Isaiah 49:14-16 A mother’s love - The intimate love we desire

Video: Honor our mothers / stand up – give them a flower

Kids – Take your mother a flower if she is not here this morning.

The youngest mother

The oldest mother

The mother with the most children

The mother with the most grandchildren

The mother with the most great grandchildren

What an amazing thing is a mother’s love

All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother. -Abraham Lincoln

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. -Honore de Balzac

A mother’s love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, it never fails or falters, even though the heart is breaking. – Helen Rice

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. ~Margaret Culkin Banning

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. ~Abraham Lincoln

If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. ~Emily Dickinson

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving

What do you appreciate most about your mother?

I. A Mother’s love: An enduring love Isaiah 49:15a

(NKJV) Isaiah 49 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

A. A picture of love

1. See it in the love glances of the new mother

2. The gentle caress

3. Afraid of breaking it – take to the doctor if it the baby skips a meal

4. Life has changed never to be the same

B. Giving life

1. Life begetting life

2. Life blood transfer – two lives intertwined

3. Risking one’s own life for the sake of the child

C. Nurturing always

1. Providing life sustenance in the womb

2. Providing essential nutrients when nursing

3. Providing life’s intangible resources – love – belonging

4. Support in life’s problems

5. Looks of approval even on one’s death bed

D. Intimately bonding

1. Deep caring that never goes away

2. Part of you that then lives its own life

II. A Mother’s love: But a broken world Isaiah 49:15c

(NKJV) Isaiah 49 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget,

A. Changing love

1. Camp distress

2. Relationships change

3. Natural to launch a child into the world

4. Heart break and broken relationships

B. Self-focused love

1. Clingy

2. Must always meet my need for love – over love for spouse/family / whatever

3. Meet my needs through you – do what I wanted to do

C. Corrupted love

1. Control you to satisfy my warped sense of control

2. Dysfunctional inabilities

3. Evil misuse

D. Insufficient love

1. Reality is that it is never enough

2. Never unconditional

3. Never to the deepest need of my soul

III. A Mother’s love: A more enduring love

A. Christ’s love endures Isaiah 49:15b

(NKJV) Isaiah 49 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.

1. Everlasting love

(NKJV) Jeremiah 31 3 The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

2. Pursuing us and pursuing us

3. Praying over us and praying over us

4. Reaching out to us and reaching out to us

B. In the face of sin Isaiah 49:14

‎‎(NKJV) Isaiah 49 14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.”

1. Separated by sin

(NKJV) Ephesians 2 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

C. Even when He seems far away Isaiah 49:14

‎‎(NKJV) Isaiah 49 14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.”

(NKJV) Hebrews 13 5 … For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

1. Feel far away - but He isn’t

D. Because of the cross `Isaiah 49:16

(NKJV) Isaiah 49 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

(NKJV) Romans 5 6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

(NKJV) Colossians 1 20 and by Him(Jesus) to reconcile all things to Himself, …, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

A greater love than any mother – a love that meets all of our deepest needs

IV. A Mother’s love: So embrace His love

A. Why reject Isaiah 50:2

Isaiah 50 ‎2 Why, when I came, was there no man?

‎Why, when I called, was there none to answer?

‎Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?

‎Or have I no power to deliver?

1. Mystery why we don’t respond to this love from Him

2. It is totally sufficient

3. Yet many / most don’t respond

B. Turn to Him Isaiah 50:10

(ESV) Isaiah 50 10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

1. Trust in Him

2. Place your dependence upon Him