Mother's Day: Goodness and Mercy Follow You

And happy Mother's Day to everybody.

My name is Russ Masterson, pastor here, and we're so excited you're here with us.

And uh, moms, I don't know if you've noticed on the way in on the coffee bar, we have a present for you.

Um, a succulent, which uh we didn't want to add burden to your lives.

Um and also we didn't want to add anything that was gonna die.

You know, like you got already got some flowers this morning, perhaps, and they're gonna die.

Um so we just give you a succulent, hopefully you can keep that alive and feel successful.

Because m mothering's hard, right?

Um some of you come in this morning, you don't want to say it, but all you really wanted to do was have a day by yourself.

Um, but you're at church, and then you have like a lunch with your family and a hike with your family and games with your family, and it's you just wanted to be by yourself, uh, but you didn't have the guts to tell anybody.

Um it's uh it may is just really hard to get here, in fact, for some of you, right?

You just kind of walk in tired, you can walk in exhausted, or you have older kids, or you have uh grandkids, and very possible your your hearts are overflowing with gratitude for them.

Or very possible your hearts are breaking for their life decisions, right?

So we we we can walk in with a variety of feelings on Mother's Day.

Mother's Day is always more complicated than the Hallmark cards want it to be.

And I know some of you, because of the amount of exhaustion, the biggest gift we could give you is not a succulent, but mom's what we could say to you, what I'll say to you, I'll give this to you, is if if you just need to take a nap, the next 20 minutes.

It's a long-held tradition in churches, anyways.

You just close your eyes.

And kids, husbands, friends, whoever's next to you, you don't have to wake them up.

You just let them let them go for the next 20 minutes.

You'll hear when the music picks back up.

Long-held tradition, that's how it's always worked.

And you can just close your eyes.

It's also possible you hear in today's actually really hard because you want to be a mom.

And that has been a long journey, perhaps of impossibility or impact, perhaps of difficulty.

Or maybe your mom hasn't wasn't a good mom, and you just have those memories.

Or you're hurt, you're hurt in some way.

Right?

So we have we have all this.

We have all this.

Or or you or you have a great mom, right?

And that's the other side.

Like you just wake up and you're like, I I have a great mom.

Like she was always faithful, she was loving, she was imperfect, but man, she was a good mom.

So we come in with all sorts of stuff.

So we're gonna look at Psalm 23 that Christy read for us.

Napping moms.

You're going to close your eyes now, the rest of us we're gonna read Psalm 23.

So, Psalm 23, 1 through 3.

We'll read a little bit, break it down, talk about it.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Point number one is this mothers are people, people are sheep, and sheep need a shepherd.

About 15 years ago, Chris and I were living in Grant Park, Atlanta, Georgia, in a 1,000 square foot little shoebox house.

We showed up there about a year and a half, two years married, we got a golden retriever, we were gonna grow up, we're gonna become adults, you know, care for our golden retriever, renovate this house, and we were becoming adults.

We were becoming grown-ups.

We had our first little girl in that house, which, of course, as soon as we brought that baby home, I decided to paint a room in the house on day two of my child's life, which apparently to a new mom is not what you want your husband to do.

And you can just take a note on that.

Apparently, new dads are supposed to help.

I didn't know that.

That was new information.

I'd never been a dad, never been a husband to a mom before, so that was new.

Mess that up right away.

We're growing up, we're learning how to be a mom, how to be a dad, how to be a husband and a wife with a child, and all during this time, as Christy alluded to, we discovered groundbreaking, maybe you've discovered it, that our moms, our moms were people.

I mean, before that point, I don't know what they were in our minds, they were a little bit of supermom who just kind of always handled anything.

And then I think the other part of our brains just didn't even think about them too much, and we were just selfish and figured they always knew what was going on.

And then suddenly, as we were becoming grown-ups, we discovered, oh my gosh, they're people.

And Christy became a mom, and she's still a person, okay?

And then people, me and you and your mom and your grandmama, people are sheep.

And I'm not a farmer.

Um, maybe you have a farm, I've been to a farm once, looked like a lot of work, came back to my one-third acre.

Like that's that's enough.

That's enough, trust me.

It's all I can handle.

But sheep are messy and they're stubborn.

They go their own way, they lose their direction easily, right?

You you think and I think that that path will fulfill you, it's gonna solve all your ways, the things you need, every problem.

You just if you just if you just can have that path, and you go that path, and you wander away from what you should be doing for more fulfillment, and then you just wander away, and then you need another path and another path and another path.

Sheep just don't have the ability.

They just don't have the ability to handle everything thrown at them.

They just need a shepherd.

Sheep just need a shepherd.

And verse one, I shall not want, is a way to say, I lack for nothing.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine your heart?

Think of everything you want.

Can you imagine your heart being in a place where you lack for nothing?

It's imagery of wholeness and calm and being cared for.

Those green pastures and those waters.

And then verse 3 proclaims that the wholeness of soul is God Himself, that he is our resting place.

Verse 4, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So a little context here is there were dangerous mountain paths that people had to take.

They had to wander these paths to get to the watering holes.

And David is saying, hey, we're cared for.

You know that in your life?

But we're cared for and protected, we're guided on that journey.

And David implies that none of it's easy.

It's not gonna be easy.

Now I want easy.

I think about easy all the time.

Like I want to wake up sunrise every morning in summertime Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

That's what I want to do.

I want to wake up there.

And I want to get, you know what I want to get in.

I want to get in my 1973 Ford Bronco Britney Blue with convertible top.

I don't own it, I can't afford it, but that's what I want to get in, and I want to drive to a hiking trail or fishing spot, and I want to hike or fish, and then when I'm done, I'm gonna cruise by Dornans for a slice of pizza and a frozen margarita, and then I want to head back and then go out for dinner and I want to do it again.

Like I mean, I could do that forever, I think, right?

I think.

But of course, you know the problem.

Like that 1973 Four Broncos is gonna break down.

Right?

It's gonna break down.

It's gonna be too hot one day.

You know, it the frozen margarine's gonna melt.

I'm gonna turn my anchor on the ankle on the hiking trail.

The problem is that I'm still there.

Like that that's that's the problem.

It's gonna get too hot in the afternoon, it might be a little too cold at night at night.

Right?

We can't we can't create in this world the comfort that we actually want.

We try a lot with our circumstances.

And David says, Hey, your heart wanting comfort.

We get that.

But our comfort is in God Himself.

God is our resting place.

Verses five and six.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

It's all language of favor.

Verse 6.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Now it's possible you're here and you feel like an enemy is on you.

Maybe spiritually.

I'm open to that.

We're spiritual beings.

We live in a spiritual world.

Maybe it's the enemy of fear or the enemy of worry.

I mean, you you just worry about everything.

Maybe it's crushing guilt.

Maybe it's the enemy of hurry.

Maybe it's the enemy of never being enough, or the enemy of feeling like you always need something else.

Maybe it's the enemy of feeling like if only I was in summertime, Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 1973, Ford Bronco or Britney Blue with a convertible top, then I would be okay, right?

Like that's actually an enemy thinking that, right?

That's creating ongoing discontentment here and now.

And the Psalm says, God's with me.

God's with me here and now.

So we have all these enemies.

And then we hear God has a table.

God has a table for you.

Now, this is hope language.

Because it's it's getting imagery and wooing our hearts toward heaven, that a feast will be prepared for us.

And we're in the already but not yet.

Remember, we talked about that last week.

We're already, but not yet.

We're already redeemed, we're already gods, we're already in standing position in Jesus, we're already all that, and yet we're not fully experiencing all that, but there will be a day where there is a feast.

Where there is a feast.

And it is prepared in front of all of our enemies, all these things I just talked about.

And we're gonna dine, we're going to bountifully dine.

And the message here, the imagery David is building is we overflow with his favor.

Surely.

Surely goodness and mercy, folly.

Three of God's promises for our growth and grace that I at least see here in this chapter.

Number one is this God promises rest for our weary and wanting hearts.

Isn't that nice?

Love that.

The implication, we know peace in the surrendering of our wants and work to God, not working harder and buying more.

Now we may work hard and we may buy more.

You just won't know peace through that.

Our weary hearts find rest in God alone.

Number two, God promises steadfast, comforting presence in our hurt and hardship.

That's verse four.

The implication here is that we can face and we can walk through those valleys.

We can walk through our pain with God's presence.

What it means is that your trauma and your hurt and your pain and everything that you think you need to hide because God may not smile upon you, or you think you won't be able to survive that pain if you actually faced it, God is with you in it.

He's not going to go anywhere.

He's committed to you.

Number three, God's promise, God promises restoration and abundance to the exhausted and the desperate.

Verses five and six.

That's a feast.

Come.

We're existing and partaking it in part now already, but not yet to the fullness of the hope we have in heaven.

The implication is God is inclined to our need, and none of our stories are finished.

It's good news if you walk in here weary.

Now, here's our conclusion.

Second point, last point.

We are stubborn sheep, but we have a good and devoted shepherd.

A sheep is stubborn, we are a sheep, therefore we are stubborn sheep.

But we have a good and devoted shepherd.

Psalm 23 is hinting toward what John writes in his gospel, the words of Jesus, John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd, Jesus is saying, I'm the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

This term shepherd implies nearness and care.

It's a real relationship with God.

It's imagery for us to understand how much he cares for us, protects us, guides us, comforts us.

And Jesus says, connect it to the cross, because on the cross the good shepherd lays down his life that we have full forgiveness as our sin is put upon the cross, and full righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus given to us.

Fully forgiven.

Enjoy your forgiveness.

Fully righteous.

Enjoy your righteousness you have in Christ.

We have this welcoming and near God committed to us.

Last night, Christy and I watched my next guest, needs no introduction.

David Letterman on Netflix.

He interviews different people.

He was interviewing Kim Kardashian.

Now, you wouldn't think, well, you might not think that's what we were watching last night, but that's the kind of stuff we watch.

Also, she is gonna get a tattoo next week, apparently, but that's what Christy's doing next week.

And you also wouldn't think that there would be a lot of commonalities between, say, me or you or Kim Kardashian.

Seems like two very different worlds.

But they started talking about parenting.

It wasn't long.

They just briefly mentioned Kim's children.

She has children, just like we have children.

She probably has a little more help with the children than we have with our children.

But she still has children, and they're still her children.

And Dave has a son, and he he said this.

He said, My little experience here that you and I have in common with every parent in the world is you can't imagine the constellation of concern and anxiety one has about their kid.

It's never-ending.

But it's so much fun, you're willing to put everything to the back of it.

And then she says, Kim Kardashian says, I think when you become a mom, you think of everything.

Are they getting along with everyone?

How will she feel if she wins?

How will she feel if she doesn't win?

And then they trail off into another story.

But I love that statement because I think I think we associate it, seems like motherhood, but it seems like it.

I think when you become a mom, you think of everything.

Right?

She's saying becoming a mom means you carry a lot.

You're carrying concerns and anxieties and fears and thoughts and what-ifs, and just carrying it, carrying it, carrying it, carrying it.

Here's another famous mom.

I ran into this picture this week.

Joey, anybody?

Anybody is anybody first thought Joey?

So it's Katie Holmes a few years ago with her daughter, Dawson's Creek.

She married Tom Cruise, they're re caught up.

Do you remember?

They divorced.

Tabloids followed around for years and they finally kind of calmed down.

And we can get into the debate.

I'm open to the debate.

Dawson's Creek, 902 and O, the OC.

I know some of you will argue the OC, but you're young.

You don't know the history.

Clearly it's 902 and oh.

The others are just knockoffs.

I know.

I'm I'm I'm up for that later.

We can do that.

This I saw this picture this week when I was reading some mothering articles and stuff like that, try to get an understanding of this.

I'm not a mom, by the way, breaking news.

So it's trying to kind of get into this a little bit, and it seems like moms carry a lot.

My wife carries a lot, and I saw this picture, and it just seemed like this picture so much like motherhood.

Your arms are just full, and some of you moms, right away, your eye went to one thing, and it's that left foot, the flip-flop.

Somebody saw it, and you're like, that flip-flop's about to come off.

Curl your toes, curl your toes.

That's all you're thinking.

Curl your toes, I'm not stopping.

If that flip-flop comes off, I'm not stopping.

I'm not turning out with this much stuff, and her arms are full.

She's kind of reshuffling.

And yet, in all the shuffle and the judgment, look behind her.

Everybody's staring at her, taking a picture.

And you know what that feels like, right?

You're if you're a parent.

You know what that's like, right?

You make a parenting decision, or you don't make a parenting decision, you let something slide or not slide.

It's a lot to carry.

And yet she has this little content smile.

Seems like mothering.

Many of the historic artworks on Psalm 23, they feel pretty distant.

There's one that's in Italy, it's a mosaic.

It feels real distant.

It's definitely stressing the deity of Christ.

He has his hand down toward a sheep.

It's nice.

But I ran into this piece by contemporary Korean artist Young Sung Kim painted this, the Good Shepherd.

This painting to me it feels like Psalm 23.

Okay, I know it doesn't have green pastures and there's not a it feels like it.

This feels like the Good Shepherd.

Right?

The assumption that you're weary, that you would need to be carried.

The presence of a shepherd, a tone of comfort and calm.

Of course you get weary, but you're carrying a lot.

And while you carry a lot, what Psalm 23 is telling us is such good news.

Because while you carry a lot, you're cared for.

You are cared for, you are provided for.

You are guided.

That God is our resting place.

John 10, 11 connects it for us, that we know this securely.

In the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us.

Before we go to communion, we're going to have a little time of prayer.

So let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we come to you.

And before we go to the table, we just stop.

And many of us this morning, our hearts are filled with gratitude and thanksgiving for the moms that you gave us who were loving and present.

And we say we have a testimony this morning.

And our testimony is that surely your goodness and your mercy has that it has followed us.

And we say thank you.

This morning we also pray, and perhaps if you're here this morning and you're a you're a hurting and grieving person this morning, because maybe you lost your mom this year.

Or maybe you're in the memory and still grieving the loss of your mom.

Even as I pray, you can open your hands in your lap.

Or maybe you're hurting because you want to be a mom, and that journey has been so incredibly difficult.

And we just pray, Holy Spirit, would you be the comforter this morning?

God, would you comfort?

Would you bring hope?

Would you help people hear afresh that proclamation that David makes?

That surely goodness and mercy have followed us.

That goodness and mercy are following us now.

We pray for all the moms here this morning.

All that we know are crying out thanksgivings for their children and also praise that you are with them and also a cry of help.

Would you give them discernment that only a mom can have for their children?

Would you give these moms wisdom beyond their years?

Would you give them a love and a kindness, a patience, a care that is a fruit of your spirit and not a work of their own flesh or merit or performance or pulling their bootstraps up?

Would they really be at rest in their secure identity in you?

And would your spirit be at work?

Would they have greater trust and greater rest that you are the good shepherd?

And that while they carry a lot, that you carry them.

And would their heart resound like David's?

Surely goodness and mercy follow all the days of our lives.

Amen.