Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In many churches today, pastors will preach a message that will be encouraging and uplifting as mothers will be celebrated and honored for the wonderful things that they do on a regular basis.

Mothers will be lifted up to “saint” status.

A month from now, many of those same pastors will stand in their pulpits and call on men to stand up and do their job.

Dad’s will be called out for being lazy, lethargic, and passive.

They will be labeled as sinners with room to improve.

This morning we absolutely want to pause and give thanks to our Mother’s because of the things that they do.

While this isn’t a Holy Day - it is a holiday and there are some holidays that are worth pausing what we have been doing and looking at what the Bible says on a specific subject.

This doesn’t mean that we’ll throw 4 random application points together and forsake the study of the Bible - we’re going to study the Bible as we always do at FBC Salem.

But as we do so, today of all days, it is imperative for us to remember something that can easily be forgotten.

We all need Jesus.

I was blessed to have a Christ-following mother growing up and I’m blessed to have a Christ-following wife today… Debbie and Lindsey Hayworth are two of God’s greatest gifts to me in this life but Debbie and Lindsey Hayworth both need Jesus Christ each and every day.

Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, wherever you find yourself at today, friend, you need Jesus Christ.

You don’t need more of yourself, you don’t need to be the hero of the story or even the hero of today… We’re all background characters.

The hero in our story is not ourselves.

It’s not even our moms who seemingly are superheroes!

The hero that we all need is Jesus Christ.

Godly women point their families and friends to King Jesus and leave behind a legacy of faith in Him!

Mother’s Day is always a tough message to prepare for.

It’s hard for this pastor because I was adopted and never got to know my biological mom, although God blessed me with the greatest mom I could have dreamed of.

Mother’s Day might be hard for you because you might have had a falling out with your mom.

Maybe she wasn’t there for you.

Maybe you don’t have a close relationship with her or as close as you’d like.

Mother’s Day might be hard for you as a young mother because you feel the weight of all of these expectations and you feel like you fall woefully short.

Maybe Mother’s Day is hard for you because you have been rejected by a family member or loved one.

Maybe Mother’s Day brings up feelings of deep loss that you feel as though no one else understands.

Friend, regardless of if you are a mother or not this morning, you have a purpose and are of infinite worth because you are exactly who God designed you to be.

Women, you are valuable today not because some boy or man says that you are, not because that’s what society says, but because the Bible declares that you are an image bearer of the most High God!

This morning, we’re going to look to the Bible to remind us who the Hero is in our story.

We’re going to examine what Godly women strive to do in this thing called life.

We’re going to mine out points of application from the text not to help us feel better about ourselves but in order to better glorify Jesus Christ in how we live our lives.

This morning we’re going to be in the book of Exodus in chapter 2 as we look at the birth and adoption of a little boy named Moses.

The same Moses who would go on to be the greatest leader in Jewish history is found in Exodus 2 cared for by his mother and sister who demonstrate remarkable faith in the Lord.

This same Moses who will go on to deliver his people from their slavery is but a glimpse, a shadow, of the greater deliverer who will come from his line and save His people from their sins.

This Mother’s Day morning, let’s read God’s Word together and be encouraged and challenged to reflect the love and life of Jesus Christ to those around us.

This is the introduction we get to one of the most famous figures in all of Scripture.

Moses would go on to do some incredible things and lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery… But before all of that could take place, we read that that his mother trusted in the Lord and in a time of chaos and conflict, entrusted her son to the care of her God.

This morning let’s look at this miracle as we evaluate what our trust is placed in today.

Godly Women Trust in the Lord (1-4)

What are some of the things that you trust in?

It seems like the list of things we can trust in keeps on growing smaller and smaller by the day.

People betray our trust.

Products that used to work no longer do or we can’t find them.

Tools break down.

What remains constant?

Our God.

We read in Exodus 2 that Moses’ mom was pregnant and hid him for 3 months.

Why would she need to hide her son?

What is going on in the context of this chapter of Scripture?

The first book of the Bible, Genesis, ends with the death of Joseph.

Joseph was an advisor to the Pharoah in Egypt and had provided for his brothers and family in the past so they moved down to Egypt.

The Bible shares with us that the Israelites began to multiply quickly while in Egypt and eventually a king rose to power who did not know Joseph.

He viewed the Israelites as a threat to his people and began to oppress them.

Sadly, this didn’t stop the fact that the Israelites were still growing so the king then decides to issue a command that any Israelite boy must be thrown into the Nile river.

That’s the buildup to Exodus 2. There’s a command issued by the king that any Israelite boy must be killed.

Enter Moses!

The law of the land said that he should be thrown into the Nile… Yet, his mother hid him for 3 months.

Can you imagine the horror going through his mother’s brain in that moment?

The penalty for disobeying the king of Egypt would have been death so your options at this point in time are either to give up your newborn son or try to hide him from the powers that be and put yourself and the rest of your family in danger.

This is truly a position where you’re in a lose/lose position.

Whenever you’re in that type of position, where do you turn?

What can you do?

The people in charge want to harm you - you can’t turn there.

You can’t run away to a new place or town.

You’re not going to hand him over… So you hide.

I’m not sure if she just had the best behaved 3 month old in the entire world or what, but I can’t imagine trying to hide an infant from the powers that be.

One little scream and then you’re done.

Yet, she continued to trust in the Lord.

We read that after Moses became 3 months old she put him into a basket, coated it with tar and probably had some holes in it for air, and set him afloat in the Nile River.

Now maybe at this point you think that she just left her son for random chance and stopped trusting in the Lord… Quite the opposite.

In the moment when their life was literally on the line, she did her absolute best with the hand that she was dealt and then she trusted in God to take care of her baby boy.

Our Kidz Choir boys and girls did a great job with their program last Sunday night as they performed “Spend a While on the Nile” and if you were unable to attend you can watch it on the church facebook page - it was great!

They taught us some of the stories that took place in the Bible on the Nile River.

Here are some quick facts about the Nile River to put it into perspective for us.

The Nile provided the Egyptians with transportation, food, water, and fertile land for over 5,000 years.

The Nile is recognized as the longest river in the world at over 4,100 miles long - or nearly 2,000 miles longer than the Mighty Mississippi here in the Midwest.

The Nile was also filled with animals such as hippos and crocodiles that could grow to be 20 feet long.

Into this might river goes 3 month old Moses in a tiny paper box.

We aren’t told how long he was in the boat or how long his sister had to run to as verse 4 tells us.

We just see that into literally a sea of disaster, in goes the future savior of these Israelites.

How? Why?

Because his mother trusted in the Lord.

Trusting in the Lord will look different in each context and in every family.

For Moses’ mother, it was trusting that her God was in charge of the waters of the Nile and the boat her son was in.

For Ruth, it was trusting in God and following her mother-in-law back to a foreign country and worshipping a God that she didn’t grow up worshipping.

For Rahab, it was trusting in God’s power and faithfulness and protecting the Israelites spies instead of doing what would have benefitted her fellow countrymen.

For you today, mother’s, grandmother’s, daughter’s, granddaughter’s, trusting in God might simply look like believing what the Bible says about you instead of what the world does.

It might look like having a conversation with someone and inviting them to be your friend because they don’t have anyone else to turn to.

It might look like simply taking God at His Word like Sarah did

Sarah knew that the God who had promised her and her husband that they would have a child was faithful… and that was enough.

Wherever you find yourself at today, look at God’s track record.

Look at His Word.

Look at what He has done for you in your life… Look at the blessings.

Is He enough for you whenever disaster strikes?

Is He enough for you whenever the Nile and all of its obstacles are gnashing their teeth at you? Do you trust that he will keep you safe in His Ark? Do you trust that He still directs boats in the sea of this thing called life?

Trust in Him.

Godly Women Maximize Their Time (5-10)

We see that this boat miraculously makes its way to the place where the Pharaohs daughter was bathing.

Moses’ mother was trying to hide her son and where does he end up?

In the arms of the daughter of the man who gave the order to kill boys like Moses!