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.