If This Is Not You Then I Have Good News For You Series

First, let’s me personally wish every mom present today- Happy Mother’s Day. I started my search for the perfect Mother’s Day sermon by seeing if I could use a portion of Proverb 31 as my main Scriptural text. It has the subtitle and known as “The Virtuous Wife” and after reading it over several times, I chose not to use it. It was not because it is not a great passage of Scripture; it truly is indeed a great passage of Scripture. It sets the bar high for every mother, but today I don’t want you to leave the service sad thinking I don’t even come close to the standard set in this passage.

Let me tell you my synopsis of this passage. She gets up before dawn and stays busy all day to the early hours of next morning. She looks gorgeous all the time, she cooks like a Master Chef, she can outperform any Olympic athlete, she is known for her intellectual abilities, possesses the spiritual wisdom of the Apostle Paul, she has sensitivity to see the needs of everyone around her, she could run any Wall Street business firm as its CEO, and she possesses the grace and etiquette of Miss Manners.

If that isn’t you then don’t be discouraged, I got Good News for you from the Word of God. And let me give you a hint, the four mothers who were mentioned in the first six verses of the New Testament genealogy of Jesus Christ they were not meeting the bar of being classified as Virtuous Women, but they were used by God just as they were.

And that is the Good News that I want to leave you with: Mom, God can use you just as you are.

Let’s read together Matthew 1:1-6

Scripture

Matthew 1:1–6 NKJV

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:

2 Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king.

David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.

Background Information

In that passage of Scripture, we just read, there was four women mentioned. Three by name: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. And then there is one who is mentioned by description, but a description everyone should know. “...By her who had been the wife of Uriah.” Of course, it is referring to Bathsheba.

Let me tell you a little bit about each mom.

Tamar became a mom in her desperation. She was the daughter in law of one of Jacob twelve son- Judah. She married ER and he died without giving her a child. She, as the custom, was given to the next male in line who was Onan. And he too died before giving her a child. Judah said no more. So, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute, came to Judah, and she gave him a son. She got her son by desperation and deception.

Rahab was a mom in the wrong profession. In fact, the Bible describes her as Rahab the Harlot. It was her line of work. We were not told in Joshua that she had children. But in Matthew, we discover she had a child named Boaz who would one day marry Ruth.

Ruth became a mom despite being from the wrong family. She is not an Israelite; she was a Moabite. She was from the wrong family line. The Moabite people began as result of incest and they were not a nation that honored the God of the Israelites. In fact, it was the Moabites that hired Balaam to curse Israel and God turned that around to a blessing of Israel.

Bathsheba was a mom who was known in her life and even centuries after her death as the woman who sinned with King David. She was a woman who could not be able to shake her past.

Not one of the moms mentioned in the genealogy would rise to the bar of “The Virtuous Woman” of Proverb 31. But that is OK, they were mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. I think that is a pretty good place to be mentioned.

And this tells me that God can be active and working no matter where you fit on “The Virtuous Woman” scale. That is Good News for every woman here.

I would like to make three comments about what these four moms might teach you on this Mother’s Day.

Point #1

You do not have to hit some mark or meet some standard for God to use you; He can use you just like you are.