk about that how different are the two reactions from the criminals do wonder how i would have reacted would have been all defeated and just looked at the current situation joined him with the crowd but like the first criminal that was shouting at jesus some messiah you are save yourself save us i mean look at him jesus is dying he's in pain like me how can he be god yes by all accounts i've heard he's done amazing things at the moment those things don't seem to be helping him at the moment it's all gone a bit wrong it's gone extremely wrong seems to be over i'm with a crowd or would have said what if it's true what if he's god what if he loves me like the other criminal i mean he's just forgiven those who have tortured him those that are currently mocking him including the other guy on the cross for what i've seen he's not done anything wrong they can't even think of a great placard to sum up what he's supposed to have done and if i was that other criminal i'd know i deserve this this was the price for my bad deeds but he doesn't deserve it he's going through with it some of the miracles i've heard he did surely he could do another one that would get him off this cross if he wanted to perhaps unlike that other criminal that's what i'd like to think i'm gonna ask him if he'll have me and jesus says today you'll be with me in paradise i believe this is what we can expect from jesus when we cry out in whatever situation whatever time of life as a child an adult on our deathbed jesus doesn't and didn't hold a grudge the criminal said oh jesus remember me and jesus replies today you'll be with me in paradise i believe and this story shows us god's character that when we ask anything of jesus he hears listens and responds to us while the soldiers were looking after themselves jesus's mother his aunt mary the wife of clopas and mary magdalene stood at the foot of the cross jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her he said to his mother woman here is your son then to the disciple here is your mother and from that moment the disciple accepted her as his own mother and at noon the sky became extremely dark wow i mean hats off to jesus right in the worst possible point of his life he's still thinking about his moment looking out for his mum we can all learn from that right and what started out early in the morning with jesus being nailed at the cross at nine o'clock by the time we get to noon the bible says it becomes extremely dark not just dark extremely dark because this was a really dark time for humanity metaphorically as well as physically now over the next three weeks we are going to look at why it was dark we're going to look at the death the burial and then the resurrection of christ and we're going to dig into these important issues why did jesus do this why did mel gibson say it was my sin that nailed jesus to why did jesus have to die what did i do that caused this how could it have been my hands 2 000 years ago surely that's an historic event now these are all really important questions and ones that we are going to be looking at in the coming weeks so make sure you subscribe or head on over to the website and let us know your email and we will notify you of what's happening and what is coming up but remember right really remember this the key to all of this is that jesus is choosing this path he said that no man can take my life but i lay it down freely see all of this all of the pain all of the anguish the shame the horror the cowardice the bullying the mockery the betrayal in this place of extreme darkness jesus is getting through it because of the joy that's set before him and you are that joy and you have to hold this tension when you're reading about this it's the most incredible story it's the most incredible tale of god's love for as jesus was nailed to the cross you were on his mind and it's what kept him going and this well and perhaps answers that question what do you think of to keep you going when things are extremely dark and tough see for jesus it was you it was me it was humanity but what about you when you find time's a doc when you find times are hard what do you think of that keeps you going as i said at the start put your answers in the comment we are going to get into this in conversation street that's for sure but here's maybe a little parting thought i think of jesus and i think of jesus at this time the time of the crucifixion making these unbearable choices and i tell you what as i do i become grateful even in the midst of the dark trials and times that i'm in i start to become grateful because i realize he's my joy he's my joy that's set before me and because of that i can endure it's a really interesting thing isn't it what about you write your answers in the comments i will be back with sal very very soon wow thanks matt um absolutely brilliant talk loads for us to discuss um matt said you and i you and i are what got jesus through that most awful time so we want you to tell us what gets you through those really difficult times what gets you through those put it in the comments let us know and we can have a discussion about it after this we're going to go into the time of worship now we're just going to play a song the amazing john and anna grace have recorded this song for us king of my heart and we're just gonna sing the song if you want to or you could just read the words and just think about what the words mean just a couple of bits from the song i want to kind of bring out as it talks about and that god will never let you down and i think when we're let down by lots of people in our lives to know that there is someone who will never let us down is an incredible thing um and that he is good it says in this song that he is good god is good and he has got good things for you so let's get into this song now put your comments in and then we'll have a discussion after this let the king of my let the king of you are good you're good [Applause] is you are and you are good you're never gonna let me oh when you are good there we go brilliant there we go great song john and anna grace as i said before sorry guys it was the titheridge family they're amazing version of king of my heart love that very good version of that song as well very very my camera's gone blur again excuse me while i do this there we go just can't cope matt with the new look your camera's just like trying to focus in is that matter it's the glory radiating from myself obviously this causes something like that something like that um great quark matt thank you for that really really good sure thanks and did you find it challenging preparing that yeah because there's so much you can't talk about so it's quite a long piece of scripture when you pull it all together from the various different sources and so the challenge is always the bits that you don't talk about in that kind of environment um yeah and so what do you talk about and the thing that that really intrigued me was this whole idea of actually when jesus is going through this we talked about the injustice of it last time um but when he's going through it what gets him through what is he thinking about and you type when you tie that story in with that verse from hebrews about how um who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised shame in hebrews 12. then that story takes on a whole different meaning just see what i mean yeah and that was that whole kind of oh wow so what do we think about when we go through the tough times um yeah and i i'm the thing that struck me the thing that challenged me in all of was the very thing that he was thinking about was the very people that was crucifying him it's a really it's a really hard thing isn't it if you're having a hard time from somebody you don't think about them to get you through that hard time you just it's just no not usually not not in a positive way that's for sure planning what you would like to happen to but uh that's probably about as much as time as you're going to want to give them isn't it so yeah it is incredible i think um i think one of the things as well that people do just thinking about that and you know i repeated it again before about what you said about it being you and me got jesus through those tough times i think people disqualify themselves they're like oh yes definitely matt possibly sally but not me not me and i think that people you know kind of disqualify themselves from that it's really important i think that no we're talking about you we're talking about everyone yeah um you know nobody is exempt from that and i think that's a really really important thing to remember yeah there's a really good point that actually you're right fundamentally it's all of us um and and you know there's no favorites in god's kingdom although years ago there used to be a website here we go called god's favorite.com and did you set that up yeah and you know what was on it there was nothing on that website just apart from a picture of me right and so i said this website called god's favorite.com and just literally put my phone i was genuine no no no no no i actually i actually did this because i used to have arguments all the time with dave connolly who's one of the pastors phantom pastors frontline church about who god's favorite was um and so he would say it was him and i would say it was me so then i'd set up this website and i told him to google it one day and he did and of course my picture came up and then that was the end amazing amazing i love that i love that completely not true but i still like that completely not true but the the thing about it my thinking was in all of this right was that um you're right you can often disqualify yourself when it comes to thinking about the love of god and my reasoning was that god has no favorites therefore everybody is his favorite and to think of myself not as better as anybody else but just to think of myself as actually someone like that it's quite yeah it's quite an amazing thing when you think about it jump in to try and get your head around so whilst it was a bit of banter and a bit of fun it also helped me deal with a few insecurities i may have been dealing with it yeah absolutely and i think people do i mean nicola said in the comments that she used to always disqualify herself and i think lots of people do that lots of people don't feel worthy don't but you know we're not that's not that's the point isn't it we're not worthy but jesus chose us anyway exactly and that's the incredible thing yeah so yeah brilliant as well from lisa and dan thank you so much for sharing as part of that as well dan and lisa um question yeah is dan said about which criminal you know which criminal he thought he might be what which criminal do you think he would have been i wouldn't have been a criminal i wouldn't have got caught no no that's more like it no i think i hope i mean that you know i i i think you sort of start off uh as one which kind of rejects god and says i don't get you i don't understand you what are you doing what are you playing at to you eventually at some point hopefully become the other one which goes i might not get it i might not understand it but hey let me in jeremy and that kind of thing and uh i thought that was really interesting what dan said there so um so yeah i i would have i would i would say we start off as one and hopefully we can make it to the other i don't know about you yeah i hope so i kind of think like you said about being part of the crowd i think if i was there i probably would just have gone along with the crowd you always hope you wouldn't have but in that situation you just don't know really do you but you know the grace of god is that we don't have to put ourselves in in that position but we still have a choice to make don't we we still have a choice uh of who we believe jesus is yeah we do um right let's have a little look at some of the comments so sharon said when things are hard i look to what god says in the bible about my and focus my thoughts on specific verses this helps me massively and talking and praying with friends is also good loads in that one little comment there loads of things that can be really really helpful when you're going through tough yeah absolutely i think one and she's right you know i mean she's my wife so she's bound to be right so uh i think sharon is correct that one of the things that i've seen her do over the years and one of the things i massively respect about her things when things don't go well it's easy it's easy to question why and that and you could leave it there and that's fine in some respects but what i've seen her do over the years is just literally she will go to the bible and she'll start to dig out what does god say about this what's what do i see in scripture about this situation and that builds in her such a remarkable faith um faith that maybe god will either turn it around or faith maybe that god will turn her around do i mean yeah or if yeah those situations don't get turned around there's still faith that god's good and in control of the whole thing so i've seen sharon do that for for for many years and can testify actually it's a brilliant way to to approach life yeah yeah that's brilliant actually that that remind really reminded me of something that's really helped me over the years is my incredible sister-in-law charlotte and she's a legend she is a legend she's so wise and so wonderful um and she used to say to me just pray change or remove change or remove such a simple thing because sometimes when you're in a really difficult situation actually praying is can be really difficult but she said no just play pray change or remove either change the situation remove the whoever is from the situation or remove the situation or change me and times when i've actually done that it's been amazing sometimes both have happened you know i've changed that person's changed and the situation has changed you know it is incredible and it's just that simple change or remove so i've been really grateful for that little kind of wise thing that i've taken with me through my life that's really really healthy i i'm curious uh sal how many what's the ratio between change and oh it's probably it's probably 50 50. yeah yeah how many times does god end up changing you versus always that's never happened so maybe maybe it will in the future but yeah that's happened once or twice but what is amazing is that i have changed and and the thing has been removed in a kind of an amazing way so yeah it's it's obviously it's not a it's not a magic wand that you can pray over a situation and it just but the times when it has helped me so much in my life it's been pretty incredible so i would recommend that if you're not sure what to do that's a very very easy and simple place to start yeah yeah absolutely absolutely so romans 8 32. that's right romans 8 verse 32. what lisa said reminded her of this verse for god has proved his love by giving us his greatest treasure the gift of his son and since god freely offered him up as the sacrifice for us all he certainly won't withhold any good thing from us i mean that's a you know that's uh that's one of those amazing verses isn't it romans eight yeah where you know because god did this there's no good thing that he's now going to withhold from us which i just think is fantastic so yeah absolutely absolutely trev says he heard the phrase this week from a poem the horizon of hope and that his hope is in jesus and jesus is always there for him and for anybody who calls out to him which is absolutely right isn't it the horizon of hope that's a really nice way of thinking about it thanks trev love that i love that very very good very very good now i feel like we could carry on talking about this for a bit of a while please do keep joining in the comments and leaving your comments uh whilst we watch catch up so we'll bring ketchup onto the screen we'll watch that and then sal will be back as will i in just a few minutes time oh press the wrong button let's try that again 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'm a team i'm a team i'm a member of the team here at crowd church and i'm a student at the university of saint andrews studying physics for those of you who have never watched the stream before welcome it's really great to have you here let me just quickly explain what catch-up actually is every week we'll get in pictures and videos from members of the community and put them up in this little segment called catch up just so that everyone gets to see what people are getting up to now if you have watched the stream before you know this is the part where i would typically go in usual fashion i will kick off with something i have been up to this week however we're doing it slightly differently today i have some very exciting news as a matter of fact we have a new member of the catch up team oh yes i know it's very very exciting news elizabeth you may have seen his stuff on the stream over the past few weeks i thought it would be nice instead of hearing my normal ramblings to call elias see how he felt about being part of the catch-up team and see what he'd been up to this week instead of myself so let's give elias a call gosh it's taking a lot to get to this point but we're here elias how do you feel about being the latest and only new addition to the catch-up team i was feeling good until he said only new jersey and josh but i thought i can't take that song prestige a little bit but yeah and yeah it's exciting but it's a new new experience for me so elias what have you been up to this week oh it's been a busy week you know josh has been this and that well i even today i had some a little exciting adventure actually i went to church this morning went to gateway it was a nice service and i was on my back got a nice little mcdonald's with some friends you know a little snack not too big it's like a little little one for lunch look at the starter and then recycling back down the road my bike broke oh no yeah that was it wasn't it wasn't like uh i could put a chain back on problem it was like we might need some tools for this kind of problem we're on the big row of houses towards like sort of like john lennon airport so we have to knock on someone's house we knew the spanner so we ran lots of different people just knocking on their doors just like with a spanner please we tried six different houses people pulled up we thought they were stopping for us but they were just going into their driveway but people have a spanner a little spam in the booth his car was mercedes so he got it out fix the bikes i was i was i was half hoping might just give us a new bike or something because these are these are big rich big rich houses you know like it was like a little range rover nothing too much to ask but yeah oh yeah no luck there though no not quite maybe you just have to dry a little bit harder you know maybe if the bike breaks more dramatically next time like yeah yeah you're like sorry my bike's split in half do you think you could help me with uh out of broken legs in the mix maybe that should increase the sympathy that's the challenge is to see if you can somehow get a free bite yes thanks for sharing that likes it's great to hear what someone else has been up to during their week rather than listening to myself ramble on again would you be willing to take us into the catch-up clips yes i can josh so now we view the clips what everyone's been doing this week and maybe as exciting as me maybe not i mean who's to say but yeah here we are great thank you very much for sending all those in it's always great seeing what everyone has been getting up to if you want to see your stuff on ketchup and we would love to have your stuff on catch up you can either send in your pictures and videos to the whatsapp number that you will have seen on the bottom of the screen throughout the stream again so much rhyming i need to figure out a different way to say this or you can use the hashtag crowdcatchup on instagram that's all from me this week thank you very much for watching and i will catch you next time oh that ended quickly oh yeah there we are back live wow i tell you what the first time it didn't end quick enough and then the second time it ends way too quick so it's probably evened itself out there then matt with your uh your screen time you're probably okay yeah good phew that's your fault you know that's your fault anyway because you asked for it earlier on that you wanted me to level out screen time oh yeah okay true true i'll take that out that's fine so apparently we now have a catch-up team and apparently you have to have really long hair to be a part of it so okay good on you well done elias welcome to the team thanks josh yeah that's good you've got some help i think we should do like a before and after do i mean like catch up 12 months ago and catch what it's like now you'll see josh's hair change dramatically yes nicholas said here i feel so old because i used to babysit those these two you are old nicola sorry you don't just feel it you are it that's the beauty of digital chair wow i was matt told me to say that um nicola likes to do that the question she gives us a question which i really love and the question that we've got this week is too upsetting for me to to actually answer how many chickens would it take to kill an elephant that's horrible that's horrible i don't think that i don't think if you had a million chickens they'd just sit on it they wouldn't do anything chickens are weird they would just sit there and like peck you've never had chickens have no no and some reason you you sound like you don't know what you're talking about really a little bit okay well if they feel like they're threatened they're going to peck you and it's going to hurt let me tell you i've been packed once or twice we have chickens well we we've not got them now but i've got a chicken coop to see the side of this window where we used to have them okay yeah yeah no they were great and i think actually uh nicola the quality of your questions needs to go up a little bit uh because that's a that's a bit of a i don't know i'm going to sell on that one i'm not quite sure on that question but there you go you've got seven days to think of a bit we do we do yeah people are tuning in they're watching this who's this nichola and why they why have they just mocked her for being old and and coming up with strange questions well we did say it was the british way so sorry about that that's true did you agree with that when i said that when the the british are just they're known for their mockery and their sarcasm yeah i think so i think um you know in a group of friends you're always going to be sort of taking the mickey out of each other a little bit which is maybe a bit harsh but um it's the british way i'm not saying that's right did you feel convicted in any way no because i don't have them at all ah love it love it love it let's talk about next week matt yeah yeah hang on let me put this number on the screen sal do me a favor point to the number okay so no turn it around turn it around turn it around turn it right there you go there you go there you go i don't need sarcasm i just need a whatsapp number on the screen there you go right i'll just do it in one go oh it's gone oh the point then yeah something like that listen uh let's uh let's let's focus what's happening next week do you know i do know i know that um anna grace is doing the talk next week which is going to be amazing so we look forward to hearing that i know that you are leading but not with me sadly because i won't be around next week so have you got a guest a guest co-presenter matt we have we have we've got rach rach marshall is going to be joining us next week to host crouch she's been on crowd church before in a number of videos so it'd be great to have rach uh but we're going to miss yourself we're totally going to make sure i'm sure nicholas is going to miss yeah you i'll be watching along i'll put my comments in so you can't get rid of me that easily oh okay okay fair enough uh well listen uh thanks for watching i think that's probably about it for this week so like sal said next week do come join us we'll be back here again at 4pm i will put this number on the screen just to remind you that if you would like to get in touch with us while sal points to it if you would like to get in touch with us uh you can use that number right there on the screen there you go and there it is well done straight away sir well done such a such a clever girl you can get in touch with us by the whatsapp numbers if you've got anything you would like us to pray for then please do let us know um if you know if you watch this and you've been watching this a few weeks and you're not really part of any then why not consider making crowd church your home we'd love it if you did you would be more than welcome you can of course also head on over to our website crowd.churchwww.crowd.church go to that website have a look at about who we are but if you get there make sure you let us know your name and email because we just send out an email once a week letting you know what's coming up in the live stream and also the links to all the catch-up videos in case you missed the live which we know many of you watching this do watch it on catch-up so we can let you have all that information in the email just put your details on the website that would be fantastic so yeah absolutely now absolutely we will see you all next week thank you much or let me just see down here thank you so much for watching uh it's been great to be with you uh thanks for joining us here at crowd church we will see you again next week uh oh just to warn you uh we're gonna close out with a worship song i should have said this earlier uh the way we close that crowd church is we just play a song a worship song which you're more than welcome to stick around for hang out in uh sing along and the live stream will end automatically when this song has finished uh so i think that's all from me bye for now bye for now everyone have a brilliant week bye when i surveyed the wondrous crimes on which the prince of glory died my richest game i counted lost and poor content on all my prizes lord thy of christ's my god all the vain things them to his blind see from his head his hands his feet sorrow and love flowing down did such or thorns composed so richard i thank you for the cross i thank you for the cross i thank you for the cross my lord i of nature my my soul my life my own i thank you for the cross love you for the cross i love you for the cross i love you for the cross my lord i love you for the cross i my lord
