Going deeper than coffee shop friendships and figuring out a better work life balance.

Going deeper than coffee shop friendships and figuring out a better work life balance. Matt: [00:00:00] Well, hello and welcome. Good Sunday afternoon. Uh, it's great to see you guys here. Um, welcome to church. Welcome to church online. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Matt Edmundson and uh, I'm heading up Frontline City. Just gimme, do me a favor. I appreciate you're about 20, 25 seconds behind me. Gimme a little shout out if you can hear me. Uh, let's make sure all the technology's working. I'm fairly sure it is today. I'm fairly sure I'm on it. Oh, yeah, I can hear myself there. That's awesome. That's awesome. How you guys doing? How you doing on this beautiful sunny day? Look outside. That is sunshine. Let me tell you. Sunshine. Okay. How we doing? Hi, Abby. Great to see you. Hope you're having a good week. Uh, hope you're doing well. [00:01:00] I wrote here that I'm not sure why my fa face is frozen like that. I dunno if you noticed on the opening graphic where, you know, it says church starts in like five minutes or 10 minutes and it has that little countdown time of thing. My phrase had face had frozen like this. Like, dunno what that's all about. But I'm sure somebody somewhere thought it'd be hysterical. Uh, so who else have we got here? Hey Matt, how you doing? Great to see you. Great that you are here. Hey Babes, I'm, if you don't know Sharon's my wife. I just don't call everybody babes. Just wanna point that out. Uh, Matt can hear me. That's awesome. And who else can hear me? Oh, Abby can hear me, which is great. Uh, and that's going off there. Anna Grace Farrington's here as well. We can hear you. Hey Ag, how you doing? Hope you're doing well. Uh, great. Well, you know what? That's awesome when the sound works. We love it when technology is with [00:02:00] us and not against us, right? When we, when technology is for us, but not against us is a beautiful thing. So let me just say a big fat warm welcome to everybody who is joining us on this live broadcast, broadcast. Broadcast. Uh, it's great to see you. Great that you are here. Like I said at the start, if you don't know me, my name is Matt Edmundson and I head up this online church, this church plant online. And, uh, we're called Frontline City. We are part of Frontline Church. And Frontline Church is a big old church here in Liverpool. Uh, and we're doing some, uh, digital version of that church, which is cool. We're really enjoying it. It's great to see so many people here. Um, what's Matt put here? Uh, glasses have fallen apart. Again, I need super glue. If anyone has any, please drop 'em off. If you're out about, okay, well if you're near Matt, give him some super glue. Uh, let's, um, let's get those glasses fixed. Okay. We've got Sarah Langston here as well. Hey, Sarah. Hey Langston. Hey Langston kids. [00:03:00] Great to see you this morning on the walk. For those of you who don't know at about 11 o'clock, I say about, it's usually about, depends on when people turn up. But about 11 o'clock Sunday mornings, most Sunday mornings we go to a park in Liverpool. So for those of you who are watching and in Liverpool, you are more than welcome to come along and join us, uh, on the walks around a park or somewhere in Liverpool. And this morning we were in Princess Park. It was good to see you guys there. Great to catch up with folks. Always nice. And I feel like I got a little bit sunburned on my neck. I'm not entirely sure because it was sunnier than I was expecting it to be. Not gonna lie. That's always a good problem to have though, right? So. Welcome. Right. Let's start going through this, shall we, uh, first and foremost, let me say this. Like, comment, share, watch this. This is cool. My little, there we go. How'd you like my little graphic there that we've been playing around with, like, I'll give us the love. That's right. So whilst you are watching, uh, the Facebook [00:04:00] Live Stream watch, or even if you're watching it and it's not live, if you're watching the recorded version, you can still like, comment, and share. So, uh, we just appreciate it. If you like stuff, you know, gives us a thumbs up. If you love stuff, give us the love heart. It all helps. Um, write in the comments, uh, engage with us in the comments. 'cause we love your feedback. We love to know what's going on. And if you're so inclined to share it out on Facebook, that church is now online. Uh, and people are more than welcome to come join us. Uh, just like, uh, I just set up that thing there with Sharon. I thought that was quite cute. Anyway, so like, comment, share, uh, what is next? We have, I see those likes coming through. Well done. So let's go to this slide here. Kids only, okay. If you are a ki a child, A child, I was gonna say, which is like a cross between a kid and a child. If you are, you know, like younger than your parents, basically, um, this is the kids only zone. So kids listen up. 'cause here's what I want from you today. Now [00:05:00] the theme for today's service is friendship. That's right. It is friendship. And if you head over to the website, let me pull the website up here. Um, if you head on over to the website, Frontline city, uh, here you'll see our little live feed. If you just scroll down, you see here it says. Kids sheets for download, and you can click on that little sheet there and it will download this one for you, which you can print off to your heart's content. Um, and you can use Play-Doh, you can do all kinds of things. You can color in people, you can scroll all over that, you can write names on it, all kinds of good stuff, which is fantastic. So, um, definitely be doing that because you know what, uh, we want you to feel like, you know, you, you, you're taking part with the service. So just download that and get involved because we're talking about French today. And so who are your friends? Who are the people that you can pray for? Just write them down on [00:06:00] that piece of paper. Draw them in, remember all the good things, and just say a quick thank you. Pray to God for your friends. It is the kids only zone. So, uh, do download that and check that out. Last week, if you remember rightly, we talked a little bit about healing and all kinds of stuff, and we also had some downloads, which you could down in last week. And I know a few of the Langston children sent me while their mom sent me a copy of the amazing stuff, which you have done. So I'm gonna pull that up on the screen here. This is, uh, lemme just move this way. There we go. Uh, this is the crust, obviously, and they, I mean, I'm loving those colors. That highlighter pen, that bright yellow for me is. Amazing and just fantastic. And I love all the little patterns in the circles, like you've really thought about it. That's super cool. So do me a favor, when you've colored in this week's sheets, if you do it during the service, send 'em to me and if I get chance at the end of the service, I'll show them. Otherwise, just send 'em to me during the week [00:07:00] and we'll see 'em next week. 'cause we, we'll, love to see what you guys have got up to. Here's another one. Uh, we talked about healing. Dear God, please help people who are sick to get better. Amen. And you could write on there all kinds of things like people that you could pray for. Hide his back. Is it grandpa's leg that I see there? Um, zes hands. All kinds of cool stuff, which is great. So we pray, God, you would heal, uh, like has been requested on that picture. And I love these kind of things. You know, adults, it's not a bad thing to write people's names down on a piece of paper who you're praying for in a fun, enjoyable way. You don't have to be a kids, do it. I know we call it the kids only zone, but you know what? You can, you can engage, I'm sure. So download this week sheet, the friendship sheet, and um, and fill that in. And just be super grateful for your friends because you know, friends are amazing. 'cause that's the te today's, uh, theme is friendship. And in fact, the [00:08:00] title of to Talk, uh, the title of the talk, I think I've lost the ability to talk today. So far the title of the talk is going deeper than Coffee Shop Friendships right today and figuring out how to get a better work life balance. So I'm really looking forward to this one. Okay. What's going on next on my little list? Ah, yes, we have a new alpha course starting, which I'm super excited about. So here, let's watch the video and again, just let me know in the comments if you can hear the sound. I just wanna make sure it's coming through. Okay. Video: Every day we ask so many questions. What should I wear? What's the weather gonna be like? How am I gonna fit everything in? But then there are those bigger questions like, why am I here? Where am I heading than this?[00:09:00] I had arrived at an answer to the most important issue that we humans ever deal with. Is there a God? And I had arrived there without ever really looking at the evidence, and I was supposed to be a scientist. At 28, uh, I had gotten many of the things that I thought I wanted. Uh, my girlfriend was on the cover of magazines. I had a bemer and I was so unhappy. It was a realization maybe that I would, I would never find happiness where I was looking for it.[00:10:00] I think for so many years, you know, I always just strived to be strong in myself. All I needed was me and my buddies, and, you know, would be like invincible. But the truth is, none of us are. And I found purpose. I found meaning. I found hope. God took something so broken and made it a beautiful art piece. Alpha is a place where you can be yourself. You can say what you think and challenge everything. Like no question is too complex or too simple, and what your point of view is is as important as anyone else's. We are going on a journey together, an adventure to explore the questions of life safe.[00:11:00] So if these are the sorts of questions you're asking, join us on the next Alpha course. On Zoom. We'll be starting on Wednesday, the 22nd of July from eight till nine in the evening, and we'll run for 10. Each week, we'll watch a video together that looks at one of these big questions of life. Then we'll split into breakout rooms where you can get to discuss what you've seen, agree or disagree or ask questions. Um, you can join in as much or as little as you like. You don't even have to turn on your video if you don't want to. So join us on Wednesday the 22nd at eight o'clock. Okay. So Wednesday the 22nd Matt: at 8:00 PM is the start [00:12:00] of the next Alpha course. So totally psyched about that. Totally looking forward to it, if I'm honest, which I, you know, I do like to be. Uh, the last alpha we did was amazing. It was really, really good. And we, uh, we had a whole bunch of folks come along. So, uh, do come and join us on this one. Um. Registration is just on the website just to head on over to, in fact, why don't I show you how to do this. Let me go back to our website. Um, so here you see on the Frontline City website, just go to Frontline City and here we have online Alpha Course. If you click that, you've got this page here explains a whole lot more about what's going on. There's that video you've just watched there, um, tells you in more detail what's gonna happen. And you can register here just putting your first name, your email address and phone number, even if you're already on a mailing list. Can you just complete that because this, we, we need to sort of separate you, uh, and know that you are interested in doing the Alpha course. So we [00:13:00] can send you the Zoom link, okay? So you can do all of that. Uh, so do come join us. If you've got friends that wanna do Alpha, bring 'em along. Who could you invite, uh, to come and do Alpha? 'cause Alpha is such a good time, so amazing, really super accessible online. Like Sharon said, uh, you can engage as much or as little as you like. So do come and do that. Okay, now let me introduce to you something new, which is coming in Frontline city. Check this out. Video: Okay. I appreciate there's no sound Matt: with that. That's 'cause I forgot to do the sound. That's okay. You'll have to forgive me. Bite size. So bite size is something that we're wanting to do where we bring more, uh, we call them Jesus-centered conversations throughout the week. Um, and we're gonna start bringing more bite-sized content throughout the week that you can engage with, right? So, uh, we'll be [00:14:00] doing that through Instagram, through Facebook, there's gonna be just some stuff we'll put on, uh, on social media and on our YouTube channel if you wanna subscribe to that. Um, and it's gonna be like five to 10 minutes long when we put it out. Just stuff that you can think about, which will usually, nine times outta 10 be tied into the, the talk from that week, just to sort of expand it out, to think about it a bit further, to ask some more questions about it. How does it work? What does it mean? How does that help us? Uh, and so that's bite size. So we're gonna start that this week. Um, and given that I'm doing today's talk, I will also be doing the bite size stuff. So we'll bring that out. Excuse me, while I have. We will bring that out over the next few days. Uh, so make sure you are subscribed to the email list, uh, or to the WhatsApp group or you know, make sure you like the Facebook page or go finders on Instagram, um, followers on Instagram. Any of those sorts of social channels, um, will be put in the content out. And I'm gonna [00:15:00] explain in a little bit what this week's bite-sized content is gonna be all about. So excited about that. Right? Lemme just play this again 'cause I really like it. You can see how my hair's got longer since when that video was shot, right? Okay. So do like, comment, share what's going on. Do join in, uh, in the comments. We love your feedback. We'd love to know, uh, know what's going on. Um, and like it share, just tell us what you think. It's gonna be fun. Okay. So shall we get into this week's? Uh, talk as we carry on our journey through Mark's gospel. Let's begin, shall we? Okay, now let's, uh, lemme just click a button here on my system. So today's talk going deeper than coffee shop friendships and figuring out a better work life [00:16:00] balance. Now on the screen is my opening question. Okay. So before we get into this, I have a question for you. Uh, and I want just answer it in the comments, right? Don't be shy or embarrassed. Um, and even if you're not watching live, if you're just watching the recording, you can still answer, okay? And the question, as you can see on the screen, do you think you have a good work-life balance, yes or no answer in the comments below. Uh, if, if you do just write, yeah, I've got a good work life balance. If not, just write no work. Life balance is not so good, if I'm honest. Uh, my next question, do you check, oh, let me bring the next slide up. Here we go. Do you check your phone too much during the day? Ouch. Just a yes or no or an ouch, you know, what's your gut feel? Okay. Uh, your gut response. Write your answers in the comments. And whilst you are doing that, 'cause you know the broadcast is a [00:17:00] few seconds delayed. Let me bring up today's passage in Mark and we will get into this. Okay? So lemme bring that up. So we're in Mark chapter nine, uh, verses 30 through 32. Uh, and it says that they went on from there and walked through the region of Galilee. Jesus didn't want the people to know he was there because he wanted to teach his disciples in private. He said to them, the son of man is destined to be betrayed and turned over to those who will execute him, but after three days, he will rise again. But the disciples didn't have a clue what he meant and were too embarrassed to ask him explain it. That's interesting, isn't it? They were too embarrassed to ask him. Explain it now. Oh, let's see what you've put in the comments here. Okay. Let's add Abby's [00:18:00] comments. Right now, yes. As work isn't very busy, so I'm assuming yes, you've got a good work life balance because work's not, not as busy, enjoying more time for life and fun stuff, which is cool. Uh, what have we got here? Sometimes check my phone too much. Other times I don't check it and people can't get hold of me. Yes, yes. And amen. I wonder if there is, like, you know, we're gonna talk about maybe checking your phone a bit too much today, but I do wonder if we should have one of those. You should check it a minimum amount, especially when your husband is calling you or trying to get a hold of you just, you know, pointing that out. Did you know that typically, um, we spend, what's Matt put here? Ditto, I'm assuming to Abby. Um, did you know a typical person will check their phone about 60 times a day in the uk? About 60 times. It's a lot of times to check your phone, isn't it? Um, for me, I think I check it way too much. And yesterday was lush because I decided, 'cause I'd [00:19:00] prepared this talk and I'd been challenged by it. Not gonna lie. Um, I left my phone, uh, off and I took my, uh, I've got this watch here that's connected to my phone, so when I get notified, it comes upon my watch. And so I left that upstairs as well. And, um, you know what? The universe carried on working. To be fair, when I got to my phone in the evening, there were like 20 texts. One was from my mum, which, you know, I should have probably answered sooner. Um, but it was nice. It was nice, uh, sometimes to both. Sarah says, not very good at leaving work at work and doing work in the evenings. Yes, it's an interesting one, isn't it? And for me, I. I've never really vibed with the work, work-life balance idea principally because, um, I love what I do and so I don't see the split between work and and life. And so, um, but there are some principles today which we, I've been really challenged by and I'm, I'm gonna bring those to you and we're gonna get in them, hopefully. So why did they ask these questions [00:20:00] and what have they got to do with today's passage? The passage that we've just read out? Okay. Well one of the things that jumped out, uh, at me about today's passage was this idea of the private place, right? Jesus intentionally took his disciples to a private place. And this got me thinking about some of the places that Jesus has been to recently in the last few weeks that we've been looking at this passage. Okay, so let me bring up this and let's go through them. So I'm gonna summarize. Them into four key areas. Okay? Number one, the mountain. Number two, the workplace. Number three, the road. And number four, the private place. Now let's go through these, uh, one at a time, uh, and spend a little bit of time on this. So the mountain, right? This is something that we have seen in the last few weeks. Jesus, as he would often [00:21:00] do, went up a mountain and this is the place where he encounters God and is ministered to in very real and significant ways, right? Quite often he would just go by himself. Sounds bliss for me. I love the lake district. Go there quite a bit for the same reason. Now the second one, the workplace. Let's look at that. I'm not gonna spend any time really stay on the mountain or the workplace. These are quite full on topics. Um, but I just wanted to highlight them because we see this, right? This is the workplace. This is where work and ministry happens. Uh, Martin took us through this last week, you know, when the crowds gathered and the boy was healed. This is the workplace. This is a very public face of what Jesus is doing, right? There's a lot of people there. There's a lot of hustle, a lot of bustle, a lot of interruptions and lots going on. Okay? And like I said, there's lots I could say about these things, uh, but I want to focus in on the other two today, and that is the road and the private place. [00:22:00] Okay? So let's look at the road first. We're in the right slide. We are, yes. We've got lots of slides today, so I just wanna make sure, uh, I talked about this idea, if you remember, like, a few weeks ago. Okay, so I'm gonna expand on this a little bit. One of the things to note here is that when you are on the road, you are on the road with people. Okay? So whenever we see this talked about in scripture, the disciples are together, okay? But so whilst you're with people, predominantly they are your core people, your inner circle, uh, if you like. And I really enjoyed looking at instances in scripture where things happened on the road and in the true spirit of alliteration or in the true spirit of Nick Harding. Maybe let's look at some of those areas. Number one, we're gonna call, do. Um, so, you know, whilst they were on the road, they would often get interrupted, right? So they'd be traveling the road, people would interrupt them. Um, folks usually [00:23:00] seeking healing, right? And this happened more times than you would think, um, on the way from, you know, large crowds. Jesus would take to time on the way between the large crowds, Jesus would take the time to minister to individuals. And I, I just. There's a whole lot of goodness that I could get into right there. You know, this idea alone is the heart of the gospel, right? Jesus loves the world, but he is also deeply personal. He loves you as an individual. It's amazing stuff, but I don't want to digress too much here, right? So there's this idea that there's big crowds, there's small crowds. Jesus ministers to the large pe uh, large crowds, and he also ministers to the individual. Um, but here, uh, on the road interruptions would often happen, okay? Just like they would in the workplace. They were busy places. They'd be going off and doing one thing and somebody would interrupt him and say, can you come help me? Okay? So classic example of this is Jesus is on his way and the woman with the issue of blood stops him [00:24:00] in mark five to get healed. Jairus comes along and says, my daughter's dying. Come heal her. And Jesus is going one way, and then he ends up going another way. And all these kind of things would happen, right? So that's what we call do. The, the kind of the stuff, the work stuff would happen just with a much more, uh, focused approach. So the second D we have is debrief. Uh, and this is where the disciples would talk about what had happened in the workplace. Uh, they wanted to understand what had been going on, maybe develop it out. They would talk about life, they would talk about the issues that they face together, and they would just have this sort of debrief and catch it with each other, which was amazing. The third D is debate. That's right. I love this. Now, often, uh, instead of the word debates, the words the Bible uses is argue. That's right. Uh, we will see this in next week's scripture. Sharon's gonna cover that next week. Um, now if I'm honest, which again, like I said, I like to be, uh, what [00:25:00] concerns me is that I th. I do wonder, have we lost the art of debate and settled for keeping a quiet life? Anything for the easy life? We avoid confrontation. Right? Especially with our friends and our colleagues, which is why we only ever have these sort of surface level relationships. We don't get deep. Um, and fascinatingly, uh, we see this actually in this week's verse. Let me bring it up to you. So he said to them, the son of man is destined to be betrayed and turn over to those who will execute him, but after three days, he will rise again. But the disciples didn't have a clue what he meant, and were too embarrassed to ask him about it, right? They were too embarrassed to ask him about it. Wow. I mean, come on. Right? They didn't mind arguing amongst themselves about stuff about, you will see next week. Who's gonna be the greatest, right? Who's the coolest dude? Uh, but they were too embarrassed to ask [00:26:00] Jesus about what he meant. And some translations used the word afraid. Um, they were afraid to ask. They were scared to ask. Uh, and the triple is this lack of clarity is a problem, right? Uh, this idea of debate is so important. It's going to be the topic of this week's bite-size videos, right? So, uh, when I talked about bite size earlier on, gonna expand on stuff. I want to get into this whole idea of being too embarrassed to ask and not debating. Uh, but I haven't got time today. So we're gonna do it in the bite size. So make sure, like I say, um, you are subscribed to. Just like my little video here, uh, my little subscribe to, uh, YouTube, like us on Facebook. Connect with us on Instagram, and when those bite-sized videos comes out, you can get access to them. Okay? So make sure, uh, you are connected with what's going on. Okay, so the final D here is [00:27:00] dedicate. It was often on the road that people would decide to follow Christ, the most famous being the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, right? He had the Damascus road experience. Here's a man hell bent on destroying Christianity. But it is on the road that he meets Jesus and his life is changed. And if we are on the road with friends, good friends, who we can not only debrief about life with, but friends that we can debate with, who can help us with our dedication to Christ, then we have moved deeper than coffee shop friendships. Okay? The coffee shop, it's all the small group in church. The teams in the office. These are what I would call all modern day road experiences. They are, they are places that we are with our core, our inner circle. We meet up in the coffee shop, we catch up in people's houses. Um, but we're often interrupted, right? So when we [00:28:00] catch it with our friends, we debrief, but we're often interrupted either by others or by our phones. And so at best, we create a lot of surface level friendships as a result. And as I do, I was kind of hunting through YouTube the other day and came across this video and I thought it highlighted everything perfectly. So let me play this for you. Video: He's driving with a box stuck under his car and like, who knows how long he was driving. Like saw him pull out of the parking lot and turn right and the box was still stuck under his car. So who knows how long he was driving with that box under his car. I like Betty. He got home. He pulled into his driveway out in the sky. I'm not, wow. Didn't like the music. It's not, it's not real. I don't, it's real. I It's real. Maybe there's a see the lineup? [00:29:00] Empire Skate building. I do to you. Happy [00:30:00] birthday. Happy birthday to. Matt: Okay, not gonna lie, I got super challenged when I watched that video, right? Each one of those places I think are the same as the road, right? Times where you are with a few people, your core group of people, they're great times, they're fun times, they're important times, they're times of celebration, their birthday parties, their engagements. But what I see are times where people haven't realized they need to take it [00:31:00] from the road to the private place. And that, I think is the crucial point. Right? So let's look at today's passage again. Uh, where are we? Here we go. Oh, no. Where's the scripture? Let me bring that up just a second. Let me find it. Here it is. First one. There we go. We'll get there in the end. Uh, Jesus, uh, didn't want the people to know he was there because he wanted to teach his disciples in private. Right. In other words, he wanted to escape the interruptions that came, uh, from well-meaning people that needed his help. Okay, now let me, where are we? Here we go. Sorry about that. Just dunno why that slide didn't [00:32:00] come up. So Jesus is intentional about getting away. He's intentional about getting the disciples away. He spots, he spots what's going on. He sees and realizes that he needed to take it from the road to the private place. And for me, I keep missing these moments. Right? Um, this is the key, I suppose, for going deeper than coffee shop friendships as well as building a better work life balance, whatever that means to you. Right? Whenever you mention to me the idea of private place, if you're like me, I get a picture in my head of what this means as I'm sure you do too, right? Um. And in that picture, I will be in a certain location, but it will be just me. I don't know if you have the same idea, but the private place is a place of solitude in my head. You are there and no one else is. But I want you to notice in this passage that they are there to together. That's important, right? They are [00:33:00] together in a private place. And this is actually, um, so the private place is actually a place we go with our core people, our inner circle. It's not a place of solitude. These are the same people that we do work life and ministry with. These are the same people we do debrief, debate, and dedicate with on the road. Uh, it's just that we've recognized that we need to take it from the road to the private place. So here's an interesting verse. For example, from Mark chapter six. It's just, uh, chapter six. It's just before the feeding of the 5,000. The apostles returned from their mission and gathered around Jesus and told him everything that they had done and taught. There was such a swirl of activity around Jesus with so many people coming and going, that they were unable to even eat a meal. So Jesus said to his disciples, [00:34:00] come let us take a break and find a secluded place or a private place where you can rest a while. Isn't that fascinating? So they did. They took a break together in a private place. Jesus recognized the need to get away from the hustle, the bustle, and the interruptions to a place that was private. In the private place. They still debrief. They still debate. But because this is an interruption free zone we should call it, uh, with people that you can really be truly vulnerable with that, that debate is often used to learn and to develop. You're gonna see this next week. We saw it last week, right? Um, it wasn't until the disciples got into the private place that Jesus could reveal the spiritual principles they needed to effectively minister to that kid. Do you remember the disciples couldn't help the boy, and Jesus told them it would only come out by Prayer and fasting. But [00:35:00] notice here he told them this in the private place and it's in the private place. We learn these spiritual principles. Okay? Um, had they not gone to the private place, they may not have learned that principle about Prayer and fasting. Just saying, right? So life is full of interruptions. Uh, it is part of life. It is part of life. You know, the workplace interruptions. The road interruptions. It's not a problem. Uh, my Prayer though is, Lord, help me to learn when to take the situations from the road, uh, from the road to the private place. If you fall along with my thinking, how many of you right have checked your phone or been interrupted by something during this broadcast? Now, interruptions aren't a bad thing. Um. You know, writing comments if you feel safe, but you also, uh, so, and, and checking your phone's not a bad thing, but you also know that you don't get as much out of church. You don't seem to connect with God as much [00:36:00] when you're interrupted. It's just a part of life, right? I mean, I appreciate this is not rocket science, um, but it is good to go over the fundamental principles again and again. If not for you, definitely for me. I need to, I need a reminder more than anyone. Let me tell you. I'm sure my wife is taking copious notes to quote back to me at some point very, very soon, for example, right? Let's talk about work. Uh, at my office, we have regular meetings. Okay, these are the road, this is the road times. Um, but if I take the folks, uh, out of the office, take them away, for example, to like Jersey, I took people to Jersey, the island of Jersey. Um, that time that we have together is very different, right? I mean very, very different. Um, I can take the team, for example, to the local Starbucks and we have better meetings as we're away from the office, um, and away from the office interruptions. But if I take the team next door to [00:37:00] Nandos, I've noticed we actually have much better team, uh, times together as a team. And it was, when I was doing this research and, and going through this topic, I finally understood why, why do we have better meetings in Nandos and in Starbucks? And maybe that should have been the title of this week's sermon. Um, why do we have better, uh, times together in Nandos and Starbucks? Simply because this, our mobile phones don't work in the back of Nandos, so you can't get interrupted. You just can't. Okay. Well, I knew this was coming. I just, I don't need to say anything. I've dug a great for myself in some points, but you know, it is good to share what you learn from scripture. I feel. Uh, oh, sorry. What did you put here, Sarah? Great point. Sometimes we need to move from the road to the private place. Absolutely. Uh oh. And also today we're having a lovely family day, which is great, great way to do church together. It's been a great day actually. I've really enjoyed doing, uh, church together. Anyway, so [00:38:00] Nando's over Starbucks. You get the idea, right? 'cause this idea carries through into our private lives as well. Not just in Nando's. There should be private place, there should be private places, uh, where we look, where we look to cut out interruptions. For example, in our house, it would be the dinner table. We try not to have phones here and you know, I appreciate, I'm the worst corporate, and I've been a bit lax here, but these are times where we could, as a family, say, no, these are, this is a private place. We're gonna cut out the interruptions and we're just gonna be with each other. Chat, do life debrief, debate, all those kind of things, right? So challenge number one. Is this, can we create different places, different zones in life where you have different levels of interruptions? Okay? So create different places, different zones in life where you have different levels of interruption, which leads me nicely on to [00:39:00] challenge number two, and that is this. Be intentional about creating those spaces. Now this is actually part of leadership. Um, you know, me as a leader at work, I have to create those private place spaces. But also as a parent at home, I have to create them as a friend. I have to create them as a husband. I have to create those spaces. I have to take it from the road to the private place. Now Sharon, my beautiful wife, who is gonna, you know, uh, lemme just add this again to the bod just so everyone is aware. Yes. My notes will be quoted back to me. Sharon is actually much better at this than me. Right. Um, Sharon ensures that we all do breakfast together, uh, wherever possible. We all sit around the, the table and eat breakfast together, which is great. Um, and we also eat dinner together where possible, right? And so, um, these are great private place times where we can get rid of [00:40:00] interruptions. Uh, these are precious times, but they don't just happen. We have to be intentional about creating them. Okay? So I have a couple of great friends who live in London. And I have to intentionally create those spaces. The same with Jersey. I have to create, uh, these private place spaces. Sometimes they're on the phone. I don't have to go anywhere. We can create a private place on the phone. Um, I try to jump regularly on a train and meet up with them, and we intentionally hang out for the day. We pause, we rest up. Because that's also what you do in the private place. If you remember that from the scripture we read earlier. We have a break and we rest up. And it's important for relationships that this happens. We have to go deeper than just the coffee shop or the road. Okay? Sharon and I are super intentional about having date night. Each week we schedule it in and we create that private space. It's important for our marriage. And if I'm honest, it's one of those things that we would tell every [00:41:00] couple to do. So if you are in a relationship, you know, that is a romantic relationship, or you're married or you're about to get married, or wherever you are at, set it in stone at least once a week. You have date night and that date night is a private place. What's Sharon put here? Uh, not much talking happens at breakfast. We tend to stare at each other, but it's still worthwhile. Much more conversation happens at time where everyone's more awake. That is very, very true. Uh, they are special times, but they are usually quite quiet times. Zoe, bless her, just normally those, Video: that's great. Matt: Love it. Very precious times and I'm glad we do them. I really am. Now, you know what, if you are, let's go, let's take it back to work, right? So, you know, if you're part of a team and it feels stressful and it feels busy, then part of creating a better [00:42:00] work-life balance might not be finishing at 5:00 PM as per your contract, which is the current theme. It might be, but it might be that actually what you should do. Maybe just putting this out there is to, to intentionally create a private place. Maybe get your teammates around to your house, have a meal, play a game, and spend some time thinking about an issue, uh, that you have at work. 'cause you don't get the time to do it in the office with all the interruptions that are happening. Maybe then you'll make some good headway and it will just feel a lot less stressful. Sure, it's good to hang out, but don't be afraid to structure the time. Okay. Uh, structure what you talk about and take the opportunity to learn. Amazing things will happen if you do. I have no doubt. Okay. Which leads me on nicely to challenge number three, when you are with your core in the private place. Face the hard, difficult [00:43:00] issues, but look for the opportunity in them. Okay, what do I mean here? Well, this is what we see in today's passage. Remember, Jesus said here, he said, the son of man is destined to be betrayed and turned over to those who will execute him. But after three days, he will rise again. Now, these are hard things that Jesus is saying. They're complex things. They aren't things that the disciples are expecting. They have very different ideas about the future and what it should look like and how it should go, but Jesus reveals stuff to them. That was hard. And in your private place, when you close off the interruptions, you can feel safe and you can be vulnerable, and you can talk about the hard stuff. You should talk about the hard stuff, the difficult stuff, and the challenging stuff. It's the stuff maybe you don't want to hear, but you trust the person that is telling you. So question was, when was the last time you had one of those types of conversations? Right? [00:44:00] They are really, really important. Trust me on this. Okay? So make sure you have them Now when Jesus, uh, what Jesus is telling them, um, is that he is gonna be betrayed, he's gonna be executed. And like I said, that's really, really hard. What, what would cause him to do that? Why would he do that? I mean. What would you think knowing that was going to happen to you? Right? So he's going around, Jesus is going around knowing that this is gonna happen. Why would Jesus do that? It's insane to me that he would know this and he would still go through with it. And there's a wonderful verse, uh, in the book of Hebrews, which is in the New Testament that gives some great insight into this. And it's this, it says in Hebrews 12, two, for the joy that was set before him, he enjoyed the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand. Uh, [00:45:00] so he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Amazingly, Jesus knew he had to endure the agony of the cross. He knew he had to conquer its humiliation. He had to take our place. He took your sin and my sin. He took the sin of the whole world. In all of its history and died and the very source of life died because of our shame and our guilt. And he did it. Get your head around it. He did it knowingly. And the reason he did it knowingly, um, is he focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his. And this comes back to what I said at the start. Jesus died for everybody and he took on everybody's sin, but he did it for the joy of knowing that you, the individual, would be his. I mean, it is mammoth stuff, amazing stuff. He did it because of his love for you and for me. Now, can you imagine, right, the source of life, the creator of worlds, God [00:46:00] himself coming down, ministering to crowds of people, journeying with us on the roads, listening to our debates, being intentional in teaching us, and giving us times of rest and learning in these private places, getting involved with us on a very personal level and call in that joy, you and I are his joy, and that's why he went through it. Hello. I mean, oh, it's just good stuff. I love this kind of stuff. He's talking to the disciples, knowing what's going to come, what's gonna happen, and he did it anyway. And if you wanna know the truth, that's the gospel. He did it anyway. And the thing I love about this is he ends this revelation, uh, that when he is talking about this with the disciples, he starts talking about something, which is not great news, but he ends it with great news. What I mean is this look. Um, but after three days, so he is talking about being betrayed, but [00:47:00] after three days, he will rise again, right? That's the opportunity. In this nightmare. Jesus has been, uh, Jesus has been executed, is the opposite of what everyone deems success to be. But in it, in the bad news, the nightmare. Jesus also reveals the good news. I'm gonna conquer the grave. I am gonna defeat death so that you can all live. You might not get this now, but trust me, there is a time when you will understand this. Uh, and the disciples didn't get it, did they? They didn't get it at the that time. But there is a time coming where they would get it. And you may be the same, you might go, Matt, I don't get it. I don't understand it, but trust me, there is a time coming when you will. And it's amazing how all of this comes from just a few short verses in the gospel of Mark. [00:48:00] See? Nope, Internet's good here. Uh, I dunno if you got that. Sharon just walked in and told me the Internet's down and that was actually quite good timing. Uh, we finished. So I hope you've got something out of this, uh, today. I hope you've got something, uh, out of. This conversation about private spaces and so on and so forth. So here's the thing, right? Before we review the questions for today that we can think about, um, let's put into practice what we have learned, right? Um, let's go create a private place, which is not gonna be difficult in our home. 'cause apparently the Internet's gone down. I think the wifi might have gone down, but the internet here seems to be working just fine. Uh, so turn off your phones, close down anything that's open on your computer. Get away from people if you need to. Um, but I want you to get to a place where there are no interruptions, okay? Zero interruptions. Get into the private place, and you can obviously do that with people. Do it as a family. Um, and here are the questions, right? Where can you [00:49:00] intentionally create different interruption zones in life? This is a great question. As a family, what friend or folks? As in people, what, what people, what folks, what friends do you need to take to a private place and be intentionally creating them? Uh, Martin's just sent me a text saying he's still got me, which is cool. Glad we're going through. And number three, where's the opportunity in the hard issues that you face? Three great questions to ponder on. As always, write your answers as we ponder these in the comments below. I'm gonna put on, uh, the track from last week. We've put it to a, a better video this week, so when I survey the wondrous cross, we're gonna play that. Thanks again, John and Grace legends of just biblical proportions, you two amazing people. Um, we're gonna play that and whilst that song's playing, I want you to think about and pray through these three questions. Okay. God, what are you saying to me? What's going on here? So let's bring [00:50:00] that up and write stuff in the comments as we do that. Uh, here we go. Video: When I, the one on which the. All of glory die and.[00:51:00] Of Christ, my God.[00:52:00] Down from his is. And.[00:53:00] I thank you for. Cross say thank you for the cross smile. Lord, I thank you. The I Thank you. I thank. Of nature[00:54:00] freefall. I thank you for the cross. I thank you for the cross. I thank you the[00:55:00] I thank you for the cross. I thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cross. Lord, I love you for the I love you for the cross. I love you for the cross. I love, I love.[00:56:00] Matt: I just love that track. Let me tell you, I've been playing it a lot. Um, when I did the video with the lyrics, I heard it a lot and it just gets better and better every time I hear it. So, uh, thank you again, John and Anna Grace, amazing track. Um, thank you for the cross, my lord. Uh, amazing stuff, right? So, have you guys been getting on with those questions? Have you guys been thinking about them? What sort of stuff has been jumping out to you? For me, um, I put there in the comments, so I just wanna be, I think I, I need to create more intentional, I need to be more intentional in creating private places with the guys in work, with the teams that we've got. Um. It's gonna be interesting to see how I can do that with zoom and lockdown. Uh, and the other thing I wrote here, I'm gonna try and remember to leave my mobile phone out of the kitchen. Just don't bother taking it into the kitchen. Will be, will be, uh, probably quite helpful. 'cause if it's not there, I can't [00:57:00] pick it up. Right. Just saying. Um, what have you guys been putting? Let's go through your comments here. So, uh, to broadcast. There we go. Uh, I'm learning says Abby, how to make the most of hard issues and times when I make mistakes. To really allow God to mold me and refine my character definitely makes an impact in helping me be a better friend to others. I think this is so true, we're gonna get into this more in bite size, but the ability to connect over the hard issues and. I think is really important to actually bring them up and to challenge people around them, including ourselves, is so critical because so often we skirt over them because of fear of upsetting people and wanting to create this sort of the easy life, the, the quiet life. And I just, I just don't see it. I don't see Jesus doing it. I see Jesus actually getting in their faces sometimes and just, you know, [00:58:00] confronting what is going on. And if when you are praying you have, you know, and you hear God and you have times with God, which are great and wonderful, if you have never heard God get into your getting your face and challenge you, you might just be picking and choosing what you feel like God's telling you. Just wanna put that out there. Um, okay. What else have we got? So I've been taking a day off social media here and there. Makes such a positive impact on my day. I bet it does. I bet it does. Uh, very, very good. Um. Sarah says, we are planning a walk up a mountain without phone as a family day. Ooh, that sounds amazing. That sounds like it's gonna be great fun. Abigail is gonna make a phone our band sign. Abigail, do me a favor. Send me a photograph of that sign. I would love to see it. That will be a great sign. I think that'll be awesome. Definitely want to watch out for [00:59:00] So what about you? What about what else did you get out of the talk? Do let me know in the comments. It'll be great. Um, we are gonna end the live broadcast in just a minute, but then we're gonna jump on over to Zoom. Uh, so if you wanna stick around, if you wanna come join us on Zoom, you're more than welcome to. Uh, I'm just gonna pull up the Zoom link. Um, yes, let me pull up the zoom link here. Uh, zoom and I'll post it in the comments again. So you can come join us on Zoom. It'd be great to see you in there. Uh, if you dunno what we do at the end of the service, at the end of the live broadcast, we'll just jump on Zoom. So if people are hanging around, um, they can come join us and great to meet folks, uh, in Zoom and just have a catch up. Why is this not logging in? Just give me two [01:00:00] seconds. I should have done this earlier. I'm very sorry. Another thing I should put on my little list of things here, um, is the actual Zoom link, so I don't have to keep going to the website to get it every time. Because every time I seem to go to the website wants me to log in because I don't really know what my password is for the site. So then I have to go and get my password, you know, from one of those password programs. So it's never quite as straightforward as you like. Uh, let's have a look here. Okay. So let me control c Ctrl v paste that in the comments. Hopefully you have got that sorted and I'm just aware. Oh, I've got some, I've got some WhatsApp messages. Let's have a look. Sorry I don't check WhatsApp throughout the, I really should have that on my screen. There we go. You have no new messages. Continue everyone to join in. Um, Martin, [01:01:00] yes, we have definitely lost the art of proper debate. Proper debate says the lawyer. Okay. Oh, I'm loving this. Right? How do I get this up onto the screen. We have got some photo colorings from the Lang Stoney kids. Let me just, uh, see if I can, if I drag and drop. Does that note? Let me, uh, I'll be with you in just one second. I'm just gonna download these 'cause it's cool. I just need to see the downloads folder on my computer and then I think I can drag and drop, can I? Okay. So here is picture number one. Loving that God's big family. Um, fantastic. Well done, Langtons. And here is picture number two. [01:02:00] Oh yeah, look at that. Look at that mate. Again, we're using the bright yellow pen, which is fantastic. Good to see bright yellow pens. Thanks for sending us those. Well done on doing them. That's fabulous. Oh, we've got another one. Oh, hang on, hang on. They're all coming in thick and fast now. I think this is the finished version of that one. My favorite one by far is the dude on the right. I wanna know out of all your friends who has got an outfit like that because that outfit seriously rocks, let me tell you. That is an amazing outfit. Um, well done. Thanks for sending those through and I'm impressed we could figure out how to get 'em on the screen quickly. Uh, but yes, what else have we got on WhatsApp here? Any other messages? No, I. This is why I'm not in charge of social media, says Sarah, why is that? Oh, because you posted something twice. Okay, [01:03:00] very good. So in the comments is the Zoom link. Uh, we will be ending our live broadcast there. Um, Abby Langston Norf gets sent us an image of your phone's band banner. That will be amazing. Next week we have the beautiful, talented, and all round good egg, which is my darling wife, um, who is gonna be sharing the next portion of the journey with us in Mark's gospel. And then the week after that, if I'm not mistaken, we have got the most high reverend himself, Dave Connolly, coming on to the live stream to share, which I'm super looking forward to as well. So we've got some good stuff coming in the next few weeks and make sure you subscribe and like, um, uh, the talk, um, the talk the Facebook page. Uh, and it'll be great to stay connected with you. 'cause you know, there is some good stuff coming up. I'm looking for that. Here we go. That's what I need. So make sure you subscribe and like the Facebook page to stay in touch with all that's going on, for all the bite-sized comment that's coming out. Uh, [01:04:00] comment content, all the bite-sized content coming out over the next week or so. Uh, we will keep you up today with what's going on. Thank you so much for watching. Uh, as Matt just put here, bless you all indeed. Great to see you. Have a fantastic week. We will see you next Sunday. If you're in Liverpool next Sunday morning, come join us on the walk. It'd be great to see you. Um, otherwise, God bless you, we will see you uh, next Sunday at, well at 4:00 PM on the live stream. Looking forward to it. Alright guys, have a fantastic week. God bless you. Bye for now.