Summary
Sermon Summary: Mother’s Day – Seen, Known, and Formed in Christ
Key Scriptures:
- Psalms 139:13–18 – “You knit me together in my mother’s womb…”
- Genesis 16:13 – “You are El-Roi, the God who sees me.”
- Romans 12:1–2 (Referenced) – “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
- Ephesians 2:10 – “We are God’s handiwork…”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5, Matthew 5:14–16 – Identity in Christ as children of light
Part 1: A Word to Mothers – God Sees You
Pastor Jonathan began by honoring the wide spectrum of motherhood present in the room:
- Moms with children in their arms and moms who’ve lost them.
- Women hoping to be moms, grandmothers, stepmoms, adoptive and spiritual mothers.
- Those grieving their own mothers or experiencing fractured relationships.
He reminded the congregation that God sees each one—like He saw Hagar in the wilderness (Genesis 16:13) and provided both compassion and purpose.
“You are seen by El-Roi—the God who sees you—in joy and in grief, in strength and in struggle.”
Motherhood reflects the protective, nurturing nature of God. From the Passover in Exodus (where God hovered like a mother bird over His people) to Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem (Luke 13:34), God reveals His maternal love in scripture.
Part 2: Continuing the Spiritual Formation Series
The sermon then transitioned back into the series on Spiritual Formation. Previously, the church explored how both sides of the brain—the rational left and relational right—play a role in spiritual transformation.
Pastor reviewed the four key conditions the heart needs to be spiritually formed:
- Joy – Found in face-to-face connection and delight.
- Attachment (ḥesed) – Secure relational bonds with God and others.
- Group Identity – Being part of a “people” who shape behavior and identity.
- Loving Correction – Non-shaming, relationally grounded redirection.
This Week’s Focus: Identity and Correction
3. Group Identity
In a culture obsessed with individualism, we’re reminded that Christian formation happens in community. Your group identity in Christ overrides your behavior in the moment.
“This is how we do things in our family.”
In the Bible, this shows up in constant affirmations of our identity:
- Ephesians 2:10 – We are God’s workmanship.
- Matthew 5:14–16 – You are the light of the world.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5 – You are children of light.
Just like families shape household behavior (“In our house we don’t lie...”), God’s people have a shared way of being. When we fail, we’re called back not with shame, but with reminders: “That’s not who you are.”
4. Loving Correction
Correction is necessary—but often mishandled. Many of us fear correction because it triggers shame, not growth.
True spiritual correction says:
- “You are loved.”
- “This is not your true identity.”
- “Let me walk with you as you return to who you really are in Christ.”
Correction should:
- Reinforce identity
- Be rooted in relationship
- Lead to growth, not guilt
Pastor shared a personal story of loving correction within his family. It resulted not in resentment, but in thankfulness—a sign that the correction aligned with the Spirit’s transforming work.
Spiritual Formation and Parenting
Motherhood ties into the whole message. Just as God shapes us through joy, attachment, identity, and correction—mothers carry the sacred task of modeling this to their children.
Even if you feel like you’re failing:
You are part of a new identity.
Your motherhood is seen.
God is forming you too.
Closing Actions
- Salvation Invitation
- A prayer of repentance and trust in Jesus was offered to anyone ready to begin a life of transformation.
- Motherhood Affirmation Card
- All mothers were given a card to remind them of their calling, worth, and identity.
Affirmation Text:
“God has entrusted me with the sacred calling of motherhood, and I rise to it in faith. I embrace the joy and the challenge, knowing the Lord is my strength. I nurture with wisdom, lead with kindness, and walk in the beauty of God's purpose for me.”
Key Takeaways
- You are seen by God—like Hagar, like David in Psalm 139.
- Spiritual formation happens in community, not isolation.
- Your identity in Christ defines you, not your failures.
- Correction, when done in love, leads to healing and growth.
- Mothers reflect God’s heart—protective, nurturing, steadfast.
Transcript
Hey, good morning, church. Good morning.
(Congregation Applauding) My name's Jonathan, Lead Pastor here, so thankful that you are here worshiping with us this fine Mother's Day. Hi, I just wanna take a second before I get into the message and we read some words to address all the mothers here in the room. And here's the thing that I think about every Mother's Day. You know, Mother's Day is this wonderful time to be able to celebrate the moms in our lives and to be able to honor and treasure those relationships no matter what your age is. And it's a beautiful time, and we always wanna honor all the moms who are here in the room and who are experiencing this day. But I also wanna take a moment and just make sure that I acknowledge the very complex nature of what Mother's Day can create and what Mother's Day can bring. Because many different things and emotions can be happening simultaneously while you're here in the room because we have moms who are here in the room and their kids are with them and life is at this really sweet place. But then we have moms who are in the room who maybe they have experienced loss or they have a child who's gone wayward and they're believing for God to show up. We have moms in the room who are excited that they're here with their family, but maybe this is the first Mother's Day that their mom is not here on earth with them anymore and they think about the loss of not having a physical mother. Here we have people who don't show up to church on Sundays because this is a reminder of the fact that they have a desire in their hearts to be mothers, and yet to this moment they are not mothers and they're still in the process of waiting and wrestling through what faith and disappointment looks like. We have moms in the room who have had to bury their own children. We have moms in the room who are stepping in where there is no mom, whether an adoptive situation or a spiritual mother or a grandmother. We have many different moms in the room and that can be experiencing many different feelings and emotions and sometimes at the same time the joy of knowing that you're a mom but also wrestling and dealing with the grief or the loss or the experience of another and all of those things are not only valid and are only real, the most important thing is they're seen by God.
You are seen by God wherever you are today.
And it reminds me of the story of Hagar
from Abram and Sarah, the maidservant that Sarah had Abram go and sleep with and she became pregnant and then even though that was their own plan, she got upset and they kicked her out and they sent her out into the wilderness with the intention of allowing her to die and she went and found a stone and hid behind it and put her child another place, a small distance away from her because she couldn't stand to watch him die and she sat there and she cried out and God came and spoke to her and said that you will not die, you have the mighty nation in front of you, you will be blessed and gives a blessing and what she says is she says, "You are Elroy, the God who sees me."
God sees you today, moms, wherever you're at.
He sees you right where you're at. On the days when everything is going great and you feel like the greatest mom in the world, he sees you. And on the days where you're worried that the state will come and take your children away, he sees you.
He sees you. He's with you. He's with you. And his grace and his mercy and his goodness and his compassion are there to be with you and to lead you and guide you and to allow you to experience his presence.
And so if you're here today, no matter what the title is, no matter what the place of you carry the biblical, spiritual anointing of motherhood, I want you to know that God is with you in this season.
God is with you in this season. And motherhood is not something that's missed. We often talk about God our Heavenly Father and obviously that's a huge characteristic and a huge thing and we don't minimize that. But because the term of motherhood is not exactly as spelled out, it's easy to see. But it is there in the Bible over and over again, the importance of motherhood. And not just through certain stories or heroes that we see in the Bible. When we look at someone like Naomi who becomes a spiritual and adoptive mother to her daughter-in-law Ruth, and we get to see the very lineage of Jesus. But the very spirit of motherhood is found in the very character of God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. In fact, when we look at the Old Testament story, whenever the 10th plague is coming and the firstborn of every single female is going to be killed and God said, slaughter the lamb and put the blood on the door, so that the angel of death will pass over you. The word pass over doesn't just mean jump over. The picture is actually brought out in Isaiah where it says that what will happen is just like a bird hovers over her children, over her small birds, and protects with her wings, that is what the God will do to you when you put the blood on the door pass. He will pass over you. He will hover and protect. Which is why when Jesus was going into Jerusalem, he looked at Jerusalem and he wept and he said, oh, Jerusalem, that I could gather you under my wings like a hen brings her chicks underneath.
I wish I could mother you.
I wish I could nourish you. I wish I could protect you. I wish I could create an environment in which you could grow and thrive and not experience death, violence and destruction.
The heart of God is there, looking and sweeping and covering the earth for those who are far away from God to bring them back,
with patience and mercy and goodness and steadfastness.
So wherever you find yourself in the journey, a mom, a mom to be, a stepmom,
an adoptive mom, a grandmom, a spiritual mom,
a mom-in-law, God sees you this morning and you're important.
Your role is important. Your title is important.
You carry the very blessing of God with you. The very heart of the Father is with you and he sees you.
Let's do this to prepare ourselves for the rest of the message because that was for free.
Stand with me wherever you're at, everyone, for the reading of God's word. I want to read Romans 12 again for us.
Actually, you know what? I'm not going to read that.
I'm going to read Psalms 139, chapter 13.
It says this, "For you created my inmost being.
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful and I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
for your eyes saw my unformed body, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God.
How fast is the sum of them.
Where I'd count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I'm still with you.
Father God, we thank you that you see us.
From the very beginning, you see us.
When we were being knit together in our mother's womb, you see us.
And Lord, we get to carry you with us all the days of our life and that your thoughts towards us are unnumberable.
We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' holy name we pray, amen and amen.
You may be seated. You may be seated.
So this morning we're continuing our talk. We're continuing our series that we've been going on for a couple weeks on spiritual formation.
And I'm excited about it. And today I think it's still very much, very, very much fits in with the theme of Mother's Day and what we're talking about. If you missed last week or the last two weeks, I highly encourage you to go back, listen to the podcast, watch the YouTube. If you don't have time for that, we actually have a new thing that we've been rolling out. We've been working on it for a while that under the same tab where you can go on our website and watch those things, we actually have bullet point transcript summaries. So you can go through and just get the gist of what we talked about. If you missed something, you just need to kind of catch yourself up. Those are being put online every week. And so you can go and catch up that way. But here's the thing I want to make sure you know, last week we talked about a little bit. We got a little nerdy and we talked a little bit about neuroscience. And we talked about the brain and we talked about the left side of the brain and the right side of the brain. And we talked about how the left side of the brain is used for slow functioning thought, logic, ideas, communication, but how the right side of the brain is important for relationships, emotions, feelings, and how both of them are required for us to understand and to walk in this relationship with God and to be transformed and be renewed and restored by His goodness. And how the right side of the brain, that fat side of the brain, could very much, we could interchange it with the word, how the word heart is used in the Old and New Testament of our Bible. Because this thing that we feel, the things that we feel in our chest and that we get to experience. And we talked about how for transformation to happen in our lives, for our hearts to be at a place where they are healthy and prepared to receive all these good things that God has, there's four things that the soil of our heart needs to be, to have adequate amounts of, to be able to see and experience this goodness. And that the Bible depicts all four of these things. And last week we covered two of them. We talked about joy and we talked about, hasid, or attachments, relationships, is what we talked about last week. And we went through and we talked about how humans are wired to experience joy from other humans, specifically through face-to-face contact. That through seeing someone, we are wired to experience joy on the face of others. And as a result of that, there's scripture after scripture, and we impacted last week, of God talking about his face shining on you, the light of his face shining on you, that the joy of God is shining on you, that there's this whole idea that he wants you to be full of and experience the joy that comes from being with him. And not only that, we talked about that the second thing that everyone needs is these secure attachment bonds, relationships. And that God offers us this idea of, has said, this covenant, faithfulness, and love and protection, this very robust word that we impact several times in the last couple weeks, of the connection that he has with us. That those two things are vitally important for any of us to be able to experience and understand transformation, or healing, or restoration in our hearts or in our minds. And so we talked about those first two. But there's two more that are really, really important, because all four of these kind of build on each other. You have to have joy so that you can have the attachment, you have to have attachment so that you can have these next two. And the next one that I want to talk about today as we continue on this idea is the importance of something that maybe has been slightly lost, but I think we can get there and understand why it's important, is the idea of being part of a group identity, a group identity.
Now you may be like, well, what does that mean? Here's the issue. In our Western culture and modern culture, we are a very individualistic society, right? We've talked about this many times here in church, but we value individuals and we tell everyone from a very young age, you can be whatever you want to be, you can do whatever you want to do. We market it, we advertise it, just do it, go ahead and do all your stuff. Like, this is our whole thing. Like, you are a unique and individual person. And listen, there's some really great and valuable ideas of understanding that you have a value as an individual, you have a value as an individual to God, and that is a great and a wonderful thing. But something has been lost when we have translated from what was, for most of history, a cultivistic or communal identity into individual identity, because whenever you live in a way in which you are making poor decisions,
the only thing that you can go back to is your own individual identity.
And when your own individual identity is what got you to those poor decisions, you're in a pretty weird loop and you're stuck.
But you see, group identity offers us something different. And let me give you a good example of group identity that maybe you understand. Everyone here to some degree grew up in some kind of group identity when you were young. The household that you grew up in or the household that you currently live in is a group identity that you get to do it. And if you're a parent here in the room or you're a kid here in the room, you've probably heard something. In our family, this is how we do that.
Some of you have a real thing. In our family, the toilet paper goes flat forward, not flat backwards like animals.
If you're a flat backwards person, seek counseling.
It is the first sign of brokenness and you need Jesus's touch in your life.
That's science.
And I had to tell my kids, all my boys, whenever they got to the age where, you know, this is a varying thing, when they would decide to change the toilet paper roll, which is not consistent in my house. But when they did, there was times I'd find it the wrong way. And I'd have to go to tell them and say, in this household, there's two things. We will serve the Lord and our toilet paper rolls forward.
You don't like it when you go to your own household to buy your own toilet paper, you can put it however you want. And when I come over, I'll fix it.
I have fixed it in public places. It's not even my toilet paper. I fixed it in other people's places. It's a good service.
In our household, this is how we do it.
In our household, this is how we do it. And there's many, many things. How we do chores, how we divide cooking duties, how we do cleaning, how we vacation, how we dress, how we like interact with each other, how we talk. And what happens is inevitably a kid will come up and say, but Johnny and his household, they do it. Well, you don't live at Johnny's house.
You live in my house and in my community and your group identity. This is how you behave.
This is how you behave. And it's not just about silly things. It's about other things. It's about other things. You see, we get the opportunity to teach children their identity, their group identity. And you probably heard this. I heard this growing up. You probably heard this. Like our hands are meant for loving, not for hitting.
And you say it over and over and over again. Our hands like, you know, like I had a real issue. My mom can tell you I had a real when I was young, a real biting problem. I was a binder.
Okay.
It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.
I'm so godly now.
But I bit things and I bit people. That was the problem. I didn't just chew on stuff, which that habit lasted way further into the way longer. I had this real my sister still upset with me because I had this really weird thing because I like chewing on stuff. And I for whatever reasons, super weird. I shouldn't even admit this. But I chewed on all the feet of her Barbie dolls and just gnarled them.
And you're like, oh, well, you're a kid. No.
I was like 10 to 12 years old.
You know, when you're getting those molars, it's like an adult passive. Like I needed to chew on it. And she would come in and she's like, look, what are you doing with my Barbie? And the feet would just be like little like nubby, like chewed on things. And I'd be like, not sorry, but I had a biting problem.
And my mom would tell me, even when I was young, like, don't bite. Don't bite. Don't bite people. Your mouth's not meant for biting people.
Now, I was a hard learner and unfortunately the words didn't work. And it wasn't until she bit me that I realized the pain I was inflicting on other people. And that worked.
I'm not giving that as parental advice. I'm just telling you what happened in my life. But we have these these cultural identities. But here's the thing. The reason that identity is important is when you establish an identity with your child.
When they begin to behave outside of the group identity, you get to have something to draw them back to. And you get to say, hey, you're behaving this way, but that's not who you are. You have a different identity because you're part of this family. I know you just put the toilet paper up the wrong way, but that's not who you are, son. You can come back and you can fix that.
But it's not just true about daily tasks or how you fold your clothes or how you fold your towels. It's important about the very identity of who they are. Because you see, when you only create an individualistic identity, they behavior is who you are. But when you have a group identity, your individual behavior is not who you are because the cultural group identity is bigger than you. And so when my kids start to act outside of their given cultural identity we have in the family, I don't have to sit there and say something like, what's wrong with you? Are you broken? Are you dumb? Are you stupid? Instead, I can say you are behaving and acting outside of who you are. And I get to draw you back into your identity.
So what the dysfunction is not the inappropriate behavior. The dysfunction is when you're operating outside of your true identity. And when you walk into true identity, you are now walking in your true calling. This is not just a family idea. And by the way, listen, for every one time as a parent, Vivi and I have done this right, at least 10 times we've done it wrong. Don't believe me? You can ask my kids. They'll tell you all the way. Don't shake your head so hard, Diego. Calm down.
Don't want those curls to get messed up.
For every time we've done it right, we've done it wrong. And some of these we've learned the hard way of bad mistakes.
But identity matters. And this is why when we read scripture,
so much of scripture is given with the purpose of speaking to your identity in Christ, your communulative, your cultural identity of who you are. So here's some examples. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, it says, "For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared for us in advance to do." Or Jesus in the sermon of the night, He says, "You are the light of the world. A town bit on the hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. And the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Or in the same example, Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 5, "You are children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness."
And I can go on and on and on and on in New Testament and Old Testament examples of identity speaking of this is who you are. This is how we do things. This is how we love. This is how we forgive. This is how we treat others. These are things we stay away from. These are things we run to. And it's constant and it's constant because your cultural identity in Christ is the thing that defines you. Even when you may behave in a way that's outside of it, it is not your true identity. That is the thing that you're behaving in at the moment that is wrong. But God through his loving kindness can call you back and remind you this is who you are.
And it can be built on the fact that we have joy that comes from a face-to-face relationship with God and a relationship that will never cease.
And you see these cultural identities are important because the identity that you carry in your cultural identity, the identity that you carry in this group identity actually works faster because it's completely programmed into the right side of your brain, into your heart. And so you react that way. You react that way because it's part of your identity.
It's part of your identity. That's why some of you, if I were to yell out, "Boomer!" Like a bunch of you would be like, "Sooner!" You can't even stop.
It's like programmed in you. And then half of you are like, "Gross!"
And you're like, "Why did I respond that way so quickly?"
Because these identity things become programmed inside of you and they become quick. They become quick. They become quick. It becomes your natural reaction. It's less about what you're thinking about cognitively and it's about who you are internally. And when we decide to associate ourselves with a different group identity, it changes the way in which we behave. It changes the way in how we respond, which is why when we decide that my identity is not who I am or the choice that I've made, but my identity is who Christ says I am. And as he is so am I in this world, when I believe it, it slowly changes how I respond and how I react to different inputs in my life because I'm believing the fact that my identity is not my own individual actions and choices, but it's the very character of God that I get to be part of.
And that God loves me and He's in relationship with me. And that is part of my identity. And if I step out of it, He can draw me back in. And then that goes to the fourth thing. The fourth thing. The fourth thing, which is important and no one's going to like it. I just want to go ahead and put it out there. I hate it just in case you're curious because the fourth thing your heart needs to be a good place.
Again, this is in the context of the other three. We'll time it. Is loving correction.
I hate correction because I think I'm perfect.
So how can I ever even get correction? If you're correcting me, you're wrong.
See toilet paper example.
I hate correction.
I don't want to be corrected because if I'm being honest with myself, if I'm being corrected, it's because I did do something wrong, which means I failed, which in me and my process means I'm ashamed.
So I would rather argue and fight tooth and nail about something, about how I was right and justify my actions than ever get points to the place where I feel ashamed of the fact that I failed at something.
Because I believed in myself, not in the culture identity of Christ. I believed in myself ultimately. It's all about me.
And if I don't do it right, then God's going to be disappointed in me.
That's not what God says about me. That's not the identity in the culture that I'm part of. But I believe I'm going to let God down if I make a mistake. And so therefore there's shame that comes in and all this comes into this process. But correction is not only a small need, it is a massive need in our lives. Because any time that I'm found operating outside of my group identity, my cultural identity in Christ, somebody needs to come alongside me and remind me who I am and say, hey, you're acting this way. But that's not who you are. You're not walking in forgiveness right now, Jonathan. But because of Jesus, you're able to walk in forgiveness. He forgave you. You need to walk back into your identity of who you are as a son or a daughter of God.
And that correction guides me. And guess what?
Correction can be done really poorly in a way that does create a lot of guilt and condemnation and shame.
But godly, loving correction does not come with that.
Godly, loving correction is the thing that looks at you in the face and says, I want you to know how much I'm in love with you.
And I want you to know that there is nothing that can break the relationship that we have together. And I want you to know that you are built with a purpose and you have identity and I see you that way. And even though right now you're behaving in a way that doesn't line up with that, this is not the end. There is a way forward. There is always hope. I am not going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you just because you made the mistake. And even if you make the same mistake again, I'll be here with you. I'll be here with you. I'm able to shine love on you to bring correction.
You see, when a heart has these four things, a surplus of joy,
the assurance of attachment and relationship and connections,
understanding that they're part of another community, another culture, another identity that's bigger than themselves, that's defined outside of themselves,
and knowing that they have the safety, that there's people around them who love them enough that when they find themselves operating that's outside of their true identity, they will lovingly and kindly and gently bring correction. Not in a way that brings shame or guilt or regret, but in a way that makes you say, "Thank you. Thank you."
And listen, I would tell you that that's an impossibility to experience, that where correction leads to thankfulness.
But we had an experience in our house just this week that I'm not going to give you any details or any ideas or anyone. It could be any of the six, but where one of the six had been acting outside of their own identity and they would came to light and there was correction, but correction in the idea of love and acceptance and joy. And it was a hard thing. We had to walk through it. And there were some consequences that had to be experienced and some things and forgiveness and different things that had to be walked to get back into it.
And a couple of days later, the very person in question listed this whole experience as a highlight of their week because the correction led to freedom and the light of Christ led them to the place where they could walk back in the very identity of who they were. I would have told you that that was not ever possible, but I saw it in my own family just this week. That when there is joy that says, "Hey, I love you no matter what's going on," and when I say, "I'm not leaving you because we are connected, we're in a relationship," and you have a calling and a purpose, but you are currently behaving outside of that purpose, all of a sudden that becomes not just this thing of, "Oh, I'm horrible." It becomes this idea of you're right. I'm not behaving the way I'm supposed to behave.
Not because behavior modification is what fixes us, but because God's goodness calls us to live in the way that Christ lives.
And He will lovingly and kindly do that because sometimes we'll choose to live in a way that Christ wouldn't live.
And He desperately wants us to walk in His absolute best.
That's absolute best.
And you see, relational-based correction.
Correction that's based out of the relation of the space of the joy, the space of the group of many. That is the thing that will allow us to understand that we don't have to be ashamed.
That our identity is not an attack, that our relationship won't end, won't focus on the guilt because see what happens is when you focus on the relationship, it reinforces the identity. It connects and continues to create an emotional connection and it focuses on growth as opposed to destruction.
And as a parent, that's sometimes hard because sometimes when my kids make a mistake, it's really hard, easy to lash out, to be angry, to say something hurtful.
But that's an opportunity.
It's an opportunity to bring them back, to bring them back.
And on this weekend, why I think it's so important for all the moms who are in the room, what an important role we have in our children's lives. From the very beginning, some of this were old and were 40, for 50, some of you were 60, and we're in this process of learning and growing and establishing things in our heart.
But to realize that a child at a very young age, just like you, needs all four of these things.
And that we can give them joy, that we can give them secure attachment, secure relationship, that I'm here.
That we can speak and create identity, not just our own family identity, but the very identity of Christ over them. This is who you are because Jesus is alive and well and living inside of you.
Jesus didn't bite people, Jonathan, so you shouldn't bite people either.
That would have probably worked better than biting me, Mom. I'm just kidding.
We were all still learning and growing. I haven't been anyone since though.
We create the identity, and then when we move away, correction is not done out of anger, it's not done to shame, it's not done to guilt, it's not done to condemn. In fact, correction is done to lovingly and kind of bring them back to their true identity. You're not acting like yourself.
How do I know? Because I've been experiencing joy with you and showing joy to you ever since you first opened your eyes. And I told you from the day that I met you that I'm yours and that you are mine and we are connected and nothing can ever separate us. And I know the identity that God has for you because you are a son or daughter of God. And right now you're acting the way that's outside of that. But guess what? Good news.
Jesus' love and forgiveness means that he already paid the price for all of that. And so I can remind you this morning that you are acting in a way that is not aligning with his best for you. That doesn't result in guilt or shame where you should run away from him. In fact, it means that you should run to him because his love will draw you to repentance and change and you get to remind them, "This is who you are because of Jesus. This is who you are. This is who I am."
And when we have a surplus of these things, our hearts are at such an open place that when God comes and speaks or when God comes and talks or when God comes and corrects or when God comes and brings growth to his job to see, our hearts are ready. And we say, "You know what, God? I trust you. I trust you. I trust you that you only want good things for me." You want me to lay that thing down? I'll lay it down because you only want good things for me. You want me to pick that up? You want me to go touch that? You want me to be obedient here? I'll do it because, you know what, I trust you. I trust you. We get the ability to walk in these things every day, to experience these things. And maybe you're here today and you're missing one of those four things. Maybe you say, "I don't have any joy in my life. I don't have any attachments that are connected or all."
And you say, "My identity is completely separate. I have my own thing." Or, "I hate correction. No one ever correct. I can't even be corrected." That's not even a possibility in my life.
The Holy Spirit is here and available to show you that all those things are possible through Jesus. And all those things are possible through Jesus.
And they're a great calling that we get.
And here's what I want to close this morning. I want to do two things. One, maybe you're here and you never accepted Jesus.
It's the greatest transformational moment of your life. We're going to say a prayer and I'm just going to invite everyone to say that prayer. But if that's you and you mean it, you can say it with all your heart. I just want to give you that opportunity to say that prayer today. I'm going to ask everyone to bow their heads, close their eyes.
Just a moment between you and God. Just repeat this prayer. Say, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die for me.
So my sins can be forgiven so I could be adopted in the family."
It's in Jesus' name I pray.
If you've ever had a bow for just a minute, if you made that decision anywhere in the room, would you raise your hand up really high? If you're online, they're going to put a phone number up on the screen and I'll connect you with our prayer team. But if you're in the room anywhere, just raise your hand up just so we can continue to pray.
Any hands that are up can go down. Thank you, Jesus.
And then last thing before we dismiss this morning. Before we dismiss.
All the moms in the room, and when I mean all the moms, I mean everyone that I described earlier this morning, or earlier in the message, would you just do this for me? Would you stand? We have a little card that we made for you that I want you to take.
That's just a reminder. It's just a little affirmation. It's just a little card that you can read. You can read it on your best days. You can read it on your worst days. You can read it where you feel like you got it all together and you can read it when you feel like nothing's going right.
And the ushers are going to pass this out but I want to read it to you. It says, "God has entrusted me with the sacred calling of motherhood,
and I rise to it in faith. I embrace the joy and the challenge, knowing the Lord is my strength.
And I nurture with wisdom, lead with kindness, and walk in the beauty of God's purpose for me."
Our heart for you as a church is that that identity is who you are as a mother, or a stepmother, or a spiritual mother, or a grandmother.
And you may say, "I don't think I'm displaying any of these characteristics right now." That's okay.
You're part of a different identity, a different group.
And we get to read these things and believe these things.
So put this up on your mirror. Put it in your car. Put it wherever you need to see it.
It reminds you not only who you are, but the incredible privilege and responsibility to be able to create a culture and an atmosphere and a place of joy and relationship and identity and correction.
And that we get to experience those things as well in relationship with God. Let me just bless you this morning. If you're anywhere in this auditorium, go ahead and stretch your hands towards one of these moms and just pray with me and then we'll dismiss. Father, we just thank you for all the mothers in this room.
Lord, thank you that you see them. Thank you that they're with them.
Motherhood is a hard and tireless journey that has so many ups and downs and highs and lows. And Lord, thank you that you see them in all of those moments.
That your heart is with them. That your heart is for them.
That they can take part in your new creation process of bringing gardens to dry, deserted places. That life springs forth.
Thank you that you're with them this morning. Bless them as they leave this place. So in your holy name we pray, amen and amen. Well, listen church, we love you very, very much. For everyone, moms, I believe we still have a place to be.
We still have the opportunity to take pictures outside. I think there's probably still extra donuts out there if you want to get some of them. We love you. You are dismissed. Have a great rest of your Sunday.
