What does the Bible say about God? That's this week's question for our online church service. It's a huge topic, so come and join the conversation as we look at questions and topics such as:Who is God?How many God's are there? How do we experience God in our lives today?
01Talk notes
— Dan Rogers
"What does the Bible say about God?" It's a great question. But it's not very frequently asked because in our culture, the Bible isn't really very popular. And perhaps as a result, the God of the Bible isn't really very popular either. However, variations on the idea of God are always popular. And you often hear people talking nowadays about the universe or the divine, usually in a fairly positive tone of voice, with positive connotations. And what they seem to be talking about with these new terms, is a about a benevolent kind of being with absurdly special powers, who's on our side, has got our backs, and is happy to help us as needed.
But there are a few problems with this new, modern take on the divine. The main thing is that it has no name, no backstory, nothing concrete for us to hang our ideas about it on. It never speaks or promises or feels. It's quite like the force in the Star Wars films. However, on the positive side, this means that this neo-divine being is quite hard to be upset with, no one can dislike or disagree with it, just because it never actually reveals what it thinks, it's just so pliable. On the negative side, no one can deeply love or respect such a being as the force is basically unknowable and never actually communicates in a meaningful way. It's just so nebulous.
02The God of the Bible
And in all of this reframing of the divine, some more basic questions bring up like, Who is God then? And what does the Bible say about the nature of God? And how many gods are there? Some of the questions are more important than others. And as we study the God of the Bible, we encounter him saying and doing some very concrete things which answer many of the questions we have and reveal what he's truly like. The things he says and does, things like he creates an abundance of stuff, he sets prosperous parameters for life, he blesses what's good, he rescues people from slavery, he restores outcasts, he heals the sick, he raises the dead on occasion, and he changes lives from the inside out. So he's quite clearly an extraordinarily benevolent, powerful and wise being that you see in the pages of the Bible. He's also quite clearly a spirit.
Although, when it comes to Christ Jesus, who is God in the flesh, he has a body. So therefore, that's quite a challenge for us to get our heads around, a spirit who then becomes a body that then goes back to heaven. That is confusing to us, among many other things, which are a bit confusing and things like he seems to prefer one sibling over another from time to time. He sometimes doesn't immediately fix things which are causing distress, he delays or he waits. He sometimes makes decisive judgement calls, which affects many people, even groups of people all at the same time. And these tricky parts of the Bible, are part of the reason why it isn't always a very popular book. It doesn't always present us with the kind of God that we think we want to see.
We want the universe or the divine or some other kind of benevolent heavenly mascot who will say and do whatever we want. But what we get, in the Bible anyway, is a being who very candidly tells us things like this,
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
-- Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)
And those words are taken from the writings of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 55, verse 9. So, in essence, if we're genuinely searching for God in the pages of the Bible, we're going to have to get ready for a confrontation with many of our most cherished personal and cultural beliefs. He is wholly different to us. Holy, different.
03The Genesis Story
It starts with the very first thing that Bible explicitly says about God and it's also the very first thing the Bible says about anything, which is a point we'll come back to in a minute. The opening phrase of the Bible was this,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ”
-- Genesis 1:1 (NIV)
Now, for many westerners today, this is a hard verse to accept. Anyone who's studied biology at school, watched any David Attenborough documentaries, or read some of Bill Bryson's book will detect the conflict between this Genesis account of human origins and the evolutionary framework, which we've all been taught so well. So Genesis one, verse one, seems kind of incongruous with our widely held cultural assumptions about human origins. And I'm not going to delve into the details of that particular debate now, but I mentioned it as an example to highlight that what the Bible opens with is a challenge to the way we humans naturally think about things.
The Bible Vs Pantheism
You see, at the time Genesis one was written, evolutionary theory wasn't actually a thing. But pantheism was. Pantheism meaning the idea that there are lots and lots of gods. Genesis one verse one wasn't a challenge to Darwinism. But it was a challenge to the prevailing cultural view of Pantheism. At the time, the specific details of the times were very different. Indeed, in the Ancient Near East, it was believed that there were many gods who were like governors of city states, you had specific geographic areas of influence and authority. The people who lived there would thus offer sacrifices to appease the God of that place, and so on.
But in Genesis one, verse one, we're presented with something completely different. Its alternative worldview was that there are not many gods, but just one and only God, who had a global level of influence and authority. In fact, a universal one (it doesn't quite say that in the text) and not a local one, not a city-wide kind of tribal deity, but a global deity. And this is quite a shocking idea, and would have challenged the way most people thought. This God is then mentioned by name 32 times in that first chapter of Genesis, which is the creation account, which only has 31 verses.
Ancient Gods Vs the God of the Bible
So God is the absolutely central figure of the origin narrative account. It is far more about Him than it is about the details of what was made and when and in what order and how that will happen. It's basically telling us, God was responsible for everything, the one God, without any sacrifices from the locals to spur him on. And this really does give you a taste of what's to come in the Bible. God continues to be the absolutely central figure in the overarching narrative of the whole collection of books, in many different and interesting ways with many different nuances, twists and turns. The books are all about him. And not all of the challenges are actually negative. Some are surprisingly positive.
For example, no one in the ancient world had ever even conceived of the idea of a weekly day of rest, because they assumed if they had one they would starve. But the God of the Bible commanded it for the purpose of restoring people so it didn't feel like human doings, they felt like human beings. Very few of the ancient Near Eastern gods had many endearing qualities. It was all about power and submission really, but the God who revealed himself to the Israelites, the God of the Bible describes himself as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love.
This wasn't the stuff of the ancient gods. Compassion? No. Slow to anger? No. Loving? No. Gracious? No. None of these ancient tribal deities actually delivered very much, they were just a load of vague, spooky, vacuous, speculative associations made between cause and effect. But the God of the Bible delivers the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, from oppression by the Philistines, and from quasi state sanctioned persecution across the Persian Empire in various different points in the Bible. He gets them out of their tight spots miraculously, practically, tangibly, physically, demonstrably concrete ways in which he acts in the world and intervenes.
The very idea of the ancient gods making themselves vulnerable and laying down their rights, power, strength was absurd. No one came up with the idea but the God of the Bible came to Earth in human form, as a baby to a fairly poor family, who then very quickly became refugees, who most likely lost their family breadwinner, Joseph to a possible early death. And then this god-man deliberately allowed the people who hated him the most, to murder him without a legitimate trial, all for the greater good of the glory of God and the well-being of mankind. No human would ever come up with this stuff. It's not the stuff of our imaginations. It's not how we think when we think about deities. We don't think about God taking responsibility for our stuff, we think about God smiting us because of our stuff. It's surprising what we read in the Bible.
And lastly, no one in the Ancient Near Eastern culture paid much attention to what women had to say, sadly, but when God's Son, Jesus rose from the dead, the people who got to see him first and spread the word about His resurrection, which is again, a fairly surprising thing to happen, were the women who loved him dearly. And that was not how to conduct a good PR campaign at that time in human history. I know what, I'll use the reporters who no one believes. What? That's surprising. Yes, it's surprising, because everything God does pretty much is not how we think. His ways are higher than our ways, they're different. The God of the Bible is so different to the human psyche, the human mentality. And there are hundreds more examples in the Bible, of where the God we encounter did not do what people at the time would have expected him to do. And even now, what we would expect him to do. So read the Bible for yourself and find these examples. There are dozens, hundreds, possibly.
So to start some summing up, what we're seeing is there are basically two very clear strands of thought in the Bible in terms of what it says about God.
The first point is that, just as with the opening chapter in the opening book in the Bible, the whole of the Bible, all 66 of its various books, makes up a collection of revolutionary literature, which either stands against or transcends all humanistic and man-centred ideas. It's a critique.
The second point is that both in the opening chapter and to every other book, the Bible places a person, God at the centre of reality as his uncaused cause or the prime mover, to borrow language from the ancient theologian, Thomas Aquinas.
But it's more than possible as we're reading the Bible, that we can miss the wood from the trees, we can become so focused on the first thing that was mentioned, the challenges that the Bible presents to our natural ways of thinking about God, the trees, if you like, that we can fail to perceive the second thing we talked about. It's revelation of the one personal, true God, the singular God, the One who gives life in its truest, fullest meaning and that's the wood. That's the bigger picture. And we can miss that. So please don't do that. Please don't miss all throughout the Bible, how God himself is the main event. He creates, he speaks, separates, he calls, he sees, he makes things happen, he places people places, and he blesses. He is both the architect of life on Earth and its raison d'etre. It exists because of him. And its purpose is to magnify Him, it is all about him.
And unlike the universe, he has a name. He has a backstory, and he has so many concrete words and deeds and stories for us to hang our ideas about him on. He often speaks, he promises and feels. He is so much greater than the force in Star Wars. This God, with whom we are confronted with in the pages of the Bible, is both surprising, challenging to us, and great. And those who place their trust in Him today discover that he is just as real and alive in our experience as he ever was, though every bit as delightfully unpredictable and creative as he ever was in the pages of the Bible.
04How can I see God while reading the Scriptures?
If you're not seeing this God as you're reading the collection of books about him, then I would suggest you do a couple of things:
Firstly, ask God for wisdom on things you don't understand, those challenges and say, God, give me wisdom. Help me to see this from your perspective.
Secondly, ask other sincere people what they are seeing about God in the pages of the Bible that you're reading, where you may not be able to discern the wood from the trees, you might not be seeing God in the in the deep, in the minutiae, you might be missing the big picture. Just ask other people. The Bible is best understood in community. You might want to ask other people even this question, Has your understanding of God changed since you've started reading the Bible, just to encourage and inspire you in your own learning and study?
Put aside Intellectual Pride
As we're finishing, I just want to point out something that may be in your way, as you read the Bible in your learning, in your study. And that could be a tiny hint of Western intellectual pride. That won't help you, if that's the case. And so, to try and help you, I have one more point to make, which I hope will be of use.
See, in the West, we sometimes assume far too much. We think we know more than we do. And so when we read the Bible, we take on the role of assessor, examiner, we've placed ourselves above it, and we look down on it, we don't realise that God is so much wiser than we are. And his mind is actually far more developed, expansive, broad than ours are. And that's our mistake sometimes. It means we can't see what's there. But we can resolve that tension by doing something called humbling ourselves. Instead of saying, What do I think about this text looking down on it, seeing if it meets our approval, we can get more insight if we say, but what was the author of this text thinking when he wrote it when God inspired him to write this? What was the mental processes going on in the author of this particular book in their collection?
Similarly, when we're thinking about God, instead of saying, Well, what do I think about God? It usually works better if we say something like, Well, what does God think? Maybe even what does God think about me? He's the judge, we're not. And we need to make sure that we're humbling ourselves and to say, if we're going to relate to God and think about God and talk about God, then we need to make sure that we're letting God be God and not trying to be him ourselves. And we can even say and pray something along these lines...
A Prayer for understanding the Scriptures
Okay, God, I have to admit, I'm not the Almighty, as much as it pains me to do so. I recognise that I have limited power, limited knowledge, limited love. So as I read the Bible, I'm choosing to take the posture of a learner, a seeker, and explorer. And I've not yet seen or understood everything there is to know about you in this collection of books, and I need your help, I need other people's help. So please, would give me that? Amen.
And with this more kind of humble posture, we're much more likely to start seeing what's really there in the texts we read, to begin understanding what they really mean. And we may get a few more glimpses of the infinite glory of God as revealed in the pages of the Bible. We may even work out a few good ways to respond to what we see. And a brilliant response to what you see about God in the Bible is this very small word, Wow. That would be a great place to get to.
In fact, I would encourage you to try to always get to that point, whenever you read the Bible, try to end your Bible reading with the word, wow. If you get to a point where you can say wow in response to every glimpse of the glory of God in the Bible, that's good Bible reading. You'll be doing really well. That's kind of what the Bible wants you to do, wants you to read the Bible, reflect on God, be impressed with him, be grateful for his grace. And do what he says. I'll finish with a verse from the Bible, which tells us so much about God and is so contrary to how humans naturally think. He says this, in the words of Isaiah chapter 66, verse 2, he's speaking on behalf of God and he says these words,
“These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.”
-- Isaiah 66:2 (NIV)
In other words, these are the ones I esteem, those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word. If that's the kind of person you become, you will be esteemed by God and you will get to know him as you sincerely look for him in the pages of the Bible. God bless you all as you do that.
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What does the Bible say about God_ Matt: [00:00:00] Well, good afternoon and welcome to Crowd Church. My name is Matt Edmundson and I'm accompanied today by the Delectable, uh, right. Reverend John Harding, join. How are you doing? John: I'm doing great. Thanks Matt. And I didn't know what sort of introduction I was gonna get from you, but I knew it would be, and I knew it would be impressive, so yeah, just a, a joy to be able to join with Lord and Lady Edmundson in Edmundson Matt: Edmundson Tower John: full you out to my left. I've got the he great joy Mark to be with you. Matt: Oh, that's brilliant. If only that was true. I'd love a helipad. Uh, I, John, have you seen the new token movie? John: Do, you know, I've heard good things about it. Uh, someone was saying, I've gotta go and see it just this morning. So, um, I think what we'll do is we'll watch the original one [00:01:00] sometime this week and then, um, yeah. And Matt: then pop over. Well, the trouble I have is, um, uh, as my wife will attest to, uh, I watch things like the Top Gun movie, so I've seen it. I won't, I know spoilers coming here, but I did go and look at what was involved in getting your pilot's license, both for a private airplane and the helicopters after watching that movie. John: Yeah. Matt: So, a, he would be great. John: I thought, uh, I just thought you're gonna say, you know, that um, it's nice that you are my wing man today, but it's probably, yeah, well Matt: there's that, there's that too. I surely, it's the other way around. I'm yours. I'm not quite sure. For those of you who have, uh, who are new to the Crowd livestream, this is, uh, not a Top Gun Movie Review. We are in fact an online church. Uh, you are welcome here. Uh, Crowd Church is part of Frontline Church, and John is the senior pastor of Frontline Church. Uh, and I look after Crowd Church here. Hence the reason I'm not sure if I'm his wing man or he's my, anyway, we're just gonna have a, we're gonna have some fun today. Uh, welcome, uh, to the live stream. Join in the [00:02:00] comments. Do say hi. Let us know where you are watching from. Uh, what's Matt Crew writing here? Sharon's in the comments. Hi. Oh, here's our beloved real pastor, SPJ John Harding. John: Well, as we all know, um, what we're doing now is real church. Yeah. And, um, that makes Matt a real pastor. And, um, that's why we're doing it today, because we think it has real impact on people's lives and people's hearts are open. So, um, now you've, you've heard it from the real pastor. Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. No, Tom Cruise doesn't die in the new Top Gun movie, Matt, who's also asking that question in the comments. So, uh, yeah, do join in the comments whether you're watching on Facebook or YouTube. We would love to hear from you today. Uh, well, let's ask John. John, what have we got coming up today? John: Well, we have got a fantastic talk coming up from Dan Rogers. What does the Bible say about God? Truly, I think the most [00:03:00] significant question that the Bible answers and Dan's a good friend. We were teachers together back in the day. We worked together in church. He now has a role in Darcys, in Liverpool, uh, the Anglican Darcy. So I am co uh, confident that he will have a brilliant talk for us because he's always so interesting and inspiring. We've also got some Prayer. Prayer for Ukraine. Yeah, we've got some worship, which I think is entirely appropriate if we're thinking about who God is. Mm-hmm. That we articulate it in song and we've got Conversation Street. Yes, me do. Where you and I can respond to some of the questions. Um, you take the difficult ones. I'll take the easy ones. Matt: Yeah. If only that's gonna be the case of Triple Age, John. I know what the questions are, so I get to ask them. So Yes, that's right. We are gonna have Conversation Street where we get to talk, uh, through your questions and comments that do get busy writing in the comments, uh, on Facebook and on YouTube. Anything that comes up [00:04:00] through out today, we would love to hear any questions or comments that you've got. Um, and I'm looking forward to Conversation Street with, uh, with John Harding, who is, you know, he prides himself on, uh, one his dress and two his knowledge of the Bible. So it's, it's all round. Goodness. John, have you changed your glasses since this morning? Since I've seen you? John: Yeah, I have. Yeah. The, um, yeah, well you've asked me the glasses that I had this morning, the arms are going on them. Ah, so. I'm having to have them replaced. Matt: I see. Very good. I just thought I was being, being a bit, I just thought I was getting a bit confused. I'm like, I'm sure it's, yeah. John: I'm observant. Observant, Matt. Matt: Okay. Very good. Very good. Well, speaking of observance, let's jump straight into this week's talk with Dan Rogers. So, um, as John said, uh, Dan is just a top bloke. Uh, he's been on Crowd before. Uh, and this is his second talk, I think with us now. What does the [00:05:00] Bible say about God? So after the talk, John will be back to introduce a Prayer and the worship. Then like I said, we're gonna have a Conversation Street. Uh, so yeah, without further ado, let's jump into it. So here's a, here's Dan answering the question. What does the Bible say about God?[00:06:00] Dan: Hello. Well, my name's Dan. Uh, I live, uh, in Crockford Park in Liverpool with my wife and two kids, and I've been reading the Bible for well over 25 years, and I've got a few thoughts to share with you today. An answer to this question, what does the Bible say about God? It's a great question, but it's not very frequently asked because in our culture, um, the Bible isn't really very popular and perhaps as a result, the God of the Bible isn't really very popular either. However, variations on the idea of God are always popular and you often hear people talking, uh, nowadays about the universe [00:07:00] or the divine, usually in a fairly positive kind of tone of voice. Positive connotations. Um, and what they seem to be talking about with these new terms is a, about a benevolent kind of being with obviously special powers who's on our side, has got our backs and is happy to help us as needed. But, but there are a few problems with this new modern take on the divine. The main thing is that it has no name, no backstory, nothing concrete for us to hang our ideas about it on. It never speaks or promises or feels. It's quite like the force in the Star Wars films. However, on the positive side, this means that the, this neo divine being is quite hard to be upset with. No one can dislike or disagree with it just because it never actually reveals what it thinks. It's just so pliable. [00:08:00] On the negative side, no one can deeply love or respect such a being as the force. It's basically unknowable. It never actually communicated in a meaningful way. It's just so nebulous. And in all of this reframing of the divine, some more basic questions spring up, like, who is God then? And what does the Bible say about the nature of God and how many Gods are there, and questions like that. Um, some of the questions that are more important than others, uh, and as we study the God of the Bible, we encounter him saying and doing some very concrete things which answer many of the questions we have, uh, and reveal what he's truly like. The things he says and does are things like he creates an abundance of stuff. Uh, he sets prosperous parameters for life. He, he blesses what's good. He rescues people from slavery. He restores outcasts. He heals a sick, he raises [00:09:00] the dead on occasion, and, uh, he changes lives from the inside out. So he is quite clearly an extraordinarily benevolent, powerful and wise being that you see in the pages of the Bible. He's also quite clearly a spirit, although when it comes to Jesus, who is God in the flesh, he has a body. So therefore that's quite a challenge for us to get our heads around a spirit who's then becomes a body that then goes back to heaven. And, and that, that is confusing to us among many other things, which are a bit confusing and things like he seems to prefer one sibling over another from time to time. He, he sometimes doesn't immediately fix things which are causing distress. He, he delays or he waits. Um. He sometimes makes decisive judgment calls, um, which affect many people, even groups of people all at the same time. And [00:10:00] these, uh, trickier parts of the Bible are part of the reason why it isn't always a very popular book. It doesn't always present to us with the kind of God that, uh, we think we want. You see, we think we want the universe or the divine or some other kind of benevolent heavenly mascot who will say and do whatever we want. But what we get in the Bible anyway is a being who very candidly tells us things like this, as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts? And those words are taken from the writings of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 55, verse nine. So in essence, if we're genuinely searching for God in the pages of the Bible, we're gonna have to get ready for a confrontation with, uh, many of our most cherished personal and cultural beliefs. He is wholly [00:11:00] different to us. Holy different. And this starts with the very first thing the Bible explicitly says about God. Uh, uh, and it's also in fact, the very first thing the Bible says about anything, which is a point we'll come back to in a minute. The, the opening phrase of the Bible is this. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, for many westerners today, this is a hard verse to accept. Anyone who's studied biology at school. Watched any David Asberg documentaries or read some of Bill Bryson's book will detect the conflict between this Genesis account of human Origins and the evolutionary framework, which we've all been taught so well. So Genesis one verse one seems kind of incongruous with our widely held cultural assumptions about human Origins. And I'm not gonna delve into the details of that [00:12:00] particular debate now, but I mention it as an example to highlight that what the Bible opens with is a challenge to the way we humans naturally think about things. You see, at the time, Genesis one was written, evolutionary theory wasn't actually a thing, but pantheism was pantheism meaning, um, the idea that there's lots and lots of gods. Genesis one verse one, um, wasn't a challenge to Darwinism, but it was a challenge to the prevailing culture, cultural view of pantheism at the time. Um, the specific details of the challenge were very different indeed. You see in the ne ancient Near East, it was believed that there were many gods who were like, kind of governors of city states who had specific geographic areas of influence and authority. The people who lived there with thus offer sacrifices to appease the God of that place, um, and so on. But in Genesis one, [00:13:00] verse one we're presented with something completely different. Its alternative worldview was that there are not many gods, but just one God who had a global level of influence and authority. In fact, a universal one, it doesn't quite say that in the, in the text. Um, not a local one, not a citywide. Tribal deity, um, a global deity. And this was quite a shocking idea and would've challenged the way most people thought. This God is then mentioned by name 32 times in that first chapter of Genesis, which is the creation account, which only has 31 verses. So God is the absolutely central figure of the Origin narrative account is far more about him than it is about the details of what was made and when and in what order and how that all happened. It's basically telling us God was responsible for everything, the one [00:14:00] God without any sacrifices from the locals to spur him on. And this really does give you a taste of what's to come in the Bible. God continues to be the absolutely central figure in the overarching narrative of the whole collection of books. In many different and interesting ways with many different nuances, twists, and turns. The books are all about him. And not all of of the challenges are actually negative. Some are surprisingly positive. For example, um, no one in the ancient world had ever even conceived the idea of a weekly day of rest because they assumed that if they had one, they would starve. But the God of the Bible commanded it for the purpose of restoring people so they didn't feel like human doings. They were felt like human beings. Very few of the ancient near Eastern gods had many kind of endearing qualities. It was all about power and submission really. But [00:15:00] the God who revealed himself to the Israelites, the God of the Bible, describes himself as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love. This wasn't the stuff of the ancient Gods. Compassion. No. Slow to anger. No loving, no gracious, no. None of these ancient tribal data is actually delivered very much. It was just a load of vague, spooky, vacuous, speculative associations, maybe between cause and effect. But, uh, the God of the Bible delivers the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, from oppression by the Philistines and from quasi-state sanctioned persecution across the Persian empire. In various different points in the Bible, he gets them out of their tight spots, miraculously, practically tangibly, physically demonstrably concrete [00:16:00] ways in which he acts in the world and intervenes the very idea of the ancient gods making themselves vulnerable and laying down their rights. Powers, strength was. Absurd. No one came up with that idea. But the God of the Bible came to earth in human form as a baby to a fairly poor family who then very quickly became refugees who most likely lost their, um, the family breadwinner Joseph to a possible early death. Uh, and then this, um, God man deliberately allowed the people who hated him the most to murder him without, uh, a legitimate trial, all for the greater good of the glory of God and, and the wellbeing of mankind. No human would ever come up with his stuff. It's not the stuff of our imaginations. It's not how we think. When we think about deities, we don't think [00:17:00] about God taking responsibility for our stuff. We think about God smiting us because of our stuff. It's surprising what we read in the Bible. And lastly, no one in the ancient near East and culture paid much attention to what women had to say. Um, sadly. But when God's son, Jesus rose in the dead, the people who gotta see him first and spread the word about his resurrection, which is again a fairly surprising thing to happen, were the women who loved him dearly. And that was not how to conduct a good PR campaign at that time in human history. I know what I'll use the reporters who no one believes What That's surprising. Yes, it's surprising because everything God does pretty much is not how we think. His ways are higher than our ways. They're different. The God of the Bible is so different to the human psyche, the human mentality. And there are hundreds more examples in the Bible of where the God we encounter did not do what people at the time would have [00:18:00] expected him to do. And. Even now what we would expect him to do. So read the Bible for yourself and find these examples. There are dozens, hundreds, possibly. So kind of to start sum summing up, what we're seeing is there are basically two very clear strands of thought in the Bible in terms of what it says about God. The first point is that just as with the opening chapter in the opening book in the Bible, the whole of the Bible, all 66 of its various books, makes up a collection of revolutionary literature, which either stands against, um, or transcends all humanistic and man-centered ideas. It's a critique. The second point is that both in the opening chapter and through every other book, the Bible Place is a person. God at the center of reality as its unceded cause or the prime mover to bro language from the, the [00:19:00] ancient theologian, Thomas Aquinas. But it's more than possible as we're reading the Bible, that we can miss the wood from the trees. We can become so focused on the first thing that we've mentioned, you know, the challenges that the, the Bible, um, presents to our natural ways of thinking about God. You know, the trees, if you like, that we can fail to perceive. The second thing we talked about, it's revelation of the one personal true God, the singular God, the one who gives life in its truest fullest. Meaning. And that's, and that's the, the wood, that's the bigger picture. And, and we can miss that. So please don't do that. Please don't miss all throughout the Bible, how God himself. Is the main event he creates. He speaks, separates, he calls, he sees he, he makes things happen. He places people places and he blesses. He is both the architect of life on earth and it's raison detra. It [00:20:00] exists because of him and its purpose is to magnify him. It is all about him and unlike the universe, he has a name, he has a backstory. He has so many concrete words and deeds and stories for us to hang our ideas about him on. He often speaks. He promises and feels he is so much greater than the force in Star Wars. This God whom we are confronted with in the pages of the Bible is both surprising, challenging to us and great. And those who place their trust in him today, discover that he's just as real and alive in our experience as he ever was, though every bit as delightfully, unpredictable, and created as he ever was in the pages of the Bible. And if you are not seeing that as you read in the collection of books about God, then I would suggest you do [00:21:00] a couple of things. Firstly, ask God for wisdom on things you don't understand those challenges. Um, say, God, gimme wisdom. Help me to see this, uh, in from your perspective. Secondly, ask other sincere people what they are seeing about God in the pages of the Bible that you are reading, where you may not be able to discern the wood from the trees. You may not be seeing God in the, in the deed, in the minutia. You might be missing the, the big picture. Just ask other people. The Bible is best understood in community. You might wanna ask other people, even this question, has your understanding of God changed since you've started reading the Bible? Just to encourage and inspire you in your own learning and study. But as we're finishing, I'll just point out something that, that there may be something in your way as you read the Bible in your learning, in your study, and that could be a, a tiny [00:22:00] hint of Western intellectual pride that won't help you if that's the case. Um, and so to try and help you, I have one more point to make, which I hope will be of use. See, in the West we sometimes assume far too much. We think we know more than we do. And so when we read the Bible, we take on the role of assessor examiner. We've kind of placed ourselves above it and we look down on it. We don't realize that God is so much wiser than we are, and his mind is actually far more developed, expansive, broad than ours are. And that's our mistake sometimes. And it means we can't see what's there, but we can resolve that tension by doing something called humbling ourselves. Instead of saying, what do I think about this text? Looking down on it, [00:23:00] seeing if it meets our approval, we can get more insight. We say, what was the author of this text thinking when he wrote it, when God inspired him to write this? What was, what was the, what was the mental process going on? Uh, and the author of this particular book in the collection, similarly, when we're thinking about God, instead of saying, well, what do I think about God? Um, it usually works better if we say something like. Well, what does God think? Maybe even, what does God think about me? He's the judge. We're, we are not. And we need to make sure that we're humbling ourselves and just saying, if we're gonna relate to God and think about God and talk about God, then we need to make sure that we're letting God be God and not trying to be him ourselves. And you know, we can even say and pray something along these lines, okay? God, I have to admit that I'm not the almighty as much as it pains me to do so. I recognize that I have [00:24:00] limited power, limited knowledge, limited love. So as I read the Bible, I'm choosing to take the posture of a learner, a seeker, an explorer. Um, I've not yet seen or understood everything there is to know about you in this collection of books. And I need your help, and I need other people's help. So please, would you give me that? Amen. And with this more kind of humble posture, we are much more likely to start seeing what's really there in the text we read, to begin understanding what they really mean. And we may get a few more glimpses of the infinite glory of God as revealed in the pages of the Bible. We may even work out a few good ways to respond to what we see. And a brilliant response to what you see about God in the Bible is this very small word. Wow.[00:25:00] That would be a great place to get to. In fact, I would encourage you to try to always get to that point. Whenever you read the Bible, try to end your Bible reading with the word. Wow. If you get to the, if you get to a point where you can say, wow, in response to every glimpse of the glory of God in the Bible, that's good Bible reading. That's you'll be doing really well. That's kind of what the Bible wants you to do, wants you to kind of read the Bible, reflect on God, um, be impressed with him. Um, be grateful for his, his grace, um, and do what, do what he says. I'll finish with a verse from the Bible, which tells us so much about God, and he's so contrary to how humans naturally think. He says this in, in the words of Isaiah Chapter 66, verse two. Um, he's, he's, he's speaking [00:26:00] on behalf of God and he says these words he sent that God says, these are the ones I esteem, those who are humble and contr, contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word. These are the ones I esteem, those who are humble and contrite in spirit and who tremble at my word. If that's the kind of person you become, um, you will be esteemed by God and you will get to know him as you sincerely look for him in the pages of the Bible, and God bless you all as you do that John: well. Wow, indeed. That is probably the correct response to such a fantastic [00:27:00] talk, but more so to such a compelling picture of God that Dan's painted for us. It really did take me back to when we were both. Philosophy teachers in the classroom. In a moment or two, we're going to do exactly that second point that Dan made, which is talk together in community and learn from one another. So I've seen a few questions have been coming through for Conversation Street. Uh, before that we going to have a time of Prayer together and the fantastic Al Marshall is going to lead us in a little bit of a Prayer for you Ukraine. I'd really encourage you to pray along and you can read the words along that come on the screen. Following on from the Prayer, we're gonna have a time of worship together, which again is a really good response to what Danny's saying. It's about giving a vision of who God is and articulating that in song and the song will help us to do that. So don't forget to post your questions [00:28:00] on Facebook, on YouTube, and do continue to journey with us as we pray, as we worship, and then as we get into. Conversation Street. So let's run the PR Prayer, please. Alistar: Lord, I'm struck by the peace that we are surrounded by in our country today. I'm struck by the fact that we are able to get out of our beds, that we can go to our cupboards and find food. And I just wanna pray, Lord God, for the children who have been displaced by war, by hunger, by discomfort, by aggression. Lord, I just pray that you would help us as nations to come to conclusions that blesses every person, every man, woman, and child, in a conflict, [00:29:00] in a conflict, maybe in our country because of lack of food, lack of finance. And I just pray, Lord God, that you would bring your kingdom, Lord of love, inclusion, and healing, and we just pray and ask this in your holy and precious name, Lord Amen.[00:30:00] Video: The.[00:31:00] You, glory you.[00:32:00] The things you. You're the,[00:33:00] the day and. [00:34:00] Day and. You the[00:35:00] Matt: welcome back. Welcome to Conversation Street with myself and the very good looking right, Reverend John Harding, uh, who sat beside me. We are talking about what does the Bible say about God. All your thoughts, questions, and comments. Do write them in either Facebook or YouTube as we will get to those. We've got quite a few things to get to already, John, to, if I'm honest with you, stuff that's come in. Questions that we have and just questions that I have if I'm honest with you. Uh, and so, uh, do write them in the comments. I see Matt's been in there, Adrian's in the comments. Adrian, great to see you in there, but, uh, I hope you're doing well. Hope the family is growing. Um, well, John Dan's talk, uh, what does the Bible say about God? Let's, let's be real. Not the easiest or smallest topic to [00:36:00] cover in 20 minutes. John: Yeah, yeah. And, and, and even on an online thing and the thought that we could even do it justice now, but I just loved it. I thought that on the one hand, like you expect with Dan, logical, coherent. Thoughtful. Mm-hmm. And then the other hand just acknowledged this God that we know and experience is just so much beyond our human ability. It, it, you know, you can't really go around saying, oh, you know, people who believe in God are like people who believe in Father Christmas or the two fairy or unicorns. Mm. Do you know what I mean? This is, this is a thought through, um, logical and yet still has the mystery in it as well. Yeah. So I, I absolutely love that combination that Dan captured in his, in his talk really. Matt: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Um, I, I, I just love the way Dan talks actually, like you say, very methodical, [00:37:00] very logical, very just dig straight through. You go, yeah, well, why didn't I think of it like that before? That's quite impressive. I love the bit that he started off with, um, that he started out by saying, I wrote it down here. Uh, when you look at the God of the Bible, it is gonna confront with, uh, your cultural beliefs, right? There's this con, there's this interesting word, isn't it? That you use this confrontation with cultural beliefs and that actually the way we think is challenged deeply by the God of the Bible in ways that we wouldn't expect. And I think that that's something that Dan bought through quite a lot, um, and, and very well actually in his talk. Um, but what, when you hear that this sort of confrontation of cultural beliefs, what's the first thing that sort of comes to your head? What, what do you, what do you think. John: Um, I think it's absolutely right. I mean, we were in a physical church service this morning. You were leading, I was speaking, I was saying that I read the Bible and it often makes me feel [00:38:00] uncomfortable. Matt: Yeah. John: And I think that's the entire point. It's like we create God often in our image. We want this God come and just give us a little tickle behind the ear and a pat on the back and affirm as in whatever we're doing. And, uh, for me that is not consistent with a supreme being in the universe. Matt: Yeah. John: The supreme being in the universe is God, I'm not. So therefore my life is about discovering who that being is and aligning myself with his well, with God's pattern, with God's ways. And, um, you're basically left with two options, aren't you either come up with your own opinion and theory of how to do that or turn to something outside of yourself. The Bible and measure your life up against that. So I, I just think it's probably some of the most important questions and challenges that anyone can ever wrestle with. So, um, [00:39:00] yeah. Good on him for doing that. Matt: Yeah, I I I like that. One of the things that he's said in his talk, um, John, you are, you've been a pastor a fair few years now. Uh, certainly a lot longer than I have, but I mean, we've both been around the church a fair while. Let's, let's just put it that way. Um, and you, you referenced this, it's like you said, we try and create God in our image as opposed to actually it's God that's created as in his image. And, um, Dan said. The, the unescapable truth is, the thing that you don't wanna miss in the Bible is God is the main event. He is the central character. It's not us, it's him. Uh, and, and too often we, we try and, and this is the confrontation of the Bible, isn't it? This is the, the, the deal. Actually, this, the story is about him. It is not about us. So how does that apply, do you think, to us in Discovery Day life? How does that apply to you in everyday life? John: Well, Dan's example of that at the end was brilliant. It was humility. Matt: Mm-hmm. John: So, um, I heard someone say once, um, well the context [00:40:00] was a, uh, professor wrote testament studies saying that the theme of the Bible is God. And if there's a second theme, it's what does it mean to be human in God's world? Matt: Yeah. John: And I know that Crowd Church, we want to exist for people who don't get church or don't connect into church or exploring. And so I would say if that does describe you, um, start to read the Bible, it has a power in and of itself to speak into your heart. And I can't tell you the countless people that I've met who just picked up a Bible and started reading mm-hmm. Whether that be in prison or in a hotel Yeah. Or at a low point in their lives. Um, it still has the power to bring revelation is the word I'm gonna do. And it's like light bulb moment. This being that I wasn't sure about. I'm now starting to experience as I read the word. Um, so I'd really encourage people to do that. I'd probably encourage them to start in Matthew or Mark or Luke or John, one of the actual accounts of the life [00:41:00] of Jesus. But I think it's challenging for each and every one of us. Um, like Dan said, if you read the Bible and you read it with the right lens and with the right heart, then it's gonna lead you to worship. Matt: Mm-hmm. John: Um, I, I would use the word reflex. Why wouldn't I, I wrote a book on the song That's true. Reflexing with worship. When you see God for who he is, more of who he is than you are left with a wow moment. Yeah, you are. And it's, it's just how we're made as humans. We, we all worship. You see something, um, incredible and mind blowing, um, philosophers call it the numinous, the Birth of a Child. Mm. Um, this incredible view I've got outside of your window of the mountains and the lakes now just, just a, just some trees and or a sunset and, and you're like, whoa, that is amazing. And that is, uh, Ecclesiastes says, gotta set eternity in the hearts of. [00:42:00] Humans, we have been wired for this. Mm. Um, that, that's why this stuff about God doesn't disappear. It's why it's still in Jaws. I think it was Voltaire, the French philosopher in the 17 hundreds. He predicted within a hundred years of his life, Christianity would die out. Um, the irony is the Bible Society are now using his house where he wrote that to print Bibles. He's drawing at a rapid rate in the Muslim world. Matt: Yeah. John: You know, so these things endure for a reason. Um, and um, and they demand a response from us. Matt: Yeah, they do. It's a really interesting one, isn't it? Because. Uh, we are gonna be doing over the next few weeks, just so you know, we're gonna be asking the question, what does the Bible say about Jesus? Because obviously the, the Christian belief is that Jesus is God. Uh, there's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We're gonna get into that a little bit more. Um, and we're, we've got Prince, actually Prince Thomas is gonna be looking at what does the Bible say about the [00:43:00] Bible? Um, which is just, just a really, these are all a series of interrelated questions, which I think are really, really important. But John, you and I were talking before we came on air about actually, when you look at God, why, I guess, why do we have to look at the Bible for the answer? Why? Why does that have to be a, an authority in one sense? You know, why can't we just accept the belief? Like Dan talked about many of us, like, you know, this idea of the force, this sort of pliable thing out there that just kind of doesn't offend anybody. John: I think. At the heart of that, I mean, if I to slightly reframe the question and come back to you in a moment, I would ask, why do you believe in God? And why do you believe what you believe in God? Mm. Matt: We're John: we're not talking here about knowing about God. So for example, someone might write a biography about the queen, let's say for her 70th, um, plotting, [00:44:00] celebration. Mm-hmm. And you could have a quiz about the Queen and ace every question, but the question is, do you actually know her? Mm. Matt: And John: so there's two dynamics with the Bible. It's less about what the Bible says about itself. I know you're saying Prince is gonna talk about that. Uh, the Bible is less about humans describing who God is and more about God revealing himself to humans and humans capturing that as God intended. So the God that we follow and trust and believing. Is an experiential God. And so, um, as I read the Bible and I read about a certain type of God, I measure my own experience of God up against that word. And I find it absolutely consistent. Mm-hmm. And there are times when I don't find it consistent. So for example, there are times when I think, oh, well God, your word says that you'll never leave me or abandon me or forsake [00:45:00] me, but I feel forsaken or abandoned at the moment. Or God, your word says that you will always come through for me and provide for me. But I feel at the moment that you are not my provider. And I've got a choice in that moment of what truth I believe to be most true. And all I'm saying is that the reason that Christianity endures and the reason that old fellas like us are still talking about it and giving us Sunday afternoons to share it with others is because we found a better way of living. Hmm. And it's that humility that Dan's talked about, which is just trying to live in a way that measures up to the Bible and to bring our experience in line with that is, I would say, confidently the most fruitful, powerful way to live. The most transformative way to live. So that's why I think the question of what the Bible says and the reli bit of the Bible is absolutely interwoven with who God is. Otherwise you're just down to, it's like that. Um, I'm can't remember the film. I'm sure it's got Will Ferrell in it, but [00:46:00] it's like someone's, oh, I like to think of Jesus as a six pound, nine ounce little chubby baby. Jesus. Well, I like to think of Jesus as like a power ranger, or I like to think of Jesus as a, it's like as, as some sort of loving hippie Jesus. It's like it's simply opinion. Matt: Mm-hmm. John: And what we've got in the Bible is something that has in Jordan stood the test of time over generations. Matt: Yeah. John: That has been proven. To be reliable. So that's where I'm gonna go to find out about God, and I'm gonna allow it to shape my experience and measure my experience against it. Matt: So what are, um, for, for you, when I, when, when we talk about what does the Bible say about God, what are some of the, the characteristics of God that you instantly think of that the Bible reveals to you that really, you know, I guess speak to you through in your life? Like for me, I would, you know, there's the one John four, eight, uh, where it says that God is love, right? So for me, when I [00:47:00] think of how does a God, how does a Bible reveal God to me? It reveals me to me as God is love. That's not all it reveals to me as, but Do you know what I mean? That's one of the things that sort of comes to mind. Um, so what about you? What are some of the things that come to your mind? John: Well, my question would be, and then in the Bible, how do you see love played out? Yeah. 'cause there's lots of different definitions of love, you know. And so when it says in the Bible, God is love, I would agree. I would say, um, God is utterly faithful and steadfast in relationship. Matt: Mm-hmm. John: That's love. Matt: Yeah. John: Testament calls it hesed, the New Testament calls it agape. God is love, God is holy. And Dan touched on that altogether. Unique, completely different. Um, we're made in his image to reflect his image and become more like him. Um, but God, I, I would say God is utterly good. Yeah. God is utterly faithful. God is utterly trustworthy. [00:48:00] Mm-hmm. God is a relational God. God is both transcendent outside of time, space as the creator. I think someone posted who created God and Dan did touch on it. God, by definition is not created. Yeah. God always has been. God always will be, and everything else is created. That's what makes God, God. And so he is worthy of our worship. But the point is such a God is knowable and such a God desires relationship with humans. Matt: Here's a question, um, uh, and just while before I get to the question, let me just read this verse out to you. Deuteronomy 32, verse four says, um, the talking about God, the rock, his word, his work is perfect for all his ways. Are justice, a God of faithfulness and without inequity, just and upright is he? And you kind of think, man, that's amazing. Do you know what I mean? That's just, it's just one of those verses that sort of [00:49:00] comes, comes out. So one of the questions that's come in, John, what does, um, when God is talking to Moses, uh, God says, I am, uh. Uh, so that you know who, who, who sent you says I am. Uh, tell 'em I am sent you. What does, what do you understand by that? What does that mean? I am, John: yeah. Um, God is making a statement about, like I said before about existence. I always have been, and I always will be. What Moses might have expected when that happens is the type of statement about God that he would've been familiar with in the pantheon of Egyptian gods. Matt: Mm. John: Rah, anubis and all the rest of it. The God of the sky or the God of, um, the Son. Matt: Mm-hmm. John: But God is simply saying, I am. And it's interesting that Jesus uses that phrase himself. He uses a Greek phrase, echo Amy. [00:50:00] And it is simply a statement of. Uh, I just, I, how can you say, other than I am, it's about a, a, a different level of existence. Mm-hmm. Um, it's, it becomes completely associated with the divine name for God, the covenant name for God, Yahweh. Mm-hmm. Matt: And, John: and what's powerful about that divine name is it was always, um, written without vowels. So you couldn't accidentally pronounce it. It was that holy that you wouldn't accidentally say it. Um, to this day, a Jewish person would not say that name if they were writing it in English and put G dash d. And so for Moses to encounter I am, and he goes back to Pharaoh and Pharaoh says, who has sent you? He says, I am, sent me. He's making a statement about a God that is pre-existent or necessary to use a philosophical term. Um, in contrast to everything else that is contingent that is created. And [00:51:00] Dan touched on it about that in Genesis because all those Mesopotamian Babylonian, Egyptian creation stories out there start with lots of different Gods chaotically creating something out of something. Uh, but what we have in the revelation that we get in Genesis is a God who just is existence as his absolute fundamental attribute. Yeah, Matt: it's great, isn't it? John: I also think there's something in that, that we should be honest and say, don't know. Because if I knew I'd be saying one of two things, either God is, um, my brain is good enough to understand God, which would make me like God, or make God less than God. Matt: Mm-hmm. John: So I take deep reassurance from the fact that there's something about God that is beyond my understanding. God is revealing to me. Matt: Yeah. And that's necessary. Right. I like you say that, I think [00:52:00] that's a necessary prerequisite for God that I don't have to get everything. I don't have to be able to explain everything, understand everything. I ju I, what I do need to know is I can trust him. Uh, yeah. Do you know what I mean? And it, and, and I think that's one of the things that becomes abundantly clear when you read the Bible, which is why it's still such a really powerful book, that God is knowable and you can trust him. Um, one of the questions that Dan's asked, have you ever become convinced that that weird thing that God settled did, um, but which you were first shocked by was completely right. Uh, and I think we've probably all, all experienced this, where you kind of go, that just doesn't make any kind of sense the first time you read it. And then as you grow in your Christian walk, you go, God, now, now I understand, right? John: Yeah. Yeah. I, I mean that's the posture of humility that Dan was talking about. Are we, are we talking about, um, examples? [00:53:00] Um, Matt: yeah, if you've got one, go for it, bro. Lemme John: try to think of some examples then live in, in the moment. Um, yeah, there's, um, there's a little passage. Isn't that I, I mean, I've been reading through Leviticus, I read through the Bible every year, and I think this is one of the first years that I've really started to get Leviticus and understand the holiness of God. It uses the word holy more than any other book. Um, I, there's that bit isn't there about, um. There's a bit about like where if a man suspects his wife of, I could be going down a rabbit hole here in adultery. He was to take her to the priest. She was to, um, the priest would mix some of the dust off the floor Yeah. And, uh, mix it into the water. And she was to take that and, um, she would die a horrible death if she had committed adultery. And I used to think, well, why would, why would God let that sort of thing happen? Yeah. Uh, and how could a, a good God do that? And it seems [00:54:00] so, like, um, so anti a God of equality. Mm-hmm. Um, but I heard someone say recently, um, that means that no woman in Israel was ever accused and judged, um, and condemned by anyone other than God. Matt: Hmm. John: And so I'm, so I'm like, ah, okay. I've discovered more about that now. Mm-hmm. I've discovered now that actually this is an incredible fail safe mechanism. Yeah. That deals with male jealousy whilst protecting women. Yeah. That now seems to be more consistent with the God that I understand from scripture. So yeah. I mean, there is stuff that I discover all the time, I think, and I don't really get that. I don't really understand that. Um, but I think if you are willing to do the work and if you are willing to learn in community, um, what you find is that Oh, fancy that. Matt: Yeah. And I, for me, um, one of the immediate things is I remember very early on in [00:55:00] my Christian walk, I didn't quite understand the whole idea of, and I'm doing a really good segue here, John, I didn't quite understand the whole idea of suffering. It's like, if God is all powerful, then surely God can resolve this situation. And I think the more I've, I've walked with God, the more I've read the Bible, the more I've understood about God. The more I get that actually that's, that's, that's just me going, this is how God should work, right? God should work how I, how I think He should work, he should work according to my strategy. But there's a whole lot more to it than that, that I, I think we're, and this is my segue, 'cause next week, John, why don't you tell the good folks what's coming up next week. John: So understand next week I'm doing a little talk and suffering. So we're just covering what does the Bible say about suffering? So we're just covering some of the minor topics. Yeah. In 20 minutes, we hope. Matt: Yeah. John: Afterwards. So I, I, I mean, I hope, I I I, I will share today's [00:56:00] talk on my own social media because I want people that I know that don't know God to hear a talk like Dan's talk. And I would hope people will do that. Um, and share next week's talk because these are the questions that people, uh, are asking people or exploit asking. I, I would say my growing revelation of God is one that starts to see God who suffers alongside his creation. Yeah. And I, I, I find a great deal of comfort in that. Mm. Um, I think that, um, when we're younger young men in our twenties and thirties, we tend to read the Bible through a lens of conquest and success and blessing and prosperity. And, um, so this ties in a little bit with that question. And then actually as you go through some of the disappointments of life and some of the heartache of life, what you start to do is read it slightly differently. You start to see a God who is present with us in those moments. And so we want [00:57:00] to unex, we want to explore the nature of God in that question of, um, where is God in suffering? Why does God allow suffering? That sort of thing. Matt: Oh, very good. Well, I'm looking forward to that, John. I am looking forward to next week, uh, next week's talk is gonna be with John Harding. What does the Bible say about suffering? John, thank you so much for being with us this week, bud. Uh, and pleasure. John: Always a pleasure. Matt. I honestly, I just think you're doing such a good job and just using this sort of technology to do this sort of stuff and, um, yeah, I really just pray it will touch people's hearts. I know it does. Matt: Yeah, it does. And uh, thank you for saying that by the way. And if you would like to get in touch with us, you can reach us on the web at www dot Crowd Church or on social media, Facebook or Instagram at Crowd Church. Uh, that's also the same for YouTube. It is not the same for Twitter. We don't do Twitter, but we do. The other social media platforms do reach out to us. There is also, um, WhatsApp, if you'd [00:58:00] like to get in contact with us. Uh, we get Prayer requests from people all the time through the website, through email, through WhatsApp, which is great. We do pray for you guys. Um, and so if there's anything you'd like us to pray for, do let us know. I guess the one thing that I want to leave you with after a talk like this, if you are a Crowd for the first time, if you are, if you are on this journey, you are exploring the Christian faith. The challenge is to read the Bible and to discover the truth about God and to open your thinking to possibilities that actually God is beyond what you think. Uh, and that actually. He is trustworthy and he is good, and he is worth following, despite not knowing everything. Uh, and I think that's, John, that's your story. That's my story. Uh, and we would encourage you to do that. You can get more information about what it means to be a Christian on the, uh, Crowd website. There's a whole big article on there on what it means to be a Christian. Uh, you can read that, but like I say, [00:59:00] you can reach us on the information below. So, uh, yeah, next week it is John speaking. What does the Bible say about suffering? So make sure you come join us for that. Do like and subscribe to the Crowd Church, uh, streams on Facebook and YouTube. Hit the bell notification so you get notified when we go live. We're 6:00 PM here in the uk. Uh, live streaming every Sunday, asking some really important questions. I think. So, uh, do come and join us for that. And of course, all the past content is available on the website as well. And just a quick notice. Uh, we will soon be releasing the Crowd Church podcast. Uh, that is coming out very, very soon. And in it, kind of mixed in with the podcast is something called Crowd Stories, uh, where we do a deep dive on people's stories. They're sort of their walk-in faith. We ask 'em how they became a Christian. We look at some of the challenges they faced in life, uh, and what's some of their hopes are for the future. We've recorded about six of them so far, and let me tell you, every single one of them [01:00:00] has been extraordinary. So do keep your eye out for those on the Crowd Church website when they go live, we will let you know you're really, really going to enjoy them. Honestly, they're just, it's just great. Uh, just fantastic. So John, anything else from you bud? John: Just thanks for joining us guys, um, and really praying that you'll know this God more for each and every one of us. We wanna know him more, don't we? Absolutely. Matt: Yeah. Amen. John, thank you so much. Thank you so much everybody for joining us. Uh, have a fantastic week. Uh, do read the Bible, do find out about God. Let him surprise you in ways that may be you haven't thought of. Uh, it's just 'cause that's just the nature of God, right? Uh, read your Bible and we will be back next week. Bless you. Uh, that's it from myself, from John. Bye for now. Video: Bye.
