Voice of the Nazarene 5-14-23

I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene. A WEEK BY WEEK venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pastor Ray Lasalle and the voice of the Nazarene.

Well, if you carry a child under your heart for nine months, it's for sure you'll carry that child forever in your heart. Mom had a little baby boy that lived to be six months old and died about a year older than me. She had a nervous breakdown over it the doctor told her you probably to get out of the nervous breakdown need to have another child. Then course she had me that didn't improve things much. She was in the middle of a nervous breakdown and had another one planned if that one didn't work.

One of the last times I was with her, she said to me, could we go by the baby's grave? And I was totally caught off guard. 50 Some years or longer had passed.

Maybe 60 I don't know. And I said what are you talking about, Mom? She said the baby's grave and then it dawned on me. And all those years and our hair was white and she was remembering that little baby only six months that she got to hold in her arms. Mothers are special. And I want to talk to you on this Mother's Day from a passage found in the second book that the old apostle had written to a young chap by the name of Timothy. He knew Timothy he knew his mother, he knew his grandmother, and out of his relationship with them he writes, concerning the faith. He said here in chapter one of Second Timothy, verse five, when I call the remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice; and I'm persuaded that it's in the also. What Paul is saying this genuine faith unfeigned faith that first woke back there and your grandmother, and she in turn passed it on to your mother, Eunice and your mother passed it on to you. I believe it's also in you, Timothy. Want to talk to you about a mother's greatest legacy, talking to you about a mother's greatest gift. Three brothers, very wealthy businessman that money was no object they could blow money and not even know they'd missed it.

They were discussing together what they needed to do for mother for Mother's Day and getting gifts. Michael said to the other brothers, he said I'm gonna build mama a brand new house sparing no expense, high ceilings, large rooms. And then Marvin says, Well, mama didn't seem to have a car to drive much. He said I'm gonna buy mama brand new Mercedes. Melvin the youngest said, Well, guys, I'm gonna outdo y'all. He said, I know that Mama's getting old and she can't see as well and she enjoys her Bible reading.

And it's getting more difficult all the time. And I thought I'd do something special. He said I bought this parrot that's been taught to memorize all of the Bible. He's been trained for 10 months at a monastery. And I paid $100,000 and I pledged$10,000 a year over the next 10 years. He can quote any part of the Bible all Mama's got to do is mention the chapter in the verse and that parrot could just pop it out. But Mother's Day came in went and mother sat down and wrote letters back to her three boys, thank you letters.

She said to Michael the first and I appreciate your thought and building this beautiful home but I only need one room. Now I've got a lot of house to clean. But thank you anyway. She wrote Marvin and said thank you for the new Mercedes Benz setting out of the driveway but I don't see well enough to pass the driving test. It's just a car setting in the way. Then she wrote her baby boy Michael and said you got the best gift of all. Thank you for the chicken it certainly was delicious.

84% of Americans celebrate Mother's Day. Fact of the matter if you don't know how much is spent on Mother's Day, this last year $31.7 billion were spent on mother's. The first Mother's Day started back in the early 1900s. It was started in Grafton, West Virginia, started by a lady by the name of Anna Jarvis. What's interesting is Anna Jarvis was never married.

And Anna Jarvis never was a mother. But she's so liked her mother and loved her mother that she wanted to honor mothers. And so on her mother's memorial service, she gave out carnation flowers to everyone that came, it was her mother's favorite flower. And that happened in May 10, 1908. And by 1914 she had pushed this thing, even writing letters to the White House and the President made it official as a holiday here in America.

Mother's Day, what a great day.

I agree with Abraham Lincoln who said no one is poor, who has a good, godly mother. No one is poor, who has a good, godly mother. Now let us look at mother's greatest gift. I'm not talking about a gift from you to Mother. I want to talk to you about a mother's greatest gift to us. The greatest thing your mother can give to you is not a fortune. The greatest gift your mother can give to you is not fame, the greatest gift any mother can give to their child, is faith. Many times we make this statement, keep the faith, keep the faith. No, don't keep the faith give it away. And here was a mother that gave away her faith to her son. Now I can talk about a lot of moms' and childrens' relationships. We could talk about Isaac and his mother Sarah, we can talk about Jacob and his mother Rachel whom he was close to. We could talk about Moses and his mother, Jacque Abed, I probably one of the greats would be Jesus and his mother Mary. But I want to talk to you today about a mother that probably you've not heard very much about. And her name is Eunice. And her mother, her name was Lois. Eunice was a lady who gave her faith away. She gave it to her son, Timothy. His dad was a pagan Greek so he did not get his faith from his biological father. But he got it from his mother. Timothy became a great man in the Bible. He wound up pastoring the church at Ephesus.

And he traveled with the Apostle Paul on the second and third missionary journey because he had a mother that passed her faith down to him. She gave Timothy the greatest gift and the greatest gift you can give to your children is faith. Four things real quick about Eunice.

First of all, she had a saving faith. I shared that Timothy went on that second and third missionary journey with the Apostle Paul. And I want you to know that first missionary journey reading Acts chapter 16, verse one, it was when Eunice his mother, put her faith in her trust in Jesus Christ. That's when she became a believer. She became a person of faith. In Ephesians, two, eight and nine, For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. She had saving faith. And mother, let me say this, listen.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

The greatest thing that you can do for your children is to give to them saving faith. Now, you can't give your children something that you don't have yourself. So you need saving faith. You ever think about this on many mother's days, the preacher will get up and preach about the Proverbs 31 Lady. And it goes who can find a virtuous woman her value is more than rubies. And when the preacher gets all through most moms fill about an inch high. Who is this mother of Solomon? Well, her name is Bathsheba. Bath because she was taken the bath, I made it part up. Very deep to wasn't it, bathtub. So she's the lady that had an affair with David, she was a married woman but had an affair with the king, then we can go two ways with this. We can say that she was wrong and did wrong. But there came a point in her life that she found saving faith, a point where she put her faith in God. In all honesty, I think King David used his position, kinda like we call sexual harassment on the job to get his way with her, and she had no real choice about the matter. But she was an impressive mother when it came to raising her son, Solomon. You say, Well, Pastor, I'm here this morning, and I haven't done a very good job of being a mother, a mother of faith, a Christian mother. Or at least the devil's riding my shoulders and putting me down and I don't feel very appropriate. That may be so. But here's the good news. We can all walk out of here today with a brand new saving faith, our lives changed. And although you can't go back and make a brand new start, you can all, from this point on, make a brand new ending. But I'll tell you what's so wonderful about Eunice. She had a saving faith. Now let me tell you something else. She had seen faith. You could see her faith as she lived out her life.

Notice the Scripture said when I call to remembrance, the faith that is in thee. Paul was saying, Timothy I saw your mother live out her faith.

People are watching. She had a saving faith, she had a seen faith. And as we live our lives people from every viewpoint are there watching how we live.

That's why the Bible said see then you walk circumspectly.

That means all the way around a big circle. Why? Because people are watching. I heard about a medical missionary with a Catholic church, a nun. She was down in Mexico, hot, dusty dirt roads and she had an old station wagon and somewhere out there she ran out of gas. She didn't have a gas can the only thing she could find in the old car was a bedpan. She took the bedpan out and walked a half a mile and had them fill it up with gas and she's carrying this bedpan all the way back a half a mile, trying to keep from jostling out the gasoline. And she's funneling the gas into the old station wagon and a Catholic priest came along and he stood there and watched her. Finally he said, Sister, you got more faith than I've got. People are watching. That's what I'm trying to say. You ever tried to get ketchup out of a bottle and it didn't want to come out? And you know, the best way to do is aim it toward the hamburger. And you're smack it on the bottom of the bottle. And this mother was trying to get ketchup out of the bottle and she's hitting the bottle trying to get it to squirt out. And about that time the phone rang. She told her a little four year old girl said get the phone answer the phone from mama. And so the little girl picked it up and she's turned it she said mama it's the minister on the line. And then she added said mama can't answer the phone right now she's hitting the bottle. Better not go any further with it. What I'm trying to say, people are watching. I believe that you can con a con and fool a fool but you can't kid a kid. No, con a con, fool a fool but you can't kid a kid. I was growing up as a boy, my mom and dad they came, both sides, from dysfunctional families. They never grew up in church. They knew nothing absolutely nothing about the Bible. They couldn't have found the maps in the Bible, let alone a book in the Bible. But they got saved. And when they got saved their life took a dramatic turn around. I was a boy I was watching. They stopped doing some things and they started doing other things and you cannot have a blood bought sin killing devil chasing life changing experience with God without having a change in your lifestyle. And when you come to know Christ, it'll change you.

My folks changed and they really quit doing some stuff. They stopped going to places they used to go. They started going to church every Sunday. Try that on for size. Sunday night, Wednesday night, every night, a revival. They drag my brother and I to church. I watched them.

And they didn't say to us, this is what the Bible says, No, we just watched them live and we soon began to understand how a Christian lived. I watched mom and dad write out a check. And one day I asked my mom, what is that? She says, we're putting in our tithe, God gets a 10th. And I knew we couldn't hardly afford it. But they did it. And God honored it. I watched them believe in an anointing with oil when us boys were sick. I could go on and on. Well, when Solomon wrote Proverbs 31, about his mama. He said, Let me tell you about my mama. My daddy could trust my mama. Let me tell you about my mama. When people got sick, she went to them and helped them to get well. And when people were needy, she gave to them. Let me tell you about my mama. My daddy was a success, because he married my mama, this was Solomon saying the wise man.

So let me tell you some more about my mama, my mama can stretch a dollar and just make it go on and on. And she had worked late hours and sew and make clothes and he said, Let me tell you about my mama. If I would stop and tell you about my own mother, I would tell you this much mother did not try to raise my brother and I to be a star athlete. The greatest concern that mother had was to keep her boys out of hell. And she wanted us to come to know the Lord. I don't know of a better gift that you could give.

I'm just saying. Let me tell you about Eunice she had a saving faith. Let me tell you about Eunice. She had a seen faith.

They could see it in her life.

But let me tell you something else about Eunice. And it's not in your notes because well, the sermon got bigger than when I was first studied it. She had a strengthening faith. You cannot last very long without getting your faith strengthened because it'll weaken over time and it will wither over time and in the battles of life and just living in the pressures that we deal with. Your faith can die. It's got to be build up. Jude verse 20. He said, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, you better build your faith. The apostles were concerned about this. And then Luke 17, verse five, they came and they said, Lord, Increase our faith. They found it can die on the vine, they found it can wane and wither away and they said we need our faith increased. We're dealing with things we never thought we'd face and would you increase our faith? I've been around folk. I've watched people since I began ministry in 1967. People who have been around the church maybe 20 years and tell me they're a Christian been a Christian 20 years. And yet, when you look at their life, they've only lived about one year as a Christian and never grew up. Never matured never grew from that point on just kind of a baby. Does'nt take them much to cry over spilt milk and then any little thing offends them and it's easy for them to pout and doubt and do without and I thought of Dimas.

Timothy knew who Dimas was. Paul said Demas has left us having loved this present world. His faith died and he went back to the old world. There was John Mark that started out of the missionary journey, just like Timothy did. He couldn't stand the pressure and he quit the ministry and walked off and left. It was Judas who somehow his faith got distorted. And he went back to his old lifestyle and money and that kind of a thing and ended up a suicide.

And Timothy said, I need my faith strengthened. And he watched his grandmother and his mother through the pressures of life, how they had a strengthening faith, but also Eunice had a shared faith. If you have children, you want them to come to know God. Least I hope you will. I want to say something right here. If your children come to God at a young age, it will save them from a lot of scars. How many times my mom sat me down and said, I, I don't want you to go through what I went through, I didn't know God and my life got all messed up. If your kids get saved early it can save them from a lot of hurt, and a lot of pain. So get them to the Lord as early as you can look at what the scripture said. And I know what you're saying, Pastor. I'm not sure I've raised my kids, right? What do I need to do?

Well, you need to do the same thing that Eunice did. Here's what the Bible said. And Paul is writing to Timothy, this letter is written to him. He's the young preacher whose mother was Eunice, whose grandmother was Lois. And he wrote, continue thou in the things which thou has learned. And has been assured of everything grandmother taught you from her knee and your mama, put her foot down and tried to steer you in the right direction, not to follow your dad and his drunkenness and his chasing other women. But those things that you've learned from them, and you've been assured of knowing a whom, now let's learn them. You knew your grandmother, you knew your mother, they were women of faith. He said it was at my grandmother's knee and my mother's knee. And he said you learn them Timothy, not from that drunken pagan Greek dad of yours. He didn't pass any faith on. But you learned it from your mother and grandmother who wouldn't give up on you. And who poured herself, theirselves into you from verse 15. And from a child I catch that, get this and from a child. When should I start on my kids? Well, the minute you know you've got a child under your heart and you're carrying it in your own body, start then. Kind of hard to start too soon. Bring them to church. I mean, bring them right under your heart in your stomach. Bring them to church, let them hear the pastor's voice. I'll holler loud enough.

They'll want to get borns letting find out what I'm mad about. He said in verse 15, and that from a child that was knowing the holy scriptures, which you're able to make the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

What I'm trying to say to you this morning is get your kids to church. Carry them in your body when you need to then bring them in your arms and leave them back in the nursery under good care.

And from there, take them over the children's church to the get used to the voice of Pastor Randy and Miss Nikki. And they meet other little kids it'll be life long friends. Get them on from there on into the youth ministry to hear Pastor Michael.

He can help guide him through those early years of high school. Get them into vacation Bible school, get them on into children's camp and on into youth camp. That's what I'm trying to say. Share God's word bring them to church. Lois shared this legacy with her daughter Eunice. Eunice shared it with young Timothy and Timothy grew up to be a preacher and he would travel all over sharing the gospel with the unknown world. A shared faith.

Little lady had cancer died at the early age of 53. She had four unsaved sons.

She would get up on a prayer meeting night, tears flowing down her cheeks and she would say pray for my boys to get saved. She had four of them.

Died without seeing it happen.

One of those boys Bill, he was hard. He can be very harsh. Bill would curse if he heard anybody talking about the church in front of him and he didn't mind butting into a conversation that had nothing to do with him nor directed to him, but he would get angry. But I want to tell you something. You remember over here in the book of Mark chapter four talks about different kinds of soil. It talks about rocky soil and talks about hard soil.

Talking about the four kinds of hearts hard hearts, rocky hearts, receptive hearts. Did you know that a storm can come and it can soften that hard soil. A storm came in Bill's life. His wife got sick. They said she's not going to make it.

Church stepped in and brought meals. There was a time he had a cussed them out. They begin to pray for him and his wife. He's in a storm. And I told you a storm can soften the hard soil.

During that storm, he went to church and sat in the back and the preacher preached and opened the altar and down the aisle came Bill. He came and he kneeled and gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. What happened, Pastor? Oh, here's what happened. It's Luke chapter 15, verse 10. The Bible said, There's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner, that repenteth. You say, Pastor, the angels got to shouting? No, no, no. Not at all. Read it again. That's not what it said. It said, There's joy in the presence of the angels. Probably not the angels for they don't have even a clue about redemption. But the saints of God do. And no doubt Jesus made an announcement a public announcement in heaven, Bill just went down the aisle and got saved. No doubt in my mind, that little mother in the presence of angels, and before the throne of God began to shout, why? Because she had a saving faith. She had a seen faith, those four boys watched her. When they rebel, they still had a mother they believed in they seen it, because she had shared her faith with them. And now Bill, in the storms of life, has come to know Christ because his mother had shared her faith.

Luke 15:10

She never gave up on those boys.

I want our eyes closed for a moment, our heads bowed.

You're here this morning on a Mother's Day. I'm not trying to take advantage of that. But I believe there's enough God in the building that we can count him as attender. You may be here in your heart. Your hearts grown cold and distant. You haven't thought about church and God maybe for a while and there's been no move on your part to come back for the kingdom. But somehow this morning, prayers have gone up for you. And I'm here to tell you some storms may come that'll soften that heart.

And I'd rather soften my own heart before the storms come.

And you may be here and you're saying preacher I get the message this morning. And it's not that faith hadn't been shared. And it's not that I haven't seen it lived out. I've seen it. I'm not where I ought to be this morning, spiritually.

I'm really not right with God, but preacher, I want to get right before it's too late.

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNCs pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding b&c Visit Bucyrus nazarene.org