South Shore Pentecostal Church

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Apostolic Truth Radio program with Pastor Craig Ouellette, a radio ministry of South Shore Pentecostal Church located in Whitman, Massachusetts. At a time when many Christians do not know what to believe, South Shore Pentecostal is honored to bring you clear biblical teaching on which you can confidently build your faith. Thank you for joining us.

J. Craig Ouellette: We want to talk today about mothers essential for God's plan. Mothers are essential for God's plan. Do you believe that? I do believe that. Luke chapter 1, verse 5: There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

And they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And then verses 24 and 25 in the same chapter: And after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men.

Again, we'd like to talk this morning about mothers that are essential for God's plan. I just want to point out a few things as we're reading that seem to be impressed upon me so I don't forget them. But we need to understand that it's worth it to walk right before God. God doesn't always reward us in the time that we would like him to reward us in. So Elizabeth and Zacharias were righteous in spite of the situation. They continued to live right for God even though it didn't seem like God was answering their prayers. And they weren't asking for something unusual or special. They were actually asking for something that was normal.

And then when God starts to work in our lives, his work in our lives is to fulfill a greater purpose in the world and those around us. So let's talk about life first. The Lord is the author of life. God is the author of life. It's not the scientists. It's not evolution. God is the author of life. There is life because God has caused it to exist. We exist in his image and likeness, the Bible says. And the Bible says that God made Adam from the dust of the earth and God breathed into him and he became a living soul.

We need God to breathe into our life. A lot of times we're living flesh but we're not really living soul the way God wants because we need God to breathe something into our lives. We need the Spirit of God to breathe into our lives. And when God starts to breathe into us, our body becomes more than just a physical body. But God starts to speak and to move through us and that is God's plan because we're made in the image and likeness of God.

We find out that after God made Adam, he said there's no helpmeet for Adam. And he lets Adam bring all the animals to him and name them. And God's proving a point that man didn't come from animals because they can't be a helpmeet to us. Man can't have a relationship with animals the way he can have a relationship with another human being. So God made Eve out of the rib of Adam and, as many have commented, that's there because she's near the heart and God wants the man to protect her. So all human life after Eve has come into the world through a woman. No life comes into existence today without a woman. None. No life comes into existence in this world without a woman. Women are essential to God's plan.

Now, God is the God of life. And a lot of times people don't understand the Bible, but just look in Deuteronomy 5:33 and God gives us a little insight here to help us understand why he gives us commandments. Deuteronomy 5:33 says, Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live and that it may be well with you and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess. Listen, just like a parent does to their children: Don't go across the street. Don't go out there. Don't go off in that woods by yourself. Don't do this. Don't do that. Because the parent knows there's a potential danger there. They need to set up guidelines.

God knows our nature. God knows the world we live in. God knows we need some boundaries set up for us. And God knows that we're not capable of setting our own boundaries. If you've read any history, you know that's true. The intellectuals would tell us we're getting smarter and we know more, but the smarter we get, the more bodies seem to mount up. The more people seem to die through different things. So man is not capable of ruling himself properly without God in our lives. I don't care what our pedigree is. I don't care what our degree of accomplishments are, our intelligence, our resources, our abilities. Every one of us, we need God in us to help us rule ourselves.

So God gives commandments so that we can live. We can have true life. So what we're trying to say there is God is the God of life. Life comes because of the Lord. But the devil is the God of death. And so when you look over in Hebrews 2:14, the Bible tells us that the devil uses death to make people fearful. Hebrews 2:14: Forasmuch then as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also meaning Jesus like himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Listen, some people kill other people because they're afraid they're going to get killed by them. If I don't kill them first, they'll kill me. Fear of death. But when you're living for God and you've got a good grip on God, you know you can't die one second before God wants you to die. Because God is in charge. They can come at you with a gun, the gun's going to miss, the gun's going to misfire. Something will happen. The bullet will bounce off you. God will send an angel to catch it. God is bigger.

So he's a God of life and the devil is a God of death. And the Bible says that Jesus came into this world to give us abundant life. Now if life already consisted of things, if life was just food and clothing and housing and all those things and riches and gold, some people already had it. Jesus did not need to come to bring abundant life. But he needed to come because life is more than clothing. Life is more than accomplishment. Life is more than what we can hold with our physical hands. But life is relationship with God.

And so when we're talking about life, man without woman cannot fulfill the commandment to be fruitful and replenish the earth. That's really the first command: Be fruitful and replenish the earth. Take dominion. In Genesis it says that before it says don't eat of the tree. Be fruitful and replenish. God wants us to have families and without the mother, the family cannot exist. The family is God's idea. Say it's God's idea. Again, family did not arrive out of man just growing and evolving and society figuring out this is the best way to do it. No, no. God created family from the beginning. It's not a social construction. It's not the result of thousands or millions of years or whatever you want to think about time, even though it's only been thousands, it's not the result of that. But it's the result that God made man and woman.

So man without the woman's incomplete and God was trying to prove a point. So family starts with a man and a woman. That's God's definition of family. The world's always trying to redefine words in the sake of being cool or disguising what things really mean. And so you hear different terms that people will say something's wicked and they mean it's good. You ever think about people will read what people say today, a hundred years from now they're going: Wicked's good? They wouldn't understand what they're reading because the word doesn't mean what it means.

And so what I'm trying to say is the world's trying to change what family means. Family starts with a man and a woman that are committed to each other forever. For better or worse, in goodness and in health and sickness, for better or worse. A commitment to each other. The family is a type of Christ and the church. This is why God created the family. God's trying to give us a physical picture of what the relationship he wants with his people. He wants the church to be one. And again, you can't really be a part of the church until you become born again, the Bible says. So you've got to be born again. Being born again puts you in the body. But once you're in the body, that body's supposed to be one and it's supposed to be like a wife to a husband. The church, the bride of Christ, to the Lord. God was trying, so when God makes Adam and Eve, God is making a picture. God's not randomly doing this. But God has got something in mind when he does these things.

Listen, when we read things in the Old Testament, God is a lot of time telling us his intentions, his purpose, where he wants to go. And they're not just ancient stories, but they're things that have a theological or a biblical understanding God wants us to have. So again, as I've already said, God has ordained that no life comes into this world except through a woman.

Let's talk about the war against women. In Genesis 3:15, if you look at that scripture there: When Adam and Eve sinned and it boiled down they found out the devil through the using of a serpent had deceived Eve and Eve ate of it and Eve gave it to Adam. And so now there's a mess and God starts to pronounce some different things. He pronounces a curse on the serpent. He pronounces a curse on the earth. God does not curse Adam and Eve. There's no curse on man until Cain kills Abel. That's the first curse on a man when Cain kills Abel.

But here he says, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. So the devil has got a war against women. That's why he doesn't want you to be a good mom. That's why he doesn't want a family. That's why he comes against women to have children and have a family. The devil has got a war against women. Why? Because if God is going to bring anybody into this world to do his will, it must come through a woman. You don't get a Samson without a Samson's mom. You don't get a Moses without a Moses' mom. You don't get an Esther without an Esther's mother.

Praise God. So there's enmity between the woman and the devil and part of that is he knew the Messiah was coming. But even though the Messiah has come, if God is going to raise up a man to do something or a woman to do something that's not here, it must come through a woman. There's got to be a woman that's willing to be a channel for the hand of God. Any deliverer that God will bring into the world's got to come through the woman. So if the devil can destroy the woman, he can destroy life. If he can corrupt the woman, he can corrupt life. If he can kill life before it's born, he eliminates potential deliverers.

This is what's going on in the world today. He uses politics. He uses man's ignorance. He uses the lusts of men and women to do their own thing. To pass laws and make things seem acceptable that are an abominable to God and really don't lead to life but they lead to death. And just like the tree of life, the enemy holds it out and says take it, eat it, it's not going to hurt, you'll be better off. And the devil gives these ideas about family and sexual relationships and women and being mothers and all kinds of things and telling people that they're going to be better off and it's leading to death. Can we give him a praise? You probably don't feel like it but Lord we thank you. Lord we love you Lord we worship you God. We give you praise Lord God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Now, since life comes into this world through mothers, this creates a special relationship between the mother and the child. Mothers have the ability to influence a child's direction and purpose for life for good or for bad. Listen, that mother's going to carry that child for nine months normally. There's going to be a connection of some kind. There's going to be a bonding of some kind. There's all kinds of studies of the different kinds of things that happen. One study of a man that learned how to play some classical piece on a cello and they were amazed but his mother had played that piece while she carried that baby again and again and again. Even in the womb, not being born, that child's affected by the life of the mother.

Not just physical things, but emotional things. The things the mother's going through emotionally, the baby senses those things. The goodness of God, if you feel the presence of God, that baby feels the presence of God. Didn't John the Baptist as a baby in the womb jump when Mary came with Jesus in her womb? The baby responded to the presence of God. God needs mothers. God needs mothers that will live godly. God needs mothers that see the value of being a mother. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with having a career and getting an education. I am not saying that. But what I'm trying to say is motherhood is important and the mother that will dedicate herself to be a vessel for God to bring children into the world for his purpose will be blessed. God is looking for somebody. You might be looking around saying why is it the way it is? Maybe because the mothers that were supposed to didn't. They didn't respond to God. They didn't yield to God.

So mothers they have the ability to influence that child's direction and purpose in life for good or bad. Moses' mother instilled in him his calling and purpose. Notice in Acts 7:23 and I'm trying to encourage you mothers today how important it is to raise your kids and to live for God to raise them the right way. And fathers need to support the mothers in that. Fathers need to support the mothers in that. Hallelujah.

In Acts chapter 7 when we look here we get a little bit into the insight of Moses and what he does. We don't see all of this in the book of Exodus. We see that he kills an Egyptian, but in Acts 7:23 we see it says, And when he was full forty years old, meaning Moses, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel and seeing one of them suffer wrong he defended him and avenged him and that was was oppressed and smote the Egyptian for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they understood not.

First question: He's raised as a prince. He's raised as a prince in the Palace of Pharaoh. Why does he think that those slaves are his brethren? How does he know that? How does he know that God wants to use him to deliver them? How does he even know they're expecting a deliverance? Because he had a mother that raised him. If you go back the story, Miriam's out there with the ark. Pharaoh's daughter comes. They find the baby in the ark. The baby cries. Pharaoh's daughter's moved and she has compassion. Miriam says should I call a nurse? A lady to nurse him. And she calls her mother. Calls Moses' mother. And Moses' mother is paid.

Why does Moses know he's a Jew? Because his mother said you're a Jew. Why does Moses know they're his brethren? Because he knows he's not Egyptian, he's a Jew. Why does Moses know that God is some time going to come to deliver Israel? Because his mother said God has saved you for a special purpose. Oh come on, come on, come on. Mothers can influence a person that when they come to age they're willing to turn away from the world and all kinds of things to do the will of God. Who knows what deliverance a child might bring? Who knows what deliverance God wants to bring?

I just finished a book on Harry Truman and he had to make a lot of decisions as a president and he wasn't like any man. He's got a lot of different problems and complexities but one thing that that man did among the many things he did. One thing he did: He was the first head of state to acknowledge Israel as a nation when they declared their independence in 1949 or 48. Years later, a rabbi came and said, God caused you to be born to help our nation come into existence. And Harry Truman cried tears because of that. What I'm trying to say is God through mothers produces children for his purpose. It may not always be a nice situation. Listen, Moses wasn't raised in the nice palaces at first. He's in the regular places with the slaves until he goes into the palace. But he knows who he's supposed to be because a mother has made it her point to teach him. I'm going to teach him all I can about the God we know. I'm going to put all of it in him as best as I can and when the time comes, the Lord is going to use him.

Hannah instilled in Samuel his purpose and calling. Look at 1 Samuel 1:11. 1 Samuel 1:11, this is Hannah praying. She's been barren and she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thine handmaid but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head. Not only is she going to commit her child, she's committing to raise him in a strict way. No razor on the head means she's raising him as a Nazarite. That means she's not going to let him drink wine any strong drink. She's not going to let him eat raisins. She's not going to let him eat grapes, nothing of the vine.

She's going to raise him extra clean because if he touches anything he becomes defiled. Anything that's unclean or dead he becomes defiled. So she's got to not only she making a commitment to give this child to God, she's putting extra restraint and commitment on herself to raise him so that God can have a child. And it's interesting in the Bible they're feeling reproach because they don't have a child and today people got reproach if they got a child. They're saying give me a child. Today people are saying let me get rid of the child.

I'm telling you the devil's got a war against women and mothers. He wants you to think if you're a mother and you don't have a career you're nothing. He's a liar. If you never get a college education and you raise godly kids, you just did more for the world than can be counted on. And I'm again I'm not saying don't get an education. I'm trying to give a comparison to give an understanding that godly kids are more important than money in the bank. Can we praise him? Oh God, help us God. Help us understand. Hallelujah. Help us understand.

When we look at Samson's mother, it appears there's even more restrictions on her and Samson's raised as a Nazarite. But Judges 13:3 and 4, in Judges 13:3 and 4 it says, the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing, for lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son and no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

And then when we go over and look at verse 14, the angel appears a second time when Samson's father is there, Manoah, and says to her, She may not eat anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink any wine or strong drink, nor eat any other thing all that I have commanded her observe. So what's going on here? Even Samson's mother has got to be like a Nazarite. Being a good mother and being a godly mother is going to put some restrictions on you. You may not be able to do everything that everybody else does. But that's not the point. The point is to do the will of God, to bring children into the world that can accomplish God's purpose.

Being a good mother is hard, as all these mothers here know. None of us men understand what it's like to carry a child to term. We don't understand that. We're never going to understand that. God didn't make us that way. But even though it's hard, God has designed you to do that. He's called you to do that. You accomplish a part of God's plan that the man cannot accomplish. And again, the influence of the mother: Because Moses' mother raises him right, he's ready to do the will of God. Because Hannah raises Samuel right, he's willing to accept his calling and step into his place that God has called for him. Because Samson is raised right and proper, he's able to be anointed by God to be a deliverer and a judge in Israel.

But now you have a woman named Athaliah and she was of the descent of Ahab and probably Jezebel was her mother, but she brought evil influence into Judah, the king of Judah. And my point here is good mothers will bring good influence and evil mothers will bring evil influence. And if we want our kids to live right, we got to live right. You can't say to your kids do as I say not as I do. They'll do that as long as they have a choice to be able to do when they get to the place where they can do what they want to do. They're going to do what they want to do. So we must live the way God wants us to live if we want our kids to live for God. You want your kids to have good hearts? You got to have a good heart. You want your kids to be honest? You got to be honest. You want your kids to go to church? You go to church. And not just the moms. There's a lot of dads stay home and say their send the kids to church with their mother or somebody else. No, dads need to be in church too.

So we're talking about the influence of a mother and I'm trying to bring that out. I'm trying to bring home how important motherhood is. So now we go to Elizabeth. That's why we read that in Luke. You got John the Baptist. In Luke 1:80, the end of chapter 1 it says, And the child grew, meaning John the Baptist, and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. Elizabeth instilled into John what was needed to be instilled into him in order to be the forerunner of Christ.

Now we look at them and Brother Derek knocks is talking about barrenness. This is when God started to talk to me about this. Barrenness. Sometimes mothers don't have children because God is holding them back for an appointed time. And God is also waiting to make sure that those parents are in the right position to raise the child the way the child needs to be raised. And when I say position, I'm not talking about finances, but I'm talking about a moral position. All right, the Bible says they were righteous. Her and her husband were righteous. Listen, she's going to bring forth the person that's going to point to the Messiah. If the parents weren't living for God, they're not going to believe that this one's the one that's called.

But God proves them. They're in their old age with no children. It's not a curse. Everybody thinks it's a curse. Everybody thinks God's not answering the prayer. See, God may not answer your prayer the way you think he ought to answer it or the time, but if you're living right, God is hearing your prayer. And God is going to meet you. So they're living she's they're stricken in the ages. So when it happens, it's a miracle. And when it happens they know he's the child of righteous people. They're not surprised that a prophet's coming out of them. And she's ready to raise this child because she's lived righteous all her life.

And he's in the wilderness till the day of his showing. I'm talking about the influence of a mother. Come on, live godly. Live godly, mothers and fathers. But live godly, mothers. Live, live, live godly. Listen, I know ministers that came that are living for God today and they would talk about how when they were kids they'd go to prayer meeting with their mother and their mother would pray so hard she'd shake the hairpins out of her hair and God would move in that room. And they remembered that when they got older. And they remembered that prayer does work because they were around a godly mother that prayed. A mother praying at home's going to have a bigger effect than a mother praying at work. When the children see those parents, that mother praying in the house, it has an effect. Amen. Amen.

Do you understand what I'm saying here today? I'm trying to help you understand: Mothers, you are essential to God's plan. Who knows what God will do through your children? If you've been laying up a lot of prayers, you don't know what God is getting ready to do. Just like Cornelius, your prayers may come up for a memorial and God might say today we start to put those prayers into action. Hallelujah.

The burden of the calling as we already touched this a little bit but there's a burden of a calling for a mother. The children are brought forth in pain and sorrow (Genesis 3:16). And proper raising of children's going to place restrictions on the mother. You can't go out and do all the things you could do. You're going to have to spend time with those children. A family's the best thing but when you start to have children you got to rearrange your life around them. You need to change their schedule to help to deal with them.

And we saw how Hannah had to raise Samuel and Manoah's wife we don't know her name she had to raise Samson and Elizabeth had to raise John the Baptist properly because God needed a righteous man to be a prophet. Now the devil tries to make mothers bitter because they got children. And be careful of your movies and TVs and magazines because they will dismiss motherhood. They are going to portray it as if you're not doing all the things that they're doing. You're not going on vacation here and there and flying here and there and doing this and that and dress this way and this car and able to have all these things. If you don't have these things they're going to make it seem like you are missing out on life.

But I want you to understand you can have all the vacations you want all the money you want all the glamour you want and you reach the end of your life and you are empty. But if you raise a good family, when you reach the end of your life you've got some fruit from God. And if you raise them to live for God and they love God and you see them living right and doing something in the world that's good for God, you will go to your grave with a glad heart and praising God. Hallelujah. Give him praise. Lord we thank you Jesus. Lord we thank you Lord God. We thank you Lord. We praise you Lord. We worship you Lord God. We give you glory. We give you glory Lord. We give you glory. Hallelujah.

Amen. Again, what if Elizabeth had gotten bitter? God, I've lived righteous. I've kept all your laws. I've been at every holy day. All I've eaten is is the clean food that you've said. I've offered the sacrifices you've said. Amen, I haven't done any of those other things and here I am am at the end of my age and I don't have a child. She didn't get bitter. See God needs somebody that will do the job without complaining and being bitter about the circumstance and taking it from God. God, if you've given me this child, if you've given me this calling, if you've given me this purpose, Lord I thank you for it. I yield myself to it. Hallelujah. I'm not going to let myself get bitter because things aren't working out the way I thought they ought to work out. I'm still going to praise you in the way. I'm still going to give you glory and exalt you. And if you see fit because you are God to never give me a child, I'll still praise you to my last breath.

Hallelujah. God sometimes lets us go through situations because he wants to see am I still going to praise him when it doesn't work the way I want it to do. Amen. And I've done everything that I thought I could do. I was trying, I was praying, I was living for God. And here it is, Lord, with this problem. How did this come this way? Listen, God knows things we don't know. God is trying to bring out things we don't understand. God's trying to perfect you and me. Amen. In all things I need to praise him. I need to live for him and praise him no matter how I feel, no matter what it looks like. Amen. When the cloud comes down somehow I got to pray to God. Give me strength to raise up my hands and give you another praise because you are God and you are worthy of my praise even when my face is in the mud. Hallelujah. Oh God. Give him praise. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Again we need to be patient as mothers because God's got a time and a place. And you can try to you can get the idea from the devil that living godly's not working but it is working. You can think that things aren't working out but remember that God's got a time and a place. You live for God. Get on God's path. Walk the path that God has got. Amen. God is faithful to meet us. Bible says God will withhold no good thing from us. Amen. We just have to get on the path that God has ordained. Amen. Not the path we think but the Bible path that God has ordained. Not society's way but God's way of doing it.

Amen. A lot of times people are walking the path the way society said to write to walk the path. That's not it. I've got to do it God's way. I got to get into the Bible and follow out what God says. If God says live holy I got to live holy. If God says righteous I got to live righteous. If God says I need to seek him I've got to seek him. Amen. If God says pray I've got to pray. If God says turn away from that and turn over here I've got to turn away over there. Amen. And if I start to listen to God and go on the path that God's got, God will be faithful to meet me on the path somewhere down there and give me what I need to get through. I'm not lying to you. That's what the Bible says. You can try to break it, you can try to shift it, but we've got to come under the hand of God. You cannot say he's my shepherd and not follow the shepherd. You cannot say he's my lord and not do what he says to do. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah.

So Esther, amen. Bible lets us understand that she realized one day she was made for a certain time and a place and God used her to deliver Israel. So just thinking back through the scripture a little bit, many mothers that the Lord used had to wait on God's timing. Sarah had to wait. Abraham had to wait. Rachel had to wait. She had to pray, Give me children or I die. Hannah had to wait. Elizabeth had to wait. Sometimes we have the child but we don't have the fruit of what the child's going to be yet. And we need to wait on God in our position. Mothers you need to wait on God. Keep praying. Keep living for God. Keep living an example to your children. Keep doing the right thing for them.

Amen. The Bible says that if we train up a child in the way that he should go he will not depart from it. Now notice it doesn't say if we teach a child. It says if we train a child. So a lot of people think that scripture didn't work. Oh, we took them to church all our life and brought them and now here they are. They might have been teaching them you need to go to church but they weren't training them. What's the difference? Training, you show them how to do what you're teaching them. You can't ask Mario, you can't teach a soldier to be a soldier, you got to train them. What does that mean? That means if I want them to go to church I got to go to church. If I want them to worship I've got to worship. If I want them to give I've got to give. If I want them to live holy I got to live holy. If I want them to pray I got to pray. If I want them to read the Bible I've got to read the Bible. Not because I'm a pastor, because I'm a Christian. Amen. If I want God to do it in their life I've got to example.

Amen. I'm when I do it I'm training. When I have a prayer life I'm training my kids. I'm telling them they need to pray and I'm showing them that I pray. When I read my Bible I'm showing them I read the Bible. I don't just say read the Bible. And when I lift my hands to try to worship that's not a show. I want to praise God but I want my children, my grandchildren to lift their hands to praise God. When I don't go certain places I want them to know you don't just go anyplace because all places are not good to go because some of them are spiritually bad. Train up a child and that training starts with mothers because the mothers got that relationship with children as we said. Moses' mother she trained him. You're going into Pharaoh's Palace but you're not Egyptian. You're going to have the best that life can offer you but you come from another people and your people have got a promise from God that he's going to visit us and deliver us someday out of this and take us to a Promised Land.

Now sitting here this morning as people we've got promises from God and mothers you have the greatest opportunity to pass that promise onto your children that God is real. That God is a living God and that it's worth it to serve him. Hallelujah. Oh can we praise him a little bit more? Hallelujah Lord God. Lord we thank you Jesus. We thank you Lord. We thank you Lord. We praise you Lord. We worship you Lord God. Hallelujah.

Again, the devil hates motherhood. He's worked overtime to discourage mothers or women from being from the high calling. Listen, it's a high calling. A mother is a high calling. You can go to university and get a degree but you can't go to that university and get the child God wants to give you. The devil uses the same argument with women that he used with Eve at the tree. God said don't eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Devil comes along says, ah God's trying to restrict your life. God's trying to keep you from having something. And just a thought: Why didn't the devil go to Adam? He went to Eve.

Now, the Bible says before the foundation of the world the Lamb slain. God makes Adam and Eve. Even before sin the devil probably knew God's going to bring a Messiah through a woman. If I can cut the woman off at the beginning before she has children I can mess up God's plan. But God's too smart, thank God. God already knows everything the devil's going to do and God's got an answer for it. He's got an answer for you and me, praise God. That's why you listen to God. That's why you get the Word of God in you. He already knows what the devil's going to do. He knows all his tricks, all his plans and God's got an answer for every trick and plan that the devil has got. But I got to listen to God to know which trick and what thing what I need to use to deal with a situation. Amen.

So he tempts Eve into bringing sin into doing something God says not to do. The devil's using the same thing today. Mothers, if you stay home, if you don't have this, you don't do this, you don't do that, you're not out there with this, those kids are going to restrict you. Get rid of those kids. Amen. You're pregnant you don't want to? Go get an abortion. It's okay. Amen, it's legal and all that stuff. That's the devil and he's conning women the same way today. And just because they make it legal does not make it morally right in God's eyes. Just because marijuana's legal you better not be smoking it if you're calling yourself a Christian. Just because alcohol's legal you better not be getting drunk or getting a buzz on because you're drinking it. Bible says be sober and in your right mind. Oh I know when the limit is. No, we don't know the limit is. Look how many people are out there driving thinking they can drive and they're in an accident. You don't know when you cross that line.

So the devil tells women that God is keeping them from having the best life they can have. And he's a liar. He's a bald-faced liar. Amen. The devil through the world has made children a burden rather than a blessing. Bible says they're a blessing. Abortion is promoted with the idea that women should have a choice to be able to have sex whenever they want it. That's why they're saying that. Woman's choice. You can have sex with whenever I want it without a consequence. In other words, what you feel is more important than what God says or life. When you choose sexuality over your children over children, when you choose abortion because you want want to be able to have sex whenever you want to do it, you're choosing a feeling, a desire, rather than life. Because life can only come into this world through a woman. Praise God.

So every abortion eliminates a child that God has had a purpose for. We don't even know. We don't even have any idea of what's been eliminated. We can't even begin to speculate. Amen. Just in this country alone it's about 1.5 million abortions a year and they talk about woman's choice. What a lie. Your choice is to have sex or not to have sex. That's the choice. That's your choice. Amen. So you don't know what's been eliminated. Jeremiah, God told Jeremiah I knew you. I knew you before you were formed in the womb. Psalm 139 David said he knew me when I was being formed in the womb. In other words, God knows us before we're conceived. God knows the children he's ordained for us to have.

Now if you've done any of those things, abortion, any of those things, I'm not trying to put a guilt on anybody. You just need to repent of it, ask God to forgive you. Don't do it again. And we're not talking about having a procedure because there's a medical emergency. We're not talking about that. Okay, we're talking about situations that you could handle another way.

So mothers this morning you're essential. You're essential to God's plan. No human life comes into this world without a woman. There's no family as God has designed it without a woman. Men and men cannot do the same thing as a man and a woman. And women and women can't do the same thing as a man and a woman. God's plan cannot be fulfilled without you mothers today. And I'm just trying to encourage you: Continue to be a mother. If you're not at the place where you'd like to be at being a mother, today's a good place to start about that, to start to pray, God help me be the mother I need to be. Maybe your kids have grown up. Help me to be the grandmother I need to be. Amen.

Guest (Female): Thank you for joining us today as we have studied the word on Apostolic Truth Radio. My name is Tina Ouellette, wife of Pastor Craig Ouellette of South Shore Pentecostal Church located at 58 West Street in Whitman, Massachusetts. If you love praise and worship, you will love services at South Shore Pentecostal Church and we invite you to come and worship with us. Sunday school for all ages begins at 10 a.m. and our Sunday evening service begins at 6 p.m. Adult Bible study and children's church is held on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. You can learn more about our church on our website at southshorepentecostal.com or you may call us at 781-447-1668. If you have been blessed by this radio ministry, you can help support Apostolic Truth Radio via online giving through Venmo at SSPCWhitman. Write us today and request a free copy of today's message and join us for another broadcast of Apostolic Truth.