Mother's Day 2021 - My Upbringing And My Eternity

My Upbringing and My Eternity

Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:

Matthew 5:6-8

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:

Proverbs 3:5-8

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”

Today we will be reading from

Genesis 25:19-28 & 26:34 - 27:10 & 27:41

Today is Mother’s Day!

One of our grandson’s is named Johnny! Johnny loves to ask the question to Karenlee, “I’m your favorite, right Grandmom?”

Well, the other day Johnny, who is six years old, was reading a book about Joseph and the many colored coat and all of the problems that came about because he was his father’s favorite son and he said to Grandmom, “It’s not good to have favorites is it?”

Naturally, Grandmom had to tease him about his claim of being the favorite grandchild and he just smiled, thinking it was still true that he was Grandmom’s favorite …

Anyway, I always tell him that he’s my ninth favorite grandchild and that when our Rachelle gives birth in June he will be my tenth favorite grandchild.

In the Bible there are plenty of examples of mothers, both good and bad and, since it is Mother’s Day I thought we would take a look at a few Mothers found in the Bible

So, let’s start out with one found in Genesis 25:19-28 & 26:34 - 27:10 & 27:41 and see what we can see …

(prayer for help)

Wow! Some Mom that Rebekah was, right?

Was it her fault that Jacob and Esau became mortal enemies?

Would it have turned out differently if she had treated Esau and Jacob the same?

Would it have turned out differently if she had doted on Esau and schemed and plotted against Jacob?

What other mothers do we see in the Bible?

We see Eve. She raised both Cain and Able as her first two children. Able pleased the Lord and the Cain murdered his brother.

One bad son and one good son - same mom!

We see that Jochebed, Moses’ mom, defied the Pharaoh’s decree and kept Moses alive who later became the mediator between the Lord and people of God; leading them from slavery in Egypt to the border of the promised land.

Good mom - good son.

Samson’s mother is only ever referred to as “Manoah’s wife” or “Samson’s mother”. She was barren and had no children until The Angel of The LORD appeared to her and told her that she would have a child and that he should be raised according to the rules of the Nazirite vow. Samson brought military victory to Israel but was a foolish womanizer which was his spiritual downfall.

Good mom - spiritually bad son.

Then we see Hannah, another barren woman until the Lord intervenes and she gives birth to Samuel who becomes a great prophet of the Lord most high. OK, now think about this, Hannah prayed for years for a child and when Samuel was born she did as she had promised the Lord; as soon as he was weaned she took him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh and left him there.

Good mom - good son.

Now, let’s take a look at a more recent example not from the Bible.

There is a pastor and evangelist out west named Greg Laurie.

He is a man of God. He is genuine.

What was his mom like?

She was from a family of six girls and three boys.

At 17 she ran away and married a young sailor, a marriage that did not last long.

Her life consisted of a string of wrong choices and bad relationships. She was married and divorced three more times by the age of 25.

In 1952 she gave birth to Greg but the family name on the birth certificate was not that of his real father.

Her life continued on, filled with parties and alcohol and abusive relationships.

And sometimes Greg was the target of physical abuse by whatever man she might be with at the time.

At other times he was like a yo-yo bouncing between his grandparent’s home and wherever his mom was living.

Greg says, “When I think of lonely times of my life as a kid … part of it was when I was a kid and she wouldn’t come home at night. You know when you are like six or seven years old that’s kind of scary. And then when she did come home I’d be asleep and I’d hear the door open and I’d be happy she was home but then a little bit of talking, tinkling of glasses, and that means she’s drinking. And then the arguing, then the screaming, then the crashing, then things flying against walls and fights. That was terrifying to me and I hated it and I felt lonely and I felt that I had no one to help me through all of that.”