R645B Becoming A Godly Mother, Pt.2

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton on this edition of The Encouraging Word. In the next few moments, we'll be headed to John chapter 4 as we continue not only this understanding of what good moms do, becoming a godly mother is the actual title, but how we as individuals, male and female, are growing in the Word of God because, in many cases, of our mothers. Again, this is all on the way in just a few minutes, and while we study the Word, Dr. Wilton wants me to remind you we're here to pray for you anytime at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673.

And here in the summertime, sometimes our regular schedules are disrupted, so we've got an idea we'll share with you in just a minute on how you can revolutionize your summer schedule. That's on the way after we dive into God's Word with Dr. Don Wilton next. That there is at least one person sitting here today, that the only reason that you're here today is because mother insisted that you come. Oh, Mom, I'd excuse me, boy. You get your clothes on right now. We're going to church.

I like that, don't you? I remember when I was growing up and my mom and dad, we served a church overseas, my dad did, and the parsonage was right next to the church. Brother Chairman of Deacons, Keith, this was wonderful. I mean, listen, the church was here, the parsonage was right there. I became convinced at a very early age that I didn't need to go to church. I could just lie in bed and listen to my dad preach.

I mean, he would bellow forth. I thought this is the most wonderful thing, but I'll tell you, my mother had another idea. I remember times, folks. Son, you get up.

It's time to go to church. You know, I'm grateful for a mother who was committed to rearing her son in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ. A godly mother, my friends. She is not offset by all the things. She doesn't step back because son or daughter takes a fall.

She steps forward. She doesn't point a finger and blame and get in your face. She's there to offer a remedy and to help and to be alongside and to show where to go. A mother who is committed to rearing her children in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord. That's a godly mother. Number five, a godly mother demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit.

Going to Galatians chapter five, you read about what the apostle had to say to the church at Galatia. It's a wonderful thing to think about the fruit of the Spirit. Love and joy and peace and long suffering and kindness and tender heartedness. All these attributes which are exhibited in the heart of a godly mother. You see, a godly mother is somebody that no matter what the circumstances, she's always there. She shows you how to have the right attitude because she demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit. She helps you to channel your anger.

She helps you to develop the right relationships. A godly mother is somebody who teaches her daughters and sons not to have a gossiping tongue. That's a godly mother. A godly mother says, no my son, no my daughter. That's not how you live. A godly mother says, this is what you do. This is how you conduct yourself.

This is the way you walk in. And not only does a godly mother say those things, she herself leads in those things. I thank the Lord for godly mothers, don't you? Well, if that's somewhat of a definition of what a godly mother is, our next question is how a mother becomes godly.

How does that happen? Well, I think here in this encounter here in John chapter 4, it was no accident that Jesus met up together with this woman. It's a remarkable story, really.

It's remarkable for a lot of reasons and I'm not today trying to put this into context, but it's remarkable because she was a Samaritan to begin with. Samaritans and Jews didn't quite like each other. They hated one another. You want to understand the animosity between the Samaritan and the Jew? Go and have a look at what's happening between Israel and the Palestinians.

Same thing. They just simply hate each other. Well, it was remarkable not only because this was a Samaritan and a Jew, but it was even more remarkable because Jesus was a man talking to this woman who was a woman. And even though it makes us uncomfortable to think like this, back in those days, my friends, women were considered less than capable. Women were not even considered worthy of engaging in any kind of conversation. Women, in fact, were considered incapable of holding a conversation.

They were treated like the Taliban treated their women in the Arab world. And I want to tell you something. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, came to make a statement that there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither bond nor free.

We're all one in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. This was a remarkable thing. In fact, if you read further on down in this passage, you're going to discover that it ruffled the feathers of even the disciples. They were disgruntled at the highest order. They didn't like this. It disturbed them. It upset their status quo.

It threatened their treasury. It brought great disrepute upon the company of their committed believers because Jesus had stooped so low to have an encounter with the woman. But what I'm going to submit to you today is that what this encounter is all about, it's about one woman becoming a godly woman. How do you become a godly mother?

Well, I can summarize it and then go into details. You become a godly mother by taking a drink of Jesus' water. Now, do you have any questions about that this morning? You become a godly mother by taking a drink of the water that Jesus offers to you. Evidently, we know well what it means to drink from the wells that flow up around us in our world today. But Jesus said, you can drink of that water, but you'll thirst again. You drink of the water that I'll give you, you'll never thirst again. And this woman turned to Jesus and said, well, in that case then, sir, let me have a drink, please.

How do you become a godly mother? Well, it's simple, by taking a drink of Jesus' water. Now, the question is, what did this water that Jesus gave her do for her? Well, number one, it quenches her thirst. It quenches her thirst. This lady was thirsty, spiritually. Jesus said, you drink of my water, my water is going to quench your thirst.

Number two, it saves her life. Jesus was saying to her, listen, lady, you don't have a life unless you drink of this water. Water saves life.

Number three, it softens her rough edges. You see, it's no mistake that this conversation had to do with water. Jesus symbolically talking about himself as the water of life. You and I know that one of the qualities of water is that it softens things that have become hardened. And here was this lady who came into the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords with a hardened life.

A life that had been scarred and marred by sin. And Jesus was telling her, you take a drink of this water. Let me tell you what's going to happen. It's going to soften your rough edges. You take a drink of this water. It's going to quench your thirst.

It's going to save your life. But there's a fourth thing that Jesus was telling her. He said, you take a drink of this water, it will extinguish your fires. It extinguished her fires. That's what water does. Water is one of the greatest fire extinguishers. You know, one of the times that I least enjoy in the United States is during those dry periods, especially when we see on television what happens in California and Montana and Yellowstone where these massive fires, and down in Florida what grieves our hearts is the ecological disaster that follows. Animals that are destroyed.

It just ruins the landscape. Well, how do they counteract these large fires? They get a huge airplane and they fly across a lake and they scoop up hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, and they fly over that forest fire.

They just dump tons and tons of water. And what does that water do? It extinguishes the fire. Here's what Jesus Christ was saying to this lady. Lady, listen to me. The only means by which you are going to become a godly woman, a godly mother, is if your fires are extinguished. Take a drink of this water. It will extinguish your fires.

Number five, it cleans her body. Well, we know about water cleaning our bodies. I do remember some months ago meeting with a man and his wife, and they had manifold difficulties. And I do remember that lady saying in front of her husband to me, she said, Pastor, I feel so dirty, I feel so unclean.

My life is so scarred by the way in which we have lived. I feel filthy. This lady came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what she was trying to tell him, and Jesus knew that already. Jesus understood the decadence of her life. He understood the sinfulness of her life. And there she was standing before him saying, surely we could talk about this water, this physical water. And Jesus was saying to her, you want to be cleansed in your body?

Take a drink of the water. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. But Dr. Don's been challenging us in the summer months to make sure we don't leave out some of the critical parts of our growth that maybe are a part of our routine in the main front of the year, but we get on vacation and we stop doing that, and that's spending time in God's Word. Dr. Wilton prepares a wonderful devotional that we email every single day to thousands upon thousands of people, and it becomes a catalyst to their spiritual growth. And if you've not signed up, let me encourage you to do so today.

It might be that maybe you're in the normal course of the year, non-summer, non-vacation time, you're having that quiet time early in the morning. But maybe it's so busy you need something you can have in your hand that you can just pop up on your phone and read and be a part of your lunchtime at the vacation schedule, or perhaps to wrap up your day. This devotional is a powerful insight to God's Word, a wonderful application on how it changes us from the inside out and the opportunity to pray. Again, you can sign up on our website right now at www.tewonline.org. It's the daily devotional from Dr. Don Wilton. It's at the very foot of the page, but also if you click on devotionals, you'll see a number of ways to sign up. Get it emailed phonically every single day, or if you'd rather have a physical copy, we print it in a quarterly version. It's available absolutely free. If you ask for it, either by calling 866-899-WORD, again that's 866-899-9673 and ask for the daily encouraging word, or get it absolutely immediately by signing up on our website at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. That I will give to you. Number six, and I love this one, when Jesus offered her His water, He cultivated her fruit bearing. Water cultivates fruit bearing. That's how you get a fruit tree to grow. You water it. You deprive a fruit tree of water, it's going to begin to wither and die. And what Jesus was saying to this lady, you want to become a godly woman, you want to become a godly mother, you want to be the very best expression of all that I intend you to be. Take a drink of the water that I will give to you.

Here's what's going to happen. You are going to become a fruit bearer. A fruit bearer. You see, Jesus was talking about fruit that remains. He was talking about abiding in Him, being inextricably intertwined into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what the Lord was saying to this lady is, listen, I have created you in my image and you have untold and unlimited potential.

You are a jewel among jewels. And in order for you to be the very best expression of all that I intend you to be, you want to be a true fruit bearer. Take a drink of the water that I will give to you.

But there was a seventh issue involved here. It satisfies her eternally. Jesus said here in chapter verse 13 in the second part, He said, the water that I give Him will become in Him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. What Jesus was saying to this lady, He was saying to her, listen, prior to drinking this water, there is a definitive termination.

But you drink of the water that I give to you. You are going to be eternally satisfied. You know, I meet often mothers who are on their death beds. And it's a wonderful thing to speak to a mother who looks back over her life and says, I thank the Lord Jesus that what He has given to me has satisfied me eternally.

It can never be taken away. Well, we've tried to ask ourselves what a godly mother is. And we've tried to ask ourselves how a mother becomes godly. You'd say to me today, pastor, how do I become godly?

Take a drink of the water that Jesus gives you. But there's a third thing that we must ask. What does a godly mother become?

What's the result of all of this? Well, I've told you already we don't know all the details in this passage. We don't know all the ins and outs. In fact, there's no mention of motherhood as it relates to this Samaritan woman.

Perhaps I don't know. But one day when I get to heaven, I think I'm going to have to add her to my growing list. I would just like to be able to walk up to the Samaritan woman and say, could we have a little talk? You know, we studied about you in Sunday school. In fact, I'm going to confess to you I even preached about you because God put you in the Bible. And I know that you became a believer in any case.

You're here in heaven with me, but I'd like to know something. When you had that encounter, how many children did you have? What kind of mother were you before you met Jesus at the will? And what I'd really like to know is what kind of mother did you become after you took a drink of his water? Well, I'm going to submit to you that there are seven things that a godly mother becomes. Number one, a godly mother becomes a thirst quencher.

I like that, don't you? A thirst quencher to her family. Do you know why she becomes a thirst quencher?

Because she points her family to Jesus Christ. She knows what that water is all about, but it goes beyond that. A godly mother becomes a lifesaver.

That's what water is all about. You see, this is the essence of disciple making. I want to submit to you today that what happens when a mother takes a drink of this water, that what God does is he places right there in the home the ultimate disciple maker. And that mother, because she's godly, she becomes a lifesaver because she points her husband and her children to Jesus Christ.

That's what she does. I love my children. I have three of them. My two boys play basketball. You know, folks, we all have hopes and aspirations and dreams, don't we, about our children? I've told my oldest son several times that I hope and pray, and I generally expect that he's going to be drafted by the Boston Celtics.

After all, I'm the one who taught him how to slam dunk. And besides that, folks, that's how we're going to pay for the rest of building together in faith. You know, we all have hopes and aspirations and dreams. We all want our children to do well, don't we? We all want our sons and daughters to become the CEO and to live comfortably and have a wonderful home and marry well.

I mean, we all have hopes and dreams, and that's wonderful, and I don't think we should ever stop doing that. But is there anything more precious than what a godly mother does who is drunk of the water that Jesus gives, in that to her children she becomes a lifesaver? There's a third thing about a godly mother. She becomes a rough-edge softener. You know, there's nobody quite like Mom who can identify the rough edges. Nobody knows rough edges among her children better than Mom does. You know, we go out there and we can impress everybody on the ball field, and we can stand up and speak and impress everybody, and we can sing and we can do everything that you ever know, but there's nobody who can identify the rough edges quicker than Mom. But you know, a godly mother becomes a rough-edge softener because she points her children to Jesus Christ who is the water of life. She helps children to grow up in the home and refine those rough edges.

She takes that rough diamond and begins to polish it and turn out the most spectacular diamond that you've ever seen. She's a rough-edge softener, but forth a godly woman who has drunk of the water that Jesus gives to her becomes a fire extinguisher. Now, mothers, I didn't say you look like a fire extinguisher. I said you become like a fire extinguisher.

Do you know why? Because a godly mother is a spiritual anticipator. Godly mothers have an intuition because they are guided and directed by the Spirit of God who dwells in them. Godly mothers anticipate fires.

They see the hurt and the pain, and when the hurt and the pain takes place, there is no better person to be around than that godly mother because she knows how to extinguish the fire. What does a godly mother become? She becomes a body cleanser. She has drunk of that water, and as she brings up her sons and daughters in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ, welling up within her is that ability through Christ Jesus to be a body cleanser. In many instances, she prevents. She stops. She causes that pain not to come upon that son or daughter. She anticipates that. She says, Son, don't do that. Don't say that.

Don't go there. Don't put that in your body because if you put it in your body or if you associate with that immorality, you are going to have a filthy body because of what Jesus Christ has done for her. God puts her in the home, and she is a body cleanser. Number six, she is a fruit cultivator.

I love this. That's what water is all about. That's what Jesus Christ does for her because she takes a drink of that living water. She is a fruit cultivator, mom reaching down and bringing out the very best in that son and that daughter, making them to blossom into complete fruition. It is mom who enables that son or daughter to become the very best expression of the giftedness that God has put into that child, my son, my daughter. This is what God has called you to do, and this is what God expects of you. But seventh, a godly mother becomes a permanent satisfier.

I'll guarantee you something. There are some men and women today who are worshiping with us that would let us know in a heartbeat that it was mom who gave to you the permanence of the satisfaction that you have for one reason. She pointed you to Jesus.

That's what she did. She just said, son, let me show you Jesus. I want to ask you a question today. Have you taken a drink of this water? Are you standing at the well like this woman is?

Have you had your cup filled? Are you satisfied eternally? I love you today. I thank the Lord for our mothers. Indeed, we thank the Lord for our mothers, and it could be that you find yourself where you are right now under conviction of the Holy Spirit of God, speaking through the Bible itself, through God's servant, Dr. Wilton, because of a praying mother, a praying grandmother. I pray that you and I would be responsive to the Word of God if the Lord has stirred your heart to create a course correction, to make a change, to make a brand-new beginning. I pray that you would know that we stand ready to pray with you about that anytime at 866-899-WORD.

Now take a minute, jot the number down, or store it in your cell, 866-899-9673. We'll always, 24 hours a day, connect you with one of us, happy to talk and pray with you and connect you with powerful resources that will help you grow in your life. But before we get away, I want to connect you with our pastor and chief encourager, Dr. Don Wilton, one more time for what could be the most important message from his heart. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much, and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you, and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life, I pray. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. If you just gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus, Dr. Don wants to pray for you and put some free resources in your hands right away. You can call us at 866-899-WORD to receive these resources.

Just let us know how God's changing your life, rededicating your life, or giving your life to Christ for the very first time. The number again is 866-899-9673, or meet us on our website, www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org, where you'll discover great resources like this. This month, as a special bonus offer, you can purchase Saturdays with Billy as a brand new 4CT audiobook. This audiobook is narrated by Dr. Don Wilton and would be a great gift.

It would also be great to listen to in the car. You will enjoy hearing about the beautiful friendship between Billy Graham and his friend and pastor Don Wilton. Along with the audiobook, we are offering a DVD collection of Billy Graham Crusades, A Gathering of Souls. This documentary gives the history of the Crusades from the first event in 1949 to the remarkable events behind the Iron Curtain and in the Far East.

You are sure to enjoy watching this collection of timeless Crusades. Please visit www.tewonline.com or call 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 to order. Our time's gone through today, but let's stay connected on our website at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. As we wrap up the week and look to the weekend, I know Dr. Wilton would challenge us all. Be in church on Sunday. Don't forsake the gathering together of believers. Until next time, take care and God bless.