Latest / Off The Kirb Ministries / When God Warns Us: 5 Types of People You Need to Avoid
Transcript
- 0:00Listen to me. Every action you take is a vote
- 0:04for the person you want to be. In other words, what time do you
- 0:09go to bed at? In other words, what do you do
- 0:12with your spare time? How long do you procrastinate
- 0:15for? What time do you get up at?
- 0:17How long do you pray for? How long do you read the Bible?
- 0:19All of these actions will form who you will be in the future
- 0:25and in my opinion, there is no greater action.
- 0:27There is nothing that will form you more than the people you
- 0:31spend time with. It was once said by a wiser man
- 0:34than me, show me your friends and I will show you the future.
- 0:39So today I want to give you 5 types of people.
- 0:42You should avoid five types of people at the word of God and
- 0:45God himself would say be wary of these people.
- 0:48These are the kinds of people you should keep at arm's length
- 0:50at the very least. Now, if this is your first time
- 0:53here, my name's Joe Kirby. I'm a very simple man and I just
- 0:56love reading the Bible and I love drinking coffee.
- 1:00If that's something you love to do, well, please do join me.
- 1:02Put the kettle on. Get yourself a nice hot drink.
- 1:05If you're not a hot drink fan, go and get yourself a nice cold
- 1:08beverage. And let's study the word of God
- 1:10together. And let's have a nice brew, as
- 1:12we say over here in England. Oh, and by the way, if you can
- 1:15see some faces up here, these are people who've bought one of
- 1:18our mugs. If you'd like your face up here,
- 1:20I'll send you an e-mail. Once you bought one of the mugs,
- 1:23you can see a link just below you of the of where you can get
- 1:26them. OK, the first type of person
- 1:35that the Word of God says you should have nothing to do with
- 1:38this person is the divisive person.
- 1:41Just turn in your Bibles to Titus 3, verse 10.
- 1:45Titus 3 verse 10, warn A divisive person once and then
- 1:53warn them a second time after that have nothing to do with
- 1:58them. So if you want to be obedient to
- 2:00the word of God, if there's someone who is divisive, you
- 2:04warn them once you say, listen, this behaviour is not
- 2:07acceptable. What you're doing right now,
- 2:08you're divisive, you're causing harm.
- 2:11I cannot be part of this. If you're going to continue
- 2:14doing this, you warn them once, you warn them a second time, and
- 2:18then if they continue in their behaviour, you have nothing to
- 2:21do with them. Now, the actual context of this
- 2:25passage is he's talking to the church and any of you who've
- 2:29been in any kind of church work or just spent time in church,
- 2:32you know that the bond of peace, as the Bible says that the
- 2:35spirit of unity is a very fragile thing.
- 2:38It's a precious thing. It's a beautiful thing when how
- 2:41wonderful it is, how blessed it is when brothers can dwell
- 2:44together in unity. That is such a precious thing,
- 2:48but in church life it is, it's so easy to break that bond.
- 2:53It's just one person can come in and years and years of
- 2:56fellowship, years and years of love can be broken.
- 2:59And that is exactly what Paul is warning Titus.
- 3:03He's saying, listen, listen, if if there is anyone who comes
- 3:06into this church and they're causing slander, they're
- 3:08gossiping, they're causing problems in the church, warn
- 3:11them once, warn them a second time.
- 3:13And after that, they need to be put out.
- 3:14They, they need to get out of the picture right now because
- 3:17they are going to damage the church and they're going to
- 3:19bring us. There's a whole lot of
- 3:21casualties with them. There's a lot of people in the
- 3:23church who are going to be hurt if this is not dealt with
- 3:26quickly. But hey, now I also do believe
- 3:29we can take stock from this as Christians in our daily life.
- 3:34There are people and you know them as well as I do.
- 3:37Perhaps you're that very person listening right now and they
- 3:40gossip. They just love tearing people
- 3:43down. They whisper things.
- 3:45They have you heard about this person?
- 3:47You've not heard the news, have you?
- 3:49Yeah. I don't want to get into this.
- 3:51I don't want to be a gossip. Whenever someone says that, you
- 3:53know, there's trouble aired. I don't mean to gossip, but I
- 3:57just felt you should know this just so that, you know, you can
- 3:59be informed. And if you allow that gossip to
- 4:02be a channel, you are being an enabler.
- 4:04You are enabling that person to sin.
- 4:07And that's why we've got to warn these people who are tearing
- 4:10down people. You know, the kind of person
- 4:12nothing's ever good enough, Nothing ever works out.
- 4:14That person's a problem. This person's a problem.
- 4:17You need to be careful. You need to be careful if
- 4:19perhaps you're in a relationship and there's someone who is
- 4:22trying to pull you away from your loved ones.
- 4:26Perhaps you've been really close to your mum and dad for years
- 4:29and maybe you've got a new boyfriend or a new girlfriend or
- 4:32even a spouse and they start whispering things that you've
- 4:35never noticed about your parents before and they start whispering
- 4:38that they're dividing. Now obviously if that's your
- 4:40spouse, you can't just, you can't just get rid of them like
- 4:44that. You know, you need to have very
- 4:46good grounds for divorce. We're actually going to talk
- 4:48about divorce a little bit in a moments time.
- 4:50But you know what I'm trying to say, if there's someone who's
- 4:53trying to split you up from your friends and isolate you, well,
- 4:57actually there's some patterns that are quite concerning that
- 4:59that person's doing. And I would actually bring
- 5:01someone older into the picture, someone wise, maybe a counsellor
- 5:05to say, listen, I'm not comfortable with how this person
- 5:07is is trying to separate me from my friends and family.
- 5:11So be aware of that person. Now I'm more of a lie to know,
- 5:14as many of you know, me and Emma, we met on a drama course
- 5:17at university. We were theatre buddies.
- 5:20We loved drama and as we got into a relationship we quickly
- 5:24started at a Youth Theatre, we called it Pie Youth Theatre.
- 5:28It stood for passionate, inspiring entertainment and it
- 5:31was a great time. I think we did it for about four
- 5:33or five years and we had children, primary school aged
- 5:36all the way up to high school and we taught them how to act.
- 5:39We did shows like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in
- 5:42Wonderland. It was a great time.
- 5:45There's one of the parents and Emma's mum helped us as well.
- 5:48She used to help out as well in the background because she was a
- 5:51teacher. And there's one of the parents
- 5:53who really did complain a lot about things.
- 5:56Nothing was ever good enough. The costumes that we got for the
- 5:59show, that wasn't good enough. The set design wasn't good
- 6:02enough. I feel like the price is too
- 6:04much. Even though it was, you know, 5
- 6:06lbs for two hours, which, you know, even back then was like an
- 6:09absolute bargain. You know, they complained.
- 6:12She would always complain. And me and Emma, we were only
- 6:15young. We actually started it when we
- 6:17were 19. Emma was 19, I was 20.
- 6:20And we did it in our early 20s. And because this mother was
- 6:24older than us, we kind of felt intimidated and we'd feel like
- 6:27we were always trying to impress her.
- 6:29And then Emma's mum said something about this mother.
- 6:33I don't want to name names, but she said so.
- 6:36And so whatever you do, it will never be good enough.
- 6:39She said whatever you do, she will never think better of you
- 6:43anyway. So just get on with how you want
- 6:46to do things because whatever you do, she'll never think any
- 6:48better of you. And for me as a young 20
- 6:51something year old, that was so freeing because I thought, it's
- 6:55true. There's some people, they won't
- 6:57think any if you do everything. If you pulled out a red carpet
- 7:00for them to pulled out all the stops, they'd still complain.
- 7:03Why? Because they're divisive.
- 7:04Why? Because they're a negative
- 7:06person and you can't help some of those kinds of people.
- 7:09And in fact, you just need to do your best before the Lord.
- 7:13Try and do your best and forget about all the haters basically.
- 7:16I suppose that's what I'm trying to say.
- 7:18Because they still won't think any better of you.
- 7:21OK #2 the second kind of person we should avoid, Lloyd, is the
- 7:25fool. Turn in your Bibles to Proverbs
- 7:2923 verse 9. Proverbs 23 verse 9.
- 7:40Do not speak to fools, for they will scorn your prudent words,
- 7:45and you might remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- 7:48He said do not cast your pearls before swines.
- 7:52There are some people and it doesn't matter what you do, they
- 7:55just won't listen. Doesn't matter how many times
- 7:58you tell them how much time you spend with them, they will just
- 8:01love their folly and you're basically wasting your time.
- 8:05You're wasting your breath because they're never going to
- 8:08listen. Now, at this point, I do want to
- 8:16sort of have a little disclaimer with any of these people, not
- 8:19just the fool, but with any of these types of people.
- 8:22We ought to be long-suffering as Christians.
- 8:25We are to be generous with our time.
- 8:27We are to be patient, loving, and kind.
- 8:29And we're not expecting people to be perfect.
- 8:32We shouldn't have this golden barrier.
- 8:34And if people don't meet it, no, sorry, you're staying away from
- 8:37me. I'm, you know, that's the way
- 8:38the people of the world sort of think, you know, cut off anyone
- 8:41who's slightly toxic because you're going to glow better.
- 8:43Everything's going to be better if you get rid of all of these
- 8:46people. No, we're not trying to be
- 8:48worldly here. I'm trying to talk about people
- 8:50who are just consistently, you're trying your best day by
- 8:55day, and they're consistently ignoring your advice.
- 8:59We need to be wary of those people.
- 9:01Vinnie Commons, who I often talk about St.
- 9:04Preacher, evangelist, the man who who mentored me and trained
- 9:07me, he used to say, are you fat? Are you a fat disciple?
- 9:11What on earth does that mean? Fat?
- 9:13It stands for, it's an acronym. F stands for faithful.
- 9:16Are you someone who's faithful? Are you faithful to the word of
- 9:19God? Will you be faithful to the
- 9:20teaching of the Bible? Will you be faithful?
- 9:23This person who's trying to mentor and train you a stands
- 9:26for are you available? It's no good if you're working 5
- 9:29jobs and you're trying to input into someones life and they're
- 9:32always busy or they're always playing sport and things like
- 9:35that. Is this person available?
- 9:38Whatever it is. So with Vinny, for instance, he
- 9:40would say, right, the first, third and 5th Saturday of the
- 9:43month, we're going to do open airs.
- 9:45I want to train young people in, in St. evangelism.
- 9:47Are you going to be available on those Saturday afternoons?
- 9:50And I myself did make myself available to be able to be, to
- 9:54learn how to, to do evangelism. And then the T this is the most
- 9:57important one. Are they teachable?
- 10:02Is this person just full of their own wisdom?
- 10:05Are they just full of their own folly, their own pride?
- 10:07Do they just think they know best or are they able to humble
- 10:11themselves and to listen to teaching again, United Beach
- 10:16Missions, which is kind of the kind of circles that I'm talking
- 10:19about with Vinnie and, and, and my evangelism.
- 10:22United Beach Missions years ago used to say, if someone gives
- 10:26you some kind of criticism, don't quickly say, oh, I defend
- 10:29myself. No, no, you don't understand it.
- 10:31You've misunderstood that. I do this because of this.
- 10:33No, be slow to speak, don't defend yourself and just take it
- 10:38in. Is there any truth in this
- 10:41feedback? Is there any truth in this
- 10:43criticism? Because it might just be that
- 10:45the Holy Spirit is trying to show you something.
- 10:48He's trying to chip off an edge in your life.
- 10:51Just hear it, be slow to speak and just wonder, is there any
- 10:54truth in this? And that's it.
- 10:56Are we teachable now? Of course, we have got to stand
- 11:00on the word of God. And this is a danger for young
- 11:02people, particularly as they can be swept by every kind of
- 11:05doctrine. And with all the different
- 11:07voices, particularly on social media from all the different
- 11:10denominations, you've got to be careful because you don't want
- 11:12to think, oh, well, I, I suddenly changed the teaching
- 11:15that I've held to for 1520 years because this person on social
- 11:19media has put a good case to it. You've got to be firm on the
- 11:22words and you've got to read. That's why we really must plow
- 11:25through the Word of to God. We must read good books on
- 11:27systematic theology. We must know the Word very, very
- 11:31closely so we're not swept around.
- 11:33And then we can be teachable when it's at the right time,
- 11:37when it's correct teaching, and we can be discerning.
- 11:40And suppose that's what I'm trying to say.
- 11:42So are you a fat disciple? You let me know in the comments
- 11:45section right now #3 The third kind of person you should avoid
- 11:49is the user. The user Now just turn to
- 11:54Proverbs 19, verse 4, Proverbs 19, and verse 4.
- 12:03Wealth attracts many friends, but even the closest friend of
- 12:07the poor person deserts them. You don't need me to tell you
- 12:12that people are fickle. You've dealt with fickle people
- 12:15in your life. I've dealt with fickle people in
- 12:17my life. Perhaps at times we ourselves
- 12:20have been fickle. Let's not point the finger at
- 12:22others when we ourselves can be like that at times in our own
- 12:25sinful human nature. But there are people who are
- 12:29fair weather friends. You know when the sun's shining,
- 12:32when things are going well, that's when they want to be near
- 12:34you. But when the storms are there,
- 12:37when you're in those dark seasons when everyone's deserted
- 12:40you, where are those people then?
- 12:43We don't want people to be like leeches.
- 12:45We've got to be so careful of those who just want to Leech off
- 12:48you take everything they can. Another way of putting it is
- 12:51like a McDonald's soda cup or a McDonald's milkshake.
- 12:54You've got the straw and you just, you slurp all of it.
- 12:58You get, you drink the whole drink.
- 12:59And then once you're done with it, you throw it away.
- 13:02That's how some people will, will treat you.
- 13:04They'll, they'll suck all of the life out of you.
- 13:06They'll take all of the energy from you.
- 13:08And then once you've got nothing left, they discard you and they
- 13:11throw you away. That is a cruel kind of person.
- 13:14And you need to be careful with those kinds of people.
- 13:16And again, I just want to emphasize this.
- 13:19I can't say that God says never, ever spend time with these,
- 13:22avoid these kinds of people because again, we want to win
- 13:25the lost. We want to win those people who
- 13:27want to help the, the, the Christian who might be
- 13:29struggling with sin. But I just think we've got to be
- 13:31incredibly wise when we deal with these kinds of people who
- 13:35only want us for our success. Some of you have watched my
- 13:41YouTube channel, Off the Curve Ministries.
- 13:43This is just my second channel, which is, as you know, kind of
- 13:46more laid back. But some of you've been watching
- 13:48me for a number of years. And if you've been on this
- 13:50journey with me, I started back in 2016.
- 13:53So we've been, we've done a good ten years now.
- 13:56Well, it was 2015 when we started the channel, but in
- 13:592020, that's when my channel really blew up.
- 14:02And one of the things that really hurt actually, and it
- 14:06took me years to get over this, were people who, again, they
- 14:10kept me at arm's length or they totally ignored me.
- 14:13I'd go to conferences and, and Christian conferences, if you're
- 14:17a young person or you're single, they can be the most loneliest
- 14:21place in the entire world. And I'd go to these Christian
- 14:25conferences on my own. My wife would be working in the
- 14:28school. So I, I was going there as a
- 14:30young evangelist and you'd eat meals on your own.
- 14:33You'd have to go to all the effort to talk to people and
- 14:36you'd see, you know, people and they'd have the groups, the
- 14:39clicks and things. And I was on my own.
- 14:41I find it really difficult. When my YouTube channel blew up
- 14:45and I went to the same conference, honestly, it made me
- 14:49sick how people had changed. People came up to me and said,
- 14:53so this is my testimony. I've done this, this and this,
- 14:56all these crazy things. Would you be interested in
- 14:58interviewing me sometime or Oh, YouTube?
- 15:02I've seen you've blown up on YouTube and oh, come and talk to
- 15:05me. Or how do you do this?
- 15:06I'd like to know how to get all of these numbers.
- 15:08Can you help me? Can you give me a shout out?
- 15:10Will you give me, you know, all these people who didn't care
- 15:12about me at all, gave me no time of day.
- 15:14Suddenly when there was success, they were there.
- 15:17And it hurts because you just think how fickle are people?
- 15:22But again, I don't want to judge anyone because would I be like
- 15:24that in their position? I don't know.
- 15:27But just be aware of those kind of people.
- 15:29Some of you, you've got a great position in life.
- 15:31Perhaps you've got some money, you know, you've become wealthy
- 15:35and you've seen our people change.
- 15:37Some of you perhaps, as I said, maybe in church you've suddenly
- 15:40got a new position. You're an elder or you're a
- 15:43Deacon and suddenly people want to chat to you.
- 15:46Or maybe I don't know you, you have got a few followers or
- 15:49you've done well in life or you've done well at sport, those
- 15:53kinds of things. Just be aware of these kinds of
- 15:56people. And it's not selfish.
- 15:58It's not loving to have boundaries just to make sure
- 16:02that we're not like being used. Just before I move on, a classic
- 16:09example of this is Judas Iscariot.
- 16:12And I think there are a few Judases around in the world
- 16:14today. Judas didn't really care about
- 16:17Jesus, didn't really love the Lords.
- 16:20He just wanted to be around the money purse and he used Jesus
- 16:24fame, all the people who were giving money to help them and
- 16:27all the people who were drawing close.
- 16:29He used Jesus to extract to get what he could.
- 16:32And when he thought he could get his biggest paycheck, he
- 16:36betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, just discarded him.
- 16:40Guys, be careful of those kinds of people and let none of us be
- 16:44like that. Let us be good friends thick and
- 16:48thin, you know, like we say in our marriage vows, for better,
- 16:51for worse, we should be like that with friends.
- 16:54If someone's going through trouble, maybe that this is a
- 16:56call right now. Maybe God has placed a
- 16:58particular person on your heart right now.
- 17:00And you know, I've neglected that friendship.
- 17:03We were really close when things are going well, but now they've
- 17:06got that diagnosis. So now that their families has
- 17:09left them or now they're not, well, no drawn near to that
- 17:13person, maybe you need to call that person this very day.
- 17:19Now #4 I can say with total conviction is someone that God
- 17:23does want you to avoid. If you're looking for marriage,
- 17:26if you're looking for a relationship, God does not want
- 17:29you to be with someone who is not a believer.
- 17:32He doesn't want you to be unequally yoked as the Scripture
- 17:35says. Just please turn in your Bible
- 17:38to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14.
- 17:50Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.
- 17:54For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?
- 17:58What fellowship can light have with darkness?
- 18:02Now anyone who's been a Christian for any amount of time
- 18:04will probably know this verse. Well, it's quite a, a very
- 18:07famous verse. And if my memory serves me
- 18:09correctly, the idea of being unequally yoked was the idea of
- 18:12you've got 2 oxen and here you've got the yoke, you've got
- 18:15this, this bar that's going on the shoulders.
- 18:18And if you had like a massive big oxen and then a tiny one,
- 18:22then the yoke would be off center.
- 18:24If I've got that wrong, please forgive me.
- 18:27You can let me know in the comments section.
- 18:29As you know, this is very unscripted.
- 18:30This is very raw as we go through this message.
- 18:34But I actually want to say something that I think is not
- 18:37going to be very popular. And again, you can correct me if
- 18:40you think I'm wrong, but I think this verse goes even further.
- 18:45I'll give you an example. When I first became a Christian,
- 18:48I'd only been a Christian for a few weeks and I was being
- 18:52encouraged by a Christian camp. I was being encouraged by
- 18:56Christian leaders to go out with a girl who'd been a Christian
- 18:59for 10 years. And, you know, we liked each
- 19:02other. But I actually said, I feel like
- 19:05I'm unequally yoked. And, and this leader said, no,
- 19:07no, no, that's just talking about an unbeliever and a
- 19:10Christian. It doesn't matter if you're,
- 19:11you're, you know, if you've only been a Christian 5 minutes, you
- 19:14can still go out with this person because you're still a
- 19:17Christian. And I'm not saying this can
- 19:19never work, but I do think, I do think there's, I think we've got
- 19:23to be so careful here. Let me give you another example.
- 19:26Say you're a Christian and you love evangelism.
- 19:30Every Saturday you're out sharing the gospel, but you
- 19:33marry a person who doesn't love evangelism, who isn't able to do
- 19:39evangelism and wants to take all of your time and doesn't want
- 19:43you to spend time sharing the gospel anymore.
- 19:45Again, as you get married, your first priority is your spouse,
- 19:48your wife. That's your first priority.
- 19:50But you've got to be careful who you marry because if you marry
- 19:53someone who is 1/2 baked Christian or doesn't have take
- 19:57the things of God seriously, I think you can be unequally
- 20:00yoked. And I think, OK, first, when
- 20:02you've got all of the the rush and the honeymoon period and
- 20:05everything's going well, it'll be exciting.
- 20:07But as the years go by, suddenly if you're not growing closer to
- 20:11God, you're going to grow close, you're going to grow in the
- 20:14opposite direction, you're going to grow away from each other and
- 20:17it'll put a rift, a problem in your marriage.
- 20:20So make sure you are equally yoked.
- 20:23Make sure you get someone who I think before looks before
- 20:28personality, before banter and having jokes and all of this
- 20:31kind of the biggest thing you need to make sure you're looking
- 20:33for in a spouse is are they similar to me spiritually?
- 20:38You know, again, this can cause problems if you're a Pentecostal
- 20:43and, and your husband's A5 point Reformed Calvinist who would
- 20:47have, you know, die 1000 deaths if he saw someone even raising
- 20:51their hands in church. You've got to be careful if
- 20:54you're marrying this person because it's, it's going to put
- 20:56a rift. And likewise for him.
- 20:57You know, if you're, you're constantly feeling like your
- 21:00wife's swinging from the curtains when you're worshiping,
- 21:02you know, you're going to have issues, aren't you?
- 21:05I know I'm being a bit light here, but just be careful with
- 21:08these things. Now, it's not just for marriage.
- 21:10This verse, I don't believe it's just for marriage.
- 21:13And well, there's a similar verse that certainly isn't just
- 21:15for marriage and that it can be applied in another way.
- 21:18If you you've got a Bible there, turn to Amos 3 and verse 3.
- 21:23Do two walk together unless they've agreed to do so.
- 21:29In other words, how can two people walk together unless
- 21:33there's an agreement? And I think with even your
- 21:36friendships, you need to make sure you've got people who are
- 21:38similar, who are standing up for the same things you believe in.
- 21:42And particularly in business now it is so it is impossible in
- 21:47this day and age to go into business and always have a born
- 21:50again Christian who is similar to you.
- 21:53I know that I'm not going to be foolish in thinking that in this
- 21:56world where you know, evil is wax worse and it's really hard
- 21:59to find Christians even in some churches at times, you know, but
- 22:04what am I trying to say here? Just be wise.
- 22:06If you're going to go into a business partnership, you're
- 22:08going to put your life savings into a work and say it comes to,
- 22:12for instance, a time when tax relief, you know, most
- 22:15businesses, they want to give to charity and you want to give to
- 22:18a missionary work or you want to give to the church or something
- 22:21that's good and godly. But your business partner who
- 22:25doesn't love the Lord wants to give into something and dare I
- 22:29say woke or something that's leaning into a non, an essential
- 22:35or a non, you know, important charity or even dare I say an
- 22:39evil charity that pushes something.
- 22:41You're going to have fractions there again, with, with
- 22:44different ways of dealing with people in your company.
- 22:47Some people in business, they have no problem with lying,
- 22:50lying to the customer, deceiving them just so they get that sale.
- 22:54But you as a Christian, you would have great difficulty with
- 22:57that. You know that the business is
- 22:59only blessed if the Lord's hand is upon it and the Holy Spirit
- 23:01cannot bless a business or a work if if there's deceit and
- 23:04there's lies and there's wrong things going on.
- 23:07So again, just make sure if it is for instance, in a business
- 23:10that you you pick the right people and again some of you in
- 23:13the comments section. I'm sure you can attest to this
- 23:15if times you've been at work and you've you've been working with
- 23:19people who had completely different world views and it
- 23:22really made a mess for you. Lastly, the fifth kind of person
- 23:27you should avoid is the person who tempts you or the person who
- 23:31makes you forget about principles you once held very
- 23:34dear. I'm not sure how true this is.
- 23:37You can Google it yourself because I find this statistic
- 23:40absolutely wild. So hard to believe, but it's
- 23:44apparently if you've got a friend who got divorced, you are
- 23:4875% more likely to get divorced yourself.
- 23:51If your close friend separated from his wife or vice versa,
- 23:56you've got a 75% chance of doing the same.
- 23:59Am I the only one who finds that crazy?
- 24:01And yet, as we said, show me your friends and I will show you
- 24:04the future. And it is true, if you've got a
- 24:07parent who had a terrible, terrible anger problem or they
- 24:13had a habit, it's most likely you yourself will get that
- 24:16habit. If you've got friends who you
- 24:19know act a certain way, eventually you'll start to act
- 24:22that way. Something I'm very embarrassed
- 24:24to admit to again, I remember when I first became a Christian,
- 24:27in my first few years of being a Christian, I'd see other
- 24:31Christians I'd hang around with who are a little bit older to
- 24:34me, who I actually looked up to as preachers and, and the like.
- 24:38And I'd be shocked at the jokes they would tell.
- 24:41Jokes that were really close to the knuckle, that were, yeah,
- 24:45just really quite bad, really. And, you know, even if non
- 24:49Christians heard them, you'd think, I'm not sure about that.
- 24:53And yeah, because I spent so much time with these people and
- 24:56some of them are still in my life now, I find myself saying
- 25:00those jokes. And I think sometimes, wow, the
- 25:04old Joe would never share jokes like that.
- 25:07And again, you might always just having a sense of humour.
- 25:09And you know, God wants us to have a sense of humour, but we
- 25:12have got to be careful. Are we getting closer to the
- 25:16Lord or further from the Lord? You see the same sun that can
- 25:19harden clay also melts butter and some things they can harden
- 25:25you or they can draw you closer to the Lord God.
- 25:28So we need to be wise about these things.
- 25:30Just I've got a Bible verse here and I think it's also very
- 25:33powerful. Galatians 2 verse 13.
- 25:38The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their
- 25:42hypocrisy even Barnabas was LED astray.
- 25:45Now the context of this passage, without going into too much
- 25:48detail, is the apostle Paul came in and he saw some behavior that
- 25:52wasn't it was unbecoming to Christians.
- 25:55It was embarrassing. They were at one hand wanting to
- 25:58sit and eat with the the non Jewish people.
- 26:01But as soon as some bigwigs, if you like, came in, they pulled
- 26:05back and said, no, we don't want to be seen dead with you guys.
- 26:07We're we're avoiding you. And so Paul called out this
- 26:10hypocrisy and it says and Barnabas was led astray.
- 26:15Barnabas, a church leader, the son of encouragement, this
- 26:19wonderful Christian was LED, LED astray.
- 26:22Now, isn't that a really striking lesson?
- 26:25Because what does it tell us? It tells us that peer pressure
- 26:28is very powerful. If if there's lots of people
- 26:31around you and they're saying do this, do that, eventually you
- 26:35will succumb unless you're as hard as nails.
- 26:38It's very easy for our principles to be eroded away.
- 26:41And again, when I talk about being around people who might
- 26:45tempt you, someone who lost their principles was David.
- 26:50Now David saw Bathsheba, he saw her a distance and he was
- 26:54attracted to her, and instead of running away, what did he do?
- 26:57He brought her closer, and some would say she was unwise for
- 27:01where she'd chosen to take a bath.
- 27:04Listen, we're not going to get into all of that.
- 27:06But the point is this. David should have avoided this
- 27:09situation. But instead we notice that by
- 27:12pulling her closer, by going into this sin, what happened?
- 27:16More and more of his principles went.
- 27:18And then you're right. You remember Uriah Bathsheba's
- 27:20husband, David commanded him. He said to him, this chief Army
- 27:24officer, listen, Uriah, I want you to go in with your wife
- 27:28tonight and just have some fun. But he said here he is.
- 27:32He's he's had a lot to drink and he says, no, I can't do that.
- 27:35How can I do that when when my men are are are my soldiers are
- 27:39are there could be danger at present.
- 27:40I need to be with them. I need to have their back.
- 27:44In other words, this man who's had a lot of a lot to drink has
- 27:47got more principles than the king of Israel, who's supposed
- 27:51to be a man after God's own heart, who's done all of these
- 27:55sins as a way of getting his, his, this other man's wife.
- 28:00So again, be careful. It might be some people we need
- 28:02to avoid. It might be ourselves at times.
- 28:05We need to avoid that We don't lose our principles and we don't
- 28:09allow things to tempt us and put us into difficult situations.
- 28:13Do you mind if I say it one more time?
- 28:15I do want to emphasize this because I don't want anyone to
- 28:17misunderstand me. Our society has become very
- 28:21individualistic. It's all about me, my purpose,
- 28:24my beliefs, and anyone who somehow comes in towards that or
- 28:28could be in some way a threat to me having my way and my success.
- 28:33We cut them off. We're not to be like that as
- 28:35Christians. We're to love people.
- 28:38We're to share our lives with people like the Lord shared his
- 28:41lives with broken people. Please make sure you do make
- 28:44time for these people. What I am saying is there are
- 28:47some people at times, yes, you must avoid.
- 28:49If you've warned them several times and they're continuing in
- 28:52this wrong behaviour, warn them and and pull back.
- 28:55But other people, you just need to have boundaries.
- 28:58You need to keep them at arm's length and say I can't just let
- 29:02you walk all over my life. You know, as Christians, we're
- 29:05not called to be doormats. You know, we are to be gentle,
- 29:08loving, humble, but we're not to be walked all over.
- 29:13We're meant to be wise. And I will just say this as
- 29:15well, and I don't talk about this anywhere near enough, but
- 29:19every single one of you who is a channel member on this channel,
- 29:23every single one of you who has donated through my website, and
- 29:27every single one of you prays who subscribes, I just want to
- 29:30say thank you so, so much. As you know, I run these videos
- 29:35ad free. There's no adverts that don't
- 29:37monetize them. So by you giving generously, you
- 29:40enable me to do all of these things to pay, you know, these
- 29:44expensive editors on my main channel off the Curb Ministries.
- 29:47You enable me to be able to have free time to go out and do St.
- 29:50evangelism because no one pays you to stand there and be a
- 29:53street preacher. As you can imagine, more people
- 29:56would pay to get rid of you and, and just little things.
- 29:59I can afford to buy my kids ice cream because kind people like
- 30:03you give. So thank you very much for that.
- 30:05I hope you've had a good cup of Joe.
- 30:06I certainly have enjoyed it. It's done my heart the world of
- 30:10good. I was a bit down, a bit sad
- 30:11before I came to this video, but having a cup of Joe with you
- 30:14guys has just blessed me so much.
- 30:16God bless you all.