The Women in the Life of a Deliverer

HOOK- Worst Cards Ever

According to a British survey, 40 percent of moms have received an unwanted Mother's Day gift, but most of them were too polite to complain. Here's a partial list of the 30 worst Mother's Day gifts (according to moms who actually received these gifts):

Deodorant

Fire extinguisher

Cleaning supplies

A stick of French bread

Salad dressing

Popcorn

Ants (perhaps an ant farm for Mom)

Hair dye

Screwdriver

Toilet roll

Calculator

Car parts

Another newspaper ran an article titled "20 awful Mother's Day cards that you absolutely should not buy." The article is clear: Do NOT buy these cards, but just in case you're curious here are a few examples:

Mom, thanks for always checking up on me (with a picture of a cell phone with 24 unanswered calls from "Mom").

Well I guess this Mother's Day card is late. Looks like someone wasn't raised properly.

I'm awesome. You're welcome. To the luckiest Mom ever.

Mom I love you loads. (A picture of a laundry basket overflowing with clothes.) Speaking of loads … can you do my laundry?

Big Idea: God will use mothers of all types to accomplish his purposes in the world when they see the world through his eyes

Image 1: Jochebed (vv. 1-3)

Context/Tension

Pharaoh’s Edict

Egypt’s version of population control

He wanted to kill all baby Hebrew boys

Jochebed saw that he was good (tov in Hebrew)

This term hearkens back to Gen 1 and is first used as the pleasant expression of what happens in creation after God speaks

To use this term is to take God’s perspective of life and towards the situation at hand; it is to see and engage life as God does

But don’t miss the fact that it comes during an oppressive time—the most powerful and authoritative person in the land has decreed that all Hebrew boys must be put to death

But she doesn’t allow the words of a political ruler to speak louder than the Word of God

Godly Attribute

Because of this, she makes it to the Hall of Faith found in Heb 11

Listen to the words of Hebrews 11:23 “By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”

Illustration

Faith

Faith is nothing but believing what God promises or says. Whatever remarkable thing we read of happening in the Old or New Testament, we read that it was done by faith—not by works, not by a general faith, but by faith directed to the matter in hand.

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation

d. Contemporary Significance

i. We need mothers who will refuse to succumb under the pressure of the worlds influences and see the world as God sees it, by expressing faith in what God has spoken even when

ii. We need mothers, who are courageous enough to to look their children in the face at birth and throughout their lives and see their God-ordained potential and not riddle them with all the things that they can’t do well or what they haven’t gotten right. but will help them hone in on what God has gifted them with and what they are capable of accomplishing in the world!

Transition:

So what does she do, she makes him a papyrus basket

If I had time I’d tell you, that the last time this term for basket was used (tevah) it was used to speak of the Ark God told Noah to build

She waterproofs it and sets it among the reeds (tall 9ft plants) away from the fast current of the river

2. Image 2: Miriam (v.4)

Context/Tension

She perches herself in order to watch what happens to baby brother

Godly Attribute

She demonstrates care and concern as an extension of her parents

She helps us see that while God sees all, there is benefit in having human persons lookout for your children when you’re not around

Illustration

Growing up, I was on the neighborhood watch program—meaning there were a number of neighbors that my parents had developed relationships with to look out for me when I thought I was alone

I had school teachers that were handpicked by my mother in Elementary school who functioned as educators and nurturers

Gregory, Edwards, James, Beatty, Hamm and Jones

Contemporary Significance

Miriam’s image is significant because she is there when Momma and Daddy are not present

Miriam is a reminder that the world is in need of nurturers whose name is not Momma

What happens when the world is devoid of nurturers?

Selfishness runs rampant

Children are left to fend for themselves, raise themselves or be raised by social media and electronic devices

My Pastoral Plea: surround your children with nurturing people—give them a village that extends beyond just you

3. Image 3: Pharaoh’s Daughter (vv.5-9)

Context/Tension

If you are following the story closely, your chest is in your throat after reading verse 5

The daughter of the one who hates Hebrew boys is not the one you want to enter the story here—so it seems

While washing in the river:

She sees the basket among the reeds

She sends one of her attendants to retrieve it

She takes it and opens it, the baby Hebrew boy is crying—what will she do, decisions, decisions

Godly Attribute

The narrative takes an unexpected turn here

Pharaoh’s Daughter is moved with compassion

She senses and feels something so strong about this Hebrew baby boy that causes her to directly oppose her father’s edict and spare his life

Like Moses’ mother Jochebed, Pharaoh’s Daughter sees Moses—looks at him and responds in his favor

What is it about when God’s hand is on a child, it becomes obvious to those who encounter that child (If I had time)

But lets settle here: How about we begin praying for our children that as they encounter different people in the world, that those people would see what we see—because what we see in them is what God sees

Lord steer them away from the people that will try and take advantage of them

Help them find some good Christian friends

Greater still, her compassion leads to adoption

The willingness to take someone in as your own who was not birthed by you

This does not require blood-ties

This is where all you surrogate mothers get in on the sermon—because you know you don’t have to birth someone to stand in the gap

Life is not always idealistic, people have struggles and hurts and everyone is not the same nor will we ever be

Stop trying to make some other young mother’s/young woman’s life exactly like your was

We need some mothers—women to do the atypical, so that the next generation is properly nurtured

God’s Foreshadowing (v.10)

And because of God’s orchestration, Moses grows up understanding the world he would live in and the people he would lead and minister to

Stop wrapping your kids in bubble wrap (all their lives), then you push them out the door at 18-ish and they have no clue as to how to interact with the world

God ensured Moses had the proper foundation by allowing him to be raised by his own mother, but it was balanced out by the privileges and influenced gained through his adoption

Very quickly, let me speak to my young adults, who are experiencing life in a way that you have not before

I want you to know that your Christian foundation is enough—this is what Moses teaches us, along with Joseph, Daniel, Esther, etc.

You don’t have to be molded into the world’s image to consider yourself special—God’s has already announced that

The Christian faith is not something you start when you’re young leave when you graduate and then come back to when you are no longer able to do the things you used to do

The foundation God has provided is ENOUGH to help you see the world for what it is and not what it presents itself to be...

TOOK-Faith of Mothers

When children have questions about their heavenly Father, their first instinct is to ask their mothers. Christian women tend to be more devout than men, and they’re often tasked with the bulk of parenting duties. But findings from Barna Research detail the gap between moms and dads when it comes to many aspects of faith formation:

Practicing Christians were asked, “Whose faith influenced you?”

Mother – 68%

Father – 46%

a. Mothers of all types, no one can do what you do

b. We need your faith to help the next generation believe God even when all is stacked against them

c. We need your nurturing to care for those who may not be under the guise of their birth parents

d. We need your compassion to bring those who don’t belong to us into our space via adoption