Influencing
Notes
Transcript
Well I knew Mothers Day was coming up when I was preparing this message and I decided to google “Worlds Best Mothers”
And as you can imagine there were a ton of different anwsers but most of the mothers were famous
Some were saying Jennifer Lopez was the best
Some were saying Kelly Clarkson
Others were saying Beyonce
A lot of people were saying Mariah Carrie (Which I do love her Christmas album so I get)
And the answers kept going on and on
But barried somewhere on the list was a woman I have never heard of named Irena Sendler.
and I was reading who she was and she was a mother to three biological kids but her impact was so much greater than just that of her kids.
Because Irena was a young adult living in Polland during World War 2
And shortly after the Germans invaded Polland she decided it was her job to smuggle Jewish children out of an area that the germans controlled and place them in areas where they would be safe.
And the amazing thing is before she was finnally caught she manganged to potentially save the lives of almost 2500 children.
And even when she was caught she did not give away the locations even though she was tourtered and eventually sentenced to death
And she actually was saved prior to having her life taken,
But I dont know about you but as I read that I went wow. She was a pretty good mom. Not just because of her impact on her 3 children, (although I am sure she had a great impact there as well)
But really when you think of the influence she had on so many lives it is amazing, because of all the lives she saved.
And really today what we are going to be doing is we are going to be talking about a woman in the Bible who really is an amazing example for how we should model our lives.
Because the truth is wether you are a Mom or Dad, You have a ton of kids or no kids, Your an adult or a teen ,there are people who look up to you and you have an influence on their life.
and so I want to make sure we understand that this message is not just for moms, but it is for everyone in here.
So we are going to be in Acts 6:11-15 today and this is actually the last day of our series we have been in called Filled.
And If you have been with us we have been looking at the early church in this series.
And we saw the birth of the early church
We saw them get filled with God’s spirit
And not just that but God has been working miricles through the early church
And if you have been with us the last few weeks one thing you will notice is the church began to grow.
And between last week and this week, it has not only grown but it has began to expand geographically to different countries and locations.
And one of the places that it expands to (that we are looking at today) is a city called Phillipi.
And really this is where we are starting today.
So once again turn with me to Acts 16:11-15 and it says this:
11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
So like I mentioned the church is expanding
and in the first couple verses it mentions one of the leaders of the church named Paul comes to Phillipi
and you will notice that in this passage it says that this is actually the leading city in the area.
Basically saying this is the nicest city in the area!
I mean it is an awesome and wealthy city
But I want you to also notice that verse 13 mentions how on the Sabath Paul and another leader in the church decided to go outside of the city to find a place of prayer, (most likely because there was not one in the city)
Which means it is probably frowned on in this city.
And what this means is while this city is thriving, there walks with God are not.
And so Paul arrives to this place of prayer and there is a group of woman that Paul sits down with and they are talking with them
And in this group there is a woman named Lydia who was a wealthy buisness woman, and she is also desctribed as a worshiper of God.
In fact a lot of people believe Lydia may be one of the leaders at this place of prayer.
But somthing neat happens because it says as Paul is speaking with this group of woman God opens Lydias heart
And I am going to expand on this but the first thing I want you to get is that God wants to open our hearts.
Basically God wants us to know more about who He is and not just that but He wants us to become who He has created us to be.
Its almost like this: This past week I found an amazing deal at Costco for these 5000 lumen lights for a garage
And ask Arika, I was so excited, I put them in because I was thinking how this will make our garge look amazing.
and I turn on these bright lights and when I turn them on I looked in the garage and to my surprise it looked bad.
Because now when you look into the garage you do not see small messes or some areas that may be a little disorginized, but you see leaves and dirt that have gotten in, you seethings that didn’t look that bad but now look awful.
And I am thinking should I go back to the other light bulbs right?
But heres the thing if I want my garage to look nice and be clean, and really be the best garage it can me, I need those lights so I can start to clean up the mess.
And really that is how our lives look, because often times in our lives we think my life I am living is pretty good?
I have a family, I have a house, I have a job, and we don’t really notice a ton wrong.
But if we were able to shine a light on our life we would see that there are actually things in our life that are toxic, that are separating us from God that are slowly eating away at our lives.
And God wants to open our hearts it means that He wants to not just show us the mess, but He wants to clean the mess.
And really that is the second part to this, because God opens Lydias heart, (where she is able to say I am missing somthing), but then Lydia has to decide okay God has laid this on my heart,
He has brought it to my attention, do I want to stay the same as I have been living where I put the darker lights up, or do I want to change.
And really when God opens your heart (basically when He brings somthing to your attention) we have the same option:
You know God can say: “Hey you have not really made me a priority in your life and we can ignore it or we can say okay, lets change that”
God can say: you have been really gosipy recently, we can put up the dark lights and forget about it or we can say okay God help me see when I am that way, and help me clean it.
Whatever area it is we do not want our lives to be in the dark where clutter gets in, but we want to light of Christ to shine in every area and change who we are.
And this is difficult, because sometimes shining light to these areas is painful, because it is like pulling teeth
I mean have you ever had a tooth pulled.
Last week I was at the dentist and had to have my first tooth pulled because of some trauma the tooth had and they determined it couldn’t be saved
And I always get a little embarressed when going to the densit because I always think the dentist is going to judge me because dental wise, my pain tollerance is really low.
I am a wimp and I am the guy asking “is this going to hurt?”
But the dentist he comes in and I am asking these questions and I tell him “sorry I am a wimp”
And he actually looks at me and says Brendan you are not a wimp, the fact that you are here means you are brave.
And you know so often when God opens our heart, we look at it and we say wow I am a mess or we think is God just looking at me saying the mess is to big?
But I really believe when God has oppened our hearts and we come to Him He is never saying look at that failure, but He is saying that is my child that I love.
And just because you are cleaning a mess does not mean you are a failure, but the fact that you are come to God is beautiful.
And whats amazing is going back to our passage like we read we see that Lydia doesn’t ignore what God has laid on her heart.
Because Lydia accepts what Paul is telling her and ends up accepting Christ
And not just that but it actually says that her entire household is baptized.
meaning if Lydia had a husband (although many believe she is widowed ) He was baptized
Her kids would have been baptized
Anyone who worked in her house would be baptized.
And I know what your thinking: How does that happen?
Are they forcing baptisms on their family? Whats going on here?
But somthing that is so neat is that if you were a Jew during this time there was something that layed out how you should raise your kids called the “Shema”
Its a fun word isn’t it? Say it with me Shema
And really the Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6 and I just want to read a piece of it because you will see how a persons faith could easily be passed down to their children
Look at Deuteronomy 6:5-9 because we actually could learn a lot from this when it comes to leading our family in their walks with God. It says this:
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
So this gives three things that are so important in guiding us as we live:
In verse 5 it starts by giving you the foundation saying look everything in your life should be centered around God because you are to love Him with everything you have.
I mean if you looked at your life is everything centered around God or is God centered around you.
Because if you want to live a life where you are shining a light to those who look up to you then it is so important to model for them what is important.
Well look at the second one and this one is my favorite, because starting in verse 7 it says you should teach your children diligently.
Basically talk to them about your faith!
And not just that but it says talk to them about it when you are sitting
Talk to them when you are on your way some where
Talk to them when you are lying down
Talk to them when you raise.
I mean I don’t know about you but I think I am always doing one of those things...
Meaning your walk with God should woven in throughout your life where you might be going to the store and you potentially are talking about God
Your kid might be falling asleep and you pray for them before they go to be.
I mean regular momments in life should be an amazing opritunity to teach and talk to our kids about the living God.
But can I be honest, we are terrible at this. Because we have the mind set that if I bring my kid to church I have raised them to follow God.
I have done my job.
And church is good and it is an important part of our walk with God, but the primary spiritual care giver of your child is not the church, but it is you.
Arika does an amazing job with the kids and puts together great lessons, but she only spends maybe 2 or 3 hours with them a week.
It would almost be like if you got a personal trainer that you went to 2 hours a week
And they pushed you hard. I mean you left beat up.
but then the rest of the week you ate terribly, you sat on the couch and then you get frustrated about how you are not imporoving.
And so often we do that with our walks and our kids, we come once a week and do don’t live Christ like life in-between that and then we wonder why my kid is leaving the church.
And I know sometimes you can live a life like that and your kids may still leave, but how much better could that percentage be if we lived where we taught Christ when we sat, when we walked, when we rose and when we went to bed?
And look at this last one, because in verses 8 and 9 because in the Old Testament some Jewish leaders would literally bind scripture on their hands, door post and on other things, so it would be in front of them all the time and remind them of God’s word and help them meditate on it.
And I am not saying you have to tie a piece of paper on your hand with scripture, but what would it look like if we meditated on scripture and kept it in front of us where it impacted the way that we lived life.
And whats so cool about these three things is since Lydia most likely lived this way when she came home and told her household about Jesus they most likely saw what she saw when God opened her heart and said yes this Jesus thing is for real, it is legitimate.
And they accepted Christ and were Baptized.
And I love how this passage ends because it could have ended with Lydia and her household are baptized and that is it, but she actually invites them to stay in her house.
And what is so cool, is Lydias house becomes the church in Philippi, and it grows where the church is actually mentioned in other letters as a huge supporter of other churches starting in other areas.
And so the way Lydia lived didn’t just impact her household but it changed the lives of so many around the world.
And this morning can I just say you have the ability to impact lives by the way you live.
If you have kids you have a huge influence on them,
If you have are not a parent you have the ability to influence others and change lives.
What type of influence are you making? and what would it look like to say God I want you to open my heart, make be a person who is centered on you and be able to influnce the lives you have called me to.
Will you pray with me?