Mother's Day

There was a mom who was stuck in — her small boy — into bed. And it was during the summer. One of those summer thunderstorms comes rolling in with the collapse of thunder and the lightning flashing, and a little boy is very afraid. He said, "Mom, can you please sleep with me tonight?" Which she responded in a very loving way, "No, son, I've got to go sleep with your dad." A little few minutes of awkward silence, and he said, "You know, he's just a big —" Sometimes dads can be.

There's another young boy and girl that saved up their money. They wanted to buy their mom something special for Mother's Day, and they went down to the local flora — flower, flower shop — and was looking around what they could buy. And they come home and they had a very little humble bouquet of flowers they presented their mom and said, "Mom, we wanted to buy you something special, and we, we didn't have enough money to get what we want, but we got you this." Of course she was very touched. She said, "Honey, it's beautiful, it's perfect. I can't imagine anything better." And the boy piped up. He said, "Oh Mom, we, we seen the one we really wanted to get, but we couldn't afford it. It was a beautiful bouquet of flowers. It was in a round circle, and it had this ribbon on it that said 'Rest in Peace.' And we knew that you were always just saying, 'Gosh, can you please give me some peace so I can rest?' We thought that would be, be perfect for you." And probably some parents, their moms in the room, be like, "Yeah, that would be really good, to have a little rest and some peace in my life."

Um, we're gonna go to First John chapter 4 verse 8, and then I'm going to go to John 3:16, for, for opening verses today. But let me also extend a big thank you to all the moms that are here, but especially to my mom. She's here. Mom, I love you. Thank you for putting up with me, and enduring my little brother.

When I think about the word "mom," the first thing that comes to my mind is love. The Bible says in First John 4: "Now he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." Today we are here, and part of what we are doing is setting aside a moment, a time, a day, where we are going to honor one of the greatest gifts to mankind, and that is the gift of motherhood. Not because it's a holiday, or because it's a good time to sell some cards and extra flowers, but I was thinking this week about the own — my own debt that I owe my mother for all that she's done for me, and then being able to watch my wife through the years that she's mothered our children. It's, it's an amazing and overwhelming thought. I've been blessed to have — uh — not only a great mom, but also a wonderful wife who's a great mother to our children.

So to all our moms here: for the gift of life that you've given us, for allowing your bodies to become a shelter in which we were protected, through which we enter the world; for holding us, for rocking us, for singing to us the first songs; for seeing the potential in us and believing in us and wanting something better; for being willing to endure our anger, if we're willing to — to discipline us even when we didn't want it, because you knew that inside there was a better person you were trying to bring out; for knowing about our birthdays, for knowing our friends' names and our teachers and our favorite foods and our most cherished toys; for playing games with us we know you really didn't want to play; for watching shows with us you didn't want to watch; for letting us grow to be distant and moody sometimes; for making mistakes; and for the tears that we never saw, for the fears we never felt, for the heartaches we never knew, for the prayers we never heard — today we don't want to take it for granted. Today, as a church, from our very hearts, we want to say thank you, Mom. Thank you. Thank you for what you've done.

Now, I gave you the verse there in First John 4, but I also want to read what's probably the most quoted verse in the entirety of the Bible. I dare say the vast majority of those in the room today, and those that are listed online, know John 3:16. It says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." What I want to do for the next just couple of minutes — I, I won't be long today, because I know that we want God to be here with us and we want God to move, but I'm also aware that many of you probably have plans after this, either to take Mom out or to meet with Mom, and, and I want to be — I want to be mindful of those things as well. But I want us to look at this first, because there's a lot here, and I feel like, because it's so familiar to us, oftentimes we don't really grasp the full weight of what is here.

Now, you're in a — you're in an Apostolic Pentecostal church, and I'm gonna be honest with you: sometimes our movement gets a little gunshot around this verse. There's nothing to be gun shy about this verse. It's in the Bible. It's there for a reason. It's given to you. It's important. What I want to show you today is there's a lot here, because I want to tell you: the greatest subject you could ever study out is God. I'm going to say that again: the greatest subject you could ever study is God. The word God is the greatest subject anybody has ever taught about, wrote about, talked about, studied, or dreamed about. It's the greatest subject. But it's also something that brings you and I into a real perspective that's important, and that is this: God is the greatest subject, and we need to be aware of that. But in order to be fully aware of that, if that's the greatest, guess what's not as important as God? Me and you. We're not nearly as important as God. He is supreme.

We can be so self-absorbed. We can oftentimes think about, life is always about me. I was joking with Sister Benson earlier, as he was coming in, because I told her husband "Happy Mother's Day," and she said, "Hey buddy, you missed it, I'm over here." And I responded, "Why has it always got to be about you, Judy?" That — she's my friend; I'm just picking on her. But the reality is, far too often you and I make life all about us, when life should be about God. It should be about him. After all, he's the author and the finisher of life and our faith. He is there. He's the one who created us and made us. I ran across a quote by a guy named John Holmes that says it is

well to remember that the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of other people. Because we, we just think it's about me. But God is here.

Now, we're here to talk about motherhood, but we're also here to talk about God, because what I've realized is that motherhood teaches all of us, whether we're a mom or not. And I know today is a difficult day, and today's a happy day, and sometimes it's happy and difficult and sad and all at the same time. Because I know represented in this room today are those first mothers. If you're a first mother, you mind just raising your hand right now? How many first mothers do you have to have the one child and mother? Yeah, we got a few in the room. Now, here's what I also know: in the room today we have those who, who are mothers of multiples. I'm not going to make you raise your hand, because you're busy right now. You're probably not even paying attention to me. You may be trying to catch a nap right now because it's the only quiet time, because they're over there having the kids church, having, having their time. But we have multiples. We also have various generations that are here, so there's, there's quite possibly that you're here with your children. You may be here with your grandchildren. How many are happy about grandkids? Yeah, yeah. They say they're the best. I don't know; I'm not there yet. But they say that.

Now, I also know that in the room today, some of you may be missing your mothers. So today is — it's tough. It's a tough day, because you, you miss Mom. She's not here. I also know today in this room, there's probably some that your mom's still alive, but she's missing. What I mean by that is she's absent in your life, for whatever the reason is. So I know today brings a whole lot of emotions, so I want to be sensitive to that. So because of the nature — I feel like motherhood teaches us a lot, but I want to draw from not just motherhood, but I want to point you to God today, because it's important.

Motherhood — a lot of people, or ladies, they think about it. You know, we, we have three daughters, chassis, and — uh — God blessed us with three girls. And regardless of what the world tries to say, I'll tell you that it's in little girls to be moms. It's just there. You can argue with me on that if you want to, but I promise, all you gotta do is sit and watch. Just sit and watch. It's, it's there. We watch their own — own daughters, even when there wasn't dolls for them to pick up, they were mothering objects. It was things. Now, some of it was interesting, because you could see it oftentimes a bit of a reflection of how you parent in your kids. So sometimes when they would discipline their kids, I'd be like, "Oh my goodness, are we really that rough? Maybe you need to curb that a little bit, honey." But you know, when you, when you want this, you want a child, especially — and if I can for just a minute speak to moms — you want a baby. Well, here's the deal: you get what you want, and what you oftentimes find out is, is that that cute and cuddly little one — and they're so sweet, they're newborn, and they just — they're, they're beautiful, and they got their little fuzzy heads, and you wrap them up, and they make those little noises — but it seems about seven minutes later they're screaming at you. And they, they make messes, not only messes in their diaper, but they make messes everywhere they go. And then you're like, "What, what did I sign up for?" And you realize that for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years of your life, you're cleaning up after them. And I just want to say a side note: it's okay to kick them out of the house. Yeah, if you have grown adults in there, maybe it's time to let them fly a little bit. Now, that's not meant to hurt anybody's feelings, because I know somebody can get upset. Look, I'm not — I'm not against you; I'm not for you; I'm for you; I'm not against you. But you got to figure some things out. You know, there's nothing wrong with looking to — forward to an empty nest either. Amen.

One of the hardest things you're going to have to do, though — and I don't know — I'll say this, is as we — and this is something that never stops. It never goes away. You're always teaching, even if your kids are 50. If they're 70, you're always teaching them what's important in life, because God gifted you uniquely in the position to always be teaching, which also comes with an awesome responsibility on your part. Every mom has this need.

And I was thinking about who would be the greatest mom that ever lived. And I think, you know, if we're going to go through the qualifications of this, we would have to ask ourselves: who's the one who only — who's the only one who ever raised the perfect child? It would be Mary. You're right. Close second is Joyce Allen, but Mary was there. That was just kidding. She, she by no means raised the perfect child; I need a lot of help. But it's Mary. We find Mary. Now, what I love about this is I feel like she sets up the right perspective of motherhood and how she responds to the news that she's going to be a mom. In Luke chapter 1 verse 46: "And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmade — for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."

We see here that the, the, the way you can set yourself up to be a good mom is that you have to take yourself out of the center of the equation, and you have to insert God into the center of the equation. That's why Mary did — she acknowledged it right off of the bat. And then this verse that we're studying today, in John 3:16, we see that it starts from the very beginning, the onset. It says "For God" — right off the bat, God so loved. So we start immediately with God.

Every day, ladies and gentlemen — this is a, is something that applies to every one of us — you should start every day off with God. Every day should be started with him. Now, you can add to all the other things you, you have in your life, and, and we all have lists, and we all have duties and tasks and things we have to take care of, but I promise you: if you want to do life well, if you want to do life to the best of your ability, if you want to be the best mom, the best dad, the best person, the best human being, the best thing that you can do is start with God first.

I know, I know one minister who's, who, who I've had — uh, or — an opportunity to spend some time with, and

he's highly, highly respected in our movement. He says that he refuses to speak to anyone before he goes to the word and talks to God first. He wants his first words, his first conversation of the day, to be with God. I think it's a noble cause, because it's, it's, it's something important about starting with God. He must maintain the center position in our life.

When the prophet Isaiah was trying to explain the extent of God's commitment to you and I — he, he's trying to pin together this imagery of what we need to do, and he comes up with this. He doesn't come up with the image of a dad; he comes up with the image of a mom. He says this in Isaiah 49:15: "Never — can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child that she has born? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you." So we see, as God is moving on Isaiah, trying to pin down just how great our God is when it comes to his love for us, he goes to the, to the highest form of human love that, that he could possibly pin and put together, and he says, "Can a mother forget the nursing child? Is that even possible?" But then he goes further and says, "But even if that does happen" — because unfortunately in this world sometimes moms don't love the way they should, sometimes there's brokenness, sometimes there's hurt, sometimes there's betrayal, and we could go down a long list of the why that's there — and I love the fact that God didn't just stop and say, "Can, can a mother forget her nursing child?" but "even if that does happen — because sometimes it will — I still won't forget you," because that's how much God loves you and me. It's, it, it, it's something that's very special.

You know, we think about — anybody ever have, have that fear of leaving your kid? Anybody willing to admit you left your kid before? I got my hand up. Yeah, Chastity. Now, we've left kids here at the church, because we never drive together. So there's been times we got home and I'm like, "Hey, where's Emory? I thought she was with you." "I thought she was with you." She's up here. You know, we've done that. Anybody else ever left the kid somewhere? It's okay; we're not, we're going to sign you up and call DCS or anything. It's just, it happens, right? It does. You know, during the, during the Christmas time, and we, we — there's, there's this older movie we like to watch called Home Alone. The main character is a boy named Kevin, and, and he, he threw a set of circumstances, ends up getting left to home. Now, what I find interesting in that story is that when the dad finds out about it, he's like, "Well, you know, that's something," but he — you know, he'll probably be okay, because that's what a dad does, right? "He'd be all right. I mean, we got — there's crackers in the pantry, he'll, he'll figure it out." But, but there was this quote in the movie where the mom says this. She goes, "I have to be the worst mom that's ever lived, because I forgot my child." No mom can forget their child. But God says, even if it could happen, and the unlikeliest of scenarios, "I still won't forget you."

In fact, I love the next verse, Isaiah 49:16. Says, "I have written your name in the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem walls and ruins." Anyone here ever writes something on your hand so you can remember it? Yeah. I — ever done that before? I have to — yeah, I've written it there. Anybody got mad because it got smeared, and you're the one that wrote it, so you should know what you wrote, but then you're like, "What did I write?" It's there. Yeah, I love how God says, "Though — I write your name. You're so important to me that I've written your name in the palm of my hand, so when I look down, I see you." You think about what kind of love that is, that he would write your name in his hand.

You know, in John 3:16, "For God so loved" — you know, that chapter three is, is a wonderful chapter. It's a chapter that starts off with a man named Nicodemus who comes to Jesus by night. He's, he's a ruler, he's a studied man, he's a learned man, and he's, he's come with a, with a question about salvation. He's looking for some answers in his life. And it's, it's through this series of questions, as Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus the things that he needs to be doing, that we get this verse 16, where it talks again about love. God loved — God so loved the world. Did you notice this? Now, if you've studied scripture — uh — at any length, you probably have noticed that God's people were the, were the Hebrew people, or the Jewish people. So someone who was studied in the law would have probably had expected Jesus to say, "For God so loved the Hebrew people; for God so loved the Jews." But he didn't say that. He said, "For God so loved the world." It was an exclusive statement that was — there was an inclusive, excuse me, statement — it was being made there in that moment, that God didn't just love his people, or righteous people, or, or just a temple, or just Israel, but it was that God so loved the world.

And what's interesting — she's there — the world, if you go in down to the root of it, doesn't just mean the planet, all right, itself, but it goes to something bigger there. It means humanity. Because humanity often stands in opposition to God. Man, is that not our world today, where if, where it seems like everything is standing in opposition to God? Everything that's holy is being tore down, everything that is truthful is being torn down, everything is left up to personal interpretation, and then, and they've excluded whatever God has to say. But I go back to, to Jesus's response to Nicodemus: "For God so loved the world." Regardless of the opposition, regardless of whether or not we return that love, he still loves us. That should be good news to somebody in this room. Because I dare say there's been more than just one or two in the room who, at some point or another, maybe you didn't like God very much. Maybe you were upset about your life situation or your set of circumstances. Let's get more specific: maybe, maybe motherhood itself is something that frustrated you, or was forced upon you, or maybe your mom wasn't good to you, or maybe she was abusive, or maybe she abandoned you. I want you to know there's a higher love than a mother's love. There's a love of God. God so loved the world. God so loved the world. He didn't exclude anybody. He said, "Every, everybody is, is a part of what I love." That's the kind of God we have.

John chapter 1 verse 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shine in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended not." They didn't understand what was going on. Sometimes I wonder if we really understand what's going on anymore in our world.

We're not — children, we're born — for those of you who've been there on that glorious day, you know that when a kid is born, they don't come out in, in a cute little blanket, all swaddled up, smelling like baby magic. They don't. They, they come out covered in vernics, look like they got cheese on them. And there you are — you know, it, it's not a, a site that, that you would, you would, you put out there is like, "This is a beautiful thing" — but it is a beautiful thing. Now, when I was there, I was, I was standing as a typical dad, just like struck by the moment of, of, "Wow, I'm a father," you know, standing going, "Look what I did" — which was very minimal. My wife, she, she, she bore our child. She, she, she was there. Now, the difference between a dad and a mom is, a dad's like, "Oh wow, yeah, you need to clean that thing up, like, come on, help us out here." Not, not Mom. Mom immediately — of course, my wife was nursery, NICU nurse — the first thing she does is, she's got them up, spinning around, checking them out, and counting toes, and looking in her mouth, and that's one of Mom's — investigating, inspecting, and making sure that everything's right, because she wants her child to be as best it can be. There, there's a love, there's a bond, there's a connection there that's hard to explain, unlike anything else, that, that bond of there, the mother's love.

The Bible says, "For God so loved the world." He doesn't divide his children up into pretty or ugly, or richer, poor, black or white, or smarter or ignorant, or Republican or Democrat, or Christian or non-Christian. He just loves. He just loves. That's our God. He, he just loves. He, he doesn't make you qualify his love; he just loves. He doesn't make you do any of the — he just loves. God just loves the world. In fact, he can't help himself. For love, he can't stop himself from loving you, regardless of what you do. He can't stop himself from loving you. That should be encouraging to somebody today, that, that no matter what you've done, you haven't disqualified yourself from God's love. He can't help himself from loving you.

Every mom knows part of, of loving means to, to see not just what's on the surface, but to see what lies beneath. How many are thankful that, that your mama didn't give up on you? Yeah, yeah, I know. I mean, your mom was there to encourage you.

Ephesians 2:10 — I've used this first in the last few weeks because it, it just really struck a chord in my spirit: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." When God looks at you, he sees the potential he created you to be, and he placed inside of you. That's what he — so he, he doesn't like the sin, he doesn't like the mistakes, he doesn't like the failures and shortcomings there. No, he doesn't like those things, but he looks beyond that. He looks beyond your mistakes, he looks beyond your failures, because he sees what he put in you from the beginning. He put good stuff in you. He put good stuff in you. You should be encouraged. You have good things. Maybe you haven't seen any good thing yet, but I promise you, when God looks at you, he doesn't see the failure. He sees the potential that you have to accomplish the good things he placed in you from the beginning. That's our God.

First John 1 and 1 says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, those who we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Somehow, someway, when God looks at us, he sees himself. He made us in his image. "In the image of God he made them, male and female." When he looks at us, he sees himself. God — think about this. I'm going to just think about this verse. God, the greatest subject ever. So what is — what is the word "so"? It's two letters, but it's, it's talking about the greatest extent. God — so — God, the greatest subject, so, to the extent, loved, the greatest affection. So God, the greatest subject, to the greatest extent, love, the greatest affection. Do you — say, this is building. There's a lot in this verse. God is there, he loved — what? The world, the greatest object ever — that he gave, himself again. If you're taking notes: that's the greatest gift. God always gives. And when God gives, he doesn't give a hand-me-down, all right? God doesn't re-gift. And sometimes we'll hear a gift — yeah, some of us are glad when we get that, don't have an aim on it, like, "Oh, saves me a trip to the store." We were a gift. God doesn't re-gift. God gives, and when God gives, God gives his best. He gives his best. Giving is what he does, because giving is what love does. Given is what he does, because giving is what love does. Love is what you feel, but give is what you do.

What we do for Mom on Mother's Day, we give. Why? Because we went to the farmer's market yesterday, and I got really tickled as we rounded the corner. I'm like, "Man, there's a really long line here." I'm thinking it's a long line for probably sausage and biscuits. It's a long line for bagels, because I'm smelling all this food. It's a long line for some kind of object of food. No — you know what the long line was for? Fresh flowers. You know what I've seen? I've seen a bunch of fellas standing there. I left there — I had to go to Kroger's a little bit later. I'm over here at Kroger. You want to see a Kroger — a long line, where was that long line? At the flowers. There was another long line — you know that was that — it was that the cards, and they were picking over the scraps because they waited. Why? Because love makes you want to give. Love makes you want to give.

Think about this, moms and dads: when, when your kids do something great, what do you want to do? You want to hug them, and you want to — you want to give them. You like — you want to do that. You do the best of your ability, you wanna — because that's, that's the reaction of love, is to give: to give a hug, to give, to give praise, to give a gift.

Whatever it is, it's at the heart of who we are. It's at the heart of being a mom. When it works right, we receive more from our moms than we could ever give. Given is at the heart of God. "For God so loved that he gave." He gave his life, he gave his teaching, death on a cross for our sins, resurrection, our hope — the best gift. "For God so loved the world that he gave." That he gave. "For God so loved the world that he gave." And I love that he didn't stop. It goes on and says, "For whosoever" — who's the qualifications? Do you want it? Do you want it? That's the qualification. Every single individual has the greatest opportunity ever, in the, in the greatest opportunity is right here in this room today, and it comes to everybody, for whosoever wants it. The word that follows there is very often translated in different ways, but it means literally to have faith in, to respect, to, to give over and commit, to put into trust. What you have to come in — it really means I trust myself to God. Whosoever will — will you trust yourself, that, "God, I give you me. God, I see what you did: you loved, you've loved, you've loved so much, you, you, you gave the world, all of us inclusive, Lord, you gave us all this opportunity. Therefore, whosoever will — God, I want to commit that back into your trust, what my life back to you. God, I want to give my life back to you. You've already given me your life. You've already sacrificed your life. You've already made atonement for my sins, for my failures, for my sake. You shed your blood for all the things that I've done wrong in my life. Therefore, I want to come back to you and commit my life back into trust to you, because you're the only one who is willing to lay your life down and cover all of my failures and all of my mistakes."

What a good God we have, that he loved us so much, he didn't exclude anybody, but he said, "I love everybody. I love the world. I'm willing to give." And he wants to — response back for us, and say, "I'm willing to give back what I have." God — what are you going to give God? You're going to give him your finances? You're going to give him your 401k? You're going to give them your house? You're going to give him your education? You're going to give him your car? What, what does God need with him? He doesn't desire any of that stuff. You put way more emphasis on those things and God will ever put it on. But he's looking for — is you. It's you. He wants you. He died for you. He died for your brokenness. He died — he died for all your failures and, and all your brokenness that is there, and he said, "I'll purchase that. I'll purchased the flawed material, and I'll give my best. I'll give my life first, and all I expected in return is that you want to give your life back, to commit myself back to you." I'm so thankful that this truth is here. I'm so thankful that we have an opportunity not only to live it, but to teach it.

You know, part of being a mom — and you mothers know this in the room, you know it — part of the, part of being a mom is, is that never-ending job of teaching, because the kids have that one, that one three-letter word that they ask all the time: "Why?" Some of you moms have probably even said at one point or another, "I want to change my name, is no longer Mom. Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, don't call me Mom anymore." Then they call you by your first name, and then they get in trouble. I'm so thankful, though, that we're part of a church that's committed to teaching our kids. But it takes more than just to turn to church, moms and dads; it takes you too. I'm so grateful to be a part to where we have people who are saying, "I'm available. I will help teach. I'll help do what I can."

One of the main jobs of a mom, too, is to protect. You ever noticed this before? Moms can get riled up over their kids. I mean, they can get — wow, they become superhuman. They feel their kids are going to be attacked. When I was a boy, you know, it wasn't mandatory that you wore a seat belt. You remember those days? Yeah, around the days when you had the freedom to lay in the back window of the car on family vacations. I remember the, remember the joy when Dad was — slammed the brakes on, and you flew out the back window, you hit the back of the front seat, and fell down in the — in the well, down the bottom where that drive shaft came through, and he just giggled. And you're like, "Do it again, Dad! Do it again!" Yeah. Because I remember many a time being younger, riding with my mom, and, and my mom would be driving — and of course, my mom drove — you were really close to the dash, because my mom's five foot and a few inches, and so we'll be up there. I remember many occasions that something happened in front of her — she was, by default, say "Jesus," and she would just slap that hand right over there, and it's like — because my mom was my seat belt. Yeah. What's funny is, I'm 47 years old, sometimes I'm instilled — my mom will be in the front seat, and something happened there, like, Lord, a little arm comes fine across over there, like she's gonna — like, twice as much as she weighs, she's going to stop. But that's — it's in a mom to protect. It's there.

There's also something else that moms will do, that you know you were really in trouble. How many of you know that this statement, that lets you know that you had done something really, really bad? It's when that full name came out. Yeah. When "Kevin Howard Allen" — it's like, all of a sudden you perked up, like, "Man, you don't know what you did; you just know it was bad," you know, automatically saying, "I'm sorry," apologizing.

Jesus, and trying to communicate his intensity and his desire and his love, he says in Matthew 23:37: "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem" — says it twice; it's important; it's for emphasis; he's making this statement — listen to what he says: "Thou that killeth the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers their chickens under her wings, and you would not." Jesus, the greatest that ever lived, the one, the Messiah, the perfect one — when he, when he begins to describe and comes up with, with the greatest rescuer, he doesn't compare himself to some kind of heroic animal, you know, some mighty steed. You know, he — it was kind of interesting, I looked up just to try to see, you know, how many sports teams were named after hens. They really didn't get it. You know, there's a lot of badgers and bobcats

and bears and bisons and buffaloes and bees and bulls. And there's all kinds of eagles and ospreys and hawks, but there's no college that says, "We're the mother hens. Go, hens, go!" But Jesus says, if the chicks are in danger, if there's a fox in the hen house, the mother hen will spread her wings and gather her ticks under them and wrap her wings around them. What's happening? She's saying, "I'll die to protect my kids," because that's what moms do. And to have that full life, and that, that abundant life that is there — the forgiving life, the meaningful life, the forever life.

Now that we see this reflection of Jesus saying, "How oft I would have gathered you too under, under my wings of protection, but you wouldn't let me" — you know, as, as I bring this Mother's Day message to a close, I think about God and his amazing love for you and I, to the extent that he would go to die on a cross, that he would leave the splendor of heaven, the comforts and convenience and everything that he had, robe himself in flesh, and come down, walk as a man like you and I, to experience the same things that you would experience — you and I experienced — he would experience: betrayal, heartache, pain, frustration, joy, happiness, laughter. He experienced all these things, yet he, he lived in a way to show that you and I can live an abundant, overcoming life, that we don't have to fall privy to the sin. We don't have to give in to those things — we can't. He showed that it can be done. And then he dies. He spreads his arms out, and those same palms were our names are written, they drove nails through them. The same arms he said, "I'll wrap around you and protect you and love you," he opened up himself to show that ultimate expression of love. "For God so loved the world that he gave" — the greatest subject ever, to the greatest extent ever, to the greatest affection ever, to the greatest object ever. "For God so loved the world that he gave."

And what I want you to know today is, I bring this to an end, is that he's still in the giving business. He's still in the giving business. I know it's Mother's Day. I know, I know there's a lot of things planned as soon as we say amen. But I, I can't end a message and not give an opportunity for someone that maybe has never experienced him as Lord and Savior in your life, to experience him as Lord and Savior. I can't end the message for someone who has maybe walked away from God in some way. There, there could be a multitude of reasons, and I'm not looking for you to justify anything. It doesn't matter why. But if you've backed away from God in any way, I want you to know he loves you. He loves you so much he gave. He loves you so much he gave. And he's still giving today.

So, moms, I want you to know: motherhood is not for the weak, it's not for the faint. It's tough business. And God put it on women instead of man, because he knew y'all could handle it, because we give up. I told my wife that: "So there's no way I could be a mom. There's no way men can be moms." I'm just going to say you right now: whirlwind — the world wouldn't last. We need moms. We need dads too — dads have their own right; we're going to get to that in a few weeks, on Father's Day, I'll talk about the importance of dads, because dads oftentimes are underplayed in society. We are important. Today's about moms. Moms, when it's right and things are going good, we experience that love, and we need it. But there's times we need the correction too.

This verse I focused on today doesn't end with the word death, but this verse begins with God and it ends with life. It begins with God and it ends with life. It's no accident that this statement has become known so well, because God — and I'm ending here — God, the greatest subject ever, so, to the greatest extent, loved, with the greatest affection, the world, the greatest object, that he gave, the greatest gift ever, so that whosoever, the greatest opportunity, would entrust himself to him, the greatest commitment, will never be destroyed, the greatest rescue, but have life now and forever, the greatest promise. And the hope is yours. It's yours.

So if you'll close your eyes with me, if you're comfortable doing that, I want to bring this to an end through a prayer. But anytime you feel like you need to come down, this altar is open, and the God who loved is still here today, and he's still in the giving business. Will you help me pray?

Jesus, I'm so thankful for every mother that is here, for the gift of motherhood that you have blessed us with. Thank you, God, for the sacrificial hours, days, and years they've poured in to raising us. I pray, God, that you would bless them today abundantly. If there's broken relationships, God, I pray that you would heal them and mend them. If there's things that need to be restored, God, I pray that process would start today. I pray that every mother would feel encouraged, knowing, God, there are days that we all feel like giving up, but you are here, and regardless of any mistakes we've made in the past, you still love us. You who still love us, and you're still pouring out your love. Lord, I pray that there's someone who has maybe walked away from you, for whatever the reason is, that they're here in this room today, that they could feel you tug at their heart, knowing that you still desire reconciliation. You want to restore that relationship. You want to bring them back under your wings, where they can feel your love every day. I pray, Lord God, that that would happen today, today in this place. God, if there's someone here in this room that's never known you as Lord and Savior, I pray, God, that Spirit you talk about in your word, that draws men, would draw them today to a place where they can know you in a new, in a real way. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, and amen.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna let this altar be open for a minute. It's prayer time. I encourage you to pray for just a minute. I encourage you to find a place, confirm that he is still Lord of your life. It's prayer time.