Motherhood/Homemaking & Redemption (b)

In this part of the sermon: Continuing from a previous sermon, Martin elaborates on motherhood as an experience of both joy and sorrow, particularly the sorrow of a foolish son and the grief of barrenness…

Martin shares his wife's four-year struggle with barrenness to empathize with women experiencing this pain, underscoring his sensitivity while needing to expound biblical teaching.

And there is another sorrow that comes not to mothers, but to those who would be mothers. It's the sorrow and the grief of a barren womb, to use scriptural terminology, the cause of which may be known to be a problem in the mother's reproductive faculties, in the father's reproductive capacities, but in either case, barrenness is very painful to many a married woman, even to some married women sitting here. and as I've sat at my desk and sought to empathize with that pain that some of you know for I saw my wife endure that pain for over four years of our marriage

8:02 - 8:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Women should condition their conscience to dress modestly with decency and propriety when coming to the house of God, avoiding ostentatious or attention-seeking adornment.

Martin uses humor and hyperbole (e.g., 'get out of here' for braided hair, 'leave them at the door' for pearls, 'dress more than 35 bucks') to show that the prohibition on adornment is not literal but against ostentation and showiness.

Alright? So all you women who've got a braid in your hair, get out of here. You're out of order. That's what it says.

22:27 - 22:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He argues that women are physically, emotionally, and psychologically made for motherhood, citing a secular author (Danielle Crittenden) to illustrate how feminist ideology often…

Martin quotes secular author Danielle Crittenden's book 'What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us' to support the idea that women are naturally made for motherhood and that feminist rejection of this often comes from childless women who view children as an 'add-on option' to marriage.

They have to do with what it is to be feminine, what it is to be a woman, to have woven into the fabric of your whole inner texture the desire to birth a child, to nurture and cherish and care for a child. it's interesting when women reject this concept of motherhood they viciously reject male headship the two go together continually constantly and that's why in the so-called feminist movement as Danielle Crittenden a secular woman not a Christian in her most perceptive book entitled

47:52 - 48:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: when anyone tells you dear young women get a sense of your identity with no relationship to marriage and motherhood and homemaking you look them in the eye and say you're telling me that I can know who I am while denying…

He uses the analogy of telling a bird to understand its identity without its beak and wings to illustrate the absurdity of telling women to find their identity detached from marriage and motherhood, which are integral to their God-given design.

In other words, find out who you are by denying what God's made you. it's like telling a bird look in the mirror little birdie and understand who you are without your beak and without your wings I hope the little birdie would have sense enough to look him in and say mister you're nuts without my beak and my wings I ain't no bird sorry Mr. Dixon I am not a bird I am not a bird I'm not a bird and when anyone tells you dear young women get a sense of your identity with no relationship to marriage and motherhood and homemaking you look them in the eye and say you're telling me that I can know who ...

53:30 - 54:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Plead with God for dear married women who long to be mothers, including those who chronically miscarry or are barren, that God would be pleased to open their wombs.

Martin recounts the story of Abraham and Sarah, whose bodies were 'as good as dead' for childbearing, to illustrate God's power to overcome barrenness and bring life where there is none, emphasizing God's 'mathematics' of adding Himself to an impossible situation.

Some who've been able to conceive but not carry a child, who chronically miscarry. Let's plead that God would be pleased to open their wounds. if there's a physiological problem they have or the husbands have. In driving here tonight, thinking of this, I thought of Abraham and Sarah.

55:16 - 55:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider adoption as a God-like act for childless couples, as it reflects God's adoption of believers.

He highlights adoption as a God-like act, drawing a parallel to believers being adopted as sons by God, to encourage couples to consider adoption when facing barrenness.

Isn't it? isn't it? we are told in Ephesians 1 that in Christ God predestined us to the adoption as sons what's more God like than when a couple voluntarily choose to take a child that for one reason or another others don't want or can't care for and make them their own enter in to the experience of motherhood But let's pray more specifically. My own heart's been convicted.

57:17 - 57:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider adoption as a God-like act for childless couples, as it reflects God's adoption of believers.

Martin quotes Proverbs 30:15-16, which lists the barren womb among things never satisfied, to graphically illustrate the deep, burning pain and longing associated with infertility.

I've not prayed as I ought for you who live with the pain of a barren womb. And it is painful. I thought of that text in Proverbs chapter 30 where in very graphic poetic imagery we read in verse 15, The horse leech, the vampire, has two daughters crying, Give! Give!

57:51 - 58:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for single men and women to have godly ambitions to establish godly marriages and become childbearing saints whose relationships are blessed by God.

He shares the story of a couple in the church, Thompson and Irene, who adopted and then had their own children, illustrating God's blessing and ability to fill a 'quiver quickly' after a period of childlessness and adoption.

We've got a couple sitting here that went that route and it's like the Lord said now you've been like me and been willing to adopt now I'm going to open your womb and so Thompson and Irene got their quiver full over the space of a couple of years from childless I'll never forget the first time I saw them staggering in Thompson with one of the kids on his hip and Irene with one over the shoulder and diaper bags and all the rest and I said brother God's filled up your quiver quickly and me the Lord can do that the Lord is able let's pray that he might be pleased to do this let's pray for our sin...

58:59 - 59:47 Read in full sermon