MOTHER'S DAY
"HOW TO CONQUER
TEXT: Ex. 1:8-2:10
INTRO: Being a good parent today is not an easy task! The job is made harder by the various enemies of the family unit:
a. Drugs and alcohol.
b. Busy lives of each family member with separate interests.
c. Easy travel to pursue other interests independent from the other family members.
d. Enormous amounts of free time and money to do whatever they want with it.
e. Family life ridiculed by the media, especially traditional family life and the traditional values taught in Scripture.
f. The extreme feminist movement and their ridicule of the role of motherhood.
g. The fact that many parents work full time jobs and have children too.
No one puts more value on motherhood than God and His church! The whole idea of a "MOTHER'S DAY" sprang from the heart of a Christian woman:
ILLUS: Did you know that the idea for Mother's Day
was born in a small Methodist church in
Satan's first attack on the human race began with a future mom. Eve whose name means, "The mother of all living" or "living" was Satan's first target. Destroy the parents and you destroy the human race! A godly mom however can destroy the enemy!
PROP. SENT: The Bible
teaches us that there is no power greater on Earth than a godly parent! The mightiest of nations can crumble
under the power of a godly mom.
Before Moses conquered
I. THE BATTLEFIELD
1:8-22
A. Secular Environment 1:8-14
1.
Notice the parallels here to our own history: "Then a new king,
who did not know about Joseph, came to power in
a.
The Egyptian nation that had known the God of Joseph and the benefits of
Joseph's faith was now a long ways away from their history, and the nation of
b. The new environment had little memory of the God of Joseph; they had grown beyond that ancient history.
c. Our nation once bore a tremendous faith in God, but we are living in a day that has forgotten or ignored the past influence of our spiritual roots.
2. America has become secular and mystical in its focus too, away from the faith of our fathers.
3.
AND, much like today with Christians, the secular and mystical elements
in
a. The general population of Egyptians did not like the influence of these believers, so plans were hatched to oppress them and make life difficult for them.
b. We can see this gradual development in our country too against Christianity.
4. There is little doubt that the pressures of a secular and mystical society made life difficult for God's people.
a. It certainly could have destroyed God's people.
b. What would hold their children in the faith?
5. Several things became helpful for God's people in this situation that helped them maintain their faith:
a. They tended to work, play, and worship together; they did not hang out with Egyptians much.
b. Their rejection by Egyptians forced them to rely on each other and to spend time together for their social and spiritual needs.
c. Their own strong faith was an anchor for their children.
ILLUS: When Dr. R.A. Torrey was a young man, he had
no faith in God or the Bible. His
mother, however, was a devout Christian who constantly prayed for his conversion
and often witnessed to him. One day he said to her, "I don't want to hear about
my sins and your prayers; I'm going to leave and not bother you any more." With tear-filled eyes the woman followed
him to the gate and pleaded with him to change his mind. But he would not be detained. Frantically she cried, "Son, you are
going the wrong way, but when you come to the end of your rope and everything
seems hopeless, call upon your mother's God with all your heart and He will
surely help you!" After Torrey left
home, he went deeper into the ways of sin.
One night in a hotel room he was unable to sleep. Weary from the problems pressing in on
every hand, he decided to take the gun he kept in his dresser and end his
life. Just as he reached for the
weapon, he remembered his mother's last words. Convicted by the Holy Spirit, he
fell on his knees and cried out, "O God of my mother, if there is such a Being,
I need Your help. If You will give
it to me, I'll follow You!" In a
moment his darkened heart was illumined, and peace filled his soul. Later R.A. Torrey became an outstanding
evangelist who led thousands to Christ! Are you discouraged because your children
or teenagers aren't interested in the things of the Lord? Keep praying for them, loving them, and
living a consistent life before them.
Never underestimate the power of parental witness! -- Source Unknown
6. While all this pressure from society discouraged them and made life harder for them it also helped preserve their faith in a more pure way!
a. It strengthened the need to be together.
b. This in turn made their bonds tighter with each other.
c. Forced them to rely on God more.
d. Gave them a sense of mission.
e. Made them work harder at witnessing to their children.
7.
Note that instead of crushing
a. This will be true as time goes on in our country too.
b. The greater the forces against Christianity the more it will flourish.
B. Sin Encouraged 1:15-22
1.
When
a. There was a progression from harassment to outright legal bans.
b. Pharaoh ordered all male babies born to be killed!
2. This forced abortion against God's people was intended to reduce their influence.
3. The head midwives were called in and ordered to have all male babies killed at birth.
a. It was no longer an issue of living in an ungodly society now, they were being ordered to be ungodly!
b. What was first a secular and mystical society had now become one where sin is encouraged!
4. We can see this development today in our society too, what was once so clearly wrong is now advertised and encouraged!
5. No one wants to miss out on fun, so sin is encouraged with no regards to consequences!
a. Most TV shows now show sex as normal outside of marriage, even expected.
b. Years ago on the Dick Van Dyke show you couldn't even mention the word "sex" or make any reference to a married couple even having sex now TV encourages it outside of marriage!
6. One day we will discover that all the things that seem so important to us in our society now will have little value in the long run.
ILLUS: 100 years from now it will not matter:
What
kind of car I drove.
What
kind of house I lived in.
How
much money I had in my account.
Nor
what my clothes looked like.
But
the world may be a little better.
Because I was
important in the life of a child.
-- Unknown
7.
Fortunately for
a. This is the faith that will save our children!
b.
They would rather face God with a clear conscience than destroy the lives
of their children because
c. They found a creative way to avoid an ungodly law ... they simply showed up late for births, too late to take the baby and kill them!
(1. While our country has made abortion a law on demand our creative way to deal with it is to create pregnancy care centers to encourage life, a legal way to undo the damage of our ungodly legal system on abortion.
(2. Jesus often found creative ways not to directly break Roman law or the law of the Pharisees but still keep God's laws working right.
8.
Note that the faith of these midwives not only allowed
a. God is real comfortable with godly parents!
b. They were godly before becoming parents and so godly after becoming ones too!
9. There is little doubt that we live on a battlefield for the souls of our children!
II. THE
A. Supernatural Expectations 2:1-4
1. One mom named Jochebed found a way to obey Egyptian law but save her new born son.
a. By
law you had to throw your son into the
b. So she does obey, but makes an "ark" to save his life and places it in still waters in the area where women came to bathe so he would be found. She also sent his older sister Miriam to be nearby and watch out for him.
c.
Technically, she obeyed the law and put Moses in the
2. Jochebed believed that God would somehow save her son if she did all she could to be a godly mother.
a. There is a good lesson for us here too. We need to expect supernatural intervention from God when we have done all we can do.
b.
While children still have a free will, our example to live godly lives
will at least give our children the best chance for choosing God over
3. Jochebed was not afraid of Pharaoh anymore than the midwives had been!
a. A godly mom is hard to stand against!
b. A
godly mom will not be afraid to stand up against
c. A godly mom will know that God is fighting for her and her children.
ILLUS: Mark Twain wrote of his mother who
courageously faced down a bully in their small Italian town. The man was widely known to beat his
daughter when she displeased him.
One day the terrified girl came running down the street with her cursing
father chasing her with a rope.
Twain's mother stepped out and pulled the girl into her doorway. Instead of closing the door, she stood
with her arms crossed, barring the entrance. Without flinching, she stared into the
father's face and rebuked him in words audible only to the man's
conscience. He asked her pardon and
handed her the rope, and then with a loud, blasphemous oath called her the
bravest woman he had ever met.
Thereafter no problems occurred, and said Twain, his mother and the man
became good friends. He had finally
met a woman who wasn't afraid of him.
He had risen to her standards. -- Promises
Promises, (Vision House, 1996), p. 75.
B. Salvation Experienced 2:5-10
1.
Sure enough, God had a plan to rescue her son from
a. The state would sanction his life, but Jochebed was enlisted to supervise his early development!
b. Miriam is asked by Pharaoh's daughter to get a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby ... and of course she gets Moses' mom for this!
2. Jochebed raises Moses for approximately the first 5 years of his life, social scientists today tell us this establishes most of the personality of a child during this time.
a. She must have read him stories about God.
b. She must have repeatedly told him he was not an Egyptian but that he belonged to God's people.
c. She must have prayed with him.
d. She must have told him about God and His power.
e.
She no doubt told him about God's promise for a better land for all
f.
She instilled in Moses a faith so strong that although he was raised in
the Egyptian school system the rest of his childhood he chose to live for God
and think of himself as belonging to God's people, not
3. He chose NOT to 'WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN"... but to walk like a "MAN OF GOD"!
a. Moses learned what was most important in life from his real mother, not Pharaoh's daughter or the Egyptian education system.
b. The legacy of Moses' life and ministry must be directly credited to his mother's faith and life!
c.
Jochebed was the one to defeat
4. When we come to the end of our lives no success will matter as much as the spiritual success of living for God!
ILLUS: When the will of Henry J. Heinz, wealthy
distributor of the famous "57 Varieties" line, was read, it was found to contain
the following confession:
"Looking forward to the time when my earthly career will end, I desire to set forth at the very beginning of this will, as the most important item in it, a confession of my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I also desire to bear witness to the fact that throughout my life, in which there were unusual joys and sorrows, I have been wonderfully sustained by my faith in God through Jesus Christ. This legacy was left me by my consecrated mother, a woman of strong faith, and to it I attribute any success I have attained." -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 381.
5. While the battlefield is our society, the battle is our witness!
a. A godly mom can help defeat the secular mystical society we are living in.
b. A godly mom can overcome the strongest influences.
c. Did Moses make mistakes? Yes, but he came back to the foundation his godly mom had built into his life and he had an extraordinary life and ministry.
d.
The defeat of
6. It only takes one godly mom to raise one godly kid to make a difference in a powerful secular and mystical society!
a. Keep praying moms.
b. Keep striving in your witness for God.
c. Keep speaking faith to your kids.
d. Keep hope alive!
CONCLUSION:
The powerful secular
and mystical nation of