Well, let's go ahead and let's pray, and then we'll spend some time in the book of Proverbs this morning. Father, we thank you so very much for your son. We thank you so very much for all that you've blessed us in him. It's incredible to think that you would not only save us, but then allow us to live in this world, to minister to those around us, to share the gospel, to encourage one another, that you would allow us to be part of a church, a fellowship, a body, and that part of this body is meant to minister, it's incredible. So Father, we ask that as we listen to your word, that your spirit would be moving in our hearts, causing us to see the things that we need to see, that we'd have the right attitudes, the right perspectives, and that we would, by the power of your spirit and by the urging, leading, and guiding, we would be like your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for everything you've blessed us with in your son's name, amen. A couple months ago, I was asked to speak to a bunch of Bible college students in a class, preparing them for ministry, and I was asked to talk about balancing family and ministry. And one of the students asked me a question at the end. He said, Pastor Caleb, is it okay to pray for a godly woman who looks like a supermodel? I had lots of answers fill my head. I didn't say them. I'll say them now. I thought of saying, brother, the Lord has caused the Red Sea to part. Brother, he's caused the blind to see, the lame to walk. He even caused Lazarus to raise from the dead. Well, with a face like yours, it'll be a miracle whatever woman you get. I didn't say that. My actual answer was, Sounds like you're describing my wife and you cannot marry my wife. And then I gave an answer that I said, look guys, it's important to remember when you're looking for a partner that character and godliness matter far more than any other thing. Even in the modern world where we look for compatibility, right? And there's these big tests that you could take to be compatible. Are you compatible with this person, that person? It's my experience that the marriages that last the longest are those which are built on Christ, where the people are indwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit. And because of the power of the Holy Spirit and the gospel in their life, they're exhibiting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. That's the most important thing. Everything else can be worked out, but as long as you're walking with the Lord, that's the most important thing. It's amazing to me, as we're going through the book of Proverbs, just thinking of the book. The book starts off, remember, as a son is walking with his father. And remember, his father has talked a lot about women. And part of that we said was, It's the father giving advice on what kind of wife you should pick. And it's amazing the father's advice. Remember in the early chapters of the book of Proverbs, remember the father's advice was like Proverbs chapter eight, where it's this elegant, graceful, beautiful, attractive woman. And his advice is you gotta protect her and you wanna find the one that's wise. He also said you are to enjoy your wife and don't enjoy anyone else, just your wife. We now come to the very end, the very end of the book. Remember, it's still kind of talking to boys, still kind of talking to sons. And remember, Lemuel's mama, she is still talking, right? This next section is still advice from the queen mother. And the queen mother not only is saying, remember what mama says, she's now giving the characteristics that the son should look for in a wife. And I'm gonna be honest with you, they're not what you think. I was shocked at the advice that she gave. When I first read it, I'm still shocked. I'm still looking at some of these images going, these are not the most feminine images, okay? But remember, this is a mother talking to her son. So we're gonna see four things about a godly wife. These characteristics, in a godly wife, and the hope is is that we would, one, praise the Lord for all the godly wives, right? We would praise the Lord for that. Also that we would pray for all the women in the church that they would be godly wives. And most importantly, that we would all be like Christ, who's the ultimate servant, and we'll definitely see that servant heart here. But we're gonna see four things in this text. In verse 10, we're gonna see that a godly wife is very precious. Very precious. Incredibly valuable. Like jewels. Verse 11 through 12, we're going to see that a trusted wife, or a godly wife is a trusted partner. Verses 13 through 24, we're going to see that a godly wife is very productive. And then lastly, 25 through 31, a godly wife should be praised. And she will be praised. So let's look at this. Go to Proverbs 31, verse 10. We'll look at this first description. And notice what Queen Mom says to the king about a godly wife. Notice she says, an excellent wife who can find. She is far more precious than jewels. This speaks of her rarity, right? You can find them, but they're rare. And when you find them, don't let go, right? This is an important thing to find. Now, this word excellent is very interesting. If any of you have ever done any study on this word excellent, and I'm aware that out of all of the passages of Proverbs, it is this section that is probably the taught the most, right? I'm sure that many women have gone through a series on Proverbs 31, and I'm sure you've probably gone into great depth on this meaning of the word excellent. It shocked me all the same every time I see it, because it means valiant in war. And you go, what? Xena the warrior princess, right? The idea is speaking of somebody who has a good, valiant, excellent, strong, godly, wise, moral character. That's what the word excellent means here. It's valiant, it's strong, it's godly. So who can find this godly, strong woman? Because if you find one, Some of us in this room have found one. Sorry, I got the best one out of them all. We all lose. But when you find one, it's the most valuable. It's the most valuable thing in the world. You don't want to lose it. You don't want to get rid of it, right? You can't replace it. It's irreplaceable. It's so incredibly valuable. Remember as we've looked at several times when we've talked about marriages and we've talked about different spouses and sometimes it's not the best to live with a spouse who's cantankerous and is always wanting to fight and self-serving. That's not good. Here, it's saying, man, when you find a spouse that is godly and seeks to be godly and desires to be godly, has that strong, moral, biblical mind, oh, there's nothing like it in the world. There's absolutely nothing like it. It's valuable, and it should be searched. When I was an RA in Bible college, as a pastor, I will say this to everyone, Be careful with the person you're attracted to if you're not married. You might fall in love with the dimple and wake up next to the whole thing. And that might be a bad day, friends. That might be a real bad day indeed. It is always important to remember that godliness is the most important thing. Wisdom is the most important thing. That trumps all other things. You're having problems in your marriage, number one advice, you start walking with the Lord. That's the number one advice. Start walking with the Lord, living by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, that might not clear up all of your problems, okay, but that's what you're supposed to do, right? So when someone finds someone who's godly, whether it's a husband or a wife, oh, what a rare and valuable thing that is. It's the most valuable thing. It's the most valuable asset, right? It's the most valuable thing that you could see. When you're praying for your spouse, this should be number one. I pray that my spouse is excellent, godly, living for the Lord. Submitting to the Lord. That's number one. Number one. Number one prayer for your spouse. That's it. That should be the biggest prayer. That's where you spend most of the time talking about your spouse. Help them walk for you, Lord. Help them live for you. Help them trust you. You get that? Man, that's really precious. Now notice this next thing. So by the way, this is the first advice from Mama, right? This is Mama's first advice. First thing you look for, a godly woman, right? That's what you're looking for, son. There's lots of other things that you might want to think is the most important, but godliness is the most important. Now think of the second thing. Man, she's a trusted partner. Look at this. The heart of her husband trusts in her. She's trustworthy. She's a partner, right? He can trust her with things. He can say things to her and know that she's not going to go around telling everybody. He can make mistakes and ask for forgiveness. She will forgive him and then not tell everyone around her her husband's mistakes. She is trusting. She is loving. She is forgiving. Right? He is able to give her responsibility, saying, hun, I need your help with this. And she goes, I got you. I got your back. He can trust her. He can give his heart completely to her and says, out of anyone else in the world, she's got my back. She's going down with me. Right? We're going down together. He can trust her and knows what it says, and he will not have any lack of gain, meaning that when he does trust her, it's for good reason, and she will be trustworthy. She's a trustworthy person. She's a person that loves him. Think of this. The advice, the second piece of advice that's given is find a lady that loves you and will do good to you, right? Don't fall in love with one physical attribute or a couple physical attributes. No, find a person that really loves you for you and is willing to put up with you, right? And in essence, we could say, find a lady that loves you almost like I love you. Then notice the next thing. She does him good, not harm, all the days of her life. So he can trust her. And the reason that he can trust her is because she has his best interest at heart. She will do good, and she will not hurt him. And notice that this is lifelong. This isn't right after, in the honeymoon phase, she's gonna do good, and then she's gonna turn on you. No, it's a woman who is committed for life. Committed for life, committing to do this. That's the type of person that you're looking for. That's the type of girl you're looking for. As we're praying for our spouses, we should hope that our spouse is this type of person, right? Somebody we can trust that won't do us any harm. If you're praying for your spouse, this is a good prayer request, right? That they're godly, that they're trustworthy, that they love me and have my best interests at heart. I imagine that there are some in this room who know that really difficult position of being married to somebody that does not have their best interest at heart and how difficult that is and how hurtful that is. Over and over and over again, not being able to trust, not being able to love, not willing, not being able to share, being scared of making a mistake because the other person is going to exploit that mistake. I can't think of a worse existence than that type of thing. So when you're praying, this should be a good thing. By the way, some of you, as you're thinking about the marriages in the church and how can you be praying for some of the marriages in the church, this is a great one, that they love the Lord, oh, that they love each other, that they're willing to forgive one another, that they're doing what's good for each other. But here, this really accentuates this idea of the biblical femininity that as God's designed us, he's made both men and women in the image of God. Therefore, we're equal in dignity, right? We all can stand before Jesus equally, right? It's not that one's better than the other. No, we both equally stand before God. We're made in the image of God. We have that dignity. He did design us to have differing functions. And this is going along with that function of the wife, and those are complementary to each other. And so notice here that the heart of the wife is, I want to serve. I want to serve. I want to be trustworthy. I want to do good. I want to help. I want to support. That's the role of the wife, is this supporting role. Now, you might think, well, that might seem antiquated and old, and that might sound like I'm just advocating that all the ladies stay home barefoot and pregnant. That is actually something very different from what Mama Queen is going to say, right? Because notice the next thing that is said. This woman is very, very productive. Notice how productive she is in verse 13. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. Now, this is not saying that all the women need to go out and learn how to make their own garments and learn how to weave and weave wool and linen. And if you don't do that, well, then you're not a good wife, right? That's not what this is saying. What this is saying is that she works hard at helping out her family. In the ancient world, this was a necessary skill that was needed for the family. You couldn't go to the store and buy clothes. You couldn't go and just buy a new shirt. It had to be made, right? And unfortunately, It was left to those who stayed at home to learn these skills to make these clothes and to seek these things. And here was this woman who was looking out for the needs of her family, saying, oh, it looks like little Johnny's going to need some new pants. So guess what I have to do? I'm going to go out and get him some nice pair of wool pants, and I'm going to make it. Right? Sounds like fun. Who here wants wool pants? No takers. Wow, that's amazing. But notice the attitude. The attitude is far more important. So it's this idea of she's looking, but notice, she works with willing hands. She is willing, right? It's not begrudgingly. She's willing. This is voluntary. This is out of love. She's giving of herself out of love. By the way, isn't this a great example of Jesus, of how Jesus served? Jesus came down, voluntarily served, gave of himself. Jesus is the example on how to be human. He's the best example for us as believers, whether you're a man or a woman. We can all look to Jesus and learn. And, gentlemen, we can look to our wives and we can look to our mothers and how they willingly sacrifice for us and go, well, that's what a servant's heart looks like. That's what a Christ-like servant heart looks like. That's what she is. She's a servant and she's willing to serve. And then notice this next thing. Kind of an interesting image. She is like a ship of the merchant and she brings food from afar. Really interesting image, right? Israel wasn't necessarily known for its ability to navigate the seas. They often were reliant upon other people, other nations. And they would often go to port cities and these port cities would have these ships that would go all around the Mediterranean. Guess what they would bring? All of the stuff that comes from Egypt. All this stuff that comes from Greece and from Italy and all this stuff that comes from Spain. All of this stuff that's gathered and it comes in as a ship and it comes to the port. and you would go to the port and you would buy all this exotic stuff that you don't have around here, but they have it over there and they're bringing it in. And so notice that not only is she looking and seeking out wool and how to make linen and she's doing this willingly, she's also going out and she's like a merchant and she's looking for food that's far away and bringing it. And this is exotic stuff. She's looking for the best stuff. Right? She's thinking of her family as she's going out going, oh, so-and-so likes this, so-and-so likes that, so-and-so needs this, we need this, I like this, this is interesting, we don't have one of these in my house. And it's this idea that she's like a merchant, she comes in and every time she walks in the house, it's got stuff, stuff that's exotic, stuff that's expensive, stuff that is purposely picked specifically for the person, right? Moms do this really well. My wife does this really well. She'll go to the store, next thing you know she comes back and she's got a whole bunch of exotic food. If you don't believe me, look at me. She does this really well, right? Godly wives do this really well. They look to the needs. And it's not just that they look to the needs. This is something beyond just needs. This is so-and-so wants. This is expensive, this is special. So she's looking to do something special for the family. What a servant, to think of the family, to think of the needs of the family, to think of the needs of the husband, but then also say, I'm gonna fulfill those needs, I'm gonna do it willingly, but I'm also going to do things that aren't necessarily needs. You might like this. My husband might like olives. I'm going to go out and get an extra thing of olives. Your husband might like that chicken dip that you made on game night. So get going. No, I'm joking. Notice the next thing. It says, she rises while it's yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She is, here this woman is one who's clearly in charge and clearly has servants, but what kind of person is she? She's the one that looks out for her family. She makes the food for her family. She takes on that responsibility. She wakes up early, and then she's up before the maids, and she says, here are the jobs. Here are the things that you need to do. So she is a manager. Right? This is what is said. Remember when we were studying and Titus was talking about a woman and we looked at some of those things that were said and remember one of the descriptions that Paul gives of a woman is that she is a house manager. She is managing the house. She's looking at stuff and she's planning stuff. She's decorating stuff. She's had stuff. already laid out. She's making food for the guys that are going out to work, right? And she's making lunch, and she's making sure that all the stuff is plying perfectly, and everybody knows what they're doing. She's the manager. Sometimes we as husbands like to micromanage our wives. Be kind, be gentle to our wives. They do have the right to live in that house and make decisions of that house. And in one sense, you really want your wife to make your house her own. And you really want her to love on you by decorating and managing. And if wife says no shoes on in the house, Guess what? I can be a loving leader and still take my shoes off at the door, right? Amen. Why would I? If I trust her to make good decisions in managing the household, why would I then undercut that every time I come home by going, well, I'm the head, I get to wear my shoes inside the house. You can't tell me what to do. No, let's be loving, right? She can manage the house, and this is kind of what she does. So think, this is a strong go-getter type of woman. She's definitely not just sitting still. Notice the next thing, verse 16. She considers a field and buys it. By the way, this would have been scandalous in the ancient world. You give your wife money? You let her go out and make purchases without your consent? In the ancient world, this would have blown everyone's mind. They would have said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't do that. You don't do that. But here's this godly woman. She's wise. She's good with money. She's a manager. She's thinking about the family and how best to support the family to the point that she's even willing, even given charge of money and making major purchases. and then notice what it says, it says, with the fruit of her hand she plants a vineyard. Now, this is much more than she just has a garden out back and it's really cute when she puts on the gardening gloves. to make a vineyard, this involves digging, this involves security fence, this involves hiring people to watch it, this involves know-how on how to make wine, this is adventure to make money, to be productive. She's not just sitting back going, well, he better provide $50,000 a year, and I'm going to sit back and do nothing. She is actively productive, adding to the value of the family, adding to the genius of her husband, adding to the value of the family, and growing in property, and thinking, how can we be productive? And she enters in, she becomes a small business owner, has a vineyard. Notice what else it is. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. It's a strong woman. It's a woman that is strong morally, strong in work ethic, that is willing to work hard. Notice she makes her arms strong. This has this idea of she's constantly working. She's strong. She's constantly looking at how can I serve? How can I be productive? How can we make this better? What can I add? What can I add? What can I do? What can I do? Notice verse 18, she perceives that her merchandise is profitable, her lamp does not go out at night. So it's this idea that she realizes that as she's making this wool and this flax and as she's bringing in all this exotic stuff and yes, by the way, she bought a field and she made a vineyard. with vineyard comes grapes and wine. And as her reputation is growing, guess what happens? People go, we'd like to buy some of that stuff because not only does she work hard, she works excellently. And people say, can we buy that? And notice what she does. She stays up late to make sure that her product is good and able to buy. She is profitable. She's thinking, how can I help with increasing the value of the family? So think of this, she is an early riser and she goes to bed late. She's working hard, right? Notice what else it says in verse 19. She puts her hand to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. This speaks of the fact that she knows how to use a weave. She knows these necessary skills. Then notice this next thing. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hand to the needy. So not only does she love her husband and her family and seeking to be profitable for her family, but she has care for other people. And as she's making this money, making these decisions, she has enough discernment to look at somebody who's needy and who's poor and says, you know what? I have some extra money. Here you go. Here you go, I'm gonna help you. So think of this servant-minded woman, right? That's what she's saying. Look for a woman that's wise, discerning, but is servant-hard. She's productive, she cares. Notice the next thing about her productivity. Notice this, verse... Verse 21, she's not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. Now, I'm gonna be honest with you, when I first read this, I thought, sweet, she has the necessary stuff just in case there's something bad goes on, goes wrong, right? My wife does that. Every time we get ready to go somewhere, she's the one who packs. And she always packs way extra. And I go, why do you pack way extra? She goes, well, just in case. And I said, where are we going? There's a Walmart, just in case. And she goes, well, why would we need to do Walmart when we already have it here? True, true, true, right? Good wives do this. But this is different. Because when I read this, I thought, wow, they just have jackets. No, no, no. They're dressed in scarlet. You realize how expensive scarlet is? This is like saying you live in Oregon, and you know it rains, so she has rain jackets made of silk. You would go, how much money do you have to spend on silk to make a rain jacket out of it that can withstand the elements? We're talking about she not only clothes them and provides for the family, but she does so richly. Right? Yep. What an incredible thing. And then notice this. She makes her bed covering for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. This speaks about how she invests back into the family, right? And then it says, her husband is known in the gates when he sits down amongst the elders of the land and she makes linen garments and sells them and delivers sashes to the merchants. This is talking about a woman who's incredibly productive, incredibly loving, incredibly... richly productive, looking at the needs and the wants of the family and says, I'm gonna provide that. I'm gonna provide that. And this is the advice given from Queen Mama, right? Queen Mama says, son, this is what you need to be looking for. This is what you need to be looking for in a wife. When I was in Bible college and I was single, I did spend some time in this passage on what kind of lady I should spend my time with if I was interested in marrying her. In Bible college, there's a lot of godly ladies, but there was one that caught my eye who did this, and these were some of the things that I looked at. How did she do this? How does she deal with this? How does she deal with that? How does she look at this? Those are some of the things. I'll be honest. There's some young ladies in this room right now. I'll be honest. You can act a certain way and dress a certain way and you can attract a certain kind of guy that's the wrong kind of guy. It's not worthy of you. Be careful. Make sure that as you're living your life, as you're growing and maturing as ladies, that you look at these types of things and say, these are the things I'm going to focus on. And I guarantee this, if you focus on these things and you develop these things, the type of guy that will be attracted to this is husband material that will love you and take care of you. That's what you want. Sometimes you might fall in love with the dimple and wake up next to the guy. Bad thing. That could be the worst thing. Develop this. Develop character. And character will attract the right kind of guy. We have an elder Blatchel up there running a sound right now, Philip. Philip, when you're looking for a lady, look for a lady of character, right? There's a certain type of lady that will dress and act a certain way. Stay away, that's not wife material. You want one that's gonna be like this, that's gonna love you, that's gonna take care of you, that's gonna treat you right, right? And if you find yourself staring at a girl that's not wife material, stop looking at her. Now notice the next thing about this wife. She's praised because she's godly, because she cares, because she's such a servant. Notice what it said. It says strength and dignity are her clothing. Wow. She's dressed with dignity and strength. She's a strong woman. She has strong work ethic. She's uncompromising in her beliefs. She follows the Lord and she's godly. And notice the next thing that it says. It says, this is a dignity, right? She is godly. She's dignified, not in the sense that she's old and distant, but this idea that there's a sense of purity around her. There's a sense of honor. When she walks into a room, it's graceful, and everybody knows her character, and they see the strength of her character and her godliness. And that's what everybody sees. That's her clothing. And it says, and she laughs at the time to come, meaning that she is not scared of the future. She trusts in the Lord. She does good to her husband. She's been planning and preparing. And then notice what it says next. She opens her mouth with wisdom. Oh, when she speaks, it's with wisdom, right? She says things that are true to God's word and those things which are found in God's word, those things which promote Christ, that's what comes out of her mouth, comes out wisdom. Get closer to the Lord, Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus Christ, walk by faith. And it says, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She's wise, and she's kind, and she's dignified. And it says, and she looks well at the ways of her household, and she does not eat the bread of idleness. She doesn't sit around. So here's this character. So notice what happens. Notice what happens when there's a woman like this. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Very interesting phrase here. When I first read this, I thought they'd wake up in the morning and go, mom, I love you. That's probably true. You know what this is? This is most likely speaking of when there comes a time for a toast. You know, a special time where somebody would like to give special recognition in a large group. You know, it says, well, let's give a toast. You know what the children say? Let's give it to mom. Let's give it to mom. Mom was a godly woman. Look at all that she did. Let's give it to mom. And then notice what else it says. It says, her husband also. Meaning that given the opportunity, the husband will be the first to sing her praises. And will say, let's toast my wife. Let's toast my wife. And notice what he'll say. And he'll praise her. Many women have done excellently. Yeah, there's been many godly women. But you have surpassed them all. You're way better than all the rest of them. Probably because you said yes to me, right? That's probably the husband's thinking. Because you said yes to me, that makes you a lot better than all the women that said no. My wife saying yes to marry me is what I find to be one of her most attractive qualities. praised, right? The whole family praises her because they see her love for the family. They see what they've done. She's not just doing this begrudgingly, she's willingly providing and producing and productive and she's a servant. She's a servant bar none and she serves them with love. And so notice, notice what Mama says. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. When a lady that is incredibly charming for the wrong reasons, very flirtatious, that goes away real quick. And the ones that spend a lot of time to beautify themselves because that's all they got, oh, that goes away real quick as well. But notice, notice, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. That's the one. That's the one you want. The one that takes God serious. That's the one you want. Lemuel, listen, kid. The one you want is the one that shows up early to church, right? The one you want is godly. It's the one that prays. It's the one that speaks wisdom and knows the truth. The one that's strong. And notice what else it says. It says, give her the fruit of her hand and let her works praise her in the gates, meaning not only does the family praise her, but all the people on the outside go, man, you lucked out. I don't know what you did to land a lady like that, but she's awesome. She's incredible. So like I said, I got the best one of the bunch, so all the rest of you guys got second place, and I know that some of you husbands are going to come up and say, no, I got it, and I'm going to disagree, and I have the pulpit right now, and so I'm right. It's amazing to me, when I think of this text, and I think of the advice given a long time ago, on finding a spouse, and specifically for young men, on finding a woman that's worthy to be a wife, how this advice holds up, and how this is the most important thing, their godliness, their character. And it's amazing that we live in a culture that has abandoned these types of things, even in the church. In the church culture, this stuff has been abandoned. The idea of godliness, the idea of following the Lord, is put on second tier, opposed to pop psychology of compatibility. Man, it's no wonder there's lots of people having problems. Marriage is tough. It's tough with two godly people. Can you imagine if it was just simply on the basis of, I like the way she smiles, and I think we like the same kind of music? We should pray for the young people in our church, those who are looking. for spouses someday, pray for them, that they would look for the right kind of godly people, and that God would bring those godly people in his time. All of us husbands should be very thankful for our wives. We should talk up our wives a lot. They put up with a lot. Trust me, I met all you guys. Your wives put up with a lot. But those godly wives, they should be encouraged. Thank you for being a godly wife. I think one of the other things, too, that we can see is we can see that this is Christ-like. That a godly wife is Christ-like in the fact that she serves. She serves like Christ serves. She gives of herself like Christ gives. And Christ is the example. And Christ is the example to all of us. and even husbands should serve in this way, serve like Christ served. This thus ends my introduction to the book of Proverbs. Next week we'll start with Proverbs 1.1 and go really in depth. No, I just want to say this as we close out in the book of Proverbs. I thank you for allowing me to teach through the book of Proverbs, not many people would sit and listen to a really long series on the Book of Proverbs, right? You are a special bunch, and this has been an incredible study for me. I've felt myself mature by years each week as I've been studying the Book of Proverbs, and I pray that this study has also been a blessing to you as well, a blessing of during the really strange time of COVID, right? We found ourselves in Proverbs before COVID, in the midst of COVID, and after. And I found that the book of Proverbs spoke to our situation in COVID perfectly every week. And it put our minds on the right things. Fear the Lord, trust the Lord, Take him seriously in life. Every aspect of life is touched by our awesome respect of the Lord and seeking to honor and glorify him above all things. That's number one. It doesn't matter what's going on in the culture. It doesn't matter what's happening. It doesn't matter that the whole world shut down for how long it did. That's not our focus. Our focus isn't on that. Our focus is on we must right now act in wisdom based upon God and his attributes and his will, and we must seek to honor and glorify him above all things. It's been an incredible lesson. It was by God's providence that we were in this book during that time, and I hope that that lesson really came out. And I hope that as we learned, we had a really good picture of what does it look like when a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ really seeks to honor and glorify Jesus in every aspect and facet of our life. And I hope that as you go back time and time again to this amazing book, that you'll remember some of the things that we studied, and that I will offer a great diving board for your further, deeper study, and that the Lord would bring back remembrance of how important it is to fear Him. I'm not gonna tell you what we're gonna do next week, because I'm not 100% sure I know what we're gonna do next week. But I wanted to thank you all the same for putting up with your pastor seeking to go verse by verse through the book of Proverbs. You guys are champs. I think you guys deserve a pizza party for what you went through. But I am just very thankful for the Lord, for his word, very thankful for you, and I'm very thankful for my wife, who's the best wife in this room. So let's go ahead and let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we are just so very thankful for your word. We're very thankful for all that you've given us, even down to, we have a great church family. We have great families here. Thank you for bringing people into our lives that are there with us all the time. We're just so very thankful that you have blessed us above and beyond. anything we could ever imagine. We thank you for the book of Proverbs. We thank you for the lessons that it taught us. Father, I pray that the lessons that are found in your word would be profound despite the person that has taught them for the past couple years. Father, we ask that we would be wise and that we would be Christ-like and discerning and that our number one goal would be to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you and love you for everything you've given us in your son's name, amen.