The Extraordinary Value of the Ordinary

May 10, 2026|The Extraordinary Value of the Ordinary | 2 Timothy

JD Cutler

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Good morning again church family and those gathering with us. One of the things that I know both Pastor Teddy and I often talk about is the mission of the church.

We agree that the mission of the church is to make disciples who make disciples.

The question we begin with this morning is simple.

How important is the ordinary Christian home in God’s work of making disciples?

We tend to think of spiritual impact in terms of churches, missions, revivals, conferences, and large public moments of ministry. Right? These are the things that get celebrated in our culture. And certainly, God works in extraordinary ways.

When we open the pages of the New Testament, we see it everywhere.

Three thousand souls saved at Peter’s preaching on Pentecost.

Miracles worked through the apostles.

Paul’s missionary journeys taking the gospel across the Roman world.

These are extraordinary moments of God’s power.

But if we are not careful, we can become so captivated by the extraordinary that we miss the ordinary.

Immediately after Pentecost—after the sermon, after the conversions, after the remarkable public moment—Luke tells us:“Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes… they received their food with glad and generous hearts… And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

What is Luke describing there?

The ordinary day to day faithfulness of the church.

You see, the extraordinary and the ordinary were never in competition. God was at work in both.

And while we can find plenty of examples of this, I think it is clearest in Paul’s letters to his son in the faith, Timothy.

On this Mother’s Day, where our attention as a society is turned towards the home, as the church, I want us to consider the battle for the home. We talk about the battle for our kids in the culture, we talk about the battle of politics, of removing God from government and schools, we talk about these cultural battles often. We applaud those Christians who engage in these battles, who fight loudly and publicly.

But I wonder if we spend enough time considering the smaller, sometimes quieter battle that is raging in homes across the world. I wonder if we know how to fight that battle well?

Because I think, if we are honest, many of us look at the extraordinary things in the New Testament and quietly wonder whether our ordinary lives are of much value in the kingdom of God.

The routines. The meals. The prayers. The Scripture reading. The unseen faithfulness. The ordinary work of loving and discipling within the home.

Does any of that really matter?

Paul’s answer in 2 Timothy is a resounding yes.

Because sometimes the most extraordinary kingdom fruit grows out of the most ordinary faithfulness.

If you have your Bibles this morning, turn with me to 2 Timothy, we will be looking at various scriptures this morning but we will begin in chapter 1, at verse 1 as we consider The Extraordinary Value of the Ordinary.

As you turn there, I want to give you a little context for this particular letter. By the time of these two letters, Timothy is serving in Ephesus, helping establish and guide the churches in that region. 1st Timothy is written to give him further instructions and encouragement in his work. He writes 2 Timothy as an encouragement in the work, an exhortation to boldness, endurance and faithfulness, and to ask Timothy to come to him quickly.

In the meantime, while Timothy was in Ephesus, Paul has been imprisoned in Rome and is awaiting execution. This letter is the last correspondence we have between Paul and Timothy.

It is a warm, fatherly, and apostolic letter where Paul reflects on his own ministry as well as Timothy’s life and ministry. From his words I want to share with you three statements concerning the value of the ordinary. Three statements that I pray will awaken and energize the church to battle for the home.

The first statement is…

I. GOD OFTEN BUILDS FAITH THROUGH ORDINARY HOUSEHOLDS

2 Timothy 1:1–5 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

There is no doubt that Paul and Timothy had a special relationship. We have two of his letters to Timothy and we find Timothy referenced in many of his others. We first meet a young man named Timothy in Acts 16, during Paul’s second missionary journey. It is likely that Paul’s first journey led to Timothy’s conversion environment. In Timothy’s home town and surrounding area Paul engaged in missionary work. We find, many Jews converting to the faith and although Paul faced intense opposition in Lystra and the surrounding areas, culminating in being dragged out of the city, stoned, and left for dead, he boldly proclaimed Christ, appointed elders in the churches and continued on his journey.

Sometime later, upon going back through the areas where churches had been established, he finds a young disciple named Timothy, who the Bible says was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul sees something in him and he wants him to journey with him. This starts a partnership that becomes a spiritual father/son dynamic where God uses Timothy to help Paul, to build up churches, and to continue the gospel work in places where Paul had to leave. Timothy carried letters for Paul, accompanied him on his journeys, and ultimately served Ephesus in the apostle’s stead.

Paul calls Timothy, my beloved child in the opening verses of this letter and then confesses that he remembers Timothy in his prayers night and day, longing to be reunited with him so that they may both be filled with joy.

Their departure, although necessary for the advancement of the gospel and the health of the churches, was nonetheless painful for both of them. Paul says, ‘as I remember your tears, I long to see you.’

In verse 5, seemingly carried by emotion from thinking of Timothy, he says, I am reminded of your sincere faith. Literally, I am thinking of your sincere faith.

When I think of you Timothy, I am most thankful for the genuineness of your faith. In other words, your faith is not for show, it is not performative, superficial, or hidden; it is evident in the way you live. Such a simple statement, but what a high praise! May it be said of us that we possess a sincere faith.

But in his reminiscing about Timothy’s faith, Paul reminds us that faith doesn’t appear from nowhere. He says that same faith dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.

We are not told exactly how Lois and Eunice came to faith. Perhaps through Paul’s preaching, perhaps through the ordinary witness of the church that followed. But however God did it, He used that faith to shape Timothy.

If you pay attention to the first missionary journey in Lystra, no account is made of Lois or Eunice. Even when Paul comes back to Lystra and Timothy catches his attention, no mention is made of either of them outside of the statement that Timothy was the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer. But now as Paul, at the end of his life, reflects on Timothy’s faith he names both women as foundational to Timothy’s sincere faith.

Paul disciples Timothy, Paul called Timothy to join him…and yet when he speaks of his faith, he doesn’t contribute it to himself, but to the influential women in Timothy’s life.

That’s powerful.

Moms, grandmothers, and ladies who are spiritual influencers in the lives of others, don’t let that statement pass over you this morning. Your work is vital to the advancement of the kingdom of God. Why?

Because God often uses ordinary households to build extraordinary faith. Faith doesn’t appear from nowhere.

Timothy’s faith and ultimately ministry began in a home. Nurtured there in its foundation, not by an apostle, but by his mother and grandmother. Not in the mission field, but in the home.

And yet…in this same letter, we find that for that very reason, that God used households as places where faith is formed, it should not surprise us that they are also places where deception seeks to gain entry, which brings us to our next statement….

II. BECAUSE HOUSEHOLDS SHAPE FAITH, THEY ARE TARGETS OF SPIRITUAL ATTACK

2 Timothy 3:1–9 ESV

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

This would be a powerful statement completely on its own, but it is even more striking the way it stands in contrast to the description Paul makes of Timothy’s household and the women in Timothy’s life.

These men Paul is warning Timothy about.

The churches must be protected against these men. Yes and amen.

Surely Timothy needs to publicly oppose their teaching. Yes and amen.

But Paul is also warning Timothy that these same men will attempt to work their way into households, finding vulnerable points of entry.

They will not only attack the church outright, but will also try to infiltrate quietly and secretly.

In this particular cultural setting, false teachers appear to have found an accessible point of entry in certain vulnerable women within these households. Paul is describing a particular exploitative pattern, not a universal strategic doctrine.

The phrase here translated as weak women is difficult to understand, but Paul’s point is not: these false teachers prey on spiritually vulnerable people. They are seeking out those who are vulnerable and susceptible to false teaching.

Although our cultural setting may be different, the principle remains the same: false teaching seeks vulnerable people wherever it finds them.

It makes no difference whether it is the father or the mother or the children, if someone is vulnerable and unprotected, there is danger that false teachers will try and worm their way into the household.

These false teachers exploit spiritually vulnerable people, offering counterfeit answers instead of gospel truth. If these are the same kinds of false teachers Paul addresses elsewhere, their message likely included legalistic burdens, ascetic practices, or claims to deeper spiritual insight rather than the freedom found in Christ.

Paul says that they prey on people who feel the weight of guilt and sin, using that longing for relief to impose teachings contrary to the gospel. More importantly because this happens in the home, the damage rarely stays with one person.

Church family, we need to understand this. This pattern is not accidental.

If the home is a place where faith is formed, it should not surprise us that it is also a place where deception seeks entry.

Parents, husbands, wives—we cannot be passive about spiritual formation. Our homes must be saturated with the gospel.

We must be diligent.

We must be faithful.

We must be on guard.

Simply knowing that our homes can be targeted by the enemy is not enough, we need to be prepared and to make sure our homes are strongholds of the truth, able to withstand the deceptions of the enemy.

What is a church, but a collection of households?

The truth is any church is only as strong as the households that make it up.

And that should lead us to a question:

How?

How do we prepare our homes for attack?

How do we make them strongholds of truth?

Paul answers just a few verses later, which brings us to our last statement…

III. SCRIPTURE-SHAPED ORDINARY FAITHFULNESS BEARS EXTRAORDINARY FRUIT

God has given us what we need to live ordinarily faithful lives by giving us his word.

Parents, the truth is, while we cannot ‘save’ our children and grandchildren, we can faithfully place before them and surround them with the truth of God’s word and the example of lived faith. Listen to what Paul says in particular about Timothy’s upbringing. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14.

2 Timothy 3:14–15 ESV

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The word Paul uses for childhood is the Greek word that means infant or newborn. Timothy had been immersed in scripture from infancy because his mother and grandmother were immersed in scripture. They raised him to be acquainted with the sacred writings.

To know what the scripture says.

Moms, this is especially important. Some of you do not have husbands that are believers, or if they are, they are not leading the way in saturating your household with scripture. From what we can tell, Timothy’s father is not presented as a spiritual influence in his life.

Is that ideal? No.

Does God use faithful women in moments like that? Absolutely

Then Paul, zooming out for a moment from Timothy to what scripture can do for men and women, says which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Scriptures do not save by mere information. We see that clearly in the New Testament description of the religious classes of the Pharisees and Scribes. They knew the scriptures, but they did not know Christ. However, the scriptures are God’s appointed means to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ.

Yes, God saved Timothy because God wanted to save Timothy.

But he used the foundation that was cultivated by his grandmother and mother by raising him in the scriptures to bring him to faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says, knowing from whom you learned it indicating that it had been taught to him first by Lois and Eunice and then built on by Paul.

So yes, mothers, biological and spiritual, it matters how you organize the ordinary days of your life.

You can create an environment rich and saturated in scripture, one that God can use to bring your children and grandchildren to faith.

I’d say that is pretty extraordinary.

Pretty extraordinary indeed.

But, even more than that, that ordinary faithfulness in the home can bear extraordinary kingdom fruit.

In the household of Lois and then Eunice, this little boy that they loved and nurtured in the truth grew into the man whom Paul counted as a trustworthy co-laborer. A man who was instrumental in setting the churches in order around Ephesus, an evangelist, a teacher, a pastor. Paul says in chapter 4, 5 But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Fulfill your ministry.

The context is Paul contrasting the ministry in front of Timothy with his own ministry which was nearing completion. He now encourages Timothy to press on as he has done.

It’s hard to overestimate the impact the Apostle Paul had on the kingdom of God and whenever we talk about his impact we must include the work of Timothy, his spiritual son, his co-laborer, pressing the kingdom forward and leading God’s people deeper.

That extraordinary fruit began because of ordinary faithfulness in Timothy’s childhood home.

I love this particular letter because it brings the extraordinary ministry of Paul together with the ordinary ministry of Lois and Eunice, showing that God is at work in both areas of ministry.

On this Mother’s day, as we look towards the home, may we be encouraged in the importance of the home in the kingdom of God as well as challenged to not miss the opportunity before us to labor to make our homes places of ordinary faithfulness that God can use in extraordinary ways.

To that end, maybe there is someone here today. You grew up in a home that professed faith in Christ, that was regularly engaged in scripture, you have the foundation, but you have not yet placed your faith in the risen Christ. Today may be the day that God uses that foundation to bring an awareness of your need for a savior.

Maybe there are some here today that Mother’s day is painful because of a prodigal child or a wayward son or daughter. I pray God would encourage you right where you are.

The altar is open for prayer.

I would love to pray with anyone who feels called to respond to God’s word today.

Let us pray together.