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"Do You Know The Plan Of God For Your Child" - Pastor Angela Anderson - May 12. 2024 AM
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"Do You Know The Plan Of God For Your Child" - Pa…
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Hallelujah. God is so good. Can you believe it's Mother's Day and he's making a mother work? What? What is that? I'm just going, really? This is supposed to be my day, not my day to work. But I have to honestly say, when it's Mother's Day in my house and all my kids and grandkids are there, of course we only have two sons and five grandkids. And when everybody's there, along with the daughter in laws, I do all the cooking on Mother's Day because I refuse to go near a restaurant because you can't get in, you know, so might as well just go to the house, you know, and I cook, and they love for me to cook. And, you know, so I do that. But anyway, hallelujah. God is so good. Amen. You can be seated. Hallelujah. Well, this is a rare treat for me to be able to do this. I minister at home, but not out from there for very, very often. And so smile at me real big because I'm just a little nervous because I don't know you well enough to come out back there and beat you over the head if you act bored. But it's possible, it's. If I see you snoozing, you might get a thump. So do not do that. But I have 53 years of experience as a mother and 43 years of experience as a church mama. And in fact, all my little ones at the church about, oh, probably, I don't know, about 12, 13 years ago, maybe it's been a little longer. As the little ones were being born into the church, I became Pastor Nana. And I love that. So every time a new one comes into the church, they say, say hey to Pastor Nana. So they're all learning the right phrase for me. But isn't that adorable? It makes my heart melt. But I'll say that, and then I'll say this because I've been a mama so long, I sometimes am not very kind. I can be very blunt. And my husband says to me, now, when you get in the pulpit, don't get so serious looking. And I'm going, okay, that's just me. So you think I'm all smiles all the time? No, no, I'm not. But anyway, Pastor Craig mentioned, you know, about us, you know, maybe me taking one service. We'd already been talking about that. And then he texted back and. And he said, well, since it's Mother's Day, the congregation would probably love to hear from my mama. And I thought, you know, What? I've already got something for that. It was at Christmas time and right around Christmas, I don't know if it was right after Christmas or just right before or whatever. And I began to hear a song. And there's a song that we sing you hear on the radio in all kinds of places all the time. Mary did. You'd know. Is anybody familiar with that? And I heard the most spectacular arrangement that. And just suddenly I went, you know, I can make a sermon out of that. And really the basis of that sermon, of that song is, Mary, did you know when she had this little baby in her arms? Now, if you go back to Luke and you read, you know, the account of the angels appearing to Mary, they told her some things. But my question to you is, did she really understand what this little baby would do? I even wrote the words, had printed out the words to that song, and let me just find it real quickly. Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? Mary, did you know your baby boy would be sight to a blind man? Mary, did you know your baby boy would calm the storm with his hand? Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod? When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God. Mary, did you know? Mary, did you know? The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again, the lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the lamb. Mary, did you know that your baby boy is lord of all creation? Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations? Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect lamb? That sleeping child you're holding is the great I am. Mary, did you know? Did you know? Did you know? And so today I'm going to talk to you about. Do you know the plan of God for your child? Mary did not exactly understand everything that was involved in the plan when she said yes. She did not know, but she knew there was a plan. And I'm here to tell you moms that every time a child is born, they're born into this life with a divine purpose and a plan for them to fulfill that purpose. There is a plan. Now, ideally, as soon as you're pregnant, it's the time to start acknowledging that. But, you know, some of us take a little extra time to figure it out. I was a mother at 17. I do not recommend that. Do not. That's why we've been married two weeks from now. It'll be 54 years. And my son, my oldest is 53. Can you believe that? I'm only, what, 58. I was a young mother, if you can add, you know, how old I am. But that's okay. I don't mind being 70 years old. I just don't want to act like I'm 70. Okay? I'm not going to act it. Okay. You know, I can keep up with the best of them. Some of these young whippersnappers, I can work circles around them still, you know. But anyway, so we were backslidden during those first few years. And so we had one child. And then my child, my oldest son, they have their father's sense of humor, which I have learned to adapt to, to survive. And now I can give as good as I get. And so my oldest child to this day, he goes, he said, I'm the love child. And then he looks at his brother and he says, you were the planned one, but this is the love child. And so we were backslidden for a number of years. And so we didn't have all these things. We didn't know all these things. It took time to hear these things, you know. And so every time I look at a baby now, I want to say, did you know? Do you have any idea what's ahead for this child? Do you have any idea the plan of God for this child? Some people do, but most people have no idea what the plan is, how it's going to unfold, how this is going to work. But, you know, I went back in the Word and I started looking and I went back to several different places in the Old Testament to start with. And in Exodus, we see the story of Moses mother, how she brought him into the world. There was a mandate to kill all the baby boys. She hid him for three months. And then she. She took him and she put him in a basket. She put him in the. In the water, in the bulrushes, and Pharaoh's daughter comes along. But here's what it says in Exodus 2. 2. The fact is, let's just go there real quickly. Exodus 2. And I'm a King James person, so. So thank you, Pastor Kenny. Everybody else likes new King James, you know, around me, but I have deferred to King James still. Anyway, in chapter two, verse two, it says the woman conceived doesn't even give her name here, but it does name her in a couple other places in Exodus. Anyway, it says the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child. She hid him three months. Well, what does that mean, a goodly child? Well, I have written down, and I think this is from a. I'm not even sure what translation it might been from. Said it was lovely, exceptionally well formed, fair winning were the looks of him. Now, something is. And I wish I had written this translation down, but another one that, like I say, I don't know where it even came from. It says, she saw that destiny was on him. She saw. She saw she wasn't born again. She wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit, but she saw that destiny was on him. Anytime you have a child entrusted to you, you should see that there is a destiny on them. And you go on to other places. You know, I believe she was led by God to do the things that she did. And how God honored that by bringing that child back into her home after the. After Pharaoh's daughter found him in the water. But anyway, you go on to some other places. In First Samuel 1, Hannah and Elkanah, you know, Hannah was in the temple. She wanted a child. You know, she said, God, if you'll just give me a child, I'll give him back to you. She said, father, I will make sure he has no razor composites. She was decreeing that he would be a Nazirite. And there were certain things that this child, she would see to it, natural things that she could do for him. He would be a Nazirite. Then if you go on over to Judges, and it's interesting to me that here in Judges, go with me to judges 13. Hallelujah. Amen. Joshua. Judges. Yeah. Judges 13. And I love this story, and I'll tell you why here in a second. It's not just this. Because God spoke to these people. Hallelujah. Judges 13 and first. No, that's not it. No, I'm in. Joshua. Sorry. That's why it doesn't look familiar. Judges 13. Hallelujah. Let's put my glasses on while I'm at it. Hallelujah. And in Joshua 13, I mean, Judges, chapter 13, verse 2, says, There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren, and bear not. They named the daddy, but not the mama here. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman. Who did he talk to? He named the daddy, but he talked to the woman. He talked to the mama. God talks to mamas. He talks to mamas an awful lot about their children. Hallelujah. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the Woman and said to her, behold, now you are a barren, and bears not, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink. While she was pregnant, she was told not to do these things and eat not any unclean thing. For, lo, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head. For the child should be a nazirite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. So the woman came to her, told her husband, a man of God came to me. His countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible. But I asked him not whence he came, neither told me his name. And he said unto me, you shall conceive and bear a son. And now drink no wine or. Or strong drink neither eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the. From the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah entreated the Lord, he had to verify what wifey said. You know, we have to have this. You know, okay. And, oh, my Lord, let the man of God which you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do unto the child that should be born. Mmm. Teach us. Teach us what we shall do. We as parents have such an awesome responsibility to any child that's in our care. Because I understand today, ladies, that not all of us maybe have borne a child the natural way. Sometimes we're stepmothers. Sometimes we're adopted mothers. Sometimes we're foster mothers. Sometimes we just take on a child in our lives that we just pull into our heart that are not any of those things. And yet they become so dear to us. It's almost like God's entrusted them to us to care for. I see that at home. I know a particular lady in our church, you know, that there was. There's a young man that she's been had on her heart for many, many years. And right now, he's away from God. But she never fails to pray for him. She never fails to speak the word over him, believing that one day he's going to come back to where he belongs. And so I'm talking to all kinds of mothers. If you're just pregnant, you're a mama. You don't wait until you give birth to the child to declare yourself a mama. You're a mama the moment you conceive. You're now a mama. So there's mama's Avery. But this says, tell us, teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. And I just love. Let me find it, because I didn't mark it. Verse 12. How shall we order the child? And how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware. She may not eat of anything that comes out of the vine. And it goes on to talk about that. But basically he was saying, listen to your wife. There's a good place for all the ladies to say amen. Amen. Listen to your wife. Yeah, that would help. So you see these examples, and then over in Luke, you know, the angel came to Zachariah and gave him instructions. I'm telling you today, ladies, that if you ask the father, he will give you instructions concerning any child. And really, at any age. Maybe you haven't known to ask for some instructions. You know, naturally speaking, what do we owe a child? We owe them a food in their bellies, clothes on their back, a roof over their head. We do not owe them iPhones. We do not owe them Nikes, Air Jordans. We don't owe them that. But we owe it to them to provide for them physically. But we also owe it to them to provide for them spiritually. We owe that to them. Well, I didn't know. Well, now you know. That's it. Now you know, there's a place to start, you know, and ideally, like I said before, you know, if you could start as soon as, you know you're pregnant or even because you're trying to get pregnant, start there. But for the rest of us, you know, maybe we have a late start. It's really never too late. It'll go a lot better if you start at the beginning, but it's really never too late. But we have a responsibility to these children. We have an obligation to them to raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Why? Because God has a divine purpose and a divine plan for them to accomplish that purpose. And every child should have the. The knowledge of the fact there is a purpose for their life. You know, I have a grandson that we just found out last night was accepted to the University of Florida, which is not a good thing. We're not Gators. We're Seminoles. If you're from the U.S. you know that that is a real, real no. Not Go Gators. Go Knowles. There's this lifelong struggle between the Gators and the Knowles, you know, and I'm going My grandson is going to become a gator. How did this happen? Where did his parents go wrong? But the issue is not that so much as he didn't want to leave home, he didn't want to leave the church that he's in. And the University of Florida has a great engineering program, so that's where he's going. But you know what? His purpose isn't just to be an engineer. God has more in store for him than just being an engineer. He's well liked at school. You know, he shares the gospel with people. The gators definitely need it. So I'm expecting him to just sweep the campus with the good news of Jesus, you know, especially the engineering department. But. But every child should have a sense that my purpose for being here is not. Is not found in what I do for an occupation. It's not found in all these other things. It's found in what God has assigned for me to do. And they need to be trained in such a way that they understand that without God's plan, there really isn't a future. Without God's purpose, there is no real satisfaction. You know, I was raised in a pastor's home, and I, you know, backslidden. My dad got out of pastoring when I was a teenager, and I told him, you know, I would never marry a preacher. And he was not when I married him. So I was safe, I thought. And then when the call of God came and I knew I couldn't fight it, I finally gave in. And I said, you promised me that we'll never pastor. And he goes, not a problem. I'm not called to be a pastor. I'm going to be a traveling guy. And I said, okay. I thought, I can live with that. And then all we've done is pastor. And here we are at 70 doing a new thing, and I'm going, God, you have a real sense of humor. It only took 43 years for you to prove to me that he didn't lie to begin with. Only served 43 years. Yeah, but, you know, there's a place and a place in God's plan that the only place that your child will ever find the satisfaction in life and the contentment in life that they need to have. They can go through all kind of phases, do all kinds of things. And yet the plan of God is where they're going to ultimately one day go, ah, God, you were right all along. You know, we don't try to push our kids into things. I mean, just. We just have to. We have to lead them and guide them. But it's our responsibility to raise them so that they can't in such a way that they can fulfill the plan that God has set out for them. For some people, you know, the raising of your children is the most important part. You will play in the plan of God for your life and theirs. I have a lady at church that has five kids, and she's homeschooling all five of them. And, boy, they're a rowdy bunch, but they're just as sweet as they can be. They love God. The oldest boy, you know, tells me all the time he's going to be a preacher. And I'm going, go for it, Walker. Go. Yay. But they all just love the Lord. And they range from, I think about 14 down to like 4. And, you know, there are times when she's come to me very discouraged because she was kind of overwhelmed with the job. And I'm going to. Rayleigh, it's okay. This is what God has called you to do, is to raise these children. Now when they're all grown and gone, maybe God's got something else for. But I'm telling you what, there's destiny on those kids, and she's doing what she's supposed to do so moms don't get discouraged. You know, I look at. Look at life, you know, for me, during all of our years of pastoring, and there were times when I couldn't go where he was going. I couldn't go with him. I couldn't do this, I couldn't do that. And because I had, my children came first. And just for sake of information, for those of you in the ministry, if you have children, your children are first. If that means Mama has to stay back, you know, to make sure that the children are well taken care of, well provided for, let me tell you, it's a season. It's a season. I felt that way at times. You know, he could go places and go to these meetings and go to different things and meet with different people, and I was. I couldn't go. But there came a day, you know, when I could. And I don't begrudge any of the years, you know, that I took the back seat in those areas. But, you know, it's so vital. But I don't know, maybe it's because mamas are the ones who do the most trick training. You know, we're with them so much. You know, we're there to teach them the natural things as well as the spiritual things. You know, we pour so much into Them dads most of the time are consumed with providing for the family, leading the family. You know, those are all. And to me, that's the beauty of the fact that God made man and woman. He could divide up the respect responsibilities between a man and a woman, between a father and a mother. And to be honest with you, most of the time, dads are the fun people and moms are the bears. You know, it just kind of comes with the territory because we're with them all the time, and so I just know that they need to be trained in so many different areas, and moms are the ones who do it. On the battlefield of war, who does a man call out for? Mama. Mama. We were with a lady that was in her 80s one time, and she was just close to stepping over into heaven, and she was really kind of to the place where she was not aware of those in the room anymore. And she was. She was laying there on the bed going. She was ready to go. She was a lovely, wonderful woman who prayed all the time, and we were so sad to see her go, but knowing that this was the best thing for her. And as she lay on that bed just hours away from going into heaven, she said, mama, Mama, Mama. Come get your baby. Mama. Come get your baby. Oh. Touched my heart. So I'm telling you what. There's a special place in every child's heart, whether you're a boy or whether you're a girl, that your mama will always have because she's the one who spent that kind of time, she invested that kind of time in you. And I just want to talk to you today about what you can do to provide a place that's conducive to the development and unfolding of the plan of God in that child's life. Because I'm here to tell you there are things you have to do, you have to commit back home. Today they're doing a baby dedication. And it's not. It's not like some churches. You know, you sprinkle, you baptize, all this kind of stuff. It's really a dedication of the parents to do the job that they're called to do. And let me tell you, no amount of faith can make up for poor parenting. See, see, Smile, smile. No amount of faith will make up for poor parenting. Very good. None. Don't expect the church to do your parenting. Don't say, don't think. Okay? All the spiritual stuff, you know, I can leave that alone. I can just take care of this part, and the church will take care of that. No, the church is not going to take care of that part. We will do our part. The local church will do their part to train your child. I mean, our nursery right on up. I mean, everybody in the whole church knows the vision of our church and they implement it from the babies right on up. They speak the word over babies. They teach the little ones. You know, we will do our part, but it won't do any good if you don't do yours. 43 years of being in the ministry, in pastoring, where you are nose to nose with people. How many times have we seen people who kept their kids in church? Every single time the door was open and yet when they became adults, they walked away. You know what that tells me? Not that we didn't do our job. They didn't do their job. That's what that tells me. It wasn't real at home. Mm. There wasn't a faith talk at home. There wasn't a praise God at home. There wasn't. The church is the most important thing and my pastors are the most important thing. You know, outside your about the parents. They didn't teach them this kind of stuff. They didn't live it in front of them. I can give you multiple examples of people over, over the years, you know, that this has happened to. And the best thing about traveling now is our best example sat in front of us and we couldn't say anything because they would recognize themselves. All bets are off now, But we've seen it multiple times. Multiple times. Everything looked good until the kids were at a certain age. And then they're gone. They're gone. And you knew where it came from. You knew the problem. Most, I won't say all the time. Most of the time it was because it was not real at home. And if you heard my husband last night, I can say the same thing. I had this deep sense of I don't see where this is reality, you know, I just don't. I mean, my father was, like I said in the ministry, but there was, there was crisis in our home. My parents had two children die. One who's four years old and one was just a few months old. And again, people said when my 4 year old sister died, she was 6 years younger than me, was sick for the entire 4 years that she was alive. And when she died, people had only 10 when she died. But people had this crazy thing of saying God needed another flower for his garden. Really, I even think as a 10 year old, why did God need another flower when my mama needed Her. My mama's heart's broken, you know, why did God? Why did God do that? Seems to me that the prophet Nathan went to David with a story about taking the little lamb from somebody. Well, that's not God. That's not the way God works. And I was of the same opinion as he was about his dad and all the relatives. If this is what serving God's all about, what good is it? I mean, you know, we're just. We're just going to be living like everybody else. There's. There's really no difference except that we go to church all the time. And what good does that do us? I don't know. But anyway, before I move on, I better, because I got too many pages here. There are things you can do to help make a place for the development of the plan of God for your child. Number one, pray. Pray. I did a series at home several years ago on praying for your children. And I actually took that to Africa a couple of years ago and taught it to a lot of a whole congregation of pastors who came. You know, I don't know if you guys remember Christopher Allen, but we went to Africa. I went for the first time with him two years ago. And my husband always teaches a minister's conference there. And so I got to do one hour a day of that ministers conference. And the Lord just laid it on my heart to talk to him about praying for your children. And when it was all said and done, they were like, we didn't know that. We didn't. One pastor came to one of the other men on the crusade team and he said, I've never heard that. He said, I lost one son already, he said, but I'm not going to lose anymore. And so I'll just kind of run, run through these things because I don't have time for the. I'll just. This is. This is not a really comprehensive list of the things you need to pray for. I'm just going to tell you that ultimately it bears what bears witness with you to pray at any given time for your child. But these are some pretty good categories. Number one, pray that they will always comprehend the love of the Father God. That they always understand that God loves them unconditionally. He loves them. They need to understand who they are in Christ. You know, so many of our children grow up, they don't know who they are. They have poor self image. They have had other people try to define who they are. They get bullied, all these kinds, and yet if they knew who they were In Christ. Those kind of things would never bother them if they were fully and firmly established in the things of God, in who they are. That would not happen to them. Amen. So how about maintain a tender heart toward the things of God? You know, it's horrible to me that we get hold of children when they're young in the church and they have such tender hearts. They're so open to the things of God. And then parents pull them out for all kinds of things. They pull them out for sports, for recreational type things. Oh, let's go boating. It's summertime. Let's go, let's go. Let's go do this. Let's go to the beach. Let's go do this. They pull. And that tender heart that was present when they were young hardens, hardens. So pray that they always have a tender heart. Pray for their protection. At every age, they need to be prayed over for protection. I mean, our kids have been prayed over so many times and God has supernaturally intervened in situations where they should have been seriously injured, injured or even killed. You know, you say, well, I don't think there's anything going on. Hey, you don't know. If God prompts you to pray for their protection, you better start praying. How about pray for wisdom? You know, I don't know how many of you homeschool, I don't how many of you send your kids to either a private school, maybe a public school. But listen, your child needs wisdom because you're not around. They need the wisdom of God in every situation that they are going to encounter when they're away from you. You can't protect them from all that. And in fact, they need to be put in situations where they have to develop wisdom. It's called growing up. Hallelujah. Oh, how about the favor of God? I tell you what, my children have enjoyed such favor in such so many places, whether it was school, whether it was jobs, no matter what it was. And listen, the favor of God ain't fair. He never intended to be fair. His kids are going to get the best. His kids are going to get the best routine at the job, going to get the best hours at the job, going to get the best pay at the job. His kids are going to have favor. Never be ashamed of the favor that God gives you. Never. Don't apologize for it. You just say, I'm blessed. I'm just so blessed. I'm just so blessed. And always go, my children would go in when they were in high school and they would go into a job Situation, like a part time job, like at the grocery store or a little fast food joint or whatever. And they would tell me to have to work on Sundays. And they go, I can't work on Sundays. Now if you want me to work between one and five, I can do that, but I can't work Sunday mornings and I can't work Sunday nights and I can't work Wednesday nights. And they had favor everywhere they went. Other people's kids went to places and they wanted a little job and they were told they had to work Wednesday, they had to work Sunday and nobody said a word. I'm going, what is your problem? Why did you not believe God for favor? So they could have favor. So that's just something else to pray over. And then how about to find the right mate? Oh, could I meddle here? I don't have time to meddle, but I'd love to meddle. I won't. The plan of God will not be fulfilled the way it should be. If they marry the wrong person, start when they're young about praying who the right person come into their life. My boys have married the right women. One of them's been married 27 years. One of them's been married three, 32 years. And God provided wonderfully. One he met at church. Actually, both of them met him at church, not our church. My Steve went off to college in Tampa and met a girl in the youth group that he had seen before and that was really his first and almost only girlfriend. And they were married just a couple of years later and they've been married ever since. Now Greg, there was nobody in our church that, that he was interested in. He'd say, mom, what am I going to do? There's nobody here. And I know I'm not supposed to marry somebody who's not born again, who's not full of the Holy Ghost, who doesn't know the word. I know all this. Where am I going to find her? I said, son, you just keep doing what you know to do and God will bring her. And God did, all the way from Pennsylvania, he brought her into our church. And they've been married, like I said, all those years, 27 years. I really don't have time. But I really, I love to meddle in this area. I love to, I love to be. Okay, okay. So if you're going to let them find the right mate, if you're going to pray and believe God, they're going to find the right mate. One of the ways you start with that is don't Let them date. My parents were pretty naive, and we were dating and a lot of other things. When you're married at 16 and the mother at 17, you can figure it out. And I don't say that bragging by any chance, that was an old person. That old person is dead. And that doesn't apply to me except the history of my life. That's all. But my parents should never have let me out of the house on a single date at 16. Well, it was at 15. We started dating when we were 15. He's been chasing me a long time. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But my mom and daddy should never have let me out of the house. Now, if it was like a group thing, I can see that. And my older son, he has two boys. They're both grown now. They're both, you know, out of college and in great careers. But he did not let them date. These are boys. He did not let them date till they were 18. That's right. You know, we think of. Okay, I'm not going to let my daughter date till she's 18. You better not let your sons date till they're 18 either. Because I'm telling you what, the enemy has got a plan. And it comes in a female form to move them off the plan of God before they even become an adult. Yeah. So it's important that you override what their little hormones are wanting. Don't let them out of the house. Don't leave them unsupervised. I mean, there are things that you need to do to make sure that they're in a place for the right mate to come along. Both of our boys got married fairly early. Both of them were married by the time they were before they were 21, which, you know, I didn't have a problem. I thought, well, that's old compared to what we did. But they know they have found the right one and bore witness with us. And both of them have the right mate. And both of them have moved on in the things of God because of that. But listen, the right mate is so important, not just for the plan, but just in general. Because who can you count on when trouble comes if you don't marry the right one? Can you, in the middle of the night, expect this spouse that you picked to reach over in the middle of the night when you're burning up with fever and lay their hands on you and pray for you and see you healed? There's so much that's involved in this. But I better stop. We won't finish this. Hallelujah. Well, we might not let Pastor Anderson minister tonight. Another thing you can pray for is they have a heart for others. They have a heart for others. I see it all the time. There are people in our church who have such a generous and open heart to people in the church and when somebody new comes in, they pull them in. They pull and their children see it and their children become adults and they do the same thing. They need to have a heart for other people. Not stingy. Then they need confidence and boldness and that's just pray. Anyway, let's go on from there. One of the other things you can do to make sure the plan of God comes to pass in your child's life is live your life as an example. Before that, you need to live a life of faith. You need to live a holy life. You should be the same person at home as you are at church. Doesn't always happen. Demonstrate your regard for the things that are important to God, the Word, a spirit filled church, the right church. As he said last night, if you easily dismiss those kinds of things, your children will more than easily dismiss them when they're older. I mean, we had a family in the church that got a boat and we live in a place where there's a lot of lakes, there's a lot of rivers, springs. The ocean is only two hours either direction. You can go to the Gulf of Mexico, you can go to the Atlantic Ocean. And I found out one day that the dad got up on a Sunday morning and he went out to do something with the boat. I don't know if he put the COVID on it. I don't know exactly what. He and his kids all came running out, oh, we're going, we're going to the river today. And I thought, what? It's Sunday morning. Your children should never ever think that it's, oh, we're going to do this. They would look at you and go, what? We're not going to church. My children knew that. Of course there's pastors, kids, they have to go, but not necessarily. I won't go there. Your children should know that Wednesdays you have church on Wednesday, right? Wednesdays and Sundays. There is no question about what happens in this house on Wednesday and Sunday. Don't even ask. There's no reason to ask because the answer will always be the same. So they need a regard for those things. You demonstrate the love of the Father to them so they understand the love of God as a father. Many people can't understand God as Father. They can't understand, they can't comprehend how much God loves them because of the examples that have been set before them. I mean, I know several people in the church that they had terrible examples, you know, growing up. Terrible. And it was hard for them to accept God as the loving father that he is because they had never experienced that on a human level. So you need to demonstrate that you need to be consistent in your treatment and exist expectations of your children. Now, I had a problem over the years, you know, with certain people in the church treating my children in such a way that I did not appreciate. Now, one in particular, our son who's pastoring now, he's a drummer, and he was praying with the praise and worship team back when he was a teenager. And the person who was in charge of the praise and worship got on his case about, I don't know, not being engaged enough or something. I don't really know what it was. And when I found out about it, I mean, really crawled his case about it. And when I found out about it, I went to him and said, don't you ever do that again. You know why? I said, because the other. There's at least one other person on the praise and worship team that is equally or more unengaged than he is. And you've never said a word to them. Don't pull my kid out and expect more out of them than you expect out of somebody else. You expect the same out of them equally. But here's the deal. I expect more out of my kids than anybody else. Did I set the standard and they would meet the standard or else they would understand why that that was not going to work. But you cannot be inconsistent with raising children. You must be the same all the time as the parent. You must win every battle. Now, when they get to be teenagers, you may have to change your tactics a little bit. But when they're young, this is when this is established, when they're very young. Listen, a baby knows how to manipulate the mama. A baby. A little bitty, cute, innocent, loving baby. They're just one big flesh ball and they know how to wrap you up. I cry, you pick me up. I hush, you put me down. I cry, you pick me up. I hush, you put me down. I cry. You must win the battle. You put them down, Let them cry it out. Now, there may be somebody who has a problem with that parenting style, but it works. But these are things they need to learn at an early age. An early age. You set the standard for your kids and then you expect them to live up to it. And when they don't, there's a way to let them know that that is disappointing. Pastor Nancy just tells the story about how her mom came to her when she had done something she should not have been doing. And she said, nancy, you're not being as good as I know you are. There's creative ways to let them know that they are disciplined. Pointing and not meeting the standard that you have set for them. So God gives wisdom. As a parent, you need wisdom. There's a Holy Ghost element to pastor. I mean, to pastor. Yeah, there is that, too. To parenting. You know, sometimes pastoring and parenting is the same thing because a church is a church family, and I'm the mama, he's the daddy, and we're going to do it my way. I've told people before, they have one stubborn, strong willed child that said, you have to win every time. You have to win. They have to understand this is the way it is, Period. I'm so far in the weeds here. You help them train their flesh by doing that. Their flesh needs to be trained. Discipline needs to be experienced. Obedience needs to be mandatory. Your child should get to the place where they obey first time. Not when you count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. No, I expect you to obey the first time. You know what? You're training them to obey their Father, their heavenly Father, the first time. And there are times when instant obedience means the difference between life and death. When they're young, consequences are not that great most of the time, but when they're older, oh, my. The consequences of instant obedience or disobedience can be massive. They need to be trained. Do not enable your children. I mean, I have, I can, I can name you. I can name you several people right now at home that have adult children that they've enabled for so long that they have never changed the way they live. Because mom is always going to make it up. Mom is always going to clean up the mess. Well, no, mama's not going to clean, clean up the mess. I let my child sleep through a final in college because I told him, do not let that alarm clock keep going off. I am not going to come wake you up. And he just kept turning it off, turning it off, turning it off. And we finally woke up. He said, I missed my final. I'm going, not my problem, not my problem. Donut. Those are. You can enable them in little areas, but when you start doing that, you will carry that right on some place. It's got to stop. And they have to learn to suffer the consequences of that lack of discipline in their lives. Stop enabling them. Watch your words to them. Be an encourager. Always let them know who they are, that they're valuable, they're worth anything and everything to you, that you love them regardless. You may not always like what they do, but you love them regardless. Hallelujah. Every child has a potential to be a leader in some way and in some situations. Not every person is destined to be a leader, you know, but they will be a leader in some aspects of life. Whether it's at school, whether it's in all kinds of situations at work, you know, or just leading somebody on the street to Jesus, you know, that's being a leader right there. But they have this potential and they need to be confident in who they are and what their, what their part in God's plan is. Teach them to make good decisions and not bow to peer pressure. Pastor Morgan, you all know her. You know, she was born and raised in our church and her mom has been our secretary for 20 something years. And I appreciate something that Kendra told me a long time ago. She said as her girls got older, she would start letting them make decisions on their own and she would stand back and watch. And if she saw the decisions were not the right decisions, she would step in. But she gave them the latitude to make those decisions. And as your children grow from the time that they're young, you know, you need to start letting them make little decisions, little decisions, little decisions, little decisions. Of course, now you hit that zone about 13. We called it the zombie zone. It's like they totally check out on you. You know, they're for a year or so, they're in this thing where they're just. Their brain is just kind of like, duh, you know, My oldest said, I know momma's talking to me, but. And I can hear her. I just, I just, I just don't know. Somehow. I just don't understand. I got to the place where I just said, okay, these are the instructions. And then I would say. And then I found out they didn't, they didn't pay any attention because they just were like zoned out. And I'd say, repeat back to me what I just said to you. And they would go. I went, no, that's not, not what I said. No, let's go through this again. Until you can get it straight. We'll go through this again. But teach them how to make good decisions and not bow to peer pressure. Not everybody is a strong willed child, but teach them not to bow. But I said, this Earlier. If they know who they are in Christ, peer pressure will not hinder them at all. And don't be afraid to speak into their lives when they're adults. Don't be afraid. If you do it right when they're young, they will respect the input that you bring into their lives. You know, I can say so much more, but, you know, time's getting away from us and I don't want us to belabor it. And there's. Is there hope for your child being older? Yeah, there is. I mean, you can pray and believe God, you know, you can pray the wisdom of God. God can give you the right things to say, and you can pray that God sends people to them, that they will listen to, that they will be open to. If you can't say it to them, somebody else can. And God knows who that is. God knows how to reach them. But you never pray in fear. You always pray in faith. Always. Don't let fear come into this. If your child is older, you know, and maybe even an adult, there's. There's still room. I mean, listen, he's a good example that there's still room for God to work. I'm still working on him. But, you know, God's plan. God's done dust and lots of good things. Hallelujah. But you need to start this life off with what Joshua said. As for me and my house, we will serve, but he started with me and moms. I'm telling you, it starts with you. And I tell you what, you can be the catalyst for wonderful, wonderful children. There's nothing more satisfying in life than to have your children grown. They responsible adults. They lead their families well. They love God. There's nothing more satisfying than that. So what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his children? There's not. I mean, that's just a horrendous thing. But I tell you what, the satisfaction from that and to see how God uses them just blesses me abundantly. You never know what impact that child of yours is going to have on this world. You don't know how many generations that's going to run the impact. You don't know if the next generation here is going to raise children who have a huge impact. Listen, Christopher Allen, born into a. Into a Muslim family. Who knew that one day, could anybody have guessed that one day he would lead millions of people to Jesus? Never look at your child and think, you know, they're probably not going to. They're going to love God and they're Going to, they're going to. They're going to witness to people, they're going to be an influence around the people that they're called close to. But never minimize the potential for what's in them. Never. You don't know. Just like Mary did, you know, Mary did, you know. But our job as mothers is to make sure we give them all the tools and all the equipment and all the training and all the spirit of God that we can can so that they can find and fulfill the plan for their lives. That's what we do. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, ladies, let's just all stand if you're a mom. Men, stay seated. Ladies, if you're a mom in any capacity, I want you to stand up. Hallelujah. You're a wonderful bunch of ladies. You are precious. And God has entrusted to you something awesome. What did I write down? We are entrusted with the incredible responsibility of preparing these God called people that he's given to us and to fulfill the divine plan ordained by heaven, the Father God has entrusted you with that responsibility to prepare them for what he's planned for them, for what he desires for them. There is no greater job. There's no other career that takes precedence over that. None. I know there's a lot of career ladies in here and that's wonderful, you know, but at the same time, I know you can do your job as a mom. So, Father, right now I just pray for all these wonderful ladies that stand before me, all these wonderful mothers. Father, I know there are some who may be discouraged, overwhelmed, overworked. But Lord, I know there's grace for every one of them. No matter how old their child might be, no matter how young their child might be, no matter how many there might be. Father, there is a grace given to every mother in this room to do what you've called her to do and to fulfill her role in the plan for each of her children. And so today, Father, I just ask you to equip, to anoint, to give wisdom, to give understanding, to give patience, to give them a steadfastness to stand their ground when the enemy shows his ugly head in their child's life. To never, never, never come compromise where their children are concerned. Never let go of the promise that you've made to that mom or to that child. To never compromise in any form. Because compromise only gives an opening for the enemy to come in. So, Father, help us to be strong, good, courage, willing to hear, willing to be taught, willing to be corrected. Because sometimes as a mom, we do need some correction. Sometimes we do need help, Father, for everyone who needs help, Father, send her to someone with great wisdom so that she can learn. Because as women with older children, we can help those with younger children. We can encourage them when the days seem long and hard, we can encourage them to not let go, to just be strong in you, and to look to you for that strength that they need in any particular time, in any given situation. And so today, Father, I bless each and every one of these ladies. And I know your hand of blessing is upon them. And I know that in their hearts, they want what you want for their children. So, Father, equipped and enabled they are to do the most wonderful and far reaching job they've ever been given. We thank you for it. In Jesus name, amen.