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.