TEXT: 1 Kings 22:51-53
TITLE: WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE FAMILY?
I am terribly saddened at what took place at appx. 11:30 am on Tuesday April the 20th at Littleton, Colorado, at Columbine High School where Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, two young men wearing long black trench coats approached the school. In the parking lot, they began their assault. From there they went into the school toward the school cafeteria, shooting as they went. They proceeded upstairs to the library, still shooting.
Students testified of the ricochet of bullets, running, hiding and witnessing unspeakable horror. Over 30 bombs have been found. The scene has been described as a minefield. The current death tool stands at 15 (11 males, 4 females) including the suspects and one faculty member.
The blame could be put on a lot of people as well as a lot of things. But today, I want to suggest that this might not have happened if the family had been doing its part.
But this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened?
•May 21, 1998 – Springfield, Ore. – A 15 year-old student shot and killed two students and wounded 22 when he opened fire at the Thurston High School
•May 19, 1998 – Fayetteville, Tenn. – A senior at Lincoln county High School, age 18, shot and killed 18 year-old senior Robert Creson.
•April 25, 1998 – Jonesboro, Ark. – Two boys, ages 11 and 13, shot and killed a teacher and four girls at Westside Middle School. Nine girls and one other teacher were wounded.
•December 1, 1998 – Paducah, Ky. – A 14 year-old boy shot and killed three girls at Heath High school. Five others were wounded. The youths targeted were having a prayer meeting.
•October 1, 1997 – Pearl, Miss. – A 16 year-old student shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and another girl at Pearl High School after slitting his mother’s throat. Seven other students were wounded.
So I want to ask you, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR FAMILIES? Parents have a big influence on their children! Grandparents have a big influence on their grandchildren!
Ahaziah was the 9th king of Israel. He was the son of Ahab, which means he was also the son of Jezebel.
He followed policies which showed evidence of his mother’s pagan influence. After reigning only two years, he “fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria” (2 Kings 1:2) and was seriously injured. Sending his messengers to ask Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, about his recovery, Ahaziah was frustrated when the prophet Elijah interrupted their mission and prophesied Ahaziah’s death. Enraged by Elijah’s predictions, Ahaziah tried to seize him, but the men sent to capture the prophet were destroyed by fire from heaven and Elijah’s prophecy was quickly fulfilled (2 Kings 1:9-17).
The point is he was influenced in a negative way by his parents.
The evil of the world is knocking on our front doors and asking if our children are at home.
It says that it has a message just for them.
It wants to bombard them with alluring information about cults, contraceptives (esp. condoms), open marriage, gay liberation, drinking, drugs, violence, and smoking.
The messages are there and we can’t deny it. The devil and the world would say there is nothing we can do about it. We can’t control the messages or our children. Or can we?
Are the pressures today much different from the deadly lion and a bear that fought a little shepherd boy named David? After those tests of courage, he stood against Goliath and won. Later he refused to take vengeance against the demented king who sought his life.
What child has matched the disappointments and temptations handed Joseph? Despised by his brothers, sold into slavery, blatantly tempted by Pother’s wife, he stuck by his commitment to his master and landed in jail.
Or what child dares to be a Daniel, maintaining his stand for the God of Israel at the risk of his neck?
Or Queen Esther, probably a teenage beauty when she was hustled away to the king’s harem?
How many of our teenagers, like little Samuel, could survive the care of a priest whose too sons turned out to be scoundrels?
Somewhere along the line, in their early home training, these famous young people of the Bible had been greatly influenced in a godly way.
•Daniel came from a priestly stock.
•David’s father Jesse feared the Jehovah-God of his ancestors.
•We know of Hannah’s prayers for Samuel.
•Mordecai visited the palace windows to encourage Esther.
These parents made a significant influence in their children’s lives that gave them the strength to stand when it became necessary.
If we are to stop such tragedies as the one in Colorado, we as parents and grandparents must make a positive influence on their lives.
Some Parents Say…
“We will not influence our children in making choices and decisions in matters of religion!”
WHY NOT?
The ads will!
The press will!
The radio will!
The movies will!
The TV will!
Their neighbors will!
Their business will!
Their politicians will!
We can influence over flowers, vegetables, cattle. Shall we ignore our children?
The word influence means: “the power of persons or things to affect others.”
In Acts 16:30-34 we see the power of influence. One man, a Philippian jailer, husband, and father had great influence.
There is no indication from this portion of scripture that this man or his household were familiar with the Christian movement let alone the Jewish religion.
Yet, through this shattering experience that night he had enough influence with his house that he could persuade them to listen as Paul would speak to them. By his household watching him and seeing his change, it affected them and they also became born again Christians.
You and I are influencing our children day after day and moment by moment whether we like it or not.
How we speak to them, how we discipline them, how we love them, how we react when they fail or do something wrong, how we spend time with them is influencing them either in a positive or a negative way.
Listen mother, listen father, grandparent and church. The question is not are we influencing our children the question is how are we influencing our children? Yours and my influence have already started shaping their lives.
Something in wrong in the family when the world has more influence that the parents! Something is wrong in the family when we let the world influence our children more than us!
It is a fact that Klebold and Harris were influenced by Hitler. They were also influenced by Marilyn Manson. They were influenced by such video games as Doom and TV programs that depict a young man shooting classmates.
Who has more influence over your children? You or the World.
While it is true that your children and even my own are free moral agents and they must make their own choices in life, yet I believe and I am convinced that a lot of their choices that have headed them in the wrong direction have been based in a large measure on the influence or affect that we as parents and grandparents have had on their lives.
Because parents have not significantly influenced or affected their children for righteousness and the cause of Christ they are making decisions and choices that are heading them in a direction that is totally opposed to righteousness and Christ and truth. In short, they are making decisions that are leading them toward the path of destruction.
1 Timothy 4:12 Paul exhorts Timothy (Amplified Bible) – “be an example (pattern) for the believers, in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” I believe in the place of believers we could easily insert the word children.
We are in essence called upon to be MODELS to our children, our husband or our wife of what it means to be a Christian.
Listen: every time you slap your child around like an animal and claim to be a Christian or not you are being a bad influence.
Every time you curse your child and claim to be a Christian or not, you are influencing your child.
Hear me, every time that a parent tells a child not to drink or not to smoke and then they turn around and do it themselves then they are influencing their children in a wrong way.
Every time your child comes to you and needs to talk to you about a problem and you tell them you don’t have time or better yet when they tell you about this problem and you blow up and get mad and say things you really don’t mean and still claim to be a Christian you are influencing your child in the wrong way.
As Christian parents we are called upon, even required by God to be examples or models to our children of the true and living God.
What we as parent need to do is make a change and start influencing our children for righteousness, and truth and for Christ.
May God open our blinded eyes. I shutter to think that maybe one of my children could end up as a drug addict or an alcoholic or a murderer because I failed to significantly have a positive influence on their lives. Or that they may end up in Hell because I failed to influence them in a positive way.
