Mama Knows

Thank you for the Bible says that when the name of Jesus is lifted ha, that he will draw all the element to himself.

Thank you for lifting ha the name of Jesus here this morning.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you.

Thank you, Father.

You guys can have a seat.

In case you didn't hear me say it earlier, Happy Mother's Day.

I am so excited to be able to be here this morning and to help recognize our mothers.

Because mothers are awesome.

If you are a mom here with us this morning, I'm gonna ask you to stand up from where you are.

If there's anyone here that is pregnant, you are still a mom.

You just don't have the opportunity to hold your baby yet.

Because we believe that life begins at conception, amen.

Moms, we do honor you.

Because you are special.

You fulfill a role that not any man ever could.

And all the men said, thank you, Jesus.

I've said it before, I'll say it again.

I am not near man enough to have a baby.

And I know all the women are thinking, yep, no man is.

And it's true.

Ladies, thank you, thank you, thank you for the role that you play in so many households.

Let's give these guys another big round of applause, amen.

Pastor Stephen and Jesse wanted me to make sure that I let y'all know.

Happy Mother's Day.

So in case you don't get it, that's gonna be a recurring theme today.

Okay?

This past Friday morning, Miss Jesse added to our church by woman.

Their baby boy was born.

And they are still at the hospital, and that's why Pastor Stephen is not here this morning.

Amen.

God has given me a message for you guys this morning that I have entitled Mama Knows.

Okay?

If you'll notice the title slide up here, um somebody's got their hand off in the cookie jar.

As a kid, has anybody in here ever been caught with their canned in the cookie jar by their mom?

Even if she's not in the same room.

Are you kidding me?

My mom could be two rooms away, and I could be as sneaky as I knew how to be, and believe me, I knew how to be sneaky.

And as soon as I got into that cookie jar, I would hear her voice.

I told you no cookies before supper.

I'm thinking, I know where she is.

There's no way she can see me.

There's no way.

But here's the thing: I have come to the conclusion that moms everywhere have superpowers.

Okay?

That's a fact.

Moms have superpowers, they have super hearing.

They can hear when we're doing something that we're not supposed to be doing.

And they also hear when things get real quiet.

Because when things get real quiet, how many of you know that mama spider sense starts to tingle and go, those kids are up to something?

They've been way too quiet.

So, our text, key text for today's message, is found in three different books of the Bible.

We're gonna start out in the Old Testament.

We're gonna read from two different texts out of the Old Testament, then we're gonna turn to the New Testament.

If you guys would please stand for the reading of God's word.

We're gonna begin in Exodus chapter 20, verse 12.

Exodus 20:12

Exodus chapter 20, verse 12, and it says, Honor your father and mother.

Exodus 20:12

Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

That's pretty awesome news, right?

Then over in Leviticus, just one book over to the right, chapter 19, Leviticus 19, verse 3, it says, Each of you must show great respect for your mother and father.

Leviticus 19:3

You must always observe the Sabbath days of rest.

I am the Lord your God.

Honor.

Respect.

Then we jump over to Ephesians in the New Testament, chapter six, verses two and three, and it says, Honor your father and mother.

This is the first commandment with a promise.

If you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.

I don't know about y'all, but I want things to go well for me.

Amen.

I'm not praying in destruction on my house.

I'm just not.

I want things to go well.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you this morning.

Father, as I bring forth your word, Lord.

If there's anything that's of me, let it be quickly forgotten, Father.

But everything that is of you, let it go down deep in our spirits.

Father, give us all ears to hear what your spirit would say to us today.

And we just thank you, Father, for working in and through our lives.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

So on this Mother's Day, I want to start off by giving a couple of definitions.

We heard the word honor in a couple of those verses.

Honor means respect that is given to someone who is admired.

Moms, you are admired.

It's to show or give recognition.

One whose worth brings respect or fame.

What that means is when we show honor to someone, we are doing so because we see the worth, the value that they have.

Think about that.

Moms, you have extraordinary value.

Amen.

Respect.

Respect is defined as a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and deserves appropriate treatment or regard, the quality or state of being esteemed.

The feeling or understanding that someone is important.

In today's culture, with a lot of our young people, not all, but a lot of our young people, because I work at the school, it's like you're gonna respect me.

Okay.

But at the same time, they expect me to earn their respect.

That seems a little backwards, doesn't it?

And like I said, that's not with everybody.

Because we got some awesome young people that understand that we give respect to people until they just absolutely show that they don't deserve it.

It's just kind of the way it works.

But when we show respect, we are showing that somebody has worth, that they are important.

Point number one: we should honor and respect our mothers.

Pretty simple, right?

Now, as awesome as my mom is, she's not perfect.

She's not.

She's close, but she's not perfect.

And if she were here today, I'm sure she would say that there were some things that she did wrong.

I know that.

But see, here's the thing.

My mom may not be perfect, but neither am I.

And this is gonna come a shock to some of y'all.

Neither are any of you.

I know that that some of y'all think, well, wait a minute now.

No, you're not, you're not perfect, but that's okay.

Because God works with imperfect beings, and with me, thank you, Jesus, because I've got a lot of imperfection.

Amen.

And it it just it is what it is, but there are a ton of things that my mom did right.

First of all, she literally brought me into this world.

Without my mom, I can confidently say I would not be here today.

Pretty obvious, huh?

But that's a fact.

She literally brought me into this world.

She allowed me to grow up in a safe and comfortable environment.

She allowed me to make mistakes, and I made a ton of them.

She allowed me to make these mistakes, but then she also helped me learn from those mistakes.

And then she took it a step for farther because there were times that I needed some discipline to help me learn from those mistakes.

And my mom was okay with giving out some discipline.

My mom was more concerned about being a parent than being a friend.

I heard her say multiple times, Jim, I've got friends.

I don't need you as a friend.

Well, that's kind of harsh, mom.

No, she knew that if she did her job right, that when I grew up, that we would be friends.

Amen.

But God has called those of us who have kids to be parents.

We're to be parents first.

Amen.

I'm gonna get off of that before I get myself in trouble.

Now, this is gonna be hard for some of you guys to believe, but I was that stereotypical strong-willed child.

I know that comes as a shock to some of y'all.

I've even been called hard-headed.

And as much as I would love to argue that fact, I can't, because it is true.

My mom had taught school, public school for 42 years.

Elementary school.

And she taught in an era when there were still paddles in school.

Some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

My mom taught for 42 years, and then she substitute taught for another 10 plus years.

That's impressive to me.

Because I know how I was as a kid.

Okay.

I was the kid who in first grade, my mom taught first grade.

She was not my teacher, but she was she knew my teacher, obviously.

I was that kid that the first two weeks of school, I was in the principal's office three times.

And you're gonna find this hard to believe, but all three times it was for doing the exact same thing.

Because, see, there was a rule at our school that if the milk truck was making a delivery, they had to go across our playground to do so.

And if the milk truck was there to make a delivery, everybody had to stay way clear of the milk truck for safety.

Okay, well, that's a dumb rule.

He's going slow.

So me and a couple of friends jumped on the back bumper of the milk truck.

And we rode across the playground.

He got over to where the cafeteria was, he did this little turn, and just as he put it into, you know, put on the brake to stop and got ready to put it in reverse, that's obviously the best time to jump off.

It's safe, right?

I mean, what's he gonna do?

Back over us.

And every single time we got called to the office.

And I didn't know this until a couple of years ago, but my mom told me and my brother and my sister while we were, I think it was at Thanksgiving, we were talking about that for something, and she said, Yeah, Miss Deere was the principal, and I told her that if she ever, if you ever got sent to her office and you needed a whooping to start with you and make an example out of you in front of the other kids.

I'm like, I'm sorry, what?

And I mean, Miss Deere, she could swing a paddle.

And because she knew who she was dealing with, me and my little hoodwink friends, she had to talk with the milkman.

And she said, if you see kids out on the playground, just keep right on driving.

Because they don't have enough sense not to jump on the back of your truck.

And it was true.

But after that, I didn't get in trouble for that anymore, mainly because he wasn't going across the parking lot.

But that's that's beside the point.

But my mom dealt with so many kids over the years.

Then she came home and had to deal with me and my siblings.

I've got a younger brother and younger sister.

And by the grace of God, she did not kill me.

There are times I'm sure she thought about it.

Just saying.

Any mom out there, unless you have a super compliant child, the thought has entered your mind.

Maybe not completely kill them, but beat them just shy of it.

I mean, if we're going to be honest.

This is a testimony to the amount of patience that my mom possesses today.

And the Bible tells us that patience comes through trials.

And I am sad to say that I put her through a lot of different trials for her to gain the patience that she has today.

But she hung in there.

She didn't give up on me.

That was a good thing.

We should show honor to our mothers if they did it right or if they struggled.

The scripture does not say honor our parents if they do it all right.

It just simply says honor them.

And that means even if we think they don't deserve it.

Let's sink in for just a minute.

I said earlier, nobody's a hundred percent perfect.

Not moms?

Guess what?

Not dads either.

Okay.

Here's the thing.

For someone who had a chuff, a tough childhood, that can be a hard pill to swallow.

Like Jim, you don't know what my mom put me through.

I don't.

It may have been horrendous.

It may have been borderline demonic.

I don't know.

But I do know this.

When we show honor to someone, even when we think they don't deserve it, we are still following God's way of doing things.

We are following his command in spite of.

And how many of you know that God's way is higher than man's way?

Amen.

And by the way, showing honor to our father and mother is command number five on God's big ten, the ten commandments.

The first four commandments deal with how we should treat and interact with God.

We put God, the first commandment is you put God first.

First place.

No other gods before me.

Second is we don't bow down to any graven image.

In other words, we're not gonna bow down to some sculpture made out of wood, made out of stone, made out of metal, whatever.

We're not gonna bow down to some celebrity.

Come on now.

We're not gonna bow down to the latest greatest athlete or the latest greatest YouTuber or TikToker or influencer, whatever you want to call a celebrity.

Commandment number three, don't misuse the name of God.

Commandment number four, honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.

We're here today.

We're honoring the Sabbath.

But how many of you know honoring the Sabbath extends past this room this morning?

It extends all the way through the day.

And then number five through ten deal with how we are supposed to interact with people.

Number five is honor your mother and your father.

It's interesting that God starts with the family when he's dealing with how we should treat each other.

How many of you know that's not by accident?

Because we need to show honor to our mom and dad.

Amen.

And this is just this is kind of free here.

That is God's ten commandments, not God's ten suggestions.

So that means it's not an option.

Well, I just don't want to do that today.

Okay.

There's a lot of things I don't want to do that we do because we're supposed to do.

Amen.

Well, I don't feel like it.

Well, okay.

Run around the block, see if it makes you feel better.

And then do it.

Just saying.

Point number two.

Godly moms help care for the family.

One definition for care is painstaking or watchful attention.

Moms make sure that we have enough food to eat.

It may not have been exactly what I wanted, but it was food.

My mom often told myself and my brother and sister, look, I'm not running a restaurant.

You have a meal, but you don't get it your way.

I'm like, once again, well, okay.

And because of that, to this day, as an adult, I have never, ever, ever bought a can of spam.

I'm just saying, I've eaten spam prepared, boiled, fried, one time even raw.

That was nasty.

And I'm sorry.

I will fast and pray for however long it takes before I eat that again.

And nothing against the makers of spam.

And if you love it, rock on.

But no, not going there.

Moms have the opportunity to speak so much love, kindness, reassuredness, and positivity into the life of their kids.

Just standing and holding a baby and telling them that they are loved, telling them that they are beautiful, they are handsome.

Even as an infant, just a couple of days old, a couple of months old, is huge.

It is huge.

New moms, when you're looking at that first child and you have that overwhelming sense of how in the world am I going to do this?

I don't know of too many people that at some point haven't had that overwhelming, I am not equipped for this feeling.

It's real.

And it is real if you happen to be a teen mom, if you happen to have your first kid in your twenties, your thirties, or beyond.

It's still real, right?

There is that moment when it becomes clear that this little baby is totally dependent on me for everything.

Not some things, everything.

Whether that be feeding, clothing, bathing, holding, or soothing.

And I mean, you know, that's a lot of responsibility.

And in the day and culture that we live in, we have a lot of people doing it as a single mom or a single dad.

I'm gonna be honest with you.

My hats are completely off to a single mom.

And I am sorry you're in that position.

But keep doing what you're doing, even when it's hard.

Moms can become overwhelmed with the sheer number of diapers that need to be changed.

How often the baby eats, the crazy times that they go to sleep, or sometimes refuse to.

And yet, moms find a way to get her done.

They get it done.

God does not judge moms on whether your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds.

Your good days outweigh your bad days.

God knows.

He sees your heart, he sees everything that's going on.

And God, He always sees.

Being a mom is hard work.

Some days you're gonna weigh heavier than others.

You might find yourself being impatient.

You might find yourself speaking harshly to the kids or comparing yourself to another mom who you think has it all together.

I'm just gonna let you know in case you don't.

The couple of little snapshots of little Johnny sitting there being incredibly awesome is about two minutes of that stellar mom's 24-hour day.

She's not gonna film when he's throwing an absolute fit.

She's not gonna film when she's sitting in the floor crying her eyes out because she's overwhelmed.

That doesn't make for a good highlight reel.

So don't compare yourself with someone who you think has it all figured out because the truth is they don't.

Just know that as surely as moms forgive their kids for mistakes, God also forgives moms for any mistakes that they make.

Like I said earlier, no mom or dad has ever done it 100% right.

We'll take a quick look at the mother and father of Jesus over in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

If you want to turn there, Luke chapter 2, verses 41 through 49.

Luke 2:41–49

And I want us to take a look at the incredible awesomeness of their parenting skills.

It says in Luke chapter 2, verse 41, every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.

Luke 2:41

When Jesus was 12 years old, they attended the festival as usual.

After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth.

But Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

His parents didn't miss him at first because they assumed he was among the other travelers.

But when he didn't show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends.

When they couldn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem, and there they searched for him.

And then three days later.

Mary and Joseph have been in charge put in charge of taking care of God's son.

When you know that you have lost God's son, how do you even pray?

What happened was, I mean, wow.

Okay, let's let's move on.

Three days later, they finally discovered him in the temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions.

All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

His parents didn't know what to think.

And then Jesus says, But why did you need to search?

He asked, Didn't you know that I must be in my father's house?

Now Jesus wasn't being disrespectful.

But how many of you know that when you have lost, misplaced, can't find one of your children, that that's not a small thing.

And the Passover meal, when it came time to come to Jerusalem for the Passover meal, the population of Jerusalem would sometimes double or even triple.

A lot of folks, a lot of places for Jesus to get lost, a lot of potential possibility for things to go way bad.

I want you to think about this.

As a mom, have you ever had a kid wander off from you in the grocery store, at a department store, or in the mall, or heaven forbid, at Six Flags or a water park.

And when you find your child, you're relieved and glad that you have them.

And then maybe, just maybe, a little bit of anger sets in.

Okay?

I'm gonna be honest with you.

As a kid, walking through department stores, through Walmart and stuff like that, if we happen to go by the toy aisle, squirrel.

Just saying, I was gonna go find me a shiny toy to look at.

I didn't care where my mom went.

I mean, you know that that can catch up with you too.

Yep.

And here's the thing with all the different emotions swirling around, there is still care and concern for the child that comes from the heart of mom.

Amen.

And that takes us to point number three.

Moms protect and defend.

Has anyone ever heard the term mama bear?

That is a real term, guys.

If you don't believe it, just get between a mama and her babies.

And act in a threatening way.

It's not going to go well for you.

Because even a very small woman can carry a very big gun.

Just saying.

And how many of y'all have ever heard the expression dynamite comes in small packages?

Okay?

Because I have seen women go nuts on people that were messing with their kids.

It's real.

Moms can and have gone to radical lengths to protect their children.

Over in the book of Exodus, we see Pharaoh.

He was the king of Egypt, and he had given an order to the Hebrew midwives to kill all the baby boys that were being born.

But you can let the girls live.

Now, fortunately, the Hebrew midwives were more attuned at following God than they were listening to the king.

Pharaoh ordered this because the Hebrews, who were slaves, were greater in number than the Egyptians, and Pharaoh was scared that the slaves would revolt.

And he knew that if there were more men, there would be more fighters.

Amen.

Because in that day it was the men that were the warriors.

They just were.

So over in Exodus chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, it says this.

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

About this time a man and a woman from the tribe of Levi got married.

The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son.

She saw that he was a special baby and kept him hidden for three months.

But when she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch.

She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the river Nile.

The baby's sister then stood at a distance watching to see what would happen to him.

Soon Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank.

When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her.

When the princess opened it she saw the baby.

The baby boy was crying and she felt sorry for him.

This must be one of the Hebrew children, she said.

Then the baby's sister approached the princess.

Should I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?

she asked.

Yes, do, the princess replied.

So the girl went and called the baby's mother.

Come on now.

Take this baby and nurse him for me, the princess told the baby's mother, and I will pay you for your help.

That sounds like a deal.

So the woman took her baby home and nursed him.

Later when the boy was older, the mother brought him back to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her own son.

The princes named him Moses, for she explained, I lifted him out of the water.

Moses' mom fashioned a small boat or a basket and placed it in the river to help keep her son safe.

The Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket and found the Hebrew boy.

Moses' sister spoke with Pharaoh's daughter, asking if she would like for her to find the Hebrew find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby.

Now, the Hebrews were slaves.

So a young slave girl going to talk to an Egyptian princess was a very bold move.

That was no small thing.

Moses' mother was allowed to nurse her son, and she got paid for it.

That's God.

That is God.

She had the opportunity to train her son in the ways of the one true God during his early years.

Also, no small thing.

Now that is going to an extreme to protect your child.

Moms train and protect their children today as well.

Children are taught not to play in the middle of a busy street.

Children are taught manners and how to act with other kids as well as adults.

And just remember, kids watch your actions as well as listen to your words.

Think about that.

And here's a question for you.

Do your actions and your words line up?

Or are you saying one thing yet doing another?

Are you telling your teenage boy not to drink and asking him to go get a beer out of the fridge for you?

You telling them not to smoke while you've got a cigarette hanging out of your mouth.

How many of you know that kids can spot a hypocrite too?

We've got to make sure that our walk lines up with our talk.

We just have to do it as adults.

So a quick, a quick recap as I get ready to close.

Point number one, we should honor and respect our moms.

Point number two, godly moms help care for the family.

And point number three, moms protect and defend.

Mom, even when the job becomes hard, maybe even real hard, keep your focus on God.

Lean on him, lean into him, and ask for wisdom and direction and provision.

Amen.

Now, I want to share one more story, and then I want to ask a question.

And this story comes from the book of John, chapter five, beginning in verse one.

It says this afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.

Inside the city, near the sheep gape, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches, crowds of sick people, blind, lamed, paralyzed.

They lay on the porches.

One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, Jesus asked him, Would you like to get well?

I can't, sir, the man said, for I have no one to put me in the pool when the water bubbles up.

Someone else always gets there ahead of me.

Jesus told him, Stand up.

Pick up your mat and walk.

Instantly the man was healed.

He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking.

This miracle happened on the Sabbath.

Now I want you to look at the question Jesus asked the lame man.

Would you like to get well?

Would you like to be healed?

The man has been lame for 38 years.

When I first read that, I thought, that's a dumb question.

I'm just being honest with you, I wouldn't be in disrespectful to God, but in my mind, I'm thinking.

Why would you even ask that question?

Because of something.

Of course the man wants to be healed.

What?

I mean, he's laying there at the pool.

He sees it, blah blah blah.

He's talking about trying to get to the pool and other people beating him there.

But Jesus still asks the question, would you like to get healed?

But I want you to think about the question.

I'm gonna harp on this for just a minute.

Do I want to be healed?

And that's a crazy question.

Because if I get healed, I'm different.

If you get healed, you're going to be different.

If someone gets healed, they get a new story.

Do you want to be healed?

Do you really want something different?

Do you want to have a new story, or has your current story become so comfortable that you're not willing to change?

You're not willing for your story to be different.

Question hits a little harder that way, doesn't it?

Is your current story, your current situation, your identity?

In the story, it was the lame man.

That was his story.

He was the one, no name given.

He was the one who was known as the lame man.

How many of you know if he gets healed, or when he gets healed, after Jesus heals him, his story changed.

He's different.

He's no longer the lame man.

He's the walking man.

He's the running man.

His story is different.

He has a new story now.

I can tell you about the first years there, that 38, I was sick and I was lame.

But let me tell you about now.

Let me tell you about the story now where I'm not dependent on somebody else to carry me everywhere I go.

Let me tell you about the things that I can go do now, that I can take a walk with my family.

I can play with my nephew and my niece.

I can have a job that's not begging for money.

Come on.

Today, Jesus is giving us the opportunity to get a new story.

It may be scary because it's going to be different.

It's not going to be the same.

Does anyone here today want to ask Jesus into their heart in life, maybe for the very first time?

If you've been trying to do this thing called life on your own, and maybe things aren't going the way you thought they should or would, are you ready for a new story?

Does anyone here today want to be healed physically?

If you get healed, you will have a new story.

If I could have our prayer warriors go ahead and come on down.

Just step out from where you are.

Nobody's going to embarrass you.

Nobody's going to shame you.

Or maybe you're just, I just want a new story.

If that's you, come on down.

Hey, this is Pastor Stephen, the lead pastor here at Connect Church in Longview.

I truly hope today's message has encouraged you, empowered you, and challenged you to go deeper in your walk with Christ.

If you would like to find out more about us, I invite you to visit ConnectChurch.life.

There you can find ways to give what we believe, our values, as well as different ways to reach out to us so that we can reach out to you.

We love you.

We're praying for you, and I hope you have an amazing week.