Fire Bin Faith (Part 2) Following Jesus When Faith Feels Costly

This episode is Part 2 of our exploration of the Seventh Commandment and the deeper question of spiritual faithfulness.

In this conversation we move from the heart to the real world—where faith is tested in everyday environments like workplaces, staff rooms, and group chats. We call this space the “fire bin”: those uncomfortable moments when the room turns against your faith and it suddenly feels easier to stay quiet than stand with Christ.

Have you ever been there?

A joke about Jesus.

A mocking comment in the office.

A conversation where everyone laughs and you feel the pressure to go along.

In moments like these the question becomes simple but searching: who are you really following?

We begin with Peter’s denial around the courtyard fire, tracing how fear, crowd pressure, and reputation can pull believers away from openly standing with Jesus. That same pressure exists today—in workplaces, social circles, and digital conversations.

But the goal of this episode is not outrage. It is wisdom and courage.

We explore practical ways believers can respond when faith is challenged: speaking calmly, setting respectful boundaries, and showing love without compromising conviction. Sometimes the strongest witness is not loud confrontation but quiet integrity.

Along the way we examine deeper issues shaping modern life. Consumerism, digital habits, and the subtle idols of success, reputation, and comfort can quietly compete for our loyalty. Scripture warns that friendship with the world can pull the heart away from God, and this tension often appears in ordinary routines rather than dramatic choices.

Through passages in Jeremiah, Mark, Ephesians, and Romans, we return again and again to the same truth: the real battleground is the heart, and the real power for change comes from the Spirit of God.

Being different does not mean being loud.

It means being faithful.

Integrity may look like stepping away from destructive conversations, guarding what shapes your imagination, choosing prayer before distraction, and letting Scripture guide your thinking.

At the centre of the story is grace. Peter denied Jesus, yet he was restored and called again. Failure was not the end of his story.

If you have ever felt pressure to hide your faith or stay sile

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Good morning, everybody. God bless you wherever you are this morning. Thank you so much for joining us. Hashtag Christian Straight Talk, wherever you are across the globe. We are live on Twitter at this moment in time. Good morning, Elon. We hope you are well. Thank you for allowing us to speak across your beautiful platform. But wherever you are this morning, may God bless you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. This is Simon and myself, Ben, as we just gather around the scripture, as we just see what God is saying through the word of God, bringing and looking at everyday life as a believer in Christ, whether you're a man or a woman, just resting and trusting in God. Hashtag Christian StraightTalk. We've got some literature coming out very soon. There's stuff happening all over the place. But God is with you. Never give up wherever you are. Simon, we are up and we are running and we are ready to rumble.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Good morning, uh Wald. Good morning, Ben. And uh yeah, it's so encouraging. It really is. It's so encouraging to see some of the stuff. You know, them uh little book books we've been um we've been banging on about. Uh we we came through them, aren't we? We must have got nearly a thousand out there already, and it's only been what just a couple of weeks, ain't they, Ben?

Abiding In The Vine

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Just a couple of weeks, yeah. We've got one in our hands at the moment. Look at that, the Gospel of John, sandwiched in between it for all those that are following us on Twitter that are live with us at the moment. You know, we are just wrapped around the Gospel, and that's what's got me absolutely fascinated, you know, that we are wrapped around we are the cover of this Gospel of John, but so much more than that, we are grafted in, and that is so scriptural, innit? Be wrapped around the word of God. Well, it's um you know, John 15, 5, innit?

SPEAKER_02 2:01

You know, I'm the vine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're grafted into the vine, you can do nothing apart from me. And uh Ben, you look you're looking uh you look like you're behind um either in the spaceship or or or you're on the decks like you were a DJ or something.

Who Are You Following

SPEAKER_01 2:17

This technology, I took this technology. We've got the laptop up because we're live on Twitter, we've got the podcasting machine recording here, and then we've got an iPad here that I'm just watching the gambling. Oh sorry, I mean uh I'm looking at the script sharks. I've put uh a turf accountance, I better flip that one off. I won't turn that towards the camera, you know. I mean, I just let that one let everyone see the godly stuff, but on the screen I'm really I'm really on bet Fred. The question is, who are you following? What horse are you following? Well because there's a horse coming, yeah, mate. There's four of them coming. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

But it is the truth who who are you following?

Faith At Work Under Fire

SPEAKER_01 2:54

You know, who are you following? Yeah. Serious question, isn't it? And I ask myself, am I following Jesus? And I will say, Yes, I am following Jesus, and I love Christ with all my heart, but to follow Jesus is enduring, is the biggest challenge, as you said not long ago, as a believer, to follow Jesus in in work. Imagine and try and think of all the believers now, Christians that are in workplace settings that are so brutal, so harduous in in every industry.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Well, uh Ben, I've got to tell you, you know, I think I I did tell you a little bit before, but um I've got a mate who works um uh as a firearms officer up in uh uh in London. I was out with him for a bit of food this week, and uh there's a couple of us together, and uh he was saying he gets it all the time, Benny. You know, he he he's they know he's a Christian, but uh you know they give it to him large, you know. Uh have you been talking to your imaginary friend Jesus again? You know, and everyone's uh laughing, and he's so it's how he deals with that, and and you know, bless him, he's uh difficult thing to deal with, really difficult. Because you could I mean when he was talking, I could feel the anger rising up, and I thought, mate, you're a better man than me, because you know I'd have probably been you know filled with a coals with a couple of them, you know. That's the way that's the way we roll, Ben, isn't it? That's the way we roll, that's the way we roll.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

That's the swanly one. We're doing it all in one corinthians all in love, everything is done in love, every punch is done in love, every every gamble, every press on the button on Bet Fred is done. Lord, if I if I just win, if I just win, Lord, I'm gonna tithe better. Just for everyone looking, I am not actually on Bet Fred. Just look look at the screen. I'm actually on a biblical text. So just let's clear that one up. I don't have a gambling addiction. What's that? 6-6. You know what? Living for Jesus as a man or a woman, a young person, whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever culture you're in. I know we have a little bit of banter here, which is good and very healthy because this is real life, hashtag Christian Straight Talk. But wherever you are, being a believer now in the end times, is the hardest thing that you will ever do is to walk by faith.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

It is the hardest thing, Ben. And um, you know, people are out there, they're they're looking for a purpose, they're looking for a challenge, they're looking for something, guidance in their life, and and Ben, you know, follow Christ. Follow Christ, that'll challenge you. You know, I don't know if you're a church goer out there or or what, but you might you might have got a bit of religion, you might have uh even been baptized, but are you truly following Jesus? That that's the question. Have you truly got a relationship with Jesus Christ? And uh if the answer is uh I'm not too sure, then get into the into the gospels and start reading about his life and start following Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Start following Jesus, it's it's it's it's got you've got to follow Jesus. And there's that there's that text, I believe it's in Luke chapter, oh please Lord help me, Luke chapter 2021, and it speaks about when Peter and Christ were was in the courtyard together and Peter was sitting around a fire bin, and it says that Peter followed him at a distance. We can't follow Jesus anymore at a distance. We've got to get ourselves close. And the question is, isn't it? Because many people go, Well, tell us, fellas, tell us how how do I follow Jesus close? The only way I can answer that to anybody is literally just read the word of God.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Just get in the word of God, get to the word, yeah, and and you know, a bit of decent fellowship with some other uh uh guys uh and prayer as well, do you know? But but his first and foremost is getting on the floor, getting and giving it to the Lord, and just saying, Father, you know, uh thank you for your son and and uh I need him in my life, and uh and then just yeah, as you said, you know, start off with the gospels, reading Jesus's life and following Jesus because he'll lead you, he'll lead you to the Father, he'll he'll lead you to to wherever, he'll lead you to love, he'll lead you to wherever you wanted to go.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Amen. He'll take you to a place that you never thought you could get to, and following Christ strips you back. And where the church over generations has really been lacking, we said this earlier, I honestly believe that Billy Grime was the last messenger of heaven. That's the easiest way to put it. I believe that man, now he has gone, and I'm seeing what we're seeing, and I look back over preachers and teachers. I know there's been a few dotted around Dr. Mike Deloine Jones and and a few others dotted around um the UK, but when when you look across the world, I honestly believe when Billy Graham was called home, we we we have lost as a world the last sounding gong of heaven to preach the gospel. So if you look across the UK, where can we really look to and find a strong spiritual leader that is pressing the gospels like never before? It's very difficult, isn't it? There's a lot of hype. There's a lot of hype in Shaman Shim.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Amen to that. And um, you know, personally, from a personal point of view, um uh you know I've been looking at uh quite a lot of the Billy Garrium classics, you know, on YouTube it's 27 minutes long, but about he he hits it hard, and he hits the gospel hard.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

And he preaches the gospel and he gives you the truth. And what I love about him, he doesn't leave the pulpit, he's not running backwards and forwards, he ain't got lights behind him, he ain't got all the glitz.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

He's not hyping it up, is he?

SPEAKER_01 8:33

He's not he's in a stadium, the wind's blowing, it's raining.

Denial Around The Fire Bin

SPEAKER_02 8:37

There's no music to build it up or anything. It's not the gospel, it's just the gospel, it's the spirit of God speaking for him. And and you know, we are today going to um go get back into this sounds don't sound right, but you know what I'm saying. We're gonna go back and visit uh the subject of adultery. We're not gonna get back into adultery. We're gonna get visit the subject. But here's the deal, Ben. You know, we've said it many times on this platform is you can't be 90-95% faithful to your wife, can you? You know, you it's either 100% faithful or not. So it's the same with Jesus. You you've got to be all in.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

You can't have one foot in the world and one foot in it following Jesus, and and that keeps coming to my my my thinking and and my pattern that Peter was in that courtyard. And what's interesting is who are we sitting down with? I know we're talking about adultery and we're going into spiritual adultery and and and all the all the stuff that goes along with that, which is really, really important. Um, but when Peter, you've got to be careful you sit down with. When Peter sat down at the fire bin, it says the fire bin was in the centre of the courtyard, Christ was over there, and it was when the rooster crowed, and uh Peter was asked the question. Peter was asked, You was one of him, you was with him. I see you. Yes, you did. I definitely definitely so we know the three times. So him denying Christ publicly around the fire bin, that is what we are looking at now. The denial of Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

It's very interesting, Ben, because when Jesus called anyone to him, he did it publicly.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

He did it in front of There was nothing, yeah. You're right.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Everything there was an audience, there was always people around when he healed the beggar by the pool, when he healed Blind by Tomass, when it, you know, there was always so when Peter denied him, yeah. And don't forget, you know, Peter gets a bad rap, but the the others were there as well, they ran off as well, didn't they? The other some of the other uh disciples, but yeah, he was amongst the people.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

But that's the big thing for today, isn't it? Because we don't intentionally want to deny Jesus, but when your back is against the wall, and I'm gonna say it like this in the workplace, and your mortgage and your life is all hanging on, are you a follower of Jesus? And there's policies coming at you as a Christian, and there and there is a quality act and everything like that, and everything else goes, but if you start standing up for the gospel in certain business areas and certain uh obviously big establishments within the UK, uh the police force, uh, uh even the NHS and certain big sectors, if you stand up as a believer, you you there's a possibility, there is a possibility that you could well like my mate in the police force, Ben, you know, for example, he's he stands up, they come at him, you know. Uh and and so you can understand Peter, can't you? The denial of Peter. I've been involved, you know, against the wall.

Friendship With The World

SPEAKER_02 11:41

As as a as an ex-police officer, I've been involved with the Christian Police Association, and when they have meetings, you know, they don't have many people go to the meetings, but they tell me that there are a lot of people that go to church in the police service. So that would encompass men and women, police officers, also people that work in the offices or whatever. But but for them then to stick their hand up and go I'm a Christian. Put your put your head above the parent. You know, when I was seriously, I wasn't a Christian as a as a police officer, but there were guys in the Christian police association who were in s workplace. Um you I wouldn't work with them. Really? They were nice guys, don't get me wrong, lovely fellas, but I wouldn't go out with them, you know. Of course. Because you know, if you got into a bit of a bit of trouble, you know They're gonna give them one John Jesus. They're gonna give them the old Corinthian Corinthians 13, aren't they? We would rather do an eye than iron.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

The old testament person has risen up.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Yeah, that's so it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

That's the fact.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So when you look at this word adultery, it sits in so many brackets. You've got the physical, you've got the mental, and what I'm talking about, the the you've got the physical, you got the thinking, you got the spiritual, you've got the walking away, walking away from Jesus. When you when you look in the gospel, uh you you see this very clear. Christ, doesn't he? I think it's in in James, innit, where he calls them out and he says, You're adulterous people. Why does he do that? Yeah, it's because they was away from him.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Away from him, and and just we're gonna get into that in in just a second, but just before we do that, Ben, uh something came to me this week, and recapping a little bit, and it's it's you've led into it really with the workplace stuff. You know, we for are forever hearing people take the Lord's name in vain, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Everywhere you go, so many places, the TV, uh, you're out shopping, you're out working, you're wherever you are, you hear that terminology, and I find it fascinating that no one ever goes, Muhammad, no one ever goes, uh brings all these other gods. No one ever brings any Buddha or no one brings any other name into disrepute, blasphemous language. So if I hear that, if I hear that, what should I do about that?

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Well that's and that's what I was thinking today, you know, because I I was at um I was up uh um up the West End uh uh over the week um just the beginning of this week and uh I was speaking to someone and uh they was uh it was a lady and she was getting excited about something and she said Jesus this Jesus that and Whoa and it for me it's kind of hit me quite odd. I mean she knows she knows that I I talk about my faith, but she it so she didn't stop herself, she didn't put a break on what she was saying because it's just natural part of conversation, it's natural natural a natural part of people's vocabulary. So what do we do about it? Is it I was I wanted to ask you this uh really is it do you think it's uh as bad if we ignore that behaviour? I think you say ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Do you know what I think that that that brings me to back to that scripture with Peter because the whole conversation was about Christ, I don't know him. So by Peter walking away and saying denying him, when I'm in a position like that, I should actually not challenge them in an angry way, but say just hang on a minute, you you're you're talking about my God. So by me backtracking, am I could you put me into the bracket of spiritual adultery of walking away, enity with God? Because you do I have partnered with the world, and sometimes how many people nod their head when someone says that and you're in a crowd, because a crowd is a very dangerous environment.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

It's a powerful place, isn't it?

Blasphemy In Everyday Speech

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Yeah, because Peter sat down with a crowd. So when you look at that word adultery in spiritual adultery, that that is what it says in in the book of James, enity against God. Completely if you partner with the world, you are committing a spiritual adultery. That's why he says you adulterous generation. So if I sit down with a crowd of work colleagues, if I sit down in a university, if I sit down around a table with people, if I sit down and if I just engage with a crowd and I hear that being blasphemously put, and I don't do anything about that, maybe because of fear, because that's what happened to Peter. What am I gonna do if I if I stand up? Where does that put me? Where's that where does that put you? Where does that leave me? Does it does it put me like what it says in James? It says in James 4, verses 4 to 5, and it says, Jesus says, You adulterous people, why do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity to God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy to God. My goodness gracious, when you look at that, or whoever does uh supposes it uh is no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealousy over the spirit. So you can be born again, you can be filled with the spirit, you can be called, and you can be a real beautiful Christian. But if you are thrown into the arena of the workplace or cultural or life or whatever that is, and we're hearing all this stuff, and it doesn't even need to be the just Jesus' name taken in vain and all that sort of stuff, just the language and the environment that we're in.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

You have to we have to be careful. So the you know, uh the word says to be in the world, but not of the world. So if we are suddenly in a conversation where you've got people dropping the F-bomb and whatever, and all of a sudden we join in with that sort of conversation. We're just joining in with the world. We have to be set apart from the world, don't we? We have to be and it's difficult. So and like now, it's very difficult because I cannot I can be in someone's conversation. It hurts like mad when they're when they're effing and blinding. It does. That's how I you I used to be, you know. But but now it would it hurts, but but if someone suddenly exclaims, you know, Jesus Christ, that really hurts. But do I check them? Do I address it?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

And how do you address it? Because if you're in a workplace, I should address it, and I should check them. It's a really interesting thing, isn't it? Uh addressing that, because Peter didn't address but Jesus said to him, Simon Simon, Satan has asked that he would sift you as wheat, but I have prayed that your faith will not foul. Now so Christ knew he was gonna foul, not in his faith, but literally in his human skin. I think being a Christian in a in a worldly environment again is the hardest thing that you will ever do. It's to stand for it.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

And the thing is, if you you know there's certain topics you go down that you can be accused as a Christian of hate speech. Radicalisation. You can, but if someone takes Jesus' name, yeah for me that's hate speech. But they don't get they won't get it just gets pushed to buy, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Oh no, because it's just part of it's just part of it's everywhere. Of normal vocabulary. Yeah. Look at that situation in France when they've done that cartoon drawing. Oh yeah. Lives were taken. Lives were taken. If someone to do a funny drawing of Jesus Christ, it gets sold for millions. It's a such a difference.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

And there's a and a complete hypocrisy, really. And we saw this week, then we I sent you that little thing where a guy, uh a chaplain was told not to wear a little cross in a hospice.

Chaplaincy, Paganism And Hope

SPEAKER_01 19:54

So here we have a chaplain. Chaplains say we know what the word chaplain means, we understand the spiritual lead. And you're being told, please take your cross off. What in the world have we come to in this nation? But we are finding that we are having in the workplace setting humanist chaplains. You cannot be a chaplain because chaplaincy is about spiritual lead and guidance. A humanist is all for yourself, is all for now, and it is no hope whatsoever. So how uh I'll tell you what, we're getting into a real big subject here because when you're in the workplace, if you are a chaplain, if you are a believer, if you are a uh spiritual uh leading somewhere, and you are you are being challenged. Look at some of the prisons, look at some of the even some of the pr the prison stuff that's going on about Christianity.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Well, uh Ben, I you know, I the last prison I spoke in was just before the um the lockdown, it was Chelmsford prison, and um I went in with a group of Christian guys there and uh give a bit of uh testimony and the chaplain there was a pagan, you know. Um so but you know, bless him. He was a lovely fella, and he sat and he listened, and I hope, you know, the Lord sort of sow a few seeds there probably. But but you know, what when you if days what you gonna I don't want to I don't want to disrespect him, but but what hope can he give anyone? You know, I've got I had these Hug a tree, Mary. I had these um ardent uh you know men who were coming up to me who'd who'd spend a lifetime in prison and and they were going, I'll get the Jesus thing, you know, I uh you know I really uh I want to turn my life around. Well through Christ you can turn your life around. That's right, yeah. But through the pagan belief, w uh where's the hope? I I don't I don't I don't see it but

SPEAKER_01 22:00

No, because we're we we are into a very dangerous world there, aren't we? Because when you go into paganism and witchcraft and and everything, we we're going into what we looked at at the very beginning, wasn't we? Don't have any other foreign gods. So when you go into all that sort of stuff, we we are w there, we are clearly talking about what what it says at the very beginning, you know, you should not have any other foreign gods before me. And the Israelites done that, you know, they was paganistic, they was they had everything going on, there was an adulterous generation. That is a very interesting uh time. But when you look at paganism, we look look at witchcraft, wizardry, all that the druids, everything is is is opposite to God.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

So it's coming coming back to worshiping the planet, it's coming back to putting you uh in the centre. And and this week uh we saw uh a man brought to trial um by the CPS because he was uh preaching the gospel on the Jesus Christ. And the CPS, which is the Crown Prosecution Service, which is um what what to all the big uh prosecutions go through, whether they were say yes or no, but they they came out with um we believe there's stuff in the Bible uh which is not relevant to today.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

And I wonder why they make you swear on the Bible then in the cult room. Well you have a choice, don't you?

Ten Commandments And End Times

SPEAKER_02 23:20

You do have a choice. You can affirm if you if you don't, if you're a non-believer, you can I don't know, uh you I think you could yeah, all that sort of stuff. But but what we're going through now, Ben, is is a set of commandments from God given in the old testament, yeah, which are as relevant today as they were uh then and they will be as relevant in a thousand years time because they're they're they're commandments that put God first and put others second round that that we should love each other second to put him first, put him first, everything God, God, God Yeah, God first. And if if we just adhered to those commandments, the world would be an amazing place. You wouldn't have to worry about save the planet, you wouldn't have to because you'd be looking as at at the creator, you would you would and everything the creator made you'd respect, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Exactly. So, yeah, so the Ten Commandments, no wonder we got this lawlessness. Obviously, we know we're sitting in the end days, we we get where we sit as well. So that's very relevant to all the pressures of living and the life, and we understand that we're in a fall uh that happened from from the very beginning of time. We get that. So when you look at the calendar of the clock that is ticking regarding end times, the book of Revelation, the Thessalonians, everything like that. But when but I I believe this scripture that we're in now, that this when when Christ says you adulterous people or you're adulterous generation, if you are friends with the world, goodness gracious, that's quite a frightening text on its own. If you are friends with the world, you are you are enmity against God. Because you put in again the world before. So it you put you're pointing back to verse three, aren't you? You should have no other gods before me. And so and the yeah, because it all inter interlocks into me. You you know it flows, every s all the these Ten Commandments flow between each other, you know, like rivers.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

We are uh you know in adultery, so there's lust going on there, and you can lust after just other men and women, uh you can lust after things of the world and things of the world.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Yeah, you're hungry, like if you look at the shopping issue at the moment, the the Christmas, the commercial Christmas, we've got to get, we gotta get, we've got to get. What is the driver of we gotta get? We gotta get this, we gotta have this, we gotta have that. The kids have got to have this, we've got you know, give me, give me. We are in a society that is in it. Bring to my table everything. I want everything, put it on the credit cards, you get in debt for it, sign up for sofas and this and that, and suddenly you you are serving foreign gods.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

Well, what's driving that is is um a lot of things that drive that are we want to have what they've got, or we want us to be like that, or we want to have this. And if you sit there in front of the TV screen and it's it's thrown at you time and time again.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

So, what does it feed? It feeds the flesh, it flees the floor.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

It feeds the flesh, it flees the flesh, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

The scripture says each man is drawn away by his own uh lustful desires. What the fresh flesh sorry, what the flesh craves, the addictive spirit, the very habitual way that we might live. It might be coffee, people laugh at that, but you can get addicted to coffee, you can get addicted to gambling, you can get addicted to shopping, you can get addicted to trainers.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Just a small thing, then, is what do a lot of people say, I can't start a day without a coffee coffee. Just a small thing. What we got in here? Coffee. Because so But they do so instead of instead of getting out of bed and the first thing you do, you get into your get on the on the floor and and into prayer, first thing you do, go down, switch on the TV, and have a a cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

So we live very habitual, don't we? So that this is it isn't yeah, we are habitual people. Very robotic, and we have a set pattern, and we have a set plan and we have a set way that we do things. So just by living like that, and people will go, that's well, that's how our culture lives, that's how we live in the UK, this is how we do that. But when I get in a set pattern and I get in this motion, I'm actually coming away from God without realizing it. Because I'm living the way of the world, I'm living to the pattern of the world. The Bible makes it very clear that don't conform to the pattern of the world.

Lust, Habits And Modern Idols

SPEAKER_02 28:07

It makes it very clear, Ben, and it also makes it very clear about the condition of the heart. So Jeremiah inward. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jeremiah 17 9 says the heart is deceitful above all things. Mark, if you go into the Bible, uh Jesus said, Mark 7 20, he said, and what comes out of a man, what that is what defiles him, far from within. Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetedness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, prior, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within. Now, you know, if you're not putting God first, this these things all will creep in.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

So that makes me very robotic, it makes me live as the world. That that that will put me in the bracket of where Jesus says, you adulterous generation, because I'm putting worldly things, and I might not realise that I am putting worldly things before Jesus. And yet again, Ben, it comes to following the crowd, doesn't it? Rather than the crowd. So it comes back to the Peter, the fire-bin situation, and it says that Peter sat down with the crowd and he engaged in their conversation. If I engage in a conversation of the world, the world is driven by Satan. The world is is the matrix, the system, it is very satanic. The world is very satanic, it is very dark. Now, if I partner around a fire bin in a conversation and it's an ungodly godly conversation, there becomes enity without faith, the Bible says, it is impossible to please God.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

So there's Ben, you've you've um you you've hit a real vein there because you know the world system is a system is an evil system under the enemy.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

So under Satan. Let's not let's not mess with the battle of this is what it is, don't we?

SPEAKER_02 30:10

We are living in end days. Well, listen to what uh Paul says in Ephesians 2. He says, And and you he made alive, who were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

There you go. There you are. Right. So we can be born again, spirit-filled, we can love Jesus beyond our human understanding. We can do the best we possibly can, but if I get caught around a fire bin with a conversation with people that are not believers, I can be in this this these scriptures that we're looking at where Christ could be talking to me now and go, You adulterous. You disown me at the fire bin, Ben. You disown me in in your workspace, you disowned me. So that puts enmity, but doesn't affect my salvation. That's that's what's really important.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

This is huge. Let me ask you this though. Um we know that uh when we when we give our lives to Christ um we are born again. Uh God we confess our sins uh and repent and God forgets all about them. Yeah, so we won't be judged by that. But do you think there'll be a time when we'll be called to account for the things that we didn't do?

Heart Check And Separation

SPEAKER_01 31:54

And Jesus will go, Ben, do you remember when you were in your workplace and you were dressed in your clergy kit and you heard someone in the background blasphemous speaking against me, and you walked away. You'd done exactly what Peter done. You disowned me. When the rooster crowed, it's got nothing to do with the rooster, the rooster simply was the identifier to save Peter. When you hear that, you know what I said was true. So it's not the rooster. A lot of people look at the it was it what was the trigger point is that he sat down with the work crowd. He sat down with the world, and he he now, this is really important because we've got to be careful here because the people could worry about their salvation. You can't lose your salvation, and I'll tell you why. Because it says in the gospel that we are looking at that we haven't even flicked the text open to do with Peter. Jesus said, and when you come back, this is important to remember, world. This is really important to remember, brothers and sisters. We can deny Christ in our lifestyle, we can deny Christ in our workplace, we can deny Christ around the fire bin of life, but Jesus prayed and he said, When you come back, feed my brothers and sisters.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Well, that's what he came back to Peter with, isn't it? You know, he said, um So when you've walked away and you have disowned me, feed my sheep, he said.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Feed my sheep. When when you come back, so Christ knows that there, even though Peter was this great character, and he said before that, I will go to prison and I will die for you. But when your back is up against the wall in the workplace, I would I would say we have a different understanding. So how do we deal with that? So you know we it's all I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

It's all easy for us to say, innit, across these microphones. Uh but I I know people that you know struggle to tell people to go to church in the workplace. So when I say I don't know, how do we deal I I also know people that that that when someone might be ranting on uh using Jesus because there's a generation out there that really doesn't know Jesus as as uh apart from being a curse word. So you know, um I know people that say, Can I stop you there because Jesus saved you, you know, he's your saviour as well. And uh uh so how do you how do we you have to deal with it in a way that we don't come down as as this this judgmental uh because there's a way of dealing with it. There's a way of dealing with it, because here's the deal, Ben. You know, in the in the Jesus tells us, you know, take the plank out of your own eye before you look at the speck in someone else's eye. So what we've got here is a is a person that probably doesn't know Jesus at all. And and if we come out and being judgmental. No, they're around the fire bin. They're around the fire bin, yeah. So if we come out being this judgmental, it's gonna drive them further away. So we have to do it in love. We have to do it in love, it has to be done in love all the time. You know, 100% right.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

I wouldn't even see you we don't need to argue for Jesus. What we need to do. No, no, yeah, that's a great point. The Bible says, come let us reason together.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

What might be a good way of doing that, because listen, we're up against this all the time. Yeah, is is when that person uh has finished talking, quietly have a word with them when there's no one else around and go, um, you know, listen, I'm a Christian and and I believe in Jesus. So what you said, you know, and they won't even know, they won't even remember even saying no, because it is so much in the vocabulary and say, you know, listen, uh this is who I believe Jesus is, and and it's really offensive to me, you know. Um if you if you wouldn't mind, you know, uh not using his and you will get you'll be surprised. You'll be get, oh I'm sorry, and I don't realise, and whatever.

Walking By The Spirit Not Flesh

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Yeah, but and why are people like that is because coming back to Exodus 20, the system is anti, and the system has tried and trying to take out the Ten Commandments. If the system embraced the Ten Commandments, people will be educated in what it says, do not have any other foreigners.

SPEAKER_02 36:21

Yeah, they are, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

So it's not so much the people, it's the way that the people and we have been brought up in a godless society. So when the Bible says don't partner with the world, we've got to go to work, we've got to pay the bills, we've got to do everything you've got to do, we've got to bring the children up, you've got to live your life for Jesus, and living your life for Jesus means going and being the light. Don't let your light, don't, don't that that fantastic scripture says, let your light shine.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Let your light shine, but how do I let my light shine? Do I gotta get in the end of the staff room and preach the gospel? No, I just I just be the character that God wants me to be. Now that's a difficult thing on its own, that's another subject. But when you realise who you are in Christ, you will have the faith, not the confidence, because if I if I'm confident, I'm in my flesh. So I have the faith to say to that person at work or somewhere, do you know what? I'm a believer, and that that's triggered me a little bit funny. Do you mind just refraining from using that? Yeah, lovely. Is that is it possible that we could just like because what I've got to be careful of is this spiritual adultery where Christ said, You're adulterous generation. If if I partner with the matrix and the system, it puts enmity, it doesn't affect my salvation, but what it does, it it brings not even a barrier, it it it creates without faith, it is impossible to please bot God. So I can't be in the devil's schemes. I'm not of the world, but I've got to go into the world.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

You've got to be in the world, and do you know what I've got to tell you, I I believe that um more there's a lot of um what you'd call Christian people out there, yeah. And uh a big survey came out this week, didn't it? And for the first time, you know, everything. But people who believe they've got a relationship with Jesus Christ, I I don't think because we're in a generation that really don't get into the Bible as as much as what it should do, they don't realise that they are separated from the world. You we have to realise that we are that that when we that when we accept Jesus He came, He died for our sin, and if you were the only person in the world, you would have died for your sin. It doesn't matter. Um He rose again to save us and accept us as one of his, but he also separated us from the world at that point and become a we become a citizen of the kingdom and not of the world. So when we kind of realize that and it that puts everything in into perspective, then we start to read stuff like uh Paul wrote in in Romans um eight, and he he said he said um he condemns sin in the flesh and that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh. So when you accept Jesus, you're not walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, that's what we're in now. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. So when you're talking about the fire bin again, so round the fire bin again, you've got people that don't know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. And that you you know, so if you equate the fire bin to the uh coffee machine at work or or or wherever, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit, for to be calmly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Wow. Because, as you said, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

So what the world wants to do, it wants to lure you away, even though you are born again, it wants that Satan wants to lure you away through workplace, through, through sitting around a firebin of people and all that, and lure you away from the teachings of Jesus Christ. That's that's what Satan's goal is, is to try and pull you away. The fire bin is a powerful place to be. The life, life itself is so powerful.

Being Light Without Hype

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Look, the thing is we have to we do have to be the light and let the light shine. Yeah, and it doesn't mean we have to walk around with the Bible smashing people over the bigger.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

No, because the biggest Bible anyone will read is you. Is your life. Is your life your speech, your attitude, your your ways, your kindness, the way you walk into a room, you should walk in like Jesus walking.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

We have to be different in the workplace, don't we? Which means not um being part of of the uh uh of all the WhatsApp stuff. I I know um several people that have had to pull out of WhatsApp groups because of the imagery that's going around, the pornographic imagery that people send around these WhatsApp groups or And they're sent around as in fun and just light hearted and just all that sort of stuff. I was part of all that in the world, but it not as a not as a Christian, it's like women in in mums groups, you know, have to come out because there's so much gossip going on about different people. We have to be different. And when we are that's the fire bin. Yeah, that's the fire bin. So wherever you are, that can equate to the fire bin. And um uh my mate was saying the other day, someone um in his youth group, which was uh rich is really refreshing, a young boy in his youth group, because because someone said, Well, why does God allow all this to go on? And he said, Well, there is a scripture where the wheat and the tares grow together, yeah. Yeah and at some point You'll see the wheat and you'll see the child get thrown into the burning lake. Well, you know, so we have to try and advance the kingdom and save as many people, but it take it easy, yeah. Don't get don't get all anxious because God said it'll lead you to places your people will see you just you don't have to be the elf and the amiga, you just have to be part of God's plan for that particular person or that particular group of people, and if they see the light shining out of you constantly, they're going to say there's something different about you, and they'll come to you, yeah, and they will ask you the question, and then you can tell them about Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

But to be the light, be the in every place of your life, you know. It's isn't it interesting that last week we were in that really powerful word adultery, we're in it again today, but it's got so many faces. It's got so many faces. How could you ever bring Peter into that alignment, the denial of Christ, the the separation, the vocabulary separation? But he went out, he went out the he went out the courtyard, the scripture says, and he wept bitterly.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Yeah, because he knew what he'd done. And and how many times the right thing, but your lips are making you do something different. How many times do we come away from conversations thinking, Oh I feel dirty. I feel I feel bad.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

I should have Why did I react that way? Why did I say that? Why why did I do what I know it come to that scripture again, doesn't it? With that great evangelist, bigger than any evangelist on this earth, and he said so clearly. Why do I do the things I hate and I can't do the things that I know I should do? Romans 7. So there comes a point in all of our lives where we have firebin experiences, but there are many of us that have been bought up sitting at the fire bin and not realizing my whole life is round a fire bin. Well and it's challenging.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

It's challenging, and and uh you know I don't see that many um ex-police officers, but when I do and they're uh and they're not uh out of faith, um it's very easy to get drawn into conversations of how things were back then and and and go down that route, you know. Um and I come away thinking why did I why did I regurgitate why did I go back there?

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Now what's really interesting now, I know we're running out of time.

SPEAKER_02 44:48

Are we?

Regret, Repentance And Romans 7

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Do you know what we're 45 minutes in? No, I ain't. Do you know what I mean? Nah. What's interesting then what Simon's just brought to the mics there is that it's easy to get engaged in old conversation when that conversation and that sinful way was nailed to the cross of Calvary. God never remembers that. It's only our carnal mind, and we get engaged in banter, we get engaged in conversation. Because the Bible tells us that we are humans and we have failings, but that's where redemption comes in, that's where the power of forgiveness comes in. So we might sit round a fire bin and we might deny Christ by literally not standing up for what we believe in, and we walk away, even walking away, we might think, well, actually, if I get out of it, I've got away with it. No, actually, because Jesus, Jesus actually says that there are certain things that we need to confront as believers. You can't you can't run. He says, as they persecuted me, so they will persecute you.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

Yeah. He said, Um, in this world you will have trouble. Oh, Lord. He said, but take heart, you know. I have overcome. I have overcome. And and you're right, what we were talking about uh uh before we sat down on the mics, we were talking about every day this struggles. Every day is a struggle. Every day there's a struggle at work, at home, in the world. And the prayer is and the prayer is always do not prayers not take this away from me, Lord, but the prayer is give me the strength to get through it. Because when we get through these trials and tribulations, when we get through these struggles, we become stronger in our faith, Ben.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

Because when you said he won't take it away, that that that great writer again writes, three times I pleaded with the Lord that you would remove it from me, and God come back and he said, My grace is sufficient for you.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

And an example of that, a visual example of that, Ben, is if if imagine that you you're in a in a canoe. I don't know, you know, and you go, it's a lovely sunny day, and all of a sudden you're going down, it's beautiful, but and then all of a sudden you see these rocks ahead of you, and you know that you're gonna crash into the rocks, don't you? You know, and you call out, God, take the rocks away, take the rocks away. But he doesn't he doesn't take the rocks away. Right at the last minute, what does he do? He raises the lever of the river, so which is grace, isn't it? It just graces his grace, and then we float over the top of them.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Yeah, there is always a way with Jesus, and he will not take the thorn, he will not. I I actually think this sometimes I might get in a bit of trouble about this, but I believe sometimes Christ presses the thorn a little bit more that we cry more. God, please take it. No, I'm not gonna remove it, because this is here for endurance, this is character building. Character is hope, hope becomes faith. Faith suddenly takes us to a place of complete trust in him because that's what it's about. If we kept praying, Christ remove everything, we will be floating in the middle of nowhere because everything will be taken. But Jesus says, I will strengthen you through your valley, I will be with you at the fire bin. See, Jesus was at the fire bin with him.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

And all of a sudden we'd we'd start to believe in our own press cuttings and say, I'm so special because Jesus Yeah. No, you're not, mate. No, you're not. You ain't special at all. You need Jesus. And and if we if he takes everything away from us, then you've left with it.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

You're not going to need him, are you?

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 48:05

You'll have nothing around you. You'd literally had there'd be you just floating in mid-air. You'd have nothing because living in your own nonsense. But the trials of life, the fire-bin experiences, are character building. Character is Christ builds our characters through trials and fires like Meshach, Shamrach, and Abendigo. They they did not they that their speech, their language are very clear to King Nebuchadnezzar. We will not, we will not bow down to your foreign God. They they did not come away from what they believed in.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

No, and and and and the the Lord looked at the God looked after him, didn't he? All the way through. And and Daniel as well when he was in the Lyest and But I think if you're in a place right there, right now, that you're you're in the five in the in the group around the five, in in the group wherever, um, and you're hearing stuff going on, and you're it's not sitting comfortable with you as a Christian, then you're in a good place. Be encouraged, be encouraged that you feel that you feel that. Yeah, please be encouraged, and it's we know, listen, it's easy for us to sit here. It's we know we're in that every day.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

I work in two worldly environments, so I'm not in a church office, you know, just reading the Bible all day long. I'm on a strip club and I'm in the front, I'm in the front line, I'm in the front line of harduous things. You are as a believer. So I actually know what it's like to be in a workplace and understand what it's like to have to go to work and put put I don't get what I get from what everybody sees around here. This is my calling. Uh but God always provides, so that's really important. I am not just sitting in a church office as a vicar waiting for Sunday to roll up. I have two jobs and what I do in Elium Church in Swanley.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

You're in it. You're in you're you're around the fire bin.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

I've actually lit the match a few days.

Trials, Thorns And Grace

SPEAKER_02 50:14

And it's it's true because we sometimes we let things slide, don't we? We we do because I think the more dangerous places, if you're if you're if you say you're a Christian and you're actually loving the things of the world, I think that's a dangerous thing, you know. Sort of 1 Timothy 6 10 tells us, you know, the root of all evil is the love of money. So if you actually call yourself a Christian but you but money is driving you, things are driving you. If you're partnered with things of the world, then that then what I'd ask anyone to do out of there is is really just appeal to the Holy Spirit. You know, Holy Spirit, is there anything in me that is covetousness?

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Is there anything in me that's very interesting what you said because I'm there's so many scriptures we haven't even flipped open talking about spiritual adultery. Yeah. The Old Testament is literally laced, laced with that. The Israelites were really good at that. They were really good at that, coming away from God. And but what is so beautiful now is that Jesus sees all, he knows all, he sees our heart. So wherever you are, you know, there's such a massive conversation that you that we just keep just keeps coming on and it just keeps talking about. We got we gotta we gotta land it.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

We've got to land, yeah. But before we do, just just finish off on this. If it if this helps you out there, you know, John Wimber said this, but he's he said John Wimber, who who yeah who yeah who founded the the vineyard um uh denomination, he said this, he said, um show me where you put your time, your energy and your money, and I will show you what you worship, right? So and I would also add to that screen time on your phone. The phones and the gadgets. Look, I'm surrounded by electronics. You know, if if I took your phone, right, which is glued to your hand, if I took that if I took that phone and went through your search history, what would come up top?

SPEAKER_01 52:25

Actually to be honest, I'll show you now. Actually, you'll find scripture. So I'm pretty good like that. But un we know what you're saying. We know what you're saying. Is it football? Yes, is it sport?

SPEAKER_02 52:36

I tell you, mine is is it gambling? My top three on my phone is Arsenal, yeah, BBC Sport, yeah, and scripture of the day. They're in that order.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

In that order, yeah. So we're but the internet is all is a great powerful thing. The information we can get, but it's what am I giving more airtime to?

God Makes A Way

SPEAKER_02 52:59

Yeah, personally, personally, is look at that. So if we get ourselves right personally, if we get our hearts right personally, if we identify what's going on and and we take steps to put that right, then when we're round the fire bin, everything will fall into place. And and the Bible tells us this, it said, don't worry about what what you've got to say, don't struggle about because I'll give you the words. Just you know, even if the conversation's going the wrong way, step away. Step away. Simple. Step away. Give you an example um very quickly as we come into Landbin. A real good mate of mine, I won't mention his name. Um, he was out in uh on a works trip. He was out in in I'm doing the air quotes on a works trip out in in uh in Thailand. And um obviously there's a time difference, and he he rings to me about half seven in the morning, he says, Some, he said, I need some prayer. I said, What's going on? He said, Well, he said, There's six of us, and we've just ended up in his club, and he's going to seal a deal for a big a big contract. He said, and all of a sudden he said, There's six of the most beautiful Thai women coming and they've paired off with each of us. He said, I've just broken away. He said, I've got a honey prayer. Honey prayer right now. Now, the thing is, in the natural, for him to break away would have seen rude, and he would they would have lost that contract. So uh we pray, I pray very quickly, just to pray, Lord help this. Help him, please, Lord help him. And um and there and then the Lord opened the door for him to to leave without losing face. So what I'm saying to what we're saying, you know There's a fire binary roaring away there. Yeah, and uh the marriage married, beautiful wife, lovely kids, uh uh and the door was open for so what we're saying, you know God makes a way.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

God makes a way, God makes a way, God makes a way, but every area and issue of life, you go to the wire, you take it. Takes us to the wire every time, everything is at the wire, everything is wire at the wire. And the world is tired at the moment, the world uh humanity is really tired and uh we haven't even come on then. We haven't even had a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

And uh I I related to just a little story this might this week, you know. I had to get out of the house very early in the morning, about half a six, I was leaving, and just before I left, the lock on the front door didn't jam me, jamming jammed, it wouldn't work. So uh I got my wife, I got the WD 40 out, I did everything I could, still wasn't working, but I had to go and she had to go out. So, what we're gonna do with the door, do you know? So you know how it is all the time dogs going berserk, the uh wives all over the place. But I'm I'm off, I'm off on the road. On the road, I go, Lord, just please help just that little prayer, Lord, please help. And I suddenly got uh you know, my prayer was Lord, please release that lock, but I suddenly got a feeling of peace, and then she calls me about um two o'clock when I'm on my way back. She's oh uh she's I just had a thought to to phone a locksmith, and um the first one I phoned was was uh he came and he and he's replaced the barrel. He said the lock was was was dead. I thought thank you, Lord, thank you for that. You know, because he didn't release the lock, but he put in place someone to come and mend it.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

You know, you got a new key. Yeah, very soon. It didn't cost much, you know. Praise God. God always makes a way, there is always a way. There's a way, be encouraged. That's what we were saying, Ben. And it's it is encouraging, you know. Don't keep praying over the lock. God's got a new key for you. You know, don't keep that's a non-over podcast. It is, isn't it? It's completely completely there. We are gonna touch down uh and God bless you wherever you are today, you know. So the question is, is or the answer is, or the question is, is how what do I do? I just gotta follow Jesus. You've got to follow Jesus. It's the Bible. The Bible, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 57:18

If if you're around a fire bin, you know.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

We we actually salute you, and you know what we mean for that. If you are really up against it, you know, we shake your hand because we know what it's like. And we pray for you because we're all there.

SPEAKER_02 57:33

That you know, God needs people around a fire bin. He needs Christians in the world.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

But it's my reaction around the fire bin. It's your reaction, yeah. People are watching you. God will never remove the fire bin because God orchestrated the fire bin for Peter. It was there, it was in the scripture.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

Man, but it's encouraging a change character.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

That's the biggest changes of character. We're there. You can find us on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music. You can see us and capture these podcasts all over the place. They are really picking up a lot of pace. So we thank God for everybody that's listening. Any comments, we really would appreciate your comments. But wherever you are today, never give up. There's always hope. Hashtag Christian Straight Talks, Simon and myself this morning. It's just being honest. It's just we just want to be honest to let you know that all is okay. Whatever situation you're in, wherever you are this morning, it's okay because God has you and you won't lose your salvation. God bless every one of you until we see you again in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_02 58:34

Yeah, be encouraged. Mr. We love you, and uh never think you're under the ammo because Jesus will make a way. That is the truth.