(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So, Acts chapter 1, obviously, being Mother's Day, being Sunday, we do want to honor the mothers once again. We do want to preach a sermon for mothers. Okay, so this is directed for you if you are a mother. In fact, this is a sermon directed to you if you're just a woman in general. Okay, one day you're going to get married, one day you're going to have kids, all these things are going to happen. There are some things in this sermon that you can definitely take away with you, okay? But look at Acts chapter 1, verse 14, Acts chapter 1, verse 14. The Bible says, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, was with his brethren. The title for the sermon this morning is, The Mother of Jesus. Here we're going to be focusing today on Mary, the mother of Jesus. I listened to my sermon last night on what I preached last year on Mother's Day, and I was preaching about how it's important to honor our mothers, okay? And we're just going through some different aspects of motherhood and why every mother, whether saved or unsaved, deserves honor, deserves respect for bringing you into this world. And obviously, we're all thankful for the life that we have, and without our mothers, we wouldn't have the life that we have, okay? So today, I decided to take a different approach. I wanted to look at Mary. Now, Mary, three times in the Bible, is referred to as the mother of Jesus. And of course, we know that Jesus Christ is the Lord God Almighty. Of course, we know Jesus Christ was before his birth in Bethlehem's manger, okay? But as far as his coming into the flesh, coming into this world, Mary was that chosen vessel. Mary became his mother in the flesh in that sense, and she's given that title, that phrase, the mother of Jesus, three times. We know how important Jesus is in the Bible, okay? We know, of course, you know, he's our savior, he's our Lord, okay? He's a messiah, he's our Christ. And it's also important then to think about, you know, who was this person? Let's look at Mary. Let's have a look at her life and see what lessons we can take out of her, and for her to be the chosen one, to bring the Savior into the world, I think it's very important for us to look into her life. So let's start off. We're going to go back to Acts chapter one at the end of the sermon, but if you guys can open to Luke chapter one, please, turn to Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one. So why are we focusing on Mary this morning? Let's have a look at this, Luke chapter one, verse 28. Luke chapter one, verse 28. The Bible says, And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou that are highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. You know, we see this angel of the Lord come in, we know the mission that she's going to take part of. We know the calling that God has for her life to bring the Messiah into this world. So important that God says one of his angels as a messenger, okay, to just show her the importance, you know, show her that miracle in a sense of seeing the angel to lift up her faith, to lift up her spirit and know she's been called to important job. So we see here that she's called blessed among women, okay? So if we want to look at a woman in the Bible and take some lessons from someone, we ought to look at someone that the angel that God's messenger calls blessed amongst women, okay? And drop down to verse 41, the same chapter, Luke chapter one, verse 41. And here we have her cousin, Elizabeth, you know the story, Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist, okay? And here it says in verse 41, and it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, that's John the Baptist, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. So what Elizabeth is about to say in the next verse, she's not just saying it as just being nice, she's saying it under the inspiration, being filled with the Holy Ghost, and what does she say in verse 42? And she spake out with a loud voice and said, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, okay? So we see two blessings here upon Mary. Of course, we know of Jesus Christ, right? It says here, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. That's a reference to Jesus Christ, okay? But I don't want you to think, well, the only reason she was blessed is because she brought into Jesus Christ, because prior to that, Elizabeth says to her, blessed art thou once again among women. You see, Mary was definitely someone special, okay? Mary was definitely a lady that people would look at and say, well, you're blessed, you're a faithful woman, you're a child of God, you're a daughter of God. There was something about Mary, something important, something that people would look at her and say she's blessed. We see that being affirmed by the angel and being affirmed by Elizabeth as she was filled with the Holy Ghost, okay? And so I want all the ladies in this church, mothers or those that are not mothers yet, young girls, I want you to say, hey, I want to be someone that is blessed among women. I want to be someone that lives a blessed life, okay? And so I think looking at Mary, it would be great for us to look at, right? Studying and looking at her life, okay? Now, obviously, she would have been a remarkable woman, okay? Obviously, I think that's clear to anyone that reads the Bible to say, well, why her? She was definitely a blessed, remarkable woman, but you know what? She wasn't a woman without faults, okay? She was a woman that did make some mistakes or had some weaknesses in her life. You guys are in Luke chapter 1, look at verse 29, Luke chapter 1 verse 29, so soon after the angel appears to her, okay, soon after the angel appears to her and calls her blessed, look at verse 29, it says, and when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. So we see, I mean, look, I think if I saw an angel, I think I would be troubled a bit, right? What's going on, okay? So I'm not, you know, obviously, it makes sense that she was troubled here and then you look at verse number 30, and the angel said unto her, fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. You see, we start off, the introduction that we get of Mary, before we see the remarkable things she accomplishes, we see her as a woman who is troubled at the sight of this angel, we see her as a woman with fears, okay? Say why is that? Well, obviously, the, you know, the appearance of the angel, obviously, the calling that God would have on her life, brought her some troubles in her mind, brought her some fears. And what I want to say to you ladies, you know, especially the mothers today, is that motherhood, you're going to experience fears, okay? There are things that you're going to do in your life, or you're not going to be sure about how it's going to be done. As far as Mary's concerned here, she's been asked to do something that's never been done before, something that should be impossible, that is to have a virgin birth, okay, without the man, okay? Completely a virgin, an amazing call in, all right? I mean, what would people think of her, you know, as someone that has not yet consummated a marriage with her husband, Joseph, what would people think of her to be pregnant with a child, you know? And you can see that she starts off as a woman who is troubled, a woman with fears. And so what I want to say to you ladies is, you know, when we look at women in the Bible, it's great to see some of the positive things, you know, and say I want to be like this person, but also look at the humanity as well. You know, the Bible is very good for us, where it records great men and great women of God, but it also shows us some of their shortcomings. It shows us some of their difficulties, their mistakes, their weaknesses, so we can relate to that person. Because sometimes what happens in life is, you know, you may have your weaknesses, you have your faults, you've made your mistakes in life, and, you know, especially for ladies, because let's face it, ladies are a little bit more emotional than men, you know, or maybe we have the same emotions, but men have a sort of a better ability to bottle up that emotion and sort of just let it disappear, right? Whereas sometimes ladies, with the emotions that you have, you can dwell on those things, you know, time and time. And I don't want you to fall into the trap of thinking, man, you know, I look at a woman like Mary, I look at some woman in the church, someone that's living godly, and I can't you know, I can't measure up to that, I have failings. Hey, you all have failings, I have failures, we all have failures, okay? We all have areas of our life that we need to grow and develop from, okay? We start off here with Mary and her fears. And you know what, ladies, you might have some fears in your life, you know? If you've gone, you know, young girls going through your education, going through your schooling, you know, when school is over, you probably experience some fears of life, you know, what do I do now? You know, now that I've finished schooling, I mean, I was doing that pretty much every day of my life, what do I do with my life right now? You might have some fears about that. You might have some fears about the decisions in marriage, you know, going into marriage, you know, is there a man, is there a godly man that I can marry, you know, could someone even possibly love me, you know, for who I am and whatever issues I have, you know, there might be some fears in that regard, there might be some fears of having children, you know, would I be a good mother, would I be able to raise this child? You know, I remember as a father, first time parent, you know, going two weeks into having like Isabel, our first child, and being surprised, our baby is still alive, she's still alive, wow, we're doing okay, you know, but you know, there might be some fears going into, you know, motherhood, those first, you know, that first child or how are you going to raise that child, are you going to raise him and nurture the admission of the Lord, you know, you might have some fears about serving the Lord, you know, going soul within, knocking doors, maybe you've never done that in your life and one thing, the only thing that's holding you back are some fears, you know, being troubled in your mind, you know, how is that going to react, how are people going to react and people are nice and they allow me to talk, am I able to give them a gospel, am I going to mess it up, you know, there might be some fears or maybe not even serving the Lord solely, maybe just serving the Lord in the local church, you know, serving the brethren, fears that might come your way, you know, maybe you're a lady who has had a career, you know, you have had a job, you know, and then you want to do, you know, you want to live according to the roles that God has given us in the Bible and you have to, you know, you decide I'm going to let my husband take care of that, I'm going to let my husband be the main provider, you know, the breadwinner of the home and I'm going to leave my job so I can spend time with the family, the children and be there more for my husband, hey, that could bring fears like, you know, what about my financials, we got used to live in this way, are we going to be able to live with less money, you know, there are fears that, you know, a lot of people have maybe homeschooling your kids, you know, a lot of mothers that homeschool for the first time, you know, for the, you know, first child, you know, I'm not having a go at you if you feel like this because we were the same, you know, you're asking a lot of questions, what's going to happen in high school, what's going to happen when they graduate, you know, am I going to be able to teach them well, you know, what curriculums, all these kinds of things and you're worried about a little child that's like three years old and you're asking all these questions, you're troubled, you're fearful, you know, a little child just needs to know how to draw a straight line, a little child just needs to know how to, hey, ah, you know, one plus one, you know, but we have all these fears when it comes to homeschooling, right, and then, you know, the thing is, you know, obviously you develop, you learn these things, you go with the child and you start to learn more and more and then when you have your second child, hey, you're even better at it because you've already gone through it once, you're going through it again, you know, and, you know, this is, or maybe you're just fearful of thinking there are things in your life that, you know, God wants you to do but you think they're impossible, you know, I don't think I can do that, Lord, I don't think I have the strength to do that, I don't know if He can come through with that, Lord, I can't see that happening in my life but that would be Mary, that would be Mary, right, thinking immediately this is an impossible task, how is it possible for a virgin, she even raises the point, right, that she's not being with a man, how is it possible, you know, we might have fears about the things that you may feel are impossible but of course nothing is impossible for God and also look at verse 29 again, Luke 1 verse 30, it says and the angel said unto her fear not Mary for thou has found favor with God, okay, thou has found favor with God and here's one of the things that's going to help you overcome your fears, okay, here's what's something that's going to help you put a greater trust and faith on the Lord is if you can find favor in the eyes of God, so how do I do that, hold your finger there and turn to Proverbs chapter 3 please, Proverbs chapter 3, Proverbs chapter 3 verse 3, let's have a look at this quickly, how do I find favor in the Lord, how did Mary find favor in the Lord, why was she given such an important calling, Proverbs chapter 3 verse 3, Proverbs chapter 3 verse 3, the Bible says let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart, so here we see a calling to the believer and mothers I'm speaking to you today, it says here let not mercy and truth forsake thee, dedicate, commit yourself to say you know what I'm going to be a mother, I'm going to be a lady who is merciful and is of the truth, you know I'm going to be someone that when someone wrongs me I'm just going to show mercy upon them, I'm going to be someone that is long suffering with other people that's around me, whether that's my family, whether that's my friends, you know people that I come across with you in life, my church brethren, you're going to be someone that shows mercy to others the same way that God has shown mercy to you and then you're going to say hey I want to be someone that walks in the truth, I want to know the truth, I don't want to be brainwashed by this world, I don't want to be brainwashed by the devil in the way this world tells us to live, I want to know what the word of God says, I want to know what the truth is and I'm going to walk in accordance to the truth and then it says here in verse number four Proverbs chapter three verse four, so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man, hey you know what if Mary found favour in the sight of God that tells me she was a woman of mercy and a woman of the truth okay and that's what you need to be aiming for in your life okay and that's going to help you when you walk in the ways of God, when you're being merciful to other people that's going to help you overcome fears in your life okay, it's going to help you overcome fears and be able to accomplish the task that you need to, you know you need to accomplish in your life. Look you're not going to be called to carry a baby as a virgin okay, okay you're not going to be called to do that but God does have great calling upon ladies, upon mothers in the Bible here okay so let's go back to Luke, Luke chapter two, Luke chapter two, so we saw Mary start off with fears okay of course we know those fears are removed from her but before we go into that we'll look at another mistake that Mary made in her life, Luke chapter two verse 42. Luke chapter two verse 42 and this is a familiar story to a lot of people it says here, and when he was 12 years old, that's Jesus Christ, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast and when they had fulfilled the days as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. So they go into Jerusalem every year okay and they're traveling back home from Jerusalem and it says here that Jesus, a 12 year old Jesus remained in Jerusalem okay, tarried there and Joseph and his mother did not know where he was, well they didn't know he was still in Jerusalem okay, verse 44 and they supposing him to have been in the company went today's journey and they sought him amongst their kingsfolk and acquaintance. So there's a large group of people traveling out of Jerusalem okay, family, friends, they think well Jesus is somewhere with his cousins, somewhere with his uncles and his friends you know and they travel a day's journey and then verse 45 and when they found him not they returned or they turned back again to Jerusalem seeking him okay. Now I just want you to bring this to your attention, I mean mothers especially if you have a few kids, has there ever been a time when you've forgotten one of your kids all right. Now look obviously Jesus Christ was doing the father's business okay, Jesus Christ wasn't being a you know a sneaky kid or anything like that, he was going about the father's business, he was obeying the higher authorities in his life which was God the father you know preaching doctrines of the bible and the temple, that's one thing but one mistake that Joseph and Mary made and the reason for this is they had other children you know Mary did not remain a virgin, they had other children so obviously Jesus being one of the oldest ones like they were more concerned about the little children making sure their needs were being taken care of as they journeyed home but here they are traveling a day's journey meaning they have to now spend another day going back to Jerusalem, they forgot Jesus Christ, they forgot one of their kids okay and I've met a lot of people especially with larger families they have forgotten their kid at some point in time okay. I'm just showing you this because we make mistakes, you're going to make mistakes in life okay and the thing you don't want to do when you've made a mistake and you've rectified it, you know what you don't want to do is just keep beating yourself about it right, you know I'm such a bad mother, I'm just I'm a failure, I keep making mistakes, look stop that behavior because when you get into that way of life it's going to drag you down, it's going to drag your husband down, it's going to drag your children down all right and you're not going to be able to accomplish the work that God has for your life. We all make mistakes, we're all sinners, we all come short of the glory of God okay, we all have periods of time where our brains don't function properly, you know I've gone back and listened to some of my sermons, you know it's fresh Sunday morning, I should have had enough sleep, I go back, did I say that, that's not what I meant to say or you know I messed something up completely or whatever, you know I think you guys forgive me though, you know when I mess up but you know we all can make mistakes in life okay and even Mary okay and we're going to be looking at the great qualities of Mary, the great woman that she was, even she made simple mistakes, you know common mistakes that any woman or any mother can make. So the reason I want to bring that once again guys is so you recognize these people in the Bible are just normal human beings okay, normal human beings with a great God okay, with a great God, that's why they were great and this is what's going to make you great mothers, ladies, young ladies, mothers, single ladies, what's going to make you great is you serving your great God okay, just like Mary served the Lord. Now let's have a look at this, let's get some lessons from this blessed woman now okay, we've seen some of her failings, we've seen some of her mistakes, now let's get some lessons that every lady here and you know what men, even men okay, even men we can take some of these lessons and learn from them. So let's look at, go back to Luke chapter 1, Luke chapter 1 verse 38, Luke chapter 1 verse 38. So once the angel delivers the message to her, tells her that she's going to bring in the Savior of the world, you know she says this, Mary says this in Luke 1 38, and Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word, and the angel departed from her. So lesson number one that we see of Mary is that she was obedient to the Lord, she was willing to serve the Lord even with such an unusual request you know, she was willing to say you know what I'm going to just obey the word of God, I don't fully understand how this is going to happen, I don't fully understand how I can fall pregnant without a man but I'm going to be the handmaid of the Lord, she was saying that I'm going to be your servant Lord you know I'll do whatever it is that you ask me in accordance to your word. So the first lesson we see from this blessed woman is that she was obedient to the Lord okay, obedient to the Lord. Now let me say this, remember she has not yet consummated, she is married legally married to Joseph at this point in time okay, but she's not consummated the marriage okay. Now she's going to be looking pregnant, she's pregnant okay, she's going to be appearing pregnant with the man that she loves okay and obviously Joseph is not going to fully understand what happened and we know later on that he tries to divorce her okay because of what happened all right. So but here's the thing, here's the thing, ladies, mothers now obviously or wives, wives you know obviously God has given you your husband to be the head of the home okay, now it's right for you to be obedient to him but first and foremost you need to be obedient to the Lord, first and foremost okay. This could have ended really badly for her and Joseph okay but she was willing to obey the Lord first and foremost and mothers, wives you know and I'm sure every husband here even when you know it might be contrary to how you feel at this point in time I'm sure all of us would say yes the right thing to do is to obey the Lord first even if it doesn't go with what we want okay or even if it's contrary to what we've asked you must first walk in obedience to God's word okay and that's what we see of Mary that she was obedient to the Lord taking on a very challenging task you know in servitude to the Lord. If you guys can now go to Matthew chapter 1 please, Matthew chapter 1 verse 19. I've got eight points, eight points or eight lessons that we can get from this blessed woman. Number one was to be obedient to the Lord you know first and foremost even while she was troubled and afraid she was still obedient to the Lord okay. Now let's go to lesson number two or characteristic number two of Mary, Matthew chapter 1 verse 19. Matthew chapter 1 verse 19 and before we read this remember that she's pregnant without a man okay and she's married to Joseph so how's Joseph going to respond? Look at verse number 19, Matthew chapter 1 verse 19 when Joseph finds out says here then Joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privately. Now I don't want to go into divorce very quickly but Joseph was looking to divorce Mary okay and the Bible says here that he was a just man who was following the the bill of divorcement that was taught by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy okay which was prior to consummation of their marriage if she was found to be unfaithful to him to be unclean in his sight in that sense then he did have the right to give her a bill of divorcement and put her away okay. Now that's not what I want to focus on right now but I do want you to focus on the kind of woman Mary was here okay because the Bible says that Joseph was a just man so the second lesson we learn from this blessed woman is that she chose a godly husband okay ladies ladies young ladies unmarried ladies she chose a just godly husband okay and the Bible tells us here in verse number 19 not only was he a just man that means he was justified before the Lord he was a saved man hey ladies you need to make sure that the man that you marry is a saved man okay you may you may fall in love as it were you know have those emotions for another man who is unsaved but let me guarantee let me tell you guaranteed you're going to face problems if you marry someone that is unsaved you're not going to be able to connect at a spiritual level which is such an important aspect of your life especially if you're saved you're born again of course you know you have that new man you have that spiritual person in you and if you can't connect with your with the person you're spending the rest of your life with on a spiritual level you know you cannot read the Bible together and see eye to eye on things you're going to have very a very difficult marriage you're going to have a very difficult life and Mary made sure she married a just man not only was he just before the Lord but he was just that he was following the commandments that we see in the Bible okay in this sense he was trying to follow the command of divorce you know he was she was doing it in accordance to what we see in the Bible and so she chose a man who was obedient himself to the word of God okay and then we also find out in this verse number 19 it says here that Joseph was not willing to make her a public example she wanted to he wanted to divorce her privately just put away privately and not embarrass her in front of all you know all the people what does that tell us about their relationship she chose a man that loved her okay she chose a man Joe look I can imagine just how hurt Joseph was here you know feeling betrayed feeling that his wife has been unfaithful and yet he's not willing to make a republic example okay that tells me Joseph had a great love for Mary okay so he was saved he was someone that was obedient to God's word and he loved Mary okay and lastly lastly we know we won't go there for the reference right now we know that Joseph was a carpenter by trade okay so think about the man she married a safe man a man who's doing things according to the to the word of God a man who loved her and a man who had a trade a man that was working a man who could provide for his wife and let me tell you ladies you know when you start getting to the point of thinking about who to marry make sure you marry a man who is a working man don't marry a slothful man don't marry a man who doesn't have a job or can't hold down a job again you want to have problems in your life then yeah okay marry that person no don't marry that person you don't have problems in your life but we see the example that Mary had right she chose a godly hard-working husband and let me say they weren't rich okay this family for various reasons in the bible were not a rich family okay I'm not saying you've got to marry a man who's got you know extensive wealth or anything like that you know and sometimes I think parents may put that burden upon their their daughters yeah you've got to marry a man with money no you got to marry a man who loves your daughter you know a man who can provide a man who works hard he doesn't have to be rich but he has to have enough to be able to provide for his wife and family okay we see that mary chose a godly husband that's lesson number two now go to luke chapter one please luke chapter one verse 46 luke chapter one verse 46 and his third point is pretty straightforward but let's read the whole thing here luke chapter one verse 46 and mary said my soul doth magnify the lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior you know the third lesson we can take from this blessed woman is that she praised and rejoiced in the lord she's not at church here she's not at the temple in fact she's she's actually with elizabeth in the house and here in the house she's singing praises and rejoicing in the lord rejoicing in the work that god has given her to do rejoicing the god of her salvation says here rejoicing god my savior she was a saved woman obviously and she rejoices god for being rejoicing in god for being her savior let's keep reading verse 48 for he have regarded the lowest state of this handmaiden and behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed okay and this is so true we're calling her blessed right now aren't we okay we're speaking of the of blessed mary here all generations shall call her blessed verse 49 for he that is mighty have done to me great things and holy is his name and his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation remember we saw in proverbs that in order for you to obtain the favor of the lord you must be a merciful person and here it says that his mercy has fallen upon mary why because she has feared him okay and she's talking about all other generations of people that fear the lord his mercy will come upon them as well verse 51 he have showed strength with his arm he have scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he have put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree he have filled the hungry with good things and the rich he have sent empty away he have he have hoping his servant israel in remembrance of his mercy and he spake to our fathers to abraham and to his seed forever and uh so we see this this praise with this psalm i mean i mean this this fits in into the psalms like any any other any any other song right i mean she's able to just praise god with beautiful words so ladies let me encourage you in your household especially with your children sing praises to the lord you know rejoice in the lord you know christina for example sets a time every morning before she homeschools the kids to just read the bible sing a couple of hymns pray to the lord and rejoice you know in the lord i think that's a very important aspect that we see here of this blessed woman okay so let me go through the three points so far number one she was obedient to the lord number two she chose a godly husband and number three she praised and rejoiced in the lord as we're going through these points where we still got another uh five points to go i just ladies mothers are just wanting to think about your life am i doing these things you know have i done these things you know are these things that i'm teaching my young daughters to do you know start applying this to yourself as we go through this you know take it away from mary and say well i want to be like this blessed woman now go to matthew chapter 2 matthew chapter 2 verse 9 matthew chapter 2 verse 9 so after she gives birth to jesus christ in the manger you know sometime later maybe a year later roughly she's in a house here with jose obviously with joseph and the baby well he's you know a bit bigger now um and then this is the story where we get the wise men come and visit uh mary and and baby g or not baby jesus and toddler jesus if you want to say that but matthew chapter 2 verse 9 when they had heard the king these are the wise men they departed and lo the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was okay so it's not a baby in the manger is jesus christ here is a young child when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy and when they were come into the house they saw the young child with mary his mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their treasures and presented unto them their gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh now the fourth point that i want to take uh today guys and show you what the fourth point here about mary is that she was a housewife and she was with her child okay she was a housewife and she was with her child okay now i shouldn't have to say this okay but we live in a generation we live in a world we live in a society that tells women don't be housewives why should you work you know for your family why should you be there for your children and a lot of women today are feeling the pressures of this world why i've got to get out of the house you know the house isn't a place for me and yet what we see here when the wise men turn up i don't know what time they turned up exactly but when they turned up to the house there was where was mary she was right there in the house we don't hear of joseph maybe he's out working who knows what joseph is doing but we definitely see mary in her house okay and i know this is maybe a funny point to bring up but you know we need to you know bring things back to the fundamental truths that we have in the bible okay ladies mothers you've been called to be a mother you've been called to be a wife you've been called to serve in your family and have a great opportunity of influence to your children and here we have toddler jesus christ at home with his mother he's not in child care he's not in the care of another family or another friend he's there with his mother okay point number four is that she was a housewife and she was with her child all right now again the world you know will tell you what children are a burden you know children will stop you from achieving your goals and your dreams that you have no what's going to give mother the greatest joy is to be there and see the little child develop and grow and teach a child to love the lord to fear the lord to educate the child to to to bring great characteristics and qualities into that child to rear that child in the admonition of the lord okay this is what we see of mary she was a housewife okay and i would say she was happy being a housewife okay she was happy to be home with the children okay that's what we see of mary please mothers look i'm not i'm not against women okay i look but i want you to be happy okay i want you to be happy the place you're going to find joy is right exactly where god wants you to be doing the task that god has made you to do okay i mean if i if i studied i don't know if i started to be uh let's just say a doctor all right i started to be a doctor right that that's what i'm qualified to do i'm i can i can be a good doctor but then i i get a job as a plumber do you think i'm going to really be happy am i going to be able to do you know am i going to be able to put the best qualities i have forward and find joy in my job you know i'll probably be able to do the job but i'm not going to be doing the job that i'm best qualified for okay and mothers the job you've been called you've been made to do the reason you have the range of emotions that you have the reason why you're different to a man both emotionally physically as well is because god has created you to do certain tasks okay and men you've been called also to do certain tasks as well god has made you to be different from the woman look mary was happy to be home with her children okay and if you're a lady that says i can't wait to get the children out of the house i can't wait to get them out well there's a problem there there's either a problem with your heart okay or there's a problem with your children okay if you're like i want to get the kids out of here there's a problem with your heart or they're probably the children and you need to fix that it's not unfixable you've got to fix it you've got to fix the situation in accordance to god's word but let's keep going go to matthew chapter 2 verse 12 now you guys are in matthew chapter 2 look at verse 12 verse number 12 so this is after the the wise men leave and and king herod finds out that the wise men deceived him because he wanted to kill jesus remember jesus was being called the king of the jews so king king herod not happy about that him being the king wanted to go and slay jesus christ and then uh joseph is being warned of in a dream to flee uh to flee into egypt look at matthew chapter 2 verse 12 and being warned of god in a dream that they should not return to herod they departed into their own country another way that was the wise man departing verse 13 and when they were departed behold the angel of the lord appeared to joseph in a dream saying arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into egypt and be there until i bring thee word for herod will seek the young child to destroy him when he arose he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into egypt now here you know obviously we can praise joseph for being obedient to the lord but i want you to think about mary for a moment okay they're in their house they're established in their home they've got she's got the young child there okay point number five is that mary was submissive to the leading of her husband her husband is saying we're going to another nation in fact we're leaving israel okay we're leaving uh judah or the land of cana i'm not sure what they referred to at this point but we're going into another nation we're going into egypt you know a place where they've not been before a place where they don't have their family friends their connections there and just saying look we gotta pack up now and we need to go i can think of a hundred reasons why mary would not want to go i can think many reasons you know why mary would not want to go at this point in time hey but she was submissive to the leading of her husband she did not get the dream she did not get the angel appearing unto her but she had to go by her husband okay she was submissive to the leading of her husband that's that's uh point number five point number five go to john chapter two john chapter two verse one john chapter two verse one we're going to get to our sixth point now of being a blessed woman point number six and this is uh the story of the marriage in cana okay you guys remember that story that mary was there as well as jesus christ this is where jesus christ performs the miracle of turning water into wine you know and uh here it says in verse number john chapter two verse one and the third day there was a marriage in cana in galilee and the mother of jesus was there this is another reference where mary is called the mother of jesus okay verse number two and both jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage and when they wanted wine the mother of jesus saith unto him they have no wine okay so the sixth point that i want to bring here guys is that mary sought to serve and bless others okay she sought to serve and bless others okay she was called to an important position you know for herself she's bringing in the savior of the world but what do we see of mary she's gone to this marriage she's seen a problem they've run out of juice they've run out of grape juice they've run out of wine and what what she she's like you know we need to sort this out we need to find a solution she's concerned she wants to make sure that this day goes according to plan she wants to make sure the husband and wife of this marriage are being blessed you know they can you know take it easy enjoy their wedding day whereas and she says you know what i will go and sort out this problem i will go to jesus i i realized this problem she was someone that was willing to serve others okay and let me tell you ladies something that's going to alleviate a lot of the concerns and the fears and the problems you have in your life is when you turn your attention to other people when you say you know what yeah i've got my problems and concerns but i know brother or sister over there they also have some issues and i'm going to see if i can be a help to them i'm going to see how i can bless them and serve them and one truth that i found in my life is that when i found myself serving other people doing things for other people my concerns didn't worry me so much you know instead of being bogged down and worried with my own problems you know i could rejoice and be happy that i'm helping someone else you know i'd rather be rejoicing and helping and having that joy in my life than having the fears and the worries and and you're not serving anybody else i've been just caught up with my own problems we all have problems you know every woman here every mother here has a problem has worries has concerns you're not the only one you know this is shared amongst everybody okay and one of the best things you can do is how can i help the other person how can i help that person with their concerns their fears their problems okay we see mary was that kind of woman she found a problem i'm going to try to sort that out all right now let's keep reading let's drop down to verse number four what does she do about the situation and this brings us to point number seven verse number four jesus safe unto her because obviously mary went to jesus she knows that jesus can sort this out right he can perform a miracle and jesus safe unto her woman what have i to do with thee mine hour is not yet come you know so he gives his mother a bit of a soft rebuke because he's not there to to to minister in his in his work he's not there to perform a miracle his time has not yet come to serve in that sense but then it says here in verse number five his mother safe unto the servants whatsoever he's safe unto you do it okay so point number seven or lesson number seven we can take from this blessed woman is she instructs others to listen and obey to jesus to listen and obey jesus christ she says to the servants whatsoever he saith jesus saith do it okay now obviously mary in this wedding celebration had some level of authority okay i don't know if she was involved in the organization i don't know if she had some authority over this she obviously had some authority over these servants in order for to be able to go to the servants say hey go to jesus christ and do what he asked you to do okay now here's the lesson you need to take mothers from this is that if you're a mother you do have those that are under your authority okay and they are your children your children and you need to be teaching your children to listen and obey jesus christ you need to be like mary just like mary and say to your children exactly these words whatsoever he saith unto you do it or whatsoever this book says do it these are the words of jesus christ okay and that is what mothers should be training and teaching their children to do just like mary you want to be blessed like mary hey look at mary see what mary is doing and say hey can i do these things in my life am i lacking in some of these areas of my life i want to be a little bit more like mary you know and uh on to the last point well let me just let me just repeat the last seven points very quickly point number one was uh to be obedient to the lord number two was to choose a godly husband number three to praise and rejoice in the lord number four was to be a housewife with your children number five be submissive to the leading of your husband number six seek to serve and bless others number seven was to instruct others to obey jesus christ and lastly if you go back to the book of acts what we started with acts chapter one verse seven my last point i'll just give you what the point is and then we'll read it be faithful to the end mothers be faithful to the end okay say to yourself you know what i'm going to start serving the lord or if you are serving the lord already great and say you know what lord i'm going to be faithful to the end okay i'm going to be faithful to the end acts chapter one verse seven and just you know very quickly the context here is jesus christ has already been crucified you know i mean mary you know observed this she saw her son being tortured and being put to death obviously this would have weighed heavily upon her heart obviously this could have really brought her to a bad place okay but we and i'm sure she mourned of course she had great sorrow okay but she was able to overcome this and then we get to the book of acts after jesus christ is resurrected after he ascends up to heaven okay what does it say uh or sorry shortly before he sends up to heaven in verse number seven he says and he said unto them it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the father hath put in his own power verse number eight he's talking to all his disciples here he says but ye shall receive power and that the holy ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in jerusalem and in old judea and in samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth now we know this as the great commission preaching the gospel teach bringing people into church baptizing them preaching all the council of god the whole council of god to the brethren so they can grow and and know know the bible but did you know mary is also part of this okay did you know mary the mother of jesus also received this instruction from jesus christ that she would receive power that she would be a witness for him okay drop down to verse number 12 now drop down to verse number 12 acts 1 verse 12 then returned they unto jerusalem from the mount called olivert that's where jesus christ ascended from which is from jerusalem a sabbath stage journey and when they will come in they went up into an upper room and abode both peter and james and john and andrew and philip and thomas Bartholomew and matthew james the son of alpheus and simon zelodes and judas the brother of james so we see all the the apostles there these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication not just the men though to see with the women and mary the mother of jesus and with his brethren so we see that mary the mother of jesus is here with the apostles she's here in prayer and supplications waiting waiting for that power that jesus said will come waiting for that to come to pass and then verse number 15 and in those days peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said we won't read what he says but to see the number and of names together were about 120 120. now we've gone to the book of luke together we've seen the multitude we've seen thousands of people flock into christ we've seen thousands believing on him thousands getting saved believing on jesus christ but what are we left with jesus christ went up to heaven great the great gave the great commission okay and who do we have who are the faithful few how many amongst the tens of thousands of people are left just 120 people you know that are faithful that continue faithfully serving the lord and we see mary the mother of jesus she's one of them she's there in the midst now go to uh acts chapter two acts chapter two let's just fast forward a little bit acts chapter two verse one acts chapter two verse one and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place just like it said in chapter one and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them clothing tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues that's other languages as the other languages as the spirit gave them utterance and we won't read the rest of it but we know what they used that miracle for okay the gift of speaking in tongues the gift of being able to speak in other languages they went out into jerusalem and they had three thousand people saved okay and these this is 120 people including men and women and including the mother of jesus being gathered with these people receiving that power that jesus spoke of and being the witnesses of him you know mary's lived a decent period of life now okay she's seen her own son tortured and killed okay but we see that she's a woman who was faithful to the end she was there after the ascension of ascension of christ she was there receiving the fullness of the whole power of the holy spirit and bear perform a miracle and witnessing or preaching the gospel to the multitudes you see that happening in her life and mothers let me just say this i don't know exactly about how where the other children were i mean they all i guess would have been adults at this point in time a lot of people believe that joseph had already passed away i have that personal belief as well that joseph passed away already but we see that even when she doesn't have you know her children have grown up she doesn't have you know a husband in her life she's still there serving the lord she's still there in church she's still there preaching the gospel okay and that's all we know about me we don't know much more about mary after that okay but we know that that's where she left off and let's just let's just start you know think about mary for a minute she started off troubled and afraid okay but she ended her life really well didn't she she ended up serving the lord praising the lord few to the holy ghost preaching the gospel and i just want you two ladies to think about mary consider the her as blessed amongst women you know obviously we're not roman catholicsy we're not elevating her to a position beyond what what the bible recognizes her as but she was a great woman but you know what she made mistakes as well and mothers you're going to make mistakes in life yeah things aren't going to go exactly how you plan but don't let that put you down okay don't don't don't uh you know don't get yourself into self-pity you know don't think you can't accomplish great things for god don't think you know you can't accomplish impossible mary was able to get through her weaknesses she was able to get past the mistakes that she made and she was there serving the lord faithful to the end okay so thank you let's pray