How A Good Mother Lost Her Son

HOW A GOOD MOTHER LOST HER SON

Text: Luke 2:41-52

Intro:

I am using this event in the life of Jesus as a means of illustrating a point. Even a good mother can lose her children. No one can doubt Mary was a good mother, hand chosen by God to be the Mother of His Son. Many might say, “How can parents lose their children?” It happens all the time. That is not to say they are bad parents, there are other circumstances that come into play.

Today, I am going to draw a comparison between this incident and losing a child spiritually, or losing them to the world. That too happens all the time, and it is not always because they have a bad mother.

Now, it is true that Mother’s are quick to blame their self. And, it might also be true that there are some things that could have been done differently, but it does not mean they are bad, or that they were not concerned, nor that they did not have the right intentions. Perhaps carelessness plays a part, but, who among us is not careless about things from time to time. The reason Mary lost her son was because she was human. In most cases, the same holds true for Mothers of wayward children. Let us consider…

I. THEY TOOK IT FOR GRANTED THAT HE WAS THERE. V. 44

Why wouldn’t they. Jesus had never done anything like this before. I am sure that He was not the type of lad they had to keep an eye on every second. He knew they had to return home, surely, they assumed, He was somewhere in the camp. But He was not.

A. Some take things for granted in the raising us their children.

If there is anything we can learn from this story is that you cannot take anything for granted.

1. Don’t take it for granted that your child is not going to love God just because you love God

There are some good, God fearing parents who have raised some real rascals.

They never intended for their children to turn out that way, but they did.

There is more to raising God fearing children that telling them how to life, it takes a lot of effort.

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

Training involves

Repetition. Doing the same thing over and over and over, and never stopping until it is drilled into them. Example –the way you train a pet

Restraint Example, tie up the young tree to ‘train’ it to grow straight

Representative—Having the right example to follow

2. Don’t take if for granted that your child is not is going to do right just because you have raised them “in church”

Church is right, church is good, church will help, but the church along cannot do the job. We have your children, at the most 3hours a week. You have them the other 285 hours.

3. Don’t take if for granted that your child is not capable of doing anything wrong just because you have never seen that side of them before.

Ro 3:10 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”

That includes your kid.

II. THEY LOOKED FOR HELP IN THE WRONG PLACES V. 44B

1. They looked among their friends and family. Thinking many He was with them, but He was not there.

Perhaps they felt this was the most logical place to look for help but, when they saw He was not among them, they did the right thing and they back tracked.

2. Many good Christian parents make the same mistake.

When they see they are losing their children they begin looking for help in the world.

They take them to this program and that program, the seek out advise from the secular world, they start reading books written by the experts, etc…

Ps 1:1 “Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, ….”

Ills: Dr. Spock wrote a book on child rearing and later, before his death apologized for doing so. He realized his advise was all wrong and it did not work. It went contrary to the Word of God.

The Bible is the greatest book ever written on Child Rearing.

The world says: “Let your children make up their own minds”

God’s Word says: De 6:5-9 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.