Building a Household of Faith

5/10/26

Mother’s Day

Message; “Building a Household of Faith.”

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-7

2 Timothy 1:1-7

(1) “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

(2) To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 

(3) I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear

conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 

(4) Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 

(5) I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 

(6) For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 

(7) For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us

power, love and self-discipline.”

This is the word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

 This Mother’s Day sermon, I’m writing with appreciation for that time—honored institution, without the benefit of which we wouldn’t be here!

 As pastors we’re reminded not to get too sentimental about motherhood because:

 for some, motherhood is an accident, and not always a welcome one.

And for some, biological motherhood isn’t possible;

Also for some, mothers weren’t all that nice.

And for some, motherhood under the very best of circumstances is still less than a bed of roses.

 So, with all that said, why bother with Mothers’ Day at all? I’ll tell you why —— because for all its stumbling blocks, pitfalls and broken dreams, for all the dirty diapers, crayon covered walls and spoiled plans, we’re talking about a beautiful gift, a natural part of God’s creative plan to bring love and caring to light. 

 Motherhood is a constant demand for the gift of love and caring and teaching. As a Christian mother it is about ,“Building a Household of Faith”.

 So when it comes to core beliefs and foundational values, what happens at your house is more important than what happens at the White House, the country, our community, or even the world.

 In the close quarters of family life we learn to honor God and respect ourselves. In the daily routines of our relational lives we develop a standard by which we interact with others everywhere. Day by day we form the habits, set the priorities, and give the impressions that will go with us to the grave.

 If the Lord is going to find faith on the earth when he returns, it will depend, in a large degree, on how we do in our relationships with one another. 

So on this Mother’s Day I’d like to talk for a few minutes about building a household of faith. How can you do it? Let me suggest some ways.

As we have read in 2 Timothy1:1-7, we’re taught that;

 WE CAN BECOME FAITHFUL DISCIPLES.

 In the little town of Lystra, a middle-aged missionary by the name of Paul and a teen-ager by the name of Timothy struck up a friendship that lasted for a lifetime. Timothy’s dad was not a believer but his grandmother and his mother were. Their faith along with Paul’s friendship shaped this young leader for the early church. In this letter, the second one that he wrote to his friend Timothy, Paul writes these words from a prison cell, “I am reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now is also alive in you.”

 I would like for you to think for just a moment about the words sincere faith. It is sincere faith that stands the test of time. These words literally translated is: to be unwaxed, non-touched up. 

 To be sincere is to be genuine, real, earnest, honest, heartfelt, natural. The kind of faith that other people need from you and me is authentic spirituality.  What your sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews need from you most is an authentic faith.

What people ought to be able to expect from the Church is sincere faith. And the foundation of faith is trust. If parents, clergy, and the Church cannot be trusted, will the Son of Man find faith when he returns to the earth?

 Of course, there are grandmothers like Lois, mothers like Eunice, Sunday School teachers, youth counselors, and a host of others,who can be trusted. In the simple activities of life they make all the difference in the shaping and the formation of a life.

 Many times God calls on us to test our faith. He may require us to be where we don’t want to be. But in doing so, we have the opportunity, to “Fan into Flames” our faith in our daily lives.

 As speaker and author, Tony Campolo, tells the story, it happened during a sophisticated academic gathering at the University of Pennsylvania which neither he nor his wife wanted to attend. During their mixing among the faculty, a sociology professor came up to Mrs. Campolo and said, “What do you do for a living?” Mrs. Campolo, feeling the compelling task of raising

children, gave this reply, “I am socializing two homosapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia that God willed from the beginning of creation. And what, may I ask, do you do for a living?

Second we learn that;

WE CAN CHOOSE TO BE HOUSEHOLDS OF FAITH.

 We can make a deliberate choice about the God of our lives. In the Old Testament at a place called Shechem, Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, called a national assembly. In his last speech as their leader, Joshua urges them to make a clear choice. (Joshua 24:15)”Choose this day whom you will serve, the God of your forefathers or the gods of the Amorites in whose land

we are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 Have you made that choice? What god is worshipped at your house? Is it the god of materialism whose worship is the latest gadget? Is it the god of sport whose worship is the winning team? Is it the god of pleasure who can hardly wait for the next vacation? Is it the god of workaholism who sells his soul to the company store?

 You see, everybody serves somebody. It might be the devil, it might be greed, it might be your kids, it might even be yourself , but you’re going to serve somebody. The choice we have as human beings, as responsible adult human beings, is that we can choose our gods and I urge you to choose your God well.

 As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It hung on a tiny little plaque in the house where my grandparents lived. It had silver lettering against a blue velvet background. As a decoration it was worthless; as a declaration it was priceless. Christ is the Head of this house.

 What that meant was that God was worshipped. What that meant was that The Commandments were kept. What that meant was that the scriptures were read. What that meant was that people were respected. 

 The God you choose determines the life you live, so be careful who you crown as Lord.

 Does faith matter at your house? When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? The answer to that question is in your hands and my hands. We can become faithful disciples ourselves. We can make a choice, a deliberate active decision, as a family that God will be honored in this place.

 Do you “fan into flames” faith, in your household?

Thirdly we learn that;

WE CAN CULTIVATE HOLY HABITS.

 It may only take a spark to get the fire going, as we sometimes sing, but it is going to take some wood to keep it burning. So as, Paul writes to his young friend, Timothy, fan the flame that is within you. Stir up the gift that is there.  

 Jesus would say, if you want to keep your lamp burning you better put some oil in it. There are some means and activities by which we can keep the flame of faith burning in our lives. They are simple things really. It is like deciding as a

family to worship God.

 Remember if church were just a matter of sermons, you could get more effective ones on the Internet. If church were just a matter of music, you could listen to surround sound in your home. If church were just a matter of entertainment, you could go to a concert. 

 But church is a matter of meeting God. It is a divine encounter. By regularly getting out of bed and coming to church, we put our faith in God who is faithful to us. Sometimes it means sacrifice and every Sunday you make a choice of priorities. Every person in church had at least ten, fifteen, twenty other things they could have done this morning, but they made a choice to be in church.

 Don’t ever forget, my friends, what you do speaks volumes about your values. And furthermore, it may be the only hour of the week when you happen to be together with your family—when you’re not running, not working, not trying to get to the next important event . Don’t underestimate what God might choose to do through you right now.

  As I think about this, I probably learned more about “ cultivating holy habits”

 from my mom, riding to church every week in the seat of a car, than I did in Sunday School on Sunday.” 

 You can cultivate holy habits. You can go to church together as a family. You can tell the stories of how God has worked in your life. You can teach your children to pray. You can render acts of service together. 

 Reminds me of the story about some little kids who had gotten out of Sunday School and were sitting at a stoplight and saw a man standing by the side of the road, with the sign—Homeless, Will Work for Food.

 Well they wanted to do something; they had just learned about the Good Samaritan. Their mother was very cautious and rightly so. She said to them, “But don’t you understand, if we give him money he will probably use it on things that are not healthy for him. Most likely he’s addicted. We can’t give him cash.” But, they said, “We’ve got to do something; we learned about it in

Sunday School. You don’t pass people by.”

 When you turn young, creative minds loose, they come up with all kinds of ideas, better than the rest of us. They said, “We’ve got an answer. We’ll pack a lunch box in the back of our car and every time we go past that stoplight and that man is there, we’ll roll down the window and

give him a sandwich and something to drink. We’ll be smart but we’ll also be caring.” Teach your children well.

The last lesson we learn from our scripture is;   

WE CAN TRUST OUR FAMILIES TO THE LORD.

You can trust your family to the Lord! When Samuel was born to Hannah, she offered this prayer, in 1 Samuel  “My heart rejoices in the Lord. I prayed for this child and God has given me what I asked. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given to the Lord.” 

 Have you trusted those you love the most to God’s care?

Sometimes in our enthusiasm to see that our loved ones come to faith in Christ we end up shutting them out, because we don’t trust our families,our loved ones, to the Lord. Instead of being “faithful disciples “we become nags and test their faith. Instead of giving gentle reminders and learning to trust our families to God. They turn us off, or change channels like a TV program, with too many commercials.Trust your family to God. Rely on The Holy Spirits promptings, give gentle and loving reminders of who you have faith in. In that way you can build a household of faith.

 So “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth ?”(Luke 18:8) 

 Will He find you building a household of faith? Will He…?

On a personal note. If it wasn’t for my wife,my mom and my grandmothers “Building households of faith”, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

In His Service.

Pastor Joe

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!