Influencers

Who are the influencers that God has placed in your life over the years to be a part of His transformational work in you?

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:3-7

Podcast: The Fire You Carry

Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/sunrisecommunitychurch
Watch live on Mondays at 10am:  www.facebook.com/sunrisecommunityonline/live

Song: Fredji - Happy Life (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/KzQiRABVARk

Transcript

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Influencers. That's the subject today here because we want to talk about the people that have had an influence in each of our lives over the years. Welcome to the Backshed Bible study. Okay, good morning friends. Cliff here. I am joining you this morning, or you are joining me trying to decide which is which. Live from inside my office. That's right, here I am. And uh we're gonna talk about influencers today, which I hope will be a uh kind of fun conversation. I am expecting some uh uh contribution uh on your part as well, so that uh that will hopefully be really good. We'll get into that here. I'm getting things set up here so I can see your comments on the screen be uh behind you that I also am having to look at. So here I am. I decided that it would be fun for me to sit in my little easy chair that's here in my office. And it's kind of symbolic this morning. I'll tell you why. Because um what I am doing, this is a chair where I have sat to have many, many conversations with different people. Um, other people have sat on my couch right over there, they've sat in this chair, and deep conversations have taken place. Um, often those uh some of those conversations, I should say, along the way, are with people who have ultimately had a profound impact on my life. They've invested into me. Some of it has been elders here at the church who have spent time getting to know me and investing into me. Um, other times, as I uh sit here in this chair, I get to have conversations with people and invest into their lives. And so today's subject as we talk about things and as we get going here on this episode of the back shed has to do with looking at the people uh in our lives retrospectively who have had an influence on us. And so I would like you, our audience today, uh, to be thinking about that. Start to think about who are those people who significantly influenced my life along the way. And I would love it if you would um drop your comments in along the way as well. Um, this will be much better if we have audience participation today. Candace, good morning. How are you recovering from that game last night? So, as many of you know, I am uh and my family. We are huge Denver Broncos fans, and last night was a wild football game uh that the Broncos played against the Rams. Um the football, uh the the people that uh are paying attention will know that there was a pass interference call that was uh made toward the end of the game that had a significant impact on the outcome. All I can say is I'm glad it went our way. Um if I was a Rams fan, I'd probably be pretty upset today. But I'm a Broncos fan, and we have been in plenty of games in the past when that call didn't go our way. So hey, we're gonna we're gonna go with it. Uh let's see here, what else? So, yes, Candace. Uh, we were uh interestingly enough, we had been down in Fresno over the weekend, and uh celebrating yesterday would have been my father-in-law's, April's dad's uh 80th birthday. And so he passed away back in January, and so we got together as a family, celebrated his birthday, and uh just enjoyed time together. We watched the Raiders game uh because he was a big fan of the Raiders. So uh, and as a Broncos fan, you know that that is not an easy process for me to root for the Raiders, but we were rooting for the Raiders in that game. Uh for George, for my father-in-law, um, who lives with Jesus now. Barb, good morning. Welcome, glad to see you uh joining us here. Um so so many fun things that we get to do and talk about here along the way. And uh um, but I'll I'll give it a little context to set up. First off, uh, if you weren't there at the very start today, I talked about uh sitting here in this chair today, slightly symbolic. It's a place where lots of conversations have had have happened, lots of influence has happened, people have invested into me. I've gotten in vet to invest into other people, and so uh it's my it's my influencer chair for today, as I'm sitting in my uh little office studio. By the way, I will be hopefully starting to head back into the shed uh next week, is what I'm looking toward. And uh that will be a uh good time. But for all you regulars that watch live, I want to let you know is I am changing time. I am well, not the time space continuum or anything like that. I don't have an influence on that. However, uh I believe uh for the sake of efficiency and for a lot of things that happen around here, that a nine o'clock start is gonna work better for back shed. It will allow me uh to actually get into the office sooner, be able to still um do this from the shed, but uh I think it will be a better setup all the way around. So, starting next week, next Monday, I'm gonna start uh turn on the live feed at nine o'clock. So hope you get that, and uh I'll be trying to spread the news along the way. So uh why did I come to this point of wanting to talk about influencers today? And I'm not talking about social media influencers, you know that. Um, but what I am talking about are those people that have just had a uh profound impact on our lives. The reason this comes to mind, two things. One is I had the privilege of being a guest on a podcast last week called The Fire You Carry, and a uh shout out to my new friends that are checking us out, uh, that have been following along on the Fire You Carry podcast. Thank you guys for uh checking us out here on the back shed. Normally I'm in a shed today, I'm in my office here at the church. Um, but uh I got to be on that podcast last week. It's run uh by a great friend of mine, Noel Lilly, who is a firefighter in Los Angeles County. Um, and he and his buddy Kevin run this uh podcast every week, and their ministry really is reaching out to firefighters, uh uh men who are are on the uh the front lines of um taking care of us and looking after all of us and and uh keeping us safe. And uh uh so they have a really cool ministry called the Fire Up Program uh that goes along with that. And uh for those of you that watch along here on a regular basis, most of the content's not going to be for you. But if you've got a firefighter in your life, I would recommend uh this podcast to them. It is it is just excellent that way. I've known uh Noel, the the guy who started it up for over 30 years, um, just an incredible young man and uh proud to see him uh just really um really turning his career into a ministry, is is essentially. So as I was on his podcast last week, he had asked me, Cliff, what do you want to talk about in this podcast? And uh ahead of time. And so we kind of went back and forth, but what it came down to is I said, I think I'd love to talk about what it means to raise boys who would grow into men and what that looks like, boys to men. That was kind of our joke with that um for you friends from the 90s. But um the uh so we ended up having a whole over an hour conversation, probably an hour and 20 minute conversation about what it looks like to raise up our boys, our young men, and the hard parts of doing that, the things that we need to do that sometimes we don't naturally do. Um, and and ultimately that flows out of um having this desire to have an influence um on uh on uh those young people, right? Uh the young people that God has put in our lives. And um, and then Saturday, uh I was, I talked to you, told you all that I was down in Fresno over the weekend. Saturday actually moved on down, went down to Bakersfield for a uh memorial service for my best friend from high school and college in my kind of young adult years. His mom passed away in uh this last year, and they just had the memorial service on Saturday. And and I got to go and be there, and it was so interesting because I started to really reflect on the influence that uh she had had in my life as a high school student and as a college student, both of those in that kind of eight, nine-year period, especially where God had really put her and her husband, their family in my life to show me what a healthy, uh, functional Christian family looked like. And they were um just a huge example to me. And so uh that was that was one of the things that got me thinking during uh that service. I said, I think I should probably do a back show back shed episode on um on those people that have had influences in our lives. And uh so that takes me, immediately takes me to 2 Timothy chapter 1. That's what first came to mind as I thought about uh biblically um a reference back to the people that influenced Timothy's life. Let me read to you for a second and then we'll uh we'll talk it a little bit. I'm gonna um I'm going to, then I will give you a few of my favorite people, is what I want to talk about here. Uh let's look at it here in uh 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 3. I thank God, whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, says I remember you constantly in my prayers, day and night. And this is Paul talking to Timothy. As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I'm reminded, and here's the here's the key piece of this passage. He says, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I'm sure dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and of self-control. And so that is that um that verse in 2 Timothy that totally goes back, and I've always loved this verse because he talks about the influence that his grandmother, that Timothy's grandmother Lois, had on his life. Well, that was my grandmother's name, was Lois. And so I've always loved that verse that Timothy's grandmother was Lois. And so um, but Paul makes it so clear that uh to young Timothy, as well, takes makes it clear to his audience, to the people, those of us reading along, that his grandma, his mom, and then even Paul all had a major influence on Timothy's life. And and those were essential people in growing his faith, growing him into who he was at that time, and who he was even becoming. And and so I think it's healthy for us along the way to stop and reflect on who are the people, who are the influencers that God has placed in our lives along the way. And that was so good for me to really stop over the weekend as I went to the memorial service of my my friend's mom. Her name was Joy, which was a perfect name, by the way, for her personality, um, but to reflect on her life and then to see how God so clearly allowed me to be influenced by her during that season of my life, which was a very formational season, as I was starting to uh become more involved at church, eventually uh at the age of 17 as a senior in high school, I would really commit my life to the Lord wholeheartedly. You know, I I had prayed a prayer when I was young, and my mom was a big part of that in getting me to church on a semi-regular basis, on telling me about Jesus, on praying with me when I prayed to uh receive Christ. Um, but then he used uh people in my high school years that were were totally different. I think of, so I think of Joy. Joy Boschman was her name, and uh, and she was an example of what a solid Christian mom should look like, and the influence that she would have on her son and her daughter and um and many others, and and just how she um how she loved people so well, and her husband Will, how he loved people so well in a different way than she did. And so they were my model of a Christian uh husband and wife of parents um at that time. But even before that, um God had placed other people in my life along the way. I think of uh Bill Farrell. Bill was my youth pastor uh through most of high school, and um he's one I remembered was the first person that ever challenged me to give my testimony, um, which I had never done before. He put me in a completely unplanned spot on a Sunday morning uh at church down at Calvary Bible Church in Bakersfield, never forget this. And he said, Cliff Carey, I'd like you to stand and give your testimony. I had never given my testimony ever. And I fumbled over the whole thing, but I'm so thankful uh for God putting Bill Farrell in my life as a freshman in high school that challenged me in my faith that it's not about just sitting in the chairs, but it's vocalizing the things that I know to be true. So um I still did a terrible job sharing my testimony that day. Uh, but years later I learned learned a lot through that. So I think of Bill. Um, I thought of Joy. I thought of people in my college years. Uh Mike Romberger was one of those. He was my college pastor at a at a church down in Whittier, and and uh Mike really uh folded me in and got me involved in leadership in the college group and and was a real, he and his wife Jane were just real examples of uh, how would I say it? Uh just godly people, humble, godly people that were living it out. And uh we still occasionally keep in touch to this day. He went on to be the executive director at Mount Herman, uh, Christian Camps, and now is a pastor out in a at a church out in Colorado. I believe he's an executive pastor, actually, um at a church out in Colorado, but Mike was a person that God put in my life along the way. Who are some of those in your lives uh as you're watching along today? Who are some of the people that that God has placed in your life along the way that something they did during a specific season had a uh profound influence on you? Think about that and put it in the comments section. We'd love to hear it. If you're watching later along on our YouTube version, um put it down there in the comments as well. That's a great spot to um to tell us about these kinds of things and uh create a little more of a conversation. Those watching along live on Facebook, uh perfect opportunity. Um as my life went on, I uh um there were there were so many others. And one of the things that I started to see, uh, and this was reminded to me uh over the weekend when I was at this memorial service, there was a gentleman there. Um his name's Richard Knuckles, and and he is 98 years old, um, lives by himself. He's widowed, and uh he's a widower, and uh um, but we got to talking, and I hadn't seen, I hadn't seen Richard in in many, many, many years. And um and we got to talking, and but he's one of those that God had placed in my life, uh, kind of in my college years and later, um, who really was an example of a hard worker, of somebody that loved people really well. And and he reminded me of a time when I was a just right out of college, I think, in that in that era of my life. And I went to a conference with our church's denomination as kind of a delegate from our church at this conference, and this this denomination, it was a a lot of older people, shall I just say that uh straight out. And uh so I spent a week in Colorado going to this conference with these three older couples from our church that all went along, and I'll tell you what, riding along in a suburban, going around Colorado Springs, going out to meals and hanging out with these three older couples. I mean, and when I say older couples, they were all, excuse me, probably in their 70s at the time. Um, they, boy, did they have a great influence um on me. And showing what they showed me that was really interesting is they showed me what it would look like to live as godly people in your older years, and that God's never done with you. That was um what the Knuckles did for me. The the Ballzers were in that. Let me see. Yeah, Weston Elder Balzer, and there was another uh couple that was there of the Dulkies. Yes, that's who they were. Um, I love Candace. You're meeting some of the pastors you know from Colorado, and uh oh, that's really cool. And some of your professors at Jessup, I, you know, and heck, I knew Fritz Mog, and uh what a great guy from the pastors from this little church in Sacramento called Sunrise. I don't know about them, but uh hey, thank you. That's uh that's kind. And you mentioned your grandmother. Um so cool. I think so often we get uh uh we look at maybe some of the older people that that are around us, and you know, as younger people we just go, well, they're not very cool, or they might be a little crusty, a little grumpy here and there, and uh, and yet the influence so many of them have on me. I uh one of the gifts that I have had here at Sunrise is getting to know a lot of um some of the older folks here in our church. And these are amazing people. Uh there are a couple, and I'm gonna uh probably not mention too many names today so I don't embarrass them, but um I can think of one man that that he has taught me what it looks like to um, regardless of age, to stay young and to stay involved and active, and that you don't slow down, that you take care of your body, and so that you can keep going. And uh he volunteers here at Toolbox Crew. And um there's another gentleman here who's well into his mid-80s who just shows what it looks like to be faithful, how to walk with Jesus every day, even through trials, even through losing his spouse several years ago, and and how he has just stayed faithful to following Christ. Like those are people who've had an influence. When I was doing this podcast with my buddy Noel, uh he and I were both talking about his dad, Jeff, who was in my life and had a profound impact during my Hume years, um, during a probably a good solid 10 years of my time at Hume, Jeff Lily, um, had a had a great impact and really taught me what humble leadership looks like. What somebody who puts Christ first is not about getting the glory, and and is somebody that is able to believe in other people and see the best in other people. That's what he did for me. And he was willing to put up with some of my antics along the way as a 20 something. Uh, and and he was very patient with me along the way. And uh I remember one time specifically when um a bunch of people at the camp had gotten in trouble. For doing some fairly stupid things. And uh, and it had not been too long in the past that I had done some of those same, same stupid things. And I remember I went to him and I said, Hey, um I I have done something in the past. And and uh he he looks at me and says, Cliff, was it in the past? I said, Yeah. He says, Well, leave it in the past, go and sin no more. And and again, I I hate to overuse the phrase, but that had a profound impact on me. We leave our past sin in the past. And uh, and we have that um choice, we can leave it there or do we hold on to it. And I didn't have to hold on to it. Um and uh and so again, God put Jeff in my life, God put a guy named Bob Phillips in my life, who who it was just the guy that I would look to as the ultimate wise guy in uh in a very profound way, again. That uh, and when I say a wise guy, he was full of wisdom and knowledge, and um and yet was also always there in the moment when you needed someone the most. Had a great impact on my life. My buddy Jay, Jay Johnson, great person that uh uh is a great example of faithfulness and somebody that's always there in the hard times and the fun times, and uh, and it's easy to talk to about all kinds of life. And so many of you out there. And so this morning's uh back shed is designed not to talk about me, I've done that for the last 20 minutes, but to um to really help us pause, take a look back, and ask, God, who who are those people that you placed in my life that would have just a huge impact on my life? And then to go back and to thank them. Take the time, go back, um, let them know. One of these people that I mentioned, I will not mention by name now at this point with this story, uh, but one of these people, I had the opportunity a few years back and to to go back and to um I I happened to see him at a memorial service I was attending, and and it was I felt like God was putting on my heart, tell him the impact that he's had on your life. This might be the last time you'll ever see him. And so I I went to him and I said, Hey, I I want I need to talk to you for a second. I I want to let you, this is how I said it. He I said, I want to let you know what I would say at your memorial service if I had the opportunity to speak. And he looks at me in all seriousness and says, Cliff, there's not going to be a memorial service for me. But that said, I would I said, well, that's neither here nor there. Here's what I would say uh if I had the opportunity, and just got to speak that gratitude to him uh for what he had done for me, what he had seen in me, um, how he was willing to look past some of my sin along the way and um and see my potential and so on. And and it got to making me think those are the kinds of things we need to do. We need to reach out, if we still can to those people, um, whether it's a text or a call or a letter, and just say, thank you for investing in me. Thank you for believing in me, thank you for being God's instrument at a specific time in life uh to be an influence on me that I might become an influence on others. And uh so I I have a goal. I have a goal to make some calls, to uh send some texts, to to sit down and pen out a letter or two, and uh simply to say thank you. Thank you for being there along the way, thank you for loving me when when maybe I didn't deserve it, uh, and uh and showing me what it looks like to be a godly man. So that's the challenge for you today. Um call your influencers, let them know. Um, hey, again, sure appreciate you all, and uh, and as you all watch along, there are several of you that have had a profound influence on my life. I'm grateful for you, grateful for your encouragement, exhortations along the way. Don't forget, Timothy, his grandmother Lois, his mother Eunice, the Apostle Paul, and so many others that God put in his life that the letter written to him, the letters written to him, might be a model uh for letters written to church leaders uh for thousands of years to come. And Timothy got to be a part of that and that example because he had a grandma, her name was Lois, she showed him the faith. He had a mother, her name was Eunice, she showed him the faith. He had a discipler in Paul, he showed him the faith. Uh grateful for those kinds of people. I'll uh um pray and uh then have a couple of closing words. Lord, thank you for um all these people that you've placed in my life over the years. Thank you for sunrise, uh the people that are here that uh are an influence in my life today. And I pray for for all those whose eyes and ears come into contact with this conversation this morning, Lord, that we would uh be grateful and recognize the people that you have placed in our lives to be your agents. Help us to um recognize those things, those people, and uh Lord, to show our gratitude. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. All right, so that's that's the story of this morning. I would so yeah, encourage you, little little challenge there. Call, text, uh send a um send a message. The uh the final thing is to remind you that next week we're gonna start uh back shed at 9 a.m. And yes, that is a little bit for my own convenience, um, but I think it's gonna work out well. Candace, she's gonna sacrifice, get up an hour earlier. We appreciate that. And uh, hey Barb, for you, that's noon in your world. So uh hope you're able to join us in the noon hour. I believe you're in the eastern time zone out there in the Cleveland area, northern Ohio. Um, but uh yeah, looking forward to being here with you. And and just so you know, so the way my life works uh this time of the year is we get I get on the road at about 7:40 in the morning, take my son to school, um, and that will get me right back at my house and into the shed in time to be live for you because school is about a 20-minute drive away. So down there, all the way back up, we'll get ready, we'll do the shed, and then I can get here into the office and get um become more efficient. That's some of the goals here. All right, friends, that is what I have for you this morning in the back shed. Thank you so much for joining me. Barb says that's better. Fantastic. Um, that's I I appreciate that. I kind of think it's for most people it will be a little bit better. Um, we'll see you next week right here in the back shed. Don't forget, if you have a firefighter in your life, have them check out the Fire You Carry podcast, uh, led by my friend Noel and his friend Kevin. Um, and that is uh available on iTunes and all your other favorite podcasting apps. And if you get to uh listen to the episode uh that I recorded with Noel, it's a great episode. I think uh neat time talking about what it means to raise boys. So um love you all. God bless you, and can't wait to see you next week in the shed.