Our scripture this week comes from 2Timothy1:1-7
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
Mother’s Day
Building A Household of Faith
This Mother’s Day sermon, I am writing with appreciation for that time—honored institution without the benefit of which we would not be here!
As pastors we are reminded not to get too sentimental about motherhood because:
(a) For some, motherhood is an accident, and not always a welcome one.
(b) For some, biological motherhood is not possible.
(c) For some, mothers were not all that nice.
(d) For some, motherhood under the best of circumstances is still less than a bed of roses.
So, with all that said, why bother with Mothers’ Day at all? I’ll tell you why —— because for all its stumbling blocks, pitfalls and broken dreams, for all the dirty diapers, crayon covered walls and spoiled plans, we’re talking about a beautiful gift, a natural part of God’s creative plan to bring love and caring to light. Motherhood is a constant demand for the gift of love and caring and teaching.
Building a Household of Faith.
When it comes to core beliefs and foundational values, what happens at your house, especially while under these stay at home guidelines, is more important than what happens at the White House, the country, our community, or even the world.. In the close quarters of family life, we learn to honor God and respect ourselves. In the daily routines of our relational lives we develop a standard by which we interact with others everywhere. Day by day we form the habits, set the priorities, and give the impressions that will go with us to the grave. If the Lord is going to find faith on the earth when he returns, it will depend, in a large degree, on how we do in our relationships with one another. On this Mother’s Day I would like to talk for a few minutes about building a household of faith. How can you do it? Let me suggest some ways.
As we have read in 2 Timothy 1:1-7.
I. WE CAN BECOME FAITHFUL DISCIPLES.
In the little town of Lystra, a middle-aged missionary by the name of Paul and a teen-ager by the
name of Timothy struck up a friendship that lasted for a lifetime. Timothy’s dad was not a believer,
but his grandmother and his mother were. Their faith along with Paul’s friendship shaped this young
leader for the early church.
In a this letter, the second one that he wrote to his friend Timothy, Paul writes these words from a
prison cell, I am reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your
mother Eunice and now is also alive in you.
I would like for you to think for just a moment about the word sincere faith. It is sincere faith that
stands the test of time. The word literally translated is to be unwaxed, non-touched up. To be sincere
is to be genuine, real, earnest, honest, heartfelt, natural. The kind of faith that other people need
from you and me is authentic spirituality. What your sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, and
nephews need from you most is an authentic faith.
What people ought to be able to expect from the Church is sincere faith. The foundation of faith is
trust. If parents, clergy, and the Church cannot be trusted, will the Son of Man find faith when he
returns to the earth?
Of course, there are grandmothers like Lois, mothers like Eunice, Sunday School teachers, youth
counselors, and a host of others, who can be trusted. In the simple activities of life, they make all the
difference in the shaping and the formation of a life.
Many times, God calls on us to test our faith. He may require us to be where we do not want to be.
But in doing so, we have the opportunity, to “Fan into Flames” our faith in our daily lives.
As speaker and author, Tony Campolo, tells the story, it happened during a sophisticated academic
gathering at the University of Pennsylvania which neither he nor his wife wanted to attend. During
their mixing among the faculty, a sociology professor came up to Mrs. Campolo and said, “What do
you do for a living?” Mrs. Campolo, feeling the compelling task of raising children, gave this reply, “I
am socializing two homo sapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order
that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of
eschatological utopia that God willed from the beginning of creation. And what, may I ask, do you do
for a living?
II. WE CAN CHOOSE TO BE HOUSEHOLDS OF FAITH.
We can make a deliberate choice about the God of our lives. In the Old Testament at a place called
Shechem, Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, called a national assembly. In his last speech as their
leader, Joshua urges them to make a clear choice. (Joshua 24:15)”Choose this day whom you will
serve, the God of your forefathers or the gods of the Amorites in whose land we are living. But as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Have you made that choice? What god is worshipped at your house? Is it the god of materialism
whose worship is the latest gadget? Is it the god of sport whose worship is the winning team? Is it the
god of pleasure who can hardly wait for the next vacation? Is it the god of workaholism who sells his
soul to the company store?
You see, everybody serves somebody. It might be the devil, it might be greed, it might be your kids, it
might even be yourself , but you are going to serve somebody. The choice we have as human beings,
as responsible adult human beings, is that we can choose our gods and I urge you to choose your God
well.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It hung on a tiny little plaque in the little house where
my grandparents lived. It had silver lettering against a blue velvet background. As a decoration it was
worthless; as a declaration it was priceless. Christ is the Head of this house.
What that meant was that God was worshipped. What that meant was that The Commandments
were kept. What that meant was that the scriptures were read. What that meant was that people
were respected. The God you choose determines the life you live, so be careful who you crown as
Lord.
Does faith matter at your house?
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? The answer to that question is in your
hands and my hands. We can become faithful disciples ourselves. We can make a choice, a deliberate
active decision, as a family that God will be honored in this place.
Do you “fan into flames” faith, in your household?
III. WE CAN CULTIVATE HOLY HABITS.
It may only take a spark to get the fire going, as we sometimes sing, but it is going to take some wood
to keep it burning. And so, Paul writes to his young friend, Timothy, fan the flame that is within you.
Stir up the gift that is there. Jesus would say, if you want to keep your lamp burning you better put
some oil in it. There are some means and activities by which we can keep the flame of faith burning in
our lives. They are simple things really. It is like deciding as a family to worship God.
If church were just a matter of sermons, you could get more effective ones on the Internet. If church
were just a matter of music, you could listen to surround sound in your home. If church were just a
matter of entertainment, you could go to a concert. But church is a matter of meeting God. It is a
divine encounter. By regularly getting out of bed and coming to church, we put our faith in God who is
faithful to us. Sometimes it means sacrifice and every Sunday you make a choice of priorities. Every
person here had at least ten, fifteen, twenty other things you could have done this morning, but you
made a choice to be in this parking lot. Thank you for doing that.
Do not ever forget, my friends, what you do speaks volumes about your values. And furthermore, it
may be the only hour of the week when you happen to be together with your family—when you are
not running, not working, not trying to get to the next important event . But here you are, just sitting
still side by side, even if it is in the church parking lot. You are in the presence of God. Do not
underestimate what God might choose to do through you right now.
We can decide to tell the stories and retell them again and again. I probably learned more about the
Bible from my mom in the seat of a car, than I did in Sunday School on Sunday.” Tell the stories! Tell
them again and again and again and again.
And do something else. Teach your children how to pray because you need them to pray for you.
You can cultivate holy habits. You can go to church together as a family. You can tell the stories. You
can teach them to pray. You can render acts of service together. Like the story of some little kids who
had gotten out of Sunday School and were on their way home and saw a man standing by the side of
the road. You have seen him with the sign— Homeless, Will Work for Food.
They wanted to do something; they had just learned about the Good Samaritan. Their mother was
overly cautious and rightly so. She said to them, “But don’t you understand, if we give him money, he
will probably use it on things that are not healthy for him. Most likely he is addicted. We can’t give
him cash.” But, they said, “We’ve got to do something; we learned about it in Sunday School. You
don’t pass people by.”
When you turn young, creative minds loose, they come up with all kinds of ideas, better than the rest
of us. They said, “We’ve got an answer. We’ll pack a lunch box in the back of our car and every time
we go past that area and that man is there, we’ll roll down the window and give him a sandwich and
something to drink. We’ll be smart but we’ll also be caring.” Teach your children well.
IV. WE CAN TRUST OUR FAMILIES TO THE LORD.
One other thing you can do. You can trust your family to the Lord. Ultimately it is all surrender, my
friends. That is where it is. When Samuel was born to Hannah, she offered this prayer. (1Samuel
1)“My heart rejoices in the Lord. I prayed for this child and God has given me what I asked. So now I
give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given to the Lord.” Have you trusted those you love
the most to God’s care?
Sometimes in our enthusiasm to see that our loved ones come to faith in Christ we end up shutting
them out, because we do not trust our families, our loved ones, to the Lord. Instead of being “faithful
disciples “we become nags and test their faith. Instead of giving gentle reminders and learning to trust
our families to God. They turn us off or change channels like a TV program with too many
commercials.
Trust your family to God. Rely on The Holy Spirits promptings, give gentle and loving reminders of
who you have faith in. In that way you can build a household of faith.
So “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth ?”(Luke 18:8) Will He find you building
a household of faith? Will He…?
On a personal note. If it were not for my wife, my mom and my grandmothers “Building households of
faith “I would not be where I am today.
In His Service,
Pastor Joe
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY !!
Listen to Audio Sermon 20200510
