Amen. All right. Thank you. Appreciate all the good music today. If you would, turn in your Bible to the book of Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 this morning. And again, thank you moms for all you've done. All the memories were not precious, were they? Sometimes they were chastening memories, but they were still needed. And, you know, I think about this. My mother was the disciplinarian more so than my father was, but she was there most of the time, right? And so I got a lot of it. Probably didn't get as much as I needed. But I got a lot of it, right? Probably not that much. Probably y'all got more than I got, because I was a pretty good kid, right? But when you think about... See, here's what we do. We like to water down the Word of God, right? And so what we'll say, we'll say, you know, the Bible said, spare the rod, spoil the child. That's not anywhere near what the Bible said. The Bible said, spare the rod, hate the son. That's a whole lot different than spoil the child. But see, we say, well, we don't want to be, you know, too, well, they should have told the older generation that, right? And here's the other thing. Back when they did spare the rod, right? When they take the rod to the backside, and it's amazing, God gave you a little extra padding back there just for that thing. You didn't have as mouthy of kids as you had today. And people say, well, you know, we live in a day that is tough. Well, look at the Old Testament. And they would say this, that with kids, if they rebelled against their parents, they could put their foot on their neck and kill them. I don't know about you, I'm glad I didn't live in the Old Testament. Man, they'd stone you for picking up sticks on the Sabbath, right? And so aren't you glad for grace? Amen. And I'm glad that mothers extend grace a whole lot more than they exercise discipline, I'm sure, right? And so I want you to turn to Luke chapter 1, verse number 5. We're going to look at an unusual lady today. Now if I were to ask you this morning, if I said, well, how many of us, I'd say, well, let's name some well-known women of the Bible. We'd say Mary. Right? Everybody knows who Mary is. We would say Sarah. We know that's Isaac's mom and we know the miracle that took place there. We'd probably say Ruth. That's my favorite book of the Bible. We know that. But probably very few, when we thought about some of the great women of the Bible, probably very few of us would even consider Elizabeth. Some of you say, I don't even know who you're talking about, preacher. Well, we're going to learn about her in Luke chapter 1 this morning. And I say this every year, though this message is talking mainly about mothers and women, the principles in it are good for all of us. So if you're here today and you say, well, I'm not a mother. I don't have to listen to this. Well, if you're a child, it's good for you. If you're a man, it's good for you. If you're a grandma, it's good for you. If you don't have children yet, I'd say it's good for you. So the Bible said in Luke chapter 1 verse number 5 It said, There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah and his wife was the daughter of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. I want to title the message just that last phrase, Her name was Elizabeth. Now again if I asked you to name some of the famous women, some would say Rahab. I mean you go to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and you see the Hall of Fame of Faith and there's some amazing ladies in there. And then we know when you look at Aquila and Priscilla and all through the Bible you've got amazing women throughout the Bible. But many have never even heard or really thought about this woman named Elizabeth. And she's very important because she's the mother of John the Baptist. Now her name, and I looked this up, in the Hebrew, which I don't know Hebrew, but it's Eli Sheba, which means God is my oath. And guess what? If it means that in Hebrew, it means that in English too. And I'd say this, that's why I think, Brother Shane, names are important. Right? I think names are important because they have meaning to it. And so her name means God is my oath. Now according, if you study the Bible, Elizabeth was barren, which means she didn't have any kids. And we'll see that she was very old and stricken in years before she ever had. And if you'll notice in the Bible, when women are barren, when there's a season of barrenness, when they do have a child, it's an amazing child. Amen. Now understand this, her name means God is my oath. And she may not be well known to man, but she's chosen by God. And so she is the mother of John the Baptist. Notice the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And John the Baptist in the Old Testament was prophesied that he would come before Jesus Christ. And I'd say this, though she may not be the pop star of the culture, and she may not be the most popular, the most well-known, may I say this? What a great honor that God would entrust her with the prophesied forerunner of the Messiah. And so this morning, may I say this, though many have never heard of her, we all know her son. You don't know her, but you know her son, amen? And so what is the brief, in this brief introduction of this woman, and really when you look, you don't find her anywhere else in the Bible. You find her in Luke chapter 1, that's it. You say, well she's not real important. Well let me ask you this, are you mentioning the Word of God? I don't see the Princess of Wales mentioned in the Word of God. I don't see the pop stars mentioned in the Word of God. I don't see Michelle Obama or Melania or any of the rest of them mentioned. Can I get some help this morning? You don't have to be mentioned all through the Word of God. This is the eternal, unchanging Word of God that's forever settled in heaven. And here's a woman that God looked down and said she was humble And therefore, He has put her in the Word of God that will never change So what can we learn about this woman? And as I said, not just mothers but also dads and children What can we learn about her? Three things I'll show you this morning First of all, she was holy You didn't hear me I said she was holy What's that mean? Let's look at verse 5. The Bible said, There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah, and his wife was the daughter of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. I'm about to help myself here. Look at this. The Bible said, And they were both righteous. Not before man, but the Bible said before God. You can be righteous before man and not be righteous before God. Can I get amen there? But, according to this scripture, they're righteous before God, walking in some of the commandments. That's not what my Bible said, all of them. Now, all of them means this, brother Bart, all. They didn't pick and choose some and say, that sounds like a good idea, but I don't want to do that one. The Bible said they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. Watch this next word, blameless. Now they weren't sinless, but you know what that word means? You can't put it to their charge. They didn't act one way at church and another way down at McDonald's. They didn't show up once a while for church and then go live like the devil the rest of the week. They named the name of Christ and they lived it every day. And when you saw them, you'd say, there's Elizabeth and Zacharias. There's something different about them. Isn't that the way we ought to be today? Isn't that the way God's people should be today? So first she was holy and you see that, first of all, in her faith. Notice in verse 5 it lays out who Zacharias and Elizabeth are. The Bible said he's of the course of Abbai and she's of the daughter of Aaron. Well that's pretty important. Why? Because Aaron, they were the priesthood, were they not? So here's what I'm saying, listen to me. She was holy in her faith because they both had grown up serving God. Man, they didn't just start one day, they grew up in it. That's why you ought to have your kids in church and in youth functions. And that's why they ought to be in Sunday school and not, well, I don't want to go, that's boring. They ought to be in the house of God. Why? Because it might just take. And I've said this often, Brother Tilley, it's a miracle that preacher's kids ever want to serve God after some of the mess they see. But here's some, man, they did. You want me to tell you the secret to it? Listen to me. You start getting your eyes off people and start getting them on the Lord? Hey, and off your circumstance and getting them on the Lord? Oh, well it must have been easy for them to serve God. Yeah, I'm sure it was. She was wanting a child and she was about 90 years old and hadn't had one. But you know what she did? She kept serving God. Young person, you better decide in your heart you're going to serve God no matter what. Old people, you better decide in your heart you're going to serve God no matter what. Middle-aged people, you're no different. Listen, she didn't get her eyes on people. She didn't get her eyes on everybody that was having children. She didn't get her eyes on everybody that messed... Well, my dad Aaron, he tried to live... I mean, look at the Old Testament. The children of Israel were as wicked as anybody is today. And Aaron's the priest. Now how'd you like to pastor that bunch? And you know what she did? She said, God's big enough. She decided, you know who she married? Another preacher. Her daddy was a preacher, and she married a preacher, and he's out doing the service in the tabernacle, and she's still serving God. I want to say, young person, listen, I don't care if you say, oh, preacher, it's too hard to serve God. It's harder not to serve God than it is to serve God. If you're a born-again Christian, let me tell you why you're miserable, because you won't serve God. Hallelujah, Brother Jimmy. Yes, sir. See, the fact is, you see it because they'd grown up serving God. Not only that, the Bible said in verse 6, they were righteous before God. Man, they didn't walk around the Independent Baptist Church of Jerusalem You know what? You're not worthy, and you're not worthy, and you're not worthy. They were unworthy. They understood what it was. They knew the Word of God was their guide. Man, they weren't looking at approval from everybody else. They wanted the approval of God. Can I say today, ladies and gentlemen, when you start desiring the approval of God more than you desire the approval of man, you'll be righteous before God. It has nothing to do with how many rules and regulations you keep. It has to do with having a heart for God and not ever wanting to disappoint Him. Man, I've disappointed Brother Johnny a whole lot in my life, but I don't want to. See, there's a difference. When you desire to serve God, not yourself. See, here's the thing, Brother Jimmy. We got in our mind this whole thing of eternal security means, well, just say a prayer and go live like the devil the rest of your life. You can't do that if you're born again. I believe there's a lot of people sitting in our independent Baptist churches that said some little prayer years ago and they said, well, I believe in eternal security. But you never got saved, friend. If there's not a change in your life, you didn't get saved. If you still had that same spirit that you had before you got saved, you're not born again according to the Word of God. So they were righteous before God. Not only that, they were obedient to God's Word. Well, I feel like I'm righteous. Well, how do you know? Here's how you know. Man, this is the key right here. And if you don't know the Word of God, you don't know if you're righteous or not. Well, I don't cuss. Good for you. You go all the way up to the line before you cuss. Ron, I don't watch bad stuff on TV. Okay, good for you, but you watch it on your phone. I don't listen to rock and roll music, but you listen to country music. You see what I'm saying? You can check any box you want to and make yourself feel righteous, but what matters is what does God say. His word is the litmus test. It is the barometer. It is the only thing that matters. And the Bible said they kept all of them. They weren't choosing some and throwing some out. They kept them all. Praise God. Boy, I tell you what. Wouldn't it be amazing to have, and I'm putting me in there too, so I don't think I'm pointing at you. Wouldn't it be amazing to have a church full of people like Zachariah and Elizabeth, including the pastor? Praise God. See, they were blameless. That's their faith. When you trust God, when you truly have faith in God, you're not worried about what everybody thinks of you because you're worried about what God thinks of you. See, but here's what the flesh does. The flesh goes the opposite. The flesh says, I don't care what anyone thinks about me. Well, that's wicked. I care what they think about me because I represent Him. And if I care more about what He thinks of me, guess what? I'm going to live right and it will matter what they think of me. So her faith, but then verse 7, her faithfulness, look at this. The Bible said they had no child. You say, what's the big deal in that? I tell you, you look at the culture and to not have a child, they thought something was wrong with you. They thought God had cursed you. Think about this. How ironic this is. Here's a woman who has devoted her life to serve God, yet God has not given her a child. So people are looking at her like, what's wrong with her? She obviously ain't as goody-goody as she thinks she is or God give her a child, right? Well, here's the problem. Ready? I'm going to give you a time-out sidebar. We all better learn to wait on God. See, he had a plan, but her timing wasn't his timing. Okay? So let's hold on. The Bible said they had no child because Elizabeth was barren. Now notice this, and they were both, were now well stricken in years. You say, what's that? I'll tell you what, they're old. They're just old. I mean, remember Abraham and Sarah? Yeah, he's 100, she's 90. They said, she's gonna have a child. She laughed. Like, number one, look at him. Number two, look at me. Right? Well, that's them. That doesn't say they were that age, but it says well stricken in years. I'm guessing that's out of childbearing range, right? I mean, it's not like they're going, well, we're just late bloomers. Their bloom is gone. The fields are dead. So, but I want you to notice that even when things did not go like they planned it, because you know, Brother Noah, you know they had to plan to have children. That wasn't an option back then. It wasn't like, well, we're deciding whether, you know, family planning. It's just like have all you can. Right? So they were planning on having children, but they hadn't had them. So you would think, I mean, let's be honest. I've been doing this a little bit. Usually when people don't get their way, listen, look up here at me. Usually when people don't get their way in church, you know what they do? They quit serving God. God, I'm doing all this and trying to serve you and you didn't give me what I wanted. I'm just done with the whole thing. Right? I'll preach. You're being mean. No, I'm being straight with you. You better determine to serve God no matter the consequence. Even if he never gave her a child, she is going to serve God and so is Zacharias. Right? Well, things are not going my way. I think I'll just get out of church and get away from God. Hey, let me tell you this. You can. You sure can. But when things spiral worse, don't blame anybody but you. So even when things didn't go her way, you know what? She was faithful. You may not be able to win souls. You may not be able to run a bus route. You may not be able to preach. You may not be able to teach. You may not be able to sing, play an instrument. Here's what you can do. Be faithful. If you're 957 years old and you're still drawing breath you can be faithful to God. Amen. And so for many years they were still serving God even after they didn't get what they thought they had to have. Here's Zacharias going in the temple and she's over here just doing her thing serving God. So while her husband was busy in ministry, watch this, she didn't get jealous. She just served God. Brother Tim Wall told me this. He said, Brother James Ruckman said the five major reasons missionaries leave the field. Ready for this? You tell me if I'm wrong. Five major reasons. The wife, the wife, the wife, the wife, the wife. If she ain't happy, you ain't staying, friend. If she doesn't feel like God has put that burden on her heart, too. Hey, and I'm not critical of the ladies. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm saying, fellas, you better make sure if you're going to do something for God, she's on board with it. God put you one flesh for a reason, because she may see something you don't see. The other reason, the next five, the husband, the husband, the five of that, the children, the children. You see what I'm saying? You better just decide you're going to serve God and be faithful wherever He puts you. Amen? So here's a woman and a man who's decided to serve God, don't have children, serving God together. He's going in the temple. She's not jealous. She's doing her thing. She knows they're going to have time together and she's being faithful. She was holy. Second thing, she was humble. Look at verse 7 again. The Bible said they had no child because Elizabeth was barren. They were now well stricken in years. So first of all she is humbled because of her barrenness. It was a reproach to be barren. You know what's interesting? Brother Matt, it ought to be a reproach for a church to be barren. When a church isn't birthing children in the house of God, in other words when people aren't being saved, it ought to bother us. Amen. Now you say, well, you know, salvation is of the Lord. Yeah, I know that. I know we can't save people. But I do know this. We can share the gospel with them. And you share the gospel with enough people, guess what? Somebody's going to get saved. That's why we run buses. That's why we have a Spanishman. That's why we hand out tracts. That's why we're knocking on doors. It's not about necessarily just getting them to come to church. It's about getting them into heaven. Right? And so she was humble because of her barrenness. It was a reproach. It was embarrassing to her. And she accepted her plight and loved God anyway. Did you hear that? She accepted her plight and she loved God anyway. You better just love God, friend. You don't get what you want. Don't get the job you want. Don't get the school you want. Don't get the mate you want. You better just love God anyway because that is the greatest thing you'll ever do is love God. Then not only that, because of her brokenness she was humble. Verse 24, move over there and let's look at that scripture. The Bible said, After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived. Notice what she did next. Hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men. She didn't put all these posts on social media. She didn't make much of herself. She hid herself, the Bible said, for five months. She was broken. Listen, this woman couldn't have kids. And God just, the Bible said after she conceived, she hid herself. It might have been five months of thanking God. It might have been five months of God, why me? It might have been five months of God, whatever, I'm gonna raise this kid for you, prepare me for when he comes. See, there's a difference. There's this thing called false humility. Brother Paul, here's what it is. It is acting humble for people to acknowledge your humbleness. Right? It's like, I'm going to act humble so everybody thinks how humble I am. No, humility is not thinking of yourself at all. It's not thinking less of yourself. I'm going to help you with something this Mother's Day. None of this matters. You don't matter. And one day you're going to die and I'm going to die. The world's going to go on. What matters is the cause of Christ. What matters is what we've done for Jesus. What matters is what this church stands for and does for Jesus. Not who the pastor is, not who the musicians are, not who the choir leader is, not who the deacons are. You better say amen right there. Hey, it don't matter. God does not need any of us. He can do it all without us. And she knew that He could do it without her. But she is so thankful that God chose her that she said, When you look in the Bible, listen to what I'm saying. You look in the Bible and you see worship. Worship is not the same as praise necessarily. Worship is being in awe of who God is. It's not running aisles. Listen, I'm all for praising God. I grew up in sawdust. Shouting, don't bother me. Raising your hand, don't bother me. Amen. Hallelujah. Woo! Woo! That don't bother me at all. But see, we have misguided that for worship. Worship is being in awe of who God is. That's what we've lost in our churches. We're not in awe of who God is anymore. We think this place is for us. This ain't for us. It's for Him. She knew it. Her life was not for her, it was for Him. And this child that she was promised was not going to be for her, it was going to be for Him. I wonder what would happen if we just give our kids to God from the get-go. I'm not against it, but let me say this, you don't necessarily have to have a baby dedication service to dedicate your baby to Jesus. See, we make so much of the ceremony. It's like, well, we're going to have a baby dedication service. Everybody bring your babies and bring them to the altar. Well, if you don't really dedicate them to the Lord, you're a stinking hypocrite. Let me go on. She understood her limitations because she was barren. But then she understood God's unlimited power and God was going to use a barren woman. Listen, Jesus said he was the greatest prophet that ever walked the face of the earth. Hallelujah! Out of her barren womb comes the forerunner of Jesus Christ. I don't know ladies, I think that would be kind of overwhelming. I mean, well, I just pray my child will be happy and be successful and maybe be a businessman or an athlete. No, no, her kid was the forerunner for the Messiah of the whole world. Yeah, I'd say success. Right, check. Yeah, but did he play professional sports? Nope. Matter of fact, they cut his head off. But the Creator of the universe said among men born to women there's not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Amen. Hallelujah. So what I'm saying about this woman here, God kind of liked her. She was humble because of her barrenness and her brokenness but then also because of her understanding. Go over to verse 40. Notice this. Now here she is. Now let me set the stage. She's got John the Baptist coming. Hang with me. I'm almost done. I know we've got to get out. You've got to get Mama to get to the restaurant. We're going to get her there. Hang with me. Right? Hang with me. So she's got John the Baptist. She's hid away. Well, in the meantime, you know what happens? The Holy Ghost comes to Mary and says, You're getting ready to birth the Messiah of the world, the Savior of the world. Pretty big deal, huh? So you know what Mary does? She doesn't go to Jerusalem paper and say, put that in your paper. She doesn't say, hey, let's have a post about it. She says, I'm gonna go tell Elizabeth, my cousin. That's what she did, right? So look at verse 40. Well, let's go back to 39. The Bible said Mary rose in those days, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah. And entered into the house of Zechariah. Now, let's pay attention here. We're going to be real careful on the words, okay? Entered into the house of Zechariah and saluted Elizabeth. Now notice this, it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation, so Mary walks in, she said, hello Elizabeth. Elizabeth, guess what? She just walked in and said, Hello, Elizabeth. That's a salutation. Alright, so the Bible said the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. Mary walked in. Hello, Elizabeth. Something came over her. That baby knew before anybody else who was in Mary's womb. And the baby let her know the Holy Ghost. The Bible says she got filled with the Holy Ghost. You know what we need? Some folks filled with the Holy Ghost. Brother Foy, not religion. We need some people filled with the Holy Ghost. It'll change you when you get filled with the Holy Ghost. I ain't talking about no spooky stuff. Don't look at me, y'all. Some people go, whoa, preacher, you're talking about wildfire. Most badness wouldn't know fire if it burned them. They scared to death. Wildfire preacher. No, I'm talking about it wouldn't hurt for some of you to get warm. Right, brother Mark? Just get warmed up. I ain't talking about getting burned. I'm talking about some of you would be good to get warm. But she was filled with the Holy Ghost. Notice verse 42. She spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. You know what? She didn't say, you know what? John the Baptist's in here. Right? Oh, you got the Messiah, but I got the forerunner. He's gonna be here before yours. He'll be preaching before your boy be preaching. Huh? That's what we do, isn't it? You ever try to tell somebody about your kid or your grandkid? They're like, well, let me tell you what mine did. It's always a contest, isn't it? Well, my kid got straight A's. Well, mine got straight A's and drives a school bus. Right? Isn't that how we do? My kid beat your honor roll kid up. I mean, you know, I've seen those. I'm like, that's probably not too bad. No, I'm not saying that out loud. But she didn't do that. You know what her humility did? She understood. She understood. This wasn't about her. This wasn't about Mary. This wasn't even about John. God wanted the world to know before the Savior ever got here that a Savior was coming. And he sent John, and he used Elizabeth to do it. May I say this? She understood who Mary had in her womb. You say, how do you know that? Because the Bible said this, it said, She spake with a loud voice, Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. She got it, man. You know what? Be good if we got it. It's just about pointing people to Him. Right? She knew that what she had in her womb was simply someone to point men to Christ. And she knew who she had in her womb. And that she was simply an instrument. We're simply an instrument. No matter how big or small you think you are, you're just an instrument for God's glory. Here's two women. You know Mary. Everybody knows Mary. They just smoked in a new pope this week. There'll be a lot of them praying to Mary, won't there? Everybody knows her. A lot of folks know Elizabeth. But all of them, you know who's most important? Jesus. It's all that really matters, brother Jim, is Jesus. And all that was revealed by the Holy Ghost. Why? Because she was humble. And then finally, number three, ladies, she was honored. You say, how is she honored? Well, God chose her to be the mother of John. Right? Didn't choose anybody else. Watch this. He didn't choose the influencer of the day. He didn't choose the king's daughter. He didn't choose the most popular. He chose the most humble and the most holy to honor with the forerunner of Jesus Christ. Now nobody thought much of Elizabeth, right? That's just old Zachariah's wife. Except God. She didn't have the job or she didn't have the clothes or she didn't have the influence and she didn't have the social status she just she had a relationship with God and God honored her he honored her with John not only the mother of John but she's mentioned eight times in scripture it's all here but Listen, when God says something one time, it's a big deal. Says something two times, it's a real big deal. Three, you really better pay attention. And then finally, guess what? 2,000 years later, there's an old preacher on the side of the road who's got a message on Elizabeth. All these years later, ladies, they might not have remembered her the day past, but 2,000 years later, we're still talking about her. I want to share one more thing with you. My favorite verse in the whole Bible is this. John the Baptist said this, John 3.30. He said, He must increase, but I must decrease. wonder where he learned it from wonder where he got it from might have been Zacharias but he didn't seem see he didn't really seem to me if you study he didn't really seem to me like he had the same heart and attitude she did cause you remember he was in there and the Holy Ghost said listen or the angel told him you gonna call that boy John he said no He said, tell you what we're gonna do then, we're gonna shut your big mouth till you get on board with the plan. Isn't that what he did? You know what they called him? Yep. Angel didn't have to do that to Elizabeth. I'm not saying Zachariah didn't have an impact in his life, but I know this, when you look at young men, Their mothers usually have the most impact in their life. They may want to be like their daddy or their mama. They've got an inroad of their heart. I just got to believe. Elizabeth took that boy. She said, you're going to be a great preacher. Be a great prophet. But you're not here for you. You're here to warn the world about a Savior. Tell them about a Savior that loves them. Warn them about the hell that's coming if they don't accept it. and there John chapter 3 John said I he's gotta get bigger and I gotta get small we sure could use more Elizabeth's we sure could use more John the Baptist more Zacharias she was holy she was humble she was honored The world didn't think a lot about her. Jesus said this, He said if we'd make much of Him, He'd make much of us. So here's my question in closing. First of all, do you know Him as your Savior? Nothing else really matters. You cannot be holy if you don't know Him as your Savior. Can't do it. The standard's too high. Well, I'm a pretty good person. But you're not perfect, are you? No, but neither are you. You're exactly right. But see, the person that lives in me is. Matter of fact, when I got saved, His righteousness He imputed or He put on me. So when God sees me, He sees Jesus. See, I'm not trying to get better to get to heaven. I'm just depending on what He's already done. And you can do that too if you've never trusted Him. But maybe you have trusted Him and your life just isn't what it needs to be. You say, well, I need to do better, preacher. You know what I say? Praise God. Brother Shane, that's such a big step. Because our flesh, you don't need to do anything. But something in you is going, you know what I probably do need to do? Ladies, I probably do need to do this. Men, I probably do. Young people, I need to change something. What better day than today? What a great day to do it. Why wait? We won't be here all day. Right? You make a decision for Christ this morning. That's what is a decision, a choice. If you're not a Christian, you choose to be a Christian today. If you are a Christian, you're not living for Him. You choose to live for Him today. Let's all stand together. bow our heads. During this invitation time, the altar is open, no one's looking around. If you're here today and you've never trusted Him as your Savior, I want you to do this. I want you to slip your hand up and say, Pastor, would you pray for me today? If I die today, I'm not sure I'd go to heaven. I want you to pray for me. Is there one? Don't be embarrassed. You just raise your hand. Nobody's going to come to you. If I died today, preacher, I'm not sure I'd go to heaven. I'd like you to pray for me. Is there one? Is there one? The altars. People are all over the altar this morning. Would you come? Moms, dads, young people, mamaws, papaws, aunts, uncles, doesn't matter. God spoke to your heart in any manner, you come this morning. You know... I was talking to a guy this week, I told him Wednesday night I think, a friend of mine about my age, he said, you know what preacher, he said, it hit me the other day, he said, I'm 56, he said, I got more miles behind me than I got ahead of me. I said, you're right, so do I. I want to make the rest of those miles count. I don't want to get to the end and say, God, I wish I'd done more. I know I'll say that, but I want to do all I can do. I want to say this because I love you. There's some folks sitting in here this morning. You're born again Christian, great. But you think that's all that matters. As long as I get to heaven, that's all that matters. There's a judgment seat. Some of you is just playing. Some of you just play, right? Came this morning for your mom, praise God for that. But you're playing. It's time God's people quit playing. Time will get serious, brother Bart. Too much at stake. Too many lives at stake. People you know, people I know, they're watching us. Too much at stake. father we love you we thank you for all you do for us thank you for the many blessings and thank you for our mothers just pray God that you would continue to use them in our lives we'd honor them most of all we want you to be honored we thank you for that in Jesus name we pray amen