Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / September 28, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: What's up, friends? I'm your host, Greg Miller, and this is the latest episode of Beliefs, Ballots, and Bulldogs. Today is Monday, September 28th, 2026. Today I want to talk to you about not wasting your influence. ⁓ somebody is learning how to live by watching what you're doing. So I want to talk a little bit today about our influence and the circle of influence we all have. And I I know immediately when I say the word influence, all of our minds tend to go to Social media, followers, all the platforms, views, likes, retweets, all that thing. We all see people with millions of followers who apparently can make a living just by filming themselves eating breakfast. That's not the kind of influence I'm talking about. I I'm talking today about influence that's much closer to home because whether or not you realize it, you you are influencing somebody. Right now, somebody in your circle is watching the way you live your life. Somebody notices how you respond when things don't go your way. Somebody hears how you talk to your spouse. That can be scary for some of us. Somebody sees how you treat people who can't do anything for you. Somebody notices whether you keep your word when you say you're gonna do something. Somebody around you sees what happens when you get angry and upset. Somebody notices how you handle things when you're the one that screws up. And here's the part that really gets me thinking. We're teaching people things that we probably don't intend to teach them. You don't have to stand in front of a classroom or a group of people to teach. You don't have to preach a sermon. You don't have to give anybody advice. Sometimes you just have to live where somebody can see you. And if they see you, they're learning from you. There's there's a verse from Paul that I have always found to be just incredibly bold, in my opinion. It's first Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1. And Paul says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Think about saying that. Watch me, copy me, follow my example, imitate the way I live. I I'm not sure I'd be comfortable saying that to anybody because immediately I start thinking, Well, which parts do I want them to see? Because it ain't the whole thing. Can we establish some boundaries here? Maybe imitate me sometime between 9 30 and noon on a Sunday. I look pretty good then. Tuesday afternoons, however, might be a little questionable. But Paul essentially tells us if you want to, if you want to know what following Jesus looks like, watch me follow Jesus. Notice what he doesn't say here. He doesn't say, imitate me because I'm perfect. Paul knew he wasn't, just like none of us are. The important part is the second half of what he's saying. The important part is imitate him as I am of Christ. That's the standard. What Paul is saying here is follow me to the extent that I am following him. And that raises a pretty uncomfortable question for all of us. If somebody were to copy the way I lived, would it move them closer to Jesus? Not copy what I say I believe, but actually copy how I live. It's a little bit different. We all worry and spend a ton of time worrying and stressing out about what we should say given certain situations. What advice should we give to our kids? What should we tell our friends? How do we talk to somebody about Jesus? What do we say to somebody when when we know they're struggling? Those things matter. Words matter in those situations. But sometimes I wonder if we spend too much time obsessing over the speech and we totally ignore the sermons that we all preach with our lives every day. Your life says something about you each and every day you live it. If you tell your children that family is important, but you're never present and around, your life is saying something different than the words are. If you tell your children to tell the truth, But they hear you lie each and every time the truth becomes inconvenient. Your life is saying something a lot louder than that proverbs you're trying to tell them. If you tell your children to treat people with respect, but then they routinely hear you destroying people behind their back, your life is saying a lot louder something than those than the words are. And if you tell your children that God comes first, but then God only gets the five or ten minutes that are left after work, before church or around sports or television or social media. When your life is saying something different than the words are, people will eventually believe the life more than the lecture, especially your children. And this is the one that gets me because as a parent, we we all know this, but sometimes I don't think we emphasize it or are aware enough of it enough. Your kids are watching you. And the the scary thing is they're watching things that we don't realize they're watching. Your son is learning something about being a man by watching you. That your daughter is learning something about men by watching you. They're watching how dad talks to mom. They're watching how mom talks to dad. They're watching how you two handle disagreement. They're watching what happens when someone gets angry. They're watching whether or not you apologize to each other. They're watching whether or not you keep your promises. They're watching whether you're generous and kind. They're watching whether or not you pray. They're watching to see what happens when you fail. And they're watching whether or not your faith is something. that actually affects your life or just something you speak about. That is that is a piece that should make us all a little bit uncomfortable. I I know it does for me, because we're not going to get it right all the time. We're going to lose our patience. We're going to say the wrong thing. We're certainly going to make bad decisions. And I know for a fact I am going to disappoint those people who love me. But here's here's the important thing. Even our failures can teach those people something if they see what we do next. Maybe your kid seeing you apologize is more important than pretending that dad never gets anything wrong. Maybe hearing you say, you know what, I shouldn't have spoken to your mother that way teaches them something. Maybe hearing you say, I was wrong, will you forgive me teaches them something. Maybe watching you own a mistake instead of making an excuse teaches them a little bit about what integrity looks like. Your children don't need the illusion of a perfect parent. They need the example of a truly repentant one. And that's something worth imitating. We think about what are we teaching our kids? What are we teaching the younger generation about marriage? Like if you're marriage, somebody around you is learning something about marriage by watching yours. Maybe it's your kids, maybe it's another couple, maybe it's somebody younger than you. But ask yourself, what are they learning by watching your marriage? Are are they learning that are they learning that marriage means keeping score? Are they learning that husbands and wives constantly tear each other down and criticize each other? Or are they learning that the easiest laugh in the room often comes from making your spouse the butt of the joke? If they're learning that stuff, they're learning that conflict can mean disrespect. But if you handle it the right way, they can learn they can see two imperfect people that have decided, you know what, we're on the same team. Do your children show you do they get to see you show affection? Do they hear you say good things about each other? Do they see their father talk well and speak love into their mother? Do they see their mother honor the father? Do they see forgiveness? Do they see sacrifice? Do they see you choosing marriage when choosing yourself would be much easier? Because someday your son's gonna become a husband. Someday your daughter's gonna become a wife. And part of what they imagine marriage to be may have been learned from your house. That's influence right there. There's a beautiful passage in Deuteronomy chapter six. God tells Israel, And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. And then he says, You shall teach them diligently to your children. And listen to how he describes it here. When you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. I love that. God is not telling us to, hey, once a week, gather your children for a 45 minute PowerPoint presentation. God's telling us to do this in ordinary life, sitting around the house, walking down the road, going to bed, getting up, teach them while you're living life. That's true discipleship. And I think sometimes we have outsourced way too much of that. We expect the church to teach our children about God. And look, church should help. We expect the youth group to teach them. Great. We send them to Christian schools. Great. That's awesome. But none of those people will have the influence over your kids that you have. Your child's youth pastor might get them for an hour. They get you for a lifetime. And they're watching you. I promise. I'm gonna spend just a minute here talking specifically to men, because I think a lot of times we we underestimate the influence of a father in today's world. Your son is watching you to figure out what being a man looks like. He's watching whether strength shows up as aggression or self control. He's watching to see whether leadership means getting out of the way or taking responsibility, whether being a man ever means admitting you're wrong, or if it has having the strength to apologize when you are. He's watching whether you work, whether you protect, whether you provide, whether you serve, whether you keep your word, whether you control your appetites, or whether you let your appetites control you, whether you respect his mother, whether you pray, do you stand for something? Does your faith cost you? You have to sit him down and have these conversations, but that's not when this happens. It happens in everyday life. You don't need a lesson to say, son, today's a lesson in masculinity. He's already in that class and you're the teacher. Dads, it does it it goes for daughters too. Your daughters are watching you. You're showing her something about how a man should treat a woman, what respect looks like, what protection looks like. what affection and love look like, what consistency looks like, what a man's word should mean. Someday another man is going to walk into your daughter's life. And part of what she believes she deserves from that man may have been shaped by what she saw in you. And I can tell you as a dad, as a as a girl dad with two little girls, that is a responsibility worth taking seriously. And look, women, don't underestimate what you're modeling either. Your your daughters are watching you, your sons are watching. They are learning something from your amazing feminine strength. They're learning from your character, your patience, your faith. They're learning about how you speak about yourself, how you speak about their father, how you handle hardship, how you treat other women, just how you carry yourself and how you respond when the world tells you that your value comes from your appearance, your status, or somebody else's approval. A mother can shape the atmosphere of an entire whole. A wife can build up or tear down. A grandmother has the ability to influence generations. Do not underestimate ever the weight of a faithful woman. Some of the strongest influence in Scripture weren't standing behind pulpits. They were just faithfully living right where God had placed them. And look, maybe, maybe you don't have children, but that's okay. Trust me, you still have influence. Somebody younger at work is watching you. Somebody at church notices you. It can be a niece, a nephew, a neighbor, a friend, a teammate, an employee, or somebody who just started doing something that you've been doing for 20 years. They're watching you and you may never know it. That's that's what's fascinating to me about influence. A lot of the times you don't even get notified. Nobody walks up to you and says, Hey, just so you're aware. I'm currently forming part of my understanding of adulthood based on your behavior. Thank God nobody looks at me and says that. That would make every trip to the grocery store a whole lot more successful. But people do notice. Look, you remember people from your old life. Maybe it was a coach or a teacher, a grandfather, a boss, a pastor, a neighbor from way back, somebody who probably had no idea how much you were paying attention to them and how much you learned from them. But you remember how they carried themselves. You remember something they said, something they did, how they treated you, how they made you feel. And maybe it's 30 years down the road, but maybe you're still carrying something that they taught you. They had influence. And so do you. Now, let's take this somewhere just a little bit more uncomfortable. Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20 says, Therefore, we are ambitio ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador represents somebody else. That's the job. That's the title. So if we call ourselves Christians, whether we like it or not, people are watching us and forming impressions about Christianity. Now, that doesn't mean Christianity is true because Christians might behave well. Jesus doesn't become less true if we behave badly. And I'm thankful for that. But we are supposed to represent him. So ask you, what are you showing people? If they see Christians who lie, who gossip, who are cruel, who cheat? Who are obsessed with money, Christians who treat their spouses terribly, or talk about people behind their backs, or Christians who are just quick to anger. And then we ask them, hey, would you like to hear about Jesus? Well, maybe we shouldn't be quite so shocked if they're a little confused. And again, look, we are all going to fail. Christianity isn't about pretending that we're perfect, but there ought to be something different. There ought to be a sense of repentance and grace and love, truth, integrity. Generosity, humility, forgiveness, self-control, something about following Jesus should eventually become visible in the way we live our life. People are going to watch how you handle the hard stuff. And this might be where your influence becomes the most powerful. It's easy to talk about faith when everything's going good, but watch people when life gets hard. That's when the real diagnosis comes. When the job disappears, when when somebody close to you betrays you, when you lose a loved one, or when the money gets tied at home, or when the plans fall apart, when the prayer doesn't get answered the way you wanted. And look, that doesn't mean you have to fake happiness in those situations. Biblical faith never asks you to pretend that pain doesn't hurt. Jesus wept for Lazarus. Grief is real, fear is real, disappointment is real. But people can see something different, even in the middle of those seasons. They can see hope. They can see somebody that's hurting but still trusting in God. They can see somebody believing in God even though they're grieving. They can see somebody who's disappointed, but they haven't become bitter. They can see somebody who doesn't understand what's happening, but they keep walking down that path God calls them to walk down. And sometimes, if we're honest, that testimony is a lot more powerful than anything you'll ever say into a microphone. And let's be real, you're you're also watching and teaching people how to fail. I I think this matters enormously because everybody knows you're eventually going to mess up. The question isn't whether or not people will see you fail. The question is what will they see you do afterwards? Do you lie about it? Do you hide from it? Do you blame somebody else? Make excuses? Do you double down and try to get it back? Or do you simply do what you should do and admit I was wrong? We just talked about this. Maybe, maybe one of the greatest examples you can give another human being. Is showing them what humility looks like after failure. Confess it, own it, apologize, make it right if you can't, learn from it, move forward. Those things are all influential too. And look, here's another distinction worth making. Your reputation is what people think about you. Your influence is what your life produces in other people. You can spend your entire life managing your reputation and trying to make everybody think you're a good person. Or you can actually become the kind of person whose life makes other people better. And those aren't always the same thing. Jesus certainly wasn't obsessed with approval. Paul wasn't obsessed with approval. They were concerned with faithfulness. So maybe instead of asking what do people think about me, we should be asking, what happens to people who spend time around me? Do they become more bitter? Do they become more cynical, more angry, more dishonest, more selfish? Or do they show a little more courage? Are they more faithful, more generous, more truthful, and more loving? Are they more serious about Jesus because they've spent time around you? To me, that is a much better measure of influence. And look, here's the encouraging part. You don't need a million followers, for which I am grateful. You don't even need 10,000 followers. You don't even need a podcast. And I don't need the competition. You don't need a microphone. You don't need a new YouTube channel. You don't need anybody to know your name. You already have influence. Look, maybe your audience is three people sitting around your dinner table. Let me assure you of something. That is an audience worth having. Maybe it's five guys that you work with. Maybe it's your granddaughter. Maybe it's a kid you're coaching in Little League. Maybe it's somebody at church. Maybe it's just one person. Look, Jesus spent enormous amounts of time investing deeply in a handful of people. Never confuse large with important. Some of the most influential people who ever lived never had any followers by what we would consider followers. So don't worry about changing the world. Start with a little world that God has placed right there in your circle. Give somebody something worth imitating. Let your kids see you love your spouse. Let them see you honor your spouse. Let somebody see you put your phone down and actually listen and have a conversation. Let them see you keep your word, even when it's not easy. Let them see you be generous, patient. Let them see you control your temper. Let them see you apologize when you're wrong. Let somebody see you choose integrity when dishonest would be easier or more beneficial. Let somebody see you pray. Let somebody see you worship. Let somebody see you serve when nobody's around to notice or applaud. Let somebody see that following Jesus actually changes the way you live your life. You don't have to announce it. Just live it. So one day you gotta realize something. Your kids will be adults. Your career will be over. That house you live in now will probably belong to somebody else. Your possessions will all be divided up amongst those you leave behind. Somebody else is going to sit at that desk you spend so much time at. Somebody else may even drive that truck you love so much. I'm gonna tell you, life moves quickly. And eventually people aren't gonna remember most of what you said. But somebody still may be carrying around something that they learned from watching you. Your son may treat his wife a certain way because he watched how you treated his mother. Your daughter may refuse to settle for a man who doesn't respect her because she knows what respect from a man looks like. Somebody may tell the truth when lying would be easier because they once watched you do it in that situation. Somebody may apologize to their child because they remember you apologizing to yours. Somebody may keep trusting God through an incredibly hard season because years earlier they watched you do it. That's influence. And you may never know most of the ways you've had it. So Don't waste it. You don't need to know that everybody's watching you. You don't need thousands of followers. You certainly don't need the applause. You just need to be faithful with the people that God has already put right in front of you. Remember what Paul said. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. That's a real challenging sentence, but maybe it's worth asking. If somebody followed my example, where would I lead ⁓ Get your Bibles, say your prayers, love your family, keep your word, own your mistakes, and serve somebody. Follow Jesus closely enough that somebody watching you might learn how to follow him too. Because whether you realize it or not, somebody is learning how to live just by watching how you do it. Give them something worth seeing. Let's not waste that influence. God bless.