Loving Like a Mom Does
Intro: The more I read and study the Bible, the more I find that deals with every area of our lives. God is the one who created motherhood, so it is not surprising that the Bible covers some of the struggles that moms face. In addition to all the references in the book of Proverbs about a wise son making his mama proud, we find mothers who lose their husbands and the grief that follows (Naomi, Anna, other widows, Mary). We read of mothers who lose a child (Eve, Naomi, Mary, and others). There are mothers with wayward sons and mothers with sons who hated each other. There were women who could not have children of their own, and some were surprised to become mothers in their old age.
-Mothers in the Bible did (and moms today do) learn to deal with disappointment and with loss. Moms have to learn how to deal with stress and problems on every front. Maybe that is why Moms are some of the most prayerful people I know. Honestly, just think about the people you’ve known who really knew how to pray and made it such a priority in their lives. Many of those people were likely moms, or at least had a mother’s heart that caused them to care enough to pray for others. Please don’t think that I’m saying that Dads don’t have caring hearts. I know many who do, and our Father God certainly does. However, I believe there is a sense in which God was revealing His own nature when He created male and female. God Himself is above gender, but the genders seem to tell us something about the nature of God.
-Now, I’m going to take what seems like a left turn and talk about chickens for a few minutes. Let me point out that there are a lot of admirable qualities in chickens. Here are some interesting facts about chickens.
Little Known Chicken Facts
#1 Chickens are pretty fast. The chicken can travel up to 9 miles per hour when it wants to.
#2 The largest ever recorded chicken egg weighed nearly 12 ounces, and measured 12.25 inches around.
#3 Chicken language has real meanings. The birds give different alarm calls depending on which type of predator is threatening them.
#4 There are more chickens on Earth than there are humans.
#5 Chickens can cross breed with turkeys. The result is called a ’Turkin’.
#6 There are four cities in the United States that have the word "chicken" in their name: Chicken, Alaska; Chicken Bristle, Illinois; Chicken Bristle, Kentucky; and Chicken Town, Pennsylvania.
#7 The greatest number of yolks ever found in a single chicken egg was nine!
#8 Chickens experience REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. (I wonder what they dream about?)
#9 The chicken is the closest living relative of the tyrannosaurus-rex.
#10 In Gainesville, Georgia, (the chicken capital of the world), a local ordinance makes it illegal to eat your chicken with a fork.
#11 The waste produced by one chicken in its lifetime can supply enough electricity to run a 100 watt bulb for five hours.
#12 China has the most people in the world, *and* also has the most chickens. There are over 3,000,000,000 chickens in China! (The United States has only 450 million.)
#13 The longest recorded distance flown by any chicken was 301.5 feet.
#14 The record for laying the most eggs in one day was seven.
#15 There are more chickens in the world than there are of any other domesticated bird. In fact, there’s more than one chicken for every human on the face of this earth.
#16 Chickens can fly, but not for long. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is only thirteen seconds.
#17 A chicken will lay bigger and stronger eggs if you adjust the lighting in their cages to make them think each day is 28 hours long, instead of 24.
#18 Chickens eggs come in colors sometimes, (other than white and brown). Some breeds lay eggs in shades of blue or green. Ready-made Easter Eggs!
#19 The fear of chickens is called ’Alektorophobia’.
#20 Laid head to claw, all the chickens consumed from KFC worldwide would circle the Earth at the equator 11 times. (www.associatedcontent.com)
-The reason I’m talking about chickens this morning is because Jesus did. He made at least one reference, and possibly a second, to chickens in the Bible. Besides having created chickens (or their ancestors), Jesus likely grew up with chickens running around His neighborhood. Other writings from the time period in which Jesus lived on this earth document the established presence of chickens and eggs – although none of them tell us which came first.
-Jesus often used common ordinary examples from daily life to present truth to people. So it was no real surprise when He used the example of a mother hen gathering her chicks close to herself for protection and comfort.
-Luke 13:34 Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
-Jesus uses the image of a mother hen to describe His heart for His people.
Prop: God’s love and care for us is reflected in the heart of a mother.
TS: Let’s look at a few simple thoughts today that show us how God wants to “mother” us with His love.
1. God wants to protect you
-What is one of the most common faults of motherhood – if you can call it that? Being overprotective. Moms often want to shield and protect their kids from every possible unpleasant experience. Why? Because they care! It is instinctive. You find this even in the animal kingdom. Psalms uses the imagery of some kind of bird protecting its young.
-Psalm 36:7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge;
[Share video of Liza the mother hen. She had great difficulty becoming a mother because she was smaller than the other chickens and they would chase her off her nest before her eggs could hatch. Finally, the farmer built her a separate little hen house where she successfully hatched 6 little chicks. She was a diligent mother, finding the best food and taking great care of her little ones. Then one day, disaster came, and that is where the video picks up. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXXUPK-OvtQ&feature=related - Natural History of the Chicken, part 6)]
-God wants to protect you, and that is why Jesus came to give His life for each of us! But death could not keep Him down. He came alive on the 3rd day after His death and returned to His Father in heaven. But He still would say to you, “How often I have longed to gather you together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” I want to protect you from sin and all the damage and misery that comes with it. I want to forgive you and protect you from judgment. I don’t want you to try to do life without Me!
2. God wants to comfort you
-How many times has a mother provided comfort to her family members? When they fall down and get hurt, or get hurt in a relationship, Mom is often the one who is there for them. The world can be a hard, cruel place where pain is the order of the day. God wants to gather you close, bringing comfort to you.
-2 Corinthians 1:3-4 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
-I really like the image of family and community that comes from the picture of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings. Not only are you safe when you are gathered close to the Lord, but you are not alone! You have the Lord, but you also have those who you are gathered with. There is unity and togetherness. We are all sharing in the Lord’s comfort together. And that leads us to the 3rd point.
3. God wants you to be close to Him
-Relationship, trust, intimacy, development, maturity – these all can develop with the help of a mother’s love. They also grow as we come close to God.
-The word “often” tells us that this is God’s continual desire – to gather us together under His wings, close to Him. James 4:8 “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
-God wants you to be close to Him now in this life. That is what it means to walk with the Lord and do life with Him. He said He would never leave us or forsake us. He told His disciples, “I am with you always.” Jesus wants us close to Him now. However, He doesn’t want it to end. That is why He is coming back for us one of these days.
-1 Thessalonians 4:17 “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” So shall we always be close to the Lord!
-As I often say, it’s all about relationship! I don’t think that heaven is going to be a very private place. There will be nothing to hide and nothing to hide from. There will be nothing repulsive there, nothing that grieves you or wearies you. But we will be interacting with one another and with the Lord continually. I don’t think we will need alone time in heaven. I enjoy it now, but perhaps that is only because I am weak and broken and often overwhelmed by what this life brings.
-Jesus will gather us all up one of these days so we can be close to Him forever. That’s what He wants for us! But as we’ll see in this final point, He leaves it up to us.
4. God’s grace gives you space
-God will not force you to come if you are not willing. There are times when a mother and/or a father will force a child into compliance. However, they can never force a child to love them. We can reach out in love and hopefully teach a child to give and receive love, but if they are not willing to respond, what can you do but hope and pray and love and wait?
-Just think about John 3:16. Eternal life is offered to whoever chooses to believe in Jesus and respond to His love. God gives us the space we need to choose Him. Only our decision closes the space between us and God. If we are willing to come to God on His terms and receive His grace, then we can live under the shadow of His wings, being close to Him.
Close: God’s love for us is amazing, especially the motherly kind of love He shows.
Max Lucado offers a profound explanation of a mother’s love.
Moms: WHY do you love your newborn child?
I know, I know; it’s a silly question, but indulge me. Why do you?
For months this baby has brought you pain.
They’ve made you break out in pimples and waddle like a duck.
Because of them you craved sardines and crackers and threw up in the morning.
They punched you in the tummy.
They occupied a space that wasn’t theirs and ate food they didn’t fix.
You kept them warm. You kept them safe. You kept them fed.
But did she say thank you?
Are you kidding?
She’s no more out of the womb than she starts to cry!
The room is too cold, the blanket is too rough, the nurse is too mean.
And who does she want? Mom.
Don’t you ever get a break? I mean, who has been doing the work the last nine months?
Why can’t Dad take over? But no, Dad won’t do. The baby wants Mom.
She didn’t even tell you she was coming. She just came. And what a coming!
She rendered you a barbarian. You screamed. You swore. You bit bullets and tore the sheets.
And now look at you. Your back aches. Your head pounds. Your body is drenched in sweat. Every muscle strained and stretched. You should be angry, but are you?
Far from it. On your face is a longer-than-forever love.
They’ve done nothing for you; yet you love them.
They’ve brought pain to your body and nausea to your morning, yet you treasure them.
Their face is wrinkled and their eyes are dim, yet all you can talk about are her good looks and bright future.
She’s going to wake you up every night for the next 6 weeks, but that doesn’t matter.
I can see it on your face. You’re crazy about her.
Why? Why does a mother love her newborn?
Because the baby is hers?
Even more. Because the baby is her.
Her blood. Her flesh. Her sinew and spine. Her hope. Her legacy.
It bothers her not that the baby gives nothing.
She knows a newborn is helpless, weak.
She knows babies don’t ask to come into this world.
And God knows we didn’t either.
We are his idea. We are his. His face. His eyes. His hands. His touch. We are of Him.
(Adapted from A Gentle Thunder. p. 46ff as cited by Jeff Strite, sermoncentral.com)
-I hope that you have received God’s love and have responded by coming close to Him. I hope that you have let Him gather you under His wings, pulling you close in His healing and cleansing embrace. Unfortunately, many people are not willing to do that. Perhaps they are angry at God, or maybe they are confused and can’t bring themselves to trust someone they cannot see. There are all kinds of reasons we might have for not coming close to God, but what do we gain by staying away? More pain, loneliness, and dysfunction are the likely results of refusing God’s invitation.
-Just in case you missed God’s invitation to you in the past, here it is again.
-Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Could you use some rest? Jesus goes on to say that you will find rest for your soul when you come to Him.
-How do we come to Him? Believe Him (Heb.11:6). Confess to Him (1 John 1:9). Receive Him (John 1:12).
