Saved Through Childbearing

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:02
I want to invite you to take out your Bibles, turn with me to 1 Timothy.
00:18
We are going to be studying this morning 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15.
00:26
If you want to hold your place there.
00:34
Last year on Mother's Day, Jennifer had just entered into her second trimester with our third child, Hope.
00:50
Those of you who know our history know that Hope is our first child by birth.
00:55
We have two children which God gave us through adoption some years before.
01:00
So while she was our third child, she was our first baby and we were very nervous.
01:10
And we still are, to be quite honest with you.
01:14
Childbearing is a frightening thing.
01:17
I mean it really is.
01:18
All the months leading up to it, the doctor's appointments, the false alarms, the concerns of the safety for the child and for the mother.
01:26
Some of you are going through it right now.
01:28
We have two families right now that are going through it.
01:30
So you know what I'm talking about.
01:31
It really is.
01:32
It has a degree of terror that goes along with it.
01:37
There's a little bit of fright that goes along.
01:39
And I bring this up of course because today is Mother's Day.
01:44
Many of us are thinking about our relationship with our mothers and the special bond that we have with them.
01:51
Which is unlike any other bond in the world.
01:54
And my text today is going to address the subject of childbirth in somewhat of a unique way.
02:04
We are going to see how the Apostle Paul expresses to us that there is actually a type of salvation which is found in childbirth.
02:16
There is actually a type of redemption or deliverance which is found in childbirth.
02:21
Now it's not deliverance from sin.
02:23
And it's not forgiveness of sin.
02:26
But rather a different yet still very important redemptive blessing is involved when a woman gives birth to a child.
02:37
So this morning we're going to read this passage and then give explanation of it.
02:41
Let's stand together and read 1 Timothy 2 and verse 15.
02:55
Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
03:11
Our Father and our God as we seek to come together to understand this text today, I pray first and foremost Lord that you would keep me from error.
03:21
I pray that you would tie me to the post of your truth and Lord God that I would not wander from it.
03:30
I pray oh Lord that your word would be the guide to us this morning and that your Holy Spirit would ultimately be the teacher.
03:37
That you would open up the hearts of the people to understand the truth.
03:40
And that through the truth we would understand even yet better your word.
03:45
Thank you Lord for it.
03:46
Thank you Lord for this blessing.
03:47
I pray that as it is preached you would be glorified.
03:52
In Jesus name we pray.
03:55
Amen.
03:57
Now I imagine of the millions of churches in America that this text is not the first one that most pastors chose this morning.
04:13
Imagine there was some Proverbs 31 business, maybe some Lois and Eunice business.
04:17
But going to 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15, not the first one for Mother's Day for a lot of folks.
04:26
Because I want to be crystal clear, this text is somewhat controversial.
04:36
And it's part of one of the most controversial sections of the New Testament in regard to the relationship between men and women and how men are to behave and how women are to behave in the body of Christ.
04:51
It lands right in the thick of it, if you will.
04:55
But I want to tell you too, I want to be honest with you, that wasn't the reason why I chose this text.
05:01
I don't go out of my way to be controversial just to be controversial.
05:04
Don't give me that look.
05:06
I don't try to be controversial.
05:13
The reason why I chose this text is because it says something about motherhood that is not said anywhere else in the Bible.
05:22
It says something very unique about motherhood that I wanted to explain to you and help you to understand.
05:31
That's my job, is to explain the Scripture and to apply the Scripture.
05:36
And on a day like today, when we've gathered to worship, but we also, we proclaim the gift of motherhood and we exalt the gift of motherhood and we give the roses to the mothers as they come to the door and we talk about the blessings of motherhood.
05:51
What better than to look at a text that most people don't understand, most people skip right by without even trying to understand it and see what it says to us about the blessing of motherhood.
06:05
It actually says motherhood has a redemptive quality.
06:10
But what does that mean? We know that it doesn't mean salvation from sins.
06:16
That's a given.
06:18
A woman is not saved just because she has a baby.
06:21
If that were so, almost all women would be saved.
06:26
Only the barren would be without salvation.
06:29
If that were the meaning of the text, then obviously that is not the case.
06:34
A woman is not saved from her sins simply because she bears a child.
06:40
But what then does the text mean? Because certainly if someone read just that text, they might could come away with such an errant view in their theology.
06:51
How is a woman saved through childbirth and how does this apply to mothers? And to all of us today? That's the question that we have to ask when we approach this text.
07:03
So what we're going to do is as we do every time, we read the text, we explain the text, we apply the text.
07:09
That's what preaching is.
07:11
So let's now go through the text.
07:13
We're going to read it and then we're going to understand it and then we're going to apply it.
07:18
So the text says, yep, see, this is how it reads in the ESV.
07:23
Some says some some of your text may begin with the word notwithstanding.
07:28
The ESV simply says yet.
07:31
It's the it's it's Greek word day.
07:34
The Delta Epsilon in Greek.
07:39
But it says yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
07:48
The first thing we must do when we begin to exegete a text or give exegesis of a text is to consider the context of that text.
07:58
It would be easy to rip this from its context and make up all kinds of meanings.
08:02
It would be easy to just tear it out, put it by itself.
08:05
And that's what a lot of people do with the Bible.
08:06
They tear one verse out of its context.
08:08
They print it on their wall or they put it in their Bible.
08:11
They write it down on a page and they only have that one verse.
08:14
And they don't have the other verses that go with it to to provide them an understanding of it.
08:18
And this verse would be very easy to confuse if you didn't have anything else to go with it.
08:24
So I think what we need to understand is that this verse is part of a broader understanding of a truth that starts in verse eight.
08:34
In fact, that word I was talking about, that word day, the D.E.
08:37
word, that Greek word that's yet in the ESV, that word, when we think of yet, we think of it as a contrast.
08:49
If I say, you know, a man was tall, yet he was shorter than everyone else.
08:55
You know, that's usually a contrast.
08:57
The word yet introduces some type of a contrast.
08:59
But in this, in this, in the Greek here, it is actually a continuation of thought.
09:05
That's what that word means.
09:06
It's a continuation of thought from what's come before.
09:08
So that's important to understand.
09:10
So this, this final, yet she will be saved through childbearing, is coming at the end of another thought that's already happened.
09:17
So we need to, starting back at verse eight, read all the way down through to get the fullest understanding.
09:22
So go back up to verse eight with me.
09:25
He says in verse eight, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.
09:37
Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.
09:54
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
09:57
I do not permit a woman to teach or to have exercised authority over a man.
10:01
Rather, she is to remain quiet.
10:03
For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
10:09
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
10:13
Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
10:21
So here's the context that leads up to verse 15.
10:26
The Apostle Paul is discussing the complementing roles of men and women within the church.
10:32
He challenges men, in verse eight, to watch their temperament.
10:37
Why do you think that is? Well, could it be that that's one of the things that men struggle with most? Is the control of our temper.
10:48
We have that part of us that tends to be a little bit more aggressive than the feminine, the woman.
10:59
So he defines them by saying that we are to watch our temperament.
11:04
Then, in verses nine and ten, he challenges women to adorn themselves modestly.
11:11
Now, some of the explanation which is often questioned, well, is it wrong for a girl to wear pigtails if they're braided? The braiding of the hair and the gold and the pearls and the costly attire, this is somewhat of a cultural example.
11:26
Because at the time, the only women who would wear hair like this, they would braid their hair with gold, were the prostitutes, would braid their hair with gold.
11:33
And it was a demonstration of who they were, what they were about.
11:37
And to do that was accepting the culture and being a part of the culture.
11:41
So there is a cultural aspect to this example.
11:44
This is Paul's example, but it still goes for today.
11:49
We are not to adorn ourselves immodestly.
11:54
Women or men.
11:55
It used to be we only had to talk to women about that, but now men dress immodestly as well.
12:02
So the apostle is saying here simply that men, watch your temperaments.
12:08
Women, adorn yourself modestly.
12:13
And then he encourages women, in verse 11, to be students within the assembly.
12:18
A lot of people miss this part because he says, Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
12:22
And the first thing people see is quietly and submissiveness, and they have a fit.
12:27
Oh, well, he was pushing women down.
12:29
He was pushing women down.
12:30
You understand the whole idea of learning in the assembly is a new thing.
12:35
That under Jewish culture, the women were not allowed to come in and learn with the men.
12:38
This is a new thing that they are even allowed to come in and do this.
12:42
That the fact that they can come in and learn is a big deal.
12:45
But all we see quietly is submissiveness.
12:47
Oh, that just doesn't fit with our 20th century culture, 20 percent to where we are.
12:51
I always forget.
12:52
Which one are we in? But we don't like that.
12:59
But the reality is this is quite a lifting up of women.
13:04
The idea of learning, the encouragement to learn is a good thing.
13:09
But that within the assembly, there is to be an understanding of the roles.
13:13
He forbids in verse 12 that women have an exercise authority and that they teach.
13:19
And particularly that this is done exercising authority over men, teaching men.
13:25
And again, this is somewhat controversial.
13:28
It shouldn't be.
13:30
It shouldn't be.
13:31
This is God's word.
13:32
This is what it says.
13:33
It's not a debate.
13:34
It's not something I came up with.
13:36
It's not something you all came up with.
13:38
And people say, oh, your church is so backwards.
13:40
You're so you're so eighteen hundreds, you know, seventeen hundreds.
13:44
No, we just believe that the Bible is true.
13:46
That's all.
13:48
It's either right or it's not.
13:49
And I don't want to go picking through trying to decide what I think is right and what's not.
13:52
I'm just either going to believe it all or not believe any of it.
13:55
That's the easiest way to live.
13:59
As soon as you start picking out the parts you don't agree with and jettisoning no's, you're going to end up with, you know, not even a couple of sentences.
14:09
Then in verse 13 and 14, he points out the mandate for women and men.
14:15
And he says this actually has its roots in creation.
14:20
Adam and Eve both sinned.
14:23
But Eve was the one who was deceived, according to this text.
14:28
In fact, this text tells us Eve was deceived and Adam wasn't.
14:32
And that doesn't let Adam off the hook.
14:36
Don't think that for a second.
14:37
Adam was not deceived, but rather acted in wanton rebellion against God's command.
14:44
That's not better than being deceived.
14:47
But it is different.
14:49
It is different.
14:50
And that's Paul's point.
14:52
It's that the woman was deceived.
14:54
Adam acted in rebellion, which is why we see in Romans chapter 5.
15:00
What does Romans 5 tell us about our sin? We sinned in whom? Did we sin in Adam or in Eve? The Bible says we sinned in Adam.
15:07
In Adam, all died.
15:09
And in Christ, all are made alive.
15:10
That's 1 Corinthians 15.
15:12
We see Adam is charged.
15:14
He is the one who is charged with bringing sin into the world.
15:17
Through one man, sin entered the world.
15:19
And death through sin and death spread to all men because all sinned.
15:22
That is true.
15:23
Adam is condemned for that.
15:26
He is marked and judged for having brought sin into the world through his rebellion.
15:31
But Eve is not let off the hook either.
15:33
She was deceived.
15:35
The apostle tells us.
15:37
So all that leads up to verse 15.
15:41
And in verse 15, it says, yet she will be saved through childbearing.
15:53
And the initial question is, who is the she that's being identified here? Because some say that it's Eve herself.
16:01
Some say because it's the singular she.
16:05
And the antecedent of the singular she is Eve.
16:09
That this is a reference to Eve's salvation.
16:13
That she was saved through childbirth because from her eventually came Jesus.
16:20
And because Jesus came from her eventually.
16:23
We know Jesus is the son of...
16:25
eventually was the son of Eve as we all are.
16:27
Well, through that birth of a child, she was saved.
16:30
Now, that is how some people understand this text.
16:34
However, I don't believe that that is the proper interpretation.
16:38
And I'll tell you why.
16:40
To argue that it was Eve who is the she makes the entire passage complicated.
16:49
Because it goes on to say, read it with me, it's on the screen.
16:52
Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith.
16:56
So it goes from the singular she to the plural they.
17:01
If Eve's salvation is in view here, then it is contingent of an unidentified group known as they.
17:09
Who must continue in faith and holiness and self-control for her salvation to be intact.
17:16
That makes no sense.
17:18
It turns the text on its head for that to be the case.
17:21
If her salvation requires, number one, childbirth and someone else to act in faith and holiness and self-control, then it doesn't work.
17:31
So to say that the singular she refers back to Eve, I would say causes more confusion in the text and is an inappropriate interpretation.
17:42
More appropriately, the she and the they are both referring to women in general.
17:54
The she speaks of an individual woman in general and the they speaks to all women in general.
18:03
And the antecedent of the she and the they are both the word woman which comes to us in verse 9.
18:10
If you go back up to text, the general idea of women in general is in verse 9.
18:15
That provides the context and that is the antecedent for both she and they.
18:21
Okay? So all that being said, this leads to the question.
18:26
What are women in general being saved from? Well, as I said earlier, it's not from sin.
18:36
Because it couldn't be.
18:38
We can automatically mark that one off the list.
18:41
And some people say, now, wait a minute.
18:44
I did some reading this week, reading different arguments.
18:47
And some people say, that word is sozo in the Greek.
18:50
And sozo in the Greek always means saved from sin.
18:54
No, it don't not neither.
18:58
It doesn't.
18:59
It does not always mean saved from sin.
19:03
And just to give you a couple of examples, in Luke chapter 1, the word saved is used in this context to be saved from our enemies.
19:14
It says, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies.
19:21
Well, that's not salvation from sin.
19:22
That's salvation from an aggressive enemy.
19:25
It's a different type of saved.
19:26
Everyone agree? But it's the same word, same root.
19:29
Sozo is the same root as what's used in 1 Timothy 2.
19:34
Acts 27 and 20.
19:37
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
19:45
This is when Paul is dealing with the shipwreck situation.
19:49
And when he says, all hope of us being saved has been abandoned.
19:53
Well, what's the saved here? Is it being saved from sin? Was Paul's hope of being saved from sin abandoned? No.
20:01
It's talking about physical salvation.
20:03
Everyone agree? But it's the same root.
20:05
So we see that that root word, sozo, can be used in different contexts.
20:10
It's used in Jude 5 in a different way.
20:12
It talks about people being saved out of the land of Egypt.
20:14
Well, we know when the people were delivered out of the land of Egypt, it wasn't a spiritual salvation.
20:19
It was a physical salvation from slavery.
20:23
In fact, the word in 2 Timothy 2.15 can be translated differently.
20:29
It doesn't have to say, yet you will be saved through childbirth.
20:32
The word can also be translated as delivered.
20:37
It does not always mean saved from sin, as we commonly use it today.
20:42
It can simply mean to be delivered from something.
20:47
And here's the thing.
20:48
The reason why we read it as saved from sin is because in the church we have a vernacular that we have created.
20:56
And we use that word saved in one way.
20:59
Anytime you're in church and you hear the word saved, you automatically think saved from sin.
21:04
Because that's the way we use the term.
21:06
But that doesn't mean it's the way it's being used in this text.
21:08
In fact, it's not at all the way it's being used in this text.
21:12
So, here comes the question.
21:16
If saved here is not in the view of salvation, what are women being saved from? Because it says very clearly, yet she will be saved through childbirth.
21:36
What are women being saved from? Well, let's look at the context.
21:43
Earlier in the text, it was made clear that women are not to exercise authority, nor are they to exercise teaching positions in the body of Christ, and particularly in regard to the teaching or having authority over men.
21:56
But this in no way is meant to degrade or devalue the role of women in society, and in particular, it is in no way meant to devalue the role of women within the church.
22:10
Because whatever sense of purpose or value may be lost in that command that they are not to teach or exercise authority, is in the next text reminded that they have been delivered from that.
22:24
Though she is not to exercise authority in the church, and this does not mean that she never exercises authority at all.
22:31
In fact, as a woman and as a mother, she gets to exercise the most profound authority as the bearer of children.
22:45
God has given mothers a very powerful role in society.
22:52
They are the first teachers that children have.
22:57
They are the first coaches that children have.
23:01
They are the first nurses that children have.
23:04
They are the first counselors that children have.
23:07
They are the first advocates that children have, usually with dad.
23:15
Okay, I thought it was funny.
23:17
The bond which is shared between mothers and their children is more powerful and more precious than any other earthly bond, with the exception of the bond of marriage.
23:30
Mothers maintain the most important role of all, the caregiver and nurturer to the next generation of men and women in the world.
23:37
So, in verses 11 and 12, a restriction of authority is placed on women.
23:44
In verse 15, that restriction is lifted in regard to her children.
23:51
That which is lost is regained.
23:56
No, you are not to exercise authority in the church.
23:58
No, you are not to teach men.
24:00
But there is deliverance in childbirth.
24:08
She is delivered from this restriction in regard to her children.
24:13
But the verse doesn't end there, and this is important, because it doesn't say she will be saved through childbearing, period.
24:19
What it says is she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
24:28
You see, Christian motherhood, beloved, is not just about the act of having a child.
24:35
It includes raising children in the faith.
24:39
No mother can guarantee the salvation of her children.
24:43
But she can model that faith, model that love, model that holiness, and model that self-control to her children.
24:51
And that is where the deliverance has its most powerful expression, in modeling the redeemed life before a child.
25:00
Many people have been saved as a result of the preaching of godly men.
25:05
I would argue, though, many people have also been saved as a result of the example of a godly mother.
25:16
2 Timothy 1, verse 5, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am confident dwells in you as well.
25:33
You see, even Timothy was influenced in his faith by who? By his grandmother and by his mother.
25:40
So, the text, I admit, is not an easy one, but I hope that it is better understood now.
25:51
It's not salvation from sin, but it's deliverance from the restriction.
25:56
It's deliverance from what was lost.
26:01
Yes, women are not to teach men in the assembly, but that doesn't mean they have no authority anywhere.
26:06
The greatest and most sincere blessing that any woman has is to be the mother of a child, that through that child they grow them up in the faith.
26:19
So, now that we understand the text a little better and its meaning, what application can we draw? Remember, that's what we should do.
26:28
We should understand the text, but then we apply it.
26:32
It does no good to simply understand something without making application, so let's apply the text.
26:36
How can we apply this text? Well, here it is simply.
26:42
I want to tell you, it's not the most profound thing you've ever heard, but I hope that you'll see it for what I've seen it as.
26:51
This is my application for today.
26:54
Childbirth, get ready, childbirth is a blessing.
27:05
Motherhood is a noble, powerful, and wonderful thing, a thing through which God has chosen to bless women.
27:14
It's a blessing.
27:16
Now, you may be thinking, well, that's rather obvious, Pastor.
27:19
I mean, aren't we here today to celebrate Mother's Day? That's not very profound of you, but yet it is profound, because many today do not understand it.
27:31
We live in a culture wherein childbirth is seen as a curse, and motherhood is seen as a burden rather than a blessing.
27:46
We have forfeited biblical womanhood for a horribly corrupted facsimile created in the last century by groups who claim to want to equalize women, but instead have robbed them of their femininity.
28:00
We have tried to completely neutralize gender, and in doing so we have created an entire culture which devalues and degrades the idea of motherhood and womanhood.
28:17
The very place wherein women are to find their greatest satisfaction and personal fulfillment has now been considered by many in the world to be a curse or a punishment.
28:29
The President of the United States, in referring to his daughters, he said, if my daughter makes a mistake, and in the context he was referring to a sexual mistake, if my daughter makes a mistake, I don't want her punished with a baby.
28:48
I've quoted him many times in that, I've actually said that from the pulpit before, because I bring up that quote because it was used to support abortion.
28:58
The greatest life-taking act ever allowed in human history.
29:05
And what was the logic behind the quote? Children are punishments.
29:11
Children are punishments, and we should have a surgical procedure which legally ends the life of a baby in the womb because we do not want to live with the consequences of a bad decision.
29:23
That's what that means.
29:29
But beloved, the President was not alone.
29:32
Our entire culture has changed in regard to how we see childbirth.
29:37
It used to be a blessing.
29:39
It used to really be a blessing.
29:40
Now, one child is a blessing.
29:43
Two children is still a blessing.
29:49
Three, you're getting a little crazy.
29:51
You're getting a little carried away.
29:52
Am I right? I'm looking to the Stoddards now because once you start getting to four, five, and six, you are no longer seen as a blessing.
30:01
What are you seeing? People in the culture shun that.
30:09
I mean, ask them after church.
30:10
We've talked about this.
30:12
Don't you have the TV? I mean, ask all kinds of questions.
30:16
That's what the attitude is.
30:24
And sometimes they will be ugly in their expressions.
30:30
It's even worse when a woman makes childrearing her main purpose in life.
30:35
It really is.
30:36
That's when it gets really ugly because society has decided that being a homemaker is no longer a noble task.
30:45
In 1963, Betty Friedan wrote a book called The Feminine Mystique in which she claimed that women are trapped in an unwanted life of domesticity.
30:55
Roughly translated, that means they don't really want to stay at home and be moms.
31:01
Three years later, the same woman founded the National Organization for Women, a radical political organization designed to promote the cause now known as feminism.
31:11
Most people in our country don't want to be identified with that agenda or that radical movement, but the extremists have moved people in the middle toward the belief that it is not personally fulfilling to stay home and be a mother.
31:22
You need to have a job.
31:24
You need to do something outside the home.
31:25
Being a mother is not enough.
31:28
And the structure of our society is such that the woman who has found her worth and value is the woman who runs a business, or the woman who serves in political office, or the woman who reads the news on the television.
31:39
That's the woman who's found success.
31:41
That's the woman who's found fulfillment.
31:42
And the woman who stays at home to take care of a child just isn't reaching her potential.
31:49
And that's where we've come.
31:54
The stay-at-home mother accompanies her husband to one of his work events or parties, and she's asked, what do you do while I stay at home and I work from home? I work with my children.
32:10
I'm a homeschool mother.
32:15
Inevitably, that's not enough.
32:18
I've actually heard little girls in school ask the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? They'll say, I want to be a mommy.
32:28
No, what do you want to do for a job? No, that's not enough.
32:36
What do you want to do for a living? You can't just want to be a mommy.
32:43
Beloved, there is no more precious thing that a girl could want to be than to be a Christian mother.
32:55
And you know, Adam and I were talking the other day.
32:57
We both, we want our girls to go to college.
33:00
If God allows that and God makes the way, we want them to be able to go to college.
33:04
But at the same time, more so, we both, I imagine you would agree, we'd want them to be Christian wives and mothers.
33:11
You know, you may become a Lego expert and a Lego engineer.
33:15
That'd be awesome.
33:16
That's what we've talked about.
33:18
And Ashley has no idea what she wants to be yet, if she wants to work at all.
33:23
But my encouragement to her, my encouragement to all you young ladies out there, is don't give up the idea or don't buy into society's idea that you have to be a professional anything to have your worth in life.
33:41
Because the greatest blessing you can have, the greatest blessing, the greatest blessing in my life is, I have a lot of blessings.
33:50
I'm blessed to be your pastor.
33:51
I'm blessed to have the things that I'm able to do.
33:54
The greatest blessing in my life, though, is sitting back on that row.
33:58
To be their father.
34:01
And it's my job to go out and take care of them and protect them and provide for them.
34:05
And I'm blessed that my wife gets to be home with them every second of every day.
34:14
And that's the point today.
34:15
It's a simple point, but I argue it's still profound.
34:18
Motherhood is a blessing.
34:20
Childbirth is a blessing.
34:22
God has given that gift to mothers.
34:26
He has ordained a sacred responsibility for mothers, which is unique in the world.
34:32
Dads are valuable, and we're going to talk about dads in a couple weeks.
34:35
His Father's Day is coming.
34:36
But nothing can replace Mom.
34:40
Mom has a special place in Dad's heart.
34:43
Mom has a special place in the children's heart.
34:49
And it's a place ordained by God.
34:53
Recently, we began trying to learn and teach sign language to Hope.
34:58
I barely know one language.
35:05
And learning sign language is tough.
35:07
But we found out that she's capable of expressing herself with her hands first, before she can really express herself with her mouth.
35:17
So, other than what she's doing now, which is blah blah blah, she does a lot of that.
35:22
But the interesting thing that we learned, the only sign language I now know, other than Lord, I do know this one.
35:32
But, was Mother and Father, or Mommy and Daddy.
35:40
And I was sitting there thinking about that.
35:41
I was writing this sermon.
35:42
I was sitting there thinking about what I want to say.
35:43
And I was thinking about, you know, Mom is higher than Dad.
35:50
And there's some hidden symbolism in that.
35:53
Maybe some radical feminist came along and said, You know what? Women should be above the men.
35:59
I don't think it was anything so sinister.
36:03
But there is truth in this gesture, which I want to remind everyone of today.
36:09
While it is no doubt that my wife understands my role in the house, as leader, provider, authority in the home, she also understands something else.
36:20
While I have the authority of being the father and the husband, she always has first place in the home.
36:28
Because she is my life mate.
36:30
She is my partner.
36:31
She is my best friend.
36:33
My relationship with her rises above any other relationship in this world.
36:37
It rises above that which is with my parents, and it rises above that which is with my children.
36:45
So when my hand goes up to sign Mama, I don't mind.
36:48
I don't mind saying that she has first place in my heart, and first place in my house.
36:53
And as a father, I want to end this with this.
36:56
Motherhood is a blessing to mothers, but here's the thing that we men need to understand.
37:01
We need to teach that to our children.
37:04
We need to teach them the place of Mom in our heart.
37:08
That she is here.
37:10
Because what happens in a lot of relationships, and it's a destructive thing, is that Mom and Dad's relationship is defined by the children.
37:23
But beloved, that blessing that children are, it's a perpetuation of your relationship.
37:29
It's not what brought you together.
37:30
It's not the cause of the relationship.
37:33
So my encouragement today is this, and it's very simple.
37:36
Understand the blessing of motherhood.
37:38
Understand the blessing that your wives give you in bringing your children to you.
37:41
And always keep her in your home as the primary of your heart.
37:47
You lift her up.
37:48
You take care of her.
37:48
You support her.
37:49
And your children see you both as partners for life.
37:54
Let's pray.
38:01
Father, we thank you for this opportunity to again have heard your word.
38:05
We do thank you for what your word has told us today and what the type of redemption that motherhood brings to women.
38:13
That they do have a very important role in the home.
38:16
That they do have a very important role even in the church, oh Lord.
38:20
That they bring in the children.
38:21
That they teach this next generation.
38:26
They teach them about faith and about love and about holiness and about self-control by their actions.
38:33
And Father, I do pray for the mothers in the room.
38:35
I pray that you would just encourage them today.
38:38
I pray that this message has been an encouragement to them and to lift them up.
38:41
And to remind us fathers, Lord, and the children in the room to lift them up and encourage them as they go about that work of motherhood.
38:49
And it really is a job, oh God.
38:50
It's not a simple thing to be a mother.
38:54
We pray for them that you give them strength.
38:56
And Lord God, again, we pray that all of this has been for your glory and honor.
39:02
In Jesus' name we pray.
39:04
Amen.
39:05
Let's stand together and we'll sing.
39:07
If you have a need for prayer, please come.