How to Give Your Jesus Lovin' Momma the Best Mother's Day Ever!
Notes
Transcript
ENGAGE
Mother’s Day Video
Holding the title Mom, Mother, Madre, Momma, or Ma is a lofty one at that! It is a monicker worthy of great respect!
In fact, God, in the Old Testament, commanded Moses to instruct the nation of Israel to HONOR their fathers and MOTHERS!
We tend to scramble when it comes to this particular holiday. I mean we love our moms and we want to give them some sort of token of our deep love and appreciation.
My mom is gone now, and for me, those days are done. For those that still have their mothers, take advantage of the time that you have! I will say, I have a pretty amazing mother-in-law! God is good!
I also have a birth-mother out there somewhere that I am so grateful to. She gave me up to give me life. What more could I ask for!
There is something special about moms. They bring characteristics to the table that men don’t in large part.
My wife is an amazing mother. I’m pretty sure there isn’t much she would not do for her children and grandchildren. She is selfless and kind. Sacrificial and loving. And honestly she has grown in these areas over the years to become even better at them. She is a great mom and Nana!
And so we run after chocolates or flowers or cook a nice meal to communicate our love for our moms and grand-moms. And, for the most part, moms do appreciate a day of appreciation and attention. Without a doubt, most mom’s deserve far, far more than one day out of the year.
But are chocolates, flowers, a light up card that sings a schmalzy song really hat a mom wants?
I’m not certain about what all mom’s want, but I’m willing to bet that I know what a godly Christian mom wants from her children - I dare say, more than anything...
And we find the answer, in all places, a very short letter in the New Testament - 3 John verse 4.
Now, honestly this letter has nothing to do with motherhood directly. However, if you will bear with me, you will see how the truths in this letter are directly applicable.
Let’s take a look at the beginning of John letter...
1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
John, the apostle is pleased. Why? Because “the brothers” came and testified to John that they, the recipients of this letter were walking in the truth.
Who are the brothers? Itinerant gospel preachers. They went from town to town sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. And because John was an Apostle, he had a relationship with these preachers.
And as he writes his “beloved Gaius,” John wishes him good health physically and spiritually (vs. 2).
What was John most thankful for?
In spite of the bad example of Diotrephes (vs. 9). Who is Diotrephes? He is someone in leadership who insists on being the the main dude! . He needs to be in charge! He loves being the upfront guy! But even more devastating, he refused to submit himself to the leadership around him. Namely, the authority of the Apostles.
Well, the church wasn’t buying Diotrephes brand of leadership...
Instead, these followers of John were actually followers of Jesus.
They made His faith, their faith! This is what John “rejoiced greatly” for! They were “walking in the truth!”
This, after all is the goal of the Christian life, isn’t it? Not to make disciples that follow us, but disciples that follow and live for Jesus.
2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
3 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, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
We are to teach! We are to train those coming up after us. This is the heart of discipleship.
This goes for all of us believers, but especially for the godly christian mother.
The mother’s first and best discipling opportunities are her children!
There is no one who has a greater influence on their children than their mom. And Mom’s you need to feel that weight!
William Ross Wallace (1819-1881)
THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE IS
THE HAND THAT RULES THE WORLD.
BLESSINGS on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace.
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission,
Here upon our natal sod;
Keep—oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
ENCOUNTER
So, what do godly Mom’s want for Mother’s day? What do mom’s who take the Faith serious want more than anything else?
Big Idea - Mom’s Who Walk in the Truth Want Their Children to Walk in the Truth as Well!
Isn’t that true, moms? You want your kids to live a life of faithfulness to God.
Just about every night before Angie and I go to sleep we pray this prayer together.
“Lord, please help our children to love you with their whole heart and that they would serve you well. We pray this for our grandchildren as well.”
My wife, the mother of our children wants nothing more than for our children and grandchildren to WALK in the TRUTH!
Well, what does it look like to Walk in the Truth? I thought about this and I have 5 ways that we are to walk in the truth. And when we do, any Godly momma would be thrilled beyond words.
1. A Godly Mom Wants You to be Saved!
Because all, and I mean all have sinned (broken God’s Law over and over) and thus fallen short of the glory of God, all need to be saved, born-again, redeemed, rescued from and eternal hell. A godly mom knows this and this reality pulls at her heart.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
NO ONE can see the kingdom of God unless he or she is born again.
It has been said, you can bring nothing with you to heaven. I disagree. The one thing we can bring to heaven is our children. Mom’s are you communicating the theology of the gospel to your children? Are you helping them to understand there desperate need for Christ?
Also, do your children see you live out the gospel before them?
Give examples...
Mom’s Who Walk in the Truth Want Their Children to Walk in the Truth as Well!
A Godly Mom Wants You to be Saved!
2. A Godly Mom Wants You to Pursue Holiness!
Friends, your Momma wants you to be holy! So does God, by the way. He elected Christians to be blameless and holy. I want to show you a passage that not only shows how blessed believers are, but, what our purpose is before God. Take a look with me...
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Do you see how blessed believers are? We are blessed IN CHRIST with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the heavenly places! What does this mean?
Because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, you and I will enjoy every blessing Heaven has to offer - most importantly an eternal relationship with Jesus!
But verse 4 is what we really need to see. If you are a believer here today, or if you become a believer today, He chose you before the foundation of the world - before creation - for a very specific purpose.
Do you see it?
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
It’s not simply that you were chosen, but you were chosen to become HOLY and BLAMELESS before Him!
HOLY - to be righteous and without fault. What Godly mom wants her children to be unrighteous and following their own fleshly/worldly desires? Who wants their child to be a fool?
25 A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
Do you want to give great joy to your godly mom? Skip the chocolates and instead work on you holiness - pursue it by the power of Christ.
How can you pursue holiness? Assuming you are a Christian...
Repent of your folly.
Give example
Give example
Give example
Transition - Mom’s Who Walk in the Truth Want Their Children to Walk in the Truth as Well!
A Godly Mom Wants You to be Saved!
A Godly Mom Wants You to Pursue Holiness
3. A Godly Mom Wants You to Love God!
Everyone has loves and passions in their lives. Hobbies that grab our attention. Work that helps us provided for our families. Education that stretches our thinking.
Theses and others activities are a blessing from God. However, they should never take the place of our God.
Our love for God should outshine them all!
And that is what a godly mom wants for her children. That they would have a profound love for God - the one who created them and recreated them.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
You notice in this passage that the believer isn’t simply to love God. No, Jesus makes it clear by mentioning the different ways we are to love God - all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. In other words, believers in Christ are to love God with every part of their being!
Our love for God should show up in our affections...
Our love for God should be the focus of our spiritual life...
Our love for God should be at the forefront of our thinking...
Our love for God should take every ounce of our strength...
Of course, apart from the all empowering ministry of the spirit of God, this is impossible! But because we have God dwelling within us, we can love God in this fashion! And nothing would please a godly mom more!
Give examples...
Transition - Mom’s Who Walk in the Truth Want Their Children to Walk in the Truth as Well!
A Godly Mom Wants You to be Saved!
A Godly Mom Wants You to Pursue Holiness
A Godly Mom Wants You to Love God
4. A Godly Mom Wants You to Love Others!
Of course tied to the last commandment from God is the second like unto it. Listen to the words of Jesus...
31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The fact is we have no trouble loving ourselves.
The real problem for us is that we love others as we love ourselves. What? Yes, this is one of the goals of the Christian life.
Godly mom’s spend a ton of time teaching their children to be kind to others. To show others respect. To honor people around theme regardless of race or creed. To do genuine acts of mercy and grace to whomever God brings across their paths. And when they see their children actually doing these acts it causes a godly mom’s heart to swell with joy!
If you think about it, a godly mom is the epitome of this command.
You know what they say,
“Don’t give your mom a hard time because she struggles with technology. After all she is the one who taught you to use the toilet and how to eat with a spoon!”
No small task, by the way!
Your mom gave up her freedoms to teach you to be free - what a great act of love on her part.
If she had to choose between flowers and you loving others - the flowers would be abandoned immediately.
Give examples...
Transition -
A Godly Mom Wants You to be Saved!
A Godly Mom Wants You to Pursue Holiness
A Godly Mom Wants You to Love God
A Godly Mom Wants You to Love Others
5. A Godly Mom Wants You to Know and Live the Bible!
In a day when the Bible is often maligned and disregarded, a godly mom wants her children to master the truths of the Scriptures.
Why?
Because the Scriptures are the very words of God. He breathed them out for our benefit!
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
There are so many things vying for our attention. The regular things like education, work, sports - good things!
Add to that circle of friends, family obligations, hobbies, social media, , etc., and pretty soon the good things crowd out the best thing.
Imagine! The God who created all there is wrote a book. A book that describes His mind and heart for you and for your redemption. Why wouldn’t you want to know this book intimately.
That may sound a little guilt-trippy. And I’m okay with that. Here’s why...
I grew up in a faith tradition that said I could not understand the bible on my own. That I needed a priest to interpret it for me so I would not misinterpret it.
When I was saved, born-again - when I became a legitimate follower of Jesus, I was kinda upset. Why? Because I was taught things the bible did not teach, and I wasn’t told things the bible did teach.
I was 23 years old when I was saved/became a follower of Jesus. I am 52. This October I will celebrate 30 years as a follower of Jesus. Since the time of my salvation until now I have been passionate about knowing what the Bible says. And, just being honest here, I cannot understand why anyone who names the name of Jesus would be blase and unimpressed with the bible. That they could just leave it on the shelf and never crack it open? I simply don’t understand. I have never gotten over the fact that God wrote a book for me to read, understand and live.
A godly mom feels the same way for her kids!
She wants her children to know God’s book, love God’s book and to live God’s book!!
Do you hunger for the Word? Do you regularly feed on His truth? This is so important to our Lord!
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to transform us into the People of God.
The more Word you have in you, the more the Spirit has to work with!
There are a lot of weak Christians in churches today because they are starving spiritually to hear a word from God.
Yet they refuse to go the one place that they will receive the spiritual sustenance they need - the Bible.
You MUST become a self-feeding Christian!
If your only interaction with the Bible is on Sunday, you are a starving and a weak Christian.
This is easily remedied!
Read His Word - Study His Word - Live His Word!
Transition - Mom’s Who Walk in the Truth Want Their Children to Walk in the Truth as Well!
A Godly Mom Wants You to be Saved!
A Godly Mom Wants You to Pursue Holiness
A Godly Mom Wants You to Love God
A Godly Mom Wants You to Love Others
A Godly Mom Wants You to Know and Live the Bible
Chocolate is great! Flowers are nice! A meal is special! But Every Jesus Lovin’ Mom want her children to Walk in the Truth!
Further questions
What about those whose mom doesn’t love Jesus? There are some of you that have moms that don’t love Jesus. You don’t have her godly influence like Timothy had with his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). What are you supposed to do?
The very same things I listed.
Find a “Momma” that loves Jesus and will invest in you spiritually
Pray for and evangelize your mom who doesn’t love Jesus.
What if you want something other than these things for your kids? There are Christian moms that forget the importance of the Spiritual life of their children. They are more concerned about the physical well being of their kids or that they have the right social experiences or that they get in the right college and find a career that brings in the most money. And the thought of their child becoming a missionary and moving to another country with their grandkids is off the table. What is this mom to do? One thing. Repent! This life is a vapor - and if you have failed to prepare them for the inevitability of eternity, you have sinned greatly! Repent and seek the most important thing! That your child knows and loves Jesus! You can’t save them, but let it never be said of you that you (personally) never shared the truth of the gospel with your children.
What if you are not a mom? Mother’s Day can be an incredibly painful day for moms who are not mom’s yet. It is yet another reminder of what they do not have - a beautiful child for them to love and care for. I cannot pretend to understand why God opens the wombs of some and closes others. We know throughout scripture this has been a heartache for many women. Sarah, the husband of Abram being one of the many. But I do know this about our God. He is good and He has his good purposes. And I can only imagine that giving some solace to the broken mother’s heart. So what can a woman in this position do?
Realize your identity is in Christ, not motherhood.
Entrust your life to Him. It may not be what you hoped for, but you can trust that whatever your life is, it can be full of joy and contentment.
You still can mother. There are so many kids that need attention and love. Your investment in them is incalculable. Be a Jesus Lovin’ Momma even if you are not officially a Momma yet!
EMPOWER
This sermon is a reminder of the powerful role women play in all of our lives. Especially the mothering role they play.
I was adopted when I was two months old. I am very grateful for the woman who gave me up for adoption. Eternally grateful. But she wasn’t my Momma. Shirley Green was my Momma. She was the one who fed me, clothed me, changed my diapers, taught me how to use a spoon and a toilet. She was the one who cleaned up my skinned knees and helped heal my bruised ego when I was hurting emotionally. She was the one who taught me to love, to be kind, to show mercy. She showed me how to be a good neighbor and a better friend. She taught me about God. She opened her home and her heart to me. Even though there were seasons that I hurt her deeply, her love for me never wavered.
I wrote this two days before my mom passed from this life.
One of the strongest women I know is now a weak shell of her former self. Death is lingering over our home as we wait for her inevitable last breath. As I sit in her room watching her breathe, I think about how she, more than fifty years ago, made the decision to bring me into her home and raise me as her own. Though another’s blood courses through my veins, I am, without question, her son. I could not have asked for a better mother. Though my biological mother let me go, my mom has never dreamed of such a thing. God blessed me far beyond what I deserve by giving her to me, and now our time together on this earth is growing short. She is ready to run to Jesus and see Him face to face. She took me into her home at the beginning of my life, and we have taken her in at the end of hers. What a sweet grace of God. Death may linger, but Life awaits! Go and live, Momma!
There is no possible way I could ever repay all that my Momma did for me. I miss her so much and her special love she had for me. It was unlike anything else.
Well, it was kind of like the Love of God. Of course, God’s love is stronger in every way possible. But a godly mom’s love is a beautiful picture of God’s love for us. A Jesus Lovin’ Momma’s love for Her children is remarkably like the Love our Jesus has for us...
God wants His Children to Walk in the Truth!
God Wants You to be Saved!
God Wants You to Pursue Holiness
God Wants You to Love Him
God Wants You to Love Others
God Wants You to Know and Live the Bible
Why? Because there is nothing better for you to do with the life He has graciously given you!
So, You want to know how to give your Jesus Lovin’ Momma the best Mothers Day ever? Commit to ever walk in a way that pleases God! She would not ask for anything more!
Connection Group Reflection Questions
1. What do these verses teach me about our character?
2. What do these verses teach me about God and his character?
3. Because these words are from God, they are TRUTH! What truth is he asking me to believe?
4. What do I need to do to obey him?
5. With whom can I share these truths?