DISCLAIMER:  This text is not a verbatim transcript.  Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.    >> Ronnie: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this worship experience from the First Colony Church of Christ! To those of you in the room, we welcome you. To those of you watching online, good to have you with us as well on this Mother's Day. And it is indeed our pleasure and honor as a church family to really recognize and salute, applaud, and express our gratitude to all the women of our church family for your noble, your strong influence among us. You know, moms are just amazing, amazing people. I mentioned in my e-note this past week the old statement that says "Not all heroes wear capes." And that is certainly true about the ministry of motherhood. I don't know many moms wear capes, but I know a lot of moms who are indeed heroic and a number of women of faith who are indeed very heroic. And so we salute you. We honor you. We remember those who have gone before us, who have set the pace as well. Later in the service, our Children's Minister, Joel Smith, has a message especially for Mother's Day called "Bridging the Gap." We'll have an opportunity to celebrate with some baby dedications. We had several in our first service today. My friends, we serve a great and good and glorious and gracious God. The Bible tells us that we are invited to come before Him and worship -- listen -- in FULL assurance of faith because of God's love for us and because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, His perfect life; His sacrificial death; His Resurrection; and the fact He is interceding for us even now. Let's not just attend to service. Let's participate together in this worship experience. So glad that you're here with us either online or in the room. Everyone, let's be standing and singing together, please. >> Richard: Amen! God is faithful! ("Your Love Awakens Me" playing) ¶ Your love awakens me ¶ >> Richard: Yes! What a faithful God we serve! ("Who You Say I Am" playing) >> Richard: You may be seated. (Applause) >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone! I am going to ask our families who are about to be dedicated if you guys will join me up on the stage. It is so good to see each and every one of you, whether you are watching online or here in the audience. Happy Mother's Day. So we have a very special privilege on this Mother's Day, and that's to recognize that ultimately children are gift from God and that we are blessed in the fact that these young people are here with us. And we want to recognize before the congregation that we recognize that we are stewards of our children and that as God gives us the power that we will do everything we can to raise them in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. What I will do is in a moment hand out the mic, and if you want to introduce your families. One family you don't see right here -- they're watching online -- the Davises, Ryan and Marybeth, and their cute little daughter is Millie Grace. See? All right. Sorry. You know what? I blew that. My bad. It should be good now. >> I'm Danny Wenge, introducing my family, my wife, my daughters and Kadesh. (Applause) >> And I am James Welsh and my wife Kayla and our twin daughters, Millie and Molly. >> Aw! (Applause) >> Joel: Pretty special on Mother's Day. All right, well, so part of our dedication is first of all we recognize that kids are gift from God; so I will ask you a couple of questions and if these things you agree with, I want you to stay "We do." Number one: do you agree that our purpose on the earth, humankind, is to glorify God? Do you agree? "Yes, we agree." Number two: As God gives you the grace, as God gives you the power, do you commit to God to be the best example you can be? So we know people make mistakes -- that's okay -- but we will do our best to be an example to our children and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? If so, say "We do." Very good. And then finally, do you purpose before God to be the kind of Christian example which commends them to the grace and goodness of God as God gives you grace? "We do." Very good. Now, congregation, you're in on this, too. This isn't just a sit-and-watch. This is our church. We are in this together. We want to come alongside these families and strengthen them together. So I have two challenges for you. Number one, as the body of Christ and the co-laborers for God's glory, do you commit to maintain a church where the Word of God is honored BOTH in Word and in deed? If so, say "We do." Thank you. And then finally, as God gives you the grace, do you commit to be the kind of example ALSO that commends these children to the Lord? If so, say "We do." All right. Thank you very much. Now I will pray and bless each of your children. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for each of these families and these precious lives that are before us. We pray Your blessing upon these children. Father, we pray for Everah and Imani that you would bless him. We know that his name means "God's gift and faith." May he grow to be a mighty man of faith that lives a life that pleases You because we know without faith, it is impossible to please God. Father, we lift up Millie Grace, whose name means "power under control" and "blessing." May she overflow Your Power as she blesses and favors those who need the Father's touch. Father, we lift up Millie Kate, meaning "gentle, pure, and wise." May she overflow with Your wisdom and purity to a world much in need in intervention. And Father, we pray for Molly Belle, meaning "beautiful star of the sea." Just as sailors were guided by the stars, may she be a star that reflects Your glory and sends seekers to You. Lord, we love and praise You and thank You for these precious live and pray for dedication upon them. Amen. Let's give applause and happy Mother's Day. (Applause) >> Grant: Always a special event every year. As the Roths make their way up to lead in communion, if you're at home, it's a great time to gather supply. If you're with us, we have extra back tables if you don't have one. Let's prepare our minds and hearts for communion today. Darryl? >> Darrell: Good morning, church. My name is Darrell. This is my son Judd, and we have the honor of leading our church in the communion prayer this morning. Would you pray with me? Father, on the night Jesus was betrayed He took the bread; gave thanks; broke it; and said, "This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." And in the same way after is upper, Jesus took the cup and said, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of Me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. Father, help each of us to examine ourselves before we partake of this communion meal this morning. As we take this bread that represents Jesus' body and cup that represents His blood shed for us, we remember His great sacrifice. Now we take this communion meal and we boldly proclaim the Lord's death and Resurrection and look forward to His return. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen. >> Judd: Today I will read from Proverbs 31. (Reading) ("The Blessing" playing) ¶ Amen ¶ >> Grant: We are about to pray over our offering, but just let me remind everybody if you're online, giving online is safe, secure, easy to set up. If you're here with us, we've got giving boxes at all the exits. But church, let me just also say thank you all for your generosity. It is a HUGE blessing to be in partnership to make an impact here in our community and our mission points around the globe. This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week so we were able to go bless Holly Elementary and those teachers because of the generosity of this church. We were able to provide several meals for the teachers. One of our Connection Groups provide one of the meals. We were able to provide gifts to teachers and gift cards all because of what you give. And so thank you. Every week, it goes to bless those here in our community, the church, and those around the globe. So let's take that as we pray over the offering today. Father, You Are good, and Your Love endures forever. We thank You that You have given us more than enough and we just want to bless and give back to those, Father, You have put in our lives. So we give with generous hearts and ask you take this and multiply it for Your kingdom. It's in Your Precious Name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen. Let's turn our attention to the screen. (A video played.) >> Grant: Thank you, mamas! Absolutely! Happy Mother's Day! What a great day to celebrate. Mamas, we do have for all the ladies here in the room a gift for y'all so on your way out, make sure you -- we have some carnation and other little gifts on the back tables so make sure, It's just a little way to say thank you, Pick those up after service. Mamas, if you're online, I hope you have already had breakfast in bed, your kids are massaging your feet right now. I'm sure it's happening. If not, hey, let's get it going, guys. All right, it's time for Connection Cards. If you're online with us, real simple: Just hit the "Connection Card" button. If you're here with us, we have a new way to do it. You will see a QR code on the back of your chair. Just get out your phone and camera and point it there. It will bring up a link. Hit it. It gives you the card and makes it real easy for us to communicate. You can tell us what ministries you're interested in, what you want to learn more about, as well as sharing your weekly prayer requests; and we are honored to be in prayer with you this week and going forward. So fill out those Connection Cards for us here this morning. If you are a visitor with us, thank you for coming to church with us today. We would love to have you over at the New Here Start Here room. It's a room just right across the lobby. We'd love to meet you, and we have a little gift for you this morning as well. We are about to have our fellowship greeting, and so if you are in first to fifth grade, it's time to get released to Main Street Live. Mr. Corey Waters is at the back door so y'all can head back there. Main Street Live is a fantastic, age-appropriate worship service with teaching, activities, songs, a great time. Kids can head back there. Let's all stand, say hello to the folks around you, and wish those mamas a happy Mother's Day. If you're online, jump in the chat box. We'd love to hear from you. ("Endless Light" playing) ¶ Be exalted ¶ ¶ God be exalted ¶ ¶ We exalt Him ¶ >> Richard: Amen, church! Thank you for worshiping with us! You may be seated. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. How are you doing on this fine and lovely Mother's Day? Hopefully that's good. All right. Well, you know what? I have some wood here. Pretty cool, huh? You know, this stuff is valuable these days. Who knew? So I want to ask you a question. You know, Houston, I think, is the land of engineers and architects and builders; and so my question is: Is it possible to build a bridge without any tools OR any fasteners? You can't drill a hole or use newts, bolts, screws. You can't use liquid nail or chains or vines. Could you build a bridge with something like that? Well, that's the question we hopefully will answer today, and I have three goals, which I hope to accomplish in today's message. Those goals are, number one, I want to honor moms. I want to thank moms. Number two, I want us to have a message from Scripture that helps all of us, wherever we're at. And today I happen to focus on moms in Scripture we can all learn from. And then lastly, I want to focus on Jesus, which hopefully will be the underlining thread of the whole message. And Cliff Notes version of the message: Jesus is the bridge. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You so much that You are God and You love us and in control and that people all around the world in different times have experienced challenges and have grown close to you and You have built them up. We thank You for our moms. We thank You for the fact that we get to recognize those who have blessed us and we just pray a special blessing on the message today and You would speak. We pray these thing in Jesus' Name. Amen. Step one: I want to honor moms. So Ronnie mentioned in his e-blast that moms essentially are superheroes. They don't wear a cape, but we know that moms are superheroes. And moms all have super powers. Now, they're different super powers but will list a few. Before I do, I will give an example. In my home, growing up, I still remember the day when there was a rule in our house -- at the time we lived in Papillion, Nebraska, in some corn fields, but close by was a bowling alley. There was one rule: thou shalt not go to the bowling alley -- just to not get in trouble; I don't know. Let's just say one of the children in my household, who shall be nameless -- it could be me -- may or may not have gone straight to the bowling alley and possibly hung out there for a little bit. And then the fascinating thing is that when they got home, Mom didn't even have to look at them and said, "You went to the bowling alley, didn't you?" And it's like, “Ooh! How does Mom know those things?” Who knows? But moms have superpowers. I wanted to list some traits I have observed in moms as I've grown up, and I'm sure many of you have seen these. The list could go on and on and on but figured I would narrow it down to a few utilizing the word "Christian." So for example, for "C," I will have a word and go all the way through "Christian" just for some acknowledgment of super powers that moms have. Number one: C, a champion of the faith. Moms so often are the ones that are encouraging their family in the faith at home, and we'll actually see that a little bit later in the message. Highly skilled. If you're like me and grew up watching the show MacGyver, moms can make things. They can make things out of nothing things and so if you're a mom and you have had kids that have gone through the system, I'm sure you have encountered one of those situations where someone said, "Oh, Hey, Mom, guess what? Remember that report I told you about a long time ago? Yeah, that's due tomorrow." "Uh, can we work on that tonight?" Uh, I'm sure that has never happened to you. "Hey, Mom, I'm supposed to have a full costume for 100 days of school. By the way, the bus leaves in ten minutes." Moms have an ability to do that. Interestingly in Proverbs 31 it says that Mom helps the needy. Those are needy situations. Moms have a tendency, Christian moms, are righteous. They're pointing us to God. They're intercessors. As I have gone through life, I have absorbed other people's moms and said, "Hey, will you pray for me?" because I know moms are champion of prayer and even today, I have multiple moms praying for me as well. Moms are sacrificial. Let's face it. There are many times when maybe you have a certain amount of pieces of cake and someone will draw the short straw, and being the dad, that should be me; but sometimes moms do that for us. That's just a wimpy example. We know moms are sacrificial in the way they wake up at night with so many things that happen throughout the day, especially those with little children right now. Moms are teachers. Proverbs 31 also mentions faithful instructions on her tongue, whether it's spiritual; academic; relational. Moms give us that advice. Interactive. They're constantly connecting with their children and guiding them along the way. Proverbs talks about raising up a child in the way they should go and kind of feeling out, "Okay, that's in this direction. Let me see how his can own that." Attunement is a counseling term for known for what is going on in your son our daughter's life. Moms have that sixth sense like, "Something is going on. Something is just not right. Can you tell me about that? What can we learn? Sensing those things." And finally, nurturing. I like to use the example that, you know, being a dad and early on not having any children, you know, it's like a Band-Aid. Those are utilized for open-flesh wounds that are leaking, right? And that's, you know, you haven't earned a Band-Aid until it's a major issue. But apparently Band-Aids are for more than that and even if you can't see the owies, they're there. Moms have such a better way than dads often, taking care of those little needs that people have. Now I use Band-Aids, regardless. Those are just a couple of things on Christian. I want to look at some moms in Scripture and want to look at three different moms in Scripture and see what are some of the lessons we can learn from some of them. So the first mom I have is in the Old Testament, and it is Hannah. You remember in Samuel 1, Hannah is extremely discouraged, and she is very broken-hearted. If you remember the story, she was unable to have children. She was ridiculed for that. She even -- it was so serious that there were times when she wouldn't eat. And what did Hannah do in the face of intense heartbreak, concern, and worry? Well, she laid her request down before the Lord. She prayed. You remember in 1 Samuel 1 -- we'll pick up the story starting in verse 15 -- Eli, the priest, is like, watching this lady just flop on the floor and lay her concerns out before God. Well, he can't hear what she's saying. "She must be drunk." And he accuses her of being drunk. This is her response. (Reading) First question: What do you do when you experience anguish and sorrow? Let's face it. We live in a broken world. You're going to experience it. If you haven't experienced it yet, do you lay your heart out before the Lord? There's a missionary story that impacted me as a young man, the story of Darlene Deibler Rose. Now, she was a pre-World War II missionary, and she was in Indonesia. When World War II broke out, people were, like, "Well, Hey, if you're a foreigner in our land or near the land that we're occupying, you're obviously a bad guy because why would a foreigner come here and tell people about their faith? That makes no sense at all." So she was actually put in a concentration camp, and she experienced a very difficult time and her story is pretty vivid; but at one point, she had been there for over three years. She was looking out into the courtyard, and one of the other ladies who was in this prison cousin walking near the fence. They had guards that would march along the fence and then turn the other way. As soon as the guard would march her way, she would step away from the fence. So when the guard would turn, she would get a little closer so she's obviously thinking something is going to happen. "I got to watch this. I don't have TV. So this is the best we can do.” Sure enough, this lady had a friend on the outside who reached through the fence and gave her some bananas. Darlene's heart just broke and she said, "Oh, man, what I wouldn't give for a banana. I have been in prison over three years and the food is not good." She prayed and said," God, could You figure out a way to get me one banana?" She began to rationalize this -- I don't know if you do this. I do this. "Okay, God, let me do this out. You have to have A plus B plus C and if all those things work out, that that's how you do it because You really need my help." That's really what God needs." She got to the point where she convinced herself, "You know what? There's no way God could get me a banana because the only people I know here hate my guts and no way they will bring me anything. Besides, am I being grateful for the food I get?" She kind of talked herself out of it. Interestingly, a ship comes to the dock. Their camp was in Papua New Guinea. A soldier is she had known when she was in Indonesia stopped and came by and somebody she actually knew. And he opened the door and checked in on her, and he saw that she had had a rough time. He turned and he left. Well, she saw through the window he was chewing out some of the guards, and then next thing you know, the guards are walking down the hall. She's like "Oh, no, I will get in trouble again for something." And the guard opens the door and gives her 92 bananas. She was like, "You know, I didn't think God could provide me one, and yet God provided me 92 bananas." Interestingly, she had one every day to the day of her release. You guys can listen to it if you want. It's on YouTube. She's written a book but on YouTube she's actually talking. Darlene Deibler Rose, definitely a great story. What did Hannah do? She prayed. And an acronym I like to utilize with kids is T.A.L.K. to God. I want kids to have a relationship with God where they TALK to him in prayer. So I decided to use T.A.L.K. “T” stands for tell God what's on your heart and what is going on. Hannah was discouraged. Darlene was having a difficult time. It's like, yes, God knows but just talking to Him. “A” stands for ask. You know, God, my friend is sick. How can we help? Or I know of this going on or I need this. Can I have this? It can be wants, too. “L” stands for listen. Pause and just listen to God and say, okay, you know, what do You want to tell me? Often God does speak to us through maybe Scriptures that you have memorized before. Sometimes through friends or just kind of a pause where you're recalibrating your spirit. And then the final “K” is keep or kick. Is there something in my life that I need to keep, or is there something in my life I need to kick out of here? Keep doing this because I know this is what God wants me to do; or no, this is not doing a great job. So Hannah is an example of someone who laid down her prayer before God in the face of difficulty. Our next lady I want to talk about is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Now, the interesting thing with Mary, the mother of Jesus, is that she was very young when she was visited by an angel. So you're like, "Okay, well, that's awesome," and we often look at the story dish look at the story like, "Man, what an amazing story. She gets to be the mother of God." Think about this: If you're a young person, what are your goals? Are you planning your life out? Do you know what you want to do? Do you know where you want to go and have an idea -- like “These are some of the things I sure hope to accomplish before, you know, I'm old? I want to travel” -- whatever the case is. Well, it's kind of like, we don't know what was going on inside of Mary's heart and thoughts but can guarantee you she had plans. She had desires. All of a sudden God appears to her and says, "You know what? You are heading in this direction, and now I'm going to send you in this direction. You will go in an opposite direction. I will give you the grace to make it, but no one has ever gone this path before. And guess what? No one will ever go this path again. You will go down a path no one has gone down." That's pretty incredible when you think about it, especially if you're a young person. We will look at Mary's response in a moment after I get these, my bridge, down. So if you have your Bibles and you're following along, we're now in Luke 1. I'm going to read verse 28. (Reading) Skipping down to verse 38. What was Mary's response? (Reading) "I am the Lord's servant. May your words be fulfilled in me. May it be as You have said." Can you say that to God? She was asked to do a great task, a VERY great task, a great honor; but it was going to change all her plans. It's like a new different thing. Can you say that to God? You know, it's interesting. I have heard, you know, Christians say, "Okay, what are we supposed to do in life?" We know that all believers, we have a purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God. However, God has made each one of you special. You're unique; there's only one of you. There's not two of you. The things you like; the things you're interested in; the skills you have; the super powers you have; the things you don't have; God has made you special. Your life calling is that unique call that God gives to you that points you in a specific direction. Me personally, I'm a Children and Family Minister here, and one of the things that I'm called to is children and families. I want to help families. That's why I exist. I had a friend who liked racing cars, and he's like, "Well, I wonder what that is." He's a chaplain for race cars on Saturday and Sunday and it's amazing some of the most weird things people are called to. "This is your mission. This is what you're supposed to be doing." We glorify God; God has given you a unique call of how you glorify Him in whatever career field or passion that you have. And then you have your life work, which is what pays your bills while you do that; and then you have your life message, which is the story of what God did through you and these amazing circumstances. A lady that reminds me of this or sort of the Mary story is Gladys Aylward. You're probably familiar with the movie "Inn of the Sixth Happiness." Gladys was in a career of being a housekeeper, and she went to a revival. At the revival, her whole future changes. She decided she was going to change her -- commit her life to the Lord and be a missionary specifically to China. Well, right away, great. You know, this is good. We have changed directions. We're going to head down a different path. And what happens? There's an entrance exam into the China Inland Mission and she fails it. She's like, "You know what? You're not mission material. Find something else to do." So what did she do? She saved her money, and she found a lady who said, "You know what? I have a need. If you can make it to China, you can work with me." And she bought a one-way train ticket because she couldn't afford a boat ticket through the Soviet Union into China. Then you know the rest of the story. World War II happened. They had to escape the communists. She took 100 children, many, many miles. They even came to a river they couldn't cross, and God provided a way to cross that river. I just find it fascinating that here's a lady who was called to a mission, seemed impossible. She got roadblocks but kept moving forward and basically she was the mom to 100 different orphans and made it through safely. Pretty incredible story. The last lady I want to focus on is in the New Testament, and her name is Eunice. Eunice is mentioned in both Acts and in Timothy. Once again, you know how we all kind of have a plan of how our life will work out and these things will happen and so forth? Well, there's some reading between the lines in Eunice's story, but I'm going to start with Acts 16:1. (Reading) So it's kind of like she is doing this all by herself. We don't know exactly, but it's inferred that the dad was not a Christian. Now, he might not have been in the picture; we don't know that either; but we do know that Paul took on Timothy as a spiritual mentor, like a son. It appears the dad was not in the home. In 2 Timothy 1, Paul says, (reading). Talk about legacy. (Reading) So these ladies were able to pass on the faith to their son Timothy, who became a great man of faith and God. And so when I think about someone in stories that I have recently encountered -- as a matter of fact, just last week I watched a presentation by a lady named Megan Schreiber. By the way, her husband was supposed to be one of the Pilates who would have crashed -- pilots who would have crashed into one of the 9/11 towers, but his friend took his place on the plane and died in his place. But this is the wife and they now have a YouTube channel called Character Health and do parenting seminars as well as marriage programming. But anyway, she tells her story and talk about things not going the way you planned. Well, she grew up and wasn't a Christian. She had a desire to be a professional tennis player, and she was dedicated. So what she did is 5:00 a.m., her coach would come and pick her up. She would practice tennis from 5:00 a.m. until school started. Then she would go to school. Once school was over, the tennis coach would pick her up again. She would practice until it was dark. She would come home, do her homework and repeat. Sure enough, by the time she was a senior, she was offered a scholarship. Everything is working out the way she planned. Remember, she's not a Christian. And so before going to college, she and some of her girlfriends are hanging out in the gym and like, "Hey, let's build a human triangle, a pyramid." And so she was the shortest, the littlest, and they're like, "Why don't you go on top?" They built a really tall pyramid, and you can imagine what happened. It fell. She fell and broke her ankle in multiple places that it couldn't be prepared enough for her to be the tennis player she had dreamed of. So she's totally focused, totally heading in one direction; and now that all crashes down. What do you do? Well, she was, you know, -- she said, “As focused as I was on tennis and the only reason I was a good by is because I was busy -- but as soon as I wasn't focused on tennis, I focused on being a bad kid. I went to college, did everything you hear that kids shouldn't do in college, lived at the beach.” She said she came across a girl who was a Christian and this girl would try to share the Gospel with her. She would listen to her, and the girl would give her a tract and didn't want anything to do with that. That went on all summer long. Well, at the end of the summer, she packed her things, and she went home. She opened her suitcase. Here's this tract she has thrown away 15 times or so. She reads the tract and sides she's ready to respond to the Gospel. The only people she knew that were Christians were Young Life. So she calls Young Life and says, "Hey, what do I do next?" Interestingly, the Young Life leader was like, “Have you ever been discipled?” “No, what's that?” "Basically I will work into you and teach you the gospel and pour of the faith. I will only do it if you find someone you're teaching to as well." So she's like, “I'm a ten-day will have old Christian. What do I do?” So she found a high schooler that she could present to and told the high schooler the same thing who wasn't even a Christian. She said, "I tell you what. I will invest in your life and tell you about God. I will do all these things, but you have to find someone younger than you to invest in." There's four ladies -- the young life lead her, high school, the high school her, the junior high. They started discipling and would meet with one on Monday, the next lady on Tuesday, and that lady would meet with the next lady on Wednesday. They all became Christians. They're all still serving the Lord, pretty incredible story. Here's a girl who was headed in one direction and that direction crashed. What did she do? Well, I think Eunice is that in a similar way. So today the message is entitled bridging the gap. I like these pieces of wood in the sense that on one hand, you have a problem. Yes, thank you. By the way, this is my son Zane. Let's give him a hand. (Applause) Believe it or not, it's hard work to sit there and hand your dad a piece of wood at the right moment and not get distracted. That's why I picked Zane, because he's really good at focusing. So what I want to do is I want to build a bridge, but I want it to have a lasting impression. This is the point. So we have these round pieces of wood, and this represents Jesus. The title of the message is "Bridging the Gap." On one side, we have our problems and challenges. On the other side we have our spiritual answers. I need to pray. I need to study the Word. I need to be sacrificial. I need to do these things. However, it doesn't work unless Jesus is the gap-bridger. And so what we will do is we are going to begin to build a bridge -- thank you, sir. That's probably good right there -- with our pieces of wood. Now, I think back to the different stories, and we have -- so actually, you will hold that one -- we had the first story where -- there we go. Very good -- Hannah. What did she do? She bridged the gap by pointing to Christ when her situation was difficult, and she didn't even know if her prayer would be answered the way she would hope, but what did she do? She laid out her prayer to God. Now, all right. Dun-dun-dun-da! By the way, this project, which is really cool, heh, it calls for 2 by 4s, and I had bought those, purchased those, it would be about $150 to do what I needed to do. So I bought the cheaper wood. And as a result, it's a little ricketier than it could be. Then we have the next illustration, and our next illustration is of Mary, who was sacrificial and said, "I will do as You have said." All right. You ready? Very good. Okay. What do you think? Do you think we can keep it going? I think we can. Here's where it gets impressive. All right. So we have this one right here, and we have our last lady. Our last lady was Eunice, and Eunice sought to please the Lord by building faith in her son -- oh, excuse me. (Laughter and applause) All right. So I'm prepared for that. (Laughter) And this is the lesson that the first hour didn't get. (Laughter) And that is that Jesus is the key. It's the friction of the weight, the situation, and gravity that holds this bridge together. However, we as believers -- myself included -- have a tendency to say, "Okay, Jesus. You take -- oh, wait, wait! Oh, no -- I will just give You a little bit." You have to be all in on these different scenarios. So in the essence of time, I have two minutes. We will try again. (Applause) We will go fast. You know what? We will try without talking too much to be distracted. Because you can't go home like that. We did that on purpose, of course. (Laughter) Just to make sure because so often people like, "That's so predictable." I tell you, "Those Children's Ministers, what do they know? I mean, like they really think they could do a construction project?” Fortunately we have professionals in the building so when the time comes, if we needed, we could -- all right. So this will be a mini version. I tell you what. Are we giving up? We're not giving up, are we? All right. Coming in? All right. We -- heh. You know, it's going down again. (Laughter) (Applause) And once again -- sometimes you're still like, "Okay, God, I trust You. Okay, I really don't." So the message is that you've got to trust. I tell you what can what I will do is move my stuff to the side and after the service is over, I'll build it right so you know it works. (Laughter) With that, we have Mr. Darrell Roth coming to close us out. I will push my stuff out of the way because there's going to be a worship song after this as well and my super cool bridge will eventually show up. Just going to have to be patient. We'll try to be quiet. Hold on a second. Can't have me kickin' wood while we're praying. We're good. >> Darrell: I was going to tell you, Joel, I know a good project management firm that can help you if needed. Thank you for a great message. You know, the visuals that you bring every week are so impactful so this may not have worked out here, but the point was made; and just a great message on Mother's Day so thank you for bring that to us, Joel. (Applause) By the way, I feel obligated to tell you guys I have been that Joel carries like a 270 bowling average, for whatever that means. (Laughter) Let's pray, guys. Dear Lord, bless every mother and grandmother with the finest of Your spiritual blessings today. Confirm in her heart and spirit the work of her hand and the love that she has so freely given to those children under Your care. Validate her worth daily so she has no reason to doubt whether she is loved, valued, and cherished in the eyes of her heavenly Father. Create in her a deep sense of Your protection and trust so that worry and fear will disappear as she places her loved ones into Your care. Let her know that every prayer she has prayed and every encouraging word she has spoken on behalf of her children or grandchildren has been transformed into sweet, fragrant offerings before Your throne. Whisper deep within her spirit the sweet words she longs to hear from You, that nothing can ever separate her from Your love. Help her to nestle daily into Your promises and Your Word, standing with faith on the things You declare are true. Let her know that You reward faithfulness but that true success doesn't lie in her accomplishments or accolades. Let her rest in the knowledge that she has done all she can and that she and those she loves truly belong to You. Bless her with a servant spirit so she can teach her own the joy of hearing one day "Well done." Let her joy be contagious. Let her passion be pure. Let her life overflow with all of the blessings she deserves on special days like this and on every day of her life. And Father, help us, the rest of us, to be supportive and encouraging to all of the women in our lives. In Jesus' Precious Name we pray, amen. >> Grant: Amen, amen. Thank you, Darrell. All right church. Just to let y'all know, a couple of thing that are happening here. Lots of great ways to stay connected and spiritually fed. Every Sunday, 9:45, we have got classes for all ages so birth all the way through adults. Next week in the gym for the adults, we are starting back our series called "Another Gospel." We're taking a look at progressive Christianity versus historic Christianity so come jump in there. We've got a couple more weeks of that this month. If you're online with us, every Sunday, 10:00, Kyle Strickland leads the conversation so a great series and he actually started a new class today called "Image Bearers." What it means to be human. Join us online for that. For our ladies, if you're looking to get involved in the Women's Ministry this summer, there's great opportunities whether it's book clubs or Bible studies. There's also a great Zoom series right now that is our Women in Apologetic so you can go sign up for any of those on the website. The “Women in Apologetics” goes great with what we're teaching in the gym on "Another Gospel" so if you enjoy the gym series, sign up for that because you will enjoy that as well. Parents, we excited about VBS this summer? I am excited about getting my kid dose up here to church, spending time with Mr. Joel, and hearing about the promises of God. Don't wait to register. We do have limited space this year so make sure you're getting those kids signed up. We also need about 100 volunteers so go sign up to volunteer. You don't have to be present. If you're working during those hours, you can still help with this VBS this year. So head to the website, sign up the kiddos, sign up to volunteer. It will be a great summer at VBS June 14, 15, and 16. All right. Again, to our mamas, happy Mother's Day. We literally would not be here if it wasn't for you. On a serious note, our church LOVES and values the ministry of motherhood so thank you all so much for the imprint you have made on our live and this church. So again, we have some gifts out on the tables for you, whether it's a carnation or some of the other little goodies. Make sure you go grab one of those on the way out. Church, we love you guys. We appreciate you. We'll be praying for you this week. Let's go ahead and stand as we close out with one more song. >> Richard: Yes! ("Endless Light" playing) ¶ God be exalted ¶ >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today! You are dismissed.