”Some Thoughts From Proverbs 31“ - Pastor Scotty Brown

How many moms I got in the room?

We got any moms?

God bless you.

(congregation applauding)

You know, moms are pretty awesome.

As babies, obviously, we're so attached to our mothers

and then you grow and you're about four or five

and I remember thinking my mom

was the most beautiful person in the world

and I wanted to marry her.

And then I hit about 10, 12, 13

and asked her a lot of questions and really irritated her.

And then you grow up and you get to be a teenager

and you kind of despise the authority

that they have over you

and think they take stupid pills and all that.

But then you get into your 20s and your 20s and 30s

and you're thinking, wow, she kind of knew

a little more than I did.

And you kind of appreciate the wisdom that they had.

Your eyes are fully open at that point.

Your brain is close to being fully developed.

Mine's not quite fully developed yet.

But then you ask them, then you fellowship with them

and you can compare notes

and there's a pretty sweetness that happens there

as you get older with your parents

or it was for me anyway with my mother.

I could always talk to her and then you miss talking to them

because they're gone.

And so that kind of struck me this week

as I was thinking about this message

and just the importance of a mother

and God's heart in the whole matter of making them.

And obviously there's a reason that we're here.

I know that's elementary, but it's true, right?

You know, praise God, on May 9th, 1914,

President Woodrow Wilson declared a national day

to celebrate mothers, right?

And I've heard a lot of bad things about Wilson,

but I'm gonna give him a thumbs up on this one, right?

And I loved looking at some quotes.

You know, "Being a mother is like being a gardener of souls.

You tend your children,

make sure the light always touches them."

Right?

That was Karen White that said that.

And M. L. Steadman, he said this,

"Such a mysterious business motherhood,

how brave a woman must be to embark on it."

Boy, ain't that the truth.

Or Robert Browning said this,

"Motherhood, all love begins and ends there."

And my mom taught me how to love.

She was a lover.

She was a lover of people.

She loved her children.

And it's a powerful legacy.

She impacted me and my siblings with her incredible love.

You know, you've heard that saying,

"Only a mother could love that face."

Well, and maybe all of us have been there at times,

you know, when they wanted to kill us.

But what a blessing.

What a blessing moms are.

And so somebody has rightly said,

"When God wants to do a great work,

He gets a hold of a man.

When He wants to do an exceptionally great work,

He gets a hold of a woman."

Right?

Now I am not a feminist, right?

I think we have our roles.

God's created us differently.

Go figure.

For a reason, right?

I tell people my wife is everything I am not.

Right?

And I am stronger than her though.

Right?

Strong back and a weak mind.

That's why I need her around.

But as you look through scripture,

you see where God,

He uses these women in such a powerful way.

You think about Eve.

She was called the mother of all living.

Bless her heart, right?

She didn't have any Lamaze classes to go to.

(congregation laughing)

Or no one to teach her how to breastfeed

or how to, you know, take care of a kid.

God just gave it to her.

And then one woman that we don't hear hardly anything about,

how about Noah's wife?

Right?

The mother of Shem, Ham, and Japheth,

where we all came from those three boys.

All of us in this room came from those three boys.

We don't hear anything about her,

but I'm sure she was a great woman.

And then we have the mothers of the patriarchs,

Sarah and Rebecca, the mother of Isaac and Jacob.

And then you hear the story of the faith of Jochebed.

You guys remember that name?

Who her boy was?

Right?

Jochebed was the mother of Moses.

And by faith, she builds this basket

and covers it and pitch and chucks it in the Nile River

amongst the crocodiles,

believing that God was gonna do something with this baby

because there was something special about him.

And sure enough, he became the deliverer of Israel.

Or how about Jael and her tent pig?

Yeah, she did away with Sisera.

And Esther, for such a time of the zest,

I love Esther's heart,

as she is gonna go before the king.

And she said this,

and I think this is just,

should be the heart of every believer

in the Lord Jesus Christ.

She said, "If I die, I die."

But for such a time as this,

God has called me to do this.

God has called us for such a time as this, folks,

to stand up and to be counted.

And much like our hero of faith, Esther.

And then Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, right?

Being in labor, possibly in her 80s,

that would have been a tough one.

And then the young girl, Mary,

that gave birth to Jesus.

My grandmother believed that a woman's purpose in life

was to give the world a son.

And I know that even in our fellowship here,

there's people have had infertility problems,

and that's a heartbreaking thing.

But God has given, I believe,

He's given an instinctive mother's heart to all women.

And it's a very powerful thing.

And so we're gonna look at Hebrews, or excuse me,

Proverbs 31.

I've never ever taught through this before,

and I'm gonna skip a little bit of it.

The first nine verses there is,

many believe Bathsheba giving instruction

to her son, Solomon.

And moms, I just want you to know,

you have a huge impact on your boys.

And so challenge them.

I've said this before, challenge them to be men,

and maybe even use some of Bathsheba's words here.

And before we read, let's pray.

Lord, we thank you.

Thank you for moms, Lord,

that they've truly made our life vital and real

and really blessed,

even though we've all sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God.

Lord, you've used these women in our lives, Lord,

to bring us into this world, Lord,

that we would have an opportunity to leave a legacy.

And so I just pray for that blessing on them.

I pray the blessing of your holy word, Lord,

as we look at it this morning

and celebrate the lives of these women, Lord.

And we thank you.

Thank you that we can,

we're free to say that word, women.

And Lord, we just, we love you and we praise you.

And we know that you have a heart to nurture.

You have a heart for us, Lord.

You compare your holy spirit to that helper

that the Lord made for the man in the garden.

And Lord, I just pray that we would be yielded

to that spirit even today in Jesus' name, amen.

So the first nine verses there,

as she encourages her son,

she says these things.

She instructs her son saying,

don't be a womanizer, don't be a drunk.

Speak up for those who can't speak for themselves.

Do what is right in judgment and help the needy.

And here is a guy that was gonna ascend to the throne

in place of his father, David,

and his mother's telling him, right?

You better be careful.

You better tread lightly.

And you better be wise.

And arguably, Solomon's possibly one of the wisest people

that we see in scripture, except for his Achilles heel.

And guess what it was?

Them girls, them girls,

them girls that would worship false gods.

And he listened to his mom pretty much mostly,

but then he didn't listen to her in other areas.

And there's a proverb that I used to share with,

especially with the little boys

that would be given their mother's fits.

Now it was sad because as the school pastor at Water Springs,

many times I would get called

to do the disciplining of the children from parents.

That's not my job, that's your job.

In fact, I want them to like me, you know?

And, but I would bring them in,

especially the little boys

when they would despise their mother

and be extremely rebellious

and disrespectful to their moms.

I would bring them in and I would read this proverb too.

It's found in Proverbs chapter 30, verse 17.

Proverbs 30:17

It says, "The eye that mocks father

and scorns obedience to his mother,

the ravens of the valley will pluck it out

and the young eagles will eat it."

And I would say, "Boy, you want your eyeballs plucked out

and eaten by birds?"

"No, no."

I said, "You better listen to your mama."

I gained a little bit of ground with that, you know?

That's some pretty serious stuff there.

That many question whether Solomon made it into heaven.

And I think that he saw the error of his ways

and we can glean from the end of the book of Ecclesiastes

that maybe he came to his senses and think,

"Man, mom was right after all."

This is man's all, to love God and obey His commandments.

And so it is with you and I.

And many of us, God has given mothers and grandmothers

to point us to the Holy One.

And so let's read here.

I'm gonna take this in four or five verse chunks

and we'll get through it here and get at...

Who all is getting baptized?

Can I see who's getting baptized?

Hey, right on.

All right, praise the Lord.

That's awesome.

And we'll get to that in celebration

of this incredible day.

Starting in verse 10, it says,

"Who can find a virtuous wife?

For her worth is far above rubies.

The heart of her husband safely trusts her

so that he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

She seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands.

She is like the merchant's ships.

She brings her food from afar.

She also rises while it is yet night

and provides food for her household

and a portion for her maidservants."

I thought, wow, this is a pretty cool lady, right?

It starts off with saying, who can find?

Who can find a virtuous wife?

What does virtue mean?

And in this sense, it means a wife,

listen, a wife of valor, of valor.

That in other words, this woman is extremely courageous.

And as I look back at my 30,

almost 37 years of marriage to my wife,

I'm thinking, man, this woman is extremely courageous.

She's, it can mean an army valor here or virtuous

in the sense of all forms of excellence like warriors,

right?

And that's a mom.

You know, a lot of people are sideways with their moms

and you know, thinking, well, she wasn't that good a mom.

I read Proverbs 31 and my mom wasn't nothing like that.

I remember my mom telling me about her mom,

who I thought was an angel.

And my mom told me, Scotty,

you do not know the woman that I know.

Right?

And yes, it's the whole grandparent thing.

I don't know what it is.

My grandma Jones was a glorious woman.

But what the fact is, is what you gotta learn to do, folks,

don't hold a grudge against your mother, right?

Let it go.

I don't know what she's done to you.

But listen, if you can glory in one thing,

well, I can't even find anything to be thankful for.

You're here, aren't you?

Right?

She chose to go through labor

and bring you into this world, right?

And maybe from then on, she failed.

Give her that one, would you?

Just give her that one.

You know, the Bible says that we're to honor

our father and mother.

We're to honor them.

Doesn't say that we're to honor them if they deserve it.

Because I know there's probably a lot of parents,

a lot of mothers,

they don't deserve the honor of their children.

They fail them miserably.

But you can give them that.

You can give them that.

Right?

Because listen, they probably did the best

that they could do in their own thinking

with what they had when they had you

and they didn't kill you, right?

Maybe they tried occasionally.

I know my mom, when I was a teenager,

if she thought she could have gotten away with it, maybe.

Shallow grave, you know?

Get rid of this punk.

But ain't nothing like a mother's love, right?

She had an unconditional love for us.

But this woman is,

it's a courageous thing to be a mother

and to go through bringing a child into this world.

Even those who have chosen to give their little ones up

for adoption instead of abortion.

It's a powerful thing.

It's a courageous thing.

And I praise God for that heart.

It says her husband's trust in her.

He has a confidence in his wife.

Being confident of your wife is a powerful thing.

That's one thing I've always been so

comfortable with my wife and who she's around

and because I have such a confidence in her

that she's committed to me and I'm committed to her.

And we started our marriage actually right.

We had no physical interaction prior to saying our vows

and to committing our lives to one another.

And that is a powerful thing.

That is the reason I have that kind of confidence in her

is 'cause she waited for me.

And it's a powerful thing.

And to not be suspicious or questioning,

does a man's heart good?

The Bible talks about a jealous husband

and that is one miserable person

is somebody who is jealous of their wife.

It says she is bent on doing good to him all her days.

When I do marriage counseling,

I take couples through Ephesians chapter five

and in verse 33, it says,

"Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular husbands

so love his wife as himself and let the wife see

that she respects her husband."

Right?

That that respect that she gives him,

that builds a confidence in him.

And she helps him to become all that God has created him to be.

She willingly works with her hands.

She gets up early and makes sure, right?

I love people who are early risers.

They just seem to get more done.

And when I was young, I had a job where I had to get up early

and it's just like from six o'clock to 10 o'clock,

you can get more done than you can all day long.

From six of that four hours, from six o'clock to 10 o'clock,

you can get more done than working all day,

working a 12 hour shift.

It's fascinating.

We see Jesus doing it, getting up early before the son

and seeking the father.

It's a powerful thing.

When a wife gets up early, she gets work done

and everyone is taken care of.

My grandma, she used to get up early.

She was always dark when she got up.

And her first thing on the list every morning

was to get in God's word and to write notes

about what the Lord was teaching her.

And then to make sure all of her husband, her kids,

and her grandkids were fed.

She only had one kid.

She gave the world a son.

She had one and she had four grandkids.

That's all she ever had.

But that was her whole focus.

And that's what it talks about this woman,

that she's diligent.

Verse 16 says, "She considers a field and buys it

from her prophets.

She plants a vineyard and girds herself with strength

and strengthens her arms.

She perceives that her merchandise is good

and her lamp does not go out by night.

She stretches out her hands to the staff

and her hand holds the spindle.

She extends her hands to the poor

and she reaches out her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of snow for her household

for all her household is clothed with scarlet.

She makes tapestry for herself.

Her clothing is fine linen and purple."

She's a working machine.

This woman.

And she's not lazy.

She's not idle at all.

Her life is a blessing to those around her.

The poor and needy.

She's a philanthropist.

Did I say that right?

You know what a philanthropist is?

It's a philanthropic person.

(congregation laughing)

No, it's people who use what God gives them to bless others.

And this woman, she's just, she knows how to make money.

And as God blesses her, she blesses others.

It's a cyclical thing, right?

And that's what we're called to do

as believers in the Lord, as the Lord blesses us.

It says that we're to bless others.

And when it's within your power to do good for somebody,

then do it.

And this woman, she's a go-getter.

And from her goods, it says actually from her buying

and selling and her wisdom with money,

she's able to buy a plot of ground and plant a vineyard.

And I don't know if you know what it takes

to plant a vineyard, but man, that's some serious labor.

Right, putting those things in the ground

for the vines to grow on and all that

and keeping them in rows.

And back then, no doubt it was extra manual labor.

Not afraid of hard work.

Proverbs 14, 23 and 24 says, "All hard work brings a profit,

but mere talk only leads to poverty."

Right?

God has designed us folks to work.

We're finding as our society spirals down,

I talk to employers all the time.

Man, the struggle to find people that will just show up

on time, work a full shift, right?

Work a full shift to give you all they got for eight hours.

It's a rarity.

It's sad.

When I see young people that like to work,

I'm going, good on you,

God's gonna bless your socks off, right?

'Cause you're willing to put in some work.

You're willing to do what God has called you to do.

I believe that we're all called to do this,

to do this work and to be smart.

You know, it's talking about making money.

Money is the single most thing that Jesus talked about

than anything else was money.

And why is that?

I believe it's because it is his biggest rival.

The love of money is the biggest rival

to the Lord Jesus in our hearts, right?

Didn't he compare that, made the comparison?

You can't serve God and mammon.

You're gonna love one and hate the other, right?

What do you love?

And so this woman, she's using the blessings

that God is giving her from her hard work to bless others.

She's reaching out to the poor and the needy.

She possesses so much success,

it's as though she's royalty, right?

'Cause it says her clothing is fine linen and purple.

That's a sign of royalty, right?

She's a pretty snazzy dresser, right?

But she's doing it.

And actually there's a beautiful picture here

because in 1 Peter chapter two,

it talks about us as believers in the Lord.

It says, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood."

And the priest would wear, these are priestly colors

that it's talking about here.

You are a holy nation, his own special people

that you may proclaim the praises of him

who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,

who once were not a people, but are now a people of God

and who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

This woman, her purple is not to promote herself,

it's to promote her God and how great he has blessed her.

Verse 23 says, "Her husband is known in the gates

when she sits among the elders of the land.

She makes linen garments and sells them

and supplies sashes for the merchants.

Strength and honor are her clothing.

She shall rejoice in time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom

and on her tongue is the law of kindness.

She watches over the ways of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and call her blessed.

Her husband also, and he praises her,

many daughters have done well, but you excel them all."

This chick is stellar, right?

And you've heard, I've heard in Christendom

since I've been a Christian about the Proverbs 31 woman.

I haven't met very many.

And there's a reason for that and I'll get to that.

But notice her life is a blessing to her husband,

so much so that she makes him better.

Can I see the hands of the men, your wife make you better?

If you don't raise your hand,

you're probably gonna be in trouble.

(congregation laughing)

My wife is a companion to the Holy Spirit

when it comes to Scottie Brown, right?

And she does make me better.

And there are restraints that I have

because of my wonderful bride.

And that's what it talks about here.

She makes him so good that he's elevated

to a person of status in the community, right?

The old saying is true,

"Behind every good man, there's a pretty good woman."

Right?

"Behind every good man, there's a pretty good woman."

And because he sits among the elders of the land, right?

And in the place of leadership,

she's clothed with strength

and has a great attitude for the future.

How many people I talk to

that are seeing what's happening in the world

and getting all watered up about stuff?

Do we not know who's in control?

I'm listening to Jan Markell, right?

Jan Markell is a Jewish Christian

who is very into prophecy.

And Jan Markell, as she sees the chaos around the world,

the chaos in Israel and all over the world,

she's the one that coined the phrase,

"Things are not falling apart.

"Things are falling into place."

Right?

That's what Markell said.

I thought, "That is a smart woman."

Right?

And so she would fall into line

with the attitude of a Proverbs 31 woman.

And she opens her mouth with wisdom.

And we hang on to that and we proclaim it quite a bit,

especially when our mouth gets in trouble,

gets us in trouble.

James 1.19, "So then, my beloved brethren,

"let every man be swift to hear,

"slow to speak, and slow to wrath."

This Proverbs 31 woman, when she speaks,

I'm telling you, people listen.

You've been around people like that in your life?

That when they speak, you're thinking,

"I need to listen to this person."

They are full of wisdom.

I remember hearing an interview with Elizabeth Elliot,

the wife of the missionary that was killed, Jim Elliot,

and just the wisdom that came out of her

is very, very powerful.

And so, girls, be careful.

You girls, you have a little bend

towards being a little wordy.

Right?

It's okay to keep a cap on that.

When you got something to say, say it.

Otherwise, be careful.

You know, and it says, "Her children respect her

"and call her blessed as well as her man praises her."

Why is that?

Because she knows where everything is.

She just does.

My wife, I don't know how she does it.

Honey, have you seen this?

Honey, have you seen that?

Mom, have you seen my mom?

Have you?

She knows, she's jolly on the spot every time.

She knows where everything is.

No wonder they respect her.

'Cause if they don't, they're not gonna get

what they're looking for.

(congregation laughing)

You know,

well, verse 29 says,

"Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all."

It's almost like she's perfect, the perfect woman.

Proverbs 31, the reason I haven't seen

many Proverbs 31 women

is because I haven't met any perfect women, right?

So when I read through this scripture, you guys,

what I see is I see a bar set by our God, right?

The Bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ is our example.

Is he not?

And I remember years ago,

I was asked to be in a group of deacons

and they had us read 1 Timothy 3

as the qualifications for deacon.

And as I read through it, I can't do this.

I don't qualify, right?

And I was just being honest

because I don't know any man that qualifies.

And it's a bar set.

It's something to shoot at.

Now I am convinced,

I am convinced that I missed the mark every day, right?

That I've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And Proverbs 31 seems to be that kind of a bar,

just like what Jesus set for us.

And I think I had the scripture written down here somewhere

where he's that example there it is.

It's in 1 Peter 2.

And it says, "For to this you were called

because Christ also suffered for us,

leaving us an example that you should follow his steps."

Does anyone in this room follow the steps

of Christ Jesus perfectly?

No, you don't.

But he's our example, right?

And if you're not shooting for that,

you're groveling, you're floundering in a puddle of sin.

And so, "Who," it says, "we should follow in his steps,

who committed no sin,

nor was deceit found in his mouth,

who when he was reviled did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten,

but committed himself to him who judges righteously,

who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree."

And so that's what I think this passage of scripture is,

because I think so many women just like,

they read that and they go, "I can't do that.

I can't measure up to that.

I'm not," here it is, "worthy."

No, you're not worthy, but Jesus is.

And if Jesus lives in you,

as you keep shooting for that mark, right?

And you miss the bullseye.

You and I, we keep shooting for that mark to be like Jesus.

And we fall short.

"You do," my brother is always famous at saying this,

"You do begin to sin less.

We will never be sinless,

but we do sin, less."

Is that proper, Dara?

Right?

We're never sinless, the compound word.

Oh, he's sinless, he never sins.

No, that's not true.

But as we keep shooting at the mark,

women, as you continue to shoot at the mark

of the Proverbs 31 women,

body of Christ, as we continue to shoot

for the mark of Christ Jesus being our example,

yes, we will slowly sin less.

And that's comforting.

That's comforting to me that God is so gracious

and so merciful that when we blow it,

he gives us another chance.

His mercies are new every morning.

Joy comes in the morning

that we can put those things behind us.

Last couple of verses here as we close this up.

"Charmist is deceitful and beauty is passing,

but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Give ear," oh, excuse me,

"Give her of the fruit of her hands

and let her own works praise her in the gates."

Beauty is passing.

Amen.

You know, the encouraging scripture

in the New Testament, 1 Peter 3.3-4 says,

"Do not let your adornment," right?

That's what the word charm there means.

"Adornment be merely outward,

or raging the hair, wearing of gold,

or putting on fine apparel.

Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart

with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,

which is very precious in the sight of the Lord."

That's what God's desire.

It's the inside.

It's that hidden, quiet spirit on the inside.

I saw a picture of Ann Margaret here a while back.

And Ann still looks pretty good.

She's in her 80s, right?

But one thing you're gonna notice

about women who get that old,

they've had a lot of work done, right?

My wife says, "Scottie, you can't say that.

That's offensive to women, that they've had work done."

Really?

I don't find it offensive.

Now, I would not go up to a woman and say,

"Wow, you have had a lot of work done."

(congregation laughing)

(congregation laughing)

But doesn't it just play?

It just plays into what Moses was talking about

in Psalm 90, right?

In Psalm 90, he says, right,

"Teach us, Lord, to number our days

that we would gain a heart of wisdom," right?

That the length of a person's life is 70 years.

And if by reason of strength they live to be 80 years,

their only boast, check this out,

is labor, work, and sorrow.

They didn't get all the wrinkles with this facelift, right?

And I look like I'm from a different country.

(congregation laughing)

No, I had one of my bosses one time,

she got this facelift in a,

I mean, she looked like she had been in a barroom brawl.

I mean, everything was swollen, both eyes were black,

and I'm going, "You did this for beauty's sake?"

It's just labor.

It's work to try to keep whatever we got, right?

No, this life's fading away.

Girls, just let it fade.

My wife goes, "No way.

I'm not getting rid of my Clairol."

(congregation laughing)

I've asked her, I says, "Honey, just let it go great."

Not gonna do it.

See, girls see this thing

a whole lot different than we do.

Bless your hearts, we love you.

But notice the contrast, right?

Charm is deceitful, beauty is passing,

and oh, does it pass,

but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

26 years ago on Friday,

my grandma, Jule Dean Brown, passed away,

and she was a woman who feared the Lord,

and she put the fear of the Lord in us

with her preaching finger.

And I always tell the story of her washing Rick's mouth out,

so my gosh, was that funny.

But I got a few thrashings myself from Jule Dean.

But it's funny, when we talk about her now,

26 years after her death, what do we talk about?

Her fear of the Lord that impacted our lives so greatly.

I remember weeping over her as she died.

We were there when she took her last breath,

and I reached down and I gave her a kiss on the cheek,

and she had passed, and I started crying,

and I said, "Grandma, thank you

for sharing Jesus with us."

And she still gets praised, right?

And so she was testifying one time.

They were at a Bible study, and she went to a Bible study,

and you had to be careful with Jule Dean

'cause she knew her Bible.

And this guy that was leading the study said,

"Hey, has anybody got a little testimony

or a little praise the Lord, however you wanna?"

She goes, "Yeah, the Bible says,

'Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,'

and I'm just a-saying so."

(congregation laughing)

And the guy said, "Man, maybe you should teach

this Bible study."

She says, "No, sir, I'm not a preacher.

I just raise 'em, right?

I just raise preachers."

(congregation applauding)

Rick and I were teaching Bible studies at that time.

My dad was teaching a Bible study,

and my grandpa, her husband was teaching a Bible study,

so she just raised 'em.

She kept us fed and kept us on track.

But that fear of God, I'm just gonna tell you,

moms and grandmas, you may not see it in your lifetime,

the answer to your prayers,

your labor for your kids and for your grandkids.

But I'm telling you what, God has taken note.

This woman, this Jule Dean, her mother

prayed for Rick and I when we were in utero,

and I couldn't get away from 'em.

You couldn't get away from those prayers.

They were like, they were the most stealthy hounds of heaven

that you've ever seen.

They never back off.

They just keep nipping at your heels

and nipping at your heels.

They'd be like, "Okay, I quit.

My life's yours," right?

God knows which buttons to push.

And so it's a powerful thing.

Whatever fruit we bear, we will be partakers of it.

Verse 31, "Give her of the fruit of her hands

and let her own works praise her in the gates," right?

Your works follow you, good or evil, they follow you.

And this person is the person who wants to hear

at the end of their life,

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant,

enter into the joy of the Lord," right?

And so this whole thing, right,

is that bar that set really high,

but also this ultimately points to Jesus in his people.

This ultimately points to his pure bride

that he's coming back for, this Proverbs 31.

This picture of the Holy Spirit in the people of God.

John Phillips writes, "Coming to the end of this poem

in Proverbs 31 and the end of this book,

this pinpoints the organizing factor

in this brilliant woman's universe.

It is her fear of Yahweh that enables her to see

that real greatness will come to her,

not through self-centered aggressiveness

and not through merely external beauty,

but through godly devotion and the wholehearted commitment

of God's creational intention for her."

And so it is with all of us, amen?

We all have something to shoot at.

It's perfect, we'll never quite get there,

but please don't take your eyes off of it.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for today.

Lord, that you're so good.

You've been so good to us.

Lord, your Holy Spirit, that comforter,

much like what a mother is.

And so Lord, I just pray your blessing upon these women.

And Lord, that you would fill them with your Holy Spirit.

Lord, that they would finish out their days

being in a place of fearing you and producing fruit.

Lord, that we would truly excel the world's ideals

of what it's like, what it's like for moms,

what it's like for the body of Christ.

And only you can bring that excellence.

And so Father, we love you.

And as we're in an attitude of prayer right now,

I just wanna ask all the moms to stand.

Stand to your feet.

You moms, maybe you who just wanna be a mom,

stand to your feet.

I wanna pray for you.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you for the courage of these people in this room.

Lord, who have chosen, Lord, to give life.

And Lord, we ask your blessing upon them, Lord.

As they pray for their posterity

and maybe as they pray for future little ones,

Lord, I pray that you would bless,

that you would bless the fruit of the womb.

And Lord, that you would bless them

as they seek you with all their hearts.

Lord, that they would rise up early

and that they would be that voice of intercession

for the ones that they've born

and the ones that they will.

Lord, we love you.

We praise you.

We thank you for them

and pray your mighty blessing upon them this day

in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus.

Amen.

Let's all stand, shall we?

Yeah, give them a hand.

Thank you, you guys.

We love you.

I also have to remind the parents

to go get your kids before the baptism

lest they be hanging from the chandeliers.

(congregation laughing)

(gentle music)

(congregation murmuring)

(gentle music)

[MUSIC PLAYING]