Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

Praise the Lord.

I'm going to ask that you stay standing with me as we go to the word.

We're going to go to 1 Samuel chapter 18. 1st Samuel chapter 18, 1 through 9.

Welcome to church this morning.

Amen.

Welcome to the house of the Lord.

If you're just visiting us for the first time, or maybe this is your second time.

We welcome you.

We love you.

And you're already family.

And so if you're looking for a place to worship, we invite you here Sunday after Sunday.

This is a church that isn't perfect, but we're a pretty good church.

Amen.

First Samuel 18, 1 through 9.

You have it?

Amen.

It says, as soon as David had finished speaking to Saul, The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house.

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul, and Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt.

And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him.

So that Saul sent him over the men of war.

And this was good in the side of all the people and also the side of Saul's servants.

As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.

And the women said, sang to one another as they were celebrated, Saul has struck down his thousands. and David, his 10,000s.

And Saul was very angry after this saying displeased him.

He said, they have ascribed to David 10,000, and to me, ascribe thousands.

And what more can he have but the kingdom?

And Saul eyed David from that day on.

Amen.

Let's go to God and pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this word that you've spoken over your servant.

Lord, I just pray that you would speak it, Lord, to your people. people, my God, that as I have received it, Lord, we would receive it as a body, Father God.

This is your word, Father.

And I pray that it would impact us today.

Lord, convict us today, Father God, and ultimately draw us closer to you.

Holy Spirit, have your way, not ours.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Praise God.

We happy to be in the house of God this morning?

Amen.

You got to be happy when you come to the house of God.

At least you got to tell your soul, hey, be glad. we're in the house of the Lord.

This is the day that the Lord is made.

I will rejoice and be glad.

Last night we had an awesome women's conference.

Amen.

If you were here, you experienced that.

Pastor Maggie, she kind of began to touch on some of the points that I had planned on speaking today, which glory to God.

He has a message that he wants us to hear and to plant in our hearts.

But last night was, man, it was incredible.

I'm not a woman, right?

And I wasn't, I wasn't a part of any type of team, you know, that required me to be here, but I wanted to be here.

I just, I wanted to be here.

The spirit was so evident.

The fellowship was beautiful.

The women's ministry just did a phenomenal job.

I mean, they really did.

My wife and Andrea, Pastor DeMaris, and the whole, the whole team, but them three, they were meeting every single week for like an hour and a half, and I never knew what they were talking about.

Like, what could you possibly be meeting about every single week for like an hour and a half?

But then when I got here and I saw all the attention to detail, I was like, all right, I get it, right?

And so it was beautiful.

And I can't say next week we have our men's conference.

I can't say it's going to be beautiful, but it's going to be powerful.

So make sure you come, all right?

Come.

Register up here.

Louis, you got the slide real quick.

I'm going to make it easy for y'all.

Y'all can just scan that QR code right there.

If you haven't registered, register because we're trying to feed y'all amen and so if you want food you need we need to count you so but it was it was an incredible time last night and um i didn't plan on saying this but andrea i just want to let you know that you have you have a gift that i think that for a long time you didn't know you had and um i think the lord is using you i think he has placed you you here in this moment.

I don't know what you tell yourself.

I don't know how often you may discredit yourself.

I think as leaders we do that.

But the Lord has you for this time because you're relatable.

You love people.

You love the women.

And glory to God for what he's doing through you.

Don't get discouraged.

Keep going.

Because ministry is discouraging.

Ministry is hard.

And sometimes we want to quit before God says quit because we're thinking with our flesh and we're thinking with our logic rather than with what God has said.

So I just want to encourage you to keep on doing that all the way to the finish line that the Lord has paid for you.

I entitle my sermon, the power to influence.

Power to influence.

Last week's sermon was the power to build.

And we talked about how in the church we are to use our gifts for the common good of the church to build people.

To build people. people up.

We also talked about how we worship in a corporate setting when we're here at church.

And so today I kind of want to shift the focus to our ability to have influence as godly people in a world that is becoming more and more godless.

We got godly people in here, I hope.

Or we just got religious people.

There's a difference.

You could be godly, you could be religious.

There's a lot of religious people at church, but are there godly people at church?

because religious people do nothing out in the world, but godly people will.

And so we need godly people to make an impact in the world.

Pastor Maggie last night, she started out by talking about the influence of Satan and demonic activity in this world, how he's becoming more bold and unashamed, and he's showing his ugly face and people are welcoming it.

Before the devil, he would have to disguise himself as an angel of light.

Now he's just coming in. out full on ugly with no makeup and no mask.

And he's just like, this is a real me.

You don't like me.

You don't have to like me.

But people like it.

And the world is being drawn to it.

And he's being, he's being more bold in this world.

And so the church needs to respond with the same level of boldness and unashamedness and intensity in the world.

We can't be hiding in the churches.

We can't be hiding by our behind the stage or behind the worship song, behind the pulpit.

We have to be a church of impact and influence.

We can't be avoiding that elephant that's right outside the doors of the church.

We need a church that has influence in the world that we are of.

Not, but we're not of the world.

I'm sorry, but we are in the world. there's a difference.

The church is very good about having influence in the church, right?

We're great at that.

We're great at putting on leaders' conferences.

We're great at packing out churches.

We're great at all that stuff.

Ministry leaders have influence over other people in ministry.

Christians have influence over other Christians, and all of that's good because it edifies and it's needed, but we are also called to go out into the world and have influence there.

Why?

Because the world might not be inclined to come in here and listen to a message preached on the gospel.

The power behind the pulpit has no effectiveness if people don't come here and listen to it.

They might not want to come here and listen to the awesome, amazing, anointed worship band Sunday after Sunday. they might not want to come to a women's conference or a men's conference.

So we need to have influence out in the world beyond the four walls of the church.

Right.

We all know this.

We all read about it in the Bible.

We know that we are called to be salt and light of the earth.

But how do we actually have influence in the world?

Is it simply by being countercultural?

Is it simply by not fitting in with the world?

Is it by posting on social media all the bad things that the world?

is doing and what's happening and just kind of shaking our heads and discuss.

Like, how do men and women of God practically have influence on a world that might not be ready to hear the gospel?

I love a good Saul and David's story, man.

These two men symbolize polar opposites and they serve as examples for us as a church of what not to be and what we should strive to be.

Saul was a man of pride.

David was a man of humility.

Saul was a man of fear.

David was a man of courage.

Saul is introduced for the first time as a man who was pleasing to the people.

David was introduced as a man pleasing to God.

Saul was a man of haste, but David waited on the Lord.

Both men were not perfect.

And we know that David did some things that would probably get him canceled even by the church today.

But the author of Samuel, he often tells his story in themes, especially when it comes. comes to comparing David and Saul.

And he often portrays David kind of in a more positive light to kind of give him more credibility because he's trying to defend David as the rightful king who was chosen by God.

There was a lot of speculation during ancient times surrounding David's legitimacy to the throne.

Some critics have suggested that David stole the throne from Saul in an illegitimate way.

So if you study the purpose of Samuel's narrative, you'll find that the author is doing his best to make a case for David as the chosen man of God.

And so here in the text, the theme that we see so clearly between these two men is that Saul is a man of power, but David is a man of influence.

How many of us know there's a difference between power and influence?

We see that throughout the Bible.

Jesus came into the world with no power.

I mean, he had divine power, but that's not what we're talking about.

I mean, Jesus came in as no earthly king.

He was born.

He wasn't given a crown.

He wasn't given a royal garment.

He grew up as a regular boy, a son to a regular man who had a regular job.

Jesus had no title.

He had no governmental authority.

He wasn't the most powerful man in the world.

But you know what he had?

He had influence.

The Apostle Paul, he was sitting in chains in prison.

He had influence to impact the church forever.

The apostles, when they went into all the world, they went into the world with no titles and no degrees, but they had influence.

The spread of Christianity came through power, the power of influence, not the power of authority.

In fact, the early church had to go head to head with worldly forces, with worldly powers, with Rome, with kings, who made it. extremely difficult for Christianity to spread, but through the power of influence in the world, Christianity became widespread.

We cannot, church, we can never lose our influence in the world.

We can't do it.

And my hope today is that the church would understand that power does not mean influence, but influence often results in power.

When you influence, when you have influence over the people that you work with or with your relatives or with your homeboys from the hood from back in the day or your sisters from back in the day when when you are respected as a man or a woman not even as a man or a woman of God I'm talking about when people simply admire you for your character the power that is in you from the Holy Spirit will eventually be seen by those that you influence are you hearing me today I don't know if you're hearing me look at the As a church, we know that we have a different kind of power.

We have a power that was given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Last week, we talked about it.

We spoke on the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are used to empower the church for the common good.

Gifts that were given to edify the body, to equip the body.

We're all gifted in some area.

But if that body never exercises that Holy Spirit power and the fruit that we are to bear as believers to influence the world, the power is for nothing.

The church in America, man, we have a voice.

Amen?

We got a voice.

We are heard loudly and clearly.

Make no mistake about it, man.

We can determine who lands in office just by our voice.

We can make politicians consider things that matter to us.

It's not, you know, it's not that unpopular to be a Christian in America.

Do you know?

At least not down here in Texas.

Maybe you go up to, you know, to New York or something like there's hardly any churches over there, but you live in the Bible belt.

You go to church.

Everybody respects that.

Everybody goes to church.

The church has made an impact on its culture.

Praise be to God.

But as individuals, what influence do you bring?

Not to the church, but to the world.

I believe that Saul and David depict an image that should look like the relationship between the world and the church.

See, David was a man of influence long before he had power.

His influence won him favor with people.

It won him favor with the Prophet Samuel.

It allowed him to win favor of King Saul when King Saul invited him into his court to minister to him because Saul was being tormented by an evil spirit. and then it won him the favor of Jonathan, Saul's son.

David had so much influence over Jonathan that Jonathan stripped his robe and put it on David.

That meant that Jonathan honored David so much that he was willing to allow David to take his place as king.

Because Jonathan was the crown prince.

The kingdom belonged to him after Saul.

But because of the power of David's influence, Jonathan submitted himself to David.

And then David won influence with the army of Israel.

And then that influence extended to the people of Israel.

It even extended to the surrounding nations.

There was a short period in David's life where he fled to the territory of the Philistines and he agreed to fight for them.

So he even won favor with Israel's longtime enemy.

Like this is a man of true influence who impacted every person that he came into contact with. power on the other hand or authority if we want to call it that that's often what we desire we want power more than we want influence that's what politicians chase and leaders aspire to have it's what it's what we want in our places of work and the things that we manage we want power we want control we want to be the ones in charge we want to get the final say we want the respect we want the authority.

That's natural for all of us to want that.

The devil, he even fell from heaven for that very reason of wanting to be like God, wanting to have power, wanting to have sovereignty and have control over things.

Chasing power, are you still with me?

Y'all quiet this morning.

Chasing power comes from a place of pride.

It comes from a place of greed and it comes from a place of selfishness.

But influence makes it about other people.

When you influence someone, you influence someone.

You somebody, you impact their life.

There are people in my life who've got no title, no leadership role, no platform, but they have impacted my life through the very power of their influence.

And so we have to be careful not to become a church that has power in godly spaces where we can preach powerfully and lead powerfully and grow churches and grow ministries, but we got no influence in dark places.

The world doesn't care that I'm a pastor.

They don't care.

They don't care that we're a growing church.

I don't even think y'all care that we're a growing church.

I think it's just like me and, you know, our pastors, that's it, you know?

The world doesn't care what we're doing.

The world doesn't care that we just had a powerful women's conference yesterday.

They don't care what your testimony is.

They don't care what ministry you lead or how, well you can serve in a church or how talented you are with the gifts that you give to God.

They don't care about how much Bible you know.

They don't care about any of that.

But when you have influence, your words become a little bit more impactful.

When you have influence, your invitation to somebody to come to church, that holds a little bit more weight.

When you have influence, your counsel and your wisdom speaks louder to them.

How many of us get frustrated when we invite somebody to church and they don't want to come.

They never want to come.

They never want to come.

It's frustrating.

And then some of us, we act out in the flesh, we like almost curse them out because I don't want to come to church ever.

We get frustrated.

So maybe you tell somebody else, hey, you tell them.

I'm always telling them coming to church.

They never listen to me.

You tell them.

This happens, you know, I've found that it happens more often like with families. family members or, you know, people who really know us, it's possible that we've lost influence on those people.

We have no influence with certain people.

We have to guard that, church.

I know this is such a very nuanced message, and maybe you never even thought about the power of influence, but you've got to guard that.

You know how you guard your testimony?

You also have to guard your influence.

You have to protect that because your influence.

Because your influence has power.

When you speak to other people who you have influence on, it makes a difference than if you were to speak to them with no influence.

Being in the world often means that we're surrounded by people who really know us, right?

They know the things that you used to do before you came to Christ, or maybe the things that you do when you are in Christ.

They know the mistakes that you've made.

They know the person that you are.

I feel like it took me a long time to gain influence with the people who really knew me.

Especially my family, especially my dad's side of the family.

I was always like the younger cousin, you know.

So I was always known as Ryan Cito.

Riancito.

And sometimes when people call me Ryan Cito, I have like a gut reaction just to punch them. like, Pastor Daniel call me Ryan Cito sometime.

Because it's like a trigger, you know.

Ryan, my cousin Bobby, he, he used to call me Ryan Dutty.

Ryan Dutty, and that stuck for a while.

And I was the cousin that no one wanted to sit next to at Christmas because I would spill the sprite over all the tamales.

I was, I would ruin everything, man.

I was that cousin.

They knew me as clumsy.

Oh, here comes Ryan Zito again.

He's going to knock something down.

I was Kevin from home alone, you know?

All my thios will give me that look like, look what you did, you little jerk, you know?

And so it, I remember when I turned 18.

I still remember.

I thought, man, all right, I've arrived.

I'm 18 now, right?

Now I've earned respect somehow.

I'm not writing Sito anymore.

But no, I was still, I was still writing Sito.

I just had a little mustache.

That was it.

Right?

And then I got married.

I got married and, and I remember a long time ago, I remember Marlon.

Where's Marlon here?

I still remember your words, bro.

You said a long time ago, this is before I was married.

You said you don't become a man until you get married.

What?

And, but I know what he meant by that.

I know what he meant by that.

Because I got married and I was like, all right, I'm a man now.

Now I've got bills.

Now I've got a mortgage.

I'm a man.

But I would still be around my family around Christmas time and I still feel like a little cousin.

I would still feel like, you know, Ryan Cito.

And, you know, God really taught me a lot of this. throughout the years because I'll talk to people who say, Pastor, I've got no respect at the house.

Pastor, my kids don't respect me.

My spouse doesn't respect me.

My coworkers, my friends, they don't take me seriously.

I realize something.

I realize that in the church, there was still a lot of maturing that needs to happen.

Maybe that's why you're not always effective at having an influence on people who really know you because even though you're a Christian, you're still immature.

I'm an immature Christian cannot influence the world.

That's the reason King Saul had power, but no influence.

He was immature.

He was concerned with the things that didn't matter.

How many of us are concerned with things that don't matter?

You were called to build the kingdom, but you're walking around.

Bothered by your emotions all the time.

Bothered by your pride.

Bothered by your ego.

Bothered because someone said something to you that didn't sit right with you.

You're bothered all the time.

And so you're always processing things eternally.

You can't have an impact on people externally.

You're making it about you.

Even though you've got power of the spirit, even though you are a child of God, even though you know what your identity is, you have no influence because you're always processing things internally because you're always in your emotions.

Saul had an army.

Saul had a throne, Saul had riches.

I'm sure he even had respect, but he was too preoccupied with himself, that he neglected the kingdom, that he was called the lead, and the opportunity to influence people in that kingdom.

Maybe there are still, I don't know what I'm preaching to do, but maybe there are still some things that you need to grow into before you can become a person of influence.

See, you think that you're a good Christian, but maybe you're not a great person.

Because you speak in tongues, but you tear other people down in English, right?

You talk about love, but your words are destructive.

You love God, but you hate people.

You know how to pray.

You know how to preach.

You know how to teach the word, but you're a lazy employee at work.

You never show up.

You're always late.

You can't hold down a job.

You're irresponsible with your money.

You're irresponsible with your time.

You're irresponsible with your relationship.

You are immature and wonder where the power is. we can't have influence without maturity and see for a long time there was some immaturities in my life that that I needed to work out but before I could really influence people that were among the hardest to reach once I started to live my life for an audience of one once I stopped caring about what others thought about me once I made it less about about the respect that is given to me and more about the impact that I have on other people's.

That is when things started to shift.

Once I started to reach out to people and say, hey, how are you doing?

Once I started to care about others.

Once I started to give away authority and honor other people, once I started to live my daily life with wisdom and steward the best that I possibly could, the things that God has given me.

That is when my influence became more apparent.

And you know what?

Today, I get calls from my oldest cousins asking for advice, asking for counsel, asking me to pray with them, crying to me, being vulnerable with me.

And I'm like, me, Ryan, sito, you sure?

You're not, you're not afraid I'm going to spill the sprite all over you when I'm praying with you?

It's when the world can see that you've grown up.

When they can see the fruit that you bear from the power of the Holy Spirit, that is when you begin to have influence.

It's not about age.

It's not about a title.

It's not about a position.

I've known some pastors who are among the most immature people in the world.

It's about the maturity, the spiritual maturity that you show the world.

That's when you have influence.

So we need to begin to transform. form into an entire new person, into the person that Christ has called us to be, not just in the church, but in the world.

You know, there's something that's always bugged me about the church is that when we get saved, we think that that is just a little sliver piece of our life that we give to God.

Now I'm going to give God my time.

Now I'm going to start praying.

Now I'm going to start coming to church.

It becomes more religious.

But God is concerned with the whole person He's concerned with the father, the mother that you are.

He's concerned with the spouse that you are.

He's concerned with the employee that you are, the business owner that you are.

He's concerned with all of you.

And so if you can't grow in the practical things in the world because we are in the world, you can't have influence on people in the world.

Tell the person next to you grow up.

The church is power.

There is power in the church, but we also have to have influence.

And to have influence, we can't just be a good Christian.

We got to be a good person.

The text says that David was successful wherever Saul sent him.

Wherever David went, he was winning people, he was winning battles.

And one day, Saul hears the people celebrating.

David.

And that starts to make him nervous.

Does it make you nervous when you're not the person that's being celebrated?

Does that make you jealous when somebody else is being celebrated instead of you?

When you're in the same room, when you're doing the same thing?

Does that make you jealous?

That might mean that you're insecure.

And I mean, that's, look, that used to be me, all right?

I'm saying this with love, okay?

But you might be insecure.

That was Saul.

He had power, but he was insecure.

Because David is coming in here and he's got influence.

And people are celebrating him.

And it's making him nervous.

The pastor says from that day on, Saul had his eye on David.

Earlier I said that, you know, the depiction between Saul and David is like that of the world and the church.

Because the world is a powerful force, church.

Paul says in Ephesians that the devil is the prince and the power of the air.

Ephesians 612 says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the authorities and the cosmic powers of this prince. present darkness against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

There's power in the world.

Back in Egypt, you know, when the Israelites were multiplying, my dad spoke this morning in Spanish, he actually touched on this.

When they were, when they were multiplying the Israelites in Egypt, the one who was in power, Pharaoh, began to oppress the people of Israel out of fear that they would one day overtake them. when Jesus was born, the king of Judea sought to kill Jesus because he was being called the Messiah.

So the one in power tried to have him killed, right?

Later, before the start of Jesus' ministry, the devil, knowing that Jesus would have a powerful and impactful ministry tried to tempt Jesus even before he got his ministry started.

And then, well into his ministry, when Jesus was preaching, he was doing miracles, the Pharisees wanted to have him arrested. so many times, but because Jesus was so influential and so popular, they had to devise a plan to trap him.

Saul tried to have David killed so many times because David was a threat to the throne.

What does all of this say?

What does this have to do with anything?

Whatever has power will try to kill your influence.

Whatever has power is going to try to destroy your influence because influence is more powerful than authority.

So when you begin to make some noise in heavenly places, and you start to win some battles in the spiritual realm, the foundations of hell shake, man.

Devils and demons, they get nervous because you got a little bit of influence.

And when you have a little bit of influence in the world that belongs to Satan, he gets nervous and you become a target.

Because your influence can take his power.

That's why the church exists to go and make more disciples in that world, to empty hell and to fill up heaven.

But that can't happen without the influence of the church empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So whenever you begin to boldly. encourage people with the word of God and you begin to share your testimony and you start to tell people how good God has been to you, how faithful he's been to you.

Do not be surprised when the enemy starts to attack you.

He's going to throw his worst at you, man.

Because the enemy wants you to flee.

He wants to silence your voice.

He wants to make you say, well, how can I testify of the goodness of God when they very evidently see my situation.

Cars breaking down every week.

Can't even make it to work to tell somebody about Jesus.

Maybe I'll stop speaking about Jesus in the workplace.

That's the power attacking your influence.

And so many Christians, we bow down to it.

Don't let it take your boldness.

Don't let it distract you from what God is calling you to do. from those that Christ is calling you to influence.

Jesus said, on this rock, I will build my church.

And what does he say next?

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

We stand boldly.

We stand firmly on the rock that is Christ.

We're not going anywhere.

You can't be shaken.

We can't be swept away because Christ is our foundation.

So even though you go up against the powers that are greater than you, they are not greater than God.

Don't be afraid to be an influence to those around you, even though they might come with an attack.

Worship team, can you come up, please?

If we keep reading, I'm almost done.

If we keep reading, the Bible says that Saul continued to use David.

In fact, he brought David in close.

David, or Saul, rather, had a whole agenda to try to get David out of the picture.

This guy's got to go.

But what better way to have him go than to bring him closer?

And so what does Saul do?

Saul gives him a daughter. he brings them into the family.

He gives him more authority in his army.

He gives him more battles to fight and hopes that eventually David would tire out, make a mistake, and actually destroy himself.

See, that's what happens, church.

Can I just speak a little bit on when people start to become more influential.

When God begins to take you to glory, to glory, when God elevates your ministry, when God grows your church, when God takes you to the nations, when God gives you a reach, when people start to listen to you, when you start to know what you have, when you start to know that you have some authority and you have some power, When you start to know that you've got some influence, the devil is so strategic.

He brings you in close.

He gives you all the things that you're asking God for sometimes.

So that maybe you will destroy yourself.

We've seen this time and time and time again.

From leader to leader, from minister to pastor, to people who are great in the kingdom of God, who become so influential in the church and even in the world.

But they make a mistake, and that's it. you have to guard your influence you have to guard it you have to commit yourself to the lord every single moment it doesn't matter where god has taken you you are never higher than your master that was a mistake that the enemy made that's the mistake that saul was making when he disobeyed the Lord and took matters into his own hand because I am the king.

But David remain humble.

David began to continue to trust in the Lord no matter where he was going.

The text says now soft thought to make David fall by the hands of the Philistines.

That's how.

He brings them in close. so that hopefully one day he can destroy himself.

But you know, the text also says that the Lord was with David.

He was with him.

The power of God, church, is with the church.

God is with you.

I don't know if anybody's told you that lately.

But God is with you.

Can you just say that to yourself?

because sometimes we forget.

Can you just say God is with me?

God is with you.

And he will remain with you through the success and also through the failure because he's a faithful God.

We just talked about it.

God will take you to the highs and to the lows.

He will take you to the mountains and to the valleys.

He will take you through the waters and through the fires.

But he's the one who's going to take you there because the Lord is with me.

And David knew that.

David knew that he could be in the camp of the Israelites.

He could be in the camp of the Philistines.

But the Lord is with me.

The Lord is with me.

And I want to encourage you today to just remember that through your influence, there is no power too great for the God that we, that we serve.

I'm going to close with this.

I'm going to ask you, stand.

I don't know when the last time you read Psalm 46 was, but I want to read it.

It's the whole chapter, but it's not that long.

Let me give you some context.

This was a passage for the nation of Israel, God's chosen people.

We are God's chosen people today.

Amen.

This was a message given to them, Israel, living in the midst of enemies, surrounded by powers that were many times greater than they could bear.

We are surrounded by powers that are greater than what we can bear on our own.

And that's what life feels like sometimes.

So sometimes we give up our influence because we think that the power. that are greater than what we have to offer should just keep us silent.

So we stay quiet.

We stay quiet at family gatherings.

We don't let anybody know about the Jesus that we serve.

We don't want to disrupt the peace.

We don't want to disturb the peace.

We stop trying to be people of influence because we know that we still have so much to learn and growing.

And what could I possibly, I don't know if you've ever asked yourself, what could I possibly offer to people who seem they, have who seem to have all their lives together without Jesus.

While I'm over here struggling with Jesus, that's a power too great for me.

But it's not even about your power.

It's about his power.

It's about your influence.

It's about what you say.

It's about what you speak.

It's about what you do because God has called you to do it.

Don't let any enemy intimidate. you the psalmist declared god is our refuge and our strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea though its waters roar and foam though the mountains tremble at its swelling there is a river the river is the people of god whose streams make glad the city of god the holy habitation of the most high god is in the midst of her She shall not be moved.

God will help her when morning dawns.

The nations rage.

The kingdoms totter.

He utters his voice.

The earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come behold the works of the Lord.

How he has brought desolations on the earth.

He makes war cease to the ends of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.

He burns the chariots with fire.

Be still. and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted among the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us.

My God rises above every power in the world, every power in hell, every power in the spiritual realm.

My God is greater.

He is the God that I serve.

So he is a God that I will declare. the Lord is calling you to be a person of influence today.

Influence.

Your influence, my power, says the Lord.

Your influence, my power says the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, you are present in this place.

Come on, every eye close this morning.

My God, you are present, Lord.

And I believe that this word was for your church, Father.

To remind us to be bold.

To remind us, my God, not to be silent, not to be quiet, my Lord. to remind us to be people of influence my god to remind us to grow up my god and invite your spirit lord to transform every bit of us father my god today we grab hold of your power man and we ignite our influence i want to make a call this morning i want to make a call to anybody who says lord i want to be a person of influence god correct my every wrong my god my god my god my god trust my god transform the whole person that I am, Lord, so that your power would be seen out in the world through the influence that you have given me.

If that's you this morning, you want to give something to God?

Come and have a moment with him here at these altars.

Come on, these altars are open.

If you're in need of prayer this morning, I want you to come forward as well.

We need prayer.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynuma church.org.

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Thanks again and God bless.

Thank you.