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Thank you so much for being here this morning. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. We're happy and honored to have you with us. The next song will be 327. If you want to get that ready in your songbooks, higher ground. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there. Our Sunday morning service is at 1030. Sunday evening is at 5pm. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. We are currently going through a book of the Bible for Samuel. And so we hope you join us on Thursday evenings for that. And we are a family integrated church which means that infants and children stay with their parents throughout the service. But for your convenience, we do have mother baby rooms located on the side of the building. And they're available there should your child need some diversion. Changing tables as well as screens and speakers are available there for you. And so if you feel like you need to take a break, your child needs to take a break. You can take them in there for a little bit, bring them back in. And so just keep that in mind. You see so many times in teams and the list of expecting mothers. Pray for Ms. Janelle Gonzalez who's crazy. She's actually here right now. But pray for her. And the baby is very comfortable. I think she's about 8 days past her due date and so pray for her. You see the important reminders there at the bottom. And some of the upcoming church events of course as I mentioned today is Mother's Day. And if you did not receive your gift, make sure after the service you just go right outside here in the foyer. And we have a special gift for all the moms out there. Make sure you grab one. That's just a way of us saying thank you from First Works Baptist Church for being an awesome mom. And then on Sunday, May 15th, we have Sari Solis' Baby Shower. If you have any questions about that, you can see my wife for more details. PE End of School Picnic is coming up on Wednesday, May 25th. And you can see Coach Hernandez for more details regarding that as well. And then Giovanni Franceschini's graduation service is coming up on Sunday, May 29th. That'll be on Sunday evening. We're going to have a big graduation service for him. And just celebrate with him. And so I hope to see you there. Being there for support. And then Sunday, June 19th is the most important day of the year. Which is Father's Day. Okay? I'm just kidding. So make sure you're here for that. We'll have a gift for all the dads on that day as well. And the service, of course, the sermon will be geared towards fathers. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you're not loitering in the foyer or fellowship hall during the preaching service. And of course, quiet time is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the whole building. And please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Alright? And that is it. Let's go ahead and open up your songbooks to 327 Higher Ground. Song number 327. Song number 327. Song number 327. You see it on that first verse? I'm pressing on the awkward way. New heights I'm gaining every day. Still crazy as I'm onward bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand. My faith on heaven's stable land. A higher plane that I have bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. My heart has no desire to stay. Word doubts arise and fears dismay. Though some may dwell where these abound. My prayer, my aim is higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand. My faith on heaven's stable land. A higher plane that I have bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. I want to live above the world. Though Satan's darts let me unearth. Lord, faith has not the joyful sound. The song of saints on higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand. My faith on heaven's stable land. A higher plane that I have bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. I want to scale the utmost high. And catch a beam of glory bright. But still I pray till heaven I've found. Lord, lead me on to higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand. My faith on heaven's stable land. A higher plane that I have bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time our ushers will be receiving the offering and please turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 5. . . . Deuteronomy chapter number 5, the Bible reads, And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them and keep and do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire. I stood between the Lord and you at that time to show you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid by reason of the fire and went not up into the mount, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down on thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, and in it thou shalt not do any work. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy ox, nor thy gnash, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates, that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, neither shalt thou commit adultery, neither shalt thou steal, neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour, neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbour's. These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire of the cloud of a thick darkness with a great voice, and he added no more, and he wrote them in two tables of stone and delivered them unto me. And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, but the mountain did burn with fire, that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. But who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when ye spake unto me, and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee. They have well said all that they have spoken. O that there was such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever. Go, say to them, Get you into your tents again, but as for thee, stand you here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. You shall observe to do, therefore, as the Lord your God hath commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that you may live, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. Let us pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for preserving it for us unto this day. Amen. Okay, we're in Deuteronomy chapter number 5 this morning, and look down at your Bibles at verse 16. Deuteronomy chapter 5 is simply a reiteration of Exodus chapter 20, and it's simply going through the commandments here. And, of course, these commandments are very much important in the eyes of God, and God expects us as people. But look at verse 16, it says, Honor thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that the days may be prolonged, that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So this particular command here, obviously, we see is to honor our parents, honor our fathers, honor our mothers, but it comes with a promise, because he says here that thy days may be prolonged. So one of the greatest life insurances that you can ever obtain is actually honoring your parents. It's not whatever company, you know, for life insurance you can find or, you know, whatever it may be. Here it says that if you simply make it your objective to honor your family, if I turn 37 this year, but I feel like I'm getting older. Is it good? Is it good now? Alright, there we go. What was I talking about? We're talking about moms, right? One of the greatest life insurances that you can have is really just honoring your parents. And one of the reasons why God chooses to lengthen your days when you honor your parents is because it shows that you value the God given authorities that God has placed in your life. He says that thy days may be prolonged and then it says that it may go well with thee. If you want to have a higher quality of life, if you want to just enjoy life and have life without the unnecessary conflicts that arise with rebellion, it's good that you just obey and honor your parents. It says in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The title of the sermon this morning is How to Honor Mothers. Now on Sunday mornings, I've been teaching through a series entitled Epic Wars in the Bible. We're going to take a break on that until next week. Of course, in light of Mother's Day. Turn with me if you would to Proverbs chapter number 20. Proverbs chapter 20 if you would. Today is Mother's Day and typically on Mother's Day I have a sermon addressing mothers, but today I want to address your children. I kind of want to get on your kids a little bit and I'm sure you'll be happy about it, but I want to get on your offspring for just a minute. If your mother, by the way, if your mom is not in your life or you feel like this would not directly apply to you, there's always a secondary application to yourself because of the fact that the Bible commands us as Christians to treat the elder women as mothers in the church. And so we still need to honor elder women in the church and treat them as moms and have that appropriate relationship with them. It says the youngers as sisters with all purity. But even then, you know, you can also make this as a goal for you as a woman who's going to potentially become a mother to raise your children in such a way that they carry on this perspective, this biblical viewpoint here. Now this sermon is to help your children fulfill their God-given role as children in respect to their parents and more specifically to their mothers. And, you know, it's important for children to know, especially in the day and age in which we live, how to honor them. Now what does it mean to honor? Well, honor simply means to hold in high regard or to respect, to esteem, to revere and to greatly value. We live in a society today that does not emphasize that virtue, okay? And in fact, you know, we live in a society where this culture actually goes out of its way to disrespect their parents, right? They disrespect them, they devalue them, they put them down, they put them in a home, they simply don't regard them as being the God-given person that God has placed in that person's life to help mold them into being a functioning member of society, to lead them in the ways of the Lord, and they don't necessarily respect that. They mock them, they devalue them, they disrespect them. Now, you know, the Bible actually has a lot to say about dishonoring parents. Look at Proverbs 20, verse 20. It says here, Now, what is this referring to? Well, turn with me if you would to Proverbs chapter 28. We're going to look at a couple of verses here. He's saying here, if you curse your father, you curse your mother, you speak ill of your father, you speak ill of your mother, your lamp shall be put in an obscure darkness. I believe what this is referring to is your memory, okay? I don't mean your mental memory, I'm talking about the memory of you will be put out in an obscure darkness. Often when the Bible is using the lamp, it's referring to its light, it's referring to a person's reputation, a person's legacy. And God is saying here that the child who seeks to curse their parents, God wants to blot out the memory of that individual. That's how disgusting disrespect towards parents is viewed in God's eyes. Look at Proverbs 28, verse 24. It says here, You say, what is this talking about? Just stealing from your parents. You know, we live in a society as well where kids don't mind going into their mother's purses and stealing their money, cash, credit cards, whatever it may be. And you know, they don't think a thing of it. They say it is no transgression. The same, the Bible says, is the companion of a destroyer. Turn to Exodus chapter 21. Exodus chapter 21. Proverbs 30, verse 11 says, Now, I don't think this is actually referring to one particular generation. I think what it's saying here is that every generation has this generation within it. A generation that does not esteem their parents. They curse their father. They don't bless their mother. They don't respect them. They don't honor them. Look at Exodus 21, verse 15. Now, just to show you how much God hates disrespect towards parents or hates any type of dishonoring of parents, Look at what it says here in verse 15. He that smiteth his father, that word smite means to strike, to hit, to punch, you know, to slap, to be violent towards their parents. He that smiteth his father or his mother shall be put in timeout. You know, shall be, you know, the Game Boy is going to be taken away or the Xbox. Do they even have Game Boys anymore? The Xbox will be taken away. The PlayStation shall be removed. No, shall surely be put to death. Think about that. Now, if this law was still instituted today in 2022, we would have a lot less rebellious, you know, CPS wouldn't exist. He's saying here, if you ever strike your parents, if you ever raise your hand at your mom, you raise your fist at your dad, you know, in God's eyes, you deserve the death penalty for that. That's how bad this transgression is, okay? And I'm sick and tired of seeing on social media, you know, you often see these young guys and the caption will read, the masculine urge to stand up to your dad and fight him or something. It's like, how wicked is that? You know, the masculine urge to try to challenge your dad in a fight or something like that. It's wicked. He says, they shall surely be put to death, says in verse 16, he that stealeth the man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death, referring to kidnapping. Verse 17 says, and he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. So aside from physically raising your hand or smiting your parent or smacking them or punching them or pushing them, any type of violence, God says, if you even curse your father or mother, you know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but worse shall never hurt me. Well, you know what? They will hurt you. If you choose to use your words against your parents, according to the Bible, okay? Now, obviously the death penalty is no longer instituted. I'm just showing you what God, how God views this, okay? And no child, especially a Christian, you know, should ever raise their hands at their parents, strike their parents, be disrespectful towards their parents, you know, push their parents, you know, challenge their parents to a fight or something, and especially curse their parents, you know, the people that actually gave you life. I'm just showing you here how wicked and sinful it is to dishonor your parents, and obviously this is an extreme example here. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 27, if you would, Deuteronomy chapter 27. He's saying, look, if you smite your parents, if you curse your parents, you actually deserve the death penalty. It shows you the gravity of the transgression to actually want to harm your parents or cause violence towards them or speak ill of them. While you're turning to Deuteronomy 27, I'm going to read to you from Leviticus chapter 20 verse 9, reiterating the same thing. It says, For everyone that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He hath cursed his father or his mother, his blood shall be upon him. Look at Deuteronomy 27 verse 16. Verse 16 says, Cursed be he that seteth light by his father or his mother, and all the people shall say amen. Now this particular verse here, a lot of people don't really understand what it means. It's kind of like an obscure passage. What does that mean? Well, when you look up what it means to set by something, if you look at that repetitious phrase that's mentioned in the Bible, it often means to esteem someone, okay? It often means to respect them or hold them in high regard. So when the Bible says he that seteth light by his father, what I believe this is referring to is he that lightly esteems his parents, okay? His father or mother, you know, that person is going to be cursed. So it goes along with all the other teachings of the Bible, which means to honor your parents, you understand? So if you lightly esteem your parents, meaning you dishonor them, you don't hold them in high regard, you don't respect your parents, the Bible says you're cursed. And I don't believe this is referring to cursed as in you can't be saved. I believe that what it's referring to is an earthly condemnation, okay? You're going to live a miserable life if you don't have a good relationship with your parents. Now we obviously understand that, you know, we can't control the actions of our parents. We can't control, you know, how they view us or, you know, maybe some things that have happened in the past that have caused us to have a bad relationship to our parents. But you know what? I think God expects us to do as much as we can on our part with the biblical knowledge that we have to try to honor them as best as possible, okay? We're not Calvinists here. We don't think that God just controls every person's will. Everyone has their own will. Your parents have their own will. Your mom and your dad has their own will. But we on our end as Bible-believing Christians should seek to on purpose and with a lot of effort to honor our parents as best as we possibly can, to respect them as much as we possibly can. And we need to be different from the world, folks. The world normalizes being disrespectful towards their parents. The world normalizes treating their parents the way they would treat their buddies or something. You know, calling them by their first name or something like that. Whereas the biblical formula, the biblical model is that we should esteem them, honor them, hold them in high regard. Go to Proverbs chapter 31 if you would, Proverbs chapter 31. Let me give you some ways this morning on how to honor your parents. And you know, children and those of you whose parents are still around, I want you to listen up. I want you to pay attention. You know, this is not an end times Bible prophecy sermon. It's not a sermon on reprobates or on vaccines or something like that. But you know what? It is an important sermon for you to learn because you need to know how to honor your parents. You need to know how to respect your parents, especially as a Bible-believing Christian. I'm going to give you some practical tips this morning on how to do that. Look at Proverbs chapter 31. We'll get there in just a bit. I'm going to read to you from a couple of verses first. The first way that you can honor your parents is simply this. Arise and call her blessed. Okay. Now don't get all King James on me and you know, literally wake up in the morning and say, Blessed be thou, O Mother. What is this referring to? It means you speak not just well of your mother, you speak well to your mother as well. So you speak of your mother in high regard. You respect your mother when you're speaking of her to other people, but you also respect her when you're speaking to her. And you know what? Let me just say this is that I think our church needs to create a culture where young men, you know, when they address any lady, but specifically the elderly, we say, Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. You know, when you address an older man like myself, apparently, I'm not that old. You know, Yes, sir. No, sir. You say why? Because of the fact that the Bible commands children to bless their parents. Obviously bless those who are older than them. But more specifically in its context is to bless their mothers by speaking well to them, not being disrespectful to them. The Bible tells us and already read in Proverbs chapter 30 verse 11, There is a generation that curses their father and does not bless their mother. To bless them is to esteem them verbally. Look at verse 27 of Proverbs 31, referring to the Proverbs 31 woman, it says in verse 27, She looketh well to her ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises 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. Now, moms, you know, you need to do your part in fearing God. Amen. You need to do your part in fearing God and serving the Lord and being an example to your children. But children, you need to make sure that you do your part to speak well to them. Don't be disrespectful towards your parents. Okay. And, you know, talk to your mom like she's your girlfriend or something like that. And, you know, what's up, girl? You know, that's not an appropriate way to speak to your mom. An appropriate way to speak to your mom is calling her mom, mother, ma'am. You should bless your mother and speak well to her, not just when you're speaking of her to other people and other people's presence, but also when you're actually talking to her. You know, what are some ways that you can do that? Well, how about just thanking your mom? Right? How about you say, well, like when? Well, I don't know, like Mother's Day is a good time to do that, I guess. You know, this is Mother's Day. It'll be a good idea for you to go to your mom after the service and just say, hey, mom, I just want to thank you for giving birth to me. Hey, how about this? Thank you for not aborting me. I'm not saying that your mom might have considered it, but hey, right? I'm thankful that you gave me life. Thank you for feeding me for years, for clothing me, for being my mom and encouraging me. And every time I had the cold and I had the flu, for making me soup and chicken noodle soup and taking care of me and, you know, binding up my wounds when I was hurt, when I was emotionally hurt, when I went through tough times in my life. I just want to thank you. Now, here's the problem is that surely there's always someone who says, well, my mom didn't do all those things, though. Well, let me just say this. If you are in our church, if you're saved, you are in our church and you're reading the Bible, you're a Christian, you're living a godly life, your parents had a small part in that. Well, they didn't give me the gospel, though. So what? They did something right to lead you to respond to the light that God gave you because parents are given to children as a guide in this world. Now, obviously, some parents, they're not very good guides, right? I mean, we live in a real world. But let me just say this. If you're here in our church and you're saved and, you know, you responded to the light, your parents played a role in that. You should be thankful for that. It doesn't matter what they did to you when you were a teenager or, you know, they took away your Xbox when you were, like, 31 or something like that. It doesn't matter what tiffed or what conflict you had with them, you need to be thankful for them for the things they did right. And the problem is, is that, you know, children have a tendency to only focus on the negative that their parents have done in their life. Oh, you know, they spanked me. Well, that's a good thing. You know, oh, you know, they, you know, my mom used to, like, cuss me out or something like that. Well, you know, join the club, you know. We live in a real world here, you know, especially, look, especially if your parents didn't grow up in a Bible-believing church, they're not saved, you know, looks like they did pretty well, even outside of that, okay. And so be thankful, bless your mother, speak well of her to others, okay. Share the good memories that you've had as a child growing up with your mom. Hey, how about this, write notes, text messages, cards of appreciation. Well, we didn't really do that growing up. Well, do it now. It was always a good time to start, you know. Write notes, tell your mom, hey, how about this, how about you say this phrase every once in a while, Mom, I love you. I know that could be foreign for some people. Because, you know, some people grew up in a home where that's not necessarily said a whole lot, right. Some people grew up in a home where it's just like, some people grew up in a home where, like, hugging is kind of like not the thing. Other people grew up in a home where, like, saying I love you is not the thing. It's like they show you they love you different ways, you know. But it should be said as us as Christians that we can, you know, with boldness, with confidence, with sincerity, actually go up to our parents and say, Mom, I want to let you know that I love you. Yeah, but I'm already an adult, though. Like, how would that look? Well, I don't know, you'd look like an adult if you did it. Because only teenagers and little kids are embarrassed about doing, like, wholesome things like that. Okay. So be thankful, speak well of her to others, write her notes of encouragement, and just realize this. Realize your parents are not perfect. And you can't expect for your parents to be perfect either. Okay. Don't hold your parents at, you know, on such a, don't place them on this perfection of a pedestal, whereas it's just like every mistake that they made, you know, you just highlight it, you accentuate all the mistakes that they made. They're not perfect, but they've blessed your life in one way or another. Okay. Don't have this unrealistic expectation for your parents and expect them, yeah, but they're not in church with me all the time, and, you know, they don't read the Bible. Yeah, but sometimes you don't read your Bible either, though. You know, sometimes you don't show up to church either, though. So, I mean, so don't hold them at that standard. You know, what you should do is accentuate the good qualities of your parents. You know, highlight the good qualities of your parents and bless them for that. And look, if you have a hard time doing that, just sit down, pull out a piece of paper, and just go down memory lane and write down all the great things that your parents have done for you. You say, well, I don't know, I've never met my parents, or I've never met my mom, never met my dad. You know what, you just thank God that there was a mom at one point or another, right? You thank God for that, and thank God for the godly, motherly influences that you've had throughout your life. What I'm saying here is that, you know, ways to honor your mom is simply, number one, just to bless them, speak well to them. And that can be an encouragement to your parents. Because, you know, your parents could have grown up in a generation where no one spoke well of each other. Maybe their parents didn't do it. Maybe their mom didn't do it to them, okay? Or they didn't do it to their mom, and so we want to break that cycle and be a blessing to them by blessing them verbally with our words. Go to Proverbs chapter 23, if you would, Proverbs chapter 23. What's another way to honor our mothers? Well, number two, be a righteous person. Being a righteous person will actually honor your mother, it'll honor your father, it'll honor your parents. What I mean by being a righteous person, meaning you are a person who walks in the ways of the Lord, okay? You are serving God with your life. You're living your life according to the word of God. You are dedicating your life to serving the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a righteous life. Now, you may sit there and say, well, yeah, but my parents, my mom, my dad, they're not necessarily for me always being in church. And I get that, okay? You might have some, you know, discussions or conflicts with your parents because they don't necessarily agree with you just kind of doing the church thing all the time. But let me just say this, and I know this from experience. You do it long enough to the point where they can see the fruits of you being in church, they'll start liking it. They may not like yours truly. They may not like First Works Baptist Church and everything that's attached to that name. But you know what they'll like? They'll like when you become a responsible person. They'll like when you become a morally upright individual. They'll like it when you actually get married right and have children and have a godly home and respect them and honor them. Everyone loves the fruits of Christianity, my friends. Even those who are completely against Christianity, they love what Christianity produces. So what you need to do is stick it out in the Christian life long enough to produce those fruits. Because, you know, sometimes parents can be like, oh, he's just going through a phase. You know, he went through a phase. He was an emo before or whatever. He was into anime and this, and now it's church, now it's Christianity. It's just a phase. Don't let that be said of you. It's better not be a phase for you. Because then the Bible says you'll believe in vain, okay? If it's a phase for you, it just means you believed in vain, all right? But if this is a real thing to you, if you truly believe these things, if you truly love the Lord and you love the word of God, live it out. Be a righteous person and I promise you, your mom will feel honored for it. Look at Proverbs chapter, what chapter did I have you turn to? Look at 23 verse 24, 23, excuse me. It says, buy the truth and sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding. What does it mean when it says buy the truth? It means be willing to pay the price to obtain wisdom, instruction and understanding. It doesn't mean we're going to open up a bookstore here or something like that, okay? It means you've got to be willing to pay the price to get these things. It comes with the price, amen? What's the price? Memorizing the word of God, reading the word of God, being a doer of the word of God, not a hero only, amen? He says in verse 24, the father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice. So when he sees that his son or his daughter is paying the price by waking up early in the morning to read the word of God, to spend time meditating upon God's word and living out the principles of God's word, the Bible says that the father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice. And it says here, and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bear thee shall rejoice. You know what, your mom will be really happy that you find a godly man for a spouse. Your mom will greatly rejoice when you find a godly wife for a spouse, godly woman. Your parents will greatly rejoice whether you believe in the reprobate doctrine or not. That you know what, you're not out there on Friday night drinking, smoking, and running with those that do, destroying your life at some ungodly hour. They'll rejoice over the fact that you're just in bed, that you're just preparing for the weekend to go soul winning, to be in church. There's a lot of parents out there that, you know, they don't rest easy. Because they're worried about what their kids are doing on Friday and Saturday evening. Sometimes they worry whether they're ever going to come home or not. And so, you know, Christianity produces, it should produce a child that will pay the price to earn wisdom, instruction, and understanding, and the byproduct of that is that your parents will rejoice when they see that. Rejoice over the fact that you don't drink, that you don't do drugs, that you're not a gang member, you're not in prison, you are an honest person, they will love that. And let me just say this, they'll love that more than if you become some millionaire. You know, sometimes parents have this unrealistic expectation for their kids. They want them to become these millionaires and have everything that they never had or something like that. You know, you understand what I'm saying, right? But if you just live the godly way, I promise you, they'll actually esteem being godly and righteous more than that. Because, you know, the love of money is the root of all evil. And I've known of stories of people who become rich and aside from their own lives being destroyed, their relationship with their parents becomes strained because money just destroys people. Whereas a person, you know, if they're living a godly life, they're just living according to biblical principles, they become content, they become righteous, parents rejoice at that. It says in verse 26, You know, one of the things that parents worry about is like, who are my kids going to marry? Who are my kids going to marry? How's that going to happen? Well let me say this, children, make sure you pay the price to earn wisdom so that you marry right. Because it will go well with you, obviously, but even on top of that, your parents will rejoice when they see you have a godly marriage. Genesis, go to Genesis chapter 26 if you would, Genesis chapter 26. Be a righteous person. Be morally upright. Be a person who loves the Lord. You know, they may not agree with everything that you do and everything that you believe, but I promise you they will love and embrace the byproduct of Christianity in your life. Okay, so just stick it out. And by the way, that's another reason why you should be consistent in the Christian life. Be consistent. Have discipline. Why? Because when you're in and out of church, you're in and out of the Bible, you're in and out of your beliefs, you're in and out, in and out, your parents are not going to take you serious. They see you one week on fire for God, serving God, standing up for right, and then the next week you're just like, you're drunk or you're out there partying. They're going to be like, he's just kind of like, this is just how he is. This is what Christianity does to them or something, you know. Whereas what we should do is prove to our parents that this is the true religion. That this is that Christianity is superior to all other religions. And let me just show you the byproduct of that by my life. Okay, by the way, young teenagers, you know, one thing that will honor your parents is that you're a 16-year-old going on 25. Right? And the way you interact with other adults in your character, in your discipline, in your speech. You know, the Bible says despise not the youth. Let no man despise that youth. The reason a lot of people despise the youth is because they don't have those things. But a lot of parents would rejoice over their teenagers, their 15-year-olds, if they were a 15-year-old going on 25 because they have a job, they have character, they know how to wake up, they know how to, you know, have responsibility and take responsibility. Look at Genesis 26 verse 34, So Esau's parents were like, oh man, I can't stand Esau's, my daughter-in-laws. They're like a grief because they were heathens. They were not believers in the true God and it became a grief. There's a reason why the Bible puts that in there. There's no new thing under the sun, my friends. You know, parents, they think about who you're going to marry and they worry about that sometimes. I mean, Christian parents worry about that. How much more are parents who are not Christian? Because you just never know what's out there, right? And so prove to your parents that Christianity is the superior religion. Prove to your parents what the Bible says is true by being a righteous person, by loving the truth, by loving righteousness, by loving morally upright principles and standards. This is what you should do. This is how you can honor your parents. And look, I know it's hard because, you know, you get saved later on in life and maybe you had some really bad, simple habits before, right? But then you clean up your life, amen? Clean up your life. You're not involved in those things anymore. And then your family has a tendency to kind of rub your past in your face a little bit, right? Well, I remember he used to do this and he used to do that. And you kind of have to tolerate that because, I mean, they're not wrong. It's true, right? But let me say this. The longer you are a Christian, the longer you're more consistent in the Christian life, the more that fades. Because the more the new man and the new Bruce and the new whatever, fill in the blank, begins to overshadow the old. You understand? And so here's some ways to honor your mom. Number one, bless them. Say thank you to them. Speak kindly unto them. Number two, be a righteous person. Go to Proverbs chapter 1, if you would, Proverbs chapter 1. On that point, you know, serve the Lord, love the Bible. Love souls. Invite them to church. Have them come to church on Mother's Day, amen? Or any other day other than that so they can see you interact with other people. So they can see what your service is like. And you know what? Again, they may not like that you're always in church, but you know what? Parents, let me just say this. There's worse places for them to be on Sunday and on Saturday. Oh, he's always sowing. He's out there, you know, just knocking on doors. Well, he could be doing a lot worse, though. A lot worse. I mean, he used to stay home on Sunday. We can barbecue. Yeah, but here's the thing is that, you know, being in church is better than, you know, on Sunday waking up with a hangover. Right? At least now he gets up and puts on a tie and a suit coat, grabs his Bible, combs his hair, and actually brushes his teeth. Actually cares about his appearance now. He goes to church. Parents encourage him in that. Rejoice over the fact that you have that because a lot of parents don't have that. Here's another way to honor your parents is obey their law. Obey their law. Now, God has commanded us to obey his laws. Amen. But you know what one of his laws is? Is to obey the law of your mother. Look what it says in Proverbs 1, verse 8. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father. Look what it says. And forsake not the law of thy mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace into thy head and chains about thy neck. You like chains about that? Yeah, that sounds about right. Sounds like chains about my neck. Yeah, chains to restrain you from destroying your life. Chains are there to restrain you from destroying your life. And so, God not only expects us for us to obey his laws, but he even says this. Your mom is going to create some laws for you, and he's all for those laws. Obviously, as long as they don't contradict God's laws. Amen. But you know what? Washing the dishes and throwing out the trash does not contradict God's laws. Okay. Wearing certain clothing or having rules in the house does not contradict God's laws at all. And in fact, if your parents tell you, I would even go as far as to say this. If your parents say, my law is you can only go to church on Sunday morning and every other time after that you need to be home, that's still a good law. And that's what your parents want. You do what your parents tell you to do. You obey the law of your mother. You obey that law. You respect that law. You esteem that law. And that is how you can honor your mother. Go to Proverbs chapter 6, if you would, Proverbs chapter 6. So it says that when we obey the law of our mother, it will be an ornament of grace into our head and chains about our neck. Now obviously rules, they kind of rub us the wrong way sometimes. Right? Chains about your neck can rub you the wrong way, but you know what? That weight that your parents place on you when you are a child is necessary. Because all of us, when we're children, we need some restriction in our lives. We need structure in our lives. We need someone to tell us what to do. And when you're 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, you don't know any better. You don't know anything better. I mean, we should push that a little further. You know, 21 nowadays, you just don't know any better. 21 is the new 16. Right? Even 25 sometimes. And 31 is the new 18. And so he says, you know, the law is like a chain about your neck. Why? Because it restrains you from destroying your life. It keeps you in line. It directs you where you need to go. Proverbs 6 verse 20. My son, keep thy father's commandments and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck. So what does this tell us? Well, just as the laws of our mother are chains about our neck, the Bible tells us that he wants that also to be in our hearts. What does that mean? God wants us to obey outwardly, but he also wants us to obey inwardly as well. That means he wants us to have the right attitude when we obey our parents. Throw the trash. Fine. You know, you're just kind of like, Okay, I am. Man. I'm going to do it. Okay, stop yelling. That means that the laws of your mother are about your neck because you're doing it, but you're not binding them in your heart. That means you're respecting the law of your mother outwardly, but you're not respecting them inwardly. And God wants both, my friends. Hey, teenagers, God wants both. And stop rolling your eyes in the back of your head every time your mom or your dad commands you to do something too. Act like they're looking like The Exorcist or something like that. By the way, it says in verse 21, bind them. Who's he instructing the child? So that means it's our responsibility to make an effort to actually do it ourselves and say, You know what? I'm going to conscientiously obey my mom from the heart. I'm going to conscientiously obey them outwardly as well. Oh, what's the fun in that? This is so grievous, though. It's just her laws are just, you know, it's unreasonable sometimes. Well, look at what it says in verse 22. When thou goest, it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee for the commandment. Whose commandment? Your mom's commandment. Is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. My mom's just constantly correcting me. Well, welcome to life. Because reproofs of instruction are the way of life. If your mom or your dad are not correcting you or instructing you or reproving you, that would mean that you do everything right. But you and I know that's not true. And if your mom and dad is constantly correcting you and instructing you and reproving you, it means they love you. Because it means they want you to do it right. Now, obviously, we know that parents may not do it the right way all the time. You know, they might throw in an adjective in there every once in a while when they're, you know, an undesirable adjective that kind of hurts a little bit. But, you know, it is what it is. You need a little thicker skin anyways. He says, for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Look at verse 24. To keep thee from the evil woman from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. You know why your mom talks so hard to you sometimes? To get you to understand that there's women out there who actually would want to flatter you. You see, when your mom or your dad talks hard to you, you know what you think? You know, my mom's actually being real about this. She's sincere. So you are, you know, you know you can basically identify sincerity. So when someone comes to you with insincerity, also known as flattery, you can identify that. So moms, you know, whether you know it or not, you know, you're preparing your son, you're preparing your daughter to avoid strange men and strange women, according to the Bible. So don't forsake her law. Obey that commandment. By the way, learn by her endurance of the sufferings that she has experienced. You know, your mom has been through a lot. What mom hasn't been through a lot? All moms have been through a lot. They've been through traumatic experiences. They've been through sufferings. They've been through agony. They've been through a lot in this life. It'll do you well, son. It'll do you well, daughter, to actually think about that and learn from her endurance of those things. Yeah, you should see my mom. She's all screwed up. Oh, man, she's just, well, you know, she's alive. She's here. You still have her. You should learn from that. And don't allow the sufferings of your parents to go to waste. A lot of children let the sufferings of their parents go to waste by not learning from them. The Bible says in Proverbs 15, verse 31, We're talking about how to honor your mom. This is some good stuff, amen? Bless your mother. Make sure that you are obeying the law of your mother. Make sure you're living a righteous life. Go to Proverbs chapter 29, if you would. Proverbs chapter 29. Here's another way to honor your mom. Accept the rod and reproof. What am I talking about? Accept the spankings. And don't go in your room afterwards and scream in your pillow and punch the pillow. I hate you! You know, you close the door and you're just like, ah! What are you doing in there? Nothing! And God forbid that your mom should open the door right when you're doing that. You're dead. Hey, a way to honor your parents? What? You accept the rod. Now look, you know, it's not like, okay mom, go for it. I'm not saying you have to take it smiling or something like that. Because no whooping is joyous, okay? What I'm saying, what I mean by accept the rod is don't become bitter towards your parents because of the chastisement that they give you. Children can often become bitter towards their parents because of that. Now on the flip side, let me explain something to the parents. Here's how you can avoid having your children become bitter towards you after you chastise them. Don't wait seven days to like talk to them again or something. You know, where it's just silent for like seven days straight. And then, you know, the way you know the ice is broken is that she made you dinner or something. Dinner's on the table. It's like, all right, I think we're on talking terms now, you know. What children like, just like everyone else is, listen to this, listen, it's closure. Spankings are supposed to create closure. Because spankings is a corporal punishment for breaking your law. But once it's broken, it should be just done. And the way you create closure after the spanking is you give them a hug. You let them know what the violation was and you confirm your love towards them and then you move on. But when you spank them but you don't create closure and there's just anger between you two and there's a bunch of tension in the house and you're not talking to them, you leave your child confused. Wondering like, man, is my mom still mad at me? Like, what's going on? Does she hate me? Does my dad hate me? I don't know what to think. Oh, she made me dinner. Maybe she's still happy with me, you know. Whereas the biblical model is that we create closure between the offender and the offendee. You understand? It's just you spank, you hug, you say I love you, and then you go get an ice cream afterwards or something. Confirm your love towards them. Now, but I'm not preaching against the parents today, okay. I'm preaching against your kids. Hey, you know, don't get bitter. Even if your parents don't give you that closure, still don't become bitter towards them. Because in all whoopings there's profit. In all labor there's profit but, you know, in all whoopings there's profit too. Look at Proverbs 29 verse 15. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth, but the righteous shall see their fall. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest. Yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. And I've noticed just in my personal life, you know, the older I get, the more of a disciplinary I become like my mom was. I become strict like my mom because now I see why my mom was so strict. Now I see why she had those rules. Now I see why she had those laws. And I'm like, you know what, I kind of like those laws. And I'm going to institute those laws for my kids too. But you need to make sure that you don't become bitter towards your parents. And, you know, I know it's hard. I know it's difficult, especially if your parents didn't grow up in a Christian home. They're not in church. Maybe they're not saved. Or maybe they are but they don't know what the Bible says. But you need to put that past yourself and recognize that at the end of the day God is your Heavenly Father who's watching over you. Who's favoring you. And, you know, in all chastisement there is profit. We learn from these things, okay. And God allowed you to be in that situation. He allowed you to be chastised. He allowed you to be corrected. He allowed you to be reproved because he wants you to become a righteous person. And look, you cannot, listen to this, as a teenager or as a young child, as a young adult or whatever, you cannot be a righteous person without some whoopings. Because good night in the morning. There's some young people out there. Take me to a grocery store where there's young people. I'll tell you who got a whooping and who didn't. These idiots on TikTok mocking their parents, hitting their parents, you know, saying whatever, all these ungodly things about their parents, none of them caught a whooping. None of them. They never got a shoulder pinch in public. You guys know what the shoulder pinch is? You know. Or they never got the eye that said you're going to get it when you get home. They never got that. How many of you know what I'm talking about? If looks could kill. You know, you're misbehaving in public, you're just like, you're just like, oh, man, I'm dead, I'm dead. Right? And then you get home and you try to change the subject, like, you know, you try to hold your mom's hand and everything's all good, but she doesn't forget about her law. But folks, either way, you know, what I'm trying to say here is that maybe there's children in here that harbor bitterness towards their parents because of past chastisements. Okay? Because maybe they chastise you and they didn't do it in the right way. You know, the right way is obviously on the bottom where there's God placed cushion. Amen? Maybe you didn't get it there. Maybe it was, what do the five fingers say to the face type of thing? Right? Maybe that's what you got. Okay? And many other variations of that, possibly. And, you know, that could create bitterness. Right? But what you need to do, what you need to understand is that all things work together for good. And you may think to yourself, yeah, but I can't change the past. Okay, then change your future. You know, when you raise kids, just make sure you don't do it that way. And thank God for the fact that you got something. Because I'll tell you something, I'd rather take five fingers to the face than no spanking whatsoever. Because I see the benefit in chastisement. I see what the Bible says about it. I see it in my personal life. I know what it does. And so a way that you can honor your mother is by accepting her chastisement, accepting her correction. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to read to you from Leviticus chapter 19 verse 1. It says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and saying to them, Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Listen to this. Ye shall fear every man his mother. This is a command that God gave. He's like, you kids out there, you better fear Mom. Well, what he meant by fear was like just a reference and no fear. Like you're afraid of Mom. Well, that's not right. No child should be afraid. Yes, they should. What do you mean? We fear authority because we know that authority can punish us if we do wrong. You understand? And it's a command. He says, Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Just know this, God is on your parent's side. Look at Hebrews 12 verse 9. It says, Furthermore, we have fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening, referring to Spanken, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. You know, if you take earthly correction well, that means you'll take heavenly correction well as well. When you are able to take the correction and reproofs of your parents, that immediately transfers over to your relationship with the Lord. You see the value in the corporal punishment that you received by your parents, then you will see the value in the chastisement that you will receive from God as well. You will not become bitter towards God. You will see that it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness. It's simply a reflection of what our relationship should be with God, okay? Go to Proverbs chapter 19, if you would, Proverbs chapter 19. I mentioned this already, but another way to honor your mom is by not mocking your mother. The Bible says in Proverbs 30 verse 17, how does God feel about that? It says, the eye that mocketh at his father, and despises it to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it. So every time you like roll your eyes at your mom, God's like, I wish I could send a raven and just gouge those eyes out, okay? That's how he feels about it. That's a little rough. Yeah, well that's how much he hates disrespect towards parents. So the next time you roll your eyes at your parents, you better be rolling them to look if there's any ravens nearby. Here's another way to honor your mothers. Don't chase them away. Do not neglect your father, nor seek to drive away your mother. We shouldn't seek to alienate ourselves from our parents. Even if you're married, you already have kids, and you have your own family, you should seek to still keep a good relationship with your parents. Don't chase them away, don't get away from them. Obviously there's exceptions to this rule, but very far few and in between. For the most part, even if you and your mom or your dad don't agree with each other a whole lot, you can still have a civil conversation over the phone or in person, have lunch with them, spend time with them. You should be able to do that. Why? Because the Bible tells us, as much as lies within you, live peaceably with all men. Proverbs 19 verse 26 says, He that wasteth his father, and chasteth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame and bringeth reproach. If your parents ever get to the point where they can no longer take care of themselves, don't chase them away into an old senior citizen's living home. You better bring them to yourself, and say, you'll be with me, I'll take care of you for the rest of your life. It says there, don't waste your father. What does that mean? Don't devalue your father, don't just treat them like they're just some other person in this world. These are your parents that raised you, they took care of you, you should esteem and honor them, and not seek to get away from them. Go to Proverbs chapter 23, and then we'll go to John 19. That's easier said than done sometimes. You might have parents that it's hard to get along with them, or they really don't agree with you being in this church or being a Christian. Maybe you've had a bad testimony before them as a Christian, and you disrespect them even when you're a Christian, and that's why they're kind of turned off to church and turned off to Christianity based upon your actions. But you should seek to rebuild that relationship though, and put in effort to be a blessing to them. Don't be prideful, don't have so much pride that you can't humble yourself, and go apologize, go humble yourself, and go love on your parents, be a blessing to them, take them out, buy them a gift, be there with them. Because let me just say this, and listen closely, you understand that your parents are not always going to be here. Now sometimes in our mind for some reason we think that they're just going to be here tomorrow. That's just how we think. But let me just say this, one day they won't, and you will regret not doing that. So we should not only do this to honor them, but we should do this for our future, for our sakes as well. Knowing that when they're gone, we did everything we could to honor them. To love them, to respect them, to adore them, to esteem them. Because one day they're not going to be here. And when they're gone, let me just say this, it's obviously too late at that point. And there's a lot of people to live with regret because they didn't have the right relationship with their parents when they couldn't have had a chance to. Don't be that person. And lastly, here's the last way to honor your parents, honor your mother, is don't despise her in her old age. It says in Proverbs 23 verse 22, Harken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. Go to John chapter 19 if you would. What does this mean? Well as I mentioned, take care of her in her old age. Keep honoring her. And don't blame her for your shortcomings. We have this tendency to always want to pass the buck on someone for our mistakes and our shortcomings and our lack of character and our attributes that we don't like about ourselves. And when we can't find anybody, it's like, oh it's my parents. It's because of my dad. It's because of my mom. It's because my dad left when I was young. Or my mom left me when I was young. Or it's because my mom has a temper so I have a temper. It's because my mom does this so I do this. And we always blame our shortcomings on our parents. And you know what? There may be some truth that maybe you grew up in a home where you learned those patterns. But guess what? You're a Christian now. Guess what? You're in church now. So that excuse is no longer valid. You can't use that coupon anymore. I had an expiration date when you got saved, amen? You couldn't redeem that coupon anymore. It's no longer valid so you can show that coupon all you want. To God, God's like, so what? I'm your heavenly Father now. So now you have the Bible. I'm commanding you to do these things. Be different. Break that cycle. Don't blame your parents for their shortcomings. Because first and foremost, just think about this. You're a Christian, you're a Savior in this church. You've actually been given more than your parents. You have far more than your parents had before obviously you were around. Because if they're not in church, they're not saved, they don't have the Bible. You do have these things. So we shouldn't look at our shortcomings and say, Man, I wish my mom would have just done this. I wish my mom would have just taught me this. If she wasn't so X, Y, and Z, I wouldn't be this way. Well, you know what? Stop complaining. Stop murmuring and just change. And don't rub that in her face. Don't blame people. Don't blame your parents for your failures. Don't say it's because you fed me with a slingshot when I was a kid. It was so ugly or whatever. It's because you did X, Y, and Z and you have all these things that you're bitter at. You need to just forget that. And recognize now you're saved, you're a Christian, you have a far more greater chance of being a great, wonderful person, a great, wonderful Christian because you have God in the Bible. You say, Well, then how should I treat my mom? I don't know, with honor? With respect? You don't despise them? You know, older parents can cause you to also be patient. And also remind you that it's like we have to be patient with them in their old age just as they have to be patient with us when we were babies. Right? So think about that. Look at John 19. Even Jesus, right? And Jesus, of course, is God in the flesh. And although he's without father and mother from a physical perspective, he did have a mom that birthed him, right? He was created of a woman. And Jesus, he could easily just said, Well, you know, I'm God. I can just, you know, I mean, he told her in John chapter 4, like, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Right? But even when he's about to just die and pay for the sins of the whole world and really accomplishes this great task of paying for the sins of the whole world, he still took his mom into consideration, believe it or not. Verse 25, Now there stood by the cross of Jesus' mother and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene, when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by, referring to John, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. So what was he doing? He was making sure that his mom was taken care of right before he died. I mean, talk about checking things off the checklist. Crucified, be scourged, pay for the sins of the whole world. Oh, make sure that my mom's taken care of before I'm gone. And he told John, you're going to take care of her from here on out. Now, don't take this as permission for you to go up to your mom and be like, Hey, woman, behold thy son. You know, it's just like. What I'm trying to share here is the fact that he didn't despise her. He was making sure that she was taken care of even after he was gone. Showing you that he esteemed his earthly mother. OK, what's the sermon today? The sermon is simply this, you know, take these principles into account. And you know, if all seven of these doesn't speak to you, take one that at least maybe speaks to you a little bit and put it into practice today. Put it into practice this week and learn to honor your parents and learn the value. Listen to this. Learn the value in honoring your mom. Amen. Let's pray. Thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for these examples. Thank you for the Book of Proverbs. Help us as children, Lord. And we're not perfect either. Even as as Christians who have the Bible, we make mistakes and we are not without flaw. And I pray that you'd help us to take a sermon like this into consideration and to be a reminder to us to honor our mothers. And we're so thankful for them, everything that they've done for us, every little thing that they've done for us since we're children all the way up until adulthood. They've been there for us, Lord. And I pray that, Lord, you help us to think upon those things. We love you so much and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Song number 310, Footprints of Jesus. This is our last song. Song number 310. Song number 310, Footprints of Jesus. So you know that first? Sweetly, Lord, have we heard the calling, come follow me. And we see where thy footprints falling lead us to be. The prints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus wherever they go. Though they lee o'er the cold, dark mountains, see he is she. For along by someone's fountains, help me, love me. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus wherever they go. If they lead through the temple, lead, preaching the word. Or in homes of the poor and lowly, serving the poor. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus wherever they go. Then at last when on high he sees us, our journey done. We will rest where the steps of Jesus end and explode. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway flow. We will follow the steps of Jesus wherever they go. Song number 24. Sing it on that first. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Who guide me for me? Who cause his pain for me? Who give to death pursue? Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? He left his father's throne above, so free, so infinite in his grace, emptying himself of all but love. And then, for Adam's helpless grace, tis mercy all, immense and free. For, oh, my God, it found out me Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's light. I, I did use a drinking rain. I woke a dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I chose, went forth, and followed me. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? All right, we have a baptism here. I'm going to go there. I'm going to go there. I'm going to go there. I'm going to go there. I'm going to go there. I'm going to go there. I'm going to go there. All right, tell me your name. Elvira Tomíquez. Elvira, do you accept Christ as a solider? Yes. Okay, in the name of Christ's profession, I will be going to talk to you in the name of the Father, the Father, the Spirit of the Son. Can you speak to your name please? Muito con Cristo. Gracias a una vida. Felicidades. All right, let's pray. We'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the baptism and thank you for all the moms who came today. I pray that you help us as children to continue to honor our mothers and exercise these principles. Bless us as we go on our way. In Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed. .