When Life Feels Like It’s Going Downhill.... Mount Everest Sermon Series | 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: in 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 gift podcast. If you've been checking

0:51 Speaker 2: out our episodes. For this week, we're doing a series

0:54 Speaker 2: based on Mount Everest to look at various lessons that

0:57 Speaker 2: we can learn from God's word regarding the same. Because

1:00 Speaker 2: May the twenty nine is known as Mount Everest Day,

1:03 Speaker 2: the day that Hillary and Tensing climb the summit for

1:07 Speaker 2: the very first time in nineteen fifty three. So here's

1:09 Speaker 2: the thing I want you to understand. One of the

1:11 Speaker 2: practical things that a lot of people struggle with is John.

1:15 Speaker 2: I know God has a big calling for me. God

1:17 Speaker 2: has a big plan for me. I understand that I'm

1:19 Speaker 2: thinking steps. I really believe that God wants to take

1:22 Speaker 2: me from one degree of glory to another degree of glory.

1:25 Speaker 2: I believe that the Scripture says in Proverbs that the

1:28 Speaker 2: path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter. I really

1:31 Speaker 2: believed and thought that God would take me higher and higher,

1:34 Speaker 2: that God will lift me up and take me to

1:36 Speaker 2: greater levels of my destiny, where in reality it feels

1:40 Speaker 2: like I'm going down. It feels like things are just

1:44 Speaker 2: going downhill in my life right now. Maybe you're feeling

1:47 Speaker 2: down and discouraged, But I want you to understand a

1:50 Speaker 2: very very important principle to understand from Mount Everest as

1:53 Speaker 2: well as from God's word on how this whole process

1:57 Speaker 2: would look like. See, I want you to understand when

1:59 Speaker 2: somebody wants to climb to the summit of Mount Terrist,

2:03 Speaker 2: there's not a straight way to the top. I want

2:05 Speaker 2: you to understand that right you're are just going to

2:08 Speaker 2: climb and keep climbing up. That's not the process, because

2:11 Speaker 2: you have to understand that this is over eighty eight

2:14 Speaker 2: hundred meters above mean sea level and there is literally

2:18 Speaker 2: the death zone. So your body literally starts dying because

2:21 Speaker 2: the oxygen level is only one third of what it

2:24 Speaker 2: is over here and it's not a safe place. And

2:27 Speaker 2: so your body needs to start adapting to that high altitude.

2:31 Speaker 2: And so if you're just deciding to go to the

2:34 Speaker 2: top in just one go, or if you feel like

2:37 Speaker 2: I want to land on the summit by landing on

2:39 Speaker 2: a helicopter or something, I want you to understand. You'll say, hey,

2:43 Speaker 2: I reached the top. In two minutes, you'll reach the

2:45 Speaker 2: top that is heaven. Because your body cannot adapt to

2:49 Speaker 2: that eye altitude, it's literally going to be killing you

2:53 Speaker 2: because it's known as the death zone. All right, here's

2:56 Speaker 2: the thing. I wanted to not be confused with the technicality,

2:59 Speaker 2: but I want to understand that is why they go

3:02 Speaker 2: through a process known as acclimatization. Right, even when somebody

3:06 Speaker 2: is moving towards the Everest base camp, what they do

3:10 Speaker 2: is they go through so many places like lou Clark

3:13 Speaker 2: and then you have thing buche Low Bouchet and gorrex

3:16 Speaker 2: HP and all of these different places and eventually reach

3:19 Speaker 2: the Mount Everest base camp. And in two places, one

3:22 Speaker 2: is known as Namchain and the other place is known

3:25 Speaker 2: as thing Bushey. What they do is they go to

3:28 Speaker 2: that place and during the day they go to an

3:30 Speaker 2: igher altitude and during the night they come back and

3:34 Speaker 2: rest at a lower altitude. So in that process, the

3:37 Speaker 2: body gets adapted to this higher altitude. So the next

3:41 Speaker 2: day they are able to go to an even higher

3:43 Speaker 2: altitude and then repeat the same process of acclimatization and

3:47 Speaker 2: they're able to actually adapt their body to an even

3:51 Speaker 2: aigher altitude. The same thing when they're climbing from the

3:54 Speaker 2: base camp to the summit, they're not going to go

3:56 Speaker 2: in a straight line. They go to camp one and

3:59 Speaker 2: then they get a admatized come back to the base camp,

4:02 Speaker 2: they go to Camp two, come back to base scamp,

4:04 Speaker 2: or so on and so forth till they are in

4:08 Speaker 2: a place where their body is ready to make the

4:11 Speaker 2: push to the summit. What I wanted to understand is

4:14 Speaker 2: in life, it doesn't make sense. My ultimate goal is

4:18 Speaker 2: to go to the summit. Why should I come down?

4:20 Speaker 2: Why am I going down? Why am I going to

4:23 Speaker 2: this level and coming down? Well, that is what is

4:26 Speaker 2: called as the process. We expect to just go directly

4:29 Speaker 2: to the top. But the process is if you try

4:32 Speaker 2: to go directly to the top, you will not be

4:34 Speaker 2: able to handle what comes at the height of your calling.

4:38 Speaker 2: You will not be able to handle the weight of

4:40 Speaker 2: your destiny. That's why the process involves you go into

4:44 Speaker 2: a certain altitude, coming down, adapting to it so that

4:48 Speaker 2: you'd be ready to go to an even higher altitude.

4:51 Speaker 2: See that's the way it has been designed. That's the

4:53 Speaker 2: way the process is. See even through the scripture. Let's

4:57 Speaker 2: look at the classic example of Joseph. He didn't go

5:00 Speaker 2: trade from the favorite son of his father to becoming

5:04 Speaker 2: the prime minister. What happened from this amazing mountain high

5:08 Speaker 2: moment where he is the favorite son of his father,

5:11 Speaker 2: he's going down to the pit. From the pit, he's

5:14 Speaker 2: going as a slave to a foreign land, to Potifar's house.

5:18 Speaker 2: And then what happens in Potifo's house. He eventually ends

5:22 Speaker 2: up becoming the leader. He is made in charge of

5:25 Speaker 2: the entire household of Fortifi. It's like, wow, a mountain movement.

5:29 Speaker 2: But what happens right after that is now thrown into

5:32 Speaker 2: the prison. He's going down again, and in the prison

5:36 Speaker 2: he gets the favor and he becomes the leader in

5:38 Speaker 2: the prison. But what happens again he's forgotten by the

5:42 Speaker 2: comparer and now he's in the prison for a long

5:45 Speaker 2: period of time. But long story made shot is eventually

5:49 Speaker 2: taken to the palace. So what I wanted to understand

5:51 Speaker 2: is when you look at Joseph's story, it's not a

5:54 Speaker 2: linear graft that takes him to the top. It's a

5:57 Speaker 2: craft that takes him up and then down, then coming here,

6:01 Speaker 2: going up and then down, being forgotten, and then again

6:05 Speaker 2: he's down and eventually at the unexpected moment, he's going

6:09 Speaker 2: up to the palace. So we expect to have a

6:13 Speaker 2: linear graph of life. The Lord wants to remind you

6:17 Speaker 2: that a parcel of your plan of God over your

6:21 Speaker 2: life includes moments when you go down. That's why the

6:24 Speaker 2: Bible says in Romans eight twenty eight that God makes

6:28 Speaker 2: all things work together for good. What does it mean

6:31 Speaker 2: when he says all things? It means there will be

6:33 Speaker 2: moments when you're going up and it looks great, it's awesome,

6:37 Speaker 2: it's exciting, and there will also be moments when you're

6:39 Speaker 2: going down, and that is also part of God's plan.

6:43 Speaker 2: That is also part of the process. Say I wanted

6:46 Speaker 2: to understand there are seasons in my life that were

6:48 Speaker 2: really not as easy as it should be. One of

6:51 Speaker 2: the classic examples, especially if we've been checking out my

6:53 Speaker 2: podcast for quite some time, I've shared this that last

6:57 Speaker 2: year was one of the hardest years in my life.

7:00 Speaker 2: There were so many attacks on my finances. There was

7:04 Speaker 2: a moment when I had a huge financial loss, and

7:07 Speaker 2: three months later there was an issue through which there

7:10 Speaker 2: was a mass layoff that happened in the organization, and

7:13 Speaker 2: I lost my job, and it looked like everything was

7:16 Speaker 2: going downhill. People were saying, Oh, maybe God is showing

7:20 Speaker 2: you something. Maybe all going wrong in the wrong direction.

7:22 Speaker 2: Maybe you made a mistake. God is punishing you. People

7:25 Speaker 2: said all sorts of things. But in the moment, I

7:28 Speaker 2: knew that God was leading me through it all. And

7:31 Speaker 2: can I tell you something. God gave me the grace

7:34 Speaker 2: to have the faith to hold on to Him, to

7:38 Speaker 2: hold on to his promises even through that. And right

7:41 Speaker 2: after two months after that, my health took on a toe.

7:45 Speaker 2: So yes, the thing it was like, one after another

7:49 Speaker 2: was going down from a time when I was actually

7:51 Speaker 2: thinking I was going up just before that incident. But

7:54 Speaker 2: here's the thing I want to understand in that process,

7:57 Speaker 2: the Lord started using me to get better and be

8:01 Speaker 2: more polished and bringing in more depth to the sermons,

8:06 Speaker 2: to develop my walk with Him in a deeper fashion.

8:09 Speaker 2: And I'm telling you the quality of the ministry, the

8:12 Speaker 2: production quality, and yeah, we are recording these podcasts at

8:15 Speaker 2: the studio. All of this happened in this period which

8:19 Speaker 2: looked like a downhill season. Can I tell you something,

8:23 Speaker 2: never neglect these downhill seasons, don't discount them, because those

8:28 Speaker 2: other seasons where God is going to keep you grounded,

8:31 Speaker 2: help you trust in Him more, depend on Him more,

8:34 Speaker 2: and that will prepare you to the next higher mountain

8:38 Speaker 2: that God has since toff for you. So right now

8:40 Speaker 2: you may feel like, oh my goodness, I just came

8:42 Speaker 2: to Camp one. I was expecting to go to Camp two.

8:46 Speaker 2: Now I'm going back to the base camp. Maybe God

8:49 Speaker 2: is just preparing you, and now we're going to be

8:51 Speaker 2: ready to not just go to Camp two, but to

8:53 Speaker 2: be ready to go to the summit. And I believe,

8:56 Speaker 2: decree and declare that if you're discouraged, if you're in

8:59 Speaker 2: a place where you're wondering whether you are really made

9:02 Speaker 2: a mistake, And that's why God is punishing you. I

9:05 Speaker 2: want you to be encouraged if with the minute you repent,

9:08 Speaker 2: God forgives and his plans for your life are not

9:11 Speaker 2: going to be withdrawn by just you making one wrong move.

9:14 Speaker 2: When you give your life into the hands of God,

9:17 Speaker 2: even those downward movements are actually God preparing you to

9:21 Speaker 2: take you to newer levels of the destiny that God

9:24 Speaker 2: has in store for you. I really hope you're blessed

9:27 Speaker 2: and encouraged by this word. Do leave a comment if

9:29 Speaker 2: you're checking this out on Facebook or YouTube. I also

9:32 Speaker 2: want you to share with this with someone so that

9:35 Speaker 2: they will be blessed and encouraged. And I will see

9:37 Speaker 2: you back very soon on the next segment. God bless you.

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10:40 Speaker 1: God bless you