The Unreasonableness of the Mother

Thank you musicians. Thank you seniors. Thank you tech. I I I'm I'm not going to do preliminaries today and you you you may can you can be seated as you're being seated. I want you to to understand with me that my title today may offend you in a good or a bad way.

I'm real good about that, but I don't mean it. I promise. Guys, will will you bring will you bring the rock and chair out real quick? If you if you guys don't mind, Connor, will you grab that for me? The my title today and and you guys can in the back can go ahead and put that up.

It is the unreasonleness the unreasonleness of the mother. Moms, don't shoot me. Hear me out. the unreasonleness of the mother. I over the past few months, I got a six-month-old.

I've had a firsthand experience at the unreasonleness of a mother. Now, Lauren said she was going to knock me out. I did talk to her about this message today. You know, I uh and and maybe the unreason ignorance of the father. I'm not really sure, but the the unreasonleness of the mother, you know, like little man's born and the first day he's born, I'm like, now's a great time to give him a on the cheek, you know.

She's like, no, no, it's it's not. Now is a terrible time to give him it's the worst time for that. Uh the and and and I I I see that and it and it and it comes out if if you want to if you want to I had my my grandmother, if we called her nanny, uh she was as Hill Country as Hill Country people can get. All right? I mean I mean you guys think I sound country.

All right? But she would always she would always we'd be outside playing. It might start raining. She said, "Get in out of that rain. You're going to catch the panonia." Yeah.

Not pneumonia, penonia there was Hey, it I I know. And it was so unreasonable her fear of the penonia. Uh some of you I asked a few of you before church. Uh you know what what are some things your your mother your grandmother said would say to you? Now, somebody said, "Don't talk back.

Don't talk back to me or I'm going to pop you in the mouth or you need to get you need to wet your whistle or get some water. You're getting too big for your britches. I'm going to take you down a notch. I'm just going to give you something to cry about." You're like, "I was just I was I'm just trying to express myself." Uh uh what what is it? Fix your face.

this my my nanny and and maybe maybe maybe your grandmother's mother, but you couldn't reason with her. It didn't matter that pneumonia could be cured now, but in her day, people died from it. that it I I'm just saying like even if even if it was invented before her time like just where she was at they just they probably didn't they didn't have access to medicine. Let's just be real. Like it was the backwoods of the backwoods.

And and and so it you know it would be any little thing the if you're eating something you're going to choke to death on that. You know like you know we all know the hot dogs or the you know that's a dangerous but just the way the way she would go about it would be very I'm not I'm chewing it up. No you're going to choke. you better quit doing that or I'm going to come get you. I'm going to I'm going to grab you, you know, like don't be playing in that road.

You're going to get run over. Or or my great aunt, she would always put everyone on the hearth. Now y'all know where I'm from. If you didn't know before, she would put everyone on the if you were in trouble, you go sell on the hearth. Yeah.

And and I know I'm making them sound bad. I love them to death. I'm not not meaning this bad. Okay. Uh my my grand my my grandmother Hodum uh I don't know if there's a more unreasonable person alive.

I I I'm just telling you like you you gr you know grandma like is this is it you know she's she's a spiritual spiritual gets and I'll be like well what what about this? Well you just need to pray about it just we just going to pray. which like grant what? Let's talk it through. We don't need to talk it through.

Let's just pray. Well, what about that? It doesn't matter. She's unreasonable with it. But there's a reason.

I've had the pleasure of watching my wife uh as a mother uh take care of our son and and watch the the unreasonleness of her waking up at his slightest whimper when honestly I'd never I've never heard it. Like I mean maybe maybe when it was like a tornado but probably she woke me up then like the unreasonleness that that you would stay on edge if I may Sarah for how long did you not sleep? For how long Chris did you spend in the niku? How how many how many prayers were prayed chzn? How many How many of you mothers here prayed a prayer because the pain of separation was worse than the discomfort?

How unreasonable was it in in church? Uh I couldn't help but think of this. Sister Roads in Colinwood, this is where I grew up. Sister Granny Roads, now she would she would sit behind us and get on to us. But Sister Roads during worship like we just had, she would come and get you and drag you to the altar.

That's unreasonable. Why are you calling me out like that? No, no, no. Granny Roads was calling you out for your own good. The pain of separation was greater than your your momentary discomfort.

Granny Roads would look at you and just say, "Why don't we just go on down to the altar?" Sometimes she wouldn't even ask. She would just pull you. You know, I I wonder what that would be like if maybe it's a different culture, maybe it's a different day, it's a different place and maybe that's okay. But how would we react when Granny Roads grabbed us and pulled us? Oh, don't are you calling me out?

No. She saw something in your life that you needed to get right. There was a pattern that she may have seen before that led to the path of separation. Yeah, you guys in the back, if you have the picture of Sister Arnita, this was a this this lady was old before dirt was born. I mean, made I mean like Sister Arnita.

Y'all y'all we may or may not have I don't know. She was in the she was in the church as I was growing up and she had like nine ten kids. She was old all my life. She was I look I mean look at the picture. I mean you know like I don't even know how they got a picture of her.

She had like nine girls and one boy. But Sister Arita would come to church and and what I remember of her because she was old all my life. She would shout her bobby pins out holding on to her walker up until the day she got put in the nursing home. her her kids were here, there, and everywhere. Some of the worst people you would ever come across.

Some of the meanest people you would ever come across. I don't know how because sister Arnita was in touch with God, but I had the pleasure. Well, actually, my grandpa, I got to talking to my grandpa about about her and her family. He said, he said, "Well, she had a son." He said, "It was the meanest person I've ever come across. I was praying.

My grandpa told me, he said, "I was I was praying for her or for him in the hospital and he's sitting there cussing me." That's pretty mean, dude. Now, this was this was uh my my grandfather, he planted a church in the middle of nowhere in 1971. So, I got to see I grew up in that church, and so I got to see some of some of the the the seeds that were planted generations before. And so her her so sister Arita had a son. His son had a daughter and then his daughter had some daughters and then his grandkids.

If you don't mind, you guys put up the picture or her grandkids. The picture the picture of me and this kid here. I can just go and point at the screen now. There's a picture of Gunner. This was the night that Gunner I carried Gunnar to a revival over in Milligville, Tennessee.

And Gunnar got the Holy Ghost. This was the great great grandson of Sister Arnita. Now Gunnar has about 10 other grand 10 other cousins that are the same age that I brought to church with him. I didn't have a picture of them because they're not in church. Somewhere along the line, there was some separation.

Something got lost in translation. Gunnar. Every time I see I saw Gunnar last week at camp meeting. I was so glad to see him. And every time I see him, Gunner, what you doing?

You acting right? What you doing? How are you involved at church? How's your life? I don't do that to be mean to Gunnar, but I do it because I care about Gunnar.

I'm invested in Gunner. There are multiple generations of investment in Gunnar. You see the unreasonleness, if I may, the church is the archetypal mother. The church nursed you in the altar of salvation. The church stayed and prayed and interceded for you.

Come on. those wee hours of the morning when you couldn't carry yourself, you couldn't wake yourself up. Oh, come on. I got some moms in the house that know what I'm talking about. The church interceded for you when you didn't know how to pray.

Oh, the church is not God. The church is not salvation. But it's the church. The church sacrificed time and energy, the finances, It was unreasonable to think that someone would pray for you. It's so unreasonable to think that someone would preach to you.

It's so unreasonable to think that someone would be right there with you alone and watching your step by step. It's so unreasonable to think. You got You guys go ahead and sit down for just a second. I know the church seems a little unreasonable. I know our worship seems a little unreasonable.

I know sometimes things happen that seem a little unreasonable. I What do you mean, preacher? I don't have to live that way. What do you mean, preacher? I don't I don't need to do that.

You see, but let me just tell you something. Maybe this maybe this sermon is making you a little uncomfortable. I'm okay with that because the pain of your separation from the body of Christ when you are lost and dying and broke and disgusted. I can't help you. I can't grab you.

I can't reach you. The pain. Some of you wonder why the church tries so hard. Why so unreasonable? Why it seems that that every time you come into the house of God that someone's just trying to get you to do something, someone's just trying to get you involved.

Someone's, "Oh, oh, we're not God. We're just the church." When little man is crying and screaming his head off because he just wants to. I'm not a doctor. I don't know. Mom was at her wits end.

told you I need your prayers on this because I I feel like I feel like the the church is trying everything it knows to try. It's reaching as far as it knows to reach. And someone's saying this is unreasonable. It is someone's saying this is this is un oh this this this this isn't the way you should do it this way. Can I just tell you something?

The reason my nanny was so scared of pneumonia penonia was because she'd lost people to it. She had her brother choked to death. How many have I seen, have you seen come and go out of the presence of the Lord and worshiped and services like we have today? How many have we had come and go and we and when we start to see, oh no, we there there's a pattern. There's a pattern.

There's a pattern of souls that are being separated from the Lord. Why? Why should I not go here? Why should I not do that? Oh, it's not that because the church is trying to be controlling.

I promise you, this is not what it is. I'm the last person to ever want to do that, but it's because the pain of your separation is so much greater than your discomfort. The church aches when you're not here. The church hurts when you're walking alone. The church sees you in your pain and it pains us.

The church sees where you're at. This church, oh, sometimes it may leave us a little cynical because we've had so many come and go or we've seen it over in my short lifetime. I've seen hundreds, thousands even walk in, walk out. Seems unreasonable to have prayer on Monday night. Seems unreasonable to have celebrate recovery.

Seems unreasonable to have midweek university. Why would I give up that time? Seems unreasonable to live a holy life. It's not necessary. I can do anything I want.

Again, there's a pattern. There's a pattern. Again and again, there's pattern. Here's the thing about mama. Mama's not a doctor.

Guess what she won't let me do? Put seasoning on the steak. Cuz this week I broke little man's lips out. Like I said, the unreasonous of the mother of the father. Yeah.

It's driven by the ignorance of the father. Yeah. Like he went and had crawfish. His lips were all swollen up. The unreasonleness of him.

He's not perfect. It's not. It's not even standardized. It's not even Sometimes it just feels downright intrusive. What are you doing in my business?

I would rather see you uncomfortable in your seat. and in the grips of hell, the unreasonleness of the mother. says, "All I have to do is get them to an altar." Because we're not salvation. We're doing our best to facilitate in reasonableness of the mother. It's born out of love.

I don't know who God has in mind today. I don't know. I I I've got a scripture. I'll cover that in a minute. I don't know.

who's been arguing in your mind or or pushing back, why we why we got to do this, why we got to do that, why listen, I get it. There's a pattern. Mama may not always have the the best reasons, she's got a reason. the on the battlefield. You know the number the number one person that a dying soldier calls for?

Wasn't because mama was perfect. wasn't because she was always reasonable. She was unreason. You may be you may be thinking you may be asking why this why that I I I don't know I don't have all the answers. I wished I did.

I search for answers too. But if I can appeal from the side of the mother, then I can appeal from the side of the church trying her best as we want to see you in heaven. If you would, would you find a place to pray? because the spirit of the Lord is in this place. And if God turns me to the prophet Jeremiah and my eyes become as tears crying for his people, that's what I'll do.

Because guess what? Generations and generations will come and go. But we're still going to intercede for your soul. There's a gunner in here somewhere. There's a sister Arnita somewhere that's got a whole family that's waiting on you to establish the way.

There's some unreasoniness you've been arguing with, but I I beg of you just take it to the Lord in prayer. So it's so Jesus. It's not perfect. It's not pretty. It's not It's not even doesn't even follow logic sometimes.

But the unreasonable of the mother says, "I've got to protect my child. at all costs. I've got to make sure the soul makes it to heaven. At all costs, I've got Some of you are on a path. Some of you are I I can't I can't say it's exactly I I don't know what it is, but someone in some of us are are we're setting our lives in in such a way that's going to lead to separation.

I beg of you, play take that to God. You don't need me to tell you what's right and wrong. You need God. God judge the path I'm on. Can I I knew we'd get to right here.

Because some of you are scared to pray. Knew we'd get to right here. Because here's the thing. The church being our mother. Sometimes we've been hurt.

Some of you have been hurt by a church. And I don't want to make more of it than it is. But I believe God can heal that pain today. You've been carrying it. It's affected you more than you realize.

And and you don't even know where it all started. You see, because in the unreasonleness of the mother, sometimes things gets misunderstood. Sometimes things get out of place and out of whack. And we uh we get all emotional. We get angry.

We get upset. Things are said that should have never been said. Doesn't mean they were done in the wrong spirit and the wrong attitude, but still hurt happens nonetheless. In my in my in my spirit, I knew we would get to the point. we would get right here and some of us would be scared because what if I if I may I we're to be the light of the world, a city set on the hill.

But we're scared to be the light because because that light's burned us before that light's hurt us and we and we and we mistake some things and we're scared. I want to very practically read to you Matthew chapter 18 verse 15. Very practically, if your brother sins against go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take two, one or two others along with you, not your friends, independent, objective people that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. for you refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a gentile an attack. God set in order how to handle hurt. There's process and you may not be able to take that to the person that hurts you and that's okay because I have enough faith to believe today that God will heal you. Now, once again, I want to ask you to pray because you may have been hurt by the unreasonleness, but understand that it came from a place of love.

I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt 100% here. It's not your fault. I'm not I'm not victim shaming or blaming. There's healing to be had in the house of the Lord. Very simply, very easily, would you find a place to pray with me?

God, you're my witness. I I I want for the church to be the light, but we're so scared. God, I pray if you would all across the house, God, not by might, not by power, but by your spirit. God, I came with a very specific need in mind today. to a very specific heart.

I don't I don't want to make more of it or less of it, but God to a very specific heart. And I pray upon the hearts, the minds of your sons and your daughters that you would let a healing virtue of the Holy Ghost to set upon. The whole service has been orchestrated to the point that you are healing, you're refreshing, you're you're you're building, you're giving trust, you're you're giving peace. God, I pray very specifically. God, I can't.

This is not the place of judgment. This is not the place to educate to to to adjudicate. This is not the place to decide. This is the place of mercy and grace. This is the place where freely I've received.

Freely I give. This is the house of mercy. This is the house of prayer. God, I pray upon every hurt soul in here, every wounded soul. God, I pray that you would let your hand of mercy, your hand of grace.

I don't want to call anyone out on this, okay? Because that that's not what hurt should be how hurt should happen. But if you if you don't mind, just just a moment longer, linger with me. Allow for the healing to grab a hold. In the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus come alive in the name of Jesus.

This is a house of males. We bring everything to the feet of Jesus. Everything in the name of Jesus. This is a house of mirales. Come alive in the name of Jesus.

Come alive in the name of Jesus. This is a house of males. We bring everything to the feet of Jesus. Everything in the name of Jesus. This is a house of mirales.

Come alive in the name of Jesus. Come alive in the name of Jesus. This is a house of males. Weus in the name of Jesus. This is a house of mirales.

Come alive in the name of Jesus. Come alive in the name of Jesus. This is a house of mirales. We bring everything to the feet of Jesus. Everything in the name of Jesus.

This is a house of mirales. I still believe you're moving. I still believe you're speaking, God. I believe you're working. All things were good.

I fix my eyes on heaven, God. I receive your vision, God. I believe you're working. All things were good. I still believe you're moving.

I still believe you're speaking, God. I believe you're working all things for good. I fix my eyes on heaven, God. I receive your vision, God. I believe your working all things for good.

I still believe you're moving. I still believe you're speaking, God. I believe you're working all things for good. I fix my eyes on heaven, God. I receive your vision, God.

I believe you're working all things for good. See, Gunnar Gunner has eight, 10 cousins. two specific brothers and sisters. Two specifically come to mind. Pick them up from the worst part of town.

They had half a chance. Half a chance. Maybe not even half a chance. But they had a chance. They still have one.

It might be a little slimmer than it was cuz they've made some life choices. Watched those girls. I baptized them, brought them to church. took cousins from their grandma, prayed for them, watched God change them. They allowed some of the circumstances they were in to overshadow the relationship.

If I can, I'm asking you to see past where you're at right now. I'm asking you to see past the current. And I want you to consider the end thereof. Their story is not over. But but if you saw where they were they are right now, you would say their story is almost over.

I don't want to see that ever again. I don't want to see that ever again. I don't want to accidentally bump into you on the street and you're strung out on meth. I don't want to accidentally I don't ever want to see that. So if I seem unreasonable to you today, know that it comes from a place of love.

Would with me all across the house. And would you lift your hands one more time? God, not by might, God, not by power. as the mother travails for her child. God, I pray Lord as us as a church.

God help us God. Help us Lord to be the church place called out of ourselves. Called out of our view of ourselves. called out of our own way into birthing a next generation. God, I pray Lord that you would give us the strength cuz we don't have it.

We need it from you. God, I pray Lord that you would give us the fortitude to get past ourselves because the discomfort or the pain of the separation is greater than the discomfort. And God, I pray Lord that as the church, you would help us. You would help us to understand our role, our nurturing, our guidance, our our interceding, our unreasonleness, our love. Help us, God.

It's a heavy weight to carry, but God help us, Lord. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless thee.

Be blessed in the name of the Lord.