Overcoming Adversity Part 1 - Why the power of positive thinking isn't that powerful | Mark 11:20-26

Why the power of positive thinking isn't that powerful _ Overcoming Adversity _ Church Livestream Matt: [00:00:00] Well, hello, good afternoon and welcome to Frontline City. It's great that you are here. We are an [00:01:00] online church for those who really don't see the point of church, uh, but want to know more about how Jesus can help us live a meaningful life. My name is Matt Edmundson and I get to lead and pastor this amazing online church. Yes, it's an online church such as the Soci Society, such as the way in which the world is going. We've just discovered online church and we really like it 'cause it doesn't matter where we meet. Just matters that we meet, right? And that we get together. Uh, so it's great that you are here. It's really great to be with you. Now, I know many of you, uh, watching this video, it will be your first time to Frontline City. So just to give you a bit of a context. A context to give you a bit of context, not just a context, but a bit of context. Uh, we are part of Frontline Church. We're based here in Liverpool, in the uk, and we just wanna help inspire you about Jesus. And just how amazing he is. So please do feel at [00:02:00] home with us. Now if you are watching this live, uh, you can join in with the comments below the live stream. Absolutely, yes. You can say how, say how, say hi and let us know what you think. Hopefully, Mike. Beach is gonna become a lot clearer as we go through the afternoon. Uh, so do say hi. Come join in. Let us know where you are, what you're doing, what you're up to. Uh, and uh, also it's a great place to ask questions, uh, and to bring your debate. Um, we love questions. We love that you can ask those questions here. We really want this to be a place where you can do that. All we ask is that you do it respectfully. Which I think is fair enough right now if you're not watching this live and you are watching the replay, um, which I know many people do, right? For, for every person that watches the live stream, I think there's like 19 people or something crazy that watch the, um, that watch the recordings in the first week, which is cool. [00:03:00] Uh, but do feel free, like you can join us on the live streams. Uh, it's, um, it's great to see you now. If you are watching the recording this, you can still join in with the comments. You can still write stuff in. You can uh, watch us on YouTube if you wanna subscribe to us on YouTube, however you wanna catch up, that's fine, right? Uh, but do watch it, uh, do comment. 'cause we still, you know, we do monitor them and we still do engage with them. So it's great that you can do that as you'll see in the corner of the screen. Get the right way. That way, uh, you can message us on that number. Now, that is my WhatsApp number. It is right here on my desk. Oh, yes, it's right here. Um, and magically we make things appear on screen, which is kind of cool. Uh, but do use that WhatsApp number. Uh, we especially love it when you get in touch, write your comments, um, and honestly send in Prayer request to that number. Uh, we just, we just. I would love to help pray for you. So if there's [00:04:00] anything you want Prayer for, do send us uh, the information on that number. The other thing you can do to that number is you can send photographs of how you are currently watching the service. Oh, yes, you can. So, however you're doing it, however you watching the service, just grab your phone, any excuse for a selfie, uh, and just take a picture and send it to that number now, be warned. There is a strong chance I will show them at some point. Like some guys, uh, some people sent some photos last week. You are gonna see those in the catchup video this week. Okay? So, uh, do bear in mind whatever you send through may appear on the stream at some point. Now. Uh, so just like I say, uh, so as I said earlier, do make sure you, uh, join in on the comments. Now, it'd be great if you're watching this. Give us a, like, comment and share. Um, just. Would love to see you do that. Um, give us a like, and if you're happy to do it, why not share it? Share the live stream out too. Right? It's always great if you do [00:05:00] that. It helps us reach out to new folks around the world. And it's great that we have people from around the world connecting in with what we're doing. We've had people from California, South Africa, I mean the Philippines, literally. All over the world. It's fantastic. Okay, so let me tell you what is coming up in today's service in today's livestream after this short brief welcome. Uh, we are gonna jump into today's talk, which is called Why The Power of positive Thinking actually isn't all that powerful. No, we're gonna get into that, and then after that we're gonna have a brief time of worship, which Sharon is gonna talk more about later. Then we will wrap up with some notices and this week's catchup video, which you don't want to miss. Trust me on this one. You don't wanna miss it. Uh, when I saw it earlier, 'cause I get, I get it sent ahead of time. Uh, Josh sends it through to me. Um, Josh puts the ketchup videos together. If you've not seen it before, you'll see it later. Anyway, uh, when he puts the [00:06:00] videos together, he sends 'em through to me and I get to see them before you guys do Almost spat out my tea when I watch this one. So do stick around till the end to watch the ketchup video and all of that. Hopefully. We are gonna be finished by about quarter to five, five o'clock, somewhere around there. Uh, and for those of you who would like to, we are gonna meet up on Zoom after the live stream. I have put the link in the comments, um, and we're gonna stick around on Zoom for maybe 10, 15 minutes If you want, come join us. Come say hi. Uh, you're more than welcome to. It'd be great to see you in there. Uh, so that will be directly after the service. Okay, so. Have a, have a, have, have at it. So add to broadcast. Let's click this. So Sharon says hi to everyone. Uh, my beautiful wife, um, has had to go into lockdown this week. Yes. Uh, she is in, uh, not lockdown, what do they call it? Um, self-isolation. She's self isolating, is what she's doing. [00:07:00] Uh, and so I don't feel like I've seen her for the first four or five days, even though we're in the same hair. Um, and so, uh, hi Babes. What else have we got, Matt Crew. Uh, apologies for not being with you today. Matt Edmundson, et cetera. I'm at Cluster E. Have a great one. Oh, great. Well, enjoy the service. So, um, if you, uh, if you don't know, I mean, Matt's one of our regulars, but the clusters, uh, going on at our wavery service, so we have a, a wavery service here in Liverpool. So if you're in Liverpool and you wanna attend a church service. As well as do online church. We do have, uh, a, a much more cut down church service at the waver tree building, um, in light of local lockdown re uh, restrictions. Um, and so Matt is part of that. He's gonna be at church, which is Fab. So have a good time there. And for all our Frontline family, uh, do, uh, get connected with what's going on in the building, [00:08:00] that they're working really hard to keep everybody safe, but at the same time give us all opportunity to, um, to worship. So cool. Right now. All of that said, without further ado, I'm just looking around my screen for the place to click. Without further ado, we are gonna get into today's talk and, uh. It's actually me, uh, prerecorded. So I'm gonna play that and I'll, let me intro what we're talking about. Here we go. Have you ever faced a problem? Like a big problem. A gigantic, enormous, massive Eddie Hall size problem. Well, of course you have more than likely, right? It's one of the things that we all have in common as human beings. We all have adversity, we all have obstacles we need to overcome, and we all have problems that we in fact have to deal with. Money, for example, would be a classic one. We regularly, throughout our lives have to deal with money issues. Or maybe it's not money, maybe it's health. Maybe it's [00:09:00] family. I don't know what it is, but we regularly have to deal with problems, right? Of that. You can be sure now. If you're like me, when you face adversity, when you know things are coming up, you kinda like think to yourself, well, what can I do about it? How can I deal with them? And, uh, let me tell you, I have read all the self-help books. I have watched the videos, I have enrolled on courses from gurus who taught me how to overcome adversity. And you know, what if I just. To, if I was to distill their message down into a series of soundbites, one of them, which they would all have in common, would be this, when overcoming adversity, the power of positive thinking is king. Oh, yes. Uh, we hear phrases like positive mental attitude. Positive thinking, um, positive mindset. The glass is half full, not half empty. Be optimistic. Do you know what I mean? All those kind of things, however you want to phrase it. These, [00:10:00] according to those that know are in fact the keys to spiritual growth. So as a result, I have worked hard on having a positive attitude. Uh, you know, I start putting quotes on, uh, Instagram. I start subscribing to Instagram feeds with all of those nice quotes on there. For example, uh, hashtag positive Vibes has 55 million posts. Did you know that? Most of which are quotes like this one, don't lose the spark that makes you, you. Or the other one, too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. Or how about don't ruin good? Uh, don't ruin a good today by thinking about a bad yesterday. Let it go now. This is all very good advice, right? All very positive. But if only it was that easy, right? If only it was that easy just to say, let it go. And it's all right. Like the Disney song. I'm not gonna sing it. Don't panic. Uh, and I think that's the problem right [00:11:00] there, isn't it? The power of positive thinking isn't always that powerful. Now, I appreciate that. This may be a slightly controversial thing to say, but you know what, I'm okay with that. Uh, and we are gonna spend the rest of our time together looking at maybe why positive thinking isn't always that powerful and what we really should look at when trying to overcome obstacles and adversity. Hi there. My name is Matt Edmundson, and welcome to our live stream as we journey through Mark's gospel, learning about the life of Jesus and being inspired by his words and his actions, and understanding how as relevant and how Jesus is relevant to us here today in 21st century England. Now we have been working our way through Mark's gospel, uh, over the. Previous months and the Marks gospel is a gospel about the [00:12:00] story of Jesus, the life of Jesus. Right. And we've come to this interesting sort of part of the gospel. There's kind of caused me to pause and to go, there's much more to this passage than just a. One week. So what we're gonna do is, this is actually part one of a mini series we are going to be doing on how to overcome adversity, overcoming adversity, and the lessons Jesus gives us to move the mountains in our lives. Now I am, let me tell you, I am super, super excited about this week and the weeks coming up. Partly because I know what's gonna be in them. And this teaching, I think, is gonna bring us back some balance and it's gonna restore hope to us, and it's gonna give us the faith that we need and the courage we need to overcome these major obstacles in our lives. So, wow. That's all good stuff right there. Right? So let's get going. During the intro, I said that the power of positive thinking isn't always that powerful, so [00:13:00] why not? And what has this got to do with a journey through the Gospel of Mark? Well, I'm glad you asked because I think that's a fundamentally good question. So let me show you. Uh, some research that I came across. Okay. So when I was, um, when I was reading through this particular passage that I'm gonna read to you in a minute, we're gonna get into, and I, and we, we, we get into this sort of idea of overcoming obstacles. As I said at the start, my first thing is to go, well, let's go down the positive thinking route, right? Because that's what all the self-help book tells us. And so I wanted to research that a little bit. I wanted to know what people thought about the power of positive thinking. And I didn't just want to know what the cliched sayings told me, or the beautifully designed Instagram quotes that we saw. No, no, no, no. Not at all. I actually wanted to see what both sides of the argument was saying, and it was [00:14:00] fascinating. Okay. So one of the websites that I came across was psychology today.com. Okay. And they said this about positive thinking. When beliefs and experiences don't match, we become confused, frustrated, and disappointed. This is why positive thinking is so limited. It often seems forced. And inauthentic, and it only works when we have the experiences we desire. Wow. Wow. I mean, right there. Wow. Right. In other words, if the problem doesn't change our thinking or our positive thinking fades over time. We tend to get beaten down by our experiences as time goes on. Right. We kind of learn to accept where we are. Maybe lose the fight and maybe even try not to think about it. I don't know, uh, about you, but that's definitely me. Done that. Right. Got that [00:15:00] t-shirt. And then I came across this website from Melody wilding, uh, melody wilding.com, and on there they wrote The problem with positive thinking or affirmations is that they operate at the surface level of conscious thinking and do nothing to contend with a subconscious mind where limiting beliefs really live. I mean, wow. Proper. Wow. Right. I find this a really interesting statement. Positive thinking and positive affirmations operate on a surface level, but it doesn't get down to our core beliefs, which is necessary for transformational change. So, in other words, there are two levels to the brain. Uh, if you were with us last week, Jack talked about this in his talk. Uh, is it okay to get angry? Um, and if you've not seen that, check out the website 'cause we have links to all that sort of stuff. I'll put the link below. Um, but he talked about the two levels of the brain when it came to dealing with anger. And here, [00:16:00] this website's talking about it. When it comes to positive thinking, that positive thinking only operates on the surface level. It does not operate at the core beliefs where it needs to, where it's necessary for transformational change. So here is point number one, uh, in our series and overcome an adversity. So if we want to overcome adversity, we have to realize that positive thinking. Isn't all that powerful or lemme say that again. The power of positive thinking isn't all that powerful. Now, let me say, uh, lemme just clarify actually. I don't think being positive is actually a bad thing. I genuinely don't. I think in some cases it can be helpful and I enjoy being a positive person. I try and be a positive person. I think it's always much better to be positive than negative, but that's just me, right? That's my character. That's my demeanor. I am aware that being a positive person, positive thinking, optimistic optimism, it has its [00:17:00] limitations when it comes to overcoming adversity. And it's important to recognize that right here at the start of this little miniseries, because we are gonna see this theme coming up time and time again, right? Fundamentally, there has to be a deeper work in us, and there has to be more. Than just trying to think positively. So if you are like me and you've read those self-help books and you've gone down this positive thinking route and it's not really worked for you, well listen up. 'cause we are gonna get into what does actually work. What is gonna help us, uh, in the modern world. Well, in today's passage, Jesus is gonna give us his secret source, if you like, his methodology for overcoming adversity. And let me tell you this stuff. Is good, right? I mean, like I say, I kind of have read ahead. Spoiler alert, it's good. Right now, before we read today's passage, I just wanna take a few seconds. And remind ourselves of the context [00:18:00] in which we are in. Okay. Now, two weeks ago, uh, I did a talk called Transformational Change, which is really the start of this particular story. Uh, and I'm just gonna read that passage, okay? Uh, 'cause that's gonna give us a context for today. So, mark 11, uh, chapter, it's Mark chapter 11, verse 12. The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves because it was not the season four figs. Then he said to the tree, may no one eat fruit from you again, and his disciples heard it. So here we see Jesus cursing the fig. Right. That was part one. We covered that, like I said, two weeks ago today, if you like, is Fig Tree the sequel? Uh, and so let's read on it. We just need to read that for context. Now. Let's read the next passage. Now in the morning as they pass by. So Jesus and the disciples passed by, [00:19:00] they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots, and Peter remembering said to him, rabbi, look, the fig tree, which you cursed has withered away. So Jesus answered and said to them, have faith. In God for assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him. That your father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses, but if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive you your trespasses. Wow. Some good stuff right there. Okay, so this passage is what we are going to be looking at, uh, in our overcoming adversity miniseries. So, uh, let's jump straight in, right? Let's look at actually [00:20:00] what is going on here. So two weeks ago we read that Jesus cursor Fig, or two minutes ago we read that Jesus of a Cursor Fig Tree. And now it's the next day, right? And the disciples are walking past and they kind of come across this tree and they go, oh wow, okay. That tree is actually with it now. And they draw Jesus' attention to it, right? Rabbi look, the tree, which you, and so Jesus then goes into this lesson about casting mountains into the sea. So what that tells me is. That when Jesus initially cursed the fig tree, how I interpret this is there was no real change. Okay? So Jesus said to the fig tree, let no one eat fruit from you again. But then the next day, the disciples come back, oh look, it's withered. In other words, it wasn't withered on the first day. That's how I interpret it. Okay. It wasn't withered when Jesus spoke. In other words, the disciples didn't see any instant result from Jesus cursing the fig tree. [00:21:00] They didn't see any instant change. Let me say that again. When Jesus spoke, I don't think the disciples saw an instant change. Now, if you know me, you will know one of my phrase favorite phrases is, and this is important and this is important, right? You'll hear it all the time. Uh, think about Prayer. This idea of not seeing an instant change, right? Because if you pray, um. Whether you're a Christian or whether you're not, when, when you pray, you normally want to see instant results, especially when we have to overcome adversity, right? We don't like pain. We want an instant solution. I do. I mean, I know I'm not alone in this, right? We, I don't like waiting for anything anymore. I have the fastest broadband in my house. If the web is not instantly up, I'm like kicking off, right? If I order a parcel online and it's not there the next day, something is. Wrong. And that whole thing about wanting instant, about wanting these quick fix, this instant [00:22:00] solution, it kind of comes through in how we pray. But here's the thing about Prayer. If you've not figured it out, uh, often there isn't that instant visible change. Now, does that mean God is not answering our prayers? Is God somehow ignoring us? Now, I don't wanna get into this too much because we're gonna talk about, uh, answered Prayer in, in, in this miniseries. We're gonna get into that. Uh, but it's an interesting question. Stop and look at right here, because if you allow me to put it this way, I think Jesus had the same problem. 'cause Jesus spoke right to the tree and there seemed to be no visible change. But that doesn't mean nothing is happening, even though we don't see it. And there is insight as to why this is, I think in this verse, I think it's one of the answers to our questions, is God actually answering Prayer? Let's look at what it says about the tree, right? It says that the [00:23:00] tree dried up from the roots. Now this is important. There's that phrase again, right? In other words, something started to happen as soon as Jesus spoke, but nobody saw any physical change right there and then Jesus spoke and in the physical realm, they couldn't see any change. When we pray, sometimes something happens in the spiritual, but we don't see anything in the physical realm right there and then that doesn't mean anything has started, as nothing has started to happen. So this is my second point, right? So point number one, realize that the power of positive thinking is in that powerful, the second point, to overcome adversity, you have to start at the root. Okay. Now, maybe for you, God is doing something when you pray, but he's doing it at the root level. You might not see it, but that doesn't mean he's not working right. I know for me, for [00:24:00] example, there's been times when I've had financial need, you know, running your own businesses, you have financial need. But God, I don't always see the instant there. And then, but quite often, God is working in me on the root issues as to why we're having that financial problem in the first place. So I'm looking over here and God's working over here, and eventually my slow brain connects the things together, right? So what this passage is showing us what Jesus and the Bible are trying to highlight to us here in the 21st century is a truth that. If I'm honest, I often don't want to hear, and that is simply this. You have to deal with the root first. Now, I reckon we all know this to be true, right? Uh, you, me, everybody, especially if you've ever had to deal with weeds in your garden, if I can use that analogy, uh, you know as well as I do, if you don't take the time to get the roots, that weed will [00:25:00] grow right back. And it's the same for us. And that's the point of this lesson, right? Uh, it you have to get to the roots. Now, the problem with that, of course, is you don't always see that instant benefit that you want. Right, uh, that we need and that we crave, that we're somehow addicted to. Just like the disciples didn't see anything when Jesus cursed the tree. But again, just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not gonna have an effect. And just because you can't see it doesn't mean that something isn't happening. Now, a classic example of this for me has always been my weight ever since I got married. And this is no slur on me being married. This is coincidence. Uh, I've struggled with my weight. It has been really easy for me to put weight on, not because I'm married. Lemme just reiterate that point. If I'm honest. The, the reason I put weight on is because it became really easy for me to eat an entire packet of biscuits, right? And not actually [00:26:00] think twice about it. Uh, my metabolic rate fell through the floor and I was just still eating packets of biscuits and I gained weight and I tried to diet it and I would. Lose weight and then I would gain weight and then I would lose weight and then I would gain weight. And I was sort of back and forth. Uh, and we even have a phrase for this, don't we? In the modern world, we call this yo-yo dieting. And I, I was, you know, back and forth a couple of times on this and eventually. I kind of figured it out. It wasn't until I dealt with the root of the issue that I actually started to see a permanent fix to the problem. And let me tell you, that did not happen overnight. Oh no. It has taken a number of years to deal with that root, and in some respects I'm still dealing with it. So what is at the root for you and what you are facing? What is at the root of your adversity? If you can take the time to understand that, I think you can experience some massive breakthroughs in your [00:27:00] life, especially if God is involved. Right? But how? How do we do that? Well. Jesus is now gonna tell her his principles for overcoming obstacles and adversity, but overcoming them permanently, digging things out by the roots and not just at the surface level. Right? So in essence, optimism, positive thinking. It's great if you wanna deal with things at the surface level. If your foundations are good and right. But if they're not, if the root isn't dealt with, you can be optimistic all day long, but it's just not gonna help you. Right? So let's get that sorted. Let's get in at the root level. Okay, so let's get in at the root level. Now, the reason we started here in this particular passage, and it's worth understanding this, right? Uh, the reason we started here is simply because. Yeah, this is where the story starts, [00:28:00] right? Uh, now a as I said at the start, quite often when I've faced stuff, when I have challenges and obstacles, um, I do like to read and I like to read stuff around it. And like I said, at the start, without doubt, one of the most common things people tell us is just have a positive mental attitude. You've got to be positive. You've gotta attack this, you've gotta go for it. And I do think there's a lot of truth in that, like I said, but there has to be. More to it than that. And it's interesting that science is saying that positive thinking doesn't work. Um, if your, if your core beliefs don't line up with what you are saying, right? That's what the science, social sciences tell us. And so as we get into, uh, this miniseries as we go through it, we are gonna see actually the social science is in essence telling us what Jesus told us 2000 years ago. It is absolutely mind blowing and fascinating. And so what is [00:29:00] at the root, and this is a really interesting question to get your head around, um, when facing stuff, what is at the root of what is going on here? Uh, and that really. Is got to be the first question we ask, so. I read a statistic earlier on that almost, uh, I think it's only one in five people that hasn't felt recently, uh, loneliness. Um, because of the restrictions, right? That we felt lonely, that we found it hard, that um, 80% of us are finding it turf. 80% of us are finding the mental challenge quite strong. 80% of us are feeling loneliness during this time. So these are quite interesting things to come up. These are obstacles, these are adversities that we have to deal with. But it's not just about thinking more positively, is it? It's not. It's not the, you know, chin up, keep calm, carry on stuff that we talk about. There has to be more to it than that because that, well, that hasn't worked and we are gonna get into this much more next week. [00:30:00] Uh, we are gonna look at, uh, this idea of faith. Um, the, the core belief that the social science tells us what is our core beliefs. We're gonna get into faith a little bit, and we're also gonna look at, um, this being brutally honest with yourself. And just being really clear on what is going on. Not denying anything. Not pretending it doesn't exist, but just being brutally honest. And if you are a regular to this city stream, you may remember a few months ago I did a talk called, um. Who encourages you to do the stuff that scares you? It slipped my mind for a minute. Then who encourages you to do the stuff that scares you? 'cause in that talk, we talked about something called the Stockdale Paradox. Uh, and that will sound familiar because in that he talked about faith and confronting the brutal facts. And we are gonna see that in, uh, next week. So as we carry on this story that Jesus actually shows us this. On the pages of the New Testament, which I just find quite fascinating. [00:31:00] Uh, so it is always good when social science catches up with the Bible, uh, is what I'm saying. So do come join us next week as we carry that on, uh, because it is just such a fascinating thing as we get into this whole idea of overcoming adversity. But to do that, we've got to move beyond optimism, and we've got start looking at the root of some of our problems. Now, if you, uh, read on. Uh, well if you remember some of the scriptures that we read on, uh, that I read a second ago, you'll remember that Jesus starts talking about things like forgiveness, and it's fascinating how unforgiveness can be at the root of many of our problems and obstacles. I mean, it's the thing that Jesus goes towards, he goes towards is gonna talk about faith and making sure your core beliefs are in the right place. Okay, uh, hello. And he's also gonna talk about unforgiveness, and we're gonna get into all these things. In fact, Sharon is gonna do a talk on unforgiveness because she texts me just a moment ago just [00:32:00] to confirm she was in fact doing it. And she is, and it's gonna be fantastic. But it, the Bible's gonna start touching on a few different things about what's at the root, what's at the root of what's going on. Uh, and it just is mind blowing. So do come join us. Okay? Uh, do stay connected with what's going on now. What we are gonna do now is we are going to come to a time of worship. So whilst, whilst this is sort of going on in your head and you've just sort of been thinking about, uh, what we've just talked about, let that sort of set and ponder. Sharon, my beautiful wife, uh, is gonna introduce the worship. We're gonna have a time of worship, and then I'll be back after this. Sharon: Hi everyone. We've now got to the part of our live stream where we play a song. Now, the song we're gonna play today is called Reckless Love, and it's one that we've played before. So if you've been with us before, you should recognize it. It's a song that talks about how God's love is so great for us. At times. It can [00:33:00] look almost reckless. And there's a line in the song that talks about leaving the 99, and that's referring to a part of the Bible where Jesus talks about a shepherd who has a hundred sheep and one of them goes missing. And how the shepherd leaves the 99 in order to go after the one. And how that's like, um, how God will go after each of us if we've gone astray. So while this song's on, you can either join in if you want to and use it as a kind of, it's partly Prayer to God and it's partly speaking truth over ourselves. Or you can use this time just to think about the talk and the things that Matt said, and just let that sink in a little bit. Or you can listen to the words of the song and let those sink in. Or maybe you're someone who you're not even sure if God's there. Why not use this opportunity just to say, look, God, if you are there, reveal yourself to me. Show me, um, that you are there and that you care about me. Uh, so enjoy the [00:34:00] song. Music: Before I spoke a word you were singing. You have been so, so good to me. Before I took a breath, you breathed your life in me. You have been so, so kind to me.[00:35:00] The overwhelming, reckless love of God. Oh, it chases me down. Fight still, I'm found leaves the 99. I couldn't earn it. I don't deserve it. Still you give yourself away. Oh, the love of God.[00:36:00] When I was your fo steal your. You have been so, so good to me. When I felt no worth, you paid it all for me. You have been so, so kind to me. Overwhelming reckless love of God downs.[00:37:00] I couldn't, I don't. There's no shadow. You won't light up mountain. You won't climb up coming after me. There's no wall you won't kick down. Lie you won't tear out coming [00:38:00] after me. There's no shadow. You won't light up mounts and you won't climb up coming after me. There's no wall you won't kick down. Lie you won't coming after me. The snow shadow, you won't light up. Mountain. You won't climb up coming after me. The snow you won't kick down. You won't tear coming after me. No shadow. The You won't kick down. Why you won't tear coming [00:39:00] after me. Oh, it chase me down. I, I don't deserve it. Still, you give yourself love God.[00:40:00] Matt: What a fantastic song that is. What a fantastic track. The overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God. It chases me down. Fights till I'm found, leaves the 99, and that Sharon said at the start, that 99 is just talking about a story in the gospel where Jesus. Um, talks about a shepherd who has a hundred sheep and one of them goes missing and he leaves the 99 to go and find that wand. And, uh, for many of us in the Christian faith, we've, we have felt quite often like the w like we've just sort of wandered off, uh, our own way and done our own thing. And, uh, he's, he somehow calls us back and, uh, and, and rescues us, which is great. So. Love that track and thanks again, John and Anna Grace for doing that. I can tell you actually, uh, I don't, I [00:41:00] don't have a news roll announcement. Uh, John is doing a new song for us next week, which ties into, uh, overcoming Adversity series. Loving that. So can't wait to hear that, you know? Full. Well, that is gonna be good. So, uh, do keep connected with that Now, uh, do let us know in the comments what your takeaway has been from the worship, what your takeaway was from the talk. We'd love to. Hear from you, and if you've got any questions, then let us know. We do do something not every week, but we try and do something called Between Sunday, which is where we, we sort of take Sunday's topic and we deep dive in it. And, uh, you guys do send us questions. You can do it through the WhatsApp number you see on the screen, uh, or you can email them or you can, you know, put them in the Facebook comments or the YouTube comments and we will try and answer those. Com are those questions in the between Sunday videos. That's what Between Sunday is all about. And if you'd like to see some of those videos, just head on over to our YouTube channel. The [00:42:00] link is on that website right there. If you just go to that website, scroll to the bottom, you can find our YouTube page and it'd be great if you can connect it with there 'cause that's quite new. Um. And so, yeah. Brilliant. Now what I am gonna do is I am just gonna, we're gonna do notice. That's what we're gonna do Now, we're gonna do the notice. And there's not an awful lot to tell you other than the fact that, um, we traditionally have done a Sunday morning walk at 11:00 AM. Here in Liverpool and we've invited people from Liverpool to come join us and we catch it with folks and we wander around, and it's been great during lockdown to be able to do that. However, there are now local restrictions in place, which, uh, mean that it's probably not the right thing to do, right? So, uh, for the foreseeable future, uh, the walks on the Sunday morning will stop and we'll let you know when they're starting again. If you want to, if you're in Liverpool and you want to know about those walks and would like more information, again, just send me a message to that WhatsApp number. We'll add you to the WhatsApp group and you can find out all about what's going on there. [00:43:00] Um, and so I think that is my only notice, uh, for this week. The other one, oh, sorry. There is the other one. Like I said at the start, we are gonna have a quick zoom catch up after this call. So if you want to come speak, uh, with me, um, with Sharon, uh, after the call, be great to see you. We will be in the Zoom room and. I've just, I heard that in my head the same time I said it. Uh, so what I'm doing right now is I'm putting in the zoom link again into the Facebook comment. So if you want to come join us, uh, come join us in that zoom room. If you are watching this on the catch up, very sorry, but the zoom room, it's still funny. The zoom room will be closed. Um, uh, it's only, it's only for like 10, 15 minutes after the live. So, um, but if you watching this live, you wanna come join us. Have at it. Good to see you there. Now, as promised, I am gonna play the Catchup video, which Josh has done. You are definitely gonna wanna watch this. Um, it's really awesome. So, [00:44:00] uh, without further ado, here's Catchup. Josh: Hello and welcome to this week's Sunday Catchup. For those of you who dunno me and allow need to introduce myself, my name is Josh Edmonton. I am a theoretical physics student at the University of St. Andrews, uh, which is where I'm at currently in my lovely yellow dorm room. For those of you who have never watched this stream before, catch up is the part. Of the service where we get to look at videos sent in from the community, so we get a feel for what we've been getting up to throughout the week. Uh, obviously with all the lockdown restrictions coming in place, I think video catch up is about as good as it's gonna get for a little while longer. Unfortunately, last week we had some people sending photos of what they were doing as they were watching the service. So here we've got Sharon. My mom seems to be not watching the service while watching the service, but cooking dinner, something that I myself have done on many [00:45:00] occasions, uh, makes great listing material. Uh, if you don't wanna watch the, the service or the stream live, whatever reason, because you're like, oh, I'm doing something like cooking dinner. No worries. You can listen to it. That's totally okay. Uh, we've also got John Harding here wearing his dog on his head by the looks of things. That's definitely what, what it looks like in my mind. Anyway. And then we've got Matt Crew Sporting a fantastic new haircut in typical fashion. Uh, let's jump into what everyone has been up to this week. So I have started my second batch of, uh, croissants, croissants, ants. See, I'm not really sure how you're supposed to say it with an English accent. Just qua. I have started my second batch of croissants. Um, if you watch this stream a few weeks ago, you'll have seen that I. Made them for the first time, and I've been kind of hooked ever since. So I did mean to make them last week, but I was waiting for the arrival of a rolling pin and a pastry brush because the first time I made them I [00:46:00] had to, to roll out this pastry di using a wine bottle and my trusty water bottle, which was definitely not ideal, that's for sure. Um, but I worked out okay. So I'm kind of hoping that they'll be even better this time now that I've rolled them out with something that is actually flat and long. Uh, but we will see. We will see. I'll let you know how it goes. Uh, also this week I had my, oh, this, this is actually quite exciting. I had my very first in-person teaching session. So, uh, every week we have a bunch of tutorial groups is what they're called. So throughout the week we get given sort of homework, I guess, uh, where we have a bunch of problems that we have to do and then we go to tutorials where we. Discuss them with, uh, our tutor and a couple of other students. And my very first in-person one happened this week, which was super exciting. So this is the first in-person teaching. I've actually had all year, and I've been here almost a month now, which is kind of crazy. Yep, that's enough for me. Let's get to what everyone else has been doing this [00:47:00] week. Sharon: Hi everyone. This week I've had to self isolate because one of our students at work tested COVID positive. So I've taken over Josh's room and he's at university and I'm doing everything from this room. So I've been studying and working out. I'll show you my workout space. Uh. That little patch of carpet is my workout space and I've had room service for my family. I think they love it, and this is the view from the window. It's not bad. Bye. Matt: So for this week's catchup, I'm in the basement again, which is where I spent the majority of my day yesterday. Uh, and this is what we've got done. So upgrade on the basement. This is my work bench. I've been Macon. I finally got the bottom shelf in. I appreciate that. Might not be that impressive to you, but to me [00:48:00] it is awesome. Oh, yes. And I also made these yesterday, so this is my prototype. I wanted to do a Liverpool skyline in a piece of wood. So I tried it out on a scrap piece first, and then I did it in this piece of walnut here. So I've got the outline traced, and now I just need to finish it off. And you'll see that particular piece of wood, uh, on the wall where we do the livestream from very shortly. Well, when I finished it, that's how you'll know when it's finished. You'll see it in the studio.[00:49:00] Josh: Great. Thank you for sending those in Zoe. I gotta say love your video. I thought that was excellent Editing. That's all for me. Thank you very much for watching this week's catch up. I hope you have a fantastic week, and I will catch you next time. Matt: Oh, brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Yes. Uh, Zoe's little video at the end there, just where I had me crying left, and I'm not gonna lie. Uh, the little, um, I should try, hang on. I don't know. I don't think I've got it. I need to practice anyway. Uh, well done. Do sending your videos to Josh, uh, using the WhatsApp number. If you've got any catchup videos. Uh, it's [00:50:00] always good. Like he says, we're trying to get more people to send 'em through, so do send your catch up videos. It'd be good to see what you guys have been up to during the week. Uh, so we can play that in the video. Um, and like I said, Sharon, and she saw Sharon is self isolating. She has a very small piece of carpet on which to do her workouts during the day. And, um, my wife has restless legs and so being cooped up in a room is not ideal. So do send her a message of encouragement, uh, and bigger up a little bit if, you know, because, um, it's, it's not easy being in that room, let me tell you. Uh, and, um, I'm not quite sure babe, that we are enjoying the room service, as you said. Just, you know, it's, it's a pleasure and honor to, you know, be a, be able to serve you. But I dunno if I'm enjoying it. I just, I genuinely don't. And I dunno why my voice was so deep while I was recording my catcher video just was apparently. Uh, and you'll see that little wooden creation appear on the wall right here. At some point, the, uh, the whole aim is to add a little bit of texture to this wall and [00:51:00] also to cover this little dot right here, which is, there's a slight imperfection in the wall. And so we're gonna cover that up. Uh, so don't tell anybody. So that's all coming. Uh, so do, uh, do stay connected with us now. Uh, there's nothing else really to tell you. Uh, looking at my notes, just looking around my, you can't see my screen. I have this massive screen here, which everything's on it and it's all working and it's fine. Uh, so thanks for watching. Thanks for being with us. Hope you've, uh, connected with what's going on. Hope you enjoyed. Can I just say, um, if this is your first time with us, or even if it's not and you have anything that you would like us to pray for. Uh, please do send a message to that WhatsApp number. It is always treated confidentially. Uh, we don't bombard you with spam and all that sort of stuff, but if you would like Prayer, we would love to pray for you to send us a note of what you would like Prayer for, uh, to that number this WhatsApp. It's very hard doing that backwards. Do send us to this WhatsApp number. Um, it will be great to pray for you. It'll be great to connect with [00:52:00] you. Uh, do get in touch and do stay connected with what going, what's going on. We will be back next Sunday, 4:00 PM show up to carry on our little mini series on how to overcome adversity, giving you a little bit of a taste of what's gonna be in that session as we look at this idea of faith. And confronting the brutal facts, the whole Stockdale paradox thing. We are gonna get into that. It is gonna be great. Uh, I say that because I know what's coming up. So yeah, that's the optimistic part of me. Uh, and the core belief is there as well. So we're good Alrightyy. Well, listen, it's been great to see you's been great to connect with you. God bless you. Have a fantastic week. Uh, and if you are hanging around, I will see you in the zoom room in just a few minutes time. Other than that, I'm gonna end the live stream here. God bless you. Bye for now. Oh, I'm gonna end the live stream when I press the right button.