The Power of Influence
Throughout history, no one has had more influence on humanity than Jesus Christ. As followers of Jesus, He intends us to be men / women of influence.
I want to kind of explain for a minute how this is going to work this Spring, because this is a spiritual growth emphasis that we are doing in our church and so what is going to happen—
here on Sundays, I will be speaking on the Biblical principles of influence and we are going to look at what the Bible says about becoming a person of influence, understanding how God created you to influence.
throughout the week, there is going to be a different reading in the Bible that I encourage you to do on your own time. For example, today it’s the story of David from I Samuel, and we will look at that before we wrap up.
Because growth happens intentionally, there are some specific commitments I want you to consider. We won’t grow without some level of commitment.
Number one is—I will seek to expand my influence by asking God daily to grow me through prayer and Bible study. And so this morning I am hoping you will pray and say—God, expand my influence. Show me how to grow. And then you will read the Bible and these stories we are talking about as characters of influence.
Number two is—commit to memorize a verse – Matthew 5:16. Each week, during this series there will be a weekly memory verse selected to help each of us strengthen our influence. Historically, people who intentionally build God’s word into their lives grow spiritually and increase their influence in their world.
Number three is—commit to do some homework this week and read the story of David in 1 Sam 16-17. Learning how God has worked in the lives of others who have gone before us will give us the paradigm and encouragement that God will really work in ordinary people like you and I – He can – and is willing – to turn everyday people into individuals of great influence
Number four is – commit to continue to be part of this series leading up to Easter because you believe God has something that He wants to do in your life that is significant. Perhaps you will even want to invite someone, friend or family member to be part of this time. You can share your faith with others by inviting them to church.
As we know, our website has been huge for helping people find The Bridge, and we are grateful for it, but can you imagine how many more people’s lives could be changed if we had the same number of guests coming because they came with you, as those who come through the computer! I believe that every person needs to hear this idea of how God wired them to make a difference in the world, so we bring our friends so they can study along with us and discover what God may have for them.. You can take one of these cards to give someone as an invitation and take another to put that up as maybe a reminder for you to pray for this series, for you to pray for yourself and for you to stay faithful in these commitments that we are asking you to make.
Along with this, perhaps you will want to consider honoring God with my finances. I am probably not going to say a whole lot about that in this series, but that is part of how God expands your influence. God is examining how you use your money because He says, if you are not using your money in an influential way, then how can I trust you with even more important things? So, maybe you will decide to give for the first time to the church during this series, or you may want to increase your giving during the series
Today, we want to kick this off and I want to talk about the image that I have chosen for influence, which is that red domino that we talked about. I actually have a red domino (and I have one for each of you). In particular, the red domino represents the influential domino that starts this whole process.
So we are going to be exploring how our lives are kind of like a domino that when set in motion can influence all the people around us. And to do that, I want to introduce you to this idea of domino toppling. There are people all over the world, every day, who set up series of dominoes, and then they enjoy watching them fall. They actually keep world records of how many dominoes a single person can set up and fall in a continuous motion. I was surprised to learn that the record is held since 2003. It was a lady in China who set up 303,000 dominoes, and knocked them all over in a consecutive fashion one day. Then there’s a group record as well. And in 2008 a group record was set by a team in the Netherlands and they set up and knocked down over 4 million dominoes. It’s pretty incredible. Take a look.
Domino Video
Isn’t that incredible? It all started with that one little push.
I want to use this image, of a domino, and say that’s how our lives are. When we set our lives in motion, we never know how it’s going to expand and how it’s going to ripple out. At the top of your outline, I left a box for you to write down some lessons from the dominoes. Just think about what you just saw.
What are some lessons that would apply to life from that little domino exercise?
each domino is unique. It’s true of our influence.
Each domino has hidden power.
dominoes work best in conjunction with others.
Dominoes are very powerful when acted upon by an outside force.
there is incredible creativity possible when dominoes interact.
But today, I want to take you to a teaching of Jesus found in a section of the Bible, often called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus talked about how you and I have influence and He talked about the power of influence. He didn’t use a metaphor of a domino, but He talked about how our lives were like salt and light. So let’s look at that from
Matt 5:13-16
13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men (influence), that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (positive influence).
Let’s look at three basic truths about influence.
1. I am a person of influence.
I want you to begin to think of your life as an influential life.
Over the last 30-50 years, we have come to think of ourselves as rather insignificant. We have come to think of our lives at not really mattering, and we hear all the time I heard it yesterday as I was sharing the gospel with a man. Actually I shared the gospel with 2 men yesterday; one was homeless, and the other a business man. I found it fascinating, the homeless man knew his life was to make a difference the business man said he believed in evolution and ultimately his life was not going to make a difference. Over and over you find that when one person decides to use their life to make a difference, they make a big difference. And I believe sometimes, we have fallen into the trap of thinking—well, I don’t know if I have any influence. I’m not sure if my life can really make a difference.
Jesus said this, Matthew 5:13-14, “You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world.”
Now think about this. Jesus is sitting on a hillside and He’s teaching to the crowd. And in that crowd are leaders of the political realm. In that crowd are moms who stay at home with their children. In that crowd are people who are involved in business. In that crowd are fishermen, and tax collectors, all kinds of people from politicians to prostitutes, yet He says to them in the second statement—You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth.
What He is saying is—you are a person of influence. Every person is created by God for their life to matter. We’re were created in such a way that we interact with other people and people notice our life and our life gets noticed. I want you to begin to see that there are spheres of influence around you that you interact with and that you can make a difference in. In your notes, there is an exercise maybe for you to work on more when you get home than we have time to work on it right now, but think about your sphere of influence. Who are the people that you influence? Who are the people that you are coming in contact with? If you think of some names now, just go ahead and jot them down and maybe work on this a little bit later. Do you have brothers and sisters that you influence? married, you probably influence your mate. children,. relatives that. You have friends, your Meet-up group. Colleagues, people at work. vendors, or you work with people on the phone. you would probably be amazed how many people you have influence over.
Then if you start thinking about the six degree of separation idea that we all know in our world, every person is connected to someone else, then you will realize the ripple effect of your influence. That can be very powerful.
And you know, in our church, there are people in our church who are right now, or in the near future, will have great influence. And they will rise to positions in education, corporations, media or positions in government where they can influence entire cities, maybe entire geographical areas, or maybe even have worldwide influence. What I would say to you is that if God gives you that place of influence, then by all means, lead. Step up and be the person that God created you to be. Don’t hang back. Don’t be like the guy in the clip, don’t hang back.
(Braveheart Video)
And sometimes God will give you places of great influence, but even if you don’t rise to that level where you are leading a whole nation, or leading a whole city, all of us have influence. And all of have the opportunity every day to influence the arenas in which we operate. We get to influence a project that we lead. We get to influence people in our office. We get to influence the groups that we are around. And sometimes we can influence them with our actions. Sometimes we can change mindsets. Because people create all kinds of mindsets and stereotypes and you and I can be the people who step up and break those, even if it’s just on a smaller level. So, understand that when God gives you leadership, wherever it might be, don’t be afraid to exercise that influence, even if it’s just on a local team. Take a look.
(Remember the Titans)
We all have a choice of whether we will just use our influence to look out for ourselves or whether we will exercise our influence and make a difference with others. But we all have influence. Jesus talks about this. He says it is possible for us to lose our influence “…But if the salt loses its saltiness,… do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl…”
And the Bible reminds us that sometimes we use our influence in less than honorable ways.
Matt 16:6
6 "Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
Matt 13:33
33 He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amountb of flour until it worked all through the dough."
Now, yeast spreads, expands, grows, wherever you put it in, it will spread and it can be used for good or maybe for ill in certain cases. But our influence is to grow and expand as well. So I want you to understand truth number one—you are a person of influence. And that leads us to truth number two—
2. My influence expands through knowledge and service.
The goal of this series is to help you expand your God-given influence. So it is important that we understand how influence grows. It expands. If you think of your influence as a ripple that comes out from your life, like a concentric circle, some people have ripples, like we said, that carry all around the world. Other people have ripples that just go out to a family or to a community. And the way that you enlarge those ripples are through expanding your knowledge, deepening your service.
The thing about knowledge when it comes to influence is this—the more you know the more your influence grows.
When I worked in the corporate world, I knew that for me to go to the next level in my career, I would need to go back to school and work on another degree – but for me the thought of an MBA didn’t thrill my soul, and God had other things in mind. And some people have limited influence because they have limited knowledge.
This is why we value education – why we send our children to school, so they can gain knowledge and make a positive contribution to society.. The same is true for us, we must be life long learners -
If you want your influence to grow beyond where it is now, you have to gain knowledge beyond where you are now. Be a collector of new ideas. The Bible says:
Prov 8:10-11 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Prov 10:14 Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.
Prov 15:2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.
Will you ask God to open up your mind to some new ideas during this series? Will you go after some new ideas? Will you capture some new ideas about how God, my life, our world works. That maybe upside down to the way you may think the world works, will you be willing to learn and grow.
So it’s about the pursuit of ideas and knowledge expands our influence. So let’s gain some new knowledge during this series. Let’s go after some new ideas. But then also. . .
We also expand our influence through service.
15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, (they do something) and it gives light to everyone in the house.
Now, when we talk about expanding our influence through service, I have to give a qualifier because as we are going to see in just a moment, influence can be used in a very positive way and it can be used in a very negative way.
There are many people with great amounts of knowledge but use their influence in very negative ways – these are like terrorists – political, financial, social terrorists who are highly educated people with destructive influences.
I’ve noticed that people who use their influence in a very negative way, they grow their influence through power or through manipulation or through deception. But people who grow their influence and they use it in a very positive way, the common trait that they have is that they use their influence in the service of other people, for the good of others.
People who influence others in a positive way are ones who are willing to put the needs and interests of others ahead of themselves and serve them in some way. These are people who gain in influence over the lives of others.
So here’s maybe a question—how could you serve more people in a very positive way? Well, throughout this series, we are going to talk about how we can expand our service to humanity, so that as we expand our influence, we can use it for good. So what are some ways that you can serve. Jesus said it this way, it was counter-cultural then, it’s counter-cultural now. He said, “Do you want to stand out?” Then make a lot of money. No, that’s not what He said. He said, “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant.”
Matt 23:11-12
11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus says, the path to greatness is found through service. So how could we better serve? because the truth is, my influence expands through knowledge and service—that’s number two. Number one is—I am a person of influence. And that leads us to the third truth. . .
3. I choose how to use by influence.
Influence can be used in a very negative way or it can be used in a very positive way. And the good news is—you get to choose. One of the greatest gifts that God gives us is the freedom of choose.
I want to do a little survey. I want to call out some influential people. Some who have passed on and some who are still with us. Would you respond back if you think their influence was used for good—say the word “good”, or do you think they used their influence for bad.
I’ll start with some easy ones. Mother Teresa. Good. Princess Diana. Good. Martin Luther King, Jr. Good. Adolph Hitler. Bad. Osama Bin Laden. Bad. Michael Moore. Just testing you.
Now let me give you some of the more difficult ones. Hard to tell on some of these. You tell me what you think. Conrad Black. See, you weren’t quite as sure. . Okay. Warren Buffet. Good. Paris Hilton. Bad. Me. How about this one, Bill Gates. Good
And again, you see how that service, and all those folks are very knowledgeable. And those are some I just chose randomly. I bet we could pick some political leaders and maybe cause a fight right here in this room. Because we tend to view influence through our own lens. If they are positive in the causes that we believe in, then we think they are good. If not, we think they are bad. Then think about your own influence. How are you choosing to use your own influence. my guess is maybe you have been sort of apathetic about your influence. You haven’t chosen to go either way.
But let me give you a truth that I really don’t think you will hear anywhere else.
The truth is that when left alone, all of us tend to lean away from using our influence in a positive way. By ourselves, we all tend to either withdraw and not use our influence, or we tend to use our influence in a very selfish, kind of self-inflating kind of way. Now, part of that is, because you and I have this sin nature and we have a sin nature that we are always battling, and we want to do good, but the sin nature pulls us to do bad. But even when we decide to go do something good, unless we have people around us, unless we have a principle around us, unless we are following someone who can help us, we all tend to lean back into either that apathetic or even negative influence. Even the great Apostle Paul understood this. He was a great mind. He was providing great service, but he discovered it was law in his life that he tended to lean toward the bad instead of the good. Look at how he said it in
Romans 7:21. “So I find this law at work, when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”
Has anyone ever experienced that?
. We all experience that to greater and lesser degrees, sometimes it’s with these huge pulls of like addictions / compulsions , or whatever. Sometimes, it’s just the everyday pull of we decide to use our influence for good, but something inside of us just says—hang back.
I had a situation like that about a month ago.
Because I had decided to go do something good, but the pull was to just hang back and don’t do anything or do something negative. We all have fought that. We have all made decisions. Now, I’m going to Meet-up group this coming week, but then it comes time to go to group and I come home with a headache—well, I could just miss this, or they will understand, or this or that. Because we all fight this tension.
I need to define influence just a bit. In your notes, there are three words—influence, deception and manipulation. And people often confuse these three words.
Deception; the overpowering negative self takes over and you deceive people so that you can get something that is selfish. It’s all about personal gain.
Manipulation is when we orchestrate circumstances, and you begin to try to win at the expense of another person losing.
But what we are talking about is neither deception nor manipulation.
What we are talking about is influence. So the difference is motive and choice. What is your motive? You know, with influence, the motive is to do something good.
I believe that every person that is here today wants to use their influence for good. That’s why you are here in church. You want to use your influence for good. You want to make the world a better place. But then you have a choice. How will you step forward, how will you use that influence?
Because we all naturally tend to lean away from positive influence, we have to make some intentional choices to use our influence properly, because if you don’t make some intentional choices, if you decide to stay within yourself, you will find that you fall back into an apathetic or negative way of living. So here’s what I’ve noticed. We can’t rely on ourselves to lead us into positive direction. We need to follow something that is positive. Something that is stable.
I believe if you look back over the course of history, thousands of years, that you will find the most influential people of all time are those who didn’t follow their own internal compass, but they followed an external set of morals or principles, or they followed someone who is bigger than they are. You know, all throughout the Bible, you find this. You find the story in the Old Testament and even in the story of David that we are going to read of people who have choices. Will they follow the principles of God and the principles of Jesus, or will they fall back into other ways of thinking and settle for something less. I am, actually, going to argue in this series that being a follower of Jesus is the most powerful form of influence available. And its when you choose to follow Jesus Christ that you get outside of yourself and say—the way of Jesus is my way, It’s a set of principles. It’s a set of morals. It’s a way of living. Now understand, it’s more than that. It’s also a supernatural experience because when you decide to follow Jesus, you are not just adopting a set of guidelines, you are also experiencing a supernatural presence of God in your life that leads to forgiveness of your past. It leads to a future home in Heaven, and it also empowers you to use your influence today. But it is an external process. So you have a choice. So how will you choose to use your influence? There’s a great story in the Old Testament about a leader named Joshua. And his story is an amazing story of influence as well, but he is about to lead some people into the promise land that God has given them. Lead them into this better future that they have envisioned. But the people are constantly facing this battle. Will they go with God’s plan or will they settle for something less? So, in one of the great speeches in the Bible, in Joshua calls them to make a choice.
Joshua24:15, “But if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the God your ancestors served, or will it be the God whose land you now live. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Who are you going to choose to serve? You see, everybody is going to serve somebody. You are either going to choose yourself and fall back into this old way of thinking. or will you choose, what I believe is the greatest choice of all, to follow Jesus closer and say—Jesus, I’m going to follow You because You are the greatest person of influence ever, and I want to choose that path. What choice are you going to make?
I want to invite you right now to make some choices. Here at the beginning of this series, we are now off and running in this series, I want to invite you to make some choices. Some are small and some are large.
you will see on the back of the handout, it says—my next step today is to. Here are some choices. Would you ask God to help you grow spiritually this spring as you spend time praying and reading His conversation to humanity? Would you choose to memorize Matthew 5:16? In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Maybe read I Samuel 16 and 17, the story of David. I realize for many of you this is a very familiar story. But I also realize that for some of you, this may be the first time. And if you need a Bible, talk to me and I will get your one. Would you do that?
Then would you make a commitment to be here for the next six weeks of this series? I realize the gravity of that decision but I know that’s a choice that is worth making to say—God, I want to be here and I want to grow.
Then perhaps, what I would call the ultimate choice today, will you choose to become a follower of Jesus for the first time? I realize that many of you here are already followers of Jesus. But you have been thinking about that, and you are ready to make that decision today, that’s what being a Christian is all about. Saying—I’m going to follow Jesus.
I want us to read our memory verse from Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.” Seeing your good works is influence. Giving glory to your Father who is in Heaven, that’s positive influence, and Jesus says there is power in influence. How will you exercise it. Let’s bow our heads and pray together.
PRAYER
Father, we want to thank You that You created us so that our lives interact with other people. And God, even though sometimes we shrink back and we think that we are small and our lives don’t count. We realize that You created us to be people of influence. And God we want to use our influence for good. I believe that every person here wants to do that. So, Father, I ask that you bless each person here. Let them see just how much influence you have given them to make a difference in our world. Help us grow to know you and your ways better and how you would want each of us to be involved in serving others around us. Give us wisdom and courage to choose to use our influence to bless others and to honor you.
Now maybe you just want to pray, maybe just say those words I just said. Maybe just say—Dear God, I want to use my influence for good. I want to learn over these next six weeks how to expand my influence by gaining some new ideas, by learning how to be a better servant, and God, I want to choose to use my influence for good in a way that is going to help the most people in the best possible way for Your honor and for Your glory.
And then if you are not a follower of Jesus but you are ready to become one, maybe for the first time today, maybe just right now you want to say—Dear Jesus, I’m deciding to follow You for the first time. I realize it’s more than just following a set of religious guidelines or a moral code, it’s about a friendship with You. And so I want to walk with You and I want to get to know You. Help me to do that over these coming weeks, and coming months, and for the rest of my life. We pray together in Jesus’ name. Amen.