Sunday Morning Worship Service

I love you baby I love you praise the Lord First Apostolic church so awesome to be here today and to get this opportunity and I I don't take this lightly um it's one thing to get to minister at different youth events and things like that but it's it's a whole another ball game when it's a room full of women and men who literally have all had a hand in raising you so I just I've prayed that God would give me the words I I couldn't even listen to what he was saying because I I want to keep it together but I pray today God has given me something to bring to you today that you can you can take with you so it is a full circle moment this I'm in in front of a Congregation of people who've raised me because it truly does take a village and I'm thankful for the village that raised me and I thought started thinking how am I going to open this you know how do you where do you start but um if you've ever been a teacher at this school if I ever had you as a teacher at ACS there's a little bit of you in me and if you've ever been a student here you know that everybody has their own personalities and they pour into you and I want to honor the staff of ACS and just tell you how much I am Greatful f for you for raising me and now raising she's down there I wasn't going to do this but I also want to honor the women in my life they made me who I am my aunts got one here today A Sherry there's a lot of you and me and you know that my cousins by the dozens my wonderful sister-in love Kelly my grandmothers who there's a lot of both of them in me um one here and one that's gone on to be with the Lord my mother-in love who has pulled through and helped us when we've needed it desperately and I appreciate Brenda Whitley more than she knows and last my mom she stepped up to the plate the last month like you can't imagine we've been going through a lot if we're human we are human we don't like to admit that but we are and she has become she was already superwoman but we're going to call her Ultra Superwoman now because she stepped up to the plate this last month like I've never seen and I'm so proud of her coming from your daughter I'm proud of you and I think she deserves a hand [Music] I also there's two special ladies I wanted to mention too um just two special ladies in my life uh that aren't here today um someone that I miss very much she's always helped me this time of year sister Kathy Williams and we're praying for her and I love her dearly and I I miss her I miss her this time time of year she's kind of my right hand and I miss her and I also want to mention a special lady you know you talk about these people that made you who you are um sister Darlene Huffman I miss her you don't even know um as a teenager when you're a a preacher's kid you you go through a lot of this in that and you know I had parents who were wonderful but they were busy in Ministry and she was kind of I called her my great defender the woman could absolutely correct me and fight for me at the same time I was I was the third Huffman daughter I felt like um she looked out for me like her own and I miss her so much I was writing this yesterday and I knew I promise I'm I'm not this is gonna stop in a minute but um I was writing this yesterday opening and honestly hand to God I was writing this part about sister Darlene and Britney text me and it was like there's some peace you know it was you had your aunt Spirit on you yesterday and I appreciate that so much and I appreciate your prayers but I want to honor all of your all of the women that are here today no matter where you are in life I hope that God has given me something that can bless you and speak to you we're a multigenerational church and I know we're all at different stages in our life as women single married have kids don't have kids waiting to have kids have raised your kids I hope you can take something with you today so let's all stand I want to pray before we get started I'd like to ask Pastor if you still have your microphone will you pray with us today Lord Jesus we thank you for your blessings Lord we thank you for the opportunity that we have to hear the wisdom that you would send our way Lord let us receive it let let us act upon it and let it guide our steps for all this we're grateful and thankful in the name of Jesus we pray amen amen you may be seated I want to speak to you for just a little bit today on the subject favor ain't fair I'm going to read from Luke read a few scriptures Luke 1 starting at verse 26 and this is not a Christmas message we'll put the disclaimer on that right up front and in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David and the virgin's name was Mary and the angel came in unto her and said hell thou hell thou that art highly favored the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and when she saw him she was troubled notice that she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be and the angel said unto her fear not Mary for thou Hast found favor with God and behold Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus he shall be great he shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end then Mary said unto the angel how shall this be seeing I know not a man and the angel answered and said unto her the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that the holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called The Son of God and behold thy cousin Elizabeth she hath also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who was called baren for with God none nothing shall be impossible and Mary said behold and I love this behold the handmade of the Lord be it unto me according to Thy word and the angel departed from her let's talk about favor what do we think about when we think about favor or being favored our first thoughts usually go to those times when we kind of just luck out on something extra or an opportunity has afforded us that we normally are looked over for or probably even undeserving of we think of things like getting that upgrade to first class on an airplane or that parking place right up front or maybe that last table right before that restaurant is going to close we usually describe those Strokes of luck by saying things like favor ain't fair I think if if we all asked ourselves today hey do you want favor in your life we would all just say yes absolutely I want to be favored it feels good to be favored it's nice to get the upgrade it's nice to get the good spot it's nice to be the favored one at work or at school to be recognized or called out for your accomplishments just to receive that little bit of extra than normal but what does it mean to really be favored by God I think if we asked that question we would all say yes automatically yes I want to be favored by God God I want his grace ring down in my life I want to be favored by God I want all that goes with that yeah we would say that but I think we need to look closer at what that really means I want to talk to today mainly about the the character in The Bible Mary the mother of Jesus and let's look close into her life today and let's let's look about the woman we're talking about here in the beginning of Luke Mary's thought to probably be a teenager engaged to Jose Joseph a devout woman from the line of David when we meet Mary she's in Nazareth being spoken to by the angel Gabriel and I'm going to paraphrase here and use my own vocabulary but the Angel's greeting is basically greetings the Lord's with you you're blessed and highly favored and oh yeah great was not her reaction I think sometimes we miss what her reaction to this was in the ESV translation it says Mary was greatly troubled and she tried to discern what kind of greeting this this was what kind of greeting this might be Mary's we automatically think oh Mary was probably just full of joy she really wasn't Mary's first reaction isn't Joy of being blessed and highly favored her first reaction is being troubled and trying to figure this all out I think we've all been there men and women we've all been in Mary's shoes we think we're going to meet favor with excitement but most of the time we meet favor with fear and with questions we think hey I'd be excited to meet an angel who told me what was about to happen with my life would we think of those times of favor you've had in your life when God's wanted you to step out in faith stepping into his will to follow his plan think of when he favored you with a new job or he favored you with an acceptance letter or he favored you with a marriage proposal or he he favored you in finding out you were going to be a mom for the first time what was your reaction I'm not going to speak for you but I was scared to death fear and questions but also think of those times when life throws you curveballs the things that didn't necessarily fit into your plans I'm sure birthing the savior of the world wasn't in Mary's Life Plan fear and questions obedience and favor comes with fear and questions the angel went on to tell her don't be afraid you found favor with God you're going to birth the savior of the world and then Mary like us ask the question how will this be how and the angel goes on and tells her how and answers nothing is impossible with God then the most beautiful picture of obedience and I'm going to quotee this from the ESV Mary answers in a way that tells us of what her faith was really like behold I'm a servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word that kind of faith and obedience was already there in her life she had fear and questions but she said Let It Be according to your word Mary obeyed and accepted the favor of the Lord so many times in our Liv life we pray and we Proclaim God's favor the favor of the Lord but do we realize what a life of obedience really can look like can we all say just let it be according to your word do we have that kind of surrender in our lives what does it look like to accept the favor of God in our life I want to talk to our our younger girls just a second to your your twin teens and young adults you got to note right here that Mary was OB obedient to God before she ever was married and before she ever knew she was going to have a child she had already had a made up mind that she was she had fear and questions absolutely we all do she was human but she already had a madeup mind that she was going to be obedient before she ever became a wife or a mother obedience for Mary couldn't have been easy I mean think about that okay got you angel I got to go tell Joseph how's that going to go really thankfully the angel caught him up to speed but can you imagine the faith and obedience to even wrap your head around what was actually happening next they go on to travel to Bethlehem while she was pregnant I'm sure walking on a donkey if you've ever seen the chosen it's all there you know in your head what it look like miserable miserable to go on to have to give birth into what I imagine in my head is the stinky disgusting nasty stable laying this firstborn child your first baby you know you wanted everything perfect they're laying this baby in a manger and then they have to go this gets over with and they got to go flee in Exile to Egypt you think Mary may have been thinking to herself is this favor is this blessing this is what being favored looks like ladies let's talk about what favor looks like sometimes in our life sometimes favor probably doesn't mean getting the rest you need it probably looks like getting getting up at 6:00 a.m. before everybody else and getting lunches packed and water bottles filled and clothes laid out that's favor sometimes favor looks like maybe accepting a job that you make a little less so you can be at the games and so you can be at church and so you can be with your family when you need to be with them sometimes favor looks like foregoing that new pair of shoes because your kid just grew out of their soccer cleats again sometimes favor is Walking the Floor at 3:00 a.m. because that baby girl's cutting another tooth that's favor favor looks a lot like wiping snotty noses doing another load of laundry sitting through one more practice and even getting up giving up a Friday night to Chaperone a bunch of middle school kids in Pigeon Forge sometimes favor is just doing what what you have to do to obey the will of the Lord favor ain't Fair we move on in Mary's life to raising a young Jesus y'all can y'all imagine raising Jesus parenting Jesus I already I raise a child who thinks she knows everything so I have some experience but can you imagine raising a child who actually probably did know everything in chapter two of The Book of Luke we I Mary and Joseph in Jerusalem for the Passover Jesus is probably around 12 years old and after the Passover they're returning home only to realize Jesus is missing they lose him for three days mom fell you lost your kid he's gone you've lost the savior of the world and then they find him he's in the temple sitting among teachers amazing him with knowledge and Mary says she's got a repper man the king here why have you done this we've been looking for you Jesus response is why are you looking for me did you not know I must be about my father's business what do you think Mary's thinking right there favor really this is favor this child testing his limits is favor raising the savior of the world is that favor Mama when that teenager or tweenager or thinks their tweenager is testing their limit again with their mouth you're favored when that coworker is out of again because and you're having to pick up the shift because you made a commitment to the job you're favored when you get home to cook the meal and there's that one ingredient missing to make it work and you were on the phone wrestling kids and that's why you forgot it or they didn't put it in the door Dash order you're favored playing chauffeur to kids who need to get here and there and here and there again you're favored having those hard conversations with your almost grown child watching them walk across the stage you're favored we're blessed ladies we're blessed we're blessed and we're highly favored even during those years of growing pains and they're coming if they're not here yet you're favored we move on to Mary still being a mother to an adult Jesus y'all know parenting doesn't stop when they turn 18 I can't speak to this from the uh the adult side but I can tell you this from the kids side I have more days nearing 40 that I want my mommy than others while we as an adult we may not need our moms to feed us or clothe us we need their Godly voices in our lives if if you've lost your mother if you find your yourself in a place where maybe you don't have that voice or that Elder in your life you need to find one you need then this church is full full of ladies that you can look to and that they can be a voice in your life we meet Jesus as an adult with Mary at the wedding of canaa of Galilee the wine runs out at the wedding and Mary comes to Jesus and says hey no wine it's out no wine and Jesus answers woman what does this have to do with me my hour has not yet come Mary didn't argue with him Mary didn't push him she didn't discourage him she just looks at the servants and says hey just do whatever he tells you we know the story is one of the first miracles of Jesus where he then goes on to turn water into wine but I think we can also look at this and see a picture perfect moment of a mother still raising her adult child don't look at me I'm not qualified I'm not speaking this week yes you are just do what they tell you with the mother's wisdom Mary instructs those servants just do whatever he tells you moms when you're still encouraging your adult children to follow the plan God has for them you're favored you may not think they're listening you may not think they need you anymore but they are listening and they do need your voice in their life your voice in their life is favored Mary may have even I imagine what was she thinking then she probably was thinking back to herself when she was a teenager and thinking back to her own doubts and fears when she had to fulfill God's plan in her life she knew right then I I think she called back to me memory then with God nothing is impossible not even turning water into wine moms dads leaders we've got to encourage this next Generation to step up and start leading us we've got to to be the ones that say you can do it go on you can do it you got this she didn't push him into something he wasn't called to do or ready to do she just told the servants do what he tells you she left it up to Jesus to give the instructions and she left that decision up to him we move on in Mary's life and we find her at the foot of the cross we see a mother who is seemingly lost everything everything she'd built everything she'd pour into her life's purpose hanging on a cross hopes and dreams everything she had birthed and poured into hanging on a cross for everyone to see her purpose in life seemingly just taken away from her she watched what was her precious baby mocked whipped and beaten sure he was the son of man but it was her Earthly son could she have been thinking this is blessed This is highly favored this is what the angel meant that I would have to go through this that I would have to watch this this is favored the torturous death of my firstborn son is favored what was she thinking as she watched him hang there let's all stand today life can throw at us some real moments moms as our kids grow older and get older problems and situations get bigger but we've got to remember we are still favored when our kids aren't necessarily living up to their potential and God we're still favored when we get a diagnosis that we don't necessarily like and didn't want we're still favored when the finances are tight we're favored when the answer hasn't come yet we're favored when the answer is not the answer we wanted we're favored When Storms are blowing and waves are crashing we're favored when life just didn't turn out how we thought it was going to be we're favored why I'm here to tell you today grace and favor are interchangeable God gave us a gift of life and we're favored because we're here and we didn't deserve to live but he died on a cross to give us hope there's Resurrection on the other side of whatever your hopeless situation is no matter how Grim it is now no matter how desperate you feel there's hope and Resurrection on the other side we say God this isn't fair why this isn't fair this isn't the the white picked fence and the perfect little house and the perfect children this isn't fair God calls us to remember favor is not fair it wasn't fair for Mary Grace isn't fair favor and blessings come through our obedience and obedience isn't always Fair Mary probably didn't understand all she knew was to obey we remember like Mary we are blessed and we are highly favored women of God I pray today God let me be obedient like Mary I'm your servant Let It Be according to your word whatever your will is Let It Be according to your word word let's all come forward today and sure we may have fears and we have questions in this Twist and Turn of life but like Mary we are Servants of God blessed and highly favored and when you find yourself like Mary broken Weeping at his feet seemingly everything is lost and everything is gone everything you poured your life into everything you worked for and you think how am I favored how am I blessed is this blessing is this favor he sees you he sees you there and he sees your obedience he sees your tears you're blessed and you are highly favored cuz there's Resurrection coming there's Resurrection coming on the other side of your obedience there's Resurrection coming when you can't see your way forward and you don't know what you're going to do like Mary can we be obedient and say God be it according to your word God use me God let me be a vessel that you can use God let me be obedient to whatever you have for my life because I know I am blessed and I'm highly favored can you lift your hands and worship this morning God we worship you God we praise you God