The Secret to Difficult Conversations: Truth + Love | John Giftah | Christian Sermon

0:01 Speaker 1: Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world

0:05 Speaker 1: is a crazy place and it just seems to get

0:08 Speaker 1: crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and take a break.

0:13 Speaker 1: This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're

0:17 Speaker 1: a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living,

0:23 Speaker 1: and Christian discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live

0:27 Speaker 1: the life that you were created for. Your host is

0:30 Speaker 1: a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world record holder,

0:35 Speaker 1: aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist, and founder of John Gifta International.

0:41 Speaker 1: Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta.

0:46 Speaker 2: Hello everyone, Welcome to this edition of the Fuel for

0:48 Speaker 2: the Soul with John Gifta podcast. All through this week

0:51 Speaker 2: we're looking at various aspects on how as Christians should

0:56 Speaker 2: we respond when we see injustices all around us, be

1:00 Speaker 2: in justice happening in your workplace, or in your community,

1:03 Speaker 2: or in your church or whatever, and how should we

1:06 Speaker 2: as Christians respond? Right, So, one of the things I

1:09 Speaker 2: want to talk about is how the Scripture says in

1:12 Speaker 2: Ephesians four fifteen that we are called to speak the

1:16 Speaker 2: truth in love. See. I want you to understand, yes,

1:19 Speaker 2: we have to speak the truth. We have to stand

1:21 Speaker 2: up for what is right. We have to be prevalent

1:25 Speaker 2: in saying, you know what, this is the truth, and

1:26 Speaker 2: I'm standing up for it, and you've got to speak it.

1:30 Speaker 2: You can't just keep it to yourself. The Bible says

1:32 Speaker 2: you have to speak the truth. But the question is

1:35 Speaker 2: how are you speaking the truth? Because we're living in

1:38 Speaker 2: a time and age where, especially when you go on

1:40 Speaker 2: social media, people have forgotten that when they comment, they're

1:46 Speaker 2: commenting to somebody who's a real user. Like, imagine if

1:51 Speaker 2: I'm talking to you face to face right right now,

1:55 Speaker 2: even though I'm talking to you through a camera, but

1:59 Speaker 2: I should all always imagine or remember that I'm talking

2:02 Speaker 2: to you face to face. And when you're commenting, many

2:07 Speaker 2: times we tend to forget that the person you're texting

2:10 Speaker 2: or you're commenting, or you're sending that response to is

2:14 Speaker 2: a real individual, a real individual who is facing their

2:18 Speaker 2: own set of battles, emotional baggages. Maybe they have their

2:23 Speaker 2: own insecurities, they're also facing their own set of questions

2:29 Speaker 2: and turmoils and problems, and they're a unique package just

2:34 Speaker 2: like you. But we forget that, and that is one

2:39 Speaker 2: of the hardest things that we see today because of

2:41 Speaker 2: social media, where people just say, oh, I'm going to

2:45 Speaker 2: speak my mind and they say some of the rudest things.

2:48 Speaker 2: They're not being nice. They're always filled with so much

2:53 Speaker 2: of bitterness and hatred where they just say whatever comes

2:57 Speaker 2: to their mind. For example, I I've seen instances where

3:01 Speaker 2: when people comment, they say things that are very detmental.

3:06 Speaker 2: They body shame the person, they attack the person. This

3:10 Speaker 2: is something very common on social media. But I'm challenging

3:13 Speaker 2: you today, if you are a believer, you gotta rise up.

3:17 Speaker 2: You gotta be better than that. The Bible goes on

3:20 Speaker 2: to say, instead of instead speaking the truth in love,

3:24 Speaker 2: we will grow to become in every respect the mature

3:28 Speaker 2: body of Christ. We have to grow in maturity. And

3:37 Speaker 2: that is lacking big time today. That is lacking big

3:40 Speaker 2: time in the body of Christ. Because I'm telling you,

3:44 Speaker 2: if the world is behaving in a certain way, I'm sorry,

3:47 Speaker 2: that's because they do not know the Lord, and we

3:51 Speaker 2: need to pray for them. But you, if you are

3:54 Speaker 2: saying I'm a professing believer, if you are saying I

3:58 Speaker 2: love the Lord, you are saying I gave my life

4:02 Speaker 2: to Christ, and I want the Holy Spirit in me

4:05 Speaker 2: to sanctify me. And you're saying that you're allowing the

4:09 Speaker 2: spirit and you're healing to the Holy Spirit, and you're

4:12 Speaker 2: allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work in you

4:15 Speaker 2: to perfect everything which concerns you. Then you need to

4:18 Speaker 2: allow the fruit of the Spirit to also be prevalent

4:23 Speaker 2: away your life. I want you to think about this.

4:28 Speaker 2: How are you responding. Are you responding with just being

4:32 Speaker 2: blunt with your truth or are you responding with that

4:37 Speaker 2: truth being filtered through love. The same thing that you

4:42 Speaker 2: want to say as truth, you can say it in

4:44 Speaker 2: a way that can cause you to probably attack an individual,

4:50 Speaker 2: or you can speak it with so much love that

4:54 Speaker 2: you're not attacking the individual, but you're attacking the system. See,

4:59 Speaker 2: this is an important and lesson that you need to learn.

5:01 Speaker 2: You are not called to attack another person. You're called

5:05 Speaker 2: to attack or to debate the principle, the policy, or

5:09 Speaker 2: the system or the ideology. You're not called to attack

5:13 Speaker 2: a person. This is a big thing you need to understand.

5:17 Speaker 2: This is why many people are not able to do

5:20 Speaker 2: things properly. They're not being effective because they're just being

5:26 Speaker 2: very vocal in or you know what, Oh this person

5:29 Speaker 2: as this political ideology, and they hate them. If you

5:33 Speaker 2: hate them, how are you going to reach them? How

5:36 Speaker 2: are you going to preach to them? The other day

5:39 Speaker 2: a person reached out to me saying he meant, well,

5:43 Speaker 2: he had prepared a video that he wanted to post.

5:47 Speaker 2: But this video he had a good heart, no doubt

5:51 Speaker 2: about it. But he saw that in a certain denomination

5:55 Speaker 2: there were certain wrong teachings, and so his entire video

5:59 Speaker 2: was to attack that denomination. And then I told them, listen,

6:03 Speaker 2: in this process, you're not reaching that people of that

6:07 Speaker 2: denomination because the minute they realize you're attacking them, they're

6:11 Speaker 2: not going to watch you, or even if they watch,

6:13 Speaker 2: they're going to watch to defend themselves, and you're just

6:17 Speaker 2: going to close the opportunity for them to actually receive

6:20 Speaker 2: the truth from you. And I said the same thing.

6:24 Speaker 2: If you want to just preach the truth, preach it

6:27 Speaker 2: with loo so that you're not going to close the

6:30 Speaker 2: opportunity for them to even listen. And he was so

6:34 Speaker 2: convicted by it he changed the entire video and he

6:37 Speaker 2: made a new video where he said, you know, my

6:41 Speaker 2: focus is on preaching the people. My focus is on

6:47 Speaker 2: reaching the people with the truth with love, not to

6:53 Speaker 2: attack them and not to close the opportunity to even

6:57 Speaker 2: reach them. Today, I want you to think about this.

7:01 Speaker 2: Are there areas in your life where you're reacting just

7:06 Speaker 2: in a very hasty manner, filled with that bluntness. See

7:13 Speaker 2: I know some people have that gift of being very blunt,

7:17 Speaker 2: but I want you to think about this. In the

7:19 Speaker 2: process of being blunt, don't cut off dice with people

7:26 Speaker 2: to whom you are actually called to probably preach the gospel.

7:31 Speaker 2: I still remember there was this incident where a person

7:35 Speaker 2: had brought her non Christian friend, a friend of a

7:39 Speaker 2: different faith to church for the first time, and after

7:44 Speaker 2: the service, they happened to meet another anti in church,

7:49 Speaker 2: and that antie ended up talking to her and asked

7:52 Speaker 2: her what is her name? And the minute she said

7:55 Speaker 2: this was my name, she said, oh, so you're not

7:57 Speaker 2: a Christian And that person said no, I'm not, and

8:00 Speaker 2: the antie, without even thinking about anything, she just said, oh,

8:04 Speaker 2: do you know that means you're going to Hell? And

8:07 Speaker 2: that girl was caught off god like she was like,

8:10 Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I what is this And she said,

8:13 Speaker 2: if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you are going

8:16 Speaker 2: to go to hell. Now tell me whether you are

8:18 Speaker 2: going to believe in Jesus Christ or not. And it

8:20 Speaker 2: went in a very bad shape, and that girl was

8:24 Speaker 2: completely sweary and petrified by whatever happened. She said, you

8:29 Speaker 2: know what, I'm never going to come back to church

8:31 Speaker 2: ever again and left. Guys, I wanted to understand something here.

8:37 Speaker 2: You may have a good heart, but in that process

8:41 Speaker 2: of having a good heart, don't forget that you have

8:45 Speaker 2: to speak the truth with love, not to close the

8:50 Speaker 2: opportunity to even reach them, but rather be somebody who's

8:56 Speaker 2: using every window of opportunity to sow the seed of love,

9:01 Speaker 2: to speak the truth in love, so that through that

9:05 Speaker 2: sowing of that seed, one day they may realize, Hey,

9:09 Speaker 2: that love was different. That person spoke with so much depth,

9:14 Speaker 2: that person really cared for me. And probably that might

9:19 Speaker 2: make the person to think what was different? Was it

9:23 Speaker 2: the Church? Was it their God? And maybe through that

9:28 Speaker 2: they may come to know the Lord. I want to

9:31 Speaker 2: pray that you will have this understanding. I pray that

9:34 Speaker 2: you will have this discernment. I pray that you will

9:36 Speaker 2: have this sense to say, you know what, I love

9:40 Speaker 2: to speak the truth, but more than that, I love

9:44 Speaker 2: to speak the truth with love, because by the end

9:48 Speaker 2: of the day, you're not called to win arguments and debates.

9:52 Speaker 2: You're called to win souls. And to win souls, you

9:56 Speaker 2: need to be in a position to win their heart

10:00 Speaker 2: and win they trust to listen to what you've got

10:03 Speaker 2: to say. Lord, I pray that this word will challenge

10:06 Speaker 2: those for watching and listening. In Jesus name, I challenge

10:10 Speaker 2: you to leave a comment and share this with someone,

10:12 Speaker 2: and I will see you back next time.

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11:13 Speaker 1: God bless you,