Sunday Morning Worship Service

Well, good morning. I hope you're doing well on this Mother's Day, and especially a happy Mother's Day to all the moms who are watching today.

Got to thinking about the various stages of motherhood, wondering where you are in those stages.

Here's what I kind of came up with, and I probably should have asked the mother of my children just to confirm these, but I think probably stage one is expectation, when you're looking forward to motherhood, and then fascination, while you're waiting as things develop before the day of birth, fascination with what's going on, and then anticipation as that day becomes closer and closer, and then desperation, desperation as to what do

I do, what do I do, and of course there's intimidation, intimidation by just the overwhelming nature of this role of motherhood, and then you get into that role, and it involves years of perspiration, and then hopefully when all is said and done, there's a great deal of satisfaction.

Well, wherever you are in that, those stages of motherhood, I hope you moms have a great day, and you're known, you know very well how much you're loved, not only by your children, but by your church family, as we certainly respect you and love you and appreciate all that you are and have done in your families.

Well, just a few things to share by way of announcements before we begin our worship service itself.

We're continuing the daily devotionals. You can catch those live at noon and at six o 'clock every day, and of course the videos are always available after the fact on the church website and also on the

YouTube channel, so you can catch that daily devotional on Facebook, the church

Facebook page, the church home page, website, as well as my personal website.

Meet on Wednesday night at seven o 'clock in the same format, in a video format, and that is available only on the church website, just to confirm that, faithbaptiststerling .com.

This Saturday afternoon at two o 'clock, there is a wedding with Nathan and Carissa.

We're looking forward to uniting them in matrimony. You're welcome to watch that, church family anyway, welcome to watch that by live stream, and at some point this week you'll get an email with instructions on how to do that.

I've been getting questions about when are we going to meet again, when are we going to gather together again. You've probably heard our governor's decree that churches should not expect to meet for a year, well at least until the end of the year, so churches that is no greater than ten in number should not expect to gather until at least the end of the year.

Needless to say, for the vast majority of churches that understand the nature of the local church and what it is to be, that's not acceptable, and there's there are plenty of challenges that are going on right now regarding that.

Our tentative plans are at least to continue what we're doing now through the end of May, through the last

Sunday of May, and then we'll consider what to do after that. I'm pretty confident that our governor is probably going to make some adjustments to his decrees, and hopefully that'll make our decisions somewhat easier, but I do want you to know we're very sensitive to it.

We're sensitive to balancing the responsibility to respect those who are in authority over us, and yet at the same time we have to obey

God rather than men. I've often thought in the last, well in my pastoral ministry, that the day could come in our nation where we have to face some of the same questions that believers in countries like China and places like that have to face, where they are prohibited from meeting if they don't follow state sanction guidelines, and those sanctions of course would be unacceptable to believers, and so that day may come sooner than we think, and who would have thought even a year ago that we would even be talking like this today.

Well nevertheless, I do want you to know that we're, as pastor and the deacons and I, are concerned about these things and thinking them through and discussing them, and we want to keep you informed as we make decisions, we surely will.

Psalm 89, as we begin our worship service today, the 89th Psalm, the first verse says,

I will sing of the mercies or the steadfast love of the Lord forever. With my mouth will

I make known your faithfulness to all generations. I want to begin today with the hymn,

Jesus your name. Jesus your name, prince of peace, quiets my soul, treasures the least.

In perfect rest you will keep all whose hope is in you. Jesus your name can silence the storms, the strivings that trouble our world.

Jesus your name reveals you as Lord, oh powerful name.

Jesus your name, counselor, wonderful way, life's comforter, spirit of truth defending me, though in me was the blame.

Jesus your name has stood in my place and freed me from hopeless shame.

Jesus your name now fathers me, with joy I bear his name.

Jesus your name, mighty God, all powerful one, ruling in love, there is a king upon the throne earth cannot overthrow.

Jesus your name, great banner of hope, steadies the knees of the weak.

Jesus the name all nations will praise, oh glorious name.

Let's pray together. Our father and our God, we are grateful for the

Lord Jesus Christ, the one whose name is powerful, it is glorious.

We're thankful today that we who know him as our savior can have great confidence when the world is shaking and unsteady.

We're thankful that we can have courage when the world is filled with fear.

We're thankful that we can have peace when all around us is filled with turmoil and restlessness.

Thank you for our savior. And we thank you for this time together this morning and pray that as we as we meditate on your word, on some hymns of the faith, and then listen to what you have for us through your word, our hearts would be blessed, challenged, encouraged, and even convicted.

This we pray in Jesus name, amen. I want to read

Psalm 113 for our Psalm of the Week. Psalm 113 ties into the idea of Mother's Day today.

Psalm 113 says, praise the Lord, praise oh servants of the Lord, praise the name of the

Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the

Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord. And our next hymn exhorts us to do just that, praise ye the

Lord. Praise ye the

Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation. Oh my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation.

All ye who hear, brothers and sisters, draw near, praise him in glad adoration.

Praise ye the Lord, who o 'er all things so wondrously reigneth, shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth.

Hast thou not seen how thy desires ere have been granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise ye the Lord, who with marvelous wisdom hath made thee, decked thee with health, and with loving hand guided and stayed thee.

How often grief hath not he brought thee relief, spreading his wings for to shade thee.

Praise ye the Lord, oh let all that is in me adore him, all that hath life and breath, come now with praises before him.

Let the amen sound from his people again, gladly for aye, we adore him.

Well as we pray together this week, I want to pray for our missionary of the week, which is Dwayne and Xinqi Ott.

They are serving in Malaysia. I was curious to see the COVID condition in Malaysia in comparison to the

United States. Malaysia has one -tenth of the population of the

United States of America, one -tenth of the population, but has one -half of one percent of the number of COVID cases and one -one -hundredth of the deaths.

I found that to be an interesting statistic. I want to pray for the Otts as they, like all of our missionaries, are in a lockdown situation and pray for them to be able to stay active in ministry and to be effective in that activity.

Dwayne mentioned that they have some kind of a teaching program twice a day online and has some of his, some lay leaders help in that teaching, but pray for that to be effective.

I also want to pray for our church, a member of our church family, Bob, who this week was diagnosed with cancer and still awaiting the full extent of that diagnosis.

I mentioned yesterday, sent a prayer request yesterday by our prayer chain to pray for a man,

Jim, a friend or acquaintance of Roger Carlson, who was airlifted to Madison.

Pray for his condition. And then if you would pray for a woman named Debbie, she's an acquaintance of my wife and I.

Her mother recently passed away from, when she passed away, she had

COVID. She had had other problems, but that was added to it. And we got word this morning that Debbie herself, who's roughly the same age as my wife and I, she was, at the time of the notification, was en route to the hospital.

She also has contracted COVID from her mom. So we want to pray for her.

And then, you know, there are thousands of people who are suffering to one extent or another with this

COVID disease. We want to pray for those whose jobs have been affected and finances negatively affected by this pandemic.

I saw a front page article in the Wall Street Journal the other day that in a month's time, all of the job increases, the job gains for the last 10 years were just completely wiped out.

It was like 21 and a half million jobs eliminated since this pandemic hit our shores.

There's a lot of people to be praying about and praying for this whole virus crisis to be past us.

Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? And so, our Father, we do praise your name today because we are living in a world that is in great upheaval, great turmoil, is living in extreme darkness.

There is the depth of spiritual darkness, to be sure. And added to that spiritual darkness is just the darkness of uncertainty of what tomorrow is going to bring, what the future holds for this nation and for this world.

One thing everybody seems to say, Father, is that things are going to be radically and drastically different.

We are so grateful today, and we praise you that you are the sovereign

God. And Father, we're reminded often of the old song from years ago that says he has the whole world in his hands.

And indeed, there is truth in that. You do. And we thank you and praise you for your sovereign, providential, all -powerful control.

We thank you for your faithfulness to your people, for the promises that your word holds for those of us who fear you, that even though disease or devilish people would be able to take the body and destroy the body, they cannot destroy us.

We're thankful that though the gates of hell would try to prevail against your gates, it shall not succeed.

Father, we thank you for your provision, for meeting our needs.

Father, we are becoming increasingly aware of what's really needed and how much we have taken for granted that is even beyond our needs, but are just so many nice, pleasant things that you give to us.

We thank you for your generosity. Father, we confess to you today that we often have failed you in our thinking, in our feelings, in our actions, even in this past week.

Too often, we allow the turmoil of our world to get us unnerved, to get our eyes off of you and our mind distracted from the truth that is in Christ Jesus.

Father, I pray that you would forgive us for these things. Forgive us for how we have failed you.

We thank you for the promise of forgiveness that you hold out for your children, and we thank you,

Father, that you delight to forgive. You delight to be gracious and to be merciful.

We do pray today for your people who are in need. We pray for Duane and Sin Chi serving in Kluang, Malaysia.

We pray that you would protect them, that they're at that vulnerable age of not only this disease but so many other things.

I just pray that they would be able to be effective for years to come in the ministry there.

May they establish, get a church established and overcome the challenges of the lockdown that they are experiencing.

Give them an effective work, we pray. We pray for our church family and pray today for every mom.

Lord, I pray, bless the mothers that make up Faith Baptist Church.

I pray that as they endeavor to minister to their children, to their families in these very difficult days, that you would give them grace and wisdom and insight to know how best to balance protection and information in these unsettling times.

I pray that you would give them fortitude and I pray that you would give them much grace in these days.

We pray for Bob, that you would be gracious to him. Thank you, Father, for his testimony of trusting in you and depending upon you in these days of uncertainty for him and for his very life.

We entrust him to you and pray for his wife as well, that you would give her grace in her legitimate care and concern for her husband.

We pray for Jim and his condition in Madison. We pray that you would guide physicians to be able to care for him and meet his needs.

We pray for Debbie and pray that by your grace, you would spare her from succumbing to this

COVID disease. May she get healing and help and health. We pray for those who have suffered economically thus far in this crisis, in our own area and beyond.

We think of those who've lost their jobs and the difficulty that must come in life with that uncertainty.

Father, I pray in these uncertain times economically that those who are your children would be confident in you and those who are not would find you and look for you.

We pray that by your grace, you would supply our needs as a church family and may each one see your gracious hand of provision.

And as you give us abundantly more than we need, give us hearts that are eager to share.

We ask that by your grace, you would protect our bodies from illness. I pray that you would protect our hearts from restless anxiety, protect our minds from fretful speculation and wasteful obsession in that over which we have no control.

We pray, Father, for our lawmakers, for those in authority over us, policymakers in these days.

I pray that you would give them wisdom and I pray that you would most of all give them a sensitivity to you, the

God of all things. We pray for our own governor and pray that you would work in his heart and cause him to relent in this unreasonable position of keeping churches from gathering.

I pray that you would change his mind and he would announce that soon.

We pray, Father, that truth would triumph wherever that truth would take us. We pray that righteousness would reign, whatever that would mean for those who are purporting darkness and unrighteousness.

May justice prevail. And Father, we pray that your kingdom would come and that your will would be done.

This we pray in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen. Well, on this

Mother's Day, we want to continue with a prayer, but it's in the form of a song, and the song is,

Oh, Give Us Homes. And it's a very timely text for these days in which we live.

Oh, Give Us Homes. Oh, give us homes built firm upon the

Savior, where Christ is head and counselor and guide. Where every child is taught his love and favor and gives his heart to Christ, the crucified.

How sweet to know that though his footsteps waver, his faithful Lord is walking by his side.

Oh, give us homes with godly fathers, mothers, who always place their hope and trust in him.

Whose tender patience turmoil never bothers, whose calm and courage trouble cannot dim.

A home where each finds joy in serving others, and love still shines, though days be dark and grim.

Oh, give us homes where Christ is Lord and master, the

Bible read, the precious hymns still sung. Where prayer comes first in peace or in disaster, and praise is natural speech to every tongue.

Where mountains move before a faith that's vaster, and Christ sufficient is for old and young.

Oh, Lord our God, our homes are thine forever. We trust to thee their problems, toil, and care.

Their bonds of love no enemy can sever, if thou art always

Lord and master there. Be thou the center of our least endeavor.

Be thou our guest, our hearts and homes. To share.

Our scripture reading this morning may seem like an odd text for a

Mother's Day, but I think you'll understand its choice. John chapter 19 and want to read verses 23 through 30.

John 19 verses 23 through 30. This is at the the scene is at the cross, and it says, when the soldiers had crucified

Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic.

But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.

This was to fulfill the scripture which says, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister,

Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son.

Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother, and from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

After this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished said, to fulfill the scripture, I thirst.

A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a branch and held it to his mouth.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. A brief prayer. Our Father and our

God, I pray that you would use this passage and many others in our message this morning to challenge us regarding a fairly typical mom.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. What was it like to be a typical mom in 1750?

I'm sure you've never heard of her, but Sarah Stowe was just such a typical mom.

She was married in 1737 at the age of 17 years, and her first child was born 38 weeks later.

Her last child and 13th of her children was born 24 years later.

The longest gap between childbirths for Sarah was three years and five months, the shortest one year and four months.

Over half of her children died before she did, four of them within nine months time.

When she was 35 years old, she gave birth to triplets and none of them survived.

She lived with the concerns of deadly diseases like smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, dysentery.

She outlived the average mom of her day. She died at age 64.

Typical mom in the 1750s. What was the typical mom, what was typical motherhood like in 1950?

Some of you remember those days. You can remember them quite well. Now without a doubt, times and culture change through the years, and many of the little details that make up motherhood can change with it.

A hundred years ago, nobody budgeted for pampers, and the only baby monitor that existed was a mom's ear.

A lot's changed since then. But there are some things, regardless of the time and the culture, that make up a fairly typical mom.

Think of the mothers in the Bible that you read about. Imagine we could do a little family feud question, and you would have to answer the question, name a mom from the

Bible. What mom just came to your mind? What was the first name that came to your mind?

Well, maybe because the passage we just read, it might be what would be probably the number one answer,

Mary. But maybe you thought of Hannah, or maybe Ruth, or Eve, the mother of all living.

Whatever the case, I want to focus this morning on Mary, and in the different branches of Christendom, Mary receives quite a bit of emphasis, and I think in some cases, over -emphasis, and no doubt in some cases, over -emphasis.

And you would think because of that emphasis, there's an awful lot in the Bible about Mary, but there really isn't.

There really is not that much to be gleaned from the Scriptures about this woman who was the mother of the

Lord Jesus. Most of what the Bible records about Mary takes place in the birth narrative, before Jesus was even born and shortly thereafter.

Beyond that, she shows up briefly in each stage of His life, but just really very briefly.

There's really not much to go on. But what we are told is enough to encourage every mom and everyone who's had a mom, that even though she,

Mary, was uniquely privileged among women, she was a fairly typical mom.

Think about this in Jesus' childhood. We see

Mary as being a rather typical mom throughout Jesus' childhood. In her expectancy stage, when she was an expectant mother, she demonstrates the typical need that every other mother has, to be graciously and calmly submitted to the will of God.

You see this in Luke 1, verse 38, when Mary is told that she is to give birth to a baby, and she's not even married, and she's wondering how in the world all this is going to be, and so on and so forth.

When all is said and done, and all that is the revelation comes to her, Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the

Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. This is a position that every mother that learns that she is to have a baby must come.

Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me as it is, rather than what is unfortunately the case today where so many, 150 a day, end the life of the child in the womb.

No, a gracious, calm submission to the will of God is what every typical mother needs to point to, every typical mother needs to come to in this stage of expectancy.

But as an expectant mother, she also brings glory to God for the privilege, and I encourage you as moms that you also have this same attitude.

And I know the moms that I know have that attitude, glorifying God for the privilege of motherhood, as Mary did in verses 46 to 49 of Luke chapter 1, where she says, my soul magnifies the

Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant, and given her this privilege of giving birth, giving birth to this child who would be

Jesus. She says, for behold, now all generations will call me blessed. She's glorifying

God for the privilege of motherhood. You say, well, that's just because she was giving birth to Jesus.

And I mean, you know, what other mother has done that? Oh, but this is not just her attitude.

I suggested maybe the mom that came to your mind was Hannah, the mother of Samuel in the

Old Testament. And what did Hannah say when she learned or when she gave birth to Samuel and was to dedicate him to the

Lord? She began her offering of praise by saying, my heart exalts in the

Lord because he's given me this gift of this baby. So Mary is a typical mother in the stage of expectancy, but she's also a typical mom as a new mother.

Think of what she had to deal with in the very early stages of Jesus' birth.

She just had to, like most moms do, she just had to make do with the circumstances, with the circumstances of life.

In Luke 2 verses 6 and 7, as you know very well, the birth narrative of Jesus, she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a feed trough, an animal's feed trough, in a stable.

I'm sure this is not what she would have chosen. This is not what she would have preferred, what mom would. And yet this is what life thrust upon her.

These were the circumstances of life that were presented to her. And what did she do? She made the best of them.

She found a place to lay her sleeping child in a manger.

I remember as a child growing up many occasions where we just made do. My mom had to just make do with what we had.

Some of you don't even know the expression of darning socks. That's not a euphemism for a cuss word.

You know, that's talking about having holes in our socks as kids. And we didn't throw them out and go to Walmart or Kmart and buy a new pair of socks.

Mom got a light bulb and put that sock over the top of that light bulb and sewed up the hole.

And we put them back on and went on our way. How many times for a snack we enjoyed something like a cheap equivalent of Wonder Bread, crumbled up, put in a bowl, some sugar over the top of it, and a little bit of milk.

We thought it was great. Or tea soaks, you know, take a piece of toast and pop it in a bread, pop it in the toaster.

You get the bread toasty and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over the top of that toast and put some tea on it.

That's dessert. Good mom, typical mom, will make do with life's circumstances.

And she also, at this stage of life, as a new mother, diligently practiced her faith.

Like some of you right now, in these terrible circumstances where we can't gather together as a church, and you're gathering in your homes, and some of you moms are still faithfully practicing your faith by having your children with you as you watch church on your computer screen, or your phone, or your laptop, or maybe your television.

Well, Mary did the same thing. And we see this in chapter 2, verse 21, where it says, at the end of eight days when

Jesus was circumcised, he was called Jesus. Why was he circumcised on the eighth day?

This is what the law told them to do. And in verses 22 through 24, we see the same thing.

When the time came for the purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the

Lord. What did their faith require of them?

That's what they, and Mary, practiced. And then at this stage of being a new mom, you see her also pondering the future of her child.

You remember the scene in Luke chapter 2, verse 19, after the shepherds had come to see

Jesus. And they went on their way, and they were telling everybody what happened. We read in verse 19, that Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

A few weeks later, as a short time later, as she's in the temple, probably a month or so later, as she's in the temple, and Simeon comes along, and he utters his prophecy.

And in verse 33, his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.

She pondered these things. What mother hasn't held that little child in her arms, and looked into his sleeping face, and wondered, what will this child's life be?

What will become of my daughter? What kind of life will she live?

What will my son do in adulthood? What kind of man will he be?

How will God use them? Pondering the future of her child.

Mary is a pretty typical new mother, but she's also a pretty typical mother in distress.

In distress. Can you imagine the distressing condition of her motherhood, when word came to Joseph, her husband, and the angel told

Joseph, take the child and the mother and flee to Egypt. Now this was not an easy thing to do.

This wasn't a matter of just throwing some clothes in a suitcase, and throw them in the back of the car, and hopping on the car, and heading off to Egypt.

This was a difficult, challenging thing for them to do. They were, in effect, refugees.

What hardship. And here they are, poor. They're despised, by Herod at least, hunted down, and they're fleeing out of the threat of Herod's decree to kill their child.

Now, I often encourage you, when you're reading the Bible, read it with your imagination.

Read it. Put yourself in the story. You moms on this

Mother's Day, imagine that that was you. Maybe for some of you, it was you in some kind of way.

Well, Mary was not immune to the distress of being a refugee, nor was she immune to the distress of dealing with a lost child.

See this in Luke chapter 2, in verses 42 through 45. This is the account of Jesus being 12 years old.

He's on the bubble in Jewish culture, as a boy, a 12 -year -old boy.

He's on the bubble between childhood and adulthood. That 13th birthday is a magical birthday in a

Jewish boy's life. And at this age, at the age of 12, a boy could, in a traveling caravan, could choose to go with mom or with dad.

It's like the younger the child, they'd go with mom. The older the child, they'd go with dad. And the traveling caravans would travel according to gender, typically.

The guys would travel together, and the women would travel together. And this is a way of bonding and camaraderie between neighbors and so on and so forth.

And so here they are. They had gone down to Jerusalem for the celebration festival, and they're making their way back home.

And we read in Luke 2, verse 42, or verse 43, when the feast was ended, they were returning, the boy stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn't know it. So in verse 44, supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey.

But when they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him.

She says, get to seeing here. They get to the end of the day's journey, and it's time to set up camp for the night.

And the families then get together, and they all will be in their own camp, family camp.

And Mary and Joseph start looking around for Jesus. Mary comes to Joseph and says, by the way, where's

Jesus? And Joseph says, I don't know. I haven't seen him all day. I thought he was with you. She says, no, no, no.

I thought he was with you. Well, no, he wasn't with you. No, I thought he was. And you can sense, you can feel the blood pressure rise, and you can feel the anxiety, can't you?

I remember that kind of a situation. I think I was, my sister is five years younger than I am, and I think it was when she was three years old, about that age, and I was therefore eight.

And I have an older brother who's two years older than I, so he's 10, and a younger brother three years younger than I, and so he would have been around five years of age.

So we boys, three boys and a girl, guess who's always left out? Well, we boys decided we're going to go explore the campground.

We were off camping at Higgins Lake up in Michigan, and had just arrived at the campground, got the camper set up, and everything's set up.

And so boys, you know, we got to go exploring. We got to go find out what's going on in this campground.

And it's a pretty good -sized campground, all kinds of people there and everything else. So we three boys, we head off.

Well, my sister decided she wanted to come with us. I don't remember.

She might be able to tell you better than I. I don't remember whether or not we knew she was following after us, and we were just trying to get away from her.

Probably, in all honesty. But nevertheless, we took off, and we're doing our thing, and we come back later,

I don't know, hour later or something, I don't know. We came back later to report on our exploring of the campground, and my mom says, where's

Cindy? I don't know. She was with you.

No, she wasn't with us. And all of a sudden, the panic sets in, the distress of a lost child.

And from that moment, there is just a panic, and we're out looking for my sister.

Listen, this is Joseph and Mary. Mary is a typical mom in Jesus' childhood.

She's also a typical mother in Jesus' adulthood. As an adult child, it's often been said that parenting doesn't become easier when the children leave the nest.

It only becomes different. It only becomes different. And in Jesus' adulthood, you see

Mary's involvement at each stage of his public ministry, in the beginning, in the middle, and the end.

And in the beginning of his public ministry, Mary shows herself as being kind of a controlling mom, if you know what

I mean. The very first miracle that Jesus performs is at that wedding feast at Cana.

And guess who's under control? Guess who's in control? I think she is. The wedding feast runs out of wine.

There's no more wine for the guests, and Mary is concerned about this situation. She comes to Jesus and tells

Jesus, they've run out of wine. Like, you need to do something about this, and demonstrate to everybody that you are the

Messiah. You, my son, are the Messiah. You've got the power. You can do something about this, and give them wine.

Let them all know what you can do. You see this in John 2, in verses 1 through 3.

She thinks this is a great time to let everyone know who you are.

And what a better way to let everyone know than by providing wine for all the guests at this wedding, and do so in a miraculous way.

But in verse 4, Jesus says to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?

And it wasn't being disrespectful in any way. What he was essentially saying to her is, look, this isn't the time or the place for me to do what you're wanting me to do.

That, by the way, is going to come three years later. Now is not the time. Three years later,

Jesus will say, the time is at hand for the Son to be glorified. Now, by the way,

Jesus resolved the wine problem, as you very well know, but He didn't do it Mary's way.

Mary demonstrated that as a, even a typical mother of an adult child, she could be a little bit controlling.

She also showed herself as a very concerned mom, maybe overly concerned. And we can understand her concern, but it shows itself in Mark 3.

In Mark 3, Jesus has had a very busy, busy season of ministry.

And we read in verse 20 that Jesus went home and the crowd gathered again so that He could not even eat.

He couldn't even eat. And it says when His family, and the ESV says when

His family heard it, they went out to seize Him. And King James says when

His friends heard of it, they went out to seize Him or get Him. And the word friends means

His relatives, literally His own people, His relatives. We'll see who they were in just a few minutes.

But nevertheless, the point is in verse 20, Jesus is in great demand and Mary and Jesus' siblings are greatly concerned about Him.

His family heard of it, they went out to seize Him for they said, He's out of His mind. He's going to become so consumed with this thing

He's doing that He's not even taking time to eat. He's not taking care of Himself. And you see down in verses 31 and 32 of Mark 3 that they,

I think innocently, I mean, out of genuine concern for Him, they attempt to sidetrack

Him. Now, they don't look at it as sidetracking Him, but it's in essence what was going on.

Verse 31 says His mother and His brothers came and standing outside, they sent to Him and called

Him. And Jesus is in the middle of ministering here. A crowd was sitting around Him and they said to Him, Your mother and Your brother are outside seeking

You. Well, the larger and more important concern that they needed to have at this point is this, is

Jesus doing the will of God? Mary's ultimate primary concern must have been, needed to have been at this stage of life.

Is my child doing the will of God? Now, Jesus points that out here as He continues in verses 33 and 34 and following.

He answered them, Who are my mother and my brothers? Is it these who are outside trying to pull me away from what is in front of me, the will of God to be doing?

And looking about those who sat around Him, He said, Here are my mother and brothers for whoever does the will of God, He is my brother and sister and mother.

In other words, Jesus is saying the primary, the ultimate concern is what is the will of God for me, for us as individuals.

So in essence, what Mary needed here was she needed to trust Him. She needed to trust

Him. So as a controlling mom, she needed to let go. As an overly concerned mom, she needed to trust and entrust

Him to the will of God. But then we see Mary as the grieving mom, very typical mother at this stage of Jesus' life.

In John chapter 19 verse 25, this passage that we read earlier, here's

Jesus, His life ebbing from Him, unjustly treated, cruelly, brutally treated.

I can't imagine the horror that this must have been for His mother to see

Him in this condition. And yet there she is at the cross.

And she watches this spectacle of her son being treated as not even a common criminal, but the most heinous of criminals.

What despair, what disillusionment might have entered into her heart and mind, what sense of shame as all around her are people mocking her son, spitting at him and all the things that they were doing.

And here she is, His mother, His mother. What heartache.

Every once in a while, maybe you've done this too, you see these 48 -hour shows and you talk about somebody who's been murdered or whatever.

And I have never seen one of those programs where the mom, as they interview the mom, is left unmoved by the plight of her child.

And neither is Mary. Neither is Mary. Verse 25, remember, tells us, standing by the cross of Jesus, standing by the cross of Jesus, were

His mother and other women. What does she need here?

She needs what any woman, any mother would need at a time like this. She needs support.

And this is exactly what Jesus provides for her. She looks at,

Jesus looks at John and He says, behold your mother. She looks,

He looks at Mary, His mother, and says, look at John, behold your son.

And this, in essence, what Jesus was saying to John was, take care of her, please, take care of her.

And from that time forth, she went to John's home. She's a typical mother in the adulthood of Jesus.

But she's also a typical mother after the ascension. Jesus dies, is buried, raised again, and then ascends.

He ascends to the Father. And over a few pages in your Bible, if you're in John chapter 1, we come to Acts chapter 1.

Earlier in the early days, when the angel came to Mary and announced to her that she was going to be the woman who gives birth to the

Messiah, she demonstrated that she was a typical mother who needed and accepted a

Savior. She spoke of her lowest state. Behold the lowest state of your handmaiden, a sinner needing grace, a sinner needing grace.

Remember how she put this in Luke chapter 1, verses 47 and 8.

Luke chapter 1, verse 47, she says, my soul magnifies the

Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

And Jesus indirectly affirmed this later. Remember there was a, as he was heading toward the cross, there were women who said, there's some who said, blessed are the breasts that gave you milk or whatever.

And Jesus said, more blessed than that is the being in the kingdom of God, the one who is in the kingdom of God.

Luke chapter 11, verses 27 and 28, he says this, blessed is the womb that bore you, the woman said, and the breasts at which you nurse.

But he said, rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

Now this is what Mary needed to do just as any other mother needs to do. And she too,

Mary was overwhelmed by God's grace to her. This is the need of every mom, every mom.

A typical mom needs the Savior. And Mary accepted him.

She knew her need. And I trust you moms have as well.

But she was also a mom after the ascension who needed and assembled with believers.

You see this in Acts 1, verse 14. It said, all these, and he's speaking of the 12 disciples, the 11 disciples, all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers.

She needed this. She needed that fellowship. She needed that gathering together with God's people.

Mary did, the mother of Jesus. She was a typical Christian mom.

Now look here, whether or not you're a mom or even a woman, you still need the

Savior. You still need what Mary needed. You needed, you need

Mary's son, Jesus as your Savior. And like Mary, you too need to be a part of a local church.

Furthermore, did you notice that in every one of these typical expressions of motherhood,

Mary also ultimately yielded to the moms today.

But I pray that by your grace, each person listening to my voice would see their typical need of a

Savior and trust in Jesus as that Savior. May they see their need of being a part of a body of believers where they can assemble and gather together.

And may we all see our very typical need of submitting ourselves to your wonderful, precious will.

This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I would like to close this morning with a hymn that affirms the consecration of Mary.

It's entitled, I Will Follow. I will follow thee, my

Savior, where 'er the pathway may go. Through the storm or through the valley or through great trials so low.

I rest in thee, trust in thee, I place my life in thy hands.

I will follow thee, my Savior, lead on, my shepherd, lead on. I will live for thee, my

Savior, though war and strife mark the way. I'm so weak, but thou art mighty, so live through me day by day.

I surrender all, my Savior, I hold no thing back from thee.

Every part is thine to use, Lord, thy living sacrifice be.

I rest in thee, trust in thee, I place my life in thy hands.

I will follow thee, my Savior, lead on, my shepherd, lead on.

And now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the

Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. This we pray in the name of Jesus, our

Savior, the source of all hope. Amen. Well, God bless you for the remainder of this

Mother's Day, especially you moms. I hope you have a wonderful day and may

God go with us through the course of this week as we endeavor to live for and serve him. Have a great day.