WHAT DO YOU SEE?

We wrestle with a hard practice: seeing people through the lens of Christ’s finished work rather than their worst habits. Scripture, stories, and counseling moments show how identity-first language changes behavior and produces better fruit in real relationships.

• incarnation as the foundation for how we see people
• reconciled in Christ versus judged in Adam
• identity before behavior as a counseling approach
• Hebrews 2 and Colossians 1 paraphrased for clarity
• how words, posture, and patience shape fruit
• every interaction as a theological moment
• practical pause: which lens am I using
• influence through context and language without compromising truth
• a one-person challenge to practice speaking life

I challenge you this week. Find one person. Find that one person that you've never talked to before, you've had problems with before. I challenge you to try this and just see. See if it works. I guarantee you it's going to.

Transcript

Two Sides We Present

SPEAKER_01 0:00

A place or we walk towards somebody, if you know, if I'm coming towards you, I'm coming towards you with two different sides. I've got the flesh side of me, and I've got the spiritual side of me. And it's really going to be up to you to decide which one you're going to receive. Same thing with you. When you come toward me, especially if I know you, if I know you from the past and we grew up together, I know that flesh side of you, but I also have the opportunity to see a spiritual side of you. And that's really what I was thinking about here because when I was thinking about Kebo and all, and I've kind of started trying to run some things through my mind and what I'm going to speak at the service and all. This thought came to me because there's a lot of people who knows that Kebo struggled. But there's a lot of them didn't get the opportunity to see that other side of him. Because they didn't have the opportunity sometimes to sit down with him and just really. Now, a lot of people did. Because Kebo didn't mind. He'd walk up somewhere with his boys and he'd still start talking Bible. He wasn't afraid to do that. But it made me really think about this because it made me just wonder, you know, what do you see? When you walk into a room, when you walk into a place and you look around and you see people, uh, when you see the person in front of you, whether you're walking in the grocery store, you're walking into a place of business, you're walking in downtown in a community, when you see somebody directly in front of you, are you seeing the habits that they've had, are you seeing the mistakes that they've made, or you're seeing the Christ in them? And I'm I'm really, this is stuck in my heart right now because we have a choice. I don't care how bad that person's been, I don't care what they went through, I don't care what they've had to battle with, we have an opportunity to see them on a different level than what everybody else may. That's our choice to do that. Think about the incarnation of God. This was God taking on human form and coming down and taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, coming out of heaven, coming out of where he was, and saying, I'm putting myself in human form so that I can live among the people. I'm not just going to sit on a throne somewhere like we picture sometimes and just kind of look down on everybody, but I'm gonna come down in the flesh. And that's the incarnation of God. He entered fully into human life. He entered into every experience that we were going through, every limitation, even our suffering. He entered into it so that he could carry us, redeem us, and restore us. And I love because when he because of the incarnation, he restores us from the inside out. Even though he came in the flesh, and they could see him in the flesh, he was a person. There was something when you when you had an encounter with him. And I'm just assuming here because obviously I've never in the flesh didn't have an encounter with Jesus. But I can imagine what it would have been like to come upon him walking around, talking to people, and to come up and talk with him. I can just imagine that something on the inside just shifted just because of his presence. You know, we sometimes look and say, well, it was just a man, yeah, but it was God in man form. And I think we skip over that sometimes and we we we kind of pass over the fact of how powerful this guy was. And I'm saying that for this reason. He reconciled every one of us. I go to that verse all the time and says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. He reconciled the world. So I don't care what somebody's been through, I don't care what they've had to go through in their life and what they've struggled with, what their limitations have been, what they may still be dealing with right now, it don't matter. Can I and will I choose to see the reconciled child of God that they are, or will I choose to see the limitations and the problems? That's my choice. I can't put this back on them and say, Well, you need to get cleaned up. And that's what we do sometimes. I'll look at you and I'll say, I'll start looking at you different when you act different. When you portray yourself differently, then I'll see you differently. I don't agree with that. And I'm gonna show you a few verses in just a few minutes that shows you that Jesus didn't agree with that either. Can I see you for who God created you to be? Regardless of circumstances and regardless of what you may have been going through. In Hebrews 2, verse 14 and 17, I told Ronnie if he wanted to, he could put it up here. We ain't gonna read it. I'm gonna paraphrase it for you and just summarize it because it's uh it's a pretty, pretty tough verse to read through. Let's let's read it, let's go through it real quick. 14, what did I say, through 17, and then I'm gonna summarize it. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same. That's the key right there. He's that's the incarnation. He shared in it. That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil. And release those who through fear of death were all of their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Last verse. Therefore, in all things he had to be made like his brethren. Catch that. He had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make pre propitiation for the sins of the people. That's a lot of stuff to read right here. That's the reason I just said I was gonna summarize it, but there's a lot of stuff in there. And it this is something you could take these three verses right here and really just study on for a good while. But I'm gonna summarize it like this. And this is what it's saying. The writer explains, because we are flesh and blood, that Jesus also became flesh and blood. We are flesh and blood, so he says, I'm gonna become flesh and blood. And through his death, he destroyed the power of the devil, freed those who were enslaved by the fear of death, and became a merciful and faithful high priest who makes atonement for the sins of his people. It's a lot easier saying it like that and putting it in a nutshell than it is trying to read those verses, because they can be confusing. So here's the thing. If the incarnation, if God sending himself down in human flesh, if the incarnation is actually sufficient, if it was sufficient for what God wanted, if Jesus really became flesh and truly assumed humanity, then we are never just dealing with a person. Now listen right here. I can't just walk up to somebody and just say I'm looking at it like I'm dealing with that individual person alone. I have to look a little bit deeper than that. If the incarnation really happened, if it's really true, and I believe it was, I believe God truly come down and became flesh in the man of Jesus. So we've got to look a little bit deeper. We're always interacting with someone that Christ has carried, that he's included, that he has redeemed, that he is refathered, that he has accepted. And that's an amazing thought. Because there's some people you may walk up to and you don't see God in them. God is not the first thing you think of when you look at them. But can we strip away all of that stuff that's there that we know in the flesh and look at them and say, you know, God reconciled him. God has refathered him, God has redeemed him. What God did on the cross, well, when he was in Christ on the cross and he reconciled the world, it included this guy.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

It really did. It included him. So think about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Every single human being that you meet is someone Christ has already reconciled. That's a crazy thought. You really have to shift your thinking to be able to truly see people in that way. But again, I'm gonna show you in a minute that Jesus did it. And I believe if he did it and he came in the flesh, he didn't just come in the flesh just to because he didn't have anything else to do. Part of coming in the flesh was to show you I'm gonna redeem you, I'm gonna justify you, but I'm also gonna show you how this is supposed to be done. I'm gonna be your example while I'm here. Now, just because every single human being has been reconciled by Christ doesn't mean they're acting like it. We need to remember that. Just because we know they've been reconciled don't mean that they're always walking around acting like it. Some there's still some people out here doing some crazy stuff. They're doing some things you don't like. They may be doing some things towards you or talking about you or whatever. But that doesn't mean that we have to see that side and we have to see them in that way. We have a choice in this. We can decide how do I want to see this person? What it means is that your perception of them will either agree with Adam or it's gonna agree with Christ. If it agrees with Adam, then you're gonna look at them and you're gonna judge them, and you're gonna see fear, and you're gonna see limitations, and you're gonna see sin and you're gonna see problems, and you're gonna see somebody that's fixing a burn in hell if they leave today. All those things is what you're gonna see. If you look at them through the lens of Adam. But if you turn around and you look at them through the lens of Christ, you're gonna see grace. They're not perfect, but there's grace. You're gonna see inclusion. Maybe they don't come to church with me. Maybe they don't even go to church. But because of what Christ done, they was included. So we're gonna see inclusion and we're gonna see life. And whatever you agree with, and here's the key to it: whatever I agree with, I'm gonna speak, and then I'm gonna start producing fruit in that area. If I see the sins on people and the negative on people, then the fruit that's gonna come out of that is probably gonna be negative. If I see them as positive and I see the life in them, and I see what God has put in them, I see reconciliation, I see redemption, no matter whether they're showing it or not, but I choose to see the good in them, then there's a different kind of fruit that's gonna be established there.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

It's a powerful mindset shift to think that everybody that I encounter has truly been reconciled.

Never Just A Person

Adam Lens Vs Christ Lens

SPEAKER_01 12:18

That's hard for some people, and I'll be honest with you, a lot of people will not agree with that. That's not an argument or a debate with me, that's a debate with the Bible. Because that's what the Bible says. But to change our mindset and to align with that thinking that God was in Christ on the cross, reconciling the world, the cosmos, the system, humanity, all, everyone, everything was reconciled into himself. That's a powerful thought. And it takes something up here that has to shift to be able to see that. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 19 and 22, it says that God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself to himself through Christ. I'm saying all things. Not just the people you like, not just to people who think like you think, not just to people who go to church, or one of the ones who call themselves a Christian, but all people. How many times can we look at people and include them in when they're so different than us? Now think about this just a minute. I don't know why I'm going off on this right here, but just think about that. The people that we meet, we are so drawn, and this is just human nature. We are drawn to people who are just like us. I ain't gonna ask you to raise your hand, but back in your day when you was out there drinking or partying or whatever, you didn't go party with people who wasn't partying. You went and you found people who were doing the same thing you were doing. Why? Because it ain't no fun to do it by yourself. So you you automatically start to gravitate to the people who are doing the same kind of things. And again, that's just human nature. You walk into the Bank County High School and walk down the hallway when the bell rings, and you're gonna see a group of people over here, and a group of people over here, and another group of people over here, and then you got the athletes over here, and the band, you know, people playing the band over here, and they gravitate to each other. Why? Because they have something in common. So how and it's like that with us too. We don't recognize it, we don't admit it, but it's really like that with us. Where do you think the phrase comes from? Preaching to the choir. Because we come into church and we're preaching to people who are just like us. I would really, I don't want you to go anywhere. I don't want anybody in here to leave. What I want is everybody in here to bring somebody who is not just like you in here with you next Sunday. Because I want to preach to people who have never heard this before, people who need to hear that they have been reconciled, that no matter what they've been through, that God loves them, that He's redeemed them, that He cares about them no matter what they're going through. That's what I think it should be about.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

But what it turns into is a social club.

Mindset, Words, And Fruit

SPEAKER_01 15:58

And I don't mean that negatively, I'm just saying that that's that's what church turns into a lot of times. Because there's literally places that I've heard people say, I don't feel welcome there. People look at me when I walk in, people don't talk to me, they don't, they don't uh uh uh you know communicate with me like I want them to, or this or that. They feel separated from people. So it so that Colossians 19 through 22. For it pleased the Father. We gotta get this now, we gotta see this. It pleased him that in him all the foolish should dwell, and by him to reconcile, there's those words again, all things. He reconciled all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth, where was the people at? On the earth, okay, or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross, and you who were once alienated. Okay, he's talking, this is Colossians, right? So we gotta stop a minute and say, okay, he was not writing this to you, he was writing this to the Colossian church, he's talking to a group of people in that time period. Now we can pull something out of it, but he was not talking to us. And I love what he's telling them here. And you, you people, you, the Colossian church, Christians, believers, you were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death presents you holy. Come on, we're not God, but we are holy. We're made in his image, we're made after his likeness, we are holy. Well, every time I start trying to do something good, somebody blames me. You are blameless, according to him. Who are you gonna listen to? You're gonna listen to what God is saying, or you're gonna listen to what everybody else is saying. He said he's made us holy, he made us blameless, he made us above reproach in his sight. Above reproach. You can't bring me down. I say it sometimes, and people may not understand why I'm saying it or the way the tone I'm using, and they get offended when I say, I don't care what you think about me. That means I'm above reproach. You're not gonna bring me down. Nobody out there should be able to bring you down to a level where you don't even recognize yourself. Because we are holy, we're blameless, we're above reproach. When I look at somebody else, do I see them through this lens? Do I see them as holy and blameless and above reproach, or do I see the problems and the everything they've been going through?

SPEAKER_00 19:22

So when he's talking here, he wasn't just talking to people that you like.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

He wasn't just talking to people that was just like you. People who behave like you, people who think like you. We use the word a lot of times, we're that we're trying to try to awaken people to their identity in Christ. And I often use this terminology. I say some people can can be asleep. What's the opposite of not being awakened? You're asleep. You're you're going through life and your eyes are closed, you're in darkness. You're asleep to the truth of the identity of your nature in Christ. It don't change the fact that you were reconciled. Because you don't see it, don't change the cross. So our goal is to awaken people. But guess what? What he's talking about right here, when he says this thing in this verse that you're holy, you're blameless, you're above reproach, he's not just talking to the people that's awake, he's talking to the ones who's asleep. And that's hard for us to see sometimes. That means that every difficult coworker that we come into contact with, every challenging person that comes in our path, every neighbor, every family member, even the one who keeps pushing your buttons all the time, you just can't seem to get along with them. Is someone in Christ. There's somebody that Christ carried. There's someone that he included, there's someone that he has re-fothered, and he looked at them and he said, You are holy, you are blameless, and you're above reproach.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

And here's the kicker.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

You pause right here a minute. You get to choose whether you see that reality, this reality that's just on the screen, holy, blameless, above reproach. You get the opportunity to see that or to ignore it.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

That's on that's on me. That's on you. We can't blame that on anybody else.

Colossians: Holy, Blameless, Above Reproach

SPEAKER_01 21:49

We can't even blame the person anymore. Maybe you're looking and saying, Well, they just need to change their ways. Yeah, maybe they do. But guess what? They're asleep. They don't see it yet. They don't see themselves as holy yet. They don't see themselves as blameless yet. They still look in the mirror and see a piece of dirt who ain't worth nothing and they condemn themselves. So what am I to do? I'm to come alone and dust them off a little bit and say, get that condemnation out of here. The word of God says there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You are holy, you are blameless. My role as a child of God is to help them see what they are asleep to. Why? Because it's already, they're already reconciled. I'm just using, I'm using scripture here. This is the way God sees them. So my question is, can we see them the same way? Your perception produces fruit. I said that earlier. In 2 Corinthians 5, I don't even know if I give you this verse, it's fine. It says that one has died for all. We've talked about this many times. One died for all, therefore all died. When I use the terminology and I say that we're we're uh we were co-killed with him, this is what I'm talking about. Some people don't like that language. When I say we're co-killed, we're co-resurrected, we were co-raised. All that means is we're part of the process. That we weren't standing back and Jesus was doing this and it was a transaction. Now I did this, now you do this. It's not a transaction. He pulled me into the process and said, we are doing this together. And this verse right here, it shows that one has died for all, therefore all died. We were part of it. And from now on, we regard no one after the flesh. Years ago, it was probably 10 or 12 years ago, this verse stuck out to me and just come alive to me. And that's where that sermon, that sermon I told you earlier about, come from. How are you gonna look at people? Because this is talking about right here, because of this, because he died and we all died with him, it changes our perception now. And now, from now on, that's the way it words it, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. So can I can I look at people now and see them according to the spirit and not the flesh? This is where most of us trip up at. We think theology is only about something that we do on Sunday mornings. Gotta go to church, gotta go get some theology in, gotta get some church in. But it's really not, we can't limit it to just Sunday morning. Theology is lived out every day. True theology is spoken every day. It's relational. The relationships that we have with people that we develop with people, that can that should come from my theology. How do I build relationships with people? How do I connect with people? How do I connect with people that I don't like? I really don't want to be around them. But guess what? The Bible tells me that I can no longer regard them after the flesh. The Bible tells me that they were reconciled. The Bible tells me that when he died, they all died, including them. And that they were reconciled, they were made holy, they were made blameless, and they're above reproach. So can I change my perception and instead of seeing the negative, instead of seeing the bad, can I no longer regard them after the flesh and see them as the child of God that he created?

Awake Vs Asleep Identity

SPEAKER_00 26:07

And that's hard to do sometimes. It's tough.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

When we see someone through the Adam lens that I mentioned well ago, we see sin first. We see problems, we see limitations, we see failures. And our reaction mirrors that. When I see them as a failure, and I see the sin and I see the limitation and all that kind of stuff, we are going to mirror that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Conflict will grow.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Relationships will get strained. Fruit's gonna be there's gonna be fruit there. There's always gonna be fruit, but it's gonna be bitter fruit. When we see someone through the atom lens, it causes problems. There's always gonna be issues in the relationship. But when we see someone through the lens of Christ, we see inclusion. We see someone that's been carried by Christ. We see someone that's loved, someone that's reconciled. And our words, if we can see some, think about that, if I can see somebody in that way, if I can look at them and truly say, in my mind, in my heart, I don't care what they've been through, they are reconciled. They are a child of God, they have been redeemed, and I can truly begin to look at them in that way, then our words and our actions and our patience and our posture, it's gonna align with the truth of the word. And when I can begin to speak to them on that level, and I can speak positive stuff to them, and I can speak godly and biblical stuff to them, fruit's gonna grow. We're gonna see some positive things happen.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

So I want to ask you today, which lens are you looking through? Adam or Christ?

SPEAKER_01 28:21

And more importantly, what kind of fruit are you seeing in your life? Can we look at people and see them truly in the identity of Christ that He established? So let's be honest a minute. I said this earlier. People are not always acting like who they really are. It just don't happen. Some days they're rude. Some days people can can say things and do things that make you mad.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Some days they can be downright hurtful. But am I gonna let that shape who I am?

Counseling Through Identity

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Or am I gonna continue to see through that, not let it bother me, and see them for who they are? I it's amazing, and this is powerful. This is the thing, and I'm gonna mention this briefly in a minute, but this is uh this is what I love about counseling with people. Because you get the opportunity to truly see somebody in a way that they don't even see themselves yet. And it's kind of like you get to help shape and mold them into who God really says they are. They don't see that. They're condemning to themselves, they're beating themselves up, they feel like a nobody. And you get to bring the word of God and say, no, no, this is who you are. This is the way I see you. And you begin to speak those things. You begin to speak life, not death. You begin to speak positive things. And then all of a sudden, you start seeing their whole demeanor starts to shift. And it's amazing to watch that. The reason this comes along is because that's exactly what happened. I told you with Kebo. That's exactly what happened with him. It's happened many other times because that's the way I do counseling. I'm gonna speak into them no matter what they're going through. And I can remember Kebo specifically. Because I told him when I walked in one day, I said, I'm not gonna worry about what you're doing. And I ain't gonna throw all this mess out there, but they've innocent stuff. I said, I'm we're not even gonna worry about that. He looked at me like, what? I said, I'm not saying it's okay. I'm not saying I condone it. I'm just saying we're not gonna worry about it. He was like, What do you mean you're not gonna worry about it? I said, because I can tell you to stop doing this and stop doing that, and I can critique your behavior, but it ain't gonna change nothing until we help you understand who you are. I said, you gotta see who you are first. So we started going in and talking about identity. We dealt with identity before we ever touched on behavior. Because if you can get the identity right, you don't even have to focus on behavior, it'll change itself. We spend so much time trying to help everybody get their behavior right. And we never hit on identity. So when you can interact with people like on that level, it's amazing. And here's the thing: you have a choice every day whether you're gonna do that or not. You can either reinforce Adam or you can point out Christ. That's our choice.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Your response shapes the relational climate.

Agree With Christ, Not Chaos

SPEAKER_01 31:47

And believe it or not, it's amazing. You start seeing this years later, and you start seeing how these things work and how they come together. I can remember working over in the Substance Abuse Center years ago, and we would have groups in there, and these guys didn't care about these classes that were taught. They was trying to get through, get their nine months over, and get out. That's all they wanted to do. They didn't care nothing about what we were teaching. But I'd walk in that room, and I'm not saying this as a pat on the back, I'm saying this is Christ. I would walk in that room where they would be loud and just disrespectful and whatever, and I would walk in and I would open my mouth and it'd go, shh, it just calmed down. And I remember one of the guys that worked with me one day, because I was when I first started, I was with him and I was having to do his group with him, and he was training me. He his class was so chaotic. You couldn't hear nothing. I mean, you had 50 guys in here, and it was just so loud. He's training me. You couldn't get, you couldn't even hear yourself think in that classroom. And he asked me one day, he said, You want to take over this? I said, Yeah, I'll take over. And I stood up, and I don't even remember what I said, but as soon as I said something, I mean a silence came over that room. Now part of it was because somebody knew saying something. I understood that. But for the rest of the time, it just stayed quiet. I had eye contact with them. And it wasn't because I was just doing a great job of teaching, I was speaking into who they were. I wasn't even going on a material that what we were supposed to be teaching. I was speaking into their identity of who they were. And there's something about that. When you start speaking the truth into somebody, they are drawn to that. They want to hear more about that. Listen, if somebody is giving you compliments every day and telling you how good you look and just saying all these positive things, you're gonna try your best. Every time you see them in a room, you're gonna try to get around them. Why? Because you enjoy that pat on the back, you enjoy that compliment. We're creative that way. And that's the way this is. When you can actually begin to speak life into them, because I'm talking about relationship here, that builds a relationship. Why? Because they're connected to you now. And that's the one thing. I was sitting here a while ago and I was just running through my head, you know, next Saturday, what to speak, and that's one thing that came up is I'm going to speak on the one thing that built the relationship between me and Kiba. And it was identity. Because that's what we started with. That's what formed our connection. It wasn't because we went out and hung out together and party together and all this. The connection that we established was simply because I spoke life into him at some of the lowest points in his life. I spoke life into him. I didn't agree with some of the things he was doing. I'm not even just, I'm just using Kipo as an example. Many people that you you don't agree with what they're doing, but you speak life into them in the midst of the circumstances. They are going to be drawn to you. Because that truth, what does it do? It changes things. When that truth comes in there, it begins to that the Holy Spirit begins to speak. All you're doing is just being the conduit. You're just God, Holy Spirit speaking through you. Speak this, get it in, plant the seed, and then watch me do the work. And that's all we got to do sometimes. Be open enough to see the good in the worst situation in some of the worst people. But we see the good. When you interact with them, you have a choice.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

You can reinforce Adam or you can point out Christ.

Every Interaction Is Theological

SPEAKER_01 35:45

I probably I don't went into this, I probably don't even need to go into it anymore, but I I I did put an example here because this actually happened. It's happened many times, but I'm this one incident as I remember specifically. And I was counseling a guy who had been through decades of pain, rejection that was due to addiction and due to different things. And this guy was having a tough time. Everyone wrote him off, his family wrote him off. He had no support system, nobody was there for him. He done burnt so many bridges. He didn't have nobody that he could call when times got bad and stuff like that, because he'd burnt everything. And when I began to interact with him, he came into my office one day and I began to interact with him through the lens of Christ. It was different. I was acknowledging what God had done in him even when he couldn't see it. Because he couldn't he was blinded to that, and all he seen was all the mess going on in his life. He was blinded to all this other stuff. And I began to speak into that. Even though he couldn't see it. And I'm telling you, it was amazing because things started to go to shift in him, in his mind, in his perception, in his heart, things started to shift. It was slow. It didn't happen like that, I can promise you. It was slow. But he he slowly started responding differently. His behavior didn't change overnight. I'd love to get up here and tell a story and just say, man, he just he he put all those drugs down the next day. No, he didn't. He stayed on them for a one for a while. But we had we were speaking to the mindset, we weren't speaking to the behavior. And that was the thing. So slowly he started responding in a different way. His behavior didn't change overnight, but the dynamic shifted. Because someone was agreeing with Christ in his life instead of agreeing with the chaos in his life. Everybody was agreeing with the chaos. Everybody was talking about how messed up he was. Everybody was saying how I can't help him anymore. I've already tried, he keeps messing up again. Everybody was just done with him. And then we started speaking Christ into him. And I'm telling you, things shifted. That's what we're called to do. To interact with people and to see them as carried, included, loved, even when the evidence that we're looking at says otherwise.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Can we do that?

Language, Culture, And Influence

SPEAKER_01 38:48

See, we want evidence. We want to say something to somebody and we want to see a shift in their life right now. That microwave generation, we want to see something shift. You may not see a shift for a long time. But if you pay attention to them, you can see if the mind starts to shift. And I'm telling you, the first time that you see that, you're like, okay, behavior's gonna follow. Behavior's gonna follow. You don't have to force the behavior to follow, it's gonna do it on its own. Why? Because when I think differently, I speak differently, I walk differently, I act differently. So we've always tried to do everything in reverse: change behavior, stop doing this, stop doing that. That's easy. That's the easy part. I joke about this all the time. You want somebody to stop using drugs? Put them in a room, lock them away, and don't give them any drugs. I promise you they will stop using. They will have a really hard time, but they will stop using. Why? Because they don't have access to it. But let them out in six months, and what's gonna happen? They may go back to it. Why? Because that never changed. All we did was change behavior. So we're just trying to say, as finished work, people, our role truly is to go deeper than behavior and to go into the mindset. That's why we talk about some of this stuff and we talk about what it means to be a new creation in Christ. Even when you can't see it, what he did on the cross recreated us. And all our goal is to help them see that. To dig up something that they can't see yet. To speak life into them, to speak uh something into them that they can't see because of all the mess that's got it covered up.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

That's what it means. So every interaction is theological.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

This is the hard one, and I'm getting ready to end right here, but this is a this is a tough one. It's challenging. It challenges us every day, it challenges our everyday thinking to look on a level and say every interaction is theological. And it really is. If the incarnation is sufficient, then every conversation that we have, every glance that we have at somebody, every response is a theological moment. And I ain't always looked at it like that. But now that I do, it really puts you in a position to say, you know, I have authority. We're quick to say life and death lies in the power of your tongue. But then we don't want to use our tongue. If life and death lie in the power of your words, then use your words.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Speak life. That's theology.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

That's Bible. That's what we mean by saying every interaction is theological. The way you answer an angry email, the way you discipline a child, the way you respond to a family member who's angry and mad at you. All of this is theology in action. You're either agreeing with Adam or you're agreeing with Christ. And every agreement produces fruit. Some visible, some invisible, but it's always there. It's going to be good fruit or it's going to be bad fruit, but it's going to produce it. So here's the challenge. Today, look at the difficult people in your life and ask, how can I see them through the lens of Christ's finished work? How can I see them differently? In your next conversation, pause before reacting. Pause and think. Ask yourself, am I agreeing with Adam or am I agreeing with Christ? You know, we joke about it all the time, but if even if you make that pause right there and say, What would Jesus say right here? You know, we used to wear little bracelets and everybody would wear them. What would Jesus do? That's not just, you know, that's actually a good idea. I think that needs to come back. We need to stop a minute and say, well, how would Jesus, what would Jesus say right here? How would he handle this situation? We need to be willing to plant seeds. Uh intentional seeds. Even if they push back, even if this seems like it's wasted, God's work in them is real. You may not see God in them, you may not hear God in them, but I'm telling you, they were included in the all.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

And we should be able to see that.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

We had a guy when I worked in the uh the substance abuse center over in Baxley, we had a guy in there that was. In my dorm.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

He knew the Bible really good.

Carry The Finished Work Daily

Speak Life And Issue A Challenge

SPEAKER_01 44:08

And the dude could just speak. He had just an air about him. When he spoke, people listened. Only problem was I never seen that many F words in the Bible. But when he spoke, about every other word was F, F, F. And it offended a lot of people. It really did. And at some point, I just sat back and I didn't like it at first. You know, I was like, yeah, that's, you know. But then I sat back and I watched the people. And I watched how they responded to him. And listen, I'm not saying I agree with it. I'm not saying that you got to throw an F-word in there in the verse to make it powerful. But I'm saying the environment that he was in right there, he used the language of the people. Not saying it was right. I'm not agreeing with it. I'm just saying in that moment, he used the language of the people, and he brought the word in there with it. Now, you may disagree with me, but I was there. I watched the people. I watched these guys get their eyes open and glue their eyes on him and listen to every single word that guy said. He had their attention like nobody else did, to the point of we made him one of the dorm leaders because he just carried himself in a way and spoke in a way that he grabbed the people's attention. And I had the opportunity to speak to him many times and said, dude, you are a leader. And we, you know, we wanted to try to change some things, but you could not deny the leadership that he had in him. And he knew the word. He just had to felt the urge to add a few extra words in there sometimes. And I, you know, I remember sitting back, and me and somebody was talking about it one day, and they said, we got to stop him from doing that. We got to do it, you know. And I said, if you stop him from doing it, you're going to stop him from doing everything. And he's not going to get up anymore. Because he was very positive in the dorm. Very positive. He kept our dorm like one of the best dorms in there because when he said something, they listened. And I sat back and thought, if I tell him you got to say it like this, or you're not going to say it, he's going to look at me and say, well, you handle it then. And he's going to walk off and sit down, and we're fixing to have chaos. So I was like, I ain't say nothing to him. Let him say how he wants to say it right now. Let the Holy Spirit deal with that. Again, I didn't agree with it, but I seen what was in him. Below the language, below the F-words, below the GDs, below all the things he was saying, I seen what was in there. And he ended up having a powerful, powerful impact on those men. Not easy, it's not quick sometimes, but it's transformative. And it's how God intended the incarnation to reshape our daily lives. So every person that you meet is someone in Christ. It's someone that God has carried because of the incarnation. Every interaction is a theological moment. Your agreements, your perception, your responses, they produce fruit. So here's the invitation. It's not an invitation to come up front, it's an invitation to do this. Look through the lens of Christ today. Act like it, speak like it, like it, relate like it. And watch how God begins to move and watch how he begins to bear fruit in situations that maybe you've even looked at and you've walked away from because you said this just ain't worth it anymore. But watch how God begins to work in those situations. Because the incarnation was sufficient, and it was sufficient for the cross, and it's sufficient for your next conversation. And that's really the way you got to look at it. How does, you know, some people may say, well, the cross was great, but how does it, how does it deal with me today? That's already done. No, it was sufficient then and it's sufficient now. You carry what happened on the cross into every conversation. You carry what happened on the cross into every situation, every circumstance, every relationship, every moment. And if we begin to do that, and it's funny too because they keep saying, well, that's already done. Exactly. That's why we're saying it's finished work. They don't even realize they're saying it. But they're really saying the same thing we're saying, they just don't realize it. We're saying it's finished, and because of that, it's now on the inside of me, and I carry the finished work into every day, every conversation, every circumstance, every situation, every moment. That's all we're saying. And if we can begin to do that, I'm telling you, we'll see people's minds start to shift. Not because we're changing behavior, not because we're teaching them how to stop doing this or stop doing that or follow the rules or whatever, but because we're speaking life into them. In the midst of everything else going on, you're speaking life. And that will grab somebody's attention. People don't like to be told to stop doing things. But when you just speak life, it changes. It changes their whole out outlook. I challenge you this week. Find one person. Find that one person that you've never talked to before, you've had problems with before. I challenge you to try this and just see. See if it works. I I guarantee you it's going to.