Today, we want to praise God for the gift of godly mothers. Think about this. Of all the mothers in the world, only a small percentage are born-again believers who devoted themselves to being excellent wives and mothers. Just a tiny percentage of all the mothers in the world. So I thank God that I'm speaking to wives and mothers who love the Lord and want to obey the Lord's will and his word. And I pray you'll be encouraged today by God's grace. So we're gonna look at Genesis chapter two. If you'll turn there with me. We'll start in Genesis chapter two. And of course, you know that God created all things perfectly. And on the sixth day, which chapter two of Genesis addresses, the sixth day, special things happened on the sixth day. After God created animals, he created a man. The man's name was Adam. And God brought all the animals before Adam to give them names to see if there was anything that was compatible with Adam. Now, God knew there was nothing in the animal world that would be good for Adam as a mate, but Adam didn't know that. See, God prepares you before you get married to look at a bunch of people that turn out to be not so desirable, and then he brings the right one into your life. And you just go crazy. It's the best thing that ever happened to you. That's what he was doing with Adam. All the animals, they're disappointing. So what did God do? Verse 21, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made a woman and brought her to the man. You think Adam was excited? Verse 23, Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave, stay glued to his wife and they shall be one flesh And they were both naked, and the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. There was no sin in the world. Everything was perfect. And what we see on this sixth day, when God created the man and the woman, Adam and Eve, it was a perfect design. It was a perfect design for the family. And we know that they both sinned, and sin entered into the world through Adam, but the design did not change. God's plan is for one man to marry one woman, and that's a biological man and a biological woman, and they stay together for life. God made that clear. Our culture doesn't believe that right now, but God made it clear that's the ideal family. One man, one woman, and then they have children. Our culture has it backwards and upside down and everything. But this is God's plan. It's the best plan. And when Adam and Eve sinned, it didn't change God's design, but it made marriage and parenting much more difficult. Because they sinned against God, and God said, I'm going to curse everything because of sin. So women have pain in pregnancy and delivery. In the old days, many women died in childbirth, and some still do today. It's from the curse that came because Adam sinned against God and Eve sinned against God. So we think about that as we think of our wives and mothers. They go through a lot. when they get pregnant. But God's grace is sufficient for that. And then there's problems because the wife has within her nature the desire to take over the rulership in the house. And the man tries to rule and that creates marital stress. You can thank Adam and Eve for that too. Children are such a blessing, but they're conceived in sin and they come out rebellious. Another problem. In this fallen world, women who are believers, with all the curses that God pronounced on the world, the wives and the mothers have to depend on God's grace to help them be the mothers and the wives God wants them to be. Pure effort is not enough. You need God's grace. Moms carry heavy responsibilities before God. I'm just going to mention a few. There are a lot more than this. But those of us who aren't wives and mothers, we want to try to appreciate what great stress these responsibilities put on a woman day to day. The first and probably the greatest is having to live with the husband that they have and love him and submit to him. The men are shaking their head yes, so I know it's a fact. And it's God's grace that helps that woman to love and submit to that man as unto the Lord. And all the things that they do every day, you know, cleaning the house, doing the shopping, all the laundry, cooking, baking, teaching the children day in and day out. Not only in schooling, they're schooling the kids, but teaching them of Christ in the schooling, in every part of life. Constantly burdened with the salvation that they want for their children. And it compels them to go back to the word of God and teach the children about Christ in the Old Testament and New Testament. It's a heavy burden. Listen, the moms are gonna stand before God one day. What did you do with the children all day long? It's on their hearts. They have to transport the children to the doctors for appointments, to activities, day and night. It's like they got their bus driver's license. They're just going all over the place all the time. They have to deal with the child's sickness. And they have to deal, and this may be even the worst of all, deal with their own sinful weaknesses, the flesh. And then getting everybody ready to come Sunday to worship, Wednesday to worship, especially with the young kids. Okay, those are just a few things that the moms and the wives do day in and day out. Pray for our wives and our mothers continually. They need God's grace to carry these out faithfully. Also, in our culture, the moms have the added duty to protect their children from unbiblical things that are going on in the culture that always trying to press. on the moms to make them become part of that culture. Unbiblical ideas like check your child to see if he or she is in the right body. What does that mean in our culture? The little girls who dare to play with one of the trucks in the room, they're supposed to report that right away and say, my little girl's in the wrong body. She needs medicine and surgery because she's probably a boy and she got in the wrong body. As crazy as that sounds, okay, that's on TV, that's on the internet, that's in our culture. And moms are pressured. Listen, moms who don't know better fall for that and they take their little baby or little child to a clinic that works with transgender people and they start getting more indoctrinated and before you know it, They're convincing their little girl that she's a boy. Okay. Maybe that's not so much pressure on you now because you know better, but it's out there, and you have to fight it. You have to teach your children. God made two genders, male and female. You're a male, you're a female, and that's the way you're going to be the rest of your life. In some places, they're now trying to establish laws that if you tell your child that they are what they are biologically and they think they're something else, They can come in and take your child away. Okay, that's where this country is headed. Moms and dads have to fight it. Homosexuality, same-sex marriages, what do your children think about it? You have to program them to think God's thoughts about all these things. Marriages between one man and one woman, not between a man and a man or a woman and a woman. That's pressure for the moms, day in and day out. You take them to the stores and they see two men holding hands or two men kissing, they have to be able to explain to the children, this is ungodly, God hates it, and explain what real relationships are supposed to be like. And then the pressure to do parenting according to the latest thing in parenting, the latest book that's out. Instead of doing it God's way. And all the things that are out, a lot of the things that are out now about parenting are child-centered instead of Christ-centered. The last one that I read, this may not even be the most current, it's called gentle parenting, okay? You let your child have his tantrum, his fit, talk back to you, curse, whatever he's doing, you just let him work through it, and then you get together like a coach and you say, how can we work this out? That's gentle parenting. That's a synopsis of gentle parenting. And so parents are doing that. No spankings allowed, no discipline, no timeouts. You just work together. Buddy with buddy. How can we help you? What did we do wrong to make you have a fit like that? So this is pressure for the dear wives and mothers to do it God's way, according to the scriptures. And then, of course, there's the modern mother who works and the pressures on mom to work. And what happens to the children? They go to daycare centers, public schools. It's so heartbreaking. And some of these moms do not have to work. Some do, and I grant that. Some do not have to work. I was out at a restaurant with a brother, and we met one of them. She was a waitress, and she said, I'm so glad to get away from my kids. Okay. I thank God that our women want to follow God's design to love their husbands, submit to their husbands, and bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It's not that common. It's a rare thing. I thank God for the women of the Emmanuel Baptist Church. Okay, let's look at 1 Samuel. In chapter one, I wanna look at some models that we have in scripture that God gives us to see what mothers that are filled with God's grace, what they do, and how dedicated they are. The first one is Hannah in 1 Samuel. And the outstanding characteristic of a godly woman is love for God. We see that in Hannah. She loved God. So starting in verse one, you get the context here that Hannah's having a tough time, but she never gives up. Verse one, now there was a certain man of Ramatha-Im-Zophim of Mount Ephraim. His name was Elkanah, the son of Jerob-Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zoph, an Ephraonite. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah. The name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. This man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. That's where the tabernacle and the ark were at that time. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. And when the time that Elkanah offered he gave to Peninnah, his wife, and to her sons and her daughters, portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her relentlessly to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her Therefore, she wept and did not eat. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why don't you eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than 10 sons? So this is a tough time for Hannah. She was barren and harassed by Elkanah's other wife, But she never stopped trusting God. That's key. She knew God controlled fertility and conception. Look at verse 11. Let's start with verse 10. She was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give unto your handmaid a male child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head." She trusted in the Lord. She knew how God was able by His power to give her a child, But she went to the Lord in prayer and just prayed, Lord, I want this child badly because I want him for your glory. Notice in verse 12, she never stopped praying. She hasn't had an answer to her prayer yet, but it came to pass, it says in verse 12, she continued praying before the Lord. Then Eli observed her mouth. She never stopped praying. And I just want you to notice that Hannah was not seeking a child for herself like so many women are today. I want a child so I can say I had a child. And I want children so I can say I had children plus I worked. I can do all this. I'm a superwoman. This was not for Hannah. She wanted a child for the glory of God. That's what she said in verse 11. I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life. She did it for the glory of God. And after much prayer, and Eli was observing her mouth moving, it says in verse 14, Eli said unto her, how long will you be intoxicated? Put away your wine from you. So she's being called a drunkard by Eli the priest. So things have really gotten difficult for her. What does she do? She answered in verse 15, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not your handmaid as a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I been speaking. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant you your petition that you have asked of him. And she said, let your handmaid find grace in your sight. So the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. After much prayer and being called a drunkard, Hannah found peace. We just saw it. She started eating. She wasn't sad anymore. She found peace. God gave her comfort. Whatever stress, ladies, whatever confusion, negative circumstances that you might experience, you can have peace with God. And life is very fast-moving. There's a lot of parts. It gets hectic and confusing after a while, stressful and sometimes painful. Go to God in prayer. I know you do this. I'm encouraging you to do it more. Go to God in prayer. Cry out to him like Hannah did. Cast your cares upon him, knowing he cares for you. He will answer your prayer. He'll give you peace. And you won't be sad and stressed anymore. And God answered Hannah's prayer. Starting in verse 19, they rose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord. and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. Therefore, it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bore a son and called his name Samuel, saying, because I have asked him of the Lord." So the word Samuel, the name Samuel means heard of God. She asked, God heard her prayers, answered her prayers. She had a son. What kind of mother was she? Now she's got the son, she promised to give him to God and commit him to the Lord. Verse 21 says, and the man, Elkanah, and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. What did Hannah do? But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and there abide forever. She would love and teach and train and prepare Samuel for service to God. And when he was ready for that, she would take him up to the house of God. Hannah was not spending time building up Samuel's self-esteem or making him think the world rotated around him. She was preparing him to love God, serve God, that he might be useful to God. That's a high calling. Dear moms, there's no higher calling than devoting your lives to loving your husbands and training your children to follow Jesus and serve him. You cannot save your children, but you can prepare them to be saved and to serve the Lord when God, by his grace, saves them. That's Hannah. What a commitment. All the stress. Everything was stacked against her, it looked like, but she went to the Lord. She prayed to the Lord. And when the Lord answered her prayer and gave her a child, she committed that child to the Lord. She was dedicated to doing it the Lord's way. Well, finally, in verse 24, after she had weaned Samuel, she took him up. with her, and three bullocks, and an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh. The child was young. They killed the bullock and brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood by here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked of him. I have also given him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he shall be given to the Lord, and they worship the Lord there." It was an unconditional giving of the child of her answered prayer to the Lord. And that's what you wives and mothers have demonstrated. You've given your devotion to bringing up your children God's way, and said, Lord, they're yours. Please help me train them properly according to your word. I'm preparing them for you to stand before you one day when they die, and I'm preparing them to serve you. If you should choose to save them, I'm preparing them to serve you. And I thank God for that commitment and that devotion to doing it God's way. Okay, let's look at Exodus. Go back to Exodus Chapter 2. Hannah was one example of a grace-filled mother. There's another one in Exodus Chapter 2. The mother of Moses. Okay, let's just read the first few verses to see how this works out. Exodus 2, verse 1, and there was a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. It doesn't mention her name here. It mentions her name in Exodus 620, but it's Jochebed. That's the mother of Moses, Jochebed. And the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw him, that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and pitch and put the child in it. She laid in it the, and laid it in the reeds by the river's brink. Right by the bank of the river. Now what was going on here is, They were in captivity in Egypt, and they were repopulating, and they were getting to be more numerous than the Egyptians, so the Jews were not favorable in the eyes of the pharaoh. He said, take every male child and throw them in the river. Kill them. And so here, Jochebed has a little baby boy. Now, what's she going to do with the little baby boy? What does a faithful mother do? Protect that child. Love that child that she says, Moses is getting really noisy. I can't hide him much longer. So I'm going to make a little boat for him and send him down the river and pray God will just protect him. That was the plan. But she also had another plan for when the little baby started going down the river. Verse 4, and his sister, and by his sister's Miriam, his sister stood afar off to see what would be done to him. She probably thought, you know, once they see this baby's a Hebrew baby, they'll probably just drown him. Verse 5, the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked by the river's side. And when she saw the ark among the flags, the reeds, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Uh-oh. Baby's crying, still making noise. She recognized it as a Hebrew child. This is God working in her heart by his grace. Verse seven, then said his sister, here's Miriam, perfectly positioned for this moment in time because of God's wisdom. Then said Sister Miriam to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call for you a nurse from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. And the maid, Miriam, went and called the child's mother. What a plan, isn't that tremendous? Miriam's watching the little boat go down. Pharaoh's daughter sees it. It's a Hebrew child. She doesn't kill him. And Miriam jumps right in and says, should I get somebody to nurse this baby? Before she can even think of killing him, I'll get somebody to nurse him for you. And then you can have him later. And who does Miriam go and get? The mother. Verse eight, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go, and the maid went and called the mother's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, now she's speaking to Jacobit, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. And the woman took the child and nursed him, and the child grew and brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water. What an account. So, amazing, this boat came to Pharaoh's daughter, was salvaged, given to Moses' mother to nurse, and then finally back to Pharaoh's daughter. What did Jacobet do the whole time? That time spent. that Moses was in her hands was spent training, loving, preparing, protecting Moses for service to God, just like Hannah. He's going to serve God. Jonkabed had no idea how Moses would turn out, but she had faith that God would use this little baby in some way to bring glory to God. You had that account, now look at Hebrews, because Hebrews gives us a little more information on the grace that was in Jochebed and her husband. Hebrews 11, 23. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents. It's really the parents' faith. Moses didn't have faith at that young age. Because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. Okay, so that was a commendation to the parents of Moses for what they did. their love for the Lord, their courage in the face of the Pharaoh's decree to kill all the babies, they didn't do it. Now we look at Moses. He's grown up. He's been in Pharaoh's house for years, trained in their language and their customs and all the ease of life that it is to be in the rich Pharaoh's house, verse 24. Hebrews 11.24 says, By faith Moses, when he came to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the reward and the recompense. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as seeing him who was invisible." How did Moses become such a good man, choosing God instead of Egypt, and all the ease of life and the wealth of Egypt? How would a man in his right mind choose to go against Egypt and suffer the consequences when he could have had the easy life? Go back to Jochebed. Those formative years, those most important years, maybe one to five in there, or zero to five, training him, preparing him, loving him, teaching him of God, teaching him the word of God. Dear moms, those little seeds you plant in your children of truth, don't think your children don't understand them when they're two, three, four, five. They do. And if they don't understand them fully, they will. Those seeds were planted in Moses. When it came time, when he was a man, it came time to make that decision, God or easy life, I choose God, no matter what it is, because of his mother. faithfully training him for the few years she had him. It was the influence of Jacobit. The influence of a mother on a child cannot be described. What you teach your children and what they see in you in those all the years they're in the house will carry with them as long as they live. And much of it will be passed on to their children. Listen to this quote. This is from John MacArthur. He may have quoted from somebody else, but not sure. For better or worse, mothers are makers of men. They are the architects of the next generation. That's why the goal of becoming a godly mother is the highest and most noble pursuit of womanhood. God has specially equipped women for that very purpose. And in Christ, women can experience profound satisfaction in that divinely ordained pursuit. That high calling can't be underestimated because the mom is going to make something out of that young man and the young woman. It is so powerful. that there's no other force on earth that's more powerful than a mother influencing her children. So our moms know that, and so we need to pray they carry that heavy burden with them. I must do it God's way. And I'll be ridiculed by just about everybody in my family, my extended family, who already thinks I'm a nut for being a Christian, but now doing my children this way, They complain. They try to push me to do it a different way. Pray for the women. You just stay faithful to God's word, like Hannah and Jochebed. And there's one more I want you to see. You turn to 1 Timothy. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy, Chapter 5. what examples we have to encourage our mothers. 2 Timothy Chapter 1. The Apostle Paul had a great helper in Timothy, and we learn from scripture that Timothy's mother was a Jewess, and she was saved, but the father was a Greek, and he was not saved. And listen as I read just from Acts 16 verses 1 and 2. Now Paul also came to Derbe and Lystra and a disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. And Timothy was well spoken of by the brothers and sisters who were in Lystra and Iconium. How did Timothy have such a good report from the other Christians there. And ask yourself this question, why did Paul want to take Timothy with him to all the different places he went? And why did Paul want to send Timothy to be a pastor in a church that was having so many problems? We can learn the answer to that by looking at 2 Timothy 1.5, the influence of the mother. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith, that's genuine faith, that is in you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, I am persuaded also that it's in you. How did Timothy get such a good report and why did Paul want to take him on his journeys? It was the love and diligent training of Mother Eunice. She had faith in Jesus Christ, and she pointed her son to Christ as well. And where did Eunice get her faith? Her mother was also a faithful believer, passed it on to her, the importance of believing in Jesus. And by God's grace, she heard that message, and she believed. And then mother and grandmother worked on Timothy. We don't know what the father did or how he responded to these things, but if there's an unbeliever in the house, the husband's an unbeliever, the mother's responsibility remains. Bring that child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord poignant to Christ. And just look with me at 2 Timothy chapter 3. See a little bit more of what went on in the home that Timothy grew up in. Verses 14 and 15. But continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them. And that from a child, this is from infancy, You have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. What took place in that home was Eunice, Mother Eunice and Grandmother Lois were diligently reading the scriptures, teaching the scriptures, living the scriptures, And by God's grace, Timothy saw that, he saw the model, he heard the words that were implanted in him, God saved him. And he became a great servant for the Lord. Paul also taught him much, but his initial exposure to scriptures and truth came from his mother. What a blessing. to know that in our church, the mothers are devoted and committed to bringing their children up this way. They're totally committed, first of all, to Jesus Christ. Totally committed, second of all, to their husbands. Has to be in that order or you will not be a successful mother. And thirdly, totally committed to bringing those children up God's way. What models? Hannah, Jochebed, Eunice. Praise God. One more thing I want to cover. This is in Proverbs 31, if you'll turn there with me. The grace-filled mother, so blessed. Proverbs 31.10, who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies? Virtuous means moral strength, good quality, integrity. This is a woman like Hannah, Jochebed, and Eunice. Just get a little more detail here. Those women probably did the exact same thing that the Proverbs 31 woman did. She's a strong woman. She's a believing woman. She loves the Lord. She loves her children. She loves her husband. Her price is far above rubies. There's not enough wealth in the world, not enough money that I can pay my wife for what she does and what she's done with the children. We have a lot of rubies in this church. Praise God. Verse 11, the heart of her husband does safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil. She's devoted to her husband. He trusts her because she's the perfect help meat for her, perfect counselor, perfect compliment. If you marry the right person, And by that, I mean if you do it God's way, you wait upon the Lord. Don't get hasty. Don't move too fast. Don't let your eyes determine who you're going to marry. Get lots of counseling from your parents, your pastor, your friends. Go slow. Because then you'll find your greatest fulfillment. when you do it God's way. The heart of her husband does safely trust in her, because she's the perfect one. She's the helper God wanted that man to have. Verse 12 says, she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. That is such a precious statement because wives can be tempted to have a bad attitude, let's put it that way, do evil, because the husband has basically earned it because he's done something that's not good or he does, he has a pattern in his life that the wife sees, you know, the only time he really pays attention to me is, you know, when he, when he wants something. And the temptation is to turn away and think evil thoughts and not take care of him. Not so with this kind of woman. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. Every day, she does him good. That's a woman who really believes what God says in his word, fights against her own fleshly ways of figuring out problems, and says, I'm just gonna do it the Lord's way. I had a woman once, she said, my husband just, he's almost impossible to live with. And she explained some of the problems, and I said, listen, have you submitted to your husband at any time? No, I'll never submit to him. He's just too wicked. They're both professing Christians. I said, try this. Take God at his word. Do what God says and see what happens. You've got nothing to lose. You're already having a miserable marriage. She called me up a couple weeks later and said, it's working. Duh. If you do it God's way, it works. Be faithful to the Lord. to be a wife and a mother, like he says, you'll be blessed. Verses 13 through 19. I won't go over all of them. We've read them already, but it talks about how this woman has a great business sense and is a hard worker. She works in the home. She works outside the home. But all that she does, and she does a lot, buying fields and making deals, Her activities do not interfere with her responsibilities in the house, responsibilities to her husband. That's key. She has God-given responsibilities as a wife and mother, and all these other things that she does, she can do them and do all her other responsibilities. It's good. She's kind to the poor, verse 20. She stretches out her hand to the poor. Yes, she reaches forth her hands to the needy. This is amazing. All the other things she's doing, she has a heart for the Lord and the heart that the God has towards poor and widows and orphans, she's got the same heart. She reaches out and she tries to help them. Verse 23, her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. So her devotion to her husband is even known in her town because he's possibly in a position of authority, maybe as an elder or as a businessman. He's respected. He's highly esteemed and respected in that town. Why? Because she has loved him and encouraged him and helped him to fulfill his role as head of the home. That's what a wife does. She helps her husband become the leader he's supposed to be. Adam was not complete. He couldn't be the leader he was supposed to be without the wife. That's why God made him a wife from his rib. So she could compliment him and help him reach that great success of leading his home. So he's respected in the gates. Now he's a good man too, but his wife made him such a strong leader that he's respected in the community. That's God's plan for a wife, be the complement to your husband so he can be what God designed him to be, the leader, the head of the home, the authority, the servant in the home. And then her inner character is revealed in verse 25, strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come." She's strong, she's honorable. That's describing who she is in her character. She has nice clothes. Verse 22 says, she makes herself coverings of tapestry. Her clothing is silk and purple, very expensive clothing in those days. But it's not her goal in life is to have the best things to wear. She's not being controlled by her attire. It's just an indicator of the inner character she has of godliness. Paul told Timothy something along those lines. I'll just read it to you. He says, likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing. modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or expensive apparel, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. The attire and the hair and the jewelries and all that was not driving this woman. Everything that's on the outside is a reflection of what's on the inside, how you dress, what you wear, how you speak, This is quite a woman. Verse 26 just elaborates more about her character and the heart that God gave her when he saved her. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. So she knows when to speak and how to speak. That's what I need to learn. But she's learned it. And how many of you wives or mothers have said things that you wish you could get back? I got lots of them. But she's learned when to speak, when not to speak to her husband, to her children, to her neighbors, to the maids, everybody. If I could learn that, have that wisdom, when to speak, when not to speak, and what to say when I do speak. The law of kindness is in her tongue. If we could all practice that, speaking to one another, whatever occasion it is, in the home, in the church, words of kindness, a desire to build up and to encourage. That's the way she was. What a woman. And by the way, if you're having trouble with your speech or any of those things where she's succeeded, remember, sanctification is a process. If you're not there now, that doesn't mean you won't be there next week. Just keep working, working, do what Hannah did. Go to God and cry out and say, God, I'm not the wife I want to be. I'm not even prepared to get married because I'm so in love with myself, I'm missing all the other stuff. Would you help me, Lord? He'll help you. He'll help you. Her speech is kind and gentle. It just reflects who she is. She's not lazy, verse 27 tells us. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. She cares for all her family. She's on the move. She's busy, laboring, thinking about others. That's the main takeaway. She's not thinking about herself. She's thinking about how can I take care of my children, my husband, my maids, my servants, the business deals, thinking about others. And here's her gift. For all her devotion to the Lord and her family, here's her gift in verse 28. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. This is God's gift to mothers who seek to please God in every area of life. The children recognize the mothers God gave them are amazing. They have to recognize it. I hope to hear about it today when we have some time for testimony, but the children who have been schooled in the school of Christ, loved, Being brought up with love and patience, they recognize how hard their mothers worked to sacrifice for them, to love them. They rise up, call their mother blessed. The husbands also, they recognize what a gift all the years that mom and wife loved and submitted to the husband, and loved and cared for the children. All those years of labor are recognized. They celebrate her virtue. The husband recognizes this blessed wife. He praises her. He praises God, of course, because he knows the wife came from God, but he praises her for being such a wonderful wife, And especially as he recognized his own shortcomings, his own sins, and the wife just hung in there and did God's will, he praises her. Proverbs 30, 29 says that she's the best one in all Israel. Many daughters have done virtuously, but you excel them all. I don't know who's the best wife here, in Emanuel Baptist Church, but I know your husband would say, you excel them all, dear, because you know how hard she has worked to make your house a Christ-centered house. Here's the reason, and here's the theme of the Proverbs 31 woman. Verse 30, favor is deceitful, beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord She shall be praised. This is the reason this woman is the best wife and mother of all. To fear the Lord is not to be scared of the Lord. It's to reverence the Lord, to love the Lord, and realize how great the Lord is. And you love him so much that you want to be the best wife in the world for his glory and for your household's sake. She loves God more than her husband. Can you say that, dear ladies? I love God more than my husband. I love God more than my children. I love God more than anything. More than my clothing, my money. Outward beauty is not controlling this woman. Love for God is controlling her. How many times have you found your own preparations of your body, your hair, and your clothing and everything just consumes a lot of time? I mean, it does sometimes, just by necessity. But how much of that devotion can we take away from ourselves and put on the Lord? Favor is deceitful, that well-favored look. Thank God for beautiful women, beautiful men, but it's vain. if that's controlling your life. God must be the controller of your life. You want to be beautiful for God, that's wonderful, but not for self. And that's why she's praised for all, because her first love is God, and do all this for God. In the final verse, give her the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates. Her life of devotion to God is seen in what she does. All that God has done inside of her has come out. Everybody can see it. It's like the Lord taught in the Sermon on the Mount, let your light so shine among men they may see what? Your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven. That's what this woman does. Just give her the chance to go do what she's supposed to be doing. and you'll see her inward godly character come out and how she loves everybody, works hard for everybody, and brings glory to God. I just thank God that the wives, the mothers in our church are like this. They love the Lord, they love their husbands, they love their children, they're kind, they're wise, We haven't arrived yet. We haven't achieved where we want to be. But I thank God that you're devoted to doing it God's way. And you know what that all comes from? The grace of God. The grace of God. What is the grace of God? It's God's favor upon your life. Unmerited favor. And it's his enabling power throughout your life. So I thank God this morning. that God, by his grace, has saved our wives, made them great mothers. And now our prayer is this, that all that you do, laboring to point your children to Christ, will bear fruit one day. And children, I pray that you are so thankful that you can hardly stand it, that God gave you a mom and a dad that loves Jesus Christ and loves you. You are an example of a very small percentage of children in the world that has such a privilege as this. Praise God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Jesus said, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me, has eternal life. Right away, as soon as you believe, you have eternal life. Shall not come into judgment, that you pass from death to life. Right now, you can do that right now by trusting that you are a sinner, you're going to hell, apart from faith in Christ. You cry out to God, please save me. I believe you died for me and rose for me. God will hear that cry that comes from a heart that's been changed, and you'll be a born-again Christian by his grace. So pray for our wives, pray for our mothers, pray for our little children who are females, that they will see Christ in their mothers, they'll grow up, they'll marry the right person, and for those who are of marriage age right now, they'll see all these qualities that are in Hannah, Jacobet, Eunice, Proverbs 31 woman, and they'll say, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to devote my life to trying to be like these women, because these women are trying to be like Christ, loving God above all things. And God will raise up all of our young ladies to be Proverbs 31 women, saved and devoted to Christ by his grace. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace that saved us, your grace that gave us loving wives, your grace that made these mothers strong with all their responsibilities. Lord, we just lift them up to you and ask you to bless them. Don't let them grow weary in doing your will, Lord, in due time. They shall reap if they faint not. We thank you for the ladies in this congregation. You've given us such blessings in the years of our lives to be married to wonderful women and see the work they've done in our children. Help us all to aspire to be like Christ, to be better husbands, better wives, better children, that you may receive praise and glory from all those who see us. For that is the reason that you gave us life in this world, Lord, that we may bring you glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. For the ladies that are here, as you leave, there's a rose on the table back there.