Motherhood in God's Story: Legacy of Faith and Courage

And I I want you to know that Jesus knows right where you're at, and he understands all of that, and that he loves you. And I want us to be reminded of that together today that wherever that you are that that God has the love that you need. And we're gonna be reminded of that today as we're gonna get into God's word, but we also, we wanna celebrate God's design of motherhood. Motherhood is God's idea, and it is a beautiful thing. And we are so so thankful that he has given that to us, and he is worthy of us to praise him for that, of his good design. [00:04:06]

And today, I think, you know, motherhood is is pretty challenging. It's always been challenging, but I think it's especially challenging right now. And today, we really want to honor and show appreciation to our mothers that are here, and and some of my favorite moms are here today. My wife and my own mother and my mother-in-law, and I'm just so glad that we could be together today. And you know, here in America, this is of course kind of a big day, a big holiday. [00:22:04]

And again, this is God's design in the way that God does things and, you know, when when motherhood and even fatherhood, when it gets deemphasized in in society and in culture, it of course is going to have a negative impact, a negative effect. And I think that we may be seeing some of that result now, is when you minimize God's design and appreciating God's design, there will be consequence to that. So, we do need to show honor to whom honor is due. [00:23:09]

And the reality is, you know, there is no perfect mother, because there are no perfect people. We all fail, we all mess up, but being a mother is a tough tall order. And I I think especially right now, and moms, wanna tell you today, you matter. And you matter a lot. You have a huge impact. Moms and and grandmothers, your responsibility is great. Your influence is far reaching. [00:26:23]

There may be days where you walk through life feeling like you're carrying the weight of the family and the world on your shoulders. And I'm sure that there may be times that you feel like you don't measure up. There may be times where you even carry maybe a sense of false guilt or you feel like you're failing and that you have failed so much or that you hope or wish you would have done it better. And, of course, social media doesn't help with that because you've got little miss perfect mom that's on there saying, well, I did it right and you should follow my 10 step plan. And it only makes it worse. [00:27:01]

And the reality is is, again, there's no perfect mom because there are no perfect people, we all fail. And motherhood is something that in and of itself, you're not going to reach perfection in it, but in motherhood, what you can see is something that will point you to one who is perfect. In God's design, in the way that he has made this. You see what motherhood will will show us as well as fatherhood, as well as childhood and adulthood, it will show you, you're gonna mess up and you need somebody that won't. You need a savior. [00:27:49]

And what it will show you, motherhood, fatherhood, and all of them will show you is that you need Jesus. Amen. It will show you that the gospel is sufficient, that the grace of God is abundant. As you rely upon God, you rely upon him day by day. We all need him every single day. And what we see throughout the bible is we see a lot of different kinds of moms. We see moms who did well. We see some moms who didn't do so well. And we're gonna look at a few mothers today in scripture. [00:28:24]

Mothers, you have you have such an opportunity of influence. But this influence that that we have in life that anybody has, I want you to realize that it's not just about your story. It's not just about your your life with you and your kids, but there is a much greater story that's going on in the world today and it is God's story. It is his story, and the question that all of us need to ask in the roles that God has given us in this life is how does my life play into his story And what God is doing? [00:29:18]

I want us to see the example of these moms in scripture today and ask our self the question, what does it look like? What does it mean for me to be a part of God's story and not just live out my story in the few decades that I get to be here. The first, we're gonna look at a a duo of moms, a mom and a grandmother. And here in second Timothy chapter number one, we have this mom and and grandma and their names are Lois and Eunice. That's the grandma and mom of a guy by the name of Timothy. [00:30:22]

The apostle Paul starts off this second letter to Timothy and he's writing to him and he says, Timothy, I'm praying for you. I want you to know that that you are in my prayers. I have you in remembrance. I I want to see you and I'm thankful for your faith and that faith that was first in your mom and in your grandmother, in Eunice and and Lois. Now, I have no doubt that Paul probably met Eunice and Lois as he was traveling on one of his missionary journeys going up through Derby and Lystra, where he met with Timothy there. [00:31:37]

But Paul points out here something about Timothy and about his family and he says that there was an unfeigned faith. They had an unfeigned faith. But notice, where where was that faith first found at? He says, it it dwelt first where? In the grandma and the mom. It was first dwelling there within them. Now, here Paul, he's writing to Timothy, his his son in the faith. Timothy would go on and and be a partner in ministry with the missionary. [00:32:15]

And here he is, one of the what is probably the last letter that Paul writes, and he mentions those ladies by name, that they had impacted Timothy so much. And what was that impact? It's this, and it's the first thing that we see in how we can have a great part in God's story. They left him a legacy of faith of faith. They left him a legacy of simple and sincere faith. What a what a legacy to pass down through the generations, to be known as a family for this kind of faith. [00:33:38]

Unfeigned faith. The word unfeigned, it just simply means genuine. It means it's real. It was a a real faith. It wasn't fake. It wasn't just for show. It wasn't something that we put on and we wear to church on Sundays, and then on Monday, we just kind of live however that we want to, and then put it back on on Sunday and go through that cycle. But it was a real genuine faith. It was authentic. That's one of the the family traits that we want to have here at BBC is that we we live out an authentic faith, a an authentic Christianity, not plastic, not for show, to just be who we are in Jesus Christ, and to live our lives out in that identity of who God has made us in his son. [00:34:24]

But something that should be of greater cause for concern for us in this room is fake Christianity. Of something that is not real. Of somebody just posing, putting on a show that's Christian in name only, that really has no heart change, they haven't really believed the gospel and yet portraying that. But Eunice and Lois here, they had unfeigned faith. It was real. You know folks, for you and I, real Christianity is found here. It's rooted in this. It is rooted in believing the gospel. [00:35:49]

It is rooted in you having faith that Jesus Christ has died for your sins, was buried and rose again, and that he did that for you to redeem you from your sin, to pay the penalty for your sin. Christianity. Without that, you do not have real faith. Unfeigned faith was what grandma and mom had, Eunice and Lois. Anything other than that real faith, that real Christianity is just simply faith or fake. Just going to church or getting baptized or trying to live a Christian life and say, don't drink and I don't chew and I don't hang with people that do. That's not enough. You must believe the gospel. [00:36:26]

The bible tells us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So, the faith that you and I need here, we're instructed in scripture that it's going to come from scripture. The faith that Lois and Eunice had. Do you know where that unfeigned faith came from? It came from the word. They were believing the word. I I think we could definitely say that they were women of the word. They were women of the word. They had given themselves to it and Paul says about them that they had an unfeigned faith and that faith, it dwelt in them. [00:37:30]

You know, if we want our kids, and I think most of us do, you know, we want our kids to live in integrity, we want them to walk with the Lord. But here's the the truth, the reality in this is that parents cannot impart to their children what they don't possess. People, we cannot we cannot pass down something that we don't have ourselves. If we want our children to be children of faith and to love the Lord, we need to love the Lord. If we want our children to pray, then what do they need to see in us? They need to see us praying. If we want them to walk with God, if we want them to be faithful to the Lord, they need to see that in us. If we're going to impart that to them. [00:40:13]

And the most important thing that we can pass on to our kids, the most important legacy that we can leave for our children to the next generation is not wealth, it's not property, it's not some material inheritance of any kind. The greatest thing that you can pass on to the next generation is your faith in Christ. To pass it on. What a great example that these moms are. The next mom I want us to look at is back in the Old Testament, in the second book of the bible. It's the mother of Moses. [00:41:03]

What I wanna see in this mom here in Jochebed is how she had courage in the face of uncertainty. Jochebed was a mom that had courage in the face of uncertainty. This is a troubling time. You think of that kind of an edict coming from the government. Not just permitting the destruction of children, but to actually call for the destruction of children. Infanticide is what pharaoh wanted. He wanted those Jewish boys thrown into the river to perish, and in the middle of all of that and in that troubling time, we see a mom with great compassion. [00:44:08]

And so, she fully trust the God of heaven, entrusted her son to the Lord and by faith acted. And God honored the faith of this woman. He honored her trust so much so that it was pharaoh's daughter that found Moses floating by. And then Miriam comes running and says, hey, you need some help with that baby? She says, yeah, I can use some help. I got just the person. She goes and gets Jochebed, and Jochebed actually ended up being the one that nurtured Moses in those most formative years of her of his life. Moses, the one who would go on to become one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known, leading a nation out of captivity. [00:47:13]

Now, we too, right now, are living in some troubling times. Now, we too, right now, are living in some troubling times. And, you know, we maybe feel like right now our world is on fire and you know why we feel like it's on fire? Because it is. And, literally, in some places, it is. And, it is a very troubling, a very disturbing time that you and I are living in as well. And, our world is a mess, but it's been a mess for a very long time. [00:00:00]

And here you and I are right now at this point in history and the question is with the troubling times that we are faced with in our world right now, how are you and I going to respond to that? Are are we going to just be captured by fear? Are we gonna retreat in fear and worry and be immobilized by all of that? Or are we going to trust God? Are we gonna be courageous in our faith to stand for what is right, to stand for what is true, to trust the faithfulness of almighty God like Jochebed? You see Jochebed knew that her God was greater than her fear, And she trusted God. [00:48:42]

Now, that doesn't mean that courage is easy. Courage can be very difficult. It can be difficult to to trust the Lord at times like she's doing right here, but folks, we need to remind ourselves, stand strong in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. To to take heart, to have courage, remind yourself of that and those reminders go a long way. [00:49:28]

And even when it's hard, know that our God can still be trusted. Even when it's tough, you can rest in him knowing that he will never fail you. What an example that Jacobet is. There's there's a lot of moms that we could talk about in the Bible besides Lois and Eunice and Jacobet, but I got one more that we're gonna go to and maybe the most famous mom in in the Bible. Bible. It was the the young woman that God chose to bring baby Jesus into the world. And I want us to go over to Luke chapter number one and look at Mary. [00:50:59]

You know, there are several things that we could say about Mary that she was a woman of unfeigned faith. I would say she was a woman of courage, but there is something else that we see in Mary as well. She was a a young lady that was fully surrendered and fully submitted to the Lord. Can you be imagine being a teenager, an angel shows up and says, Mary, you're gonna have a baby. And you say, yeah, I got I got big plans, me and Joseph, we we got this thing planned out, you know. [00:51:34]

And you say, yeah, I got I got big plans, me and Joseph, we we got this thing planned out, you know. We you know, we're gonna get hitched soon, we're betrothed and, you know, we'll we'll get married and, you know, we've got the the family, you know, that we're already hoping and planning for, and you know, we've got our house picked out, and you know, the white picket fence, and it's gonna be great Gabriel. And then he said, no, it's not what I'm talking about. No. You're gonna have a child of the Holy Ghost. Now, how would you respond? Your dreams in just a few sentences by an angelic being have been upended. Everything that you've been hoping and planning and wishing for all of a sudden just got flipped on its head. [00:52:07]

Mary's response, she had just heard the most incredible news imaginable, and her response was, God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. God, if that's what you want, I'm yours. And what we see here in Mary and this mom is somebody that is fully surrendered to God's purpose. Mary is fully surrendered to the purpose of God. That is the very heart that she had. God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. [00:53:17]

You know, as we read on through the bible, we see though that that surrender that Mary had, it also was faced with a lot of difficulties in her own life. Mary would be the only one that that would hold the infant Jesus and also be there watching him die thirty three years later. The sword that would pierce her heart, the pain that she would endure, the accusations that she would hear probably all of her life. And yet, she said, I'll I'll do it. Joseph had trouble with it himself, didn't he? [00:53:54]

But Mary would live a life being misunderstood. She would live a life being maligned. Jesus, even in his adulthood, thirty some years later, would have Mary and they they had an accusation about her that Jesus was born in fornication. They had an entire story created, even a name of a Roman centurion that that she had had sexual immorality with and they were throwing that in his face. We be not born of fornication like you Jesus, even in his adult life. That accusation of Mary decades later. But Mary had a heart simply surrendered to God. [00:54:47]

Obedience doesn't mean that life's not gonna get complicated. Obedience doesn't mean that that life isn't going to get hard. Obedience doesn't mean that you're not going to be taken out of your comfort zone. In fact, obedience may push you into an area where you're not comfortable being. But that's where God wants you to be and so you obey. That's what Mary did. Obedience is always worth it. It's always worth it. [00:55:53]

It's always worth it. It's always worth it for you to present yourself to the Lord and just simply say, God, I'm here. I'm your servant. Whatever it is that you want me to do, I will do it. I will obey what you want me to do. You know, we asked the question when we started, how is it that we can have an impact in in God's story? Well, this is one of the ways that you can, as you you present yourself to God in full surrender and saying, God, this this thing isn't about me. [00:56:18]

You know, we asked the question when we started, how is it that we can have an impact in in God's story? Well, this is one of the ways that you can, as you you present yourself to God in full surrender and saying, God, this this thing isn't about me. I'm just gonna be on this planet for a couple of decades, but you've got something that's been going for eternity and I want to be a part of that. And so you you come to God in full surrender to offer yourself and just willingly obey what God wants you to do. And as you go about doing that, you do it courageously like Jochebed. You step out in faith like Lois in Eunice. And in that faith and in courage and surrender, you indeed can have a big part in God's eternal story. [00:56:35]

You know, the reality is in life, there are only a couple of things that are eternal. Just a couple of things. The souls of men is one. Another one is the word of God. There aren't many things that are eternal and the temptation is for us to live our life just focused maybe on our self or focused on the the temporal, focused on things that really ultimately are not going to last. But what God invites us to do, he invites us to have a part in the story that he is writing. [00:57:26]

And folks, I can tell you this. In in a thousand years, in fifteen hundred years when we are up in heaven, there will not be a moment of regret. For faith, there will not be a moment of regret. For surrender, there will not be a moment of regret for you standing courageously for the Lord. As there, we will be standing around the glories of heaven and serving in whatever he's gonna have us doing up there and enjoying all of that and being a part of his story even there. God invites us into that. [00:58:02]

But I want you to know that God is calling you and inviting you to be a part of a greater story, his story. And all of us enter into that story the same way. It starts by us realizing that we have a need for him. It starts by us realizing that we have a need for Christ and that all of us have sinned, all of us had failed, and we need a savior to help take care of our sin. And Jesus indeed wants to do that for you. He came to this earth. He lived a sinless life, and he died for you on the cross. But he didn't stay dead. He rose again. [01:00:17]

And when you believe, when you have faith in what Jesus did for you, he will forgive you of your sin, and you will have a part in his eternal story. That's the savior you need. And maybe you're here this morning and you've never trusted him. I wanna invite you to do that right now. And maybe you are here and you would say, you know, Adam, I I've never trusted Christ to save me, but I'd like you to pray for me. Would you lift your hand right now? Just let me know that you're praying or that you're desiring to know what it means to be a Christian. Would you lift your hand? [01:01:04]

Maybe you need to talk to somebody about some struggles that you've got going on in life. We have folks that will pray with you about that. If you're here and you need to trust Christ, I just encourage you, I implore you do that today. Don't leave here without knowing that heaven is your home and that your sins are forgiven. Let Jesus do that for you today. Do you need to come? [01:02:27]