[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agapic Baptist Church in George, South Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, church.
[SPEAKER_00]: The happy Mother's Day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all the mothers in the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: I trust the Lord has blessed you all this week and you are prepared to praise the Lord this
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had a choice to make this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: On Monday morning, I had to decide, am I going to preach on a topical sermon that has something to do with Mother's Day?
[SPEAKER_00]: From the Scriptures, obviously, or am I going to preach about the plague of frogs?
[SPEAKER_00]: And after talking to some ladies in my life, I decided to preach on a topical sermon because frogs, although it would have been appropriate
[SPEAKER_00]: difficult.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to preach a topical sermon on Mother's Day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so glad I did because for my own study in Proverbs 31.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was filled with joy and thanksgiving and praise for God and thankfulness for the Godly Mother's and my own life this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you would please turn with me to Proverbs 31,
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I know not all of you were born to a godly mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just the reality of many of you sitting here.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has maybe saved you as a first generation Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe your mother was not saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe your Christian mother was a first generation Christian as she struggled as a mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know not all of you were born to a godly mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's my hope that every member of the body of Christ has found godly mothers in God's church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about it just for a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you found that here?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been in the church of God long enough, and if you're not 90 years old, then you've probably felt some warmth from some older ladies in your life in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really hope you have.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I hope you've gotten to experience that in God's church.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even if you are in the rare circumstance where you have never tasted the joy of being loved by a godly mother, you should still rejoice in the godly mothers who raised up their own children to one day bring you the gospel of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in your history, in your Christian history and lineage, there were many godly mothers that came before you, which were part of the means of God to bring you the grace of God, the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a real sense, those faithful mothers were essential to your own new birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So every Christian no matter your circumstance should rejoice in God's gift of Godly mothers.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've never thought of it that way before, I encourage you to spend some time thanking God this week and thinking about how God has used Godly women and Godly mothers in your life to bring you to the point of salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: One man who intimately knew he had a Godly mother, though he resisted her attempts to win him to Christ
[SPEAKER_00]: was the British pastor Charles Spurgeon.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was only saved at the age of 15 or 16 he believes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what Charles Spurgeon says about mothers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I quote, he says, fathers and mothers are the most natural agents for God to use in the salvation of their children.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am sure that in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: Neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such influence over the heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring.
[SPEAKER_00]: A man with a soul so dead has not to be moved by the sacred name of mother is creation's blot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly I have no powers of speech with which to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed on me in making me the son of one who prayed for me and prayed with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can I ever forget her tearful eye when she warned me to escape from the wrath to come?
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought her lips right eloquent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Others might not think so, but they certainly were eloquent to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee and with her arms about my neck, prayed, oh, that my son might live before thee.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nor can I forget her frown.
[SPEAKER_00]: It cannot be faced from my memory.
[SPEAKER_00]: That solemn loving frown when she rebuked my budding iniquities.
[SPEAKER_00]: and her smiles have never faded from my recollection, the beaming of her countenance when she rejoiced to see some good thing in me towards the Lord God of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, do I remember hearing my father speak of an incident that greatly impressed him?
[SPEAKER_00]: He used to be frequently away from home preaching, and at one time, as he was on his way to his service, he feared that he was neglecting his own family while caring for the souls of others.
[SPEAKER_00]: He therefore turned back and went to his home.
[SPEAKER_00]: On arriving there, he was surprised to find no one in the lower rooms of the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: But on ascending the stairs, he heard a sound as of someone engaged in prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: On listening at the bedroom door, he discovered that it was my mother, pleading most earnestly for the salvation of all her children, and specially praying for Charles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her firstborn and strong willed son.
[SPEAKER_00]: My father felt that he might safely go about his master's business while his dear wife was carrying so well for the spiritual interests of the boys and girls at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he did not disturb her, but proceeded at once to fulfill his preaching engagement.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mother said to me one day,
[SPEAKER_00]: I could not resist the temptation to reply.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mother, the Lord has answered your prayer with his usual bounty and giving you exceeding abundantly above what you asked or thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: End of quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: Spurgeon's tribute to his mother brings to mind God's word in Proverbs 31.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to begin reading in verse 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Proverbs 31, verse 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
[SPEAKER_00]: She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her children rise up and call her blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her husband also, and he praises her saying, many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised until there.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this morning I'd like to look at three observations of a godly mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are many more things that could be said, but for this morning three observations in our passage of a godly mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: She speaks truth, she keeps watch, and she is blessed by her God and spread together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, I thank you for your Word and how practical it is in so many places, getting straight to the heart of many needful discussions and needful truths that we need to hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, Father, as we touch on the topic of Mother's this morning, I pray that you would open our hearts, each one in the situation that they are in,
[SPEAKER_00]: There are many joyful truths for men in this passage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are many joyful truths in this passage for young women who are not married.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is the reminder of sadness and failure for others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope that they hear this morning the joy of the possibility of repentance and forgiveness and restoration where they can get back on the path to joy in their God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, there is much honor to be given to women who have lived their entire life's faithful to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray, Lord, that your church would honor women who fear the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: May you be praised and your church encourage this morning by your spirit in the Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So first, verse 26, she speaks truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: A godly mother speaks truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 26 says, she opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is honor tongue.
[SPEAKER_00]: To speak with wisdom, you must first know the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You first have to know truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the truth according to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are many truths out there in the world are truth claims, I should say.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you must know the truth according to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then once you know it in your mind, you must personally receive it, receive that truth, and start living it out in your own life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you must know the truth, you must receive the truth, and begin living it, and loving it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we've all seen people who are trying to keep God's law out of beautiful, law-keeping.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a pretty sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually quite unappealing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's where we get the word religion in its negative sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you know the truth, and you perceive the truth, and you love the truth, that's the first step.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot open your mouth with wisdom if you're speaking based on your own first impressions or feelings alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you know the truth and you perceive the truth and you love the truth, then many times your first impressions will be in line with the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not denying that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe the Holy Spirit will move in your hearts to give you first impressions that are godly many times.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you do not know the truth and you do not love the truth, then first impressions and feelings will lead you astray.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're told that the heart is deceitful and desperately sick, the natural heart, apart from the Spirit of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's deceitful, desperately sick, and it will lead you astray.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the woman who knows the truths of God and has personally received those truths and to her own heart and mind, that woman is capable of wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're a lady sitting in this room and you doubt that you're capable of godly wisdom, God says, that's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Know my word, receive my word and faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love my word, live my word, and you are capable by my spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: of wisdom, of opening your mouth with wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this word wisdom, it means that a woman is able to skillfully apply truth to the fluctuating circumstances of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's think about that for a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: A person is not considered wise, simply because they can recite the Ten Commandments.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because you've memorized the Ten Commandments doesn't mean you're wise.
[SPEAKER_00]: A person is considered wise when they beautifully apply the morality of God to daily circumstances.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when we look at someone and say, they have a wisdom that I want, or I admire, or I desire to have more of that when they beautifully apply the morality, or the truth of God, to everyday life.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know and love the truth of God,
[SPEAKER_00]: than you are capable of speaking with wisdom through the Holy Spirit that the God has given you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's also in our passage, a wisdom that stops you from speaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's tucked away a little bit in this passage, but look with me at this verse in 21st, 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our passage says, she opens her mouth with wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And implied in that phrase is the wisdom to know when to speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: when to open your mouth, when to speak into situations, how to speak and when to speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: And implied in this is that there are times when many words will simply multiply sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 10 tells us that it says, when words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tongue of the righteous is choice silver.
[SPEAKER_00]: The heart of the wicked is of little worth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So many words spoken passionately, do not typically go hand in hand with wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom looks more like choice silver, our passage says, is where we get the idea that she shows her words carefully.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's purpose and intention to the words that come out of the mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: that when we just multiply words based on the passion of the moment, it usually doesn't go hand in hand with speaking wisely or with wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: But knowing and loving the truths of God and walking in with the Spirit or walking in the Spirit, you know, we're told that we shouldn't be controlled by worldly substances,
[SPEAKER_00]: We're told that drunkenness is foolishness, implied in that is that being controlled by any kind of chemical in this world, being controlled by that is unwise, it's foolishness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the contrast is that we should instead be led by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would argue that we shouldn't just be led by our fluctuating passions.
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead, we should know God's truth, love God's truth, and walk by the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're aiming for that in your life, then you are capable of speaking with wisdom, of opening your mouth with wisdom, and knowing and feeling when it is right in the moment to be silent or right in the moment to speak by God's Spirit, by His help.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our passage also says, the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's an easy phrase to just kind of read and move on.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this word translated kindness is the Hebrew word has said.
[SPEAKER_00]: said.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the waitingist words in all scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: It carries on its shoulders the idea of loyal faithfulness, covenant keeping love and unwavering kindness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not just in the human realm are as far as what humans do to one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of God's favorite ways to describe his own love for his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's loyal faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's covenant keeping love.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's unwavering kindness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what has said.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's often represents inscriptions.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the weight of that word.
[SPEAKER_00]: One way we could describe the weight of this word is to simply say it means godly action.
[SPEAKER_00]: Godly love in action, even.
[SPEAKER_00]: The New Testament equivalent to this heavy weight word is the word grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, now we hear it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we hear it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't hear it when we hear the word has said, or maybe kindness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's those are nice words.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when we hear the word is Christians, we hear the word grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're like, ah, that's an important word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grace means unmarried to favor.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's usually attached to God's unmarried to favor towards His enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's loving action for our good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Proverbs 31, 26 is packed with significance.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not merely saying that a godly mother must frequently be heard yelling down the hallway of the house, Henry, be kind to your sisters.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what this passage is actually getting at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just the yelling of kindness down the hallway.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, the teaching of his said is on her tongue.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is teaching her children, other people's children, and younger women about his said, about the loyal faithfulness of God, how he keeps his covenant and how his kindness is unwavering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all those in her charge are day by day called to follow their Savior into this kind of godly action towards others.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what this passage is saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: The teaching of grace is on her tongue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if those in her care hear these words and take it to heart,
[SPEAKER_00]: Her joy would be to see them go out and spread the grace of God wherever they go.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why she's teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why she's teaching has said, she opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, a godly mother keeps watch, look with me at verse 27.
[SPEAKER_00]: She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
[SPEAKER_00]: To look well over something is to keep watch.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same root word is used in the Old Testament for guards who were posted on the walls of the city at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's where we get the idea of a watchman, same word.
[SPEAKER_00]: to look well or watchmen, same root word.
[SPEAKER_00]: To be a watchman on the wall of a city is a noble task.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a noble thing to be a man standing on the walls of the city at night while your children and your wife sleep soundly.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a good task, a noble task.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's also a serious task.
[SPEAKER_00]: Historically, men who fell asleep while at their post
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the punishment for following a sleep on guard duty, was death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that watchman holds in his hands the lies of every man, woman, and child in that city that's asleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a serious task, it's a noble task, but yet a serious task.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe God wants women to also sense the nobility and seriousness of watching over the well-being of a household.
[SPEAKER_00]: The seriousness and the nobility.
[SPEAKER_00]: but there's more to this picture in verse 27.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because a godly mother isn't pictured here as looking outward towards some enemy that's trying to attack the city from outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, a mother should do that, but in this passage, that's not what she's doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this passage, it tells us, in this picture, it's telling us that she's looking inward.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's standing on the walls of the city, but she's looking at the city
[SPEAKER_00]: She's looking at the residence of her home.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the word translated ways, it's the same Hebrew word used to describe the paths of the planets in our solar system, the word orbits, the planets in their orbit, so ways or the paths or the orbit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we get this picture of a godly woman keeping watch to ensure that her home is functioning with purpose and order, reflecting beauty and wisdom, the beauty and wisdom of God, as he set the planets in their orbits.
[SPEAKER_00]: As God looks over the solar system and the movement of the planets, how they're beautiful and orderly and they're not crashing into each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a purpose and beauty to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: same word as a woman turns and looks at her home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her little, her little solar system, her household, making sure that there's purpose and order there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you may object that children and planets are two very different forces of nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might object, I, I understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, I would argue,
[SPEAKER_00]: that we see this truth and how if you take a two-year-old and you put them to bed at the same time every single night with the same routine and then you get them up the same time with the same routine every morning and they have an orderly day and they know what to expect from mom and dad all the sudden you start to taste
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just the truth, it really is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we see is that often the problem is not necessarily why our house is in chaos.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the main reason is not because of the fluctuating moods and temperament of children.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the root problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why our home might be in chaos and not have peace and not be a happy place.
[SPEAKER_00]: is because mom and dad have failed to give that child a place that is orderly has purpose as that that beautiful orbiting of the planet where we're not bumping into each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now as humans it's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our planets are going to bump into each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then we do something about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just leave it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't get angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead we take on godly action.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the most important things for a family, especially with young kids, is loving, consistent discipline of little children.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the most important factors.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you have rejected that in your home, then you are inviting pain into your home, disorder, sorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: There will be pain if you do not accept God's good gift of loving,
[SPEAKER_00]: discipline of little children, if you don't accept that gift from God, then you are asking for pain in your home.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a truth, because God is wise and we cannot reject His wisdom without consequences.
[SPEAKER_00]: So loving, consistent discipline brings joy to children and to parents is the promise of the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the most important factors in
[SPEAKER_00]: Without it, children become little terrors that parents attempt to appease through bribery or attempt to subdue through raised voices and threats.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are the other options.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, these truths we're talking about this morning are so simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: If a child goes to bed at eight every night and gets up at eight every morning, little child, they're a happier child.
[SPEAKER_00]: If a child is disciplined when they're rebelling against God and their parents, and then they're forgiven and restored to the family instantly thereafter, that child is a happy or child in your home will be more peaceful.
[SPEAKER_00]: These things are so simple, they sound so easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they are so hard in the moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you're in the trenches, it's hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is so hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so hard to start doing at first, and it is hard to have the discipline to keep doing it and to be faithful in this task.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like when you determine to start exercising, but then the next morning, like this morning, when it's cold and it's still dark at 6am, you just hit the snooze button.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it is so hard to get out of bed that first morning, now I will say if it's your hundredth morning getting up at 6 a.m. and going running it's easier than that first morning it is because we're humans and we work best with those kind of routines.
[SPEAKER_00]: God bless us the further we walk in faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these things are simple, but I'm not claiming that they're easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're hard, and I'm calling the families in our church to hard things that are good and for your joy in God's glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: our passage warns parents who are still stuck in bed at six a.m.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we go along with the analogy of exercising, who are still hitting the snooze button on discipline, are still hitting the snooze button on routines, are still hitting the snooze button on coming to church, whenever you're able and your family's healthy enough to, the doors of the church are open, just be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be with the Peacots, people, rejoicing this gift of God is mean of means of grace to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's people, the words, song, preaching prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: all these things, the table, if you're still hitting the snooze button on those things, God has a warning here in our passage.
[SPEAKER_00]: God warns, the godly mother does not eat the bread of idolness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you see something in your home, mommy's, that is out of order.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you see something that is unhealthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you see something that is making your family
[SPEAKER_00]: Get up and take godly action.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the point of this warning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not eat the bread of idleness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might look very different in your home.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for some examples, because people love examples, if your kids are binging on television and you're seeing attitudes falling, those usually go hand in hand, hours and hours and hours of television or entertainment of any kind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Attitudes plummet in the home.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, it's just true.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you see that, you feel that, turn the television off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take it off the wall if you have to.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we ended up having to do when we had two year olds running around in our living room.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had a television in the living room, main space, every time they went through and mommy can we watch a show?
[SPEAKER_00]: Mommy can we watch a show?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was on repeat.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a broker broken record.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mommy, can we watch a show?
[SPEAKER_00]: We took it off the wall eventually and put it somewhere else, out of sight, out of mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they didn't ask us, half is often.
[SPEAKER_00]: It started going out of their thoughts.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your children are sitting all day long, I know this is only, if you have the population that struggle with this, but if your children are sitting all day long, reading books, and you're sitting the attitudes plummet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe reconsider that's having your head stuck in a book all day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Might be taking them out of reality, and distracting them from loving their siblings and helping their family with the day-to-day tasks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take the book away, and if it's garbage, throw it in the trash.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take Godly Action.
[SPEAKER_00]: We this could go on and on with video games.
[SPEAKER_00]: Godless friendships.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where to be in the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you supposed to be kind and are you supposed to know unbelievers so that the gospel can go out?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Should you throw your children into Godless situations while they're still in boot camp?
[SPEAKER_00]: While they're still in basic training at home?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should you throw a five-year-old into a circle of ungodly or godless friendships?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their children, their in-basic training, they're not ready for warfare.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cut off Godless friendships that are leading the mystery.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're taking them away from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wisdom you're teaching them, the wisdom on your tongue, because children will, if they spend enough time with Godless friendship friends, they will follow the crowd.
[SPEAKER_00]: that will be a strong temptation for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you see your family, spiritually sick, take Godly action.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you have to take the TV off the wall throw books away, you can have a burning party for Godless Books, let's find.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cut off Godless friendships.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might be seen as extreme, but it should be a compliment of the highest order to hear your child's pagan playmate say your mom's a bit extreme.
[SPEAKER_00]: That should be a compliment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Depending on who it's coming from, that should be a compliment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have received that compliment.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did not mean it as a compliment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I took it that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a blessing it would be to have a church full of extreme mummies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we're well on our way to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what a blessing to have a church full of extreme mummies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mothers who are extreme in their love for the truth of God, extreme in their zeal for the well-being of their households, extreme in their passion for the grace of God to shine in and through the lives of their children.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: May it be said of all of us, man and women, that we were extreme Christians in our age.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not lukewarm Christians, like the majority of parents that you're going to meet today in George, lukewarm Christians they take the name of Christ, but the way they parent and live their lives is lukewarm.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not murderers.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're may not be white-collar criminals.
[SPEAKER_00]: They may try not to lie and steal.
[SPEAKER_00]: They try to be good neighbors and they're friendly.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they are lukewarm Christians because they do not have a burning desire to see Christ return and his kingdom come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Vores glory to go out in the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a lukewarm Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: God commands lukewarm Christians to get hot for Christ or get out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And actually that's saying it mildly.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Revelation 316, God says that He will spit the lukewarm Christians out of His mouth because the flavor of their lives disgust Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: In just in case you have this, we still struggle with this mental picture of God, the Father, his angry Old Testament God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus Christ is the loving one.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the one that comes and pacifies and makes God the Father nicer and just like kind of smooth everything out.
[SPEAKER_00]: In case you still struggle with that, I think all of us at one point have struggled with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, in Revelation 3, it's Jesus Christ who's coming with this warning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus Christ says,
[SPEAKER_00]: The flavor of lukewarm Christian's lives disgust Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: It disgust Christ with mothers, in the name of Christian kindness, pamper and doubt on their children, assuring their children from their birth that they are good, you're good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to heaven, we're all going to be there together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never once charging their children in the name of Jesus to repent of their sins and be saved from the wrath of God to come against vursans.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never once telling the children that the wrath of God rests on you until the day you repent and believe the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: That discuss the God of heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: My sister's in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look well to the ways of your own household.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not eat the bread of endless hours of idolness on social media and television.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the temptation of our day.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the idolness applied to our day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not eat the bread of idolness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Speak with wisdom, the truths of God, which you have personally received, and may the teaching of His said be always on your tongue.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you do these things for the glory of God, for the good of your children, and for your own joy, God promises that you will be blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a promise of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We look at how a godly mother is rewarded, verse 28.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her children rise up and call her blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her husband also, and he praises her saying, many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love, thankfulness, and praise are the godly and natural outcomes of this kind of life that we've been talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are godly and natural.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are sweet rewards, rewards from God that he even grants many women to begin tasting in this life.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I know there are times.
[SPEAKER_00]: when God of His wisdom withholds this reward from Godly mothers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs is a book filled with wisdom of what is godly and natural.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is a mean that sometimes wickedness is so rampant that these things don't happen in a natural and godly way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I understand that there are godly mothers who have yet to taste the sweetness of the fruit of their labor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand that, and God understands that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even in that unusual and unnatural circumstance, a godly mother will always, without fail, receive the fruits of her labor, she will.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only question is how long you might have to wait until you begin to taste the sweetness of that fruit, the fruit of your labor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because God promises saying, I see, I know, I will reward.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord promised that even a cup of water given in the name of Jesus would be received by but be rewarded by God when Christ returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even a cup of water given in His name.
[SPEAKER_00]: How much more will a godly mother be rewarded for changing 3,000 diapers I'm told in the name of Jesus during only the first year of an infants life?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the average 3,000 diapers.
[SPEAKER_00]: How much more will you mother be rewarded for nursing your growing child in the name of Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it seemed like the rest of the world was asleep at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there you are awake, you and your child.
[SPEAKER_00]: how much more will you be rewarded when you pour every bit of godly action you could into your child and then when they're 18 or somewhere around that time they've adulthood you then fire them off into the world like an arrow of God while you're left at home and you feel like you feel pain and hurt and loneliness.
[SPEAKER_00]: how much more will you be rewarded by God because he sees it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I promise by my name that I will reward it when Christ returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, I could go on and on about the heavenly duties and joys of Christian motherhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: How noble these duties are.
[SPEAKER_00]: How serious they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, how painful they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could go on and on and on.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the point is that all of these duties and pains are light and momentary in comparison to the joys God has in store for a godly mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're a lady in this room where the young or old, my hope is that you will consider
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you are looking forward in anticipation to that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the world around you is saying, your life ends, your joy ends when you have your first job.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the world, what the West says.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your joy ends when you have children.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm pleading with you to believe God's wisdom, to know His truth and to love it and receive it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you are in the trenches right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our church is so full of kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I brought them all right now, they would just line up on the backstage.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are almost outnumbered by children.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're almost more children than adults in this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are so blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: believe the truth of God, clean to the truth of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sees, he knows whether you're husband or others or your children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ever say thank you or give you praise, he will multiply your joy when Christ returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you are looking back at motherhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know you didn't get it perfectly right.
[SPEAKER_00]: neither did any other woman on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even Mary, the mother of Jesus did not get it perfectly right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God says that he sees, he knows your frame.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sees that he will reward you for everything you did in his name, even though it was imperfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you knew him and love him and are striving for his kind of joys, he says, I will reward.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he also offers forgiveness to anyone sitting here who's saying, I have never once thought about being a mother this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have failed if that's where you're at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the joy for you is that Christ says,
[SPEAKER_00]: And my resurrection is sufficient to give you new life from this day forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: To grant you joy, moving forward from this day, may the rest of your life be given in devotion to serving the Lord for His glory and for your increasing joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for those of you who are currently right now,
[SPEAKER_00]: thinking about motherhood only in a sense of sorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just too painful to think about right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kling does a Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your children are going to fluctuate back and forth and they may even die and be taken from you before their time.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God is the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ Jesus is our rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is unchanging.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the joys he has promised for every act of godly action you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then though the waves of children's failures and sins and hurtful things they say, the ungratefulness of husbands, all those things will be waves on crashing on the beach of your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're a link to Christ, then your joy will not be taken away from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can have hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: Husbands, men, you know I love to preach to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know I love to go after him and because I know what's going on in here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I ask you to think upon these things just as deeply and hardening, maybe even more deeply than the ladies in this room that we would honor and give thanks to godly women.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether they're younger or older or the wife of your youth, give thanks and honor to every act of godly action that she does.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every attempt of godly action encourage, give praise, honor, and thanksgiving to them, and give thanks to God, all of us, for the godly mothers in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, we praise you for the gift and calling of Christian Motherhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a beautiful picture it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've even the love of God, you tell us in your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're love for your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is what Christian Motherhood is a picture of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for the good gift of godly mothers in our own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a beautiful taste of heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is to have a mother who loves you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please, Lord, strengthen the weary mothers in this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many mommies in this church that are in the trenches right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please, Lord, strengthen them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help them not to lose heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grant them strengths.
[SPEAKER_00]: by your spirit to keep shining the light of Christ into their homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: May they be Jesus to their children.
[SPEAKER_00]: And please, Father, grant that your daughters might have godly husbands and homes filled with believing children and grandchildren for your glory and their joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.