Lessons From My Mother | Assoc. Pastor’s Wife | Fallon Erickson

thank you all so much and wow what an introduction that you may be seated happy Mother's Day to every mother that is here today and I really believe that that being a mother starts in your heart so if that does not happen for you yet and that is your desire to be a mother I say happy Mother's Day to you as well happy Mother's Day to all of our mothers and it is just such an honor to stand before what I know to be the greatest people on the earth and I love each and every one of you and I do appreciate the opportunity to say a few words today every year I get overwhelmed with honoring our first lady such an incredible woman of God and has led so many of us if I had everybody stand that she sought a Bible study to there would be several there'd be 50 or 60 people probably just in this congregation that would stand including myself and I get so overwhelmed with what do we do for her because if you buy her something she's going to give it away or we've tried to send how much on a trip several times but we in front of Target and if you'll go ahead and put it up we have a special billboard that's a honoring our first lady on Mother's Day and that's going to be the prettiest billboard you'll ever see and I thought it was befitting to honor our first lady and show this community what a beautiful woman of Holiness looks like in I'm so thankful for her and I give honor to my husband and our three precious girls and of course my mom and dad my and my sister happy Mother's Day to her and my brother and soon-to-be-married we are very excited that is happening and on June 5th you'll be all getting an invitation in the mail hopefully this week it's been fun pulling this all together you should have already been invited to a social distancing shower so if you are not in our database please make sure that you go out to the lobby today and make sure we you all are our family and we want all of you all to be a part of this grand occasion in the union of Noland and Flannery and I'm so excited I am so excited about the more I get to know Flannery the more I love her and I know that you all are going to be the same with her and no doubt that Kovan 19 has drastically changed every mother's life in here can I can I get a Amen or a raised hand it has been insane at our house as we've been adjusting to distance learning and I and I think sister Johnson we might need to go to year-round school this year get school started back up early or something but I guess what I would call my house is a beautiful mess right now and it has been a mess because been doing distance learning and then all the quarantine episodes and everything that came with kovat 19 but I do want to say some of the most powerful moments I feel like in our marriage and with my girls has been over kovat 19 and I'm so thankful for this hard reset that our generation needed we needed our calendars absolutely swipe clean into where all we have is Jesus and I'm so thankful for that in my life and it's been a hard reset but during this time I found myself reflecting back on my childhood and just unbelievable lessons that that my mom taught me and I just want to share a few of those with you today and I'm gonna be super transparent and she is my rock she's my counselor and I'm VI feel very privileged and I know where life I've been there and the good and the bad and I've seen her on the good good days and I've seen her on the bad days and I have nothing but a growing your respect for my mother and even the older I get I seen how valuable all these lessons are that she has taught me as women I don't think we really understand the power of our influence I believe oftentimes the devil has a heyday in our mind because you know the enemy he doesn't care that that you're here sitting there here this morning because if he has your mind he doesn't care if you wear a skirt dragging the floor he has what he needs to take your family because so goes the family so goes the church so I believe there is an all-out attack on the woman's mind in in our church and across our apostolic movement to make us feel like our influence doesn't matter to make us feel like you know what we do is really not that important the first lesson I want to share with you today is she taught me that a life full of grace and freedom comes through sacrifice a life full of grace and freedom comes through sacrifice in the words of Jesus from Luke 9:23 he said if anyone would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me the way of Christianity is truly a daily denial of self our selfish desires can be found in the worldly conference comforts of this world but actually what we need to focus on is Jesus and that is all that really matters enough fear that our generation what we call sacrifice is our reasonable service and I've heard it said that I'm sacrificed I pray I read my Bible I go to church and I'm here to tell the generation that is my age and down that that is our reasonable service it is an honor it is a privilege to come to church to study this beautiful word to know the exactness of salvation that's a reasonable service that's not a sacrifice these things are not a burden this is a beautiful privilege that we've been given but it's all about our perspective and it's a it is very important that we understand that that is just a reasonable service that's not something the previous generations they didn't call that sacrifice that's just what they did they come to church every Sunday morning every Sunday night and it is what has built this church to where it is today and the most important thing that we as mothers can do we don't want to go back and retrace the steps this church should be getting stronger and stronger and stronger because we're building on faithfulness to the house of God and with all that God has done for us it's really the least that we can do my mom taught me that perseverance is to give God our very best no matter what she modeled the greatest commandment of all and that is thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind there's so many teachable moments and mothers I have reflected back to teachable moments as early as I was three and four years old so I don't want you to think that you bring your child here and I know we don't have nursery right now and I know we don't have Sunday school right now because of kovat 19 but I promise you even though you feel like you need to go to a prayer meeting after you leave church by the time you wrangle with your kids I know what that feels like and there was one time that I I told him I sell my house somebody else's place so I can stay down and watch the girls and be with them during service and I said by the time that service was over I'm like it's easier to stay up there and play the piano but don't think that coming and bringing them in wrangling with them doesn't matter because those are those are teachable moments I've been going back to these times and and it's been such a blessing to me to go back and remember all these times that my mother as a little girl the faithfulness of the house of God I didn't have to ask hey mom are we going to church I knew and I was on drugs as a kid I was drug to the church house every time the doors were open every day and I'm so thankful for that because when the storms of life come to me and let me just tell you you don't know like I know what he has done for me and how he has touched my body he has touched my mind and you know what he had to save me just like he has to save people that come in here that are addicted of things and I'm telling you I don't care if you've grown up in church you have a decision to make this is not just something this revelation that's just handed down I had to make a decision that I was going to follow God and that I was going to believe his word and that I was going to sacrifice and give God my very best I had to make that decision and it was those younger moments really before the age five that really helped me and I remember how particular she was about holiness and yes it mattered young age because that is what I that's all I need no other custom that's the only way I knew to be it is is she taught me no other way and I'll never forget I thought about this this morning I got the Holy Ghost when I was six and I had hot pink salmon Libby shoes on with the big bows okay probably the only time I've I remember wearing flats but yes I was wearing flats and they had the hot pink bows on the front of them and when I got the Holy Ghost I kicked my shoes off and I started shouting all over the altar now how I've known to done that if I hadn't seen my mama doing that and I'm so thankful so mothers what you do matters I was just a six-year-old little girl our worship matters I knew when my mama didn't feel good I knew when she pushed and she came to church and she gave her all and I want to tell you that your sacrifice is not in vain the next thing that she taught me and there's so many things I'm just gonna go over three or four the next thing she taught me was how to intentionally invest my life and eternal things and not spend it on earthly trivial matters CS Lewis said this and it's just a wonderful quote aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in Amite earth and you will get neither she truly showed me how every day even as a young child I'm telling you this starts at a young age with our children in teaching them how not to get caught up in the trivial matters of life I'm telling you I'll become home and I oh yeah I know this is hard to believe but I had a really loud mouth and had a lot of opinions growing up and I would just come home and I would tell her just everything okay and I and she would say Fallon you need to worry about Fallon carpenter that is a full-time job don't you worry about nobody else you do what's right and so at a young age she taught me the power of a right response and she would ever so gently guide my big mouth and show me the scripture and show me how I should respond was never one of those mamas that would try to go take care of everybody else she took care of her own child first and I know that was more than a full-time job I know that I am reaping in in my children not Paris but in my children but I'd say that because she'll get me later on she taught me the power of a response she never allowed me to say it's not fair that was never allowed in our house and I try to do that with my kids she was intentional about imparting the Word of God to me and get into the matter of what was really going on I mean I would come home as a little girl and tell her things that people did to me and she was feel sorry for the other person she be like oh they they're insecure hey listen I'll pray for the bottle you buy them something and I'm thinking okay she just about punched me out and my mom feel sorry for the other person but she was trying to teach me the power of a right response and oh really bless those that curse you and if we could teach our kids this at a young age it's gonna be very powerful because they're gonna run into things in life in college on their jobs and they're not gonna have you right there to take care of every little thing but if we can empower our kids at a young age to live literally from God's Word this church is going to get stronger and stronger but we've got to be intentional because nobody's gonna stumble into heaven accidental we're not gonna accidentally hear him say well done it's not just enough to come we have got to be all in so accidental means done in a deliberate way not accidental accidental ladies we're program it's a multitask and thank God God there the man in the want the husband the wife thank God one of us can multitask love you baby and so that's a good thing because we have kids we have cooking and we have all these different things in and my poor husband when he's over doing like when the girls were in school and he was trying to do their breakfast one morning I had an early meeting and I mean he that the toast was coming up and there their bags and I mean he looked like he had like already worked a 10-hour workday by the time I had got back to get the girls but but God made us that way and it's a beautiful thing but so many times we can have so many tabs open in our brain can I hear amen I mean so many files open and it's like okay we're here at church we need to close the 72 tabs that are in our brain and focus on what the Lord has for us and this it's a good thing but then it's a bad thing because there's areas of our life that the quality be can be diminished and we're not as intentional as we should be but we have in our care the next generation of leaders and we can't afford to lose it children maybe 20% of our population right now but they are 100% of our future and we have to act now we are imparting either our greatest fears or the promises of God into our children there's there's really no in-between we are either imparting our greatest fears bitterness insecurities I don't care how you were raised I don't care who you are I don't care where you live we all have them we all have things in our lives that we have got to give to God so mothers I just want to speak this to you we must be intentional about healing from our past about healing from maybe past hurts and and this is something that a lot of times we don't talk about because you know you you might be somebody that's grown up in church all your life and you know this might be all you know and sometimes we can have a pride in that way that we don't want to share if we've been hurt or if there's something we're having a hard time getting through but let me tell every lady in here it's okay to not be okay all right it is okay not to be okay and we need to ask for help from godly women if we need help but we've got to be intentional about healing from our past because if we're not we're going to be constantly singing it and sewing our kids bitterness sowing into our kids insecurities in God and again the enemy he has no greater joy than to mess with our mind because so goes the families so goes the church I heard a powerful quote from a Christian dr. dr. Caroline leaf and if this is something you are struggling with the battlefield of the mind she said that there is a 68 percent increase of a mental healing when serving other people a 68 percent increases so this is why it's so important that we must get involved in the church we must get involved in serving other people it's not about us it's all about the glory of God and as we are serving other people God is going to come through he's going to heal us sister Ron Hart told me a powerful story about a pastor that went into the women's prison and if I said his name you would know who he is and God healed him as he was ministering there in that prison he had been abused as a young child he had never told anybody about it but as he went into that prison and he fought and fought the enemy God came down and He healed that moment that was in his past and I'm telling you if we will get the burden of this get our attention off of ourselves God will give us the healing that we need Isaiah 66 and 13 says as a mother comforts her child so will I comfort you and so as we take care of God's heartbeat and that is the loss and that might be your children at this season of time if you have young children in your home that may that may be your grandchildren that might be adopting a young lady or or someone in this church that does not have any spiritual leadership I'm telling you there will be a healing that will come me and my husband get the privilege to travel doing missions work and music workshops and everything and when we get in those seasons a lot of times we'll just roll the suitcase into the closet you know be at church on the weekend and then we'll just throw a few more things in there and then go to the next place and sometimes those suitcases are just in there just begging to be unpacked but I'm like I ain't packing them suitcases whatever is in there is in there that's what we're gonna wear but oftentimes I will get to these places and I will have nothing that I need and chattels say Fallon what did you what did you pack I'm like nothing that I needed and I think a lot of times we ladies come to church with so much baggage things that we've never just dumped out put it on the altar gave it to God we carry it from church service to church service camp meeting the camp meeting so mothers I think this Mother's Day 2020 would be an awesome time to cast your cares on the Lord he cares for your soul we weren't meant to carry some of the things that we're carrying I'm telling you give it to God give it to God daily if Asians 5 15 through 17 says look carefully and I think we can say intentionally then how you walk not as unwise but wise making the best use of the time we need to retain the time because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the word of the Lord is and you may be sitting here today and you might be out of this season of raising your kids but I'm telling you various power there's power in acting now there is power in a right response and you know what there's even power and maybe telling adult children I didn't do and things right some of the most powerful times in my life is a little girl when I would hear my mom and dad say sorry I didn't respond the right way I would think wow that was amazing and that didn't diminish my respect for them that actually built it up but I want to give you this one thought about God being omnipresent and I actually heard my husband preach this a few years ago and it's always stuck with me that we think of God he is omnipresent so he's here right now and he's in our future but he knows no time he is restricted by no time so he's not only here right now and in our future but he's in our past he's in that moment that you think about it makes you feel bad and maybe there's some things that might be in your past whether it has to do with raising your children or something somebody did to you and I'm telling you he is right there in that moment and he can heal just like he healed that pastor in that prison on that day as he was serving other people I believe he has all the power to heal you the next lesson that she taught me was that the most powerful thing I could do as a mother it's not taking my kids to Disney it's not having the latest and greatest of everything but the greatest thing I could do as a mother is pray and study to show myself a preach she would tell me over and over again growing up and I know she's dying today because I'm only talking about her but it's Mother's Day and I've got the mic so she would tell me my whole life falen you can't give what you don't have falen you can't give what you don't have so I don't know what mother in here would say I want my kids to pray with fervency I want my kids to be daily in the Word of God I want to see my kids in the prayer room I want to see them crying out before God but again we must be first partakers we can't let the cares of this life and the multitasking of everything that's got to go on hinder us from doing what's most important the most important thing is we're back at church tonight we're here ready to worship I know we've got everybody's crock pots are on right I know we've got stuff cooking at home but the greatest thing we can do is leave all the myths there and take our kids to church this is the best family time you will ever have I can promise you that she not only taught me how to pray our kids are screaming teach us how to pray teach us how to pray but she prayed out loud in the home and that is something I will never forget there are phrases that I said that I pray to this day that I heard my mother pray I mean whoa however why would I know how to pray if I didn't hear my mother pray and it's not that you pray out loud to be heard but there is power power in that the scripture says that Satan is the Prince and the power of the air and so mother's it is a powerful thing well we are in our homes that if we want those spirits the spirits of oppression and depression and things that want to steal the joy and our children in our marriages if we want that to go out the door I submit to you mothers we've got to open up our mouths and we've got to pray we've got to disrupt the sound waves in the prints and the power of the air pray bold prayers pray scary prayers things that scare yourself don't pray scared prayers like God I don't know if I'm gonna make it I can remember hearing my mom say God don't give Fallon Talent nicely well thanks she's like just teach her to fear you if she doesn't do anything else and I even she told me when I got older she said I prayed when I found out when me and your daddy found out we were expecting you I asked God if I don't have the wisdom and the knowledge to raise Fallon to fear you take her now I remember thinking well thanks but that's how important this is pray bold prayers pray pray James 5:16 says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective proverbs 15 29 says the Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayers of the righteousness Ephesians 6 and 18 says pray in this on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all of the Lord's people mothers as we pray out loud it creates room inside of us for what God can do faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of not of things not seen I'm telling you when we pray out loud and when we pray over our children it creates room inside of them for what God has for their life the next thing she taught me is the need is the call the need is a call and I feel like in our generation there's so much going back and forth between why does my calling that's probably the number one thing that we get asked our pastoral team how do I know what my calling is and I can tell you today what it is the need is the call whatever is needed is what is your calling at this time I believe that low expectation is the number one killer of our youth today is not expecting them to do hard things as at a young age as a child I dealt with severe anxiety I was diagnosed by doctor with anxiety I had an inhaler going into crowds was absolutely debilitating and it took everything out of me I thought everybody in that room was looking at me and I know it was about all on my mom and dad because if we would go to a convention or a camp meeting I was a mess and when it came time it just the position opened up to where we needed a piano player and you know they asked me they said can you do this and I'm thinking I can barely even walk into a room of people much less I knew like three songs and I knew God had called me to that and I and I told mom I said you know I know God's calling me to that but just not right now went on shall just hire somebody and she said oh no Fallon you don't decide when God's gonna use you when he calls you you better step up and there was a lot that went on behind the scenes of even getting me to walk across a platform to piano and some some may think you know it was might have been too much but I am so thankful because it's that process and mothers we've got allow our kids that go through those processes we don't need to bypass the process for our kids but through that it taught me how to pray I had to call out on the name of the Lord to get through every single service and I'm so thankful that she pushed me to do hard things I'm telling you the key the revival is sitting in our pews sitting on our laps is sleeping under the pews mothers if we can just see the power of our influence and I'm telling you the enemy he wants to diminish that in our minds listen to this Mozart wrote his first symphony at age 8 Pascal developed the calculator at age 19 Alexander the Great conquered countries at age 18 David defeated AG life at approximately age 17 the young lad with his lunch could have refused to give God the little that he had but instead he gave God what he had and God finished the work general superintendent penny and Kenny carpenter they became pastors of this church at age 18 and 24 I became the music minister at this church at age 13 so I encourage you mothers I know that our kids come home from camps and strong towers and different things and they see the promises of God but there's going to be a process to that promise and we need to be women of faith to help activate those blessings and so many times like I said earlier and in my conclusion the enemy wants to diminish our the influence that we have in our minds and it all starts right here it's the battlefield of the mind ladies how did Jesus feel about the influence of a woman jesus never oppressed women in his ministry when we study the Word of God there was a woman of Canaan that desired a crumb from the master's table and he said woman great is thy faith the woman of Samaria that met Jesus at the well he said she's an example the father seeketh such to worship Him in spirit and in truth there was a woman taken in the act of adultery listen to what he said to her neither do i condemn thee stand up go in sin more now if you go into any country where the name of Jesus has not yet penetrated yet and and there's no revival you will find a group of women that are oppressed a lot of times all you will see is their eyes and I submit to you because there is not the power of a lady that is leading the families and I'm telling you there was a commander from Fort Bragg that once said we were not winning the war in Afghanistan because our men our troops on the ground could not talk to the women to convince them that the democracy would save their children so you know what they did they went in and they got a special ops team of women and those women went in and they started talking to the ladies there in convincing them that we're here to help you this is going to save your children so I submit to you today if our US Army knows the power of the influence of a woman I think it's time that the church rises up and we understand the power of a Holiness woman and I'm not talking about a women's activists type of thing because those ladies and that movement in this country is an attack on the image of God it is an attack on holiness but what I'm talking about today is strong women strong women as faith that can stand up and lead their children let's take a look real quick at these last scriptures enclosing Jesus liberated women and gave them a purpose and I believe in those countries I got the privilege I believe it was last year to speak to a group of those ladies and just even just to get them to raise their hands and it's just it's an unbelievable thing and I showed them a picture brother Dale do you have that picture of my mother in the altar and I showed them pictures of you all worshiping and different ladies worshiping and just tried to show them they would sit in the very very back I sent it and it's supposed to go at the end I don't know if they have it or not but I showed them a picture of my mom and the altar with Windsor and my mother-in-law was there and I was there and then Parris was there and just showing them what it looks like just to even come up to the altar and worship and I believe there's going to be a moderate viable in the the Azores and Lebanon they are they are onto something I showed them that picture there and they were so moved because they can't even imagine coming up and praying in this picture right here is so powerful to me and something I have saved on my phone just to remind me of the blessings of God of me and Chad's mother and then to see Paris in the background and this praying over wins are there that means more to me than anything but I want to just show you through Scripture in closing acts 1 in 14 these all continued with one Accord prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren acts 2 and 17 your sons and your daughters shall prophesy acts 5 and 14 and they added to the multitudes both men and women that was the start of the church this is why we must be intentional about advancing the kingdom of God and I pray I pray if y'all would all stand just a a hedge of protection on the minds of the ladies in this church and that we would really really realize what our purpose is and what our calling is in a mom if you would come up and pray over the ladies and just pray that God would touch our minds and that we would go out from this place and that we would lead our children and lead our families and pray over our husbands because I'm telling you God has called us and given us a strong influence to lead first lady if you would pray over the lady's husband if you just lay your hand over on your wife let's just ask God