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4 Bible Verses That Changed My Entire Life · Off The Kirb Ministries

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  Number one, Ecclesiastes 7, verse 10.
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  Do not say why were the former days better than these, for you
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  do not inquire wisely concerning this.
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  I don't know why this happened, but turning 25 was really quite
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  a difficult time for me. It was as if, OK, now I can't
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  tick the boxes 18 to 24, now I've got to tick boxes 25 to 40
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  and I felt so very old. Even though I wasn't, I felt
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  old. It was like now the door of
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  youth was shut forever more. My teenage years have gone, my
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  early 20s have gone and that's it.
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  Now I'm a fully fledged adults. I couldn't go back to my old
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  ways. I couldn't go back to partying.
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  I couldn't go back to night clubs.
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  And it really did mess with my head.
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  I remember specifically at that time I started listening to
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  worldly music. I started dwelling on the old
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  days, on my old wild days. It it plagued my mind.
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  And guys, you could have laughed at this, but I had a sort of
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  midlife crisis at 25 years old. And on top of all of this, life
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  had got so very, very serious. Marriage is tough, isn't it?
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  For those of you who are married and you're watching this, it's
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  not a bed of roses. It's not like it's portrayed in
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  social media and in the movies. It can be tough.
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  And marriage requires work. And at that time, me and Emma
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  were going through a tough patch.
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  You know, I was struggling in my ministry.
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  I was going out St. preaching nearly every day.
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  And I was seeing so little fruit from my ministry.
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  People were laughing at me. I didn't have many friends.
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  I found that time a really tough period.
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  I remember once hearing a pastor say, if I wasn't a Christian
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  man, if the Lord hadn't saved me, I think I would have got
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  divorced many, many years ago. Let me let you into a secret,
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  friends. I can relate to what that pastor
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  said in those years, those two really dark, dark years.
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  If if it wasn't for the almighty God protecting me, I would have
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  made some big big mistakes. Just to be honest.
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  I would have ruined my life if it wasn't for the grace and
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  kindness of God who's kept me in those dark times.
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  May I ask you another personal question?
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  Are there tear stains on your Bible?
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  Have you ever been reading the word of God and the Spirit of
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  God has overwhelmed you so much that you start to shed tears?
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  Well, I remember I was sat on the edge of a small Cliff
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  looking across this beautiful lake, and I pulled out a small
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  Bible and I was just flicking through the pages.
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  There was no order. I was just randomly flicking
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  through the pages. Lord, please speak to me.
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  And I turned to Ecclesiastes 7, verse 10.
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  Do not say why were the former days better than these?
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  For you do not inquire wisely. Because at that time I was
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  looking back and I was wishing I could go back to the days when I
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  wasn't saved. I was wishing I could go back to
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  those wild days. When I parted, I got drunk.
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  But God in that moment said, Joe, you don't want that at all.
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  You want me. You want the life that I can
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  give you, the life that is hidden with Christ in the
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  heavenly places. Don't be like lost wife.
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  Don't look back in the past. Trust me.
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  Trust me that I have a plan and a future for your life.
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  My dear brother, my dear sister, are you looking back into the
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  past? Perhaps because you're burdened
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  with so much care, or perhaps because you're just fine in
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  life? It's become so boring, it's so
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  serious, it's so narrow, the Christian life and you're
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  struggling right now. Well can I just gently remind
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  you it's not wise to look back into your older days to look
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  back on on memories. There's nothing wrong with
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  reminiscing and giving thanks, but to long for those days back
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  it's not a wise thing to do. Rather look for the hope the
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  future is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died and
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  gave up his life as a ransom for your soul #2 Psalm 73 verse 17.
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  Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their
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  final end. Now whoever you are watching
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  this, I want you to know something.
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  I deeply care about you. I care about those of you who
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  are struggling, those of you who've made a mess in your life.
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  I want you to get on fire for the Lord gods.
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  And why? Why do I have this burden in my
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  heart? Because I was like you at one
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  time. The last video I made was about
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  being a lukewarm Christian. And I'll tell you over those
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  years, over these, this period of time that I'm talking about
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  right now, I was lukewarm. In fact, I wasn't even even
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  lukewarm. I was cold.
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  I was away from God. And Psalm 73 really did protect
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  me. It saved me, it kept me.
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  It put me on the right path, and it gave me wisdom that I needed
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  from the Lord God to see just how foolish I was to fill my
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  mind to feed on so much sin because it just did not satisfy
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  and it wasn't the answer to anything at all.
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  So what is Psalm 73 all about? Well, here's this man, Asaph,
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  and he's struggling. He's seeing around him these
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  unbelievers, these wicked people, and they're prospering.
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  They're doing well, they're successful, they're rich,
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  they're famous. They'll be the type of people to
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  be on the front page of, of Instagram who are just doing all
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  these amazing things. But he himself, he's struggling,
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  he's finding life tough and he actually finds himself getting
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  jealous. He envies the life of the
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  unbeliever, and this jealousy becomes a sickness in his mind.
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  He wears it like a coat and it tears him to pieces.
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  So what does Asaph do? Well, he does something that
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  every single struggling believer should do.
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  If you're struggling right now, what should you do?
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  You need to get into the presence of God.
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  And Asaph, he enters into the presence of God and in the
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  sanctuary of God, God gives him an insight.
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  He gives him a revelation. What was that revelation?
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  All men die. You see these rich, successful,
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  beautiful unbelievers, they might look good now, but the
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  question needs to be asked, how do they end?
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  I challenge you right now to find someone who's doing well at
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  life, who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, who's rich, who's
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  famous, who has many followers on Instagram.
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  I challenge you to find that person and then look at their
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  life when they turn 70, when they get into their 80s.
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  They might look good now, but the question needs to be asked,
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  how does that unbeliever end? The Bible says the way of the
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  Sinner is hard. The Bible says that sin has it's
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  pleasures. For a season it's fleeting, but
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  after that it becomes like a bitter Wormwood.
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  You'll never see on social media that the man or woman who rebels
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  against God, if they spend their whole life rejecting him, you
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  never see how miserable they are.
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  In the end, we only show the best bits, don't we?
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  On social media? Jack Nicholson is a very famous
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  example of this. Jack Nicholson famous actor won
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  Oscars, very rich, very famous and he makes claims that he had
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  relationships with over 3000 women.
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  Many men would look at Jack Nicholson's life and think what
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  a great life that was. How amazing, how I wish I could
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  be Jack Nicholson. But at age 70, how does Jack
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  Nicholson end? In an interview, he said this.
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  I regret messing around. I regret florandering around
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  with many different women because now no woman will ever
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  trust me and I'm scared of dying in the house on my own.
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  But I want you to compare how the unbeliever ends their life
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  to the way the believer ends their life.
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  I'm not an old man yet, OK? But I've watched, I've observed
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  old people and churches around me and my observation has been
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  this. The older they get that they're
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  like wine, they just mature with age because they realise like an
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  athlete, as he sees the finishing line, they start to
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  speed up, seeing I'm getting closer to the end, I'm going to
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  see my Lord, I'm going to see my saviour soon.
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  But the unbeliever, as they get closer to the end, they think
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  I've got nothing left, just a bunch of memories of sin.
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  But there's nothing to look forward to.
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  There's no hope for the future. So my dear friends, don't look
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  at the past. Don't be so obsessed with this
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  world. No, fix your eyes on the Lord
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  Jesus Christ. And that's why Psalm 73 helped
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  me so much, because just to be totally honest with you, there
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  was one particular man. There was a man on social media,
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  I'm not going to name him, but I was so very, very jealous of
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  him. He had many followers.
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  He had a great lifestyle that the world would say everyone
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  wants that kind of lifestyle. And for some reason I became
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  very, very jealous of him and I wanted to be just like him.
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  But actually, five years on, do you know where that man is now?
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  His business has finished. He's not got as many followers
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  because actually I believe God has judged him for living an
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  immoral life. I don't say that in any way to
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  gloat or to be happy, but I say it because the Bible is true.
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  The Bible says in Psalm 37 I've seen a wicked man spreading
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  himself out like a green Laurel tree.
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  So in other words, he's he's spreading out, he looks great,
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  the whole world can see him and thinks what a great guy he is.
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  But then the Psalm carries on. But I looked for him in a few
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  years time and I couldn't find him.
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  Though I looked hard, he was nowhere to be seen.
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  And God does cut down the wicked, and there is a day where
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  those pleasures will just die down.
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  But we need to look to Christ, because there is a treasure in
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  Christ that no one can take from US #3 James chapter 4 verse 14
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  says this. For what is your life?
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  It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then
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  vanishes away. I want to give you a piece of
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  advice. If you're a young person and
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  you're watching this video, I want to give you the most
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  precious piece of advice that you could ever learn as a young
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  person. Know this, you ain't going to
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  live forever and to every single young person you need to
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  remember your Creator in the days of your youth.
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  You need to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  You see, the Bible is true when it says life is but a vapor.
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  We've all had a cup of tea or a cup of coffee and we've put the
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  kettle on and we've seen that mist come out of the kettle.
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  It's there for a short time and then it vanishes, never to be
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  seen again. We've all seen the man down the
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  street and he's puffing on an E cig.
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  He's vaping and you see that vape come out.
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  It's there and then it vanishes, never to be seen again.
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  And James says that is what your life is like.
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  It's so brief. It's so fragile.
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  We as human beings are so vulnerable.
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  You know, there are many things you can get back.
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  If you lose money in life, you can often get your money back.
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  If you lose your job, you can get a new job.
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  If you lose your car, you can buy a new car.
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  But there's one thing you can't get back and that's your time.
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  Time is precious. So every single day I actually
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  have a cold shower. I know you think I'm crazy, but
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  I have a cold shower every morning.
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  And as that cold water hits my body, I say thank you, God,
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  Thank you for another day on this earth.
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  Thank you for another day to to turn from sin to, to respect
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  you, to honor you, to live for you, another chance to, for
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  witness, to share the gospel. So because time is so brief, we
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  need to make sure that we use the days wisely and we seek out
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  opportunities to try and win as many souls as possible because
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  eternity is long and we want to bring as many people to Christ
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  to make sure you make every single day count.
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  And you give thanks that today you're alive, Today your heart
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  is beating because God has granted you another day on his
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  very, very green earth. And lastly, Second Corinthians 5
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  verse 21 says this. For he made him who knew no sin
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  to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God
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  in him. You know, really it was this
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  verse which helped me to understand what the gospel was.
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  I remember when I got saved around that period of time I
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  heard an open air preacher say this.
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  God poured out all of his wrath on Jesus Christ for your sin and
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  in that moment it was like a light bulb moment.
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  I understood that God had to be angry at someone for my sin and
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  that someone was not just anyone.
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  It was the Son of God who had never done anything wrong and on
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  the cross he took my sin in his body and was punished there on
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  that tree so that I could be forgiven.
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  And that verse, second Corinthians 5, verse 21, I came
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  across it at the same kind of time.
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  He, that's God made him, Jesus Christ to become sin.
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  So on the cross Jesus became our lies, He became our blasphemy.
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  He became our sex outside of marriage, our pride, our anger,
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  our lust. On the cross Christ became that
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  sin. And it says in the Bible it
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  pleased the Lord to bruise him, not because he hated his Son, He
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  loved his Son dearly, but because he hated our sin.
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  So here we are at Calvary. There was a legal transaction.
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  The worst of Joe Kirby, the worst of you was laid on Christ
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  Jesus. And then the best of Jesus
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  Christ can be imputed, can be given to you as a gift.
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  So Christ's perfect track record, his righteousness, his
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  love, his his godliness can be given to you as a gift instantly
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  like that. And that, that is why the gospel
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  is so amazing because God doesn't see you anymore.
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  He sees his blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he adopts
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  you into his family and says, I love you.
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  You're a child of God. I'm with you forever.
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  I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you.
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  Come be with me forever, in all of eternity, where you'll serve
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  me in the new creation.