Mother's Day Sermon

today we're here to honor women just not even just mothers but women in general and you know one of the reasons that i believe the creation story um genesis one two and three is because it's its values it values women um i've always kind of wondered like if if this all just happened by random chance and matter like how does that really value the differences and value um how god designed things and so um as i've studied even just the the creation process the birthing process it's just it's so phenomenal it really is a miracle um one of my favorite just kind of creation stories is that science has known now is like you know babies eyes are pretty much glued shut and there's like this weird almost razor type thing that goes across their eyes and opens them while they're in the womb and that just blew me away like how is that possible right like it's it's a miracle it's it's uh giving honor and glory to our creator who is just such a unbelievable fascinating um creator and how he designed us and even when i when i look at the creation story i believe that one of the reasons when jesus said i redeem all things and he said that he is creating a kingdom where he's really going back to the way it was meant to be that includes the the role of women in the kingdom of god um the word eve you know adam and eve is shava in hebrew and it means to breathe it means breath so basically no women no life they are the centerpiece of society and of all species and um i i had to i mean i cringe and i laughed all the same time because if you know me and you've come here for a while like i believe everyone is made in the image of god and no matter what a person does or what lifestyle they're in or whatever um i can see through actions and see people like that's how i view people but this week when i heard some of our own congressmen in america calling women not women but birthing people you all know this is nonsense this is total nonsense that is such a ridiculous claim i literally started laughing because i'm just like who's buying this and the hard part i have with it is it's so degrading towards women like are we on a farm is that where we're at we're you're just like we're just pumping out animals is that what we're doing so today let me be the first to say happy mother's day and we will continue to say that and why this is important is like even in the creation story a woman was made from adam's side she wasn't made from his feet she wasn't made from his hands meaning she's his servant she was a co-equal partner in the kingdom of god co-equal partner and so that's what i believe a part of the gospel is is recapturing this view of of men and women as co-equal partners in the kingdom of god and let me say this before i get into the good stuff that uh throughout time many cultures and races have been oppressed and abused women are the most oppressed people in the history of mankind in every culture in every era of time women have been oppressed and as the giver of life i want to recapture that value today in this sermon so i want to start by celebrating uh my mother first um my mother has the heart of a caretaker like it she just takes care of people it doesn't matter if you were related to her it doesn't matter you know what spectrum you were on with relationship if you needed something she's there and she she means it she really cares for people when they're sick um or when things are going on in their life and i've i've witnessed it my entire life my mom had a a sister who was handicapped i mean literally couldn't move her arms or anything she had a spinal condition and my mother helped take care of her both her parents got sick early and when my grandmother had cancer my grandmother moved in with us and they created a little room for her downstairs and my mother took care of her mother and then my father got cancer at 51 years old and i watched her take care of him it's just it's who she is she doesn't do it begrudgingly she you don't owe her anything she just has the heart of a caretaker and i was six weeks premature um i was like four or something pounds and uh my lungs never developed so for months i was had to stay in an incubator like in the hospital and stuff and um and so that my entire life i my lungs just i've had bad lungs last november when i got our whole family got coronavirus that was a little nerve-wracking like you know you felt this pressure on your chest all the time um and and i was a little worried about that but i've had it my entire life and i can distinctively remember that when i would get croup i mean over every year every year i'd get croup that my mother would hold me in a chair all night so i could stay propped up i remember that and that was when i was 25. so i mean like she went a long time no i i distinctively remember her taking care of me and like literally all night for weeks because i just couldn't kick it and it's just it's something admirable and um my mom is she's tough as nails she's had a ton of tragedy in her life our family has just seen death after death after death and my mother is a survivor she never expects anyone to take care of her she's always had a job and she's one of the hardest workers i know and i just want to honor her and she's also one of the best trash talkers i've ever met which is where i get that from so um just really love and honor my mother as well and one one moment that was a game changer for me because you know in high school you just you think you know everything and then you go to college and and i i got into some dark stuff in college and i had a couple week bender on some different things and i i needed to go home i just remember in my spirit thinking i need to go home and i went home didn't tell my parents i drove from college and i just laid on their couch for a week and slept i just needed sleep and every time i'd wake up there'd be food next to the couch she didn't say a word she knew what was going on and i barely even talked to him that week i just needed sleep and i would eat go to sleep eat and go to sleep and i remember as i'm driving home i was like i can always depend on my mom always i also want to celebrate my wife because i i could not ask for a better mother to my children and my wife jennifer was made to be a mother she was made to be a mother but her body wasn't made to have children she had two incredibly difficult uh pregnancies um she would she would have died you know years ago without modern medicine so praise god for that she had i can't remember the term but she just swelled up with water and her brain began to swell up incredibly and so she had to have two c-sections and with lily she literally on the the day she had lily she lost 40 pounds of water weight in one night and i mean just to see what this woman went through uh to to have our children and it just she was made to be a mom but one of my favorite funniest moments with her when we were in the hospital was you know we're all kind of delirious it's just like it was you know we didn't even know we were having a lily that day the doctor said you got to get it now because again her brain was swelling up with water and all kinds of stuff and we're sitting there and just you know like uh what's going on and on tv they were playing a movie that they could not make today uh blazing saddles was on tv and uh there's this one there's this one scene where gene wilder is like talking about this gun fight he got in with a little kid and there's this one line he says and my wife laughed so hard at blazing saddles and i'm like looking at her and then she starts crying and then she starts laughing and then she starts crying and then i start laughing and then i start crying and it was just like this great moment where god just kind of gave us a release for a little bit but i really just i mean this like she was made to be a mother and i'm very thankful to god for that so i say this because again i'm going to just preach on women in general today i'm going to talk about one unsung hero in the bible but there's many great women in the bible but also many great women in church history and as i said last week one of the changes that i had in my theology and my approach to church was looking at the early church fathers meaning before 400 a.d when the romans kind of took over the church and they started mingling church and state which we've never really recovered from there were i found that there were many great women who were beside the church fathers the church mothers and they were even apostles they were apostles in romans 16 paul mentions one of them he says i commend to you our sister phoebe a deacon of the church i ask you to receive her in the lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you for she has been the benefactor of many people including me he also mentions another woman named junia and in verse seven he says make sure that my relatives andronicus and junia are honored now listen to this for they're my fellow captives who bear distinct mark of being outstanding and well-known apostles and who were joined into the anointed one before me the apostle paul is saying this woman junior was an apostle before i was she believed in the grace of jesus before i was and here's the sad thing and and i aim to fix this at zootown church is all these women were highly esteemed and regarded in the church they were co-equals and again until rome really took over and then the middle ages when religion just took over um they were they were kind of thrown aside and i know that there's a lot of debate because there's a few passages where paul talks about women teachers but there's so much culture in that there's so many different things going on there but john christostem a famous church father put this to rest about junia he says indeed to be an apostle at all is a great thing but to be even amongst those of note just consider what a great encomium that is oh how great is the devotion of this woman that she should even be counted worthy of the appellation of apostle so here's here's the question i mean why did they change it why did why did they change this because it was a man's world it was a man's world and they even changed scripture and at zewtown church we are going to honor women and we believe that women are co-equal partners with men as we have now studied this we have two women on our board we allow women to preach and they even you know a lot of the reformers and even calvinists today they they still put women down and they've actually changed junior's name to julian in the bible to make it a man that's messed up and i want to say i'm sorry i'm sorry that the church has done this if you need proof here's a picture from that era where junia is standing next to the apostles as a co-equal here's my whole thing paul goes through the list of hierarchy apostles preachers pastors apostles are above preachers in that ladies and not only that these women were martyrs they were martyrs along with many of the apostles junia traveled all over the world or in that region anyways and she was so on fire for the lord that she had so many converts in these pagan towns that they started tearing down their temples and tearing down their idols because of the witness of junia she was also a martyr in prison she was finally taken over or taken in captivity and because she wasn't a roman citizen she was raped and she was tortured as she preached the good news of jesus christ to her captors here's my point ladies and i've had to grow in this too jesus was the first women's lib movement he really was and he did it slowly and he knew that his culture wasn't accepting of it but he still did it and if all you have to do is read about mary and martha women were always around him and may i say this while the men were running and hiding in a little room after jesus was crucified it was the women who were at the tomb it was the women who were taking care of the body it was the women who were first in the res to see the resurrection of jesus christ he was the first women's liberator and mary and martha were his were his friends and there's that one scene we always make it about martha in the kitchen and he kind of rebukes her a little bit mary was at his feet and in that culture you sat at the feet of your rabbi meaning you were a co-equal disciple and so mary and he had monastery he said she found the good thing and so jesus christ was the first women's liberator and my goal is to show women that at zootown church so we're going to look at an unsung woman today because i preached on mary a few years ago but there's another woman involved in this story and she gave birth to the greatest prophet that ever lived jesus said that jesus said john the baptist was the greatest prophet who ever lived now just to kind of set the scene john's father zachariah he was a priest and and there was the tribe of the levites and the levites were the priests that's what they were but there was they say at this time there was 18 000 priests and so it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing i mean you waited your entire life to walk into the temple which you then walked into the holy of holies which is where the ark of the covenant was um and and you you did your duty there and you were there to meet with the lord so this was a once once-in-a-lifetime thing that these guys got to do and they all had different jobs so some were doing the sacrifices and um other ones were just you know you know like doing some of the mixing in the bowls but zechariah lit the incense he let the incense at the altar but here's the crazy part about this story and again i'm just setting up the scene god had been silent for 400 years so these prophets would go in and meet with god but he had been silent for 400 years so at this point imagine being a priest and you're waiting your entire life to get to do this but you know god has not talked to anyone for 400 years so sometimes i don't know his heart and i don't know where his mind was at but i wonder if he's like well i'm a nobody god's not going to talk to me and zechariah does his lights his incense he performs his duty and an angel shows up and it scares him it freaks him out right but listen to what the angel says in luke 1 13 it says don't be afraid zachariah god is showing grace to you for i have come to tell you that your prayer for a child has been answered your wife elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to name him john his birth will bring you much joy and gladness many will rejoice because of him and he will be one of the great ones in the sight of god he will drink no wine or strong drink he was a nazarite he took a nazarite vow and he will be filled with the holy spirit while still in his mother's womb and he will persuade many in israel to convert and turn back to the lord their god he will go before the lord as a forerunner so it was jesus's cousin with the same power and anointing as elijah the prophet he will be instrumental in turning the hearts of the fathers in tenderness back to their children and the hearts of the disobedient back to the wisdom of their righteous fathers and he will prepare a united people who are ready for the lord's appearing now i'm going to break this down a little bit but at this point they they couldn't have children they were well in age and she was barren and now he gets told they're going to have a miracle baby today i think sometimes we downplay this and we call it an oops baby i had a noops baby when we found out that we were pregnant my wife was on birth control and we knew god wanted us to have this child and if i'm fully honest it was kind of a proud moment for me jenny comes out of the bathroom and we're all kind of shocked and she told me that she's pregnant and i felt like superman i was like science can't stop me but god wanted us to have lily we had no clue what we were doing we were planting a church starting a coffee shop we had no money and god put shows this time but again how special is this this message this message to to really a nobody who who felt like god was against them that his son was going to be the forerunner for jesus christ the messiah now the beauty of this is the priests were going into the holy of holies to intercede for israel and god flips it and says no your son is going to intercede for me to israel this is an amazing scene now again what would my what would our response be right fist pump call your buddies smoke a cigar drink a beer listen to what he says zachariah asked the angel how do you expect me to believe this i'm an old man and my wife is too old to give me a child what sign can you give me to prove this will happen again he's so shocked but he like instead of being excited about it he's like yeah i mean this is cool and all but can i get another sign you're talking to an angel god finally shows up he's like yeah i need more i need more now again i don't want to be too harsh on him because this shows how fickle we are as human beings okay i know that there are so many things in my life in your life that you have prayed for and because we live in a fast food culture where we want this right away god has answered prayers that you forgot you even prayed friends but this shows i don't want to be too harsh on him because this shows there was this uh like this cultural pressure this shows there was a bunch of shame on their life but listen to their response or gabriel's response then the angel said and i always wonder if gabriel got like a little cocky here i'm gabriel i stand beside god he has sent me to announce to you this good news but now man since you do not believe my words you will be stricken with silence and unable to speak until the day my words have been fulfilled at their appointed time and a child is born and i think this is a mic drop moment he's like that's your sign zechariah now again this is a little tough love this is a little tough love from gabriel but i wanna i've always wondered if elizabeth was like nine months of silence thank you jesus nine months he just gets to serve me and help me and not talk to me this is like this this is the miracle this is the miracle but again this isn't about zachariah i just kind of set the scene children were a huge deal back then i'm not saying they're not a huge deal now but basically they uh they it was a sign of god's favor and a sign of god's blessing and they needed children especially as a priest you wanted to have boys or a boy to carry the bloodline of priests not only that as they kind of ran the farm and if we're honest i think we're just one generation removed from this that not too long ago in america you had a bunch of kids because you needed them to run the farm my grandparents were from north dakota they all had like 10 11 brothers and sisters and that blows our mind now because again we we have more options and stuff and you're not necessarily taking over the farm but it's crazy even just a generation ago what women went through in our society it's crazy and i saw this meme this week and i gotta laugh at the nine of clock service so i hope you laugh at this but i thought this is funny grandma all people think about is sex these days also grandma i'm gonna get fired but that's hilarious but it's true right you're like oh my gosh even a hundred years ago like what women have gone through in the birthing process but before the angel told zechariah this we got to go back one little a few verses because this really shows the heart of this story in verse 5 it says during the reign of king herod the great king herod the great of judea there was a jewish priest named zechariah who served in the temple as part of the priestly order his wife elizabeth was also from a family of priests and was a descendant of aaron they were both righteous before god living virtuously and following the commandments of the lord blamelessly but they were childless since elizabeth was barren and now they were both quite old again as i mentioned um children kind of kept the tribe going the in jewish culture that was huge because they had to keep the tribe moving forward but really children were a sign of god's favor they lived in a blessing and curses mentality and jesus came to destroy religion he came to destroy that stuff but that's what their mindset was from deuteronomy 32 so they believed the more children you have the more god loved you and the more godly you were so think of the stigma that elizabeth had to live with her entire life think of the rumors think of the assumptions about her in the community oh yeah i mean they look righteous they're doing all this great priest stuff they're they're honoring god but there's got to be something else going on they got to have a secret sin now may i say in 2021 sometimes christianity reacts in the same way when a christian has a failure when a christian has something not go right in their life our religious spirit kicks in they're like well looks like god's mad at him looks like something's going on my dear friends that is not how god works jesus came to show us that blessings and curses model is nonsense i remember years ago i've seen this and some of you have dealt with this i had a couple in my office and they just could not get pregnant and i'll never forget this was a huge moment for me to like just see religion in action where this woman said why is it in america so many women want to get rid of their children and i just want to have one i don't know and i felt the heart of this woman the heart of this mother i saw it with my brother-in-law or in my sister-in-law they tried really hard and they lost many children and i remember just feeling the pain of my sister-in-law because there's something in us that just wonders like am i doing it right do i say the right prayers do i give the right amount of money if i'm serving kids in the zoo then will god give me a child what i know is jesus christ what he showed you ladies and showed everyone is before you can have a child you're already a child in the eyes of the father and you are already valued it's not about your work it's not about how much money you have it's not about how much children you have christ showed us you are already valued in the eyes of god but there is a pain there and i recognize that see verse 25 says soon after this his wife elizabeth became pregnant and went into seclusion for the next five months with joy she exclaimed see how kind it is of god to gaze upon me and take away the disgrace of my barrenness see even though she's recognizing this as a miracle she still has this religion hanging over her she has the shame she has this guilt hanging over her but praise god the messiah her nephew would come and erase that guilt and shame and so again this lord this week i just heard the lord speak i'm here as a pastor to lead you to jesus but i'm also here to release some of you ladies from this guilt and shame from this stuff that hangs over you guys because that's what jesus was all about well mary obviously is told she's pregnant that's the christmas story we'll talk about that someday probably in december and it says afterward mary arose and hurried off to the hill country of judea to the village where zachariah and elizabeth lived arriving at their home mary entered the house and greeted elizabeth at the moment her aunt heard mary's voice the baby within elizabeth's womb jumped and kicked and suddenly elizabeth was filled to overflow with the holy spirit with a loud voice she prophesied with power mary you are a woman given the highest favor and privilege above all others for your child is destined to bring god great delight how did i deserve such a remarkable honor to have the mother of my lord come and visit me the moment you came in the door and greeted me my baby danced inside me with joy great favor rests upon you for you have believed every word spoken to you from the lord what an incredible moment that john the baptist does gymnastics in his mother's womb and any mother out there and even for the father that was an incredibly special moment when you could see that little hand go across or you could see the head or you could just see that little you know stomach go up that was an incredible moment i used to sing my wife used to sing i used to talk to our children she would play instrumental music i'd play outcast i mean like i wanted my kids to have a rhythm have a flow so they're probably all screwed up but it's all good that was that was a special moment and right here i just love this because you know what elizabeth's main goal was elizabeth's main goal was to point people to her savior point people to her savior so my dear sisters in here you're all going to make mistakes as moms because you're imperfect you're all going to do things that you look back just like us fathers but for you to bring your children to church and point them to their savior is the greatest thing you are doing it's the greatest thing you're doing yes we all make mistakes as parents but jesus don't and so i honor you for bringing those little booger eaters to kids in the zoo every week and it's hard to get them ready and it's hard to get them fed and it's hard to keep their mass on and it's hard to wipe their butts and it's all hard but christ sees it and it matters i mentioned my mother and as a child my mom before school until i was in high school she made me do devotions with her every morning and as you get older you're just kind of like because you're selfish and you just you just want to get to school and all that but i remember that and it mattered it mattered she was giving me a foundation and now my wife does it and i do it and no matter what i just want to say you can't you can't leave the love of the father no matter what my mother made me memorize psalm 23 and the lord's prayer and i still can to this day and when i went off to college i wanted money she handed me a bible and she wrote this beautiful inscription in it and i can if i'm honest with you that bible sat next to my bed every place i went every apartment and there was cup stains on it there was water stains on it there was dust on it because i didn't open it once but it was always next to my bed and then when i was 22 years old and i gave my life to christ and i opened that bible and read that inscription it mattered it mattered mothers i want to show you how special it is to be a mother that it is unique and this is why i fight hard against some of this gender stuff and because being a woman is special and being a mother special do you realize that one thing that you can do that us guys can never do is you can actually experience the trinity the bible says we are made in the image of god and god is father son and holy spirit you whether you believe it or not you're made in the image of god your body mind and spirit you ever thought real deep about something and then you went and did the opposite that means there's a conversation going on in here you are body mind and spirit you are made in the image of god but as a mother when you have a child in your womb you are three persons in one you are you you are a unique child and you are also have the genetics of the man you are actually living the trinity when you are pregnant and god wants to announce that to you again today it is a very special high calling and honor to love your children and to have a child you literally are three people in one and you are declaring to the world that the father the son and the holy spirit has their favor resting on them she has a son and jesus called him the greatest prophet ever and in luke 3 we find this it says john went preaching and baptizing throughout the jordan valley he persuaded people to turn away from their sins and turn to god for the freedom of forgiveness we always think repentance is a drag repentance is freedom guys it's freedom fulfilling what was written in the book of the prophet isaiah 700 years before he came on this planet uh john isaiah prophesied listen you will have you will hear a thunderous voice in the lonely wilderness telling you to wake up and get your heart ready for the coming of the lord yahweh make straight every twisted thing in your lives bring into the light every dark way make right every wrong remove injustice every heart of pride and will humbly bow before him every deception will be exposed and replaced by the truth to prepare everyone everywhere to see the light of god one thing that um i've had to grow in is um and and the lord has corrected me in this is that i'm not here to make my children into my image we all think we're the best right we're here to make them into the image that they've been created in by the father and that means sometimes they're not like us i see this now that i've been in sports had my kids in sports i was an athlete i loved sports i was a jock my kids are good at sports i'd rather them be good at life and now that i've been around enough like crazy parents in sports who are vicariously living through their children i've realized how wrong i've been in some ways so i want my kids to be who they are if they're good at music push them into music if they're good at drama push them into drama whatever it is they don't have to be an athlete to please me now i push them into sports and i love them because they're good at it but again i've made the decision and i pray i said lord what is lily like in your image and how can i make her the best in that how is easton like in your image and how can i make them the best in that and here's my point john the baptist was a weirdo the dude wore camel's fur for clothes in the middle east and it says he ate bugs the dude ate bugs locus and honey but his i believe his mother was key in his formation she knew who he was and even though some other people might call him a weirdo guess what some people might call our kids weirdos who cares their kids are weird too our goal is to find out what our kids are like elizabeth elizabeth gave us a model that says when the lord tells you what your child is you honor them in that way and you push them in that way towards the lord so that they can be successful people for christ and be successful people for god here's why this ties us all together today is because we're doing baptisms today we've had some people sign up and john was the baptizer and he came to clear the way he came to clear the way but baptism is more than just death it's new life and really what baptism is is it's recognizing your true identity in christ that it's not about how many kids you have it's not about your job it's not about your money you are fixed as a child of god and that's who you are and nobody can take that from you that christ would go to the lengths of dying for us and rising from the dead he defeated death in hades and he brought he brought us up into new life so no matter what pressures or whatever things there are to conform to the world baptism affirms who you are in jesus does baptism save you no jesus saves you baptism is a tangible thing i like to say this i think we've switched this in church where we think baptism is something we do for god baptism is something god gave us for us so we can know we can have a tangible moment that we know we're good with dad we know we are affirmed by dad we know that we are dad's child again what a glorious day to celebrate this on mother's day because without moms we don't have life without christ we don't have life and this is a celebration of new life in the kingdom of god so we have uh some people who have signed up but at zootown you don't have to sign up you don't have to take a class you don't have to do anything we're not going to make this religious this is announcing god's favor when remember when it says you are highly favored among women i'm here to announce to you because of the death of jesus christ you are highly favored among men and women because all humanity is loved by god and so today is your tangible moment to see this to see that you are highly favored by the blood of jesus christ so ben come on up if if you want to get baptized today we have a shirt and we have uh some sweatpants you don't we got towels you don't you can get baptized in your street clothes but what a wonderful day to celebrate new life because as we celebrate mothers in the new life they gave us that's what the cross is all about here's the cool thing about this story zachariah and the jews thought because god was silent for 400 years he was mad at them and they thought because he was silent for 400 years his next words were going to bring judgment upon them instead he brought a blessing and instead he brought good news instead he brought a return to favor and again i prayed this week for the mothers specifically and we do live in a world now and and and i do i actually this i believe the feminist movement was good in a sense because the church should always be should have been leading the charge for women's liberation and we dropped the ball so when the church doesn't do it god uses the world but the world is doing it in a messed up way too and now we're at a time where where women are almost if you're not have a career if you're not doing a job and you're just a stay-at-home mom you're looked down upon i release you from that bondage today i release you from that shame we're here to celebrate women who work we're here to celebrate women who support their families we're here to celebrate women who stay home and love their families and so i prayed this week just what you need to hear and it was actually very simple i just want to tell you ladies you're doing good you're doing good you're doing your best and christ redeems all things that's new life you're doing your best and god sees you and he says you are highly favored among women and the deceiver who comes to steal kill and destroy whispers that you're not doing enough and you need to do more and you need to make more money and you need to do this and you need to have that that's a lie where you sit right now you are highly favored among women and you are loved and appreciated by god even if the world doesn't say it i'm saying it through the holy spirit and i'm going to pray for you women that we can have clear minds because society has so many voices telling you what you should and shouldn't be i'm going to pray that you hear the voice of our savior who affirms you and lifts you up so as we do baptisms this is a day of celebration we like to clap we like to have fun but again this is a representation of new life and so you mothers thank you for continuing giving new life to humanity and fulfilling the redemption of all things let me pray for you moms jesus thank you for mothers thank you for your mother mary thank you for elizabeth and all the apostles and great women who have come before us i pray that zootown is a place that honors women and shows the world that we're co-equal partners and that we treasure them and we value everything that you've created them to be lord i pray that you just release some moms from any shame or guilt or anything that's going on and that you let them feel not just today but every day that they are highly valued and treasured in the eyes of god we bless the mothers of zootown church we bless the mothers of missoula and we thank you for new life we thank you for shaving the breath and so we bless them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen let's celebrate new life together love you guys

Channel: Zootown Church

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Id: NzcKdbG1-B0

Length: 39min 18sec (2358 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021