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[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church, knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. I want the junior church kids, if you can come sit in the front row because you guys are, you know, going to be hopefully a captive audience.

[0:19] So come on up, be on Best Behavior, and I want to see who my junior church is right now anyway. Okay. Well, the seats there. Okay, yeah. Unless, are you ready to, maybe you take my place. You'll be the speaker today.

[0:36] Okay, well, nice, nice. What a group. What a group. We have a great, great junior church, and I'm looking forward to sharing some things with you about moms.

[0:47] Today's Mother's Day, and, you know, we've had some things about mothers lately. We finished watching a third movie this past week. I don't remember that. It's called Vengeance, wasn't it?

[1:01] The first one was called The Shunning. It's about a girl that was in the Amish home, and it's a three-part, it's not even a series, but they kept making them.

[1:12] What's Janet Oakley, is it? We watched it. It was really good. If you get a chance, it's on, I think, Pure Flix or something else, and really, really enjoyed it.

[1:25] So if you're looking for something to do with your family, it's very family-oriented. We had, it looks like a big decision this past week in Roe versus Wade, or, you know, and sides are trying to jockey, you know, if you're against it, you know, trying to rear up the sides to make it look really bad, and probably, hopefully, to intimidate the Supreme Court.

[1:52] If you're a mother, you should be, it should give you some excitement that there have been so many babies aborted in our past, since 73, and maybe there's, maybe the Lord is giving us some grace here, and mercy, and maybe we will see some good things from this.

[2:18] Maybe not. Maybe not. Because you know the opposition will not like anything that is for God. And then we had our most recent brilliant Supreme Court nominee, who was appointed on the court, and she was asked the toughest question, what is a woman? Remember her response? I can't answer that, because I'm not a biologist.

[2:43] Well, I can tell you this morning, we can answer what a mother is, or who a mother is. And your results, right here, in this front row, that is enough, to me, of an answer of who is a mother.

[3:03] And so I'm going to go through some things this morning. We're not going to look at one central passage. I've got some verses here and there. But I did bring a couple gifts.

[3:16] And this one here is for the junior church. And should we open it now, or do you want to wait? Now? Okay. You're probably not going to recognize this.

[3:29] Why don't we wait? Because I know how you like to wait for Christmas time. You don't want to open everything. Okay. So, okay, so I brought my jar of lollipops.

[3:40] And afterwards, today is declared, since it's Mother's Day, you get two instead of one. So that's afterwards. Now, if I have to kick you out of the front row, that means zero.

[3:53] So, that's, yeah, that's, yeah, junior church and below. Unless, you're like, some kids, they kind of crawl in there and I think they're a kid.

[4:06] And then I got another one here. And I'm going to need a little bit of help. It's for our moms. What do you think they like? What kind of candy?

[4:19] Chocolate? Chocolate? How many of your moms like dark chocolate? Okay. Okay. How many like milk chocolate with caramel in it? All right. All right.

[4:31] Maybe I bought these for me. And so I've got some dark chocolates. I've got some chocolates with caramel. And so, moms, I bought a pretty good amount.

[4:44] And I'm going to have a couple kids bring some of these baskets around. And you pick, you know, three or four, whatever you think it'll take to get you through this meeting. Isaac, can you just start going around to moms?

[4:58] And you know what? Any female who's over 16, it's for mothers today and mothers who would like to be mothers.

[5:09] So you need to have some of this chocolate because you will like chocolate if you don't right now. Let's see. Elle, can you start passing them out around on this side? Just go around and find the moms.

[5:22] Find the women. And let's see. Matthew, you want to take this one? And let's see. Sloan, right? Sloan, you want to help on this side?

[5:36] And this one's for me for later. Okay. Okay. Moms, you just enjoy that. Don't make too much noise. So I had a couple gifts here. And it's just kind of like for Mother's Day.

[5:47] They like to get gifts. We like to give them gifts. So we're looking. Do you enjoy it? Yes. Did you not get any chocolate? Yeah, that's.

[5:59] You like dark chocolate, Miss Nikki? Okay. What? What? Well, I have this gift here. And I've had it, oh my gosh, for like 40 years.

[6:11] And it's such a pleasure. And I love it so much. And I feel like I need to pass it on. So I'd like to give this gift to her. She's true. You gave that to her? Yeah, I did.

[6:21] Oh, okay. It's so special. I mean, she's so special. Oh, nice. Nice. I love this gift, too. Should I open it? I love this gift, too. My mom gave it to me when I was younger.

[6:33] And I've had it for about 15 or 16 years. And I think everyone else is really like it, too. So I'm going to give it to you. Share. Do you want to open it? Or should I?

[6:43] You can. Me? Okay. Or Lily. Or Lily? I'll tell you what, Lily. Are we going to open it during the message, I guess?

[6:55] Okay. I'll tell you what. Let me get through some things, and then you can come up, because your mom said you can open it now. So did we get some good stuff passed out, guys?

[7:07] All right. Oh, wow. Moms. Oh, come on, moms. Did my, every, wait, I feel like the feeding of the 5,000.

[7:19] More is coming back. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. You can give two to each kid. Don't put any wrapper here. Just walk it in the front. Okay. Wow.

[7:30] Look at these guys are like birds. Okay. Okay, Sloan. Hurry up, buddy. Okay. Go ahead and sit down. Right.

[7:40] Sloan's going to come by. He might need a little help. So, all right. So, I want to ask the junior church kids. I didn't ask you to do this.

[7:53] Is there anything, here, I'll help you out. Is there anything, you can take two each, that you appreciate about your mom that you could tell me right now, tell her to everybody?

[8:04] Okay. Sloan, stand up. Say it really loud. Go ahead. I appreciate that my mom loves me.

[8:17] Nice. Nice. That's great. Matthew? School. You appreciate school? Yeah. All right. I'm going to ask you that, Aunt Nicole, if he feels that way during the week.

[8:34] Did everybody get something? All right. Fathers, there's some left here. Afterwards, you can come up and get some. Anything else from my junior church? Something you really appreciate about your mom or you love about your mom?

[8:48] That she can take us to school in her car. She can take us really far away. Oh, okay. Nice. Nice. That's a good one. Yes. She's a good teacher.

[8:59] Wait a second. What's that? She's a good teacher. Ooh, a good teacher. Not just a teacher, a good teacher. Sloan, you got double today. Mine's also that I get to have three sleepovers at my friend's house that I never had a sleepover.

[9:17] Okay. Sleepovers. Nice. Anybody else have something they want to share real quick? I'll give just a couple more. Because I love my mommy.

[9:32] Nice. Nice. I like to hear that. And hopefully you don't just say it today. Because she makes the best food in the world. Makes the best food in the world. Same as Josiah.

[9:43] Yeah. Jake. All right. And one day you won't have to worry, hopefully, about whatever you can't have certain foods now. So, is there somebody in the crowd that had something special they would like to say about their mom?

[10:00] I'm going to share a couple that people shared with me. So, oh. Junior Church is full of them. Lily. Lily. That Bo will learn to obey mommy.

[10:14] Okay. All right. All right. Man, you must have a really appreciative son. Go ahead. Last one here for Junior Church. It's that my friends buy me another pack of my favorite things, Pokemon.

[10:31] Okay. Okay. Okay. You tell me about that one later, Elise. So, you know, gifts, flowers.

[10:43] We got flowers here. Afterwards, children, take one or two flowers to your parents, I think, or to your mom. Moms, if you don't have a mother here today that's at home, feel free to bring one or two for her as well until they run out.

[10:58] Or if there's just somebody else. Guys, if you feel like you've got to get a couple extra because you're in the doghouse until they're run out here.

[11:11] So, let's ask a few things here. Why is a mother, whoops. Why is a computer so smart? It listens to its motherboard.

[11:25] All right. At least I got some response this morning. Science teacher said, when, to the student, when does the boiling point reach? Student, when my mother sees my report card.

[11:37] Sunday school teacher, tell me, Eli, do you say your prayers before eating? Eli, no, ma'am.

[11:48] I don't have to. My mom's a good cook. And then, Lily, I think my mom's getting serious about straightening up my room once and for all.

[12:00] Savannah, how do you know? She's learning to drive a bulldozer. Here's a definition. Sweater. Something you wear when your mother gets cold.

[12:14] So, a couple more here because the crowd's really starting to warm up. I can feel it. Why is Mother's Day before Father's Day? So the kids could spend all their Christmas money on mom.

[12:28] And then, why was the house so neat on Mother's Day? Because mom spent all day Saturday cleaning it.

[12:41] All right. All right, Junior Church. You got it. I might go triple on candy today. I told my mom, or my wife, I wouldn't read this one, but mothers with teenagers know why their animals eat their young.

[12:53] I just. So a woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says, that's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh. The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down fuming.

[13:05] She says to a man next to her, that driver just insulted me. The man said, you go right up there and tell him off. Go ahead. I'll hold your monkey for you. It's a good one, Al, isn't it?

[13:22] I got just a couple more because Al's laughing on that one. Mom. The amazing ability to hear a sneeze through three closed doors in the middle of the night, three bedrooms away, while daddy snores next to you.

[13:37] Two more here. Children. Children. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and be quiet.

[13:50] And then finally, I asked mom what she wanted for Mother's Day. She said, a bit of care and comfort. So I put her in a nursing home.

[14:06] Sorry, Amy. Amy. So I thought a couple of them were pretty good. So a little trivia.

[14:17] There are over 80 million moms in the United States. 80 million. That's a lot. That's a lot of mothers. Did you know there are more calls made on this day, Mother's Day, which is about 122 million?

[14:35] That's about one out of every three people given a call than any day of the year. If you wanted to know, by the way, Father's Day ranks a close seventh.

[14:51] And you know what it comes after? Number six? Halloween. So dad's, as long as we get the barbecue, I guess we don't need a phone call.

[15:03] Woodrow Wilson signed Mother's Day into law in 1914. That's over 100 years ago. Over 100 years ago, they said in the United States, Mother's Day is now a national holiday.

[15:15] And you know what? Here's, I don't know if you knew this lady, Anna Jarvis. She's the one that helped to make it a holiday. She did a lot of work. And then it said that she ended up despising the holiday.

[15:30] According to Mental Floss, she spoke out vehemently over the commercialization of Mother's Day, called for its demise, and was even arrested during one of her protests in 1948.

[15:43] So that's kind of interesting. And then the most popular gift for Mother's Day is the greeting card. So if you don't have your cards, Junior Church, make sure you make one today.

[15:56] Now, here's a couple quotes I asked some people. I just asked, what is something your mom has shared with you? And I got just a couple here. Joe, Mr. Joe Babcock, he said that his mom is a prayer warrior.

[16:14] And she's always prayed for his future wife. We see that the Lord answers prayer. Bethany, on the other hand, her mom, she said, was known for saying, let's crash this turkey stand.

[16:31] So, as you know Bethany, you're like, wow. Maybe you learned something about her mom there. Jean, who couldn't be with us, her mom, she said she got used to her saying, get your hair out of your face.

[16:46] While Mr. Dave's style, his mom would say, oh, David, you treat me as a kid. Did you say your bedtime prayers? And then we have one from one of our junior church, Benji.

[17:04] I said, what do you like to hear from your mom? And he said, I love you. I love you. And the last one comes from his dad.

[17:14] He said, he said from his mom, she would say this. It always takes more effort. I didn't write it all down, David.

[17:30] Can you phrase it again, David? It takes more effort to be an encourager. Yeah, it takes more effort to be an encourager.

[17:43] And then David said, I'm scared to think how critical I might be were it not for my mom setting an example of compassion and grace. You know what? I think that kind of highlights moms, mothers.

[17:56] You know what? Think of all the compassion, kids. All the grace they've had to you. I think of my mom. My mom died over 30 years ago. But I think about my mom, how often she said, you're not going tonight.

[18:14] And what that meant to me was, okay, if I go clean my room, okay, you can go. If my dad said, you're not going tonight, then it was final.

[18:25] My mom, though, was so full of mercy and grace. I once did a Mother's Day message a long time ago. It was probably 27 years ago.

[18:37] And the Friday before, I'm working out in St. Clair, Missouri. Near St. Clair. And it was in the middle of nowhere. I was so glad. There was nobody around.

[18:47] I was working on this cabin for a guy. And I'm sawing. And I'm listening to this show about Mother's Day. It was about two years after my mom died. And all of a sudden, I had to stop the saw.

[18:58] And tears were just flooding down my face as I thought about my mother. And I thought about what she meant to me. And I thought about the 13 children she conceived.

[19:11] And I thought about how twice a day we would vacuum. And everybody else thought, that was weird. And doing eight loads of laundry a day. And all the meals she cooked.

[19:24] And all the care she gave to me. And the games that she went and saw me playing. And the tears are just flooding down. I mean, I was bawling like a baby.

[19:37] And yet I said, Lord, I had a great mom. I didn't have a perfect mom. But I had a great mom. The Lord Jesus had a great mom.

[19:50] And you know what? In John 19, Jesus is dying on a cross. His hands are stretched out. He's dying for you and for me.

[20:05] And he looks out and he sees his mom. And in John chapter 19, he says, Woman, behold your son.

[20:17] And there was the apostle John. It says, a disciple he loved. And then he says, John, behold your mother. And so what he was saying is, you know what?

[20:28] I'm dying for the sins of the world. But I'm the oldest boy. And I'm in charge of making sure my mother's taken care of. And even while Jesus was dying on a cross for you and for me, his mom meant so much to him.

[20:46] And you and I mean so much to him. And he loved her so much, he said, You're going to be taken care of. Don't you worry.

[20:57] Your oldest son is going to be gone. John, take care of her. And it said that she went to live with John. What a perfect example.

[21:09] The Lord Jesus Christ, how he thought about his mom. Ladies, I'm going to ask you a question this morning.

[21:20] If there are two words that you would like to be known for, what two words would you pick? What two words would you pick? I'm going to share about a couple ladies and their two words.

[21:38] But before that, how do you want to be remembered? You know, today's mother is confused in the world. Because our society is trying to confuse them.

[21:51] Oh, you can do anything you want. You can do all the guy's stuff. And I believe that's what it was being said when the Lord said that Eve would be for her husband.

[22:04] That she would want to do even his stuff. You know what? And women, I know you can do 20 tasks at once and still talk. I can do zero tasks and still have trouble talking.

[22:18] So there's no doubt that many women are created with, to do much better at a lot of things.

[22:30] But the Lord said, you know what? If you want to have the real joy, I've got some things for you. And one of the blessings was to be able to have children.

[22:41] And now during, when they were having you, they probably weren't thinking, Lord, this is great. No, no. When our first baby was born, you know, Brett Holmes scored a goal for the Blues.

[22:56] The game was on in the room. And that didn't set too well. But the doctor and I were kind of watching a little of the game. And so, but I know my wife wasn't thinking, this is the most joyous, exciting.

[23:12] But when that baby, when Kayla came out, all of a sudden her emotions, everything changed. Instead of loud, crying, agony.

[23:24] All of a sudden, whoa, look at this. The most beautiful person alive. And that's a blessing from the Lord.

[23:36] That's a blessing from the Lord. And the world is trying to degrade that. And they're trying to say, you're not a real mom if you don't go out and get a great job. Now, we have a little confusing, if you ask my wife.

[23:49] But I think, I remember her coming home from the store. We had Kayla. And a guy was behind her in the grocery line.

[23:59] And he says, what are you going to do? What are you going to do in life? And she goes, I'm staying at home. Do you got a degree? Yeah, I'm a teacher. What a waste, he said.

[24:11] What a waste. Oh, how sad that is. How sad that is. No, no, that's not a waste. Moms, are you trying to do it all and you're stressed out?

[24:21] That's not what God meant for you. That's not what God meant for you. You know what? Let me quickly, there's a couple things here before I share the two people. Eve. I have never heard a Mother's Day message on Eve.

[24:34] She's the mother of all living, though. She got to experience God a little before she had sinned. So that close relationship, how just like you and your mom and dad, she had with God.

[24:46] And then she also got to experience one of her sons killing another of her sons. We got Jacobed, Moses' mother, who was willing to put her life on the line to save her son.

[25:00] Because Pharaoh said, if you have a baby boy, you are to throw him into the river and kill him. And she would not do that. And we see how she was blessed. We see Hannah, there's sadness.

[25:13] She can't have any children. And yet Elkanah, her husband, he was married to two women. So we don't do that today. But the other wife, she had children, and she was making fun of Hannah.

[25:26] And so Hannah's sad because she can't have any children. And it says she's praying night and day at the temple. And the Lord hears her, and she has a baby named Samuel.

[25:39] And then she gives Samuel to the Lord. That joy that she had. Then we have, on the other side, a lady named Jezebel. Queen Jezebel.

[25:50] She killed the prophets of God. She was jealous. She wanted nothing to do with them. She was an evil woman. In fact, she was so evil that she was thrown out of a window and fell and killed.

[26:06] And you know how they went to go and bury her, and you know what it said? Instead, the dogs had came and eaten almost all the carcass.

[26:18] Wow. Then we have her daughter. She had, her son was killed as king, and she had all the royal members. She wanted them all killed.

[26:30] All of them. So she could be the queen. Just evil. We see that today. Is it any different today? It's, this kind of stuff's happening today. We have then great ones, Naomi and Ruth, trust and commitment.

[26:44] We have Sarah, the mother who waited, and she had a child at 90 years old. We have Hagar, the mother who endured. And I want to look just quickly at two of them.

[26:57] One is named Priscilla. And if you look, if you just turn to some random verses here, they're not random, but Acts 18. And the reason I brought this one in today, I'm going to have to be so quick, guys.

[27:14] I thought I wouldn't have much, but there's this woman named Priscilla in Acts 18 too. Paul found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla.

[27:29] Aquila. So there's this couple. And there's six verses, another one in Acts 18, another one in Acts 18, and Romans 16, and in 1 Corinthians 6.

[27:40] And when you read them all, it talks about this woman who is such a great couple with her husband, Aquila. And they get along so good. And she's such a compliment to him.

[27:52] And her husband can rely on her. And you know what? It said there was a house church happening. So I imagine she just, she could be, he didn't have to ask questions.

[28:04] He knew things were going to get done. And this week I was thinking, this kind of reminds me of Dottie and Steve St. Clair. For those of you who know him, we've known him a long time.

[28:18] I've known him, I knew him back 45 years ago when I went to camp and he was the speaker. And as you know, he passed away this past week and he was 80 years old.

[28:30] But his wife, Dottie, was such a great compliment to him. They reminded me of Priscilla and Aquila. A great couple.

[28:41] They got married and within a week they're headed over to the Philippines for over 50 years to be missionaries. There were people that said, you ruined it. Just like that guy said to my wife, what a waste.

[28:54] Steve and Dottie were very, very smart people and people thought you could be making lots of money here in the States. But they spent their lives doing great things for God.

[29:07] Doing great things. And they reminded me of this. There was one other couple, Jim and Lil Rankin, who was mentors for Jill and myself. And what a couple they were.

[29:18] And Miss Rankin was kind of the quiet person. But she worked in the home. She was always prepared for things. She helped teach Sunday school. They had our youth group in the home. We destroyed their home. They loved having youth group there.

[29:31] And one day I asked Miss Rankin, who was a wonderful wife, a wonderful mother. I said, Miss Rankin, how come I never hear you gossip and say bad things about other women and about other people?

[29:45] And she turns and says, Kevin, I don't have time. There's too much to do for the Lord. And if you knew her, that was Mrs. Rankin.

[29:55] And so that's Priscilla and Aquila. The last 10 minutes here, if you turn to 1 Timothy 1, it's one other verse.

[30:09] And if I said 1 Timothy, I meant to say 2 Timothy 1, verse 5. Paul is talking to Timothy. And these are the two words. I asked you earlier, what two words?

[30:22] And he's going to talk about two women and Timothy. Verse 5. Paul's talking to Timothy and he says, I'm mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm sure that is in you as well.

[30:43] Two words. Sincere faith. Folks, Lois was my mom's name. She was Timothy's grandmother's name.

[30:55] I think of my mom having a sincere faith. Teachers at school could count on her. People I've met over the years working. I was working in Valley Park.

[31:07] And a lady said, oh man, your mom was, we were such good friends. I said, really? I said, I've never met you. And she started telling me things left and right about her and my mom. I was like, wow.

[31:17] She made purses for my sisters. You can go throughout the school district. She probably made over 50 purses for other people that wanted them.

[31:27] Teachers. Sincere faith. She had a sincere faith. Lois here had a sincere faith. Sincere means undisguised, without hypocrisy.

[31:43] People knew she was a Christian. She said she was a Christian. They saw, because they saw how she lived it out. Her sincere faith. It wasn't one day, oh yeah, I'm going to be a Christian.

[31:56] No. She became a Christian. She put her trust in Jesus Christ and she lived for Jesus Christ. You know, my mom had 13 children. She could have done house decorating.

[32:06] She had doctors and dentists who wanted to hire her to decorate their offices. She said, no, I've got a family. I've got more important things to do. She had a sincere faith to raise her children the way God wanted.

[32:21] She had a faith. Her faith was in the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't in, hey, I've got to get a good job so I can have the most things so I can be called the All-American Mother and people will look at me and say, wow, isn't she great?

[32:35] No, her faith was, you know what? This is my family. The Lord has blessed me. Look at all these. I need to take care of them. I'm going to do it for the Lord.

[32:47] I'm going to do it for the Lord. And notice there, Lois, Eunice, Timothy.

[32:58] We have a three generation happening. I think of my mom, Lois, myself, and then now I have my children. Our prayer, my wife and I, our prayer is, Lord, be real in their life.

[33:15] May their faith be sincere. May it not stop because so often it stops after like maybe the first one because it never got passed on. Or it stops at the second one and then you say, what happened?

[33:27] What's happening? And so two words, sincere faith. That's all that's mentioned of these two women and Timothy right here.

[33:40] Sincere faith. But I think those two words are a lifetime. And I think this is what Lois and Eunice might have been sharing with their kids.

[33:54] Oh, Lily, you need to take out the paper. Just toss it on the floor. Okay.

[34:05] Okay. And you want to pull that present out? Whoa. Man, your mom. Here, here you go. Okay. Open it up. Okay. Okay.

[34:17] You girls, I know what your house looks like on Christmas. All right. How do you like blocks? Are you too old for blocks now? You're not, you can play with blocks, right? And you can build with them.

[34:28] And your mom said this was a great gift given to her. You know, back then they didn't have electronics. Were there cars back when you were given this gift? No.

[34:41] There were simple games. And your grandma loved this gift and loves this gift. And then she passed this gift on to your mother.

[34:52] and your mother said that she loves this gift and this gift is important to her and she wants to pass this gift on. Boys and girls, Mother's Day is so important because mothers are important because the Lord talks about a lot of mothers.

[35:12] He talks about the bad ones as well as the good ones. And Jesus, when he was on that cross, he was still caring for his mom. And Eunice and Lois were so concerned and they were telling Timothy, Timothy, this gift is tremendous.

[35:30] It's the best gift. And you know what though, Timothy? You need this gift because you're a sinner. You were born, you were conceived, Eunice would have said by me.

[35:41] But unfortunately, as cute as you looked, you had sin. And you sinned in your life and you continue to sin.

[35:53] And because of it, God who is perfect can't have you in heaven because there is no sin in heaven. But Timothy, I am so concerned about you. I want you to know about somebody.

[36:05] Somebody who loves you even more than me. Mothers are caring, they're gracious, they're merciful. But there is someone who is even more caring and gracious and merciful. And you know who that is?

[36:17] Who? God. It says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. And you know what? Jesus didn't have any sin. He wasn't like you and me with sin and doing our own thing.

[36:31] And I thought about it. Man, what if I threw a couple lollipops out there and I said you could have it? We'd have a mob here. And Matthew would probably be punching Josiah and Josiah would be punching him back and they'd be crying because of sin.

[36:43] And we want what we want. And God says you can't. And he said you've sinned, but I love you so much. I'm sending Jesus, my only son.

[36:56] And he's going to come down on this earth and he's going to live 30 plus years and he's going to give his life for you, for the world, because he loves you.

[37:06] I love you. And that's the only way you can have life is because he's perfect and he's going to die on this cross and he's going to be beaten. He's going to be mocked. He's going to be he's going to be beaten with a whip for you, for me because he loves you that much.

[37:28] I got spanked when I was little, not with this, but my dad, he said he loved me and I, you know what? My dad loves me. God loved his son, but he let him be whipped and beaten.

[37:43] And then it said he let them take this crown of thorns and they let him just jab it on his head and just rip his and let the blood flow because he loves you. He loves me.

[37:55] And he was going to do this for you and for me because he said something has to be done. If I don't do it, you cannot come into heaven. There's no chance.

[38:05] There's no possibility because you got sin. Sin has to be dealt with. I'm going to take your sin upon me. And he did that. And it said they took him to the cross and then they put him out on Calvary's cross and they took some nails and they put, boom, through his feet.

[38:28] He did that. He let him put holes in his body and then they took one on each side of his arms right through it, right through this one. And then they put the cross up and he died for you and he died for me.

[38:45] He was risen. He rose from the grave three days later because he was without sin. Sin couldn't. He had paid the price for you and for me. And so it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, whosoever, he says, anybody, if you want to put your faith in what Jesus Christ has done on a cross, he says, I will take those sins away because my cross, I took those.

[39:21] I took them all. And if you will trust me, he said, I'll give you eternal life. I'm going to give you an exchange. I'll take your sins. I'll give you life.

[39:33] And that's what Eunice, that's what Lois, those two mothers and grandmother, they passed on to Timothy a sincere faith. Their faith was in the son of God who died for them.

[39:46] We can have the magicians, the musicians come up, please. Maybe you don't have children.

[39:59] Maybe you're not married. You know what? If you read some of the missionary storybooks that I have back here and at home, you'll see that there's a lot of women who were never married that were mothers of many, many orphan kids.

[40:13] Mary Slessor, Amy Carmichael, Gladys A. Old Word, just to name a few. Hundreds and hundreds would call them mom.

[40:26] Maybe today's a tough day for you. Maybe you lost your mom recently. Or maybe as a mom, you feel stressed out. The Lord said, this is a special day.

[40:37] I had a hard time on the cross as I looked out there, but I took care of my mom. I loved her. And he loves you.

[40:48] He wants you to have joy. He doesn't want you to be stressed out. And today, maybe you need to be saved. Maybe one of the younger ones need to put their trust in Jesus Christ. And so, we're going to close with this last song.

[41:01] I'm going to give thanks. If you've got any questions, feel free to ask. Junior Church, don't break the glass. You can have two today. And moms, make sure everybody gets flowers to their moms.

[41:16] And then take some home if you have a mom at home that you're going to see today or tomorrow. So, Father, I know this wasn't a lesson that we took Scripture going through or we think about the series we're doing on giving, as far as our time, our talents, our possessions to you.

[41:44] But today, we have a lesson about moms who give their lives for their children, who love us. And we thank you for them. We're so thankful for them, Lord.

[41:55] And even like myself, my mom's been gone for a while, and yet there's great memories. And my wife, I thank you for her.

[42:06] What a tremendous mother she is. And I thank you for just how much she does in our home and the impact it has on others.

[42:17] And yet, she's quiet, but that's okay with her. She just wants your name to be known. Father, I just pray as we leave here that this would be just a great day in celebrating moms.

[42:33] And as we celebrate them, we're really, we're thinking about you because you gave them to us. And so we say thanks, Lord. And if there's anybody that needs to know for sure that they are going to heaven, that they would stay and ask, talk.

[42:46]  Amen.