1 Timothy chapter 2, we were looking at this passage this past Wednesday. We're going over the subject on Wednesday nights on worldliness. And it gave a great prelude or an introduction to a topic we want to look at this morning, dealing somewhat with the occasion at hand on Mother's Day. First Timothy 2. And you say, how in the world does First Timothy 2 deal with Mother's Day? In verse 8, where Paul is trying to give instructions to Timothy on how the church should be set up to function in Ephesus. And he talks about prayer and how people in authority should be prayed for. He talks about men and how they should pray in verse 8, not in competition or any kind of wrath or dissension. And he talks about women. And he uses the rest of the paragraph to talk about women. and how they're supposed to look with modest apparel and how they're supposed to sound in submission in their words and things of this sort. And then he talks about basically how they're supposed to act. He says in verse 15, which gives reference to our Mother's Day passage, where he says, But women shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with all self-restraint. Or the English Standard Version basically says, She will be saved through childbearing. if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. And obviously, this is meant to be a principle because he changes the pronoun from she to they in the very same verse. Now, you know, you think about this whole idea of motherhood, and you think about why he says this in verse 15. What in the world does burying children have to do with salvation? I mean, let me get this straight here. Does it somehow get us holy before God? Right before God? Does it somehow, gee, I mean, if you don't bury children, you can't be, you know, right with God or something? Does that have to do with justification? That's not what he's talking about. This word saved is a very broad word. Sozo. And it means to be preserved. It could mean salvation in a specific sense. It might be socially. It might be spiritually. It might be individually. However it might arrange itself out. But he's bringing this in a context where these folks here in this city, Ephesus, especially young women being put on the list, And he had made certain vows and pledges to do certain things in the church on that list and now are sort of going back on those vows. He says, let me tell you some things about motherhood. Motherhood, the assumption he assumes here, very, very simply, is not that number one. You invest yourself this whole idea that somehow he's talking about she will be saved through burying children as if somehow the birth process is what he's talking about in her salvation. That's not it. OK. He's not saying, hey, look, when you go to deliver a child on the child's birthday, God will give you a special grace and you'll be able to deliver the child. That's not what he's talking about here. It doesn't fit the context, if it is. And of course, he's not talking about forensic justification and being right before God in some eternal sense because you haven't been able to bear a child. You see, many people who can bear children just simply because you can bear a child has absolutely nothing to do with your right standing with God or wrong standing. But it does have some salvation effect. Especially in a culture that looks down, practically, on child rearing. You think of China, which only allows you one child, type of thing. Why in the world would he say that? And how does it have that kind of salvation effect? Notice what he says in verse 15. He says, But women, this is the new American standard, shall be preserved or saved through the burying of children. If they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint, faith and love and holiness with self-control. See, what does all that have to do with childbearing? Faith, love, holiness with self-control. See, that's what causes us to persevere, male or female, child or non-child. But what does the childbearing have to do with those things? There's something about bearing children, a mother's day. message for mothers shows you the high calling of these things. I don't know if you know this, some of the stats of just what it means to be a mother. By the time a child reaches the age of 18, a mother has had to handle some extra 18,000 hours of child generated work. That's an extra three months a year you have to give up in leisure time just to have one child. One to get to 18. You can imagine if you have more than one, three, all of a sudden your life gets, as the world would say, gets boxed in. As Paul would say, you're on the road to being saved, in the sense that there's a salvation in that. There's something that's not just wholesome and good, there's something that's good for you when it comes to walking the straight and narrow path. There's something in there that helps create an environment for faith and love, holiness, There's something that strengthens you, if you look at it that way, for self-control in these areas. That's what he's talking about. Some of the things I've come up with, you can come up with a few others, and we'll give some examples from Scripture. But notice, it's a means of focusing on what's important, focusing on priorities. When you have a child, think about it, when you become a mom, all of a sudden your world changes, as we would say. And we're not just talking about women with children in general. We're talking about Christian women. When you have a child now, all of a sudden now you have a responsibility. It kind of makes you, it forces you to have a pecking order of how you're going to devote your time to what you now have before you. I have a child and this is the only person that's going to give me a title that nobody else can give me. This child is going to give me a title called mom. They're going to call me mom. And I'll call anybody else mom and I'll call me mom. And all of a sudden that bond and that relationship there refocuses on your priorities. So you notice some of the things it talks about here when he says faith and love and holiness. It's not only as a means of focusing on priorities, it's a means of disciplining you in patience. You've got now a child who knows zero. Who has the manners of zero who wants things now and wants things done far than 24-7. You've got this little selfish bundle that all of a sudden now it's not about you, is it? It's now about this other person. And you understand being mom. And all of that context forces you to be patient. And you see the examples of people sometimes who can't be patient and kill their children. And we think that is horrendous because it's even the lost know. Well, no, you're not supposed to do this with children. No, they're not an inconvenience. No, they're not supposed to be looked upon as this, this or whatever. No. And what you see and what takes place in your life is that you have to learn patience. And there's a discipline there. You're getting disciplined day in, day out, day in, day out, as your life begins to revolve around this little guy, this little girl. When they're hungry, when they need changing, or they get up in the middle of the night. Let me tell you something. The guy next door in the apartment next door, he plays loud music at night at 2 o'clock in the morning. And boy, you've got zero patience. You're banging on the door, you're banging on the wall, you're calling the night security guard or whatever. But the little child wakes up and hears the same kind of music at 2 o'clock in the morning. You're not kicking the playpen, I'm trying to get some sleep, or at least you shouldn't. I mean because you understand, you know, there's a patient that's being developed in you, because you understand the context. This is a child. So there's not only a refocusing on how your priorities are arranged, and there's not only a disciplining in your patients, but there's also a training for service. Remember, Paul's going to talk about his, about, he recognizes Timothy's mom, even his grandmother, and how they, in that train of training, of bringing him to the spot where he's at. You now are teacher uno, teacher number one in that child's life. What was it, the guy, there's a quote here, I think it was by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, mothers, men are what their mothers make of them. And then an old Spanish proverb that says, an ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. And that is true. You learn from your mom. Junior high science teacher lectured on the properties of magnets for the entire class in the science class. So the next day I gave a quiz to the students. And so he's trying to make it simple. First question read something like this. My name begins with an M. It has six letters and I pick up things. What am I? Half the kids wrote mother. He didn't write magnet. That's what mothers do. They pick up things in six letters. Anyway, if you'll notice some of the examples in Scripture, in Exodus chapter 2, in Jochebed. Remember who Jochebed was? This is Moses' mom. Remember what Moses' mom did for Moses? Yeah. Here's an example of the protective mother. This is what moms do. They protect their children. The king's edict, or the Pharaoh's edict, was to do what? All male children, Hebrew children, are to go into the river, throw them into the Nile. So in her motherly instinct to protect my child, she could have just said, no, I'm not going to obey the command. You don't kill my child, don't kill me. And we would have understood that. And we would have said, yeah, exactly right. But seeking to obey the king, which we're called to do as Christians, and seeking to protect your child. Here's the wisdom of the woman in Proverbs 31. She said, OK, I'll put him in the Nile. I'll put him in the Nile in a boat." And that's what she did. So she's obeying the king by putting the child in the Nile, but she's also protecting the child by being a good mother. And of course, his sister, Miriam, is running her own banks or whatever, and is trying to watch the child, making sure the child doesn't tip the boat over or whatever, until the little boat gets close to where the Egyptian women were. And of course, they were from the palace, and you know the rest of the story, how Moses gets brought into the palace. The origin of that comes from this mother. Talk about that. And how she seeks to protect her son, Moses. Another example. You think of many examples of moms in scripture. They're great. The supportive mother. In 1 Samuel 1, we have Hannah. What does Hannah do? Remember Hannah's problem? Hannah's dilemma? Here's the dilemma of Hannah. You've got to understand the context. Hannah is barren. She doesn't have any children. And back then it was a reproach to not have a child. You were married and you didn't have children. What is it they talked about you around the water cooler type of thing. But back then in the mindset of the causes and effects, a lot of the curses in the old covenant had to do with barrenness. If a person does this or he lays with this person, they shall be barren. Or I will, you know, shut the womb, this, this, or whatever. So it was very easy for people to argue from the effect back to the cause, which is dangerous. You don't do that. You see what happened with Job's friends when they did that. But yet they would do that. Here's Hannah, she's just barren and she hasn't done any kind of sin or whatever. And yet it was very easy. It's a reproach because people walk around, hey, wow, you're married and everything. We got any good news coming on the scene? Or what's going to be? Hey, no, no, no. Hmm. So it's very easy for them to think. Have you really gone before the Lord here? Maybe there's some sin you've committed that you haven't really confessed? Are you sure you haven't done something in the past that you should have sacrificed for or something? See how the wheels could turn along this line. This is a reproach and Hannah wants it taken from her. So she goes to the temple and she prays. Lord, I don't want to be barren. I want a child. Even the high priest, Eli, thinks she's drunk. I mean, it's really before the Lord. I'm frustrated. She's praying. And so she makes a vow before the Lord. In other words, Lord, you give me the child. It's not as if, hey, look at my child. I'm so proud of my child. It's my child. Because you can see how a mother would do that. I finally got my reproach taken away. And now this is going to be the apple of my eye. I'm going to just pray this child is mine, mine, mine, mine. I'll give the child back to you. I just want the reproach removed. That somehow I'm in your displeasure. You give me a child, I'll give the child back to you. And that's what she did. Samuel became property of the court, property of the temple rather. And so when he was of age, after he was weaned and everything, and could be useful to the priests and things of this sort there, Samuel was given by Hannah to the court, to the temple. And when he was, notice what it says Hannah did. Remember what happened after that? Didn't Hannah just drop off the pages of scripture and all of a sudden Samuel takes over from there and 1 Samuel 2 and things of the sort? No. What happens? She would come once a year. She would go up to the temple and things of that sort to sacrifice. She had little things needed. She was a supportive mom. Even though he now was owned by someone else in that sense. He was holy unto the Lord. Remember the holy, the clean and the unclean? He was now holy unto the Lord. She still was his mother. She still took that position very seriously. And so here in Jechebed, we see the mom in the protective role. We see mom in the supportive role in this. And you see this with Hannah. Another example would be the instructive mother in 2 Timothy, chapter 1, 1 through 5, where it talks about Eunice, Lois. You see it in 2 Timothy. And in fact, if you turn over there real quick, this is the very next book over. He says in verse 5 of 2 Timothy chapter 1, he says, For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. Don't talk about how, you know, he had a Greek father. But it's the moms and the grandmothers. A sincere faith is in Timothy, because there's a sincere faith in Timothy's mom and Timothy's grandmother. Where Eunice learned it from. You also go down, you see it in, for example, Where he says, let's see, in chapter three, he says in verse 14, he says, you, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood, not just from conversion, see. You have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation, which is through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. How do you have that kind of environment? Because of Eunice. You go back and you read Timothy's account in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 16. In fact, I'll just turn there real quick, and you see how Timothy comes on the scene in chapter 16, verse 1. He says, this is Paul, and he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy. the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. And he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. How did that happen? Because his mom, see? Paul wanted this man to go with him. And he took him and circumcised him because the Jews were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Paul wanted this man to go with him. He was ready for ministry. His testimony before the brethren. This whole idea, this whole environment of how he was raised with his mom, the instructive mother. If there's a mom that protects the child, there's a mom that supports the child. It has to be a part of motherly instinct that instructs. How do you instruct your child? And we're not just talking about how to hold a fork and how to use a sippy cup. How to go be potty trained. We're talking about how to treasure the scriptures. Not even just simply memorizing. But, tasting of that honeycomb. You get to the point where the kid starts eating table food, right? Well, you need to get to the point where the kid starts understanding, not just what the Word says, but how good it tastes. Standing on those promises. We sing 175 in the red. So then they get up to walk and they're kind of wobbly and everything, and you say, come on, you can do it. You need to also know how to stand and walk on the Scriptures. So that when a difficult time comes, or a trying time comes, you take them by the hand and you say, we're going to stand on the promises. This is why God's brought this into your life as a young man growing up, a young lady, so that you can stand on these things. It's instructive. A mother has to be instructive along these lines. Notice Timothy, Paul's right-hand man. And we have no example of a fatherly influence in his life, except, it all sounds in contrast, but his father was a Greek. Where was that influence? See, many times people say, oh, he's just raised by his mom, he's going to be effeminate. You don't find that in Scripture. You listen to the testimony of John Piper. He says, I was raised by my mother, and my dad was a godly man. My dad was on the road all the time though, as an evangelist. And when my dad came back, my mom just fit into her place to let him do the ruling, and she submitted. But I was there most of my time with my mom. And my mom raised me along these lines. You look at that guy's life and say, I think she must have done a pretty good job. Now, we also know, and I don't want you to get caught in this lie of thinking that if I do all the things right, my kids are going to turn out a certain way. Because we know examples of parents, especially moms, who do all the things right, and the kids don't turn out a certain way. It doesn't mean that I've done something wrong. It just means that this is where God has me with my child. See, there's both there. See, it's like the Hannah situation. Hannah's done nothing wrong, but yet she's barren. So it's very easy to think, Hannah must have done something wrong. You can't do that as a mom either, when the child doesn't turn out right. You can't say that. And we have some who say, well, I don't know, mom didn't raise me up this way or whatever, but I've turned out right. How did that happen? You see, once again, the grace of the Lord. You see how the Lord... Follow your rules of cause and effect. You have to trust the Lord. What your marching orders are, as mom, is to do what? In the sense of salvation, in 1 Timothy 2.15, is to continue in faith, love, holiness, with self-restraint or self-control. That's your marching orders, regardless of the effect that it might take. That effect might have its effect long range. See, some people, they do this from the very beginning and they're like tomatoes. Those kids come up, boom, they become Christians and they go off to serve the Lord. Wow! Other times, God's got your effect like an oak tree. I mean, I'm planting, I'm watering, I'm fertilizing, and my kids just aren't doing anything. Neither do oak trees after a while. And you have to wait an awful long time. And then there's a product. So we don't know. We don't know the timetable, the turnaround. God never promises tomatoes in the sense of that type of quickness in the turnaround. Your marching orders, as moms are, is to be what? Protective, supportive, instructive. And what we see here in the life of even Mary, is to be loyal. Mary, mother of Jesus. You see in John 19.25 how she stood there at the cross of Jesus Christ. Loyal to her son, even to the point of death. She didn't give up on him. She didn't say, well, you know, like his brothers and sisters who didn't believe in him. Remember? In the book of John. All deserted, Mary was there, John was there, but Mary was there. There's a little comparison between a strong woman versus a woman of strength. It says a strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape, but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape. A strong woman isn't afraid of anything, but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear. A strong woman won't let anyone get the best of her, but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone else. A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future. A woman of strength realizes life's mistakes can also be God's blessings and capitalizes on them. A strong woman walks sure-footedly, but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls. A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face, but the woman of strength wears grace on her face. on her face. A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey, but a woman of strength has faith that it is the journey that she will be taking that will make her strong. These examples of these women, whether it's Jacobette or Hannah, Eunice, Mary, all these things for our moms, I just want to encourage you along the lines of this passage here in 1 Timothy 2 verse 15. that this bearing of children, this continuing in faith and love and sanctity and self-restraint, children are always a blessing from the Lord. And many times that blessing from the Lord that children are sent to you in is going to mean you have to refocus on priorities. That's work. That's going to be uncomfortable. That's going to infringe on your comfort zone, your three months of leisure activity that you've got to give up. A year from someone who's, what do they call them now? I think they call them, let's see, DINKS. It's the acronym for them, DINKS. Double income, no kids. People in the families now, they have double incomes and no kids. They can live for themselves. The wife works, the husband works, no kids. Yeah, best of all the worlds. In reality, you cut yourself off as a means of salvation. When you have to focus and refocus your priorities. When all of a sudden now, you're being disciplined to be patient with a child. And I've seen them in Bentley. Where all of a sudden, here's a child. If you have him to be a little rambunctious or crying, they've got to take him out of the service. When that happens, I can understand the frustration maybe of a mom saying, I really need to hear this message. At the same time, she's thinking, this is my child. And she has to give up. listening to the message, so that she can go take care of the child outside, or make it quiet so everyone else can hear, or do whatever. And when those times happen, what goes on in my mind, I'm thinking, that's what a mom does. At the same time, you're saying, wow, she's not going to hear the Word. She's receiving salvation. How is she doing that? She's being disciplined in patience. She's being trained for service. You have a child you're bringing up that could be the next virgin. That could be an ex-piper or somebody like that. You don't know how that's going to influence them. And they will learn from what you do more than just simply from what you say, obviously. I like what Becky teaches the little kids. They learn practically, what, 20 questions in the catechism? I mean, they can rattle them off, boy. But that's part of the instruction. But the real training comes when you have to stay on the promises. See, when the trials come in, where it's very difficult when all of a sudden there's not enough money. I remember many examples of people, the Hudson Taylor examples, and Tom would read from the biographies. These other people who had this, they saw their parents having to trust the Lord during these difficult times. Do not waste those opportunities with your children. When those difficult times come, rally your kids there to stay on the promises with you. They need to see that as part of their training. They need to see, oh wow, look how God gave mom and dad this victory or this answer to this prayer. He can do that for me. That will be part of their premise when they pray 20 years after your dad. When they're going through a similar situation with their kids or grandkids. You might be a Lois and not a Eunice. How are you going to teach them? Same thing. You say to God, trust in the Lord with your mom. Trust in the Lord with the grandkids. Teach them that. And it becomes a great benefit for them. Any questions? We appreciate our moms on this Mother's Day. I was going to say, you know, it kind of elaborates a little bit later on on this whole thing. Chapter 5. Yes, that's right. Well, it talks about widows, for sure. It talks about widows because down here. Verse 14. I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes, to give them the opportunity to slander. Right. Earlier on he talks about, he says, They bring judgment on themselves because they have... Right. Yeah, I'm sorry guys. Oh, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idle with gossips and busybodies saying things you all have to do. You know, the thing is, it's like you said, there is this aspect where children can arrange and help discipline you. Same thing with men. That's right. Right. That's salvation. Workshop. Yeah, right. There's some truth to that. This is what he's saying she's being saved from. And notice, here's that passage again, verse 14, bear children. You know, a house to keep, children to bear, things of this sort. There's a salvation in that. It's interesting that when people ask you what you do, your highest calling, especially if you're a mom, is that. That's it. That's my calling. I'm mom. It's interesting, I've got a little illustration here. I don't know if any of y'all know who Anthony Campolo is, but his wife was in a situation where this came to the forefront. He says, too many times women are made to feel that they should apologize for being mothers and housewives. He says, in reality, such roles can be noble callings. He says, when I was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, there were gatherings from time to time to which faculty members brought their spouses. Inevitably, some woman lawyer or sociologist would confront my wife with the question, and what is it that you do, my dear? My wife, who is one of the most brilliantly articulate individuals I know, had a great response. She said, I am socializing two Homo sapiens in the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the teleological prescribed utopia inherent in the Eschaton. Which she followed that with, and what is it that you do now? And she goes, you know, that lady just because that was a lawyer. It didn't quite fit, you know. But that's what moms do. I thought that was great. Anyway, but that's part of the salvation that they have. They are instrumental in the working of those things. Anybody else want anything? I'll just leave you with this one as well. This was pretty good. This was an example of a father trying to explain the concept of marriage to his four-year-old daughter. He says he got out the wedding album. thinking visual images would help and explain the entire wedding service to her. When he was finished, he asked if she had any questions. She pointed to a picture of the wedding party and asked, Daddy, is that when Mommy came to work for us? That's when Mommy came to work for us. Exactly right. Anybody else before we close? We're thankful for our moms. Those who have gone before us, some of you don't have moms. and those who are moms. We just thank the form and what they've done. The Lord has used them in many ways, shapes, and forms, and those who are moms to be. Let's pray. Let's seek the Lord. John, would you close the symbol?