Legacy: Mother’s Day 2023

Message Transcription

Well, if you have your Bible, I invite you to turn over to Second Timothy. We'll be there most of our time today As you're making your way there, I just want to again wish a happy Mother's Day to all of our moms and grandmothers and great grandmothers out there. You know, mothers face a lot of pressure. I was looking at a few articles this week. Maybe you saw them. Pew Research put out an article about some of the pressures that moms are facing, the challenges of finances. And and so many moms are working to help try to pay for things as inflation costs have gone out the roof and and so many, many other challenges that they face trying to build relationships with their kiddos. Moms report they spend more time with kiddos, especially when they're really young. But but more time they have more care responsibilities. That doesn't quite change even if they're working outside the home. There are so many pressures that moms face, but maybe none more so than wanting to be a good mom than wanting to help raise your kid right. For them to know and love and follow Jesus. That's the heart's desire of every parent, but especially our moms. I was thinking this week about my own mom and how much I miss her and and thinking about the kind of woman that she was and the influence that she was on my life. And so I kept thinking of this text.

And so I actually got a chance to preach this text a number of years ago. It's been 7 or 8 years, but I wanted to come back to it to, to listen again, to to think some again about the power of a mom who is willing to love and follow Jesus in the midst of hard things, in the midst of challenges and obstacles. You know, one of the things that makes moms so important to us is not that they're perfect. In fact, as we read through Scripture, what we see over and over again is how God works through the imperfect moms, the women of of the Bible. I was thinking back to stories of of women like Eve in Genesis three who sometimes thought she knew better than God. Sometimes moms think they they know better. Sometimes, like Sarah, they get impatient at God's promises to come through. Now, I'm picking on moms today because, moms, it's your day. But. But dads, your day is coming. So just buckle up, buttercup. Right. Or maybe, like Rebecca. Maybe remember Rebecca, who's tempted sometimes to choose a favorite? And I know no mom in here has a favorite child, Right? But you can imagine how sometimes moms are tempted to to pick that that favorite child. Or maybe we learn through stories a little more risque, like stories like Tamar whose family really mistreated her, who didn't provide for her that the way that they needed to. And so she kind of took things into her own hands.

A wild story in Genesis 36, 3738, or maybe like Rahab, who was a prostitute, who who was willing to do for God's people something that that they needed her to do to help rescue them. Right. And she's included in this great lineage of story the the father of of Boaz and Obed and Jesse to this King David. I sometimes moms have to do some things and they don't always understand why. Or maybe like Ruth, who marries this foreign man and her husband passes away and she's kind of left going, What do I do? Do I return home? Do I stay with my mother in law? And and in this incredible act of humility and service chooses to pour her life out for someone else? How often are moms called to pour their life out for another? We see these stories of of things not going the way that moms would expect them to go. Of having to make choices and decisions and try things and sometimes fail and maybe even fail spectacularly. And yet continuing to see God's faithfulness working in and through their lives. That's the the opportunity, the challenge, the story that I wanted to think of as we think about our moms today. I was thinking certainly of mine, of the impact that she has had, not only on me, but in the world around us. One of the stories that again, kept coming back to mine was the story of Timothy.

And so many of us know the Apostle Paul was one of Jesus's first followers. He was converted on the road to Damascus, a total life change. And then he began dedicating his life to spreading the gospel all throughout the known world of his time, and much often to people who were not a part of the story of God from the beginning, the the Jewish family, they were Gentiles, that he was having these gentile converts come to know Christ. And one of those families was this young man named Timothy, and Timothy becomes an important leader in the church. And so he's writing to Timothy and he's actually in jail for the second time in Rome. In fact, what we know from history is it's not long before Paul will be martyred, but he's writing to this young man, Timothy, who's a leader in the church, who is struggling. He's struggling to know, what am I doing? Am I making the right decisions? How should I respond to these circumstances and to these people and this pressure that's facing me all around? And so Paul's writing to him and he's first he's saying, please come and visit me because everyone except for Luke has deserted me. Please come and see me. Please come and bring the supplies that I need. But he's also saying, and I want you to hold on, I know you're facing persecution and suffering and trials of all kind.

And he's writing to Timothy about how to hold on. And this is what he tells him. He says, You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions and sufferings. What kinds of things happen to me in Antioch and Iconium and Lystra? The persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse. Deceiving and being deceived. And Paul, in the midst of challenging Timothy, says Timothy, I remember, you know my story. You know what's been happening to me. You know, the kinds of trials and the obstacles that I have faced, that things have gone from bad to worse. You've seen my way of life. You've heard my teaching. You've watched me try to live it out in front of you. You know that I've faced all kinds of challenges. But you also know that God has been faithful to me all through this. He's rescued me every time. In fact, that's going to be life. Timothy What you're going to face in life are all kinds of obstacles and temptations and challenges and things that you're not sure how you're going to make it through. But I want to encourage you, God's going to be faithful. God will help you get through all these things. Sometimes he's going to save you from the flames and sometimes he's going to save you in the flames.

But there are going to be flames, brother. And you have got to be ready. But know that God is faithful. He can trust you. And Paul continues, he says, But as for you, continue in what you have learned. Continue in what you have learned and become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it. And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul's going to point Timothy back to a couple of things to help him stand firm in the midst of a really hard season, a really hard and challenging life. Paul tells Timothy a couple of things. And as we listen to this, I want to invite you just to consider if you're a mom. All right. How is how is God inviting you to hold firm? And the challenge that you know of as being a mom right now. And for those of us who aren't moms, how are we being challenged to consider what God has for us to stand firm in the persecution and the trials that we're facing? The first bit of advice that Paul gives to Timothy is this Be faithful to what you already know to be true. Be faithful to what you already know to be true, Paul tells Timothy. Things are going to get tough, and you're going to be tempted to just give up, to quit, to walk away.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Even when you encounter things, you're not sure how this is going, what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to say. Paul says, Start with what you already know to be true. Remember, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of. You've learned it. Someone taught you some things and they're true. And you've seen them proved over and over again, not only in your life, but in mine. Remember, he just makes this appeal. You've seen my life. You've heard what I taught. You've seen the persecution I've encountered. And yet you've seen how God has continued to rescue me. Timothy, the same is going to be true for you. Someone taught you these things. You've seen the evidence of God's faithfulness. Why? Because of whom you've learned it from. At the second thing Paul says is remember who you learned it from. Remember Who taught you these things, Timothy. You were taught the gospel. You saw it lived out in flesh and blood. Who did he see that from? Well, certainly it's Paul. Paul is appealing to his own life. But it's not just that. It's not just that, he says. You were taught the scriptures from infancy. And certainly Timothy would turn back over to page one of the letter where he encountered the words that that Kelsey and Bowen read for us just a moment ago.

I'm reminded of your sincere faith, Timothy, a faith that lived first in your grandmother. And in your mother. And now I'm convinced it's in you. Paul tells Timothy. Remember? Who's taught you these stories? Who's taught you the power of Scripture, who embodied it first and foremost amongst you? Who is the one who passed on faith to you from the very beginning? It's your grandmother, Eunice, or rather Lois. And your mother, Eunice. Remember the examples that they set for you? How significant is faith? The preacher? The preacher of Hebrews said it this way Without faith, it's impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Right. Paul, says Timothy, remember who taught you who You learned it from? Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. Paul would say it this way to the church in Ephesus, for it is by grace. You have been saved through faith. It's not something you did for yourself. It was a gift from God. It was a gift given to you, passed down to you through a faithful grandmother and a faithful mother. Remember? Who gave you? Who gave you that gift? You see, there's no greater influence that a parent can have on a child. A mom can influence her kid than to know and to love and to follow Jesus. This gift that has the power to impact a life.

Not only one, but but many lives. Where did Timothy get his sincere faith from? He got it from his grandmother. He got it from his mother. Parents and successive generations who were willing who were willing to stay faithful, who were willing to believe and to trust, and then to pass on that same faith. Now, I know some of us are thinking this morning I didn't have a Lois in my life. I didn't grow up in that kind of legacy of faith. Maybe some of us are even saying, well, I didn't even have a Eunice in my life. I didn't grow up with a mother of faith who was trying to pass that on this faith thing. I'm kind of trying to figure this out on on my own the first time around. Well, let me point you back to what Paul tells Timothy. He says, where did this faith begin? It was first lived in your grandmother, right? It has to start somewhere. It has to start with one generation. Perhaps what God's inviting you is. Would you be that first generation in your home? Would you be the first or maybe the first in a long time to hold on to the promises that Scripture tells us about? To hold on to those examples of the saints that came before, to hold on to those promises that we've seen lived out in our life or or in the lives of the people who know and love and have poured life into us.

Would you be that first? And no matter what your family background is or what your spiritual family tree looks like. Maybe you could be the first one in your family that says our family's past is not going to define our family's future. Our family's legacy is going to be built on something more deeper than just some of the the burdens of our history. See Faith is going to live first in me. I can't help but how many sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, families will be impacted? Because of faith. First living in you. May God bless us and challenge us and encourage us. Encourage you, moms, to hold on to that example of faith. The ways that you have seen God at work in your life and passing it on to the next generation. Let me also say, too, that one of the things I appreciate so much about Paul. As he recognizes for those who didn't have a Eunice or a Lois in their life, or maybe those who have longed to be a Eunice or Lois, and for whatever reason, it just hasn't happened yet. Paul says, Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget how true this can be to the church in Rome. Paul was writing a letter and encouraging. At the very end of that letter he starts to give some greetings and he and he points us, I think, to a couple of things I hope will be encouraging to you.

In Chapter 16, verse 13, he says, This greet my friend Rufus, chosen in the Lord. And his mother greet Rufus and Rufus mom, who has been a mother to me also. You see, Paul recognized that for the church to be the church, it couldn't just be up to Eunice and Lois. There had to be spiritual mothers who could step in and stand in the stead of those who didn't have a Eunice or Lois in their life. You know, when we moved out here 11 years ago, we we were moving at least four and a half, five hours away from our closest Eunice or Lois. And many of you stepped into that role for us and for my children. And I can tell you this, we wouldn't be here today if it were not for our spiritual illnesses and losses. We wouldn't be here. The power of God at work in the church family is so amazing. That even though my biological family doesn't live anywhere close to me, I'm surrounded by family all the time. I'm surrounded by people who love and care for me in the same ways that my mother would. I was thinking about that this week and I was thinking of Jesus words to his disciples when things are getting really hard and he provides a couple of teachings are so difficult that many of the disciples who were following him turn and start to walk away. Right. And this happened a few different times in Jesus ministry.

And so Jesus is going back and forth with his disciples a little bit on, okay, what are you going to hang in there? And Peter says. In Mark Chapter ten. Jesus. We've left everything to follow you. We've left everything behind, everything that mattered, everything we thought we knew, all of the resources, all the relationships we thought that were so important. We've left all of that behind to follow you. And I hear in that and we're wrestling with do we do the right thing? Do we make the right decision? I'm not sure this is not looking the way that I thought it would. It's not going in the direction I thought it would. And Jesus responds. He says, Truly, I tell you, no one who has left home, or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, along with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. Jesus says, When you enter into the family of God, what you find is even if you have to walk away from some things, what you find is so much is returned to you in the church. That everyone has a place and a purpose. Everyone has a Eunice and a Lois in the church. Even if your biological family didn't provide that, the spiritual family can and will.

And so, moms, I pray today that you would be encouraged knowing that no matter where you are, how close to family you are, you are a part of our family and we need you. We need your encouragement. We need your challenge. We need your stories of of God's faithfulness in your life. We need your loving memory to remind us of all the ways that God has done and will do and continues to do for us to live into that legacy. The last thing that I'll point us to this morning as we finish. As Paul challenges Timothy to to be faithful to what you already know to be true. Keep holding on to that story, to those legacies that's been passed down to you. And not only that, remember who it is that's all around you all the time. Remember? Who's for you? Remember who's praying for you, remember who's challenging you and encouraging you. He adds this the third one. He says, You know the scripture. How from infancy you have known the scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. Well, says God's wisdom, His word. It has the power to teach. It has the power to save. Timothy's mother and grandmother kept pointing him back to the Scriptures over and over again. Paul said, Timothy, you've known these since you were a baby, since you were a child, and your mama's arms and your grand mama's arms.

And she was speaking these words over you, praying them over you, singing them over you, drawing you back to them. And if you know Timothy's story of trying to be a leader in the early church to appoint elders to to find men who could help him lead right alongside, to take the church to the next stage, the next step in the process that he was drawing upon the wisdom of scriptures. And so this morning, moms, I want to thank you. Thank you for pointing us back to the to the wisdom of scripture. Thank you for pointing us back to the truth that has the power to lead us through challenging circumstances. Thank you for leading us back to the word that that is so powerful. It separates joint and marrow. It separates flesh from bone right inside spiritually. It it reveals who we are, but it also helps us become who we've always wanted to be. Moms, thank you for believing in us and helping us to remember those things that are so true about us, but we often fail to see them. But thank you mostly for loving Jesus so much. That you would keep pointing us back to him. Back to his way. Back to his life, back to his example, back to his faithfulness. That's the lasting legacy of our moms. Father. I am so thankful for my own mother. And for her loving legacy that she has passed on to me and my family.

And as challenging and as. As painful as it is to think of life without her now. I can't help but smile when I think of her because she lived her whole life for that moment when she would cross into glory as she risked everything. On that promise that you're faithful. Even when it looks like it's persecution and suffering and trials of many kinds. Father. Thank you. That she's not the only example that I can draw upon. Of women, spiritual mothers and grandmothers who have lived that way for me and for my siblings and for my children, my family. Yeah. Thank you for the spiritual mothers and grandmothers in this room today. Who have been faithfully loving and praying for kiddos all over the world. To know and to love and to follow you. Thank you for their constant challenges to us, to me to remember what we already know to be true. To remember those promises that that we know. To hold on to him. Thank you for their reminder to keep looking around us at the that we're not walking this road of life alone, that we're on this journey together. That you called us to be family. And though for some of us, that meant we had to walk away from some people in our past who weren't pointing us toward you but God, we get to walk into a new community filled with. With brothers and sisters. Fathers and mothers. Grandparents. Cousins, extended family, aunts and uncles who get to be for us that true family.

So God, wherever we are today on this journey, Lord, I pray that you would encourage us. Would you encourage our moms today to keep holding on to the word of life, to keep taking that time that they take to spend in your word every day or as often as they can? Would you give him the courage to keep holding on and patient patient endurance as they bear up with us? Because sometimes, God, we can be a bit much. Yeah. Would you strengthen them and encourage their hearts? And Lord, as your children, may we follow in the way of Jesus? Just the way that our moms would want us to. Father, thank you again for your amazing love for the legacy that we receive from our moms. Would you help us to live a life worthy of that calling? A life worthy of that legacy? Oh, God. We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen.