Guardrails for Moms
Maple Ridge Wesleyan Church
May 13, 2012 Mothers Day
Good morning! Thank you so much for having me here this
morning – I can’t tell you how honoured I am to be your Mothers Day
speaker! I want to especially thank
Pastor Nick, and Beth – I have great respect for your pastor and his wife! You may know already that they look after the
junior VBS program during Beulah Camp, and it’s been a privilege for me to work
under them the last couple of years there, and I just want you to know –
they’re AMAZING. Really.
It’s also kind of neat that I get to serve
with a couple of fine Maple Ridgers in worship at Crosspoint – Jeff and Rose
Staples daughters, Amanda and Leah, are really involved, and are representing
the Ridge well! And just yesterday I had
the chance to talk to Matthew Moore – are some of his family here today?? –
Stephen, my husband, is a colleague of Matt’s.
You might be asking yourself – what
qualifications does Ruth bring, as a Mothers Day speaker? Well, I do fit the ‘mum’ category – I have 4
daughters (all amazing, of course) – Stephen is outnumbered really bad. Our oldest was 5 when the youngest was born,
and I remember those preschool days (or DAZE) – mayhem. No sleep, cold meals, worn to a frazzle…Yep. And the school-age days – there was one year
all 4 of our girls went to the same school (K, 2, 4 and 5), but other than that
it was two or three schools, so parent-teacher interviews were
challenging! Homework, sports, music,
sick kids… yep. Then the teen years –
mayhem. No sleep, cold meals, worn to a
frazzle…yep. But lots of joy, lots of
fun all the way through. I’m a mum!
But really, I’m not qualified – if you’re
thinking a Mothers Day speaker should be someone who did the whole parenting
thing right. Or mostly right. I want you to know that I wanted to do right. I wanted
to lean on God’s strength, and His wisdom, not my own – but I messed up LOTS. I’m SO GLAD that God never ever threw his
hands up in the air (so to speak) and said, “I give up!” He continued to love me, and forgive me, and
teach me, and I learned. I’m still
learning. One of the verses we’ll look
at today says, “Let us learn together what is good.” That’s how we do this journey – we learn
together. Join me, will you?
PRAY
So – guardrails. They warn you that you’re too close to
danger. Crash through and you’ll pay the
price. It might just be really messy, or
it might cost you your life, or someone else’s, but it always exacts a
price. However, encounters with a
guardrail, even when you don’t crash through, can be painful. Sometimes it was a scrape or bump, but
sometimes I’ve ricocheted off, with all the damage that goes with that. So today I DO want to talk about three of
those guardrails, but first I want to talk about what the Word says about
living life between the lines. Hebrews
4:12 says that the Word of God is alive and full of power, so let’s hear what
the Father has to say to us. Will you
read with me? Philippians 4:4-8 says
Always
be full of joy in the Lord. I say it
again – rejoice!
Let
everyone see you are considerate in all you do.
Remember the Lord is coming soon.
Don’t
worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all
he has done.
Then
you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as
you live in Christ Jesus.
And
now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. FIX YOUR THOUGHTS on what is true, and
honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and
worthy of praise.
Then Paul says again that the God of peace
will be with you.
There’s so much here to help us stay
between the lines – be joyful (earlier in Philippians, the Word tells us “whatever happens, rejoice in the Lord”),
be considerate, pray, thank God for all he has done, but THEN Paul says, “One
final thing. FIX YOUR THOUGHTS…” That means to think on, to weigh, to
ponder. In my case, sometimes it means
to force my focus away from the wrong, and really concentrate on the right.
I don’t know if many of you are like me or
not, but I have found that many of my close encounters with guardrails came out
of issues in my mind and heart. Thoughts
and attitudes. Jesus tells us (Mark 7:21) that out of the heart comes evil
thoughts, greed, envy, lying, sexual immorality… and more! The good news on THAT is that when we give
our lives to Jesus, he makes us new. We
can FIX OUR THOUGHTS on something better.
Let’s look at that verse from Philippians – verse 8 – one more
time. Read with me!
And
now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. FIX YOUR THOUGHTS on what is true, and
honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and
worthy of praise.
Ack!
How can I change the way I think?
It’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 12:2 says, “Let God
transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” LET God.
And it’s a process – a lifelong one.
Ephesians 4:22-24 says,
Throw
off your old sinful nature, and your former way of life, which is corrupted by
lust and deception. Instead, LET the
Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.
Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and
holy.
When we come to Jesus, he starts the
process, as we LET him. He will not
force us. The Spirit checks me – I get a
twinge – when my thoughts and attitudes go down old paths. Then I can decide to turn around, and
refocus, to FIX MY MIND on the pure, the lovely, the things that are true, and
admirable.
Sometimes, though, I get stuck. My focus gets stuck in a bad spot, like, for
example, on an old hurt. And that brings
us to our first guardrail – there’s a word for getting stuck on an old wound, and
it’s grudge. Unforgiveness. It means I’ve fixed my thoughts on what someone
did to me, how they hurt me. And nursing
a grudge (in spite of the word ‘nursing’) does NOT speed healing – it keeps it
raw and ugly. Jesus says (Mark 11:25), “Forgive anyone you are holding a grudge
against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too.” Beth Moore says that holding something
against someone is to hold us to them.
Have I been forgiven. Then I must forgive. Colossians 3:13 says, “Forgive anyone who offends you.
Remember the Lord forgave you so you must forgive others.”
GUARDRAIL #2 I’m scraping (or maybe ricocheting off) the
guardrail when my mind and heart are full of anxiety, or worry. Let’s go back to Philippians 4:6.
Don’t
worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all
he has done.”
When I get stuck in worry, it’s almost
always over something that I have no control over. One of the kids is in a spot that could be
dangerous, and I can’t help. One is
facing a decision that has HUGE repercussions, and they don’t seem to see them
(at least not like I do). Or maybe I’m
worrying about what’s down the road.
When I’m here, I need to FIX MY THOUGHTS on Jesus – his love for me, his
power, his goodness, his grace, his provision, his mercy, his majesty, his
glory, his creation… Focusing on him puts my anxiety in perspective. My life is in his hands. I can trust him. Psalm 100:3, which will be up on the screen
in a few minutes, says, “Acknowledge (or
KNOW) that the Lord is God. He made us,
and WE ARE HIS. We are his people, the
sheep of his pasture.”
GUARDRAIL #3 James says in chapter 3, “The tongue is a flame of fire…it can set
your whole life on fire…” Jesus
tells us that the words we speak come from the heart, and that’s what gets us
into trouble. Are my words unkind, or
hurtful, or bitter? Are they
discouraging to others? Are they
misleading, or even untrue? GUARDRAIL
ALERT! I’m scraping! Sparks are flying!
Job 34:2-4
Listen to me, you wise men (and
women!). Pay attention, you who have
knowledge. Job said, “The ear tests the
words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.” So let us
discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.
Taste your words. Are they sweet? Have you found that sometimes you’re left with
a bad taste in your mouth from something you’ve said? Guardrail! I’ve gotten
myself in trouble when the taste was bad because of the attitude of my heart,
even though the words sounded good. The Holy Spirit can help us learn to sift
our words before they leave our mouths.
Another process! Think about a
young child – if you want to know what they think, just ask! They’ll tell you, in no uncertain terms. I remember being in McDonalds with the
kids. Stephen had our 3 year old in his
arms, and I was getting condiments and napkins (lots of ‘em). There was a large man standing in line right
in front of Stephen. Yep, right in front
of him. So our tactful 3 year old says –
loudly – “Daddy, look at that fat man with all the necklaces!!!” No filter there!
Just before we leave this guardrail, I want
to look with you for just a minute at that 4th verse of chapter 34
again. It says, “Let us learn
together…” That’s how we do this. That’s the church – learning from one
another, learning with one another. Forgiving
each other, praying for each other, growing together. That’s the church.
All of this – a new way of thinking,
leaving grudges behind, and anxiety, and bitter, grumbly speech – is impossible
without Jesus Christ. He offers us
transformation from the inside out. Not
redecorating – a complete renovation.
Not a tune-up – a total overhaul.
When we recognize how very much we need him, and accept his offer of
forgiveness and a new life, he adopts us as his children! Imagine!
This fatally flawed, weak person – loved, accepted and adopted into the
family of Almighty God. Amazing. I’ve been on this journey for most of my
life, and it still is just … amazing.
And did you know that you can KNOW? The disciples said to Jesus, We believe and we know you are the Holy One of
God. Jesus said, You will know the truth, and the truth will set
you free.
And Psalm 100:3 says Acknowledge (or KNOW) that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
He made us, and we are his. He will do this amazing work in us, if we
will allow him to do it.
If you don’t know for sure that you are
his…if you’ve never accepted the offer Jesus makes…if you’re stuck in the old
ways of thinking and acting…you can KNOW, you can be forgiven and transformed,
you can be FREE this morning.
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