June 16, 2009

• Three Aspects of Motherhood video sermon by Pastor Don Moore

  Below is a video (for all ages) of a sermon preached by Pastor Don Moore, Living Word Chapel (you can find the link to this church on the left side of this page in my links column, as well as In His Name Ministries).  If you do not like watching videos you can read the closed captioning below the video.  Remember what is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  I slightly edited the transcript for easier reading and put it in paragraph form.  Praying your day is blessed.  – Heather

  SAY AMEN
  Three Aspects of Motherhood
  Show 123
  5/1/09

  We have, we have so much to understand about motherhood that it only touches the surface. 

  Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the Logos, but He is also the Creator of all things.  I was thinking, can you create something if that something is not in you?… And I think in life you cannot.  If the heart of a father is not in the father, then the father cannot bring forth fatherhood.  If the heart of a mother is not in a mother, she cannot bring forth nurturing and caring.  So, we would have to conclude that Jesus Christ, Creator of all things, who spoke everything into existence, we’d have to understand that He understood mothers because He was a mother in the truest sense.  For that which came out of Him and He brought forth into existence, He had to nurture it and care for it.  Therefore, every mother needs to know that the source from whence her gift to care for that which has been entrusted to her. 

  I was looking through the Bible and I did a little research and I thought I wanted to share three aspects of mothering with you, that I think would bless your heart.  The first is found in Matthew, Chapter 23.  And it is Jesus. He is speaking as He is preparing to face what is before Him.  He’s preparing to go to the Cross and He’s preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice of His life for the cause to which He has come to the earth.  In Matthew there’s a long dissertation as He deals with His dissatisfaction with the Pharisees, the Scribes, and the Jewish elite who are governing the country.  For the scripture is clear saying that Jesus was sent unto His own, but His own received Him not.  And so, we see Jesus giving an expression of motherhood in verse 37 of Chapter 23 of the book of Matthew….”O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” … Let’s read together.  “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” 

  In this passage, the Lord Jesus Christ is expressing the heart of motherhood which is a constant longing,… (chuckling)  Hallelujah.  A constant longing to bring together and protect and care for that which has been entrusted to her… I can remember many years ago when I thought I was a grown adult, I can remember saying to my mother, “Well, I guess mom the tables have turned on you.”  She got that little look, “What do you mean, turned on you?”  I says, “Well, now, you know, I’m in charge of you.  I’ve become the parent and you’ve become the child.”  And she said, “Well, that may be true, but I’ll always be the mother.”  [laughter] 

  And in that moment I thought that even though she was old and frail, there was something in her that she still wanted to care for me.  That she still wanted to protect me, care for me, provide something for me that I could not provide for myself and that was that she could mother me.  And she said to me, it was really funny.  My mother weighs all of 100 pounds.  And she said, “Boy, come over here and sit on my lap.”  [laughter]  And I did.  (chuckling) [laughter]  You know, I didn’t give her all of me, but I sat on her lap and I thought, no matter how old she gets, that mothering instinct will always be there to gather her children. 

  And there is no greater joy than for Mother’s Day or Christmas or any holiday, for a Mom to look around the room, hear the noise of her children.  It doesn’t matter how old they are or how young they are.  It’s just her knowing that she’s gathered her kids around her. 

  In Matthew, Chapter 15… we see another type of experience for a mother.  Matthew, Chapter 15, we want to begin at verse 21…  Matthew 15, beginning verse 21… “Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  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.”  I’m sure she cried that out again.  “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.”  But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me! Lord, help me!”  But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”  And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”…

  Oh, that at the right time, we could somehow of ourselves, come up with the answer that would cause the Lord, listen to me carefully, that would cause the Lord to take an action that was not on His itinerary… We could become very confused by this passage if we didn’t understand.  Jesus is one who is in authority but He is also under authority.  And, to keep the story straight, Jesus knows that His effort at the Cross and the Resurrection after is going to save the whole world.  Is going to make salvation available to Jew and to Gentile.  But He also knows that at this point in the story, His job is to minister to the Jews the full weight of the coming of the Messiah.  His instructions by the Holy Ghost are that you are to minister in the Kingdom of the earth to the Jews.  That’s His mission.  His mission will make possible, watch out, the salvation of the Gentiles, but Jesus is One under authority, who has been told You are the Jewish Messiah, you are to minister to the Jews. Go preach to them. 

  And so, being under authority, Jesus gives us an example of how we’re supposed to be.  One of the worst things that you can have is a mother who doesn’t recognize that she is also to be under authority.  Because, in her position over children, and in her position over care, sometimes she rises up and thinks that that includes that she has been risen up above her husband… And she begins to mother her husband when she is actually supposed to be a help meet to him.  She is supposed to be in cooperation with him.  And so, we don’t want to step out of our role and Jesus shows us that even He, the Creator of the Universe, has come as a man and in a physical form He demonstrates to us that we must always recognize that we are under authority.  That we are in someone else’s house.  That, fortunately, God makes our house. 

  Boy, if we could get that, ladies.  If we could figure that out.  You are not a ship unto yourself, afloat on the sea.  You don’t have to do it all.  You don’t have to think you’ve been called to do it all, or empowered to do it all because you have not been called to do it all and you have not been empowered to do it all.  You are part of a team.  [amen]  Even a single mom can’t do it alone.  A single mom needs help. 

  One of the greatest parts of the ministry of this church and every pastor that acknowledges it and accepts it, is the fact that we are called to minister to.  I’m called to be a husband and a father to the single mothers who need to be under the authority of a man that God has chosen to help them, to guide them, to protect them, to give them advice, and to say, I share your pain.  Let me help you with this. 

  And so a woman has to learn, that to be under proper authority, under the head, so that things will flow, have a proper flow to them.  And Jesus understands this, so He is not saying, “Woman I don’t want to help you.”  Cause if He didn’t want to help her, He could have gotten up and left the minute she’s crying out. 

  But you notice, as she’s crying out, He is waiting for the one thing that permits Him in all cases to step out of His list of what He is to do and say, “This supersedes anything that is on my list.  This is the one thing that gives me permission to step out and help.”  He’s looking for one thing.  And He’s saying, I’ll listen to her cry.  Well that sounds good honey, keep it up.  And she goes, “Son of David, have mercy on me.  Help me. Do this, do this, do that.”  But it isn’t there yet.  Until she, what?  Makes an expression, watch this now, that breaks all the rules.  Faith.  [amen] 

  When she steps into faith, Jesus has to respond.  He has to answer to that because that’s the one thing that the Father said.  The Father said, well Son, this is what I want you to do.  But it just so happens, if you see some faith, you can step out of line and get it done.  So, when she makes an expression of faith, even though He has His orders, He has to step out because His greatest instruction is to what?  Is to respond to faith when it appears.  Because it is faith that moves the Kingdom of God.  [that's right]  It is faith that moves the heart of the Father.  And it is faith that moves the motherly compassion of Jesus Christ.

   So, when she steps out and she says it, guess what?  The power of faith, that it is in a woman who is expressing by faith her need as a mother, has to be responded to.  Let’s look at it again in the Word.  How many of you are with me now?  [amen]  I know for a minute I lost some of you.  I lost, some of you went, “Where’s he going?  Where’s he going with this?” 

  But, as this gentile woman shows her faith, she’s got a problem.  And in verse 24 He gives His instructions.  “…I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  But she says, “Lord, help me!”  Well that’s fine but he answers her again, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”  He’s calling her a dog because she is not of the Jewish faith.  She is not born a Hebrew.  She is considered less, for she is not one of the Children of God.  But guess what, she’s about to become one real quick. 

  So, He says to her, …”O woman…”  verse 28.  “…great is your faith!”  [amen] 

  Well, how great was it?  Her faith was great because she understood, watch this now, as a mother’s heart, she understood one under authority, and she understood this next one.  You ready for this?  Responsibility.  Who should be in charge?  The one who accepts responsibility.  Wouldn’t it be terrible if you had someone who’s not willing to accept the responsibility but they want to be in charge?  [that's scary] 

  Somebody said, “That’s scary.”  It is scary because that’s what we deal with when young people get into their teenage years.  They want to be in authority, but they don’t want to take responsibility.  You know, they want to have the car and they want the money and they want to go and they want to come but they don’t want to pick up the phone and call and tell you where they are. 

  So, she recognizes, wait a minute, wait a minute.  You are the Master.  You are the Lord.  But Your blessing ability, watch this.  By faith she says, Your blessing ability is so powerful that even a crumb can take care of my need.  [amen]  She’s saying.  “I know that if you throw me a crumb, pow, I have what I asked you for.” Wouldn’t it be, isn’t that great faith?  To know that just a Word from God, just a little crumb, just a little something is more than enough to meet your need. 

  Ah, somebody say, “He meets my need.”  [He meets my need.]  With just a wave of His hand.  [With just a wave of His hand.]  Or a Word from His mouth.  [Or a Word from His mouth.]  You realize, if Jesus wishes you well, that’s going to be enough?  [amen]  My goodness! 

  And so she says, “Just a crumb!  Just a, just a small little crumb falls from the table, that’s enough for the little dogs.”  Now, Jesus isn’t calling her a little dog.  You have to understand, He’s speaking in the cultural vernacular of the time.  And He is expressing that by our culture, I’m not supposed to do anything for you.  I’m not supposed to, you’re unclean.  You are a Canaanite, dah, da, dah, dah, da.  And all like that.  But He isn’t bound by our cultural thinking.  Come on, somebody. 

  He isn’t bound by our small minds.  He isn’t bound by our feelings of unworthiness or our thoughts of rejection or discrimination.  He’s not bound by that.  He’s a much bigger God.  I said, “He’s a much bigger God.”  [yes He is] 

  So, when we get to this next verse, He says 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.” 

  A mother needs to gather her children about her.  A mother needs to protect them.  When a mother needs to move, she can move with powerful faith.  Can you say, Mom’s powerful faith?”  [Mom's powerful faith.]  Mom’s powerful faith.  [Mom's powerful faith.]  I want to say something on the side, can I go on a side journey?  [yes] 

  Moms, I want to encourage you.  I want you to have the faith to realize that if you point the ship of a child’s life in a certain direction, you can equip the rudder that it will hold up when the forces of life are trying to take that child off course.  I raised, you know, my wife and I, we raised three young men.  And we saw that early on, the minute that they stepped out of our house, it wasn’t the minute they got to high school or junior high school, the minute that they stepped out of our house they were bombarded by a different world view.  A different system.  And so, we made a decision that we would make our house the hangout house.  [amen]  Come on, somebody.  Instead of wondering what our friends, who they were, or where they were, all the kids began to hang out at our house.  It was a decision, it was a calculated decision.  And all we had to agree was that stuff is going to get broken, the kids are going to sleep over on the couch and there’s going to be slobber on the couch.  They’re going to make dishes.  They’re going to create dishes, work. It’s going to be stuff.  They’re going to do some stuff wrong, but let our house be the hangout house.  [amen]  You know, let our house be the place where they’re comfortable to come and hear the conversation and talk. 

  And I sat, many times, just at the kitchen table after they’ve eaten fifty pancakes, syrup flowing all over the place, and just everything. And they’d just sit there and they’d say, “Mr. Moore, what’s with this God thing?”  [come on!]  You know, because why?  They come from these heathen homes and if we just make your house a hangout place, let those heathen kids that you hate come to your house, you can unheathen them.  [laughter]  Come on, somebody.  Anybody with me today?  [yep]  Come on, it’s Mother’s Day, but say “Amen.”  [amen]  Hallelujah [hallelujah]  Yeah, make your place the hangout place.  Let all the kids come, saved and unsaved.  You know, let them have parties at your house.  Let them put up a little of that ungodly music so that you can get a little godly music into ‘em.  Let the friends feel welcome. 

  It’s like a rudder. You can put a rudder on your child, that even though he might go side to side, he won’t get pushed off course.  [amen]  He won’t get pushed off course.  You know, I did some of those things.  Get in the car and stuff don’t smell right in the car.  The wrong kind of music’s coming out of the CD player, those to me are Frisbees.  [hallelujah]  Frisbees, you know.  My son said, “I’m putting the window down, taking a CD.”  He said, “What are you doing?  What are you doing?  I paid 13 dollars for that.”  I said, “Yeah, son.  It was a $13 Frisbee.”  Phoom.  [laughter]  He said, “What?  Did you throw out my thing?”   I said, “No, I threw out my thing.”  He says, “What do you mean, my thing?”  I said, “Every penny that comes to your life came through me…  My money is Godly money.  This is a Godly car.  You smoking that stuff in this car.  This is a Godly car.  You can’t play that music and do that in this car, with my money.”  [amen]… 

  Alright, some of you all need to grow up and be parents and stop being the child.  [amen]  Yeah, man.  You’ll come up with some Frisbees.  phfoom.  [laughter]  phfooom.  I said, “You’d better not do this, you keep that in your bedroom.  I’m coming in there.”  [amen]  We’ll have a Frisbee party.  [laughter]  Those things’ll be flying.  You know, he started cleaning up what he was listening to?  [amen]  Cleaning up what he’s listening to.  They came home one day, we had, remember when digital TV came out?  We had a dish, a dish came on.  I saw my son sitting on the floor in front of the TV.  I’m trying to figure out, I said, “What are you guys doing?”  They said, “Daddy, there’s some stuff on here you shouldn’t see.”  [laughter]  We’re going to program the TV’s so it doesn’t go there.  [laughter]  Come on now.  [amen]  Huh?  What are you talking about?  They programmed that thing so it wouldn’t go to those channels.  [amen] 

  Now, why?  That’s because my wife put a rudder on them, that said, this is right and this is wrong.  This is right and this is wrong.  And she didn’t back up on it…[amen]  She didn’t change just because the culture was changing, or people around her were changing.  She said, “No, son.  This is right and this is wrong.”  Don’t change because of what’s popular. 

  I don’t care how many times Obama says this is not a Christian nation, you keep telling your kids it is.  [amen]  And keep them on course.  I don’t care how many times they say, you hear the words, intolerant.  What’s the other ones they use on us?  Judgmental, intolerant.  You tell them, “Yes, there’s some stuff I won’t tolerate and I’m going to judge everything.”  [amen]  [hate crime] Yeah, hate crime.  The truth may become a hate crime  in the United States of America but it will never be a hate crime in the Kingdom of God.  [amen, hallelujah]  Amen. 

  So we have two things, mothers what?  Need to gather but how do they do it?  They have powerful faith.  Come on, every woman say, “I have powerful faith.”  [I have powerful faith.]  I have powerful faith. [I have powerful faith]  Notice, Jesus says, “As thou wilt, let it be done.”  Don’t give up on what you’re believing for for your children.  [amen]  I don’t care what sickness or mental difficulty, I don’t care. 

  We have members of the church that prayed for their children, they’d say, well, you know, they brought their child to me, and said, this kid is ADDDQDADADADA.  [laughter]  I said, “Well, the Lord is God over ADQDADADA.  We prayed, and that mother, that mother today will come in here right now and give a testimony that her kid just got better and better and better and better and better and better.  Right?  So don’t believe that.  You diagnose my kid is QDADAZAD.  You believe that the power of God can change the mental electronic circuitry of the brain as the child grows and he’ll grow out of that.  [amen]  Come on now.  [amen]  Yeah, you don’t believe any….don’t believe that any disease diagnosed by man is a permanent condition that God can’t change.  [amen]  Come on, sister.  And you just believe, my child, my child’s gonna be fine.  Amen.  Because why?  You’re a mother.  You have powerful faith.  [amen]  It’ll be done as you declare it. 

  In Matthew, Chapter 20.  … Matthew, Chapter 20.  I don’t have enough time today to give you this whole sermon.  But, trust me, it was fabulous.  [laughter]  I just have to hit the highlights and move on.  But as a father, I’ll sacrifice what I want to do so that the babies can get their thing out.  And it was worth it.  I have no problem with it.  In the 20th chapter of Matthew, verse 20.  Matthew 20:20… “Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him…”  to Jesus  “…with her sons…” now this is momma.  She is bringing her sons who were disciples of Jesus and she’s bringing them to Jesus.  And “…kneeling down…”  She kneels down before the Lord, “…and asking something from Him.”  Now, Jesus looks at her and He says, “….What do you wish?” 

  See, He knows the power of the faith of a mother.  So He responds.  “What do you want, momma?”  “She said to Him, Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.”  Lord have mercy.  It’s getting good.  “But Jesus answered and said,…”  Mom, “…You don’t know what you ask.”  And He looks at the boys and He says, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”  Watch this.  “They said to Him,… “We are able.” 

  Where in the world did that faith come from?  That these two young boys, these two young men are gonna say to Jesus the Christ, who has already told them I’m going to go to Jerusalem and I’m going to be scourged of the Gentiles and crucified of the Jews and I’m to be spit upon and rejected.  And they have the boldness that came from their momma.  [right]  Lord have mercy.  And it got through to them. 

  Women need to gather their children together to them.  Women need to what?  Exercise powerful faith.  But also, a mother has what?  Great boldness concerning her fruit.  Great boldness concerning her kids.  The most timid mom will stand down the principal of a school if she feels her child’s not been properly treated. 

  I’ve seen little meek little mommas get before a head surgeon and say, “If you don’t…”  [laughter]  “do the best you can do, and they don’t wheel my kid back out here, I’m going to let you know about it.”  I’ve seen little, I saw a little mom once, now I’m sitting on my big bulldozer, sitting on my big bulldozer doing a contracting job.  And she comes out there, [laughter].  “Mr. Moore, you better not run over any of my kids toys out here, with that big bulldozer.”  [laughter]  And I thought to myself, “what!  Is she joking?  [laughter] 

  You know.  I can remember taking my bulldozer and moving a rock and running over the corner of one measly plant.  [ha!, laugher]  One measly…and this little mother comes down her driveway, put her hand… “Don Moore!!!!  Get that machine out of my garden!”  [laughter]  So mothers, boldness, strong faith, a need to gather.

  • 10:09 am
  • 2 Comments