Mothers Called To Look Like God by Rick Gillespie-Mobley
Proverbs 31:10-31
Called To Look Like God
GNLCC 5/11/2003 Proverbs 31:29-32 2 Timothy 1:1-6*
One picture that Pastor Toby and I use to enjoy watching on TV was Quantum Leap. The show was about a man who had been trying to invent a machine to travel in time. But something went wrong and when he tested the machine on himself, he went back into time, but he would be in someone else’s body. He had to remain in that person’s body until he fixed something that went wrong in somebody’s life.
It would take him the whole show to do this, and that at the end of the show just as he made whatever was wrong right, without warning he would leap out of that person’ body and into another body in a whole different environment and circumstances.
He did not know whose body he was in or what he would look like to others. Sometimes he was white, sometimes he was black, sometimes he was a woman, sometimes he was young and sometimes he was old. Whenever he came to a mirror, he would very slowly lean his head over to look into the mirror to see what others saw when they looked at him. Usually he would cry out, “Oh My God.”
Today is Mother’s Day, and we are all being looked at by others. If we could see ourselves as others see us, what would we cry out. In our New Testament reading, when Paul is looking at Timothy, Paul does not see Timothy only, but he sees the faith that was once in Timothy’s Mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois. These two women, Eunice And Lois, and have passed on to Timothy something much more valuable than their looks. The sincere faith they had in Christ has been passed on to Timothy.
In Christ, every mother becomes capable of living a life so that when others see her, they see God looking back on them. I have known mothers who have given birth to 1, 5, and even 13 children. Yet I have known of many other mothers who have never given birth to any children at all, yet they have more children than most.
How many of us have ever claimed special women in our lives as our mothers because of their willingness to invest themselves in our lives. When we have looked at them, we’ve seen God peeking back at us.
It is an honor and a privilege to be a mother and it does not matter if being a mother comes through a birth process, or a choice to simply invest yourself in someone’s life for the cause of Christ. In a day of families breaking apart, kids being abused and killed by parents, and some parents thinking more about drugs than love, the church is being called upon to show children what a mother is all about.
The challenge for the women of the church, is to become mothers to these children who on the outside appear to have it together, but inside their lives are already wrecked with little understanding of what it is to be loved. Do you realize if you do not choose to love that little one that everybody else is calling trouble, then nobody might. Until we have tried to love a child or a teen, then there is no use complaining about what they are.
Women you are in a special and unique place in God’s creation. God has put something in you, that all the rest of creation needs. When God wanted to express compassion and instill hope into the broken nation of Isreal, God assigned to himself the role of a mother saying, "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you."
When Jesus cried over the pitiful state of the people of Jerusalem, he said, Luke 13:34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings"!
This morning we are going to consider several ways in which a loving mother reveals to us the heart and the nature of God so that when we look at women we can see God peeking at us through their faces, their smiles, their eyes.
When I think of Mothers, I think of sacrifice. Who here can think of one or two sacrifices your mother or a woman in the role of a mother made in your life? Very few groups give as much and as often, and receives so little in return. There are so many thank you’s that are never given, so many appreciations never spoken, and so many things that seemed to be unnoticed. Those of you who are single mothers really know what financial sacrifices you are making, yet your kids never stop wanting even more.
How many of you started in this world as a baby. You know from the very beginning we come into this world as babies thinking we are in charge here. We come giving orders with our ear piercing scream saying feed me now, I don’t care what time it is, change my diaper cause I’m really smelling up the room, hold me now I don’t care if you do have a 1,000 things to do.
But even with all our demands, the truth is, we were all mouth and no substance. A noise on one end and a bad smell on the other. We were utterly helpless to care for ourselves. Our mothers had every reason to cast us by the wayside but they didn’t. Somebody saw to it that our needs were met and most of the time it was mother.
I’m often amazed at the way women have sacrificed their own joy for the joy of their children. They went without, so that we could have something new that first day of school. They worked extra hours so that we could go to college. They wanted more than anything else to see us succeed. So many mothers have given of themselves so that their families might have life. When they do this I see God looking back out of the mirror.
Do you realize we entered this world making demands on God? Even though God brought us forth in creation, we did not recognize the authority due Him as Creator and Lord of the universe. The Scriptures tell us that all of us went about doing our own thing, forgetting God and paying no attention to his commandments.
Psalm 53 veres 2 and 3 says "God looks down from heaven on the sons and daughters of humanity to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. {3} Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."
With all our pride and selfishness in our sinful condition, God could have walked on by and left us in our state of spiritual helplessness. But God didn’t. God knew that if there was to be any hope for life for us, God would have to make the sacrifice. And He did. For the Scriptures tell us in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
When I think of Mothers, I think of heartache. Any mothers here today ever had their heart broken. Nothing causes more heartache than to risk loving other people. Yet Jesus demands that we do it, because its in risking love, that we discover love. But agreeing to love, and even loving diligently is no guarantee that love is going to come back. Jesus loved and the price he paid was being nailed unjustly to a cross. Is there anybody here willing to be like Jesus?
Many mothers have invested so much time and energy in their children, only to witness them grow up and waste their lives with little or no ambition in life. Some mothers have unfortunately watched the children they sacrificed so much for, grow up only to beat them, abuse them and neglect them in their later lives. Many mothers carry a load of guilt, thinking if only I had of done something differently, my child would not have turned out this way.
Every parent and everybody that tries to help us is going to make some mistakes down the line, but even with the mistakes that we make, other people make choices including children for their lives. A mother may steer a child in a certain direction, but the child will eventually determine where his or her life eventually end up.
Some of you have gone all out of your way to give your child the world, but still the child grew up to go his or her own way. Whenever you look in the paper and read somebody has been arrested, or somebody’s been killed, or somebody has been sentenced to life in prison, you know that somewhere a mother’s heart is in grief. Mothers as hard as this may sound, the way a child turns out is not proof nor denial of your role as a good mother. You see God only calls us to be faithful in living for Him. He never said you must bring me back a perfect and successful result be it a child or a project.
Some mothers feel as though their many years were absolutely fruitless. But keep on PUSHING. Pray Until Something Happens. You do not yet know what might happen in that person’s life.
Some have even felt, I wish I had never brought this child into the world. If you ever felt like that, I want you to know, that God has been where you were. God desired to choose someone to lead his people. He chose a humble person by the name of Saul and make him King of Israel. Everybody was pleased with the choice. God gave Saul everything that he needed to make it in life. He gave him power, wealth, victory, and good looks.
Despite all that God gave to him, Saul decided to do what he wanted to do and simply ignored the voice and commandments of God. God felt heartache over how his child Saul turned out. God told Samuel, "I am grieved that I have made Saul King." God knows the pain of a rebellious child and can therefore comfort you in your moments of sorrow. But God did not blame himself for the choices that King Saul made.
When I look at mothers, I think of opportunities to be thankful and grateful in life. Who among us have taken time to say thank you Mom for all the diapers you cleaned, the sleep you missed, the things you gave up, the nonsense you put with and the joy you gave me.
Instead of being thankful for what we had, many times we complained that we didn’t have what the other kids had. Maybe Mom can’t afford gucci bags, and designer clothes, or the kind of prom you think you just have to have to be happy. Sometime our behavior kept us from being blessed.
When God blesses us, we should be ready to be a blessing to the very mothers who blessed us . Why is it that after we become adults, have jobs and remain at home, we feel the only thing we should pay mom for is the food we eat, when we know if we were not there, we would be paying rent, heat, electricity and taxes. Why treat some landlord we don’t know, who has not done a thing for us better than our own mothers .
Even if mothers don’t ask us for a dime, we as Christians ought to be eager to pay our way because its the right thing to do. There are so many mothers who leave this world with a thousand thank you’s owed to them that were never spoken. When I see mothers with a hurt in their eyes from not having their work appreciated, I can see God in the mirror.
One day 10 men with a horrible disease came to Jesus seeking help, healing and compassion. Jesus healed all 10 of them, but he was troubled inside when only one thought enough to come back and to say thank you. God does not always get a lot of thanks and appreciation from us.
When I look at mothers, I see the reality of hope. Mothers can make us feel good about ourselves and give us hope within. No matter who laughed at us, or how funny we looked to somebody else, mothers let us know we are loved and cared about. True mothers realize, there are no ugly children, only a failure in others to understand what beauty is.
We all need mothers in our lives to let us know that we are somebody. A young lady gave a testimony the other day at the funeral service of Deborah Brown. She talked about how she had been addicted to cocaine and nobody wanted anything else to do with her. But Mother Brown opened her home and her heart to her. It was not easy putting up with her, but her testimony was thanks to Mother Brown she’s been free from drugs for four years. She had been inspired by the hope she had seen in Mother Brown.
You may feel your particular mother didn’t inspire you with hope, but you see, if we give God the chance, God can turn even the mistakes of our mothers into something for our own good. I was motivated in life not only by the good that I saw in my mother, but also by some of the bad.
I can remember the early years of my parents marriage. My mother was trying to be the good wife but my father just would not cooperate. In one of the arguments they had, I heard my mom say “I’m going to pay you back for the seven years you’ve mistreated me.” Our lives as children, my younger brothers and I took a nose dive. On Fridays, Mom didn’t come home after work any more, instead she went out with the girls. We would be home hungry watching the clock go by 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 o’clock and no dinner.
Mom would come in and say very jokingly, what did you eat, knowing there was nothing in the house. She would make jokes about how we could have eaten chicken or shrimp or other things. She would continue this joking until we forgot about our anger at her, and started laughing. Eventually she would go get us something to eat.
But out of that experience, I learned that humor can be a great way to diffuse an explosive situation. Those who know me, know that I’m always making jokes. I’m sure my mother didn’t know she was investing something in me that God would later use in the Kingdom of God.
I had the option to become bitter and angry at my mother, but the grace of God used my bad situation to build gifts in me as a person. God is always willing to bring good and joy out of hurts and sorrows if we will let go of the pain, and give it over to Jesus.
Another experience I had as a teenager was that of guilt, shame and embarrassment. I would be so embarrassed when my friends were over at my house and my mother father would get into an argument and a fight once they started to drink. The names they would call each other were so awful, and I was so humiliated that I could not take it any longer. I told my parents I was leaving to go north to live and I did. I decided then and there at age 15 that alcohol would never be a part of my life, of my marriage of my home.
Profanity would not be a part of my language.
Psychologist and Sociologists are wrong when they say that children of alcoholics will be alcoholics, and children of wife abusers will be abusers. My friend Jesus makes all the difference in the world if we are willing to give him the chance.
I share these things about my parents because since then, they have both come to know the power of Jesus Christ and gone is the hatred and bitterness, gone is the foul language, gone is the alcohol, gone is the fighting like wild animals.
God proved himself to be a mother to my mother and my father and my brothers and to me. God loved us all out of the messy pit that we as a family had fallen into. God gave us hope when there was little reason to hope.
God provides the hope not just of another way of living, but in Jesus Christ there is a better way of living.
God can take the ugliness in our lives and recreate it into something beautiful. When God speaks of beauty, He looks not to the head of the body, nor to the shape of the body, but rather to the condition of the heart.
God assures us that the hope we in Christ will not lead to disappointment but to fulfillment. Today I would not trade my mother for any mother in the world. What was a rocky relationship during the early teen years, has become one of the most rewarding of relationships in my life.
Mother’s day is special not only because it gives us a chance to say thank you to some wonderful people, but the lives they have lived show us a glimpse into the heart of God. Mother’s day should be a day of healing between mothers and children, wives and and husbands, mothers and God. Have you ever told your mom, “Mom you’re doing a good job of raising me and I thank you.”
Maybe you have had bad feelings about your mother and never forgave her for something. Jesus is here to help you overcome your unforgiveness. Or maybe you’re a child, a teenager, a young adult, or a husband who has not treated your mom or wife with the love that God demands. Jesus wants to help you change that.
Maybe you are a mother and your life has not been what it should be to your children or to your husband and you want to make it right. God can do that as well. You may be doing all you can, and you need strength to carry the burden. God is able to meet your need.
You may be a woman with plenty of love to share, but you’re not a mother because you have not made yourself available to others. God wants to use you to impact somebody else’s life. As we share in the Lord’s supper, let us remember that his body was broken and his blood was shed, not only for us to be reconciled to God, but to also to be able to come together and love each other.
2. Worried About The Inner Beauty As Well.
3. God Specializes In Taking The Ugly
4. God Assures Hope Will Not Disappoint
5. Interested In The Heart
K. Mother’s Day Special—Chance To Say Thanks
1. Showed Glimpse Of Heart Of God.
2. Day Of Healing & Reconciliation
3. Day To Grant Forgiveness
4. Day To Be Forgiven
5. Day For Strength & Encouragement
6. Day To Decide To Change—Be Available
L. God Wants To Use Us
1. When I Think Of Mother—Need For Love &
Healing
Last Chance To Sign Up For The Baseball Tickets For The Game On Thursday Between Cleveland & Seattle.
Special Thanks To The Men For The Breakfast This Morning!
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick 5/11/2003
”Mothers, Called To Look Like God”
Proverbs 31:29-321 2 Timothy 1:1-6
A. The Joy Of Watching Time Travel –Quantum Leap
1. Going From One Person To Another
2. Looking IN The Mirror To See Who I Am
3. 2nd Tim. –Sincere Faith Lois & Eunice
B. Mothers Are Many Variations From God
1. 1, 5, 13 Kids, O Kids Fantastic Mothers
2. Mothers Multiply By Willingness to Invest
3. Mothers Can Be Found---Love & Care
4. Have As Many As You Can
C. Challenge To The Church For Mothers
1. What Is It All About—Teens & Tragedies
2. Challenge To Women---The Kids Around Us
3. Women—Special & Unique In God’s Creation
4. God To Display Compassion And Hope
, "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you." When Jesus cried over the pitiful state of the people of Jerusalem, he said, Luke 13:34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings"!
5. Mothers Reflecting The Nature Of God
D. Think Of Mothers—Think Of Sacrifice
1. Few Give As Much—As Often—Receives ?
2. Missed Thank You’s, Appreciations, Yet Owed
3. Our Entrance Into The World—Demands Made
4. I Don’t Care—Take Care Of Me Now
5. All Demands & No Substance—Noise & Smell
6. They Went Without---They Wanted Success
7. Gave Of Themselves—Just Like God
8. We Entered World With Demands
9. Not Recognizing The Lordship Of God
. Psalm 53 veres 2 and 3 says "God looks down from heaven on the sons and daughters of humanity to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. {3} Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt
10. God Could Have Walked—But Didn’t
11. He Knew He Would Have To Make The
Sacrifice John 3:16
12. Nothing Causes More Heartache Than To
Risk Loving People
13. Invest Time, Energy, Self—What Outcome
14. Guilt—If Only I Had Of Done Something
15. We Make Mistakes—They Make Choices
E. You May Go Out Of Your Way—But Still
1. Each Murder, Arrest, Conviction-A Heart
2. Turn Out—Not A Measure Of A Mom
3. God’s Call—Live Faithful—Not Perfect
4. I Wish I Did Not Have This Child
F. God Grieved Over A Child
1. Saul Chosen As A King—Blessed Greatly
2. Knew What Was Right—But Chose
3. I Am Grieved That I Made Saul King
4. God Knows The Pain Of Rebellious Child
5. God Did Not Take The Blame
G. Think Of Mothers—Think Thankfulness
1. Opportunities Abound
2. Diapers, Sleep
3. Who Takes Time To Say Thanks
4 Diapers, Nonsense, Joy
5. Not Too Late Too Show It, Say It
6 Forget What We Did Not Get—Maybe
7. Adult At Home—Love Mom—Not Landlord
8. Leave This World Owed 1,000’s Thank You
H. God Knows What It’s Like
1. Jesus Met 10 Men In Great Need
2. Disease, Healing, What About 90%
3. Attitudes & Feelings Change With Thanks!
I. Mothers—The Ability To Inspire Hope
1. Feel Good & Inspire Within
2. We Look Good To Them—We Are Somebody
3. God Can Turn Bad Times Into Positives
4. The Seven Year Promise
5. Humor To Forget Our Plight
6. Humor Gets Me Through A Hard Time In
Ministry Investment Was Being Made
7. The Pain Of Shame & Humiliation Of Fights
8. Decision To Go The Other Way In Life
9. Jesus Can Break Any Family Curse
10. God Can Be A Mother And Turn Us Around
11. Not Just Another Way, But A Better Way
J. Mom Specializes In Making Things Beautiful
1. Hair, Faces, Clothes
