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.