So
We'll open with a word of prayer.
You'll bow your heads with me.
Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day and.
Lord, just especially today, we want to take a time to be thankful for our mother, the mothers in our life,
whether directly our own or whether or not. Just as a good example, I just pray that you would have
us each esteem them highly and to be thankful for the things that they have taught us, the things
that we've learned. Lord, for the service, I just pray that everything would be done decently and
in order. I pray that you'd incline your ears. We continue to sing out praises unto you. These
All right, for our next hymn, 119, till the storm passes by, 119, till the storm passes by, 119, we'll sing their starting on the first.
through some announcements. If you don't have a bulletin please raise your hand and Usher will
bring you one. Also at this time the Usher is going to be passing around some gifts for the ladies
so if I could have Brother John and Brother Koa just start handing those out. I'd appreciate that.
And we'll see there on the front is our Bible memory passage of the week, Galatians chapter number one, verse 19.
Keep working hard on that memorization chapter.
We have our service times listed there, Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m. Sunday evening at 4.30 p.m.
and our Wednesday evening Bible study through Proverbs at 7 o'clock.
Also, our soul winning times are listed below.
Also make note of that, one highlighted in gold is our Saturday soul winning rally.
And just kind of as an impromptu thing, next Saturday, whoever comes to the Saturday soul
winning rally, I'm taking out to eat afterwards.
So if you want a free lunch at the local in Yukon, then come soul winning on Saturday
and you'll get some free food.
Nursing Home Ministry schedule is listed there as well as our year-to-date statistics for soul winning
Really excited that we broke 300 so far and soul winning just keeps being excellent in this area
So keep up the great work soul winning
Of course, today is Mother's Day, and again, happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there,
especially the greatest mom, my wife over there.
I definitely appreciate all the work that she does and that my mom did growing up,
and just all you ladies put in a lot of hard work and sacrifice.
And this church would not run without all the ladies' sacrifices.
Our families wouldn't be the way that they are.
So thank you to all the moms out there working super hard.
May 18th is going to be our men's preaching night.
There is a sign-up sheet for that in the back.
May 31st is the Durant, Oklahoma soul-winning marathon with steadfast
June 28th is going to be the tinker air show fellowship event and just remember that that is totally free
Not even it's not even at charge to the church. It's just literally free to everyone. So that's gonna be a great time
The next day June 29th is brother Ben naeem preaching for us both services
August 27th through the 31st is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship at steadfast Baptist Church
and then following is the Bahamas missions trip October 6th through the 11th.
On the back you will see our prayer list that's been updated this week.
The newest update comes from brother Samson down in Texas. I think everyone knows him here
He has his back surgery scheduled for this Thursday. So especially be praying for him. It's a big surgery
Just praying that everything goes well for him
Also some information about giving below if you'd like to do that. It's gonna be it for announcements this morning
We'll go ahead and go to our third song
all right for our third song this morning turn to number three very fitting number three for
our third song jesus paid it all jesus paid it all we'll sing there starting right on the first
Watch and pray, Thine in me Thine all in all.
Jesus made it all, All to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed him by the snow.
Thank you so much for being here.
Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter number one.
Luke chapter number one.
Luke chapter one for as much as he as many have taken in hand to set forth an order at
declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us even as they delivered them
unto us which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word it seemed good to me
also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write unto thee
that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed.
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of
the course of Abaya, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
And they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren and they both were now well-stricken
in ears.
And it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order
of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense
when he went into the temple of the Lord.
And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right hand of the altar of incense.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard,
And thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son.
And thou shalt call his name John.
And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth.
for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink,
and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.
In many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God,
and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, and turn the hearts of the fathers to
and make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Zachariah said unto the angel,
whereby shall I know this?
For I am an old man, and my wife,
well stricken in ears.
And the angel answering said unto him,
I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God,
and am sent to speak unto thee,
and to show thee these glad tidings,
and behold,
Thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed
Because thou believe it's not my words
Which shall be fulfilled in their season
And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple and when he came out
He could not speak to under them and they perceive
That he had seen a vision in the temple for he beckoned under them and remained speechless
And it came to pass, as soon as the days of his administration were accomplished, he departed
to his own house, and after those days, his wife, Elizabeth, conceived and hid herself
five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me, and the days wherein he looked upon
And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God
unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was
Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in under her and said,
Hail, thou that art highly favored,
the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.
when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what
manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary,
for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy
womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great
And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this thing be, seeing I know not a man?
and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God.
And behold thy cousin Elizabeth,
she hath also conceived a son in her old age.
And this is the sixth month with her who is called Baron,
who was called Baron.
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me, according to thy word,
the angel departed from her.
And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of
And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.
And she spake out with a loud voice and said,
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me?
As soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears,
the babe leaped for womb, leaped in my womb for joy.
And blessed is she that believe, for there shall be a performance of those things
which were told her from the Lord.
And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaid, for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him, from generation to generation.
He hath showed strength with his arm.
He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.
And hath hoping his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy.
With her about three months and returned to her and returned to her own house
Now Elizabeth's full name
Came that she should be delivered full. Sorry now Elizabeth
Now Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered
And she brought forth a son and her neighbors and her
Cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her and they rejoiced with her
and it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they
called him Zacharias after the name of his father and his mother answered and said not
so but he shall be called John and they said unto her there is none of thy kindred that
have him called, and they asked for a writing table and wrote saying his name is John and
they marveled all, and his mouth was open immediately and his tongue loosed and he spake
and praised God, and fear came on all that dwelt round about him, and all these sayings
throughout all the hill country of Judea, and all they that heard them laid up in
their hearts saying, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord
was with him, and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and
prophesied saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and
redeemed his people.
and hath raised up and horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, for
he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began.
That he should be saved, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand
to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swear to our father, Abraham.
That he should grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear.
In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life, and thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the highest.
For thou shalt go before in face, in the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge
of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew in
and his heart and was in the deserts
till the day of his showing unto Israel.
Let's pray.
Gracious Lord, thank you for the beautiful day today.
Thank you for those that are gathered here.
Pray, Lord, that we help our service be pleasing to you.
Lord, go pass your auspices here.
Thank you for the mothers that are here.
And Jesus, then we pray in that.
Amen. All right.
Well, for Mother's Day this morning,
I'd like us to take a look in scripture at a great mom
and that is Elizabeth.
And Elizabeth, of course, is the mother of John the Baptist,
who Jesus actually said was the greatest man
that was born among women.
And we're in Luke chapter number one this morning.
Stay there, but I just want to read for you, Matthew 1111.
The Bible says,
Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women,
there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than he.
That's quite an honor for his mother, for Jesus to say of her son that he's the greatest
born among women.
John the Baptist was an absolutely powerhouse of a man of God.
And what's interesting about Elizabeth is that the Bible doesn't even really focus a
whole lot on her relationship with her son, John.
how she raised him and their relationship and it doesn't record like all of her different
parenting methods and stuff like that. But what it does record and what the Bible does focus on
is the character of Elizabeth. And so the title of my sermon this morning is Elizabeth,
a godly mother. Elizabeth, a godly mother. I'd like to give you several thoughts this
morning about Elizabeth. Number one, Elizabeth was a righteous woman. Look at verse number five
The Bible says there was, in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abaya, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
So we're introduced here to Elizabeth, and she's married to a priest, and it says that she comes from a godly lineage, because it says there that his wife was of the daughters of Aaron.
If you are a lady that's been blessed with parents who were saved or grandparents who were saved,
and if you were brought up in the independent fundamental Baptist world and you know the word
of God, you know the truth, you should strive to keep that tradition alive in your family.
And that's what Elizabeth did. You know, she had a really godly pedigree,
and thank the Lord, it didn't stop with her. In fact, she just made the next generation even better.
She ended up producing John the Baptist,
you know, the greatest man born among women.
And you know, if you don't have that type of pedigree,
if your parents weren't saved,
your family doesn't really, you know,
have a church background or anything like that,
you know, you should strive to start that tradition
to where you are the beginning of a line of godly people.
You do everything you can in your power to serve the Lord
and to produce the next generation of Christians.
But notice also what it says in verse six.
It says, and they were both righteous before God.
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
And of course, sometimes in the Bible the word righteous can just be referring to the fact that someone's saved.
You know, once we believe in Jesus Christ, our new man is 100% righteous.
And we are going to heaven because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed on us.
But there's also an additional meaning to this that has to do with someone's sanctification.
someone purifying themselves,
turning away from sin, following God's commandments.
And that's what this is talking about right here,
because it says they were both righteous before God,
and it defines that,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord blameless.
Man, how would you like your description
of being a mother in the word of God
to where the narrator of the Bible describes you this way?
as being righteous and walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless. You know that is the generation of mothers that we need so desperately today in America.
We don't need the moms that are just focusing on themselves and how much pleasure they can get
out of life and you know be these like white suburban whinoe moms or it's all about their wine
clubs or something like that. We need some ladies that care about being righteous that care about
following the commandments. And you know of course being righteous does not guarantee that your
will be righteous, but it sure does give them the highest chance of turning out
righteous. You being saved doesn't guarantee your kids will be saved, but it
absolutely gives you the greatest chance.
And if you want to raise a godly generation and you know that's my goal.
That's my wife's goal.
Our kids are pretty young.
We have not attained to that yet, but here's what I know.
I know that if my wife and I are following God's commandments, being righteous,
trying to serve the Lord to the best of our ability,
that's going to give our children the best chance.
of turning out to be godly Christians themselves.
And you know, John the Baptist wasn't just a product of a vacuum.
No, he had a great mother and a great father to follow the example of.
And he ended up being the greatest man that was born among women.
Why? Partly because his parents were super, super godly.
Go to Psalm chapter number one, Psalm chapter one.
Notice what the Bible says.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
So the blessed man, or we could even apply this, the blessed woman, there's some attributes
about this person.
One of the things, they're not walking in the counsel of the ungodly.
So, a godly person who's going to be blessed, they're not going to the world for their advice.
They're not really caring what the wicked have to say.
They're caring about what the Bible says, what the Word of God says.
And you know, especially when it comes to parenting, there are so many voices in this
world that want to teach you how to do it.
There's so many self-help books when it comes to parenting.
But you know, we shouldn't really care about what the counsel of the ungodly is.
And, you know, Elizabeth and her husband were people that just cared about God,
that followed his commandments, that walked blamelessly in the ordinances of God.
And that's why they were blessed.
It says they don't stand in the way of sinners, so they're living a separated life.
They're around God's people, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
So they're going to...
you know, shun wicked people,
the scornful mouth, people that would
speak against God's word or be fro word
or be railers or something like that,
people that they would separate from.
Then it says in verse two.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law that he meditate day and
night see a godly person
esteem's God's word God's commandments as the highest thing possible and in fact a godly person
Delights in the word of God. It's not even like a super big chore to always read your Bible
You know, of course, everyone's gonna feel that way from time to time, but you know your heart
as a golly person in general should be that you delight in reading the Bible,
that it's fun, that it's something you look forward to,
and it's something that you meditate in day and night.
And I think what the Bible is illustrating by the fact that
the Bible doesn't really focus a whole lot on her relationship with John or her
parenting methods, it just tells us she was a super godly person.
It goes to show this, that if you want to be a great mom,
And of course, this would apply to dads, too, or really any position.
But if you want to be a great mom, you should focus first on being a great Christian.
Be focusing on being a great Christian.
The best moms, the best dads, they are that way because they're great Christians.
And there are people who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate therein day and night.
See, you'd be better off
Rather than reading all the self-help books and all the world's philosophies when it comes to childrearing,
you'd be way better off focusing on what the Bible says and meditating therein day and night.
That's the recipe to become a godly parent, not necessarily all the books that this world has to offer.
Look at verse 3.
It says, And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
Notice that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
That's a pretty awesome promise in God's word, that when you are not taking the counsel
of the ungodly,
When you're not standing in the way of sinners,
when you're not with the scornful,
instead you're actually focusing on the Bible,
his commandments, meditating in the law of God,
you're gonna bring forth your fruit in your season
and whatsoever you do will prosper.
And I think there's a lot of people out there,
a lot of moms especially,
who are coming from a really good place
in the sense that they just wanna constantly consume
as much material about child rearing as possible
and about being a good mom.
But I think that
We just need to remind ourselves as Christians that this is the ultimate source of truth.
This is the ultimate guide is the word of God. And again,
I think some of these people are well-meaning. You think about the movement a few decades ago
of the Bill Gothard movement.
And this guy is a complete weirdo.
He's a false prophet, but I think that a lot of people
who were following him were coming from a good heart
of just wanting to be a godly parent,
wanting to raise a good family.
But you know, here's a pro tip.
Don't go listen to a pastor that's never been married
and never had kids, dedicate your whole ministry
to teach you how to be a good mom and how to be a good dad.
That's just not a good idea.
But a lot of these families, you know, they come out of this and I even heard a story yesterday about a guy who came out of this movement and he has like 12 brothers or sisters or something like that and he just doesn't even care about the things of God anymore.
He's kind of been turned away because of the fact that this guy ended up getting busted being a predator.
And, you know, he had all these young girls that he was hiring as secretaries, and he
was doing inappropriate stuff.
But it's like, look, Christians, instead of going to some weird, you know, ministry,
some para-church ministry, not even led by a pastor, not even led by someone who's qualified,
taking all this weird advice from someone that doesn't have kids, has never been married,
wouldn't it be a lot better to just look to the Bible?
Because God's Word is going to instruct you on how to be a good mom.
how to be a good dad and Elizabeth,
she wasn't going to the self-help aisle
of Barnes and Nobles or anything like that.
She was just walking in the commandments of God.
She was just following the ordinance
of the God of the Lord blamelessly.
And I think that character is what allowed her
to be a great mother.
Now go to Titus chapter two.
Because, you know, this begs the question,
well, what does that look like?
She's a godly mom, okay?
She's following God's commandments.
But what does it actually look like to be a godly mother?
And there's a couple of places in scripture
that really defines that for us.
One is Proverbs 31.
Another one is Titus chapter two,
where it's kind of gonna give us an ideal look
of what a woman should look like.
And so we could, of course,
assume that this is how Elizabeth was.
Titus two, three, the Bible says.
The aged women, likewise.
First of all, I just want to highlight,
this is talking about ladies that are older.
Now, Elizabeth was definitely that.
The Bible says that she was well-stricken in age,
and so this is definitely applying to her.
The aged women likewise,
that they be in behavior as becomeeth holiness,
not false accusers, not given to much wine,
teachers of good things,
that they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be discreet, chaste,
keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed.
So here we get just a great list, just makes it super clear what does a godly mom look like.
And what's funny is at this time when Elizabeth is described as being very righteous,
someone following all the commandments of the Lord, she was not even a mother yet.
But what I believe is that because she had such a great Christian character because of intrinsically who she was as a godly person,
that is what enabled her to be a great mom.
And it's like I said, godly Christians, great mothers, godly Christians, great fathers.
What you should be focusing on, whether you're a parent or not, if you want to be a great
parent is on being a good Christian.
Now let's look at what some of these things say.
The age women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness.
So what is that referring to?
holiness, right? Like I already said, there's a level of holiness that we get at salvation.
We get God's righteousness on us and our new man doesn't sin. Our new man is 100% holy and that's
why we're able to go to heaven is because it's our soul going to heaven, not our flesh. But also,
God wants us to live a separated life, to separate ourselves from sin as much as we can,
to constantly be cleaning up our lives, looking inward at ourselves,
fixing issues that we have, and that's what this godly woman does.
She's in behavior as becoming holiness.
So she's working on it. She's putting effort into her Christian life.
She's not just taking God's grace and saying,
I'm saved and I'm not going to do anything else. Right?
This is a person who actually cares about pleasing the Lord.
Man, it's so rare today to find people that appreciate Jesus Christ
enough to actually serve him.
I mean, just yesterday I went soul winning.
I got this guy saved.
He was super excited.
He even brought up church transportation to me.
I didn't even ask him.
He's just like, you guys have a bus.
You guys have a way I can get to church.
Like, hey, we don't have a bus,
but let me introduce you to my friend Theo here.
He's gonna pick you up at 945.
You're gonna bring a change of clothes for baptism.
You're coming to church, you're getting baptized.
He's like, yeah, let's do it.
And then he texts brother Theo last night saying,
oh, I'm not coming.
It's just like so frustrating, right?
How just so few people today
want to actually do anything beyond just getting saved.
You know, that's why this preaching that's just like downplaying sanctification, downplaying
hard preaching is so dangerous because everybody, 99% of people, it seems already don't care
about serving God.
The last thing we need is the preaching to also just enable people in that laziness.
We want to encourage mothers today to be living a life that becomes holiness,
that you should be constantly sanctifying yourself and working towards becoming a better Christian tomorrow than you are today.
Why? Because the better Christian you are, the better mother you'll be.
The greatest mothers are the greatest Christians.
Then it says this.
not false accusers.
You know, that is a great attribute of ladies
to not be going around being a loudmouth,
you know, falsely accusing people of things.
That is a stain on your reputation.
You could stay there at Proverbs 31, verse 26.
The Bible says she openedeth her mouth with wisdom.
in her tongue is the law of kindness. You know, that is the speech that should be
characterizing mothers today is that she's opening her mouth with wisdom,
right? She's teaching her children the truth. She's teaching her children the
Word of God. She's a wise woman because she's walking in the commandments of God
and reading the Bible. And in her tongue is the law of kindness. You know, when I
When kids get hurt dad is saying, hey, toughen up.
Stop being such a baby.
Come on, it's not that big of a deal.
It's a tiny little scratch.
But mom, it's, oh, it's okay, I got you.
And we need that.
I'm not even making fun of that.
I'm saying like, kids need both of these things.
Kids need some dads to toughen them up.
But you know what?
Kids also need the tender love of their mom.
Everyone needs that.
That is an absolute gift of God.
And you know, a godly woman is characterized
by gentleness, kindness,
wisdom, not this harsh, sharp, brash, loud, contentious, you know, that's an
ungodly attribute of a wife of a mom. The godly woman is quiet, meek, kind.
Then it says here not given to much wine and of course we could apply this to alcohol.
You know alcohol is extremely sinful for anyone mom or not.
But you know I think about there's this culture of moms today in America kind of like I mentioned
this like suburban wine culture.
It's like all the ladies go out into their wine tastings.
You know that's wrong.
That's not a recipe for raising
godly children, them seeing you
being a drunk, doing nothing with
your life, but drinking alcohol,
being a party, wine clubs, that's
not what you should be striving for.
But, honestly, when I think it's saying not given to much wine, I don't even think alcohol is the primary thing in view in this verse.
It's talking about extravagance, luxury, and you know, godly moms, their life is a life of service to their family, of sacrifice to others.
feeding herself only and taking care of herself
and how many vacations can she go on
and how many nice things can she enjoy?
You know, that's not what the Godly Woman looks like
in Titus chapter two.
She's one that's not given to much wine.
You know, she's not covetous.
She's not constantly obsessed
with getting the next big house and the next big car
and the next, you know, clothing that's fancy
and invoked today or whatever that is.
She's just a woman that's content.
She's a woman that's just genuinely happy and pleased to be serving her family to be serving her children to be serving
God, you know God looks at a woman that is content and he's pleased with that
You know if you're a father or a mother in this room and you provide something to your children
You give something to them and they're ungrateful. How does that make you feel?
makes you angry, right?
It's like, what are you doing?
I'm here giving you this gift.
You weren't even deserving of this.
I'm blessing you with this
and you want to complain about it.
You know, it's annoying.
And it's like, we need women and moms today
to be thankful for the lives that they have,
to not be envying their neighbor
and thinking, well, I wish I lived in that house.
I wish I had what she had.
You just need to be thankful for the husband you have,
for the children that you have,
for the life that you have.
Be truly content with that.
That is an attribute of a godly mom.
It says this, teachers of good things.
So to me that would go to show that you're a good example
to the younger ladies.
That we would all look at the ladies,
the mothers that are elder,
and we would say, hey, she's a good example
of what you should be young ladies.
This is how, this is, you know,
you should follow in this person's footsteps.
You should.
act the way this person acts is very important that moms are showing that example to the upcoming
generation that you're teaching good things.
Then it says that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands,
to love their children.
So notice she is teaching the other ladies by setting a good example to love their husbands.
And to me it kind of goes to show like hey she's not given much wine, she's not obsessed
with luxury and wealth and pleasure for herself, she's leading a life that is showing an example
sacrificing for her husband, and loving her children, right?
Actually putting the care necessary into raising your kids.
It says to be discreet, right?
So you're gonna be a good example to the younger ladies
by knowing what is appropriate to say,
what's not appropriate to be speaking about, to be chased,
right?
So you're not gonna be a bad example
by dressing inappropriately or acting inappropriately
towards men, you're chased.
How about this?
Keepers at home.
You know, we need more of that today in our society where so many children are just being
raised by the government, their mom has forsaken them, not raising them in the home, just being
raised by some stranger.
You know, we need some ladies, they're going to keep their children at home, good, obedient
to their own husbands.
Notice this, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
See, moms that are good Christians, moms that are following the commandments of the Bible,
they make God look good.
They make Jesus look good.
They make the Bible look good.
And when I read Luke chapter one, I look at Elizabeth, I'm just saying like, this woman
makes Christianity look good.
And when I think of my wife, I think this woman makes Christianity look good.
When I think about the godly moms in this church, I'm like, this makes our church look good.
This makes Christianity look good.
And all, it's just interesting to me how the culture is kind of changing in America.
How the left has just gone so far and they've way overplayed their hand,
just shoving their debauchery and communism and socialism down people's throats that people are just tired of it.
And people are ready.
to embrace fundamentalism right now.
People are ready to embrace the gospel and Christianity and I am not kidding.
I can't go anywhere with my family without someone stopping me like,
wow, you guys have such a beautiful family.
Wow, this is so great.
And look, I don't think I'm special.
I don't think our family is anything crazy special or anything like that.
I just think people see a man that looks like a man and a woman that looks like a woman
and a bunch of girls wearing skirts and dresses.
And they're just like, oh, that looks so great.
Man, I want that.
I mean, people just want Christianity.
today, they're dying for it, they're thirsting for fundamentalism and it's like us by just existing
mothers you just existing being a good example you know it actually is helping the cause of
Christianity and people are just by your mere existence of being a good example can help someone
even get saved someday because they see that godly conversation coupled with fear and they think man
So many people today were brainwashed and instead of finding a godly wife,
they just married the girl for the looks or whatever like that.
And they found out the hard way, wow, getting married to the loud and stubborn woman really sucks.
And their lives get destroyed through divorce.
Or on the other side, many ladies today have been lied to and told,
hey, put off having kids until you're in your mid 30s.
Focus on your career first.
Take birth control for 20 years.
Make sure you're doing all these things.
And then they realized like, hey, that was a mistake.
And what we want now is to capitalize on this opportunity in our culture,
to not turn down the preaching, not turn down what the Bible says.
No, we need to show this to the world.
We need to be a lighted city on a hill because people want the Bible right now.
And you ladies have a very unique ministry and opportunity right now
to be great ambassadors of Jesus Christ and not to make the word of God be blasphemed,
but contrary-wise, to make it look super good.
And so, you should take that ministry that you have very seriously.
Go to Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31.
So you know when the Bible is saying that Elizabeth is walking in all the commandments
of the Lord?
Titus 2 gives us a very clear picture of what that looks like.
That's how Elizabeth was living her life.
Proverbs 31, verse 28, the Bible says this, her children arise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also, and he prayseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously,
but thou excelest them all.
Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman that feareth the Lord,
she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her own works praise her in the gates."
You know, what's interesting is the Bible
doesn't tell us anything about what Elizabeth looks like.
It didn't say like Elizabeth was a blonde with blue eyes or she's a Burnett with
doesn't say anything like that doesn't describe her appearance but you know what
it describes it describes her godliness so I don't know what she looked like it
doesn't matter because what guy would not want to be married to a godly wife
like Elizabeth to where even in her old age the Holy Spirit is saying this is a
godly woman who's righteous who's keeping the commandments of God who's
That is a great testimony, and you know, if you want to be praised more by your children and by your husband, then have some good works.
Be that godly wife, because it says her children rise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also, and he prays with her.
Look at verse 30, a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
It's just a fact that if you are a godly wife, you're going to be getting praised,
because it's a rare thing to find a woman like Elizabeth.
a mom that's just sold out 100% for her children in this society that we're living in.
Most people, men and women included, are just living for self.
Most people, men and women included, we go knock on their door and they get saved
and then they never want to do anything for God ever again.
But you know, both of us here, men and women need to be the exception to that
and serve God with all of our heart.
Go to Luke chapter number one, Luke chapter one.
So number one, Elizabeth was righteous.
Number two, Elizabeth was steadfast in the faith.
Look at verse six.
It says, and they were both righteous before God.
Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord,
blameless, verse seven says,
and they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren
and they were both,
and they both were now well stricken in years.
So at this point of the story,
again, the reason I think this is kind of an interesting
person to focus in on is because at this point of the story,
Elizabeth is not even a mom yet.
But yet, she is such a golly woman. She's such a great example.
And when I look at this verse, I think about how much of a steadfast Christian she is.
Why? Well, because she's well stricken in years,
and she's been barren her whole life,
yet she's still serving God.
Yet she's still walking in all the commandments of the Lord.
Yet she's still following the ordinance of the Lord blamelessly.
See, she did not allow her struggles and her pain to stop her from serving God.
Because here is just the brutal reality of life, is that whether you are a mom of 10 children,
whether you are a woman that is barren, whether you are a man, whatever your situation in life is,
you are going to have serious troubles, hardships, pain, heartache, all these different issues in your life,
you're going to have those things.
But you know what? You should never allow those things to cause you to stop serving God.
See, the character that Elizabeth had to be steadfast her whole life, following the commandments
of God, her whole life, yet with this pain of not having a child, it just goes to show
what a great person she was, and that character that she had is what enabled her to be a great
mom afterwards.
See, if you just threw John the Baptist to some mom that never read the Bible,
that didn't follow commandments of God, that didn't care about the Lord,
that didn't have a heart towards the things of God,
it's very likely that that child would have not turned out to be John the Baptist.
But yet you give John the Baptist to an extremely old, well-stricken in years, Elizabeth,
who feared God her whole life, who loved him, kept God's commandments,
then you get John the Baptist. Isn't that interesting?
What a steadfast woman because look, that's extremely painful and my heart goes
out to people that are in that situation. I pray for people that are in that
situation but you know what? No matter what your situation in life is you
should never allow that to make you stop serving God. Whatever your situation is.
We all have different cross to bear. We all have different seasons of life where
things are going to be harder than at other times but you know what God wants
anyways is he wants you to be steadfast.
He wants you to still love him.
He wants you to still serve him.
Go to James chapter 1.
It's just a really commendable woman here.
James chapter number 1.
This is super challenging scripture that we're about to read.
This is hard preaching right here.
James chapter 1 verse 2.
Notice this.
My brethren, count it all. What?
Joy?
Huh? Is that a misprint in your Bible?
Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.
You know, that's not our human nature's first reaction to pain and problems.
You know, it's kind of like Jesus says,
Hey, you're blessed when men persecute you and revile you and speak all evil against you falsely.
For my name's sake, he's like, hey, rejoice and leap for joy for great is your reward in heaven.
That on the surface, that doesn't really make sense.
And you know, I've gone through some light persecution in my life and I have to be honest,
the first second that it happens, my natural heart's desire is not just to jump up and down,
but I have to remind myself, oh, okay, I'm not having the right attitude right now.
Oh, everyone's emotions are valid. Nope, not true. My emotions at times are not valid.
And sometimes I have to remind myself, oh, wait, Jesus said to be happy.
Jesus said to rejoice. Jesus said leap for joy. What does this say my brethren counted all what joy when you fall into diverse
Temptations and it's like
The unsaved mind could never understand this because they don't have the Holy Spirit of God
They don't have you know that love of God that will never depart from them
But we do and because we're Christians because we have Jesus Christ because we have the Holy Spirit
We can count any temptation we go through as joy
And I believe that's what she did.
That doesn't mean you're not going to experience sadness and pain,
but it means that you still are just living a life that's
categorized in general of being happy, being content,
being thankful for God.
Notice also what it says.
It says, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.
It does not say if.
You know, it's not the prosperity gospel here.
It's not the Joel Osteen church here
where it's like everything in your life
is always gonna be great and wonderful.
And as long as you're just giving thousands of dollars
to church, then just everything's gonna be great.
No, here's just reality of life.
You could go soul winning, tithe, go to church,
serve, love other people, go soul winning,
and you could still have serious problems in your life.
You could still have very heavy crosses to bear.
You could still have serious pain in your life, like Elizabeth did, where she was barren
her whole life until she was well stricken in age.
It wasn't a punishment of God on her.
Now of course the Bible does teach that at times that can be, but not every time.
And you know, anyone going through any situation of life where you're saying, I'm going through
some sort of hardship.
some sort of issue.
You should look internally to judge in yourself,
could this be God's chastening on my life?
But you know, you should always assume the best
for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
And when your brother and sisters in Christ
have their car breakdown,
your first thought shouldn't be like,
oh, what wicked sin were you into this week, you know?
And I don't think we have that culture here.
I'm just saying that's not something
we should ever get to, right?
If our brothers and sisters are going through pain,
trials, hardship, you know what we should do?
We should pray for them.
support them, love them.
Yeah, there's a sin unto death
that we shouldn't be praying for.
But even if someone is going through
some chastening for something in their life,
you still should pray for them.
You still should love them and be on their side.
And it's like Elizabeth,
the Bible explicitly says she was godly, righteous,
yay, blameless.
She's a very godly woman, yet she was barren.
And so you can't say,
oh, it's just automatically the punishment of God
or something like that.
Look at verse three.
It says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing.
See, the reason you could have joy is because we can actually have the faith that the trials
and pains and issues that we're going through are not vain and meaningless.
See for the world that are unsaved, their pains, trials and tribulations, it means nothing.
They go, they die, they go to hell.
It mean nothing.
But you know, us, God's going to prune us.
God's going to allow us to go through trials
so that we can learn to lean on Him,
trust Him, walk with Him through our trials and pain.
Why?
So that patience could have her perfect work.
That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
So notice.
hardships and trials, when you go through it, trusting in the Lord, when you go through it,
walking with Him, it actually makes you a better person. And this is just the reality.
People that go through hardships, people that have experienced pain,
and they didn't get bitter at God, they didn't quit serving God, they kept being steadfast
through those things, those people are stronger, better people than people who have not gone through
Even sometimes you could see this generationally where it's like you look at the World War two generation and that generation was just tougher
Let's just be I mean is it really that crazy to say am I going out on a limb here to say like the World War two generation was tougher than Gen Z
Am I crazy or something World War two generation was tougher than generation Alpha? No, they absolutely were folks
But why maybe because they went through a war where 60 million people died on earth
Maybe because they were going through the most brutal, bloody, horrific war that the world has ever seen in human history.
That'll make you pretty tough, won't it?
That'll make you strong.
Well, it's like the same thing is true spiritually.
When you go through problems spiritually and issues in your life but you keep relying on God,
you keep serving Him regardless of how you feel, regardless of your emotions, regardless of the pain,
that strengthens you and you become a much better Christian for it.
And let's talk about the bombs for a minute because...
Moms have their cross to bear too and moms have a lot of problems and hardships and pains and struggles in their day-to-day life as mothers.
And sometimes, you know, I think people could take this for granted because it's one of those jobs that's just 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
But you know, moms are going through a lot of hardships and struggles every single day that we would take for granted.
You know, things just like sleep deprivation.
You know, oftentimes moms are just not getting any sleep.
They're up all night with the baby.
Baby's sick, who's taking care of it?
Mom's usually taking care of it.
Baby's throwing up, who's cleaning up?
Mom's usually cleaning up.
Mom's usually the one sacrificing of her time,
her and yay, her body.
I mean, moms are getting pregnant and going through birth extremely hard and taxing on
your body often changes a woman's body for the rest of her life.
Look, that should be praised and thanked that a woman is willing to do that and not sit
here and look down on women for their bodies changing or something like that.
No, thank God that they're willing to be so selfless to give even of their own bodies.
You know us as men.
We go through something kind of similar at work,
depending on the type of job that you have.
But let's be honest, it's nowhere near as hard as giving birth.
I mean, I've worked some really physical jobs.
And if I had to choose between doing that every single day
for the rest of my life or giving birth,
I'll choose this any day.
That, I mean, I've heard the screams.
I've never been at work and just been like, ah!
Never, not a single time.
Any guy's been at work and been like,
but yet every time my wife has ever given birth,
that's how it's been for her.
Why? Because she's going through a lot of pain and, you know, thank God that she's
willing to do that. Thank God that she's so strong willing to do that. Thank God
for my mother that was willing to do that and allow me to come into this world
and my brothers. You know, thank God for moms today. They go through a lot. You're
gonna have your cross to bear moms. You're gonna have your trials and
temptations. But you know what the Bible says? Count it all. Joy.
Regardless of your situation, you should just thank God, even for the troubles that you go through.
Why? Because God is using those troubles to make your faith perfect, that you would be entire, wanting nothing.
I mean just the chores that goes on, serving, cleaning, sick kids, running errands, grocery
shopping, planning, laundry, like it is a more than a full time job being a mother.
And you know how I know this because you could literally hire professionals to do all the
work that moms do inside your house.
And it's so funny, people are like, oh, she doesn't work.
She's a stay-at-home mom.
It's like, I guarantee you she works more than you do
at your nine to five corporate job.
Works super, super hard.
My wife is always busy doing a ton of things.
These ladies do work hard.
You know, if your mom is still around,
if your mom is alive, you should thank her
and appreciate her for all the work that she did for you.
And you know what?
We should honor our parents.
Don't even sit here and think like, well, my mom's not safe.
Doesn't even matter.
Thank your mother.
Be grateful for your mother.
Be grateful for all the good that she did for you.
Even if she's not saved, even if she doesn't like our church,
even if she doesn't even have a great relationship with you,
I guarantee you there's so many things
that she did for you in life that you take for granted.
How to tie your shoe, how to read a book,
how to brush your teeth, how to comb your hair,
like just everything in life, your mother taught you.
Your mom taught you so much,
and you should be thankful of that,
no matter whether she saved or not.
Love your moms.
You know us as husbands,
we ought to love and respect our wives
for the great work that they do.
And, you know, we should make sure that we empower our wives to serve God as much as possible.
Because again, what did I say?
Focus on being a godly Christian.
That's going to help you be a good mother.
Well, us as men, we need to enable our wives to do that.
We need to make sure that she can read the Bible, that she can go to church, that she
can go soul-winning and do all these things, that she can be walking in her Christian life
Go back to Luke chapter number one. Luke chapter number one.
So again, I just, I really like this story of Elizabeth because it's just focusing on who she is as a person rather than like her motherhood tactics, even before she was a mom.
She's been barren, yet she has all these great characteristics which enabled her to be a great mother.
But of course, God does end up blessing her with a child.
That's what we'll read in verse seven says, and they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren and they were both now well stricken in years.
and it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense, and he went
into the temple of the Lord, and the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time
of incense, and there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias.
Notice this phrase, for thy prayer is heard,
and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear the asun,
and thou shalt call his name John.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about how Elizabeth and her husband
were both steadfast Christians.
Because notice, the Bible says that they were well stricken in years.
I mean, they're very old.
They have to be at least 70-year-older, I'm thinking.
And yet the Bible says, this angel said to them,
hey, your prayer is heard.
They were steadfast.
They just kept praying.
They kept asking God.
They continued to have faith in God.
They didn't allow their trials to make them bitter at God and angry at God.
and saying, God, why aren't you listening to me?
Why aren't you answering my prayers?
You know, we're done serving you.
Some people have that attitude in this world.
Some people, the moment they go through any trials
or persecution, they fall away.
That wasn't this couple here.
It says their prayer is heard.
Verse 14, and now shall have joy and gladness
and many shall rejoice at his birth.
See, everyone's happy and excited when they have a child,
especially, you know, your first kid,
you're like super, super excited.
But this is special because not only is Elizabeth
and Zacharias gonna be joyful, saying, hey, many people.
are going to be joyful at this birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord
and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost
even from his mother's womb." So they're getting a special blessing here. This is a special circumstance
where they're not just having a baby. They're going to have a baby that's great in the sight of
the Lord who's going to be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. This is a
man that's going to be born,
that has a destiny to do great things for God.
And this angel's giving them that news,
and it says in verse 16,
and many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God.
And, of course, this is going to give them extreme joy,
not only in the fact that they've been barren for so long
and now they have a child, but not just a child,
a child that's great in the sight of the Lord,
that's not going to be drinking wine or strong drink,
and is going to turn many people to the Lord their God.
By the way, if you want to make mom happy,
one of the best ways you can make mom happy
is by being a good Christian yourself.
You know a child left to himself bring with his mother to shame a child that sins does wickedly is lazy
It's a loser doesn't live a godly life. That's gonna bring pain to your mother sorrow to your mother
But you know what's gonna bless your mom like what John the Baptist is not drinking wine or strong drink
Turning many people to the Lord your God being a soul winner. You know, that's a good way to appreciate mom
This mother's day is be a godly Christian yourself
Be it be a child that brings honor and joy to your mother not one that brings dishonor and shame
Look go to Isaiah chapter number 40 Isaiah 40
But again, you just have to realize that whatever your trials are
Whether you are a busy mother, not getting much sleep,
constantly sacrificing yourself for others,
constantly just tired and going through all this pain.
Whether you're someone that's barren,
whether you're going through a completely different trial
that no one knows about,
here's what I know is that God will bless you
when you continue serving him through your trials.
And you need to get this attitude that you're going to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
It's not worthless.
Go to Isaiah 40 verse 29.
It says,
See, there is an inner strength and power that can only come from God.
You know, there's all these different ways with your carnal body to get more energy,
get more sleep, eat healthy food, exercise, drink copious amounts of caffeine, right,
Brother John?
All these great things you can do, right?
But here's the truth is that there's also an inner strength and an inner energy that
is supernatural that comes from God alone.
And God can give people who are faint or who have no might.
He can give those people strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall,
but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not be faint.
When it's saying wait upon the Lord there,
I don't think it's saying, you know,
sit around and do nothing.
I think it's saying wait as in serve,
like a waiter, serve the Lord
and he shall renew their strength.
You know, I'm sure there's times in Elizabeth's life
that she felt like she had no strength.
that she was in despair, that she was sad.
But you know what she did?
Her whole life, she walked in the commandments
of the Lord blamelessly.
She kept serving him, she kept waiting on the Lord,
and you know what the Lord did?
The Lord renewed her strength.
And you know, same thing for you moms,
where sometimes you could just feel like,
I can't do it anymore, I have no more strength to give,
I'm exhausted, I'm done.
You know, the advice I could give to you
is wait on the Lord.
Continue serving God continue putting him first because that's where you're gonna get supernatural strength
That you're not gonna get anywhere else. God can renew that strength by serving him
Go back to Luke chapter number one
Luke chapter number one
So she was a righteous woman.
She was a steadfast Christian.
Number three, Elizabeth got her son around Jesus early.
She got her son around Jesus early.
Look at verse 26.
The Bible says in the sixth month,
The sixth month of her pregnancy, that is, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. When she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
The angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God, and behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name, Jesus,
and he shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob
Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this thing be, seeing I know not a man?
The angel answered and said unto her, the holy ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
So I just want to read that because it's going to be important to the story we're about to read,
connecting Elizabeth and Mary.
Let's keep reading it says in verse 36.
By cousin Elizabeth she have also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her
Who was called baron for with God nothing shall be impossible?
So two very special births here, you know
We usually focus on the birth of Jesus Christ rightly so because I mean he was born of a virgin
That's an extreme miracle, but we also have to pay attention to that Elizabeth's
pregnancy was very special as well because she was well stricken in age and
the angel saying hey even with her she was barren but with God nothing's
impossible so we have two very special births here special pregnancies both
children the Bible says are gonna be great both are gonna be filled with the
spirit of the Lord both are gonna do great things and it says
In verse 38,
And Mary said,
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord,
Be it unto me according to thy word.
And the angel departed from her.
And Mary arose in those days
And went into the hill country with haste,
Into a city of Judah,
And entered into the house of Zacharias,
And saluted Elizabeth.
So Mary now is going to see her cousin Elizabeth.
Verse 41 says,
And it came to pass,
That when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary,
Leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and she spake out with the loud voice and said
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb and whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord
Should come to me
For low as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears the babe leaped in my womb for joy
and blessed is she that believed,
for there shall be a performance of those things
which were told her from the Lord."
Now I know that's a lot of scripture,
but it's just such a beautiful and amazing story.
And of course, I understand that this is a very special
instance.
Why?
Because you have Elizabeth who's pregnant with John
and Mary enters in and just being around Mary
and of course Jesus Christ in her womb,
all of a sudden the babe in Elizabeth's womb
and she's filled with the Holy Spirit.
And while that's a very special, you know,
situation that's going on there,
I think it could be a great symbolism and picture
of the fact of how Elizabeth was laying
the spiritual foundation for her son as early as possible.
Even from the womb, she's inviting Mary into her house.
Why? So that her son can get around Jesus.
And I think it's a good symbolism of the fact that ladies, moms,
you should try to lay the foundation and give your children the greatest spiritual instruction
and education as you possibly can as early as you possibly can.
You know, y'all not to wait until your kids are 10 years old, 11 years old, to start teaching them
the Bible, to start getting them in church, to start doing spiritual things. No, as young and as
early as possible, as you can get them around Jesus, as you can get them around the things of God,
that's going to give them the best chance to grow up to serve the Lord.
And you know, one thing that my wife and I did with Bethany
are first born, and I wish I had the discipline
to do it with all of my kids.
I'm just being honest with you that I did not.
But one thing that we did with Bethany's pregnancy
is that when she was in the womb,
we read the entire New Testament.
out loud why kind of because this story you know I believe that we can make an
influence on our children even from the very womb and as soon as they're born
and as young as possible start making godly influences on them you know we
read the whole New Testament out loud when Bethany was in the womb we kind of
dropped the ball the rest so if the rest turn out weird we know what mistake we
made but you know I just believe that you should try to get your kids around
spiritual things as young as possible
Even if you start in the womb, you know praise the Lord. It's good to start as early as you possibly can
What are some ways that we can do that?
Go to Matthew chapter 19 Matthew 19
While you're turning there Proverbs 22 6 says train up a child in the way he should go when he is old
He will not depart from it
And like I said, here's the truth.
You can't force your kids to turn out right.
You can't force your kids to be safe.
You can't force your kids to serve God once they're adults.
But you know what?
You can control the way that you raise them.
You can control the training that you provide for them,
the instruction that you give to them,
the discipline that you give to them,
and your children are gonna have the best chance possible
of growing up to serve God
when you do those things at a early age.
Right, chasing thy son while there is hope.
because there can get to a point where it just seems like there's no more hope for that kid.
They're an adult, they're making their own decisions.
But here, I want to show you this story in Matthew 19,
verse 13, the Bible says,
then were there brought unto him, that's Jesus, little children,
that he should put his hands on them and pray, and the disciples rebuked them.
but Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
And he laid his hands on them and departed, thence.
So here we have a story where children are physically literally being brought to Jesus
and his disciples for some reason rebuked them and didn't want them doing that.
But Jesus is saying, no, no, let them come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
And I think one of the things we can learn from this is that it's very important for
us to preach the gospel to our children at a young age.
You know, there's no reason to sit here and wait until they're 10, 11, 12, 13 years old.
You should start preaching them the gospel as soon as you can.
And you know, I only have one daughter that's saved right now, but I'll tell you what, my
daughter that is saved right now went soul-winning with me like a hundred times before she got
saved.
And what is she hearing?
She's constantly hearing the gospel over and over and over and over and over again
to where, honestly, before I even sat down and systematically went through everything with her,
she already knew a ton.
Just from listening to me preach the gospel over and over,
so you know, moms, preach your kids the gospel.
Here's another thing you can do, go to Proverbs 31.
Proverbs 31.
Because, of course, you know, you can't physically bring your kid to Jesus today.
You're not going to be around Mary and Jesus in the womb.
You're not going to physically bring your kids to Jesus today.
But there's a lot of ways that you can do so spiritually.
Proverbs 31, verse one, the Bible says,
the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.
Hey, here's another great thing you moms can do for your kids is to teach them the word of God.
You know, hey, I am for women teachers of the Bible,
which is not behind the pulpit,
but I am for moms teaching their kids the Bible at home.
In fact, you should be doing this.
You need to be teaching your kids the Bible.
We need some moms that are going to prophesy, preach,
give their children some spiritual instruction.
And of course, we know Jesus is the Word of God.
How are you going to get your kids around Jesus?
You get them around the Bible.
You get them around the preaching of God's Word.
You teach them the Bible.
Notice what she taught her son verse to what my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows
Give not thy strength unto women nor thy ways to that which destroy kings
Hey, wouldn't it be great if we had some moms training up their young boys to not give their strength unto women?
to not be around the Proverb 7 woman,
to not be a whore mongerer.
We need some moms to lay down some hard preaching today
and say, hey, stay away from those type of women.
Stay away from those bad influences.
Look what else she said, verse 4.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel.
It is not for kings to drink wine,
nor for princes, strong drink.
That's another great lesson to tell your kids.
Don't drink alcohol.
Tell them that it's poison.
Tell them that it's wicked.
You know, my kids already understand
that alcohol is bad and I don't even
think they know fully what it is.
But if they hear the word alcohol,
they're like, that's bad.
Yeah, you're right.
It's bad.
Don't ever drink it.
That's what the wicked drink.
That's what the wicked do is they go out and drink alcohol
and get drunk.
It's not for kings to drink wine.
It's not for princes to drink strong drink.
Verse five, lest they drink and forget the law
and pervert the judgment.
any of the afflicted. So notice she's warning her kids the effects of alcohol
that's going to cause you to forget the Bible, forget the law, to be a pervert in
your judgment, to not have righteous judgment. Give strong drink unto him that
is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink
and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. She's saying, hey son,
alcohol is for losers.
Not for kings, not for princes.
Why don't you go give it to that guy
who is of a heavy heart
and that doesn't want to remember his misery anymore.
Let that type of guy drink, not princes, not kings,
not Christians, not God's people.
Notice, open thy mouth for the dumb
in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
You know, it's important for moms to teach their kids
to open their mouth and preach the gospel.
to speak for those that are appointed to destruction.
Of course, the destruction waiting unsaved
is eternal fire in hell.
You know, we need some moms that have a zeal for soul winning that are going to instruct their kids.
Hey, you need to open your mouth for these people.
You need to go save those that are appointed to destruction.
And you know, we need some moms that are raising some young boys to teach their young boys to be strong,
to be strong men of character.
They're going to stand up for what's right that are going to speak for those that are dumb,
that are going to preach against the abortion,
preach against the slaughtering of babies that can't speak for themselves.
Preach against all the wicked sins of our society
and stand up for what the Bible says.
You know, that can often come from mom's instruction.
Early in life, we need that.
First nine, open thy mouth,
judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
That's some really good sound doctrine coming from mom.
We need some moms doing that today.
Go to Proverbs 13, a few pages back, Proverbs 13.
You know, here's another great way
you can get your children around Jesus as mothers.
Get them around godly people.
Look at what Proverbs 13 verse 20 says he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Man, you got to get your kids around good people.
And of course, I just immediately think of taking your kids to church.
You know, Jesus said that when two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst.
You know, I believe that Jesus Christ is with us this morning at Anchor Baptist Church.
Word of God is being preached. You know, this is where you want to bring your kids.
And this is how you get your kids around Jesus, is you get them in a good church.
You get them around the good preaching of God's Word, because Jesus is the Word of God.
Go to keep your place in Proverbs and go to 2 Timothy chapter number one.
Second Timothy one, but you know, again, this is why we believe so strongly in the family integrated church model.
We don't want to just separate the kids where they're not hearing real preaching, where they're not getting the strong King James Bible read to them.
They're just getting, you know, a TV show and some candy and calling that church.
No, we want them to get around the preaching of God's word.
Why? Because then they'll grow up and be wise.
If we let them hang out with a bunch of fools, let them be companions of fools,
they're going to grow up and be destroyed.
You often are the people you are around.
Second Timothy chapter one, verse three, the Bible says, I thank God.
whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience,
that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee
in my prayers night and day,
greatly desiring to see thee,
being mindful of thy tears,
that I may be filled with joy,
when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith
that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois
and thy mother Eunice,
and I am persuaded that in thee also."
So notice, Timothy, he had an unfeigned faith.
He actually truly believed in serving God.
He loved God with all of his heart.
You know, one of the worries that I have for second, third, fourth generation Christians
is that they would just kind of take the Christian life for granted.
That is just like, well, they grew up in church, so it's not a big deal.
We've always been King James only, so who care?
I mean, are the modern versions really that bad?
What's really the difference between Anchor Baptist Church and Joel Osteen anyways?
Is it really that big of a deal?
You know, it's kind of what I worry about second generation Christians,
because oftentimes they didn't come to these things on their own,
they didn't really make Christianity their own,
and sometimes you see second generation Christians
being a lot less zealous than their parents.
And that sucks. I hate to see that.
You know, but here we don't see an example of that not being the case because Timothy has real unfaith and Paul said that it was in his mother, Eunice, and it dwelt first in my grandmother, Lois.
So Lois was kind of the first generation Christian and she started the godly lineage and she passed that down to Eunice.
Eunice made it her own. Eunice really believed. Eunice trained a godly child, Timothy, who also himself had unfeigned faith.
So look, I'm not saying that if you're a second, third, fourth, whatever generation Christian, that you're just going to be stuck to being apathetic and not zealous.
But what I am saying is make sure that Christianity is really your own.
Make sure moms that you're not just going through the motions that you're not just like well
I'm just a body in church. No care about the things of God
Because your children can see when it's real in you
Your children can see if you know you drive home and you're just talking crap about the pastor or the church
And just not really liking it or if you're actually sold out if you actually love serving God
You actually love soul winning if you actually love reading the Bible where it's like your kids
They don't only see you open the Bible when you're here on Sunday morning
They actually see you open it throughout the week.
You know, they actually see that you have a walk with God.
That's going to be real to them because it's real to you.
Make sure you're getting them around godly influences.
Again, keep your place in Proverbs, but go to 2 Chronicles 22.
2 Chronicles 22.
You know, moms don't want to underestimate
the spiritual influence that you could have on your children.
You know, a lot of times in the Bible you see
Someone's mother's faith being mentioned and here's the thing it can be mentioned for good or for bad
You know, moms, you're not neutral.
You're gonna have an influence on your children.
Is it gonna be a godly influence?
Like Lois?
Or is it gonna be a bad influence like this?
Second Chronicles 22, verse two,
says 42 years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign.
And he reigned one year in Jerusalem.
His mother's name also was Athaliah, the daughter of Amri.
He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab.
Notice this, for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.
Boy, that's a bad testimony.
I mean, you have Elizabeth here where she's walking
in all the commandments, blamelessly.
She's steadfast.
She's not getting bitter at God.
She's going through her trials.
She's carrying her cross, still loving God,
still trusting Him.
And then you got this mother, the mother of Ahaziah,
who is literally counseling Him to do wickedly.
telling him to break God's commandments,
leading his children down the wrong path.
And look, I hate to say it,
there's a lot of mothers today in our country
that are leading their children down the wrong path
that are not telling their kids to read the Bible,
go to church, go soul winning, serve God, get married.
There's a lot of moms out there
that are being bad influences.
And you know what?
You don't want to be one of those people.
You want to look to Elizabeth and be that example for your children, Lois, Eunice, one of these ladies, not this woman here.
Go back to Proverbs 23, Proverbs chapter 23.
We'll look at two more places in Proverbs and we'll close.
Proverbs 23 verse 24, the Bible says,
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad and she that bear thee shall rejoice."
You know, we talked a lot this morning about attributes of a godly mother.
But again, I just want to emphasize to those of us that our moms are still around,
or kids, your moms in this church, husbands, appreciating your wife who is a mother.
Make sure one way that you appreciate mom is by being a righteous person yourself.
by serving God, by loving his word, by loving soul-winning because then it says
thy father and thy mother shall be glad when she that bear thee shall rejoice.
You know I'm sure Elizabeth was thrilled when she found out that she was
having a baby right because she's been barren her whole life, she's gotten to
her old age, she's having a baby but man I wonder the joy she experienced when
she found out that he's going out in the desert to make a straight path for the
to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I bet you she's very proud at his hard preaching.
at him ripping face and calling out Herod saying,
it's not lawful for you to have thy brother's wife.
And you know, I'm sure that if she was around
during the time of his death, of his martyr's death,
of course that's terrible and painful,
but I guarantee you in heaven right now,
John is extremely exalted, John has a lot of rewards,
and I'm sure that his mother loves that.
And his mother is pleased.
And you know what, to make your mom happy,
be a godly Christian.
That's gonna make your mom very happy.
Let's close in Proverbs 1 verse 8 turn to Proverbs chapter 1
Proverbs 1 verse 8 the Bible says my son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother
For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck."
You know, just in the last closing thought, I want to talk to all the children in this
church who are in Anchor Baptist Church.
You don't even have this excuse that some people make of, like, well, my mom's unsaved
or my mom's not godly.
If your mom is taking you to Anchor Baptist Church, you have a great mom.
You don't even understand how great of a childhood you have.
There's so many things in your life that one day I hope you will understand
what an amazing blessing that you have being raised by the parents you have
and in the church that you're in.
And you know what? Do not forsake the law of your mother.
You're on Anchor Baptist Church, your mom is giving you good doctrine.
She's telling you to go the right way.
She loves you and is giving you good doctrine.
Don't forsake the law of your mother.
Why it says they should be ornament of grace around the head and chains about thy neck.
Promise you, you listen to mom that goes to Anchor Baptist Church,
you're going to look better for it.
You're going to end up just fine.
don't forsake mom's instruction.
You know why kids?
Why some kids who will go to Anchor Baptist Church
will grow up and turn out bad?
It's because they'll forsake the law of their mother.
It's not gonna be because they're
following their mom's instructions.
It's not gonna be because they're
listening to the hard preaching
because they're obeying the Bible and walking with God.
Now here's why some children who go to Anchor Baptist Church
will turn out bad someday.
It's because they're gonna forsake the law of their mother.
You know you children, don't be that person.
Don't forsake the law of your mother.
Love her, appreciate her, thank her
and obey her commandments.
Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for all the mothers
in this room.
Thank you for my wife and my mom and all the great sacrifices that they have made
I pray that you would just give strength to all the mothers in this room that works so hard on a daily basis
I pray that you give them grace and I just pray that you'd always help our church to be a church that exalts and
Supports and cares for mothers Lord, and I pray also for anyone who would desire to have a child some day
Who at this time cannot that you please bless them and give them children. We love you and Jesus. Let me pray amen
At this time, we'll turn to our last hymn, number 75 on Jordan Stormy Banks.
Hymn number 75, 75 on Jordan Stormy Banks.
We'll sing there right on the first.
My
that you are dismissed.