Dr. Ed Young - How Long is Your Shadow

TOPICS: Influence

Our scripture is from the Book of Acts, Chapter 5. I’ll read verses 12 through 15: «At the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Portico. But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more, believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.»

When Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall upon one of them. I’m going to ask you to lift your hands in the air; would you do that for a moment? Close your eyes and just hold your head up. Our Heavenly Father, we lift our hands and our hearts and our minds and our bodies to Thee. We look toward You for light, for insight, and Lord, I pray that You will speak to my heart and to my life and speak into every heart and every life Your truth today. And Father, I’ve got nothing to say; let me get out of the way so that Thy word will explode with great supernatural power and change every one of us as we seek Thee and listen for Thee. For this is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated.

Once in a while, does somebody tell you about an event or something that took place, and you say, «You know, I would have given anything to be there»? You know, if I could have seen that, if I could have been caught up in that moment in time, oh, I would love to have been there. I read the Bible, and I bump into places there and say, «Boy, if I could have been there, that’s really something.» And that’s our scripture today. We realize that Jesus was resurrected by the Father. He walked around this earth for 40 days and 40 nights, making 15 or 16 different appearances. His last appearance was to over 500 men; they didn’t count the women. So, another 500 women and we don’t know how many teenagers and children. So, 1,500 or 1,600 people would have witnessed the resurrected Lord as He ascended into heaven.

Following this, those apostles didn’t know what that meant. They didn’t know what to do; they didn’t understand it, so they went into hiding-120 of them in the upper room. And when they came out, Peter stood and preached that great sermon there by the temple, the great Pentecostal sermon, and 3,000 people came to faith in Christ. Bang! First real sermon preached, everyone heard the language of their native tongue through the inspiration and touch of the Holy Spirit. What a moment!

Then following that, the early church exploded. Acts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 all those events until finally people were gathered and coming to the temple in great numbers. They were being taught, and they were being healed. They came in cots and beds, they would carry them in, and great supernatural healings were taking place. It got so strong that people would clamor to get in the shadow of the Apostle Peter. Evidently, he didn’t have to say anything. He didn’t have to lay on hands; just being in his shadow, they would be healed.

We don’t think much of a shadow, do we? Some of us learned the little rhyme, «I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him is more than I can see.» You remember that one? I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him is more than I can see-a shadow, that little nothingness that follows us around when light reflects at a certain angle. You know, what is that shadow? Now, what difference does it make? Now, if you were to visit India and you would see someone from a high Brahman caste eating a meal, and an Untouchable, the lowest caste, walked by and a shadow simply passed over the food of the Brahman, he would feel the food had been contaminated. It was not worthy; he would throw it out. It would be evil; it would be dirty-just the shadow passing by.

When Mahatma Gandhi was with his movement of pacifism, trying to bring freedom, independence, and democracy to India, people felt there was so much strength and blessing in the shadow of Gandhi. Now, he was a frail, little, skinny, shriveled-up guy, and his shadow was very small, but they would fight to get in his shadow because they felt there was blessing, power, and significance in it. How long is your shadow? How wide is your shadow? Your influence? Because we’re influenced by all sorts of things, and every person here has a little shadow that has influence that follows you every step of every day that you and I live, isn’t that right?

Now, what influences others? Fads? Stop! Who in the world tells the ladies here how high their dresses should be? They’re short, and they’re long. What about those high heels? They’re flat, and then they’re eight inches off the floor. I mean, what is the fad? Who starts all that? Who was it that turned their baseball cap around and made it a rally cap? You know, it started a fad. What are these buttons on my coat for? You know, does anybody know what these buttons do? They don’t button anything. You know why? Why in the world are they there? Because a long time ago in English tradition, they had those big, flowery cuffs, and they would eat their meals; they would fold their shirt back and button them to these buttons. Long since, we stopped doing that, but the buttons remain. You know, it’s tradition. Somebody influences somebody else.

And see, in Galilee, the resurrection appearance of Jesus, and Peter said, «I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going fishing.» Everybody said, «We’re going with you!» I mean, just that influence-one life impacting another life, one life drawing on another life. So we understand about this shadow, about this influence-how it just works down in and through life. Let us be reminded that your influence, the shadow of your life and my life, is never neutral. In other words, it’s never just, «I’m not going to take either side; I’m just not going to speak out.» Jesus said you are either for Me or you are against Me; there’s no neutral ground.

So our influence is never neutral; it is never passive. It is a plus or it is a minus. That’s the way things roll. What else about influence? Largely, our influence is not noticed. You don’t look around and say, «Well, there’s my shadow.» I’ve stood up here a zillion times; I’ve never really noticed my shadow before. I do have a shadow. That’s the way it is with our influence; we don’t influence people usually when we stand up and try to influence people. You bring all your family together, «Okay, we’re going to start going to church. We’re going to be in Bible study. I want you kids to get up in the morning, and we’re going to quit doing this and start doing that, and your dad’s going to do this, and your mom is going to do this.» We say, «Well, it’s about time I exert some influence!» Hey, you’ve been exerting influence prior to when they were born.

So, as members of the family of God, we want to cast as long a shadow of Godly influence and as wide a shadow of influence as we possibly can. How does that work? Well, let’s ask the question: Who is the most influential person who ever walked on this earth? It was Jesus, no question! No question. Jesus today is the most influential individual in life on this earth; it is still Jesus without any question. Now, what was the secret of His long shadow and broad influence?

Alright, He began His public ministry; He turned water into wine at the wedding feast, right? His whole ministry was just filled with miracles-the lame walked, the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the dumb could speak. Oh, here’s one who was dead. He brought them back to life; God the Father raised this one back to life. Then He took a few scraps of food and fed thousands of people. He fed them, and then his teachings-oh, many profound words about how to live, how to relate. The teachings of Jesus went on for about three and a half years.

Then what happened? He was crucified. His apostles said, «Oh no, no, no! You need to stay around!» You see, was everybody healed with Jesus? No. Was everybody able to see? No. Was everybody lame healed? No. Was everybody brought back from the dead? No. Was everybody fed? No. I mean, there were just many, many, but He didn’t do it. His apostles said, «Hey, stay around!» And when He was on the cross, the leaders, the elders said, «Oh, if You’re the Christ, the Messiah, save Yourself!» The soldiers said, «If You’re the King of the Jews, call some of your forces to get You down from that cross.» The thief there, hanging on the cross, said, «Look, save Yourself! And by the way, save me!»

You see, they felt He needed to stick around; they felt he needed to exert more influence. But here’s the most influential man who ever lived, and He lived only three and a half years on this earth. Could it be that His death was the most influential thing He could ever do? Name any problem in the world today; just pick out one-an international problem, a personal problem, a corporate problem, an individual problem, a family problem, a relationship problem-and I can tell you if you solve the problem-excuse me, I don’t mean to sound preachy, it’s just the cold hard facts. If you solve the problem of sin in every situation you can name, you can’t name one on the face of this planet that is eliminated, and that’s what Jesus did on the cross. It was His death on the cross that became the most influential act in history.

Now here’s the question we need to ask: How can my shadow get longer? How can your shadow get longer? How can my shadow get wider and your shadow of influence get wider? How does that work? Two principles: stay with me! You’ve got to think for a moment. Stay with me! Two principles: first is the Sabbath principle and the second is the fruit principle.

What is the Sabbath principle? Go to Genesis. God created the earth in six days, right? On the sixth day, He created man. Okay, what did He give the assignment to man? He said, «You are to have dominion; you’re to be stewards; you’re to be over the whole earth.» We’re called to do that as human beings. He said, «Then you are to be fruitful and multiply; we’re to populate the earth- dominion and be fruitful.» That happened on the sixth day.

Now, what happened on the seventh day? God said you rest. That’s the Sabbath. Now, the Resurrection Day we have on Sunday, the first day of the week, He says you are to rest. Now notice something: listen carefully; this is interesting. I had the idea that we work six days and we get sort of exhausted, and we rest the seventh day. But that’s not the order. The first thing they did was not have dominion and be fruitful. The first thing they did was have their Sabbath. It’s out of the Sabbath that comes our work; it is not our work and then the Sabbath.

See the order? It’s the Sabbath, and then out of the worship comes our work. It’s not that we work and work and work, and then we have the Sabbath. So, we have to begin to lengthen our shadow with the Sabbath principle, and this is explained and enunciated beautifully if you’ll look with me in the Gospel according to John, John chapter 15. Listen, Jesus is speaking; listen carefully. He said, «I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, bang! He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.»

Here it is: verse four, «Abide in Me,» said Jesus, «and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.» Now, what is all of this antique language about? Follow me here: here is a vine-that’s Jesus; you and I are branches. You see it? We’re branches, and here is the rotation: we abide. In other words, a branch just takes up residence in the vine; that’s where the branches are nourished; that’s where the branch has life. We abide, and then we grow. Okay? Then we bear fruit-puny fruit-and it’s pruned.

This goes on for three years when a vine is planted for grapes. You abide, you grow, you bear fruit, you’re pruned. Who does the pruning? The Father- God does the pruning. I don’t say, «Oh Lord, I’m abiding in Christ; I need to stop this or start this.» You just abide. The Father will cut all the stuff out; He’ll add all that-He does the pruning.

Okay? And that whole limb is wiped off because there was no fruit there. Oh, it had a lot of foliage; the limb looked good; the branch looked good. A lot of us go to church, we listen to the Bible, we go to Bible studies; we pray-we’ve got all this biblical knowledge-but there’s no fruit! You see, if we’re going to cast a long shadow and be really influential in the world, it’s not that we do more or give more or work harder or strive more. What does a branch do? Just abides in the vine.

There’s a branch that says, «I want to spew out some grapes. I’m going to…» No, no, no! And what is the fruit, anyway? What does God want to hang on your life? If you’re a branch and I’m a branch, we abide in the vine, which is Jesus; what does He want to hang on your life? That’s Galatians 5. He wants to hang fruit like love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, patience, gentleness, and self-control. You see, all this is the fruit.

Look at your life and my life. If the fruit of my life -if you saw me-there’s a lot of joy-you think, «I want to influence people.» If you see in my life there is not patience, you see in my life there is not love; you see in your life and my life there is not longsuffering. If you see in your life and my life, you start hanging this kind of fruit on your life by practicing that Sabbath principle, by abiding in Christ and letting Him prune all that needs to be taken out of your life. God does that, and I’m going to tell you, there is a life that is magnificently influential.

Do you see it? You bump into somebody that’s got fruit like that hanging around; you bump into somebody that will affect your life unbelievably, right? That’s what it’s all about. I want to show you something.

So, the more intimate we are with the vine, the closer we get to the light. I want to show you something about a light here: look at there; there’s my shadow over here. Now, the farther away I get from that light, look how small I’m getting. I’m about normal there. If I move on out far enough, I wouldn’t even have a shadow, would I? But notice something: as I get closer to the light, look at my shadow. It’s a lot bigger than I am.

The shadow is getting larger and larger. Look at my shadow over there! Isn’t that something? How did that happen? I got closer to the vine-closer to the light, which is God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, my shadow is longer and bigger, and that is your influence and my influence. That’s how we have longer influence, wider influence-not by trying and working and going and doing; we just hang that fruit on our lives. God takes care of that; He puts that fruit up there and you look out there and say, «Goodness! I was patient!» I’m not patient! «Oh my! My goodness! I’m kind!» I’m not generally kind! Because I’m close to the light, and I’m a branch abiding in that vine, and the Father’s been pruning a lot of stuff in dead wood and unsightly leaves out of my life! All of a sudden, I’ve got a longer, wider shadow!

You got it? There was an orator by the name of Deanes. He was speaking to a large crowd of people; he was talking about life-important things of life: birth, life, death, international relations, family, vocations, livelihood, financial means. He noticed some of the audience were falling asleep; I can identify with him! So he stopped his oration and told this story. He said, «Once there was a man who was carrying a large load of wood on his back, and he had to walk up this high, steep mountain- just a rocky mountain. And he said he got to the foot, and he didn’t know how in the world he’d be able to carry that load over to the village on the other side. But he saw a farmer there who had a donkey tied to a stake, and he went over to him and asked the farmer if he could rent that donkey to put his wood on the back of the donkey and go over the mountain. He would bring the donkey back the next day, so they agreed on a price.

This man rented the donkey, put the wood on the donkey’s back, and started up that steep, rocky mountain. In the middle of the day, the sun was beating down, he was winded, the altitude made him sweat, and he knew he had to rest. He looked for a shady place, a shadow to sleep in, and there was no shade except the shadow of the donkey. So he went over there and curled up in the shadow of the donkey, where it was cool in the mountain, and he went to sleep.

Following him was the man who owned the donkey, and he was walking up the same mountain. He got halfway up and was exhausted and tired, so he decided to take a nap. He looked over and saw there was no shade nowhere to sleep except the shadow of the donkey that he owned but had rented to this other man. So he went over to the man and woke him up. He said, „Get out of the shadow of my donkey; I want to sleep there!“ He said, „No, no! I’ve rented the donkey, and the shadow goes with the donkey!“ He said, „Oh no! In our negotiations, you said nothing about the shadow!“

So they got into a heated argument. Now, if this were the modern world, lawyers would come out of the bushes and hand both of them their cards, but that’s not what happened. Deanes got to this story, and they were arguing, and he just walked off the platform-he was gone! The crowd was shouting, „Deanes! Deanes! Come back! Tell us who had rights to the shadow of the donkey!“ They were arguing, and they were shouting, calling him to come back.

After a long period of time, the great orator Deanes walked back in with all of his sophistication, and he stood before the group. He quieted the group and said, „Just as I thought, you’re more interested in who owns the shadow of a jackass than you are in the great issues of life!“ Deanes was right, but Deanes was wrong because that shadow is all-important.

Because you and I are like this: I have a little shadow that follows me everywhere. I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him? The question is, how long is your shadow? How wide, how big is your shadow? The closer we get to the Light, which is Jesus Christ, the more intimately we relate to the Vine, which is Jesus Christ. We can be a branch that just hangs there, and God will place on the branch of your life and my life wonderful fruit-wonderful fruit that will affect everybody you touch, everybody who gets under the influence of your shadow.