Portrait of a Godly Mom - 11 March 2018

“Portrait of a Godly Mom”

Mother’s Day Message (SBC, Sligo IE)

11 March 2018

INTRODUCTION:

If you wanted to paint a portrait of the perfect, archetypical, godly mother, whom would you choose as your subject? Who would be your model, your muse? Who would you ask to pose for you?

For me, my own mother would be a good choice. Although not perfect, she was a wonderful, fun-loving, kind, godly woman. I could not have asked for a better mom. She loved me through thick and thin. She almost died giving me life. She started praying for me while I was still in her womb, then after I was born she prayed for me every day of my life. She paddled me good whenever she knew I needed it (though not nearly as often as I should have gotten it!). She comforted me when I was hurt or sad. She counseled me when I needed someone to talk to. She was wise and kind, and she taught me many important life lessons. If I were painting a portrait of a godly mother, my own mother is the one I would choose to pose for it.

But from the pages of God’s Word who would you choose? Of the many mothers described in the Scriptures, which one do you think best exemplifies the qualities of a godly mother? Several come to my mind:

·         Perhaps Jochebed, the mother of Moses?

·         Or Sarah, the mother of Isaac?

·         How about Hannah, the mother of Samuel?

·         Or even Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist?

·         And of course, there is Mary, the mother of our Lord.

All these women exhibited admirable qualities, ones that any wise woman of our day would do well to emulate. Yet none of these women was perfect. They all had character flaws and failings. You might ask, “How then could any of these mothers serve as a model of godliness if they were indeed all flawed in some way or another?”

I am reminded that Abraham and Moses are both referred to in Scripture as “friends of God” yet neither one of them was perfect either. And King David in the Bible is called “a man after God’s own heart,” although he was guilty of both adultery and murder.

Godliness is first and foremost an issue of the heart. Its deepest expression is seen in a profound love for God, an unwavering commitment to serve Him, and a genuine sorrow for our own sins and shortcomings. The truth, though, is that God does not ask us to be perfect in this life. One day, God Himself will change us, will set us free from sin’s bondage, but until then, we struggle with our sin nature, with old habits, and with our imperfections. However, God has also given us several things to show us the way, to teach us right from wrong, and to empower us for godly living. He has given us:

·         His Word, the Bible, to shed light upon our pathway

·         His Holy Spirit, to convict us of sin and lead us in the right paths

·         The Church, to encourage us and support us in our walk with Christ

·         The Christian family with godly parents and grandparents, to instruct us in righteousness and to provide a healthy learning lab.

TRANSITION:

While none of the five women I mentioned a moment ago would serve as a model of perfection, they all exhibited wonderful qualities of godliness and they were all good mothers. Let’s think about them for a moment and look at them individually.

MAIN BODY:

#1 Jochebed. She is introduced to us in Exodus 2:1-10 (her name is given in 6:20). We know very little about her except that she and her husband, Amram, were both descended from the priestly line of Levi. They were slaves in Egypt under bondage to Pharaoh. Their first child was a daughter whom they named Miriam. Later, after the birth of their second child, Moses, Jochebed had a third child whom they named Aaron. Hebrews 11:23 includes Amram and Jochebed in the “Faith Hall of Fame” because of their courage to defy Pharaoh’s edict to destroy all the boy babies of the Hebrews. To save his life, Jochebed made a little basket out of reeds and set baby Moses afloat on the water, entrusting him to God’s mercy, believing that the Lord would save her child. If a single word could describe Jochebed, I think it would have to be the word, “COURAGE.”

This is a quality that all mothers need, especially today. Raising children has never been easy, but it is even tougher today because of all the horrible influences that constantly bombard our lives and the lives of our children. Mothers today need courage to confront ungodly schools, filthy media choices, gang influences, substance abuse, on-line sexual predators, and immoral and dishonest attitudes, just to name a few things. It takes courage to stand up against the flow of our culture and provide a little shelter of sanity, love, stability, and holiness. [Illustration: A mother is like a rock in the middle of the river, creating a calm safe place for the little fish.]

#2 Sarah. She was the wife of Abraham, and eventually became the mother of Isaac. If any single word describes Sarah, for me it would be the word, “STEADFASTNESS.” Sarah’s name means “princess” and it was a name well deserved because of her demeanor and comportment. Scripture records that she was a beautiful woman, not only on the inside, but on the outside as well. Abraham loved her and was very proud of her. Even though she was barren until she was ninety years old, she held Abraham’s undivided love and loyalty.

But Abraham was not always a wonderful man, and not always a great husband. At least twice he made decisions that put Sarah in grave danger, and yet, she always stuck by him. She was steadfast in her conjugal devotion, even though married to a less-than-perfect man. She was faithful, despite being mistreated, helping her husband grow to become a real man of God.

Her unselfishness and steadfastness were finally rewarded when, as recorded in Genesis 17:15-22, God miraculously opened her womb and said: “I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” She is also mentioned in Hebrews 11:11 as an example of faith because: “…she considered Him [God] faithful who had promised.”

Today we need more godly mothers who will provide for their children this same example of steadfast love and devotion for their less-than-perfect husbands. In a day when families are being blown apart by unfaithfulness and divorce, children need to see their mothers as steadfast examples of uncompromising love toward both them and their fathers.

#3 Hannah. She was the mother of Samuel and is introduced to us in the first chapter of the Book of 1 Samuel. Hannah’s husband was a godly man named Elkanah and he loved her dearly, but verse 6 tells us “the Lord had closed her womb.” To be barren in Israel was a great shame, both for the woman as well as for the man, because it meant that their family line would be cut off with no one to carry on their family name and heritage. This certainly bothered Elkanah, but for Hannah it was a daily torture as she saw other women with children and received their constant taunts because of her barrenness. She wanted to be a mother. She wanted a child of her own. God’s Word tells us that in her great distress she constantly prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. Yet her sorrow never turned to anger against God. She loved God, and she knew that He is faithful, and that He answers prayer.

If a single word can describe Hannah, I think it would have to be the characteristic of “HOLINESS.” Her devotion to God and her desire for a son led her to make a solemn vow to the Lord, recorded for us in 1 Samuel 1:11: “O Lord of Hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thy maidservant and remember me, and not forget Thy maidservant, but wilt give Thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.”

Having made this commitment, God gave her His peace, and so “…she went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.” Verse 19 says: “And the Lord remembered her, and it came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I have asked him of the Lord.’”

That child that Hannah dedicated to the Lord grew to become the godly prophet, Samuel, one of the greatest men in all of Scripture. Chapter 2, verse 21 tells us that after the birth of Samuel God gave Hannah and Elkanah three more sons and two daughters, making 6 children in all. But Samuel, her firstborn, her miracle baby, was always special to Hannah.

To this day, mainly because of the example of Hannah, parents bring their children to dedicate them to the Lord. My mother dedicated me to the Lord when I was just a couple of months old. I dedicated my three children to the Lord. Many of you have done the same thing. We know that children are a gift from God, loaned to us for a few short years to love and train and nurture, so that they will grow up to know, love, and serve God, but they don’t belong to us. They are given to us in trust, to raise for Him.

Hannah, in an act of holiness and devotion to God, gave Samuel back to the Lord, and just look what God did with him! What will God do today if a mother gives her children over to the Lord and raises them to serve Him, living out before their watching eyes a life of consistent personal holiness?

#4 Elizabeth. This woman, the mother of John the Baptist, steps onto the stage of Bible history in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. We are told that both she and her husband, Zacharias, were descended from the priestly line of Aaron, and Zacharias was a priest who served in the Temple in Jerusalem. Luke 1:6 describes them in this way: “And they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.” The next verse tells us, “…they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.”

However, along with those advanced years came a character that had been well-formed and well-tempered. Elizabeth was a woman who had walked with God for many years and had seen a great deal. The first word that comes to my mind when I think of Elizabeth is “WISDOM.” The Bible says, “The fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and Elizabeth certainly knew God in a personal way and reverenced Him.

Moreover, God knew the hearts of both Elizabeth and Zacharias and chose to bless them in a marvelous way with a very special child, one who would need all the wisdom his parents could possibly give him. I am speaking, of course, of John the Baptist, the man who Jesus Himself described in Luke 7:28 as, “the greatest man among those born of women.”

When the time came to name their baby the relatives of Elizabeth and Zacharias insisted that he be named after his father, following the custom. However, it was Elizabeth who spoke up and answered them saying: “No indeed; but he shall be called, John!” for this was the name the angel Gabriel had given them for their son. Elizabeth, in her wisdom, knew that obeying God is the highest priority.

We also see in Luke, chapter 1 that Mary, the mother of Jesus who was a cousin of Elizabeth and was herself pregnant by miraculous conception, went to stay with Elizabeth and Zacharias for the last three months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, staying until after the delivery just to help. I believe that those 3 months together were filled with long talks as Elizabeth poured her wisdom into Mary. I believe that those three months were of critical importance in Mary’s life, and may well have been a major sustaining influence through times of great sorrow and suffering she endured later.

#5 Mary. The mother of Jesus was, by her own testimony, of all women the most blessed, for to her was given the privilege of bringing into this world the Savior, the Promised One, the Messiah. Why was she chosen above all others? We really do not know. That is a question we have asked about ourselves, and about other people, both during times of testing and times of great blessing— “Why me?” The answer is that God makes sovereign choices.

In fact, we do not know very much about Mary except that she was a young woman, probably still a teenager, from the city of Nazareth, and that although she was engaged to be married to a carpenter named Joseph, she was, in fact, still a virgin, never having had sexual relations with Joseph or any other man. She was a dear young girl who loved God and trusted Him completely, submitting her will to His.

When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would, through a miracle, become the mother of the promised Messiah, she simply believed God and humbled herself beneath His mighty hand. To me the word that best describes Mary must be, “PURITY.” Certainly, she was not perfect as some claim, for she was human like the rest of us. But she had a godly purity not only in the physical sense, but also of heart and mind, an attitude that characterized her all through her life.

We know too, that Mary lived with Jesus right up until the time when He began His earthly ministry, at approximately 30 years of age. That was a long time to live under the same roof with the perfect, sinless Son of God. She had been carefully chosen by God the Father, for she was entrusted with the care and nurture of that One who would one day reveal Himself to be, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

CONCLUSION:

Which of these five women should we use today as a model for our portrait of a godly mother? Indeed, I believe that this is going to have to be a group portrait with all five of them included. We need Jochebed for her COURAGE. We need Sarah for her STEADFASTNESS. We need Hannah for her HOLINESS. We need Elizabeth for her WISDOM. And we need Mary for her PURITY.

Looking around the room this morning I see some godly mothers here who could easily pose for this portrait we’ve been discussing. I see some women with these same qualities that I have just described. I am thankful to God for my own mother, who was a model of godliness to me for many years. I am thankful for my wife, Ramel, who has been a wonderful mother to our three children and a fantastic grandmother to our army of 14 grandchildren. And as one of the pastors of this church, I am thankful for all the godly women among us, whether you be mothers or not, because each one of you is a precious gift from God. So, in closing I just want to say thank you to all you moms, and stepmoms, and grandmothers. I want to thank all you aunties, who in some cases fill the role of “mom” for someone. Today is the day we honor all of you because of the impact you have on our lives and the lives of our families and children, and the blessing you are to this congregation.