Mothers Day

Intro:

Happy Mothers DAY!!

Setup:

What has been on my heart lately is how do we pass on the torch? For the church to continue to flourish and multiply we need Fathers and Mothers of the Faith.

— A topic lately has been the birth rate of different countries. America right now stands at 1.66 per couple. That doesn’t quite work because we are not fully replacing ourselves.

— That is one of the reasons why I think the church has to have a strong spiritual nursery. Where not only people are deciding to follow Christ. But we have spiritual parents If you look back through the ages, we have successive handshakes going back to when Jesus walked the planet.

— we are a Abraham, Isaac and Jacob church. What I mean is that each generation is so loved and valued by God and each also bring value to the body of Christ. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can God bring people with such age gaps together.

— We were all shaped by our times. We have different perspectives based on different experiences and only in Christ can we see past our different colored lenses to reach for the next gen. And only in Christ can the next gen take that hand! So that we continue to multiply and be strong.

Intro:

— So, for Mothers Day I want to read a portion of Scripture that has that idea of having healthy spiritual Fathers and Mothers that nurture and create a healthy env for new believers..

— the background.. Paul is writing to his mentee Titus. Titus’ charge is to get the local churches strong and healthy on the island of Crete. He is setting up church leaders on the island so Paul is giving him advice. Speaking of spiritual parents, Paul said about Titus in Titus 1:4 “To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.”

— The people that Paul had in mind were the Cretans. What is a Cretan? Maybe you remember that line from Monsters inc. where Wazolski responds to the villain who just called him a one eyed cretin, and he says “ok, first of all it’s Cretan, if you’re going to threaten me do it properly.”

— Crete was and still is the largest and most popular Greek Island.. And they had a reputation in the ancient world. An ancient Greek poet, Epimenides of Knossos, famously described Cretans as "always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" So Paul and Titus had their work cut out for them!

Titus 2:1–6 “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much 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, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.”

Prayer

First off let’s deal with some of these topics:

— when you read this text you might be thinking that Paul is mandating that women only do housework etc. This was written to a culture (ancient Greeks) that had that expectation already.. This is not saying that women should be limited to that role. It’s saying that’s already what they were up to. so do it well!

— It also does not mean that women have to suppress their gifts, their talents, their leadership abilities. There are many examples in the Old and New testament of women in church leadership roles, running successful businesses etc. --There’s been a lot of confusion and wrong teaching on the subject. Even though that’s not the main idea I want to focus on today, let’s deal with it since it came up..

The Bible is very clear that men and women are EQUAL. Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

1, 2 Timothy, Titus (4) Exhortations for Younger Women (2:4–5)

the equality of the sexes does not negate the distinctives of the sexes

— We have distinctives. We are different and we should celebrate those!

— When submission is brought up it is in the context of loving marital connection. In this text, before submission is brought up the challenge for young women was to love their husbands and children..

— In Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”

— So submission doesn’t work without a loving relationship.

— And before this Ephesians 5:21 “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

— SPIRITUAL LEADER: The best thing you men can do to honor the mother of your children today is to be a good spiritual leader.

— Recognize that you have a heavenly Father to answer to that happens to be your wife’s Father as well. So in fact He is your Father in Law, how do you think He expects you to treat her?

— Now let’s move this idea of passing the torch/ flame

Story: One of my sons was really getting into mine craft.. They thought that they could outside and start mining and get all the resources they needed to survive!

Transition: When you are an adult and have adulted for a while you know what paying the bills is really like. When my wife was pregnant we had no idea what things would be like. What the birthing process was like etc. But we learned! My wife had other women like her own mom, talking her through it. If we are going to do well with discipleship, we need people who are willing to walk out their faith. People with experience that can guide and coach. We also need people open to being coached…

checked in

— What Paul deals with all the different groupings (older men, older women, young women, young men) is self control..

— He says something interesting to the older women not to be “slaves to much wine”. Heavy drinking was probably an issue on the island.

— But as an alternative he doesn’t tell them to go to AA. (which might be a good idea) He gives as an alternative to gossiping and to heavy drinking teaching the younger women..

— I think it’s safe to assume that by older women he means women that are empty nesters.

— You want help in overcoming addiction? LEAN INTO YOUR PURPOSE. Check in. Several studies have been done on people with addiction and over and over again a people with spirituality in their recovery plan do better. And people who HAVE A SENSE OF PURPOSE do markedly better.

— 2 Timothy 2:21 “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”

— Also it says in Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” So when we begin to walk out our calling, being led by His Spirit it’s going to make it more difficult for us to do the things we know we shouldn’t be doing.

— God isn’t looking for perfect people. He’s looking for willing vessels He can work through.

— I think we have a generation is done with perfect anyway. I think we are starting to tire of all the curated content. That has brought about AI stuff that is not even human. We have a generation that is craving real and authentic.

— CHECK IN DON’T CHECK OUT. That goes for all of us. It may not be alcohol, it’s online shopping, it’s eating, it’s endless scrolling.

— We tend to go for things that get us a dopamine high that hit our pleasure centers. But what is the end result? Short term gain, long term pain.

— If Crete was known for their consumption of alcohol, what do Americans consume?

— That is something regardless of our age, we need to learn how to invest in others. Overcome our desires to check out and numb out and go for the short term pain and long term gain of investing in others.

— Think about Jesus, Matthew 27:34 “they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.”

— He didn’t check out with whatever this concoction was. It was some kind of drug so he could check out of the pain of the cross. He did drink some wine vinegar later, but that was so He could speak His last words..

— He leaned into the pain and suffering of the cross so we could be brought to life!

— Watching the process of my wife bringing our 3 kids into the world. Witnessing that pain, but then the joy of my wife holding that newborn. Apparently oxytocin is released right after childbirth. It’s to help with the bonding etc.

— It reminds me of that verse, Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

2. Clicked in

— not only do we need to be checked in available but we need to be clicked in to mentor mentee relationships

— Mentor: a person who gives a younger or less experienced person help and advice over a period of time,

— We live in an age where we have lots of ways to learn.. We absorb a lot of what we know about the world through social media, we can learn about anything from youtube etc.

— There is value in these things, these things can be tools. What we need is the human connection.

— What Paul is describing here is life on life discipleship. It’s having people in your home in your world. It’s recognizing that even the mentor will make a mess at times.

— I am not against technology..

— But I am for the power of presence. Doing life together, eating meals together, driving errands together.

— One thing I can guarantee your mother wants this Mothers Day is your presence. Not being fully put together, just you!

— When we connect in this way we learn not just from the rosy experiences but also the more troubling ones.

— I am so thankful that I have had mentors that allowed me into their lives

— I am thankful for Dave Bechtel that had me in his office every single monday. Not just as a boss/ employee but as a teacher/learner. He put up with my youthful immaturities. Taught me how to think. Taught me how to value the Word.

— Am thankful for another Dave, Dave Edler. When God called us to plant a church we went out on our own. We were just being obedient. He says it was like we were born on the sidewalk! He came and gave us covering, direction, finances, support. He had been there done that!

— I saw these guys on their good days as much as their bad. I saw them handle disappointment, stress, chaos. I saw them under pressure. That may have been where I learned the most!

— If you have no one investing in you be available. God will provide. There are people here who think their time of mentoring and investing is over. If you aren’t dead, God’s not done! God has more for you to do!

— When we click in together, not just surface but begin to bond together we become stronger as a movement!

— Ephesians 4:3 “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

— Ecclesiastes 4:12 “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

Closing

— G.K. Chesterton famously wrote, "Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.".

— There’s been many times that Satan thought that the final nail was in the coffin with the church.

— You may have heard that people are checking out of the church and young people are rejecting the faith. There is some truth to that.

— But let me tell you the power of the church. When we are clicked in with Him and each other we form a bond that is unbreakable!

— When we begin to disciple and nurture new believers they get rooted, they get strong in the faith! And when the time of trouble comes they will have a better chance of remaining true to Him!