May 8, 2011
Morning Service

Everyday should be Mother’s Day.  After all the hours of cleaning, cooking, laundry, emergency medical assistance, mediation, chauffeuring, coaching, correcting, molding, shaping, guiding  planning, weeping, and praying, one day does not do mother’s justice.

 

Exo 20:12  Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land which Jehovah your God gives you.

• Look for ways to honor her.  Talk with her and tell her, write a letter mentioning some of the times she really was there for you.  It will be priceless.
• The most important thing we should honor our Christian mother for is her willingness to bring us before our Heavenly Father.

 

• Mat 20:20-22  Then the mother of Zebedee's children came to Him with her sons, worshiping and desiring a certain thing from Him.  (21)  And He said to her, What do you desire? She said to Him, Grant that these my two sons may sit in Your kingdom, the one on Your right hand and the other on the left.  (22)  But Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They said to Him, We are able.

 

1. Her desire was for her sons to be part of His Kingdom.

·       I’m sure she was like most typical mother’s and wanted her children to prosper, be happy, safe and well, but her greatest desire was for them to be saved from God’s wrath and be part of His family.

·        Mothers put first things first, pray for the salvation of your children.  Everyone’s prayers are heard, but there is something special about a mother’s prayer.

·       Mat 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

·       Mat 16:26  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

·       Please honor your mother today for all the times she has came into God’s presence and pleaded for you.

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2. She prayed that not only would her sons be saved, but that they would be involved and play important roles in the Kingdom.
• We as a society push our children to excel in academics or athletics but what about their spiritual life?

·       Why do we so often accept the bare minimum on that front?  We serve a God who has no restrictions?  Why not shoot for the stars?

·       Parents today need to be setting the spiritual bar higher for our children.  The world they are growing up in is not like the one I grew up in & certainly not like my parents.  It is one where the evil one is seeking to devour them on many fronts and we must prepare them with the armor of God.

·       Teach them God’s way at home, at play, through nature and show them the importance of being in God’s house and knowing His Word.

·       Pro 22:6  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

 

What a challenge it is to be a mother.  I think a mother’s love is the closest example we have of  what God’s love is like.  A love of self sacrifice, one that never ends. And one that has depths we cannot understand.

 

Solomon Rosenberg story

 

That summarizes motherhood.  Today is your day mothers, may God bless you in it.  

 

If there is one here this morning who maybe doesn’t understand a love like we have been talking about, you have never felt that unconditional love, you often feel very alone.   Jesus offers each of us an even greater gift.  A love that has no ending and one that motivated Him to give His life for you.  He stands at an open door inviting you to take his hand and say to you “Don’t be afraid, I’ll go with you.”