There are only so many different ways to preach “Honor your mother.”

- I never feel good about preaching Proverbs 31 on Mother’s Day because the “Proverbs 31” passage is a passage that explains the “ideal” mother and it is more of a challenge to MOST women rather than an encouragement. I feel strongly that we should encourage mothers on mother’s day.

- I always fear that I am twisting the Scripture a bit to find different ways of encouraging regular everyday mothers who struggle.

I want to encourage every mother… the ideal ones and the less than ideal ones.

- I want to challenge everyone to give honor where honor is due. By honoring our mothers… we honor God.

She was the Daughter in law of Judah… the wife of his first born son who was a total DUD.

- He was such a nasty man that the Lord literally took him out.

- Her second husband was the brother of her first husband. He was also a dud. The Lord also took him.

Judah told Tamar, “look just hang out in your father’s house for a while, and when my other son is old enough you can marry him.”

- He never had any intentions of marrying another son to her. She was bad luck as far as he was concerned.

So Tamar, who was left all alone and uncared for, did a devious thing.

- She dressed up as a prostitute, seduced her ex father in law without letting him know who she was, and bore a child by him

When it came to light… Judah said “well, what can I say? What she did may have been evil… but not as evil as what I did to her.”

- All her life, I am sure that Tamar was looked down upon. She was mocked. Her illegitimate twins were scowled at.

But Tamar, and especially her presence in the genealogy of Christ is proof… that God can overcome the foolishness of man.

If you are a mother here who has done wrong… and your wrong doing resulted in an illegitimate pregnancy and birth…

Don’t you even think about believing that God cannot use you or that he cannot use your child.

- THERE ARE NO ILLIGITMENT CHILDREN in God’s eyes.

ALL we created by Him.

ALL were born by His intention.

But God doesn’t punish by the gifting of children. He blesses.

- Those that he blesses with children… we should always honor and encourage and lift up.

Rehab was the harlot of Jericho. Her house was the local brothel. When Joshua sent two spies into Jericho to spy it out… the natural place for them to go, disguised as travelers was to the brothel.

- Rehab recognized them… about the same time the King’s men came in looking for the two spies so she hid them.

When the coast was clear, she told the two spies how she had become to believe on the Lord… that he was and is the Lord of all.

- She asked the men to swear on the name of the Lord that she and her family would be spared, if in exchange she could be of help and service to them and to their God.

She was an outsider living a life of sin and decadence.

- She came to know the Lord and committed her life in service to Him in hopes that she and her family would be spared from His wrath.

The Lord accepted her and was pleased to make her… the former harlot of Jericho… a pagan by birth, one of the mothers of His nation and our Savior.

To all of you mothers out there with a past.

- I know sometimes you feel like a complete outsider.

- You didn’t grow up in church. You lived like a heathen because that is what you were.

But then… you came to know the Lord.

- Maybe not in a Vaction Bible School like so many others did…

- Maybe you came to know Him in prison… in an ICU after your third overdose… but you just like any other Christian mother made a commitment to love and serve the Lord.

Rahab is proof that your baggage doesn’t phase the power of the grace of God.

You are a new creature. The old has passed away. The new has come.

- You are His child. And there is nothing that can separate you from His love… just like there is nothing that can separate your love from your own child.

Besides Hannah, Samuel’s mother, there is probably no other mother in the old testament as precious as Ruth the Moabitess who was the widowed daughter in law of Naomi.

Not only did she bear a child on behalf of her mother in law… she sacrificed.

- She committed to a life of exile and wandering to care for Naomi.

- She worked herself tirelessly to provide for her.

For all her sacrifice the Lord gave her favor… and blessed her with a child by her redeemer, Boaz.

- This child would sire Jessie the father of David and the greatest earthly king in all of Israel’s history, succeeded by the King of Kings generations later.

For all the mother’s out there who continuously break yourself off for the benefit of others…

- You seem to be losing yourself more and more each passing year, yet you live in a culture that preaches “to thine own self be true.”

Your sacrifice is noticed by God.

He is your rock and redeemer.

Even though you have made yourself poor through sacrifice… God is a God who restores your sacrifice ten fold.

- Look at Ruth and the Lord’s affirmation of her in the genealogy of Christ… one of only five women mentioned in all the generations of His ancestors.

Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, was a beautiful woman, married to a man who feared served God with all of his heart.

- She was taken advantage of by a man in a powerful position over her.

- She had no say in the matter.

- She did nothing to entice him.

- She lost her child.

- She lost her loving husband.

- She had every reason to be down on herself… and down on the Lord.

But God came to her rescue. He defended her.

- He held the king accountable for what he had done to her and then He restored all of them.

By the end of her life, those who only once saw her as a piece of meat to be devoured were bowing down before her.

- She gave birth to one would be bowed down to by people from all the nations… the wisest earthly king of Israel in History.

I cannot imagine what women who are victims of abuse must go through. Especially the kind that Bathsheba endured at the hands of King David.

- The awful shame and guilt that she must have felt.

- The loss of a husband and then the loss of a child.

But I am encouraged by this… while it might be that some men view women like an item in a buffet line…Our God does not.

- They are valuable and precious to Him. He comes to their defense. He holds their abusers accountable.

If you are a lady who has been through this… know that it is not your fault.

- You have nothing and I mean nothing to be ashamed of.

- God affirms you as His own if you have believed.

Be comforted in the knowledge that He stands with you… He stands for you… He is your defender… He will vindicate you in due time.

Mary, the mother of Jesus represents the most misunderstood woman in history.

- She didn’t ask to be the mother of the Messiah.

- She didn’t ask to be the only virgin mother in history.

- She didn’t ask to be ridiculed.

- She didn’t ask to be doubted.

- She didn’t even ask to be put up on an impossible pedestal by the ones who believed her story.

Her task was impossible but she went about it the best she could and it honored the Lord.

Imagine what it was like to see the son that she loved… the one that was special…. The one that was promised… dying what must have seemed like a senseless not to mention a brutal and bloody and shameful death.

- But God turned that hopeless and terrible situation around for her…He made her name one of honor.

For all her suffering… for her selflessness, God honored her as the mother of his one and only beloved Son.

As the parent of two bright and beautiful children… I am so humbled that God would look upon me to raise them.

- I know Jennifer feels the same way… as do many mothers out there this morning.

It is a humbling task.

It is a painful task.

It is an impossible task.

- You won’t be perfect. Even Mary wasn’t perfect.

- Mary lost Jesus for three days.

When I think of Mary… I think of you mothers who have lost children.

- A mother should never see her child die.

You are not the first mother that the Lord has had to comfort in that situation.

- He even had to comfort his own mother… as she stood next to John the apostle staring up at him from ground below his cross.

Know that He is near to you today.

Know that he can take the most hopeless of hopeless situations, turn them around and use them for His glory honor and praise.

- Let Him be your comfort and strength as you morn the phone call you will not receive today.

To the mother who has a past... upon your repentance and faith, God remembers your sins no more.

- You have been restored and will remain restored until Jesus comes to take you home to glory.

To the mother who endured abuse… God is your defender… your vindicator… and you are special to Him.

To the mothers who sacrifice selflessly. Who give of themselves to the impossible task of motherhood, do not to grow weary in doing good.

- God sees every tear you cry and honors ever sacrifice you make on behalf of others… especially your children.

To the mothers who have lost children or who otherwise grieve for a child that the Lord has not blessed them with, God is the comforter of the brokenhearted.

- He will be your strength if you will turn to Him for help.

I encourage all to honor the Lord today by honoring every mother that you see.

- They are all special to God…

- God loved the world so much that He sent His son to die for our sins…