Today’s message summary of May 13, 2018 from Pastor Gus Brown:
Mother’s Day was founded in 1872 by Julia Ward. She also was the person who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Her desire was to honor mothers everywhere.
Ann Jarvis was the person to bring Mother’s Day into a “holiday,” She wrote to congress and the President, and she wrote to the superintendent of Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. She wanted her mother to be recognized for teaching Sunday school for over twenty years. She wanted a service to be held in her honor.
There is also an International Mother’s Day shrine in Grafton, West Virginia, which was the original church where the first Mother’s Day service was held.
Out of that event grew what was referred to as Mother’s Day Work Clubs. These were older women teaching younger women how to care for their children (Titus 2:1-4).
The woman is never to be set aside as a tag-along. She is to be honored while the man fulfills his important position in the household. In her position, the woman is a nurturer of humanity. She is a mother to all children as well as her own, and even nurtures her own husband.
Mothers deserve to be honored for the work that they do–day by day–month by month–year after year. There are things that mothers instill within their children that last through today.
Honor is due her on her own merit.
Exodus 20:12
Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
It is a command from God that you honor her and it is a promise for you to keep.
Deuteronomy 5:16
Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and so that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Matthew 15:4
For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.
Mothers are to teach their children when they are young what it is to honor them–especially the younger men.
A godly mother and her character:
Acts 16:1-3
Paul went on to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. The brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. Paul wanted Timothy to go with him; so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek.
A mother is to learn to accept who they are as a woman. It is important to reflect upon others a godly character. Their children should see the real person that she is.
The woman in Acts 16 is Jewish. She knew of her heritage, birthright and customs, and she took ownership of it.
Her history: Moses didn’t marry a Jewish woman. Ruth (a Moabite) married Boaz. She is aware of Ezra and Nehemiah and the mixed marriages of the day (Ezra 10:11; Nehemiah 10:30). Joseph married an Egyptian and was used mightily by God.
Embrace who you are and where you come from, but don’t stay in a place where it dictates what you become as a person. God created you to be the person you are to be in Christ.
Next, the woman in Acts became a believer in Jesus Christ. The belief in Jesus was first seen in her mother, Lois. Lois was also Jewish, but she was also a believer. The daughter witnessed the transformation in her mother’s life. She saw a new person with undisguised, genuine faith (2 Corinthians 5:17).
2 Timothy 1:5
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.
Mothers are to live out the life as an example of faith in Jesus Christ.
Third, she was married to a Greek. They lived in Lystra, a mixed population of Greeks, Jews and Romans. She was immune to the Jewish bias, prejudice and preconceived notions of other Jews in Jerusalem. She lived out her faith in spite of her husband being of a different background, and her husband had the faith to let her live out her faith. It was a relationship of mutual honor and respect. She lived courageously because of her character and independent thinking to live in the best way she could for herself.
Her son, Timothy, may have never heard that he was a half-breed, as he would have been defined by the Jews. The way that she raised her son, Timothy, reflected well upon how he was honored. He was highly respected. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him (Acts 16:2). He was the product of his loving mother.
Finally, the woman trusted in God and entrusted Paul to Timothy as a man of God.
- She knew God had a plan for her son (Romans 12:2; 2 Timothy 3:15).
- She waited for the right person to come along to help develop her son. She knew and trusted Paul, as she also knew about the thoughts of the other Jewish men (Acts 16:3).
Mothers have to trust others to help raise and develop their children, but they are to know who these people are.
As a mother, are you allowing Jesus to build you in order that you can build up your child?
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