Mom was right - Mother's Day 2023
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Introduction:
Today is mothers day - the day that we as a people celebrate and honor moms. In honor of this day - Forbes magazine suggests that over 32 Billion dollars will be spent on gifts and services for moms. It’s a big day. Tomorrow is my mommas birthday - which really just means that she gets combined gifts - as they are always pretty close to each other.
The title of my sermon today is “Mom was Right”
Throughout a child's life - and even into adulthood - moms, to a fault, are teaching and guiding a child.
Sometimes that is holding a little ones hand to get through a parking lot, sometimes that is telling them not to date that girl. Mom’s are always offering instruction and advice to their child and to the children around them.
In all of that sharing and teaching - a child is raised, a household is kept, a community is built. As adults we look back and see, even if we don’t want to admit it… Mom was right.
Mom was right about my grades.
Mom was right about those friends.
Mom was right about those pants.
Mom was right about that job - or that house. Mom was right about this and that.
We didn’t want to say it then, because we knew better, but now… mom was right.
For that, they deserve honor. Mom’s are pretty special.
And yet - because I am an equal opportunity offender - my message today is not just for everyone else to treat moms extra special - though there is some of that. First, I’d like to address the moms.
Mom’s - you were right. But to be right, you have to be right. We teach our kids all sorts of things. some of the things that we teach them are intentional things. We sit them down and we speak words into their mind and into their heart. Some of the things that we teach are unintentional. We do it, because it is what we know - we respond to things that happen. We react because of how something made us feel. And children learn just as much from that. And so the first thing that I have to share this morning is:
Mom’s - Be right!
Be Right about life.
As we live our lives as believers - we are to do our best to live the way that Jesus lived. We are to live out the love that he had, the grace and peace that he shared. The apostle Paul said “imitate me as I imitate Christ.”
For women - especially mothers and leaders - it is important that we imitate what we know of the lord. We learn that the same way that we learn anything else, from careful study of his word.
Jennifer shared last week that her life has totally changed even over the last few months because she has been able to saturate her life with scripture. She has been able to steep herself in it and learn from it and be changed by it.
Proverbs 31 describes a woman of noble character. Most women know this passage, as it describes what King Soloman understood to be a good wife, a good homemaker, a good momma. A woman who offers peace in her home, who works to keep it, who is a keen negotiator and manager. Who takes care of herself and the affairs of her household.
In that: Proverbs 31:26 a woman of Noble character is a teacher - who speaks wisdom and instruction.
26 Her mouth speaks wisdom, and loving instruction is on her tongue.
Titus 2:3–5 (CSB)
3 In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good,
4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children,
5 to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered.
If you aren’t right about those things - your home, your children, your husband and your community suffers.
As you read through Proverbs 31 - you see the affects that a woman of noble character has on her home - Her husband is respected at the city gate, her children arise and call her blessed - her home has its provision.
And a woman can also spend every dime that you have - can run her mouth in the community and lose respect for her husband - and cause trauma for her children. And trauma is real.
Women have an incredible amount of influence and power in their home and in the lives of their children. It is important to do that right. As you do that, you multiply the times that your children and the children you have influence over will look back and say “Mom was right” It is important for mom to be right the way you live your life.
Be Right about Faith.
At Calvary Foursquare we know our mission is to Glorify God, Equip the Saints, and to Share the Gospel.
Our first place of missionary work is in our own homes. Women, mothers - have an incredible impact there.
The apostle paul wrote to and about his spiritual son Timothy often. From that we can see a lot of things about who timothy was.
5 I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and now, I am convinced, is in you also.
Paul said - I know you, and I have also come to know your mother and your grandmother - and I know they had faith that they passed on to you.
They weren’t christians yet, and yet they knew the scriptures and they had a genuine faith in God.
Through their influence, their teaching, their life - they passed that faith on to Timothy. Timothy would go on to represent Paul in several churches, and then to pastor the church in Ephesus.
Eunice and Lois prepared Timothy’s heart to accept Christ by teaching Timothy the Old Testament Scriptures and preparing him “from infancy” to recognize the Messiah when He appeared
As mothers - it is important to be Right about your faith.
To have a real relationship with Jesus the Christ. And to share that with your children.
My great grandma Ellamae, my grandma Kathy - shared with me a great deal of faith. They prayed and taught me to pray. They loved, and taught me to love.
Sherry taking me in when I was a trouble making teenager - shared Jesus with me.
The house we live in now, I bought from a woman who, along with her mother, shared Jesus with me - in real and tangible ways.
It is important for us to share the gospel with our children. Mothers
The love of Jesus
The Grace that you have been given
The Gospel
The Rest of Us.
Listen.
Mom may not have ALWAYS been right. But chances are high, that she is right more often than you have give her credit for.
There are women in this room who have lived lifetimes more than you have. They have had relationships - they have raised children - they have gone through STUFF.
We do ourselves a great disservice to dismiss them.
Listen.
As we listen, discern and do.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.
8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching,
9 for they will be a garland of favor on your head and pendants around your neck.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right.
Honor them.
Even when moms aren’t right - they are worthy of honor.
Ephesians 6:2–3 (CSB)
2 Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise,
3 so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land.
Provide Care.
3 Support widows who are genuinely in need.
4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn to practice godliness toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God.
5 The widow who is truly in need and left all alone has put her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers;
6 however, she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.
7 Command this also, so that they will be above reproach.
8 But if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9 No widow is to be enrolled on the list for support unless she is at least sixty years old, has been the wife of one husband,
10 and is well known for good works—that is, if she has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to every good work.
Now, verse 3 tells us they need to be genuinely in need. So there is a safeguard there - from abusive parents. I know that happens.
But as they are in need - we have a responsibility to care for them.
As a church - we should care for them.
Come to the conclusion...
Mom was right. Listen to her, honor her, care for her.
10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance,
11 along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all.
12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
13 Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you,
15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
6 Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.