WEBVTT 00:00:02.543 --> 00:00:20.771 If it had not been for our mothers, I could tell you some stories about how my mother snatched me out of the jaws of glory by the nap of my neck. 00:00:20.771 --> 00:00:25.242 I'm just saying who's training? 00:00:25.242 --> 00:00:27.550 We got three of y''all, four y'all, all right. 00:00:27.550 --> 00:00:29.582 All right, y'all stand for the reading of God's word. 00:00:29.582 --> 00:00:45.655 If you have your Bibles today, look with us in Luke, chapter one, luke, chapter one, verse 46 and 48. 00:00:45.655 --> 00:00:51.606 If you got it, say amen. 00:00:51.606 --> 00:00:57.485 If you need some more time, say hold up, y'all scared, it's all right. 00:00:57.485 --> 00:01:13.109 Verse 46 in Luke, chapter 1, it says and Mary said my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. 00:01:13.109 --> 00:01:18.947 For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. 00:01:18.947 --> 00:01:23.042 Let's pray, father, we thank you so much for your mercy and your grace. 00:01:23.042 --> 00:01:33.504 We thank you, god, for the women who have been so influential in our lives, who have kept us from harming ourselves and others, and somehow they keep their sanity. 00:01:33.504 --> 00:01:36.471 Lord, we pray a special blessing over the women in our lives today. 00:01:36.471 --> 00:01:38.843 In your name, we pray Amen. 00:01:38.843 --> 00:01:44.233 You may be seated Now. 00:01:44.293 --> 00:01:47.078 Today's title it was actually. 00:01:47.078 --> 00:01:52.792 I didn't realize it was going to be on Mother's Day, but I ended up tying it in to the bridge thing, without keeping the same theme. 00:01:52.792 --> 00:01:57.611 It was going to be a bridge of hope and I was like that's the perfect thing. 00:01:57.611 --> 00:02:00.706 Like mothers are a beam of hope in our lives. 00:02:00.706 --> 00:02:08.560 Like when everything else looks dark in our lives. 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:12.087 Like when everything else looks dark, when nothing makes sense after the stupid choices I make, mama's still there. 00:02:12.087 --> 00:02:14.070 You got any mama boys in the house? 00:02:14.070 --> 00:02:16.103 Mama's boys, yeah, you know it. 00:02:16.103 --> 00:02:18.070 You know it and you're the favorite. 00:02:18.070 --> 00:02:19.296 Everybody else knows it. 00:02:19.296 --> 00:02:22.002 You tell your brothers and sisters that it's just what it is. 00:02:22.002 --> 00:02:24.445 My brother knows if he's watching I'm mama's favorite. 00:02:24.445 --> 00:02:25.348 My mother knows. 00:02:25.348 --> 00:02:30.574 She laughs when I say it and she won't say it's not true, because we all know it is. 00:02:30.574 --> 00:02:36.692 My mother through my entire life was my biggest fan. 00:02:36.692 --> 00:02:43.229 My dad was the biggest truth teller of how big of an idiot I would always be. 00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:45.944 Biggest truth teller of how big of an idiot I would always be. 00:02:45.944 --> 00:02:58.140 So if you wanted moral support, if you wanted your hand to be held, you did not go to dad, you would go to mom. 00:02:58.140 --> 00:02:59.724 Some of us in our private lives have not had the mothers that maybe others did. 00:02:59.724 --> 00:03:03.635 But I guarantee you, if you step back and look at the people that influenced your life. 00:03:03.635 --> 00:03:05.461 There was a mother involved somewhere. 00:03:07.524 --> 00:03:17.099 So, as I was sitting yesterday evening, I was sitting at my desk and so the people before us did it. 00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:17.741 I didn't do it. 00:03:17.741 --> 00:03:22.084 I think it's kind of dumb, but if you have that wallpaper, it's fine. 00:03:22.084 --> 00:03:24.006 If you have that wallpaper, it's fine. 00:03:24.006 --> 00:03:46.967 So in my office, where there is a place to sit with a top and there's a top over here, we have the printer and a couple printers and some things, well in between of the cabinets where you put books or whatever you're going to hide stuff, there's a piece about that big that goes all the way around into the corner and comes over to the edge of the door and it's a wallpaper of fake books. 00:03:46.967 --> 00:03:52.682 I thought about taking a picture with it look how smart I am. 00:03:52.682 --> 00:04:02.366 But so, since it's so ugly and I didn't want to deal with having to take it off, what I've started to do is take pictures of my family. 00:04:02.366 --> 00:04:12.151 If you want to know what the app is, anybody know of an app that you can get free, like a thousand photos free, three by fives, for one year. 00:04:12.151 --> 00:04:13.822 You only pay like $2 in shipping. 00:04:13.822 --> 00:04:15.627 As many as you want. 00:04:15.627 --> 00:04:16.910 Yeah, talk to me after service. 00:04:16.910 --> 00:04:18.333 I use this all the time. 00:04:18.333 --> 00:04:19.281 It comes to my house. 00:04:19.281 --> 00:04:20.882 I'm doing it right off my phone. 00:04:20.882 --> 00:04:25.249 In the app I select which ones I want and what sizes I want, and it's completely free, except for the shipping. 00:04:25.249 --> 00:04:26.951 So it's pretty cool. 00:04:26.951 --> 00:04:34.091 So I've been using this service to my advantage and I have taped over these ugly books and fake stuff. 00:04:34.411 --> 00:04:39.363 I have pictures of moments in our lives since we've been married that were on my phone. 00:04:39.363 --> 00:04:43.992 There is one that I actually y'all know. 00:04:43.992 --> 00:04:45.586 Our anniversary was a couple weeks ago. 00:04:45.586 --> 00:04:57.632 We just passed seven years on the 16th of April, and she, I told y'all I made her sign a contract to seven more, so she's grandfathered in for at least another seven. 00:04:57.632 --> 00:05:05.012 Well, when we went to Six Flags for that weekend, I thought in my head you ever get this thing in your head. 00:05:05.012 --> 00:05:07.324 You want to do something nice for somebody and nothing pans out. 00:05:07.324 --> 00:05:20.930 I'm thinking I didn't even tell her this, but I have in my office this picture of us when we first got married, on top of the Six Flags tower they have inside and it was overlooking Six Flags and we had a stranger take the photo. 00:05:20.930 --> 00:05:22.483 They had that thing shut down. 00:05:22.483 --> 00:05:25.591 They had all these rides shut down. 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:55.805 All I wanted was another photo of seven years ago, beside who we are today, because a lot of steps in our lives, a lot of instances in our lives in these photos that I have all around my office and I have more on the side of this little thing that's got 10 little places for photos I started to look and I'm like looking at my stages of life with this woman. 00:05:55.805 --> 00:06:00.814 I can say that, right, jesus said woman to his own mother, right, so that can't get me in trouble. 00:06:00.814 --> 00:06:07.819 I know that much about the Bible. 00:06:07.819 --> 00:06:25.574 And I have this other photo of when Tristan was I don't think he was living with us yet we were still in an apartment when we first got married and him and I we were at some home store and they had these huge mirrors and we're flexing like this, trying to show our muscles, and he's growling and trying to flex his little skinny beam of an arm, trying to make a little bump, and he's like, look at me, dad. 00:06:25.574 --> 00:06:26.906 I'm like, yeah, son, you're doing great. 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:33.310 And then I see I noticed in the corner while preparing there's this little head in the reflection of the mirror and it's hers. 00:06:33.310 --> 00:06:37.367 And I was like I didn't even know she was in this photo. 00:06:37.367 --> 00:06:51.927 And there's moments like that in our lives where we may be looking at ourselves, we may be looking at ourselves, we may be enjoying certain moments in our lives and there's women that are a part of that, that sometimes we don't fully recognize, that are actually in the background sometimes. 00:06:51.927 --> 00:06:57.807 If you've noticed earlier, I noticed while I was singing she was worried about it being a distraction. 00:06:57.807 --> 00:06:58.822 But my wife. 00:06:58.822 --> 00:07:04.663 I looked and I kind of laughed under my breath because I'm playing and I know she sits here Like this is the faithful spot. 00:07:04.663 --> 00:07:07.732 If I can't find my wife and it's in the middle of the service, I know to look there. 00:07:07.732 --> 00:07:15.483 She's there. 00:07:15.483 --> 00:07:17.846 Well, I'm singing and I look and all of a sudden she's right there. 00:07:17.846 --> 00:07:19.708 I'm like, oh, what is she doing? 00:07:19.708 --> 00:07:23.112 I forgot that she was doing something and she had an agenda going on. 00:07:23.112 --> 00:07:24.413 And then I look again and she's over there. 00:07:24.413 --> 00:07:35.930 And then I look and she's over there and I laughed at myself and it's like that's just like the women in our lives that we don't even realize that they're in the background, moving and doing things and we never take time to stop and appreciate what they are doing. 00:07:40.821 --> 00:07:42.002 I have Jesse and Tristan. 00:07:42.002 --> 00:07:47.093 They first got when he first started living with us. 00:07:47.093 --> 00:07:49.324 There's this place. 00:07:49.324 --> 00:07:59.471 Y'all have a Chili's here, but there's a special Chili's in Tyler and this special Chili's is the place that I convinced my wife that she was going to marry me. 00:07:59.471 --> 00:08:08.432 I'm sorry, I guess at that moment she was gonna date me, but in my head it was Mary that I said I was fasting and praying about her. 00:08:08.432 --> 00:08:16.389 And we sit down in this certain booth at Chili's over there and Tyler, and she said I just don't feel God telling me yes. 00:08:16.389 --> 00:08:21.749 I said in my infinite wisdom, spirit of God spoke through me and said has he told you no? 00:08:21.749 --> 00:08:27.800 And she said, well, no. 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:31.127 And I said well, then, stop acting like he has. 00:08:31.166 --> 00:08:36.380 And here we are seven years later and she is still still. 00:08:36.380 --> 00:08:37.023 You could see her. 00:08:37.023 --> 00:08:39.750 She's in the background all the time doing something. 00:08:39.750 --> 00:08:42.222 You don't have to say a word to her and you turn around and it's done. 00:08:42.222 --> 00:08:46.830 It's like Sister Judy and those faithful desserts that she brings to every meal. 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:50.554 Can I get a Holy Ghost filled hallelujah up in this place? 00:08:50.554 --> 00:08:54.369 Everybody knows Pentecostal people love their food. 00:08:54.369 --> 00:09:07.633 If you're on a diet the first Wednesday of every month, you ain't, because Sister Judy's bringing something sweet, and we have every chapter of our life, every story that's in our life. 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:14.927 Somewhere entangled in that story there are women that has influenced us, there's women that have been important to us. 00:09:14.927 --> 00:09:17.947 And has anyone ever taken their mama for granted? 00:09:17.947 --> 00:09:25.889 Hello, the older I get, the older I get, the more I look back and see how much I took her for granted. 00:09:25.889 --> 00:09:44.130 Every chapter, every line, every story that we have in our life there have been influential women that have been shaping and have carried us and have uplifted us by strong women. 00:09:44.130 --> 00:09:58.033 I remember like one of the reasons I did not allow her to tell me no, it sounds bad, but when I first saw her I said out loud, vocally. 00:09:58.033 --> 00:10:01.903 At the time the pastor's wife was sitting next to me and I said I'm going to marry that girl. 00:10:01.903 --> 00:10:15.460 I couldn't even remember her name, but when I looked at her I saw the glory and honor of God draped on her. 00:10:15.460 --> 00:10:26.227 When I hear her pray, she may be small in stature but she is a giant spiritually. 00:10:26.227 --> 00:10:32.772 We need to stop and make sure that we are not overlooking because listen, when you wait to pass out the bouquets at the funeral, it's too late. 00:10:32.772 --> 00:10:36.243 Honor the women in your life. 00:10:36.845 --> 00:10:49.148 I'm going to name off some women you may know the story about, but I was really curious because some of the women in the Bible are named but you don't really sometimes have their backstory, like the 12 disciples. 00:10:49.148 --> 00:11:00.086 We know Peter, you know there's all the famous ones that really did any things, but you get deep into the 10th and 11th and 12th one and you don't really find much information about them. 00:11:00.086 --> 00:11:04.352 Mary of nazareth anybody ever heard that before? 00:11:04.352 --> 00:11:10.464 Mary's all-important role in the bible goes without saying. 00:11:10.464 --> 00:11:16.440 The mother of jesus, she gave birth to the world's savior when she was just a teen. 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:25.595 As the angel gabriel said, she would literally carry the word inside of her and gave birth to the greatest human the world had ever known. 00:11:25.595 --> 00:11:33.712 That kind of substance is what most women carry around with them. 00:11:33.712 --> 00:11:41.864 Have you ever noticed that in a church full of people, usually the woman is the one coming and the man won't? 00:11:41.864 --> 00:11:51.033 They are more sensitive, they are more open and they will allow God to use them to carry the word. 00:11:52.735 --> 00:11:53.938 Thank God, I'm sorry ladies. 00:11:53.938 --> 00:11:54.782 Thank God, I'm not a woman. 00:11:54.782 --> 00:12:01.065 I don't know how y'all put up with all the things that you do with your body doing things and pregnancy. 00:12:01.065 --> 00:12:07.606 Like you gain weight, your body changes and then everyone suffers and no one knows what's going on. 00:12:07.606 --> 00:12:09.475 The men, we can't figure you out. 00:12:09.475 --> 00:12:13.389 We try to do it, a lifetime long of research and it just gets back to I have no clue. 00:12:13.389 --> 00:12:21.985 But thank God that he made us so dumb that we can't figure it out, that we just say all right, baby, you got it, we start getting smarter. 00:12:21.985 --> 00:12:24.969 We have Ruth in the Bible. 00:12:25.269 --> 00:12:29.813 Ruth the Moabite was an example of unwavering faith and bravery. 00:12:29.813 --> 00:12:40.067 After being widowed early in life, she stuck with her mother-in-law and followed God for all her days, believing that he would provide for her. 00:12:40.067 --> 00:12:44.139 Can we get a little hand clap for some mother-in-laws? 00:12:44.139 --> 00:12:56.600 Come on laws. 00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:57.120 Come on Mary Magdalene. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.227 Mary is an often misunderstood biblical figure, but she was certainly a faithful follower of Jesus. 00:13:00.227 --> 00:13:11.106 She has a bad reputation, but if you look deeper and you listen closely, she is actually one of the most faithful people that would sit at the feet of Jesus. 00:13:11.106 --> 00:13:15.905 That would stay on the heels of Jesus constantly during his ministry. 00:13:15.905 --> 00:13:22.087 After being healed by him, she traveled with him and witnessed crucifixion, burial and the resurrection. 00:13:23.777 --> 00:13:36.107 Rachel patiently waited to marry or love Jacob after being cruelly deceived by her own father, who tricked Jacob into marrying the sister Talk about some Jerry Springer stuff. 00:13:36.107 --> 00:13:47.923 Her prayers were answered and, although she was childless at first, she became the mother to Joseph and Benjamin Hannah. 00:13:47.923 --> 00:13:57.043 Hannah desperately prayed for a son and promised that she would dedicate his life to God when God came through. 00:13:57.043 --> 00:13:58.246 She kept her word. 00:13:58.246 --> 00:14:08.922 She left her son to the prophet Samuel to be raised in the temple, providing her son wisdom and a deeper relationship with God by that sacrifice that she gave. 00:14:08.922 --> 00:14:20.365 And Hannah's faithfulness never faltered, even when something that rightfully belonged to her, she still gave it up and sacrificed and gave it all to God. 00:14:20.365 --> 00:14:31.563 Deborah, as the only female judge mentioned in the Bible, deborah is known for being a compassionate leader, and if you know anything about the leaders in the Bible, they weren't really full of compassion. 00:14:31.563 --> 00:14:42.438 Esther, queen Esther, showed great courage by telling the Persian king about a plan to assassinate him and later a plan to have all the Jews in Persia killed. 00:14:42.438 --> 00:14:47.748 With the power of prayer and bravery, she saved an entire people. 00:14:51.534 --> 00:14:53.277 I am so thankful for praying mothers. 00:14:53.277 --> 00:15:00.284 You may not hear it, you may not see it, but when a mother starts praying, they have a heart that a husband or a father cannot really grasp. 00:15:00.284 --> 00:15:05.309 They have a deeper level because they literally walked with that child being a part of them. 00:15:05.309 --> 00:15:14.813 They literally walked those steps of being one with this baby. 00:15:14.813 --> 00:15:19.221 Miriam, the prophetess Miriam maybe some of y'all know who she is and maybe you don't. 00:15:19.221 --> 00:15:20.927 I had to look it up because I didn't know she was ever called a prophet. 00:15:20.927 --> 00:15:22.091 But this is actually Moses' older sister. 00:15:22.091 --> 00:15:24.037 Their mother left. 00:15:24.037 --> 00:15:26.282 She helped save Moses the baby. 00:15:26.282 --> 00:15:32.019 Their mother left him in a basket to protect him from being killed by Pharaoh and when Pharaoh's daughter found him and took pity on him. 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:33.621 Miriam, sarah this is Abraham's wife. 00:15:33.621 --> 00:15:43.926 She is an example of how God keeps his promises. 00:15:43.926 --> 00:15:49.527 After telling Abraham she would bear his son, despite being barren, sarah gave birth to Isaac at 90 years old. 00:15:49.527 --> 00:15:50.109 Ladies, there is still hope. 00:15:50.109 --> 00:15:52.654 After telling Abraham she would bear his son, despite being barren, sarah gave birth to Isaac at 90 years old. 00:15:52.654 --> 00:15:56.203 Ladies, there is still hope. 00:15:56.203 --> 00:15:57.267 God is still faithful. 00:15:57.267 --> 00:16:09.591 Some of y'all think that would be a curse, just saying if you need prayer after service. 00:16:09.591 --> 00:16:13.240 Some of y'all are rebuking that spirit. 00:16:13.259 --> 00:16:20.129 Elizabeth similar to sarah, elizabeth was too old to conceive a child, but god made it possible. 00:16:20.129 --> 00:16:28.285 She went on to give birth to john the baptist, who told the world of Jesus coming, priscilla. 00:16:28.285 --> 00:16:31.551 She is an example of a godly wife in the Bible. 00:16:31.551 --> 00:16:38.523 Throughout her marriage to Akilah, the couple was known for their powerful ministry and generosity to those in need. 00:16:38.523 --> 00:16:43.464 When I read this, I started crying, because that's what I want us to be. 00:16:43.464 --> 00:16:52.602 I want, when we pray as a couple, as a mother and a father, for our children, the heads of protection comes around them immediately. 00:16:52.602 --> 00:17:00.864 That when they may not be living right which we know, all of us know this is possible and they go astray and they start doing stupid things. 00:17:00.864 --> 00:17:03.443 And when they're adults you can't really do much legally. 00:17:03.443 --> 00:17:07.306 They can go do whatever they want and all you can do is cry at home and pray. 00:17:07.306 --> 00:17:10.878 They can go do whatever they want and all you can do is cry at home and pray. 00:17:11.779 --> 00:17:16.746 Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, mary always put Jesus first. 00:17:16.746 --> 00:17:28.694 While she was hosting him at her home with Martha, he commended her for choosing the better by sitting at his feet instead of being swayed by housework and entertaining duties. 00:17:28.694 --> 00:17:34.375 By sitting at his feet instead of being swayed by housework and entertaining duties. 00:17:34.375 --> 00:17:41.176 Jesus blesses the worker, but he also blesses the one that stops and just worships at Jesus' feet. 00:17:41.176 --> 00:17:46.242 These things are, not one is better than the other, but just for a second we need to have that about us. 00:17:46.242 --> 00:18:01.214 Martha while Mary's sister Martha was chastised by being hosting, doing the duties to serve Jesus, she was the one being chastised. 00:18:01.214 --> 00:18:06.515 Above learning Jesus' word, she was still a devoted follower who wanted Jesus to be comfortable and waited upon him. 00:18:06.815 --> 00:18:09.663 Jochebed, mentioned in the book of Exodus a mother. 00:18:09.663 --> 00:18:21.480 Jochebed, had to put her baby's life into God's hands During the time when Pharaoh issued a decree to kill the Hebrew baby boys by putting them in the Nile River. 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:22.804 They saved his life. 00:18:22.804 --> 00:18:30.507 If this sounds familiar, this is Moses' mother Rahab, first mentioned in the book of Joshua. 00:18:30.507 --> 00:18:35.090 Rahab's story is one of an unexpected person becoming a faithful servant of God. 00:18:35.090 --> 00:18:42.628 By providing shelter to Israelite soldiers, she puts her own life at risk while demonstrating faith in God. 00:18:42.628 --> 00:18:46.500 So earlier we said something about what was it, holy Spirit? 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:47.501 You are welcome here. 00:18:47.501 --> 00:18:52.088 Something about what was it, holy Spirit? 00:18:52.088 --> 00:18:53.250 You are welcome here. 00:18:53.431 --> 00:19:00.881 We talk about God consuming us, the invitation of God filling us, god do something in our lives, but we aren't willing to let go of who we are. 00:19:00.881 --> 00:19:01.923 We don't make space. 00:19:01.923 --> 00:19:08.820 We fill up our containers with so many other things coming our direction and we say God, we want to move of you, but we will not move for him. 00:19:08.820 --> 00:19:16.739 If we're wanting to see miracles and signs and wonders in our church and this body of believers, you need to start worshiping like. 00:19:16.739 --> 00:19:17.662 You know who you're talking to. 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:23.596 I know this because of my mother. 00:19:23.596 --> 00:19:27.740 I know that the God that I serve is able to heal. 00:19:27.740 --> 00:19:39.836 Because of my mother, I know that I can trust God and lean on his understanding when I don't see, I don't know, I don't know why. 00:19:39.836 --> 00:19:41.063 I don't have a good reason why they're acting that way. 00:19:41.063 --> 00:19:43.595 I don't have a good reason why my job situation right now is not turning out the way that I dreamed it was. 00:19:43.595 --> 00:19:48.406 I have no reason why my marriage right now is on the rocks and everything about us is a fight. 00:19:48.406 --> 00:19:50.038 And I don't understand God. 00:19:50.038 --> 00:19:50.741 Where are you? 00:19:50.741 --> 00:19:59.286 These are valid questions, but the point is God is still there, whether you feel him or see him In the middle of where you are. 00:19:59.286 --> 00:20:05.806 It may be sickness and disease, it may be depression and anxiety, but God is still the chain breaker. 00:20:05.806 --> 00:20:07.249 He is still the healer. 00:20:07.249 --> 00:20:13.327 But God is still the chain breaker. 00:20:13.327 --> 00:20:13.871 He is still the healer. 00:20:13.891 --> 00:20:14.775 When I was in high school, my mother. 00:20:14.775 --> 00:20:22.127 She was diagnosed with something called primary pulmonary hypertension and so what it was is that she had in the valves between her heart and lungs. 00:20:22.127 --> 00:20:23.828 There was pinholes in there. 00:20:23.828 --> 00:20:29.353 It had worked itself so hard trying to push and push and push that it created little pinholes in there. 00:20:29.353 --> 00:20:43.694 We had doctors from Houston, we had specialists from London, we had all these people that were coming trying to figure out how to save her life, because the doctor said she had three to five years to live and with that number she had to get a heart and lung transplant. 00:20:43.694 --> 00:20:49.403 I don't know if you know anything about the transplant system, but getting one of those is nearly impossible. 00:20:49.403 --> 00:20:53.364 We needed a miracle from God. 00:20:54.556 --> 00:20:59.982 I remember my mother, so the stage was set up it was probably from that end to this end and I was playing drums over here. 00:20:59.982 --> 00:21:13.817 My mother was over there and I remember while playing I would always my dad would play keyboard and we had a worship leader and I'd always watch my dad for for timing or he would give me signals if we were going into something else, some other part of the song, and so I'm looking over and I see my mother. 00:21:13.817 --> 00:21:17.124 She played bass and she grabbed her chest and went against the wall. 00:21:17.124 --> 00:21:23.340 You talk about a, a young teenage kid flip out when they see their mother grab their. 00:21:23.340 --> 00:21:34.383 She was in maybe her 40s and we learned how to trust God even when we didn't understand. 00:21:34.383 --> 00:21:42.652 It got so bad to where she would be just doing a simple task like laundry and her chest would turn red. 00:21:42.652 --> 00:21:43.877 She would have to be on oxygen. 00:21:43.877 --> 00:21:54.215 She couldn't make it down the hallway and back without having to sit down and rest for a minute because it was doing a toll so much, trying to get blood to where it was supposed to go and everything was being worn down. 00:21:54.215 --> 00:21:55.739 Everything was trying to. 00:21:55.739 --> 00:22:02.820 The devil tried to take her out early on in my life, but today I can tell you that now she is certified scuba diver. 00:22:02.820 --> 00:22:13.759 Not only are we allowed to live in the freedom of healing, but we're allowed to rub it in the devil's face. 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:21.567 I mean, I take great joy in that. 00:22:21.567 --> 00:22:29.356 My mother was a beam of light to me to show me that even when you were in the middle of great sickness, great depression, you talk about something when you can't do things anymore. 00:22:30.871 --> 00:22:31.815 I remember my father. 00:22:31.815 --> 00:22:32.939 He had rheumatoid arthritis. 00:22:32.939 --> 00:22:34.455 By the way, he'll be here next week to preach. 00:22:34.455 --> 00:22:37.680 So y'all get to see what's wrong with me, why I'm the way I am. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:44.441 But it just came over him, rheumatoid, he couldn't. 00:22:44.441 --> 00:22:48.011 He couldn't button his shirt, he couldn't get up to go to the bathroom by himself. 00:22:48.011 --> 00:22:53.570 I remember him covering up his head and crying out like Job did in the Bible. 00:22:53.570 --> 00:22:58.602 I literally saw Job in my childhood firsthand crying out God, where are you? 00:22:58.602 --> 00:22:59.544 What have I done? 00:22:59.544 --> 00:23:03.240 This is a pastor of a church who is saying God, where are you? 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:05.076 Because God is not scared of your questions. 00:23:05.076 --> 00:23:10.756 Matter of fact, when we're in great times of trouble and need, it is a place for us to start growing closer to him. 00:23:10.756 --> 00:23:16.634 If you really want to know who God is, start going through issues, start going through troubles. 00:23:18.371 --> 00:23:20.558 Time and time again we see in our lives. 00:23:20.558 --> 00:23:22.517 I saw my mother pick him up. 00:23:22.517 --> 00:23:24.317 I was a little kid but I got on one side. 00:23:24.317 --> 00:23:29.715 My mom got on the other side and she would be encouraging him and tell him come on, let's go, let's go, let's go. 00:23:29.715 --> 00:23:34.830 We got this In the middle of desperation in go, let's go. 00:23:34.830 --> 00:23:39.902 We got this In the middle of desperation, in the middle of what we didn't want to be in the middle of, and she would have the faith to continue on. 00:23:39.922 --> 00:23:49.136 Because I tell you what, in reality, if you're going through some serious things in your life and in your marriage and in your home, you don't want to go listen to what God has to say to you. 00:23:49.136 --> 00:23:54.838 Can we get real If you start feeling alone and you get depressed and you thank god? 00:23:54.838 --> 00:23:55.952 God don't want nothing. 00:23:55.952 --> 00:23:57.076 Why am I feeling this way? 00:23:57.076 --> 00:23:58.901 If I'm feeling this way, god doesn't love me. 00:23:58.901 --> 00:24:02.917 But let me counterpoint with this because you feel that way, he loves you more. 00:24:02.917 --> 00:24:07.253 He wants to show you what he can do in your life. 00:24:07.253 --> 00:24:10.981 In the quiet times, let me tell you that he is up to something. 00:24:10.981 --> 00:24:14.299 When you can't hear or see, he is working on your behalf. 00:24:14.299 --> 00:24:24.750 Because you're not understanding that the principalities that are fighting over you right now, trying to infiltrate your spirit and your life and in your mind, he has to fight and fight and fight. 00:24:24.750 --> 00:24:27.336 But our God is always faithful. 00:24:27.336 --> 00:24:39.538 The women in my life have went down, sacrificing for family, for God, for the greater good, giving themselves for others and being sensitive and yielding to the Spirit. 00:24:39.538 --> 00:24:41.611 Proverbs 31, 25 says this. 00:24:41.611 --> 00:24:43.859 I challenge you to go read Proverbs 31. 00:24:43.859 --> 00:24:46.851 There's actually a ministry called Proverbs 31 Ministry. 00:24:46.851 --> 00:24:48.952 It's awesome information. 00:24:48.952 --> 00:24:57.442 But Proverbs 31, 25 says strength and honor are her clothing. 00:24:57.442 --> 00:25:01.250 She shall rejoice in time to come. 00:25:01.250 --> 00:25:12.976 Proverbs the next verse after that, proverbs 31, 26, says when she speaks, her words are wise and she gives instructions with kindness. 00:25:13.978 --> 00:25:16.824 I'm so thankful for a mother that was my biggest fan. 00:25:16.824 --> 00:25:28.875 I know not everybody gets a trophy, but my mom made me feel like I did, even when I wasn't the best, like I loved running cross-country in high school. 00:25:28.875 --> 00:25:29.115 I loved it. 00:25:29.115 --> 00:25:31.519 Loved running cross country in high school. 00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:32.039 I loved it. 00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:33.662 I was terrible. 00:25:33.662 --> 00:25:43.493 When I say terrible, I would fight for not getting last place. 00:25:43.493 --> 00:25:44.557 Like, yeah, that was their reaction too. 00:25:44.557 --> 00:25:45.501 They laughed at me all the way back home. 00:25:45.501 --> 00:25:47.670 But my mother was like that's okay, son, you didn't get last. 00:25:47.670 --> 00:25:49.673 Well, it still hurts. 00:25:49.673 --> 00:25:54.923 She's the whole reason that I kept pursuing music. 00:25:55.746 --> 00:26:02.766 Because even when I was six years old, my parents got me a drum set for Christmas and up in Missouri we have basements. 00:26:02.766 --> 00:26:08.436 I remember I told y'all about the story about how I prayed real loud when I was in trouble down in the basement so they would hear it in the vents upstairs. 00:26:08.436 --> 00:26:18.576 I wanted him to think that God already took care of it so he didn't have to come down, didn't ever work, but I tried and they set up a drum set. 00:26:18.576 --> 00:26:21.539 They had this curtain and they pulled it back and it was a full set of drums. 00:26:21.539 --> 00:26:23.458 They got it from a pawn shop for like $300. 00:26:23.458 --> 00:26:27.037 And I'm like, oh, this is so cool. 00:26:27.037 --> 00:26:29.594 You know, a kid with a drum set, like we love to make noise. 00:26:29.594 --> 00:26:39.877 I'm playing, my parents are upstairs and my dad looks at my mom and says I think we made a mistake. 00:26:39.877 --> 00:26:42.041 So they bought me some headphones, bought me a little. 00:26:42.041 --> 00:26:57.311 I think back then it was a tape deck, before it was a CD player, a little Walkman, and before you know it, with the encouragement of my mother, I guess I started getting better, because my dad came in and he said hey, what do you think about bringing it up to the church and playing? 00:26:57.311 --> 00:27:01.601 And so he took one piece at a time a snare and then the hi-hat. 00:27:01.601 --> 00:27:05.704 So I'd go like this, which was really weird you play a full set and you go to just two things. 00:27:05.704 --> 00:27:11.863 But then he'd bring the bass and so he was building me up while my mother was building me up to keep going. 00:27:11.923 --> 00:27:16.957 And the reason I'm in photography is my mother saw something in me that I never saw in myself. 00:27:16.957 --> 00:27:20.689 I always had a camera and take pictures. 00:27:20.689 --> 00:27:22.273 I never dreamed of making money doing it. 00:27:22.273 --> 00:27:24.800 I didn't know somebody would pay me to take their photos. 00:27:24.800 --> 00:27:27.957 I didn't know somebody would pay me to go take photos of a house. 00:27:27.957 --> 00:27:29.491 I didn't even know that was a thing. 00:27:29.491 --> 00:27:34.671 And my mom, she is in real estate and she said listen, why don't you try this real estate thing? 00:27:34.671 --> 00:27:35.752 I think you'd really enjoy it. 00:27:35.752 --> 00:27:41.854 So I started going to the great classroom of YouTube and I started looking and I'm like this is pretty cool. 00:27:41.854 --> 00:27:49.055 And then I was able to make a living when God this is how God works it out From the encouragement of my mother. 00:27:49.055 --> 00:28:00.994 It was right before a season when I was about to get my pay cut in half and I already had studied and prepared for a season that was to come, and I didn't even know it was coming. 00:28:01.015 --> 00:28:05.913 I believe mothers are used by God to prepare the way for, sometimes, the seasons that haven't even arrived yet. 00:28:05.913 --> 00:28:08.119 Listen to your mamas. 00:28:08.119 --> 00:28:12.132 She would believe in me, especially when I didn't believe in myself. 00:28:12.132 --> 00:28:18.471 She had a motherly vantage point that I, as a husband, do not see my wife. 00:28:18.471 --> 00:28:21.421 Sometimes she'll be like am I doing it right. 00:28:21.421 --> 00:28:22.894 Anybody ever question? 00:28:22.894 --> 00:28:26.296 If you're parenting right before, that means you are. 00:28:26.296 --> 00:28:30.400 If you're questioning, that means you're doing something right because you care enough. 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:48.609 And I said baby, let me tell you this Since we got married, tristan has never come to my side of the bed in the middle of the night Ever. 00:28:48.630 --> 00:28:50.756 He would always go to her side and lay down Every single time. 00:28:50.756 --> 00:28:54.905 He will sometimes forget at night to come in and say goodnight to me, but he will tell her goodnight. 00:28:54.905 --> 00:29:01.903 I dropped him off to his grandpa's in Tyler and Jessie I'm telling on you sorry it was part of the story she was taking a nap. 00:29:01.903 --> 00:29:04.739 Okay, she thinks that's terrible, but I'm like, if you need to take a nap, take a nap. 00:29:04.739 --> 00:29:06.550 Can I get an amen? 00:29:06.550 --> 00:29:08.451 Mama Bear needs to take a nap. 00:29:08.451 --> 00:29:09.511 You better let her hibernate. 00:29:11.993 --> 00:29:20.198 And Tristan came in from school and as soon as he comes in on every other Friday we have to go so we can meet them at five, a little after five over in Tyler. 00:29:20.198 --> 00:29:25.181 And he comes in and he walks in and he sees her in the far couch away. 00:29:25.181 --> 00:29:33.726 She's got her back, her head's covered up and he goes and he walks out and I'm like what is his problem now. 00:29:33.726 --> 00:29:35.686 Sometimes kids whine a lot. 00:29:35.686 --> 00:29:36.228 I don't know. 00:29:36.228 --> 00:29:41.673 I'm sure I never did that. 00:29:41.673 --> 00:29:48.442 I go and I drop him off and before he gets into the vehicle he's leaving in so I can come back to Longview. 00:29:48.442 --> 00:29:50.585 He says roll down your window. 00:29:50.585 --> 00:29:51.286 So I roll down my window. 00:29:51.286 --> 00:29:57.351 He said tell Mama J. 00:29:57.351 --> 00:29:59.313 I said thanks for being asleep before I left and gets in the truck. 00:29:59.313 --> 00:30:07.424 He almost forgot to hug me, but he remembered to smart off that she was asleep before he left. 00:30:12.750 --> 00:30:14.039 Mothers make a difference in the lives of the people around them. 00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:27.431 Ladies, if you ever doubt if you're making a difference, take the time when your kid embraces you and remember that moment, because if you have young kids soon, there will be hard times where you think they don't love you anymore. 00:30:27.431 --> 00:30:35.404 But remember the good to help you get through the bad, because you matter and you are the reason why we are here today. 00:30:35.404 --> 00:30:38.619 You are the reason that I am still alive. 00:30:38.619 --> 00:30:42.432 My mother had this rule when I was out drinking and doing drugs and everything. 00:30:42.432 --> 00:30:47.222 She said wherever you are, call me and I will come and get you. 00:30:47.222 --> 00:30:53.460 A lot of times my dad would be driving and he'd be mouthing the whole time. 00:30:53.460 --> 00:30:59.351 A lot of times my dad would be driving and he'd be mouthing the whole time, but my mother would not. 00:30:59.431 --> 00:31:01.912 I don't understand that connection with the child. 00:31:01.912 --> 00:31:06.775 If you do something stupid, I'm going to tell you, but a mother will endure. 00:31:06.775 --> 00:31:10.424 A mother will embrace when I'm wanting to spank. 00:31:10.424 --> 00:31:17.205 I don't know what's wrong with y'all, but I'm glad that I had that in my life. 00:31:17.205 --> 00:31:26.183 I don't understand it, but I don't have to understand the blessings of God, the way he has designed you women to understand and see things in a way that I can't understand. 00:31:28.256 --> 00:31:35.819 Something happened the other day with me and Jessie and she was doing one thing and I was doing something else and she was like we're just the perfect team. 00:31:35.819 --> 00:31:47.500 Just for a second we were proud of ourselves, high five neighbor, sorry, but she kept praying for me even when I wasn't. 00:31:47.500 --> 00:31:56.480 I remember a night where I was so high that I thought someone was coming in the house and they were home. 00:31:56.480 --> 00:31:57.707 Usually I would get really high. 00:31:57.707 --> 00:32:03.542 They wouldn't be anywhere, they'd be off doing something and I remember laying at the side of her bed. 00:32:03.542 --> 00:32:10.380 I placed myself with this huge knife I had at the doorway so if somebody came in they would hit me. 00:32:10.380 --> 00:32:16.587 I would wake up and I would defend, because my mother was right there, even in the depths of my sin. 00:32:16.647 --> 00:32:17.449 Ladies, listen to me. 00:32:17.449 --> 00:32:26.135 Even when your children don't want anything to do with you, even when they are not acting like they are supposed to, they love you. 00:32:26.135 --> 00:32:37.365 Even when things in your relationship they are not like they should be, we still love our mamas and our mamas still love us. 00:32:37.365 --> 00:32:42.685 I am here because of the faithful prayers of a loving mother. 00:32:42.685 --> 00:32:53.105 Now, in the middle of it, it felt like she was praying against me, but oftentimes when someone is, you feel they are praying against you. 00:32:53.105 --> 00:32:54.340 They're actually praying in your favor. 00:32:54.340 --> 00:33:11.994 Correction is hard At the time, any discipline does not seem pleasant, but thank God for faithful mothers, forgiving mothers, loving mothers that always have a hug even when I wasn't acting right. 00:33:14.059 --> 00:33:19.654 Mothers, loving mothers that always have a hug even when I wasn't acting right. 00:33:19.654 --> 00:33:35.067 Like I said in the beginning, there's a reason that I hurried and locked that down as soon as I could, because when I saw her and I heard her pray, when I heard her speak, the compassion and the love that comes from her is the mother that I want my future kids to have. 00:33:35.067 --> 00:33:42.666 When they think of honor and they think of grace and they think of mercy. 00:33:42.666 --> 00:33:57.891 She's the one they're going to look to when they think of the display of God and love and compassion that, no matter what we do, how can someone still accept me in the depths of my sin? 00:33:57.891 --> 00:34:00.805 How can someone still love me in spite of myself? 00:34:00.805 --> 00:34:04.586 I believe God instilled this in the mothers to show us exactly how. 00:34:04.586 --> 00:34:11.327 But even though sometimes in your life you may not have the mother that you wish, god has placed mothers in your life. 00:34:11.327 --> 00:34:18.614 But even though sometimes in your life you may not have the mother that you wish, god has placed mothers in your life. 00:34:18.614 --> 00:34:27.213 God has placed strategically people in your life to fill the roles that you need to understand how much he really loves you. 00:34:29.675 --> 00:34:30.559 Isaiah 9, 2,. 00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:34.985 It says the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. 00:34:34.985 --> 00:34:40.463 For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. 00:34:40.463 --> 00:34:47.003 I believe that in our world, the mothers are shining the lights. 00:34:47.003 --> 00:34:54.626 There's a reason right now, at this very moment, they are trying to attack the very definition and use of the word mother. 00:34:54.626 --> 00:35:01.788 Because the enemy is trying to confuse people and blur the definition of what truth is. 00:35:01.788 --> 00:35:10.407 Because, if he can get us confused and dismantled in our homes and the families that God has laid out. 00:35:10.407 --> 00:35:11.614 He can destroy us and the families that God has laid out. 00:35:11.614 --> 00:35:15.581 He can destroy us. 00:35:15.601 --> 00:35:24.521 Matthew 5.14 says you are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 00:35:24.521 --> 00:35:33.844 Even in my darkest time, when I didn't want to go to church because I knew of the sin that I was in, I still would hug my mother. 00:35:33.844 --> 00:35:40.527 Sometimes, mamas, people that will not come to church because they don't want to get preached to. 00:35:40.527 --> 00:35:42.503 Your light will be shining in their darkness. 00:35:42.503 --> 00:35:47.097 So shine bright. 00:35:47.097 --> 00:35:55.224 Be open to the opportunity that maybe God is trying to place you as a mother in someone's life who does not have that healthy relationship. 00:35:55.224 --> 00:35:58.541 Be willing to be that light. 00:35:58.541 --> 00:36:02.023 Thank you for being that light in this dark world. 00:36:09.614 --> 00:36:17.583 The word mother it carries such weight and honor and the devil is busy trying to destroy. 00:36:17.583 --> 00:36:28.108 Ladies, thank you for all the seen and the unseen. 00:36:28.108 --> 00:36:32.842 You do much more than any of us ever can mention. 00:36:32.842 --> 00:36:56.797 You keep the family together when everyone is acting like idiots and you still somehow love every single one of them, no matter what kind of reasons they're giving you to, not what kind of reasons they're giving you to not Today. 00:36:56.797 --> 00:36:57.057 We honor you. 00:36:57.057 --> 00:36:58.961 You are a beam of hope in this dark, dying, sinful world. 00:36:58.961 --> 00:37:02.347 We appreciate you in every way. 00:37:02.347 --> 00:37:12.518 If all the mothers in the house would stand, you may be a stepmother, you may be a biological mother, you may be an adopted in, grafted in mother. 00:37:12.518 --> 00:37:27.711 We want to honor you today. 00:37:27.711 --> 00:37:28.313 Can we give them a hand? 00:37:28.313 --> 00:37:29.514 Thank you so much for everything that you've done. 00:37:29.514 --> 00:37:31.315 You are what makes all of the difference. 00:37:31.315 --> 00:37:32.898 If you remain standing, we have gifts for you. 00:37:32.898 --> 00:37:35.922 We want to honor you in such a way.