MOTHERS DAY 2012
This past Tuesday was teacher appreciation day. In recognition of that, we would like to say a hearty “Thank You” to Mike. Right now I believe you are the only public school teacher we have attending here. We appreciate what you do, and the Christian witness you have in an environment that is not always open to a Christian Witness. We would like to say thank you to Susan, who home schools and also teaches at a Christian Community School.
We would like to say “Thank You” to Tom, for so faithfully preparing and teaching our adult Bible Study for the past several years. As his son so frequently points out, he misses less services here than I do.
We would like to say “Thank You” to Gladys and Doe, and Teri, for teaching our children in children’s church and the nursery each week; and Bonnie, and Steve, and Russ, and Linda, and Adam, Neil and Teri, and Gladys and all of the others who have worked to make MPC such a success this past year. Friday night, the last night of MPC for this year, there were a lot of hugs and tears.
I’d like to thank Christina, and Lydia, Steve, Russ, Gladys, Neil and Teri, and the others, who have worked so hard teaching and serving in 4-H. I know a family that now has their children in a Christian school because through you, the dad was reminded of the importance of teaching his children about God. This past Sunday, one of the mothers who attended MPC graduation with her children said, “Now I understand why you have 4-H”. Yall have worked and prepared week after week and modeled before these children and parents; most of which do not attend church, what Christianity looks like lived out. Thank you.
Interesting that teacher appreciation week should fall on the week of Mothers’ Day, for there are no greater teachers than mothers. You ladies do your best to try and teach us when we’re growing up, and then when we marry, you hand us over to other women, hoping they can finish the job.
My mother has had to often shake her head and apologize to Gladys saying, “I didn’t rear him that way. His dad did that.” Some of you, with and without children of your own, have adopted the kids in church and in your neighborhoods and have shown them what a mother’s love looks like. The kids around here get more hugs from Teri than Neal has ever dreamed of getting.
To all of you mothers, and to all of you others, who teach in so many ways, we say “Thank You”!
SERMON
We spoke earlier about teachers. In God’s economy, in God’s plan, He has given us mothers who are responsible for teaching us so many things. You teach us how to blow our noses and wipe our mouths and remind us that sleeves are not for either one of those. You teach us to walk, and talk, and attempt to teach us to dress ourselves. You teach us manners, and what to eat.
Through your examples, you teach your children either how to be a good wife, or what to look for in one. Part of the task God had charged you with is to teach us, hopefully, not without help: a love for God.
And ladies, parents, one of the most important things you can teach your children about their relationship with God is the importance of prayer.
- Matthew 6:5-15
This account of the Lord’s prayer is found in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. …
I. TEACH THEM CHRISTIANITY IS TO BE LIVED OUT IN FAMILY
- verse 9
First word, “Our”.
There are those who mistakenly believe that they can do a relationship with God alone. There are times when you have to walk with God alone, if you are the only Christian in a town; perhaps, or if you are in solitary confinement, perhaps, but Christianity was never intended to lived out alone. There is a reason the Bible says,
“Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as some are in the habit of …
There is a reason the early Christians met together regularly, and even the underground church in China and other places do so today, even at the risk of being found out, because Christianity is not meant to be lived out alone.
> Colossians 3:16 Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Teach your children that they need to be in the Lord’s house regularly so they can learn, so they can encourage others and be encouraged by others. Christianity is meant to be lived out in family.
II. TEACH THEM GOD LOVES THEM LIKE A DADDY
V9 Father –
> Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “ Abba, Father!”
- Galatians 4:4-6
We don’t have a stone-cold, tight-fisted, uncaring God sitting in heaven Who doesn’t care. He is Daddy! …
III. TEACH THEM THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL
V9
“In heaven”. Where? In heaven. Where? In heaven! God sees all things. He knows everything. He isn’t some little ol whimpy God. He isn’t a block of wood or a tree or a stone with a face carved on it. No sir, I serve the risen Lord. The maker of heaven and earth.
My God, spoke, and created the heavens and the earth. My God spoke and the wind and waves stopped. My God walks on water, raises the dead and terrorizes demons.
They can call anybody a Christian they want to. But that doesn’t make it so. You can call 2 women living together “married”; you can call 2 men holding hands a couple, but that doesn’t make it so. It makes it an abomination.
You can call lying by our leaders “politics” or campaigning; but that doesn’t excuse it. You can take the 10 Commandments out of our courthouses and prayer out of our schools, but you cannot take God out of the picture.
Psalms 2:1-9 (HCSB) 1 Why do the nations rebel and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and His Anointed One: 3 “Let us tear off their chains and free ourselves from their restraints.” 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them. 5 Then He speaks to them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath: 6 “I have consecrated My King on Zion, My holy mountain.” 7 I will declare the Lord’s decree: He said to Me, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. 8 Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance and the ends of the earth Your possession. 9 You will break them with a rod of iron; You will shatter them like pottery.”
> Isaiah 1:28 But both rebels and sinners will be destroyed, and those who abandon the Lord will perish.
Don’t you dare teach your children to run around wringing their hands crying “The sky is falling”.
Tell them to turn off the news and open their Bibles. You teach them to pray to Yahweh. The all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present God; and leave the hand-wringing to the demons, the global-warming folks and the evolutionists who can’t begin to explain how you get from mud to man. Because we serve God. The One and Only, and He’s coming again!
IV. TEACH THEM TO HONOR GOD
- v9 Hallowed be Thy Name”.
Every thing we do is to bring glory to God. …
The Bible and morality is not out-moded. It is not old-fashioned.
V. TEACH THEM GOD’S WILL IS PRIORITY
- v10
God doesn’t always do what we want … He can use the pain to …
Several years ago … election … Drew crying the next morning. “We prayed …
Because God has a plan. Read revelation. Some bad stuff happens before Jesus returns. That is no reason to give up, give in, or sell out. It is reason to stand firm. It is reason to stay prayed up, and it is reason for reaching out.
VI. TEACH THEM GOD IS THE SOURCE FOR THEIR NEEDS
-v11
Many have the mindset that if things are fixed with economy then they’ll lose everything. Or, if things aren’t fixed in Washington, then their needs won’t be met.
Look, my sufficiency and dependency is not on Washington. I do not depend on you, or social security, or anything else. I will not build my house on sand.
Teach your children that the source of their needs is the One Who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. The One who sends quail with a breeze, brings water from a rock, and feeds prophets with ravens.
You teach your children that as things get tight, they don’t need more connections, or more strings to pull, they need to get closer to the Lord, the source of all their needs.
*** Russ without a job. Last Sunday he told his dad. His dad stopped in the middle of what he was saying and prayed the Lord would Russ a lead this week. Friday he got a phone call and will be having an interview on Monday.
VII. TEACH THEM THAT THEY ARE NOT PERFECT
Some dote on their children …
Remind them that they need forgiveness.
VIII. TEACH THEM TO FORGIVE OTHERS
- v12
As they need to be forgiven, they also need to forgive others.
IX. PRAY FOR THEIR PROTECTION
There is nothing that replaces the prayers of a caring parent.
