Momma’s Seminary
2 Timothy 1: 5
Intro: Play video “MIGHTY” downloaded from sermon central.
. What a powerful video.
. The narrator talked moms doing “Jesus work” the shaping of souls.
. Moms you do that.
. You shape character and integrity and model how to love unconditionally for us and to us.
. The MVP of the NBA was announced this week. The winner was Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. In his acceptance speech, he thanked all his teammates and coaches. A very emotional speech but he saved the best for last. He told of growing up poor in Washington DC with just him his brother and his single mom. With tears streaming down his face, this is what he said.
. “You made us believe. You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our back and food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You sacrificed for us. You’re the real MVP”.
. What a tribute to his mother. What an example of love.
. Obviously Kevin got a good dose of work ethic and character from his mom also.
. That’s what mom’s do, they love and sacrifice.
. Out of the French Revolution came a story of a mother who wandered through the woods for three days with her two children, trying to survive on roots and leaves. On the third day, she heard some soldiers approaching and quickly hid herself and the children behind some bushes. The sergeant in charge noticed the movement, so he prodded the bushes to see what was stirring behind them. When he saw the starving woman and children, he had compassion on them, and immediately gave them a loaf of brown bread.
The mother took the bread eagerly, broke it into two pieces and gave one piece to each of the two children. The sergeant noted, "She has kept none for herself." A soldier asked, "Is it because she is not hungry?" "No," the sergeant answered. "It is because she is a mother."
. There was a woman in a local church that had a son that was quite unruly. They had a visiting missionary come and he was trying to stir up interest to get people to go to a foreign country to preach the gospel. As the missionary was speaking, there was a little boy that seemed determined to disrupt the whole service. The missionary dug in though and finished the service.
At the end of the service a woman dragging the little boy behind her, told the missionary, "I just feel like God is calling me to be a missionary."
The missionary replied that he felt that God was also calling her to be a missionary and pointing to the little boy, he said "And there’s the little heathen he wants you to start with."
. I could spend our whole time this morning singing the praises of our mothers.
. They do so many things but I believe that teaching their children about God is the most important thing they can do.
. While most seminarians spend a few years learning about God, your children spend a lifetime in your seminary.
. That’s why I titled this morning’s sermon Momma’s Seminary.
. In our scripture his morning, we are going to see a familiar figure to most Christians and we are going to see the people who influenced him the most.
. Paul is writing to Timothy, his “son” in the faith as he calls him.
. His protégé. He begins by telling Timothy that he thanks God for him and how Timothy has become that son in the faith to him.
. He then reminisces about when they were last together and how he longs to see him again.
. He then reminisces about Timothy’s faith. That’s where our scripture starts this morning.
. It’s only one verse but in it, we two very loving and devout mothers.
. 2 Timothy 1:5.
. 5I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
. Paul tells Timothy that he remembers his faith.
. Faith that had been passed down from his grandmother.
. Her name was Lois and obviously she was familiar with the scriptures.
. We don’t know much more about her. Timothy’s grandfather wasn’t even mentioned. His grandmother was obviously the spiritual leader in the household.
. She would have been taught by her parents as they had been taught by theirs.
. I am sure that she was familiar with proverbs 22:6 that reads.
. 6Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.
. This may be more familiar to you in the KJV.
. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
. I’m sure she trained her children in the way the scriptures had instructed her.
. Deuteronomy 6:4-8 instructed the Jewish people how to teach their children.
. 4“Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.
5And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
6And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.
7Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
8Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
9Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
. She would tell them about how God had chosen them and led them out of Egypt and how he had cared for them and that He had promised them a Messiah one day.
. I’m sure that her family went through their momma’s seminary and learned the laws and decrees of God and learned that first and foremost, they were to love God.
. As they were eating breakfast, she would tell them about God.
.As they were traveling, she would tell them about God.
. When they lay down at night , before they went to sleep, she would tell them a bedtime story about God.
. What a religious education her children would have received.
. As good as any MDIV or MAL or DMIN that they could have received from a formal seminary.
. What she taught them stayed with a least one of her children. Her daughter Eunice.
. Look at our scripture again.
. 5I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
. Paul is telling Timothy that I also remember and commend your mother Eunice’s faith.
. Eunice carried on with momma’s seminary.
. I can imagine little Timothy hearing the great stories found in the Old Testament.
. The creation story so he would know how mankind came into the world.
. The story of Abraham and how the nation of Israel came into existence and how God had chosen them, to be his special people. The people who would reveal who He was to the world.
. The story of Samson with the jawbone of an ass and mighty King David and how he conquered the Philistine giant Goliath.
. I’m sure that she educated him in the laws of the Lord.
. I would guarantee you that he would have been able to quote the Ten Commandments from memory.
. We know that all of this stuck with Timothy. He knew about God and was already prepared to greet the Messiah when someone shared the Gospel with Him.
. Paul wrote that this same faith that was in his mother and grandmother had was strong in Timothy.
. All because of his mother and grandmother.
. Timothy was a man of God, because of his education in momma’s seminary.
. He took this faith and became a a protégé of Paul’s and an accomplished missionary in his own right.
. Timothy’s mother was Jewish but his father was a Greek or Gentile. I am quite sure that all of his training came from his mother.
. Paul meets Timothy in Lystra at the beginning of his second missionary Journey.
. We see this partnership in Acts 16:1-3
. 1Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek.
2Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium,
3so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.
. Paul found a young man that all the believers thought well of and became his mentor.
.Timothy went on to co-author several of the New Testament epistles. 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians and Philemon.
. All of these accomplishments had a foundation.
. That foundation was God.
.That Foundation was laid by his grandmother and mother.
. Mom’s, I challenge you this morning, lay the foundation in your children’s lives.
. Grandmothers, help you daughter or daughter in law lay that foundation.
. Talk to them about Jesus when they go to bed at night.
. Talk to them about Jesus as they sit around the breakfast table.
. Talk to them about Jesus as you ride in your cars.
. Let their heroes be the heroes of the Bible.
. Tell them about David and Goliath, Samson, Abraham.
. Tell them about the talking donkey of scripture.
. Bring them to Sunday School so they can learn about God.
. Make your children’s and your grand children’s relationship with God more important than sports or cheerleading or fishing or hunting or shopping.
. As they grow in their relationship with God, they must learn that Jesus is the most important thing in their lives.
. It all starts with you mom.
. You do have a seminary that your children attend.
. What is your curriculum?
. Make it the truths of Scripture.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Mom’s School Of Preaching! Jim Mccutchen, (sermon central)
