Sermons

I recently watched a story about the woman who was responsible for the founding of Mother’s Day.  Anna Jarvis was so determined to honor the memory of her mother that she lobbied business owners and members of congress until Mother’s Day was adopted as an official U.S. Holiday in 1914.  Years later, as the holiday was commercialized, she advocated removing it from the calendar because it had lost its original meaning.  This reversal caused many people to have strong opinions about her but one thing was plainly clear.  Anna Jarvis was passionate about honoring Mother’s and not losing that focus.

Anna Jarvis left a legacy of passion and conviction for honoring motherhood.  That is her legacy.  Her memory lives on to this day through the holiday and the smiles of countless women who are honored by their families.  The bottom line to this story is that we all leave legacies whether we want to or not.  Legacies are a product of our beliefs and actions while we journey this earth.  As we prepare for Sunday I want to you to ask yourself the question, “What is the legacy that I am leaving”?

Lois and Eunice were women who left a powerful legacy to their family and friends that was recorded for us in the New Testament.  What was it that so moved the Apostle Paul that he referred to them by name?  This Sunday please join us as we look at the legacy of these two woman and see how they lived their life in such a way that it remains with us today.  Let their story and memory motivate you to be committed to leaving a legacy of love.

Pastor Scott Crossfield

SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS

•  Mothers can leave a positive or negative legacy.  What is your strongest memory of your mother and why? (if it’s too painful, do not feel that you have to share)
• What did you do to honor your mom today?
• How does God want mothers to act?
  

  Proverbs 31:25-30 (ESV) Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.  She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed;her husband also, and he praises her:  “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

  Titus 2: 3-5 (ESV) Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

• Read what the Bible says about Lois and Eunice.  What does it say about their legacy?
  

  2 Timothy 1:1-5 (NIV) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with 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 ancestors 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.  I am 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.

  Acts 16: 1-5 (NIV) Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek.  The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.  Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.  As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.  So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

• What do you hope people will say about your legacy someday?
• What are the steps God wants you to take to make sure you live up to the legacy you desire?
• How can we pray for you?