Thank God for Praying Mothers
Notes
Transcript
Opening
Opening
Good morning church.i want to start this morning by saying happy mothers day to all the mothers aunts and Grandma's. And women who have acted as mothers through our life's.
The ones that kissed the bo boos when we were children.
Who knew just how to make the perfect blend of Mac and cheese with hotdogs cut up in them.
For the mothers that were there. For all our first
First sleepless nights
First time crying
First time crawling
First steps,
First words.
To our first arguments
and first fights
Who hugged us during our first heart breaks.
Who stayed up late at night Praying for us. when we were late for curvue
The ones that helped introduce many of us to Jesus for the first time.
Who shared all the little bible stories.
Adam and Eve
Noa and the flood
Jonah and the wale.
Davie and Goliath
The story of how Jesus was born.
and even the story of of Jesus on the cross.
We all have fond memories of some one in particular who did all of these for us. Some of us had this as our mothers, others had people in our lives who fit this role.
My Mother
My Mother
I know God blessed me with my mother.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you started to learn about Jesus. She would encourage my siblings and i to remember scriptures.
I still have one that I will never forget.
105 Your word is a lamp for my feet
and a light on my path.
Just a reminder know matter where Life takes me. Gods word will guide me on each step of the way.
As a child, My parents would pray with us ever night before we want to bed. and they would often read us bible stories as well.
On particular story I want to share with you guys this morning. Is the story of Moses
Moses Mothers.
Moses Mothers.
In the Beginning of Exodus we find the story of moses and his mother.
1 Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.
2 The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.
No you might be wondering Why would she be hiding her child.
Well when we look at Exodus chapter one in we read an account of the king of Egypt or Pharoah who wanted to have all the Hebrew male babies killed.
He even want as far as to tell the midwifes that if a Hebrew women gave birth to girl she may live. But if she gave birth to a boy they where to kill the child on the spot.
When the midwifes refused to do this and came up with excuses on why they couldn’t do it. This upset Pharaoh to the point that he commanded all of his people to throw every son born to the Hebrews into the nile river!
I can’t even imagine the fear that would have struck the Hebrew women knowing that that order had come to have there own sons killed.
Now if we go back to the verse from earlier. Exodus 2:2 we can clearly see why she would have hid her child for three months.
Can we imagine the fear that this mother would have been going through at this time.
The amount of sleepless nights and prayer that went in to watching over Baby we know as Moses.
in the very next verse it says
3 But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
She was willing to send her son up the river in a basket.
It tells us in Hebrews 11:23 that Moses parents did all of this out of faith and love for there son.
We know God heard her prayers.
5 Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, 6 opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?”
8 “Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Not only did her son get to live! she even got to spend more time with him! She still got to nurse him and help raise him. Her son was going to be safe!
God Heard a mothers prayer.
Little did His mother know what God had in store for later in life for Moses.
After Moses grew up he made a choice to go back out and spend time with his own people. While there he made a mistake and killed a man out of anger and vengeance! . He had to flee Egypt.
Just like us.
On our own
On our own
there comes a time in all of our lives when we have to make a choice to make Christ a priority in our own lives. We can not just count on our parents faith and our parents prayers. We have to start pursing a relationship with God on our own. We have to make a decision to follow Christ. To join the family of God. Just like Moses had too.
For me that was in my teenage years.
In fact I was called in to ministry at the age of 13 and even gave my first sermon at the age of 13.
But by the time I hit 16, My life took some big changes.
My parents got divorced.
We would needed to move.
Life was not good and peachy any more, like I always thought it should be.
I got angry at God.
I remember praying and asking God why would you let this happen in my life.
You asked me to go in to ministry. Yet here you are destroying my life around me!
by the time I was 17 I didn’t pay much attention to God any more. Girls became more of a focus. I stopped reading my bible or spending time in prayer.
By the time I turned 18 I basically lived as if there was no God.
I turned to drinking parting, womanizing.
The further I ran from God the more empty I felt inside.
The emptier I felt inside the more I tried to fill the void with things of this world.
Yet nothing filled that void. No matter how Hard I tried.
Im sure some of you here today can resinate with that statement!
You have an emptiness inside of you that no matter how hard you try you just can not fill that void!!!
Yes there were moments where I though yea this is happiness this is what I am looking for, yet with in a day or so it was gone. Nothing but emptiness.
Moses had a similar thought process while he was gone from the other hebrews. Even after he had a wife and kids. He stated in vs 22 “I have been a resident alien in a foreign land.” He still had a void in his life. He wasn’t where he belonged.
Turning Back
Turning Back
I remember I was in my early 20’s when I finally had a enough with how empty life felt.
I started to recall all the things that I was taught at a young age.
But have you noticed the longer you run from something or ignore something. The harder it is to turn back to it.
This is especially true when you are running from God.
The thought of going back to church and feeling, guilty and dirty feeling full of shame seems, well, too much.
So we just don’t go.
Its just easier to ignore it all and make excuses.
Yea, we might go Easter, Christmas or even Mothers day because Mom asked.
But out side of that we just don’t have the energy to face it all.
I mean work is piling up, you have to get that next account closed or you just know if you work just a little harder you will get the promotion on the next go around. We need a bigger house for the growing family. The car is getting older and You just need to put in the hours to make sure your bills are paid. Who has time for church.
The kids schedule has you running in ever direction.
You and your spouse no longer get along and your marriage is on the brinks.
You keep making 5 years plans with a hole lot of I got this written in to it.
You try to handle everything on your own. Because your the adult now.
Besides, you keep telling your self, God knows your busy. And ultimately you are a good person right. Thats all that really matters.
Over Time
Over Time
Then it happens, you hear the name Jesus out off the blue one day.
Your minds starts going back to those things you learned in Sunday School.
Your mom reminds you that she has been praying for you and to not worry so much God’s got this.
You start wondering does God really still care?
Is he really willing to take me back after everything I have done.
All the things I have placed in front of him in my life.
Will God really take me back?
God Never Left
God Never Left
here is the thing, God never left.
Just because you stopped acknowledging him, doesn’t mean he wasn’t working things out in the back ground.
The whole time you were doing your thing, God was right there watching out for you.
I want you to think about this for a minute.
How many times in life did you get yourself in a situation that should have ended so much worse. But for some reason, you walked away with just minor scratches in our life. Or a momentary in convenience.
Yes not everything worked out how you wanted, but it could have been so much worse if your honest with yourself.
God is Patient with us!
God is Patient with us!
After Moses killed an Egyptian out of vengeance and spent over forty years away from his family, God told him it was time to come back.
In chapter 3 God spoke to moses to through a burning bush. and told him to that he needs to go back to Egypt and to talk to Pharaoh.
and instead of just saying yes! He starts by making excuses!.
He states
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3
Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
God tells him he will be with him.
Then moses replied who should I tell them Sent me.
God tells him to tell the Hebrews that I AM sent Moses. The God of there ancestors the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
And if that wasn’t enough
Moses asked him again “what if they don’t believe me.”
Now If I was God I would be getting a little frustrated. But God was gracious and worked with Moses through all his questions.
Then Moses said one more thing.
10 But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.”
Basically he was saying I don’t speak well.
God told him I will give you the words.
In return Moses answered “Please Lord Send Someone else.”
We do the same thing,
We always come up with excuses on why we do not have time to spend time with God.
You ever notice that its hard to find time to read the word of God for 15 minutes. But we can binge watch TV shows and movies.
We can spend all this time with hobbies and extra hours at work. But we just never seem to be able to find time for God.
Yet God is patient with each of us just like he was with Moses.
GOD MAKES THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
GOD MAKES THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
Just as moses Thought that he could never be the one who would lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
We often say we can’t as well.
You know what your right, we Can’t. But God can.
You see God took Moses moms prayer and took them further then she could have imagined.
He took that little baby, she had prayed over, cried over and handed him over to God. Just as many of your mothers have done for you. Thank God For Praying Mothers.
God took that little baby and used him in great ways, to be able to rescue his people. A little later in Exodus God used Moses to rescue his people. Guiding them the whole time.
You may think its impossible to turn back to God today after everything you have done.
I understand that.
I felt the same way, How could God still use me after everything I had done. Doesn’t he know everything I have done.
Here is the thing he does now you and he still wants to be with you.
He sees you. He hears you. When you weep, He weeps. When you triumph, He rejoices!
He wants to know you fully, deeply, intimately.
In Psalms 139:1-2
1 Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up;
you understand my thoughts from far away.
God knows you better then you know yourself.
and God has all ready made a way for you to turn back to him. Just as God had answers for all of Moses Excuses. He’s got answer for all of your sins.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God sent his son to die a sinners death, to pay the penalty for both you and I. So that none of us would have to perish. That we each one of us could have eternal life.
You may be asking yourself, why would God do this.
Because God Loves you!
Because God Loves you!
He doesn’t care what your past is, what mistakes you have made.
He wants you.
He tells us in Jeremiah
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1
I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
I set you apart before you were born
He tells us in Psalms 139.
That we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
In Genesis
He tell us we are made in his image.
he wants to be near to you, he wants to be in a relationship with you.
He gave us the gift of choice.
He’s all ready chose you. He just want you to choose him.
He wants to be part of your daily life, not just a moment of thought every once and while when it’s convenient.
Through out the scriptures he has shown us that he wants to dwell with us.
When we look back on a story of the Israelites in the desert in Exodus. God tells Moses.
46 And they will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
He even told Moses to have them build a sanctuary
8 “They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them.
Just as God wanted to live with the Israelites. He wants to live with each of us.
Closing
Closing
I bet you know that God is trying to get your attention. I also would be willing to bet you have spent some time avoiding him.
It’s time to stop running from God and face him.
You are no different than the moses from the Bible. He was a real person with real doubts, fears and frustrations.
And just as God sought after him, He is seeking after you.
It’s time.
It’s time to quit running.
It’s time to turn back to him.