R1636 A Grandmothers Example

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about a grandmother's example.

As we open God's Word to Luke chapter 2 in just a moment, we're going to talk about, see how God's Word speaks to the way generations affect generation after generation, and in that multiplication, we see God do remarkable things. As we study the Word, know that we're available for you connecting right now, online at tewonline.org. Before the day is out, I'm excited to share with you about Free Indeed, a wonderful prayer concept that we believe God is going to use in our lives as individuals and our lives as a country to draw close to God. You can take a look online at tewonline.org about more information.

Look for Free Indeed. That's online at tewonline.org. Now today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Now I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles to Luke's Gospel and chapter 2. Now most of you will recognize immediately that Luke chapter 2 is about the birth of the Lord Jesus. What does that have to do with motherhood? A lot.

A lot. And I'm going to read to you just a few verses in Luke chapter 2, and beginning at verse 36. Here's what the Bible says in the middle of all of this dedication of this baby, that there was also a prophetess by the name of Anna, the daughter of Panuel, of the tribe of Asher.

Now get this. She was very old. She had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying, coming up to them at that very moment, that is to Mary and to Joseph and the baby Jesus. She gave thanks to God, and she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. This is a beautiful story, and it's a wonderful picture.

So I'm going to try and paint this picture for you. We're going to try and understand what it is God's telling us about this lady. Obviously, there are a lot of things we're not told about her, but there are a lot of things we can extrapolate from the text of God's word concerning this grandmother, this elderly lady. So who was Anna?

Just let me give you five things the Bible tells us we know about. She was a daughter. We know that she was a daughter. She obviously herself had a father and a mother, otherwise she wouldn't have been there. She was daughter. She was a prophetess. The second thing the Bible tells us about her, you may be interested to know that there are five ladies that are named as prophetesses in the Old Testament.

Miriam and Deborah, Elucah, Noahdiak, for example, in Nehemiah, and then the one that's not named in the book of Isaiah in chapter eight, the prophetess. She was a, if you take on the DNA of your mother or your father, you're going to speak like them. You're going to behave like them. It's like in some kind of ways, you know. All of us feel that way. Probably the greatest compliment I get is if people say to me, you know, you look like your mother or you love like your mother or you gesture.

Have you noticed how we pick up things? Little gestures and ways of doing things, kindnesses. She was a prophetess.

This grace of God, face of God, this lineage of God. Number three, she was a widow. We know that.

And for a long time. So she was not only a daughter and a prophetess and a widow, but, you know, we know she understood bereavement, sadness. How about loneliness, being alone?

What about survival? Do you suppose that this grandmother knew what it meant to have to survive? And I would suggest to you in her day and age, a lot more serious. She didn't have Social Security. And she was living in a very different world. Number four, we know that she was a God follower. I'm using that word, a God follower. In today's world, we would have said she was a Christian. They were not yet named Christians. Christians, Christ followers came when Jesus arrived on the scene and said, follow me. She was a God follower.

That's very evident in this text. Because into this comes worship and the temple and praying and fasting. She was a daughter and a prophetess and a widow and a God follower. But there's a fifth thing I want to say to her. She was a seeker. She was looking, anticipating. I can only just imagine, now I'm reading this into the story, but I can just imagine that all those who came into her company, notwithstanding even in the temple, they must have hung around this grandmother and said, whoa, grandma, she's on the prowl. Boy, she's looking, she's expecting something from God. Isn't that like our grandmothers?

Just like God's going to do it. Just that positive. Well, I will agree with you that her lifestyle may seem somewhat eccentric, right?

But I think the biblical text helps us to build a profile, don't you think? This grandmother, she must have been, this is one seriously precious lady. So let's just kind of put a ribbon on her profile.

Let me make some suggestions. Perhaps, I'm suggesting, perhaps she was somewhat slight in her build. Maybe in her stature because the Bible says she repeatedly fasted. She did without food. And by the way, if you want to get to grips with that, if she repeatedly did that back in Jesus' time here, that literally meant long periods of time going without food in order to seek after the mind of God. She was perhaps quite fit.

I mean, here's an 84 year old lady, plus she was very old by any standard here and especially in her day and age. And she walked around a lot. She was active.

So I'm going to tell you that I think we could perhaps build her profile and suggest this lady was, she was potentially quite fit. Number three, she certainly was perceptive because she saw everything. So we can add that grandmother here was very perceptive.

Don't say, well, look, there's grandmother. She doesn't know what's going on. Big mistake, brother.

Big mistake. She was definitely hearing. Now, she might have pretended sometimes that she couldn't hear, but she was definitely hearing. She heard everything. She heard what was said.

She heard Simeon praying. She heard the conversation with mom and dad and baby Jesus. So she was definitely hearing. I'm also going to suggest that she was remarkably determined because she waited for a long time.

She didn't just arrive and say, if it doesn't happen right now and I don't get my coffee, I'm not coming back to this restaurant. This lady understood that God is eternal. She was ready. She got it. She understood that the best things were worth waiting for.

Isn't that like grandmother? She most certainly was highly respected because she prophesied. She had something to say from the Lord. She was uniquely valued. She must have been very uniquely valued.

Why? Because she was given access to the temple. So again, if we had time today, I'd unpack that and show you just how restricted the temple was. I mean, it wasn't just to borrow a real southern phrase, y'all come.

They didn't have a sign out there that said all welcome because not everybody was welcome. So what was it about this grandmother? She was a highly valued person. One more thing I want to say, she most certainly was deeply spiritual because she followed hard after God.

So this grandmother, Anna, what an amazing lady. She had suffered for many years. She was old.

She found herself alone. She had to fight for survival. But there's one thing that we can say about this grandmother is that she never laid down her priorities. Evidently, she was not willing to sacrifice what was most important. It's like mothers with their sons and daughters as they grow up.

You can have the greatest time going to ball games and to the beach and having fun and getting dressed and doing all the wonderful things. But there's something about mothers and grandmothers when it comes to the things that really matter. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with the rest of today's message, a grandmother's example from Dr. Don Wilton. But he wants you to know we're here to pray with you and for you. Twenty four hours a day at this phone number jotted down.

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Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. But there's one thing that we can say about this grandmother is that she, she never laid down her priorities. Evidently, she was not willing to sacrifice what was most important. It's like mothers. With their sons and daughters as they grow up, you can have the greatest time going to ball games and to the beach and having fun and getting dressed and doing all the wonderful things. But there's something about mothers and grandmothers when it comes to the things that really matter.

So I want to say this to you. How did this grandmother live her life? You might want to note some of these things.

Let's get down to where the water hits the water. How did she really live her life? Just watch this. Number one, she disciplined herself. Right.

No question about it. She was disciplined. She showed discipline.

Self-discipline. So I'm going to, can you hear your grandmother, your mother saying to you, you know what your problem is son? You've got no discipline. If your mother, your grandmother is saying that to you, you need to sit up and take note.

An undisciplined person is a walking landmine. No. She would say you don't just live and do whatever you want to do. You don't just, like if it tastes good, feels good, smells good, you just want to be in the action. You've got a big problem on your hands. You've got no discipline. If you just go to bed late at night every night and you don't care and you never do your homework right and you mess around and you sort of rock up at church whenever you feel like it, you can never be counted on, you make commitments you don't keep, you're a walking landmine. That's what grandmother would say. She was, she disciplined, she went, secondly she not only disciplined herself but she went to the right place. Yeah, I get it.

There's something very special about the house of God. You know, we're coming up on graduation next week and during these weeks and I'm starting to see it all. I'm telling you, as you graduate, as you move on and as you go into this beautiful world, make sure you discipline yourself.

Right. Make sure you go to the right place. You hang out in the wrong place.

You've got a big problem on your hand, big boy. That's what grandma would say. She worshiped the right God. We living in a day and age today where, well, it doesn't matter what as long as you're sincere about it.

No. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind. She looked for the right person. She was in the temple. She was looking for the redeemer.

That's why she was there. She waited with the right expectation. She had the right heart. Her heart was in the right place with the right expectation.

It was purpose driven. She said the right things. She spoke God's truth. She from time to time will say to you and me, how do we respond to our world today? Stand on God's truth and speak God's truth.

God's truth. She gave the right thanks. And, you know, you can't help read this passage, but you get, you know, down to what she gave thanks. She gave the right thanks. Are you thankful? You know, our mothers teach us how to be thankful. By the way, I hope you're not one of those people that just never say thank you.

It should constantly come out of your mouth. And I'm told Matt, when last did you say thanks to your mom, let alone to God? You know, we had such a wonderful deacons meeting this past week and great church meeting.

You know, we got so much for which to thank the Lord for, don't we? And she just gave thanks. She gave the right thanks and she shared the right news. When she saw and held this baby, Jesus, and God spoke to her and affirmed this, she shared that. Have you noticed something about our moms? They want to tell you the good things. So what does this grandmother teach us? Let's bring it all together. What does grandmother Anna teach us? Can I just give you five, six, seven points here? Maybe you want to put these in a frame and say from grandma, all right? Here they are.

Ready? What can grandmother teach us? This lady. Number one, discipline. Get your life back to a system of discipline. Work on yourself discipline wise, physically.

It's jolly hard work. Otherwise you'll go through life never getting it. You've got to be disciplined.

And we could go school wise. You want to succeed in school? Get disciplined.

You want to succeed on the ball field? Get disciplined. You're not just going to fall out of your bed and it's going to happen. You're going to have to discipline. You're going to have to get up. You're going to have to do things. You're going to have to put yourself out.

And you're going to have to deny yourself a lot of things in order to accomplish your goals. You've got a goal in mind. It's going to take discipline. You want to make some money? Get disciplined about it.

Jolly hard work. Start thinking. Talk to the right people. Stop overspending. Stop thinking every time you walk into somewhere it's there for you to buy.

Because it's not. Stop killing your family like this. Get disciplined. But the greatest discipline of all is the spiritual discipline.

Don't just rock up in God's front porch and expect God to just pour it out all over you. Be disciplined in prayer, disciplined in fasting, disciplined in being in church, disciplined in that life group. Disciplined. Number two, focus, focus, focus. Some people are so distracted. This grandmother, boy, was she focused. She focused on being in that place. She focused on prayer. She focused.

It's a derivative of discipline. Number three, determination. I would love to have met Anna because she shows me and you such a determination, doesn't she? She was just determined. You know, I'm reading into the text, but I really think it would have been much easier for her to just stay home and watch TV.

Honestly, just much easier. She was determined. Number four, perseverance. Love that word perseverance, don't you? Word perseverance.

And it comes right throughout the Bible, this relentless pursuit after the heart of God. Keep on. Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up.

If you're tired and you've been hammered, you've taken some hard knocks. And I tell you, just wear you down, persevere. God is on his throne.

Keep looking to him, trusting him. Number five, what does she teach us? Worship. Worship is a beautiful word. Worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness. Aren't you glad that we can worship him like this in Genesis and celebration and online and on television and on Facebook and whatever means? Isn't it wonderful just to worship the Lord Jesus? I promise you, if you haven't sensed this, I'm telling you, you will feel, I'm trying to find a proper word. You'll feel the benefit in your soul system of just coming to worship the Lord, just being in a place where you just worship the Lord Jesus. I promise you, your day will look better.

Your week will look better. It's just because it's about God. She knew that. Number six, gratitude. I've spoken about, there's a sixth thing grandmother teaches us, gratitude.

You know, we talk about the attitude of gratitude. I just love the fact when she came to that point and she recognized Jesus and she saw him and she knew this culminating point. She immediately thanked God for the gift of his son. She said, thank you, Jesus. And then one more, evangelism. She teaches us something about evangelism, the gospel. Did you notice there in that last part, the Bible says very, very clearly, coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. What does this grandmother teach us? Speak what you believe.

That's what she was saying. Tell someone. Would you bow your heads with me for a minute? As many are bowing their heads in the auditorium, as the pastor continues to lead in our worship, know that we're here to bow our heads and pray with you as well. Our phone number is 866-899-9673 and we stand ready to pray with you and for you.

That's 866-899-9673. But you've heard Dr. Wilton preach. Now as he steps in the studio, hear this message from his heart. You know, I love this opportunity to be able to share with you like this. And I want to thank you for tuning in and for listening. God is speaking, isn't he?

Even in our day and age today. And he sees you and he loves you. Jesus died for you. So I'm going to ask that question. You ready to give your life to Christ? Do it right now.

I'd love to be able to help you. No prayer can save you, but God can. You pray this prayer. Make it your own prayer. Dear God, I know Jesus died on a cross for me.

I believe. I accept what you say and I'm hearing you speak to me. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. Isn't that amazing?

You know what? God has just heard your prayer. And because of Jesus, you now, my friend, are saved. Your name has been written in God's book in heaven.

Isn't that fantastic? So here's what I'm going to ask you to do. You can visit me.

Visit us at tewonline.org. Here's another one. You might want to write it down. Make note. You can call us at 866-899-9673. Listen, people tell me numbers all the time and I can't write them down quick enough. So here it is again.

866-899-9673. I'd love to hear from you. We're on standby. We're there for you.

We're part of the same family. God bless you, my friend. If you just prayed with a pastor moments ago to give your life to Christ or rededicate your life, oh, how excited we are for you and with you. And we'd love to put some resources in your hands. Dr. Don wants you to have absolutely free if you'll call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Let us empower you with these resources and tools to help you grow in your faith.

That's 866-899-9673. And before we get away, if you're not connected to the daily encouraging word, here's Dr. Don with what that's all about. What a wonderful time of worship we've had together. You know, I want you every day to experience this encouraging word.

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