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Welcome to the 100xLife Podcast! This is the place for anyone who desires to not just hear the words of Jesus but to live them fully. Together, we’ll explore what it means to experience the abundant life He promises, a life of purpose, growth, and transformation.
Each episode is designed to inspire and challenge you to put in the work of following Jesus, equipping you with practical insights and encouragement to align your life with His teachings.
Whether you're just beginning your faith journey or looking to deepen it, the 100xLife Podcast helps activate your next step toward the life you were created to live.
Rob Dayton (00:00)
Welcome to the 100X Life Podcast, where we activate people who desire to live the words of Jesus and experience the abundant life He promises. I'm your host, Rob Dayton, and I hope this podcast inspires you to put in the work of following Jesus.
Rob Dayton (00:36)
Hey, 100xLife, welcome back to the podcast. Nancy and I are in Montana today with some dear friends having a good time just getting the last bit of summer, eking it out as it were, and enjoying God's creation, His beauty in Montana. So awesome. Hey, so I would never have imagined myself on this podcast speaking of something political.
But the assassination of Charlie Kirk has really, I think for a lot of us, has really created this introspection. And what I've noticed in myself and what I've noticed as I watched this play out, we're all aware of the situation, Charlie Kirk was assassinated just in the last week. The question that has been coming to the surface in my heart, and I think for a lot of people,
is do I represent Jesus enough? That's the question. Do I represent Jesus enough? In the 100xLife ethos, we are Jesus followers committed to living the words of Jesus. And when we do, we become influential in a way that is really difficult to measure. There's an influence. Jesus even says that streams of living water will come forth.
from the follower of Jesus. Everyone around us will experience love emitting from us. Of course, this is the ideal. They'll experience love from us. and this is the foundational kingdom expansion, is the influence that comes from us. The 100xLife ethos is that we transform the inner culture.
by living the words of Jesus and having those behaviors that he asked us to do naturally percolate in everything we do. That is, in my estimation, the most profound kingdom expansion strategy that can be played out. Much better than saying, follow Jesus, I've got no behavior to live up to that, but yeah, it's a good idea. That was kind of my life in the past, as you know.
It is the work inside that has the most profound impact on the outside. Now, I was not a follower of Charlie Kirk as a practice. I was not watching his life like is in the sidelines for me. I just knew his role.
You can't avoid not hearing about Charlie Kirk. If you're listening to any kind of news, whether it's the negative spin or the positive spin, both sides would call attention to Charlie Kirk and his influence. but for the last three days, I have been listening and reading, articles about Charlie Kirk. And I've been listening to Charlie Kirk.
Rob Dayton (03:10)
One of the articles that caught my attention is an article by Isabel Brown, friend of Charlie Kirks it was entitled Salt and Light. And of course, that caught my attention because Salt and Light That's how we influence as the body of Christ. So when she wrote that and she talked about in the article how Charlie would talk about Salt and Light and being Salt and Light. Now,
we could get into and I won't the politics of, what's the direction of Charlie Kirk. the fact that he was talking about salt and light and continually talking about his faith in Jesus Christ, specifically unabashedly, without fear.
is something that has caused, think, many of us to reflect. Are we representing, ask that question again, are we representing Jesus enough? Light and salt are Jesus' strategy for loving the world. Light is designed to illuminate the truth. The truth is light in a dark world. it's not easy to actually do light.
in a dark world. In other words, the dark world kind of influences the brightness of our light or maybe creates a hesitancy. Do I bring light to the situation? just kind of talking about what that metaphor means is, do I bring truth to the situation? Do I talk about the foundational truth that I believe as it relates to this and where they come from? Jesus Christ. That's a question for all of us. This
argued that Charlie Kirk was a great representation of light and salt, not just in his being outspoken in his role, but also in his private world, in the world where he lived. And if you were his friend, knew him.
And this person did and described that his behavior was congruent with what he was bringing in the public eye. In other words, he was a follower of Jesus Christ. His behavior, his commitments, that everything he was doing was congruent, consistent, not hypocritical, not fear of man, but actually congruent and consistent with the words of Jesus.
And that's the question, like, was Charlie Kirk such a man? It seems like he was. And then now listening to many of his talks in the past three days, I can tell you that Charlie was a central figure in culture with great influence. And reading all about his story.
And his death stopped the entire nation. It stopped the news cycle for two days, which is crazy. It rocked the nation. Even if you did not know him, follow him or were against him. The predominant reaction was of horror. In other words, lot of people.
even if they were against Charlie Kirk, were like, my gosh, well, that shouldn't happen. Now, there were some people who were like, yay. And that's a different story. And it's not for this, not for the what I'm trying to come across to today. So I'm not even going to get into that. But the attention of the nation shifted to Charlie Kirk and his words that he was killed for. It was it really was his words. And then you can't help because of his outspoken Christianity.
You can't help, at least I can't help wondering about his words and that leading to his assassination and his boldness and where the enemy might think if the enemy is directly involved, I believe the enemy is directly involved. And when I talk about the enemy, I'm talking about spiritual.
places of darkness in the heavenly realms as the Bible would describe it, demonic forces What was unleashed is this question that we're talking about today. Am I doing enough to represent Jesus Christ? In other words, this death where the enemy might think he snuffed out a light, whether you, again, whether you agree with Charlie Kirk politically or not, but snuffed out a light who was professing Jesus Christ in a very
very influential way. The enemy thought that would be the cap that you know, we're capping this guy, he's done. I think this question that permeates for all of us and that's why I think it was so important to talk about it is that it's going to radically magnify our desire, our belief.
our fortitude, the fire within us to be, to really think about how we're representing Jesus Christ. Charlie's words were political, of course.
⁓ But they were also dominated by his love for Jesus Christ and for people I think that that really came across particularly in the last two years as I listen again I listen so much of what he's saying. I really see in the last two three years him really getting rid of any kind of anger or Personal assassination of people he was inviting
a discussion on the campus colleges of today, a radical light outside of the church. And in this college campus atmosphere, college campuses today in America is where Christianity goes to die. This is where students who are listening to their parents maybe and heard about Jesus and believe Jesus have this
teaching predominantly, I'm stereotyping, but this predominant teaching against faith, against Jesus, that's pro, you know, just weird, weird stuff that, that, that can be anti-science. That's like, this is what you should believe to be atheist. There's so many atheist professors that are angling this. the college campus is where Christianity goes to die. And here is Charlie Kirk going right into this dark place.
And again, politics aside, he's bringing up a challenge to believe in Jesus Christ. He's challenging young people who are being exposed to atheism to have hope. He's coming away with hope, a place where they can go. And hope is what breeds influence. If any place needed overwhelming influence, it was the college campus. That's where light
was about the light of Jesus. And then in salt as we say in the book, salt was a preservative, primarily a preservative in Jesus' day. Jesus was the ultimate preservative for people. In other words, he died for us in order to preserve us. A lot of people know John 3.16, but very few people can quote John 3.17, which is, God did not send the Son into the world to judge.
the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Salvation is the ultimate people preserver. And so when we think about salt and Charlie Kirk is that he was trying to actually preserve the people he was talking with.
He wasn't going after the individuals who were against him in the argument on our college campus. Time and time again, I heard him say, hey, so what about this? Have you thought about this? And I believe this about you, which was a positive, hopeful thing. He would come out with these,
desires to to actually save the person, but just get the ideology or the things that they were believing away from them or cause them to question those things that they may have believed. That was a really good salt strategy.
And, and light, so important. the end of the day, we're trying to change a nation. You know, we're trying to grow the kingdom and partner with the Trinity to grow the kingdom. And we cannot change a nation for better without the body of Christ bringing the right amount of salt and light.
We that is what we have to we always have to be thinking about our influence from the perspective of salt and light. Are we bringing truth and are we preserving the person? And that this 100xLife practice of following Jesus
Integrating his words into our lives is the true pathway of being salt and light to the world. Christians cannot address cultural issues unless they themselves have an inner culture.
governed by the words of Jesus. And from everything I can see, this was Charlie Kirk and his personal life. And then he had his personal life on full display with great passion about what he believed. it's really interesting because he didn't just go after politics, he went after
the body of Christ in really demanding, I think his spirit really demanded a truth following practice for Christians. So this brings us back to the question. And I think that we need to pause in this moment as people who say we are followers of Jesus, Jesus lovers.
who want to practice his 100X life lifestyle that would actually breathe the most salt and light. We need to come back to this question that I think is the question of the week. Are we representing Jesus enough? In other words, are we being salt and light in the area of our influence today? And everyone's got a different area of influence.
Charlie Kirk, his was to be to the youth. And, you know, my influence is to primarily the Christian man who says, I'm a Christian, but maybe a fool because they're not following him. What is your area of influence? What is your greatest area of influence? And then are you representing Jesus enough in that? I know for me, you know, having a business that serves cities, ⁓ being an executive coach.
for executive teams of cities and really transforming the city by the way that executive team treats each other. I'm using principles that are biblical, but I'm not overtly saying, this is what Jesus says to do. and so then, the question for me that I'm wrestling with is, is that enough? What is the appropriate way? Because I don't want to, I don't want to...
be sidelined and turn people off and have my influence sidelined because people think I'm trying to proselytize. Proselytization and having people saying yes to Jesus, in my mind,
becomes secondary to, ⁓ I living the words of Jesus, which is leading people to want to know what is in Rob Dayton that is making him tick? What is this thing? Of course, the answer being Jesus and Jesus' demand that I be a certain person. Again, the 100xLife Practice, Jesus demands, he's looking for a turn on investment on the words he's put in us and our ability to, in the parable of the sower,
⁓ a metaphor, cultivate a soil that really multiplies the words that we're hearing because we've put them into practice. And I'm asking that question and I want you to be asking that question with me. So I've got some journal prompts for you. And so this would be a great opportunity for you to journal on what one member of the Trinity is saying to you. So here's the first one. Ask Holy Spirit to show you when you have represented Jesus well.
in a situation, just ask Holy Spirit, when did I really represent you well? And I would say, representing Him well means that
You were salt and light. You were actually bringing someone to truth, but you did it in a way that preserved who they were. In other words, was, you didn't blow away the person or, or condemn or judge the person to get your light across your truth across. And actually you did it in a way where you brought truth and you also preserve and loved that person well. So you're asking Holy Spirit to show you when you have represented Jesus well in a situation.
And then you're asking, Holy Spirit, next, here's the next journal prompt, which word of Jesus can I integrate into my behavior more thoroughly so that I can naturally be salt and light to the world? Let me repeat that. Which word of Jesus, in other words, of the 55, which word of Jesus can I integrate into my behavior more thoroughly?
so that I can naturally be salt and light to the world? I think that this is a really incredible question because if we're gonna be great salt and light, there's probably a word of Jesus that we need to up our game. And of course, every day, every year, we wanna continually up our game and ability to live the words of Jesus. That is the 100xLife Movement, which I know many of you are fired up about.
that will transform the body of Christ in America, which one is it for you? Which is the word of Jesus that the Holy Spirit, Papa is like, hey man, if we, let's inject you with a little bit more love, a little bit more compassion of the way Jesus was so that you can be salt and light to the world.
And then, course, answering that question, Jesus, am I representing you enough? Is there a new strategy? Is there a new way that I need to put my influence in front of others that will be honoring to you? goes, that if I got assassinated, people would say, man, that person was salt and light to the world. That person represented Jesus really well.
That's what it comes down to. That's the predominant question I think the body of Christ is asking themselves in this horrific tragedy. Who knows where our nation's going, but for you, make sure you are the one who's putting Jesus words into practice. the primary importance is to put the oxygen mask on first before you try to help any other person. So guys,
Thanks for listening to this. Thanks for letting me go there in the political space. I love you very much and we will see you next week.