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The Caring Mom at Zarephath

1 Kings 17:7-16

Dr. Dave M. Hartson

BalaChittoBaptistChurch

05/09/04

Introduction:

It started out as a typical workday for Patsy Lawson of Running Springs, CA. She got ready for work as a fifth grade teacher and got her two children ages 2 and 5 up and ready to leave with her. Her regular routine included dropping the children off at the day care on the way to work.

Unfortunately, this Wednesday morning she never made it to the sitters. The authorities found her car eight and one half hours later submerged upside down in a cold mountain stream between the sitters and her home.

The authorities found the five year daughter, Susan, and the mom dead. But they found the two year old son, Gerald still alive.

What amazed everyone was that Gerald survived because Patsy held her son above her head just above the waterline in the vehicle keeping him safe. Even after she died in the 48 degree water, her hands froze in that position keeping her son alive even in her death.

And this is indeed a tragic story. There is to other way to see it but it paints a wonderful picture of the caring that a mother has for her children.

In our passage of Scripture this morning, there is another mother who portrays a wonderful caring for her child and as we look at her story maybe we can see some of these qualities in our own mom.

Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Kings 17:7-16.

Body

  1. A caring mom will be found doing things that a child could be doing for himself.

1 Kings 17:12 (NIV)

"As surely as the Lord your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread--only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it--and die."

  1. We are not told in this story about how old the son is. He is referred to as son and boy but never baby. So we can assume that he is a young boy maybe as old as seven or eight or as young as five or six. And certainly a young boy even at five years old can pick up sticks but mom did it for him rather than having him do it.
  1. How many times can you remember your mother doing something for you that you could actually have done for yourself? I am not only talking when you were a child but mom will do things for you even after you become an adult.
  1. We as children need to be carefully that we shouldn’t abuse mom’s caring. Because we know mom is caring, we can abuse her with our requests. We know mom will never turn us down if she can possibly help it.
  1. A caring mom knows that she can not do what she needs to do for her children without keeping a line of communication open with God.

1 Kings 17:9 (NIV)

"Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."

  1. Even before Elijah comes to town, God has already spoken with this momma. This momma had a line of communication with God. In vs. 9, it says God has already commanded the woman to supply Elijah with food.
  1. A mother who really cares knows that she can not totally care for her children without God. She can’t watch them 24/7. She can’t be with them 24/7. She must develop a line of communication with God because only God can watch them fully.
  1. I picture in my mind, Patsy Lawson protecting one child with her hands and protecting the other child with her prayers to God as long as she had breath to lift them up. She knew she couldn’t do it without Him.
  1. A caring mom can not leave her caring at the doorpost to her house.It has to overflow to all areas of her life.

1 Kings 17:10-11 (NIV)

So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" [11] As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."

  1. The stranger in town was a little presumptuous. Here is a woman who has been working all day taking care of a young one and let me tell you that is work. And then she goes outside to gather sticks for a final meal and up comes a stranger looking for water. Most of us would have told him, you are not helpless get it yourself. We would point him in the right direction but tell him to get it Himself. But this caring lady sticks in hand was willing to travel a little ways to get him some water. Her caring overflowed outside the house.
  1. My mother was a caring woman. You couldn’t tell who were her kids because she treated all the kids in the neighborhood like they were her own children. And many of the other mom exhibited that same type of caring. Their caring did not extend just to their family. Her caring did not know any boundaries.
  1. I don’t know anything about Patsy Lawson’s teaching style or teaching methods but I’m sure that many kids wanted to be in her class. A woman who knows that kind of caring she exhibited cannot leave it at home. I am sure everyone could see it in her classroom. Everyone could see it in her church. Her caring I am sure didn’t just stay at home. It did not know any boundaries.
  1. If you are truly a caring person you cannot leave it at the doorpost of your house. It has to overflow to all areas of her life.
  1. A caring mom will step on toes to get what she needs to get for her child.

1 Kings 17:17-18 (NIV)

Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. [18] She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

  1. Elijah was a man of God. She knew it because God commanded the woman to feed him.
  1. But when her child got sick, she stepped all over his toes in an effort to get the prophet of God to do something on behalf of her child.
  1. My mother was a small woman about 4’9” tall but you needed to stay out of her way when she thought someone wasn’t doing what they should be doing for me. She would let them have it.
  1. Even to her dying day, I don’t believe that she thought that Anne could take of me like she did.
  1. Caring moms will step on toes to get what she needs for her children.
  1. A caring mom doesn’t need the credit for what she does. She just wants what is best for her child.

1 Kings 17:24 (NIV)

Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth."

  1. Notice she was quick to give the credit for her son’s healing to the prophet of God and the Lord and His Word.
  1. But as we read the story, she was really the one that initiated the healing. If she hadn’t by faith done what she did the prophet of God wouldn’t have even been there.
  1. If she did not press the prophet of God, her son may have laid dead. She initiated his healing.
  1. But she didn’t care who took the credit for her son’s life she just wanted him alive and well.

Conclusion

Some of you in this room have been very blessed because you indeed have or had a caring mother. Some of you may be here today and saying to yourself that isn’t my mother at all. But I am here to tell you that you can still experience the wonderfulness of a caring parent because if you are a Christian you have a caring Heavenly Father.

I invite you to the altar this morning. If your mom’s health isn’t what it use to be, I invite you to come to the altar and pray for her. If you mother is deceased and she was a caring mom I invite you to the altar to thank God for the time you had with her. If you have never experienced the special caring of a mom I invite you to the altar to experience the caring of our Heavenly Father. Will you come? … Will you come?