Celebrating Mothers: Lessons from Exodus | Sermon by Preston

Join Preston for a heartfelt sermon where he intertwines the significance of the Lord's Day and Mother's Day. Delving into Exodus chapter one, Preston shares personal anecdotes about his new journey into fatherhood, and examines the impact and divine mission of motherhood. Through biblical examples of the Hebrew midwives, Moses' mother Jochebed, and Pharaoh's daughter, he highlights the diverse roles of spiritual, birth, and adoptive mothers. This sermon is a tribute to the often unnoticed yet profound influence of mothers in shaping faith and character.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks
00:20 Personal Reflections on Mother's Day
01:25 The Influence of Mothers: A Biblical Perspective
04:59 The Story of Shiphrah and Puah
08:38 Spiritual Mothers in the Church
13:52 The Story of Jochebed
19:18 The Role of Birth Mothers
23:36 The Compassion of Pharaoh's Daughter
30:09 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Good morning. It's good to see you all here this morning. If you would go and open up your Bibles to Exodus chapter one, that's where we're gonna be in just a few moments. Exodus chapter one, starting in verse 15. If you're busy with us this morning, we're thankful you're here. Glad to. You can be with us to open up God's word this morning.

It is a special day. It is the Lord's Day as it's been said already, but it's also Mother's Day. And this Mother's Day for me is a lot of you guys know, is definitely a special one since you know, baby Nadine's coming up at three, three weeks, you know, three weeks old. And we brought her to church for the first time last Sunday.

And. I got a welcome, you know, great. Welcome to Fatherhood. During the Lord's Supper last week, when Na Dean decided to projectile vomit right on top of me not exaggerating, not a drop hit her carrier, it went straight on me onto my arm. Needless to say, I went to the dry cleaners this week and they did the best they could.

So may not be wearing my gray suit anytime soon, but today is a special day. It's Mother's Day and. It. Yeah. I don't know what else to say about me personally, but it, it's a day to this day means a lot more to me now, and I have a lot more respect for mothers. I already had a lot of respect for my mother and my grandmothers, but especially after the vomit in the last three weeks I've learned a lot to have a lot more respect for my mother.

And, and all of you mothers here, and that's what we're gonna talk about this morning, and. I wanna begin, I was, I was asking my mom and my sister, you know, what do you guys want out of a Mother's Day sermon? You're a mother. You want to hear about, you know, motherhood and what, what it means to you.

What, what is something, what are things you don't want to hear? What are things you want to hear? I. What would be something that would be beneficial to you? And, and my mom kind of threw out this kind of maybe corny, I guess, statement that maybe might be a corny preacher statement to bring out or reference.

But, hey, my mother gave it to me, so I'm gonna use that. And it's this well-known proverb that, that it's an American proverb, says the hand that rocks the cradle was the hand. That rules the world, and that's probably one that you've heard a lot. Well, it comes from this 18 65 poem by a man, a American named William Ross Wallace.

And read a few stanza of it just to kind of get a sense of what was it about. And each stands that kind of ends with this same statement. The hand that rocks a cradle is the hand that rules the world. And the poem is titled. What rules the world, and he's trying to get a sense of what is it really that's undergirding, kind of in controlling and dictating what happens in the world.

And what he finds and what he's arguing in a poem is that it's mothers. And while the end ending of these stands is really popular, and we all know it, I wanna focus on a couple specific lines from the first and third stands I wanna read really quickly. It's gonna segue into our list this morning. He says, in the first stands of blessings on the hand of women, angels guard, its strength and grace in the palace, cottage hovel.

Oh, no matter where the place would, that never storms as sailed at rainbows ever gently curled. For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. Woman, how divine is your mission? Here upon our natal sod, keep o keep the young heart open always to the breath of God. All true trophies of the ages are from mother love imp pearled.

For the hand that rocks The cradle is the hand that rules the world. And in these couple lines of what I'm trying to highlight are two things. First, I think the poem acknowledges how diverse motherhood is. It's, it's something that says, you know, no matter, place or palace, cottage or Hoel. Hoel, just like squalor, a place of poverty no matter rags or riches.

Mothers, they all have the potential to impact the, the world through their children. And then secondly, the poem talks about that motherhood is, is a divine mission. It's something that mothers mothers are able to keep their, their children's hearts open and receptive to God. And in doing so, they invite their children into participating in God's saving mission.

I think nowhere are these kind of two ideas. The diversity and the divine nature of motherhood are, are more clear than Exodus Chapters one and two. In which God's model act of salvation, it's, it's initiated and it's only made possible through these several different women, the Hebrew midwives, Moses' mother, Jacob, and Pharaoh's daughter.

And so in honor of Mother's Day today, I want us to, to look at a couple of these verses and we're gonna talk about these often forgotten women and kind of call them the mothers of the Exodus. And I want these women to really be mirrors through which we can kind of look and, and kind of compare our own experiences with the mothers that we have had, the various types as we'll talk about in just a few moments and how they've influenced us, but also hope hopefully to give us eyes to see how God is ultimately moving and working in the quiet redemptive work of our own mothers today.

And so we'll go and begin this morning. Read with me in Exodus chapter Exodus chapter one, verses 15 through 22. And we're first gonna talk about Shira and Pua, and that's probably two names that maybe you grew up in the church, maybe you, maybe you're here. Just visiting those main names may not mean really anything to you.

And but. Here we're gonna see that these, because these women, their names are actually given to us. They're, they're really important because we compare the King of Egypt to the Pharaoh. He's not given a specific name. He's just given this kind of generic title where these Hebrew midwives are specifically named.

They're really, really important and this story, but what is it that, what they did that made them so important? Look, in verse 15, we'll read down through verse 22. It says, then the King of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shira, and the other Pua, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, you shall kill him.

But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives fear God and did not do as the King of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the King of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live? The midwives said to Pharaoh. Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they're vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.

So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people. Every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. And so Schiff Puah, the thing that's really unique, I think about them and what's so important in this story, the Exodus, is that they believed in God's promises rather than submitting to Pharaoh's commands.

And they're in a really humble role. They're midwives. They don't have a lot of. Power and influence, and, and yet here they're seen standing up to the ruler of the land, the the king of Egypt. And they knew ultimately that Pharaoh's orders, they were something that were antithetical, they were hostile, they were opposed to God's purposes from creation.

In Genesis chapter one, God had created man to be fruitful and to multiply and. And not only that, but God had promised Abraham that his descendants, it says in Genesis chapter 12 verse two, and I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And when we come to Exodus chapter one, this is kind of, what's happening with Israel.

Israel has been in the land for some time there. Many generations have passed since Joseph and his family have have come there. And if people are fulfilling God's creative calling for humanity, but also God's promises to Abraham. And you see in chapter one, verse seven, it says, but the people of Israel were fruitful.

They increased greatly. They multiplied and they grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. And so Shipra, Puah, they knew God's purposes and what his intentions were for humanity. But they also had seen God's promises being fulfilled already with their own eyes. And despite whatever Pharaoh was trying to accomplish and trying to pre pressure and prevent God's promises from coming to pass because it feared what it was gonna cost him.

Schiffer Pua went against the grain. And these women, they risk their life for children ultimately who weren't even their own. And it's a serious enough thing. We hear stories of parents laying down their lives for their own children, but imagine laying your life down for someone else's child. And I think for us in, in the church today, what we have is kind of a parallel to the Hebrew midwives, to shua, is that like the midwives in the church, we all have spiritual mothers ourselves.

And I think shipper Puum may be kind of a, a strange starting place on Mother's Day to, to talk about spiritual mothers rather than birth mothers, as we'll talk about in just a second. But I think it is a really good starting place because this day can be really emotional for a lot of people, for a lot of different reasons.

Maybe you've a broken relationship with your own mother. Maybe your, your mother passed earlier, late in your life. And today you might be feeling a, a void or a lack of that motherly influence in your heart today. Maybe you've never even had the opportunity to be a mother. Maybe because of infertility issues or a life of celibacy.

You haven't been able to be a biological mother. But here in the kingdom of God, we have such a blessing that we have this inexhaustible family and motherhood. If you return your Bibles to Mark chapter 10. March 10 is a really important passage for me personally. Whenever I decided I wanted to get into preaching and it meant that I was gonna have to be leaving my hometown, my support system, my family, and I think especially the most difficult thing for me was having to leave behind my mother and my grandmother, who are probably one of the biggest influences on me.

And this passage in Mark chapter 10 really kind of encouraged me through that making that decision. With God's promises through Jesus's words, after having seen the rich young man and had this conversation refusing to give up all of his possessions. Peter begins to say in verse 28, he says, see, we have left everything and followed you.

Jesus said, truly, I say to you, there is none who have left, who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children, or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundred fold. Now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters, and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.

And I like, I love Mark Chatter, Tim, but I also like first Timothy chapter five as well. 'cause Paul's admonishing Timothy, the church at Ephesus, he's gonna have to kind of encourage some of the older men, some of the older women. And he's trying to give them a sense of how should you approach these kind of situations that you're dealing with.

And he says about older men, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father. Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. And I think we often probably take for granted in the church that we can leave our mothers, we can leave our hometowns, we can leave our support systems, and we can find spiritual mothers in any church that you go and be a part of throughout the world.

And nowhere else can you find a community of such motherly influences, figure figures, who are concerned not only about your physical wellbeing and you know that they are, because a lot of y'all can cook. I know that already. I've learned that much since I've been here. I'm gonna have to stop eating so much.

I'm gonna be busting outta my pants here. But if, you know, Nadine keeps throwing up on 'em, it might be a good thing. I might need to get some suits anyways. But they're not only concerned about our physical wellbeing, but they're concerned about our spiritual wellbeing. I think about women in my past growing up in a church in Dothan, Alabama.

Ms. Loretta told us she had this this really cool work that she would do where whenever a child was baptized, she would make these denim quilts. And I still have that denim quilt. And I think about her every time I use that just about every day. And I think about her commitment to me as a child wanting to teach me and, and nurture me, even though I wasn't her own child.

And she has had an influence on me. Up until the point that she died just a few years ago. I think about women, like when Abby and I were in Memphis just over a little bit over a year ago, women like Peggy Ferrell who took me in her home and she kept me well fed. She treated me like her own child and I.

In times when I was really homesick, she really helped me feel like I had a home when I was away from home. And so many of you here at Timberland Drive, well, you guys all know so many of you guys act like mothers to each and every one of us. And keeping people well fed and all these different things, praying for us.

And I think just like Schiff UA in the Kingdom of God, we all, we all have these spiritual mothers. We have these mothers who have believed in God's promises. And they treated us, each and every one of us as if we have, or we've been their own children. And you, you spiritual mothers, all of you, you pray fervently.

You offer hospitality, you teach Bible classes and you mentor privately and you stand in the gap for each and every one of the children here, even though they aren't technically your own. And you often don't get credit for all of the things that you do as so many of the men have already said this morning, because so much what you do is hidden from plain view, but by the sacrifices of you women.

Well, God's church has been strengthened and it's grown, and so thank God first for Shira and Pua and for their example, but also thank God. For all of our spiritual mothers as well. Well, let's keep reading here and let's talk about gibe. Gibe here is just references the wife of a Levite or a woman in chapter two verses one through 10, but we find her name just a few chapters later in Exodus chapter six, verse 20 in Moses in e genealogy, and her name means Yahweh is glory, or Yahweh is power.

I think it's a really fitting name because of what we're about to read, how God shows his power and his glory through what he accomplishes through this woman. And so read me in Exodus chapter two verses one through 10. Exodus chapter two verses one through 10.

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife, a Levite woman, the woman conceived, and Boris son. And I want you to notice she's kind of introduced very passively, but notice as we go on from here, how active Jaed becomes. Says, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him no longer.

She took, or, or sorry, excuse me. She hid him three months when she could not hide him no longer. She took for him a basket made of bull rushes and dabbed it with bitterman and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the riverbank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bay, to the river while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant women, and she took it. And when she opened it, she saw the child and behold the baby was crying and she took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children.

Then his sister said, the Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew woman to nurse a child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. So the girl went and called the child's mother, and Farah's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him from me, and I will give you your wages.

So the woman took the child and nursed him, and when the child grew older, she brought him to Farah's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses because she said I drew him out of the water. I think for Jaed, what we, what we learn about her is that she is a, a mother took loving action. To protect and ultimately to save her child.

And one of the things that's so great about our mothers. Is that they're really the first ones to introduce and to model God's love for a child. And in a way, a woman ultimately treats her child, she models God's own care for humanity. And, and what we see in Exodus if you, if you are able to, to notice through subtle cues, ed's being compared ultimately to God in the same way. First, what we see is just as God created the world and he sees that all of its contents are good, it says seven times in Genesis chapter one, and the seventh time he says It is a a very good. It's abundantly good. Well, Jacob saw Moses as a fine child.

I like the old King James because it says goodly kind of a strange word, but it picks up the more literal translation that recognizes that in both cases, in Genesis one and here in Exodus chapter two these are the same words in Hebrew, the word tove and this beauty and this goodness of her newborn child.

It inspired love within Jacked and she, she hid her child as long as she possibly could. But she couldn't keep him. It's safe at home much longer. And so that love that she had for her child to preserve and to protect him, ultimately moved her to make a sacrifice. To ensure that Moses would live. And so secondly, not only does she see that Moses is good, that he's a fine child, like God views creation, but in Genesis chapter six verses 11 through 14, the Earth, he could become corrupted.

It was filled with violence. But God loving this good creation that he saw as good, it motivated him in the same way. To save it. And so God goes on to preserve Noah. He preserves his family and animals on the on the ark as he ends up cleansing the earth with water. And in the same way Moses, he's born in this, this, this time of crisis, this time of violence where people are opposing God's purposes for creation.

And Jaed models, not only God's love, but also his saving actions as God saved Noah in an arc through water. Jaed builds this basket or this arc, literally, it's the same word again as we see in Genesis chapter six, as we see Inus two, and she builds this ark in which Moses would ultimately be saved.

And though the story doesn't really tell us, but it appears that Jacob's kind of placement of Moses here at this specific place where Pharaoh's daughter comes to bathe every day. It wasn't really a coincidence with Moses' sister, Miriam watching. She was able to kind of see what happened to him and ultimately was able to immediately offer her mother as a potential nurse for Pharaoh's daughter.

And so this is wise and determined planning by a mother. And even though this planning, this, this for foresight that Jacque had, it bought her a little bit more time, it saved Moses' life. Ultimately, it still meant that she had to give up her child for, to Pharaoh's household. And so her love cost her much.

His, his mother's love almost his mother's love. So often does. But as all you mothers know, it's a small price to pay for your child. And so. For us, like Jacque bed, we obviously have birth mothers and I think Sheila Dickerson, I wanna say was the one that told me this other day. Last Sunday when we came with Nadine, she said, you know, you'll never know how much your parents how much love your parents have for you until you hold your child for the first time.

And I understand that now, having held Nadine for several weeks now. But I think with mothers. When they give birth, when they see that child for the first time, there's that instant connection and you'd be hard pressed to, to go and find a mother who didn't see their child in the same way that Jocked saw Moses.

I mean, have you ever heard the statement, you know, he's got a face, only the A mother could love. I mean, that's true. There's a trend Abby was telling me last night about on TikTok or something, how girl young women are posting pictures of their children and they're saying, is my baby cute or is it just my mom eyes?

You know, and a lot of the comments are funny because some of them babies have a face on a mother could love. But like God, our mothers, they see the good in us even when we can't see it in ourself or, or when other people can't see it for, for our looks, maybe. But they raise children. They love their children fiercely and eventually like gibe.

They place them in God's trusting hands. And the yearning of a mother's heart produces some of the most powerful examples of sacrifice that we know. I love one Kings chapter three. We won't have time to read all of it, but this is a passage talking about Solomon's great wisdom. And these two prostitutes, they're in that same home.

They both have children. And what happens is one of them rolls over on top of their child in the night, suffocating it. And so she switches her dead child with the living child of the other prostitute and so on upon waking the, the prostitute that had the live child that had been switched. She says, this isn't my child.

And so they come to Solomon to mediate for him to make a judgment. And in his wisdom, he, he kind of puts forward a test to figure out which one is gonna be the true, true mother. And he says, gimme a sword. He says, I'm gonna cut this baby in half and each of you guys can have a half. Well, he wasn't actually gonna cut the baby in half, but it was to get this reaction out.

In verse 26 of one Kings chapter three, it says, then the woman whose son was alive said to the king because her heart yearned for her son. Oh my Lord. Give her the living child and by no means put him to death. But the other said, he shall be neither mine nor yours, divide him. Well, it was pretty clear after that last statement which one the mother truly was.

I think both Jacked and this woman here in One Kings chapter three, their love was shown for their children, these really grand gestures. But I think most often, and I'm sure all the mothers in here would probably agree with me mother, a Mother's love is usually displayed not in these grand gestures, but really small acts of sacrifice and service.

And we whoever men, basically, I guess we need to have the, the eyes to see, the, the love and the sacrifice that all of our birth mothers offer to us. I mean, we, we know all of the things they do from giving birth. I mean, wow, that's crazy. I mean, it's traumatic. Even when it goes good, you know, that's pretty insane.

I'm, I'm much more respect for my wife and the last few weeks. Not only that, but you know, the, the hours of getting up, late nights changing dirty diapers and nursing your child and giving them life. Being long suffering with children, especially in their childhood and middle school. Middle school is the hard part not looking forward to that in a couple years and in those high school years and in college and all of those things, they, they carry children to all their different extracurricular activities.

They give them opportunities so they can grow and develop. They keep homes. They work a job or jobs plural to help provide. They're always a constant source of comfort and nurturing, and they share wisdom and guidance in all matters of life, not just for when, you know, we've, they're little children, but I still get guidance from my mother and my grandmother, myself.

But just like Ed, many of you are, are birth mothers. You've all loved, you've predicted and you sacrificed for your children. And by the love of you women. Christian homes, as we just sang about earlier, they've been strengthened and they've been not only impacted the kingdom, but but the world for good.

And so we wanna thank God not only for the example of Gibe and the way he worked through her. We want to thank God for our birth mothers as well. And then lastly, we wanna talk about Pharaoh's daughter. Let's just read verses five through six and then verse 10 since we've already read this. But I want us to kind of read this again, just looking more through Pharaoh's daughter, eye Pharaoh's daughter's eyes here.

In verse chapter two, verse five. It says, now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bay to the river while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold the baby was crying.

She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews children. And then in verse 10, it says, later, after having taken care of the child for some time when the child grew older. Gibe brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses because she said I drew him out of the water.

And Pharaoh's daughter is so exceptional because she chose compassion for a distressed child when she could have just turned a blind eye. To him in his distress. And to an Egyptian pharaoh's daughter, she really had every reason to just leave Moses to die. In fact, as we read at the end of chapter one, Pharaoh had commanded all of Egypt.

Hey, if you see a, a Hebrew child, a male Hebrew child, go chuck him in an aisle you have, you don't need to do do anything with him. But Pharaoh's mother or Pharaoh's daughter, she didn't turn a blind eye, but she chose ultimately to see Moses, and she chose to have pity on the slave child. And you know, when a little Hebrew girl kind of hops out of the reeds and she's like offering immediate help on, I know where you can find a wet nurse, you know, almost like a little a salesman or something.

You need a wet nurse. I've got something for you. Well, it's probably a good sign that what they were doing was a setup. And yet Pharaoh's daughter, she didn't ultimately care. She used her power, she used her resources to save Moses, and she didn't have to do this. And quite frankly, she didn't really get anything out of it.

But what every, but what everyone else saw is something to be discarded. Pharaoh's daughter saw someone to be saved, and she chose Moses, and in doing so, she modeled God's own compassion for Israel as a slave nation. Exodus chapter six, or excuse me, Ezekiel chapter 16 is probably one of the darkest passages in the Old Testament.

And we'll see why in just a second. It's a, it's a passage of just like Exodus chapter two, about kind of an exposed child left to the elements. And God is talking about Israel and his relationship with them through Ezekiel to prophet and kind of recounting how he came to find and call them his own.

And look in Ezekiel chapter 16 verses four through six, even in this really dark situation we see God bring some light to it. In says verse four of Ezekiel chapter 16. And as for your birth on the day you were born, your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes.

No eye pitied you to do any of the things out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field for you were abhorred on the day that you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, in your blood live, I said to you, in your blood live. I think both Exodus chapter two and Ezekiel chapter 16, they both show these kind of cases of abandonment that were ultimately prevented because somebody chose empathy over apathy.

And ironically, while Pharaoh had di everything that he could to try and stop Israel from growing, from being fruitful, from multiplying, from keeping God's promises, from being fulfilled. He ended up raising the very deliverer of Israel under his own roof. And through the compassion of Pharaoh's daughter, the king's evil decree was ignored and it ultimately paved the way for Israel's salvation.

And for us, I think like Pharaoh's daughter, we also had these adoptive mothers and, and adoption. It's one of those greatest examples that we can see clearly with our eyes. It's such a beautiful display of how godly compassion can ultimately transform a life. And some of you maybe here have been adopted or you have adopted children, and maybe you're a grandmother, maybe you're an aunt and you've taken in a child, a, a niece or a nephew, a grandchild.

Into your care who needed it when when they were in a time of need? Or maybe you went through a formal adoption process. Maybe you went through a government agency or you did foster care or something like that. But even in 2025, in the US today, there's nearly half a million children in the. Foster care system today, and there's at least a quarter of them waiting for adoption at any moment.

And today we still have a great need for adopt mothers and there's great efforts going on. We did a sacred selection thing last year fundraiser that helped raise money to, to have a child adopted. There's great work that's being done, but we in the church need to continue to, to do those things. We need to continue being the ones leading.

The world and the adoption process and, and our adoptive mothers. They're some of the greatest examples for us, the greatest examples of compassion that we have around us. And in their own way, they ultimately resemble how God dealt with dealt with us as his people. Just as we read about in Ezekiel in then Exus chapter two.

Look in Ephesians chapter one verses three through five. Paul talking to the Ephesians about all the blessings that they get to have through Christ Jesus. It says in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

He predestined us for adoption to himself. As sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. So just like Pharaoh's daughter, some of you here this morning are adoptive mothers. You had compassion on a child in need, and by your kindness, by your choosing to see a child in distress.

You have protected and brought up this, those children in God fearing homes. And so this morning we want to thank God for Pharaoh's daughter for the way she helped bring about the Exodus, but also thank God for our adoptive mothers. And so this morning we talked about the mothers of the Exodus. The Exodus really began with.

And it was only made possible by the courageous and, and the defiant role of women, of mothers. And God chose each of these women to play this kind of crucial role in his saving work. And still, even today, as we've just talked about, God is working through all of you different types of mothers to accomplish his divine plans.

And so today we give thanks to our God for, for all of you mothers of every different kinds. And so for you, if you're feeling unnoticed in your love as a mother your prayers or maybe you're letting go. Maybe you're nurturing someone else's child and you know, know ultimately that you're standing in the footsteps of some of the greatest mothers that there are in scripture.

You're a part of this kind of hidden army. This army that goes unnoticed, unnoted, unnoticed a lot of times through whom God ultimately is loving. He's protecting and redeeming the world. And maybe you're here this morning in honor of your mother or grandmother. I want you to consider not only these mothers of the Exodus and how your motherly influences in your life reflect these, these godly women from Exodus, but I want you to even more consider what those mothers and your motherly influences tell you about God himself and his plans for you.

Because God, he has given promises of a fruitful and a blessed life that you ultimately can be a part of. He loves you and he sees you as part of his good creation, and you mean so much to him that he was willing to give up everything his own son, so that you could be adopted into the family of God and our father.

Our father loves you, just like and dare I say, even more than your own mother does. And so these promises, just as they were fulfilled in the time of the Exodus, or these women and their courageous acts, they're fulfilled now in our time through the courageous courageous and loving redeeming work of our mothers today.

And that can be done through you as possible if you're willing to come and to make Christ your king and to follow after him and to live a life of allegient faith in him. And so if you have that desire tonight or this morning, then we ask you to come now as we stand and as we sing.