Influence week 1

When we begin to talk about how to influence a culture. How to influence a city. Influence a nation. Influence a home. Influence a family member or influence an enemy we must understand and comprehend that it's only through the Word of God that we're able to do that. Only the Word of God will leave that kind of influential legacy and purpose.

Influence-the capacity to have an affect on the character, development, or behavior on someone or something. 

1.      God's Word can never be shaken.

1.      With great influence comes great responsibility.

2 Kings 15:8-9 NLT [8] "Zechariah son of Jeroboam II began to rule over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of King Uzziah's reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria six months. [9] Zechariah did what was evil in the LORD's sight, as his ancestors had done. He refused to turn from the sins of idolatry that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit."

2.      Zechariah was an evil king because he encouraged Israel to sin by worshipping idols.

3.      Sin in our lives is serious.

4.      But it is even more serious to encourage others to disobey God.

1.      We are responsible for the way we influence others.

5.      Your influence in the lives of others is paramount.

1.      Subsequently the influence you allow into your life is just as important.

1.      Influences can make or break you.

2.      They can make or break a marriage, a business venture, a relationship or a ministry.

3.      They can destroy a culture or build one up.

1.      What influences are you pouring out?

6.      Zechariah was warned by the prophet of God, Amos, of his impending death and the subsequent end of his fathers dynasty.

1.      Instead of repenting, instead of honoring God he chooses to stay misaligned, misguided, worshipping false gods, and influencing others to do they very same.

1.      Idols-an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

7.      Idols are all around us.

1.      From our personal image to the personal image of those around and about us.

1.      We are intrigued, infatuated, and engrossed with our self images.

1.      No one made the New Year Resolution I'll take less #selfies because I'm sick of me.

2.      Secondly, we are flagrantly and excessively overwhelmed with the image of others.

1.      From their social media statuses to their ownership of things, to their experiences.

1.      We live in jealously, envy and the extreme temptation to be something we're not.

2.      We worship it, adore it and many times continue to invite it in even after overwhelming and continued abuse.

2.      God's Word will never fail us.

Genesis 6:9 NLT "This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God."

1.      Now to say that Noah was righteous and blameless does not mean that he never sinned or that he was perfect.

2.      Oh, he sinned and as a matter of fact it's recorded in scripture.

1.      How would you like that?

1.      I'm not sure I would appreciate my sins being part of God's word of instruction, word of hope, and word of correction with me as a main character and one of the great accounts of me are what not to do.

3.      What this does mean is that Noah wholeheartedly loved and obeyed God.

1.      For a lifetime he walked step by step in faith as a living example to his generation.

1.      We like to only remember his failures and not his successes because that's what humans do sometimes.

2.      Like Noah we live in a world filled with evil.

1.      Are we influencing others or being influenced by them?

4.      We have a grave responsibility to influence correctly.

1.      If others all around us, if our entire generation refuses God, rejects His salvation we still have a great opportunity to engage righteousness and walk blameless before a holy and perfect God.

5.      Noah's decisions and influence saved the human race from complete and utter extinction.

1.      Great churches and great leaders don’t try to balance reaching people and keeping people.

1.      They’re willing to live in the tension that the call of the church is to reach outsiders and impact insiders.

1.      It’s not one or the other…it’s both and.

6.      The church is a Hospital, not a Country Club, always has been, always will be.

1.      Some try to make it about them but the church will always be about Jesus.

1.      And the church that is about Jesus will always be about people, all people.

7.      It is a natural thing for Christians to want to be around other Christians.

1.      Something special happens in the company and fellowship of other believers.

2.      We can worship freely, study deeply and communicate clearly.

1.      But how well are we engaging those who aren’t Christ Followers?

8.      It’s fascinating that a lot of Christians don’t seem to like non-Christians, often referred to as the lost or the unchurched.

1.      Many times we want to keep away from messy people, completely missing the obvious that we are messy as well.

2.      Christ's influence required His presence.

1.      Jesus being present in the lives of others made the ultimate and drastic difference.

9.      Who’s on your friends list?

1.      It’s interesting that after coming to Christ and growing in knowledge, we often distance ourselves from former friends.

2.      We seem to have less time for the hurting and struggling.

3.      We’ve found the thing that meets the need in our lives, but keep our distance from those who need the very thing we’ve found.

1.      Our needs get met and we move on, oblivious to a world that is falling apart all around us.

2.      I don’t think this separation is intentional, but it happens, and in the end, intentions don’t matter.

1.      Jesus lived differently.

3.      God's Word is a fire in my soul.

Genesis 8:20-22 NLT [20] "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. [21] And the LORD was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, "I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. [22] As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."

1.      Never stop building an altar unto God.

1.      It'll be unstoppable strength to you.

2.      And you'll be an ever flowing power to those around you.

2.      Stop paying so much attention to what others do, you do right, you live right, you honor God, you serve Him well.

1.      He is our salvation and deliverer.

3.      One of the common criticisms Jesus faced was that He spent too much time with sinners.

1.      How many of us could be accused of spending too much time with the unwelcomed and unappreciated?

2.      Accused of spending too much time with the "riff raff."

Jesus knows “bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33

1.      No one better understood the importance of spiritual maturity, scriptural knowledge, a robust prayer life and positive influences than Jesus.

2.      But He also knew these things were not for His personal benefit, but need to be shared with the lost.

4.      The Christian life is not about safety and comfort, but rather about finding yourself in a dangerous place of vulnerable compassion.

1.      Personally, I came from a dysfunctional family.

2.      One day, I was talking with one of my kids about the dysfunction I experienced growing up. That kind of life is hard for them to imagine though we have our own issues our family doesn’t experience those kinds of dysfunction.

1.      They asked why some families go this way and others go the way of dysfunction. I said there are several factors that determine personal and family stability, but in our case, we were changed by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

5.      I know what it looks like to be in the mess of day-to-day dysfunction.

1.      I praise God my kids don’t deal with the problems that come from such brokenness, but I think they may, in a sense, be representative of what many Christians experience—they don’t know what it’s like.

1.      Many Christians that have grown up in a Christian home forget there’s a hurting world out there.

1.      We drive through it on the way to school, work and church, but we don’t come to terms with the vast brokenness surrounding us.

1.      Hurting people are all around us.

2.      Opportunity overwhelms us.

3.      Responsibility surrounds us.

4.      God's Word is revelation.

1.      The true test of our Christian maturity is not measured in how much we leave behind, but in how much we love.

1.      That’s why, “We’re going to be a church that cares about the hurting and serves those in need, showing the love of Christ to those lost, confused and broken.”

2.      The Way of Christ and His Church is about serving and saving.

1.      I’m awestruck by the fact that Jesus talks about His ministry in two very different but imperative ways.

Luke 4:18-19 NLT [18] "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, for He has anointed Me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, [19] and that the time of the LORD's favor has come."

1.      Jesus came to serve.

1.      In fact, this type of ministry was a sign that He was the Messiah.

2.      Prophecy was being fulfilled as He showed kindness to those who were hurting.

1.      Throughout Scripture, we see the work of Christ among the widows, the blind, the broken—whoever had a need.

2.      Jesus served with compassion.

1.      Some people need a title, a badge, a pat on the back or a gift of appreciation to serve.

2.      Jesus only desired a need. 

2.      Jesus came to save.

In Luke 19:10, Jesus declares, "I came to seek and save the lost."

3.      And the same Jesus who came to serve and to save then says to us:

John 20:21b NLT "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you."

3.      We have been sent by Jesus to join Him in His mission.

1.      Connect to His influence.

2.      He came to serve and to save, then so must we.

4.      We are to serve others in His name, and we are to share the good news of salvation so that people might trust in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross—His death in our place, for our sin.

1.      Serving and saving were marks of Christ's life on earth.

2.      They should be marks of His people as well.

1.      But to do that, we must engage the broken and hurting people around us.

5.      How do you engage the hurting?

1.      What have you done to insulate yourself from the brokenness around you?

2.      Are we so concerned about how people view us that we’ll never be accused of spending too much time with sinners? 

1.      Jesus saved the hurting, the broken, the lost and confused.

2.      That's the way of the Gospel.

1.      That’s hard, that's a tough and challenging mission for the Christ Follower.

1.      Listen, a church without the broken is a broken church.

2.      Lemme say it again, a church without broken people who need healing, guidance, strength, deliverance and restoration is a broken church.

1.      The church without Christ followers who are engaged in that mission and embroiled in that cause is a broken church.