Unshakable Influence

has been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you. Welcome to All In With Pastor Jordan Easley. Today's message is about to begin and we invite you to prepare your heart and mind to hear an inspiring message from God's Word. We hope and pray for God to speak to you today as you seek to live your life. All In For Jesus Christ. And now from First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, here's Pastor Jordan Easley. (congregation applauding) You know, if you were to ask me when I was growing up, what do you want to be when you grow up? If you were to ask that in the context of say a classroom with kids my age, you would have heard things like, I want to grow up and be a professional athlete. Or I want to grow up and I want to be a doctor or a lawyer, a police officer, a fireman. I mean, that's what we would have heard growing up, right? Shake your head if you're with me on that. But now it's different. The world is different. In fact, I was speaking to a group of young students the other day and I asked the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? You want to guess what the number one answer was? I want to grow up and be an influencer, an influencer. We live in a world where kids want to be an influencer.

Have you noticed this personally? Kids grow up and say, man, I want to be a YouTuber or I want to present on Instagram or create content for TikTok or podcasts. I mean, today, entire careers are being established and built on followers and likes and views and visibility. I mean, some of the top influencers in the world right now with the touch of a button or a click of a link can send a message that will impact millions of people around the world, just like that. And so that's appealing to this generation. But because the world lives like that and we have that new perspective, for most of us, when we hear the word influence, we naturally think about things like platforms and popularity and reach. We measure influence by how many people know your name or how loud your voice is or how big your audience might be. But there are very few words in the English language that I believe are more misunderstood today than this word influence. In fact, when you look at the Bible, what you'll see is the Bible defines influence very differently than our world does today. In fact, if you're a notetaker, I want you to jot this down. In the kingdom of God, influence isn't about being famous. It's about being faithful. It's about being faithful as a child of the king. Did you know that?

It's not about how many people follow you, that it's all about how clearly people see Jesus through you. And so here's the question I want us to wrestle with as we kind of dive in today. You ready? How do I become a person with spiritual influence? Believe it or not, God wants you to be an influencer. He wants you to have spiritual influence in your life, in your family, in your marriage, in your relationships, at work, in your community. God wants you to be an influencer, but it's not gonna happen naturally. We've gotta be intentional here. So how do you personally become a spiritual influencer in the world where God has you right now? That's what we're gonna be discussing today out of 1 Thessalonians chapter two. If you have your Bible, I wanna invite you to join me as we open God's word. Open this letter from Paul to the Thessalonians. We're asking, how can I be a person with spiritual influence? Paul's going to give us what I'm calling four marks of unshakable spiritual influence. And I'm gonna encourage you to write these things down. Because if God's called you to be a spiritual influencer in your world, then you've gotta know how to do that. How do I become the spiritual influence that God wants me to be?

Here's what Paul says, first of all. He says, you gotta have a courage that doesn't retreat. You've gotta have courage as a believer that doesn't retreat. Let's read beginning in verse one. He says, for you yourselves know brothers and sisters that our visit with you was not without result. On the contrary, after we had previously suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition. Have you ever walked up on somebody that was in really bad shape? Like you walk up on them, they just got beat up or they're beat up or bruised and they're bleeding. They're barely holding it together. If you've ever walked up on somebody like that, that is an image that sticks with you. I mean, one look and that image is implanted in your mind forever. Well, that's how Paul arrived in Thessalonica. In fact, the people remembered that image because he just told them, you yourselves know. So in those words, he's saying, hey, I know you remember how I got off the boat. I know you remember the image of what I look like when I arrived in your city. he wasn't polished and he wasn't cleaned up, he wasn't looking good, he wasn't impressive.

In fact, the picture that we're given was, he was whipped, right? I mean, this guy was an absolute mess. The fact the Bible says that Paul and Silas, when they showed up, they were arrested without a trial. They were stripped of their clothes in public, and then they were beaten with rods in front of everybody. Which, by the way, would have been illegal. These guys were Roman citizens, and there was actually a law that you could not, you could not publicly beat somebody that was a Roman citizen without a proper trial, and yet they were beaten with rods, and then they were thrown into the inner prison. They were in the inner prison, and their feet were locked up in stocks, and so these guys had been through a lot. So when Paul tells these believers that we were mistreated, he wasn't softening the language, he was describing open wounds and lasting scars. He's like, no, no, no, we got whipped in Philippi. Most of us have never been through something like that, and I'm speaking to a lot of people right now, and I would say very few of you have been stripped in public and beaten with rods in front of the community. But I do think that some of us are able to sort of relate to how he was feeling, at least to some degree. You may not know what it's like to do those things, but perhaps you know what it's like to show up somewhere,

carrying more than people around you can see. Maybe you can relate to showing up to a new place. You walk into work, or you walk into church, or you sit down around a table with other people. And outwardly, you are present, and you are polished, and you are presenting yourself very well. But on the inside, you're worn down. You haven't recovered from that thing that you just experienced. You were still carrying the weight of something that really hurts you, or wounded you personally in your life. And I think that's the space where Paul was living when he got off the boat, and he walked into Thessaloniki for the very first time. This was a man that was worn down physically, and mentally, and spiritually. But I want you to notice that in his story, even after enduring all of that, after walking through all the pain, and the punishment, the persecution, this was a man that did not pause the mission. I mean, he was whipped, but he kept moving forward. He didn't retreat to recover. He didn't soften the message. He said, "I'm gonna continue to be faithful to my calling "as a child of the king." And you can look at verse two. Verse two says, "After we had previously suffered "and been mistreated in Philippi, check this out, "we were emboldened by our God

"to speak the gospel of God to you "in spite of great opposition." We were emboldened by our God. I like that word emboldened. That word doesn't mean that they felt fearless in that moment. Know what that means is this. He's saying God supplied courage where there was every reason to quit. Think about that word in your own life. You're like, man, I know what that feels like. I'm ready to quit right now. Here's what he's saying. God allowed us to have a supernatural courage so that when even we wanted to quit, we wanted to walk away and phone it in and just say no more, I'm out. No, God gave us the courage to keep moving forward by faith. He's saying the same bodies that were beaten in Philippi are now standing in Thessalonica and we're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and scars are still healing and memories are still fresh and opposition is still real. And yet we're going to be faithful because God is good and God is giving us the energy and He's giving us the motivation and we're trusting the Lord with the future because He says trustworthy God. You say, man, what can I learn from that today?

I think we can learn a lot, but here's one thing. And that is the gospel didn't advance because opposition stopped. It advanced because these guys were obedient. They were following the Lord by faith and being obedient to their calling. You get this today? Listen, that's how real spiritual influences build. You say, Jordan, I want to increase and influence spiritually. How do I do that? Well, you don't do that in seasons of comfort. You do that by moving forward in faith when retreat makes a lot of sense. So if I want to have greater spiritual influence for the Lord, He said it begins with having a courage that doesn't retreat. Second thing He says is this, you also have to have a conviction that doesn't compromise. Conviction that doesn't compromise. In verse three, Paul's going to shift from how he shared the gospel to talking about why he shared the gospel. And he says this, for our exhortation didn't come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive. Those words weren't random. In the ancient world, that would go from place to place. And they would show up and many of them were frauds. They would show up and they'd gain an audience

and they would twist the truth for personal gain. And they would tell people what they wanted to hear in order to create a following and to collect money. And that's just how they operated. That was very common in that culture. So in this part of the letter, Paul essentially looks at these Thessalonians in the eye and he says, "Hey guys, you know us and we're not like that. You know our lives, you know our motivation. That's not who we are. We're different than the other people in this culture." Paul had already settled a foundational question in his life. Before he ever arrived in this city, he had already decided who his audience was truly going to be. And you know what, in many ways, I believe every single one of us today also has to address this foundational question. And the question is, is who am I going to please? Who am I living my life to please? I think there are a lot of people who would say, "Man, I love Jesus, but if you started to really unpack and evaluate the motivation of your heart, maybe it would be revealed. I love him, but man, I'm living to please fill in the blank. I'm living to please my spouse or my boss. I'm living to please my parents. I'm living to please my teachers or I'm living to please my community.

I'm living for them. I'm not living for him." And so I believe before we can even move forward, we've got to address this foundational question. Who are you living to please? Paul says, "I'll tell you who I'm living to please." Look at verse four. He said, "Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak why, not to please people, but rather God." Rather God. You see, Paul, he lived his life for an audience of one, and he tells us in the word, "So should we." Let me tell you this, you should live your life for an audience of one. And really it boils down to these two reasons. What did he just say? He said, "Number one, because you've been approved by God." That word, "approved by God." That phrase, it changes everything because it tells us, Paul wasn't chasing public approval because he was living with divine approval, which means his identity hadn't been formed by the applause of people or the affirmation of people or the acceptance of people. Now, who he was had already been settled by God. So that's how he began. He said, "We should live our lives for an audience of one." Why? Well, because we've been approved by God himself.

But he goes on to say there's more to it than that. The second reason is because we've been entrusted with the gospel. He's saying, "Think about how powerful this is." And let me tell you what he means when he says we've been entrusted with the gospel is something we need to hear today. That phrase entrusted with the gospel literally means that the gospel does not belong to us. Do you know that? The gospel, this book, it doesn't belong to us. But the Lord says, "I'm entrusting this to you." I want you to think about the significance of that today. If someone were to hand you something that doesn't belong to you, but it belongs to them, but they hand it to you. And imagine whatever that is, it's fragile. It's valuable. It's replaceable. But they're taking it from their hands and they're placing it in your hands. And they say this, "This isn't yours, "but I'm entrusting this to you." If that were to happen, chances are really good that you would treat this differently than whatever it is that you pick up off the street. You're going to treat this differently, right? You wouldn't personalize it and start writing your name. Oh, do you want to adjust it? You wouldn't use this to gain attention

or to build your personal influence. No, you would protect this thing. Why? Because you know it's not yours. And in the same way, Paul is saying right here the gospel doesn't belong to us. It belongs to God. And yet he's chosen to entrust it to us for this life. Which means it's not ours to adjust. It's not ours to water down. It's not ours to reshape some kind of new cultural norm. No, the gospel belongs to God and he's entrusting it to us. There's a lot of people right now who are twisting things. You can go to a lot of places and listen to a bunch of preachers that are taking an adaptive view of what God is saying. And you're like, how do you get to that? Like, why in the world are you talking that nonsense? But the fact of the matter is there's a lot of people who feel the liberty to change this because they think it belongs to them. No, 2,000 years ago, Paul told the church, hey, the gospel has been entrusted to us. It doesn't belong to us. It's his gospel. And 2,000 years later, we need to be reminded of this, And that's what Paul's saying. He's saying, "Hey, God's given us access to His word. He's placed the gospel in our hands. He's entrusted it to us as a gift, but with the gift comes a responsibility." So he draws a line saying this. He's saying, "So we speak, look at it, not to please people, but rather God. We live for Him. We serve Him. We suffer for Him." He's saying, "Our entire lives

are lives to please an audience of one." Now let me tell you why this is so important for us. It's because the moment your goal becomes pleasing people, your message will start to shift. That's why the gospel is changing in certain worlds and it's like, no, this is the new truth and this is the new revelation. No, that's crazy. The reason you're changing it is because you're trying to please people. When you try to change, when you try to please people, your tone starts to soften and your conviction gives way to caution and your courage will start to shrink and now you're telling them what they want to hear. But when your aim is to please God, the Bible says your influence becomes steady even when the world starts shaking around you. You can stand on the foundation of God's word and say, "No, this is the truth, nothing else." So maybe you're asking, "Hey, why is it so important for me to aim my life at Jesus and say, 'He is going to be the sole purpose I live to please?'" Why is that such a big deal? Well, Paul answers that question in verse four. He said this, "Because God examines our hearts." That's why it's a big deal because God examines your heart. He's looking at your heart. So how do we have greater influence? He said you've got to have a conviction that doesn't compromise. You've got to stand on the word of God. You cannot move. You've got to trust Him. The third thing he's going to say is you have to have compassion. You have to have compassion that doesn't manipulate. In this next part, Paul talks about what shaped his influence among the Thessalonians, but this time he's going to focus on how he related to them interpersonally. Look at verse five. "So for we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives, God is our witness, and we didn't seek glory from people." So right here, once again, Paul was contrasting his ministry with the normal methods of influence in that culture. You see, on that day, flattery was common. It was part of it. Greed was expected. Self-promotion was a part of the influencers of that day. Don't forget what I said earlier about the traveling teachers. They were very common. They would go talk to people, and they would build these crowds of people, and they would tell them what they wanted to hear. But they would only stay long enough to benefit personally, and then they would move on once the crowd started to diminish, or the money started to go away. And that's why Paul told them. He said, "That wasn't how I came to you. I'm different." And this church is different. We are different because of Christ. He even acknowledges in verse six. He said, "We could have been a burden as Christ's apostles." And I don't know exactly what that means. I think what he's saying is, we had the authority to be however we wanted to be,

but we didn't lean on that authority. But instead of taking that approach, look at what he says in verse seven. He says, "We were gentle among you. We were gentle. We were kind to you when we didn't have to be kind. We were gentle." In fact, he goes on to describe the kind of compassion that he demonstrated in verse seven. This is what he said, "We were like a nursing mother nurturing her own children." I always thought that was such a weird way of putting things. I'm like, why you got to bring up nursing mothers? But I think actually when you unpack that, it's a pretty beautiful picture of their ministry to that church in Thessalonica. Think about what he just said, a nursing mother nurturing her own children. Think about a nursing mother. A nursing mother doesn't rush. Would you agree with that, Moms? You don't rush. A nursing mother doesn't manipulate. You don't perform. No, a nursing mother is a picture of someone that is just giving of herself. Patiently and sacrificially and without expecting anything in return. And that's how Paul described the ministry among the people at Thessalonica. He was saying, "Man, we were patient with you. You're baby Christians. You mess up a lot. What we poured into you, we invested in you. We were kind to you. We gave of ourselves for the benefit of you without expecting anything in return." And then in verse eight, he reveals the heart behind all of it. He said, "We were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also of our own lives because you had become dear to us." So he said, "Our ministry was kind of twofold. Number one, we gave you God's word, we were straight We lived among you. We poured into you. And I think that's kind of the heartbeat behind this entire passage. See, if you share truth without sharing your life, it will rarely lead to real change. And so you can speak truth all day long, but until you pour your life into someone else and walk with somebody else, man, the change you experience is going to be very limited. So if you're asking the question, and how can I increase my spiritual influence

in my relationships, my circles, here's what Paul would say. You gotta have compassion that doesn't manipulate. You gotta walk slowly with people. You gotta be gentle with people. You gotta pour into them like a nursing mother nurturing her own children. The fourth thing we see is this. If we wanna have great spiritual influence, we've gotta have consistency that doesn't perform. You gotta be consistent. And he's gonna talk about that in verse nine. Paul's gonna remind these people that what they had seen up close in him. In fact, that verse says, "For you remember our labor and hardship working night and day "so that we would not be a burden to any of you." Paul just reminds him of the grind. He's like, "Y'all remember when I showed up "and how hard we worked and how we sacrificed "and how we gave and how we stayed consistent? "Is it let that be a model for you?" And then he goes on to say this. He said, "You are witnesses, and so is God." He's like, "You witnessed what we did. "You witnessed how we ministered. "But even if you weren't paying attention "and you didn't get it, guess what? "God did, he sees everything. "And God knows what we've done. "God knows who we are."

But I think it's important to understand that he's looking at people that watched him live and he's saying, "You witnessed something "that you need to replicate." Paul lived the same way in public as he did in private. He was the same man when people were watching him as he was when only God was watching him. And if that's not a message for Christian character, I don't know what is. That's God's challenge to all of us. He's saying, "Sir, you need to be the same dude "when the lights are on, that you are when the lights are off. "You need to be the same dude on Sunday morning in church "as you are on Friday night "when you're hanging out with your guys." He's saying, "Christian character is real "and you can fool everybody around you. "You're not going to fool God. "People are witnessing your life right now." And I believe that's the question that we've got to wrestle with today. And that is this, if the people who know me best were challenged to write a description of my life, how would they describe me? How would they describe me if they had three sentences? Man, that's a scary homework assignment, amen? You may not want to do this, but I might challenge you to do that. I mean, ask someone who knows you well, someone who witnesses your life.

Describe me in three sentences or less. And you know what, if that scares you, then just think about this next question. What would God say right now? If he had to describe what he knows and what he sees, because we're reminded God sees what nobody else will ever see. And that's what Paul's pointing us to here in verse 10. He was writing to people who had personally witnessed how he lived. And you know what they said? He lived devoutly and righteously and blamelessly. Now that doesn't mean that he was perfect. It means he was consistent. It means he was consistent in his life and he lived devoutly to the Lord. He was living righteously, pursuing the righteousness of God. He was living blamelessly, which means above reproach in a way that is not in sin, but is pursuing Jesus more than anything else. So how should we live? We're not supposed to live perfectly. We're supposed to live consistently. And my goal, and your goal as Christians, ought to be, man, when people witness my life, they ought to be able to say this, that he lived devoutly and righteously and blamelessly, and I can say that with authority because I have personally been a witness to it. But let me say, if you're not spending time with Jesus,

if you're not listening to him and following him, then when the moment comes for you to speak, you won't have much to say because you won't be speaking from experience. Let me ask you, have you encountered Jesus? Man, some of you, man, you love the Lord, but your influence has gotten really quiet. You're still here, you're still faithful, but man, you're tired. And somewhere along the way, you started measuring influence by visibility instead of measuring influence by faithfulness, and that's what God's looking at. God never asks you to be famous. He only asks you to be faithful. So the question we've got to address before the Lord today is, man, am I being faithful to him? Am I being faithful to God? Because I'll tell you, man, he's been faithful to you. The fact that you can even know God be forgiven by God or be fully known by God tells me, God has been very, very good to you. And he's been very, very good to me. Maybe you know about him, but you've never had an encounter with him. You've never met him personally. Maybe you've heard sermons, but you've never surrendered your life to him and trusted him with everything. Hey, may I just tell you something today? You will never have unshakable influence until you've personally experienced the unshakable Savior in a real way. Jesus lived faithfully. He died sacrificially. He rose victoriously. And you know what? He still rescues, he still forgives, he still redeems, and he still transforms. And if you're honest with him today and you turn to him, he won't just change your eternity. He will anchor your life on the foundation

of who he is, and he will build in you something that this world can never build. So let me ask you today. Do you know him? Are you faithful to him? Are you living for an audience of one? When he looks at your heart, examines it thoroughly? What does he see? Listen, before we can have influence, we've got to have faith. So let's walk by faith and trust him today. In the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, a cup of water can be the difference between life and death. Well, this month, I got to walk where the need for water is greatest. While we were there, we were preaching and we were worshiping. And we were praying with thousands of believers at the Pefa Kimbo Church. We held children in an orphanage that we support who have almost nothing. We sat with widows who walk miles a day just to find water that isn't clean. But on this trip, we also celebrated something a little bit different. A brand new water well in the Cabrera Slum commissioned with our partners at Together We Church, First Baptist Cleveland, and Swahiba Networks. And together, we joined forces to bring this clean water to families who have literally never had clean water in their lives. You know, in John 4, Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again." That's the water that saves souls. But he also calls us as believers to give a cup of water in his name. And that's the water that saves lives to every all-in partner who gave so that this well could exist. Let me just say thank you. Today, people are drinking fresh water, clean water, because you said yes. But there's more wells to dig, more villages that are waiting, more lives to save. And so my question to you is, will you continue to go all-in with us? If so, follow the prompts on the screen right now to partner with All-In today. Hey, we never want to end our broadcast without giving you the opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. If you'd like to make the decision to trust Jesus and want to know more about what it looks like to follow Jesus, get in touch with me right now. Follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen so that we can pray for you and also put information in your hands right away. Today, we celebrate your decision and look forward to being a part of your personal journey of going all-in with Jesus Christ. This episode of All-In with Pastor Jordan Eastley has been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you. We hope today's message encourages you as you strive to live your life fully committed to Jesus Christ.