Transcription
[Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome. Exodus chapter 2, verse 4 through 11. Glory to God. [Music] [Applause] I'll go. I know they wrecked the place. You're welcome. Me. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] To jump in at the fourth verse is almost an injustice to the story, but indulge me in my folly as I extract from the typography of the text just one particular element for our consideration on this momentous occasion. We leap into a moment in the life of Moses that is critical and is a crisis. I love the fact that the Bible does not hide crisis. I don't need a sugar-coated Bible. I need a Bible that informs me that I can be in the will of God and in trouble at the same time. That the trouble is not indicative of the fact that I am NOT in the will of God, so that I won't run away from the trouble and thereby forfeit the will of God for safety. That bet, it's bet, it's okay to understand that I'm gonna go through crisis sometimes. And we, we leap into the middle of a family crisis where the whole family is in crisis. Moses' mother has birth to child, she can't take care of and she's entered into a situation where she is wise enough to do what is best for the child, even if it may be against what she would like to do. She recognizes her strengths and limitations. She has enough strength in her womb to produce the child, but she has no strength in her community to take care of the child she produced. Many, many, many, many were the women who, some kind, who succumbed to the Pharaoh's dictates to kill their baby, but this mother was wise enough to preserve her baby. We come in at a time where she has hidden him in the house as long as she could, and now she has put him in the bullrushes and built a little ark around him and let him sail down the Nile in hopes that somebody will see him. His sister is running beside the side of the river banks, watching the brother from a distance, trying to ensure his safety. And we leap in at verse 4: "And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maidens to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and behold, the babe wept: and she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother." [Applause] Isn't that something? That the maid who is it went and got the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." [Applause] "And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew. And she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And he became her son. And he became her son." And she called his name Moses: and said, "Because I drew him out of the water." And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew one of his brethren. I'll stop there. I'll stop there. For the next few moments, I want to talk to you from the subject: Mama's, Mentors, and Moments. Mama's, Mentors, and Moments. It's taken all three of them to raise me. And maybe it's taken all three of them to raise you. Mama's, Mentors, and Moments. Think about it. Mama's, Mentors, and Moments. On this Mother's Day, I want to pray with you before I go into the Word of God. Lord, let the word be made flesh while it's being preached today. I thank you for what you're going to do. I believe you to do great things with what you have placed inside of me for this flock and for the flock that I cannot even see around the world that is watching online. I thank you for what you're going to do. Do, do some great things this morning, God. Do some amazing things this morning. All us this morning in Jesus' name, we pray. Somebody shout, "Amen." You may be seated. You know, Mother's Day is not a biblical holiday. There's nothing in the Bible about Mother's Day. But it is a historical holiday. It is a day that ought to be every day in the life of the believer, because the Bible says, "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be longer in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." And whenever I quote that, I always get somebody who has a narrative that says why they should not honor their mother or father. And it generally centers around some imperfection. But I think that part of the lesson is in the imperfection. Until you learn how to honor somebody who's not perfect, you may not ever be able to honor yourself. Now, I think that mothering is a very important job. I think it's a very important job. And the old adage has the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. It's more than a compliment. It's more than flattery. It is an undergirding of an understanding that to be a mother is a very important thing. No, it has to become trivialized in our society today where I want to be your baby, the mama type rhetoric, because somebody's cute. And that to be a mama is, is, is a very important job. It's a very big job. It's the job for which there is no retirement. [Applause] And many times no acknowledgement. But it is still an important job, nonetheless. I consider myself really, really blessed because I got to meet both my eternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather. And my paternal grandfather, couldn't think of that word for a minute there. My paternal grandmother. And I got to watch one in Mississippi, one in Alabama. I got to watch him. I got to meet my great-grandmother, who was born a slave, Nancy Jackson. I got to meet my great-grandmother. And I got to see oh, strong, tenacious, relentless women who survived atrocities. Not, not, not, not that they didn't have a parking space, not that the rent was too high. They survived atrocities. They survived. They survived slavery and rapes and murders and killing. They survived seeing their children run through the night through the woods and never saw them again. They survived burning crosses in their front yards. They survived atrocities of which America doesn't even want to talk about. And they still sang their songs and clapped their hands and went to church on Sunday morning and praised God. Great women like my own mother, who poured all and wine into me and my brothers and sisters to make us who we are today. And I appreciate her more today. I've always loved her, always adored her. I appreciate her more today than I ever had before. Every day I live, I am more and more grateful for the things that my mother placed inside of me. Some of the things, some of the things didn't even fully awaken until you're 50. Some things you don't even get a taste for and an appreciation for until you try to duplicate them. You don't even know how hard it is to be a parent until you try to be one. Be careful about criticizing something you haven't finished yet. And so I had the amazing grace of having an amazing mother. I had an amazing mother-in-law, who spent a great deal, was the president of my pastor's aide, was my wife's mother. I got to see mothering from a lot of different angles. I got the amazing honor and grace and dignity of choosing a woman who would model motherhood right in my house as an adult, in my wife, an amazing, gifted mother. I got to see amazing mother. I'm not saying that because I'm supposed to. I'm saying that because it's true. I got to see mothering do amazing stuff. And I have a deep appreciation for what it means to be a mother. I got to see my daughters turn into mothers. That's a long span from my great-grandmother, who was a slave, to my daughters, who are now young mothers. I got to see mothers at different stages and different ages in different eras of our history. I got to see my daughters birth daughters into a world who contemplates a woman for president. Well, my great-grandmother lived at a time that a woman couldn't even vote. That most women didn't drive, and they were considered property of men, both black and white. More women were considered the property of me. And most of them had no power, no voice, no influence. I have watched the world change its mind over and over and redefined what it looks like to be a mother. I have watched working mothers come on the scene. I began to recognize and realize the days like today are not always happy days for everybody, because days like today remind certain ones of us of the mothers that we lost. And we look at Mother's Day with a certain mixed emotion. It's a bittersweet time because it is a reminder of the mother that we lost, or for some, the mother that we couldn't talk to, or the mother that didn't like us, or the mother who verbally, physically, sexually abused us. Mothers, everybody didn't have the same kind of mother as you. So before you judge people, be careful how you, how you judge them, because it's not fair for you to use your experience to evaluate my situation. Everybody didn't have the same [Applause] situation. Mother's Day is a hard day because, as my daughter said, Sarah, there are mothers who, there are women, there are mothers who want to be mothers in their hearts and in their minds, but their bodies are not cooperating. And they have to deal with the fact that their body has one agenda while their heart has another. And these mothers grow up with mothering hearts and mothering spirits and, and, and wish and long to cuddle babies in their hands, while other mothers throw babies in the trash cans. These mothers pray to deliver babies that other mothers abort. Mother's Day, it's not the same day for everybody. Mother's Day is a reminder to some mothers because they're, they didn't get taken out to dinner because their children are in jail. Mother's Day is a sad day for some mothers because it reminds them of their sons who were shot and killed in drive-by shootings and street killings and assassinations or police brutality. Mother's Day is not a great day for everybody because it reminds them of the relationship they wish they had with their child, but didn't know how to get. Mother's Day is a reflection of everything right and everything wrong in our society. And all of those feelings converge on this one day. And we come into this one day with mixed emotions. And we have those mixed emotions because many people are mothers, they feel denied of what other people take for granted. And the feeling of not getting what your neighbors got drives us to destruction, when in reality, you don't know whether your neighbors were as happy as you thought they were in the first place. I often tell people, my spiritual sons come to me and they say, "But your children must think it's amazing to have you." I said, "My children, I have nothing to compare it to. My children have always had me." So you think it's amazing to get to talk to me because I'm filling a hole in your life that my children never had, because my wife was blessed to be a mother who had a father in the house. But many of the mothers sitting out here today, raise your children alone. So you were mothering part-time and working full-time and had no time for you at all. So you had to be both father and mother and sister and brother and go out there and get it and do whatever you had to do to make things work together. And had to live with the judgment of people around you while you fought for the future of your children. And I want to say to you today, if I want to first of all apologize on behalf of all the men who forced you, who abandoned you and left you to raise your child alone, who whispered in your ear and kissed your neck and slipped in your bed and felt your body and then when your body birthed their baby, they were nowhere to be seen. And you were left there to do double time to make things happen. I apologize for all the men who took advantage of your heart and your openness and your vulnerability and for a night of fun and pleasure, left you holding the bag while they walked away with the prize and the game went on. Oh, it's quiet in here. And that's why you're a heroine. Not because you raised the President of the United States, and not because you got a mansion on the hill, and not because she drove your Porsche up to the side of the church and got out. But you're a hero because some kind of way you took the bitterness of your life and you turned it into lemonade, and you made it work for you. And to God be the glory for the things you have done in your one-bedroom apartment, in your garage apartment, in your little bitty house, in your little bitty situation, in your little bitty circumstance, you still brought in bacon and frying it up in a pan and made it work for the kids. In spite of the relief controls and the gutters that were falling down, and the house had caved in, and the streets would not pay. But you took the best of a bad situation and you kept on going while we kept on having fun. And I want to apologize and recognize that you're a bad sister right there. Give it up for the bad, incredible, amazing heroes who did what they had to do to make it work. I have been there when things worked out, and I have been there when things didn't work out. I have been there when rice was thrown on you and you got married. And I have been there when you buried your children. I've been there when life got tough. And I have been there when you cried for the judge hit the scaffold and said, "His child is going to jail." I have been there when your children were shot and your daughters were raped, and you finally went into crisis, and your husband's left you holding the bag. And I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. But for many, not all, but for many of you, a mother has been a constant. She's been a stabilizing force. When I describe my wife, I like to describe her as glue. Now, I know that's my sexy and it's probably about them. I know it's probably not the metaphor that's gonna make her day amazing. But the best metaphor I can think of of describing my wife is glue. Because a mother, at her best, holds the house together. She's everybody's secret keeper. She's everybody's burden bearer. She explains the kids to the father, "You just don't understand, you need to calm down." And then she explains the father to the kids. Come on, real mamas, make some noise in here. Talk to me. Real mama. Real mamas are you holding things together, making it work when it doesn't work? I chose this text as a canvas to talk to you today because this text is so full of life lessons. It's full of life lessons like the courageous choice Moses' mother made to have her baby when all around her women were not. She was courageous to have the baby. She was courageous enough to birth the baby against all odds. And to all the mothers, married or not, who made the choice to have your baby, we salute. Whether you make big money or little money, whether you were up on the upper echelon of life, or whether you didn't know how in the world you were gonna feed this child. The very fact that you brought this child into the world ought to earn you some respect. Because if you didn't do what you did, we wouldn't be here today. The Bible says in the book of Job, "Man that is born of a woman has but a few days full of trouble and strife." You have to understand that man has to be born of a woman. It is the only legal entryway into the world. You are the gateway from one plateau of existence into another. You are the gateway. Man born of a woman, you are the gateway. So respected that when God got ready to come into the earth, he had to come through you. The legal entry way from eternity into time was to be born of a woman. And so when God got ready to come into the world, he found a woman named Mary and said, "I'm gonna come through you." I'm not gonna be here without the visa of being a man born through a woman. And manhood is often born through the women who raised us. And so I've talked to you today because Moses' mama was courageous. She was strong. She birthed her baby under threat of death. And then I have to acknowledge the midwives who could have been killed, but had the courage to lie to Pharaoh so that Moses could be born. Because God knew that had Moses' mother not birthed that child, been the promise that he had made to Abraham could not be made completely. That your children were securing in Egypt for 400 years, and afterwards, I will bring them out with great substance. And all God needed was a partner. And he partnered with Moses' mother just to birth him into the world. And that was success. Just to bring him into the world. If you just push him out, I'll take care of the rest of it. If you just get on the stool and push him into the world, if you have the courage to go through the first and the second and the third trimester, if you had the courage and the strength to fill your lungs with air and push until you break blood vessels in your face and bring him from eternity into time, then God said, "I will partner with you in bringing the mighty into the earth." Because I am partnering with mothers to birth a child that you haven't even met yet, and you don't even know what it's going to be. And only time will tell what the child will be. Because Moses' mother had no idea that she was delivering the baby that would deliver her. [Applause] But some tiny bees like that, and you have to have the courage to wait and see and do like the Bible said, "Just nothing before its time." Because sometimes the child who gave you the most trouble will end up being the greatest blessing. [Applause] Sometimes the child who got on your nerves and broke your heart and made you to take off work to go down to school and break up the fight, that made you go down to the corner and defend him on the corner as if you were one of the kids. That's a very child that turns around and takes care of you in your old age and makes sure that everything's all right for you. You may be delivering somebody that ends up delivering you. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? And then there is just this, this, this decision that she made. She had the courage to recognize that she had done all she could. And she knew when to let Moses go. That takes a lot of courage to recognize your own limitations, to know that you're part of the plan, but you're not the whole plan, and you're not the end-all be-all of the child's life. And you have to turn him over to God and say, "I've turned you over to the hands of God. I started it, Lord, you finish it." She released her children over to the Lord. And the baby floated down the Nile without his mother and his sister running alongside, trying to watch to see if he was safe, swimming amongst snakes and alligators. And that is so much life. Life is about surviving the circumstances you have to float in. I'm gonna say that again. Life is about surviving the circumstances you have to float in. To have enough ark around you to position you so that you can swim through alligators and not be bitten and survive all the vipers that could destroy you. Eventually, mama has done all she can do. She has to turn you over to God. And you must realize in this turning Moses over to God, she ends up in a situation where Pharaoh's daughter happened to pity the baby. Look at this pass off from this mother to this mentor. You see, Moses' mother could not mentor him for his future because Moses' mother was a slave, and she could not mentor him to be a deliverer because she was bound herself. So there had to be a trade-off from the mother to the mentor. And so the, when the Bible says that Pharaoh's daughter happened to come down to the river to bathe, it is a transition. And I want to say to every mother, you gotta know when to quit. You gotta know when to back up and take your hands off a situation and turn the child over to God. You gotta know when enough is enough. You gotta know when to shut your mouth and hold your peace and make God finish the work that you began. But you don't hold the whole mystery of who your child is. That you don't always know who they are to marry, and that you're not always right about where they ought to move. And sometimes the wisest thing a good mother can do is to turn them over to God. I just want to talk to you this morning. I don't care if you don't shout it. I don't care if you don't run the aisles or anything like that, because this is so important. Because we are losing good families and good mamas and good grandmamas. It used to be that grandma's wisdom held the house together. It was muddy and Big Mama that told you, "Going back to that man, he's a good man." And we're losing that in our community. And now Big Mama and Grandma got Alzheimer's and wisdom has left the house because Granny's so busy being sexy, she don't have time. Of course, you got to understand the Granny today is only 42. [Applause] And so a lot of our sons are in jail, and our daughters are in trouble for the lack of Mama and Big Mama and Grandma. I mean, them tough, Madea type grandmamas who would come down and embarrass you in front of everybody and whip your behind all the way back to the house and tell you, "Sit, you're not gonna talk back to me." Y'all right like y'all don't know nothing about what I'm talking about. [Applause] If we survived all of our history and all of our ancestry and all of our struggles and all of our other, ain't no way you won't tell me sitting up there with your Apple phone that times are worse today than they were back there. And if bread mom made it, make it hot water cornbread. Y'all don't hear me. If grandma made it with no refrigerator, our ice house in the back. If grandma made it with a wood stove on the back porch, fried chicken in a black kettle. If grandma made it, surely you can make it with her microwave and a dishwasher. If grandma baby. [Applause] [Music] To really produce greatness, you can't do it by yourself. It has been said the African adage, "It takes a village to raise a child." To raise Moses for what he was going to be, he needed more than a slave mama. He needed a princess mentor so that he would walk with his head up and his back strength, so that he would have enough defiance to be able to go before Pharaoh's in cage and be exposed to things that slaves would never be exposed to. Some of you didn't get everything that you needed from your mama, but God sent a mentor that walked along beside you and filled in the blanks and made up the difference. And for you, Mother's Day is Mentor's Day because where somebody else left off, somebody else picked you up and finished you off and polished you up and dusted you off. And Moses' mother passed the torch to Moses' mentor. And she was a gateway into the palace. She was the gateway into education. She was a gateway into opportunities. She was a gateway into perseverance. She was a gateway into class and dignity and notoriety. She was a gateway into defiance and the right to have an opinion. And so what the devil meant for evil, God made it good. It was good that Moses didn't get what other people got, because Moses wouldn't go be what other people were. God puts you in the situation that you needed to be in to make you tough in the areas that you need to be tough, so that you can stand up against life. So stop feeling sorry for yourself over what mama didn't give you, because mama couldn't give you what she didn't have. So thank God for the mentors that decided to go, baby, while you were crying in your despair, and picked you up and exposed you to a world you would have never gotten in any other way. And to God be the glory, 'cause it's all good. And it's all God. I said, it's all good. And it's all God. I said, it's all good. And it's all God. You have to make peace with your story. You can't spend the rest of your life mad about something you can't do nothing about. It's all good. It's all good. It's all good. It's all gone. It's all good. It's all gone. [Applause] [Music] The Pharaoh's daughter brought Moses into her house. And because she brought him into her house, Moses has a different mentality without losing sight of where he came from. Because it just so happened that her servant went down and hired Moses' mother to nurse him. Because Moses' mother didn't have the method for it, but she did have the milk for it. So if one person gives you the method and another person gives you the milk, you still got there. If one person birthed you and Grandma had to raise you, you still got there. You're not gonna talk back to me. If one person hands you, but your stepmother had to finish the job, you still got there. To God be the glory, because you don't get to pick your mentor, no more than you get to pick your mama. God just causes somebody to like you. Y'all hear what I'm saying? God gave this Hebrew baby favor with this Egyptian princess. And he grew up as if he were her son, while right outside the door, his brethren were her slave. I want to talk to you about all the privileges that you take for granted, all the things you got to see, and the places you got to go because somebody likes you. All the people that God gave you favor with, just supplement all the things that you didn't get. I learned in life that God has a way of making up to you everything that you didn't give in life. And some of the blessings that you got, you only got because God made it up to you. Y'all ain't gonna talk to me. It was Moses' mother that birthed him, but it was Moses' mentor that positioned him. Thank God for the mentors that position you, that place you in a place that opened up a door, that invites you into the role, that bring you into a situation that you would have never gotten into, so that you would be armed and dangerous for the life you had to lead. The reason I appreciate my mother more after 50 and 60 is because it takes that long to see what all you gonna have to deal with. Around, around 50 and 60, you come to look back and appreciate your own story and recognize, "Oh, thank you for being as tough as your word, or as rough as your work, or as rude as you were, or as nice as you were. I see why things happened the way they happened to get me ready so I'd be different enough and strong enough and tough enough and resisted enough to withstand loneliness, heartbreak, misfortune, agony. I thank you for the stuff you made me out so I could withstand the vicissitudes of life." Am I preaching? Lord, I want to take a moment because there's that your story, your history, your, your ancestry, your DNA will never tell the mentors that God sent alongside you to mentor you, that brought you out, or you'd still be in that gang, or you could be in prison, or you could be locked up in jail. But somebody just caused you to make a U-turn, or left her, or a right turn, or wrong turn. And some of it is in who hired you, and you got there anyway. I want to talk to the people who got there anyway, in spite of the snakes, in spite of their alligators, in spite of the pass off, in spite of the limitations, in spite of the rape, the abuse, and the trauma. God supplemented you because the truth of the matter is, you're not mama's baby at all. You're God's chosen vessel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. God just used mama to get you here. It's God that has a plan for your life. It's God who knows who you are going to be. It's God who set you aside and used whoever he chose to use to get you where he was trying to get you. And that's why, even though it's Mother's Day, you got to give God the glory because it was God. I just want to take 30 seconds and praise God for being God. I want to take 30 seconds and praise God and this praise go and despise God and just praise God. Whatever your story. [Applause] [Music] Yeah. That's what I mean. That's what I mean. I need some real gratitude. I need some real gratitude. I am sick of attitude. Give me some gratitude. Come on, troubles of gratitude. Some gratitude. Some gratitude. Some gratitude. I made it on sticks and broken boards and broken pieces, but I made it. I made it. [Applause] Sit with the apples, but I'm trying to behave myself. But I feel something brewing in this room. I feel something stirring in this room. I feel something about to happen in this room. When Moses' mentor threw him out of the water, she said, "I'm gonna call him Moses because I drew him out of the water." But it was more than the water that was drawn out. In Moses' greatness has to be drawn out of you. I want you to hear this real good. Greatness is a secret inside of you. It's a mystery covered. It has to be drawn out of you. You have to be put in an environment for it to come out of it. And mother spends the next 40 years understanding himself. So give yourself a minute if you don't have everything figured out at 30. Moses spends 40 years trying to figure out who he is. 40 years figuring out, growing up. I say this all the time, growing up is such a hard job that it takes all your life to finish. So forgive yourself if you don't have it all figured out. And watch your mouth while you're figuring it out. [Applause] Because you might not be right about everything before you print it and publish it and put it out there. You might want to hold it back just a little while, 'cause you're not as smart as you think you are, not yet. You got to cry a little bit more. You got to be awake at night at 3 o'clock in the morning a little bit more. You got to face some hard times and some conflicts a little bit more. You got to go through some hot water a little bit more. God planted Moses in leadership, but he had birthed him in servitude. He was born a slave and raised like a master. What do you do with this part of your life doesn't match with that part of your life? And you need everything to match. I hate stuff they don't match. I don't want to wear stuff that don't match. I don't want nothing that don't match. I hate stuff that don't match. But my life doesn't match. There are parts of me that don't fit with other parts of me. Yeah, yeah. Then all of these inconvenient little details that are contradictions along the way. There are all these problematic things that you don't figure out. Just because you got a degree, just because you make six figures, don't make you smart. [Applause] Moses will spend 40 years coming into a defining moment because he was raised like an Egyptian, but he was related to slaves. And Moses begins to recognize that the position that he got into is his platform. That that God gives people like me and you extraordinary positions as a platform. That he gave you a gift that opened up a door that gave you an opportunity to be exceptional at something. And that platform, ain't your stuff. That's not your money. That's not your opportunity. That's not your influence. It's a platform. And Moses became conflicted because, "How can I be happy in this palace and watch you abuse my people?" And God meant to have somebody in power that was trouble. Bad things that other people were in trouble. [Applause] That's why you can't spend your life trying to be like everybody else, 'cause God raised you to be different. God raised you to be exceptional. God did raise you to fit in with him. [Applause] Moses was Egyptian enough to know how to walk amongst kings, but he was Hebrew enough to have a heart for the slaves. And all of his story is designed for his destiny. All of his history is designed for his destiny. I'm talking better than you shall be. Your history has clues to your destiny. That's why the Bible says, "It was good that I was afflicted," because the affliction is how God shapes me. But where God is about to place me. Oh, God. Oh, I feel the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's somebody on television watching on their phone, but I feel the Holy Spirit explaining some stuff to you. God touched you right there and pushed you in right there and shoved you out right there so that you could fit in a son role that he is about to reveal in your life. She stopped crying about who left, who ran, who stays, who hurt you. It's just God shaping you to fit like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle into a place in the picture that only you can fit in. I'm trying to tell you that you're broken in all the right places. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] And not Moses, his mama, his mentor, and then he has a moment as a grown man. He has a moment of conflict and discomfort. And that's why I'm concerned, because we run from conflict and discomfort. But those are the defining moments of our lives. When you have a moment, it's never a comfortable moment. It's a moment where you're conflicted, and you're darned if you do, and time if you don't. And should I say something? Should I not say something? Should I go in a circle? Defining moments raise you. Moses looks out a window and he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. And it was the moment. It was the moment. Anybody else would have looked out that window and paid it no attention at all. But Moses, all of his life had been ruled for the conflict of this moment. Moses didn't see this the way other people saw it because of his background. And I'm telling you, it's not just your mama that raises you. It's not just your mentors that raised you. It's also your moments. God, there is a, there is a moment that comes up in your life that you find out who you are, that you find out why you're here, that you find out what you're called to. There is a moment that raises you. There's a moment where you stand up like a full-grown man. There's a moment that you stand up like a grown woman and say, "I'm talking about." But you have an awakening and you say, "Wait a minute." [Applause] And so it's not enough to have mamas, and it's not enough to have mentors. See if you don't have the wisdom to recognize your moment. Your moment defines you. Your moment defines you. Often in chaos, and often in conflict, and often in discomfort, and often in scandalous moments. Those moments, how you deal with that moment will determine who you are. I [Applause] have seen moments in my life, and I know you have too. There's something stood up inside of you that you didn't even know you had. Have you ever had a moment that drew out of you that was hidden down inside of you, and you didn't even know you could talk like that? You didn't know you could write like that? You didn't even know that that was down inside of you. But in that moment, oh, I want to praise him for the moments. The moments. Those bar mitzvahs. Those moments where a man stands up in you. You're not a man because you got hair on your chest. You're not a man 'cause you can make a baby. And you're not a woman because you got a shape and a figure and everybody wants to get with you. You won't be a woman until you get in a moment and you say, "Wait a minute. Wait one minute." And you have an awakening and epiphany as to what really matters ground in your life. So while we recognize mothers and we recognize mentors, I want you to recognize those moments in your life. Moments that define you. My mother was dying. She had Alzheimer's. And she said, "Whatever he says, do you do." And to private the gravity of her trust in me did not allow me to punk out of a disease. [Applause] And like a full-grown man, sometimes you gotta stand up and deal with whatever you got to deal with. And you can cry later, but in that moment, you gotta stand up like a grown man and a grown woman and handle your business. You ain't got no choice. The moment is upon you, and you have no choice. [Applause] You can't think for yourself. Who you gonna point to? Defining moments out of the chaos and the smoke and the confusion of being who you are, there comes a moment that defines you. This is a prophetic word for somebody. I don't know who they see. You could have screwed up everything else, but if you get this moment right, you're a wrong man. Oh, you're gonna mess up all your life, but if you get this moment right, you're a grown woman. What you did yesterday, you can't change. What you did yesterday, you can always say about what you're doing right now. This was Moses' a defining moment. If he blew this moment, the whole story is gone. His whole purpose for being in the earth is predicated on how he handles this moment. And Moses says, "Wait a minute. I am the boy." And he stands up in that moment. Have you ever stood up in a moment? Have you ever stood up in a moment? Have you ever had an awakening and you've been thinking you was weak, and all of a sudden you had an awakening and said, "Wait a minute." [Applause] "Don't you put your hands on me." Wait a minute. Wait. We're gonna go ahead. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. You can't pop the beat just any kind of wit. I don't care what idea you have. Have you ever had a moment? I said, have you? Have you ever had a moment where you decided, "Wait a minute. I got to take care of this child. I'm a grown woman. I got to do what I got to do. I got to make things happen." Have you ever had a moment that drew something out of you that you didn't even know was in you? Well, happy Mother's Day to that mother. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that you stood up like a grown woman. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that you stood up like a grown man. Shoot. Whoo, Lord. I'm feeling this thing. I'll go with y'all. Get nothing enough. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that you recognized that you're better than this, that you ain't no flunky, and you ain't no drug dealer, and you ain't better than your circumstances, and you are better than your city. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that you dared to get up above your circumstances and come to your senses and recognize who you are. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that you said, "Wait a minute. I'm trying to dumb it down." I'm really happy Mother's Day to the moment that I found my purpose. I've been Mother's Day to the moment that I found my boys. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that I stopped feeling sorry for myself. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that I found out I'm running out of time. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that I stepped into my destiny. Happy Mother's Day to the moment that drew out of me what God had inside of me. And I want to tell every one of you that's having a moment right now. Oh, God, I feel something. I want to speak to every person in this room who's having a moment, a tough moment, a difficult situation, a complicated circumstance. I want to speak to every person who wonders, "Are you big enough to handle what's been thrown on you?" I'm telling you, this moment, it's gonna draw out of you stuff you didn't even know you had. I want to speak to every person who's dealing with a situation that you feel surrounded and scared and nervous, and everything is on the line, and you could lose it all, and you're dealing with a moment that is pulling out of you stuff you didn't know you had. Because God knows what kind of situation to put you in to bring you to yourself. So everything you didn't get from your mama, and everything you didn't get from your mentor, you will get from this moment. This is, this is your moment. This is your time. This is your baby. This is your. I'm sick of my generation. I'm sick of us talking about how old we are. I'm sick of us giving up on our dreams and our vision. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. Sometimes it takes you a long time to have a moment. You don't have a moment just because you want it. Every moment, Sarah was an old woman before she had her moment. Her knees were wrinkled before she had her moment. You can't tell God when to bless you. [Applause] I may be 65, but this is my moment. I may be 72, but this is my mother. I may be 51, but this is my moment. I may be 28, but this is 30 seconds of crazy praise. The people who are having a moment. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Yes, if I hand of this one in my hand of this right, if I have the best [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] You ain't gonna take it from me. You ain't gonna deny me of it. This is my moment. This is my moment. When you get to the temp asset, give God an insane, crazy, ridiculous, holy ghost, supernatural praise. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] Stand to your feet. I never will forget a conversation my mother had with me. My sister was in Washington, and my brother was in California, and I was at home with my mother and my father. When my father went from 280 pounds to 130, and my mama told me, she said, "We got a situation, and I need you to be a grown-up." I was about 11 years old. She said, "I need to be kind of you to handle your business. You're gonna have to let that grown man come out of here because I'm gonna be driving your father back and forth to Cleveland Clinic." The closest hospital at the time that did the analysis was four hours away. Dialysis was eight hours. It was four hours up and four hours back, and the eight hours of dialysis twice a week. So you have to get yourself up and get yourself out to school. And I don't have time to chase down no liar. [Applause] You may have to pack your lunch at least three times a week, but I expect you to do what I told you to do. You see what I'm trying to tell you is, said moment, said define, you are often surrounded by trauma and abuse and adversity. So I started catching the bus to go down and walk up the businesses from my father's business when I was 11 and 12 years old. I couldn't drive, but I'd catch the bus and go downtown and make sure everything was locked up 'cause he ran a janitorial service. Sometimes life will post up on you. It's not fair. It's not right. It's not time. But it'll draw stuff out of you. Did it? It didn't even make sense to me like then, but I understand it now. It was good for me that I was afflicted. If I had to come from the background I came from, I wouldn't be able to stand up against what I got to stand up. I don't know why God has me preaching this this morning. I don't know why he put this message on my heart. I don't even know who needs it. But I wouldn't quit when I got down at the moment. I feel God has sent you in a moment that's, that's drawing things out of you that you didn't even know you had. And I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to pray for people who are in a defining moment. A moment that demands stuff that you don't even think you got. And it doesn't seem fair, and it doesn't seem equitable. But God said this moment to raise you. And how you handle this moment will define how your story ends. And if you are that person, and you're in this room, this message is speaking to you in a very deep way. You can either rot and whip there and go and talk about it, or you can stand up on your feet and straighten your shoulders and hold your head up and say, "Wait a minute." [Applause] [Music] This is a moment that brings you into your destiny.