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[00:00:24] Speaker B: You know, the Bible says we are to give honor to whom honor is due and tribute to whom tribute is due. And the Bible tells us very simply, honor your father and your mother. And then he said in Ephesians six, he said that things will go well with you. Ever hear that expression, if mommy ain't happy, ain't nobody happy? That might be where that came from, that it may go well with you. And then it said that you may live long on the earth. God has promised a special blessing to kids who are willing to obey their parents while they're under their roof. To obey your mom while you're living with her, you obey her. Then once you're out on your own, then that instruction becomes to honor her, and you honor her for the rest of your life. And the word honor implies adding heaviness to their opinions, weighing their opinions heavier than you would someone else. When you honor someone else, that means you value what they think and you value what they say more than you would anyone else. So I would tell you today, as we honor them, we give weight. We give great deference to their opinions, to their presence. And that is a way whereby, for the rest of our lives, as we're with them, that we can honor our mothers. My mom is in heaven this morning. The wife of my. The mother of my children. My wife's in heaven this morning. And so for a lot of us, and I know for a lot of you, Mother's day is kind of a mixed blessing. It's wonderful and incredible and it's kind of sad at the same time. But, you know, that's life, right? On one hand, you can be greatly blessed, and on the other hand, you can be greatly burdened. Have you noticed? Life goes that way? I think it's almost by design. I think it's God keeps us from pulling too far one way or the other way. He keeps us balanced by giving us enough blessing to keep us encouraged and enough burdens to keep us dependent upon him. I think life is made up of that sort of thing, that sort of balance. And certainly on this weekend, we want to be careful to pay tribute and I'm glad our country has set aside a couple of days where we can honor our mom. And then in a few weeks, we'll be honoring our fathers. Because the Bible says this thing is right to give them honor. It's interesting. I was looking at qualities of God that our mothers actually possess. Have you ever thought about that? Qualities of God that your mother actually possesses? One of the qualities of God, part of the nature of God, is that God is omniscient. Omniscient? It means God knows everything. Have you ever think about your mother as being mom? Niscient.
Mom knows everything. Have you thought about that? Have you noticed, growing up how much your mother knew? And you didn't have a clue as to how in the world would that woman know that? Did one of my friends drop a dime on me? I mean, what happened? How would she know that? My mother used to. My brother's here this morning. My mother used to tell us kids, when you lie to your mother, there's something that happens in your eyes that only a mother can see. She said it's like little hammers that are just beating in your eyes. And only a mother can see when you're lying to her. That's why I never looked her in the eye when I lied to her. I'd never looked at that woman. I was afraid that she might be right. And it wasn't until years later, maybe five years later. Maybe five years ago. Actually, it wasn't until that I realized that she was lying to me to get me to tell her the truth is that there's something twisted about that, isn't there? I should be on Doctor Phil, I think, talking about that. But the point is, mom's had this incredible ability to just exact the truth from you. She would just ask you a question and you would melt like you're under the heat of an investigative light. You know, you're like, okay, what do you know? Yes, mom. I'll confess, mom. Omniscience. She had that all power, that sense of knowing. Here's another one, momni. Presence. God can be everywhere at the same time. Have you noticed moms seem to be everywhere at the same time? Particularly when you're doing something she said you shouldn't be doing. She's still awake when you sneaking in the house. I mean, mom just knows. She knows where you are. She knows when you've been sleeping. She knows when you've been awake. She knows if you've been good or bad. Like Santa. Be good for heaven's sake. That momnician so she's got momniscience. She's got mom nye presence. Here's another one. Mom. Nipotent. God is omnipotent. Moms are all powerful. I mean, my mother could do anything. And have you ever noticed everything you thought you might ever need, you could find in her purse? It's amazing. My mom had a repellent, a repelling rope in her purse. She had bear spray. She had, like, a first aid kid. She could do surgery out of her purse.
Whatever you needed, she could find it. She needed gum. She had gum. She had. She'd keep you alive. That purse was like Batman's utility belt. It was amazing what mothers had in that. But there's not much that a mother can't do, at least in the eyes of a child. Moms are just omnipotent, and these are qualities that our heavenly Father possesses, that we possess. Now, a lot of studies have shown, as well, that kids get a greater sense of security when their mom is around. It's not to discount the father, but there's something very comforting about a mother. Now, my dad was kind of no nonsense sort of thing. He loved us kids and all that sort of thing. But, for example, when we lived out in the country, we had horses. He had some cattle. And so part of the job I had in taking care of the horses was you don't you keep the backyard gate closed so the horses can't get up in the yard, mess with my mother's flowers, and do that sort of thing. So somebody, I think it was probably my little brother. Cause he's here this morning. He probably left that gate open. So when we get home, the horses had got in the backyard, and one of them had this cyclone fence, and one of them hit the fence and bent the top bar of that cyclone fence. So my dad gets out. He is not happy. He said, who let the horses out of the yard? What's going on? Get them out in the pasture.
I get them out, get them out. And so I'm feeling like I need to go help him while he's trying to fix this, like, cyclone fence. So the bar is bent. You know, those. Those pipe on the cyclone fence, the bar is bent. So he thinks, I'm just going to turn the bar the other way and pull the bend out of it, right? So I'm a little kid, and I'm watching him. I'm looking right at him, and he's watching. I'm feeling like I need to help, but I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to walk away. I'll get in worse trouble. At least just be there. Well, all of a sudden, as he's pulling on that, the end of that pipe pops out of the socket and hit me right in the mouth. Bang. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that, by the way. Every woman in the room went, aw. The man went, huh?
And I mean, hit me, right? So blood just starts flowing. You know what my compassionate father said to me? I never will forget it. He says, well, stick your nose in it next time, boy.
Stick my nose in it. And he said, go in there and let your mother. So I go in there to my mom, and my mom looks at me, I got blood coming out of my face. And she goes, what happened to you? I got him back. You know what I said? Dad hit me in the face with a pipe.
Yeah, he did technically.
But I knew where to go. If you know where to go, if you need a little sympathy. It's like this little boy was crying late at night. It was stormy, it was rainy. Lightning was flashing thunder. And the little boy was calling, mom, mom. So mom goes in there. He goes, mom, I'm afraid. Would you sleep with me? She says, sweetheart, I gotta sleep with dad. But, mom, I'm afraid. Mom, would you sleep with me? Honey, I gotta sleep with dad. And she said, you'll be fine. I just gotta sleep with dad. So his mom's walking out of the house. He says, she's sleeping with dad. He's a big sissy.
Well, in some ways, I guess we are. But there's something very comforting about the presence of a mother. And so what I want to do, just for the few moments we're together, is I want to look at how the role of a shepherd can really correlate with the role of a mother. And I want to kind of do just a parallel analogy as we look at this great 23rd psalm. Scott did a great job last weekend in verse four, and we're going to go to verse five this weekend. And for time's sake, let's just pick it up in verse five. If you've got it already on the PowerPoint, just roll down to psalm 23. Let's just look at verse five where he says this. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. In a little while, I'm gonna break that apart and I'm gonna talk about what a shepherd will do. And it's not unlike what a mother will do in providing for their own. And the first thing I want you to think about with me this morning is what I wanna call the shepherd's name. The shepherd's name. You know, there's great power in a name. Great power in a name. When you call out to your mother, that has significance. Mom. Mother. It touches the heart. If you had a good mother, you had a loving mother, or you had a mother figure. Some of you might have been raised by a stepmom, and some of you might have been raised by a grandmother or an aunt. But you had that strong woman in your life who loved you and who cared for you. There's something powerful in that name. Mother. Well, there's something powerful in the name shepherd. In the Greek, it's Poimaine. It comes from the idea of a sheep herder, and it denotes a relationship. When you say shepherd, that means this person has a relationship with sheep. This person, obviously that's the word. Obviously loves sheep, or he wouldn't be in the shepherding business. He loves his job, he loves what he does. And there's not a mother in the room that would probably tell you they have their moments. But most moms in the room would tell you, I love being a mom. I love having that responsibility, and I love having that opportunity to care for my children and to love my kids. It's an incredible thing, the name mom. It's incredible thing, the name shepherd. And when David acknowledged the shepherd, he said, he's the Lord. He's my shepherd. He knew him personally. And so shepherd denotes a personal relationship with sheep. We've talked previously about the role of a shepherd is not only to own those sheep and to love those sheep, but it's to govern them, it's to guide them, it's to care for them. And so the name shepherd was a powerful name. And he's talking about the Lord. And you and I know our shepherd to be the Lord Jesus. He's our shepherd. We're the sheep of his pasture. And when you think about the power, the power that's in the name Jesus. For example, the Bible says in acts chapter four, verse twelve that there's no other name, no other name under heaven given among men, whereby you and I must be saved. According to romans 1013, we become Christ followers through the name of Jesus. According to John 16, we pray, we go before the heavenly Father in the name of Jesus. You know what prayer is? Prayer is simply going to the Father in the name of the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, asking for something to be done. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And Jesus said, when you approach my father in my name, you're going in his stead. He said, then ask and I will do the thing that you require. If the father can be glorified in the Son, so there's power in his name. It has saving power. It has the power to answer prayer, by the way. It has the power to overcome the enemy. I've talked to you before about the fact that as sheep, we always have the wolf at the door. The Bible in John ten said the wolf would threaten the sheep and the thief would threaten the sheep. But the Bible tells us in first John three eight that the name of Jesus has the power to overcome the enemy. So there's power in his name. In fact, proverbs, 1810 says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower and those who are righteous run into him or into it and are safe. The name of Jesus is a refuge, it's a safe place. You talk about having a safe place and you talk about having safe people in your life, and everybody needs that. You need a safe place where you can be yourself, let your hair down, be who you are. And by the way, you need safe people in your life. You need people who will love you and who will let you be who you are. That will not, you know, will not share everything you share, because some things that you share with your safe people, you might not share with anyone else. And you need safe people in your life. And let me tell you, you aren't going to have many of those. And by the way, you're going to be burned along the way trying to find those.
I mean, you know, you look at a deck of cards and there's only a, there's only a few aces, you know, I mean, you're only gonna find a handful of friends when you are finding people in your life that you can trust who'll be your safe people. Jesus pulled twelve around him and one of them betrayed him. So you're gonna get burned, but you need that. You need a safe place. You need safe people. And when I think about the shepherd, he is a safe place. That's what the Bible's talking about. He's a safe place. He is a safe person. You can share anything with him and know that it's safe. You can share when you're mad, you can share when you're sad, you can share when you're upset, you can share when you're confused. In fact, I think you ought to share that with him more then than at any other time.
I was talking to a guy one time, he's just angry at God. And if you knew the story of his life, you could understand or appreciate why he was angry. He'd gone through a lot of stuff that made no sense and haven't we all? And he wasn't processing it real well. And I said, have you thought about praying about it? He goes, man, I'm too mad to pray. I'm too mad to pray. He said, I think if I prayed right now, my prayer would be so angry. And I said, as if God doesn't know. I mean, he's sovereign. He already knows you're mad. So when you are praying, you are simply admitting to him that you're feeling anger, you're feeling frustration, you're feeling like what you've gone through isn't fair. And he tells you to pray about all things, pray about everything. And what you'll find when you pray. Pray that mad prayer. And you'll find that God will begin to give you incredible peace. He can transform the anger in your heart and he can give you peace.
That's why he said in Philippians four, he said, don't worry about anything but everything through prayer and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and keep reading. He said, and when you do that, the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.
So when you run to the shepherd, you're going to a safe place. And when you go to the shepherd, you're going to a safe person. Kind of reminds me, my grandparents owned a farm in Oklahoma.
My brother and sister and I spend a lot of time up there. It's on my mom's side of the family. And my grandmother just, she loved us kids, but she couldn't stand to see my parents discipline us around her. Any of you grandmas like that? You just can't stand to see your babies get disciplined around you? Well, I kind of worked that to my advantage because when occasionally I do something that got on my mother's bad side and she felt the need to discipline me. And by the way, my parents didn't read doctor Spock.
They never abused us, but they did spank us. Let me give it to you politically correct. They applied the board of education to the seat of knowledge, if you know what I'm saying.
So they did that. And so I knew what was coming because I could tell my mother. You don't even tell a mother's tone. Tone when Mama's voice gets to a certain pitch. You kind of know. I've got about four decibels. And it's over. My party's over. Now, my dad, he never raised his voice. He just sucked his teeth. He did that. I could hear that for blocks.
My mom, now, you had to get her to a certain pitch. Well, she was right there. I had her right. And I don't know what there is about kid. Pray for me. I was one of these kids. When your mother is right here, right there, right. This is the edge. When you're right there, why is it that some kids just have to push them just one more time? Any kids like that in the house where your mom just got right on the edge and she said, if you do one more thing and I'm gonna take you out and make another one look just like you.
And she got right there. And for some reason, I don't know, it's demonic. I don't know what came over me. Give her one more little shot.
Let's see where this goes. I'm curious, I've been inquiring mind. I want to know and what would happen where I'm going with this. What would happen is when I finally got her and she grabbed a switch, belt, shoe, whatever she could find. Flip flop, you know, it didn't matter. She's coming for me. But you know what I could do? What I did oftentimes is I ran to my grandmother.
You ever play tag and you had bass? Base. If you touch this, this is base. You can't get me. I'm not it. This is base. Grandmother was base. If I could get to her, that's bas. You know what my grandmother would do? She had wrapped this like this.
What's apron. Thank you. Apron. She'd wrap this apron kind of around you. And she look at my mother say, you get away from that baby.
Baby.
I'm her baby.
I'm my grandma's baby. Now, I look at my mother. My mother had said, you're not gonna be able to stay with her all day.
Some point you gotta walk away from that old lady and I'm gunning for you, boy. And I would say, man, I was like, walking around. Me and my grandma, we're walking around. What are you gonna do now? Let's just stay together. Why don't you and I hang out, right? I gotta let Mama cool her jets just a tick before I go back in there. That woman is not anybody you wanna trifle with right now. She is upset. But I knew my grandmother. She was a safe place.
I think that's kind of what the Bible says. The righteous run into it. Proverbs 18. And they're safe. He's a refuge. But have you thought about it? In many ways, God is not only our safe person, but as I said, he's our safe place. There's power in his name. I could tell you this morning, no matter who you are or what you're going through, get to him. He's a safe place. He's a safe person. You can tell him anything. He gets it. He gets you. He can be trusted. He loves you. The shepherd's name. Here's a second thought.
Not only the shepherd's name, but think about the shepherd's nature. The nature of the shepherd. I really touched on it a moment ago when I said he's all powerful. He's everywhere. There's nothing he can't do.
A lot of people have a vision of God as our shepherd, as being distant. Like he's distant.
He's far away.
He's watching from a distance. What was that Bette Midler song? From a distance.
He sees what's going on, but he sees it from a distance. A lot of our founding fathers were deist deists. They believed in God, but they kind of believed God created everything. It was kind of like put the cars on the train track and just let them run. And just whatever will be, will be. And he sets back kind of disinterested, watching from a distance, but disinterested. It's kind of the view of a dis that God is removed from the circumstances of life. He's above everything. And there's a sense in which that is true. God is above all things. Isaiah says he sets on the circle of the earth. By the way, flat earthers should have read that one. He sets on the circle of the earth. Anyway, so God is above everything. He is. He is watching what is going on. He is distant. But what's amazing about our shepherd, it is his nature not only to be above all, but he's also within us. So think about it this way. He's transcendent, but he's imminent.
He's above everything and he's involved in everything. He's a God who's way out there, way up there, but he's a God who's also living within here. In fact, the beautiful verse that underscores what I'm telling you, you're taking notes, is ephesians four six, where Paul puts it this way, God, who is above all. Right, transcendent. He's above all. And through all, and then listen to this. And in you all. He sounds like a southerner there, doesn't he? In you all. In y'all. He's a God that's in this. He's not only above this, but he's in it. He's not only in it, but he's going through it. You know, it's amazing. You never go through anything alone. The nature of God is to walk through every experience of life with his kids.
Sometimes I think we have the mistaken notion that we go to church. We kind of get our worship on. We call it at church, and we kind of, like, do this touch and go with God. I'm gonna connect with God on Sunday, and then I'll see him back next weekend. That's not how it works. When you become a Christ follower, when he is your shepherd and you're his sheep, you belong to his flock, which means he lives within your heart.
That means wherever you go, he goes. He's with you. He's in you.
You don't dismiss yourself from his presence. It's the nature of God to never abandon his own. It is the nature of God to be with his children. One of my favorite verses is there in Hebrews 13, I've shared this with you, where God said, I will never leave you, and I'll never forsake you.
Remember we said the difference is to leave is to remove your presence from someone. To forsake is to emotionally connect from someone you can be physically connected to, someone you are not emotionally connected to at all. Conversely, you can be emotionally connected to someone you're not physically connected to at all. And God said, when it comes to our relationship, I am physically connected to you, I am emotionally connected to you, and I never leave you. So the nature of God is to go with us on good days and bad days, happy days and sad days. He goes with us when we're on the mountain. He walks with us when we're in the valley. He never leaves us. He never forsakes us. It's his nature. He will not forsake his own. In fact, there's an old Testament verse in lamentations that says, I've got you. You're on the palms of my hands. What does he mean by that expression? It means the scars in his hand reminds him of who we are to him. He bought us with a price.
Have you ever thought about the only thing in heaven that will be made by the hands of man will be the scars in the body of our savior?
The Bible says that all of us will be in glorified bodies. And I'll talk about this next week. I hope you come back. I'm going to close next week talking about heaven. We're going to talk about it, surely, I'm with you always.
We're going to talk about heaven one day when we're in heaven. We're going to be in glorified bodies. We're going to be bodies that are completely perfect. Remember I told you a few weeks ago, I'm going to be ripped in handsome.
You don't want to miss that.
I'm just suggesting your heart this morning. But the thing about the body of our savior, he'll still bear in his body the marks of the cross, the scar on his side, his feet and his hands, the scars of the crown of thorns on his head. We know that because one of the elders will look and say, what are these scars? Where do they come from? And then he'll respond, these are they where I was wounded. He said, in the house of my friends, I think for all eternity those scars will remind us of the price that he paid so that we could be in heaven with him one day. So I'm just suggesting to your heart this morning that there's not a thing you can go through that God cannot relate to.
He goes, as I said, through the valley with us, and he goes through the experiences with us. He never leaves us. That's his nature. Let me give you a third thought. I've talked about the shepherd's name, and I've talked about the shepherd's nature. Here's number three. Let's talk a minute about his nurture. What is the nurturing nature of God? It is to love us. It is to care for us. It is to be with us. In fact, it's amazing. I was looking at a few verses in the Bible where the love of God for his own is compared to the love of a mother for her own. Listen to Isaiah 66, verse 13. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. God said, just as you can get to your mom and you find comfort, I'm running in the house with blood. I knew where to go to. I went to my mom. My dad's going, that hurt, didn't it? My mother's going, let me clean you up and help you. So I'm just suggesting to you through motherf. And God said, just as your mama will comfort you, your heavenly father will comfort you. Jesus said, it's a beautiful promise. He said in Matthew 23, verse 37, he said to Jerusalem, he said, I would often gather you under myself as a hen would gather her little ones, but he said, but you wouldn't want to do it. He said, what is my heart? What is my nature? My nature is to nurture you. It is to gather you as a hen gathers her little baby chicks under her wings. It is to protect you, it is to love you. It is to care for you. Here's another one in Hosea, chapter 13 and verse eight. Listen to this, ladies. You'll love this. Like a bear robbed of her cubs. You talk about Mama bear. That's where it is in the Bible. Like a bear robbed of her cubs. He said, I will attack them and rip them open. Oh, my gosh. He went old Testament, literally, here. Like a lion, I will devour them like a wild animal, I'll tear them apart. He said, you mess with one of my babies and I'm coming hard after you. Every momma in the room can understand that. He said, I love my kids so much that I'll move heaven and earth to do anything I need to do to protect them. It is the nurturing nature of God.
You remember he said, you prepare a table. You prepare a table. A table was a place of refreshment. A table was a place where we could see, receive what we need to get us stronger to get to the day than the nourishment. He said, you prepare a table in the presence of my enemies, meaning that I'm going to do this. Even though we're in a hostile world, in a hostile environment, I'm still going to give you what you need to get through what you're going through. It's my nurturing nature.
He went on to say, I'll anoint your head with oil. Back in that day, being out in that hot sun, when you came in out of the sun, they would put oil, it would soothe the skin. Oil was used as a medicine back in that day, in James five, it says, pour oil in. When the good Samaritan found the man that was beaten and left for dead, he poured oil in his wounds. So oil was sometimes used as medicine. It was medicine. Sometimes it was used just to soothe. And sometimes it was used to medicate. Sometimes oil was used in a priestly way to anoint someone for service, to anoint a priest or to anoint a king. So oil had great significance. And God was saying, I'm going to anoint my kids. I'm going to satisfy and meet the deepest need of my kids, to the point that he said, their cup runs over David said, man, when I think about the goodness of God, I'm so blessed. And can I tell you this morning, as I close, there's not a person in this room, honestly, that could stand on their feet today and indict God. God's been good to us.
I mean, oftentimes when we begin to go through a difficult time, or at least I do in my life, I start thinking about not what I've lost. I start thinking about what I still have.
You know what I found? The miracle is always in the thing that you still have.
In acts first kings, chapter 18, when Elijah went to the house of the widow, and the widow just had a little oil and a little cruise, he didn't look at what she lost. She had lost her husband. She had lost her income. She had lost a lot of things. He said, I'm not looking at the things you've lost. I'm looking at the things you have left. And he took the things that little widow lady had left and did the greatest miracle in her life.
What am I saying? I'm saying, in this season of life, when we've all lost some things and we've all lost some people and our hearts could be heavy, can I remind you, God is going to do his deepest work in our hearts with the things that we still have left. And you've got a lot left. I have a lot left.
God's not finished with us. He has a purpose and a plan for us. So our job is just to respond to him, to trust him, and to realize that he doesn't make mistakes. He's got a plan. He can be trusted. He loves us. When we can see him at work, he's at work. When we can't see him at work, he's still at work. When I sense him at work, he's at work. And when I can't sense him at work, he's still at work.
When I know what he's doing, he's doing something. And when I don't know what he's doing, he's still doing something.
God has a plan for you. He loves you. If you had been the only human on the earth to redeem, he would have gone to the cross just for you. He doesn't just love all of us, he loves each one of us. You matter to him. That's why he said, I'll leave the 99 and I'll go searching for the one, because everyone in this room has value.
You have a shepherd that cares for you as a mom cared for you. Your shepherd cares for you he can be trusted. Would you pray with me, Father, thank you for this weekend where we can honor these wonderful ladies in our presence. And, Father, with heavy hearts, we can remember and look back at some of those who are in your presence now and thank you for their memory.
So I pray this will be a good day for families as they gather.
Keep them safe on the roads. Give them a great and productive week. And, Father, I would pray that you will lift the burden from any person who's shouldering a heavy burden today. Let them know again that they matter, that you care.
And finally, lord, if there's one here who's never trusted you as savior, there's never been that moment in their life where they've humbled their heart and received you. I pray this would be that time.
May they simply humble their heart now and say, Lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life. And, Father, I'll trust you until the day I die. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
