A Sermon
Delivered on Wednesday Evening, October 8th, 2025, by Evangelist PAUL ACQUAH,
Live on MZ Radio London, London UK.
Every day, we are surrounded by voices – voices from society, family, media, and even our own thoughts – all trying to tell us who we are and what we’re worth. These voices can be loud and persuasive, often shaping how we see ourselves and how we live. But as believers, our true identity is not found in what others say or in how we feel; it is found in what God says about us. The words God has spoken about us carry eternal truth and power. So, the choice to believe, uphold, and actively align our lives with God’s description of us is not merely an act of faith; it is a profound act of honour to the One who spoke it. Will you choose to believe what God says over the roar of every other voice? In today’s message titled “God’s Word Defines You,” Evangelist Paul Acquah invites you to make the single most life changing decision you can ever make. Be blessed as you listen!
We need to honour or value what God has said about us. That means we honour God’s word and what he says about us. Honouring God’s word or taking God’s word seriously is a major component of the gospel. In fact, honouring God and his word may be just as important in terms of receiving from God as faith is. Choosing what God says about you has a very important place in our society and in our personal lives and our relationship with the Lord.
John chapter 5: 39-44 says : You study[c] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. 41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God[d]?
Jesus had already said that the witness of His Father was His greatest testimony of who He was. Everyone can hear God’s testimony of Jesus through the Scriptures. Moses and all the Old Testament prophets spoke of the coming of Jesus. In verse 44 he starts off by saying how can you believe. It’s impossible for you to believe because you receive honour from one another. You don’t receive honour from the only true and living God. What’s interesting is that word ‘honour’ in this text of scripture is translated glory in the New Testament and it means view, opinion, estimate, and dignity.
Jesus valued his sense of self-worth, or his self-esteem from God. It did not come from man. In his life, Jesus experienced a lot of resistance, trials and troubles and life was not free of problems. Life was not just laid out for Jesus perfectly. There were a lot of people that resisted him. They did not believe he was the messiah. They did not believe he was a prophet. They did not believe in his ministry. So, he didn’t receive honour or his sense of dignity from men. He says that he received it from his father. One of the interesting things is that, he says how can you believe. So, the source of our worth, the source of our dignity, the source of our value affects our faith and our ability to walk with God and where he wants to take us. The source of where we get our esteem from, how we view ourselves, what we believe about ourselves has to be proportional to what God is revealing to us that he wants to walk us into.
If God is showing us something and we feel like we’re not worthy to walk into that, or we’re too small to walk into that, then we won’t walk into it, and that means we’re going to be self-limited. We must allow the Lord to reveal our worth to us, to help us to estimate who we really are, to reveal the value of who we truly are. Allowing him to do that will inspire faith in us to actually walk into the things that God has for us and to go to the places that God wants us to go. Understanding how God honours us, and views us, his opinion of us is extremely important. You can never be in a place where you allow the opinions of people to become the mirror and how you see yourself. You must only allow the opinion of God to become your mirror regarding how you view and see yourself. We can’t seek approval from people, we can’t seek even honour from people, we can’t look at people and say what they think about me and that’s what we think about ourselves. No, we must look at God and say what does God think about me and that becomes how we think about ourselves.
So, let’s look at Jesus again in Mark chapter six and see how he responded. “Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph,[a] Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him” (Mark 6:1-3).
The bible says they were offended at him. I remember when I first read that I was wondering well there’s a lot of good things they just said about Jesus. So, what offended them? They were astonished at his teaching, and the wisdom that he brought forth, the mighty miracles that came about. Jesus was blessing them, he was helping and serving them, he was giving them something precious. He wasn’t taking things from them, and he did it with the right heart. He came to his own, he came from that place and had gone out and made a name for himself. People started to know who Jesus was and now he’s coming back home to do the very same thing he’s done in all these places at home. He didn’t forget where he came from. He said I want to come back home and help my own people. I want to serve my own people; I want to be a blessing. I’ve been a blessing all around Israel, I want to go back and be a blessing to the people that I grew up with and the place that I came from. I want to give back to the community that raised me. But the bible says when he did that, they did not receive him. The bible says they were offended at him.
I was wondering, why were they offended? They had their way of esteeming Jesus. Their view of Jesus, or opinion of Jesus was that he’s a carpenter, he’s the carpenter’s son, he’s the son of Mary. We know his family, so how dare he sees himself as a prophet, a messiah, and how dare he believes that he’s the Christ. How could he have such a view and opinion of himself. What gives him the audacity to think that he could come from this place and walk in purpose and destiny and fulfil the calling of God on his life. He should be just like one of us,
So, Jesus’ success is what offended these people. The Lord using Jesus is what offended them. The father bestowing his blessing and stamp of approval offended these people. They wanted to draw him back and pull him and put him in that box to say no, Jesus you’ll never be anything more than a carpenter. We know who you are, you’ll never be anything more than the son of Joseph and Mary. So, Jesus had to choose what God says about him. He said I don’t receive honour from men and approval from men. I receive honour from the father, my view or opinion I have of myself comes from the father, it doesn’t come from even the people that raised me or the people that I grew up with. How I value myself, or what I’m worth doesn’t come from people, it comes from the father. Jesus had to choose what God said about him in his own life, and we have to do the same in our own lives as well. A lot of times people can be familiar with you, and they think they know you because they’ve worked with you or whatever it may be. They’ve had some interaction with you, and they’ve evaluated you and estimated in their own mind and heart who they think you should be and who they think you are. They’ve boxed you and put you in a particular place in their heart. But God says that you can’t allow yourself to go into that place in your heart. Just because that’s where you are in their heart doesn’t mean that’s where you should be in your heart. You should be where you are in the father’s heart. Look at how Jesus responded in Mark chapter six verses four to five: 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith. So when people refused to honour Jesus, they limited what they could receive from Jesus and so honour is right up there with faith in terms of receiving from God.
