A Mother’s Faith Has More Reach Than YouTube

Happy Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to everybody who's here because you're either a mother or you have a mother or you have had a mother, so it is a day that celebrates so many people. I'm so excited to be here to talk about some imperfect mothers who are part of an imperfect family, but we are all part of the perfect family of God and that's what matters. God is perfect so that we don't have to be. Now, if you've been here the last few weeks, we've talked about lots of aspects of families from the importance and what the foundation of the family is, why you need a church family, why an eternal family is important.

We talked about children when they go astray, some do's and some don'ts and what you can do there. We've talked about the marital relationship and today we're going to talk about mothers. Our theme verse, of course, is from Genesis. The Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

Therefore, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. And of course, that's how we have families. That's how we have mothers today. So, I titled this Mother's Day message, Hashtag Facts. Well, it was up there earlier.

There is a title. Hashtag Facts, a mother's faith has more reach than YouTube. Or, subtitle, How One Nameless Mama Became the Ultimate Early Church Influencer. Now, influence is everywhere. Social media is everywhere.

Did you know that the average child in America spends 77 minutes a day on YouTube? I feel like that's low. I feel like that's low. And social media is a big deal. It has a lot of influence.

And we may think it's going to be here forever, that the next age is going to come in, whether it's AI or whatever it is. But, I ask you this. Do you remember Pluto? Remember when that was a planet? How about Carrie the One?

Also a thing of the past. How about cursive? Yeah. I mean, is it though? I mean, do the kids know how to fill out something on the dotted line?

I doubt it. But, all that to say, everything dies. Nothing lasts forever, except the church. Because Jesus said, this is my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I'm going to take lots of sips of water.

I don't know why the dry mouth is so extreme, but it is. So, anyway, the church. That's the kind of influence I want to talk about. I want to talk about something that is going to last forever. I want to talk about something that has more reach than YouTube.

Something way bigger than anything we could broadcast, even around the world. And the great thing about this message is that it is not specific to mothers who have actually raised children in their home. This is about national media. Natural mothers and it is about spiritual mothers. So if you are a woman, I don't care if you don't think you're maternal or maybe you never even wanted kids, if you are a woman, you are called by God to be a mother to someone.

Whether that's a natural mother or a spiritual mother or both. So this is just a message for absolutely everybody. And men, you all have moms, so you're not going to get out of it. This is something for you too as well. Now, let's just start with what we know about moms, okay?

We know that moms are central to the faith formation of young people. In fact, a recent Barna report actually said that only 6% of those who come to the faith do so after the age of 18. Only 6%. Well, the natural inference we have to pull from that is that the vast, vast, vast majority of people who are going to come to a believing faith in Jesus do so before the age of 18. And it's probably because that faith was modeled in their homes.

In fact, the data shows that parents are the number one, the number one in terms of spiritual formation. The church is number two. Social media is not even in the running. Now, this is going to blow your mind. A new report from the Pew Research Center actually, they polled thousands of people, Americans.

And we learned that of those respondents, they suggested one-third said their mothers had more influence and were more responsible for their religious experiences than their dad. So that's, okay, that's a stat, right? How about this one? More than one-half of families with one parent that was one faith and another parent that was different, so mixed faith families, more than one-half said their mothers, their mothers had a bigger influence. And here's the big one.

Two-thirds. Two-thirds of those in families with one religious and one non-religious parent said that their mom had the most influence, more influence than their dad. Think about what that means. In America, do you know what we are number one in? More than anybody else in the world.

Single-parent homes. We have more single-parent homes than any other country on the planet. Woo-hoo! So, when you consider that something like 25% of our kids right now are being raised by a single parent, how important is it that spiritual formation is a huge, huge part of what you do? And since we know that in a household like that, the mom tends to actually have more influence, all the more reason that that should be something that we focus on.

So, I want to drill down on that, this idea of mothers with faith and their influence. During the early church times. Now, you might say, why? Well, number one, we like the Bible, we like to go there. I won't do that again.

We like to look at Scripture, and I think it's equally as applicable today. And you know what else? When I did a deep dive into this and I started studying and looking around, I found more promotion of women and more discussion of women in leadership positions in ministry in the New Testament than I think I see in the modern church today and some other churches today in the 21st century. If you don't believe me, I'm going to prove it to you. Now, I'm not in here to talk about egalitarianism or complementarianism or any of that.

This is solely about a mama’s faith, and that's what I want to talk about, and I want to lead off with this amazing quote I found. I found this amazing quote, and it says, What women these Christians have. What women these Christians have. And do you know who said it? It was a fourth-century heathen, pagan rhetorician named Libanius, and who he was talking about was the mother of John Chrysostom.

Now, do you know who that is? He was a preacher and an author, a believer, who was very prevalent and preached in Constantinople in the fourth century. Now, he was famous for, among other things, taking those kind of highbrow allegorical sermons and making them real. He loved life application. He loved to preach straightforward, hard-hitting sermons for the people.

His mother, Anthusa, her husband died when she was only 20, and she never married again. Instead, she devoted her entire life to teaching her son about Jesus and his spiritual formation. Her piety, her learning, her focus on the Lord shaped him and molded him into who he became. And he was very vocal about that. He was very vocal about who she was and the influence that she had.

And it was so obvious that even the nonbelievers around them of the day recognized it. And they said, what women these Christians have? Think about that kind of influence. That it's outside of this room, it's outside of this church, that it goes out into the world. So if you move even further back, we go into the New Testament, we're going to see a lot of the same things.

The Bible has tons of references to faith-filled mothers. Paul talks about a ton of them. In fact, in 2 Timothy 1, Paul is speaking to Timothy. He's writing to him and says, I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice. Great names.

And I am persuaded now lives in you too. Okay, pop quiz time. All right, just a few minutes ago, what did I say about children who are in interfaith or households with one person of a faith and one that is nonreligious? Two-thirds, two-thirds follow the mother. Well, who is Timothy?

His mother was what? She was a believer. She was a Jewish believer. His father was Greek. That's all it says.

He's not mentioned otherwise, which means he was not a believer. Timothy, perfect example of someone in a home with one religious parent and one non, and look where he went. He went to the faith of his mom. And it's... Specifically called out right here by Paul.

But you know what? You can go back to the Old Testament. Because the amazing thing, this influence of mothers, this idea of a faith-filled mother and what she can do, again, it's not just about natural mothers. And I want to bring up somebody who I don't think is talked about a lot in this context. And that is Esther.

Now again, we're making some reaches here, but just go with me. So Esther, remember who she was? She was the beautiful Jewish lady who marries the Persian king, Xerxes. And of course, via her position in the palace, she was able to convince her husband, the king, to save and not destroy the Jewish people. Well, Xerxes is mentioned in Ezra 4.

Ezra 7 mentions Artaxerxes, who a lot of people think was Xerxes' son. Now, he probably was not Esther's child. However, he was probably the child of one of the other wives. But what did Artaxerxes do that Xerxes didn't? He was sympathetic to the Jewish plight.

Going so far as to even supply resources to the prophet Nehemiah. I wonder why that happened. Could it possibly be because he had a stepmother in the palace who was a believing woman, a faith-filled woman? Is it possible that even though that's not explicitly mentioned there, that the power, the supernatural power of a faith, of a mother, of a spiritual mother, can change how a king might look at a people that are not his own? That's just so, so powerful.

Now, when we move back to the New Testament, we're going to focus today on Paul. He's my main man. I love Paul. And a lot of people think, you know, he gets a bad rap among women. Who here grew up hearing that maybe Paul was not the most, like, woman-friendly guy?

Anyone? Maybe just me? Okay. I certainly did. I definitely grew up around people who did not like Paul.

And once you dig in, I just don't understand it. I mean, we know he wrote at least seven, people think maybe more like 13 or 14, of the books of the New Testament, of which there are only 27, so we're talking half. And there's maybe two verses total that everybody likes to focus on that he said that might be the problematic verses. But what about the rest? What about when he said there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus?

That could have been his mantra, his tagline. Because that is how he lived in the way he partnered in evangelism and ministry with women and mothers. So now I want to focus in a little more on a little chapter in my favorite book. My favorite book of the Bible is Romans. And I don't usually focus on this chapter, but the last chapter of Romans is one that we might skate over.

Chapter 16, because really it's just a long list of greetings. So, Paul, he has a long memory. He has a long memory of the people who he's known over the years, and he's sending greetings to Rome. Side note, do you know who's going to carry that letter? He's going to carry it to him.

I'm totally ready for these two sentences. The Book of Romans was the letter to the Romans. Do you know who's going to carry it to Rome? Anybody know? Phoebe, a lady.

Woo! Paul tasked carrying, becoming the envoy of the Book of Romans to Rome to a woman, to Phoebe. What does that tell you? It blows my mind. Well, in this chapter, Paul greets a lot of people.

I think it's 28. I think Phoebe might be included in that 28. I keep losing count. Of those 28, there's a couple names that possibly might be gender neutral. We're not totally sure.

But of the rest, 17 are men and 10 are women. And the only references to positions of leadership are actually to the women. Isn't that fascinating? You go even further into that chapter and we get to a little verse that really piqued my interest. And it's this one.

Romans 16, 13. I finally got to the theme verse. Are you excited? You're now one-fifth of the way through this message. So, greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too. My first thought was, who's Rufus? And my second thought was, why does this lady not have a name? I mean, we've had this big list of names. He's not been shy about naming these people.

So, this really prompted me to dig deeper. I apologize. This is really like 95% history lesson, I feel like, and 5% life application. There will seem to be some points of life application at the end. I'm sure Leon would be very sad if I did not have those.

They are there, I promise. But will you stay with me until we get there? Thank you so much. Okay. So, when Paul wrote these words, it had been nearly 30 years since his conversion in Damascus.

He's about to head back to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. And again, he has this wonderful long memory. He's greeting all these people from his past. He's remembering people who lived there, who he was with in the past. And he mentions Rufus and Rufus' mother, who was like a mother to him, too.

So, a spiritual mother of Paul. Now, if you back up 30 years, like I said, to his conversion, after Paul converted, he faced persecution and he barely escaped with his life. So, of course, he went to Jerusalem and then just started preaching again, which was met, shockingly, with yet more persecution because that was not a popular message that Jesus is the savior of the Jews. And he got in trouble there, too. Luckily, the believers there, who were not yet called Christians, but the believers were able to help Paul, help him to the coast, and to get back to Tarsus, which was his hometown.

Now, around the same time, we also know that after the martyrdom of Stephen, if you remember Stephen, and a lot of the persecution that was happening to those who were in Judea, they fled, the believers fled to other places. And before he responded to this, one of the places that . . The places they fled to was Antioch. Now, among those people who fled to Antioch were a group known as...

I realize there's somebody Greek here, so I'm going to say it wrong. It's either the Cyrenes or the Cyrenees or the Kyrenees. Any idea? No? Okay, never mind.

We're going to go with Kyrenees, because that's my favorite way to say it. Now, these were Africans who were living in what would today be northern Libya, but a lot of them were in Jerusalem. Either they had come for Passover, and maybe they stayed because of what was going on in the crucifixion, and some of them, I'm sure, converted. So a lot of these Cyrenees also fled with believers to Antioch. Now, Barnabas, he's like, man, there's all kinds of stuff happening in Antioch, right?

Because revival broke out. A big congregation began to be built up there. And Barnabas said, we've got to get Paul over here. So Paul comes to Antioch, and specifically the word says that Paul worked with Barnabas, and there's two other specific names that are mentioned. The first one is Simon, also called Niger, or black man, and then Lucius, also of Cyrene or Kyrenees.

And Paul was there for about a year, and he lived among these people, he taught, and he was obviously close to these people. So why does that matter? Well, if you go back to the Gospel of Mark, which of course was written later, right? He wrote it later. We find a really, really interesting passage.

If you remember, while Jesus was on his way to Golgotha, somebody, the Romans, pressed someone to service to carry his cross. Do you remember who that was? Anybody remember? I thought Chelsea was raising her hand. I think she's playing with her hair.

It was Simon, a certain man from Kyrenees. Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. Now, we do not know for sure if this is the same Simon. I would proffer to you that it's interesting that the detail about who his children were was put in here, because out of context, I don't think it's needed. I'm not sure why he would have put that there, unless Mark was making reference to someone who was known to other believers in the church.

But I say to you, I think it is possible that this Simon is the same Simon that is referenced later in Antioch who was with Paul. This Simon who was called chosen of the Lord. He was chosen of the Lord to carry his cross. Is it possible that he too became a believer? That then his wife became a believer?

And that his whole household was saved? And that his wife provided such love and care and nurture to Paul while he was at such a low point? Because remember, Paul had no one. He lost everyone. He gave everything up for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He lost all his friends. We have three friends about his friends and so on. and they're both yokes eachimus back and center away. He tight hands, but I knew aboutometry ruined him so he takes his friends. Thank you.

And that she provided such love for him in that time that 30 years later, 30 years later, he calls out this woman so far from his past just because of what kind of spiritual mother she was to him. So who was Rufus' mother? What do we know about her? Well, we don't know her name. We don't know whether she had any wealth to speak of.

We don't know if she had any business acumen to speak of like Lydia. We don't know that she had any special position in the church like Phoebe. Many think she was a deacon. We don't know whether she had any call to the mission field like Trephana and Trephosa. They have a really interesting backstory that I will not preach about today.

All we know, all we know about her is that she was the mother. It's the only thing. And you know what? I actually think that's the point. I think that is the point that Paul is trying to make.

When every door to him was shut, Rufus' mother opened hers and she loved him as only a mother can, just like she loved her natural children who were also called out. Her daily walk told everyone who she was and who she was, who she served. And Paul never forgot her. I mean, think about that. I have to pull up memories from my phone.

You know, I have to go through all my pictures. I have to look at old videos. I have to pull up a VHS tape. I struggle to remember what I ate yesterday. I mean, I'm hard pressed to put that down.

But Paul remembers something from decades in the past. That is how much influence that had. That is how much the supernatural faith in Jesus Christ that fueled that memory, that's why it burned it into his brain and on his soul for a lifetime. What women these Christians have indeed. What we learned from Rufus' mother is that a mother's faith creates a generational legacy of godliness.

A generational legacy of godliness. Now, there are some that say, there's this theologian who was quoted as saying that God only has children, not grandchildren. And that every generation, that we're basically just a generation away from Christianity becoming extinct. I don't think that's true. Number one, we have Jesus saying, this is my church, and even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I'm telling you, the kingdom is not going to be kept back. The church is not going to be snuffed out because of things like this, because of women like this, because of women like you, because of godly women who pursue and follow passionately after Jesus Christ. This church is going nowhere. It may be suppressed. It may be persecuted.

It may dwindle. It may have peaks and valleys. But it will not. I don't think Jesus stuttered when he said, I'm telling you, the gates of hell won't stand against this. This is done.

It is finished. It is finished. If one woman, if one woman because of one year in the life of Paul could have that much influence, can you imagine the influence we can have by the tens, the dozens, the hundreds, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands, the millions? Can you imagine the billions we could reach if we all became Rufus's mother? If we all took into us and said, the thing I want more than anything is to be a spiritual mother and to encourage those around me to passionately follow Jesus.

If we want that more than these other things, if we want that more than we want our kids to go to a fancy college, more than we want our kids to be attractive and have braces, more than we want our kids to have that Stanley and those Lululemon pants, more than we want their travel volleyball team to go to the national championships, more than we want these travel soccer games. This is all great. This is all great stuff. I like nice clothes. Okay?

I want my kids to be successful. But we got to want something else more than that. We have to want something else more than that. We have to know that our purpose as women and as mothers is to create a legacy, a generational legacy of godliness. That is it.

That is why we were put on this planet. That is what makes us women. That is what we are here for. And we need to get that into us and love it. But you know what?

It doesn't come with fame, right? It doesn't come with some exciting title. I'm thinking about that documentary about Michael Jordan. Have you seen it? What's it called?

Air? Maybe? Super good. It's great. And I think about Michael Jordan's mother, who was so instrumental, right, in him becoming everything that he became.

Make no mistake, the Nike swoosh and Jordan, his mom. Man, mom did that. It's a fascinating documentary. Go watch it. But man, I would rather be a no-name.

I would rather be famously nameless. Famously nameless. And have everything about me be totally lost to the annals of time, except the fact that I raised disciples of Christ. I would love if just, you know, dozens, hundreds of years from now, they're like, man, that lady. I don't know anything about her.

I don't remember her. I don't know what she did. I don't know if she was fat, skinny, ugly. But man, she raised up believers. She raised up a generation of people who follow passionately after Christ.

Can you imagine if that's the only thing that gets remembered about me? Woo! It's more than I deserve. It's more than I deserve. Because then you're raising up kids who will make Jesus' name famous.

Jesus' name famous because he's the only one worth any worship. He's the only one worth any worship. So, what's the point, right? What is the life application study Bible takeaway? I think I already gave it away.

But just in case, all that other stuff is great. All the stuff we care about with our kids is great. So, all of the things that's probably gonna do right? I think that we're gonna do right now. Okay.

Alright. Okay. Let's look back. I mean, think about it, guys. There's moms that you know and moms around us who don't have their kids anymore.

But a lot of them, in the time they had, they raised children who loved Jesus. We know people like that. We have people who've lost their kids. But you know what? If your kid lives for 10 years and knows the Lord and told others about Jesus, that is more valuable than being on this earth for 110 and not knowing God and not knowing the Lord.

Because what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and he loses himself or is destroyed? That's the question, guys. That's what we have to get to. What does the rest of it matter? And the answer is, it doesn't.

It doesn't. I want my purpose, I want my prayer to be this beautiful verse from 3 John. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. I want to be like Rufus's mother. So how do we do it?

How do we raise the next generation of believers? I had a Kleenex and I lost it. Man, I probably already cried once before and that's why. We got a few points and then we'll be done. I promise.

I'm going to get you out of here quickly. All right. Oh, thank you. Man, such a great husband. He's the best.

Thank you, dear. All right. How do we raise the next generation of believers? First and foremost, lead with your life. This one should be obvious.

It seems pretty simple. It's the ordinary acts as they accumulate over time. They produce extraordinary results. Take John Wesley, evangelist, leader of the revivalist movement among the Church of England, which of course led to the Methodist Church. And he said, I learn more from my mother than from all the theologians in England.

His mother, she was so educated. She was so focused on ministry. She spent hours and hours and hours, day in and day out, in Bible study, in prayer, in prayer for her kids. And boy, that left a legacy. That left something so, so important that her son never forgot it.

It's the little things. How do you talk to your kids? Did you know that you can actually talk about Jesus when you leave here? Did you know that you can talk about him the other six days of the week, that you can bring him up in casual conversation? You can talk about him at the dinner table.

You can talk about him at sporting events. You can talk about him with your friends. I talk to my kids' teachers about him. I don't care what they think. It's loud.

It's the little things. How do you... Do you fight with your spouse in front of your kids? Do you ask forgiveness in front of your kids? Do you show patience to your kids?

How do you talk about the people you don't like in front of your kids? They hear it all. It's the little things and they hear every single one of them. Number two, anchor your faith in the Word. 2 Timothy says, we're in a lot of Timothy today, but it's good stuff.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. A worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Paul was telling Timothy here, despite persecution and tragedy and hardship, you still have to give attention to God's word. And I'm sure Timothy learned that on the knee of his mother and his grandmother. Now we're really living in an age where that's just not a thing anymore.

We got a lot more biblical illiteracy than we used to. There was a study from about five years ago that said only 32% of Protestant regular attending believers are in their Bible every day. I think that's an inflated number. I don't even think it's that high. But we have to get in the word.

We are so easily distracted by the 21st century. We have input coming at us from every direction. We have digital content at our fingertips. Let me tell you something. It is all just a distraction of the enemy to keep you out of the one place where you need to be.

You've got to get in God's word. It says that without vision, the people perish. The vision is in there. It's in there. It's not out here.

It's not online. It's not at your kids' schools. It's not in your jobs. We are perishing and we have to get in the word. And you know what?

You don't have to be an expert. You don't have to be an apologist. There's supernatural power in the Bible, guys. Just open it up and read it. God's going to reveal it to you.

If you know the Lord, the Holy Spirit is going to reveal to you the truth of Scripture. I believe that. I do not believe that you need a compendium of commentaries to tell you what God has for you. This is his love letter to you. Read it.

Read it out loud. Tell your kids Bible stories. The Bible stories are great. And connect them to contacts. Tell the kid these Bible stories and how they link to the cross and to Jesus.

Because guess what? They all do. When you're talking to your kid about Jonah and how he was in the belly of the whale for three days. Tell your kid that's because Jesus Christ your Lord. He's going to go down.

He's going to be in the grave for three days. He's going to be in the belly of death for three days. But then he's going to be resurrected. Every single Bible story talks about Jesus. It leads to Jesus.

Get that in them from a young age. Let them know that it's not just pretty stories. It's not just narratives. It's all about Christ Jesus. Build up in them a love for God.

Build up in them a belief that our God can do the impossible. Build up a belief in them that our God has supernatural power. And that the same power that conquered the grave lives in you. And it lives in me. And it will persist forever and ever.

Amen. But you've got to put that love in them. No one else is going to do it. No one. It's got to be us.

And we've got a very small window of time to do it. One isabi. One isabi. Thank you. Number three is actually a little redundant of two.

I think I just wanted four and I'm not sure why, but I said make prayer, worship, and service commonplace. Just do these things, guys. Pray all the time. If you don't know how to pray, learn. Ask somebody to teach you.

All it is is talking to God. We can learn new things. We can learn a skill. Google it. I guarantee you can Google how to pray and there will be like a process.

Here's how you do it. I mean, come on, we Google everything else. Google how to pray. Pray in front of your kids. Pray with your kids.

Pray over your kids. I really love this beautiful, beautiful quote from Charles Spurgeon. He said, I am sure that in my early youth no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother. This is the theme for today. I'm sure you're picking up on it.

Neither can I conceive that to any child there can be one who will have such influence over hearts as a mother. How can I forget when she bowed her knee and with her arms about my neck prayed, Oh, that my son might live before thee. Pray, worship, serve, and serve with a cheerful heart. If I get up at five in the morning to get here to set up church by six, and I'm grumbling, I'm talking about how tired I am, and boasting, and all the hard work I've done, what is that going to say to my kids? You think it's going to drive them into ministry positions?

I don't think so. I'm like, yes, I can't wait to be a pastor. I, too, want to wake up at the crack of dawn on my day off. I can't wait. Do it cheerfully.

Put a smile on your face. Give cheerfully. Serve cheerfully. Serve your family. Serve your church.

Serve your schools. Serve your community. That's what we're here for. And make it an everyday thing. Okay, last point.

I promise I'm landing this plane. I'm actually not landing any planes. I would never fly a plane, but we're going to land this metaphorical plane. Show them that faith without love is dead. That faith without love is dead.

My main man, Paul, he also said, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. In Galatians, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself as love. Corinthians says it so perfectly. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but I do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all the mysteries and all knowledge, if I have a faith that can move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor, If I give over my body to hardship, I get up at five every day to come set up a church plant, but I don't have love, I am nothing. I have nothing. I gain nothing. Paul goes on to say that prophecies will cease. The tongues will be stilled.

Knowledge will pass away. Knowledge will pass away. Because we only know in part. We only prophesy in part. It's not all been revealed to us.

He says, Right now I see through a glass darkly. But then, one day, when I'm no longer a child, I will see the whole. I will be fully known as I am known. Just like one man chosen by God to carry the cross, looked into the eyes of his Savior, and it transformed and saved his entire family and left a legacy of godly motherhood years into the future. The Apostle Paul, in the same way, mothers, whether you're a natural mother or a spiritual mother, the greatest truth that we can impart to our children is that nothing, nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the fears of today or the worries about tomorrow, neither the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the ocean below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love that is revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So moms, spiritual moms, natural moms, all the above moms, can you make that your prayer and your purpose today? Can you ask God, if that's not you, can you ask God to put that desire and that joy in you?

Can you say, God, that's what I want. I want my full joy to come from knowing that my children walk in the truth. Because he'll give it to you. He will. He will put it in there.

Father in heaven, we just love you so much. I thank you so much, God, that you made the mechanism of salvation a borrowed womb, that you borrowed a womb of a mother to carry your precious son, Jesus, to come into this world. Thank you. Thank you for putting so much beautiful emphasis on motherhood. And God, I ask that all of us, that we would see that for what it is.

That we would make that our purpose as moms. That we would leave a generation that knows you. And if there's anybody here, Lord, who does not know you. Who wants that. Who wants to have that kind of influence.

That's bigger and better than anything else in this world that has to offer. That they would know that your son, Jesus, is available. That his grace is free. We can't buy it. We can't earn it.

And they would ask him to live in them right now. Thank you, Lord, for all you've done. Thank you for everybody in this room. Thank you for the moms. Thank you for our mothers.

Thank you for the mothers and the fathers and the families who are weeping today. We weep with them. Thank you for the ones who are rejoicing. We rejoice with them. We love you.

And it's in the name of your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen and Amen.