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Lord's blessing on this time.
Dear gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you. We thank
you so very much for your son. We thank you so very much for
the things that you've blessed us with. We thank you that you
have sent your son to come and die on the cross for our sins
and that we can have redemption through him. We ask that we would
be kind, empathetic, loving towards one another, that we would love
our brothers and sisters as you have loved us. We also are just
very thankful for mothers and those mother-like figures in
our lives who were godly and wanted us to live for the Lord
and their influence upon us. We thank you and love you in
your son's name, amen. Okay, so we're counter-cultural
here. Today we're doing a Mother's Day sermon. You go, it's not
Mother's Day, doesn't matter. That's how we roll here. We just
do whatever we want, whenever we want. There's no rules, right?
No. We're getting ready to go into
Proverbs chapter 31. Proverbs 31 has been taught a
lot. In fact, probably most of your
encounter with the book of Proverbs has been this specific chapter.
Remember that the book starts off referring to sons, talking
to sons, and it's fitting that the last advice that comes in
the book of Proverbs is two of the most important women in a
man's life, his mother and his wife, right? Those are the two
most important women in his life, and so here it ends with this,
Proverbs 31 could be called the chapter of the godly women. And
this morning, we're gonna look at the influence of a mother
that a mother has upon a child and upon a son. I just want to
read the first verse here. Notice what it says. It says,
the words of King Lemuel, an oracle that his mother taught
him. So understand this. Before we
even start talking about what we're gonna talk about, think
about this. Here's a king, a really powerful man. Imagine how many
people would love to sit and talk to a king and give advice
to a king and say things to a king that the king really needs to
hear. And not very many people get that opportunity. There is
one person who can walk into a room to a king and go, now
you listen. That's mama, right? Mama can
do that. As we think about this, I want
us to realize the incredible value of mothers in the lives
of people. Mothers have an incredible ministry,
beyond any ministry I could ever have. And the way that mothers
are able to shape and form children and form the future Mothers have
a unique opportunity and so what I want to encourage is I want
to encourage biblical, godly motherhood. We're going to look
at a portrait of a godly mother. What we're going to see in the
first two verses of 31 is the character of a godly mother.
We're going to see her and what she does and some of the things
that she says and her character is going to come out. Then what
we're going to see in verses three through five is we're going
to see these motherly warnings. She warns her son and says, these
are some bad things, son. Then there's this encouragement
in verses six through nine. So we're going to see her character,
we're going to see her warnings, and we're going to see her encouragement.
So let's look at this first chapter as we begin to look at her character.
First of all, it says, these are the words of King Lemuel.
We don't know who this guy is. We have no idea. But the word,
the name means dedicate, we dedicated him. We dedicated him to God.
That's really what it means, dedicated to God. That's his
name. We don't know who he is. Some people think it's Solomon.
Maybe, maybe it's Solomon. That'd be kind of sweet. But
we don't know. It's likely, likely this is probably
another Gentile, probably another Gentile king. But notice, beyond
who this guy is, just notice the impact that the mother has
upon this king. An oracle, which remember in
chapter 30 we talked about an oracle is a prophecy, right?
Something from God, direct revelation. So this is something that's from
God, so these are, God-fearing people, these are righteous people.
It's an oracle that his mother taught him. So the mother, maybe
she received the oracle, it doesn't matter. She hears this and she
goes, this is from God. And then what does she do to
her son? I'm gonna teach him the word.
This is the first aspect of her character. Her advice doesn't
come from her own experience, though there's probably some
experience involved. The basis of her advice is where?
The word, the word. That's it, I want you to know
the word. I want you to know what's found in the word. Man,
I bet if we took a poll of people who grew up in the church and
mama taking them to church and this and that, I bet a lot of
the Bible verses that we've learned came because mom taught us those
Bible verses very early on, right? Encouraged us to spend time in
the word, right? Here's mom and she goes, What
am I gonna teach my son who's gonna be a king? How can I help
him become the man God wants him to be, and what does she
do? I'm gonna teach him the word. He's gonna be the word. It's
something that comes from God. I want him to know what God has
to say. Man, what a powerful, what a powerful, powerful thing
for parents to care more that our children know more about
God's word than any other thing, right? that when we're done with
our stewardship of our children and we unleash them on the world, that they will look back and
say, what my parents tried to teach me was God's word. That's
the heart of the parent. And this should be the heart
of a mother, right? I want them to know. I want them to know
what God's word says. And notice that here's this king.
And he's writing, and what's the thing he says? He says, I'm
gonna tell you what my mom taught me, which was from God's word.
Think of the influence that the mother has on the king and the
way that the king makes decisions. This is powerful stuff. This
is part of her character. This is what she wants. She wants
her son to follow the word. Wants his son to be one that's
consumed with the word. And he remembers this stuff.
He remembers this stuff. And then notice verse two. Notice
what she says. She says, what are you doing,
my son? By the way, I heard my mom say
that once or twice. Then notice the next, what are
you doing, son? Yeah, in fact, I'm probably sure
she's quoting my mother. What are you doing? No, what
are you doing? Love how she puts it, son of my womb. And then
notice again, what are you doing, son? Three times, what are you
doing? Now, it's been my experience
when somebody asks, what are you doing three times? It's probably
not a good thing. You never, very rarely somebody
look at you and go, what are you doing? And it's a good thing.
And you tell them, they go, oh, that's cool. Normally it's, what are
you doing? No, what are you doing? What are you doing? What does
this demonstrate about the mother? What does this demonstrate about
her character? This demonstrates that she's watching her son. She is intimately involved with
the ways of her son. Now this isn't, I couldn't imagine
that this would be like a helicopter mom, right? You're familiar with
that phrase of a mom that's always hovering over her kids. But this
is a mother who wants her son to live for the Lord and is prayerfully
observing the ways of her son, thinking about it, and when she
sees her son doing something that's sinful, What are you doing,
son? What are you doing? That's the
idea here of this watch and this concern, but the concern for
his spiritual life. And notice how she describes
this king. We all would say, sir and lord,
but she says, son of my womb. So you're my blood. This demonstrates
that closeness. But what's even more striking
is the last thing she says. Son of my vow. Now this word
is only used a couple times. And there's one place where it's
used. It's used with Hannah. Remember when Hannah made a vow
before the Lord about a son, about a child? And remember what
she said about that child? I'm gonna dedicate this one to
the Lord. So not only is this mother concerned
about the life of the son and prayerfully watching him and offering loving, motherly counsel,
is saying, look at the closeness that we had, but is also reminding
him of his namesake, and this thing that she did before he
was born, she dedicated him to the service of the Lord. I remember when I was in Bible
college, and I would talk to many missions organizations,
and I would talk to them about, you know, people going overseas
and some of the big challenge of being a mission recruiter
at Bible colleges. And you wanna know, at least
when I was going to Bible school, the greatest obstacle for young
men and women going into the mission field was because Mama
said, how dare you take away the grandkids from me? Now, maybe
some of those people should not have been going into the mission
field, right? Not everybody who visits a mission
board deserves to go into, maybe there might be some things. But
when that's the overwhelming excuse, my mother stands in the
way of me wanting to do what the Lord does and critiques me
of taking away the grandkids. I would see this mother as going,
look, when you were born, I said, I'm dedicating you to the Lord.
Whatever the Lord wants with you, That's what I want for you. Whatever that looks like, that's
what I want, and I'm dedicating this one to the service of the
Lord. This really challenged me as
a parent, because I now have sons, and I have a daughter,
thinking about their future, and thinking about how scary
things are, and what happens when they start making bigger
decisions, and going away to college, and doing all these
things. And I remember I dedicated them to the Lord, saying whatever
the Lord wants. But that sentiment is getting harder and harder
to say, well, Lord, can we amend that dedication? Can we amend
that just a smidge? Can we put a mile cap on that,
like 20 feet? That would be great. I'd dedicate
them within a 20-feet radius of me. This is what I'm gonna say. As
parents, our greatest desire for our kids should be that they
live for the Lord. That's it. Our greatest desire
for our kids should be that they live for the Lord, and if the
Lord has something for them, and it's convincing that this
is what the Lord wants for them, then we should rejoice that they're
following the Lord. Amen. Whatever that looks like,
amen. They might be a missionary somewhere,
amen. They might be a pastor somewhere,
amen. They might do this over there,
amen. That doesn't mean that there
won't be an amen with tears, right? That's not what that means. But the idea is that this mother's
character is that she wants her son to know the word. She wants
her son to follow the word, follow the Lord. She wants her son to
be dedicated and follow that dedication to the Lord. Challenging stuff, right? But
this is his mother. It's understandable why this
king thinks so highly of his godly mother. She's godly. Not
only does he love her because it's mom, but it's also here's
a godly mother. Now, notice the warnings of this
godly mother. And I'm going to be honest, once
again, as I was looking at this, I thought, man, she was talking
to my mom on the phone. Because ironically, this is the
advice my mom gave me. Right? And I'm sure that if we
polled all the young men in this room and we said, what were some
of the things that your mom told you to watch out for, I guarantee
you it was, watch out for the ladies, young man, and watch
out for the booze, right? In fact, yesterday, what was
the saying that was said? Chuck, what was the saying? I don't drink, smoke, or chew
and go with ladies who do, right? How many of our moms have said
that? Yeah, guess what? Moms have always been saying
that type of stuff. So notice, verse three, do not give your
strength to women. Now, the question is what does
it mean to not give your strength to, it could be something as
just simply, don't go around chasing a whole bunch of girls,
right? Young men have a propensity, well, old men probably do too,
but to go around chasing ladies, right? Chasing girls, seeking
the company of ladies, right? And that's just like this, there's
a strong desire and they're willing to do all sorts of crazy things
for girls, right? could speak of don't get a big
harem. That might be the case as well.
That's not a good thing, right? Remember in Leviticus, the kings
were not supposed to amass to themselves what? Lots of wives,
and the advice was because if you do, they're gonna turn your
heart away from the Lord. Even the wisest man Solomon had
trouble following that one. And it could be just simply,
there's a huge temptation sexually. When you go after that, it takes
away your strength. It takes away your attention
from what you're supposed to be doing. It robs you of life. It robs you of something that
you can't get back. And once you lose that, it's
gone. Be careful with life. Life is
a gift. Purity is a gift, right? Be careful. Now, this isn't saying
that he's not supposed to fall in love with a woman. Obviously,
the next part of this chapter deals with the type of wife that
he should look for. Most likely what this is, is
don't chase those types of women who want this type of behavior,
right? It's that type of girl that you
wouldn't want to bring home to mom, right? That's the idea. And notice what he says, from
his mother. Your ways to those who destroy
kings. So you're giving your strength,
you're giving your life to those that don't care about you. They
don't love you. They wanna destroy you. And notice,
notice that it destroys, do you see that, how it's plural? Destroys
kings, plural, meaning, You can look around and there's other
examples of this happening. A.K.A. the author of the book
of Proverbs. A.K.A. David, right? There's numerous examples of
people that have fallen into this sexual temptation and fallen
into sexual immorality and it has destroyed their lives. It's destroyed families. And
so what's the mother's advice? Be pure. Avoid this temptation. There's a serious danger here. Then notice the next one. Verse
four, it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings. Mama has
a way of saying that, doesn't she? This is not befitting of
a king. Whatever she's about ready to
say, this is not befitting of the character and dignity of
a king. It's kind of saying remember
your family, remember who you are, remember your bloodline.
Man, my mama would say that all the time. Remember, you represent
more than just you. You're a Hilbert. Nah, it doesn't
mean much, It was something, right? So it's not for a king
to drink wine or for a ruler to take strong wine, probably
most likely beer is what's referred to here. Now, this is not a call
for complete and total abstinence. This is a call for do not go
out and get drunk, right? That's what she's referring to.
It's not good for a king to go around and just seek pleasure. That's the idea, to overindulge. It's not befitting. Why? Why?
What happens, what happens when you become inebriated? What happens
when you become stoned? What happens when substances,
when you overindulge and they change your mind and your ability
to think? Notice what happens. Lest you
drink and forget what has been decreed. Decreed by who? Decreed
by the law, decreed by yourself, decreed by who? By God. Her concern
is not so much, look, there's a lot of health benefits, but
the biggest issue for her is you're gonna forget what God
says. You're gonna forget the word. You're gonna go into complete
recklessness. Paul says the same thing. Do
not get drunk with wine, for this is dissipation, but rather
walk by the power of the Spirit, right? Be filled with the Spirit.
What happens when you do this? You forget what's right and what's
wrong. That line gets blurred. That's
bad stuff. That affects your relationship
with God. Imagine a king that so willfully breaks the law and
thinks that he's above the law, but the reason he thinks he's
above the law was because he was drunk. That's a bad king. That's bad leadership. That's
some bad stuff. So the mother's saying, don't
do this. And then notice the other thing. This is heartbreaking. Why? What happens? And it says,
and pervert the rights of the afflicted. What else happens
if a king was to party all the time, only concerned about himself
and how he feels? He will pervert, forget, change,
hurt others around him. He's responsible for much more.
And with this great responsibility, there's a higher standard for
the king. And as a king, don't pervert
the rights of others. Now let me say this, as believers,
we have that same standard. We are children of God, who's
the high king. It shouldn't even be named amongst
us. There shouldn't even be a hint of insobriety. Why? Because we forget what God
says and we hurt others around us. So what's the solution? What's Paul's solution? Be filled
with the Spirit. This is the mother's warning,
be filled with the Spirit. And if you're filled with the Spirit,
guess what? You won't give in to the desires of the flesh,
right? What's the solution? Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved, you have the
indwelling Holy Spirit, and then you yield upon that saying yes
to what is right, no to what is wrong. It's sad, friends. It's sad that
many who claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ do not
heed this warning. And we forget ourselves. We forget
the high calling with which we've been called of the gospel. We
forget our name. And sadly enough, we selfishly
start hurting those around us. Now, we then get to this next
part of our encouragement, and I'll be honest. There have been
a couple passages in the book of Proverbs that scare pastors. You stay awake at night, cold
sweats, praying, dear God, if it's possible, please take that
verse out so I don't have to talk about it publicly because
it's really uncomfortable. And the next verse is that verse
of the encouragement. So notice what it says. It says,
give strong drink to the one who is perishing and wine to
those in bitter distress. That's a tough one. By the way,
just wanna let you know, I was super distressed this week and
so if you were looking for a gift to give, no, I'm joking. It is really important as believers
to consider the entirety of Scripture. when we look at difficult passages
like this, or passages that might cut against how we've been brought
up, or against the culture. So we look at a passage like
this, and we gotta consider the whole of scripture. Friends,
you realize that what God wants for us as believers is for us
to live like the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to be Christ-like
in all of our dealings with people. When we engage in activities,
and abuse substances that change the way that we think cause us
to be reckless and hurt others. That is not Christ-like. That
is the epitome of fleshliness. And so as a believer, we should
be quick to deny the flesh and walk by the power of the Spirit.
And our desire is not to go around and looking at the behaviors
of others and saying, well, your behavior, you did this one thing
that I don't like. No, it is this, we need to walk
by the power of the Spirit and walk in love. Part of that walking
by the Spirit and walking in love is these issues of what
is known as Christian liberties. It means that some people see
some things as being okay, and other people see some things
as being wrong. And guess what? We have to function in the same
building, at the same time, in the same place, and we might
have competing issues, competing interpretations of what is right
and what is wrong. Guess what the defining principle
of that is? Love. I want you to grow. And guess what? Me wanting you
to grow means that there's something that I have to give up so as
not to add a stumbling block to you. Gladly. Gladly. Let me use the example. Let's
say if somebody comes up to Greg and I and says, Pastor, I feel
like I'm addicted to caffeine. Every time I come to church,
there's coffee. I struggle with it. Guess what we would do in
a heartbeat? It wouldn't even be a question.
No more coffee. That's it. Why? Why would I put something
in the church that willfully causes somebody to stumble? You
would go, well, how would I stay awake? Drink coffee before you
come to church. Chew gum. Stand up in the back. Run laps.
Why would I be willing to participate in something and have something
here and shove it in your face that is a constant temptation
to cause you to fall? As a believer, I want you to
grow. What is coffee in the grand scheme of things? Who cares?
We want Jesus to be honored and glorified. So somebody might do something
in the church that you might go, well, I don't like that.
OK, fine. That's great. You can participate
in that with a good conscience and do that. And others can say,
I don't want to participate in that, and they with a good conscience
cannot participate. And so when it comes to alcohol,
let me say this. Do not condemn something that God does not condemn.
But also do not praise something that he does not really say a
lot about. So what I'm saying is this, if
we find out that some of you have alcohol in your house, guess
what? We ain't calling a meeting of deacons going, how are we
going to get them out? That's between you and the Lord. If
you decide that it's not good for a Christian to drink alcohol,
praise the Lord. But don't go around when you
go over to somebody's house looking in their closets to see if you
can find beer to catch them. That's not the purpose of Christianity.
But let me be very honest and very clear here. In the ancient
world, alcohol was used very different than how it is used
today. They drank a lot of alcohol because water was bad for them,
and it was a way to purify the water. And so it was a little
bit different in the culture. Friends, we don't have that same
problem. We don't have to drink alcohol because of purified water.
We can and do have purified water. So this impetus for us to drink
alcohol is a little bit different for them than it is for us. And
so my advice publicly would be, be careful with this stuff. Be
careful. I'm not gonna condemn it, I'm
not gonna praise it, but be careful with it. And if given the option,
it's probably better not to try it. I also know this, that there
might be some in this room who struggle with these types of
things and have struggled in the past. To you, it's a no-fly
zone. Don't even taste it. Don't even
look at it. Don't look at the color of it. Don't go by the
places that sell this stuff. It's a no-fly zone for you if
you struggle with this. Now, in this passage, it cannot
mean that the king's mom is saying, as a good leader, get your kingdom
drunk so that they forget everything that's going on. It cannot mean
that. But if you look at the circumstances
of verse six, you will understand exactly what it means. It says,
give strong drink to those who are perishing, those who are
dying. Why would you do that? Because they're in pain. This
is empathy. This is compassion. You see,
don't be so absorbed with yourself, but look at those who are struggling,
and those who are dying, and those who are ailing, and that
substance that you might overindulge in. Don't overindulge, but give
it as a comfort to those who are less fortunate. It's a sign
of empathy. It's a sign to look at those
people and see those people as being made in the image of God,
and loving and caring for his people. By the way, we do the
same thing in the modern world, don't we? Somebody's in pain,
what do we give them? We give them pain medication,
right? It's no different. But notice that it's the king
who is responsible for furnishing this to his people, right? That's
what his mom says. You be responsible for this.
You make sure this is available. And then notice the next thing.
It says, and whine to those who are in bitter distress. Now,
by the way, this doesn't mean, as I joked about before, that
if you're in depression, that the advice is, hey, you know
those people that are clinically depressed? Give them alcohol.
That makes things better. Nope. That's not what this means,
because notice it's bitter distress. The idea is, is that these people
are most likely poor, most likely
have a serious ailment, most likely in a life or death situation. And so this is a. This is like
kindness. This is like pain management.
This is like helping somebody who's in the last hours of their
life to give them a moment of relief so that they don't have
to think about the pain. In fact, that's exactly what
she says. She says, let them drink and forget about their
poverty and remember their misery no more. So notice that they're
connected together, this distress and perishing. In the ancient
world, they didn't have the things If you broke your leg and you
were dying, there was not a lot you could do, and there wasn't
a lot of work you could do, and if you were about ready to die,
the kindness would be, let me help you with some of that pain.
We still do this today. And notice, notice, notice the
encouragement to think about the one who's lesser, because
she continues in this thought. Open your mouth for the mute.
I love this. Speak for those who can't speak.
Speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves. As a
king, you're supposed to do this. This is care for those underneath
you and for the rights of those who are destitute. It's realizing
that they're all made in the image of God, and that each person
should be treated with fairness, without partiality, treated as
God wants people to treat others. Not on the basis of what you
see on the outside, but based off who they are as mere fact
that they're made in the image of God. Care about the rights
of those people. So notice the mother is encouraging the son
to what? Love. Love. Care for those people. As a king, you have a responsibility
to take care of these people. Keep that responsibility. Love
them. And then notice what it says
next. Open your mouth and judge righteously. She's not concerned
about just doing judgment that will help the family. She wants
her son to judge based off of what? God's word and God's character. That's the basis of justice,
isn't it? Righteousness. I don't care about
American justice, I care about godly justice. I care about righteousness. What does God say? What does
God determine as right? What does God determine as wrong?
That's how we should determine what is right and what is wrong.
What is fairness? How does God determine that?
What does his word say on how that stuff is determined? That's
what he wants. By the way, as believers, if
we're praying for our leadership, guess what we should be praying
for them? Here's a good example of things that we should be praying,
praying that they make righteous judgments. And then notice, defend
the rights of the poor and the needy. She's encouraging her
son to love people more than things, to love God more than
things. And as a believer, isn't this
the same charge, right? To love one another, to love
one another, as Christ has loved us, right? To look out for one
another, to help one another, to put the needs of someone else
above ourselves. Man, this mama sounds like my
mama, right? Sounds exactly like the types
of things that my mom would say to me. Well, she still says these
things to me. She still says these types of
things. Very thankful for my own mother. I've been saying,
as we're going through First Timothy on Sunday night, that
without Mother Hilbert, you don't have Caleb Hilbert, right? And
much of my theology comes from my parents. And my father taught
me what he taught me, which is so valuable, I wouldn't trade
that for a world. but my mom also taught me a lot
as well. And there's a lot of things that
I know because mom taught me those things. There's a lot of
things that I think about because mom taught me those things. So
I'm very thankful for my own mother. I'm sure you're very
thankful for your mothers. I'm very thankful for older ladies
in the church who act like mothers to me. Sometimes it's not always
appreciated, but it is in the long run. those who care about
righteousness, those who care about God's word, those who care
about godly living and purity and not being caught up and just
honoring the Lord Jesus Christ, caring for those, loving one
another. What a great example. I was also
thinking of great mothers in the Bible, and not to sound cheesy
here, but I often think of the Lord Jesus Christ and I think
about his mother. I imagine Mary was a very godly woman. We see
that throughout the scriptures. And imagine Mary having all that
the Lord did to her and had her do and walk through. Man, that
would have been difficult. But then imagine watching your
son die on the cross and the heartache of knowing that one,
but also the dedication of this is, This is the one. He did what
God asked him to do. And that weird amen through tears. And then the strange reality
of then placing your faith in that one. I think that there's
evidence that that's what she did. Wrestling through those
things of my son is the savior of the world. Good mothers care about their
children following the Lord, learning about Jesus, following
the word, encouraging them to keep their nose clean, and encouraging
them to love one another. Encourage their children to believe
in the gospel. This morning we have an incredible
opportunity. I remember as a kid, I used to
get super excited when it was Lord's Supper time because we
had to eat in church. Our church didn't have as many
potlucks as our church does. Not sure the pastor was quite
saved, but we're praying for him, I'm joking. And I remember as a kid, we had
the big loaf of bread that was passed around, you had to take
it a little bit, and I remember my mom saying, Caleb, you don't
get half of that bread. You gotta take a little bit,
you gotta take a bite. And I remember my mom explaining to me each
part of what it meant. You know, as you take the one,
this represents Jesus's body, which was broken for you. Jesus
died on the cross for you. He shed his blood for you, as
we talked about the juice. And the entire time, while things
are going out, she's sharing with me the gospel and reminding
me of the seriousness of the gospel. And so we get this incredible
opportunity to do that this morning, of think about the Lord Jesus
Christ, and think about his death, burial, and resurrection on our
behalf. And while we're doing that, let's
be very thankful for godly women who have acted like our mothers,
who have prayed for us, dedicated us to the Lord, and sought for
us to live for the Lord.
The Godly Mother
Series Proverbs
Join us as we journey through Proverbs 31:1-9 with Pastor Caleb Hilbert's sermon, "the Godly Mother."
| Sermon ID | 820231623195684 |
| Duration | 36:37 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 31:1-9 |
| Language | English |
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