Be Your Own Person Do Not Be Swayed By Others

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being here today on this new year. Happy New Year. Today we’re talking about a great message, an inspiring message called “Be Your Own Person.”

So if you haven’t subscribed to the channel, please do so on YouTube. You can follow the podcast, you can follow us on social media as well. Also, check out our website socialmediaministries.com.

Be your own person, that is what we’re talking about today. This is very important and I figure the time is fitting because New Year’s is a time where a lot of people kind of go with the flow. We have a herd mentality going on. Oh everyone is staying up to watch the ball drop, so we all got to stay up till midnight. We got to go to a party.

Well, maybe I only want to stay up till 11. I’ll just watch the ball drop in New York. No, you got to stay and watch it for midnight when it’s our turn. What if you’re in California, you got to stay up till 1 to watch it when it’s your turn and they just keep replaying the New York New Year’s show or maybe they have their own.

There are all kinds of New Year’s Eve parties going on all the time now. But sometimes I just want to go to bed at like 9 O’clock. Why can’t you be your own person? This applies to New Year’s or any other situation in life. You cannot go to bed yet, it’s not bedtime. “Hey, I’m tired, I want to go to bed now.” Unless you have something to do and you are just going to bed as a way of procrastinating, that is a different issue.

But the point is to be your own person. God wants you to be who you are. He made you that way. He made you to be you. He didn’t make you to be like, “Wow that’s the Spencer Coffman guy. He’s got a lot going on.

I want to try to be more like him. I think I’m going to start doing some videos or I’m going to start doing some sermons or maybe I’ll write a book or I’ll do something else.” No, God made you to be you. He made me to be me.

Remember that you were made to be exactly how God wants you to be. That is your trick in life. You have to find out, how does God want you to be? Who does He want you to be? He made you who you are. He wants you to be who He created you to be.

Therefore do not be afraid to do certain things. We need to live not in fear, be not afraid, God is with us. Do not be afraid to do certain things. We had a whole sermon on “Be Not Afraid.” You can check that out, it’s a good one.

If you feel like God is speaking to you — if He is telling you to do something, He may be telling you in a dream, He might be putting this thought in your mind over and over and over again, or He might be using people in your life.

Maybe you’re going through something in your life and you’re talking to someone and one person suggests something and you’re like, “Okay thanks.” Then a day later another person who you haven’t talked to in a while suggests the same thing and you’re like, “Whoa that is kind of significant, two people suggested the same thing and they don’t even know each other.”

“Hmm, maybe that’s God trying to tell me something. Maybe I better start listening.” Maybe He is talking to you through the Bible. You’re getting things from certain texts you’re reading. The point is you need to be connected with God in order for Him to talk to you.

So if you feel like God is telling you to do something, do it. Do it, just do it. What a great slogan. Don’t worry about what other people think or say.

Let’s go to Philippians Chapter 2 Verse 3, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility. Consider others better than yourselves.” What does that mean? It means do everything for others. “Well, wait a minute, I thought we were talking about being your own person? Why would I do it for them?”

No, if God is telling you to do something, you are to do that thing. It doesn’t matter what others think about you; do it not on a selfish ambition or vain conceit, but do it in humility — valuing others above yourself. Not like you value their opinion, but you value them so you’re going to do something for them.

Don’t worry about what they think or say, you’re working for God. Remember, think about Noah. Do you think he was a very popular person when he built the ark? No way man, no way. Check out our Noah sermon series, that’s an excellent series for you to watch. You can do so by clicking on a card here. You can also go to our website, type in “Noah” and it will come up.

Noah was a man who was laboring for like 75 to 100 years before this flood even came. Can you imagine every single day doing something for like a hundred years, what would the people around you be saying?

“Ah, it’s just crazy old Noah at it again. He’s been building that thing for 40 years, nothing is gonna happen. We’re not gonna get any rain. He’s nuts. Yep, Noah has been building that thing for 60 years now. Are you gonna give up yet?” Can you imagine?

Look at the timeline. You don’t believe it? Let’s go to Genesis, this is incredible. Genesis Chapter 6 Verse 3, “Then the LORD said my spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal. His days will be 120 years.” That is 6:3, that’s when it began. Noah was given the instruction to build the ark.

All right now let’s jump to a different spot. Genesis 5:32, “After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” So we know that Noah was about 500 years old when God said I have had enough.

So Noah is 500. Then let’s go to 6:18, “But I will establish my covenant with you and you will enter the ark. You and your sons and your wife and your son’s wives with you.”

Okay, what does that mean? That is when Noah was commanded to build the ark. We know he’s about 500. Let’s go to Genesis 7 Verse 6, “Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters came on the Earth.”

Okay if he was about 500 when it started, his sons had just been born. Maybe they were teenagers when it started, maybe they were 20 or 30, we don’t know exactly how old when Noah was commanded. But we know he was 500 when he had them and he was 600 when the flood waters came and he was commanded shortly after.

So I mean we’re talking many years he built that. You can believe there were days when he wanted to quit but guess what? He kept working. What was Noah doing? He was being his own person. You can be your own person too, be different. We are Christians, the Bible calls us to be different.

If you don’t have light, you’re not being different. We need to have light in this world. If your world is full of darkness, then we aren’t bright enough. All right you can believe there were days when Noah wanted to quit, but he kept working, he was following God. He was working for the Lord. You can do the same.

We work for a heavenly purpose. Remember we don’t serve this Earth or this world. We have a sermon series, it’s about living for a higher purpose. There is a sermon about living for a higher purpose or a heavenly purpose. We are working for God. We have a different calling. Our kingdom is not here. We aren’t of this world. We’re of a heavenly kingdom. We work for Him.

So if God is telling you to do something for mankind or people of the world or humankind or whatever view you have, we’re all here. If someone is telling you, “No, don’t do that.”

Hey if God is telling you to do it, don’t listen to them. It’s God you got to listen to. Dare to be different. Don’t follow the patterns of this world. Remember, be transformed, and follow God, that is in Romans.

Let’s turn there, Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good pleasing and perfect will.”

Be transformed, renew your mind. What does that mean? It means you got to be different. When you have something and it becomes transformed and renewed, is it the same? No, by definition it’s new. New is different. It has been transformed.

That means it was one form and is now another form. It’s different, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you need to renew your mind and transform yourself and guess what — be different. You’re going to be different.

If you’re a person who grew up as part of your life and you’re a non-Christian and you became a Christian and now you follow Christ, guess what, you can’t go hang out with those non-Christian people. Why not? What if I am an influence to them? No, they were your old friends, they were your past life. You transformed, you’re different, you’re new. You need new friends.

Let’s say you are an alcoholic and you had drinking buddies. Now, you are not an alcoholic. You are sober. You want to go hang out with your drinking buddies? No, because guess what they are going to be like, “You were much more fun when you were drinking.” No, you can’t.

Let’s say you used to go to the clubs. Now, you do not do that because you don’t like it. You have kids and you don’t want to set that example. But your club buddies are going to say, “Hey you are so boring now, all you do is go to teachers’ aid meetings and softball games.” You got to get rid of those friends.

Same thing, if you’re single. You’re a single guy, you have a lot of friends that are girls — they aren’t your girlfriends, but they are friends that are girls. All of a sudden you meet the one. You get married. Guess what? All those friends that are girls, they gotta go. You cannot be friends with them anymore, you have your wife now.

You need to be transformed. You need to start making friends with other couples. You cannot have a friend that is a girl outside of your wife. No, it doesn’t work like that. Same thing if you’re a girl and you had friends that were guys in college or something. You can’t keep them once you get married. You need to be making friends as a couple. You cannot have your old friends that are guys, they need to go.

Be transformed, renew your mind, be different. God — if He’s talking to you, if He’s calling you, you gotta listen. Doesn’t matter what the world says, you live on a heavenly standard. Your kingdom is above, we are not of this world.

If you don’t want to celebrate New Year’s, stay up till midnight or any other holiday, don’t. Be your own person. Live your life to satisfy God. Don’t concern yourself with satisfying the people of this world.

We have one purpose and that’s to satisfy God and we do that through many other purposes and callings here on Earth. Remember we aren’t of this world, this is so important, we aren’t of this world.

Where do we see this? Let’s go to John Chapter 17. I love this, John 17 Verses 14 to 16 this is Jesus talking to God his Father. “I have given them your word and the world has hated them.” Well, wait a minute, yeah the world might not like you. You are different. “The world has hated them for they are not of the world, any more than I am of the world.”

You aren’t, as soon as you have Jesus in you, you aren’t of the world. “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world.” Jesus wants you to stay here. “But that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of it.”

You gotta stay in the world, stay in it when the going gets tough. You gotta grit your teeth and get in there. The harder it gets, the tough gets going. You’re tough. You gotta get going. Stay in the world. It’s like in football, they say when someone is coming at you, you don’t lower your head. No, you put your head down and you run through them.

You gotta get going. Someone is coming at you? Get in there. This is going to be tough. We’re not of this world. We are serving God, a heavenly Kingdom. We are in enemy territory, a foreign land and you got to get with the program. This is serious business.

Be your own person. Be filled with the light. People are not going to like you. You’re going to be too bright. Be salty. The Bible says be filled with light and salt. You want to be salt of the Earth. What is salt good for? If it’s no good, it loses the saltiness, trampled by men — it’s worthless. Don’t be worthless. Be salty.

Salty is now sometimes used as an insult. You are kind of salty today. Guess what, we like to be salty. Why? Because we’re full of flavor, full of the Holy Spirit. Be bright, be salty. People might not like it but as long as you’re doing it for God and God likes it, then that’s all that matters.

You gotta be different. Be transformed. Renew your mind. This is serious business, be your own person. Take the knowledge that you have learned over this past year. Hopefully, you have been following these sermons. Hopefully, you have been with us.

Take all this knowledge and be transformed. Use it to renew your mind and to dedicate this next year to say, “You know what, I need to be more intentional about being different. I need to work for God. I can’t follow the patterns of this world. I need to make sure that what I do, I do for God.”

Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, not for humans.” Okay, what does that mean? That means whatever I do, I will just kind of do it as a side hobby side-hustle? I do this, I preach and this is kind of like I just do this as a hobby? No, do it with all your heart.

I do this with all my heart. I’m pouring my passion into learning the Bible, into planning sermons, I got one page here, I got a paragraph that I am going on and I got verses that I’m talking and speaking and the spirit is flowing through me out my lips to your ears and it’s changing your life in Jesus’ name.

How cool is that? Do it with all your heart, whatever you do. Hey, are you a janitor? Clean those toilets with all your heart, because you’re working for the Lord. God does not want that sloppy. He doesn’t want a mess. He doesn’t want His children having to go in there and it’s a mess. No, work for the Lord, make it nice.

You do paperwork? Hey, you better be doing paperwork for the Lord. He doesn’t want any mistakes. God is perfect, you better have perfect penmanship, you better try really hard, no typos.

Of course, it’s going to happen, we’re imperfect people. Read some of my books, there are still typos in some of them no matter how many times I go through and I reread my book.

I’m like, “Oh man, another typo.” The process of fixing a typo is like hours and hours and hours of re-editing and costs a ton of money and it’s like is it worth it? No, so there’s going to be a typo. But continue to do it for the Lord and try as best you can.

Strive to be different. Be your own person and be who God created you to be. That’s all you can do and that’s what you should be doing. God made you to be who you are. Don’t try to be someone else. You’re unique, you’re special.

There’s not a single person in the entire world, how many people in this world, billions? I don’t know the exact number today, eight billion people, maybe, in the world. There’s not one like you. Are you kidding me?

If this was the only one of this Bible, do you know how rare this would be? That’s the only one, it’s rare. Do you know how valuable this would be? I could give money to everyone, it would be so valuable, it’s the only one. You’re the only one of you. Think how valuable you are. You are so valuable, so unique that you are irreplaceable.

This is significant. God made you be who you are. Own that difference, fill yourself with light, with salt, and be bright and be salty going into this new year living for God and who He wants you to be. Get out there and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Be your own person.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for making each and every one of us different to fill your plan and your purpose. Lord help us all to know and understand exactly who you made us to be, that we do not miss our calling. That we’re in tune with you, that we walk in step with your Word and your plans. I pray that in Jesus’ name.

Lord, I ask that each and every person out there would be transformed. That their mind would be renewed and that they would enter into this new year on fire, filled with light and filled with salt and ready to live for you, to work at everything they do with all their heart, not just a part of it.

With all their hearts filled with light and salt and on fire to go through this year with a transformed and renewed mind and spirit, living 100 % for you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanks so much for being here. Go forth in this new year taking it captive, being on fire for Christ. God bless.