Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Mother’s Day

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Mother’s Day and the Life of the Church

So it’s a great day because it’s Mother’s Day, man. Ladies, I didn’t hear you. Amen.

Okay. [audio unclear] We’re going to do some great things this morning to celebrate motherhood to honor mothers. But before we do that, we thought it would be appropriate to kick off our baby bottle campaign. This is something Thrive does. We’ve done it before where they provide these baby bottles. What we do is we take them home on Mother’s Day and we fill them with coins. Or you can put dollar bills. You can put 20s, 100s, whatever you want to do. Greg will put big bills in there. And then bring it back on Father’s Day. So start homemade. He’ll put homemade dollar bills in there. Did you ever try to print a dollar bill on your printer at home? Well, I have. And if you have a modern printer, guess what? It won’t print it. Because it detects that strip in there, and it knows you’re trying to counterfeit a dollar bill. So we want to give these out today, and we want to collect them on Father’s Day. So you all know about Thrive. I don’t need to talk a lot about Thrive, but it’s the premier women’s pro-life women’s clinic in St. Louis and really in the state. we’re seeing thousands of babies saved every year. Thousands. We’re also, by the way, I still have my black cup. Black. Not only are we seeing thousands of unborn children saved, we’re seeing women and even men coming to Christ. I hear testimonies weekly about lives saved and even souls saved. It’s amazing what God is doing there. And so this is a way we can, just one more way we can be a part of that work. I was invited to a donor dinner recently and this was for the upper level donors. Now I wasn’t invited because I’m an upper level donor. They had an empty seat basically and my wife’s important to thrive, so I got invited. So I was there not as a big donor, because my wife saw some. But we were at a dinner where it’s one of those where it’s four cores. Each core has its own special wine, and this and that, and this and that. We figured out at the lower level, the dinner probably would have cost everybody $200 a dinner, maybe even more. But one of the donors paid for the whole thing. He’s someone you would all know because he’s famous in Christian circles, but I’m not going to mention his name. I don’t want you to think I’m bragging about hanging out with famous people. But that being said, you know, these are people that are giving probably not just thousands, but maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars to save lives. And so And as much as that’s awesome, and maybe some of you can do that, maybe some of you can give thousands. I don’t know what you can do. God knows. But I do know this, that generally the way God’s kingdom progresses, it’s not through the work of the few, it’s through the contribution of the many. So, you know, and I say that because sometimes when you can’t do a lot or you can’t give a lot, you think, well, why give a little?

It’s not important so you end up giving nothing. Or, I can’t do much so you do nothing. But that’s not how it works. God uses every contribution, every gift, and every dollar really matters.

It really does because when you add it all up it ends up being a lot and in order to have the best clinic in the state requires that you have the best personnel and to have the best personnel you have to pay for what they’re worth. You know the old saying, you get what you pay for? It’s true here too. So there are a lot of great nurses out there that would like to work at Thrive, and then when they get told what the pay is, they’re like, well, I can’t afford that. money hungry, but they’ve got bills too. And so we need to have the resources that we can really get the best, because what we’re talking about is the literal saving of lives and saving of souls. So it’s pretty exciting and pretty awesome what God is doing. Amen.

So if you got one, fill it up, bring it back Father’s Day. If you need another one or if you didn’t get one, talk to Lauren. He will take care of that for you. In order to celebrate Mother’s Day, we’re going to have a couple women share, but before that I would like to show a video.

Melinda: Pour Into Your Children

But I went to prayer about it and the Lord kept telling me to go to the Book of Titus. So as As I went to the book of Titus, I realized that the book of Titus has one of my favorite verses and it’s what I consider one of my life verses. You’re more than happy to turn there if you want. It’s in chapter two and the book of Titus was written by Paul to Titus. They had started up churches on the island of Crete and Paul had left and he wrote this letter back to Titus encouraging him to finish organizing the churches and he was encouraging Titus to make sure that the church had sound doctrine and also that he was helping them to know how to live out their faith, how to behave, how to practically live out their faith. And so the verses that have always meant a lot to me are verses 3 through 5, but I want to start at the beginning of the sentence. So starting in verse 1, and these have something to do with motherhood, it says, but as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in in love, in patience. The older women likewise that they be reverent in behavior, not slanders, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God may not be blasphemed.“ And I remember when I read that those last few words really jumped out at me that the word of God may not be blasphemed and I realized wow these words must really be important. Now he’s basically telling the Cretans and ultimately us how to live so that we don’t drag God’s word through the mud. That we honor God’s word. So to honor God’s Word as an older woman of the church. It seems really weird that I’m now considering myself an older woman of the church, but as an older woman of the church I am encouraging you younger women who are married and have children to love your husbands, to love your homes, and to love your children. These truly are God’s foundational loves. God knew what he was doing and he knew that if our families are strong, our communities will be strong, our states will be strong, our nation will be strong. So women, you have a great influence on the state of health in our country. And it’s really a high calling, a very, very high calling. It’s R honor, it’s a privilege. I’m going to cry. But it’s also a great responsibility. And it’s something that we cannot do in our own strength, in our own wisdom. We really need the Lord and we need the body of Christ. That’s how God designed it. We’re not to walk this walk of motherhood on our own. And so younger mothers don’t ever hesitate, or feel silly, or embarrassed to call one of us older women. We’ve been in your shoes, we know exactly what you’re going through and we’re here for you and maybe sometimes and I will admit I I’m busy with other things and I’m not reaching out to some of you younger mothers as my heart really wants to but just pick up the phone and you can call me at two three in the morning I don’t care but we are here for you okay and as the video showed as I was putting this together I thought wow that really tied in well because the message is slow down. But our kids don’t slow down. You shut your eyes, you open them, and they’re grown. I can’t believe we just walked our daughter down the aisle. It’s hard for me to believe. The time goes fast. And so maximize your time with your children. I’ll never forget the day. I was kind of looking at this little list of life skills and it hit me right between the eyes. I only have about five more years before my first child is out of the home. And it was that day that I realized my little boy is a man now and he needs to be prepared to leave home. And it was a real wake up call and I think the focus for Greg and me really shifted at that moment. You know, we realized We’ve only got about five more years to pour into [audio unclear] authority and respect other people as being made in the image of God and to be a responsible voting citizen. So I could feel the time clicking all of a sudden. And we knew we only had about five more years to teach a biblical worldview so that when he went off he could have that discernment to know what was right and wrong and what was evil and good and what was true and fall. So the Lord just really placed on my heart this wake-up call that you need to make your priorities right according to God’s will. So but the most amazing thing is that when we thought that we were rearing our children, God was actually rearing and still is rearing Greg and me. He is still using our children our most precious things as a tool to sanctify Greg and me and to build our trust in him. He’ll use Asin such a way that it exposes a sin in my heart or he’ll use Stoney to to reveal some aspect of his nature, God’s nature, or he’ll use Abby to bless me which just increases my love and my appreciation for God. So God never ceases to amaze me how He creatively uses my children to mature me. So mothers I just want to encourage you to go home tonight pray with your spouse about how God would have you to use these last few years with your children because each one’s uniquely made he might have a totally different purpose. For this child so ask him God how can I prepare this child for the purposes you have for him. Speak to me and he will. [audio unclear] Thank you. That was awesome. I don’t know what I’m speaking into. That laundry thing I’m not sure that a lot of guys have even learned that yet but next

Laura Dean: Seeing Our Children as God Sees Them

we’re gonna have Laura Dean share. Laura, give it up for Laura we really should not show a video like that and then ask two emotional women to come up and speak because I’m so glad Melinda went first you can go up there if you’d like. Okay, so when I was a little girl I remember in school, I’m a product of public school, but we still love you. What? We still love you. I know. Anyway, I remember them always asking, it just seemed like it was every year all the way up through my senior year in high school. And it was, what do you want to be when you grow up? Well, honestly, I never said it out loud. I just picked something. I don’t even know what I picked, but deep down inside, I always wanted to be a mom. I just did. It was ingrained in me. I just wanted to be a wife and a mom. And I was ashamed to actually say it out loud to a group of people. And I believe that while I was told I needed to have a career, I needed to be able to provide for myself in case my husband died. If I did get married, you might not get married. You might be on your own. You got to do all this, this, this, this, this. Here’s the things that you have to go and do. But it was like no one was preparing me for being a godly wife, other than the church, and a godly mother, and trying to know how to raise kids the right way. I was a teacher for six years, absolutely loved it. I mourned when I actually retired. It was hard for me because those kids were a big part of my life. I spent more time with them. And they spent more time with me than they even did with their own families at times. And I loved it. The enemy has done an exceptional job of spreading lies about motherhood and about being a wife and what our jobs are and our calling is. He’s poisoned so many of us, even back in the 70s and 80s. My mind was already thinking. I even hate saying this, but I heard one girl say that she thought all children were oxygen robbers. Gosh. And that’s how poisoned our society is today, that we don’t value children, and we don’t value at all. I also remember thinking, there’s too many people. There-re too many kids. People are having too many kids. You should just have one that replaces you, and one that replaces your husband. It was ingrained in me, and it wasn’t something my parents taught me at all. It was just learning in life. And the experiences, the people you’re around, really do make an impact on your life. Well, I remember as I think back, as I was thinking about this, I was thinking, you know, God had to choose a woman, a very special woman, to carry birth and raise the king of the universe. And he did an amazing job, and I’m very grateful it was not me. But she went through a lot, a lot, an amazing woman. But if he cared enough about choosing the perfect mother for his son, for the creator of the universe, he chooses the perfect child for every mother and father. R. And he knows what he’s doing, and we need to trust him with that. That just really hit me last night as I was kind of thinking about this. Here’s kind of a challenge I’m going to give to some fathers. I remember, I don’t know, countless times, we’d be riding home. My dad would have all three of us kids. My mom, I guess she drove separately or something. I don But there were times when he was alone with us, and he would say, to always remember how much your mother does for you. and he said it over and over and over again. And I wanna challenge dads in this room, whether your kids are grown or they’re little, take time with your kids, talk to them about their mother in a positive light. Let them know that they need to appreciate their mom. It’s hard for me to say that because I don’t want my kids to build me up. My job is to work on them, but at the same time, I value my mother, I still do. She’s one of my closest friends, an amazing mother, amazing mother who loves her children. And I pray that I can even do half as well as she’s done. So I want to challenge you guys to do that. Last, I want to leave you with one of my favorite verses in the Bible. And I’m going to read the whole, there’s three verses here. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 16 through 18, therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory here’s the good part while we do not look at the things which are seen but we look at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary but those things which are seen but the things which are not seen are eternal look at your children as eternal souls in everything you do with them. They are an eternal soul. Don’t worry about the things of this earth, but keep your eyes when you look at your children, look at them in the way that God looks at them. Amen.

Give it up, give it up for Melinda and Laura. [audio unclear] I just really appreciate the word they both shared, amen.

Prayer

Let’s stand together. The kids are going to go to class, at least some of them. Prayer blessing on them and the word. Lord, we thank You for the opportunity, the privilege of worshiping You this morning in song. Lord, we thank You for the testimonies we’ve heard. We thank you that their testimonies to Jesus Christ and His work in the lives of these women. We thank you, Lord, that you have done such a beautiful work in each of their lives and in their families. We thank you, Lord, that children are a blessing and a reward. We ask that as our kids go to class that bless them with your spirit and your word. We pray the same for ourselves. Give us ears to hear, Lord, what your spirit is saying to the church. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Genesis 2: God Forms the Woman

Open your Bibles to Genesis 2. I was thinking about speaking on the Titus passage, but I think I’m going to speak on the other. Genesis 2. Y’all there? Early? I didn’t hear your leaves. The leaves.

Genesis 2, verse 7, And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Goes on it says in verse 15, then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found help her comparable to him. And the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in his place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they should ashamed. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, of the fruit of the tree, which is the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. For God knows that the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed the fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I can come that you should not eat?

Then the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between yourlandish seed and her seed. But he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception in pain you shall bring forth children, your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Then to Adam he said, because you have heated the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake, in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. But thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field, in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, Behold the man has become like one sent him out of the garden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed Terribim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Both

The Profound Influence of a Mother

scripture and history testify to the profound influence that women and especially mothers have on their children and on society. In the scripture the word mother appears nearly 300 times. In Kings and Chronicles there’s a very significant phrase that appears 20 times. This phrase is related to various kings and is the clue to whether they ruled rightly or governed wickedly. This phrase tells us the key to the success or to the failure of their kingship. This phrase tells one of the most important shaping influences in the life of any man, and that phrase is, and his mother was.

All throughout Kings and Chronicles, after the acts of the king are recorded, it’s mentioned who was. A woman’s influence on her children is so great that she shapes not only an individual soul, but changes the course of history. As Theodore Roosevelt said, into the woman’s keeping is committed the destiny of generations to come after them. This was true, certainly true of Eve, one whom the Bible calls the life giver, or the mother of all living. And what’s important about serves as an example to women, but she also in mothers, but she serves as an example of the church because she is a type of the church in Scripture. So I want to just draw a few lessons from this account of Eve. There are many, many, many lessons here. I just want to draw a few for our consideration this Mother’s Day. Now when we look at Eve, we see what we see in all people. We see a Right? Right? And so scripture gives us a true picture of humanity, even its greatest heroes are flawed.

And scripture is not reluctant to point out the flaws in those in scripture because we learn not only from the successes of others, but we learn from their failures too.

Right? We learn not only what to do, but we learn what not to do. And so when we look at Eve, one of the first things we learn is that she’s an example of gullibility. Gullibility.

Genesis 3: The Fall

Here in Genesis 3, which we’ve just read, we have the account of when the serpent approaches Eve and he deceives her. And so she is apparently in the garden, he draws her attention to the forbidden fruit, and by the way we don’t know what the fruit is, many people refer to it as the apple, but there’s no evidence that it’s an apple, we don’t know what it was, but there was a fruit there that God said they could not eat, and that’s her attention to that fruit and says he contradicts God’s Word, he says this is good fruit, it’s beautiful, it’s going to make you wise, gonna make you like God. And so Eve then is tempted to eat of this fruit.

Can you imagine what happened here? I mean, I don’t know about you, but really the early chapters of Genesis intrigued me because of all the things that are like subtext, you know what I mean? So Eve eats the fruit and then it says Adam made it too. Did he object? Did he protest? I mean, what’s going on? What’s going on in Adam’s mind? Why did he do it? You know what I’m saying? It’s like there’s so much there, but it’s not there. We don’t know, you know, we don’t know if they had a big discussion about it or if he just, okay, whatever you want, honey.

But I could just imagine, you know, if a modern version of this situation where, you know, Adam comes home, and he will, he’s been toiling all day, and he says, Honey, he says, Eve, I’m really starving, I’m hungry, what’s for dinner? She said, Well, I’ve got a new dish for you, sweetie. It’s a new fruit platter, and it’s called Devil’s Delight. And Adam says, honey, I thought God said not to eat that fruit. She said, well honey, you know, I was on the internet today and there’s this great blog called Serpentine Suppers, and I learned that if we eat this fruit, we will be like God. So it must be healthy. Adam says, honey, God has said not to eat of it. He says, well, but it’s good for food. sweetheart, if it’s good for food, God would have said we could eat it. Eve gets a little defensive, Adam, no, dear, look at it. It’s beautiful. It’s gorgeous. Adam says, [audio unclear] Eve, God said not, what are you implying, Adam, that I don’t beauty when I see it? Are you insulting me? Adam, no, dear. Eve, but best of all, it’s going to make us wise.

Adam, honey, God said not to eat of that fruit. Now, this point is getting that, right? Eve, I get it now. The real problem is you men. You men just don’t want us women to think for ourselves. You think because you got to name all the animals that you’re better than women. That’s the problem. So Eve took the fruit, ate it, served it up, and Adam made it. Now, that dialogue probably didn’t happen.

We don’t know really what happened, but I think here’s what should have happened. I think Adam should have, when Eve took the fruit, Adam should have grabbed the fruit.

He should have walked over to the serpent, grabbed the serpent by the neck, shoved the fruit in the serpent’s mouth, thrown the serpent on the ground, crushed his head, and say, leave my wife alone. That’s what he should have done, but he didn’t. Yes, [audio unclear] dear, and he ate the fruit. So many lessons, so many lessons.

Lessons for Husbands and Wives

One lesson for our ladies is to seek to be a learner and a listener, not a leader.

First Timothy 2, Paul addresses this, we don’t have time to look it up. But the point is, instead of acting independently of one’s husband, the woman should seek to act in harmony and honor his leadership. Instead of chafing at his leadership, she should strive to submit herself cheerfully knowing that authority is designed for her protection. Protection. You see, the problem here in this passage is that Adam, he just won along. You know what I’m saying?

Now it’s interesting in Christian theology, a lot of times Eve is blamed for the fall, but I think that’s incorrect theology. Because when you read the New Testament it says that sin entered through Adam. Sin entered through Adam.

Why? Because Adam was the covenantal head and he was the one that was ultimately responsible. And when Paul addresses this issue of men leading in the church as the context, he says that Eve was deceived. You think, oh well That’s insulting to women. Oh, but this is what he says about man. But Adam transgressed. What is worse, being fooled into sin or sinning with your eyes wide open? Adam sinned with his eyes wide open. That’s what transgression means. He saw the line and he walked over it. Eve didn’t see the line, she got deceived. So Adam is the one that is held responsible because he’s the covenant head of his family. And what he should have done is he should have protected his wife and not gone along to get along. And so, you know, there’s so many applications of this. Clearly in the home, we need to understand what spiritual leadership and authority is really about. Now if you go back to my little example here, my little mime I did, or whatever you want to call it, to my little drama. The problem is some Christian men claim that they understand headship and authority, but in fact they don’t.

Because what they’re doing is instead of stomping on the head of the serpent, they’re stomping on their wife and their kids. biblical warrant for abusing a wife or children, none whatsoever, none. And so if a man’s going to leave his home, the first thing he has to do is he has to take authority in the spiritual realm. He has to take authority over the enemies that are attacking his wife and children. And a lot of men don’t take authority spiritually. They’re not intercessors. They’re not doing spiritual warfare a for their family and yet they walk in the door and they expect to everybody to obey them. It doesn’t work that way. You must first exercise authority in the spiritual realm as [audio unclear] prayed and he offered sacrifices for [audio unclear] So, as much as we want to exhort Christian women to follow the leader of their husbands, we also need to exhort the men to lead in a biblical way. Right? So, one extreme is the heavy-handed approach, which is wrong, but the other extreme is the approach that Adam took. Adam was subject to the Nice Guy Syndrome. He, he, now, and I’ve used upon this text many, many hours, and so, you know, it doesn’t say why he did what he did. So, but a lot of, a lot of commentators think that Adam loved his wife more than God, and that was the problem. And that may have been the case. I don’t know, it doesn’t tell us. But I think a common problem with men is they love peace more than they love holiness. And I was thinking about, much marriage counseling over the years you know, is that sometimes couples who quote get along are actually, they’ve actually called the truce. You know what I mean? They’re calling what they have peace, but in fact it’s not peace, it’s the truce. And the difference is that to have peace, the other party has to be a true ally. You have to be in agreement. And a lot of couples have disagreements, and the way they resolve their disagreements is we’re not going to talk about it. That’s not peace. That’s a truce. That’s like two warring countries that decide to halt hostilities temporarily, but not become allies. You see? And so many marriages have these things that are not resolved, not dealt with, but the partners call it truce. And it’s often the man because he just wants peace at home. He’s working hard, he comes home, I just don’t want to deal with the hassle. He just goes along and he calls it peace, but it’s not peace, it’s the truce. And the danger of doing that is not only is it abdication, but the real danger is those things Those things don’t just sit there, they grow. They grow. I had a conversation with a young woman the other day, early 20s, Christian home, Christian parents, talking to me about her fear that her parents may wait for the kids to get out of the house and then divorce. Why? Because there were things there that have been in their marriage all along and they won’t deal with them. Because it’s just easier to just call it troops. Those are weeds in the garden that grow up and they choke the word. And they’re very, very dangerous. So the lesson for all of us as the church is of course we need to all be aware of deception. Amen. male or female. We all need to be aware of deception. As a matter of fact, in 2 Corinthians 11, where Paul alludes to this account, he’s actually warning the church. He’s not warning women or warning husbands or husbands or wives, he’s warning the church. We need to be aware as Eve was deceived. So we get deceived from simple devotion to Christ. So beware, the serpent is real. And the greatest safety we have is in submission to Christ, because He is our head, amen. He is our covering. He is our Lord. He is our warrior who will fight for us. Second example of Eve is that she’s an example of repentance, an example of repentance. this in Genesis 3. So, there’s the fall, God comes, they hide because of fear, which is, I mean these few verses here are some of the saddest verses in the Bible to me. You know, to see them running away from God. I mean, how sad is that, right? And yet, it’s our plight in our fallenness now. This sense of shame, this sense of wanting to hide from God. But when God comes, he addresses Adam and he says, where are you in verse 9? And he says, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which commanded you that you should not eat.“ And what does Adam whom you gave to be with me she gave me of the tree and I ate. Well what is he doing? Say it loud. It’s blame-shifting. She did it. Now he ate the fruit, right? But when God comes to him and he comes to him first, why? Because he was the covenant head, comes to him and says, you ate the fruit? And he says, well, but the woman, the woman gave it to me. He’s trying to shift the blame onto his wife. But what’s even worse than that is he says, the woman that you gave to me. Wow, this guy’s really… Wow. I mean, he’s really twisted up here. You know what I mean? I mean when his wife says, hey let’s do this thing which isn’t right, he doesn’t say a word. But then when God talks to him, he starts talking back in blame and blame. I mean he’s twisted up. He’s a mess. But what’s interesting is when God comes to Eve, she doesn’t do that. She could have said, you know, you’re right.

I got the seed here, but Adam didn’t do his job and Adam didn’t protect me. She could have said that. And that would have been true. But notice what she says. Verse 13, and Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? And the woman said, the serpent

Confession, Not Blame-Shifting

In other words, I believe she took responsibility for what she did. And there’s certainly a lesson here for all of us.

And the lesson is this, and when we sin, we should not rationalize. Simply confess. Simply confess. The way out of deception is confession. Let me say it again. The way out of deception is confession. Because in confession we step into the light. Rational. We stay in the darkness. Rationalization is the fig leaves. It’s the human-made covering, which doesn’t cover, right?

Confession is simply honesty that’s stepping into the light. And so, you know mom, if you’ve lost your temper and you’ve yelled at your kids,. Then confess itIf you’ve disciplined them, or spanked them in anger, or harshly, then confess it. If you resisted your husband’s authority, then confess it. Go down the list. Don’t rationalize, just confess it. And surely, if God could forgive Eve, and really Adam too, when you think about the consequences of their actions, if God could forgive them and provide for them an atonement through the animal that was slain, and provide for them a covering. If God could forgive them, He can forgive you any sin you commit. So just confess it. And He will forgive you. The blood of Jesus is sufficient for every sin. Every sin. Isn’t that good news? Because that’s the gospel. And it was ironic, well I won’t go there, I’ll talk about that later maybe. you. Thirdly, Eve is an example of faith. In Genesis chapter 2, let’s go to Genesis 4. Okay, so what happens is, after they sin, then God provides a covering for them. They lead the garden. garden, they’re expelled from the garden. And then it says in verse 4, now Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived in borkane and said I have acquired a man from the Lord.

Now it sounds like she’s just saying I’ve had a baby. But if the Hebrew actually implies a lot more. Remember that when cursed them he also provided them with a promise. And the promise is here where it says God after, as God is cursing the serpent, it says in verse 15 of chapter 3, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, the woman seed, he will bruise your head. seed is going to destroy you, is what this is saying, and you, the devil, the enemy, will bruise his heel. In other words, he will be wounded, but you will be destroyed. So this is the first promise of the gospel. And I believe that Abeney understood what is being said here, that God was promising that of her, of the fruit of her womb would come the one that would undo the work of the serpent. And why do I say that? Because after the fall, what, now this is after the fall, the fall, what’s the fall bring death, right? After the fall, what does Adam call his wife? Before this, she’s not named. Her name is After the fall, Adam gives her a name, and it’s in verse 20, and Adam, 320, and Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of frivol living. Now you would think he’d call, not mother of living, he’d call her the mother of death.

No, really. But no, he calls her the mother of living. Why? of the promise of God that of the fruit of her womb the serpent would be destroyed. That ultimately through her life would be restored, eternal life even. And Eve embraced that promise. Eve believed God because when she conceived her first child she said I have received a man from the Lord. And in the Hebrew it could be translated I have received a man, the Lord, meaning that she believed that her seed would be the promised Messiah who was the Lord, who would then destroy the work of the devil. And so Eve was a woman of faith in spite of her failure, despite the fact that she had been deceived, she still she repented and she became a model of faith to women and to men for all time. And I want to say this to the ladies, put your faith in the Word of God. Eve’s first mistake was that she got deceived into doubting God’s word. That was the first mistake, because the word is the foundation of everything. But I believe that Eve learned her lesson through her repentance, and now she believed God’s word of promise. And so she became a woman of faith, and because of that her seed would eventually conquer. And there are

God’s Promises to Mothers

many, many precious promises in the word of God to mothers. Many. Can I just read a couple? Because these are the words that you must parent by and live by as mothers. One is in Deuteronomy 7, if you wanna turn there with me. Deuteronomy 7. We’ll start in verse 6. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 7. The Lord of God tells you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. know that the Lord your God, He is God, amen? The faithful God, amen? Who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keeps His commandments. God says that He keeps His mercy for thousands of generations. Not just to my generation, but to my children’s generation, to my grandchildren’s generation and on down to the line. And so as parents and as mothers, this is the promise that we need to stand on, that God’s mercy will not just be to us, but that God’s mercy will be to our children as we raise them in the commandments of the Lord. Isaiah 65, in Isaiah 65 we have a beautiful, beautiful promise. Speaking to God’s people, it says in verse 23 of 65, they shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble. For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them. Psalm 103, and we We can look at many promises, we’re only going to look at a few. Psalm 103 verse 17 it says, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant to those who remember His commandments to do them. That is a promise not only for your children, it’s a promise for your grandchildren. Children’s children. Look at Luke chapter 1.

Luke chapter 1.

This is called Mary’s Magnificat, a song or hymn of praise. In verse 46, and Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has regarded the lowliest state of his maidservant, for behold henceforth all generations will call me blessed. And he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. and his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he’s put down the mighty from the thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His seed forever.” We could look at many, many more, but there are numerous promises in the scriptures that parents, and I stress today for mothers, since it’s Mother’s Day, that mothers can stand on, that they can pray, that they can claim, if you will.

Parent by Faith in the Word

And we must parent by faith in God’s Word. Amen. and we must parent according to what the word of God says. And as we do that, as we obey God in our parenting, we can stand on these promises confident that God will hear our prayers. If I didn’t believe that, I don’t think I would have ever become a parent. To think that there was no assurance from the Word of God that my children might go to hell? Why would I want to bring people into the world? But we have promises in the Word of God. And just as Eve went from a woman who doubted God’s Word to a woman who believed in God’s Word, so we must go from doubt to faith. We must walk by faith and not by sight, standing on the Word of God, believing the Word of God, teaching our children the Word of God, because God’s Word is true. So sin, repentance, and faith. Sounds like the gospel, doesn’t it? [audio unclear] provided the means for our salvation through Jesus typified by that slain animal on the coverings but we must confess we must repent acknowledge that we’ve sinned we must exercise faith in the hope just as Eve did God is good just as God was good to provide them a covering God has provided us a covering and it’s called the righteousness of Jesus. It has been imputed to us and because of that the believer in Christ can stand in God’s presence not condemned. Is that amazing? Not condemned because I’ve been made righteous in Christ. Clothed with his righteousness not my own. We stand before him un. So we are thankful for Jesus and what he has done for us and what he continues to do for us. And we’re also thankful for how Jesus is working in the lives of so many families, he’s working in the hearts of so many women and so many mothers to honor him in their marriage and in their parenting. So let’s stand together, we’re going to close with one of my favorite hymns. But before we do that, I’d like to give the moms, we’re going to give the moms a coronation. And of course, it’s only a symbol. It’s only a token. But we want you to understand how much that you are appreciated by the church.

And I trust appreciated by your families. So have the ushers come forward and give those out to the moms.