This is going to sound kind of weird, but I want you to imagine
that the past week that you've just had, we need to imagine
that a cameraman follows you around everywhere you went,
everything you said, everything you did, everywhere you went, it
was recorded and locked down in a camera.
And then today what's going to happen is in your street, a big
billboard with a screen on it is going to go up, or in your town
centre or in your home. Everything's going to go up and
it's all going to be played, everything you've done.
Would you be embarrassed or ashamed of anything you've said
about people behind their back this week?
I know that I would off. And so that's why today I want
to talk to you about gossiping. Well, if this is your first time
on the channel, my name's Joe Kirby and it's that time of week
where we have a nice warm cup of Joe with Joe.
So I'm going to make you a coffee.
I hope you're you all like coffee, so make sure you get
your kettles on. I've actually boiled mine this
week just because it can be a little bit noisy in the
background. I'm going to make a nice coffee
and then let's talk about gossiping.
As you can see we're we're getting a bit low on the the
coffee here. We'll have to get to the shop
and buy some more. So I just put, do you know what
I think I'm just going to dump all of it in.
There we go. They're like rocket, rocket
fuel. I don't know if I'm the only one
who will literally drink that much coffee, but I'll have it
all to myself if my wife. My wife only drinks decaf,
actually, because caffeine makes her a bit hyper.
So when it's a nice caffeinated coffee with the jar completely
empty, it's all for me anyway. I also, if you've got your
coffee there, I'd also like you to grab a Bible, because this
time we have actually got quite a few Bible verses.
But I make no apology for it because as you know, the Bible
is is the best thing that we can ever have and everything will go
downhill after I stop reading the Bible because it'll just be
coming from man. OK, so Ecclesiastes 10, verse
20, Please turn there if you're able to.
Verse 20 Do not curse the king, even in your thoughts.
Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom, for a bird of the
air may carry your voice and a bird in flight may tell the
matter. So in other words, you know that
phrase that we say? A little birdie told me so.
Well, that's exactly what's going on here.
It's this imagery that OK, everything I say in private,
there might be a little bird that eavesdrops and takes that
message out to the public. Now of course we know there
aren't such birds that exist, but we do know that very often
you might say to someone, you mustn't tell anyone this, keep
this a secret and then you soon realise that it wasn't kept a
secret. And what you said, be sure your
sins will find you out. They did find you out I'm not
American, but I hear in your history of a a president called
Richard Nixon who many people know very famous man.
And I also hear of a a terrible incident where he had some tapes
and these recordings were leaked right across the world.
And even Billy Graham was involved in in one of them where
he said some unkind things about Jewish people.
And perhaps Billy, he probably thought and and Richard, it's
just in private. It's just between these four
walls. And yet the word got out.
Now I'm not judging Billy in any way.
I think he was a tremendous man. And I'll tell you, if if some of
the things I've said went out in the public, I'd be even more
embarrassed because we're all sinners and we all make a mess.
But what do we need to learn from this?
Just be careful. If you don't want this message
to go out to the world, if you don't want everyone to hear it,
well, then don't say it, OK? The next verse is in Proverbs
17, verse 9. So as you can hear, we're we're
staying with King Solomon and his wise words.
He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a
matter separates friends. Now, in every family, in every
friendship, in every person's life, there is a a scandal,
isn't there? There's something that's
happened, something embarrassing.
And you know, if we really ought to be loving people and we know
about this information, our job as Christians should be to keep
it quiet. You know, cover it.
It's more loving to to cover this up and not to let the whole
world know about it if it's in the past, especially if that
person's repented and turned from it.
Let's not keep raking up the dead, but let's keep it private.
And yet the Bible says, you know, that the person who does
this, who repeats the matter, you know, when people say, did
you hear about what what Derek did in in in 2004 or did you
know what her past is? Like that woman who lives down
the road. Do you?
You know, what are we doing there?
The Bible says we're separating close friends.
And as Christians, particularly mature Christians, we should be
seeking to shield one another from these painful things to
protect little eyes. Little ears.
Like that song goes, be careful little eyes What you see.
Be careful little ears what you hear.
Because the Father of above is looking down in love.
Be careful, little ears what you hear.
So let's remember that, and let's try not to be divisive and
as much as possible, keep these things quiet.
OK, here's another verse for you.
Proverbs 26, Verse 20. It says this.
Now this is quite powerful. Where there is no wood, the fire
goes out, and where there is no tail bearer, strife ceases.
So it's this imagery. Again, okay if I don't know if
where you're watching this from. If you've got a log burner and
you have a fire, of course it's it's obvious a fire cannot
survive without wood. The second you remove that wood
from the fire is the second the fire will go out.
And it's the same picture. But if you get that gossip, the
town gossip, the person in church who's a tail bearer, who
who likes to let secrets, the person who knows that loose lips
sink ships, that person. When you remove that person from
a friendship group, from a a church, from a situation,
suddenly all of the strife, all of the heat, all of the emotion
stops because that person is fuelling the fire to cause so
many arguments. A couple of weeks ago we talked
about Christmas and A Christmas Carol.
Well, one of my favorite scenes in A Christmas Carol, the one
with Patrick Stewart, is when once Scrooge has died.
The the Ghost of I've forgotten what it is.
But the Ghost of of Of the Future shows all of the
different things, all of the scenes that would happen after
Ebenezer Scrooge had had passed away.
And one of the scenes that we see is a mother and a husband
with their small baby, really, really happy.
You know, that they're weeping with joy.
Why are they so happy? Because this man, Ebenezer
Scrooge, they owe massive debts to him.
And they're thinking, oh, it's wonderful that he's gone.
Now I don't have to pay these debts.
And what does that woman say? She says something very
powerful. I never thought that a man's
death could bring so much joy. And that's what it's like when
you remove a tail bearer, A gossip, someone who's divisive
from a situation. As soon as they're removed, it's
almost as if I never thought that person could, you know,
bring so much joy that they're now gone.
Now I don't want to be that person.
That people are glad, boy. I'm glad to see the back of him.
He causes trouble. Now I want to be the person who
encourages people, who puts good into people, who puts joy into
the body of Christ. OK, it's time for some coffee.
When I used to make coffee like this, I used to push it down
really, really fast and I didn't realise that that actually ruins
the the texture of it. So I do it ultra slow.
Now I think I'm a bit overly slow, and I like my coffee
black. So we're going to be having some
nice black coffee. Oops.
Filling it on the counter. Don't let the wife see.
No, I've made a right message. Sorry, one second.
I'll just get some kitchen roll on that.
Otherwise Emeril will be coming home and she'll be saying why
are you making a mess in me kitchen?
That's how we all speak up here in in the north of England.
I don't know where you're watching this from, but English
people in the north speak very, very different to English people
in the South and most of the films that you'd watch.
So when you've got actors like, let me think, Michael Gambon or
Benedict Cumberbatch or who else have we got?
Daniel Craig. They would be from the South.
Well, actually Daniel Craig, he's actually from Chester,
which is the north of England, but he has more of a Southern
accent. So that's just a moment of
truth. What's this old cup cup of Joe
like? That's what you call it in
America, don't you? A hot cup of Joe.
That's really good. What I didn't tell you actually,
is I actually filmed a video earlier, just before I did this.
And I thought instead of having a coffee where I just sort of,
you know, have it on my own because I always have a coffee
after I've filmed, I thought, you know what, I'll, I'll share
and have a coffee with you guys right now.
So the next, the next sort of passage I want us to look at in
a moment's time is in fact we'll look there now Ecclesiastes 7
verses 21 to 22. The Bible says also do not take
two hearts, everything people say, lest you hear your servant
cursing you. For many times also your own
heart has known that even you have cursed others.
So what's the Bible saying here? Now imagine if you like me,
you've probably been gossips about.
If you've got a YouTube channel, you have whole videos that
people make and people keep messaging me and saying are you
aware this man's making this video?
And I'm totally aware in the Lords grace, you know it doesn't
bother me because the Bible says, you know, blessed are you
when they call you all kinds of names and revile against you.
And it's actually a worrying thing is that it's it's it's a
bad thing if woe to you if all men speak well of you.
So I am aware people make videos about me.
And you know, sometimes these videos can humble you.
And you say is there is there some truth in this instead of,
you know, straight away defending ourselves and saying,
you know, this is wrong, this is wrong saying, well, is there any
truth in what this person's saying?
If there is, then I try and repent and I learn from it.
And if there isn't, then you just say, OK Lord, this is part
of the package and it's a privilege to serve you.
It's certainly a lot easier to serve you here than in some
countries around the world. But if you have been gossiped
about, people have said mean things about you, how do you
deal with it? Well, you remember what this
verse here says. Often you yourself have cursed
people. Often you yourself have said
mean things about other people, so try not to take it too much
to heart blade. The skull said something amazing
and I'm just going to paraphrase it.
But he said if everyone in the world knew everything that had
been said about one another, there wouldn't be 4 friends in
the entire world. So you know, often if if I knew
what some of my closest friends said about me behind my back,
I'd be like, are you really my friend?
But in the Lord's grace, a lot of it is hidden.
And I've said things about my friends behind their back that I
don't mean hurtful things. And we all do it, don't we?
So just remember that we're all sinners.
But the scripture also says that the tongue is set on fire.
By hell, who can tame it in? In England, recently there was a
newspaper published an article and it was about the last ever
lion tamer. You know, it was sort of a thing
that was well known over the years.
There was lion tamers who knew how to tame a lion.
And you know, there's people who are watching perhaps and they
know how to to break in a wild horse.
And then of course in Florida you've got Shamu, you've got
that massive big and orca whale and there's literally trainers,
C trainers, orca whale trainers who can stand on the nose of
that orca whale and come out of the water with it.
And you think, how can you do that?
How are you able to do that? If you see, we can train all
kinds of animals, all kinds of dangerous creatures, but this
little thing, this little, you know, 2 inch bit of flesh in our
mouth, We can't train it. We can't tame it.
It's so wild. And yet only the Lord, the Holy
Spirit can tame us. We need to take this issue to
him. When I was at primary school,
that's, I don't know what you call it if you're watching from
America. It might be Junior School, but
it's basically we go to school from ages 5 to 11 years old and
that's called primary school. When I was there, I remember
things people said about me. I was actually bullied quite
badly there when I was at high school, which is ages 11 to 16.
I think that's middle school for you guys.
I didn't really get bullied. I was OK.
I had a lot of friends, but at primary school for a lot of it I
was picked on partly because my my dad was a Christian and, you
know, we didn't keep that a secret.
So we were quite different. In secular Britain, there's not
many people who are Christians who go to church at the weekends
and, you know, don't watch certain films and certain songs.
I had no idea what was going on in the music charts growing up,
so I stuck out like a sore thumb.
But also physically, people used to say things about me, you
know, they used to say how do you send Joe to the moon?
You press the red button Because I had a red spot in the middle
of my head. That sort of went, I've got one
here now, so it's just, you know, it's just migrated in my
in my imaginary hairline. And people also say just going
back to comments people write. One of the funniest comments
anyone ever wrote to me was they said this man's hairline has
been raptured. So tell me in the comment box
right now if your hairline's also raptured.
But people, when I was, you know, when I was a child, they
said things about me, They said things about my ears, about, you
know, my hair colour and you never, ever forget what they
say. And you know, I know I sound
like a bit of a wimp and obviously I have moved on from
it. I don't, you know, shed lots of
tears at night crying about these things.
But it is true, isn't it, That, you know, sticks and stones
might break my my bones, but words will never hurt me.
In fact, what I meant to say is that isn't true at all.
You know, you can give me a a black eye, you can punch me and
all of that, and I'll move on from there.
But if you say something really hurtful, we have a scar, don't
we? And it wounds us and it cuts us
deep. And as we get older, other
things might, you know, upset us and those words hurt us more.
So just be careful that you're not the person who's leaving
wounds or scars and other people.
It was a very godly man who I used to know, a man called Alan
White. He was the elder of our church.
And I I I know I say this online.
I've said it a few times, and I know Alan would be so annoyed if
you could hear me saying it, but there are only two holy,
righteous men who I've ever known in my life.
You know, when you get to see people's lives and you get to
know them and you see their sins and you see their flaws, we've
all got them. But there are two men who I can
honestly say those two men were holy men of God.
They love the Lord, and Alan was one of them.
And Alan used to say, I want to set you a challenge.
Now you go through all of the Gospels and you show me one
example of where Jesus Christ ever talked about anyone when
they weren't present, when they weren't in the room with him.
You'll never find an example of that.
And I think that's a fascinating thought, isn't it?
The Son of God would never talk about people when they weren't
present. Now, of course it's not wrong or
sinful to do that. We see other godly men like Paul
in the Bible. He would talk about people.
We see other examples of it. But it is an interesting
challenge, isn't it, to be very careful.
What are we saying about people, good or bad, when they're not
with us, when they're not their present?
And then, of course, as you know, gossip.
Gossip has massive consequences. And gossip actually put the Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross. You know, they said about Christ
that he had an unclean spirit, which wasn't true.
They said about Christ, he makes false claims about himself.
He claims to be the Son of God. How dare he say that?
And of course that wasn't true because the Lord Jesus Christ,
he he was the Son of God. So it wasn't a false claim, it
was entirely true that he he was the Son of God.
They also said that Christ he wanted to start a riot, which
again wasn't true at all. And the Bible says, in the
Messianic Psalm of Psalm 22, it says Great bulls have surrounded
me, Great bulls of Basham. They've surrounded me and they
gaped their mouths at me on the cross there.
All these people were scorning him, saying him, him, If you're
the Son of God, bring yourself down from this cross.
All kinds of wicked things were said about Christ.
And yet on the cross he took all of our gossip, all of our lies,
all of our slandered slander and paid the price so that we we
could be forgiven. Let me leave you with one final
thought. I'm not sure if this is a true
story or a folklore story, but there was a Jewish rabbi who was
very well respected in the town. But one man, the young man,
didn't like him and decided to spread slander and lies about
him. He said all kinds of things.
And eventually this young man realised his error, felt a sense
of guilt. So he thought, you know what?
I need to go and confess my sins to the rabbi.
I'll tell him what I've done wrong.
Oh, Rabbi, you've probably heard.
I've said all manner of evil things about you.
Please, will you forgive me? And the wise old rabbi said, I
will forgive you. But I want you to do something
for me. I want you to.
Take a pillow, take this pillow in your hands and also take this
pair of scissors and I want you to go to the Market Square and I
want you to take the scissors and cut a hole in the pillow and
shake it everywhere you go. Just shake it as much as you
can. Will you do that?
For me and the young man kind of feeling a bit like this is a bit
of a a strange request. Sort of took the pillow on the
scissors and said, OK, I'll do it because, you know, I have
done a lot of wrong things to you.
So there the young man went and he took his scissors, cut a hole
in them and started shaking it wildly in the in the Market
Square. And then he returned back to the
rabbi. And the rabbi says, did you do
as I said? And the young man said, yes, I
did. And the rabbi said, would you
mind telling me what came out of the pillow?
And the young man said, oh, feathers, many, many feathers
poured out onto the ground. Good, said the rabbi.
Now what I want you to do is go back to the Market Square and I
want you to pick up every single feather that fell out and put it
back in the pillow for me and bring it back to me.
And the young man was speechless.
I can't, Sir. I don't know where they've all
gone, my dear friends. So it is with gossip.
Often it's too late. Some of these things, they've
spread out far. They've gone far and wide.
As I've said, they've wounded people and you can't put the
feathers back in the pillow. So what am I saying to you
today? I just want you and I in this
new year now to be very careful what feathers we drop in the
future and to let only good things, gentle things, loving
things come out of our lips because that's what the Lord God
would want us to do. I am grateful again if you've
stayed with me this long. Just to reiterate, if you want
to see more videos that are more high production value that are
even click baity if I can say you know as a fisherman, I'm a
fisherman, an evangelist, I use baits.
So that's why those videos might be a bit sensational and people
don't like them necessarily. But I'm trying to reach
unbelievers primarily on that Channel, and often they like the
clickbait. But I know Christians often
these kind of things might be of more value to you.
So I want to hopefully serve both while the Lord puts breath
in my lungs. So if you'd like to see more
videos like this, please do subscribe.
And yeah, I hope you've enjoyed your cup of coffee with me
today. God bless you all and thank you
for watching.