(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Amen. So the title of my sermon this morning is what makes a mother special? What makes a mother special? And we have a very interesting story here in First Kings, chapter number three in the latter section. But there was three aspects of this story that I felt like were really unique to the story and help us have some insight as to a mother and what makes her special. But look at verse number 16 again. The Bible reads, Then came there two women that were harlots unto the king that stood before him. And the one said, Oh, my Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. So we have a story of two harlots, and it's a great story to show the wisdom that God gave unto Solomon, how he could discern between these two harlots. One harlot kills her child in the night, probably by accident based on the story. The other one does not. But the one who ends up losing her child steals the baby and replaces it with the dead child. Then, according to the Bible, they're both contending over the living child, the King Solomon. And it's kind of a difficult situation to tell who's the child is. However, Solomon realizes that there's something special about the mother of a child. A mother of a child is going to feel differently about that young baby than someone who's not the mother. And so he says, Well, let's just slay it and happen. Everybody gets a piece. But the mother who's truly the mother ends up sparing the child's life by saying, No, she can have it, which ultimately allows Solomon to realize who the true mother is. Now you say, Why would a woman do such a thing? Why would a woman be willing to even sacrifice the child in the sense of giving it to another woman or not having it just so it could live? Well, one special tie that this woman has with this child is birth. The birthing process. Notice it says that I was delivered of a child. And that's what makes a mother very special is that she's able to deliver children. You know, men cannot deliver children. I don't know if you knew this or not, but a man cannot have a baby. Only women can have a baby. And that's what makes a woman special is the fact that she can give birth. And that's what makes a mother special is the birthing process. Now we're going to keep coming back to the story and picking out a few other aspects. But I want to focus on this first point for a moment. Go to Genesis, chapter number three, Genesis, chapter number three. What makes a mother special is birth and birth is a very unique process. It's a very interesting process. The Bible says in Genesis, chapter three, verse 20. Look at verse number 20. The Bible reads and Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Now, what's interesting here is the first woman to ever live on this earth. Her name is associated with a particular action that she has. What is that action? That action is birth, right? She's the mother of all living. And every single person that exists after Eve is coming from Eve. She is a direct descendant of Eve. And so she ends up being the mother of all living. And if it wasn't for her, none of us would exist. None of us would exist if it wasn't for our mother specifically. So without mothers, we can't exist. And this name is attached to her because she's special. Look at verse number 16, though. Back up a few verses under the woman. He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and my conception. So not only is birth special, but it's also one of the most difficult things anyone will ever do. Now, praise the Lord. I have no idea what that's like and I never will know what that's like. But according to the Bible and according to anecdotal evidence, it's really tough. It's really difficult. And God even tells us that he was going to multiply their sorrow. Now, sorrow is often attached to something in the Bible, and that is childbirth. It often brings up if it wants to make something, you know, described in the Bible as being very sorrowful or being very painful. It often relates it to childbirth specifically. Go through Isaiah Chapter 42, Isaiah Chapter 42. And this is a very special thing that God has ordained for women to go through childbirth. But it's not all, you know, fun and cake. I mean, obviously there's a lot of pain and sorrow that is attached to it. And, you know, pregnancy can be difficult, but especially the child birthing process is a very difficult process. The Bible says in Isaiah 42, verse 14. I have long time holding my peace. I have been stilled and refrained myself. Now will I cry like a travailing woman? I will destroy and devour at once. So according to the Bible, he wants to describe something as someone crying really loud. And he pictures what? A travailing woman. A woman giving birth can sometimes let out some pretty horrifying screams. I don't know if you've ever heard that before, but, you know, I've just heard, you know, a bird told me one time that women can scream really loud during childbirth. But it's interesting. Why? Because it's painful. It's difficult process. A lot of energy is being exerted. Go to Micah Chapter 4, flip to the right in your Bible, Micah Chapter number 4, and look at verse number 10. Let's take another verse here. Now, I'm not turning to every single verse, but just constantly mentioned throughout the Bible is being in pain like a woman in travail. If he wants to bring up sorrow, it's like a woman in travail. Why? Because it's a very difficult process. It's something that's very hard on the body. It says in Micah Chapter 4, verse 10, be in pain and labor to bring forth. So notice the Bible says, hey, look, this is going to be painful. And, you know, they say sometimes women, they're in labor. Look, it's hard work. It's hard work to birth. It's hard work to produce a child. It's hard work to deliver the child. It says in labor to bring forth the daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail. So oftentimes when the Bible wants to reference something that's difficult, something that has a lot of pain associated with it, it would relate it to childbirth. And look, this makes a mother special that she would go through such pain, suffering, labor and work for her child. You know who does all the work at the birthing part? The wife or the mother. Okay. You know, I use that illustration when I got soul winning. I said, who did all the work at your birth? You or your mom? The mom did all the work, right? It's just a free gift that was bestowed upon you. A picture of salvation for us being born again. Jesus Christ did all the work. We don't have to do anything. We just get the free gift of life. Okay. And the first time we got a physical life, the second time we get eternal life in our soul. All right. But I got an article and there's several women. They're going to help describe for you men. Okay. What child birthing is like. So I got them to tell me, you know, kind of some of their, what it feels like. All right. I don't know what it feels like. This is what they said in this article. This is what Angelina Ellicott said. It was kind of like the muscles inside were slowly twisting harder and harder until it became almost unbearable. And then it would slowly subside. It was still much more painful than I had imagined it would be. She said, it's just like your insides just twisting and twisting and twisting. Rebecca says to me, labor felt like the worst cramp or gas pain that you've ever had combined with someone stabbing you in the stomach. And it would subside and come back. So according to Rebecca, I mean, this is some difficult pain right here from Thomasina. She said, the pain is like having your insides twisted, pulled, or squeezed. If I fought it, the pain became worse. Once I surrendered to an accepted the pain, it was more bearable. It is like getting caught in the undertow of a wave. Being trapped underwater is scary. You can fight it and get more scared, or you can just let go and wait until the wave releases you. It says also there was an intense searing pain in my lower back, which was helped when my husband applied pressure to it. So if you've ever been with your wife while she's giving birth, applying pressure on the lower parts of the back oftentimes can give a little bit of relief. Another lady, Amanda, she says, I would consider labor pains as cramps multiplied by a million. It feels like your abdomen is trying to squeeze out all of its contents, not just the baby. They come in waves and bearing intensity throughout the laboring process. I would go from a pretty tolerable one to an extremely intense one the next time. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, and it's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. Jennifer said, the best description I can offer of how the pain actually felt was like a deep internal pulling, like someone kept reaching inside, grabbing hold of whatever internal organs they could and trying to tug them out. Nancy said, my labor pain felt like my hips were being pulled apart. So this is just a handful of women. So look, it's a painful process and it's universal. I have no idea what it's like, but we men ought to be sympathetic towards these women who are giving birth to our children. And you know, when it comes to this type of pain, go if you would to John chapter 16, John chapter number 16 in the Bible. The Bible doesn't have just bad news about childbirth. Okay. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm not trying to get you to be fearful of giving birth, but I do want you to have realistic expectations. Some of these women said, Hey, I had a pretty rough expectation. It was still worse. But, you know, I've heard other women say that it wasn't as bad as they thought either. So it's obviously to each their own, everybody's own personal experience, but it's universally painful. It's universally difficult. And that's what makes women special. You know, us men, we don't have to go through such pain, such anguish and such, you know, physical, just turmoil. But in John chapter 16, it says in verse 20, that was the bad news. We'll get the good news here. Verily, verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow because her hour has come. But as soon as she's delivered of the child, she rememberth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. So the good news is, even though that's one of the most difficult, painful processes that a human could ever go through, it says afterwards, they have joy. Afterwards, they have a great gift, a man-child or a mankind, whether it's a boy or a girl. They now have a new baby. And the Bible even tells us that she's not even remember all that pain. So it'll be kind of fleeting. You'll feel it in the moment. But after the moment, a lot of it will subside. And I've even heard women, sometimes they get kind of just an energy rush or they can feel like euphoric afterwards of giving birth. They feel a lot better. However, that does not mean that women should just get up and make me a sandwich after giving a child. Okay. Obviously, we as husbands need to let them rest, take it easy. They just went through a really traumatic experience. Their body went through a lot. We need to cater to them and love them. We have no idea how painful that was. And we ought to be there to support them and love them. Why? Because that's what makes some other special. Okay, is birth. We don't have to do that. And praise the Lord, I don't have to. But at the end of the day, they do have to. And so we should love them and appreciate them for the difficulty and struggle they went through. Every single one of us that exists today is because our mothers had to go through this process. Now, a lot of people today don't like that. They don't like that there's pain. They don't like that there's difficulty. They don't like the strings attached afterwards. And now they have a baby that they have to raise. And so a lot of women are avoiding this through abortion today. And it's sad. You know, it makes some other special is birth. And a lot of women are foregoing that they're killing their baby before they go to the birthing process. And that does not make you special. You're not special by murdering your child or killing your child today. You're special by birthing your child, by keeping your child and loving your child. Go to Exodus chapter 21, Exodus chapter number 21. According to some United States statistics, I saw one article that said 18% of pregnancies in the United States end in abortion. Now, other articles that say it's almost 25%, anywhere from a quarter to 18% of all pregnancies in the United States in an abortion. And I looked up another article to combine with this. Why is it that women say they have an abortion? Like, what is the reason that they provide whenever they decide to make this type of decision? The number one answer was not ready for another child. Timing is wrong. That's just a selfish reason. And look, they're all selfish. Just saying, oh, it's not the right time. When is it the right time to have a baby? Like, it's always inconvenient. It's always painful. It's always going to mess with whatever plans you had. But that's just a selfish reason. And look, he was the mother of all living. You know what's the right time for a woman to have a child is whenever God gives you one. That's the right time to have a child. Obviously, within the boundaries of marriage. But at the end of the day, there's not a bad time to have a child. What a selfish reason. Number two, they can't afford a baby. Well, look, none of us can afford a baby, all right? They're expensive. Get over it. If I was going to wait until I could afford to have a baby, I never would. No one would ever have a baby. You're never going to feel like you can afford a baby. You're never going to feel like you can afford all the extra expenses. But you know what? Seems like people just constantly make it work. And if I were to evaluate people that have large families versus smaller families, you know usually, as the most money, the smaller families. Isn't that interesting that the ones that have the bigger families oftentimes have less money, yet they're making it work. They're able to raise a large family. Another reason why they give is they have completed my childbearing. Oh, I didn't know you were done. Literally, you'll have a couple children, and then they'll abort the next one. How could you have gone through that process, seen the miracle of life that God has blessed you with, and then kill the next one? What kind of a wicked person? Fourth reason, don't want to be a single mother or having relationship problems. Well, that's fixed by not being a whore. If you're not a whore, you don't have to have those problems. The problem is not the child. The problem is you being a whore. Number five, don't feel mature enough to raise another child, feel too young. Well, no one in here is mature enough to raise a child. If I had to wait until I was mature enough, man, that'd be really rough. Some people don't ever seem to get mature. And you know what usually matures people? It's having a child. A lot of people are very selfish. They only care about themselves. They only think about themselves. Then they have a child, and they realize, you know what? I need to lay down self and care about other people. That's going to help them realize the importance of being a parent, of being responsible, thinking about other people. Another reason is would interfere with education or career plans. Well, please quit school so you can have a child. I don't care. That's ridiculous. And look, you can read a book from anywhere. You can be educated from anywhere. I'm not against education, but it's silly to think that having a child is not going to allow you to be educated or be wise or have wisdom. This is a lie. Physical problem with my health, possible problems affecting the health of the fetus, and other. So of course, liberals and Democrats, they always want to highlight these really minute, rare exceptions where they say, well, the child's not healthy. Well, then why would you kill it? I didn't realize that we would just kill them. But that's usually the reason they give forth. They say, oh, we want abortion to be legal for what, rape? And we want it to be for incest and for just health problems. However, only one of those three has even mentioned this, and it's only 3%. So even by their own logic, 97% of the abortions that are taking place are not a result of rape, incest, or health problems. They're selfish problems right off the bat, let alone that other 3% never justified either. Abortion is always wrong. It's always murder. Let me prove that from the Bible, Exodus 21, verse 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judge is determined. Now, verse 22 says, if a child ends up being miscarried, if something were to happen, a woman was injured, and they lost their child. Even if it was a complete accident, this person is supposed to be punished and very severely. Why? Because it's a very big thing. But what happens if there was a little bit of mischief? What if the intention was for that child to depart? What if the intention was to kill it? Look what it says in verse 23. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life. Notice how the Bible classifies what's in the womb? Life. It's not, well, that's just a chemical combination of cells. That's just a fetus. No, it's a life, is what the Bible says. And it says if that life were to depart, you're supposed to take the life of anybody that had any mischief associated with it. That means every abortion doctor's life needs to be taken from them immediately. All of them. And I think that the women that are complicit in this, that know what they're doing, they should as well. Obviously, I would make it retroactive. I wouldn't make it on the abortion doctors, put them to death immediately. But it's sick. And, you know, anybody that's committed an abortion or is an abortion doctor should be ashamed on Mother's Day. Of all days, to be ashamed, it would be Mother's Day. Now, I have an article written by a lady named Jennifer Wright. She's despicable. The title of her article is Abortion is Not Murder. Now, this is what she says in her article. There are a great many facts that conservatives feel comfortable ignoring when it comes to the abortion debate. So she's going to bring up some facts, okay? They can pretend fetuses are indistinguishable from babies. Okay, apparently that's a fact. A fact that a fetus is not a baby. Well, I just went ahead and looked up in the dictionary. You just type into Google. Fetus definition. The number one that Google just provides for you, okay? This is what it says for a fetus. An unborn offspring of a mammal, in particular, an unborn human baby more than eight weeks after conception. Isn't that interesting? I guess Google's confused. I guess Google thinks that a fetus is a human baby, yet she's telling me facts. Facts, oh, you're confusing a fetus with a baby. Well, it sounds like Google's confused. And you know what? The Bible makes it clear it's a life, and you know what? It's murder. Facts, oh, facts. I didn't know if you just used that word automatically. It's a fact. That's not how it works, Jennifer. She says they can pretend fetuses are indistinguishable from babies despite the fact that medical evidence tells us fetuses cannot live unsupported, even with a respirator before 21 weeks. Well, this is a fact. A fetus cannot live on its own before 21 weeks. Well, let me give you some just facts, Jennifer. Did you know that my baby can't live unsupported? Did you know that my five-year-old can't live unsupported? Did you know that all of us in this room can't live unsupported? Let's drop Jennifer off at some just island by herself and see how she does. We're all dependent. What kind of a stupid, nonsensical, garbage argument is that? To say that someone that's dependent, well, they don't even count. Let's just put everyone in the nursing home down then, because they're all dependent. Let's just put every single person down that's dependent. Well, guess what? No one's going to be left standing but Bear Grylls out in the wilderness by himself. What kind of a sick, twisted definition of facts? Oh, I didn't realize that a one-day-old baby can survive unsupported but a fetus can't somehow. What kind of a silly argument is that? Yet that's the argument that abortionists are coming up with. Well, if it can't support itself, then it doesn't deserve to live. Well, you don't deserve to live, Jennifer. By that logic, sick. Let me keep reading. If that didn't already, you know, you just toss it out after that. This is what she says after this. They can pretend they feel pain. Even though scientific consensus tells us that until at least 24 weeks, a fetus cannot feel anything like pain because they do not yet have the brain connections to do so. Now, I fact check that and here's the thing. They can't tell that all the connective tissues have been developed at that point. So they assume based on the fact that they can't distinguish all that, that it doesn't feel pain. That's the science that we have today. Even though, of course, I mean, what kind of a silly argument is that? If I can kill you without you feeling pain, it's now okay? I've heard beheadings, you know, aren't painful. No one's gone through it and told us how painful it was, so. Jennifer, I guess it's legal. I guess it's fine to just kill somebody as long as they don't feel it enough. I mean, as long as we sedate the abortion doctor and then tear him apart, it's legal now, right? Because that's the logic that she's justifying here. Facts. Just so many facts that she's using to destroy conservatives. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't understand your facts. Because there's a lot of science that would say that they can feel pain too. But the set, the consensus, you know, the consensus of her and her five abortion doctor buddies or whatever. Why are you bringing up abortion again? Didn't Jesse cover it last Sunday? Yeah, he did cover it last Sunday. But you know what? There's still 3,000 babies being killed every single day in America. And you know what? There's way less people dying from the stupid coronavirus garbage nonsense. And I have to hear about it every single day. I don't feel like bringing it up once a week's enough yet. It's sick. It's disgusting. And you know what makes a mother special? Birth. Not killing her child. Not Michelle Williams getting up and saying how special she is that she murdered her child. It's sick. It's sick the culture that we live in. And you know what? There's so much bloodshed crying out this morning up in heaven saying, Oh God, Oh Lord, when will you avenge the blood of these innocent children today? You know what? God's gonna judge America. And God's gonna judge all of these wicked celebrities, you know, that want to praise their abortion. You know what? They're gonna fall into hell and they're gonna know what pain is like. Well, I don't know if they can feel pain in hell. I know they can feel pain in hell. And guess what? Jennifer can jump in the lake of fire with them. Is this disgusting and filthy and abominable? We have nobody preaching really against it. I'll preach against it. Jesse will preach against it. You know, we'll get all our preachers to preach against it, right? And look, we're all dependent. I'm dependent on the Lord for every breath that I take. What a silly argument. You know what? We need to care about the lives of our children today. And you know, we're going to shut down the economy for death, for murder. Why not abortion? All these people, they're lining up and protesting because they don't have their job, but they're fine with all the babies being killed. Let's think about that one. Philippians chapter two, go to Philippians chapter number two. What makes a mother special is birth. And you know, some people say you should thank your mom for choosing to birth you. Well, first of all, I don't like that argument because it should never be an option of whether or not you're going to kill your child or not. That shouldn't have been like, I had to make the choice of whether to kill it or not. That's sick. Okay. Obviously every woman should give birth to their child, period. That's not an option. That's not a choice. Oh, hey, how's it going? You should thank me for not killing you today. Think about that. I mean, when you walk in, hey, you're welcome. I didn't murder you just now. Why would you say thank you to someone for that? That's so stupid. Thank your mom for not choosing to kill you. No, that's a stupid argument. How about thanks mom for not being a murdering devil. I mean, but you know what? It is a lot of pain, but if you go through it, the Bible says you'll have joy. You'll have joy at the end. And the women that regret are the women that kill their children. I don't care what the abortion say. And look, some sick, disgusting women out there will claim that they like their abortion. They're so proud of it. They're just reprobate probably. Don't worry about them. That's disgusting. They have no natural affection at that point. You would definitely regret it if you have natural affection. That just tells me I have no natural affection. Sick. Now in our story of 1 Kings chapter number three, it talked about a couple other things. That woman talked about the child. It was taken from beside me. And then when she woke up in the morning, she's gonna give her child suck, which she did bear. Which goes to my second point of what makes a mother special is her care. No one cares for you like your mother. No one. It's a completely unique bond. It's a special bond. No one can replace your mother. Now the Bible says in Philippians chapter 2 verse 20. Let me give you a verse to think about here. For I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. So the Apostle Paul, he's telling the Philippians. He says, Hey, I'm sending Timothy and you guys. Because he's going to actually care about you because naturally nobody cares about you. Normally, no one really is that interested in you. But you know who is naturally cares about you, your mother. Your mother has a natural care that's deep inside. That's normal. People just don't have for you. OK, people do not naturally care for others. And what makes a mother special is how much she truly cares about her children. Now go to Proverbs chapter 31, Proverbs chapter number 31. And let me give you some evidence or give you some idea of things that your mother does for you or a mother does for her children. Says in Proverbs 31 verse 15. She rises also while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household and a portion to her maidens. So notice she's not getting all the sleep that she wants. She's rising up before the light even comes out just to feed you, just to take care of you, just to do things for you. Look, I'm not like that. I'm not going to wake up early just to feed you. OK, that takes the love of a mother. That takes the care and the nurture of a mother to say, You know what? I'm going to go through a lot of sleepless nights for my children. And especially if we talk about the infant, especially we talk about the sucking toddler, whatever the infant is, because they go through a lot of sleepless nights providing nourishment for their children. They care for that children so much more than I do. I can sleep through about anything. All right. You know what my wife can't do? She can hardly sleep through any cry. I mean, they'll just she'll wake up and she'll be like, Did you hear that? And I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. She can tell that they're crying from miles away, it feels like. All right. She just mothers just have this instinct. They just know when their children are upset, they know they can't sleep. Unless they get to a certain threshold for me, I don't wake up. I mean, it has to be like blood curling screams or an extended period of time. OK, because at first I'm just thinking like, oh, let's see if they wail like that again. Oh, it's kind of subsiding. Yeah, it's probably good. You know, it's got to be peaking and just kind of like hitting for a while. And then it's just like, yeah, maybe I should check on it. And usually I check on it. Get over it. Stop crying. You know, no one's no one cares, you know. But the moms is like, what's wrong, honey? Let me hold you. You know, I'm like, I'm not interested in losing sleep over this one. All right. I don't have as much natural care as the mother. The mother just cares so much more. And look, I'm not trying to say that to say fathers shouldn't care. I'm just saying naturally, I don't. OK, naturally, the husbands and the men, they don't care about the children like women do. Verse 21, she is not afraid of the snow for household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet. Notice she's constantly thinking about the needs of her family and her children. She's taking care of them. She says, hey, even if difficulty arises for them, they're going to be good. No matter what cold, no matter what difficulty, no matter what struggle, the mother's already thought of that. I don't really think about grabbing hats and coats and I don't even pack well for myself. You know, I just put on some throw some clothes in the bag and then show up. It's like raining and cold and snowing. I went to a soul winning marathon in Minneapolis. OK, in January, I didn't take a coat. I'm not saying this to say how great I am. I'm just trying to help you understand. I just don't think about those things. OK, I had to go buy a coat and stuff at the store because it's like, oh, man, this is rough. You know, this is this is terrible. But here's the thing. I don't think about those things as much. My wife thinks about them. She cares about them so much more than I care about them. Verse 27, she looketh well to the ways of her household and needeth not the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also and he praises her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excels them all. But there's a lot of great women out there that can provide all kinds of wonderful things, but nothing's like your mom. When you're hurt, you want your mom. When you're sick, you want your mom. Anytime you want tender love and care, always mom. Why? Because no one cares for you like your mother. No one has a care naturally like a mother. She worries about them more, thinks about them more. Go to Powers 15, Proverbs chapter number 15. And look at verse number 20. We're talking about what makes a mother special. What makes a mother special is her care for her children. And a lot of the care that a mother gives to her children is not something that you remember. I think that's something that's difficult because most of the care is when you're zero, one, two, three, four, five. But you know what? You don't really remember anything before five. And if you do, it's like in a really rare special circumstance that you remember anything before the age of five. We don't even remember that. But you know what? Any mother that's raised a child from zero, one, two, three, four, five. They can tell you how difficult it was. They can tell you all the sleepless nights and all the diapers they had to change and all the spit up and the throw up and just the crying and the whining. Look, the kids cry all the time. And you know, it seems like kids cry every day. But here's the thing about a mother. You know what? She has to bear with every cry for every single child. You know, you cry a lot as a kid. Guess what? Your mom had to deal with not just you, your brother, not just them, your sister. Every single cry they have to deal with. Every single hurt and pain they have to deal with. Every single sleepless night they have to deal. They have to, whatever the multiplication of the children is, they have to go through it. Just multiply the sorrow and the pain and the difficulty and the struggle. Look, this makes mothers special how much care they have to put into their children. And we ought not take that for granted. We ought not say, oh, I don't have the best mother. Well, did she take care of you from zero, one, two, three, four, five? That was difficult. She should be done at that point. You should be taking care of yourself by now, okay? I should tell that to my son, Clayton, all right? Clayton, you should be good now, all right? Raise yourself. Put in some extra effort, all right? This is why it says in Proverbs 15, verse 20, a wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish man despiseth his mother. A woman who goes through so much pain, so much sorrow, so much effort, so much difficulty, so much struggle to raise you and take care of you when you can do literally nothing for yourself and then turn around and despise your mother. That's a wicked attribute in someone. And look, I don't care if your mom's saved or not saved. You ought to love and honor and respect your mom because she went through so much difficulty for you and so much struggle and so much anguish. Look, being a mother is difficult. I don't, I'm not envious of my wife's job. I think it's harder. And you know, it's more important because she's dealing with my children. My children are more important to me than anything. More important than y'all, okay? I want my kids to turn out better than y'all. Like if I have to pick, I'm picking my kids. Just being honest. So and look, I care a lot for you guys. My wife cares for my children more than that. I can't, I don't care for you guys as much. When in comparison, look, her job is way more important. So you know what? I want to make sure to enable her to do the best job that she possibly can to take care of these children because her job is just so important. And you as grown children or having children, you ought not despise your mother. You need to love and appreciate your mother. Go back to Philippians chapter two. Go back to Philippians chapter number two. My last point is this. When the woman, the two harlots are contending and Solomon brings out a sword and says, slay it, kill it, divide it. The Bible says that the one harlot that her bowels yearned within her. Now let me tell you what that word is. Love. Love. The bowels deep inside. She could not, don't kill my, my child. You know, there's worse thing. There's not really much worse than killing it. She's like, you know, there's another option. Don't kill it. The sacrifice of a mother to say, you know what? Even if I can't have it, I don't want it to die. I don't want it to be taken. And we see the difference between the one that's not the mother and the one that's the mother. Someone that's the true mother is not willing to go through the same sacrifices as someone that not the mother. Why? Because your mother cares about her child more than anybody else. There's more love. There's more care. Philippians chapter two, verse one. If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship with the spirit of any bowels and mercies. So notice he says bowels and mercies here in verse one. But what did he say? If any comfort of love. Why? Because that deep feeling in your bowels is that love feeling. That a mother feels for her child. So what makes a mother special? Well, number one, the birth. Number two, her care. And number three, her love, which is unmatched. A mother's love is unmatched. The other woman, not the mother of the child, is willing to kill it. You know what that tells me? It tells me that every public school teacher, every daycare worker, every neighbor, every fan friend, every aunt, every cousin, every grandmother does not love the child like the mother does. And there's no comparison. Zero. Even what you would think. I would think like a grandparent or maybe an aunt somewhere in that range would be the person that could have the most natural love for a child. But even in that situation, it's still an extreme difference to the true mother. There's still a measurable difference between them and what a mother is willing to go through, the difficulty and the struggle, just from the natural perspective. Now, what is love, though? If we think about the word love, some people have this idea that it's like this just emotion that takes no effort. That's called infatuation. OK, usually when teenagers, they start dating, they just they have this initial reaction of infatuation with someone. And it's just they can't help but just be attracted to them. They just like everything about them. They like every one of their imperfections. Everything they do is great. Their awkward laugh is cool. You know, the fact they smell bad, they like it. You know, just their messy car. It's wonderful. The fact that they don't have a job. Somehow it's great. You know, it just everything about them is just so amazing and it's magical and it's special. That's called infatuation. Let me tell you something that's fleeting. It's fleeting. It does not last people. That's why they saw the honeymoon phase of marriage. The honeymoon phase of marriage, everything's great. Then all of a sudden you start being like, you smell, take a shower. Hey, when are you going to get that job? When are you going to start providing? When are you going to stop being so annoying? When are you going to start? Then all of a sudden it starts to wear off a little bit. That's where love comes into play. Love is choosing, choosing to do good to someone. Not rewarding good for good, we're rewarding good for evil. Rewarding good for difficult. Rewarding good for something that's hard. How does God manifest love? By sacrificing his son to people that would never even believe on him. But God commended his love toward us and that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. What does commended mean? Showed or demonstrated. Meaning what? God demonstrated for us what love actually looks like. What does love actually look like? It's sacrificing something when the other person does not deserve it, is not worthy of it. There's nothing good in them. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He first loved us. We love him because he first loved us. So you say, what is that about a mother? A mother will love a child not because they deserve it, because they're choosing to do good unto it. All it does is cry and whine and scream and need fed. It's not worthy of that attention and care. It's love that a mother is giving unto that child. And that's what women should look at their children as, this is an opportunity for me to love it, do good unto it, even though it may never repay me. And you know, there's some women, it's sad. There's some women who love their children and take care of their children and their children raise up and hate their mom, despise their mother. What a poor way to reciprocate love. And you know what? Who gets the ultimate kick in the face like that is God. Because God only does love to us. God only loves the world. He only shows out mercy and grace towards the world, yet they reject. He's long suffering. They keep rejecting. They keep cursing. They keep blaspheming. They keep being a rebellion. And he keeps showing them love and mercy and grace, yet eventually runs out, doesn't it? And you know what? You can wear out your parents too. You can wear out those in your life that are loving you. Don't think that love is forever when it comes from a humanist perspective. Christ will never leave thee nor for safety. But you know what? People aren't that way. And you can wear out people's love. Therefore, you need to reciprocate the love that people are showing you and demonstrating towards you. So if your mother has loved you, which if you're alive today, she has, you need to reciprocate love towards her. And look, I understand that when it comes to mothers, it's all over the spectrum. Some mothers love more than others. Some mothers did more for their children than others, but she at least birthed you. Number one, I mean, she birthed you. Number one, you can't get away from that one. And most everybody's mother cared for them to some degree. And I guarantee a lot of them, they even loved them. So we ought to reciprocate that love. We ought to requite our parents and repay them with love back. Now, look, I'm going to be honest with you. Y'all, y'all are difficult to raise. How do you know that? Because there's no temptation taking you, but such is common to man. And my children are difficult to raise. It's hard. It's a burden. Yet your mother loves you. Go to Titus chapter two, Titus chapter number two. Choosing is what love is. Not reciprocating good for good. This is not true love. Wicked people will repay good for good. Senators will repay good for good. The Gentiles will repay good for good. Democrats will pay good for good. Democrats, they'll pay you money for lobbying efforts, and then the Democrat will come back and pay them with a government contract. You know what? That's not love, though. Because as soon as a Democrat does something bad, they'll drop them like a bad habit. They'll eat their own. They don't have any true love. Celebrities don't have any true love. That's why their marriages end in five minutes. That's why their marriages end in a couple days. Why? Because as soon as something bad happens, they just drop them like a bad habit. They'll praise some celebrity. Some celebrity will win all the Golden Globes, and they'll be the shining star. But as soon as they get out as a bad person, they'll just drop them like a bad habit, because they don't have any love for them. They don't actually care for them. And we even see this with Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul had a lot of people that were good to him when it's going good, but then as soon as he's thrown in prison, eh, we don't know who's Paul. We don't know who's Paul. I don't know about this Paul guy. Onesimus actually refreshed him in his palms, but a lot of people didn't want to know about him. I don't know Paul. He's a weirdo. He's in jail. He probably did something wrong. He probably deserves it. I guarantee that's what they said. You know, when a good minister gets thrown into prison, you know, people just get arrested for no reason. I'm sure that he deserved it. He did something wrong. There's something bad with them. That's what they'll say. That's what they do. But look what it says in Titus chapter 2 verse 4. 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. You know what this tells me? Verse number 4 tells me this. If it takes elder women to teach younger women to love their children, it's not automatic. That's the point that I want to make here. It's not an automatic thing. It takes choosing. When? Every day. Every moment. And that's what makes a mother special, is her choosing to love that child. Look, when you give the children to the grandparents, they're relieved when they give them back. If people use a babysitter or, you know, one of these daycare centers, they're so excited when the parents come to pick them up. When you have to watch a kid that's not your own, you're ready to give it back. Why? Because it's difficult. Mothers don't get that option. They have to just keep holding on to them and being with them. And it's a choice every single day. And so we ought to honor our mothers for choosing to love us when it's difficult, when it's been hard. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2. And despite all of the mistakes, our mothers still choose to love us. Oftentimes people say that's the face only a mother could love. And you say, what does that mean? Look, mothers are the most, have the most faith in their children. Mothers will believe that their sons and daughters can do anything. And that everything they do is right. And that they're so wonderful and they're just a blessing and a gift. Even though you are just screwed up and you have so many problems and you smell bad and no one likes you, it's like your mom likes you. You know, your mom thinks you're great. Why? Because she's special. It's what makes a mother special is her love. 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 18. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Now, the story of Hannah is she was barren for a long time. For a very long time, except like over a decade, I believe. And the Lord ends up blessing her with a child. And the first child she gets, she just gives to the Lord. She ends up having other children. But, you know, when she gives that child to the Lord, she doesn't forget about it. She doesn't forget about Samuel. She's thinking about him while she's at home. And you know what? She makes a little coat. And you know what? No one's going to make you a little coat but your mother. The time and the effort to make the little coat, you know, makes that your mother. And she makes it and sews it and then she comes and delivers it unto Samuel. Because she doesn't want him to be cold. She's like, he's little, but you know what? He's going to have some problems when it's cold outside. I'm going to make him a little coat just for him. And you know what? That's what mothers do all the time. Mothers do all these little special little things, personalized things that are just for you. And you know what? If it wasn't for your mother, it wouldn't happen. Even my wife has reminded me of this. Sometimes she'll say, hey, if it wasn't for me, would this little special thing been done for our child? Probably not. That's what makes a mother special. It's all those little things. It's all the stuff that she thinks about. All the clever crafts and all the clever personalized items and things. Look, that comes from a mother's heart. You know, men are just wired differently. And look, I'm not trying to excuse dads for not caring about their children. I'm just saying mothers are special. They think of things that I would never think of. They do things that I would never do. And they make children feel special like no one else could ever make them feel. That's why I love my wife raising my kids and being at home and homeschooling them and teaching them why I don't want to drop my kids off with someone that doesn't care about them that much. I want to leave them with the one person that loves them the most that's humanly possible, my wife. And look, it's immeasurably different. It's measurably different. There's no way to compare it. My wife's love is immeasurably different than the others. Now, let me go to the last verse. I want to go to Romans 8 this morning. Romans chapter number 8. And let me make one other note here. Obviously, our first point was about the birthing process. However, sometimes people take on this role without actually having given birth. They become a mother unto someone that they did not give birth to. Okay. And in thinking about this, I think that that makes that woman even more special. And you know why? Because she does not have the natural love that the mother just automatically gets. She has to choose to love that child above what the natural mother just already has automatic feelings towards. To me, that makes it very special. And you know what? It's likened unto the special attribute that God gives unto us when it says in Romans chapter 8. Look at this in verse 15. We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. You know, we were without spiritual father. We're just destitute. We're just like a bastard kid basically in the world through our sin. And God the Father ends up adopting us, bringing us into his family, choosing to love us. Then we become his children. We didn't start off his children. We started off as offspring, but we didn't start off as children. He brings us into the fold. He makes us a child. And that makes it even more special. The fact that he would choose to love us when no one else did. No one else cared about us. Nobody else wanted us. And you know, there's a lot of women out there. There's a lot of families out there that sometimes they'll take a child in that's not wanted. What a special gift that a person can give to them to love them. And you know what? If you're in that situation, you ought to appreciate that woman even more. For the love and the care that she's willing to give unto you. And look, I'm not talking about baby stealing, okay? Like the woman did in our story. Or she stole a baby from the rightful mother and then she wanted to slay it. That was an adoption, okay? And our government does a lot of things similar to that. That's not adoption today, okay? And two fags taking a kid from the adoption agency is not what I'm talking about. That's pedophilia and it's disgusting and it's wicked. That's another sermon, all right? I'm talking about a child who's just doesn't have any other option. And someone just comes in just decides to love that child and he is. Just decides to do good under that child anyways and adopts it and makes it their own child and treats it as their own child and loves it as their own child. What a special gift and offering that a person can give unto this person. And so whoever your mother is out there, whether biological or not, you ought to honor your mother because she's special. Special through birth, she's special. And you know the birthing process, whenever she adopts you and makes you your own, that's the birthing process they go through. And sometimes it's really financially expensive. It's pretty taxing too, all right? Number two point is all the care that they give for you. And number three, all the love that they show toward you. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for giving us mothers today that go through such a difficult process of birth, that give us so much care and love. And it can demonstrate a lot of the attributes of care and love that you give towards us. And I pray that we would not take them for granted. We not despise our mothers today, but rather we'd honor and celebrate our mothers. And we would encourage women to be mothers and to continually love their children. In Jesus' name we pray.