I have a four-year-old little boy.

And he has been such a miracle.

We were told we had less than a 1% chance of having a baby.

God planned for you to be here.

God made you on purpose because he wanted you in his world.

I'm going to fight for them.

I'm going to pray for them.

I'm always going to be on their side and intercede for them every day of their lives because that's what we need to do for our kids.

We don't want to limit what God can do in our children by clutching to them ourselves.

And trying to parent them alone.

At this age, there's a lot of peer pressure.

The world's coming at them.

There's so many lies of the enemy.

She struggles spiritually with seeing herself, how God sees her, and even how I see her.

I think I tend to care a little less about what their grades look like.

I mean, obviously I want my boys to do well, I want them to succeed, but I'm more concerned with how their hearts are.

Are they growing into the men that God has called them to be?

Are they men of integrity?

I want my kids to know that even though they have ADHD, that they can use that as leverage and an asset for the kingdom of God.

There is a ticking watch that I only have so much time to instill all the things that God has given me to pour into them.

The straight A's don't matter.

Being number one athletic doesn't matter.

That doesn't matter if their character sucks.

And that isn't what...

makes mom and dad proud.

But it's not about being a perfect mom.

That's not what a good mom is.

The whole point is to just keep trying and to keep showing up and to keep loving them to the best of my ability and allowing God to fill in the gaps where I am not the one who can do it because He can.

And He's entrusted me with these little humans to love and to raise and to release.

Moms, we know those sleepless nights.

Carrying the weight of the world of your children.

Even waiting for your adult children to either text you or to open that front door so you know that they're home safe.

Those aren't just tasks, those are things that we carry.

We carry the weight of our children, hoping that it will make their load lighter.

We take it upon us, but the Lord wants us to bring all these things to Him.

Lay them at His feet.

I encourage you to do that, to take rest and just know that what you're doing is an amazing job.

Keep praying for your children, keep making a safe space for them, but most of all, keep loving your children.

Happy Mother's Day.

Welcome.

It's good to be with you today.

Welcome to our communities at Rancho and Wesco and those watching us online.

And one more time, let's give it up for our moms today.

Come on.

Happy Mother's Day.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Proverbs chapter 31.

That's where we're going to be.

Starting off, you can take notes or follow along with the notes on the mobile app.

And if you...

Turn to Proverbs 31, right at the very top, you'll probably find a subscription that says written by King Lemuel.

And scholars believe that King Lemuel was the poetic name for King Solomon.

And we often read Proverbs 31 under the context of what makes up a virtuous woman, which is true.

However, Solomon is using his mother as his inspiration here, his muse, if you would.

to write this proverb.

And I encourage you to go back and read the entire Proverbs 31 this Mother's Day because it's so full of rich, rich imagery of what makes up that virtuous woman and that mother.

But he ends Proverbs 31 right at verse 31 with this, honor her for all that her hands have done and let her works bring her praise at the city gates.

Solomon you Using his mother as the example lays out, in this entire Proverbs, the makeup of a virtuous woman.

One who fears the Lord is hardworking, full of wisdom, and giving.

And I believe we all...

are aware of the influence and the power that a mother brings to our life.

And in fact, there's research at Lifeway Research that says this, Mother's Day is one of the highest attendance days of the year for the U.S.

church, typically ranking third, third most attended Sunday, trailing only Easter and Christmas.

It's the mom factor.

Many mothers and grandmothers ask their children to attend church with them.

as their Mother's Day gift.

And some of you might be here because mom or grandma asked you to come today to church.

And if that's you, great job.

Welcome.

Come on, welcome my man.

So bottom line, folks, our mothers leave a lasting legacy in us that we all need to understand how to navigate.

And that's what I want to share with you today.

It's about how do we navigate?

a mother's legacy.

Now, without a doubt, God created mothers for a special purpose.

And the connection that God created for us to have with our mothers is one of the most powerful bonds that exist.

We see it in nature, and we see it in life.

I've heard it said, you know, don't mess with a mama bear with her cubs because she'll be a force to be reckoned with.

And I equally have seen some mothers stand in the gap when something's happening with the child.

They're going to go in and they're going to rescue their son or their daughter.

But what creates this bond?

This is what drove me to this.

I want to know.

And as I was preparing this, I wanted to better understand some of the reasons why this bond exists and why is it so strong.

And there's certainly a spiritual component to it, but I discovered that there's also a physiological connection that God beautifully built into each and every one of us.

It's the science behind it.

It could be a contributing factor.

Now, let me walk you down this.

And I love when science gives us insight into God's incredible design, incredible design, and how it validates scripture sometimes.

Now, there have been all kinds of different scientific studies about the biological and the physiological bonds that we have with our mothers.

And one landmark study from Dr.

J.

Lee Nelson found this, and let me read it for you.

We are not single genetic individuals, but a mixture of our own cells and the cells of our mothers, and the mothers, the cells of their children.

The scientific term for this connection is known as microchimerism.

And scientists have basically found that the mother and the child share DNA.

with each other while the child is being formed in the womb.

And this DNA lives on in both the mother and the child throughout their entire lives.

And there's scripture that supports this concept.

In Genesis 3 verse 20, it tells us this, Now the man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

The Hebrew name for Eve is Shava.

which means to live, to breathe, or give life.

And it was through Eve that all life would come.

And it's suggesting that the spark, the spark of life, would be passed down through the mother, the giver of life.

Eve became the mother of all humanity outside of the garden.

Now, Paul takes this a little bit further.

and emphasizes the importance of this with Jesus Christ himself, where he said he was born of a woman.

And there's a reason behind this.

So let's look at Galatians 4.4, where it says, but when the fullness of time came, God sent his son.

And it specifically says, born of a woman, born under the law.

Now understand this, God, Jesus, Jesus was both 100% God and 100% man.

But in order to fulfill the prophecy that he would come from the seed of King David, Jesus could not just appear like a ghost.

Samuel's prophecy to David said this in Samuel 7, 12 through 13.

When your days are finished and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendants after you.

You will come, who will come after you.

I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne.

of his kingdom forever.

Now, since the virgin birth excluded a physical father, Jesus would have had to receive his humanness from his mother, Mary.

So therefore, Mary became the sole source of Jesus' human DNA. So Luke takes this further and emphasizes the importance of Mary's lineage and Jesus' lineage and how that got merged.

In Luke 3, 23, it says, When he began his ministry, Jesus himself was about 30 years old, being, as it was commonly held, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli.

Now, what would the son of Joseph and the son of Eli be there?

In ancient Greek, in Jewish genealogical records, women were rarely listed by name.

And to record Mary's lineage, Luke would list her husband, Joseph, as the father of Jesus, who was his adopted father.

So, Joseph is listed as the son of Eli, meaning the son-in-law.

Eli was Mary's father.

And to...

Why all these factors?

Why all these facts?

Really is to say this, is to help us understand the deep bond God intentionally created for us to have with our mother.

Psalm 139 beautifully tells us something here in verse 13.

You, for you created my innermost parts.

You wove me in my mother's womb.

Our mothers are God's divine workshop.

Amen?

It's where he forms and shapes us using our mothers as that spark of life.

Now, that's the science behind it, right?

I mean, I thought that was fascinating because I go, wow, when I discovered that, I go, that could be a reason why we have such a strong bond to our moms.

But there's also a spiritual component.

And now that we understand that, let's dive into that.

And Paul gives us a beautiful image of the spiritual influence of a mother.

And in 2 Timothy 1, verse 5, he's writing to Timothy, this is Paul, and he says this, For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, and remember that, sincere faith, which first dwelled in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. and I'm aware that it is...

also in you.

Timothy is a young man by this time.

He's in his 20s somewhere.

He was adopted by Paul as his spiritual kind of son.

And Timothy was blessed and had this spiritual blueprint, this legacy that was passed down by his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois.

Two women who left an imprint on Timothy on how to live a Christian life.

Now, Paul refers to Timothy's, quote, sincere faith that first dwelled in both Lois and Eunice, his grandmother and his mother.

These two women taught Timothy about God, but they didn't just teach Timothy about God, but they also lived it through his mother and his grandmother.

Timothy saw faith in action, and that became contagious for Timothy.

The Greek...

word used here for sincere means to be without hypocrisy.

So without hypocrisy, what is it?

It's your actions, your attitudes, and lifestyles are aligned with the beliefs you profess.

Let me read that again.

It's your actions, your attitudes, and lifestyles are aligned with the beliefs you profess.

So these two mothers lived out their faith in this manner.

Their actions, their attitudes, And their lifestyles exemplified Jesus. They demonstrated to Timothy what it meant to live a Christian life and walk that journey.

Mistakes and all.

In the Bible times, there weren't any formal schools, elementary, preschool, let alone a Sunday school.

And a child's first Bible stories and lessons.

about God and prayer would have first been heard from the lips of mom.

Mothers often serve as the first shepherds of a child's soul, and their daily consistency of faith makes the gospel believable to a child.

Now, Eunice was Timothy's mom, and she was by far not a perfect mom.

And we're giving some insight in Acts chapter 16 verse 1 on the second half about a little bit about her life.

It says, Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman.

who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

So Timothy's father was likely an unbeliever, and his marriage to Eunice was likely an unequally yoked marriage.

Eunice would have had to walk away from God's command to not marry outside of their Jewish culture, and this suggests that Timothy was not born into the best of circumstances.

At some point, Eunice became a believer, probably because of Paul's ministry, and began to influence her son spiritually.

And she lived out her faith without hypocrisy, that sincere faith.

We don't hear about Timothy's father anymore.

We don't know, you know, he could have died, he could have left the family.

But regardless, Paul points out that Eunice became Timothy's greatest spiritual influence along with his grandmother.

Eunice and Lois began to build a legacy, a spiritual legacy.

Now, the Bible is filled with examples of mothers that have been these spiritual giants inside of their children and helped spiritually develop them.

One of them, Jochebed, the mother of Moses.

We know the story of Moses.

Now, Jochebed...

was trying to protect her son.

It was a time when Pharaoh was trying to kill all of the male children to get a control over the population.

Jochebed was trying to hide him, but had to finally do something, couldn't hide him anymore.

Put him in a basket, all protected, sent him down the Nile to where Pharaoh's daughter was with bathing.

And we pick up the story there in Exodus this chapter 2, verse 6, where it says, when she opened it, meaning...

Pharaoh's daughter, she saw the child and behold, the boy was crying and she had pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews children.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go?

Now here's the sister waiting in the weeds, watching, being a good big sister.

And she pops out and says, shall I go and call the women for you who is nursing from the Hebrew women so that she may nurse the child for you?

Pharaoh's daughter said, yes, go ahead.

So the girl went.

and called the child's mother, and this was Jochebed.

Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him to me, and I will give you your wages.

So the women took a child and nursed him, and as the child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh, he became her son, and she named him Moses, and said, because I drew him out of the water.

God used Jochebed not only to save Moses for a greater cause and protect him from death, Get this, he also made a way for mom to get paid to raise him.

How about that, moms?

So, it's in those early days that Moses learned about God through his mother, Jochebed.

And as I was looking into this, experts after experts after experts continue to come back and point to the ages of zero through five years of age as being the most formative years.

of a child's life.

And right around five years is when they were weaning, traditionally.

So here, Jochebed had the first five years of Moses's life to spiritually influence him and then give him over to Pharaoh's life.

His mother would have prepared him for the call of God that more than likely she never even got to see at all.

Because when Moses finally got called to ministry, he was 80 years old.

Chances are mom had passed away by then.

And Moses would go on to change a nation and change history.

And this story of Moses is a beautiful example of how moms, you may never know how God is using you to prepare your child for God's will.

Then you have another one, Hannah.

Hannah was the mother of Samuel.

And God blessed Hannah with a son, Samuel, after a long season of barrenness and sorrowful prayer because she couldn't have a child.

But God came and gave her the gift of Samuel, and she knew he was a gift.

She knew her calling as well, to steward and prepare Samuel for a life of service.

Now, we pick this up at 1 Samuel 1, verse 20, where it says, It came about in due time after Hannah had conceived that she gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel, saying, Because I have asked for him of the Lord.

Then the man Elkanah, which was her husband, went up with his household to offer the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

So they're going out to church.

In verse 22, But Hannah did not go up, for she had said to her husband, I will not go until the child is weaned.

Then I will bring him so that he may appear before the Lord and stay there for life.

So Hannah taught Samuel during those formative years about God.

and about prayer and about the word, and then dedicated him to serve in the temple for life.

And Samuel became a consequential prophet who ushered in the pathway for King David, and eventually our King of Kings and our Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.

Amen?

Then we have Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon.

And, you know, we often associate Bathsheba with that scandal involving David.

However, Bathsheba became a key teacher to someone who became considered to be the wisest man that ever lived, King Solomon.

And we read earlier, we read earlier in Proverbs 31, just his entire, call it his mini essay about his mom.

But he also wrote this in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 8.

Listen, my son.

to your father's instruction and do not ignore your mother's teaching.

Solomon learned the value of his mother's teachings.

They were the foundation for him and that prepared him to be one of the most consequential and transformative kings of Israel.

And finally, we have the most familiar that we all know, and that's Mary, the mother of Jesus.

And I want to pick up the story in Luke chapter 2, where we have a situation where the family went off to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and they're leaving with the caravan to go back home.

And Jesus decides, I'm going to go to the temple by myself and sit and listen and ask a lot of questions, which is exactly what happened.

And after a while, Mary and Joseph lost him, and they realized he wasn't with the other family.

So they went looking for him.

Three days.

For three days, they searched for him.

Finally found him in the temple.

They told him how worried he was.

They were, and Jesus said, well, I was here because this is where my father wants me to be.

But I want you to see what Luke records in Luke chapter two, verse 51.

Because Jesus got up from there and went with him.

And he went down with him and came to Nazareth.

And he continued to be subject to them and his mother's treasured.

all these things in her heart.

And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with people.

Jesus honored his father and his mother by continuing to submit to them and their teaching.

And we don't know what happened to Joseph, we all know that, but we know that Mary was a constant presence in his life.

She was there at his birth.

She was there as...

As he grew as a child, she was there at his crucifixion, and she was there when he appeared to the apostles in the upper room.

Mary was always there.

And there's no doubt that Mary fulfilled her duty as a mother to the Savior of the world.

Mary spoke to him about God, read the scriptures to him, prayed with him, took him to the temple, and Mary would have taken the Shema.

The Shema, the most important prayer and declaration of faith in Judaism to heart.

And you find the Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9.

Now look at these.

The first six verses are about sincere faith.

It says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

These words which I am commanding you today shall be be on your heart.

Now that's the sincere faith part of it.

Mary was living that.

I will love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my might.

But then it turns at verse 7, because that's part of the Shema prayer.

This is what Mary took seriously.

And you shall repeat them diligently to your son and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you get up, you shall also tie them.

as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.

You shall also write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.

The point being, folks, Moms, you have a profound influence on your child's life.

Just like the Shema, you are that voice into them from a spiritual standpoint where you're reading the word to them.

You're praying with them.

You're putting scripture around the house.

When you're walking down the street, walking the dog, you're talking about God.

When you're waking up, you're talking about God.

When they're going to sleep, you're talking about God.

That's the seriousness that Mary took.

And moms, that's exactly the profound influence that you have on your children.

And like these women of the Bible, God has a place, placed you in a unique position, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

And in each and every one of you, moms, God is unfolding your legacy story that will set the course for your son or daughter to navigate.

You with me?

Amen?

But you're probably sitting there and you're reading all this, or I'm giving it to you, and you're sitting and saying, well, can God really use me that way?

How can God use me like these mothers that you just read about?

And you may believe that you're not capable of such a task because you believe you're flawed.

However, what we can rest assured on is this.

that God has a long history of using flawed people to fulfill his plans.

Amen?

1 Corinthians 1 verse 27 says this, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.

Mothers, the greatest gift, the greatest gift to your child isn't your perfection.

But it's your sincere faith.

It's your unhypocritical faith in Jesus Christ.

And this is what it boils down to.

Your children don't need a mother who never fails.

They just need a mother who honestly trusts God through her failures.

Amen?

And like the women of the Bible, you are preparing leaders who God will use to fulfill His plans.

Now, I love these verses, and these are the verses that we've been going through in a lot of our discipleship and leadership with our young adults, but they're so applicable to us as well.

Philippians chapter 2 verse 13 says this, for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for his good pleasure.

So moms know this, that God created you for a purpose, a powerful purpose.

And Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10 goes deeper.

And it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves.

It is a gift, a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them.

Moms, you've been created for good works.

And what better good work than to work you of building and leaving a legacy of faith in your children.

Amen.

That's all right.

You can say amen to that.

Now, I realize there's a conflicting reality, and it would not be right for me to stand up here and acknowledge the real-world family dynamics that are part of navigating a mother's legacy.

We learned in Acts 16 that Timothy was stuck between two worlds.

His father was a Greek and his mother was Jewish.

And he was caught in between these two cultures.

And unfortunately, we live in a time where more children are growing up in broken homes or homes that present a conflict between the spiritual values of one parent and the world.

And sometimes that conflict may lie in not having a mother in your life that's like a Eunice or a Lois.

And not every mother in the Bible was a Eunice or a Lois.

You know, 2 Kings chapter 11 verse 1 gives us an example.

Her name was Athaliah.

She was the daughter of Jezebel and Ahab, and she seized the throne of Judah by basically slaying all of her grandsons.

And it says this, when Athaliah, the mother of Isaiah saw her son was dead, she arose and eliminated all the real.

All the royal children.

Talk about an example in an extreme case of a bad mom.

This was Athaliah.

She was not a Eunice.

Now, I'm going to get a little personal now with you.

Here's what I found in this conflicting area, is that when a mother does not know God, when she is not a Eunice, we can still learn.

We can learn the reality.

of human brokenness and the desperate need for a Savior.

And we can look through our mothers, through the eyes of Jesus, because He came to die on the cross for all of us, knowing full well that we all are broken and in a desperate need for a Savior.

There may be gaps with our mother, but we can honor the person while choosing not to follow their path.

We take the good, the hard work, the resilience, the biological care, the life stories, and we bring the gaps.

We bring those gaps to God so he can fill them because he is faithful.

And we hold fast to this command in Exodus chapter 20, verse 12, where it says, Honor your father and mother so that your days may be prolonged on the land which the Lord your God gives you.

And I want to point out with this command, this you This is one of the Ten Commandments.

Honor your father and mother.

There is not a qualifier there.

It doesn't say honor your godly father and mother.

Honor your Christian father and mother.

It says honor your father and your mother so that you can get those blessings.

And this is the personal part.

Because I want you to understand what I'm talking about here in the conflict and how we can navigate that.

My mom passed away this past December on 31st.

in 2025.

We just had her memorial this past April.

Many have come to me sometimes and say, you must be come from a long line of pastors.

And I go, no, that's not the case.

I'm the only one, really.

Youngest of five.

My father passed when I was about eight of cancer.

Grew up basically in a single parent home.

And my relationship with my mom was a complex one.

Like a good Hispanic home, We grew up Catholic.

You know, my name didn't really go to church very consistently, and I accepted Jesus Christ when I was 17.

Now, here's the reality.

My mom was not the biggest supporter of my decision to become a Christian.

In fact, she was the first one to call me a hallelujah, and not in a good sense.

But I stood the course.

I stood the course, dedicating my life to Jesus Christ, standing on the Word of God that says that love conquers all.

Love covers a multitude of sin and love changes things.

And you know what?

I went down that path to love my mom and love my mom.

And over time, things started to change.

And she started to recognize the difference that Christ made in me.

And to help you understand this a little bit better, I want you to indulge me for a second.

And I want to read to you the reflection I read at her memorial.

Her name was Francisca Arriaga.

And for those of you that know my wife, Fran, yes, I married somebody with the exact same name.

You know, they say that you marry somebody like your mother.

I took that to a whole other level.

But her name was Francisca Arriaga.

I love this picture because she looks like a black and white movie star era.

You know, this is her favorite, the favorite picture.

My favorite picture.

But let me read this for you.

My mom was a tough lady in many ways.

She had an interesting journey to say the least.

We all have heard the bits and the pieces of her life story at one time or another.

And in some cases, we heard the story more than once.

But that was okay.

Mom was a survivor.

She had to learn to be a survivor considering what she had to go through, especially early in life.

Knowing this helped me understand her better.

Mom parented the best and only way she knew how.

Yes, it wasn't easy at times, but I do realize that I am a better man for it.

And now, I have a choice.

We all have a choice of taking all the experiences, all the life lessons, all the stories, and all that we know, and doing something with them.

We can either bury them with her, or we can decide to take all the good we've learned and be different with all we do, how we parent, how we interact with our spouses.

how we interact with our family and friends and so on.

It's all a choice.

I will miss mom.

I will miss hearing the stories and the jokes, even if it was the 50th time.

I've heard it.

I'm grateful that she is no longer suffering and can rest in heaven, and I know this is true because she had an open, she had opened her heart to the Lord at a God-appointed time this past year where my daughter Chloe was able to lead her to Christ.

This gives me hope that I will see her again.

Thank you, Mom, for being there for us when it mattered.

Thank you for pushing us when we needed to be pushed.

Thank you for making sure we knew how to survive, and thank you for loving us in the only way you knew how.

We know you did.

Rest in peace, Mom.

I love you, and I will miss you.

My mom was not a Eunice, but I know that I am who I am because of her influence.

God used her.

God used her as that divine workshop to mold and shape me.

And I could honor her for all she did, understanding that she parented me and my siblings the best way that she knew.

And I took the gaps and I took them to God who faithfully, faithfully filled him.

And I learned that God is faithful.

Because he answered that prayer of 45 years for God to open my mother's heart and it happened.

God is faithful.

So it's a choice.

It's a choice.

It's an individual choice.

What will we do with the legacy that our mothers have built in us?

Sons, daughters, we cannot live on the spiritual credit or lack thereof of our mother.

At some point, we must move to a matter of our own heart and decision to follow Jesus as our personal Savior and live for Him.

Timothy made that choice.

We see in Acts that they talk about Timothy that he was well-spoken by the brothers and sisters who were in Lystra and Iconium.

Timothy became a man of God who was well-known because of the legacy left to him by his mother and his grandmother.

It was a choice.

There's a life principle that I've lived by, learned a long time ago, and I continue to live by, and that's this.

You can't control every circumstance thrown your way, but you can control your response.

You can't control every circumstance thrown your way, but you can control your response.

We can't control how we were parented, good or bad.

We can't control what's happened in the past.

But we can control our response and where we go from here.

And Paul gives us some insight into that in Philippians 4, verse 11, where he says, I've learned to be content in whatever circumstance I find myself in.

And then he gives us the key to that in verses 6 and 7, just above it.

He says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition and thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace.

The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

We don't worry, but we take the gaps to God, knowing that he is faithful.

And it's not about just toughing it out.

It's about choosing a God-honoring response when we didn't choose the circumstance.

And perhaps today, your mom isn't a Eunice.

Or was it?

Or maybe you're in a season where you've been trying to be a mom and it's been tough.

Or maybe you're in a season where you've had an absent mom in your life.

We didn't choose the circumstances, but we can choose our response.

It's about making a choice.

How are you going to respond to the circumstances God has allowed to come your way?

Yes, God, because God is sovereign and he's ultimately in control.

As Pastor Jeff says many times, he is large and in charge.

Amen?

So let's bring this home.

Paul eventually wrote to Timothy again.

Timothy is now in Ephesus, and he's helping raise the church there.

Eunice and Lois did their part to teach Timothy about the goodness of God.

Timothy responded by becoming a man of integrity.

Moms, remember this.

Being a mother is a lifelong project.

preparing your child for God's plan and mission in their life.

Here's the application.

Moms, you were created for a unique purpose, to be a mother.

Your years of investment are never wasted.

God is using you to prepare your son or your daughter for God's plan.

He outlined way before they were even born.

You are God's workmanship.

You may never see the finished story, but you're part of the chapters that are being written.

Your sincere faith is the compass that they'll carry.

It's your legacy.

And perhaps you're a mom here today that maybe you don't know the Lord, but today is your day.

It's not too late.

It's not too late.

to give your heart to Jesus and live a life of sincere faith and realize the full purpose God has called you as a mother and leaving that spiritual legacy.

So sons and daughters in the room, Exodus 20, 12, we read it.

Honor your mother's legacy by using it.

Honor your father and your mother so that your days may be prolonged on the land which the Lord...

your God gives you.

It's a choice.

Here's my challenge to you, sons and daughters.

The best way, the best way to say happy Mother's Day is to live a life that proves that her prayers and times of teaching about God were heard and her example influenced and impacted you to be the man or the woman of sincere faith.

Her legacy lives on in you.

Amen?

I want to give you a closing thought.

Pastor Jeff rubbed off on me.

You thought that was the conclusion, Later in ministry, later in ministry, Paul's encouraged Timothy with this in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6 through 7.

For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God.

Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands.

For the Spirit that God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.

Let me read this to you.

Mothers, provide the kindling for the fire, which is the Word of God and the life example.

But the son or daughter must, must provide the breath to fan the flame, which is their yes to God.

When both happen, the legacy of faith from a mother becomes unquenchable.

It's unstoppable.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you because you are a good God.

We thank you for the mothers in this room.

Father, we pray that the spiritual legacies that exist here, Father, that you would just fan that flame.

And that, Father, with the sons and the daughters, that, Lord, we as sons and daughters would rise up and be men and women of sincere faith, taking the impact that our moms had on us, and that we would live it out without hypocrisy.

We thank you, Father, for every mom that's in this room, and we ask for a special blessing upon their lives.

We love you.

We praise you.

In Jesus' name, amen.