Mother's Day 2023: Rise and Tell

Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day! What a blessing it is to be here together as a church family to worship the Lord, sing praises to Him, and to reflect on His Word with one another! I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor of the church family of Eastern Hills, and I’d like to welcome everyone who is here in the room this morning, as well as all of you who are joining us online today. If today is your first time visiting with this church family, we want you to know how happy we are to welcome you! We’d appreciate the opportunity to know that you were here this morning in order to send you a postcard to say thanks, so whether you are in the room or online, if you would be so kind as to text the word “WELCOME” to 505-339-2004 at some point during the service, you’ll get a text back with a link to our online communication card. If your here in the room and you’d rather fill out a physical card, you can grab one from the back of the pew in front of you, and you can drop that in the offering boxes by the doors at the close of service.

Either way, if you’re here on campus this morning as a visitor, I’d love the opportunity to meet you when service is over. I have a welcome gift I’d like to get in your hands, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to invite you to come down and meet me after the service is over. I promise it won’t take long.

Announcements

Men’s Breakfast Saturday at 8 am

CareNet Ultimate Baby Shower through June 9. We are a collection site. Bin in the Get Connected Table, list on the bin. Basically all baby stuff.

Business Meeting Next Sunday evening, pizza potluck at 4:30. Pick up your favorite pizza to bring and share.

Mother’s Day Offering for NMBCH, goal $5K. You can give online or using the offering boxes by the doors.

Opening

We’re in between sermon series this week. Next week, we will start a seven week series on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2-3. But for this morning, we come together on Mother’s Day.

For several years now, even when I preached on Mother’s Day before I was the Senior Pastor here, I have opened my Mother’s Day message with an acknowledgment for those who struggle with Mother’s Day. The shocking thing is how much positive feedback I receive on this acknowledgment each year. Apparently, stepping up and bringing into the light the elephant that is in the room for many on Mother’s Day really speaks to those who might be struggling today.

Mother’s Day can be a very difficult day for many. For those of you for whom this is the case, let me just start by thanking you for braving being here today. You have had every opportunity, especially given the fact that we stream our services every week, to not come, either online or in person. You could have decided to skip today and listen to or watch a past message. But many of you are here in the room, and perhaps many more of you are here right now online, watching and desiring to worship with the body of Christ and to hear from the Word of God, and my hope and intent is to make good use of your commitment and dedication this morning.

To you ladies who want children, but for some reason cannot have them, the heart of Eastern Hills goes out to you. I know that a Mother’s Day service can be especially hard, and perhaps already has been. Please know that you are loved, and we don’t take you for granted or downplay or ignore your very real pain. And some of you are “mothers-in-waiting,” and you intend and plan to have children at some point, but you’re just not there yet. We wait with you, and we pray that God will provide for that desire of your heart. For those of you who experienced the pain and heartache of miscarriage, we pray for you as well.

This day can also be difficult for those who have lost their children tragically. You are moms. You’re moms who cannot mother your child right now. Your church family is so sorry for your loss and your pain. You are loved and cared for by this body, and we mourn with you this day.

Mother’s Day at church can also be frustrating for those who have no desire to have children. This is a very real thing, and you may struggle just being here this morning with so much focus on children and motherhood, which is just not something you’re concerned with, at least not at the moment. I get that it may not feel particularly useful for you. Thank you for being here anyway, and I really hope that my message this morning will be useful for you as a woman, not just for moms, because really, my message today is for all of us.

I can’t truly understand what these women are going through, and I want to be sensitive to and respectful of that struggle, and just not mentioning it isn’t right. And even though it might seem like kind of a serious and somber way to open a message on Mother’s Day, I think facing these issues head on at the outset allows those wrestling with these things to understand and know that they are seen, heard, and understood by the church family this morning. So, Lord willing, it is my intent to open every Mother’s Day message with this kind of acknowledgment, and I pray that this message is useful to all who are here with us today.

And for those who have lost their moms, especially in the past year, who are facing this as the first Mother’s Day without her: we mourn with you as well.

With all of that said, I have to confess something before we dive into this morning’s sermon. In my preparation study for this morning, I discovered that this morning’s focal passage is the same focal passage I used for my Father’s Day message in 2019. That wasn’t on purpose, and I’m not preaching the same sermon as that message, which was called “Multigenerational Manhood.” Somehow, I don’t think that sermon would make as much sense on Mother’s Day. This year’s Mother’s Day message is entitled “Rise and Tell,” and you’ll see where it comes from in our focal passage as we read it together.

So let’s stand as you are able in honor of God’s holy Word as we turn to Psalm 78:1-8 this morning:

Psalm 78:1–8 CSB

1 My people, hear my instruction; listen to the words from my mouth. 2 I will declare wise sayings; I will speak mysteries from the past— 3 things we have heard and known and that our ancestors have passed down to us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his might, and the wondrous works he has performed. 5 He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children 6 so that a future generation— children yet to be born—might know. They were to rise and tell their children 7 so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep his commands. 8 Then they would not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

PRAYER (Iglesia Bautista Nuevas Alturas, Pastor Gomez; pray for Ryan and Jessie Pitts and Brynlie, Titus, and Macie)

This week I had the opportunity to hear several students rise and tell about something. On Monday, I had the privilege of attending the thesis presentations of three of our graduating seniors, where each of them gave a solid, biblical explanation of the definition of philosophical concept of “the good life,” and even took the opportunity to share the truth of the Gospel with those in the room during their presentations. Then on Friday, I was blessed to attend my own daughter’s “exit interview” at our school. This is Abbie’s last year as a student at Eastern Hills Christian Academy, as she is moving on to high school in the fall. She got to rise and tell of what being a student here has meant to her life and faith, the lessons she has learned during her time at our school, and the ways that God has worked in her life through EHCA.

One of the questions that Abbie had to answer had particular meaning for my message this morning. She had to answer the question, “What advice would you give to an incoming 6th grader to our middle school?” I won’t share her answers, because that’s not the point I’m trying to make. The point is that the question has a particular purpose: thinking through what lessons from her experience that she might share with those coming after her in order to make their experience easier, more productive, or more fulfilling. In short, what she would rise and tell the students who are coming behind her.

We all have this opportunity—the opportunity to share the wisdom of our knowledge and experience in order to help others who are following behind us on the path of life. And there is no more important arena for the exercise of this opportunity than in the realm of parenting. Think about it: parents pass on so much to their children. Not just physical traits like height or eye color, but other things as well—Learned information like the alphabet, colors, shapes, and vocabulary. Skills like how to tie a shoe or ride a bike. Moms and dads: your homes are the most important classrooms of your children’s lives. Your own knowledge and experiences are a large part of the lessons that they learn there, and you are the teachers.

And in these home classrooms, you also pass on more abstract things, such as family priorities—how important to our family are things like education, activities, relationships, family, church, morality, and faith? And these lessons are a part of what shape who your child will become. If you are going to be effective in passing on the priorities that you want your child to have, you’re going to have to be intentional about teaching them. This is what this psalm is about: it’s a call to the people of God to pass on what is most important—the truth about God’s work in the world and in the lives of His people. We must choose to rise and tell.

1: Choose to rise and tell.

Asaph, the author of this psalm, is our example in this regard. Psalm 78 is the second longest psalm. It contains 72 verses, with these 8 verses as introduction, and then 8 verses as a closing. Asaph had a goal in the writing of this psalm—that his people would hear, remember, learn, obey, and repeat. He was choosing to rise and tell:

Psalm 78:1–3 CSB

Asaph’s opening of this psalm is meant to move us with its poetry. Each of these first three verses uses what is called parallelism, which means that Asaph says something in the first line, and then repeats it differently for effect and force in the second line: “hear my instruction/listen to the words; I will declare/I will speak; we have heard and known/our ancestors have passed down.” He’s getting the attention of the people reading, hearing, or in this case, singing this psalm.

The opening of this psalm is very much like other wisdom literature that we find in the Scriptures. In this way, Asaph’s psalm is much like the Proverbs of Solomon, which call the reader to seek wisdom in order to live the life that honors God, and that He desires for us to live. But notice that Solomon is calling his children to wisdom. He’s doing this intentionally, because it’s his job:

Proverbs 4:1–9 CSB

1 Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline, and pay attention so that you may gain understanding, 2 for I am giving you good instruction. Don’t abandon my teaching. 3 When I was a son with my father, tender and precious to my mother, 4 he taught me and said, “Your heart must hold on to my words. Keep my commands and live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; don’t forget or turn away from the words from my mouth. 6 Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding. 8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you. 9 She will place a garland of favor on your head; she will give you a crown of beauty.”

Wisdom brings all of these benefits and blessings that Solomon mentioned in this passage. Isn’t this what we want for our kids? I think about all the things that we teach our children, as I mentioned earlier. The question that we have to ask ourselves is this: are we intentionally teaching them what is most important? Are we choosing to rise and tell them the things that truly matter—eternal things? I’m not saying that every moment in our homes needs to be spent in Bible study or family devotions. But I am saying that we need to examine whether or not we’re talking about spiritual things in the ordinary course of our lives with our kids, helping them to develop wisdom. It’s so easy for us to let inertia kind of carry us through life, talking about the day-to-day and the immediate, but neglecting to purposefully bring the focus of our families to the truth of the Scriptures and what they say about God, about us, about what God has done for us in Christ, and about how to live a life that brings Him honor.

When Asaph wrote Psalm 78, he wasn’t bringing a new instruction. The Israelites were supposed to intentionally rise and tell their children the truths of the Word of God. In fact, this was a vital commandment that they were to follow, and they were to intentionally call their children to follow:

Deuteronomy 6:4–7 CSB

4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

How “normal” is it for you to talk about spiritual matters in your home? How common is it for you to speak about eternal things while you are out and about with your kids? Do you guide your kids and set an example for them in loving the Lord with all that they are? Really, this isn’t just for parents—it’s for all of us.

This is why we must CHOOSE to rise and tell. We must pass on to others, especially to our children, the truth that we know. We must disciple our children. Truth is not a concept that the world appreciates, as right now our culture seems bent on saying that truth is something that you create for yourself out of your own imagination. Make no mistake, the world is actively trying to disciple our kids—to get them to reject the absolute truth, to believe the lies, and to choose a different path.

Moms and dads: you must choose to rise and tell the truth of God to your kids. If you aren’t discipling your children, someone else will.

This is why earlier in Deuteronomy, Moses wrote this warning and instruction:

Deuteronomy 4:9 CSB

9 “Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.

We don’t want to forget what God has done. We want our children to know the incredible truth of His glory and greatness. And so we must rise and tell about what God has done.

2: Rise and tell of what God has done.

Our goal is not simply to rise and tell stuff we think is important, although there is nothing inherently wrong with that. We are called to rise and tell about what God has done, about who God is, about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the amazing work of God in our lives. Asaph continues by calling his people to remember and obey the command that they were given to tell their children about God’s majesty:

Psalm 78:4–5 CSB

4 We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his might, and the wondrous works he has performed. 5 He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children

“We will not hide them...” Could you imagine being a Jewish person who had been a part of the Exodus, and never telling your kids about all that God did to bring you out of Egypt? Telling the children about what God had said and done was so important that Moses wrote again in Deuteronomy 11:

Deuteronomy 11:18–19 CSB

18 “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

The truth of God was supposed to be permanently seared onto the hearts and minds of the Jewish people, to be on their hands and heads as reminders of all that God had done. And they were to remember and recite the truth of that work to their children. Would any Hebrew parent of that generation have said, “You know, I don’t want to sway my children’s faith. I want them to decide what they think about how we came out of Egypt?” Certainly not! Not only that, but:

This psalm was likely written during or just after the reign of David. Could you imagine being a Hebrew parent and not ever talking about how God had brought strength, peace, and prosperity to Israel through the reign of David—about how he had used David to deliver your people from the Philistines and Goliath, and the incredible victories that God had given to Israel through David after that? It would be unbelievable to think that any Jewish parent at the time would have said, “I don’t want to push the God of King David on my child. I want them to make up their own minds.” No! God had done incredible things for a very long time in the life of Israel, and the parents were commanded to pass on the information about God’s mighty works to their children.

And yet, this is how many parents approach talking with their children about faith. Out of fear of simply indoctrinating their kids, they just never talk about what God has done, and they say, “I want their faith to be their own.” We all certainly want that as well, but I think that some use that as an excuse for saying nothing at all. How are our kids going to make their faith their own… or better yet… how are they going to come to faith if they never hear about faith from the most influential people in their lives—their parents? We have been commissioned for this purpose:

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The first place that we must be about making disciples is not the nation across the sea. It’s not in another part of the country. It’s in our very own homes.

Think about it: if we disciple kids in all kinds of things—walking and talking and reading and writing and math and science and technology and history and government and culture and music and sports and television and movies and the list goes on and on and on. How ridiculous would it be for us to not disciple our kids in the greatness of God, the truth of His Word, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

While in the context of this particular psalm, Asaph writes about making sure that the children know about God’s “praiseworthy acts,… might… and works,” Asaph didn’t know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who wouldn’t be born for nearly 1000 years after this psalm was written. The Bible says that the good news, the Gospel, is that God loves us and wants a relationship with us, but we sin—we rebel and go against His good plan for us by seeking out own way—and that sin separates us from Him. We can’t ever work long enough or hard enough to deserve His forgiveness, because we are broken. So God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfectly sinless life. Then Jesus willingly died in our place, taking the punishment of death that we deserve for our sins. But Jesus overcame death, rising again to eternal life, and those who believe in Him receive eternal life as well.

Is there a more praiseworthy act than God giving His Son for us so that we could be saved? Is there a greater display of His might than Jesus defeating death by rising from the grave? Is there a more profound example of His works than the Holy Spirit transferring us from death to life through faith in Jesus?

But we have to remember that we can’t rise and tell about something that we don’t believe ourselves. We won’t rise and tell of the things that God has done if we haven’t experienced the work of God in our own lives, if we don’t believe that Jesus came and laid down His life for us so we could be saved. We won’t declare the good news of the Gospel if we ourselves don’t belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Moms—are you trusting Jesus? Dads—do you belong to Him? Grandparents, aunts, uncles—have you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus? If not, then believe the Gospel right now, where you are, surrendering going your own way and trusting in what Jesus has done to save you. As Paul said to the Philippian jailer, in Acts 16:31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” When we believe, we can pass on the faith that has saved us to our children, grandchildren, and other children in our lives.

We don’t want our children to simply know about the Gospel—we want them to fully assimilate it into their lives, just as we should want to fully assimilate it into our own. We want them to not just learn, but to observe everything that Jesus has commanded. Rising and telling of the Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t something that a few are called to, but all of us: whether we are moms, dads, brothers, sisters, extended family members, friends, coworkers, or neighbors, we are called to rise and tell so that others might believe, and then rise and tell about what God has done.

As parents, we should rise and tell so that our kids will rise and tell.

3: Rise and tell so your kids will rise and tell.

Again, while I wrote this point as a parental thing, we all have people in our lives that we can rise and tell about the incredible gift of God in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. But the psalmist writes about the importance of parents telling their children about the works of God so that their children will know and remember the truth of God’s mighty hand:

Psalm 78:6–8 CSB

6 so that a future generation— children yet to be born—might know. They were to rise and tell their children 7 so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep his commands. 8 Then they would not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

David wrote about this same generational transmission of the truth of God, and in Psalm 145, he wrote that one generation would declare God’s works to the next, and so on.

Psalm 145:1–5 CSB

1 I exalt you, my God the King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2 I will bless you every day; I will praise your name forever and ever. 3 The Lord is great and is highly praised; his greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation will declare your works to the next and will proclaim your mighty acts. 5 I will speak of your splendor and glorious majesty and your wondrous works.

Do we understand the chain of the Gospel? This connection that David wrote of wasn’t just for Israel: it’s still happening right now. Connecting it with Psalm 78, one generation rises and tells their children so that a future generation (children yet to be born) might put their confidence in God, trusting Him for their deliverance and salvation, and that they would “not forget God’s works, but keep His commands.” And what is the command that was mentioned in this psalm? It was to teach their children about the law in Israel, so that next generation then obeys by rising and telling of all that God has done. It’s a continual chain even up to the present. We are commanded to tell of God’s works can call the next generation to obedience.

The problem with this isn’t the command. It’s our forgetfulness. We forget about the greatness of God, the beauty of His works, His might and power and majesty.

Throughout Psalm 78, this is the reminder from Asaph: don’t forget and go your own way. Every section of this psalm, other than the introduction and ending, opens by speaking about Israel’s forgetfulness and rebellion:

Psalm 78:9–11 CSB

9 The Ephraimite archers turned back on the day of battle. 10 They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law. 11 They forgot what he had done, the wondrous works he had shown them.

Psalm 78:17–18 CSB

17 But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. 18 They deliberately tested God, demanding the food they craved.

Psalm 78:32 CSB

32 Despite all this, they kept sinning and did not believe his wondrous works.

Psalm 78:42–43 CSB

42 They did not remember his power shown on the day he redeemed them from the foe, 43 when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt and his wonders in the territory of Zoan.

This is why Asaph ends his opening with the purpose of making sure his audience remembers: so that they won’t be like their ancestors, stubborn, rebellious, not loyal or faithful to God. Asaph’s goal is that the Hebrew people would remember and pass on the stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness.

We too are called to remember. We too are called to pass on what we know about what God has done, both in history and in our own lives. We too are to rise and tell, so that our children would rise and tell, so that their children would rise and tell, so that their children would rise and tell…

Closing

In his commentary on the Psalms, Konrad Schaefer wrote about the importance of passing on wisdom and remembering God’s works, and how vital that is for our faith:

“If wisdom is the fruit of the collective memory so as to avoid repeating past mistakes, forgetting dooms one to repeat past errors. Analogously, forgetfulness of God’s benefits is tantamount to their nullification, while remembering them reactivates God’s wonders for the present and stimulates the people’s faith and faithfulness.”

—Konrad Schaefer, Psalms

We must choose to rise and tell about what God has done in Christ, so that those who come behind us would know, believe, and then they themselves would rise and tell. We all carry this responsibility. But moms and dads, the first place your children will learn these things is at home. We must our homes places where giving testimony to what God has done is commonplace, where our children see and hear about our faith and the ways that God is at work around us.

And again, if you have never trusted in the work of Christ to save you, then you don’t have a faith to pass on. You’ve heard the truth of the Gospel this morning. Believe in Jesus and receive eternal life in Him. Surrender to Him as your Savior and your Lord. And let us know about that.

Church membership

Repentance

Offering

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading Num 7

No Pastor’s Study tonight

Prayer Meeting Wednesday at 5:45

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Psalm 59:16–17 CSB

16 But I will sing of your strength and will joyfully proclaim your faithful love in the morning. For you have been a stronghold for me, a refuge in my day of trouble. 17 To you, my strength, I sing praises, because God is my stronghold— my faithful God.

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