Knowing Whom to Respond to | John Giftah | Christian Sermon

Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world is a crazy

place and it just seems to get crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and

take a break. This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're

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record holder, aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist, and founder of John

Gifta International. Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. I'm going

to talk to you today about knowing whom to respond to. I want to

just quickly share an important passage with you guys, and I want to take

this forward because this is an important thing to note when we are dealing with

people in our life. You know. I wanted to understand that no matter

what, yes, we are called to show love. We are called to

be the kind of light in the darkness we are in the world. Were

not called to be the islands, but we're supposed to shine our light in

the darkness onto people. We have to be the city on a hill.

We have to show love, because the Bible says by this will all may

know you're My disciples when you have love one for another. All of those

things are true, but you also have to understand it that important aspect where

you discern the kind of people. I want to just start out by sharing

an important passage with you, and I want to take this forward, and

it is found in Luke twenty three thirty nine to forty three. Yes,

this is again talking about Jesus on the Cross, and of course we just

finished Resurrection Day, but there are so many lessons we can learn from Jesus

on the Cross that we can't just keep it to the time when we speak

about that right. We can't do everything in one day. So I want

to talk to you about an important principle that we can inculcate in our everyday

life concerning this, And I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible version and

from verse thirty nine, this is what it says. One of the criminals

who are hanging there curled abuse at Jesus, saying, are you not Christ?

Save yourself and us? But the other responded and rebuked him, saying,

do you not even fear God, since you're under the same sentence of

condemnation. And we indeed are suffering justly for what we have, receiving what

we deserve for our crimes. But this man has done nothing wrong. And

he was saying this, and he looked at Jesus and he said, Jesus,

remember me when you get come into your kingdom. And Jesus turns to

him and says, truly, I say to you today you will be with

me in paradise. You might have heard this million times, and this is

a very familiar passage with all of us. But I wanted to just quickly

share something I believe it is so important here that we can inculcate in our

everyday life. You see, two people spoke to Jesus, but Jesus responded

only to one man. One man through abusive comments against Jesus. He was

saying, are you not the Christ? Are you not the Messiah? Are

you not the chosen One? Prove yourself, save yourself and us. He

was arrogant, his motives were not right. He was not about, not

at all concern about Jesus. He was like, save yourself. And now

his focus was on you know, some way gets saved. I don't care

about you, but command even on the cross at the point of death,

this man had still not changed. He had no remorse for the for behavior

that led him to where he was today. And this man was so abusive,

whereas the other man was just the opposite. It's a difference between light

and darkness, day and night. This man was so dark. The man

was so bad. This man was so abusive. This man was not at

all remorse for but but the other man, on the other hand, was

repentful. He was like, hey, listen, don't you fear God.

We deserve what we are going through. But this man does not deserve it.

He has done nothing wrong. And he looks at Jesus and says,

remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus turns to this man

and he says to him, truly, I tell you today, you'll be

with me in paradise. You see, Jesus responded to this man, but

Jesus did not respond to the other man, which is a principle for us,

because you don't have to respond to every critic. You don't have to

respond to every single person. You don't have to respond to those who don't

have a good attitude, who don't have a good motive. You don't have

to You don't have to be treated as a doormat. You don't have to

be a person who has to prove yourself, prove your word. You don't

have to do that. Jesus did not do that. Every time you see

through the scriptures, whenever they came and tried to make Jesus prove himself,

show himself, or do science and wonders to prove who he was, he

never obliged to it. Whereas when you look at the people who were in

faith, he did wonders for them. Here you see two people spoke to

Jesus, but Jesus only responded to the other. It looks like Jesus was

arrogant. No, he wasn't. Why would he ignore the other man?

Because you see, sometimes society makes us feel like if you ignore somebody,

that means you're arrogant, you're rude. But you're not ignoring them because you

are rude. You're ignoring them because they are rude. You're not ignoring them

because you are arrogant, but you're ignoring them because they are arrogant. You

know, I'll tell you. Honestly, a lot of times in my life,

in ministry and life at its own, I've seen a lot of people,

you know, seeing that okay, this guy's a religious leader, especially

in you know, in the secular platforms or places. Yo. They come

with questions. Okay, now, I'll tell you honestly, some of them,

with all their heart, they have genuine questions. But some of them,

you know that they're not having any genuine questions. They're just trying to

find fault with your just just trying to, you know, come and start

an argument with you. They are no matter what you do, no matter

where you take the or you know, try to prove your point, they

are at dement that they're not going to accept you. Their only goal is

to fight with you. In such cases, you don't have to go and

try to prove yourself to them. You don't have to entertain such people.

You know. I'll tell you honestly, sometimes people used to come and say

no, no, no, whoever comes, whatever it is, you know,

you have to go and give an explanation. I don't have to.

Jesus did not give an explanation to the man and say, hey, you

know, don't talk like that you know, I have the plan of salvation

in mind. I don't want to I will save you. Jesus isn't talking

anything nice to this man at all. He did not even talk to this

man. He did not even pay attention to this man. What I want

you, guys to understand your is sometimes if you understand that some people don't

have the good interest at heart, if they don't have a good intention,

if they don't have a good heart, if they are emotives or not right

when you know it, you don't have to pay attention to them. You

don't have to ruston to every critic. You don't have to be like the

puppy dog that goes to everybody who gives a biscuit. You know, I

always give this picture in mind. You know, you don't have to be

like that, Oh somebody's giving a biscuit. You know, you just run

to them, and then the next minute they throw you off, and then

you come back, and then they give you a biscuit to hurl you back.

And you know, you don't have to be like that. Guys,

you don't have to have a level of decency and a level of self respect

and understand if somebody doesn't care about you. They don't, you know,

have the right intention towards you. You have every right to not respond to

them. You don't have to prove yourself to them, even if you bring

down fire from heaven. They're not going to be convinced such people, so

you don't have to waste your time on such people. Focus on the people

who will genuinely be transformed. The other man genuinely accepted Jesus, and Jesus

said today you will be with me in Paradise. Amen. A beautiful lesson

for us in our everyday life as we dable people. Ammen. God bless

you. You've been listening to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We

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you on the next episode of The Fuel for the Soul with John GIFTA God

bless you. If your heart stops beating, now do you know where you're

going? If you came face to face with death, now do you know

where you're going? And this is not a message of condemnation. This is

a message of hope. There is a God who loves you so much he

sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to come down and pay a heavy

price by shedding every drop of his blood on the cross. Thank you for

dying for my sins. When you believe in Him, you have free gift

or salvation for you that it shows us that we will go to heaven when

we die instead of suffering in Him forever. I just encourage you today to

make the simple step of fate and say Jesus, I thank you for what

you did on the cross. Thank you for giving me this gift of eternal life.

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