THE POWER OF INFLUENCE - The Path To Inner Peace | Erwin McManus

[Music] [Music] in this past week we celebrated Mother's Day it was May 10th and it was a different Mother's Day than we've ever had probably in our lifetime and and Kim wanted to do something not just for our families she wanted do something for our community for our neighborhood and during the entire time of this quarantine Kim has found ways to create community create connection all over our community and I here in Los Angeles so she had this idea and she called one of our friends Laura Williams who owns a floor shop and and she creates all these beautiful installations with flowers and and she had her decorate the swing in our front yard and then she took out a bicycle that had flat tires and hasn't been ridden for quite a long time and and she had them establish a floral installation in the basket on on the bike and then she put them on the front yard then she put a sign on the walkway that said told all the families that they're welcome to come and take a photograph here and and she set it up early early on Sunday morning on May 10th and it was one of those days where I was hoping someone would come and take a photograph so that Kim wouldn't feel like she she'd put all that energy and effort and and resource into it and and then no one come and take advantage of it but it started up very early people would just sort of walk by and take photographs but not quite venture up to the yard she she went ahead and put different sanitary a kind of equipment down at the bottom so that people could wash their hands and and make sure that they could wipe off the swing and make sure that their social distancing and and that everything is sanitized but little by little people began to come little by little people began taking photographs and Kim was just so excited it was more important for her that she created a moment for all these other moms and all these other families and it was for her what she was experiencing we're trying to celebrate her and she's trying to celebrate the entire world and this went on throughout the afternoon we went had a great breakfast together we we spent time together as a family and then in the afternoon she sent out this little memo to people letting them know come take photographs I did not know she this and suddenly one couple came with their brand-new baby that was born on the first day I think it was of corn teen and Milo and and so all sudden the mom and dad come and we see my Lola for the first time and and and then also another couple came and Aaron Haven and they brought their beautiful little girl and Eisley and and they're all sitting in chairs socially distancing themselves sitting on the front yard having a conversation and then suddenly I saw this truck go by it said Channel five News I got a little nervous to be honest with you there have been days where it feels like everybody's watching everyone and and trying to catch everyone do the wrong thing and we're trying to be really careful to to do all the right things but the same time to create a sense of connection and so I made sure everybody had a mask and that we were you know all the right distance apart and suddenly the news crew from Channel five came over and said we've been looking for a good story we've been looking for a heartwarming story on Mother's Day we've been carving kovat every single day for the last two months and every story is so negative and can you tell us a little bit of what's going on and I just pointed right to Kim and said this is all her I'm just her a support team and and so they began ask her about what she's doing and she was just opening up her heart saying how she just knew that that families were really struggling during this Mother's Day and and she wanted to make sure that there was just a chance to let people know that they mattered and sent a photograph to mom or take a photograph with their mom and said can we film this and next thing you know Channel five News is there and they're filming and and one family you know it gets interviewed then another family gets interviewed then the third family gets interviewed and and I have to say I was so nervous because I thought I don't want to be the you know the pastor of mosaic who has violated all the ordinances and we lived three blocks away from Eric Garcetti or our mayor so I was a little nervous about what's going on and and and and then that night they showed this probably more than five minutes story of what Kim McManus has been doing throughout the kovat crisis of Creighton community and creating a space and how on Mother's Day she created this beautiful installation for people to come and celebrate their moms and and it was the most uplifting and an inspiring story and it really struck me how how three blocks away is the most influential person in our city and at least at this moment Kim McManus was the most influential person and in our entire community how do you make a difference when you seem to have nothing working in your favor if you have no power no position no money no wealth no fame no title this particular place in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 where we see an individual who has a daunting challenge in front of him in fact he has the the the challenge of of setting an entire city free when he has no wealth no power no resources no training and yet somehow God uses him to do what no one else could accomplish look with me in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 beginning in verse 13 Solomon writes these words I saw Under the Sun an example of wisdom the greatly impressed me there was once a small city with only a few people in it and a great King came against it and surrounded it and built a huge siege work against heads now there lived in that city a man who was poor but wise and he saved the city by his wisdom but nobody remembered that poor man so I said wisdom is better than strength but the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words were no longer heeded the quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools wisdom is better than the weapons of war but one sinner can destroy much good this is this beautiful story that Solomon unwraps and you have to remember the backdrop of Solomon's own life that the Bible tells us that Solomon is the wisest man who ever lived outside of Jesus that when God offered him anything in everything instead of choosing wealth or power or fame he chose wisdom and so God gave him the gift of wisdom so he could rule over his people so in Solomon's as I saw wisdom Under the Sun that astonished me you have to pay attention to that you have to realize that that that this is a contrast a comparison with the wisest man who ever lived how could the wisest person who ever lived see wisdom that actually impressed him that astonished him you know I've been watching the the documentary the last dance and and just reveling in the story of Michael Jordan of course by the way Michael Jordan went to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where I went and so he's a Tar Heel I'm a Tar Heel that's enough Association I need and I graduated 82 he started playing in 82 I mean do I need to go any further and so I've been watching the last dance and just watching how Jordan emerges out of greatness in college and to become perhaps the greatest athlete who has ever lived and you see this dynamic as the story is developing that among the greats he was the greatest I mean here was competing against the best athletes in the world and they couldn't they couldn't sustain any kind of defense against him and you have to stop and think about the fact that he's not playing against just average people he's not even just playing against good athletes he's playing against the best athletes in the world and he's still so far superior to the rest of them that they pale in comparison I was listening to Charles Barkley talk about how up to the day he played against Jordan he never thought there was a better player on the court than him but on that day he realized that that Michael Jordan was a superior player than he was imagine being the best in the world until you meet the best in the world now if Michael Jordan says that player is a great player or that player astonished me when I played against that player that player just blew my mind with his talent his skills his handles his shooting that would be the kind of contrast of Salomon saying I just saw wisdom that astonished me now what is it about this poor man's wisdom that so astonished and arrested Solomon see Solomon understood the power wisdom with wealth the power of wisdom with power the power of wisdom with position but Solomon had never experienced the power of wisdom without position or power or influence or fame or wealth now you have this poor man who has wisdom but he lacks all the other resources that Solomon had I think this is why Solomon was so impressed he said at once saw wisdom Under the Sun that impressed me because there was this poor man who was poor but he was wise and through his wisdom he set his entire City free now he just give us a little interesting notes it says there was once a small town or a small city with just a few people in it and can you imagine that your resume would be oh I come from a small town with only a few people in it but in the town with just a few people I'm just the poor guy so even when there was very little competition he never emerged at the top he was just from a small town with a few people in it and he was a poor man and at to that point in his life he had never attained anything that would be notable nothing in his life that would separate him from anyone else he was just a poor man from a small town with a few people in it and maybe that's where you're at right now maybe you're at that place in your life you just feel like you're so insignificant you feel as if that you have no no real passively making a difference in the world maybe you feel like you're that that person who comes from a small town with only a few people and and even against them you never emerged and you never found your greatness I want you to realize that in this moment what Solomon's seeing is the power of influence what he's unwrapping in this particular narrative is that you do not need position you do not need wealth you do not need fame you do not need to make a difference in the world if you understand the power of influence and the influence that comes from wisdom see the warrior seeks to be invisible because the goal of the warrior isn't to be known the warrior would much rather spend their life being worth knowing and to be well known the warrior understands that that fame is not the same as greatness that notoriety is not the same as impact and as you look at this passage just want you to remember a few things about your own life but you are not limited by who you are not I think so oftentimes in this life we've become so focused on who we are not because we live in comparison with other people we look at other people like well I'm not that person I don't have that or you know I've never had that opportunity I didn't go to that college I I don't come from that family I don't have that name and I think what's happened in the world of social media in the world of of comparison through Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and everything else is out there is that you know who everyone else is and we end up in this this this tragedy of comparison I think it's why so many people even at an early age when they're 22 they feel like they're failures I can't tell you how many times I talk to people and I think it's too late and there are only 18 or they feel like they their life has just slipped them by and they're 25 and I think so often times it happens is that what we are so focused on who we are not that we actually lose sight of who we are see this was just a poor man from a small town only a few people in it and he could have lived his whole life excusing his lack of impact by saying you don't understand who I am because they measure who they are by who they are not I I love that reminder in my own life I mean I'm an immigrant from El Salvador I I never knew my real father I never really even knew what my real name was at times and actually maybe even still to this day and and and even though I have a great mom and I have a great legacy through my grandparents on my mother's side there's there was always that sense of loss of of not really knowing my father and not really knowing his story and not knowing the legacy of his family and and I think there's a lot of people who are like me who feel that there's a part of them that that they never came to understand that a part of their identity that that always was elusive to them and and growing up I was more defined by who I was not than who I was and I I grew up with a brother who's super talented and super smart and I have sisters who were so brilliant and and I had a great backdrop of who I was not and there's some of you who your story's more like mine you know I was almost a good athlete I was well except for some years when I wasn't even almost a good athlete and there were times I was almost a good student except for those times where I was a terrible student and and and in fact as I looked throughout my life I tried so many things and average you would have been an achievement for me and so what happened failure after failure after failure after failure in the backdrop of people I knew who were successful and successful and successful I began to finding who I was by who I was not rather than who I am and one of the most powerful things that Jesus does in our life is that he begins to give us an identity rooted in who he is in our life and he begins to restructure in us an identity based on who God has created us to become and one of the most liberating things you will ever experience in your life is when you realize that you can be a poor man from a small town with only a few people in it but the moment God sees you and begins to pour wisdom into your life the moment you begin to humble yourself and allow God to shape who you are you will have all the resources you need to make all the difference in the world you were created to make this was a poor man who said an entire city free and he was not limited by who he was not so stop thinking about who you are not and start paying attention to who you are but what you also discovered this is a you're not just limited by who you are not you're not limited by what you do not have I I think a lot of times in life we've we become convinced that the reason we we never see our dreams come to fruition the reason we never accomplish our goals the reason we never attain a level of greatness --is that we we've always lacked the resources recently Aaron's got me on this whole documentary on Formula One drivers and I never thought that I would be into f1 racing but all of a sudden I'm going crazy I know what are things I've discovered just on a personal note is that if I get on the treadmill and I start running and I'm watching Formula One I run faster my heart is racing my Adrenaline's pumping and these cars are just flying and I'm running it has a visceral effect on Who I am as a human being but where things I don't fully get or it's hard for me to really embrace is that so much of four-wheelin racing is about money you can be a great driver but if you don't bring a lot of money you will not be given a place on a team and I think if I had the numbers right it's like Ferrari spends a half a billion dollars a year on their racing team two cars basically race half a billion a year and the teams that spend less money spend around 180 million a year and so in many ways even though there's talent involved and there's skill involved and there's courage involved I think it's unavoidable to say that money can buy you a championship because if you spend a half a billion dollars and you have a better car if you have two drivers who are equal the equal skill and equal courage but one has a better car well it's not equally based and I think so often times life is like that a lot of us feel like well we can't even get into an f1 racing team 180 million on the low-end would be great I would love to be that poor but most of us spend our lives focus on what we do not have and where things that really intrigues me are those teams and those drivers and they know they're there at a mechanical deficit they are at a financial deficit but they drive with so much tenacity dry with so much intention and courage and resolve that they're they're almost trying to defy the law of averages and the moment someone whose car took less money to create and who beats someone whose car took more money it just begins to tip the scales in life imagine if God could in a sense turn the whole world a Formula One racing upside down and it wasn't about whether you had a half a billion dollars to spend but the person who had the most wisdom would be the one who would win Monte Carlo the person who had the most wisdom would be the one who would be the leader in the number of points they had the end of the year see I think the reality is that that there are many arenas in life where money can get you the victory or money can give you the competitive advantage but when you're dealing with God's purpose and intention for your life I want to be absolutely clear you are not limited by what you do not have God has given you everything you need to fulfill his great purpose in your life and the crazy thing is you may not have everything you need right now because the challenge isn't here yet but the moment that challenge comes I'm telling you the resources of God will come and one of the powerful things about how Jesus works in our lives is doesn't give us the resources we need so that can move out in faith he actually waits for us to move out in faith so that he can give us the resources we need I think so many times we actually work from this mindset that provision creates vision but the reality is it's the other way around it is vision that creates provision when you begin to move in faith when you begin to move in obedience when you begin to move with intention when you begin to act on what you know you must do even when you're under-resourced it creates in you the space for God to do something extraordinary your life I can tell you throughout our lives Kim and I have always stepped out under resourced to do everything we've been called to do in our lives if we waited for the resources we'd still be waiting to this day the reason Solomon's our wisdom that impressed him was he saw the power of wisdom without any resources at all I would give anything to get to know the details of how this poor man said an entire city free without any resources when he began I can tell you this one of the things I've learned in my own life is that the resources you actually need are not Material resources but human resources the material you need to move forward to accomplish everything God has for you are the people that God surrounds us and the resources that they need are people like you surrounding them my life experience has taught me one thing money and material possessions they are so incidental in comparison to having the right people in your life this poor man didn't have the power of position and did not have the power of wealth but he understood the power of influence how do you move an entire city to freedom not by shouting but by whispering if you want to move into the future that God has for you you need to understand the power of influence who are the people in your life right now that if you began to elevate your own life if you began to live with more courage if you began to live with more faith if you began to live with more compassion if you began to live with more love that you would begin to raise the sea level for everyone around you and everyone else starts elevating to see stop waiting for someone to raise the sea level in your life stop waiting for God to somehow miraculously and magically raise the sea level of your life if your life is like a ship and you're shipwrecked because there is there is not enough water to elevate your ship you need to raise the sea level and you raise that sea level with faith with courage with intention with compassion with love with hope you move forward and you watch God elevate your life and when you elevate you take everyone who's connected to you with you you are not limited by who you are not and you are not limited by what you do not have I've talked to so many friends over the years that became incredibly successful some of them millionaires some of them even billionaires and I've watched several of them over a lifetime lose virtually everything they had and each time a part of the interesting mental construct and that you have to step back into is realizing that before you had a billion dollars you had nothing before we had a million dollars you had nothing and oftentimes I would ask him I said look tell me what did you have when you started to say oh I had nothing and say I had fifty dollars in the bank or I had three hundred dollars in the bank or I had twelve hundred dollars in the bank man I couldn't even pay my rent I sorry you started with nothing and with nothing you grew to a million with nothing you grew to a billion so now you think you're starting with nothing but you're not see you can't go back to your previous state of being because now you have a lifetime of experience you are now the person who actually created all that success you're the person created that wealth you're the person that understands how to live in this dynamical relationship with God or you use your gifts and talents to create what everyone else that was impossible you're not starting with nothing because you have everything inside of you that you learned on that journey so don't think you've gone back to zero you cannot go back to zero because your soul your your soul your soul is filled with wisdom so take the material you have because you are not limited by what you do not have but you are limited by what you do not use that you have what is it that God has already given you right now that you have been ignoring and leaving Idol God wants you to access maybe it's it's the lack of discipline the lack of perseverance maybe it's it's that you need to step in and and stop allowing negativity and and and fear to control your life maybe it's time to step up every day with a level of intention and confidence and hope that God is going to make tomorrow better than today see maybe you've been neglecting what God has already given you and you haven't been using the intelligence and the gifts and the talents and the passion that God has placed inside of you stop complaining about what you do not have and start taking responsibility for what you do have and then I want you to see with me that you're not only not limited by but who you are not and you're not limited by what you do not have you are not limited by what other people don't know you're not limited by what other people don't know about you you know one of the common experiences I learned over a lifetime from people who succeeded greatly is that there were people who did not believe they would ever succeed greatly it's incredible how many people have told me their story where other people have told me you're out of your mind you'll never succeed you don't have the talent you don't have the gifting and in fact we've come to know our friends Paolo and Jaime Lima who started this incredible cosmetic company and and and they started with nothing and it's amazing to me how how when Jaime was starting it cosmetics she was told over and over again she would never succeed she was not the right kind of person she didn't have the right kind of look and when she began to share with me of the things people would say to her it was just devastating and yet all those other voices as powerful as they were and they came from the world of expertise did not override the voice that was speaking to her from within her there was this internal intention and resolve that allowed her to persevere and overcome and a billion dollars later she proved them all wrong how many things I love to remind myself about the way that God works is that whenever God's calling you to do something whenever God is speaking something into your life of course people are gonna think you're out of your mind of course people gonna think there's just no way you're ever going to accomplish that I mean I can look back even to when I first responded publicly as a new follower of Christ when when I was in a service and and they were saying if God has called you to to be in ministry and if God has called you to to UM to communicate the gospel to preach the gospel then then calm and I I had this this overwhelming feeling inside of me I was terrified and I remember that particular night I went forward at this church and I said I think God has called me to preach and and one of the people in my life it was closest to me said we knew that God was gonna call your brother but what in the world is God going to do with you and I looked back and I realized that I did not demonstrate any particular gifts or talents or intelligence or ability but when you step into that calling I'm telling you from life experience that you not limited by what other people don't know say they don't know what God's doing inside you they do not know what God is speaking into your soul they do not know what God has placed in you that he's been waiting your entire life to unlock and unleash inside of you and if I can be a declaration of anything to you right now I want you to know you are not limited by what other people don't know about who you are who you're going to become and what God is doing in your life but here's the thing you cannot allow the disbelief of other people to be your excuse for not living in faith if you need other people to believe in you then you become dependent on their belief rather than your own conviction over God's is doing in your life and we all need people who believe in us we all need people who see greatness in us we we all need people who see the best in us when all there is is the worst of us but if you don't have that right now you cannot allow that to be your excuse to stay where you are that poor man who said his whole City free do you really think people thought he was God's solution to their devastation and tragedy do you really think that when the generals and the Warriors of that town failed because it says that a great king came and he surrounded it he built a huge siege work he took that city as his own and we read that so quickly but I'm telling you that means that that the blood of their warriors filled the streets you could hear the sounds of widows and orphans crying out in the night and there was no hope and no future and everyone who had prepared all their life to fight this battle was now dead and gone everyone who had been trained to win this particular battle was now defeated who was left no would ever thought it would be this poor man whose name remains unknown no one would ever pick him no one would have seen him no one could have ever known he was the one that God was preparing to set the entire city free I can't imagine he started with a lot of support I cannot imagine that others thought oh yes this is exactly how God would do this I think people thought he was out of his mind I think people thought that he was completely out of touch with reality and I hope against hope that if you don't have voices in your life that see the potential in you that see the possibilities of your life that see the greatness that's waiting to emerge in your life that you do not listen to all the people who don't know but only God knows you don't need position you do not need power you do not need fame you don't need a title if you understand the power of influence and you take responsibility for what God has placed in your life right now you will be unstoppable and by the way this moment in the life of Solomon it's almost a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do generations later because there was a poor man from a small town with just a few people in it there was a poor man he was born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth there was a poor man and other said does anything good come out of Nazareth there was a poor man who was unknown and unexpected who walked among us and he was God himself taking on flesh and blood who lived a sinless and perfect and beautiful life there was a poor man from a small town with just a few people on it who gave his life on our behalf who died on the cross who rose from the dead and conquered death and this poor man took on our poverty so that all of us could be set free there was a poor man who through his wisdom said not only his City free but he sets every heart free who puts their trust in them and I wonder if right now you need Jesus to set you free if right now what you need more than anything else is you need this poor simple man named Jesus who we now know is God Himself who gave his life for you and rose from the dead so that the moment you would open up your life to him the moment you would receive from him his forgiveness and his freedom would change your life so if you're listening right now in this moment I want to invite you to cross the line of faith I want to invite you to open up your life to Jesus and give your life to Him there's a great exchange that God wants to make happen right now he wants you to give him your life and he wants to give you his life and so I want to lead you in a simple prayer it's just one sentence it's not everything you and God need to talk about but if you're ready to receive the forgiveness and the freedom that only Jesus brings now one invites you right now just to pray this prayer with me would you pray Jesus I'd give you my life just tell them right now Jesus I give you my life Jesus I give you my life the beautiful thing about Jesus he didn't come for position he didn't come for wealth he didn't come for fame he didn't even come for power the way we understand power Jesus came to set us free and Jesus more than all understands the power than thoughts he understands that he can change the world one person at a time if in this moment you just prayed that prayer Jesus I give you my life the power that raised Jesus my dad now lives in yo imagine what God could do with you now code two of the way of the wire the wire seeks to be invisible because he understands the power of influence [Music]

Channel: Mosaic

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Keywords: MOSAIC, MOSAIC Los Angeles, Erwin McManus, Erwin Raphael McManus, Los Angeles Church, YouTube Church, Jesus, Worship, Mosaic, MSC, mosaic los angeles, messages on jesus, erwin mcmanus sermon, mosaic hollywood church, mosiac, mosaic church hollywood worship, mosaic church service, easter sunday, pastor erwin sermon, mosaic church, mosaic la, hollywood church, erwin mcmanus sermons, erwin mcmanus messages, erwin mcmanus way of the warrior, erwin mcmanus message warrior, erwinmcmanus

Id: wdTQX249mm8

Length: 36min 2sec (2162 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020