Influence: The Least Likely To...
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
That word has become a catchword in our society. We hear of influencers all over, whether they make magazine covers or are the Twitter or Instagram darling of the moment.
We have an image that comes to mind.
Rich
Powerful and Positioned
Popular and Public
But in this lesson, we need to introduce a good measure of spiritual reality to the term “influencer.” That’s because Christian influence is more quiet, private, and potent. While others may influence fashion, fitness, or finances, Christian influence changes destinies.
What kind of attitude do we need to be a “spiritual influencer?”
Discussion
Discussion
Three Examples
Three Examples
The first comes out of the Old Testament. Many famous and powerful people, such as the Davids and Solomons, walk through its pages. Still, this morning, I want us to return to Israel in a time when they were intimidated by their neighbor to the north, the world power Syria.
Syria had made raids into Israel, where they captured slaves and extracted tribute from kings. They held them under their control.
So it seems strange when we come to a story found in ...
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”
So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”
But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Let me ask you a question. Who is the influencer in this passage? There are two suspects. One is Naaman, the powerful yet leprous general from Syria. The other was the prophet, Elisha. Let’s shine our spotlight on a background character.
Naaman could inflict damage, but his leprosy makes him an outcast. He could not command if he could not lead. So he came to Israel for healing.
But we meet someone just called a “young girl.” She was probably a slave because she had been captured in a raiding party and taken from her mother and father. She spoke up. There is a prophet in Israel, and he can cure you. And…Naaman boarded his chariot and rumbled south to this great prophet.
He was disappointed. He didn’t even recognize his stature. Instead, he sent a lowly messenger out to tell him what to to do. “Go dip in the River Jordan, and you will be clean.”
Clean? In that dirty river! Have you got to be kidding?
If he was such a great prophet, I expected a performance replete with hand-waving and incantations. But this, it’s pathetic. He was in a rage.
But cooler heads prevailed. The text says some of Naaman's servants spoke to him. I imagine this young girl must have been one of those voices. “If he would have asked you to do something huge, you would have done it. But he told you something simple. Why not do it?” And he was healed.
Who moved this leper and directed him to the prophet? An unknown little servant girl.
But the next two come out in John 1.
John the Baptist is pointing his long bony finger toward Jesus saying, “there is the Lamb of God who takes away sin.” It intrigues two men.
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
One is a man named Andrew, a fisherman from Bethsaida. He had a brother named Simon. Andrew must have been younger because he lived in Simon’s shadow. We know Simon by another name…Peter. He is more boisterous, and he commands more attention. And, more ink will be used to etch his name in scripture than Andrew.
But listen to what happens.
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).
How does the preacher of Pentecost get to his pinnacle? His brother, often forgotten and ignored, went and told him, “here is what I found.”
Then, we meet the second man, a man named Philip. Again, we know little about Philip, except he was from Bethsaida as Andrew was.
He has a friend named Nathanael. It appears that Nathanael was one of those people who is always skeptical and is looking for a good argument.
Nathaniel came to him.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
We have found him. That’s all he said.
But Nathanael was contrary. What’s interesting is that Philip did not argue with him, he merely said, “come and see.
Think about these three examples. A general found cleansing and two others found Jesus..all because of those who stand in shadows.
The Principle
The Principle
If we turn to Jesus, he puts focus on these three examples.
On the road, two disciples, James and John catch Jesus by the arm and have a request. We want the pre-eminent positions in the kingdom. In short, they are saying, “we want to wield some power.”
Then it turns ugly.
And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.
The other ten were grumbling, angry. Their pique probably came from their own ambitions and irritation that James and John had beaten them to the punch. They were acting like a hungry child on a car trip.
But how did Jesus meet this request for pre-eminence?
He gave them the requirement of service.
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
They were thinking like the Gentile big-shots. They wanted to be waited on and call out commands. After all, the model of leadership they saw was position to pontificate and force to coerce.
Jesus kicks their thinking upside down. Greatness comes from stopping low, not lifting high. He uses two terms that covers the countryside. You must be willing to be a servant because it might cause you to be a slave. But God sees it differently.
This paradigm—influence through serving others—was not a platitude because Jesus himself showed it.
The Model
The Model
Paul sat in a Roman prison where he got reports from one of his ministry supporters, the Grecian church of Philippi. It appears some are acting in contention and competing with each other. So, he writes the letter to force them to see their spiritual reality within a human world.
First, he gives them the answer.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Those are nice platitudes. After all, humanness takes them and points at others and says, “See, why don’t you do that?” Seldom do we see ourselves as needing the instruction of a passage like this. After all, I am humble. Let me tell you how humble. I don’t have selfish ambitions, but I do have the right answer. And, why should I take a backseat? Am I as important as anyone in this church?
If you’ve never been in a church fray, you haven’t seen it.
But Paul knew it quite well.
But instead of telling him, he shows them.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here is the Christian image of power. And its leader shows it best.
Jesus has the attitude of the servant. And it shows a single, overarching principle of influence:
You have to be empty to become full.
Jesus emptied himself. Some translations say, “he made himself nothing.” But how did he empty himself?
He emptied himself of self-advantage. Most people are making sure they take care of themselves first. They are protective. It’s not selfish, but it means we won’t do anything that puts ourselves and our position in jeopardy.
Jesus was divine with all the advantages of divinity. He existed in a timeless, painless, and unrestricted form. He did not need to sleep or eat. But coming to earth put himself at risk. He assumed the common cold’s threat, the pangs of hunger, and the twitch of temptation. He was born in the likeness of men, taking on all of our pains and problems. Think of the tradeoff he made.
He emptied himself of ego. Ego is about making me central. In fact, the word ego is the Greek word “I am.” We want to prove our importance. No one wants to be overlooked. Paul says that he “humbled himself.” It is a word that means bending low. Jesus could find the lowliest position in a room and sit there. He would, as John 13 shows, take the filthiest task, and make it his own.
Ego elevates self over others.
Two years ago, Vickie and I went to the State Fair. Not wanting to have to fight the traffic, we took the DART train. It was a Friday night, but I wish I had driven. As the park was closing, we made our way to the platform. We stood as the previous train filled and left. We were ready for the next one. The train arrived, the doors open and that’s when it happened. A woman behind us, who should have played linebacker for the Cowboys, put her shoulder into and started shoving. It was apparent that she was getting on this train even if she had to push someone onto the tracks.
That’s ego…wanting what I want when I want it.
He emptied himself of identity. Paul tells us that he took on human form. He did it not because he was wanted to but because we needed him to. We needed someone like us to show us how to live in this flesh. The Hebrew writer tells us:
He can sympathize with our weaknesses. The word means to feel the pain we feel. Jesus entered into our reality, the temptation, the trial, the trouble. In fact, he went further than we would. He cast aside a crown only to gain a cross.
To influence others, we have to enter their world. That may mean we have to become uncomfortable.
Listen to Paul speak about putting this into practice.
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
He molded to the mentality of others when he was reaching out to them. His goal was for people to be able to say, “he understands me.” That’s the power that fuels influence.
He emptied himself of taking care of self to make others better. The penultimate of this passage comes with the words “death, even death on a cross.” Think about what the cross did? It gave us the ability to be children of God, have sins forgiven, and live forever. He sacrificed his comfort for the good of the entire world, reaching down to even you and me.
When we seek to influence, our goal is to lift up the lives of others, even if it means we put our cares aside while we do it.
Most of the time, his is unseen and unnoticed, and we have to be good with the lack of notice and attention. Because someone else sees it. God does. While man put him on a cross, God put him on a throne. He gave Jesus a position high above all things. The truth is we go up by stooping lower.
A few weeks ago, I told the story of Joel Prusak on my daily devotional Morning Coffee.
Prusak has a small job at his local Dairy Queen. Usually, he is drawing up Blizzards to hold upside down or drizzling hot fudge over sundaes.
One day, he did something far more profound.
He watched a blind man come into the store. As he made his way to the register, he dropped a $20 bill out of his pocket.
A lady in line, thinking no one would see, stooped down, picked it up, and dropped it in her purse.
Prusak saw it. He went to the lady and asked her to give it back. She angrily and aggressively refused.
Prusak quietly opened his own wallet, took out a $20 bill, and handed it to the blind man. The man was grateful.
What Joel Prusak did not know is another customer witnessed it from afar. So impressed, this customer wrote a letter to the management of Dairy Queen.
It was posted on the DQ Facebook page and viewed by millions.
One day, Prusak received a call from one of the investors of the Dairy Queen chain. On the other end of the line was a billionaire named Warren Buffett. He thanked him and invited him to the next investor’s meeting. When Joel was announced, applause rang out as Buffett shook the young man’s hand.
That’s what influence does. God sees what we do and elevates us.
Are we satisfied with that?
Conclusion
Conclusion
The attitude of a magnetic Christian comes through in a single question.
How can I help this person become what God intended for him to be?
The people who make a difference in our lives did what we needed one for us. They were servants who did for us when it made little sense to do so.
But how do you know if you have this attitude?
You are not a servant if you complain about serving. Serving is hard. It, like Jesus shows, a heart to give up so much we hold dear. We are not servant-oriented if we keep complain of all that I have to do. When you complain about what you are doing, you are protecting your ego and cease to be a servant.
You are not a servant if you point out you are serving. People discover servants. But if we want people to see us, we quit acting as Jesus did and start asking for compensation. It comes in the form of sympathy or some other way to get noticed. Let people decide you serve and don’t worry about making sure they know.
You are not a servant if you have to be asked to serve. A servant finds the job and does it. That’s what Jesus did. In the upper room in John 13, no one asked him to wash feet. In fact, if someone had asked one of the disciples, I imagine they would be indignant. Find someone to help and do it, silently and lovingly.
It’s that attitude, that makes a difference in the lives of others.
Don’t ask Robert Peters of Tipton, Indiana because he won’t tell you. He is a delivery man for the local Pizza Hut. But Robert loves it..he has been doing it 31 years. And he is something of a quiet celebrity.
He gives. His attitude is when he delivers a pizza he may be the only face they see all day so he is happy and joyous. Tanner Langley, one of his customers noticed.
He describes a man who doesn’t feel right about thinking people owe him a tip. He wants to make sure so he will drive miles in a snowstorm to get change so he can return and give them the fifteen cents he owes them.
Tanner decided someone needed to help him. Peters was driving a worn out 1993 Oldsmobile. He went to the town to find someone to do something for this man who was so selfless. In just 3 days they raised enough money to buy Robert a new Malibu and supplied gas money for a year and insurance.
He makes an impact because he cares and he serves.
We are doing far more than delivery pizza. We are showing people where life is. Can we be the servant who points the way?