If you have your Bibles, open them to Titus chapter 3. Happy Mother's Day. And it's a pleasure to be in the Lord's house to worship on Mother's Day. While you're finding Titus 3, I'll tell you that Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most prolific and productive American inventors. He was responsible for 1,093 patents. In his adulthood, he wrote the following about his childhood, in particular his experience at school. One day I overheard the teacher tell the inspector that I was addled and it would not be worthwhile keeping me in school any longer. I was so hurt by this last straw that I burst out crying and went home and told my mother about it. Then I found out what a good thing a good mother is. She came out as my strong defender. Mother love was aroused, mother pride wounded to the quick. She brought me back to the school and angrily told the teacher that he didn't know what he was talking about, that I had more brains than he did himself, and a lot more talk like that. In fact, she was the most enthusiastic champion a boy ever had, and I determined right then that I would be worthy of her and show her that her confidence was not misplaced. And later he wrote, my mother was the making of me. She was so true so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint." From the very earliest, we learn what love is from the love of a mother. A mother's love gives us a picture of Christ's more perfect, more powerful, and more life-changing love. What we'll do tonight is to consider both. We'll think about the love of a mother we'll think about the love of God and see, of course, God is the author of the love of a mother, and we will see that God, through Christ, loves us completely and perfectly in ways that we can often see in the love of a mother. So in Titus 3, we'll read verses three through seven. Please stand together for the reading of God's word. Starting in verse 3 for we ourselves were also once foolish disobedient deceived Serving various lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us and through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come in worship tonight in humility, awed at what we have sung tonight about the love that you have for us. You are a creator. You know us inside and out. There's nothing about us or nothing in us that you are not aware of. And in your love for us, you sent our Savior to die on the cross to be raised again that we might be raised to eternal life. Lord, love might be the most overused word in our language. Nonetheless, as we gather together tonight, We feel that we hear you speaking to us about what your love means in our lives. And Lord, we're so grateful. And we want to love you back. Lord, we want your love to flow through us and to be lived out in us in ways that glorify you. And we pray that what you say to us tonight might help achieve that outcome. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. look at three aspects of God's love tonight. We'll see that God's love meets us at our point of need, points of need we could say. God's love draws us into worship and God's love changes our lives forever. So starting at the first, we have a variety of needs, one of which is tenderness. We all need to experience some tenderness. Think about the tenderness of a mother's love. Mothers sing to us, rock us to sleep, bandage our hurts, bake cookies, listen to our frustrations, make birthday parties, watch our games, and forgive our bad behavior. It turns out that Robin has a master's degree, but she has a PhD in birthday parties. You just wouldn't have believed it. I remember one in particular children as far as the eye could see and Just Marvelous mark. So what does that say to a child? That mom will will make that effort. You're special. We really really love you. And this is this is One way we have of saying that we love you and we want you to know that we love you Now In whatever I say about a mother's love tonight It's also true of a father's love But I think we all understand that there are differences Sometimes tenderness to a father means that the mom says look when you throw the baby up in the air Don't let her hit the ceiling That that might be the father's standard of tenderness In Scripture There's a story that really strikes me about the tenderness of a mother's love that not only involves the mother, but also involves the sister. Yes, you've guessed it. It's Moses. This is from Exodus 2, 1 through 9. So the woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. and his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the riverside. When she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it, and when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you? Pharaoh's daughter said to her go so the maiden went and called the child's mother then Pharaoh's daughter said to her Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him That's like the most clever thing ever right so The the tenderness of both mom and sister is was expressed in this marvelously clever circumstance where you can feel Miriam saying, that baby's my brother and I'm gonna make sure that this turns out okay. At the end of Moses' life, in Deuteronomy 32, he speaks and you can hear echoes of Tenderness in what he says about God's love. This is Deuteronomy 32 10 and 11 he God found him the nation of Israel in a desert land and You know in the wasteland a howling wilderness. He encircled him. He instructed him He kept him as the apple of his eye as an eagle stirs up its nest hovers over its young spreading out its wings taking them up carrying them on its wings Jesus of course Expressed Continual compassion for those he encountered the time after time after time regardless of his personal Circumstance was he tired was he fatigued was he distracted? His heart was always tender Matthew 936 but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd He saw them, but not as a mass, he saw them as individuals, as he sees us as individuals. And he felt compassion for them as individuals. Because he knew them, he knows them, he knows us as individuals. And in the variety of expressions of his love, in their lives at this time, and in our lives, we see the tenderness that we often experience as the love of a mother. Once in a while, we need some tenacious love in our lives. Edison's mother was tenacious. She wasn't going to take no for an answer. She wasn't going to compromise her advocacy for her son. We've all heard stories of mothers whose love lasted longer than prison terms, illnesses, family quarrels, bad decisions of all types. The mother's love remains true in all of those circumstances. There's a story of tenacity in the Old Testament. This is the woman who, along with her husband, built a lodging for the prophet Elisha. So you know the story, the prophet would pass by, and the woman said to her husband, we ought to make a place for him to stay. So they did, and Elisha was moved by their kindness. He said to his servant one day, she's been very kind, what can we do for her? Ghazi said she has no son Elisha told her you will be blessed with a son Really? It will happen. Indeed it happened and Then as you know in his childhood the son died on his mother's lap She didn't panic She she was not incapacitated In a very determined way She went and found Elisha 2nd Kings 4 18 through 37 now when she came to the man of God at the hill she caught him by the feet But but caught the Ghazi came near to push her away The man of God said let her alone for her soul is in deep distress and the Lord has hidden it from me And it has not told me so she said did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, get yourself ready and take my staff in your hand and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not answer him, but lay my staff on the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. I'm not sure, but it sounds as if Elisha expected That when he commissioned his subordinate to take the staff and and put it on the child that the mother would go along But she looked at Elisha and said I'm not going anywhere without you as the Lord lives and as your soul lives. I will not leave you So he, Elisha, arose and followed her. Now Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him, Elisha, and told him, saying, the child has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed. He went in, therefore, and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself out on the child and the flesh of the child became warm. And you know the child was healed and raised up and given back to his mother and she fell at Elisha's feet. But she knew what she had to do and she was not to be dissuaded from that. And how often in our own lives have we experienced that quality of a mother's love either from a mother or from another. The love of Christ is tenacious. Again, he sees us as individuals, not parts of a crowd. He knows us intimately through his Holy Spirit. He pursues us. He calls us. We never recede in his thoughts. Out of sight, out of mind, that's not true with Jesus. We never recede in his thoughts. He calls us to repentance and faith. And you can see this clearly in Luke 15, four through seven, where he says what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the ninety nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine just persons who need no repentance. You can see the tenaciousness of God's love in another way Left to our own devices We struggle to be obedient In spite of all that he's done for us and all that he is to us You can see this in Jeremiah you can So we'll we'll hear two sets of words and in the first jar God is speaking through Jeremiah about judgment Well-earned we would say and in the second About his love in chapter 26 verse 4 and you shall say to them Jeremiah thus says the Lord if you will not listen to me to walk in my law Which I've set before you to heed the words of my servants the prophets whom I sent to you Both rising up early and sending them but you have not heeded then I will make this house like Shiloh and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth and We know the extent of that judgment the severity of that judgment Yet in chapter 29 starting in verse 10 for thus says the Lord after 70 years are completed at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you and cause you to return to this place and For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call on me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I've driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive. That's some tenacity. to experience as God the stiff-neckedness of the people. And to be able to say these words in Jeremiah 29, that's a love that doesn't give up. So tenderness is good, tenacity is good, omniscience is good. So mothers have this marvelous ability oftentimes to see what's to come. In the eye of her mind and her heart, a mom sees the potential of her children, the people they can become, and the ways they can change the world. I think Edison's mother saw that when she was berating that schoolteacher. Some of you have seen the movie Gifted Hands about pediatric brain surgeon Ben Carson. some significant difficulties in his early life, but the faith and the confidence and the belief of his mother never failed. One of my favorite moms in scripture is Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. You've heard people say of somebody else, oh, he really gets it, or yeah, she really gets it. Elizabeth got it. The Holy Spirit came, she was ready, and you just have this feeling that she understood that God was up to something marvelous and that he had put her in the midst of that circumstance. Some passages some passages from Luke 1 there were there was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abijah his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth They were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years and Verse 24 now after those days, so this was when Zechariah's went in and had his experience in the temple where he came out he couldn't talk and And all of that transpired after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and she hid herself five months Saying thus the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among the people She knew God was at work Verse 43, she's in the home, Mary comes to see her. Elizabeth says why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for indeed as soon as the voice Of your greetings sounded in my ears speaking to Mary the babe leaped in my womb for joy Blessed is she who believed for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord Blessed is she who believed for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord Then finally in verse 57 now Elizabeth Elizabeth's full-time came for her to be delivered and she brought forth a son When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her they rejoiced with her So it was on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him by his father Zacharias His mother answered and said no he shall be called John Loosely translated Jehovah has been gracious and you know, of course that Then they turn to Zacharias and say, what is your intention for the name of the baby? And he wrote John because he still couldn't talk. But you just sense Elizabeth's view of that baby and God's role in the bringing of that child and what God would do through the life of that child. That's from a mother. With all the perfection of his nature, His omniscience God sees who we are and who we can become in the power of his Holy Spirit He places his call on our lives. He directs our paths for his glory and for our blessing and so then the question becomes do we trust him in that and And are we willing to yield to him fully in? The leading that he provides in our lives so think about Peter for a moment and Just how Discombobulated he must have been after the resurrection so so when he's with Jesus, you know, he says he says I'm with you to the end and Jesus said look the rooster is gonna crow You're gonna deny me three times before the rooster crows And he did and the shame of that, the humiliation of that, because Jesus told him he was gonna do it, and then he went ahead and did it. And then the resurrection happens, and now Jesus is alive again. And what's Peter to do? What's he to think? So Jesus comes face to face with him in John 21, After they'd eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to Peter again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said this to them the third time. And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Jesus could see the trajectory of Peter's life. Jesus could see the coming of the Holy Spirit, the man that Peter would become under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus places this call upon him. And that's the omniscience of God's presence in our lives. A mother's love is selfless. God's love is selfless. A mother's heart is not for herself, it is for her children. Her welfare cannot be separated from the welfare of her children. She thinks of them before she thinks of herself. There's an instance of this, I think, in the Old Testament, but it's flipped. In this case, the mother is the recipient of selfless love, and it's someone else who's the giver. You know the story of Ruth. Naomi and her husband and their two sons, because of famine, become sojourners. They settled. The boys marry women in the foreign land, and then all three of the men die, the husband and the two sons. Naomi is left with her two daughters-in-law, and she says to them in Ruth 1.15, Look, speaking to Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts you and me. When she, Naomi, saw that she, Ruth, was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. But in Ruth's words, you don't hear Ruth talking about herself. She was in an extremely difficult position. But her entire heart, at that point, was given over to Naomi and her love for Naomi. At the end of his earthly ministry, when Jesus was facing a brutal, cruel, and unjust death, his concern was for his disciples rather than himself. This is long. This is from John 17, starting in verse 13. As I read it, see if you can count the instances in Christ's prayer where he comes before the Father on behalf of the disciples. He's asking for something of the Father, not for himself, but for the disciples. Now, you know the circumstance. Jesus knows what's to happen. He knows the pain and suffering that he's about to go through that motivated him in the garden to ask the Father if that cup could be taken from him. He sees that coming. And yet, here in John 17, as he's before the Father in prayer, his heart is for these men who have been with him. starting in verse 13. But now I come to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself that they also me may be sanctified by the truth I do not pray for these alone But also for those who will believe in me through their words That they all may be one as you the father are in me and I in you that they may also be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one and and them and you and me that they may be made perfect in one and That the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me Father I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world Oh righteous father the world has not known you but I have known you and these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name and will declare it that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I am them What what more needs to be said the Savior of the world Intercedes for them in that way at this Extraordinary time in terms of what was about to happen to him. He was on their hearts fully. We are on his hearts in like manner. God's love is sacrificial. As is often a mother's. In December 2012 first grade teacher Victoria Soto and teacher assistant Anne Marie Murphy were among those who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It appears that Ms. Soto, who had been trying to hide the children, was trying to lock the door at the time the perpetrator entered the room. And then it appeared that there was some movement of the children in the room, probably trying to escape. She put herself in the way. She inserted herself in the way, attempting to shield them. Was an assistant she had one student in her charge a six-year-old autistic boy and It appeared that there was only provision for her to grab the child and seek to shield him Which was not successful they both perished but in what was I think one of the most extraordinary statements of grace that I've ever read his family wrote that After all of this we take great comfort in knowing that Dylan was not alone when he died But was wrapped in the arms of his amazing aid Adding that the boy had taken a photograph of this of mrs. Murphy and taped it to their refrigerator and often commented to his parents on Just how good it was that she was there at school with him Those were not the children of those two women. Mrs. Murphy had four children of her own that were left bereft of their mother because at the time of crisis she did not draw lines as to whose was hers by blood and whose was hers by love. Jesus said in John 15 verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you greater Love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends They they made that sacrifice of love Jesus made the greatest sacrifice of not because we were God's children or even close to being God's children, but because by making the sacrifice, he would make it possible for us to become God's children by adoption. Romans 5, 7, and 8, for scarcely a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were separated from him, while we were outside, he made that sacrifice to bring us near. John 19, 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished, and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. So, God's love meets us at our point of need. Tenderness, tenacity, omniscience, selflessness, sacrifice. Many of us have been the beneficiaries of those from the love of a mother. All of us, in a more powerful way, can be beneficiaries of the love of Christ who meets those needs in our lives. But there are some things that a mother's love cannot do. There's a level to which a mother's love cannot rise. So we love our mothers but we don't worship them. We worship God for the supreme perfection of his love and the fact that his love in our lives means that no need is unmet. Some of you have had the experience of hearing a mother say, I'm about to wring that boy's neck. Mothers can get exasperated. I think we are chastened by the Lord in his love for us. I'm not sure if God experiences exasperation. And the frustration I remember my own mother experiencing, that's the humanness of a mom. And thank God that in God's love for us, there is perfection. Ephesians 1, 3-7, supreme in what this passage says. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself According to the good pleasure of his will to the praise and glory of his grace by which he made us Accepted in the beloved in him. We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace hallelujah God, we worship God in part because we understand that He personifies love. He sets the standard for love. 1 John 4, 7, 8. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love. God does not represent love, God does not transmit love. God is love. It strikes me that if that's not true, then love is an idea. And having spent some years in the world of science, I'm acquainted with many people's sensibility that ideas are things to be argued about. Not necessarily in a negative way. But if, apart from Christ, if we say, what is love? Well, love is acting in the best interest of another person. Then somebody's gotta define what's in my best interest. And you may do something in my life and say, that was for your best interest. And I might say, doesn't feel like it. So who decides? Thankfully, God is love, and in that truth, all of what we need to understand about love flows. God's love dispels fear. There's some fear in parenthood. Why do we fear? Partly for our children, but partly for ourselves. 1 John 4, 18 says, there is no fear in love, but for perfect love casts out fear. because fear involves torment or punishment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. And we experience that in our lives. We fear and we remember this verse and we realize that there's something that hasn't penetrated our lives fully yet. Because in the perfection of Christ's love, fear is cast out. And perhaps most importantly, The love of Christ saves. Those women in that school, we will always regard them as heroes. We will always remember the sacrifice that they made. But on that day, when evil rose to that height, they couldn't save those kids. Jesus saves. 1st John 4 10 in this is love not that we love God But that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation or the atonement for our sins When Jesus got up in the tomb and came out The the power of evil was broken snapped and If we accept what he has done for us We do not need to live under the yoke of sin under the yoke of evil in our lives and only he can do that Galatians 2 20 I have been crucified with Christ It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and Then finally so God's love meets us at our point of need God's love is propels us to worship Him, and God's love changes our lives forever. In ways that we cannot completely understand, His love does several things. It permits us to experience earthly troubles. God did not intervene in that situation in Connecticut. He did not save those 26 individuals He did not save their earthly lives. He permitted that to happen. We shouldn't necessarily be surprised by earthly trouble. In John 16.33 Jesus said, So in the world, Evil will present itself and it will affect us. The fallenness of the world in which we live will affect us. When we contend with tribulation, with difficulty, we should remember that Satan constantly seeks to damage and discourage us. In 1 John 5, 19, he wrote, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know what the wicked one wants to accomplish. Earthly life is difficult. Robin and I are in Jerry and Barbara's class on Sunday mornings. About a month ago, Jerry always asks for prayer requests and praises at the start. Every family that was represented around the room, and the room was full, had a prayer request. Pain from surgery recovery. A grandson with cancer. A granddaughter with surgical complications. A daughter-in-law with a cancer diagnosis. A son in cancer recovery. A mom in failing health. A family relation with a stage four cancer diagnosis. A daughter with undiagnosed health difficulties. A father who has died a family that's contending with one another after his passing Someone who's in cancer therapy an elderly mother who's now facing health challenges So can we say that that God loves us in the face of those kinds of difficulties Yes, we can, but I think that it requires us, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to take the long view and to realize that the scripture says that God did not save us to ease of earthly circumstances. God saved us to a hope, a hope of eternal life. And I think we all know that in the midst of the earthly troubles that we experience, he sustains us. I think, I always think of Stephen. A man in the book of Acts who was murdered by people throwing rocks at him. Apart from what Christ experienced, can it get much worse than that? And yet, it was at the time of his death when he was experiencing that, that Stephen said, I see the heavens open and the son sitting at the right hand of the father. The closest he was to God in his life was at the time he was experiencing the worst thing on earth that a person could experience. The love of God sustains us. Psalm 9 verses 9 and 10. The Lord will also be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know your name Lord will put their trust in you for you have not forsaken those who seek you So he permits us to experience earthly troubles he he sustains us in the midst of those difficulties and And his salvation is for all eternity through his love. He made provision for us in a way that no person could ever do and Colossians 2 13 and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision uncircumcision of your flesh He's made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements That was against us which was contrary to us and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross forever And finally His love Will never depart from us Romans 8 35 who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as It is written for your sake. We are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter or Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." We cannot be separated from him. That's what his love accomplishes in our lives. He's done it all. He's done it all and He's done it perfectly. He's done it for all of eternity. And He has done it because He loves us very, very much.