Home Missions: Mothers' Day 2017 2 Timothy 1:3-9; 3:15

HOME Missions!

2 Timothy 1:3-9; 3:15; Proverbs 22:6

Introduction:  When Mary Ann and I were recruited to join our mission in the early 90s, it was known as “The Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society,” CBFMS (it later was called CBInternational, and then currently, WorldVenture). The companion mission, known today as “Missions Door,” was called “The Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society,” CBHMS. Even though the names have changed, when we discuss “missions” in the church, we usually think of “Foreign Missions” (referring to those serving overseas) and “Home Missions” (referring to those serving stateside).  There is a sense in which God’s mission broadly encompasses the life of every Christian.  Yes, I know it is Mothers’ Day! We want to honor mothers today, and all of our ladies, for the role they have in impacting the next generation for Christ. You have heard the biblical Greek word, oikos, a few times over the last year. (We’re not talking about yogurt!). The word literally means “house” or “home.” It can also refer to small group of people that we “live life with,” those that we spend time with and interact with on a regular basis. At the heart of that group of 8 to 15 people is our family!  Do you see the connection of the “home” to the mission of God? From that perspective, the most basic mission field may be the most important, and the most fruitful, of all…

The Maine* Idea: The home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

I. The Missionary challenge moms face: S-I-N. We have constant reminders of how desperately the world needs the gospel. And here’s a newsflash… it has been that way since the Fall! By one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all because all have sinned. By birth and by choice every human since the fall is a sinner. The consequences of living in a fallen world are all around us every day.  Around AD 250 Cyprian of Carthage wrote a letter to his friend Donatus.  He referred to the “state of the world” when he said,

"Donatus, this is a cheerful world indeed as I see it from my fair garden, under the shadow of my vines. But if I could ascend some high mountain, and look out over the wide lands, you know very well that I should see: brigands on the highways, pirates on the seas, armies fighting, cities burning, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds, selfishness and cruelty and misery and despair under all roofs. It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a company of quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which [7] is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not: they are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians,—and I am one of them."

It only takes about 2 seconds to look around and know beyond any question that we live in a fallen world. War and sickness, violence and poverty, injustice and prejudice. Ungodliness. Yet we have joy and hope in the midst of it! Why? How? We know that life is hard, but God is good, and glory in coming! And it is in this world that God has entrusted parents with the task of protecting, teaching, and discipling their children!

       This is a sinful world! (cf. 2 Tim 3:1-5). The “busyness” of life today has only added to the pressures mothers face. No one deserves a special day all to herself more than today's Mom. A cartoon showed a psychologist talking to his patient: "Let's see," he said, "You spend 50 percent of your energy on your job, 50 percent on your husband and 50 percent on your children. I think I see your problem." Indeed! Consider the picture Paul paints of life in the latter days in 2 Tim 3:1-5…

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,  ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  ⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Great… that is an encouraging start to a Mother’s Day message! That is only part of the problem.

      There is a Corollary to living in a fallen world: Our children are born sinners (and so are we)! There is a corollary truth that complicates a mother’s calling: our children are born sinners (and so are their parents!).

       My mother was completely gray at a young age. The fact that there were seven kids in our family might have been a factor (the other six were really bad!). I read the story of a little girl who was watching her mom do dishes at the kitchen sink. Suddenly she noticed several strands of white hair contrasting her mom’s brunette head. She asked, “Mommy, why are some of your hairs white?” Her mother replied, “Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.” The little girl thought about for minute and then asked, “So how come ALL of Grandma’s hairs are white?” Kids are cute. They are funny. They are sinners. And so are we. So we’ll never be perfect at disciplining and discipling the next generation! But I think God gives mothers a special grace to raise children. Someone said “Motherhood is the ultimate reward and the ultimate sacrifice all in the same breathe.” I like the story of the little boy who was being quizzed by his teacher…

“Suppose your mother baked a pie and there were seven of you, Mom and Dad, and five children. What part of the pie would you get?”

The little boy answered, “A sixth.”

The teacher shook her head, “I am sorry, you don’t know your fractions! I said there were seven of you.”

The boy said, “You don’t know my mother. She would say she didn’t want any pie!”

       The highest calling that God has entrusted to humans is to guide the next generation(s) to the Truth. The most impactful context for that mission is the family.  The home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

II. The Mother’s Calling: Trust God for wisdom to raise your kids well. There is a lot that goes on the agenda for mothers…

The most creative job in the world involves fashion, decorating, recreation, education, transportation, psychology, romance, cuisine, literature, art, economics, government, pediatrics, geriatrics, entertainment, maintenance, purchasing, law, religion, energy and management. Anyone who can handle all those has to be somebody special. She's a homemaker.

        Timothy’s mother, Eunice, didn’t have an ideal situation (see Acts 16:1)… According to the book of Acts, her husband “was a Greek,” and we have no indication that he had yet, by the time Acts and Paul’s letters were written, come to faith in Christ. But Eunice had a believing mother, Lois, and together they had shared their faith with Timothy.

        Timothy was marked by a “sincere faith.” The word Paul uses is literally, “unhypocritical” faith. It wasn’t an act, it wasn’t outward conformity to a set of rules, it was sincere, life changing, trust in Christ alone. Believing who He is and trusting in what He has done for us. Putting on a religious mask does nothing for our soul. The faith that saves, authentic, sincere, “unhypocritical” faith, was something that Timothy saw lived out in his mother and grandmother.

       Mothers can affect the life, character, and eternity of their children (2 Tim 3:15; Prov 22:6). One oft quoted proverb sets forth an important principle…

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when

he is old he will not depart from it…” (Proverbs 22:6).

The point is that the lessons learned from the cradle go all the way to the grave. Timothy had that kind of godly, biblical input in his life. We read in 2 Timothy 3:14,15,

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it  ¹⁵and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

It seems God has especially gifted mothers with the capacity and the burden to love and teach their children. One mother reflected on that truth when she wrote the following under the title, “My child, what can I give you?”

…I give you my love, which means I accept you, without reservations, just as you are and will be. I give you my personal presence in order that you will have the security you need during your childhood. I give you my ears, in the sense that I will never be too busy to listen to you—sometimes never uttering one word. I give you opportunities to work so that you might learn to do it without shame and come to enjoy the satisfaction of work well done. I give you my counsel only when it is necessary or you ask for it so that you may avoid some of the mistakes I have made. I give you my consolation when you have failed or feel discouraged, but I will not always protect you from the consequences of your sins. I give you instructions in the way of the Lord so that when you are old, you will never depart from it. I give you my daily prayers that the Lord will keep you and guide you in such a way, that you, my child, will be a man or woman who will serve and glorify our Heavenly Father… This I give you with all my love — Your mother, Lydia Lightner

That kind of love will impact the hearts and minds of children. Yes, the home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

III. The Multiplication of a Godly Heritage: We can affect not only our children, but our children’s children, and the countless other lives they may touch (2 Tim 2:2; Titus 2:3-5). Paul talks about the potential for spiritual multiplication in general in 2 Tim 2:2, as he calls Timothy to make disciples who themselves will become disciple-makers. Women, maybe even grandmas like Lois, can impact younger women, and through them, their children. Paul said to Titus in 2:3-5,

³ Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,  ⁴ and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,  ⁵ to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

       One great example of the impact of a godly mother is Susanna Wesley. She was one of twenty five children that her father had in two marriages. She herself gave birth to 17 children, but only ten survived infancy. So she knew the pain of losing a child. She was also periodically left alone by her husband, who twice went to debtors’ prison because of his poor handling of finances. But Susanna stood firm and faithful in the Lord. Two of her sons, John and Charles, had a profound impact on Christianity from the time of the Great Awakening…

The interesting thing about these two men is that the primary spiritual influence in their lives up until her death was their mother. She was the one who even toward the end of her life, when she was elderly and in bed, they would go and sit and she would pray with them. She would counsel with them. They would discuss difficult passages of the Bible. They could not say enough about her and her spiritual walk with Christ, about her counsel, and about her example… Susanna had a profound influence over these young men. They, in turn, had such a profound influence on Christianity.

Susannah Wesley had some Rules for Raising Children. Here are just a few of them:

1. Subdue self-will in a child and thus work together with God to save his soul.
2. Teach him to pray as soon as he can speak.
3. Give him nothing he cries for and only what is good for him if he asks for it politely.
4. To prevent lying, punish no fault which is freely confessed, but never allow a rebellious, sinful act to go unnoticed.
5. Commend and reward good behavior.
6. Strictly observe all promises you have make to your child.

The point I want to emphasize is that Mrs. Wesley would have been thought of as a hard-working mother who loved her children by most observers, but she viewed herself as God’s co-worker, and she trained up two men who would impact the world for Christ. Charles Wesley wrote thousands of hymns that have been a blessing to the church to the present day. John Wesley preached before possibly more than a million people – thousands coming to faith in Christ. And not only those that they won directly, but those who were won by their followers… we see the ripples of the ministry of a faithful mother that will likely carry on into eternity. Yes, we are here on a mission, and…

What is God saying to me in this passage? …The home is our first mission field, and “mom” is the best missionary!

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? For the church at large, let’s be thankful for the impact that our mothers had on us. For those had mothers who knew Christ, there is little doubt that they were our first and most influential teacher. For those who did not yet believe when we were children, they likely did their best to love us and teach us and help us have a life that was better than their own. By common grace it seems God gives women that nurturing, protective nature. My mother had a difficult upbringing but did her best to raise 7 children, largely on her own since my dad almost always worked at (at least) two jobs.

       We’ve talked a lot this last year or so about the oikos principle, and our calling to love and reach out to the people that God has placed in our sphere of influence.  Let’s not forget that the word oikos means “house” or “home” and our “8 to 15” begins with our own family, your spouse, your children. One mother expressed her sense of calling with this poem…

Some would gather money along the path of life,

Some would gather roses and rest from worldly strife.

But I would gather children from among the thorns of sin,

I would seek a golden curl and a freckled toothless grin.

For money cannot enter in the land of endless day,

And the roses that are gathered soon will wilt along the way.

But oh, the laughing children, As I cross the Sunset Sea,

As the gates swing wide to heaven, I can take them in with me!

Why does God have us in the world? Jesus is building His church, and we are here to do our part in carrying out His mission as His ambassadors, for His glory.  The church is called to make disciples of every nation. None of us, individually, can do that. We can’t change the world—but we can influence our world for Christ. And that starts with making disciples of our children. The home is our first mission field, and the truth is that mothers are the greatest influencers of children, the most effective missionaries in reaching their families for Christ. If your mother is living, take time to thank her today for the impact she had on your life. If she has passed, thank God for her. And men, thank you wives for their role in loving and teaching the children.      AMEN.