MOM’S SCHOOL OF PREACHING
by Jim McCutchen
Out of the French Revolution came a story of a mother who wandered through the woods for three days with her two children, trying to survive on roots and leaves. On the third day, she heard some soldiers approaching and quickly hid herself and the children behind some bushes. The sergeant in charge noticed the movement, so he prodded the bushes to see what was stirring behind them. When he saw the starving woman and children, he had compassion on them, and immediately gave them a loaf of brown bread.
The mother took the bread eagerly, broke it into two pieces and gave one piece to each of the two children. The sergeant noted, “She has kept none for herself.” A soldier asked, “Is it because she is not hungry?” “No,” the sergeant answered. “It is because she is a mother.”
An old Spanish proverb says, “An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”
What can we say to all the moms?
Eight-year-old Mary wrote her mother a note for Mother’s Day. “Dear Mother, here is the box of candy I bought you for Mother’s Day. IT IS VERY GOOD CANDY. I KNOW, BECAUSE I ALREADY AT 3 PIECES.” A four-year-old and a six-year-old presented their Mom with a house plant. They had used their own money and she was thrilled. The older of them said with a sad face, There was a bouquet that we wanted to give you at the flower shop. It was real pretty, but it was too expensive. It had a ribbon on it that said, ‘Rest In Peace’, and we thought it would be just perfect since you are always asking for a little peace so that you can rest.
A boy got his first job. As he was boasting about the amount of work he did, he said, “I get up at 5 a.m. and have my breakfast.” He was asked, “Does anyone else get up too?” He replied, “Oh yes, mother gets up and fixes my breakfast and then fixes Dad’s breakfast.” “And what about your dinner?” The boy said, “Oh, mother, fixes that too.” “Does your mother have the afternoon to herself?” The boy replied, “No, mama cleans the house, looks after the other children, and then gets supper for me and dad when we come home. Then we watch TV before we go to bed.” “What about your mother? What does she do?” The boy replied, “Mama washes some clothes and irons the rest of the evening.” “Do you get paid?” “Of course, Dad and I get paid.” “And what about your mother, does she get paid too?” The boy replied, “MOTHER, GET PAID?! MOTHER DON’T GET PAID. SHE DON’T DO NO WORK.”
If anyone here today believes that moms don’t work, I would suggest that you’d better keep your mouth CLOSED!
I want to speak to you on the subject-MOTHERS SCHOOL OF PREACHING
Preacher G. Campbell Morgan had four sons and they all became ministers of the gospel. At a family reunion, a friend asked one of the sons, “Which Morgan is the greatest preacher?” While that son looked at his father, he replied, “MOTHER.”
Mother was the greatest preacher. Many mothers have done a lot of preaching to their children, whether they considered it preaching or not.
There was a women in a local church that had a son that was quite unruly. They had a visiting missionary come and he was trying to stir up interest to get people to go to a foreign country to preach the gospel. The missionary noticed that the young boy was quite a pistol. At the end of the service a woman dragging a little boy behind her, told the missionary, “I just feel like God is calling me to be a missionary.” “He is, indeed” and pointing to the little boy, “And there’s the little heathen he wants you to preach to.”
HOW THE SCHOOL OF PREACHING STARTED!
• The woman’s name was Eunice. She was raised in a religious home and was greatly impacted by her mother Lois.
• Lois the grandmother made it her job to train and teach her daughter the ways of God from a youth. Lois loved to read the Old Testament scriptures and she grew to be a godly young women.
• Eunice he became attracted to a young man who was not as spiritual as she was. Not sure really how her mother Lois felt about this relationship and probably with a heart felt emotional tug at her conscience, She married this man.
• After a couple years of marriage, Eunice and her husband had a baby boy who they named Timothy. Little Tim was a bundle of joy. . Lois and Eunice both would tell little Tambo the stories from the Old Testament, Both mother and grandmother would pray for Timmy and would train him every since he was just a little child in the spiritual ways of God.
• There was a preacher that came to town. His name was Paul. His message was all about Jesus Both Lois and Eunice listened intently as Paul preached about how Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises in the Old Testament and he encouraged everyone to put their trust not in the old Law but in Jesus. With Timothy being taught by his mother and grandmother and now getting the message that Preacher Paul is sharing, Timothy had a good keen understanding of who Jesus was and Tim obeyed the Lord.
• Paul grew to love Timothy along with Timothy’s grandmother and mother. Paul spent time further training and molding Timothy and encouraging him along with Eunice and Lois.
Timothy is just a very young man but he grows under all this good teaching and begins to work with Paul preaching and teaching the Gospel. Many years later, Paul ends up in prison. and is going to be killed for preaching
• Paul writes two letters to young Timothy. In These books we have Paul instructing young Tim on how to be a great preacher in Ephesus
• As Paul writes first and second Timothy to this young man. Among many things. Paul reflects how it all began with the Godly mother of Eunice and Grand mother.
• In Philippians 2:20, the Apostle Paul makes the following statement about
Timothy, he says, There is no one like Timothy. But where did Timothy’s training begin”
I The Mothers school of preaching was established by a grandmother and mother: 1 Tim 1:5, The apostle Paul tells us who sharpened the spiritual blade that Timothy had churning in his life: I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in you grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
Lois and Eunice, not only COMMUNICATED the TRUTH, but they DEMONSTRATED it!
If your Christianity doesn’t work at home, it doesn’t work!
Four scholars were arguing over Bible translations. One said he preferred the King James Version because of its beauty, eloquent old English. Another said he preferred the American Standard Bible for its literalism, the way it moves the reader from passage to passage with confident feelings of accuracy from the original text. A third man preferred Moffatt because of its quaint, penetrating use of words, the turn of a phrase that captures the attention of the reader. After giving the issue further thought, the fourth scholar admitted, ‘I have personally preferred my mother’s translation.’ When the other scholars chuckled and asked, “Your mother translated the Bible? He responded, ‘Yes, she translated it. She translated each page of the Bible into her own life. It is the most convincing translation I ever saw.’
A woman once wrote Gipsy Smith after an evangelistic campaign to tell him she had been converted as a result of one of his messages. She said “I believe the Lord wants me to preach the Gospel, Brother Smith, but the trouble is that I have 12 children to raise! What shall I do?” She received this letter in reply: “My dear lady, I am happy to hear that you have been saved and feel called to preach, but I am even more delighted to know that God has already provided you with a congregation of 12! The new convert got the point!
II. THEY TAUGHT THE NEW PREACHER BY WORD AND EXAMPLE HOW TO DEVELOP A SINCERE FAITH.
2 Timothy 1:5: I have been 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 Someone has said, Mothers write on the hearts of their children what the rough hand of the world cannot erase.
Abraham Lincoln said, “All that I am or hope to be, I own to my angel mother.”
Dwight Moody said, “All that I have ever accomplished in life, I owe to my mother.”
Proverbs 6:20; My Son keep your Father’s commands and do not forsake your Mother’s teaching.
Note that Paul says, “I am reminded of your sincere faith.” The word, “sincere” related to faith means that his faith “unhypocritical.”
• It was real, without any pretense, it was not fake or a façade. Timothy witnessed a genuine Faith in his mother’s heart and in his grandmother’s heart and was now well alive in his own life.
• These two mothers were completely sold out to Christ. They were drop-dead serious about their faith. They were fully devoted and completely committed. And Timothy knew it. No one knows better than a child whether a parent’s faith is genuine. If you want to instill authentic faith in your children then you better take your own faith seriously
• That is what Tim learned in the Mothers school of preaching!
Susannah Wesley, mother of John Wesley spent one hour each day praying for her 17 children. In addition, she took each child aside for a full hour every week to discuss spiritual matters. No wonder two of her sons, Charles and John, were used of God to bring blessing to all of England and much of America.
III. THE MOTHER”S SCHOOL OF PREACHING TAUGHT TIM TO
RESPECT THE WORD OF GOD
2 Timothy 3:15 shows us what this truth was: “And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ Lois and Eunice were team teachers. They taught young timothy when he was just an infant about Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Sarah and the Israelites.
I am sure they said, ok Tim, How many books of the Bible are in the Old Testament? Timothy, who was swallowed by a big fish? I wander if he got to go to Dairy Queen for getting the answers right?
Paul could say to Timothy, you know how your momma and grandmother taught you. Tim, you remember that the Bible is Gods inspired Truth.
Tim, you go to Ephesus and you stand behind the blood stain bannered cross and you preach the word of God.
Tim, you remember what I said in 2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
Timothy you know how your mom taught you…remember how your grandmother sat you on her lap and would get the word of God out and read it to you. Timothy when you go to Ephesus, you do what I told you Meditate on these things, give yourself wholly to them that your profiting will appear to all.
2 Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
• Remember Tim, what your mother taught you…
Don’t you cut corners with the truth. When they will not listen you keep preaching the Gospel Tim, you endure like a good soldier. You work night and day with tears. Timothy, 1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
Conclusion:
Tim it wont be long before your mother and your grandmother and I have crossed the river of Jordan to enter that city four square.
When you get discouraged, don’t forget what you learned on our mother’s knee and how you excelled at your mothers school of preaching. TIM, MY MINISTRY WILL SOON BE OVER. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
OH AND BY THE WAY…YOUR MOM AND GRANDMOTHER SURE DID MAKE MY WORK WITH YOU SO MUCH EASIER!
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