The Cares and Concerns of Loving Mothers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Heavenly Father, thank you. Being gracious to us, especially this week, in our studies and time with you, we appreciate your presence in our life and the tenderness and the kindness that you show us, the revelations that you give us into the mysteries of the kingdom. We thank you. And this morning, Lord, as we preach this word, the cares and concerns of loving mothers, we want to dedicate this sermon to all the moms and the ladies of the church and whoever would hear this message. I thank you, Lord, that you created male and female. And I thank you, Lord, that the moms in our life have been instrumental in helping us to grow up and to become young men. And as we age into the older years, we look back and we thank you for each and every one. So, Lord, at this time, I would like to take a moment of silence to remember those that are in the great cloud of witnesses that have gone on to be with the Lord. And so, Lord, we dedicate a moment for that in Jesus' name of silence. Thank you, Father. Mothers have a maternal instinct. From an early age, little girls play house, play with their baby dolls. Some eventually find their mother's jewelry and lipstick, wanting to be like mom. It's not uncommon for little girls to take up their mother's shoes and walk in them. Is this wired into their DNA? Is this significant and related to what we call the mother instinct? How would you define the mother instinct? I define it this way: protecting, nurturing, bonding, connection of two souls, perseverance, selflessness, it's love. Intuition concerning the needs and the wants of a baby. It's sympathy and empathy, knowing and understanding what a baby needs. We call this maternal love. Something happens when the baby is born and brought to the breast of its mother. There's a hormone called oxytocin that's released into that child. It's the same hormone that's released in conjugal love. It's a bond. It holds people together. As a matter of fact, in post-birth, a lot of moms experience depression, and that's because of the curse that came upon the garden when Adam and Eve sinned. Many women are given oxytocin because it helps them to feel better about themselves. More of that in another sermon. Genesis chapter 1, verse 28 says, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. That's what God said in Genesis 1. In Genesis 9, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Something happened in the garden when Adam and Eve fell. In Genesis 3:16, it says, Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. A curse was inflicted upon women. Many women suffer from depression because of the curse that came upon the world, especially in Genesis 3.15, when it was prophesied that Jesus would come through the womb of a woman. The enemy has great vengeance against women. He has great anguish against women. And women experience specific issues in their life and in their body as a result of the curse. I thank God for the blood of Jesus that can overcome that. I thank God for the healing power of Christ that can come into a woman's life and make her whole. The Bible says in John 16 and 21 concerning sorrow, when a woman is in travail, she has sorrow, because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. Children change the lives of our families. Children change the lives of a woman and of a man. Is motherhood always easy? Is there a pain associated with a child being born? Yes to both questions. God chooses mothers because they are a special person who can love and persevere under the most severe circumstances. These special women rise to the occasion, even when all odds are against them. Yet in society today we're denouncing motherhood and telling women to walk away from their babies through abortion. Society is telling women to birth strike and no longer follow the spiritual admonition to be fruitful and multiplied. Politicians are declaring that children are not necessary. And any children that we have, they say belongs to the government. The words of Isaiah the prophet are coming to pass in this present day. But know this that God does not forget the conception and the birth of every child. Isaiah chapter 49 and 15 says this can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? God says, Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget them. The Bible says in Psalm 27 and 10, even if my father and my mother abandoned me, the Lord cares for me. I want to reflect on Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 15 for a moment. And this is a sensitive topic to delve into. I don't want to refute the word of God, and I do not do that. Can a woman forget her sucking child? Absolutely. I've worked with many women over 20 years in the prison system who were addicts. They lost their children. They went to a court and they gave over their parental rights to a judge or to someone, and they were dismayed because of their decision. I'm no one's judge. Addiction is terrible. It affects children, it affects homes and families. Sometimes women suffer from depression, that's so bad that for some it's hard to treat. And sometimes women do give up their children or forget their children. But I believe in the mercy of God, that God understands each person and each woman. It's Him to judge. And sometimes we can look at women and we could say, oh, they walked away from their kid. I haven't walked in their shoes. I haven't walked in their shoes. I don't know what they've experienced. I don't know if they've been molested or raped as a child. I don't know any of that. I don't know what the barriers are. But I do know I serve a loving God. And I knew though, and I know this, that because of the curse in the Garden of Eden, women experience specific issues in their life, bodily, physically, health-wise, mentally, they experience these things. And we need to look at that. We need to have compassion. We can't just make these judgments to say, oh, she doesn't care about her kids. I don't want to do that. I am not God. But I know this: that if that does happen for whatever reason, God says, I will not abandon a child. I will not abandon you. I just wanted to put that in there because God jogged my mind, I believe, this morning to say some of those things. Sometimes, as a woman, despair is sometimes attached to motherhood. In the book of Genesis 21 and 14, Abraham rose up early in the morning and he took bread and a bottle of water and he gave it to Hagar. You remember that story? How Sarah said, Go into Hagar because I want a baby. It was a carnal, carnal plan that has backfired even till this day. But she said to Abraham, Take that child and get that child away from me, putting it on her shoulder and the child, and sent her away, and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. Ishmael was put under a tree somewhere to die. But God, even though Sarah ordered her out of the house as the handmaiden, and although she ordered Ishmael out of the house because Isaac was being born, and yes, Ishmael was doing some wrong things, mocking Isaac, and so on. And they had to have a divide, but God took care of Ishmael. There are times when death is attached to motherhood. We've experienced that. And friends in our own family, when our granddaughter lost her little baby. I thought about it this morning that my wife is grandmother to nine grandchildren. But three great-grandchildren. Adam is not with us. But we have our two great-grandchildren in North Carolina. You see, God will assemble us one day. God doesn't forget. God doesn't just put people in the wilderness to be forgotten. But one day, God will gather us as a family if we stay true to Him, and we will all be together. There are times, like I said, when death, the Bible says in 2 Kings 4 18, when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head, and he said to the lad, carry him to his mother. Oh, how many times have we been carried to our mothers? Anybody ever take milk of magnesia when they were a kid? You know what that spells? Mom. Comfort. Milk of magnesia. Carry him to his mother. How many times did a mom take care of the bruise on your knee when you fell off your bike? How many times did she comfort you? I remember when I went bold as a young man. My mom said, just use baby shampoo and we'll grow back. She knew it wouldn't grow back. But she told me that to comfort me. I was bonded to my mom. For some reason, there was a bond between us. And I enjoyed that bond with my mother. And I thank God that she was in my life. Because you know what? She was tough. She was a tough woman. And you know, sometimes I didn't win every fight in Brooklyn. And sometimes I came home and they threw me on the front porch. And my mother would open the front door and say, It's your own DAM fault. Imagine that. I used to call my mother Maul Barker. She was tough. She didn't take nothing from nobody. And she taught us as we grew up to be the same. Maybe I didn't always handle that emotion well growing up and even as an adult. But I thank God that she put Moxie in me. I thank God that she put spirit in me. And I thank God that she believed in me as a person. She told me one time, she said, Freddie, you're the best preacher. You should be on television. I said, Well, thank you, Mom. I appreciated that. So this child died. He was revived by the prophet eventually. But we've just had a situation with our Jennifer's friend, young boy, I think he was 14, who passed away by an accident. And I wrote these words because I keep them close to my heart. In Isaiah 57 and verse 1, the Bible says, The righteous perisheth, and no man lay it to heart, and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from evil to come. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. Isaiah 57 and 1 in the NLT version says, Good people pass away. The godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die. How many times have I cited the following verse at a funeral in Revelation 14, 13? And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. How many times have I cited that verse and burying someone in a cemetery? Sometimes mothers provide service in the house of God. It says in 1 Samuel 2.17, Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. They didn't want nothing to do with God. But there was a woman, Hannah, who gave birth to a man that would become a great prophet, Samuel. But in verse 18 it says, But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen effort. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. I don't think people understand what happened here. When she went to the temple and prayed, and Eli thought she was drunk or something, and she said, Man of God, I don't. I'm praying for a baby. I want God to give me a child. And if God gives me that child, I will dedicate that child to the house of God to be used by the Lord. You see, in those days, weaning sometimes was three or four years. And she weaned the child. But then she brought that child to the house of God. And she went up to the house of God to perform her duties and to offer her yearly sacrifice once a year. She probably only saw Samuel once a year. But she made a vow to God. She made a promise to God. And that's what we do when we dedicate babies. We make a vow to God. We make a promise to God that we will bring up those children in the admonition of the Lord. And it's not just bringing them to church. It's training them, it's raising them up in the scriptures, in the word of God. It's watching over them, it's schooling them, discipling them, loving them, disciplining them at times, showing them the paths of the Lord. Sometimes sickness is always a concern for a mother. How many times did our mothers walk in the middle of the night holding us in their arms as we were crying and trying to catch our breath because we were sick of some illness? The Bible says in Matthew 15 and 22, and behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. She was concerned about her child. Lord, I have nothing that I can do to help this child. And you know, sometimes as mothers, there's nothing that you can really do to help that child except to call upon the name of the Lord and say, Lord, my child is under a vexation spirit. Sometimes bewilderment and perplexity are sometimes a reality for a mother. Look at the cross. Jesus hanging on the cross, Mary there, and the women of the church. The Bible says in John 19 and 25, now they're stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, though Mary, the wife of Cleophys and Mary Magdalene. What perplexity must have been in their minds? What bewilderment to see your son almost naked on a cross, who was tortured. Child that you gave birth that came through your loins and through your womb. Jesus came in the form of a human, though he was the Son of God. What did Mary have to do to bring that child through to the point where Jesus declared his ministry at 30 years old? Oh my friends, he grew up just like you did in the human part. He had the same experiences that our children have. But there was Mary, and there was people that would help. She was at that cross watching her son die. Sometimes bewilderment comes in the book of Exodus, chapter 2, verse 1. And there was a there went a man of the house of Levi, and he and he took to him a wife of the daughter of a Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months. It's Moses' mother. Sometimes the mother doesn't know the trouble she will go through for a child. And she doesn't know what she will face from day to day. Sometimes in the middle of the night, a child has to be taken to an emergency room. Sometimes in the middle of the night, a child is having a hard time breathing. A mother doesn't know from one moment to the next. She's always on alert. She sleeps with one eye open. Always alert to the cry and the needs of a child. A mother conceives in love. She bears and gives birth in pain. She dreams early for her goodly child, hides the child to protect his faith and his later purpose in life. Challenges, trials, and tribulations are always in the mix for a mother. It never ends, even when they get older. That's how much mothers love their children. There are times when a mother's faith must depend upon God in extreme and terrifying circumstances. We know what the word of God says in Romans 10 17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. We can read the word, but we must apply it. An example of that is in Hebrews 11:23, hiding our children. Hiding our children in this day is a very important concept. The Bible says, by faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandments. Some people say, Well, you have to obey the government. None of it disobeys the word of God. We're coming to that time. We've been there. We've been there. And we will be there again. And mothers and fathers and churches and families will have to make a decision. We will follow God first. His priority. What happened here? In Exodus chapter 2 and verse 10, when do we hide our children? We have to ask a few questions. When do we hide them? Where do we hide them? Why do we hide them? And how do we hide them? Social media is the great poison in the earth. It used to be years ago we would park a child in front of a television and become the babysitter. We don't have to do that anymore. We take the television with us and it's attached to us. And I know people don't like to hear this, but I tell you what, pornography is now down to children who are eight years old. It's an abomination. It's an abomination. The statistics are just wild, concerning people looking at things on social media, listening and hearing. And if we would dare to ask our children, have you ever been involved in that? would take great faith and great courage. Because I almost guarantee you that some of them would say yes. Social media and other children, peer pressure. School. I don't care if it's a Christian school or a public school. Peer pressure. Because not everyone comes from a Christian family. Not everyone teaches the same values and morals of the Bible. Some people are very liberal and very lenient in what they believe. They allow their children to watch Harry Potter and Magic and all this and say, oh, it's good so the child knows. No. Do I drink poison so I know what it tastes like? No, I don't. Because when it comes near me, I don't want it. Why do I have to experience something that's going to be a detriment to my body, soul, and spirit? The Bible says in Exodus chapter 2, verse 2, and the woman conceived and bare a son, and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months. So then what? What does that mean? Setting limits. Setting limits for our children. When? Where? Why? And how. I want to tell you when I was a little kid, we had a fence around our porch. My mother said, you can go on that porch and don't you dare go outside that fence. Now on those days, you listened to your mom. Because she'd give it to you. And then she said these words, and when your father gets home, you'll get the rest. Oh boy. Now we negotiate. Now we make promises. Johnny, if you use your inner voice and you don't kick mommy in the cereal aisle because you want Fruit Loops, mommy will buy you ice cream when we leave weighpoints. You know what? We're losing a whole generation. We're not hiding our children. We're eating and abetting them. We're permissive. We're liberal. We're Dr. Spock all over again. What did Dr. Spock say? Oh, if a kid has a hammer and you have a glass table and he breaks it, let him break the table. He's just expressing his emotions. Really? We're so cockeyed with philosophy. You know why? Because we don't go by God's word. We don't want to ascribe by God's word. We violate God's word and people perish because of lack of knowledge. God said to us, My people perish because of lack of knowledge. Just read the book of Proverbs in an easy rendition. And you can teach your children about life. So what happened? Setting limits. What happened? You set limits to absorb the bruises of life. When, where, why, and how? Look what it says in Exodus 2, 3. And when she could no longer hide him, mom has to come up with a plan now. Mom has to seek God. Mom has to say, okay, Lord, what do I do with Moses now? I've hid him for three years and I can no longer hide him. Give me a plan. You see, moms need a plan. Dads need a plan. Families need a plan for our children. And what's it saying here? She can no longer hide him. So she took for him an ark of bullrushes and dabbed it with slime and with pitch and put the child therein and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. You know what she was doing? She was making a little ark and a little boat for Moses. Who could think of this? And she went down by the river and she gathered all the bulrush and all the things that she could make a basket with. And she put Moses in the basket. She was setting limits. The ark was a box that typifies a certain amount of space. Ah, you should have said amen. Setting limits. Setting limits. Not liberal limits. Moses, this is your space. This is what you can do, and this is what you can't do. He's just a baby. Early in life, a mother must learn to set limits for the child. The concept of discipline versus permissiveness must be addressed early in child rearing. That doesn't mean that we're so hard and so harsh that we put fear, not the fear and respect of God, but the fear of a parent in a child who's afraid. I can tell an abused child very quickly. When you're in the presence of an abused child and you raise your hand abruptly, and that child has a reaction, there's something going on in that family. There's something going on in that child's life. Because children are usually like that. I want to tell you something. In this church, we have children with different giftings. And we need to really zero in on each child individually. We can't deal with each child in a universal way that this is for everybody. You can't do that even with your own children because you'll fail. You'll fail. Every child's an individual. Even identical twins from the same egg have differences. You can't minister to them all the same way. Some children have gift things that you really have to get into their space and earn their trust and confidence. You don't get there by screaming at them, yelling at them, and putting them under your foot. You get there by love. It's all generated by love. And when a child understands that they can trust you, that you're okay, they'll invite you into their space. And you will know very quickly if you're invited into their space. We must raise the standard in our homes concerning expectations we have for our children. We cannot allow the patterns of the world and allow that influence to influence and infiltrate our homes, families, and church. Now let me interject this. It's wonderful to tell your kid he's amazing. It's wonderful to tell your kid he's so smart. But you need to also tell your kid that you were born in sin. Don't lose me here. You see, the gospel is not about self-esteem and self-worth. It's not about self. It's not about I. It's not about me being recognized. It's that I'm a sinner. And it's not about me accepting Jesus like some addendum or appendix. It's saying Jesus come into my life and transform me and change me. Oh, see, we got it wrong. We have this all backwards. We we we we were oh, you're amazing. But you were born in sin. Have we dealt with the sin issue? Have we sat down and said, listen, eternity? Oh, you're young. No one knows when. Are you ready? Do you understand the gospel? Do you understand Jesus? We say, you know, children come to a certain age where they're responsible. What is that age? Six, seven? I don't know. But I know this. If you're raised in church, you heard it. But if you have no desire for God, if you have no pull toward God, that's a red flag. That's a red flag. We need to address that. Oh, we can go years and years and years and years and just say, hey. Before you know it, that child grows up and has enormous problems in their life. Because no one ever addressed the issue of sin but always told that kid how talented and amazing he was. I'm not saying we shouldn't do that. But what does the gospel say? All have sinned. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And what are the wages of sin? Death.

unknown 30:19

Death.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Think about that for a moment. Amazing, isn't it? Faith in God. Spiritual mothers and grandmothers are a blessing to children. Timothy was raised and parented by his grandmother and his mother. It appears in this family that the male presence, for whatever reason, was absent. I don't know why. Single parent mothers are extraordinary people in the sacrifice that they make for their children. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 5. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in their grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, I am persuaded that it's in thee also. Paul was admonishing. Paul was encouraging. Paul was saying, Man, you've got a great mom and a great grandmother. He says in 2 Timothy 3:14, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. Who did he learn them from? He learned them from his mom and his grandma. I said he learned them from his mom and his grandma. Who raised him? The things that which you learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And then from a child, from a child, oh, it really vexes me in my spirit when I hear some parents say, I will wait until my kid is 16 years old, and they can decide then what religion. You are out of the book. You are out of the book. You don't wait until he's 16. You've lost him. You've lost him to peers, and now you've lost up to social media. And you know what? The best time to get a child saved is when he's young. Because the older you get, the more stubborn people get, the more rebellious people get, the more obstinate people get, and it's harder to get a person as they age to change and come to Christ. It's so hard. You see it every day. It's like a callus on their heart. You can't move them. They don't move toward the altar, they don't move toward the Lord, they don't move toward the cross, they don't move toward Jesus, they don't move toward the blood of Christ that was shed for them. And excuse themselves. Maybe later. When is it later? Today is the day of salvation. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. People don't like to be rebuked or corrected. You hurt my feelings, so go to hell. So I should say nothing. Because I hurt your feelings. That's the price you pay. To preach the gospel. That's the price to pay when you're a mom or a dad and you have to tell your kid the truth. That's the price you pay. Hey, kid, you're with the wrong person. Hey, kid, you're with the wrong person. Oxytocin! Bonds! We're afraid. We don't want to hurt feelings. No, run away. You're already lost. You lost him in their thinking, you lost him in their spirit, you lost him in their religion. They just don't tell you that out loud. We don't have courage. And we put up with it every day, every day, every day, and eventually we accept it. And we even let them get married. And then we find out what a mistake that was. And now we try to patch it. Now we try to cover it. Now we try to really set the limits so nobody knows the family secrets. Everything that's hidden shall be revealed. You can't get away from God's word. Eventually, everything that's hidden shall be revealed. A spiritual mother applies pitch to their children. You know, when Moses' mother made that little basket, she she pitched it to slime. The ark was built for Moses to be in so he could be secure. And the bull rushes were the vegetation and the stalks and the things that made that ark. And what the Bible says she dabbed it with pitch and slime. In other words, she sealed it. She parged it. And she parged it with slime, okay, and pitch, which was a liquefied uh substance that would turn into asphalt, so to speak. That's the definition. So when she pitched that little basket and she put it all around and she allowed it to dry, it was it became like asphalt like cement, so no water could get in there and drown the child. See, we we must continually, listen closely, smear on the values and the morals taught in the Word of God onto our children. What are we smearing on our kids? What are we smearing? We must smear on what has been accepted the first time. Sometimes the smearing on process seems never ending, but it must be continued. Sometimes you gotta continue to smear on the dark and borrows upon a child that's not listening.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

What did my mother say to me when I didn't listen when I was a kid? She said these words to me. Look at me. Am I talking to the wall? And do I speak Greek? That's what my mother used to say. I said, no, ma'am. Well, listen. When I worked with my dad and I wasn't doing it right, I got coughed in the ear. Didn't kill me. My dad sat at the head of the table, I sat to my dad's left, and what does my dad have to do every night? Recite the multiplication table. What's four times three? Twelve. What's five times five? Twenty-five. What's eleven times twelve? You're taking too long. You learn how to read a ruler, and you learn the multiplication table, because that was my dad's thing. You listen. You paid attention. When you work with your dad, he said, look here. We had a uh a teacher, a shop teacher, Mr. Nissan, in high school. And we were dealing with paratrools. And Mr. Nissan used to walk around with a big dowel stick. And if you weren't doing the right thing, bang, right in your butt. What? Look at me. You're not paying attention. Do you want to lose a finger? No, sir. Oh, you only had to get that one time.

unknown 37:30

Mr.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Axirard, he had a tennis pattern. And when you weren't paying attention, you bent over and you got hit in your butt. It was like thunder going through your brain. You thought you saw the other world. Nowadays, I'll call the 800 of them. I'll call the goose line. I'm not saying we should kill our kids, but listen, a little snaking on the butt with a wooden spoon once in a while, my God, we'll save a lot of trouble in the future. I don't want to disturb his psyche. It's already disturbed, honey. When you have a kid in the cereal aisle and he's going crazy kicking his mother for fruit loops, the kid's already a fruit loop. You need to do something about it. Come on now, what are you thinking here? Pitch gets hard for a while. And this represents the hard principles we must teach our children. Those conversations. These hard principles, if learned by a child, will keep that child from sin. What did they do when a soldier went to war? They gave him a Bible. Put it in his backpack. Why? This Bible will keep you from sin. This Bible will help you trust God even in battle. You see, when you teach the kids the hard sayings, they become like asphalt in their life and they will stand firm on the promises of God. Can you think of what may be some of those hard principles pertaining to life? Oh, here's what kids say. It's not fair. What's not fair? Well, my friend's mother lets them do it. You don't live in your friend's mother's house. So get that thought out of your mind. That's not even realistic. It's not fair. I took the garbage out yesterday. It's her turn. It's not fair. What do you mean it's not fair? Did your mother tell you to do it? Were you giving a direct order? Did your mother say, can you please take a garbage out? It's overflowing? Oh, oh really? I should do that to my mom when I was going to roll my eyes in the back of my head. I'd be wearing them in the back of my head. That's what we do today. My friends are allowed to do certain things. Though these are hard principles, this pitch, praise God, softens in the sun. What does that mean? The hard principles we teach our children will be heard as their heart is softened by the Son of God. They'll come to understand the hard principles. Listen, when I was young and teenager, I thought my dad was a dinosaur. What does he know? He doesn't listen to the music I listen to. He doesn't my dad know until you get married. And you're responsible for the person in that bed. Then you have your first child and your second child and your third child. And you begin to recollect some of the conversation you had with your dad when you were 16 or 17 years old because he was trying to give you good orderly direction. But you weren't listening because you knew everything. That's the way people are today. They know everything. Don't tell me. There's a root there. There's a root there. You can't tell me. Oh, really? I don't have to. He will. And if you don't listen to him, oh, you're in trouble. It stems from childhood. A lot of our problems today stem from childhood because of bad child rearing at times. How many homes in America this morning really follow Jesus? A woman of faith does the following. She hides the child in birth, she hides the child in infancy. She gives up the child when the child's older. Motherhood has some hard concepts to digest. There are seasons and cycles to child rearing, and it's a never-ending process from the cradle to the grave. You never, never stop parenting. Sometimes it's good to have a conversation with your mom or your dad. You might not like what they say, but they're only saying it because they love you and they got concerned about you. Amen. I failed to listen when I was a kid to my dad. And that was sad for me. I could have excelled in much more, many more areas of life if I listened. As I was growing up. I listened to my mom because she covered for me. She signed that bad report card. She signed that bad test. I didn't even know. Well, she was signed. I said, just sign a mom. It's okay, okay. Because she loved me. She covered for me. But when the hard copy came home and my dad saw her, uh, that was a different story. I had a pay to pipe. I didn't like it. First of the mother's labor is seen in a little girl called Miriam. You see, Miriam was Moses' sister. I want to talk to you for a moment about a mother-daughter connection. I've done a lot of counseling in my lifetime. I could tell you about the father-son wound. I can tell you about the mother-daughter wound. There's a bond between a mom and a daughter. There's a real bond. And Miriam had that bond with her mom. And the Bible says in Exodus chapter 2, verse 4, and his sister stood afar off to wit what we would be done to him. As Moses' mother put that beeping in the river, Miriam was there and she was looking. This is what I call the gift of anticipation. I told this to my grandma daughter the other day. She took me to urgent care. And I texted her back. I thanked her. And I said, Honey, you have many gifts, but one gift that really stands out is the gift of anticipation. You see what needs to be done is that you proceed to do it. A lot of people see what needs to be done, but they never do it. Having the gift of anticipation. Miriam had the gift of anticipation. Okay, what's gonna happen to my little brother? What's gonna happen to this little baby in a basket going down a river? This is a work of faith here. I mean, this is a this is a test. This is an extreme decision-making process. Miriam and Aaron were raised. Aaron was the brother, raised in the admonition of the Lord, and were principal characters along with Moses in the Old Testament. This was not by accident, but by divine appointment. As Miriam was watching and traveling down the river, overseeing the ark which contained her baby brother, so too does God go down the river of life with us and your children, watching on what's going on, and because he wants to be part of our family. He's watching by the river, he's watching by the river of your life, and he said, I see you. He has not forgotten you. No matter what you've gone through. Or whatever you're going through. You see, we often forget God, but he doesn't forget us. And he has different ways on getting our attention again. He has different ways on silencing us, has different ways to deal with us. He allows the circumstances in our life for a reason. It's by divine appointment. And we don't like some of those things. See, God longs for posterity, He's looking for a family. Will your family be part of God's family? We must have a plan to protect and provide for our posterity. We cannot allow spiritual abortion to take place in our homes, our families, and churches. Too many parents are spiritually aborting their children by not teaching them God's word and bringing them to the house of God. We are losing a generation of children. And the question remains: what will be the spiritual condition of our country in years to come if this trend continues? We already see it. We've already lost a generation. The Bible says in Exodus 20 and 12, and we don't preach on these verses too much anymore. Honor thy father and thy mother. Oh, what does that mean? That's a heavy concept. I believe there was more honor years ago when I was being raised. You didn't dare speak to your dad or your mom the way people speak to their parents today. They don't know what the word honor means. Especially when you get old. Like you're a no-count, like you know, you're stupid. Let me tell you something, you didn't get there where you are right now because you didn't have a mom or a dad or a grandparent helping you to get there. Be thankful. Hear what I'm saying. Honor thy mother and father, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord has given you. It's attached to length of life, and people don't want to hear that. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 5 and 16, honor thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God has commanded thee. This is not something to pray about. That thy days may be prolonged, that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord God has given you. Look how people talk to their parents. Look how people discard their parents. Put them away somewhere. We don't want responsibility. I didn't sign up for this. Your mother signed up for it when she was walking the hollows with you when you had the croup, when you couldn't breathe, when she took you to the emergency room, she signed up for it. She didn't exempt herself and say, I didn't sign up for this. She did it. She did it because she loved you. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Proverbs 4 3, for I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. Proverbs 6 and 20, my son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Proverbs 10:1, the problem, the Proverbs of Solomon, a wise son maketh a father glad, and a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. How many mothers' hearts are heavy today? How many grandmothers' hearts are heavy today? Because if a child didn't listen. Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Proverbs 2020. You gotta have good eyesight, friends. You gotta have biblical eyesight 2020. Proverbs 22, 23, 22. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. Despise not your mother when she's old. Responsibility and accountability. What do we do? We put them in some place with stinks of urine. Where no one takes care of. I thank God that you'll be a great nurse, young lady. Because you care, because you love your patients and your clients. I thank God for that. And I thank God for the medical attention I've received in my lifetime. Where people were kind to me and loving to me and took care of me, had compassion for me, and wanted me to get well and then treat me like a dog, like I didn't belong somewhere. Thank God for there's still some people in this world that are like that. Proverbs 23, 25, thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bore thee shall rejoice. Oh, it's nothing better than to have a happy mom. To have a happy mom. Who's proud of you, who's watched you grow, who's helped you to grow into a young woman or a young man. And she looks back and she says it was worth the sacrifice. Listen, mom's sacrifice, dad's sacrifice. I'll get to you guys on Father's Day. In a good way. Parents' sacrifice. Go to work every day. Take that lunchbox. Go out the door. They're in pain. They're hurting. They don't feel good. They're sick. They go to work anyhow. They pound the roads. They put up with nonsense at their work. They put up with supervisors that have no clue what's going on in the agencies. They deal with it. Getting out of bed sometimes is a struggle. But they make a decision. They say, I gotta go. Gotta feed my family. Gotta pay bills. Gotta make sure my kid has baseball shoes. Gotta make sure my wife has what she needs. Gotta make sure there's food on the table. Gotta make sure. Parenting is a sacrifice. And I thank God for the parents that are willing to do that. I'm gonna close here in a moment. The mother and maternal instinct are seen early in a young girl, and his sister stood afar off concerning what's going to be done with baby Moses. But here's how God works. I just love this story. I you just can't get enough of it. In the book of Exodus, in that verse 5, and the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river. Isn't this interesting? Pharaoh's daughter wakes up and she says, You know what? I gotta go refresh at the river. It's a hot day, and I gotta get some cool water on my face and my body. And she goes down by the river, and her maidens walked along the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. Well, what are you talking about here? Hey, she's going down to get some cool water, and she's looking at the river and she said, Hey, what's that master? I never saw that before. Divine providence, God's timing. So many people don't understand God's providence. Some people just don't understand how God works. He sets it up, gives reasons, listen to what had happened. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept, and she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Now her dad didn't like Hebrew children. He wanted them dead, he wanted them killed. He didn't even want them to be born. And but thank God for the people that brought forth the children in those days who said, We will not obey the law. We will not obey the law. And we will bring his children forth from their mother's womb. Oh, they were the unsung heroes of the Old Testament. I like to preach on them too. But listen to what happened. Pharaoh's daughter went against and defied the law of her father. He was the government, he was the boss, he was in charge of the world, he was the man. Hear what I'm saying. What do you call that? I call that maternal instinct and maternal love of a woman for a baby, and it's not even her biological baby. What? So Miriam steps in. See, this is the training of a youngster. You know that mom trained her. You know that her mother brought her up in the admonition of the Lord. And then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee? How does a young girl have so much wisdom? Lady, you can't rest me.

SPEAKER_01 53:36

You had to obey me. You don't even have a husband. But I know somebody that could perform that duty for you. Are you interested? You do?

SPEAKER_00 53:50

Oh yeah. She's a Hebrew woman. But I could bring the child to her to breastfeed. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away. Did I tell you before that weaning went up to sometimes three and four years old? So here's baby Moses, put in a basket by his mother, sent down the river, his sister follows the river. Pharaoh's daughter comes to call off a face, finds the basket, and now Miriam says, Hey, you need a nurse. Pharaoh's daughter said to Moses' mother, take away this child and nurse it for me, and I will give the wages. I will pay you. What a deal! What a sweet, sweet deal. I have a baby. I don't know what to do with the baby. They want to kill my baby. I put my baby in a basket in an ark, send it down the river. Moses, uh Pharaoh's uh daughter finds the baby, and now I've got my baby back for three or four, even five years. And you tell me God doesn't exist? You you tell me that we came from two meteorites that collided and made man? Are you are you telling me that? That's what people are telling me that I came from aliens? The rage of aliens and Nephilim. Who cares? Who cares? I know where I came from. I know I'm saved, sanctified, and through with the Holy Spirit, and I know where I'm going in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What's more important? Everybody's looking for knowledge, everybody wants that one little edge. Oh, did you hear this? Did you hear that? They're coming up with this, they're coming up with that. Glenn Beck said the other day, he says, you know, there's artificial intelligence. Yeah. And he says, here's how alarming it's getting. Now there's going to be artificial, normal intelligence.

unknown 56:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:03

General intelligence, excuse me. And then he said, now what's coming? He says, now get this. There's going to be artificial, super general intelligence. And he says, here's how that's defined. If you would take the brains of everybody in the entire world and put it all together, that's what that super general artificial intelligence is going to be. But you know, Glenn, and I do appreciate that research, and I know it's coming, but I want to tell you, there's nothing more intelligent than this word of God, probably. There's nothing more intelligent than the word of the Lord, praise God, because hallelujah, it will be with us for eternity. The world can do what they want, they can invent what they want, they can say what they want. Who cares? Jesus is coming, and I'm waiting for him, I'm not waiting for finding sources, I'm not waiting for UFOs, I'm not waiting for aliens, I'm not waiting for Nephilids, I don't care nothing about it. I'm waiting for Jesus to split the eastern sky and say, come up here, praise God, because I want my family home. We're getting crazy. We're getting all right, we're getting absolutely crazy. Knowledge puffeth up. Read the word. Knowledge puffeth up. This knowledge sets you free. I want to close. The Bible says in verse 10, and the child grew and brought, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. Moses was to become a great man of God, but he never would have arrived at that point if it had not been for his mother, for his sister, and for Pharaoh's daughter. We need mothers and grandmothers and sisters in our lives to help us as boys and girls to become men and women of God and continue our posterity in Christ for generations to come. I want to tell you this also, as I close. Moses was given the best education in the entire world. Moses knew just about every subject you can think of: physics, chemistry, biology. He was taught. He was in the palace for 40 years. But God had different plans for him. God didn't plan for him to become a professor. God didn't plan for him to become some whatever. He planned for him to become a deliverer. And God banished him to the back side of the desert for 40 years that killed an Egyptian. And sometimes we wonder why God banishes us and why God silences us and why God makes us sit down. Because God wants to talk to us. But man has a restless spirit. Man has a restless spirit. People have a restless spirit. If you see that today, people are going back and forth to and fro. To and fro. Because they're restless. And we absorb ourselves in our work. We become workaholics, we become addicts. And then we create idols. And those idols are being judged. We create idols. All kinds of idols in our life. And we don't repent concerning those idols. We just put up with those idols and we continue to practice those idols. I believe judgment is coming. And I believe God is saying this is the time of repentance. It's sad what's happening in the body of Christ, and I don't want to go into that too much. I just read the other day a famous minister, controversial, we'll name him. His 20-year-old son died of an overdose the other night. 20 years old. Only God knows. A 20-year-old youngster. His dad. Controversial. Says a lot of things that irritate a lot of people. I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for his dad. To lose a son. I feel sorry for his mom. Because I want to tell you something. When you lose a child, your family is never the same. As a matter of fact, a lot of times when people lose a child, the marriage comes into jeopardy because there's blame. Well, you told them to do that. You said this, you did that, you did that. We gotta be careful that we don't become judges. We have to be careful that we become lovers. Let me close with this psalm. Psalm 128 and verse 1. How joyful are those who fear the Lord, all who follow his ways. You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be. Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the blessing, the Lord's blessing for those who fear him. May the Lord continually bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live. May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. May Israel have peace. You know, I don't know how long I have to live in this life. But I do dream about my granddaughters and my grandsons. I wonder how many more that I might be able to marry. I'm telling you that. I wonder how many more I could see walk down an aisle with someone that loves them. Cares for them. Knowing that our posterity will live, that children will be born. I think about that often. I don't know how much time I have. Some people believe that God gives us 120 years. I don't know if I want to live to 120. My body's a little rickety now at 78. Can't imagine what it's gonna be at 120. But whatever God's will is. To a Christian compass. My own family. I now pronounce you husband and wife. How many more babies can I dedicate in the church? I just love to dedicate babies. I'm not telling you they get pregnant, but well, if it happens, it happens. It's not my business. He did say me, first will multiply, so it's not my business. I'm not in your bedroom. Not telling you what to do. I'm just making the suggestion. That's all. A biblical one. Who knows?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

More to marry.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

I've heard people say, Well, I can't get pregnant. Be careful what you say. Be careful what you say. Because I've heard that story before. And I've heard God go against that law. Let me close. Because I'm gonna get myself in trouble. Thank you, Father. It's a tender day for us, especially for moms that are not with us, for moms that are struggling. And my heart goes out to every mom. They're tired. I could see that. This world has become abrasive to moms, especially. They do so much. And single parent moms. I tip my hat to you this morning. They're just great people who hang in there. For whatever reasons the male has left the home or is absent spiritually, I don't know. It's not my judgment. But I applaud every mom. I applaud every single mom that hangs in there every day like a boxer in a ring, that takes blows, goes to the stool, gets a two or three minute rest, and comes back out for the bell. And he says, I'll fight again. I'll stand for Christ, I'll stand for Jesus, and I will protect my children. I pray your blessing upon every mom, every woman that listens, every mom to be. I pray God that you will bless their womb in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Would you stand with us? Church is not over. Keep it solemn.