Power of Influence | Matt Alano & Alex Hernandez

Sunday, July 5th, 2026

This week in our How Life Actually Works series, we continued through Proverbs by looking at the power of influence. In Proverbs 1, we saw that wisdom is not just downloaded through information—it is formed through relationships.

We were reminded that who and what we listen to is shaping who we become. What we consume can become what we believe, what is caught is often taught, and all of us carry influence in the lives of others.

The invitation is simple: pay attention to who is shaping you, and pay attention to who you are shaping. Because the goal is not just to avoid bad influence, but to become more like Jesus in the way we love, speak, lead, and live.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good morning, create church. My name is Matt. As I just said, I just want to get us kicked off with a quick question real fast. Who were you 10 years ago? What kind of person were you? Maybe right now, as you think back, you're a little bit embarrassed to share who you were 10 years ago because you were a part of some weird fashion trend. Every time those photos pop up on Facebook, you're deleting them, you're deleting all the throwback photos. Or maybe 10 years ago, you were just so cool. Like if only we could see you 10 years ago and how cool you were. You're living down those glory days 10 years ago, reposting them saying, hey, this is me 10 years ago. I don't know about you, but me 10 years ago, I'm in that first camp where I'm trying to forget who I was. I actually have a photo, I'm gonna just expose myself. I have a photo of me if we can pull it up on there. Um in three there it is. What's your mother? What's up with that? You know what? That's me 10 years ago, believe it or not. As you can tell, I haven't aged a day. Um that young buck right there is going into his freshman year of high school, believe it or not. Um, you can just tell what's going on. I got the awkward haircut. Um, I don't know what's going on. I I'm in public, by the way. I don't know why I'm wearing the pink mustache. I have no idea what the context was, but you know, that's just going on. Awkward smile, thumbs up, don't really know how to pose. But that's me. 14 years old with the world ahead of me. And that's that was only fitting if I show you guys a photo of me that was just taken yesterday, just for uh reference. Um you don't need it, but we can put it up on stage. I got a photo of me yesterday. This was me yesterday, 4th of July, right there. Um as you can tell, nothing has changed. Still that same immature, weird little kid. Um, if you don't know me, my name's Matt. You guys struck the lottery right now. This is the one time out of the year that they have me speaking, so I'm really glad that you guys are all here today. I'd love to get to meet you afterwards. Uh, we have uh some cool stuff going on afterwards, but this is who I am. I haven't changed a day. Still that weird, immature little kid. But if I'm being honest, just for like a quick second, a lot has changed. If I'm being real. From that 14-year-old kid to who's on stage right now, a lot has changed. And not just in me, but I know life has changed in all of you. The person who's sitting in the pews today is vastly different than the person you were 10 years ago. And not just in how you look, even though some of you guys claim to never age a day because you have some 10-step skincare routine, but a lot has changed in how you think, what you value, the things you want to spend your money on, the things that excite you, the things that scare you, what keeps you up at night, your career aspirations, the places you thought you would be. A lot can change in ten years. But not only does ten years change a person, but so can five years. Three years, one year, even a month, a few weeks, and a day. I mean, just last week I thought I'd see the Padres win a World Series in my lifetime, and then I watch them get blown out 23 to 3 by the Cubs and get swept by the Dodgers, and I lost all hope in that franchise. I'll tell you who I haven't lost hope in. 25% of me still believes Mexico can win the World Cup. Can I get an amen? Thank you. Come on. We all hear the old quote time changes a person. Does it really though? Does time really change a person? Or is it what happens in between that time that changes a person? You see, we're shaped and formed and influenced by thousands of conversations, thousands of successes, thousands of failures, and the voices of mentors that still echo through our head when we do something right or do something wrong. And so the question is in right now in this time, whether or not you're being influenced, I think a better question is by whom are you being influenced? Who's pouring into your life right now? Who or what shaped the person that you became today? Who or what shaped the person you become today? The reality is the person you'll be 10 years from now won't appear overnight. You don't become someone by accident. You're becoming someone right now. And so my question to you today, church, is who are you becoming? Who are you becoming? And most importantly, who or what is shaping the person you are becoming today? The good news is Proverbs doesn't leave us guessing. Uh we're in week two of the series How Life Actually Works, and we'll be diving into Proverbs 1. Proverbs will show us three truths about influence, but I'll give you guys your first fill-in right now. If you're taking notes, this will be your first fill-in. What you consume can become what you believe. I almost want to put a be careful what you consume because it can become what you believe. Because some of us are not consuming great things. Everyone knows a good quote, you eat, but what about what you read? What about the people you surround yourself with? Are you those things too? And so, right now, what you consume can become what you believe, and what you believe is influence your actions, and your actions can influence your future and those around you. So what you consume can become what you believe. Uh when I talk about influences, I think of none greater than the guy who's actually teaching your kids on the Sunday morning. Uh, he's there greeting you, he's praying with you as your kids are going in, he's making sure your kids are having fun in the classrooms with the curriculum. Uh, if you said Jesus, you'd be correct. But if you also said Alex, you'd also be correct. And so unfortunately, I won't be bringing you guys the entire talk. I'm gonna be tag teaming this one with Alex. And so I'm gonna be inviting Alex up on stage as you guys just do Proverbs and the three truths about info. So yeah, give it up for him.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Thank you, Matt. Matt is awesome. Matt has been an influence and a mature leader in our community for a long time now. If you visit some of our sister churches, you'll find pictures of Matt with really long hair and a pink mustache, apparently. Uh I have a picture from a few years ago. Let's pull it up on the screen. It's me and the homies. We're just the blind leading the blind. That's how it felt like sometimes. Me and the homies. Guys, what are we up to today? I don't know. I'm blind. Alright. Okay. I had to get I had to get that joke out. But seriously, I remember when I was a kid, I had this distinct sense that I would grow up, by the way. Uh, if you're wondering why your kids aren't in school right now, in class right now, it's because I'm up here. What I think is funny is even if I wasn't up here, Nico would still be getting a Sunday school from this guy. So uh welcome to Sunday school, Nico. Uh is it much different from what you normally get? Is it still silly? When I was a kid, I had this keen sense that I would grow up and that I would have no idea what to do when I grew up. So I started doing what anybody does is I started gravitating towards all the people that influenced me in ways that I liked. Right? I would listen to punk rock and I would listen to rock and roll, and I would dress up in I would dress up in like leather jackets and red ties. I'd wear those bracelets with the the little knuckles on them, you know. And I'd I'd watch Harrison Ford movies because I didn't know what a man was supposed to grow up to be like. So I thought, man, that guy's cool. I want to grow up to be like Harrison Ford or Brad Pitt or uh Gary Newman or Robert Redford. Raise your hand if you know who Robert Redford is. Uh there you go, we got one. Uh and you know, over time you realize I don't think these guys know what they're doing either. And so you get pretty frustrated, right? When the examples around you are giving you bad leadership, when the examples around you are leading in leading you in ways that you're not confident in, when bad examples around you are asking you to do things that you feel like are putting you in danger, were putting other people in danger, I was frustrated. So I did what any good student would do, and I read and I read and I read my little books that they gave me in school, thinking maybe the giver will teach me how to be a better person. Maybe if I read one flew over the cuckoo's nest or to kill a mocking bird, maybe if I read King Arthur and I realized all these people in these books are flawed, just like me. I'm reading these books and I'm seeing myself and all these characters, and that's not who I want to find when I open up these pages, because I don't know what I'm doing. So when I read the Proverbs here, we're in Proverbs chapter one. If you have Bibles in front of you, you can open them up. If not, you can look it up on your phones, or you can just listen. Proverbs chapter one gives us a crazy warning, and it's a beautiful warning, and I think it's one that's very important to hear at least once in our lives, right? He says this my son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother. And now at that point, I gotta say this. What if you read this and you think, well, you don't know my mom and dad? You don't know how wise they are or how foolish they are, you don't know how much danger they've put me in, and you don't know what kind of reckless and unwise people they are. Why should I listen to my mom and dad? Well, that's just one relationship, right? Parents fail, fathers fail, mothers fail, we fail. The best of our examples can fail. But really, what the what the wise man in the Proverbs is trying to communicate here is a desperation. Whoever this person is writing to their son, they're desperate for their son to listen. This person is aware that if this person does not receive instruction, they're in danger. And then he tells us what they're in danger of. He says, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Who's a sinner? A sinner is a categorically bad person. Now we're all sinners, you know, and some of us are saints, we've been saved by grace. But he's telling his son to look out for people who are through and through liars and murderers. And you go, that's harsh. That's harsh. Well, would you believe me if I said that there are some people out there in the world who only want to deal with people harshly? And they'll lie and they'll say, Come with us, let us wait to shed blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Verses 12 and 13, we shall swallow them alive like death, and whole like those who go down to the pit. We'll find all sorts of precious possessions and fill our houses with spoil. These people even try to entice you with rewards. They say, Here are the benefits of treating people this way. You get everything that's theirs, and you get to make it yours. You get to put them away, and you'll never have to hear with hear them again or deal with them again. And ultimately we'll make ourselves rich. We'll find all kinds of precious possessions, we'll fill our houses with spoil. He says in verse 14, cast your lot among us, we shall all have one purse. Now, this is crazy language. He says, Cast your lot among us. What does that mean? It means this. It means try it, try it. See if your life doesn't turn out exactly like ours. They're being honest here. When a person says, come and you know, I was born in Mexico, so I have a few bad examples of this, you know, you get guys who try to get you to cross something across the border that you're not supposed to, and they'll flash your chains and they'll flash their wallets or their big houses in Mexico, and they'll say, hey, come come do what we're doing, see if it doesn't work out for you. But I I want to agree with that wholeheartedly. Do what they're doing and see if it doesn't work out for you. I heard one guy once say, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Now, what does that mean if it doesn't mean something like you die living the life that you lived? If you live life fast racing cars, you know, keep pushing it to the edge and see where you end up. I like to ride motorcycles. And boy, every once in a while I'll go online and I'll watch videos of motorcycles crashing just to remind myself this could be my end if I'm not careful. Right? You guys ever watch that movie Supersize Me? That movie had a lot of problems when it came out. Um but every once in a while I'll think back to that movie and I'll go, that's the danger that I'm in. I've had family and I have had friends who engage in lifestyles. And when the whole world around them was telling them, You have to be careful here. This is what's gonna happen to you, this is how your life could end up, they would simply turn away and say, No. Or they'd agree and they'd say, Yeah, yeah, no, I see it. I totally see it. That's where things could end up going. And then, not a few months down the road, they end up suffering the consequences of their lifestyle. And sometimes those stories are pretty sad, and this is a very heavy text. He's talking about people who want to murder and want to lurk secretly for the innocent. They're talking about people who run to evil, and it says in verse 16, make haste to shed blood. And what's the point here? Is it just telling you, don't do all these evil things and keep an eye out for evil things that can ruin your life? Or is the point here something a little bit more instructive and productive and constructive? Well, he he begins it in verses eight and nine by talking about the instruction of your father and the law of your mother. He says about these things, they will be graceful ornaments on your head, and they will be chains about your neck. Franz, during the huddle, he talked about how words are like deep waters within a person, and how the words of the wise, they're like flowing waters, they're like life-giving waters. Guys, when you live your life with wisdom, when you live your life with discretion, can I tell you something? It it brings a beauty to your life. When you live your life under the grace of gentleness, when you live your life as a person who's submitted to authority and doesn't seek to boast themselves or lift themselves up or crush other people to get ahead, there's a certain grace that comes from God. There's a certain beauty, there's a certain filling of the Holy Spirit that's opened up because you're living a holy life. Now, I call the Bible, this is what I learned from a Bible teacher when I was younger. He called it the basic instructions before leaving earth. I like that. Basic instructions before leaving earth. And I'll tell you something, you want to read the book of Proverbs, you'll find a lot of ways to save your life. If you're a person who deals with anger, the Proverbs will tell you these are the pitfalls of being an angry person. These are the ways that you can win. If you struggle with holding your tongue and you say lots of silly things like I do, the Proverbs will tell you this is the consequence of being foolish in that way. If you struggle with other things like relationships or friendships or authority, the Proverbs will tell you how to get by in a way that will even make you attractive in the job market and in the world. It'll help you move up, it'll help you make friends, it'll help you influence people. But can I tell you something? I was listening to music on the way here and I was stressed out. I was I was just angry, frustrated. And I put my headphones on and I started listening to music, and it was nice music. I've heard the song before. But I had to take them off because I was getting frustrated. They weren't, it wasn't helping. It was good music, but it wasn't what I needed to hear. I needed to spend some time alone in prayer talking to God about what I was gonna say today, and I realized you know, when you're in a bad mood, music doesn't help. And when you're in a good mood, music can really help you lift up that mood. And there's something about the spiritual life, and there's something about rules, and there's something about civility, you know. We're Americans, we got a lot of lies. We learn how to behave in class and sit still. We learn how not to be bullies. But there comes a sense in which I think, I think we're all just kind of wild. And the rules are there to put us in place and to keep us safe, keep us from murdering and being murdered. But there's a there's an indwelling of the spirit that needs to happen. There's a being filled with the Holy Ghost, there's a being recreated, there's a knowing Jesus that makes this walk more than just noise in your ears and turns it into music. Now, the beginning of this proverb says, My son. My son. Now I have a bad relationship with my dad, and growing up, it meant that I wouldn't listen to anybody. And I wonder how many of us have the same sort of relationship. It meant that it was a really long time and it was a lot of work before I learned how to listen, especially to the right voices in my life. But the only thing that helped that was a relationship with God where I would look into his word and I would and I would seek out instruction. There were ways that the world was telling me to behave with my father. You watch Leave It to Beaver, or you watch The Simpsons, or you watch Dog with a Blog, and the fathers are always kind of idiots, you know. And you grow up thinking, my dad's an idiot, you know, he doesn't know any better. But then you read the gospel and it teaches you grace, and you learn, my dad's just a child like I am. And he made decisions that he was told to make by people who weren't the best influences, just like me. And I look back and I think, how many times has my father asked me, begged me to make a choice to save my life? Even if I didn't want to listen. How many times has my mother two people who will always root for me no matter what? How many times have my friends and of the best of friends, where did I find those people if I didn't find them at church? And who are those people if they weren't some of the godliest people that I've ever met? Right? The people who have always been the best examples to me, the people who have always given me the best wisdom, have always been people who are submitted to a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit and in obedience to God's word. And so this proverb tells us, my son, because first and foremost, it's making an invitation to us all here today to have a relationship with God the Father through his son. Guys, don't be fooled. Birds of a feather flock together. Bad company corrupts good morals. Show me your five closest friends, and I'll show you who you're like. This is true. Spend time with Jesus. Let him influence you. Let him be the one who guides you in the way that you ought to go, and I promise you, just like it says that God cannot be tempted. You're not going to lead Jesus in any evil way, and he's not going to tempt you in any dangerous path or in any evil way. Right? Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And there are no pits and there are no snares, and there is nothing to be afraid of when you're walking on that path with Jesus, right? And so you go, Well, I want that relationship with the Father. You can have it. You can have that relationship with the Father where he guides you and he instructs you. And morning by morning he says, My son, my daughter, spend time with me. He says at the end of this verse, at the end of this section in verse 19, so are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners. Of its owners. Guys, I can live a life that's greedy. And sometimes I do. And the moments of my life where I feel like I've lived them out of a selfish desire. I I really can't tell you that I'm happy to have lived it that way. It's never made me feel better. It's never made me feel more fulfilled. It's never made me it's sometimes, you know, it just makes me sleepy. You know, you just end up tired, wasting energy. It takes away your life. But a walk with Jesus, guys, it gives you life. I I don't know how to explain it, but when you live a life following Jesus, you'll find life, you'll find energy, you'll find love for others, you'll find your cup constantly being poured out, but also Constantly being filled up by God. And a life where you're being led by God is one where you become a better person than this sinner in the Proverbs. What kind of friend are we? What kind of friend am I? I see some of you here today, and there have been times when I've been mean and I've made a cruel joke, and I'm sorry. But I try to get better. I try to learn how to be gentle. Because the last thing I want to do is create an environment where everyone is ungentle, unkind, cutting, mean, even if it's just a joke. The last thing I want to do is create an environment where everyone's lazy and where everyone's unproductive and where everyone's fighting all the time and where everyone's just destroying each other, murdering each other, trying to get ahead. But how do I do that unless it's the example that I'm living in my life? Guys, here's our final slide. Oh wait, I got one more slide. Well, it's not that one. It's what's caught is taught. If you want to, if you want your second fill-in, here's what it is. What's caught is taught. Now what's caught is taught. Matt said, you are what you eat, you know. And you eat what you catch. You teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a day. You give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. And the way that we live our lives is the best example that people have, right? I grew up as an older brother, and I think back, I think about my little brothers, and I think, oh boy, I did it best I did the best that I could, you know. And people ultimately, they'll they'll go on and do their own thing. You know? You have to let people be free to express themselves and be their own personality, and the best thing you can do sometimes is just give them a great example and give them a reason for the reason that you're doing the things that you're doing. Have a reason. Have a reason for the way that you live your life, right? And as you interact with people and as you rub up on them, you're gonna see that just like when you have a friend and you you end up laughing like them, you end up watching the same the same shows, you know, you'll see that if you hang out with gentle people, you'll learn gentleness. You hang out with angry people, you'll learn how to be angry easier. You hang out with people who are generous and and giving and so so charitable. You're gonna feel the urge to be the same. You hang out with people who are greedy and never want to spend their money and don't ever want to buy you dinner. You're gonna end up leaving your wallet at home, you know. Uh but yeah. Matt. Matt's awesome. He's gonna take it from here.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

All right. Thank you, Alex. You know, thinking back to what Alex is saying, I I think about my mom, actually. Uh she would always tell me that her biggest fear was becoming like her own mother. Uh, for some of the parents in the room, that might be your own uh fear as well as becoming like your parents as you grow up. I don't have any kids, so I don't know what that was like. I, you know, I always thought that was a rational fear, right? How do we witness someone doing bad habits, practicing bad vices, and looking at that person and saying, I want to pick that up. I want to be like that person. On paper, it sounds so easy to just avoid, right? But Alex Talas, it's not so hard. I found myself mirroring behaviors of people who hurt me, and even passing on those behaviors onto people that they've never even met. It's not so hard to become like people we don't want to be like. But the good news is it's very easy to become like people that we want to be like too. I had some mentors and coaches who helped me break out of those bad habits and even pass on some of their behaviors onto people whom they've never met. And so, as we look at Proverbs, Proverbs is instructions from father to his son. And when we when we look even deeper into the Proverbs, it's not just instructions to his son, but it's instructions to sons and daughters that would inherit the Proverbs and their sons and daughters and their sons and daughters, and ultimately to us today. And so when the Proverbs are written, they're technically written to us today, for us to inherit, so that we might have a good foundation to live our life. And so I'm gonna invite the worship team back up. I kind of want to go, I wanna go through our last fillings. I hope we didn't spoil it a little bit, but I want to go through our last few fillings, right? Uh if we could review them up on the screen, right? Your final feeling will be you have influence, strive to be Christ-like. Or you can say strive to be like Jesus. Truth be told, is our ultimate call in here on heaven or on this side of heaven is to be more like Jesus. And so whether or not you're a new believer, seasoned believer, uh, question believer, atheist, or just in between, I firmly believe that you have nothing to lose just by being a little bit more like Jesus. Being a little bit more loving. Philippians 2, 5, which we should have on the screen, says, and all your relationships have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. And so today, church, as you go out into the world, as you go out into your workplaces, your families, all your relationships, can people read the love of Christ through how you live? I want her to quote that says, You might be the only Bible that people read in their lives. You might be the only Bible that people read in their lives. And so when you go out, I ask you, church, today, how can you be more like Jesus in your relationships? Are you becoming who you're called to be? I originally opened this up with a question: who are you becoming? And I ask you again, who are you becoming like? Are you becoming like people we don't want to be like? Or are we becoming more like Jesus? Would you guys all rise with me? I just want to do a little prayer moment for us with we could all just rise to our feet. And so with all eyes closed and heads bowed, I want to pray for two groups of people in the room today. The first group of people I want to pray for in the room today are those who are telling themselves, hey, I haven't been the greatest influence. I haven't been showing up in the relationships the way I want to show up. I want to be better. I want to turn from my ways. I want to stop spreading, hey, I want to stop spreading all this stuff. I want to turn from my ways. I just want to be a better influence and I want to be more like Christ. And so that's you today, and you're saying, hey, I want to be a better influence in my relationships. I want to be more like Christ. Would you just raise your hand with me? I want to pray over you. I see those hands. Heavenly Father, I pray over those in the room right now, Lord, who want to be more like you, Lord. Allow them to turn from their ways, Lord, and take hold of those relationships that they have right now, Lord, and allow them to be the greatest influence in their lives. Lord, we thank you that they have the humbleness, Lord, to just turn their ways and submit to you, Lord. And so, Lord, I pray as they go into the relationships, Lord, that they would just show up, Lord, as you showed up for us, Lord, that they would just love one another as they as you have loved us. Lord, thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. The second group, if we just all keep our heads bowed, eyes closed, the second group of people I want to pray for in the room today are those who are just saying, Hey, I want renewal in my relationships. I have great relationships, I have some not great relationships, I want to break free of some unhealthy habits, unhealthy relationships, but I also want to strengthen new relationships. I want to find new relationships. And so if that's you today and you're saying, hey, I want renewal in my relationships today, would you just raise your hand with me? I would like to pray over you. I see those hands. I see them. Heavenly Father, we thank you for those in the room, Lord, who just want to show up in those relationships, Lord, who want to break free of those chains that have hold of them, Lord. And Lord, I pray that you would just allow them to break free and be free in the name of Jesus, Lord. Lord, I pray that you would strengthen their existing relationships, Lord. Lord, allow them to show up with the love of Christ in every relationship that they go into, Lord. Lord, we thank you for the relationships that they have, Lord, and the relationships that they will make and the places they will go. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's worship.