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Hey guys, I just want to tell you about something else that Bill Voldemort and I are working on. It's called Living Influence Leadership. It's for business leaders who also happen to be Christians. We think we've got some great stuff that can be amazing in your companies. It wasn't mine. Check us out at livinginfluenceleadership.com.

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Welcome to Living Influence. I'm Scott Boyd, your host, along with Bill Thrall and Voldemort Cole. Hey, I want to mention that we have a book coming out this spring. It's called Living Influence. Yep. I just would like to encourage you to go to our website, livinginfluence.com, because I think we're going to have some stuff up there where you can be a supporter of the book.

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be on the pre-launch team. There's going to be a lot of things coming out as we try to market this book. But we're really excited about the book. Thinking about the book and thinking about who would read the book caused us to begin to think...

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Who are our listeners? Yeah. And last week we began to discuss one of those, we call them personas, the exhausted Christian. This week we want to talk about one of the questions that I might be asking if I were an exhausted Christian. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

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And the first question is like, just a simple question. Why is my faith not working? I actually think everyone has gone through this. Of course. In their life at some point where you're going, wait, wait, I—

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I had so much hope for what I thought this was going to do for me, and I'm not sure it's really happening. And it can take a long time. I mean, that's something that's been part of my journey constantly. For some reason, I think maybe because I'm such an idealistic person, in my mind it's always been, if I can just figure out the right way to do these items, and I have so much guidance from Scripture and from church, and I know how, I think,

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If I can just do things the right way, life should be smooth. I know that's not true, and it hasn't been. And yet, in the back of my mind, it's very hard to get rid of that thinking. I think, Scott, even the words are interesting. My faith not working.

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Yeah. And what I mean by that is so often as Christians, the emphasis is on how hard we believe or how hard we try to believe or how much we have to believe. And the reason for so many people it's not working is because they've turned faith into effort. Don't concentrate so much on how much you believe and,

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The critical factor in faith is the object of belief. That's the critical factor. Is he, Jesus Christ, God, do I believe that? Is he? You mentioned our book, and in the book we're trying to answer some questions, and one of the questions is, is Jesus capable of dying for all of my sin?

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I wouldn't be a Christian if I didn't believe that. So the object of my faith, we talked just last week about this profound reality of the message of my shame. Is Jesus capable? Is he capable of dealing with my shame?

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That's a question. Let's answer. Let's see. So, the object of my faith as a Christian is Jesus Christ. The editor asked me this. Of course, Jesus is capable. He's God. And I said, excellent. But I'm not asking the question, is he capable because he's God? Do you believe he's capable?

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Yeah, that's the question I'm asking. Why is my faith not working? Exactly. And for me, I turn everything. I have a propensity to turn everything into my effort. Exactly. And so, oh, I have to trust God with me. Oh, it's about, I just have to trust more. Imagine trusting a theology that,

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that puts the effort on Jesus, not me. Imagine trusting a theology that puts the effort on Jesus, not me. In other words, what am I supposed to do to become more godly? Okay, that's a question. It'll make you tired. But what if you put the emphasis on Jesus and he's already made you godly?

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What if you are already what you're striving so hard to become? Because his effort was to, in fact, give you a new reality.

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Can I trust him with that? Oh, no. No, I've got to do it. Well, how's it working for you? Remember, we're talking about the exhausted Christian. Right. I don't mind asking you, how's it working for you? Well, no, I'm exhausted. Good. Thank you for your honesty. But maybe there's a reason for your exhaustion. I love what you just did there. You took it to the reality. Right. Okay. You think you need to have some responsibility in the game. How's that working?

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And it's like, oh, I am exhausted. Right. And you should be. And if Jesus did it for me, and it's such a monumental, impossible assignment that he's taken care of, how much energy does that free up now for me to do something else? Exactly. Like, that's off my plate now. If I can truly receive and understand that—

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Boy, does that free me up to do what? Something else that's not as exhausting. I was just thinking, is that maybe tied to when Jesus says, my burden is light? Yeah, very good. It is tied to it, isn't it? Because I've taken the heavy, I've taken the impossible. Right. And now I've given you an assignment. It's so much lighter and it's full of life because you don't need to become godly. Let's not be afraid of effort. Let's not put our effort on becoming godly.

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Let's let our effort be the expression of who we are. If I put my effort on becoming, it's exhausting. But if my effort is an expression of who I am, it's natural.

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Jesus said the greatest evidence that we belong to him is the love we have for each other. That's Jesus' words. The love we have for each other. So, what's that exhausting? Is love an expression of who I am because of who God made me in Christ? Yeah. And if it is, then it's a natural expression of my person to love you. And that does take effort.

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But it's not an effort that exhausts me. You know what it is? It's an effort that actually frees me. It energizes me. It energizes me. Not even better. Since you like fishing and I like fishing, and someday I will, we can go fishing together. Yes. And it's spiritual because we're loving one another. We are. Because we're actually spending quality time together. I like you more. Look at you. You just gave me another reason that I can go fishing. But it's true, though.

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It's true. What if, it sounds corny, but it's not. What if our trusting what he's done would actually give us the enjoyment of life?

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What it actually gave us—you know how exhausting it is to never be satisfied with anything? Yeah, I go—sorry to interrupt, but I mean, I go back to last week, and I was talking about just some examples when I think of my exhausted Christian experience. Yes. I gave some examples, right? Mm-hmm.

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All of those, if those become more of an expression of what God has already done for me, they become joyful and more life-giving. We're just serving on a tiring, heavy-loaded board of a school going through some very tough issues. Dealing with...

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junior high boys that don't pay attention to any plays that you're instructing on. Just being on an elder board at church, just very, very big things. But this idea of, if I can see that as a means to love outside of me versus, boy, I need to show up and become something that is pleasing to God in any activity. I'm just using some of those as an example. Yeah.

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Right. There is such a difference. Absolutely. It's either life-giving or it is endlessly tiring to make sure I'm okay. Amen. Well said. So am I exhausted? Yes. I'm exhausted when I try to become something I already am. I'm exhausted. Now, what's less exhausting? Yes.

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Learning to live out of who I am. Learning to live out of who I am. I keep putting this in my mind. Can I trust Jesus that he is delighted in me now? Can I believe that?

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even when that crazy voice from last week in my head keeps telling me my shame story, can I let the God of the universe be delighted in me? Can I let him be who he is? Can I let him love me the way he does? Can I let myself be loved? What if I was actually learning these truths? Mm-hmm.

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Instead of ramping it up and getting, what if I could just say, Lord, my prayers. I pray a lot of short prayers. Lord, teach me to let you love me. Lord, teach me to believe that you are delighted in me. Did I mention I'm a jerk? Did I mention God? And he goes, I don't want to hear that. What I want you to hear is how important you are to me.

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Could I hear that? So, Bill, are you saying that the Word of God teaches us that God actually enjoys us? Absolutely. Absolutely. And enjoying us, He has joy for us. It's back to this exhausted Christian who doesn't feel any joy. Jesus had the audacity to say these words. My joy I give to you.

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Voldemort, you get to participate in the joy of Jesus.

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And he said, if you'd let me give you my joy, it'll cause your joy to be full. That's what he said. Now, okay, I don't have joy, so I've got to work real hard. I've got to read another book on joy. I've got to talk to 10 people who have experienced joy, or I can receive something. Let's talk about that for a minute. Let's talk about what it's like to receive from God.

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Instead of trying constantly to give something to God, what if I could learn to be somebody who received from God? Could I receive your love, God? Could I receive your joy? It blows my mind, God. I'm struggling to understand it, but I just quoted you, Jesus. You said, you built thrall. I want to participate in my joy. Huh.

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I don't know how to do that. What do I have to do? Receive it, receive it. Oh, receive it. I'm going to a new church and they're starting connection groups, small groups. The people that have started them have noticed when we try to be spiritual, it gets hard.

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People don't want to, you know, it's like everybody puts sips on their hands. They quit speaking. So let's talk about football. Yeah.

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Yeah, but part of it is also it's okay to just connect with someone. And so what if we took away the necessity to be spiritual and put in, no, it's okay to just be real. Absolutely. And so we're actually starting hobby groups as well. I have once a month at my house, we'll see if anybody comes, simulator golf.

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I'm fair. I come over. We'll play simulator golf in my basement. And where you just, the goal is, is that we develop friendships. Amen. Which ties back to the, by this they'll know that you're my disciples, that you love one another. Absolutely. And love can be just spending time together. What if being real was being spiritual?

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Yeah, imagine. What if that were true? Instead of always having this sin management phenomenon in my face, what would Jesus do? So instead of having this, what's the Christian thing to do? Right. What if just being real was the thing to do? Yeah. And finding other people who are real.

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so that we don't have to sit on our hands when the meeting turns to spiritual? What if we could just be real? I think when I look at that question we're trying to answer is, why is my faith not working? Because I haven't yet experienced the reality of what I say I believe. I ask a lot of people the question about who God says they are. They look at their Bible and they can give me all the right answers. They just don't believe it.

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They just don't believe it. There's one more question, Scott. It's this. The exhausted Christian, as they begin to search, begins to ask this question, how do I begin to experience grace? How do I begin? Something's missing. How do I begin to experience grace? Because there has to be an answer to that.

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For me as a Christian, I know I love Jesus. I'm exhausted. How do I begin to experience grace? And there's a promise in 1 Peter 5. It says this, that God gives grace to the humble. That's a promise. It's a promise about grace. How do I begin to experience grace when I begin to understand what humility really is?

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What if humility were these words? Humility is trusting God with me. And here's an interesting spiritual phenomenon. Do you know that every time someone trusts God, they experience grace?

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How do I begin to experience grace? By trusting God with me. How do I continue to experience grace? By trusting you with me. How will I begin to experience grace when I am trusting God and others with me? So practically, the more real I am, the more I tangibly trust you. Exactly. Exactly.

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And allow myself to be known. You're saying there's a direct exchange with grace. Exactly. So the more real you're with God, is that trusting God? Exactly. The more real I am with God. This is who I really am, God. I'm all screwed up. But really, I'm desperate, Lord. Meet me in my need. And that's part of it. Yeah. The exchange is an exchange of need.

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How would we know, Scott, that we are experiencing grace because we would be experiencing love? What's so interesting is that when I trust God with me, my God gives me grace in the expression of His love. When I trust you with me,

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that you get to love me and you get to love me. How do I begin to experience grace? When I begin to trust.

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Now, a lot of people, I can hear them instantly go, no, I'm going to go back to working harder. Because I'm out. I'm never going to share my story in a room of people. Exactly. You're never going to do that. Exactly. I'm out. And yet, time after time in my cohorts, you and I have taught them together, in our cohorts, people who would never, ever, ever share anything. In fact, we were talking about a couple last night. They have opened up their lives.

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In a way they never thought possible. So what is it? How do I experience grace? I experience grace in a safe place where I can trust God with me.

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In a safe place where we can trust each other, what would we do with someone who trusted us? Think about that for a minute. Just what do I do with someone who trusts me? Am I willing to love them? It's not even a question, actually. It's not am I willing to love them. Exactly. If you've ever been in a room with others,

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and you told your raw, unvarnished story, and when you were done, you looked around the room at each person, and maybe they give you feedback, maybe they don't, maybe they just look at you. What you experience is, you experience love. Absolutely. You experience acceptance, you experience empathy. Well said. And then when they in turn tell their story,

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raw and unfiltered, the experience of seeing someone do that causes you to fall in love with them. Absolutely. That is so well said, Scott. That is so well. It's not even, am I willing? It's not a choice. Yeah, it's a voluntary response to trust. Yeah, it's given us that response. And that's beautiful. It's what God's done in our hearts. It's what he's done. He's given me a heart that responds to trust with love. I love what we just said.

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It's nourishing. It's almost like that is what the heart is made for and needs. Exactly. And the gate is opened up when we're humble. Yeah. We become known. And in the middle of this journey, as you begin to experience God's grace and the love of others, nothing in your life may change.

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But everything changes. Absolutely. It's an amazing journey to go on. You could not have said it better. Thanks for joining us on Living Influence this week. We're going to continue on this journey of talking about who might need to read this book. And we'd invite you to be one of those. Please check out our website at livinginfluence.com.

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Thanks for listening to Living Influence. We appreciate you. Just a call to action. We would love it if you would share our podcast with one or two people this week. Thanks again.