Latest / Off The Kirb Ministries / God Will Restore Your Wasted Years - Do Not Despair
Transcript
- 0:00Between you and me, a sentence from 1 old man has really upset
- 0:05me. Now as you know, as a street
- 0:07preacher, I take all kinds of criticism, all kinds of
- 0:10statements and I've got quite a thick skin and I just sort of
- 0:13brush them off. But this one man said to me
- 0:16whilst I was debating another group of people, he came in the
- 0:19middle and he said you're wasting your time.
- 0:23Now of course I've heard that before, but for some reason over
- 0:27the last few weeks, the last few months, I can hear the voice of
- 0:31that old man saying you're wasting your time.
- 0:35And then sometimes I'll say I'm wasting my time.
- 0:39And I've felt a real sense of that recently, that I've wasted
- 0:42the years. You know, I look at how much
- 0:45time I've wasted on YouTube, on different videos, on TikTok,
- 0:50watching things, scrolling, reading articles that I'll
- 0:53forget in an hour. I won't remember them in an
- 0:56hour. And yet I spend so much time
- 0:58doing that. I look back and I think of all
- 1:01the times that I wasted money on junk food and even eating the
- 1:05food, and I regret it. I regret not learning.
- 1:09I regret not educating myself. I look back at my youth and I
- 1:12think of some of the people that I used to spend time with.
- 1:15And I think, Joe, why did you spend so many years of those
- 1:18people? You know, when you're young,
- 1:20you've got so much energy, and yet I wasted time doing wrong
- 1:24things. And I know I'm not the only
- 1:27person who feels like they have wasted away the years.
- 1:32If that's you, if right now you're in a place of
- 1:35hopelessness or despair, I want to give you some hope because
- 1:39with the Lord God, he is in the business of restoring those
- 1:43wasted years. So let's get to work.
- 1:46Now. If you are new to the channel
- 1:48here, this is my coffee channel where we basically just drink
- 1:52coffee and we, we study the Bible and I've just got to be a
- 1:57bit careful there. I've overfilled that one there.
- 2:01But yes, we drink coffee and we study the Bible.
- 2:04Very different to my other channels.
- 2:06This is just very basic, very simple, no sensationalism.
- 2:10We just talk about the Bible. And a big thank you to everyone
- 2:13who's bought one of our coffee mugs.
- 2:15We'll put your face up here on the screen.
- 2:17If you'd like to also be put up here on the screen or you'd just
- 2:20like one of these mugs as a reminder to pray for this
- 2:22ministry, well, get one of them and I'll send you an e-mail and
- 2:26we'll put your face up here. OK, firstly there are people who
- 2:35are listening to me right now. You have wasted away your years
- 2:39in what's called backsliding. Now what does this word mean?
- 2:43Well, it's, it comes through from a Hebrew word which I can't
- 2:47pronounce, but it effectively means to retreat, to turn
- 2:52around, to not be LED. It's, it's this kind of picture
- 2:55that you'd have a young heffer or a young cow.
- 2:58And this cow, it won't follow you.
- 3:00It won't be LED. It does its own thing.
- 3:02It turns its own way and it's kind of got this picture in my
- 3:05mind. Whenever I think of backsliding,
- 3:07I kind of picture, you know, I don't know if you live in a hot
- 3:10country, you might not experience this.
- 3:12But in my country, in a place like the Lake District, if
- 3:14you're climbing up a mountain and it's muddy, you just start
- 3:18sliding down. And sometimes it can be really
- 3:21funny, actually. You try to get further and you
- 3:23fall flat on your face. And that's what I kind of feel
- 3:26like backsliding is It's you're trying, you know, you need to
- 3:29get up the mountain because it's so difficult.
- 3:32It's so much easier to slide backwards.
- 3:35You end up going back. So how does this look in the
- 3:38Christian life? Well, you know, you, you've
- 3:40stopped reading the word of God, you've stopped praying, you've
- 3:45stopped meeting with the fellowship of believers.
- 3:48You've started playing around with sins that you know you
- 3:51shouldn't. You started getting closer and
- 3:54closer to the edge and you're changing and people can notice
- 3:58that a bit. Like, you know when you've got a
- 4:00grey hair on your head? Well, listen guys, but the day
- 4:03you notice your grey hair, hair on your head wasn't the day all
- 4:06of your friends noticed it. They noticed it a long time
- 4:09before you. And yeah, that's what it's like
- 4:12when we backslide. People notice it before.
- 4:15We've noticed it ourselves. You're not the same as you once
- 4:19were. You're not spending that, that
- 4:21private time with the Lord God and, and the inner life often
- 4:26reflects in our outer life. People can tell if we've been
- 4:29with the Lord. Sometimes in just the way we
- 4:31look. We've got a bit of a shine about
- 4:33us, a bit of a joy in our eyes because we've been spending time
- 4:37with our Saviour. But hey, if you're a backslider
- 4:39and you feel like I'm too far gone, I've messed up too much,
- 4:43good news, God can restore you. Look at Jeremiah 3 with me.
- 4:48You will need a Bible for this little study, Jeremiah 3, and
- 4:51we're going to look at verse 22. Return you backsliding children,
- 4:57and I will heal your backslidings here.
- 5:01The Lord God is, is calling to his people and he's saying
- 5:05return to me, return from your backsliding.
- 5:09You're retreating, you're turning the other way, you're
- 5:11turning away from me, but I'm calling you to come back and
- 5:15I'll heal these backslidings. All of the mess, all of the the
- 5:18stuff that you've got yourself wrapped in right now.
- 5:21And perhaps that's you listening right now.
- 5:22You're entangled in all these things and you don't know how to
- 5:25escape. Well, God will cut the cords of
- 5:27that and he will allow you to escape.
- 5:29He will heal you from your backsliding.
- 5:32So what do you have to do then? How does the backslider get
- 5:36restored? Well, he, he gets restored in
- 5:39the same way that he came in, in the 1st place.
- 5:42He just has to run to the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 5:46I've shared this story, this message with you so many times,
- 5:49but I love the story of the prodigal son.
- 5:52After this prodigal, he goes out and he's messing around in sin
- 5:56and he's done all that he wants to do and he's sold his, he's
- 5:59finished all of his dad's inheritance.
- 6:00He's got no money. He goes back, doesn't he?
- 6:04And as he starts to be seen on the horizon there he sees his
- 6:08dad in the distance, and his dad sees his son.
- 6:12And his dad has a choice. Now his dad can just turn away.
- 6:15Think this son, this son of mine, rebellious, evil, wasted
- 6:21all of my money. I'm not having anything to do
- 6:23with him. He could walk back into his
- 6:25house, but that's not what he does.
- 6:28When he sees his son running towards him, what does the
- 6:32Father do? Does he run in the opposite
- 6:34direction? No, he runs towards his son and
- 6:39he embraces him. And friends, no matter how much
- 6:42you have messed up, no matter how many years you've been gone
- 6:46from the Father backsliding, God will restore you.
- 6:50Just like that son had the the ring put on and the fatted calf
- 6:54and threw a big party and he restored him.
- 6:57So the Lord God is waiting to wrap his arms around you and to
- 7:01restore you. I am really sorry if you watch
- 7:04my last video on Saturday and you've already heard this story,
- 7:07but I do think this is a beautiful story.
- 7:10There was a Brazilian girl and her parents had smothered her in
- 7:13love. They'd done everything for her.
- 7:15They'd sacrificed lots. They'd given her all that they
- 7:18could to look after her. But this young girl got into the
- 7:23wrong crowd in her teenage years, and she began to mess
- 7:27around again with sin. And eventually she, because she
- 7:32was in the wrong crowd and she'd got herself a habit, she had to
- 7:36run away from home. And she had to somehow fund that
- 7:39habit by spending lots of time on the streets.
- 7:43One night, after years away from home and a really hard night on
- 7:47the street, she gets into a sort of crummy apartment.
- 7:50You can picture it. It's just it's dirty.
- 7:52There's stuff everywhere. And she just sort of slumps on
- 7:56the floor. And then she notices something
- 7:59in front of her. There's an envelope.
- 8:02She picks it up. She opens it and there in front
- 8:06of her is a picture of her mother and father.
- 8:10As tears fill her eyes, she turns the picture over and just
- 8:13reads these simple words on the back.
- 8:17We don't care what you've done. We just want you to come home.
- 8:23My dear friend, if you are a backslider, remember God is
- 8:26saying this. I don't care what you've done, I
- 8:30just want you to come home. So you better come home to him
- 8:35today. OK #2 What is the other person
- 8:40who feels like they need to be restored?
- 8:43Well, it's the man or the woman who perhaps a situation has
- 8:47arrived on your doorstep that is out of your control.
- 8:51Something is here in your life and you have no control over it.
- 8:55You just don't know what to do and it's destroying you.
- 8:58It's destroying your life, it's destroying everything.
- 9:01What do you do? How does God restore you with
- 9:03that? Well, let's look at Joel chapter
- 9:062 with me. Joel chapter 2 and verse 25.
- 9:11This is a very famous verse. So I will restore to you the
- 9:15years that the swarming locust has eaten.
- 9:20Now, I don't want to take this out of context.
- 9:22So who was this passage written for?
- 9:25It was written for the nation of Israel.
- 9:28You see the nation of Israel, much like the backslider were
- 9:31thinking about they've done their own thing.
- 9:33They've tried to run the show. They've they've ran away from
- 9:36the God who made them, who created them and loved them.
- 9:39You know the Lord God said about Israel, you were the apple of my
- 9:42eye. And yet for them that wasn't
- 9:44good enough. So what did God do?
- 9:47Well, sometimes, just like Jonah when he ran away, sometimes God
- 9:51has to send storms into our life to get our attention.
- 9:55So he sense these swarming locusts onto the land.
- 10:00And these locusts, they, they ate all of the crops, they
- 10:02consumed all of the wheat, they ate it all.
- 10:05So there was nothing left. And if this was in our day right
- 10:09now, it'd be like an economic ruin.
- 10:11You know, there's no food, there's not no plenty.
- 10:15Abundance has gone. It was a real time of
- 10:17difficulty. So what did God do?
- 10:21Here they are. They're devastated.
- 10:23So what did God call them to do? Well, he sent the prophet Joel
- 10:27to say fast, mourn over your sin, weep, cry out to the Lord
- 10:34God for forgiveness and repent. And that's exactly what the
- 10:40people did. They mourned they they cried
- 10:44out, they, they fasted and the Lord God, he did restore them.
- 10:49He gave them their abundance back.
- 10:51Now, if you're watching this now you might be saying to me, yes,
- 10:56but Joe, I'm not actually too sure that this is happening to
- 11:00me because of a sin I've done. You know, I find that hard to
- 11:03believe. And I'll be honest with you, I
- 11:05think you would know. I think you know deep within
- 11:08yourself, yes, this is a, a chastisement from the Lord.
- 11:11The Lord is disciplining me for a sin here.
- 11:14I think you know it. I don't think you're left
- 11:16guessing. Just like when you remember
- 11:18Joseph's brothers, they appear before Joseph, but they don't
- 11:21realise it's Joseph. He's, he's dressed up like an
- 11:24Egyptian kind of Pharaoh, the, the Prime Minister and they
- 11:27don't realise it's him. And this, this Prime Minister,
- 11:30this, this, this leader, he, he treats them very harshly.
- 11:34He, he's very rough with them and he does all kinds of things.
- 11:37And the brothers whisper amongst themselves saying maybe this is
- 11:41God. This is God repaying us for the
- 11:43way we treat our brother Joseph and I think it was they knew
- 11:47within themselves. So if you are wondering is this
- 11:49trouble are the locus in my life right now because of something
- 11:53I've done wrong and you're not sure I would perhaps say I don't
- 11:56think it is because you've done something wrong unless you've
- 11:59got that conviction inside you. But sometimes these things in
- 12:04God's mysterious Providence that we just don't understand.
- 12:08Sometimes the Lord God does allow the locusts to come for
- 12:12us. Whether that's a difficulty in
- 12:17your home, whether that's a relationship breakdown, a loss
- 12:22of a job, health trouble, sadness, some unfair thing that
- 12:28has arrived, we don't. But God does allow these things
- 12:32to happen. Why?
- 12:34Because at times when we feel totally hopeless, at times when,
- 12:39when the locusts chew up everything and leave us with
- 12:41nothing, who else can we go to but the Lord God?
- 12:46And these things, very often, they do actually build our
- 12:50faith. Right?
- 12:51I understand everything you're saying, Joe, but that kind of
- 12:54doesn't explain how is the Lord going to restore me?
- 12:59Well, obviously, I don't know your situation.
- 13:02And this video will hopefully go out to a number of different
- 13:06people from different backgrounds.
- 13:08So I don't know whether the Lord will restore you.
- 13:11I can't say that for certain with everyone, but I do know
- 13:14this. Just like the people of Israel,
- 13:17when they called out to Him, when they sought His face, when
- 13:21they fasted, when they mourned, the Lord God took pity on them
- 13:25and He did bring them back. He even gave them abundance, He
- 13:29restored them. So what would I say to you?
- 13:32I would say the same thing, call on the name of the Lord God and
- 13:36just keep knocking, especially if you feel like this is an
- 13:40injustice just like that, that that poor widow who who went to
- 13:43the the unjust judge and she just would not leave him alone
- 13:47and said give me justice. And eventually the judge said,
- 13:51listen, this woman will not stop bothering me so I will give her
- 13:54justice. And this is a a wicked judge.
- 13:58How much more than your heavenly Father.
- 14:00So keep calling on him. Now, if the Lord God does not
- 14:04restore you in this life, I do have a hope for you that we're
- 14:07going to come back to in a moment's time.
- 14:10But I will say this, you probably have heard stories of
- 14:13how God has restored the years that the locusts have eaten.
- 14:17I actually heard this verse for the first time.
- 14:19I was in a charity shop. I'm not sure what you call them
- 14:24in America, but it's basically where people take their old kind
- 14:27of goods like this jumper. If I didn't want it anymore, I'd
- 14:30take it to a charity shop and then the charity would go on and
- 14:34sell it and then the money would go to to the charity.
- 14:37Well, I was in a charity shop and I met a Christian woman
- 14:40there who had been at one of my evangelistic services when I was
- 14:44a very, very young man just starting out in ministry.
- 14:47And as I said, I'd never even heard of this verse before.
- 14:49And here I was preaching. Anyway, she came up to me and
- 14:54she'd spoken to me at the meeting and then she said, you
- 14:57know, I've lost my husband. I've been going through a
- 15:00terrible time with so many different troubles, but I
- 15:04believe the Lord God is going to restore to me the years that the
- 15:08locusts have eaten. And he does do that, doesn't he?
- 15:12Sometimes in in very miraculous ways, He restores us.
- 15:18Now here's the part of the message I'm dreading because I
- 15:22really, really didn't want to share this with you.
- 15:25And I thought, I'm not going to share it.
- 15:27And then as I was doing more research for this message, one
- 15:30of the things I came across was when we go through these trials,
- 15:33when we go through these difficulties, God uses it so
- 15:36that we can teach another generation, so we can share our
- 15:39testimony. And I kind of felt like that was
- 15:42the Lord saying, come on, Joe, it's about time you shared this
- 15:46with the people. As you know, I've, I've written
- 15:49a book called 100 pure thoughts. It's been a thing on my heart
- 15:54for many years to, to help men and women find that purity and
- 16:01seek the Lord and to live a life that is holy despite all of the
- 16:05things that we've watched and we've filled our mind with
- 16:08thoughts that are unclean. And it's been a long journey for
- 16:13me over many years, many different lessons to try and get
- 16:16myself pure. But I'll tell you how the Lord
- 16:19finally did it for me a number of years ago.
- 16:23I, and I'm going to be vague here, but I found something in
- 16:28an area that no man wants to find something.
- 16:32And I put it bluntly, I freaked out.
- 16:35I was really, really scared. And I went to the doctors and
- 16:40kind of thought, oh, it's just me, you know, just me worrying
- 16:43over worrying. They're going to tell me
- 16:44everything's fine. But they said no, there is a
- 16:47concern here. And they sent me for a scan.
- 16:50Again, when I was in the scan, I was just kind of, it should be
- 16:53OK and I was, but I was still very, very nervous during the
- 16:57scan. The the lady who was conducting
- 17:01the scan took a long, long time. And yeah, again, just while
- 17:07being vague, she she said, you know, we're going to have to get
- 17:10the results back to the doctor. The doctor got in touch me very
- 17:13quickly and said, yes, what we were looking at, we are
- 17:19concerned about it. It is suspicious and it has a
- 17:25blood supply, which for the particular thing I'm talking
- 17:27about is not good news at all. And so that was it.
- 17:31I thought in the particular area it was with everything that's
- 17:34gone on, I thought that's it. The Lords just, it's just, I've
- 17:37just gone one too many times over the edge.
- 17:40I've crossed that invisible line that I've talked about before.
- 17:43I've sinned so far that God's just going to block me out.
- 17:47That's it, I'm dead. So I am.
- 17:51This is all while I've got this YouTube channel.
- 17:53I took some time off YouTube a number of years ago, if you
- 17:57might remember. I took a break off and during
- 18:01this time I I spent just 10 days in prayer.
- 18:06I must have walked. I don't know how many, but tens,
- 18:0820, dozens of miles. I was walking mile after mile.
- 18:12I was fasting and I was just calling out to God.
- 18:15Please, please give me a second chance.
- 18:18Please, please don't take me yet, Lord.
- 18:21I just can't go with this sin looming over me.
- 18:25Please don't let this be the reason.
- 18:27Because it's all right if if the Lord takes you and that's your
- 18:30time and he calls you, as hard as that is for us to say, but
- 18:34it's another thing to be taken because you've done wrong.
- 18:39And that was what was really in the back of my mind.
- 18:41And I called on God's name over and over.
- 18:45Anyway, I had to go and see another specialist and have
- 18:49another scan. And on this other scan, they
- 18:53said we can't find it. We don't know what this other
- 18:58radiographer was, was concerned that we can't find what this is.
- 19:03And then I went to have another scan after that.
- 19:05And no, it's, you're absolutely fine, young man, Don't, don't,
- 19:09don't worry. And during that time, actually,
- 19:12I'd made when I was didn't know, when I was left in limbo, shall
- 19:16we say, I made two vows. I won't share one of them.
- 19:20But the other one, the first one was, I will never, Lord, if you
- 19:25get me through this, I will never watch that stuff again.
- 19:29And he got me through it. And I can look at you straight
- 19:34in the face now and you read whether I'm telling the truth or
- 19:37not. I've never watched it since, and
- 19:40I give all glory to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in what He
- 19:44did. He really did restore to me the
- 19:47years that the locusts have eaten.
- 19:49Although I'd spent years on this stuff and now in the Lord's
- 19:53grace, I've been able to help people get off this stuff.
- 19:57He restored it for me and I just felt I should share that with
- 20:00you now my friends who? It was part of a little
- 20:04accountability group that we had where we shared these things.
- 20:07He put it like this because I thought, is it just me just over
- 20:11worrying over and over again, just worrying about things.
- 20:13And there was actually nothing to worry about.
- 20:15And, and you know, the radiographer, she just made a
- 20:18mistake in the 1st place. But he said, no, I don't think
- 20:21it was that. I think you probably did have
- 20:24that. You know what?
- 20:26But the Lord God healed you. You make up your mind what
- 20:29happened there. And yeah, just forgive me if
- 20:32this was too personal, but I just felt I've been sitting on
- 20:36this story for a long, long time.
- 20:37And I make videos every week, multiple videos.
- 20:39And I've never shared this yet, but I feel like it was important
- 20:43to. I thought, I thought the Lord
- 20:45was asking me to share it today. OK, lastly, let's talk to, I'm
- 20:49going to call the people who are more seasoned in life, people
- 20:54who've been on this earth a little bit longer than the rest
- 20:57of us, let's put it that way. I remember when I was going to
- 20:59join a new church and me and my wife, Emma, we went to the
- 21:03pastor and we shared difficulties we'd had in
- 21:05ministry, in Christianity and in churches in the past.
- 21:10And the pastor said something that's very, very interesting.
- 21:12I've never forgotten. He said it's mega, mega
- 21:16concerning. He didn't put it like that, but
- 21:18he said I am concerned to hear you talking about this as young
- 21:23people in Christianity. You see, these are supposed to
- 21:26be your happiest years. These are supposed to be your
- 21:29years where you're you're full of joy.
- 21:30And for you to be disillusioned and confused and have headaches
- 21:34with the church already, that really does concern me.
- 21:38Because he said it's fair enough for us in our older years when
- 21:42we're more skeptical about the church and we've seen many
- 21:45different things. And that's really the point.
- 21:48I want to drive home to us right now.
- 21:50If you are older and you're listening to me right now, you
- 21:54are a bit sceptical of life. You are a bit sceptical of
- 21:57preachers, of the church, of different things.
- 22:00Because you have had many years where you, perhaps you think
- 22:04you've wasted the years, but the years have taken something from
- 22:07you. And you look at yourself in the
- 22:09mirror and you think I'm not the same as I was when I was a young
- 22:13man. I'm disillusioned with life.
- 22:16I'm fed up, and perhaps you've even given up hope to be happy.
- 22:22Well, let's have a conversation. Psalm 71, verse 9.
- 22:28Just turn to Psalm 71. We looked at Psalm 72 a few
- 22:32weeks ago, if you remember. Well, actually, if you're an
- 22:35older person and you're struggling in life right now, I
- 22:39think Psalm 71 is the one that you need to focus on.
- 22:43Sorry, I've just realised it was Psalm 73.
- 22:46We looked at the other week, but Psalm 71, verse 9, do not cast
- 22:55me off in the time of old age. Do not forsake me when my
- 23:01strength fails. So here we've got David and he's
- 23:09entered into old age. And David here is saying that he
- 23:12feels almost as if God has forgotten him.
- 23:16He's he's given up on him. He sort of feels like, listen,
- 23:20I've done my years of evil and trouble.
- 23:22I've had all of this already and he expects a little bit
- 23:25different now I'm in old age. He kind of thinks, will this let
- 23:28up right now and he's saying, God just just don't forget about
- 23:33me. Then I want you to look at verse
- 23:3518 with me. Look at verse 18.
- 23:39Now also when I am old and grey headed, oh God, do not forsake
- 23:44me until I declare your strength to this generation, Your power
- 23:49to everyone who has come. So again, here is David and he's
- 23:53saying, listen now I've got grey hairs.
- 23:57I want to share what the Lord has done for me just like I was
- 24:00trying to share. Then I want to share the, the
- 24:02story, the testimony, the goodness of God with other
- 24:05people. It is interesting in, in my
- 24:09nation, in the UK, they did a, a study, a big poll of, of all the
- 24:15people in the UK, all those aged 65 and older and they asked
- 24:20them, are you lonely? What do you think it came out as
- 24:25saying? It said basically 90%, nine out
- 24:29of 10 people in the UK struggle with loneliness.
- 24:36They feel like no one cares. Their family, they're just far
- 24:41too busy to visit me. They've got children, they've
- 24:43got their careers. I've got no friends.
- 24:46My, some of my friends have passed away who were so near and
- 24:50dear to me. My job, you know, I would have
- 24:52worked longer but I got the impression that they didn't want
- 24:55me there anymore and they just feel lonely.
- 24:58They fill their hours watching television, They fill their
- 25:02hours just sitting in the house on their own.
- 25:06And honestly, that that breaks my heart to think about that.
- 25:10The people who have built this nation, the people who who have
- 25:14loved this nation, who've paid taxes, this nation, and yet we
- 25:18just leave them. I don't want to put it as
- 25:21bluntly as what's in my mind, but we just leave them there,
- 25:24don't we? And it's and it's wrong and it's
- 25:27not right. And yet for the Christian, David
- 25:31is saying differently. For the man of God, he's saying
- 25:34God, The reason he calls out to God, don't forsake me because he
- 25:37knows that the Lord God will not forsake him.
- 25:40He knows that God is different. He knows that that like wine,
- 25:44that only gets better with age. So it is with the Christian.
- 25:48It only matures. It only gets better the older
- 25:51you grow. What's the evidence of this?
- 25:53Look at verse 20 of Psalm 71. You who have shown me great and
- 26:00severe troubles, shall revive me again and bring me up again from
- 26:06the depths of the earth. You see, This is why I believe
- 26:12David was called a man after God's own heart.
- 26:16Here he was, he's had severe troubles.
- 26:18Here he is. He's struggling with with old
- 26:20age, and yet he still puts his faith in God.
- 26:25He has this wonderful, extravagant faith in the Lord
- 26:29God that God will not leave him. Even though he's gone through
- 26:32this trouble, God will not leave him.
- 26:34He will revive him again. He will renew him again.
- 26:38He will transform him again. And what does he say out of the
- 26:42depths of the earth? What is David talking about
- 26:45here? He's talking about the ultimate
- 26:48hope for every single Christian, the glorified body, the
- 26:53glorification where the Lord God makes us into the image of
- 26:57Christ. He gives us this new body, this
- 27:00glorified body, and revives us. These knees that creak, this
- 27:05body that isn't the same. The pain and the trouble that we
- 27:08all go through. We all go for it, young people
- 27:11and all the like. We know that this isn't our
- 27:13heaven. It doesn't take a genius to see
- 27:15that. And yeah, for the Christian,
- 27:17there is a hope that he will one day return and give us all of
- 27:21this glory, all of this hope. Let me finish with one final
- 27:25challenge because there's been something the Lord has laid on
- 27:27my heart, and I've wondered when it might be that I'm going to
- 27:31share it. Turn with me to Second Timothy
- 27:35chapter 4, verse six. Second Timothy chapter 4, verse
- 27:406. Here we find the apostle Paul,
- 27:43and he's writing to the younger preacher, his apprentice, his
- 27:48successor, if you like, Timothy. And he says this, For I am
- 27:53already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of
- 27:58my departure is at hand. Now, as you know, I love coffee.
- 28:05I can't drink enough of it, but I know I should.
- 28:08Only this is about the amount I have every single day, a full
- 28:11cafetiere to myself. And some of you thinking, whoa,
- 28:14Joe, that's a lot in itself. But there is a sadness every day
- 28:19when the cafetiere, I know there's just One Cup left as I
- 28:23pour it. I know that this is it.
- 28:25That's my last cup now for the day.
- 28:27And I can't have any more, or I'm not going to sleep or it's
- 28:30just not great to have more. I'm being greedy and there's a
- 28:34sense of sadness. Oh, it's finished.
- 28:39Oh, that's the highlight of my day, the coffee.
- 28:43And now I can't have any more and it's gone.
- 28:45So I'm going to savour this. I'm going to enjoy it.
- 28:53Well, do you know that's exactly what I think Paul is trying to
- 28:57say here. He's saying I'm I'm like a a
- 29:00drink offering. I'm like a drink.
- 29:03I'm I'm I'm at the very last dregs.
- 29:05The last of it is done. My life which I've lived, I've
- 29:09spent it for the Lord God. Yes, I had many years and he's a
- 29:13good example of someone who the Lord God restored those wasted
- 29:16years. I've wasted many years, but I've
- 29:20the time from since I met the risen Lord, I've given
- 29:23everything and now my drink is down.
- 29:27Now I'm at the final drink, the final cup of the day.
- 29:31I'm just about to see the Lord and listen, you might be older
- 29:35in years and you might be able to relate to this and think,
- 29:37yes, I'm at the final lap of the race Now I'm I'm just near the
- 29:43sights of seeing my Lord God. But there could be a young
- 29:46person, even me, myself, we none of us know when we've got that
- 29:51final cup left on that final cup of coffee is to be drank when
- 29:56we're at the very end. None of us know that.
- 29:59And yeah, what do I want to say to you guys if you feel like
- 30:04you've got no hope, if you feel like I'm never going to be
- 30:09restored, I'm never going to get rid of this trouble.
- 30:12If you've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, as David said,
- 30:16he'll bring you out of the depths of the earth.
- 30:19There is always hope for the Christian because soon you're
- 30:22going to see the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 30:25Soon you're going to see the prize.
- 30:27Because this world is difficult. And this is what you've been
- 30:30living for all these years. You've been living as a
- 30:32Christian. You've been building up to this.
- 30:34It's very difficult to be a Christian.
- 30:36You've got to live a life of sacrifice.
- 30:38You can't just earn lots of money and then live it and spend
- 30:42it all on yourself. You've got to give it to others
- 30:44that Bible says to share with the poor.
- 30:47You can't just go out and do whatever and anything in your
- 30:50eyes. You see, you can't just go out
- 30:52and fulfill every desire inside of you.
- 30:54No, you've got to sacrifice. You've got to read the Bible and
- 30:58be disciplined. And it's not easy at times.
- 30:59It's not easy to to pray at times it's not easy to be a
- 31:03Christian to to keep trying to turn away from these sins that
- 31:06drag you down. It's not easy, but you have
- 31:09lived for it. Why?
- 31:10Because it's the truth and you believe in the risen Lord Jesus.
- 31:13You've put your trust in Him and you love.
- 31:15Let me leave you with one final quotes.
- 31:18GK Chesterton said. The Christian ideal has not been
- 31:24tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and
- 31:28left untried, and that is the reality.
- 31:33It's difficult to be a Christian.
- 31:35It's really, really hard. And that's why very few come to
- 31:39the Lord Jesus Christ, because they count the cost and they see
- 31:42it's too costly to follow Jesus. And yet you're different.
- 31:47You're listening right now and you have followed the Lord Jesus
- 31:50Christ and you've lived this life.
- 31:53But it's worth it. Why?
- 31:55Because the Lord God, he's no debtor.
- 31:57He's no man's debtor, and He will reward you tenfold, A
- 32:01hundredfold. If you've given up things in
- 32:03this life, He'll give you so much more.
- 32:05He'll restore everything and more in the new Kingdom.
- 32:10But above all, you don't need all of these riches.
- 32:12You don't need this perfect life and all of these different
- 32:15things. You just need Christ and you're
- 32:18going to have him in heaven for all of eternity.
- 32:21That's the restoration we wait for.
- 32:26I really am enjoying doing these videos with you.
- 32:28If you're new to the channel, please do subscribe.
- 32:31Thank you so much for everyone who's joined the channel as a
- 32:34member, everyone who's prayed for the channel, everyone who
- 32:36supports, who allows me to continue this ministry.
- 32:39I am so grateful. If you would like to see my last
- 32:42video where I was talking about Psalm 73 and talking about being
- 32:47tired out, being worn out as a Christian, click here.
- 32:50God bless you all and thank you for watching.