A Mother's Day Sermon - Tony Cirigliano
Welcome – special Sabbath – we will remember the mothers in Israel – in God’s Church
The theologian Thackery said, "Mother is the name for God in the hearts and on the lips of little children.”
In the book Adventist Home, on page 238, the Lord's messenger writes this:
"The Christian mother's work, if done faithfully in God, will be immortalized The devotees of fashion will never see or understand the immortal beauty of that Christian mother's work, and will sneer at her old fashioned notions and her plain, unadorned dress; while the Majesty of heaven will write the name of that faithful mother in the book of immortal fame.
In God's book of heroes, the name of the faithful Christian mothers will be written.
The first general United States observance of Mothers Day was in the churches of Philadelphia.
A Miss Ann Jarvis suggested in her church that one day in each year be set aside for Mothers Day,
For 50 years she campaigned for this memorial to Mothers, and the idea soon caught on in more and more churches.
Finally, in 1914, an act of congress was signed by President Woodrow Wilson setting aside the second Sunday in May as Mothers Day.
The carnation was chosen as the flower for this day.
A red carnation to be worn by mothers still living, and a white one in remembrance of mothers that have fallen asleep.
So today, we are going to take a few minutes to make a little payment to mother on Mothers Day,
You see the beautiful spray of carnations in front of me, well we want to give some of these beautiful carnations out to the mothers that are here,
But before we give them to all the mothers, I want to give out some special ones.
The first red carnation we want to pass out is to the oldest mother here.
I don't know if that person would want to fess up to that!
We also want to give one to the mother with the most children here.
Next we want to give a red carnation to the mother with the youngest infant here.
Now we will have all our mothers stand, and if any children of these mothers are here, I want the children who are old enough to do it, come up here and get a red carnation and bring it to their mother - give it to her with a kiss for Mother’s Day.
Mothers keep standing until you receive a carnation. Those with no children here our deacons and deaconesses will be your children for today and bring you a red carnation.
Now all those who have mothers that sleep in death, please come up here and take a white carnation in remembrance of them.
We remember our mothers, and we love them,
But you know, to our loving heavenly Father, every day is child's day!
He remembers to love us and care for us every day!
Mothers love is wonderful, and praise God for it.
Today I want to talk about God’s love which is even greater than Mother’s love!
The Bible says, "God is love."
In Ephesians 3:19, Paul tells us that God's love "passeth knowledge."
We can't figure it out why God loves you and I so much that He gave His Son to save us - and would have done it if we were the only one to be saved!
Open your Bibles to Romans 8:35-39.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the
day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
38 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate us from God's love!
The Phileos love - the brotherly love we have for
each other is wonderful - but it pales into
insignificance when compared to God's love.
The eros love that a man has for his wife, or a wife for a husband is a wonderful, intimate things, but it too pales in the face of God's Agape Love!
The love that comes from God for us, and from us
back to God when Jesus lives in the heart!
In John 14:15, when Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments'- the word for love there is "agape."
This is the love that can only come from God and I believe only the converted heart can have it.
Jesus was saying, when you are converted, when I am in you, and you are in Me, then our agape love will cause you to keep the commandments of God!
Only the born again can have agape love, and only those who are born again will allow God to will and to do of His good pleasure in their lives!
Another aspect of God's love is that it is
unconditional.
He does not stop loving us because we
sin any more than an earthly parent stops loving their boy or girl when they do wrong!
Imagine thinking our selves more loving than God
who is love and is the one that put mothers love and fathers love for their children in the their hearts.
Brothers and sisters, I want to tell you this day that God loves you so very much!
He wants to be the One you love the most.
He doesn't want you to give Him a box of chocolates, or flowers.
He wants your heart!
At age 32, William Cowper passed through a great crisis in his life.
He tried to end his life by hiring a horse drawn
carriage and asking the driver to take him to the
Thames River.
It was one of London's foggiest nights, and Cowper planned to jump of the bridge.
They drove for an hour without reaching the desired spot.
Disgusted, Cowper decided to get out and walk there on foot.
When he got out, he found to his surprise that they had gone in a big circle, and that he had gotten off right next to his doorstep where he had started.
Angry, he went upstairs and tried to hang himself, but the rope broke.
Exhausted he fell sleep.
The next morning he awoke with a strange desire to want to read the Bible.
He opened to the book of Romans, and as he read he received strength to believe, and a reason to live.
He rejoiced that his guilt was gone when he gave his life to Jesus Christ!
In fact, he wrote of God's loving dealing with him in the famous hymn, 'There Is A Fountain." It's in our hymnal - number 336.
(Have Theresa play and we sing 1st and last)
It is agape love for the Lord that will motivate and
empower Christians to live, and move and have our being!
God's love can change the heart like nothing else can.
The night I ran away from home illustration (My dad when he saw me coming home!)
Open your Bibles to Luke 15:20. “when he was a
great way off, his father saw him, and had
compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and
kissed him."
The Father had compassion for his wayward child!
He ran to meet him which was undignified for an
elderly person to do in the Middle East!
He hugged and kissed his son who had come back home!
Jesus told this story to illustrate how much our
heavenly Father loves us!
Our Father in heaven longs to embrace us, to kiss us when we come to Him ready to admit we are sinners in need of His grace!
All of us are sinners. We have all been prodigal sons.
The Lord has given salvation to all as a free gift! We must accept the gift and not throw it away!
Open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:10. It says there that "the living God is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe,"
God has provided salvation to all men!
The believers receive it and are saved, and sancitifed, and will be glorified!
God's love is REALLY GOOD NEWS!
The reason people will be lost is because they resist, reject, or willfully neglect God's love and saving grace.
We are saved by faith! It is unbelief that brings
condemnation.
Open your Bible to John 3:16-18.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
When the sinner hears and believes the pure gospel, he is justified by faith.
By their unbelief the lost willingly negate the
salvation Christ has provided for them, and they spurn His love!
The Shepherd is seeking the lost sheep!
We are to let Him find us!
Jesus, when He saw the sadness on the faces of the family of Lazarus who had just died, wept. John 11:35.
Isaiah the prophet told us that the Messiah would be a "Man of sorrows" and that He would be "acquainted with grief." See Isaiah 53:3.
Jesus knows what you go through.
He is aware of your hurts, sorrow, perplexities, and pains!
He wants to bear your griefs and carry your burdens if you will but let Him.
He loves you that much!
In 1 John 4:8, the beloved apostle John said that God is LOVE.
The Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the epitome of love!
All love originates and continually flows from them!
Do you love your wife, or children, or mother or
father with all your heart?
If so, these feelings of love were put in you by the
Father of love!
It is He that created us with the capacity to love.
And He loves us with a love that cannot be measured in human terms!
He loves us even more when we love His Son Whom He sent at infinite cost to save us!
In John 16:27, it is written: "For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.".
God SO LOVED you and I that He gave His Son for us!
Can you imagine that kind of love?
William Dixon lived in Brackenthwaite, England.
He was a widower who had lost both his wife, and his only son to sickness.
One day he saw that his neighbors house was on fire.
Although the aged owner was rescued.
Her ophaned grandson was trapped in the blaze.
Dixon climbed up an iron pipe that was on the side of the burning house.
He reached the boy, and carried him down to safety.
His hands, cut by the pipe, and burned from the heat of the hot pipe were badly scarred.
Shortly after the fire, the grandmother died.
The townspeople wondered who would care for the boy.
Two volunteers appeared before the town council.
One was a man and his wife who wanted to adopt a son.
William Dixon was the second volunteer.
When it was his time to speak, he said few words, but held up his hands scarred from saving the boy's life.
When the council voted, they gave the boy to Dixon, the man who had saved him from the fire.
This illustration reminded me of a quote from the pen of inspiration.
In the book Early Writings, the Lord's messenger to the remnant was given a vision of Jesus as our High Priest.
She saw Him look with pity on the remnant.
Then she wrote, "He raised His hands, and with a
voice of deep pity cried, 'My blood, Father, My
blood. My blood.'"
That fountain from King Jesus – Immanuel’s veins is still flowing today!
Jesus is still acting as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary!
His hands were scarred saving us, and we are
engraved in the palms of His mighty hands!
Thank you Jesus for your love for me!
On page 39 of Early Writings, Ellen White wrote, “I have seen the tender love that God has for His people, and it is very great."
When we are burdened, or restless, or troubled with the labors of sin and doubt, the Lord has the solution for this.
Open your Bibles to Matthew 11:28-30.
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
A yoke prevents an animal from being torn and
bruised by the burden it is pulling.
The yoke evenly distributes the load and makes it
bearable.
Jesus wants to give you an easy to wear yoke - His!
He wants to help you with your heavy load and share the weight with you!
His yoke will prevent you from being torn and bruised with the burdens of this life!
There is rest for you in Jesus!
John wrote these words in his first epistle:
"We love Him, because He first loved us." I John
4:19.
When we couldn't have cared less, God couldn't have cared more!
From the cross of Calvary Jesus could look down
through the centuries to see each of His brethren and His Father's children that would be saved because of what He was doing!
Think of the pain that Jesus endured to save us!
Perhaps as the soldiers were beating Him the devil said to Him, "Give up on this wretched race, they don't care about You! They're not worth it!"
And the Lord may have said, "No! I love them too
much! I must save them!"
When they were delivering the 39 stripes to His body with the terrible Roman scourge that tore open His flesh exposing muscle and veins, perhaps the tempter taunted Him again saying "Give up on them, they don't care! Why save them?"
But Jesus took those stripes because He knew that by them we would be healed from the disease of sin!
"I love them too much!" His actions said it all!
Thinking only of us. He cared not about the pain of the cruel spikes in His hands that so often comforted and healed others, and through those feet that often took Him on missions of mercy for the lost.
The loving Savior cried out, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do!"
His prayer included the world!
HE WAS MADE A CURSE FOR US!
Three times His enemies jeered, "Save yourself!
Come down from the cross if you are the Son of
God."
But He couldn't save us, if He saved Himself.
He was denied and betrayed by His closest friends.
"My God! My God! Why have you forsaken Me?" He cried!
0 friend. God loves you! He really, REALLY loves
you!
Let Him fill you with His agape love!
If we truly have God's love in our hearts through faith, we will have a new motivation.
This new motivation transcends fear of being lost or hope of reward in being saved.
Abraham's faith enabled him to live under the new covenant, while multitudes of Christians today live under the old covenant because self-centered concern is their motivation.
The old covenant was the promise of the people to be faithful; under the new covenant salvation comes by believing God's promises to enable us to obey, not by our promises to Him.
It is love for God that will motivate the true believer.
Are you ready for that kind of Christian life?
Believe that God loves you and that He has provided salvation for you full and
free.
Receive that salvation by faith and allow the Lord entrance into your heart to abide there forever!
Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me.” – Rev. 3:20