Matt Hagee - The Heart of the House

The first thing that I would like to say on mother's day is that mom, our world, the way God created things to work, it doesn't work, it doesn't function, it cannot exist properly without you in it. Mom, our world doesn't work without you. Yay! I'll prove it to you. In the beginning, Genesis, God began creating. The Bible says, God said, "Let there be light". He saw light. He said it was good. Whenever he continued to create, he said, let's do land and sea, and let's make the sky. He looked at all that he had created. He said it was good. He suddenly decided that he would do the sun, the moon and the stars. He said this is when they would shine, this is where they would shine, this would be their seasons. He looked at everything he had placed in the heavens. He said it was good. He said, let's do beasts in the field and birds in the air, and plant trees, and grass, and mountains, and flowers, and fish in all of the seas. He looked at all of that. He said it was good. He said, "Let's create man in our image". He created man. He gave man one day! And he said, it's not good that that man is left alone.

Ephesians 5:23, we read that the husband is the head of the wife. And people say, see that means he's in charge. What good is a functioning head with a dysfunctional body? And what good is a functioning body with a dysfunctional head? In order for it to work properly, both have to work together. Do these roles and responsibilities make you different? Absolutely. Do they make one more important than the other? No. God created you to work together. And when it works right, it changes the world. It changes the world. I'll prove it to you. Psalm 128, the Bible says, "Blessed is every man who fears the Lord, who walks in his way".

Men, if you want to give your wife and the mother of your children a great gift on mother's day, then you be a man who fears the Lord and you walk in his way. It first says, "You shall eat the labor of your hand". That means a godly man has a job. It says, "You shall eat the labor of your hands and you shall be happy". That means that you're a pleasant person to be around. There's nothing macho about a bad attitude. Be the kind of person that other people want to sit and talk to. Compliment more than you complain. Help more than you hurt. Love your wife. Lead your wife. That's what godly men do. And the Bible says, when you do this, "It will be well with you". How well will it be? Here's what the Bible says, "Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, and your children like olive plants all around your table".

Now you say, "How good is that"? Well, let's talk about it. You see vines do very specific things. First vines cling. Say that with me, cling. When you're the kind of man who puts God as a top priority, and you walk in his ways, and you love according to his word, and you lead like the Bible says, your wife, like a fruitful vine, will cling to you. She'll wrap herself around you as a leader because she can trust you, as a lover because she adores you, and as a friend because her life is not complete without you. Believe me: that's a lot of good clinging. Vines not only cling: they climb. When she climbs, she needs to climb to the destiny that God has created her for. And when you love right and you lead right, she grows right. And the dreams that God has put in her heart become reality.

Vines not only cling and they climb, but they produce. Fruitful vines put out clusters of grapes on every branch. And when your wife is a fruitful vine, not only is she going to be productive in raising your children, but she's going to be productive in everything that she puts her hands to. This is why when you read Proverbs 31, it speaks about a virtuous and fruitful wife. It didn't just say she's a mom. It says she's industrious. It says she's willing to work hard. It says she negotiates and she buys the field. She takes the profits and she buys something else. She's entrepreneurial. She knows how to make and use money. She doesn't fear hard times. She prepares for hard times. When hard times come, she takes action to help solve the problem for her family. She does not fear. Proverbs 31:27 says a fruitful vine as a wife and a mother, "Watches over the ways of her household".

Now maybe you've got a wife and a mother that watches over the ways, and you wish she'd just take a day off of the watch. But she can't help it. It's how God made her. And it tells us that her children rise up and they call her blessed, and her husband also praises her. There's so much more to say on this topic, but for the purpose of our day, I want to stop with that verse, "Her children rise up and call her blessed: her husband also praises her". And I literally want to fulfill that scripture verse in the rest of this service. When it comes to the men of God who have served God in this family, we have been able to do so because God has created and given to us helpmates, ladies who have the structure that hold the entire thing together. You cannot tell this family's story without giving honor to the contributions that the women in this family have made from generation to generation and have put forward into those generations that are to come.

So today I want to take just a moment and share with you some special women in my life on this mother's day. The first one that I want to introduce you to is this lovely, little lady right here. Her name is LaVerta McElvany Hagee. And the reason I tell you she's a lovely, little lady is because this guy sitting next to her, this is John Christopher Hagee. This was on their wedding day. She was 16. Doesn't she look happy? John Christopher was 6'5" tall. Just look at his hands. Miss LaVerta was 4'11" tall. She is why John Charles Hagee is 5'8" tall. LaVerta was born January 13, 1893. She married my grandfather when she was 16, in 1909. She was the daughter of the Methodist bishop in Kansas and the region of Missouri. And my great grandfather, the man sitting next to her, was the associate to the Methodist bishop. And he was training to take the place of the Methodist bishop. You have no idea how close we were to being Cornerstone Methodist church.

But LaVerta ruined that. One night she went to a prayer meeting. And she was asking God for more of his presence, more of a relationship with him. And in that prayer meeting, based on her request, the Lord baptized her in the Holy Spirit. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled". She had a hunger for God and God kept his word: he filled her, not only with a sense of his presence, but he gave her joy that is unspeakable. She prayed for God's presence and he gave it to her. Her hunger for God came because she lived in hard times. Now I don't know how many of you've had the opportunity to visit with people who lived through the seasons in front of, during and just behind the great depression. But if you did, you know what hard times are.

LaVerta gave birth to ten children. There are some women think that's hard enough all by itself. Nine of them were boys. The baby was a girl. Three of her sons died in infancy. One of them, my grandfather, was born several weeks premature. They didn't know how many weeks premature: they just knew he was early. There wasn't any doctor's visits. There wasn't any sonograms. There wasn't any NICU wards to take preemies to. They stuck the baby in a box, they lined it with clothe, and they set him on top of the stove to keep him warm. When you lives through the days, and the ages, and the times that she lived through, you needed the joy of the Lord to be your strength. And she received that when God blessed her with the Holy Spirit. That kind of joy was her joy until she died at 85 years old in 1978. Her life is fulfilled by this verse, "The Lord is my strength and my song: he has become my salvation".

I never met LaVerta in this life. The only time I've seen her is in this picture. But I met her children and I've met her grandchildren. And I can't wait to meet her when I get to glory. Whenever her children, her sons, would get together, my grandfather and his brothers, they would tell stories of their childhood. And they would always laugh until they cried, talking about how their mother was so full of joy all of the time. And you needed God's joy if you were going to live with those boys, because they were a wild bunch. LaVerta's third-born son was named John Devoin, but that name didn't stick around long. Soon after he was born, they decided to change his name to Pea Vine. And the reason they changed his name to Pea Vine is because one day he was headed out the back of the house. His mother said, "John Devoin, where are you going"?

Now in this family, they always used two names. Why: I don't know. "John Devoin, where are you going"? She said, he said, "I'm going fishing". She said, "Before you go fishing, I'd like for you to pick peas for dinner". Well, in his temper, rather than choosing to pick peas, he just went out in the garden and pulled the vines up. And when he walked back in the house with a hand full of Pea Vines in his hand, his father took those Pea Vines out of his hand and turned him green from his ankles to his ears. Because back in that day, you didn't get time out: you got knocked out. Now how long did this nickname last? When my father went to California to do John Devoin's funeral in 1992, they stood up behind the podium and said, "Today we come for the memorial service of Pea Vine Hagee".

Miss Vada Hagee, that's my grandmother. She was born May 13, 1913. She married my grandfather on June 10, 1934. She and my grandfather had their second-born son, John Charles, April 12, 1940. And you've heard dad tell you how this woman was the force that Christ used to shape his life. She prayed when he didn't want to go to church that he would get saved. She prayed every day that God's will would be done in the lives of her sons. But today I want to tell you just how true it is that her life is the source that birthed this ministry. You see in 1928 before she and my grandfather got married, my grandmother possessed something that was very unique for a woman in the 20's. She didn't have one college degree: she had two college degrees. And she was working as a professor in a college, teaching homiletics and hermeneutics. For those of you who don't know what those big words are, they're simply the art and the science of preaching.

So she was a woman with an education in a school teaching men, who wanted to preach, how to preach. And then she met my grandfather. She and my grandfather met, they married, they started the church. When they married, she could preach better on accident than he could on purpose. My father would tell me that whenever his mother stood behind the pulpit on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the room was packed. There were people standing in the yard. They'd driven from all around just to hear sister Vada preach the word, teach the word, share the word. He said, "On Sunday, you could shoot a shotgun off in the sanctuary and not hurt anybody, because nobody came to hear daddy, but they all came to hear momma".

And people being people, they started talking. "Well, sister Vada, she's got the gift. Amen. We just thank God for her. Brother Bythel, bless his heart. Bless his heart". But being a woman who lived by the Word of God, being a woman who took that book chapter and verse, and I'll testify to that because of the things I've seen her do. If the Bible said it, she did it. She went to the pulpit one Thursday night when she was supposed to teach, and she made this announcement. She said, "Tonight is the last night that I will stand behind the pulpit and teach". She said, "I'm going to devote my life to supporting my husband and his ministry. And I'm going to invest my life in my sons. And I believe that God will give to one of them the ministry that he intended for me".

A lot of people might get up and say something like that, but she meant it. That was 68 years ago. And she didn't step back into a pulpit and teach again until she passed away at 98 and 11 months, years young. She said it and she meant it. On that day, when she was standing in that pulpit, no one thought that the ten-year-old boy standing next to her would be the one that God would use. No one thought that the ministry that she spoke about that day would be Cornerstone Church as it is today. Think of the millions who've heard the gospel. Think of the lives that have been changed. Think of the souls that have been won all because Vada was willing to lay down her life. When others said she deserved better, she took herself and invested it into her children. And look what God has done. She believed that winning the lost was the most important thing that any human being could ever do. A few years before she passed, I sent a film crew to visit with her so that we could have some words from grandma to share the other generations. And today, I'd like for you to hear her in her own words tell you what it means to be a soul winner.

Vada Hagee: I may be saying too much, but let me say this one thing. Jesus said that one soul is worth more than all the wealth of the world. I'm sorry. And so winning souls is the most important thing in the world. I know you had an ambition to be a football player. And you could have made it. You were invited to be a football coach, and you refused it to stay in the ministry. But God has helped you to reach souls. And when you get to heaven, eternity, it's going to pay off.

This next lady is miss Velia Castro. She's my Abuelita, my angel in brown skin. She's where hospitality came into this family. My grandmother is one of those old school Mexicanas where they can't do enough to feed you well. She's not only where hospitality comes from: she's where loyalty comes from. She's been married to my grandfather for more than 67 years, which makes her the epitome of faithfulness. Proverbs 31:12 describes her. It says that she does him good and not evil all the days of his life. And I show you this picture of her and tell you who she is because, young ladies and young mothers, I want you to know you don't get to 67 years of marriage because it's easy. You get to 67 years of marriage because you want to. On mothers day, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you what an honor it is for me to call this next lovely lady, "Mom".

Now those of you who know her, know that my Diana Carries a multitude of roles. But one role that she places above every other role is that of being a mother. She only knows one speed and that's overdrive. Now let me tell you when you've got a mom who loves in overdrive, you are blessed. Because if you need help, she's there to help. In you need a friend, she's there to be a friend. If you need food, buy a bigger refrigerator because you're going to get food. In the 42 years that she's stood by my father's side, she has not only taught this church, but she has taught many to love one another.

This is what Jesus said to his disciples in John 15:12, "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you". She's loved my father. She's loved her children. She's loved this church, and she's taught them how to do the same one for the other. Whenever our church members are taking care of one another in the hospital, whenever they're going to see each other when they've been sick, whenever they're bringing over a casserole in a covered dish, it's not because we gave them instructions to do so. It's because they saw my mother do that for others, and they did it too. Finally, I'd like to tell you something about my wife. She's the mother of my children.

Kendal Elizabeth Hagee was born on may 10, 1978 in Santa Rosa Hospital. I was born in Santa Rosa Hospital in July. She left me her name and number at the nurse's station. The ministry that I see God birthing in her is something that's going to show the next generation what it means to be a godly mother, to be a woman who is to be celebrated. For this verse that we're standing on today, it says, "Her children rise up to call her blessed, and her husband also praises her". In 2001, I wasn't married. I wasn't dating. And dad was worried. In 2001, this was my study Bible. I brought it to the pulpit today. It's not my preaching Bible. It's too heavy for that. But it was my study Bible then. And I wrote and taped this note inside of it October the 21st. Here's what it says: it says:

Dear Heavenly Father, these things I promise to pray every day without ceasing until you provide the desire of my heart, a wife:
1: That she would love you and your kingdom with all of her heart, her soul, her mind, and her body.
2: That she would love me for me and nothing else.
3: That she would have a good understanding of family because I've got a big one.
4: That her parents would value and cherish marriage.
5: That she loves children.
6: That she loves people.
7: That she has a servant's heart
8: That I could trust her with my heart.
9: That I would be able to tell her anything.
10: That I could be me in front of her.
11: That she'd never be ashamed of me or what God has called me to be.
12: That she would be pure under the blood of the lamb.
13: That she would have a deep hunger for God.
14: That she would love to be treated like a queen.
15: That she would have dark hair and blue eyes.

I say all that to say that when God heard me praying for a wife, he answered my prayers with you. And if you're here today and you're single, and you wonder what does mother's day have to do with me, the Bible's very clear: "Write it down and make it plain. God answers prayer". I sang this song to her on our wedding day. So in keeping with the spirit of the day, darling, this one's for you. And fellas, if you want to put an arm around your wife, it'll be okay too.

♪ Walk through this world ♪
♪ With me ♪
♪ Go where I go ♪
♪ Share all my dreams with me ♪
♪ I need you so ♪
♪ In life we search ♪
♪ Some of us find ♪
♪ I've looked for you ♪
♪ For a long long time ♪
♪ Now that I found you ♪
♪ New horizons I see ♪
♪ Come take my hand ♪
♪ Walk through this world ♪
♪ With me ♪
♪ Darling walk through ♪
♪ This world with me ♪
♪ Go where I go ♪
♪ Share all my dreams with me ♪
♪ I need you so ♪
♪ In life we search ♪
♪ Some of us find ♪
♪ And I've looked for you ♪
♪ For a long long time ♪
♪ Now that I found you ♪
♪ New horizons I see ♪
♪ Come take my hand ♪
♪ Walk through this world ♪
♪ With me ♪
♪ Come take my hand ♪
♪ Walk through this world ♪
♪ With me ♪