A Tribute to Godly Moms
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A Tribute to Godly Moms
TEXT: Colossians 3:15-20
INTRODUCTION: Rita Kramer has 8 children. In a recent book she describes a day in the life of a mother: "Hey, mom, Rory's playing in the toilet again!" "Mom, mom, Todd said if I don't find his fish hooks, he's going to dump water on my bed!" "Mom, Josh is eating a big spoonful of something brown. It smells like peanut butter. He's sitting on your bed. He got some of it on your pillow too, I think." "Mom, Uncle Bob called while you were in town. He said they want to come down for the weekend. He said they were all packed up and would be coming as soon as they got all the kids stuffed into their mini van." Rita Kramer then informs us: "It was 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning."
I am obviously not a mother but many of you are. Whether your kids are preschool, elementary aged, teenagers, college students, or adults raising their own families, you know that sometimes being a mother can drive you nuts.
Today is Mother's Day and I want to share with you from the Scriptures a tribute to godly mothers. First, we'll examine the lives and problems of some of the mothers in the Bible and then from our text in Colossians, we'll gain some encouragement and learn how the rest of us can honor and help you.
I. Problems for Godly Moms.
A. Eve, Given to Temptation and Mother of a Murderer (Gen.3-4).
1. Most of us are very familiar with the Genesis account of the Fall, when Even ate the forbidden fruit from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and how she shared it with Adam and he sinned too. Some men like to point out that sin started with women
a) It seems that Adam was not that different from modern men because in 3:12, when God asked him what happened, he said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." He laid all the blame on his poor wife. Sound familiar, moms?
b) Imagine how Eve must have felt. She knew she had sinned. After all she was wearing "fig leaves" and hiding from God. Did she need her spineless husband to lay the whole thing on her shoulders?
2. In chapter 4, we learn that she bore two sons, Cain and Able. She loved both of them. Like any good mother, she had an abiding love for both.
a) Imagine how she felt when she learned the tragedy that Cain had murdered his brother Able out of jealousy. How could she deal with her sorrow?
b) How could she extinguish her pain? How could she have prevented it?
c) The Bible makes it clear that this murder was a result of the sin that has entered the world through human pride, rebellion, & greed.
3. From Gen.3-4, we learn that mothers give birth to their children in an imperfect, flawed, and tragic world, which threatens children and where children grow up to threaten and destroy each other.
B. Hagar, Abandoned and Abused (Gen.21).
1. Gen. 16 describes how Abraham, the father of the Jews, had a wife named Sarah who was barren and past childbearing years. She wanted to help God fulfill His promise to her husband so she gave him her Egyptian servant-girl, Hagar as a concubine, a woman to bear him children. Hagar bore a fine son named Ishmael, who became the father of the Arab nations.
a) Chapter 21, describes how after God miraculously gave Sarah a son named Isaac, she didn't want Hagar and Ishmael hanging around any longer. She had Abraham send them away.
b) Hagar left their camp with her young son and traveled through the middle of a burning desert south of Beersheba in the wilderness of Judea. She was trying to go back to Egypt; but wasn't going to make it. Most of all, she was very concerned about her son, Ishmael.
c) The bread was gone, the water skin was empty. She had placed her child under a bush so she wouldn't have to watch him die. Hagar sat down at a distance and waited for death.
2. Then Gen. 21:17 says "God heard the voice of the lad." and sent an "angel" to reassure her of His great promises (vv.17-18). He then provided "a well of water."
a) God is still calling to exhausted, despondent mothers today. His voice is still filled with hope. We can still say, "God has heard the cry of your children. Don't give up. Don't abandon Him. Look there is a well, there is food, there is living water and the bread of life."
C. Jochebed, Desperate and Deliberate (Ex.2).
1. In this chapter that describes the birth of the great leader Moses, we do not see his mother's name. It is found in the genealogies (6:20 & Num.26:59).
a) Jochebed had a tremendous problem. The boy babies of her people were being drowned in the Nile River by a cruel and oppressive government.
b) When her son was born, she hid him for 3 months, until he was too old to be hidden any longer. All the while she worked on a little basket made of bulrushes which she daubed it with tar and pitch.
c) Jochebed but her son in this basket in the edge of the river and sent her older daughter, Miriam to watch "afar off."
d) The daughter of the Pharaoh came down to bathe and saw that little basket floating in the reeds. She had one of her maids bring the child to her. Moses' real mother was hired to nurse him (up to 7 years old).
2. Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s palace. He grew up in the luxury and splendor of the greatest empire of the ancient world. But from his real mother he learned faith and his true identity with the people of God.
a) When he came of age, Moses left the wealth, power, and ease of Egypt and returned to the oppressed people of the God (cf. Heb.11:24-26).
b) You cannot explain Moses’ actions or understand the contributions of his life apart from the story of his mother, Jochebed who kept her faith, used her creative imagination, taught her child and even got paid for doing it.
D. Mary, Fearful and Faithful (Luke 1).
1. Mary was told by an angel an amazing message, that the Holy Spirit would conceive in her the Messiah. When she heard this message, she obediently proclaimed, "Let it be to me according to your word."
a) Outcast, she and her betrothed husband, Joseph traveled 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register for the Roman census.
b) How do you think Mary felt when she saw Joseph coming back shaking his head and saying, "There's no more room at the inn?" How do you think she felt knowing she would give birth the Messiah in a stable? How do you think she felt when the prophet Simeon said "a sword will pierce through your own soul?" How do you think she felt when they had to flee to Egypt from the fury of Herod?
2. How do you think she felt 12 years later when she and Joseph traveled all day long, thinking that Jesus was with them -- only to learn he had never began the journey?
3. How do you think she felt at the foot of the cross. She was a witness to His resurrection. Mary knew what it was to weep & to rejoice, to have her heart torn & then healed.
II. Encouragement for Godly Moms.
A. First, Get a Grip on God's Peace (v.15).
1. Notice the important word "let." "Let" means it can happen if you will "let" it happen. You must actively choose to "let the peace of God rule in your hearts."
a) God rules in the world. He is sovereign, in control. However, He does not rule our "hearts" until we "let" Him.
2. Moms, what rules your hearts? Fear, frustration, anxiety, anger, apathy? Let the peace of Christ give you inner guidance in keeping priorities straight and in giving you the wisdom you need.
a) Hold on to your faith. Trust the Lord who upholds and sustains you and let His inner peace give you inner strength and inspiration.
Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."