A mother walked into her young son’s bedroom just in time to hear him begin his nighttime prayers. He said, “Andy, please forgive me for what I did wrong today, and Andy, please keep my mommy and daddy safe.”
After he had finished, she asked him who Andy was. He told her that was God’s name. She asked him how he knew that, and he said that in church they sang to Andy. They would sing, “Andy walks with me – Andy talks to me …..”
Today is Mother’s Day. It is the day we men honor our mothers and the mothers of our children. My mother is gone now, and all I have left are memories of her. Out of all those memories, the one that sticks out the most is that she was a devout Christian lady who raised four sons and daughter to be Christian, too. For that, I will forever be grateful TO her and FOR her.
My mom was a very special lady who taught me many things. When I spilled grape juice on the carpet, she taught me to pray by saying things like:
"You better pray that dirt comes out of the carpet.” She caught her fingers in a drawer one time and I laughed. She took the opportunity to teach me emotions by saying, "You keep laughing and I’ll give you something to cry about!”
She taught me how to never give up. She would say, “You’ll sit there until your food is all gone or until you are covered with cobwebs!” And finally, she taught me about the sanctity of life. She would say, “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out, too!”
In all seriousness, my mom was a great mom and it is mostly because of her that I am who I am today. And I thank God that she loved us kids enough to teach us the many things she did.
Today is the one day of the year that men will generally go out and buy a gift without being prompted to. But if you are one of those men who has not yet purchased a gift for your mother or your wife, let me give you a couple of pointers on what NOT to buy.
Do not buy her anything that plugs in. If something needs to be plugged in, she will only see it as a tool. Do not get her any exercise equipment, as this will lead to six months of her asking why you think she needs to exercise in the first place. And I guarantee you that is something you do not want to live with.
My suggestion is for you to buy her something that is only for her, and that will show her you are thinking only about her happiness. If you follow that rule, then whatever you get her will be appreciated and loved.
As far as a woman goes, becoming a mother changes things, doesn’t it? And, becoming a mother more than once changes things even more. When a woman becomes pregnant for the first time, she will start wearing maternity clothes the day the doctor says she is pregnant.
On her second pregnancy, she will wear her normal clothes for as long as she can, and by her third or fourth pregnancy, she will wear anything because she doesn’t have any more money to go out and buy any new clothes.
We all know that mothers are many things to their children, don’t we? Mothers are our first teachers in life and our most compassionate nurses.
We have all heard the expression that it takes a village to raise a child. Today, more than ever before, babysitters and nurseries are raising our children. The tragedy in that is more and more children are being taught outside the home, and what they are taught is most-often worldly rather than Godly.
Here are some of the things our small children are learning today.
They learn the world’s morality – ‘If it feels right, it is right.’
They learn Humanism - ‘God doesn’t exist and we are capable of taking care of ourselves’
They learn that man descended from apes – ‘My question is this; if man descended from apes, why are there still apes?
We live in the society Jeremiah spoke of – a society that “does not know how to blush.” Let’s face it. It might be more convenient for a village, or a nursery, or a sitter to raise our children, but it is much better for the child if the mother raises them – at least in the early years.
And let me throw in something about fathers: If a man is old enough to father a child, he is old enough to assume the responsibilities of raising that child. It is a shame that so many men are so focused on their own ‘good times’ that they are wiling to throw their babies away like yesterday’s trash.
I know that there are mothers out there who also care more about themselves than they do their babies, but statistics find that is found more in fathers. Of course, that is what you get when you take God out of society, isn’t it?
We need Godly mothers and fathers who will stand and say, “I will teach my children to walk in the way of the Lord.” We cannot let the most important thing in our children’s lives be left up to chance, or up to somebody else’s false teachings. We must stand up and be accountable as parents for our children’s spiritual safety.
In PROVERBS 22:6, we are given some clear advice.
‘Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.’
We know that being a good mother is helpful to our children as far as their physical well-being goes, but is it really that important to a child to be brought up spiritually sound in Jesus Christ?
In 2 TIMOTHY 1:5, Paul reminds us of Timothy’s parental influence.
‘I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded, now lives in you also.’
Timothy had sincere faith, and he had that faith because of his grandmother and mother. Surely a mother helps form our spirit, and if she is a Godly mother, she will be the first introduction we have to our Lord.
Mothers are also protectors of their children, no matter how old her children may get. Mrs. Zebedee was the mother of James and John, and like any mother, she wanted only the very best for her sons.
Jesus gave us an illustration in MATTHEW about a landowner, who hired some helpers, and no matter how long they worked for him, they all got paid the same wages. This may have caused Mrs. Zebedee to worry about what kind of reward her sons were going to get in Heaven, so she found a time to ask Jesus about it.
In MATTHEW 20:20-23 we read,
‘Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of Him. “What is it you want?” He asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right and the other at Your left in Your kingdom.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from My cup, but to sit at My right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father.”
Mrs. Zebedee was certain that when the Lord formed His kingdom, her boys would have positions of responsibility and authority. After all, the human way is to reward the best worker with the highest reward.
Jesus did not grant her request, but He did not deny it either. He simply reminded her of the cost of being seated on the right or left, and then told her that only the Father knows such things.
This morning, let’s look at what Mrs. Zebedee did for her sons, and compare that with what you, as a mother, might be doing (or have done) for your children. The first thing we will see is that she prayed for her sons to be …
1. PART OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
I think she was a very good mother. I can think of no more important task of motherhood than to want your children to be a part of God’s Kingdom.
I know that many mothers pray. Sometimes they pray out of necessity and sometimes they pray because motherhood is sometimes very difficult. I have heard it said that the reason women are mothers, is because men couldn’t take the pressure. I fully agree with that statement.
Certainly, mothers do get frustrated, don’t they? Perhaps one of the most frustrating times is when we are trying to communicate with the smaller ones.
A friend of mind had two kids; a three-year-old boy and a 5-month-old daughter. He was watching them so his wife could get out of the house and relax for the day and he said the infant was lying on the couch and the son was sitting next to her.
My friend said he wanted to go into the kitchen for a second and told his little boy to watch his sister. He had not been gone for more than 20 seconds when he heard a thump and then the daughter started to wail. He ran back in there to see the daughter had rolled off the couch onto the floor and the son still sitting on the couch, just looking at her.
As he picked up his daughter, he said to his son, “I thought I told you to watch her!” The boy replied, “I did! I watched her roll off the couch and fall on the floor!” Well, at least he followed directions, didn’t he?
Being a parent is not always an easy job. There are times when your joy and pride cannot be contained, and there are other times when the sadness is so great your eyes can’t hold all the tears.
What good have we done by teaching our kids how to be successful in life if we have not also taught them how to be responsible?
I think Jesus said it best in MATTHEW 16:26:
‘What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? “
Mrs. Zebedee prayed that her sons would be a part of God’s Heavenly kingdom. I think all parents should pray the same prayer for their children – and this includes the fathers as well as the mothers. And we should do this for our children no matter what their ages.
I hope that in the heart of every mother and father here this morning, there is a burden to go before the throne of God in prayer for your children - to pray they will be saved, saved from eternal damnation, and saved for eternal life.
Mrs. Zebedee prayed that her sons would be a part of God’s kingdom, and she prayed that they would be …
2. INVOLVED IN THE WORK OF GOD’S KINGDOM
We must remember that we are all called to be of service to the Lord, and I think that service should begin in the home. It should begin with moms and dads going in prayer, and then including the children in those prayers, too.
It begins with parents setting the Godly example of how to live and how to serve the Lord. It begins when parents pray that their sons and daughters might be involved in the work of the kingdom.
It begins when parents pray that their children are not only a part of the kingdom, but are involved in the work of the kingdom.
Mrs. Zebedee prayed that her children would be actively involved in the work of His kingdom. And, as parents today, we need to walk in her footsteps. We need to follow her example in …
3. HAVING GODLY EXPECTATIONS FOR OUR CHILDREN
Mrs. Zebedee had big expectations, can’t we? She didn’t just pray that her children would be doorkeepers or such. She wanted them to sit on the throne, on either side of Jesus.
Too often, we have a tendency to settle for mediocrity in our lives and in the church. Too often, we settle for aiming just about two feet inside the door. Too many Christians have been content to just sit back and let things happen around us instead of our getting up and making things happen for us.
As a good mother, she was looking out for her children’s best interest. She wanted her boys to be the most they could be.
I think we should start looking for more in our Christian walks, too. Jesus called us to be doers of the word, not just hearers only. And one of the best ways to do God’s holy and righteous word is to be a person of humble prayer.
I remember when I was 5 years old. My dad had just received a medical discharge from the Air Force in Tucson, Arizona, and he could not work. We moved back to Jonesville, Virginia, back on the farm he grew up on so he could take it easy and heal faster.
They never let any of us kids know about it, but during this period of time, we were very poor. I remember several times when my mother would say she wasn’t really hungry and only ate a little bit for dinner.
I realized later in life that she made that sacrifice just so her kids could have more to eat. That is what mothers do, isn’t it? A mother’s love is so special; she would lay down her very life for her children.
During World War II, Solomon Rosenberg and his family were sent to a concentration camp. There several members of the family, including a very frail and sickly son named David. The rules were simple: You will live as long as you are strong enough to work.”
Each day, after work, his family would come back to the barracks and hug each other. Once day, they all came back and Solomon could not find his son David or his wife.
A friend said that when the soldiers came to take young David to the furnaces, he cried out for his mother and said he was scared. The mother could not let her son go alone to that horrible fate, so the friend said she stood up, smiled, and said, “Let me go with you so you won’t be afraid.”
That is a true story. And that story shows how a mother’s love is a Godly love. It shows how a mother will sacrifice everything she has for her children, just like the Lord did for us. And it is all born out of love; a true and Godly love.
This is Mother’s Day. In EXODUS 20:12, we are given a commandment.
‘Honor you father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.’
It says to honor your mother. You might say that your mother doesn’t deserve to be honored. Well, the commandment from God didn’t say anything about your mother’s qualifications to be honored; it just says you are to honor her.
I once worked with a young lady in her early 20’s who came from a very dysfunctional home. She had no idea who her dad was, and her mother was a mean lady who had no use or time for her own daughter. This young lady could have treated her mother with disrespect and hatred, and the world would have said she had every right to do so.
But this young lady became a Christian and began to love her mother. She would say and do things that showed her love for her mother. She began to honor her mother.
At first, it made no difference; but over time it started working on her mother’s heart. It had been almost a year, and it was two days before Christmas. The daughter had purchased some very expensive perfume for her mother and was giving it to her for Christmas. The mother got mad, flew off the handle, and threw it on the floor, breaking it.
The daughter told me later that as her mother stood there, seeing the mess she had made of her daughter’s gift, it dawned on her that she had done the same thing with her daughter’s life. And that is when the mother dropped to her knees, tears in her eyes, and begged her daughter to forgive her for the life of torment she had put the girl through.
And when a person goes before Jesus and asks forgiveness; that person finds that Jesus soon begins working great things in hsi life. That mother and daughter now sit side-by-side in church, along with the son-in-law and the grandchildren. And it all came about because the daughter loved the mother enough to forgive her.
This is a day in which we are commanded to honor our Mothers. We do not put parameters on that. We simply follow directions.
Little David was afraid, but he found a loving hand reaching out to him. A hand that guaranteed he would not be left alone. A hand he could love and depend on. A hand that said, “Here, let me go with you.”
In no other country do parents spend less time with their children than in America. God did not intend for our children to grow without spiritual discipline in their lives, yet too many of our children today have none. And when we have no spiritual and moral codes to live by, we end up in that scary valley I spoke of last week. How sad it is to realize that is where too many people seem to spend their entire lives.
Would the CrossRoads Singers please come forward?
If a Godly mother raised you, or if you are a mother raising your kids in a Godly way, we want you to know you are truly loved and respected. But, if you have been raised without that Godly influence, and you feel that your life has been spent mostly in that Valley of the Shadow of Death, let me encourage you to recognize that there is a hand reaching out to you, too.
It is God’s hand, and He is telling you that He loves you and that you can depend on Him. He is saying He will go with you – no matter where that is.
In ISAIAH 41:10, God gives us a promise.
‘So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
Jesus has already gone through that valley for you. And He knows where all the pitfalls are, so He reaches out His hand to guide you through it.
I would like to do two things in closing. I would like to take this opportunity to tell all the mothers, and mothers-to-be in the future that you are loved and honored by Godly men who truly treasure you. And you are loved and honored by God Almighty.
But, if you do not know the Lord on a personal level this morning, or if you are not walking the Christian walk you should be walking, won’t you take the time right now to correct that?
Jesus is reaching out His hand right now to you. Won’t you dare to reach out this morning and take it?
INVITATION
