There Is Hope for a Tree. At the Scent of Water It Will Bud Again

Sermon outline

A mother sees by faith what nobody else can see in her child, and whatever has happened to that child there is hope: pour the water of the word into their life, because at the scent of water the tree will bud again.

1. By faith they saw, and they were not afraid

   Moses' parents hid him for three months because they saw he was a beautiful and divinely favoured child, and because they saw, they were not afraid of the king's decree. They moved by what faith let them see.

   “So by faith they saw, and because they saw, they were not afraid.”

   • Hebrews 11:23

2. A mother is the first

   Your mother is the first to carry you and the first to communicate with you; she feels what the father cannot feel. She is one of the first hands to touch you, to wipe your first tear and to see your first breath, and your greatest cheerleader because she sees potential in you that you do not see yourself.

   Illustration: When he wondered why his children spoke more to their mother, the Lord told him they had been speaking to her since conception. At school athletics, if the other mothers were louder, his mother would come to the edge of the track, roll up her skirt and run the race with him, and at twelve or thirteen he begged her to stay in the crowd.

   “The mother sees potential in you that you don't see yourself.”

3. By faith she hid him, and by faith she let him go

   Moses' character was moulded by his mother's faith. By faith she hid him, and by the same faith she placed him on the crocodile infested Nile and set his sister to watch. What she imparted to her daughter was that God had given a word and was watching over it, and God reconnected mother and child when she became his nurse in Pharaoh's house.

   “God gave us a word, and God is watching over his word, so you stay there and you watch over the word because this word is coming to fulfillment.”

   • Exodus 2:1-10

4. Your first nurse prayed you through

   Nobody trained her, yet your mother was your first nurse, there for the first plaster and praying you through when you were ill. Whatever your child faces now that they are grown, you can do what you did then, because the God who healed them then is the same God who will heal them now.

   “It's the same God who healed them then who will heal them now.”

   • Hebrews 13:8

5. It is well

   Faithful women received their dead raised to life again. The Shunammite woman's child had died, yet when she came to the man of God she said it is well. Whatever society tells you to see, it is well with your children and with their future, because the God who is with you is with your child.

   “So Mom, I don't care what you see right now. I don't care what society is telling you to see, but it is well.”

   • Hebrews 11:35
   • 2 Kings 4:25-37

6. There is hope for a tree

   If a tree is cut down it will sprout again, and though its stump dies in the ground, at the scent of water it will bud. If your child has fallen short, go to the word and start pouring it into that child's life, because the water of the word will cause it to grow again.

   “Start pouring it, because at the scent of water, the water of the word will cause it to grow and to sprout again.”

   • Job 14:7-9

7. Restrain your voice from weeping: your children shall return

   Rachel wept for her children and refused comfort, but God told her to restrain her voice from weeping, because her work would be rewarded and her children would return from the enemy's land. God sees your tears and sees you on your knees. Ask in His name, and there is hope for your future.

   “God sees you when you're on your knees.”

   • Jeremiah 31:15-17
   • Psalm 30:5
   • John 16:24

8. You can change the world through your child

   Great men in history have acknowledged their mothers. He recalls the mothers who flooded the prayer lines, standing proxy for children they believed had something greater ahead, and closes with Thomas Edison's mother, who refused to accept that her son could not be taught.

   Illustration: George Washington credited his mother with his moral, intellectual and physical education, and Ronald Reagan said he learned the value of prayer from his. Edison's teachers wrote home that they could do nothing for him; his mother wrote back that they did not understand her boy and taught him herself. Because of her, we are not sitting in the dark, and Eskom has a light bulb to load shed.

   “You have the potential to change the world through your child.”

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