Read 1 Samuel 14:1-7
What a strange response, “Do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul”
Is there anyone that you would say that to in your life right now, if they woke you up in the middle of the night?
What if you're day-dreaming or sitting in front of the tube and someone pitches this outlandish idea, this pursuit, this dream, this ambition, but they need you to succeed, how would you respond?
“You’re out-of-mind or do all that you have in mind”
What if they tell you absolutely God can do it, there’s no doubt He can pull it off, this is a BIG dream,
but God is bigger. Then they throw in, ‘maybe God’ll Help”
You see, all of us are influenced, and all of us are influencers. We’re created as creatures of influence.
Those that influence us the most are the ones we give our heart and soul to.
Everybody inhale - deep breath (don’t pass out)
All of us are created to influence others
Everybody exhale - we are all created to influence others
Inhale - we’re all shaped by the lives around us, other values and passions, and their character
Exhale - We all affect the lives around us by our values, passions, and character.
Life is about inhaling and exhaling - life is about influence
We are influenced by others and we influence others
Sometimes that can be a wonderful thing and sometimes that can be a destructive thing, depending on who we are and who they are - let that sink in - who is influencing you - Who are you hanging out with?
Where are you hanging out? Who and where do you spend your extra time?
Who are you influencing?
Sometimes we’re unaware of how much we’ve been
influenced by others until we realize just how much we’re
like them. Some of us have grown up with a relationship of someone we despise. And we said, “I’m never gonna be like him or her” - such as parents maybe, "never gonna be like" -
But you’re still influenced by them b/c you’re running in the polar opposite direction.
In our pursuit to not be like them we still these little tidbits of that person in our lives.
Sick people influence us - their breathing out - we’re breathing in
We exhale into people’s lives and vice-versa, and we are
influenced by those we are in close proximity to - I guess
you could say we all have our own unique aroma
My wife has a nose like a basset hound, not in shape, but by the way she can smell things. We can walk into the house, and she’ll say, ‘What’s that smell?” I dont know -
“Something’s burning” I thought that was dinner, I dont know.
CANDLES
As we live our lives, we spend our lives inhaling.
Sometimes we have no idea what we’re breathing in, we’re oblivious to what is affecting our lives.
Jonathan had a moment where he knew he could not
influence his father, but he could influence a friend.
Have you ever felt you lacked the power to bring change?
That’s how Jonathan felt. He could not change or sway his father so it says he didn’t tell him. Now,
this is not a passage of disrespect, “I don’t have to listen to authority”
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26
- but the bible is clear that living a life for God may mean going against the norm, to walk away from all the influences may be holding you back,
causing you to live a life that is less than God would have for you.
That’s where Jonathan was, so he asked his A.B. - you may think that’s not much, you may feel the same way, I don’t have much, I have a limited amount of influence.
So we need to ask ourselves, “Who in your life are you investing in?”
In that critical moment that you need help, you need others to join you in this incredible journey that God has for you.
Who would look at you and say, “Do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul”
Ironically this is one of those places where if you chose to be neutral you lose your potential. (initiative)
You may not be a bad person, you may be a pretty good guy, you might be a very nice human being, you may be one of those who has no known enemies in the world.
But ironically that may the very same description of a person who has no influence.
Hitler had great influence - a person in this world right now who holds no office, has no nation to lead and yet Osama Bin Laden is shaping the course of present times.
If only influence was restricted to those wanting to do good, but it’s not. So here’s the dilemma, so many of us want to live in character neutral.
Which is exactly where those 600 unnamed indiv. in 1 Sam. 14 chose to live.
There are a number of Christ-followers, Christians, who are in character-neutral.
We don’t want to do anything bad, and yet we are not putting forth this effort to influence the world with any good either.
I’m not talking about shaping political systems or institutions, but I’m talking about having the kind of character that
illuminates and draws other people to your life and reshapes their values and life course by who you are.
Alot of us Christ-followers can find ourselves as just inhalers.
We’re always breathing in - church, worship, study the word, around other believers, just taking in.
Just take a deep breath and hold it.... breath and hold it...
breath and hold it... eventually just breathing in becomes unhealthy.
story: airplane - what to do in case of loss of cabin pressure.
(mask doesn’t drop - asks wife - she says, ‘get your own’ - He says, ‘share’ - ‘No, you’ll be alright’)
This is the way so many of us are in way of relationship to J.C. - If Jesus is everything we say He is, how is it we can spend our lives just inhaling and when there are people all around us suffocating to death
w/out life, w/out love. w/out hope, w/out God, we say, ‘get your own’.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
Jonathan leans over to his A.B., ‘let’s go’ - the response,
‘do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart & soul’
This is where it begins - by making a conscious decision of letting God become the primary Influencer of your life.
Where you’re breathing in Jesus
This is how Paul told it to Timothy:
Here is just one good reason to spend time inhaling the scriptures - this is the primary way God influences us
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Ti. 3:16
You see it not meeting some sort of quota, God is not checking to see if you spent enough time reading, it is not that you are fulfilling some kind of mandate -
It is that God is longing to breath into your life and mine.
As we inhale Him it changes our character...
How did God put life into Adam? Gen. 2:7 says, ‘God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being.’
Ezekiel 37 - dry bones
Job said in ch. 33, ‘the breath of the Almighty gives me life.’
As we inhale Him it changes our character...
and then we can exhale God to the lives of others.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
So who’s life are you investing in right now?
Who would look to you and say, ‘do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul?
None of us are powerless. We are all influenced by others and we all have the capacity to influence others.
When we allow God to change our lives, to shape our
character, to influence us, when we breath in deeply of God, the natural response when you inhale is to exhale.
Sometimes we feel apprehensive b/c well you don’t want to impose your beliefs or life on other people - but consider this
Is it possible that you’re gonna run into this week, that your life will intersect w/ someone who has just hit bottom?
They can’t find enough strength, energy, or enthusiasm to continue, someone who’s questioning everything.
It is not about trying to impose your beliefs or God, listen, never try to force anyone into anything.
How about we allow God to shape us in such a way that others want to inhale of our lives.
Jon. to A.B. A.B. to Jon.
Let’s begin to live our lives in such a way that others are compelled to go wherever we might be going.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
It’s something we do every minute of everyday, maybe it’s something we need to do more consciously so we can begin to give our lives away.
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