Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

The Power And Influence Of Observation

1 TIMOTHY 4:12b – Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF OBSERVATION. I fear we may not realize the importance of this enough. I don’t write that as a blast of criticism, but because I believe the devil, the world, and our flesh are hard at work to get us to ignore and forget this. I also fear because I think they are largely successful in our lives, but we are not hopeless. We can change this if we really get the importance of today’s theme – the power and influence of observation.

In looking back over our lives, every one of us has those seasons and times we would like a “redo” and especially as parents. What honest father or mother would not confess, “I wish I could go back and do some things different in raising my kid. Oh the things I would do different based on what I know now”? But it isn’t just about parenting. It extends to being grandparents. Friends, we get one chance at life to influence our families for Christ. We are given only one opportunity to do it right, or I should say, “One opportunity to do it God’s way, by God’s means, by God’s grace, through God’s truth and for His impact on those in our spheres of influence.” And with such importance and urgency, let’s look at our influence as parents and grandparents.

Dads, moms, grandfathers and grandmothers, we have the greatest spiritual impact on the children God has given us. It isn’t Sunday School in our churches, our youth groups, or peer-to-peer Bible studies that provide the spiritual influence and shaping force in their lives. It will be us with either a Christ-honoring and Christ-pointing influence or a worldly, away from Christ influence. And one of the most important areas of our spiritual influence on our children is toward the church. The 21st century church in the west is in trouble. There is accelerated apostasy, a plethora of false teaching, and an alarming trend away from sound doctrine and theology. What is resulting is a mass exodus or departure from the church of young people. They just have no interest. They see no importance in the church or relevance for them. However, it is not all gloom and doom. There are young people still active in good Bible-believing, doctrinally sound, and theologically robust churches. I have witnessed first-hand the positive spiritual impact on young people toward the church because these youth observed faithful and sacrificial commitment to the church in their parents and grandparents. Such powerful and godly examples don’t struggle over church attendance on the Lord’s Day allowing worldly things to compete. They won’t miss church unless it is an emergency or scheduled vacation. They go beyond attendance to faithful service in the church. These families make and keep the church a high spiritual priority never compromised. They know the importance in God’s plan and their spiritual growth. And it is making a difference in their children. These young actually love church for the right reasons – spiritual fellowship, to hear the Word preached, and to serve the Lord in ministry.

So, how did those young people get to that place of spiritual understanding of the importance of the church in their lives? Observation. They watched it in their family members and “caught it” from their family members. The opposite will also be true. If we are “hit and miss” with church; don’t show its importance in our lives by faithful and sacrificial attendance and service, why would we expect our young people to be otherwise? They are only catching and practicing what they observed. And friends, think long and hard on this. We only get one life to live and if we are not passing down Biblical Christianity and especially the importance God places upon His church in His people, we are failing in the most important area of our lives – giving a worthy model of Christ for our loved ones to observe and then follow. So, if we see our children not interested in the faith, have zero interest in the church, instead of crying out in lament, maybe we should confess as being a part of their condition. They only are practicing what they observed.

PRAYER: “Father, help to see how the decisions I make leading to the actions I take greatly impact those observing me.”

QUOTE: “People watch Christians. Make sure they are seeing a Biblical Christian and not one of our own making.”