INTRODUCTION:   This is a Mothers' Day message. I was looking for illustrations and came across this and I thought it to be a good introduction to this message. Preachers are often reminded not to get too sentimental about motherhood because:

(a) for some, motherhood is unexpected, and not always a welcomed;
(b) for some, physical reasons motherhood isn't possible;
(c) for some, mothers weren't all that nice;
(d) for some, motherhood had brought many heartaches an difficulties.
(c) for some motherhood was a failure.

For Children:

(a) Some did not have loving mothers.
(b) Some did not know their mothers.
(c) Some lost their mothers because of some tragedy.

         If I can take some liberties with poet Wilhelm Busch's words, I'd have to say. My German is not very good, but he said: "Eine Mutter zu werden, ist nicht so schwierig; andererseits, ist eine Mutter ist sehr viel so." Translated it means "To become a mother is not so difficult; on the other hand, being a mother is very much so!"

         So, with all these negatives , why bother with Mothers' Day at all? I'll tell you why —— because for all its stumbling blocks, pitfalls and broken dreams, heartaches, failures, for all we talking about the beautiful plan, a natural part of God's creative order to bring love and caring to light. Yes, because people are sinners and often fail.....Motherhood as God planned is a wonderful thing. We should honor it and lift it up is a constant remember of the gift of love and caring. All of us should work teach the highest ideas of motherhood by example and word to our children.

         Let me ask you a question: Who is the greatest influence in your life? Has a teacher or a professor been your greatest influence? Perhaps you would say that a friend or maybe your spouse has influenced you the most. A poll asked that question to more than 4,000 adults. People were allowed to give any of those responses. The results were revealing. According to the poll, the person with the greatest influence was a person's mother. 42% of men and 53% of woman said that mother was the most influential person in their life. (USA Today, 6-15-90.)

         On this Mother's Day we pause to honor mothers and to reflect on the important contribution they have made to our lives. We may even try to imagine what our lives would have been like without them.

ILLUS: The story is told of a teacher who gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: "My full name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?" When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the students answered the question with the word Mother. They all got it right!

         The cartoon character Dennis the Menace told his friend Joey, "I don't know what I'll do when my mom gets too old to tie my shoes." (North American Syndication, 4-9-91.)

         Another humorous is told of a the mother of three notoriously unruly youngsters was asked whether or not she'd have children if she had it to do over again. "Yes," she replied. The with a smile she added....."Certainly I would, but not the same ones."

1. This morning we will look at a mother that exercised great faith. We will consider the mother of Moses. She was a mother who trusted the Lord in a difficult situation. She is a example of a wonderful mother....and more importantly a woman who trusted in God.
         The twelve tribes of Israel had moved to Egypt because of the terrible drought in that part of the world. We remember the story of how that was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. However over the years Joseph prospered and because God empowered him he interpreted the Pharaoh's dream which meant there would be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine because of the drought. The Pharaoh promoted Joseph to Prime Minister of the nation and he saw that his people were treated well.

         God used Joseph to save the twelve tribes of Israel and thus the future nation of Israel.

         But when Joseph died, Exodus 1:8 says, "There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." Egypt's policy toward the Israelites changed.

2. The Jews went from being guests in the land to being slaves. God prospered the Israelites there in Goshen, in the Nile River Delta and increased in number until Pharaoh began to consider them a threat. So he ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all of the newborn baby boys to control their population. We say that was a terrible thing to do to kill all the baby boys when they were born....and it was. It is just a bad today in America where for the same reason...that being population control...our government and courts have legalized the killing of unborn children in abortion. Millions of unborn babies have been brutally murdered by their mothers with the governments approval.

3. However, the Jewish mid-wives feared God....meaning they believed in God and obeyed Him and they refused to murder the infants and when Pharaoh saw that his order was not being carried out he ordered the Jewish parents to thrown all the Hebrew baby boys into the river.

         Jochebed, in order to save her child placed Moses in the boat made of bulrushes. The scriptures does not say specifically that she did this knowing Pharoah's daughter would come and save him. But it seems likely that is why she put him in that particular place. It was a great act of faith and of desperation. Let's look a the faith of Moses' mother from her viewpoint of when she placed the little boat in the water. We will look at the Faith of the PAST, PRESENT and the result of FAITH

A. V1 "a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi." Moses father was named Amram (AM-ram) and his mother was named Jochebed (JOK-uh-bed). (See Num. 26:59.)
1. We know the tribe of Levi was the tribe from which the priests and Levites came.

         They were the religious leaders and priest of Israel. Moses' mother was a woman of faith being raised in a home that honored the Lord. She was instructed from a child in ways of God and raised to love and honor God.

         We can't over estimate the importance of faithful parents. Ephesians 6:4 instructs fathers to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The verse says that fathers are not to provoke their children to wrath...which means giving them unreasonable things to do; or by using needless severity; or by the correcting them in anger. A parent who show anger toward their child will in effect teach them that being anger is normal and cause them to express anger themselves.

         "Nurture" is the word paideia and refers to training and teaching children about God by both example and by instruction. Further the word means instruction with discipline, correction and chastening. You cannot train children with out correcting them and administering discipline. This does not mean parents are to abuse children, but to discipline them in love. Discipline, administered in love, is a vital and necessary part of teaching a child right from wrong.

         "Admonition" is the word nouthesia and means to draw attention to something through mild rebuke or warning.

         You who are a parents, consider how important your influence is on your children. You are their example and how you live your life and react to life's problems will set that same pattern in their lives.

2. V2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son. Jochebed knew of the order of the Pharaoh that called for the death of her son.

B. She saw him that he was a goodly child and that he was strong and healthy. You can imagine the how she felt knowing that her boy, according to the Pharaoh's decree, would have to be put to death!

C. For too many American mothers the reverse is truth. I thank God, that still in America there are many mothers who would not think of murdering their unborn child by abortion.

I thank God there are still some doctors and nurses who refuse to be apart this black spot on the morals of this nation. Maybe soon the decision of the ungodly and humanistic Supreme Court will be overturned. But the liberals in our society, are an ungodly people. They debunked of all moral decency and will fight to the bitter end to continue their evil agenda.

A. V3 The older Moses' grew the harder it was to hide him. Sooner or later he would be discovered and if so put to death. It is embarrassing for a mother when she is trying to keep a baby quiet and the child doesn't want to cooperate.

B. She took for him an ark of bulrushes. Jochebed had one chance to save her child's life. If she kept the baby it would soon be discovered and killed, so she devised a plan to hide him in a little boat she built out of bulrushes. Bulrushes were the stalks of papyrus plant that grew in great abundance in ancient times along the banks of the lower Nile.

C. She put the child in the basket and laid it in the flags. As I mentioned before, although theBible doesn't tell us, but we get the impression from reading this passage that Jochebed hid the baby among the tall grasses and reeds growing at the water's edge because she wanted the princess to find her son.

         Certainly Jochebed prayed to God for help and for some way to save her son. She turned to the Lord in faith in her time of need. God heard her prayers.

1. (Read Exodus 2:4-9.) Only God in His providence could provide that Moses own mother would be able to raise him. Not only did she raise him but she was paid a salary! She was able to continue nursing him and giving him a mother's love.

2. She was able to continue daily contact with him. It takes more to make a mother than giving birth. Mother is one we can depend on to always want what's best for us. Jochebed was his mother by birth, but more importantly as his mother she poured her life into Moses.

3. A real mother is the one who listens to our hurts and feels the pain with us. She knows how to make us feel better. A mother is a person we can always count on when everyone else has turned against us.

         Mother's Day can be a stressful for women who have no children or for mothers who have lost a child, further it came be a time of great pain when a mother's children do not honor her or even remember her on mother's day. Many a mother's heart is broken when her children live in sin and turn their backs on the God their mother loves and serves. The godly mother so much wants the best for each of their children and she is grieved when the child rebels and refuses to do what is best and right.

D. Throughout God's Word, it is clear that women who function in the role of mother have a special place in the heart of God.
1. In 1 Timothy 5:10, Paul was giving instructions to the church about how to decide which of the widows they should direct their ministry toward. He said they should be women of good works who had "brought up children."

2. He didn't specify mothers. Rather the Bible makes it clear that there is a special place in God's work for a woman who is willing to stand in the gap and take on the role of a mother; whether it be for a few hours, a few days or over a period of years. I think of the many godly women who each week prepare their lessons and each Sunday stand before other women's children teaching them God's word. Often the training a child receives from their Sunday School teach is all the biblical train they will get...because many do not get it at home.

ILLUS: Carolyn and I attended Central Baptist church in Hampton, VA for several years while we were on deputation preparing to move to Utah. There was a lady in the church named Ruth Lovette who had worked in the church's nursery for over 25 years. She saw it as her ministry to the Lord and she loved all those children. When her husband retired in his late fifties he wanted to fulfill his dream of moving into the beautiful hill country of central Virginia. When he told this to his wife she said that she would go to their new home which was about a hundred miles west, past Richmond....only if he brought her back to Central Baptist Church each Sunday to minister in the nursery. And for many years that is what they did, getting up early in on Sunday morning and riding over two hours to Hampton, VA to serve those little children. Folks she died some time ago. Think of all the young lives she touched. Can we not imagine how God will reward her for her dedication to serving all those hundreds of children and having an impact in their lives.
3. Mothers face many heartaches in life and one is she will have to let her child go. Few will be asked by God to let go of their children as early as Moses' mother, but every mother will eventually have to let go. Think about the mother's whose son's are serving their country around the world and especially those who are serving in hostile areas.

4. A mother's faith, will be strengthened when she has to release their hold on their children. All they can do for their children then is to pray that God will guide and protect them. Mothers who followed the Lord's instruction in Proverbs 22:6 which says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" can have the confidence that they send their children into the world prepared to face life's trial.

5. In protecting their children, and raising them, Mother's must rely on the Lord. It is an act of trusting Him in faith, seeking His guidance, and His strength to be the mother the child needs.

         Every parent should ask themselves the vital question.... Are you willing to follow God in rearing your children and then trust them to the care and keeping of the Lord?

A. (Read V9-10.) As a result of the faith of Moses' mother, of her trusting in the Lord, she had the joy of watching him grow up within the special circumstances God planned for his life.
1. Every mother who places her faith in the Lord will not be able to watch her children grow up in the house of a king. But every mother can know that God's plan for their child is the best. Every mother can trust the same God that Moses' mother trusted and she can realize that God's will for her child is as important as God's will for Moses.

         Jochebed trusted God. She was faithful and God used her faithfulness. Most of the time she could not see the fruit of her prayers and trust in God. Sometimes present circumstances make it is hard to see into the future. We all at times get weary in well doing, but if we are trusting God...we know that we have God's presence and his will, will be done.

         She kept the faith. She did whatever she had too and God used her because she was faithful.

2. She had the privilege of seeing her son blessed with being used of God in a mighty way. She saw him blessed with material wealth, the best education in the world and she saw her son get advantages she couldn't provide.

         Yet, she saw him expelled from Egypt. He killed an Egyptian defended a Hebrew and she saw him exiled. I am sure it was a surely a hard time. Yet, God was still working. Sometimes God uses the storms of live to clear the air, to redirect us, to strength us and make us more reliant on the Lord.

3. Another reward of her faith was to see her son grow in the same kind of faith. She could not have know that later he would become the leader that led the Israelites out of slavery.

B. We know faith is not inherited. Each of us must come to the Lord in faith and receive salvation individually.
1. If children are raised in a home where prayers are said and the Bible is read then they will most likely live the same kind of life they have seen modeled before them.

2. If children are raised in a home where God is only a name to take in vain, they will most likely follow the example set for them.

ILLUS: How important is the example we set for our children? A child raised in an environment of profanity will likely speak the same way. Children of alcoholics often become alcoholics. And children raised in a home that has no place for God will likely have no place for Him when they are grown.

ILLUS: I have been told a number of times by a well-meaning parents that they do not want to influence their children when it comes to religion. They want them to make up their own minds. God says the parent is to teach them to love God. A good question for a parent that says this is to ask them would they want their child to grow up, get in a false religion and die and go to hell. Their statement is saying they do not really have a preference. A parent who would say such a thing in likely not saved themselves. A parents responsibility is to teach their child about their loving God and Creator.... Think would you want to let the world, that is failing in every way....teach your children? If you do not teach them....who will. First a parent must know the Lord themselves in order to teach their children about their Creator. You cannot teach something you do not know.

         It is not the responsibility of even a church to teach you child. The church by its Sunday School and youth programs is to support parents in raising their children...but many children who went to Sunday School ....when grown do not serve the Lord, and often the reason is that was the example that saw at home.

         Society doesn't have any reservations about influencing our children. They learn humanism and materialism from our society. They hear various doctrines of Eastern mysticism, things like reincarnation, being espoused by the entertainment world and they get the idea that perhaps they should believe in reincarnation. Worldly and godless society teaches that man came from inert matter and by random chance, though what the call evolution man has evolved without God! That means man is not responsible to God, but only to his lusts and desires.

         In our public schools children are not allowed to learn the Bible and of who God or the Lord Jesus is. But they can be taught about every kind of false religion with the governments blessings. A school newsletter published by an elementary school had a column on astrology. High schools and college are teaching courses on Islam, and many of the oriental religions.

         Television too is such a powerful influence. Have you looked at children's programs. They are almost without exception, with themes around, demons, killing, supernatural power, and evil of every sort. Televisions have a switch, as a parent we have the responsibility to discourage such influence and teach our children these things are wrong.

C. If we as parents don't teach our children the value of faith in Christ, who will? If we don't teach them the importance of finding and following God's will for their lives, who will? The truth is that if we don't teach them what is right, we leave the door open for others to teach them what is wrong.

         In it, we read of Moses. But actually we first read of the faith of Moses' mother and then in the next verse we read how Moses exercised his own faith. Hebrews 11:23-24 says, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter."

         The story of Moses birth and of his mother's faith is a story that should inspire us to greater faith. From this passage we can learn that God has a plan for our lives.

         Do you have the faith of Moses' mother to be willing to let God do what He wants to with your children? To be a Godly influence with your grandchildren? Are you willing to teach them so they can fulfilled God's purpose for their lives?

         As you look at your own life, do you know for certain that you have tuned your heart to the Lord so that you are willing to follow Him wherever He leads?

         Would you release control of your life today, repent our your sins and place your faith in Jesus Christ to save you and to guide you?

         This invitation is for you. Parents, place your faith in Jesus to save you and to help you be the kind of parent you should be.

         Children, teenagers, surrender your heart to the Lord right now. He wants to give you a new start. He wants to give you salvation. Will you come to Him now?...