Mothers Day 2017

Oh, so no video. Oh, okay. All right, cool. Remind me of my days when I was in college, I was in a play.

It was called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enough by Ntozake Senge. Yeah, like I'm speaking in tongue, right? And the way they opened it up, they had the curtains open, and we were in beds. That's how we started. And I was a lady in purple, so they had a purple light on me.

I had the opening line, but that night I had a cold. So you know what I did? I had Tylenol cold in me. And it was raining outside. And the crowd got quiet and I was asleep.

One of the ladies got up out of her bed, quiet. And I woke up. That's what this just reminded me of. How many mothers we have in the house? If we have mothers in the room, please stand up on your feet.

And I want everyone to give them a round of applause. Oh, no, that is not the kind of round of applause. Think about what your mother does for you. Give each other a hug. This is no easy task.

Thank you, ladies. Thank you so much. You know, I lost, I used to say I lost my mother. I guess I said that out of habit. But I try to say my mother transitioned into eternity on November 19, 2003.

And although it's been quite a while, I still miss her. And it wasn't until after she was gone for a while that I realized the honor that she carried when she raised us. I lost her five girls. Five girls, no boys. 61, 63, 64, 66, 69.

Yeah, mm-hmm. And then I married a man whose mother had five boys. I don't know those numbers, but I know that I'm the same age with two of them. And they're not twins. But mothers are, not only are children a gift from God, but mothers are a gift as well.

But what I want to talk with you today about is not only has God given us children as his reward, as Pastor Leon was saying, whenever he chooses to give that reward, he's honoring the person he's giving the reward. Right? So one of the things that I've found is that I, as much as I love my children, I still found myself while I was raising them, thinking more about me than them. Okay? So lo, as the Bible says in the King James Version, lo, children are an heritage to the Lord, which means they are a gift.

One of the things I've thought about is when you honor a gift, a lot of times it depends on who gave you the gift. Right? If some stranger gives you a gift, it's like, oh, that was nice. But if someone you love, respect, and really admire thinks of you and gives you something, it carries more value to you. And when we have children, we have to think about who's the giver.

And when I try to explain God in all of his awesomeness, because I am of the mindset that there are no English words to truly explain the goodness of God. I don't think there is an earthly language that can explain the power, the awesomeness, and the greatness of God. And if we understand him as best we can, because when I was reading, I think it was Psalm 139, when David said, it doesn't matter where I go, you're there. You know my thoughts are far, you serve a God who knows what you're going to think. You don't even know what you're going to think.

He knows what you're going to think. He already knows what you're going to do. And because he already knows what you're going to do, he has already ordered the universe to be ready for when you get there so that you stay on your path to your destiny. Because he has a plan for you. And you have to choose whether or not you want to walk in that plan.

But when I explain him, I explain him in basically three things. I explain him as omnipotent, meaning all-powerful. And in the King, I think this is the King James Version, it says Revelations 19 and 6. I don't know if it's up here, because I just gave them the notes, and I don't know what actually ended up on there. So if you don't see it, then it wasn't there.

Okay. Then I heard again what sounded like the shouting of a huge crowd, or like the waves of a hundred oceans crashing on the shore, or like the mighty rolling of great thunder. Praise the Lord. This is what the crowd was saying. Praise the Lord, for the Lord our God, the almighty reigns.

I was talking to my husband, and we, you know, we're from Louisiana, right? Baton Rouge. And has anyone ever been to an LSU home game? I see your hand back here. They call that a stadium Deaf Valley.

Wow. A hundred and two thousand plus people yelling at the same time. You can't hear anything else. The opposing team can't even tell each other what they're getting ready to do, because the thunderous crowd is so loud. And this, these people honor and understand God as being all powerful.

Now, when you get a gift from the all powerful, takes on a little different meaning, doesn't it? But this is the other part I love about him. He's omniscient, which means he's all knowing. Just like he knows what you're going to think. He knows what your challenges are.

He knows the mistakes you're going to make. He knows when you're going to miss the mark. He knows when you're going to get it wrong. He knows if you're going to get it wrong for years. He knows.

But that doesn't change his promise. He makes a promise to us in light of, not in spite of, in light of the decisions we're going to make, the mistakes we're going to make, and whether or not we understand the honor we have been given. He still keeps his promise to us. He's all knowing. And then the last one I like to use is he's omnipresent.

He's everywhere all the time. Even in those places when you think God is not there, he's there. The deepest pain, sometimes the pain is so deep you can't even cry. It's that deep. And I feel like he's there, but he's there.

When you can't see how you're going to get out of this storm. And it's like as soon as you get out of a tornado, a hurricane comes. And as soon as you get out of a hurricane, a tsunami comes. And it's like run after other, after other, after other, after other, after other, but he's there. If he wasn't there, neither would you.

You wouldn't exist if he wasn't there. Because all of that would have killed you. It would have taken you out. But because you made it through, he was there. And that's where we have to focus our focus on understanding who he is.

If you made it through, he was there. And if you're here, you made it through. Or you're making it through. So understanding who's giving you the honor as a mother. Jeremiah one and five says, I knew you before I met you.

Before you were formed within your mother's womb. Before you were born, I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world. Now that spokesman to the world, that was Jeremiah's assignment. And Jesus came and gave us the same assignment as the Great Commission to go into Jerusalem and to the uttermost parts of the world and spread the good news, right? And one of the ways we are honored with that opportunity is through our children.

How we raise them, what we teach them, what we don't teach them. What we show them, what we show them, what we help them through, what we don't help them through. All of that comes into play of you fulfilling it. Now God said, I knew you when you were formed, before you were formed. So that means everything you do, your talents, your gifts, your skills, your propensities, anything that excites you, that gets on your nerves or whatever, it was all part of your design for what he sent you in the earth to do.

This is your birth, your birth date and your death date. It's just one phase in all of eternity. See, we keep seeing this as life. This is just one phase of life. We are eternal spiritual beings housed in a physical body for such a time as this.

So what are you doing in your such a time? As a mother and as a church, as Pastor Leon, now, if y'all not going to help, you shouldn't have said, I will. If you're not going to help, if you're not going to help and you said, I will, repent right now. Like Pastor Leon said, so you don't go to hell because we're all responsible for raising the children. Now, this is what I love about God.

Earlier, I said, based on the value of how much you value the person who gives you a gift determines the value of the gift. But this is what I love about God because his honor is very different from man's honor. Man will honor us for what we accomplish that meets with what they expect us to accomplish. But God honors you based on his promise, not your promise. Because we don't mess it up.

We just don't mess it up. So I'm going to give you three examples of God's honor. The first one is Eve. And why not? She was the first mother, right?

The first mother. Let's see what the first mother was told. So in Genesis 3 and 20, the man named his wife Eve, meaning the life-giving one, for he said, she shall become the mother of all mankind. Now, what is really interesting about this, Eve received this name after the fall. She received the name life-giving of all mankind after she disobeyed.

Not before. So God honors when he makes a promise. It's not about you. It's about him. Right?

So he named Eve mother of all mankind after she disobeyed. So Eve disobeyed. I think that's supposed to be a thing up there. Eve disobeyed. Yeah, so y'all write your notes.

Eve disobeyed, but God gave her life. He still kept her as the mother of all mankind. You can't undo God's honor in your life. You can not fulfill it. You can walk away from it.

You can pretend like it doesn't exist. But I'm here to encourage you to own it. To own it. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that. The second example was Sarah.

And this is a promise God made to Sarah. Sarah was Abraham's wife in the Bible. So Genesis 17 and 16 says, and I will bless her and give you a son from her. Yes, I will bless her richly and make her the mother of nations. Many kings shall be among your posterity.

Now, it's interesting because Sarah was the mother of the chosen people. Okay? And Abraham was what, 100? And Sarah was like 90? Is that right?

Give or take a year? Because once you get that age, give or take a year. Doesn't really matter. And so when Sarah heard, well, first of all, let's talk about Abraham. When Abraham heard that God was going to let Sarah have a child, he laughed.

And I looked it up. And it meant they mocked, made fun of, didn't really believe God. So he told Sarah, and what do you think she did? Laugh. How many of us, when God makes a promise to us, because we can't see it, we laugh at it.

Someone comes and speak to us and tell us how great God is going to do something powerful in your life, and then you just dismiss it. Why? Because you can't see how it's going to do, how it's going to work out. So Sarah laughed, but God still made her the mother of nations, of the chosen people. I don't know, what's my answer up there, the nations?

Now let me go back to Eve. I did want to say this. When Eve was deceived by the serpent, in essence, what she was saying was, I want something that God did not tell me I could have, and I can get it without him. That's the way I saw it. God told her, don't eat the fruit, or this is going to happen.

So she decided, in her conversation with the enemy, following me here? In our conversation with the world, in our conversation with the values that the world has placed on life, in our conversation with people who don't even serve God, why are we listening to them in the first place? Psalm 101 said, Blessed is the man that walketh not, King James Version, that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. So people who are not serving Christ, why are you consulting with them about your life? Your life.

The honor on your children. Who is it? Dr. Spock was doing my time. I don't know who it is now, but somebody always got something to tell you about your child.

The people, where you need to be is with the saints of God on how to raise children or talking to God. And I'm not putting down child psychologists. Don't get me wrong. But there are some Christian child psychologists. And honestly, I just believe you need to find them.

And if you're not going, if you can't find a Christian child psychologist or someone to help you, which you want. Thank you. Then you need to, anything they give you, you need to go back to the Word of God. If you can't find where that lines up, don't take that advice. I have been a mother for 30 years, and a grandmother for six.

I've done things well, I've done things not so well, and I've done things horribly. But I'm still here. My children are here, praise God. So, Eve disobeyed, but God still gave her life. Sarah laughed, but God still honored her with the nations.

Now, Mary, we always talk about Mary, Jesus' mother. And we talk about how the angel came to her and said, blessed are thou among women. You are favored among women. And that's true. All of that happened.

And Mary was like, what is he talking about? Okay, that's my Ebonics version. What is he talking about? And he said, this is what's going to happen. I'm going, you're going to have a baby.

How can that be? I have not been with a man. It's like, I ain't been nowhere. How you going to get, how I'm going to get pregnant? I ain't been with nobody.

And the angel begins to tell her all the things that God is going to do. So, he says, and behold, this is Luke 1, 31 through 33. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And his kingdom there shall be no end. But Mary still questioned. How can this be? I have never been with a man.

What was she saying? I don't understand how this can happen outside of my own natural ability and the natural way in which things happen. That's the point. That's what God wants us to understand. Then in the scripture, it says, and I know it's not up here, but it says in the scriptures that God, the angel said to Mary, is there anything too hard for God?

And I'm asking you that right now. Is there anything too hard for God? Is there anything too hard for God? I want you to think about right now. I want you to think about something that's difficult for you right now.

Right now. Right now. And I'm going to ask you this again. Is there anything too hard for God? I want you to think about God.

I want you to think about that one thing in your mind right now that you're struggling with that's difficult for you. You might not even know how to articulate it, but you can feel it. And it's doing something inside of you. And I want you to say this right now. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Actually, I want you to say it right now. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm going to say it one more time. We're going to do it three times, so you're going to get it at least by the third one. One more time.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And that includes whatever you have that's going on with you right now. That's the honor of God. Now, how do we own that honor as mothers, as community, as a village of salt people to raise our children?

Proverbs 22 and 6 says, train up, O child, in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now, remember, it didn't say detour. It said depart. Which means whatever you put in the child, it doesn't go away.

If it's what God promised. Because it stays. Because what God promised is life-giving. And that will always be there. They may try to ignore it.

They may try to go run away from it, like a story in the Bible with the prodigal son. But they always come back to it. And you have to trust that. I have spoken that over my children over and over again. And sometimes it was the only thing I could pray.

It's God, you said that if I raised them up the way they should go, that you would not let what I taught them and what they got from the word depart from them. And what I couldn't do on my own, I took them to church. I took them to Sunday school. I took them to Bible study. I took them to Bible school.

I did all kinds of things. And even when I had it wrong, I went before the Lord and asked him, how can I be a better mother? And you know how I knew I needed to ask that? One time, and they don't like for me to tell this story, but one time my children were arguing. And one of them said, I wish you would just die.

That was so mean. And I'm like, why would they say that? Of course, I got on them about saying it. And then I went back and said, okay, Lord, what am I allowing in my house for them to think it's okay to talk to them like this? So I had a conversation with them, and I took them out to Outback, and I asked them to tell me what did they like about me as a mother.

And so they told me. And I was good. And then I asked them, now tell me one thing I could do better as a mother. Then they got quiet. And they said, are we going to get a whooping?

I said, no, you're not going to get a whooping. Just tell me. So Deverin, my oldest son, he said, well, mama, when you come inside, you don't speak. You just start fussing about stuff. You know how you walk in the house.

Who is supposed to wash these dishes? Why are these clothes on the floor? Didn't I tell y'all to pick that? Why are the trash cans still outside? Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

And Deverin was like, you just come in fussing. I said, okay, well, the next time I do that, let me know. But don't, don't, you know, you can't fuss at me. So I came in the next day. Who was supposed to wash the dishes?

Didn't I tell y'all not to have this? Deverin said, fine, mama, how you doing? This is something I want you to remember. You teach what you know. But you reproduce what you do.

It doesn't matter what you teach them a lot of times if you're doing something else. They're going to learn what you're doing. You see how my grandsons play drums with their Pawpaw? I take them to school. Jace wanted to put on his shades with his sticks.

Pawpaw have on shades when he plays drums. So I want to leave you with three points. When you own the honor, you claim it. You take authority of it. You take dominion over it.

You don't rent your honor. You know, because there's a difference in how you treat stuff when you own it versus when you rent it. Right? When you own that honor, you will seek God's guidance because you know it came from him. He knows everything.

He's all knowing. He wouldn't have given, let me say this. He wouldn't have given you those children if you weren't equipped or if he didn't plan to equip you to raise them the way he intended for them to go. No, you have such a time as this in the earth and so do your children. And he gave you those children to raise them up for him.

So seek his guidance. Ask him, what do I need to do? What do I not need to do? And sometimes it's simple as just give them a hug and don't fuss at them. Sometimes it's give them a time out.

Sometimes it's go take them to do something. Put them in some kind of activity. Don't put them in an activity, but ask God for the wisdom and then trust that. Because the most high God is the one who has honored you and favored you with his reward and his gift. The second thing is when you own the honor, you will make uncommon sacrifices.

Sacrifices. You'll go the extra mile. Mothers tend to have what they call the burnt toast syndrome. That means if you make breakfast and all the toast is good, except two, you burnt those, who do you give them to? You make the sacrifices.

You may hold off on going to school until they get a certain age. You may hold off on opening a business until they get a certain age. You may hold off on doing things you want because you want to make sure your children have what they need. But that's where you go to God and ask Him for wisdom. And when He tells you what to do, trust me, He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

So when you ask Him for guidance on how to take care of that gift, He will make sure that the desires of your heart are fulfilled. And the last thing you will do, you will respect the power. You will respect the power. You have such power as a mother. Okay, help me with the saying, if mama ain't happy, it's a lot of power.

It's not for you to go around saying I get what I want, everybody do what I say. What that means is I recognize the honor that God has given me, the authority He has given me, the influence He has given me. So you can either be, I think it's Rebekah. Was Rebekah the one, Leon, was Rebekah the one who had Esau and Jacob? Yeah.

And she taught Jacob how to deceive. She taught Jacob. She helped Jacob steal his oldest brother's birthright. God still blessed Jacob eventually because he changed his name to Israel and made him, he was part of the lineage of the promise. God didn't take the promise back.

So whether you help the child become what God wants them to be or help the child become something, it's all in what you do. If your children hear you talking to people any kind of way, and there's another thing my children had to get on me about. I mean, Debra talked to me about too, is I would be so nice to people at church, but I was always arguing and fussing at home. And he said, Mama, why are you so nice at church, but then you mean at home? You're mad at home.

He didn't say mean, he said mad. And I said, what am I doing? I'm treating my children less than I'm treating strangers. I had to fix that. So ask the Lord for guidance.

And when He shows you what to do, be willing to make the sacrifice because He will reward you. And respect the power you have as a mother. Because God has gifted you. He has gifted you. The Most High, Almighty, All-Powerful has gifted you with children.

And if you haven't been doing it, repent now and just move on. Don't beat yourself up about it. If you hadn't been doing it like you know you should have been doing it, just let it go. It's like, I'm sorry, Lord. Receive His forgiveness and move forward.

That's what I've had to do over the years. And I feel really good about it. Yeah, I didn't do some things like I should have. But I repented for it and I moved on. Now it's a testimony telling you about it.

Okay? So I hope that I have encouraged you. I have enlightened some and even empowered you to walk in the honor and own the honor of being a mother and those of you who are not mothers, to understand the power and the sacrifice that mothers make. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.