God as Mother – Feminine Metaphors

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

God Is Bigger Than We Could Imagine

I was going through online looking for any type of graphic that would adequately portray and reflect what the Bible reflects about God and certain aspects of God in certain places. I chose this graphic because it's of a mother so focused on her child, raising her child up to her level, holding her close, reaching out to kiss and love and nurture and strengthen and protect, and letting that child know, "You are safe in my arms. You are the most treasured. You are the apple of my love." And so I was very happy when I found this specific graphic. But today we're speaking about God as mother, and that may be an intimidating title or intimidating idea for some.

But I would like for everyone—I'm gonna just sum up the message very, very simply. If you hear nothing else, our God is bigger than what we could ever imagine. And he will not be limited, and he will not be defined by any box that we would like to put him in. And so in this library that we call the Bible, we see this God, and this God is relentless. His love, his passion, his mercy for his creation. And we've been discussing the mission of God the last few weeks about God's pursuit to work through us to bring about his reign in his creation.

Many Picture Words

There are many words, many picture words I guess you could say, that describe the different aspects of this God. Some of these words are interesting. And one of them is Shepherd—God's described as a shepherd, right? So when the biblical narrative says that God is a shepherd, what image do they want us to have? What image do we have in our minds that God is a shepherd? When you think of Shepherd, what do you think of? What is the Shepherd wearing? Maybe he's wearing fine white linen? No. Is he wearing gold rings and maybe a bracelet? Gold bracelet? No. Is he carrying around a gold scepter with some jewels in it? No. Is the shepherd sitting on a throne? No. Sitting under a tree? Sheep poop all around him? Shepherds were poor. They were not kings. They had no authority. What is this portrayal attempting to tell us about our God?

The Shepherd

God cares about his flock. God protects. He nurtures. When a new lamb is being born into the fold, the shepherd is the one beside the ewe, calming her, giving her security, helping her deliver this new creation into his flock. The shepherd is the one that is covered in all of the muck in the stables after a birth. And he's the one holding the lamb, cleaning it with his hands and a rag. This is the imagery we get. It's beautiful. So does that mean God's not a king? No, of course not. Quite the opposite. God is a king. The Bible calls him a king. And so when the Bible calls God a king, what imagery do we get there? Well, we get a ruler, someone who's wise, strategic, political, honorable, royalty. When you think of a mighty king, we don't think of someone that's tenderly caressing our foreheads, giving us security. We think of someone who's leading a nation.

King, Rock, and Other Images

The Bible calls our God a rock. I'm curious, what type of imagery do you get? A big boulder? Pebbles? What's a rock represent? Stability? Strength? It's unmovable. A rock is used to make things stronger, to build a foundation. A rock can be used as a weapon for assault. Rocks can also take a hit. But when you think of rock, do you think of a healer? Does this mean God is not a healer? No, the Bible calls him a healer. And I bet when you think of a healer, you don't think of a big, hairy, muscular guy carrying a sword that has blood on it. Do you? That's a warrior. The Bible calls God a warrior. The Torah says he is a man of war.

What do you think of with a healer? Maybe a nurse? I think of a nurse. Or a doTERRA or Young Living representative. I don't know. Guys, I admit, when I think of healer, I think of a woman. I think of the healing touch, the gentle touch of a female nurse. That's the imagery I get. Comforting me. Bandaging wounds. This is our God—Father, leading a family, willing to fight for his family. A provider, a giver of inheritance. This is the term that Yeshua most uses to paint a portrait of God. This leader that's going to fight for his family and give an inheritance.

What About Mother?

What about mother? Mother. Do we ever think of God as our mother? No, of course not. Why would you? That's blasphemy. Anyone calling God a mother is a pagan, right? And if that's the case, then Isaiah, Hosea, Moses, just to name a few, would be in violation of our preconceived standards of who our God can and cannot be. All of the above examples—if we only choose one to define our God, would it be correct? Would it be a full view of who we serve? No, not at all. It would actually make him kind of small. Small God. Small God. That's why the biblical narrative gives us so many of these word pictures—to help us describe all of the attributes and the huge scope of who our God is. The Bible says God is a lion, God is an eagle, God is a bear. The Bible says God is a woman screaming out, giving birth. Are these literal images of God? No, they're metaphor.

God Transcends Form

Deuteronomy says—it's amazing—God's speaking and he says, You saw no form of any kind the day that I spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully so you do not become corrupt and make yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or like a woman or like any animal on the earth or any bird that flies in the air or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters. God says, you saw no form. You saw no form. Do not make me into a form. You saw no form. Do not make me to be a man. Do not make me to be a woman in your imagery, your static imagery.

Don't produce a statue of me. Oh, I am bigger than that. Yeshua tells the woman of the world in John , he says, God is a spirit. God is a spirit. Does a spirit have the things that make it determined, or determine its gender? No. God is not a woman. God is not a man. At least not if we believe gender is defined only by physiological or biological determination. Our God transcends gender just like any other limitation that we would try to place. He is iconic. Yet God is a person, not simply some abstract philosophical idea presented as some half-truth. The Old Testament reveals God in this way, as a person on the deepest level, this being that yearns for relationship.

So we have to be careful when we assert any type of idea that says that God is only—dot, dot, dot. God is not only this or that. God is. And the moment we begin putting limits on who our God is is the moment that we create a God in our image.

Male and Female He Created Them

In Genesis , it says, So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them—male and female he created them. The author of Genesis here is trying to portray that God created mankind for a purpose. Was the purpose to be his images? And this further explanation takes place. He could stop there, but at this point it's like a subcategory for further explanation. He says, Male and female he created them. God has produced both males and females to display his character, his righteousness, his mercy, his compassion, and his identity in the world. Both roles display character of God.

The Maternal Impulse

Moms, let me ask you something. How often do you think about your children? What did I think about before I had them running everywhere? I can't remember. Jenny and I, what did we do before Benjamin? I don't know anything. What did we do? You think about your kids all the time, somewhere, always. What if they're bad? Still think about them. What if they're rebellious? What if they're not being so great? Is the attitude that you think about them one of malice? Do you want vengeance in your heart? Do you want bad things to happen to them? Because sometimes people do stuff to us and they occupy our brain and we can't shake it.

But it's not like that with loving them. You don't think "I hope they go in traffic," right? Do you think about your kids even when they're very disrespectful to you? Or no? Do you ever forget and abandon your children? No. There's something very unique here. It's this primal impulse to protect, this impulse to nurture, to love, this maternal impulse that transcends time, it transcends culture, social class. We see the same impulses here in the States as we do in Africa. I was reading an article about Africa. This one tribe in Africa, and what the mothers do, and they're starving, there's low food, they have to walk miles every single morning.

They have a 40-pound bottle of water that they balance on their head every morning. I think it's like eight miles—something ridiculous. And they're persistent. Like, don't you ever get tired? No, not at all. Smiling. It'd be nice if we didn't have to. It'd be nice if we had a well in the village, but they didn't. Every day you do this for why? For my children. And I bet everyone in here would do the same thing. This impulse is so powerful, nothing, nothing can separate it. And this is exactly the premise and the context that Isaiah speaks to us about our God. Isaiah is pretty much what this message is based on.

So if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn there, or if not just mark it, highlight it, or grab a sharpie. Because this gives us another aspect to view our God.

Because guys, sometimes in our life we meet obstacles. And it's great to use metaphors like warrior, battle—equip me, Father, give me the strength, train my fingers for war, as the psalm says. And God, I need a warrior. I need you to deceive my enemies and slaughter them. God, I need you here as this warrior. Sometimes we don't need a warrior. Sometimes we find ourselves like David, crying out to God with a pain and a wound so deep that we can't imagine what could possibly make the pain stop, what can possibly make us feel secure, what can possibly bring us comfort. We need a healer and a mother.

Sometimes We Need a Healer

Sometimes our prayers are directed that way, but if we don't know that we can approach God in this way, then we continue to limit our prayers. Must I continue fighting when the battle's already been won? You need to be comforted. You need healing to take place. You need peace in your life. Our God is a giver of peace and healing. And so Isaiah states this. He says, "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you." This is the Father speaking—or mother, or however you want to understand it. This is God speaking to his people. So the context: this is the very last chapter in Isaiah, part of a section of the Isaiah script known as second Isaiah.

And it's describing the climactic conclusion of God's mission where all wrongs will be made right and all of his children will be in his presence, which is known as Jerusalem— the place of his name, in his place, in his presence. And he's calling his children home. This is what he says: after everything that you've gone through—after the battle, after this exile, after this sin, these transgressions, after you've been taken back into slavery—as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you. It's so intimate and emotionally charged love that my comfort will consume you like a mother comforting her son. Powerful.

This God is also like a mother. And in your greatest distress, anxiety, shame, this God gives the ultimate comfort of a mother.

A Mother's Embrace

How many of you guys remember a time when you were a child and you had maybe a mother figure in your life? Maybe some of you have never felt that. But if you have, do you remember when a mother figure in your life picked you up, sat you on her lap, embraced you? You were completely content putting your head on her chest or her shoulder. Nothing else. You're safe. It's okay. It's okay. Like a child when they hurt themselves. Ben is two and a half. He likes to run a lot, and it's so funny. The most beautiful sound in my household is the pitter-patter of his feet running around. But sometimes he runs sideways, almost like he's riding a horse.

His legs just flopping. And sometimes he trips and he falls. He hurts his knee, he hurts his head. And I'll be there and he'll say, "Dad, I want to hold you." Right? "I hold you." Because when I ask him, "Do you want me to hold you?" he repeats, "I want to hold you." So I pick him up and he puts his head there and I'm comforting my son. And then in walks his mother. And as if she has controlled the magnetic forces in the world, his arms as if charged, I can feel him being pulled out of my arms. He wants to be held by his mother. That's who he wants. He wants that embrace. And when that's us—when we're hurting, when we're in pain, when we're in shame, when we're embarrassed, when we feel like we've failed—our God is able to give us the embrace that only a mother can give.

The Intensity of a Mother's Protection

These are the words of Isaiah. Isaiah 42 is powerful. We'll just read it. For a long time I have kept silent, for I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth— who's speaking? God speaking. Like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste to the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetations. I will turn the rivers into islands, dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths. I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do.

I will not forsake them. This intensity—this overpowering recklessness, I guess. I'd say reckless is the right word. With enough passion and energy as a woman who is giving birth, all of that emotion, all of that crying for help and pain along with a pursuit of a goal, God is speaking about bringing his children home. And he says with this image, he will make a way for everybody to come home. He will knock down mountains. There's a river in the way. Rivers draw it up. Cross it. The desert is there. No, there is a path. Come back to me. Nothing will stand in your way. Like a mother giving birth— that's the drama.

No one's going to stop this mama bear from seeing her young again. Speaking of mama bears, Hosea chapter 13, verse 8: "Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and tear them asunder." Do you know what that word asunder means? So take something like a grapefruit, and then not accurately, but imagine it just exploding and being ripped into a thousand pieces. This is what God's saying. Like a mother bear whose cubs have been taken from her, she's going to find whatever has separated her cubs from her. She claws out, I will rip it apart. Now, if you read the chapter, it's funny because she's speaking about her children sinning and walking away from her, the cubs.

But that's the language that God is using for the prophets, like a mama bear. Now, Hosea could have described God as a papa bear. How many papa bears do we have in here? Would you rip something apart if someone took your kids? Wolverine. But we all know too well the wrath of a mother for her young. It's all-consuming. It's almost reckless.

When Nothing Stands in the Way

Men, fathers, I want you guys to pay attention and focus. We're going to play a little game. And I want you to think about this: does anyone in here have a special seat in their house? Maybe a recliner or a sofa chair—one seat that you like to sit in? Okay, a couple of you. So men, I want you to imagine the most comfortable place that you like to chill out in your home. And your family's all home. The kids are upstairs or in their bedrooms asleep. And you fall asleep in your recliner or your couch—that special spot. And then you wake up, you smell something, and there's smoke building everywhere. And then you think my kids are upstairs, and you look over and the stairs are engulfed with flames.

The heat is radiating. I can't even go near the stairs. The heat is radiating off the path separating you from your children. Men, what do you do? Walk me through this. Are you going to burn for your children to save them? Absolutely, absolutely. That's the difference. Because the women in the room, they're not thinking. They haven't even thought about the fire. The moms in the room haven't thought about the smoke. The moms in the room haven't thought about whether they'll die. They're already in the room with the kids, dead or alive. Dead or alive. They're already there.

That's the difference between a mama bear and a papa bear. We'll do what it takes. They don't think about it. It's reckless. The love of a mother. All-consuming.

A Mother's Fear and Protection

God is like a mother. Have you ever had kids? Have you ever hurt yourself or put yourself in harm's way to keep your child from being harmed? Anybody? I know your kids run out in the middle of traffic or something. So when I was a toddler, I may have been outside playing with friends or with Melanie or Chase or whoever was outside. We lived in an apartment in Charlotte. I guess I was three-ish before we moved to Roxbury Court. And I remember this slide. It was an all-metal slide. For me, it was like—I mean, it must have been as tall as this building. Of course, I was so small. So it probably wasn't that big.

But on the top of the slide that everyone was sliding down and playing on, I saw these kids. There's a railing where you hold on, and then you put your legs out and you slide down the slide. I saw some kids jumping up on the railing on top of the slide and putting their belly over it and swinging. And some of the older kids were flipping over, legs hitting the slide as they went down. I can do that! So I began trying to climb up on it, and I remember getting on top of it with my belly. I don't think I flipped, but everything was fine. I think I came down the slide just fine. What I didn't realize was that my mother was washing dishes and she saw me through the window.

And she began screaming, screaming out for me. "Get down, Matthew! Stop! Matthew! Matthew!" And when she realized I couldn't hear, she started banging on the window.

When You're Not Thinking

"Matthew! Matthew!" She broke the window. Cut your hand all up. Had to go to the hospital? No? Were you thinking about breaking the window? Were you thinking about how hard you were hitting the window? How loud you were? Just everything you could do. Cut your hand all up. Amazing. Amazing. Exodus speaks about the moment where Moses is asking, "God, show me your glory. Show me your glory." And God says, "All right, well, I got this little hole in the rock here. Get in the hole in the rock and I'll pass by you." And it's a very, very interesting moment. Here, Moses, get in this rock right here. I'm going to put my hand over you and you can see my backside, or something.

It's one of those midrash topics. But one thing God says—do I have it on here?—one thing he says is, he's speaking about his character, and he says, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." God shows compassion. God cares. He's not indifferent about things, but he personally cares. This God cares. He has compassion. And let's talk a little bit about Hebrew. That word for compassion—sometimes translated as mercy, like all-giving love—is the Hebrew word Raham. Everybody say Raham. Like Raham, right? Raham if you're in the south. Raham. And it's made up of three Hebrew letters: Reshet, Mem.

And the thing about Biblical Hebrew is that it does not have any vowels. It's consonants only. So literally, if you were looking at this word in English, it would be spelled R-H-M. I guess you could try to figure out how to pronounce it. But today we pronounce it Raham. And it's fascinating because vowels—whenever you see vowel points in Hebrew—those came way after. You hear a lot of people who talk about looking at biblical Hebrew words and trying to figure out how to pronounce these words based on the vowel points. Or sometimes it's really popular to talk about the name of God, the Tetragrammaton, and trying to figure out the vowel points.

Vowel points weren't added until the Middle Ages by the rabbis who were trying to standardize the text. So biblical Hebrew is just consonants, no vowels. We don't know for a fact exactly how they were pronounced. Rahem. R-H-M.

The Womb of Compassion

And why do I say that? Because we see that word somewhere else: Rahim. We see it in Jeremiah 20, 17. He says, "For he did not kill me in the womb with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever." So what's interesting about the Hebrew here is the word womb there. I'll give you one guess what word that is. Today we pronounce the word as Rahim. Rahim. But it's spelled with the same three letters: R-H-M. So I guess what I'm trying to say is when the scrolls were written, the words were exactly the same. So we have hundreds of thousands of different words in our English language. In Biblical Hebrew, you might have around 70 or 80,000 words compared to hundreds of thousands. The cool thing about the Hebrew language, and the reason why we have so many different poetic nuances and word parallels and euphemisms throughout the Bible, is that Hebrew words are reused a lot for different things.

So Raham can mean womb, but it can also mean showing love or compassion. And rabbinic commentary would state—will this make sense?—because the womb is where the womb produces the ultimate atmosphere and environment of all-giving love and compassion. Nurturing. It's the place where you're secure. It's the place where you are given everything you need. You don't have to work 40 hours a week to get fed in the womb. It's a pretty nice place. It's the place that we instinctively go to, even as adults, when we can't bear life anymore. Has anyone ever been so overwhelmed with a tragedy or something in their life they just couldn't take it anymore and they found themselves sobbing in a fetal position? As if they're in the womb. I want to be back there. Impulse. God is womb-like. He's compassionate. He is protection. He is nurturing.

The God Who Fights Like a Mama Bear

Early in Hosea 11, we have this great verse. The Father is speaking to the prophet and he says, "...yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk." Now some could argue this could be a father figure. I reached down. I picked you up and I put your cheek to my cheek and I was the one that taught you how to walk at home. And I was the one that fed you on the ground. And I was the one when you skinned your knee, I wrapped it, kissed it, blew on it. Our God, this is who he is. Our God is the God that fights like a mama bear. Our God is the God that would stop at nothing to find you. Our God is the one that holds and gives security and peace.

Only—only that peace and security that a mother can give. Our God is the God that makes himself vulnerable to make sure that we're saved. Our God is the one that puts himself in harm's way to shield us, no matter how horrible the situation seems. And I don't know, maybe you're going through a time where you're finding it hard to trust because life is hard. Amen? A couple people. Okay. Amen. Life is hard. Life is drowning you. And the thing is, despite how you're feeling, the one supreme truth that exists is God is holding you. God is holding you. And this God gives everything that you need. So be at peace.

Be at peace. Psalm 90, verse 2—it is allegedly a prayer of Moses. "Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world. From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Before anything, before you gave, before you created everything, before you built the universe—no, no —before you gave birth to creation, you are God."

What I found fascinating during the study is that in the early church, God, of course, is called father—because that's the direction that Yeshua focuses on and that's the portrait of a leader that will fight for us and gives inheritance to us. Now, it's beautiful, but even the early church fathers in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth centuries spoke of God as a male portrait. But there's this female aspect—Clement of Alexandria, he, a church father and second-century teacher, he describes God as the great father, but he describes God as having breasts in which we, as his children, are invited to take suck, to receive the milk of Christ. What? What? And if we can get past our own insecurities about what was just spoken, this was common in the early Jesus movement. It wasn't until later that feminine attributes were minimized and God was limited in scope of what he could and could not do in our lives and how he could treat us.

From Whose Womb Comes the Ice

Job 38. So Job 38 is kind of like when God has a smackdown on Job and he's like, "Really? Like, who do you think brought everything into existence? Right? Like dinosaurs, or whatever. Who do you think did that? Right? I did that. I can go wrestle him right now. Who do you think made this mountain?" And he speaks and he says, "Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?" Okay, so we have a father figure. And of course, who is the father of everything? It's God. Okay, good. So this is God and he's a father. Awesome. My masculinity is now secured in who I worship. This is good. Next verse: "From whose womb comes the ice?

Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?" And why would the biblical narrative describe God this way? It's not physical. It's not literal. But men, we think that we have created the universe if we build a picnic table in the backyard for our family, right? We build something with a hammer and nails, right? Accidentally a drill slips, slams into our hands, so we have a little Phillips head scar in our hand. Anybody else? Anybody have a Phillips head scar? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And we go, "Let it bleed a little bit," like a crosshair, right? Love it. We think we have just done it all. How is this compared to a woman bringing life into the world, birthing something? It's a powerful, powerful imagery.

Gathering Like a Hen

Matthew . This is the chapter when Yeshua really lays it out for the Pharisees. "You hypocrites. You failures as images of God. You failures as the workers of the vineyard." And he speaks and he says, Yeshua is speaking, placing himself as a hen. A hen. And Yeshua is speaking and he's actually referencing several chapters of the Old Testament. We have Psalm 36, which presents God as swooping down to embrace the whole world, spreading his wings out to humans to shelter them as a refuge. We have Psalm 17, which is a psalm filled with emotion. That's where we get the phrase, "Keep me, Father, as the apple of your eye.

The apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings." When Benjamin gets frightened or shy, he runs to his mother and he runs to her legs. She'll be standing up and he'll run straight into her legs like he's trying to get through her. And he'll wrap his arms around her because he's frightened. And what he really wants is he wants her to spin down and cover him with her arms to fully protect him. He wants to feel safe. This is the imagery. This is the biblical imagery. This is what Yeshua is referring to. Yeshua doesn't say, "Oh, how I've yearned to march in here as a mighty warrior and slay all of these enemies and all of the unrighteous."

No. "I've desired to gather you together as a mother hen. I have desired to spread my wings over you, to nurture you, to protect you, to keep you safe in my care as a mother hen." Yeshua paints himself as a chicken. It's a very vulnerable image. Very vulnerable image. A mother hen who yearns for her chicks to brood under her wings. But you are not willing to come to me. And this is the reality of our God. God is our Father, but not only. God is our mother, but not only. God is a caretaker, but not only. God is a defender, but not only. God is a warrior, but not only. God is also a healer. And you see what happens if we isolate God as one of these things and nothing else.

We get a distorted, incomplete picture of who our God is and what he does. And maybe you've never felt the embrace and the security that a mother should give. Maybe that's you. Maybe you have an emptiness in your life, fear, anxiety. Maybe you're hurting and you have no idea what true comfort feels like. That is something that our God is capable of giving. And our God, just like a mother, yearns for her children to run into her arms, solely depending on her, trusting and giving it all. Our God forgives. Our God gives peace. Our God is compassionate.

The Song of a Contented Heart

Psalm 131 is a song of David, a song that was very well known among the people of Israel. > My heart is not proud, Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me, but I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child, I am content. Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. I am like a weaned child with its mother. Speaking about a child that's been weaned and is now content and secure with whatever the mother will give, knowing the mom is going to take care of me. And all human talk about God is human, obviously. God is beyond our speaking. God is beyond our full understanding. But God can be close. God can be intimate. God can be near.

How Do We Come Before God? And if we allow God to come close to us, he will lift us up in understanding and intimacy with him. When we come before God, do we ever just do it to request something? To make demands? Like a child screaming to be fed? Do we ever come to God simply to praise him? Just to praise? Don't misunderstand me. These things are great. But reflecting on this psalm, David is describing a different encounter. A completely different encounter. And worship team, you guys can come up to conclude. This child in Psalm 131 is content. He's content. This child is not making requests of his mother. This child is not praising his mother. This child sits on his mother's lap, cuddles up next to her, and is content with her warmth, security, and love.

God's Fullness Revealed in Yeshua

And God is the God that equips for battle, gives strength to endure the good fight. God makes you ready for war, but through all the songs and poetry and prophets, that's not the complete picture of the God that we serve. The fullness of the God that we serve is revealed in Yeshua, a God that wants to meet with us, a God that wants to embrace us, a God that wants to shelter us and give us his Shalom.

An Invitation to Intimacy

When was the last time you went in a prayer and did not demand something of God? When was the last time you spent time actually focusing on simply God's presence with you instead of checking off a checklist of things that you should or should not be grateful for? God yearns for a relationship, not something that's a pre-planned, canned prayer every single time you bow your knees. God yearns for intimacy. And a lot of times we send forth our cries and our grizzles and our wails like crying babies to God. But the psalmist paints a picture of not crying out, grabbing for something, or being irritated because you have a want. The psalmist pictures someone climbing into a mother's lap and being simply content with the presence of a caring, nurturing God.

Come as You Are

And so please stand. We're going to go ahead and conclude services with worship just like we start. And I don't know where you're at today. I don't know where you're at today. Maybe you're someone who is experiencing God in the fullness that he would want to reveal himself to you, but maybe you're not. Maybe you have been so eager to impress God, wanting God to be proud of you, yearning for his acceptance, like a son thrives to have the acceptance of his father, not recognizing his voice back to you stating, all I have is yours, and it always has been. The embrace, the kindness, the mercy, the healing presence of our God is available to you, to everyone, and God yearns to hold you as a mother embraces her young.

So please don't leave here today with a void in your heart that can be filled with a presence of peace that you cannot imagine. We have a prayer team available to everyone. So if anyone who needs prayer or support would like to be lifted up before a God that loves, a God that forgives, a God that gives security, a God that gives life and compassion, I invite you. Shalom, I'm Matthew Vandrells and I hope you enjoyed this message. Founded in Truth exists to cultivate a fellowship of image bearers that live the redeemed life only Yeshua can give. If this ministry has been a blessing to you, we would love to hear from you.

Send us an email through the contact form on our website and tell us how God has used this ministry to edify your faith and relationship with Him. If you'd like to see more messages like this one, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you'd like to donate to this ministry and be a part of what God is doing through it, you can donate through our online giving portal. We thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to next time. Shalom.