Well, Happy Mother's Day Summit Church. And I don't know about you, but I can't help but watch that video and be reminded that as we gather together this weekend at all of our campuses, we had the opportunity as a body of believers to truly rejoice with those who are rejoicing, but the opportunity also to weep with those who are weeping. And so whether you're here this morning and your hearts are full of joy and you are rejoicing, or if you're here today and your heart is full of sorrow and you are weeping, we want to say to you we're glad you're here with us as we gather together as a body of believers to open up God's Word and be reminded that Jesus Christ is our hope in this life and He is the hope in the life that is to come. And so as we gather around God's Word, I pray that you will be encouraged.
And at the very end of our time, I'm going to have the opportunity to interview someone who is very important to me that I think is also going to be a great encouragement to you. Now, let me say from the get-go that this weekend's message is going to be geared towards mothers. But if you're not a mom or a female, what I'm about to say still absolutely in every way applies to you.
So let me explain. Every single one of you knows exactly what it's like to be tired. In fact, I would dare to say that most of you coming through the doors of the church this morning, most of you are tired. Most of you are exhausted.
Most of you, when you look at your life, you're recognizing that you're constantly running, constantly moving, and much, much, much of your life you find yourself exhausted. Well, the psalmist gives counsel to those people who are tired. The Scripture says, What an incredible promise to us that we don't have to live lives that are full of anxiety, full of restlessness, full of exhaustion, because we know that God is the one who is building the house.
We know that God is the one who is the watchman on the wall. And therefore, we, His people, can truly experience rest. And did you know that the promise given here is specifically about motherhood? And the promises that God gives to mothers that He will give to His beloved sleep are promises that resonate with all of us who are exhausted. You know, I know for a fact that many of you moms are tired. In fact, I heard of a mom recently who was told by one of her friends, You look so tired. Well, the mom quipped back and said, Well, I have two kids.
I'm pretty sure it's just my face now. You feel that way. You know, I read these reflections from a mom and I wondered, How many moms of the Summit Church would feel this way? This mom wrote, I'm tired. Tired of all the shrill screams of a one-year-old that are causing hearing damage to everyone in our family. I'm tired of redirecting her away from the stairs dozens of times a day only to find herself trying to get under the cabinet of the sink. I'm tired of the moodiness and negativity of a five-year-old who can spread his attitude through the whole house and five minutes flat.
I'm tired of knowing that that same five-year-old will start kindergarten next week and life will never be the same again, ever. I'm tired of getting to the end of every day and feeling like a failure. A failure because I was home all day and somehow the house is still a disaster. A failure because instead of calmly disciplining the kids, I lost it again. The patience I try to muster runs away at the first sign of trouble.
A failure because this is the only thing that I've ever truly wanted to do as well as the most important thing that I will ever do and I'm horrible at it. I wonder how many moms feel that way. You're exhausted and your schedule has become incredibly complex, lording over you, aggressively pushing you from one absolutely necessary thing to the next. For most of us, moms included, for most of you, I doubt that there have been two days in the last month where you have stopped, where you have unplugged from your work, you've unplugged from your to-do list, you've unplugged from your activities, you've unplugged from the hustle and bustle of life to truly enter into a day of Sabbath rest.
You know, I want to ask you a hard question. When you look at your life and you examine it and you look at your level of exhaustion and your complex calendars and your lack of Sabbath rest, do you think this is the way that God intended for you to live? Do you think this is what God expected from you to be constantly exhausted, constantly tired, constantly overwhelmed? Do you think this is what God intended for you to be constantly exhausted and constantly running on fumes? In fact, God not only promises that He will give us rest but He will show us how to rest. Now while you're turning there, some of you might be asking yourself, well, is taking a Sabbath really that important and is it really that big of a deal?
Well, let me ask you a question as you're thinking about that. What other commands do you break at will and not think anything about it? Like, which of the other ones do you just say, ah, that's not a big deal because God puts this command of Sabbath rest in there with the command not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to lie, not to steal, not to be a anything about it. Like, which of the other ones do you just say, ah, that's not a big deal?
Because God puts this command to Sabbath rest in there with a command not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to lie, not to steal, not to covet. You know, so when we look at those, we think those are a pretty big deal. But with this one, why would I take this one any less? So yeah, it's a big deal.
And what I want us to do is look at why it's such a big deal. We're going to look at how God gives this command not once, but twice. And oddly enough, He uses different reasoning for why He gave it. In the first account in Exodus 20, we're going to see that God ties Sabbath rest to the creation, His creation. And then we're going to flip over in Deuteronomy chapter 5, and we're going to look at how God ties Sabbath rest to their deliverance from Egypt, their emancipation from slavery. So let's first look together at Exodus chapter 20.
Let's look at verses 8 through 11 together. The scripture says, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.
So there in the first part, you see the command. Here's the Sabbath day. I want you to keep a day for yourself where you rest.
And here's why. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth to see and all that is in them. But He rested on the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So we see in this passage that God is tying Sabbath rest back to creation. On the seventh day, God rested from His work. But have you ever stopped when reading through the list of the commandments, have you ever stopped to ask yourself, well why did God rest? I mean, why did God work six days and be so explicit to say that on the seventh day you should rest?
Was it because He was exhausted and tired and just wanted to slow down a little bit from creating the expansive universes that we see? Well, we know that's not the case because when we read God's word, we recognize that the Scripture teaches us that God never sleeps, nor does He slumber, and the Scripture reminds us that He holds all things together by the strength of His mighty right hand. So it's not as if God gets tired and He's worn out. So why does God give us this command to rest?
Listen Summit Church, don't miss this. God rests not because He needs to, but because we do. You see, God is saying to us, do what I do, do what I do in order to remember that you are not God. Do what I do in order to remember that you're not God. You need rest, and so I'm going to model this for you. Mark Buchanan, in his excellent book, The Rest of God, says it this way, like a parent who coaxes a cranky toddler to lie down for an afternoon nap by lying down beside her, God woos us into rest by resting.
God commands that we imitate Him in order to discover again that we are not God, that we are not Him, and that we need Him, so Sabbath, in a way, is a return to Eden. Moms and dads, you've done this, right? When your small child is tired and exhausted but they're restless, what do you do with them?
You go to them in your bedroom and you lay down beside them, and you pretend to fall asleep so hopefully they will follow your example and they too will fall asleep. And you all know what really happens. You fall asleep and then you wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning with an elbow to the mouth because you're sleeping with a little hurricane, right?
You've had that happen. This is what God is doing to us. He's coaxing us.
He's reminding us. He's saying, listen, I want you to work six days and I want you to rest on that seventh day. And on that seventh day, I want you to remind yourself that I am God and that you are not.
So you enter into that rest and remind yourself that you're dependent upon Him. Now, turn with me, if you will, turn over a couple of books and turn to the book of Deuteronomy and look with me at chapter 5. Because in Deuteronomy 5, we see the same command given to the people of Israel.
But we see God's rationale for it, His reason for it, given a little bit differently. In verses 12 through 14, you can read those, you can see that the command is almost identical to what you read in Exodus 20. He's saying to them, to their workers, to their animals, all of you take a Sabbath rest. But in verse 15, He tells them why. He says, remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. So now again, in Exodus 20, He ties it to creation. But now in Deuteronomy 5, He's reminding them to rest and He points them to their emancipation from slavery. Remember the people of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years.
For 400 years, they had a taskmaster that had been lording over them, oppressing them. And so when God calls them to rest, He does so by reminding them that they have been set free. And now in their freedom, they can have rest.
Now can you imagine, think about it, can you just imagine what good news that was for them? Can you just imagine as they think back on their history, think back upon their slavery in Egypt, the bondage that they were under. To now hear these words, listen, listen people of Israel, I want you to rest. And here's why, I want you to remember that you once were a slave and now you're no longer a slave. I want you to be reminded of the deliverance that I have given to you and so therefore enter that rest. And what God is saying to the people of Israel, Summit Church, listen, He is saying to you, He's saying to you, you no longer are a slave.
You too can enter into that rest. Tim Keller said it this way, listen, anyone who cannot obey God's command to observe the Sabbath is a slave, even a self-imposed one. Your own heart or our materialistic culture or an exploitative organization or all of the above will be abusing you if you don't have the ability to be disciplined in your practice of the Sabbath. God wants us to rest and be reminded that we are not Him. He never intended for us to take on ourselves the sole responsibility and stress of our provision. We do what we are supposed to do and then we trust God ultimately with the results. And that is even more true, listen, it's even more true for those of us who have been saved by Him.
Because if God went to such lengths to save us, do we not feel that we can trust Him with our needs? And so when we think about our lives, we think about the fact that yes, God, I will trust you to save me. I will trust you to reconcile my sinful soul, but when it comes to my family, when it comes to my provision, when it comes to my money, when it comes to my marriage, when it comes to my job, when it comes to the promotion I want, I'm going to try to control those things. And some in church, when you try to control those things and live as if you're the one responsible to them, you're doing one thing. You are going back to Egypt and you have become a slave again.
God's design for you is to trust Him not only for your salvation, but in every facet and aspect of your life. He's saying to you, stop, rest, remember that you are free. I have set you free and I will continue to supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. You see, it is possible like Moses is telling them, it's possible to have been freed by God but still live as a slave and when you are a slave, you will never ever feel like you can rest. Even when you take a day off, you'll always be working because it will all be dependent upon you, you'll never be resting. Write this down, slaves don't rest. Slaves don't rest. And let me be very frank with you and listen, what I'm about to say is so convicting to me, but if there is never a time in your schedule when you unplug, if there's never a day during the week where you truly rest and you stop and you think about the fact that you are not God and that God has delivered you and that you're no longer a slave, if you never do that, then whatever it is you're spending your time doing, it owns you and you've become its slave. You see, it's become a taskmaster, lording over you, controlling you. Failing to rest means that you have become a slave. Some of you, you've become a slave to your work. You're working 50, 60, 70 hours a week trying to get that next promotion that you are convinced are going to give you just a little bit more influence and a little bit more power or that next raise that you're convinced is going to bring you just a little bit more security or just a little bit more comfort. Moms and dads, some of you are slaves to your kids because you've bought into the lie that says that you have to take them from activity to activity, function to function, because that's what society says is going to make your kids happy and that's what's necessary to set them up for success as you try to distinguish your kid from every other kid.
Some of you are slaves to people's opinions of you, so you go through life never being able to set boundaries, never saying no, constantly worrying about what other people think, always trying to manage people's perceptions so you're physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. But here, don't miss this, in Deuteronomy 5, God is reminding you that when you stop and rest and reflect on the deliverance that you have in Christ, you can over and over again express, God, I trust you. It's like John Owen always said, after the cross, the greatest insult you can give God is a failure to trust Him.
The greatest insult you can give God is a failure to trust Him. But listen, as you do rest, as you stop and as you reflect on the fact that He is God and you are not, as you reflect on the fact that He has delivered you and you begin to deepen and grow in your understanding of His love, listen, you won't be a slave anymore to your work because you'll recognize that your work doesn't define you anymore. And I can tell you, listen, I would imagine if you work, for many of you this is a struggle.
It's a struggle for me. There have been times I know that I've sought to build my identity on whether or not, how good of a preacher I was. So if I preached a bad sermon, I'd go home on Sunday afternoon absolutely devastated and I'd need Julie to kind of puff me up a little bit and tell me something good that I had done so I wouldn't be despairing. You know, I've heard Pastor JD say that he struggles with that, but I'm kind of like, really? Have you ever really preached a bad sermon, man? I was like, it's a little bit different for those others of us, right? I was like, listen, I'm not talking apples to apples here.
You know, it's a struggle. I remember one time I was preaching at the church I served before coming to the summit. I was preaching about how to find God's will and I read this great book by Kevin DeYoung and in the book, the title of the book, it has something like how to find God's will without golden, you know, golden candles and fleeces and liver shivers, right? So I'm quoting the title of the book and as I'm quoting it, you know, I'm going pretty fast and you know, sometimes when you're preaching, you're also listening to yourself. So instead of saying liver shiver, I inadvertently say the other S word from the pulpit. And so here's what I want to do. It's coming out of my mouth and I'm like, did I just say this out loud from the pulpit of God's church?
I'm going to be smoked down right here. I wanted to pack up my notes, walk up to my office, pack my office and because I knew I'm going to be fired tomorrow anyway, you know? So I know that I can go home and I can build my identity on whether or not I did a good job or anything like that, but listen, if I go and rest, God is saying to me, Will, your identity is not found there. Your identity is found in the fact that I have died with you and I have given you significance.
So your significance is not found in your work. My significance doesn't have to be found in the successes or the failures of my children because I know that God is the one who is building the house and he loves my children even more than I do. And I recognize that too, as a father of four, there are times where I struggle and I worry about my children. My daughter went to the prom last weekend. She was excited and I was absolutely petrified the entire time.
I'm like, God, just bring her home safely. You know, there are times when I think about my youngest son, Alex, who's seven, and I've shared with you before that Alex has autism. Here are the things that I think about Alex sometimes as a dad. I wonder, God, what does it look like for you to save the soul of an autistic child whose cognitive development isn't the same as my other children? And then I ask myself the question and I get a little teary and I think to myself, well, God, what happens if Julie and I die and his siblings die? Who's going to take care of my son?
Who's going to care for him when he's 50 and he can't provide for himself anymore? Those things can become overwhelming to me, but it's only when I'm stopping and regularly resting and remembering who God is and what God has done for me and what God has done for my son that I can really know and be sure of the fact that God is saying to me, will I love your kids even more than you do? So rest, so rest. Those of you who are enslaved to what other people think about you, when you rest, you are reminded that God is looking at you and he's saying, you are my son, you are my daughter, and if you are right with the one with whom you have to do upon which all of your sins have been laid bare and God is still calling you a son and daughter in light of Jesus Christ, then who cares what other people say about you? Because Jesus has said, I am going to put my significance on you, and so you can truly rest. So failing to do that, listen, let me back up. It's only when you rest, as the psalmist would say, that you can stop eating the bread of anxious toil.
And some in church, that is profoundly good news for every mother, for every father, for every person who hears that. Failing to rest means that you've become a slave, and listen, the bad news keeps getting worse. The bad news is that when you are a slave, you turn others into slaves.
Let me show you, and you can write this down as well. Slaves make others slaves. Slaves make others slaves. Moms, let me illustrate this, speaking directly to you, and dads, you listen carefully because you do this same thing. There is not a mother or father here who doesn't want her child to thrive and succeed. But far too often, your self-worth is directly tied to your children's successes, academically, athletically, spiritually, or otherwise. And so when your success is tied to their success, you begin to demand perfection from yourself and your children.
Now listen, don't miss this. When you do that, that is not out of love for them. That is out of self-validation for you. It's not out of love that you're demanding perfection.
It's out of self-validation that you're demanding it. Paul David Tripp said it this way, we begin to need them to be what they should be so that we can feel a sense of achievement and success. We begin to look at our children as trophies rather than God's creatures.
We secretly want to display them on the mantles of our lives as visible testimonies of a job well done. And so what do we do? As parents, what do we do as mothers and fathers? When they're very young, we begin to try to control them. We become helicopter parents, constantly just hovering around our children, making sure every little thing is safe and they don't ever experience any harm or ever experience any failure. I think one of the clearest examples of this is when you really look around and you see our safety-obsessed culture that we live in. Some of our safety issues are kind of rational.
Some of them are a little bit irrational in my opinion. So for example, if you're over the age of 30 at the Summit Church, I guarantee you didn't wear a bike helmet everywhere you went. You just got on your bike and you rode for miles and your parents said things to you like, hey, go ride your bike, go play outside, come home for dinner.
You know, I don't care if you're gone eight hours. And you would just ride your bike and you would go off and explore. Now we put bike helmets on our kids, we put knee pads on, elbow pads, shoulder pads, and they're walking around like the Michelin Man and we're wondering why, why is my kid falling off the bike? It's because they can't move.
You know, they're walking around like zombies. You think about it with trampolines. If you grew up, when I grew up, there was no such thing as a net around a trampoline. That was like a 50-50 shot that you were going to go to the hospital, right? It's like Russian roulette. You're jumping, you're praying that your fingers or your knees don't get caught in those springs, that you don't get like double bounced and faceplate into the ground. I mean it was harsh and now we won't let our kids have trampolines or be friends with kids who have trampolines or be friends with friends who have trampolines.
Now if you do have one trying to get into that thing, it's like getting into Fort Knox, you know? That kind of controlling, that kind of controlling helicopter, it continues on in life. It continues on in life. Reggie Joyner wrote a great book called Parenting Beyond Your Capacity and in the book he wrote this, we're fine if our children never climb a mountain as long as it guarantees that they never get hurt. But what if our children were made for the mountains? The ultimate mission of the family is not to protect your children from all harm, but to mobilize them for the mission of God.
It's possible to hold onto our kids so tightly that we forget that the ultimate goal of the parenting is to let go. Psalm 127 reminds us, right, that our children are like arrows in the hands of a warrior. What is the point of an arrow? The point of the arrow is to be launched. We want to launch our children so that they can go and proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ who has brought them out of darkness and into the marvelous light. It's like Pastor J.D. has said our children are like arrows that are to be pulled back on the bowstring of faith and launched into the mission of God.
The art that we keep in our home. You know when talking with our college leadership, did you know that the biggest obstacle to sending children to the mission field? College students who were asking to give us a summer or give us your first year or two years out of college. Do you know what the biggest obstacle is? Raising support, hard, but no. Being away from home in the American culture, again, hard, but no.
No McDonald's, hard, but no. You know what it is, it's parents. It's parents. It's parents who are afraid that spending time overseas will either hurt their kids future earnings potential or that their students will be in harm's way. What if our kids were made for that, which is precisely what they are. So on one hand we're trying to control things, we're trying to control them, but on the other hand we're pushing them. We're pushing them harder and harder all the while demanding excellence and perfection. We push them to be the best students, the best athletes, the most well-rounded, so instead of leading our children to rest and delight in Christ, we are, as one author said, listen don't miss, we are pressuring our children to become restless versions of ourselves.
We're pressuring our children to become restless versions of ourselves. Jonathan Linker, our North Raleigh student director, shared with me a survey of graduating seniors that were asked this question. If my parents could know one thing about me right now, what would it be? And listen to how they responded. I would want them to know that I'm working as hard as I can to please them. I want them to know that I'm overwhelmed, that I'm really stressed out and I need them to back off. I wish they would stop stressing me out about college, I know how important it is.
I wish they would stop making me take the ACT when I'm already in the 98th percentile. I wish they knew that I'm scared and I wish they knew that I need to rest and I wish they knew, I wish I knew they appreciated my hard work. So I'm at church, I wonder how many of our children, if they were really honest, would tell us that they're exhausted and overwhelmed by the expectations we have placed on them. These students didn't say it exactly like this, but did you hear it?
I said, Mom, Dad, you're a taskmaster in my life. And because we are a slave, we put them into slavery. Their exhaustion comes from the demands we place on them because we've never learned to rest ourselves. We never stop and experience Sabbath rest that God is commanding us to experience.
And some at church, this will always be the case. We will always be a slave who never rests and we will always make other slaves until we learn to rest. And by rest, I mean more than just taking a day off. It's more than just having extended vacations away from work when you unplug. You see, deep soul rest can't be found in a day off.
It's found in a relationship with a person. Jesus said, come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what church? Rest. Listen, until you find deep rest in Christ, you'll always labor and be heavy laden. The reason you feel driven to prove yourself and protect yourself is because you've lost your identity in God and your trust in God. But the gospel tells us that Jesus has saved us and if you've received his salvation, then your significance is in him. Jesus loved you so much that he went to a cross for you and that assures you that you are important to God. And your kids are important to him too and they have a purpose, they have an assignment from the King of Kings. That's why we're so passionate about equipping our children for the mission of God. You find your identity in serving him and in serving him, there is freedom and you know you can trust him. If Jesus would go to the cross where he would bleed and die, if Jesus would go to a cross where he would experience unbelievable physical and emotional pain, none of which, however, could compare to the cosmic pain that Jesus experienced when all the wrath and condemnation and judgment that you and I were deserving of in order to save us from our sin, if God would do that for you, then he could be trusted with every other aspect of your life. So weary son and weary daughter, weary father and weary mother, you come to Jesus and find rest. I'm reminded of how the hymn writer said it and I'd never heard this before and it just goes to show my lack of knowledge of the hymns, but the hymn writer said it this way, lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet, stand in him and him alone, gloriously complete. Some at church, moms, dads, lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet and stand in him and him alone, gloriously complete.
Amen. I want to invite someone up on stage who means a great deal to me and I really do believe will be an encouragement to you. Will you join me in welcoming my mom on Mother's Day, Donna Taburen. Well, let me share a little bit about my mom. My mom and dad will be married 49 years on June the 3rd, so in just a few weeks she has, she has raised four children at one time. She had four kids in the home seven years and younger, so I think she can relate to a lot of you moms who have young children at home and I can say to you, I'm one of the very fortunate ones who grew up in a home where my mother and father loved the Lord and helped us to see the beauty and majesty of Christ all throughout our lives and for that I'm profoundly grateful to them, but more importantly to my Heavenly Father for blessing us that way so much. I asked my mom in the first service kind of the question that I know all of you really want to know, being the mother of four kids, which one of them is her favorite and without missing a beat my mother said, none of you, it's your grandchildren. She said, it's the grandchildren, she's like you're purely utilitarian, a means to an end. We wanted grandchildren and we knew this was the way we were going to have to get there. You know mom, we've talked a lot about today, just about rest and finding rest and how God designs us.
That's why He's given us a Sabbath day, but really the Sabbath day is just to point us to a person, you know, in Jesus. I think one of the ways, the easiest ways for us to figure out what we are a slave to though and what keeps us from resting is to ask ourselves the question, what are we most afraid of? Whatever I'm most afraid of is going to dictate whatever I do in my life because that's my biggest fear. So as a young mother, what were you most afraid of?
Well I'm ashamed to admit, but my greatest fear was the failure of not being perfect. As you well know, I have an A-type personality, I'm a neat freak. Let me stop right there. The woman is a neat freak, alright. When we were young, we had this rug in our house that had a fringe on it that was about this long, that was little long stringy things, daily. My mother would make us comb the fringe.
Like the fringe must be perfect, not one out of line, and so we'd get on our hands and knees and comb the fringe. So yes, she was a perfectionist, just slightly. So neat freak. I plead guilty. I plead guilty. But anyway, I was a people pleaser too, and I didn't want to disappoint people. And so I worked so hard all the time, working in my own strength, and depending upon myself. I saw my family, my children, my husband to some extent, my own physical appearance, as a picture of my care, a reflection of my care, and my responsibility, which I took so seriously. I was passionate about being a mom.
I was passionate about being a good wife. But in that, I saw that I was validating myself. That's where I got my self-worth. That's where my identity was. And so I was listening to a sermon that JD preached not long ago in this series that you're listening to, and he just nailed it right on the head when he said, are we doing things according to our will, in our strength, for our glory?
Or is it according to God's will, in God's strength, for His glory? Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. I love how my mom just quoted JD back to me. But that's so true, right?
I mean, that's exactly right. Well, you know, I mean, I know that we saw that kind of growing up and, you know, and I think you've been so honest about that, you know, is that something you still struggle with today? I still struggle with it today, and, you know, God has taken me on a journey, and I've grown with Him. But I continue, that is the bent of my heart, my nature.
And so I have to watch it, and I have to surrender it. I was thinking of when I was a little girl. I was a ballerina.
I studied ballet, as you know, for years and years. And one of the first things we're taught is when you turn or spin or do anything in a turning motion, in a moving motion, you learn to spot on one particular thing. And as you turn, you snap your head, and you focus right back on that spot. And that is what keeps us balanced. That's what keeps the dancer balanced, the athlete balanced, and on the right direction, you know? And so it was God, God showed me that He was my focus, that He was the one that would keep my life in balance. God's Word says that he who dwells in the shelter of the Almighty will rest in the shadow of the Most High. That's so good. Now, I mean, it's just all about Him.
He's the source. Yeah, because you know, like, our heart is always bent that way. Like, our heart is deceitfully wicked above all things, and so we're always going to default back to whether it be perfectionism or approval of a people or finding your identity somewhere else. And that's such a great word, just to be mindful of the fact that it really is about focusing and focusing on Christ. Well, one last question I want to ask you. We have a lot of young mothers at our church, and so I wanted to ask you, what do you know now that you wish you knew when you were younger and you had all of us at home with small kids?
Well, as I was growing in Christ, I knew, I heard about having that special time with God every day. But the busyness of motherhood, and you all, all these mothers know, is so easily, we all have a schedule. Yeah. You know, we run and operate by a schedule. But the most important thing we can do, we can put on that schedule, is time with the Father. Yeah.
Time sitting at the Master's feet, being intimate with Him, learning about who He is, and trusting Him. Yeah. Yeah. In that special spot and that time.
Yeah. And that enabled me, that just so freed me from this slave that I was to the tasks and to my own work, to say no to just all the good things that are constantly coming in at you to do and say yes to God's best. What God, the best things that God wanted me to do. And I was able to do that without guilt because I was incomplete in His care, confident, secure. And then the other thing is that I have prayed, I've learned to pray like this physically. And I physically pray this way. And I open my fingers and open my hands because so often I'd be praying like this, my hands twisting my hands in a fist. And it was like, God, let me open it all to you because you who tell me, and I trust you, I'm walking in my eternal security. There's absolutely nothing I cannot leave at your feet under your control. Mom, I want to say to you in front of everyone, I'm so thankful for how God has worked in you.
And I know that that's not always been easy. I know that that's a constant work of the Lord in you. But I'm so grateful for how God has used you to help me and our family see Christ more.
And we all today can rise up and call you blessed for that. And so I'm going to ask my mom to do one more thing for us today. I want her to pray. I want her to pray over these mothers and ask God's hand just to be upon and to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. So mom, will you pray for us?
Yes. Gracious Heavenly Father, I just give you all glory, praise, and honor. And just thank you so much for the privilege of being a mom. And I thank you for all those here today, these precious mothers, for the heart, the mother's heart that you've given us, that nurturing heart, that heart that you know so well, that desires so much with everything that we are to raise children that love you and will serve you. Father, I pray that as we step out and walk in faith, in our faith, trusting you for our eternity, that we will step out in that same faith, Lord, releasing all into your hands. Father, just knowing that we can trust everything and anything, our precious children, every situation that enters our lives into your capable hands, because Lord Jesus, you are the same yesterday, today and forevermore, you are the answer. And I pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. At all of our Summit campuses, I want to ask you to stand at your campuses, your worship leaders are coming. And now for the next few minutes, I just want us to continue to worship Him and rest and reflect on the finished work of Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's sing together.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-05 09:53:56 / 2023-09-05 10:11:11 / 17