WHEN I WAS A CHILD.....

Today is a day that we salute moms, and we do so for many reasons. The most obvious reason is because our society has designated today as Mother's Day. As most of you may know, the American Mother's Day celebration was brought into existence through the work of Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948). She felt her mother and every mother she knew deserved the honor of a special day. Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. He established the day as a time for "public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

It is interesting that Hallmark estimates that 150 million Mother's Day cards will be sent this year making Mother's Day the third largest greeting card holiday of the year, and research shows that the phone rings more often on Mother's Day than any other day of the year. It is very evident that God has designed mothers to significantly impact our lives.

So, as I thought about this week’s message. I found myself, on Tuesday morning, sitting at my deck. The sky was grey, the deck was wet, the environment suggested that it had just finished raining, and the earth was so moist that you could almost taste the dirt in your mouth… I found myself basking in the presence of God, asking Him to inspire this week’s message. As I stood there, I noticed the fresh buds on the trees and the deep green grass, and how, as I looked around, all I could see was the birth of new life. It was beautiful, almost indescribable, and soon I found God at the forefront of every thought within my mind (Ref. Rom. 1:19-20).

His quiet, still voice said “I use my creation to point my kids back to Myself.” God wants you to walk out these doors today knowing that He can be found, and our purpose can be found in His creation. His desire is for us to open up our eyes and see through his creation that He longs for us to know Him. And, He purposely uses all of His creation to draw us near to Him. With that said, God wants us to know that motherhood is something that he created. God has used and will continue to use mothers to be a representation or illustration of who He is, and how He intended the mother of each child to image Him in front her family to eventually lead her kids to honor God.

Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man (Gen. 2:7) in his own image (“in our “Trinity” likeness” verse 26), in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Now I know that this Scripture is referenced frequently, but the depth of it is almost mysterious. When I read this I see that we are created in the image of God. But, the text doesn’t mean that we physically look like him, but that we have been created with His characteristics/His attributes. Now, it is important to note that this is how we were originally created, but as the story unfolds we read about “The fall.” The fall happened when Adam and Eve ate from the tree (Gen. 3:6). This was the one thing that Adam and Eve were told to never do (Gen 2:16-17). As a result, we (male and female) are separated from God, and our need from that moment on was for God to provide redemption/salvation/deliverance.

So this leads us to God’s plan of redemption, God’s plan of salvation, God’s way for us to have a relationship with Him. I can sum his plan up with one name JESUS CHRIST. Jesus Christ is the One (Jn. 14:6) whom we must release our lives to (Jn. 14:1), trust that he is our Savior, understand that He is the Son of God (1 Jn. 4:15), who God sent because he planned all along to restore our relationship with our Creator (Jn. 3:16). Jesus is the only means to “take off our old self (the person who was far from God) with its practices and have put on the new self (the person who has Christ living in them), which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Col. 3:9-10). So, from the beginning, God’s intended role for both men and women was to image Himself. The reason why I brought you down this path was because I needed to make sure that in order for us to see God through our mothers, in its closest form, our mothers must have Christ living in them.

Please know that the Creator cannot be compared to His creation. In Isaiah 40:25 God speaks of this with rhetorical questions, “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.” With this in mind, I must describe God as best as I can with my limited knowledge, and my purpose is not to limit your understanding of Him by using His creation (some of us in this room didn’t have mothers, or when I refer to God using the analogy of a mother it does more harm than good), but I know that God created women “in His image or in His (trinity) likeness,” so, women or mother’s carry characteristics/attributes of who God is. And now that we know that each mother is not perfect; we can observe how God can be found through motherhood, and our purpose can be found through our mothers. We’ve established that through Christ, imaging God through motherhood is possible. When a mother has at her core her relationship with Christ, the love that is needed to nurture, and care for their children is endless.

Over this past week, I search through the archives (my memory) and found that I could not put in words a specific story about my childhood involving my mother. However, I finally realized that almost every story was connected in some way to my mother. When I was a child I can remember my dad telling me, “Joe you need to know that if you lose your mother’s love, then I don’t know what to do for you.” (This was obviously during a time period in my life where I was hard to love.) But my father’s words really stuck with me. I had gone sixteen years without ever thinking about the depth of my mother’s love. Even to this day, it’s hard to truly understand what my mother did for me when I was a child, so over this past week I spent a little time looking for an illustration of all that she did and still does.

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This illustration is not perfect, but it shows what a mother does on a daily basis. She innately loves her kids so much that she never complains, never gives up. This is what I remember when I was a child. When I was a child my mother always had the energy to put on band aids, read books, wipe up buggers, wipe butts, clean ears, brush teeth, clip finger nails, comb hair, make meals, sit in the doctor’s office, pick up toys, unclog the toilet, pick up toilet paper, drive her kids from here to there (soccer mom). It’s amazing… What must be acknowledged here is that a mother’s love never stops (Do you see God being imaged here?), she loves her children even when they least deserve to be loved (Do we deserve to be loved?). Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” When it comes to love, mom’s the word.

This love, it images God. If you’re a mother in this room, and you have Christ living in you, then the love that you express represents or it’s an illustration of the love of our Creator. I remember when I was a child my mother was…

•    Available – morning, noon, and night.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, (6) “These commandments (the Bible) that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (7) Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” As I said above, when I was a child my mother was…

•    Involved – interacting, discussing, thinking and processing life together.

Ephesians 6:4 says, “Mothers/Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
When I was a child she encouraged me… (Basically moms are our cheerleaders)

•    Training – helping a child develop their skills and discover his/her strengths.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” I can also remember her disciplining me…

•    Discipline – teaching the fear of the Lord, drawing the line consistently, lovingly, firmly.

Hebrews 12:5-11 says, (5) …"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he (God) rebukes you, (6) because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." (7) Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father/mother? (8) If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. (9) Moreover, we have all had human fathers/mother who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! (10) Our fathers/mothers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. (11) No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Proverbs 13:24, 19:18, 22:15, 23:13-14, 29:15-17). When I was a child there was nothing that compared to the love of my mother…

•    Nurture – providing an environment of constant verbal support, freedom to fail, acceptance, affection, unconditional love.

Ephesians 5:1-2 says, (1) “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children (2) and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Titus 2:4; 2 Timothy 1:7; Ephesians 4:29-32, 5:1-2; Galatians 5:22; 1 Peter 3:8-9)
How many of you remember your mom saying, “that’s it; you wait till your father gets home!!!”

•    Great example of Integrity – living what you say, being a model by which a child can learn by “catching” the essence of godly living.

Deuteronomy 4:9 says, “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” (Proverbs 10:9, 11:3; Psalm 37:18, 37) Mother’s image God by teaching…

•    Teaching – the Scriptures, a biblical world-view.

Psalm 78:5-6 says, (5) “God commanded our forefathers to teach their children the Bible (paraphrase), (6) so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.” Philippians 4:9 says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.” (Deuteronomy 4:10, Ephesians 6:4).

All this said, God uses all of His creation to point us to Him. He uses all of His creation to give us the ability know who He is, so that, we can fall in love with, trust in, rely on, and know that he is a just like our earthly mothers, a force not to be reckoned with. How many of you have run across a mother who heard of another adult criticizing their child? I know me, as a child, I would have rather wanted my father with me if someone was picking on me; but, now that I am an adult and married, if my kids are being picked on, I’m sending their mom. Claws and all! Mom it’s no mistake. You would die for your kids. Who does this image?

Jesus specifically says, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). This is huge!!! God longs for His creation to relate with children – weak and dependent people with no status or influence, but completely dependent on Him, just like, when we were completely dependent on our mother and father. (Clarify for men)

Today, walk out this door and honor your mother (Ex. 20:12), celebrate the life that she brings to you. Genesis 3:20 says, “Adam named his wife Eve (means living), because she would become the mother of all the living.” As you stare into your mother’s eyes look at her differently. Observe how God has used her to express His unconditional love, His tenderness, His care (Ps. 95:7), His need to support you (Ps. 18:18), take you as you are, and love you in a way that will cause you to become the man or women that God has designed you to be. Please know that God is willing to do whatever it takes to have you fall in love with Him, that means he uses all that He created to help us realize that God is all around us. Remember, when you are alone, hurting, crying, hopeless, TURN TO GOD, and know that he will do everything to meet your needs.

Just like your mother, God is an endless bank where we deposit all our hurts and worries. Does this mean he will come to our environment and physically meet our needs? I believe He always does. He meets our needs through our mother, our father, our grandpa or grandma, a sister or brother, a friend, he even uses nature; the point is, he will use whatever He needs to use to show you that He is God (Job 19:25), a loving, tender, caring, supportive, all knowing, eternal God.

Remember, through Christ, your mom’s purpose is to point you to God, and bring you to a point in your life where you allow God to be involved in your life, trained by, disciplined by, taught by, and loved by your Creator. TURN TO GOD! Remember, God longs for us to depend on Him as much as we did on our moms, and don’t forget to come to Him as little children.

Thank you. Go and be blessed.

Pastor Joe’s notes from his May 10, 2009 message. You can get a free CD of the complete message, by contacting Christ’s Family Church @ 651.437.2340.