Latest / Off The Kirb Ministries / God Isolates Chosen One's From Prosperity For a Reason - Do Not Despair
Transcript
- 0:00OK, guys, I want to speak to you from my heart right now.
- 0:05I got married very young. I was 22 years old, and I went
- 0:09into ministry also very, very early on, and I saw things in
- 0:14the church. We were going for a difficult
- 0:16church situation that many young people perhaps wouldn't see.
- 0:20Things were tough back then, and I didn't have any friends.
- 0:23I'd moved to a new area. In fact, my best friend was an
- 0:27older man and I remember going on Facebook and I'd see my other
- 0:31friends, the friends I went to school with, my non Christian
- 0:34friends and they were going to wild parties.
- 0:36They were having so much fun. They were backpacking around the
- 0:39world, all meeting together in Australia.
- 0:42And here I was having headaches every week at church and feeling
- 0:47lonely and sad and just struggling now at the time,
- 0:51because I was going through all of this thinking, you know, even
- 0:54looking over my shoulder, thinking I kind of think the
- 0:57grass looks greener on the other side.
- 0:59I kind of want to be in the world instead of a Christian.
- 1:02I confess this to this older brother of mine.
- 1:04And he said to me, Joe, what you need to do is learn Psalm 73.
- 1:10So that's exactly what I did. And I'll tell you, this Psalm
- 1:14has been a total lifeline for me, so much so that I believe
- 1:19every single young Christian or every Christian in general
- 1:22should learn this Psalm, memorize it, know it off by
- 1:25heart because it will teach you some valuable lessons, right?
- 1:30If you are new to the channel, this is our coffee channel where
- 1:34we drink coffee every couple of weeks.
- 1:36We'll sit down, we'll do a Bible study, we'll do a testimony, and
- 1:39we'll just have a nice chat. So please pause the video
- 1:42wherever you are. Get yourself a cup of tea, get
- 1:44yourself a nice cool drink if you're in a hot country of the
- 1:47world, or get yourself a nice cup of Joe.
- 1:51And if you have bought one of our mugs, we might put your face
- 1:54face up here. We're running out of faces to
- 1:56put up here. But if you do buy one of them,
- 1:58I'll send you an e-mail and we'll put your face up here on
- 2:02the screen. We don't actually know who this
- 2:33Psalm is about. We know a man called Asaph wrote
- 2:37this Psalm and there's two schools of thought.
- 2:39Either Asaph himself wrote it looking at his own struggles, or
- 2:43he wrote it for someone else, IE David.
- 2:47Personally, I think it was Asaph who wrote this Psalm talking
- 2:50about himself, and you'll probably get a feel for that as
- 2:53we go through this. But either way, do you not think
- 2:56it's absolutely refreshing to have a Psalm where we've got
- 3:00honesty? You see, the word of God is just
- 3:02so refreshingly honest. It's blunt about the truth.
- 3:06It doesn't pretend that, you know, when we become a
- 3:08Christian, all of our worries are going to go away.
- 3:10It doesn't pretend that when we believe in the Lord God that
- 3:13suddenly life's going to get better.
- 3:15No, it does tell us things like sin does have its pleasures.
- 3:19It does tell us that when we live in the Lord's hands, we're
- 3:23not immune from life's troubles. No, to be a Christian is very
- 3:26costly. And here we find Asaf.
- 3:29He's got a sort of assault on his faith.
- 3:33He's got a grievance that's in his heart.
- 3:35He's got a thought that he just cannot get out of his mind.
- 3:38He's struggling with it. It's there.
- 3:40And it's a thought that I do believe that every single one of
- 3:43us has at some point struggle with.
- 3:46At least the vast majority of us have all asked this question,
- 3:49and it's this how can an infinitely powerful God be good,
- 3:54be righteous, be holy, and yet let the righteous to go
- 3:59unrewarded, to go through trials and difficulties, and let the
- 4:03wicked, on the other hand, prosper and be in abundance?
- 4:07So let's answer the question, Is being a Christian a waste of
- 4:12time? So you do need Psalm 73 in front
- 4:15of you. So we're going to start with
- 4:17Psalm 73 and verse 2. If you look at that with me,
- 4:21please. But As for me, my feet had
- 4:25almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped.
- 4:29So here Asaph shows us a picture.
- 4:32Here he is. He's on a slippery mountain
- 4:34slope. This is what he's picturing.
- 4:36And it's raining, and there's no steadiness there.
- 4:39And he looks over the Cliff edge.
- 4:41And as he looks over, seeing right down at the bottom is a
- 4:45sheer drop. And there, I believe, is the
- 4:48valley of unbelief. And Asaph is saying, I'm just
- 4:52one step away from slipping down and falling into unbelief.
- 4:57But what was the issue that Asaph was struggling with?
- 5:00Look at verse three, he says, For I was envious of the
- 5:05boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- 5:10Here he sees the foolish man, the foolish people, the wicked
- 5:14people, the people who have no care for God.
- 5:17Later he talks about the people who are willing to, to mock God,
- 5:20you know, talking about the most high in, in disrespectful ways.
- 5:24And yet these people, even though they disrespected God,
- 5:28they were thriving. They were doing well in life.
- 5:31It seemed like they were better off.
- 5:33And it seemed like, OK, if you ignore God, you ignore His
- 5:36commands, you are going to be successful in this life.
- 5:39And Asaph, he looked at this and he was jealous.
- 5:47Then turn to verse 5 With me. They are not in trouble as other
- 6:01men, nor are they plagued like other men.
- 6:05You see these wicked people, these unbelievers who mocked
- 6:09God, they didn't have the same troubles the other men had.
- 6:13They didn't have the same troubles as the believer.
- 6:15No, they were in abundance. In verse 7, it then goes on to
- 6:18say they have more than their hearts could wish.
- 6:22Could you imagine that? If every desire in your hearts,
- 6:27evil or good, if all the desires in your hearts were there and
- 6:30you had more than you could even wish, could you imagine that in
- 6:33your life? And yet we can probably think of
- 6:36people right now, maybe famous people or maybe people even that
- 6:41we know in our street. And it seems like when we look
- 6:43at them, they have more than their heart could wish.
- 6:47And yet they have no care, no thoughts for the Most High God.
- 6:56Let me be a little bit transparent with you.
- 7:00So I said this when I was younger in my 20s, I had a sort
- 7:03of what they call 1/4 life crisis where I really did
- 7:06struggle. And I personally, I don't want
- 7:10to get into a theological debate, but I personally believe
- 7:13once saved, always saved. I do believe God holds on to his
- 7:16people and he takes them through different trials.
- 7:18But that's that's another conversation for another time
- 7:21perhaps. But here what is what I want to
- 7:23say. I did feel that I wanted to walk
- 7:26away at points. I, I really did look back at the
- 7:29plow, doing all the wrong things, thinking I want to be in
- 7:32the world even though I was saved.
- 7:35So that was in my 20s. But now, you know, a few years
- 7:39ago, again, I was going through, we were going through a kind of
- 7:43difficult situation at a church. And I remember driving to the
- 7:47church and I'd see these dog walkers walking by, dog walkers
- 7:52the same age as me. This couple particularly in my
- 7:54mind very similar aged to me and Emma.
- 7:57And they're just walking along on a Sunday morning, it's sunny,
- 8:01no cares in the world. And I was going to a church
- 8:04where I was worried, I was concerned, I didn't know what
- 8:07was going to happen or, or I was stressed out with ministry.
- 8:11And you know, at times I'm, I'm rushing to get to different
- 8:13places and I've got all this ministry and all the troubles of
- 8:16life. And then you'll drive past on a
- 8:18Sunday and you'll go outside and you'll see a pub, you know, on a
- 8:22sunny day and they've all got their bikes and they're all
- 8:24sitting there with their pints just enjoying life.
- 8:27Not a care in the world and not a thought for God.
- 8:30Those things can go through our minds at times, can't they?
- 8:34But here's the question, did he get, did Asaph get any relief
- 8:38from his thoughts? No.
- 8:39Look at verse 14 with me. For all day long I've been
- 8:46plagued and chastened every morning.
- 8:50So in other words, he wakes up in the morning and he's got
- 8:53these troubles in his mind. In the evening he has these
- 8:56troubles in his mind. He goes to bed, he wakes up the
- 8:58next day and he's got these troubles in his mind all day.
- 9:01He's surrounded by these troubles all day long.
- 9:03My life, he's saying, is just full of trouble.
- 9:06My life is trouble. And he looks out and he sees the
- 9:10ungodly, though they're on the winning side.
- 9:12But I look at my life with all this trouble and it seems like
- 9:16I'm on the losing side. Now I believe the greatest
- 9:19tragedy is in verse 13. Just look at that with me out of
- 9:24all this, I think this is the saddest thing he says.
- 9:28Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and wash my hands in
- 9:34innocence. In other words, Asaf saying here
- 9:38I am as a a man who trusts in God and I've sought to keep my
- 9:43hands clean from sin. I've sought to stop letting
- 9:47unclean things come into my heart.
- 9:49I've guarded my heart. I've tried to cleanse myself.
- 9:52I've tried to do it, and yet it seems like I've done it in vain.
- 9:56I mean, what was the point of having a clean heart?
- 9:58What was the point in purity? There's no gain in being pure.
- 10:02There's no advantage in being pure.
- 10:03There's no reward. In fact, it seems like for me
- 10:06right now, it's the complete opposite.
- 10:08It seems like I'm struggling as I'm trying to keep myself pure.
- 10:12And yet the unrighteous, they're prospering when they don't care
- 10:15about purity. They dive into sin.
- 10:18They do everything they want and more.
- 10:21And he's asking the question here, I think, is it even worth
- 10:26continuing in the ways of God? Can I ask you, have you ever
- 10:31thought like that before? Why am I doing this?
- 10:37There's just no, there's just no end to my trouble.
- 10:40I've tried to be pure. I've tried to guard what I
- 10:43watch. I've tried to be a godly person.
- 10:46And yet, Lord, why is all this flooding on my life?
- 10:50And yet I know my brothers, my sisters, my unbelieving
- 10:53neighbors, they don't care about you and they are at ease.
- 10:59Well, this next part's a little bit important, so you might just
- 11:01want to catch this. Just look at at verse 15 with
- 11:04me. If I had said I will speak thus,
- 11:16behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of your
- 11:22children. Have you ever heard the phrase
- 11:25loose lips sink ships? It was quite a popular phase
- 11:30during the the Second World War. They used to put it on, on
- 11:33posters, various posters, and you'd see, you know, that
- 11:36cartoon picture. And then the phrase loose lips
- 11:38sink ships. And it had two meanings.
- 11:41The first meaning was, you know, just be careful what information
- 11:45you give out because there could be spies in the land.
- 11:48If you say some vital information, it could go to the
- 11:51enemy and thus loose lips could sink ships.
- 11:54But then on the flip side, it had a second meaning.
- 11:57You might remember this, but in the war, it was very, very
- 12:00important to keep morale up, to keep positivity up.
- 12:04And it meant, listen, if you're going to go around spreading
- 12:07negative things, suddenly that's going to lower the morale and
- 12:11people are all going to feel, you know, if you're saying
- 12:13things like, when's this war going to end?
- 12:16Are our men even trying out there?
- 12:18What's going on? This is it just seems pointless.
- 12:20People are dying for for no reason.
- 12:23And if this message slowly went across the UK and then got back
- 12:27to the Navy, well, the Navy would think what's the point
- 12:29anymore? Our people don't even believe in
- 12:32us, They think it's over. What's the point of even
- 12:34fighting? And thus they would loose lips,
- 12:37sink ships, they would lose the fight in them, if that makes
- 12:40sense. But how does this apply to us as
- 12:43Christians? Well, believe it or not, you and
- 12:48I, we can have loose lips. And what is the boat that could
- 12:51sink? It's the church.
- 12:54But I want you to notice the word there in verse 15.
- 12:58It says there is a word that would affect a generation of.
- 13:01Does it say a generation of people?
- 13:04No. Does it say a generation of men?
- 13:07No. Does it say a generation of
- 13:09women? No.
- 13:10What is the word? It's children.
- 13:14Now. It's not just talking about
- 13:15small little children, I think it's talking about spiritual
- 13:20babies. And here Asaf is realising that
- 13:23if I speak, all of this confusion, if I utter all of the
- 13:27thoughts are in my mind. All this painfulness that I've
- 13:30seen, I've noticed it. I can see it clear as day that
- 13:33the righteous are struggling and the unrighteous, they're
- 13:36winning. If I say this out loud, I'm
- 13:39going to injure these spiritual babies.
- 13:41I'm going to cause harm. So Asaf does something very
- 13:45honourable. He decides to keep these
- 13:47thoughts to himself. He says, OK, I might be going
- 13:51down, but I'm not going to drag others down with me.
- 13:56Mature Christians, this is just for you.
- 14:01Do you have influence? Perhaps in the church, perhaps
- 14:05in your business, perhaps in in your sphere?
- 14:07Do you have influence? Do people look up to you?
- 14:11Younger people, or should we say spiritual babies, new converts,
- 14:15do they look up to you? If that's the case, be so, so
- 14:19careful what you say. Let us never be hurriedly to
- 14:24speak. Let us never speak quickly about
- 14:27things. Be careful because loose lips
- 14:30sink ships. I know for many years, even now,
- 14:36you know, I think I've been a Christian 15 years and I've been
- 14:41in ministry. But even now, sometimes
- 14:44preachers can do things. Preachers who I look up to, they
- 14:47do things and it shakes me to my core.
- 14:50If I'm being honest with you. And I think I've heard you say
- 14:53messages about this and you're doing the complete opposite and
- 14:57it offends us. It hurts us.
- 14:59I've heard preachers say things that have really, they've cut me
- 15:03in 2 and not in a good way and in a way that has has really got
- 15:07into my mind. I'm not going to share it with
- 15:08you, one of the examples because I'd be contradicting what I'm
- 15:11saying. But I remember being in a prayer
- 15:13meeting once and a preacher said something and it filtered into
- 15:17my mind and it took me years to get that out of my mind because
- 15:21it planted a seed of doubt. And that preacher, that older
- 15:25man, he may have been struggling with this, but he shouldn't be
- 15:28spreading it out to all the people.
- 15:30He should keep it to himself. There is a time, please don't
- 15:34mistake me. There is a time where we go and
- 15:37we chat to people and we say, I am wrestling with this.
- 15:41I've got this pain in me. I'm struggling with this
- 15:44thought, this doubt. But you go to wiser, older
- 15:47Christians, you don't spread it around to the weaker ones,
- 15:51because they too will fall down with you.
- 15:53OK, so let's ask the obvious question here.
- 15:57How do we escape this mindset? How did Asaph get out of this
- 16:02valley that he was in with all of this trouble in his mind?
- 16:06Look at verses 16 and 17. Because the answer's so simple.
- 16:12When I thought about how to understand this, it was too
- 16:16painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God.
- 16:22Then I understood their final end.
- 16:26So what's the answer? How did he overcome all of this?
- 16:30He simply just went into the House of God.
- 16:33He went into the sanctuary of God and then he got clarity.
- 16:37He got peace. The Earl of Oxford said the
- 16:40greatest gift a man could ever receive is something called
- 16:44cubical thinking. Now, when I said that to my wife
- 16:46Emma, she said, what on earth is cubical thinking?
- 16:50Cubical thinking is this. Just like a cube has got many
- 16:53different sides to it, so there are many different sides to a
- 16:57truth. And here we find Asaf, he's only
- 17:00been looking at one side of the cube.
- 17:02He's only been looking at one side of the truth.
- 17:06And it's the the truth that here we have the, the, the
- 17:09unrighteous. They're doing well.
- 17:10They're prospering even though they've got evil intentions.
- 17:14But the godly man, the godly woman is struggling, is going
- 17:18through all kinds of difficulties and he's looking at
- 17:21that. But what happens when Asaph goes
- 17:24into the sanctuary of God? He sees all the sides of the
- 17:28cube. He realises the truth.
- 17:31One of the greatest truths in the Bible is this.
- 17:34Your life, my life, will one day end.
- 17:37All of us are going to die, and we're all going to be judged by
- 17:41a holy God. That is a vital truth that I
- 17:45think many of us forget. And this is what Asaph has
- 17:47forgotten. Did you know that this Psalm
- 17:49actually has a sister? It's called Psalm 37.
- 17:53And in Psalm 37, the writer talks about I have seen an evil
- 17:58man, I've seen an unrighteous man, and he's been spreading
- 18:02himself out like a green Laurel tree.
- 18:05He's prospering, he's successful, he's abundant.
- 18:08He's doing so, so well. But then the Psalm says he
- 18:12passed away and he was no more. Even though I looked for him, I
- 18:16couldn't find him. In other words, this unrighteous
- 18:20man, he was, he had his time, but soon the Lord dealt with him
- 18:26and he was wiped away. I used to work in a, in a high
- 18:30school ages 11 to 16 and I was a classroom assistant.
- 18:35I wasn't a teacher, I was a classroom assistant.
- 18:39And you know what kids are like? They, they often share with you,
- 18:42they'll tell you things and you know, they'll ask you questions.
- 18:45And I remember chatting to the kids and I'd ask them things
- 18:48like, what do you want to do when you grow up?
- 18:50Do you know what was the most common answer that they all
- 18:52said? I want to be a YouTube.
- 18:56Little did I know that was the job I was going to get a few
- 18:58years later or I want to be a celebrity.
- 19:02Now. There is a name.
- 19:03We talked about him in a video not so long ago that I expect
- 19:06most young men listening to my voice right now will know this
- 19:09name, and it's the name Andrew Tate.
- 19:12Now back in 2022-2023 particularly, Andrew Tate was
- 19:17the most Googled man on earth and all the young men wanted to
- 19:21be like him. Why?
- 19:23He was muscly, he had money, he had cars and he had lots and
- 19:27lots of girls and he was loud. So much so was his influence
- 19:31that schools in the UK, I don't know what which country you're
- 19:34watching this from, but schools in the UK had to put on special
- 19:37assemblies, lessons in the morning all about Andrew Tate.
- 19:42To say this is not the kind of man we want to look up to.
- 19:45His influence was that great. And many men would look at that
- 19:48kind of lifestyle and say I'd love to have a lifestyle like
- 19:51Andrew Tate. Maybe girls, you might look at
- 19:54someone like Margot Robbie who's very, very beautiful or Taylor
- 19:58Swift who's who's got it all, looks, charisma, money, fame,
- 20:02music, she's got all of that. You might look at these people.
- 20:06And we can be, can't we? We can be so attracted to the
- 20:09surface level of these people. We look at the shallow
- 20:12appearance, we always look at the beginning, but we never seem
- 20:16to ask how does this lifestyle end?
- 20:20How does a life away from God and.
- 20:31Now I'd like to give you 2 examples of two famous
- 20:34celebrities and some of you, if you are particularly younger,
- 20:37you won't have heard of them. If you are older, you will
- 20:39definitely have heard of these two people.
- 20:41But these are two people, case studies that I think we can
- 20:44learn a lot from because we look at them at the end of their
- 20:47life. The first one is Jack Nicholson.
- 20:51Jack Nicholson was an amazing actor, full of charisma,
- 20:55charming, rich, famous. He won an Oscar for One Flew
- 21:00Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and not only that, he made claims that
- 21:04he had had 2000 lovers, 2000 women.
- 21:08That was his claim. Now, many men would look at Jack
- 21:11Nicholson's life and think, I would give anything to have his
- 21:14life. I'd love to have that life, all
- 21:16that money, all the girls, everything.
- 21:18I'd love to have that, but here's the question, how did
- 21:22Jack Nicholson end at age 77? In an interview in 2014, Jack
- 21:27Nicholson said I regret florandering around when I was
- 21:32younger because now no woman will trust me and I'm terrified
- 21:37of dying in the house on my own. So in other words, this
- 21:42lifestyle, in the end, he's regretted it.
- 21:45OK #2 Elizabeth Taylor, have you heard that name before?
- 21:49In the 1950s? She was rich, she was famous,
- 21:51she was beautiful, and she had all of Hollywood doting over.
- 21:54All the men just thought she was so beautiful.
- 21:58Elizabeth Taylor, she, she had a great beginning, but the
- 22:01question needs to be asked, how did she end?
- 22:04Well when her looks began to fade like happens to us all,
- 22:06when she began to gain weight, suddenly Hollywood gave a career
- 22:11over to the younger models, the younger car if you like to Jane
- 22:15Fonda to to Julie Christie and they became bored of her and
- 22:18suddenly she didn't get the same roles anymore.
- 22:21But this is what we all remember about Elizabeth Taylor after
- 22:25well how many marriages did she have?
- 22:26Did she have one? Did she have two?
- 22:283-4 after 8 marriages. Did Elizabeth Taylor ever find
- 22:35true love? No.
- 22:37She spent most of her life on medicated things to to keep her
- 22:42going. She was sad, she was lonely and
- 22:45she died completely alone with no husband at 79 years old.
- 22:50Totally broken. But does the media portray that?
- 22:54No. If we talk about Instagram
- 22:56reels, do we see that on on the highlights of Instagram?
- 22:59Do we see this? No.
- 23:00Does it show us what a life rebelling against God?
- 23:02Does it show us how that will end?
- 23:04No. And it certainly doesn't show us
- 23:06that death and destruction come to all those who reject the
- 23:10living God. My dear friends, never forget
- 23:13what the Bible says. The way of the Sinner is hard.
- 23:18It's not easy to live a lifestyle of sin.
- 23:22It might look on the on the shallow appearance on the
- 23:24surface, it might look enticing, but in the end, it is so much
- 23:28harder to be a rebellious Sinner against a holy God and never
- 23:34forget this. The death of the ungodly is a
- 23:36terrible thing. Imagine all of that unrest, all
- 23:40of that misery, all of that regret.
- 23:42And what comfort do these people have when they come to the end
- 23:44of their life? What hope do they have for the
- 23:46future? The only comfort they have is
- 23:49just a handful of memories in their mind, just memories of the
- 23:52past that they can barely remember.
- 23:54That's all they have to comfort them.
- 23:56But then contrast that to the life of the believer.
- 24:00On the surface, it looks narrow. It looks boring.
- 24:02The men and women of the world, they laugh at us.
- 24:05You really believe this storybook.
- 24:07You go to church every Sunday. You give up all of your holidays
- 24:11to to do missions and things. What a what a boring way to
- 24:14live. But the question needs to be
- 24:16asked, OK, on the surface, you might laugh at us, but how do we
- 24:20end Oscar Wilde? You've heard of Oscar Wilde
- 24:23before. That, that that famous writer
- 24:25Oscar Wilde, if I can say this, was a very evil man, very, very
- 24:30sinful, very, very prideful. And he mocked Christians and he
- 24:34encouraged other people to to mock the Bible and to do their
- 24:38own thing. He was a man who lived in sin.
- 24:41And yet many people don't realize this.
- 24:43Oscar Wilde on his deathbed, asked for a minister to come and
- 24:47visit him to convert him. Balaam, you know that, that
- 24:51Balaam the the godless prophets. Do you know what Balaam said?
- 24:55He said let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be
- 25:01like his. In other words, Balaam could see
- 25:03that the man of God, the woman of God, they die peacefully.
- 25:06But he knew that the unbeliever does not die peacefully.
- 25:10And he said, I want to die the same death as those.
- 25:13I want to to become a Christian, if you like.
- 25:16And I do think as as every man's life draws to a close, I really
- 25:20do think we need to ask the question, who truly does
- 25:24prosper? Is it the wicked or is it the
- 25:27godly? What about the words of John
- 25:30Wesley? John Wesley talking about
- 25:33Christians that he's watched time and time again step into
- 25:37eternity. What did he say?
- 25:39Our people die. Well, so young Christian, I want
- 25:44to say this to you or older Christian, never forget you are
- 25:48actually on the winning side. And I do also want to say this
- 25:52for anyone who's been thinking this all the way through my
- 25:54message, it is actually a real joy to be a Christian.
- 25:58There's nothing greater than the living God who made me, who made
- 26:03the universe speaks to me through the word.
- 26:05There's no greater joy to to pray when you've got nowhere
- 26:08else to go, and yet you pray to God and you know he hears you
- 26:13and he answers prayers. There's no greater joy to know
- 26:16that my sins have been forgiven. I've got no guilt anymore.
- 26:19I have no shame because Christ took my shame on the cross, and
- 26:23there's no greater joy than to have fellowship with other
- 26:27Christians, to have peace, to have times of mission, and to
- 26:32share the gospel. It's a great life to be a
- 26:34Christian. But if you are a Christian, what
- 26:37about you? What would I say to you?
- 26:40I'd say these things. You might look good now, but the
- 26:44question is how will you end? I wonder?
- 26:48Have you ever thought like this? I'll become a Christian when I'm
- 26:52older, once I've had some fun, once I've, you know, done what I
- 26:56want to do, once I've lived my life, then I will give my life
- 27:00to the Lord God. Old friends, if that's you and
- 27:03your thinking like that, you do realize that sometimes at the
- 27:07end of your life, your faculties have gone.
- 27:10You, you're not with it in a in a hospital.
- 27:12That's happened many times before.
- 27:14And not just that right now as a young person, your heart is
- 27:18tender to God. Believe it or not, you will
- 27:21never have a more tender heart to God than in your youth
- 27:25because you haven't had the effects of years and years of
- 27:27sin wearing down your heart, hardening your heart.
- 27:31The Bible says it calls it scoliosis.
- 27:33Do not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
- 27:36So right now, come to him while you're tender, while you can
- 27:40hear his voice, while you don't have that spiritual hearing loss
- 27:44that happens after years and years of, of living in the world
- 27:47and, and, and having doubts and sin surround you.
- 27:50Come to him. Come to the one who died on that
- 27:53cross. For all of our waywardness, for
- 27:56all of our sin, for all the times we've failed God, he died
- 28:00in our place so that our sins can be washed away and trust in
- 28:05him because he's the one who rose from the dead.
- 28:08Because the the fact is this, the Christian has a glorious
- 28:11future. Yes, we might start difficult
- 28:14and it might be difficult in this life, but we end
- 28:17gloriously. Why?
- 28:19Because the Son of God, Jesus Christ went into a tomb, rose
- 28:23from the dead. He's in heaven and he's coming
- 28:25back. He's coming again for His people
- 28:28to give them all eternal life in heaven for billions and billions
- 28:33for all of eternity. When time is no more, we'll be
- 28:37there enjoying Him with peace with the Lord.
- 28:41Old friends, I hope you find that today.
- 28:44Now, if you are a Christian and you regularly watch this
- 28:47channel, I do need a little bit of honesty from you.
- 28:49And you probably notice that I have been sort of playing around
- 28:52with a few different things. I recently bought some
- 28:57microphones and because they might, I bought 2 of them.
- 29:00You might have seen them in the videos.
- 29:02And because they're expensive, I'm thinking I need to use
- 29:04these. So I've been doing, I've been
- 29:06kind of a bit like I now paid the money for them.
- 29:08I have to use them. But I've been making these
- 29:10testimony videos where I've been interviewing different friends
- 29:14and I've got a big list of people I want to interview.
- 29:17But what I am noticing is, and this isn't a negative thing.
- 29:21I understand you guys are all busy but and folks aren't
- 29:25watching them as much. And I just want to understand,
- 29:28is it because it's such a long piece of content, it's too long
- 29:31to go into or do you just prefer these kind of videos?
- 29:35Obviously it's not an either or I'll keep doing both, but just
- 29:38let me know what I'm asking you is let me know what is your
- 29:41preference. Do you like these videos where
- 29:43it's me with the Bible or do you like the testimonies and which
- 29:46do you prefer? So if I was because I don't get
- 29:49as much time on this channel as I do for the off the curb
- 29:51channel, where should I focus my main energies?
- 29:54That's what I'm I'm asking you guys.
- 29:56Thank you to everyone who does pray for this ministry.
- 30:00Thank you to those of you support.
- 30:02I never talk about that publicly, but those of you
- 30:04support the ministry financially through our website.
- 30:08I'm very, very grateful for that and it really does help us a lot
- 30:12to cover the costs of editing and all these different things.
- 30:16But yeah, please do just keep praying for us as a family with
- 30:20various things going on because I needed to have a look at this
- 30:23Psalm again. And just, yeah, stay close,
- 30:27guys. I want you guys to stay close
- 30:29and I need to stay close to to you guys because it's just a
- 30:32blessing having your friendship and having these coffees.
- 30:35God bless you all and I hope you have a very, very blessed week
- 30:38wherever you're watching this in the world.