I'm going to read a couple of passages from 2 Timothy, just as a backdrop for my sermon today. So it's going to be 2 Timothy chapter 1, starting with verse 3, and going to verse 6, and then we'll go over to 2 Timothy 3, 14-16. You should follow along as I read. This is Paul writing to his friend Timothy. His child in the faith, he says this. I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that you may be filled with joy. And this is a passage I want to focus in on. Where I'm mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice. And I am sure that it's in you as well." And then 2 Timothy 3, 14 to 16. Back up to 13. Paul says this, All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Well, today's Mother's Day and I thought I'd take a break from our series in Romans to think about what the Bible has to say about motherhood and the roles and responsibilities of mothers in formation of their children's spiritual lives. Americans celebrate Mother's Day, it's always on the second Sunday of May, and usually on those days, moms will get flowers, and then on Father's Day, guys get pie. Almost everyone knows about Mother's Day, but actually very few probably know the origin of the holiday. The inspiration actually came from the comments of a Sunday school teacher named Ann Jarvis. At the close of her lesson one day, she said this as she prayed, I hope and pray that someday someone will find a memorial for mothers commemorating her for her matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life she's entitled to it. Well, that day in her Sunday school class was her daughter, Anna. And that prayer stuck with her for the years to come. Now, Ann was a mother of 11 children. And Anna had a deep love for her mom. And so after she died, she decided she would help God answer that prayer. So on May 10, 1908, three years after her mother's death, Anna Jarvis held a memorial service in honor of her mother and all the mothers at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church. And that day she gave out white carnations to all the moms. That's why she chose white carnations. She said this. Its whiteness is a symbol of truth, purity, and broad charity of mother love. Its fragrance, her memory, and her prayers. The carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies. And so too, mothers hug their children in their hearts because a mother's love never dies. When I selected the flowers, I was thinking about my mom and her bedspread. Now, the holiday memorial began to take off in the 1920s, which was a boon for florists and greeting card companies. Anne didn't mind that people were using red carnations instead of just white because they couldn't get enough white carnations, but she didn't like the idea of sending Mother's Day cards. When asked about the practice, she said this, quote, a printed card means nothing except for that you're too lazy to write to the woman who's done so much. Yeah, I got to read that again. It was so great. A printed card means nothing except for that you're too lazy to write to the woman who's done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy? You take a box to your mother and then you eat most of it yourself? Well, that's a pretty sentiment. Well, it's my goal today not just to make you laugh, but more importantly, to make you think. Think about the role that God has given to mothers in the spiritual development of their children and the challenges that's faced by Christian mothers in light of the devaluing of that God-given role in our culture. So today in my sermon, it is directed particularly to mothers, but I think what we're gonna say in this topic has secondary application to fathers, to grandparents, to uncles and aunts, and even to women who have no children. So why don't we pray? Get in the text and see what God has for us today. Our Father in God, I do pray for grace and mercy as we look at this. There's not a one of us who came into this world apart from a mother. And so Father in God, we pray that as we think about the role that you've given mothers, that we would rededicate ourselves to upholding that in our culture and in our own homes. So bless us now, we ask in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, what do we want to do this morning? I want to do three things. First of all, I want us to think about God's, I'm going to give you the outline in just a second. I want us to think about God's purpose and plan in creating the woman. Next, we want to think about some of the modern attacks on God's role for women. And finally, I want to give you three things that mothers are called to do to aid in the spiritual formation of their kids. So if you want to outline the sermon, you can put these phrases down. One, God's purpose. Two, modern attacks. And three, a mother's calling. God's purpose. Then the Lord said, it's not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. And out of the ground the Lord had formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the sky and every animal of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable to him. So the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and as he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man, and he brought her to the man. Then the man said, at last, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Now writing to the Corinthian Christians who were having their own kind of feminist revolution, Paul reminded them that a man does not originate with a woman, but the woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman's sake, but the woman for the man's sake. Now the woman was created as a complement and a companion to her husband. She was designed by God to be His helpmate. You know, years ago, there was a television program called Designing Women. Women don't get to design themselves. God is our designer. He gives us our roles as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. Well, the two primary roles that God has given women who are married is to help their husbands and to be the caretakers of their children. as a helpmate to Adam, Eve was to help him mate, so that they could be fruitful and multiply. Propagating the human race by carrying the next generation of womb is a noble task. So we have to state it clearly, and though it will cause some women to explode, at least those on TikTok, and yell hysterically, we have to say that women were created by God for two primary roles, that of being a wife, and that of being a mother. And for women, everything is about relationships. And on the top of the list are the relationships she has to her husband and her children. Now, I hasten to add here that God's intent is for most women, as it is for most men, to marry and have children. But both Jesus and Paul himself were not married. And Paul argued that there's a great advantage in having a single life. You can serve God free from the things that accompany marriage. Well, you know, there's been a big push, though, to break that glass ceiling for women in jobs that are traditionally done by men. You know, if you look around at your place of work, if they have posters from the government, occupational things, it's usually a woman who's operating the, you know, big crane. And, of course, Rosie the Riveter, that was the big thing in the war when women went to work in large numbers in the factories. But according to the Working Futures 2021 report about occupations and who fills them, they tell us that among electricians, plumbers, technicians, mechanics, men make up 97.7% of those workers. In engineering, which is a high-paying career, men make up 93%. in that field. Women, on the other hand, dominate in nursing, pharmacy, medical secretaries, counseling, physical therapy, and primary education, podiatry, and the travel industry. In each of those, the numbers of women come up to 80% to 95%. Now in the Nordic countries, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, they've pushed very hard for what they call the gender equity ideology. And yet the percentages are the same there as they are in America. Left to their own choices, men tend to choose jobs where they work with tools. Women tend to choose jobs where they work at helping people. Infant boys are drawn most often to objects when you put it in front of them. Infant girls are drawn to faces. when they're in front of them. What's the first question that a man will ask another man when they meet? So, what do you do for a job? In other words, how do you subdue the earth? What's the first question a woman will ask another woman when they meet? So, are you married? Do you have any children? What is she saying? Have you been fruitful? Have you multiplied? You see, the reason that women go into helping industries is because God has wired them to be supporters and helpers. So God has given men and women roles to play. Men are to be the leaders, the providers, or the protectors. Women are to be the supporters, the nurturers, and the caretakers. And as the designer and the manufacturer of both men and women, it seems reasonable to me that if we follow the owner's manual, which is the Bible from our creator, we will do better than trying to reinvent the roles ourselves. That brings us to our second point, though, the attacks, the attacks. The psalmist asked this question, if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? Psalm 11 3. In other words, when everything's crumbling around you, what are the righteous supposed to do in response? And we've been watching a lot of foundations crumble over the last several decades, haven't we? In her confirmation hearing for the placement on the Supreme Court, Judge Katenji Jackson, or Brown Jackson, was asked by one of the senators if she could define what a woman was. And she answered by saying, no, because I'm not a biologist. The Washington Post did a story mocking, or in reference to this, and in that story they were mocking the idea of Eve being created from Adam's rib. And they suggested that defining what a woman is is actually quite difficult. And most of the readers in the comments below agreed with that. But long before the revolutionaries were bending gender and promoting homosexuality, they were trashing marriage and they were mocking motherhood. One of the first shots across the bow came with a book by Betty Friedan entitled The Feminist Mystique. Friedan was born Jewish and was a self-avowed Marxist who was not only an author, but also the co-founder of the National Organization of Women. The inspiration for her book, she said, came when she attended a class reunion for her college graduating class, and she talked to a number of women who were talking about how disappointed and bored they were in their life. In her book, she writes this in one part. It was a strange, stirring sense of dissatisfaction, yearning that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban housewife struggled with it alone. As she made the bed, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover materials, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, and chauffeured Cub Scouts and brownies, as she lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask, even herself, that silent question, Is this all? Is this all? I mean, if women could just get out and get careers and move up the corporate ladder, then they would find fulfillment and freedom. I mean, being a brain surgeon, not changing diapers, is where women will find their fulfillment. Of course, getting pregnant and having kids stands in the way of career advancement. I mean, hey, but the pill and the abortion, remove that, buried in it. Frieden, who founded NARAL, also the National Association to Repeal Abortion Laws, her ex-husband said of her after they were divorced, she changed the course of history almost single-handedly. It took a driven, super aggressive, egotistical, almost lunatic dynamo to rock the world the way she did. Unfortunately, she was the same person at home where that kind of conduct doesn't work. She simply didn't understand this. Now, joining Betty Friedan, but working within the government, was Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Bella, who was also Jewish, said that her experience of becoming a feminist started when she was in an Orthodox synagogue, and she noticed that all the women had to sit in the back, in the balcony. Known as a spitfire for personality, she said of herself, quote, I've been described as a tough, noisy woman, a prize fighter, a man-hater, you name it. They call me Battling Bella. Well, she was one of the first members, or was the first member of Congress to support gay rights. introducing a bill for the Equality Act in 1974. One of the more famous warriors worth mentioning is Gloria Steinem. She also was Jewish, a columnist for the New York Times and the founder of Ms. Magazine. She had a sad upbringing. Her mother actually suffered from a nervous breakdown and became delusional and violent and ended up in a mental institution. But Steinem's grandmother was an important woman in the suffrage movement, and Gloria was brought up to be a feminist. But she said the real key turning point was when she was 23 years old and she had her first abortion. She said, you know, she was told she'd feel guilty. She said, I didn't feel bad about it at all. And busy as she was, she just never had time to marry. Matter of fact, she's the one who's famed for saying, a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. She's famed for that. But strangely enough, she did finally marry when she was 66 years old. She married David Bale, the father of the actor Christian Bale. Now, why do I mention Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem. These are three very important women in this movement, the second wave feminism, and all of them advocated for getting women out of the home and into the workplaces, and they were strongly supportive of abortion. But strangely enough, none of them initially supported gay rights. Betty Friedan was afraid of having lesbians involved in the women's movement. But over the years, as Americans progressed down the path of sexual freedom, overturning the rules that God had ordained for them, all three of these women eventually supported homosexuality, and Gloria Steinem, who's still alive at 88, is a strong supporter of transgenderism. Now, I don't know too many evangelical women who've read the book, The Feminine Mystique, but all the women who are here today have been raised in a culture that has embraced and promoted the ideas that these women championed. So God has designed roles for the purpose of motherhood and women, and one that's been under attack by Marxists and progressives for 70 years now. And many women, whether consciously or unconsciously, have absorbed a lot of these ideas and attitudes. of those who oppose God's design for motherhood. So that brings us to our last point though, a mother's calling. In one sense, everything I've said so far is actually just a setup for the last point. I mean, what is a mom's calling? What's her task? Simply put, it's to give birth to and to raise up the next generation. It's to fulfill what it says in Genesis, to subdue the earth and fill it. Now, the idea of filling the earth with people is one that has also been under attack. In the 60s and 70s, those of you who are old enough remember how everyone was worried about the world being overpopulated beyond its capacity to feed people. Paul Ehrlich wrote a book entitled, The Population Bomb. In it, he opens with these words. He says, the battle to feed humanity is over. And humanity has lost. In the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death. No matter what we do, nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world's death rate. Ehrlich argued that, quote, too many people packed in too tightly, too tight spaces, taking too much of the earth. Unless humanity cuts down on its numbers soon, all of us will face mass starvation on a dying planet. Of course, then the Green Revolution took place in the 60s and 70s. There was a massive increase in the output of world grain. And the world in 1968, when he wrote that book, had a population of 3.5 million. Today, in 2022, it stands at 7.9 million, and people eat better now than they did then. Rather than the population spiraling out of control, it's going to reach its peak in just another decade or two and then it's going to start declining. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of countries where there's a birth dearth. Places like China and Japan and Korea, Japanese population is expected to shrink, get this, by 20 million people over the next 30 years. Well, God's people shouldn't buy into this anti-population growth ideology. The charge to be fruitful and multiply was not just a slogan but a command by our Creator. But as Christians, our goal is to fill the earth with people who bear the image of God to live for the glory of God. Mom, listen. Your task is to raise children who live for the glory of God and find their highest joy in Jesus Christ. But how can you do that? What's involved? Well, there's three things that godly mothers are called to do if they want to be a blessing to their children. The first thing is you have to teach them the scripture. You have to teach them the scripture. Yes, it's important that you teach them how to tie their shoes and brush their teeth. It'd be nice if you get them potty trained before they're 10. If you teach your daughters to cook, their future husbands will appreciate that. If you teach your sons to change their socks and wear deodorant, their future wives will thank you. But what you need to teach the most is the word of God. Granted, the Bible lays primary responsibility for that on the fathers. Addressing the dads in Israel in Deuteronomy, Moses said this, And these words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Ephesians 6.4 says, Paul's writing says this, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. But read through the Proverbs and see how many times the mother is added to the father in this teaching task. Proverbs 1.8, hear my son your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Proverbs 6.20, my son, observe the commandments of your father and do not forsake the teachings of your mother. Pastor Allen, when he was growing up, told me that he spent most of his time, more time with his dad than with his mom, but that's because they were farmers and his dad was at home. Most dads are away eight to ten hours a day. It's the mom who spends the majority of the time with the kids, especially when they're young. And sure, that time can be hard and taxing. My older son has three children. They're three years of age and under. Their mom was raised as an only child, mainly by nannies. I am amazed that she holds up as well as she does with the kids that have such high energy. She quit a high-paying job as an ad rep for Best Buy to stay home with her kids. She's tired, but she's happy she did so. My mom always stayed home when we were growing up. She occasionally provided childcare for moms who worked. One little boy who was with us for a while was Cory, belonged to the neighbor lady who lived next door. I remember holding him when he took his first steps. And I remember when his mom came to pick him up after school and one of my sisters told him, hey, Cory took his first steps today. And I remember she started to cry. At the end of that spring, she quit her job. and she stayed home with her son the next day, or next year. You know, they say that it's just a matter of quality time, not quantity time. I don't know about you, but I'd rather eat a half-pound burger than a two-ounce steak. Kids want to spend time with their moms, even if they're not doing anything more than sitting on their lap and sucking their thumbs. And if they're sitting on their laps, what a wonderful time to read them Bible stories. Which story should we read today? And my grandson will say, let's read Gaiath, who got his head cut off. Or my granddaughter. Grandpa, I want to do this story about Noah's Ark. And we do motions for that one. I lay her on her stomach on my lap. And then I say, OK, first you do is I hit her back. I say, you chop down the trees. And then you have to saw them. And then you have to plane them. And then you have to paint them. And what's the last thing you do? You drill them. And that's when I tickle them. And what does she say every single time? Do it again, Grandpa. And of course, they always say, let's do this story about Jesus dying on the cross. And when we go through that one, I don't tease, I don't joke, but I do ask him, do you think it hurt when Jesus had those nails put in his hands? Really bad. Why did Jesus do that? He was dying for our sins. Five of my grandchildren are under the age of four. My oldest is 14. He lived with us for the first four years of his life and came back a number of times in the summer. Every night I would read Bible stories to him and then pray for him, asking that God would open his heart so that he would be saved. I'm still waiting for that answer. But as he got older, we didn't use the picture Bible anymore. We just read from the text and I would ask him questions and he would answer them. Remember those verses that I read at the beginning, warning that evil men and imposters would go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived? But you, however, continue in the things which you've learned, knowing from whom you've learned them, and that from childhood you've known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness. Scripture is the light of truth, which enables us to see and correctly identify everything that happens in our world, in our community, in our families, in our lives. What a wonderful thing when kids get solid biblical teaching from the youngest age. Now pastors and Sunday school teachers have an essential part to play in the education of our kids, but the primary role is to be played by the parents. I mean, think about it. How much time does the Sunday school teacher get to spend with your kids each week? An hour? How much time does the mom spend with the kids each week? Yes, it has to be a coordinated effort, but there's no way that a Sunday school teacher can make up for the role of a parent. I mean, do you want your kids to go to heaven? And teach them the sacred writings that are able to give them wisdom that leads to salvation. We gotta teach our kids. You know, I saw, I remember reading some kind of survey thing that they did where they asked kids whether they wish their parents would read to them. And something like 89% of the kids said yes. And it was still in the high 70s for kids as old as 18 years of age. Second thing you have to do though is you got to pray for them. You got to pray for your children. You know that old adage that says you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink? Well, that's the same. truth that comes to our children. You can teach them all the things that you need to teach them, but only God can open their hearts. You can bring them to church, read the scripture to them, urge them to believe in Christ, but if God doesn't give them a new heart so as to believe and obey, they'll still perish. The goal is not merely that your child knows the Bible, but rather that he knows the God of the Bible. Jesus said to the religious leaders in his day, you search the scriptures because you believe that in them you have life, eternal life, but it's these that testify to me and you're unwilling to come to me. that you would have life. God alone, through his Holy Spirit, can cause a spiritually dead person to come alive. And he does so often, most often, in answer to prayers offered up by people who want to see them saved. Remember that admissions scandal that happened back in 2019? 53 people were charged with conspiracy and breaking a number of laws. They cheated on entrance exams for their kids. They bribed college administrators and then money was laundered so that no one would find out, but they did find out. One of the moms involved was actress Lori Loughlin, who starred in the TV sitcom, Full House. She was convicted and went to prison for a couple of months and paid a $150,000 fine. Now, those parents were motivated to what? to get their kids into elite colleges, so much so that they were willing to break the law. Shouldn't we, as parents, be motivated to get our kids in heaven enough so that we would pray for them fervently, consistently, and often? Paul tells us we're supposed to devote ourselves to prayer. I have to say, the one thing that has always bothered me over the years, because I've always prayed for the kids in the church, but it's always bothered me when I was more concerned to pray for the kids in the church. than their parents were for their own salvation. You know, when they hand out free cheese, people will line up for three blocks to get it. But when God hands out the offer to come into his presence and pray, I know a lot of parents, a lot of dads in particular, who would be very concerned that their kids wouldn't learn how to gut a deer. but whether they know the word of God and the God of the word, not much of a concern. And that's people in church. We got to pray. We got to pray. Third thing you have to do, the last thing, is you got to model the Christian life before them. You know, a lot of time with a married couple, it's the wife who gets saved first. There's a lot of Christian women who have unbelieving husbands. Peter, in addressing the situation, advised this in 1 Peter 3, 1-4. He said this, Your adornment must not be merely external braiding of hair and wearing gold jewelry and putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with an imperishable quality of a gentle quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of the Lord. What he's saying is wives, It's as much what your husband's going to see in you as what you say to him that's going to affect it. So also with kids. You don't want to just tell them about the Savior. You want to show them what it means to be saved. Paul, writing to Timothy, said, for I'm mindful of the sincere faith that's in you, which first dwelt in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice, and now, I'm sure, is you. Well, Timothy's had a mother and a grandmother to model the Christian faith to him, even though, evidently, neither his father nor his grandfather were saved. Yet the faith still passed on. I love watching videos on YouTube where people give their testimony on how they got saved. I came across one the other day. The girl's name is Tristan Tice. She was raised in a Jewish home. It looks like she's about her second year of college. She said when she was in high school, she used to party a lot and get involved with boys and all that kind of stuff. But she said on one occasion, she was invited by her friend, Sophie, to spend the weekend at her house. And so she was there on Saturday night. And Sophie told her, said, well, we're going to church tomorrow morning. You're welcome to come, but if you don't want to, that's fine too. You can stay home and just wait for us. And Tristan said that seemed a little weird to her. So she said, yeah, okay, I'll go to church. So she said she went to church, not expecting anything. But she said the pastor started preaching and she said, it wasn't anything that was sad. But she said, all of a sudden I just started to weep and weep and weep. She said, look around, nobody else is crying but I am. And she said, she went and talked to her friend about it afterwards. And they started to meet with the pastor. And she said, you know, the pastor would just answer my questions one after another. And it was never like, this is what I say. And you got, he just kept showing me in the Bible what it said. And eventually she came to know Christ. And she said her mom was not thrilled about this when she became a Christian. She actually asked her to leave the house. And she did. By the way, she's telling this with smiles, you know, this big, right? And she said, she asked me to leave the house. And she said, so I left. I went to Sophie's house, lived with Sophie and her mom for a little while. But then my mom, she started to miss me. And she called me and asked me if I'd come back. She said she didn't know what to make of me. But she said she started to see the difference in my life. I didn't lose my temper. I was happy all the time. And she said, and then she said, fast forward a little bit. My mom was talking to Sophie's mom and my mom got saved. Now, let me hear this. If a Jewish woman can get saved in great part through the life modeled by her daughter, cannot your children in great part be saved by God through the life you modeled to them? Moms, teach your children, pray for your children, and model a Christian life before them. Be a godly mother so that even long after you're gone, your children will still say, thank you, God, that you blessed me with a godly mother. Let's pray. Our Father in God, I guess I want to start by thanking you for my own mom. She's not with us anymore, but Lord, and even when we were growing up, I don't think she was really even a Christian then. But she still got us to church. I remember doing vacation Bible school in our backyard. And I remember that you worked through her so that a number of her children actually got saved. So Father, I thank you for the moms who know you, I pray that they would be challenged. It's a hard job, Lord, and it's a very thankless job in many ways. But Lord, is there any greater job than to raise kids who know Jesus and treasure? So I pray, I pray that you'd help the moms here. I pray for those who are grandparents, that they would take this role to the degree that they can. And even for those who don't have children, Lord, that they work with other kids, because there's a lot of people who don't have moms. who will love them this way. So bless us. Give us opportunities to serve you and find great joy in all of it. For we ask in Jesus' name.