Christian Straight Talk – Faith, Brotherhood, and Real Conversations
Christian Straight Talk is a bold and authentic Christian podcast where Reverend Ben Cooper and Simon Pinchbeck bring honest, powerful, and deeply practical conversations about faith, life, and the journey of following Jesus Christ.
In a world filled with noise, confusion, and competing voices, this podcast cuts through the distraction and speaks directly to the heart of what it means to live as a Christian today. Through open dialogue, biblical teaching, and real-life experiences, Ben and Simon explore the truths of the Bible, the challenges facing modern believers, and the strength that comes from walking closely with God.
Designed especially with men’s ministry and Christian leadership in mind, Christian Straight Talk creates a space where men can grow spiritually, ask difficult questions, and discover the power of faith lived out in everyday life. Each episode tackles topics such as identity, courage, purpose, prayer, spiritual battles, mental health, relationships, and the calling of Christian men to lead with integrity and humility.
Reverend Ben Cooper, an ordained ELIM minister, author, broadcaster, and founder of Global Blend Radio, brings pastoral wisdom, biblical depth, and years of ministry experience. Alongside him, Simon Pinchbeck offers honest reflection, practical insight, and the voice of everyday Christian men seeking truth and direction in a complex world.
Together they create conversations that are real, unfiltered, and rooted firmly in Scripture. Expect challenging questions, powerful testimonies, and moments of encouragement that strengthen your faith and draw you closer to Christ.
Whether you are a long-time believer, exploring Christianity, or searching for deeper purpose, Christian Straight Talk invites you to sit down, listen, reflect, and grow.
This is not surface-level faith.
This is real Christian conversation. Real brotherhood. Real discipleship.
Christian Straight Talk – Faith, Brotherhood, and Real Conversations
The Ten Commandments Explained: Freedom, Idols and True Worship
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In this powerful teaching, we unpack the Ten Commandments as God’s moral law for a restless generation. Jesus summarises them into two blazing truths: love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. But what happens when our loves become disordered?
We confront modern idolatry — not golden statues, but screens, brands, status, ministries, money and image. From Pharaoh’s economic slavery to today’s debt culture, we ask the uncomfortable question: do I own it, or does it own me?
We explore:
• The Ten Commandments as enduring moral law
• Jesus fulfilling and summarising the law
• Idols hiding in plain sight
• Financial pressure and modern slavery through debt
• Generational patterns and freedom at the cross
• Christ disarming shame, addiction and fear
• Neighbourly love as real discipleship
Exodus warns of iniquity echoing through generations, yet promises mercy to a thousand generations for those who love God. At the cross, every chain is broken. This is a call to reorder your life: Scripture before screen, worship over worry, Sabbath over hurry, generosity over grasping.
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Good morning and welcome. We are in. This is gonna be a hot kiddie doy today. This is a rocket, this one. Good morning, wherever you are. We are hashtag Christian Straight Talk. We are straight in out of the barrel of truth. We have got biscuits, we have got coffee, and we are ready to rumble. We've got Simon on the other side of the mics, and uh it is Thursday. So wherever you are across the earth, it's 11.34 as we record this uh podcast, and we thank God for everyone that downloads these across the earth. We are so blessed. Thank you so much for sharing and uh partnering with us as we uh listen and as we walk through the word of God and as we journey. We've got Simon with us today, and the title of today's podcast is The Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01The Ten Commandments, Ben, yeah. Uh good morning, everybody, and welcome again to Hashtag Christian Straight Talk. And we're going to straight talk today on the commandments, Ben. But um the weather out there ain't too clever, is it? I laughing getting over it this morning. I had to get the old canoe out, you know. It's fabulous. About three feet of water on the motor. Wait, you know, it was all over the place.
SPEAKER_02But um, you know Normally there's people hanging from the bridge, but you've got water today. The two hanging from the bridge, God bless.
SPEAKER_01But I'll come from I'll come down from Essex where the sun was shining, and uh, you know, we've got the palm trees out and walking around in Bermuda Bermuda shorts. But anyway, yeah, Ten Commandments, Ben. Listen.
SPEAKER_02We're in.
Are The Commandments Still Relevant
SPEAKER_01Hey, um big subject. What a subject. Uh and and the thing is, Ben, what you what we find is that the Ten Commandments, I I don't believe have been taught in schools. I believe they've been, I know they've been taken down off lots of government buildings um uh all over the world. Um and they've been pushed aside, they've been said they're not relevant now in this day and age, but here's the deal, it's God's moral law, Ben, innit? And God's the same today yesterday, today, and forever. So they are they are relevant, and they are a massive, massive guideline for our our lives, they're a mirror for our lives, Ben. To show us just exactly who we are, and um we've got a couple of interesting texts this morning. But you know, we we was um uh the likes of you and me in school, we were brought up with the take told about the Ten Commandments, weren't we, mate?
SPEAKER_02You know, we was, yeah. And if anyone wants the biblical reference, we are coming out of Exodus chapter 20, and like Simon said, they've they've been stripped out of everything, isn't it? Been pushed away from everything. But when you look at the the ten titles of what they are, they're so powerful, aren't they? What a way to live. If I could live like that and keep in that framework.
SPEAKER_01Well, there's none of us it uh ever existed, only one person that's that's kept all of them, you know. Do you remember Well even the rich young ruler, we talked about him last week, didn't last week again, didn't we? And uh But he he ran up and he said, I've I've kept all these laws, and and Jesus um and Jesus said uh this, that, and the other he he he threw a few at him, but he what he didn't throw at him was was uh coveting because he knew he's not covered in the money. But if we um before we get into Exodus 20, and and we'll we'll we'll go through that, uh before we do that, let's if we hit Matthew 22, 34 to 40, it's where Jesus has he's already um he's already pulled uh one group of uh law religious lawmakers over the coal and come confront the men, and then then they they think, oh, let's catch him out with this one. So they go, um, and it says this from verse 34, it says, But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, he's already sorry one set of them.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01The more you read about the more you get to know him, the more you he's a proper fellow, isn't he, Jim? He's a proper man.
Jesus Summarises The Law
SPEAKER_02He do you know, and people are gonna go, how can you say, but the Bible makes it clear that the man Christ Jesus, the man, that's really important, isn't it? And he's not frightened of addressing the authorities, is he?
SPEAKER_01Well, suddenly they he says it's they gather together, so they all gather gathered together. You can imagine that. And then one of them stood up, probably uh you know, a religious guy. We we know a few of them, don't we? We know of quite a few. No names at this time. No me one of them um he said he was a lawyer, right?
SPEAKER_02Oh, crikey, you know. Oh, wonder where he would live today. TM postcode, an ice postcode, you know, sorry, yields.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Tunbridge or somewhere else. Turn wells, Tunbridge Wells, not Tumbridge, sorry, yeah. Tunbridge Wells, yeah. He said, asked him a question, testing him and saying, Teacher, what is the greatest commandment of the law? And Jesus turned around and said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it you shall love your neighbour as yourself on these two commandments. This is important because he says this on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So it is the deal. I was listening to our good mate and and you know, big inspiration, Billy Graham, the other day. And uh good old Billy, come on, Billy. He's he's if you listen to those, Jesus was so clever, right? Oh, yeah. He was so clever, then because he wrapped the whole Ten Commandments out in those two commandments. So the the first four commandments, as we'll go through in a in a minute, yeah, are to love the Lord our God, but the next six are concerned with how we live our lives with each other. With each other. So in two commandments, he's summed it all up, hasn't he?
SPEAKER_02He's he's wrapped it up and he's literally punched him right on the chin.
SPEAKER_01He's got him on the ropes, hasn't he?
SPEAKER_02He's absolutely that lawyer is gone. He's gone. Yeah, he's counted out. The computer says, No, son, listen to this. He don't come back for more, does he? He's gone. He's gone to get he's gone, he's at it. Jesus replied, verse 37, Matthew 22, love the Lord thy God with all your heart. That that is like just that one line in it, love the Lord your God with all your heart. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So everything has to be God first. When it's God first, it's Christ, Christ is the Holy Spirit, and then we come back again to the cross. The cross is the centre point, even in the old testament. God, it is it has to be God in it. So for I when it says love the Lord, thy God, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and Christ. Um when you look at the depth of that, this is the first com and the greatest commandment. The second is like this, love your neighbour. He's just literally just flipping putting a bullet in him, isn't he? He just pulled the trigger and gone have that.
SPEAKER_01Well it's totally Ben. That there's there's nothing. I mean, uh Jesus has said it all the way through the gospels, you know, uh it's God first, isn't it? God first and and family next. So I think we live today, we live in in neighborhoods, but we don't live in brotherhoods, do they? Because people don't know each other. So so I gotta tell you know the listeners, something that what like what you're doing here in uh in in Swanley, where you you the community is coming to the church. Um yeah, yeah, massive. You're bringing the community in through some of the stuff you're doing, yeah, through the food hubs, through the charity shop. They're all coming in to the church, aren't they?
Freedom, Rules And True Order
SPEAKER_02They are, yeah. The community's coming in, the neighborhood's coming into the Lord's house. Yeah. And that is like that's that's power, really powerful to see. But look at that, Jesus said, Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. What an area! He's he's picked the heart, he's picked the soul and with your mind. And also, isn't it? He writes in there as well, doesn't he? It talks about your strength. So four areas love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with your soul, with your mind, with your strength. Every fibre you've got your physical, your spiritual, your mental, your processing, your every area of your life, just love God with every part of your being. Trust him with everything. Trust him with everything. Put everything, come to me, all of you that are weary, come to me. So the commandments are the point that will will free us from every uh idol, from the love of see.
SPEAKER_01That's an interesting point you raised there. The f and you mentioned being free. Free because if you if you told these commandments to some people, they go, That's not freedom, that's that's a dictatorship. I want I want to be free. If I'm free when I've got free will, when I do what I want, you know, have as many sexual partners as I want, and when I can do this as many drugs as I want, as I can drink, yeah, and I can gamble. But here's the deal, you know, you can't have a football match without a referee, can you? You know, it has to be rules, you know? You can't have um you it has to be rules, otherwise to to keep order, you know. Uh and I've we've mentioned it before, but I I do think it's a great illustration where the old Thomas the tank engine, you know, he's fed up in here, being on them rails, and he he tips himself off the rails, yeah, and he's on his side, yeah, can't go anywhere, but he's going, I'm free, I'm free. I'm free.
Idols, Images And Modern Worship
SPEAKER_02But he is yeah, that's it. From the from the general entrenchment that we're all in, the commute. How many of us commute into the city before lockdown? Very robotic. We are not free, are we? We are not free, we are slaves to the world, we are slaves to the money markets, we are slaves to to uh our social networks, we're slaves to the governments, we're slaves to everything. But the Bible says, the Bible says, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So if we follow these commandments, and in verse 2 of Exodus 20, it says, I am. God just lays it straight out across the table, doesn't he? I am, yeah, I am the Lord your God. Whether you like it or not, whether you're an atheist, whether you're an agnostic, whether you're a humanist, whether you're on the whatever, wherever you are, you can't get away from the fact that I'm your God. No wonder atheists and non-believers get so angry. Because you can't do nothing about it, my friend. No, it's it's it's written. It's written, it is. I mean, I was you can be a god hater, you can be a witch, you can be a wizard, you can be Harry Potter, you can be whatever you want, but one thing you can't get away from, God lays that out on the table. I am the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01And what does it say right at the beginning of John's Gospel? It says, In the beginning was the word, in it.
SPEAKER_02In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. It's the word. It's the word, and what does it say? And the word, John chapter 1, verse 14, and the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The word.
SPEAKER_01And it says the word was not overcome by darkness, it was it was the word was light, you know. And here we are, and so he's just laying it out there, and he laid it out there to Moses.
SPEAKER_02He told them, I am the Lord thy word. That's it. You can't change that. Then they go, Well, yeah, we know that. Then there's that power of free will that the world is trying to the church world is trying to work out, um, and God is love and all that. God is rough, God is an angry God, God is a jealousy. He is a jealous God.
SPEAKER_01But just if we just pause for a second there, Ben, and and and think, you imagine if a whole world was keeping these commandments. Oh my goodness. There would be no suffering.
SPEAKER_02There'd be no, because yeah, you're right, because when people go, yeah, where's your God? Where is he now? Look at the hunger, look at the starvation, look at the state of the world. Well, why we got a state of the world is because we're not following the Ten Commandments. We're not following God's fruit. If you loved your neighbour as yourself, you would take them round food, you would water them, you would cut their grass, cut their heads, you would, you would say to them in this tragic time in which we are living in the UK, can you warm your house up? Do you want to come and sit in here for a little while? Do you want to, should we share a cup of tea? You imagine that, Simon, in it, like you said, the domino effect if a community, and that is the church, if the church went, let's just show, let's kill the world with love, the love of God, let's just flatten everything with just I'll say it in the worldly terminology, human kindness.
SPEAKER_01Because do you know what, Ben? I read somewhere that that there's enough food produced in the world to feed the world many times. Over and over and over. I mean, you've you've you see a little bit of it here. We're we're people have you know, stores, they've got excess food, they've got to give it to you to give out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now, if they didn't give it to you, where's that gonna go? It goes to landfill. So we are on a programfill. It goes to landfill. Everything we do is fighting food waste. So everything up to a certain point within the UK and especially in Europe, um, and you see it still today happening in in lots of major places that when they don't sell their food, where does it go? In the bin. Where does the bin go? Landfill. So yeah, I know there's a process in place where a lot of places are are like going back to farmers, but when you think of the cost of logistically and all the cost to the environment, everything, it is basically landfill. So, you know, you've got the animals being bred, you've got this and all that, and just being bred to die. You you've got all this stuff going on. So if you take these commandments, if you take these and you was to look at what we're in at the moment where where we're in the process of this, like uh share your your front room or share a building to a warm-up space, you know, the acts of human kindness are really scripture, aren't they? That's scripture, yeah. So when someone gets, let's have some human kindness, let's love our neigh uh one another, well, actually, my friend, Mr. Government, what you're saying there is love your neighbour as yourself. So there's a form of commandments, but they've changed the wording to their and they've made it a humanistic approach.
SPEAKER_01Because if if you we'll set out these these ten commandments, and many of you know 'em probably off by heart, but some of you may not know them, so we'll we'll we'll go through them eventually. But it is true if we had kept all this stuff and we were kept in line with this stuff, we would have an orderly world. We would have a loving world. And and so people go, well, why is all the suffering in the world? Why is all the sin in the world? Why is all this famine?
SPEAKER_02Because people I don't because people don't because I won. Agreed.
SPEAKER_01They don't go along with God's moral law, you know. You know, look at that, as you said, the first one. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you will have no other gods before me. Now, what does that mean? No other gods. This is very interesting, in it, Ben, because there's a lot of evangelism done in Hindu countries, you know. And how many gods have they got? They've got millions of gods, ain't it, the Hindus, you know. So if you're not clear, that's why many Christian evangelists go over there and they can be welcomed because they don't make it clear that there's only one God. There's only one God. Because Jesus is just another well, I can put Jesus in with me other gods.
SPEAKER_02I can put him in there and I can pull on all the gods, the sun gods, the fertility gods. There is nothing new under the sun when we look at what's happening today, because you've only got to look at the children of Israel, because that's what he's talking to. You shall have no other gods before me. They was loving the fact they was melting gold, wouldn't they? They was going into the land of Canaan. We won't follow any other gods. Next thing they've got Ashlopoles, they've got the whole nine yards.
SPEAKER_01So, so what we got? I mean What have we got? You technology. You've got you might have something, a nice flat screen on a wall. Yeah. You sit around carrying all those materialism the TV's on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then you've got the triaggers, save the planet.
Jealous God And Generations
SPEAKER_01Money, pleasure, the pleasure of the world, people of the world, loving that, you know, they're these are all gods and i sun gods, nature. Save the planet. Oh, yeah, no, the planet is the big one. Zero, there's this massive drive for net zero. You know, look, let's let's um let's worship the planet and not the creator of the planet who's right who gives us save the planet. Yeah, we don't want we have a we have uh we have a society that's gone turn its back on these commandments, gone, we don't want your commandments. We've got our own. We've got our own humanistic but God only put these out for our well-being. Yeah. And you know, if you do trust in the Lord, if you do put your trust in the Lord and Jesus, you know, it's Jesus all the way through. Your life, your life is it gets in order, doesn't it? It gets within order.
SPEAKER_02If you take these commandments and you speak them and read them and study them, even on that verse three, it says, You shall have no other gods, and the way that it's presented in the Bible is little gods. It's little gods, it's little tiny worshipping areas, sports stars, you know, what we what we are kin to, what we sew into. And you see this in the church, you see this in religion, don't you? That many preachers and teachers across many platforms want to be worshipped because that's what Lucifer wanted. Lucifer wanted to be worshipped. Yeah, so this is very yeah, we've spoken about it many times, man.
SPEAKER_01It's very real, isn't it? It's a signpost. Where's the signpost point? And God says clearly it's got to point to me. Yeah. It can't point to you. It can't point to you because you're just the dust of the earth. You are my creation. You're not.
SPEAKER_02You're just here for a short while. You're just an instrument I'm using.
SPEAKER_01You're you're just as that's a no what you said is right. You're just an instrument I want to use if you let me use you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and if you don't let me use you, I'm still gonna use you because Jonah didn't get away with it. No, I mean then we come into the era of true calling, don't we? Are you called? Because if you are called and you refuse, God will get to you no matter what. But what we have, as we said before, we have many people in leadership positions that are not really called to be. They're just articulate, they are just they can speak well, they got financial backing from it. That's a job.
SPEAKER_01They can um they can they can put together a s a talk on a uh on a Sunday morning, but it's not spirit-filled, is it? It's just it's just going through emotions, you know. Um and yeah, you know, we've we look to you know, our social media, that becomes a god to many people. You know, so that it's like keeping up with that, you know. So people uh constantly on their phone, they're constantly on YouTube. Now, if they're watching me and you on YouTube, that's okay.
SPEAKER_02It's godly you're caught in poem or you're caught into gambling, that's all that's of the devil. But us two, we're we're angelic. That's angelic, different, that's a different cup of tea. Yeah, that's a different. And what about verse four? You shall not make yourself an image. So he's gone from having gods, the gods become images. So suddenly you're worshipping a foreign god, not God, the God of Israel, and then suddenly the the god that you are worshipping becomes an image. That's when I have the visual impression.
SPEAKER_01It's verse four, but it is actually the second commandment, isn't it? Yeah, and and and he's and here's the deal with that, Ben. He gave that to Moses. He gave that to Moses, and by the time he got down, what were they doing?
SPEAKER_02They got a crap and image, isn't it? And their trousers are done and they're at it, and they're drinking, and they're absolutely off their gun. That they'll they're absolutely in full orgy style party style. Worshipping. Worshipping a golden calf.
SPEAKER_01A golden calf that they just melt in the corner that they melt with from gold that they brought across from Egypt. Yeah, he just sits there in the corner.
SPEAKER_02Well, Aaron went, yeah, right, come, let's melt it. Let's crack on with it. Many people when you think about that, Moses is up the mountain, he comes down, his countenance is changed, he's been with the glory, and the Israelites are doing the full bony M style Monty. They're doing the full stretch. You can't do any more than they're doing. When you think about that, at the mountain, God God is with Moses talking.
SPEAKER_01So, what they dump then, they've pretty much gone against every single commandment, ain't they?
SPEAKER_02And before Moses has got down the ladder, they're smoking their cigars, they're doing the line, they're doing the line, they're doing this, that, and the other. Yeah, there's nothing new under the sun that they are at the full stretch. So God is up there giving out these commandments, being fully God, being fully aware of what they're doing, but he still gives the commandments. So when you think about all this stuff, God is directing and giving these commandments to Moses, fully knowing, because he thought he knows everything before any action is done, according to the word, knowing that at the base of the mountain, his children, his apple of his art, his creation is at the full stretch, and he's giving, he's giving the commandments to their leader, and his holiness has changed Moses' countenance. The glory is upon Moses. He comes down like the ready brick man, glowing. Glowing, yeah. And he goes, What are you doing? What in the world? And he has got the most precious instruction. The ark. Yeah, he's got the instruction. He's got the instruction. Look, this is how we're gonna live. Hang on, Moses. I'm just at it a minute, give us a little bit longer. That that has good is isn't that really what we see today? God is giving a clear message, and then the world is going to the complete extreme of trying to slander it and and tear. But these are his children. These are it, these these are the Israelites, these these are the chosen ones.
From Golden Calf To Today’s Icons
SPEAKER_01That's it. He stays on this for quite a long time. If you if you look at this, he says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above, that is in the earth or beneath, that is in the water, under the earth, you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I am the Lord your God, I am a jealous God. Wow. Visiting listen to this, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing my mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_02Isn't that interesting? That word that you've just read there, thousands. The NIV says, it says in verse 6, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments, the believer.
SPEAKER_01But the worrying part is go back. I don't want to read it. I don't want to read it. I am a jealous God.
SPEAKER_02The Bible says I am the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. So if we accelerate these thousands of years to now, God is still very jealous. And he will not allow anyone to worship a foreign god.
SPEAKER_01Oh, totally.
SPEAKER_02And and how many foreign gods are out there? And isn't it interesting, Simon, that we're seeing the ivory towers collapse? It's like the towers of Babel, in it. God came down and he said, What are they doing down there? What are they up to down there? It says that God came down and he brought confusion to those that was building the Tower of Babel because they wanted to get to where God was, they wanted to be at that. So they was creating that that image, that that temple, that place to worship and to be worshipped. But God came down and he destroyed. I honestly believe God is tearing down. We are in a time where God we are seeing the actions of the jealous God of Israel that He will not He's a God that will not be mocked.
SPEAKER_01He doesn't wink at sin.
SPEAKER_02And do you uh do you think he's gonna have one last purge? I think I think there's a I think there's a wave coming. I think there is a tsunami. And what COVID did, it made a stillness across the world. When the keys were turned, it was like the tsunami effect where the wave went out and it went so quiet and everything stopped. The key turned again, and now we've got a wave where God is gonna I and I think we're at the we're at the touch point where God is gonna strip back. I believe ministries are gonna fall. I I see governments falling.
SPEAKER_01You see just on that point, sorry to stop you. No, no, carry on. Just on that point, see a ministry could be worshipped, couldn't it? A ministry is more worshipped.
SPEAKER_02People could be looking to the ministry the man or the woman or the ministry or the prayer cloth.
SPEAKER_01When you think about this one, how many people have got a little statue in their houses? A little statue of Buddha or a little Many.
SPEAKER_02How many have got a statue of Mary? How many have got a statue of a saint? Of a saint, yeah. How many have got these This covers all that, doesn't it? It tells us that you shall not make for yourself any. The word any means what? Any. You should not have a poster on your wall of a football star that you look up and you lift up. You shall not have on your fireplace a picture of Simon. You should not have a image of a saint. You should not have No, because God wants you to come to him. You should not go to Mary, you should not go to Ben, you should not go to anyone and lift up and pray to a human being. No, this smashes, I'm a I'm afraid, I'm not afraid. This smashes the backside out of world religions. This the this this takes it because when you look at Buddha, what have you got? You look at a Buddha, when you look at Catholicism, you look at Mary, when you look at the Church of England and what they look the tendencies to the Catholicism movement and where they're entwined and they're together, majority of religions look to a image, a forged image.
SPEAKER_01You see, here's the thing, you know there's no image of God, is there?
SPEAKER_02Ah, hang on. Colossians one says Jesus Christ is the image, but what we are looking at there is something because because what you can have, you could have the religious forums and the discussions. Well, Jesus in the book of Colossians says he is the image of the invisible God. Yes, we worship Jesus because that is scripture, but what we don't worship is a golden presentation of a pope, of a bishop, of a man, of a woman, of an animal, of a tree. That's what that scripture is talking about. Because when I worship, if if I if I had an image of what I thought Christ looked like, and I was praying to Christ, as in the scripture, the I'm focused on Christ. If I look at the cross, the cross, you could only bring to a position and go, right, that I don't worship the cross, but what I look at is what happened at the cross and what it represents. The cross is enough, innit? The cross is empty, but it's enough. It's empty. And in certain religions, it's not empty. No, because he's still on it. He is still on the cross. But he's off the cross. But the Bible says, the angel says, as he uh as he sat there when he had a bit of swagger, I'd love to see them angels that said that. Oye, he's not here, he's risen.
SPEAKER_01The thing is the whole thing is is that is that we ac we've gone through this time and time again. We accept Jesus Christ. Yes. He leads us to the Father.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's where the that's where But what happened, Simon, this is really critical for a believer who the sun sets free is free indeed. So I do not need, and I yes, I I have I have a lot of trappings in my own personal life. I love I love gadgets, I love labels, I love clothes, I love cars, I love gadgets, I love all that, and I'm not frightened of talking about that, but what I'm coming to realise is that I can easily make that a God. You see, yeah, no, you can it can be. It can be, and it can easily become in a position of I love it so much, what do I love more? But Jesus God says there, have no imagery, have nothing.
SPEAKER_01This this second this second commandment you won't find in the Catholic Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_02No, because verse 5, you shall not bow down to them or worship them.
SPEAKER_01So so this takes out and kicks in a touch all these patron saints of the world. It takes every any any religion people who church of England wearing a uh a Saint Christopher for for safety, do you know? Or or you know Saint Francis or or this saint or that saint? No, no, it's idol worship. We can't we can't cut, we can't skip around Jesus did not die on the cross for you to go and lift up a saint. He died on the cross for you to accept him as your Lord and Saviour and lead you to the Father.
Towers, Symbols And Power
SPEAKER_02And what happens is, what happens when I lift up idols, what does it become? It becomes an occult. I'm afraid to say on any level you can have an occult is is we know what the word means, an occultic way. When now that can be found in sports, that can be found in social media.
SPEAKER_01How many times you have many times these days that they say the the the soccer stadiums are the new churches? That's right, yeah. The shopping centres are the new churches.
SPEAKER_02Now, if you take a certain shopping centre that's quite close to here, when you look at the way it's built, the pillars of the doors, and the very Freemasonry stone everywhere, the markings, the symbolism, yeah. So everywhere we go as a human being, we are looking at idols. Look at the towers in London, look at them towers the way they're built.
SPEAKER_01Just look out for the symbolism. Now, atop of Canary Wharf, you've got a huge and then at the top you've got a pyramid. Yeah. But what's on top of that? It's a huge light.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that that light, you can actually see it from here.
SPEAKER_01Which looks like the all-seeing eye, doesn't it? That's true, yeah. I never thought of that. So there we are, right in the sit right in the heart of Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, sorry. Canary London. Canary wharf, the the the money making you've got this symbol of a pyramid with a thing on top of it that's that's visible to Yeah, the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_02The when you look across the major cities, when you look across major cities, they're all looking to build the biggest building. Well, the tallest. Now that is scripture, that is straight out of the old testament.
SPEAKER_01I mean, uh look, we could go down this route, but I'll tell you something. If you look in any financial district, especially down downtown in the city. Not in the basement, in any city of the States, you you will have see Molech, it was uh the the god of uh Bar and Molech, who who these people worship, yeah, he was a an owl, right? So you will have a building in the shape on the top where it goes up and down like an owl. So you got if you look at all these, yeah. People say, Oh, that's a conspiracy. No, that's not a nice piece of architecture.
SPEAKER_02Well, actually, even when you come to certain coffee houses, the way that they brand things, because the way that we are wired and the way that we are, you all seem we all seem to sniff out a certain red bean. So there is an occultic way of our lives that we don't even realise what we are attached, what we are kin to.
SPEAKER_01In in and you know, so we'll just throw these out there, you know, really. But in in in a lot of Catholic churches, the the hosts, the communion wafers are kept in something that resembles the sun. Exactly. Because it's got it's golden around the outside, yeah, and it looks like the sun.
SPEAKER_02And how I think I had an experience, a place that I work, yeah, I many of them. Right. Now this this person came to me and went, Oh, you're doing holy communion. I said, I'm I'm actually doing the Passover. Oh, this is what she said, I can't, I haven't taken it for 30 years. I said, What do you mean you haven't taken well? The priest said I'm not good enough to take it because of A, B, C. I said, Where's that in the Bible? She said, Well, I was just told that. I was just told that I couldn't. And she said, I've I've been broken for 30 years because I feel like I've fouled God and I can't do anything. I said, Right, okay. Tomorrow, meet me tomorrow, come and take bread. I can't, I can't, I can't, the priest said, I'll tell you what, give me five minutes and I'll take you to the scripture. Within 10 minutes of the next day, she was crying, crying her eyes out, crying her eyes out, lighting a candle and and and just praying to God, and freedom came upon her because she broke bread and took at a cup, because Jesus said, As often as you come together, do this in remembrance of me. So we have a serious area where there are many people across the globe that haven't taken of the Passover because a certain occult has told them you can't. Because I hold it, you ain't I'm Harry Potter, and you're gonna do what we are in a serious spiritual mess within the UK.
Debt, Pharaoh And Modern Slavery
SPEAKER_01This is just see, this is the This is a podcast on its own for hours. What can I say? Each one of these is a podcast. It's massive. Each one of these is a podcast, isn't it? I don't think today we're gonna get to inform it. We're not gonna get we'll we'll we'll go on to them next week, but because I want to ask you this question, Ben. See, I I want to ask you this. Well it what it says here it's turned the mics off, hang on. It says it says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations who hate me. Now that can be broken, can't it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01How can how can I how can I get that snapped? There's one place accepting Jesus at the cross.
SPEAKER_02So it comes back. So the old testament points me to the cross before the cross even came into physical existence. So God is saying there is a way, there is a way for this, and it is the redemption plan that I have in place.
SPEAKER_01The redemption plan. But here's the thing: do you do you think that you can as someone who's who's born can be already living under the iniquity of a grandfather or a great grandfather?
SPEAKER_02Do you think that that happens? Or what what they call like generational ties, all that sort of stuff. It's quite a difficult one to look at, isn't it? When you look at the generation, but when you think that, okay, let's let's think about this biblically. I belong to Jesus, who the Son sets free is free indeed. So when salvation comes upon, salvation means saved.
SPEAKER_01Oh well, you yeah, but but before that, but before that, yeah, you're yeah before you're saved. So so we here we have Yeah we see in many people's lives um yeah the father was an alcoholic, the grandfather was an alcoholic. So that there is a there is a lease and I see I see many times the father doesn't love the son or doesn't tell the son he loves him, but the grandfather never told him because it can only be broken. It's a generational thing, it can only be broken at the cross at the cross.
SPEAKER_02Because there people don't think about generational curses. There is curses, there there is there is that that spiritual tie, there is that soul tie, there is that kin to, there is that, and the only place it can be broken is when God saves and God sets free and God's timing and and through the power of redemption. So redeemed simply means to be bought back at a price set free. So when God sets you free, you are set free from everything spiritually. Oh it's it's it's the cross.
SPEAKER_01Even here you've got the cross. We don't we don't realise just how powerful that is because I see that many times with men where generationally they just follow their father's footsteps. You're right, Simon. And you're right, and it's only broken at the cross.
SPEAKER_02You can't no one, no one can break it. There are a lot of people out there that I actually know that would that don't believe in I would say generational, there is a certain movement out there from a certain tribalistic and very a culture, I should say, that actually really believes and they hang on to this and they put a lot of weight onto this. But if I keep looking at this, I will never become free because I'm looking at the generations under me. But I've got to remember now my name was stamped in the Lamb's Book of Life, and who the sun sets free is free indeed. So, yes, it there it is there, but when us, we you, whoever you are, are saved, it's broken, it snaps, it snapped like an arrow, it's lost its flight, it's lost its power, power to penetrate, it's broken because there was one price, one sacrifice once and for all. And the Bible says that Christ made a spectacle when he was on the cross to the authorities and the principalities, and this is what it says scripturally. It says that Christ disarmed, Christ disarmed the authorities and the darkness. So the darkness and the authority has power all the time. I'm in their grip. But when I come to Jesus, yeah, I'm a cheeky chap. Yeah, I'm a I'm free. The sun sets free is free indeed. He's free indeed. So the power is broken because of the cross.
SPEAKER_01And the Bible says that the darkness could not overcome the light.
SPEAKER_02And science actually gravitates to making that scripture so true that that where the Bible says light is greater than the darkness, science says that darkness only exists because of the absence of light.
SPEAKER_01So we're into this 40 minutes, right? And we've only gone to we've only just we've only just scraped the surface. So please don't tell me that the Ten Commandments aren't relevant.
SPEAKER_02Because we're we're we're we're rushing. I feel like we're rushing, and we should just stay where we are for the next year.
SPEAKER_01Stay where we are, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So this is massive. So it's huge. If I just even take going back, we could spend hours going back. But what's striking me like a like really powerful is you should not make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above uh and the earth beneath, and then under the waters below. So there's nowhere, there's nowhere. So it's covered everything, it's covered everything. Yeah, you should not bow now. This is King Nebuchadnezzar, this is Meshach, Shamrach, and Abendigo. And he said, Didn't he? If you don't bow down and worship what I've made, governments are making idols for believers to worship.
SPEAKER_01And it's going to come worse because we know the man of lawlessness is yet to come on the earth, and and he will demand worship from everybody.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and what is the the image? What is the what is that structure outside of the European Parliament? What is that beast? When you look at what that beast is and what's riding that beast, revelation. That's crazy. It's crazy how things are all coming into coming into to to to the human eye. It's not that it's not bit, but God is opening our eyes to see what was already predestined and forespoken through the prophets of old, and how the Bible is actually on point. Simon, look at that. You shall not bow down to them. What have we going through at this moment? What movement are we bowing down to? The political movements, the planet. So when I bow down and worship, King Nebuchadnezzar said, Listen, son, if you don't bow down, you're gonna die. And what did the three say? We're ever sorry, King, but this is the fact of the matter. Whether we live or die, you know, we're not worried.
SPEAKER_01Then we've lived through the Thatcher times, yeah, and um and and it started it's it hit us the Thatcher times, you know, you can have this now, you see it's a habit now society. And we s we started people started worshipping the pound note, the dollar. Yeah. We started getting films like Wall Street with Gordon Gecko saying yeah, greed is good. Yeah. And people starting believing, yeah, I've got to be so what is have it now, you know, you're ninety the ninety days as as as good as cash, pay for it, have it now, pay for it in two years, all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_02We've just it's killed us. It's killed us as well, what's it done? It's made us a slave. A slave. It's a slave, Ben. So the Egyptian process of Pharaoh is very real today. He said, You're gonna bake bricks. Now, who was he talking to? He was talking to the children of God. The children of God have to be very careful, even now, because we can become a slave to Pharaoh, and we bow down and worship him by what? By the actions in which we live our lives.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So if I am trapped with a humongous mortgage, a DFS sofa, a nice Mercedes, this HP, that HP, who am I putting my life to? I'm giving my life to the system. What does God say? Don't make idols. It's great to have mortgages, I understand that, but suddenly, what way does it have me or do I have it? That is the question, isn't it? Am I a slave? Are you a slave? Yeah, that's right. Or am I slave to righteousness? Can I walk away from this? And or has it got me?
SPEAKER_01And can I walk? Yeah. And there's the thing. If you if you realise this and and drop all this stuff and try and get yourself debt free, that's amazing. People are gonna go. How do you do that? What's wrong with MP? What's wrong? Because you're coming out of their system, you're coming away from the bowl system, their system, you know, and and we've been we have people that are chasing what the bloke next door's got or or the cross the road's got, but he's up to his ears in debt as much as you, mate.
SPEAKER_02So no one wants to say I've signed myself up. Even I can't afford to die. You can see that across so many areas. I can't afford to die because when I die, I'm still going to be in trouble financially. I can't I've got to keep going. Look at the retirement age. Why is that lifting? It's because of the the finance markets are crashing. We understand now very clearly that some areas of capital are not funding because they can't, because the markets are so fragile, and it's only certain banks that are actually lending. What does the Bible say about money?
Breaking Curses At The Cross
SPEAKER_01Well, we've talked about money last week, but in the meantime, I found this in Proverbs 22 7, which was written by the richest man that will ever live. Yeah. He says the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. That's that hurts. So you you are right when you say we're slaves. We're slaves to uh the car lease, we're slaves to the bank who owns your house.
SPEAKER_02The power you know, you were slaves to all that. Could I it's fine to have a I'm not I'm not coming against all that stuff, but what I'm saying is very clearly, can I walk away from that? Can I go back to the dealership, give my keys back and go, mate, I actually don't want that because I'm I'm X exhausted. Mortgage company, take that.
SPEAKER_01I don't what or strive as hard as you can to pay it off, yeah. And get debt free.
SPEAKER_02And get debt free because the Bible, there is a way of getting financially secure in, but yeah, seek ye first the kingdom of God. Totally. Now it's nothing wrong with having look at Solomon, the richest cat across the across the planet. He had it, but he wasn't he only had it because God, you know, and Abraham, they had it because God gave it. So we're in an upside down kingdom. Pharaoh is alive and well, he did have blonde hair, but now he's changed to a different look. You know, Pharaoh, am I a slave to Pharaoh? Because we can't hide the fact that the Israelites were chosen, the Israelites were were God's people, but because of their actions, they became a slave to the world. So my actions won't deter my salvation.
SPEAKER_01But I'll tell you what it's like, right? It's like a frog in a boiling water, innit? Yeah. So we don't think we are a slave, do we? We don't think we're worshipping until I'm about to fry. No. Until it's too late. So almost too late. Yeah, that's right. Uh and even though we are saved, yeah, and the names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, we can still go down these routes.
SPEAKER_02I can still be trapped. Now the Bible says be careful of the snare layers. Be careful of the snare.
SPEAKER_01And and what you find people doing, they're scrambling at the moment, aren't they? They're pulling a few quid, so they'll they'll jump on the equity release thing, you know. Release, release, release. Do you know and pay later, pay later, pay later? Pay later, pay later. Nothing is free. Nothing is free.
SPEAKER_02Only one thing, salvation is free.
SPEAKER_01Totally. Nothing, nothing on this earth, in the earth system, in the bar system, yeah, in the beast system is free. Yeah. There's no free lunch with the enemy, is there? There's no free lunch. God says He's got ya. Do you know what?
SPEAKER_02I think I I think there could be a stirring of of God's I'll just put it a bit like this, a bit of wrath. A bit of. I know he's a loving God, but he's a jealous God. And he will he will not be mocked. I believe markets are going to crash and ministries are going to crash.
SPEAKER_01He does not wink at sin, and I believe the shaking's begun, Ben. There's going to be a shaking. Awakening and shakening. And I I've just personally I've just I've just I had a look at this equity release thing, you know, and um, you know, because you you you get it, you hit with it all the time on the on the on the TV, aren't you? You know, so um which is a big TV I've got to do it. I don't know if I told you, but it's uh like some odd inch, yeah, yeah. It's enormous.
SPEAKER_02You know, I'm gonna swap it next week.
SPEAKER_01It's on the side of the house. But I looked into it, and yeah, they'll you know, if you've got an house with plenty of equity in, they're quite happy to give you very happy to give you, but it's tied into the sale of your house, whether you're not when you die exactly, or when you support.
SPEAKER_02Who owns it? You think about this.
SPEAKER_01Don't own it.
SPEAKER_02Now I've got a mortgage that's say 30 years mortgage. So I'm working away, paying away. I'm at 25 years, I've only got five years to go. I've got four years to go, three years to go, two years, one year. Suddenly a disease hits your body. I could tell you stories from a certain place that I work, and people don't even reach their their thought of the finish line, or they reach the finish line, they go, I've made it. Next year we're gonna get a camper van and we're gonna go on tour. That's what they say, isn't it? You know. They're a passenger short next year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because one of the two my stepdad, you know, bang died at bang, gone. Retired at 60, died at 64. So my whole life, yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_02Your whole life, I'm a slave and dreams of doing this, that, and the other. When I get here, I'm gonna do this. When I get to that age, I'm gonna do that. Nonsense. Jesus just says this. Just concentrate on today. Today, then it's today. Today. Don't look at your the equity markets, don't look at the capital, because the capital bonds are freezing.
SPEAKER_01What is this, Ben? It's a huge temptation, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That equity release, it's five percent interest compounded. So that means if you borrow a hundred thousand coronas, then every year there's a five per 5,000 pounds you're paying in interest.
SPEAKER_02Five thousand pounds. And then what happens if I lose my job? What so you you you're on the back hoof from day one?
SPEAKER_01So all of a sudden you've got to downsize your house, but you owe these people and then suddenly you become.
SPEAKER_02Oh, we'll take that back, sir. Thank you very much. Who's the winner? Pharaoh. You're you are gonna bake bricks no matter what.
SPEAKER_01It's look they wrap it up and they sell it to you. All of this in such a dream. Live it's a dream, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You can have your best life yet. Actually, the church tells me that.
SPEAKER_01John Lostine tells me, live your best life now, you know.
Next Steps And Listener Support
SPEAKER_02And I mean debt up to my neck. Yeah. So right. In Exodus, regarding Pharaoh, we're coming to an end. We were 52 minutes in. And we've done two of them. Yeah, and we haven't really scratched the service. Just just in bringing it to a close, this is my last, believe you or not, closing word on this, because you're going to take us out in a moment. Even though they were children of the living God, they were slaves to Pharaoh, even though they was God in God's plan, because of the decisions and the the quick-fired thinking and what they done, suddenly they find themselves under the hand of the system maker. They was years. They was years and generations of a slave to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01Well, what did it what did it say? It says, Benny, that this the the Bible said it said, the Egyptians that you see today you will not see again. Yeah. Yeah. But they sought the Egyptians, didn't they? They kept wanting to go back. God wiped them out.
SPEAKER_02They ain't coming after you, because they wiped them out, and he's we want to go back, Moses. Why have you brought us out here to die? We we would rather go back to the towers. We'd rather go back to the commute, we'd rather go back to what the world is offering than go where God told me to go.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Look at the when when when Moses and Aaron went up to uh Pharaoh and said, Look, we're having three days out here. We're gonna worship, we're gonna have a festival in the wilderness. No, you're not, he said. No, you're not, you're gonna keep working.
SPEAKER_01But it it it it happens in in modern day, Ben.
SPEAKER_02It's now it's happening in front of us, around our society and culture. This is a really big, this is a really big press. And uh goodness gracious, me, we've reached us. Take us out, Simon. What we got, how do we how do we roll this one up?
SPEAKER_01Well, Ben, uh do you know? I think we'll we've got to come back to this next week, haven't we? So we've got to continue this next week. So there's gonna be some great content, and we're gonna go on, you know, taking the Lord's our name in vain, the Sabbath day, honour thy father and mother. They shall not murder, shall not kill, commit adultery, all of that sort of stuff. We're gonna go on to that, don't shall not steal, and we're gonna go deep into that. Oh, I bet you've gonna take that stuff back. Yeah, that Ikea pencil you got, you better drop it up. Oh god, I better take that again, take all that stuff back. Fault's witness lying, and uh you shall not cover. So so we we're with all of that. It's gonna I think it's gonna take us to the end of the year, don't you? Alternative. But what we'll say is just today, uh wherever you are across the world, we just thank you for tuning in, listening to this uh podcast. And uh, you know, um we got some uh little books coming, little booklets, John's John's Gospel Gospel coming out with our branding on it. And uh if anybody wants any of that, please um and if anybody wants any prayer or discuss anything, contact me at Simon at cstalk.uk and uh we'll we'll uh we'll get in contact with you. But uh but until next week, Ben, we're uh we'll say bless you, God bless you, and we'll pray protection over you wherever you are in the world. And uh just uh just keep following Jesus.
SPEAKER_02Amen. Simon, what a what a fantastic you know. Look, we're 56 minutes in. You can find us on Bussproute, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Alexa, so many other social platforms as well in the world of podcasting. Thank you so much. Amazon Music, Spotify, God bless. Have a great day in the name of Jesus. Amen.