Open—Etienne Leger
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Turn to a verse in Second Corinthians Chapter 9.
I have it on my heart to speak about the word influence.
My brother just spoke about.
His prayer that those would that are here would go on for the Lord. And it's a prayer for many of us. I'm sure we can all echo that. But I want to just discuss a little bit about influence and how we can be an influence to each other. Now, it's important that we don't do it in our own strength, but I do think it's important to realize that we affect each other more than we know it.
His brother once at the conference in Montreal was speaking and very respected brother and he said in the meeting, he said.
You might receive a lot from this conference, you might receive a lot of encouragement in teaching, but.
What's going to affect you the most, what's going to affect you the most in your Christian life might not be necessarily the things that you hear in this meeting.
But the people sitting right beside you?
And that struck me.
So look at the person sitting beside you. Look at the people in your row. Look at your friends and your family, the young people you're hanging out with. These people will influence you more than you think. These people will help you grow in your faith, or they might bring you down.
I have to hang my head and say that there's been times in my life that I've been bringing people down, that there's been times when.
I wasn't walking into the Lord and I maybe.
Look back and I said, man, I could have been a help to that person. Some of the kids here, you can be an influence too. I just thought you're in this meeting one kid trying to distract the other kid and make funny faces and the kids sibling said no, you should listen. So you know what, you might be sitting in this row in this conference and be five or six or seven or ten, you can be an influence.
To the people around you.
It doesn't just start whenever you start speaking at a conference, you can be an influence where the Lord has put you. And I want to speak this afternoon, just we'll just start in in 2nd Corinthians 9 and verse two. And this is something the Lord just showed me in my reading, in my regular reading, as is going through this book. And it just kept sticking with me and sticking with me. And the Lord just put it on my heart to share. So I just would unload this burden on my brethren here.
We'll pray it'll be it'll be for profit. So this is the end of the verse nine of Second Corinthians.
Sorry, end of verse two of Second Corinthians 9.
And your zeal has provoked very many.
I believe if I have the context right, they were going to prepare a collection or prepare something to give to the apostle and this was going to be an influence on this had influenced very many around you around them in that day. And if you look at other portions whenever especially with the the apostle will write in the salutations, he writes about those that were a help to him, those that were that refreshed him, those that that provoked him, those that encouraged him.
And if we were the apostle Paul was here and he was writing about us, what would he say about us? Would we be that we would be have been those that were an encouragement, those that were an influence for the right for the good?
I say that because.
We influence either in the positive or the negative. If you show up at meeting and use as well. I'm just here. I'm just here to fill up a seat and I'm just here to go. I got my busy life. You're influencing people. Maybe you didn't say a word to someone. Maybe you said not a thing. You just came. You left and you came for the first time. You left for after the end. You left. You influence people. You weren't a part of the assembly life. You weren't in fellowship with the assembly as a whole. Now this isn't this doesn't mean.
Talking about being breaking red or not in the Lord's table, but we have an influence on each other either for the positive or for the negative. And I want to turn to a story in John 21 of of Peter who had an influence on those around him.
John 21.
And let's read verse two. And they work together. Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Canaan, Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. And Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing. And they said unto him, We will also go with thee. And they went forth and entered into a ship immediately that night, and caught nothing. Now I'm not here to bash Peter for what he did.
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Peter was at a low point in his life, he.
He'd realized he had denied the Lord, Him who had just a few days before said he would go to death for the Lord. He had denied the Lord and him who a few years ago had given up his fishing boat, given up what he was wanting to do, and given and gone to serve the Lord, to follow his Savior, his Lord.
And now he did not get denied him. He was discouraged. And he says I'm going fishing, but he brings six people along with him.
Six others come with him, and they go fishing all night and they catch nothing. And I say that we can be, if we are discouraged in our souls, we can influence people in the, in the towards things that are not good, towards things that might not glorify the Lord, towards things that would be a discouragement. Think it says.
In Romans 14, no man lives, no man dies to himself.
We're not an island in ourselves, in our Christian life.
If I come to be an encouragement, if I come ready to bless others, if I come with saying, Lord, who can I encourage today in the meeting? Who can I reach out to? Who can I try to just be an encouragement? If I come with that spirit, the Lord will will bless us. But if I come with a critical spirit, oh, I not that brother again speaking, or oh, that person looked at me crooked or they're always late, That person if I have a critical spirit in my heart.
It'll influence how I perceive my brethren. It'll influence.
Umm, the way that I treat fellow fellow believers. And there's a verse in the Hebrews 12.
Hebrews 12 and verse 15.
Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be be defiled.
So if you have a root of bitterness, or if I have a root of bitterness and it troubles me, it'll influence people around me. I know growing up with some young people whose parents were very critical of the assembly, were very critical of other believers, always putting them down.
And guess what? It was contagious and it affects other people.
Same way that I know other believers where they always sought to.
Build up the Saints be an encouragement to not speak negatively of them, not have roast brethren for lunch. And it was been an encouragement. Now does that mean you're never going to be critical? No, but and I'm just realizing this being a new dad that with the way I'm going to treat my brethren and the way I'm going to speak of my brethren in front of my daughter and if you have other kids that's going to influence.
Very much how they perceive things as well.
You know the only, I believe the only.
The only failure of an Old Testament St. recorded in the New Testament is that of Elijah, who did not sanctify the people of God, who spoke against, who criticized. So let's be careful and have a critical spirit of those around us. We are in a day of weakness. We are in a day where there are real difficulties. There are problems. You shouldn't just close an eye on it and pretend it's not there. But let's try to go on to have a good spirit, to have one that would always seek the best, to seek the positive in our brethren.
To be a help. So we have Peter who was a discouragement to Wells. He took his, the six guys fishing. Now we can say that at the end of that night they didn't catch anything. They didn't catch. They had a whole night of fishing and they didn't catch anything. And it wasn't a profitable time. And unfortunately, they could say the times when maybe I've been critical or I've sought to say things in jest or seek to be.
Think myself better than others has not been for the blessing of the people of God.
It's not for it's not going to help build the Saints, but let's turn into the Book of Acts Chapter 11.
Is the time when.
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Peter received the vision and he's recounting this story to the apostles in Judea and he's discounting how that he received this vision. The sheep came down three times and he went to Cornelius and the Spirit was given there were there were they were saved. But it's interesting to see when he went to visit these brethren, what happened. And let's see in verse 12, just verse 12 of Acts 11. And the Spirit bade me go with them. Nothing doubting.
Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered in that man's house, and he showed us how he had seen an Angel in his house, which stood and sent to him, and going on and the result. We're not going to go over the story for the sake of time, but.
Looking before Peter took six brothers with him, there were six of his fellow disciples, and they went in the ship and they caught nothing.
Now he takes six men with him. Peter being restored full, the Holy Ghost goes. And with these six brothers, our encouragement to this group and the gospel is preaching. There's a great blessing. And so we can put ourselves in either category. We're going to be the Peter that brought discouragement or the Peter that brings encouragement. Sometimes it doesn't have to be a long exhortation or a long conversation or a long.
Thought out rebuke to a brother or sister.
And I speak well to the sisters because we we all need to help each other as well. It's not just the brothers in the public in a public sense like today.
There's it's so important to be exercised to be a help to those around us.
Whenever you have the Saints in your home for a meal or seek to get to know them better, it could be a help. You can get to know them and get to know them more than just their false. They might show a meeting. You can seek to be a help to them that way. It's not always in the big things, it's in the small things that we can be a help as well.
And so to be an influence.
Are you influencing people for the better?
For your discouragement and I think this involves all areas of life. He mentioned the kids that could help each other and I I didn't saw it today so I know it still happens the young people as well. I'm a bit older than that now I'm kind of graduated but as young people, are we building ourselves up Are we are we helping each other in our faith are we seeking in our communications to to edify to build each other up in our faith There's nothing wrong having a good time of having fun of partaking different activities but.
Are we seeking to build?
Things that remain are we seeking to dig a deeper sense of growing in the word I was talking about this a few years ago last night with a couple of guys and we were talking how that 15 years ago at this conference we had gotten together we had had like a discussion about spiritual things and man, some of the things we talked about like we probably weren't completely accurate but there was a desire for us just to kind of discuss some of these things. I'm not trying to put us on a pedestal here but in our conversations that we.
For the glory of God, are we seeking to to help to strengthen the things that remain? Are we going to be a help in our assembly now when it talks to being, to being, having influence? I would encourage something to have my older brethren.
In your assemblies, maybe there's some young brothers or sisters or families that need encouragement. Maybe they might not come to you, say I need encouragement, but go to them. You can reach out to them. You can have them in your home. You can try to reach out to them and bridge the gap between the Gray hair and the not so Gray hair.
Or the the older and the younger. It's a way we can help each other out. There's some young brothers that I'm sure would love to get together with you and learn the word. It might not tell you outright, but maybe it's a desire of theirs. But if you never talk to them, if you never connect on that way, that you never might not know that there's that need. And the sisters as well, I can't speak exactly from the sister's perspective, but I know that they do value the fellowship as well.
And so I don't make a blanket case for every single occurrence, but.
There needs to be the, the transfer of knowledge from the older to the younger. There needs to be the, the influencing are therefore the positive for the positive. You know, online on social media, there's a lot of people that are influencers that have, you know, 10,000 followers on Instagram or on YouTube and they promote different products, they promote different things. They're influencing people's mindsets. And we can be that way in our Christian lives too.
Even at school, in our work, we can be influencers for good and so.
I just want to encourage.
They all here to not be like the one that would have a root of bitterness, so would have something against his brother or against his sister against something or a teaching and would seek to push their own way or and it has a defining effect to to build up to to influence for the good because we each other were going up or we're going down. There's no middle ground. We either should come ready to encourage Ray to bless others.
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Making sure, like my brother mentioned, there's no said in our no, no, no sin in our conscience, no, no unjudged thoughts that we might come ready to be an encouragement.
Where the Lord has put us in the 1St Corinthians 14.
Actually, sorry, 1St Corinthians 12 and verse 26.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or if one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. In the year are the body of Christ, and members in particular. We have an influence on each other.
We can weep with those that weep. We can rejoice with them that rejoice. We can condescend to men of low estates. We can seek to be like a Barnabas, to be an encourager. We need that. We need to be building up just to, to, to come, to, to come and we're together to have the joy of the Lord ready in our hearts. To me, sometimes as people walk in to meetings and they look so glum, they look Moody or, or just downright sad, it's like.
You're not helping if you're that way. Do you realize that you're acting that way? It's not really a help. You're not going to have someone not going to want to reach out to you necessarily if you look like you could eat them or you can look just look miserable. It's it's not as welcoming. So let's just make sure the joy of the Lord is in our faces as well as in our hearts and we are body. We are members of another. What we do effects one another. Maybe you might say I come to meeting. I don't do anything wrong. I'm on time.
And no one ever knows what I do in my personal life.
But in order you know, godliness is not inherited. You might come from a godly family, godly parents or grandparents that love the Lord, that value the truth of being gathered to Lords name. But that does not mean that you will automatically inherit that. We inherit some other things from our parents, but we don't inherit godliness necessarily. We have to personally make that conviction in our own hearts to want to follow the Lord with purpose of heart.
Be like Caleb, be like a Joshua that would seek to even if the 10 of the tribes would bring a false, a bad report about the land, they said, no, no, we're able. We are able, Caleb could say. And they would go in there and they would move ahead and want to claim the the promised land for God's people. And that influenced Caleb's daughter as well. Caleb's daughter and her new forget his name, her name now, actually, I think it was. Yeah. And.
She wanted the land as well. It influenced her in a good way and so we can be an influence to to our children as well in a positive way.
And so just thinking about, you know, we're in our reading meeting, talking about David, David had a lot of opposition. He had those around him that the soldiers were not necessarily for him. The his brothers were against him saying, what are you doing here, David? Even Saul, King Saul wasn't encouraging him to go out, but he went out and he was an influencer for the good. And so maybe you come from a small assembly, maybe there's a lot of discouragement. Maybe there's no young people. Maybe there is just weakness.
You could go on and you could list all the problems, but are you going to be an influencer for good? Are you going to bring about change? We don't mean like in the in the arm of the flesh, trying just to go and push your weight around. I know what's your brother. Sometimes you can get excited and want to get things done. But you know what if we seek if we're there to be a blessing, if we are there to encourage and build up, we'll make a difference. You know, maybe it might not be whistled right away. Maybe it'll be someone that will come to you a few years later. Say hey, you know, whenever you.
This to me, whenever you said that to me, you had me over or you, you took me out for coffee. That really encouraged me in my life. We might not even know this side of glory, what we do for the Lord. We might not get that reward right now, but let's be influencers for good. Let's fall wholly follow the Lord and we'll see. It'll influence our brothers and sisters until the Lord comes.
May the Lord bless His word.