even wanted any of that. I prayed to be effective.
effective.
Because the thing that I don't want to
be is not effective.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? And so
when you start talking about influence,
let's define influence. Influence is the
capacity to have an
effect on the character development on
the character development or behavior of
someone or something or effect itself
like the influence of television
violence. It could be a thing. It could
be a person. But it makes you effective
at producing change. It's it's
influence. It's quantifiable. You can
measure your impact. And I was thinking
about uh sometimes when I was younger,
I'd have dreams and I' there'd be
somebody chasing me or I'd be in a fight
with somebody and I'd be punching them,
but it had no effect. Anybody have those
kind of dreams where you just couldn't
get you couldn't get that good one in,
you know, and then you thought you
landed it, but it did. It just just
turned into nothing. That's a nightmare.
I'd wake up almost screaming or you're
running, but you can't get up any speed.
You can't get up any traction. Some
people live their lives like I had my dream.
They punch without impact.
They run without gaining ground.
They expend
energy but they see no
results. In order to have
impact, God has to give you
influence in the eyes of the people. And
that's something that God has to do
because you can't do you cannot control
how people see you.
I don't care if you change your hair,
change your dress, change your clothes,
get more degrees in a thermometer, spin
all around, do whatever you want to do.
You cannot control how people see you.
God can control how people see you. And
so God says, "I'm going to control how
they see you for my glory."
Now, I'm not going to change how the
whole world sees you, but I'm going to
give you influence in proportion to the
authority that I've given you. So, this
this message is a one-sizefits-all
message. It will work whether you're the
governor or the president or a papa and
you just want to influence your son or a
wife and you just want to influence your
husband. Whatever you have dominion over,
over,
you want to have influence.
So the more the less time you have, the
more valuable it comes. It becomes I
can't stand for you to waste my time
because my time is valuable to me. I
don't want to engage my effort doing
things that I am not effective at. And
sometimes you have to pray for God to
give you the stature that is necessary
not in your eyes in the eyes of those
that you hope to
influence. So God created
trouble to raise Joshua's
influence. Okay, that's what we that's
where we left off Sunday. God created
trouble because how you manage
crisis changes how people see you. Okay?
So we started talking about uh the
president in Ukraine and we started
talking about how he said I don't need
uh uh evacuation, I need ammunition. And
all of a sudden that one phrase changed
how people saw him. What you say in a
storm changes how people see you.
changes how they respect you. That's why
the enemy is always trying to get you to
pressure. Because the enemy knows that
if you go off under pressure, you
decrease your
influence with your hysteria. [Applause]
[Applause]
If you want to be strong, you want to be
strong under pressure, then you gain
influence under pressure. And in order
to be strong, there are certain things
that you need to know. You need to know
that you are doing what you were created
to do. Even if it's not a big thing,
even if it's not a great thing to other
people, it only matters to the people
that it matters to. And it shouldn't
matter to you what outside people think
The reason we have so much misery in the
world today is that you are because
social media tempts you to try to get
outside people to form an opinion about
your inside
ability. And all of a sudden, if they
don't like the post, you want to take it
down. Or if they say something weird,
you want to freak out about it. But in
reality, I'm letting you observe
something that is frankly none of your business.
business.
You understand? So it your opinion
doesn't really matter to me. If I don't
have any authority with you, then it's
just an opinion. And opinions
are common. Everybody's got one.
Everybody's got one. And when you bring
yourself down to the point that you
allow people to make you come off the
wall that God has assigned you on
because of somebody's opinion who is not
you, then you give up your influence
over the people you have influence with
because of somebody that doesn't even
matter one way or the other.
It doesn't even make any sense. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? So you you it's
not enough for God to raise your
influence in the eyes of external people
Oh yeah. We we're about to go there.
We're about to go there. We're about to
get down into the depths of it. We're
about to get down into the depths of why
Paul prayed in Ephesians that the eyes
of your understanding being
enlightened that you might
know. You have to know. It's not enough
for them to know if you don't know what
is the hope of your calling. So in order
for me to have uh influence in
influence it starts in me. I cannot
convince outside people to believe
something about me that I don't believe about
about
myself. That will make you an impostor.
And the stress many of us have right now
is that we we have impostor syndrome
where we feel like we are living a fake
life and we think that we're living a
fake life not because we have
inconsistencies because we all do but
because we are not convinced of our
purpose. So Paul prays that the eyes of your
your
understanding may be
enlightened. Okay. You can't be an
external light if you don't have internal
internal
light. That the eyes of your
understanding might be enlightened. So
before God starts elevating Joshua in
the eyes of the people, he talks to
Joshua by himself. And he says, as I was
with Moses, so shall I be with you. Be
strong and very courageous, for I am
with thee to deliver thee whethersoever
thou goest. Joshua, you have to know
you're the man.
Then he created the swelling of the
Jordan to give an outer display of what
he had convinced Joshua of inwardly. So
the question tonight for you is, are you convinced?
Y'all not talking to me, but I'm talking
to you. Are you convinced? Because if
you're not convinced, the enemy has
already defeated you.
You cannot influence where you are not
fully persuaded. [Applause]
[Applause]
So Paul prays that the eyes of your
understanding might be enlightened that
you might know, not wish, not hope, not
think, but that you might know what is
the hope of his calling and what is the
riches of his inheritance in the saints
and what is the exceeding greatness of
his power to usward who believe. You
have to know that
this is my purpose. This is my place.
This is my gift. This is what I do. This
is what I am. It's not about you knowing
it. I have to know it first. You can't
have more of this without having more of
that. It all connects together. And when
God increases your influence, he will
also increase your enemies. [Applause]
[Applause]
So, how do you thrive in an environment
of conflict?
God has increased Joshua's influence
with his people. But he has also
increased Joshua's enemies. The
Hittites, the Jebusites, the Gerishites,
the Canaanites are riding around on
chariots on top of the wall. Why?
Because Joshua's having increase. Yeah.
Who am I talking to tonight? Anytime God
gives you increase, you will look out
and you'll see barriers and restrictions
that you never saw before, you'll see
what was a creek turn into a river and
overflow its banks and flood because
you're on the verge of stepping into
another level of influence. And when
you're on the verge of stepping into
another level of influence, there will
be certain floods that come in your
life. And you have to be prepared to
deal with the flood so that you can get
to the
saying? So why is influence the currency
of impact and purpose? You can't if this
water is just water, but if I put
Kool-Aid in it, I will influence it.
Okay? It will never be water again.
If something as simple as a tablespoon
of Kool-Aid will influence this water,
how can you live a life where you are
being poured into something that doesn't change?
Somebody ought to miss
you. Somebody ought to call you.
Somebody ought to see about you.
Somebody ought to think, "Oh, if you
were here, my life would be better."
Influence is not just about you. It is
about your ability to affect the
behavior of those around
you. Come
on. The day you walk in a room and they
don't look up, you've lost influence.
The day you walk in the room, they keep
on reading the book. You've lost
influence. I don't care whether it's
your kids, your wife, your husband. You
need to measure influence. How did I
change what I was exposed
to? And the reason we get frustrated
sometimes is that days go by which we
can't get back again. Weeks go by which
we can't get back. Months go by which we
can't get back. And we cannot see our
impact on those that matter most around us.
us.
That's real. I'm telling
you, brother. Say that's real. It's hard
to come into a situation where it's
still just like it was before you got
there. If I pour myself into you, you
ought to turn into something else.
If I pour myself into you, you ought to
turn into something else. If I pour my
wisdom into you, you ought to turn into
something else. Because if you don't
turn into something else that suggests
to me that I'm impotent and I have no
influence in your life, which leads to frustration
frustration [Applause]
[Applause]
because I'm not seeing any result.
So that brings us to the question, can
Some of y'all know exactly where I'm
going with this.
increased in
wisdom and
stature and in
favor with
God and man. Jesus
Jesus
increased in wisdom and stature and in
favor with God and man. Some people
think if you increase with God, you
can't increase with man. Oh, come on.
I'm I'm I'mma talk to the deep folks in
here a minute. You running around with
all this kind of people. You doing all
of this kind of stuff. You doing all of
that. They think true holiness is
increasing with favor with God and not
with man. But Jesus increase with favor
Somebody shout increase. Increase. Okay.
If I'm going to increase my influence,
I've already told you there's going to
be some some some restrictions and
there's going to be some attacks and
there's going to be some adversities.
But as I am exposed to it, God builds up my
my
Oh, is somebody getting anything out of
this tonight? God builds up my
tolerance to the level of my
influence. That's why I don't want to
live your life because I haven't been
built up enough to have tolerance to be
you. I have tolerance to handle my level
of influence. That's why I can't put my
mouth on you and what you did cuz I
don't know what you're going through on
your level. Oh, y'all don't hear what
I'm saying. It's easy for people to sit
back in a cracker box and start talking
about somebody on Capitol Hill because
you don't have tolerance for the level
of pressure they're under. You say, "I
don't understand." No, you don't
up to the people that God is increasing.
attacks because the attacks are not
worthy to be compared to the glory that
shall be revealed in you. Don't stay
down low to make other people comfortable.
comfortable.
Don't diminish yourself so that you
won't make them uncomfortable. Their
comfort is not your
responsibility. Go ahead and make them
uncomfortable and let them say whatever
they've got to say because God is
getting ready to increase your
influence. Who am I talking to? In fact,
you can tell who can grow with
you and who can go with you by who gets
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