Woman, you have great faith!
Illus. A teacher gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has six letters. The first one is M, and I pick up things. What am I?” When the grades were all in the teacher was astounded to find that almost fifty percent had written in the word Mother!
Mothers are great aren't they? They know how to fix the boo boos of a child's life, no matter how old the child.
On this day that we honor mothers, its good for us to think about how much you really do. Being a mother is not a walk in the park…
By the time a child reaches 18, a mother has had to handle some extra 18,000 hours of child-generated work. In fact, women who never have children enjoy the equivalent of an extra three months a year in leisure time!
Illus. By Brian Bill
I heard about a father who was trying to explain the concept of marriage to his 4-year-old daughter. He got out their wedding album, thinking visual images would help, and explained the entire wedding service to her. When he was finished, he asked if she had any questions. She pointed to a picture of the wedding party and asked, “Daddy, is that when mommy came to work for us?
Today on Mother's Day especially, we want to let all of our mothers know that they are loved and appreciated! Amen?
There are many great examples of a mothers love in the bible.
I love the picture of the mother of Moses who cared so much for her son that she broke the law in order to teach him the faith of his people.
We see the sacrificial love of the mother who appeared before King Solomon and told him that she was willing to have her son taken away by another woman rather than see any harm come to him.
Or, the mother of James and John who loved her boys so much that she wanted them to sit by the Lord’s side in the heavenly kingdom. She was one persistent mother wasn't she? Even though what she was asking was impossible, she still wanted the very best for her boys. And she was willing to ask for something impossible, all because she loved them!
The most important thing a mother could ever do..is teach her children about Jesus!
If we wonder what's wrong with the generations of young people coming of age? Probably the number one thing would be, that they haven't had or been taught enough about Jesus!
TBS. Raise up a child in the ways of the Lord and when he gets old, he will not depart from it! Mothers need to be persistent, the value of being raised in a Christian Home life and environment is priceless!
I had a persistent mother and I know many of you did to. Today I want to show you from scripture, the story of one of the most persistent mothers recorded in the bible.
She was on a mission, seeking help for a sick child. She wasn't looking for a bottle of medicine, she was looking for a cure. She was in search of a Healing for her daughter!
Matt 15:21-28 NKJ
21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”
23 But He answered her not a word.
And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.”
24 But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”
26 But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
27 And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
The Pressures on our mothers today, are greater than ever. Its got to be one of the toughest jobs in the world.
And I think all ladies would agree with the statement..
"Once a mother, always a mother!" No matter how old your baby is..
I know if my mother were still alive today, I'd still be her baby! It's kind of funny, because when I was little I didn't like being called the baby at all. But now I kind of think it has a nice ring to it!
No matter what advances take place with technology, there are still a lot of physical demands on all moms! Multi tasking, while the word may not be all that old, the description of what it describes for mothers has been going on since the first child was ever born!
Mothers are expected;
To be successful
A tidy house keeper
Raise perfect children
Cook like a chef
Always look beautiful
Be Martha Stewart and McGyver all at the same time,
And be able to handle whatever comes up and take care of it.
With chewing gum and super glue, all while wearing a smile!
Mothers, certainly do wear a lot of different hats!
The old saying still rings true today...
The hand that rocks the cradle..rules the world.
It has been said and I know it to be true from experience,
that no other force in the life of a child,
is as strong as the influence of a Godly mother.
Proverbs 22:6 NKJ can't be stressed enough!
6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
I know that to be true...
Because that's what my mother did!
Even when it wasn't the most popular thing to do, she did it!
Even with five kids pleading not to go to church on Sunday nights...we went.
Looking back now, we didn't need a friend, we needed a Godly mother!
Illus. A little boy forgot his lines in a S. S. presentation. His mother was in the front row to prompt him. She gestured and formed the words silently with her lips, but it didn’t help. Her sons’ memory went blank. Finally, she leaned forward and whispered the cue, “I am the light of the world.” The boy’s face lit up and with great feeling and a loud and clear voice he said, “My mother is the light of the world.”
In the every day life today, the pressures are greater
than they have ever been on all of our moms.
The Mother in out text:
she had a daughter who was demon-possessed.
Cancer and sicknesses are hard to deal with, but at least they have names.
I can't even imagine how it would be to deal with your child,
If they were demon possessed...no matter what age they were!
But there's one thing this woman realized, whatever was wrong with her daughter, it had to bow down and was subjective to the name of Jesus!
I would encourage every mother here, whatever you will every face. It has to bow down and submit the name of Jesus! And when you let your faith arise like this women did and attach it to what Jesus is capable of, nothing is impossible!
In verse 28 Jesus said “You have great faith.” In four words
He summed up everything about this women, if we never knew anything else about this women! Yes she had wants and needs like every one else! But above all else, she had great faith!!
The MSG says it like this... “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
While we don't know much about this woman, here's what the bible tells us
She was a Canaanite woman, who came from the country north of Palestine—a country hostile to the Jews—and she had at least one child, and like a lot of mothers, she was willing to go the great lengths for this child! But other than that, that’s all we know about her...We don’t even know her name!
All we know is that in the few minutes, that she spent with Jesus, He said to her, “You have great faith.” Only 4 words, but they were enough to enshrine her as one of the greatest mothers of all time!
And these 4 words tell us everything we need to know, because they were spoken by Jesus. Amen?
JESUS IS AN EXPERT ON FAITH.
The Bible tells us that He searched for it as a gem collector searches for fine jewels, and when He found it He was filled with joy. And it says in Hebrews 11 that He rewards the diligence of it, when it is displayed!
He didn’t always find it in His disciples. There wasn't one of them..who heard the words "You have great faith.” In fact it was the opposite
Matthew 8:25-26 NKJ
25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
26 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
But yet...He said "you have great faith" to this nameless mother from outside the house of Israel!
What did this woman do to deserve such praise from God?
Let's look at the many things that she possessed...that showed her faith
She knew no fear, According to law, she had no right to be doing what she was doing, but she was doing it anyway! She was Tenacious!
Here was a mother who was prepared to cross any obstacle to turn to Jesus for help.
What drove her to be so bold? She was Desperate!
She knew what she was doing, wasn't working. Because like everyone else, she had already exhausted her capabilities. And she knew she running out of time, she couldn't waste any more time. Pride was not going to stand in her way!
She had tried everything she knew to do and everything she tried had failed.
Now she would seek help from Jesus, regardless of the cost.
She possessed a Mothers Love:
Love for her child. Love made her accept Jesus’ silence and yet still appeal to Him; love made her suffer all of the remarks from the disciples.
.
She saw compassion in Jesus...
She believed in His ability and willingness to help.
She saw in Jesus, the salvation to her daughters condition!
She saw hope, like the light at the end of a tunnel...and whatever it took, she was going to make it too the end of the tunnel!
She was Determined...she refused to leave, until she got what she had came for!
This mother refused to be put off or intimidated. She was not going to take criticism or silence as an answer...she was Persistent, with a Capitol P
She was there for one thing, nothing else mattered, she was ALL IN! And she wasn't leaving until she got what she came for! We can learn a lot from this mother!
Washington Irving: “The love of a mother is never exhausted. It never changes—it never tires—it endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world’s condemnation, a mother’s love still lives on.”
Even though this mother was so bold it's interesting to note,
She Made No Claim that she deserved anything,
Or was worthy of anything that day
She relied on the GRACE, FAVOR and MERCY of JESUS and that's exactly what we should do everyday of our lives! Amen! He wants us too, He compels us too!
TBS. come all ye to me who are thirsty and I will give you drink.
We're not talking about water....we're talking about Living Water, from the source of all Life! That's why He went to the cross..so you could do what this woman was doing!
When Jesus told her that it didn’t seem right to take bread from the children of Israel and throw it to the little dogs of the Gentiles, she didn’t burst into tears and walk away. Instead, she gave Jesus an answer that got the response, she was looking for! Amen?
She said, “”True, Sir. I admit that I have no claim on You, but there must be some extra grace—some grace that I don’t deserve, and I’m appealing to You for that.”
No wonder Jesus replied, “Woman, you have great faith.”
No wonder from that moment His healing power transcended from Jesus location to her daughters location and her daughter was made whole.
It's no wonder were still talking about her today, because what her faith accomplished for her, is still Amazing 2000 years later!
TBS. God is not respecter of persons, He changes not and He is still the same yesterday, today and forever! He is still ready, willing and able to meet your need when you come asking in faith!
Billy Graham once said, “Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask.” Have faith in the God of the dream; let’s ask God to bring the dream to completion. God’s answer is ready; it’s just waiting for our personal and persistent request.
There is nothing to big to ask God for, that He is not able to do
As I said, God is not a respecter of persons, He is still looking for men and women today. He can say the same thing He said to, the mother we talked about today
"You have great Faith"
She was willing to ask..
And not give up until she got the answer she was looking for!
What are you asking God for today?
He's ready to reply and to respond to your need..
if you'll just step out in faith and ask Him!
Matthew 7:7-8 NKJ
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Illus. A little girls prayer
One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do she died, leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator) and no special feeding facilities.
Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. "And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed.
As in the West it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.
"All right," I said, "Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm."
The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.
During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. "Please, God," she prayed, "send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby’ll be dead, so please send it this afternoon."
While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, "And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she’ll know You really love her?"
As often with children’s prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, "Amen"? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything. The Bible says so. But there are limits, aren’t there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home; anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses’ training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box.
From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys; eyes sparkled as I pulled them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas --- that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the ..... could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out --- yes, a brand-new, rubber hot water bottle! I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.
Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted.
Looking up at me, she asked: "Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she’ll know that Jesus really loves her?"
That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child --- five months before --- in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year old to bring it "that afternoon."
~By Helen Roseveare~
Whatever you're seeking God for today, know that nothing is to hard for Him, or out of the realm of His Possibilities to not only meet your need , but exceed your need!
Amen? Let's Pray...
