Mother’s Day: Listen

We sing holy, holy, holy. We sing holy, holy, holy. We sing holy, holy, holy. I want to

see you. Well, Father God, I thank you again for this opportunity to be here today.

Jesus, thank you for being a God who is holy, being a God who is worthy to be

worshiped, and being a God who we can't understand, or we just cannot wrap our

mind around so many things about who you are, all that you do, where you dwell, how

much you love us. And Lord, I'm thankful for that because if we could wrap our

mind around it, you wouldn't be worthy for us to worship. Lord, I pray today that you

would open the eyes of our hearts to help us to truly see you, but more

importantly, to understand why we should devote ourselves to you. And Father, I just

pray that you would be with them. You would be with us today. Lord, as we

celebrate Mother's Day, and we do our best to honor these wonderful people who

played such an enormous part of our lives, God, I pray that you would remind us

that we're here for you. Everything that we are, the reason we draw breath is

because of you. So Lord, let the day be what you want it to be. Whether we're a

child, whether we're a mom, no matter what situation that we're in, Lord, I

pray that we would do what you've called us to do, and that's surrender to

Father, this morning we just want to pray for our shut-ins, our people who aren't

able to be here. Lord, you know the physical, mental, and spiritual ailments

that just seem to be in their life and hinder them. And Lord, we just pray that

you would give them a special touch this morning. Lord, we pray for Miss

from surgery and experiencing a lot of pain. God, we just pray that your Holy

Spirit would go and touch her right now. God, that you would give her relief.

And Lord, in this moment that we would give ourselves to you completely.

Father, we love you today. Thank you for all you've done for us, for all

that you're going to do that we're not aware of yet. Lord, we believe in

you, and we believe that you're in control. So Father, we give you this

time. We give you our hearts. We love you, and we ask all this in Jesus'

precious and holy name, all God's people said. You may be seated.

Well, it is an exciting day. Mother's Day is a very special day, and we had

the awesome opportunity to baptize some more people. Really cool opportunity to

baptize the father and the son at the same time. And many of us celebrate

today, and one of the things I always try to do is make sure that we're very

aware. Most of us are probably here this morning in celebration. Many of you

maybe got drug here because this was your mom's special request this morning for you

to come to church with her today. And if that's the case, be joyful about that

because there are a lot of people that this day stings a little more than other

days because of various reasons. There are a lot of people who are celebrating

their first Mother's Day without their mom. There are some people who never got

to have a mom. There are some people who never got to have that child to be

the mom. There are many different reasons why days like today can be very

difficult for others. So in that, as we talk today, be mindful, be prayerful,

because there are some people that will feel a little left out in today. But we

do want to celebrate because it is a great opportunity. God did design the

relationship between a mother and her children to be extra special, and I

don't think anybody can deny that in any way, shape, or form. So today is a

great opportunity for us to, number one, commit ourselves to be the mothers, and if

you're not a mom, be a dad, okay? Like, man, you're not left out of this either, but

today we're celebrating Mother's Day. So be the mother you're supposed to be.

Maybe the mother that you didn't have. You can commit yourself to be what you

did not have the privilege of receiving to make sure your children

doesn't have it. If you're not a mom, if you don't have children, commit

yourself to pray for the kids in the church that they are receiving the mother

that they need to have, that they are being obedient and honoring the mother

that they have been given by the Lord, and that they understand how wonderful

that gift is. So there's all kinds of ways that we can participate in this,

and I want to read a very short passage to you this morning from Ephesians 6

Ephesians 6:1–3

verses 1 through 3. This passage, Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus. He's

closing up his letter, all right? So he's getting his finishing touches on the

letter, and he's just given some final words of advice as he's closing it up,

and this is the last chapter, and verses 1 through 3 are like the beginning of

his closing statements, and he says in verse 1,

children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the

right thing to do. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with

a promise. If you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you, and

you will have a long life on the earth, and this is what he speaks to children.

So in Mother's Day today, I'm not preaching to mothers. Today I'm preaching

to children, okay? And the good thing is that everybody here is a child of

somebody, okay? You might be a child of the Lord, you might be a child of your mom,

you might be a child of some whatever your situation may be, but I can

guarantee you this morning that more than flowers, more than a card, more than

any type of physical gift that you could buy, one of the greatest gifts that you

could give to your mom is to listen to her, obey her, and honor her. Any arguments

for that? All right? A lot of people, now some of you might be sitting here

you're like, no, my love language is gifts, and I expect my gifts, obviously listen

and honor and obey, but if you had to pick and choose, the best thing that your

kid could do would be to listen to you, and when you look at this, Paul's

writing to the church in Ephesus. They're all supposed to be Christians.

Like everybody here this morning, you may not have surrendered your

heart to Christ yet, but I guarantee you that most of everybody here wants to go

to heaven. Like if there is an eternal life, that's where I want to go. If there

is a God, I want to know Him, and just to kind of have that there,

I'm not decided yet, I'm not convinced that it's worth giving up what I have

going on in order to follow Him, but if there is the God, I want to know Him. If

there is a heaven, I want to go there, and so there's something within us that

wants to know, and Paul's writing this to Christians, he's having to remind them

because one of the first greatest temptations we are going to experience as

people is going to be not honoring our mother and father, right? As a kid, that's

what we do. We have a really hard time doing that. As a teenager, it gets very

difficult. As a young adult, it tones down a bit, but then it seems like

whenever we get older and our parents kind of get older and we start taking

care of our parents, we forget a lot of times that that calling in our life to

honor our father and mother, even as adults, is still there, and even though

they're kind of reverting back to childhood and they're needing to be

taken care of, and you're having to be an adult, there's still a calling on our

lives to honor them, to serve them, to obey them, to listen to them, and it's

one of the greatest gifts that we can give. So preaching to the kids this

morning, no matter if you're five or you're 65, if you've got a mom still

living, even if you've got dad still living, first point is this is God's

command. You cannot get around it, you can't dodge it, you can't ignore it. God

has placed people in your life to be your mother, to be your father. It may not

necessarily be biological, it may be like various different situations, but God

has put somebody in your life to be that, and in this there's a commandment

that God's given for us to do this, and it is the only commandment that we have

that comes with a direct result of blessing and a promise with it. That's how

important it is. God wants us to honor our mother and father. Now when I was a

little boy, I don't know about you guys, but I knew there was things that I could

get away with with mama that I could never get away with with daddy. I

understood very much that mama would try to make me mine, but there were certain

lines she was not willing to cross in order to do it. Daddy on the other hand

did not have the same reservations, and so there was a fear there, and so it was

always kind of like as long as daddy was at work, it was free game, and then

when daddy came home, we paid the piper for the game we played all day, and in

this there is a temptation in our life, especially with mothers, to understand now,

and I don't know about daughters, I know mother and daughter relationships are

very different, but from a boy's perspective is there's only so much she

can do to you, especially as the older you get where it's just like she's

running out of options. She's running out of things that she can do, like

there's she cannot inflict enough pain on you at certain points anymore to

really make you mine, and the calling on our life to look at this relationship,

this very special relationship that God's put someone in charge of you who

literally a lot of times lacks the ability to force their authority on you

is all the more reason why we should be honoring them and obeying them and

listening to them with what they say, because when you look at our

relationship with the Lord, the Lord is in many ways a lot more like our moms and

our dads. Dad comes in Old Testament style, swift, direct, quick punishment,

typically that's the way it goes, but mom is much more patient, much more

loving, much more willing to let things go in order to kind of let things be,

and she doesn't necessarily want to just break down and bring the pain. Now

for the most part, and the Lord is loving and merciful in so many ways and

allows us to kind of, for lack of better term, get away with some things for a

while before he really starts, okay it's time to straighten up, okay you need to

do this. There's a need in our life to understand how important it is to

listen and obey and honor our mothers and our fathers. When I was a youth

pastor, I used to tell the kids this constantly in youth, I'm like look you

cannot obey and honor a God that you cannot see if you cannot obey and honor

your parents that you can see, that you can touch, that you can feel, you can see

their sacrifice, you can see their love for you, they may not be perfect, and that

was always like the thing, but they do this, well they say this, and they do this

like no they're not perfect, they were not perfect, and I don't know about you

guys, I'm not a perfect parent, I make a lot of mistakes, but our job as

children is not to throw the mistakes up in our parents face, the commandment

says to honor your mother and father, there are no stipulations with it,

there are no stipulations of saying well if your mom is a good person and

she doesn't nag you too much then you can honor her, and there's a lot of times

where we feel like the things that our mother says is nagging, but there's

wisdom, there's understanding there, there's things that she sees and

realizes that we don't understand as kids growing up, and the older we get

it's going to continue on, she's always going to be however much older

she is than you, she's always going to be that far ahead of you until she ceases

not to be here anymore, she's always going to have wisdom and understanding that

you're not going to have, and so the calling to honor and obey is one of the

greatest commandments that we can apply in our relationship with God because if

we can't do it for the people we can see, that we know love us, that we know

are willing to sacrifice for us and be that for us, we'll never be able to do

it for God, even if they're not the person you think that they should be, because

there's going to be a lot of times where you're not going to understand God's

will, you're not going to understand God's plans, you're not going to agree

with what's going on in your life and around your life, and you're going to

question a lot of those things, and if you can't do it for a parent who you

know loves you, who may not be perfect, you're not going to do it for a God

whom you cannot understand and comprehend. It's a command. First Samuel

1 Samuel 15:22

chapter 15 verse 22 says obedience is better than sacrifice, better than any

gift you could ever give, better than anything, any flower, any type of money,

you know, it's amazing you see all these like professional athletes and

people who just like hit it big, you get all this money, and the first thing

they do is they go buy mama a house. They go do all this wonderful things they

like, they give their mama like the world, because now they can finally do

that and pay her back. Best gift that you can give is to honor her, listen to

her, obey her, even our relationship to the Lord, obedience is better than

sacrifice. A lot of people's like, man I don't want to go to church, I don't

want to read my Bible, I don't want to pray, I don't want to do this, it's not

about what you have to do, it's not about what you have to give up, it's obedience.

God wants obedience more than he does anything else in your life, and what you

find is that as you obey and you honor the Lord like you're supposed to, you

begin to see that everything he has for you is better than anything you'd ever

have to sacrifice, and then it makes giving all the stuff up easy. At that

point it makes perfect sense and we're willing to do it. Point number two, never

forget what she has sacrificed. You know, one of the things about our relationship

with the Lord is that Jesus sacrificed himself for us. One of the most amazing

things about your relationship with your parents is that your mom has sacrificed

more of herself than probably anyone else in your life, and I don't think it's

I think it's pretty fair to say that if it was up to the men in this room

today to give birth to the children, most of us would not be here. I have been

present at four births with my wife holding her hand, and every single time

that I've been there holding her hand, I have prayed and thank the good Lord

that it is not me having to do that, because it is a barbaric, just

unbelievable thing that God does through the body of a woman, and

there's nothing in this world that you can offer me to do it, like I love all

three of my kids, nothing in the world you could give me to give birth. I just

would not do it. If I cut my leg off accidentally, that's one thing, but you're

not signing me up for it. What a woman is willing to do in order to have a

child is almost psychotic. It is one thing for a woman to be like, I want one

baby, and then to go through the whole process, but to understand what they have

to go through and then experience it and to say, I want another one, like that

makes no sense. And when you think about a woman and what she sacrifices, so many

things that change, and the whole process of being pregnant is one experience, and

the whole process of giving birth is another experience, but there's so many

things that come along that after that process takes place, she will never be

the same again. Now there are some things that kind of goes back to normal, most

things don't, and for just to kind of give some specifics, because Hannah's in

the healthcare field, and she got help me with this this week, we talked about it,

but things like hormones changing, her priorities will change forever, her focus

will change forever, her guilt, there will be an immense amount of mom guilt that

comes into her life that she will never feel adequate in what she does. No

matter how much she does, no matter how much everybody else sees it, the guilt

is there. Body aches that just stay with you, and as you can't explain, pains in

specific areas of the body, hemorrhoids. Bet you never heard that sermon before.

Swollen areas, hair loss, tearing, cutting, breastfeeding, soreness beyond your

wildest imagination to just help a baby to be able to eat and find the

nourishment that it has, or that it needs. Stretching, sagging, your hips and

bones literally spreading and changing and never going back to the way that they

were before. Varicose veins, skin discoloration, and there's a lot more.

The amount of stress and strain that she puts her, just her body, not even like

her mind, for us to exist is an absolutely amazing thing. And what in the

world would possess a woman to look at a baby and say, I want one? And you're like,

okay, here's what you're gonna have to do, I still want one. And then they get

one, it's like, I want another. It's like, that makes no sense. And the amazing thing

about God is, is that God provides all that's needed in the midst of it. To know

that after a woman gives birth, that there's this huge drop in estrogen and

progesterone, and then she receives this massive increase in prolactin, which

enables her to begin breastfeeding, but it's also kind of like this this

natural drug that just gets released in the body, that after she has birth, it's

almost like she just completely forgets every single thing that just happened in

all the pain, and sets her up and lets her have extreme joy in the moment, and

she's like, I want another one. And only God could do that. Only God could give

a woman the desire to do that, because no man would even do it once. But in

Psalm 139 verse 13, the Psalmist wrote, you made all the delicate inner parts of

Psalms 139:13

my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Man, every single one of us

are here today. God created you with a purpose and a plan. Yes, there may have

been some physical passion between your mom and dad for you to get here, but let

me tell you something. When you start looking at the medical reality of what

it takes for a human baby to be born, much less to be born healthy and

functional, it is like, it's like beyond hitting the lottery, like the odds do not

even compute for that to happen. And so for us to be here today to know that like

yes, your mom laid herself in line, but God used your mom as a vessel to bring

you into this world, to give you a purpose, to give you a plan, to give

you a calling to build his kingdom, and all the sacrifice of your mom would not

even matter if God's hymn was not in it. It did not bless and ordain her and give

her the ability to be able to do that. Being a mom is a wonderful calling. It's an

amazing blessing for her to do that, and then for her to want to do that is a

totally different ball game that I cannot even understand. Point number three, last

one, when you look at this passage, I think it's important to understand that

mom wants you to be rewarded. I think there's a desire in every single mom's

life, even within the animal kingdom, there's something that she's willing to

sacrifice herself for the good of her kids. There's something within a mom who

is the mom that she's supposed to be, who God created her to be, that she is

willing to go above and beyond so that her kids could have more and have

better than what she has had. A good mom will want that for you. She will desire

that for you, and the awesome thing is, is as kids, no matter how old we are from

5 to 65, 70, if your mom's still living, if you honor her, you can give that gift

to her, because I believe when you look at scripture, there are tons of blessings

and rewards that the Lord has stored up for those who are obedient to him and have

surrendered to him and serve him. And I've said it many times, I'm not a health

wealth prosperity guy. I'm not going to tell you if you follow the Lord, he's

going to make you rich, and you're going to be famous, and you're going to have everything

you've ever wanted. No, I do not believe in that, but I do believe that there

are blessings and rewards that God has set aside for certain things that he

has stated, and in this you look at honoring your mother and father so

that you can have a long, full life, a good life. There's something about it, and I

can tell you as a pastor, and meeting all kinds of different people, the people who

have the best relationships with their parents for whatever reason, they have

those good relationships with their parents, it seems like their life is on a

different level than most other people. Now I know some of you that choice has

been removed, and that choice, that relationship may be very different for

various different reasons, and it doesn't mean that you cannot have a long, full

life, but what I'm saying is if the opportunity is there, and you have the

opportunity to choose it, I believe the blessings and rewards are there for it,

because that's something that God's caused through. It's one of our greatest

testimonies, and guys I'm going to tell you it doesn't matter if you're five, if

you're 17, 18, or if you're 50, because when the shoe gets on the other foot and

you start having to take care of your parents, because I've seen this a lot too

as a pastor, as people begin to take care of their mom and dad, it becomes

increasingly more difficult to honor them in those days, because you start

wanting to treat them like your child rather than your parent, just because

you're taken care of, and there's this temptation in your life, the temptation to

not honor, to not listen, to not obey will always be there, because Satan knows this

is one of the greatest things that he's called you to do, that God's called you

to do, and if he can get you to do this or not do it, he can wreak havoc in

your life, man.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to live a long, full life. Anybody in here

want to live a long life? I'd like to live a long life. You know, the only

thing worse than having a short life is having a long life that's hard, with

hurt and pain. The great thing is, is that whenever God speaks this

commandment, he says, so that you can have a long and full life in the land

that the Lord your God is giving you. God wants to not only give you a long life,

but he wants to give you a full, a satisfying, a good life to go along with

it. The only thing worse than a short life is a long life where you just

suffer, and I've been in so many situations where I've prayed with

people laying in a hospital bed, and they say, just pray to the Lord, go

ahead and take me on, because I can't keep doing this. I'm ready to go, because

once life hits a certain level, people's ready to move on from it, and I've been

in the room with kids who sit there with their parents and watch their

parents suffer in those last days and say, man, I just pray the Lord would go

ahead and take them on, because I can't watch them suffer like this. We want a

long, full life. God offers that for us who are obedient and honoring our

parents. In Proverbs chapter 1 verses 8 through 9, Solomon wrote, my child,

Proverbs 1:8–9

listen when your father corrects you. Don't neglect your mother's instruction.

What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor

around your neck. No matter where you are, no matter how old you are in life, your

mother and even your father, they have wisdom to impart on you, somehow, some way.

They will always be ahead of you in the age and experience and understanding and

trying to prep you for the next thing that's coming. If we listen to them, if

we don't neglect our mother's instruction, what we learn from them can crown

you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck. There's blessings in

that. There's blessings in doing what the Lord has called us to do.

Mama went through too much to see you suffer. I don't know if you've ever

thought about that, like your mom suffered for you so that you could be

here. The last thing she deserves to see is for you to suffer due to bad

decisions and not listening and not being obedient to Scripture. You want to

give mom a gift this morning? Clean it up. Cut it out. Do what's right. Obey her

and honor her because, more than likely, she just wants what's best for you. The

greatest gift you could ever give her is the peace of mind knowing that you're

gonna be okay. I don't know about you guys, but when I'm an old man, I'm already

old, but when I get older and my kids are old and I have grandkids and maybe

even great-grandkids, if I make it that long, the greatest gift that they can

give me is for me to not have to worry about them. Yes, there's going to be car

wrecks and yes, there's going to be floods and tornadoes and fire and

whatever else that can come along. There's always going to be something to worry

about and pray for them and speak over them over, but to have a kid who loves

the Lord, who you know that they're going to do what's right, to know that

they're going to take care of themselves and take care of their families and that

they will give up and sacrifice things that aren't important for the things

that are important. That's a gift that surpasses any possible thing that you

could ever give. Moms, if you're in here this morning, again, your love language

may be gifts, but if you would rather have the freedom to not have to worry

about your kids, would you rather not have that over anything that they could

give you for Mother's Day, over any flowers or cards or jewelry or anything

that they could give you, just the confidence to know that no matter what

happens, I know they're going to be okay because the Lord's in control of the rest.

To not have to worry so greatest that you can give them. So this morning, as we

end, I challenge you guys. Don't worry about the stuff. Don't worry about trying

to make it perfect. There's always a lot of, trust me, Mother's Day comes with a

lot of pressure, a lot of pressure. Father's Day, not nearly as much

pressure. Mother's Day, pressure to make it right. Greatest gift you can give them.

Listen to them. Obey them. Honor them. Everything else will come the way it's

supposed to be. The Lord will provide. Let's pray. Father God, thank you again

for this opportunity to be together today. Thank you for your love and your

mercy. Thank you for your word and the way that it guides us. Lord, on a day

that we try to honor our Mother's so much, it comes back to the simple truth

of obedience is better than sacrifice. Honoring them and loving them and

listening and obeying them all year long will be much better than having just one

special day where we just try to fit it all in. God, I pray that you would help

us to be obedient to your word, to surrender ourselves to you, and to honor

our Mother's and Father's the way you've called us to. No matter how old we are,

no matter how old our parents are, no matter how frustrating they may be,

because they're not going to be perfect. But Lord, it didn't come with a

stipulation. We're just called to do it. And so Lord, I pray that you'd help

us to be obedient to you in that. Father, thank you for creating women, to be

willing, to suffer so much, to see us have a life. Lord, we love you today and thank

you. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. You're dismissed. Thank you.