The Gap between your Identity and your Credentials and Performance | John Giftah | Inspirational Christian Sermon

0:01 Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world is a crazy

0:06 place and it just seems to get crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and

0:12 take a break. This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're

0:17 a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living, and Christian

0:24 discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live the life that you were created

0:29 for. Your host is a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world

0:34 record holder, aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist, and founder of John

0:39 Gifta International. Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We live

0:53 in a time in age, but most of the emphasisis on what you do,

0:56 what have you accomplished? And when you say you, the first thing

1:00 you say is you know what. I'm an engineer or a doctor, or

1:03 an evangelist, or a preacher or a best selling author or whatever be your

1:07 profession. We try to focus on what we do and we derive our identity

1:12 from that, and that's how the world system has been predominantly going by saying,

1:17 Oh, this person is a notable preacher, this person is an influencer,

1:19 this person has such a big following ort. We try to mix up

1:25 our identity with our accomplishments or based on our performance. We look at all

1:30 of that and mix it up, and we tend to derive our identity from

1:36 what we have achieved, what we do, and so on and so forth.

1:38 And I'm preaching this from a place where I'm like, you know what,

1:42 I'm in introspecting a lot these days. Okay, as I've we've been

1:46 sharing with you guys. You know, one of the things I've made very

1:49 sure of is that, you know, moving forward, every message that is

1:53 going to be coming forward on the podcast, it's not going to be mechanical.

1:57 I'm praying the Lord let it not be mechanical anymore. You know.

2:00 I've been doing this like, oh, I need to release a message.

2:04 I need to get this done. And I was actually not planning on releasing

2:07 an episode today because I was kind of in a place where I was like,

2:09 God, you know what, I want to move from a place where

2:12 you lead me to preach, You lead me the record, you lead me

2:15 to send out a message, then I will do it. Because I'm in

2:21 a place where I'm literally introspecting what I'm preaching. What I'm saying is from

2:25 a place like first of all, like I said, you know, it

2:29 should not be mechanical. It should be led by the spirit of Gods.

2:31 Only then you will be transformed. Only then the message will be a blessing

2:35 to you guys. At the same time, from a place where I'm saying

2:38 I didn't want my identity to deep deride from what I do because for the

2:43 last couple of months or even to say, the other day, I was

2:46 checking it's more than two years since the podcast started hitting the number one spot

2:51 in India and you know a couple of other things that started happening. What

2:54 I noticed this, You know, I've been introspecting to check that my identity

2:59 is not derived from my podcast. Are you getting what I'm saying? A

3:02 lot of times, you know, people just know me as the podcast guy.

3:06 They you know, the minute they think of podcasts, they think of

3:07 me, or you know, the minute they think of me they think of

3:10 the podcast. The first question they ask before they ask me how are you

3:13 is how is your podcast doing? You know, That's how things have been

3:15 in the recent times. And I've been coming down to that place where I'm

3:20 like, okay, listen, God, you know, because I have been

3:23 feeling that uneasiness where I wanted to really introspect, you know, to ensure

3:27 that the podcast doesn't become my idol, to make sure that I'm not deriving

3:31 from a place of just releasing an episode, to be just getting a place

3:37 where my identity is derived from being a podcaster or a pranking podcaster or anything

3:42 on the the sun. But you know what, I wanted to get to

3:45 the place where I'm like, God, even if you're asking me to stop,

3:47 I'm willing to do it. In fact, the reason I didn't record

3:51 to this episode till this moment is because I was like, God, i'mness,

3:54 you lead me to this. I'm not going to release. I'm not

3:59 going to do this. I'm not I'm contemplating whether to make it daily or

4:02 once in a couple of days, or how the Lord leads, because I

4:05 don't want any message to be mechanical just releasing for the sake of releasing.

4:10 I wanted to be a blessing to people, and and and what I noticed

4:14 this, you know today, if as I introspected myself, I was like,

4:17 listen, I took the whole day office a cool day like, you

4:21 know, just being myself where I wanted to get my identity right where where

4:29 am I okay? Even if I'm not releasing an episode? Am I okay?

4:31 Even if you know the ranking gets affected? Am I okay with that?

4:35 Or is that becoming my idol? I really introspected, and when I

4:40 came to a place where I realized, from the bottom of my heart,

4:44 you know, I'm saying, God, I'm willing to stop it if you

4:46 want me to. And I noticed that even when I didn't want to,

4:51 I mean, even when I was willing to stop or didn't want to release

4:57 at the right time, the Lord just put the word in me saying go

5:00 and release this word over people. You see. That is the place where

5:03 I'm like, Wow, I'm releasing this from a place where I understand that

5:08 the podcast is not my identity. You get what I'm saying. So I

5:13 want you guys to check yourself today. So I'm not preaching from a place

5:15 of theory. I'm preaching from my life where I want you to introspect.

5:18 Whatever you do, is that derived is your identity derived from that whatever be

5:25 it is, whether it is you know, maybe something that you're happy about

5:30 maybe you're a poet. Is that from where you're deriving your identity or the

5:36 fact that you know. One of the things that I was really looking forward

5:41 or looking at the last couple of months was, you know, the fact

5:43 that one of my gifts is to be committed, the sense of commitment.

5:48 In the last two years, I think, except one day when there was

5:51 a technical glitch, every single day, without a single break, I've been

5:58 able to release an episode. And I was like, Wow, I've been

6:00 able to do this. But of course I give all glory to God and

6:02 credit to God. But again it came down to my place where I'm like,

6:05 is consistency? My God, you can't even what I'm saying. I

6:10 started introspecting everything. I want you guys to get to that place where you

6:14 just be honest before God and say, God, is there anything that is

6:18 you know, taking your place? Is there anything that is the cause of

6:25 me to get my identity from? Take it away? Take it away?

6:30 You know. There should not be any false idols in us, and sometimes

6:35 ministry can be an idol. Sometimes your work can be an idol. Sometimes

6:40 your family can be an idol. Sometimes your achievements can be your idol.

6:44 I pray that today all those false idols should be broken in the name of

6:49 Jesus. Are you willing to let go of them? To say, God,

6:54 you know what, even if I don't get any of this, totally

6:57 fine, because my identity is not derived from that. My identity comes from

7:00 you, and from that place, when you upgrade, you will be a

7:04 blessing. And and I want to just share this scription and I want to

7:10 close. It's found in Matthew three, verse seventeen. There's a moment when

7:15 Jesus was just baptized, and a voice from heaven said, this is my

7:20 beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This is the word of God,

7:25 the Father, speaking over God, the son Jesus Christ. If you

7:29 look at different translations, it says, this is the dearly this is my

7:31 dearly loved son. This is my beloved son. And you know, all

7:36 the different versions say very similar lines. But here's the thing. This was

7:43 spoken over Jesus even before he had performed a single miracle. He had not

7:48 open blind eyes, You're not healed any sick. He had not calmed the

7:51 storm, he had not raised the dead, he had not turned the water

7:55 into wine. It's not done any miracle, but Jesus is been spoken of

8:00 and by the God the Father and saying, this is my beloved son in

8:03 whom I'm well pleased. In other words, I want you to get to

8:07 your identity as a son and the daughter of the King of kings and a

8:09 lot of lords. It's not based on what you have done or not done.

8:13 You know, my identity as son of my parents is not based on

8:18 what I do or not do, whether i'm you know, whether they're happy

8:22 with what I do or not. That's not the fact, because none of

8:26 that can cancel my actions, cannot cancel the fact that I still am their

8:31 son. You get what I'm saying today. I want you to derive your

8:33 identity apart from your performance, apart from your credentials, apart from your achievements,

8:43 and get to the place where your identity is found in just the fact

8:46 that you're a child of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

8:50 Amen, God bless you. You've been listening to feel for the so with

9:00 John GIFTA, we hope you were blessed and inspire to live the life that

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9:22 understand your identity and the latest number one bestseller Unveil Your Purpose, helping you

9:28 discover your purpose and to start walking in it. Make sure to leave our

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