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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Hello, welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. Thank you for coming out this Sunday morning to our service. Let's find our seats and open your green handles up to page 439. Page 439. Happy Mother's Day as well. We're going to do favorites for mothers right after this first song. So if you're a mother this morning, get ready with a favorite hymn. Page 439. Count Your Blessings. Page 439 in your green handbooks. Count your blessings on the first. When upon lights, billows to our tempest toss. When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost. Count your many blessings, name them one by one. Maybe we'll surprise you what the Lord had done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God had done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God had done. Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy? You are called to bear. Count your many blessings, every cow will fly. And you will be singing as the days go by. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God had done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God had done. When you look at others with their land and gold, think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold. Count your many blessings, money cannot buy. Your reward in heaven or your home on high. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God had done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God had done. On the last, so amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged, God is over all. Count your many blessings, angels will attend. Help and comfort give you to your journeys end. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God had done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God had done. Amen. Great singing this morning. Brother Joe, Richie, can you open us with a word of prayer? Four thanks for this day and for our church and gifts for all my brothers and sisters who made it out today. Pray you'll be with us and bless all of you here today. Amen. Again, mothers, you have your time to shine with favorites this morning. All right, what do we got? Ms. Amy, 86. Page 86 in the garden. Page 86, sing it out on the first. I come to the garden of old, while the dew is still on the roses. And I voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. Ms. Rachel, page 415. Page 415, victory through grace. Page 415 on the first. Conquering now and still to conquer, Righted the King in His might, leading the host of all the faithful into the midst of the fight. See them with courage advancing, flatten their brilliant daren. Shouting the name of their leader, hear them exultingly sing. Not to the strongest of battle, not to the swiftest of race, Yet to the true and the faithful, victory is promised through grace. Ms. Crystal, page 245. Old account will settle. Page 245, sing it out on the first. There was a time on earth when in the book of heaven, Old account was standing for sins yet unforgived. My name was at the top and many things below, I went up to the keeper and settled long ago, long ago, long ago. Yes, the old account was settled long ago, hallelujah, And the record's clear today for He washed my sins away, When the old account was settled long ago. Ms. Annie, page 246, redeemed. Page 246 on the first. Redeemed how I love to proclaim it, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am. Alright, who's got one out there? Mishila? 263? 163? Just 63. Just 63, sorry about that, alright. Just 63. What a day that will be. Page 63 on the first. There is coming a day when no heartache shall come, No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye, All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day, that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, And I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace, When He takes me by the hand and leads me through the Promised Land. What a day, glorious day, that will be. Alright, we've got time for two more this morning. I see a couple more out there. Right here? 374. 374? Alright. 374. 374. Send the light. Page 374. Send the light on the first. There's a call come bringing o'er the restless waves. Send the light, send the light. There are souls to rescue, there are souls to save. Send the light, send the light. Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine from shore to shore. Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine forevermore. One more this morning. Who's it gonna be? That special mother out there. You were already picked. Nice try. I see a couple of you out there. Alright. Nia. 147. Page 147. Leaning on the everlasting arms on the first. What a fellowship, what a joy divine. Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace of mind. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning. Safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Are you seeing at this time we'll have our announcements. Good morning everybody. Welcome to Shore Foundation Baptist Church. And happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. And we're gonna go through some announcements. If you lift up your hand one of the ushers can bring you a bulletin if you don't have one already. Anybody need one? Going once, alright. On our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says, her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also and he praises her. Proverbs chapter 31 verse 28. Great scripture there. And on our inside cover there, there's a little short note there. If you have any questions or spiritual questions or anything that you need, I'll make myself available to talk with you after the service. And if you aren't 100% sure that you're saved or need to be baptized, you can see one of the ushers. They're the guys with the pins on their coat that say usher on it. Or you can talk to me or there's plenty of other people who'll be able to help you here. And our service times are Sunday morning at 1030 a.m. for our preaching service. And Sunday evening at 330 p.m. is our, our Sunday evening service is 330 p.m. Thursday Bible study is 630 p.m. and we're going to be in Hebrews chapter 12 this week. Our soul wanting times are listed below. We'll have soul wanting today at 1-10-ish, depending on the food situation. The food is supposed to be here at 12 o'clock, so if I can get one of the ushers to just sign off on that. And I haven't tipped them yet, so just 15% I guess. Whatever you, don't do it off the tax though. Don't, don't pay, don't pay, you know, don't, they've already taxed us, so just I'm talking about the total price. Anyway, sorry, I should have said that before the service. Anyway, so then, yeah, we're eating after the service, I'll go through that in just a second. But the soul wanting times are there below. We might get out a little bit late today just because of the food. And if you look down you can see the praise report, the salvations for the month of May. We were at 16 and our church in Seattle has 35 salvations already for this month. So doing really well up there and we're just doing, we're tearing it up right now in soul wanting. So great job everybody and if you look down you can see all the rest of the stats there on the right side. Again, there's the message for Happy Mother's Day. There's a gift for every mom today and we'll be handing that out in just a minute. And then of course, lunch is provided. We're going to be having round table pizza. So I got a variety of different types. There's salad and some other stuff. So anyway, it's just I don't want the moms to go have to labor today. You know, I really think Mother's Day is a special day and I really want to go all out every year for the moms. One day a year, you know, they don't get enough accolades in my opinion. So I appreciate moms. I have one and if I didn't have a mom I wouldn't be here today, right? So anyway, I just want to make this weekend really special for you. So I hope you appreciate it and we appreciate you. So other things that are going on, we got next Saturday we're going to have a church work day. It's going to start at 1030 a.m. so you don't have to get up super early on your day off. I don't want to inconvenience anybody. But if you do want to come earlier and you have some specific tasks that you wanted to do, that's fine. But my goal is to get the outside perimeter of the building cleaned up. We have those little grabbers. You can grab stuff. You don't have to touch it with your hands. And I'd like to blow off, you know, and make the sidewalk look nice. And back in the little caged area back there, it's kind of looking pretty rough. So I was hoping we could get some of that cleaned up out there. Maybe kill the weeds or whatever. It'd be nice like during the conference we could set some tables outside and you wouldn't have to worry about like grabbing a needle accidentally or something or your kids. So it's kind of on the table. But I just definitely want to make sure that it's really clean before we go back out there. So anyway, hopefully the conference has nice weather. I looked at the 10-day forecast and it looks like it's 82 up until a certain point. But usually on Memorial Day weekend we get a rain here. So hopefully that's not the case. But that brings me to my next point, which is the King James Conference, which is swiftly coming upon us. That is May 25th through 28th. And if you RSVP, you can get a hat or a t-shirt reserved for you. Please, if you're reserving your spot for the t-shirt, please make sure you... I need the size of that t-shirt, so I won't share it with anybody. So it's all right. But anyway, so you can email or text the church at our number. It's at, let's see, 360-718-3834. But anyway, on June 6th, so we have that coming up. I better talk about that for just a second. We have lots of passers coming in. We have lots of guests coming in. And as you can see, we've redone the auditorium. There's about 190-something seats just in here. Plus we have the mother baby room, the dad baby room, and we're going to have an overflow area. We put a TV in the back there. So if worse comes to worse, we might have to put people in the overflow. So if you're a family that's willing to go in the overflow if we get too packed, I've already had a couple families say that they would be willing to do that. So that would be appreciated. These ones that are reserved, so you notice the reserved seating signs. That just is for families with young children. So I just ran out of reserved signs, so I put one on each end over here, but that one has a whole row. If you're a family with young children, you're more than welcome to sit there. But we're trying to reserve those back rows. That's why they're reserved. These ones here, these ones up here are fine. Those ones there are for anybody that's in the orchestra that's going to be playing during the conference. So anyway, just wanted to let you know that. And we're trying to make room for everything. As you can see, the auditorium here is being transformed into a kingly palace. It looks really nice. A lot of hard work has gone into it, so I appreciate everybody that has been doing that. And also I want to say I appreciate everybody that helped with the ladies' tea. It looked like everybody had a good time. And I appreciate the ladies that cleaned up afterwards and set everything up. And you know who you are. I don't want to call out any names, but I really do appreciate you stepping up. Because it's usually an event my wife does, but she's actually sick and on bed rest right now. So if you pray for her, I'd appreciate that. Anyway, moving on. So you can see the list of the preachers. You can see the times that they're preaching and then the full schedule I put in the WhatsApp group. But if you need any more details, just let me know. On June 6th is the men's leadership class. June 9th through 12th is the SFBC Winnipeg official launch, Sony marathon, and ordination of brother Jim Weeb as an evangelist. If you're wanting to go on that trip, please let me know. June 17th is the annual men's shooting event. And Father's Day is June 18th. There will be a gift for every father and lunch provided after the service. July 20th, we have Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. He'll be preaching here for the Thursday night service. Now, you'll notice that that coincides with the event at the bottom of the page, which is July 20th, the Red Hot Preaching Conference. So anybody that can't go to the Red Hot Preaching Conference, you'll still get a Red Hot Preaching Conference here because Pastor Anderson is going to be here to preach. But obviously, there's a lot of stuff going on. We have a lot of activities at this church, a lot of different things going on. So sometimes you've got to pick whatever vacation time you have or whatever to do these things. But anyway, those are the upcoming announcements. And then we are a family-integrated church. That means that children and infants are welcome during the church services. Please do take them to the mother-baby room if they're really fussy or screaming or whatever. And the mother-baby rooms have comfortable seating, and so do the daddy rooms. I put one of the rockers back there so the dads will have an extra seat in there. So anyway, let's see. Please, no eating in this room here, but today that might be suspended just because of the round table pizza. I have six tables set up in there. There's still tables upstairs and chairs also. But after we're done eating today, I'd really appreciate it if we could get some help just cleaning up real quick. I know it's going to be kind of a cram deal, but if anybody's willing to stay and help clean up those tables, then we've got to put those tables up. So anyway, I know there's a lot of announcements. I'm sorry about that. But then let's see. You all know pretty much everything else that ties an offering so far for this month. It's at the bottom of the page. And let's see. We were just saying happy birthday to the people that are having birthdays. And let's see. So I covered the reserved seating. And so the music area, because we're having people from out of town play, we're kind of limited on our space over here. So if you play an instrument, or I mean if you're not playing an instrument and you're just storing your musical instruments over here, I would like you to either take them home or we can store them back in the back room. That's where I put the guitar. But if there's anything that's just laying around there that's not being used, we'd appreciate you just taking it out of there. We're trying to just unclutter it. And then let's see. Round table pizzas. So you notice the new curtain right there. Nice, huh? So the sun doesn't come in and laser your eyes during the preaching. And it's really nice. But I'm just going to say this right now. Please don't let your kids swing on that curtain. Because then it'll just be like full freak out by me. So I don't want that ripped down, please. So if your kids are playing around it, just scoot them away from it or something. But it'll be closed pretty much during the time. But kids just like to explore new things and explore new worlds and things like that. And they love to hang out behind here and grab everything out from the pulpit and mess up the pad. But you know, where there's no ox, the crib is clean. So we love kids here. But please just don't just let your kids destroy things and just stand there and watch them do it. So I'd appreciate us. Let's take care of the things that God's given us, right? So and then last but not least, the Mother's Day gifts. I have tasers. I know we did the tasers a while back. But I decided they'd probably be good with all the pit bull sightings in Walmart and stuff like that. And with a pit bull, you know, I think they might be impervious to them. But any other dog, you can just shock them with a taser. Or some rando that tries to mess with you in a shopping center or something. But I got pink and I got purple. So I have less purple than I do pink. So choose whichever one you want, ladies. Guys, you can go ahead and start handing those out now. So we appreciate you moms. And we just want to have a little extra protection. You already have God protecting you. But sometimes God calls us to stand. And if you stand with a taser, you know, the pit bull might jump up and just eat the taser out of your hand. But maybe they'll die swallowing it. So that would be good. But yeah, those are for those land sharks and everything. And I did want to mention while they're handing those things out, we have communication cards again. So there's a little box as you first walk in on the left hand side there. If you're a first time guest or if you just need to update your information, maybe your birthday is not in the bulletin and you want it to be or you want it taken out of the bulletin so I don't embarrass you or whatever. But if you'd fill a communication card out to update your information, or if you're new to our church and we don't have your information, I'm not going to give it away to anybody. I'm not going to sell it to Amazon or Google or anything like that. But we just want a little bit of info. And I'm not going to show up at your house unannounced or anything like that. We're not the old IFB. So that's what they do on Thursday nights usually in the old IFB. But anyway, these are available for you. And it says on the back if you're not 100 percent sure you're saved, you can just look at them. But the ushers have them available for you. If you need one while we do the offering, there's some in the back right there. But if you need to fill anything out or even if you maybe come in late and you just didn't get a chance to put your tithe in, that box is for that too. At the end of each service, it'll be taken in and counted and stuff like that. So anyway, that's all I got for announcements. I know it was long. Sorry about that. But let's go ahead and sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. Alright, let's turn in our green hymn books to page 367. We'll sing My Mother's Bible. Page 367, My Mother's Bible. My Mother's Bible, sing it out on the first. There's a dear and precious book, though it's worn and painted now, which recalls those happy days of long ago, when I stood at Mother's knee with her hand upon my brow and I heard her voice in gentle tones and low, blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old Tuesday leaves I love to love. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. As she read the stories o'er of those mighty men of old, of Joseph and of Daniel and their trials, of little David bold, who became a king at last, of Satan with his many wicked vows, blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old Tuesday leaves I love to look. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. Then she read of Jesus' love as He blessed the children dear, how He suffered, bled, and died upon the tree of His heavy load of care. Then she dried my flowing tears with her kisses as she said it was for me, blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old Tuesday leaves I love to look. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. On the last, well, those days are past and gone, but their memory lingers still, and the dear old buddy Jay has been my guide, and I seek to do his will as my mother Tommy bled, and never in my heart his words abide. Blessed book, precious book, on thy dear old Tuesday leaves I love to look. Thou art sweeter day by day as I walk the narrow way that leads at last to that bright home above. Amen. Great singing this morning. At this time we'll have our ushers come forward to receive the offering for us. Brother Robert, can you bless the offering, please? Definitely, Paul. Lord, just thank you for this great day in church. Lord, thank you for the son that we have. Lord, I just ask that you bless the services today, that you bless Pastor Thompson as he preaches, Lord, and Lord, just bless this offering and help us get with the trail for heart, Lord, and bless fellowship and just help us to win some souls for you today, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible under the seat in front of you. Genesis 3. Genesis 3, the Bible reads, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when a woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Has thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Under the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring four children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring four to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, and shalt thou return unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken, for dost thou art, and unto dost shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And to Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Brother Bill, will you pray for us? Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in church. Thank you for the mothers here today. Please fill Pastor Thompson up with the Holy Ghost. Tell him to preach things that are right to us, and open our ears to understand the message, and just be with us here today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, we're in Genesis chapter 3, and the title of the sermon this morning is The Sorrows and Joys of Motherhood. The Sorrows and Joys of Motherhood. Look down at your Bible at verse number 16. It says unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for all the moms in attendance here, and Lord for just blessing this church with so many children and great moms, and Lord, I'm just so thankful for a church like this. Let's pray, Lord, that you'd give a special blessing to each mom out there, and even if they're not a literal mom, that they would be a spiritual mom to the other ladies in this church. We just pray that you'd bless the service, and the food that's coming afterwards, and the soul winning, and just this whole day, Lord. Pray bless greatly today in your house. I pray you fill me with your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so you have the first mom here in the book of Genesis, and her name is Eve, if you were following along. Obviously, everybody pretty much knows the story of Adam and Eve. It's a very famous story. Where sin first came is because Eve was beguiled by the devil, and this is the curse that is placed upon her, and then that curse passes on to all ladies because, especially when it's talking about sorrow, and the conception and sorrow in bringing forth children. The word conception means the action of conceiving a child, or of a child being conceived. The word conceive just means to become pregnant, or to be with child. The word sorrow means the uneasiness or pain of mind which is produced by the loss of any good, or of frustrated hopes of good, or expected loss of happiness, to grieve, to be sad. That's what sorrow means. Of course, the word sorry, you kind of get that feeling, and part of that word, obviously, is sorrow, so it's pain of mind produced by the loss of any good, or frustrated hopes of good, or expected loss of happiness, to grieve, to be sad. God said that the curse that would be placed upon her was that he would greatly multiply that sorrow, that pain of mind, that frustrated hope, and the expected loss of happiness, to grieve, to be sad. And in thy conception, so conception just isn't necessarily talking about the moment that a woman conceives. It's talking about even the process of what it takes to conceive. And so I'm going to be talking about a lot of these things this morning, and I'm not going to beat up on the women this morning. I've done that too many times in Mother's Day service before, and that's not my goal here. If we get a little sad today, that might happen, because sorrow is sadness, isn't it? And the Bible says that in sorrow, you're going to conceive. And it says, in sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children. So it's a rough experience for women. And I would say that sorrow here goes beyond the pain of childbirth, though. It goes beyond that pain. A lot of people, when you think of this verse, you think it's going to be hard to bring forth children and labor. And I know that that's true, because I've seen children born. I have children. I haven't experienced the part that they experience, but I live vicariously through that to see it hurts, right? Like, it's a painful experience. And I think that most people think about this verse, and they think it's talking about just childbirth. But I don't believe that it is just talking about childbirth. I believe it's talking about the whole process of conception and also bringing forth children. Because when moms bring forth children, there's that anxiety and worry that you have for that child for the rest of your life. And dads really aren't so much that way where we're just worried sick about our kids all the time, but moms are. And moms, they have this sorrow from bringing forth children. They have sorrow in conception. And I think in most cases, though, people do read this verse like that, but it's not just talking about the pain of childbirth, although I think it is talking about that. It's definitely talking about that. But it goes well beyond that, just the simple pains of giving birth. And pregnancy is a difficult thing for some women. It's really hard just carrying a child, right? You get the morning sickness, you get the swelling, you get big. And a lot of ladies don't like getting big. Heartburn. My wife one time, she had heartburn so bad that she was using baking soda and almost choked to death because it got caught in her throat. But her heartburn was so bad, she was just trying to relieve it somehow. And you get the nausea, then you get the weird food cravings. You know, peanut butter and pickle sandwiches and Chinese, just weird kinds of food like peanut butter. I don't know, but my wife liked Chinese food when she was pregnant with Remy. She was like, let's get some Chinese food. Really? Again? So that part might be something they like, but anyway. But you got things like preeclampsia, you got high blood pressure, you got gestational diabetes, you have back pain. You know, it's rough to carry a child. It's rough to, you know, that part of the conception, that's part of the conception, isn't it? It's part of bringing four children and so you have to do that for nine months and then the real hard part comes. So it's rough, but this is the curse and it's not your fault. You know, it is Eve's fault, isn't it? Because she's the one that did that sin that caused this to happen to you. And so you might have some hard feelings towards Eve when you're having your children. You can just blame her. Don't yell at your husband. Yell at her. No, I'm just kidding. So let's turn over to 1 Chronicles 4, verse 9. The Bible says in 1 Chronicles 4, verse 9, it says, And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bear him with sorrow. So the word Jabez, you know, obviously you got a whole line of stupid books and teachings about Jabez and, you know, they'll write whole movies and all kinds of weird stuff, so. But I'm not bringing, this is the first time I've ever, I think, even mentioned Jabez as far as like going to the chapter about him, but I just thought it was really interesting that you have this, you know, his mom calling him, basically his name is like sorrow. You know, it must have been a rough one, right? But here's the thing, it says, So even though he was a hard baby, he was hard, a hard birth, and I know a lot of women, like, sometimes it's usually, most of the time it's the first birth, right? That does all the damage to the body and the tears and the stretch marks and, you know, the belly that won't ever go away after that, that kind of stuff. And it's hard on ladies, and sometimes those first time, you know, bringing forth a child is really rough, but other ones can be rough too. But it's amazing to me, though, that someone can give you so much sorrow that you would name your child that, but then look how blessed he is of the Lord. So sometimes your most difficult children can be the biggest blessing later on, and, you know, some children born in sorrow are very blessed, and Jabez obviously was very blessed. He was more honorable than his brethren, so he was the best child out of all the children that were born of her. So, and, you know, you might have a kid that's a little more rambunctious than the rest of them, the one that you have to spank more, the one that you have to correct more. And I know that anybody that has more than two children, they know this, and you might have an easy one your first time or your second time, but there's going to be that child that's the more difficult child, the one that's always challenging you, the one that's always saying no, the one that you try to tell what to do and they just refuse to listen. Those are hard, but you know what? Maybe later on that child can be a blessing, but here's the thing, you can't allow them to break your will. You have to break their will by, you know, punishing them for, you know, their abstinence, but you have to break their will, but don't break their spirit. You know, some people, you know, they don't have a balance when they're disappointing children, and you have to have a balance. They have to know you love them also, right? But some of these harder children, like this particular guy here, Jabez, he was more honorable than his brethren, but he was brought forth in sorrow. You might have a grudge against one of your kids because of how hard they were to bring forth or how hard they were as toddlers or children, but be patient with them and love them. You know, we have to love our children, and all children are different, so all children are different. They're not exactly cookie cutters of each other. They might look similar, like Remy and Josh really look similar. If you look at their faces, like when Remy was in, I forgot what grade he was, but Josh was in kindergarten. I think Remy was in third grade, and I was walking Josh to his kindergarten class, and kids were walking up to him, and they're like, he has Remy's face. They look so closely alike, but, you know, they're two different boys. They're just different in a lot of ways. So you have differences in your children, so don't just be annoyed with that one that's the most difficult, because the most difficult one can bring blessings later on. And then there's sorrow in conception of not being able to conceive. That's another sorrow that ladies have, and it's a really big theme in the Bible, where women aren't able to conceive, they're not able to even bring forth or have children at all, and you see long periods of time that God shuts their womb for whatever reason. But maybe God is shutting your womb because he's waiting for you to ask. He's waiting for you to go to him about it instead of finding alternative ways to do that. Now obviously sometimes conception can be some sort of health issue, some sort of health problem that you might have to get checked out, but obviously God is the one that forms children in the womb. God is the one that you really need to go to. If you're having a hard time conceiving, then you need to go to God. You need to go to the source of life. Isn't God the one that created life? Well, isn't God your God? Well, you should be able to go to God and ask him for anything, right, if you're saved. And maybe he's not going to give it to you right away. Maybe he wants to see how bad you really do want it. But that is also a sorrow of conception, is the fact that you cannot conceive. Let's look at Genesis chapter 18. We'll see, you know, Sarah was promised that she would have this son. Abraham was promised that he would have a son, and they get to their really old age, they get into the 90s here, and she still hasn't had that child. And here's the thing, is that Hagar, she actually gave her handmaid to Abraham so that she could do it herself. So she was trying to get the prophecy fulfilled on her own. Through her own means and her own mind, she picked this handmaid named Hagar that she gave to Abraham, and then Abraham did have a child with Hagar. But that child was not the promised child. The promise was that God was going to do this, and they had to wait for the right timing. But when you're 90 years old and you're past the time where you can actually have children, obviously this is a great miracle that happens in the Bible. Look at verse 11, it says, Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my lord, being old also? So she laughed at the fact that God said she would bring forth a child. And God didn't really like that very much. And he said, And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of assurity bear a child which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? And what's the answer to that? No. There's nothing that's too hard for the Lord. The Lord can do anything with God. All things are possible. So can you conceive? Well, the doctor said this. Look, the doctors say a lot of things. But they're not always right, are they? That's why they call it a practice. They do know a lot of things, and they can diagnose a lot of things. But even with Nia, they were trying to get us to abort Nia when she was a baby because they said that, because my wife got this rare sickness, and they said that she's not going to live. But we chose not to do that, and guess what? Nia's still here today, and she was born. We didn't listen to what the doctors had to say, obviously, and that's a wicked sin anyway. But we just, you know, we weren't even saved back then, but we just trusted that she would be right and normal, and she was. But let's look down at Genesis 21, verse 2. So flip over a couple pages there. Look at Genesis 21, verse 1. The Bible says, And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. So he was pretty old, wasn't he? And it says, And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. So the sorrow of not being able to bring forth, the sorrow of making the big mistake of giving Hagar to Abraham, to wife, and then later on that little boy, Ishmael, teases her son. And so really it caused a lot of chaos when they tried to do things in their own power and in their own will, but God already said it was going to happen, and God brought forth Isaac just like he said he was going to. And so Sarah laughed at that proposition, but then it says, God hath made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me. So that's the joy that came forth of Isaac being born unto her. Now let's look at 1 Samuel 1, verse 10. See there's sorrow, but there's also joy in conception. It's not all about the pain, the heartache, and there's plenty of that in this world. But there's also great joy in having children, and there's great memories that you make with your children, hopefully. And as moms, this is a hard time to be a mom. It really is. This world is upside down and topsy turvy. It's just a really difficult time. I mean, people used to be able to trust to put their kids in public school, and now they can't trust it at all. I mean, it's probably a concept that should never have been brought. I mean, God says it's our responsibility to raise our children, right, and to teach them in the way that they should go. But here's another story, and this is where, this is talking about Hannah. So, in talking about the story of Samuel, in 1 Samuel 1, 10 it says, and this is talking about Hannah, and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. What was her problem? Well, she couldn't have children, and her husband had two wives, and she was one of the two wives, and the other one was bringing forth children, and then making fun of her and mocking her, and the Bible even says it's her adversary. So, obviously, having two wives at the same time is a really stupid thing to do, and it just causes pain, and you can't do it here. It's illegal, unless you're Mormon, apparently. They can get away with it or whatever, but anyway, look what it says in verse 11. So, what is she upset about? She's upset because she can't have children. That's what she's upset about. She's upset that she cannot conceive, and verse 11 says, And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, and then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. So, she's begging God, and she makes this vow that if you will just let me have a child, I will give him to you. I will lend him to you. Verse 12 says, And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now, I've heard people say that they think that Eli smacked her in the mouth or something. That's not what it's talking about, okay? He's looking at her. Her lips are moving, but nothing's coming out of her mouth. So, he's just looking at her like, what's she doing here? Verse 13, it says, Now Hannah, she spake in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken. So, he's thinking, this lady's drunk, and she's acting a fool in the Lord's house, and Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from me. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. So, I don't think it's an accident that it says sorrowful there, right? Why is she sorrowful? Because she can't conceive. That's why she's sorrowful. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial. And notice how she says a daughter of Belial. Why? Because he thinks she's drunk, and so she equates that to only children of Belial are drunkards. That's, I mean, and that's not necessarily true, but that's what she's thinking, you know. So obviously, wine, real alcoholic wine, is not, you know, something that she partook in. But it says, Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. So Eli is the high priest. She's going to him, or not going to him necessarily, but she's going to the Lord, and Eli just said, Hey, let God grant that request. And so she wasn't sad anymore. And why? Because, well, you know, I think that she was encouraged by the fact that, you know, she knows that if she goes by faith to God, that she might be able to conceive and bring forth. And they rose up early in the morning, worshiped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. Remember she said, Remember me, Lord. And he did. He remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, and she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. So are you having trouble conceiving? Is that something that's giving you grief of heart and grief of spirit? Is it making you sorrowful? Well, it's just something that women want. They want children. Unless there's some weird feminist or something, most women want children. That's just kind of how it is, and God has instilled that instinct into mankind. He said, Be fruitful and multiply. So when a woman cannot have children, then it's very vexing to them. It's very sorrowful to them. And so you see, she even says that she has a sorrowful spirit. Why? Because she can't conceive. He's going to greatly multiply the sorrow of conception, is what it says in Genesis chapter 3. Now look at verse 18. It says, But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. So she did end up bringing him, and he, basically Eli raised him. So God granted her the child that she requested, but the vow was that she would lend him to the Lord all the days of his life. And obviously Samuel is one of the greatest prophets and one of the greatest judges in the Bible. I think he probably is the greatest judge in the Bible, because before or after him came the king. But he was the last of the judges, but he was a great man of God. So don't withhold your children from serving the Lord. Encourage them to serve the Lord. And Hannah was true to her word. It says, And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The Lord give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the Lord. And they went unto their own home, and the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters, and the child Samuel grew before the Lord. So the blessing that she got by giving him, by keeping her vow, by doing what she said, then Eli was like, hey, let her have more children. And guess what? She did. So, look, God is able to have you bring four children. So don't be so sorrowful and just so upset about it. I mean, obviously you're going to be anyway, but go to the Lord. Go to the source of the person that can actually allow you to conceive and pray to him. You know, obviously rule out any health issues. But go to God like she did. Take a page out of Hannah's book because what she did is an example, isn't it? I mean, why is this story in the Bible? Obviously it tells kind of the origin of Samuel, but the main focus is on Hannah and her faith in these chapters here. And, you know, all Scripture is profitable for us, right? And so when we know that the Scriptures say things like this, then as a lady, you know, don't be so downtrodden about this. If you're a Christian lady, go to God and ask him to give you a man child. That's what she said. Give me, grant me a man child, or a girl child, whatever. Whatever you want. You know, the girl children are usually easier. So, that's just my experience. But, you know, don't hold back your children from serving the Lord. Encourage it. Foster it. And, you know, God is seeking a godly seed, isn't he? He wants children to come forth, be raised in a Christian home, and to get saved and serve the Lord all the days of their life. So, you know, if you're asking God for something, here's where people make mistakes. When they ask God for something, he gives it to them, and then they turn against him. They stop serving God. They stop going to church. They stop caring about those things. It's like they forgot the source. They cut off that source, and it's kind of like spitting in God's face. Oh God, give me this job so I can support my family, so I can raise my children. And then, like, as soon as you get that, you stop going to church. Listen, if you stop going to church, you're going to get backslidden. It's just a fact. And it doesn't matter what the reason is, but if you're not in church, you're going to get backslidden. And so that's why it's important to be here. And you can be backslidden in church, too. You're probably thinking about the pizza right now, and that's fine. But hopefully you get something out of this sermon because it's important. The Word of God is important, and we should be paying attention to what it says. And we can all get something out of these stories. So, even a way to comfort your wife, if you're a husband here, to be able to just give her some encouragement. So, anyway, if you hold back your children from serving the Lord, you're going to regret it. If you drop out of church, you're going to regret it. And whether it's mom doing it or dad, if you drop out of church, if you stop serving God, guess what? Your children are not going to see anything spiritual. And then, what's going to happen? You're going to have real sorrow of mind later on, aren't you? Psalm 127, verse 3 says, Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. So, the children are a heritage of the Lord. God wants you to bring forth godly children, and he wants them to be his reward. And if they die and go to hell, that's not very rewarding, is it? So, we have a huge responsibility as parents and moms. You have the biggest responsibility because you're with the children more than anybody else is. So, usually dads are out working, and moms are raising the children. And in a Christian family, that's the way it ought to be. So, here's another situation that brings forth sorrow. Mothers, you know, if you just think about it in the New Testament, how many times did mothers come distraught to Jesus, wanting to do what? Fix my child. Cast these devils out of them. Or raise this child from the dead. Heal this sickness that they have. And like I said, mothers have, you know, they don't just stop sorrowing. It's a continual thing. They don't stop worrying about their children. They're always going to worry about them. But you had mothers in the New Testament going to Jesus over incurable diseases, and all these things, and obviously we don't have the power that Jesus had in the sense that we can lay our hands on someone or just speak a word and they're healed. You know, the apostles had power to heal people, but that died out in the first generation. So, that's not something that we do. And I know that Benny Hintz thinks that he can do it, or, you know, he's whipping people with his coat and all this other stuff, and they're falling down, slaying the spirit. That's all fake, folks. It's not true. You know, if they were really able to do those healings, they'd be up at the burn center, healing children of their burnt skin, or healing children that are in these children's hospitals that are dying of various diseases. You know, we can't do anything to stop that, because we don't have that gift of healing in that sense. We have the gift of healing through prayer, and obviously God will do many great things through our prayers, but sometimes children are born with major health problems. That is a sorrow in conception, isn't it? Sometimes they have major health problems, they're born with bad ailments, they're born with bad hearts, they're born with syndromes, and many other health problems. You know, count yourself fortunate that you haven't had a child that's like that, but a lot of people have. Here's the thing. We live in a curse-stricken earth. And, you know, people are like, well, why would God allow this to happen? God didn't allow it to happen. We have free will, but the curse is that he would greatly, you know, he would greatly bring forth, when you're bringing forth children, you would have great sorrow. And it's because of sin. It's because God didn't sin, they sinned. Eve sinned. We sinned. And so it's a sin-stricken world, and there's many imperfections in this world now. There's a lot of bad things that happen, and a lot of it, you know, when it comes to being born with major health problems, there's nothing we can do about it, but most people would rather abort their child than to deal with a child with special needs. And that's just wicked. It's wrong. You know, if God wants them to live, and they're going to bring forth, then, you know, we should take care of them, right? So turn to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 14. And, you know, syndromes are like things with, you know, there's certain types of syndromes that people are born with. Down syndrome is probably the one that you're most familiar with. But 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 14 says, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. Comfort the feeble-minded. Support the weak. Be patient toward all men. You know, they didn't have ways of looking at children to see what kind of disease they had before they were born. This is a newer technology, of course, in this century. So they didn't have ultrasounds, they didn't have these type of things. And so children were just born, and when they had problems, they dealt with it. People just had to deal with it. And it's the same thing now, though. Children are still born with problems, and there's nothing we can do about that. My granddaughter, Olivia, was born with a syndrome called Prader-Willi. And some of you probably know that. But Prader-Willi syndrome is caused by genetic changes on an unstable region of chromosome 15 that affects the regulation of gene expression and how genes turn on and off. So who's most likely to get Prader-Willi syndrome? Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that affects development and growth. It is thought that around 1 in 10,000 to 20,000 children are born with the syndrome, with females slightly more likely to have the condition than males. There's nothing you could have done to prevent the syndrome. They just said it's just something that happens at conception that the chromosomes don't line up. And so my granddaughter, Olivia, has that syndrome. I had never heard of it before. I didn't even know it existed. But when she was born, we knew right away that there was problems. She was having problems breathing. She had low muscle tone. And that's kind of one of the things that is associated with it is the low muscle tone. But we didn't know what was wrong with her for six weeks when she was born. She was in the NICU. She was on oxygen. She had to have a feeding tube. Who remembers when she had that feeding tube that she had to... And taking that thing out and putting it back in, really traumatizing. I mean, I couldn't even really stand to be around when it was going on because she's screaming. And it was really rough. It was really rough on Brandon and Nia. So she had to have that feeding tube on for several months. She had to fight to make it where she is today. Now she's walking around. She can throw a fit with the best of them. But she's a really sweet girl. She's really pretty. And she has a great smile. And she lights up the room when she comes into the room. She's always kind of bouncing and just happy. But she does have that. She's held back from a lot of the... She didn't walk until she was over two years old. And do you remember when she used to scoot? She'd kind of do her little shuffle scoot because she couldn't crawl. She just didn't have the muscle tone to be able to do that. And so when she started crawling, she would do the scoot and the crawl. But then now she's walking and she's doing great. So she's behind what most children would be at at this age. But God knew what he was doing when he made her. And he knew what family he was putting in when he made her. And even though she was brought forth in sorrow in the fact that we didn't know what was going on with her. And I'll just be honest with you. When I found out some of the things that were going to be her future, I mourned over that. I actually was very upset about it. She's never going to be able to have children. She's not going to be able to get married. She's probably going to live with her parents for the rest of her life. And it just really upset me. Because I just thought, what a sad... How do you explain that to a child? It's just hard. And I'm sure it's hard on Brandon and Nia. But I love her with all my heart. And she's Papa's... She's got Papa's heart. But was it hard for her to be brought into this world? It was hard. For them to have to go to the hospital every day for six weeks and spend all that time with her. And just knowing that she's delayed in a lot of aspects. One of the things that is a challenge is that once they turn two years old, they don't have a shutoff mechanism for being full. They'll just continue to eat and eat and eat. And so it's a big problem with children with Prader-Willi. That they'll just continue to eat no matter how full they are. So that's why Nia, sometimes she's just saying, don't feed her. So when people feed her, they think she's always hungry though. That's part of the syndrome. So just for the fact of saying it, I'll just make sure that you ask Nia or Brandon before you feed them food. So obviously, feed her food. I'm sorry. But I did sorrow over Olivia. And there's a lot of things, a lot of challenges that are going to come her way. But like I said, God placed her in that home for a reason. God knew that Brandon and Nia were going to love her and care for her. And even though she has special needs, she's very loved by a lot of people. And I think a lot of people really just enjoy her company. And even though she's a little different, she's still a child. And she's still worthy of being called one of God's children. And her mental capacity is fine. She has a great sense of humor. She's a joy to be around. But it is sorrow when you have to bring forth and then have to care for a child with special needs. It's hard, isn't it? It's a hard thing. And I've just never had to deal with that before. And so it really affected me deeply knowing the hardships that they were going to face with her. But I got over that. I mourned for a little while, and then I was just like, you know what? God made her this way for a reason. God made her and brought her forth in that family for a reason. Because the greatest home that someone can be brought forth in that has some kind of physical or mental incapacities, the best place is for people that love life. And Christians, if you're a Christian and you don't love life, there's something wrong with you. And if you don't love and have compassion for other people's lives. But sometimes these things happen. But don't look at it like a curse. Look at it like a blessing. See, you can have great joy. I have great joy with Olivia. I know they do. So it's not something like, oh, let's just feel sorry for them all the time. Just be normal. I mean, they're having a hard time, but they're still great kids. She's still going to be a great child. I know that God loves her. I love her. Her family loves her. But again, it's sorrow at first. But just dealing with that situation, it can be difficult. But we've still got to just press on and love those children. And so I think it's really weird when people look at a child with problems like that as a curse. Because I don't think it's a curse at all. I count it as a blessing. So there's also sorrow in conception and bringing forth children when they die before you do. And this is a difficult situation that some parents go through. And whether that's prematurely during birth, prematurely before the birth, or after being born, it's a difficult situation. It's hard. And I've never had to deal with this myself, but I'm a pastor. And so I deal with all kinds of situations. I deal with all kinds of heartaches. And miscarriages are a big thing that happens in conception. Miscarriages happen all the time. And sometimes they're worse than other times. Sometimes they're just really shortly after conceiving. But sometimes ladies will have a miscarriage deep into their pregnancy. And the bigger they are, the harder it is to deal with. And it's probably one of the hardest things I deal with as a pastor. And for one thing, I've never experienced it in my life, so I can't fully empathize the way I think that I should sometimes. But it does make me sad. But here's the thing. God is going to take care of those kids. Those kids are still going to be in heaven, even though you never got to meet them. They never saw, they never lived their life here on earth. God is still going to take care of them, and you're going to see those kids in heaven someday. But the Bible talks about this a little bit. Let's look at Psalm 58, verse 8. And the Bible actually does talk about this quite a bit, about children passing away before they're born. It says in Psalm 58, verse 8, and of course this is a famous imprecatory psalm of David, it says, As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away, like the untimely birth of a child, that they may not see the sun. So David is cursing here, and he's using miscarriage as an example of something that is not a blessing. It's not a blessing. But there can be joy out of that curse in the way that that child will be seen by you again. And you might not have been able to meet them, they might not have been able to grow up, but they're still your child. You were still pregnant with that child, and one day you will see that child again. And I think the Bible teaches that very clearly. Another verse is in Job 3.16, it says, Or as in hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants which never saw light. So Job's ruining the day that he was born and saying he wished he'd never been born. But obviously he was in deep sorrow and grief himself at that time. In verse 13 it says, For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept then had I been at rest. And notice how he says at rest. So when a child passes away, they're at rest. Children don't go to hell that are not past the age of accountability. What's the age of accountability? I don't know. But it's when they understand that they're sinful and at that point they need a savior when they stop being innocent. But babies are innocent, they haven't done anything yet. So they're going to go to heaven straight away. Turn over to 2 Samuel 12 verse 14, I'm just going to read Ecclesiastes 6.3. It says, So basically in Ecclesiastes he's saying some child that dies before they're born is better than somebody that goes to hell. Right? It says, So an untimely birth is better than someone that dies and goes to hell. Why? Because the untimely birth, those children go to heaven. Amen? So look at 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 14. And sometimes obviously God might punish us for the sins that we do. And sometimes the sins of the parents can have an effect on the children. But look at this story in 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 14. So this child does get brought forth. It's a child of adultery. It's a child of a really wicked sin. And both of them committed this sin. Bathsheba, the mother, did commit sin with David. And, you know, it was a mark on them for the rest of their life. It's a mark on them in the Bible. I mean, usually when it talks about David being a man after God's own heart, it'll say, except for the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Which he killed her husband, had her husband killed in battle. He stole his wife. She was, you know, she brought forth and conceived based upon a wicked sin. It says Nathan departed. Let's see. So Nathan, the prophet, tells him, hey, that baby is going to die. And Nathan departed into his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. And David therefore besought God for the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him from the earth. But he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, behold, when the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken to our voice, how will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? But David saw that the servants whispered, when the servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said unto the servants, is the child dead? And he said, he is dead. And David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came out into the house of the Lord, and worshipped. And he came to his own house, and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, what thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fasten wheat for the child while it was yet alive, but when the child is dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. He said, and he said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live? And so, you know, David, he cared about that child, the child died, and then he got up, and obviously he mourned and wept, you know, while the child was still alive, but the truth that David knew, he says in these next two verses, he says, but now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. So what is David saying? He's saying that when he dies, that he's going to go, and he'll be with that child one day. So let this be a comfort to you, ladies, when your children die prematurely, you know, they pass away, or even after birth, because, I mean, that is the most horrible thing that I could think of happening to a mother. Or even if your child, you know, I mean, it's a hard situation, but you should take comfort in the fact that you know that you're going to be able to see that child again someday. And David, look at verse 24, it says, and David comforted Bathsheba his wife. So, you know, men, hey, when these types of things happen, you might not be able to fully empathize with what's going on, but comfort your wife, you know, care for your wife, because it's very difficult for them, these situations, and, you know, even all the hormones that it takes to, you know, things in women's bodies just change when they have children. I mean, you know that women deal with postpartum issues and things like that, and I'm not sure exactly how all that plays into, like, an untimely birth, like the Bible's talking about, but hey, guys, comfort your wives, because, you know, it's a serious thing to them, and obviously I know that it's serious to you, too, but, I mean, we just, men are just different, you know. Sometimes we press on, we don't seem like we're very emotional about certain things, and that's fine, but they are emotional. They have a lot of feelings, and, you know, women cry a lot, right? Well, some women do, but we don't cry a lot. If you do, you know, do some push-ups or something, guys. But, obviously, there's a time to weep, there's a time to mourn, there's a time to cry, but it says David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went into her and lay with her, and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him. So, even though there was sorrow, there was sorrow in the conception of that child, and obviously it was brought about by their own sin, the reason why the child died. And, you know, David and Bathsheba had to live with that shame for the rest of their lives, and even today, everybody knows their business. It's like it's in the Bible. Like, it was really bad. And I'm sure that that was rough, even just being around people after that. Bathsheba had to watch her son die for what she did. She caused that. David caused that. And she had to deal with the whispers and the dirty looks and the shame from that day forward. But you know what the blessing was that came out of the whole thing? Is that they had another son, and that son lived, and he was a great king in Israel, and the Lord loved him. So, you know, after the death of a child, you know, don't be so sad that you're just like, well, I just never want to have another child again, because, look, God can bless your next pregnancy. God can bless that next child, and we don't know why those things happen, except for the fact that maybe there was going to be such problems that you wouldn't be able to take care of. I mean, we don't know the mind of the Lord and why these things happen sometimes, but, I mean, the only thing I can explain it with is the fact that this world is cursed, and there's a lot of problems, and even in genetics with people, I mean, people can carry the proclivity to have a certain disease later on in life, and then you get two people that have the same type of issues, then that child has a greater chance of having those issues also. So we just don't know why God does the things that he does. He just does. So, and then, obviously, the death of a child that's older, or the death of even an adult child, like, no parent should have to bury their children before the time, but, you know what, it happens every single day in this world, and it's hard. It's rough. And, you know, why does God allow it? It's the consequences of sin. Sin bears consequences no matter what, and, you know, in the first Bible reading that we did, Eve was the mother of all living, but she was also the mother of the dead because, you know, she, because of the decision that she made, and, you know, some people, some women have had abortions, and, I mean, I wouldn't even ask somebody if that's something that they've done, but, you know, if you've had an abortion, that child is still going to be in heaven, and, you know, if you've done something like that, just confess those things to God and move on because that child is still alive someplace in heaven, and, you know, that child is going to love you there, too, and even though you did the most horrible thing you could possibly do, God is still going to make sure that that child goes to heaven, so what you meant for evil, you know, at that time, God can still make something good out of that. Obviously, abortion is one of the most wicked sins that I could ever think of. It's really bad, but you can still move forward from something like that, you know, confess that sin, and, hey, have more children. Get rid of this feminist mindset. This is what happens. You know, people want to say that church brainwashes people. The world brainwashes people. The world defiles people's minds and makes us think a certain way. It's just kind of in our culture, and then when you get saved, that culture goes away, and you're like, oh, what have I done? So, but we can move forward from those things, but obviously that is a sorrow in bringing forth children in conception. You have parents that maybe didn't raise their kids right. They weren't saved when they were raising their kids, and then they get saved, and their kids are teens, and then at that point, it's kind of too late to bring in the discipline. It's too late to do all those things, but you know what? Through faith, you know, and living right before God, we still can win those children over. We still can win those teens over, but it can be difficult, and it causes problems in families. That's why Jesus said that he didn't come to bring peace on the earth, but he came to divide, to bring division, and sometimes that's what happens. The parents get saved in an older age, in the middle age, and then their children don't, and that's a sorrow of mind, isn't it? It's a sorrow in conception. It's a sorrow in bringing out children, and it's just a hard thing to deal with, but the thing is we can't control what other people do. The Bible talks about how we have free will, and not every child of yours might choose to be saved. You know, you can bring them up in the nurture and ammunition of the Lord, and try to do everything right, but ultimately that child still has the decision to make on their own, right? So let's look back at Genesis chapter 4, and so we see the situation that happens with Eve. So Genesis chapter 4 says, And Adam knew his wife, verse 1, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. So, you know, she recognizes this is from God, but Cain, we know, is a wicked false prophet, and what did he do? He murdered his brother. He says she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So you have Cain and Abel. One is good and righteous and holy. He's saved, and then the other one is as wicked as the devil. He's called a child of the devil, basically, and he wasn't Satan's literal son, okay? I already preached about that before, but, you know, she had to watch the decision that she made. She had to watch, and obviously she didn't see it happen, but she had to watch her son become a false prophet, spiritually dead, and murdered her good son that was spiritually right. So the ramifications of what Eve did played out in that first two children that were born on the earth. Instantly, the first one is a murderer. The first one is a false prophet. The first one is maligned in Scripture because he was so wicked. And so, you know, Eve's story is that, you know, she made a big mistake, and here's the thing about Eve. I personally think that Eve didn't realize just how bad that situation was going to be. How could she possibly know? God said if they eat of the tree, of that fruit, that they would die. He said the day that you do that, you will surely die. And so she's thinking, well, I'm just going to die. But she gave it to her husband, you know, maybe she was mad at him or something. But he did it willingly, right? But think about this. I mean, Eve is called the mother of all living. But she's also the mother of all that die. And she gets a bad rap. Brother Stuckey's doing this. I've talked about this before, but he does like these, you know, pick your favorite Bible character, and he like does this tournament of voting on his YouTube page. And the first one, so he already got done with the men. I think Paul the Apostle won the whole competition for the favorite male characters in the Bible. It came down between the Apostle Paul and David. And that was a tough pick, but I picked the Apostle Paul. But anyway, so when it came to Eve, I think that was the first one he did, and Eve lost. And it was against Priscilla. And how much do you really know about Priscilla? Not much, but we don't really know much about Eve either. But I'll just tell you this. I picked Eve. And I picked her because she's my mother. She's my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, however many times you have to put that. But she is my grandmother. She's my great, she's the mother of us all. We're here today because of Eve. And yes, she made a huge mistake. Yes, she made a mistake that she probably didn't know the ramifications of. But do you think that after, say she didn't do that. And all these children were born. Do you think that Satan wasn't going to go to one of those other daughters and try to trick them? It was going to happen, regardless. And obviously, I mean, I don't 100% know that for sure, but if he was able to trick the first woman, then couldn't he have tricked another woman? I mean, this is what happened in the Bible. He went to her when she was alone, when she wasn't with her husband. The Bible says he beguiled her. He tricked her. And she was deceived. So it's not like she just said, I don't care what you have to say, God, I'm going to go eat of this tree. That's not what she did. She was deceived by the devil and then made that decision, of course foolishly, and she was in the transgression. You can't make an excuse for the sin, but do I think that Eve realized what she was actually doing at that point? I think she did. This is Mother's Day, and I think that we should respect our mother to a certain degree, obviously. If they're really wicked or something, obviously, then it would be hard to respect them. But maybe your mom was a rough mom, but can you take joy in some of the things that she did? I hope you can. And maybe your mom's not even saved and you're having problems with her right now because of that division that comes about. A lot of daughters have animosity towards their moms in some way, shape, or form. They just have a hard time being around them. They have a hard time loving them because of whatever happened growing up. But we should respect our moms, the ones that brought us forth in this world, and I believe that Eve is going to be in heaven. You're like, well, I don't know, she's a mass murderer. I wouldn't say that. I would say that she made the biggest mistake you could possibly have made, and what she did was directly responsible for the fall of mankind and for all the sorrow that I've talked about this morning. It's all because of the decision that she made that was bad, but how many decisions have we made that were really bad? We've made a lot of bad choices in our lives, too, and mothers in this room also have made bad choices. There's days that we lose our cool with our kids, and we're just like, man, I really blew it. But we can fix those things. Holding Eve responsible for everybody that died, I guess she kind of is a little bit, but I honestly think she's saved. I think Adam was saved. I think that we're going to see them in heaven someday. There might be a shorter line to visit them. I'm not sure, but I still want to meet them. She's the mother of all living. What does living mean? God is not the God of the dead, but a God of the living. So if Eve is the mother of all living, she has blessings that were born after her, but she also has the ones that were cursed. But to sit there and hold that over her head for all eternity, if she's saved, then God doesn't hold it over her for all eternity. So why would we? And we all make mistakes. And ladies, you're going to make mistakes. Mothers, you're going to make mistakes in raising your children. But all we can do is the best we know how to do and do it by what the Bible says. If we follow this instructional book on how to be parents, how to be mothers, how to be dads, our kids are going to turn out better. But you know what's going to make them turn out worse? You quitting. You walking away. You just saying, I just want to be part of this world again. I want the leeks. I want the garlic. I want to go back to Egypt. And that's what's going to cause our children to not grow up right. Again, they do have a choice to be saved or not. But they have the choice to be saved or not, and we can't make that choice for them. We can just guide them in the way that they should go. So let's finish off here. Let's look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And I know I talked a lot about the sorrow of things, but the blessing of Eve, wasn't the blessing of Eve is that we're here alive and we're saved? I mean, we're living, aren't we? We're going to live forever, and she was our mother. We're all related to her. We're all related to Adam. You're like, well, you know, the line wasn't broken. Noah was one of Adam's sons. Noah was in the line of the Messiah, right? So we go all the way back to the beginning. So we talk about respecting our moms, respecting our parents. We should have a little bit of respect for them, even though they doomed everybody. But, you know, your parents weren't perfect either. Your parents probably did stuff that you just have a hard time getting over. But get over it. They're your parents. You should love them. So 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13. And, you know, we should think on the good things of our lives. Maybe your parents were bad to you, but was there something, some silver lining that you can get that just not everything is negative towards them? I hope so, because as Christians, we're supposed to think on good things. We're supposed to think on the pure things, the lovely things, things that have a good report. If there's any virtue, if there's any praise, we should think on these things instead of just focusing on all the negative all the time. So 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 says, But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. See how it says sorrow not? So the point of the sermon was that bringing forth children is a sorrow. Bringing forth children is hard, and there's sorrow involved in it. But God's saying here, the people that have come before you, don't sorrow like those that have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so then also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. So those people that have died before us, whether it was an infant child, whether it was an adult child, whether it was before the child was born, they're going to rise first. Right? They're going to rise first, and then what does it say? Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So yes, bringing forth children is hard. Yes, it brings forth sorrow. Yes, it might be a sorrow for your whole life, but you know what you can be comforted by? The fact that you're going to see those children again someday, and God is going to reunite us as a family. Whether that's your mom, maybe you've lost your mom. Maybe your mom's not around anymore, and I'm sure that there's people in here that their moms aren't here anymore. But if they're saved, you know what? You're going to meet them again. You're like, well, she wasn't saved, so that makes me sad. That is sad. But mothers can be a spiritual thing to Jesus when he said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who are my sisters? Right? Because they said your mom's outside wanting to speak to you, and he's like, you're my mothers. So obviously, you can be a spiritual mother too, even if you can't have children. Last verses, I'll have you turn to Revelation chapter 21, and we'll be done here. I'm sorry about the pizza. I don't think he's gotten here yet, so I can just go to the pizza. No, I'm just kidding. I know. I need to be done. But let's look at Revelation 21 verse 1, and here's another thing to comfort your hearts. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death. There's a day coming when there's not going to be any death. And look what the next thing says. Neither sorrow. That sorrow is going to be gone. There's not going to be any more sorrow and conception and all that stuff. So it says, Nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. So the pain of childbirth is going to go away, the sorrow of bringing forth children, all that stuff is going to go away. Why? Because for the former things are passed away. We have great things to look forward to, and you know what? The thing is, God is going to not let us remember all those things. So it's not like you're going to remember all the bad things that happened. At some point, God's going to kind of wipe that away from us, just like he's going to wipe the tears from our eyes. And it says, And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. So just in closing, I think we should let Eve live down her sin. I mean, maybe you think, well, that's kind of a weird way to look at things, but I was just thinking about it last night, and I just thought, you know, I mean, she really does have a bad rap, doesn't she? And she was voted down against Priscilla. I'm not saying Priscilla wasn't a good Christian. I'm sure she was. But it wasn't as much of a gap in there as you might think. I think when I looked at it this morning, it was 41% Eve and, like, 59% Priscilla on the votes. So she kind of got some honorable mention. I was one of the 43% that voted for her. But not that I don't like Priscilla. I mean, obviously, I do. But we need to let Eve live it down. We need to let other mothers. We need to let our moms live down their mistakes. And you, as moms, you need to forgive yourself for the things that you've done, too. We've all made mistakes, and all mothers have made mistakes. And so you've probably done something horrible, too. Obviously, not that bad. But, you know, again, I don't think that she knew what she was doing exactly. I mean, I think if she would have known what the decision, the ramifications of the decision that she made, the consequences for her sin, maybe that would have changed her mind. But we'll never know. So suffering, heartache, and motherhood is a fact of life, whether it's a loss of a child or an adult, or, you know, you could lose their hearts. They could be unsaved. It's sorrowful. There's great sorrow in being a mother. But you know what? There's nothing more rewarding than that, either. Bringing forth those children that are a blessing, those children that are saved. And we all want our children to be saved, right? I hope that you want your children to be saved. I mean, that'd be weird if you didn't. But we need to focus on that, too. Don't forget about your children while you're serving the Lord. And remember that, you know, you're the ones that... It's not the Bible, but there's a saying that says the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. And it's kind of true. It's kind of true. Women do have the most influence, and mothers have a big influence on how their children turn out. So keep those things in mind. It's very important. There's sorrows involved in motherhood, anxiety, worry. It's natural. That's what's going to happen. But there's also the great joys of being a mother, watching them grow up, watching them get saved, watching them achieve great things in life. And watching them turn out good is, you know, probably going to be your greatest joy. So don't always focus on the negative. Focus on what is positive also. So don't dwell in sorrow. Dwell in joy and in rejoicing for the rest of your life. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the moms in this room, and Lord, I just pray that you would bless each and every single one of them. Lord, help us to just not look at everybody else's mistakes, but help us to be better in our lives. I pray, Lord, that the mothers in this room would take it very seriously about the fact that, you know, they have a great influence on the next generation. They have a great influence with their kids. I pray, Lord, that they be good examples to their children. And Lord, I pray as husbands and fathers that we would comfort them in the hard times, and I pray that you'd help us to realize that we have a role in raising our children as well and that we should not just put everything off on mom. And Lord, help us to be good to the weaker vessel, Lord, and to our help-meets, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Page 173 will sing Love Lifted Me. Page 173 in your Green Hymn books, Love Lifted Me. Page 173, sing it out loud on the first. I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore Buried deeply, stained within, sinking to rise no more But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry From the waters lifted me, now safe am I Love lifted me, love lifted me When nothing else could help, love lifted me Love lifted me, love lifted me When nothing else could help, love lifted me All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I'll cling In His blessed presence live ever His praises sing Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul's best songs Faithful loving service to Him belongs Love lifted me, love lifted me When nothing else could help, love lifted me Love lifted me, love lifted me When nothing else could help, love lifted me On the last, soul's in danger look above Jesus completely saved He will lift you by His love out of the angry waves He's the Master of the sea, willows His will away He your Savior wants to be, be saved today Love lifted me, love lifted me When nothing else could help, love lifted me Love lifted me, love lifted me When nothing else could help, love lifted me Amen. Well thank you for attending this morning and great singing. We're going to have some food and fellowship in the back area after the service. So if you'd like for you to stick around. Brother Sean Collin, can you bless the food for us? Amen. Amen.