Mother's Day - Traditional
First B Jackson
2019-05-12

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Happy Mother's Day. Thank you. Okay. Very good. Frenchie, got that.

Would y'all stand and we'll sing together Victory in Jesus, hymn number 353. Three Three fifty three if you want to sing out of the hymn books. If not, you can just sing off the wall like the rest of us.

Heard an old old story how savior came from glory how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me I heard about his groaning of his precious blood's atoning then I repented of my sins and won the victory oh victory in he loved me and all my love is to him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood I heard about his healing of his cleansing power revealing how he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see and then I cried dear Jesus come and heal my broken spirit and somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory oh victory in Jesus my savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood he loved me and all my love is due him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory and I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea Tell singing and the old redemption story and some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory key change victory in Jesus my savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood.

He loved me and knew him and all my love is to him. He plunged me to victory cleansing flood

Amen. That sound good this morning because he lives. Hymn number three fifty eight. I want to ask the ladies to sing the second verse too. We get to that.

Ladies, sing the second verse.

God sent his son he lived and died by my pardon an empty grave is there to prove my savior because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives on. Ladies, sweet know and life is worth the living just because he lives on the last and then one day I'll cross the river. I'll fight life's final war with pain. And then as death gives way to victory I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know he reigns because he lives. I can face tomorrow because he lives.

All fear is gone

because because I know he holds the future and life is worth a living just because he he Amen.

Y'all can have a seat. Have a few announcements this morning and let me go through first of all, we do have Monday nights at First B happening tomorrow night. Carl, what's happening? Husbands, wives, children, work relationships, all of that. Yep.

Good. Colossians three tomorrow night, meal, music, and a message, 06:00 down the hall in the fellowship hall down here. And we do not have Awana tomorrow night. If you will notice, we have taken up the game circle for the summer. We are Awana is a during the school year kind of activity, and we did the big Grand Prix last week on Monday night, and we took up the game circle.

So we're kids are gonna be available to come to Monday night. So if you wanna come to Monday nights, come on in and bring them in there. That ought be a good one. Children obey your parents is somewhere in Colossians three, I think. So that'll be a great great thing to bring them.

Come join us Tuesday, May 28. Scott, would you come join me? Actually, here. The Bar J has been hosting this Turning Point fundraiser for I don't know how many years, at least nineteen or twenty. It's been a long time.

But Tuesday, May 28 is when it's happening this year. It's always gonna be the Tuesday after Memorial Day when the Bar J gets cranked up Memorial Day weekend, right? Okay. I I meant come up and help me sing if you would. Okay.

You you got me there. Alright. You can sit there for announcements. Yeah. My Sister's Closet is a one day opportunity.

It's happening next Saturday. That's May 18. It'll be down in the Fellowship Hall. Over the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth, a lot of ladies will be bringing in, and some guys too probably, bringing in clothes that for some reason just don't fit them right or they don't wear them or they're lightly used. They'll bring them all together and then for a $10 entrance donation at the door, just for $10 you come in and you get to kinda take other people's clothes.

Do you understand? Does that make sense? It's like a thrift store, but you pay one time at the door, and you go in and it's a community event. It's fun. It's open to everybody in the community.

If you need more information, there is a number in the bulletin. Casey McCooey is the one who usually helps mostly put this on. So Saturday, May 18, next week. All the details should be in front of you. If they're not, they're on the website.

We have Vacation Bible Schools coming up. There's a little menagerie set up there in the back of the miraculous mission, Jesus saves the world, Vacation Bible School. June twenty fourth through twenty eighth, it's going be in the mornings, nine to twelve twenty fourth through the twenty eighth. That's gonna be fun. We need volunteers.

We have a lot of volunteers already, but we're trying to spread this out among the community so everybody knows when it's gonna be. June twenty fourth to twenty eighth, there's a nurse and mother's room available downstairs. If you had a fussy young and that got that you were self conscious about. You can go, hey, I'm not looking at you. Sorry.

I hate it when my eyes fall on somebody, right? As I'm saying something like that. But if you should feel like you need it, there is a live feed going on downstairs and you can go in relative comfort down there and watch what's going on up here. If you miss a message, and I'm gonna mention one, a ridiculous one, that y'all might have missed five years ago on Mother's Day during the sermon today. But if you miss one, you can go to the First Baptist It's firstbjackson.org, and you can go back and hear an audio version of any message for the last five years.

I've been here seven years. For the first year and a half, I was real uncomfortable about being recorded, But it's been about five and a half or six years we have now that are recorded, and you can go back and refer to them if you want to. And if you miss something modern, like in the last couple of weeks and you wanna catch up, you can go back to Facebook, First Baptist Jackson, Wyoming on Facebook and that will bring up the video of the messages for the last year and a half or so. If you want to catch up, you can do that. Connect hour happens between services at 10:00 down in the fellowship hall.

It just kinda keeps us as one church, though we exist as two actually, services. We have two Sunday morning and one Monday night. Church drama. This is to remind me. Church drama, but the good kind of church drama.

Okay? Nancy, would you come forward and explain? Okay. You can stand in front of that one right there. How about that?

Good morning. Perfect. I'm Nancy Cummins. And once again, the spirit of God has moved me to direct a drama called The Liberator. And it's gonna be on June 9 for both services, and it's an original courtroom drama written by one of our own, Glenn Owens.

I have some roles that have been filled by the willing participants already, and I still need to have, one major male part, but the parts are very small. Because the play itself is only like fifteen minutes long. So, I had a lot of people come up to me after the first service and filled some roles, I was like, yes, Lord. Thank you. Okay.

So anyways, please consider using your God given talent in this creative way of glorifying God. There is information in your bulletin. First rehearsal is this Saturday, so I need a guy, a male part. You can do it. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. And so happy Mother's Day. I think I've said it this morning already, but I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad to be here. My own mother is 2,150 miles away from me right now, and my own wife is, I think, further than that.

She's in Guatemala right now. So I have been playing the role of mom and dad for the past few days. She just left Thursday. Thank you, mothers, for doing all you do. Yes.

Thank you for doing that. Happy Mother's Day. Glad that you're here with us this morning. If there's anything that I've forgotten to announce, it should be in your bulletin, the paper bulletin there. And would y'all stand and greet one another and we'll bring you back together with a couple more songs here.

In just a minute.

Need thee every arm most gracious lord tender voice like thine

Amen. What a pretty song. Precious lord, take my hand. Do we have both pages of it? Okay.

Scott, sing this one loud because I know a different version of this song. Good thing. You know that, yeah.

I am worn through the storm, through the night. Lead me on to the light. Take my hand. Take my precious lord Amen.

Is that the way y'all know that song? Okay. Good. Y'all have a seat. I'm going invite the frontline team to come forward.

Would y'all pray with me? God, I thank you for I thank you personally, lord. I thank you for my mother. I thank you for the influence that she was on my life from from nine months before I was born. From the the way that she cared for me.

I'm thankful. Lord, I know that my experience is not the universal experience of all but for for my part, I thank you for my mama. Also, thank you lord for this day that we have set up to honor mothers and honor others in our lives who have acted as mothers and lord, I pray that every lady here would be blessed by what goes on here today. In Jesus name, I ask you to take these tithes and offerings that we're going to place in these plates. Lord, it's a portion of that which you've given to us.

I pray lord that we by doing this would be showing our willingness to do as you command. We'd be showing our willingness to do and put ourselves in your service. So, lord, direct us in the way that we should go. Give us the strength to walk in it. We know that you give both the desire and the power to complete what you will for us to do.

In Jesus name, I ask your blessing that you would advance your good gospel to the uttermost parts through us. Amen. So we have a special music this morning. Sam Stevens is going to sing for you, Florine and I are going to accompany.

It's a joy and a privilege to be here in God's house. Amen? Amen. At first when we were looking at the song, I was thinking maybe it doesn't match with Mother's Day service but after I heard the sermon from the

first service, it matches. Alright. So in the grand scheme of things, we have been we have been walking through the New Testament in chronological order. We've been doing it now for like six years. It's been a long time.

Six and a half years actually. We started with John, the life of Jesus, and the book of John and I know that's a later book written later but then, we went back using that as a framework for Jesus' life. We went forward into the book of Acts, used that as a framework for the life of the early church and then we've been going forward in the order the books were written since then. We're up to second Peter. Second Peter two, as far as I have experienced, is the hardest chapter in the Bible to preach because it's just, it's hard news.

It's hard news. It is like, don't follow after these leaders that are leading you astray, and it's pretty hard preaching. There are a couple of other places I've thought have been hard. James is hard to preach. James is a transitional book.

It's one of the earliest New Testament books written, and it has such a Jewish flavor and such a works flavor that it's hard to present it as a grace oriented, mercy driven, gospel driven pastor. It's hard to present it word for word and have people accept it. So, the first time when I went through James, it's much like this second Peter. Got some hard preaching, hard teaching in there. It's all true and it's all good but because of my own particular bent, the way that I am as a person, that's the hardest stuff for me to present.

I've even thought about getting somebody mean to present, some of em, alright? Happy Mother's Day. No. Sorry. We're not we're not going into second Peter this morning.

But the last time when I got to Mother's Day five years ago in 2014, so Mother's Day of twenty fourteen, I went back on the website and I listened to this message. And it was fiveeleventwenty fourteen, went back and listened to it, and people have referred to it since then, and I've referred to it since then as the Lynyrd Skynyrd sermon, because I had in my head, and I couldn't get it out of my head, this song, it was Simple Man by Leonard Skinner. And so I played Simple Man, and that song never resolves. It has three chords, and a lot of songs have three chords, you know. But most of them have the I chord, the IV chord, the V7 chord, right?

That's the norm for music. But that one has the I chord, and it has a minor chord, and it has the IV chord, but it never resolves. And so what I was presenting that day is this song is advice. It's advice from a mother to a son, and as she's presenting this advice, the resolution of that song is how that boy lives out his mother's instruction, right? That was the idea at least.

If you

want to go back, you

can listen to it. I went back yesterday and listened to it. That was tough. That's a long time ago, five years. But I'm gonna go into the 10 Commandments this morning.

That's what I'm gonna talk about. But before I get to that, I'm gonna sing a song, and it's not Lynyrd Skynyrd. Almost but not quite. So, do I need to stand in front of this microphone if I'm going to do that, Blake? Okay.

That's what I'll do. I am always praying for how we might make the messages stick. I don't ever wanna get far away from what scripture says. Is it muted? I don't ever wanna get far from what scripture says, but I also want for it to be something you can remember.

So this one, I couldn't get away from it this week. So now, y'all can't get away from it this week. Alright. And Sam just handed me a pic. Did I put it in my pocket?

Y'all are super observant. That's scary. Okay. Thank you.

Alright. The first thing I remember knowing was a lonesome whistleblower and a young'un's dream of growing up to ride. On a freight train leaving town, not knowing where I'm bound. No one could change my mind but mama tried. One and only rebel child From a family meek and mild, my mama seemed to know what lay in store.

In spite of all my Sunday learning towards the bad, I kept on turning till mama couldn't hold me anymore. And I turned 21 in prison doing life without parole. No one could steer me right, but mama tried. Mama tried. Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading I denied, and that leaves only me to blame because mama tried.

Dear old daddy, rest his soul, left my mom heavy low. She tried so very hard to fill his shoes, working hours without rest, wanted me to have the best. She tried to raise me right, but I refused. And I turned 21 in prison doing life without parole. No one could steer me right, but mama tried.

Mama tried. Mama tried to raise me better,

So, I come from a town of 492 people. One of

those is my mama.

I moved away. They changed the sign, right? 492 people and where I grew up on Mother's Day, when you go to church, there were flowers all about, not just like up on the altar or whatever, but everybody wore a flower and they wore either a white flower or a red flower. There weren't other kinds. Do y'all remember that tradition?

Some of y'all remember that tradition. So white flower means that your mom has passed, and red flower means your mom is still living. And so those were the classifications. Let me get Leonard Skinner off of there, sorry. We'll get something biblical here.

Alright. I had a great experience. My mama is wonderful. I love her, and she cared for me from long before, like I said, before I was born. And then while I was little, she let she encouraged the unique things about me that were good.

She discouraged the unique things about me that were bad. She met my needs before I even knew what I needed, and took care of me as an infant. And then as a child, she gave me a little greater responsibility and a little more discipline. And as a teenager even more, and I had a great experience with my mama. And that is my experience, and I know that.

And I know that that might not be your experience with your mama. I hope that it is because there's such a great place to grow up and develop. I think that if that was not your experience, my hope and prayer is that the church can be the community around you that will help nurture you through the stages of maturity in your life. That's my constant prayer is it would help people get unstuck from the things that have happened to them. So that's a little precursor.

10 commandments. I usually have about 80 slides just for that y'all who come all the time. I usually have about 80. I think I have 18 today. Okay.

The the 10 commandments. I'm not going to read all of em right there but that's the all of em and this is the one I'm going to concentrate on today from Exodus twenty twelve that says, honor your father and your mother. I'm going to concentrate on mother rather than father today. Fathers, you got your day cometh. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which lord your God has given you.

Now, from Sinai, Moses comes down with the 10 commandments written by the finger of God, right? When he comes down, they're sinning like crazy by the way. You know, that story but he he has this right in the middle here, there's this. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land. This is after he had delivered them from slavery, right?

He's delivered them from the land of Egypt, and now he's giving this good and loving law because he cares for them. The reason James is so hard is because it's hard. Okay? Tame your tongue. Is that hard?

Yeah. It's easy to understand. It's hard to do. Peter's got some instructions that are like that but the more I look at em, Peter, Paul, James, all of em, it's like mama's advice, right? It's something that if you listen, it will go well with you.

So, Exodus is one statement of the 10 commandments. It's actually restated in Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy five seven through 21. This is the second statement. Actually, deuteros means second or twice second and then, Namas means law. It's the second stating of the law.

Right before he he'd already delivered them from slavery, they're wandering. Sinai, he gives them the commands in Exodus and then right before they go into the promised land, they're going to read them all again. This is what God has shown us and delivered us and he's taken us into his promised land and this you need to know again and right there, verse 16 is, to honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you because it's the second statement. He's reiterating that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God has given you. Oh, Merle Haggard right there.

He says, mama tried, right? Mama tried to raise me better but her pleading, I denied. Did that go well with him? No, he turned 21 in prison. Doing life without parole because he just couldn't listen to mama.

Honor your father and your mother. As the Lord your God has commanded you that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God has given you. He's giving you a promised land. He's taking you from the place where you were enslaved and he's bringing you into the land of promise and so if you look at the 10 commandments, I I went back to Exodus for em and I simplified them. You shall have no other gods before me.

That is about your relationship with God, right? He's a jealous God and he does not want for us to have any gods before him. So, that's our relationship with God. You shall not make for yourself any graven or carved image and that is about your relationship with God. Do not make idols.

Don't get anything in front of him. You shall not take the name, the Lord your God in vain. Amen. That's about your relationship with God. He wants you to call on him but he does not want it to be in vain.

Does that make sense? If you call him, be needing him and recognizing it. That's about your relationship with God. It's also about your relationship with others or could be if you break it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

That's about your relationship with God and it was given mercifully for you to take a rest. That's wonderful. So, those first four about how we relate to God. The second half, six of em are about how you relate to other people. So, it's right that it would be how you relate to God and how you relate to other people when they ask Jesus what was the greatest commandment.

He said, he simplified this and he said, love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. So, he simplified. First four, last six but if you look at em, that right in the middle, in the center right there and with the promise is that. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. That is central.

Our beginnings of how we relate to other people begin with our parents. For good and for ill. So, my experience was a good experience but that's not true for everybody and I know that. The way that the tree is bent is the way it grows, right? So, honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you.

If you came this morning, you said, man, I come to a baptist church. I expect to hear a New Testament sermon. I don't like him hanging around the whole Old Testament. Everything I've read so far is all Old Testament but you know, he gave it to us for reason, for our instruction, Paul says. And Paul says this, Ephesians six one through three, children, fits all of us, okay?

Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. He does say, obey your parents and the Lord. He still has the priorities, right? The first thing is obey God and then obeying your parents comes the very next thing. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

Have your allegiance to God and he does come before your parents but he says, honor your father and mother. It was the first commandment that he gave that dealt with other people. Honor your father, mother which is the first commandment with a promise that that it may be well with you and you may live long on the Earth. If you think, well, that's Old Testament and Paul. He's a Jewish Pharisee guy anyway.

He goes back, gets kind of legal sometimes. Well, Jesus concurs. If you're looking at a red letter edition, these are red. A lot of these are red letters up there. Jesus agrees and he agrees and this is I think it's funny and I think that it's edgy at the same time.

Jesus is out teaching like he was want to do in those last three years of his life and his ministry and then the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus. So, they left Jerusalem. It says, they came to Jesus from Jerusalem because was the holy holy holy holy city Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and they said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? That's not the way we do things around here for they don't wash their hands when they eat. And he answered them, and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your own traditions?

Red letters. Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? Tradition. For God commanded honor your father and your mother and he also said, whoever reviles father and mother or dishonors does not honor. Whoever reviles father and mother must surely die.

Oh my goodness. This right here. Honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. You know, you can take that and go, well, if I listen to mama's advice, I won't end up at prison. If I listen to mama's advice, I will live longer.

That's true. Usually. But it was also a part of the law that if you broke that law, you would be stoned. Thank God we live in the New Testament era. Honor your father and mother so that your days may be long upon the earth and so you don't get stoned by your mother and father or by the community recognizing that you are reviling and dishonoring your parents.

It doesn't put any qualifications on it. It just says, honor them. So, Jesus goes on. For God commanded you honor your father and mother and part of that command is the punishment, the consequence that comes is whoever reviles father or mother must surely die and then Jesus goes on and gets right to the heart of their matter and he says, but you say, if anyone tells his father or mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God, Corbin is the Old Testament principle. Corbin, meaning that you could, if you, what you had, you could give to God and then didn't have to give it to your parent.

Oh. But you say, Jesus says to the Pharisees and scribes, but you say, if anyone tells his father, his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God that he need not honor his father. So, for the sake of your tradition, and keeping your goods, You have made void the word of God. He's saying, continue to honor your parents. Honor your mother and father but Jesus says, they break it for their own tradition.

He goes on. The strongest words Jesus ever says, strongest rebuke are always for the religious spoke. You hypocrites. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me. In vain, do they worship me?

Teaching as doctrines the commandments of man. He's getting on legalistic interpretations for your own for your own benefit. It is a statement exactly of Isaiah twenty nine thirteen, not thirteen and fourteen. I left 14 out of this one, but and the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and their fear of me is but a or only a commandment that's taught by men. They're not doing it because they love you.

They're doing it because somebody told them they had to. Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Obey your parents in the Lord. He's given them to you. Honor your father and mother which is first commandment with a promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.

So, that opens up for honor your mother. For me, honoring my mother is very easy. I am here and proudly proclaim that she's great. She's just wonderful. Sweet Sue.

She's little bitty lady, five feet tall. Diminutive. I'm six'six, I'm my dad's size. She's five feet. She was here just a few weeks ago.

And she has always taken care of me and I can honor her by calling her and thanking her and I occasionally will send flowers or some sort of a gift, you know. And that's nice and that's honoring and I hope that I will always rise up and call her blessed, right? Like Proverbs 31 lady. That's the way she lived life. She took care of my grandmother.

I mentioned the white flower and the red flower. So my mother my whole life has worn the white flower because her mother died and before I was born, like three or four years before I was born, her mother died. Right after she graduated from high school, my mother graduated. She's the ninth of 10 kids. Yeah.

So she's always worn a white flower and my dad has always, until this Mother's Day, he's always worn a red one. My amazing grace, my grandmother, you know, died in January. So he's for the first time wearing white flowers this morning. Cherokee roach, we're from Georgia. And it gets after things, but seeing the classification as either alive or dead I think is a little problematic because we all live with what our mothers were like.

And mine was a really good experience. But what if it wasn't? This is what I've been considering. What if mama instead of in spite of all your Sunday learning, what if your mama was just not good? She was not good to you.

She was not good with you. She was just not good. That's hard. So what are you to do to honor your mother? Forgive her.

Forgive her. For crying out loud. Forgive her. Being a mom was a hard, hard job. Forgive her where she's fallen short.

You're a Christian. Forgive her. Okay? It's a hard teaching and a hard preaching here too but if we are to go forward, we have to have something that just lets down and says, yes, I've been holding on to this for a long time but I can let it go. That's what forgiveness means.

In the New Testament, I don't wanna drop a Bible. In the New Testament, is the Greek word, and it means, let it go. Release it. Release it. There is a way of getting there and doing that.

Christ has made the provision for all of our sins. Now, how are we to be forgiven one another? I've got one more slide and I think this is it for the slides. One anothering. I know that some of your mamas may not be Christians, and so you say, well, they're exempt from the one another commands.

No, no, no, no, no. You still need to be following them. You still need to be forgiving them. You still need to be leaning in with grace and mercy because of these commands that says, forgive one another just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Forgive one another just as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Who took the first step in that relationship? Did you take the first step? No. God took the first step. He provided a payment for the penalty that you owed.

Himself, he took it upon himself. He made the first move sacrificially. He came, he lived a perfect life, and he died. Now, I don't think any of us can say that we have lived a perfect life. I know we can't but if we're to be forgiven one another like God in Christ has forgiven us, we have to take the first step.

We have to be the ones to forgive. I walk through forgiveness with people more often than anything else. I think it is absolutely central to the Christian message. Without forgiveness, don't even get started on anything else. Forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you is good.

I'm going go into some other one anothering, okay? So, just just show what it looks like to honor your mother even if she wasn't a good mother. If you can lean in and do these things, forgive her first. You have to take it to God first and say, I was harmed and hurt and it's very deep. God, can you take this away because I want to release it?

Acknowledge all of the words, actions, and thoughts, everything that was sinful. Yeah. But then, you've been grieving it your whole life. Go on and make the decision to forgive. Lean in.

If we are commanded by God to forgive one another, then take the first step. That releases you. Paul says, in as much as it depends on you, live at peace with all. If you take that first step, it will lessen your burden and actually it'll probably change you. Might actually make you more lovable.

Here's some other I'm gonna read them off. The one we don't hit these often. I mean, I don't hit them over and over and over again. We hit them often in scripture. The one another commands for Christians are these.

Be at peace with one another. If you have anything in your heart against anybody, get it right. Be at peace with one another. Don't grumble against one another. Be of the same mind with one another.

Accept one another. Wait for one another before beginning to take the agape meal, right? Before we do the Lord's supper actually might be a technicality to y'all but we actually serve everybody and when everybody has received, then, we all take at once. Wait for one another. Don't bite, devour, and consume one another.

Seriously, don't do it, Galatians five fifteen. Don't boastfully challenge or envy one another. Gently, patiently, tolerate one another. Be kind, tender hearted, and forgiving to one another. Ephesians four.

Bear with and forgive one another. Colossians three, seek the good for one another and don't repay evil for evil. If you say, well, my mama was just evil and all she ever did to me was evil. Don't repay evil for evil. Two wrongs don't make it right.

Did your mama teach you that? Don't complain against one another. Confess your sins to one another. Love one another. How many times does it say love one another?

Is that hard to understand? Love one another? That's not hard to understand. It's both of you be loving one another. That's what it is.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve times in scripture where it just says it exactly like that, love one another. Then it says, through love, serve one another. That's what loving one another looks like. Tolerate one another in love. Greet another or greet one another with a holy kiss.

Alright. Check with them first. Alright? Don't just be devoted to one another in love, give preference to one another, and honor, honor your father, mother, honor one another, regard one another as more important than yourselves. When Jesus summarized those commandments, he said, what?

Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love others as yourself. Serve one another. Wash one another's feet. Don't be hearty.

Be of the same mind. Be subject to one another. Clothe yourselves in humility towards one another. Do not judge one another. A lot of times, our own view of how our mamas were is very, very tilted, okay, in our own favor.

So forgive your mama, please. Now, most Mother's Day, it's a message straight at mama's, I think, or at the ladies. This one is at all of us, I think. Honor, be honoring your mother. Regardless of how you have been treated in the past.

You can either love her and lift her up and call her blessed or you can overlook all of the wrongs and forgive her and begin to serve and love her and not hold back for yourself that which God says is for her. Honor. Bear one another's burdens. Speak truth to one another. Don't lie to one another.

Comfort one another concerning the resurrection. This is not all that there is. We have an incorruptible hope to look forward to. Encourage one another and build each other up. Stimulate or stir one another up to love and good deeds.

Pray for one another. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. Those are the one anothers. I by nature, I actually, it's probably by nurture. If I'm honest about it, it's by nurture and by God's particular gifting.

I'm a mercy guy. My mother is a mercy oriented person. She is so merciful and gentle and sweet. And my dad has a very strong justice orientation. And I got both, and I think that was really, really helpful.

But my my merciful mom is the one that would leaning in say things like, Ray, yes ma'am, you know you've got to respect girls, right? Yes ma'am. Okay. That was the talk. I remember my dad's version of the talk too but y'all don't want to hear that.

Alright? I would say that we can get over what we have lacked And I think that the primary place to do that is within the body of Christ. And so if we are effectively one anothering, we should be helping each other when we get stuck. Are you with me? So I was saying that I'm primarily a merciful, mercy oriented kind of guy, and I'm a peacemaker more than anything else, I think.

So if there's anybody that you're struggling with, including your mother I said this in an invitation about four or five years ago. I said, I said, I don't know what you need to do right now as a good old Southern Baptist invitation. You know, I I said I said, we're gonna sing just as I am. You can come down and pray or you can come to me and I'll turn the microphone off and we can talk about salvation or if you just need to forgive your mother. And I said that, and that week I had three people call me that said, help me do that.

Please help me do that. And so if you need to, would you please call me? Or come see me right after the service and we'll talk about setting up how we can get through. I mean, dropping it if I just did it like I dropped the microphone a minute ago. Just drop it.

That might not give you a whole lot of hope. You can forgive. I promise you can live in forgiveness and it's a much freer and much more joyful place to live life. God, would you be doing in our lives that which we have longed for? All of our lives, the nurture that you've provided for many of, if not most of us, in our mothers.

I pray that you would be comforting to us. Your word says that you are a comfort to us like a mother is comforting to her child. We know in general, lord, that is a very, very precious promise. Would you do what only you can do in our lives, lord, and let us as the church be responsible for taking care of one another's and sharing one another's burdens. Jesus name, amen.

Judy. Oh gracious. Scott, come on up. Dear Lord and father of mankind, is that what we're singing? We could change it?

How about we sing the doxology? Okay. Would you all stand up? Or how about blessed be the

tie that binds? Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. How about that? Blessed be the time that binds our hearts in Christian love.

Fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above Amen. Before our father's throne, we pour our prayers our fears our hopes our aims are one our cares joined in heart and hope to me

Amen. Singing that. I I have a 50 country songs about mama actually. I I chose mama tried but if I could hear mama pray again, that last one reminds me is that we do have a help of resurrection that we will be joined again together and so, white flower, red flower. God, be with us this week and I'll say this, children, obey your parents, be obedient to your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord.

God, may we, by our lives, honor our mothers whether they be with us or have already passed. Jesus name, amen.