The Weight of Influence

Davy Crockett was my first hero.

I first learned of him thanks to John Wayne, and later Fess Parker.  As I grew older, I learned the true history of the man, and that only served to heighten my respect for him.  For years, I'd wanted to see the 2004 film that the clip above is from, and this past weekend, I finally did.

The Davy Crockett is portrayed was still a man of bravery and bravado- but he was something else.  Mortal.  Parker and Wayne had lived up to the legendary "killed him a bear, when he was only three" kind of hero.  Thornton introduced a Crockett that was a living legend a little uncomfortable with the weight of being a living legend.  The line in the above clip about what David the individual would do versus what Davy the Legend would do speaks volumes.  "But that Davy Crockett feller, they're all watching him."

I'm no Davy Crockett.  And while I am a pastor and a sort-of blogger, my influence is pretty small.  But I understand what Crockett was saying there- people are watching what I do, and they make their choices, important ones, based on what I do.  The thing is, every one of carries that weight, public figure or not.

Your kids watch you.  Your co-workers watch you. Your spouse/significant other watches you.  And you represent something.  Not some mythical legend like Davy Crockett's reputation, but something of eternal significance.  If you call yourself a believer in Christ, you are His representative.  People- believers and non-believers alike- look to you.  Put hope in you, look for answers from you, learn from you.

Buried in the Psalms, there is a verse that speaks so clearly to this.  It has stuck with me since I first found it, largely because it serves to remind me that no matter how insignificant I may feel myself from time to time, I have influence.  And it is weighty.

Psalm 69:6 says, "Lord, the LORD Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me."


To me, there are two key parts to this verse.  The first is that those who hope in God should not be disgraced because of me.  My actions, my choice of words, my attitude- they all reflect on other followers of Christ.  My mistakes can disgrace large numbers of people.  Don't believe me- think about every time a celebrity who professes Christ does something really stupid.  Or when a killer claims to be a Christian and did what they did for Him.  Or when a pastor or priest sexually abuses anyone. One person's problem can create problems for all of us.  So, our desire should be to live in such a way that we avoid the potential for disgrace at all costs.  Know your weaknesses, and fortify your life against them.  This doesn't mean YOU fortify EVERYONE'S life against it- that would be legalism.  It means owning up to your failures, public and private, and working through them.  All will falter, but acknowledging the failure and seeking restoration minimizes the disgrace your actions bring.


The second part is that those who are looking for God may not find Him if my life isn't what it should be.  How many people have said something to the affect that, "I'd be a Christian, if it weren't for Christians?"  Many people find the teachings of Christ, but when they don't find them lived out in the lives of those who go by His name, the reject Him.  More than just when we claim Christianity and do nothing, it's also a problem when we claim Christ and do anti-Christian things.  When we are racist, or judgmental, when we are unforgiving, when we are unloving.  When we trust politics more than Jesus.  When we spew venom instead of praise.  People are put to shame because they reject Christ or accept a false version of Him that we are living out.  


The Weight of Influence is a heavy one.


It requires us to be selfless, to think more of the one we represent than ourselves.  Davy Crockett understood that in the clip above.  For himself, he wanted to live.  But for those around, those he influenced, he had to sacrifice.  He had to stand his ground, knowing what it would probably cost.  It pained him.  But for Davy Crockett in his final days at the Alamo, he wanted to give no disgrace to those who hoped, and he wanted to allow no shame to fall on those who were seeking victory.


Life is our Alamo- you are our Crockett.

I Will Not Give To God That Which Cost Me Nothing

But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.
- 2 Samuel 24:24

David has screwed up. Big time. He took a census, mainly to be able to boast in how awesome his army was. This ticked God off, because David (and because the people follow the king- Israel as well) was trusting in himself, and not God. So,God gives David a choice- 3 years of famine, 3 months of pursuit by enemies, or 3 days of plague. David goes with plague. So for three days, 70,000 people die, but God relents at the threshing floor of Araunah. David goes to build an altar of remembrance there, and Araunah wants to give it to him: no charge. This elicits David's response above. And it points us to true worship, thousands of years later.

Jesus was tough to follow. Not just because He spoke in thinly veiled parables and seemed to prefer going on foot everywhere. He was (and is) hard to follow because He expects so much from us.

Wait. Jesus expects things from us? How does that jive with the modern idea that Jesus is all about grace and forgiveness and taking care of us?

The truth is, it doesn't. And it does. Jesus does offer grace, forgiveness and provision. And He requires nothing of us to receive His salvation- His rescue from our failures and mistakes and sins. But if you take His name, if you claim to KNOW Him, there better be some evidence.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
-Matthew 7:21-23

Jesus says doing things in His name doesn't mean you know Him. Just because one attends church, wears a cross or ichthus, obeys the 'rules,' prays and reads the Bible doesn't mean they know Him. For a lot of people, we become fearful and concerned that we don't really know Him, that we are just faking it- with the best of intentions. I've been there.

I've had those times of doubting my relationship with God. Not that He was holding up His end, but that I was being genuine in mine. I've had times in my life when my consistency with prayer and time in the Bible was like clockwork. But looking back, my relationship with Jesus was at best distant. I was doing things that seemed right because that's what everyone said I was supposed to do to have a 'strong relationship with God.' The problem is, prayer and Bible study- just like "prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles" can be done without a relationship with God. The Bible tells us that the name of Jesus is powerful, and we see that people without God in their lives can do miraculous things. And they can do things that seem holy, but are in fact...well, selfish.

The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

- Isaiah 29:13

All the way back to the Old Testament, people were faking it. Maybe that's not entirely accurate, maybe it was more that they were fooling themselves. They were doing what man said we had to do, not what The LORD said to do. The Pharisees came about because of this type of thinking, and they were the biggest opposition to Jesus. Why? Because He spoke of knowing and listening to the Words of the Father- they wanted to just keep reading and re-interpreting to maintain their control, their way of living.

They didn't want to give anything to God that cost them something.

So, what does it mean for us? Can we be secure in our relationship with Jesus? Or will we be the people Jesus says He never knew?

I believe we can answer that. Starting with the Matthew passage above- what Jesus tells us is that those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The only way for us know the will of the Father is to listen for it- and the best way to listen and respond to someone is to be in a relationship with them. The will of the Father, when we look at the whole of Scripture, is that we desire and pursue knowing Him. Not knowing about Him, but knowing Him like you know friends and family. The Isaiah passage is God summing that idea up into bringing your heart near to Him. And you don't do that by giving Him lip service and going through the motions. So, how do our hearts draw near to Him?

The answer is: How do you draw your heart near to a loved one? You want to be with them. You make time for them- real, genuine time, not just to check it off. You give them your attention, your affection, and you desire- deeply- them returning theirs. If you love them enough, you will sacrifice your own will and desires and schedules to be with them.

And so we come back to David. He wouldn't give to God anything that cost him nothing. David, we hear, is a man after God's heart. If we want God, it is going to cost us. It'll cost us our precious sins and selfishness. It may cost our comfort and security. It may cost us earthly relationships and success. It will most definitely cost us our lives. We may not die physically, but we must relinquish all that we hold dear to Him. We must be willing to walk away from attitudes, actions, hobbies, interests, and ideologies. See, He demands it all. And He has the right to demand our all.

After all, He gave us His all on the Cross.

So I challenge you, whatever it is that holds you back from Him today- give it to Him. Though the cost may seem more than you can bear, the cost of hearing Jesus say He never knew you is far more than you can imagine.

Broken or Crushed

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?

"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."
-Matthew 21:42-44

Every time I see this verse used, it is used to illustrate how the supposed 'chosen' miss their opportunity to see the Messiah, so the rejected by the elite become the new Chosen. It is a cautionary tale to all of us who think we have it made that we can miss the key to it all. The Pharisees had all the knowledge, all the lineage, all the history to see the Messiah, but they missed it. They rejected Him and so missed out on the kingdom of God.

But there is something else here. Something subtle, something under the radar that I've rarely seen expounded upon. Maybe it is because it is a difficult thought, or maybe it is because it is not a 'safe' idea.

You don't encounter Jesus and survive.

Jesus says there are those who fall on this rejected capstone, and there are those on whom the capstone falls. One is broken, one is crushed. Both are destroyed.

Falling on the Stone
I take this to apply to those who come to Jesus. These people come to him, and fall on him, they trust in him and willingly worship him. It makes sense to me that the imagery Jesus uses here is one of being broken, like a pot that falls to the floor. We often talk about Jesus 'breaking our hearts' for something: a people, a sin, a tragedy. The idea of worship is about being broken. It is about realizing our failure to measure up- our pride being broken- and accepting the gift of God that makes us worthy. Worship is seeing less of me, and more of Jesus.

The thing about being broken is that we can't be put back together. We're Humpty Dumpty, broken before our king, only our king CAN rebuild us. To be broken is to be at ground zero, the starting point. What is then made from our ruin is the work of of Christ as he comes to dwell in us. TO be broken is to cease fighting against his will.

Crushed by the Stone
Other folks are found by God. They are not looking for Him, or in the case of these Pharisees, they are outright opposing Him. They push Him away, reject Him, but the power of Christ is overwhelming. He crushes us. The truth is that everyone will someday worship Christ. Every. Single. One. The only difference is if you will worship Him in His presence, or worship Him as you are separated from Him. Will you worship Him as your Savior, or as the Holy One you have realized too late?

You Can't Live
The truth is, you can't live with or without Jesus.


To know him is to give your life to him, and for him. This idea that we can't live with Jesus is not so much about us dying as it is about us letting HIM live in us. Letting our own fears and failures, our own flaws and our own prejudices die so that HE can be the guiding, driving force of our lives. Our ambitions must fall. Our plans must fail. Our vision must go dark. All in the life of Christ. If we do anything 'for Jesus' that is really for us, it is as good as dead.

No, we must live- not our lives- we must live His life, the one He marks out for us, the one He gives to us.

Let us be broken of our selves, so that He may repair us in His image.