Fruit of the Mother

This transcription is about the importance of mothers and their role in raising faithful children. The speaker references the example of Timothy in the Bible and how his faith was influenced by his mother and grandmother. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of prayer and communication in nurturing young people's faith. Second Timothy chapter 1. I've entitled the message this morning, The Fruit of the Mother. And as I was thinking about different mothers and what can I preach on Mother's Day or for this service this morning, I thought about last week, of course, we went to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and we looked at Bathsheba and what God told the parents to teach to their children and to their children's children and that it may be well with the young. And I thought about the New Testament and I think that we find in a young man by the name of Timothy, we find that example of when we live a life of faithfulness and we do what God tells us to do. Now, we also understand that it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes our best efforts are still succumbed by the free will of that child. But we have to understand and we have to believe that this is God's pattern. And the closer we are to God's pattern, the closer we will have to success. And we see this in a young man by the name of Timothy. And I want to begin in verse 3 this morning. He says, I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou the partakers of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. If we look at this passage this morning and we think about the fruit of the mother, of course, all of us owe a great big thank you to our mothers. Now, we know that fathers play a part in children, but yet it's the mothers that seem to put in all of the work, all of the time, all of the effort, carrying us for up to nine months, and sometimes mothers go a little longer, sometimes they're a little shorter, but that's about the guideline that we go for, and they spend all of that time loving and taking care of and providing for them, and they start out as the mother's love that begins that relationship and that bond even before that child is born. And then we're told quotes like, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. And everybody, you watch sports, you watch anything else, and finally a guy makes it and makes a good play or does something great, and the TV cameras go on to them, and who is it that they thank? Mom. It's mom that they thank. It's mom that they remember. And mothers are very, very important in the lives of young people and even older adults. I'm still a child. I still have a mother and I praise God that I have a mother that I can talk to, that I can still seek guidance and stuff from. And as we look at this, we understand that Timothy, when we are first introduced to him back in Acts 16 and verse 1, it says, Then Paul came to Derbe and Lister, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewish, Jewish and believed, but his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lister in Iconium. Him would Paul have go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep and were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in the number. The one thing that we see and we know about Timothy from the first time that Paul met him was that he had a Jewish mother that was a faithful woman that was a disciple of Jesus Christ. And because she was a disciple of Jesus Christ, she had a son that was a disciple of Jesus Christ. And so when Paul comes to Derbe, he is introduced to this son, Timothy, this child of a certain woman. Now, we don't know whether the father was a disciple or not. It doesn't say. It just tells us that he was a Greek. And so he was a Gentile. We know that there were some Gentiles that did trust Jesus Christ. There's some Gentiles that turned to Judaism even and served the living God. But we are not told of that with this Greek. I seem to imagine that he probably was not a convert or else Timothy would have already been circumcised into Judaism. And so that kind of gives us the idea that probably he wasn't as involved into the religious aspects of Timothy's life. And so we find when Paul finally comes back to 2 Timothy and writes this letter that he makes reference to his mother and his grandmother. And so as we think about that this morning, I wrote down, I jotted down here in your bulletin just five things real quick that I believe every single one of us, whether our children are very, very young, whether our children are very, very old, whether our children are very, very faithful in church, or maybe our children are not faithful and involved in church, I believe that Paul teaches us five things here that every mother, every father, every church member can be doing for our young people. Because as I mentioned last week, if we don't pass on the Gospel, if we don't share Jesus Christ with the next generation, the Gospel is going to go away. The Gospel is not going to be here. Our churches are going to be empty. And so it is up to us. And notice what Paul begins with here in verse 3. And the first point is the firmness of prayer. As I got to thinking about that, that firmness is that ability to stick to it, to stay, to not be swayed in a different direction. But I also think it's also referring to the frequency of prayer. Notice he says, I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of Thee in my prayers night and day. If you listened to the choir special a while ago, they repeated the phrase over and over and over. And it was the phrase that prayer is the key to heaven, but faith opens the door. And I want us to look at that because notice here that Paul doesn't necessarily start with the faith. He is going to end in faith, but what does he start with? He starts with prayer. He starts with praying for young Timothy. We know that his mother and grandmother had to be praying for Timothy because they were Jewish women. They were disciples of Jesus Christ. We know just as a bare minimum of being a disciple in Judaism that they at least prayed three times a day in the morning and in the afternoon and at night. And so we know that they had to be praying for Timothy. And what I want us to understand this morning is we have to, if we're going to look at prayer as being the key to heaven and being the firmness of prayer and the stability and the foundation of raising and having fruit for Jesus Christ, we have to understand that prayer is a privilege. Prayer is a privilege. And I forget that we forget sometimes that we get to have the opportunity of taking every thought, of every care, of every worry that is in our mind, that comes across our heart, and we have the privilege to go before the Creator, the God of all gods, the Lord God that we serve, and make our requests known unto Him, knowing that He cares for us, knowing that He doesn't want us to worry, that He doesn't want us to be anxious. And notice the privilege of this. He says, not only do I pray without ceasing, but I do it every night and every day. We know that the greatest privilege is prayer, but do you also understand that prayer is the greatest comfort? There's something about it and now having a teenage son, you know, that's starting to drive and starting to get freedom and having a daughter that's now in her twenties that now has two children. Prayer has really, really become important for my kids because not only is it a privilege, but it's also a comfort. It's comforting to know that when I go to God and I share Him my burdens, I share Him my worries and my concerns, that He hears me. That He listens to me. And so look, He says, I have remembrance of Thee in my prayers day and night. When we love the Lord and we bring these prayers to Him, we experience God removing that burden from off of our hearts. We experience the Lord answering our prayer. We begin to grow for Jesus Christ and hopefully our faith is increased because we see and learn as God answers that prayer. But not only is there the beginning, the firmness, or the frequency of prayer, but look at verse 4. There's the fervor for communication. And I think sometimes as parents, we forget this. And where he says here, Paul says, "...greatly desiring to see Thee, being mindful of Thy tears, that I may be filled with joy." Now, Paul desires companionship. But I also believe that as we're going to see here in just a moment, that the mothers and grandmothers should desire companionship. There is nothing like sitting down and sharing our burdens with mama. But there's also nothing better than sharing our burdens with companions. And that's what we find with the church. That's what we find in and of the church. If you remember for just a moment now, Paul is where? He is in a cold, dark dungeon as he is writing 2 Timothy. He is not under house arrest. He is now chained down at the deals, awaiting his death, knowing that the day of his death and his end of this life is shortly to come. And what is he doing? He is thinking about the people that he has been involved in. He is thinking about those that have had an impact in his ministry. And he remembers this young disciple by the name of Timothy. Man, can you imagine for just a minute some of the intimate times that they had as we read back there in Acts 16. Immediately Paul did what? He had them circumcised because his father was Greek and they knew that they were fixing to go into the Jewish synagogue. And because the Jews knew that he was a Greek, we just found out in Acts 15 that circumcision has absolutely nothing to do with salvation. Paul just went back to Jerusalem and established that fact and shut the mouths of those that were coming from Jerusalem that were saying that you Gentiles need to be circumcised also. But yet, we find in Acts 16 that Paul tells young Timothy to go ahead and be circumcised. And we find Timothy doing what? Being obedient. Being obedient. We find him opening up his heart and opening up his life. And we find him because of that, he sets out with Paul. They go and begin to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and man, churches are being established everywhere. Timothy was a young man that was found in all three of Paul's missionary journeys. Timothy was with him. Timothy was one of the ones trusted. You read Thessalonica. You read Colossae. When he would send these letters to these churches, usually it was by the hand of Timothy, and he would send that letter to that church, and then at the end of it he says, Timothy, hurry and get back to me. Hurry up and come home, or I'm coming to you. You see, the good thing is is that we need to understand there's something also good about sharing our burdens with one another. See, when we share our burdens and we share our heartaches, what happens is, is it brings glory to God, because none of us is capable of solving our own problems. Amen? Most of us, including myself, the more I try to fix problems, the worse that it gets. I was talking to someone the other night. I believe it was Friday night. They had said that they had been tearing out their bathroom to remodel it, and they made the comment, I am good at tearing things up. And I told them, I'm good at tearing things up, but my problem is, is I usually tear it up more than what it can be repaired, right? It's usually not fixable when I get a hold of it. And that's just the way it is with life. It just seems like, man, we cannot fix our problems, but what happens is when we share these burdens through prayer to God and through companionships with our brothers and sisters in Christ and with our mothers, then guess what? All of a sudden, those burdens get lifted and God gets the glory because we're able to see how God works and God moves in this. And I'm not just talking about just basic prayer. I'm talking about confessing. I'm talking about sharing the deepest burdens that you have upon your heart with another individual. And so we see, first of all, the firmness of prayer. We see the fervor of communication. But then here's where the mother's coming in. Look at what happens. And none of this could have happened. The influence that Timothy had on Paul could not have happened if it wasn't for his mother and his grandmother. And so notice here the faithfulness of mothers. Look at what it says in verse 5. When I call to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in my grandmother Lois and in my mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. Paul now goes to think about, man, this young guy Timothy that has been a son in the faith, that has been an individual that has stuck by my side, that has gone through thick and thin with me, that has gone and started churches. And when he thinks about this young man, he immediately thinks about the family. Most of us cannot be separated from our families, amen? Most of us, good or bad, it seems like whatever family we're born into, that kind of follows us all everywhere that we go. Fortunately for Timothy, he had a family that was built around faith. And this strong Christian parents that taught him the Scriptures. And it uses the word there in the King James, this unfamed faith. Unfamed means genuine or without hypocrisy. Unfortunately, I've mentioned many a time, and it's true and it's sad also, but I believe a lot of our young people and stuff are not in church today and are not serving God today because of our hypocritical faith. In other words, because we as parents and my parents and other parents have lived a life that they say they love Jesus Christ with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their might, with all thy strength, but their actions didn't prove it. Their actions didn't live it out. But see, Lois and Eunice, his mother and his grandmother, they had a faith that was not hypocritical. They loved God. And where did they get this? They didn't have the New Testament that we have. What were they studying? What were they placing into the heart of this young Timothy that made him a young disciple of Jesus Christ? Well, it goes back to Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. This is what they were teaching him. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and thou shalt be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the post of the house and on thy gates. Proverbs, the wisest man that has ever lived, said train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from yet. And man, there's been a lot of people that have misinterpreted that passage of Scripture. What's he saying? He's saying train up a child. In other words, teach them when they are very, very young. And that word old, we think of my age, right? I'm getting old. And some of you are getting old. Do you realize this word old here is actually literally a teenager? And we have this idea that guess what? Teenagers are going to be teenagers. They're going to go and they're going to sow their wild oats. They're going to go do what they want to do. But man, I have raised them in church. I have taught them in church. And so let them go and do what they want. Let them be the prodigal son and leave the family and leave the church. And all of a sudden, they will eventually come back. But how's that working out for us, right? And we have this idea that this is opportunities for them to be that prodigal. And the prodigal son is a great story. It's a great thing that Jesus Christ taught. But unfortunately, guess what? It doesn't always happen that way. But Solomon is saying that if we'll train them kids up when they're babies, when they're real small, that when they get to that teenage, when they get to them formative years where they're able to make decisions and formulate what they are going to do for Christ, it is that age that they're going to stick with God and they're not going to go away. And so man, that kind of just changes just a little bit of our understanding and how critical it is to not have a hypocritical faith when our kids are young. And so notice here as we look at this, this glorious testimony, this awesome responsibility of His mother and His grandmother. And I meant to look up the statistics and I didn't get time and I forgot about it this morning, but there's statistics that show how many kids that are brought to church and came to church because of their mother, the percentage of them that continue to stay in church. But do you realize if the father gets involved, it goes up astronomically? But praise God for mothers. You know, there's many a times and Kentucky is one of them exceptions to the rule. Kentucky is one of these churches that I've actually have men that will come without their wives. I have fathers that come without their children. I actually have as many men as women usually coming to Kentucky. Haven't always had that. I've had a lot of times a congregation where it was filled with nothing but women and I praise God for mothers and grandmothers. And Timothy, his father was a Greek, but his mother and his grandmother put the Word of God in him. They put that faith in him. And so notice here as they committed themselves to God, to teaching him to love the Lord by God with all of his heart, with all of his soul, and with all of his strength. Notice the fourth thing that Paul says in v. 6. He says, Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. The fourth thing that we have once we have firmness and frequency of prayer. Once we have fervor for communication, that bond where we're sharing our burdens, where we're sharing our concerns. See, I think a lot of us as parents have actually put ourselves up on this pedestal where we think that you know what? We can do no wrong. I think some of the greatest relationships and bonding that I've made with my children is when I confess my sins. When I tell my kids, hey, y'all need to pray with me because I don't know where this is going to go. I don't know God's answer. I don't know what's going to happen. See, I think if we really have an unhypocritical faith, we are going to live out that faith. We are going to show that trust and that need and that desire for God which is going to be produced in that faithfulness of our lives. But every once in a while, we're going to need to fend that flame, right? We're going to need to come back and touch base and fend that faith. And that's what Paul was able to do and what he was doing here. He goes back and he says, I put thee, talking about Timothy, in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God. Now, I mentioned earlier that Paul, remember, he's in prison. Why is he in prison? For preaching Jesus Christ. What is Timothy supposed to be doing? Since we just finished up Ephesus, I'll have you know that when Paul writes to Timothy, he's actually pastoring the church at Ephesus at this time. Paul told us that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings. And what did he tell them to do? He said stir up that gift. Fend that flame. You go to Revelation and you also find out about the church at Ephesus that sometime after Timothy is pastor, it says that they lost their first love. They left their first love. But you see this root. You see this core that is down deep in the life of Timothy. And Paul says, guess what? Once you are saved, you are always saved. But there's sometimes we need to be fanned just a little bit, right? There's sometimes that we just need to be poked and prodded just a little bit. And that's what Paul is telling young Timothy. But there was a flame that was there to work with. Oh, my heart breaks when parents tell me I know my child was saved at a young age. Maybe they were. Maybe they wasn't. But if they were saved and that Spirit ought to be there to where they ought to be convicted by the Holy Spirit and with our prayers and with our fervor and with our faithfulness, what we begin to do is we begin to fend that flame. It may be that they were not saved to begin with. And maybe we need to share the Gospel with them and see them saved. But notice what's happening here. He said we need to fan. Now, if you know anything about restarting a fire when a fire is dimmed down overnight and you got the coals that are there that have been smoldering since about 3 a.m. in the morning and you get up at 5 or 5.30 and you start your cup of coffee and you're getting ready to get your fire going back in the house, what do you usually have to do? You go and shake and see if there's a little bit of coals there and you slowly start fanning it. What happens if you fan it real fast? You blow it out. And unfortunately, that's what some of us kind of do, don't we? Sometimes we go after our kids. You need to do this. You need to be in church. You need to, you need to, you need to. And we fan so strong that what? That little bit of fire, that little bit of conviction makes them run and makes them flee. Sometimes it's just the lightest of breeze. It's just the mentioning, hey, would you join me in church on Sunday? Would you read your Bible with me? Would you sit down and pray with me? Will you sit down and share your burdens with me? Would you share what's going on? See, sometimes it's the small things that help us. It's not the constant nagging or the beating them down that is there. And here is the whole key to this entire passage of Scripture. You have to have faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You have got to have faith in the Word. Where did Kenneth get his faith from? His mother and his grandmother, who what? Had faith. Notice the faith that he had. And Paul was sure. He said this faith started first of all in your grandparents, your mother and your grandmother. And then look at what he says in verse 7. Here's how I know that that faith is real. Here's how I know that your salvation is real. For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but be thou therefore taker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God. See, young Timothy is in a very vulnerable position right now because he is pastoring a church. He is living for Jesus Christ. But his mentor, his friend, his co-partner, Paul is where? In prison for doing exactly what Timothy is doing now. You can easily get disheartened. Well, if God's not going to help him or release him, then what have I got, right? You can kind of see where he's going, but notice what he says there. He says that he has come. He says, be thou not ashamed of the testimony of Christ. See, it don't always work out the way that we want it to work out, right? And sometimes it's easy to pray to God. Sometimes it's easy to blame God. Sometimes it's easy to cast the problems onto God. Because why? We become ashamed of God because He didn't answer the way that we have. But you remember what Romans said? Romans says that all things work together for good to them who are called according to His purpose. See, we have to understand that it may not work out to our plan. You know, Paul ended up in prison. Timothy ended up pastoring a church. They were both on the same missionary journeys. They were both preaching the same Jesus Christ. They were both doing the same things. Why did one end up in prison and the other end up continuing to pastor a church? He says, who has saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. See, we have to have faith that God is the One that saves. We don't save. It's God that saves. It is God that calls us and gives our life purpose. That's why it's so very important for us to go back and to pray for those that are not doing what they're supposed to be doing. We are to go back and pray for those that are doing what they're supposed to be doing so that what? They will continue to do what they're supposed to be doing. So it doesn't matter whether your children are in church serving God or not serving God. These principles are all the same if you have faith in the Gospel. Look at what he says in verse 10. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Paul said that the sting of death is sin. And the fear of death is the grave. But guess what? Christ abolished that. Christ done away with that. He has brought life and immortality. He doesn't want us to live in sin. He doesn't want us to live this life controlled and dominated by sin. He wants us to have life. He wants us to be set free. And notice what Paul is so convicted He says, Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. See, Paul was so convicted in what I believe Timothy's mother and grandmother was convicted. Because see, what is faith? Faith is simply trusting God and loving God enough that you're willing to obey Him. And Paul said, Guess what? My ministry is to go and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am appointed a preacher. But guess what? Your mother and grandmother was also a preacher. They may not have pastored a church or they may not have had a mission field and they may not have went all over the world preaching the Gospel, but guess what? They preached to you. Not only in their words, but also in their unhypocritical faith. They lived what they believed. And he finishes here in verse 12 and he says, For the witch calls, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I am persuaded. That is an unhypocritical faith. That is a faith that is willing to live it. That is a faith that is willing to talk about it. That is a faith that is so real that it is played out into our life. The question that I want to ask this morning is if your faith is not real, then I can almost guarantee your child's faith is not going to be real. If your faith is real, I can almost guarantee, but I can't guarantee that their faith will be real either because they have a human nature. And the thing that Paul taught was a principle. But guess what? I have more of a shot of having a real faith if your faith is real than if they don't have any faith as an example to begin with. And so is your faith real? If it's not, then ask yourself the question, who do you really trust? Who do you really trust? Do you remember Deuteronomy 6? To love the Lord thy God with all thy strength, with all thy soul, and with all thy heart. Maybe it's not a who do you trust, but what do you trust? You know, we put a lot of trust in things of this world. We put a lot of trust in finances. We put a lot of trust in education. We put a lot of trust in our government. God told the nation of Israel, He said what? There's only one that we can trust in and that's the Lord thy God. And Him only do I trust. Is your faith without hypocrisy? See, we want to have fruit. We want to exhibit fruit. As a matter of fact, in 1 Timothy 2, and it's amazing because Paul gives a little illustration there talking about mothers and he talks about what a mother's role in a mother's deal. And he goes back all the way to Adam and Eve and he shares how that Eve was deceived. But yet he makes this statement. He said even in her deception and knowing that because of her being deceived, Adam willfully chose to sin. He didn't do it out of ignorance. And he said, guess what? It is the woman that can bring salvation through childbirth. How is a woman to bring salvation through childbirth? Because that child that you took and nourished for nine months in your womb, that child that was birthed, that you rocked the cradle, that you fed, that you changed their diaper, that you cared for. Guess what? You know that they were a sinner because of the deception of the woman, but guess what? You also know that the power of the Gospel is real and that the Gospel is true and that it's through your witness and your faith that that child can be saved. And who knows? That child may be the next Timothy. They may be the next Paul. They may be the next Brother Donny. They may just be the next you that just lives their entire life of faith. Of faith. Just trusting God. I don't know what You have for me today. I don't really know what You have for me tomorrow, but God, I just trust You. Aren't we trusting God? See, we need to get back to the faith of Timothy's mother and grandmother. A faith that is unhypocritical. We say we believe God, but do our actions show it? As we stand and have a verse of invitation this morning,