Family

Once again, welcome to Shepherds Gate. We’re so glad that you’re here. My name is Tim. I get the privilege of being one of the pastors here, and we recognize that we do have a lot of guests with us today. You are probably here because you love a particular woman in your life. And she said that she wanted you to come to church with her on Mother’s Day. Or maybe you’re streaming in online, so we are just so glad that you’re here. We hope you can stick around after the service. As Adrian said, we got some really cool special treats for the moms and photo booth. To be able to capture today’s moment and have that as a memory for many years to come. We’ve been in a series of messages called The Faces of God, and we’ve been looking at the way that God uses people in our lives for our benefit. And so he surrounds us in communities. He puts us even in schools and places of work. And everyone has the ability to be used by God, because God is always the one orchestrating the events of our lives, even when we don’t realize it, even when we can’t see it because of how much that he loves us.

And so the way that we’ve been defining it is this is that first and foremost, we recognize what it is that God has done for us through His Son, Jesus. And by sending Jesus to this earth, that when we look to Jesus and we see the teachings of Jesus, and we see what Jesus has ultimately done through his death and resurrection, that we see God. In fact, Jesus said that if you have seen me, you have seen the father. And so seeing the invisible God is possible by looking to Jesus. He’s the one that saves us. He’s the one that restores us. And then likewise, how he puts us in communities and not just communities. He’s put us in families. And so what do you think we’re going to be focusing on today? Families. Families, and specifically who in the family mask? Good. So we all know why we’re here this morning. Great. Now often times on Mother’s Day you tell me if this isn’t true. I feel like we focus on like the nice parts of moms.

They’re sweet, they’re kind, they’re loving, they’re nurturing. They can do no wrong. They’re perfect in every way. Hallmark cards, flowers, maybe a balloon or two sits down about right today. What I want to focus on is the ferocious nature of a woman. Aren’t you glad you came to Shepherds Gate? I want to focus on the real, true heart of a woman. That when a woman is challenged or a woman is provoked, or you mess with one of her cub bears, you better believe those nails that look all nice and painted all of a sudden become claws, and they’re ready to rip your head off. How does that sound? This morning? Now, just a few weeks ago, my wife and I found herself in the principal’s room at my kid’s school. My oldest son, eighth grader, just a few more weeks, he’s just got to get through a few more weeks, and he’ll be off to high school. And for the first time in his academic career, going all the way back to preschool.

Mind you, we have never, ever, ever had to be called in to the principal’s office or to a teacher’s classroom to deal with to deal with a disciplinary issue for him. And here we find ourselves around a round table with the principal and his teacher, and our son is there, and it’s me and my wife. And can I just tell you that it took everything within me to restrain my wife from leaping over that table and strangling that teacher? I saw a side of my wife that none of you ever see or even believe exists. You guys look at my wife and you think, she’s so sweet. She’s so kind. She’s so loving. You don’t understand how Italian this woman really is. And when Mama Bear is poked, I go into hiding. I literally will find the closet in her house that locks from the inside. Because I’m not messing. Or when she’s in that mode. Especially if you mess with one of our kids. How many moms you associate that you understand that this one.

Okay, see, you ain’t getting a sweet, all kind Mother’s Day message today. You’re getting something a little bit different. And that’s what I want you to look at as we go through this text. Now, our church, if you didn’t know, spent two and a half years going through the book of Genesis. We actually just ended just before Holy Week, and we actually asked the congregation, would you please vote and tell us what book of the Bible you would like to go through next as a community? Faith here at Shepherd’s Gate. And our congregation overwhelmingly voted and approved to go through the Book of Exodus. And so we’re going to be starting Exodus January of 2026. But I want to give you just a taste this morning, because I know there’s a lot of guests here, and I want to give you a taste of how we do things here at Shepherd’s Gate, because we really want you to come back. We would love for you not just to come on Christmas and Easter or Christmas.

Easter. And today we’d love for you to come back in a few weeks and go and help us serve our community. We actually would love for you to come back about a month from now and come to our Father’s Day service, which is a really cool outdoor Father’s Day service. We just secured our guest speaker, he’s going to be the chaplain for the Detroit Tigers. And so we’re going to have a whole baseball theme again this year. It’s going to be absolutely awesome. We really believe that God has something special for you, not just on these special holidays, but every Sunday of the year. And all the moms said, Amen. So let’s look at our text this morning. It comes out of Exodus chapter one. God’s people, the Israelites are making lots of babies. So there’s a big baby boom at this time in the history of Israel. And honestly, I feel like that’s kind of like what’s been happening here at Shepherds Gate. Did you notice there’s just a lot of babies all over the place?

I mean, you can barely go down the hallway without getting run into by a stroller. I mean, it’s kind of isn’t that an awesome blessing to have? So all of you that are still in that phase keep making the babies okay. Keep growing this church with babies. We love babies. Let’s have baptisms all day every day. We absolutely love what God is doing in this place. Well, unfortunately there’s a new king that comes to power and he doesn’t like the fact that these people are increasing in number. He doesn’t like that all these babies are being born. And the reason is, is because he likes being a dictator and he likes being in power. And he’s worried that if too many of them are born, that they might form an allegiance with one of their enemies, and then all of a sudden they would take over his rule and he wouldn’t enjoy the lifestyle that he has. I mean, it’s kind of nice to be the dictator and and have everybody underneath you and to be able to do whatever you want and have access to whatever you want.

And so he comes up with this idea that he should oppress these people. So he goes and finds slave masters. He trains them and tells them to force the Israelites into hard labor. He doesn’t want them just to hear it. He’s going to show it by making them work tirelessly, and in so doing, he enslaves them and he treats them horribly. And he’s hoping by doing this that their morale will be reduced. And if you can shrink the morale of a group of people, maybe they’ll just give up and say, there’s nothing worth living for anymore. Why would we keep making babies? We should just stop. And so this was kind of his first attempt at population control. Now, aren’t you glad that we live in a society that doesn’t have to deal with this kind of stuff anymore? Aren’t you glad there’s no more ruthless dictators on our planet that only care about themselves, and all they want to do is further their own agenda? Aren’t you glad there’s world peace now?

Crazy that thousands of years later, we’re still dealing with the same exact thing that’s dealing with at this time? Here’s what’s so remarkable is that when God makes a promise, God figures out a way to fulfill it. Even if there’s difficulty, even if there’s hardships. And God had promised his people that you will be fruitful, that you will increase in number, that you will eventually subdue the earth. They just didn’t understand what they had to go through to get to that point. And so they’re in some of the most difficult and hardest parts of this whole process. Well, when you realize that forcing them into hard labor doesn’t work, his next thought in process is to go talk to just the Hebrew midwives. So he finds that the Israel midwives and he says, hey, here’s the plan. When you’re helping a woman give birth, if it’s a baby boy, you kill them. But if it’s a girl, you let her live. I mean, can you imagine being a midwife at this time and being told this, knowing that he’s a ruthless dictator, knowing that your life hangs in the balance and he has the power to just kill you and have no consequences to it, and having to carry this burden of like knowing how precious children are, how much you love kids, what are you supposed to do?

Are you supposed to be like, well, these aren’t my kids, and these aren’t my families, that there are people that are connected to me and I really want to just take care of myself. So he’s the dictator. He’s the ruler. I guess I should do what he says to do. Or are you going to stand for what you know is morally the right thing to do? And this is what I would submit to you, is when fear and faith are put to the test. Sometimes life throws circumstances at us that we don’t always know what to do. You may have been in a situation, or maybe in your situation right now, in your place of work, and someone that’s an authority over you is trying to make you or say or get you to do something that you know is morally wrong. But in the back of your mind, you know that if you do that, if you don’t do what they’re telling you to do, there could be ramifications on you, and it could even cost your job or your livelihood.

And so you’re living in this tension between, man, I know what the right thing to do is, and I and I want to know and believe that God is watching over and that he’s going to provide for me. But at the same time, I’ve invested so much over here. And if I don’t do it just this way and I jeopardize a relationship with this person in authority over me, then maybe my life isn’t going to turn out the way that I want it to turn out. Or maybe they’re all these new hardships are going to come into my life, and all of us struggle with this. All of us have had those moments all throughout our life. If you think about it, when you have been put to the test, when I have been put to the test, and what’s so important is that we always go back and remember who God is, that he is sovereign, that he is on the throne, and even in some of the darkest circumstances, somehow now he has the ability to work for our good in those situations.

Look what happens in the account, the midwives, they actually feared God. They didn’t do what the king told them to do. They let the boys live. And when he found out about it, he summons them. He brings them all back together and look at their response. This is so cool how they respond to him when he’s questioning them. You don’t understand Pharaoh. Hebrew women are not like these Egyptian women. They are vigorous and they give birth before we even get to their house. What do you think? That’s an awesome answer. Are they lying? You sure? Just a little white lie. 50%. 25%. I mean, think of what’s going on in this text and even having the foreknowledge or the ability, knowing their lies are on the line, to be able to have this interaction with him. See, there’s some times when faith has to move from being a feeling to actually being put into action. And sometimes the action is saying no, sometimes the action is turning down the deal because you know, the person that you’re about to make the deal with is not in the best of intentions, or that there’s something that’s just not right about what’s about to take place. Sometimes it’s not worth making the extra dollar. Amen.

Because somehow, even in our view of what we see before us, that God in his mighty way is able to cause things to happen that are beyond our human comprehension. And again, he’s always working for our good. Well, this was the result of them refusing to do what he said and taking the moral high ground. God was kind to them, and because they feared God, God gave them families of their own. So they went from fearing for their own lives to helping others save their families. And as a result, God bless them even more than they probably could have even imagined at that time. Now, when Pharaoh realized he wasn’t getting anywhere by enslaving them and make them work hard when he realized he wasn’t getting anywhere with the midwives, he’s now going to expand his reach, and he gets his entire kingdom involved in this insane slaughter of human lives. He tells all the people, not just the midwives now, all the people, all the Egyptians, that every time you see a Hebrew boy, take them, rip him out of his mother’s arms and throw him into the Nile.

But every girl you can let live. And this is such an unbelievably difficult text to read. It makes your stomach turn because you’re just so, you know, frustrated by the fact that there’s a God in heaven and these are his people and they’re already at the at the bottom of society, they’re already enslaved. Why doesn’t he step down to earth? Why doesn’t he intervene? Some of you maybe you’re here today and you’re saying, see, this is why I don’t come to church. This is why, you know, mom, grandma, pastor, whatever I I’ll come on. Christmas will come on. Easter will come on Mother’s Day. But it’s this kind of stuff. If there is such a loving God and he’s sovereign, why does he still allow innocent people to suffer? Why did he allow innocent people to suffer during this time? Why is he still allowing innocent people to suffer now? And I can tell you this for those of us who love Jesus, who are part of the local community on a, on a, on a regular basis, we to ask those questions.

We ask the why God questions God. Why does this have to keep going on? Why does humanity never have the ability to figure this out? Why can’t we have world peace? Why can’t we all just get along? And then we open our Bibles and we realize it’s a result of sin. We go all the way back to Genesis, the beginning, and we realize that through Adam and Eve, sin was brought into the world. And part of that, yes, is innocent lives being lost. And there’s time and time again throughout the scriptures where where people lose their lives, people that that really, in our mind view, did nothing wrong. And yet God seems to just allow it to take place. And even though we don’t have all of the answers and sometimes we get frustrated or sometimes we, we don’t understand the mind of God or what he is up to. We also can see that God is always at work, that somehow God is always weaving a plan that’s out of our own human understanding. And that’s what he’s doing in this text.

When our world goes dark and hopeless, these are the times that we get on our knees. These are the times that we lean into God even more. These are the times when we cry out to him, because here’s going to be his answer for what is going on with his people. There’s a Levi, and he’s a man of the tribe of Levi, and he marries a Levi woman, and she becomes pregnant and she gives birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. Now, a couple things this term in here. Fine child’s very specific. In fact, in the original language that was written, the words that are used here is that his mom knew something was special about him. She knew that that God had destined this child for something more than than what she even knew in her time. I would also submit to you today, moms, grandmas that are in here. I don’t think there’s a woman on the planet that’s birthed a child and looks down at that child and doesn’t think the child is a fine child. Amen.

Every one of you, when that kid is handed to you, you look at that kid and your mind instantly goes to their future, instantly goes to what you hope and dream for their future. I give you an example. When God blessed us with our first child, he was about a year old and we were at a wedding together, and so we had someone that was babysitting and watching him. And weddings pretty much run the same way, right? You go to the ceremony, you go to the reception, at the reception you eat, and then following the the meal, there’s always the special dances. And so there’s always, you know, the father of the bride, and the bride gets to go first and then now it’s been kind of cool in our culture, because you always have the groom and his mom and all the moms that have boys. You really like this, right? Amen. And so here we are. We’re circled around the dance floor because we know this couple well.

And the the groom goes and gets his mom, and she brings him out into the middle of the dance floor and they begin to dance together. And I’m looking at my watch going, okay, this should take about 2.5 minutes and then we can, you know, I’ll go back because that’s just how it is. It’s just how the normal process is. And I look over at my wife in tears are streaming down her face, and I said to her what every good Christian husband would say to his wife, which is exactly what Jesus said to Mary. On the day of the resurrection. Woman. Why are you crying? And she looks back at me and she’s like, you know, Stan, I’m like, understand why we got like, another minute and a half we can start. I know you love dancing. Can you just be patient? We’re not that far off. She’s like, you don’t understand. Because in her mind, she could already see our one year old on the dance floor. She was already dancing with our son, and she in her head. And her heart was not prepared for that moment.

She’s going to do whatever she can to cherish every single moment that she would have from our son. And here we see this. Not only is he a fine child, but she hit him for three months. How do you hide a kid for three months? What? Well, I mean, it’s nuts. Like, how do you win the world? But it shows you the warrior heart of a woman. And I mean the sleepless nights that this lady must have gone through or whatever. You know, things that she had to do as she saw soldiers coming in and Egyptians coming in and moving them from here, there in the other place. Well, finally she gets to a point where she realizes she can’t hide him any longer. And so the only thing that she can think of to do, because she is trying to continue to save his life, is she gets a basket, she coats it with tar and pitch. She places this child that she’s nursed for the last three months in it, and she places him in the exact same place that other kids were ripped out of their mom’s arms and thrown in and killed.

Why is she doing this? Is she hoping for just one more day, for one more hour of his life, to be spared? She did everything she could up to this point, and now she had no other choice. She had to let go, and she had to trust God. And what’s so cool about this account is it’s got a big sister, and the big sister obviously was in on the big family secret, and she’s watching all of this unfold. In fact, she’s standing at a distance. And wouldn’t you know, here’s where you can see God at work. Here’s where you can see God orchestrating all of the events that are taking place. Because at the same time, Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to the same place to bathe, and she happens to be there with her posse, with her attendants. And they see the basket. She specifically sees the basket and tells them to go and retrieve it. And so they bring this basket to her. She opens it and she sees that there’s a baby inside.

He’s crying, which is what babies do. And as he’s crying, all of a sudden her heart begins to mount. She begins to feel for this child, and even in this moment, she recognizes that this is one of the Hebrew babies. Incredible. I believe in the heart of every woman. There is this innate desire to take care of children. There is this deep down desire to want to protect even kids that aren’t their own. I mean, think about this. Think of a way that God is working in this account through all of the different women he’s working through the baby sister. He’s working through Pharaoh’s daughter, he’s working through Pharaoh’s attendu and slave. In our text today, what was so fascinating is the sister sees all of this taking place, and she belongs to Pharaoh’s daughter. And she says to her, shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you again? Isn’t this genius? She doesn’t go, wait, wait wait wait.

That’s my little baby brother. Okay, wait wait wait. I know who his mom is. Somehow she had the mental fortitude to know, like, I can’t. I can’t tell her everything. But I can tell her something. And that maybe this is going to help save my baby brother. Pharaoh’s daughter tells her to go. And so that’s what big sister does. She goes and she finds Mom and Pharaoh’s daughter. Look at this. Take this baby. I want you to nurse him for me, and I will pay you. You imagine being the mom, probably bawling your eyes out back at your house, thinking this is the end of your young son’s life, that you got three months longer than a lot of the ladies that were in your community at this time. And here. I mean, her head must have just been spinning like wheat. What’s going on? You want me to nurse this kid, but you don’t know I’m the mom, and you’re going to pay me to nurse my own kid.

Let me talk about the sovereignty of God. Talk about the way that God can work beyond our own human understanding. And so that’s exactly what she did. And now we can see that God is working through the face of his own mom. We’ll see the child grew older. And so when he was old enough, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter. And this must have been difficult because he becomes Pharaoh’s daughter’s son, and Pharaoh’s daughter is the one who gets to name him. She calls him Moses because I drew him out of the water. So his identity from this day forward is always going to be known by the fact that he was taken out of the water, that his life was saved on that day. Now women in the room. How long does a kid nurse for? How many years? I had a dad say at the last service when they’re done eating. Okay, so. And I asked for the women to respond, so I don’t know, he wasn’t paying attention. So, ladies, how long like, what is it? One year, two year, three year. Can we.

Three years. Does that seem right? For okay. For let’s land on three. If you knew you had a hand your child over at three years old, what would you make sure that you instilled in them? How many kisses would be on that kid’s forehead? What kind of whispers would be in that kid’s ear? What kind of prayers would be said over that precious child, knowing that you’ve already been through this mental trauma and torture? Once when you put him in the river and now you know the day is coming, when you’re going to have to hand them over and somebody else is going to be called mom, and somebody else is going to lead and guide him into some of the most pivotal times in his life. Here’s what’s so fascinating about this account. In Scripture, you can see the heart of a mom that loved him enough to make the basket, not even fully understanding what that entailed. Having completely trust God with his future, she had to have faith enough to let him go, not just once, but twice.

To trust that somehow that this was part of God’s plan for his life. Can I ask you moms this morning that I’ve had the opportunity to do this? Why is it that when we take our kids to preschool now, mind you, it’s not even all day, every day? Most preschools are like for an hour, and the first time you take your kid to that preschool class and hands a child over to another person, another adult to teach them, you turn around and you go back to your car, and what do you do? That’s three in a row at the services this week. And why are you crying? Why are you crying? Some of you are like, man, I can’t wait to get rid of my three year old. There is something within the heart of every woman that. That it’s just so hard to let them go. That you want to be the one that imprints on them, that you want to be the one that continues to love and influence them. I was going back through previous Mother’s Day messages that we’ve done here at Shepherds Gate, and there’s been several over the years where I convinced my wife to join me.

And so she would come up and say a few things and walk through the Scripture with me. And I found all the way back Mother’s Day 2016, and we actually had the film crew here at Shepherds Gate. They do an incredible job making videos for us. They actually came to our house. And so there was a video of them talking to Lisa, and I found it, and I completely forgot that we had made the video. And so this was in the other room and I said, Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, you got to come in here, you got to come in here. You I really want to show you this. This is going to this is going to be so awesome. You’re going to love this. And she’s like, what? What? What am I about to watch? I said, don’t ask questions. Just watch. You are going to be blessed by this. And so I pressed play on the video. And our kids are really small.

Get two boys are really small at the time and they have the little kid voice still, and I’m just in the moment watching her talk about her relationship with her boys. And I look over and she’s sobbing and again I say, woman, why are you crying? This isn’t this is amazing. Don’t you love this? Don’t you love that? We have this and we can watch this. She goes, what is wrong with you? Don’t. Do you not love me? This is torture. Why are you torturing me? Because in her mind, all she could think about was how many days she had laughed and how desperately she wanted to go back to that time in their life. I want you to think about it, parents. Those of you that had to take your kid to high school and watch them walk through the doors of a high school and turn around and go back to your car and trust that they’re going to be okay in that high school. How many of you parents you’ve had to hand over the keys to the car when they get their driver’s license and they reverse out of the driveway, and now you’re going to send them into the crazy world of Metro Detroit.

And worry and panic sets in. How many of you you’ve had to do this at the college dorm, where you drop them off their freshman year and you give them one last hug? I still remember when my parents dropped me off in Minneapolis and my dad shook my hand and he said, well, you’re 18 years old. You’re a man now. Good luck. And I remember my mom coming up and hugging me for longer than she should have. You know what I’m talking about. And I’m like, okay, it’s time. It’s time. And just watching tears flow down her cheeks and my dad calling me up a week later, he said, do you realize your mom cried all the way from Minneapolis? All the way back to Detroit? And I said, well, I guess she’s your problem now, Ryan. Here’s the so beautiful about it is that heart, that love, that compassion is a reflection of our Heavenly Father. Ladies, the reason you think the way that you do, the reason that you have the heart that you do, is because you are manifesting the heart of our God.

He’s wired you and equipped you to do exactly what you do. And we know it’s tough. We know sometimes it can get just so overwhelm and you become so fatigued at this role to this day. Now my kids are sixth grade in eighth grade, right? We’re getting ready to send our kid to high school for the first time. I might even shed a tear this fall. I mean, wait for it. We’ll see what happens. But it’s crazy how fast time goes. And every single time that my wife can’t sleep at night, like, we’ll wake up together the next morning and she’ll turn over and should be like, how did you sleep? And I always say, do you really want to know? Do you really want me to answer honestly? She’s like, yeah, I want I slept great. She’s like, oh, she gets all mad. And I was like, what’s the matter? Like, I didn’t sleep at all. I couldn’t stop thinking about this and this and this and this. And it’s always related to the kids. And she’s like, why do you sleep so well?

I was like, number one, I’m not wired the way that you are. But number two, you trust God. Me. And he gave us these beautiful kids. We’ve been raising him up to this point and he hasn’t failed us. Now, how is he going to fail us in the future? I love your heart and I love that you will do anything. That you will fight for our kids, that you will make sure that they have a great childhood and that they have everything that they could possibly need. But equally, what is important is that we make sure that we realize that God is at work, that God is the one that loves our kids even more than we do, and he surrounds us in communities, and he puts us in families to nurture and to help us grow. I can tell you this I’m so thankful for our school teachers.

I’m so thankful for our extended family and for our neighbors and all the people that God has placed in our life. You know, it takes a village to raise a child these days. But I’m also thankful for the local church. I’m thankful that we have a place that we can come to, that we can invest in each other and pray for each other and encourage each other and go through these milestones together, because that was God’s plan for his church. That’s how we support each other. That’s how we pray for each other, and that’s how we encourage each other until that day that either we pass away or Jesus comes back once and for all. Amen. So let me leave you with this final verse today. Ladies in the room particularly lean into this, but it really is for all of us.

We know that in all things, all things good and bad, that God is the one that is at work and he’s at work for our good because we love him, because he loves us, and because we have been called according to his purpose. God is at work and God will see us through. He will see you through as a woman and as a mom, and as a nurturer and a caregiver. And you can trust that God is at work in your kids life and your grandkids life, and he will see them through to the very end. Amen. Will you by your heads and close your eyes with me this morning? Heavenly father, I thank you. For your amazing grace and mercy. God, that is you that has placed us in families. It is you that has surrounded us with women, godly women to pray for us, to nurture us, to care for us. But God, this morning we also recognize you and what it is that you have done for us through your Son Jesus. That you, God, are the one that place Jesus on that cross that you two had to let go and give up your son so that you could restore the relationship that was broken in the garden.

That God, through his sacrifice. Through the pay, the price that he paid, that God. Now you have restored your family, which is us as your children. So God, this morning, thank you again for reminding us that even in the most difficult circumstances, and even the times when we don’t fully comprehend what’s going on, we can know and trust that you are at work. And the reason that you’re at work is because you love us and you’re constantly drawing us to yourself. So, God, thank you. Thank you for saving us. And thank you for making us part of your family. We pray all these things in your most holy and precious name. Amen.