But I am so excited. If you're new here, I'm Pastor Seth. I get to honor and privilege to pastor here, alongside my best friend, Freddy T. He is 40,000 feet in the air right now.
And sent me a message this morning. I said, I think this is the highest message I've ever received. Almost. Amen.
I'm super excited today. I get to share a word that I feel like has just been stirring on my heart for probably about a year now. I don't know how much we're going to get through it. I was praying about this week, and I really want to honor women today, empower women today.
I can't get one amen. No, no women in here even going to say amen. Come on. And when I was praying, I was asking God to reveal to me how special women are to us in our lives.
And I just got this awesome thought that women have a nurturing spirit that was given to them from God. I think it's so special. And what do you share with me is that women aren't just raising children, they're actually raising the kingdom. Because the thing that they carry is unique to them in how they were created, that they play a crucial part in raising the kingdom.
And we're going to talk a lot about women today and how you raised the kingdom. And I am so excited. So for all you fellows today, if you get upset about empowering women, come talk to me after it. But I hope you leave here different because they are so special and I hope to honor you guys today.
So we're going to jump in. Today, we do not just celebrate mothers. We celebrate every woman who has nurtured life, carried hope, built faith, raised kingdom, purpose, whether you've raised children, mentored somebody, prayed over the next generation, or simply remained faithful to your assignment, you've played a role in building God's kingdom. And even if you haven't seen it clearly, the way you've supported a friend showed kindness to a neighbor, carried a heavy load at work, or just showed up when others didn't.
Those moments matter. It nurtured God's image in the everyday and that's kingdom work too. I want to share something with you that God showed me. The word didn't just appear on earth.
It came to a womb first. Before Jesus walked, he was carried. Before he taught, he was nurtured. Before he performed miracles, he was loved and raised by a woman God trusted.
You can say, man, it's okay. See, this isn't, I don't want you to think this is just a tribute. This is a commissioning today. I really felt like the Lord wanted me to deliver this message to you guys to know that you're carrying something special, like really special.
And so it's a reminder that you're not sidelined in God's kingdom. You're a central part of the plan. There's a lot of different things that I want to say today and I'm going to try to stay on track. But what I'm trying to say is that sometimes the most anointed ministry happens in a living room, in a classroom, or through a whispered prayer at midnight.
I just want to say real quick, if you're a praying mom or a praying woman in here, can you raise your hand? Come on. I already know. That's just what you guys do.
Right? That's just what you do. You carry that thing. I'm not saying men don't pray, but I'm saying women carry something different.
God showed me a long time ago that it takes the nature of a woman and the nature of a man to reveal the full image of God, the full nature of God. Because women carry something specific. And I'm telling you what, I remember I've gone through times and my wife is up in the middle night declaring God's word of our house and our children. Like middle of the night.
I go downstairs and I thought she lost it. Scriptures all over the walls. I'm like, oh my goodness. What is happening?
There's something different that women carry and they carry a nurturing spirit that is to raise their family, their children. It's just it's put into them. But there's so much more that's put into you because you've been tasked with raising the kingdom too. So today I believe people are going to step further into their calling.
And just in case you didn't hear me, before Jesus preached, healed or died for our sins, he was carried and nurtured and raised by a woman who said yes to God. Mary didn't just birth the kingdoms, she raised it. And God is still trusting women to raise what matters most. Women are going to have to help me today.
Like, can I get an amen? God is still trusting you to carry the kingdom today. Come on. So you've been given a nurturing spirit, not just to raise children but to raise kingdom purpose.
You carry a divine nature of the Father that helps bring life, legacy and leadership to the church, the family and the future. If you have your Bible today, let's jump into Luke. One, I've got a bunch of different scriptures I'm going to bounce around with. But I'm going to read this passage.
I'm going to just want to launch from here. I feel like it's so special. But it's going to be on Luke 1, we're going to start in verse 26. If you're there, say I'm there.
If you didn't bring your Bible, we forgive you. I'm just kidding, it's going to be on the screen. Starting in verse 26, it says, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent. Say, God sent.
God sent. The angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.
He was greatly troubled at these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end.
Say, never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin. The angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you so the Holy One to be born will be called the son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age.
And she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her six months. For no word from God will ever fail. No word from God will ever fail. This is what Mary answered, I am the Lord's servant.
May your word to me be fulfilled, then the angel left her. Thank you for your word, Lord. Let's go. God still trusts women to carry kingdom things.
I want to share this with you. God trusted Mary before she said yes. I want to tell somebody today you can't earn God's favor. It's a gift.
This, y'all need to wake up over here. Hey, listen, you can't earn his favor. It's a gift. The angel appeared to Mary and said, you have favor.
What did Mary do for it? I can't find anything. If you do, let me know, but I'm telling you, it's a gift from God. I showed up to deliver a message.
He said to Mary, hey, you have favor. You can't earn it. I believe she was troubled because she was chosen to do something that was outside the norm. Women were rarely the focus of divine encounters.
It was mainly men that scripture records of encounters or callings, especially involving messengers like angels. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, all of them. But for a young woman unmarried in a small town to be approached by an angel and told she would carry the son of God, that broke all expectations. Mary wasn't wealthy.
She had no social power. She was young and lived in Nazareth. A town people looked down on. Remember in John when it says, can anything good come from Nazareth?
See, women had very little voice or value apart from marriage and family. A claim of pregnancy outside of marriage could mean public shame, rejection, or even death by stoning. And yet God chose her. Not in spite of her low status, but partly because of it.
I need y'all to understand, this is such a radical elevation of womanhood in the word. When the angel said you were highly favored, I believe it was a heavenly endorsement of her worth. God was lifted, Mary. Not only to carry Jesus physically, but to represent the beginning of a new way God relates to humanity.
In a time where women weren't seen, God spoke to one. In a culture where women were limited, God gave her limited purpose. Guys, are you here? What I'm saying?
In a time where women weren't spoke to you like this. God spoke to her. I know, it's not that it seems like you'll miss it, I think, if you're not paying attention. In a time where this didn't happen, God spoke to her.
God sent an angel to her. He said, hey, listen, may not like me. They're not like me. I will speak into the things.
I will do something new that you're not used to. Women were not looked at like this. And God sent an angel with a message. It gets better.
Y'all aren't. Y'all aren't. I don't know. I'm not even a woman and I'm excited for y'all.
God often moves in unexpected places through unlikely people to reveal his unstoppable purpose. Listen, I get it. It's going to be challenging to hear some of these things, but you can't limit the nature of God and Him trying to reveal Himself to us through how He operates. God didn't send a Savior to a synagogue, sent Him to a young girl with a heart full of faith.
Mary's womb became heaven's delivery system. If God trusted a woman to carry the word made flesh, how much more will He trust women today to carry dreams, ministries, miracles, mercy, all the thing that God has. He's not trusting them today. I hope somebody gets so on fire for what God's capable of doing that you may think He can't speak into your life or that it doesn't matter, but God said He entrusted Mary with the greatest mission of all, in my opinion, to give birth to the Savior, to raise the kingdom of God, to nurture it, to do all these things.
Like, come on. Are you not excited about that? Man, I often think we just think of Mary that she just birthed Jesus, but she raised Him. She's the greatest mission in history.
Man, by placing Him in the care of a woman. She nurtured Him, protected Him, raised Him. She did all this before the world even recognized Him. Like she did all this because what we hear about and record is Jesus is around 30 years old.
We're talking, we got 29 years with the Savior. She's nurturing Him, she's raising Him, she's loving Him, she's protecting Him, she's teaching Him, she's doing all these things. I don't know if somebody needs a hear today. You might be doing something unseen and not recognized, but it's going to impact the world someday.
What you're doing and what you're raising is kingdom. What you're instilling in them right now, maybe no one can see, but guess what? The world's going to see someday. Everything that you've done unrecognized.
I don't know, y'all. I'm more excited than y'all are this morning. I'll tell you one thing. Luke 1.30A says, I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered.
May your word to me be fulfilled. Then the angel left her. You are raising kingdom. I want to help people see today.
God's placed things in your life. Children, ministry, influence. And it's something that heaven has trusted you to raise. And I challenge you, are you recognizing it and are you raising it?
Here's my second point. The nurturing spirit is supernatural. See, women carry a reflection of the father's nurturing nature. Their ability to connect, conform, or comfort, care, and cultivate is not just natural, it's spiritual.
The nurturing isn't weakness. It's warfare that matures promises. Your nature is how heaven matures promises on earth. Do you hear what I said?
The nature that y'all carry. It matures the promises on earth. Who was the ultimate promise to come? Oh, wow.
We got a lot of work to do, Church. Jesus. He was the ultimate promise that was talked about, that was going to come to do what he did. And Mary was the one chosen to nurture and raise that promise.
We're sure that promise to get him to the place, to start. I don't know. I'm trying. You already have to help me.
I think mothers, interceding in prayer, I think it does so much more than you know. I think you are teachers, naturally, that shape identity. I think you're just natural mentors that cultivate confidence in their children. I can't stress enough that women often serve in unseen roles.
And I just want to remind you guys today that the kingdom grows in hidden places. It came first to a womb. Religion is not just a personality. It's a spiritual mantle.
Women carry a capacity to cultivate life in dry places. Your presence alone can shift the atmosphere of a room. Why? Because God puts something in you that reflects him.
Never underestimate the weight of your nature. When you water the dry places, you partner with heaven to grow something eternal. Isaiah 6613 says this, as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. God uses a mother's nature as a metaphor for his own care, showing how deeply he values and honors the kind of tenderness and strength.
Proverbs 31, 25 and 26 says this, she is clothed with strength and dignity. She can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom and faithful instructions is on her tongue. Proverbs 31, 27, 28 says this, she watches over the affairs of her household.
Her children arise and call her blessed. An entire passage honors women who nurture not just with her hands but with her heart, presence and wisdom. First, 2, 7 says this, we were gentle among you like a nursing mother caring for her children. Paul compares ministry here to a mother's nurturing.
Again, showing how powerful that gift is. I think I put this up here. Did you all hear what I said? This is Paul explaining and using women explaining that what women carry, this is so powerful.
We can't miss this. We can't miss the nature of the Father and the teachings of it on how much you carry and how special it is and how important it is. It's being referenced in scripture by Paul and other things that it's so important to understand what you carry is something so special. God designed it just for you.
Nurturing is heaven's hand shaping human hearts. Women, you got a supernatural gift. Point number three, raising kingdom means living with legacy in mind. Mary didn't see the fruit of her faith immediately.
For years she raised the child. She knew it was the Savior but didn't yet see the signs. What she was doing in private was preparing the public miracle. That's legacy.
Raising something today that will impact tomorrow. Legacy isn't just what you leave behind. It's what you're raising right now. It may feel hidden, but heaven sees your hands.
Listen, Lord, help me. What you guys are doing right now is so important. Could you imagine if Mary was just like, I don't know, this is weird. No, I'm not saying a guy wouldn't have probably just chosen somebody else.
I'm just saying, she said yes. She was faithful. It didn't make sense. But she said yes and she was faithful the entire time.
She did all this. Could you imagine doing all that? Unseen for so long in a time that was challenging and you were raising the kingdom of God? Like you were in care of it this whole time.
Yeah, right? No pressure. She was faithful. I feel like telling some people today, stay faithful.
Stay strong. I know it's challenging. You may not see it right now. But you're doing something special and you're raising something that might make a huge impact someday and you have no clue.
Luke 2 19 says this, but Mary treasured up all things and pondered them in her heart. Mary had to trust God even when she didn't understand what she was raising. She nurtured what she couldn't fully explain. She didn't see anything.
I shouldn't say she didn't see anything. It just doesn't record much until he was around 30 years old, but she raised him faithfully. I want to say you're not just raising the moment you're raising for the mission. I want you to think beyond and begin to think beyond just today, just the moment of what's going on and that your faithfulness now is shaping the next generation to come.
Your faithfulness now, listen, there's kids sitting in here right now. There's kids down there right now. Like the next generation. I'm telling you what, right now, I'm one of those people.
I have so much faith in the next generation. I know you hear a lot of things and a lot of people say about how we're doomed. This next generation. I refuse to believe that because I serve a good God, a powerful God.
I don't think the world is ready for what the next generation carries. There's so many gifts and things inside of this next generation that are so powerful that it's going to impact the world like we've never seen before. I hope that I get to see that in action. I hope I live long enough to see this generation rising up because I see some hungry kids stepping into their calling.
I believe they're going to impact this world like never before. So I think before we start talking negative or thinking negative about the next generation, let's realize what we're raising. Let's speak life into them. Let's say, no, you're going to be a kingdom shaker.
You're going to break change. You're going to release presence. You're going to do all these things to impact the kingdom of God and advance it. And I think if we started to partner with that, we'd see so many things just start to shift.
I think some people may be sown in tears now, but I think it's going to reap joy later. Don't quit. Don't let go. You're raising something bigger than yourself.
Jesus empowered women to speak, lead, and build. Jesus broke the rules of his time to elevate women. He spoke directly to them. He healed them, taught them, released them.
From the tomb to the temple, he used women to carry the message of hope. See, he delivered them into purpose. Jesus constantly affirmed women and gave them voice, purpose, and power. Mary Magdalene was the first to preach the resurrection.
John 20, 17 and 18 says, go instead of my brothers and tell them. So she went to the disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord. Come on somebody.
Mary of Bethany chose to sit at his feet. It was a firm. In Luke 1042, Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. The Samaritan woman became a revivalist.
You can find this in John 4, 20 and 30. Then leaving her water jar. The woman went back to the town and said to the people, come. See a man who told me everything I ever did.
The Samaritan woman left her jar and brought her town to Jesus. Come on somebody. You're better get excited. You're golf clapping in here this morning.
How better help me out? Showing how Jesus empowered women. How Jesus was talking to them, using them to advance the kingdom. And the time that that wasn't a thing.
Like come on. And I'm like, God help us to see these things in your word. Help us to this day to see these things in your word so we can understand better than leaving her water jar. That touched me so much.
She wanted a drink. She got the living water. See Jesus did in silence women. He sent them.
I want to tell you today, your voice matters. Your purpose, your assignment, it's big. And God trusts you with it. The only thing that's not happening is you're not leaving the water jar to go bring people to Jesus.
Mark 14, 9, verse 9 says this, truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. I want to tell some women today that what she carried changed the world. I don't know if you read that with me, but I want to let you know that this is the only time in scripture that it records a promise like this. That what she did, truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached, I don't know about you, but he says, hey, go to all nations, preach in the gospel.
This says wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she did, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Wow. I don't know, ladies, but I'm jealous. I'm just saying.
Because that is something awesome. A woman annoys Jesus with very costly perfume. Some criticized her, act as wasteful, but Jesus defends her, saying she prepared his body for burial ahead of time. Then he says her story will be told wherever the gospel goes.
Jesus never again promises global remembrance like he did with this woman who anointed him. That moment stands alone as a prophetic declaration that what she carried mattered and what she poured out would never be forgotten. I want to just don't shoot me down. Don't beat me up.
But Jesus didn't say this about Peter walking on water. He didn't say this about the man lowered through the roof. He didn't say this about feeding the 5,000. He said it about a woman who walked into a room full of men.
Ladies, this is when you start getting excited. He said it about a woman who walked into a room full of men, broke a jar of perfume, and poured out what she carried. Not for recognition, but out of love. And Jesus said that story, that heart, that sacrifice, the whole world's going to hear about it.
That story, that's y'all have, that story, that heart, that thing that was put into you, that's going to be told everywhere that this good news is taught. Ladies, I don't know if you know, but I know, because Scripture says it, you carry something so special that the Lord said, hey, listen, I need you to know how special you are. I need you to know what you carry. I need you to know the nature, the nurture I put in you.
Because when it comes out of you, it goes across the world and it transforms things. It touches things. It raises things into the thing that they are meant to become. It's special.
It's so special. It's so special. Man, it is so special. I just kept reading that and I could not get past it, that the Lord only does this, this situation with this story.
And it just really took me back, y'all. Like what she carried literally changed the world. Like what she did was enough to make the Savior say, hey, there it is right there. That's going to be told everywhere.
I know, I know you, I know that it doesn't look like it. It's like much. But I feel like you need to know today that the thing that you carry is going to change the world. See, the world remembers what religion tried to reject.
I was so excited about this. I had to take drink real quick because I'm going to be excited. Do you realize what she did in that moment? Is that Jesus said, like, hear me out.
We just read it. Truly, I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached, throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. I want you to see something because what God showed me is that her act, the thing that she did that was not that big of a deal, others looked at it different. But it was so recognized by the Savior and her telling her this.
You know what he was saying? I believe. He is saying that, hey, listen, you didn't just preach a sermon. You didn't just do something.
You actually became one. Her story is going to forever be told wherever the gospel is preached. To this day, how many thousands of years later now we're talking about it, talking about her and what she did and how God is remembering her and that she is still a message that's being sent out. That's the thing that she did by loving the Savior and sitting on his feet.
He said forever, forever, forever. Y'all don't get it. Y'all don't hear it yet. Forever, forever, forever.
That act, forever, will be told that we're still hearing about and it's still impacting us to this day. I don't know, but Lord, I prayed heavy on this. I'm like, Lord, I want to become your Word that goes forth and transforms lives. I want to see the things that she saw.
I want to be able to have the heart that she had to love you enough to do something for you to understand. That's who you are. I believe she's seeing him for who he really was. And man, I just touched my life this week.
That fragrance she poured out, outlived that moment. We're still smelling it today. Ladies, what you carry matters. What you've poured out hasn't gone unnoticed and your story isn't forgotten.
I believe that the things that the ladies are doing today are on heaven's headlines. Come on, if he's going to say, hey, look what she did, that's forever going to be told. What do you think, if he's still in trust you today and you're carrying that today, what do you think's going to happen thousands of years from now? I think what you're doing is so important.
It's so important. I don't know if you know that. That was my heart today. Do you know what you carry?
Do you know what you carry? I'm reading it one more time. Truly, I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told. I think the Lord wants your story told.
How much you love the Father. He wants to tell that story. I think it comes through acts of what you're doing in your everyday life and your living rooms at home and to market at work, wherever. I think he's saying, hey, those moments that you think nothing's really happening or there's nothing special about it, you're raising something so much greater.
Your heart matters. You carry something so special. So today, I want to wait. You can go ahead and come up.
Yeah, I've been landing these planes fast, y'all. I know y'all are happy for lunch. I started seeing about 11.50 if I'm still going strong. People are like, I see them start to get the lunch eyes on.
Yeah. And then sometimes if I get real loud, it's the wake some people up. So I want to do a couple of things. I want to, if you will, we're going to share a testimony in a minute, but I just want to speak to the women in the room for a second.
I feel like I've been speaking to you this entire time. I just want to tell you, you're anointed to raise the kingdom. What you carry, speak, nurture and build matters. Like I said, whether it's in a living in a home, a classroom, a workplace, a ministry, your shape and revival, your raising legacy and your echoing heaven, the same spirit that overshadowed Mary now empowers you.
You are a kingdom carrier. And I'm going to pray and I'm going to pray over all the women in this room. I really see a move of God like never before happening in our community. I see God bringing the body together.
I see people stepping in. And I hope you, I hope you hear the word today. And I hope you take the thing that God has placed in you and you use it for his glory to advance his kingdom and that you have everything you need and it's special. And I want to pray.
I want to pray that you step into that. I want to pray that you say yes like Mary did, not knowing everything that it's going to entail, but have a confidence to step into that and say yes. I'm your servant. I know who you are.
I trust you. I love you. I want it to be done and fulfilled. I believe God has so much more for you.
That's everybody that's sitting in this room, every woman across the world. I designed you uniquely with the special nurturing spirit to raise the world around us, to do things that us men can't do. I'm so sorry but I can not hear you. He says something about every child in the living room.
Oh, the living room. Oh, oh, hey, listen. It could happen. I just want to say it's special.
What you carry is special. And I hope you start to use it and you claim it like Mary did and said yes. Absolutely yes. And so if everyone will stand up with me today, I want to pray but I want to, Jen had a testimony she wanted to share and I said, will you share that next week?
Because it involves your mom, right? And I was like, what better thing to end on than a testimony about her mama? And so about a couple months ago, it's a little backstory. So a couple months ago, my mom had a stroke and she's been in a nursing home ever since.
So my mom ended up getting, let's see, Easter on Easter. My mom was rushed to the hospital. She was unresponsive. She had developed sepsis or whatever.
So she was unresponsive. They rushed her to the hospital. I got the call at like six a.m. on Monday.
I didn't look too good. Like when I got there, she was on a vent, but she was awake. Her eyes lit up. She was like, she mouth.
Oh my God. That's what she said. I said, hey, mom, I'm here, you know, but I got a chance to pray with my mom and pray for her while she was on the vent. And you know, I don't know how I got there to pray and for her, but I just knew that I needed to pray for her because I'm not one to pray for people out loud or even pray for them at all, really.
So I laid my hands on my mom and you know, I just began to, you know, use my prayer language. And I didn't have the words. I didn't know what I was praying for other than I wanted my mom to be better, you know. So as I'm praying, like I'm watching the whole side of my mom's head where my hand is, it's red.
It's getting red. Like not the other side, just the one where my hand is. And I'm just began praying and just worshiping God. And then, you know, the next day my sister calls me.
They took the vent out the very next day. My mom's blood levels, they went back to normal. And she's back in the nurse at home from the hospital. And I'm just real grateful that I'm able to have that relationship with my mom and walk through these, I mean, they stuck going through them.
But to be able to walk this out with God like in the relationship that I had with my mom before these past four or five years or even really the last year, that's amazing. And God is good. And I just want to share that with you. Come on.
Thank you for sharing that. Hey, God heals. And he's still healing mothers. It's so special.
And I want to pray for moms. And if you're actually, I just want to pray for all women. So guys, we're a family here. And if you're close enough to a mom or someone, we just reach out and touch her, put your hand on her or any woman, and just put your hand on her.
We're going to pray today. Father, I thank you. I thank you that first heaven came to a woman before it every walked the earth. You give the ability of something special.
You place something special in women to carry, nurture, and raise the kingdom, Father. And I thank you for that. God asked that you would just ignite the fire inside of them with confidence, boldness, courage to step out and speak. Jen said she's not someone to pray.
God asked that you would, if people feel like that, you would release their voice because there's power in it. That what you carry is powerful and it needs released. You're raising something special. Father, ask right now.
And if there's any healing that needs to take place physically, emotionally, mentally, whatever it is, Father, that you would heal it right now. Because you're a good God. We know you're the healer of all things. You're the great physician.
And Father, I just thank you right now. I thank you for every woman, every man, everybody in this place, God. I see you just light them with fire with the things of you. They'd see you.
They'd see you with the winds like you see, Father, to love, to carry, to nurture, to comfort, to do all the things that you do. So I just thank you for everything that you've done for us and that you're going to do, and ask you just to continue. Continue to do the work that only you can do in all of our lives. We thank you for this day.
And the church said, Amen. Come on church. I love y'all. I hope y'all have a great day, a great week.
Love on your mamas today. We'll see you next week.