WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.410 --> 00:00:29.461
Do you know that you can read scripture in a way that triggers your shame? And there may be many of you that think that's a good thing, but we'd like to suggest that when your shame is triggered, it always causes a false view of who you are, who God is, and who others are. Shame, through the lens of shame, we never get life right.

2
00:00:30.828 --> 00:00:53.103
We have an alternative. Welcome to Living Influence. I have a story to tell. In my life, I've lost a wife to cancer. But in fact, I had two cancer journeys with my late wife. And in the first cancer journey, she was diagnosed in 2003 with breast cancer.

3
00:00:54.149 --> 00:01:12.003
And I looked at life as a whole lot of things that I needed to do, that I should do, that I ought to do. And in that environment, I failed in so many different ways. We've got an alternative way to look at life. Instead of looking at shoulds and oughts,

4
00:01:12.965 --> 00:01:34.295
Bill, where would we start? Thank you, Scott. I just love that introduction here because it gives us – when Paul – I want to read it to us. When Paul was writing to Timothy, he wrote these words. It's in 2 Timothy, verse number 22.

5
00:01:35.392 --> 00:01:55.068
He says to Timothy, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. A majority of people that I've worked with over these many years will read that verse with something they ought to do.

6
00:01:55.490 --> 00:02:22.405
Or they'll panic about their heart. They'll panic about— It's not pure enough? They'll even work harder at getting a purer heart. Yeah. What we want to do in this season of our talking about influences, we want to offer to those that are listening to us an alternative. What if I read those scriptures instead of something I ought to do as something I can do because of who God says I am?

7
00:02:24.667 --> 00:02:51.380
Yeah, so something I can do instead of something I ought to do. Right. Does that still leave you as something to do? Well, it does. But what it does leave me to do, it leads me then, look at these things. Are they my reality? Not something I pursue to get, but something I pursue because they're already true about me. Let me give you another biblical example. Romans chapter 6.

8
00:02:51.937 --> 00:03:19.173
Paul does an interesting thing in all of his writings. He spends a great deal of time declaring truth. Chapter 3 all the way through 611, it's all declarative truth. It's all things that God says are true about him, about Jesus, about us. And then in verse 12, he begins what you call the application of the truth, the therefore. Now, this is a principle.

9
00:03:19.915 --> 00:03:47.067
If I don't get that which is declared right, I'll never get the application right, ever. So he's saying in that, therefore, he's saying that we want to then be understanding how is it possible, I'll show you in a minute, from Paul's writing to in fact live into the therefore. And you just mentioned a little bit about your heart. Listen to what he says.

10
00:03:49.683 --> 00:04:17.510
Do you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness? Here's the key. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. Now, that's a very, very important question.

11
00:04:17.678 --> 00:04:46.079
What I call hinge verse. Yeah. Because it's saying, in this miracle of who God says I am, he's given me a new heart. Now, lots and lots of people who would have read those scriptures from Timothy would have read them as something they should do because they still see themselves through the lens of their shame because they're still being taught that.

12
00:04:46.687 --> 00:05:04.135
they haven't changed. They're still being taught that they're sinners. They're still being taught that in order to become godly, they got to do something, buck up, do something. And my quick response to you a minute ago was this, from a pure heart.

13
00:05:05.907 --> 00:05:30.697
Now, if I believe I'm still a sinner and I'm a Christian, I'm going to believe that I still have the heart that Jeremiah describes. Trevor Burrus Right. A heart that is deceitfully wicked. Trevor Burrus Right. Now, it's pure nonsense to assume that if I believe my heart is deceitfully wicked, I have the ability to purify that heart.

14
00:05:31.102 --> 00:05:56.583
That is like nonsense. No, there's only one who has the ability to give me a heart that is pure. That's the key here, a heart that is pure, a heart from which I can, in fact, pursue those things, which are a clarification of who I am. Instead of something I should do,

15
00:05:57.713 --> 00:06:24.308
and into a reality of something that has changed about me into something I can do. Scott, flesh out that story again and bring us up to date to that second incident. Yeah, so two cancers, that first cancer journey. When she came home with that diagnosis and we began to live with the word cancer, I –

16
00:06:24.393 --> 00:06:50.279
I wanted to be your hero. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to lead my family well. I wanted to be a good example. And all of these – so I had all of these things that I needed to do. And I was really in a doing framework at that point in my life. And maybe so much in a doing framework that I – you know, I believed in God but I wasn't sure I wanted to invite anybody else into my mess. Well said.

17
00:06:51.427 --> 00:07:18.595
I failed. I failed with escaping behaviors. I failed with being terrified, being afraid. I mean I just – and I was trying to perform. You know what? You've told me in the past, you failed at loving her well. Yeah. No, she was like – at one point on the journey, she's like, look, I can't do this alone. I need you. I wasn't there.

18
00:07:19.827 --> 00:07:47.688
And it literally led me on a journey to begin to discover grace. I would go on walks in the mornings and I would pray for God to heal my wife of cancer and to help my business, which was teetering on bankruptcy. And in my prayer, I'd be like going, God, I pray that you're going to do this because of Jesus. Because if it's because of me, I'm really in trouble.

19
00:07:48.717 --> 00:08:12.629
And that's the beginnings of my journey of discovering grace. And so the second story was 16 years later. This time Bev was diagnosed with a completely different cancer. By the way, she recovered from that first one, which was awesome. And my business did well, which was amazing too.

20
00:08:14.148 --> 00:08:33.115
But when she came home with that diagnosis of stage 3 pancreatic cancer, and it was pretty much a fatal diagnosis, we resolved together to trust God with whatever showed up and walk in the light with each other.

21
00:08:34.246 --> 00:09:01.600
And so if I was afraid, I could tell her I was afraid. Absolutely. She was angry. She could tell me that she was angry. She was worried about not seeing her granddaughter's wedding. We'd talk about that. If she was worried about what was going to happen to me after she was gone, we would talk about that. And what happened was we had 20 months that became the most intimate relationship.

22
00:09:01.904 --> 00:09:30.355
safe, amazing place between the two of us where we protected one another, we loved one another, we communicated about everything. And it was such a gift. And it was so completely different from that first journey. Trevor Burrus Yeah. Thank you. That's a great story in terms of its contrast. Same marriage, same two people, same awful disease. The difference was you.

23
00:09:30.811 --> 00:09:58.165
The difference was you. Learning by God's grace to quit trying to be somebody you're not. In the second incident, having the freedom to be who you were. Yeah, and not to be afraid of what I found. Exactly. And it was an amazing difference. Yeah. So in that scripture that we read, I like the title of that portion.

24
00:09:58.672 --> 00:10:22.263
this way. I title it, The Purpose of Our Influence. And then the reason I do that is because when Paul tells us that we can pursue these things that are already true about us from a pure heart, oh my gosh, then something happens. The influence I have on others changes and

25
00:10:23.309 --> 00:10:51.963
And so back to just – we're going to probably say this every other podcast. Right. But I want to say it again. Here it is. When I view myself through the lens of my shame, I will never get me right. Right. And if I never get me right, I'll never treat you right. Yeah. Now, the contrast is this. What if I could learn –

26
00:10:53.414 --> 00:11:20.532
to see myself as God sees me. What if I could actually trust him to get me right? Yeah. And when I trust him to get me right, what's going to happen is my influence will be phenomenally different. Yeah. We have lots of examples in the scriptures of people who are able to trust God

27
00:11:21.848 --> 00:11:50.772
in moments where it really mattered in terms of God's purpose. And those people experienced something. They experienced the opportunity, so to speak, to trust God. We're going to talk a lot more about that as we go through these podcasts together. But I want to pause here just to repeat again. When I...

28
00:11:52.443 --> 00:12:15.713
look at Scripture as something I ought to do, I will be a person who is already pre-programmed to fail because I can't accomplish that which I ought to do. Yeah. So when I look at it as here's the things I need to do in order to be, it gives me a totally different result.

29
00:12:17.030 --> 00:12:46.662
As when I look at the scripture saying, this is who I am. Right. And so I get to. Right. That's the can. That's the I can. Yeah. And so as we're thinking together here about our influence, I want – again, I don't mind repeating myself. I believe the single greatest – the single greatest element in my influence is the way I see myself. Yeah.

30
00:12:47.506 --> 00:13:16.598
Which is so huge. And it's so huge for a leader. Absolutely. And I don't – like in the introduction, we talked about some people think shame is a good thing. It helps motivate me. But instead of actually motivating me, it causes me to think I'm not enough. Absolutely. And then as a leader, it causes me to think those that I lead are not enough either. Exactly. And so –

31
00:13:16.835 --> 00:13:44.611
Now we're just trying to fix each other. And that's a completely different environment than if we're believing in each other. Absolutely. Thank you. You know, when you just said that it triggered this reality in me, you know, maybe it's not as clear as I thought just a moment ago. Let me say it this way. Do you know that the reason any of us experience shame in the first place—

32
00:13:45.927 --> 00:14:12.218
is because of the reality of the sin that is in us. Now, what if this miracle was true? That not only did Jesus go to the cross to die for the sin that makes me ashamed or shameful, what if he actually took upon him the shame itself? That's not who I am.

33
00:14:13.096 --> 00:14:39.590
So even in that reality that some people think it's a good thing to read Scripture and feel shame, you don't realize what you're doing when you do that. You're denying the significance of the work of Christ at Calvary. Shame is never a good thing because it would deny the significance of what he went through to bear it.

34
00:14:39.657 --> 00:15:00.025
Yeah. It makes me think of Galatians 2.20 where he says, I don't nullify the grace of God. Amen. For if righteousness were by works, then Christ died for no purpose. That is the point, Scott. Thank you. Right. That is the point. Yeah.

35
00:15:01.932 --> 00:15:29.506
Cool. Amen. So where do we go with this scripture then? What's the next piece? Thank you. I think the interesting part about the next piece is what we're going to work on. If these things are true, Paul says about you, Timothy, let's make it apply to me, Bill, or you, Scott. If these things are true, watch what's going to happen, he says.

36
00:15:29.506 --> 00:15:50.212
The purpose of this being true about you is so that your influence for the benefit of others would be these things. The first, he says, that God may perhaps grant them repentance. The second thing, he says, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

37
00:15:50.819 --> 00:16:18.308
The third thing says, come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. Now, all of those we're going to talk about in future podcasts. Right. But that's our goal. Yeah. If I read that scripture as something I can do, then the purpose of God through me is for the benefit of others that they may experience these truths.

38
00:16:19.017 --> 00:16:45.055
Yeah. And so this journey of influence begins to take off. Absolutely. Yeah. Interesting. And it all hinges on how I view the Scripture. It does. How do I look at it? Yep. And how do I see me when I view Scripture? Yeah. Can I read Scripture in a way that it's telling me who I am? Amen. Amen.

39
00:16:46.068 --> 00:17:10.368
And I can therefore live out of that. This is exciting because this is what we're going to be doing now over these next several podcasts. Yeah. Yeah, very good. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the podcast. We're really glad that you're here. We'd love to know that you're here. And so if you could leave a comment, we would appreciate that. But more importantly, if you know someone that should listen to this or hear it, we would love for you to share it with them. Thanks again.