Decide Who You Become

Who are you becoming?

Whether you realize it or not, every thought you entertain, every voice you believe, every habit you repeat, and every decision you make is shaping the person you are becoming.

In this powerful episode of Mission: ReMission, David Leister explores how our past wounds, failures, fears, and daily choices influence our identity—and how Jesus offers something greater: real transformation.

Through the biblical story of Simon becoming Peter, you’ll discover that failure does not have to define your future. Peter was impulsive, afraid, and deeply ashamed after denying Jesus, yet Christ restored him, recommissioned him, and continued calling him toward the man he was created to become.

You’ll learn how renewing your mind with God’s Word can help you break free from shame, confront destructive patterns, recover your identity in Christ, and make choices that lead toward spiritual growth, healing, purpose, and Christlike character.

Your past may explain some of your wounds, but it does not have the authority to determine your future.

The question is not whether you are becoming someone.

The question is: Who are you becoming—and what decision will you make today that agrees with the person Christ is calling you to become?

Truth In. Lies Out.

Learn more about Pillar Missions and its Christ-centered work in Liberia at PillarMissions.org.

What is your mission? And who does God say you are? In this introductory episode, David Leister introduces the vision behind Mission: ReMission, unpacking the biblical meaning of mission, the Great Commission, and our identity in Christ. Join us as we begin a journey of spiritual growth, discipleship, and replacing the lies of the world with the life-changing truth of God's Word. 

This isn't just a podcast—it's an invitation to walk together as we become more like Christ and discover the mission He uniquely created each of us to live. 

Transcript

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This is the Mission Remission Podcast. Who are you becoming? No, really, who are you becoming? And now you may not feel like you're becoming anyone different right now. You may feel in fact as though you're standing still. Just another nine to five, trying to make ends meet, dealing with disappointment. But none of us is actually stagnant, just standing still. Every day something is forming us. The thoughts we repeatedly entertain are forming us, the voices we listen to are forming us, the habits we practice, they're casting a huge vote in who we're becoming tomorrow, next week, and the years ahead. You know those old wounds, those traumatic wounds from childhood or that we refuse to confront, deal with, they're forming us. The offenses we continue rehearsing, they're shaping who we're becoming. The truth we receive is forming us. The lies we continue tolerating are forming us. So the question isn't whether you're becoming someone, the question is really who are you becoming? Welcome to Mission Remission again. I'm David Leister, and this is where we bring lies into the light and replace them with the truth of God's word. We recover hope and purpose and we learn to live on mission again. Now you are not merely living through your days. Your days are forming the person you are becoming. Now, did you know that the epidermis, that outer layer of your skin, is continually renewed in roughly a month? Old cells are shed, new cells rise to the surface, and the process continues whether you're thinking about it or not. So in one very real physical sense, in a month or so, you're gonna be a totally new person. And the same principles apply to our spiritual lives. We're already changing. Now, the question is whether the world will conform you or Jesus Christ will transform you. So the epidermis continually produces new cells and they move toward the surface and are shed over approximately four weeks, although estimates vary by age, location, and method of measurement. C.S. Lewis once wrote, Every time you make a choice, you're turning the central part of you into something a little different. So let's think about that for a second. Our choices do more than change our circumstances. Our choices are shaping our character. When you repeatedly choose honesty, well, you're becoming more honest, right? When you continually rehearse resentment in your life, bitterness becomes more natural. When you repeatedly choose courage, well, guess what happens, guys? Courage grows. We become more courageous. So you're not merely making choices. Rather, your choices are helping make you. So C.S. Lewis developed this idea in mere Christianity, arguing that the accumulation of our choices gradually forms the kind of person we become. When Jesus first met Simon, he looked at him and said, You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. You are Simon, you will be Peter. So Jesus acknowledged who Simon was at that moment, but Jesus also saw who Simon was becoming. He saw Peter before Simon knew how to live like Peter. You see, Simon was passionate and outspoken and impulsive, some say a brawler. He stepped out of the boat and walked on water, but then he became frightened and began to sink. He correctly declared that Jesus was the Messiah, but then tried to correct Jesus. He promised that he would never abandon Christ, but then denied three times that he even knew him. Peter stood outside while Jesus was being questioned. A servant girl recognized him. Peter denied knowing Jesus. Then came another person confronting him. He denied Jesus again. And then came the third denial the rooster crowed. And Luke tells us that Jesus turned and looked directly at Peter. But Peter had failed at the precise moment when he believed he would be strongest. He had not merely broken a promise. He had denied the one he loved. Perhaps Peter wondered, Is this who I really am? Am I nothing more than a coward? Have I disqualified myself if he used a term like that? But will this failure define the rest of my life? But Peter's story did not end in that courtyard. You see, after the resurrection, Jesus met him beside the Sea of Galilee. Peter had returned to fishing. Well Jesus prepared breakfast and had other plans in store, and sat with him and he asked him three times, Do you love me? Three denials, three questions, three opportunities to answer. Then Jesus said, Feed my sheep. Now Jesus did not pretend the failure never happened. In fact, he brought it into the light. But Jesus did not allow Peter's worst moment to become Peter's permanent identity. The man who denied Jesus in front of a servant girl, he eventually stood publicly and proclaimed the risen Christ. Simon did not become Peter in one dramatic moment. He became Peter by walking with Jesus, by succeeding and failing, by receiving correction, by repenting, that is changing, by being restored to who his true identity is, how God made him to be, and by continuing to follow. Resiliency. Jesus didn't define Peter by who he was on the night he failed. Jesus continued calling him toward the man grace was forming him to become. My friend, please hear me. Your greatest failure, it may be a big part of your story, but it does not need to become the title of your life. Does Peter's story touch any part of your own? Have you ever promised yourself that you would be stronger and then fallen miserably, faceplanted into the same behavior again? Have you ever responded in a way that frightened or disappointed yourself? Have you ever looked at something you did and wondered, is this like really who I am? Really? I did this? What's the matter with me? It may be what you did. It may reveal something that must be confronted. And it may carry real consequences. And there may need to be serious change, repentance, counseling, confession, or maybe it's something you've been a part of, partaken in, or done requires reconciliation with people you've hurt, requires accountability so you don't fall into that addiction again. Or serious healing for trauma you've been on the receiving end of, or maybe that you've caused. But what happened to you and even what you have done does not possess the authority to determine who you will become. You see, failure it's an event, but it does not have to become your identity. Friends, for far too many years I allowed the approval of other people to have far too much influence over my decisions, and far too much real estate in my head. I was often thinking about what people would say, what they might think, whether they would approve, whether they would misunderstand me, whether they would criticize the direction I believe God was leading me. Instead of performing my life story for the audience of one, I became too distracted by the meaningless chatter of the peanut gallery. And when you continually give other people that much influence, my friend, you eventually begin living a life that they may approve of, but the question is, is it the life God has called you to live? Now that doesn't mean we should ignore good counsel. Proverbs chapter 15, verse 22 says, plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed. Yes, we need wise counsel. We need people who love God, who love Jesus, know us honestly, and are willing to tell us the truth. I tell my daughter all the time that you want to surround yourself in life with people who are champions of you and allow you to be champions of them. These are the people who want nothing from you other than to see you live an abundant life in Christ. But there's a difference between receiving wise counsel and surrendering control of your life to the opinions of other people. Proverbs 1522 teaches the value of receiving counsel from multiple wise advisors. John Gordon wrote a book called The Energy Bus. And one of its central principles is you are the driver of your bus, your life. You must take responsibility for your mindset, your direction, and the energy that you carry. And you must also pay attention to whom you allow on your bus. Are you continually surrounding yourselves with pessimists, with naysayers, with drug users, with liars, scoundrels and cheats, immoral people, people who criticize every vision, every thought, people who look down on a particular people group, they magnify every obstacle. This is too impossible. The Debbie Downers, you know, they drain the courage out of every idea. Or, my friend, are you surrounding yourself with wise encouragers? Those are the people who pray for you and they pray with you. These are people who tell you the truth. These are people who will correct you when necessary, but do it out of love because they want to see you become the man or woman God called you to become. And these are people who recognize what God is doing in your life. So they see it may be an off-the-beaten path you're taking, but they're like, go for it, you've got this, and they're encouraging you. You know, Gordon's official description of the energy bus includes taking ownership as the driver of your bus. So we want to invite supportive people on board. And it's about guarding against destructive negativity. You see, we cannot control everything that happens to us. But under God, we are responsible for our choices and our boundaries, our direction, and the voices that we permit to steer us. So listen to wise counsel, but do not ever hand the steering wheel to the peanut gallery. Consider the story of Nicky Cruz. As a young man in New York City, Cruz became a leader in the feared Mau Mau street gang. So violence and anger and hatred were not simply things surrounding Cruz, they were shaping the very person he was becoming. But then a young preacher named David Wilkerson entered his world. Cruz threatened him, that was his response. But Wilkerson refused to cower. He refused to respond with fear or hatred. He continued showing Cruz the relentless love of Jesus Christ, and eventually that love broke through. Nicky Cruz surrendered his life to Christ. The young man who had been becoming increasingly violent became a preacher of the gospel. He spent decades telling wounded, angry, and forgotten people that Jesus could change their lives. Christ didn't just improve Nicky Cruz's behavior. Christ gave him a new identity, a new direction, and a new mission. Now, did all the bad stuff he'd done in his past simply vanish? Well, no, but through his surrender to Christ, they became powerful parts of his testimony in the new man he was then becoming and he became. And you, my friend, can experience the same freedom from the bondage of past sin, failure, trauma, violence, whatever vice, whatever evil manifest in and through you, maybe even done by your own hands and own will. Today you can lay it all at the foot of the cross of Christ and surrender to him, or recommit your life to him and radically start becoming who God made you to become. You can do that right now. Now, as far as what happened to Cruz, the same intensity that once fueled his destruction then became fuel for his ministry when it was surrendered to Christ. The lie because of what happened to me, or because of what I have done, I will always be this way. I don't deserve change. Maybe the lie sounds like I'm too damaged to change. It's too late. I'm too old. Whatever it may be. My family's always been this way. I'm too German, I'm too Italian, I'm too whatever. I'll always struggle with this. God may forgive me, but He can't really use me. So I'll just live a defeated life and coast, hope I don't take too many hard knocks and just wait till I get to heaven when it'll just be paradise. Man, that is no way to live. All things are new. You are new, you are forgiven in Christ. You are called to live out heaven on earth now. You are called to live victoriously today. Start living out those promises God has for you through Christ Jesus. Don't wait till heaven. Become the man or woman that God has called you to become. You have every bit of potential and your spirit renewed, and Christ has every equipping for you to reach your potential, to become a mighty, powerful source of light for the gospel in this world. Doesn't matter what you've done in your past, doesn't matter how much money you have in your wallet today, in your bank account, if you're in debt, what you're battling in addictions or whatever it may be, maybe divorced, you can begin again. Today's the day. You can literally write a new chapter. Tomorrow you can start becoming the person who deep in your soul, you know, is there, that seed is there, ready to just to germinate, to cultivate and just to blossom and flourish, and those dreams come out, and you just are going to look back one day and say, Lord God, how in the world did I get here? I heard this missionary mission episode three podcast and look at me some days later. Well, not trying to give credit for anything, but I really do hope that this episode gives you an encouragement, friends. No matter where you are, how stuck you feel, how many face plants you think you've done, how many naysayers there are, you may not have but one voice, your own voice in your head or Holy Spirit whispering to you, that's more than enough. Make the decision. This is your life. Take the steering wheel of your bus. All right? That's for you to decide who you're becoming. Don't let life decide. Don't let fatalism do it. Don't let the enemy do it because he gladly will. He'll entice you with all kinds of material stuff and other nonsense. Surrender to Christ. Here's the truth. Romans chapter 12, verse 2 says, Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So Paul presents two different directions. One is conformity, or the other is transformation. So if we live passively, we just accept defeat, we accept that fatalism, that this is just how the world is, quesada seda, the world will gladly, gladly form us. And it's going to form us, it's going to form our direction of success. I remember a Jim Rohn quote, famous motivational speaker, leadership speaker. He once said that if you don't have a plan for your life, you're most likely going to fall into someone else's plan for your life. And guess what they have in store for it? Not much. So in other words, if we live our lives passively and we keep down this path of least resistance and aren't willing just to surrender to Christ or to start working on ourselves and putting in that work, we're going to find ourselves someday thinking, how did I end up here? We don't want to say, How did I end up here? We want to ask, how did I end up here? Only God. There's a difference between how did I end up here? And how did I end up here? Wow. I want that second version. I'm sure you do too. We get to choose whether to forgive, whether to confess, repent, obey God, seek help for whatever we need help with, counseling, therapy. We get to decide whether to invest in the love of Christ. If you're married like me, Dr. Gary Chapman says that when we get in relationships, we get the tingles, and that love is so passionate, it's on fire, and then two years in the marriage, you start to the love transforms. And if you don't invest in the love, if you don't pour into it, then guess what? It just kind of dwindles. So you have to keep investing in that love. You see, we we don't manufacture Christ-likeness through willpower. The Holy Spirit performs the transformation. You cannot transform yourself through willpower alone, but you can choose what you surrender to. And the Holy Spirit transforms what is surrendered to Christ. My past may explain some of my wounds, some of my mistakes, but it doesn't determine my future. I've made that decision. And in Christ, my mind can be renewed. My life can be transformed, so can yours. And our pain can be redeemed. Now here's one thing I want you to do after this episode. I want you to complete this declaration or something similar to it. Say, by the grace of God, I am becoming someone who blank. Or I will no longer allow blank to hold the steering wheel of my life. Or how about today I will make this one choice blank. Take all three of those, if you will, and just fill in something that God puts in your heart. You know, like by the grace of God, I am becoming someone who responds with faith instead of fear, or with a kind word instead of condemnation. I will no longer allow the approval of other people to hold the steering wheel of my life. Or today I'll make the decision God is asking me to make, even if someone else doesn't understand it. Or here's another short example. By the grace of God, I'm becoming someone who forgives rather than rehearsing resentment. Or I will no longer allow old offenses to steer my emotions. How about this? I'll no longer allow my emotions to determine my destiny. By the grace of God, I'm becoming someone who tells the truth. And I'll no longer allow fear of rejection to steer my decisions. Today I'll have the honest conversation I've been avoiding. Write your declarations down, my friends. Why don't you read it every morning? Let's do this together. Let's do this thing. It's probably good practice for every day, and we can read renew these statements. As we get better or stronger in one of them, they become habitual truth, then we can replace them with other ones. My friend, receive wise counsel, but do not surrender the steering wheel. Choose one direction, one Christ-like quality and one faithful action. Now, missionary mission is about more than personal healing. God restores us so that restored people can become part of his restoring work in the world. And to learn more about pillar missions and our Christ-centered work through education, feeding, medical care, churches, and just discipleship in Liberia, Matthew 25, 40, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. That applies directly to our ministry in Liberia. And our 600 students we serve in the patients of the Poe River Medical Clinic that have no other recourse for medical care. This is Pillar Missions. Please visit PillarMissions.org. That's PillarMissions.org. And I want you to call me, my friend. Call me at 732-484-9030. Again, 732-484-9030. Why? Because I want to get to know you. I want to hear your heart. I want to bless you and pray for you. I want to be a blessing as you'll be a blessing to me. Now, in closing, Jesus met a man named Simon, but he saw Peter. He saw the impulsiveness. He saw the fear. He saw the coming denial. But he also saw the preacher who would one day stand on the day of Pentecost. He saw the shepherd. He saw the leader. He saw the man Simon was becoming. David Wilkerson looked at a violent young man named Nicky Cruz. Others saw threat and probably ran away. Others saw a criminal. Why waste time with a thug like that? Others saw someone who could never change, lost cause. But through the eyes of Christ, Wilkerson saw a life that could be redeemed. And Jesus sees you. He sees where you are today. He sees your pain, the wounds that need healing. And he's ready to perform that surgery through his word. He sees the habits. He hears the chatter that's been living rent-free in your mind. He knows the regrets you have. He wants to remove them, place his yoke upon you, his burden is easy. Matthew 11, 28. He knows the failure you wish you could undo. He gets it. And he's wept with you. He still does. But he also sees what his grace can produce in a life that remains surrendered to him. You are becoming someone, my friend. You may not become perfect tomorrow, of course not. Who will be? You may still carry the scars, of course. You may occasionally stumble. Guess what? We all do. But your wounds and your screw ups, they don't have to steer you. Your failures don't have to name you. The pessimists do not get the steering wheel in your life unless you give it to them. Why would you do that? Stop doing it. Give them the boot off your bus. Say, take a hike, call an Uber. The naysayers do not get to choose your destination. Say that. The naysayers do not get to choose my destination. And the peanut gallery, the crowd around us, they don't get the final vote. You are called to live your life before the audience of one that is the Lord your God. So receive wise counsel. Invite encouragers onto your bus, that is, into your life. Listen to people who love God, who are courageous enough to tell you the truth, that want to see you put in the hard work to become the man or woman God has called you to become. But remember that God has entrusted you and only you with the responsibility to choose, guess what? Your life direction. So let me ask you one final time. Who are you becoming? And who or what have you allowed to steer the person you are becoming? Take the wheel back. Surrender it to Jesus. Let Jesus be your co-pilot. Man, it's good stuff, isn't it? I'm gonna be a new man today after this. And let's make one decision today that agrees with the person Christ is calling us to become. As always, my friend, stay in Christ. Keep bringing the lies into the light and replacing them with the truth of God's word. And remember, you are becoming someone. And you get to decide who. By the grace of God, choose today to become more like Jesus and live your life abundantly into the fullest. And until next time, this is David Leister, and this has been Mission Remission.