The most influential man in the world podcast notes

I have a lot of sports memorabilia in my office. I have a football signed by Drew Brees. I have a whites box signed by Tony Gwynn. I have a picture signed by Jack Nicklaus. I have a football signed by the Steve Young, Jerry Rice 49ers. Luke Walton signed shoes

The reality is, Luke Walton’s hot right now but like everyone else, his star will fade. Everyone’s does. They shine brightly for a while, but then they are gone. Everyone who walked this earth, regardless of their skill set or athletic ability or intelligence or shoe size, the moment they die they lose most, if not all of their influence. With the exception of one man.

Jesus was born in a stable. Jesus was raised to a city with no more than 50 houses on it on a four acre plot of land. Jesus never traveled more than 30 miles from his hometown. If there was an award for most likely to not succeed after his death it would have been given to Jesus. But that’s not what happened.

Every year since Jesus death his impact gets larger. Every year since his death more people follow him. Every year since his death his words and his stories and his ideals are told and retold to billions of people. He never held a title. Never made any money. Never owned a home. Didn’t live very long. We have no idea what he looked like.

It is in Jesus name than desperate people pray, grateful people worship and angry people swear. John Ortberg.

Most interesting man in the world quotes

He once ran a marathon, because it was on his way.
Mosquitos refuse to bite him purely out of respect.
He has won the lifetime achievement award, twice.
His two cents is worth $37 in change.

He’s the most interesting man in the world. Do you know how long those commercials have been around? It’s been 10 years now. He’s two years older than Flo.

Jesus has the greatest theme song.

So what is Jesus theme song. Well, that’s hard to nail down. I looked up songs having to do with Jesus on Spotify and the list keep going and going. I couldn’t get to the end of it. So I looked up Jesus songs on Google and I got 21 million 400 thousand results. Then I looked up Jesus on YouTube and I got 57 million results. I don’t think those are an accurate estimation of how many songs were written about Jesus because that could just be times Jesus and Song were mentioned. So I went on the CCLI website. CCLI is a list of contemporary Christian songs. When I punched in the title Jesus 41,560 songs came up. Still that’s not accurate because those are just songs with Jesus in the title. That same website has over 100,000 songs about Jesus. And those are just the recent ones. Who grew up in a church with a book like this. This is a hymnal. It has some amazing songs. It also has some creepy ones. One is called “There is a fountain filled with blood.” There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains. That’s a fun song to sing the day you bring a friend to church.

Jesus is at the center of the greatest story ever re-told

Christ figures in movies
Mufasa in the Lion King
Titanic
Flynn Rider in Tangled
Anna in Frozen
Neo in the Matrix
Ripley in Alien 3
ET
Spock in The Wrath of Kahn
Kirk in
Alex Murphy in Robocop
King Leionides in 300
John Coffey in The Green Mile
Gandalf in Lord of the Rings
Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars
The Giant in Iron Giant
Bing Bong the Clown in Inside Out
William Wallace in Braveheart
Harry Potter
Maximus Decimus Meridius- Gladiator
John Conner in the Terminator
Then the Terminator in Terminator 2
Cool Hand Luke
Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino
Harrison Ford in Blade Runner
Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia
iRobot
Tron
Caesar in War for Planet of the Apes

Jack gives his life for Rose, although I’m pretty sure there was room enough for both of them on that board.
Flynn sacrifices his life for Rapunzel and he gives her a stylish haircut in the process. Then Flynn rises from the dead.
ET sacrifices his life for Eliot
Obi Wan sacrifices his life for his friends
Gandalf gives his life for the fellowship of the ring
In Inside out Bing Bong the elephant thing sacrifices his life for Joy. “Who’s your friend who likes to play, Bing Bong, Bing Bong.”
In the Planet of the Apes Caesar the ape gives up his life for his friends.

When my son was 6 years old he was really into Pokemon so I took him to the first Pokemon Movie. It was the last time I fell asleep in a movie theater. But I woke up just in time to see the end of the movie where Ash Ketchem sacrifices his own life to save Pikachu.

The book that tells the story is the most sold and read book in the world

The bible has been translated in whole or in part into 2500 languages. It’s the number one best seller of all time. Let me put that in perspective. The Da Vinci code was on the best seller list for three years. It sold over 80 million copies. That’s a ridiculous amount of books. If Bible sales stopped today, for the Da Vinci code to pass the bible in circulation it would have to be on the best seller list for another 263 years. Unfortunately, the Da Vinci code doesn’t have a chance because the bible sales keep rolling to the tune of 100 million sales a year.

This quote is from a student handbook from the early days of this universities history. “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life and therefore to lay Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.” That was from the student handbook of Harvard University.

He is the single most influential person in the history of the world. The method of his death, the cross, is the single most recognized symbol in the world. More hungry people have been fed in his name, more hospitals built in his name, more colleges started in his name than all other names. More marriages have been saved in his name. More addicts have been set free in his name. More habits have been broken in his name. He is simply the most influential man in the world.

“Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of western culture for almost 20 centuries.” Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan

It takes a massive amount of faith to believe that Jesus is just a guy

Here’s why that’s important to us.  There are times when we need a person of influence in our life.  We all know the value of having an influential person in our life.  When you’re looking for a job, you look to find someone on the inside.  Someone who knows someone who can get you an interview.  When you write a resume, you include as references the most influential people you know with hopes that they’ll get you that job or into that school.  When you go to court, you want someone representing you skilled with the powers of influence to present your case for you.  We all know the importance of having a person of influence in our lives.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a person like that involved in all areas of our life?

To have a person of influence that could encourage your spouse to give your marriage one more shot.
To have a person of influence to go before you and show you the direction you need to take in your career and use his influence to help you get there.
To be able to pray to a person of influence who can help restore your relationship with your mom or dad or with your child
Wouldn’t it be great to have a person of influence that will go before us and help us overcome the bad habits and mistakes we’ve made in our past.  Jesus wants to be that person of influence in your life

If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. I John 2:1-2