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Hey, welcome to Prairie Lakes. Good job getting here, making it a priority. Uh, we're so grateful for that. Don't ever forget this. We're a no matter church, no matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, or even what's been done to you, God does love you.

You can, you can fight that, but you can't change that. He loves you. And, and here's the deal with Prairie Lakes. You can, you can journey with us. You can go on the journey. You don't have to have it all figured out. You, you don't have to be perfect because none of us are even close.

Uh, but you can go on the journey and, and look for God in this place. So we're really glad that you're here. Alright, we are starting a new series of which I am really excited about. It's entitled, with All Your Strength.

And we're gonna spend three weeks in a very specific portion of scripture going and, and kind of feeding off of that. And, and so to introduce it, uh, we're gonna show you this video from the Bible Project. It's one of our favorite resources. So watch this For thousands of years, every morning and evening, Jewish people have prayed these well-known words as a way of expressing their devotion to God.

They're called the Shema here, oh, Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And as for you, you shall love the Lord your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength.

We're going to look at the last word, strength. The Hebrew word is au and it occurs some 300 times in the scriptures. And it doesn't actually mean strength. There is a perfectly good word for strength in Hebrew. And AU is not it.

In fact, the Shama is one of the only places in the whole Bible where au is translated as strength. So what's up with that? The most common meaning of Mao is very or much. It's what grammar nerds call an adverb, a word that comes alongside other words to augment their meaning.

For example, in Genesis chapter one, God looks at the world that he's made, and six times he calls it good. But then the climactic seventh time, he says it is au good. That is very good. Later in Genesis, in the story of Noah, the flood waters keep rising and they become mooed powerful or extremely powerful over the land.

In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain wasn't just angry at his brother, he was maed angry. Or when Saul became the king of Israel, he was maed happy. So you can see why Mahau occurs hundreds of times in the Bible.

It's a really common Hebrew word that intensifies the meaning of other words, very this or really that. However, biblical authors could use Mao in ways that are unique. Like when they want to increase a word's force to total capacity, they'll say Mao twice.

So Jacob became Mao Mao wealthy with flocks and camels and donkeys and servants where the Israelites spy is went to investigate the promised land. And they say, the land we pass through is Mao, Mao Good. So it's pretty clear Mao doesn't mean strength in terms of muscle power, but rather vary or much.

So let's come back to the Shema where people are called to love God with all of their heart. That is their will and affections and with all of their soul, that is their whole life and physical being, and with all of their owed that is with all of their muchness.

And while that sounds kind of funny, you also kind of get it, if Mao can intensify any words, meaning to total capacity, then this final thing that you use to love God isn't a thing at all. It's actually everything. Loving God with your MAO means devoting every possibility, opportunity, and capacity that you have to honoring God and loving your neighbor as yourself.

It's the most wide and expansive word in the Shama Mao can refer to almost anything, which raises one last and really fascinating point because this word was capable of many nuances of meaning. Ancient Jewish communities interpreted Mao in the Shama in different ways.

So the ancient Jewish scholars who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek, when they came to Au in the Shama, they translated it with the Greek word dunamis. That is power or strength. This is the interpretation adopted by most modern translations.

But if you look at the ancient Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible, you'll discover that these scholars interpreted Mao to mean wealth. Money is a concrete thing that opens up all kinds of opportunities to love God by giving away resources. And when Jesus was asked about the most important command in scripture, he quoted the Shema and he used two words to unpack the meaning of Mao.

He said, love God with all of your mind and with all of your power. Both are human capacities that can be used to love God in an infinite number of ways. So which of these interpretations of au is right? Does it mean strength or wealth or mind?

Hmm, that's the wrong question. The word au doesn't limit the number of ways you can show love for God. Just the opposite. The point is that everything in a person's life, every moment and every opportunity, every ability and capacity offers a chance to love and honor the one who made you.

It's a call to love God with all of your muchness. And that's the meaning of strength in the Shema. Isn't that just great? It's fascinating how, how they put that stuff together and it, it's, it, it's so insightful.

So Mark the Bible project as, as a resource for you. They have devotionals, they have all the videos, they have a podcast. It's a great resource. But, but I want you to catch this now. So if we could sum it up, they said this in just almost the last line of the video.

They said, the point is that everything in a person's life, every moment and every opportunity, every ability and capacity offers a chance to love and honor the one who made you. And this is, this is a great phrase. It's a call to love God with all your muchness, with all your muchness love, a Lord your God, with all your muchness.

And that's, that's what we're gonna spend these three weeks on. Now, let's be really clear on this. Okay? This is the biggie, right? This is the one that kind of clears the smoke from, from the battlefield, right?

This is, this is the one. If someone asks the question, what does Jesus want of me? Well, what does it mean to follow Jesus? Or, or what's the most important thing about being, being a Christian, uh, a no matter follower? Let's hear it from the mouth of the master himself.

This is from the, the, the book of Mark in Mark 12. And, and so, uh, teacher of the law asked him, he, a teacher of law asked him, Jesus, of all the commandments, which is the, the most important, and here's Jesus, right? Quote in that Old Testament. And here he is. He says, the most important one answer Jesus, is this, heal Israel, the Lord our God.

The Lord is one, love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strict me on, right there it is right there. And then he says, and the second is this, love your neighbor as yourself.

There's no commandment greater than these. So we're gonna spend three weeks, we're gonna answer this question, how do I love God with all my muchness? And we're gonna start with this one. We love God by offering him the muchness of our influence.

Let's start here. You have influence, okay? Period. No arguing. Every one of us does. Now listen, when we say you have influence, this isn't about the the size or the platform, right? It's not about your job or your role or how important or not important, uh, space you occupy in society.

This has nothing to do with that. Here's the simple fact. You have influence. Don't be silly thinking that you don't, okay? Hear this, like it or not, every time you're in the presence of people, you're an influence.

Okay? Lemme read it again. Like it or not, every time you're in the presence of people and that counts online, friends, you are an influence. We can't hide from this one. Listen, you're adjusting the temperature of every room that you walk into.

You are, you're, you're influencing your family every single day. If you're a mom, you have influence, you know, you do. Moms on this day especially, we're reminded of that. But you have influenced your family. You have influence in your classroom, your office, your building, your team, your gym.

When you're on vacation with people, you're on influence. When you're playing pickleball, you have influence, okay? Size and numbers are not the issue. Here's the issue, my friends, if you've stepped over the faith line, right? And, and, and some of you don't know what that is, right?

And I'm, I'm, I'm mostly speaking to those of you have. But if you've stepped over the faith line, here's what that means. When you finally come to the end of yourself and you say, I can't fix myself over 250 of you have made that decision since Christmas, okay?

And you finally say, I give up. I can't, I can't fix myself. I can't earn my wind to heaven. And you say, finally, I surrender and I step over the faith line and you say, Jesus, I can't do it, but you can. I confess that I'm a sinner and I believe that you are the answer.

You died for my sins. You a rose from the grave, and you're gonna come again. And when you make that move, everything changes for you. You become a follower of Jesus. A no matter follower. Listen to this. When you make that decision, here's what happens.

You have influence. You're a walking billboard for Jesus and this place called Prairie Lakes Church. You cannot opt out of this one. In fact, it's such a big deal. In fact, Jesus chose to do it this way. Here's what he said, A couple places in scripture in Matthew five 14, which is the Sermon on the mallock, Jesus first recorded sermon, right?

He says this, you're the light of the world. And then he says, A town built in the hill cannot be hidden, right? So yes, yes, that makes sense. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bull. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

And then he says, now, catch this in the same way. Let your light shine before others influence that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Jesus says, this is, this is not an optional, this is not an opt-in or an opt out.

You have influence. And he, and he says it over and over again. Right? Here's, here's another one from, from Mark two. He says, this says, as he walked along, he saw Levi, son of alpha sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me. Jesus told him. And Levi got up and followed him.

And there's, there's a lot just to that sentence right there. But we're gonna, we're gonna focus a little bit something else here. So while Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, now just, just, okay, just catch this.

So Levi leaves everything, follows him, right? Leaves everything. What's the very next thing that happens? While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. The very next thing that, that Matthew does right after saying, I follow Jesus as he has influence over the people in his little Jerusalem, right?

His, his little Iowa, that he's got, we call little Iowa's, the, the people, your family and your friends, and your coworkers and your neighbors, and the people you go to the gym with and the people you buy your coffee from, and that, that, that circle around you, where you are planted right in the middle of it where you have influence.

So Jesus says, listen, you can't opt out of this when you have influence, you are the light of the world. And then he says, and here's what happens After you follow me, you have an influence on people, okay?

For the son of man came to seek and save the lost. That's the purpose of Jesus. And he wants you and me, the followers of Jesus to participate with him, to cooperate with him in this great endeavor.

Now listen, before we go farther right, you have influence. All this is, this is not a pressure cooker, okay? This isn't, this is not a pressure cooker for you to be perfect. This is not a legalistic call for the shiny outward appearance where you grab your, you grab your big Bible, and you, you get a haircut and you, you know, you, you put on the Christian face.

This is not that, okay? It's not that at all. This is not a place for the Instagram filters to hide the imperfections. In fact, Jesus raged against that kind of behavior. He raged against legalism and fake righteousness. In fact, just, just this week read Matthew 23, okay?

This is, this is just a very quick snapshot, and I don't expect you to read it all now, but just in Matthew 23, here's what, here's how Jesus raged against that kind of fake Christianity says, but do not do what they do. He talking about the Pharisees and this whole thing for they do not practice what they preach.

Okay? Everything they do is done for people to see. He says to them, you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You blind guides, you strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel, okay? You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside there're full of greed and self-indulgence.

And he says, you're like white washed tombs, right? So Jesus just is against this. Listen, this is not a call to perfection or fake Christianity or legalism. Here's what it is. Friends, if you stepped over the faith finding you trust Jesus, this is a call for you to partner with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who is in you, and to love God by living out God in front of others, influence to recognize and embrace the impact you can have in your little Iowa.

It's a call to live a surrendered life to the Holy Spirit. This is a call to love God with the muchness of your influence. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get very practical for the last 20 minutes, okay? We're gonna get very practical.

I'm gonna give you three very practical strategies, ways in which you can love God with your muchness of your influence. Okay? So I'm gonna start with this one. Here's the first one for you to love God with the muchness of your influence.

We start with this practical step. Slow down, okay? Slow down. In order for you to love God with the much muchness of your influence, you need to slow down and receive what he has for you, okay? Slow down and receive what he has for you. Now, I want everybody to grab your Bible, okay?

Use your phone. If you use your phone, grab your phone, okay? And I want you to turn to an Old Testament book, the book of First Samuel and a don't panic, I'll help you get there. Okay? So we've got the first five books of the Bible called the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, Deuteronomy.

Okay? Those are the first five. Those are, those are pretty clear and simple. Then you have JJR Joshua, judges Ruth. Okay? So it's the first five, then it's JJR Joshua, judges Ruth. Then you have First and second Samuel, first and second Kings, and then First and Second Chronicles.

Okay? So Samuel's first. So everybody go to First Samuel 16. Now, in first Samuel 16, we have this story of, of King. King Saul is the, is the king of Israel. And he's messing up, right? He's gone against the Lord. He's made multiple mistakes. He's, he's, he's pushed against God.

And God finally said, okay, Saul, Saul, um, I noted you as king and you have completely, um, uh, uh, screwed it up. You've, you've ruined it. So I'm gonna replace you. So in and Samuel one, Samuel 16, one, it says this, the Lord said to Samuel, Samuel is the prophet, okay, that God was gonna use.

Right? So Samuel anointed, Saul is king. Now he's gonna anoint David as king. So Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul, since I've rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem.

I have chosen one of his sons to be king. All right? So there's the setup. And then you read through the story. So he goes to Jesse of Bethlehem, and he marches all the sons in front of him, and all the sons come up and he says, Nope, that's not the one.

That's not the one. That's not the one. And he says, are there any more in verse 11? So he asked Jesse, are, are these all the sons you have? They're still the youngest. Jesse answered, but he's tending the sheep, right? So get this picture. It's the youngest one who didn't even get invited to see the prophet when he came into the house, right?

He's out, he's out doing the, doing his, doing the job that nobody else wants to do. Samuel said, send for him, and we will not sit down until he, until he arrives. And then it says, then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. He's the one. Now, here's the part I really want you to see.

I listen to this now. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on and catch this, the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon. David Samuel then went to Rama. Okay? So just look at that. The spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.

Another, another translation puts it this way. The Spirit rushed upon him, right? Rushed upon him. So catch this. David was set apart for a life of influence for the kingdom. And he had massive influence, right? Massive. God chose him for that. He was chosen, he was anointed, and he was empowered, and his influence was immeasurable.

And I want you to hear this from me, and I want you to hear this really well from me. If you stepped over the faith line and you trusted Christ, right? I know somebody haven't made that decision yet. Now listen, if you're one of those that hasn't made that decision yet, but you're, you just know you should, and you're kind of fighting it, just surrender to him, okay?

'cause here's what happens. The moment that you surrender and you say, okay, I, I give up. I can't do it. I can't do it. Jesus, forgive me. I confess, and I believe right at that moment, the Holy Spirit rushes in you, just like the Holy Spirit came to David, the Holy Spirit indwells every person who says, I trust Jesus, and Jesus is the only hope that I have.

You stepped over the faith. I at that moment, the spirit of the living God took up residence in your heart and enables you, and empowers you to use the muchness of your influence so that your light will shine for others to see you, my friend.

If you're a no matter follower, you're a spirit and powered force of influence for the king of the universe who wants your little Iowa to know him. You are a genuine Jesus with skin on to influence people. Now, our natural tendency is good Iowans is to say, oh, you know, not me, or, or I can't, or I'm not, or I mess up and listen, David proves it all wrong.

He was the youngest. He was the one who was left out. He was the one that was, it was, wasn't even thought about. It wasn't even considered when this came up. And you may think, oh no, not me, God couldn't use me. Listen to me. The moment you surrender to Jesus that moment, the Spirit indwells you.

And that spirit that rushed on the David anointed him and empowered him. That same spirit does the same thing for you, follower of Jesus. It's the same thing. Listen to this. If you don't slow down and receive what God has given you, you will miss most of the influence moments that he brings to you.

If you don't slow down and receive, you'll miss most of the influence moments that he's wanting you to walk into, that he's wanting to use in your little Iowa. If you don't push back from the barrage, that relentlessly pushes for more and our more of our time and our brain space and our heart space and our emotional space, right?

If you don't turn it off, if you don't push it away and say, I need to slow down so I can receive and listen to God, listen to me. If you continually turn up the volume, if you continually turn, turn, swipe onto your social media and to this account and to that account, and you continually run and hide and do, and go and do and go, you follower of Jesus filled with the Spirit will miss most of the influence moments that he has for you.

That's why the very first step to be the no matter follower that changes his little Iowa or her little Iowa, is to slow down just the other day, says Pastor Chris Rigg. Most of you know who Pastor Chris is. We were in the hallway at the office, and I, like, we were talking, I said, dude, I am so tired.

He goes, what? What? Didn't you sleep last night? And I go, no, I was just getting ready for bed and, and I, I wasn't quite like tired yet. So I pulled out my phone and I pulled up Twitter and two hours later I shut it off and went to sleep. And today is ruined.

And he looks at me and he says, delete it. Just like that. Delete it, delete it. You, you, you, come on, you, you don't need that. It's just a distraction. Delete it. Took it out. Delete it. And I think it was two weeks ago now, I haven't looked at Twitter since, and my life is way better.

Okay? No. So, so, so hear me, right? Hear me, hear me. If you don't slow down and turn things off and push away from the barrage of busy, busy, busy, go, go, go. Input, input, input, input, input, input, input, input, right?

If you don't do that, you're gonna miss exactly what Jesus is asking you to do, which is to influence, influence your little Iowa, the world around you. This is why Jesus constantly, right? Jesus constantly went away. Jesus constantly pulled away. He did. Here's, here's, here's three of 'em.

They're all over the place in the gospels, but let's just go Matthew. Jesus went on from there and walked beside the sea of Galilee, and he went up on the mountain and sat down there, okay, Matthew, uh, here's one from Mark.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Here's one from Luke. Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God. The morning came, he called disciples to him, right?

So this was, this is, we can do the again and again and again. This was the pattern of Jesus. Why? Because here's what he knew. Here, here, here's what he knew. If I don't slow down the barrage of stuff coming at me, good stuff, ministry stuff for Jesus, right?

It was all good for us. Most of it's not good. But if I don't, if I don't put a stop to that, I'm gonna miss the spirit's voice. I'm gonna miss the promptings that he's, that he's calling me. I'm gonna miss the, the, the appointments that he has for me.

I I'm just gonna slow down and give God room to speak to your heart. And mind you, if you're a follower of Jesus, you stepped over the faith line, you are chosen, you are anointed by the Holy Spirit, and you are empowered by the Holy Spirit to use the muchness of your influence, for his glory, for his good.

Slow down so your influence can ramp up. Okay? So here we are, you have influence. So step practical, step one is slow down. Here's practical. Step two, show up. Show up. In order for you to love God with the muchness of your influence, you need to slow down so you can show up.

So you can literally be Jesus with skin on here's, here's my desire for you's. Here's, here's, here's my desire for, for me, I could die. And if this was true of me, I'd be happy. I want to be right. I want this for you. I want this for me. I wanna be the one person that my little Iowa, my friends, my neighbors, my coworkers, my relatives who, who I've been showing up for, right?

That they will call it crucial moments in their lives. Because I've been showing up long before the crisis hit. I've been showing Jesus long before their life went, went, went, went down the drain. I want for you. I want you to be the one person that your struggling, disconnected, lost friend will go.

I can call her she'll, she'll help me. I can, I can text him. He'll, he'll help me. Listen. Turn to turn to the, the Bible. Let's go to Acts eight. This is the New Testament now. So it's Matthew, mark, Luke, John, the first four gospels. Then you get acts, Romans, first, second Christians go to the book of Acts.

Acts is the story of the, of the beginning of the early church, right? So it's Acts one starts with Jesus ascending to heaven after his resurrection. And then it's the, the story of how the church got established all over the world.

Okay? So, so there's this one story in, in Acts, acts eight, about Philip, who was, who was the apostle? The one disciples that got, that got appointed, okay? And, and this is what it says. It says in verse 26, it says, now an angel Lord said to Philip, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

So he started out, and on his way, he met Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopian, right? So he meets this really important dude. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship. And on his way home, he was sitting in his chair reading the book of Isaiah, the prophet and the spirit.

Now listen, the spirit told Philip, right? So here spirit, here he is, right? Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it. Isn't that crazy? He just says, Hey, listen. So Philip's in the spot, holy spirit's in him.

Holy Spirit says, go over there, climb that chair and just stay near it. And the rest of the story goes right. So he stays near it. The they start, this interaction ends up the Ethiopian gets baptized, comes to Christ, he gets baptized, right? So it's this beautiful story.

But listen to this, because Philip was willing to show up. Philip was willing to go down this trail that he wasn't planning on going down to go down this road because God told him to. And when God told him to, God had a place for him to express the love of Jesus.

Someone who needed to hear it and needed to see it. Listen, here's what I believe, that God is always working. He's always doing his thing. He's working in ways that we can't even see. He's working at people we never imagined that he would. He's orchestrating circumstances for his glory.

And he wants you and me to show up in those moments. He wants us to show up. Listen, I wanna be the guy that's been showing up with my buddies in my neighborhood, in my little Iowa, so that when a crisis hits, they can text me and I can be Jesus with skin onto them.

I just, just, just recently, this just, it just happened. I'm so grateful. A guy that's been a a, a friend, I've, I've known him, I've been, I've been showing up and showing up and we, that we've done the garage and right, we watched games and we've, we've played with the kids together and all this stuff.

And the text finally came that I've been waiting for. Hey, pastor John, can we talk? I'm struggling, my friends. Listen, there's nothing better than that. God wants to use your influence for his kingdom. He wants you to be used by him.

It means being interruptible, being available, being authentic, being approachable, showing up is Jesus with skin on. And listen to this. Listen, listen. I dunno if this is a pet peeve or this is just something that makes me really, really angry.

I'm tired of, there's, there's too, I'm, I'm gonna be careful, okay? There's too many Christians who want to talk about how much they know they want to, they want to show off how, how deep they are. What a great disciple they are.

And I'm here just to say this. Don't you ever talk to me about how much you know, if you don't show up in the lives of people who don't know him yet. 'cause you can know a lot, but if you don't do what he did, you're lost.

Show up in the lives of people you have influence. Slow down over your sleeve. Steve, show up. Okay, let's go to the last one. We'll close with this one. Okay? So the last one is a shut up. Now listen, little disclaimer here, kids, pastor John isn't saying that.

You can say shut up. Okay? So, so hang with me, okay, mom and dad, hang with me on this one. In order for you to love God with the muchness of your influence, you need to slow down so you can show up. And when you show up, it's better that you shot up.

And listen, first I'm speaking from experience, okay? And here's my experience. Too often I speak before hearing the whole story. Too often, I want to be the hero and fix your problem without really listening to your problem.

Too often I offer advice without being asked for advice. I come to a conclusion to hide my confusion. Too often, I end up talking more than I listen. And here's the deal. If God calls you to show up in a moment of influence, one of the best things you can do is shut up and listen to him.

And listen to them. Quit being the hero who's gonna fix everybody? And that's my listen. And maybe I'm just speaking to me, okay? Maybe I'm just speaking to me. There's, there's a great, there's a great picture of this in the Old Testament book of, of Job.

We, we won't turn there, I'll have all of the text on the screen, but job's kind of in the middle of the Old Testament. Most of us have heard about Job, right? He was the, the guy that just, God said, I'm gonna test him and see if Ru loves me.

And he lost everything, right? He lost everything. And you read through the book. It's just, it's just crazy. And he had these three friends, right? These three friends that when they heard about their, their friends suffering, they, they showed up. Okay? And, and here's what it says in, in verse 13, right?

Early away in, in chapter two, it says, then they, the three friends sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him. 'cause they saw how great his suffering was. Now, you read the, you can start reading job this week, okay?

And as soon as they start talking, they, they screw up everything, right? They, they ruin it. They ruin the moment. They, they ruin it all. And it's just, it is crazy. But when God calls you to show up, one of the best things that you can do is shut up and just listen.

Listen to what the spirit's saying. Listen to what's going on in the, in the situation, right? Three things that we say all the time, right? And at the John Church, one of our former pastor of ours is a counselor and part of our Cedar Falls campus, John Church, who, who by the way, is my accountability partner.

He says, whenever I'm in a, a meeting with someone, there's, it's not just me and that person. There's three people in the conversation. It's me, it's my client, and it's the Holy Spirit. And he said, sometimes I have to just bite my tongue. I have to just shut up so God can speak up and speak into their situation.

So we, we, we say that one a lot, but, but, but it's true. Here's the second one. We say a lot. Be more interested than interesting. Be more interested in what's going on in their world than trying to be interesting to them. And that, that's a big one. Here's the third one.

Um, the quick, slow, slow from James. Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Okay? So friends, listen, when we say shut up, we just mean you don't have to be the hero. You don't have to fix it. You have to show up and let the Holy Spirit do his job in them and in you.

One of my prayers is, is that God will help me to hear what my buddy is saying when he's not really using his words or when the words he's using aren't really, he's not really able to, to, to, To illuminate what's going on in inside of him. Good Iowans, right? Good islands will keep stuff really close to the vest.

They'll, they'll kind of disguise and, and they don't want to make themselves look too bad. Or they, or sometimes they won't really understand what, what's what's going on inside of them. I've found this to work for me. I let them verbalize and work through it.

'cause there's so many times, right? You and I both know, there's so many times when you're, when you're struggling with something, if you can just kind of talk it out, right? You can just kind of go, okay, okay. I was with a guy a couple weeks ago and I says, tell me what's going on.

And I said, well, tell me more. And, and he went on and I said, what, what, what else is there more? And tell me more. Right? And, and, and, and as he talked, right? The Holy Spirit just did his job.

And we get to the end and he says, oh, now, now I see. Right? And, and I didn't have to be the hero. I just shut up. And I said, tell me more. Right? Let the Holy Spirit do his job. So one of my prayers, right? And my prayer for you is that when, when it hits the fan in somebody in your little Iowa, your circle of friends and coworkers, and relatives, when it hits the fan, they'll know you're the one that I can call.

You're the one that I can text. That's my prayer for every, every prayer laker. That's, that's my prayer, my friends. We are called to influence. We're called to it by God. We're called to slow down, to show up, to shut up.

And if we can do that, then we can show off Jesus. For the people who desperately need to see him and hear from him, use the muchness of your influence to show off who Jesus really is. All right. Let's pray together right now. Take a breath with me. Ah, father, you are good And we are grateful.

We offer our muchness of our influence to you. Help us to slow down, to show up, and to shut up and listen so you can do what you need to do. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.