"A Tale of Two Mothers" – 1 Kings 3:16–28; Johnnie Standard

my wife Katherine and I are kind of suckers for sentimental stories uh even if they're a little bit cheesy and one such story uh I was reminded of this week was uh the story of Jim andela uh you might know them as The Gift of the Magi uh they were a young married couple in New York City in about 1900 and there were three things that you could say to describe Jim andela they were young they were in love and they were broke they had no money and it was Christmas Eve and they wanted to give one another a meaningful Christmas gift but as I said they were broke so they had no money to buy a gift that was deserving of one another but they each had one material possession that was actually of value Jim had a very special gold pocket watch that was given to him by his father that was given to him by his father and it was worth a lot to Jim he was very proud of it and Dela knew that now Dela on the other hand she had one thing that was materially valuable she had beautiful long hair hair that reached her knees so it was Christmas Eve they still hadn't been able to give a Christmas present to one another so what did they do you know you probably know the story but Jim sold his valuable pocket watch so that he could buy combs for Dela to brush her hair but Dela cut her hair and sold it so that she could buy a chain for Jim's pocket watch so when they show the gifts to one another they're mortified that the other one doesn't have the gift that they thought they would have and the point of the story is that they were willing to give up that which was so valuable to them because they loved their spouse so much more that's called sacrificial giving sacrificial love and why do stories like that draw Us in so much is because we're drawn to this idea of selflessness because we live in a world that is so full of selfishness we're drawn to giving that costs us something because so many times the world says keep and get all for you you you you Jim and Dela are a reminder of sacrificial love and sacrificial love is the message of the Bible the big theme of the Bible is the sacrificial love that God has for his creation specifically for mankind because in Romans 5 it says God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us greater love has no one than this that he gave up his life for his friend and Jesus the son of God gave up his life so that we could be in a right relationship with God is that not the greatest demonstration of sacrificial love well sacrificial love is something we're going to see this morning so please turn in your Bibles to First Kings chapter 3 First Kings chapter 3 and in our passage today we're going to see two contrasting attitudes of mothers surprise surprise A Mother's Day passage two different mothers with attitudes one is very selfish and the other is very selfless now usually when we look at this passage we focus on the wisdom that God had given to Solomon and that's true but I also think that there are truths we can learn as we observe what is going on between these two mothers so let's get into our passage today in First Kings 3:16 then two women who were harlots came to the king and they stood before him and the king is King Solomon and he's very young in his Reign and this is one of the first big judicial decisions that he probably was doing and the text is saying that these two women of ill repute they probably had very little money and and and they come before the king with a case and what is their case then one woman said the first woman will call her mother number one mother number one says to Solomon oh my Lord this woman I think she's pointing to the other woman we'll call her mother number two this woman and I live in the same house that kind of makes sense because they're probably poor they need to live together there's no man in the picture and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house and it happened on the third day after I gave birth that this woman also gave birth to a child and we were together there was no stranger with us in the house only the two of us in the house so she's painting a picture before the king who's also the judge of what happened and she said there's there only two of us and each of us had a baby I had a baby and 3 days later she had a baby and there was nobody else there who could be qualified as an eyewitness in our case there's no one who would could corroborate either of our stories so she says in verse 19 This Woman's son died in the night because she lay on it and I would be shocked if that was not accidental she's describing that she laid on her baby no mother would intentionally do that she probably fell asleep and accidentally laid on her but the tragedy is that the child died verse 20 so mother number two as mother number one is saying she arose in the middle of the night and she took my son she stole my son who was beside me while your maid servant slept and she laid him in her bosom but she laid her dead son in my bosom so there was a swap her baby died my baby was with me and while I was sleeping she took her dead baby and put her dead baby in my lap but she took my living baby and took it with her to her bed so verse 21 when I arose in the morning to nurse my son behold he was dead but when I looked at him carefully in the morning behold he was not my son who whom I had born so she's saying as I looked at my child and I was grieving that my child had died I looked very closely and I I I recognized this isn't my baby that's my baby so she's telling this to King Solomon in verse 22 then the other woman mother number two said no for the living one is my son and the dead one is your son but the first woman said no for the dead one is your son and the living one is my son thus they spoke before the king so you see the Dilemma Solomon is facing whose baby is it how will he decide verse 23 then the king saidis one says this is my son who is the living and your son is the Dead one and the other says no for your son is the Dead one and mine is the living one so Solomon is talking out loud the chaos that is in front of him and there's only two voices and he's got to make a decision who's telling the truth and who's lying so what does he do verse 24 then Solomon said get me a sword you may be think what in the world is he doing get me a sword so they brought a sword before the king and the King said divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other thinking what is he thinking we already had one child die now we're going to have a second child day die I think he's doing a test look at at verse 26 then the woman whose child was the living one and the next verse says it's the first woman whom we've identified as mother number one so then mother number one whose child was the living one mother number one was actually telling the truth she spoke to the king for she was deeply stirred over her son there was Deep Emotions within her on behalf of her child she was full of compassion for her child and she said oh my Lord give her the living child and by no means kill him what did she just do she just sacrificially gave her child to someone else because it was not in her best interest but it was in the best interest of the child she says by no means kill the baby give her the baby I want the baby to live but look at the words of mother number two but the other one woman said he shall be neither mine nor yours divide him cut him in half it's the fair thing to do after all it wouldn't be right if she had a baby and I didn't or I had a baby and she didn't it's only fair that we divide him so divide him then the king said verse 27 give the first woman the living child and by no means kill him for she is his mother Solomon saying mother number one is telling the truth I had no intention of killing the baby this is how we came to the truth because a true mother would never say what mother number two said verse 28 when all Israel heard of the Judgment which the king had handed down they feared the king for they saw that the wisdom of God was in was in him to administer justice so in the context of chapter 3 we usually when we look at this passage we focus on Solomon and wisdom and that's true and in fact back in January I preached from this very same passage and in the 33 minutes that I did on chapter 3 I spent four minutes on what we're going to spend the whole day on today because in the context Solomon was requesting wisdom and God had given him wisdom and now Solomon was using wisdom and that's true but I want us to narrow in on what was going on in how he was using wisdom and I'd like us to look just step back and observe the differences in the attitudes of these two mothers and the actions of these two mothers mother number two was careless how do I know that she was careless because she wasn't careful enough to not roll over on her baby because it says that she laid on her baby and her baby died what what else did Mother number two do she stole someone else's child what else did she do she lived in deception with her quote unquote friend acting like her friend's baby was hers and her baby was her friends what else did she do she took it to another level she lied in court to the highest level of authority the king and her heart was so hardened that she was willing to let another child be cut in two because she did not have the compassion that a true mother would have how about n mother number one mother number one took initiative she strove to contend for the life of her child it took a lot of effort for mother number one to stop the problem wouldn't that wouldn't that have been easy if Mother number two took the baby and mother number one said oh well Shucks that's really my baby but there's really nothing I can do about it maybe someday I'll get to have another baby is that what mother number one did no mother number one said no that's my baby and we're going to take this and settle this before Solomon and I don't care how embarrassing this is I want my baby back CU that's not true she contended for her baby she spoke the truth she said what she's saying is a lie this is the truth and she was so moved by compassion for her child that she was willing to give up her child so that her child could live there's all sorts of things going on between these two mothers and as I as I want us to continue to break down what is happening here at the Crux of the matter there's someone who's acting in selfishness who wants to take and there's someone acting in selflessness who's willing to give and there's three big challenges I want us to finish our morning with today that are both directed to mothers if you're a mother these are challenges specifically for you in your role as a mother with your child but they're also applicable to anyone who's a Christian and why would I say that because as I said earlier that the passage highlights selfishness selflessness selfishness is I only want to live for me myself and I selflessness is I'm called to live for something more than myself well why is that applicable to a Christian because Jesus says I want you to love one another as I have loved you so if you're a Christian you're called to live selflessly in the power of Christ so let's think about our first challenge the first challenge to mothers and to Christians is to strive on behalf of your children who are being taken away in the passage that's quite obvious application mother number one needed to strive for her child who was literally being taken away this week I was looking up in the dictionary the definition of strive it's to devote serious effort or energy to struggle in opposition to contend for something and she contended for her child she spent great effort fighting to get her child back so that the truth would be made known and you might say well yeah it's obvious someone took her baby no one in 2024 is trying to take my children from me I'd say yes there is and his name is Satan he's trying to take away their minds he's trying to take away their hearts he's very subtle Bible calls Satan in John 8 a liar it says that he's the father of Lies there's no truth in him him think about in John 10 as Jesus is contrasting the thief from the Good Shepherd the thief comes to steal to take to kill and destroy but I have come that they may have life Satan wants to take our kids hearts and Minds for himself and away from God so how do you as a mother strive on behalf of your child God's given us instructions in Deuteronomy 6 that I think probably was written to father but I think it's very applicable to mothers any parent Deuteronomy 65 he says three things in three verses let's see if we can figure out the three things verse five you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind verse six these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart verse seven you shall teach them diligently to your children number one love the Lord with all your heart soul and mind what's the first step in striving for your children it's to make sure that your personal relationship with the Lord is strong that he's number one in your life that you can say I love him more than anything or anyone else and there's going to be competition for our hearts even as Christians especially for Christians Satan wants us to develop Idols that pull us away so that God becomes second place or third place or fourth place we need to to constantly evaluate the condition of our heart and when there's a problem say Lord confess it I'm wrong Lord You're supposed to be number one and there's things in my life as I look at my time as I look at my passions my affections how I'm spending my money I'm realizing you're not number one love the Lord your God with all your heart what's the second thing he says verse six in Deuteronomy six these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart he's talking to the parents he's saying the word of God should be on your heart what does that mean it means it stays there it means that you are continually exposing yourself to the word of God so that the word of God is richly dwelling within you as Paul would say in Colossians that the word of God is it's not only coming and in just being a dead end but it's taking root in your heart so that number three you can diligently teach it to your children so that as God is changing you with his word you are outflowing that to your children you are teaching them diligently you are striving you are contending to share the truth that you've received with them that's one of the biggest challenges I have for mothers and fathers today is to share that truth with your children but you might be saying well I'm not a mother so I'm off the hook today right no you're not because this whole thing this group we're called the church and you know what the church is it's a spiritual family which means you may not be biologically a mother or a father but there's children in this church and we are to contend for the children in our church because Satan's trying to take their minds and their hearts and there statistics out the wazoo that are showing how children who grew up in the church are walking away from the church why is that because Satan is very effective in his deception and maybe we're not doing a good enough job striving for our kids and we've got amazing children's ministries we've got Junior church nursery kids club on Wednesday night and we've got amazing volunteers literally awesome people I'm so proud as a dad to have the people who are pouring into them that are in our church but you know what we need more we want to grow we can still get better so maybe you you may have been thinking man I don't have any kids anymore or my kids are grown you know maybe the Lord is putting on your heart a desire to help contend for the kids in your church and if that's the case come talk to me afterwards CU we got room to grow we're doing doing great but I want us to do better and we need to keep striving for our kids because Satan doesn't take a day off he's continually trying to take them and take them and take them Second Challenge for our mothers not only are we to strive for our children so that they're not taken but we're to speak the truth amidst the lies and they're very related but I want us to think about where where in the text was the mother number one words it's any mother speaking the truth mother number one she's saying she took my baby and what she's saying is not true that took effort to to be committed to speak for the truth and as a parent we live in a culture that is not speaking the truth you turn on the TV you look at your phone you look at the computer your kids come home from school what they are being fed is not truth how do I know that well think about just a few different examples origins of life we live in a culture where most experts say that we evolved that there is no God that he didn't create the heavens and the Earth he didn't create Humanity we just gradually evolved from some simpler form of life but the Bible says that God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence that he directly created Adam and Eve and that all of us are bi logically related to one another through Adam and Eve how about goals for life we live in an era when people say the most important goal in your life is to be happy but the Bible says the goal of your life is that you're walking with God how about the value of life we live in a world that says a person is valuable if they're useful or beautiful if they're not useful they're really not valuable and if they're not beautiful are they really valuable the Bible says that every single person is valuable because every single person is created in the image of God whether the culture says they're useful or beautiful or not and we're obsessed with what somebody looks like on the outside how about 1st Samuel 16 man looks at the outside but the Lord looks at the heart God cares about the inside too what's precious to him is the hidden person of the heart we live in a world that says the purpose in life is to make this world a better place the Bible says for the Christian the purpose is to give God glory who will one day make a new world and a new Heaven which will be the best place we live in a world that says sexuality and Purity is whatever you want it to be sleep with whoever ever you want to sleep with do whatever you want to do think about whatever you want to think about look at on a screen whatever you want to look at because it's not going to hurt anybody but the Bible says that sexual Purity is very important to the Lord that it is his will for his children to be different in that way the Bible says that what we allow our eyes to look at and what we allow our minds to think about matter it says in Hebrews 13 that the marriage bed is to be undefiled that the Lord will judge fornication and adultery it matters sexuality matters Purity matters Jesus says in Mark 10 from the beginning of creation God made them male and female for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh for they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let no man separate we live in a culture that is spreading lies and we need to be committed to speak the truth amidst the lies and what better person is called to that task than a parent but just like our first point you might be thinking I'm not a parent I'm not even a grandparent well guess what if you're part of the church there's children in this church who need to hear you being committed to speaking the truth so you're saying that's not true because that's not what God's word says the greatest lie of all is that all roads lead to the same place everybody will eventually end up in heaven because it really doesn't matter what you believe it just matters that you believe something that as long as you're really sincere about what your faith is in you're fine that's one of Satan's most effective lies how do I know that's a lie because it's exactly the opposite of what Jesus said Jesus said in John 14 I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through me you got to go through Jesus and you got to go through his cross that means if you would say you're salvation is through anything other than Jesus and what he accomplished for you at the cross the Bible would say you don't have salvation Paul says it very clearly in 1 Timothy 2 God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth what's the gospel truth that there's one God and there's one mediator between God and man and who's that mediator Christ Jesus who gave him self at the cross as a ransom payment for many salvation always flows and funnels through two things a person and a work Jesus and his death on the cross and his death on the cross is married to his resurrection from the grave but Jesus Paid for our sins at the cross so what do we need to be committed to speaking the truth of the message of Jesus in the cross and we live in a great Community I was reading this week Springfield Illinois top 10 this year of Forbes most affordable places to live and I know people are leaving for Florida but this is still a good place to be and if we want our community of children to know what the truth is do we expect other people to do it how about we do it may we be a people who are committed to speaking the truth last challenge of the day I want us to be a people who move out of compassion not out of callousness where do you see that from the passage in the passage remember how mother number one was so grieved by the thought that her baby would be cut in two that she said give her the baby I that's really my baby but if it means life or death for the child I want to do what's best for my child as opposed to what's best for me and think about the callousness of mother number two you know what Solomon you're right the sword that's the answer just cut up the child in two you know after all we do have rights that it's fair for her and for me we should just split up the child she was so concerned about what was fair that she was willing to see a baby be killed in the process and you know what things haven't changed 3,000 years later the specifics have changed but the concept is the same there was no value for human life 3,000 years ago in some people's hearts and you might be thinking well Johnny acting out of comp passion and not callousness I mean I you know I could probably be a little more compassionate but I'm never going to be callous enough to allow a child to die or allow my child to be split in two and you're probably right you're probably not going to say well get the sword out you're never going to say that of course not but do you ever struggle with Compassion or am I the only person that struggles that way and I know this is such a smaller degree it's not even kind of appropriate to compare but as I think about compassion in this mother who was willing to give up her baby yesterday I have four children who I love one of the things that drives me the craziest is when they're arguing with each other and I say please don't do that don't do that don't do that 789 times and they're still doing that and it's easy for me to act out of frustration and not compassion and it's kind of funny because the Lord whenever you're teaching something he's always teaching you that personally and I've been thinking about how do we do that we need to ask for his help we can't do it on our own so yesterday as two of my children are arguing with each other I literally out loud said Lord help me they looked up what's wrong with Dad I needed his compassion cuz I was so frustrated that they were arguing with each other and I literally out loud Lord help me right now and I think Jesus wants us to cry out to him because in John 15 he says I am the vine you are the branches he who abides in me and I in him will bear much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing you can't truly have the compassion of Christ in your own strength therefore if you're a Believer and dwell with the spirit of Christ you can say Lord help me and do you think that's a prayer that's in accordance with the will of God yes it is God is waiting for us to invite him to help us and the Bible says that when we pray anything in agreement with his will he will answer it God will help you are you asking for his help Lord help me to move out of compassion not out of callousness the greatest demonstration of sacrificial love is Jesus on the cross and if God was willing to sacrifice his son on our behalf if he was willing to do something as difficult of saving our souls from suffering in hell do you think that he's willing to help us in our struggles today the Apostle Paul States it in Romans 8 last verse of the day he says he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all will he not also freely give us us all things excuse me will he also not with him freely give us all things he's saying if Jesus went to the Cross if God the Father sent his son to die in your place so that you could be saved from hell and welcome into fellowship with him don't you think he's willing and able to help you now absolutely is and the help that we need is him working through us we can't do it on our own we need the heart of God flowing through us so that we can be living in the love and heart of Christ let's pray father God we thank you for your word we see two different mothers In this passage Lord sometimes we struggle with our own attitudes of being selfish or selfless of being focused on what's best for our needs and focused as opposed to what's best for someone else Lord we struggle with this and we need help and we ask for your help Lord I ask that every believer in here that you would give help that we would invite you in the process of our daily lives that we would recognize we cannot do this in our own strength we need you we need you to take over lord and I ask that you would help the mothers in this room the fathers in this room every believer in this room that we would strive for our children who are trying to be taken Away by our enemy Lord I ask that we would be committed to speaking truth amidst lies in our culture Lord I ask that we would be acting out of your compassion not out of our callousness Lord and if there's one in this room who's never received the free gift of Salvation in Jesus and you would like to today I ask that you would pray with me in your heart and say God I'm a sinner I don't deserve to be saved I don't deserve to be forgiven I don't deserve to go to heaven I don't deserve anything that has to do with you I deserve the opposite I deserve to go to hell I deserve to be separated from you because I am a sinner but I believe what you say in the Bible that says that your son Jesus died on the cross and he made the payment for my sins that he took my sin upon himself when he died on the cross that his shed blood made the pain payment for my sins that he died was buried and was raised from the dead on the third day and that shows that the payment was satisfying in your sight and I believe I am saved solely because of your grace and I receive your grace through faith in what Jesus has done for me I'm saved not because of anything I have done or will do I'm saved only because I have received what you have accomplished for me in Jesus and his cross Lord I ask that you would help all of us to leave here this morning dependent upon you and may you have free reain to flow through our hearts this week in Jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Springfield Bible Church

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Length: 34min 52sec (2092 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2024