How Small Decisions Create a Ripple Effect

 TRANSCRIPT

They did ask the best looking and they didn't rock up. So I'm here standing in second best. How are we all this morning? Good. What a cool series. I thought when Kev kind of shared, uh, this is the series you want to go into. I don't love getting up and up here and sharing and speaking. Um, but I really loved the heart behind this message that Kev wanted to bring.

And, um, he somehow convinced me to get up here and speak. So it's obviously a privilege being up here. And I just wanted to start with a little bit of a story, and it makes me sound like I'm really wise and profound when I think about these things, but I'm not. If you know me, I am not. I'm a simple, simple man.

And a very simple man. Simpleton. But I often think about how my actions impact others. See? Profound. I don't always think like that. But like, if I'm short or harsh with someone that I interact with, or if I honk or get angry at that person on the road, when they cut me off and I wave my hand, there's no birds, but I just, you know, you let them know, what are you doing?

There's no other hand gestures. But I often wonder what Like, what impact that has on that person? You know, are they, are they then angry as well? And then they get to work and they're short with their boss or customers and that gets them in trouble because they've, you know, started their day off in a bad place?

Or maybe they're on to the phone to someone important in that car and when I've gotten angry at them, they've gotten angry at that special person on the phone that's had a bit of an impact. And it starts to, you start to look at, go, those small little interactions. They have a reaction, they have a ripple effect on other people in some way or another.

And I'm not saying that I have control over their life, their, their being, but my, my actions do have an impact on other people. And I often wonder what those interactions, what the outcome, what, what shifted in that person's day and what happened from the way I interacted with them. But I think it's also the other side of the coin.

What happens when you have a positive interaction with someone? Maybe you're, you smile, you, you wave at someone, or you're really nice to the person that looks like they're having a bad day. I often wonder what that that interaction might have on their day? Are they going home? Are they kind of shifted their whole day?

Has it had this whole big ripple effect in their life just by taking a little bit of extra time out of out of your day to be kind to that person? So when I think about this is do my negative interactions have a bigger ripple effect? than my positive interactions. Told you it sounded really deep and profound, but really, it actually stemmed from something very simple.

It came from Hamish and Andy, right? Put your hand up if you know who Hamish and Andy are. Yep. Yeah, they're brilliant. I don't know theologians, but But if you don't know who Hamish and Andy are, they're a comedy duo. They've been around for a long time. They've done radio, TV. They now do a podcast. And where this came from is a segment that they do called Power Moves.

And what a power move is, Sam obviously listens to them. What a power move is, it's when you're in a social situation, you can say or do something that gives you the social upper hand on somebody else, and makes you more superior. In a funny way, it's not meant to be in a serious way. But I'll give you some examples.

So for example, if you're in a group of people and you leave, when you leave, you go, Sam, you're in charge, and then leave. That gives people the idea that you were in charge in that group and now you've just delegated that authority to somebody else. So you already seem superior than everybody else. There are some meaner ones.

So for example, if you see someone sitting down crying, you go up to them and ask them, is it because of your haircut

Or if I said. Tom, if you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change? Apart from the obvious.

But the one that got me thinking, it wasn't out of a mean one, the one that got me thinking was, you're sitting at an intersection, at a traffic light in your car, and someone's walking past and they look at you, And then you wave at them, and you act like you know them. You're like waving, Hey, hey, hey, and they're looking at you, and they keep walking.

They're going to be thinking about you for the rest of their day. Going, who is that person? And who, who are they? But that's what got me thinking. Like my actions, my comments, or lack thereof, have a ripple effect in other people's lives, whether we realise it or not. The way we live our life, the way we carry ourselves, the comments we make, the decisions we make, doesn't just impact others, but it also impacts us more than we know.

Oftentimes we think we can compartmentalize areas of our lives. We think we can keep them separate. Work, family, finances, relationships, actions, thoughts. We think we can keep all of these things separate. But are they more connected than we realise? Have there ever been decisions that you've made in your life that you can pinpoint have had a ripple effect into other areas of your life?

For example, maybe you've made a poor decision at work and there was a bad outcome. So you were stressed or angry or upset. You came home and you took it out on your family. And then that also ruins their day or their time. So you can see that a work scenario, decisions you make at work, can have a ripple effect in other areas of your life.

Or what about a positive decision? Maybe you decided to catch up with someone that you didn't really want to, but you thought it'd be best if I did, and you both end up leaving feeling great about yourselves, and you guys have a positive interaction, and you helped each other, and then you go and have that impact on other people for that day.

So you can see that that little interaction has a ripple effect into other areas of your life. And as Kev just shared, and what we unpacked last week is Kev said we operate out of two places. We operate out of the above force, which is the self governance up in here where we think we know better, we know what we want to do, or we operate out of the below area, which is the tree of life.

So we've got those two areas, you can't quite see it on there, the background, but you've got the above or the below. And those two forces will shape each and every decision that we make and will also shape our lives. And because I'm a sinful person, that to me is too complicated. What it means is everything I do, everything you do, will either be made out of unfaithfulness to God, So down here, sorry, sorry, up here, or faithfulness to God out of the tree of life.

Another way to put it is faithfulness to God, which will come up, or unfaithfulness to God is actually faithfulness to self. It's not just unfaithfulness, it's believing that we are the one that's in control and operating out of here, instead of out of that deep rooted tree of life. And when we talk about ripple effect, which is what this whole series is about, that ripples start from somewhere.

They don't just begin, there's a core, there's something that creates that ripple to go out. And when it comes to our lives, the way we live and the decisions that we make are the core of that ripple. Those decisions we make have a ripple effect. And that core that we operate out of. will either come out of the deep rooted tree of life, that faithfulness to God, or it'll come out of here, out of the self governance, or faithfulness to self.

And I mentioned earlier about how a negative or a positive interaction have a greater or lesser impact, and I think, If we make negative decisions or faithfulness to self, I feel that they can have a bigger impact on those around you than the positive ones. As we hear about it, it can take a lot of positives to regain a negative if you say something negative.

So, being mindful of those unfaithfulness. Kev touched on Adam and Eve, who created a huge ripple effect that still impacts us today. They chose to operate out of the self governance that they knew better. They knew what they wanted to do. They didn't operate out of here. They had the option to, but they didn't.

Each and every one of us has to choose every day where we're going to operate out of. Moment by moment, we must ask ourselves, are we going to be Faithful to God, or faithful to self? And I think Galatians 5 really summarizes what that actually looks like in a practical way. Again, I'm simple, I need to know, well what does that look like?

How do I know what's a faithful decision or an unfaithful decision? And we're going to pick up in Galatians 5, and this is out of the New Covenant, so the New Testament of the Bible, so the last half. And Most people believe it was written by Paul, and he was addressing the Church of Galatia. And it was written to the early Christian communities, that were grappling with the integration of the Gentile converts, the recent converts, and Jewish law.

Figuring out how that would work together. And this is what Paul so clearly writes. He says, the acts of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions. I thought it was fractions. I'm like, well, if you don't like fractions, there's a reason why.

Paul wrote about it. And envy and drunkenness and orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before. That those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. I feel like that covers most of aspects of life. Those are the things that our flesh struggles with. Those are the things that we struggle with on a daily basis.

And that's what we're drawn to operate out of. We're drawn to operate out of these things when we operate in that self governance aspect. And I think it was interesting that Paul starts with this. He says, the acts of the flesh are obvious. And sometimes I think it is obvious to see in others, but less obvious in ourselves.

But he doesn't just set that up and go, well, these are all the bad things. He sets it up and goes, well, these are the things that you can operate out of when you choose to be faithful to God. And we all know what they are. It's the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh and with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep up, keep in step with the Spirit. When we live out of faithfulness to God in our life. These are the ripples we should see. The things that Paul wrote in that second half, these are the things that people should see in our lives.

They should feel them, they should see them, they should be aware of them operating in our lives. The ripples we should be creating is choosing kindness when it feels like it's undeserved. Or choosing love in spite of differences. Or when we exercise self control. Or hold our tongue. Especially when you're on the road, because, whew, something about that.

But it's so easy to flick from here back up to here to self governance and unfaithfulness. The flesh and the spirit are always competing. But the cool thing is we get to choose. We're not destined to operate from up here. We have the ability to choose to operate down here in each and every moment of our lives.

Pastor Kev shared a great example about Peter last week. It seemed like Peter, in two, almost two moments, swapped from down here to up here. And it was Matthew 16, 15 to 17, and it starts with, so, Jesus had asked, who do you think I am, to those people around him? And people were throwing out answers. And then it says, Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah.

It's not there. The son of the living God. Great answer. Tick, he got it right. Jesus replied, But blessed are you son and son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by the flesh and blood but by my Father in Heaven. Jesus was saying it wasn't from his own fleshly understanding that he knew who God was, who Jesus was.

It was because he was tapped into that tree of life, he was in that relationship that he knew who Jesus was. And we all know Peter, he can swap at a moment's notice. And we can see him now operate out of that self governance only a few scriptures later. So Jesus is explaining to his disciples what's happening next for Jesus.

He's about to go to the cross and be crucified and all of this kind of stuff. Which if he, you think Jesus is this, the, you know, God's son, of course you don't want that to happen. So this is what Peter says in his response. He says, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Someone who just called the Son of God.

He just rebuked him. Never Lord, he said. This shall never happen to you. Within two moments he quickly swapped from here, back up to here, back up to his own desire, his own beliefs, and what he wanted to happen.

Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me Satan. It's pretty heavy. You are a stumbling block to me and you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. You have in mind of your own ideas, your own self governance, not what the tree of life is saying. I'm the son of God. This is what I'm going to do.

But you're choosing, no, no, stay here. Stay here. No, I need you here. I need you in my life. Jesus is saying, no, no, that's, that's, you've got it all wrong, Peter. How did you get it right up here, but two sentences later, you've got it so wrong. He chose to live from above to satisfy his own fleshly desires. And I'm sure I can, you guys can relate, I can relate to Peter.

And at moments, I can operate between both of those areas more easy than it should be, but we can seem to swap back and forth. And if we're not tapped into that vine, that's what makes it so easy to swap back and forth. Gratifying our flesh instead of living in step with the Spirit. So saying all that, what hope do I have?

What hope do we have? If Paul was writing about it back then, and Peter, one of Jesus disciples, struggled with it in that moment, what, how are we meant to do anything about this? Well, I believe the key is 2 It says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Holy Spirit, the deposit in us, gives us that ability to be connected to the tree of life.

Living a life of faithfulness, and Jesus being the ultimate sacrifice, allows us to choose faithfulness to God. Having the deposit of the Holy Spirit, allows us to choose faithfulness to God and remove it from up here to down here and remaining faithful to the tree of life. Faithfulness to God is not about perfection, it's about a heart that continually turns to Him.

And that's it. It's the choosing. We're continually to, we don't have to be perfect. It's about continually choosing to turn to that faithfulness. Continually choosing to operate out of that tree of life. Operating out of love, repentance, and trust. Continually choosing the tree of life. I think if I asked everybody in this room, do you think you operate out of faithfulness to God?

Or from above, out of self governance? Which is a pretty interesting question to ask, I don't want you to answer it. And I think most of us would say the first, we operate out of faithfulness to God. I think that's true. However, I think we can allow ourselves to only see how we live from a macro level.

Looking at our life as an overview from up here and go, yeah, I'm faithful to God. I know myself from here. I'm faithful. I'm a good person. You know, I'm patient. I'm forgiving. I'm faithful to God. However, living from the macro isn't where God has called us to live from. He hasn't called you to live from up here.

God has called us to live from the micro in every area of our life. It's not an overview of our life. It's how we living faithful to God in every single area of our life. God wants us to live faithfully. In every decision, but what that requires is reflection and honesty. So looking at my life, if I was to drill down to all of those areas to see how I really live and how I really look.

Am I living a faithful life with my finances, with my family, my relationships, my friends, my body, my thoughts, my actions. And as I started to look at all of those areas of my life. I started to realise that maybe I'm not as faithful as I thought I was in every area. Yeah, I make good decisions. I have good thoughts.

I do good things. But just because it's a good decision doesn't mean it's a faithful decision. And I think that really helped me understand that, man, I need to look at every little part. I can't just summarise my life as a faithful person to God.

God wants us to live faithfully in every single area of our life. But that does require reflection. And honesty. And I think, why don't we live in a world full of mirrors? 'cause we're not really good at reflection. This is why we generally have one mirror in the house, right? Well, you might have a few more.

It depends how rich you are, but looking in the mirror, it's painful. It's not always nice. Unless you're my beautiful wife. Yeah, come on. Yeah. Valentine's Day, right? Yeah. No, but I need you to agree and listen to this. Generally when you walk away from the mirror. After you use it, you're better than you were when you walked in front of it.

Is that right? When I leave for work, like for example right here, before I leave this morning, I check myself in the mirror, and I don't do a very good job, but I still check myself, I walk in front of the mirror, make sure my colour's not tucked in, make sure my hair's nice and tidy, I don't have food in my teeth.

So generally when I leave the house, I was better because I looked and I reflected upon myself. And that's a simple idea, but again, I'm a simple man. So that makes a lot of sense. to me. And that's where we've got to, we've got to look and reflect and be honest with ourselves because that's what counts at the end of the day.

It doesn't matter if you can convince yourself that, oh, I live faithful, if you're not being honest and reflecting, what's it going to be like in the end?

This series, Ripple Effect, requires us to look inward and to examine ourselves and to be honest. We've all heard the saying, take a long, hard look at yourself, which the same goes for us today. And it's not just about looking at ourselves. It's about reflecting, but honestly reflecting. And I know it's not an easy thing to do.

That's why there's professionals in those spaces. But how often do we choose to reflect on ourselves and be honest with where we're at? Because if we don't do this, we can't operate out of where God wants us to live. The way he wants us to live is that we have these faithful decisions that impact and have ripples in other people's lives.

So where are you choosing to live from? In your family, in your work, in your relationships, in all of those areas, what ripples are coming from decisions you're making in those areas? You know, let's just run through some ideas of what that might look like just to get you guys thinking so you can start reflecting in that area.

You know, for example, with your finances. Are you living from the tree of life with authentic generosity in your finances? Or are you living from instant gratification, living for, for greed, for possessions, for gaining wealth, for the chase of money? Is it becoming an idol in your life? Cause you're operating up here.

Are you being dishonest with your finances? And because of those decisions, when you're operating up in here, the ripples might look like that you're being consistently stressed out. Because you're feeling defeated because you have that comparison with your finances. You're always looking around, man I don't have that, and you find your self worth in what you have and that causes stress.

And you're bringing that home to your relationship or your friends and your family. And it's causing that tension because you're always thinking about that. Or you're living out of self governance in your relationships, your marriage or in your family. Are you being disrespectful? to your spouse or your family?

Are you treating them poorly? Have you disconnected? Because it's all about me. And because of that, it's causing friction at home. It's causing friction between your spouse or your kids or your parents.

All your relationships about me, me, me. How can I get from this relationship? How can they meet my needs? They didn't do what I wanted them to do. And oh, they said that. Oh, they didn't listen to me. And because you're operating out of that, is it causing people to distance themselves from you? Because they're not feeling heard, and that's having an impact on them.

Are you crossing lines at work? Or are you treating people poorly that you work with? And then you're taking those decisions home, or into your relationships, and you're angry or you're at tipping point because of those decisions where you've operated out of here. I think an easy one for all of us to fall into is gossiping.

Gossiping is acting out of here because it feels good to gossip. Obviously we shouldn't, but when you have a gossip, you somehow, you just get caught up in it and it just, there's just this momentum that comes from it. And it's a really weird feeling when you really think about gossiping, like the fact that we kind of, not enjoy it, no one would admit they enjoy it, but that's why we gossip because we get really hooked into it.

But is that causing you to see people in a different light? Causing those negative Maybe you don't interact with that person because you've gossiped about them and now you've got this idea about them now. And now that's impacting that relationship. What are the areas you're living from that's living from unfaithfulness up here?

And what are the ripples that are coming from that? Because once we have the identification through reflection and honesty, then we rely on the Holy Spirit to start to be the driver in those areas. Because it's not about us thinking that we can change it, because again, that's just from up here. We need the Holy Spirit because we need to live out of here.

When we address the unfaithfulness, we experience transformation. We risk trusting God with every part of our lives and we then can watch how the Holy Spirit can restore what's broken.

And I like last week have mentioned the idea of homework. I'm not a teacher. So it's a novelty for me to issue homework, and issue homework is not a great comment. But I think it was really good because I'm talking about reflection. We need to know, okay, what's next? How do we reflect in this space? And what I want you guys to do over the next week before Ruth wraps it up and just puts an absolute big bow on this whole series, I want you to think and reflect honestly this week.

Reflect on your life at a micro level. Yeah, it'll be painful and not nice, but let's be honest and reflect. I want you to reflect on the micro. Spend some time alone, in prayer, maybe go to the beach, maybe go where you, you know, you have silence and solitude, and spend some time reflecting. It might require you looking in a mirror.

Some people are really practical people and they just look in the mirror. Avoid looking at the physical part of your body, but just start to look at who you are and how you operate in every area of your life. And then identify in the micro, identify the areas that you might be living out of unfaithfulness.

Maybe write them down. Start to get an idea of where the areas that you need support with the Holy Spirit. And then once you've got those Surrender to the Holy Spirit. Surrender that area. Surrender those decisions to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to change you from the inside, to bring it down to the tree of life.

Imagine if we were all able to live out of that. Imagine if we lived out of faithfulness to God in every area, in every decision of our life. Imagine the interactions we would have with people. Imagine what they would experience. Imagine the Jesus they would experience if we lived out of faithfulness in every area.

The challenge from living from above or below is going to be an ongoing battle. It's not a one simple fix, but the more and more we honestly and truly reflect and see where we are and we allow and trust the Holy Spirit with that, the easier and easier it gets. Now I just want to pray before the team lead us and I think the song they've chosen is perfect for this series.

And, uh, it's called talking about abiding, which is perfect because without us abiding how we meant to truly change. And as you spend time just reading the words or singing, just ask the Holy Spirit to start to do some work on your heart to start to highlight to you the areas of unfaithfulness that need to change.

Start to allow him to move it from here. down here. Lord, I thank you. Just thank you for giving us your son, Jesus, to die on that cross so that we can be deposited with the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, where would we be? The Holy Spirit that you've given us gives us the power and the ability to choose you, to choose faithfulness to you, God.

Lord, I just pray that there's no guilt attached to any of this. The decisions we've made are the decisions we've made. And we can only look forward. I pray that if there's any guilt, that that be taken away in your mighty name, Father. And we just pray, from this moment forward, I pray that you impress on our hearts the desire to reflect and to be honest with ourselves and with you.

I pray for the, the Holy Spirit that we have in us becomes this, this fire that can allow us to change and that we can surrender those areas of our life to you, Lord. And that we can see the practical outworking of that. We can see the life change that's happening when we surrender those areas of life to you, Lord.

We just pray in your mighty name. Amen.