A Mother Who Worked with God

“A MOTHER WHO WORKED WITH GOD”

EXODUS 2:1-10

INTRO: “Mothers fill places so great that there isn’t an angel in heaven who

wouldn’t be glad to give a bushel of diamonds to come down here and

take their place” –Billy Sunday. What a blessing it is to have a godly

mother! A mother who prays, reads her Bible, and attends God’s

house at every opportunity! Proverbs 31:10, 25-28 says, “Who can

find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. Strength

and honor are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She

openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of

kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth

not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Thank God for godly

mothers who bring up their children in the nurture and admonition

of the LORD! We thank the Lord today for what you have contributed

to our lives! We want to thank you for the example you have given

and the encouragement you have offered.

Beginning in Exodus 2:1-10 we read the story of Moses. We know a

great deal about Moses. There have been many sermons preached

and lessons taught about him. But we know very little about his

mother. We learn her name in Exodus 6:20—“And Amram took him

Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bore him Aaron and

Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty

and seven years.” Had it not been for Jochebed there would have

never been a Moses! All his great acts, all the sermons about him, all

the lessons, and all the songs sung about him would not have been,

had it not been for Jochebed. I want you to notice the thing that is

most admirable about Jochebed is that she worked with God. God

had a plan, and His plan included her. Had she not been willing to

cooperate with God the devil would have won a great and decisive

victory.

Friends, may we learn a valuable lesson from her example today. We

must work with God if we are to be successful. 1 Corinthians 3:9

tells us—“For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's

husbandry, ye are God's building.” Whatever a person’s occupation or

whoever the person is, whether doctor, farmer, teacher, mechanic,

carpenter, every Christian needs to recognize that God is their partner.

It is said of J. C. Penney when he opened his first store that before he

opened the doors for the first day’s business that he knelt on his knees

in the back of his little store and took God as his partner. Psalm

127:1 says—“Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that

build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in

vain.” Folks, anything we attempt to do, if God is not our partner, will

be a failure! Anything we try to build without His strength and

guidance is doomed to fall! I want you to consider three things with

me this morning as we look at A MOTHER WHO WORKED WITH GOD:

(1) HER FAMILY

EXODUS 2:1-2—“And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to

wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bore a son:

and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him

three months.”

IT WAS:

A. A CHRISTIAN FAMILY. Amram and Jochebed were Israelites who were

the people of God. Believers should marry believers. As one preacher put

it, “If a child of the God marries a child of the devil the child of God is sure

to have trouble with his/her father-in-law.” In fact, the ideal is

for each to be of the same faith and have the same convictions.

ILLUS: Time magazine reported (1/22/95) that the earthquake in Kobe,

Japan, occurred when two plates on a fault line fifteen miles

offshore suddenly shifted against each other, violently lurching six

to ten feet in opposite directions. The result was the worst

Japanese earthquake since 1923. Thousands died. More than

46,000 buildings lay in ruins. One-fifth of the city's population was

left instantly homeless. The destruction unleashed by those two

tectonic plates depicts what happens when a Christian bonds

unequally with a non-Christian. Two people committed to each

other but going in different directions can only lead to trouble. –

David Farnum, Rochester, New York. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 3.

“A Christian marriage serves a threefold purpose: to enrich the lives of the

man and woman, to create a family, and to further the kingdom of God”—

Jack Roeda. Folks, we need strong Christian families in our Church.

ILLUS: In a Christian family, God’s name is taken frequently in reverence

at the family altar. God’s Book is a familiar text to all. God’s

day is respected, both at Church and at home. Such a home is the

hope of the world, the pattern of the Church itself, and a foretaste

of heaven.

B. A COMPLETE FAMILY. I want you to note that Jochebed’s family was a

complete family: father, mother, and children. Folks, this is God’s order.

“The problems of America are the family problems multiplied a million-

fold”—Dwight D. Eisenhower. If things go well with the family, life is worth

living; when the family falters, life falls apart.

ILLUS: SOURCE: Readers' Digest

TITLE: Points To Ponder

AUTHOR: James Q. Wilson, From Commentary Magazine

DATE: 01/01/96

The family is not one of several alternative life-styles; it is not an

arena in which rights are negotiated; it is not an old-fashioned

barrier to a promiscuous sex life; it is not a set of cost-benefit

calculations. It is a commitment for which there is no feasible

substitute. No child ought to be brought into a world where that

commitment - from both parents - is absent.

There is no way to prepare for the commitment other than to make

it. Living together is not a way of finding out how married life will

be, because married life is shaped by the fact that the couple has

made a solemn vow before their family and friends that this is for

keeps and that any children will be their joint and permanent

responsibility. It changes everything.

Friends, the TRADITIONAL FAMILY in this country is under attack! Satan

is doing all he can to destroy our families.

ILLUS: SOURCE: Baptist Press, http://www.baptistpress.org/

TITLE: American Families Are In Crisis

AUTHOR: Staff Writers

DATE: 9/12/2003

The family, God's first institution, is in trouble according to Tom

Elliff, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, Del City, Oklahoma.

Elliff gives these statistics:

-- More than 3,500 families in America end in divorce each day.

-- America's divorce rate is now more than double than that in

1960.

-- Currently, more marriages are terminated by divorce than by the

death of a spouse.

-- One million children a year see their parents divorce.

-- More than 50 percent of the children in America's public schools

live in single-parent homes.

-- 35 percent of America's children live apart from their biological

fathers.

-- 50 percent of children who live apart from their biological fathers

have never stepped foot in their father's house.

-- Children in single-parent homes have a 300 percent greater

possibility of a negative life outcome than children raised in

homes where both parents are present.

-- In the past 40 years, pregnancies out of wedlock have increased

600 percent.

-- 32 percent of all births in 1995 were out of wedlock.

-- Most people now live together before they marry for the first time.

-- In less than 40 years, cohabitation by unmarried couples has

increased 1,000 percent.

-- Fewer than 40 percent of married couples claim to be very happy.

-- Among evangelicals, Internet pornography is now a major factor

in the dissolution of families and departure from ministry.

-- Personal bankruptcies are at an all-time high in America.

Tithing and giving are becoming practices that are lost to

succeeding generations.

-- The majority of children in America have less than 10 minutes of

significant and meaningful conversation with their parents each

week.

C. A CLOSE FAMILY. Miriam, his sister and Jochebed worked together. V4

tells us, “And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.”

The word “stood” in this verse is an interesting word. It means “to place or

to station.” Miriam was placed or stationed by her parents to see what

would become of her baby brother. We also, have every reason to believe,

that not only did Miriam and Jochebed work together concerning Moses,

but also Amram helped with the work. Families should be close knit.

Someone has said, “The closer a man and wife get to Christ, the clearer they

See how important it is for them to stay close to each other.” A CLOSE

FAMILY will be A STRONG FAMILY.

Jochebed, A MOTHER WHO WORKED WITH GOD, HER FAMILY was A CHRISTIAN FAMILY, A COMPLETE FAMILY, and A CLOSE FAMILY but also let us note…

(2) HER FAITH

EXODUS 2:2b-3—“…and when she saw him that he was a goodly child,

she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.”

SHE HAD:

A. A SCRIPTURAL FAITH. Her faith was based upon God’s Word! She

believed that God would deliver His people from Egypt and she also believed

God would take care of her baby boy. Hebrews 11:23 tells us—“By faith

Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they

saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's

commandment.” She “believed that he was destined to some great purpose,

and that he would be spared, notwithstanding all the probabilities against

it, and all the difficulties in the case.” (Albert Barnes’ Notes On The Bible. e-

Reserved Worldwide). She was lead to preserve his life because of her

strong confidence in God! She didn’t know how God would take care of her

baby but she did believe He would! This is the nature of faith. (Hebrews

11:1).

ILLUS: Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.

Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it,

nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible. Faith is like a

radar that sees through the fog. Faith is to believe what you do not

see; the reward of faith is to see what you believe. The reason that

faith is so important in our walk with God is because we cannot

please God without it. God wants you and me to walk by faith, not

by sight. Faith will take you places that you’ve never been, show

you things you’ve never seen, and give you the ability to do things

that you have never done. No matter what the enemy says, no

matter what your senses say, trust God. (Bible Illustrator For

B. A SOLID FAITH. Her faith was solid because it was based upon what God

had said. It was not based upon some vision, dream, or feeling but upon

the very promises of God! There are four words I wish we would never

forget, and they are, "God keeps His word." --Charles Swindoll (The

Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, November 29, 2004). God’s

faithfulness should motive us to do great things for God! Someone has

said, “Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see.”

C. A STRONG FAITH. Jochebed’s faith had to be strong for her to disobey the

king, and to defy the law of the land, and attempt the impossible. V2 tells

us—“… and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three

months.” I want you to notice the word “goodly” in v2. It means “pleasant,

joyful, and precious.” Moses’ parents believed that God was going to do an

amazing work through Him. They saw Moses as a promising child.

Matthew Henry said, “There appeared in him something uncommon; the

beauty of the Lord sat upon him, as a presage that he was born to great

thing” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary On The Whole Bible. e-Sword. Version

Hebrews 11:23 tells us—“… they were not afraid of the king's

commandment.”

ILLUS: Dr. A. C. Dixon, a former pastor in Boston, told the Church that

they needed $2,000 to get their Church out of the red. He and the

deacons held a prayer meeting about the need. One deacon said,

after prayer, “God will supply the need in next Sunday’s offering.”

The next Sunday it came a downpour rain, and only a handful of