A big fat holder in my filing cabinet, my office, and one of my drawers, that is a place where I keep different things that will be handy someday, hopefully, and have a whole file on Mother's Day stuff. I have old articles from newspaper clippings and all sorts of things that people have passed on to me, different sermons that my father and others have preached. I was a little comforted. I went and read through about half a dozen of my dad's Mother's Day sermons, and he preachers that are almost the same one every year, so. And one of the things that he often does is quote from a book by a woman by the name of Michelle Slung, and I can't even remember the title of it now, something about things that my mother used to say to me, Kim Allison, a couple years ago, sent me on the internet some of the statements that are in that book, says things my mother taught me, my mother taught you. If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me. My mother taught me medicine. If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going to freeze that way. My mother taught me to think ahead. If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job. My mother taught me ESP. Put your sweater on. Don't you think that I know when you're cold? My mother taught me to meet a challenge. What were you thinking? Answer me when I talked to you. Don't talk back to me. My mother taught me humor. That lawnmower cuts off your toes. Don't come running to me. My mother taught me how to become an adult. If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up. My mother taught me about genetics. You're just like your father. My mother taught me about my roots. Do you think you were born in a barn? My mother taught me about anticipation, just wait until your father gets home. And my all-time favorite thing, justice. One day you will have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you. So thank you, Kim, and thank you to my father and Michelle Slung, all of those who've passed those great bits of wisdom on to me throughout the years. There are a lot of other things at Filed. One of the things that my father also does almost every year is give a tribute to my mother, which I did a little earlier, but I'd like to talk a little bit about my wife this morning and what she means to me and what it means to me to have her as the mother of my children. I unfortunately dated a large number of girls before I met my wife. And some of them didn't quite meet her because they just didn't seem to have the same love for God that I had. Some of them didn't meet standard because they didn't want to have the same number of kids that I wanted to have. And some of them didn't quite measure up because they wanted to have a lot more things and a lot more money than they knew I was going to provide for them. And I can remember very clearly the summer before I met Filed, writing to my parents a postcard. I was 27 years old and frustrated with being single. And I wrote a postcard in the month of July and I said to my parents, I just wish God would send me a girl who loves him with all her heart, who loves children and who doesn't mind being poor. And within a matter of months, God brought Fyllis into my life. She was only 19 years old when I asked her out on our first date. I was 27 and I was ready to settle down. And I'd had all the fun I wanted to have and I didn't care if she'd had it or not. I wanted to get married then. So many ways she gave up some of the fun that I had had to settle down as it were if you could ever be settled down being married to me and to immediately begin raising what most people in society today consider an ordinantly large family. Not only that, she has been willing to take on other children as you have seen recently. And the thing that I appreciate most, well, I don't know, most, but one of the things I appreciate so much about her is her flexibility and the fact that she is so unflappable. She has to be, to be married to me, but she also makes life in our home of joy. I know a number of families where there is a lot of tension if there's dirt or clutter or chaos. And so the family lives in tension a lot of the time. And I'm grateful to God because our house is very, very stress-free. It may be cluttered, it may be chaotic, but it's a home of joy. And I give my wife the credit for that, and I give glory to God for her. But in my big file of Mother's Day sermons, there are enough traditional things that you'll find. Things that we've actually hit on already in the service. We begin by looking at the Heidelberg Catechism response to the question on the fifth commandment. And quite often you'll hear Mother's Day sermons about honoring your mother from Exodus chapter 20. We also read for our scripture lesson this morning from Proverbs chapter 31, it's quite appropriate to have a Mother's Day sermon from that text describing a wife of noble character. As I went through my dad's sermons, I found quite often he would focus on a particular biblical mother in the way God had used her in the life of her children. I think of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, Jocke of Ed, the mother of Moses, and Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, I think of Lois and Eunice, the grandmother and mother of Timothy, who taught him the scriptures and set an example of faith, and it's appropriate to look at mothers like that as examples for ourselves on Mother's Day. But I came across a sermon in my files, preached by Tim Keller, a PCA pastor in New York City, and he was a professor at Westminster Seminary for a while, and he had a very interesting Mother's Day sermon, and I decided to borrow his outline this morning, it was interesting because Ron Scheer came up to me before the service, said, I see you're being a little less controversial this morning, I've been in trouble the last several weeks, some of my revelation sermons with some of you, and he said, it's good to see you're doing a Mother's Day thing and it's nice and easy and less controversial, well, the topic of my sermon this morning is learning how to hate your mother. Turn with me, if you will, to Luke chapter 14 and let me read to you verses 25 through 27. See if I can get myself in any more trouble. Luke 14 verses 25 through 27. Large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them, he said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I ask this morning as we look into your word as we look at this passage from Luke's gospel, the message of the Lord Jesus to the crowd that was following him that day, and the message that it is for us, I pray that you would open our eyes, open our hearts that we might see, that we might understand the truth, that we might be drawn into a closer deeper and more loving relationship with you this morning. I pray that if there are any here who don't yet know Christ, that today would be a day of salvation. Father God, I pray that your word would go forth in power, that it would not return void, but that you would accomplish everything you intend by it. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. That controversial Mother's Day sermon topic, learning to hate your mother, I can't imagine getting any more trouble than I've been in, then coming up with a sermon title like that on Mother's Day, learning to hate your mother. But is that what Jesus was really saying in that text? Is that what the intent of Christ was as he talked to the crowds that day who were following after him as Luke recounts the story for us? There are several things that I think we can learn from this passage of Scripture this morning that are particularly appropriate for us on Mother's Day, on any day, because every day we need to be about the work of following after Christ. First of all, I think we can see from the text very clearly that following after Christ is not optional. Looking after Christ is not something that we can pick up when we feel like it and leave it aside at others. It is something that is required of all who would know and love the Lord Jesus. It's interesting, when we look at the context again, it says right at the very beginning of verse 12, there were large crowds that were following him. We might say, I can understand Jesus saying to his disciples, those who are going to be the ones who would go out and do the work of the kingdom and establish the church and be the messengers of Christ to the world, that they should hate their fathers, mothers, brothers, even their own lives in order to accomplish this great task that Christ had given them. But he didn't single out the disciples when he said this. He spoke to the large crowds. He turned all of them and he turns to everyone in the world. He turns to us today and says, you have to make a choice. There is no option. You can't have it one way or the other. You can't be sort of committed. You have to be totally committed to me. You see, quite often, we fall into the trap of thinking, well, we'll pick up a relationship with Christ when we get a little older in our lives. When we've had a chance to do some of the things we want to do, or when we're old and facing death, then maybe we'll consider following after Christ. We might be the ones who think, I know the scriptures, I know the stories of Christ, I know about Jesus and His claims, and I believe those things, but this radical Christianity is not really for me. I trust and believe in Christ, but I'm not going to go whole hog with this hating your father, mother, sister, brother, even my own life in order to follow after him. And I'm just going to count on the fact that if I nominally follow after him and have a belief in him that I'll somehow sneak in the back door of the kingdom, Christ is calling all of those in the crowds that day, calling us to a radical commitment to him. Jesus is saying in this passage that he must come before any other relationship in our life, that he must come before any other thing in our life. If we're going to truly know and love the Lord Jesus, then everything else must take a second place. And I think that leads us to the second point, that following Christ is an emotional thing. We've been talking about this in the book of Revelation about the emotional response that we see of the worshipers in heaven. And I think that's why Jesus chose the words that he used that day. He used a powerful emotional word like hate, because it's an emotional response. Now when we examine the text and when we look at Jesus' teaching and we recount the things that he said throughout the scriptures, no one seriously believes that Jesus was saying to the crowds, to his disciples, to us today, that you must literally, actively hate your father, your mother, your sister, your brothers, even your own life. We can easily see that's not true. As we go through the scriptures and we read the commands of Christ and we see his own example, the way that he loves his own mother, the way that he challenged us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor how, as yourself. He wasn't teaching self-hatred, he wasn't teaching hatred of family and these things, but when we look at the semetic usage of the language there, there are two different ways that a word can be used like that. There can be the use of the word hatred in an active way that you actively hate someone, that your emotions and your feelings towards them are powerfully against them in every way. But you can also use a word like that in a comparative fashion. When you compare your love towards a particular individual with another, the love for this one seems like hate when compared to the other one. There's a good example of that in Genesis 29. We don't see it so clearly in the NIV because it's translated differently. In the King James, though, I think they get it right, when they're describing the relationship that Jacob had with Rachel and Leah. In Genesis 39, in Genesis 39, you read it in the King James version and I think accurately it's translated. It talks about how the Lord blessed Leah with children because she was hated, that Jacob hated her and it talked about the great love that he had for Rachel. But did it really mean that Jacob hated his wife? The wife that he bore so many children with, the wife that was given to him by his father in law, David? We know that that's not true because later on in the text, actually, I think it's earlier in Genesis 29, it talks about Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leah. It was a comparative love and when you looked at the love that Jacob had for Leah, it paled so in comparison to the love that he had for Rachel that it could be seen as hatred because it was so insignificant to the love that he had for Rachel. It's almost like the way that we view the stars in the daytime. Where do the stars go at daytime? They're right there. We're going to go outside right now. All the stars that we see at night would be there right now, but we wouldn't be able to see them. Why? Because of the great star, the sun, and because of the overwhelming light of the sun, all other stars pale in comparison to that great light. The light of the other stars hasn't disappeared, but in comparison to the light of the sun, it's as if it were nothing. That's the heart of the emotional language that Jesus is using there when he addresses the crowd, when he addresses the disciples, you have to have such an emotional, real and passionate love for me that all of your other loves pale in comparison. Jesus isn't talking about ordering our priorities. He's not saying, if you really want to be my disciple, follow after my teachings. Put into practice the sermon on the Mount. Do the things that I do. Take care of the poor. Respond to those in need. Jesus is saying, if you're going to be one of my disciples, if you're going to follow after me, you need to have such an emotional, powerful, real love for me, that everything else fades into insignificant. Again, when we examine the teachings of Christ, when we look at His life, we know that He wants us to love our mothers and our fathers. He wants us to love our siblings. He wants us to love those around us. This is a second commandment. Love the Lord your guide with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbors. Love everyone else as you love yourself. Show the love of Christ. But when you compare it to the love you have for me, it should be so insignificant that it almost seems to be hatred. I think the third thing we can see in the text this morning is that following Christ, loving Christ is a positional thing. It's a positional thing. When we look at what He says in verse 27, He says, anyone who does not carry His cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. What is He talking about there when He says, carry your cross, follow after me, take up your cross? He's saying, the minute that you become a Christian, you are positionally identified with me in my death. Jesus is not saying like we said before, do certain things, so certain commandments, look to my example and be my disciple. He's saying, positionally, become like I am. Take up your cross, be identified with me in my death. You see the moment that we become a Christian, the moment that we put our faith in our trust in Christ, we die. We die with Him. And when God looks at us, when God looks down at Paul Warren, when God looks down at you, He sees you as having 100% pay the penalty that you deserve. He looks at you and He sees Christ. He sees Christ slaying. He identifies with you, having taken up the cross. The cross is the emblem of death. It's the emblem of suffering and pain and death, and when we take up our cross, it's not that we're going and doing things and becoming something, it's that positionally we are identified with Jesus. We identify with Him in His death. Paul put it this way in Colossians chapter 3, verses 2 and 3, He said, set your mind on things above. Not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Jesus is saying, love me in response to what I have made you, in response to the death that I will die for you. Take up your cross and positionally identify with me in my death. And then when God looks at you, He sees you having paid the penalty because I've already paid it for you. Because when He looks at you, He sees me. He sees my death and He sees my righteousness. That's what it means to take up the cross at Christ. It doesn't mean go out there and gut it out, live the sermon on the mount, do all the things that the Scriptures tell you to do, and then you might make it to heaven. It means be identified with Christ in His death. And that's the only hope you have. We all deserve death. We all deserve to pay the penalty for our sins. Scriptures tell us the wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And all we have to do is identify with Him in that. Take up our cross, recognize that it's His death, His cross, that makes us right with God. Not anything that we can do ourselves. And then when we get a hold of this truth, if you can somehow get a hold of that truth in your life, that it's not the things you do, it's not who you are, it's not where you were born, it's not what your mother or father is. It's who you are in Christ, positionally, that makes you right with God. It's because of His cross and His death that you can be called a son, a daughter, a child of God. If you can somehow get a hold of that, it's going to cause you to love Christ in such a way that all of the loves will pay on comparison. Your love for your mother and your father, love for your mother, is there any greater love that a human being who does not know Christ can experience than the love we have for a mother? Christ isn't asking us to change that. He's just saying, love me in such a way that that love fails in significance. That's the challenge to us this morning. Love Christ in that way. A radical sermon title, hate your mother. Go home and tell your friends and neighbors that. They're going to go, I don't know about that habit place, but let me say something to you this morning. Just a few years ago, I preached from 3 John, verse 4. The passage that John says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. If you're here this morning and you're a mother, if you've had a child, if you have a mother, there is no greater joy that you should have an experience than to know that your children are walking in the truth. There's no greater joy for you than to hear your children say, I hate my mother, in comparison to my love for Christ. My love for Christ outshines even the love that I have for my mother. I came across this week, it's from John Flavalle, an English Puritan, and he wrote it over 300 years ago. He had just to say, talking about mothers. As they longed for us before they had us and rejoiced in us when they had us so they could not endure to think that when they could have us no more, the devil should. As they thought, no pains, care, or cost too much for our bodies to feed them, clothe and heal them, so they did not think no prayers, councils, or tears too much for our souls that they might be saved. They knew a parting time would come between them and us and did strive to make it as easy and comfortable to them as they could by leaving us in Christ and within the blessed bond of his covenant. They were not glad that we had health and indifferent, whether we had grace, they felt the miseries of our souls as much as of our bodies, and nothing was more desirable to them than that they might say in the great day. Lord, here I am, and the children which thou hast given me. May it be so. May it be so that one day our mothers and our fathers will be able to stand before the judgment throne and say, Lord, here I am, and the children you have given me. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, let our love for anything else in this world, whether it be our parents, whether it be our children, whether it be our siblings, friends, our job, our possessions, whatever it may be. Let it pale in comparison to the love that we have for you. Stir within our hearts a passion and a desire for you today. Lord, we do thank you for our mothers. We thank you for that have given us birth and given us life by your grace. We pray that you would bless them today and we pray, Heavenly Father, that the desire of their heart would be true, that their children would stand with them in glory one day, giving praise and honor to your holy name. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Let's stand together in closing, sing wonderful hymn of the faith, how firm a foundation is. On the inside of your bulletins in the middle on page 7, let's stand and sing.