Sermon Central
-
Mother Of Mine
Contributed by David Richardson on May 7, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: A godly Christian woman chosen by God that is kind and submissive to her husband and commended by those around her not only honors her father, mother, and her husband, but she is honoring God as well.
I. Introduction
Depending upon who you are, where you were raised (north, south, east or west), how you were brought up, whether your family was low, middle or upper class, all of these may have had an impact upon what immediately goes through your mind when someone says Mother’s Day. For some, the thoughts of good home cooking comes to mind; for others they envision a mother who made their clothes for them; while for some they may be reminded of someone who was always there when they fell down.
It’s inevitable. When someone says those two words, Mother’s Day, we can’t help but think about some episode, emotion, a spoken word, or a look that our mother may have given us at one time or another.
It is good to set apart a day in recognition of mothers, especially good Christian mothers that we know. In at least 20 different places in the Old Testament it tells us to honor our fathers and mothers. We honor them, not by simply saying kind words and treating them nicely, but we honor them by follow the Biblical rules that they have taught us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We honor them by adhering to the manners, the etiquette and the morals that they diligently displayed before us. We honor them through our good speech and good works that are displayed for all to see. Your actions and deeds are to God, yes, but they were cultivated by the good mother that was set to watch over you by God.
Mothers should be the tender side of the father/mother team, with the father being more stern. As such, Mother’s Day is, I believe, a little bit more special to most people than Father’s Day. Not only are they the tender side of the father/mother team, but, they are also the ones that usually spend the most time with the child during the early years. So, with that, we can say, yes, Mother’s Day is a little bit more special than Father’s Day.
When we hear the phrase, Oh, she’s a godly woman and mother, there are several characteristics that can immediately be put down on paper. For us, looking in Genesis 24, we see many of those characteristics coming forward, that we have seen in our own mothers.
In our scriptures, we see:
A Covenant Woman: a Christian 1-4
A Willing Woman 5-9
A Chosen Woman 10-16
A Kind and Submissive Woman 17-20
A Commendable Woman 21-25
The Servant retells the Story 26~57
A Godly Woman 58-63
An Honorable Woman 64-67
II. The Message
A Covenant Woman: a Christian 1-4
24:1 Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. 2 He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. 3 I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."
Abraham is very adamant that his son, Isaac, marry a woman from his home country. It was important because he knew their religion, their commitment and their devotion to God. How? When Abraham was called out of the Ur of the Chaldeans, he spent time in the area with his relatives. Knowing the great amount of faith that he had in God, it is obvious that he witnessed to them, and introduced them to the true Creator, the LORD. We know this by the words that Rebekah used in referring to the LORD, Jehovah, when she was speaking with Abraham’s chief servant at the well.
A woman and godly mother must be a woman of the covenant. She must be a Christian before the marriage takes place. We know that Rebekah believe in God by what she said to the servant, and, her good treatment of the servant.
Sometimes, people fall in love with someone that is not a Christian. They set a wedding date, thinking all along that they can convert the person to Christianity after they get married. Sorry, it will probably not happen as easy as that.
In 2 Corinthians 6:14, it says “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
We are told not to marry unbelievers. And, what’s worse, many times it goes the other way. The non-Christian, at the same time is saying to themselves, “Well, I will just put a stop to this going to church after we get married.”
