Mother’s Open Arms of Love
I Samuel 1:24-28
Matthew 23:37-39
Companies that do well are the ones that are able to brand their products. A well-developed brand is recognized worldwide.
Nike – check mark
Disney – round shape with two big ears
Apple – Apple with bite
McDonalds – Golden Arches
What brand would you put on a Christian Mother? “Love” – The branding for Christians is Love. John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
In Matthew 23:37-39, Jesus gives us a picture of God’s love and the love of mothers for their children. Jesus was standing on a hill overlooking Jerusalem and declared to the people: “How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”
A man was boarding an airplane one day. As he came on board, he happened to notice that the head of the plane’s cockpit flight crew was a woman. That was no problem. Still, it was a new experience for him.
As he found his seat, he noticed three persons sitting immediately behind him. One was a young boy about six or seven years of age. Next to him was a man in his early thirties. And next to the man was a woman in her early sixties.
The man could not help overhearing the conversation among these three persons as the plane made final plans for departure from the gate. It was not long before he realized that they were the woman pilot’s family. The boy was her son. The man was her husband. And the older woman was her mother. Suddenly he realized why the family was on the plane. This was the first time the woman pilot had been the head of a flight crew! They were there to honor her promotion.
The plane taxied down the runway and poised itself for takeoff. The engines began to roar, and the plane gained speed quickly. Within seconds they were airborne. As the plane began to ascend the bank to the south, the six-year-old boy began to applaud! "Way to go, Mom. Way to go!"
On Mother’s Day Sunday we say to all mothers, “Way to go, Mom, Way to go!” Our mothers deserve all the praise we can give them.
Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel was a mother who loved God with all her heart. Her arms were outstretched in love toward God and her family. In desperation she prayed to have a son and God heard here prayer. When Samuel was about 3 his mother took him to the temple and dedicated him to serve the Lord the rest of his life.
I was privileged to grow up in a family with a mother who loved God with all her heart. We were a poor family. The majority of the people in our small town of Gypsum, Kansas were poor. Most did not have indoor bathrooms. Many did not have hot-water tanks. We heated bathwater in large pans on the stove. Many like us heated one or two rooms with coal stoves.
I was blessed because I had a mother who demonstrated open arms of love to my older sister and to me. My mother was like the illustration Jesus used to express God’s loved, like a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings to love and protect.
During the critical teen years of my life my parents were separated, and for all practical purposes, a single parent raised me. During my lifetime my mother arms were always out stretched in love to her family.
I want to draw a parallel between the mother Hannah and my mother.
I. Hannah Way A Woman of Prayer
Year by year Hannah went with her husband, Elkanah to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord at the Tabernacle. I Samuel 1:9, “Once when they ere at Shiloh, Hannah went to the Tabernacle after supper to pray to the Lord.”
My mother, like Hannah, prayed about everything. She prayed for wisdom in raising her children and she had a prayer list for relatives and friends. When my sister and I gave our mother a hard time she would pray. One time my sister and I were at each other and having a brawl in our back yard. Mother tried to get us to quit but to no avail. She turned her back on us and went into the house in tears. We went in and found her in the front room on the sofa with a cover over her head praying for us. Her prayers made an impact on our lives.
Many scholars have concluded that you cannot really understand John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, unless you understand his mother Susanna Wesley. Susanna and Samuel Wesley had nineteen children. Nine of her children died as infants. Four of the children that died were twins. A maid accidentally smothered one child. At her death only eight of her children were still alive. Susanna Wesley gave time every day to pray individually with each of her children. She was so instrumental in his life that she inevitably affected the movement and its direction.
Americans know that Abraham Lincoln led this nation through perhaps its time of greatest crisis; but who was it that made Abraham Lincoln the man that he was? Lincoln believed that it was his mother.
Many of us here this morning would confess that our mother had a great influence of our lives.
Mothers, do you make it a regular habit to pray for your children? Through prayer marvelous things happen in answer to prayer.
Here is a scriptural promise for every parent: “Don’t worry about anything, instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Philippians 4:6
II. Hannah lived by faith
When Eli observed Hannah praying with such fervency he through she was drunk and told her she needed to stop drinking before she came to the temple to worship the Lord. Hannah told Eli that she had not been drinking but was praying out of great anguish and sorrow. I Samuel 1:17-18, “In that case,” Eli said, “cheer up! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.” “Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad.”
Hannah acted on faith and believed God had answered her prayer. God responded to her faith and she became pregnant with Samuel.
James 3:13 “If you are wise and understand God’s ways, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don’t brag about the good you do, then you will be truly wise!”
My mother grew up in the Free Methodist Church in Kansas City, Kansas. She grew up in the church that I served as pastor after I graduated from Asbury Seminary. For several years I served as the pastor of my grandparents.
My mother regretted that she strayed from the Lord after graduating from High school and was not living for the Lord when she met my father. She became pregnant and where her first child was born there were complications. My mother said that in the process of the birth she heard the doctors’ talking that my mother might not live. My mother said she began to pray and it seemed that the heaven was covered with brass and her prayers were not reaching to the Lord. They my mother prayed, “But God, remember the prayers of my mother and grandmother Harris and Aunt Tressa. At that point the windows of heaven opened and God spared my mothers life, through her daughter did not live. In that moment my mother rededicated her life to the Lord and began to serve Him.
On her own my mother started attending church. During my growing up years Mother always took my sister and me to church.
My mother lived by faith. Her faith was backed up by the life she lived. She regularly gave a tithe of her income, ten percent to whatever she made from washing, ironing, and babysitting. When she taught school she faithfully tithed to the Lord.
When my mother died at the age of 62, both my sister and I rejoiced in celebrating her heaven going because mother’s life had made a great impact on our lives and we were blessed by her Christian faith.
III. Hannah lived a Life that Honored the Lord
Hannah did not go back on her promise to give her son to the Lord to serve the Lord in full time ministry. Hannah could have gone back on her word and said, “Thank you Lord for answering my prayer. I’m sure You’ll understand if I keep my son for a few more years.” Hannah was true to her word and cared for her son until he was weaned and able to help out as a pre-school learner in the Tabernacle under the coaching of the priest Eli.
I Timothy 5:8 “But those who won’t care for their own relatives, especially those living in the same household, have denied what we believe. Such people are worse than unbelievers.”
My father worked in our small town and country as a handy man. He did carpentry, painting, butchered pigs and cattle, and other odd jobs. To make ends meet my mother didn’t complain but she pitched in and did washing ironings for others and baby sitting on a regular basis to help out with family expenses. My mother demonstrated her love by living a life of integrity. Her life backed up her witness as a Christ follower.
When I started to school my mother began taking college correspondence courses and became a teacher in a country school with Grades 1-8. My mother and I both graduated from college the same year.
There are some people who don’t realize how hard many mothers work at home.
Johnny, a live at home young adult, was complaining to a friend about how hectic his days were since he got his first job. "I get up at 6:00 each morning and eat my breakfast," he said. The friend asked, "You mean you get up and fix your own meal?" "No," said Johnny. "My mother prepares it for me. She has to cook Dad’s breakfast by 6:30 anyway." The friend replied, "You mean, your mom gets up that early just to fix breakfast?" "Oh, no," said the young man. "She likes to get up early. It gives her more time to do the things she enjoys - like mopping the floors, dusting furniture, shopping for groceries, and preparing lunch for me and Dad." "I see," said the friend, "but she does have the afternoon for herself?" "Oh, yes," was the reply. "She spends that time playing with my little sister, sewing, and preparing supper, ’cause my dad and I like to have supper on the table when we come home after a hard day’s work. We think that’s fair; after all, Mother doesn’t work!"
Another harried mother had three very active boys. One summer evening she was playing cops and robbers in the back yard after dinner. One of the boys "shot" his mother and yelled, "Bang! You’re dead." She slumped to the ground. When she didn’t get up right away, a neighbor ran over to see if she had been hurt in the fall.
When the neighbor bent over, the overworked mother opened one eye and said, "Shhh. Don’t give me away. It’s the only chance I’ve had to rest all day."
I don’t know how my wife, Carollyn does it, but she does the work of at least two people. Her work for the most part has had something to do with the church. In our first church in Kansas City, KS Carollyn started a pre-school. In the church we planted in Taylor, Michigan Carollyn started a pre-school and then a couple grades were added every year. At the Willow Vale Church Carollyn is our school administrator, helps with Kidmo, leads the choir, plans the organ when needed, leads a home Bible study group, and leads by example of a wife and mother that demonstrates the outstretched arms of Christ to her family and others.
I Corinthians 10:31 “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.”
My mother followed Jesus and lived here everyday life in honoring the Lord. I don’t remember my mother ever bad mouthing or gossiping about anyone.
Asa Sparks tells when he was a Christian Education Director in Birmingham, Alabama. He and his wife had invited his secretary, Charleigh, and her family to their home for dinner. As they were sharing around the table after the meal, the Sparks’ three-year-old, Libbie, climbed up in Charleigh’s lap. Libbie then said to Charleigh, "My Dad said you stuck your foot in your mouth. How did it taste?"
Children are open and honest. Children tell it like it is. We as parents need to live our lives in such a way that we are honest through and through.
In raising our four children there were a couple times that I would have liked to have taken vacation and come back in a year or so. First when our kids were two years old. Second, when they were teenagers. During their teen years the age 15 seem to bring a crisis of obedience. At fifteen they had a strategy to have a will to will confrontation, “I know what’s best for me. I know better than mom and dad.”
Teenagers are wonderful, but during that time when they are testing out their own ideas and beliefs, they also have a tendency to test the limits and test your patience. Someone has humorously put it this way: Why did God have Abraham go to the sacrificial mountain to test him with sacrificing his only son, Isaac, when Isaac was only 12? The answer is, “Because had Isaac been 15, Abraham may have actually gone through with it.” Just kidding, of course.
Robert Fulgham, author of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” says this about raising teenagers: The first rule is roll with the punches. The second rule is roll with the punches. And the third rule is roll with the punches. "You’re going to get punchy," he says, "but keep doing it."
My mother encouraged me to think for myself and develop independence. She trusted me three summers during my college years to allow me to travel all summer driving a combine harvesting wheat.
I was happy that our oldest son Tim when he chose to attend Azusa University in Southern California. We were living in Florida and the day he left for the long drive to Azusa I felt proud that he was willing to launch out on his own. For Carollyn it was another matter. She cried most of the day. She eventually came around and was glad he was taking that step to go a Christian college.
The Bible command is clear in Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God will give you.”
We are to treat our mothers with great respect. We honor our parents by the way we act and what we say. One thing that I would not tolerate in our home was for any of our four children to not treat their mother with respect. They knew that the thunder of dad would come down on them if they sassed, spoke hatefully or sarcastically to their mother.
Children honor their mother and father when they obey them. Ephesians 6:11, “Children, it is your Christian duty to obey your parents, for that is the right thing to do.”
Jesus hung on the cross with arms outstretched in love to the world. John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Jesus has His arms open wide to show you His love. If you have not accepted His love, today would be a great day to say, “yes” to God’s love. Why not open your heart and ask Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of any sin, and help you to love as Jesus loves.
Mothers, this Mother’s Day, commitment to
1. Being a Mother of Prayer
2. Live by Faith in the Lord
3. Live a Life that Honors the Lord
Invitation and Prayer
