A Day of Rejoicing, A Day of Restoration

Proverbs chapter 31 verse 31 Proverbs chapter 31 verse 31 I would encourage

Proverbs 31:31 Proverbs 31:31

you to read the whole chapter if you've never read it I suspect if you've been

to a church service on Mother's Day many times you have probably heard Proverbs

31 often it's a really good it's a really good chapter there's a good

reason for that it really is a good a good chapter it's it's the words of a

king by the name of Lemuel and their words of Lemuel given to him by his

mother it's good advice it's good advice for men and looking for a wife it's good

advice and women on how to be a good wife and how to be a good mother and so

it's a good chapter we're not going to look at all of it today for time's sake

but we will look at the very last verse Proverbs chapter 31 verse 31 this is

Proverbs 31:31

speaking of the good wife and the good mother it says give her the reward of

her labor and let her works be prayed let her works praise her at the city

gates let's pray father God we come to you today and we thank you for a good

day I pray dear Lord that your Holy Spirit would be among us today I pray

that you would just open our ears and open our hearts today as we come to hear

your word as we come to honor our mothers I pray God that you would hide

me behind the cross that you would help me to preach and teach words and are

gonna bring glory to you dear Lord words that are gonna be good for us today dear

Lord we need you to speak to us and I pray that you would God I pray that you

take away any nerves or pride that I have dear Lord that I would be faithful

to preach and teach your word I pray for each of these mothers who are here today

and their children and their grandchildren who are with them that you

would just bless their time together dear Lord I pray for the mothers that

maybe today is a tough day for them or the children maybe today is a tough day

for them that you just bring us comfort God even in the midst of our rejoicing

today and I ask these things in Jesus name amen mothers are important mothers

have I would venture to say the most important job in the world mothers have

to raise children and that I would imagine I can only guess would be a very

difficult thing but yet oftentimes when we look around at mothers we see we see

something special we see something beautiful we see sacrifice we see love

that probably is greater than than any love we can experience in this world

apart from that of God and the scripture here gives us really a simple instruction

and that is that we do we honor that we reward that we that we praise the

mothers in our life that us men praise the good wives that we have in our life

now we're doing that in a small portion today now we made a little bit of food

and us men are honored to be able to do so to honor you ladies but but we know

that's not enough we know that pills and comparison you cook for us 365 days a

year and we make one dinner for you it's not much but it's the best we can do or

maybe it ain't the best we can do but it's the best we can do today and we're

going to do that today and and maybe you husbands and you children maybe you want

to do this a little more often for your mothers but but we come here on today

and we come to we come to honor our mothers we come to celebrate what

motherhood is maybe you don't know the history of Mother's Day and and we

won't go into all of it because in some ways it's kind of a sad story but but

back in the 1800s there was a lady by the name of Ann Jarvis and she really

had a heart for mothers and particularly teaching mothers how to be good mothers

and and helping mothers that were struggling there were a lot of disease

in that time and and a lot of hardship it was hard times in those days and so

she formed these groups that would be that would be Mother's Day work groups

in which she would I guess we could say minister to the ladies and these groups

now I don't know if she was a Christian lady or not but but nonetheless she was

offering support to mothers in the area well after some time miss Jarvis passed

away and her daughter Anna Jarvis wanted to carry on in some way what her mother

had started and so in 1908 it became official at least to some degree Anna

Jarvis held a ceremony the second Sunday in May in 1908 she had had one the year

before and it didn't catch much traction but in 1908 she had another ceremony to

celebrate her mother and to encourage others to celebrate their mothers and it

wasn't long after that till the state made it a holiday and only a few years

after that in 1914 that the president made it a national holiday and it is

spread through the world since that time and so we are still carrying on that

tradition of honoring our mothers of honoring our mothers who do so much for

us and so we come here on days like today to to do that now I hope that

you've given your mom a card you've told her you've loved her maybe you took her

out to eat maybe you did something nice for her I'll tell you this story while

we're here this is not a good story this is what you don't want to do by the way

husbands and children so I decided that I was going to take my mother to dinner

Friday night nothing fancy I've heard a recommendation hey there's a place you

need to try out it's pretty good you probably enjoy it I said all right I've

never been there before I'll go and the person who told me couldn't remember

the name but they said well it's the it's a real new place in Jackson

Louisiana or to be easy to find if you've ever been to Jackson Louisiana

ain't many places to eat there so I got online and I found the newest restaurant

in Jackson Louisiana and the pictures looked pretty good and and I took my

mother's there for Mother's Day and I was sorely disappointed this was the

worst meal that you have ever eaten in your life I took my mother to the worst

place you could possibly take her it took us an hour to get the food and I

kid you not we could barely choke it down it was horrible and so I said to

myself I have really set the bar for my sister for whatever she takes her she

could have took her to Burger King for Mother's Day and she would have surpassed

me this year so then we leave that place and and we go to the place we should have

been I went to the wrong place and had dessert and then after we got through at

that we were we were swarmed by termites that were thousands of like a plague in

Jackson Louisiana and then on the way back home we stopped and pick up our dog

to take a moment our dog peed all over

happy Mother's Day happy Mother's Day but but he but even stories like that I

suppose are good because 20 years from now we'll look back and say remember

when we went that place on Mother's Day and it was horrible and we got swarmed by

those those termites but we need to do something for our mothers and we need to

try to do the best that we can to honor our mothers Mother's Day is a beautiful

day now I can only imagine the joy that a mother must feel when they when they

find out that they have conceived and will soon give birth to a child I suspect

that that is probably a feeling that is the greatest feeling you could ever

possibly get maybe maybe the process of pregnancy in and of itself is is somewhat

of a of a of a preview of what is to come there's great joy and there's great

pain and there's great joy that's kind of probably what it's like to raise a kid

you bring them into the world and it's a joy and then they begin to grow up and

and then they get to be teenagers and then there's a lot of pain that comes

with a child but but nonetheless in the midst of the joy and of the pain there

is there's something beautiful about a woman who gives birth to a child there's

something beautiful about a child that comes into our world and it and it

saddens me and probably some of you too that our world doesn't see that beauty

today our world doesn't doesn't appreciate motherhood our world doesn't

appreciate children many times you see that to be the case and and it's sad

that something so beautiful that God has given us the job that he gave his people

to to be fruitful and multiply I believe that God still wants us to do that today

there are people still leaving this world and there need to be children

born into this world and there need to be good mothers who raise those children

and who part impart onto those children wisdom and teach them right and wrong

and who love them and who correct them I'm sure that's probably one of the

toughest part of being a mother it's probably not hard to love you too well

maybe sometimes it's hard to love but you do anyway but I bet it's hard to

discipline them but yet these are all parts of being a mother and I can only

imagine the joy of a mother bringing a child into this world and raising that

child up watching it go to kindergarten shedding a few tears a few years later

watching it graduate high school a few years later it's it's graduating college

it's making its way into the into the workforce it's getting married and

moving away and there's a part of that that's probably really sad for a mother

I can only imagine but then there's a part of that that probably brings you

joy to know that your child has grown up that they become an adult and then

probably the best part of that is when they get married and begin to have

children of their own then you get grandchildren I don't have children our

grandchildren but I see a lot of you that's got grandkids and I see how you

treat them there's probably something special about grandchildren you don't

really have to worry about raising them so much you just can spoil it's the

mama's job to raise them let mama deal with the raisin she can get on to them

you don't have to get on to them you just buy them ice cream and so there's a

certain joy that comes childhood motherhood comes with joys and it comes

with difficulties but I suspect that if I were to poll all the mothers in this

church today that not a single one of you would trade it for the world there's

something special about a mother because there aren't many people in this world

that you can call children that would give up everything for you that would do

anything for you that would be there in a moment's notice but there's one and

that's your mother mothers will give up everything a mother would give up her

own life to save her child there's no question motherhood is a beautiful thing

so we come today and we and we celebrate our mothers but that's really only half

of the story the other half of the story is that Mother's Day is also a difficult

day too about three years ago I remember very well it's three years ago three

mother's days ago we were I remember what I preached that day probably

Proverbs 31 and and I made a brief mention just just real briefly didn't

think much about it at the time that and we need to remember our mothers who may

be struggling today and I didn't think much about that at the time but after

the service a mother come to me and said I thank you for remembering the rest of

us today and it struck me as I begin to think about Mother's Day I begin to

think about well certainly there's a lot to celebrate and there's a lot of joy

praise the Lord it comes on Mother's Day but I guess I really kind of failed to

realize that Mother's Day is not easy for everybody for some mothers today it may

be very difficult because the fact of the matter is that there are some

mothers today who have lost children and there's no greater love that a mother

has for a child and I can only imagine that there's no greater loss that a

mother can feel than losing their child it doesn't matter if they are young it

doesn't matter if they are old I have heard mothers say before a mother should

never have to bury her child and so for some of you mothers today it's probably

a difficult day and we want to celebrate our mothers today but I want to

encourage you today that we want to pray for those moms who are having a hard day

today that we want to be there for them that in the midst of our joy and our

celebration and our smiles as good as it is and as right as that is we want to

remember that there are there are mothers that are having a hard day today

we want to remember those mothers today want you to know that that God loves you

today that God will give you strength today today may also be a difficult day

for children as well perhaps there are some in here who have lost their mother

perhaps in the years that she was alive and the years you had her mother's day

was a good day but I suspect for many of us today we think back at our mothers

the mothers of our children our grandmothers who are no longer with us

and there's a certain sadness that comes with that today and it's okay for us to

cry today it's all right to shed a tear today mother who's lost a child it's

all right today child to shed a tear for the mother or the grandmother you've

laughed excuse me that you've that you've lost and even have a laugh in the

midst of that loss in the midst of our tears we need to think back at the good

days we need to think back at the stories where your kid take you to the

worst restaurant ever into a plague of termites and get peed on by your dog and

laugh at those stories and we all probably have some stories like that so

even in the midst of our tears today we need we need to laugh a little bit we

need to remember that God is good that God comforts us on day like today we

need to remember for perhaps some children who maybe didn't have so good a

mother now I know this is hard and this is heavy but this is also reality for us

perhaps today in our day of rejoicing it may need to be a day of healing I know

that there are some whose mothers probably weren't very good to them and

probably didn't do them right but perhaps today is the day for forgiveness

perhaps today is the day that you need to say you know what mom I forgive you

mom I don't know why you did what you did it wasn't right and I've struggled

with that but mom I forgive you today perhaps there are some today who are

hurting you say man this is heavy this is a heavy passage for Mother's Day I

know it is but this is reality this is this is reality there's some today who

are hurting and we don't want to laugh and smile today and pretend like all is

well when when there's two sides to Mother's Day and and the mothers who

were never able to have a child there's certainly some of those in this room

today I suspect there's some in this room today and there's there's pain that

comes with that and sometimes we try to do things we we see we see women who

aren't able to have children and we say things to them like but you're a mother

to everybody else and we have good intentions when we say those things but

sometimes those things hurt because I suspect that it's a painful thing for a

woman who's not able to have a child when they desperately want to have a

child so we want to remember those women today we want to remember those mothers

today we want to remember those children today and we want to know that God is

good today God's Word even describes God as a mother and Isaiah 66 Isaiah 66 the

first part of verse 13 as a mother comforts her son so I will comfort you

what a beautiful passage for us to think about this morning that God is our

comfort even if our mothers fail that God does not even if we as children fail

our mothers that God is good and so we want to celebrate our mothers today we

want to rejoice in our mothers today Psalm chapter 27 verse 10 says even if

Psalms 27:10

my father and mother abandoned me the Lord cares for me we come today to praise

the Lord we come today to rejoice at our mothers perhaps we come today to honor

our mothers and we come to smile and we come to laugh but but perhaps there are

some of you today and you come and you you need to grieve perhaps there are

some today that you come and you shed a tear and you you mourn your mother the

loss of your mother perhaps there are some today you come and maybe your

relationship with your mom's not very good maybe today is the day you need to

fix it maybe it's your fault maybe it's her fault but regardless of whose fault

it is perhaps today is the day that you need to give your mom a call perhaps

the day is the day that you need to say mom I forgive you and I still love you

so let us rejoice as we get ready to go back here and eat this feast and eat

this good meal let us let us laugh and let us smile and let us rejoice that

God has given us the gift of mothers today and let us remember those mothers

who may has lost a child today or those mothers who never were or those children

who may struggle on days like today let us remember those let us give them

strength let's give them comfort and let us lift them up let's pray God we come

to you today and we thank you for our mothers dear Lord I I pray God that you

be with those that may be having a bad day today maybe there are some God who

have lost children today and this day is tough for them I pray that you'd

strengthen them I pray that you would encourage them dear Lord I pray that

they'd feel your love today and the love of these brothers and sisters in Christ

around them God I pray that you would be with maybe those in this room that were

never able to have children dear Lord I I'm sure that there's got to be some

pain and sadness that comes with that God I pray that you would encourage

them I pray that you would strengthen them today God I pray that you'd let

them know that they're not forgotten dear Lord even on Mother's Day God I pray

for any children today that maybe just their relationship with their mother has

has been tough for whatever reason I pray God that today would be a day of

restoration God if there are things that need to be dealt with I pray God that you

just would help them to be dealt with but God maybe there needs to be

forgiveness today maybe there are some others that need to forgive their

children or some children who need to forgive their mothers maybe there are

some broken relationships dear Lord and I pray today that those relationships are

broken that you would you would you'd put them back together dear Lord that

you'd mend them I pray that you would help whatever barriers that are there be

shattered God if there are some that need to reach out to their mother today

I pray that they would or maybe even a mother to reach out to their child God I

thank you for the mothers that we have I thank you for them good grandmothers and

the mothers that have been good to us that have provided for us dear Lord what

a beautiful gift you give us and motherhood dear Lord I pray that you

would help our world to appreciate women and mothers and children and the beauty

of what you've given us dear Lord God we thank you for our fathers but there's

something different about our mothers they love us in a way that we cannot

even imagine dear Lord so I pray that as children we would not take our mothers

for granted and God I pray that you just bless our mothers that you keep the

mothers here today safe and healthy I pray that as we get ready to go back

here and eat that you bless this food I thank you for the workers that have

worked on it and I pray that these women will be blessed and and getting to eat

it today God maybe there are some today that do not know Jesus as their Lord and

Savior God I pray that if they never put faith in Jesus Christ that they would

today and I pray that as we get ready to dismiss dear Lord that if there's

anything on anybody's heart that they just give it to you this morning and I

ask these things in Jesus name amen