What Does The Bible Say About New Beginnings?

well good evening and welcome to crowd church my name is matt edmondson and beside me is the beautiful and talented and all-round good egg that is anna kell anna how you doing this evening i'm great thank you yeah and i love that intro you can write that down uh it's great that you're here because you were a little bit um a little bit poorly weren't you just before christmas when you're supposed to be with us last time are you are you recovered now yeah i was due to i was due to do the christmas um crowd church just the last week last week before christmas and yeah i had a really horrible chest infection that knocked me out i was fine and then this week i've tested positive for coverage but i actually feel fine with cape verde weirdly so yeah not really ill wow the vaccines i guess yeah yeah woohoo go vaccines uh well thank you for still joining us even though you are okay with positive and the beautiful thing about online of course is is we can do this uh and be uh separated uh and safe which is important i don't have to wear a mask while talking to you uh which is quite nice and also you know it's quite boring being stuck at home so it's nice that's as good as me yeah goodness reason i need to do church i was just bored so i thought i'd come along well whatever your reason uh for tuning into crafts great that you're here with us uh just so you know if this is your first time where there's a war welcome to you crowd is an online church and we just enjoy looking at things from the bible which we're going to be doing today uh we're going to get into what does the bible say about new beginnings which is is a timely topic at this time of the year uh so we're going to get into all that so yeah if you are with us for the first time a warm welcome to you can reach out to us via the website you can reach out to us via that whatsapp number and of course you can comment uh in the comments either on youtube or facebook uh we've got sadaf hey seth withers matt cruz with us john farrington's with us hey nichola everyone's in the comments so uh sharon's here uh wherever you are just say hi in the comments be great to hear from you uh we we do like to hear from folks in the comments and if you've got any questions as we go along do put them in the comments because we've got well why don't you tell people what we've got coming up i've talked enough already so yeah i mean we've got a lot of matt talking today because he's also doing the talk so yeah absolutely he said enough already mark's going to be talking to us about new beginnings and then later we're going to go to crowd church and have a conversation about that we've also got some worship coming up so loads to stick around for but uh yeah back over to matt i am looking forward to the conversation street uh as we're gonna be talking about this which is great uh and next week just to because you know you you won't have had enough of either me or anna next week and you're actually doing the talk aren't you so i'm doing the tour next week but i'm not also hosting so okay it's not like double whammy [Laughter] yeah you are you're doing the talk next week and uh give people a sneak preview what's the topic so next week we're talking about grief which i appreciate sounds like a bit of a heavy topic but i promise it will be helpful and whether you're grieving or not it'll actually be something that's really useful um just thinking about the issue so yeah we're talking about grief and death and those kind of cheery subjects yeah well i'm glad to be honest with you i'm glad you did it uh because you'd do a much better job at it than i would uh that's for sure um so yeah we've got that coming up next week so looking forward to that thank you for doing that and um yeah how was your how was your new year i mean it's the first live stream of the new year we did these sort of little mini reflection things over christmas and the new year which weren't technically live so it's the first time uh we're back and if you're watching how was your new year write in the comments how your new year was it'd be great to hear how your new year was thumbs up thumbs down what was yours like anna was it was it yeah it was fine i'd we didn't do loads we did some family days out um but we didn't have a big new year's party or anything like that this year i think it was kind of a quiet christmas in the year but it was nice it was restful um and it was certainly nice to be able to go out and about and do things and see friends so better than last year certainly how was yours yeah i said well again it was quiet i'm used to doing the big thing at new year you know you get a lot of people around the house and all that sort of stuff so i'm used to that um but we didn't this year um one of uh jen who's part of the fam here um she got uh tested she was kind of positive so all the plans over christmas and the year changed um so yeah we had a quiet new year the boys josh and zach they they went off to their mates they're like we're not staying here i'm bored i'm not failed and so there was me and my wife and my daughter and my two adopted daughters are lodgers uh so there's me and and a lot of female uh presence in the house i miss the boys uh but it was great to be with with everybody else and we stood in zoe's bedroom because we have quite a tall house as you know we've got four story house and so we stood in zoe's bedroom which is right at the top of the house and watched the fireworks from the window it was lovely oh nice there was a lot of fireworks in liverpool weren't there i noticed it was the whole skyline because we can see practically the whole skyline from the top of our house it was just like fireworks the whole thing is like a 360 firework along the route is amazing so yeah it was great it was great so question for you anna and again if you're uh watching the live stream feel free to write the answer in the comments for yourself new year's resolutions have you made any no i used to do new year's resolutions and then i realized that they never work we copied them i've we costed them i don't do them anymore i might need resolution a couple of years ago was never to make a new year's resolution again and you've stuck to this one obviously i've stuck to it it's the only one i haven't broken to be honest you know it's not that i don't like set goals and um have kind of a vision or think about the year ahead but i don't like to be as rigid as setting like i'll go to the gym three times a week or i just to me it just always feels like too rigid and like i'm just gonna fail hard and fast at the beginning of the year and he wants to start the year failing not right it's very true it's a very it's a good very good question and speaking of failing uh we've got a uh talk coming up in a few weeks time i can remember when it is got a talk coming up in a few weeks time uh what does the bible say about success and failure looking forward to that one uh so yes uh what we've got going on in the comments here crew is congratulating liverpool on the win i didn't know we'd won so spoiler alert thanks for that um graeme jones uh hey brad how you doing uh it's great nicholas says mine was okay i was on my own but i bought a ticket for an online gig that i watched from my bed with my cheese board and gin and tonic oh online gig i like that that's quite cool an online game cheese and biscuits and a gin and tonic i feel like is a very appropriate way to draw in the new year as they say right new year's resolutions do get writing now we are talking about what does the bible say about new beginnings i'm going to let me intro the talk uh after this little break so anna and i will be back in just a little while but um i'll be back after a short change of clothes and with you in just a second here we go what does the bible say about new beginnings at the start of every year we all make our new year's resolutions don't we it's what we do you see the clue is in the title new year new you but what was 2021 like for you what are your hopes for 2022 what resolutions have you made would love to hear them write them in the comments because as i like to say we get to write the next chapter of our life so what will you write as you stare at the blank piece of paper called 20 22. it's poetic but before you do actually put pen to paper on your next chapter it's worth asking a few questions like what does the bible say about beginning again does it have any examples of new beginnings what does the bible say about starting over for example it turns out it has a lot to say about this as i'm sure you can imagine way more than we can get into the next few minutes together but spoiler alert we're going to look at four things uh that i think are important to realize when when reading the bible about new beginnings right number one has a beginning number two you cannot change your past i don't care who you are number three your future doesn't have to be defined by your past and number four what you do today matters and it matters a lot so with these things in mind let's dig into it shall we the bible tells us in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth so the very first verse in the very first chapter of the very first book of the bible talks about what happened at the beginning of time god creates the heavens and the earth and this is important because it signifies the start of time it tells us that everything has had a beginning you have had one i have had one every situation you are in has had a genesis a beginning and when i moved to liverpool that was the genesis of many things for me if i hadn't moved here i would never have met sharon who later became my wife who later became the mother of my kids and i wouldn't have joined frontline church here in liverpool so it would probably be someone else sitting here doing the crowd church live stream which depending on your point of view may or may not be a good thing now everything has a beginning earth had a beginning time had a beginning and god had plans for the earth and the people that lived on earth he had nothing but good things planned and history tells us that it didn't take mankind a whole long time to screw this right up so notice that god doesn't go back in time and just redo that bit he doesn't sort of keep going back and back until it all goes right he lets it run it runs its course and that's point number one isn't it the past cannot be changed god doesn't change the past so you definitely will not be able to change the past god doesn't go back in time and start again he sends jesus to redeem our future and forgiveness is at the heart of this story so whilst you cannot change your past point number two your future definitely doesn't have to be defined by it because you see ultimately the bible tells us that god will redo this whole earth thing it will in effect have a new beginning the apostle john who was one of the sort of chaps that followed jesus around he wrote this in the bible he says i saw a new heaven and a new earth and the old earth uh oh the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared you see at the start of the bible in genesis chapter 1 verse 1 right at the beginning time begins and god creates heavens and the earth yet in the book of revelation written by john which is the last book of the bible and pretty much at the end of that book john talks about the new heaven and the new earth so it seems that god's gonna create this whole new beginning at some point and we get this whole new heaven whole new earth and even a whole new measurement of time which just blows my mind now it's the ultimate new beginning and for christians everywhere it's all pretty exciting stuff but that's heaven and earth and that's all kind of god's realm isn't it i mean it's definitely not my realm i mean that's you know you do that god but what about me what about what about making this a little bit more personal so have you ever heard the phrase i am a new creation in christ or i am born christians often use them to describe an event in their life right that they've in fact had the most radical of new beginnings they decided to spend their future living out god's plans and purposes for their lives through christ jesus this whole idea comes from a passage that was written by saint paul to the corinthian church he said this if anyone is in christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come down i did that bit myself because i felt like it needed a bit of that dun dun duh so paul tells you that if you are in christ you are a new creation and in christ for me is a very interesting phrase it's all about identity so if you haven't seen it yet i would definitely encourage you to check out our live stream called what does the bible say about me because this is where we talk about identity it's where we talk about this phrase in christ and what it means so if your identity is in christ if you have joined the family so to speak well you are a new creation how do i know i'm a christian how do i know if i'm in christ if i'm in the family well honestly it's as simple as just saying a prayer and in that prayer acknowledging that you need jesus and asking him to help you walk in his ways it's as simple as that but as simple as that is it also requires a lot from us because in effect after making that prayer what we're doing is we're orienting our life around the things of christ moving forward one way to put this would be say that christianity or being a christian is not a title it's a lifestyle you know if you're a christian because you are trying to live a life that pursues god's plans and purposes it's simple and yet it's complex all at the same time you start your christian journey in an instant with a simple decision with a simple prayer yet you develop your christian uh walk your christian uh life every day following that decision it's a radical new beginning because at that moment jesus deals with all of the past mistakes all of our failures all of our sin the anger the bitterness the jealousy the betrayal the rejection i mean the list goes on and on and he nails it to the cross and you get a fresh start god made you alive with christ for he forgave all our sins he cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross i love the imagery here it's incredible when you think about it he forgives all of my sins and he nails the charges of those sins to the cross and if you want to know more about why this is essential there is another live stream you can check out called why did jesus die which pete farrington did a fantastic job talking about this very topic now let's just pause here a little bit because it's worth pointing out that whilst we may have been forgiven of all our sins that doesn't mean that we might not have to live with the consequence of our sin for example if you rob a bank you can be forgiven by god for your sin but you still will probably be serving time in jail right it's the consequence of committing a crime and the other thing to note is i think it can be deeply challenging for us humans to live knowing that god has forgiven us see we often carry around a lot of baggage due to our past and that shame and guilt can either be turned inward and we become victim of it and we live lives like victims or we can turn it outward and blame everyone else for how we live it's everybody else's fault it's kind of kind of what we see in modern day culture if i'm honest with you you see the chap that wrote about being a new creation the guy that wrote and understood about about the god who nails his records of charges to the cross he also wrote this he said i focus on this one thing forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead i press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which god through christ jesus is calling us that's a pretty i mean that's a remarkable statement i mean remarkable when you think about it right the guy that wrote this paul the apostle paul about being a new creation about having charges now to the cross he wrote about being focused on one thing forgetting the past and reaching this goal reaching this idea of living a life of purpose and calling he wanted to live a life of meaning and that is what we're all about here at crowd about pursuing a life of meaning in christ so what parts of your past do you need to forget right what do you need to put in your past and leave there it kind of reminds me of that scene from a lion king with timber and pumbaa about putting your past behind you or something like that if you've seen the movie you'll know what i mean you see when you read paul's story you find out that this guy had a whole lot of baggage that he needed to leave in the past and i mean a lot right he was a jew but was incredibly zealous about his judaism and let me tell you he was a stickler for the rules we know he was involved in the killing of stephen who was the first recorded christian martyr who was stoned to death not a great way to die not gonna lie he persecuted countless christians and yet now paul is one of them and he has all of this shame and guilt to live in the past so when i say he's got a lot he has a lot let me tell you so through the fav through the forgiveness and grace of paul was able to start over and to find that new beginning and after paul did that his life radically changed and you could argue that the whole of history has also been significantly changed and he found his meaning and purpose but to do that he had to forget the past and he had to press forward and paul is not the only example of new beginnings in the bible there is a beautiful story about a woman brought to jesus to be sentenced for her crime she was caught in adultery and according to the law she needed to be stoned to death so jesus tells the crowd who are ready to see this woman be sentenced let he who is without sin cast the first stone everyone in that crowd realizes that they can't throw the stone and they disperse so jesus after a while asks this woman who is left to condemn her no one sir she said then neither do i condemn you jesus declared go now and leave your life of sin it's a beautiful story and we see that forgiveness again is at the start of this second chance she got her fresh start her new beginning but notice she had to leave something behind you see too often with our second chances we live the same way we do the same things but hope for different results to quote dr henry cloud who wrote the book boundaries he said a second chance is not a repeat of the first chance right in other words things have to change let me put it to you this way you are not going to lose weight eating the same food that caused you to put it on in the first place it's illogical right and that principle applies throughout life whenever we approach god for a fresh start the chances are there may be something that he or indeed common sense tells us that we have to stop doing and there are things that we are going to have to start doing too eat less exercise more just the way it's got to work right if i want to lose weight another example from the bible would be the apostle peter right his whole life seems to be full of new beginnings i mean it's just one after the other right he denies christ three times despite swearing that he wouldn't yet god used peter to be part of building a church or the church not just a church i mean the church he was part of that whole thing right and as the church grows it becomes clear that peter is not what you would call all sunshine and rainbows in his behavior especially towards those who aren't jewish so god decides to radically intervene in his life with a crazy dream as well as peter it seems gets a stern rebuke from the apostle paul and let me tell you when paul rebukes you you have been rebuked oh yes pwc doesn't always get it right and he spent more time with jesus than just about any man which is incredibly good news for me right because when we mess up we just need that fresh start and peter classic example sometimes all we need is a fresh start to reset the counter and go again maybe that's turned into christ for the first time perhaps like peter god is working on something in our lives the bible tells us that the steadfast love of the lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning that's amazing isn't it you can have a new beginning in christ because his mercies are new every morning now let me go back to the first point everything has a beginning and so your new beginning needs a beginning it needs to start so why not start today as you read through the bible you read about paul and peter and that you read about the woman caught in adultery they all experienced those new mercies that morning they all experienced that new beginning that fresh start but it all had to start at a point it start well so why not start today new beginnings can start right now because what you do today what decisions you make today matter a lot one thing is definitely for sure this year we will face times when we need a new beginning we will face times of uncertainty and we will face times of change some of those things will be in our control some of them won't i do know for absolute certainty that whatever we face whatever challenges whatever change that comes whatever new beginnings we may need no matter how hard god is with us during those times he never leaves us and he never forsakes us and today right now we can trust that we can put our faith in christ that he is with us that he is for us and that we can be set free from the past we can put it behind us we can strive on to a future that is free of it and chase that goal and that calling of christ i don't know about you but for me it's great to remember this as we start the new year well thanks for that matt i mean there's loads of really great stuff in there that it's really good to remember as we start this new year and um we'll get into discussing that in a few minutes when we go to conversation street so do start thinking about it and posting your questions or comments now um but first we just want to have a moment of worship and reflection so we're gonna play a song um it's called king of my heart and we just want you to take a few moments of quiet maybe just read the words sing along if you want to but just use this as a moment to just quiet in yourself and think and perhaps see if there's anything god wants to speak to you okay let the king of my heart be the mouse let the king of my heart be the shadow oh you are good is [Applause] you're good and you are good let me down me down when you are good well welcome back love love love love love love love that song uh not gonna lie it's one of my favorite worship songs at the moment uh you are good you'll never let me down all that sort of good stuff we're gonna get into that we're gonna get into the talk i've changed again just you know because i can um for continuity obviously excuse me uh and so we're gonna get into the questions which coming through uh both on facebook and youtube uh wherever you're watching from uh if you have any questions or comments about talk please do put them in the comments below as anna and i are gonna get into all of this what does the bible say about new beginnings miss anna but it's an interesting question isn't it beginnings what's your default if i just came to you and said to you what does the bible say that about new beginnings what would what would be the sort of the standard thing that just pops into your head your default thinking if you like oh it's a good question um i think that the first thing that pops into my head is that they're available and they're available for everyone i mean that's the heart of the christian message isn't it so yeah just that new beginning is really possible and yeah it doesn't matter who you are you can have a new beginning yeah yeah it's fascinating isn't it it's um i've i've when you think about new beginnings i think there are severities of new beginnings aren't there there are some things um you know like new year's resolutions you know going to the gym we talked about that but it's it's it's um it's it's sort of it's not as severe as saying um i don't know i have lived this particular life say a life of crime let's go totally the opposite direction and i want to start again and i want to start afresh and i want a new beginning from this point on where i i don't do that and so i think there are there are severities aren't there they're different degrees of new beginnings that people want um but i like what you said there that it and i think it's true it doesn't matter where you are on that spectrum they're available and they're available to all um but one of the questions that came through from jeff uh which i actually think is set up i could be wrong um i i don't know who's using whose youtube account i just anyway and they say starting again and doing things different not letting your past define you sounds a bit like a self-help book how is the message of the gospel different to the other try again messages of the world which i think is a phenomenal question yeah and i think it's it's it's important because actually um a lot of what we talk about in with new beginnings can come across as a bit self-helpy do you mean like oh yeah anthony robbins could have told me that or whoever your self-help guru is i don't know um so how is the gospel uh how is the message of the gospel different to the other sort of try again messages how would how would you answer i mean for me at the court the main difference is that change and new beginnings that um yeah that are available it's like the way they happen so for me it's like if they're if they're based on the work of jesus rather than self-effort that's the difference like new beginnings with jesus are all based on what he does and on his work to do what you can't which has changed his wealth um and yeah that's the defining difference i think all other self-help is about try harder different versions of trying harder do it yourself i mean that is literally in the title isn't it self-help but like when you talk about faith it's not about self-help it's about god's help and you know having tried various forms of self-help i know what i prefer god's help every time and for my own help thanks yeah i'm i'm i'm with you i'm with you and said us put in the comments it was jeff that asked the question uh so she was just so just clarifying uh jeff welcome uh it's great um and i think i think you're right i think it's a fascinating one isn't it because you i think a lot of a lot of the principles of christianity you can take god out of the principles but the principles still remain the same right you can have a new beginning you can have a fresh start um but like you say self-help trying to do it yourself this is why coming back to the new year's resolution conversation 80 of them have failed by the end of the first month right it it's all down to your willpower isn't it it's all down to your staying power to do it um and i think whilst maybe you can change with effort how many times you go to the gym what you can't change is what paul talked about isn't it that inward person where christ takes your sin and nails it to the cross you can't change that that um that need inside of you to be this new creation you can't bring yourself you can't give yourself new life or new birth which is like you say the heart of the christian message you can't give yourself forgiveness uh that can only come from god i mean you can forgive yourself but you can't it's not like you can play god and extend forgiveness maybe where and so all of those things come from christ and so i think if you are planning on starting again and i think that's an important question because it's an important answer it's not about it's not about willpower necessarily it's not about self-effort it's about the grace of god like you said and the and i think the life of christ in you doing stuff in and through you that you don't have the power to do by yourself and actually mark when you talk about things like not just you know getting a bit more buff at the gym other staff in a year but actually who you are as a person and how you want to change like i want to become a more loving selfless wife and mother and i kind of i can't do that for myself it's about those things that only god can do for you because actually however hard i try i can't really be a different person to who i am i can maybe change like one 2 but i'm never fundamentally going to change from being someone who just always defaults back to like my self-centeredness because that's kind of how we all are as human beings and we can't change our humanness and our um weaknesses very much i know we can improve ourselves a bit but yeah there's just so there's such a limit to actually when you get to the really deep stuff that you can't really change yourself yeah no it's very true and i mean i i'm reminded we i took touched on it a little bit you know where paul talks about um the one thing that i do one of my favorite verses i just did let's just distill this down to one thing that i do i forget the past and i press on towards the upward call of christ jesus and it's like i i refuse to be defined or held back by my past and let's say paul's past was you know it wasn't filled with good stuff let's just put it that way um but my whole life my whole purpose now is to press on for this goal the would call the upward goal of christ calling isn't it and all that sort of stuff it's like well in essence what he's saying is christ has a plan jesus has a plan for me and my life is to now pursue that and i can't do that if i'm tethered to my past and the only person according to paul who can break the tether from your past is christ right and and that i i've good luck trying it without him that's all i'm saying uh it's um it is self-help and it becomes but it becomes problematic because you're limited in your own power you're limited in your own capabilities and there are some things that only god can do and there are some slates only he can wipe clean so i hope that's answered your question jeff i feel that was a very good question yeah it was a really good question we went straight deep there didn't we straight no messing yeah straight into the core there you go we could what's that that mic drop thing so one of the questions that um came in what what do you think anna the bible says about change and transition so we've got new beginnings jeremy and the obvious one that we talked about is the new beginning of becoming a christian right starting again new creation blah blah blah um but what about as a christian have you ever had to manage change and transition if things have and how have you done that yeah i mean i think whether you're a christian or not i think we all constantly manage change and transition don't we like life is just full of changes and i know we're transitioning to a new sort of season a new year at the moment we're hopefully transitioning out of a period where we've just been quite limited and or socializing for a long time because of cavid and hopefully we're starting to transition out of that now fingers crossed um because that always works yeah fingers crossed always right um it's very british not self-help not god's help fingers crossed ignore that people but yeah i i don't know i you know there's i think life is just full of seasons isn't it so we're constantly transitioning which you know last week i transitioned back to work after two weeks off for christmas my little boy transitioned back to school for another term you know it's i think life is just constantly full of small transitions and then obviously there's some bigger ones like change of job or moving to a new area and lots of bigger changes that we go through as well and i think yeah life's full of like new starts new beginnings transitions and i i think you know it god can sort of support us and help us with all of those yeah yeah i think i think it's a great question because i think um i was talking to dan pryor earlier on we went for a little walk which is lovely uh dan if you're watching good afternoon um and we were talking about uh there are some people and that he that he knows who are having a hard time managing change they don't like change and i've heard this phrase a lot that you know people don't like change they don't like to and i think it's a true statement and i and i i i understand it you know there's comfort and security in things not changing but then i'm more i'm always reminded of that phrase that stagnant water stinks and that you know life comes when water flows and it moves and you know it seems like god's created it where the rivers move and the you know the seas and the oceans move and all that sort of stuff and you kind of think well life in some respects is is is like that that there has to be change um there has to be movement which i mean and not resting on on where we're at i think that when when i when i think about paul forgetting the past and pressing forward that whole idea of pressing forward just implies change do you mean it's that constant you know i'm pressing forward there's this change that says adapting there's this sort of movement going on um and so i think you're right i think there's many many periods of change in transition and i think that's a good thing and i think it's a godly thing um yeah absolutely and i think if you think about life as a it helps me to think of life more as a journey rather than like it's so easy to talk about like life like it's a destination like there's a certain destination that we'll get to like when i'm married or when i've spent so much money or you know like we quite often i think in our culture can think about destination points we want to get to and that's the end of the journey and actually what i've realized is that whatever destination point i set myself like starting this business or getting this job or getting married or having a family or whatever it is but actually once you get to that destination you realize it's just another stopping point on the journey like yeah you know there's no there's no end point i don't think at which you get to in life even talking to older people where it's like oh i've kind of i've got there now i've like finished you know like life is a journey isn't it and there's lots of points along the journey at which you might stop and pause and catch your breath and then you're off again and yeah it's like more of a yeah i just find that quite a helpful analogy of life it's more of a journey than a kind of clear kind of start and end point like a race you know with a start and finish line um no i totally agree i think it's right it's it's all about the journey and i i think the thing for me about being a christian with that managing change in transition uh and living this life this journey is that actually god is with you through it and and that you can rest in him and you can pray and you can hear him and he does promise to guide you and lead you and that takes i mean we'll talk about this a little bit when we talk about failure and success but it takes i think it takes the pressure off right because i think god can handle my failure do i mean i i'm not going to get it perfect and i think god's big enough to cope with it and that's fine yeah so the change in the transition i can do it in the full assurance that god is with me and that god keeps me and my family and and that's awesome you know jeff who's back in the comments again transitions can take time uh yes they can how can we as christians help and support each other through different stages of our faith journey he's on fire tonight isn't he's full of big questions jeff just needs to come back every week and just ask the questions so how can we support each other as christians through different stages of our journey so i guess what what have you know when you've had to when things have changed when things have progressed to move what are some of the things that you remember um people doing for you that really helped you i think um one of the best things for me is like just meeting with um a couple of other christian friends and being able to talk three things and pray together just like in a small group like maybe three or four of us and just to be able to say guys this is going on i'm thinking through these options can we pray about this i really want to hear god and can you pray for me too and see if you can hear god for me as well and and that for me is probably one of the biggest things that yeah i don't feel like i'm trying to work it all out on my own but actually i can hear god and also other people can encourage me and they can hear god on my behalf as well um that's a good what about you what do you i think i think you're right i think there's i remember i can think of all kinds of examples jeremy like um when i had the accident that nearly took my hand off people prayed for you and and but they did things like they came around with um food you know like when we were uh just had babies we were put on a food road and people delivered food to our house brilliant amazing lovely wonderful yesterday practical um you know super practical people gave money to us when i couldn't work jimmy there's all kinds of things that people have done they sort of saw a need and when practically what can i do here to help solve this problem i think one of the things that i've learned uh having having talked to a lot of people going through change and transition or you know there's something going on and you you have the i don't know if you're the same as me and maybe maybe it's just my brain and how my brain works but i have these conversations and i think i can see the answer i know exactly what you need to do you need to do x y and z right and i and as they're talking i'm like if you just did that life would be fine right and you do that i think you do this a lot especially as a parent you know and you see kids processing stuff in your life but if you just do this and so one of the things um i've learned when other people are going through trains and change and transition is not isn't is to keep my mouth i mean to not actually just offer the answers straight away and go because i think sometimes through change you know the when life changes when transition is happening there's a real beauty in learning how to wrestle with god and how to hear god in those situations that actually i think sometimes it's it's easy to go will you pray for me and tell me what god's saying and because i need your help in your guns which is good and you know it's biblical to seek the council of other people um but in the midst of that i there is something about hearing god jeremy and and figuring that out i don't know if that if that actually makes any sense yeah and i think i think you're right and i think one of um a really useful way to do that i think is to ask questions you know like i'm a bit like you like if i know the answer i i do it with my little boy all the time it's like really have to bite my lip and and not just always make it easy for him but say well what do you think well you know if you don't know all the answers what step one or you know and that that's kind of a technique that therapists use a lot isn't it that actually try and draw like people people using questions is really useful in conversation with people it sort of draws the answer out of them rather than you giving them the answer the probing questions are quite a useful way to kind of start that conversation but get someone thinking yeah absolutely that's very good i like that so support people practically is what we're saying and ask lots of questions be nosy and you know find god in whatever's going on because uh one thing is for sure god will always be there uh and regardless of what's going on and as crazy as that might sound because some situations we face are hard and horrible and nasty but god is still with us and finding god in those moments is um you know sometimes we do need people to help us do that uh and i think that's the you know that's the beauty of the church that's the beauty of the christian community is actually we can get people around us who can help us find god in the the nightmares and so yeah no very a mac uh crew put in here um it can be difficult for people who placed on the spectrum to deal with change um so grace period is needed and i think that's very true actually this is the other side of it um so someone from the outside you know you're listening to someone talking and you see what's going on their life and in your head i don't know again maybe this is just me anna uh in my head i'm thinking you are not moving fast enough but come on let's speed this up why is this taking weeks we could resolve this in hours you know um yeah but again extending that grace not everybody learns at the same pace or not everybody sees things at the same pace and i let's be fair let's be frank i've been very slow to change on occasion you know my wife will attest to this and it's taken her a long time to sort out the food which i will actually eat it is still a process that is actually going through so i think that's really right i mean it is some people do struggle with change more than others and i don't i don't think it's just about being on the spectrum it's a personality thing as well like some people's people's brains are just wired in different ways aren't they some people want to move me and move and do things they're real doers and they just get on with stuff and some people stagnate like i'm more of a doer and my husband's you know really has to think three things for a long time before he does something and he ponders things for quite a while and it can't drive me around the twist like come on to do it do it already you could do it by now this is the thing it's personality and it's the way god's wider than differently as well yeah and that's good but you know scripture talks about um how there is safety and a multitude of counsellors and so my advice is if you're going through a change in transition don't talk to people just like you don't talk to people that are going to give you the answers that you want to hear me talk to various different people and see what different things they have to say because that is that's just super important super important things like i remember remember when i uh was looking for a job when i first started my work career let's put it that way the salary was not great uh and so you kind of start looking at other jobs and other roles with a greater salary and someone said to me because i was i was looking all over as well i mean outside of liverpool and all that sort of stuff and they were saying maybe the first thing you shouldn't think about is the salary of the new role maybe the first thing you should think about is is there a church there that i can serve in if you're going to be moving out of the city jeremy and it's that kind of that kind of council which is not how i would think at all really really helped me and so do speak to people and get the advice of councillors or counsel uh who who don't think the same way as you do and ask you the complex questions because i think that's really handy and really helpful i think on that bombshell we'll we'll close conversation actually before i close conversation street the one thing i did want to say i noticed in the comments you know when we're talking about new year's resolutions and we said just write down in the comments what it was tracy wrote that her new year's resolution was to finish her criminology degree and that's a good resolution i thought that was a very good visit and i thought that was worthy ever mentioned so tracy we're with you finish it off yeah finish it off let us know how you get on that's awesome uh it's not being super easy during these covered times either the reading is just a bit of a nightmare at the moment yeah good luck with that one yeah yeah what was your that did you did you make one i forgot to ask i don't do new year's resolutions i'm a bit like you i sort of spend the time thinking about like everybody new year i think is a good time you know you've got that break just to sort of rethink life and so i think there are i think there are more course corrections that i make which i mean and and i kind of think oh and maybe that needs to change there or that needs to develop there and we want to do this and i i do think about stuff like that and so i write stuff down that i think will be good to do and achieve but no i don't do that whole new year's resolution thing i think one good one good thing that someone suggested to me a few years ago and i've i've done a little bit is that you can choose like a word or a theme for the year instead of a resolution so like this year like i i thought i definitely wouldn't do a resolution i kind of feel like a theme for the year kind of or a focus of the year is quite helpful so i my theme for this year is really to kind of invest in community because i feel that's something that's really been lacking the last few years you know with the pandemic and everything that's been going on and yeah i just feel like i want to invest more in people and in community and um just do whatever i can to kind of um create opportunities for community and bringing people together this year so yeah sometimes that's a useful thing to think about like what's that kind of a word or a theme for the year yeah yeah i like that a lot um i like that very good and i like your theme too so very good uh john farrington has put here in the comments he and john is moderating the crowd church comments today so if you see john's name uh on facebook um his his actual name is on youtube it can't for whatever reason is coming up his crowd church on facebook facebook and john on youtube john is crowd church yeah it's always been the way really uh john put here matt and anna don't do new year's resolutions but it's okay if you do that's very dream up very true john well done thank you for putting that yeah uh so uh yeah i enjoyed that conversation anna thank you for that that was great uh and i hope i hope uh if you're watching or listening uh you got a lot out of that too and started to answer some of the young questions in your head next week what's coming up next weekend and we said at the start why don't you tell the good folks watching what's coming up next week and what they will want to come join us the reason you want to come and join us next week is because i'm speaking and to be fair you'll be much better than me so you know the quality goes up yeah exactly um i'm doing a talk next week and it's going to be about how we deal with death and grief and how we find hope in the middle of those hard so yeah it's i feel like whether it's something that you're going through right now or even if you're not you'll probably know people who are or you might hit that stage of life at some point so it's it's a theme that's really worth thinking about yeah it really is so do come join us for that i i see the emails that we get coming in and you can reach out to us through the website through email or through the whatsapp you see on the screen at the start of the pandemic right all the emails i would say probably about 70 of the emails we got talked about sleep um like people couldn't sleep very anxious very worried about the pandemic more recently i would say 80 of the emails that come in are about people that have lost people uh you know lost loved ones and stuff so um so yeah do come join us for that uh like anna said if that's not you going through that you'll know somebody it is and so um it's going to be a fascinating because you're talking from your personal story aren't you next week yeah i'm going to share a bit about my story which is that my husband and i have had multiple uh pregnancy losses um and also my husband lost his dad cancer a few years ago as well so greece been quite a big part of our family story in the last few years so yeah i'll be talking a bit about my experience with that as well yeah yeah so you're definitely going to want to come and did that i mean i don't know if it did actually i'm just curious know the answer did that is that the driving factor behind the book no i rate the book before before all of that happened but um yeah i i mean i think it's probably helpful for people here grieving and just need to slow down and yeah just reflect on things but yeah it came before saying okay if you don't know anna wrote a book called sand between your toes yeah shall i show you i've got it right here actually hold up shameless plug i think you should put your face closer very good do check out anna's book it's a lovely book actually very very good very wonderful book so yeah next week we have got anna i will be hosting with the fabulous dan orange so he's going to be with us so you're not going to want to miss it next week 6 p.m uk 1 p.m eastern we will live stream again uh the crowd church of us thank you so much for joining us this week it's great to be back live it's great to have the comments and the interaction uh it's what we really really enjoy we are going to close out today's service with another worship song oh god be our guide by john franklin who has been in the comments uh thank you john um and yeah this is just a prayer a song god guide us uh be our guide at the start of the year it's good to say god be our guide as we go through uh with whatever change with all our transition with whatever new beginnings we are facing so thank you so much for joining us god bless you wherever you're at uh like i say if you want to get in touch do the whatsapp number um if you've got any prayer requests a lot of people get in touch uh with their story or with prayer requests we'd love to hear from you uh please do so uh it'll be great so uh anna any closing words from you no just have a great week everyone be blessed um we'll hopefully see you back here next week take care and on that bombshell i'm just gonna echo what and i said awesome see you later guys bless you bye see you guys when you speak it is a lamp into my feet and in perfect peace your spirit counsels me you go before me to prepare what i can't see you search me and know me you lead me in mercy oh god be our guide be life's firm foundation oh christ our life lead us in your salvation you leave me in mercy our guide christ be your salvation may your kingdom reign in every one of us jesus we surrender to your name teach us how to love like you have loved us lord may we never be the same never be the same o god be our life foundation our light lead us in your salvation