Several of us go pick up the inner city kids and bring them to Bible classes once a week. One of the questions I like to ask the kids at Inner City is this:
Does you mamma love you? They always answer, “Yes!” Then I ask them why and they tell me, “She has to, she’s my mamma!”
You can’t ask them if their daddy loves them, because some of them have no idea who their daddy is. But so far, every one of them has said that they know their mamma loves them. A mother’s love is a powerful thing. You may remember Shannon Wright, a member of the Bonno Church of Christ and an elementary school teacher who was shot to death in Conway, Arkansas a few years ago. A couple of young boys stole some guns and set off the fire alarm of the school. Then they hid outside and waited. When the teachers and children came out, they started shooting them. Shannon Wright jumped in front of her class to protect them and was shot to death. She was the mother of a 2 year old baby. When the shots rang out, she did what a mother instinctively does. Save the children!
God’s law in Deuteronomy 22: 6-7 has been called the least commandment in the Bible. But it reflects God’s protection of the mother who has this powerful instinctive system in her heart. It says: 6 "If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;
7 you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
God knew that the mother was particularly vulnerable at this point and could easily be caught as she tried to save her young. It was a time of weakness. But this weakness was based on the strength of her relationship with her babies. God said don’t take advantage of this. God understands becoming vulnerable in order to protect those you love. Isn’t that what Jesus’ death on the cross is all about? If there is one, this is God’s weakness. His deep love for us drove him to send his only begotten Son to the cross in order to save us. The Bible says, God’s weakness is stronger than man’s strength. Perhaps God’s weakness is his love for you.
Does you mamma love you?
Listen to Isaiah 49: 13 Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will have compassion on His afflicted.
14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me."
15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
16 "Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
Listen to what God is saying here. Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can a mother have no compassion on the son of her womb? God says, “Well, even if they forget, I will not forget you!” Even if your mamma doesn’t love you, God does. You’ve heard the expression, “He has a face only a mother could love.” Someone said, “He was so ugly when he was born, the doctor slapped his mother.” Well, even if mother doesn’t love that face, God says, “I do.” No wonder Paul wrote in Eph. 3: 14 For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.
And John wrote in 1 John 3: 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.
Romans 5: 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written, "FOR THY SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God redeemed you and me
God justified you and me
God gave Jesus to die for you and me
God created all things for the enjoyment of you and me
God creates, calls, chooses, purchases, sanctifies, glorifies, forgives, restores, indwells, adopts, clothes in righteousness, guides, blesses, protects, provides for, encourages, receives, shepherds, gives grace to, surrounds, fills, warns, disciplines, longs for, and desires with an everlasting love… you and me!
God loves you and me. But listen to me now. God has an enemy. This enemy is a liar and a murderer. He hates God and he hates you. He would do anything in his power to hurt God and you. His chief goal is to destroy and kill and steal the souls of men from the glory if heaven. If he can turn you against God, he will. Satan knows that God must punish sin. He knows that God’s holiness must not be compromised. He also knows that eternity weighs in the balance for us. We must chose God. We must believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and willingly give ourselves to him. God will not force us to love him. He will not drag you to heaven. You have a choice. God, who is in control of the universe, will not take that away from you. Satan knows this. His power is the power of lies and deception. His goal is to get you and me to chose sin over God’s will.
We are dead in sin. Jesus has come to make us alive through the Spirit. We can do nothing to save ourselves, we can only trust and obey the One sent by God to save us. He does the saving, the forgiving, the redeeming, the sanctifying, and the spiritual blessing. We simply believe and obey through grace that he himself gives us.
Ephesians is a great study on this very matter. The first three chapters are all about what God has done. The last three are about what we do as God’s children.
Does you mamma love you? I hope so. But even if she doesn’t, God does. He loves you so much he sent Jesus to be crucified on a cross to pay for your sins. Think about it. When Jesus was beaten and spit upon and mocked and crowned with thorns, God saw it all and allowed it, to save you and me. When they nailed him, hands and feet to the cross, God then took all the sins you and I have ever done and put them on Jesus. The Bible says, “He took our transgressions and laid them on him.” Then, the most awful thing of all happened. God punished Jesus as if he had committed all those sins! He made Jesus pay for sins we have done!
God loves you. More than your mamma does.
Will you accept that love and obey Him?
