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Are you okay with a mediocre life? Is it possible for us to live an abundant life? Welcome to this week's episode of Living Influence. Scott, as I think about what you just said, I would like to review where we are. What we're trying to do is share a series

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an understanding when I'm able to live out of who God says I am, God uses that influence for the benefit of others. And we talked about that God may grant them repentance. That God may lead them through our influence to a knowledge of truth. That through our influence others may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.

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And today we're going to talk about, imagine our influence being used of God to bring to life those who have been captured to do the will of Satan. And so as I think with you about this principle of life, it's going to sound weird, but it really begins with understanding death.

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Yeah, let's start with talking about death as we talk about life. Yeah, because this principle of life is a biblical reality where, and I'm going to read it so we don't miss it. It says in Romans chapter 6, We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

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For if we have been united with him in death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

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Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and now alive to God. So that as we think about this principle of life as a Christian, even as the words of Jesus said, I came to give you life and I gave him to give it to you abundantly.

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So I need to, as a Christian, ask God to help me understand something among the many profound things he did, is that Jesus chose at Calvary to die for my sin. He chose to take upon him my shame, but he did something else. He chose to bring me with him to death. That's a very important principle. Yeah, so let me—

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Let me just throw something out, maybe a curveball. So I got a guy that – he's a pilot in Guatemala. He flies me from Guatemala City out to this town in the mountains. And he's a Christian. And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you just got to die daily. Every day we got to die. It's just about dying daily. What do you say to that guy? I say to him that he has a confusion that –

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in his theology that causes him to think that if he can die daily, it will somehow make him more godly. And in reality, what we just read from Romans contradicts that in a big way because it says this. Jesus did something. He brought me to death.

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And listen to what it says. A death that he will never die again. Yeah. A death he won't. I am in a death with Christ where I never need to die again. Mm-hmm. Now, he says in that passage that I who in Christ have died, I've died to something. This is an important truth. I have died to sin. Yeah.

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The abundant life is never experienced by a person who still sees himself as a sinner. Yeah. Ever. Okay. Because I need to do something. I need to trust that my Lord was capable of bringing me with him into death in order for me

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to believe that I've actually been brought with him into life. Yeah. So we sing a lot, we talk a lot, we preach a lot about the Christian life. But we're not careful to understand that death does something. Yeah, you triggered in me this thought of, if I see myself as a sinner, then I have to work on my sin. Absolutely. And—

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And the fact, if I'm living under the belief, if I'm trusting this truth, that I have to work on my sin, then I'm going to always be looking at myself. You said it perfectly. And it'll always cause you to see yourself through the lens of your shame. So I'll always be looking at myself. I'll always be looking at myself through my shame.

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And in the middle of that, I miss you, like here and now. You're in the room with me, but I'm thinking about me. Exactly. Well said. And so we have this phenomenon. It's a biblical phenomenon prepared by God for us. What if I could believe that Jesus was capable of taking me to death?

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And listen to this. Death ends the power of sin. You know what else it does? Death brings me to the end of shame. Nobody who's dead experiences shame. Nobody. Nobody who's dead experiences shame. So is it possible for me to believe that in order for me to have life, I have to trust that I actually have died?

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And it's so hard because something happens to us as Christians. We begin to measure our Christian lives by our behavior. Yeah. And it trumps the truth of God. If I see myself as a sinner, the evidence is overwhelming because I still sin. I must be a sinner. And I can't be yet. I can't hear the word yet. I can't be yet who God says I am.

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So that the life that I have is a someday life, a maybe could be, instead of a real life now. I know the words. I know we know the theology, but we don't always live into it. My eternal life does not begin the day I die physically. Right.

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My eternal life begins the day I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior. But we don't hear it enough, Scott. That day that I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, he did something for me at Calvary.

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He brought me to death so that he could give me life. Now, I'm going to keep saying that. We're going to keep teaching that because it's missed. And why is that so essential to this principle of life? Because as you just said, when I see myself still through the lens of sin or the lens of shame, it's all about me.

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You know what? We both talk to each other about this all the time. The evidence that I actually have a life in Christ is the way I treat you. That's the great evidence of who I am in Christ. I remember when I first found you guys. It was like probably 2009, 2010, through your books. Yeah. And then I started looking for everything I could find. But –

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this life thing, there was a lightness in your guys' playing with each other. You know, there was like this, there was this play that you guys, you know, would engage with one another in. And it was so refreshing. And it,

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To enter into that play, you have to stop worrying about performing. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's – That's right, Scott. That's like the beginning of leaving the soup and getting on this land of freedom. What you triggered in me just now is this. There are Christians who actually are not sure they should enjoy anything. Yeah.

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Yeah. No, there are. Yeah, there are. They're just trapped into a theology that robs them of joy. Yeah. Because everything gets measured. And thank you for your compliment to our team in those days. But in reality, what if our goal, let's say, with our key relationships was to actually enjoy them?

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What if our goal was to be enjoyed by them? What if our goal was to not be paranoid as a Christian? Do I even have the right to have fun? You know what? Listen, I work with a lot of leaders. You know what they do? They have their fun apart from their relationships.

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Do you know what they do? They go on vacation in an isolated place to have fun because in their context, oh, they're so serious and godly. And it's an entrapment. It says that scripture that Paul wrote to Timothy, he says, after being captured by him, after being captured by Satan—

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to do his will, God has the ability to break me out of that. Why do I still get so enticed by it? Why do I—because, and I'll repeat this often, because I want to learn when do I begin to trust who God says I am and allow that identity to trump my behavior? Yeah, I am—

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When I read Galatians, Galatians 2, it's got some passages where it says, Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Amen. Wow. Wow. And he talks about are you trying to be perfected by the flesh? And he talks about are you trying to be perfected by the law? Yeah. And so I would ask like, okay, I can't use self-effort and I can't use external principle. Yeah.

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in order to find this life. And it led me to go, I have to use freedom and love to find this life. And so then it took me in Galatians where, you know, the famous passage of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And I would, my whole life read those as, here's what I shouldn't do and here's what I should do.

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And then all of a sudden, God flipped it on me and it's like, if I try to do any of these things, I get the first list. But if I just simply trust and live in freedom loving, I get the second list. Absolutely. Well said. This totally changed the way I looked at it. It changes everything. Plus, look at the freedom it gives you. Yeah. Look at the depth of the freedom we have when we can trust who God says we are. You said something wrong.

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wisely about this reality. This is a hard one. Do you know that at Calvary I died to the law? I died to it. I am no longer responsible because of something you just said out of Galatians. Here's the deal. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

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I, who am now alive, the great evidence of my new life will be the love I have for you. Right. Now, when I am trapped as a Christian, still seeing myself as a sinner, still driven by my shame, I use the law to become more godly, and I'm all about me, which is what you said earlier. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So here's this important lesson.

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I just read from Romans chapter 6, but there's a familiar passage in Galatians. He says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ is alive in me. Right. So this new life that I now have is really the life of Christ in me.

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I once had the life of Adam in me. This is an interesting thing. I once had the life of Adam in me, and the life of Adam in me brought me to spiritual death, and I was separated from God. I now have the life of Christ in me. Never again can I be separated from God, ever again.

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See, we're going to talk about this in another episode, but that concept of God being with me all the time is because I have in me the life of Christ. I will never, ever experience separation from God. I hear a lot of pain in people who still see themselves, who are Christians, who still see themselves as sinners.

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The possibility of their sin separating them from God haunts them every day. Yeah. Or young people particularly are vulnerable to this where they want to get the will of God right and they just struggle and struggle to go, well, how do I know if I heard God?

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And it's like – it's kind of like taking a leap off a cliff. It is. But each time you say that, Scott, that's a true statement. Yeah. Trust is. Trust is a leap. It's a leap. It's a risk. Is my God able to do what he says he can do when I take the leap? Yeah.

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Yeah, I was listening to Jamie Winship, a guy that's everywhere right now. Great stories. And he talks about inquiring of God. And then the next step is, and write down what you're thinking. And don't worry about if that was God or you. Just write down what you hear. Ask a question. Lord, what would you want me to know?

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In this situation, what would you want me to do? And then write down the answer. And it's like, well, what if it's not God? Well, what if it is? Exactly. And how would you know? And I – sometimes when I teach into this, it's like there's two options when we think something that we're going to give a go to.

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One option is, is it's God. And what an amazing thing to then be found obeying God's voice in our lives. The second option is, well, maybe it was the flesh. But if we do it in the light, this thing will happen through that mistake.

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It's called maturity. And you actually can't mature without making mistakes. And so it's like, let's live life. Because as we live life, we'll either find God or we'll mature and find God. In fact, we'll do both. Well said. So back to that dynamic. Is God able to give me life?

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Can I trust the life he's given me? Is he able in the life he's given me to give me the very life of Christ? I know the experience of living in the life of Adam. I know that experience. I've practiced it a long time. I get the great evidence of it. It's not abundance. But what if I begin, as you just said, to hear the voice of my God?

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who can speak to my new life in a way that can set me free and to his purposes. That's what we're talking about. Right. That's what we want to learn together. Right. So to summarize, do we want to live a mediocre life? Exactly. Well, then let's not trust. Right? Right. But if we'd like to have an abundant life—

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That begins by trusting God with who he says I am. Trusting God that we died with him. Exactly. Trusting God that we're alive with him. Yeah. Trusting God that we actually have life. Yeah. And you know what you and I get to do today and we're going to play golf tomorrow? Right. You know what we get to do? We've learned to enjoy.

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Yeah. The life we have. Yeah. It's so much fun. Could we just say to people, it's okay? Yeah. Start enjoying the life you have. Quit being a martyr to what doesn't work and become alive to what does. Yeah. This journey has taken me from a place of like, I love God. I believe in God. But I'm not sure I want to invite anybody into my mass.

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Isn't that true? Well said. To a place where I am excited that I get to be me. I mean, the life I get to live right now is like incredible. Amen. And abundant. Yeah. Amen. Thanks for watching this episode of Living Influence, where we got to talk about death. Well said. Hope to see you next week. Thanks for coming. Thank you for listening to the podcast.

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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.