Alright, if you'd like to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, I'm going to begin there this morning. We're going to continue the series of studies we've been pursuing, but at the same time I do want to, in light of the calendar event of Mother's Day today, I do want to make a particular emphasis for the sake of the moms here present with us. Hopefully everyone else will hear from the Lord as we go through this material together in God's Word. Hopefully you'll hear your own perspective of how the Lord wants to apply these principles to your own lives. The things I'm going to be sharing are certainly not limited to mothers. They're not principles that apply only to mothers, but as it just coincides that this is Mother's Day, it was on my heart to make a particular emphasis as to how this does apply to mothers. And I want to talk today about a mother's reward. We've been discussing for many, many weeks now What the Bible describes is the last things, the end of all things, the end of history, how our lives and not just our lives, but all of history itself is going to one day come to a conclusion point. And everything is going to culminate, as we've seen, with the great event that the Bible describes as the return of the Lord, the second coming of Christ, when Jesus will literally return to planet Earth and in doing so will end all of history as we know it. And the great culminating event of history is this event that's described as the day of judgment, the final judgment, in which all people that have ever been born, who have ever lived, who are alive right now, or whoever will be born after this time and live out a life, all people will stand in his presence and give an account to him for what their lives have meant. And in that account, the Lord is going to separate everybody that gathers before his throne into two categories, into two groups. In imagery, the Bible describes those groups separately and distinctly as a group of sheep on his right hand and a group of goats on his left hand. The sheep, of course, are the good guys and the goats are the bad guys. And each one is going to receive their own response from the Lord, their own answer from the Lord for what their lives have meant. And what we've been just recently in the last couple of studies focused on is what the Day of Judgment is going to be like for those who identify themselves as God's sheep. And more than that, what matters more than that is not just whether we identify ourselves as one of God's sheep, because you know how it is. We all want to be part of the good guys, for the most part. I mean, there's a few individuals out there that take some kind of perverse glory in identifying themselves as one of the bad guys. But I think everyone that's here in church this morning wants to identify with the good guy group, or else you probably wouldn't even be here this morning. You'd probably be out doing the things that bad guys do. And so, what is the Day of Judgment going to be like for us? We identify ourselves as God's sheep, but the Lord says about us on that day, you are mine, you belong to me, you belong on my right hand, you are in the category that He calls His sheep. And we've seen that the Lord is going to be evaluating our lives from a particular perspective, and what He's going to be looking at is He's going to be looking at what we saw in 1 Corinthians 3, and we will read that again in a moment here, but what the Lord identifies as our labor, our work, and our works. plural, all of the individual things that we do with our lives are going to be judged and evaluated. And they're going to then, just like, you know, the whole day of judgment is going to be this day of sifting and of sorting, because first the Lord is sorting all people into these two groups. But then as he deals with each individual sheep, and he will deal with this individually, he's going to be looking at our lives and our lives are going to be an accumulation of all kinds of things that we've done. And as he looks at every single thing that we've done, he's going to then sort. our lives, the things that we've done with our lives, the significance of each individual day and each moment of each day is going to sort our lives into piles. And we've seen that those piles are represented by another imagery where Paul described it as one pile of our lives is going to be filled with things that God calls wood, hay, and straw. And then another pile is going to be those things that God calls gold, silver, and precious stones. and that the piles are going to be judged by a test, and the test is described as fire. God is going to place all that's in our piles. into this fire and coming through the fire, whatever lasts, whatever survives, whatever makes it through the other end of the fire is going to receive from the Lord a reward that's due for that thing. And of course, all that's in the wood, hay and straw pile is not going to survive. It's not going to last. It's not going to, it's going to be burned up in the fire. And anything that we did with our lives that God looks at and says, this is really of wood quality. that will receive no reward from the Lord. And in fact, Paul describes it as that person, for those things that they've done that are of wood quality, straw quality, those things are going to be experienced as suffering loss of reward. And the suffering loss, and I don't think the Bible speaks lightly when it uses that kind of terminology, when the Lord says it's going to be a suffering of loss. We tend to think in terms of whatever suffering we will ever experience in all of our lives, It's all going to take place here in this present life, in this present world. But I personally think the greatest suffering that a believer will ever, ever, ever experience is that moment when we stand in the presence of the Lord and see what goes up in smoke and what might have been for us for eternity as we suffer the loss of what the Lord wanted to give us, what we could have had, what could have been our eternal experience as this pile of wood, hay, and straw, as they say, goes up in smoke. But then there's this other pile that lasts, that makes it through the test, that is of a different kind of quality, what Paul calls a different sort of work. a work that the Lord sees eternal value in, something that we may not even attach great significance to in this present time, but the Lord does, and sees it of such surpassing value and worth that He will assign eternal blessing to our lives for the sake of that one moment's thing that we did in history, and which will affect our lives in a greater way than it would have been otherwise forever and ever and ever. And that's what we've been looking at. Now, if you would join me in Ephesians chapter 2, as I said, and let's read a passage that we read last week. And I want to reread this, and I want to then see if we can apply this specifically to the concept of what a mother is going to experience on this day of evaluation. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. Paul of course is, as I mentioned last time, he's giving us a brief overview from verse 1 actually of the whole glorious process of salvation. We'll pick up as he says in verse 8 where he says, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one may boast. No one's on the Day of Judgment going to stand in the presence of the Lord and have any room to brag about why they're there or how they happened to get there. We're all going to be transfixed by the clear understanding on that day that the only reason we're there is the gracious gift of salvation that God has given to us. And then in verse 10, flowing out of this understanding of having been saved for God's gracious purposes, He begins to explain why He saved us. Everything up to now is just the fact of our salvation. The reality that God has drawn us out of an old life, a life lived for our own purposes, our own selfish ends and goals and desires and agendas. And then He saved us and changed all of that, but for what greater purpose? For, in verse 10, we are His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. And we saw last time, and let me just reemphasize using this same phrase, that what verse 10 really describes for us is the concept of God's life assignment given to each one of us, and that what's going to matter for us on the day of judgment, what's going to be critical in terms of of which one of our piles of works is greater on that day, the wood, hay, and straw pile, or the gold, silver, and precious stone pile, is whether or not we come to grips with understanding our life assignments, meaning that what's going to matter to the Lord, what's going to be of reward-worthy response from the Lord as He evaluates our lives, He's going to look at a lot of different things, I believe, when he's evaluating us. But the first thing he'll look at in determining whether to reward us for what we've done with our lives from the moment of salvation forward is whether or not we came to grips with the understanding of what our life assignment was. that God has, before the foundation of the world, prepared for each one of us, mapped out a life plan for us, mapped out what we're to do with our lives, not just in the overview of, you know, as I look back over the last 20 years, but on a day-to-day basis, God has an agenda. He's got a mapped out blueprint for your life and for my life, and it represents His assignment. Now, what we also saw, though, is that that assignment is unique and distinct and individual. What is assigned to me by the Spirit of God is not what has been assigned to you. And each holy and godly role that God gives to us in life is a part of God's assignment for us. And so, you know, we could focus on any one of those roles. There are many different roles in Scripture that God describes as from Him, as His assignments to different human beings in different life circumstances. But given that it is Mother's Day, I want to focus just on the moms and allow the rest of us who aren't in that particular role and who haven't been given that assignment. God has not assigned me the role of motherhood in this life. I'll never know what that's like. I'll never be in that exact experience. I won't be evaluated for how I mothered you on the Day of Judgment. And neither will any of you be assigned that in terms of how you mothered me. But there are among us this morning moms who have been given by the Lord a life assignment of being a mother. And what that means is, before the foundation of the world, among other things that God has given to you in order to be a priority concern of your life, and based upon which the Lord is going to be looking at this thing on that day of judgment and determining whether or not you receive eternal reward, is how you fulfilled your role as a mom. What you did with this assignment. what perspective you brought to that assignment, what attitude you maintained in the midst and the day-to-day carrying out of that assignment. Well, let's turn from here, if we can, now to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I said we would reread this. This is the portion of Scripture that, among other passages, gives us more detail about this evaluation process on that final day. And what I want to do is I want to reread it, but I want to read it from the standpoint of just this one role. And what I'm hoping is that we'll each see, even those of us who aren't in this role of motherhood, we'll each see that this principle applies to the specific assignments that God gives to each one of us. Reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 3, we're going to start again in verse 5. And what's happening here is that Paul is describing as an apostle of God his own assignment from the Lord. His assignment as it related to the specific work he was doing in this congregation of believers in the city of Corinth. And he's also here comparing and contrasting his own assignment with that of another Christian worker by the name of Apollos. influences they had on the congregation there in Corinth. Let's read from verse five. What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believe, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered. And these are just images that describe their individual assignments. Paul was given the assignment of planting the church. Apollos was given a similar but different assignment to come along after the planting and to water the seeds of the gospel that had been sown in their hearts and lives to cause those seeds to grow and to flourish. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, meaning ultimately on the day of judgment, neither Paul nor Apollos are going to be able to pat themselves on the back for all that they've accomplished. They will be evaluated for the purpose of reward. But even in that, they'll be glorifying God for the work that he accomplished through them. There's nothing to brag about as a result. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth. Now, He who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. And again, as we emphasized last time, this is a key phrase, each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. So God is going to individually evaluate us and he's going to individually evaluate our labors that are done in his service. For we are God's fellow workers, you, and he's speaking now to the church, you are identified as God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation. And another is building on it, but each man must be careful how he doves on it. For no one or no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident. For the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? All right, what I want to emphasize, as I said, is one particular role as it applies to these principles or seen in light of these principles, as it will matter for each one of us on the Day of Judgment. And we're focusing in particular on what it's going to be like for the moms on that day. I'm saying that To be a mother is an assignment from God, a life assignment. It's not the only thing that matters for those of you who are moms here. It's not the single only important thing that you do in your life and your service to the Lord. But how high up on the list do you suppose it rates? You know, if you were to list one to one hundred in order of importance and significance and in true spiritual priority, how important your various life responsibilities, life assignments are, how they will rate in the eyes of the Lord on that day. Not my eyes, not your husband's eyes, not your children's eyes, not even in your own eyes. How high up will it rate on the Lord's order of priorities? that you carry out your motherhood in a particular way, a way that serves the Lord's deeper and greater, farther reaching purposes for why He made you a mom to begin with. How high up will that rate? When He evaluates your life, it's going to be very, very high up there. In other words, I can't say it will matter more than anything else that the Lord evaluates about you as a person. I'm talking about you as moms. There may be something on your priority list, on His life assignment for you, that matters as much or even possibly more than that. But if that is the case, there's going to be precious few things that will. I'm saying this is going to be right at or near the top of the list. The Lord and you have to discern exactly where that fits. But it's right up top. What it is that the Lord is going to evaluate is this, not just, you know, hey, were you a good mom? You know, because I would say just in that in that natural human kind of way of speaking that we all commonly have, all the moms that are here in the room, I would imagine are good moms. I have no hesitation to say that. I'm sure you're all good moms. But you know what, that's not what's going to matter on that day. It's not going to matter whether just in a natural way that the culture evaluates that you were a good mom. What's going to matter is the Lord is going to be looking at your motherhood on that day, and he is going to be sifting every moment of your motherhood. Every moment, every word that you ever speak to your child, every example of every moment that you're living your life out in front of your child. He's going to be sifting that. He's going to be weighing that. He's going to be evaluating it. It's going to be passing through the fire of his evaluation. And at the end of that fire, what's going to be seen is whether you mothered in a gold, silver, and precious stone way, or whether you mothered in a wood, hay, and straw way. And my guess is, and I think you can buy into this concept readily, there's going to be a combination, you know, that will be revealed on that day out of your mothering. that there's going to be some wood moments that will be burned up. And in those moments, what you'll see is what might have been, what could have been. Now, of course, you're going to see what might have been for you because it's your reward that's being evaluated on that day. But what will also become crystal clear at that moment is the reason it's so significant, your mothering, your motherhood role is so significant and why it bears eternal reward worthiness is that What he's evaluating is just not how good you did for your own sake, but what you're doing as a mother is this, you are discipling a generation of children, not all the children in the world, just the ones that the Lord has assigned to you. And he could have chosen to pick any other mother on the face of the earth. to bear this specific assignment, that He rejected them and chose you. He assigned you the specific young souls to shape and mold and prepare for their own evaluation on the day of judgment. Meaning you're the very first level, you're the foundation layer of how their own lives will eventually be evaluated. And so you're bearing responsibility not just for your own eternal reward, but you're bearing influence on the potential eternal reward or loss of it for your own children. So let's look here at one particular phrase in 1 Corinthians 3 that I want to use to emphasize this point. In verse 10, I did emphasize this last week, but in a more general sense, I want to hone in and emphasize this for the specific concept of our individual roles and life assignments. Verse 10, according to the grace of God, which was given to me. And, you know, it's a good thing that Paul throws that phrase in for us in general, but in particular for you moms, because what he's about to talk about is the work that he's done. He's done. not in his own strength, not in his own wisdom, not in his own energy, not in his own power. He's done it according to the grace that was given to him. See, the bad news, in a sense, is we've been given a holy life assignment that we'll be held accountable for. The good news is, whatever God assigns you, He gives a sufficient measure of grace to carry out that assignment. And grace, we're talking about just not some you know, gushy spiritual stuff, we're talking about the power of God by His Holy Spirit influencing your heart moment by moment of your day. If you look to Him for His grace, call out to Him for His grace, lean on Him for His grace, His grace is sufficient for your assignment. His grace is enough to carry out what He's given to you to do. So, according to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, and that's a... That's not a phrase that's commonly applied to motherhood, but I want to apply that to motherhood this morning and say, God has assigned you a role as mother, and what you are as mother called to be is a wise master builder. And what are you building? You're building the lives of young, potential disciples of the Lord, young potential servants of the kingdom of God who have the potential, again, to carry the influences of God's name and glory and honor and the outreach of the kingdom to a greater degree than you ever had in your own life. Your children have the potential to accomplish more if they're raised from day one, in this way, with this perspective, with this heart attitude, to carry on in the service of the kingdom beyond anything you have ever personally been able to accomplish or ever will accomplish in your life. How many of us started this process on day one? I'm talking about in our own lives, with our mothers raising us in this way. Maybe there'd be an exceptional one or two or few among us. For me, I didn't even come to begin to understand any of this stuff until I was 25 years old. So what I'm wanting to address here is you moms that have the glorious privilege of wherever you're at, whether your child is today one year old or whether your child is today 25, you still have the potential to influence them to carry this beyond what you have been able to carry yourself. So according to the grace of God, which was given to me or to you as moms, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another is building on it. And that's in a sense, what's going to be happening with your children. You're laying a foundation in your children's lives. And later, they're going to start building themselves. And they're going to be building on the foundation that you've laid. Now, how they go about building is going to have not everything to do with how you built the foundation or how you laid the foundation, but it's going to have a lot to do with it. How they carry on is going to have a lot to do with how you taught them, how you shaped them, how you instructed them, how you influenced them, how you disciplined them, how you corrected them, how you encouraged them, how you exhorted them, how you counseled them, how you nurtured them, how you were there for them. It's going to have a huge effect and impact on how they build with their lives. Let's go on. But, At the end of verse 10, each man must be careful. And I just want to insert mom here. Each mom must be careful how she builds on it. What I want you to understand is this. There's a little word in verse 10 at the very end. It's the last word in verse 10. It's a little word, it. And the it that Paul is focused on here is all that's going to matter on that final day. I quoted a poem from Jim Elliot last week. And let me just re-quote that. The poem goes like this. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And what's going to matter on that final day is this. How you built on it. That's all that God is evaluating on the final day. How you built on it. And what is it? The it is the foundation of God's purposes in the earth. It is God having sent his son to begin the building project of a new covenant, a new kingdom, a new creation, a new life. And that's all focused, of course, and starts from the work that he accomplished in his son on the cross and in the resurrection. And what we do in our service to the Lord flows out of our understanding of that, our experience of that in our salvation. And so any good work I will ever do is building on that foundation. because of the experience I've had of being saved, because of what God has done to transform my life. And so as a mom, all that's going to matter is how you build on that foundation, how you add to the work that God has already accomplished in saving you. Now, what you do with that is, as I said, how you're going to then pass that on to this next generation of children. Now, if you would turn from here, Let's go back into the Gospel of Matthew chapter 10 for a moment. We're going to read starting in verse 38 of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 10. And we're going to read an exhortation that the Lord Jesus gave his disciples. And what he was after here is the Lord was looking to shape the perspective of his disciples. We all know the story, Jesus had started his own ministry, and he could easily, it's not a matter of, you know, he wasn't capable, he could easily have just carried on for the full time of his ministry here on earth, and done it all by himself. Traveled throughout Galilee, traveled throughout Israel, accomplished his various works, taught what he needed to teach, do the miracles that he needed to do, and do it all by himself. But he chose not to do it by himself, he chose to call men to follow him. And he chose, in the beginning, 12 specific ones, particular ones. And he identifies them as the foundation of the new building project that he's beginning in the earth. This is his work. This is the assignment God the Father had given to him. And so now as he's spending this time with them, he knows that that time that he's spending with them is going to come to a close. Things are going to change. He's going to be crucified. He's going to rise again from the dead. And when he does, he's later going to ascend back to the right hand of the Father and be seated and thrown in the heavenlies. And while he's going to be spiritually present with his disciples from that day forward through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, He's physically no longer willing to be present with them. And so what he's doing now is he's shaping their perspectives for the rest of their lives so that they can carry out their life assignments and receive the reward that God wants to give them. So let's pick up in verse 38 and read this discipleship exhortation that he gives to them. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Which just implies simply that in any life assignment God gives us, there is sacrifice that is symbolized by the cross that's involved in the fulfillment of our assignment in a way that pleases the Lord. That certainly applies to moms. If you've been a Christian mom, in particular, for any length of time, you have some understanding of the sacrifice that's involved in the carrying out of your life assignment. So, he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. And he who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. And it's just simply, you know, we see this kind of thing played out in our culture and our society all the time around us these days. And that is that you can be a mom and not sacrifice and fulfill your motherhood in a way that's pleasing to the Lord. You can be a mom and have other priorities. You can be a mom and have other things that matter to you more than mothering your children according to the purposes and plans of God for their lives, where just your own concerns are paramount and of real priority to you. And that's what he's talking about as far as saving your own life versus losing your life for his sake. But let's read on in verse 40. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward. Okay, there's two things I want us to see out of these verses 41 and 42 in particular. First is in 41 that God gives, as I've already identified, different life assignments. Here He uses two terms, a prophet's reward and a righteous man's reward. These are two separate assignments in a sense. A prophet is a particular role, a calling, an assignment from God. And what God has in His mind when He gives that person that assignment If he intends, if it's carried out in the way that he wants it to be, to give on the Day of Judgment to the prophet, what? A prophet's reward. The reward that is due for faithful carrying out of prophet responsibilities. So in the same way, for each individual assignment, there's a specific reward that's attached to it. So for a mother, there is... A godly mother, a godly mother's reward that's attached to that. And then in verse 42, whoever in the name of the disciple gives to one of these little ones, even a cup of cold water to drink. And the implication here is when there's need for a drink of cold water. Truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward. I would imagine, and this is just my educated guess, I mean I've never been in this specific circumstance, I would imagine in the day-to-day carrying out of your motherly responsibilities that one of the biggest tests you probably face is having your perspective sometimes lost in just the mundane nature of what it is that you do with your kids. if you have, especially if you have little children, you know, there's just constant pulling and tugging. We saw Leslie up here giving a word of exhortation earlier. Did her mothering, you know, it's like, can you put your mothering on hold for a few minutes? You know, and just, I've got something more important to do here. And, you know, this little child that's tugging on my leg is just not the priority right at that moment. Does it work that way? No, it doesn't work that way. It didn't work that way for her. In other words, the mothering carries over, it kind of bleeds into every other area. And it's unavoidable. It's just part of the calling. It's what's unique about the mothering role. And it's what I think is one of the reasons why it's so significant and bears the kind of reward that I think it will have attached to it on that final day. But the idea here is that the Lord says that if even a cup of cold water is given when it's needed, And here it's not specifically talking about moms, but the fact that it mentions to one of these little ones, happens to just focus our attention, that the Lord is paying attention to all the details. All the details. So, as you're carrying out your day-to-day responsibilities as a mom, and you know how it is, I mean, when was the last time one of your little kids wanted a drink of water? It needed a drink of water. And, you know, have you ever, ever been tempted to say, I'll get to it later, you know? It's just not a priority to me right at that moment. And yet the Lord says, even in the giving of a drink of water, there's what attached to that? There's a eternal. I mean, this actually really does boggle my mind that the Lord is on the day of judgment going to give an eternal reward to someone that gives a drink of water to a little one that's in need at that moment. Is that possible that the Lord is going to do that or is he just totally exaggerating here? in this story. I think what he's trying to say is the kind of things that the Lord is going to be evaluating and the level at which he's looking at the carrying out of the responsibilities of being a mom is going to be much deeper and broader than what maybe we tend to think about. I mean, it's not just going to be about whether you sit your kids down once a week at church or whether you have a, you know, once a week Bible study with them or something of that nature, nature, pray with them before they go to sleep at night. All of those things, I'm sure, are, are bearing their own significance. But it's going to involve the Lord evaluating all the little details of how you carried out your role. Now, turn with me from here, if you would, to the book of Matthew chapter 21. Let's just jump over about 11 chapters here. I was asked a question this week. Greg and I had some time to sit down and talk a little bit about last Sunday's teaching. And he asked me a very perceptive question about something that I had taught about this reward concept. And I think it has a lot to do with what I'm trying to accomplish this morning. What he wanted to know was You know, he had the concept down about the idea of we do a specific thing. The Lord has given us assignment. We do that thing and the Lord attaches a reward to it. But what he was asking about is, you know, what about all the other factors that enter in on a human level? For instance, my attitude, my perspective when it comes time to do my assignment. So like if the Lord has given to me the assignment of as one of the things that I'm called to do. I'm called to study God's Word and to prepare these kind of messages to pass on to you. So that's part of what my life is all about on a regular basis. My week is filled with these kind of studies to prepare these kind of messages. So I sit down at my desk and I've got a stack of books in front of me and I've got time to think and to pray and to consider and to study. As long as I get the study accomplished and stand up and open my mouth and speak Bible-related words, that's all that matters to the Lord on the Day of Judgment, right? Of course not. What matters to the Lord and what's going to matter to me on that day is all kinds of subtle aspects of that assignment, not just the fact that I stood up and did a Bible study. and opened my mouth and spoke Bible-related words. What's going to matter is the perspective that I carried all of that out with. The attitude that I held in my heart even as I was doing the work. Now let's read from chapter 21. As I said, we'll start in verse 28. This is a short parable of two sons. And the Lord used two sons as an example. And they are a good contrasting example. But what I'm going to do after we read the story is I'm going to expand the parable. And I'm going to make it a parable of three sons. And I'm not doing it in order to change God's Word. What I'm doing is I'm drawing out an implication of something that the Lord didn't need to mention for this particular point that I think is worthy of mentioning for what I have in my heart to share. Let's read from verse 28. But what do you think? A man had two sons. And he came to the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard. Now, that is an assignment from the father. The father comes to his son and gives him an assignment. At that moment that the father opens his mouth and speaks, the son's life priority takes new shape for that day. This is his priority assignment for that day of his life. He answered in verse 29, I will not. Okay, what's going on with this son? Yeah, this son has other things on his agenda. Why wouldn't he go work in the vineyard when his father's asking him to work in the vineyard? He's got other things he wants to do with his life that day. We don't know what it is that he wants to do. Maybe he wants to go to town. Maybe he wants to take a nap. Maybe he wants to... I don't care what. It could be any other thing that he wants to do. But whatever it is he wants to do is conflicting with the Father's assignment on that day. And this, of course, is where we all live on a daily basis, which is our lives are filled with God's life assignment, and we have, every day, the opportunity to either fulfill our life assignment or to say boldly, as this son did, he wasn't hiding it. He said, I don't want to. I've got other things that are priority to me or other priority concerns. But, and thankfully for this son, there is a but, but afterward he regretted it. Why would he have regretted it afterwards? Because even as he said, I will not, he knew better. He knew, he understood the concept of priority and assignment and responsibility and authority over his life, and that he was not his own, his life was not his own to determine. He understood all of that, he just didn't like it at the moment that he was being confronted in his heart with that. And so, at the moment, he yielded to temptation and said no. But afterwards, as he thought it over, he regretted it and realized, no, this is important, this is my priority, I should do what my father asked rather than what I feel like doing. And so afterwards, he regretted it, and the regret, which is an expression of heart repentance, a changing of his heart's perspective, in his repentance was led to a new behavior. He went. and went, implies what? He went to the vineyard and worked like the father had assigned him. The man, this is the father, came to the second son and said the same thing. And the same thing would have been, son, go work today in the vineyard. The second son was in a completely different perspective of life at this moment. The second son answered, I will, sir. Which, if you just read that far, seems to imply this is a much better son than the first son, right? But the story goes on, but he did not go. So we've got a real problem with this second son. Well, actually, the second son's got a real problem with the second son. And to whatever degree our lives, you know, correspond to this man's perspective. He said, Amen. Yes, Lord, that's what I should do. Not only that, that's what I will do. You know, have any of us? You know, this is going to be the bane of our existence on the Day of Judgment. Have any of us made promises to God that we did not keep? I mean, you know, whatever it is you promise, I'll obey this time, Lord, I'll do it. I'll get up, I'll read my Bible, I will pray, I will serve, I will take care of this, I'll change my attitude, I won't speak this way anymore, I won't do that thing anymore. Have any of us made promises to God that we then later didn't keep? The whole point here is that this person was pulling one over on the Father in their own perspective. He didn't say boldly like the other son, I don't want to do it, I'm not going to do it. There was an intention in the second son's heart not to obey, not to do the right thing, not to follow the Lord's assignment, the Father's assignment for his life. There was an intention to do his own thing, but he chose to out front say what? I'll do it. So he wanted to give the father the impression of one thing while secretly and privately just intending to do his own thing. Now, Jesus doesn't go on and give a lot more detail in this story. The implications are obvious. But what he says then is this. He asks these people that he's teaching, these disciples, he asks them a question. Which of the two did the will of his father? Which of the two did the will of the father? Well, obviously, the one who said no, but then regretted it and repented and changed and did it, did the will of the Father. The one who said yes and didn't do it, didn't do the will of the Father. And these people, you know, answered correctly. They said the first, and Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes will get in the kingdom of God before you. And he's using this as an obvious contrast about how we respond to God's life assignments for us. I'm saying there's a third son in this parable that's just not mentioned. What I mean by that is the third possibility. What Jesus here gives is this. He gives us an example of God giving us life assignments and the different possible ways we can respond to those assignments. And there are really, I see, three possibilities. The first two he mentions, the third goes unmentioned. The first one is this. God gives you a life assignment and you say, I don't like my assignment. I've got other things to do with my life that really, in the grand scheme of things, are more important than what you've given me to do with my life, Lord. So I'm not going to do that." Later, you come to a realization, wait a second, if God gave me the assignment, it probably is more important than what I think is important. I should do what God has given me. Okay, that's not a bad thing. Jesus uses that as a good example. Alright? Then there's the worst case scenario of, God gives us a life assignment. We know it's what we ought to do with our lives, but we choose to say to God, yes, I will do it. But in our heart of hearts, we have no real intention of carrying out our assignment or making that a priority in terms of how we shape and mold our lives. The third son, who's not mentioned here, is the best possible scenario. The third son is the one that could say when he receives the assignment, wow, I've got an assignment from God. I could orient my whole life to this. I could embrace this and recognize what an awesome privilege I've been given to even be in this household, let alone to serve the Father's purposes and to make this the number one priority of my life. That's the potential greatest response of this son. For you moms, I know most of you, and as I said, you're all good moms here, I know most of you, understand the importance and the significance of what God has assigned you. What I'm wanting to encourage your heart in this morning is, you don't fully see yet just how significant what God has assigned you will be on that day that you stand in His presence. But if you can find grace from God to be like the third son, and to embrace the role that God has given you. And to see this as, if you never go out and conquer kingdoms greater than yourself, and all you ever get accomplished in your whole Christian life is you raise godly children, you're going to be overjoyed when you see how important God is evaluating that to be on that final day. You're going to be shocked and amazed. You're going to have your perspective turned inside out when you see what God assigns as reward for the simple and yet incredibly important role of things as simple and mundane as giving a cup of cold water to a little one when it's their need to have that drink of water. Let me read you one last passage and we'll end here today in Luke chapter 6. It's a single verse. It's a verse that that describes a perspective about our future reward. Luke 6, verse 35. It says, But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. and you will be sons of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men." Now, where do I find motherhood in that verse? Well, here's the thing, you know, you love your kids, and you should love your kids. It's God's calling in your life to love your kids. What I want you to catch out of this is just this one last point of emphasis. In the day-to-day carrying out of your responsibility as a mom, you know, there are moments, there are those glorious, shining, exceptional moments when your kids fully understand what you're doing for them, and they get it, and they appreciate it from the bottom of their hearts, and they express their gratitude and their understanding to you, and it gratifies your heart, and it warms your day. But, you know, most of the time, they don't get what you're doing. They don't understand it. They don't even appreciate it. They're not that grateful about it. They don't pat you on the back for every little thing that you do for them. Oftentimes they're ungrateful. Oftentimes they're, as described here, like enemies. And your calling is to be kind to ungrateful and evil children. Is that true? Yeah, absolutely. You know, Jesus calls us evil children before the moment of our salvation. You know, you're dealing with, you know, you have an interesting responsibility. You're called the disciple unregenerate little evil beast. It's true. You know, so, you know, is that easy to do day after day after day after day after day? No, it's just not easy to do. But, you know, you're following the footsteps and the pattern of your Heavenly Father, who is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil, who shows mercy and graciousness and compassion to those who don't deserve it. and does it with that higher perspective of what the big picture is all about and what the long range is meant to accomplish, and doesn't get lost in the mundane details, understands each detail, doesn't lose the significance of the details, the cups of cold water that are given, but understands them in light of what is really going to matter on that final day. All right, let's stop and we'll pray for the moms today. And as I said, I hope the rest of you can join them in hearing some from the Lord, some point of application to your own life assignment, if it's different than that of the mothers. Let's pray. Father God, as we meditate together this morning on your word, and we think about the assignment you've given to each one of us, And in particular, as the moms here have been have been led to consider their own roles and their own assignment from you. I'm asking, Lord, that you would grant us the grace to be like the third son, the unmentioned son, the one that has the the privilege of seeing your assignment, rejoicing that an assignment has even been given to us that is going to matter and going to bear significance in your perspective for eternity. and who runs to prioritize that assignment and to make that the focal point of our life's work. I pray for your grace for all of our hearts to accomplish that in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. 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