SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, choir, praise team, congregation, kids, everybody for a great morning of worship.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to just do something that's really on my heart today, and that's celebrating God's incredible design for motherhood.
SPEAKER_01: We want to honor mothers today.
SPEAKER_01: You are special and wonderful and incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And we live in a world today where that is a fact that some people take for granted, and it is even something that people are challenging as fact in our culture with identity issues and questions of roles and life and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: People are trying to take man and woman and make them the same or change them or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: We have in all kinds of ways that people are trying to say, on the one hand, that the church, that evangelical church folks, followers of Jesus like us, that we are disrespectful to women and hold women down and all this other kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And then on the other hand, they're trying to destroy the beauty of motherhood that God has designed and built in moms.
SPEAKER_01: And so all throughout Scripture, God elevates mothers.
SPEAKER_01: And He is designed from the very beginning of the human experience, from the human race in the Garden of Eden, to make mothers designed in his image and to make them powerful and wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: And so today, moms, I just want you to feel blessed and encouraged from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Look, in fact, in this book, Paul is writing to Timothy as a young pastor.
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to coach him and encourage him in life.
SPEAKER_01: And look how God just takes a moment to elevate the mothers in his life.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Timothy 1, verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Remembering, or verse 4, we'll start there just to kind of get the sentence in.
SPEAKER_01: Remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy, clearly recalling your sincere faith.
SPEAKER_01: So there he's first speaking of Timothy's faith, but then look at how he honors his mother and grandmother.
SPEAKER_01: That first lived in your grandmother Lois, then in your mother Eunice, and that I am convinced is in you also.
SPEAKER_01: And then I want you to just flip over to chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: And here Paul is talking to Timothy about the struggles that will happen in the times that will come in the last days.
SPEAKER_01: And we certainly are living in times that look like this.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 1, know this, difficult times will come in the last days.
SPEAKER_01: People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, blasphemers, proud, ungrateful, unholy, slanderers, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what he tells them in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes back to this same testimony of his mother's again.
SPEAKER_01: You know those who taught you.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Timothy, when you're thinking about those scriptural principles and the foundations of God's word, we sang earlier about standing on the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when he speaks to Timothy, he says, Listen, you know and stand on that word, but he also tells him, you remember your mama and your grandmama taught you those.
SPEAKER_01: And nobody loves you outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody loves you like your mama and your grandmama.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's prayed for you like your mama and your grandmama.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, when he talks about those truths, he says, I also want you to remember not just the truths of God's word, but I want you to remember the life and the testimony and the love and the integrity of the women who taught you that.
SPEAKER_01: Continue in what you've learned and firmly believe.
SPEAKER_01: You know those who taught you.
SPEAKER_01: And you know that from childhood you have known the sacred scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody has a testimony like that, but praise the Lord, I had a mom and have a mom who teaches like that.
SPEAKER_01: When I would get in trouble, I may have told the story before, but you know, my spiritual gift is griping.
SPEAKER_01: I'm really good at that.
SPEAKER_01: And since I'm smarter than everybody else, I know what's wrong with everything, right?
SPEAKER_01: So everybody should listen to me, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of my functions, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so my mom would get on to me about griping and complaining and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what she'd do.
SPEAKER_01: She'd do things like take scripture verses and post them on the refrigerator.
SPEAKER_01: Do all things without murmuring and disputing.
SPEAKER_01: So every time I went to the refrigerator to get a Coke or Kool-Aid, I had to look at my mom putting those Bible verses in my heart, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she taught me from Bible study fellowship, she would take her notes and would teach me how to study God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and she would always encourage us.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad was the same way, Sunday school teacher or deacon, but there's something special about your mom and about your mom telling you those things.
SPEAKER_01: And she just had a way, in that nurturing, loving way, that she would talk to me about scripture and about what it means.
SPEAKER_01: And then when I was called into ministry, you know, she was there and challenging me and encouraging me.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time I preached a message on a Wednesday night at our home church.
SPEAKER_01: I had preached once before in a small church in Alabama.
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine had invited me and he said, Look, you're gonna have to start preaching some places now that you've been called into ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, You just need to practice.
SPEAKER_01: So you come to my church and practice.
SPEAKER_01: And so he coached me and I preached.
SPEAKER_01: That was my first time.
SPEAKER_01: My second message was that on a Wednesday night at my home church in Memphis, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_01: And there were probably twice this many people in the room, and uh maybe three times.
SPEAKER_01: It was a big crowd, and so we were there on Wednesday night, and so I'm I'm nervous enough already, but I've studied, I've worked hard at that, and I and the way it worked, the way you'd come into the sanctuary was my office would have been back up in there in this area.
SPEAKER_01: And so there was a stairwell that came down and it came into the back part of the sanctuary, and you'd come in like that.
SPEAKER_01: So here I am, I'm coming down from my office, I'm facing my first real sermon, my home church, and my mom is waiting for me right there at that door.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, mom, and she said, Son, are you prepared?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Mom, and she said, Don't mom me.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I watched you all the way through school.
SPEAKER_01: You never studied a day in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And all of our friends go to this church, and I want to know if you're prepared.
SPEAKER_01: So moms have a way of challenging us in God's word and helping us grow.
SPEAKER_01: I remember one time I was learning these lessons, and I was I was in my first role in ministry, and I'd become the singles pastor, and it was one of those times where I'd just gotten frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: We had some people who were growing in the Lord, and we had some folks that just they just weren't, they just were not walking with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They were in that time and they were struggling and they were doing things, and it's frustrating.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I was just frustrated, and I had a couple people leave and different things, and so I called my mom, and I was not doing all things without murmuring and disputing.
SPEAKER_01: I called her to do that, and I'm griping about it and all that, and she says, son, I'm sorry that you don't read your Bible anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me?
SPEAKER_01: And she says, Well, don't you believe your Bible anymore?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you read it?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you?
SPEAKER_01: I said, What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: And she says, Look, son, my Bible, and yours does too, if you would read it, says there's a broad road.
SPEAKER_01: And lots of people are going down that road, and the end of that road is a destruction.
SPEAKER_01: And there's another road, and it is more narrow.
SPEAKER_01: But the people who are going down that road are the ones that live.
SPEAKER_01: They're the ones that find Jesus, and they're the ones that spend eternity in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, son, you have got to learn that that broad road exists, and not everyone is going to accept Jesus as their Savior, and you cannot let that shake your faith.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot let that cause you to get frustrated and not lose your church and people and have the love of Jesus as you're preaching the gospel and calling them to faith.
SPEAKER_01: So, son, I want to remind you what God's word says.
SPEAKER_01: And it's one of those moments that I love in this scripture that I picture in my mind when I read this.
SPEAKER_01: Not just what you've learned, but who you've learned it from.
SPEAKER_01: And I am so grateful for the power that God has given to mothers and the impact that it's had in my life, the impact that it has in the lives of our children as I watch Janet as a godly mother impact their lives.
SPEAKER_01: And now I watch my daughter as a mother begin to teach and to build, even at this early stage, in our grandson Killian.
SPEAKER_01: And God has built this incredible power in mothers that He honors all throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Just show you a few things today that I pray is an encouragement to our mothers.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first thing I want you to see that the Bible says, not Pastor Greg, the Bible says that women and motherhood that was created by God in his very image and celebrated throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Again, in the life of a pastor and telling people how to be a pastor and telling a young man how to be a pastor and how to preach the word and how to stand on it, even in difficult times, he elevates the role of his mother and his grandmother and the spiritual heritage that came from then as an anchor in his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way that he's done that with my mom.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look back in your Bibles at Genesis chapter 1, and I want you to just see straight from the Word of God a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, and I put this on the screen because I want you to have these indelibly etched in your mind, and I want you to see that this is the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what the Bible says in verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.
SPEAKER_01: They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So God created man in his own image.
SPEAKER_01: He created them male and female.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know, ladies, that you are made in the very image of God.
SPEAKER_01: I want the young ladies in the room to understand that you are special and you are unique, and God has made you in his image.
SPEAKER_01: I would tell our daughter that as she was growing up and beginning today, that you are a blood-bought princess of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: That he loves you and he died for you and he made you in his image.
SPEAKER_01: And don't you settle for anything less than what is deserved by a blood-bought daughter of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, as the people of God, we celebrate women.
SPEAKER_01: We elevate women.
SPEAKER_01: We elevate mothers that our ladies, in all of the power and uniqueness of who you are, it is there because God has built you like that and He built you in His image.
SPEAKER_01: You are not second to anyone anywhere in any way.
SPEAKER_01: You are specially created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: And please don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: Young ladies, don't let some young man or somebody else treat you in a way that is less than you were created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: As you are working in society today and you're reading things and we're studying things and we're hearing things and politics and the news and philosophy and everything else, don't let anyone tell you as a wife, as a mother, as a woman, that you are anything less than eternally, beautifully, and powerfully designed in the very mind of God in his likeness.
SPEAKER_01: And that is according to the clear and plain teaching of God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: Not only that, he created womanhood and therefore motherhood as a very specific and unique and purposeful part of that design.
SPEAKER_01: An incredibly beautiful design.
SPEAKER_01: We've read this before, but in today's world you can never take these things for granted.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 2, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible, in this setting, Adam is there and God is teaching him, and he's standing there with God physically in the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: They're watching the animals go by and they're naming all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says the man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal.
SPEAKER_01: He's seeing them two by two by two or more as they go by.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, after probably six thousand animals, who knows how many there were, it dawns on Adam, but for the man no helper was comparable to him as his compliment.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord got, there's another version that says, It's not good that man is alone.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say that about women anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: It just says, guys, you can't trust them when they're alone.
SPEAKER_01: It's bad.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept, and God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to the man, and the man said, This one at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
SPEAKER_01: This one will be called woman, for she was taken from man.
SPEAKER_01: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
SPEAKER_01: So here you see this incredibly purposeful design.
SPEAKER_01: In all the ways that God, as the creator of the universe, could have made Eve and could have made her as a woman and given her the ability to give birth and to be a mother, he chose a very specific design and way to do that.
SPEAKER_01: He made her as a part of Adam.
SPEAKER_01: She took part of Adam away from him.
SPEAKER_01: He is lesser without her.
SPEAKER_01: And then he expanded it into the fullness of this incredible human being, this woman that is named Eve, and he brings her back to Adam, and Adam is now more because of Eve in his life.
SPEAKER_01: God has built in her the capacity to multiply who they are and their family and what goes on.
SPEAKER_01: She is taken from his rib, so she is not lesser than him in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_01: She is made of the same human fabric that he is.
SPEAKER_01: In every way, God is trying to communicate to Adam and to all of us that as women, you are specifically and beautifully designed in the mind and heart of God, that you are not lesser than anyone, that God has made you powerful and special.
SPEAKER_01: He's given you God-ordained purposes and abilities in building marriage and family and life and investing into people and the capacity to nurture and do relationships in ways that are unique to your womanhood and your motherhood and you as the ability to be a wife.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, don't let anybody ever take that away.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing lesser about being a wife or a mother.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, God has made it powerful and he specifically designed it that you have God ordained purposes birthed in the creative mind and heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Listen, Adam, he put Adam in the garden and he said, Adam, your job is to tend and to keep the garden.
SPEAKER_01: Those words are military and farming words.
SPEAKER_01: Keep is a military word.
SPEAKER_01: Farm is a is a is a uh tend is a gardening word, it's a farming word.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Listen, you're here to work and you're here to build and you're here to be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_01: But he said, Listen, I want someone to be with you as a companion.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to be able to do this with someone.
SPEAKER_01: They have the same abilities and talents as you, Adam, but they have something you don't have.
SPEAKER_01: They have a desire and the capacity to create a togetherness and a oneness and a companionship and a relationship that Adam's male engine doesn't have.
SPEAKER_01: God has given that incredible relational and nurturing capacity to women on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And he's empowered it with all of his sovereign might and omnipotence as a creator God.
SPEAKER_01: And families are families in large measure because of what mothers and wives and women bring to building relationships and home.
SPEAKER_01: It is an incredible design to see that God has created that.
SPEAKER_01: And if God has created that, then we need to elevate that and celebrate that and not denigrate that in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what, nobody is as tough as my mama.
SPEAKER_01: She's five, too, but she is from South Mississippi, and she is tough and smart, and you better not mess with my mama.
SPEAKER_01: My grandmother, my dad's mother, they're both from the same little town in Mississippi on the Louisiana border, a little town called Osaica, Mississippi, and both my mom and my dad from there.
SPEAKER_01: And my grandmother on my dad's side, Annie Lou, I'm telling you, Annie Lou was a force of nature.
SPEAKER_01: Towards the end of her life, after she had retired, she moved to Memphis, and I was already become a pastor, and she'd call me and say, Greg, get over to my apartment now.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01: Sit down there and I'm gonna tell you what to say in my funeral.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Annie, you're stronger than the rest of us.
SPEAKER_01: Why are we doing your funeral?
SPEAKER_01: Shut up and listen to what I told you to do undo this.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you did what Annie Lou told you to do.
SPEAKER_01: And then Annie would say, You need to sit there because I'm gonna pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: And when Annie Lou prayed for you, stuff happened.
SPEAKER_01: Because God has built that into godly grandmothers and godly mothers.
SPEAKER_01: And not just in my life, and not just in Timothy's life, but in all of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible celebrates women, it celebrates motherhood, it celebrates the power and the influence and the greatness of wives.
SPEAKER_01: Just as an example, write this down.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have time to go read it.
SPEAKER_01: It should be familiar if you've been in church any amount of time, Proverbs 31, where the Bible tells us that a mother, again, mothers teach in unique ways that no one else does.
SPEAKER_01: She sits down, her son, who is a king, and she says, just like Annie Lou told me, son, you sit there and you listen to your mama.
SPEAKER_01: And she tells him what a king should be and what he should not do and what he should do.
SPEAKER_01: And then she says, You listen to me, son.
SPEAKER_01: Who can find a virtuous, godly wife?
SPEAKER_01: Her value is far beybies.
SPEAKER_01: The heart of her husband safely trusts in her.
SPEAKER_01: And because of her influence and her power in his life, and because of who she encourages you to be, you will have no lack of gain in your life.
SPEAKER_01: If you are blessed and wise and understand when God brings this incredibly beautiful and powerful and God-ordained woman designed in his image in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And then it goes on to describe all of those things.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the Bible says multiple times in the book of Proverbs, he who finds a wife finds a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say anything about husbands being good or anybody finding us and being blessed in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that riches and lands are an inheritance from fathers, but a godly wife is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_01: And you have all throughout Scripture incredible pictures of mothers and grandmothers, such as Lois and Eunice.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you were made in God's image, ladies, and you are celebrated and powerful in the economy of God.
SPEAKER_01: The next thing I want to show you from Scripture a mother's God given design for building her family.
SPEAKER_01: Again, when you see that unique design, it says that it's not good that Adam is alone and he's been trying to teach him that all these other animals and all this process and you have this capacity for relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Adam, that I've built in you, and my mic just died.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob to the oh, there it is.
SPEAKER_01: We're back.
SPEAKER_01: Stay close.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, listen, Adam, I've built in you this capacity, and once all that business trotting the animals in front of him, he's trying to create in him a sense of you have this capacity for relationship, but you need someone to love and you need someone to love you, and you need a place to express that relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm going to make for you a companion.
SPEAKER_01: That's all that compliment and help mean and all that other business.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, listen, I'm going to make someone who has the same talents and abilities that you do, but her desire is not to tend and keep, her desire is to do it with you.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he put motherhood as the structure of how the human race moves on and marches through time?
SPEAKER_01: It is because mothers are given the power and the ability and the supernatural design to love and nurture in a unique way that is a force of nature in the human race.
SPEAKER_01: Because God designed it to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: In Titus chapter 2, you don't have to turn if you don't want to.
SPEAKER_01: If you can find it, go ahead, but I have the references there on scripture for you.
SPEAKER_01: And in Titus 2, the Bible tells us that God is speaking and teaching, again, another young pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is a church matter, and it is important that we understand that.
SPEAKER_01: Yet another pastoral training passage, another letter to a young pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what he tells them in chapter 2, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to much wine.
SPEAKER_01: They are to teach what is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure homemakers, kind, submissive their husbands, so that God's message will not be slandered.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he says, listen, women have this incredible role that they are building a home and building relationships and loving children and loving husbands, and the home functions, and relationships function because you, ladies, are the relational engine and experts in our families.
SPEAKER_01: God has given you a supernatural ability that is beyond comparison.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, when you're thinking about this, loving your husband and impacting him, the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 3, it says this.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he says, I have built in you the key to your husband's heart and the power to literally change his heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible the power that you have in relationships, and God has given that to you.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to celebrate and honor that and listen to that.
SPEAKER_01: And then he talks about you in this role are the ones that turn a house into a home.
SPEAKER_01: Again, look what he says there in Titus.
SPEAKER_01: And it says this all throughout Scripture in Proverbs 31.
SPEAKER_01: She does all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: She manages the house, she manages the servants, she clothes her family, she buys from afar.
SPEAKER_01: Her children will rise up and call her blessed, and her husband also, because of the impact that she has.
SPEAKER_01: Look what it says here.
SPEAKER_01: They're to teach what is good so that they may encourage young women to love their husbands and to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure homemakers.
SPEAKER_01: What is he talking about there?
SPEAKER_01: He's not talking about housework.
SPEAKER_01: He's not limiting them to some role of cooking and washing dishes or whatever kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_01: And if somebody out there who does not know scripture and they do not know who we are as the people of God, and they try to say that we put women in that role, you stop them and you show them the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You tell them that we love and elevate women, moms, wives.
SPEAKER_01: It is incredible the ability that God has built them and the power in them.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, they are talking about in this home business in places like Proverbs 31, that they are making that house a home.
SPEAKER_01: They are making kids love each other and love their parents.
SPEAKER_01: It was my mom that taught me to respect my dad and look up to him.
SPEAKER_01: It was my mom who would stop me as the oldest child, and she'd say, son, your siblings, they love you and they look up to you because you're the oldest, and that gives you a responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: And you're supposed to love them and protect them, not pick on them and not be in their face and do all this.
SPEAKER_01: And it was my mom that understood those relational dynamics and challenged me and taught me and grew me in those things.
SPEAKER_01: It's moms that make it a home.
SPEAKER_01: It's Janet in our house who would turn dinners into something more than food.
SPEAKER_01: That would be experiences and life.
SPEAKER_01: It was a mom that in my house growing up, and now in my children's lives, that turned a trip into a family time and experience and memory.
SPEAKER_01: It's moms that make that work.
SPEAKER_01: It is moms who build a home and a family.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the next thing God's word teaches us that motherhood ministry is so inherently vital to the church and to the human race and to families.
SPEAKER_01: It is such an existential thing that motherhood ministry never ends.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Titus chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: And this is something that the church as a whole has not, not our church, every church.
SPEAKER_01: The church has failed dramatically for generations in this.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders, not addicted to much wine.
SPEAKER_01: They are to teach what is good so that they may encourage young women to love their husbands and to love their children.
SPEAKER_01: Homemakers, kind, submissive, so that God's message will not be slandered.
SPEAKER_01: It is a gospel ministry that God has given women to be mothers and then to teach mothers and then to be grandmothers.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies, you are to never stop mothering and teaching mothers.
SPEAKER_01: Now I've been trying to encourage me.
SPEAKER_01: I've been trying to be encouraging, but if you'll give me three minutes, I'm gonna preach a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what God's word says.
SPEAKER_01: There are three stages of adulthood life.
SPEAKER_01: Motherhood, you teach your children, you build that home, you are that influence and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says when your kids are moving on and they're growing up, it is your job to teach younger mothers.
SPEAKER_01: Why are there questions about motherhood?
SPEAKER_01: Because we have young mothers and generations of mothers that they have not had biblical women with this wisdom and faith and strength and influence who have stepped into their lives and brought this message that I'm bringing today.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, remember, this is a pastoral passage and letter that's telling a pastor how to be a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And it is your job, if you have not mentored a young mother, I need you to get busy.
SPEAKER_01: Where are mothers in the river valley going to learn the power that God's built into them to embrace the strength of who they are, to flourish, and their children and their families flourish because they're flourishing.
SPEAKER_01: It is going to be mothers who have stood on the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is going to be mothers who have learned these lessons, and they're going to step in the lives of young mothers, and they're going to teach them how to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Look at our anchor passage in 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Timothy, I need you to understand where your faith comes from because I'm going to teach you and Titus and all the other young pastors out there planning churches how this works.
SPEAKER_01: Timothy, I know that you have faith and that you love Jesus, but Timothy, I know where it came from.
SPEAKER_01: Your grandmother walked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And because she walked with Jesus, your mama walks with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And now you walk with Jesus because of the heritage of faith of a godly mother who taught her daughter, and then a daughter who learned that lesson so well that she taught her son.
SPEAKER_01: And that grandmother continues to be an encouragement and a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul puts them together and he says, Listen, I've seen both of them in your lives, which tells you that Lois and Eunice were involved in this together.
SPEAKER_01: So that she didn't quit when Timothy walked out the door.
SPEAKER_01: Moms, you're not done when they graduate from high school.
SPEAKER_01: It's your job to go get involved in the children's ministry and the student ministry and to find the mothers who are raising those children and bring the message that I'm giving today into their lives, the power and the strength that God has given, the faithfulness that He uses to empower them and the impact they have for eternity when they are teaching their children how to walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Motherhood is an unending ministry because it is existential to our lives as people and as the church.
SPEAKER_01: God put that in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So it is a mother teaching her children how to walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The faith that is in her, investing that in her children.
SPEAKER_01: And then when her children are gone, it is to turn around and find another young mother who has children that age and to get in her business and to get into her life and support her and love her and encourage her and strengthen her and remind her of the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: To be there to pray for her and to love her through that process.
SPEAKER_01: And then when her children begin to have children as a grandmother, you're not done.
SPEAKER_01: You step in.
SPEAKER_01: My dad used to tell me all the time, son, if I'd have known how awesome grandkids were, I'd have skipped you and gone right to Mabrian Grant.
SPEAKER_01: I now know why he said that.
SPEAKER_01: Yet again, I find the wisdom of my father, right?
SPEAKER_01: Now that I have one.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: But we, it is so, and here's the message of this.
SPEAKER_01: Moms, this is how powerful and elevated motherhood is that God has made it unending in the lives of people and the lives of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Is that incredible?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, y'all are safe.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done preaching.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, I want to close with this.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to give you a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Mothers have a God-empowered, eternal impact.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 31 in describing that mother says that her children rise up and call her blessed, and her husband also.
SPEAKER_01: You will be elevated by the people in your life and by the impact that you see in them.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, nobody takes greater pride in anything that I halfway do decent than my mom.
SPEAKER_01: Now she takes that pride because she is proud of me without thought to herself.
SPEAKER_01: But God has given mothers this incredible blessing of joy when your children flourish.
SPEAKER_01: And he helps you understand, even when your soul desire is for them, he has built something in you that reminds you you are their mom.
SPEAKER_01: And you are a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this next screen.
SPEAKER_01: Faith that first lived in Lois.
SPEAKER_01: I get this from people all the time.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Pastor, I messed this up, or I didn't do this well, or Pastor this, or whatever, or Pastor, I'm so unequipped in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: How do I do this?
SPEAKER_01: How in the world do you handle teenagers?
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's figured it out yet.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, all these times we have those kinds of questions, right?
SPEAKER_01: But here's what happens: you don't have to be an expert at motherhood.
SPEAKER_01: God is an expert at motherhood.
SPEAKER_01: You walk with Jesus, and he'll use you more than you could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_01: If you have taught your children how to love Jesus, there is nothing more you could teach them.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing more important, there is nothing more powerful, and you have done it all.
SPEAKER_01: If you have taught them to love Jesus, if you have taught them who Jesus is, if you have taught them about the love of Christ, if they know the gospel, if they know the word of God is true, then your faith is alive in you.
SPEAKER_01: And the journey of adult children is difficult.
SPEAKER_01: They are learning things just like we do.
SPEAKER_01: There are times that my kids do stuff and I say, Lord, have mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Where did you come from?
SPEAKER_01: And there are other times I'm proud of them, but they make their choices and they go through that.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, as parents, I want to encourage you, wherever your kids are right now in their journey, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: If you gave them Jesus, you did it right.
SPEAKER_01: Be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Know the power that God has built in you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you have taught them to love Jesus and you've shown them the love of Jesus, and then they know that they can get the answers in Scripture, you can't make their choices for them, but you have given them everything they need to make the greatest choices in life.
SPEAKER_01: To follow God, to know, to stand on Scripture, to give their life to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is encouraging mothers here.
SPEAKER_01: What you give your kids is not a law degree or a medical degree or make them teachers or teach them to read or whatever kind of a deal.
SPEAKER_01: What you give your kids is Jesus, and when you give them Jesus, you have given them everything they'll ever need.
SPEAKER_01: And it changes their eternity forever.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you what, Paul is building in again.
SPEAKER_01: There is no one any more powerful to teach us about Jesus than our praying mothers and our praying grandmothers.
SPEAKER_01: So, moms, I want to encourage you to love Jesus, and he will empower you in ways you can't imagine.
SPEAKER_01: You teach your children to love the word of God and to turn to Jesus, and that makes you eternally powerful in their lives that you have pointed them to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to bow your heads as we close.
SPEAKER_01: I believe what we just said.
SPEAKER_01: The most important thing that you can teach anyone is that Jesus loved them and died on the cross for their sins.
SPEAKER_01: That he rose again conquering death to offer salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, I want to invite you to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You may have never accepted Christ, but you know you had a grandmother or an aunt or someone who loves you who's been praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, they are doing exactly what we just said.
SPEAKER_01: They love you and they are praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: If you have never accepted Christ as your Savior, I'm going to invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: If you're online, if you're watching on television list, there's information at the bottom of the screens, right there where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Just talk to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Confess your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Tell them you believe that he loves you and died for you.
SPEAKER_01: And then reach out and let us make sure we help you understand that.
SPEAKER_01: Walk with you and give you a blessing for that decision.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in the room this morning, as we close in a moment, God, I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_01: God's people are going to stand and sing.
SPEAKER_01: We'll have pastors at the head of our aisles.
SPEAKER_01: If you need Jesus, I want to invite you to come and make that decision to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we love you and we thank you that you teach us so much about how life works and how it is.
SPEAKER_01: The most important lesson that you teach us and that you reiterate is that Jesus stepped out of heaven, died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, rose again, conquering death and sin to offer us salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for our mothers and our grandmothers who have taught us that and continue to teach us that and model that.
SPEAKER_01: And today, Lord, if there's someone who needs to be saved, Lord, I pray they'll come and they'll give their life to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in the saving name of Jesus and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.