Paul: The Man Who Stood Up For What He Believed

Matt Edmundson: Welcome to this week's Crowd Church service.

We are a digital church on a quest to discover how Jesus helps

us live a more meaningful life.

We are a community, a space to explore the Christian faith and a place

where you can contribute and grow.

Our service will last about an hour and in a few seconds we will start

with a time of worship after which you will meet our hosts for our service.

After the talk, we head into Conversation Street, where we look at your stories

and questions that you've posted in the comments throughout the live stream.

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and now the moment you've been waiting for is here our online church service

starts right now Now, wow, good evening and welcome to Crowd Church.

Great to have you with us.

I'm beside the beautiful, the talented with an amazing new haircut.

Anna Kettle, how are we doing?

Anna Kettle: I'm alright, thank you, yeah.

Happy New Year everyone.

I was just saying to Matt, it's been a while since I've done Crowd Church.

It is.

With one thing and another going on.

It is.

Matt Edmundson: Do you remember how to do it?

Anna Kettle: Well, we'll see, won't we, in the next, in the next 50

minutes or so, but hopefully so.

Matt Edmundson: We'll find out.

We'll find out, definitely.

It's, uh, it's going to be one of those.

Well, good evening to you.

If you are watching us live, it's great that you're with us.

Uh, good evening, Nicola.

Uh, we've got Miriam in the comments and, uh, new YouTuber, uh, Bamsam.

Hi, everyone.

I'm new.

Greetings and salutations.

Uh, and if you're watching us on Facebook.

A warm welcome to you as well.

It's great that you're here.

Uh, hopefully, like your hair lady on the left, they say.

Anna Kettle: Just gonna pick on the fact I've got new haircut, aren't you?

? No.

Like New Year, new start.

I, I don't really do New Year.

New do I don't really do New Year's resolutions, do you?

No, not at all.

Well, I don't because Definitely not.

'cause I can't keep any of them.

So.

Yeah.

I thought the year New haircut instead.

Matt Edmundson: New Year.

New Year.

Easier to do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Totally new.

Do new You do new?

Do new you?

Uh, no.

We, uh, we talked about resolutions last week.

Me and Sadaf.

Um, although it wasn't last week, we recorded it like three

weeks ago, so I can't remember.

You can't remember what you said,

Anna Kettle: but you haven't kept it anyway.

Yeah, yeah, no, it's because I've already gone.

Matt Edmundson: But no, that was actually, there's a good point about this, Anna,

we need to, if you're joining us because of what John Harding said at Frontline

earlier, Harding's not with us this week.

That was last week.

Uh, John did his talk on, uh, 2024, which was actually really, really good.

Uh, really good.

Evening, Andy.

See Andy's in the comments as well.

Uh, yeah, he, uh, he did this great talk, uh, where it's maybe not about

resolutions, uh, maybe about something else, being a bit cryptic, but definitely

check it out if you've not seen last week's talk with John Harding.

I really was inspired by it, which I, that actually sounds really

like I'm, like I'm not normally inspired by John Harding's talks.

I am.

He's a great speaker.

It's like baking out of the hole.

I don't know.

I think I'm making it worse.

Give me a shovel.

Let's go back to talking about your new hairdo.

Oh, brilliant.

So yes, very happy new year to you if this is your first time with us this year.

But yeah, so it has been a bit of a break for you.

You've been away.

Yeah, it's

Anna Kettle: been, I don't think I've done Crowd Church since like November.

Wow.

Just because, I don't know, December was just a really busy month for

me with one thing or another.

And yeah, just different things going on.

Yeah, so

Matt Edmundson: you swapped with Sharon, didn't you?

That's right, yeah.

And so you're on this weekend next week.

Yeah, it's like buses.

Yeah, exactly.

Anna Kettle: You've had nothing of me now I'm going to be here every week because

I'm making up on the racer that I missed.

So there we are.

Matt Edmundson: Wow.

And we're all going to be better people as a result of it.

That's for sure.

So very warm welcome to you.

Uh, so today let, let me tell you what's going on.

Why don't you tell people what's going on today?

Anna Kettle: So today we've got a talk coming up.

It's carrying on the Axe series and it's Pete Farrington that's

speaking today, isn't it?

It is Pete Farrington, the one and only.

Then we'll be having a bit of a discussion on that talk afterwards.

And, uh, with Conversation Street.

Yep.

And, yeah, um, you get to hear me and Matt continuing this kind of banter.

So, what's not to love about that, everyone?

Matt Edmundson: What's not to love?

You see, you do remember.

I do.

It's just like riding a bike, isn't it?

Yeah.

As soon as you get on, you remember everything.

Anna Kettle: Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I don't know how to do the techie side, so I leave that

to Matt over there, but, yeah.

Matt Edmundson: I just get up and talk.

If I do this, uh, no, I'll show you later actually what it

all looks like, all the text.

A bit, a bit, a bit, it's boring.

Um, so yeah, we've got Pete Farrington.

Uh, and so have you been doing acts long is the question in the comments.

Anna Kettle: We're funnily enough, we were talking about this before we came

Matt Edmundson: live.

We started acts when we were teenagers.

Matt's

Anna Kettle: beard wasn't grey when we started acts.

We were just saying it's been quite a long series and we're

getting towards the end of it now.

Yeah, Nicholas has about six years.

Yeah, five or six weeks left to go I think.

Matt Edmundson: So we've got Keith and Peter Stephenton Green.

Hi from Peter and Keith in the comments.

Hi Peter, hi Keith.

Hope you guys are well.

They're joining us on Facebook.

Brilliant.

So, uh, welcome to our Facebook viewers.

Great to have you with us.

Uh, so yes, just to, well, before we get into the talk, uh, just,

we got quite a few new people in the comments, which is great.

So my name is Matt.

I'm one of the leaders here at Crowd along with Anna, who's another

one of the leaders here at Crowd.

Uh, and we're with you for the next, well, a little bit, like 45 minutes, I suppose.

Um, but.

Yeah.

I think we've now got to the stage where we're going to do the talk.

Anna Kettle: We have, and just to say, like, post your comments in the chat box

as we go, like, because we'll pick up on that in the conversation afterwards.

So yeah, any thoughts as we're rolling, just let us know.

Any questions?

Any comments, pop them

Matt Edmundson: in the chat bar.

Yeah, pop them in the chat, put them in the comments and we'll

hope we'll get to those hopefully in Conversation Street along with

a bit of banter and a bit of fun.

Uh, it's just probably worth saying it for those of you, if you

don't want to know more about us, just check out the website www.

crowd.

church.

You can find us on social media at crowdchurch.

All the information is there, uh, but that's it, so I'm going to push

that button, take the website off the screen, there we go, and I'm

going to push this button, and we're going to do the talk with Pete.

Uh, grab your notebooks, grab your pens, Anna and I will

be back in about 20 minutes.

Here we go.

Pete Farrington: Hello crowd, so today we are going to be talking

about Sphinxes, Judgment, Mount Vesuvius, and even Mullets.

We're in Acts chapter 24, and I'm going to read from verse 1.

Acts 24 · chapter mention

And after five days, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders

and a spokesman, Juan Tertullus.

They laid before the governor their case against Paul.

And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Since

through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent

Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, in every way and everywhere

we accept this with all gratitude.

But to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly for

we have found this man, Paul, a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the

Jews throughout the whole world and is a ringleader of the sect of the nazarenes.

He goes on to bring more false accusations against Paul, after

which Paul makes his defense.

And he says in verse 14, but this, I confess to you, that according to the way.

Which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything

laid down by the law and written in the prophets, having a hope in God,

which these men themselves accept that there will be a resurrection

of both the just and the unjust.

So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

Now after Paul finishes his defense, we see this in verse 22.

But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, put them off,

saying, When Lysias the Tribune comes down, I will decide your case.

Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody,

but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented

from attending to his needs.

After some days, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish,

and he sent for Paul, and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

And as Paul reasoned with him about righteousness and self control and

the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, Go away for the present.

When I get an opportunity, I will summon you.

At the same time, he hoped that money would be given him by Paul.

So he sent for him often and conversed with him.

When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus.

And desiring to do the Jews a favour, Felix left Paul in prison.

Now it's easy to see a passage of scripture and think, well,

that's an interesting historical narrative, I suppose, but it's

hard to see what relevance it has to my life or to the modern world.

But Hebrews 4, verse 12 says this, For the word of God is living and active, it is

Hebrews 4:12

sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit.

of Joints and of Marrow, and Discerning the Thoughts and Intentions of the Heart.

So I pray today that God's Word would read us, and it would read our modern

world, and it would pierce us to the core.

Now it's interesting, because Paul could have used that opportunity to speak

with Felix and Drusilla, to plead with them for his freedom, or to protest

that the injustice he'd suffered.

And he could have joined Tertullus in that cringeworthy flattery

and praising the emperor for his beautiful clothes when the guy was

in fact naked, like in Aesop's Tale.

But Paul does nothing of the sort.

Instead, he chooses to speak to Felix about righteousness, self

control, and the coming judgement.

It's a peculiar choice of words to try and win someone over with.

So let's break this down and try and understand what Paul was saying and

how those three things are connected.

So what is righteousness?

Well probably words would come to mind like this, Morality,

Perfection, Purity, Light, Goodness.

And any reasonable person will affirm and approve of all those things.

And the opposite of which we can condemn without hesitating.

But they're all general terms.

And Paul moves in his reasoning from the general to the specific.

He goes from speaking about righteousness to self control.

And self control really has to do with a person's will and determination to

live according to an ascribed manner, something which Felix displayed

nothing of with his lifestyle choices.

It was well known that the guy took bribes and that he had seduced Drusilla

and that she had left her first husband, to whom she was still legally

married, in order to marry Felix.

So both of them were living in adultery.

The Roman historian Tacitus described Felix as a master of cruelty and

lust, who exercised the powers of the king with the spirit of a slave.

It's pretty damning.

So as we listen to Paul reason, we'd be wrong to think that this is merely an

intellectual discussion about morality.

With his reasoning, Paul is cutting right to the heart of the issue,

to the division of soul and spirit.

And he didn't stop at speaking of general ideas of righteousness and goodness.

He's now speaking about the specific application of

those things in Felix's life.

Following Christ would have meant Felix giving up license to live

according to his fleshly desires.

It would have meant giving up the sin he loved, and it would have meant

a total reordering of his loves.

Now I could avoid this next part and pretend it's not there, and

I could speak to you just like Tertullus would, but I'm not going to.

Paul then speaks of a coming judgment.

And we see that Felix was alarmed, and said, go away for the present.

When I get an opportunity, I will summon you.

We kind of have the tendency to be like that, don't we?

We hold God at arm's length, and yet we want to keep Him close enough

in case we have need of Him, or He might benefit us in some way.

So Paul, this prisoner, the man on trial, tells the one with the

power over his life and his freedom that there is a coming judgment.

Um, a little while back on Crowd, we saw that, um, the jailer,

uh, rushed to the prisoner Paul and asked him how to be saved.

That's what the gospel does.

It's a great equalizer.

It is the great equalizer.

It flips everything upside down.

And just as Felix was alarmed, we all have reason to be alarmed.

We all have reason to tremble.

Only God can judge us is just not the flex that we think it is.

Um, a little while back on Crowd, I quoted C.

S.

Lewis when he said that at first Christianity presents

us with terrifying facts.

And it's those facts about Christianity that got Felix alarmed.

An old preacher called Martin Lloyd Jones said this, Have you ever trembled?

Have you ever been disturbed?

Have you felt concerned?

Have you ever become anxious?

If not, you have never heard this gospel.

No man can truly hear this gospel without knowing something about trembling.

Now, as I was thinking about all of this, I was reminded of, um, the 80s

fantasy film, The Neverending Story.

This might be a bit of a niche pop culture reference, but, um, in this film, the

protagonist I've forgotten his name now.

Bastion, I think.

He's reading a book, this fantasy story, and as he's reading it he

kind of realises that he is also the protagonist in the story.

It's a fantasy.

And the protagonist in the story is called Atreyu.

He's a young warrior and he's tasked with defeating an evil force.

And his quest leads him to the Sphinx Gate.

And the Sphinxes are able to see in a There's a sphinx on either side, and

these sphinxes are able to see into a man's heart, and anybody who isn't

found to be worthy is killed with lasers that shoot out of their eyes.

And as Atreyu edges closer to the gate, he sees the corpses of those

who've gone before him and been incinerated, and the words of his

mentor are then ringing in his ears.

Oh

no!

Don't start to doubt

yourself!

Be confident!

And that really echoes the message of our age, doesn't it?

Don't start to doubt yourself.

Be confident.

And as a child, that scene made me feel deeply uneasy.

I loved the film, but that really, really disturbed me.

Um, but you should go check it out, the film, it's great, it's awesome.

It's, um, terribly cheesy, um, classic 80s fantasy.

And the theme tune was sung by this guy with this amazing mullet.

It's just ridiculous.

But there was something about that scene, um, that to me hinted at something true.

Not in fantasy, but in reality, that there would one day be a test that I would not

be able to pass, that I wouldn't find reason enough to have confidence, or

that there might be a judgment coming.

Now, I also, it would occasionally have dreams in which I was, like, being crushed

by these cosmic objects, these huge, huge objects that would Um, that were just

spinning out of control and, and about to crush me and, and they terrified me.

But this, this feeling of not having confidence and knowing that I, uh,

knowing that I didn't have it in me to save myself, uh, really troubled me.

Possibly, if there are any psychologists listening, you're

probably having a great time right now.

Tune in next time for more.

But it might be tempting to just call this self esteem problems and to leave

it there as if we've settled the issue.

But low self esteem was a symptom.

And you can find many effective ways of dealing with symptoms in the world.

But we have never been able to treat the cause.

Because you can feel confident, like when you've been in a certain

environment a number of times and you know what you're doing.

When you, you're experienced or skilled at something, or maybe when you've

got a certain title or qualification.

But what if all of those things were to be stripped away?

Like we can psychologize man to the nth degree, but it is God's Word

that truly reads us and pierces to the division of soul and of spirit.

Like think about it.

When did insecurity first enter the picture?

When did fear, trembling, first enter the picture?

We have to go all the way back to the garden in Genesis.

It was when Adam and Eve were no longer sure of their standing before God,

and they heard him walking in the cool of the day and they trembled and hid.

Why?

There hadn't been any death, no childhood trauma, there was no pain.

From their upbringings, they were just naked in their sin.

And we go to great, great lengths to, to try to project the appearance of

confidence and really much of social media is used for that very purpose.

But there's a difference between projecting an appearance of confidence

and having a lasting, eternal certainty and hope that isn't contingent on

material things or circumstance or the connections that you have.

Now, when Paul was speaking of righteousness and self control,

he wasn't being self righteous.

He too knew what it was to be alarmed.

On the road to Damascus, you've probably heard of this story, as he's on his

way to go and persecute Christians.

Jesus meets him powerfully, and it says in Acts 9, verse 6, that he,

Acts 9:6

Paul, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do?

Just imagine being invited to a church in the first century, and your

friends are introducing you to people.

Oh, that's so and so, and oh, that guy over there, you see him?

His name's Paul.

Yeah, he used to round us Christians up, imprison us, persecute us, and kill us.

And he even stood by in approval of the stoning of our good friend Stephen.

And do you know what?

Do you know what's incredible?

That guy has confidence.

He has a hope.

Which is insane, because if there's a coming judgment, then surely someone like

Paul has got it coming for them, right?

Surely he should not have even a shred of confidence.

But Paul looks to that day, and he has a hope.

We saw in verse 15, as he's making his defense, Having a hope in God,

that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

Now, it is no accident that this mention of, of hope and, and resurrection

of both the just and the unjust.

And then when he talks about coming judgment, those two things are just

eight verses apart because when, when Paul spoke of resurrection,

he knew what will accompany it.

Now, there are many verses in the Bible that talk about, um, Jesus coming

in righteousness to judge the world.

Uh, I'm just going to choose one, but there are, there are many.

So Acts 17 verse 31 says, He, that's God, commands all people everywhere

Acts 17:31

to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in

righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, that man being Jesus.

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

But Paul has hope.

He has confidence.

Not because he got himself a life coach or a guru, like a guru, like

Atreyu in The NeverEnding Story.

It wasn't because he'd repeated to himself, don't start to

doubt yourself, be confident.

Paul was confident because he had hidden himself in Christ.

The source of all insecurity, alternately, comes from being

unsure of your standing before God.

The one on whom you depend for every breath you take.

And conversely, the source of all hope and true confidence, not just the

appearance of confidence, like being a good public speaker or something, but real

certainty and assurance comes from being hidden in Christ and the righteousness

that only He can clothe you in.

Because if you're impure or unrighteous, Which we all are, if

we're left to it, to our own devices.

God's presence is dangerous to you.

And that's not because it's bad, but because it's so good.

Like, think of it, we can think of it a bit like the sun.

The sun is a source of life.

We couldn't and wouldn't exist without it.

But it is dangerous.

You get too close, and you die.

But Jesus Christ has made a way for us to stand in the centre, in the

white hot heat of his glory, and enjoy it forever, and for it to be our

greatest treasure, and our eternal joy.

So that, that concrete hope that, that he will find, that Paul will

find before the judge, before God, this has a direct impact on how he's

standing before the governor now.

He's, he's not choosing, he's not choosing flattery.

He's not choosing to just try and, to just try and get out.

He wants to have a clear conscience before God and man.

He doesn't, he doesn't want to be nice.

He wants to be loving.

He's trying to tell Felix what he, um, what he needs to hear.

And many accusations were brought against Paul, but he's looking to this fixed

future date now, and he sees, like Romans 7 says, Uh, that, that Satan is the

accuser who accuses believers before God, while Jesus is the advocate who is making

appeals on our behalf for the father.

And this is our sure and steady anchor of the soul.

Um, I, I always quote C.

S.

Lewis and here we go again.

Um, he, he says this wonderfully in, um, In a sermon called The

Weight of Glory, it's one of the best things you'll ever read.

He says this, In the end, that face, which is the delight or terror of the

universe, must be turned upon each of us, either with one expression or

the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame

that can never be cured or disguised.

The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by

the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses shall

actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.

To please God, to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness, to be

loved by God, not merely pitied or tolerated, but delighted in.

As an artist delights in his work, or a father in his son, it seems

impossible a weight of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain.

But so it is.

But so it is.

And I could have avoided talking about judgement, but to avoid it is to

pretend that one of the most fundamental Elements of the, the, the, the great

story of the Bible is not there.

And there is one more lesson here in this story with Felix that we cannot avoid.

Felix sent Paul away and he said, oh, I'll, I'll call upon you again

at a more convenient time when, when it suits me, don't delay.

I'm the type of person who has.

20 open tabs on my browser that I think I'll come back to at some point, so

like blogs or articles that have caught my eye but I haven't, I just haven't

gotten around to reading, or tasks on my Google Calendar, I'm terrible for

this, I just keep moving along every day.

Didn't get it done today but that's alright, I just just slide it across.

I'm always gonna have tomorrow, right, and we think we're going to live forever.

Due to technological advances, by and large, we're pretty much able to

push the reality of death far from our minds, at least that compared

to generations gone before us.

It says in James 4 verse 14, you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

James 4:14

What is your life?

You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Drusilla probably thought she had more time when she was in Pompeii with her

son Agrippa on 24th of August in 79 AD.

She died that day in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

And Felix probably thought that he had more time to enjoy his governor,

but just two years later he was stripped of his position, of his

title, of his influence, everything upon which his confidence rested.

was gone in an instant.

I'm gonna, um, just end with a quote from a guy called Paul Washer.

He says that with one hand, God is motioning man to come to him.

He's pleading with man to come to him.

That's what Paul was doing with Felix, reasoning with him,

pleading with him to come to God.

Christ has made a way for us to stand in the white hot heat of his presence

and his glory and his righteousness.

With the other hand, God is holding back his wrath and soon

he's going to drop both hands.

So my message today is do not delay.

Come to Christ today and clothe yourself in the, clothe yourself in the

righteousness that he offers you freely.

Thanks for listening.

Matt Edmundson: See you soon.

Welcome back.

Uh, thanks Pete for the talk or should we say Luigi?

Yeah,

Anna Kettle: I like the fact that we've moved on from talking about my hair to

Pete's moustache, which is very special.

It's probably the best one I've seen.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it is.

He's got a good tache as well, Pete, hasn't he?

Yeah,

Anna Kettle: that's not half a moustache, is

Matt Edmundson: it?

It's a good tache.

If you're going to do it, do it like Pete.

Also

Anna Kettle: a good talk as well, with a good moustache, well done,

Matt Edmundson: also a good talk.

Yeah, very good talk, uh, and we're going to get into that.

So any questions, any of your own thoughts, put them in the comments.

We're going to get to that in Conversation Street.

Um, but just to, if you've joined us during the talk, if you don't

know us, my name's Matt and this is Anna, who's just had a new hairdo,

uh, hence the reason we're not, oh, I've just dropped a bit off my hair.

Yeah,

Anna Kettle: we're talking, that's why we're, uh, talking about it again.

Matt Edmundson: Absolutely.

Thought we'd got on from that, but no.

We have, uh, we have, we really have.

So it's great that you're here, it's great that you're with us.

Spoiler alert, if you're watching this and waiting for the football

results, uh, fingers in your ears now, because 0, which, um, is A

Pete Farrington: beautiful

Anna Kettle: thing.

If you come from Liverpool, like we both do.

Matt Edmundson: Well, if you live in Liverpool, yeah, like we both

do, we are beaming out of Liverpool right now and big Liverpool fan.

In fact, I don't know if I've told you this, I chose Liverpool University not

because of the quality of the course, but because of the football team.

Anna Kettle: Well, I chose Liverpool University because of the quality

of the music scene and the club scene at the time, so there we are.

Also not because of the course.

Matt Edmundson: It's funny what makes us choose universities, isn't it really?

But yes, so yeah, well done Liverpool, congratulations, we're stoked.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's funny.

Let's talk about the talk, rather than the football, and the club scene of Liverpool.

And

Anna Kettle: people's moustache and hair.

You can't say we don't cover a breadth of issues here on Crowd Church.

Matt Edmundson: We cover all the topics, all the bases, ladies and gentlemen.

It's what gets covered on the church, yeah, it's brilliant.

So, Pete's talk, I've got lots of notes.

There's a couple of things that I want to jump straight into.

Let's go into the deep end.

I'm just going to get my glasses here to see what I wrote.

Because I'm an old man and I need them now.

I'm But there's a few terms that I just want to uncover a little bit

that Pete used in case, um, in case people don't know what they mean.

So Pete used this phrase, um, that certainty comes from being hidden

in Christ and His righteousness.

Uh, oh no, hidden in Christ and the righteousness He can clothe you in.

It's quite a poetic phrase, isn't it?

Yes.

The hidden in Christ and the righteousness he can clothe you in.

Let's, let's jump into that.

What does Pete mean when he says being clothed in righteousness?

That's a good

Anna Kettle: question.

Matt Edmundson: I mean, we're trying to predict what Pete meant.

Anyone got any thoughts

Anna Kettle: on the chat bot?

Matt Edmundson: Put your answers in the chat, please.

What did Pete mean when he said being clothed in righteousness?

In fact, what does righteousness mean?

Let's start with that because it's a term, uh, that we use a

lot, especially in church circles.

Um, and something that came up in this, uh, passage, righteousness and

self control, um, Pete talks about being clothed in righteousness.

He compared it to the judgment of God.

So.

What does righteousness mean?

Have a think about that.

Again, write your answers in the comments.

What does it mean?

Is that a question for me?

Over to our resident theologian, Anna Kettle.

Anna Kettle: So I think righteousness, I mean, I don't know if this is technically

a dictionary definition, but um, to me righteousness means like the kind of,

Perfectness of God, um, against our imperfect human nature, which is, you

know, as Pete touched on, you know, we, we try our best, but we're still, we

get it wrong sometimes in the Bible.

It calls that a sin.

And it just means.

So, for me, God's righteousness or God's, it's like God's

rightness, God's perfection.

Or like that, rightness.

Imperfect.

Matt Edmundson: That's good.

I do like that, God's rightness.

It's a very good answer.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's important to understand this because it's a very key concept, I think,

of Christianity that, let's say I'm, Unrighteous here and God's righteous here.

And I, I try and do things to, to go from being unrighteous to righteous.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Um, and the Bible calls, this works, so we try and do the right

thing at the right time to try and appease God in some way to try and

create some level of righteousness.

The trouble is.

I'm never, I might go from here to here, but I'm still miles away.

Yeah, right.

So the, the core message of the Christian faith is, it doesn't matter what you

have done or haven't done in your past life where righteousness is concerned.

Um, and this was again, something that, uh, Porter, the just and the unjust, I

think was a phrase he used in the past.

It doesn't really matter.

What matters is no one can in their own effort attain the righteousness

that is solely God's because we're just not that cool, unfortunately.

But the flip side of that story is

Anna Kettle: that we don't need to God offers to us for free.

I guess it's like we, it's like we

Matt Edmundson: practice that

, Anna Kettle: but it's true, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

Like we, we don't.

It is unattainable.

It's unearnable.

You can't work your way into God's favour, but like what an incredible

truth that we don't have to either.

Like so many, so much of religion is, um, based on works and good works and trying

hard to win God round or get God's favour.

And the whole point of the Christian gospel, the Christian

message at its core is.

That there's nothing you can do to earn God's favour, but he gives

it to you for free, if you ask

Matt Edmundson: for it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's a beautiful thing.

It's an amazing thing.

Yeah.

And so that's the sort of the core.

So that's what righteousness is.

God's rightness, God's holy standard.

Another way I've heard righteousness talked about is

right standing with God, right?

So if I am a righteous person, I have the ability to go into.

Uh, scripture talks about this actually in quite a vivid term about boldly

entering the throne of grace, like just going before God's throne boldly

and confidently and with your head high, where you can do that if you're

righteous and this is where, um, that confidence, that assurance that Pete

was talking about comes from, right?

If you're not righteous, it's kind of hard to stand in front of a

holy God and be fully confident.

Now I'm making all kinds of assumptions here, obviously, but, um, I think

that's what Pete was talking about.

So if that's righteousness, right, standing with God, God's rightness,

God's holy standard, the ability to stand before God without blame.

Um, and we can't do it, but Christ does it for us.

We can talk more about this in a few weeks, actually.

Um, but what does, what do you think he means when he says

clothe yourself in righteousness?

Thank you.

Because it's an interesting phrase that the Bible uses on several occasions,

especially in the Old Testament, to clothe

Anna Kettle: yourself.

Yes.

Clothe yourself is like almost something like you choose to put on, isn't it?

Mm-Hmm.

Like, it's like, you know, you could interchange that with cove

yourself with the right business.

Yeah.

But it seems like it's a choice to put on.

Yeah, wear it.

Yeah.

You don't have to.

Um, it's quite an interesting point, isn't it?

Yeah, it is actually.

You choose to, you choose to wear it or not.

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, no, it's an interesting one.

It is an interesting one.

Do you choose to wear God's, it's a fascinating phrase, clothe yourself,

like, I like that because you say it's a choice and it is a choice.

And it's a choice that we get to make, isn't it?

To actually go Yeah, no, I'm, I need his righteousness.

Well, you meet a lot of

Anna Kettle: Christians, don't you?

And people who, you know, have no faith as well, but certainly you

can meet a lot of Christians that are a bit kind of, oh, woe is me.

I need to be very humble and, you know, and humility is a good thing, isn't it?

Nobody, you know, It's not a good thing to be full of yourself.

But but this isn't about being full of yourself and confident in that way.

Like it's not about I think Pete mentioned that in his talk that

it's not about self confidence.

It's about confidence in God.

Yeah, exactly.

So it's like an inner confidence that comes from knowing who

you are, and how God sees you.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, I think people can misinterpret that and think

either either come across very egotistical and full of themselves.

Yeah.

You can meet religious people who are like, Oh, you know, I must

become less and be very humble.

I must be a worm.

Yeah.

I think that was a phrase.

Yeah.

It's kind of neither of

Matt Edmundson: those things.

Yeah.

It's yeah.

Yeah.

The scripture says to not think of yourself more highly than you

ought, uh, which doesn't, it's just an interesting phrase when

you analyze what, what it said.

I mean, that's the new conclusion.

How much ought you to think of yourself?

Yeah.

How much?

Yeah.

Highly than you ought.

So you ought to think something of yourself.

Yeah.

But not more highly than you should think of yourself like I am aware that as a

person God loves me enough to die for me.

But I mean, I would often joke I should I don't know if I

should say this on live or not.

But I would often joke with Dave Connolly, who's also done quite

a lot of the talks at Crowd.

He was one of the founding pastors of our church.

And he was He's just such a legend of a man, I love the bones of Dave Connolly,

but Dave and I would often banter, and it, can I just preface everything I'm about to

say, it was banter, it was never serious, it was just Dave and I just joking

around, but I would often say things to Dave, like he'd say, how you getting on?

I'd go, well, I've got to be doing alright, because I'm God's favourite,

you know, and Dave would say to me, no, no, I'm God's favourite, and I'd

go, no, no, no, I'm God's favourite.

It got to the point in our debate, and I'm going back like 10 years ago, I actually

bought the domain name godsfavourite.

com So when you went to that, I don't own it anymore, by the way, so

don't go to it now, but at the time I own the domain, I bought the domain

name and all I did was I just put a photograph of me on the website, right?

That's, there was no text.

It just was just a picture of me.

And so one day I said to Dave, I said, you need to Google it.

Let's Google who is God's favorite.

And this website came up and he just clicked on it and it was just a

picture of me and he, ah, it's funny.

Now that is called thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, especially

if you was taking it seriously.

That is a great example.

I can't believe I've just admitted to that, but there you go.

Yeah.

Does God forgive all sins is one of the questions in the comments.

Uh,

Anna Kettle: well, the Bible says he does.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If we confess them to him.

Yeah.

So I think there is that step that he doesn't automatically forgive all sins.

I think you have to ask for forgiveness and ask him to, to, to

clean, you know, to make you right.

Um, but yeah, I think the Bible's clear that there's no, no sin

that's too big for him to, Mm-Hmm.

to clear sin is sin.

You might fall short that much or that much, but it's all falling

short of God's effectness.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I think I, I think so.

Would it, would you agree?

Yeah,

Matt Edmundson: I would, I, I'd maybe have a slightly different view

in that I would say that God has forgiven all sin once and for all

with the work of Christ on the cross.

So all sin has been forgiven.

Mm-hmm.

But we have to receive that forgiveness, if that makes sense, which is where

it comes into that confession.

So if I confess my sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of that sin.

Um, that's a case of me going, well, actually I need to bring that before God.

And it's a bit like you've got.

You know, Ben, young Ben, um, who apparently was watching earlier,

which we were laughing about.

There's no way Ben was watching.

Anna Kettle: He might have watched for like a minute just

to see what mummy was doing.

Matt Edmundson: My kids have all grown up, but you kind of, you know, you,

you want your kids, uh, to admit when they do something wrong and there's

this whole, uh, I need to fully.

I need to be responsible.

I need to fully own it, which I think is a very hard message.

Bizarrely in a world that likes to blame everybody else for where they are.

Which is a bit slightly controversial.

I appreciate but the level of victimhood in the current culture is just astounding

and our ability to blame other people for our for what's going on in life is quite.

It's quite easy to do at the moment, um, and I struggle with that because scripture

is all about taking responsibility.

Now that's not to, there are genuine victims out there and it is, and

I'm not belittling that in any way.

And I think actually by everybody claiming to be a victim, they,

they actually belittle actual victims, if that makes sense.

Um, but I think you, You have to own it.

You have to accept it.

And you have to go, yeah, that's my bad and stand before

God and go, that was my bad.

And I think when you do, you can be confident that he's not going to

smite you, which is such a good word.

Smite.

He's not going to smite you, but he will forgive you.

So yeah, hopefully that's answered your question.

Apparently, both me and Dave are wrong because Nicola's God's

Anna Kettle: favourite.

This could just go on and on, couldn't it?

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I love that.

I do love that.

Uh, so yeah, hopefully that answers your question about sins.

I don't think there's anything that is beyond forgiveness except for one thing.

There is one particular sin Scripture talks about which cannot be forgiven.

Ooh, the unforgivable sin, but now just drop that bombshell.

None of you watching this live stream have to worry about it.

I'm genuinely convinced about that.

Yeah.

The qualifications that you require to commit that sin are so strong and

so onerous that I'm pretty sure that we would fall short of many of them.

But yeah, on the whole, God forgives all our sins.

Isn't Christia, that's a great question from Keith and Peter.

I love the, I love how you've, uh, Keith and Peter, how, how your name

on Facebook is just Keith and a capital N Peter, Keith and Peter.

Steventon Green, yeah.

Yeah, Steventon Green is such a great surname.

Yeah, yeah, strong, strong.

I was with some teenagers, uh, New Year's Eve.

So we had a bunch of people around the house New Year's Eve

and we had the Marshall twins.

Great, she's been on Crowd, she has twin daughters and Isabella, who is

just lovely, 17 years old, I made some kind of comment, I can't remember

what it was that I said, but she just looked at me and she went, valid.

It's valid.

I was like, that is so I'm, I'm owning that word valid, right?

And so is Christianity centered around forgiveness?

Valid?

Anna Kettle: Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely is.

I feel like I'm down with the news for all of us, isn't it?

Because I feel like we all need a bit of forgiveness sometimes.

Matt Edmundson: So yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Forgiveness is one of those things, though, isn't it?

It's again, you've got to ask for it.

I think the onus, it's interesting as Christians, because there's

two things about forgiveness.

One, we have to ask for it for ourselves.

But two, we have to extend it to others, even if they've not asked for it.

Anna Kettle: Yeah.

Yeah, which is hard.

But also, I think it's important to remember that forgiveness is not the

same as being soft or forgetting.

Yeah, you know, like, I think there's some instances where you can forgive

something, but you still might want to keep Clear boundaries with somebody

repeatedly or, you know, there's lots of scenarios, aren't there,

where forgiveness doesn't just mean.

Forgetfulness.

It's letting, yeah, it's letting go of something and it's impact on you.

Yeah, but it's not necessarily letting it happen over and over.

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Keep, you know.

Yeah, no, it is.

Unforgiveness.

I've, there's a great, I don't remember who said the quote.

Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting it to hurt the other person.

Uh, which is complicated, but, um, yeah, there's quite a few

actually, uh, quite a few talks on crowd already about forgiveness.

We had one by Sharon, in fact, two, I think Sharon's in two.

We've had some by Jenny Taylor, really quite powerful stuff, uh, on forgiveness.

And, um, yeah, I think that they're great things to get your head around, but

yes, in the short answer, Christianity is centered around forgiveness.

Um, but again, forgiveness.

We have to confess our sins and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Yeah.

So God is faithful.

It's interesting that phrase that he talks about in 1 John where

he says, I think it's 1 isn't it?

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, isn't it?

And there's this element of justice in there, which is interesting because if

I'm honest with you, if I just leave it to my emotions, there are some people.

That if I get to heaven and find that there, I don't know how I'd feel about it.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, for example, slightly controversial, but let's say you

get to heaven and Hitler's there.

Yeah.

It's like, is God, the scripture says, God is faithful and

just, who forgives our sins.

And you kind of like, well, that's really fascinating.

Yeah.

Really fascinating one.

Maybe slightly too deep theologically to get into right now, but it's

Anna Kettle: um.

And also, we don't know.

If Hitler asks for God's forgiveness, do we?

No, no,

Matt Edmundson: we'll find out.

Yeah.

We'll find out one day.

One for another day.

When I'm sliding down those streets in my socks.

That's all I want to do when I get to heaven is slide down those

streets of gold in my socks.

Just pointing that out.

Um, I should do that.

Why?

What are you going to do when you get there?

I don't know,

Anna Kettle: not slide down the street

Matt Edmundson: in my socks.

You're going to see me do it and you're going to go, that looks like good fun.

Why

Anna Kettle: would you do that in heaven if you don't see that on earth?

Won't the streets be kind of similar?

Maybe not.

Matt Edmundson: Well, the Bible talks about them being made of gold, doesn't it?

And I just want to slide down those streets of gold in my socks.

I don't know

Anna Kettle: why, just do.

I don't know, it's probably not the first thing I'd do.

I haven't thought about this, this could be a whole other crowd talk, couldn't it?

What is everyone going to do

Matt Edmundson: when they get to heaven?

Yeah, write it in the comments.

What's the first thing do in heaven?

If you get to heaven, you kind of, you know, you get to heaven, you're there.

What's the first thing you're going to do?

Obviously say hi to God.

Yeah.

I've got a few questions for him.

High five Jesus.

I've got a few, it's like, God, I'm in.

Right, before we go any further, I've got these questions that need

Anna Kettle: answered.

I've got the best.

These are all the things I don't understand, God.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's going to be fascinating, heaven.

I can't wait to get there.

Still, enjoy living though.

Yeah, yeah.

Anna Kettle: Don't go too

Matt Edmundson: soon.

No, no, not at all.

So, uh, what were we talking about before we sort of got

sidetracked a little bit there?

Um.

Pete's Talk.

Pete's Talk, that's right.

And so Pete's Talk.

And Pete's Moustache.

Pete's Moustache.

Uh, Nicola wants a pillow fight with Peter.

Are we talking Nicola about the Apollo, uh, the Apollo, the Apostle Peter,

I don't know who the Apollo Peter is, uh, the Apostle Peter, that's

actually, that's quite a good idea, I want a pillow fight with, or are you

talking like Pete Farrington and his moustache, the talk, because we could

probably arrange that ahead of time.

I reckon she's talking about heaven.

I don't know.

Maybe, who knows.

Um, so, uh, yeah, what did, what else did Pete talk about?

He talked about righteousness.

Um, and then he talked about, um, certainty and where

does insecurity come from?

Anna Kettle: Yeah, that was interesting, wasn't it?

The whole idea that.

Really, you can have a certain amount of confidence, like, because you've

done something, like we feel fairly confident sitting in front of this

camera, but it's because we've done it lots of times before, and that's

not, that's different, isn't it?

A skill based confidence is finite, whereas there's a confidence that comes

from God that's like supernatural, that like goes beyond what you can actually do

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, super

Anna Kettle: powerful.

Yeah, yeah, I found that really interesting point.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I love that.

There's a skill based confidence, but then there's a God based confidence.

And it's that, again, that assurance, isn't it?

That, uh, that it, the words the Bible uses like assurance and confidence.

The ability to be right with God, to know that you are forgiven.

Yeah.

I think there's a confidence that comes with that.

Hope.

I think another word for confidence is hope in a lot of ways, isn't it?

So speaking as a church warden in the Diocese of Europe in Spain, brilliant

service and talk, love the banter.

Very

Anna Kettle: cool.

I love the fact that you're watching from Spain as well.

Yeah.

Do

Matt Edmundson: you speak Spanish?

Mmm.

Could you do a greeting in Spanish?

Not

Anna Kettle: very much.

I do actually have Spanish relatives.

Do you?

Oh yeah, with Andy.

Yeah, my husband's sister is married to Spanish.

Guys, so yeah, we have Spanish cousins in our family, but no, I'm

the person who's like a bit ignorant, doesn't really speak any Spanish, so

Matt Edmundson: yeah.

If it was French I'd be okay, but Spanish, I need my wife here to do the Spanish,

but it's great that you're here, great that you're joining us from Spain,

that's what I love about the internet.

Yeah, I do love that about the internet, people from all over the world watch it.

So, uh, well there's no Pontins nowadays.

So Haven is one of the only options, I guess, Nicola.

Oh, when I get to,

Anna Kettle: sorry,

Matt Edmundson: I've just seen that in the comments.

If you're, if you're not watching on YouTube, uh, so Nicola put in

the comments, when we're talking about the pillar fight with Peter,

she put, when I get to Haven.

And so as a reply, well, there's no Pontins nowadays, so Haven

is one of the only options, I guess, which is a funny response.

So, uh, I've loved connecting tonight.

Where does our journey through Acts take us next?

How do we connect again?

Is there any stuff you do in the week as a church?

Dude, has someone prompted you to ask these questions?

Yeah,

Anna Kettle: I was going to say, that's almost like a planted question, isn't it?

Like, we didn't pay this guy to say that.

That's awesome.

We don't

Matt Edmundson: have a budget.

Yeah, that's brilliant.

I love that.

In fact, uh, that's, let's just go through those questions.

So where do I, where does our Journey of Acts take us?

Well, next week, you and I are hosting again.

Yeah.

You know, like, like buses, you've been away, now you're back.

Anna Kettle: Now I'm paying my penance.

Can't, can't

Matt Edmundson: get rid of you now.

Now I'm paying my penance.

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh, so Anna and I will be back next week.

Uh, oh, I could tell you who's doing the talk next week.

Uh, why don't you chat away while I figure that out.

Anna Kettle: There you go.

Are you practicing your Spanish now?

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Somebody's speaking Spanish.

Oh, on the, on the comment.

It's not just you just going, hola, como estas?

Yeah.

So, next week we have, uh, oh, wrong one, it's, yeah, like I say,

you and I hosting, we have Dan Orange, that's right, Dan Orange.

Ah, it's

Anna Kettle: Dan's first talk next week, yeah, she'll be super cool,

Matt Edmundson: yeah.

So Dan is one of the regular hosts on Crowd, and when I came to the

building, because where the studio is.

I couldn't get into it because Dan was already here, his van was outside and

he'd locked the door from the inside.

He'd locked you out of your own building.

He'd locked me out of my own building, little tyke.

And so, he was recording the talk, because he's a little bit behind,

bless him, but he did record the talk today for next week.

So he's carrying on with Acts.

He's one of the hosts normally, but we've let him loose and he's going to do a talk,

so we're going to sit in judgment of Dan.

I mean, we were talking about judgment earlier on.

We're going to sit and judge Dan's talk

Anna Kettle: now, aren't we?

Oh, I'm sure it'll be great, Dan.

Matt Edmundson: We'll find out.

Dun, dun, dun.

Join us next week as we judge Dan's talk.

Um, so yeah, that's where it takes us next week.

We've got about five more weeks left in the book of Acts.

So, we are coming to the end, finally.

Uh, I mean, we talked about how we've been doing this for years.

It's been over a year, I think, now.

I think it's been,

Anna Kettle: yeah, it feels like a long

Matt Edmundson: time.

We've been, no one anticipated it being this long when we started out in Acts.

Anna Kettle: No, there's just, it's quite a long book, isn't

Matt Edmundson: it?

There's a lot in there, so, um.

Lots of talks in Acts.

Yeah, lots of talks in Acts.

So, we've got about five more weeks left in the book of Acts.

Then we are starting a brand new series called

Anna Kettle: I can't remember.

I can't remember what it's called.

He told me just before, but we're so slick tonight.

Like Matt's like Googling on his phone what he's speaking

next week and I can't remember.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, you can't remember.

So we are starting a brand new series called Becoming Whole.

Uh,

Anna Kettle: Becoming Whole.

That was what I was meant to say.

Matt Edmundson: Oh, you can tell she's been away for a little while.

Just key information.

Yeah, let's

Anna Kettle: not pretend it was slick before we went

Matt Edmundson: away.

To the height of professionalism is what we are.

So yes, Becoming Whole.

We are starting that whole conversation about, uh, what it means to be whole, to

be fulfilled and all that sort of stuff.

Um, and we are looking at five.

Key areas of wholeness that scripture talks about, um, I will do the talk.

On the 18th of Feb, I'm doing that talk, introducing the series, um, so yeah, we've

got a whole bunch of stuff planned there.

I don't know how, it's probably going to be a series, which lasts 10 months

because we never do anything that lasts us a few weeks, let's just be real.

But if it lasts 8 be about half the length of our Axe series.

Anna Kettle: Yeah.

And it's going to cover lots of ground, isn't it, like spiritual

wholeness, physical wholeness, mental,

Matt Edmundson: emotional, yeah.

We're going to get into that, relationships, money,

Anna Kettle: yeah, it's going to cover

Matt Edmundson: a lot of stuff, yeah, we're going to get into a whole bunch

of stuff, yeah, it's going to be good, uh, from the point of home, so it's

going to be great, I'm really looking forward to it actually, really, really

looking forward to it, so do join us for that, do make sure you're subscribed,

whether you're watching YouTube, on Facebook, you can subscribe, you can

like, but the best thing to do, Bye.

Bye.

Uh, I'm looking for the button.

There it is.

The best thing to do is to head to the website, crowd.

church, www.

crowd.

church.

Just put your name and email in on the form, uh, to subscribe to the newsletter.

And every week we just send out a little note saying, this

is what we're talking about.

These are the notes from last week.

And we just email you once a week with that.

Um, so that's how you can connect again.

Best way to do is to sign up on the website.

Uh, and is there any stuff you do in the week as church?

Yeah.

Yes, there is.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

Uh, we should probably tell them what it is and just go, yes, that's it.

Yes.

I'll just end it right there.

Matt,

Anna Kettle: you usually don't say, you go ahead.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, so, uh, normally what happens is we have Zoom groups.

Uh, so, if you want to join one of the Zoom groups, catch up with

folks, um, then come join us on Zoom.

You are more than welcome to do that.

Uh, we tend to meet on Wednesdays, uh, midweek.

So, around 8pm here in the UK.

Uh, but depending on where you are in the world, it may be that we can do different

times if that's helpful, but we do like to catch up on Zoom, we just talk about

the talk, a bit like what we've done tonight really, um, pray for each other,

answer any questions, pretty chill, but it's always nice to be in community, so

do come join us for that if you'd like to.

If you want to know more about those, just reach us through the website, www.

crowd.

church, or you can message us on social media.

And we will happily send uh, the information, the Zoom links and

all that sort of stuff to you.

Uh, so yeah, feel free to join.

So hopefully that's answered that question.

Uh, so yeah.

Is there anything else from you?

I don't think so.

No.

No.

I'm looking forward to next week.

This week's been awesome.

I'm really enjoyed that.

Yeah, it's been fun to be back.

It's fun.

It's fun to have you back.

the new you, the new do.

It's great.

Listen, that's it for me.

That's it from Anna.

Thank you so much for joining us, folks.

Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world.

Bamsam, I'll try this again next week.

Yeah, come join me and Anna.

Why not?

Be with us.

Andy, have an awesome week.

Keith and Peter.

Hola, como estas?

Oh, that's where you got it from.

Yeah.

Sorry, I've not been reading the comments as much as I probably should do.

But yeah, have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world.

It's been great to be with you.

Thank you for joining us.

Do come join us next week.

I think I just need to.

Oh, there we go.

That's the button I need.

Slick again.

Slick again.

All right.

Bless you guys.

Have a great week.

Have a great week.

Bye for now.

Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church.

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the message that Jesus really does help us live a more meaningful life.

and purposeful life.

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the Christian faith and also how to connect into our church community.

It has been Awesome to connect with you and you are awesome.

It's just a burden you have to bear and hopefully we'll see you next time.

That's it from us.

God bless you.

Bye for now.