Mother's Day Celebration Service Overview

so you so Okay. Bye. Hey, what's up Alive Church Online family? We're so glad that you're tuning in with us right now. And happy Mother's Day to all the moms hopping on. We want to celebrate you and just thank you for giving life to so many of us. Praise God. Hey, can we just do a favor real quick for us? I need everyone participating in this next part. For the next 25 seconds, I need you guys to grab the link on the top of your screen and start sharing this page with everyone you know. Share it with family members, friends. Share it with moms that you know because they need to tune in for Mother's Day at a live church. So come on, let's share that link. Come on, 15 more seconds. Let's go. Share, share, share, share. It's going to be a great day. Come on, guys. Y'all are doing a great job, and thank you so much. Also, as you guys know, guys are doing that type in the comments where you're tuning in from we want to know where you're from and we would love to get to know you and if you're a mom type in all caps i'm a mom because we want to love and celebrate you guys also we have some very exciting things we're doing for the pre-show today we're going to give you guys a vip behind the scenes tour of our production room and what's cool about this is that everyone in this entire church they never get a chance to go see how service is produced but because you guys are tuning online we want to give you guys an all exclusive access pass to the back room. So come on, let's go. And one more thing before we do that, make sure you guys go ahead and drop your comments below if you need prayer requests, or if you need prayer requests in the description, there's a link that you can click and we have a team ready to pray with you. But let's go check out the production room. Come on. All right, this is what we call the Alive Creative Suite. This is where our worship team has an awesome time to just hang out before service and get prayed up before they go live. But this is the production room, and so let's go meet our friend Justin. Justin Santos, what's up? Come on, this is Justin. He's our production team captain. We're here with Alive Church Online, and we want to just get a tour of what this room is all about and how you guys make service possible, especially for them. All right, for sure. Sure, for sure. Yes, so welcome to the production room. Let's go walk around. Let's do it. All right, cool beans. So over here, we have our broadcast area. So all these screens here are what we're looking at when we're putting out the shots here on Alive Online. Right here are all the slides that we put out for you guys. So we have our countdown videos, our lyrics, and any announcements that we have, we push out through here. Come on, this way. So over here is our broadcast audio side. So what you guys are hearing out there is all produced right here from our good friend right here. My guys right here. We're going to bring it over here. All right. I love it. I love it. So everything we do here, we try our best to really bring the experience that we have. we have in the house to the live online because we feel like here at Alive Church it's not just within these four walls but it's global it's to everyone so we want to make sure that we bring that experience to you guys so yeah come on none of this would be possible if it wasn't for this team right here and let's just shout them out can y'all shout them out in the comments right now let them know that you appreciate them because we wouldn't even be live right now if it wasn't for them clicking buttons back here in the back amen awesome so now we're going to go ahead and tour our good friend James. He helps put on everything in service. So let's go check out the auditorium. Let's go, guys. Let's go, let's go. Here it is. Here it is. Come on. So this is our auditorium as many of you guys know. This is where all of it goes down. And this is right here, all of our cameras, and we're going to go find James up top in the sound booth. Let's go. James Garrett, what's up brother? What's up everybody? This is James. He's our live production director. Can you just give us a tour of everything that's happening in this room? From the sound to the lighting, also to the LED wall and everything. Yeah, what's up guys? Yeah, come on, let's check it out. Come on. So we got our front of house audio operator over here. So they're mixing all the sound that you would hear in person in the sanctuary here. So we're doing a lot of cool stuff there. Right behind us here, we've got our lighting director. And they're managing all the lighting effects so that we can see what's going on on stage, kind of add some dynamics to our worship. Yeah, let's go to the stage. Let's check that out. Come on. Let's do it. Yeah, come on, let's go. Alright, and then real quick, we've got, over here we've got Chikina, she's our... Stage manager today. The stage manager is kind of responsible for just making sure that everything is kind of happening and flowing smoothly. So they'll kind of be our in-between person for the production crew, the communicators on stage, the worship team. Just kind of make sure they're leading everything and solidifying everything so that you guys, you know, have a good experience. And we just get, you know, God gets all the praise for that. So let's head up on stage and check out some of the stuff we got going on up here. Go ahead, lead the way. Come on, James. And actually this is Shekinah right here. Say hi. Hi! Come on. Alright, well guys welcome to the stage. As you can see we've got this new ultra-wide LED wall that we just put in. So that went in October and we're really excited about that. We're able to do some really cool graphic mappings and things like that so that we can put different graphics on the stage. like up on these side slices here or in the center. You'll see kind of during our, if you come in person, you'll see we can play some certain videos right in the middle and have some different accent graphics. So that's been really cool for us. And we've got our keyboards rig here. We have... We have those drums over there. We just put in that kind of isolation booth that really helps out the sound in here. And then we added some pixel scripts above the stage. Yeah, and so, you know, as you're watching online, just enjoy that. Get the full experience. Yeah, and that's kind of what we're going for. Come on, can you guys give it up for James? Type James in all caps in the comments and say thank you, James. Come on, we appreciate you. All right, thank you guys. We love you guys. This is the man that makes the magic happen. Come on. All right, up next, we're going to go reach out to one of the moms and her daughters in a... in our church to celebrate them and to tell them happy Mother's Day on this very special Sunday. So come on, let's go. You see, Angie and her daughter, her daughter Kiera, actually serves on the production team that we just toured. And Angie is one of the leaders of the Usher team. And so we love them, and we really want to celebrate them for all that they do. Come on. All right, there they are right there. And we've got a special surprise. I think we're going to surprise them with some flowers. So let's go do it. Angie, Kiara, what's up? Happy Mother's Day! Aw, thank you! Welcome! How are you guys doing today? We're good! Amazing! Okay, come on. How are you feeling about Mother's Day today? You gonna do anything special? I'm excited for dinner. My mom's actually cooking, so she came from out of town, so I'm excited for dinner. Yeah, so we're gonna have some penne. And meat and rice. Oop and meal. Yummy. Let's go. Well, hey, guys. Is there anything that you're looking forward to the most? Or what is one thing that you love the most about your mom, Kiara? There's a lot of stuff. I really like her hardworking nature. Like she's so hardworking like right after this she's gonna serve During this service and she puts a hundred and ten into it every single time so I love that about her And what is one of the things that you love the most about being a mom? Getting to see all the what do you call them like the different The graduations, the different, the different, I have four kids, so it's all different with all of them. So again, you can see all those exciting moments. There's a couple more kids right behind you that want to celebrate you. So happy Mother's Day! These are her sons. as well. We just want to say we love you and happy Mother's Day. Have a great one. Enjoy serving. Come on, give it up for Angie and Kiara and the rest of the family, guys. You're welcome. You're welcome. All right, y'all. That's it. We are at our three-minute countdown. We look forward to you enjoying service today. Drop in the comments if you need prayer because we have a team ready to pray with you. And also, make sure to share this link with someone you know so they can get the word of God today. Happy Mother's Day. We love you live online, and we'll see you next time. Thank you. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! Four, three, two, one. Good morning, Alive Church. Happy Mother's Day. I want you excited to worship this morning. Let's put our hands together. Here we go. We sing hallelujah, hallelujah, we sing it's a grace that we release. There's an anthem of the free When you know what you've been rescued from Worship fills your lungs It's a sound of the Lord Come on church, can you lift your hands, sing it out. Can you lift your hands if you've been forgiven, brought into the land of the man of freedom in his heart. This is me, before Christ changed everything. I'm gonna sing if you know that you can't go to hell. I promise. Amen. It's the sound of the Lord. We need it. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. If you can forgive and pardon. To the man of the man. Which freedom in this life. Which freedom in this life. We sing. Lift your voice. It feeds the faithful. Shout it out. Tell them you're great. This will be the change on the floor, prison doors, open wide, for our hope is restored, what was it, see what was it brought back to life? See the change on the floor as it goes on. Open wide. Hey, our hope is restored. And what was it brought back to us? See the change on the floor as it goes on. Open wide. So dance with you, give, and invite you to let God prepare you. Let your sweet, obedient heart, let your voice sing it out. Let the faithful shout it out, tell them you've made a sweet, obedient heart. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, that's what it says in how... If it's freedom in this house, we give you praise, Lord. Come on, Alive Church. If you believe there's freedom in this house, let's just continue to worship. Come on, we trust in the name of the Lord. Come on, let's sing this. Christ is my firm foundation. He's the rock on which I stand, and everything around me is sacred. I've been long, and I put my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down. He's faithful through generations. So why would he fail now? He won't. Come on, if you believe that this morning, say I still got joy in me. I've got peace that makes no sense. So I won't be going under. I'll walk my faith. He's faithful in every season So I will be filled He won't fail Never have I seen the righteous forsaken, and he will never fail, he will never fail, no, he will never fail, he will never fail, he will never fail. Come on, teach your soul to remember as we sing this. Hey, you lost your spirit, oh. Say free, you are gonna make me see the rain, I'll sing. I'll sing. Sing reggae, reggae. My house is built on you. Oh, Christ is my foundation. He's the rock of the world. He's everything around me. I'll never be alone. I'll never be alone. I put my faith in you. He won't I have to teach our soul to remember That he won't He won't fail It looks like he won't fail He won't Come on church, aren't you glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning? Come on, aren't you glad to have a Lord and Father to save you? That's not going to fail you. Come on, no matter the circumstance you're in, He has to find those things in the name of Jesus. There's power in the name of Jesus, amen. And I just want to encourage you church, as we continue to worship, just begin to open your heart. And just know that when you worship, you're giving everything back to Him. Not for only the things that He's done, but just for who He is, amen. Come on, let's worship. Let me sing. I can silence roaring waves, I know a name. I can empty out a glass, I know a name. is the only thing I chase and is worthy of all praise. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Jesus. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. Worthy and holy forever. Something comes out of me. Give me time I call you I have a king With dominion over death He holds the keys In his holiness God is He is the king And has crushed the serpent's head God is the rain I call you Jesus I call you, I call you He is in me I'm a something good Something comes out of the grave. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. Worthy and glory forever. Something comes out of the grave. Jesus has told the power. Hey, oh, there's nothing to me, but worship you alone. Oh, when, oh, there is an hour, you'll see, and we'll bring you home. Come on, let's sing. Oh, great, oh, great is the love of Jesus. We can win the game, yeah It's come, it's come alive I This is the life of the Jesus, I call you out Something comes out, come on do you believe that church? Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Come on, Jesus. He said yesterday, today, and forevermore in the name of Jesus. Come on, church. Hear the life. We believe in the power of prayer. And this morning, if you believe for a miracle, come on, if you believe for a breakthrough, just someone to sit in the gap with, you want to invite the prayer team to come to the front. We want to encourage you to come to the front at this time so we can pray for you. We'll continue to worship in this place. Come on. Let's sing this out. Here I am, back on the altar again. Would you meet me where I am? Would you meet me where I am? Take my life, a living sacrifice. It's my only offering, it's my greatest offering, so here it is, my everything, and I'm Another surrender. With hands open wide, I lay it all down. A total abandon. I'm letting go of what I thought I found. And here on my knees, I share you clearly now. This is surrender. Another surrender. I lay it all down. I have your feet. It's where I want to be. I give you every part of me. You give me every part of me. Take my life, a living sacrifice. It's my only offering. It's my greatest offering. So here it is, my everything. I'll let it go, what I thought I found, and here on my knees, I see Him with me now. This is surrender, I'll let it go, what I thought I found, and here on my knees, I see Him with me now. I hear it all now, it's all over the bed, I'm what I thought I found, I see it clearly now, I surrender and now I surrender, I hear it all now. It's yours, it's yours America! America! I lay it all down Let it go now. I lay it all down. It's yours. Oh, I lay it all down. I lay it all down I'm ready to go now I lay it all down It's yours anyway It's yours anyway, it's yours anyway, it's yours anyway, it's yours anyway We give you hope We worship you, you are worthy to be praised. We give, we give you all. Oh, what glory. We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised. And we give you honor. We worship you, our Lord, to be given to you. To be praised Somebody give God a shout of praise in this place today Come on, has he done anything and you're lucky you give him praise As we're worshiping, I feel like I heard God say that if you lay it down, then he'll pick you up. If you lay it down, then he'll pick you up. What does that mean? That doesn't mean whatever problem you're facing, whatever circumstance that you're in, whatever situation might be weighing you down, if you lay it down today, He'll pick you up. That means that he's going to have victory in your life. Come on, can you just lift up your hands and give him praise? That he's going to give you victory. That he's going to lift the weight. That he'll pick you up and bring you to a new situation in a new season. Come on, two more seconds of praise. Hallelujah, Father, you're worthy. Hallelujah. Amen, amen. Isn't it good to be in the house of God today? Hey, well, happy Mother's Day and welcome to Alive Church. We're so glad you're joining us. Hey, can you do me a favor? Get out of your seats. Introduce yourself to two to three people that you did not come to church with today. Give them your name. Grab their names. And you can make your way back to your seat after that. Come on, and if you're joining us online today, we just want to say welcome to Alive Church Online. We're glad you're tuning in. As you guys are seated, my name is Elijah, and I have the opportunity to serve here as one of our pastors. And again, I just want to say welcome to Alive Church and Happy Mother's Day. Come on, shout out to all the moms in the room. Make some noise. We're thankful for you guys. And I also want to shout out some special people joining us, and that's our first-time guests. So Alive Church, can you make some noise for all of our first-time guests? Come on, you could have been anywhere today, but you chose to be here and for that we're grateful and we want to say thank you and give you guys a gift. And so in the seat back pocket in front of you, there's a connection card that looks like this. If you take that connection card out, fill it out, and then bring it to the connection center after service today, we'd love to place a gift in your hand just to say thank you for joining us on this Mother's Day. Also, as you guys took your seats, there's some invite cards that look like this. We have a saying in the live church that one invite can't Oh, y'all can do better than that. One invite can. One invite can change a life. And so we want to encourage you. Take these invite cards out this week and change someone's life by inviting them to church with you next Sunday. And speaking of life change, we have a vision to see 2 million souls saved over the span of 20 years. And we're one step closer because this week alone, we saw 140 people say yes to Jesus. That's 140 people that prayed a prayer of salvation. And now get to spend eternal life with him because you're changing lives. So keep up the good work, Alive Church. And we believe that none of this is possible without the power of prayer. And so on the back of your connection card, we've provided an opportunity for you to fill out any prayer requests that you might have. Or to connect with us by sharing your testimony so we can celebrate all that God is doing in your life. And so I'd like to encourage you, fill these cards out and drop them off after service today so we can pray for them. Because we have a team of people that pray over these cards every single Wednesday night and throughout the entire week. I actually have a few prayer requests in my hands right now. So as a sign of agreement, can you stretch your hands towards these cards and we'll pray over them. together. Father God, we thank you that you're a God who hears our prayers. And for the person having surgery to remove their cancer on June 3rd, we thank you that you are Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. So we pray that she'll be cancer-free in the name of Jesus. We've seen you do it before, and we'll know you do it again. For the person that's struggling to pay their mortgage, God, who's behind and facing closing down their business, God, we know that you are Jehovah Jireh, and we pray that you provide a way in their finances, and we declare that there will be a financial miracle this week, God, that they can provide a way to keep their business open in Jesus' name. And for the person, Father, who's lost their mother. is going through this hard time we thank you that your word says that holy spirit you are an advocate and a comforter and so be with them right now where they are with their family bring a peace that surpasses understanding upon them god that they can look to you where their help comes from god and receive the joy that they so need right now in this moment in jesus name we pray amen amen amen good morning family i'm dr lauren Lauren, and I have the honor to serve as our dream team director here at the Florida Mall Campus. And I just want to transition us to another time in our worship, and that's through our giving. Now, here at Alive Church, we have four simple ways that you can give. One, you can text your amount to the number shown on the screen behind me. Two, you can give online by visiting myalivechurch.org forward slash give. And if you're at any of our physical locations, you can use tap to give. You can take your cellular device and tap it to the disc on the chair in front of you. And last but certainly not least, you can fill out an offering envelope in its entirety and drop it off at one of the offering boxes as you exit the auditorium. Now, as you're preparing yourself to give this morning, I just want to thank you all so much for being a generous church. On this Mother's Day today, as we're honoring all of the moms and all of the mother figures in our lives, I just want to take a moment to share with you how your generosity is making a difference in the lives of women who are experiencing and walking into motherhood for the very first time. time. Now, if you can, if you can imagine yourself. Being a single woman, you just found out that you're pregnant, and not only do you have one blessing on the way, you have two. And so you're trying to figure out how you're going to make ends meet. How are you going to give all the things that your babies are going to need by the time that they get here? here. Well, I'm excited to share that being a part of Alive, we often partner with organizations like Care Portals, Foster Care Unit, that allow us to partner and team up with caseworkers to help us identify families that are in crisis just like this one. So most recently, our outreach team was able to identify a single mother that recently gave birth to twins who she was co-sleeping with that made their infants at a greater risk of SID. And so it's because of your generosity that we were able to purchase for her two pack-and-plays where now each of her babies have their own individual beds to sleep in. So on this Mother's Day, we just want to say thank you. Know that your generosity is helping us to change lives. It's giving me. mothers hope and it's helping us to shape the future lives of their little ones. So know that we love you. We appreciate you. That's all I have and check out this video. I never really like looked at myself as a mother when we were kind of like walking through the house. The Lord said you will have children here. It became kind of like this obsessive thing for me. I would check my cycle. I would be on my app. I would make sure like everything was right and then we would try and then I would get a negative test and then it would happen again. I was just kind of like, is this ever going to happen? Is there something wrong with me? I was in a room with my friend Leslie and she asked me, she's like, are you standing on any scripture? Are you standing on a word? And I realized at that point that I was standing on my own understanding. Immediately I went home and I opened up my Bible. And I studied Hannah and Samuel. And I said, God, if you did it for her, you can do it for me. I laid everything down, the apps, the obsessive thoughts. And it was in that moment where I got pregnant. So I was excited to be pregnant. But at the same time, it was like fear just took over. I began to have this extreme itching all over my body. It was like uncontrollable. I mean, I would cry myself to sleep. Just itching, itching, itching, itching. But one night it was so bad, my husband called the doctor and then they sent me to do some blood work. I go to the doctor on Monday, there's no results. And the doctor tells me, let's just keep waiting to see what they say. She's like, it could be a rash, but I had no rash. Or it could be cholestasis. And the last thing that she says to me before she leaves the room is, But let's hope it's not the other thing, because it's life-threatening to you and the baby. I was checking that portal like a maniac. I mean, because if you read anything online about choleostasis, if you deliver at 38 weeks, the chances of a stillborn are increased. And again, that was my biggest fear. So I am just itching. I am... Just feeling like, God, I don't know what's wrong with me. And so I'm like in the shower. I am just crying to God because I'm itchy. I can't sleep. I'm miserable. And I said, God, if I have this thing, make me deliver before the 38 weeks because the test results are not coming in. So it was. 37 weeks and three days. I told my husband, I'm like, it's time. Let's just go to the hospital. It took about 19 hours of labor. My daughter was born. On November 21st, 2024, a healthy baby girl. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her. Everything was perfect. I was good and healthy. I forgot completely about the cholestasis and everything. We get home that weekend and that Monday that I was supposed to be 38 weeks, I get the test results and I had cholestasis. But what's crazy is that you I felt like God delayed the results for a reason. I felt God's hand in absolutely everything, like that God is in control. Even though I was overtaken by fear, He was always in control. And I was reminded of the word that He spoke to me in my house. I said, sitting there with my baby, that you will have children here. And I just think that God's promises are perfect. And sometimes We just have to sit on what he promised us and not think about our circumstances. Come on, hallelujah! Help me thank God for his promises. His word will come to pass. He did it for Daniela. He can do it for you. Amen. Hallelujah! We serve a mighty God. Wow, y'all look so good this morning. Go ahead and be seated. It's so good to see you in the house of the Lord today. I want to add my happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there, the grandmothers, the great-grandmothers, the aunties. Come on, this is your day. Amen. Are you excited moms? I know I have a steak dinner coming to me after church today. I'm putting in my work and I'm going to have a steak dinner, okay? And it's going to be good. I'm eating it all, okay? No, Mother's Day is just, it's a fun day and it's... should be celebrated because mothers are special. You know, God made mothers special. And I'm so happy that you're here today. You know, I want to share with all of the moms a tip that, you know, a mother told me when I had my first child, especially you moms who... You have babies, the newborns, the toddlers, oh my, the third graders, the fourth graders, and the fifth graders. Listen, all of my children are teenagers right now, so I'm telling myself this as well. But their piece of advice was this. They said, cherish every moment. Don't despise changing the diapers. Don't despise the endless dishes and the endless laundry. Like, cherish every moment. Someone sent me a picture yesterday on my phone. And it was. It was one of my daughters when she was like two years old. And I sent her cry emojis back, cry emoji, cry emoji, cry like, oh. And I said, I miss my babies. They're not going to be that small all the time. And so you want to, one thing that I can never say is that I regret not cherishing every moment. Because I did. I knew that that time wasn't going to last always. And so let's just be happy where we are. Amen. I want to get into the Word today, but before I do, I want to share with you the next series that we'll be talking about here at Alive Church. We're getting ready to go into the summer season, and sometimes in the summer we go to so many weddings and on so many... many vacations and so many graduations, we kind of get off rhythm and God who we once had in first place kind of drops down here and we're not putting God first and his principles first. But here at Alive Church, we intentionally, as we're We're going into the summer. Remind everyone to put God first. And so we have a series coming out that is going to help us keep God first in our time, our treasure, and our talents. The name of that series is called Hidden Treasure. And I encourage you to be here for it. Get excited about it. Tell your neighbors and coworkers and all of those people you're believing God for, we're going to grow closer to God this summer. Amen? Well, I think God has a special word for you today. Today I want to talk to families. And, you know, know, if you ask any mom, what's going to be near and dear to her heart is family. I think it's going to be a blessing for you today. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. And Lord, we just acknowledge your presence that's already here. Holy Spirit, have your way. Lord, give us what we need to do what you've called us to do. Help us to understand who we are. Help us to love what you love, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so the title for today is Me and My House. Can you say that with me? Me and My House. All right, you sound good today. If you're taking notes, get out your note takers, take out your Bibles. You can get the Bible app on your phone. Also, I'll have some scripture on the screen because we're going to go to the Word of God today. But we're going to start out in Joshua chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. And before we get into the scripture, I want to give you a little bit of pretext. So we all, most of us are familiar with Moses. He was the one who led the children of Israel out of... Egypt, out of bondage, out of slavery, in towards the promised land. And so Moses was mighty, chosen of God. But in between Egypt, slavery, bondage, and the promised land was the wilderness. Moses died in the wilderness. But in place of Moses, Joshua rose up. And Joshua led the children of Israel. out of the wilderness and into the promised land, the land of milk and honey, the land of abundance, the land of more than enough. It was Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho, where they marched around Jericho six times. And on the seventh time, they let out a shout to the Lord and the walls of the city supernaturally crumbled down to the ground, giving the children of God victory. This is who Joshua was. And so Joshua, at the end of his life, before he dies, he says this scripture that we're about to read right now. He says this to the children of Israel. If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Whether gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or gods of the Amorites in whose land we're currently living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. What Joshua was saying was, you have a choice. You can serve the gods that other nations worship. You can serve the God that other people and other cultures worship. You can serve social media and you can do things for the Instagram likes. You can serve your friends. and you can do what your neighbors want you to do, or you can serve God. And he says, as for me and my house, as for me and my family, we're gonna serve God. We're gonna do things God's way. And I think that's where we are today. Wouldn't you agree? That's where we are today. We all have a choice to make. We can do things like pop culture. We can do things like Hollywood, music, the music industry. We can follow the world's way or... We can draw a line in the sand and say, as for me and my house, I'm going to serve the Lord. I'm going to do things God's way. And I think right now God is calling his children to serve God, to do it God's way, not Not just on Sunday morning, but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Repeat, repeat, repeat. All the days of our lives, we serve God. Amen? And so the Proverbs says this in chapter 24. By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and... beautiful treasures. Psalm 127 says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. What does that mean? God's not coming down from heaven with a hammer and a nail. It means that unless the Lord builds the house, unless you do things God's way with God's principles, there's no use in doing it. If it's not done God's way, it's not going to last anyway, Right? And so we want to do things God's way. And so we all want houses. I know for me, I want my house to be filled with beautiful things. I want my house to not only be filled with beautiful things actually, but metaphorically, the wisdom, the knowledge, and the understanding. And so therefore, my house has to be built God's way on the word of God. And so today, I want to give you some things that I believe will help strengthen your house. to strengthen your family, help you draw a line in the sand like Joshua did and say, for me in my house, we're going to serve the Lord. I have four pillars, if you will, to share with you today. The first one is this, as for me in my house, can y'all say that with me? As for me in my house, you sound good. We know who we are and celebrate who we are. So good. I believe that one of the reasons families are falling apart today, families are breaking up, families are suffering, is because we don't understand who we are. And when you don't know who you are, you kind of, you fall for anything, you will follow any way or do anything. But when you know who you are, when you're established in your identity, there are certain things you do because of who you are, and there are also certain things you don't do because of who you are, right? And we're falling apart and marriages and families are being attacked and children are being attacked because We're doing things that if we knew who we were, we would never do that. And we find our identity in the word of God. And so we go to the word of God and find out, oh, I'm not going over there because I know who I am. Therefore, I don't go there. Oh, no, thank you. I'm not doing that today. I know who I am. I'm a child of God. Now, when I know my identity, it sets parameters and safety marks in my life that I stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to Jesus. We're going to strengthen our families today, amen? And so, as for me and my house, the Claytors, my children know, know this is who we are. We are children of God. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. No, we don't do that here. No, we don't do that, son. We don't do that, daughter. We're Claytors. We're believers. We're children of the Most High God. And that ought not just be for the Claytor house. but for every born again believer. We are children of God. We know who we are. And so when adversity comes our way or when it comes to my children making a decision in school, they decide based on who they are. There's security and strength in who they are. Who are we? We're believers. What do we believe? We believe the word. We believe the Bible. Yes, we believe every word of the Bible. We believe in healing. We believe in heaven and hell. We believe in salvation. We believe that Jesus paid the price for our sins. We believe that we've been called out of darkness into the light of Jesus Christ. We are believers, amen? And Jesus said this in Matthew chapter five, verse 13. He said, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, How should it be seasoned? He said, you're the light of the world. A city set on a hill, a city set on a hill can't be hid. They don't take a lamp and put it under the table. They take a lamp and put it on the tabletop so that everyone in the house could see. He said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify the father in heaven. That's who we are. That's who we are as sons and daughters. I teach my children, when you walk into a room, light just entered the room. When you walk into the business room, when you walk into the courtroom, when you walk into a dark situation, light just entered the room. What does that mean? Wisdom entered the room. Understanding entered the room. Knowledge entered the room. The power of God entered the room. because that's who you are. You're the salt of the earth. When you enter into the room, flavor comes. Where it was dull and drab, joy comes. Fun comes. That's why we have fun in church. That's why we lift our hands and have fun and dance around because we're the salt of the earth. If we don't have fun and enjoy our lives, what is everyone else going to do? We don't have to turn to the world to have fun and do things in a sinful manner, but we can be holy. We can be holy because God is holy. Amen. As for me and my house, we know who we are and And we celebrate who we are. Amen. Number two. As for me and my house, we honor each other. Honor is a word that I don't hear a lot anymore. We don't hear people talking about honor, but God is a God of honor. And what I find is that sometimes we honor strangers more than we honor the people in our own homes, our sons and daughters, our husbands and wives. We are to honor them. Sometimes we'll go to work and honor our co-workers. right? Our boss, you come to church, hey pastor, and you're so nice. Even if you don't feel like it, you're nice and you choose your words correctly. But then we go home and we're nasty to our kids and we boss our kids around. And then we get mad when they have an attitude with us and we try to correct them, right? We come home. I know for me, you know, I'll go out doing stuff, bossing, doing stuff, bossing. Then I come home and try to boss my husband. He's like, uh-uh. We don't do that here. We're declaters. We honor. But there's never an excuse for us to be nasty. Well, I'm just tired. I came home from work. I did all this stuff. I don't feel like dealing with people. No, there's never an excuse to be nasty, rude, unkind. The Bible says, let all you do be done in love. Let kindness be the law of your tongue. Do everything as unto the Lord. Would you look at Jesus like that? would you talk to Jesus like that no so we have the grace of God the ability of God to be able to be kind and to honor one another and you know what else we honor in our house we honor the order of a family that God made the male and the female he made the husband the head of the wife that the children honor their parents we love this this is not something to tear down the family but this is God's idea of the family and he builds it up. Do I serve my man? Yes, I serve my man. Do I submit my man? Yes, I submit to my man. As the head. Do we submit to one another? Yes we do. Because the Bible tells us to. But also the Bible tells me that the husband is my head. Am I okay with that? Yes I am okay with that. Because the Bible says that Jesus died and gave his life for the church. That's how the husband must love the wife. That he would die for her and give his life for her. Yes I honor my man. That he will die for me and give his life for me. Yes, he is the head of my family family. And I teach my daughters, I teach my daughters, get, go make a plate for your daddy. Go put a plate in the oven for your daddy. Go get them a classic, a glass of cold water. I teach my husband boy, stand up and say yes, sir. To your, to your daddy. When he comes in the door, no, go open the door for your sisters. Go take out the trash. Your mama needs help. Yes. We honor. Femininity, we honor masculinity, celebrate it. Boy, go be a boy. Daughters, be feminine, it's okay. You don't have to be the male and female. Daughter, wear your skirt, your high heels, do what you wanna do. As for me and my house, we honor each other, amen. Number three, as for me and my house, fear is not an option. Fear is not an option. This is a big one for me because I grew up with fear, not faith. I didn't even know what faith was. That wasn't even a term. I don't even know if I knew that, but fear. I was afraid of everything. Don't do this because this could happen. Don't do that because something bad will happen. It was all based in fear. And so I have made it a mission that I cannot allow fear to exist in my life, not just because of my past, but because the word says so. The word says time after time again, do not fear. Don't fear. Don't worry. Don't be afraid. And so as believers and in my house, fear isn't tolerated. And I was taught this, that fear tolerated is faith contaminated. I mean, I don't have time. I have too much faith. I have too many things that I'm believing God for. I don't have time for this much fear to come into my life. But every time fear rises up, I push it down in the name of Jesus, right? Fear belongs under your feet, not up here. And so the Bible says that God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. That fear doesn't come from God. Now fear comes from the devil. Faith comes from God. The devil is the great perverter. Everything that God did, he wants to take it and imitate it. So God is God of everything and he operates in faith. Satan says, well, I want to be like God. I'm going to operate in fear and use it like faith. And so everything that you have faith for, you attract it to you. Likewise, everything you have fear for, you attract it to you. Have you ever been around that person that's just afraid of bees? They're just afraid of bees, insects or whatever. but they always the one to get attacked by a bee. Like where'd that bee come from? I remember I had a friend who was scared to death of dogs. I mean, little baby dog, they're afraid of it. But every single time a dog would come out of nowhere and they'd go running and scare. Why? Because you attract what you have faith for and you attract what you have fear for. And fear is not a place in the believer's life, amen? Luke 10 says this, behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all power of the enemy and nothing by any means shall hurt you. I think Christians are fearful because we don't understand that we have a power. We have authority and dominion over all power and principalities. Nothing by any means shall hurt us. We are believers, children of the most high God. Amen. Genesis chapter 1 says this then God blessed them Adam and Eve he said to them be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth one translation says ever have dominion over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth that means you have dominion over spiders and over frogs and lizards and over all of those things we have dominion over it now I'm not saying that those things are nasty you know they're nasty and they're gross you know what I mean I don't you know I don't like particularly like snakes but I have dominion over it and I will not tolerate being fearful over it when my children were little you know here in Florida we have love bugs I think they're starting to come out now They swarm, they're everywhere. If you don't know what love bugs are, they're like lightning bugs, but they don't have the light on them and they just fly everywhere all day. And every one of my children cried whenever they first encountered a love bug because they just come and sit on your arm and they're like, oh my gosh. But every time I'd pick the love bug off and say, oh no, it's so nice. And I treated it like a little puppy. Oh, look at the bug. And then they would come and they'd pick it up out of my hands and they'd kill it by picking it up with their little toddler hands. But what I was doing was teaching them, no, we don't have to be afraid. And I was also teaching them that you have dominion over this little baby bug. We're not going to be afraid of this baby bug. You can smash it with your fingers, right? And so I taught my children that we are not going to fear. And, you know, just recently I found out that one of my daughters has a fear of snakes. I said, were you? Where did you get that from? We don't do that in this house. We don't tolerate fear in this house. And I'm not saying that they're not nasty again, but I'm saying, but we ain't going to be afraid of it. And you just run it all out in terror because you saw a snake. Listen, Jesus crushed the snake's head with his heel and we can do the same. I can't tell you how many snakes I've killed on my property. Why? Because one day my husband wasn't home and there was a snake outside. I wanted to take my children outside into the yard and play, but there was a big snake out there. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I decided I'm going to kill this snake because if I don't kill it, then I'm going to be wondering where is it? And then I'll be in the house afraid. But I said, no, I'm going to kill the snake. So I killed that one. And then I killed another one and another one, another one. I don't know, but I'm not afraid of these things. I taught my son because snakes will come and get into the pool. I taught them how to get a shovel. flop it up out of the pool and then just go to chopping and kill that snake. Why? Because he needs to know. We don't have to be afraid. We don't do this. But now my daughter, who's afraid of snakes, what I'm going to do is the next time I see one, guess who's going to be my apprentice? Guess who's going to be right by my side? Girl, get out here. We're going to kill the snake today because we don't tolerate fear. We're Indian. And I know that might be a lot like, oh my gosh, the snakes, but it's the principle of the thing. It's the principle of it. When I was fighting cancer. When I was fighting cancer, going through chemotherapy, a snake got into our pool. And my husband went out to the pool. And he said, babe, I can't get the snake out. It was running around. He didn't feel like catching it. He said, it's okay. It's just a baby snake. I don't care. And then he left the house. And I'm sitting in there because I was in the middle of a hard time, y'all. And it was just like the snake was like, it was like it was here. Look at me. I'm in your pool. Look at me. I'm coming after your kids. And so I got my tail off the couch. I went outside, I got the snake out the pool, and went to chop him. And I killed the snake. Why? It was the principle of it. That little baby snake wasn't going to hurt anybody. But for me, I had to let the devil know. I had to let fear know. Yeah, I'm in the middle of a battle right now, but I'm coming out of this battle just like I'm killing this snake right here. And fear is not going to keep me in my house. So when you let a little bit of fear in, that fear tries to come into other areas of your life, but at the little bit of fear, you got to smash it out. Amen. Come on, say it with me. As for me in my house, fear is not an option. Hallelujah. Here's number four. As for me in my house, we don't quit. I think a lot of people quit too soon. We quit before we see the promises and God says that he'll take that which was meant for evil turn it around and make it work for your good. So if there's something evil in your life wait on God. Don't quit because if he hadn't turned it around yet he's going to. Don't quit before he can turn it around and give you the promise and give you the testimony. Amen. And when I say don't quit, I'm not talking about like not quitting on something that you sometimes you get yourself into things that God didn't tell you to do. Like, why did I even do that? Why did I? I've gotten into places and did things where I had to go back on my word and say, you know what, I know I said I would do this, I apologize, but I cannot override my peace. I know that I should not be doing this, so forgive me, but I'm backing out right now. And that is perfectly fine to do, but you don't want to stay in something just because you said so. Ask for forgiveness. Get out of it. Please don't go broke. Please don't go bankrupt doing something that you know God never told you to do. Get out! Run! But for the promises of God, for your dreams, for what God spoke in your life, believe in God for that baby, believe in God for that healing, believe in God for your husband, your wife, your children. Don't quit. Let God do his thing. Nobody can do it like him. I want to show you a picture of Mother's Day four years ago. This is what I looked like four years ago on Mother's Day. I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. I had a double mastectomy. I had five months of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation, eight surgeries, and that was me. in the middle of the fight. And a lot of people quit right there because that's where it's the hardest. That's where you look in the mirror. I actually had makeup on for my eyebrows because I didn't have any eyebrows there. But that's when you want to quit. And for me, that's where the enemy said, you should quit. What are you doing? You know what? You're not going to be able to preach again. This is too much for you. You know the statistics. You hear what the doctors are saying. Why don't you just quit now? But I had to preach to myself, literally. And I had to remind myself of what God has already done in my life. That God, you brought me out of the projects. God, you rescued me from a life of sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse. You brought me out of domestic violence. You brought me out of addiction and alcoholism. God, you saved my marriage. God, you brought me out of 12 years of depression. Surely, you can bring me out of cancer. Surely, you haven't brought me this far to leave me now. And it was right then when I made the choice. to look into my future and to look to the promises of God. So back then, four years ago, I imagine myself here right now. I am going to preach the word again. I am going to fulfill my assignment in life. I'm going to see my children graduate high school and college. I'm going to see my children give birth. I'm going to celebrate 30 years with my husband and 40 years with my husband. I will see God's promises in my life. I am so glad I didn't quit. I'm so glad I didn't quit. because I also have a testimony. I also am living proof to anyone out there questioning God that he did it for me. He can do it for you. I want to show you a video. There's a video that goes with this picture. To anyone else out there going through something, a hard time. Maybe a health challenge like me. I just want to remind you that it's something that you're going through. It's not a final destination. I'm going through and I'm coming out with victory in my hands. How about you? James chapter 1 verse 12 says this, blessed is the one who endures trials because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. I don't know what you're going through right now, but don't quit. Endure. Wait it out. Fight till the end so that you can see the promises of God happen in your life. I'm so glad I didn't quit. I wouldn't be here today. I just want to encourage you to never quit and never give up. God has a plan for your life. He has a purpose for your life. You're not here on accident. You're not here because of a big bang. you're not the product of evolution but you are intentionally created by God he knows every hair on your head he knows your DNA in the fingerprints the Bible says he has you tattooed in his hand he thinks about you day and night night and day you are his favorite child he loves you with an unconditional love Whatever you do, don't give up on God. He won't give up on you. Amen. I want to give you an opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Everyone in the room doesn't know God as the Father. And I want to give you the opportunity to do that today. You know, people think that everyone's a child of God. We're all God's children. That's not true. Everyone is a creation of God, but not everyone's a child of God. God has given us a way to become a child. The Bible says we are adopted into his family. And the way that we become adopted into his family is by confessing Jesus Christ. By believing Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins, by accepting him as the Lord of our lives, that's how we become adopted into the family of God. And if you're here today and you say, you know what? I want to be a part of God's family. I want to give you the opportunity to do that now. What it is is a simple prayer. The Bible says if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that you shall be saved. What are you saved from? You're saved from a life of damnation. You're saved of a life of being hopeless and you're saved from an eternal life of punishment. When you become a child of God, you have abundant life, promises here in the earth, and everlasting. Meaning that when you leave this earth one day, you'll be living in eternity with Jesus, with our Heavenly Father. And I want to pray with you today, if you want to say that prayer. I want to ask everybody to bow your heads, please, and close your eyes. I just want you to kind of give everyone a moment to act like it's just them and Jesus in the room. Take a moment and ask yourself, do I know Jesus? Have I accepted him as Lord? And if you haven't, I want to say a prayer with you so that you can be a part of this family as well. And so in a moment, I'm going to have you raise your hand and then we're going to pray and you're going to be a child of God. That's exciting to me. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you say, Pastor Tabitha, I want you to pray with me. I want to become a member of God's family. I want to accept Jesus as my Lord. Would you go ahead and raise your hand right now, please? Thank you so much. I see your hands. I see hands all around the room. Thank you so much. Most importantly, God sees your hand. You can go ahead and put your hands down. Now, next I'm going to pray. And all I want you to do is repeat after me. Just believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. And I want to ask all of us who have said this prayer for the very first time, would you just join in by faith with those of us who have already said this prayer? Would you join in by faith and pray with us who are praying for the very first time? Okay, repeat after me. Heavenly Father, I need you today. I recognize that I'm a sinner and I want Jesus to pay the price for my sin. Father, forgive me of my sin. Jesus, I make you Lord. I make you Savior of my life. Thank you, Father, for saving me. Amen. come on y'all let's give it up for those of us who just became born again you were born one time from your mother's womb but this second time you were born of God you were born of the Spirit of God I encourage you to write this day down because now you're a child of God now you have the favor of God on your life now you're gonna be get gonna begin to hear from God and see God like never before this is your day and y'all would you just stand up very quickly I just want to release the blessing over the families today before I leave It has been a blast being with you today. And would you just go ahead, lift up your hands and receive. And I just want to pray a blessing over you. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for every man and woman and boy and girl that has their hands lifted in this room today. Lord, I thank you for every man and woman and boy and girl that has their hands lifted in this room today. Lord, I pray. I release your blessing upon them. I release your blessing on the mothers and the fathers and the grandfathers and the grandmothers, the sons and daughters, aunts and uncles. I thank you, Father, that they are anointed to do what you've called them to do, to be a light to the. this world and salt to the earth. I thank you, Father, that we are a mighty people of God rising up to give you glory. Bless their families, bless their health, bless their finances. In Jesus' name, we give you the victory, Father. Amen. I love you guys. Happy Mother's Day. Come on, can you guys give the word of God one more time? So good. Hey, a few quick next steps before you head out today. If you're wondering how you can get connected, discover your purpose and make a difference, we have this thing called Growth Track. It's gonna start 10 minutes after service next Sunday. So we'd love to see you there. Also, for everyone who got saved or if it's your first time joining us, we wanna place a gift in your hand. So fill that connection card out and bring it to the Connection Center after service so we can do just that. And also, if you wanna be water baptized, We have a QR code that you can scan to register on my right, your left, right here at the stage, that we can get you signed up for water baptism. And if you have questions for anything or about God or any questions that you need, we have pastors at the front here to answer those for you after service. And for all my moms joining us today, we have some special pouches for you. Just to say thank you and happy Mother's Day. It says, Mom, you're doing a great job. That's cute. All right. Well, have a great day. Happy Mother's Day, and we'll see you next week. Until you came around and showed me there was nothing to prove Someone said it's unexplainable But I know, yeah, I know what you can do Oh, you're changing my altitude. Your love is a whole new move. Something I can put my faith in. Oh, you struck a match in the dark. You're melting my plastic heart. This is beautiful. don't have to fake it oh you changed my altitude your love is a whole new moon something I can put my faith in oh you're strapped back in the dark you're melting my plastic heart this is real, don't have to fake it don't quit making sense keeping up appearances cause there ain't no impressing you you said don't act like it's all good life Hollywood You're changing my altitude Your love is a whole new moon Something I can put my faith in You struck a match in the dark You're melting my plastic heart This is real, don't have to fake it You're changing my altitude Your love is a whole new moon Something I can put my faith in Oh, it's like a match in the dark You're melting my plastic heart It's just we don't have to fake it Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na, yeah Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na, yeah Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na, yeah Na-na-na, na-na-na You keep the faith in my heart, never knew a love like this in my life, yeah, it was you all along, I know I belong, I'm right where I'm at Watch my face, it's real love and it took time, been chillin' down the floor, they havin' good times, runnin' your race, can't get all checked, don't got a friend when you got my back, let's go Oh, oh, oh, oh, I'm changin' my altitude, your love is a whole new move, somethin' I can put my faith in, oh It's like a match in the dark You're up to my plastic heart This is real, don't have to fake it I know it's real, I know it's real You, that's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna rejoice in you I'm gonna rejoice in you, that's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna rejoice in you I'm walking by faith. Whatever I face, I will see. You won't put your head down. I'm gonna rejoice in you. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rejoice in you. I'm gonna rejoice in you. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rejoice in you. That's what I'm gonna do. Hey, hey, hey. Shut up, I'm out. I got to praise all the things you do. How can I say how grateful I am when I lift up my hand? I'm going to rejoice in you. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to rejoice in you. I'm going to rejoice in you. That's what I'm going to do. We will praise his name in the morning. We will praise his name through the night. Come on and bless the Lord, everybody. Lift your voice and celebrate. We will praise his name in the morning. Oh yeah, we will praise This is a new night Come on and bless the Lord, everybody Lift your voice and celebrate Come on, drink and celebrate That's what I'm gonna do We're gonna enjoy it I'm gonna, I'm gonna rescue you Sometimes you've got to dance through the darkness, sing through the fire, praise when it don't exist. Sometimes you've got to stare down the giant, worship from the lion's den. Sometimes you gotta shout it from the mountain Louder in the valley Trusting that he's gonna get you there Sometimes you gotta welcome the wonder Wait for the answer Worship with your hands in the air I'll praise you anywhere Praise, give Him praise, give Him praise And I ask praise, give Him praise, give Him praise And I ask He is worthy Yes, He is worthy of all praise Sometimes you've got to praise in the prison, cry out to heaven, shout as the doors swing wide. Sometimes you've got to stand on your shackles, brave in the battle, worship with your hands held high. I'll praise you anyway. Praise, give them praise, give them praise, in the high praise, give them praise. Faithful all my life, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, every promise kept, goodness every step, each and every breath, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, every promise kept, goodness every step, each and every breath, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, every promise kept, goodness every step, each and every breath, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, Every station begins You You gotta hold your guard to see When the night gets dark It's another day And life gets hard It's just part of the game Oh Know that you are not alone When you're standing in the fire When you're up against the tire Fire Keep on standing tall and watch the giant Oh, The things get out of hand, get up and testify The God of Abrams, fighting for you by your side Cause greater is the one, who is inside of us Than he who is living in the world When you're standing in the fire When your effort gets a giant Rise up, rise I'm standing tall and don't forget that you're a fighter You've got a champion inside ya I just keep watching the giant fall It's done It's another day, your life gets hard It's just part of the game, oh But you were not alone Just keep on standing tall and don't forget that you're a fighter You got a champion inside ya Rise up, rise up, rise up Just keep on Watch the giant fall Oh This is the day of salvation. What a time to be alive. Stop looking for the evidence. And start living in the promises. And this is the year of salvation. This is the rain that we pray for. Start living in the promises like you know your father is. Heaven's sharing your... I feel it down on the inside. Yeah. I feel it down on the inside. I feel it down on the inside. Down on the inside We are a chosen child

so you so Okay. Bye. Hey, what's up Alive Church Online family?

We're so glad that you're tuning in with us right now. And happy Mother's Day to all the moms hopping on. We want to celebrate you and just thank you for giving life to so many of us. Praise God. Hey, can we just do a favor real quick for us?

I need everyone participating in this next part. For the next 25 seconds, I need you guys to grab the link on the top of your screen and start sharing this page with everyone you know. Share it with family members, friends. Share it with moms that you know because they need to tune in for Mother's Day at a live church.

So come on, let's share that link. Come on, 15 more seconds. Let's go.

Share, share, share, share. It's going to be a great day. Come on, guys.

Y'all are doing a great job, and thank you so much. Also, as you guys know, guys are doing that type in the comments where you're tuning in from we want to know where you're from and we would love to get to know you and if you're a mom type in all caps i'm a mom because we want to love and celebrate you guys also we have some very exciting things we're doing for the pre-show today we're going to give you guys a vip behind the scenes tour of our production room and what's cool about this is that everyone in this entire church they never get a chance to go see how service is produced but because you guys are tuning online we want to give you guys an all exclusive access pass to the back room. So come on, let's go. And one more thing before we do that, make sure you guys go ahead and drop your comments below if you need prayer requests, or if you need prayer requests in the description, there's a link that you can click and we have a team ready to pray with you.

But let's go check out the production room. Come on. All right, this is what we call the Alive Creative Suite. This is where our worship team has an awesome time to just hang out before service and get prayed up before they go live.

But this is the production room, and so let's go meet our friend Justin. Justin Santos, what's up? Come on, this is Justin.

He's our production team captain. We're here with Alive Church Online, and we want to just get a tour of what this room is all about and how you guys make service possible, especially for them. All right, for sure. Sure, for sure.

Yes, so welcome to the production room. Let's go walk around. Let's do it. All right, cool beans. So over here, we have our broadcast area.

So all these screens here are what we're looking at when we're putting out the shots here on Alive Online. Right here are all the slides that we put out for you guys. So we have our countdown videos, our lyrics, and any announcements that we have, we push out through here. Come on, this way. So over here is our broadcast audio side.

So what you guys are hearing out there is all produced right here from our good friend right here. My guys right here. We're going to bring it over here. All right. I love it.

I love it. So everything we do here, we try our best to really bring the experience that we have. we have in the house to the live online because we feel like here at Alive Church it's not just within these four walls but it's global it's to everyone so we want to make sure that we bring that experience to you guys so yeah come on none of this would be possible if it wasn't for this team right here and let's just shout them out can y'all shout them out in the comments right now let them know that you appreciate them because we wouldn't even be live right now if it wasn't for them clicking buttons back here in the back amen awesome so now we're going to go ahead and tour our good friend James.

He helps put on everything in service. So let's go check out the auditorium. Let's go, guys. Let's go, let's go.

Here it is. Here it is. Come on. So this is our auditorium as many of you guys know.

This is where all of it goes down. And this is right here, all of our cameras, and we're going to go find James up top in the sound booth. Let's go.

James Garrett, what's up brother? What's up everybody? This is James. He's our live production director.

Can you just give us a tour of everything that's happening in this room? From the sound to the lighting, also to the LED wall and everything. Yeah, what's up guys?

Yeah, come on, let's check it out. Come on. So we got our front of house audio operator over here. So they're mixing all the sound that you would hear in person in the sanctuary here. So we're doing a lot of cool stuff there.

Right behind us here, we've got our lighting director. And they're managing all the lighting effects so that we can see what's going on on stage, kind of add some dynamics to our worship. Yeah, let's go to the stage. Let's check that out.

Come on. Let's do it. Yeah, come on, let's go. Alright, and then real quick, we've got, over here we've got Chikina, she's our...

Stage manager today. The stage manager is kind of responsible for just making sure that everything is kind of happening and flowing smoothly. So they'll kind of be our in-between person for the production crew, the communicators on stage, the worship team. Just kind of make sure they're leading everything and solidifying everything so that you guys, you know, have a good experience.

And we just get, you know, God gets all the praise for that. So let's head up on stage and check out some of the stuff we got going on up here. Go ahead, lead the way.

Come on, James. And actually this is Shekinah right here. Say hi.

Hi! Come on. Alright, well guys welcome to the stage.

As you can see we've got this new ultra-wide LED wall that we just put in. So that went in October and we're really excited about that. We're able to do some really cool graphic mappings and things like that so that we can put different graphics on the stage.

like up on these side slices here or in the center. You'll see kind of during our, if you come in person, you'll see we can play some certain videos right in the middle and have some different accent graphics. So that's been really cool for us. And we've got our keyboards rig here.

We have... We have those drums over there. We just put in that kind of isolation booth that really helps out the sound in here. And then we added some pixel scripts above the stage. Yeah, and so, you know, as you're watching online, just enjoy that.

Get the full experience. Yeah, and that's kind of what we're going for. Come on, can you guys give it up for James?

Type James in all caps in the comments and say thank you, James. Come on, we appreciate you. All right, thank you guys. We love you guys. This is the man that makes the magic happen.

Come on. All right, up next, we're going to go reach out to one of the moms and her daughters in a... in our church to celebrate them and to tell them happy Mother's Day on this very special Sunday.

So come on, let's go. You see, Angie and her daughter, her daughter Kiera, actually serves on the production team that we just toured. And Angie is one of the leaders of the Usher team. And so we love them, and we really want to celebrate them for all that they do.

Come on. All right, there they are right there. And we've got a special surprise. I think we're going to surprise them with some flowers.

So let's go do it. Angie, Kiara, what's up? Happy Mother's Day! Aw, thank you! Welcome!

How are you guys doing today? We're good! Amazing! Okay, come on. How are you feeling about Mother's Day today?

You gonna do anything special? I'm excited for dinner. My mom's actually cooking, so she came from out of town, so I'm excited for dinner. Yeah, so we're gonna have some penne.

And meat and rice. Oop and meal. Yummy.

Let's go. Well, hey, guys. Is there anything that you're looking forward to the most?

Or what is one thing that you love the most about your mom, Kiara? There's a lot of stuff. I really like her hardworking nature. Like she's so hardworking like right after this she's gonna serve During this service and she puts a hundred and ten into it every single time so I love that about her And what is one of the things that you love the most about being a mom?

Getting to see all the what do you call them like the different The graduations, the different, the different, I have four kids, so it's all different with all of them. So again, you can see all those exciting moments. There's a couple more kids right behind you that want to celebrate you.

So happy Mother's Day! These are her sons. as well.

We just want to say we love you and happy Mother's Day. Have a great one. Enjoy serving.

Come on, give it up for Angie and Kiara and the rest of the family, guys. You're welcome. You're welcome.

All right, y'all. That's it. We are at our three-minute countdown. We look forward to you enjoying service today.

Drop in the comments if you need prayer because we have a team ready to pray with you. And also, make sure to share this link with someone you know so they can get the word of God today. Happy Mother's Day. We love you live online, and we'll see you next time.

Thank you. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! Four, three, two, one.

Good morning, Alive Church. Happy Mother's Day. I want you excited to worship this morning.

Let's put our hands together. Here we go. We sing hallelujah, hallelujah, we sing it's a grace that we release.

There's an anthem of the free When you know what you've been rescued from Worship fills your lungs It's a sound of the Lord Come on church, can you lift your hands, sing it out. Can you lift your hands if you've been forgiven, brought into the land of the man of freedom in his heart. This is me, before Christ changed everything.

I'm gonna sing if you know that you can't go to hell. I promise. Amen. It's the sound of the Lord. We need it.

Lift your hands. Lift your hands. If you can forgive and pardon. To the man of the man. Which freedom in this life.

Which freedom in this life. We sing. Lift your voice. It feeds the faithful.

Shout it out. Tell them you're great. This will be the change on the floor, prison doors, open wide, for our hope is restored, what was it, see what was it brought back to life? See the change on the floor as it goes on. Open wide.

Hey, our hope is restored. And what was it brought back to us? See the change on the floor as it goes on.

Open wide. So dance with you, give, and invite you to let God prepare you. Let your sweet, obedient heart, let your voice sing it out.

Let the faithful shout it out, tell them you've made a sweet, obedient heart. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, that's what it says in how... If it's freedom in this house, we give you praise, Lord.

Come on, Alive Church. If you believe there's freedom in this house, let's just continue to worship. Come on, we trust in the name of the Lord.

Come on, let's sing this. Christ is my firm foundation. He's the rock on which I stand, and everything around me is sacred.

I've been long, and I put my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down. He's faithful through generations.

So why would he fail now? He won't. Come on, if you believe that this morning, say I still got joy in me. I've got peace that makes no sense.

So I won't be going under. I'll walk my faith. He's faithful in every season So I will be filled He won't fail Never have I seen the righteous forsaken, and he will never fail, he will never fail, no, he will never fail, he will never fail, he will never fail. Come on, teach your soul to remember as we sing this.

Hey, you lost your spirit, oh. Say free, you are gonna make me see the rain, I'll sing. I'll sing. Sing reggae, reggae. My house is built on you.

Oh, Christ is my foundation. He's the rock of the world. He's everything around me.

I'll never be alone. I'll never be alone. I put my faith in you. He won't I have to teach our soul to remember That he won't He won't fail It looks like he won't fail He won't Come on church, aren't you glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning? Come on, aren't you glad to have a Lord and Father to save you?

That's not going to fail you. Come on, no matter the circumstance you're in, He has to find those things in the name of Jesus. There's power in the name of Jesus, amen. And I just want to encourage you church, as we continue to worship, just begin to open your heart.

And just know that when you worship, you're giving everything back to Him. Not for only the things that He's done, but just for who He is, amen. Come on, let's worship.

Let me sing. I can silence roaring waves, I know a name. I can empty out a glass, I know a name.

is the only thing I chase and is worthy of all praise. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Jesus. I call you Jesus.

I call you, I call you Savior. Worthy and holy forever. Something comes out of me. Give me time I call you I have a king With dominion over death He holds the keys In his holiness God is He is the king And has crushed the serpent's head God is the rain I call you Jesus I call you, I call you He is in me I'm a something good Something comes out of the grave.

I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. Worthy and glory forever. Something comes out of the grave.

Jesus has told the power. Hey, oh, there's nothing to me, but worship you alone. Oh, when, oh, there is an hour, you'll see, and we'll bring you home.

Come on, let's sing. Oh, great, oh, great is the love of Jesus. We can win the game, yeah It's come, it's come alive I This is the life of the Jesus, I call you out Something comes out, come on do you believe that church? Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Come on, Jesus. He said yesterday, today, and forevermore in the name of Jesus.

Come on, church. Hear the life. We believe in the power of prayer.

And this morning, if you believe for a miracle, come on, if you believe for a breakthrough, just someone to sit in the gap with, you want to invite the prayer team to come to the front. We want to encourage you to come to the front at this time so we can pray for you. We'll continue to worship in this place.

Come on. Let's sing this out. Here I am, back on the altar again.

Would you meet me where I am? Would you meet me where I am? Take my life, a living sacrifice.

It's my only offering, it's my greatest offering, so here it is, my everything, and I'm Another surrender. With hands open wide, I lay it all down. A total abandon. I'm letting go of what I thought I found.

And here on my knees, I share you clearly now. This is surrender. Another surrender.

I lay it all down. I have your feet. It's where I want to be. I give you every part of me.

You give me every part of me. Take my life, a living sacrifice. It's my only offering.

It's my greatest offering. So here it is, my everything. I'll let it go, what I thought I found, and here on my knees, I see Him with me now.

This is surrender, I'll let it go, what I thought I found, and here on my knees, I see Him with me now. I hear it all now, it's all over the bed, I'm what I thought I found, I see it clearly now, I surrender and now I surrender, I hear it all now. It's yours, it's yours America!

America! I lay it all down Let it go now. I lay it all down. It's yours. Oh, I lay it all down.

I lay it all down I'm ready to go now I lay it all down It's yours anyway It's yours anyway, it's yours anyway, it's yours anyway, it's yours anyway We give you hope We worship you, you are worthy to be praised. We give, we give you all. Oh, what glory. We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised.

And we give you honor. We worship you, our Lord, to be given to you. To be praised Somebody give God a shout of praise in this place today Come on, has he done anything and you're lucky you give him praise As we're worshiping, I feel like I heard God say that if you lay it down, then he'll pick you up.

If you lay it down, then he'll pick you up. What does that mean? That doesn't mean whatever problem you're facing, whatever circumstance that you're in, whatever situation might be weighing you down, if you lay it down today, He'll pick you up.

That means that he's going to have victory in your life. Come on, can you just lift up your hands and give him praise? That he's going to give you victory.

That he's going to lift the weight. That he'll pick you up and bring you to a new situation in a new season. Come on, two more seconds of praise.

Hallelujah, Father, you're worthy. Hallelujah. Amen, amen. Isn't it good to be in the house of God today? Hey, well, happy Mother's Day and welcome to Alive Church.

We're so glad you're joining us. Hey, can you do me a favor? Get out of your seats. Introduce yourself to two to three people that you did not come to church with today. Give them your name.

Grab their names. And you can make your way back to your seat after that. Come on, and if you're joining us online today, we just want to say welcome to Alive Church Online.

We're glad you're tuning in. As you guys are seated, my name is Elijah, and I have the opportunity to serve here as one of our pastors. And again, I just want to say welcome to Alive Church and Happy Mother's Day.

Come on, shout out to all the moms in the room. Make some noise. We're thankful for you guys.

And I also want to shout out some special people joining us, and that's our first-time guests. So Alive Church, can you make some noise for all of our first-time guests? Come on, you could have been anywhere today, but you chose to be here and for that we're grateful and we want to say thank you and give you guys a gift.

And so in the seat back pocket in front of you, there's a connection card that looks like this. If you take that connection card out, fill it out, and then bring it to the connection center after service today, we'd love to place a gift in your hand just to say thank you for joining us on this Mother's Day. Also, as you guys took your seats, there's some invite cards that look like this. We have a saying in the live church that one invite can't Oh, y'all can do better than that. One invite can.

One invite can change a life. And so we want to encourage you. Take these invite cards out this week and change someone's life by inviting them to church with you next Sunday.

And speaking of life change, we have a vision to see 2 million souls saved over the span of 20 years. And we're one step closer because this week alone, we saw 140 people say yes to Jesus. That's 140 people that prayed a prayer of salvation. And now get to spend eternal life with him because you're changing lives. So keep up the good work, Alive Church.

And we believe that none of this is possible without the power of prayer. And so on the back of your connection card, we've provided an opportunity for you to fill out any prayer requests that you might have. Or to connect with us by sharing your testimony so we can celebrate all that God is doing in your life. And so I'd like to encourage you, fill these cards out and drop them off after service today so we can pray for them. Because we have a team of people that pray over these cards every single Wednesday night and throughout the entire week.

I actually have a few prayer requests in my hands right now. So as a sign of agreement, can you stretch your hands towards these cards and we'll pray over them. together.

Father God, we thank you that you're a God who hears our prayers. And for the person having surgery to remove their cancer on June 3rd, we thank you that you are Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. So we pray that she'll be cancer-free in the name of Jesus. We've seen you do it before, and we'll know you do it again. For the person that's struggling to pay their mortgage, God, who's behind and facing closing down their business, God, we know that you are Jehovah Jireh, and we pray that you provide a way in their finances, and we declare that there will be a financial miracle this week, God, that they can provide a way to keep their business open in Jesus' name.

And for the person, Father, who's lost their mother. is going through this hard time we thank you that your word says that holy spirit you are an advocate and a comforter and so be with them right now where they are with their family bring a peace that surpasses understanding upon them god that they can look to you where their help comes from god and receive the joy that they so need right now in this moment in jesus name we pray amen amen amen good morning family i'm dr lauren Lauren, and I have the honor to serve as our dream team director here at the Florida Mall Campus. And I just want to transition us to another time in our worship, and that's through our giving.

Now, here at Alive Church, we have four simple ways that you can give. One, you can text your amount to the number shown on the screen behind me. Two, you can give online by visiting myalivechurch.org forward slash give.

And if you're at any of our physical locations, you can use tap to give. You can take your cellular device and tap it to the disc on the chair in front of you. And last but certainly not least, you can fill out an offering envelope in its entirety and drop it off at one of the offering boxes as you exit the auditorium.

Now, as you're preparing yourself to give this morning, I just want to thank you all so much for being a generous church. On this Mother's Day today, as we're honoring all of the moms and all of the mother figures in our lives, I just want to take a moment to share with you how your generosity is making a difference in the lives of women who are experiencing and walking into motherhood for the very first time. time. Now, if you can, if you can imagine yourself. Being a single woman, you just found out that you're pregnant, and not only do you have one blessing on the way, you have two.

And so you're trying to figure out how you're going to make ends meet. How are you going to give all the things that your babies are going to need by the time that they get here? here.

Well, I'm excited to share that being a part of Alive, we often partner with organizations like Care Portals, Foster Care Unit, that allow us to partner and team up with caseworkers to help us identify families that are in crisis just like this one. So most recently, our outreach team was able to identify a single mother that recently gave birth to twins who she was co-sleeping with that made their infants at a greater risk of SID. And so it's because of your generosity that we were able to purchase for her two pack-and-plays where now each of her babies have their own individual beds to sleep in.

So on this Mother's Day, we just want to say thank you. Know that your generosity is helping us to change lives. It's giving me. mothers hope and it's helping us to shape the future lives of their little ones.

So know that we love you. We appreciate you. That's all I have and check out this video.

I never really like looked at myself as a mother when we were kind of like walking through the house. The Lord said you will have children here. It became kind of like this obsessive thing for me. I would check my cycle. I would be on my app.

I would make sure like everything was right and then we would try and then I would get a negative test and then it would happen again. I was just kind of like, is this ever going to happen? Is there something wrong with me?

I was in a room with my friend Leslie and she asked me, she's like, are you standing on any scripture? Are you standing on a word? And I realized at that point that I was standing on my own understanding.

Immediately I went home and I opened up my Bible. And I studied Hannah and Samuel. And I said, God, if you did it for her, you can do it for me. I laid everything down, the apps, the obsessive thoughts. And it was in that moment where I got pregnant.

So I was excited to be pregnant. But at the same time, it was like fear just took over. I began to have this extreme itching all over my body.

It was like uncontrollable. I mean, I would cry myself to sleep. Just itching, itching, itching, itching. But one night it was so bad, my husband called the doctor and then they sent me to do some blood work.

I go to the doctor on Monday, there's no results. And the doctor tells me, let's just keep waiting to see what they say. She's like, it could be a rash, but I had no rash.

Or it could be cholestasis. And the last thing that she says to me before she leaves the room is, But let's hope it's not the other thing, because it's life-threatening to you and the baby. I was checking that portal like a maniac. I mean, because if you read anything online about choleostasis, if you deliver at 38 weeks, the chances of a stillborn are increased. And again, that was my biggest fear.

So I am just itching. I am... Just feeling like, God, I don't know what's wrong with me.

And so I'm like in the shower. I am just crying to God because I'm itchy. I can't sleep.

I'm miserable. And I said, God, if I have this thing, make me deliver before the 38 weeks because the test results are not coming in. So it was. 37 weeks and three days. I told my husband, I'm like, it's time.

Let's just go to the hospital. It took about 19 hours of labor. My daughter was born.

On November 21st, 2024, a healthy baby girl. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her. Everything was perfect. I was good and healthy. I forgot completely about the cholestasis and everything.

We get home that weekend and that Monday that I was supposed to be 38 weeks, I get the test results and I had cholestasis. But what's crazy is that you I felt like God delayed the results for a reason. I felt God's hand in absolutely everything, like that God is in control. Even though I was overtaken by fear, He was always in control.

And I was reminded of the word that He spoke to me in my house. I said, sitting there with my baby, that you will have children here. And I just think that God's promises are perfect.

And sometimes We just have to sit on what he promised us and not think about our circumstances. Come on, hallelujah! Help me thank God for his promises.

His word will come to pass. He did it for Daniela. He can do it for you. Amen. Hallelujah!

We serve a mighty God. Wow, y'all look so good this morning. Go ahead and be seated.

It's so good to see you in the house of the Lord today. I want to add my happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there, the grandmothers, the great-grandmothers, the aunties. Come on, this is your day.

Amen. Are you excited moms? I know I have a steak dinner coming to me after church today.

I'm putting in my work and I'm going to have a steak dinner, okay? And it's going to be good. I'm eating it all, okay?

No, Mother's Day is just, it's a fun day and it's... should be celebrated because mothers are special. You know, God made mothers special. And I'm so happy that you're here today.

You know, I want to share with all of the moms a tip that, you know, a mother told me when I had my first child, especially you moms who... You have babies, the newborns, the toddlers, oh my, the third graders, the fourth graders, and the fifth graders. Listen, all of my children are teenagers right now, so I'm telling myself this as well. But their piece of advice was this. They said, cherish every moment.

Don't despise changing the diapers. Don't despise the endless dishes and the endless laundry. Like, cherish every moment.

Someone sent me a picture yesterday on my phone. And it was. It was one of my daughters when she was like two years old.

And I sent her cry emojis back, cry emoji, cry emoji, cry like, oh. And I said, I miss my babies. They're not going to be that small all the time. And so you want to, one thing that I can never say is that I regret not cherishing every moment. Because I did.

I knew that that time wasn't going to last always. And so let's just be happy where we are. Amen. I want to get into the Word today, but before I do, I want to share with you the next series that we'll be talking about here at Alive Church.

We're getting ready to go into the summer season, and sometimes in the summer we go to so many weddings and on so many... many vacations and so many graduations, we kind of get off rhythm and God who we once had in first place kind of drops down here and we're not putting God first and his principles first. But here at Alive Church, we intentionally, as we're We're going into the summer. Remind everyone to put God first.

And so we have a series coming out that is going to help us keep God first in our time, our treasure, and our talents. The name of that series is called Hidden Treasure. And I encourage you to be here for it.

Get excited about it. Tell your neighbors and coworkers and all of those people you're believing God for, we're going to grow closer to God this summer. Amen? Well, I think God has a special word for you today. Today I want to talk to families.

And, you know, know, if you ask any mom, what's going to be near and dear to her heart is family. I think it's going to be a blessing for you today. Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. And Lord, we just acknowledge your presence that's already here. Holy Spirit, have your way.

Lord, give us what we need to do what you've called us to do. Help us to understand who we are. Help us to love what you love, Lord.

In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so the title for today is Me and My House. Can you say that with me?

Me and My House. All right, you sound good today. If you're taking notes, get out your note takers, take out your Bibles. You can get the Bible app on your phone. Also, I'll have some scripture on the screen because we're going to go to the Word of God today.

But we're going to start out in Joshua chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. And before we get into the scripture, I want to give you a little bit of pretext. So we all, most of us are familiar with Moses. He was the one who led the children of Israel out of... Egypt, out of bondage, out of slavery, in towards the promised land. And so Moses was mighty, chosen of God.

But in between Egypt, slavery, bondage, and the promised land was the wilderness. Moses died in the wilderness. But in place of Moses, Joshua rose up. And Joshua led the children of Israel. out of the wilderness and into the promised land, the land of milk and honey, the land of abundance, the land of more than enough.

It was Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho, where they marched around Jericho six times. And on the seventh time, they let out a shout to the Lord and the walls of the city supernaturally crumbled down to the ground, giving the children of God victory. This is who Joshua was. And so Joshua, at the end of his life, before he dies, he says this scripture that we're about to read right now. He says this to the children of Israel.

If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Whether gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or gods of the Amorites in whose land we're currently living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. What Joshua was saying was, you have a choice.

You can serve the gods that other nations worship. You can serve the God that other people and other cultures worship. You can serve social media and you can do things for the Instagram likes. You can serve your friends.

and you can do what your neighbors want you to do, or you can serve God. And he says, as for me and my house, as for me and my family, we're gonna serve God. We're gonna do things God's way.

And I think that's where we are today. Wouldn't you agree? That's where we are today. We all have a choice to make.

We can do things like pop culture. We can do things like Hollywood, music, the music industry. We can follow the world's way or... We can draw a line in the sand and say, as for me and my house, I'm going to serve the Lord.

I'm going to do things God's way. And I think right now God is calling his children to serve God, to do it God's way, not Not just on Sunday morning, but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Repeat, repeat, repeat. All the days of our lives, we serve God.

Amen? And so the Proverbs says this in chapter 24. By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and... beautiful treasures.

Psalm 127 says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. What does that mean? God's not coming down from heaven with a hammer and a nail.

It means that unless the Lord builds the house, unless you do things God's way with God's principles, there's no use in doing it. If it's not done God's way, it's not going to last anyway, Right? And so we want to do things God's way.

And so we all want houses. I know for me, I want my house to be filled with beautiful things. I want my house to not only be filled with beautiful things actually, but metaphorically, the wisdom, the knowledge, and the understanding. And so therefore, my house has to be built God's way on the word of God.

And so today, I want to give you some things that I believe will help strengthen your house. to strengthen your family, help you draw a line in the sand like Joshua did and say, for me in my house, we're going to serve the Lord. I have four pillars, if you will, to share with you today. The first one is this, as for me in my house, can y'all say that with me? As for me in my house, you sound good.

We know who we are and celebrate who we are. So good. I believe that one of the reasons families are falling apart today, families are breaking up, families are suffering, is because we don't understand who we are.

And when you don't know who you are, you kind of, you fall for anything, you will follow any way or do anything. But when you know who you are, when you're established in your identity, there are certain things you do because of who you are, and there are also certain things you don't do because of who you are, right? And we're falling apart and marriages and families are being attacked and children are being attacked because We're doing things that if we knew who we were, we would never do that.

And we find our identity in the word of God. And so we go to the word of God and find out, oh, I'm not going over there because I know who I am. Therefore, I don't go there.

Oh, no, thank you. I'm not doing that today. I know who I am. I'm a child of God. Now, when I know my identity, it sets parameters and safety marks in my life that I stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to Jesus.

We're going to strengthen our families today, amen? And so, as for me and my house, the Claytors, my children know, know this is who we are. We are children of God.

We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. No, we don't do that here. No, we don't do that, son. We don't do that, daughter.

We're Claytors. We're believers. We're children of the Most High God.

And that ought not just be for the Claytor house. but for every born again believer. We are children of God. We know who we are.

And so when adversity comes our way or when it comes to my children making a decision in school, they decide based on who they are. There's security and strength in who they are. Who are we? We're believers.

What do we believe? We believe the word. We believe the Bible.

Yes, we believe every word of the Bible. We believe in healing. We believe in heaven and hell. We believe in salvation.

We believe that Jesus paid the price for our sins. We believe that we've been called out of darkness into the light of Jesus Christ. We are believers, amen?

And Jesus said this in Matthew chapter five, verse 13. He said, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, How should it be seasoned? He said, you're the light of the world. A city set on a hill, a city set on a hill can't be hid. They don't take a lamp and put it under the table. They take a lamp and put it on the tabletop so that everyone in the house could see.

He said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify the father in heaven. That's who we are. That's who we are as sons and daughters.

I teach my children, when you walk into a room, light just entered the room. When you walk into the business room, when you walk into the courtroom, when you walk into a dark situation, light just entered the room. What does that mean? Wisdom entered the room.

Understanding entered the room. Knowledge entered the room. The power of God entered the room.

because that's who you are. You're the salt of the earth. When you enter into the room, flavor comes. Where it was dull and drab, joy comes.

Fun comes. That's why we have fun in church. That's why we lift our hands and have fun and dance around because we're the salt of the earth.

If we don't have fun and enjoy our lives, what is everyone else going to do? We don't have to turn to the world to have fun and do things in a sinful manner, but we can be holy. We can be holy because God is holy. Amen.

As for me and my house, we know who we are and And we celebrate who we are. Amen. Number two.

As for me and my house, we honor each other. Honor is a word that I don't hear a lot anymore. We don't hear people talking about honor, but God is a God of honor. And what I find is that sometimes we honor strangers more than we honor the people in our own homes, our sons and daughters, our husbands and wives. We are to honor them.

Sometimes we'll go to work and honor our co-workers. right? Our boss, you come to church, hey pastor, and you're so nice. Even if you don't feel like it, you're nice and you choose your words correctly.

But then we go home and we're nasty to our kids and we boss our kids around. And then we get mad when they have an attitude with us and we try to correct them, right? We come home.

I know for me, you know, I'll go out doing stuff, bossing, doing stuff, bossing. Then I come home and try to boss my husband. He's like, uh-uh. We don't do that here.

We're declaters. We honor. But there's never an excuse for us to be nasty. Well, I'm just tired. I came home from work.

I did all this stuff. I don't feel like dealing with people. No, there's never an excuse to be nasty, rude, unkind. The Bible says, let all you do be done in love.

Let kindness be the law of your tongue. Do everything as unto the Lord. Would you look at Jesus like that? would you talk to Jesus like that no so we have the grace of God the ability of God to be able to be kind and to honor one another and you know what else we honor in our house we honor the order of a family that God made the male and the female he made the husband the head of the wife that the children honor their parents we love this this is not something to tear down the family but this is God's idea of the family and he builds it up. Do I serve my man?

Yes, I serve my man. Do I submit my man? Yes, I submit to my man. As the head. Do we submit to one another?

Yes we do. Because the Bible tells us to. But also the Bible tells me that the husband is my head. Am I okay with that? Yes I am okay with that.

Because the Bible says that Jesus died and gave his life for the church. That's how the husband must love the wife. That he would die for her and give his life for her. Yes I honor my man.

That he will die for me and give his life for me. Yes, he is the head of my family family. And I teach my daughters, I teach my daughters, get, go make a plate for your daddy. Go put a plate in the oven for your daddy.

Go get them a classic, a glass of cold water. I teach my husband boy, stand up and say yes, sir. To your, to your daddy. When he comes in the door, no, go open the door for your sisters.

Go take out the trash. Your mama needs help. Yes. We honor.

Femininity, we honor masculinity, celebrate it. Boy, go be a boy. Daughters, be feminine, it's okay.

You don't have to be the male and female. Daughter, wear your skirt, your high heels, do what you wanna do. As for me and my house, we honor each other, amen. Number three, as for me and my house, fear is not an option.

Fear is not an option. This is a big one for me because I grew up with fear, not faith. I didn't even know what faith was.

That wasn't even a term. I don't even know if I knew that, but fear. I was afraid of everything.

Don't do this because this could happen. Don't do that because something bad will happen. It was all based in fear.

And so I have made it a mission that I cannot allow fear to exist in my life, not just because of my past, but because the word says so. The word says time after time again, do not fear. Don't fear.

Don't worry. Don't be afraid. And so as believers and in my house, fear isn't tolerated.

And I was taught this, that fear tolerated is faith contaminated. I mean, I don't have time. I have too much faith. I have too many things that I'm believing God for.

I don't have time for this much fear to come into my life. But every time fear rises up, I push it down in the name of Jesus, right? Fear belongs under your feet, not up here. And so the Bible says that God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

That fear doesn't come from God. Now fear comes from the devil. Faith comes from God.

The devil is the great perverter. Everything that God did, he wants to take it and imitate it. So God is God of everything and he operates in faith.

Satan says, well, I want to be like God. I'm going to operate in fear and use it like faith. And so everything that you have faith for, you attract it to you.

Likewise, everything you have fear for, you attract it to you. Have you ever been around that person that's just afraid of bees? They're just afraid of bees, insects or whatever. but they always the one to get attacked by a bee. Like where'd that bee come from?

I remember I had a friend who was scared to death of dogs. I mean, little baby dog, they're afraid of it. But every single time a dog would come out of nowhere and they'd go running and scare. Why?

Because you attract what you have faith for and you attract what you have fear for. And fear is not a place in the believer's life, amen? Luke 10 says this, behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all power of the enemy and nothing by any means shall hurt you. I think Christians are fearful because we don't understand that we have a power.

We have authority and dominion over all power and principalities. Nothing by any means shall hurt us. We are believers, children of the most high God.

Amen. Genesis chapter 1 says this then God blessed them Adam and Eve he said to them be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth one translation says ever have dominion over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth that means you have dominion over spiders and over frogs and lizards and over all of those things we have dominion over it now I'm not saying that those things are nasty you know they're nasty and they're gross you know what I mean I don't you know I don't like particularly like snakes but I have dominion over it and I will not tolerate being fearful over it when my children were little you know here in Florida we have love bugs I think they're starting to come out now They swarm, they're everywhere. If you don't know what love bugs are, they're like lightning bugs, but they don't have the light on them and they just fly everywhere all day.

And every one of my children cried whenever they first encountered a love bug because they just come and sit on your arm and they're like, oh my gosh. But every time I'd pick the love bug off and say, oh no, it's so nice. And I treated it like a little puppy.

Oh, look at the bug. And then they would come and they'd pick it up out of my hands and they'd kill it by picking it up with their little toddler hands. But what I was doing was teaching them, no, we don't have to be afraid. And I was also teaching them that you have dominion over this little baby bug.

We're not going to be afraid of this baby bug. You can smash it with your fingers, right? And so I taught my children that we are not going to fear. And, you know, just recently I found out that one of my daughters has a fear of snakes. I said, were you?

Where did you get that from? We don't do that in this house. We don't tolerate fear in this house. And I'm not saying that they're not nasty again, but I'm saying, but we ain't going to be afraid of it.

And you just run it all out in terror because you saw a snake. Listen, Jesus crushed the snake's head with his heel and we can do the same. I can't tell you how many snakes I've killed on my property. Why? Because one day my husband wasn't home and there was a snake outside.

I wanted to take my children outside into the yard and play, but there was a big snake out there. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I decided I'm going to kill this snake because if I don't kill it, then I'm going to be wondering where is it?

And then I'll be in the house afraid. But I said, no, I'm going to kill the snake. So I killed that one. And then I killed another one and another one, another one. I don't know, but I'm not afraid of these things.

I taught my son because snakes will come and get into the pool. I taught them how to get a shovel. flop it up out of the pool and then just go to chopping and kill that snake.

Why? Because he needs to know. We don't have to be afraid. We don't do this.

But now my daughter, who's afraid of snakes, what I'm going to do is the next time I see one, guess who's going to be my apprentice? Guess who's going to be right by my side? Girl, get out here. We're going to kill the snake today because we don't tolerate fear.

We're Indian. And I know that might be a lot like, oh my gosh, the snakes, but it's the principle of the thing. It's the principle of it. When I was fighting cancer. When I was fighting cancer, going through chemotherapy, a snake got into our pool.

And my husband went out to the pool. And he said, babe, I can't get the snake out. It was running around.

He didn't feel like catching it. He said, it's okay. It's just a baby snake.

I don't care. And then he left the house. And I'm sitting in there because I was in the middle of a hard time, y'all.

And it was just like the snake was like, it was like it was here. Look at me. I'm in your pool. Look at me. I'm coming after your kids.

And so I got my tail off the couch. I went outside, I got the snake out the pool, and went to chop him. And I killed the snake.

Why? It was the principle of it. That little baby snake wasn't going to hurt anybody. But for me, I had to let the devil know. I had to let fear know.

Yeah, I'm in the middle of a battle right now, but I'm coming out of this battle just like I'm killing this snake right here. And fear is not going to keep me in my house. So when you let a little bit of fear in, that fear tries to come into other areas of your life, but at the little bit of fear, you got to smash it out. Amen.

Come on, say it with me. As for me in my house, fear is not an option. Hallelujah. Here's number four. As for me in my house, we don't quit.

I think a lot of people quit too soon. We quit before we see the promises and God says that he'll take that which was meant for evil turn it around and make it work for your good. So if there's something evil in your life wait on God. Don't quit because if he hadn't turned it around yet he's going to. Don't quit before he can turn it around and give you the promise and give you the testimony.

Amen. And when I say don't quit, I'm not talking about like not quitting on something that you sometimes you get yourself into things that God didn't tell you to do. Like, why did I even do that? Why did I? I've gotten into places and did things where I had to go back on my word and say, you know what, I know I said I would do this, I apologize, but I cannot override my peace.

I know that I should not be doing this, so forgive me, but I'm backing out right now. And that is perfectly fine to do, but you don't want to stay in something just because you said so. Ask for forgiveness.

Get out of it. Please don't go broke. Please don't go bankrupt doing something that you know God never told you to do. Get out!

Run! But for the promises of God, for your dreams, for what God spoke in your life, believe in God for that baby, believe in God for that healing, believe in God for your husband, your wife, your children. Don't quit. Let God do his thing.

Nobody can do it like him. I want to show you a picture of Mother's Day four years ago. This is what I looked like four years ago on Mother's Day. I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. I had a double mastectomy.

I had five months of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation, eight surgeries, and that was me. in the middle of the fight. And a lot of people quit right there because that's where it's the hardest. That's where you look in the mirror.

I actually had makeup on for my eyebrows because I didn't have any eyebrows there. But that's when you want to quit. And for me, that's where the enemy said, you should quit.

What are you doing? You know what? You're not going to be able to preach again.

This is too much for you. You know the statistics. You hear what the doctors are saying.

Why don't you just quit now? But I had to preach to myself, literally. And I had to remind myself of what God has already done in my life.

That God, you brought me out of the projects. God, you rescued me from a life of sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse. You brought me out of domestic violence.

You brought me out of addiction and alcoholism. God, you saved my marriage. God, you brought me out of 12 years of depression. Surely, you can bring me out of cancer. Surely, you haven't brought me this far to leave me now.

And it was right then when I made the choice. to look into my future and to look to the promises of God. So back then, four years ago, I imagine myself here right now. I am going to preach the word again. I am going to fulfill my assignment in life.

I'm going to see my children graduate high school and college. I'm going to see my children give birth. I'm going to celebrate 30 years with my husband and 40 years with my husband. I will see God's promises in my life. I am so glad I didn't quit.

I'm so glad I didn't quit. because I also have a testimony. I also am living proof to anyone out there questioning God that he did it for me. He can do it for you.

I want to show you a video. There's a video that goes with this picture. To anyone else out there going through something, a hard time. Maybe a health challenge like me.

I just want to remind you that it's something that you're going through. It's not a final destination. I'm going through and I'm coming out with victory in my hands. How about you? James chapter 1 verse 12 says this, blessed is the one who endures trials because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

I don't know what you're going through right now, but don't quit. Endure. Wait it out.

Fight till the end so that you can see the promises of God happen in your life. I'm so glad I didn't quit. I wouldn't be here today.

I just want to encourage you to never quit and never give up. God has a plan for your life. He has a purpose for your life. You're not here on accident.

You're not here because of a big bang. you're not the product of evolution but you are intentionally created by God he knows every hair on your head he knows your DNA in the fingerprints the Bible says he has you tattooed in his hand he thinks about you day and night night and day you are his favorite child he loves you with an unconditional love Whatever you do, don't give up on God. He won't give up on you.

Amen. I want to give you an opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Everyone in the room doesn't know God as the Father. And I want to give you the opportunity to do that today. You know, people think that everyone's a child of God.

We're all God's children. That's not true. Everyone is a creation of God, but not everyone's a child of God.

God has given us a way to become a child. The Bible says we are adopted into his family. And the way that we become adopted into his family is by confessing Jesus Christ.

By believing Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins, by accepting him as the Lord of our lives, that's how we become adopted into the family of God. And if you're here today and you say, you know what? I want to be a part of God's family. I want to give you the opportunity to do that now.

What it is is a simple prayer. The Bible says if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that you shall be saved. What are you saved from?

You're saved from a life of damnation. You're saved of a life of being hopeless and you're saved from an eternal life of punishment. When you become a child of God, you have abundant life, promises here in the earth, and everlasting.

Meaning that when you leave this earth one day, you'll be living in eternity with Jesus, with our Heavenly Father. And I want to pray with you today, if you want to say that prayer. I want to ask everybody to bow your heads, please, and close your eyes. I just want you to kind of give everyone a moment to act like it's just them and Jesus in the room. Take a moment and ask yourself, do I know Jesus?

Have I accepted him as Lord? And if you haven't, I want to say a prayer with you so that you can be a part of this family as well. And so in a moment, I'm going to have you raise your hand and then we're going to pray and you're going to be a child of God.

That's exciting to me. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you say, Pastor Tabitha, I want you to pray with me. I want to become a member of God's family. I want to accept Jesus as my Lord.

Would you go ahead and raise your hand right now, please? Thank you so much. I see your hands. I see hands all around the room.

Thank you so much. Most importantly, God sees your hand. You can go ahead and put your hands down.

Now, next I'm going to pray. And all I want you to do is repeat after me. Just believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. And I want to ask all of us who have said this prayer for the very first time, would you just join in by faith with those of us who have already said this prayer? Would you join in by faith and pray with us who are praying for the very first time?

Okay, repeat after me. Heavenly Father, I need you today. I recognize that I'm a sinner and I want Jesus to pay the price for my sin. Father, forgive me of my sin. Jesus, I make you Lord.

I make you Savior of my life. Thank you, Father, for saving me. Amen. come on y'all let's give it up for those of us who just became born again you were born one time from your mother's womb but this second time you were born of God you were born of the Spirit of God I encourage you to write this day down because now you're a child of God now you have the favor of God on your life now you're gonna be get gonna begin to hear from God and see God like never before this is your day and y'all would you just stand up very quickly I just want to release the blessing over the families today before I leave It has been a blast being with you today. And would you just go ahead, lift up your hands and receive.

And I just want to pray a blessing over you. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for every man and woman and boy and girl that has their hands lifted in this room today. Lord, I thank you for every man and woman and boy and girl that has their hands lifted in this room today.

Lord, I pray. I release your blessing upon them. I release your blessing on the mothers and the fathers and the grandfathers and the grandmothers, the sons and daughters, aunts and uncles.

I thank you, Father, that they are anointed to do what you've called them to do, to be a light to the. this world and salt to the earth. I thank you, Father, that we are a mighty people of God rising up to give you glory.

Bless their families, bless their health, bless their finances. In Jesus' name, we give you the victory, Father. Amen. I love you guys. Happy Mother's Day.

Come on, can you guys give the word of God one more time? So good. Hey, a few quick next steps before you head out today.

If you're wondering how you can get connected, discover your purpose and make a difference, we have this thing called Growth Track. It's gonna start 10 minutes after service next Sunday. So we'd love to see you there. Also, for everyone who got saved or if it's your first time joining us, we wanna place a gift in your hand.

So fill that connection card out and bring it to the Connection Center after service so we can do just that. And also, if you wanna be water baptized, We have a QR code that you can scan to register on my right, your left, right here at the stage, that we can get you signed up for water baptism. And if you have questions for anything or about God or any questions that you need, we have pastors at the front here to answer those for you after service. And for all my moms joining us today, we have some special pouches for you.

Just to say thank you and happy Mother's Day. It says, Mom, you're doing a great job. That's cute.

All right. Well, have a great day. Happy Mother's Day, and we'll see you next week. Until you came around and showed me there was nothing to prove Someone said it's unexplainable But I know, yeah, I know what you can do Oh, you're changing my altitude.

Your love is a whole new move. Something I can put my faith in. Oh, you struck a match in the dark.

You're melting my plastic heart. This is beautiful. don't have to fake it oh you changed my altitude your love is a whole new moon something I can put my faith in oh you're strapped back in the dark you're melting my plastic heart this is real, don't have to fake it don't quit making sense keeping up appearances cause there ain't no impressing you you said don't act like it's all good life Hollywood You're changing my altitude Your love is a whole new moon Something I can put my faith in You struck a match in the dark You're melting my plastic heart This is real, don't have to fake it You're changing my altitude Your love is a whole new moon Something I can put my faith in Oh, it's like a match in the dark You're melting my plastic heart It's just we don't have to fake it Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na, yeah Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na, yeah Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na, yeah Na-na-na, na-na-na You keep the faith in my heart, never knew a love like this in my life, yeah, it was you all along, I know I belong, I'm right where I'm at Watch my face, it's real love and it took time, been chillin' down the floor, they havin' good times, runnin' your race, can't get all checked, don't got a friend when you got my back, let's go Oh, oh, oh, oh, I'm changin' my altitude, your love is a whole new move, somethin' I can put my faith in, oh It's like a match in the dark You're up to my plastic heart This is real, don't have to fake it I know it's real, I know it's real You, that's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna rejoice in you I'm gonna rejoice in you, that's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna rejoice in you I'm walking by faith.

Whatever I face, I will see. You won't put your head down. I'm gonna rejoice in you. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rejoice in you.

I'm gonna rejoice in you. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rejoice in you.

That's what I'm gonna do. Hey, hey, hey. Shut up, I'm out.

I got to praise all the things you do. How can I say how grateful I am when I lift up my hand? I'm going to rejoice in you.

That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to rejoice in you. I'm going to rejoice in you.

That's what I'm going to do. We will praise his name in the morning. We will praise his name through the night. Come on and bless the Lord, everybody. Lift your voice and celebrate.

We will praise his name in the morning. Oh yeah, we will praise This is a new night Come on and bless the Lord, everybody Lift your voice and celebrate Come on, drink and celebrate That's what I'm gonna do We're gonna enjoy it I'm gonna, I'm gonna rescue you Sometimes you've got to dance through the darkness, sing through the fire, praise when it don't exist. Sometimes you've got to stare down the giant, worship from the lion's den.

Sometimes you gotta shout it from the mountain Louder in the valley Trusting that he's gonna get you there Sometimes you gotta welcome the wonder Wait for the answer Worship with your hands in the air I'll praise you anywhere Praise, give Him praise, give Him praise And I ask praise, give Him praise, give Him praise And I ask He is worthy Yes, He is worthy of all praise Sometimes you've got to praise in the prison, cry out to heaven, shout as the doors swing wide. Sometimes you've got to stand on your shackles, brave in the battle, worship with your hands held high. I'll praise you anyway. Praise, give them praise, give them praise, in the high praise, give them praise. Faithful all my life, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, every promise kept, goodness every step, each and every breath, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, every promise kept, goodness every step, each and every breath, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, every promise kept, goodness every step, each and every breath, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere, blessings day and night, countless reasons why, Every station begins You You gotta hold your guard to see When the night gets dark It's another day And life gets hard It's just part of the game Oh Know that you are not alone When you're standing in the fire When you're up against the tire Fire Keep on standing tall and watch the giant Oh, The things get out of hand, get up and testify The God of Abrams, fighting for you by your side Cause greater is the one, who is inside of us Than he who is living in the world When you're standing in the fire When your effort gets a giant Rise up, rise I'm standing tall and don't forget that you're a fighter You've got a champion inside ya I just keep watching the giant fall It's done It's another day, your life gets hard It's just part of the game, oh But you were not alone Just keep on standing tall and don't forget that you're a fighter You got a champion inside ya Rise up, rise up, rise up Just keep on Watch the giant fall Oh This is the day of salvation.

What a time to be alive. Stop looking for the evidence. And start living in the promises. And this is the year of salvation. This is the rain that we pray for.

Start living in the promises like you know your father is. Heaven's sharing your... I feel it down on the inside.

Yeah. I feel it down on the inside. I feel it down on the inside.

Down on the inside We are a chosen child

Transcript for:Mother's Day Celebration Service Overview

Transcript for:
Mother's Day Celebration Service Overview