Proverbs chapter 13, Proverbs chapter 13.
It's amazing how God uses the music and the singing to point
to the message. And that's exactly what we're
going to talk about tonight. I'm finishing up with a series
that we've been working on and I'm still doing our discovering
the stories of the Bible. And I told you that as we go
through that, I'm going to kind of do some of these different
messages on the family. And I've been in this one for a
little bit and finishing up with it tonight.
Probably could have finished up with it last time.
It's not going to be a real long message tonight, but I didn't
want to, didn't want to rush through it.
Just a reminder, I forgot to mention this during the
announcements, but the essay contest that we're doing for the
young people that are going to camp.
If you've been taking notes, and you should be, most of them are,
most of you are, but find a message that God used in your
heart and write an essay. 200 words, at least 200 words, I
guess try not to write a book, I suppose, but at least 200 words
of of how that message spoke to your heart.
How how it can change your life if you apply it to your heart.
And brother Gary was passing out the papers.
I think he put his e-mail address on there.
You can send it to him and he's got a little panel of judges
that are going to judge those. And we're going to have a $25
for the, for the winner 13 years old and up and $25 for the
winner, 12 years old and under that you can use at camp next
week. So work on that.
It's a great, great opportunity to apply what you've been
learning and what you are, what you know, what you're taking the
notes. It's, it's not just an exercise
to practice your handwriting. It's it's there so you can use
the opportunity to go back and look at those notes so you can
hopefully capture some things from the messages and writing
about it is certainly going to be one of those things that
helps. So hope every one of you will
will take part in that and send that send that essay.
You have till Friday. So you only got a few days, but
campus we're leaving Sunday. So I can give you a whole lot of
time to do that. But anyway, make sure you work
on that this week. And I'm sure your parents can
help you type it up. Parents, you cannot type it for
them, but you can you can you can type what they write.
Let's put it that way. All right, but anyway, Justin
finally decided to come back to church tonight and I brought
somebody with him. So it's good to have Ashley here
and totally different person when when she's here, you can
tell. But anyway, say hi to her when
you get a chance to do that tonight and that's good to have
good to have them. He's been a great help this
summer and he's going back to school, but it's just been a
really good opportunity. Sure, go ahead.
And I know a lot of you have gotten to know him and and work
together with him on a lot of different things that I gave him
to do. And it's just been a good
experience for him, but a good help to us.
And so I appreciate that. But what I want to, what I want
to talk to you about tonight, and we've been talking about a
godly influence and really the influence of a parent, the power
of a parents influence is what we've been talking about.
And I gave you a bunch of other things, but the one that I gave
you last time and, and this is kind of continuing this thought
that that I want to continue with tonight and just kind of
finish up with this is the influence that we have through a
godly environment. That was the point that I gave
you last week. And or maybe it wasn't last
week, maybe it was 2 weeks ago. But either way, just having
biblical order in the home and doing things God's way, doing
things that are pleasing to the Lord, making sure that the
entertainment that you have in your home is things that are,
are not just fun and enjoyable and, and entertaining, but that
it's an entertainment that is pleasing to the Lord.
That ought to be. That ought to be the criteria
for everything that you do in your home.
Is it pleasing to the Lord or is it not?
And if it's not, you shouldn't do it.
Doesn't matter how fun it is. Doesn't matter how much you feel
like you'd be missing out if you didn't do it.
If it's right, it's right. If it's wrong, it's wrong.
And that that ought to be the criteria for everything that we
do. But tonight then I want to talk
to you about this. And, and you're there in
Proverbs chapter 13. But the influence through
Christian servants, you have the influence of a, of a, of a godly
example of a biblical home and a biblical model and all those
things. But an influence through
Christian servants. We've been talking about
Timothy. Timothy is a great example of
this, of the power of a parent's influence.
Besides Timothy's mother and grandmother, which we know that
they obviously had a great impact on him, the influencer
with the greatest impact on Timothy's life was the apostle
Paul. Timothy's mother and grandmother
had to let the apostle Paul in to influence their son.
And you know, we caution our children many times against
having the wrong friends and we should.
But sometimes as parents, I think we forget to purposefully
place wise and godly influences in their lives.
The Bible says this in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse #20 He that
walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools
shall be destroyed. You have to be very careful and
very intentional about who the influences are that you let in
your children's life. But you should be letting those
influences into your children's life that are going to help them
and that are godly. You can do it a lot of this on
your own, but you need the church.
You need the church. And I saw, I want you to notice
a couple of ways that you can kind of maybe augment, if you
can use that word, your influence in your children's
life. What can you do to help the
influence that you already have in their life?
Obviously, as a parent, you are the most important people in
your children's life. You are the one that is going to
influence them the most by far. But there's other people who can
influence them as well, and you need to allow that influence to
take place. So let me let me just give you a
couple things here tonight. And like I said, I'm really not
going to be that long. We're going to have the this ice
cream and stuff afterwards. But I hope this will be a help
to you tonight. But let's have a word of prayer
and then we'll jump in and talk about a few of these things.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
I thank you for the good Sunday you've given us so far.
Thank you for those that you brought here this morning, some
that were here for the very first time.
God, I pray that you would just use the message in their hearts.
Use the messages in our hearts as well.
And God, I pray that you would just give us something from your
word tonight. That'll be a help to us.
And again, we thank you for all you do for us in Jesus name,
Amen. Influences through Christian
servants, first of all, would be an influence through the godly
teachers. Just imagine what it must have
been like for Timothy the day that he first heard Paul preach.
Now Timothy didn't have a great influence.
His father was a Greek, and from everything that we can tell,
Timothy's father was not a Christian.
He had a godly mother and he had a godly grandmother.
But here comes this man to town. And of course, you know, I can
imagine the apostle Paul and he even wrote this himself, you
know, basically mighty in pen but not very mighty in speech.
And I don't know, a lot of people think that Paul was
probably a short little fella, that he had a problem with his
eyesight, that he just wasn't, wasn't much to look at.
And when you see somebody like the apostle Paul, you would not
think that he had the great power that he had.
And of course, you know, we're looking at it in hindsight. 20
You know, everybody when you say Paul, everybody has a picture in
their mind of what they think Paul looked like, right?
Which, by the way, is one of the reasons why I don't like a lot
of these, like The Chosen and some of these others.
It puts in your mind what you should be thinking about the
Bible, right? The Passion of the Christ was a
movie that was so popular that came out, you know, I don't
know, 20 years ago now, probably I never watched it.
I never, I, I had a desire. I thought it would be an
interesting movie to watch, but I never watched it because I
didn't want Hollywood telling me what the crucifixion looked
like. I have a picture in my mind when
I read the Bible of what everything looked like.
Of course, I went to Israel and the picture changed a little
bit, but I'm looking at the actual place where Jesus was
crucified and I see the, the, the, the, the whole crucifixion
scene before my eyes as I read through the Bible.
And I don't want somebody as wicked as Hollywood telling me
what the crucifixion looked like.
Now, every time you read the crucifixion, you see Mel Gibson
or whoever it was that acted out in that, in that movie and you
see this actor and that actor trying to portray who these
people are. I don't want somebody telling me
that. And, and you know, it's not,
maybe that's not a biblical thing necessarily, but I keep it
that way because I don't want them telling me what the Bible
says. Not to mention that a lot of
these things have a whole lot of extra biblical things in there
that are not even biblical in the 1st place.
But that's, that's beside the point.
But the Apostle Paul, I don't know what kind of man he was.
I don't know what kind of guy he looked like, but I can imagine
him the first time that he comes to Timothy's little town and
Timothy, as a young man, hears the apostle Paul preach.
He had traveled to Lystra, which was Timothy's hometown, and he
had come from Iconium. And the reason he left Iconium
is because they were threatening to stone him there.
So Paul leaves Iconium and he comes to Lystra.
And in Lystra, Paul preaches the gospel.
And maybe something went off in Timothy's head.
The light bulb came on, so to speak, and he saw the Messiah
that he has so diligently studied and learned about in his
youth. And we know that his parents,
his mother at least, and his grandmother taught him the
scriptures because they said, remember the things that you've
learned and has been assured of and and all of those things that
they'd have been taught. But Paul then after he preaches
this message heals A crippled man.
And for the first time, these men and, and ladies and young
men and young ladies that that knew that this man was crippled,
that had been that way for his entire life, they see him
leaping and running around and shouting for joy.
And, and it's just an amazing thing to see these things.
And, you know, the superstitious people in the in the city
started treating Paul and Barnabas as if they were gods.
And here Paul and Barnabas are using this opportunity to say,
don't look at us. We're not, we're nothing
special. We're not gods.
Look at thee, God. And they used that opportunity
to share the gospel with the people there in Timothy's town.
And as Timothy sat and watched all that kind of stuff, he must
have marveled at these, these missionaries, if you will,
that's exactly what they were that used every opportunity they
could to share the gospel. And something inside of Timothy
stirred up and, and he must maybe even felt the sense of, of
loss or grief after Paul left. Because you know what happened
there at Lystra? They did actually stone Paul and
they drug him outside of the city and they left him there for
dead. Obviously God wasn't done with
him yet, and Paul was still alive, and somehow he crawled
out of the out of that pile of stones and went on for the Lord.
But sometime later, Paul reappeared in Iconium and he was
still preaching the gospel. And you can bet that when
Timothy heard that Paul was there, I'm sure he ran to the
place where he's at. He must have wondered at all of
it, rejoiced in it. But somewhere in all of that,
Timothy sensed the call of God in his life.
And Timothy started realizing that God wanted him to be a
preacher of the gospel. Who was going to train him?
Who's going to help him to get to that point?
Well, obviously Paul came along in God's timing.
Timothy wasn't responding to some emotionally charged altar
called or some sugar coated idea of what it would be like in the
ministry. He saw all of it.
He saw Paul get stoned and throwing outside of the city and
left for dead. I'm sure he had heard and
talking to Paul and listening to Paul preach about some of the
things that he had actually gone through.
Timothy was not under any impression that he was going
into the ministry so he can make a lot of money.
It wasn't under any impression that he was going to be very
famous and be very well known and be received and liked by
everybody. He saw Paul's example and he
knew exactly what he was getting into.
But that call of God in his life was strong, and God powerfully
used Paul to influence Timothy's life and everything we read
about Timothy and everything that we know that Timothy did
with his life. You can't give all the credit to
the apostle Paul, but you can give a lot of the credit to him
because he trained Timothy to be what he became.
And we have two books, First and Second Timothy, to show for what
Paul did in training Timothy. He was to Timothy a spiritual
father as well as a mentor. In fact, turn over to Second
Timothy, chapter one, Second Timothy, chapter 1.
Paul addresses this book to Timothy and verse #2 to Timothy,
my dearly beloved Son, grace, mercy and peace from God the
Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Look at chapter 2, verse #2 and the things that thou has heard
of me among many witnesses. The same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also.
Who did you say that about himself?
The things that you've heard of me, the things that I've taught
you do them and then teach them to other people.
Go teach them again. And I, I want to say this as as
as kind of a culmination of everything that we've just said.
Wise parents are going to intentionally surround their
parents with that kind of person.
You are going to put those influences into your children's
life that can influence them the most in a godly way.
Now, listen, I know a lot of you homeschool and I, I'm 100% for
homeschooling. It's a privilege.
And my kids, they have an opportunity to go to a Christian
School. We live farther down to 88 than
most of you do. There's not a good Christian
School that I know of in this area.
And so you homeschool, and that's great.
I think it's a great opportunity.
It's much, it's a far better option than the public school.
But homeschool does not necessarily mean Christian.
And that's something you need to be very, very careful about as
you are getting your children involved in homeschool things.
You need to be very careful about who you allow your
children to hang around. Just because they're
homeschooled does not mean that it's Christian.
And I've seen many, many kids derailed because the parents had
them in homeschool co-ops and homeschool sports teams and
homeschool this and homeschool that that ended up getting them
completely off because they had them around the wrong kids first
of all, but also around the wrong mentors.
Just because somebody claims to be homeschooled and probably
they are more conservative than most people would be, that's one
of the reasons why they're homeschooling their kids too.
But conservative does not mean Christian either.
And you can have influences on your children that you are
putting in front of them that are having a very negative
influence on your kids. Not saying it's wrong to have
your kids involved in those things, but what I am saying is
you need to be very, very, very careful about who you put as
influences in your children's life.
Homeschooling groups can be a help, but they can also be a
great hindrance. And you've got to be very
careful about that. And I'm just saying this, not
just homeschooling, but in, in general, across the board, you
have your kids involved in a, in a public sports team.
You ought to be there at every practice.
You ought to be at every game, You ought to be involved in
every minute of what your kids are doing in on that team.
Because if you're not, you are opening the door for those
influences to come in and tell your kids how to live, tell your
kids how to act. Tell your kids how to do
whatever it is that they want your kids to do.
And you don't have any say in it because you don't even know
what's being said. You don't know what's being
done. You don't know what they're
being taught. And listen, I'm for it.
I think you ought to have your kids involved in sports.
I think it's a great opportunity for them to to develop
character. Sports helps develop character.
You shouldn't put too much of an emphasis on it, right?
Character is important, but spirituality and godliness is
far more important than character.
All right? So just because they're on a
sports team doesn't mean that all those things come first.
Because I'm trying to teach my kids character.
You should be teaching them character, but not at the, not
at the expense of their spiritual life, not at the
expense of their relationship with God and the relationship
with the church. That ought to be first and
foremost. That ought to be #1 but if
you're going to have them involved in a sports team, then
you need to be involved in that sports team too.
The things that are talked about in locker rooms, the things that
are said by coaches, the language that's used by people
who are not Christians, they don't care what kind of
influence they have on your kids.
They don't care that you go to church all the time.
They don't care that you're involved in the ministries at
your church. They're teaching.
They're, they're coaching the sports team.
They don't care. They're not, they're not looking
out for your children and trying to influence them for, for
holiness and godliness and all of those things.
So who has to do that? You do, you need to be very,
very, very careful about those things that you allow and who
you allow to influence your children.
But your children can be influenced through godly
teachers and they should be. Now I will say this as well,
your children can be influenced through godly helpers.
And when we consider the people who have had a positive
influence on us, it's probably more than just your parents and
your teachers, right? You think about if you grew up
in church, especially, there's a lot of people that you can point
to in the church that you grew up with that we're just faithful
and, and maybe are still faithful to this day at the
church that you grew up at or, or you know them and they're
still in church and they're still living for the Lord and
they're still doing things for God.
Those people have a powerful influence on you and they have
been a they, they can, they, you know, they're not a pastor
necessarily. They may not be a teacher in a
Sunday school or something like that, but friends or coaches or
laymen. Those people can have a powerful
influence in a right way for your children as well.
And maybe you've you've heard it said before, nearness is
likeness. And it's true.
If the primary influence on your children, aside from your
family, is sports stars or social media influencers or
celebrities, your children are going to aspire to be like them.
Why do you think that every kid wants to grow up and go to the
NBA or go to the NFL or go to, you know, some Major League
sports? Because we've lifted those
things up as the top of everything.
I want to be like that, you know, and, and grown men walk
around salivating over getting a signature from some football
player. You know, I mean, you're telling
your kids that that is the most important thing.
And you shook my hand at the baseball game, right?
I mean, do you realize how how stupid that really sounds when
you when you actually stop to think about it?
But yet how often I was at the airport and it was 500 yards
away, but I saw this famous actor, he was walking to his
plane. So I mean, he's going to his
plane. Who cares who that guy is,
right? How about do that with with
preachers? You know, I'm not saying that we
ought to lift preachers up above the the status that they ought
to be lifted up above, but at the same time, why not make them
the the, the, the, the ones that you want your kids to aspire to
be like, put them on a different level, Not the sports stars, not
the Hollywood actors, right? Those, you know, if you, if you
make that the important things in your kids life, then that's
the things that they're going to want to be, right?
If it's all about movies and oh, this actor and that actor and
oh, this sports star and that sports star and this guy and
that guy and all these other things, you're telling them that
that is the most important thing.
And that's what they're going to want to be like.
But on the other hand, if you encourage the influence of just
godly servants of Jesus Christ, your children are going to want
to walk with the Lord. Your children are going to want
to be like that, just that faithful servant, right?
And that's why I say, OK, maybe you're in here tonight and you
don't have kids, or maybe your kids are grown, or maybe, you
know, you've got grandkids. I don't know.
And, and, and they live, you know, a long way away from here.
You can have a powerful, powerful influence on the next
generation, not just by the way that you act.
The way that you live and the way that you're faithful and the
way that you serve, all of those things are important, man.
How about try to take some, some young man under your wing, some
young lady under your wing and, and, and, and try to teach her
how to be faithful. You know, my parents obviously
had a very powerful influence on me growing up, but there were
people who came along when I was in high school and in college
who took me under their wing. And I don't know if I would be
standing where I'm at today if it hadn't been for their
influence. And I've told you this before,
Pastor Whitaker is one of them. He's been here and preached.
He's coming to preach our anniversary service this year.
He had a powerful influence on my life.
And it takes work, takes effort, right?
You got to be there when you don't want to be there.
You got to do things when you don't want to do things.
But man, it changed my life. And you can change somebody
else's life, too, but you have to be there.
You got to be intentional about it.
And parents, you ought to you ought to want to to to have that
influence in your children's life.
You ought to let people do those things when they want to do
them. You know, as a family, you got
to develop a relationship with your pastor.
Yeah, I can't. I can't.
I can't keep Brother Johnny away from me.
The time I turn around, he's there.
I'll go on a trip. Hey, can I go with you?
I want to. I want to get to know my pastor.
Just leave me alone for 5 minutes.
No, I'm just kidding. I enjoy it.
I, I want you to get to know me. I want to get to know you.
I want to try to have the influence on you that I can have
on you. And I certainly appreciate the,
the iron sharpening iron and all of that stuff.
But you need that your, your kids need that influence, right?
I want to impact your children. I want to work with your
children. But the problem is if you don't
allow me to work with your children, I can't have that
influence on them. If you, if you got this bubble
around them and you protect them and you, you don't want anybody
to see their flaws. You don't want anybody to think
that they're not perfect. Listen, I know more than anybody
that your kids are not perfect because I have 3 of my own and
they're not perfect, right? And, and you let them get close
to somebody who can help them and they're, those flaws are
going to be exposed. And oh man, they're going to
think that I'm not a perfect parent.
And oh, they're going to think that we're doing all these
things wrong and they're going to think this and they're going
to who cares what people think? Everybody's in the same
situation. We all have kids, and nobody's
kids are perfect. Let people work with your young
people. Let them correct your young
people. Let them show you how you can
help them become better young people.
That's what I'm talking about. Lois and Eunice, Paul's, I mean
Timothy's mother and grandmother, gave Paul the
opportunity to work with Timothy, and Paul used that
opportunity and look what he was able to do in helping Timothy
grow up to live for the Lord. I would say this too, when,
when, when guest preachers or missionaries come in, you ought
to take your family over there and introduce them to the
missionary, talk to the missionary.
I mean, maybe it's not going to work out all the time, but offer
to take them to lunch and let your kids sit there and talk to
the missionary or the pastor. All right.
Let them hear the stories that they have to say.
Let them influence them. Get to know your children's
teachers and, and youth workers and encourage that godly
mentoring relationship. Your kids need those things.
And it just might be that one person that, that, that that
takes an interest in your child that really helps them get over
the hump of rebellion or get past the, the, the struggles
that they're, that they're facing of, of, of surrendering
their will to God's will. Could be any of those things.
But anybody, as long as they are, are, are godly, then they
can be a great influence. And to develop that
relationship, you have to make the local church a priority in
your family. If you just show up to church
here and there, nobody's going to get to know your kids.
Nobody's going to be able to develop that relationship with
your kids because you're just here randomly and we don't know
when you're going to show up and we don't know when you're going
to be there. And you set something up and you
cancel it and you shut set it up again and you cancel it.
And this time it doesn't work out.
And that time it doesn't work out.
You know, eventually what's going to happen, people are just
going to stop trying. And whether it's true or not,
they're just going to think that you gave up and you don't care
and they're going to stop working with your kids.
And you know what happens when you when you just hold them like
this and you don't let anybody have them because they're my
babies. I can't let my babies go, right?
One of these days you're going to have to might as well do it
when they have that godly influence that's going to help
them to make it to that time when you're going to have to let
them go. And you'll have a whole lot
better chance of them staying straight when you let them go if
you allow that godly mentoring in their lives.
And it's the responsibility of the parents to filter the
influence on their children's lives.
It's, you know, some parents go overboard and they guard them
from the influences that actually could be very helpful
for them. And I've seen some of this, you
know, over the, over the, I don't know, 1020, thirty years,
there's been kind of a movement to to protect their children.
Some parents, you know, my, my kids are going to stay with me
everywhere. They're not going to Sunday
school, they're not going to this class, they're not doing
that. They're going to stay with me
because I just, I don't know what's being said.
I don't know who's, who's talking to them.
I don't know what kind of influence they're going to have
and go start a home church and just, you know, teach your kids
everything you can teach them. And, and you know, no, it's,
it's, it's not helpful. Get them under the influence of
other godly people. Listen in a church like this, we
vet everybody. You know, nobody's getting up in
front of your kids and and teaching them how to, you know,
play Dungeons and Dragons or something, right?
They're not having video game battles in the in the back
classroom. They're teaching your kids the
Bible. Let them teach your kids the
Bible. Let them mentor them.
Let them influence them. Let them have that influence on
them while they still can. Turn over to Galatians chapter
4. I know you want to protect your
kids because they're your babies, right?
By the way, let me say this, especially when it comes to
boys, mothers need to let their father be a dad and be hard on
their boys sometimes. I know Mamas are always like,
oh, you're going to hurt him. Oh, he's my baby.
You can't say that to him. You can't do that, right?
But dads know what toughness is. Moms don't, right?
And if you want your baby to grow up and be a mama's boy and
be soft and have little white pasty hands that don't know how
to do anything, then keep babying your kids.
But let your husband teach your boys how to be a man.
Let them be hard on them sometimes, even if you think
it's too hard on them sometimes. Give your husband the the
opportunity to to exercise wisdom and how he handles your
babies right, different with girls.
All right, You want your, you want to treat your babies, your
girls like babies, whatever. Treat your girls like babies if
that's how you want them to grow up.
I think it helps for them to be toughen up a little bit too, But
let the husband, you let your husband be a father to the boys
and you let your husband teach your boy how to be a man.
You don't know how to be a man because you're not one.
Let your husband, he's a man, teach your boys how to be men.
There's so many, there's so many kids that grow up to be soft
little mama's boys because they just, every time dad tried to be
hard on them, they, they gathered them under their wings
and walked away and didn't let dad do what needed to be done to
make him tough. Let dad, let the dad, let your
husband be the one that that toughens those boys up.
But anyway, that was free. This is biblical philosophy.
Our children need the influence of the local church.
They need the influence of the blessings that come from the,
the mentorships and everything else that can be given to the
need. They need to be in Sunday
school. They need to be under the
influence of a pastor. They need the influence of a
godly youth pastor. They need the mentorship of the
men and the ladies in the church.
Let them be around them, let them be around them.
Keep an eye on them from a distance.
If you want to do that, I think it's wise to do that too.
But let them be around the men and the ladies that are going to
be a godly influence on them. Galatians chapter 4 really
references the fact that even in the the Bible times, even all
the way back here, children didn't just have parents that
were influencing them. They had teachers.
They had tutors and governors. This is what the Bible says.
Galatians chapter 4, Sorry verse #1 Now I say that the heir, as
long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though
he be Lord of all. But it's under tutors and
governors until the time appointed of the father.
Hey, the fact that it's saying that the tutors and the
governors are teaching the children until the father deems
that they've gotten enough and it's it's good enough, then let
them be under those tutors and governors, right?
There's danger everywhere and we do everything we can to protect
our children. We, we check out the
environments. I would never send them anywhere
that I haven't been first, unless it's camp or something
like that. But get to know the individual
teachers, rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit when we, when we
have some kind of maybe unexplainable caution.
If there's some reason why you're really hesitant about
something, then it might be the Holy Spirit that's, that's
giving you that hesitation. But even then, we aren't God and
we can't provide that infinite protection.
One of these days, our kids are going to be gone.
They're going to be on their own and they're going to have to
make those decisions, right? So there may be a select
instance, few selection instances maybe where you
exercise that, that parental prerogative to say no to
somebody that wants to help your children or wants to mentor your
children or something like that. But I would say that don't, as a
matter of principle, withhold your children of the benefit
that they can receive from godly teachers and mentors.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. You just never know how God can
use those servants to encourage your children.
The local church, for the most part, if you're in a church,
that's that's that's trying to serve the Lord.
If you're in a local church that's trying to live for the
Lord, then most likely you're going to find just humble
servants who are going to partner with you in loving your
son and loving your daughter and pointing them toward Jesus
Christ. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse #24
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so
much the more as you see the day approaching.
You know, parents are not adults, I should say, not just
parents, but adults are not the only ones that need the
spiritual exhortation of fellow believers, right?
This is written to Christians, not just to parents.
Doesn't just say this is for the adults.
Let us consider one another to provoke unto love into good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see
the day approaching. That's for everybody, all right?
The truth is we all need the local church, Not just moms and
dads, but young people need the church too, right?
Which is why it's such a such a hindrance to them when you have
them in sports instead of being at church.
Such a hindrance to them when you, when you send them or allow
them to go do these other things instead of being at, at, at, at
church. There's a lot of benefits that
families receive who allow the help of godly influences on the
lives of their children. And one of those blessings is
encouragement. Another one is accountability
for the whole family, right? You let your kid go with
somebody else and he starts telling them, well, this is what
we do in our family, right? Hey, I was going to say, hang on
a second. If you want your kids to grow up
and live for the Lord, why are you doing this at home?
You know, I was talking to your son and oh boy, right?
I mean, but hey, it's accountability is
accountability. It helps keep you honest too,
right? It helps ensure that you're
doing things within your home. If you're willing to allow
somebody else to help you mentor your children, then that's under
the assumption that you're doing everything you can in your home
to do what's right as well and to lead them in the right
direction. Now, let me say this, when it
comes to your influence in in this area as a parent as well.
And we're we're basically done. But but don't expect your kids
to follow the rules and your leadership when you are the
exception to every rule, whether that be in the church or whether
that be in, you know, wherever it happens to be, when you're
the exception to every rule and you everybody else has to do it,
but you don't. Your kids are going to see that.
Don't expect them to follow your leadership.
Don't expect them to follow your guidance.
They're watching you. Well, you don't, you know, your,
your kid sees every bit of that and they're taking notice when
you're not excited in church. And again, I'm not.
I mean, listen, we sing and we like to sing, right?
And I think most of you sing to the best of your ability when
you have the opportunity to sing.
But the way you sing in church is the way your kids are going
to sing in church, the way you get excited about being at
church on Sundays, the way your kids are going to get excited
about being in church on Sunday. If you just show up because
that's what you have to do, then don't expect that your kids are
going to be excited about it. They might be now because they
don't really have a choice #1 they're coming to see their
friends and they're going to, you know, they're going to do
different things that they have going on.
But 10 years from now, they're going to remember how excited
you were or were not about being in church.
And Oh well, 10 years from now, I mean, that's it.
No, it makes a big difference. It has a big impact on your
children when you can throw yourself into your hobbies and
your, your, your true passions, but you're just going through
the motions and your spiritual things.
You're setting a standard and you're setting a pattern for
your kids to follow. And they're going to follow that
pattern. That's exactly what they're
going to do too. And they're not going to be
excited about the things of God. They'll be excited about the
things that they want to do with their life.
They're not going to be excited about living for the Lord.
Don't expect your kids to walk around with a good attitude at
church or at home. If you don't, don't expect your
kids to love the Lord with all their hearts.
If you don't, you might fool them for a while, but they're
not dummies and they're watching you.
Eventually they're going to figure it out and they're going
to know that you're just going through the motions and that's
exactly what they're going to see is acceptable and it's
exactly what they're going to eventually do.
And one of these days you're going to wake up and you're
going to say, I don't know why my kids are not in church.
I don't know why they decided to, you know, they just made the
decision. They started rejecting God and
they started going their own way.
And I don't know why. And I'm going to say This is why
right here. Because you weren't excited
about it. Why do you think they're going
to be excited about it? You didn't have to do it.
Why do you think they're going to do it?
You are an example. You are their number one mentor.
But even where you fail, sometimes maybe somebody else
can come along and help you keep pulling the slack.
And maybe where you would fail and it would mean that your kids
are going to fail, you allowed them to be under the influence
of somebody who cared about them the same way that you do, maybe
not as much, but in the same way that you do.
And they didn't because they had that godly influence.
Now look, Lois and Eunice were obviously a very strong
influence on Timothy, but they allowed Paul come in behind them
and shore up everything that they had been teaching him
already. And the influence that Paul had
on Timothy made a huge difference.
My son in the faith is what Paul called him.
And I don't know if all Timothy had was Lois and Eunice, if he
would have failed or if he would have made it.
I don't know. But I know this having Paul
along certainly didn't hurt. And if everything we read in the
Bible is an indication of the way things went, then having
Paul along almost made Timothy successful.
The home is a God ordained institution.
That's where it all starts and it's so important.
But so is the church. And your kids need the church
just as much as you need the church.
And your kids need that godly mentorship.
Your kids need that godly leadership that they have in
their lives. And when we neglect to focus on
the other, when we neglect to focus on the church side of
things, and the foundation for both of those is going to
crumble. If we as parents neglect the
local church, then we're sending the message that we know more
than God what's best for our home.
Because God said don't forsake the assembling of yourself
together. He said He loved the church so
much that He gave his life for it.
You ought to love it the same way.
You'll love the people in it the same way, and you ought to treat
the people in it the same way. We as parents need the
accountability and the teaching that a church provides if we
want to have a positive influence on our children.
So we're coming to a close with this whole thing about the power
of your influence. We've talked a lot about it.
We've, we've mentioned a lot of different things and I hope
you'll take it seriously because you have the influence over your
children. And if you don't intentionally
set out to influence your children, then what you're doing
is opening the door for somebody else to do it.
Social media, Hollywood, professional sports, public
school teachers, people in Walmart, you're giving them the
influence over your children. If you're not intentionally
influencing your children, God gave you one of the greatest
gifts when you had children, and that is the influence that you
can have to either raise them for the Lord or to allow them to
go live their lives or whether they want to.
You have that. You have that influence if
you're willing to take it. And not just parents, but
everybody in the church, you have the influence too.
And I hope that you'll take it seriously.
And we got a lot of young, a lot of young kids running around
here, a lot of young people that have some great potential to do
some things for the Lord. The way you interact or don't
interact could have a huge impact on whether they grow up
to live for the Lord. I could, I could, I could, I
would need probably four or five hands to list you the people
that I know of that I grew up that, that, that, that grew up
at the same time that I did who were, who were faithful people
in the church who are still faithful today.
And then I look at it and I say, man, look at that.
They're still going. That's, that's been 40 years, 50
years. They've been, they've been in
the same church living for the Lord, serving the Lord.
It has an impact because when you go back and you see the same
people serving the same ministries doing the same thing
that they've always done for the Lord, that's encouraging.
It's encouraging. And you might think I'm just
part of the church. You know, my kids are already
grown and my kids are living in some other part of the country.
And, you know, I don't really know.
You have a huge impact. You have a huge impact on the
next generation. Maybe not as much as the parents
that have kids that are here, but you have a big impact.
And you can be that godly leadership.
You can be that godly mentor that that young person needs to
help them become just exactly what God wants them to become.
Parents, first and foremost, it's your job.
It's your responsibility. You have the influence.
Secondly, there's a lot of people that you can, that you
have that will help you do it if you're willing to let them.
Influence is a very powerful tool.
Sees it, use it. God gave it to you.
What are you doing with it? Are you being a positive
influence? Are you going to be one of those
ones that wakes up someday and says, I don't know why my kids
don't want to live for the Lord, but you never use the influence
that God gave you. Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness.
We thank you for an opportunity. We have to be here tonight.
Thank you for the opportunity You've given every one of us
parents maybe first and foremost to influence our young people,
but everybody in this room tonight that has an opportunity
to influence the next generation for the cause of Christ.
God, may we take that seriously. And God, may we not lose one
single young person in this church to the world.
May every single parent have the wisdom and the spiritual insight
and the godly desire to live in such a way that their young
people will grow up in their homes and live for you.
You give that same godly desire for holiness and godliness and
righteousness to every single person in the church to be an
example to the next generation. May every single one of them
grow up and do exactly what it is that you've laid out from
them to do from the beginning of the foundation of the world.
May every one of them serve you with their lives.
Thank God. I pray that you'd give us great
impact on this world because of it.
Thank you again for all that you do for us.
In Jesus name, Amen.