“God Gave Mothers a
Special Love” By Pastor
Parrish Lee May 13th,
2018 Beautiful service, huh? Great time of praise and worship,
great time of
honoring our moms. And a great time to just be in the house of the
Lord, amen?
You know, I've just got to say it was wonderful to see all the moms
come up
here and— that's something special, that's something special, I grew up
in the
community of moms, they'd come together, and you knew, once they got
together,
you didn't interrupt that. You know? Once all the moms got to the
table,
whether they were cooking, or talking, or preparing—whatever they were
doing,
whenever they got together all in one ensemble, you watched how you
walked up
on them. And, that's what I saw, just a beautiful spirit of unity
amongst them
today. Looking forward—we had a wonderful time, as Pastor Ulysse
was here, and
he brought beautiful praise, he brought a beautiful message. He taught,
and he
shared, he started off with talking, on Wednesday, he talked to us
about
eldership, and he moved on, and it was wonderful, just a wonderful
time. And,
then, last week, they were continuing, and they talked, last week, it
was Brother
Kenny and Brother Arman, and, another beautiful worship. You know, we
are
blessed to have men and women who love God in this ministry. I mean, we
take it
for granted sometimes, but we are blessed. Really blessed, because we
know
their testimonies. And, they're not ashamed—if they've got something
going on—they're
not ashamed to say, “Hey, you know what? I need some prayer. I need
some
prayer. Pray for me.” And, they will, in time, turn that right around,
and say,
“Now may I pray and bestow a blessing on you.” Amen? Amen. It's
beautiful. It's
beautiful. Well, today's subject, today's thought, today's message, or
sermon—the
message has been going on all day—but, the sermon, today, today's title
of the
message is, “God gave Mothers a Special Love.” God Gave Mothers a
Special Love.
And, yeah, He gave everybody love, He gave everybody love. But He gave
mothers
a special love. Yes, He gave fathers a special love, gave brothers a
special
love, He gave sisters a special love, but He gave mothers a special
love. Those
are the ones that we are going to talk about today. Giving honor, giving honor to that God who has done all for
us, giving
honor to our Savior in our Master, the lover of our souls, Jesus, King
of
glory. Giving honor to Him this morning. Giving honor to all of those
who have
gone before us, who stood in the gap and made up the hedge, in this
ministry.
We give honor to every single one of them, from our founding pastor, he
and his
family, our pastor, he and his family, and for all of those who stood
in the gap
to make up the hedge. Giving honor for all of their dedication, And,
all those
who have carried the Word of God throughout the generations, from the
time of
our Lord until today. Giving honor to all of them. And, giving honor to
all of
you, who present yourselves to the one true, most high God, that He
might do according
to you as His will might dictate, that you might receive what He has
for you,
today. Amen, amen, and amen. As we said, today's title of the message is, “God Gave
Mothers a
Special Love.” and, then I asked Brother Rob Severance if he would come
and
read our theme for today. It's taken from the book of John, chapter
eleven, and
verse number two: John 11:2
(It was that
Mary which
anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair,
whose
brother Lazarus was sick.) Thank you, Brother Rob. If we could bow our heads for just a
moment.
Almighty God, we offer everything to You, and Lord, truly, You are the
giver of
all good and perfect gifts, so it's not about impressing You, God, but
it is
about worshiping You, and letting You know that You are special to us.
We come
before You God, and we ask that You would bestow upon us according to
Your will,
this day, for we know Your will, if You bestow Your will upon us, we
cannot go
wrong. And, Lord, we thank You for what You've given us, even thus far.
We
thank You for every opportunity. We thank You, God. We give halals to
You, God,
thanking and praising You, the only God that there is. And, then, Lord
we ask
as You blessed in our praise and worship time, we ask for this part of
the
worship to go over your Word, Lord, that it would do according to the
Book of
Isaiah, it would not return unto You void, but do exactly what You have
sent it
to accomplish unto us. And, this we do, we come, and we do praise and
we claim
in Jesus name. And, everyone said, amen. Amen. Happy Mother's Day. So, from The book of John chapter eleven, verse number two. John 11:2
(It was that
Mary which
anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair,
whose
brother Lazarus was sick.) Now, to give a little background here, this scripture is
from chapter
eleven and verse number two. So, the first thing that happens in here,
it talks
about—in verse number one, it talks about Lazarus being sick. And, it
mentions
Lazarus, his sisters Martha and Mary. It mentions those two. And, then,
so this
happens the Lord wasn't in town, He wasn't in Bethany, at the town, and
we have
to talk about this, because this verse is so special. So, it was that
they had
learned that Lazarus was sick, but they weren't in Bethany, at the
time. And,
so, it was after that they had learned that he was sick, and before the
miracle
took place. We all know the story of Lazarus, they make movies about
it, they
have other stories; people name animals, and stuff, or projects, the
Lazarus
project. That name is synonymous with something that was risen from the
dead,
that they couldn't understand, it had some miraculous power, it has a
definite
power, even in the name. And, we know the story, we know the story,
we've heard
the story over and over, of course. But, this verse takes place before
all of
the things that happened. This verse is actually a precursor, it is a
preview,
if you will. So, in this verse, it happens before all that happens,
when he
mentions it, he mentions it, and it's almost stand alone. There's only
a few
places were apostle John, or even the other apostles, have done this
very
thing. And, you might ask, what? What kind of theme is that? What
kind of
theme is that? That theme is in parentheses. How in the world is that a
theme
for the month? I'm glad you asked, I'm glad you asked. It is so
powerful that
it talks about a testimony before the testimony was given. It is so
powerful
that he makes note of this enormous amount of love. And, in this
preview, in
this preview, if we were going into chapter twelve, we would see where
it
happens, but, in this preview, it is, like, in retrospect. Now, as the
story
had gone along, they weren't writing it, they were remembering it, they
wrote
it afterwards. Okay? And, the only other preview we see like this is
when they
talk about Judas. Whenever they talk about Judas, Judas betrayed the
Lord at
the end of the Gospels, at the end of each one of the Gospels, but
whenever
they mention him aforetime, they always say Judas who also betrayed
Christ. His
testimony preceded his actions. This, this is the same context. He
mentions about
what she did, before he gets to describing what she did. It is that
powerful. As
powerful as Judas’s testimony was to the negative, hers, here, is to
the
positive. That's how powerful this verse is. It's like if you mention a
king,
and they say, “Well, what's so special about that king?” And, you go
ahead and
tell what he did, or, if you mention an athlete, or “What's so special
about
that athlete?” “Oh, he broke that record.” “Oh, that's his testimony.”
Or you
mention a person in school, maybe a student, what's so special about
them, or
them. And, then they go ahead and they tell about them before you even
meet
them. It precedes even their actions, what they've done, because the
story goes
on. That's the family that this is. now what kind of testimony, what
kind of
testimony is this? Yes, for Mother's Day, for Mother's Day. And,
actually, for
women's month, if you will. What kind of testimony is this? How
powerful is
this? Well, this isn't her only testimony. This is the Mary that sat at
the
feet of the Lord Jesus, and where He said, were Martha came and said
“Tell my
sister to get up and help me. Sitting at your feet. Anybody can sit at
your
feet, but we've got work to do.” And, the
Lord said, “She has chosen the better part, which will not be taken
away from
her.” So, she had another testimony that says that, it talks about
Lazarus, and
Martha, and Mary because Martha was the older, it talks about Lazarus,
Martha,
and Mary, and it says that they were the ones that Jesus loved. So, she
had
other testimonies. Why this one? Why this one? Well, I'm glad you
asked, you
see, it said that she anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His
feet with
her hair. And, I—just reading through that, it's just a few words,
let's talk:
first of all, she anointed Him with ointment; let's talk about that
ointment.
If we were to read in the next chapter, we would find out that ointment
was
worth three hundred pence. And, it's hard to get a grasp on how much
that is.
Let's talk about how much that three hundred pence:
a pence, then, represented a day's wages. So
that's three hundred days’ wages. Now, if you factor in, like we would,
a
weekend, like for us, in nowadays, that amounts to one year's wages. I
don't
know how much you make in a year, I don't know, however much, but,
however much
it is, imagine wrapping one year’s salary, taking it out of your bank
account
or whatever, and buying one gift for the Lord. That's what this is!
And, it was
so precious, so precious, that when she put it over Him, if we were to
read in
chapter twelve, when she put it over Him, it filled the house, it
filled the
entire house (John 12:3)—everybody knew that somebody got anointed with
that
ointment, that precious ointment, everybody knew it. So, Mary, here,
Mary,
here, is saying, “Lord You are of value to me. You are worth this that
I have.”
And, then, she is saying, “I want everybody to know, I want everybody
to know
that I love You.” You know how it is. You know how it is. We give our
tithes
and offerings; we give things to the Lord as the Lord lays them on our
heart. And,
we don't have to go around telling anybody, when we walk with God and
do what
he tells us to do, people can tell. They can tell you have it going on
in your
life. And, every now and then, every now and then, somebody will stop
you, and
say, “You know, I've been meaning to ask you, there's something about
you, you
know? What is it? What, what, what—You know, I just notice you're not
like
everybody else.” That's this testimony of the ointment. But, then it
goes on.
And, here, you see, the Bible says that she wiped His feet with her
hair. She wiped
His feet with her hair. Now, to put this in context, good, honorable,
respectable Jewish women of the time, they kept their hair covered and
they
would reveal their hair, in their house, to their kids, to their
family, and to
their husband. That's it. Good, respectable Jewish women kept their
hair
covered. It wasn't for everybody else to see their beauty, and their
show of
love. It wasn't for everybody else, but, for their family. For their
husband,
for their kids. And, this is what Mary does, Mary breaks the ointment
and anoints
the Lord, and wipes His feet with her hair. Now, we know—we covered it
a couple
of weeks ago—that this was a tribute, water, washing their feet, was a
tribute
done to guests that came into the house. And, it was usually performed
by the
lowest person in the house, and they would do that, it was something
that was
automatic, it was automatic. But, Mary doesn't use water, she is
anointing the
Lord; she is setting Him apart in making Him special to herself, and
everybody
around. And, when she wipes His feet with her hair, this is what Mary
is saying:
“The very best of me can touch the very lowest of You, Lord. In fact, I
know,
according to my tradition, I know according to what I've been taught, I
know
according to custom, a woman isn't supposed to do this, but, God, I
love You in
such a way that I don't care what the customs and traditions say. I
break my
sincerity down before You, God. And, I let everybody know I love You
like this.
I'm not ashamed to love You like this in front of everybody. Yeah, they
can smell
it. Yeah they can tell, but I'm not ashamed. In fact, in fact, if they
loved You
like I love You, they'd understand. They’d understand that this ain't
nothing
but a thing, for my Lord. They wouldn't even think that this is
something out
of the ordinary.” That's why John has to make a big deal out of this.
It was
that Mary who anointed the Lord, and wiped His feet with her hair.
Yeah, she
showed everybody how to be humble. She showed everybody how to be
sincere. She
showed everybody how not to care about what everybody else thought when
it came
to loving Jesus. That's what this Mary showed, and that's what John had
to make
mention of; this type of love, this type of love, loving the Lord like
this,
teaches people sincerity and humility, honor, and respect. Now, now,
I'd like
to talk about another woman. You see, in retrospect, let me back up a
second,
in retrospect, the very next chapter, Mary does it, but this was after
Lazarus
was raised from the dead, you see? And, so, her way of coming to God
and saying,
“I'm thanking You for everything. Lord, I’m thanking you.
You rose my brother from the dead; ain’t
nobody else can do that. And, God would You have done for my life,
can't nobody
else do that either. So, God, this is how I love You, and I return that
Love.”
And, if anybody else there could have that touch, that feeling, that
understanding, that same love, they wouldn't have a problem with it.
There
might have even have been a line to wipe His feet with their hair. Yes,
yes. But going on to another woman I'd like to talk about, and,
yes, this
woman, this woman was a mother. Don't really know, couldn't find—and it
doesn’t
really look like she would have been a mother in the same house, but,
you don't
know. The Bible doesn't describe it out. It does talk about the way she
loved Him,
though. This one, we’d like to talk about, this mother we’d like to
talk about,
was one who just followed the Lord around on behalf of her daughter.
One who
begged the Lord for a healing, even at the cost of humbling and
humiliating
herself. And, Brother Rob, if you would come again, I’m going to ask
you to
read again, if you would, please. It's going to be in the book of
Matthew
starting at chapter fifteen, and starting at verse number twenty-two
through twenty-eight: Matthew 15:22-28
And, behold, a
woman of Canaan
came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on
me, O
Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But he
answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him,
saying, Send
her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not
sent but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and
worshipped him,
saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take
the
children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord:
yet the
dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus
answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto
thee even
as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Thank you, Brother Rob. So, this woman of Canaan, this woman
of Canaan
came and said, “My daughter has a problem.” And, here, it says that the
Lord
answered her not a word. The Lord the Lord, answered her not a word.
What do
you do, when you ask God, and you beg God, you beseech God and you
don't get an
answer. What do you do? When you're looking for direction, or a way to
turn,
you're looking for a healing, you're looking for something to come in
your life
that's going to be a remedy for what you need, and it seems like you
can't get
an answer from God. What do you do? This woman, this woman of Canaan,
showed us
what to do. The Bible says that He answered not a word, everybody was
telling
her to stop, they were trying to put space between her and God, and the
Bible
says she's crying after Him, and then He said, “I'm not sent to her.
I'm not
sent to her, but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” And, verse
number twenty-five
says then came she and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, help me.” What do
you do
when you feel like you can't get an answer from God? You know what you
do? She
showed us what to do. You don't turn back; you turn to God. And, she
entered
into worship. The Bible says she entered into worship, and then
worshipped,
“God help me. God help me.” And, when she got, when she entered into
worship.
See, Christians know, God's people, they know something. They know, I
can
lightly ask, there's all kinds of levels of asking. I mean there's an
asking,
were you quit everything; you fast, you don't even change your clothes,
you
don't even turn on electricity. There's an asking where you plead with
God, and
there's an asking where “Oh, God, if it's okay, you know, I've got a
couple of
minutes here, but if it's okay, go ahead, and I could use this
blessing. I
would like to get me some ice cream on the way home, but, You know, if
not,
it's no big deal.” There's several levels of asking, but she showed,
“If I
don't get an answer, that's God. I'm going to enter into worship. Lord,
help
me.” And, then she got an answer. It was not the answer that she
thought she
would hear. It was not the answer that she was looking for. it was not
the
answer that she wanted. The Lord says to her, in verse number
twenty-six, He
answered and said, “It is not meet to take the children's bread and
cast it to
the dogs.” That ain't the answer that she wanted to hear; who wants to
hear an
answer like that? She didn't want to hear that. But, there was
something going
on here. A mother, a mother. That's who the Lord was dealing with. And,
He knew
He was dealing with her, and He was getting it out of her. He knew this
whole
thing was going to happen. He's the Lord, of course. So, as He gave her
that
comment, she turned around and gave a comment. She didn't use that for
an
opportunity to run away, to hold her head down, just say, “Huh. I never
thought
I'd get an answer like that from God.” She used that as a starting
point. Yes,
she could have felt belittled, Yes, she could have felt put down. Yeah,
she
could have felt being put on the outside. But, she accepted what God
told her,
and she went from there, into an answer that God could give her. She
accepted
what God told her., “Yay, Lord, yay, Lord.” Now, I have to say this: So
many
times, we come into the presence of God. If you've known the Lord for
any
length of time you have entered into His presence. And, if you enter
into the
presence of God, especially as a child of God, wide open, you find that
His
ways are so much higher than our ways. And, when you see that there's a
great
distance between you and Him, yeah, you feel low, yeah, you feel down,
yeah,
you feel like Isaiah said, I feel like a worm (Isaiah 41:14). Like a
worm. We
all as worms. Yes, you feel so low, not even a dog. We feel so low,
when you
enter into His presence, but, here again, this is a mother, this is a
mother,
and in feeling like that, this mother, instead of being discouraged and
walking
away, actually used this for a starting point, in entering into
worship,
something happened. Something happened. You see, when you enter into
worship,
there's praise going on. When you enter into worship, there's gratitude
going on.
There's thankfulness going on. When you enter the worship, obeisance,
goes on.
How many times have you entered in—I mean, you could have a bad spirit,
you
could be mad, you could be sad, and you can enter into worship, and God
changes
your mind. He changes your heart. He changes the situation. All of the
sudden
the sun is rising, and you see hope. All of the sudden your way is a
lot more
clear. And, you know, a “If I can't see the end, I know, whatever the
end is,
God will be with me. I don't have to know everything. God was going to
take
care of the rest. When I enter into worship, it becomes so much more
clear. Because
I entered into worship with God. I got closer to God. And, as I got
closer to
God, I began to understand, He is in control and I'm not. He can do it,
and He
will do it, in His time. God will be God in my life, when I enter into
worship.
He will inhabit that time, and when God inhabits something, it's God on
the
scene. Of course, of course, we know that when we enter into His
presence, and
we enter into worship, we have thanks and gratitude going on. As we
know that His
ways are so much higher than ours, we also understand that, as much as
a worm I
feel like—I don't know if everybody's felt like a worm, maybe some felt
like
dogs, maybe some felt like elephants, I don't know. But, I know when
you come
into His presence, He is here, and we are not. So, when we come into
His
presence, there's another thing that we enter into and understand:
grace and
mercy. Grace and mercy. From the Book of Psalms one-thirty, and verse
number three.
The Book of Psalms, chapter one-thirty, and verse number three. Just
look at
how great our God is: Psalm 130:3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? God, if you pointed out all my sins and faults, of course I
wouldn't
have a chance. I mean, I feel like when I come into your presence, if
you don't
clean me up, if you don't pour out some mercy, and some Grace, I will
stay
there. But, God, every time I come before you, and I'm honest, you've
given to
me grace and mercy. Every time. That's how good God is. And, then, from
The
book of Psalms, chapter one hundred and -three, starting at verse
number eight.
If I could ask Sister Nazira to come up and read. From the book of
Psalms,
chapter one hundred and three, we're going to read verses eight through
thirteen. Psalm 103:8-10
The Lord is
merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always
chide:
neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us
after our
sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Wait, wait, wait. Did you say He has not dealt with us
according to our
sins, and iniquities? He is not rewarded us like we deserve to be
rewarded?
That's our God? Hallelujah. Go ahead, my sister. Psalm 103:11-13
For as the
heaven is high
above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the
east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from
us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him. Thank you, so much. Thank you, so much. He has not rewarded
us. You
know, we might think, “This is even.” No, no, no, no. If God were to
mark
iniquity, who could stand? Now, He does not reward us according to our
iniquities. If it were stretched out—if mine were stretched out, it's a
lost
cause. Be thankful for grace and mercy in the precious blood of the
Lord. Amen,
amen. So, this mother knew, as most mothers do, that Almighty,
all-powerful,
all gracious God He could look upon her and judge her, but she knew
something.
She knew, because she was a mom, here. She knew that she had this type
of love
going on in her, and she knew that, “If my child, if my child comes to
me even
after she”—here it was a she—“after she's done wrong, if my child comes
to me and
tells me it's wrong, and asked me for her help. I'm not going to turn
away,
kick her down the stairs, and say get out, until I feel like letting
you back
in.” No, no, no, no, no, she knew if my child comes to me, and my child
says,
“Mommy, I done messed up. I need help.” I'm not going to turn away.
You're
going to see the love of a mother surround her and bring her close.
That's what
you're going to see. Well, nowadays, nowadays, we don't know. You don't
know
what you're going to see. But, most mothers, that's what they have in
them.
That's why we're still around. That's why, somewhere along the line,
we've
gotten that forgiveness. And, she knew that her love for her child, was
there.
So, if her child could get that love from her, and she was a child of
God, that
she could get love like that, if she just came to Him, and said, “God,
I messed
up. I need your help. Lord, help me.” She knew that relationship as a
mother.
So, she knew grace and mercy would be applied here. How many times does
the Lord
allow us to just to get into situations, and give us an answer that we
don't
like, don’t understand, and we have to know, that we just have to keep
the
faith because we might not like the answer, but God is in control. God
is in
control. We had a—we're going through an eldership series on
Wednesday, and,
last Wednesday, we were talking about the qualifications of an elder.
And, one
of the brothers, he asked, “What about, what about other qualifications
that
aren't on the list?” And, this is a bit of a sidebar, talking about
that love
that we're supposed to have, what about qualifications that are not on
the
list? And, for example, and the brother said, “What about visiting the
sick?
And, what about, what about tithes and offerings?” the brother said.
And,
immediately, immediately, I'm sure there were several fires going on.
You know,
that's a simple answer. If you don't visit the sick, if you're not
interested
in helping somebody when they're hungry, if you're not interested in
visiting
those who are in prison, or who really needed help, if you turn
yourself off to
that, you don't have to worry about a title. You don't have to worry
about
being an elder. You got to worry about making it through the gate.
Because,
according to that, He said, “Inasmuch, inasmuch as you have done it not
done it
to the one of the least of these My little ones, you have not done it
also unto
Me. Well, it's amazing, that happened on Wednesday, yesterday, we were
out, we had
the youth event, and we went out, brother Jason and I, we went out, and
we
visited Barton home, where Brother Ken is, and we visited another place
where
sister Anne is, and we went over there to visit, and Brother Ken was
just
inviting everybody. “Here, meet these
people, they're from my church, they're from my church.” And, one of
the
couples came in, and he had said, “They're from my church,” so, the
woman came
in all smiles, but the man, he stayed out, he stayed out at the door.
And, as
the lady came in, she, immediately—I don't know if you know Brother
Jason well,
but there ain't a conversation he don't walk by. And, she walked in,
and all of
the sudden you would have thought that they've known each other for so
long,
and it was just going on over there. She was sharing, he was sharing.
And, it
was like, “Wow, what a spiritual thing going on over there.” But, the
husband,
like I said, he had stepped out. He stayed out at the doorway, and then
he
stepped in, and he said “You know, I've got to tell you something. He said, “Just a little while ago,” he said,
“I
was homeless. All I had was enough money to pay for a two-day hotel
stay, at a
hotel, and we had no food. I could not feed my wife. And, I called 15
churches.
15 churches, and they said to me, “Oh, well, you're calling the wrong
number,
because we don't do that type of thing, here. We're not that kind of
church.” And
he said, “After calling 15 churches,” he said, “I lost my faith.
Because, if
people who were supposed to be doing God's work can't even give me a
jar of
peanut butter, and a loaf of bread. That couldn’t cost them more than
$7. They
could take a little offering. They probably spend more on that on a
latte.” As
he was looking at me, his eyes were swelling up, and then I saw, I saw
part of
our mission, our mission is to minister to people like that. Our
mission is to
be the Lord Jesus Christ's ambassador to people like that. I saw it,
because he
said, “I lost my faith.” And, I just shared with him, “You can lose
your faith
in people, even people that use His name, but don't lose your faith in
Him, because
He has brought you this far. I don't know what happened, how you got
it, but
you got it. Believe me, He is the one who took care of you.” And, he
smiled at
me, and thought, “Yeah, it was Him.” Because your faith isn't supposed
to be in
man, anyway. This is the same principle that the woman knew. If we put
our faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, then things are going to work out all right. So,
it's
amazing, it's amazing how we see that mothers can look at their
children—we're
about to close here—our mothers can look at their children, and they
can see
all kinds of potential in them. Non-Stop, my mom used to be the
greatest
example to me, in that. She'd say, “Well, Parrish, you know you're
going down
the wrong track,” and I'd be like, “Mom, I've got it all figured out!”
and
she'd say, “Sure you do.” “Look, while you got it figured out, make
sure you do
this right now. okay?” And, she would always put me back on the right
track.
And, I didn't understand it at the time, but I came to understand it. And, by that same token, I want to talk about a little bit
about
another little mother. I met this girl, she was a co-worker, and she
was kind
of like a wild child. And, she had gotten pregnant, become with child,
and I
asked her, I was looking forward to an answer, I'm always learning, and
I asked
her, “Hey, looking forward to things with your kid?” and she said, “Oh,
yeah, I
hope to hurry up and get it over with.” So, oh, okay. So then she had
the child—and,
this is a real quick story—and she had the child, and I said, “Hey, has
your
life changed any since you had your child?” and she said, “Yeah, I'm so
much
more tired. Every time I turn around, there's something to do for that
baby.” And,
I was like, “Ooh, I didn't expect to get that answer.” And, the
conversation
might have lasted, I don't know, a minute. She went on her way; I went
on my
way. I got back to work; she got back to work. And, it wasn't just a
few days
later, she looked for me. And, she came, and she said, walked right up
to me,
“You know, Parrish, that question you asked me?” I didn't really
remember what
question she was talking about, but, you know, I had to play it along,
so she
thinks I pay attention to her. And, so, I said, “Uh, sure! Sure!” And
she said—she
humbled herself down, and had a completely different look, and she
said, “I
never knew I could love something so much. I never knew it. I never
knew it.” Because,
that's the answer of a mother. In closing, mothers know that they have
more
than a natural love. They know they have a supernatural type of love. A
love
that will go for a through fire for a child, a love that nobody can
talk them
out of. And, yeah, I know, through the day’s times and how some kids
go, they
try that patience, some of us. I know that, I know that to be true.
However,
push comes to shove, everything down on the ground, kids always say,
“Well, I can
always go and talk to my mom.” So, in closing: So, then, what is the
message
the Lord gives for mom's this morning? The love that He is freely given
you,
that above love, that different love, that world changing love, that
supernatural love, that love that He is given to you freely; we have
received
it, freely give. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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