← Living Influence with Bill Thrall and Scott Boyd
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- [00:04]
A
As you mature, your life choices need to have their foundations in your convictions and not your opportunities. Welcome to Living Influence. This is a really great statement and I wrote a piece that I'm going to have to. I'm going to read just to start us off. As you mature, your life choices need to have their foundations in your convictions, not in the circumstances that present themselves. Is called the open door principle. Early on, an open door can feel like guidance, like God just opened this door for me. And sometimes it is. But a life built on one open door at a time has no spine. Conviction is what's settled before the door appears. It's the answer to who am I, what do I trust, and what am I for? Given in advance so that when the circumstances arrive, you already know whether to walk through it. The mature leader doesn't decide based on what's available, they decide based on what's true. It almost feels to me like statements like, there's no such thing as luck. Luck is opportunity that was prepared for. I do think there's preparation to understand if an opens door is something that we walk through. I think this is a really good principle. Tell us more about what you've seen about this.
- [01:33]
B
Unwittingly, certain things can kind of derail us a bit. Like there is this thought in a lot of Christian circles where opportunity must be from God. And therefore, if opportunity is from God, then I do need to pursue opportunity because I'm always in search of God's blessing. I mean, it sounds so good, but it's not good. Here's what we want to be careful to say. Maturing is not about looking for the evidence of next. In my opportunity or my circumstances, what we want to do is we want to have a different foundation for the choices that we make. I know this is maybe an overstatement a bit, but I. But I think we'll capture it. I want to caution especially younger leaders, younger Christians, remember this. If you don't remember anything else I say, remember this. The enemy would be more than glad to give you a significant opportunity if it can derail you from the purposes of God. Please do not get seduced into believing that opportunity comes from God.
- [02:59]
A
Yeah, we think about Jesus. Temptations, right?
- [03:03]
B
Exactly. That's exactly where I was going. Satan offered him the kingdoms of the world. Jesus didn't say to Satan, well, you can't do that. Those aren't yours to give. No, they were, but Jesus said, they're not enough. See, they're not enough. The kingdoms of the world, they're not Enough, because I am, as if I were Jesus, saying it, because I have a confidence in a relationship with God that creates in me a conviction that opportunity given by you is not God's will. And I know that sounds super spiritual and I don't like to spiritualize things, but I. But I do want to capture that. I do want to say, how then do my convictions get formed? And in a long answer, I need to even talk about convictions. A conviction is a truth that I trust and I act upon it. Now, I got to give us a huge caution when I make that definition. A conviction is a truth that I act upon. But I've got to be very, very wise. Is it really truth because you can
- [04:21]
A
act upon a lie.
- [04:23]
B
Right, Exactly. Which I did for many years, Scott. For many years I trusted a lie that I didn't matter and it messed me up. I trusted it, I acted upon it. So. So all of a sudden I have my Bible right here, and I hold up my Bible and I go, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Bill and Scott are saying something really significant here. You mean there is truth in that book called the Bible that when I act upon it, it'll form a conviction that God uses for his purposes? See that. That just like. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. What should I do then with this book? Well, I. My answer is read it, know it, and trust it. Because the foundation for your convictions should be truth that you act upon. And here's a ditty, but it really fits. Well, how would I ever know that I'm acting upon truth? Because I would obey it. That's the key. The key to understanding our convictions are the truths that I act upon by obeying them. And that foundation changes the way I see my tomorrows. As. As you read in your paragraph, moving into tomorrow for the opportunity is one thing. Seeing. Seeing in our tomorrows, the purposes of God is a very different things.
- [06:07]
A
Yeah, now I gotta ask this question because early on I'd get really confused. And even right now, I could say I'm a little confused. Okay? The Bible is truth that I should trust, and I'll know I trust it when I act on it. And that's what you call obedience, acting on truth in the Bible. How does that not make the Bible and everything in it a new law for me?
- [06:35]
B
Well, that's a very good statement and a scary one, actually. Before I became a believer, the truth in the Bible condemned me, Scott. It just. It just condemned me. And thank you, God, because that condemnation eventually brought me to Christ. But that was the purpose of the law, was to bring me to Christ. Anyway, when I see this book being followed as a principle of law,
- [07:03]
A
yeah,
- [07:04]
B
it will condemn me. But if I see this book as a print, as truth, what it does is it doesn't condemn me. It affirms me. And I want to say that very carefully. That's why, Scott, every time we're together and every time we do these podcasts, we keep saying to our audiences, folks, could I just one more time remind you how important it is that you actually believe who Christ says you are? Because if you actually believe who Christ says you are, then the truth of this book that you obey will affirm who you are. Are. It'll affirm your reality. It will not condemn you. And that's his promise. There's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, Bill, you just said, like a mountain will stop. You're telling me that when I'm a sinner, the truth of the Bible condemns me? It does.
- [08:02]
A
That's why it's so complicated.
- [08:03]
B
It is. But now I'm not a sinner. I'm a saint. What does the truth of the Bible do? It affirms me. It affirms me. But if I don't get at the foundation of my understanding who Christ has made me to be, and I still see myself as a Christian but a sinner, I will still read the Bible and condemned. And Sunday's messages and books written by people trying to help you grow are going to do something. So just kind of out of this conversation, Scott, out of your question. Actually, for me personally, is the Bible when I read it, is it condemning me? Or is the Bible when I read it, affirming me? And if it's affirming me, I can make a promise. You'll grow up. You'll mature. You'll mature. If it's condemning me as a Christian, I will remain immature because my focus, unfortunately, is still about how much sin I do.
- [09:19]
A
Yeah, that's a great question. When you read the Bible, does it affirm you or does it condemn you?
- [09:24]
B
Does it mean that every time I read the Bible, I feel really good about myself?
- [09:28]
A
No.
- [09:29]
B
There are things that God has to say about Bill that still need my attention and his attention. But if it only condemns me, then I've yet to discover, as a Christian, who I am.
- [09:43]
A
Yeah. And what it's really saying. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. That's good. I think that'll be helpful. When I first found Bill's material in Trueface. I read the book called Trueface. It was the first book that you did that then turned into the Cure. And then I found you guys online. And then I got invited to do a high trust leadership class. And this class had videos, and you were in the videos and you would get on and say stuff like trusting truth and is obedience and. And I would be like, terrified that, wait, this life giving grace message that I just found that brought me to this place of no condemnation and trusting God and loving others and living in freedom, all of a sudden is gone by what Bill's saying. I don't understand it now that I know you. It was comical, but it came out of the framework of how I understood God. I think there were many pastors that probably weren't preaching what I heard. Now, there were some that were preaching what I heard, but there were probably many that they were preaching a message that actually was a good message, but because of my framework, it was something that was condemning me.
- [11:04]
B
Boy, you are creating that very well, Scott. That's very well. Let me interrupt it and say this. It does matter, Scott, how the way you see yourself in the way you hear truth, it really does matter. It's a big deal. And, Scott, in churches all over the world, there are thousands of Scots who go into church with an unhealthy view themselves, and they hear a message that condemns them, even though the pastor never prepared a message of condemnation. Scott, that is so wisely said.
- [11:44]
A
When I discovered grace in Galatians, I mean, my first thought was, people have been lying to me my whole life. I was angry. I was angry about this stuff. And then over time, it's like, okay, well, maybe some of that was on me. They weren't lying to me. I was interpreting what they were saying poorly. And I think it's a mixed bag. It's a little both.
- [12:08]
B
Some of them, Scott, were actually preaching a message that did not connect with what your heart was saying was true. Even though you were young in your understanding of grace, you knew that. No, that's. No, that can't be true. There's no freedom. The way I view myself when I come into church affects what I hear when I'm there. And unfortunately, sometimes what you hear does condemn you. I'm just telling you I'm sorry that that's true, but because you triggered it in me, I want to just say this. The way you view yourself is critical to the life you live. Could you just hear that? Do you see yourself as God sees you? And if you don't I promise you the life you live will be unsatisfied and unfulfilled, and you'll never grow up. So it's like core to our message of grace is this reality. How do I see me? Do I trust who God says I am? Thank you. I want to thank you for that.
- [13:22]
A
Well, you're welcome. Just, you know, I'm just trusting what shows up. People don't know. The secret sauce of our. Our podcast is that we just kind of start with a few statements and then react to one another the whole time. Thank you also, Bill, that you consistently come back to explaining how my view of me affects everything.
- [13:45]
B
It does. It does. I can't. I can't. I can't say it enough. I want to keep talking to it. As we keep going through this process of maturing, it'll just keep out in a variety of ways, just like it did today.
- [13:58]
A
And so what we're saying is my view of me will affect the convictions I believe in, and that will affect the decisions I make and the open doors I choose and the open doors I don't choose to go through.
- [14:16]
B
Amen. Amen. Well said.
- [14:20]
A
All right, that's, I think, a wrap for another episode of Living Influence. We love that you listen, and we hope to see you next week. Thanks, Bill. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks again for listening to Living Influence. We appreciate you. We'd love it if you'd go to livinginfluence.com, contact us and send us an email. We'd love to know what you're thinking. See you next week.