Touré Roberts - You Will Lack Nothing

So, my declaration to you today is that you will lack nothing in the end. I promise you it will all add up. Mothers are awesome; mothers are amazing! I’m blown away by the capacity of women, particularly as it relates to receiving the strength to have a child and to carry that child. The giving up of their bodies, right? Literally, just raise your hand if you’re a woman who had a baby. Come on, somebody! It’s such a commitment. Let’s give it up for our moms, seriously! It requires so much. As a man, as a husband, and as a father myself, I look at women and think, «Wow, you guys are incredible.»

It’s easy for society to understand the sacrifice and commitment a woman has to go through to bring life into the world, but I also want to submit to you that there’s an unsung hero—the father. When I’m speaking of healthy fathers, I’m going to touch on every father you can imagine before we’re done today. A woman’s commitment during the childbearing process is primarily an internal commitment; it’s a giving up of their body, and it’s huge.

However, there’s an unsung hero because the father now sits back, watching his wife as she goes through these changes. In his mind, he’s thinking, «How am I going to facilitate that?» There is a pressure that comes upon a healthy father. Now, I’m not having the baby, but God has placed in me an innate sense of responsibility. I tell you right now, guys, fathers develop complexes because we carry the weight. Yes, you’re getting big, but I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to facilitate this: How am I going to pay for this? How am I going to be man enough to contribute? How am I going to hold this all together?

You know, it’s interesting; I know both men and women bench press, but guys really love to bench press. Back in the day, when I was working out, it wasn’t even so much about how many reps you could do. It was about how many plates you could stack on and push out. Do you remember that? Where my bros at? It was about how much you could lift. What are you benching? Not how many times you can lift it, not how healthy your heart is, but how much can you throw up? Come on, somebody! You look swole, like Dwayne Johnson over there. Just for the fun of it, come on, somebody! You know he can throw up some weight. I love that dude; he’s such a worshiper.

So, when I was growing up, all the guys and I would hang out, and it was never about how many times you could do it or how healthy you were; it was about how much weight we could handle. God has placed within the male part of what represents Him this need to carry everything. So, when you talk about the weight of a woman’s ministry to bring birth, just imagine that from the man’s perspective—he’s saying, «I’ve got to lift that too. I’ve got to handle her weight.»

There are three responses to this as a man. The first response is to recognize the responsibility, count the cost, and say, «Put the weights on.» That’s the healthiest version. The second type of father modifies the responsibility and says, «I can only handle that load, so don’t put 415 pounds on the bar; just put 225 on it.» Come on, somebody! Yeah, you’ve got to be a guy and just put 225 on it because that’s all I can handle.

Then, in many cases, when the weight of responsibility seems so heavy and perhaps that individual has never seen it done before, he pauses and abandons it altogether. But because he is created to be responsible, he cannot simply walk away. Instead, he has to accuse the woman, making excuses to justify why he isn’t handling his business—because deep down, he cannot bear the thought of not being what a man is supposed to be.

So, oftentimes, we get angry at that person, and we have so much to say about them, not realizing that the very fact that he has a sense of responsibility is what made him run in the first place. I wish you could understand that. The reason I’m taking my time here as I walk through this is that I’m trying to show you we all have at least a little handicap. The truth of the matter…