Mothers Day Sermon:
Eph 6: 1-3
Eph 6:1 Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right.
Eph 6:2 "Honor your father and mother" is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely,
Eph 6:3 "so you will live well and have a long life."
Who wants to live a long live? The bible says this is the ONLY commandment with promise!! If you want to live a long life, then you must obey your parents, and we must obey what the bible taught us to do! Amen! Tell your neighbor!
Pray..
The very idea of mothers day started in a small Virginia Methodist church back in the early 1900’s. So really the idea of celebrating mothers day originated from the church!! A woman by the name of Anna Javis convince her church to set aside a Sunday to honor all mothers after her own mother died in 1905. In 1914 the American standard pass a resolution and the president proclaim that the 2nd Sunday of May to be mothers day.
mother in general are doing so much but they are never quite appreciated in society. Someone said a mother ministry is the toughest assignment that God has given to anybody. She got to be a helper to her husband, a teacher to the children, a financial manager to the family, she need to be a servant to make sure the house is clean b4 his husband is back, and she needs to be a good chief!! The worst is if she fall sick, she got to get well at the end of the school day, so that she can take care of her children again. Friends, would you one more time, help me to honor all the mothers in this place. Amen thank God for our mother!!
Despise all the hard work of our mothers has put in, woman makes up 60% of our world population, they do 2/3 of the worlds’ work, but they only earn 10% of the world’s income, and own 1% of the worlds’ property. How our mothers treated in our society today? How do we treat our own mothers? Instead of praises, we often hear complain about our mothers. We tend to compare and wish our mothers were different. Many people will say, Wincci you do not know my mum, she’s a very difficult woman to get along, she has sharp tongue, she’s controlling, she’s manipulating, she’s always nagging nagging all the time. It is so difficult to get along with my mum. You know what? Very often the way our mother is, the way she behaves, is a direct respond from the way she has been treated by the people she loves and respect.
God created man and woman differently. God created man to initiate, god create a woman to respond. So when there’s no proper loving action are shown to the women, they respond in a very negative way, and if there is no appreciation, they respond in a negative way. That’s why “hurting people hurt others”. Friends, if you have a mothers who is very difficult to get along, then maybe you should ask yourself, have you appreciated her, or what have you done for her to heal the hurt that she has experience in her lives. Whenever you hold on to a hurt, it ends up becoming a resentment.
Everyone say: resentment.
A resentment is a great destroyer for relationship.
Resentment eats up your energy, resentment robs away your love and your joy.
When we do not know how to handle lives hurt and disappointment, we will become resentful and will end up hurting ourselves. For man they will become angry, violent, abusive.
And woman will become insecure, they become manipulating, and controlling.
I want to share with you 3 cures for resentment:
Tell your neighbor this sermon is going to bless you.
This sermon is going to help you, let me tell you friends the good news is this, regardless of whatever pain you have experience in the pass, God can heal you and make the rest of your live the best days on the earth.
If you are hurt and angry today, what must you do to find your healing?
1. Release your hurt to God.
In other words means you must tell God why you are angry. Tell Him why you feel hurt. Tell Him why you are bitter. You know a lot of people, they do not want to express themselves, they just want to bury their hurt, they just want to suppress all their anger on the inside. Friends, when you do that, it will cause you more harm than it will do good to you.
Turn your bible with me to Job 7: 11
Here we see what Job says, “when I feel hurt, when I feel disappointed, when I feel that all my friends have left me, and I feel alone” what he says? “I will not keep silent.” Some people think that if we express all our anger to God, then He will be very angry with me, friends let me tell you, God already knows you are hurt even before you tell Him. The reason why he wants you to speak out, to express and to confess your hurt to him, so that the healing process can begin in your life.
God is not going to judge you even you are angry with him, He wants you to express and release to Him so that his healing process can take place in your live. God already knows how you feel even before you tell Him.
Why you need to express out your resentment. Because
i) Resentment is unhelpful
Why? BECAUSE YOU CAN NEVER CHANGE YOUR PAST. Whatever cause you to be bitter, whatever cause you to be angry, whatever that has hurt you in the pass you can’t change that!! Holding on to your resentment is unhelpful. It’s not worth your effort. No matter how much you resent what happened, your pass will never change. So, why get resentful? It will only cause more harm to you. Job 5:2 everybody says resentment kills, resentment will ultimately kills you on the inside!!
Turn to your neighbor and say :don’t hold on to your
resentment.
ii) Resentment is unhealthy
Friends when you get resentful, it always hurt you more than it hurts the person that you are resenting. It is so ridiculous if you are thinking I’m going to hold on to this hurt because I’m going to make that person regret what he did to me. Friends, it’s going to hurt you more than it’s going to hurt the other person. You imagine, resentment is like you taking a M16 gun, and you are pointing at yourself, and you are shooting the bullet hoping that your enemy will be shoot. Friends, that is exactly what resentment will do to you. So what is it that you are resenting in your heart?
Are you resenting your parents for some hurt that they have done in your life? Or are you resenting your husband? Or you wife? Friends it will always hurt you more than it does to anybody else. So the first thing we need to do is to release our hurt to God.
2. Forgive your offender
After you have release your hurt to God, then you must release the person that has offended you. Why it is so important that I must forgive my offender? Because, in life there is a principles, and the principle is this, whatever you focus on, that is what you are going to move towards. So, if you focus on something positive, you are going to move towards being positive, if you focus on the negative, then you are going to move towards being negative. I realize especially many Chinese parents, they always use negative words rather than positive words to encourage. Right? They always say something like that…(you very naughty, I don’t like you I want to throw you away to ah pu nene, ni ben dao xiang yi zhi zhu) Come on dun look at me like you never heard this before le, tell your neighbor :I know someone like that. Ya, so when you start to focus on those words, I’m very naughty, I’m very stupid, then you will never think that you are wise because you always meditate that you are stupid!!!
So you got to decide what you want to focus on. Of course parents must help your children to grow strong with positive words!! A lot of people says this, “I’m not going to forgive this person for the pain he has cause me. Guess what you are focusing? The pain!! You are focusing on that abuse. You are focusing on this person and what He has done to you. Maybe this person cheated you. When you keep focus on it, guess what?
You are going to move towards it, you are going to be more bitter, you are going to be hurt, and ultimately you may become this person. You know so many people they said, I hate my mum, I hate my dad, because they are alcoholics, I will never be an alcoholic. And they keep on focusing on alcohol, alcoholic, eventually they become an alcoholic themselves.
In the book of Heb 12:15
If you don’t deal with the root of bitterness, one day this root of bitterness is going to cause trouble in your life. Bitter root will produce bitter fruit, and it will then destroy your life.
Jhn 20: 23
This is a very powerful verse, because Jesus is saying we have the power to forgive!!
Everyone says: I have the power to forgive!! Turn to your neighbor and says you have the power to forgive!!
But Jesus says IF you do not want to forgive, if you retain the sin, then let me tell you what’s going to happen, your offender is not free from the sin neither are you!! Because you are holding it, day and night, day and night, the thought of the sin will corrupt you, and it will destroy you. It is like the show the Lord of the ring, the guy who got the ring that has the power, everyday “precious, my precious.” The power is corrupting him. So every single day, as you begin to hold on to the sin, you hold on to the bitterness, it is corrupting you!! Eventually, your life will be destroy. Friends, don’t be foolish, forgive your offender!! When you release the hurt, you release your offender, you release yourself!! And the healing process can take place in our lives.
Now how often must we forgive? Peter asked Jesus this question in Matt 18. Peter asked, “Lord, how many times I need to forgive my brother, up to 7 times? Friends, let me tell you, if you are counting, that is not forgiveness!!So Peter says, it is up to 7 times? Jesus says “no Peter, 70x7 times” I just imagine, Peter was a fisherman, so he probably didn’t know how to count, then he start to use his fingers and toes,…and said “Jesus I do not know” Then Jesus said “That’s right, when you stop counting, that is forgiveness.”
Have you seen married couple, when the husband said something wrong or do something wrong, the wives will say, “ni gen wo zhi zhu” then they start writing ….so that one day when the husband want to accuse the wives, the wives can take out a long list,..Firends, this is not love. The bible says love does not record wrong!! God love us so much that He took away our transgression, mean he erase our sin, so that He remember our sin no more.
So every time, when the memory of that hurt comes up, you forgive, you do it again and again and again until you know you have release this person. So how do you know you have fully release a person? When you feel comfortable in this persons’ presence. When this person is prospering and you are happy. You can pray for him, you can bless him. No matter who this person is, you need to release this person to God, forgive your offender, because God is bringing healing into your life.
3. Refocus your life.
It’s time to refocus your life. What do you mean by refocus? That means it’s time for you to face the world again. It is very typical that the moment you are hurt, what you want to do is you want to withdraw, shut the door, build a wall to protect yourself.
This is a natural reaction when a person is hurt. That’s why you will hear “I will never going to let another man get close to me anymore.” Or “I’m never going to have another relationship again.” When people are hurt, they withdraw.
Friends, don’t withdraw, it’s time to refocus and get back to life again. It’s time to face the world again. If you live in the pass and all your hurt, it’s like a driver who like at the side mirror all the time when he drives. What will happen? It’s going to crush!!
Have you seen a driver who drive like that, no, all driver look straight ahead on their road. We need to look ahead straight, to where God is leading you, the destiny he has for you.
Often a woman is hurt because the man in her life does not care or appreciate her. If you ask a woman, why are you look so down, why are you look so bitter, very often they will tell you, the people around me, the people that I love, they don’t appreciate me. So why woman needs appreciation so much? Why it is very often we complain that woman are very nagging, they always want to try to change the man, they always want to try to change their children? Why? Turn your bible with me to Gen 3:
In chapter 3, God told Adam and Eve, “You can not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge and evil. Because the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. But what happen? We all know that the serpent or the devil tempt Eve to eat, and Eve gave it to the husband, and they both sin against God.
V12- 13
There are 4 characters over here in the garden of Eden. God, Adam, Eve and the serpent. When God asked Adam why you eat the fruit that I told you, you are not suppose to eat, Adam said, “God, the woman that you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I eat.
He blame Eve and he blame God. Then When God asked Eve, she turn to the devil and said “he deceive me and I eat.” What did God do? Immediately V14-15
God then gave a prophetic word to the woman, he said “Eve, out of your offspring, it will come a male child, the child is going to be the redeemer of mankind. This male child is going to be the redeemer of Adams failure.” Who is this male child? We all know he is Jesus Christ!!
Because of the prophetic word that God gave to Eve, from that moment onwards, it has become the nature and the responsibility of all woman, to carry within them the hope of redeeming their man. On the inside of Eve carry the prophetic word of redemption. That is why friends, have you ever wonder why a woman will marry a man in spike of the weaknesses she sees in him!! Because it’s in her nature to believe that no matter what is wrong with him, she can fix it. Because of the redemptive word that God has spoken to her, this very woman that Adam blame for his failure, is really going to be the one that will carry a solution for his life. So man here in this place, if you can understand what is God original intention for your wife, then you begin to tap into something that will change your life forever. You will begin to understand that this is a divine relationship that God has for every married couple, that your wives primary role is to help you to be a better man!! That’s why when you go to a dinner function, your wife will look at your tie and help you to adjust, she’s always so concern how you look to the public. Every time your wife will come and tell you, you got to do this, you got to do that, don’t forget to do this, don’t forget to do that, why? Because she wants to make sure that you honor your word so that you will not embarrass yourself in public.
That is a role of a woman, so instead of appreciate them, you say “why are you so nagging?” So we destroy what is Gods plan for the relationship. Children here in this place, if you can see a godly mothers’ correction as input and not nagging, then let me tell you, you will begin to step into a whole new relationship that God intend for a family.
5 more minutes I’m going to conclude.
Prov 31: 1-5
These are the words of King Solomon, he is the wisest man on earth. And he wrote this about his mum, he says…
You know, King Solomon, when he heard these words from the mum, he didn’t say “mum, stop nagging, I’m the wisest man in the world, I am a king, how dare you come and correct me.” NO! He accepted those words that his mum taught him.
Let’s look at v28-30
How he says about his mum.
He says “Of all the woman in the world, many woman have done well, but my mum excel them all.” Will you say this for your mum? Will you call your mum bless? I will say this for my own mum, many woman has done well, but my mum excel them all.
My mother is a very special person in my life. I remember the first time I left home to study in Ipoh, I called her when I got home sick, she pick up the phone and she will cry and say nothing, and me will cry on the phone, she will pray with me, she will encourage me, she will help me to focus on the destiny that God has given to me. When I study in Singapore, many times I felt real pressure, every time when I called her, no fail she will pray for me.
Even in the lowest time of my ministry, she will be there to tell me that God has a great purpose in my life. She may not be high educated, but to be she’s the wisest woman on earth, because she’s someone who honor God. She helps me to fulfill my calling on earth. Just a few days ago, I was telling her I’m stress I need to preach on Mothers day, she prayed a very long prayer over me. I will not be who I am now standing in front of you without all the support from my mother. Therefore, I can say this for her “ Many woman has done well, BUT my mother excel them all.”
Friends, what about you? Will you say this for your own mum?
Will you call your mum bless?
Friends, whatever it maybe, all of our days, we have our hurt, we have hurt others, and others have hurt us, but today let us release our hurt to God. Let us come and forgive our offender, and refocus our lives, and I believe god is going to bring the healing to you.
