5 Mothers from the lineage of Christ

Welcome to this week's message from the church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Good morning.

I want you to know that it is a rare and special privilege to get to share with you today.

My husband loves to preach, as you can tell how he preached the announcements.

He loves to preach, and it is very, very difficult for him to give up his time.

So I really appreciate the opportunity.

But I I as I was thinking about Mother's Day, I guess probably about a month ago, he said, Well, are you gonna share with us on Mother's Day?

And I just looked at him like, Well, I don't know.

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

What do you think?

And uh so I am here at his request, but as I was thinking about what I wanted to share today, you know, the most obvious place that we go to on Mother's Day, a day that we want to honor our mothers and the role that mothers have in our society is Proverbs 31.

And it's the virtuous woman, and it tells you about the woman, Wonder Woman of the Bible.

But I'm not going there today.

And let me tell you why.

She makes me tired, and she makes me guilty and sad, and I just can't keep up with her.

Okay, so I like her, but I want to be her, but I I just don't always feel like her.

My mother might could have measured up, but I'm still falling short.

And so I read Proverbs 31 and I just think, oh, woe is me.

You know, Lord help me.

So we're not we're not going there.

But several years ago, at the beginning of the year, I was starting in a Bible reading program.

And so, you know, you start in Genesis, and mine had a little bit of Old Testament, a little bit of New Testament.

So I started in Genesis, and then I started in Matthew.

And in the beginning of Matthew, if you want to follow along, you can.

We're not gonna have every verse on the screen today, but in the book of Matthew, at the very beginning, it gives the genealogy of Jesus.

Well, I don't know about you, but when I read those parts in the Bible, I kind of go, so-and-so begat so-and-so, begat so-and-so, begat so-and-so, and I go, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Can't pronounce the names anyway.

So, you know, I just I don't pay as close attention.

But this this day it was sort of something struck me as odd.

You know, when you give a genealogy and you're saying so-and-so begat so-and-so, who did the begatting?

Who actually birthed those babies?

Come on, the mamas, okay, all right.

But we've got daddy, begat daddy, begat, daddy, begat, daddy.

I'm going okay.

But in that list of the patriarchal line of the fathers, in that list were five women.

And I thought, now all of them had a mama.

All of them had one.

I'm sorry, but everybody had a mama.

Even Jesus had a mama.

His earthly daddy he did not have, he had a heavenly daddy, but even Jesus had an earthly mama.

Everybody had a mama, but Adam and Eve.

Everybody did.

Why is it that these five made the list?

I mean, he could have listed, you know, just as many women as he did men, but he didn't.

He only listed five, and I thought there must be something special about them.

And so I started studying and I wanted to see what is it about these women?

Well, I could tell you their stories, but better than that, they have agreed to meet with us today.

So I I would like our special guests to come on up, come on up and have a seat.

We're going to interview these five women in the lineage of Christ.

And I'm so excited that they're here.

I hope y'all are excited.

This is fun.

Romans 15 4 says that whatever was written aforetime was written in this talking about the scriptures, was written for our learning, so that we through patience and and uh would have hope.

And sometimes as we read their stories, you've got to understand this isn't just about telling a good story.

God listed and gave us these details so that we would have hope and find it in the scripture.

Um, I do have to warn you, I see some children in here, I do have to warn you that the Bible's not always rated G.

Have you figured that out?

I had a friend long time ago, and she was her, we called her Mama Jean, but Jean um was saved at probably about 50-ish, and she had lived most of her life just as a very wealthy woman who did whatever she pleased.

And um, so as we were watching her grow in the Lord, and just as a baby Christian, I came to visit her one day and she um she said, Well, I can't talk right now, my show's on.

I thought, my show's on.

Okay, what's that mean?

Oh, her soap opera was on.

Oh, okay.

So we had to stop everything, you know, because she had to watch her show.

And I said, Mama Jean, um, I won't, I won't stay, I won't, I don't want to keep you.

I said, but you know, if you spent just a little bit of that time that you devote to your shows in the Word of God, it might have a little more benefit to you.

And, you know, you're real careful, because I was a really young pastor's wife, you're real careful about giving advice to an older woman, even though she was just a brand new Christian.

But anyway, she took that advice and she began to read her Bible.

One day at church, I thought she was going to knock me down as we came out.

She said, Susan, I don't know why in the world you were fussing at me about my soap operas.

I have been reading my Bible.

And there's a lot worse stuff in there than what's on my TV show.

So I just want you to know that these are real women.

These are not Disney characters, okay?

These are real women who lived and they have real stories, and they're not always clean, and and and so here we go.

Uh, I would like to introduce you.

This is Tamar.

This is Tamar.

This is Rahab.

This is Ruth.

This is Bathsheba, and then we have Mary.

So we have five mothers that were honored by God.

I want to tell you a little bit about their story, and they're gonna come up, and I'm gonna put this a little closer to me.

They're gonna come up and we're gonna talk, but let me just give you a little bit of background.

Um, we're gonna try to do this as quickly as we can.

So they only I this as they come up, there's the scripture where their stories are found is is in um on the screen, and I think it's in your uh notes.

So I give you that because you may want to go back and see for yourself if what we said really, really happened, because you may not believe some of the things that you're gonna hear.

So I just want you to go back and read their their stories for yourself.

Tamar was the first woman that was listed, and she's she such has such a small part that sometimes we don't even know her story, but she was married to Judah.

And if you know the history of the Jews, you know that God called Abraham and He said, I'm gonna make you a father of many people.

And Abraham had Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons, and those 12 sons were uh became the 12 tribes of Israel.

And one of his sons' named was Judah.

Well, there was some sibling rivalry going on in that family, and Joseph, the favorite son, Joseph and Benjamin, the favorite son, Joseph, who had the coat of many colors, ended up, you know, his brothers were so jealous, and they just hated his, you know, way he ran around like daddy likes me best, you know.

It was really not good.

I had a dream, you're gonna bow to me.

It was really a bad kind of situation.

And so his brothers uh were gonna kill him.

Judah stopped them from killing him and said, Hey, uh, let's not kill him, let's sell him into slavery.

You know, it's better than being dead.

So that's what they did.

They sold the brother.

Well, after that situation, Judah was kind of, let's just say he didn't feel close to his brothers.

I think he was kind of traumatized by the whole thing.

He had actually been part of selling his brother and deceiving their father and making him think he was dead and all that.

So Judah goes off and he lives with his friend.

And while he's off in another land living with his friend, he meets a woman and he marries her and he raises the family.

That's a pretty good long time to be gone.

So for you know, 20, 30 years, he was estranged from his brothers and his family.

And while he was gone, he had three, he married this woman and had three sons, and the sons got old enough to be of marrying age.

Like I said, they were gone for a while.

And his oldest son, Ur, how'd you like that name?

Ma'am, we're here to take the name of your baby, Er.

That's here.

There he is, Ur and Onan.

So Ur marries Tamar, and it doesn't take long that God is displeased with him, and God kills Ur, just strikes him dead.

God can do that.

So Tamar is a widow.

Well, the custom is that if a woman is widowed without any children, that the brother marries her so that they can have children, and the inheritance of the firstborn won't go away.

So she marries the second son, Onan.

She marries him, and he is not cooperative, and you're gonna read that for yourself in Genesis 38.

I'm not telling you.

I'm just not doing it.

So I'm just gonna tell you there's some pieces in the Bible that you're gonna have to read for yourself.

They are for private viewing.

So you just read if you want to.

I'm just telling you, you should read your Bible.

It's got all kinds of stuff in it.

Don't don't don't ever tell me the Bible is boring.

If you think it's boring, you're just telling me you haven't read it.

Okay, so anyway, Onan is killed by God.

Judah is now done down, two sons, and Tamar has been twice a widow.

Now, Judah tells her, Go back home to your father's house.

Sheila's not old enough to be married yet.

So when he's old enough, you know, then we'll arrange the wedding.

Time passes.

She's been a widow twice.

She's not going to be married to this younger son.

Would you marry your third son to the woman who killed the first two?

I mean, so it wasn't her fault, but Judah may or may not have known that.

But here Tamar is back in her father's house wearing the garments of a widow, and she's stuck.

She's not, she's not looking for another husband.

Okay?

She's not allowed to because now Judah's sort of her, you know, daddy.

So she's living in her daddy's home, but Judah's in charge of her life.

It's just a mess.

Tamar hears that Judah's going to shear the sheep.

So she decides to take matters in her own hands.

She dresses up, takes off her black robe, dresses up like a harlot, sits on the corner.

Here comes Judah doing business in town, sees this pretty lady, decides to go visit her.

And I'm gonna let Tamar tell us the rest of the story.

Tamar, come on up and talk to me.

Why in the world did you dress up like a prostitute?

Come on, let's get closer to the mic so they can hear you.

I know she's got to get right up there.

Well basically I felt like I had no other choice.

He promised me that he would marry, you know, that I would marry his younger son.

But a long time went by and, you know, I still didn't get a chance to marry his younger son.

You know, I believe that he would have left me a widow in my father's house without you know, without the permission to marry another.

That would not be fun.

That would not be fun.

And you know, uh sometimes the most valuable thing is being a part of a family, especially in that time in our history, that culture.

What is it when when Judah came to you?

You did a very kind of sneaky thing, you know.

He he was ready to pay you, but he didn't, he didn't, he forgot his wallet.

So he didn't have a lamb with him.

So she said, Well, what are you gonna give me until you bring that lamb?

And he's and and he said, What do you mean?

She said, Well, I need a token, I need something for you to hang on to until you come and deliver payment.

So he gave her, you know, some some his rod, his staff, and his ring and all that.

But what made you think of asking for a pledge?

Because you disappeared and he never did get to deliver that lamb.

Right.

Well, um, I really didn't want payment, I kind of wanted proof.

So that if I were to concede that I would protect myself.

You know, I don't know if you know the whole story here, but later on, when it when she became pregnant and it was announced that Tamar, your daughter-in-law, is pregnant by whoredom, she's been fooling around and she's pregnant.

You know what Judah said?

Bring her forth to be burned.

So she comes in, probably, you know, with people dragging her in, and she says, Yeah, I'm pregnant.

With his ring, with his staff.

And Judah says, She's more honorable than I am.

I made a promise to her for my third son, and I didn't keep it.

Shame on me.

I'm so sorry.

Come home and let's raise those babies.

Now, now that it was all over, I mean, can you believe that's in the Bible?

So here she is, and she doesn't just have one baby.

What does she have?

Twins.

See, Judah did not marry her.

Judah did not marry Tamar.

So Judah is left um with supporting her and her children and his children, but they weren't married.

So now that it's all over and all this craziness happened, I don't know how you were courageous and I I guess it's courageous and bold, and I don't know what to think of all this really.

But do you have any regrets?

Well, no, I um I have two beautiful twin boys who I'm grateful for.

And besides, Judah, he was a really good father and a good father.

I wish I could have done it differently.

But you know, I didn't have the trilogy to be a part of the family of Abraham.

You don't hear they would just say joy to me.

I feel like I hate joy.

What can we learn from your story?

Romance isn't all what it is.

Life is more than about romance.

You know, you should just not get your life stuck on what your life should be like.

You know, even when your life is messed up, God has a plan for our life.

Even if we just allow God to just work in our lives.

Amen.

Thank you, Tamar.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing with us.

What a beautiful story.

What what an interesting story.

Um, the next mother that I want you to meet is Rahab.

Now, Rahab is a little more famous.

Um, she's famous because we hear about her in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.

Have you ever met anybody like this?

I don't know.

Rahab was that woman who lived in Jericho.

Do you know the story of Jericho?

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho.

You know that.

Okay, well, see, after after God had brought his people into the promised land, they had to uh claim and take the land.

And one of the strong cities was Jericho.

And Jericho's the story how Joshua and the and the uh men walked around seven times, shouted, the walls fell down, and they had a great victory.

Well, Rahab was a citizen of Jericho.

And before Joshua started the circling and before God gave him the battle plan, he sent spies in to check it out.

Rahab hid those spies and protected them from the king.

And so, because of that, um, God made a promise to her, the men made a promise that God tells us about that they would, in the battle, that they would protect her and they would save her.

So, Rahab, come tell us a little bit.

And uh, you are quite a brave woman.

Why did you hide the spies that came to your house?

Weren't you taking a really big risk?

I was taking a big risk, but I chose to align myself with the people who believed in the living God.

I wasn't really worried about the townsman or even the king coming to check on it because I've dealt with them before.

But I was afraid of their God, and I was choosing I was choosing their God for myself, so I felt like it was the right decision.

How did you how did you know that they would keep their promise?

How do you how did you know, because you hit them and then they ran out and and you told them how to get out of the city, but how did you know that when it was time for the battle that they would keep their promise to protect you?

I didn't know.

I'm a good negotiator and I'm pretty good at reading people because that's what I do.

But um I just had to trust that they would do what they said.

They seemed honest and trustworthy.

But more than trusting them, I trusted their God.

I chose to be on his side.

I chose him for my own, so I I knew that he would not forsake me.

What faith?

Maybe that's why in Hebrews and in James it talks about Rahab having faith and being our example.

Do you have any regrets?

Only for what I was before.

Do you know that in the New Testament they still call me Rahab the harlot?

Yeah.

What is that?

Um I lived in the community of God and I raised a family, and I have a son, but still I'm known as a harlot.

And that reputation is never going to leave me.

So, yes, I I have regret for the business that I had before God.

So, what's your greatest joy of raising a family?

I found a community of people, and I never thought that marriage was going to be part of my life.

That was never a consideration.

But now I I have a husband and a son, and I'm teaching him all of my business knowledge, and I'm teaching him how to treat women and how to love his wife one day, and that is my greatest story.

What can we take from your story besides being blubbering?

This is so sweet to me.

What can we take away from your story?

What can we learn from you to put your trust in the living God?

Uh, don't fear anyone except him.

He will take care of you, he will protect you.

You can trust God.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming.

I tell you what, it just gets sweeter and sweeter.

Rahab the harlot, our example of faith.

What an awesome privilege to have her with us today.

The next mother that I want you to meet is one that has a whole book dedicated to her.

It's the book of Ruth.

And so you've got four chapters if you want to hear her story.

But we know this as the Cinderella story of the Bible.

This is the great romance.

The poor little girl who finds the rich husband and lives happily ever after.

But that's really a lot of her story.

But you know, Ruth has more to her than that.

She was um she was also a widow.

She was married to a Jewish man who was living in the land of Moab because there was a famine in Israel.

And his father and mother had moved them to Moab because the pasture seemed greener.

But they got out there and what they found is that Moab was a godless place.

It's like taking your family to live in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Well, I've got a good job.

Well, there's more to life than a good job.

And they went where greener pastures were, but they took their family to a terrible place and that didn't know God.

And so here they are as believers living in Moab.

But one of the things that happened while they were there, Naomi was the woman, while she was there, her husband died.

Both her sons got married to Moab women and then Moabites, and then they died as well.

So Naomi alone decides to go back home to Bethlehem.

And so the story of Ruth begins as Naomi is going home, and she says, Girls, I don't have any more sons.

I don't even have a husband, so there's not going to be any more sons.

So there's no waiting around for me.

You need to go back home, let your daddy find you a husband, and let him take care of you.

And one of them did that.

But one, Ruth, is famous for this quotation that's in so many wedding ceremonies.

Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to cease from following after thee.

For whither thou goest, I will go.

And where you stay, I'm gonna stay.

And your God, he's gonna be my God.

That was Ruth talking to her.

Her mother-in-law.

I don't know how we put it in a wedding, but it was it was the it was a mother-in-law and a daughter.

So, Ruth, come and and tell us a little bit about your story.

What made you want to go with Naomi?

Well, I lived with her for 10 years, and my husband made it before he died, and I loved her so much, and I didn't want to be away from her, but not just that.

Um she had taught me so much about her God, and I was in a land where there were so many idols and different gods, and she was different, and I wanted to be like her, and I wanted to be in a land uh with a true God, and I didn't I couldn't imagine living not without her, but also without that God.

Wow.

So you left Moab and you go to Bethlehem.

What was it like when you got there?

It wasn't easy uh because I was the white woman, and um, I think uh my mother-in-law got a little bit of ridicule for that bringing me back, but uh it was also hard because I had to go work in the field, not because that was physically hard, but it's also dangerous for a woman to be out there alone with all these men in the field.

But uh one day I had gone to a field with Oaz and I know God had led me there, and the OAZ ended up protecting me and feeding me and making sure that I was uh safe around all of these men.

And I think he did a couple other things, keeping things on the ground that I was able to keep me in, you know, able to eat.

That's that's awesome because you get you did come back penniless.

It's not like you made a fortune in Moad.

You came back, Naomi said, I've gone out full and I've come back empty.

What was your your biggest challenge?

Proposing.

Definitely proposing to Moad.

Um I had never heard of that before, but Naomi had encouraged me, and it was so scary to propose.

But more scary than that was what if he said no and uh it didn't allow me to come to his fields anymore, and it really would put us into poverty and possibly death like starving.

So his protection wouldn't have been on me.

So proposed to Poe S.

Wow, did y'all know that?

Did y'all know that?

How many of you knew that?

How many of you did not know that?

All right, in the Bible, the women propose.

At least in this story they do.

Okay, just want you to know that.

All right, do you have any regrets?

None that I none that I could do anything about being a widow with heart, um traveling to a different country with heart or a different town, and God has so blessed me.

I have a wonderful husband and a son who loves me dearly, and I I don't think I would change any of it.

Learn from your story.

Don't get comfortable with like just allow God to work through your circumstances, get out of your comfort zone.

Okay, all right, be brave and go home to Bethlehem, find the prince of your dreams.

All right, thank you.

And and and and um Ruth, is there somebody that you have a special relationship back here that our folks might not know about?

My uh other mother-in-law is Rahab.

Uh Rahab, this is your mother-in-law?

Yes.

You married her son?

Boaz is her son.

Yes.

Rohab had Boaz, the rich prince.

You mean the knight in shining armor is the son of Rahab the harlot?

Yes.

And you married Boaz.

That is so cool.

Well, that you know, at your wedding ceremony, didn't you Tamar, wasn't there something special about Tamar's story too that happened at your wedding?

Tamar's blessing at the end of our wedding.

At the end of their wedding ceremony, they had the blessing of Tamar, and they said, May you be blessed as she who bore uh Perez.

Tamar.

So they used her as a blessing.

They didn't think she did something crazy.

I'm still trying to figure that out.

But look at this how the women's lives were connected.

Thank you so much for sharing those stories.

You know, it's kind of interesting to me.

Boaz is famous for being the most eligible bachelor in town.

He was a little bit older.

That's what he says about himself.

He was a little bit older than other men.

He was wealthy.

He was a perfect gentleman in every way.

And where did he learn those good manners?

From Rahab the Harlan.

Okay.

All right.

The next woman I want you to meet is Bathsheba.

Bathsheba, come on up and join me.

Now you know her story.

She got involved with King David, and we have all kinds of um different versions of this.

The men see it one way, the women see it another.

Can I just tell you that both parties were guilty?

Okay, both parties were guilty.

David had lots of other wives, okay?

Uh Bathsheba was a married woman, and one day, when kings go to battle, David didn't show up to work that day.

He decided to take a day off and called in sick, and he did not go to work.

And he gets up late in the day.

So he just slept in big time.

And he gets up mid-afternoon, gets out on his balcony, looks out over the city of David.

Bethlehem looks out over the city.

Woo! You know what he saw?

A woman taking a bath on her roof.

Bathsheba, why did you take a bath on the roof of your house?

Well, you see, things were a little different back then.

We didn't have restrooms running water, so what we would do, we would put our barrels on our rooftops, let the rain fill it with water, and that's how we would cleanse ourselves.

Oh, okay.

But but the roof, I mean, why were you on the roof?

Well, it's really high, and normally I'm by myself, and the only other house that is taller than mine is the King's Palace.

So he wasn't even supposed to be there that day.

Ah, so you didn't know that David was being a peeping tom.

As I said, as I said, the men have one view, and the women have another.

I I I just have one the wait I we don't have time to debate this.

Danny and I have done it for years.

But let me just ask you one question, all right, one honest question.

How many of you take a bath naked?

Some of you take a bath in your clothes.

I do not believe you.

Okay, so when you take a bath, you normally don't have clothes on, unless you're an old cowboy who refuses to take your long johns off or something.

I don't know.

Okay, all right.

So taking a bath in the place where you took a bath, because that's where your bathroom was, was normal.

And he wasn't supposed to be there.

If he'd gone to work, just saying, okay, all right.

All right.

Well, I I just I certainly don't hold you responsible for taking a bath.

Now, I do have to ask you this, and this is a little bit more delicate.

When you realize when David called for you, and David had lots of opportunities to to think this through too, because his servant said, You mean she who's the wife of Uriah?

He reminded David that this was a married woman he was calling to have brought to him.

And and besides that, it wasn't just it wasn't just any old guy.

Uriah was one of his chief uh soldiers.

So he knew him well.

But not only did he know Uriah, he knew her daddy.

Now let me ask you something.

How many of your friends would you call and get their daughter to come?

I mean, are you kidding me?

So this is a husband, a father.

David knew who she was.

He just liked what he saw and he wanted what he saw.

And he called for her.

But I have to ask you this question.

When you realize what David was up to and what he had his mind on, why didn't you call for help or something?

Call for help?

This is the king.

He decides who lives, who dies, who gets arrested.

I was overwhelmed, and how could I refuse him?

Okay.

Well, okay, all right.

Well, this is this is this is uh the ultimate job harassment, okay?

You know, I mean, what is she sp who she's supposed to call?

The soldiers, who did they work for?

You know, she's kind of not in a good place.

Now, this goes on, we don't know how long, but at and I'm not gonna ask all the details, and I want to know.

Uh, when you found out that you were pregnant and David bought brought Uriah home to try to cover up the affair, you know, so that people would think the baby was Uriah's, how did you feel about all that went on at that time?

Well, it was probably the lowest time of my life.

I'm an adulteress now.

I'm supposed to deceive my husband and pretend that everything's okay, but I was so overwhelmed with guilt.

Uriah didn't come home.

He slept in the streets.

He had more honor than David and I did, even when he was drunk.

He said, How can I go home when my men are sleeping in the fields of battle?

Then, when the news came that Uriah had been killed at battle, I knew something had been done to cover up the problem.

David moved me into the place, into his palace, after Uriah died.

I was pregnant, a guilty widow, and then the baby got sick and died.

But not before Nathan, the prophet, came to David and I and said that God was very displeased with what we had done.

I was miserable.

How could I have let this happen?

That would be hard.

What brought you out of that despair and that low place?

I'm sure you've read Psalms 51.

It was a song David wrote about that time in our lives.

And just as he repented and turned back to God, I also turned to God and asked him to cleanse me and forgive me.

I just couldn't live with the guilt and pain anymore.

God forgave me and soon after gave me another child.

This boy would prove to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Everything with David was twisted up, deceit and sin.

But with Solomon, I started with a clean slate.

So, what can we learn from your life story?

Wow.

Don't let sin, no matter how huge, keep you from turning back to God and repenting, and he will forgive you, cleanse you, and give you joy again.

Oh my goodness.

You know, Bathsheba was a, I hope you won't take offense to this, but Bathsheba really was not a leader.

She was a follower.

And if you read all of her stories throughout, you'll see that she just kind of followed the suggestions of people.

And there was one time when she even one of David's sons came and thought, well, if Bathsheba asked, David will do anything because he just he really loved this woman.

And um, so they asked for a favor.

And when she said, Hey, by the way, so-and-so wants to know if blah, blah, blah, read the story.

And uh, David uh killed him for it.

So, you know, she she didn't realize she was stepping into these political landmines, so she wasn't exactly the strongest leader in the world, and yet the the passage that I told you I didn't want to share with you because I feel so guilty about, it starts out in Proverbs 31.

Listen, my son.

Listen, my son.

Now, who wrote that?

Bathsheba, the adulteress, the widow, the wisest man in the world was mothered by Bathsheba.

I think that's pretty cool.

All right.

Now, the last mother, Mary.

Now you know her story.

Every Christmas we we honor her memory and her maturity.

Um, but you know that that Mary was just probably 14, 15, 16 years old, a young girl.

She was engaged to be married, but before they'd actually tied the knot and started living as man and wife, an angel comes to her and announces to her, You are highly favored.

God has chosen you to be the mother of his son.

Mary, come on up and tell us.

You know, I this would be kind of terrifying to me.

I, you know, we forget because you were so young.

We think of you as being the perfect woman, you know.

And there are some who think that Mary never sinned.

Is can we just clear that up?

Is that true?

No.

Oh, okay.

All right.

So she wasn't the sinless mother of God.

She was just the mother of the sinless son, but she was not a sinless woman.

Um, but you seem so mature and grown up, we kind of forget that you were really just a teenager.

So were you afraid when the angel spoke to you?

Um, absolutely.

I was I was terrified.

I'd never seen an angel before.

Um and what he was saying to me was incredible to hear.

Wow.

Like God had chosen me to be the mother of his son.

Um I was so young and inexperienced, I still don't understand it.

I'd been around births and babies, but how was I gonna raise the son of God?

That's right.

That would be kind of overwhelming.

Well, what was it like for you after the announcement?

And then as you began to know that you were indeed pregnant, what was it like for you?

Um, it was it was tough.

I found myself, you know, I bowed my knees in my heart to God and said I would do whatever he asked of me.

Um, but it was very difficult to tell uh Joseph and to tell my family that I was that I was pregnant.

Did they believe you?

Um no.

Luckily God had given Joseph a dream telling him that it was true, so he believed me, and you know, other otherwise I think I would have been on my own.

Um it's not a story anybody wants to believe.

You're pregnant, but you're a virgin.

That doesn't make any sense.

So I just kept quiet.

I didn't tell everyone else the truth, uh, because I didn't want them to think I was crazy on top of being pregnant.

Okay.

So what was your greatest challenge?

Um at first it was just the gossip.

It's tough to be 14 and deal with everybody talking about you all the time.

Um, and then the um the tax order came and we had to travel to Bethlehem, and that was pretty difficult being so close to my due date and having to travel.

Um but the worst, the biggest challenge was to be the mother of Jesus and to see him, an innocent man, suffer at the hands of an angry crowd.

You know, we we want to protect our children.

And when you can't and it's out of your hands, that's a really hard thing.

What was your greatest joy?

Um, that he didn't stay dead.

Three days later he rose from the dead.

And and it was even more amazing to get to be his sister than it was um being his mother.

Does that make sense to you?

Do you know how she was his sister?

You know, as we become children of God and we are born into the family, we become brothers and sisters in Christ.

And Jesus is our elder brother, and so we are brothers and sisters with Christ, and God is our father.

And so while Mary was his mother, she became his sister.

That's really cool.

That's really cool.

So, what can we learn from your story?

Um, just to submit yourself into the hands of God, and it won't always be easy.

There's joy and there's pain, but you can be intimately acquainted with him if you choose.

All right.

Thank you so much for coming.

Thank you.

Oh, I just have to stop for a minute.

Have our women told us an incredible story?

Is this not awesome?

Uh oh.

Well, I'm gonna ask them now.

I have I have a couple of thoughts that I just want to wrap up their stories with, but I want to um I I don't want to, I can y'all can stay up here or we can go down.

What would what's your pleasure?

They're there okay, they're gonna stay.

Okay, that's fine.

I had told them they had to stay up here, but then I started feeling bad about that.

So, okay.

So, what is the conclusion?

What is it that we can learn from these women?

Did you learn some things that you didn't know before?

Maybe some details of the story?

Well, here's five things, and this is in your little outline with the worship guide, but there are some things that I think that we can learn from these mothers.

First of all, on Mother's Day, something that we should know, and something that I I'm hoping, my my prayer is that in hearing the stories of these women is that we just cut ourselves some slack.

Because, you know, Mother's Day, we want to honor the most noble calling ever, and that is to be a mother, and yet none of us are perfect.

One of the parts of my story is that between my girls, I lost two babies, and one was more traumatic than the other because he was 21 weeks along, and so I actually, you know, didn't just miscarry, but I actually had gave birth to a little baby that weighed 13 ounces and held him, and he was so tiny, he fit just in my little two hands, and he looked exactly like Danny.

Oh my goodness, I thought, well, that's why God took him to heaven.

He knew earth could only handle one at a time.

But, you know, I I sometimes in the the the deep pain of losing a baby, and it I was not prepared for the emotion of what it feels like to lose a baby.

You know, I always thought if you lost an older child that you had grown to love and know that it would be very painful, but to lose a baby that you'd never even gotten acquainted with, I didn't know it would hurt so bad.

And I couldn't sing.

I I couldn't sing.

For almost a year, I just I couldn't sing because I I would cry.

I just I could not sing.

Um there's something about music that just bears my soul, and my soul was bleeding, and I couldn't sing.

But in the midst of that pain, a big comfort to me was that I have a child who hadn't been messed up by me.

And when I get to heaven, I'm gonna get to meet him.

And I've got I've got a perfect child in heaven.

Isn't that great?

Don't tell my other kids I said that.

All right.

Um, but number one, mothers aren't perfect.

Mothers are not perfect.

Romans 3.23 applies to us too.

It says, all have sinned.

Read it with me.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3.10 says, There's none righteous, no, not one.

Isaiah 53 says, All we like sheep have gone astray.

We've turned each one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

All of us are sinners, even our mothers.

Now we love them.

Now some of you know your mother's a sinner.

Some of you are disappointed in your mothers, and some of you think, I can't believe God gave me the mother he did.

She did not, she didn't do what she was supposed to.

Can I tell you something?

God knows that.

God knows that.

And God makes up all the difference.

If your mama and daddy aren't what they're supposed to be, you still have a God in heaven who's perfect and who loves you.

And when father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take you up.

And so you may, you may come to Mother's Day and you go reading those Mother's Day cards and you can't find one because you're going, uh-uh, uh-uh.

Nope.

She didn't do that.

Are you?

I'm not saying that.

You know, can I tell you something?

You need to understand that God is the one who decides who's a mama and who's the baby and how they get paired.

And I don't know your circumstances, and I'm not making light of any heartache you might have had, but God knows all that.

And there are lessons that you're gonna learn, even if they're lessons of what not to do.

Okay?

There are lessons that you're gonna learn, and and God is still bigger than your family of origin.

God is bigger than your imperfect mother.

I love my kids dearly.

I wanted to be a good mother.

I tried hard to do it to be a good mother, but I can tell you I have failed them so many times, and I am not perfect.

I yell at them when I shouldn't.

I get mad at their daddy and they know about it.

It's awful.

You know, I mean, I'm just such a bad example in so many ways.

I didn't beat them or lock them in a closet, but you know, I felt like it.

And their favorite story at Thanksgiving, their favorite story.

I'm not telling the whole world, but I'm just gonna fess up.

The favorite story is the most shameful mother experience I ever had.

It's when I totally lost it.

They laugh.

They think that's the most hilarious thing.

They love that I'm not perfect because it gives them something to laugh at.

So mothers are not perfect.

But I want you to read this one passage with me, Psalm 130, 3 through 4.

Psalm 30, 1 through 3.

I know they thought I was finished, so they went ahead, but that's okay.

This verse I don't want you to miss.

If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, who would stand?

But there is forgiveness with thee.

You know, sometimes in the midst of our mother love that is so great.

How many of you know that mother love is great?

I used to say to my children, I'd say, love you, and they'd say, love you, and I go, love you more.

And they go, why do you say that?

That's not true.

Now my children, my girls, are mothers.

I said, now do you know what I mean?

I said, oh mama, I had no idea.

I said, I know, you would just lay down in the road for them.

I mean, you just love them so much.

I can still remember when Mary, my first grandbaby, Mary had Braden, and she said, I just had no idea that there's so much love could live in my heart.

I had no idea.

I said, I know, I know.

It's just it's just like that.

And I said, it's overwhelming the love that you feel for those children.

But then when you can't protect them, when you can't make their life go perfect, when you can't solve every problem, then you ache and hurt with them because we're not perfect.

And when you fail, and when they're about two years old and start talking and they open their mouth and you come out and you go, oh, oh my goodness.

See, being a mother is not about reading a book and doing all the right things.

Who you are is what's gonna happen to your children.

So you better be watching who you are.

That's that's it's not it's not you can teach them all the lessons in the world.

They're gonna absorb who you are, and you're gonna come out of their mouth and come out in their actions, and you're gonna be like them.

One day you're gonna be a mother yourself and open your mouth and go, oh my goodness, my mother just fell out.

It will happen to you.

Number two, mothers are influential.

I was talking a little bit about that influence because you just children absorb what their mothers are.

We change the world every day through the tasks of just raising children.

And we've got more scriptures here than I can go and show you to, but I I just want you to know that in Timothy's letter from Paul, when he was describing the widows that the church was going to help take care of, he said, first of all, they have to be widows indeed.

In other words, a widow is someone who has no one to take care of them.

They have no family, they have no cousin, they have no husband, they have no children.

That's a widow.

A widow is someone who is completely by this definition that the church is going to help support them.

It was a what a woman who had no family at all because the scripture was real clear that it's the family's responsibility to take care of their family.

That's right.

Okay?

So here he said, if she's a widow, well, but there's some other conditions besides the fact that she has to be a real widow, she has to have been a faithful woman who was hospitable, who raised children.

He puts that on her list of good deeds, known for her good deeds.

And one of the good deeds is that she was raising children.

Sometimes we it is the most thankless task.

And and today, especially with so many women working, and I'm working, you know, I I know it didn't look like I'm working, but I sit in front of my computer all day long because I teach online.

And so I'm an online professor, and that's I work.

I understand it.

My children, both my girls are working.

I understand the working mother, but you know, the big the biggest job we have is raising our families.

And the first job we have is raising our families.

Um, one of the sweet things, I want you to look at Romans 16, and this is just a little nugget for mothers, but some of you are not mothers.

Either God didn't give you children, or you're not married, or you're too young, or you're too old.

I don't know, but you're not a mother.

And you think, well, you know, all this Mother's Day stuff.

Can I tell you something?

Paul described a woman, he said, salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord.

Romans 16 is his tell everybody hi chapter.

He says, Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

My the NIV says, She has been a mother to me.

Even if you are not born a mother, even if you do not give birth, you can be a mother in the way that you are nurturing and kind and taking care of and putting your wings around.

You can be a mother.

It is it is a blessing from God.

Paul called Rufus' mother his own.

I know that um our sweet little friend Ben is missing his mom, but he talked to her yesterday.

But every once in a while he calls me Mama Susan, and I like it.

Because I'm not his mama, but on this side of the world, you know, Christy and I both claim him.

So, you know, we claim to be his mamas.

But mothers are influential.

Three, motherhood is a gift from God.

Danny already shared with you, I thought he was going to start preaching the sermon, but um that's okay.

Psalm 127 says that children are an heritage of the Lord.

If God gives children, then he also makes women mothers.

Okay?

It goes hand in hand.

So motherhood is a gift from God, and God gives it to us.

It's not always um self-explanatory, it doesn't come with instructions, and you can read books, but you know, there are just some things.

Titus says that the older women are to help the younger women.

This is what your mother's for.

Your mother's supposed to help you learn how to raise your children.

Your mother is supposed to do that.

And if she doesn't do that for whatever reason, because she's not around, either she's gone or she's just out of your life, then may the Lord give you a mother and an older woman in the church, in the faith, who loves the Lord, who will be a mother to you and help you learn how to love your children.

Because while I said we love our children, we also got get irritated sometimes.

Have you ever wanted to kill your child?

Yeah, mothers do that too.

No, not in love.

I'm just killing them dead.

Oh my goodness.

There are moments when the love leaves.

They give you good reason to think, oh, what have I done?

We used to have one speaker who'd say he told his children, you better straighten up or I'll take you out of this world.

I brought you in, I'll take you out and make another one just like you.

And I thought, I don't quite feel like that, but um, it is a gift to be a mother, but mothers need older women to help them to learn to love their husbands and children.

It's something that is learned.

That's good to know.

Because if it doesn't come naturally or you can't figure out why you resent getting up in the middle of the night after the fourth time of colic, you know, it's just normal to have those those things.

Number four, mothers experience great emotion.

I'm a crybaby, so I'm not a good example of someone who's calm and reserved because I great emotion.

But because we connect to our children in such a personal level, we experience their joys and pain as well as our own.

When they're happy, we're happy.

When they hurt, we hurt.

And so because we're connected, we experience great emotion.

We ache when our children hurt.

But God wants us to fulfill this task with joy.

He describes this as being a joyful mother of children.

So it wasn't supposed to be torture.

It wasn't supposed to be a ball and chain.

It wasn't supposed to be something that cramps your style.

I'm so sorry if your mama ever said anything or made you think that you were a burden.

She's mistaken and does not know the truth of what God has said, that you are a blessing.

And I don't care how you got here, I don't care if you got here by accident.

I was an accident.

My parents didn't plan me.

Are you kidding?

I was born a month before their first anniversary.

Now they behaved themselves.

And I was born in wedlock, but I mean, 11 months later, here comes baby number one.

And before their second anniversary, they had baby number two.

They did not figure out this birth control thing.

Not at all.

Not at all.

I teased my little brother, who's six years younger, that he's the only one they wanted, and the only one they planned for, and he's the only boy, and my daddy's one of four boys.

He was totally shocked when I came out a girl.

A girl?

A girl?

A girl?

I didn't know I could have a girl.

I didn't just never occurred to him.

God gave him two girls, laughed, and then gave him a boy.

Okay.

But mothers experience great emotion.

So many scriptures I'd like to share with you, but for the sake of time, I just want to share this last one.

3rd John 1:4 says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

John 1:4

And do you know that when our children grow up to serve the Lord and to love God and to follow Him, our job is done.

That's all we want is for them to love God on their own.

You can't inherit your faith.

You can't tap into mom and dad's.

It has to become your own.

And so when we see that happen and we see our children getting up and reading their Bible, we see them coming to the Lord and following Him, it just blesses our heart.

And when they're fully committed to the Lord, we're okay.

Because then we just transfer all that burden and all that concern.

God's going to take care of them.

They're his children.

Children are on loan from the Lord.

He gave them, they belong to Him.

And one day He's going to take them back.

Whether it's because they move away or because they grow up or because they die, God is in charge of those children's lives.

They're just on loan to you for a short, short time.

Number five, mothers must learn to trust the Lord.

This means that when you're my age and your children are grown, you can't keep being their mama.

I can still remember when Eric was in college and he had this habit of putting a toothpick in his mouth.

Well, the mama in me thinks, you should not have a sharp object sitting in your mouth.

And I can remember he's in college.

And without thinking, because you've just been mama so long, without thinking, I reached up in front of a group of his friends and pulled the toothpick out of his mouth.

I thought, ooh, I think I just messed up.

He's a grown man, and I'm telling him he can't chew on a toothpick.

But you know, I mean, I just it's it's hard to stop being mama and be friend.

But there comes a time when we have to do that too, because they're God's children, they're not ours.

And we have to trust the Lord with our children.

We have to trust the Lord when they have problems, when they have struggles, when they bump and scrape their knees.

And you know, we there's a time when our children make their own choices.

I didn't decide that.

But there is a guilt that can come.

I must have done something wrong.

I must have been a bad mama.

My children wouldn't have done this, wouldn't have done that.

Children have a choice too.

And there comes a time when we have to trust the Lord with not only our own imperfection, but their imperfection.

And pray for them, pray for that prodigal to come home, pray for them to turn to the Lord.

But we need to we need to lighten up on ourselves and say, look, I I didn't do that.

I didn't choose that.

I didn't go down that road.

They did.

I tried to warn them, and now they've got a world of hurt.

That's hard as a parent to watch, but we have to trust the Lord with our problems, with our sin, with the circumstances we live in, and with our children.

And we can trust him because we have a good, good father.

I want to share a song with you that I think expresses maybe it's strange to be a Mother's Day song, but for me, you know, sometimes I just need to lay my burdens down.

I love my mother, and I have such a good mom.

Oh my goodness, I have such a great mom.

But at the same time, at the same time, I think about the kind of mother I've been, and I reflect on myself.

And I just sometimes just wear this burden of I wish I'd done more, I wish I'd known more.

I wish I had been, I wish I was this age starting over.

Not really.

But you know, I mean, I I I just wish I knew what I knew now.

If I had known this, I would have done that.

If I'd known this, I'd have done that.

Well, sure.

There's so many things.

That's why older women are supposed to help the younger women.

We can tell you all the stuff.

Oh my goodness, we can tell you about what you ought to do about the cell phones and why you need an alarm system in your house.

You need an alarm system in your house.

Do you know that?

The alarm is not to keep people out, to keep your children in.

Back door open, back door open.

There's no sneaking out when there's an alarm system in the house.

These are things we can tell you, okay?

So you need a mama, even when you're raising your children.

You need a mama because you need that wisdom.

But if you're if you're here today and maybe you're you're you're carrying a load, you know, how do you think Tamar felt as her sons grew up to figure out this story?

Mom and dad aren't married, and mom was married to their uncle, and can you untangle that?

There's a lot of guilt that comes.

What about Rahab?

Everybody's, oh yeah, we're going to Rahab the harlot's house.

What?

That's my mama you're talking about.

But that was her past.

Solomon.

How did he come to be?

His daddy took somebody's wife.

These are not women without, you know, a past and without guilt.

And maybe you have your own version of that.

And maybe today God wants to just tell you I'm gonna I'm gonna take your burdens and I'm gonna use them for my glory.

And maybe you have some burdens you want to lay down.

This song might be just for you.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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