A 2021 Mother’s Day Sermon
When God created Adam, He created him in His own spiritual image by breathing a part of His own eternal Spirit into his nostrils, & the Bible declares (Gen. 2:7), man became a living soul. We read those simple & familiar words, but the truth is they are anything but “simplistic”, they are God’s Biblical truth of man’s origin in the beginning.
In the beginning God did not create 2 different sexes, male & female. He just created one man, Adam, who represented all of mankind. As the one created in God’s own image, Adam was the recipient of all the spiritual traits of his God. Later when God took Eve from out of Adam, God’s spiritual traits were separated into male & female. Today some of God’s traits are more clearly seen in males while others are more unique to females. I might add that one of the great tragedies of our day is so-called “gay” families which raise their adopted children with only one gender! This is not natural & will one day bring God’s judgment upon this entire nation!
Of all of the spiritual traits of God, love is the most perfect of all. And a mother’s love is the purest reflection of God’s own spiritual image of love. Because this is true, & because this is Mother’s Day, I want to wish all our mothers a “Happy Mothers’ Day” & devote our lesson to thinking about 3 great characteristics of a mother’s love which reflect God’s own agape love.
First, A Mother’s Love Reflects God’s Great Desire to Bring Life into Existence. As the God of perfect love, God created us because He wanted a people for Himself. Our God wanted children of His own; children whom He could love & care for. He wanted children who would recognize & reciprocate His love with all of their hearts, souls, minds & strength.
Have you ever thought about how God’s love is uniquely reflected in the strong maternal instinct of a woman? We think of the great women of the OT, & one of their strongest desires was to bear children & to nurture life. This is so unique to women that we call it the “maternal instinct” which is a reflection of God’s own perfect love.
We see the maternal instinct in Hannah who poured out her soul to the Lord as she wept & prayed fervently that if God would give her a son, she would give him to the Lord all the days of his life (1 Sam. 1:11). God granted her request & Samuel (whose name means “asked of God”) was born. The point is that Hannah, like most women of the past, felt unfulfilled as a woman until she became a mother.
I thank God for mothers who because of their faith & love for God recognize that there is no higher & holier calling than the privilege of motherhood. When a mother recognizes her God-given role & devotes herself to this divine purpose in her life, she reflects some of the glory & the beauty of God’s own spiritual image. She reflects some of the pure love that the Creator passed on when He yearned for children in the beginning.
2) God’s Love is Reflected in A Mother’s Sacrificial Love. Do you remember the story of Solomon’s wisdom in 1 Kings 3 when 2 women came to him claiming the same baby as her own? Solomon, in his gift of God’s wisdom, offered to cut the baby in half & give each woman a half. The real mother begged him not to do that & even said that the other woman could have the baby. However, the other woman said: “he shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” Solomon knew all along that the real mother would cry out on behalf of her child’s life, which saved the baby’s life.
This sacrificial love of a mother is a love God Himself stamped upon a mother’s heart & on this Mother’s Day we thank God for Christian mothers who have been born again when God’s agape love (Rom. 5:5)? As God’s love blooms within a mother’s heart, there is no sacrifice too great for them to make for their children as Christian mothers.
The song, “God Give Us Christian Homes” declares in v. 3: “God give us Christian Homes! Homes where the mother, in queenly quest, strives to show others Thy way is best. Homes where the Lord is an honored Guest; God, give us Christian Homes.
The world today desperately needs to be shown that the Lord’s Way is always best! A mother’s love shines most brightly when she decides that first & foremost, she will be a good mother, & will make whatever sacrifices must be made to be with her children as they grow up that she might nurture & encourage them in the ways of the Lord!
I once read the story of a mother bird who built a nest high in the top of a tall tree. One night a hail-storm hit, & that tree was tossed & turned & blown all about by hail & high winds. The next AM the nest was found on the ground at the foot of the tree. Upon examining the nest, it was discovered that the mother bird died with her wings still outstretched as she had tried in vain to shelter her little ones from the storm. She died along with her baby chicks still underneath her body, but she died in a heroic effort to save her little ones. The question is: where did such love of the mother bird come from? The answer is, God put it there as just a slight reflection of the sacrificial love He also demonstrated for His children at Calvary.
We need to understand that though God has put His sacrificial love into the hearts of the godly mothers of our world today, Satan is doing all he can to destroy God’s love. Paul declared (2 Tim. 3:3) that the time would come when men would be “unloving” or as the ASV translates the word, “without natural affection”. The affection spoken of in this verse is the love parents should just naturally have toward their children. It is an affection that even birds & animals have for their little ones. But Paul sadly warns that in the last days, Satan will destroy much of the family love which should exist in the hearts of all fathers & mothers for their offspring.
Some of the fulfillment of this prophecy is evident today in such sins as abortion & child desertion. May God help us to realize how vital it is that moms & dads get right & stay right with the Lord so that His love may be replenished by His Word & by the presence of His Holy Spirit in our hearts! May we all sincerely pray…”God give us Christian homes!”
#3: A Mother’s Love Is A Nurturing Love. The great influence that a mother has upon her children is biblically manifest through Timothy’s mother & grandmother. In 2 Tim. 1:5 Paul wrote that he was mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, & your mother Eunice…The church today is indebted to Lois & Eunice for the good job they did instilling spiritual values & faith into Timothy’s heart. Today the greatest single responsibility that a mother has is to teach her children about God in an effort to instill within their innocent little hearts a love for God & a strong desire to do His will all their lives!
If a mother never gets a college degree, if she never has a successful business career, if she never has much money to spend or never sees much of the world, if she raises her children in the nurture & admonition of the Lord, in the eyes of Jesus, she will have been a very successful woman in every sense of the word!
I read that Susannah Wesley spent one hour each day praying for her children. In addition, she also took each child aside for a full hour every week to discuss spiritual matters with him or her. That means that this mother spent 7 hours a week praying for her children. And since she had 19 children, she spent another 19 hours in giving each of them spiritual instruction from God’s holy Word. That means that this mother spent some 26 hours each week training her children in the nurture & admonition of the Lord, & the result was that she raised two outstanding preachers including Charles Wesley who wrote over 6,000 hymns, many of which we sing today.
Six basic rules she followed as she trained her children included:
1) Subdue self-will in a child & thus work together with God to save his soul.
2) Teach him to pray as soon as he can talk.
3) Give him nothing he cries for, & only what is good for him— & only if he asks for it politely.
4) To prevent lying, punish no fault which is freely confessed, but never allow a rebellious, sinful act to go unnoticed.
5) Commend & reward good behavior.
6) Strictly observe all promises you make to your child. (Selected from 16 House Rules by Susanna Wesley from www.raisinggodlychildren.org)
Parenthood is a big responsibility & today we are especially reminded of how big that responsibility is when we realize that each child has been created in the spiritual image of our God, & that our first responsibility as parents is to prepare them for an eternity with Him.
But none of us can teach what we ourselves do not know, & none of us can lead where we ourselves have never gone. If we plan to lead our children to Jesus, we ourselves must walk with the Lord. Let us earnestly pray, “God give us Christian homes & Lord start with me as a mother or a father. Let me know the joy of walking with the Lord by faith & let me share that joy with my family so that our home can be the Christ-centered home that is a delight to You.
May our nation & the church of our Lord have more mothers who will raise children who can one day look back with the same sentiments toward their mothers expressed in the words of Robert Church’s Poem entitled: The Gentle Light…Mother of mine, Light of my soul, ever inspiring me to a higher goal; You who are so dear to me, when I look at you, what do I see?
I see a woman, yes, but more by far, sunshine & moonlight & a star. I see human feelings, joy, pain & fear, a gentle smile & a hidden tear. I see strength, too, & the courage to be meek; a helping hand to those who are weak; I see a kindly word, a spring shower, the song of a bird & a dewy flower. I see a soul shining there that can only be true & fair; the soft music of a dear old hymn, a heart full of love blest by Him. I see sacrifices made for me, & dreams imprisoned that mine might be free; a Mother whose motto o’er life’s stormy sea is “Jesus, Savior, pilot me.”
Ralph Weinhold