Happy Mother's Day

Gateway Franklin Church

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. Author Elizabeth Stone

Romans 16:13. 13 Hello to Rufus—a good choice by the Master! —and his mother. She has also been a dear mother to me.

Mother’s Day Message Aims

1) Introduce you to the mothering heart of God,

2) Up the ante on Honor.

3) Fill a mother’s empty heart with hope.

God is as perfect at mothering as He is at fathering. He wants to love you with the love of a perfect heavenly mother.

The Mother Heart of God the Father

• Psalm 56:8 Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll — are they not in your record?

• Isaiah 49:15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

• Matthew 23:37 37 “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 hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

God is just as equipped to be your Good Mother as He is to be your Good Father.

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” Mark Twain

“When a child turns 12 you should put them in a barrel and feed them through the hole until they reach 16 at which time you should plug up the hole!” Mark Twain

A key ingredient to successful families is the non-expiring command to honor. Exodus 20:12 12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Do you want more peace in your family? Try more honor. Over time honor will repair breaches and heal wounds and replace both with peace and joy. How? Obedience unleashes powerful grace!

Matthew 1:5,6 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.

Ruth 1:16-22 16 “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. 19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” 20 “Don’t call me Naomi” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Nothing is over until God says it over and when He says it is over, it’s over.

If God doesn’t change your name, don’t you change your name.

Ruth 1:22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Ruth 2:6-12 6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.” 8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?” 11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Ruth 4:9-12 9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!” 11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Story Recap

• Naomi flees Bethlehem pleasant and full.

• She returns empty without her husband or sons

• She proclaims her life is bitter by changing how she is known to “Mara”.

• But… “Nothing is over until God says it over and when He says it is over, it’s over.”

Ruth 4:13-22 13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” 16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. 18 This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, 19 Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, 20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 21 Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, 22 Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.

Empty and bitter was the last chapter of your life; full again and refreshed is the upcoming chapter in your life! There is always hope in Jesus our Kinsman Redeemer.

• God is as perfect at mothering as He is perfect at fathering. He wants to love you with the love of a perfect heavenly mother.

• Over time honor will repair breaches and heal wounds and replace both with peace and joy. Obedience unleashes powerful grace!

• Empty and bitter was the last chapter of your life; full again and refreshed is the upcoming chapter in your life! There is hope in Jesus our kinsman redeemer!