First Timothy-- I've got to get my notes. Yeah. Give me one second. I lost my notes. There it is. That's a preacher's nightmare. I don't know-- I don't know how many times I dreamt about coming up here and then not having my notes. Almost came true. Thank you. Thank you, God.

All right. First Timothy, chapter 2, 12 through 15. And I know some of you guys are looking at the text. It's like, wow, this guy's crazy. Why would he choose this text for Mother's Day? Hopefully, at the end of the sermon, you wouldn't hate me as much. First Timothy, chapter 2, 12 through 15.

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control." Let's pray.

Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for today, especially as we remember and honor our mothers who are laboring and sacrificing so much, Lord God, for our families. I pray you would strengthen them, reward them, Father God, with your grace, that they would feel loved, Lord God, as they work every single day to take care of our children and our homes.

I pray that our families, Lord, in our church may be strengthened, that it would be the foundation upon which we build our community. So for that end, we pray for your blessing and the Holy Spirit to use your word to bless and strengthen and sanctify your church. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. You know, it's kind of awkward every year when we think about Mother's Day that we don't want to sidetrack and say, you know what? All the other time of the year, we're going to be celebrating Jesus. But today, we're going to be celebrating Mom. And I think that would be wrong.

It would be unbiblical to say, you know what? At least we need one day to reserve. And Jesus, move aside. We're going to be praising Mom today. So we want to be careful that we're not doing that. In the context of celebrating and honoring our mothers, that we recognize ultimately that in celebrating our moms, that we are celebrating Christ.

And that can never be two separate things. But if there was anybody in our lives, or say people groups, that is deserving of honor, I would say it would be mothers. And I'm not just saying that to kiss up to all the moms today. And I think if we were to really think about one person in our lives who is a Christ figure, it has to be our moms.

You talk about unconditional love. I don't think human beings actually practice unconditional love. Even moms, even dads, I don't think we ever fully practice unconditional love, because we're selfless. We're all fallen creatures. But if there was any person in our lives that comes to closest unconditional love, I would say it's moms.

Moms have to practice grace, because we're not deserving. Especially, I mean, those of you who are parents, you know when they're young kids, you send them off to be babysat by the uncle or some friend, and then you let them watch video till 11 o'clock at night and have fun for a couple days.

All of a sudden, they come back and say, I want that person to be my mom. And it's like, oh my gosh, you don't know all the stuff that I've done for you, every sacrifice I've made. But you give them enough candy, their loyalty can change just like that.

But you don't see any mom say, well, then go. You want them, then go. See what it's like. We don't do that. The moms don't do that. They can't do that, because obviously, without love, without what we consider to be unconditional love, our children would not live. And in fact, all your life, you sacrifice for the children.

At the end, if you've done a good job, they'll pack up their bags and they'll leave. They're not going to stay there and say, well, you poured into me, now how can I pay you back? All of us, once our parents have done their job, you pack up and say bye, and then you pour out to somebody else.

And then you pour out to them, and then they're going to pour out to somebody else. So if there's any job in this world that is as closest to what we can think of love of Christ, it would probably be our moms. And it is a tough, tough job.

And again, I'm not saying this because it's Mother's Day. I actually stayed home with my first son, Jeremy, for a year and a half. When we had Jeremy, Esther was working as a schoolteacher. And I didn't have much income at that time. I didn't have health insurance. So she had to go to work because that was the only way for us to survive.

So a year and a half, I stayed home with Jeremy. And I could tell you that a year and a half probably should not have happened. I was thinking in my mind that if I keep going down this path, my kid's going to become a Neanderthal. Because it's just not nurturing, that aspect.

I don't know. Some of you guys are better than I am. But when a kid falls down and he hurts, immediately my thought is not, oh my gosh, I need to go take care of this kid. The immediate thought that I have is, is that bad enough for me to get up?

You know, like, is that-- The world is hard. You know what I mean? If I come up and take care of him every time he falls, he's going to become a sissy. He's got to toughen up. Those are the kind of thoughts that I have. I've got to train him to be a soldier.

You know what I mean? So I remember a year and a half that I was at home. It was just so draining. From the outside, you look at it, and it's like, whoa, they just wake up, make breakfast, and change their diaper. And they can go out and play.

I mean, it looks pretty easy. But taking care of a kid that's next to you, like, 24/7, you can't take their eyes off, even for a minute. You can't go to the bathroom. I'm not kidding. You can't go to the-- you have to take your kid into the bathroom.

Because that one minute that you take your eyes off of them, they could put their finger into the socket. They could go into their diaper, put that in their mouth. I mean, all kinds of stuff can happen during that one minute. So even bathroom, you've got to take them into the bathroom and watch them.

So it is exhausting. And I can imagine some of the parents who have twins, what it's like. It is a tough, tough job. So I remember after the year and a half, Esther would come home around 3, 3. She'd try to come home as soon as possible, and come home and relieve me.

But literally, around 3.30, me and Jeremy-- I would have Jeremy in this little basket, and I would sit at the door. She opened the door, boom. All right, I'm out. It is a tough, tough job. And it is a thankless job at times. So I think if there's any individual in our lives that really deserves to be honored and to be celebrated, it's our mom.

They need to be strengthened. They need to know that even though they don't hear it every day, and day to day, they may feel like it's thankless, that at least today, to let them know we appreciate them, and that they may remember this. All the more why this text is so strange.

After saying all of that, you're really going to say this? Yes, she will be saved through childbearing. This is a context where Paul is describing how to behave in the church, and the order that God has created. And people can just easily read this and dismiss this, and say, oh, this is ancient.

God didn't really intend this to be practiced. How can you possibly think in this day and age that this is going to be relevant? Who would possibly read this and say this is from God? But the problem is the rationale behind why he says this, he goes all the way back to creation, that this was God's intention from the beginning.

If we understand this text, not understanding the redemptive history, the large picture behind this text, we can just see that and say, oh, this is oppressive to women. This is male chauvinism. Why would anyone ever be attracted to this? And all the more why we need to understand the bigger picture.

What is happening here? Why is Paul saying this? What does this have to do with the gospel? Clearly, when he says in this text in verse 15, yes, she will be saved through childbearing, the word saved here cannot mean salvation, justification. Because obviously, Paul is not saying that men are saved through faith because of the blood of Christ and that women are saved if they do a good job having children.

Just like in the English, when we say the word saved, it means all kinds of stuff, like I save money to go on a trip. Or somebody would say, oh, I saved a cat. When somebody says they saved a cat, it doesn't mean that they got salvation. It means that you saved them from danger.

You got them off a tree or something. So in the same way in the Greek, the word for saved is not always referring to eternal life. It's referring to eternal life in heaven. In fact, in some texts, that same word here is used for deliverance, to make something whole, to persevere, to make something safe from danger.

So clearly, he's not talking about justification here. He's talking about preservation. He's talking about the ramification, maybe, of salvation here. But to really understand what's going on, we have to see the larger picture of why women were called to the task and why it preserves them and makes them whole and saves them from danger.

Turn your Bible all the way to Genesis 3.16, because these verses are directly related. So if you don't understand one, it'll be hard to swallow the other. Genesis 3.16. Now, you know what happens in Genesis 3.16. God creates Adam and Eve. God tells them to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

If you do it, you shall surely die. So prior to this, Eve gets tempted by Satan. And then Eve, after she eats of it, introduces it to Adam. And they both eat of it. And they fall from the grace of God. And as soon as their eyes are open, they see their nakedness.

And they hide from each other. And then God shows up. And they are in fear. And then God begins to speak to them. And prior to this verse, it's a description of the fall and the judgment on Satan. And then after this, there will be a description of the judgment for the man.

And it's a longer description of that. But in this text in 3.16, it's a specific description of the ramification of this fall to the women. And he says this, verse 3-- chapter 3.16. "To the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. And in pain, you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be for your husband. And he shall rule over you." There are two words here that are used that are extremely important for us to understand. And again, connected to what's happening in 1 Timothy. The two words are the word "pain" and "desire." And those are the ramifications of the fall.

The curse that came upon the woman was pain and desire. Now, if you remember, the very reason why God created Eve in the first place was God created Adam and said, you shall be fruitful and multiply. And you will subdue the land. You're going to be the caretaker of my creation.

But as soon as the fall happens, what happens? God's intention for Adam and Eve gets corrupted. It is not destroyed. It gets corrupted. God created Eve for the purpose that she may be a suitable helper so that he can multiply. So if you look at the curse here, the two reasons why Eve was created was to be a suitable helper and so that she may multiply.

So if you look at the curse, there's two things that get corrupted-- her relationship with her husband and the process of multiplying. In other words, you will continue to multiply, but you will do it in much pain. And second, your relationship with your husband is going to be strained.

So these two words describe the curse that comes upon the woman-- the fruitfulness and desire. Now today, our point is not to get into the word "desire" because we're not going to get into the corruption that came into husband and wife. Maybe in the future days, we'll talk about that.

But I want to focus on the word "pain" because it is directly related to what we're talking about. If you notice in verse 16 that there are two words-- the word "pain" is used twice. "I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing"-- first time-- "and then in pain you shall bring forth children"-- the second time.

Well, if you look at the Hebrew text, the two words are not the same. In English, it's translated both "pain." But the first word for pain is "hesabon." And it is not referring to physical pain. In fact, the better translation for that may be "anxiety" or "concern" or "worry." It's not referring to physical pain.

The second word is "heseb," and that's the word for physical pain. So when he says, "I will surely multiply your pain," he's saying, "I will multiply your anxiety, concern." There will be sorrow in childbearing, and then in pain-- physical pain-- "you shall bring forth children." Again, to properly understand the curse that came upon the woman, first we know that he's not just referring to physical pain.

He's talking about the sorrow, the anxiety, that's going to come in childbearing. But the very word "childbearing" in and of itself is not referring to giving birth. That same word is to describe when a father becomes a father of a child. It's not talking about the delivery itself. It's talking about the father becoming a father.

That same word is used to describe Moses as the father of Israel. That out of Moses came the nation of Israel. So when you put all of that together, the curse that comes upon the mom isn't just the pain. Obviously, typically when the woman goes into labor and they experience pain, we say, oh, it's because of Eve.

Eve did it. And if it wasn't for Eve, the giving birth would be so easy-- maybe. But he's not just talking-- it's not limited to the physical pain. Understanding all of it, the curse is the whole process of motherhood is going to be sorrowful, painful, and difficult. Now again, those of you who are mothers now, and you're trying to make the best of it, but you already know probably the toughest job you've ever had in your life is after you became a mom.

A lot of times people ask, what's the best way to prepare for motherhood? Sit down and make a bucket list of all the things that you would desire in your life, and then burn it. That's the best way to prepare for motherhood. Basically, what motherhood is, you had your life, and then now you're going to pour it out to somebody else.

Now you might-- man, that's just a negative way to describe motherhood. Ask any mom if that's not a good description. But God gives us grace. And I can tell you that probably no mother in this room would trade what they're doing, though. As difficult, and as hard, and as sacrificial as it may be, the rewards of loving your child is the greatest gift, greatest thing that we have, as difficult as it is.

But it is a good description, because the scripture says the whole process of becoming a mother, raising children, is going to be painful and difficult. And the main reason why is because you're going to be bearing fruit to sinners. You're bearing fruit to sinners. And you know, in life, if you have somebody who's selfish, and they say crass things, and they do things, and you say, you know what?

We'll just become acquaintances, but we don't need to be good friends. So even in a church like this, we have certain people that we're close to and certain people we're not close to. And we kind of do that, and we justify it. We just keep our distance from certain people, and good friends with certain people.

You can't do that with your kids. No matter what it is, no matter how selfish they may behave, you can't do that. Not because they deserve it, but because without you, they can't survive. It is difficult, because now you are directly connected to another sinner. And the more they age, the more that sin is going to be prevalent.

See, the whole thing about being fruitful and multiply has become tainted. We are still bearing fruit in some way. We're still multiplying in some way. But it says the curse that has come upon mankind has made it difficult. In fact, if you look at the book of Genesis, the history of Israel, the history of Israel and history of mankind is the overflow of this curse and how it affected nations, how it affected families, how it affected kings, how it affected prophets, how it affected religion.

The whole history of mankind is how this curse is being played out. Right off the bat, as soon as Adam and Eve has children, they multiply. Well, what happened? You guys know. The first kid they have is Cain. Second one is Abel. I can't think of anything more excruciatingly painful than to have parents watch their child die, to experience that.

If you read the account of Cain and Abel, obviously, something horrendous happens. The fall happens. And then the immediate ramification is Cain is jealous over Abel. And Cain actually ends up murdering Abel. There is no story behind where you would, where there's, Adam and Eve, you don't hear anything about it.

There's no mention of them. They don't bury Abel. There's nothing. But we can imagine. Not only did they lose their second child, but they lost him in the hands of the first child. There is no justice that can be carried out that's going to compensate for their loss and their pain.

So can you imagine this pain? But there's silence. We see the same picture in Leviticus chapter 10, a similar picture where, you know, Aaron, he makes a huge blunder. And he's the one who creates the golden calf. And as a result of that, judgment comes upon a nation. And they get judged.

And then later on in Leviticus 10, God establishes the sacrificial system. And the first priest that comes to sacrifice are his two sons, Nadab and Abihu. They sacrifice a strange fire. And as a result of that, God comes and consumes both of them. And they die. And you know what it says right after in chapter 10, verse 3?

He said, Aaron held his peace. That's all it says. It doesn't talk about how Aaron pleaded with God, like how could you do this? He said, he just stood there and just took it. And he knew because he made the same mistake. See, this is the curse upon man.

Everything that-- all the ramifications of a sinful world that you and I have experienced, our children will also experience. See, but that's the whole gospel. And this is where the hope comes in. In Genesis 3, 13, it says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, every single one of us. We were born into this curse. Every man was born into this curse. Every woman was born into this curse. Every child, no matter how cute and precious they are, were born into this curse.

But the scripture says that Christ redeemed us. And he absorbed this curse upon himself that this curse may be reversed. That's why every time we have a wedding ceremony, the whole wedding ceremony, this whole drama-- and it is drama. All the money and time and everybody flying over from everywhere to participate in this wedding, right?

In fact, I've seen some of the biggest fights in couples happen because of this wedding. And I know some of you, you kept your peace until you went to your honeymoon. And then you came back, and like, why you? And that was the beginning of your wedding, your marriage.

I mean, it is drama. But the whole purpose of the drama is to physically illustrate redemption of mankind. See, the woman doesn't come down the aisle because she lived a perfect, pure life. The scripture says in Ephesians 5 that Christ redeemed her and made her white by his blood.

She represents the church. The groom represents Jesus. And then the two parties represent the covenant relationship with God. And all of it is to illustrate that now this curse is being reversed in this marriage. Well, this curse is reversed in the home in particular. This is where the rubber meets the road.

When we're talking about living up to the gospel of Jesus Christ, where this redemption is played out, first and foremost, it's between a husband and wife. And then secondly, it happens with the parents and their children, in particular, the mom and their kids. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Our revelation of our redemption doesn't always show here. Because you're only here for an hour and a half, two hours at most, right? If you hang out, if you're really religious, you'll be here for three hours, four hours, right? And then during the week, you're there another two, three hours.

You put it all together, you're talking about five, six hours a week that you've got to put on your best face. Don't curse. Don't get drunk. At least during those five hours, just come. And then don't be a jerk. So you can put on the best face for about five hours of the week.

But who we really are is what we are the rest of the time. It's where the rubber meets the road. We can put on a good face outside of our home, especially at church. But at home, who are we? In particular, in our relationship with our children, mother and child, that's where the gospel must first be preached.

It must first be practiced. It is a grave mistake for us to think that if we protect our children from other bad kids, that our kids will be fine. Typically, that's what happens when you have a kid and you try so hard to protect them. And you don't use foul language.

You don't watch bad stuff. And they're so good. And all of a sudden, you start taking them to preschool. And they come back. And they got this language. They're saying all of this stuff. And all of a sudden, they don't want to share their toys. And the first thought that a parent has is, who did this to my kid?

And then you start looking at the preschoolers, like, that kid's so selfish. He's learning from that kid. And they go to school. And they start saying things that they didn't say before. It's like, oh, he's being corrupted by that kid. We've got to keep him away from him. We've got to keep him away from her.

And then we want to live in a place where we're going to feel safe. And it is a grave mistake for us to think that we can weed out sin in a child's life if we protect them from all the corruption. But here's a mistake. Scripture clearly says, Jesus said, it is not what comes out of-- it is not what you put into a child that corrupts him.

Obviously, it says a man. But a child is no different. It is not what you put into a child, but it's what comes out of a child. In other words, what is he saying? He says it's in him. Sin is not in him. It's not you walking around. You stepped on sin.

Or you went to the wrong neighborhood. You got exposed to the wrong kids. He says, no, that corruption is in that child. See, the whole point of the gospel, first and foremost, is when we recognize we are sinners, and it's no different with our children. If we think that our children are angels, and they're born good, and if we just keep them good, if we don't expose them to sin, that's going to somehow become these good citizens who are going to love Jesus.

It is a grave mistake. Just as you and I met Christ when we recognize our sin, as parents, we need to first and foremost recognize that they were born with a corrupt nature like us. It is a mistake for us to think that if we parent them, if we somehow show them good behavior, teach them early, get them advanced, if we don't watch certain programs, and if we allow them to do certain things and advance them in their language, and somehow all of these things are going to make them great, they may read better than other children, they may be more athletic than other children, they may have better behavior, they may be unselfish, but in the end, at the core, it does nothing for their salvation.

First and foremost, we must recognize that this curse is upon all of us. In particular, we need to recognize this at home. Whenever we have somebody who does something horrendous, like Ted Bundy, I mean, that's from my generation. That was the most immediate thing I can think of. He just murdered dozens of females just because he was sexually tempted.

And then at his death sentence, before they killed him, the capital punishment, they did an interview, and they went back, and they're trying to comb through his life of what happened to this guy. How can our society have created such a monster? I went back and talked to the parents, and found out they were normal people.

They're very nominal Christians who attended church, who was raised in Sunday school. He was a very articulate man, studied law. And yet, they couldn't figure out. So, it was just an enigma. Like, he didn't fit a mass murderer. He didn't have strange tattoos. He wasn't saying strange things. He was very articulate.

If you met him out on the street, you would think he'd be a professor of a school or something. See, but what our society doesn't understand is that this corruption inside of all of us, you can't weed out sin with good behavior. You can't weed out sin simply by good example.

You can't weed out sin by memorizing certain scripture. You're not going to weed out sin by advancing them and living in a certain neighborhood. First and foremost, what does this teach us, and how does this relate to what we're talking about in 1 Timothy? We must first and foremost be the evangelist to our children.

First and foremost. We can live all our lives protecting them, providing for them, spending all our time vacationing, providing the nicest house. But in the end, if they did not know Christ, what is it for? When Jesus says, "What is a profit "if you gain the whole world and forfeit your soul?" What benefit is it?

That they lived in a nice home, parents loved each other, went to church, served the church, had Sunday school, and yet they do not know Christ. See, Paul says to Timothy, 2 Timothy 1.5, "I am reminded of your sincere faith, "a faith that dwelled first in your grandmother Lois "and your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, "dwells in you as well." He didn't just talk about Timothy.

He said, "Timothy, don't forget that your faith "was because God was faithful to your grandmother "and then to your mother, and now you." And that's why he reminds him in 2 Timothy again to persevere in his faith. 2 Timothy 3.14, "But I ask for you, continue "in what you have learned and have firmly believed, "knowing from whom you learned it "and how from childhood you have been acquainted "with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise "for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." There is nothing more important for the work of a mother and a father than to be the first evangelist to our children.

You know, we typically think of like, you know, the people, the testimonies we wanna hear are people who used to be ex-gangsters, or, you know, they came in and out of prison, got all these tattoos, "I murdered somebody, "and Jesus saved me." It's like, "Oh my gosh," you know?

It's so glorious, God changed you. But whenever we hear of testimonies, it's like, "Yeah, my mom shared the gospel with me, "and at five, I accepted, and I got baptized when I was six." Right? And then, you know, our typical response is, "Oh, okay, okay, thank you for your testimony.

"So encouraging, next." Right? But the longer I live, the more I experience just what a tremendous blessing that is, and how rare that really is. You know, everybody talks about how, "Zach, you know, I strayed, I didn't know God, "and later on, I went to campus ministry," and all this, but every once in a while, I hear somebody saying, "My mom shared the gospel with me.

"My dad, it was my home, and they were an example to me, "and I became a Christian, and I've been walking "with the Lord since I was six, or seven, or eight, or nine." What a tremendous blessing that is, that for every parent, our first and foremost priority, before we think about, like, "What am I gonna do for God in China?

"What am I gonna do for God in India?" That we need to become evangelists, and to be a faithful evangelist, we need to first recognize that we are dealing with sinners, not out there. So when they're selfish, when they're self-centered, it's because they're sinners. And just like a church, when people come with sin, said, "That's why you're here, "'cause that's why we're preaching the gospel, "so that you would recognize "the only cure for sin is Christ." So first and foremost, we are called to our children to be evangelists.

Second, do not make a mistake of making our children our idols. Luke chapter 14, 26 to 27, and another verse that is appropriate for Mother's Day. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, "and mother, and wife, and children, "and brother, and sister, yes, "and even his own life, cannot be my disciple." That's another great verse to look at for Mother's Day.

It says, "Not to honor, but to hate your father, "hate your mother." So if we stop the sermon here, and go home and say, "What'd you learn today?" It's like, "Well, it says to hate you." (audience laughs) That's what we read, it's biblical. But you need to understand this, again, in the context of the larger message that Jesus was giving.

Right after this is when Jesus says, "If you do not pick up your cross and deny yourself, "you cannot be my disciple." He's not simply talking about how a Christian should live. He's talking about salvation. When he's talking about, "Be my disciple," he's not talking about, "Here's a level one disciple "who comes to Christ, and the level two disciple "doesn't come to Christ.

"Here's this level one disciple who picks up the cross, "and here's this other disciple "who chooses not to pick up the cross." He says, "No, anyone who comes after me "must pick up his cross. "You cannot be my disciple if you do not hate your father, "mother, or children." What does he mean by that?

And again, when you look at it superficially, you know, like, he's the one who tells us to honor our father and mother. And now he says, "Hey, it seems like a contradiction," but in reality, that's not what he's saying at all. Obviously, he's not saying that. What he is saying in this text, in the context, is kind of, and I shared this with Bible study one time, it's kind of like, you know, when you get on an airline, they tell you when you're in trouble and you need oxygen, that oxygen mask comes down, what do they tell you to do?

First, if you were traveling with a child, put it on yourself, right? And why do they tell you to do that? Because you shouldn't care about your kids, right? That's why they're telling you, because all the airlines hate children, right? And so they want you to hate your kids, too.

That's why they're doing it, right? So superficially, you can read this verse, like, is that what Jesus is saying? Obviously, that's not what Jesus is saying. Why they tell you to put it on? Because until you breathe, until you're okay, you can't help your kid. So if you don't help yourself, not only is she gonna die, you're gonna die, and there's nobody to help anybody.

What is Jesus saying here? Anything that prevents you from coming to Christ is going to lead to death. Anything, even father or mother, even children. If you make them your greatest priority in life, not only will you die, but so will they. The only way of salvation is Christ.

He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. "Nobody comes to the Father but through me." You know, we don't come to Jesus and get saved, and then they don't get saved because they come to us. It is not our love that saves them. It is not our good example that will cause them to go to heaven.

It is not our protection. It is not our neighborhood. It is not a great marriage between husband and wife that's going to save them. Salvation is found in one person, one person only, Jesus Christ. So when Jesus says this, he's saying, "No, whatever prevents you from coming to me "will result in death." So it is a grave mistake to think that somehow if we provide the best, if we have the best marriage, if we give them the best gift, if we give them the best house, that somehow they're gonna be better off than everybody else.

What is a prophet? If you give them the whole world, and yet they forfeit their soul. And that's why he's saying, first and foremost, we need to be evangelists. But to be an evangelist, we need to recognize that the greatest gift that we can give them is Christ. Sometimes the good gift that we give them ends up becoming an obstacle to Christ, because they depend so much on your protection, they depend so much on your love and your gift, that they may grow up thinking that they don't need Christ.

And the third and final thing, that we need to be the first evangelist at home, secondly, that we don't make them our idols, that Christ is first in everything. Third and finally, if we're not careful, we can inoculate them with the gospel, that when they grow up, the gospel has no effect on them.

See, the two greatest commandments in the scripture is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. See, the point of what Jesus is saying is not simply love the Lord with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. His point is with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, all of it.

He's not simply talking about what's the strength, what's the heart, what's the mind. We get into all of that, but really, one point that he's making with everything, everything that you have, right? Just like Paul said, if you're gonna run this race, run to win. Some of the people who are the hardest to share the gospel with are people who grew up in nominal Christian homes.

You can go on Google and you can type in and see how many people who are antagonists to the faith grew up in church-going homes. Joseph Stalin grew up in a nominal Christian home, went to church all his life. In fact, he started in his early education in a theological school.

Charles Darwin grew up in a very nominal Christian home. His dad was a very successful businessman going from town to town, never missed Sunday school, memorized gospel scripture. In fact, when he first went into school, he went in to become a priest of an Anglican church. But they turned away from God because they grew up in a very nominal Christian home.

They memorized scripture. They may have prayed before meals. And they lived in a home. They had a form of godliness, but there was no power. It was just surface. It was just religiousness. They just went through the motion, but it wasn't real. See, for first-generation Christians, when we become dry and difficult, we always have our past.

I remember when I was back in college, when I was younger, when I used to be, and that kind of anchors us. And even at times when we want to drift away, that anchors us so that we don't shift from that. But second-generation Christians who grow up in nominal Christian homes, they don't have anything to anchor.

All they know is what they see at home. So when they begin to drift, there's nothing to hold them because the only thing they knew was nominal Christianity. So when they begin to drift, their memory of Christianity is go to church, memorize scripture, don't curse, serve the church, pay tithe, don't say bad things, do good things, be a good citizen, go to Sunday school, participate in VPS.

So some of the greatest memory they have is in the church, but they don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We can work so hard to kind of get the gospel into the kids. And if we're not careful, all we are doing is inoculating them with the gospel so they become numb.

And so when they hear the gospel, it's like, "I've heard it a thousand times. "I've heard it when I was three, I heard it when I was 10. "I've been to VPS, I never miss Sunday. "I know all of that." So there's nothing that can be said that they have not heard before.

And all they've done is kind of like during flu season, we get shots and we get just enough bacteria inside of us so that it builds an immune system so when the real flu comes, they're inoculated. If we follow Christ nominally at a distance, going through religious motion, the very first place where you will see a fruit of that is with your children.

Not maybe when three, not five, but when they get older, you will see that they're not anchored in Christ. Always learning, but never ever able to come to the truth. As I said, and I said this before, some of the hardest people to share the gospel with are former missionary kids and former pastor's kids.

They grew up all their life around this religiousness and they're just so numb until something tragic happens and then they wake up from it and it would be the greatest tragedy in a Christian home to raise children with all kinds of religious things around this and yet not know Christ.

See, that's a challenge to each one of us 'cause I know ultimately, no matter what I say, no matter how many worship services and scripture we read, that my children are gonna watch me and they're gonna know who Christ is through what they see in me. I shared this before, this last weekend, Esther went up north to be an encouragement to the Troy family and I'm the one always leaving.

So in the last 18 plus years, I've been away from home sometimes a week or four weeks or for long periods of time. So when I leave, it doesn't skip a beat. It's like, oh, dad's going, just make sure you bring something back. And that's usually the amount of preparation that goes into me leaving.

But when Esther leaves, it's like, oh my gosh, we're gonna eat, we're gonna starve to death. So Esther's out, she's cooking and she got all these things prepared and it was so encouraging 'cause after she left, and it's like, my thinking is, why don't we just go to McDonald's?

You know what I mean? If we don't know what to eat, we're going to McDonald's. That's what she was concerned about, that we're gonna end up eating McDonald's for four days, which is most likely what would have happened. Well, I mean, so I didn't know. So she was instructing Faith in the background saying, hey, make sure you guys do this.

These boys are completely helpless without you. So you're gonna have to get up. And so Faith woke up in the morning and she was cooking breakfast. And what was so interesting to me was, like, Faith probably didn't even know, you know, but everything that she was doing was just mimicking Esther.

She may not have even done it consciously, but what does it mean to be a good wife? She learned from Esther. So she would wake up early in the morning, you know, and she would make sure to have the coffee ready. And I remember one particular morning, she gave me the coffee and she asked me, Daddy, is there enough cream?

You know, and then so I was drinking, oh, that's good, good, thanks, Faith. And I just thought it was the cutest thing because, you know, that's what Esther says, asked me after she gives me coffee. She's like, oh, is there enough cream? So yeah, I got enough cream. And it was nothing, but I bet you Faith did that just subconsciously because that's what she observed.

That's how she knows, that's how she was trained, right? No matter what we say, no matter what we sit down and say, this is who God is, this is what the scripture says, in the end, they're gonna mimic us. And so the best gift that we can give our children, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

If you become a lover of God, your children will be the first to benefit. You can't switch that off. You can't be a nominal person and then say, I hope my children will be better than me. The greatest gift that I can give to my children is to be the best example of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

So I pray on this Mother's Day, again, like I said, I don't think there's a single group of people that is more deserving of encouragement and honor, humanly speaking, than mothers. And so I thank God that God gave me that year and a half with Jeremy so that the rest of my life, I can say, thank you.

Thank you, all the moms for taking care of us. Thank you, my mom in particular, because I get to say that 'cause I'm a peer, you know, and when I was younger, I did not appreciate, you know, I was a typical rebellious teenager. You know, all I understood was what I wasn't getting, and I didn't understand at all the sacrifice that went into raising a kid like me, you know.

And so for the rest of my life, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for Esther. I'm thankful for every single mom in here, and I know the struggle that you go through and sometimes feeling unappreciated and the difficulties that you go through, but, you know, your labor doesn't just affect you and your children, it affects the next generation.

You know, and so as our church is going through the next stage of our lives, even though we've been around for 18 years, you know, only recently we're starting to think like, you know, all these kids, like what are we gonna do about our buildings, Sunday school, you know, teaching, what are we gonna do?

As we think about how is our church, what is our church gonna look like in the next 10 years when our little ones are in high school and they go to college? And then our college students become leaders in our church. Like what is our church gonna look like at that time?

And so as we think upon and as we begin to plan and implement certain things that we're not just thinking about today, right? How is my behavior, how is my worship, how is my love and my sacrifice gonna affect how this church is gonna look like in the next 20 years?

And for that end, we wanna encourage all the moms, right, to persevere in what you're doing. Your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Let's pray. And as a praise team comes up, we're gonna give you some time to think carefully, to pray deliberately for all the fathers, to pray for your wives especially, that God will strengthen them.

And all the children, pray for your moms in particular. And don't forget to thank them today for their labor in your lives. And to pray, and even the ones who don't have children. You don't have to be, have a physical child to be a good mother. Be a mother to every child, everybody younger than you, that we may be responsible collectively as a church for the next generation.

So let's take some time to pray and ask the Lord to strengthen us in this way as our praise team leads us.