SPEAKER_02: We need to understand obedience outside of the context of just us and kind of take a step back and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: That anonymous obedience, that going in the same direction for a long time, may not have gotten me recognition, but I promise you it will have influence.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_02: God, the reason we can sing in the midst of storms is because we've been through them and you brought us to the other side.
SPEAKER_02: Your word tells us you are always with us.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not just a companion coming alongside of us.
SPEAKER_02: You are the support.
SPEAKER_02: You're the savior.
SPEAKER_02: You're the one that redeems.
SPEAKER_02: God, if there's anyone here this morning that says, I don't know if I can get through this storm, Lord, I pray that you'd show them who you are.
SPEAKER_02: Show them your power and demonstrate to them how you feel about them.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for the fact that we get to sing even louder in the presence of our enemies.
SPEAKER_02: We get to be that righteous influence, even when all around us is breaking down.
SPEAKER_02: And so, God, I pray that you'd make that true.
SPEAKER_02: Be active.
SPEAKER_02: This morning, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Speak in ways that we understand.
SPEAKER_02: For it's in your name, Jesus, that I pray these things.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Well, this morning, uh, by the way, if you if you didn't hear, my name is Wade Burgess.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the executive pastor here, and many of you got the email from Neil kind of outlining the preaching schedule said I preached today.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for showing up anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Um for those that maybe came unaware and feel like we ran some kind of scheme on you, we don't give refunds.
SPEAKER_02: So know that.
SPEAKER_02: This morning we're going to take a little bit of a break from the book of John, and instead, I want us to take a look at this idea of righteous influence.
SPEAKER_02: We all have the power of influence, and our goal as believers in Jesus is really to have the right kind of influence.
SPEAKER_02: I want to give you a definition of righteous influence.
SPEAKER_02: It really comes from Jonathan Edwards.
SPEAKER_02: He's an old, old school uh theologian and preacher.
SPEAKER_02: And Jonathan Edwards had a definition of righteous influence, and I kind of paraphrased it for you this morning.
SPEAKER_02: It should be on the screen here, and it's just that the spirit that is at work in a people is plainly observed so as to convince others that Christ is the Son of God, died to save sinners.
SPEAKER_02: We are in great need of him, and our affections for him and God increases.
SPEAKER_02: That's what righteous influence will do.
SPEAKER_02: I want to do a couple of things.
SPEAKER_02: So, first, I want to demonstrate to you this idea of righteous influence by highlighting three characters from the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Then, after that, I want to give you four characteristics of righteous influence.
SPEAKER_02: After that, I'll ask you three questions that I want you to consider this morning.
SPEAKER_02: So let's go ahead and dig in.
SPEAKER_02: Our first character comes right at the beginning of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: It's Genesis chapter 4.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you have your Bibles and you want to turn with me, it's going to be a little bit of a sword drill this morning.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_02: The text will come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: There's Bibles in your rows, so if someone needs one, just uh whisper to them and get a copy of the text if you'd like to have it.
SPEAKER_02: This is Genesis 4, chapters 2 through 5.
SPEAKER_02: Now let me just set this up for a minute.
SPEAKER_02: Um this is Adam and Eve have been created by God, first two people that God create.
SPEAKER_02: He set them in the Garden of Eden, but they've sinned.
SPEAKER_02: They're cast out of the garden, and now they're living out their life, in a sense, with this separation from God because of sin.
SPEAKER_02: And so they've now had uh two sons, Cain and Abel, two names you you probably recognize.
SPEAKER_02: And this picks up with Cain and Abel here in verse 2.
SPEAKER_02: Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
SPEAKER_02: In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord, but Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
SPEAKER_02: When we examine the possible causes of why God looked with favor on Abel's offering and not Cain's, I think we can make a couple of safe assumptions.
SPEAKER_02: Well, one of them is that Abel, by giving God some of the first of what he had, was saying, God, I understand that everything is from you.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just demonstrating it by giving back some of the first that you've given me.
SPEAKER_02: I think we can understand that if Abel has that kind of knowledge, if that's the kind of philosophy, that the attitude that he has, then I think it's safe to assume that Abel is rightly aligned with God, that his heart is rightly aligned with how he's supposed to be living.
SPEAKER_02: The point in that is if our hearts are aligned with God, we will be the kind of righteous influence we ought to be.
SPEAKER_02: And if it's not, and if we stay there, obviously we'll never be the kind of influence God commands us to be.
SPEAKER_02: Author Warren Wersby's written several texts and a theologian.
SPEAKER_02: He describes a false righteousness as this false righteousness cloaks its sins in the garment of religious activities.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of the picture we get from Cain, just kind of a religious activity of here's my offering, it's not the first, but it's something.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we can do that ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: We can show up to church and we can go to Sunday school and Bible studies and this and that.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it's just false righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: True righteousness, on the other hand, aligns with God in our worship, in our lives, and in our influence.
SPEAKER_02: The second character of influence that I want us to look at it comes from the New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of way in the back, and it's not a name that maybe you're going to recognize.
SPEAKER_02: It's a name that pops up in several places in the New Testament, but certainly he's not listed as one of those pillars of faith.
SPEAKER_02: He's not listed in Hebrews chapter 11 as kind of that faith hall of fame guy, but it's someone that I think we can we can learn from.
SPEAKER_02: Turn to almost the end of the New Testament there.
SPEAKER_02: It's way back in Colossians, and this is a letter that Paul is writing.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's an apostle of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He was converted after Jesus' ascension.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus appears to Paul.
SPEAKER_02: Paul converts his life, and he writes a lot of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says this about this name that no homeschoolers are naming their kids.
SPEAKER_02: It's chapter 4, verses 7 through 8.
SPEAKER_02: Titicus will tell you all the news about me.
SPEAKER_02: He's a dear brother, a faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Paul spells out the influence of Tichicus.
SPEAKER_02: First he says, well, he's a fellow servant.
SPEAKER_02: What we get from that is, and if we do a little study, Acts, Ephesians, 2 Timothy, Titus, all letters that Paul has written, all of them mention Titicus as being a worker for the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: All say that he was involved in the spreading of that good news that Jesus saves.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul certainly would call him a fellow servant.
SPEAKER_02: He also calls him a dear brother.
SPEAKER_02: I think what we get from that is it's someone Paul can count on, somebody that's kind of been steadfast and with him, but also somebody Paul likes, likes to spend time with him.
SPEAKER_02: Finally, he calls him a faithful minister.
SPEAKER_02: Now, for Paul, if you know anything about Paul, Paul's not going to use those words lightly.
SPEAKER_02: And for Paul to have said you're a faithful minister, you've really done something.
SPEAKER_02: So I think what we get from that is Titicus has been unswerving in his faith.
SPEAKER_02: He's been constant, always demonstrating his belief.
SPEAKER_02: That's been his influence.
SPEAKER_02: Now, our third character is less about what he's done and more about what's been done to him.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I couldn't help it.
SPEAKER_02: I had to go to John.
SPEAKER_02: My Bible just automatically opens there, we've been there so long.
SPEAKER_02: So turn to John, you probably know it by heart.
SPEAKER_02: This is chapter 12, and the person we're talking about is Lazarus.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the last time I preached, I preached on Lazarus and Jesus bringing him out of the grave.
SPEAKER_02: This actually gives just a little small mention of him.
SPEAKER_02: I want to footnote something though.
SPEAKER_02: You know the power that raised Lazarus from the dead is available to all of us.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the difference, by the way, between Lazarus and us.
SPEAKER_02: One, Lazarus, my guess is Lazarus is sitting on his deathbed, and he's probably thinking, you know, Jesus does raise from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: I've heard some stories, maybe I saw, talked about it, things like that, but I don't know if he's coming for me.
SPEAKER_02: He's not here now.
SPEAKER_02: And then Lazarus dies.
SPEAKER_02: I promise you, Lazarus is probably not thinking in that very last moment, Jesus is going to raise me up from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: This is going to be awesome.
SPEAKER_02: But here's the thing we get to think about.
SPEAKER_02: We know based on the promises of the Bible that we will be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: And so why in the world wouldn't our influence reflect that?
SPEAKER_02: Just a footnote.
SPEAKER_02: So let's get back to it.
SPEAKER_02: So this quick mention of Lazarus here, take a listen.
SPEAKER_02: This is John chapter 12, verse 9 through 11.
SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: So the chief priest made plans to kill Lazarus as well.
SPEAKER_02: For on account of him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
SPEAKER_02: It's a quick mention, but I think a profound statement on the impact that Lazarus was having based on what was done to him.
SPEAKER_02: What happens to us has influence if we let it.
SPEAKER_02: Lazarus, I think, is not standing around going, hey, stop looking at me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm my own man.
SPEAKER_02: Don't look at me like you've seen a ghost.
SPEAKER_02: I think Lazarus was just simply saying, as people were continuing to come, Lazarus was just saying, Hey, let me tell you what's been done to me.
SPEAKER_02: And let me tell you who did it.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I think Lazarus' influence was.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does all that have to do with influence?
SPEAKER_02: And you may be asking, well, Wade, what does that have to do with me and my influence?
SPEAKER_02: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the reason I use those three names, names that maybe you've heard of, but aren't necessarily the first ones that you think of related to influence from the Bible, is just to remind us.
SPEAKER_02: I think more often than not, God uses the little known and the no-named to have influence.
SPEAKER_02: Really, that's just each one of us.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody's gonna write a lot of books about us or songs about us when we're gone.
SPEAKER_02: Likely no one's gonna say much about us except maybe at our funeral about our influence.
SPEAKER_02: That's all right.
SPEAKER_02: We still have power with our influence.
SPEAKER_02: And I think we have to understand that that idea of anonymous obedience, if you will, no one really knowing us, but we maintained obedience for a long time and demonstrated for a long time what our belief is.
SPEAKER_02: We need to understand obedience outside of the context of just us and kind of take a step back and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: That anonymous obedience, that going in the same direction for a long time, may not have gotten me recognition, but I promise you it will have influence.
SPEAKER_02: If we're to be followers of Jesus, we should have influence in the right kind.
SPEAKER_02: And in case you doubt that we do, I promise you, people are watching.
SPEAKER_02: Whether they even know it or not, people are watching.
SPEAKER_02: Just like we watch people, they're watching us as believers, whether they even know that that's what they're doing, or they know our belief yet.
SPEAKER_02: I promise you they're watching and they're seeing what we like, what's going on, what's this person doing?
SPEAKER_02: And you might be saying, Well, look, I keep my head down, I go to work, I go to school, my mom beeswax, nobody's bothering me.
SPEAKER_02: I don't bother them.
SPEAKER_02: I got three weeks left in school, dude.
SPEAKER_02: Just leave it alone, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Just let me.
SPEAKER_02: I promise you, people are still watching.
SPEAKER_02: They're still moved, I think, by the influence.
SPEAKER_02: And there's there's there's weight in that.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, even our temporary actions carry weight.
SPEAKER_02: You know, if you work with someone for, I don't know, four or five years, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe you've been married a while and I don't know, you you act uncharacteristically of yourself, okay?
SPEAKER_02: You act out at work or something happens, you get mad and kind of blow up.
SPEAKER_02: The people that have been working with you a while would likely say, that's not really her.
SPEAKER_02: That's not how she acts.
SPEAKER_02: That's not really him.
SPEAKER_02: He's different.
SPEAKER_02: That's just a bad day.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing we gotta be real careful about.
SPEAKER_02: What about the people that just catch us in those temporary glimpses?
SPEAKER_02: That's all they see of us.
SPEAKER_02: If you're like me, I'm kind of quick to judge, and so if I see somebody kind of going off like, well, that's them all the time, that must be them.
SPEAKER_02: We gotta be careful they don't look at us that way.
SPEAKER_02: Even the temporary can carry influence.
SPEAKER_02: Uh so my family and I, we're um we're out one Saturday afternoon, we're over here on highway six feeder road there in front of uh Whole Foods, and uh we're at the light, a lot of traffic around us, and we're just sitting there, and all of a sudden the car in front, one lane over from us, opens the passenger door.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh, oh, get ready, get ready.
SPEAKER_02: I don't carry a pistol, there's good reasons for it, but I'm reaching under the seat like I do, so they'll know, don't mess over here.
SPEAKER_02: And uh they open the door and they drop a full bag of garbage.
SPEAKER_02: Just drop it right there and close their door.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh no.
SPEAKER_02: Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_02: Roll down the window, I get on the horn.
SPEAKER_02: Kind of like that alert you're hearing right now.
SPEAKER_02: Fre.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not sure what to do.
SPEAKER_02: My wife is like, they're gonna shoot us, they're gonna shoot us.
SPEAKER_02: She thinks everybody carries a gun.
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, I'm on the horn and I take my cell phone off and I'm I'm like holding it out the window.
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know how to make the thing take a picture with that deal, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I don't have one of those buttons or anything.
SPEAKER_02: I'm about to drop it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just like, uh well, I guess they see it.
SPEAKER_02: They open their door, they pick up the garbage, they put it back and close it, and then we all drive off.
SPEAKER_02: Like, that's right.
SPEAKER_02: Lay down a law.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, I'll tell you what.
SPEAKER_02: When I get to church on Sunday, I'm gonna talk to Trevor Nails.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get I'm gonna get deputized.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_02: We get home, by the way, and I contact Tex Dot or whoever you call.
SPEAKER_02: I probably call the wrong number, and I'm like, hey, look, I got a video of a litter bug.
SPEAKER_02: I I want to lay down a hammer here.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to send a deputy to their house.
SPEAKER_02: I want them to get fine.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02: We don't really do that.
SPEAKER_02: Well, well, what do you do?
SPEAKER_02: Uh we send them a bumper sticker, don't mess with Texas.
SPEAKER_02: What the what?
SPEAKER_02: So I'm a little worked up about it.
SPEAKER_02: That was only five years ago.
SPEAKER_02: No, it was fairly recent.
SPEAKER_02: But fast forward now a couple of weeks, and we find ourselves in the Horterberger line one evening.
SPEAKER_02: I place my order and they move me to lane B, B for bad, because I believe you do not get the service you do in lane A.
SPEAKER_02: I'm in lane B.
SPEAKER_02: But because I'm an optimist, I have the window down, thinking they're gonna come any second.
SPEAKER_02: We're sitting there, it's nighttime, and uh we're in the car, and I look over, and this four-door silver Jeep is in lane A, and I'm looking at them because I'm jealous.
SPEAKER_02: I see them getting their food right now.
SPEAKER_02: How did you get your food before?
SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden the passenger door opens and they throw out a styrofoam cup, close the door.
SPEAKER_02: Uh-uh, coom.
SPEAKER_02: I hit that seatbelt button and I am coming out of there, okay?
SPEAKER_02: My wife looks over, and all you see of her is and I feel her fingernails brush my shirt as I'm on the way out.
SPEAKER_02: My son hears that, he looks up from his phone like, what was what's what's going on?
SPEAKER_02: I walk over and I pick up the cup, and there's a moment of where I have to make a decision.
SPEAKER_02: I could return to my car with the cup and demonstrate to everyone in lines A and B this is how we dispose of our trash.
SPEAKER_02: But instead, I have tunnel vision.
SPEAKER_02: I cannot see anybody in the lines, I don't know where I am, it's just me and this cup and this silver Jeep.
SPEAKER_02: I pick it up, I go to the back door handle of the car, and I jam that cup in the door handle, and I walk back to my car, I get in and I close the door.
SPEAKER_02: At this point, my wife says, I can't believe you did that.
SPEAKER_02: And my son says, I go to school with them.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, well, I tell you what, you get to school tomorrow and you tell them, stop littering.
SPEAKER_02: I'd I'll come down to that school, I guarantee you that.
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Nell's gonna deputize me, I'll be down there.
SPEAKER_02: So they drive off with the cup and the door handle.
SPEAKER_02: White Mercedes pulls up.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, Wade.
SPEAKER_02: It's a lady I used to work with, and she has recognized me.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, well, maybe she was looking down at her phone and she didn't see what I did.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, how you doing?
SPEAKER_02: Good to see you.
SPEAKER_02: I think we got our order, don't we?
SPEAKER_02: The guys, and the next day I get an email.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, wait, I heard you were cleaning up the parking lot at the Whataburger.
SPEAKER_02: I I I tell you that to tell you, even our temporary actions carry influence.
SPEAKER_02: How do we have righteous?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus reflecting influence?
SPEAKER_02: I want to give you four characteristics of that.
SPEAKER_02: Four characteristics of righteous influence.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, a willingness to give everything.
SPEAKER_02: I think Abel showed that his worship, his heart, everything he did reflected his beliefs.
SPEAKER_02: If it didn't, we wouldn't have seen him giving the first, that idea of rightly aligned with God, everything he was doing.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, God commended him.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 11 says, God commended Abel and called him righteous.
SPEAKER_02: God is not going to do that if he didn't know Abel's heart and knew that it was rightly aligned with him.
SPEAKER_02: Abel does it so well that Cain gets so mad he kills him.
SPEAKER_02: Now I recognize for the majority of Christians today, and probably for most of us, our lives will not be required of us.
SPEAKER_02: Our everything else is, though.
SPEAKER_02: The way we speak and act, the way we spend our money and raise our kids, the way we go to work and school and at home.
SPEAKER_02: Everything we do is going to have influence.
SPEAKER_02: Second characteristic of a righteous influence is little regard for self, but utmost for God.
SPEAKER_02: I think all three characters exemplified this.
SPEAKER_02: Cain holds back, Abel doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: I think Titicus could have found an easier employment.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is when the religious leaders are, you know, they're at the height of trying to shut down the first generation church, and I mean they're, you know, ripping and roaring across the countryside trying to find these followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I think Titicus certainly could have said, you know what, guys, I've been shipwrecked, jailed, spit on, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Enough, I'm done, I'm gonna go do something else.
SPEAKER_02: And he didn't.
SPEAKER_02: Little regard for self.
SPEAKER_02: I think Lazarus could have relocated or hidden, but instead he didn't.
SPEAKER_02: Now, don't mishear me.
SPEAKER_02: Little regard for self is not hate for self, it's just the right priority.
SPEAKER_02: It's God first, others second, and ourselves third.
SPEAKER_02: Little regard for self, but utmost for God.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you might be thinking, man, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: That sounds like a lot of work, and influence seems like a lot of effort, and I'm not sure I want to go through it.
SPEAKER_02: Man, does it really pay off?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what what happens?
SPEAKER_02: Well, here's what Paul says.
SPEAKER_02: He says this in 1 Corinthians, it's the last verse in chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's verse 58.
SPEAKER_02: Paul just says this therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.
SPEAKER_02: Let nothing move you.
SPEAKER_02: Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Everything has influence, and it doesn't take as much as we think.
SPEAKER_02: So when I um I graduated high school and I thought, I think I was a freshman in college, and I thought, man, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I I think I want to be a basketball coach.
SPEAKER_02: My wife taught me out of it, but um she said, Well, we're not gonna travel and you get fired a hundred times, so figure out something else.
SPEAKER_02: But in those early uh kind of my freshman sophomore year in college, I went back to my high school to volunteer assistant coach.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, it's kind of like having a special cousin, I think.
SPEAKER_02: The coach would like just give me a clipboard and go go over there.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, fellas, here's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: Ignore him.
SPEAKER_02: But I was, you know, engaged in some drills, trying to help the boys with different things.
SPEAKER_02: I'd go to the games with them and all, and so I volunteered for a season of basketball.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think we won very many, and I don't think I did very much while I was there, but it was a good time.
SPEAKER_02: I think the kids enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_02: I enjoyed being around them and all that.
SPEAKER_02: About 10 years in the future from that, my mother calls me one day and she says, Hey, you remember so and so?
SPEAKER_02: Now, by the way, I don't know if your mom would do this to you, but mine will do that all the time, and I have no clue who she's talking about.
SPEAKER_02: All right?
SPEAKER_02: She will say, Hey, you remember when you were in the Third grade, and that nice man brought you that ice cream cone.
SPEAKER_02: Well, he asked how you were doing.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have what, who?
SPEAKER_02: And so my pat answer now is when she starts with, Do you remember?
SPEAKER_02: I immediately go, No, no, I don't.
SPEAKER_02: I got no clue who you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02: And that doesn't help because then she explains to me their lineage and who they came from and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02: My parents have lived in the same place, you know, almost 40 years now, and so they know everybody's whatever.
SPEAKER_02: But anyway, so she calls and says, Hey, do you remember so-and-so?
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I don't think you know, you you went to school with his older brother and his older sister actually babysat you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember, sure.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And she says, Yeah, he stopped by the house the other day.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, stop by the house.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, they live rule.
SPEAKER_02: You've got to be on the way to their house, okay, for you to get there.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, stop by the house.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he didn't know how to get in touch with you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, uh oh.
SPEAKER_02: Owed this kid some money, did something happen?
SPEAKER_02: He says, didn't know how to get in touch with you, and he just wanted to come by and make sure that I told you.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Thank you for working with him on shooting free throws when you were helping out at the high school.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, well, that's nice.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, apparently he got a uh contract to play in the uh Italian basketball league.
SPEAKER_02: Kid went on to be a professional basketball player.
SPEAKER_02: He had a growth spurt after high school, became kind of a big man down in the paint and all, and so he gets a uh a chance to go play overseas, and he was good enough that all they would do is foul him.
SPEAKER_02: He made his living at the free throw line.
SPEAKER_02: He just wanted to tell you thank you.
SPEAKER_02: And I thought, man, are you kidding?
SPEAKER_02: I don't even remember exactly who this is or what I did.
SPEAKER_02: The point is, our influence can have a big impact, and it doesn't take much effort.
SPEAKER_02: It's just a little thing.
SPEAKER_02: Buckminster Fuller, uh, quite the name by the way, but he's an inventor, very smart guy.
SPEAKER_02: He came up with the concept of what's called a trim tab.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you've got a big rudder on one of these big ships, it'd take a lot to move that big rudder.
SPEAKER_02: And so Buckminster came up with a trim tab.
SPEAKER_02: It's a little rudder that's attached to the big one.
SPEAKER_02: And all you have to do is move that little rudder a little bit, and it in the water force turns the big rudder.
SPEAKER_02: The analogy in that is it's just it's a little nudge in a different direction, is all it takes sometimes for that influence to land and have an impact.
SPEAKER_02: In order for it to be a righteous influence, it's got to have this third characteristic, and that is that it speaks and acts differently.
SPEAKER_02: We cannot look like the world and expect it to see us differently.
SPEAKER_02: We cannot act like the world just to kind of get in to then show them how different we are.
SPEAKER_02: I can't go around a group of guys and use coarse language or coarse joking and just to show I'm one of the guys, then to say, hey guys, I'm not anything like you.
SPEAKER_02: Really?
SPEAKER_02: We've got to speak and act differently than the world from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's what Titicus did.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's what Lazarus did.
SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, they're combating the old guard Jews.
SPEAKER_02: I think they probably lost some friends along the way.
SPEAKER_02: Probably in every town they went in, they were concerned for their lives, and Tichicus, as Paul said, just faithfully ministered to those people, continued to have the influence that God had commanded him to have.
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's a safe assumption that he spoke and acted differently from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_02: We've got to be sure to do that ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Uh one of our ladies here at the church, um, she's a longtime pharmacist, and she recently got a job as like a contract employee working in Houston.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, I was talking to her the other day how it was going.
SPEAKER_02: It was kind of a temporary job, and I said, Hey, how what's that look like?
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Well, actually, they came to me the other day.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I've enjoyed the job, enjoyed the people.
SPEAKER_02: They're kind of all contract employees, they got their heads down in their cubicles.
SPEAKER_02: I walk in every day, hey Tim, hey John, how's it going?
SPEAKER_02: Hey, how are you?
SPEAKER_02: The boss comes to me about a week ago and says, Well, coming to the end of your contract, and we'd like to renew it.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're one of the most popular people we have around here.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, people love you.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, they say you say hi all the time, and you're just so kind and friendly.
SPEAKER_02: And you know that IT guy that works with, he hasn't said so much in three months as he has all five years.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I can't believe you even got him to talk.
SPEAKER_02: What was your trick?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're a real people person.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, Yeah, I just uh said hi to people.
SPEAKER_02: I was just being nice, I was just being me.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes speaking and acting differently doesn't have to be I'm gonna wear a I Love Jesus t-shirt and get on the bullhorn.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's just acting the way the Bible has us acting.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's just demonstrating simple kindness and courtesy.
SPEAKER_02: My point is, righteous influence will look different than the world.
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't always have to be much to have an impact.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the fourth characteristic of righteous influence and its consistency.
SPEAKER_02: Now, by the way, let me just also give you this footnote.
SPEAKER_02: Influence certainly sometimes can be unintended.
SPEAKER_02: You ever notice how your kids remember things that they weren't really supposed to, that you didn't mean to have influence?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: My son comes to me the other day, hey Dad, you remember that time about six years ago we were on the way to grandma's for Thanksgiving and that guy cut you off and you called him that name?
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't remember.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my, let me test your memory.
SPEAKER_02: I've been working 18 years to try to give you the biblical definition of manhood.
SPEAKER_02: Can you tell me one aspect of the biblical definition of manhood?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: But boy, I remember, man, that guy cut you off and I unintended.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes our influence can be unattended.
SPEAKER_02: How do you control what influence is remembered?
SPEAKER_02: Consistency.
SPEAKER_02: Are you the same in every situation?
SPEAKER_02: Day in and day out, can I count on you to act a particular way?
SPEAKER_02: The people that you work with, that you go to school with, that you live with should not have to worry about, oh, it's Monday.
SPEAKER_02: Here she comes, she doesn't like Monday.
SPEAKER_02: Oh boy, got to walk on eggshells around them because I don't know how dad's gonna act when he gets home based on the days head.
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
SPEAKER_02: You cannot have people wondering what kind of mood are you gonna be in to gauge how you'll react, oh, what day has it been or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: There has to be consistency, and it's gotta be the right type of consistency.
SPEAKER_02: Now, some of you could say, well, you know what, Wade, I am consistently angry all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Does that count?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't count.
SPEAKER_02: I think that distracts from from from what God wants us to do.
SPEAKER_02: And then you might say, well, Wade, I read somewhere in the Bible that there's righteous anger.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I've got.
SPEAKER_02: I consistently have righteous anger, and I would challenge you, I don't think any of us really know what that looks like.
SPEAKER_02: It's hard to demonstrate and speak the love of Jesus with grit teeth.
SPEAKER_02: Now, stop asking questions and let me continue my sermon here.
SPEAKER_02: But the point is, consistency makes an influence.
SPEAKER_02: I guess it was about 10 years ago, Graham Parkway partnered with a group called Kids Hope.
SPEAKER_02: Kids Hope is a mentoring uh program that places adults in elementary schools, and they pair up an adult with a student one-on-one.
SPEAKER_02: You spend one hour, one day a week.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the principal of that school uh was a member of our church or is a member of our church before she she got promoted, and she said, Man, I'd love to have that program in my school.
SPEAKER_02: And so, well, I was one of the first ones to sign up, and we had several people from Grand Parkway sign up and spent a long time mentoring.
SPEAKER_02: Um, every year it was about the same.
SPEAKER_02: About September, you get assigned a student.
SPEAKER_02: They can be anywhere from, I think, kindergarten, first grade through fifth grade.
SPEAKER_02: You get assigned a student and you spend just that one hour, one day a week with them.
SPEAKER_02: Some of them have some real difficulties.
SPEAKER_02: Like my very first student right out of the gate, I'm thinking, this will be fun.
SPEAKER_02: I'm changing a generation.
SPEAKER_02: And I get there and they're like, Yeah, his dad was killed in a carjacking about six months ago.
SPEAKER_02: He he doesn't talk.
SPEAKER_02: All right, okay.
SPEAKER_02: Uh do, do, do, do, do.
SPEAKER_02: Hi, Neil.
SPEAKER_02: I was just wondering what I spent about three weeks with him.
SPEAKER_02: And then he started talking.
SPEAKER_02: We started developing a rapport.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, the same thing happens every year with every student that I've ever mentored.
SPEAKER_02: I'm still mentoring.
SPEAKER_02: I we we we stopped our partnership with Kids Hope, but I'm continuing to mentor.
SPEAKER_02: Every year it takes me about one to three weeks just to develop a little rapport with the student.
SPEAKER_02: We do things like reading.
SPEAKER_02: I'll read one page, they read another, I help them with the harder words or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we play a dice game or we'll shoot basketball, but we're always kind of learning.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'll we'll play dice.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you rolled a five and a two.
SPEAKER_02: What's five times two?
SPEAKER_02: Whatever.
SPEAKER_02: I just spend time with them.
SPEAKER_02: Every mentor that's ever mentored from here has said this.
SPEAKER_02: Within the first three weeks, that student is saying to me, Are you coming every week?
SPEAKER_02: Now, at first you could take that as, uh, you don't like me coming.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what they're saying: there's no consistency in my life.
SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna be that?
SPEAKER_02: Are you coming every week?
SPEAKER_02: My kid, I was at the school where I mentor, I was there on Friday for some other reason.
SPEAKER_02: All of a sudden, something grabs me and I turn, and it's the kid that I'm mentoring.
SPEAKER_02: I've been mentoring him for about, I don't know, six weeks.
SPEAKER_02: And the kid's kind of hugging me.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, Mr.
SPEAKER_02: Wade, I saw you.
SPEAKER_02: I just wanted to say hello.
SPEAKER_02: See you later.
SPEAKER_02: Whew, it does something to you.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, the consistency doesn't stop with just the student.
SPEAKER_02: Every time I go in that school, you know what they're saying?
SPEAKER_02: Hey, Mr.
SPEAKER_02: Wade, you're back.
SPEAKER_02: The teachers see it, the cafeteria workers see it.
SPEAKER_02: Consistency has an impact of righteous influence.
SPEAKER_02: Now, let me say this.
SPEAKER_02: This is a little bit of an advertisement now, but Grand Parkway is beginning to have a partnership with Fort Bend ISD and their mentoring program.
SPEAKER_02: This summer, we will have the uh mentor training happen here.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, it's only one day and it's very easy.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to know how to talk to people through grief or anything else.
SPEAKER_02: You spend one hour, one day a week.
SPEAKER_02: I chose Fridays, that's usually easy.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I go from eight to nine, I'm in and out every year within about the first three or six months.
SPEAKER_02: I get this comment from one or two teachers.
SPEAKER_02: Man, little Johnny's behavior has improved.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what you're teaching him.
SPEAKER_02: He's doing better in school.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not teaching him anything.
SPEAKER_02: He already had it in him.
SPEAKER_02: He just needed somebody to show love, to demonstrate consistency to him.
SPEAKER_02: So, if that might be something you're interested in or you want to hear more about it, I want to give you an email address.
SPEAKER_02: It'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: It's mentor at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_02: Just take that down if you want it.
SPEAKER_02: We'll remind you of it a little bit later.
SPEAKER_02: But mentor at grandparkway.org, if you'll just send me an email and just in the subject line, put mentor.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, wait, I'm interested.
SPEAKER_02: Hearing more about that.
SPEAKER_02: We'll sign you up, we'll have the training here, and we'll do that.
SPEAKER_02: Something very simple, very easy to do, and I promise you it makes a huge impact.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, let me also say this.
SPEAKER_02: I mentioned this in the first service, and uh a spouse came up to me and she said, My husband's off on that day.
SPEAKER_02: I told him you're going to that.
SPEAKER_02: It's field day.
SPEAKER_02: We have a partnership with Mission West Elementary, one of our local uh elementary schools.
SPEAKER_02: They are having field day on May 21st.
SPEAKER_02: They're looking for between five and fifteen adult volunteers to come.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you might be serving hot dogs and hamburgers inside, which that's the one I usually like to do inside.
SPEAKER_02: And then uh there's outside games and activities for kids and all that.
SPEAKER_02: It's from 8:30 to 2.
SPEAKER_02: You can pick any time.
SPEAKER_02: I only got 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_02: We'll take it.
SPEAKER_02: I got a long time, we'll take it.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, if we get more mentors and they have students, which virtually is impossible, but if we get more mentors and they have students, we'll go to another school.
SPEAKER_02: We we right now have some guys right at the high school.
SPEAKER_02: We will make sure you get plugged in.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're interested in field day on May 21st, send an email to mentor at grandparkway.org and just put field day in the line.
SPEAKER_02: Tell me you're interested, we'll get back to you.
SPEAKER_02: Why don't I go through all that?
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, because consistency makes a difference.
SPEAKER_02: A.W.
SPEAKER_02: Tozer was a preacher and a writer, he died back in the late 60s.
SPEAKER_02: He said this through the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian is involved in a daily life and habit that cannot be explained.
SPEAKER_02: It can't be explained, but I promise you it has influence, righteous influence.
SPEAKER_02: As Clyde comes up to play.
SPEAKER_02: And before I pray, I want to give you three questions I want you to consider while Clyde plays over us.
SPEAKER_02: It's just simply what influence is your life having?
SPEAKER_02: Who do you think you're influencing the most?
SPEAKER_02: And what informs your influence?
SPEAKER_02: Is it the world?
SPEAKER_02: Is it peer pressure?
SPEAKER_02: Is it self?
SPEAKER_02: Or is it God?
SPEAKER_02: Consider these three questions, then I'll pray.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God, that you're a God of influence.
SPEAKER_02: And thank you for the privilege that we get to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_02: Now, some of us would be a little scared and say, Well, I don't know the right words to say, and I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: All of us feel like that at times.
SPEAKER_02: Really, what we've got to do is we've got to put you first.
SPEAKER_02: We've got to be willing to give everything.
SPEAKER_02: We've got to speak and act differently, and we've got to be consistent.
SPEAKER_02: God, we can do that even when it's one day, one hour, once a week.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God, that you are influential.
SPEAKER_02: And thank you that your people can be an influence to a broken world that is crying out to understand better what you've done for them by dying for them on the cross and being willing to raise them again in new life.
SPEAKER_02: For it's in your name, Jesus, that I pray these things.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Well, just so you understand opportunities of influence, I'd like to direct your attention to the screens behind us for our video announcements.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Rosaria Butterfield will be with us on June 14th and 15th.
SPEAKER_01: Childcare is available for church members if you register.
SPEAKER_01: This event will open to the public soon, so make it a priority to sign up today.
SPEAKER_01: International Coffee Hour is tomorrow at 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: This is a time designed to bring together different world cultures so they can practice speaking English.
SPEAKER_01: If you are a member of Grand Parkway, this is an excellent opportunity for you to practice our core values of mission and blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Have you been sitting in church on Sundays but never getting involved beyond that?
SPEAKER_01: One of the expectations we have for every member of the church is to take the next steps of finding a ministry to serve and finding an environment to foster deeper relationships with others.
SPEAKER_01: Visit our next steps page on our website to get out of the pew and into the life of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Today is a community group Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: We will meet in homes throughout our city to discuss today's sermon and unpack what it means for us.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on a community group, contact Travis at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: If you have questions about anything you've heard today or you would like someone to pray with you, some of our pastors and elders will be available at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_02: All kind of chances to have influence.
SPEAKER_02: So avail yourself to any of those or all of them.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for being here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: If you've are a visitor and you've had a chance to fill out that connection card on that seat back in front of you, you can drop it in one of the wooden boxes by any of the exits.
SPEAKER_02: And if this morning is a day that you worship through giving, that's where you would leave that as well.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for your attention.
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you being here.
SPEAKER_02: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_02: Let me offer a blessing and we'll be dismissed.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, guys, you're part of history.
SPEAKER_02: This is the longest sermon I've ever had, so congratulations.
SPEAKER_02: We went longer than 24 minutes.
SPEAKER_02: Hold out your hands, and let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_02: The creator of heaven and earth uses the no name and the little known to be a powerful influence.
SPEAKER_02: We are that influence.
SPEAKER_02: Go out and live righteously.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.