2 Timothy 3:14-17 (KJV)
2 Timothy 1:4 (KJV)
We have a letter, a conversation between a father and a son. A spiritual father is writing a letter to a son and he is acknowledging the service of mothers. He is writing to him and saying you have genuine or unfeigned faith and the man is acknowledging that this faith did not originate from my services this faith came from many generations ago. When I look at the faith in you I can trace it back to your mother Eunice and your grandmother Lois.
Every genuine man of God is able to acknowledge the work of other people. Even in education it’s an offence to plagiarise. Every person who is a student is taught not to use someone’s information without acknowledging them. Faith is being seen by a spiritual father in a spiritual son. He is seeing I see this but I did not do this. We have to acknowledge. For you to understand the word here it’s due to the church you passed through. There are things that when you hear you ask if they are in the Bible, yes they are. For you to understand it is because you came from someone who taught you that Jesus is Lord. Should we undermine the work that was done there? No. I am seeing something genuine in you and it is genuine faith. The faith first filled your grandmother Lois and it filled your mother Eunice. The same faith is continuing and is now strong in you. The faith was transferred from generations to generations through mothers.
Our roles and responsibilities in marriage are different. As it was from the beginning there is a role of a man and a role of a woman. Few years back fathers would be seen in the evening. Mothers were housewives and were taking serious work at home. At home there is work. The other work that women should be doing is care for children and nurture the children in the way of the Lord. As we are empowering the women we are weakening them too. Do you know how many memory verses we had by the time we wrote grade seven? We were not doing memory verses but memory chapters. Psalm 23 was supposed to be known by twelve years. If you take a child who wrote their advanced level they might not know any chapter but look at what they do with mathematics. They do research but you think it’s overburdening them by making them recite a chapter. As we are empowering them they are losing their ministry of nurturing their children in the way of the Lord. A child is not rebuked from the outside but from the inside. A child can not fear God if you did not plant the fear of the Lord in him.
A child can go to university and study medicine and comes back addicted to drugs and it’s because the challenge they were facing they did not know how to deal with them. Most divorces are being caused by lack of knowledge of God not because we are empowering the women and so they just divorce. A child gets an iPad first before a Bible? There are values you are showing them. If you give a child Godliness she will not look for a sugar daddy when she has no pocket money. You are handing over the ministry that should be done at home to the school or church.
Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)
The Bible says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. This scripture is interesting because it is talking about money. What should you train a child? The rich ruleth over the poor. That is what you should train him. That is what they should be taught while they are young and not when they are old. A child should say I hate poverty while they are still very young. They will not depart from that way, the way of being rich.
We are seeing a man here and Paul is admitting there are deposits of faith and they are genuine. I see them in you and I see them in your mother and also in your grandmother. As a mother your faith should be deposited in to your children and then your children to their children. How do we know that the faith was transferred to him as a child because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. The Bible says from childhood thou has known the holy scriptures. The faith was transferred through the knowledge of scriptures. It was not passed by impartation or genes but by knowledge of holy scriptures from childhood. It is these scriptures that made you wise. You are saved from every kind of trouble from the knowledge of scriptures you obtained.
Scriptures are given for inspiration for:
1) Doctrine
The man is now a man of God. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. The child was taught scriptures when he was young and he grew to become a man of God. Doctrine refers to teaching. Scripture teaches you and scripture instructs you. He is the one to be instructed by scripture. Before he instructs others he should be instructed. I can see you were equipped from childhood for this ministry.
2) Reproof
It is correcting error and sin. As a mother as you are raising your children scriptures are given by inspiration for correcting error and sin. There are children who do not respond to beating. Children should know that when they are beaten they are being pruned and chastened and it is not abuse. But moreover we need to introduce the word because it is the word that corrects errors and sin. The word is profitable for reproof. It is not the word it is the inspiration. The spirit behind the word that corrects us.
3) Correction
You are guided back to the correct path. What is working within you is the word you received from your childhood. Every child should pray. The scriptures will bring the child to the right place because there is inspiration in the word. There is inspiration given by God in the word. When the word of God is given it gives people ability to live an upright life.
Proverbs 31:1-6 (KJV)
Solomon’s mother says something very interesting in the book of Proverbs. Studies show that Lemuel was Solomon. The words of king Lemuel. The words are now his but they came as a prophecy but the prophecy came as a teaching. The ministry of a mother is of teaching and nurturing. The mother taught but the teaching the mother gave was a prophecy. There is something in you that tells you never to let your mother down. It’s unfortunate that the mother does not know how to teach or nurture. The mother was speaking to him as a son before he became king but he is finding it now when he is a king. He is saying that teaching I had then was a prophecy. Solomon was being told before he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. This advice is for kings that do not want to be destroyed. I am telling you not to give your strength to women because that is what destroys men. A lot of men are not reaching their potential because they did not receive the teaching from a mother. Women means two, three or four and whenever you commit adultery you should know what you are losing. You lose strength. There is a conviction that you lose within you when you commit adultery. Don’t give your conviction. Don’t give your strength to women. A person who commits adultery has a weak conviction and when you talk to God you have a weak conviction. You have doubt that it will happen.
Judges 16:28 (KJV)
Samson you are the one dominating in Israel but why women? Samson did not start with Delilah. Remember when he was with a woman and in the morning he took the gates of the city and so one might be wondering that he was with a woman but he woke up still with strength. We are not talking about physical strength but inner strength. When the Philistines caught him they cut his hair and took out his eyes. The moment you lose your strength to women you lose your vision. You should know what happens when you give your strength to women, your vision is taken. He cried for revival and he was given but he was blind. He says give me strength one time and it’s because where there is no vision people perish. He is asking for strength so that there is destruction. The vision has gone because of women.
The one giving advice is a woman and she knows what happens when women are many. She knows because she is a woman too. Solomon’s father is a king so the mother came to join in the kingdom. Do you know Solomon’s mother? Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. Remember they are other children who were of David and so it was not obvious that Solomon was going to be king but the mother is saying I need to nurture my child in the event that he becomes king. This is coming as a teaching and as an instruction and as a prophecy. Why is she talking about this? It destroys kings. Do not give your strength unto women nor thy ways to that which destroys kings. It’s not for kings.
Lemuel if you are a king it is not for kings. The one that is ready to perish give him something to drink. There is lack of judgement when people are drunk. Lemuel decided to record and he said the words of king Lemuel the prophecy his mother taught him. If as a mother you don’t tell Lemuel that it’s not for kings to drink, smoke, or have women no one will tell him. We are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people chosen by God and called to do this. There is conflict of the flesh and the spirit. That is why we are here today because a prayer can be made as long as you are willing. Starting today you will receive your victory. That is absolute victory.
Jude 1:24 (KJV)
We don’t keep ourselves from falling. There is Him that is able to keep us from falling. We don’t fall because we are smart. We don’t fall because we are kept by the power of God. There is a God that can help us and he can keep us from falling. Paul says whosoever thinks they are standing firm should be careful that you don’t fall.
Genesis 20:3-6 (KJV)
Abimelech took Sarah and wanted to sleep with her. When Abimelech took Sarah that night he did not come near her. There is power present from God which helps you not to touch that which should not be touched. It is no one’s expertise to live uprightly. Our dependence is on His power. We want to ask for the power to stand right with Him.