What Does The Bible Say About Me?

well good afternoon and welcome to crowd church uh i'm here with the very talented and beautiful phil watson phil how are you doing today that's one of the nicest things you've ever said to me now possibly anyone so i'm very very grateful it was worth turning up just for that quick before matt crew complains about it how you doing bud you doing all right you know what i'm doing very well it's very good of you to ask i don't know why if anyone else knows this but i broke my teeth 22 years ago and just recently i don't know how close i want to get this is my brand new porcelain tooth or made of tungsten or something it only cost 3 000 pounds it's the most valuable it's the most valuable part of my body and my dentist tells me it will last longer than me um so whether i should be cremated or buried this tooth i will have it removed and donated to one of my children i don't know which one's gonna get it i think i know but i don't know we'll have to see anyway nice to see you hello everybody on the internet yeah absolutely and it was great to see you and all your teeth phil that's it thank you very much it's great to have you so welcome to crowd church if this is your first time with us uh we are an online church we just do church but online uh and we say that we're a church for those that might not see the point of church might not get it or you know you like me and phil you've maybe been around a few years speak for yourself you're very fresh-faced i appreciate you i am so phil and i have been friends how long have i known you phil it's got to be what it's good 25 odd years i suppose i've got a horrible feeling it's longer we we knew each other when liverpool were having a very bad run and not winning the league for nearly 30 years so i think it goes back to 1992 well 92 was when i came to liverpool and yeah so you're here before me yeah i've been here since 89 so i'm thinking originally but i came as an economic refugee and i've i've never left of course you did yeah because it's brilliant i love living in liverpool it's fantastic is there any other way to come to liverpool other than as an economic is more traditional but yeah he's to their own indeed so welcome big one welcome to everybody if this is your first time with us feel free to join in the comments uh and on the fa if you're watching on facebook or if you're watching on youtube you can join in on the comments you can also whatsapp us the number is on your screen uh or you can contact us via the website which is also on the screen right here and if there's anything that comes up today that you don't want to put in the comments but you want to reach out to us or maybe you've got like a prayer request or something like that you can get to us through that number down there the whatsapp number uh we would love to hear from you do get connected uh it'd be great to hear from you so warm welcome to all today drumroll do you know what we're doing today phil do you remember uh this is where i go no matt tell me what are we doing today it's totally scripted obviously [Laughter] so today we are carrying on our brand new series called what does the bible say about we are asking the topic asking the question today rather what does the bible say about me we are getting into this whole idea of identity uh and it is gonna be fun fun fun but before we do that phil should we do the news are you ready for the little intro yeah go on then there we go oh yes a very posh intro for the news section i enjoyed that that was great so let's think and talk about the news stay phil i came across this uh which i thought was quite funny can you read this uh and the lord said unto john this is the news that basically john came fifth and won a toaster that is a bad joke that is using it later thank you very much i think you're more than welcome i also came across this uh which is going to help us all in our theology uh and then for the news section so the uh diagram the venn diagram of the book of job the backstreet boys and a psychotherapist i thought absolutely tell me why excellent who's got nothing better to do than work out these memes because i need a job like that and do they get paid for it something else yeah stupid mean brilliant well let me show you this one this is great uh i came across this this is very topical for our household my dad gave them free will and they used to get trucks yeah so so i thought that was good but i mean on a more serious note today you were telling me phil is it's world mental health day um and it's something i know you know me and matt of a certain age of a certain demographic and i know that a lot of men of my age you know matt as well mental health is something that we didn't grow up discussing it's not even a phrase really used is it when we were in our 20s or 30s and i think it's a brilliant thing that it's something that is more open now it's more discussed now um and actually mental health physical health they're both they're both they're signs of the same coin maybe and to be i mean we are a crowd church i was thinking about my own mental health and about 10 years ago i got i'd say overly anxious so you know you can worry about things you know i don't know it's okay to go what about tomorrow what about you know have we got enough income um how's my job going these things are very normal and probably within a certain parameters are natural but i found myself getting i say overly anxious um really worried about things and there's a few things that i realized i had to do chatting about it with my wife and a few friends from church and some of them are quite biblical and one of them is i don't know it's it's a sunday today and we talk about it's okay to be biblical on sunday yeah yeah well i think that's it is it okay crowd church biblical something taking one day off a week and making a day different from all the others you can call it the sabbath you can call it sunday i don't think it has to be called that i don't think it has to even be sunday but having one day that is different from all the others is really good for the human soul and you know other religions do it too and we're probably one of the first generations and i'm thinking about western you know western people living in 2021 who think we can live 24 hours seven days a week constantly online constantly dealing with emails and all the rest of it thinking it's not good for us take a day off if you want one tiny tip about mental health try and have one day that's different from all the others do you do different it doesn't matter yeah yeah have you read the it's totally off topic now but have you read the mark john mark comer book the release the ruthless elimination of curry i have i have read that i i one thing i really like about it and i didn't know i was like this until my children told me and that's just true of all men of my age you've got teenagers is it's quite you've got when you buy something or when you have a a a product whatever it might be does it have you or do you have it i think you know we're moving into some feng shui or whatever that is where you go is this something that gives you pleasure or is it something that costs money and time to maintain um and maybe it's something again you're looking at the the inquisitive nature of our society by which i mean we buy stuff we get it on credit or we want it or we think we need it and you have to ask yourself does it give you pleasure and i apparently my children say i'm a bad dresser which i find very hard i find that very hard i'm shocked as well yeah i i ride a bike i don't i we do have a car but we got given it by a grandfather of ours well right no that's the stupid thing to say is that my father-in-law my kid's grandfather and i'm i'm not particularly materially orientated but and i don't think it's wrong to have any in these things it's not wrong to have stuff but another thing to ask yourself and i know it was brought up in that book wasn't it do if you own something does it bring your pleasure if it brings you pleasure keep it if it doesn't and it grab it it takes away your time takes away your resources takes away your joy maybe think about whether you can stick it on ebay and get rid and get a few quid for it and get something to bring your pleasure um definitely if you've not read that book actually the john mark homer book do read it it's a great book on rest and sabbath so today is world mental health day so uh and like phil said top tip to protect your mental health sabbath take some time off so that was a good introduction uh well here we go yeah yeah well done so today we are looking at the topic what does the bible say about me it's big questions about identity who am i and all that sort of stuff so again if you're new to crowd church we are going to get into a talk in just a few minutes here after that talk we're going to have a time of worship and reflection uh which is basically going to play a song and then after that phil and i are going to have a big old discussion about this whole topic about what the bible says about me and what the implications of all that are we are gonna look at your questions your comments so do put them in the facebook comments or the youtube comments however you're watching this uh and we've got oh yeah i'm just looking here we've got everyone here we've got matt crew here sharon's here uh we've got graham claire hey yeah yeah uh al marshall's here so uh welcome to everybody great to see you uh the question here from graham and i assume you know why he's put this phil why don't you have any flags behind you uh nadine will have you all shut down he's a strange fella i love him that's what i'm talking about i don't know but he put lots of union jacks in his uh i don't know how you can probably do that with the you with your technical skills matt but i've got no idea fair enough no idea at all yeah you are yeah look in that camera that's fine so uh we are going to get into the talk right now the talks in last about 20 minutes like say then uh we'll be back after that so uh you will hear from phil and i in just a few minutes but here's the here's the talk what does the bible say about me what does the bible say about me that's an interesting question doesn't it what what does god think of me and how should i think about myself as a result of that see these are all questions about the topic of identity who am i and the best way to start to dig into this whole topic at least in my opinion is to ask what does the bible say about me it will reveal the bible will reveal what god thinks of you and what god thinks of me the bible is a great starting place for me to establish my identity so why does it matter what god says about me well to answer this question i want to look at a story from mark's gospel which is one of the books that chronicles our life of jesus and there is a story about a guy called giris who lives in a town called capernaum which is on the north shore of the sea of galilee and for his job he was the ruler of the local synagogue and jesus spent quite a bit of time in capernaum the place where jairus was and so when jairus's daughter got really sick he knew that jesus was a good person to go and see as he would have seen all the miracles and healings that were following jesus around so jairus has to see jesus invites him to come to his house to pray for his sick daughter and jesus goes with jairus and as they're walking to the house jairus friends intercept them and come with like a message an update on jairus daughter here's what they said they said your daughter is dead why trouble the teacher any further well that's subtle right a sudden way to break the news your daughter is dead so stop bothering people imagine the instant grief and despair for jairus at this point jairus was now the father of a dead daughter his identity had instantly changed and the identity of jairus's daughter had also changed as she was now dead jesus and jairus though go to the house they carry on that journey and they find a whole bunch of folks who are grieving and upset which makes sense but notice what jesus says about jairus's daughter and how it's different from what everyone else is saying why make this commotion and weep the child is not dead but sleeping i don't know about you i find this utterly extraordinary she isn't dead she's asleep well there's now a massive disconnect isn't there between what jesus said about this young girl and what everybody else is saying about her there's even a disconnect between what jesus is saying about jairus's daughter and what medical evidence is saying about her and it's not just me that thinks this is a bit out there a bit extraordinary everyone in jairus's house was more than a little bit bemused by the whole situation so they reacted in the only way that human beings know how to react they ridiculed him of course they ridiculed him he was crazy and more than a bit bonkers obviously he had lost the plot but let me ask you a question what is more important what god says about you or what those around you say about you your friends your family because it's jesus in this story who has the last laugh as you would expect then he took the child by the hand and said to her talitha kumai which is translated little girl i say to you arise immediately the girl arose and walked for she was 12 years of age and they were overcome with great amazement i bet they were overcome with great amazement i am overcome with great amazement too and it's 2 000 years later but the point i want to draw out from this story it kind of answers that question why does it matter what god says about me you see in life i have found that there are often two opposing views at work what the bible says about us and what everyone else including ourselves say about us and when we understand and believe what god says about us our lives are transformed now we might not literally be raised from the dead like the young girl in the story but the miracle for us is just as great christ will literally pull us up from our metaphorical deathbed and give us a new identity we are no longer dead but we're alive that's why it matters what god thinks about me and this leads me nicely on to my next question what does god see when he looks at me it's an interesting question isn't it what do you see when you look in the mirror now if you're like most people when you and i look in the mirror we often see our flaws don't we let's be real uh we can look at our weights or the wrinkles on our face of wherever certain age like i am or maybe a hair color or lack thereof of hair colour right we see something that needs improving something that could be made better maybe the trouble with that is that we can think that that is the way that god sees us too we think that he looks at us he sees flaws a sinner someone who is maybe average someone who often disappoints him or someone who is broken and needs to be fixed but when god looks at us he doesn't just see our obvious flaws but instead he sees so much more and the answer may surprise you when he looks at you he sees christ he sees jesus and this is crucial for us in understanding our identities and new identities right in church circles we call this knowing who i am in christ jesus so let me explain that phrase a little bit right if we think about jairus's daughter in christ she was asleep not dead when you look in the mirror you may see someone who is broken and needs fixing but in christ you are complete and whole nothing missing nothing broken the bible tells me so let me explain how this works with a simple question and it's not a trick question by the way uh how fast are you traveling right now now me i'm sat here in my chair not really moving at all uh you may be sat watching this video you could be on a train the train could be moving i don't know right so what's your best guess at how fast you're traveling so for me as i said i'm sat still i am moving at a massively whopping zero miles per hour yes i am it's true right that is a statement of truth as i'm sure that you can agree because when i look at the camera when i look at the walls in this room i am not moving relative to them i am sat still and that's the key to this question relative to what i see and experience i am not moving so what happens if i changed my frame of reference what if i look at myself relative to something outside of these four walls what if i use for example the sun well then that becomes a very different picture because the earth orbits the sun at a speed of around 67 000 miles an hour that's pretty quick right and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the earth is moving at 67 000 miles an hour well then i'm also moving at 67 000 miles an hour because i'm on earth right just the logic so the irony here is that both statements are true i'm moving at 0 miles an hour and i'm moving at 67 000 miles an hour now i couldn't use the arguments that i'm traveling at 67 000 miles an hour to get off a speeding ticket for example because whilst it's true it wouldn't work because everyone else is looking at my speed relative to that speed camera not relative to the sun okay and all the people that were in jairus house were looking at jairus daughter relative to what they knew but jesus looked at her relative to what he knew and when we look at ourselves we can do that relative to what we know and see and experience and feel or we can look at ourselves relative to how god sees us and to do that we look at who we are in christ so let me give you some examples here's the first one i am loved by god now this is foundational for our christian faith here's one of my favorite passages in the book of romans paul said this i am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from god's love neither death nor life nor angels nor demons nor our fears for today nor our worries not even the powers of hell can separate us from god's love no power in the sky above or in the earth below indeed nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of god that is revealed in christ jesus our lord wow now i may not feel loved especially god's love but the truth is i really am loved and when this truth sinks into our hearts when certainly when it sank into my heart it totally changed my identity how i view life is changed it tells me that i am loved by god the god of the universe more than i could have ever dreamed about more than i could ever know and nothing can separate me from that love and that includes even me and how i feel or don't feel today it's good stuff right so what's next i am forgiven remember uh what i said or about seeing our faults when we look in the mirror well we're also great at seeing the faults of other people too it's part of our humanity i feel it's like we're a magnet for seeing the stuff that isn't right in ourselves and in other people so how do we deal with this as human beings well again paul the apostle paul wrote to the church in ephesus in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace now this is a pretty powerful verse but what does it mean now i want you to notice the phrase at the start of this verse in him this is the key in him in christ our identity is in him it's not about what i have done it's not about what i haven't done which is great news because either i would royally mess it up or i would give myself way too credit too much credit right you know what i mean no it's not about me it's about him he is in effect a metaphorical son that we orbit and when we reference our identity around him things change when you read the bible you will see phrases in there in the new testament like in him through him or in christ and when you see them take note because the bible is talking about your identity it is answering the question what does the bible say about me and in this verse it tells us that we have been forgiven in him of all our sin all our flaws all the things that have stopped us living the life that god planned for us to live all the shame all of the fear all of the guilt was put on christ and we are forgiven and this is a crucial part of our identity not in a way that should make us feel any kind of self-righteous kind of dude or make us feel like you know we're better than anybody else but in a way that acknowledges we are here because of jesus because of as this verse tells us the riches of his grace and not anything else and did you notice what else it said in this verse said i am redeemed but what does that mean it's not a word we use often is it in modern day uh life it simply means that christ brought us back we were far off from god and jesus bought us back and that's the amazing truth and as such we can say things like i am a new creation again the apostle paul he's pretty big on this a lot of this comes from his writings he wrote in the new testament to the church in corinth corinth uh in the book second corinthians he said this if anyone is in christ notice that phrase in christ he is a new creation old things have passed away behold all things have become new so there's that phrase again isn't it like i said notice it in christ and in him we are a new creation old things have passed away and all things have become new i don't know about you but that sounds like a beautiful thing to me so you may have struggled with habit patterns before you were christian but since then christ has made you new those habit patterns are old things that sort of have passed away we are new creations and what affected us in our past no longer has to affect us in our future i'm going to say that again we are new creations and what affected us in our past no longer has to affect us in our future so what else does the bible say about me i'm getting into this now it says i am holy i am righteous that means god sees me without flaws he sees me the way that he sees jesus it means that i can enter into the presence of god without shame or fear i'm chosen i love this god the bible tells me chose me before the foundation of the world do you remember if you're like me uh the the whole team picking thing at school right to play football or soccer for anyone outside of the uk i was usually one of the last people chosen i wasn't particularly sporty ginger hair glasses the whole thing right and i remember that feeling well it wasn't it wasn't great when you were the last person to be picked but thank god he looks beyond my ability to play football and my hair color and whether i wear glasses or whether i don't or whether i'm sporty or not he the god of the universe chose me before the foundation of the world before he slung the worlds into existence he chose me and he chooses you to see god has a plan for us something else the bible tells us he chose us we are not here by accident and we are not here because and we are here let me rephrase that sen let me get it right we are here because god has a plan for us we aren't sort of wandering around aimless the bible tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and he did that with a purpose in mind god has a plan for us yes sir he does what else does the bible say about me bring it on right we're just literally scratching the surface here it says i'm a masterpiece a masterpiece have you ever thought of yourself as a masterpiece the bible tells us that we are his workmanship created in christ jesus notice that phrase created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them okay we have been created in christ we are his workmanship his craftsmanship his poetry his masterpiece this isn't god just whacking any old thing together when he made you this is god taking his time doing his best work on you it's not always that easy to believe and that easy to understand especially when we're used to seeing our flaws when we look in the mirror so we can tend to ignore it we can wash over it and so can the crowds too they all said that jairus's daughter was dead but jesus didn't he saw something different you the crowds may have said all kinds of things about you according to forbes we are exposed to 4 to thousand adverts a day all of which tell us that we are not good enough in some way especially if they contain beauty products or makeup right but you are his masterpiece you are good enough now that may sound crazy it sounded crazy when jesus said the little girl was not dead but sleeping everyone ridiculed him so do you remember what he did he put them all outside get away from the voices that tell you something different to what god tells you when you ask yourself what does god see when he looks at me go to the bible dig into it find these verses especially the verses that contain phrases like in him in christ by him through him and so on this world is more than happy to put you down it is more than happy to help you believe a lie and sometimes that lie maybe to tell you that you are the best better than everybody else and that you don't need others both extremes are lights right we have to understand what the bible says about me the bible tells me that you are god's masterpiece you are chosen he has a plan for you you are the child of a king you are an heir of god a co-heir of christ that you are holy and redeemed a new creation and loved and forgiven it tells me that you are part of a team the church the body and that we are all equal in the eyes of god equal regardless of the size of my bank balance my gender my race my nationality we are all equal and not only am i god's masterpiece but because of the bigness and greatness of god so are you and so is the person sitting opposite me in the office or opposite me on the train i might not like them a whole lot i might disagree with their politics or their stance on whether or not they should get vaccinated but they're still loved by god just as i am they are still equal they are still his workmanship so the challenge here is to not be like those folks in jairus house that scorned jesus and ridiculed him because they thought what he said about this young girl was utterly and entirely wrong based on what they could see and experience because you know what in the end jesus proved he was right about that little girl and he'll prove he is right about you and those around you when you let him when you dig into the bible and find out what it does say about you and let it change you from the inside out brilliant brilliant that was fantastic matt god loves you uh god loves you here's a song we're gonna listen to we can worship along if you want reckless love thanks matt before i spoke a word you were singing over me you have been so so good to me before i took a breath you breathed your life in me you have been so so kind to me oh the overwhelming never-ending reckless love of god oh it chases me down fights till i'm found leaves the 99 i couldn't earn it i don't deserve it still you give yourself away never-ending reckless love of god when i was your foe still your love fought for me when i felt no worth you paid it all for me oh the overwhelming never-ending still you give yourself away there's no shadow you won't light up mountain you won't climb up coming after there's no wall you won't kick down lie you won't tear down coming after me mountain you won't climb up you won't turn out [Applause] there's no shadow you won't light up a mountain you won't climb up come it after me the snow wall you won't kick down lie you won't tear down coming after me you're the i could endure it i don't deserve it still you give what a great track that is thanks again to john and grace for doing that love love love that song reckless love it's just i don't know feels like did you like that song or is that why i love it i love the eye you knew i was going to say this in you but the bit about where jesus goes after the the missing the loss because as some people might know i'm involved in fostering if you think i wouldn't mention it i was just always curious what kind of segway you would use and that seemed as good as any to me give me a situation i'll segue into fostering an adoption and to me i know in liverpool there's 1559 kids in care the uk it's 100 107 000. and each one of them is precious each one of them is a precious uh child to god and that you know it's up to us as as his people to kind of find a way of looking after those kids i've tried not to god about fostering again but i probably will yeah i have no doubt phil i've no doubt it sort of comes along with the territory doesn't it and it goes without saying if you are watching the livestream you would like to know more about fostering adopting uh you can reach out to phil watson i'm sure more than happily talk to you absolutely i'm serious please do especially if you live in liverpool but yeah that's good so let's get into this whole topic of identity uh and you know what the bible says about me phil do you remember um was there a point in your life where you thought actually i needed to get a bit more of a handle on this topic or is it sort of something that's flowed with you no definitely definitely now some young people are going to get really angry with me about this but i spent six years at university and i didn't pay for any of it i in fact i got funding from the youth oh i've got funding from the european social fund there's something else that probably doesn't exist anymore but um i've gotta what have i got i mean i know it's probably true a lot of people watching i've got a degree in languages i've got a masters in i've got an i've got a master's believe it or not in how the european union functions not a lot of use anymore uh i've also got a pgce so i'm a i'm a teacher and i've got a variety of qualifications in export management and for a while after university i was an export manager and that's when the rubber hit the road for me about uh identity because i became a christian when i was about 19 and i had a business card which said phil watson export management um i had a business account i had suits i used to go abroad and i it looked like i was really living a bit of a dream it was probably something that i'd um aspired to was a younger man like proper job proper income proper status but you know what matt and this isn't true of everybody who's an export sales manager i hated it i absolutely hated it i hated going abroad which is odd because i love being abroad i hated going to well i would just say anna dine in different hotels i wasn't interested in the products i was selling i i i got quite down about it all and i realized one of the things about it was i'd actually put my identity in the wrong place i'd put it in what i do rather than who i am and i symbolically had you know business cards i've got a business card now and i'm sure lots of people have got an insta buy or a facebook bio but i ripped up my business card and when this is what i do to earn some money but it's not who i am i am all those things you mentioned i am created by god i'm creating his likeness out of the seven billion on people on the planet he loves me um and he's got a plan for my life and for some people it's export management i used to sell graphic arts filing for other people like me it turned out actually it was working with young people as a teacher then i moved into fostering and adoption and i even though i love those things they're still actually what i do not who i am and one day i mean matt you and me we're still young man but one day we'll possibly retire from our careers and jobs i don't know it seems a shock depends on your mortgage if you're paying for the kids to go to uni and all that other stuff but you have to find you have to come to terms with the fact that one day what it says on your business card or your insta bio or whatever it is you use into myself that will be redundant but the thing about my relationship god is i am always going to be created by him and i will always be loved by him that's very true that's very good it's a bit of a buzz yeah that's awesome and let me ask you a question then so when when you tore up your business card you know and you and you you kind of did that act you started to think no no i need to start to think about myself in a different way here what difference did that make for you well i carried on for a little while being a business being an export manager but i had a different approach to it and i was like this is something i do and whether i have a good day whether i have a bad day it doesn't define and i think we all anyone who's watching you'll have days that are good on days that are bad whatever you do nobody lives as far as i'm aware in a perpetual state of everything's going really well and understanding that god loves you is such an it's such an integral part i like to think of who i've become and who i am and knowing that you love me and i have to keep revisiting it it's not something that i understood once and it lasts i have to keep going back into it through reading the bible through praise through worship through going to church through connecting with other christians but knowing that it it does bring you a sense of say it's world mental health day and it does bring a sense of tranquility when i when i remember it because you're allowed to have mental health issues for example even if you're a christian it doesn't preclude them but it is part of my journey for managing my my mental health and i'm linking a lot of things here with hang on a minute this is just a thing that has happened this is a bad blip this thing that's making me worried making me anxious and i know there's a lot of things i'm not opening up there about mental health but actually fundamentally if i remember that god made me god loves me god's got a plan for me that solves a lot of the a lot of the worries that i think i used to have and sometimes still do to be honest yeah i'm i totally i was i'm glad you brought it round to world mental health day because i i i think you're totally bang on there it's like i'm with you it would be easy to put my identity i mean i wasn't an export manager i i'm an entrepreneur in my own business and you kind of it's easy i think if you're successful to put identity in that um i mean don't be wrong i think you don't have to be successful to put your identity in the wrong place um but i think if you're successful it's easy to become known for being successful which i mean i do coaching i do people pay me money to tell them what i think which is a beautiful thing right but it can give you a false sense of identity it's like yeah i'm an expert in that field but that's not who i am and that has a massive impact on my mental health and my mental well-being because it kind of i just feel like it takes the pressure off yeah i mean it's like actually yes i can say i am i mean one of the the things i do love when it came we talked about in today's talk i am chosen jeremy and i am god's masterpiece and you kind of you kind of look at that and go flip an egg it doesn't matter whether i'm successful or whether i'm not no none of that has any bearing over here like you say on whether god loves me whether he's got a plan for me whether he's interested in me whether he chose me which i mean and all those kind of things they all stay the same but my life over here can change yeah put putting my identity in that over here it's like the wise man that didn't build his house on the rock isn't it it becomes shaky the other thing that i've noticed a big trend in recently and i wonder what you thought about this is people who who choose their identity based on how they feel on a particular day it's all about you know how i feel about either me or my life how do you how do you how do you think about that do you remember the big was it number one for 13 weeks i'm going back to four weddings and a funeral um wet wet wet um i'm feeling it in my fingers there's a bit what it says my mind's made up by the way that i feel yeah really interesting lyric because i think it's rubbish um because if if you ask me how i feel on a monday morning it'll be a different answer from a friday evening for no other reason then i feel a bit perkier on a friday evening you can't base your life on that and you only get the friday feeling if you've had a bit of a downer on a monday and i know these things are all you know they're all relative but there's another you know there's another verse in the bible isn't that and i'm going to not remember where it's from but a clever person can chip in where it talks about holding your thoughts captive which is is a quite a complicated biblical verse in a way but it's simple which is when i for when i get angry with myself about who i am or i feel disappointed with myself or similarly if i feel angry about other people or i get cross about something the bible says hang on a minute just look at what you're thinking look what's in your mind and examine it and then you kind of can think well is that a useful thing to think is it true yeah and your emotions might say that it's true and it might be true at that time but actually like you say if you come back to the essence of your christian faith ago yeah but god does love me i might have just made a mistake i might have really really messed up i might have done something wrong um and i might be and my thoughts might be out of control now i know you know again we're dealing with a very serious topic uh very quickly so there's a lot more to unpack so you know don't think we're saying it's glibly oh it's simple hold your thoughts captive because i know that that's not possible for all people in all circumstances but i know for me that's a really important part of my of of remembering who i am and i have to do this regularly you know i didn't get it all sorted when i became a christian in 1989 i've had this battle if you like your metaphorical battle again and again and again you could argue that i have it most days yeah yeah that's a very very good point second corinthians 10 uh verse five i knew you know no no google knew i did quickly i've lost all biblical literacy since google yeah yeah i used to know them all but i haven't got a clue anymore let's go google oh there it is yeah yeah but it's it's it's interesting wasn't it because he's um paul there the apostle paul who wrote that in the new testament he said that we're going to cast down these arguments and every high thing that exalts i love the language every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god and we bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of christ and it's a bit like it's like these things are sometimes insurmountable they're high things they're complex things to deal with but my long-term plan is to bring those things uh into captivity to the obedience of christ in other words just to start thinking about myself like god thinks about me to see situations like god sees them right paul is an amazing person isn't he if you know a bit about his life he had the most incredible highs and the most incredible lows yeah he started off life as a very very powerful successful jewish man who was a roman citizen so and so we we know lots of things about him the fact he was able to travel the fact that he was he must have been wealthy had a significant influence um when so he had nothing to gain by becoming a christian he had nothing you know there was no expediency it wasn't to get a promotion he was giving up everything and yet when he was a christian so we know that he traveled around he wrote large parts of the bible that you have to read with a certain degree of context i think to understand but there were times when it must have you know you must have gone oh this church is booming i mean this church is fantastic and then a minute later he's like oh what's this church doing they're rubbish we know he got shipwrecked we know he got kicked out of towns who hated him and they beat him up he was beaten up several times shipwrecked he was imprisoned um ultimately he was executed as far as we're aware for his faith and yet he seemed to have this sense of but i know i am i know who i am i know god made me i know he loves me he made me with a purpose and i know that my purpose is this and to have that sense of self i think is how i would phrase it maybe in 2021 tremendously uh you know it's very attractive character when you meet somebody who's content with perhaps who they are i feel that you know you see that with jesus he he wasn't threatened by i know i could be threatened by other people's success jesus didn't seem to be bothered by paul because he was so sure of who he was he loved other people yeah and that's that's amazing isn't it and he it's like you say he knew he knew who he was and he knew where he was get going where he was heading and it's like if you know those two things who you are and where you're going i don't know it dissolves a lot of things in life with you know where you're going we don't mean i don't think oh i know exactly what's going to happen this week but we know that god knows yeah so you know right this is a bit scary well this is very scary sometimes you know where's this going you go god god you're big you're big and you're no stuff and you're powerful i'm just gonna have to trust you on this one um it's it's tremendously reassuring um it doesn't mean you don't worry necessarily because the bible says don't worry young judy you know there is a you know when we know that jesus um for example he had the full range of emotions didn't he yeah he did right when um uh when his friend died i'm pretty sure he laughed i've always thought if if little kids always wanted to hang around jesus always thought you must have had a good sense of humor yeah yeah yeah otherwise they wouldn't have been there right you know they never go you know always kids you know the kids want to be random so i think he had he had the full range of emotions um i also want to say this is a very strange thing as well about mental health is how often jesus seemed to sleep he's he he's he slept on the boat don't forget about that yeah he went up a mountain he had a sleep and i always think don't under and this is i'm being serious here don't underestimate and we said about sabbath but don't underestimate the importance of sleep of rest um can i say that no no i agree uh the the start of lockdown uh you can i think you can plot the mood of the nation i think i can by the emails i receive every week right yeah and at the start of lockdown one by far the most popular email topic uh that people were asking me about sleep isn't that interesting i mean it's not at the moment at the start of lockdown it was now there's a lot of questions about you know heaven and the afterlife because obviously a lot of people have have experienced a lot of loved ones right so we're getting a lot of those kind of emails in um and if that is of interest you know check out what dan talked about last week and what does the bible say about the afterlife um but yeah phenomenal uh questions all around sleep and as you say that phil let me say if this is your first time to cry make sure you subscribe because in a few weeks time we are actually doing what does the bible say about sleep and you're not going to want to miss that yeah yeah seriously i couldn't even know that yeah yeah uh it's it's a good segue phil you're good at this so we do have that coming up in a few weeks time which i think is absolutely fascinating as a topic you are going to want to come and make sure you've got that and also to carry on uh the conversation we started this week sharon uh is going to be asking the question what does the bible say about anxiety next week as well so we're covering that topic in a bit more detail they are all the things coming up but phil listen in closing let me ask you one final question if i may if you could go back in time to your younger christian self before you tore up that biscuit biscuit card uh business card yeah yeah thinking about you know what the bible say about me what would be the one thing that you would want your younger self to understand more i would want to fully understand how much god loved me and any other human being's opinion is secondary well i don't know what comes after secondary but god loves me that's the one yeah brilliant fantastic phil thanks for joining me this week we've been an absolute legend uh as always the way we're gonna close the service now is uh we are gonna play one more worship song feel free to stick around and continue in the conversation in the chat thanks for everyone that's written a comment or said hi by the way i'll make crew put here that um 15 to 16 weeks for wet wet wet i feel it in my fingers see feelings they're good anyway yeah the last thing you want uh now is me and phil to start singing so yeah it's just not gonna work it's just not gonna end well so what we're gonna do is we're gonna play one more track uh worship song feel free to stick around sing along write in the comments but as i said if you're new here or you've not been to crowdchurch before make sure you subscribe make sure you stick around with what's going on uh i'll put on the screen the whatsapp number or the website one more time so you can reach out to us that way we will be back again next sunday at 6 00 p.m like i say to ask what does the bible say about anxiety uh from me tara and phil see you everybody all right bless you guys lovely thanks bye now the darkness fades into new beginnings as we lift our eyes to a hoping or creation wait with an expectation to declare the reign of the lord our god we will not be moved when the earth gives way father is the one who's overcome and for everything there's an empty gray now the silence breaks in the name of jesus as the heavens cry let the earth respond all creation shouts with a voice of triumph for there is a one who's over curl he shall reign forever strong now surrender for the lord our god has overcome who can be against us jesus our defender he is lord and he has overcome he shall reign forever strongholds now sure the lord our god has overcome who can be against us jesus are defended when the earthquakes wake for there is overcome and for every fear there's an empty grave for there is a one is overcome for there is someone who's overcome for there is a one who's overcome