In the final part of our Christmas 2020 series, we turn to hope. After a year that tested everyone, we explore what real hope looks like when it is not just wishful thinking but something anchored and resilient.
01The Word Ancient Cultures Did Not Have
Hope is one of those words that gets used so casually it can lose its weight. We hope it will not rain. We hope our team wins. We hope the queue at the supermarket moves faster. But strip away the casual usage and sit with the word properly, and something far more significant emerges.
In this Christmas talk, a fascinating historical observation was made. Vincent Donovan, a Roman Catholic missionary working with the Maasai peoples of East Africa in the 1970s, discovered something remarkable as he learned their language and attempted to translate the Bible. At the time, there was no word in the Maasai language for hope.
And it was not just the Maasai. The argument, laid out in Donovan's book Christianity Rediscovered, is that this was the case for most ancient cultures and traditions. People did not tend to talk about hope because the future was too brutal, too unpredictable, too uncertain to waste time dreaming about.
The Vikings, for example, carved two ravens onto their shields and doors. One for the past. One for the present. There was no point in a symbol for the future. They believed hope was "nothing more than the slobber dripping from the mouth of a mythical wolf."
The ancient Greeks were not much better. In the story of Zeus and Pandora's box, hope is released into the world alongside all the evils, but across all the Greek philosophers and all their writing, hope remained a vague, minor idea.
And then along came Jesus.
02More Than Wishful Thinking
The Christian understanding of hope is not about positive thinking. It is not a vague wish that things will get better. It is a specific confidence rooted in a specific claim: that God is good, that he gives good gifts, and that because of Jesus, tomorrow can be genuinely better than today.
The analogy used in the talk was simple but effective. Think of a child on Christmas Eve, looking at the presents under the tree. That child does not know what is inside the wrapping. But they know it will be good, because they know the person who put it there.
"As followers of Jesus, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. But we are like that kid waiting for Christmas, because we know that our heavenly Father is so good, utterly good. God is good, and he gives good gifts to his children. So what awaits us is good. That is hope."
This is not the same as saying life will be easy. The talk was clear on that point. Following Jesus does not mean you will always have money in the bank, perfect health, or universal admiration. But it does change the trajectory. It shifts the direction of travel.
03What Hope Looks Like in a Prison
One of the most striking examples came from a local prison. A church member called Paul Brown works with prisoners through the Message Trust, and dozens of young men have been receiving the gift of Jesus each year inside those walls.
The results have been tangible. "This prison has gone from being the prison with the most recorded violent crimes to the prison with one of the least, in just a two-year period."
When a young man in that prison encounters Jesus, something visible changes. "The gang members shave off their ketwigs, their gang-style haircuts, just to show other prisoners they have had a change of identity. They go from being violent towards staff and other prisoners to defending prisoners and officers from attack."
When they leave prison, the reoffending rates drop significantly. The government funds the project. These are not abstract theological claims. They are measurable outcomes.
And then there was Hannah. Homeless. She came into one of the church's Genesis houses, encountered the love of God through the love of his people, began working in a nursery, trained up, got a job, got her own place. "That is a story of hope. Someone who stepped into a better tomorrow."
04The Anchor for a Restless Soul
The Bible describes hope as an anchor for the soul, and that image resonated throughout the talk. In a year defined by uncertainty, by announcements that knocked people down just as they were starting to stand up again, the idea of something that tethers the soul has a particular power.
"I come across people all the time, even myself sometimes, when your soul just feels restless. But hope is the anchor of your soul. It tethers you down. It brings that stability."
Hope, defined in this context, is not the absence of difficulty. It is the confidence that you are not walking through difficulty alone. And this is where the Christmas story becomes more than a nativity scene on a mantelpiece.
05The Christmas No One Wanted
A prayer read during the service, written by author Pete Greig, reframed the first Christmas in a way that lands differently when life is hard.
"Let us return to that first Christmas. To find a fearful mother as she brings her baby into such a dark place and time in history. It is not what she wanted. See the uncertainty etched in the man's features, worried and unable to properly provide, feeling clumsy, unsure of his own role and involvement. It is not what he wanted."
"Consider their sense of isolation at a time of such vulnerability. Far away from loved ones and home. It is not what they wanted. Imagine the frustration they feel, forced to be here now, against their will, at this most intimate moment, by the relentless demands of a distant government."
And then the punch line: "Perhaps we may celebrate with new understanding the Christmas no one wanted. The fragility of life in the shadow of death. The hope of healing in a dangerous environment. The love, ephemeral yet eternal, born to a tiny, vulnerable, isolated, disorientated, disappointed, fearful, fragile family."
"Which is Emmanuel. God with us, when others cannot be with us. A light that shines in the darkness. A defiant hope, in spite of everything."
06You Will Never Walk Alone
Being based in Liverpool, the talk naturally found its way to the anthem that echoes through that city on match days. "Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you will never walk alone."
Whether you are red, blue, or have no interest in football whatsoever, the sentiment transcends the sport. The reason Christians have hope, the talk argued, is not because of a vaccine or a government strategy or an improving economy. It is because of a promise that God walks through life with his people.
"Whatever lockdowns or tiers or restrictions we might be placed in, we know that God walks through life with us. God is with us. And that is why we walk with immense hope in our hearts."
This is what the name Emmanuel means. God with us. Not God watching from a distance. Not God waiting for us to sort ourselves out. God here, present, in the mess and the uncertainty and the fear.
07Receiving the Gift
The invitation at the heart of this Christmas message was not to try harder, believe more, or fix your life. It was simply to receive something that is being offered.
"Receive his presence as a gift this Christmas. It will change the trajectory, the course of your life. It will fill you with unshakeable hope and peace and joy."
Hope, as the Bible defines it, is to expect with confidence what God has promised. Not to know every detail of what tomorrow holds, but to know the character of the one who holds it.
What would it look like to receive that kind of hope today?
Topics in this talk
View Full Transcript
well good afternoon happy sunday welcome to the crowd church christmas live stream my name is matt edmondson and next to me is the beautiful talented and amazing sally burch hey sal hi matt hi matt what a brilliant introduction thank you very much for that hi everybody happy christmas welcome along this afternoon indeed how you doing you doing well yeah doing good thank you got the christmas sparkles got the tree in the background matt i see you've you've made an excellent effort today with the christmas suit i bought this well done yeah yeah i bought it out hey i mentioned to sally earlier off before we came on broadcast it's been a little while since i've worn this suit and last time i wore it i was a little bit fatter i'm not going to lie it's not fitting as well as it used to you can you can work on that over christmas matt and see if you can i think i will be working on that over christmas i don't think there'll be any doubt hey listen it is great so you welcome to crowd church if this is your first time with us then a big fat warm welcome to you we are an online church that's right we do digital church and this is part three of our christmas live stream series because you know we are this close to christmas and so we are doing yet another christmas live stream and i as sally said i've decided to wear the christmas suit uh we have i'm just gonna bring it on the screen now a whatsapp number you can see it at the bottom of the screen there it is you can reach us on that whatsapp number with any prayer requests anything you'd like us to pray for anything any questions that you've got that you don't want in the comments feel free to whatsapp us and let us know but of course join in the comments if you feel free to say hi yeah let us know where you're watching it'll be good to see you uh in the comments as well i know we've got people on youtube and i know we've got people on facebook so uh welcome one and all in fact sal did you see john harding wrote he was watching on youtube but commenting on facebook i did see that i think he's one of his sons must be helping him with the technical stuff you can't tell because of the way the camera is but i've got the facebook live stream on on one monitor and i've got the youtube live stream on another just to make sure it's coming through and they're not in sync they're not in sync so i have no idea how john's gonna comment right okay i'm loving that you've obviously got some kind of light as well that's giving you that lovely instagram glow that's going on there matt as well i think i need to get me some of that i'm loving that looking good the instagram glow absolutely absolutely now before we um did get carried away there is one thing that i want to do sal uh and that is to say so every now and again with crowd church the way it works is um people watching us do occasionally send us photographs of how they are watching crowd and how they're joining in with the online service and today is no exception we have had the following image which i'm going to bring up on screen from mr matt crew and this is how he is watching the live stream right now amazing we love that matt thank you so much for sending that in you look brilliant absolutely brilliant well done matt it's good to see you joining in the christmas spirit which is quite nice so well done well done well done i believe matt said he didn't have a christmas jumper but you know christmas glasses are the next step so that's brilliant well done matt thank you yeah absolutely so let's just see who's with us on the comments uh kirsten says hey hey kirsten how you doing hey mr matt crew hey mark doing's watching with us the doing guys doing family welcome welcome to the stream john harding says we're being cheeky i'm not sure if he's talking to us or matt crew but let's assume he's talking to us yeah probably probably but that's okay because now we're doing it digitally rather than we sometimes do this at christmas well we've been doing it for the last few years haven't we met actually on stage yeah yeah absolutely one can't give us the sort of death stare from the front row if things you know if we're sort of saying things that we shouldn't be saying so that's very true i'm bonus yeah absolutely we can just turn off the comments i am getting a little bit warm i'm not gonna lie uh susan orton's with us hi susan how are you doing james birch do you know he's got the same surname as you sell he says hey hey thumbs up with him you haven't heard of him okay good great going on today yeah do that let us know so what's cracking off as matt said this is our third in our series of our christmas services and today's is a season of hope um a message that i think we we all need especially with another announcement yesterday so we're hoping that you will really feel that hope today and we're gonna have some fun and we've got a carol coming up we've also got the amazing john harding speaking as well and matt and i will be having a chat after that and then we've got a brilliant song as well so loads of really good stuff going on today absolutely and we're really looking forward to it uh i mean we've actually had privy to what john said we know it's good so you're going to enjoy this now if you have kids um and you would like to download the activity pack you're more than welcome to just head on over to the website crowd.church and click the christmas link you'll find that there's a link on there for the kids download activity pack which you can download print off and the kids can have a bit of fun as well um just a few more shout outs hey claire how you doing hey laura glad you could join us um and dave connolly is also with us so a big shout out and hey today so great to see you happy with us yeah absolutely great that you matt the last couple of weeks you you know the effort hasn't quite been there on the sort of christmas clothes but and so i've given you some sort of help haven't i we had that amazing christmas tie in the first week my daughter has stolen that actually so good and then dressed as a reindeer last week you know my personal favorite was the flashing nose i thought that looked really good but you know i've got nowhere to go today because you've got the christmas suit on so there's no you know i can't complain about the the christmas effort so i've got you a present instead is that okay oh it's a pleasure a present sounds amazing yes so i've got you you're going to enjoy these a lovely tub of celebrations oh no right that's super kind of you but we need the christmas magic mat oh yeah yeah hang on let's do the christmas magic here we go there it is the christmas magic is playing to you okay because you've been really good boy this year go for it pass it through sir we know this works i'm really looking forward to these celebrations here they come here they come here oh there you go there you go what's what's going on here pass me a turbine i've got the little one well maybe you haven't been as good as i thought you'd been matt sorry i've been really good this year i've been really good i can't believe the little ones come through what can i say it's the christmas magic obviously you haven't been as good as you thought but there's still there's still some of your favorites in there so you know i do like the maltesers the maltesers are my favorite so i'd appreciate those so do you mind if i had one now i may have eaten the malteser ones oh no way i might have done oh no is it all i've got left are the bounties what's that all about i thought they were your favorite no they're the worst they're as bad as coal those things oh they're not that bad surely well sorry about that clearly clearly you haven't been as good as you thought you'd been we need to have a conversation so i'm gonna turn off the christmas marriage magic and sulk um let us know i know a christmas joke will cheer you up let's do a question okay let's do a christmas joke do that do that go for it okay now i've had some plain complaints about my christmas jokes i'm very offended about that and surprised genuinely are you surprised genuinely surprised i think people just haven't got taste maybe that's the problem um okay everybody that sally has just gotten insulted uh we do um so i asked for some help then so i got some friends of mine to you know give me some funny jokes okay so you you ready for these let's see let's end my usual ones okay so this one's from jake okay so this is my friend jake um what does snowmen eat for breakfast i don't know i'm just having a little thing i genuinely don't know what does snowman eat for breakfast frosties okay that was good golden he was like jake send that one in jake and this is still jake and when they've run out of frosties what do they eat snowflakes it was on the tip of my tongue too now jake's five and he said that ends you can't complain about that one no actually i was going to say jake you you're already leaps and bounds ahead of what sounded the last two weeks so well done you're winning oh that's hard we've got some bounties and josh here's one from josh okay what is an elf's favorite type of photo oh i don't know what is an elle's favorite type of photo an elfie i like that one i'm going to use that okay last one still on an elf theme what is an elf's favorite kind of music oh i don't know what is an elf's favorite kind of music rap music rap music okay so i'll be honest is that one of yours yeah i snuck one of mine in it it was obvious yeah yeah very good very good oh well i'll tell you what then a lot funnier than me obviously the kids are a lot funnier than me and we've been doing kids say the funniest things and they have been absolutely amazing so thank you to all of the kids that have been involved in these we've got the last one today and today we asked the children what do you hope to get for christmas and this is what they said i would like a dinosaur diamond pickaxe and the diamondbacks a bag it's like disco ball thing so it's like a disco ball and then a karaoke machine type thing with a microphone attached so i can light light at my room and go like a lambo for kids a lambo for kids what's that i still recorded it's like a lambo which it doesn't like slide doors open or it it's just like a normal car like a mini car maybe a new bedding what kind maybe like maybe roblox or maybe my new minecraft bedding a barbie dream house how about you ellis a big wubble bubble ball okay anything else a horse that really in garlic dallas what do you want for christmas a teddy like a box a doggy and a spicer um 1500 money on roblox wow are they brilliant i'm actually changing some of my christmas gifts as a result of what i've just heard now what i love is i love the thought of the parents video videoing those and asking no questions and then just being completely shocked by what they've said her baby excellent a teddy that looks like daddy that was good yeah that was cute that was that was cute my favorite well one of my favorite ones was what what did he say a diamond axe i mean not just an axe a diamond i know it's a minecraft thing matt come on how is it oh okay yeah yeah it's a minecraft reference don't worry oh okay yeah no the lambo for lambo kids a lambo for kids we all want one of ours and i want a lambo for adults yes i was with him straight away i'm just like no i don't want the kids version now i want the adults version yeah so good luck parents we're getting those last minute gifts that was really really good oh well done parents that was that was fantastic now um let me just show you this actually we've had another photo come in on whatsapp this is john and kirsten watching oh that's really nice yeah john you need to go get change ready for your talk continuity yeah and where's the christmas jumper come on now yeah where's the chris and the port and the cheese maybe um what else have we got going on here uh kirsten's put here a teddy that looks like sherlock atkins love that the the young girl actually the young girl who said she wants a teddy to look like daddy is sherlon's daughter and sherlong goes to front line um and that would actually be too cute a teddy that looks like shirlon so yeah very good right should we do a should we do a carol let's do a carol shall we yeah that'd be great let's do the carol this carol has been uh put together by dave anderson and andy morcroft and andy watts they have put this together which has been really kind of them and uh dave went through cold sweats when we asked him to put this together i think it's come out super well so here we have hark the herald angels sing if you're like me i had to look in the dictionary what hark meant it just means listen the herald the person bringing the good news which is the angel has got a really interesting message put on your best singing voices and join along and we'll be back after this okay so i uh i played entirely the wrong song then i just realized oh matt keeping us on our toes today yeah yeah well done for spotting that and texting me everybody i appreciate i played the wrong one so now we are actually gonna play hark the herald uh forgive that slight uh mess up on our part here we go so glory to the newborn king peace on earth and mercy mild god and sinners reconciled joyfully nations rise join the triumph of the skies with angelico's proclaim christ is lord christ the everlasting lord laid in time behold him come offspring of a virgin's wound building flesh the godhead sea hail the incarnation pleased this man with man to dwell jesus i remember well hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king [Applause] prince of peace hail the son of righteousness light and life to all he brings risen with healing in his wings mild he lays his glory by born and man no more may die born to raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth amazing thank you so much andy and dave and andrew for putting that together for us um i wanted to just quickly read um a prayer out for you if that's okay um obviously we've had another announcement yesterday that some of us are going into tier 4 and there's even more restrictions and i think that that just um even more makes us think that this is such a timely message of hope that we're trying to bring today and i saw this prayer earlier on facebook and it's written by pete gregg who's a christian author and speaker and i just thought it was really pertinent for now and so i'm just going to read that he says may the love of god the father bring unexpected comfort to your home today connecting hearts that are apart and reconfiguring family this christmas may the hope of god the sun born into dark disruption and deep uncertainty ignite a little light in your home today surprising you with joy this christmas may the peace of god the holy spirit console your soul today filling your heart and your home with the serenity of his presence this christmas and so let us return to that first christmas to find a fearful mother as she brings her baby into such a dark place and time in history it is not what she wanted see the uncertainty etched in the man's features worried and unable to properly provide feeling clumsy unsure of his own role and involvement it is not what he wanted consider their sense of isolation at a time of such vulnerability far away from loved ones and home it is not what they wanted imagine the frustration they feel forced to be here now against their will at this most intimate moment by the relentless demands of a distant government this year of all years perhaps we may celebrate with new understanding the christmas no one wanted the fragility of life in the shadow of death the hope of healing in a dangerous environment the love ephemeral yet eternal born to a tiny vulnerable isolated disorientated disappointed fearful fragile family which is emmanuel god with us when others can't be with us a light that shines in the darkness a defiant hope in spite of everything the lord jesus christ and i hope that prayer brings you hope today and we've got another message of hope now the fabulous john harding is going bring the talk to us today and i just really hope that you'll get that real message of hope that we are sharing with you today so here's john well hello there crowd church hello to everyone watching and a very merry christmas to all of you doesn't it make you feel all christmassy to be gathered together today online in this way and we are journeying at a rapid rate through advent towards christmas day i have had huge issues with presents this year for my boys one of them wanted a ps5 the other a bike and it turns out you can't get hold of either of those for christmas so they're gonna have to make do with an apple an orange and a shiny new penny um or whatever santa brings i want to share with you some thoughts today about hope hope is a much needed craved word in today's society hope is the antidote to a pandemic of fear and of course hope is a major theme for indeed in the traditional churches the anglican catholic churches on the first sunday of advent a purple candle would be lit a candle that represents but what do we mean by hope it's one of those big religious biblical words it's quite hard to define isn't it in the most basic sense hope means to believe that tomorrow will be better it is too long for a good desired outcome i hope it won't rain tomorrow i hope that liverpool can continue this winning form um and they can keep that up i hope that this guy speaking won't speak for too long so so hope in the most basic sense is believing for a better future now at times in life most of us will experience feelings of hopelessness an overwhelming feeling that things will never get better that things will never change coved and lockdown has really stirred up lots of um feelings of hopelessness for lots of people when will things end will things ever end will things ever return to normal that is the language of hopelessness now as a christian who wants to live according to the bible i don't believe that it's a sin to feel that way in fact i think it's a pretty normal part of life many of the famous characters of the bible expressed feelings of hopelessness like elijah like king david like john the baptist they expressed feelings that there was no hope in its most extreme form we might call depression a loss of hope and it's so important when we feel like there's no hope that we speak to friends family to doctors people who will remind us that actually there is hope people that will help us to step into a better tomorrow even if it takes some time now christmas is all about hope the christian faith is all about hope the gift of jesus to the world that we celebrate at christmas is a gift that brings a promise of a better tomorrow it is a gift that changed the outcome of human history for the better in fact some people argue that the idea of hope the idea that you and i can believe for a better tomorrow that idea originates with christianity it becomes redefined and magnified and majored on in the teaching of jesus so for example vincent donovan a a roman catholic missionary an academic in the 70s he worked with the maasai peoples of east africa and as he learned the language in an attempt to translate the bible for them he discovered that at the time there was no word in the maasai language for hope and in his book christianity rediscovered he argues that this is the case for all ancient cultures and traditions people didn't tend to talk about hope about a better tomorrow because the world the future was so so brutal so unpredictable so uncertain so the vikings for example they would carve onto their shields and onto their doors two ravens one for the past and one for the present what was the point of talking or thinking about the future in such an uncertain violent warrior society that they believed that hope was nothing more from the than the slobber dripping from the mouth of a mythical wolf it's what what's the point of believing for a better future and and the same is true of all the ancient traditions the ancient greeks for example in the story of zeus and pandora's books hope is a healing spirit that is released into the world along with all the evils of the world but considering all of the greek philosophers and all of their writing hope is a pretty vague minor idea and then along comes jesus and he starts to teach his followers to pray and believe for a better tomorrow or in his words that heaven would come to earth that's what we pray don't we our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom heaven come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven let heaven come to earth in other words the the christian faith majors on believing that we can experience more and more and more of the peace and the the joy and the love of heaven here and now that tomorrow will be better because in our tomorrow there is the promise of more of heaven on earth in our day-to-day life so what we celebrate at christmas is jesus coming to earth heaven invading earth as a a free gift for us a gift that helps us to believe for a better tomorrow you could say that that christian hope it's a little bit like the kid waiting for christmas and looking at the gifts under the tree now that kid doesn't know what tomorrow will bring but he knows that it will be good and that is hope it is far more than wishful thinking or having a positive mental attitude as followers of jesus we we don't know what tomorrow will bring but we're like that kid waiting for christmas because we know that our heavenly father is so good utterly good god is good and he gives good gifts to his children so what awaits us is good that's hope now that doesn't mean that when you follow jesus you'll never have any problems in the future it doesn't mean that you'll always have money in the bank it doesn't mean you'll always have perfect health and wealth and be loved and adored by all not all although actually the christian faith has something to say about all of those things receiving the gift of jesus it does change a person's outcomes in life it changes the future trajectory of their lives in so many ways for the better it lifts us up out of our circumstances in so many ways that's certainly my story and my experience now one of our church members a a guy called paul brown just the most wonderful christian paul works with prisoners in a local prison with the message trust and dozens and dozens of young men are receiving the gift of jesus each year in that prison they are becoming followers of jesus and what we see time and time and time again is that when a person receives the gift of jesus they receive hope hopelessness is broken and they start to believe for a better tomorrow it changes the trajectory of their lives so much so that that this prison has gone from being the prison with the most recorded violent crimes to the prison with one of the least in just a two-year period you see when a a young man in prison receives jesus what we see is that the gang members shave off their ketwigs their gang style haircuts just to show other prisoners they've had a change of identity they go from being violent towards staff and other prisoners to defending prisoners and officers from attack we see such a massive change when they leave prison and of course it's not easy but they are so significantly less likely to reoffend the the government funds the project stories of stories of young men who have stepped into a better tomorrow because of jesus as a church we have a number of houses for the homeless in the city in fact we are just at the moment raising funds for a third house through imagine if trust and some of you will know um hannah um hannah two or three years ago was homeless she came into one of our genesis houses she encountered the love of god through the love of his people she began to work in our nursery trained up she now has a job her own place that is a story of hope isn't it someone who stepped into a better hope looks like heaven invading earth receiving jesus changes the trajectory of your life but as i say for the christian it's not really about having a future with more stability or better outcomes it's not really about health or wealth or a great haircut our hope is not dependent on a scientist's vaccination or a government strategy isn't that good news that is not what makes us confident about our tomorrows now we're in liverpool that's where we're based and and hope is the anthem that we sing over this city hope is the song we sing over our city liverpool we sing every day ever sorry every match day now if you are a blue or a supporter of another team that's okay but cover your ears for this moment because in this city we sing walk on walk on with hope in your heart and you will never walk alone as followers of jesus the reason we have hope the reason we are confident about tomorrow about our future is because we know we never walk alone we know that whatever we walk through in life whatever challenges we face in our tomorrows whatever lockdowns or tears or restrictions that we might be placed in we know that god walks through life with us god is with us and that's why we walk with immense hope in our hearts we can have hope because god is with us and this is what we celebrate at christmas isn't it this is the christmas story that god is not some distant being in a far away galaxy but rather god took on flesh and blood born as a baby born as one of us he walked among us so that we could walk with him never alone full of hope that's why at christmas we are reminded of one of the names of jesus jesus is emmanuel emmanuel we read it every christmas in the nativity story don't we the angel says you'll have a baby boy and he will be called emmanuel emmanuel it means god is with jesus is our emmanuel god is with you you are never alone so receive his presence as a gift this christmas it will change the trajectory the course of your life it will fill you with unshakable hope and peace and joy receive the gift of hope this christmas time well thank you john for that talk wasn't that fantastic did you like that sound yeah i loved that amazing really made me feel a bit emotional matt i have to say emotional uh that was great i loved his talk and i loved his analogies i loved that thing you know where he talked about gifts under the christmas tree and hope is a lot like that where the kid expects it doesn't know what's in the box he just expects something good and we can do that about tomorrow we don't know what it is but we can expect something good and i i really like that especially especially in the in the climate in which we're living hope sounds remarkable we all need a bit of that right now don't we absolutely yeah we do so matt what would you say hope means to you then matt uh that's a really good question i think hope is is one of um one of those things that we we kind of know what it is but we don't know how to define it which is why i like john's analogy of the gift under the tree this idea of a better tomorrow the bible is really interesting it says that three things remain right it says that the three things that remain are faith hope and love and we know what faith is we know what love is but we rarely talk about hope and so i find that quite fascinating and i'm really chuffed that john um talked about it because for me hope is that idea of because of christ because of what he has done we can have a better tomorrow and and that i think is just that for me is hope and i would miss that i think if i wasn't if i wasn't a christian yeah i totally agree so i think you know we're not saying that you become a christian and everything's rosy and everything's fine then we talked about that last week um but to have that hope to know that you're never alone um yeah i mean that liverpool anthem it's just it's so special isn't it whether you're red or blue or whatever it's you know it's just amazing to know that you're never alone and when you know god then you've got that peace and that hope and that that is incredible yeah totally agree with you totally agree with you the bible has some really interesting things to say about hope it says that hope is an anchor to your soul i mean i don't know if you if you if i come across people all the time even myself sometimes you know when your soul just feels restless and it's like but hope is the anchor of your soul it just kind of it tethers you down it it brings that stability and i i just i really like that i do really like that yeah yeah i like that too yeah i liked the um the definition of um to expect with confidence what god has promised i thought that's a really good definition of of hope and you know especially at the moment where things feel really hopeless and it feels like one thing after another and you know we just get a little bit of hope back and then it feels like we're knocked down again to have that sort of eternal hope that we can hold on to is so important yeah absolutely absolutely totally agree now one of the things that we i i kind of messed it up a little bit early we have a song called um when hope is in you which has been done performed and written by the amazing greg and martha schofield who are members of the church and they are just beautiful beautiful people and um greg actually was on the live stream last week do you remember he was in the penguin jumper he was uh yeah great job very good jumper so what we're going to do now is we're going to pray pray we're going to play uh greg and martha's song you are more than likely not going to know the words the words will appear on the screen sing along if you like but let me just say if you are feeling hopeless at this moment and you need that encouragement just let the words of this song just kind of wash over you and minister to you and speak to you um because they're really really powerful so we're gonna be back after this song but this is when hope is in you by greg and martha with us you meet us in a time of need with us as i wait on you my strength is in my heart like an anchor for my soul how great your love of god this love that won't let go you'll be surrounding me unveils my eyes to see the truth that hope is never lost when hope is in your god of comforts you are my strength here upon your promises all the days is truth is hope is in you what a fab song yeah brilliant thank you so much greg and martha amazing really really good um i love that line hope is never lost when hope is in you that's true doesn't it kind of sums up john harding's whole message yeah no it's very very true lovely song very very powerful uh hope rises in my heart and i i i love that i do love that especially in the climate in which we're in we need hope as you mentioned earlier absolutely yeah we really do yeah thank you so much gregory martha's beautiful my my eldest daughter when she used to see greg and martha performing on stage at frontline she would always say uh relationship goals mum relationship is that you and james soon is that what you're saying well when we write our next song oh brilliant brilliant i remember james saying once when he was james to say if you're watching this you have no idea who james is james is sally's husband and james is a musician amongst many other things he has a talent for drumming and do you remember one day we were on stage and i said to james i had the microphone on stage and i said why have they put this sort of plastic covering around the drums because around drums they put these sort of clear perspex sheets and it's a sound thing to keep the sound in and james said and i quote it's because uh i'm so good looking it's kind of like shielding the audience from my good looks so um you know so you know and why not and why not uh so i'm looking to the j i'm looking forward to the james and sal christmas remakes 2021. need a lot of auto tune on that let's see perhaps we could challenge greg and martha to see if they could get us ready in a year probably need about 10. [Laughter] brilliant absolutely brilliant yeah thanks so much greg and martha that was awesome uh really appreciate that james has just put in the comments truth it's true i think probably both i think probably both uh absolutely what else have we got here hannah joined us hey hannah how are you doing um susan said uh this is great john harding thank you so yeah a lot of good stuff um about the talk so uh thank you for that thanks scofields matt crew says uh well done uh apparently matt cruz says you're a hunk james so um you know it's good to know as well you know he's got that approval uh and we also had in uh this photo came in let me show you this there we go so that's zoe um with her guinea pig you can see the live stream in the background and look at the christmas jumper so do you recognize that are you can you can you record let me just before i say what it is can anyone put in the comments what they think is on zoe's christmas jumper and let me let me tell you you're going to have to you know oh have i just given it away no no it's not karate kid it's close it's not crazy kid but you're on the right lines you're on the right lines what was on zoe's christmas jumper see if you can put that in the comments uh and whilst people are doing that so do you want to tell us about next week and stuff sure well this is the last of our christmas services but next sunday crowd church will be on again at four o'clock live on facebook and youtube and we'll be carrying on going through our series in mark so you have that to look forward to as well are you going to be having some carols as well matt we're going to you know after christmas but can we still have some carols then or is it too late for that then i don't know i'll think on that do we want carol's after it's a tricky one it is a tricky one it is a tricky one uh i'll have to ponder i'll have to ponder maybe we could do them like we're going to do them today in the outro john harding here says it's mortal kombat john you're so close but you're wrong but uh but i think you have to have grown up in the 1980s to understand what that jumper is i'm going to bring it back let's have a little closer look because i oh is it a computer game is it is a computer game what's the name of the computer game tekken or something like that close close street fighter ah yep it's a street fighter jumper and so it's not yeah it's got the two sort of fighting each other behind the guinea pig and then it says around the top of the jumper it says k-o-k-o and you have to be of a certain age to understand what that's all about i appreciate that sorry uh matt cruz put here no carols but old lang zion please okay we could maybe think about that uh james actually got it right he said street fighter so hold on james well done uh good to see you've got it right and also we're going to say as well if you would like any prayer you know if you're feeling particularly hopeless at this time or you know you feel like you'd like some support or anything then please do um send us a message you've got the whatsapp number there you can also contact us via our website as well and we will email you back we'll get in touch with you so please don't don't be alone this christmas yeah that's great do do get in touch we would love to pray for you you don't need to be a christian by the way if you would like us to pray for anything do get in touch and let us know we will happily happily pray for you like sal said through the whatsapp number through the website or through the comments if you're uh so inclined either on facebook or youtube but i think i think that's about it for this week's sale thank you so much for joining me yet again for the christmas livestream thank you for having me happy christmas everyone i hope you have a really wonderful time yeah merry christmas everybody now what we're gonna do just so you know is we are gonna play some christmas carols okay uh we call this the outro in the technical terms uh we've got a ten minute uh clip here which has got some carols in it uh three carols in fact if you wanna join a long sing with your best singing voices we've also got a few questions that you can ponder which came out of john john harding's talk if you uh want to think about those and ponder those as well just if you want to carry on writing in the comments we will be in the comments for the next 10 minutes after that the live stream will close and we will see you back here uh next week at 4 pm as sal said we're going to carry on our conversation in mark's gospel all that's left for me to say is a big fat merry christmas to all of you it's a shame you know that christmas has sort of taken the turn that it has but we still have hope in christ which is fantastic so a big fat merry christmas to you john harding says merry christmas write merry christmas to everyone in the comments i'm sure they'd appreciate it sal thanks for joining me uh as always you have been an utter legend really enjoyed uh doing these with you yeah it's been really fun thanks matt brilliant all right bye everyone merry thank you snow and let's do the carols me joy to the world the lord is heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature let me repeat the same he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations through oh come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant ye o come ye to be come and behold him born the king of angels oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him christ the lord singing glory to god glory in the highest him oh come let us say in christ yay lord we greet thee on this happy morning jesus to thee be your glory gift word of the father now in flesh appearing the newborn king peace on earth and mercy mild god and sinners reconciled joyful all ye nations rise join the triumph of the skies with angelico christ is born in bethlehem heart the herald angels sing glory to the christ the everlasting offspring of a virgin's wound veiled in flesh the godhead see heal the heavenly prince of peace hail the sun of righteousness with healing in his ways sing
