Blessings & Promises - Week 2 (Mother's Day)

I love you, guys.

We're going to continue in our in our series, uh,

blessings and promises today, blessings and probly. I can't remember

if it's promises and blessings or blessings and promises. And

uh we set the foundation last week. So if you

haven't had a chance to, uh to listen to that message,

I'm gonna encourage you to go back and listen to it.

It's gonna kind of set the table for everything else

we're going to talk about this month. But uh, it

is a special day, and I want to talk about

mothers and parents and children in the context of this series.

So if you got a Bible, go to Ephesians chapter six,

Ephesians chapter six, Verse one. Ephesians chapter six, starting in

verse one. If you're there, say a men, Calvin, you

read along on the screens Ephesians chapter six, Verse one.

Children listen.

I can already feel parents getting excited.

I can feel y'all.

Getting excited about this one. But I want to tell

you just put your seat belt on this morning, because

you may not be.

Excited when we're done.

Come on, now, children, obey your parents and the Lord,

for this is right. You know there's multiple layers to

this whole thing. The apostle Paul says, listen, obey your parents,

just because it's the right thing to do. He hasn't

even he hasn't even attached any spiritual significance to it.

He just writes, and he says, listen, do what you're supposed.

To do because it's right.

You know, there's a lot of things that are happening

in our world today.

That happen and their legal, but they're not right. Amen.

But we're called to live above that standard, and we're

called to do what's right, and this is one of

those things. He says, Listen, obey your parents in the Lord,

for it is right.

Verse two.

Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment,

with promise that it may be well with you and

you may live long on the earth. Let's pray, Father,

I thank you for your mercy and your grace. I

thank you Lord for who you are and what you're doing,

or to allow your word to penetrate to the very

fabric of our being. But this is the only change

agent on the face of the planet. And I pray

that today you grab us, those of us that are parents,

grab us those of us that are grandparents, grab us

those of us that are not parents yet, grab us

and transform us in Jesus's mighty, mighty name. Amen, Now

by a show of hands, how many of you in

here you would like for your children to have it

better than you have it. I'm trying to find I'm

trying to try to find somebody if I can pick

on y'all. No, everybody says yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,

that's kind of what parents want. We're kind of born

with this nature on the inside of us. And I

don't think that any parent ever wakes up one morning

and says, bless God today, I'm going to ruin my

kid's life. I don't think that. I don't think that's

in it. I don't think that's in a parent. I

think that we all want better, we all want more.

That's why we work and we provide and we do

the things we do because we want to provide and

make things better. But you know, God didn't promise long

life to children with parents. He promised it to children

with parents that can be honored.

And the shift right there.

He makes the promise that if we honor our parents,

we will prosper, that it will be well with us,

nothing missing, nothing broken, that all the pieces will be

in place.

And that we will live a long life.

Now, I'm gonna be the first to tell you that

I probably shaved some days off mine.

Amen.

I didn't always live in that hole because it was

right thing. You know. I did crazy things. I wasn't

always where I should have been. But I had parents

who loved me very much. I had parents that wanted

the best for me. I had parents that it was

easy to look to and to see the goodness in

their lives. And I guess my question to you is

do you make it easy for your children to honor you?

Because you can't honor what's not honorable.

That hurt me too.

You can't honor something that's not worthy of honor.

And a lot of times we want to.

Quote the first part, but we don't want to quote

what's about to come.

We don't want to quote the rest of it.

We just want to look because it gives us that

air of superiority. Do you know that there's a lot

of blessings and promises in the Bible that we quote.

We don't walk in, but we quote.

Because it lifts us up and gives us an air

of superiority over other people, that just because I'm a

child of God, I'm a child of God, I just

I'm better than you. Listen, we were at camp one

year and when I was the youth pastor and Listen,

we always carried a huge group of kids to camp,

and we were not a group that I think Camp

enjoyed being there because now at nighttime, our kids chased Jesus.

They chased Jesus with a reckless, abandoned they were in

the altars. They were some of the last ones to

leave the altar. But most of the time it was

because of what they did during the day of leading

up right. And we had this moment where we were

playing this game at camp, and it was this They

had these drainage tubes and they filled them with sand,

and these things probably weighed one hundred pounds, and you

had to have a group of four people and they

would put them on their shoulders and they would put

a team on each side of this field and you

had to run.

It was like one hundred and twelve degrees.

You had to run, and if you could catch the

other team, or if the other team dropped the pipe,

your team won. Moved on to the next level. So

we had this cat. He was like six seven, he

was huge, and he had people trying to carry the

pipe with him that were like five to four. It

was just bound to fail. And we took off, and

about four steps in he realized the era of his

ways and he just rips the pipe out of everybody

else's hand and puts it over his shoulders that he

takes off in a dead sprint. These are like middle schoolers.

He's a senior in high school. These are middle schoolers.

He's chasing down and I can see it coming from

about one hundred yards away, and he's running and he

catches up to him, and when he gets to him,

instead of just tagging him or running past him, he

just dives on top of him and smashes them into

the ground and he jips on. He throws that thing off,

and he's standing up over them.

And he says, like only Cornerstone kids do.

I'm stronger than you, I'm better than you. You're weak

and you don't belong on this field with me.

And our kids are going crazy.

They're like whoa, yeah, yeah yeah. And I looked over

in the DYD the district youth director.

Guy that responsible.

Okay, he's just got his hands in his way. He

looks up, he says, and he says, Steve, what are

you doing? I said, well, you know he was better

than them. I mean this particular he was better than them.

I mean, you know this ended the way we knew

it was gonna end. John, I mean, we knew how

this was gonna end. But you know, we all take

that posture because there's some blessings and promises that are

available to believers, and we posture over people and we

say we're just better than you. And I think that

some of them like this one. Even though we don't

do that to our kids. We just feel like they

owe it to us, regardless of anything else. They just

owe it to us because, bless God, we brought them

into the world.

But you know that passage Christier keeps going.

And in verse four it says this, and you fathers,

I know it's Mother's day. So let's just say parents,

and you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath,

but bring them up in the training and admonition of

the Lord. See, there's a responsibility on our side. We

just answered the question at the beginning today who wants

more for their kids? And everybody raised their hand. But

are we paving the way with the way we behave

and the way we lead and the way we model

life to our children that makes it easy for them

to honor us, because after all, we're the ones with

the life experience.

We're the ones that have seen.

Things go wrong and things break and things be busted.

We have the life experience. But yet we want.

Them to overcome the challenges that we present to them.

I know this is not a feel good Mother's Day message,

and I'm sorry, but it's the one the Lord gave me. See.

God gave children a command with a promise. God gave

children a command with a promise. Then he gave parents

a command with weight. Do not provoke. Be the people

you want your children to be. Help them walk in

the promises of God. Don't cause them to stumble, don't

cause them to miss prosperity, don't cause them to miss

long life. Make that promise easy because you're pioneering the way,

and you're doing everything prayerfully, and you're making your decisions carefully,

and you're modeling a life that they look at and

they think I am so proud that those are my parents.

I'm so proud that she's my mama. I'm so proud.

To be seen in public.

Listen, you know, I mean, how many of you your

kids reach that age where they don't want to be

I mean, you feel like they don't want to be

seen in public with you?

Is it because of the things you do in public?

Come on now?

Is it because every time you go to the restaurant

you find something wrong? Is it because when you go

to the mall and somebody walks around, they look a

little different, smell a little different. Come on, somebody, you

do one of these? See, it's our responsibility to model

life and make it easy for our kids to say,

that's my hero, that's my role model. And I believe

there are a lot of heroes in this room right now.

I believe there are a lot of heroes that are

here today because you have put forth the effort to parent,

and you've done the hard work of instructing your children.

And I also want to tell you that if you haven't,

it's not too late. It's not too late to be

the one that.

Is easy to honor, you know.

And then on Mother's Day, we always talk about this

Proverbs thirty one woman. You know, it's a lady that

all mothers can emulate them their light, them lives, over

emulate them, lives over it can emulate their lives. And

this Proverbs thirty one woman, I've heard or preached so

many times on Mother's Day and women's conferences and all

of these other times, and we read all the accolade,

and listen, there's a lot there. This woman, she's an

exceptional woman.

I mean, she she is.

She's first of all, the mother of the king, but

she's mother first and mother to the king separate. And

she starts giving him some pretty wise instructions right off

the bat. As she begins to talk in Proverbs thirty one,

the first thing she says is, hey, watch.

Them while women. That's what she said. That's what she

tells it. What watch watch, watch it.

What you.

Need to watch it because you're a prince and you're

a king.

I wonder do we frame the world so our children

feel like their princes and princesses and kings and queens.

Because that's who the Bible says they are, and.

They have something that the world wants. And because they

have something the world wants, the world will scheme and

devise and try to take it from them, and it's

our responsibility to watch out and say, hey, watch that.

Then she goes on and she gives some other instruction.

She says, hey, you know what, you're in a place

where where watch out, watch strong, drink because that's that

that'll get you in a bad place.

People will take advantage of you. Watch out, watch out,

watch out, be careful.

She gives all these instructions, and then it starts listing

her resume. It says, oh, she wakes up when it's

still nighttime.

I do too, and I use the bathroom. I go

back to bed. Amen.

She wakes up when it's still nighttime. She goes out

and and she's she's shearing the sheep, and she's gathering

the wool, and she's knitting things together. She's got her

own business. Her she she she's doing all these things.

She's take We can care of everybody. She's a good wife,

she's a good mom. We read about all these things,

and we aspire to those things. But then it's kind

of the bottom of Proverbs chapter thirty one.

We kind of get the real story.

We kind of get to see the perspective of how

her home views her and Proverbs thirty one, verse twenty

eight that says her children rise up and call her blessed.

Her husband also and he praises her. Many daughters have

done well, but you excel them all. Charm is deceitful,

and beauty is passing. But a woman who fears the Lord,

this scripture bulls at all that all the things that

she did or great, they're the things the world looks

at and they admire, and they pull out those things,

and her dedication and all those things. But when we

get to who she really is. This is why her

husband thinks she's the way she is and.

Her children call her blessed.

Is because a woman who fears the Lord, she shall

be praised or honored. The word honored is there also

the original language, is praised or honored. That because she

has a fear of the Lord, because she is so

sold out to Jesus. That the reason she does the

other things, or because he opened those doors for her

to do those things. He's involved in her life, and

he's multiplying the things she puts her hands to. And

because she operates in the fear of the Lord, her

children honor her. Now watch if then right, If you

honor your father and mother, then you will prosper, and

then you will have long life. And the proverbs thirty

thirty one. Woman was so exceptional because she made it

easy for her kids to honor her and to pull

them into that blessing. Come on, somebody, because she feared

the Lord. We celebrate mothers one Sunday a year, but

their children evaluate them every single day. Your children wantch

you every day, every single day day. They watch us

to see what we're doing and how we respond and

how we act and listen. I have since my dad

passed away. I kind of evaluate the things I do.

I watch myself because I want to know the things

that are in me that were in him. It's kind

of a game that I play. And it's scary how

many things I do because it's the way he did them.

There's this body posture that he gets when somebody just

acts ridiculous, like especially when like a waitress asks you

a dumb question.

And he would go. And the other day I felt

myself go.

And when somebody would do something and it was obvious

that it should be done.

Here go h people all the time.

You think I should pray about that?

Will you think I should tell you that? Job?

I remember John Belanda, who was our youth pastor. He

came into my office one day. He said that he

was so serious and just so focused. He was just

sharing his heart about something. And I didn't mean for

it to happen, but about halfway through it, I went.

And his eyes welled up with.

Tears, and I said, what's wrong with you? And he said,

you've never to me before. That's what I became conscious

of what I did, And I said, what do you mean?

He said, well, when you think something's ridiculous or you

think I should already know, you just just he said,

that's the first time I've ever been before. Are there

good things in your kids or bad things in your kids?

Because you put them there? See, on Mother's Day, as

much as it is a celebration of mother's it should

also be a celebration of motherhood.

And motherhood is.

The responsibility of being a mother, not just the reward

of being a mother. So today I ask, are you

making it easy for your children to show you honor?

Man you can come and get ready.

Are you living a life that with every situation and

every circumstance, you ponder it with a godly expectation that

He's going to give you the answer, and that he's

going to show up. And you take those faith opportunities

and make them faith moments so that your children see it,

and that they would prosper and have long life because

they can honor where you're leading them. And Second Corinthians,

Chapter three, verse two, it says, you are our epistle

written in our hearts, because go ahead, that word epistle,

that's a Bible word for letter. You're our letter written

in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly,

you're an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not

with ink, but by the spirit of the Living God,

not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh,

a flesh that is of the heart. And we have

such trust through Christ towards God. Not that we're sufficient

of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves,

but our sufficiency is from God.

He says, every single one of us are the letter.

That Christ writes, every one of us, and every day

people read that letter.

Our children have access to more content.

Your parents have access to more content than the people

they see in the grocery store that they spend a

few hours with.

But as we live our lives.

Conscious that we represent Jesus to everybody, are we ensuring

that we look like Jesus to everybody? You know, maybe

you're here today and you think, you know, this whole

parent of thing is really hard, and it is. Listen,

I want to be honest transparent with you. I have

two really really good kids, really good kids, and I

didn't do a whole lot to get them there. You know,

when God brought our girls into the world, he kind

of brought them into the world as a paint by

numbers canvas.

It was like, I just it's just kind of they made.

It easy to parent them. They told on themselves when

they did something wrong. They I mean they just they

were really bad at the bad stuff, I mean really

bad at it and made it easy. But I know

some of you feel overwhelmed and you feel challenged. You

look around and you feel helpless. But God is able

to do exceedingly abundantly more than you can ask or think,

through the power that already lives in you. If you're

here today and you feel overwhelmed, you feel guilty, you

feel shame, it's Okay, ninety five percent of the people

do and the other five percent just don't care.

So in this moment, right.

Now, I'm going to ask every head to bow in,

every eye to close. You know, maybe you're here and

you've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins

and be the lord of your life. You've never asked

him to wash you clean. But today you want to

turn your life over to Jesus. If that's you, slip

your hand up and say that's me, Pastor, pray for me.

I want to I want to give my life to Jesus.

I want to be saved today.

Amen.

Maybe you're here today though, and you just feel overwhelmed.

You feel like you've blown it. If you haven't been

the role model that you should, you haven't been the

parent that you should. You haven't been the son or

the daughter that you should. But today you want to,

you want to repent and get back on.

The right track.

If that's you, slip up your hand and say, ask me,

pastor pray for me, because I'm not the parent that

I should be. I've messed up. I spanked them when

I shouldn't have. I didn't spank them when I should have.

I haven't been a good role model. I haven't led,

I haven't said the things I should say. I haven't

done the things I should I should have done. It.

Just us. Put your hand up, put it right back down.

If that's you say, Pastor, pray for me, Pray for me.

Pray for me. Amen. Amen, let's pray together.

Father.

I thank you for your mercy and your grace. I

thank you that that grace is sufficient.

That even as we struggle through, you cover us. Father.

I pray that you give us the courage that today,

on Mother's Day, we set our children down.

We call them on the phone, we send them a

text message, and we say I'm sorry for the times

I've let you down. But I want you to know

I'm chasing Jesus from now on.

Lord, where can move in all of our lives and

help us be those shining examples that you called us

to be. Lord, We love you, and we thank you

in Jesus Mighty mighty name. Amen, Amen and amen. Every

eye open, every head looking around, Letten, somebody's staying with

me all over the room.

We're gonna