#308 - The Faith of a Mother - 2 Timothy 1.5

Unknown Speaker (0:03): This message was recorded live at Arvin Assembly of God. What you are about to hear is a sermon preached during one of our regular church services. We pray that as you listen, the word of God strengthens your faith, deepens your understanding, and draws you closer to Jesus. Let's tune in to today's broadcast.

Speaker 1 (0:27): Second Timothy chapter one. Of course, today is Mother's Day, and on this day, we honor mothers. We celebrate them. We thank God for mothers, but I wanna do something just a little bit different this morning. I don't wanna just honor mothers for what they've already done.

Speaker 1 (0:47): I wanna commission you mothers here today for what's still in front of you because here's something that I've noticed in the church, at least spiritually speaking. We tend to talk about motherhood like it has an expiration date or something. Like, the discipleship years are when the kids are little and growing up. Like, once the kids grow up, they start to go and have their own lives and our job is done. That's really not what the Bible tells us about motherhood.

Speaker 1 (1:25): And so I wanna give us just a little bit of context for what we are about to read this morning. This letter, second Timothy, is the last letter that the apostle Paul wrote. And he is writing from the inside of a Roman prison, and he knows that he's about to be executed. And so this that we're gonna read today is his final letter, his last words on this side of eternity. And he's writing to a young man by the name of Timothy.

Speaker 1 (1:58): Now Timothy isn't a child. He's a grown man, and he is pastoring a church in the city of Ephesus. And Paul calls Timothy his beloved son in the faith. And Timothy has been Paul's traveling companion, his mentor mentee. Paul had been discipling Timothy, and Timothy was a faithful ministry partner for many, many years.

Speaker 1 (2:26): Now Timothy was raised in a small, small town by the name of Lystra. Now you may remember that when Paul was on his missionary journey. Lystra is outside of Israel. We would say, we're not in Kansas anymore. Lystra was a small little community, kind of like a a travel city.

Speaker 1 (2:50): You wouldn't wanna go and stay very long in Lystra. You would just pass by, get whatever you need until you got on to the next city. It's interesting to me because Lystra was heavily paganized. In fact, they had a temple and a priest to Zeus. And if you remember, that is where Paul was stoned and left for dead in the city of Lystra.

Speaker 1 (3:14): In fact, Paul and Barnabas, they raised a a crippled man, and the Lord healed him miraculously. And the people thought that Barnabas was Zeus and that Paul was Hermes. And so that's a little bit of the background about Lystra. Now Timothy's mother was a Jewish believer named Eunice, and his grandma was a woman by the name of Lois. And from what we can gather in scripture, we can say this with a a a full degree of certainty.

Speaker 1 (3:51): Timothy's dad was not a believer. And so Eunice was passing down the faith in a home where her husband wasn't walking with the Lord. That's interesting because she did it anyways. And the grandma Lois stood right beside her. And so here's what I want us to be able to see this morning.

Speaker 1 (4:17): Paul opens his letter, his very last letter by remembering Lois and Eunice. And near the end of the letter, he points back to them again. In other words, in Paul's final words to Timothy, in the last recorded words on this side of eternity, a mother and a grandmother, they get mentioned twice. That's how important their work was. Would you stand for the reading of God's word?

Speaker 1 (4:55): Second Timothy chapter one verses three through seven. The apostle Paul says, I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers did. As without ceasing, I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you being mindful of your tears that I may be filled with joy. When I called to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Speaker 1 (5:45): For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. Would you join me in prayer? Father, in the precious name of Jesus Christ, today as we take time to honor our mothers, we are also honoring the work that you do in the lives of each and every single one of them. And so, God, we pray that you would be active even in this moment, that your word would settle and dwell richly within us, that we would see, that we would hear, and that, Lord, we would walk away today with a resolve like never before to pass on our faith. In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1 (6:29): You may be seated. I don't know if you caught it or not what the apostle Paul was doing. Again, he's writing to a grown man, to a pastor, and he's on the verge of death. And he is tracing the faith of his beloved son Timothy to his mother and to his grandmother. Lois, Eunice, and Timothy.

Speaker 1 (7:00): That is three generations of faith. And so Paul says, Timothy, when I think of your faith, I don't just see you. I see the women that are behind the scenes that have handed it down. And so this morning mothers, I want you to hear the word of the Lord. Your work does not end when your children grow up.

Speaker 1 (7:28): It just changes shape and direction. And so here's the question that I want to put in front of us this morning as we look at these verses. Is your faith mom? Is it being handed down? And I believe that the Apostle Paul gives us two answers from this very text that will show us today.

Speaker 1 (7:52): Here's the first one. We need to be able to show our children our faith. And the first answer to this question is this. It's the the faith that gets handed down. It's the faith that your children see in you.

Speaker 1 (8:11): I want you to look at back at verse number five with me. Because the Apostle Paul says, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Now I want us to think about the way that the Apostle Paul describes faith. The faith that is in them. He describes their faith as genuine.

Speaker 1 (8:45): Now, some translations use the word unfiend, and others will say sincere. And the original language behind this carries the idea of a faith that is not performing. A faith that is not pretending. A faith that is not fake. It is not something that is activated when you get into the presence of other people.

Speaker 1 (9:10): One commentator said it like this. He said, sincere faith means possessing heartfelt trust, not merely professing religious words. That reminds me a lot of what we've been studying in James, doesn't it? Because James doesn't want us to just be hearers of the word. He wants us to be doers of the word.

Speaker 1 (9:34): He wants our faith to be matched with what we have learned, with what we have believed, and to be genuine as we are out in this world. This is the difference. And so, sincere mother doesn't just talk the talk. She actually genuinely trusts the Lord. And there's no gap in between the woman that she is on a Sunday morning, or on a Monday evening, or on a Tuesday afternoon.

Speaker 1 (10:10): This is the kind of faith that Paul was describing that Lois had. The kind of faith that Eunice had, and Timothy saw it. Now I want you to look at the next phrase that the apostle Paul uses, and it's found here in verse number five. We move from a genuine faith to now with a description of the faith that dwells. Their faith dwelt in them.

Speaker 1 (10:46): It lived in them. It made their its home on the inside of them. Now, this particular word is highly highly significant. And the Apostle Paul uses this same word in other parts of the Bible to describe the way that the Holy Spirit dwells within a believer. And he uses it with the way that the word of God dwells within us.

Speaker 1 (11:16): It is the language of something that takes up permanent residence. Their faith wasn't something that just visited them on Sunday mornings. It wasn't transient. It wasn't like going and getting an Airbnb and having a temporary residence for just a period of time. No.

Speaker 1 (11:39): This is something that lived and dwelt and habitated their entire being. Faith is not a light switch that you turn on and off. Faith must be fully integrated into our entire being. And Paul says this is what Timothy grew up watching. Now I want you to think about Eunice's situation for just a moment.

Speaker 1 (12:09): Now, again, all indications from the Bible tells us that her husband was not a believer. And we don't know the whole backstory as to how that happened or why. Most likely, she was part of a generation that had to be dispersed outside of the land of Israel. Perhaps there was some servitude or slavery that was involved. We don't know all of the details, But we do know this.

Speaker 1 (12:39): She was raising a little boy in a home where dad is not going to take him to synagogue. She's raising him in a home where dad is not going to teach him the scriptures. You know what's sad to me is I'm not trying to beat up on dads or anything like that, but it sounds a lot like Christian manhood today, where the father just takes a passive role and doesn't really impart the word of God. And he's just in he's just in the background. This was the reality for the way that Timothy grew up.

Speaker 1 (13:23): Timothy's dad wasn't a model for what it looked like to walk with God. And so Eunice had to pick that up. And Lois, the grandma, she was right there all along the way. She didn't just bring Timothy up with words, although she did. But she brought Timothy up with the faith of her own life day after day, year after year.

Speaker 1 (13:54): And by the way, remember, she lived in a hostile environment to the things of God. She lived in an area that had a different world view than the nice safe confines within the borders of Israel. At this time, it would have been easy for her to just blend in, just keep the peace. There's an English preacher by the name of John Stott, and he wrote about this passage. And he made a point that I think we need to hear.

Speaker 1 (14:32): He said, no one inherits their parents' faith the way they inherit their parents' eye color. You don't get faith handed down through DNA. But he says this, a child can be led to faith by his parents' teaching, example, and prayers. By teaching, by example, and by prayers. These are the things that a mother does.

Speaker 1 (15:03): These things don't expire when your kids hit 18. And this morning, we are seeing the biblical model of how this work. Decades after Eunice raised Timothy, Paul looks at this grown man, this pastor in Ephesus, and he says, Timothy, when I see you, I see your mother in you. Talk about a compliment. Talk about some encouragement.

Speaker 1 (15:43): Wouldn't you like that said about you mother? That when I see your child, I see you. I recognize the handprint of the Godly heritage that you have passed down. That is incredible to me. This is every mother's job.

Speaker 1 (16:10): If you're a young mother this morning with little ones, you need to know they're watching you even right now. They're watching if you actually pray or you don't. They're watching whether the same mom they see at church on Sunday morning is the same mom that they see at home. Our little ones, they take all the information in. And so moms, I would say to you, don't pretend to have the faith.

Speaker 1 (16:45): Have the faith. Live it out day by day. And if you're a mom and you've got teenagers, I know it feels like they've stopped listening. I know it feels like every time something spiritual is brought up, the the eye rolls begin, and there are questions. But don't be fooled.

Speaker 1 (17:06): They're still watching no matter what. They watch how you handle stress. They watch how you talk about people who have hurt you. They're watching whether your faith is real, especially when life gets difficult. And teenagers are really, really good at smelling out hypocrisy and being able to tell if somebody is pretending or not.

Speaker 1 (17:34): They are masters at it except for when it comes to themselves. Right? Amen? They know when something is real and when something is genuine. And if you're a mom this morning with grown children, maybe they have their own lives and their own homes now.

Speaker 1 (17:57): Maybe some of them are walking with the Lord, and maybe some of them aren't. And maybe you've done the the the hard years of trying to drag them to church, or trying to get them to sit down for dinner, or trying to teach them how to pray before bed. You need to know this morning that your faith is still on display. Every time they come over for dinner, they're watching. Every time they have a difficult day and they need to call for some advice, they're listening.

Speaker 1 (18:31): Every time they wanna dump off the grandkids for a little bit, you have grandkids that are watching too. And here's the thing about adult children. They don't always tell you that they're watching. They might they might change the subject when you try to bring up the things of the Lord, or they might act like they've outgrown all of that, or they're just in a different phase intellectually. Right?

Speaker 1 (18:56): I I love the intellectual ones like, oh, you just don't know. They think they're real smart, don't they? But here's the thing, they're still watching. And the faith that they see in you in the everyday little things might just be the faith that's gonna break through to them one day. And here's one of the things that I've observed in ministry over and over again throughout the years.

Speaker 1 (19:25): Adult children don't usually come back to the faith because mom tried to argue them into it. They come back because they watched usually a mother that has gone through something and she made it out on the other side with peace. Maybe they watched a mom who had to bury their father and she still came out with peace. Or they watched a mom that loved unconditionally that child or grandchild without ever giving up hope on them. That is usually the key ingredient when adults who were raised in church leave the faith and end up coming back.

Speaker 1 (20:12): And so mom, don't quit. Don't give up. Normally, come back because mom is living it. And so moms, whatever season you're in this morning, don't hide your faith to try to keep the peace at home. Don't water down your walk.

Speaker 1 (20:33): Don't water down the gospel because somebody might be watching. Don't apologize for the way that you walk with Jesus. Don't fake it. Live it out. Live what this word says.

Speaker 1 (20:49): Live it the way that Eunice lived it. Genuine, sincere, without pretending. And let your faith dwell in you the way it dwelt in them. Because that faith that's in you, it is being handed down by the faith that they see in you. So I wanna come back to this question now.

Speaker 1 (21:18): Mom, is your faith being handed down? And the first answer was a faith that can be seen. Here's the here's the second answer. Teach them the word. Because here's the truth, your example matters.

Speaker 1 (21:43): But your example is not enough. One of my least favorite quotes of all time, which is falsely ascribed to Saint Francis of Assisi is is this, preach the gospel always and only when necessary use words. Somehow that got into the church and somehow that was falsely attributed to this man, and it is a false idea. It gives us the idea that I can just walk around and I don't ever have to open my mouth. I don't ever have to do what we're about to talk about, being able to proclaim the gospel, teach the word.

Speaker 1 (22:22): No. Your example matters. Your life should matter. But moms, we've also we have got to teach the word. Look with me at chapter three now.

Speaker 1 (22:35): First Timothy chapter three. We're gonna jump to the end of the letter because Paul is gonna circle back, and he's gonna now tell us what did Lois and Eunice actually do. Second Timothy chapter three verse 14. He tells Timothy, But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Speaker 1 (23:24): Notice the phrase, from childhood. See, Lois and and Eunice, they didn't wait until Timothy was old enough. Right? They didn't wait till he was old enough to make his own intellectual decisions. That is just like absolutely crazy to me.

Speaker 1 (23:44): Like, oh, no. I'm not gonna pass down the faith. I'm gonna let my child decide for their for their own. No. They started from early childhood.

Speaker 1 (23:55): They didn't wait until he had questions. They didn't wait until he was ready. From childhood, Timothy knew the holy scriptures. Now this is interesting to me because in Jewish tradition, the responsibility for teaching the scriptures to a child first fell on the mother. Mothers taught their children the word of God from the time they could speak until about the age of 10.

Speaker 1 (24:32): And at the age of 10, that is when the responsibility came upon the father to pass on. And so, what's interesting to me is that Timothy did not have a believing father. And so Eunice never got to pass on that baton. She just kept on teaching him. And grandma Lois, you know what she did too?

Speaker 1 (24:58): She kept on teaching Timothy. There's an old preacher by the name of John Calvin who once said this about Timothy. He said Timothy was reared in his infancy in such a way that he could feed in godliness along with his mother's milk. Now that's the picture. Faith that is absorbed from infancy.

Speaker 1 (25:28): The word of God in his ears before he could read. The stories of Abraham and Moses and David. The promises of God which are yes and amen. The Psalms, all of it were handed to this little boy by a mother and by a grandmother who refused to let a day go by without putting the word of God into his heart. Now, I want you to notice what the Apostle Paul said that the holy scriptures were able to do.

Speaker 1 (26:04): Look with me now at verse 15. He says that the holy scriptures were able to make you wise for salvation. Mom, listen to that. Wise for salvation. The word that Eunice put into Timothy as a little boy was able to bring him to salvation.

Speaker 1 (26:32): Now, they didn't have the luxury of the New Testament the way we did. So that meant the Old Testament. That meant the stuff that we think is boring. But what I love about this is that the Apostle Paul calls the word of God, the Old Testament, the law, the covenant. He calls it a schoolmaster.

Speaker 1 (26:52): It's as if the word of God is a guardian. And so when you put the word of God into your child, you are placing that child into the hands of a tutor, in the hands of a guardian, so that they could one day deliver that child to the greatest teacher that ever was, whose name is Jesus. And so moms, we have got to get the word of God first and foremost inside of us. And then we have got to get the word of God into our children. And so use those years.

Speaker 1 (27:36): Pump them full of God's word. Again, it says, the Bible is able to make them wise for salvation. Every single time she would read him a verse, every time she would speak the word over him, or every story she would say, all of that was seed that was being planted into his life. And then here's the amazing part. One day, a man by the name of the Apostle Paul, he travels and he comes into this little insignificant town that's just like a truck stop by the name of Lystra.

Speaker 1 (28:35): And Paul began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the seeds that had been planted from childhood literally broke open. Paul didn't have to start at ground zero with Timothy because Eunice and Lois, they had already prepared until the ground. They had put the scriptures into him. And the word that they planted literally led him straight to Jesus Christ. And can I tell you mom, that is still how it works?

Speaker 1 (29:13): Your children will not get saved on accident. The word of God is a seed and somebody has to plant it. Now, here's the difficult part, mom. The church cannot take your responsibility of getting the word of God into them. You need to understand even adults, all of us men, women, children.

Speaker 1 (29:40): If all you get is a little bit on Sunday morning and a little bit on Wednesday, you ain't gonna make it. You're gonna die. You're gonna be a casual Christian and casual Christians become casualties one day. And so if you're relying on a youth program or or on a Sunday morning, that ain't gonna work. You have got to till that ground.

Speaker 1 (30:06): You have got to do the work for yourself. Your home, whether your husband is a backslid, lukewarm Christian or not, you have got to make your home a sanctuary for the word of God. A sanctuary for prayer. Or they ain't gonna make it because Jesus is coming back, and they might get left behind. And so we've got to wake up.

Speaker 1 (30:34): We have got to get the Word of God into them. Kids don't get saved on accident. And so if you're a young mom, start now. Start now. Read the Bible to your toddler.

Speaker 1 (30:51): Let them hear the mother's voice as you are declaring the word of God. Sing to them the Psalms that David sang. Pray with them at bedtime. Stick verses on the refrigerator. Let the word of God dwell in your house.

Speaker 1 (31:11): Because like Calvin said about Timothy, your kids can feed in godliness along with their milk. And so moms, if you're the ones with teenagers, I know they don't want devotionals at the dinner table. And I know that's not the same like when they were seven or eight years old. But listen, you can still plant the word of God in them. Send them a verse over text.

Speaker 1 (31:41): Talk about the sermon on the way home from church. Mention what you read in your bible that very morning. Keep the word of God hanging in the air because they might act like they're not listening but the word is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword. The word of God will get planted on the inside of them. And if you're a mom or you're a grandma and you've got grown children, you plant the word over them too.

Speaker 1 (32:15): Motherhood and discipleship are not over when they turn 18. You can share a verse on a birthday card. You can send scriptures and text messages when you know they're going through something hard. You can mention what God's been showing you in your studies too whenever they call. So just keep planting because the word of God is able.

Speaker 1 (32:45): It is able to make wise. It is able to bring conviction. The Word of God is able to break through, and it is able to bring salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. You might have planted seeds twenty years ago, and maybe they haven't broken open yet. Don't stop.

Speaker 1 (33:10): Keep planting. The word of God does the kind of work that you can't do. And so mom, read it to them. Speak it over them. Send it to them.

Speaker 1 (33:27): Pray it over them. Live your faith in front of them and put the word of God on the inside of them. Because this is how faith gets passed down. Would you stand to your feet with me this morning? Moms, I've been talking to you all morning, but I want to speak very direct to you for a moment.

Speaker 1 (34:01): Paul wrote this from a prison cell, and he opened his letter. I don't know if you understand or appreciate the significance of this. The last thing that he's gonna write, and he opens his letter by remembering two mothers. These moms never preached a sermon. These moms never wrote a book.

Speaker 1 (34:36): These moms never planted a church, but they raised a son in the faith. And that young man pastored a church in Ephesus. He carried the gospel forward faithfully when the Apostle Paul was gone. And two thousand years later, we still remember their names. Lois and Eunice.

Speaker 1 (35:11): And so this morning moms, the work you do matters. It matters more than you know. The world has lied to you about what your significance truly is. It's not tied up in a title. It's not tied up in a position or a career.

Speaker 1 (35:38): It is tied up in who God has called you to be. And so mom stand tall. Stand firm. We honor you this morning. Your work matters.

Speaker 1 (35:56): And so, come back to this question with me one more time. Is your faith being handed down? Moms, show them. Show them your faith. Be doers of the word, and then teach them the word because that's the way that this is done.

Unknown Speaker (36:18): Would you join me in prayer?