R332 A Mother’s Legacy

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about a mother's legacy. Well, yes, we celebrate mothers on Mother's Day, but we celebrate the legacy of mothers every single day. And today, as we head to 2 Timothy, beginning in chapter 1, you'll understand how this applies to each and every one of us.

Again, and the legacy we all have an opportunity to participate in. As we study the Word of God together, know that we're here for you. We're connecting on our website right now at www.tewonline.org. You can hear not only today's broadcast, but other resources anytime on demand at www.tewonline.org. And I hope you'll demand the email from Dr. Wilton. You can sign up for it. It's absolutely free. The daily encouraging word email.

You can sign up at www.tewonline.org. Now today's message, a mother's legacy from Dr. Don Wilton. What a legacy Mom leaves behind. I want you to take a copy of God's Word this morning and turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 1. Paul's letter to Timothy, the second letter to Timothy and chapter 1, and I want to read a few verses from verses 1 through 5, 2 Timothy chapter 1.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve as my forefathers did with a clear conscience as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

Now if I might just pause there for a moment. If you do a Bible study on this particular passage, as I've tried to do, it seems to me interesting that the apostle Paul, here in his initial greeting to the church and particularly to Timothy, found himself using a lot of emotional expression that was very close to the heart. Look what he talks about, the will of God, the promise of life, my dear son, mercy and peace. And then from verse 3, thankfulness, he talks about my forefathers, he talks about having a clear conscience, he talks about constantly remembering you in my prayers. Look at verse 4, he says, I recall what? Your tears.

I want you to think about this for a moment. I recall your tears. He says, I long to see you. He talks about being filled with joy. And then all of a sudden, with all this wonderful expression of human language, he immediately begins to think of the one person who evokes this kind of response in all of us. That's Mark. I mean, he just puts into one big joyful basket all this wonderful expression of our human joy, and then the first people he thinks of is grandmother and mother.

How appropriate. And so we see verse 5. I have been reminded, you might want to see there, if you're going to the Greek New Testament, what it actually says here is, on this basis, because of this whole gamut of joyful emotion and longing and tears and everything that involves, because of that, I have been reminded of your sincere faith, Timothy, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded. I mean, this man is convinced of this.

I mean, there is just no doubt about him. He understands exactly where Timothy gets what Timothy has. He understands exactly the source and the root of everything that God's Son is under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

I am persuaded that this now lives in you also. May the Lord write his word upon our hearts, the legacy of a mother. Question, what determines how a child will turn out? I wonder if our educators here this morning could tell us. I wonder if our psychologists could tell us. What determines how a child will turn out?

If you're anything like I am, I try to find people whose children have turned out well, and then I want to know what it is they've done, because I wish the best for my own children. What is it? What factors come together in making a man a man and a woman a woman who fears and loves the Lord Jesus Christ and who turns out right? What is it? Well, I think that we can all agree that it's not geographic location. Now, I love Spartanburg.

I love the mountains and the rivers and the beauty. What a place to live, but folks, I've got bad news for you. You can be born and reared in Spartanburg County, never leave here.

It's not a guarantee as to how you're going to turn out. You see, we know in society that both crooks and heroes come from the same place. In fact, many times they were neighbors together.

They lived in exactly the same location. We've come to understand that both productive people and parasites grow up in the same geographical location. Geography and location has no bearing or has little bearing on how a child will turn out. Well, we've also proved that educational opportunity does not make a man a man and a woman a woman. Not that we're against education, I'm certainly not. I think that we need to spend everything we can trying to educate our children. I think we need to provide them with the best. I think we need to pray for them, we need to encourage them.

We need to encourage them to do absolutely their best. But I'm going to tell you, my beloved friends, that we know that there are enough PhDs in the prisons of America to staff all the prisons of America. Many of the people who are incarcerated and are in prisons are some of the most best educated people in the world.

Go to New Orleans and go to Bourbon Street. You're going to find PhDs and scientists and engineers lying on those streets strapped to the bottle that has brought them to that point. Education does not make a person necessarily.

Not geographic location or educational opportunity. Well, how about denominational affiliation? Surely if they belong to the right denomination, a child is going to turn out right. Well, I have some sad news for you today.

I really do. Someone told me that they had read a book in which Dr. Billy Graham had been preaching many years ago in a prison. And the prison warden turned to Dr. Graham and said to him, Mr. Graham, I want you to know that it might be of some comfort to you to know that over 50% of our inmates are Southern Baptist. Uh-oh.

What a wonderful word of encouragement. I said to myself when I was told this, I said, I'm just going to eliminate that. I'm going to plug the Methodist in there, man. I mean, well, how about Presbyterians, the Church of Nazarene or Lutherans? I mean, surely somebody else has got to be in there. But you know something?

Our prisons today are filled with Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, Church of Nazarene, Methodists, Presbyterians. You see, our denominational affiliation is not a guarantee as to how your and my child is going to turn out. Well, what about exceptional talent? What about if you're gifted?

Surely if you are gifted, if you are a talented, gifted person, you're going to turn out well. It might not have occurred to you that there are some very gifted crooks in this world. Some of them wouldn't be crooks if they weren't gifted. They are exceptionally talented. They know how to handle computers. They are experts in playing with the stock market and fixing it any way they want to do. They understand human makeup. They understand the business world. They are very gifted people. There are some talented crooks and there are some very talented Christians and giftedness is not necessarily a sign that you and my children are going to grow up right.

So what is it then? What does determine what a child becomes? I believe that the answer is the child's parents.

I was in a home here in Spartanburg and this wonderful family, their son told me, he said just recently that Dr. James Dobson, who is one of the most remarkable men in our country with an exceptional ministry among families and God is doing a great work through Focus on the Family as we all know, but Dr. Dobson in some recent issue, I was told yesterday, had done a survey with children. They tried to determine what impacts were having the most impact on the lives of children and so they strapped them with the permission of the parents, by the way, I need to say that. They strapped them with devices and they listened to what those children said for about a three to six month period of time.

Can you imagine some of the conversations? That must have gone on, very special parents who gave permission to do that. And they observed, do you know that they did surveys and Focus on the Family, they came to the conclusion that the average father in America spends an average of only 37 seconds a day of quality time with his children.

Now let me just run that by again. Dr. James Dobson said that the average father spends an average of only 37 seconds of quality time and they emphasized quality, not time. You can be around your children but not spend time with them. Quality time, an average of only 37 seconds a day with their children. Whereas children today are spending an average of three hours a day watching television. Now the question is this that Focus on the Family was asking. Who is educating our children?

The television set or the home? It's rather remarkable here in 2 Timothy chapter 1 that the Apostle Paul at the initiation, at the initial part of his discourse to Timothy, his dear son, begins to talk to us about someone who had enormous influence and her name was Eunice. You'd be interested to know that this is the only time that Eunice is ever mentioned in the New Testament. Even though her influence has lived on for centuries. It's amazing, I've looked here, I've said to myself, surely there must be something else about Eunice. I mean how could this mother be so special? How could her influence have lived on for so long but there's nothing else said about her? I've tried to find something, I needed some support for this message today. I said, Lord let's get hold of some credentials. I mean we need a resume before we can start talking about this mom.

You know what I discovered? I discovered that Eunice didn't start a church. No sir, in fact I read even further and I discovered that Eunice didn't even write a book. In fact I'm not sure about this, she didn't even speak at Ladies First Thursday. I don't know that her name was ever printed on a bulletin anywhere.

I don't know about that. I don't believe that Eunice was ever a dynamic missionary. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Eunice followed in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. And I mean can you believe that somebody would have been mentioned in God's Word? She hadn't even been shipwrecked, blow me down. How can anybody ever have an honorable mention in God's Word? There's no shipwreck, she was never lashed, she didn't write a book, she didn't start a church, she wasn't a missionary, she wasn't a great spokesman, she didn't have a PhD.

I mean surely there is something wrong that is going on here. But I'm going to submit to you today my friends that when all of it comes down to where the water hits the wheel, when you talk about Eunice, you're talking about Mom. Please forgive the interruption, we'll be back with the rest of today's message from Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. But it's Dr. Don that insists I interrupt to let you know we're here for you. It's not just a presentation, it's a communication, a conversation and we'd love to pray with you and for you either on our phone line at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673. And in this day and age of texting and typing and e-mails sometimes the Lord uses the opportunity to speak to one another in a conversation in a remarkable way. Again we're here at 866-899-9673.

But we also realize that sometimes that's not as convenient as typing. So we're here connecting on our website as well at www.tewonline.org, that's www.tewonline.org. While you're here, drop by and sign up for some of the special resources like the Daily Encouraging Word e-mail Dr. Wilton sends out every morning about 6 o'clock. It literally is power packed with insight from God's Word, application to how we apply that to our daily life and a wonderful time to pray.

That's online at www.tewonline.org. Sign up for the Daily Encouraging Word today. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Do you need to say anything else about Mom? Is there any time that you come to in your life that you draw a line in the sand and say, you know, Mom went to be with the Lord Jesus ten years ago and that was ten years ago and I loved her, but I'm drawing a line in the sand, I'm not going to talk about Mom anymore. Mom's had all the talk she deserves. You know, I looked at Eunice and I said, well Lord, if I get to preach for the next thirty years, am I ever going to preach on Eunice on Mother's Day? I might do it next year.

I might do it the year after and the year after. I hope, my friends, that as long as God leaves us together, that we're going to come and understand that there is something very significant and special about Mom. We all wish that we could reach out somehow and touch Mom today, grab her to ourselves and love her, express the deepest things upon our hearts for Mom. What was it about this lady by the name of Eunice whose name appears here in God's book? What was it about her impact that this lady, this Mom, would have a legacy that lives on through the centuries, that is indelibly etched not only upon the life of her own son, Timothy, but upon our lives today because we draw sustenance and we draw everything that a Mom gives through her relationship with her children. What did she do and how did she do it? Four things I think that Eunice did. Number one, she planted it. She planted it.

You see, at the earliest possible stage in his life, the Bible says Eunice did something very special with her son. Now, one of the things that I love to do is I love to be out in the yard. I just like that. I'm not a great gardener. I'm not a master gardener.

In fact, probably most things I touch just wilt and die, but I still love to be out there. I love flowers. I love roses particularly, my favorite flower. I love the dogwoods. I love to see the Bradford pears. I enjoy all the different arrangements and things.

It's just such a lovely time of the year. But you know what we do? We come up to about October every year or whenever it is and we go and buy ourselves a packet. That's right, a packet. And we look at the packet and it's got a picture of beautiful flowers on it. And we take that packet and we read the instructions. I do this.

I know some of you don't need to do this. And I look there and it says that you need to plant me back in October. And I say, wait a minute.

There's nothing going on in October. The leaves are falling. Everything's getting brown. Everything's dying.

I can't see the fruit of what I'm about to do. So what do we do? We go to the shop. We get all kinds of fertilizer. We dig, we scratch, we change, we uproot, we weed and we plant a little dead looking seed in the ground.

Because the packet said so. We follow instructions. And then we wait and we water around a little bit. We watch the snow fall and the ice come and we say, man, whatever it is we've planted there, I hope the packet's right.

And then one day, come March, there's great excitement. Come and look. And there it is, just peeping above the top of the soil. Just a little green shoot. And then the little green shoot becomes a little bit bigger of a shoot. And then it shoots the shoot.

And I mean it comes out the top and we watch it. And eventually it just bursts forth in the splendor of God's glory. And we see the product of that which was planted at the right time in the right place. Perhaps this is what Paul was trying to say about Timothy. Perhaps this is what Paul was commending this dear lady Eunice for.

Because she served as a constant reminder about the importance of faith. What did Jesus say about faith? He said if you have faith, the size of a seed of mustard. Do you know how small a mustard seed is? A mustard seed is so small that you can hardly see it.

And Jesus said if you've got faith just that small. Oh David, you were so right. When you didn't make the ball team or when you caught that ball and Mom made you feel as though you were in the major leagues, you know.

That's right. I'd come home and I made a C instead of a B. But you know, my Mom always made it as though it was an A. I knew it was a C. To her it was an A.

Don't you worry son, I know. Mom would make up all the reasons why it wasn't an A. I didn't have to make them. And Mom's just, they've got that seed that is so small. What did Eunice do?

She planted it. In fact, she even gave her son a rather appropriate name. Do you know what Timothy means?

Timothy means God-fearing. You see, she understood this mother did what so many of our mothers understand. That from that earliest age when we hold that little one in our hands, that God has blessed us and that he's entrusted us with the responsibility to plant in the life of that little girl and that little boy, that little seed that God is going to bring to fruition. Yeah, she planted it but note next that she taught it.

She taught it. If you go over to 2 Timothy chapter 3 in verses 14 and 15, you're going to see a reminder there from the Apostle Paul about the impact of Eunice, his mother. It's right there, continue, said Paul to Timothy. In the things that thou hast learned and in the things that thou hast been assured of from a child.

What Paul is saying to Timothy there is Timothy, I want to exhort you and I want to encourage you. How am I going to encourage you? I'm going to encourage you to keep on doing and being what your mother taught you from a child to do and to be.

That's a beautiful thought that, isn't it? Isn't it a wonderful thing to think that our mothers teach us, if our children are to love God, we must teach them about God. If our children are to become men and women of faith, we've got to help develop them into becoming men and women of faith. If our children are to know the Scriptures, we need to teach them the Scriptures.

Someone said one time that the major cause for juvenile delinquency in America is adult delinquency. The major reason why so many teenagers don't want to come to church on Sunday morning is because their parents don't want to come to church on Sunday morning. The major reason why so many young people don't want to go to a prayer meeting is because their parents don't want to go to a prayer meeting. The major reason why children are more interested in how much they can be entertained when they go to church is because their parents are more interested in how much they can be entertained before they go to church.

The reason why so many young people don't know about Scripture and haven't memorized Scripture is because their parents know nothing about Scripture and have not memorized Scripture. The reason why so many children grow up to have unhappy homes is because they've grown up in homes that are unhappy. The reason why so many children turn to alcohol is because mum and dad have turned to alcohol. The reason why children use bad language is because they hear mum and dad using bad language. The reason why so many children no longer have faithfulness to the house of God and to the things of God is because mum and dad are not faithful to the house of God and to the people of God. The reason why so many children are not prepared to stand up and take a stand in the sin-sick world is because so many of their mums and dads are not prepared to stand up and take a stand in the sin-sick world. I thank God for mums like Eunice. I thank God for the mums in this congregation.

I thank God for the grandmothers and the mothers who have taken a stand on the gospel. She planted it and she taught it. Yes, and thirdly, she lived it. She lived it with her life. She was sincere. She was un-hypocritical. She laid it down the life. She said, oh son, my sincerity is the walk of my talk. It is the practice of my preach.

And fourthly, but not lastly, she reaped a harvest because of it. Paul said, this is living on in you as it lived in your mother. What an incredible joy to see the harvest of a faithful mother. What a powerful time with opening God's Word together and gaining insight from God's encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton.

In just a moment, Dr. Wilton is going to be stepping into the studio. He shared from his heart as the Lord led through the Scripture. But right now, I just pray that you would open your heart to what he wants to share with you personally right here from the encouraging Word. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. Welcome to the family of God. Welcome back. I'm just convinced that some of you were praying along with Dr. Wilton to give your life to Jesus for the very first time.

I also believe in my heart that some of you are realizing that it's time for a course correction. You need to come back. You need to recommit your life to Jesus Christ. If you're in that category of either giving your life to Jesus or recommitting your life to Christ, please give us a call. Dr. Wilton has set aside some resources he wants you to have absolutely free. We just need to know that God's working in your life and they could be a benefit to you, so call us. 866-899-WORD is the phone number. Jot it down.

Store it in your cell. We're available 24 hours a day at 866-899-9673. We're connecting online at www.tewonline.org. There's still much excitement about the book from Dr. Wilton that he just released a few weeks ago called Saturdays with Billy.

You can find information about that there, but also these wonderful DVDs from Ruth Bell Graham and Dr. Don. When Jesus comes, every eye will see him, even those who crucified Jesus and those who mocked the name of Jesus. Do not be shocked or surprised at what's going on in America today.

We had better wake up, America. Jesus is coming again. This month, for your gift of support of the encouraging word, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful and timely message, Trusting God, along with the bonus DVD movie on celebrating Ruth Bell Graham, a life marked by the faithfulness of God. Call us at 866-899-WORD to request Trusting God and the bonus DVD movie today for a gift of $20 or more. Thank you for standing with us.

Our time's gone for today, but oh, there's so much more in store. Tomorrow at the same time, however you're hearing this broadcast, I would challenge you to do this one thing. Many are praying for us and financially supporting us, but one thing you can do that perhaps you haven't thought about is share the broadcast. If you've listened to this through the email link, then share that email. If you're listening on the radio, invite a friend to join you at this same time tomorrow and listen along with you. Or share the podcast. Just know that you share the encouraging word of God and Dr. Don will share Jesus.