Mary’s Yes: The Faith, Sacrifice & Strength of a Mother | Mother's Day | Apostle Mike Signorelli

Come on, stay up here, Jewel.

Stay up here.

You look so presidential.

I know.

I was like, I love this outfit.

But I just wanted to say to each and every one of you, my wife

loves you so much.

She prays for you by name.

I often hear it.

And she really does care for you, and she cares for this church.

I mean, I don't know if you guys know this, but she and I want

every campus to understand this as well.

She is the best that we have at V1 Church.

I'm talking one of our best leaders, most faithful servants.

And we just thank you so much because you really have been a mother

to all of us and to our pastoral staff and our team and my

babies.

And I love you so much.

Yeah, I'm gonna get you all the things for Mother's Day.

So today's your day.

Today is your day.

Love you.

She just said, we're going to Home Goods.

I'm sure they saw the video.

I just got her two carts full of Home Goods stuff.

So how about let's pray for me?

Okay, let's pray for me.

Before I jump into this word, Heavenly Father, I thank you so much

for every mother, Lord, under the sound of my voice, there's thousands

watching right now via television, through the Internet,

God.

And we pray for them.

Mothers in hospitals, mothers who are at home.

We pray for them right now, Lord.

We pray for the mothers of Brooklyn and Miami and Indiana.

We pray for the mothers of New Jersey, God, Mothers here on Long

Island.

And we thank you, Lord, that you, by your sovereign design and

your will, have caused women to be mothers.

Lord.

You give life.

And, Lord, we thank you that you give them the strength and the

ability to do what you called them to do.

In Jesus name, Amen.

You can go ahead and take your seats.

This might.

Okay, so you might be like, isn't it odd that a man is preaching

Mother's Day?

I asked my wife, I said, jules, what do you want for Mother's

Day?

And you know what she told me?

I want you to preach Mother's Day.

So she was like, I don't want to be the cliche pastor's wife that

gets up and does a sermon on Mother's Day.

I actually want to enjoy it.

And you're my favorite preacher, so would you preach?

Is this.

Am I right?

Am I lying, Jules?

Okay, so good.

Cause that's all you got.

That's all you get right here is this.

Put a bow on it.

I'm playing.

The other thing is, I made a commitment that I was gonna Keep

service short so we can get to the things that you scheduled in

your home.

And I have given permission for my staff at 30 minutes into this

message to jump on stage and to tackle me.

And so I'm just gonna be as accountable as I can.

Now, they already started this timer three minutes ahead.

They accelerated me, so.

But I got a word that I wanna share and it's really a special word.

And this is something that I've had a front row seat for because

I was raised by a single mother with five.

I'm the oldest of five kids and we were very poor.

And I watched my mom try to be a dad and a mom.

And sometimes when my mom would discipline me a little too

hard, she'd be like, well, this is me being your dad now.

And that was kind of how life was.

And then I watched my wife navigate motherhood.

I had a front row seat for her giving birth to both of our children.

But we also experienced the pain of miscarriage and we had two

miscarriages in between children.

So sometimes people are confused.

They're like, you have a 19 year old daughter and you have a

12 year old daughter, like what happened?

And.

But we actually unfortunately had two miscarriages between those

pregnancies.

And I believe that both of our children are miracles and testify

to the power of God.

But also being a pastor, you know, this day is very hard.

There's people that may be watching right now.

I hear the stories, they tell me, hey, you're not gonna see me

in person on Sunday.

It hurts too much to show up.

And I empathize deeply because being a pastor for the last 20 years,

I've walked people through many different scenari in many different

situations.

So I know we shouted out the biological mothers.

Can we also shout out all the spiritual mothers right now that

may not have biological children, but they have treated somebody

else child like their own?

Aren't you grateful for spiritual mothers as well?

Can we put our hands together for all the mothers of adopted children

that have brought children into their home?

We have many families that have adopted and it's such a beautiful

thing.

Come on.

And so we honor each and every one of them.

I wanna just share a very brief sermon about who I believe

in all of scripture is the greatest mother.

And here's my proof.

She was chosen by God to birth his son, Jesus, and her name is Mary.

We're gonna talk about Mary because out of all the women in the

entirety of scripture, as I thought about it, Mary must have

been the most significant.

She must have when the angel said, you have found favor with the

Lord.

I don't think any of us can quite understand the depths of that

statement.

Because she was found suitable physically, mentally, emotionally,

spiritually, to birth the Messiah.

And then God knew that she would see him all the way through

to the cross.

And I wanna take a look at that, because, yes, we celebrate

all of the mothers here, but I wanna celebrate Mary as a mother.

An example in scripture that we can all learn from both male and

female today.

And I'm gonna kind of weave in my wife's own story into this because,

you know, she is my wife.

And as I was studying Mary, I realized.

And Julie, I know you didn't.

Julie didn't know what I was gonna preach.

And I promise I'm not doing this just to score extra points.

But there's uncanny parallels between many of the attributes of

Mary and my wife.

And I thought, if in the way that it would be appropriate, I would

try to take an ancient story and make it modern.

And so we're gonna do some parallel.

But it starts in the first chapter of Luke.

So if you look at Luke, chapter one, verse 38, the Scriptures

say, I am the Lord's servant.

May everything you have said about me come true.

As a matter of fact, leave that up on screen all around the

world right now at all of our seven campuses.

Can we repeat this scripture together?

And so I'm gonna begin to read it and try to recite this with me.

I am the Lord's servant.

Okay, hold on.

You're gonna have to do better than that.

All right, get off your phone.

All right, you ready?

We're gonna say this out loud.

Say this with me.

I am the Lord's servant.

May everything you have said about me come true.

That's simple.

But that is what came out of Mary when she was presented with

this seemingly impossible task of giving birth to the Messiah.

Look what she said.

I am the Lord's servant.

May everything that the Lord said about me come true.

One of the hardest things in life is to come into agreement with

what God says about you.

Can I get an amen?

One of the hardest things in life is to.

As a matter of fact, if somebody calls me dumb, I'm inclined

to believe them because I've made a lot of dumb decisions.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, it's almost easier to stay in a certain mindset, to give

yourself permission to come into agreement with the negative.

But there's something about when the Lord gives you an identity,

when the Lord tells you that you're something.

How hard it is to come into agreement, how hard it is to believe

that you are that thing.

And what I see in the life of Mary is that she makes a decision

to come into agreement with what God says, even if she doesn't

understand.

How many of you know what it feels like to not understand why

God would choose you?

Do anybody know what I'm talking about?

God, I don't even know why I would not have chose me.

I don't know why you have chosen me.

But there's something about Mary that where understanding is

not a prerequisite to submission, understanding is not

a prerequisite to submission.

She really doesn't understand it.

But she says, I will come into agreement with it.

There's something powerful about that.

And so when you look at Mary's life, it's this master class in what

I call the pivot.

Because she goes from this stable in Bethlehem, I mean, basically

surrounded by common farm animals, to now taking flight in

Egypt because there's a census on the firstborn.

And she could actually have experienced her child Jesus being

murdered.

And so she never really gets this white picket fence reality,

and she gets this life of constant adjustment.

Isn't it funny how sometimes we want a life better than those

that came before us in the scripture?

And it's like we want normalcy.

God, give me the white picket fence.

God, give me the stability.

God, root me in a place where everything's gonna be relatively

stable.

But when you look at the life of Mary, she goes from a stable in

an inn, in a borrowed suite.

Then she goes to take flight in Egypt, then she comes back in

Nazareth, their family travels into Jerusalem for the feast and

festivals, and you just really see Mary's life as a pretty consistent

adjustment.

And I don't know about you, but being a mother, and this is from

a man's perspective, it seems to be a life of constant adjustment.

Once you master the baby phase, the infant phase, they turn

into toddlers.

Then they start throwing fits and throwing themselves to the ground

and crying and screaming.

And then now you gotta deal with the terrible twos or whatever.

And then the then, right when you figure out the toddler phase,

then it's elementary school, and then all of a sudden elementary

school, then they start puberty, and then now you got a whole

nother issue because they smell bad and they need deodorant.

And you know, you're like, man, how is that my kid's stinking

so bad?

And you're like, oh, it's cause they have armpit hair now and

they're teenagers.

And then you get that down, then young adults, and it's like

a life of constant adjustment.

And to think about the fact that God trusted Mary, that Mary

was gonna be able to lead.

Ooh, that Mary was gonna be able to lead Jesus.

Think about the responsibility of being the woman that's tasked

with leading Jesus.

If ever you struggle with God.

Am I doing a good enough job leading my kids?

Can I propose to you, Mary, who is.

Who had to lead God's kid?

I mean, you know how sometimes you feel like you're not enough?

You.

You know, my.

My mom.

My.

You're not my mom, Jewel.

Sorry.

My mommy.

And the husband said amen.

But my wife, you know, it's like she'll.

And she's in that phase now of like driving our daughter to dance

and then, you know, going grocery shopping, then she cooks.

Then sometimes it's an Uber Eats day.

Can I get an amen?

God bless all those Uber Eats drivers on their missionary journeys

through New York City delivering food to the Signorelli's.

But it's funny because no matter how much my wife does, one

of the constant feelings that she's dealt with, and after two decades

of pastoring, I've come to recognize that this is like a normal

experience is she doesn't ever feel like she's done enough, no matter

how long her day was.

Can any women bear witness to that?

And so Mary is such a good example because she's constantly

adjusting, she's constantly pivoting.

And, you know, I wanna show you this picture from when our church

first launched.

It's a pretty funny moment.

So this is Everly.

And everly was in V1 Kids.

And wheneverly was now, we used to have kids in the movie theater.

So we didn't have big nice buildings like this on Long Island.

Not the one that you're in in Indiana, you know, where we flipped

it.

It's got new carpet and all that.

We were in the movie theater when we first got started, so we

would have to set the kids stuff up around all of the chairs

of the movie theater.

And our kids of V1 kids had gotten this idea, what if we just

climb on top of these recliners and just jump off of these

things and go crazy and, you know, make it a gymnasium, you know.

So this is when we had one location as a church and we were

just getting started and all of a sudden we had got word that

Everly was hurt.

And we took her to the hospital and she's, she had broken

her arm.

And so the early days of V1 Church was Everly walking around

with a sling and a broken arm.

And there's my wife and she.

Now, let me explain the look on her face.

You know, she's smiling with her mouth but not her eyes.

If, you know, you know, because we had just, you know, been

through a lot as a family and we had downsized to come move to

New York, so we had a 600 square foot apartment and my wife

was figuring out how to live in the city.

We didn't have laundry in our apartment, so we'd had to drag our

clothes down the street.

I remember those were the days, Julie, where we would get a

flat tire every single time we went to church.

Do you remember that?

It was, we hit the streak for weeks where we got a flat tire.

Every single time, every Sunday we had a flat tire.

Remember that?

And so then on top of that, Everly broke her arm and she's doing

the peace sign.

I don't know why we did that, but it's.

But when I think about Julie as a mother, I think about the attributes

of Mary of a constant adjustment, understanding the journey,

understanding that we're headed somewhere.

We're not where we want to be, but we're not where we used to be.

Thank God.

We're not where we used to be, but praise God, we're going to get

to where we're supposed to be and I'm going to press on.

I think about, you know, this situation with our family.

It's like what we didn't know is that this single location church

was gonna turn into a seven location church.

What we didn't know is that at the time we barely could have six

kids and V1 kids, all of our volunteers wanted to quit on a weekly

basis.

And now we have hundreds of kids all over the United States.

And don't despise the days of small beginnings because the Lord

rejoiced when it began.

And come on, I gotta tell a mother right now.

Your kids might be little now, but don't despise, despise the days

of small beginnings because you're taking care of your kids,

but your kids may very well end up taking care of you.

And you never know what prophet, what.

Apostle, you know, what evangelist, what preacher, what entrepreneur.

You never know who you've got in.

Government sitting in your house and you're changing some poopy

diapers and you're feeding them now.

But how many of you know, don't despise the days of small beginnings.

And so when I think about this story, it's constant adjustments.

It's being willing to adjust.

And to every single mother under the sound of my voice, who

doesn't have the house that they want, with the white picket

fence that doesn't have the square footage that they want.

Listen, some people have a house but.

Don't know how to build a home.

Listen, I'd rather have love in a home than have a nice house.

You get what I'm saying?

I'd rather have the presence of God in a house.

Come on.

Some in a small apartment.

To have the peace of God that.

Rules and reigns in that place.

Thank you.

Than to have a big old empty.

House full of demons.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

And so I learned that from Julie's life.

It's the art of adaptability.

The eleventh commandment.

Be thou flexible.

You know what I'm talking about.

You ever have your baby, they blow out their diaper and they.

I mean, it's atomic.

And it shoots up the backside, and somehow it goes from the rear

up their back all the way into their hair.

Have you ever seen that happen?

Come on, bring that picture up.

I'm just playing.

You know, it's like you.

If being a mother teaches you anything, expect the unexpected.

Women have such a higher likelihood of bearing the fruits

of the spirit because they get tested.

They get tested.

There's something about Mary navigating those tests, navigating

those trials.

The pivot.

Everybody say pivot.

See, pivot is.

Watch this.

I'm about to preach something.

Cause I see this with Mary.

When you pivot, you lock one of your feet into position.

But now, this is like, for basketball.

Like, to pivot, you have to keep one of your feet locked in a

position, but then you're able to rotate your other foot.

You're able to move and rotate.

So what happened was when Mary got the assignment to be the mother

of Jesus, to see him, to fulfill his destiny, she locked into

position.

In other words, she said, I'm planting my foot here.

I know what the Lord's called me to do, but I thought I was gonna

be able to build a nice house.

But I'm gonna have to go from this barn to Egypt, and I'm gonna

have to go from Egypt to Nazareth, and I'm gonna have to go

from Nazareth to Jerusalem.

And it may look like transition, but.

But it's really pivot.

Because I have never lost my first position.

I have never given up my first position.

Let me Just preach some revelation to you right now.

When the Lord gives you a child and you become a mother, you

may not be able to choose your physical.

Address, but you can choose your spiritual address.

And you can say, my husband can act however he wants to act.

But as for me and my house, I will not lose this position.

I may have to pivot, but I am not changing my position.

Can somebody help me preach this?

Man, you can drink as much as you want to drink.

You can do as much drugs as you want to.

You can cheat on me.

I made up my mind.

I'm planting my feet here.

I might have to pivot.

But you're not getting me off this position.

I'm not going to sin with sinners.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

We're going to go to church with.

A blowout tire and a blowout during the through the back.

I'll change a diaper.

I'll change a tire.

The only thing I'm not changing is the mission.

This is going to be the same.

I might be tired, but I'm not giving up.

I might feel like quitting.

Pivot.

You got a word?

Somebody say pivot.

We've pivoted all over New York, haven't we, Jules?

But we refuse to change the position for our mission.

Number two, I want to talk to you about one of the aspects of Mary

that is simply undeniable.

Luke, chapter two, verse 19.

So let's go one chapter over.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her

heart.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering in her heart.

So when you talk about the endurance of a mother.

Oh, when you talk about the.

It's not about surviving.

It's about holding the weight on that foot that's firmly in position.

Mary had to endure public whispers.

Public.

Julie has had to endure a lot of public whispers, a lot of naysayers,

a lot of gossip.

Do you know their story?

Do you know what Mike did?

Do you know that he cheated?

Do you know that this.

Do you know all these things she's had to endure?

Those.

Those whispers.

Mary had to endure those.

You know, how believable it was to a first century Jew that Jesus

was conceived immaculately?

Try selling that to your local community.

I had a baby without having sex.

Yeah, right.

Mary.

So Mary had to learn how to endure, to stay rooted and planted

in that position, even if it required pivotal.

And when I was thinking about my wife, she's had to endure that.

But this verse, Luke, chapter two, verse 19.

We just skip over it, not realizing the depths of it.

Let me read it again.

But Mary treasured up these things, pondering them in her heart.

Mary didn't ponder their gossip.

In her heart.

She pondered the things that the Lord had said to her that she

came into agreement with, and that became her treasure.

And let me just tell you this.

In a materialistic world where people are seeking physical treasure.

Listen.

Oh, come on, somebody.

She treasured up the word of God, and she pondered that in her

heart.

Listen, you gotta make up your mind.

I don't care what they say.

I care what he said.

And my treasure is not physical.

My treasure is the word of the Lord.

And I'm gonna remember the prophecies he said.

Remember the apostle Paul said to Timothy,.

Timothy, remind yourself of the prophecies that were late said

over your life so.

That you might be able to fight the good warfare.

How many of you know that good.

Warfare is connected to remembering the good words, the good

prophecies, the good dreams.

And see, there was something inside of.

Julie that said, yeah, everything you're whispering is correct,

but make sure you finish the story.

Mike messed up, but God is a God of second chances and third chances.

And there was a test.

There's a testimony in the.

In the midst of that mess, and.

God turned it around, and he'll birth a marriage ministry out

of a dysfunctional marriage.

He'll birth a church and a home spiritually out of a broken

home.

Does anybody believe that, or is it.

Just me right now?

And so it's like sometimes you can't stop them from whispering,

but you can determine what goes into your heart and what you

treasure, because what you treasure, you protect.

Reject their words and protect God's words.

Move God's words into your heart and move their words out of

your heart.

See?

And this is why.

Now, this is just a quick side note.

My wife has a supernatural gift.

And that gift is the ability to throw away anything that I think

is valuable.

It is a supernatural gift.

I mean, and I now believe it's connected to.

My wife can discard things.

She's not.

So it's a supernatural gift.

But I am telling you, the amount of times I've come home to

discover that my best favorite clothes have been donated, that.

But my wife has an ability to let go.

She has an ability to release.

But it's funny, because she'll let go of material things, but she

holds onto the promises of God, and there's a health.

I want to show you this picture.

There was a season where when our church was first getting off

the ground and we were now going multi site.

And we were traveling more and more.

This is picture number two.

Put it up now, please.

There you go.

Thanks, God.

You know, sometimes I'm preaching.

They just get slain in the spirit in the back and they.

So do you remember this picture, Jules?

So there was a time where we were learning.

I'm about to teach y' all something.

We were learning how to survive national church.

So for all of you in Indiana, for all of you in Miami, there was

a pioneering that happened.

And our family had to learn that pioneering together.

And we had this series of events where our flights kept getting

canceled and canceled and canceled and we would be delayed

and trapped in the airport.

Remember this, babe?

And I found this picture because I'm the only one not smiling.

And my wife is like, I've got my Starbucks, I got my man's.

That's what she calls me, her man's.

And we're here together.

How bad is this?

And I'm like, I wanna go home.

God, please.

But there's a pioneering that happened.

But you know what I noticed?

When we are one location church, the problem was our daughter

breaking her arm, living in a little apartment, dragging the laundry

down the street, getting flat tires for six weeks straight.

But then guess what happens when you graduate success.

You graduate problems.

So next time you ask God for more, understand what you're asking

for.

See, Hannah said, lord, give me a baby and I'll give them back

to you.

And she birthed Samuel.

But there had to be.

But there was a pain with that birth.

Mothers understand that what they ask for requires a price to

be paid.

And there's something that we can learn about mothers, that when

we graduate in levels, we also graduate in levels of sacrifice.

And so for those of you who are watching in the campuses nationally,

that was a price that our family paid and we endured it.

But my wife, I noticed something, and I want to end this

message like this.

As I begin to look through the archive of pictures that I have over

the last 10 years of being serving as the founding lead pastor

of V1 Church, my wife was consistently smiling in every single

one.

She was also hurting to some degree in every single one.

And I know the pain of that season.

As a matter of fact, I wanna take you back to one more season.

Because my point number three is there's mothers understand the

courage of presence.

And if you look at John, chapter 19, verse 25, it says, standing

John 19:25

near the cross where Jesus, mother, brothers and followers standing

near the cross, there's a power of presence and that ultimate

pain threshold.

Women know this is when everyone else has fled.

Mary stood.

When everybody else was ashamed to be connected, Mary stood.

I think that's my wife bleeds the gospel.

She bleeds the message of Jesus Christ.

She also bleeds V1 church and there's been times where people have

fled.

But my wife stood just like Mary and said, I'm going to be here

through all of it.

I'm not ashamed.

I know.

Remember, she anchored her foot and she's.

And now Mary does another pivot.

Here I am at the cross.

I don't understand the cross.

I don't know why I'm here.

I don't understand.

But I know in the beginning, my story started when an angel showed

up.

And that angel told me that you were gonna give birth to the

Messiah.

And I said, God, let me come into agreement with everything that

you say about me.

And now Mary is in front of the cross with her son Jesus, not

understanding just like she didn't understand in the beginning,

but simply surrendering and saying, think about this, Peter.

Big old tough fisherman, blue collar man work with his hands, willing

to take a sword and kill somebody but run scared.

And there's a little woman named Mary who stands at the foot

of the cross and says, I'm not scared because I know who Jesus really

is.

She had a little old woman, had more courage than a big.

A big burly man.

How many of you are thankful for those prayer warrior mothers

that we have?

Those little women that they might be little in stature, but in

front of giants?

Come on.

They are greater through Christ.

You know what I'm talking about.

That mother that'll stand up to a.

Cancer diagnosis and say, God is going.

To get glory out of this situation and God is going to show

himself faithful and I'll live and not die.

A mother that will get the news about a child being lost and

say, well, we'll come together and we'll still eat good and God

will make a way.

The faith of a mother like Mary.

That will stand at the foot of the cross saying, I'm still never

leaving my position.

I'm still never leaving my position.

This is to every mother under the sound of my voice.

Do not deviate one inch off of what God told you.

If God said it, you will see it.

If God promised it, it will come to pass just like Mary, because

the.

Same Mary that witnessed the cross, witnessed the resurrection.

And let me just tell you, some.

Of you are going through some dark times right now.

And I remember My mother crying.

And Sandra would say, God, how could you work this situation out

again?

It continues to get worse and worse.

My mom didn't know that there was going to come a day when she

was in a movie across 2,000 theaters in the U.S. she didn't know

she was gonna be in a stadium telling our story.

She didn't know that she.

We couldn't have understood what God was doing.

But how many of you know that God is, well, able to do everything?

Come on.

Exceedingly and abundantly.

More than you can think, ask, or imagine.

Come on.

I'm speaking to the mothers right now.

God will do more than you can.

Even think or imagine.

He'll exceed your expectation.

God's not trying to meet him.

He's trying to exceed.

Seen Him.

But you got to go back to that word he gave you, back to faith,

back to what he showed you.

And like Mary, you got to treasure it up in your heart and

say, I love my Louis Vuitton, but I really love what the Lord said

over me.

I love my car, but I really love what the Lord said over me.

And what I'm letting in my heart is not the whispers of demonic

voices around me, but I'm gonna bring his word and hide it

into my heart.

And that will be the only thing that I rest upon.

Lastly, I want to show you this last picture.

This is my wife right out of surgery.

And here we are launching campuses.

And for a little while, it felt like I was a single dad because

she was bedridden, and we were trying to figure out how to navigate

that season of our life.

And she was trying to do her best.

But you guys, who maybe were not a part of our church for that

season, you remember this, Julie.

It took everything you had to even.

I mean, you were drinking bone broth all day, and it was hard for

you to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom.

And we thought we were gonna lose you.

If you look at pictures back to that time, I mean, you were just

skin and bones.

And it was a very devastating season.

And the fact is, my wife ended up in this condition because she

had obeyed.

Think about what I'm saying to you.

She obeyed the will of the Father to travel with me to Ukraine

to do a women's conference.

Everybody wants the pulpit, but they don't want the pain.

Everybody wants the destination, but they don't want

the journey.

There's something about this picture.

I didn't say, hey, let's take a picture.

Smile.

But I noticed that my wife smiles in every season.

You don't impress me with your Greek.

You don't impress me with your Hebrew.

You don't impress me with your vocabulary.

But my wife's theology has been made perfect through her smile,

because it's the proof that she knows who God says he is is something

that you can bank on.

And it's true.

That smile is perfect theology.

That smile is, I know the great I am.

I don't know why I'm in this hospital bed.

I don't know why my daughter's arm was broken.

I don't know why all these things I got.

I got this in pursuit of your will.

She got the virus, drinking water from Ukraine, preaching to

women.

But she said, God, I'm not going to be mad at you, but I'm going

to know that you're going to.

Bring me on the other side.

And how many of you know that God took this moment, turned it into

a song called I Believe It?

Come on, you said it.

I believe It.

And the song that came out of this surgery has been sung all over

the world and charted on the.

On the charts.

But listen, she didn't do it for that reason.

She did it because she said, God,.

Just like Mary, whatever you tell me to do, wherever you tell

me to go, I'll do it and I'll do it, and I'll do it again and again

and again.

There are some mothers that they sacrifice in one season, but

they give up in another season.

But there are these other mothers that in every season, they

make a new commitment to say, I'll sacrifice again.

I'll sacrifice again.

I'll sacrifice again.

So this is to every single mother that has made a decision that

I will sacrifice every single time.

And I don't want to do it.

I don't feel like doing it, but I will sacrifice every time.

I want every single campus right now to give a standing ovation

for the mothers that know how to sacrifice in every season and

have refused to give up.

Come on, you can do better than that.

Let's give them everything we got.

Come on, Brooklyn.

Come on, Manhattan.

Come on, New Jersey.

Come on.

Let's put our hands together for them that know how to sacrifice

in every single season.

Mary, the cross is not the end of the story.

The cross is the part right before the best part.

How many of you know it gets.

The darkest right before it gets light?

How many of you know that you might be going through something

right now?

I want to pray for each and.

Every one of you that you're like, I don't see It.

My wife barricaded.

The very last time that I got drunk, my wife barricaded the door

of our apartment.

This was almost, I don't know, 15 plus years ago.

And she said, I'm not letting you out of the house.

She said, you are not Johnny Cash.

You are.

This is what she said to me.

Now, believe me when I tell you we didn't even have this church.

We didn't have no church.

And I'm in a drunken stupor.

I am actively giving up on myself.

I am actively destroying my life.

I am actively sabotaging my future.

And my wife, my little five foot three wife with shoes on, probably,

she barricades the front door and she says, mike, you are not Johnny

Cash.

You are a global church planter and you will plant many churches

and you will not leave this house.

You go up in the room and go to bed and sober up.

And I'm telling you, that was the very last time.

And I just made up my mind because Julie treasured up the words

that were said.

She hid them in her heart.

And she said, even if Mike stopped believing it, I believe it.

And she is reaping off of that many years later.

And I. I don't know why I feel so led to say this to some of you,

because you.

You look at your husband, you look at your spouse, you look at

your.

Your season, and it doesn't add up.

You're like, God, how could you take this and make something

out of this?

You look at your children, you look at your bank account, and you're

like,.

God, how could you.

How could you take the.

And you know, it's like a mother.

You.

You go to the grocery store and you buy the ingredients for the

meal.

And I think sometimes you look at the ingredients of your life and

you say, God, how.

How could you promise me this, but.

Make it with these ingredients?

And that's the factor.

And I think my wife is like,.

I don't know how you take Mike's.

Alcoholism and his propensity to destroy his life.

I don't know how you take our.

Poverty and all this stuff we're in.

I don't know how you take that.

And you make.

All I know is you said it.

And I believe it and that settles it.

This is like, Mary, I don't know how you take a teenager and

give Christ the Messiah.

I'm betrothed to be married.

I don't know how you take these raw ingredients and you save

the world out of it.

But far be it from me.

I wonder if when Jesus was in the garden and he said, nevertheless,

I wonder if he learned that from his mama.

I wonder.

I wonder.

Because it was the human side.

It was the human side of them that said, if it be possible, let

this cup pass.

Every mother knows what I'm talking about.

Every mother says, if it's possible, God, get me out of this.

If it's possible to sleep through the night and not have to

nurse this baby and not have to feed this baby, if it be possible,

let this cup pass me.

Everybody knows what I'm talking about.

About Mary was like, nevertheless.

And I wonder if when Jesus, that human part of Jesus wanted to

fail.

I wonder if it's what he inherited from Mary,.

Who.

I got chills all over me.

I wonder if that was Mary's side, who said, whatever you say,

Lord, I'm gonna be like my mama now.

I'll go all the way.

She said, yes, and I say yes.

Let me just tell all the Marys out there right now, because you

said.

Yes, it becomes your child's yes.

Because you said yes, it becomes your great grandchildren's

yes.

Because you said yes.

That yes travels down a generation.

I believe that your yes is about to be amplified.

If you want to say yes to Jesus across every single campus

right now, on the count of three, if you want to surrender your

life, if you want to give him your life, if you want to confess

Christ as Savior, if you want to surrender your family to him,

when I say three, I want you to just lift your hand and we are

going to give our lives to Jesus Christ and we're going to say

yes.

Somebody's child is about to get saved right now.

Somebody's going to receive the greatest Mother's Day as they

see their own spouse give their life to Jesus right now.

One, two, three.

If that's you, come on, lift your hands.

Lord, I give you my life.

Come on across every campus right now.

Borrow my words and say this out loud.

Say, heavenly Father, I confess.

Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.

Wash me with your blood, make me new.

I choose to serve you all the days of my life.

And like Mary, I give you my yes in Jesus name.

Come on, church, let's just shout unto God.

Come on, let's celebrate right now.

Come on, let's sing.

Come on, tell them.

Come on, God's got this thing.

God's gonna work it out for your family.

God is gonna move the mountain.

God is gonna open the door, lift your hands and surrender one

more time today.

God is going to do the impossible.

Now he's the Way Maker.

He's the wheel in the middle of the wheel.

He's El Shaddai.

He's Rafa.

Come on.

Cry out to him, Church.

Tell him.

I just want to be with you.

Come on, lift it up, Sam.