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. >> Good morning, First Colony Church. Happy Mother's Day. Let's stand and worship and be faithful. \M "House of the Lord" \M >> Yes, church, give Him praise. There is no one like our God, amen. One of a kind. We want to teach you a new song this morning. \M "We Praise You" \M >> Yes, church, give Him praise this morning. He alone is worthy. Let's all be seated as our communion leaders come up to lead us in communion. >> Good morning. I'm Melinda Smith and this is my son, Joel. We are excited to be celebrating communion with you. Take the bread as his body was broken and as we take the cup, it reminds us of the blood that was shed. Let's pray. Dear and heavenly Father, we thank you for being a great and mighty God and that we can stand here free in the name of Jesus. Lord, we thank you for that freedom we can celebrate in communion. You came to this earth as a young baby, that you died on the cross, and you rose again. We can be reminded today as we take the bread what you did for us as you died on the cross and your body was broken and we can be reminded of the blood that you shed. Lord, thank you for that forgiveness and may we live in that today as we live that and seek you. In our name, amen. Let us partake together. >> 22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. \M "The Blessing" \M >> And the church said amen. Amen. Well, before we take our offering, I want to remind you, you can give online, you can text to give and give at the boxes at the back of the room. We give not because we have to, but we get to partner with God and just displaying His blessings to the whole world around us. From here in this county to all around the world. We want to partner with God, so would you pray with me as we do just that. Our Father in heaven, we praise you and dedicate these offerings to you. You are the greatest giver and Jesus is the greatest gift ever. We pray that this offering will be used to advance the good news of Jesus. This message of salvation can go everywhere, God, when we give with gladness in our heart. God, would you use this to your praise and glory that Jesus may be lifted up. In His name we pray. Amen. >> Joel: All right. Well it is very good to see you here on this Mother's Day. We have a special occasion which is baby dedication day which is exciting. We have two families. We have the Goforths and the Davidsons. I'm going to pass the mic down and have you introduce your family. >> I'm Jesse Goforth and my wife Megan and Sloan and Tessa and Turner who we are going to dedicate today. >> I am Jenna Davis and my husband Harrison and this is Wes. >> Joel: I'll turn it off because I have my mic on. Baby dedication is a pretty incredible moment and that is when parents who are grateful for the fact they have been entrusted with a child say to everyone, we recognize that God has given us a blessing and as God gives us the grace, we want to raise this child in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. In Palms 127 it says: Children are a gift from the Lord. We are his stewards. I'm going to challenge the families with three statements and challenge the church with two statements and we're going to pray a blessing over you. The first challenge is as parents and as brothers or sisters, do you recognize that the chief purpose of people who follow Jesus is to glorify him? If so, say "we do." >> We do. >> Joel: Very good. Now, do you dedicate yourself to the rearing of your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? We're going to look to scripture to parent. >> We do. >> Joel: Finally, do you purpose before God to be the kind of example that commends your children to the grace and goodness of God and this is through God's grace. No one's perfect. We're going to do our best. >> We do. >> Joel: Congregation, you're part of this as well. I'm going to ask you two things. Are you going to maintain a church that honors God in word and deed. Number two, are you going to do your best to be a good example. As the body of Christ for God's glory, do you commit yourself to maintain the church where the word of God is honored in word indeed. If you do, say we do. >> We do. >> Joel: Do you purpose as God gives you the grace to reinforce the example of these parents with conduct that adorns the teachings of Christ. >> We do. >> Joel: Very good. Now I'm going to pray a blessing on these two incredible individuals, a boy and a girl. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for these families, sisters, everyone represented here today, we pray your blessing on these children. We pray for Wesley Mane who means manual and strong way. May he be a road to light. And may she be a skill to others. Lord, we love you and praise you. We thank God for these precious lives that you've entrusted to us in Jesus' name, amen. Let's give these precious families a hand. All right. Well, as they are going and having a seat, I do have an object lesson. As you know, today is Mother's Day. I guarantee you a lot of people are going to be saying "I love you" to their mom. So I thought it would be good to focus on love. The verse I want to utilize the famous 1 Corinthians passage, love is patient and kind. I thought I would pick out a color for each of these things. Love is patient and kind. You go to a yellow light, what do you do in Texas? You speed up. What do most people do? Supposed to be patient and wait your turn for the next one. The next part of the verse says love does not envy or boast. I thought of green, yes, it could mean money, but green with envy. These are things those who show love do not do. Then we have love is not arrogant. When you think of a color for arrogant, let's face it, maybe you get first place every time and you have a tendency to say, yeah, pretty good or deflect and say, thank you, Lord. And then we have love does not insist on its own way. I have a white scarf. The white scarf represents a one-way sign, when you see white or black arrows pointing in a direction. Do you take your way or defer to someone else. Now, I have the orange scarf and my plan was this would represent warmth. Here we're told not to be irritable or resentful. After the first service I had a U.T. fan say, that's a good reminder for U.T. fans not to be irritated. Then I have the red scarf and the Bible says those with sins of scarlet will be washed. You're probably like, Joel, okay, so what, you showed me a lot of colors. I don't think I'm going to remember any of those, maybe one or two. The cool thing is the way you remember those is by looking to Jesus Christ. When you look to Jesus Christ, you see all the colors that just keep going and going and there is more character there than just being patient, kind, not envious, truthful, being sacrificial, being humble and gentle. It goes on and on. My prayer for you is as you say, you know what, I do want to love. How do you love? You look to Jesus Christ. Thank you all and have a wonderful Mother's Day. [\M\M\M] >> All right. Let's give it up for our moms and our grandmothers. [Applause] >> Happy Mother's Day. Great to see those baby dedications. We're going to release the kids from grade 1 to 5. Ms. Dinel, another great mom in the house, will take you across the lobby to the chapel. Parents, if you have not checked your kids in, if you go, there is a kiosk to check them in. Especially if you're new with us and want to get more connected, use the Q.R. code in front of you. We we would love to put you in a group. Those online, you can say hi in the chat room. We would love to get to know you. Everyone else, let's stand and greet each other and have this time of fellowship greeting. [Indistinct chatter]. \M "Sing Wherever I Go" \M >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: That's just terrific. Richard, thank you so much. Thank you to this outstanding worship team. Good morning, everybody. So glad to see you, to those of you in the room, glad to have you with us today at the First Colony Church of Christ. To those of you online, we welcome you as well. Glad to have you as well. Happy Mother's Day and we honor and respect our moms and for many of us we remember our moms today from a standpoint. My mom passed away back in November 2013. I remember her and still hear her voice and see her smile. She was a fantastic person. She loved you and prayed for you. So we are here as a church today. We celebrate moms. You cannot overstate the importance of the ministry of motherhood. You don't want to be syrupy or sappy. Motherhood is an incredibly important assignment. I'm grateful that we have a church full of women who pour out their leadership on their kids and others' kids, church kids and I think that's just terrific. A few months ago a video game across my news feed by a lady by the name of Kayla Sullivan. Kayla has a background in TV news. So she decided to file a special report from outside the bedroom of her toddler son after less than -- after a less-than-ideal day. Okay. So watch this video from Kayla Sullivan. >> Kayla Sullivan reporting outside my son's bedroom where he is being detained. This story involves a minor. My son is a 2-year-old terrorist who held me hostage at the Olive Garden earlier today. The friends I met there don't have children and likely never will after witnessing this. This is an ongoing investigation, but the proper precautions were taken. I brought my son's favorite snacks and even brought an iPad. After several cries, a good Samaritan waitress understood it as the English word "ketchup." But then later he threw a ketchup-covered fork at her. These toddler outbursts are becoming increasingly common as more and more parents try out the new craze, gentle parenting and I'll keep trying. Back to you. [Laughter]. >> Ronnie: I thought that was pretty good. Okay. I want you to do a little time travel with me. Let's go back 11 centuries before Christ and we're going to go to the small town of Shiloh located 20 kilometers north of Jerusalem. And there is a small, crude temple. And the guy in charge is Eli. The Bible tells us he is older and overweight. Eli wasn't a particularly good man, not a particularly bad man. He did have two sons who were encourageable. I think the Bible describes them as scoundrels and Eli did rein them in. If you watched Eli go about his work at this small temple, he was followed by a little boy. Over time that little boy would grow and become a young man. He is loyal, dependable. He is Eli's little, young helper. If you looked closely at this little boy, what would stand out to you would be his robe, his attire. It wasn't haphazardly made. No lackadaisical here. This is the product of a caring hand. Someone has invested a great deal of guy, energy, and loving care into the crafting of that little robe. Now, that little boy who's following Eli around, he's not related to Eli, not a grandson or a nephew and Eli certainly did not craft that little robe, but the story of that boy, whose name, by the way, was Samuel, and the story of how he came to live with Eli and the story of that little robe -- actually, little robes plural, well, that story starts years before. So Samuel's mother, her name was Hannah. You can read her story in the book of Samuel books 1 and 2. The Lord had closed her womb. She desperately wanted children, but to this point had been unable to conceive. Every year Hannah was accompany her husband and they would go to Shiloh and offer sacrifices to the Lord. Every year Hannah would be brought to the point of tears by her rival Penina, who had many children and liked to rub it in to Hannah and Hannah was broken-hearted. One year she breaks down and weeps tears of desperation. She feels like she has a hopeless future. 1 Samuel 1:9-17 9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord's house. 10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. Now, let me just highlight here what Hannah is doing. Hannah is bringing her pain to God. Let me say it one more time. She is bringing her pain to the Lord. That's a good thing to do. Whatever your pain is, bring it to the Lord. We often want to hide. We want to stay away from the house of the Lord. We want to stay away from other people, say, I hurt too much. Bring your pain to the Lord and to the Lord's people. Hannah is a godly woman. She does that very thing. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” This is a vow. Don't hydroplane over this vow. She is going beyond where any mother need go. She's making an incredible vow and promise. Lord, if you give me a son, he will be dedicated to you. I mean, I'll certainly teach him about you and pray with him and certainly tell him stories about you, but I will dedicate him and offer him in priestly service to the Lord. Well, Hannah is so distraught, she doesn't even notice elderly, obese Eli there. 12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk. 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” 15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” All we can do is just imagine our sadness, suffering, her pain year after year after year. Listen, her tears, her prayers, her desperation, that's not a sign of an absence of faith. Actually, it's an indication of her faith. She's bringing her pain to the Lord. 17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” Let me just cut to the chase. Hannah's bold request for a son was answered and later on, by the way, Hannah will have three more sons and two daughters. The point of this story and this narrative is not that prayer cures every occasion of infertility. That's not the message here. The point is, however, that God cares for his people who are in pain and he comes to their aid. What is the best-known statements from Jesus, Matthew 11? Come to me, all you who are weary and I will give you rest. The point here is that God can do and will do for his people who we cannot do for ourselves. In fact, that is the essence of the entire gospel message of our salvation in Christ. God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God doing for us in Christ what we cannot do for ourselves. So Hannah was powerless to help herself and in this particular instance anyway, God answered directly. She made a specific request and she got a direct question yes. Sometimes God answers our prayers differently, sometimes directly. God said yes to Hannah. So some time later she's back home in her home town and she says to her husband, I believe I'm expecting a child. And when the child was born, Hannah named him Samuel because in the language she spoke Samuel rhymes with asked and she asked this child of the Lord and he had been given to her. What is interesting too if you back up for a moment, not only was this a great gift to Hannah and her family, but a great gift to the nation of Israel because this Samuel will grow up to be not just a prophet but a leading prophet. He will become the king maker, he will anoint Saul as the first king of Israel and anoint King David, a man after God's own heart. He will be king over Israel and it is in his line that the Messiah will be born. God in answering that prayer for Hannah was doing something that has vast and ongoing implications and ramifications. My friends, Hannah kept her vow. She kept it. So when Samuel was old enough, she took him on that 14-mile journey from Rama to Shiloh. She walks up to Eli and says, hey, remember me? I'm the praying lady you thought was drunk. God did hear my prayer and he answered it and here is my son. He is to be dedicated into the service of the Lord. Again, I must tell you, she went further than where she needed to go. She went further than any of us are asked to go. But she kept her vow because the she honored the Lord first. You know, sometimes when I read this story, I get a little weirded out here, I do. But I get a little weirded out even today when I see radical, robust, strong obedience, sacrificial service to the Lord that goes far and beyond because sometimes I just want to really cling tenaciously to my own little comfortable bubble. This was a great sacrifice for Hannah. She was undeterred in fulfilling her vow, she was unwavering to her commitment to the Lord. She worked through all the questions and hesitations because her first commitment as a mom was actually to God and every parent here knows this. The grand purpose for us all as parents is to teach and train our children to be available for God's purposes in their life. Well, Hannah continued to love and nurture her son Samuel. We're going to come back to that in a moment. In this sermon, I'm going to take a little detour and give a little side bar sermonette. I would like to say a word to moms of special needs children. I read a little essay some time ago written by Emily Pearl Kingsley. For some people it really resonates. For some maybe not so much, but I think it's worth hearing. So in 1974, Emily Pearl Kingsley gave birth to a boy, Jason, who was born with down syndrome. Emily was a TV writer and she used her skills as a writer to write a little essay to describe her experience and maybe to enlighten some others. Her little essay was called: "Welcome to Holland." And describes her experience of raising a special needs child. It goes like this. She goes, when you're about to have a baby it's like planning a fantastic trip to Italy. You buy your guide books and you make your comfortable plans. We're going to see the Colosseum. We're going to see Michaelangelo's David. We're going to have fun on the gondolas in Venice. You may have to learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very, very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives, you pack your bags and finally the flight attendant says "welcome to Holland." Holland, you say, what do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy. I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I dreamed of going to Italy. But there's been a change in the flight plan. You've landed in Holland and in Holland you must stay. Now, the important thing you need to know is they've not taken you to a horrible, disgusting place, it's just a different place. It's Holland and you were anticipating Italy. So now you must go out and buy some new guide books and you must learn now a whole new language. And you will meet now a whole new group of people that you would have never met. It's just a different place. Holland is slower-paced than Italy, it's less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you've kept your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland is pretty wonderful. Holland has windmills and tulips. And Holland has Rembrandts and just like Venice, Holland has canals and beautiful cities. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there and for the rest of your life you'll say, yes, that's where I was supposed to go, that's what I planned. And the pain of that will never go away because the loss of that dream was a significant loss, but if you spend your time mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, very lovely things about Holland. And so, you see, that little essay "Welcome to Holland" wasn't so much about her son but about her and learning to adjust to the new life for the sake of that child and not just talking of parenting, but in so many things, step back and it's a larger truth to say it's okay to mourn and grieve and cry when you see your life not turning out the way you hoped, to take your pain and to run to the lord. Times of grief like that, they're okay and natural. But if we stay there, we'll miss out on maybe some amazing new possibilities we might miss some windmills and tulips and Rembrandts that God will help us build along the way. I say all of that to say, moms of special needs children, we salute you in a unique and particularly beautiful way. You're doing a noble work. And we respect you for it. Back to Shiloh. 1 Samuel 2:18-19 18 But Samuel was ministering before the Lord a boy wearing a linen ephod. A priestly smock. A priestly robe. And notice this: 19 Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. So Hannah every year would reach into her basket, pull out a little robe that was homemade. A lot of TLC. Just the right size. And for every worshipper who walked into that little temple in Shiloh and they saw that young boy and that man and they paid attention to that well-crafted robe, it was a reminder that this young man has a mother who dedicated him to the service of the Lord. And every year, that robe got updated. It kept getting a little bigger and bigger and bigger as Samuel kept maturing in service of God. And that robe represents not only did Hannah surrender her son, she supported her son in his work. And her support was tangible. You could see it. To moms in this room today and to those of you watching online, whether you're raising sons or daughters or both, you're making a difference. You will be your own worst critic, but you are making a huge difference and you have your own version of the little robes. Tangible expressions, tangible memories, tangible actions that touch the souls of your children in memorable ways and your children are blessed to grow up under your tutelage and you're teaching them to be available to the purposes of God I'm going to close and show you a painting here. This is Norman Rockwell's -- really one of his best paintings. It sold for $15.4 million. It's called breaking home ties. We'll leave it up on the screen. Take a look at it. It is a picture of a young man getting ready to leave the farm and go out into the world on his own. He and his dad are at the train station. The dad doesn't know what to say. The boy is a little bit of a mixture. He is eager for his new adventure, but there is some sadness too, leaving home, breaking home ties. Even the family collie senses something is up. But you look at that painting and you say, where's the mother? Evidently, she's back at the farm. She stayed home. She said her goodbyes there. But notice how crisply the son is dressed and notice how Rockwell painted. Notice what's in his lap, his lunch, his next meal. Notice how it's folded and tied. He's saying, moms do that kind of stuff. Moms can condense an ocean of love and affection and nurture for their children and they can condense it down to a bow a hundred times a day. And so moms do, do that kind of stuff and beyond. Several of us in this room, maybe not all of us here, but several of us here are Christians today, not just because mom said, hey, go to church. But many of us, our moms launched us into the faith journey. That's true for me. I didn't come from a church-going family. My mom started going to church and then my dad started going with her. And so I have great appreciation for her legacy and influence. Maybe some of us in this room today, you've read this story, heard this story, some of us here, do you need to sort of take a look at your own life and say, I really want to be a woman of God like Hannah? You can be. But let me just remind you, women have simple natures and men have simple natures, both. Men and women both have simple natures. We all need repentance, we all need a savior and the Holy Spirit's help to move forward. There are maybe some guys who want to be a godly man like Samuel and metaphorically, my mom has put a lot of robes around me and my mom has given me lots of wrapped-up packages before. She's given me a package of faith and a robe of faith and invested in me. You know what I feel like I've done, is discarded it. I've treated it like there was a cheap thing. Is there a daughter or a son as an adult here today who says, I want to reembrace the investment and the gift that my mom and my dad were passing along to me. Moms, thank you for your ministry. We uphold you. We respect you for it. We pray for you. If your mom is living, I encourage you to love on her today, send her a text. If you say, Ronnie, I came from sort of a toxic background and I had toxic parents, I'm sorry. That happens. It does. But here's your opportunity to create something different in your family and begin to pass along a really healthy baton of faith and love. As a church, we want to do that. Rocky, will you make your way up here to lead us in prayer. Let me give you a closing reminder to us all. One of the 10 commandments is honor your father and your mother. Honor your mom. When you're younger, you honor her with meticulous obedience in a culture that idolizes rebellion. We want to be a different kind of culture. Honor your mother. When you're younger, honor her with obedience. When you begin to become more and more independent and you break those home ties, continue to honor her with great respect. There may come a day when your mom needs you to do for her what she can no longer do for yourself. Always care for your mom. God bless you and your noble work. Rocky Hudson is going to lead us as we pray >> What a great day of celebration, the dedication of these children, the celebration of moms, and especially the celebration of the ones you created. Would you join me together as we pray. Heavenly Father, we lift your name on high, give honor and praise as the creator of all good things. We praise you as an example of a good, good Father. You've given us our mothers to give us life and to show us love and we thank you for this wonderful gift. Father, you showed us love even when we were undeserving and sent your son as the ultimate sacrifice for us. You've given us the holy scriptures on how to teach and admonish. We will have a life ever-lasting. Today we ask to be led by your spirit and paths to righteousness. We ask you, keep your statutes and we seek you with all our hearts. I pray today and every day that our relationship with you will be personal and genuine and sensible. Accept us on our journey of growing closer to you. We pray for our nation and the nation of Ukraine. We're reminded from Psalms 33: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. We pray for peace in Ukraine and that you will restrain evil and protect them. May we be a nation that seeks your will, that your will will be done in our land as well as heaven. May you bless our land in unity and peace. It is our special prayer today for you to bless our mothers and all the ladies. You have entrusted these mothers with the care of the most precious little ones. We thank you for the unique gifts and talents and thank you for the sacrifice each mom has given. Help her to see in every mundane task the eternal significance that you place on motherhood. Help her to understand the most radical world-changing events may be happening or already are happening in her home. Thanks to the mothers who changed our lives for eternity. We pray you will provide wisdom, patience, guidance, perseverance and protection for each of us. May we be strengthened serving your church to serve those in need, especially those in need of the gospel. Let the example of our faith and love shine forward as a beacon to the world. May the God of Israel grant the request we ask of him. In Jesus' name, amen. >> We want to say to the moms and grandmas. Thank you, we love you and appreciate you. We have a gift for you on the white tables in the lobby if you would like to pick that up as you go. We would love for you to have that. Happy Mother's Day. I want to let everyone to know about the weekend to remember. Marriage retreat is in June, butle the early bird discount pricing is still effect. If you're considering going to a great marriage retreat at the sugar land Marriott, it's nearby. The early bird pricing is in effect until Wednesday. You can find the link to that event on our website. Right now if you want to develop some great skills for marriage and be encouraged, this is a great retreat to go to. VBS is next month. We want you to register to sign up as a volunteer. We want love you to volunteer to have a great VBS this year. Today is the last day to turn in your baby bottle for the boomerang. We have Bible classes for all ages the hour before this one. We have some wonderful ones for kids, students, adults. Come talk to us at the info center. Let us help you find the right class for you. For those online, stay tuned because at 12:30 Kyle's class will start online. Church, it is so great to be together to praise God to enjoy this fellowship and to say thanks to our moms and to enjoy that the Lord has spoken into us this morning, but now he's calling us out of this building to go and live His mission. How has he spoken to you and called you to live into the mission. I can't wait to find out in the mission. Let's all stand and sing before we do that. \M"Sing Wherever I Go" \M >> Richard: Thank you, church, for your worship. You may be dismissed. [\M\M\M] >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services, Bible study options, online giving, and our podcast "Anchor Point." You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. We are glad you're here.