Call Her Blessed | Turn Your Heart Toward Home - Proverbs 31:25-30 | Travis Jones

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Transcript

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Amen. Um, that was that's sweet, man. Um, good to see all of you, church. Uh, if you're joining us online or the app, thank you as well for being with us. And let's do this, family. Let's get out our Bibles. You can get out a Bible app if that is what you have. And I want you to go to the book of Proverbs. That's in the Old Testament. I want you to go to Proverbs 31, and we're going to pick up in verse 25. And so today, what we're doing, and uh, we're starting a new kind of it's kind of a mini-series. It's on the family. And since today is Mother's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to begin with mothers. And so that is what we're going to do today. Um, look at the word of God and learn what the God of what the God, the God, God of Scripture, the God's Word says about mothers, and specifically we're going to be looking at Proverbs 31. Um, let me just say, before we get to it, just just just something about both those mothers and Proverbs 31. All right? Okay, so just so we all on the same page, all right? If you're here today and you're breathing, you owe that to a woman, your mother, all right? Now you may not remember the delivery room, you may not remember all the sleepless nights, you may not remember the diapers, the carpool lines, all the clothes that have been washed in your name, but we are all here, everyone, all of us are here, because somewhere in our story, God used a mother. And so we're here to pause and to honor them. Once again, not because you know Hallmark says this is the day that you are to honor mothers. No, we're doing it because the word of God says over and over again that we are to honor mothers. And just kind of clarify, man, mothers, man, a blessing to me, to us, to our church. All right. Now, I also want to say an additional thing really about Proverbs 31 that we're gonna be looking at in just a moment. And the reason why is this I think Proverbs 31 is often misunderstood. Some people read Proverbs 31, and I've seen this, they kind of think of it as a divine check list, uh, uh things to do, right? And so you read it and you measure yourself up against it, and you come away feeling, I don't know, maybe discouraged, right? We can do that, we can do that. But I want you to know that Proverbs 31 is not a to-do list. There is no pressure here. It is a celebration, it is a praise. What you have is is a king, and he's writing and remembering the wisdom of his mother. It's describing a mother that left a generational impact. And so we're going to study it. Not to study it. You're gonna read this and study it so that there's guilt. We're going to study it to create in us really just gratitude, all right? And let me say one final thing, all right, to every mother, grandmother in this room today. We know this. The world may not clap every day. I've never seen laundry leave a thank you note. I've never seen dishes say thank you. But I want you to know heaven sees you. Heaven sees what you do, and scripture says honor you. And that is what we want to do. So let's get to the text. Let's kind of read the wisdom of God's word and this king writing this psalm in celebration of the wisdom of his mother. Let's just walk through it. Proverbs 31, verse 25. The first thing we're going to see, her strength stabilizes generations. And it's true. Here's what he says: talking about his mother. Strength and dignity are her clothing. And she laughs at the time to come. All right. So we're going to begin here. We're going to begin here by looking at her clothing. He says, well, really, he describes it. He says, strength and dignity are her clothing. Now you read that and you think exactly, what exactly does that mean? Well, we can break it down. Strength is what I would call inward resilience. Dignity is outward grace. And the whole ideal here is that she is encased in this inward resilience and this outward grace, right? Now, if we're going to be honest, motherhood does require both of those, right? For sure. Motherhood requires strength. All mothers, you know, yeah. Amen. Man, it requires emotional strength. It requires physical strength. It requires spiritual strength. It requires strength. And I was thinking about this, um, and I want you to, I don't know. This this was kind of a, let me just share this with you, and I want you to just hang with me because I want to explain this to you. I, when I'm thinking about the strength of a mother, all right. I think mothers are kind of like, hear me out, all right? I think they're kind of like Wi-Fi. All right? Now just hold that. I know, don't get angry. Wi-Fi, right? Because I'm thinking about this. At my house. I'm at my house, okay? And I was thinking about this. Like you're at home and you got the Wi-Fi going. If the Wi-Fi is going, you're like, like, like, like you don't know it's working. You don't know, you don't even know what all the Wi-Fi is doing. You just know everything going right, right? You don't see it, you don't know what it's doing, right? You're you're actually unaware, you're even unaware what all of all of it's connected to, right, man? But you but but you enjoy it. And if the Wi-Fi goes down, everybody in the house immediately knows something's not right. Right? Like you didn't notice it before, but when it stops, listen, in my house, true story, smoke detectors can go off and ain't nobody leaving. Nobody going for the doors, all right? You disconnect the Wi-Fi, 30 seconds. There's a panic in the house, right? You got a problem. No Wi-Fi, you got a problem. Now, I was thinking, I know this is might break down in many areas, but moms are kind of like that, right? Like sometimes you don't you don't know all the things that they're doing, right? You're unaware of everything that's going on, but you enjoy them. But if she was to, I don't know, disappear, immediately everybody in the house knows something's not right. They begin to panic. When I think about that, I think that's some strength. That's the strength, that's the backbone, really, of a home, right? You need strength. Then it says you got strength as her clothing. You got dignity, right? That means this is this outward grace. Dignity speaks of worth, man. It means she knows who she is. She doesn't compete. She doesn't have to be compared to anything. She doesn't got to prove anything, right? She's not measured by social media. All right, not looking for that applause. She's rooted in her covenant identity, right? She knows who she is in Jesus Christ. And so in the text, it's saying she's clothed with both strength and dignity. Notice. I want to talk about this too, man. It doesn't say in perfection. It doesn't say that. It says strength and dignity, man. I guess we should cover this before we continue through, I don't know, the rest of the text. There's something that needs to be addressed as we're studying this text. And I want to be careful. I want to be careful, all of us as a church, as individuals, as we go through the word of God here. I am aware of this. I realize that every person here could raise their hand and tell us a story where perhaps their mother did not measure up to their expectations. That's not difficult to do. It's not difficult to dishonor your father. It's not difficult to dishonor your mother with your words while conveniently forgetting all that they have done for you. But I say in all of this, tread lightly. This is serious business. The word of God says, honor your mother. Did you know, man, it's so serious that the fifth commandment in the Bible says what? Honor your father and your mother. It's got a promise, too. Honor your father, honor your mother that your days may be long. Let me paraphrase that. You want to live long, you want the abundant life, honor your parents, honor your mother. So we see that. She is clothed in strength, she is clothed in dignity. Now keep going through the passage. You get a powerful picture here. Same verse. She laughs. She laughs at the time to come. Now that doesn't mean she's naive, right? It means she's secure. That word laugh carries this, it carries this ideal of confidence. She's not paralyzed, you know, with the what-ifs, you know. Why? Once again, she knows God's in control. She knows God is sovereign. It doesn't mean she ignores her responsibility. It means she refuses to let anxiety rule her life, right? I was thinking about that too. You know, mothers set the emotional thermos that in the home. They absolutely do. If she's anxious, the house feels it. If she's steady, the house rests. You know, that's impact. So we see here strength, dignities aren't accessories. They are the atmosphere. And the beauty is she doesn't do it occasionally. According to the text, we see there, this is this is this is all the time. She's clothed with it, it encases her, it stabilizes, it anchors the home. Therefore, she rests securely in the days to come. And I'll let you know, when children grow up watching strength wrapped in dignity, they grow up secure. That strength, that dignity stabilizes generations. That is the incredible impact of a mother. That's verse 25, but we want to get to verse 26. He keeps building on this. Next we see her wisdom shapes identity. So in verse 25, we we see what she wears. Verse 26, verse 26, it's what she says. This is powerful. Look at this. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Look, God says, God says her words shape hearts. That means what comes out is intentional. That's what you're going to read. It means intentional. Now, when I say that, I understand that I believe every mother in the room would say, Yeah, I don't know if everything I say is intentional. All right? I get that. I get that, man. I know that, right? I get we we all have fathers, mothers, everyone in this room, we have words that have come out unintentionally, right? But that is not what the text is getting at here. There's not a person here who could not beat themselves up over past careless words said, but that's not the point, right? Look at this. This is this is she opens her mouth with wisdom in context. We're talking about biblical wisdom. Biblical wisdom. What is biblical wisdom? Biblical wisdom is simply you got inf, it's not just information, it's a it's not just information, it's applied truth. So, in other words, you take you take what you've been through, you take what the word of God says, and then you put it together and you apply it for others' benefit. That is what we're getting at right here. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about that kind of wisdom, that knowledge, that wisdom, that life experience shared with others. And you can think about this. Mothers speak thousands of words to their children. Thousands. Over the years, thousands. Some studies say that children hear more from their mother than they do from anyone else in their formative years. So, what does that mean? You're talking about this biblical wisdom. That means her voice, the mother's voice, becomes their internal narrator. Her voice becomes their identity. So that when God says she speaks wisdom, when God says she speaks applied truth, he's saying her words become architecture, you know. They build, they frame, they structure. That's what we're getting at here. That's what the text is getting at and thinking about this for real, man, in my own life to this very day. Both the words of my mother and the words of my grandmother are still heard in my head. I'll give you many examples. I just just, this is me, man. This is just me, man. If I don't say yes, sir, yes, ma'am, there's a voice in my head that sounds like my mom, she's saying something like, Travis, they're gonna think you ain't got no manners. You know, so that voice, that voice. If I'm sitting down and a woman walks in the room and I don't stand up and offer her my chair, I feel a, I don't know, a tap on the head, you know. So that architecture has been built. Words of wisdom. I remember this. I remember this. There was some years ago when I was, you know, um kind of new in the ministry. Um, I had this opportunity, I don't know, anyway, I was sitting alone with my grandmother. And we're sitting with my grandmother, and my grandmother loves the Lord, and she loved, she loved my preaching, you know. And so that day it's just she and I were sitting there, and she started telling me how proud she was of me. And she said she thought I was a great preacher. Now I ate that up. You know, I'm loving it. Well then my grandmother, my grandmother got really quiet, dude. She got quiet. She got really serious, and she looks me right in the eye, and she paused, and she goes, Travis, she goes, Travis, I don't know why when you preach you call the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit. She's coming at me. That's what she was doing. She goes, Maybe it's all that education you got, but Travis, it's not the Holy Spirit, it's the Holy Ghost. You know what my reply was to her? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Now, some of you have um been with me for a minute, and you will know this is just the little secret, man. Oftentimes I will say Holy Spirit, and then I'll say Holy Ghost. It's that voice, it's that architecture that's been kind of planted in me. These words became my architecture. These words of wisdom spoken to me by my mother and my grandmother, my frame, my structure. But that's not all the verse says. You look at the second part, it says the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Now, kindness here doesn't mean softness without standards. It's this, it's truth wrapped in grace, right? You can you you know this, you can use your words either like like like like a hammer, you're gonna destroy stuff, you know, or like a surgeon. Surgeons heel, man. That's a mother. Every one of you can probably recollect, remember a time when your mother has spoken to you. Those cutting, those kind. It's interesting that cutting and kind can come from the same lips when they're coming from someone who loves you, right? That's what moms do. They don't ignore sin, they address it with grace. And here's the impact when correction comes with kindness, the heart stays open. God says her words shape the heart. I was studying this. Um, I'm reminded of a quote, and I want to listen, I don't know if it's okay. I don't matter, I can do it. There's a quote by a woman named Maya Angelo. She writes beautifully. It's not Bible, but it's beautiful. She has this quote, and I kind of structure my life around it. But she said this. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And it's true, man. Children raised under wise, kind, loving words, feel loved. They grow up and they speak why they grow up and speak kind and wise words. They repeat what shaped them. That is the incredible impact of a mother. Verse 25, we see what she wears, strength and dignity. Verse 27, we see what she says. You get to verse 27, we see what she watches. Look at this. Her vigilance protects legacies. Verse 27. She looks well to the way of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. See that phrase looks well, it means she pays attention. It means attentive oversight. She's not passive, she's present, right? She noted mothers notice the shift in tone in the home. Mothers can notice patterns before they become problems. It's as if, it's as if, you know, God has graced moms a unique radar. You know, it's a radar we don't all have, right? It gives them this built-in discernment software, right? He doesn't give that to everybody. But mothers seem to have a special dose of it. So, you know, a dad, a dad, a dad can walk into the house, he looks around, he's like, everything's fine. It's all good, you know. Mother walks into the same house and she'll say, something's wrong. And you can sit there and you can ask her, well, what do you mean something was wrong? And she will say something like, I don't know yet, but I'm gonna find out, you know. That's watchfulness. That's mothers. They have, by God's grace, this radar, man, and we don't all get it, but I tell you what, we all wise to pay attention to it, right? It says she looks well to the way of her household, man, with this radar, man. She studies the home. She knows her children's personalities, she knows their temptations, she knows their strengths, she knows their weaknesses, man. And here's the impact. Because she's watchful, check this out, danger doesn't sneak in easily. With that radar and that watchfulness, her attentiveness, it corrects drift before drift gets too far. That's a grace of God, that radar that she has, right? Because, man, the reality is, the reality is the enemy loves a distracted home. One of the greatest threats to the church today is homes that are distracted. If he can get enough homes distracted, he can destroy and kill a church. The enemy loves disengaged parents. So the Lord God put this, I don't know, this discernment, I don't know, software in the hands of the mothers and got the radar, man. They're on the front lines. They see when distraction begins prior to maybe this is broadly, but the guys do, the fathers, man. It's the grace of God. Second half of the verse says, She does not eat the bread of idleness. That's interesting language. Now it doesn't say she doesn't rest. It doesn't say that. It says she doesn't eat idleness, right? Idleness is not her diet. Why? Once again, connected to the first part of the verse, right? Because idleness in a home is where drift begins. She got the radar and she's attentive to it. She's not idle to it. She's she's she understands it, right? She has an intentional home, the gift of God, the office of a mother placed in a home with the gift of this discernment applied to the home. It protects. Protects the home, it protects the children, man. That's the legacy piece. Because what she protects today becomes stability tomorrow. If she guards the hearts now, they walk with wisdom later. Using the radar, using her gifts. If she protects integrity now, they stand with conviction later. If she teaches boundaries now, they live with clarity later, and that is legacy. That's a mother, man. I'd say this. This attentiveness. Yeah. It is exhausting. Paying attention costs energy. I was thinking even through this verse as I was studying it. Reminds me a bit of Galatians 6 9. There's a promise there. Do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season you will reap. Mothers, grandmothers, there is a harvest attached to your watchfulness. There absolutely is. There is fruit attached to your attentiveness, right? Even when your children don't see it now, God does. You have never, mothers, you have never had a late-night prayer that God did not see. You've never had a hard conversation that God did not hear. You've never had a moment when you chose engagement over ease that God does not honor. That is the incredible impact of a mother. We're building somewhere here. Verses 25 through 27, you see strength, you see speech, you see vigilance. There is a result attached to that. We see this in verse 28. Her reverence secures reward. Look at verse 28. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. Notice the action. Notice it. They rise up. That's recognition, right? That's not passive. It doesn't say that they stay seated in indifference. They stand in gratitude, right? That this means that one day this all makes sense, man. Man, I tell you what, some days I don't. You're walking through a hard, I don't know, tough sledding, dude. Don't make sense. Don't make sense. One day it will make sense. You know, children don't always understand motherhood in real time. You guys know this, it's often understood in retrospect, right? After you gotta start paying bills. After you start losing sleep with your children, right? When you start praying for your own kids. But it will all make sense. And you keep in the same text. You got the children, but the the second half, her husband also. So the also is connected to the rising up, right? So he's rising up, but children and husband, but also in addition, the father does something specifically. He praises her. Alright? Since the scripture talks to dads, let's talk to dads just for a moment. Fathers, look at the text. It doesn't say that he just thinks in his head that she is great. It says he praises her. He verbalizes. He tells her of her worth. He tells her of her value. He tells her of his love for her, right? It's not just, oh no, private appreciation. He doesn't just nod his head. He declares. He declares something. Okay, okay, okay, it's right there. Praises her. What does he praise her? What does that look like? Let's get to the next verse. We see verse 29. This is what dad's saying. Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. Now, this isn't comparison, this is celebration. He's saying, I honor you. Now, you get these rewards, okay? You get both these rewards. You get the children, you get the dad rising up, you get the verbal affirmation from the father, okay? Why? Why is all of this coming? Why is she receiving this praise and honor? Verse 30 tells us, look at the very beginning. Charm is deceitful, beauty is vain, right? That means external attractiveness is temporary. Dude, I know that, dude. Today, hey, tell you a story, dude. I was in a car today. I was in the back seat, okay? And so you look up and you got that little mirror there, okay? You in the back seat, it's not always full. It was the mirror was on my neck. And I looked at that and I asked that bad car, who turkey neck is that? It's mine. That's my neck, dude. You know what I'm saying? It it fades, man. It's temporary, you know? It shifts with time. Scripture takes that and it now redirects it. Look at the last part of verse 30. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. There it is. There it is. And it all comes together right here, right? The root of her impact, the foundation of her legacy. The reason why she receives this reward, she fears the Lord. That's it. That's the root, man. She prioritizes the living God. She submits to him. She builds her life on him. That means everything we done talked about is rooted in the living God, right? Her strength, her speech, her vigilance flows out of the fact that she is rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ. And her reward is not based on perfection at all. It's based on devotion. Devotion to God. And notice something powerful here. This praise to this mother is coming in two directions. It's coming, I don't know, horizontally from the family. It's coming vertically from the living God. That's divine affirmation. Look, church, right here, God is not exaggerating the impact of a mother. What he's doing here, he's revealing it. He's revealing the impact of a mother. The impact on families, the impact on a church, the impact on legacy, the impact, the impact on the kingdom of God right there, right? She shapes eternity, and we are to honor that. That is the incredible impact of a mother. Alright. Let me kind of wrap up by saying this. To every mother in the room, you may not feel like Proverbs 31 every day. You may feel like often like I was thinking, Proverbs 3. Lord, I need help, right? It's true. But hear me clearly, God does not require perfection. He honors directions. So, mothers, we want you to know your impact is deeper than you see. Your influence is wider than you know. Your reward is more sure than you feel. And one day, when all the noise fades, when I'll know the appalles of earth grows quiet, the Lord Himself will look at you and say, Well done. Mothers, we love you. We honor you. We know it is not an easy task, and we're grateful for you. And I will close out by saying, Happy Mother's Day. We love you. Let's pray. Our Father God in heaven. We thank you for mothers, grandmothers. We've all been impacted by them. This church is built on their devotion, their love, their care. We pray that you would let them know how precious they are, how much they are loved, how much they are just cared for. We thank you, and we ask this in Christ's name, our Saviour. Amen. It's hard, man, studying the text and thinking about my mother and my grandmother. The word of God is so beautiful.