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