Sermon Cloud

5/11/2008

Garfield Community Church

Mothers, God's Daily Reminder of His Love

Titus 2:4-5, Matthew 28:20b, John 8:12, John 9:5

Today is Mother's Day. There are many skeptics that say Mother's Day is a creation of florists and greeting card companies. Regardless of the reason why we have Mother's Day, I want to make sure we all know that it is perfectly in God's will to honor those whom honor is due, and I can't think of a group more deserving than mothers for honor.

When we think of mother, many things come to mind. I have a comic strip from a couple of weeks ago to share with you. It's a comic strip that I read each day. Maybe it's the youth pastor still in me but I get a kick out of reading about the drama that surrounds this family that has a teen aged girl and boy. Let's take a look.

I know many of you ladies here this morning can relate to what this mom is going through. I can honestly say that I have thanked the Lord many times for making me a guy.

This is the first thing I'd like to talk about this morning. Have you ever noticed how Mom is always there to take care of things. There are many houses that if Mom stopped doing what she does, the house would come to a screeching halt.

We have funny sayings and things that remind us what Moms do. For instance, you will see a sign in most machine shops, wood shops, mechanics shops, etc. that says, “Clean up after yourself, your mother doesn't work here.” I remember working at Boy Scout summer camp as camp staff and having to do laundry for myself the first time. I learned the hard way to separate colors and whites. Have you ever noticed what families will eat when Dad is tasked with dinner. Let's just say, in our house if you can't barbecue, it's pizza, preferably delivered.

Moms by their very nature are servants. They serve and they serve and they serve. They are fantastic day to day examples of what a servant heart looks like. They remind us daily how Jesus came to serve, and has asked us all to serve.

We even have a wonderful nickname for Mom sometimes. It's Dr. Mom. I'll tell you what, I'm listening to Dr. Mom before some M.D. Dr. Mom knows what's best. She knows when an M.D. Needs to be seen. She also knows just what we need when we are ailing, both physically and emotionally.

Titus 2:4-5 says:

4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

The second thing about mothers I want to talk about is how they seem to be all knowing. Now we know in truth, they really aren't all knowing, but it sure seems to be sometimes.

Have you ever noticed that extra keen sense they have that something is up, even in another room, or outside? Have you ever noticed they seem to be able to read our minds? Have you ever noticed they always seem to be where you don't want them to be?

When I was a teenager I grew up in a village not unlike Garfield. When I got my driver's license, somehow, trouble started to find me. My mom worked at a little general store and gas station across the street from our house. The town cops would hang out there sometimes. When I would get in trouble, even in surrounding towns, the police wouldn't give me a ticket. They wouldn't haul me in and call my father. Nope. They would take a look at me and say, “Well Brian, we'll see what your Mom has to say about this when I stop for coffee tomorrow morning.” Oh man! I always wanted to say, “Just give me the ticket. I can pay that and no one will know. Don't tell Mom.” You know Mom knowing is worse than anything the police could ever do to you.

I have a couple of cousins that have frequently found themselves on the wrong side of the law including time in jail and prison. My Aunt, their Mom, never left their side. She knew they did wrong. She knew they had to pay the price for what they did. She never stopped loving them or supporting them. She never left them.

How does this remind us of God? God is with us always. Always. God, is with us when we are at our high points, He is also with us at our low points. When trouble seems to be finding us, He's there. Unlike Mom though, there's no paying a ticket or talking your way out of something in hopes that He won't find out. He already knows and is right there to support us. He's not condemning us. He's right there while we pay for the choices we made. He's right there to hold us up during our failures and support us through the trials that we face day in and day out living in this fallen world.

Matthew 28:20b

20 ...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The next way Moms remind us of God daily is how they are our everything. Listen to this story:

Mom Is The Light

A little girl was reciting memory work in front of the entire church. In front of such a crowd her mind went blank. In the front row, her mother was almost as frantic as the little girl.

The mother gestured, moved her lips, trying to form the words for the girl, but it did no good. Finally, the mother, in desperation, whispered the opening phrase of the memorized Scripture: “I am the light of the world.” Immediately the child's face lit up and relaxed and a smile appeared on it as she said with supreme confidence: “My mother is the light of the world!” Of course, everybody smiled and some laughed out loud.

Upon further reflection, the little girl, in many ways, was right. For the mother is the light of the child's world.

Moms are the light of our world. As children our lives are full of Mom. Every success, every failure, every skinned knee, every lost butterfly, they are there. When we lose our first tooth, she's there. When we break our first bone, she's there. When we need something, we go to Mom.

My own kids will come and ask me, “Where's Mom, I can't find something? Where's Mom, I want to ask her if I can go to the park? Where's Mom, she makes sandwiches better?” When we have true successes in life, who do we celebrate with first? When we have failures, who do we ask for prayer from first?

John 8:12

12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

John 9:5

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Jesus came to be the light of the world. Jesus came to illuminate our paths. As Moms can make a complex problem seem simple when they explain it, Jesus came to make our complex lives simple.

Jesus points our crazy mixed up lives back to God the Father. He has paid the price for us to be able to be in direct communication with God the Father. He has given us His Spirit as a comforter and guide in this life. Everything we look to Mom for as children, Jesus does for us. As a small child Mom was the center of your universe. As you mature Jesus needs to be the center of your universe. SO often as we mature instead of making Jesus our center, we make ourselves our center.

Mothers. They remind us every day of God's love for us.