INSIGNIFICANT SIGNIFICANCE
JUDGES 13: 1-25
MOTHER’S DAY 2004 MAY 9
INTRODUCTION: Mothers are central to the success of the American family. Their love, dedication, and wisdom touch countless lives every day in every community throughout our land. And their love and guidance of children help to develop healthy and spiritually sound families.
President John Quincy Adams once said, “All that I am my mother made me.” President Abraham Lincoln believed, “All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” These statements are just as true for the millions of Americans who credit their mothers for helping to successfully shape their lives.
George W. Bush Contributed by: Donnie Martin
FROM MY MOTHER
From my mother I learned the value of prayer, how to have dreams and believe I could make them come true.
Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States.
SOURCE: Celebrating Mothers, A book of Appreciation. Edited by Glorya Hale and Carol Kelly-Gangi. MetroBooks, 2002. pg 80. Contributed by: SermonCentral PRO
THESIS SENTENCE: Today is Mother’s Day. In the eyes of the world this day is a secular holiday. This would be opposed to a sacred day, or a day that brings a focus upon our God. BUT, we know better. Mother’s Day is a Sacred Day. Mothers are a unique gift from God. A mother can be the most significant person in our lives. I truly believe that a mother is to be the most significant person in our lives. We all know the difference our mothers have made in our lives, even as these American Presidents past and present knew and know. Today we come to celebrate God’s Gift of Mothers. We want to hear from God and be encouraged. We want to hear again from God’s word, even as Tony read us the story of the birth of Samson. We want to hear what God has to say about His gift to us and what HE would want us to learn in this day.
THESIS SENTENCE: MOTHERS ARE OF UTMOST SIGNIFICANCE IS GOD PERFECT PLAN!
I. SIGNIFICANCE IS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE VV. 1-3
A. PERSPECTIVE IS NOT INSIGNIFICANCE/ NO NAME
B. PERSPECTIVE IS NOT ABOUT THE CONDITION/ NO CHILD
C. PERSPECTIVE IS PROMISE
ILLUSTRATION: A four-year-old and a six-year-old presented their mom with a houseplant.
They had used their own money to buy it and she was thrilled.
The older of them said with a sad face, "There was a bouquet at the flower shop that we wanted to give you. It was real pretty but it was too expensive. It had a ribbon on it that said ‘Rest In Peace,’ and we thought it would be just perfect since you are always asking for a little peace so that you can rest. Contributed by: A. Todd Coget
A teacher gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has six letters. The first one is M, and I pick up things. What am I?” When the grades were all in the teacher was astounded to find that almost fifty percent had written in, mother. Contributed by: Preston Duvall
TRUTH: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MOTHERHOOD IS ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE.
II. SIGNIFICANCE IS A MATTER OF BEHAVIOR VV. 4-5
A. BEHAVIOR IS ADMONISHED/ COMMANDED
B. BEHAVIOR IS PERSONAL/ IT BEGINS WITH US
C. BEHAVIOR IS TRANSITIONAL/ IT MATTERS TO OTHERS
ILLUSTRATION: Little children can come up with some very interesting ideas. Listen to what some children wrote to their mothers for Mother’s Day.
Angie, 8 years old, wrote: "Dear Mother, I’m going to make dinner for you on Mother’s Day. It’s going to be a surprise. P.S. I hope you like pizza & popcorn."
Robert wrote: "I got you a turtle for Mother’s Day. I hope you like the turtle better than the snake I got you last year."
Eileen wrote: "Dear Mother, I wish Mother’s Day wasn’t always on Sunday. It would be better if it were on Monday so we wouldn’t have to go to school."
Little Diane wrote: "I hope you like the flowers I got you for Mother’s Day. I picked them myself when Mr. Smith wasn’t looking."
And how about this one from Carol? "Dear Mother, Here are two aspirins. Have a happy Mother’s Day!" Contributed by: MELVIN NEWLAND
LOVE THEM
Kate Samperi wrote, “Before becoming a mother I had a hundred theories on how to bring up children. Now I have seven children and only one theory: love them, especially when they least deserve to be loved.”
Kate Samperi, author SOURCE: Celebrating Mothers: A Book of Appreciation. Edited by Glorya Hale and Carol Kelly-Gangi. MetroBooks, 2002. pg 17.
Contributed by: SermonCentral PRO
TRUTH: MOTHERS, THE WAY IN WHICH YOU LIVE REALLY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
III. SIGNIFICANCE IS A MATTER OF SHARING VV. 6-14
A. SHARING IS TELLING/ HER HUSBAND
B. SHARING IS RECEIVING/ HE HEARD AND PRAYED
C. SHARING IS EXPERIENCING/ THEY SAW TOGETHER
ILLUSTRATION: When Robert Ingersoll the notorious skeptic, was in his heyday, two college students went to hear him lecture. As the walked down the street after the lecture, one said to the other, “Well, I guess he knocked the props out from under Christianity, didn’t he?” The other said, “No, I don’t think he did. Ingersoll did not explain my mother’s life, and until he can explain my mother’s life, I will stand by my mother’s God.
James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, 1972, pg. 38 Contributed by: Larry Norman
TRUTH: MOTHERS, WHAT YOU SHARE WITH OTHERS CAN MADE AN ETERNAL DIFFERENCE.
IV. SIGNIFICANCE IS A MATTER OF WORSHIP VV. 15-23
A. WORSHIP IS THE INVOCATION/ STAY WITH US
B. WORSHIP IS THE OFFERING/ BURNT OFFERING
C. WORSHIP IS THE FIRE/ THE ANGEL ASCENDING
D. WORSHIP IS THE ALTAR CALL/ PROSTRATE
E. WORSHIP IS THE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE
ILLUSTRATION: Erma Bombeck writes:
For the first 4 or 5 years after I had children, I considered motherhood a temporary condition -- not a calling. It was a time of my life set aside for exhaustion and long hours. It would pass. Then one afternoon, with 3 kids in tow, I came out of a supermarket pushing a cart (with four wheels that went in opposite directions) when my toddler son got away from me. Just outside the door, he ran toward a machine holding bubble gum in a glass dome. In a voice that shattered glass he shouted, "Gimme! Gimme!" I told him I would give him what for if he didn’t stop shouting and get in the car.
As I physically tried to pry his body from around the bubble gum machine, he pulled the entire thing over. Glass and balls of bubble gum went all over the parking lot. We had now attracted a sizable crowd.
I told him he would never see a cartoon as long as he lived, and if he didn’t control his temper, he was going to be making license plates for the state.
He tried to stifle his sobs as he looked around at the staring crowd. Then he did something that I was to remember for the rest of my life. In his helpless quest for comfort, he turned to the only one he trusted his emotions with -- me. He threw his arms around my knees and held on for dear life.
I had humiliated him, chastised him, and berated him, but I was still all he had. That single incident defined my role. I was a major force in this child’s life.
Sometimes we forget how important stability is to a child. I’ve always told mine, "The easiest part of being a mother is giving birth.... the hardest part is showing up for it each day..."
Mother’s day is traditionally the day when children give something back to their mothers for all the spit they produce to wash dirty faces, all the old gum they held in their hands, all the noses they wipe, and all the bloody knees they "made well" with a kiss.
This is the day mothers are rewarded for washing all those sheets in the middle of the night, driving kids to school when they missed the bus, and enduring all the football games in the rain.
It’s appreciation day for making your children finish something they said they couldn’t do, not believing them when they said, "I hate you," and sharing their good times and their bad times.
Their cards probably won’t reflect it, but what they are trying to say is, "Thank you for showing up." Contributed by: Steve Malone
TRUTH: MOM’S ARE TO MAKE AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE, LIVING REAL WORSHIP!
V. SIGNIFICANCE IS A MATTER OF BLESSING VV. 24-25
A. BLESSING IS A CHILD BORN
B. BLESSING IS THE LORD’S FAVOR
C. BLESSING IS THE STIRING OF THE SPIRIT
ILLUSTRATION: SOMEBODY SAID
Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you’ve had a baby. Somebody doesn’t know that once you’re a mother, normal is history.
Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct. Somebody never took a three-year-old shopping. Somebody said being a mother is boring.
Somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver’s permit.
Somebody said if you’re a "good" mother, your child will "turn out good."
Somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.
Somebody said "good" mothers never raise their voices. Somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor’s kitchen window. Somebody said you don’t need an education to be a mother.
Somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math. Somebody said you can’t love the fifth child as much as you love the first. Somebody doesn’t have more than one child. Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books. Somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose.
Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery.
Somebody never watched her "baby" get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten. Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. Somebody never organized seven giggling Girl Scouts to sell cookies. Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married. Somebody doesn’t know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother’s heartstrings. Somebody said a mother’s job is done when her last child leaves home. Somebody never had grandchildren. Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don’t need to tell her. Somebody isn’t a mother.
SOURCE: Mikey’s Funnies Web site: http://www.youthspecialties.com/linker/index.php?id=141
Contributed by: SermonCentral PRO
TRUTH: MOTHERS ARE A BLESSING FROM GOD AND CENTRAL IN HIS WORK OF BLESSING AND OF SHARING BLESSING!
CONCLUSION: today we celebrate the SIGNIFICANCE OF MOTHERHOOD, THE BLESSING OF GOD. Today is a day to give thanks to God for our mothers. Today is a difficult day for many. Maybe, your mother is now in eternity and you miss her with all your heart. Give thanks; you will be with her again. Maybe, your mother was never there for you, today I ask you to give thanks that our Lord has sustained you and brought you to this place where He can heal your hearts. Possibly, today represents a day of continued struggle. I ask you give thanks and to trust the One who speaks peace in the midst of chaos.
BUT, most importantly, Moms, I want you to know that you are of the utmost significance is God’s Plan. Eternity will reward you for your faithfulness to God, which will be evident in your faithfulness to His service within your family, church, and community. YOU MATTER TO GOD. ALLOW HIM TO HAVE YOU, BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU. IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN!
BENEDICTION: JUDE 24 AND 25
