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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 your host, Scott Boyd, along with my two friends, again, Bill Thrall and Paul Nicole. Thanks for being here. You bet. Before I dive in the episode, I want to tell you that we've got a book coming out. It's called Living Influence. Yes. Authors are Bill Thrall and John Lynch. Yes.

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It's an exciting book. I'm really excited about bringing it to you. Check that out on livinginfluence.com. We're going to have some information on our website. As I'm speaking today, it's not there, but it's in faith that I'm saying that we're going to have information about the book on our website. And the other thing is we've got some conferences for leaders who are Christians.

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There's going to be one in September and one in November right now that we're scheduling an exclusive time with the three of us and this material on how it could transform your business. And you'll find that information out on livinginfluenceleadership.com. So check that out. I hope that we see a lot of you at one of those conferences. So we've been talking about the people that have been listening to our podcast. Yes. And thinking about...

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What are the questions that you guys face in your life? Of course, we really want to lead you to continue to listen to our podcast and engage in the books, because that's where I think we've given more treatment to how can you deal with something like this. So the first one we're going to talk about is, for me, how do I rebuild my faith? Sometimes things happen in life.

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that rock your faith. So how do I rebuild my faith when things that are difficult happened? And the word I'm going to talk about is the word imagine.

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And imagine has an interesting definition that mirrors the definition of faith in Hebrews. Faith in Hebrews is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So to imagine something that doesn't exist as if it does kind of sounds like faith. So my faith has been rocked. Imagine that I could stop working.

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on my life and step into a life that was already mine. It's a great statement. Yeah. Imagine I could stop working on my life and step into a life that's already mine. Well said. Imagine I could step into a life that had joy.

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Would that be something desirable to step into? And that's kind of this thing. Our logo on our website is this upside-down mountain.

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And why did we do an upside-down mountain? Because there's this one thing, doesn't have to be very big, could be mustard seed sized, called faith, that if I begin to trust this one thing, everything else comes from that. Absolutely. And so instead of having this mountain of all of these principles I lay in my life and the things that I've got to remember and do, it's just now I just have to trust that God's already given it to me. Amen.

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through what Jesus Christ did on his cross for us. Thank you. Sometimes my friend Bill sounds like a broken record because it's like you can talk about any topic possible, and he's going to say, well, you just have to remember how God sees you.

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You know, and it's like, wait, that's the solution to everything? It caused me to think of Billy Graham. And over my life, I saw Billy Graham on TV a lot. Not as much as people older than me, but I still saw him enough. And presidents would have him to pray. And every time you saw him, he had this one message that he would speak about Jesus. It was the same message. It never changed. Never changed. And it was all he said.

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Did he have so much effect on so many people? It's because of Jesus. Amen. So I'm struggling. My faith got rocked. And now my behavior, I'm worried. I'm fearful. I'm like my addictions show back up. And what do I do? Well, imagine that my life is based on who God says I am and not my behavior. Amen. Amen.

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What would happen if I did that in that moment? And that's the interesting thing is in that moment of faith, it takes me away from that need to want to fix that thing and to want to think I'm not enough. And it takes me to a place of like, wow, what if I already have been changed? It's this one little move can like put me into my old self

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Or actually put me where God sees me all the time. Amen. So my statement I wanted to talk about, imagine I could step into a life instead of working on my life. A life that was already mine. For some reason, the church in the majority preaches the truth that Jesus died for their sin. They preach that truth faithfully. Yeah.

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But they end up in that dynamic you're talking about. It's because they haven't yet learned to trust Jesus with their person. With their life. With their life. Is, did the Jesus who died for my sin actually, actually change my person? And you're so right, Scott.

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Can I, a little bit of faith, but can I, by faith, move into my new reality the way He sees me? I mean, this is where it started for me. Can I move into that reality of trusting He's already changed me?

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And if I don't wake up tomorrow morning and want to read my Bible, I'll still be okay. Are you sure? You'll still be a Christian. Will I still be a Christian? Is it okay? Is it okay with God if tomorrow I'm just kind of tired and I didn't read my Bible? Yeah. Right. And when I first started to get this grace message for me, it was like, all right, I'm not going to read my Bible unless I want to.

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It really— Did you actually have permission to not have to read your Bible? I did. I gave myself permission— Praise God. —to stop my doing. Yeah, exactly. Because I had such a doing radar. I measured everything for doing. Voldemort, how about you? I'm going to put you in a hot spot. Yeah, well, thank you. I'll build on what you said about this idea of not being enough. That's what I had written down, is this idea of I'll never be enough or do enough.

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Something I've wrestled with for quite a bit of my life. Many episodes back, I talked a little bit about my background. So just this more of a performance for love environment at home. That affected me. Of course, just my own personality and how I'm wired. But that concept of, will I be faithful enough? Will I be spiritual enough? Will I be a good enough father? Yeah.

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Will I maximize all these incredible gifts and blessings that God has bestowed on me? Will I make a difference? Do I have enough significance in life? For me, it's all about the challenge of, am I going to maximize all the opportunity and giftedness

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I don't think so. I'm worried I won't. And so my imagine statement from the book is imagine the significance of who God says I am. Ties back to everything that we talked about. But very specifically, who does God say I am? Amen. What he says is, and can I believe it? I'm perfectly loved. I'm pure. I'm righteous. There's nothing I can do to make him love me more or less.

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Yeah. Really? Nothing. So you're stuck in perfection. I can't lose her game. It's in the blood. Yeah. Okay? In the message, in the epistles, there's, I'm an original.

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Each one of us is an original. Amen. Highly unique, gifted, perfectly loved. And if I extend that then to trusted friends and an environment of grace, I can start to listen and believe that I'm a good dad. I'm very loving and compassionate. That I'm good at giving wisdom and guidance. That I can help other people discern their pathways in life. So many other skills that I can listen well and coach.

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that I'm creative, all these good things. I think we talked before about moving into that place where you can start to actually like yourself. Amen. Well said. To actually, you know, yeah, kind of, it's kind of scary. Like, yeah, it's kind of scary. I'm not, it's a scary statement, but I'm kind of a cool person actually, at least through the eyes of those that I trust. Like I'm kind of interesting, that interesting guy. That's very powerful. So that imagined statement, will I ever be enough or do enough?

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I'm enough. Amen. Good for you. And Voldemort, even those examples you rattled off about who you really are, they are all statements of being enough. They are. And just because of, we'll get to mine in a minute, but I want to address something you just did. That statement that I'm not enough,

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has its root in yesterday's shame. One of the questions, one of the statements I picked was, as a Christian, why I'm so tired all the time, but I want to feed it off of what you said. When my shame tells me I'm not enough, this is a tragic next statement. I often

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I'm in an environment where sin management theology is reinforcing my shame. Where sin management theology is declaring, Vauder, but you still got more to do.

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Well, there's a reason you're not enough. You failed at this, and you didn't coach that, and you didn't love this, you didn't do that. And so we have an entrapment. People will look at me going, Bill, you're so strong on that. Well, I am. I'll just say this. Lots and lots of churches are still teaching that, Voldemort, even though you're a Christian, at the core of your person, you're still a sinner. Mm-hmm.

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They're teaching you that. And because at the core of your person you are still a sinner, your shame is being fed. And when your shame is being fed, you will constantly remind yourself that your circumstances are validating the view you have of you. I want you to say that very clearly. Your circumstances are validating the view you have of you.

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But you ended your statement so beautifully in reminding us and yourself how God's view of you. That's called grace. Could I trust God that my circumstances no longer get to define me, but he does? What if I let my God define me? And you said it so well.

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Voldemort, I want to echo your story in my own life. For many, many, many years, I personally believed that I didn't matter. It's just the circumstances of my childhood gave me this sense, I don't matter. I lived tragically in the lie of I don't matter for a long time. And living in the lie of I don't matter, it did something. It gave me permission to be self-debasing.

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It gave me permission to be self-debasing. It was a huge transformational in my life for me to be able to trust Bill Thrall because I had to learn that in order for all of this insight, wisdom, whatever you call these giftings I have, to have their opportunity, somebody had to trust me.

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And as people have learned to trust me, God has used everything we're talking about in these podcasts to have an incredibly positive effect on other people. Absolutely. But just those words, I'm not enough. They're the words of shame. And I'll say this. Could we say to our audience, are you aware...

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of the damning effect your theology is having on your life. Yeah, it's, I mean, to me, what's screaming is, in Galatians 5, Paul says, if you accept this one thing that you have to do, just one thing, just this one thing that you have to do, you have to do them all. It opens the door to everything else. You have to do everything. And then he says, you've fallen from grace.

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and you've been severed from Christ. That's extreme. It's so extreme. It's like when the sin management comes in and it's like, oh, no, God saved me of my sins, but now I'm responsible for my behavior. Yeah. I've got to—and my shame's good because it helps me to keep this in check. It reminds me how screwed up I am. Yeah. Yeah.

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But it cuts us off from God. Absolutely. From Jesus. Thank you. And what he can do for us. Thank you. And when we imagine, it lets us enter into this place that God created for us to live. As you say that, Scott, I want to remind us all, whenever, according to Galatians, whenever we add the human participation...

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to the process of our maturing, it is no longer grace. I'll say it again. Whenever we add the human participation to our maturing, it is no longer grace. Sin management is a theology that wants you to become responsible for who you are becoming, and that's tragic.

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And as you said at the very beginning in the first one this afternoon, you said, this isn't about my becoming. I already am. Grace says, I already am. And you listed those things. That God says to you that you already are. That's right. You listed them. That's our reality. That's your reality. So it's like, oh, gosh, Spirit of God, keep me from a theology.

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that makes me responsible for who I'm becoming. And just to add in, for those who maybe haven't listened to all the podcasts, this definition of sin management is that I can manage the wrong I do. It is my sin. That I can somehow control it and manage out. And of course, that's a falsehood. Exactly. You know, the other verse that comes to mind in the book of John, I believe, is this. So as you received him, so continue to walk in him. Right, exactly.

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Boy, that's been resonating in my mind over and over again because we've trusted him with our sin. But I kind of want to walk with the ability to manage just a little bit of, oh, no, it's all on me now. You know, it's all now. Now I'm responsible for everything. Yeah. And that's what happens. Well, that's well said. Let's not leave that too quickly because that is a problem. As you have received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him. What does that mean? I received him.

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on one basis, I trusted him. That's how I received him. And as we said in one of our earlier podcasts, whenever a human being makes the decision to trust God, that human being will experience grace. So as you have trusted him,

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and you will experience grace. Continue to live by trusting Him, and you'll continue to live in grace. And the minute I take part in who I am becoming, I have lost my need to trust Him. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. It's an amazing truth. What I know to be true

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is if you're ever in a room with another person and they authentically tell your story, you cannot help but fall in love with that person. Amen. That's a true statement when we watch someone else tell their story authentically. It's also a true statement when you tell your story authentically. The person you tell it to will fall in love with you. Amen.

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And right there will be two people that have created an environment of grace. Thank you. It takes courage, but it's so worth it. It really is. It really is. The person who asked that, we commented on it, is doing what you just said. Where's the who? Have the courage to walk up to somebody and say to them, do you think we could try trusting each other? What would that take?

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Tell your story, as you just said. Let them tell their story. Begin with somebody. Yeah. Because we are absolutely convinced you cannot solve you on your own. That's so true. Just can't do it. Yeah. But I want to know how it's going to work. It's just like, well, you really can't know how it's going to work until you just actually try it. Get in the middle of it. Yeah, man. Thanks again for listening to Living Influence. We appreciate you.

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We'd love it if you'd go to livinginfluence.com, contact us, and send us an email. We'd love to know what you're thinking. See you next week.