I want to invite your attention as I have on the screen to the
book of 1st. Samuel chapter 1, we want to
begin reading there in verse 24 first, Samuel chapter 1
beginning in verse 24. Now when she had weaned him, she
took him up with her with three Bulls won, Eva a flower and a
skin of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh
and the child was young and they slaughtered a bull and brought
the child to Eli. And she said, oh my Lord, as
your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood by you, here
praying to the Lord for this child, I prayed and the Lord has
granted me my petition which Which I asked of him.
Therefore, I also have led him to the Lord as long as he lives.
He shall be lent to the Lord. So they Worship the Lord there,
for a little while this morning, I want to talk to you on the
subject of mothers in the Bible that made a tremendous
difference. You know?
I realize today is a day that we honor our world honors mothers
and that's a wonderful thing to honor mothers to set aside some
time to talk about Those precious mothers and great
influences in our life, it's something though that we need to
appreciate not only on one day of the year, but every day for
they do so much and we can learn so much from the scriptures both
in the Old Testament and the New Testament we're going to do that
today as we looked at Two Old Testament characters and to New
Testament characters, and we're going to find some mothers that
made a tremendous difference. On the day like today.
When we honor mothers, it's good for us to think about how much
they really do. Being a mother, certainly isn't
easy. It's her most difficult job.
Most difficult task. It is a job that only she can
do. In fact, giving birth.
Does not make someone make a woman, a mother.
It takes a special kind to be a mother.
One man said, one time that a mother is a person who is
willing to take the responsibility of investing her
life into the into the life of another human being, that is
totally dependent upon her to do so, did you know that by the
time a child reaches the age of 18, a mother has had to handle
some extra 18,000 hours of child generated work.
In fact, women that never have children I'm told Enjoy the
equivalent of an extra three months a year of Leisure Time.
Wouldn't that be great? But you know there are some
great portraits of motherhood in the scriptures like for example,
we could picture the mother of Moses who cared so much for her
son that she broke the law in order to teach him the faith of
his people. We can talk about the
sacrificial. Love of a mother that appeared
before King Solomon in the long ago and told him that she was
willing to have her Her son taken away from her and given to
another woman. Just so she would not, he would
not be harmed in any way. Mother's make a great difference
in the lives of their children. Many times these things that
mothers do seem to go unnoticed and you know, some of the
greatest deeds and some of the greatest acts that a mother does
is when she would do. So at a time that she would get
no credit. You know, my dad used to tell me
years ago when I was a kid. He used to say here's the thing
about doing good for others. Would you do that?
Good for others when nobody is watching and you don't get any
credit some of the greatest things that we do in service to
others, we do behind the scene and let me just say this about
the Lord's church. I know some great women that do
things behind the scene that most people don't know, we've
just call come to expect the end result which is very good in the
Fit of that. But they're working behind the
scenes and nobody is watching. You know, that's true with
mothers. The poet, Mary Read ashoke wrote
this entitled when you thought. I wasn't looking.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you.
Hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I wanted to
paint another one. When you thought I wasn't
looking. I saw you feed a stray cat and I
thought it was good to be kind to animals when you thought I
wasn't looking. I saw you make my favorite cake
for me. And I knew that little things
are special. When you thought, I wasn't
looking, I heard you say a prayer and I believed that there
was a God to talk to. I felt you kissed me, good night
and I felt loved when you thought I wasn't looking, when
you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes
and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's okay to
cry. When you thought I wasn't
looking, I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything
that I could be. When you thought I wasn't
looking. I looked, and I wanted to say,
thanks for all the things that I saw when you thought I wasn't
looking, I want to notice with you some examples of mothers
that made a tremendous difference.
The first mother that I want to talk about and really these are
characters that we all know. But the first mother that I want
to talk about is Giacobbe and the mother of Moses.
Now there are some things about this story.
We all know the story about what Giacobbe it did for her son
Moses. But when we go to Exodus chapter
20 and verses 1 through 4, we find that the king of Egypt says
this the head guy he says what you're going to do is to The
Midwives is you're going to. We find also in Exodus chapter,
One, The Midwives were instructed that when the Hebrew
women would come with child and they would go to give birth and
they would come to the birth stools.
The Bible says, and the new King James that the decree was this,
that when a male child was born, the male child would be
executed. And if it was a female child, if
it was a little girl that she would live, and the Bible says,
though, that the Hebrew midwives did not do that.
And the next thing is, Chapter 1, we find something very
interesting about that, but I want to back up, please just for
a minute. There was a reason that Egypt
decided that they wanted to kill all the male children, you know,
I think that there's a lesson here about power.
Do you remember in school? They used to teach us power
corrupts and absolute power corrupts.
Absolutely, you know, we have a history fill that history, books
are filled with men that were corrupt leaders.
In search of power. Now the reason that they wanted
all of these innocent little boys, baby boys to die is
because Egypt wanted absolute power.
And they thought they thought that Hebrews who were enslaved
to them if they could control the male population by
destroying those little boys, then it would deplete the
children of Israel and therefore, could Reign Over them
for years and years to come. This is great cruelty and it
didn't end in Exodus chapter 1 and verses 18 through 22, we
find that the Hebrew women were bringing those into this world,
in the he and The Midwives of those women did not destroy.
Those babies. In fact, an Exodus chapter 1
verses 18 through 22. The king of Egypt said, I gave
my decree to destroy the men or the boy babies, and you did not
do it. Have you ever stopped to
consider what they said? And what really happened?
You know, the Bible says they said to the king of Egypt, the
Hebrew. Women are not like Egyptian
women. Now that's an interesting
statement and then he says, they are Lively.
And by the time we get there, they don't even need our help.
In fact, these boys are being born and other words, it
happened before we ever got there.
That is not a true statement. I'm trying to wrap my mind
around the very idea that what they were telling was they were
telling an untruth. That's not what happened.
In fact, God praise our God, took care of the Hebrew
midwives, because they feared God.
And that's the reason that they did not take the lives of these
boy babies. They feared God.
And the Bible says that those Hebrew midwives found favor in
the eyes of the great God of heaven and Israel.
Flourished. Now.
The king of Egypt. We know the story.
The king of Egypt is enraged by this and he said well this is
what's going to happen. Now when everyone is born if
it's a girl they're going to live.
If it's a boy, they shall be cast into the river.
I want to talk about a very special Mother, Jaffa bed, jakka
bed. The Bible says protected him and
put him in a basket and kept him in a basket until she could no
longer do so. And the Bible says, she put him
in the Nile. Now about that time you could
just imagine when the princess the daughter of the king comes
on the scene and this princess hears, the cries of a young
baby, you know, I read a Scholar what time, you know.
He said he said, it's interesting but God used the
tears and the cries of Moses to save him.
The Bible says that that princess shows up and she finds
him and there was a very special person watching on.
It was Miriam. It was the sister of Moses.
She watched the whole thing now. Here it is jock appeared to
protect Moses. Put him in this situation.
Miriam is watching from a distance and is Is this princess
gets ahold of Moses? Here Comes Miriam and Miriam
says this. Shall I secure a Hebrew nurse to
nurse the child for you? And the princess says go.
And the Bible says that they secured or Miriam went and
brought Giacobbe had the mother of Moses to do the task and paid
her to do it. You know, there's been a lot of
wicked people in the world. There's been a lot of wicked
people in the Bible. There's been a lot of stories
that we can read about about people in the Bible that did
Wicked things. This Man cast out a decree that
these babies are going to die. Let me just ask you this.
Who do you think is in total control of the whole thing?
Moses had a purpose. He was to be a deliverer and he
would be a type of the greatest deliver of all, and that is
Jesus Christ. God was going to use Moses.
And the king of Egypt was not going to stand in the way and
the Bible says here, he comes the princess finds.
Moses Miriam goes and gets jokke bed and Giacobbe and nurses, the
child and gets paid for it. What an amazing thing God was
totally in control. Now, the Bible says that Moses
was with jakka bed until Moses was weaned.
Now I don't know how you would translate that today but I did
some reading about this and one scholar said this and
insignificant especially we talk about another mother in just a
minute. When the Bible talks about the
fact that jokke paid kept Moses until he was weaned.
If it's talking about literal weaning is talking about the
time that he would be nurse and it could have been two or three
years but if it's talking in a figurative way, it could have
been as much as Twelve years that she had influence over her
child. Moses.
Getting paid the whole time. Before he would leave.
God was totally in control. You know, mothers protect us in
so many ways. They protect us physically and
they keep us from danger mother's protect us morally by
teaching us right from wrong and many times, they protected us,
emotionally, by keeping us from the things that they knew would
hurt us. In fact, sometimes mothers view
their children, different than fathers, There's no way in the
world that somebody could say that Tina loves our kids more
than I love our kids. That's not my point but
sometimes a mother with motherly instincts protects their
children and looks at things differently.
Maybe and fathers do let me illustrate it like this.
Back in about 1980 six or seven one night.
I went to Nipomo and we knew my dad and I we knew don't ever
tell Mom, if I get hurt, don't ever tell Mom now, I'm in
college now, and we went to Nepal Mo and we rode Bulls at
night and some of you that make a sheen on the coast know where
Nipomo is, who and what to Gary. The fuse place that bull riding
jackpot, one night I got bucked off and I fractured my pelvis
and it hurt in fact we got in a car and drove all the way back
to the two. French hospital in San Luis.
Obispo it's 2:00 in the morning. And I'm getting x-rayed and I
got to tell my dad, so I called my dad, you know, my dad was
always with the phone, right by his ear.
He would answer the phone like he'd been up and I know he was
sound asleep. He's just happy to talk to me.
So at 2:00 in the morning, I called home, he picks up the
phone and I said data, just got to tell you something.
Don't tell Mom, I said, I just been down in a boat ride in
Jackpot and they just x-rayed, me and said, I fractured my
pillows. So, my mother is startled is
2:00 in the morning. And my mother says what's wrong.
Bob, what's wrong, what happened?
Bob what's the matter with Frankie, what's the matter with
Frankie? And he said, oh, don't worry,
it's okay. He just went in for a little
checkup and he's going to be just fine.
Now, Taste of my mother was going mobile but she wasn't that
gullible and she said, she let my father having she said you
made a tell me at 2:00 in the morning, he went in for a
checkup. Oh yeah, everything's fine, just
get a little quick. Checkup, Mothers.
Look at things differently than do father's.
That's the truth. The mothers have a protective
Instinct that is common to them and not common to men.
When a mother can protect us though from the evils of this
world get this though and bring us up to love and serve the
Lord. It she has fulfilled her
greatest role that is the greatest role that a mother has
to love and serve God. Well, secondly, though, today,
you know, we cannot talk about mothers without talking about
the supportive mother, Hannah the mother of Samuel.
Now, if you remember one year ago today that was our whole
sermon was on the entire family of Hannah and her husband and
the other wife. And I'm not going to talk about
all that, but I do have to mention a few things.
Have some less, as we glean from this great mother.
We're talking about the supportive mother of Samuel, one
of the greatest men that ever lived.
Lived. Hey, you remember that when they
were in Shiloh one day for the purpose of worship and they went
there once a year in Shiloh. The Bible says, as one of those
wives by the name of Pnina, she was kind of a kind of picture
like this hoarding over and lording over Hannah, because
Hannah could not have children, and she could, they were both
married to elkanah one man. And you remember that?
She was weeping and they were in Shiloh.
She was crying. Remember what the husband said,
the husband comes to Hannah and he says, why are you crying?
Aren't I better get this? Are I better than ten Sons to
you. There's something about wanting
to be a mother. That causes a woman to want to
be a mother that's natural. That is normal.
And when you want to be a mother and you can't, it surely is a
tragedy. It's a sad thing.
The Bible says that Hannah do departs from the crown and she
goes and praise Eli. The priest is sitting in the
doorpost of the temple. And the Bible says he's
listening on, and all he sees is her mouth, is moving, and he,
accuses, her of being drunk. He said she said, no, I'm not
drunk. I'm praying to God, that I could
have a son. And this is what she said.
Please get this. This is the great lesson.
She said, if you would only give me a son, I will lend him to the
Lord. Meaning he will always be my
child but I will lend him to the Lord all the days of his life
and as a sign. No razor shall ever touch his
head on Nazarite vow, and he will go.
The whole life is entire life without cutting his hair and he
will serve God all the days of his life.
May I ask you something? Be very honest within yourself.
Have you ever made a promise to God?
I'll just admit to you. I have there were times when I
have made promises to God. There have been times.
When I have said, I put everything in God's hand and
says, if you can help me in that, I will do this.
I will do this better than I've ever done before I would do my
best. I will serve you better.
You ever made a promise to God and then not kept it.
Do you know when you obey the gospel you are making a promise
to God and you are entering into a covenant relationship with
God. In fact you what the Bible says
you enter into a covenant relationship for what it says,
for obedience, another words when you are washed in the blood
of the lamb at baptism and rise to walk in newness of life,
you're making a deal with the Lord.
You're saying because my sins are washed away, I will serve
you all the days of my life, that's what you're saying.
It is serious business to break a promise to the Lord.
I know sometimes we break promises to people and sometimes
we don't even mean to but let it never be that.
We break a promise to the Lord. She said if you would just give
me a son, I will give him back to you and he will serve you all
the days of his life. Now about a Nazarite vow.
You know, a Nazarite vow was taken in those times for
different reasons. And sometimes somebody would
have a Nazarite vow, and no razor would come to their head.
And there were other specific things about a Nazarite vow and
there was always a timeframe. For example, somebody could have
a Nazarite vow for a period of time for a specific purpose.
But then we find that there were others that had a Nazarite vow
and it was for life, one of which was Samuel another you
remember was Samson, another one was John, the Baptist there was
a time when some had a Nazarite vow all of their life.
That's exactly what had happened.
Was Samuel. In fact, the Bible says that God
heard her prayer and she bore a son and she kept him until he
was weaned now. remember when I said about waned, this is not
the two to three years. This is the 12 years.
Now let me ask you this. Do you remember the time that
you bonded with your child? Bonding with your child is
immediate. I remember when Taylor was born,
like, it was yesterday and I remember the great emotions and
all of the things that we were worried about because Tyler had
not made it before that. I remember Thee.
The flood of emotions that came over me.
I remember that. Remember it, like, it was
yesterday and I remember this, I picked up Taylor for the very
first time and immediately I bonded with her, just like that
same true with Tanner immediate. Now, let me ask you something.
When Samuel was born don't you know that she bonded with him?
When she nursed him don't you know that she bonded with him
and when she kept him for 12 years, don't you think that Bond
got stronger? No, I said all that to say this
can't you imagine how hard it must have been to give him to
the Lord? To take him back to Shiloh and
tell Eli. Here he is.
And he's going to serve God all the days of his life.
Wouldn't it be easy for her to say, wait a minute?
I know I made that promise a long time ago.
I just can't do it. Would have been easy to do that.
12 years, go by folks. And you know what?
She didn't forget and she said as long as he lives, he belongs
to the Lord. You know, we all want Great
things. For our kids, we're proud of
them. I am too.
I'm proud of my kids when they accomplish something and there's
nothing wrong with accomplishments.
But let me say this, Your child will never be anything greater
than a Christian. Nothing.
And by the way, sports activities clubs functions, you
know what they are, they are extra curricular activities.
If you're in school you have you have a curriculum.
And that's why you're there. You have a curriculum that you
study all the other things are extra curricular activities.
Now I said all that to say this, here's the problem with our
society. The things that are supposed to
be extra on the side have taken precedence over the things that
need to be the focus Point. There's a new Religion Today,
you've heard me say it before. I must say it again, there's a
new Religion Today among society and it's called Sports and
Travel ball. I remember a time when there was
nothing on Sunday at all. Nothing.
Ever. You know, since I have kids that
played Sports their whole life, we saw parents that put
everything that they have in a sporting event to get their
child exposure to go playing college someday.
That was the end, all that was the greatest thing and nothing
else mattered. The greatest thing they will
ever be as a Christian. There's nothing greater than our
children, becoming a Christian Hannah understood that the
greatest thing he could do was serve God.
She made that promise and she and he served and he served God
the rest of his life. There are three things that we
learned from Hannah. Story number one, God answers
prayers concerning our children, Number two, that we need to give
our children to the Lord, and teach them to serve him all the
days of their life. We must support our children too
and doing the Lord's work. There is nothing greater than
our children being a child of God.
We have the protective mother jochabed the mother of Moses.
We have the supportive mother Hannah the mother of Samuel And
thirdly today, we have the instructive mother and I love
this. The instructive mother Eunice
that she's the mother of Timothy.
And you know, she had a very special Mother herself.
That was Louis. It was Timothy's grandmother,
and I want to paint a picture here.
This is the greatest example that I can come up with and all
the Bible of how a mother and a grandmother can make the
difference in the life of a boy who became a man even without
the presence of a father. Eunice was a wonderful mother.
She changed the world through her son Timothy.
Do you remember in the book of Acts when it talks about the
disciples? They went out?
This is how important is preach the word gun.
This is how much weight the word of God holds, and the greatest
duties of us to take the gospel to the lost.
You know what it says in the book of Acts about the
disciples, they literally turned the world upside down.
How through preaching the word of God.
This little precious mother named Eunice Yoshi.
Did she change the world? She raised a preacher.
Years ago in the Philippines. We had preached all different
places we were on preaching under a tree.
One time there were 60 or 70 people under a tree and only one
man came forward to obey the gospel I say only because you
see so many 10-15 every service And it just turned out.
We found out later that everybody else that was there
was a member of the church. He only non-member.
That was of the age of accountability was this man.
This man, this is a great story, he obeyed the gospel that day.
And the influence that he had was so great, that they expected
that maybe hundreds of people would be saved, as a result of
his stand for the truth in obedience to the gospel.
You ever stopped to consider what difference that you would
make if you had a preacher of a son, Timothy you remember was a
close friend of the Apostle Paul and Paul and Timothy partnered
together as the gospel. Continue to spread you remember
also that many years later Paul was in prison and he writes two
letters of first and second Timothy Mother Eunice
grandmother Lois. Look at 2nd Timothy 3.
In second, Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15.
It says, and from childhood you have been taught.
It says the scriptures. Now, please picture this, the
word scriptures, there is translated from a word called
brephos. You know what that word means.
It means the sacred writings and Paul was saying you did it
mother and grandmother, you took the sacred writings of the Old
Testament and you train Timothy and what did it do?
It prepared his mind and his heart to receive the Gospel
later on. Now you don't think teaching
kids about Old Testament Bible stories important.
It's important when they learn about Jonah and they learn about
Noah and they learn about Old Testament characters, what are
you doing? You are sharing with them, the
sacred writings of the Old Testament, basic things, what
that does, is It prepares their mind and their heart to receive
the Gospel later on? if our kids never hear anything
about the word of God, in the home, Why would they ever want
to be interested? Later on.
You know, they prove that a mother and a grandmother can
make a difference, a spiritual impact on their children.
Without even the help of a father in essence, they lived
the commands of the Old Testament.
Deuteronomy, chapter 6, in Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Beginning in verse 4, the Bible says Hear o Israel, the Lord our
God He is Lord and thou shalt love.
The Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul with
all thy might. And these words, which I command
you this day shall be in your heart and you shall teach them
diligently unto your children and shalt talk of them.
When you sit in your house, when you walk, by the way.
And when you lie down and when you rise up, That's what they
did. They fulfill the Old Testament
pattern of taking the word of God to their children.
Notice what Paul said of Timothy in Philippians chapter 2, watch
this beginning in verse 19. Paul said, but I trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ to send Timothy shortly to you.
That I maybe also of good comfort and may know your state
notice for, I have no man, like-minded, who will naturally
care for your state? Now, I'll tell you this, you've
heard me say this so many times about fathers and about the role
of the husband. And so many times that things on
the home are not what they ought to be.
Because the role of the father, and the husband is not being
taken care of, according to the word of God.
Yeah, that's all true. But this means, this means that
a preacher came from an influence of a mother, a Godly
mother and a Godly grandma. And what a difference they made.
You know what Paul's saying in Philippians?
He saying, I have nobody like him.
In fact, Paul goes on to say, most people think about
themselves as I paraphrase and not about the things of the
Lord. Jesus Christ.
Timothy is different. He thinks about the things of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They changed the world.
Unison. Lois prepared him to be the man.
That he became and Paul continued on in that, passage in
Philippians, chapter 2 and verse 22.
And he said but you know the proof of him that as a son with
a father, he has served me in the gospel became one of the
great preachers that we read about in the scriptures.
Finally, this morning though, there's the greatest mother that
ever lived. In fact there's no way that we
can even talk about mothers today without mentioning the
greatest mother that ever lived. And that's the mother of Jesus
Christ. And that was, she was the loyal
mother. You know, a John chapter 19 when
Jesus was on the cross. His mother was there.
And you know, if Jesus had not sent his mother away, make no
mistake about it. She just stayed because that's
what mothers do. Mothers, don't give up.
When their children lose their way.
Now, they don't condone their activity if it's roll.
But there's nothing in the world like a mother.
They never give up their loyalty.
When Jesus was on the cross, we could picture in Our Minds Eye,
the scene of the tears that stream down the face of Mary as
Jesus was hanging on the cross. And you know what's interesting
about that, 30 years before that you might remember, do you
remember what Simian said? Simeon said this to marry 30
years before about? He said that in that day, your
heart get, this would be pierced through I said, he wasn't
talking about Jesus. Simeon was talking about Mary.
And we know the story that Jesus was pierced and why?
Because the Bible says that it was prophesied, they looked on
him whom they have pierced had to happen.
So there was a soldier that took a spear and thrust it into the
side of Jesus. And out, from her side, float,
blood water, it prove two things, one is human and to he
was dead. We know that Jesus was pierced
in his side. The Deathstroke that we preached
about him Times Gone by But the lawyer mother Mary was pierced
too. Have you ever had anything in
the world wrong with one of your kids?
That's the Pearson. That's what the loyal mother
went through. But she wouldn't give up.
Mothers don't give up. Even when we as children deserve
that they do, Someone once said that, a mother's love is
stronger than steel. It is softer than down and more
resilient than a green sapling on a hillside.
It closes wounds. It melts, disappointments and
enables the weakest child to stand tall and straight in the
fields of adversity. I'm so thankful that the Lord
Jesus Christ, understanding his mother, understanding the pain
that she was and as he looked down, and he sees the disciple
that he loved. And that was John, and he sees
his mother there. And he says woman Behold, thy
son, son, Behold thy mother and from that period of time, from
that time on the Bible says that John took Mary unto his own
house and he took care of her and Jesus on the way out being
crucified and buried the sins. For the entire world took care
of his mother, The one that was loyal.
Do you see the four things here? They picture what a mother is.
She protects us. She supports us.
She instructs us. And she is loyal to us.
In closing this morning. The poet.
Once wrote this regarding the influence that a mother has on
her daughter. And it says a careful mother.
I ought to be because a little one is following me.
I do not dare to go astray for fear.
She'll go the self. Same way.
I cannot want to escape her eyes.
Whatever she do sees me do she tries like me?
She says she's going to be that little one who follows me.
She thinks that I am good and fine believes in every word of
mine. The Basin me.
She must not see that little one who follows me.
I must remember as I go through Summer Sun and winter snow, I am
building for the years to be that little one who follows me,
that's the greatest job you will ever have is to be a mother.
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