We gathered this past September for my mother's 80'th birthday party. She had always wanted to go to Hawaii --- So we brought Hawaii to her. That's my mom in the blue lei, sitting next to one of my sister's. She has been a blessing and inspiration to this son. I could tell a thousand stories of her love and devotion to her children. I was very mindful of my mother's yesterday, as it was Mother's Day. My other mother, Lorene MacKenzie is 86 and going strong. God has blessed me with two very special ladies in my life. Thank You Jesus!!

SERMON
5-13-07

05/11/PM

"Only be thou strong and very courageous."
— Josh 1:7

Our God's tender love for His servants makes Him concerned for the state of their inward feelings. He desires them to be of good courage. Some esteem it a small thing for a believer to be vexed with doubts and fears, but God thinks not so. From this text it is plain that our Master would not have us entangled with fears. He would have us without carefulness, without doubt, without cowardice. Our Master does not think so lightly of our unbelief as we do. When we are desponding we are subject to a grievous malady, not to be trifled with, but to be carried at once to the beloved Physician. Our Lord loveth not to see our countenance sad. It was a law of Ahasuerus that no one should come into the king's court dressed in mourning: this is not the law of the King of kings, for we may come mourning as we are; but still He would have us put off the spirit of heaviness, and put on the garment of praise, for there is much reason to rejoice. The Christian man ought to be of a courageous spirit, in order that he may glorify the Lord by enduring trials in an heroic manner. If he be fearful and fainthearted, it will dishonour his God. Besides, what a bad example it is. This disease of doubtfulness and discouragement is an epidemic which soon spreads amongst the Lord's flock. One downcast believer makes twenty souls sad. Moreover, unless your courage is kept up Satan will be too much for you. Let your spirit be joyful in God your Saviour, the joy of the Lord shall be your strength, and no fiend of hell shall make headway against you: but cowardice throws down the banner. Moreover, labour is light to a man of cheerful spirit; and success waits upon cheerfulness. The man who toils, rejoicing in his God, believing with all his heart, has success guaranteed. He who sows in hope shall reap in joy; therefore, dear reader, "be thou strong, and very courageous."

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening, PC Study Bible
ONE OF THE WAYS THE ENEMY COMES AT ME IS CONCERNING MY IMPERFECTIONS --- MY WAYWARD WAYS --- AND I DON’T NECESSARILY MEAN DEPRAVED SIN --- BUT MORE MY FAILURE TO SPEND “ENOUGH” TIME WITH THE LORD IN “SERIOUS” PRAYER --- IN “SERIOUS” BIBLE STUDY
OFTEN IT IS A VAGUE FEELING OF UNWORTHINESS --- BECAUSE OF THIS FAILURE THE ENEMY COMES AT ME WITH THE IDEA THAT I AM NOT WORTHY TO RECEIVE THE BLESSINGS OF GOD

THIS PAST WEEK SOMEONE WAS RELATING THE STORY OF A CHRISTIAN THEY KNEW THAT WENT TO THE BAR AND HAD A FEW TOO MANY DRINKS AND CRASHED THEIR CAR ON THE WAY HOME --- THEY RELATED TO THIS PERSON THAT THEY WERE REALLY BLESSED THOUGH THAT GOD HAD PROTECTED THEM FROM SERIOUS INJURY --- HIS COMMENT TO THEM WAS “NO” GOD LEFT YOU ABOUT THAT THIRD OR FOURTH DRINK --- ELIZABETH AND I WERE TALKING ABOUT THE INCIDENT AND OUR FAITH THAT GOD WOULD INDEED PROTECT THEM EVEN IF THEY HAD IMBIBED TO MUCH ---

Heb 13:5-6

5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6 So we may boldly say:

"The LORD is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?"
NKJV

2 Tim 2:13
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself. NKJV
THAT DOESN’T MEAN WE CAN CONTINUE IN OUR SIN AND NOT EXPECT TO REAP WHAT WE ARE SOWING --- BUT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ACTS OUT OF LOVE TO HIS CHILDREN, HE NEVER
REACTS --- EVEN HIS ANGER IS WITH THE BEST INTEREST OF HIS CHILDREN IN MIND

IF THE PEOPLE IN THE CAR WRECK HAD INJURIES --- IT WOULD NOT BE GOD’S WRATH BUT HIS LOVE WORKING TO DRAW THEM CLOSER TO HIMSELF

IT DOESN’T MEAN THAT GOD DOESN’T GET ANGRY --- WE SEE CLEARLY IN SCRIPTURE THAT HE DOES!!

NOW I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU --- BUT I DON’T WANT JESUS ANGRY AT ME
HE WAS ANGRY AT THE PHARISEES:
Mark 3:1-6
3:1 Healing on the Sabbath
(Matt 12:9-14; Luke 6:6-11)
And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward." 4 Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger , being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.
NKJV
1. ANGRY BECAUSE OF THE HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS
2. UNFORGIVENESS IN OUR HEARTS MAKES HIM ANGRY

Matt 18:21-35

Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"

22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.

28 "But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' 29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34 And his master was angry , and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

35 "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."
NKJV

1. JESUS WAS ANGRY AT THE HARDNESS OF THE PHARISEES HEARTS --- EVEN IN THAT IS GOD’S LOVE --- BECAUSE TELLING A HARD HEARTED RELIGIOUS PERSON THAT JESUS LOVES THEM IS NOT GOING TO MOVE THEM --- JESUS WAS SOFT AND GENTLE WITH EVEN THE WORST OF THE SINNERS --- BECAUSE HE KNEW IT WAS HIS KINDNESS THAT WOULD BRING THEM TO REPENTANCE --- THE HARD HEARTED PHARISEES NEEDED A SLEDGE HAMMER, NOT A SOFT ARM OF COMFORT
2. GOD’S ANGER AT UNFORGIVENESS --- HIS LOVE UNDERSTANDS THE DANGER FOR HIS CHILDREN IN HOLDING ON TO UNFORGIVENESS
In his book, Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal Artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.

n Michael Williams, Morganfield, Kentucky

TODAY IS MOTHER’S DAY AND I WAS MEDITATING ON THE LOVE THAT A GOOD MOTHER HAS FOR HER CHILDREN
1. MY SISTER AND I WENT OUT DRINKING ONE NIGHT AND WERE IN A TERRIBLE CAR ACCIDENT --- I DON’T THINK MOTHER EVEN ASKED IF WE HAD BEEN DRINKING --- SHE WAS THERE FOR US AT THE HOSPITAL TO SEE US THROUGH THE DIFFICULTY --- FORTUNATELY GOD HAD MERCY ON US AND WE HAD NO SERIOUS INJURIES
2. I LOST MY MOTHER’S FARM IN MY WHEELING AND DEALING OIL DAYS --- SHE LET ME MOVE IN WITH HER AND SHE GAVE ME HER KING SIZED BED, WHILE SHE SLEPT ON A BUNK BED --- THERE WAS NEVER A MENTION OF WHAT I HAD LOST --- NO TRACE OF UNFORGIVENESS
3. MOTHER’S ANGER CAME OUT ONCE WHEN I WAS DRINKING HEAVILY --- TELLING ME I WAS RUINING MY LIFE --- BUT HER ANGER WAS AN ANGER OF LOVE BECAUSE SHE KNEW I NEEDED A WAKE UP CALL OR MY LIFE WOULD BE RUINED

A mother is God's deputy on earth.
Rachel L. Varnhagen

A mother understands what a child does not say.
Jewish Proverb

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
Spanish Proverb

Countless times each day a mother does what no one else can do quite as well. She wipes away a tear, whispers a word of hope, eases a child's fear. She teaches, ministers, loves, and nurtures the next generation of citizens. And she challenges and cajoles her kids to do their best and be the best. But no editorials praise these accomplishments-where is the coverage our mothers rightfully deserve?
James C. Dobson (1936- )
And Gary L. Bauer (1946- )

God can't always be everywhere, and so he invented mothers.
Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904)

In the eyes of its mother every beetle is a gazelle.
African Proverb

No man is poor who has had a godly mother.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Thank you, God,
For pretending not to notice that one of
Your angels is missing and for guiding her to me.
You must have known how much I would need her, so
You turned your head for a minute and allowed her to slip away to me.
Sometimes I wonder what special name you had for her.
I call her "Mother."
Bernice Maddux

The God to whom little boys say their prayers has a face very like their mother's.
Sir James M. Barrie (1860-1937)

A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.

My thirteen-year-old daughter is perhaps having more trouble than some teens "discovering who she is" because she is adopted from South Korea and we have no idea who her birth mother might be.
Recently Amy received braces on her teeth and she was more and more uncomfortable as the day wore On. By bedtime she was miserable. I gave her some medication and invited her to snuggle up with me for awhile. Soon she became more comfortable and drowsy. In a small voice that gradually tapered off to sleep she said, "Mom, I know who my real mom is, it is the one who takes away the hurting."
Margaret H. Cobb

I HAVE HAD SOME TREMENDOUS REJECTIONS IN MY LIFE

BUT GOD HAS BLESSED ME WITH TWO MOTHERS THAT LOVE JESUS AND THAT’S ENOUGH
About 6:00 A.M. on a Wednesday morning James Lawson of Running Springs, California (in the San Bernardino mountains) left home to apply for a job. About an hour later his thirty-six-year-old wife Patsy left for her fifth grade teaching job down the mountain in Riverside--accompanied by her two children, five-year-old Susan and two-year-old Gerald--to be dropped off at the baby-sitter's. Unfortunately, they never got that far. Eight and a half hours later the man found his wife and daughter dead in their wrecked car, upside down in a cold mountain stream. His two-year-old son was just barely alive in the forty-eight-degree water. But in that death the character of a mother was revealed in a most dramatic and heart-rending way. For when the father scrambled down the cliff to what he was sure were the cries of his dying wife, he found her locked in death, holding her little boy's head just above water in the submerged car. For eight and a half hours Patsy Lawson had held her beloved toddler afloat and had finally died, her body almost frozen in death in that position of self-giving love, holding her baby up to breathe. She died that another might live. That's the essence of a mother's love.

GOD’S LOVE IS REFLECTED IN THE FACES OF MOTHER’S

REMEMBER LAST WEEK’S MESSAGE AND THIS ADMONITION
A small church's most effective tool for creating a good church reputation may be its willingness to help those in need.