Knowing Whom to Respond to | John Giftah - Fuel for the Soul with John Giftah

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

a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living, and Christian

discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live the life that you were created

for. Your host is a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world

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 want you 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.

We are not called to be the islands, but we're supposed to shine our

light in the darkness unto people. We have to be the city on a

hill. We have to show love, because the Bible says by this shall

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 up

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

and it is found in Look 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, and 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 are 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's so important to her 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 concerned 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 come on, Even on the

cross at the point of death, this man had still not changed. He

had no remorse for the s 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 respond 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 worth. 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 are not having

any genuine questions. They're just trying to find fault with your 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 demand 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 rest fond 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. Emen, God bless you. You've been listening to

Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We hope you were blessed and inspired

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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 can

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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