Motherhood In The Image of God
Ashe County Church Sermons • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro
Intro
Happy Mother’s Day
Honor the ones who kept us alive
Today, I wanted to talk about the biblical definition of motherhood, because the very definition of mother is under attack today.
Society cannot develop truth. Only the combo of the Spirit and Scripture can do that.
Only through living by God’s design can we truly live joyfully in this world.
I want to take a giant spotlight and shine it on select scriptures to highlight what God says about motherhood.
You were made skillfully and uniquely from man.
you create life with your body (I don’t care what the most recent emoji on your phone says)
you supply food with your body
you support and come along-side as a helper
you nurture (my kids never come to my side of the bed in the middle of the night or when they get hurt)
Motherhood is, at its core, a fulfillment of one of God’s first commands (be fruitful and multiply). It is also seen throughout the Bible to be a blessing from the hand of God. Over and over, you see God showing his compassion to women in the OT by opening their womb and making them fruitful.
You are a living metaphor of a healthy tree that produces fruit in its season
Childbearing is a central role that women play. It’s not your identity, but it is a divine provision to perpetuate the human race.
Psalm 127:3 (ESV)
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
Outline
Outline
How Mother’s display the Imago Dei
Instruct
Nurture
Support
Instruct
Instruct
The heart of family discipleship can be found in Deuteronomy 6, after the beautiful words of the Shema.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Proverbs 1:8–9 (ESV)
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Proverbs 6:20–22 (ESV)
My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.
Proverbs 29:15 (ESV)
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
These are just a few references to the instructional heart of mothers. I think that is why oftentimes, teachers in elementary and middle school are women. You are wired to speak directly into the heart of a child with wisdom and instruction that will connect with their forming hearts.
My mom was a teacher and administrator. Whenever I did something stupid as a kid, which was much more often than I would like to admit, it was almost always her that yanked me back from the wrong path.
My wife is a teacher. It is in her DNA. She is amazing at instructing young hearts. When it comes to speaking on their level, I cannot hold a candle to her skill.
Why? Because it is how God designed you.
Want more proof? Let’s take a look at an example from scripture. Let’s take an average nobody who became a herald to thousands… ten’s of thousands. Timothy.
Yes, Timothy was a protege of Paul’s, but before Paul took him under his wing, the foundation for Timothy’s faith had already been laid.
By who? His father?
No. In fact, we don’t even know his father’s name. The only thing we know about him is that he was a Greek, which means, he likely had ZERO regard for the Jewish faith (see Acts 16:1).
We do know his mother’s and grandmother’s name though.
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
As you read through the book of Acts, you will see that Timothy played a key role in the expansion of the gospel throughout the known world. Paul would often leave Timothy in charge when he needed to move onto the next city, and in his final letter, he instructed his young mentee how to firmly grasp the reins of his ongoing ministry to the gentiles.
That was only made possible through the investment Lois and Eunice. Their faithful instruction led to countless thousands hearing about the name of Jesus.
But, the call to instruct your children doesn’t stop at the foot of the family tree. Paul goes on to instruct his other protege, Titus, in how to encourage the women under his care.
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
What are the two imperatives in verse 3? Teach what is good and train the young women. My goal isn’t to fully exegete this whole passage, but I want you to catch this.
The full picture of the call to instruction is like a bird in her nest, feeding her young, but who is also flanked on either side by two other birds. One older and one younger. You are in the middle. As you have need to care for your own, you are provided for by the older bird to your left, and as the younger bird has need, you provide for her. In this way, a community is formed and no-one’s needs go unmet.
The command of scripture is for everyone to have a Paul and a Timothy. Mother’s… you are designed by the God of instruction. Take a look at what is in your hands. This book is God’s instruction to us. As you impart your wisdom into your children and other women… as you are invested in by an older woman… you are fulfilling a core characteristic of God Himself.
So are you fulfilling this intentional design? Who are you mentoring? Who are you being mentored by? It cannot be about IF. ‘If I feel up to it… if I God puts someone in my path...” It is about WHO and to be crystal clear, the time is NOW.
The more you operate in the ways you have been designed, the more fulfilled your life will be.
Nurture
Nurture
Isaiah 66:13 (ESV)
As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
Ruth - tender care for Naomi
Esther - care for an entire nation
Mary - care for her child
Support
Support
To her husband
To her family: Helper - core function of the Spirit
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
The wisest of women builds her house,
but folly with her own hands tears it down.
To her community (Prov 31)