Influence in the Age of Social Media

Influence is a common topic in our modern society. Culture often defines success through materialistic or positional accomplishments, but I believe the kingdom has a different perspective. God often chooses the small insignificant things to influence change in the world.

Transcript

- Hey, my name is Julian. You know, people are talking a lot about influence today, social media and likes and Instagram and followership and how we get to influence. I've heard loads of teachings on seven mountains of influence or spheres of influence and it's been incredible to see how God is restoring a concept to the church that we get to invade every place in every way with the kingdom of God. And very often when I hear some of the teaching, particularly around how we apply the seven mountain concept or idea, it often has to do with us having to climb the mountain, get to the top and then rule over everything, as if we control that mountain, in order to transform it and make it more Christian. I want to suggest to you that that might not be the way of the kingdom. You see, for me when I began to study scripture, and I began to understand that the way of the kingdom is most often expressed in scripture as God choosing the insignificant, God choosing the small, God choosing the unknown to subversively bring a change to nations, to subversively bring change to society, to subversively release something of God's heart. And we think about the narrative of the people of Israel, this insignificant nation, that had not been heard of, no one had even thought about them yet God chooses them. And out of a small, insignificant nation, comes the savior of the world, that begins to transform and change everything. In fact, when Jesus talks about His kingdom, He doesn't do so with grandiose terminology, He doesn't do so by saying you need to make sure that you get to the top of the mountain. What He does is, He says, that the kingdom is like a little seed, it's small, it's like yeast, it's not even seen in a batch of dough, but it grows and it impacts everything. In fact, in one of the most trying times of Jesus' life, we see Him give his best discourse on the kingdom. He's standing before Pontius Pilate, this man of great power, and he, Pontius Pilate is quizzing Jesus. He's on trial saying, "Are you a King or are you not?" and Jesus never appeals to His position as King. He's like that's irrelevant for me right now. And He answers Pontius Pilate with this phenomenal phrase, He says, "My kingdom is not of this world." I do not need to enforced it through violence, I do not need to enforce it through my place of position. He in effect says that it's got nothing to do with the way that you see kings. It's got nothing to do with the way that you see Kingdom. He says, "My kingdom does not even look like the kingdoms of this world." In fact the phrase there carries with it a sense of this, His kingdom is not of this world, but His kingdom is for, this world. You see, God's not looking for you to climb to the top of a mountain. He is looking for you to begin where you're at, that the seed of the kingdom that's in your life, as it is embedded into society, begins to subversively grow and begins to take over everything around it and begins to release something of God's kingdom. So I just want to end this with three points, that I think is really important for us to understand about the kingdom. In the kingdom, it's not about status, it's not about your position. It's about your heart posture towards Him. God has called you to be subversive and it doesn't have to be big or successful by the world's standard. It just has to be you, being you, to bring change around you. The second thing is that, legacy is the aim of the kingdom, not significance. Very often we build an understanding that says, "I need to be significant". In fact, we live in a society that is validated by the clicks we get on Instagram or the likes we get on our Facebook post. When actually in the kingdom, it's about building away from us to another generation, to people we've not even yet seen. Legacy means that we build for others, not for ourselves. And the third thing about the kingdom, is that the posture of the kingdom, is never about our hard efforts, it's not about our ability to network ourself into a place of power, but Jesus when He's in front of Pontius Pilate, the Bible says that He lays down His life, His posture, was that of a laid down lover, that of a servant. When we live with a servant heart mentality, we get to have a authority over the things that we love and that we serve. And as we do that subversively, we begin to bring change so that the kingdom of God is established. If you like this content, please let us know in the comments below. Also follow us on Instagram. We are putting out loads of incredible resources and content weekly. I know it will encourage you.

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