Amen. Thank you all for singing that. Hebrews chapter number 11, please, if you will, in your Bibles, close to the end of your Bible, Hebrews chapter number 11. And we'll pick up reading here in verse number 23, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number 23. I want to preach to you this morning on the subject of the power of a godly mother. You know, there are some mothers that are caring mothers, but they're not really necessarily godly mothers. I heard this past week about a mom that had got arrested for killing her husband, and she was in the courtroom there, and the judge just point blank asked her. He said, ma'am, why did you shoot your husband with a bow and arrow? And she said, I didn't want to wake up the kids. That's a caring mother, but that's not really a godly mother. But we're going to look today at this subject, the power of a godly mother. Hebrews chapter 11, and let's pray and then we'll read verse number 23. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful today for the opportunity to be in your house. It's always a privilege and a joy to get to be in your house and worship you. And Lord, today is a special day as we honor our mothers, Lord, and we're so thankful for them. And Lord, as indicated by the uplifted hands earlier, I know many today would love to tell their mom one more time that they love her and give her a hug, Lord. And many of them, their mothers have gone on to be with you. I pray that you'll give them special comfort today and encouragement, Lord. And I pray today that the memories of their mothers will be very blessed. and bring an encouragement to them. And Lord, we are looking forward to that day whenever we go to be with you and see our loved ones again. But Lord, I pray that you will encourage today and that you'll help as we preach the word of God. I pray, dear Lord, that you'll please help the mothers that are here, Lord, to have a desire to be this type of a mother. And I pray that those of us, Lord, that have this type of a mother will be so thankful for it and will honor them to the best of our ability Lord help me now today as I preach the Word of God the thing I want to do the most though I do want to encourage the mothers today and I want to be a blessing to them the thing I want to do the most today Lord and I pray that you'll help me to do is I want to honor and glorify our Savior Jesus Christ and so Lord I pray that that'll take place today and if there's one that came in today for whatever reason Lord and they don't know you as their Savior oh I pray that today Lord will be the day of their salvation I pray that you'll show them that they're lost and that they need you and that today, Lord, they will put their faith and trust in you alone, and nothing they can do, but they'll put their faith and trust in you and be born again by the grace of God today. Lord, help me now as I preach the word of God. Give me every word you would have me to say, and please empty me of myself and fill me with your power. In Jesus' name, amen. Hebrews 11, this is what we call the Hall of Faith in the Bible. And you've heard of the Hall of Fame. I've been to the National Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. There's a National Baseball Hall of Fame. And I think there's a national basket. There's a lot of halls of fame believe it or not There's a national tobacco spitter Hall of Fame and I think Growing up in Kentucky. I grew up with some of the inductees probably but anyway But this is what we call the Hall of Faith and it's just a list of a whole bunch of people in the Bible that were great for their faith and we come here to Hebrews chapter 11 in verse number 23 and the Bible says by faith Moses when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Moses is one of the greatest leaders that has ever lived in human history. It's been said before, but even people that are secular that don't care anything much about the Bible will acknowledge that Moses was one of the greatest leaders of people in human history. And we find the beginning of not just a great leader, but the beginning of a great man of God that God used in a great way, a man that changed the course of history. Today we are blessed because of the nation of Israel. And really, we don't even know if the nation of Israel, humanly speaking, would even be in existence today were it not for this great man Moses that God used to come and lead them out of Egypt. But we find here that he had a chance to be called the son of a godless woman. He had a chance to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. It would have meant power to him. It would have meant prestige and riches beyond most people's belief. In fact, some people believe that Moses, had he continued to stay there and be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, may have been next in line to become the Pharaoh. And yet he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. But it makes mention here in verse number 23 that he was hid by his real biological parents. We find the reason that we have a man named Moses is because he had a godly mother. Turn back with me, if you will, to Exodus chapter number two, and we'll find the actual story here that it's referring to there in Hebrews chapter 11. And in Exodus chapter number two, we find here in verse number one, This was a rough time in Israel's history. It was bad for the nation of Israel. An awful, horrible moment in their history. And we find where there was a man that was needed, that God needed in a great way. And so in order to get that man into the world, he had to use a godly mother. In Exodus chapter 2 and verse number 1, The Bible says, And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along by the river side. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. Isn't that an amazing thing? This mother had to give her child up there for a short while, but now here she is nursing her own child and getting paid to do it. I think God has a sense of humor, don't you? And I love how God works things out. Verse number 10. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water. You know, there are many high callings that people would consider an illustrious calling or an illustrious career here in this world. And many people would think, if only I could be a king or if only I could be a queen. And many people think if I could be the president, man, that would be the ultimate there. If I could be the president or a governor or something like that. Folks, I would submit to you today that there's a calling that's higher than any of those things. And that's the calling of being a mother. It's one of the greatest privileges and one of the greatest honors known to a human being to be a mother. George Washington, the father of our nation, made this statement. He said, all I am, I owe to my mother. Abraham Lincoln said, all that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. Billy Sunday, the great evangelist, made this statement. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. In other words, talking about the power that a mother has whenever she is raising those children. I want us to look at just a few things here about this godly mother. First of all, notice the day that she was living in. This was a murderous day. If you will, flip back with me to chapter number one, Exodus chapter one. The Israelites now had lived in Egypt for about 400 years. They had gone back with Joseph. Joseph had been sold as a slave. You know that story probably. And God had raised him up to the second in command there. And he had saved the entire world from starvation. And so because of the great famine that was going on, Joseph's dad, Jacob, and all of his other brothers had come into Egypt. Well, of course, Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And so the nation of Israel had grown and multiplied there while they were in Egypt over these four centuries. And so this Pharaoh comes up that doesn't know Joseph, and he said, look, we're going to have to do something. We're going to have to have some population control here, because the Israelites are going to keep on growing and multiplying, and they're going to end up being more than we are, and they may take over us. And so they began to persecute them, and they began to afflict them, and Pharaoh put taskmasters over them and made slaves out of them. And it's amazing that the Bible says in verse 12, but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. You know, you can't keep God's people down. The same thing can be said of Christians today over in communist China and places like that. We find where it's illegal to be a Christian and they will sorely persecute them and they'll put them in prison and they'll torture them and they'll even kill them. But it seems like the more they persecute God's people, the more they multiply and grow. It's amazing how God works like that. And it says the last part of verse 12, and they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. But what I'd like for you to see here is notice with me, if you will, in verse number 15. It didn't matter how much they had brought these people into bondage and what they were doing to them, they continued to multiply and grow. So the Pharaoh said, we're gonna have to do something here. And in verse 15, it says, and the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Pua. And he said, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then you shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. Boy, that is an awful barbaric policy, isn't it? I mean, you look at somebody and say, how could somebody be so inhumane? And how could somebody say that I actually want to choose what type of people are here? And because they're multiplying and growing, if it's a son, just go ahead and kill it, just like it's some kind of a rabid animal or a pest. Just get rid of it. And what that was was infanticide. And we would look at that and say, what an awful, horrible policy. But did you know that there's a lot of places even today that hasn't strayed too far from that? You know, there are some countries today that they will perform abortions based on the gender of the child. If they don't want a son, they'll just go ahead and abort it. If they don't want a daughter, they'll go ahead and abort that. And boy, it's a sad thing. Did you know that even here in America, every 37 seconds, the life of a child is taken? It's a murderous day that we're living in too. I mean millions and millions of babies that have been taken. If you're here today and you've experienced that, many times people do and they have the regrets that they have to live with. Listen, today I'm here to tell you something. We have a God that's a merciful God. He's a long-suffering God. He's a God of the second chance. He's a God that can forgive and can still continue to use somebody no matter what they've been through. But I'm here today to tell you something. Oh, man, children are not a burden. One of our presidents a couple back, he said, he said, if something happens with my daughters, he said, I don't want them to be punished with a child. Hey, listen, a child's not a punishment. A child is a great gift from God. The Bible says the fruit of the womb is God's reward. It's an inheritance. It's a heritage from God. And they were living here in this wicked day where this king was literally given the command to kill these children. The Bible says one of the marks and one of the signs of the last days would be that people would be without natural affection. And we see today where mothers have many times no regard for their own children and even once they're born many times we see the headlines of mothers that will put their children somewhere and allow them to die or they will kill their own children. I tell you that, that's demonic, that's satanic, that's without natural affection. It's totally against everything that God naturally puts in the heart of a mother. This was a murderous day and thank God that even though that was in the heart of this king, thank God there was a godly mother that said no, no, no. No, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. I know that's your policy. And I know that's what you're saying. And I know that that's what you're commanding us to do. But that's not God's plan. That's not what we're going to do here. Notice here that in the midst of this murderous day, we find here a miraculous delivery. In chapter 2 again, and let's look here at verse number 1. Once again, it says, and there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bear a son. And that may not seem like a miraculous thing to most people as they just read over it there. They think, well, now hang on a second. The birth of Jesus is miraculous. That was a virgin. I mean, that never happened before. And it's never happened since. The birth of Samuel was miraculous because Hannah was not able to have children. But it never says anything here about Jacob, this mother of Moses, not being able to have children. How is that miraculous? Can I tell you this morning, every birth is a miraculous birth. That child that God puts in that womb, hey, it's a miraculous thing. And as that child grows and as that child is developed and then the day comes and the mother goes through and she's had to crave dill pickles and ice cream, you know, for all those months and all that. Then the day comes and she has to go through labor and boy, but once that child is delivered, oh my, there are not very many bonds that are stronger than that mother, that baby and that mother. it's a miracle from God. You know the Bible says in Psalm 139 and verse 13, For thou hast possessed my reins, the psalmist said. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." You know what he's saying there? He's saying I was more than just a clump of cells. I was more than just a fetus. I was more than just some kind of little blob inside my mother's womb. He said, God put me there and God saw every single part of my body as it was being developed and God had a plan for me and I was a life in that womb. Hey, can I tell you something today, folks? It's not just a fetus. It's not just a clump of cells. What a wonderful, miraculous thing that is when God blesses. When God puts that baby there in that womb, did you have you ever thought about this? The first person that shouted and jumped and leaped and rejoiced in the presence of Jesus Christ was an unborn baby Hey when Mary came in there and she had Jesus she was she was expecting with Jesus and she came in there to visit her cousin Elizabeth and John the Baptist was in Elizabeth's womb at that time The Bible says when Mary walked in in the presence of Jesus in her womb John the Baptist It doesn't say a fetus. It doesn't say a clump of cells. It says John the Baptist leaped in the womb of Elizabeth and praise God. Hey, you know what? The truth of the matter is God has a plan for every single child. There are no accidents with God. I was in a meeting a couple of years ago with a guy that is a Christian scientist. He's actually over from Knoxville, Tennessee. And he was actually speaking at that same meeting. And he made this statement. He's a medical scientist or whatever. And he said, at the moment of conception, a child's gender, their eye color, And so many things about what that baby's gonna be, they're there and present at the moment of conception. So all this stuff about, oh man, this child, she thinks that she's a boy, but no, no, no, no. It's not like a girl was born in a boy's body or a boy born in a girl's body. No, God had a plan and God knew exactly who that child was gonna be the moment they were born. And this was a miraculous delivery from God. I want you to notice also back here in our text again, Exodus chapter two, notice not just was it a miraculous delivery, but it was a marvelous devotion that this mom had. What made this mother a godly mother? You know, the truth is she could have been more afraid of Pharaoh than she was of God. She could have said, well, I don't want to do this to my child. But listen, I want to make sure I still stay in good with the government. And I want to make sure the king's not displeased with me. So I'm going to go ahead and do what he asked and put this baby to death. Not this mother. No. This mother knew this boy was a gift from God. This mother knew this boy had a plan. God had a plan for this boy. And he was here for a reason. And look at the last part of verse 2. The woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. Don't know about you, but having had three children. I don't know how in the world She was able to hide a newborn baby for three months I have no idea how that it must be some good pacifiers back then that I wish they would make them like that today But somehow she was able to hide that baby for three months and the reason she did that she said look That King is not getting his paws on this baby. This is a gift from God This is what God gave me and I'm not about to let him be killed. I'm not about to let him Let this King perform infanticide on this baby and take him away from me No, God has a plan and boy was she ever right? I have to wonder today How many other Moses type people there were that have been put to death? Not trying to be morbid today, but I wonder how many people there were that there was something so great that God had for them But they didn't have a godly mother like this Boy, I'm here to tell you something today. There's nothing on earth more honorable than being a mother. Being a godly mother and being there for those kids and being there and realizing the wonderful, yes, privilege, but the wonderful responsibility that God has given you to be a mother. You know, God has even put into the heart of even animals, creation, that natural affection. I remember going to visit Brother Mel, and that's when he was living with his daughter and son-in-law. And I remember driving up, and there was a newborn calf out there. And I was just driving down the driveway. And I remember that cat that the cow, the mother cow of that calf man came walking up right by where my car was. I'm talking about walked up and just stood there almost like, hey, I don't care how big and bad your truck is. You're coming through. You got to come through me first. Protecting that calf. Right outside, every year, right outside the office door back there, there's a bird that makes a nest there. And probably the ones that grow up there come back and make another nest there and use the same one, I don't know. But anyway, I hear it all the time when I'm coming out the door. Apparently, that mama bird thinks I'm gonna get after those eggs or after those baby birds and somehow squeezes down through that awning. It's only about like, I don't even know how it gets down through there. And as soon as I walk out, I can hear it struggling to get down through there. All of a sudden, takes off flying and chirping, trying to draw me away from that nest. Have you seen those buzzards or crows whenever they try to get into the nest? And man, I love watching that. I about wrecked the truck watching it. I love it, man. I root for the underdog anyway. But you may know what I'm talking about. You see this massive bird flying off. And then a little bird about that long is right behind it, just nipping at the tail of that thing. Man, I'm talking about that buzzard, that crow. Man, they're doing all kinds of aerobatics and all kinds of stuff, flipping around, trying to get that bird away. But that bird's saying, hey, I don't care if you're 20 times my size. Those are my babies. getting to them God has put that down in the heart of even creation let alone a human mother I remember some years ago a president was running for office and there was a news reporter was talking about his wife she had just been a mom to their kids had several kids and she had been a mom to their kids and this news reporter just callously said oh man yeah his wife's never worked a day in her life How many of you mothers would say, that woman has no brains, all right? That woman has no idea what she's talking about. I'll tell you what, there's a lot of careers out there, but I don't know of one that you have to work harder than being a mother. And thank God, what a wonderful, wonderful thing that is. Billy Sunday told about a mother that Actually, this preacher, he came to visit this mother. When he knocked on the door, a little girl came to the door. She opened the door, and this preacher said, hey, I was here to visit your mom. Is she home? And she said, well, she said, you're going to have to wait. She said, my mom prays every day from 9 to 10, 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock every day. And so the preacher said, OK, well, I can wait. And he waited for 40 minutes. When that mom's prayer time was done, she came out, and he said she had the glow of heaven on her face. And he said it was no wonder that she had a couple of boys that ended up being missionaries and going out and serving the Lord. That lady had decided and knew what an important thing it was and there was nothing more important than getting a hold of God for her kids. Susanna Wesley had 17 kids. I don't know if that's some kind of record. My sister's trying to catch up to her. I think she just had her 11th one. And maybe some of you moms feel bad. You're like, oh man, I know the Bible says be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth. Sometimes I feel like we're not doing our part. Hey, don't worry about it. They're doing it single-handedly up in Iowa where my sister lives. But anyway, Susanna Wesley had 17 kids. And yet she spent an hour a day in prayer for them. Not each individually, but she spent an hour a day in prayer praying for those 17 kids. No wonder John and Charles Wesley grew up, became mighty men of God. And while there was an awful revolution going on in France, they brought revival to England and brought that over here to America. I believe that's really largely what led to the Great Awakening here in our own country that led to the American Revolution. We are a free and independent nation. Hey, we have a Fourth of July with fireworks and hot dogs and hamburgers today because of a man named John Wesley and a man named Charles Wesley. Because they had a godly mother that knew the importance of getting a hold of God for them. Charles Spurgeon's dad was a preacher as well, not as well known as Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers. But one day Charles Spurgeon's dad came home. He'd been on a trip traveling and really felt bad. He felt like he'd been gone too much. And he came home and as he was walking up the stairs, he was just heavy hearted thinking, man, I've been preaching and maybe I've been gone too much. And he said, I came walking up the stairs and he said, I heard a voice coming out. I heard my wife's voice. And he said, I heard individually as my wife called the names of all of our kids out in prayer to the Lord. He said a weight was lifted and I felt like these kids are in good hands. These kids are in good hands. They got a mother that's going to bring them before God. My mom wrote a song whenever I was leaving home. to go and be an assistant pastor. I was so young, wasn't married, wasn't even dating anybody at the time. Hadn't found anybody dumb enough to date me. I thank God that Beth's not dumb, but she's blind. I praise God for that. But anyway, and I was leaving home. I was getting in the old car. I mean, man, this thing, my first car was a beautiful two-tone. It was a $400 Toyota Tercel, beautiful two-tone. It was white, half white, half rust. And I mean, it was gorgeous. Had a big old dent in the hood. And when he came driving around, it sounded like an airplane taking off at the airport. And my friend came out and he said, man, how many people got killed in that wreck you're driving? But anyway, it wasn't my first car. It was my next car, which is a little bit of a step up. But man, it was still old, and it was not in real great shape. And I took off and was driving to become an assistant pastor down in Alabama. And my mom actually wrote this song whenever I was leaving. It says, when you were very small, I'd slip into your room and cover you with blankets soft and warm. Protecting you from chilly air, I'd kiss my little baby there. and wrap them tighter around your tiny form. But seasons come and seasons go, how quickly time does fly. And the kiss I give to you now says goodbye. No longer can I cover you to keep you from the cold, but I still have another way. In prayer, my hands I fold. I've covered you with prayer against the coldness of the world. Wherever you may go, I hope you'll always know I've covered you with prayer. God's promises are true, and he's protecting you. No matter where you are, he's there. and I'm covering you with prayer. She wrote in parentheses down here when she had taken, I'd asked her for the words to that song. And she said, this was true when my boy left out on a thousand mile trip in an old $1,500 car to start a new life in Dothan, Alabama. And it's still true today. I thank God for a mom like that. I don't even know if she knows this, but she must have been covering me with prayer in St. Louis, Missouri. I almost got in a horrible accident. May have got killed. Brakes just about went to the floor and almost ran right into somebody. But she was covering me with prayer, and I thank God for it. One of the best Christmas presents I ever got. It wouldn't mean anything to anybody else, probably. Certainly nobody in here, probably. But this is a little canvas, and it's made from a picture of, you can see the farmhouse where my parents have lived now for over 20 years. Got the fields around here, just cornfields, and it's fall time and the corn is out of them. But this means so much to me because this is my mom's prayer field. It's where she goes out to pray. And she wrote on the back here, my precious son, you have always been such a special boy and now such a wonderful man. That's not true, but that's what a mother would say. I have known from the minute I first saw you that God had specific plans for your life. This picture was taken one morning from my prayer field, facing back towards the old farmhouse as I was out there praying for my dear family. I've called your name out to the Lord many, many times while walking, sitting, or kneeling out there. My Lord has been so faithful to answer my prayers. It is a joy to know you're realizing the same results of seeing God in action, working on your behalf. I hope this picture will be a little reminder to you that there's never a day that passes without your dad and me lifting you up to him in prayer. Life will never be without its struggles, but I hope you can keep your eyes, your focus on the one who meets me out in this field. I love you more than I could ever express to you from mom. Folks, I'll tell you, I may not mean too much to you, but I wouldn't take a thousand dollars for that. Thank God for a mom. that covers me with prayer. I tell you, it's the greatest thing, the greatest thing that we could ever do for our kids, whether you're a mother or a father, is to cover them with prayer. I want you to notice something else here. Yes, this devotion that she had, this marvelous devotion that she had to her kids, but notice here, a meaningful dedication. In verse number three, she hid him for three months. We said, I don't know how in the world she was able to do that for three months, but she did. But then there came a time when she couldn't hide him any longer. Verse 3, And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. We read over that pretty fast, but you mothers know what her heart must have felt. Here's this child that God had miraculously given her. She had been through the labor and delivery and she had brought this child into the world and said, Hey, King Pharaoh, you're not having this child. This child belongs to God. And she had hid that child for three months. But the day came, she said, I can't hide him anymore. I'm going to have to do something else with him. And so she takes that child and she very carefully fashions this little arc. And she takes these bulrushes and she puts the slime in this pitch and make sure it's watertight. And then she takes that baby, puts that little three-month-old boy in that little ark, and I'm sure wiping the tears away, she takes that little ark, and that ark contains the most precious thing that she has. She puts that ark down there in the cattails there on the river's brink, and she has to let go of that basket. Well, I'll tell you what, that's one of the toughest things, if not the toughest thing she'd probably ever done because you moms know that whether your child is three years old or 30 years old or 130 years old, you never lose that constantly having that in the back of your mind. I hope they're safe. I hope they're okay. And yet she, there came a time when she had done everything she could do and she had to leave it in the hands of God. You know what, that's a tough thing for a mother to do, because mothers always want to continue to have a hands-on. It's just God put that inside their heart. It's a mother's love that nobody can explain, but nobody can deny. But the truth of the matter is, there comes a time when you've done everything you can do, and you've tried to raise them right, and you've tried to pour your love into them and give them everything you can. And yet sometimes you say, man, I wonder what else I could have done. Hey, listen, don't let the devil beat you up, because when you did, nobody's perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But the truth is, when you've done what you can, sometimes you just have to let go and leave it in God's hands. That's all you can do. And the good news is, when we let go, the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. When we let go and we leave it in God's hands, God is able to do stuff that we can't even do. We may think if I could just say this, if I could just somehow express this to him, if I could just get through to him somehow. And the truth is we have human limitations and we can't do that. But we serve a God today that has no human limitations. We serve a God today that can do the impossible. And he said, I am the Lord, I change not. Is there anything too hard for God? And no matter what it is, whether it be something with your child or whether it be some other situation in your life, hey, listen, just let go and let God have it. And when you let go, that's when God is able to work and God is able to do the miracles. Hey, listen, had she tried to hang on to this baby, I don't know if we would have heard of Moses like we do now. Had she tried to let hold of this baby or keep a hold of it and not let it go, we would have never had this story. He would have never grown up in Egypt and seen those things happening that caused him to have that burning in his heart to come back and deliver them from bondage. But she just let go and she let God do what only God can do. Hannah, that same thing happened with her. Hannah wanted to be a mother more than anything on earth. Oh, how she wanted a child back in first Samuel and she prayed and it seemed like it was never going to happen. And she prayed so earnestly that Eli, the priest there thought she was drunk because her mouth was moving, but she was in such earnest prayer. And he said, ma'am, You need to put away your wine from you." She said, oh no. She said, I'm not drunk at all. She said, I'm a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I've got a great request and I need for God to do what only God can do. And he said, go your way and the Lord grant you your request. Hey, the Bible says she believed in prayer because she went her way and her countenance was no more sad. And oh man, God showed up and God gave her that child. You know when that happened? Whenever she realized there's nothing else I can do. I've just got to put it in God's hands. And God gave her Samuel, and he became the great prophet that anointed the great King David. Oh, my God is able to do mighty things when we can't do it. I remember going to Owensboro, Kentucky to hear Jim Delishmite preach whenever I was a kid. Jim Delishmite had grown up around St. Louis, Missouri. As a matter of fact, Jim Delishmite was the president of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a rough customer. You can't even say in mixed company some of the stuff they would do. to people that were in that gang and different things, different initiations. I mean, he was such a rough guy. By his own testimony, he said, I've been out there in the woods before. And he said, I've seen women give birth to babies and shooting drugs up at the same time they're giving birth and just bury that baby out in the woods and take off. He said, one time, a guy that was underneath me, he said, I was the president. He was like a lieutenant. He said, somebody told me that he had risen up against me and was trying to take over the presidency of that gang. He said, I literally took him and took nails and nailed him to a tree out there in the woods. Mean just a rough rough guy. He said I had a mom that loved the Lord and he said my mom No matter how bad I got he said my mom still kept praying God, please God Please you got to get a hold of him, please God save my son and boy He said she would ask me and she would say hey son. Will you please go to church with me? And he said I never would do it I didn't care anything about it. And he said one day it got so bad He said we were sitting around the breakfast table and she said son Will you go to church with me today? And he said I stood up and he said I turned I flipped the table where the breakfast was upside down and I said mom don't you ever ever ask me to blankety blank go to your church again but you know I got to the place where she said I've done all I can do She was just praying and she was praying and she was praying and she left it in the hands of God One day God got a hold of Jim Delish mid and before God even got a hold of him He said the only way I'm gonna get my mom off my back I'm gonna have to just go to church and finally maybe she'll quit asking me. I'm tired of her asking me So he decided he was gonna go but he said I wanted to look as mean and I wanted to be as rough as possible so he said I had he had real big long hair down here like this stringy hair and He said, I had a big old long beard down here. And so he said, I waxed that beard with a big old point. It was a big spike sticking down about a foot long spike out of my chin. And he said, I smelled like the dick. And he said, man, I sat back here on the back row. And he said, while I was sitting on that back row, he said, there was a little old Christian sainted lady sitting back here just right across from me. She'd never seen anything like him in her life. He said, I'd catch her out of the corner of my eye. She was like looking over at me during church. And he said one time I thought I'll fix her he said I saw her kind of looking over at me and I went And just looked over made a face at her I think she thought she was going to be with the Lord that day straight from that church pew scared her to death But he was sitting there had no intention whatsoever of ever getting right with the Lord But the preacher began to preach Oh, how God reached out and got a hold of his heart. You see, God was able to do what that mother was not able to do. She could talk to him and she could talk to him and she could talk to him because she was blue in the face, but she had done what she could do. And she left it in the hands of the Lord. And oh, while he was preaching, God got a hold of that man's heart. And he said, I got up and I walked out in the foyer and I was trying to leave. But he said, God got a hold of me. And he said, I turned around, and I walked down, and I knelt at that altar, weeping, and I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. And the rest of his life, that man was a preacher of the gospel. I remember hearing him. He'd get up and sing, the old man is dead. And he'd get up there and preach the word of God with power. Hey, what happened? There was a mother that did everything she could do, but the time came. She just had to let go and let God have it. James Stewart was a football player. Not the actor, but James Stewart was a football player. I remember hearing my pastor tell about this. James Stewart had a mom that was a godly mom, and she got a burden for her son's salvation, and she prayed and prayed, and the burden was always there. But one day, as she was praying and pouring her heart out to God, as the old timers would say, she prayed through, and she got a hold of God, and she knew that God had heard her prayer. And she said she had such peace that she jumped up right then, and she ran to the neighbor's house and said, hey, hey, I just got to tell you something. James, my boy, is saved. James, my boy, is saved. She was going around telling everybody in the neighborhood that my boy got saved James is saved and that worked real great till somebody told James about it They came said James. I heard you got saved. He said who told you that they said your mom She's telling people all over the place. She got saved. He said you go back and tell my mom. She's a fool I'm gonna play football and go to hell you can tell her I said so I They came back and told her that, didn't daunt, she wasn't, daunted a bit, didn't bother her a bit, she had peace in her heart, God was gonna save her boy. She had prayed, left it in the hands of God. And boy, that went on for a little bit of time, but it wasn't very long after that, right in the middle of a football game, the Holy Spirit of God convicted James Stewart. And right in the middle of that game, he said, Oh God, if you'll let me live to the end of this game, I'm going to give my heart to you. The final buzzer sounded and he knelt and prayed and asked Jesus Christ to save him. He came running home, busted in the door. He said, mom, mom, I got something to tell you. She said, James, what's going on? He said, mom, I just got to tell you, I got saved. She said, well, son, calm down. I've been enjoying it for three days. The time came when she had to let go and let God do what only God could do. A preacher, I could call his name, I won't do it. But this preacher and his wife raised their son to do what God wanted them to do. They did everything they could. They tried to discipline him right and pray right with him and be an example to him. They did everything they could do. Whenever he grew up, boy, he went the way of the world. I mean, he was out painting the town red. He was breaking their heart. And man, her mother's heart was broken every day thinking, where in the world is my son tonight? And she didn't know what in the world to do. But the only thing she could do was let go and let God have it. And so she would go at night to the closet where she had kept his baby shoes. And she'd put those baby shoes out there on the bed. And those baby shoes would get soaked with her tears as she wept and said, oh, God. I raised my boy not to be living like he's living, Lord. We raised him and tried to raise him for you, God. We tried to teach him the right way. We tried to set the right example for him. God, you know where he is tonight. Please God, bring him back to you. And oh my, she soaked those baby shoes with his tears. To make a long story short, that man did get right with God. He came back to God. Now, today, he's pastoring a really big church in Texas and preaches all over the country and has for years and has seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people trust Christ as their personal savior. I'm just here to tell you something. It all goes back to a mother that did everything she could do. And when the time came, she couldn't do anything else. She just gave it to God. That's exactly what this mother had to do. Jochebed had to do that. There's nothing else she could do. Put him in that little basket. set him afloat there but oh aren't you glad we've got a God that is able to do what we can't do and God just at the right time had Pharaoh's daughter coming down there to that river and just at the right time aren't you isn't it amazing how things just so happen with God and just so happen to have her go down there just that time and just so happen to look over there and see this strange looking basket floating and just so happen to have her maid go over there and fetch that basket and just so happen to to have, when she opened the lid, had Moses crying. Maybe he reached underneath there and pinched him or something. I don't want to make him cry. I don't know what happened there. But at just the right time, even Pharaoh's daughter in that godless society, her mother's heart began to turn inside of her. She said, oh, this is one of the Hebrew babies. Hey, go and find a nurse. And ended up getting his own mom to nurse him. Hey, I'm here to tell you something. God raised Moses up to do a great work for God, all because there was a mother. that was a godly mother that said, hey, this is a gift from God. I'm going to do everything I can to protect this gift from God. And whenever I've done everything I can do, it's just time for me to leave it in God's hands. Now I'm done with this today. All of these things today are true of somebody besides Moses's mom. Truth of the matter is, back over in Deuteronomy, we find where Moses himself, this man we've been talking about, this baby grew up, became a man, the great leader of Israel. And this man made this statement under inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the book of Deuteronomy. He said, one day, the Lord is going to raise up a prophet like me, and you're going to hear him. tell you who he was talking about was he was making a prophecy of someone by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that left heaven's glory and came to this earth God himself in human form and he walked on this earth and never sinned one time but when he was 33 years old he allowed them to arrest him and blindfold him and beat him and and he went through an awful horrible mockery of a court scene and then they took him and led him up Calvary's hill and he laid down upon that cross and they took nails and drove nails in his hands and his feet and as he hung there upon that cross hey you talk about marvelous devotion brother hey he had devotion to you and to me he loved you and he loved me enough that he was willing to give his life so that you and I could live and then there's uh this dedication that he had after he had hung there for six hours. He said, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he gave his spirit back to God. Hey, he said, I do always those things that please my father. If you're here today, whether you're a mother or a father, a teenager, a boy or a girl, hey, listen, I don't care who you are. I don't care where you come from. Doesn't matter how much money you have in the bank. It doesn't matter what color you are. Hey, none of that matters today. What really matters is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ loves you. And he came to this earth to die for you. And he wants to give himself to you. He already did give himself for you. And if you'll put your faith and trust in him alone today, I'm not talking about joining the church. I'm not talking about being baptized. I'm not talking about trying to be a good person. Listen, you could be the best human mother on earth and still die and go to hell. You say, I don't like hearing that on Mother's Day. I'm your best friend for telling you that because we don't get to heaven by anything that we do. It's only what Jesus did. Jesus paid it all on the cross when he died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. You know what the truth of the matter is? Every one of us that are here today, as we're living this life, waiting to get to heaven if we're saved today, every one of us, not just mothers, need these things in our lives today. Oh, listen, we need that dedication. We need that devotion to the Lord. We need to do everything we can for the Lord. And then when the time comes and we face something in our lives and we say, I don't know what I can do about it now, hey, it's time just to do what Moses did. Let go of that basket and let God have it.