Mother's Day, 2003 

Honoring The Women of Our Church

Matthew 12:49-50

CBC May 11, 2003

In a nutshell: Every woman of faith is deserving of honor. And honoring is accomplished by treasuring and remembering.

I. Introduction

A. Females and computers-Joke

In honor of Mothers' Day, the message this morning, is going to focus on all of the women of our church family. So, at the beginning, I want to share some relevant stories and ideas about women, with all of you.

A friend of mine, once told me that he was convinced that computers must be female. He says that there's five reasons why he thinks that to be true...

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

2. Even your smallest mistakes are immediately committed to memory for future reference.

3. The native language used to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

4. The message, "Windows System Error" is about as informative as, "If you don't know why I'm mad at you, then I'm certainly not going to tell you."

5. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck buying accessories for it.

That's kind of sexist, but it's fun to joke about our differences. We still appreciate you, ladies. In fact, we care about you very much. Here's a story that illustrates that fact...

B. Father and son

A father and son were talking together one day, and the father asked the son what he wanted for his birthday. The boy said he wanted a baby brother. His birthday wish came true! Just before his actual birthday day, his mom had a second child, and he got a baby brother.

Now, the next year, just before his birthday, his father asked his son again, "Son, what would you like for your birthday?" This time, the little boy was hesitant with his reply. But dad kept pushing for an answer. So the little boy very sincerely told his father, "Dad, what I would really like is a pony, but I'm afraid that would be too hard on Mom."

C. My favorite Mother's Day card

Then, there's the message of my favorite Mother's Day card of all time, which says...

"Now that we have a mature, adult relationship, there's something I'd like to tell you. (Open the card) You're still the first person I think of when I fall down and go boom!"

D. History

If you have your Bibles, I'd like for you to look at Jesus' words, as they are recorded in Matthew 12. While your turning their in your Bibles, let me give you a little history about Mother's Day…

I don't know if you know this, but the beginning of Mother's Day here in the United States, has Christian roots. It was actually born in a small Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. It started as an idea that a Sunday School teacher, Anna Jarvis, came up with, while she was preparing to teach her Sunday School class. Mrs. Jarvis' daughter is credited with getting the town of Grafton to celebrate the first Mother's Day in 1907. In 1909 the city of Philadelphia decided to pick up on the idea began celebrating a day each year to honor mothers. Then on May 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson designated the second Sunday in May as the official celebration of Mother's Day in the United States.

E. TRANSITION:

I believe very strongly friends, that because we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, we need to expand our celebration of Mother's Day, to a far broader context. In the church, we can't limit this day to honoring only those women who have given birth to or adopted children.

You see, Jesus Christ, Himself, gave us an entirely different perspective on the idea of motherhood, that goes way beyond what President Wilson and even Anna Jarvis and her daughter had in mind for Mother's Day. Look in your Bibles at what Jesus had to say in...

Matt. 12:49-50 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Mother's Day in the church should be a day that we set aside to honor and reverence the women of our church who do the will of God. It doesn't matter whether these women gave birth or adopted or have no children of their own, married or unmarried. Jesus says that true moms in the Kingdom of God, are women who do God's will. And so when we celebrate this day as a church, then we must honor all the women of our church, not just some women. Doing that demonstrates that what is precious to God is also precious to us.

But if we are going to follow Biblical guidelines for who we are going to honor today, we also must follow Biblical guidelines in how we show honor to the women of our church.

II. Dishonor vs. Honor

A. Dishonor

To help us understand this concept of honoring the women of our church family, I want to look at several things this morning.

The first of those is a definition of the direct opposite of honoring-that is, dishonoring. You see, I think in this case, a thorough understanding of the negative, which we shouldn't do, will help us much better understand the positive, which we should do. Because whether we realize it our not, some of us could be unwittingly dishonoring some of the women of our church by our actions or the lack of our actions toward them.

Illustration: Just about all of you have seen micro-mist systems that are commonly used in the desert to keep people cool during the dry heat of the summer. In Palm Springs, we had these mister systems on patios, around the outside seating areas of restaurants and resorts, around public and private pools, and even on some golf carts.

A micro-mist system forces water out of tiny nozzles in a very fine mist, that quickly evaporates before it hits the ground. In fact, the mist is so fine, and the evaporation so quick, that you hardly notice it happening when you're sitting under one or near one. And that quick evaporation cools the air all around, and makes sitting outside comfortable.

Well, that is real close to the idea behind the Bible word, "dishonor". The Greek word used in the New Testament for dishonor literally means "micro-mist" or vapor. To dishonor someone or something in Bible times was to treat the person or thing as if it wasn't even there-like it had no weight, or value.

B. Dishonoring Women

Well, unfortunately, when it comes to the women of our church we sometimes treat them that way-like vapor! And not only are we talking about how men act toward women, but also how women act toward other women. Or how teenagers and children act toward women.

You see, it's a fact of life that we all can get caught up in our selves and our own importance, or our own tasks, or our own projects…, that we can wind up treating people-and in this case, I'm talking about the women in our church.-with dishonor. We can treat the women of our church as if they had little substance or value. We do this when we...

...ignore their opinions, ...or stop listening to what they have to say, ...or don't care if one of our ladies is present in church or absent from church, ...or if we talk with disrespect about them, make fun of them, or ridicule any of their actions, ...or if we speak to them or treat them as if they have no feelings, or their feelings don't matter.

And the Bible specifically tells us that such action has no place in the church. In fact, just the opposite needs to take place.

Romans 12:10 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

III. Honor

So how do we honor the women of our church-and friends, I'm not just talking about today, on Mother's Day, but I'm talking about every day. Well, there's two things the Bible word "honor" tells us to do...

A. Valued treasure

The first thing is to treat them as a valued treasure. Look at these words from ...

2 Tim 2:19-21 19 But God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his," and "Those who claim they belong to the Lord must turn away from all wickedness." 20 In a wealthy home some containers are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive containers are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. 21 If you keep yourself pure, you will be a container God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. (NLT)

1. Valuable Containers

A relationship with Jesus Christ is the most precious thing in the world. And what Paul was saying is that, when a Christian lives his or her life by following God's values, and letting Jesus be the leader of his or her life, then that person is like a valuable vessel-an appropriate container-for holding something as precious as a relationship with Jesus.

But when a Christian is not following Jesus' leadership in his or her life, and is doing things that are inconsistent with God's values, then he or she is like a crummy old common container, trying to hold something precious. It's just not consistent.

Illustration: When we lived in Missouri, we lived on a third of an acre, with a huge backyard lawn that had to be mowed every week.

But before I could mow the lawn, I'd have to use the pooper-scooper to clean up after our dog, Bentley, who had the run of the back yard. Now, without getting too graphic, I'd take a cheap plastic bag and use it to line an old 5 gallon plastic paint bucket, then I'd deposit Bentley's waste into that bag, and put it in the garbage when I was all done. Of all the containers in our house, that old paint bucket held the least value-it was the cheapest.

Now, imagine this scenario... instead of using the old paint bucket, I would decide to use one of Diane's good, expensive, Chantal cooking pots to hold Bentley's waste when I cleaned up the yard.

You can bet that I wouldn't make it out of the kitchen with that cooking pot. Why? Because Diane's cooking pots are used for a noble purpose in our home-the feeding of our family and our guests. They cost a lot of money to buy. Those cooking pots are a treasure to my wife. And you don't use a treasure,-something you value highly-for a dishonoring or common use-like cleaning up animal waste.

Well, friends, the same is true for how we treat the women of church. We need to view them as God does-valuable treasure holders -individuals who contain in their bodies, in their personalities, and in their gifts, a relationship with Jesus Christ and the Godly virtues connected with being a child of God.

When we view all of the women in our church family that way-and that's the way God views them-then we give them the honor that they deserve. They are valuable containers, holding the most precious thing a human can have-they are a child of God-they hold a relationship with Jesus Christ!

2. Practical application

But, in practical terms, what does that mean?

It means... -we protect them from slander and snide comments from others. -we go out of our way to see that they succeed in what they attempt. -we give them encouragement when they are discouraged. -we focus on their good points, not the points of their personalities that we don't like, or that conflict with our own personalities. -we mention them frequently in conversation, in good and uplifting ways. -and we honor them by talking to them when we see them on the street or in stores or at the beginning or end of a worship service.

They are precious. They are special.

But there is a second part to honoring the women in our church, in a Biblical way.

B. It means "remembering"

A second way the Bible tells us to honor, is by remembering.

Psalm 63 is an example of David honoring God-through remembering. In the this Psalm David honors God by remembering what God had done in his life, in the past. Look at it as I read it... (on screen)

Psalms 63:1-7 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

Remembering is a second way of honoring or showing respect. In fact, the Greek word for respect literally means "to look behind", or to remember the past.

Introduction to video: On the last Sunday of January, 1986, my mom lost her fight with an illness known as Lou Gehrig's disease. But the summer before she passed away, a news crew from the CBS affiliate in Chicago came out and did a piece on my mom and her battle with that fatal illness, for a news magazine program. It was aired around Christmas time in 1985, just a month before mom died. I want to show it to you this morning (Show video).

In December, before she died, I went back to Chicago to spend a week with her. During that time, I had the chance to honor her by telling her about the influence she had in my life, and remembering her influence in my life.

Friends, we need to do that more to the "mothers of the faith" in our church. Because that's a key part of honoring. Have you been influenced by a woman in this church in your spiritual growth or in the nurturing of your faith? Then you should tell her-especially today, on this Mother's Day!

A wise church leader once said, "A living church is one that remembers the past, lives in the present, and works for the future." But what we should be remembering, is NOT how we used to do things in the past, because those things will change with culture-what we should be remembering is the people who influenced our growth in our faith, and strive to imitate that.

IV. Conclusion

Being a mother--whether biological, adoptive, or a woman in our church family-is not an easy task.

Someone once said, "If being a mother was going to be easy, it never would have started out with something called labor."

But I want each and every one of you women to know that you are appreciated and are deserving of the highest honor, we, the family members of this church can give you.

Let me close with this statement made by President Theodore Roosevelt. His words are on the front of your worship folders this morning...

"When all is said, it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen than the soldier who fights for his country. The successful mother, the mother who does her part in rearing and training aright the boys and girls who are to be the men and women of the next generation, is of greater use to the community, and occupies, if she would only realize it, a more honorable as well as a more important position than any man in it. The mother is the supreme asset of our national life. She is more important, by far, than the most successful statesman, or businessman, or artist, or scientist."

Women of Calvary Baptist Church, you are the supreme asset of our church family, as well. We are indebted to you because of your love, nurture, leadership, encouragement, and motivation. Thank you. We salute you (Applause)

Amen.