Well, I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me for our scripture reading for our sermon this morning. We are going to be in 2 Timothy chapter 1, and we're going to look together at verses 3 to 7. The book of Second Timothy, chapter one, we'll read together verses three through seven. I'm gonna ask you if you'll please stand for the reading of Holy Scripture. This is God's holy word for us, his people. I thank God, whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 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 God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power. and love and self-control. This is God's holy word for us as people. Father, we ask that you would come and bless the reading and especially now the preaching of your word. May your truth sound forth and may you bless and encourage our hearts today. Teach us what you want us to see. Get a great name for yourself and glorify yourself through your word today. And give us open hearts to receive. and to go from here with joy and faith and obedience. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. And you may be seated. When you study church history, especially the early church, You spend most of your time learning about a group of men called the Church Fathers. The Church Fathers are those early leaders, teachers, and pastors who helped define and defend the Christian faith in the first few centuries of the church's existence. This is an enormously important and influential group in church history, and they got a lot of things right, and they got plenty of things wrong, too. There were good church fathers and there were bad church fathers. So for better or worse these early church writers and preachers and theologians developed and passed down to us the Christian faith the tradition of the Christian faith. They left behind a legacy of faith. In all our attention, though, on the church fathers, as justified and good as that is, because they are so important in the history of the church, in all of our attention on them, it's easy to forget another important group in the early church, the church mothers. We tend to forget them because, well, two or three reasons. First, there were just far fewer of them. Second, we tend to forget them or not pay as much attention to them because almost none of them were in positions of leadership or teaching authority. And third, virtually none of them wrote anything. Or if they did, it didn't survive. It wasn't preserved and passed down to us. And so they tend to get sort of sidelined. We don't pay as much attention. Now scholarship in recent years is starting to pay a lot more attention to them. And you can find books about the church mothers. We're starting to learn more about them and sort of give them the more attention that they deserve. Well, perhaps the most famous church mother is Saint Monica. Saint Monica. And her son is perhaps the most famous church father. And that's Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine. In Augustine's all-time spiritual classic, his autobiography that's called Confessions, he tells the story of his mother, Monica. And if Augustine hadn't written it down, Monica would be completely lost to history. But thanks to her grateful son, her devoted son, Augustine, we have the story of this precious woman of God. She is remembered today as a saint because she left behind the legacy of a mother's faith. In our passage this morning, we read about Timothy, who inherited a similar legacy from his mother as well. Look at verse 5 of our text. Paul says to Timothy, I am reminded of your sincere faith. A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. Timothy's mother and grandmother were strong women of sincere faith. And they raised and nurtured young Timothy in that faith. And as a result, Timothy became an apprentice of the Apostle Paul and a pillar in the church in the generation just after the apostles. We have 1st and 2nd Timothy because Paul was writing to his protege, his number one apprentice, Timothy. And without Timothy, we wouldn't have two books of the Bible. Because there wouldn't have been anybody to write the letter to named Timothy. And what we would have missed out on. What revelation from God we wouldn't have today if it weren't for Timothy. But think back two generations. No Grandma Lois. No Mother Eunice. No Mother Eunice. No Timothy. And no Timothy and the very founding of the church and the very books of the Bible would be different than they actually are. God used the legacy of the simple and sincere faith of these normal, godly women to accomplish extraordinary things for His glory and for His people today. He did the same for Monica and her son Augustine. And I believe He is still doing and can do the same today. This morning what I want to do is I want to highlight three parts of the legacy of a mother's faith. First, a mother, a faithful mother, leaves the legacy of a godly example. The legacy of a godly example. St. Augustine describes at length in his book Confessions how holy and devout his mother was. He talks about her flaws and the sins and struggles she had. He didn't have a rosy, perfect picture of mom. He understood mom was a sinner, mom did things wrong, mom made some mistakes raising me and my brother and my siblings. Yeah, not perfect at all. But when I think back, The holiness and devotion of my mother far outstrips all of those faults and failures. Augustine learned this by watching Monica's life. He observed her faith in action day after day. And he recalls in his book, for example, her relentless prayer life. These things stuck with him later in life when he reflected on what a strong Christian his mother was. And there can be little doubt that Timothy experienced the same thing in his mother and in his grandmother. Timothy and Augustine had strong mothers. Strong, faithful, believing mothers. They had that in common. But there's something else they had in common too. They both had dads who weren't believers. They were raised by believing moms, but their dads were not Christians. In the book of Acts, when we first meet this guy, Timothy, he tells us, or the writer tells us, that Timothy's father was a Greek. He was a pagan unbeliever. And his mom and grandmother were Jewish. Timothy was born to a Jewish mother. And so he was raised Jewish, and that's how it works to this day. You're automatically a part of the Jewish people if your mom's Jewish, and that's true today. And that was true of Timothy. And Timothy's dad allowed Eunice and Lois to raise Timothy as a faithful, believing Jew instead of a polytheistic worshiper of Zeus or something, like his father. And Augustine says that his dad didn't become a Christian until he was on his deathbed. So both of these guys grew up with unbelieving dads. They did not have the example of a faithful father. But they had mothers who were strong in their faith. The only faith these two guys ever knew was the faith of their mom. And I'm sure many of us who are blessed to grow up in a Christian home remember the strong faith of our moms. How they served the Lord faithfully. How they practiced what they preached. How they displayed the beautiful character of Jesus in all sorts of ways. How they loved us with everything they had. And how no one on this earth prayed for us more faithfully, more ferociously, more fervently than Mom. Now, in the Bible, there's no better description of a mother's godly example than in the book of 1 Peter. So I'm gonna invite you, if you will, to go with me over to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 3. Here in 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter is discussing a Christian woman's godly conduct in front of her unbelieving husband. So, in view, it's not mom's example to her kids. It's how a believing godly wife is to conduct herself in front of her unbelieving, ungodly husband. And yet, there's no reason to suppose that her godly example was somehow hidden from her children. There's no way mom had this pattern of life in front of her husband that the kids living in the same house just had no idea. They were just oblivious. They'd say, no, no, we never knew mom was like that. No, this was mom's life. And so this is an example that she's setting in front of an unbelieving husband, but it's also the example she's setting for her kids. Surely they too can see Mom's faith in action. So here in 1 Peter 3, notice what it says, verses 1 and 2. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, the gospel, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. They are to see her godly conduct and the way mom lives her life, her respectful and her pure conduct in obedience to the Word of God. Even if dad and the kids, even if they can't, even if they're not willing to listen to the Word of God, when they see the Word embodied in practice in her life, They can see the Word without having to hear it. They can watch what obedience to the Word looks like. That's what it says. If some do not obey the Word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. And the same goes for the kids. They can see her godly conduct, and that has a persuasiveness to it. It has this intrigue to it that look how she lives her life. Look at the godliness. Look at the devotion. Look. Look at her. And they can see something captivating about that. And there's this persuasion to it. Second thing here, verse 3, he says, do not let your adorning be external. The braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing that you wear. Now some churches and traditions, some fundamentalists look at that and they say you're not allowed to wear earrings, you're not allowed to get your hair done, and that's crazy. His whole point is that your focus, your ultimate concern isn't for the outward appearance. As important as it is and as attentive as you need to be to it, that's fine. He's not saying don't do that. He's saying don't make that your ultimate concern. Her ultimate concern is not her external appearance and it's not her outward but her inward beauty. And he explains what he means by this in the next verse. Verse 4. He's like, don't let your adorning be external, verse 3. But, verse 4, let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. A gentle and quiet or a calm, steady, tranquil heart. A gentle and quiet or calm spirit. It has an imperishable beauty. A beauty that does not fade, that does not go away. It lasts. And that's what a legacy is. You leave that impression of the imperishable beauty of your heart and your spirit, you leave that legacy behind, that godly example. And this word says, that is precious in God's sight. There are so few verses in the Bible that talk about what God thinks is precious. And here's one of them. The heart of a godly woman that just shines and beams out through her conduct The way she handles herself, the way she carries herself, the way she lives her life, what her priorities are, the way she endures all that comes at her. The kids see that. Dad sees that. And it has this persuasive, imperishable beauty to it that God just loves. And that's a legacy to leave behind. He goes on, verse 5, For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands. This is how holy women who hoped in God have always done it. You go back through the Bible, and you go back to all the great women of the Bible, and you just follow it through, they all have this great story where God creates this holy woman of God and lets her loose in her world to live for Him, and she brings about His glory in countless ways. This is what holy women who hope in God look like. And finally, verse 6, he says, I love that. You go look at Sarah. She left behind a legacy of faith back in Genesis. She left behind that legacy through her godly example. And moms, so will you. if you follow her example and show your kids what a faithful, fearless woman of God looks like. That's an imperishable beauty. That's a legacy that lasts and that is precious to God. The second part of the legacy of a mother's faith is the lessons of faith. The faithful mother doesn't just leave a godly example for her children, she also trains them in the faith and raises them as Christians. Raises them as Christians. Come back with me to our text. Back to 2 Timothy. Back to the letter of 2 Timothy, but stop in chapter 3 this time. Chapter 3, verses 14 and 15. Paul says, Talking to Timothy, he says, As for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, the scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Timothy is instructed by Paul to remember the lessons of faith that he received when he was a child. And that means that mom's job is not just to teach your kids good manners and good morals. Those are vitally important. You have to have those to get through life. It's not just to teach good manners and good morals, though. And it's not just to teach your kids the knowledge and the skills that are required to be successful adults. All that's vitally important. You have to teach those things. But that's not her only concern. In addition to all that, without neglecting any of that, Mom is to do her part, along with Dad, and Dad, Father's Day's coming, so just you wait. It's not her all by herself. But in addition to all that, she does her part to make sure her kids know how to be a Christian. What does it mean to be a Christian? How do you live like a Christian? In Paul's letter to Titus, chapter 2, verses 1 to 5, he says, But as for you, Titus, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in the faith, in love, and in steadfastness. And then he says this, verse 3, Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, like 1 Peter 3 says, not slanderers, not slaves to wine. They are to teach what is good. And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. In other words, it's teaching those lessons of faith. What does it look like to be a godly man or woman? What does it look like to be a Christian? You teach the kids these lessons. Titus describes how older women are to teach younger women. And similarly, moms tell their sons and daughters. They tell them, this is who God is. This is what God wants us to believe. This is what God wants you to do. And this is where you go to learn all these things about God. You point them to the Scriptures. And you tell them what the Bible is and how important it is, how it's the Word of God. And you teach them to love it and to crave it. And you feed them a steady diet of the lessons of faith. Scripture and who God is who gave us this scripture. And they don't just do it all by themselves like you have to have some, you know, some degree in Bible or something like that. No, these are the simple lessons of faith, the ones that you learned growing up, the ones that you learned from your pastor and your friends. And you make sure your kids go to church and they learn how to worship and how to sit through the service and how to pray and how to forgive somebody and how to obey and how to be patient and kind and you teach them. what the fruit of the Spirit looks like. And you do it through your conduct, because they see you doing it, but you also teach them these lessons. In Proverbs 1, verses 8 and 9, the author tells us that, he says to his son, it's like a father speaking to his son, he says, Son, do not neglect your father's teaching, and do not forsake your mother's instruction. Your mother's teaching and my instruction, wear them around your neck. Wear them like ornaments when you go out, and when you walk, and as you live. Adorn yourself with these lessons of faith. Your mother's teaching is a legacy, Proverbs says. It's a legacy you inherit, that you wear, that you carry with you. And then, beautifully, I love this in Proverbs 6. He picks up this same idea of listening to your mother's instruction. He says this, Proverbs 6, 20-23, he says, My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Bind them on your heart always. Tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you. When you lie down, they will watch over you. And when you awake, they'll talk with you. I love that. Those lessons of faith, somewhere later in life, it's like you can hear mom's voice still talking in your ears. You can still hear her saying, here's how you pray. You can still hear her speaking, talking, teaching, leading, guiding. This says, wear them on your heart, bind them around your heart, bind them around your neck, and they're gonna lead you, and they're gonna teach you. They will watch over you, and they'll talk with you. Many of us can still hear the sound of our mom's voice. You can still hear the The laugh, her laugh, or the way she coughs. I know that my mom, years in church, it didn't matter where, I never sat with mom and dad, I always sat with like my friends in church growing up. But I always knew when she was laughing or when she was coughing. I knew exactly who that was. Because you just know it. You just know exactly what she sounds like. And the same would be true today. If she were secretly here, if she had snuck in somewhere and she sneezed, I'd be like, Angie Grubbs in the building. I know that laugh. I know that sneeze. I know that cough. And she's watching. I won't tell too many embarrassing stories, I promise. You can hear it. I love this text because it says those lessons of faith, you can still hear her speaking in your ears. years and years down the road. The point is, guys, hold on to those lessons of faith, and they will lead and guide you all your life. They will lead you and guide you all your life. That's a legacy that she leaves. Hold on to that. Cherish that. The third and final part of the legacy of a mother's faith is where I want to talk to you about is a knowledge of the truth. A mom, faithful mom, leaves behind a legacy of a godly example. She leaves the legacy of those lessons of faith. And finally, she leaves behind a legacy of wanting her kids to come to a knowledge of the truth. And by knowledge of the truth, it's the language in 1 and 2 Timothy, by knowledge of the truth I mean a saving knowledge of the one who said, I am the way and the truth and the life. A faithful mother doesn't just want to set a godly example for her kids. She doesn't just want to raise them well and teach them the lessons of faith. She wants more than anything else for her kids to know Jesus and to make it to heaven. She wants her family to be together forever. That is the ultimate legacy. We all make it together in the end. I know from experience of my mom and my grandmother, her mom, I know from experience of them that there is nothing in this world that they wouldn't do for me and my sister. My grandma ended up being a divorced single mom with two kids, my mom and my uncle. And she worked till her bones ached to make sure her kids were taken care of. Life was constantly hard for them. But that's all she worried about. Till the day she died in 2017, that was her top priority, her family. And if there's one word that did not characterize my grandmother, it was selfish. There wasn't a selfish molecule in her being. She did everything, for one reason, take care of my family. Make sure we all make it in the end. She constantly went out of her way also to spoil me and my sister. I hear that's something that is just natural for grandmas to do. But she did. She went out of her way to spoil us. And I'll give you one little anecdote. I was a kid, and I like grilled cheese sandwiches, but I like mayonnaise on a grilled cheese sandwich. Okay, we were out of mayonnaise one day. And so mom was like, well, we don't have any mayonnaise. I'm like, well, I can't eat it without mayonnaise. Grandma's in the living room and she's overhearing this. So she decides to leave. She's all right, y'all, I'll see you later. She leaves. Ten minutes later, she pulls up in the driveway, honking the horn with a jar of mayonnaise out the window. Angie, come get this jar of mayonnaise and make him a cheese sandwich." And she said, he's going to be so spoiled if you keep doing this. Okay? He doesn't get mayonnaise just because he wants mayonnaise. Okay? But that's what it was. And for my sister, whenever she liked to, when she was a kid, she would take naps on car rides. And so grandma kept a special pillow in the trunk for my sister to take naps. So whenever she was like, mama, I want my pillow, with a thumb in her mouth, mama, I want my pillow, she'd pull over Get out of her car, get it out of the trunk, hand her a pillow, get back in the car and keep going. And if mom was with us, she would say, stop doing that to them. I'm trying to teach them some, I don't know, self-sufficiency and you keep giving them mayonnaise and pillows every time they want one. There wasn't anything that she wasn't willing to do. to make sure that I had what I needed or what I wanted. And when I was in daycare, from until I was five, I was in daycare, and she worked at the daycare. And my favorite lunch at daycare was fish sticks. Okay? I loved their fish sticks. I'm sure they were gross. But I loved them. I was like four. And so, you couldn't get seconds. No seconds at daycare. I loved their fish sticks and creamed corn. And when they had them on the same day, it was paradise. And she would skip her lunch and give me her fish sticks and her creamed corn and just not eat. Now, maybe she ate something later, you know, but she gave me her fish sticks and her creamed corn just because I wanted it. This is the kind of person I'm talking about. And my mom grew up with a woman who was like this. Who, it didn't matter. She would do without, go without, that's fine. If it means taking care of her family. My mom learned from the best. And she has worked and sacrificed and done everything she could for us. I couldn't imagine growing up any better than I did. It was not perfect, but it was pretty good. It was pretty good. I am blessed and my sisters are blessed beyond description by my mom and by grandma. Much like Timothy in our passage, Lois and Eunice made sure that Timothy knew the way of salvation. 2 Timothy 3.15 says that they pointed them to the scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation in Christ Jesus. They shared with Timothy the wisdom of salvation because, you know, I could get all the mayonnaise and all the pillows and all the cream corn and fish sticks I wanted and have everything in this life. But if I missed heaven, what's the point? And the main thing that mom and grandma wanted for me was to make it to heaven, to come to know Jesus. Ultimately, though, we know this. Ultimately, we know that salvation isn't up to mom in the end. You can't make your kids believe. Some of you may have kids who are far from God today. Lost, or doubting, resisting, running, and it's killing you. Some days there aren't words for how horrible it feels to think that they're lost, and if they were to die today, I have no hope." You know, St. Augustine, he spent the first 30 years of his life rebelling against Monica, running from God. He knew better. One of his most famous prayers in his book, Confessions, is he said he had a big problem with sleeping around and had at least one kid out of wedlock. And he knew better, and one of his most famous prayers is one time he said, Lord, he prayed for chastity. He said, make me chaste. He said, Lord, make me chaste, but not yet. He knew better. He said, Lord, I know better, and yeah, do it one day, but I'm having too much fun right now. Augustine spent 30 years pushing Monica away, saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, Mom, you told me that when I was a kid, I get it, but I'm not interested, okay? And Monica, it broke her heart. And Augustine tells this story about her in the Confessions, how her heart just ached. Monica prayed and she pleaded and she waited with tears and pain for year after year, 30 years of praying. And some of you here may have been praying for kids or loved ones even longer than that. And the temptation is to think, what's the use? It's just never gonna happen. They're too far gone, their heart's too hard, it just can't happen. But Monica, she knew that even though she had no guarantees, She never lost hope. And Augustine tells this story of how she was at church one day talking to a pastor, and she was begging him, please go talk to my son. He likes philosophy, and he's intellectual, and maybe you can get through to him. Maybe you can relate to him on that level, and you can get his attention, and please go talk to him. And he was just like, this guy, he's too hardened to the gospel right now for me to say anything to him. So I'm not gonna talk to him. He's not teachable right now. We need to keep praying." And she just kept, she starts weeping in front of him and finally he consoles her with some of the most famous words from the book, Confessions. He says, he says, Monica, leave me and go in peace. It cannot be that the son of these tears should perish. Now, he was not saying it's a guarantee that if you keep praying hard enough, Augustine's going to get saved. That's not what he said. But what he means is, God sees your tears. He hears the cry of your heart. And he knows the pain in a way that no one else can relate to you. And as long as there is a beat in your child's body, a beat left in his heart and breath left in his lungs until they call time of death, there is hope. There is hope in a mighty, sovereign God, in a powerful Savior named Jesus. It cannot be that the son of these tears should perish. And so we pray. We pray on, and we do not lose hope. Moms, whether you have young kids at home or adult kids living out there on their own, or adult kids living at home. Whether your kids are believers or not, your children will always need you. There's always more for you to do for them, always more to add to your legacy of faith. Keep setting that godly example. Continue imparting the wisdom that you've learned, those lessons of faith, as you're able to. And always hold your kids before the Lord. Always take them by name before the throne of glory and mercy in prayer, never giving up hope in the saving power of your almighty Savior. You can leave behind A glorious legacy of faith that is eternal in its effects and is precious in the sight of God. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we give you such thanks and praise for the women in our lives, our mothers, grandmothers. We thank you for who they are, for the blessing, for everything they do and contribute, for all the love and care and support. Lord, we give you such thanks. We're so unspeakably blessed. And I pray for a special blessing today on all the moms and grandmas here and those watching, those who weren't able to be here who are part of our church. I just pray a special blessing upon them today that they truly know in their hearts how deeply loved they are, how truly amazing we know they are. We thank you for all they do. We thank you for their prayers and tears, for their efforts, for their trials and struggles. Help us to remember and to honor today that legacy of faith. Lord, we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.