Acts 16:1-3b

Speaker 1: The.

Speaker 2: Well, good morning and welcome to this beautiful, sunny morning and happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that are here. If you would, please, let's go ahead and stand together. The worst of the weather with a wonderful song, Amazing Grace, my chains are gone. Think about the words.

Speaker 3: Think about what God has done for you.

Speaker 4: And it's Amazing Grace that he's listening to you. The great. How sweet the. That saved a wretch like me. I once was the.

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Speaker 4: the same? Take. Amazing Grace, how many of you are thankful for God's grace? Amen, let's sing it.

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Speaker 4: Cause he well, myself and.

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Speaker 4: My God, my second God ran some. And Michael. His mercy. Unending love. Amazing Grace. The. South Sudanese

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Speaker 4: I thought, God. Who brought

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Speaker 4: forever my. Well, before. Uh.

Speaker 2: Uh, aren't you thankful for God's faithfulness? Amen.

Speaker 3: And well, it is great to have you here for the Mike Morgan to make his way up here this morning. He's going to open up in a word of prayer. And it is a great privilege to have you all here with us today after Brother Mike prays and opens the service, asking God's blessing on it, that you may be seated. And I'll be right back for a couple of announcements.

Speaker 5: Let's pray the heavenly father, we thank you for this day that you've given us, and we thank you for all who have gathered here today in your house to worship you. Lord, today on Mother's Day, we want to thank you for the blessing that you gave us and those that we call mom. We asked for prayers for them. We want to. Give them guidance and in our lives, as they are such a great influence in our lives. Lord, we thank you for the the worship that we're about to do and singing Lord and we want to hear your message today. Lord, please guide us with that. Lord, we thank you for all the blessings you've given us all of your grace. And we thank you for the gift of salvation that you provide for us. Jesus Christ, name him.

Speaker 3: All right, yes, you may be seated. Well, it's great to have guests with us here today and glad to see some returning faces and some folks that we haven't seen in a while. And so whether this is your first time or the first time in a long time, we're so glad to have you here as part of the service this morning. This is your first time visiting with us, then hopefully received one of the weekly bulletins on your way in. Inside of that, you'll find a connection card. And if you wouldn't mind filling that out with whatever information you feel comfortable with sharing, we would sure appreciate it. Just as our way of having a record of you being here with us. If you do fill that out, you can turn it in at the welcome desk after we're done. And we'll give you a gift to show our appreciation for you being a part of the service today. Also, for all of our mothers this morning, we have a special gift for you. The blessed baker down in Collinsville has made cookies, very special cookies for all of you. And I I almost dare you to eat it because I was looking at them and they are fancy. I mean, these things, you could almost hang it up on your Christmas tree, that's how nice they look. I don't know what they taste like, but they look really good. So anyways, after we're done with the service this morning, as you head out these back doors, the men will be there with a cookie for each one of our moms just to show our appreciation and love for you being here with us today. I want to say thank you to everyone that helped yesterday putting on the mother daughter brunch we had right around, probably a little more than a hundred and fifty ladies. Grazi. So the gym was full and just seemed to be a great spirit among the attendees and a lot of work went into it. And so thank you for all of the men and women that helped put that on, thinking my wife for heading that up and coming up with a theme for it and bringing all of the different pieces together. I appreciate everyone's hard work and especially my wife and all that that she did for that. Don't forget tonight with Mother's Day, there is no evening service and a couple of staff, I won't say who, but they're kind of excited about having a night off. So I was like, oh, well, OK. But anyway, so there'll be no evening service tonight if you want to come sit in the parking lot just to maintain the the routine, that's your business. But we'll all be at home doing whatever the rest of you do. Don't come back on Sunday night. You'll have to give me some pointers on the full year after year after the service is over, we'll know what to do with myself. OK, coming up this Saturday is our team kayaking trip and costs twenty five dollars a person. They're going to leave the church here at seven thirty and be back around 5:00. And Brother Matt has some information about that. If you have not talked to him about this trip, please visit with him before that, before this Saturday. And of course, this is kind of a different activity for us. And so there are some special considerations that need to be taken into effect. We want everybody to be safe. We want to make sure their boat has a good time. And so please make sure you talk to Brother Matt if you have any questions about the kayaking trip coming up this Saturday. And then next Sunday, we're going to have a missionary to Siberia with us, James and Amber Piringer. And I've known Brother James for four month old saying this, but over a decade. And I've always appreciated his ministry and his friendship. And so he's going to be here preaching to us in the morning and evening service next week and very excited to be able to introduce their ministry to you. How many of you would like to visit Siberia someday? All right, one, two, a missions trip, he's invited me, but I've seen his pictures and I'm like, Dude. I was born in Texas, I don't know if I can do that, so anyways, I'm excited for them to be here with us next week. I know it'd be a blessing to you. And then May twenty third. That's the next Sunday after that is going to be our graduation and promotion Sunday. So I'll be recognizing our high school graduate singular, I believe, Brother Brandon. And yes, I called your name. I think you're the only senior graduating and so we'll recognize him, but then also be a promotion Sunday. And so all of our young people, as we look to enter into the summer schedule, they will be promoting up to their next grade Sunday school class and the youth group will get in and beginning an influx of seventh graders. So a lot of fun things happening around that time. VBS will be here before you know it, June 7th through the 11th. Continue to bring prizes. Appreciate all those of you who have already made donations and then out on the Welcome Desk and scattered throughout the building. Actually, we've got little fliers that you can use to invite folks and we'll be doing like we do in the past, will be sending those to the schools to hopefully get them out into the folders just to let people know that there is a vacation Bible school coming up. And we always have great attendance at VBS and we're looking forward to this year as well, getting back to normal as much as we can. It's a carnival theme. And so it's going to be a lot of fun and we'll be doing some great decorations to make the church look great during that time. And then, believe it or not, it is time for the church anniversary again. June 13th, Collinsville Baptist Tabernacle will be celebrating. Sixty six years of ministry, which is a great testimony. And we're super excited to look back on a little bit different of a year last year, but just celebrating what God has done. And one last announcement I wanted to make coming up on May 20 second May 22nd at 10 a.m., we'll be having a wedding shower for Bo and Lauren. Bo, how many days? One hundred days, he's got the countdown all set, and you can ask him at any any time, any day, he'll be able to tell you exactly how many days there are because that's how excited they are. But anyway, it's May 22nd, 10:00 a.m. We'll have a wedding shower for Bo and Lauren here at the church. They're registered at Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond. So make note of that. And then we do have the men's activity. It is full. So, guys, if you didn't get signed up, they've told us that we cannot bring any more men. So anyway, that's a great problem to have. But just a reminder, it's not this Monday, but next Monday from six to nine at golf suites and the cost is six dollars per person. All right. Those are all my announcements, guys in the back. Once you hit the lights here in the platform and we're going to show a brief video in honor of our mothers. To all the moms, moms of children who are still at home, who are all grown up moms who've outlived a son or daughter.

Speaker 4: Or moms of babies, they never got told. Moms who raised kids all on their own. Or became a mom to someone who needed one. Moms of children who have wandered from God or the longing to be moms who are still waiting. God perfectly arranged each of you into the role you have today, his word recognizes you as capable, strong and praiseworthy. Everything you do makes our lives more beautiful. Happy Mother's Day.

Speaker 2: Matt. We can't say enough for our mothers and the impact they've made on our life and truly we could go on and on how privileged we are to have moms or else we wouldn't be here, obviously, but thankful for my mom that she's here today. And I know many of you are thankful for your mothers as well. If you would, please, let's go ahead and stand. Continue singing all the way. My savior leaves me a wonderful song this

Speaker 4: morning, all the way. My savior beats me what have I to decide? And I doubt it. And I see her through life as in my guide and in the east. And Vine is covered

Unidentified: here by faith in him. Chigwell. All right.

Speaker 4: What everybody sees us do with all things well, for all right. All the DS with all things well, all the way, my savior leads me to a path I dread is being raised for every

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Speaker 4: where he says water and

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Speaker 4: all the way.

Unidentified: My savior leads me on the focus of his love for Big Red. To is from his

Speaker 4: and my mother's house with my spirit called the portal, which exists

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Speaker 4: Through endless ages, Jesus, let me.

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Speaker 4: Jesus left me all the

Speaker 2: way I am, and I'm thankful for God's leading in my life. I know you are, too. Let's continue singing. Heaven came down. Heaven came down here. Number two hundred and twenty four.

Speaker 4: Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day today, I will never forget after I'd wandered in darkness away, Jesus, my savior,

Unidentified: I met, oh, a tender, compassionate friend he met the need of my heart shatters, especially with joy. I am telling a man all that darkness deep. Having came down already filled my soul. Whether it was the same

Speaker 4: you're paying me for my sins were washed away and my mind was turned to day, heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Born of his spirit with my from my father and to God family. Justified only through Kalbarri Sloup. Singing is my name. And transactions so quickly was made when, as a savior

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Speaker 4: It property

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Speaker 4: cross to save your.

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Speaker 2: soul, hey, man, let's look at the last verse of this song now have a hope that will surely endure. Our hope will not fade away. It's not going anywhere. No matter what happens in this world, we have a hope that will always endure. Aren't you thankful for that? I am. And let's sing. That last verse was sing it with with understanding

Unidentified: now the hope that surely.

Speaker 4: The passing of time,

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Speaker 4: last, he said, burn, drop his ashes and I received

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Speaker 4: the Save Your Baby.

Unidentified: My sins were washed away and my time was. Having 10 Downing Street and Michael. Amy.

Speaker 3: All right, at this time, we're going to take up our ties in offerings and one other announcement that I forgot to say earlier, I want to let you all know that on Wednesday we voted on whether or not to extend an offer to Brother Clarence Nettle's to come and be our youth pastor here at the Baptist Tabernacle. And the vote was ninety one percent. So that was great. And I called Brother Clarence and he prayed about it the second half of the week. And he called me yesterday and he said we'd be so excited to come and work with your teenagers. And so he accepted the the position and he'll be coming to camp with us. We're going to fly them down to come to camp, and then they'll go back to Michigan, spend the weekend there, and then they're going to load up and they're planning on being here July 6th to begin working at our church. And so we're very excited about that and thrilled to death to be adding a third pastoral staff member to focus exclusively, almost exclusively on our young people. And so very thrilled about that. And the only reason we're able to do that is because of the faithful giving the people here at the church. And so we're so grateful for each one of you that helps support the ministry as we look to continue to grow and be able to do more for the Lord. And we're going to ask God's blessing on the offering this morning. I'd like to ask Brother the Makhaya. Oh, who's buying? Oh, brother, Joe. Joe, come on up here and and pray for the offering for us. And then once he's done, you may be seated and we'll hear a special from the Maguires.

Speaker 6: A great family, father, we love you, dear Lord, we thank you for your goodness and grace to us. Just open our hearts to Your World today with Pastor Boyd as he brings the message. We just counted a blessing, dear Lord, that we can give a portion of what you've given us back to further your ministry in Christ name, I pray. Amen.

Speaker 2: Amen. Tremendous, tremendous. This time we'll have Mrs. Chris Younger sing for us, Mama Snits.

Speaker 4: I love to sit on. When I was just a child there, I learned so many things that carried me through life. Told me about Jesus and how he died for me. She taught me many scripture. I still go from memory when

Unidentified: I climb down to. Children always do. Means and she Shipway. Before the. Spread their wings, winmar. She knows how to pray. Ranchi. In my. I'm. On my MySpace. She always keeps her Bible close by her side. Stained, many verses underlined. She stands upon those promises. When she used to pray. Part, she helps me. I've seen her tears of some. Their loved ones by. By Sen.. She'll be organismic. She says. Me to be. Little boy seven. Who knows where I'd be? Without the. On Momma's Knee. James.

Speaker 3: Thank you for that, Mrs. Younger, appreciate the prayers of my mom, don't talk to my mom probably as much as I should, don't see her very often. But there's one thing I've never doubted that is that my mom is praying for me. And so I'm very grateful for that. And I've thought I've thought about that concept several times. Where would I be at my mom not been praying for me and so very grateful for that reminder today. Thank you to the Maguires for playing for us. And Brother Maguire. I remember when you were dealing with covid, I thought, man, how long is it going to be till we are playing the trumpet again? And so I'm glad you're up here blasting it out for us. And I appreciate you all preparing that for us this morning. It was a blessing and glad to have all of you here with us today. I'll take your Bibles as you join me in standing in honor of reading God's word. Turn to acts. Chapter number sixteen. Acts, chapter number 16, before I started studying, I thought, OK, well, it's a. it's Mother's Day, but let's at least go and check and see what is the next passage in our series on X talking about. Is it possible that there'd be something there that would be applicable for Mother's Day? And wouldn't you know? Acts, Chapter 16, verse number one is where we're going to be, and we are introduced to a very important mother in the Bible, the Bible says then came he that's Paul to Dabi and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy is the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed. But his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek. Now I'm going to read this fuel to try and turn there quickly, but go over to the second Timothy, chapter one. Second, Timothy, chapter one, verse number four. Paul is writing to this young man, Timothy, and he again mentions his mother. Second, Timothy, chapter one, verse number four. The Bible says greatly desiring to see the being mindful of the tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in me, which dwelt first in my grandmother, Lois, and my mother Eunice. And I am persuaded that indeed, also, let's pray and ask God's blessing on this special time together. Lord, I ask that you would help us now as we look into your word. I pray that you give me the words you'd have to say and you'd help the folks that are here to listen and apply it to here to their lives. Lord, I ask that you would give a special blessing to the ladies that are here today. Those that have raised their children, those that are raising their children, those that will one day raise children, I pray that she would bless each one of them for being here this morning. Lord, I ask that you would help us now as we look into your word, that we would find strength and help for the tasks that lay ahead of us in Jesus name that I ask these things. Amen. And you may be seated. Now, if you've been here before, you know that from time to time, I will make comments about the fact that I was home schooled. Occasionally. Usually poking fun at the fact that I was home schooled, but you're going to be home schooled, somebody has got to teach you. For me, that was my mom and I'm very grateful for the education that I received from my mom, she was a high school teacher before she started home schooling us. So she did have a background in teaching, but she was a math teacher. I'm not good at math. Whenever my mom does go home to be with the Lord, I am quite certain that my years and algebra and geometry will have contributed to whatever God uses to take her home. If it hadn't been for that, my mom probably would have lived five more years. And whatever it is that she does live, I know that's a weird thing to say, but I'm just trying to say I caused her a lot of problems. Uh. How many of you were home schooled, even for just a little bit of time? Do you remember what it was like when your mom started entering the grades into the grade book? And she started asking for all of your homework and all the tests and she started gathering those things together to write them down into the grade book, maybe you didn't have this experience, but for us, this was a time of great trial. Because inevitably, there were things that we knew either we didn't do well on and we had hit it, hit it, hit that home schooling coming out. All the things we just didn't do and she was about to find out. And so we would get all nervous, we get upset and sure enough, Mom always found out. And it was often when we were in bed, we'd hand it off to her, we go to bed, she'd start working. I probably said this before, but we could hear her. Talking to my dad and eventually the the intensity would rise, rise, rise to these words will come out, come out of your mouth, I'm going to kill them. My dad used to always say, Gary, you're the oldest your mother ever starts filling the bathtub, grab your brothers and run. Obviously, we all we're all here, so that never happened, but. But moms go through a lot, don't they? They sure do, whether they're home schooled or their home schooling, their kids or not, motherhood is a very difficult task. And it's great that we have such a a fully fleshed out training program for mothers to just prepare them for all the things that they're going to face. Aren't you grateful for that? You're like, wait, what training program? A lot of on the job learning how many of you mothers that are here have found that motherhood was exactly the way you thought it was going to be. I mean, when you were a little girl thinking about maybe one day you'd have your own children, you had all of these thoughts in your head of what it would be like. And just, you know, don't forget, it's just turned out to be exactly what you thought it would be. Laurie. Uh. Yeah, life has a way of throwing some curveballs at us, doesn't it? Things don't always end up the way we think they're going to end up. I actually oftentimes they don't end up the way we think they were going to end up, there are unexpected trials that we face. There are things that we weren't prepared for that all of a sudden creep up in. Before we know it, we're in crisis mode. We're trying to react and we're trying to survive, we're trying to get through without ruining, you know, our children. You know, sometimes we can read the Bible and if we're not careful, we can just read it as if it's any other fairy tale. You know, you read Cinderella, you read Snow White, OK, never mind, you don't read those things. You watch the Disney movies and. You know, sometimes we think the Bible is the same way that these people are just characters that were drawn up by some artist to sure depict some moral lesson we should have learned, we should learn. But beyond that, it's just nothing more than another bedtime story for our children. This morning, I want us to look at this lady that we've read about, because her life was not a fairy tale and there are some things that we're going to be able to gather from the life of Eunice that I believe will be a help to to definitely the ladies that are here in this room. But men don't don't tune out because there's some things that you need to learn as well. We will look into verse number one of our text and we see that Paul and Silas leave Antioch, they're traveling through what is modern day Turkey. And as they're traveling through the region of Turkey, they meet a young man named Timothy. Timothy, we see in the passage will be added to the missionary team. Timothy is a well-known personality in the New Testament. Paul brings them along on many of his journeys. He has left in different places to invest in the churches that Paul had helped start. And then later on, Paul writes two letters to Timothy, helping him to know how he should conduct himself in the local church. But Timothy is here and we find out that verse number two, Timothy has a good reputation among the Christians that are in the area. Even though Timothy is young, Paul is willing to add him to the missionary team after. If you'll remember, last week he had just rejected another young man coming along. You know, sometimes because of the way we we go week by week preaching three different things. We look at the chapter divisions. We forget that these things didn't have chapter divisions. And so I don't think it's an accident that we read the issue of John, Mark and Paul saying he's not coming. And we immediately go into the story of Timothy. And Paul says he needs to come with us, two young men that get a very different reaction from the apostle Paul. Is there? Well, why are we talking so much about Timothy? I thought this was about Eunice. Well, it is about Eunice. Timothy is not the focus. How how non politically correct would it be in our day and age for me to preach a Mother's Day message and just talk about the mother son and just completely leave out the mother? I mean, I'm a man, and so I wouldn't want to be accused of anything like that. He just Mother's Day approached all about the mother son and how the son was the reason why we know about the mother. Now, there's some things we need to learn about this lady. And we're going to use some of the things that are said about her son to draw some things out of the text that I believe are very important. Now we learn that she's not just this unnamed person in second and second Timothy one, which we read earlier, we find out that Timothy's mom's name is Eunice Eunice. And we know several things about Eunice. I think as we go, Eunice will provide all of our ladies an example that they can relate to, because Eunice is not this one dimensional caricature of a person. Eunice is a very real lady. Timothy's family, I believe, has a close resemblance to many of the families that are represented here in our church, but also many of the families that are represented in the community that we're trying to reach. And so it's important for us to to learn and realize and be exposed to the realities of what mom's face. You see, Timothy's family would not have qualified as the quote unquote, ideal family, not in their time and not in arts. There are signs in the Bible that there were some some issues with Timothy's home. It was not a fairy tale home. There were real problems, real obstacles that had to be overcome. We see signs that there were some stark contrasts between Timothy's mom and dad, they had differences in their background, differences in their parenting philosophy and differences in their religion. These obstacles could have easily ruined the lives of everyone involved in this family. But somehow. I believe due to the decisions of Younus. They overcame these obstacles. Somehow, Eunice was able to be a godly mother in the face of what many would have considered to have been insurmountable obstacles. He said, well, what kind of obstacles did you face? Well, in verse number one, we learn that Yunus was a Jewish lady while her husband, who is unnamed, was a Greek. So first off, she had a different cultural background than the man she married. Now, this is a very vanilla there's not a lot to this in comparison to what she's dealing with, but how many of you married somebody or maybe just dated somebody that was from a whole different part of the country then where you were raised? Anybody ever been in a relationship like that? OK. A few people. Isn't it interesting how even in America, you know, someone from, say, New York, dating or marrying somebody from Texas, there are significant differences between those two locales, right? I know living in Virginia on the East Coast for several years, when you talk about barbecue. What I mean, as a Texan when I talk about barbecue is not what they hear as Virginians, they're not comparable. You talk about Mexican food, not the same. So anyways, I mean, just just being from different places. You talk about Broms, somebody from Virginia is like, what's Abrams'? It's not what's Abram's, it's what's Broms, I mean, it's it's a restaurant is a place you go. They have ice cream and greasy food and like, Oh. OK. Even Sonic to drive an hour to get to the closest sonic. Now, I'm annoyed that in five minutes to get over to the Collinsville Sonic. Jerry says you won't go for lunch, like, oh, it takes forever to get over there. You know, when you and your spouse are you and the person that you're in a relationship with come from different cultural backgrounds, there can be some strife. There can there can be some conflict. When there's this misunderstanding of terms, what you call one thing is not what they call it. You said, well, that's pretty. That's kind of petty. I mean, is that really an obstacle that somebody would have to face? Well, in this situation, it goes beyond just the preference of of local places to shop. She was a Jewess, he was a Greek. And in the Jewish culture, it was not permitted for a an Orthodox or a faithful Jewish girl to marry a gentile. Now, Younus must have gone through a time where she was not overly concerned with the observance of the long held religious heritage of the Jews, there was probably a time when she was a young lady where her parents were expecting this, and she said, you know what, I'm tired of living under this. And so I'm going to go out. I'm going to do my own thing. It's already a little bit strange that we see a Jewish lady here in the region of Turkey. Perhaps her family had fled to Turkey in search of a better life, maybe when she was young, maybe in generations past. Somehow these Jews had been misplaced from the promise, the Holy Land, and they find themselves in Turkey. So here's this young Jewish lady still trying to live an orthodox life. And here comes this young Greek gentleman. I'm Italian, so you've got to watch out for those those those men in the Mediterranean area. They're pretty smooth talkers. They're very suave and. At that dark skin, the dark hair, I mean, just. Heaven help them. I mean, because, you know. You guys aren't agreeing with me. But here comes this guy. And any kid catches your eye, sweeps her off her feet. And even though her mom and perhaps her dad are protesting and saying, don't do this, this isn't a good idea, we don't we don't approve of this marriage. She marries him anyway. We know that Eunice's mom, Lois, was a faithful woman, so we saw on second Timothy one five that the faith dwelt first in Lois. She was a godly lady. She she would have not been OK with Eunice marrying this man. There are many differences that we can point to that would have come up in a marriage between a Jew and a Gentile. Well, let's just go back to that food issue. Do you think there could be any obstacles, any any problems contention that might arise from a Jew and a gentile trying to live together and eat together? You know, Jews can eat anything pork. I think that might cause some problems. Younus and No-Name Guy get married in wedded bliss, newly young newlyweds, they're just like. No offense to the newlyweds in the room. That first week. After their marriage, Younus goes to the store. She's going around, she shop, I know they didn't have grocery stores, she went to the market. She's going from booth to Booth, getting the stuff that she thinks they need for the home and, you know, guys learn how to shop from their dads, you know, guys shop. I need this. There's my thing, I'm out. In, out as fast as we can. Ladies learning how to shop from their moms. Whining from one thing to the next and just floating around the stores like, haven't we already been in this section? Yeah, but I just want to check it one more time. Yeah, because they might have put some new stuff out since we were here five minutes ago. But Eunice is there and she's shopping the way her Jewish mother always shopped. So the next day, after her trip to the grocery store, her husband gets up and he's going to get ready to make some breakfast for himself. All right. And he looks for the bacon. And there's none. How could she forget the bacon? Well, I mean, she's a Jew. She's probably never had bacon before. And now her husband expects pork. She doesn't know how to buy pork. She doesn't know how to cook pork. This is all new, his expectations and her background clash. Now, of course, the differences that exist between a Jew and a gentile go way beyond food, but can you see how there probably would have been some some issues? Yunis was not only faced with cultural obstacles with her husband, Yunus was also dealing with a different parenting philosophy than her husband. We can see this in chapter 16, verse number three, that Paul, when he decides to take timothee with him, he had to take Timothy, who was already a young man, and circumcise him. Imagine what might have gone through Eunice's mind. When she found out that she was expecting her first child. Maybe things were already a little rocky between her and her, her gentile husband, maybe she thought that this baby would help them grow together as a family because, you know, babies make things a lot easier. Any problems that you have all of a sudden are fixed when a baby comes into the situation? Several of our couples are here that have been through premarital counseling with me, and you'll know that I say this regularly. Any annoyances, any problems that you have with this person when you're dating, they don't go away. When you get married, they get bigger. Because they don't go home at the end of the day, they're just always there, go to sleep and they're there, you wake up and they're there, well, then you add a baby into the mix and now you have to deal with the big problems that are already magnified on very little sleep. We all operate better when we're sleep deprived. Eunice is there and she finds out that she's expecting maybe she was excited, maybe she was scared, maybe she thought, how is my husband going to react to this child? The day finally comes that little Timothy is born. And of course, they didn't have sonograms. They didn't know if he was going to be a boy or a girl. And and so the baby comes out and it's a boy. Right off the bat, we got a problem. You would think this would be great news. But now you have to deal with the issue of. What do we do at this point? Would she be able to give him a Hebrew name to honor his lineage? Maybe a Joshua or a David. We did receive a Greek name. Like Matthias. I know husbands and wives never disagree what to name their children. We see she lost. If there was an argument, she lost. It doesn't have a Jewish name is a gentile name. Not only does he not get to be named after her lineage. But when it comes to his body. The Hebrew tradition of circumcision. It's not going to get that either. He will not be circumcised, one of those important Jewish rituals will be withheld from her son. You think Eunice and her husband disagreed over this? Do you think this was a point of contention between them? Here's where you and I need to get over our own obstacle of reading the Bible, like these people are just mindless robots. OK. I don't know what you say, don't you say she was a real person? She may have married this gentile, but she was a Jew, is she was a godly Jewish. And so she would not have just been OK with her son, not only having the name, but also not being afforded the the opportunity to be circumcised. I mean, you put yourself in her situation, can't you see how this would have been a problem? She has got some obstacles to deal with. Seems like. Eunice's time as a mother might not have been the blissful and joyful occasion that fairy tales often depict. This guy talks a lot about fairy tales, what's the deal? OK. It wasn't like it is in the movies. Her life was not a Hallmark Channel made for TV movie that a better modern day illustration of a fairy tale. But then you go to 16. And you look at the result later on, you look at where Timothy was when Paul found him. And I have to wonder, how is it possible for this lady dealing with these obstacles, dealing with a life that perhaps had a rough start? How was it possible for her then to get to the point where her son is an adult who loves God, wants to serve God? I mean, how does she get there? We say this often and it's important to reiterate it. But our our duty our goal as parents is to disciple our children. The number one responsibility that you have from God with your child is that you would train them to follow Jesus. I mean, we invest a lot of money and time and making sure they're good citizens, they're educated, they're athletic, they know how to throw a ball, how much time do we really spend in training them to follow Jesus? From what it seems, it seems like Timothy probably didn't have much of a chance to grow into the man that he did with a father that was. Running the house in a way in such a way as to minimize mom's impact on his son. What was it? That allowed Eunice. Can we say this way to win in the end? I think the answer. Was found in second Timothy. Version number one, our chapter one, verse five. We going to turn back there with me and just take a look at it, hold your place in. No, she had a different culture than her husband. She had different parenting philosophy than her husband. But she also had something else that differed from her husband. Universe number five seconds minutes after one. Eunice.

Unidentified: I had faith.

Speaker 3: Second, Timothy, one five, Paul commends Timothy. For his acceptance of the faith. The same faith that his grandmother had known Lois and the same faith that Eunice had also come to know. Is the all of our children have to eventually make their own decisions. Lois had been a faithful lady. But Eunice had to come to the point where she accepted the faith for herself. The same was true of Timothy Younus could not believe for him any more than she could believe for her husband. Here is this lady who has a son and a husband and her faith had an impact on her son. We have no indication that no name Gentile daddy ever got saved. By holding on to her faith. She could not only overcome the obstacles that lay before her, but she could also be an example for her family. Mother's Day is a hard day for many people. Isn't it? I don't know of another holiday that has the ability to bring up. So many very powerful emotions. There are many different. Context that we should be aware of on a day like today. One of which one of. Not the only one. Is the mother who looks back at her time raising her children. And did I not do enough? Because then she looks at her adult children, now she's she doesn't see them living the life that she had hoped they would live. And it's very possible. That. People try to bear that weight on themselves. I've heard it. You've heard it. Pastor, we had them in church. Pastor, we prayed with them before they went to bed. Pastor, we we studied the Bible, they were in one, they memorized Bible verses. But now their life doesn't look anything. Like what I hoped it would look like. Well, we understand that our children have to. Make the faith their own. Our job is to present it to them, to teach them, to train them, to do our part in making it appealing to them, to to to convincing them, to laying out the logical and reasonable arguments for why they should follow Jesus. But ultimately, it's their decision. Right. Mom. Your son, your daughter has turned their back on what you prayed for, which you tried to teach and reinforce. They had to make the choice whether to accept or reject what it was you tried to teach them. Yunus is here. There was no guarantee that Timothy would follow in her footsteps, especially when dad was not about it. But by holding on to her faith. She at least gave him the option. To follow Jesus. What is the faith refer to? It's kind of a trite thing to say, could be taken very simply. You know, I say she she she possessed the faith. Held on to her faith. You could say, well, just mean she had a relationship with Jesus. OK, yeah, you can do that. Faith is something that is very simple, we summed up in one name, Jesus. Did you realize the the faith Paul speaks of your invoice number five, a second, Timothy one. It is simple. But it's also infinitely more comprehensive. Then what we can even discuss on a morning like today. It's comprehensive because the faith refers to everything that Jesus supplies to those who follow and believe in him. You see, units could have turned to a lot of different resources for help dealing with our obstacles. Don't you think she probably had some Jewish friends that she could go and complain about her been and how difficult he was making her life? Oh, let me just tell you what he did today. You know, I don't like that pork stuff. I made him some ribs. He said it was in Hungary. Said he at the office, whatever the office was back then. I'm trying. He's about. Typical gentile. She could have turned her friends. She could have turned to experts, she could have turned to fleshly coping mechanisms for dealing with this this man who was making her life miserable. But instead. She turned to Jesus. She trusted in his grace. To deal with the. Hard to live with me. She trusted in his patients. To get her through day after day after day where nothing seemed to be going her way. So the faith is what granted her the wisdom to know when to speak up. And when to hold back, when to take advantage of her time with Timothy, to train him and teach them about Jesus and and when to be a little bit more hesitant. Faith that gave her discernment gave her strength. Jesus was the source of everything that Unnice needed to fulfill her role not only as a wife to a difficult husband, but also as a mother to an impressionable young Timothy. Jesus. Her faith, it wasn't just some crochet thing or needlepoint thing that she hung up on the wall, it was something that was real to her every day. It wasn't just something that was on her her her Tumblr, so people would look at her and say, oh, she's like, Jesus, she didn't just have a fish on the bumper of her car. Jesus. And her faith was something that affected every moment of her life. And when we look at how she was able to overcome these obstacles, we cannot get away from the faith that Eunice had. She may not have had the life she wanted. Her marriage wasn't the one that she planned when she was a little girl. But her faith put her son and herself in a position where they could both be used and blessed by God. So this morning. It may be a lady. Or even a man. Whose life has unfolded the way you planned? Perhaps there are some obstacles in your way. I'm not sitting by my wife right now, so I'll say this, your obstacle may be sitting right next to you. Maybe you look back on your. Teen or young adult or middle age years. You have a lot of regrets about the decisions you made. You wish you could go back in and change. It doesn't say this in the Bible, but I have to wonder, did you wish you could go back and marry somebody different? As opposed to this unbelieving Greek man. Maybe you look at the relationships that fill your life. And there is more disappointment than fulfillment that flows from those personalities. We've all had relationships that we thought were going to be the answer. Turns out it was just another imperfect human. Maybe you have responsibilities. They aren't following the path. That you thought they would follow? Regardless of whether your life is just like you always imagined it or nothing like you imagined it. The thing that will help you overcome any and every obstacle that you face is faith. Jesus, his grace, are sufficient to help see you through any obstacle. Whether it be in your past, whether it's part of your present or whether it's something you'll face in the future. Jesus and your faith are sufficient. Jesus is the answer for you, you can't go back and change your past as much as you may like to. You can try changing your husband isn't the answer to your problems either. Good luck. Even well-behaved kids will not guarantee you satisfaction. Your faith, though. Your faith is what will sustain you through the good times and the bad. Because a relationship with Jesus in the good times points you to Jesus, a relationship with Jesus in the bad times. Guess what it does? It points you to Jesus. Your faith is important. Jesus will be with you when things are all going right. And when they're all falling apart. I believe studying. The small few verses we have about Younus. That faith is what enabled Eunice to face her obstacles and if faith, a relationship with Jesus was sufficient for her and the countless others that we have in the Bible. And I think faith. Be able to get us through our obstacles as well, a relationship with Jesus that is real. We'll help you to face the obstacles that are in front of you today. A mom is a hard job. There's obstacles. From within and without your home. If we're going to deal with these obstacles, we're going to give our children a chance to follow Jesus. And we're going to have to have faith. Like use or thank you for this day, thank you for the moms that are here. God, I pray that you would be with each one of them. There are. So many things that a mother has to deal with on a weekly basis. Lord, you know that there are some there are many things that. As a man, I don't even understand. But what a mom faces and has to. Has to work with and address. The lawyer you're familiar with, every trial and obstacle. Issue that each one of these moms has had to deal with. You know their strengths, you know their weaknesses. You know, the ones that are encouraging them and praying for them and helping them to push forward and, you know, the ones that are. Dragging on their life and being an obstacle to them. God, I pray that you would strengthen the moms that are here today. Or that you would use your Holy Spirit to impress upon them their need for a relationship with you. God, that the story of Eunice would impress upon them, who would convince them that their faith. The most important source of strength that they have. Nowhere else, no other person can give them what you can give them. God, if there's a mother here today that doesn't know you as their savior. Never accepted your free gift of salvation, they've never had your grace applied to their life. God, I pray that today. Would convince them of their need for salvation. They would not try to get through the obstacles and the trials of this life on their own, but they would learn to trust in you. God, I pray that this time that we've spent together would be an encouragement. To the moms that are here, you know, I don't. Want to be a discouragements anyone during this time? I want to be a help. I share what you have recorded for us here. So, Lord, not your word, do its work in our hearts this morning. In Jesus name, they ask these things, man. It's all stand, we're going to have a short time of invitation. God has spoken to your heart and there's something that you would like to talk to him about today. We have a short time, a prayer. You can pray there at your seat. You open the altar here for you to come and pray and talk to God here this morning. There's a decision you need to make in your life. Now is the time to make it. Perhaps you never have been saved. Come down this morning, if you're a lady, we'll have a lady take your Bible and show you how you can know for sure your sins are forgiven. Men will do the same for you. If there's a mother that needs prayer this morning, one of our ladies would be more than happy to pray with you next to you, lift up your name to the Lord. Maybe there's a mother you know that needs prayer. This morning, you would take a moment to set aside your concern for yourself and just to pray for her. During this time, his brother Matt sings Let's do business with God this morning.

Speaker 4: I can hear my say your calling. I can hear my savior calling. I can hear my savior calling. Take my cross and follow. Follow me where he leads me. I will follow where he leads me. I will follow men. Are you praying for your wives? You need to be fathers, husbands, fathers.

Speaker 3: You lift up your wife and your mother of your children to God

Speaker 4: with him

Speaker 3: praying for his grace and wisdom to be present in her life.

Speaker 4: I'll go with him through the car, then I'll go with him through the car. Then I'll go with. With him through. The guard and I'll go with him, with him

Unidentified: all the way.

Speaker 4: Where he leads me, I will follow, where he leads me, I will follow where he leads me. I will follow. I'll go with him, with him. Oh, yeah, you, man.

Speaker 3: Thank you all so much for being here with us this morning. Do appreciate the effort it took to be a part of the service today and trust that God will bless you and for being here. If you do get to spend time with mom this afternoon, I hope God gives you a blessed time. And if not, then trust that God will be there with you. And like I said, Jesus is sufficient for every situation. And maybe you don't get to be with your children today. I trust that God will grant you great grace and peace and comfort this afternoon. Don't forget, we will not be back here tonight. And I hope that you'll be able to spend some time resting and being with family and enjoying the day that God has given us. But we'll look forward to seeing you again on Wednesday. Please do be in prayer for one another and lots of different things going on in different people's lives, people struggling with different things. So please don't let up on praying for your church family and the church ministries here. We're going to be closed. And word of prayer. I'd like to ask for the Randy Silvis straining to come up and close us, and then once he's done, we'll be dismissed. Moms', don't forget, grab your cookie on the way out and we appreciate you being here with us today and hope that you know how much we love you, brother. Randy Claus's.

Speaker 1: Let us pray, dear Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for this wonderful time that we have spent with you this morning, Lord. It's been so wonderful, Lord Jesus, in the message that the pastor preached was so beautiful, Lord. Oh, Heavenly Father, I want to add my voice to those Lord that raise up our mothers today. Lord Jesus, I'm so thankful and thank you so much for blessing our mothers. Lord, I pray, Lord, that you will be with that young mother, Lord that has a newborn Jesus. I pray, Lord, that you will be with that mother that has a teenage. Son or daughter, Lord, and all the things that that they need Jesus. And Lord, I lift up that that widowed mother, Lord, the Lord Jesus, maybe she doesn't have any one with her today. Lord Jesus, I ask Lord that you will wrap your wonderful, loving arms around her and just bless her. Jesus, a special blessing on her Lord. And lastly, Lord, I pray for us, man, Lord Jesus, that we would be the man that you want us to be in our household, Lord. That we would love our wives. As you love the church, Lord Jesus. We ask all this in the name of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, a man.

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