Alright, we're here in Proverbs chapter 31 and the name of the sermon is The Work of
a Mom.
The Work of a Mom.
Let me just say this up front that no matter what sermon is being preached, everyone can
benefit from it.
Everybody can be edified by this sermon.
If you're a guy in this room and you're married, obviously you can look at certain attributes
that your wife has and be very happy that she fulfills some of these things.
So this is not something that just merely applies to women, it applies to everybody.
You know, if you're a single guy and you're not married, what sort of woman should you
look to marry one day?
Someone who fits these characteristics found in Proverbs chapter 31.
If you're a single lady in this room, you're probably going to be married one day and you
want to fit these attributes, okay?
You want to be a virtuous woman.
This is kind of the ideal person you're striving to be.
You want to be a very godly person, this is the perfect model of that person.
Now let me say this though that, you know, when it comes to trying to fulfill what's
ideal or perfect, we're all going to struggle in various areas.
You know, if you're married and your wife doesn't fit every single one of these things,
it's a little bit ridiculous to be mad at her and expect her to be perfect because I
guess my question would be, are you perfect?
And I seriously doubt that.
So you know, this is something though that we can all learn from here today.
Let me show you in Proverbs 31 verse 13 where the Bible says, she seeketh wool and flax
and worketh willingly with her hands.
And verse number 13, what's being highlighted is she works, okay?
She works willingly with her hands.
So we see right there in verse 13, we see the work of a mom.
Jump down to verse number 31 and we're going to see the close here of the chapter.
Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates.
So once again, it's highlighting her works.
When it comes to being a mom, it's a lot of work that goes into that.
It's not an easy job, it's not a simple job, it takes a lot of work to do.
It takes a lot of patience, it takes a lot of, you know, endurance, you know, when you're
working with your kids and they mess up from time to time, it takes a lot of work, okay?
So if you're single and you want to be this woman one day, learn to work hard now.
Don't say, well, I'll wait till I'm married and then I'll learn to work hard.
You'll never be a hard worker then.
If you can't work hard now while you have more free time, you're not going to work hard
one day once you have kids.
Learn to do it now.
Don't make it difficult for yourself in life.
Now, let me say something else, though, that just because you're not married or just because
you don't have kids, that doesn't mean that you can't be a virtuous woman.
Now, this would be a good Bible trivia question to let you guys know this, but who is the
one character in the Bible that's actually called a virtuous woman?
It's only one character.
It's Ruth.
Ruth was not married when she was called a virtuous woman.
Boaz says, I know that you're a virtuous woman.
She's the only one in the Bible.
Now, this chapter talks about the virtuous woman, and you're seeing the characteristics
of a mom and someone who has kids, but the only one specifically called a virtuous woman
in the Bible is unmarried with no kids.
So you can be a virtuous woman whether or not you're married or not married, okay?
But the truth is that if you're not a virtuous woman before you're married, you're probably
not going to be a virtuous woman after you're married, okay?
And so when it comes to this chapter and it comes to what we talk about here today, you
know, prepare yourself for this.
You know, the second sermon today is also a practical sermon.
It's called Preparing for Marriage, but when it comes to being this virtuous woman, prepare
to be that woman now.
Do everything you can now to fulfill that, and so one day you'll do better at being a
mom.
You'll do better at being a wife.
Now, look down at verse number 15, verse 15, and the first thing I want you to see is this,
that when it comes to being a mom and the work of a mom, it is an all-day job.
And in verse number 15, I want you to see that it says she rises also while it is yet
night and giveth meat to her household and a portion to her maidens, okay?
So in the Bible when it's saying night, it's referring to basically 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. because
around 6 p.m. the sun sets, it gets dark outside, and it won't get light again until 6 a.m.
Obviously depending on where you live and the time of year, that could be different.
If you live in Alaska, I've heard that parts of the year it's dark for like 23 hours, and
parts of the year it's light for 23 hours.
So this verse, I don't really know how you apply that exactly, but generally where you
live it's probably going to be about 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. it's dark, and 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
it's light.
Obviously right now during the year it gets light before 6 a.m., but that's the general
time frame.
So what's being said here in verse number 15 when it says she rises, that's referring
to her waking up, rising out of bed.
So she rises also while it is yet night, what it's saying is she wakes up before 6 a.m.
That's what it's saying.
She rises also while it is yet night.
While it's still dark, before the day really starts, she's preparing.
She rises also while it is yet night.
Why would she wake up so early in the morning and giveth me to her household and a portion
to her maidens?
She wakes up before 6 a.m. to prepare food for the family.
That's what you see here in Proverbs 31, verse number 15.
She rises before 6 a.m., she prepares the food, and her family has to eat.
Now we live in a day where quite honestly it doesn't take much work to prepare food.
We have microwaves, we have anything you can buy at the grocery store, food's already prepared,
and honestly yeah it's helpful, but it also causes people to be more lazy.
And so there's benefits to it, but there's also downsides to that as well, because in
today's world, if you got dropped into the world hundreds of years ago, man you would
probably really struggle to start out.
Because your day would pretty much be working all day long.
There wouldn't be those couple of hours to get on Facebook, there wouldn't be those couple
of hours to be messaging, text messaging, and calling and stuff like that.
No, you'd be working from sun up to sun up.
Actually you'd be working before sun up, you work before 6 in the morning.
Obviously as the husband, during this time period, if you were having a normal sort of
job and you're going out to work, look there's a lot of preparation involved, and they worked
long days.
They worked pretty much from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
They worked when it was light outside, when people had just hard working labor and jobs.
So look, they weren't able to prepare their food in the morning because they need to be
out of there at 6 a.m. to get started.
When you work a job out there, you have to work when there's sun out.
You can't just wait until like 8 in the morning, 9 in the morning, 10 in the morning.
They worked very hard.
So both husband and wife need to work hard, but what we see here in Proverbs 31 and we
see in verse number 15 is it says, she rides also while it is yet night.
She's working hard.
Why?
She loves her husband, she loves her kids, and she's doing what she needs to provide
for that family.
It's a hard job.
Go down to verse number 18.
So first we see that when it comes to being an all day job, it starts early in the morning,
but we also see that it ends late at night.
Verse 18, she proceedeth that her merchandise is good, her candle goeth not out by night.
Now, I don't think I've ever heard anyone preach on this verse or explain it where it
says her candle goeth not out by night, but when I look at her candle and the Bible being
very specific in every word meaning making a difference, this was a time period where
your candles provided your light in the house.
You didn't just flip the lights on.
The candles were your light.
It says her candle, and the implication is the husband has a candle as well, her candle
and his candle, and the kids have a candle for their room.
So what the Bible's saying is that, let's say for example the husband's had a hard day
at work and he's exhausted and he hits the pill and he goes to sleep, but her candle
goeth not out by night.
That doesn't mean the husband's lazy.
I mean, he's working all day as well and maybe he has to stay up and work, but basically
her candle, she's going to turn that out when she goes to sleep, and what it's saying is
her candle goeth not out by night, so she doesn't just immediately go to sleep once
it gets dark.
Why?
There's still work to do.
I mean, look, if all the work was done, you could just all go to sleep and sleep for a
long time and everything.
The problem with that is there's a lot of work involved in being a mom.
A lot of work.
So you have to wake up early to provide the food and you stay up late.
Her candle goeth not out by night, which means she's working hard at night.
Now drop down to verse number 27.
If you're in this room and you say, well, you're single, maybe you're not married, you
say, what sort of work?
Why would you have to work all day if you're a mom?
You're obviously not a mom at this point.
Yeah, your candle's not going to go out by night.
That's the way it is, because guess what?
When you have kids, you'll have times when your kid's got to get that spanking because
he's acting up or she's acting up.
You're going to have times when your kid has that cold or whatever and needs attention.
You're going to have times where your child is going through teething and you're not going
to sleep that much during the night because you're going to wake up every couple hours
when your child is crying.
Just a couple of days ago, my son just started screaming in the middle of the night, I think
it was because he was teething, and then all of a sudden I just hugged him and everything
like that.
But look, it's not like when you're single and you just say, I'm going to bed at night
and setting my alarm for six in the morning and I'll just wake up, it doesn't work that
way.
Your sleep might not be eight straight hours.
You don't really know because the work of a mom, guess what?
I've heard the phrase, and it's not quite right in the bulletin where it goes something
like this, so the work of a husband is from sunup to sundown, but the work of a mother
is never done or something like that, it's supposed to rhyme, I don't know.
But basically, a mom's job, it's not that you just work eight straight hours and you're
done.
If you work a normal secular job, you basically have eight hours, ten hours or whatever, you
work that job, you go home, you're done until the next day.
It doesn't work that way with a mom because there's work to be done throughout the day.
Your kids are going to need attention and things like that.
It's not going to be very easy.
It's going to take a lot of hard work.
Verse number 27, she looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread
of idleness.
Idleness means that you're just sitting around with nothing to do.
Now, it says that this woman doesn't do this, why?
She looketh well to the ways of her household.
She works hard to provide for that house.
She works hard as a mom, as a wife, and does these things.
She's not just sitting around with nothing to do all day.
Look, there's something wrong if you're sitting around all day with nothing to do.
Find something to do.
That's the reality.
You need to find something to do.
You shouldn't have endless time just to be texting and being on the computer and things
like that.
No, you should be working hard throughout the day.
And that's whether or not you're a guy or you're a girl, but you say, well, Brother
Stuckey, at this time in my life, I don't have a ton to do.
I do have a lot of free time, I do have a lot of dead time.
You must find something productive to do.
And you say, why?
Because of the fact, if you don't prepare to do that now, you're not just going to flip
the switch once you get married and have kids.
Prepare to do that now and be productive and work hard so it's going to be an easy transition
when you get married and you have kids and you have a family.
Look, it doesn't just work so easily that you get married and, oh, you're always smiling,
you're always happy, life's so easy.
Everything's just incredible and great.
Well, just make sure you stick around for the second sermon, Preparing for Marriage,
okay?
We'll see if that's actually the case, if that's the way it works.
It doesn't work that easily, okay?
Now turn to verse number, turn at the beginning of the chapter, verse one, verse one.
And so the first point we see is simply this, that when it comes to being a mom, it's a
24-7 job, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
There is no vacation from being a mom.
You say, Brother Stuckey, man, I work so hard at my job, I work 60 hours a week.
Yeah, but you also get a one-week vacation during the year where you get to just kind
of relax and not have the stresses of life.
If you're a mom, there is no vacation.
No vacation, you never get a vacation.
That's the way it works.
It's 24-7, 365 days a year, and if it's sleepier, you can add in on another day there.
You do not have a free day off.
You're going to be working 24-7.
It's difficult.
The second thing I want you to see is this, that when it comes to a mom and the work of
a mom, she teaches and trains her kids.
She teaches and trains her kids.
Verse number one, the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that is mother taught, okay?
So when it comes to King Lemuel, it says the prophecy that is mother taught, not the father,
but the mother.
When it comes to teaching your kids the word of God, that is more going to be the job of
the wife than the husband in an ideal situation.
You say, why?
Because the wife, the mom, is going to be around those kids more than the husband.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I want to be a godly woman, but I feel like reading the Bible is
just for my husband.
No, that's not just for your husband.
It's for the wives as well, because the wives, the moms, they need to teach their kids the
word of God.
So when it comes to being a woman in this room, part of being a virtuous woman and being
this ideal woman, you need to learn the word of God.
You need to read the Bible every day so you can answer the questions of your children.
Don't just expect your husband to know it, okay?
Now, yes, the husband's supposed to take the lead, and he's supposed to help his wife if
she has any questions.
Yes, there's a big burden upon the men.
There's also a big burden upon the women.
They need to know the word of God so they can teach their kids.
You say, well, how well do I need to know the word of God?
The more you know, the more you can teach.
Look, you're never going to open this book and be able to say, you know what?
I've learned everything.
I knew somebody in college.
This guy ended up being a heretic.
He used to be my friend.
He was my roommate in college for one year.
And I got saved, and then I told him, hey, you've got to talk to this guy.
And then the next day, the person who led me to the Lord gave the gospel to my friend.
Well, my friend, he prayed and everything, but he never ended up actually getting saved.
He ended up being agnostic or kind of atheistic or whatever.
But he asked this really, really bobo question.
There's no other way to say it, but it was just a bobo question.
He's like, do you think that you can reach the point where you just read the Bible and
then you know everything, and there's nothing left to learn?
Now, look, I know you've been saved for like a year, but I'm just like, is that a joke?
And I was just thinking, do you really think that you know everything about the Bible?
It's like, you haven't even finished reading it yet.
And it's like, see, is that not a bobo question?
It doesn't really get any more bobo than that, okay?
No, you're never going to reach a point where you've learned everything in the Bible.
So whether you're a husband, a wife, whoever you are, whether you're a single guy, single girl,
you need to know the Bible more and more every day.
Because you're going to one day be expected to pass that on to your kids.
You say, Brother Stuckey, when it comes to being qualified to be a pastor, you know,
what do you need to do as a guy?
Well, the standard that Verity Baptist Church has is that if you're going to be a pastor
or an evangelist or whatever, one thing is you have to have at least read through the Bible
ten times cover to cover.
Now, quite honestly, ten times is not that much.
You say, why?
Because 30 minutes a day will basically get you through the Bible twice a year.
For five years, that's ten times.
That's not an unexpected amount of training to be a pastor one day or an evangelist or whatever.
Look, if you're going to be a surgeon, you have to spend years practicing to be ready for it.
When it comes to you getting a degree in college or whatever, look, you spend years doing it.
You don't just say, well, you know, I'm going to figure it out in a couple months.
No, you spend a long time figuring it out.
If you're going to get up here and preach three times a week, you need to know the Bible.
You need to know the Word of God.
But what I want you to understand, ladies in this room, is that you can't just say,
well, you know, my husband or my future husband, he should read through the Bible ten times,
but me, I'm just kind of ready for about five minutes a day.
And, you know, eventually I'll finish it cover to cover.
No, why don't you strive for the same sort of goal?
Because the more you know, the more you can pass on to your children.
And when it comes to passing on to your children and teaching them,
the wives are going to be able to pass on more than the husbands in the general ideal situation.
Now, when it comes to the ideal situation, not everyone's necessarily going to be in that situation.
The ideal situation that God would have in the Bible is for the husbands to work and provide for the family
and the wives to stay home and raise the kids.
Now, my older sister, I have one sibling, one sister, and my sister, she graduated high school.
She basically graduated when she was 13 years old, but she waited a couple years to go to college.
And my sister is a lot smarter than me.
And she graduated college a month after she turned 18.
Now, in the Philippines, people kind of graduate more early sometimes.
In the U.S., not really.
So basically, she was like five years ahead of all the other people.
And my sister, she got married right before she graduated college at the age of 17.
And, you know, really smart.
And guess what she decided to do with her life?
She stays home and raises her kids.
Do you know how many people criticized her for that?
No, I wasn't even saved at the time.
But I was angry that I would hear people say, you know, somebody that smart would just throw it all away
and say, well, why doesn't she become a doctor, an engineer?
Why doesn't she become some CEO of some company?
They said it as if being a mom is a second-rate job.
See, that's what the world's going to teach you out here.
You can either take the advice of the preacher or you can listen to the world.
Because what the world's going to say is that your job as a lady is to try to make as much money as you can,
to try to become some fancy CEO and be really well respected.
You know, the number one job in the Bible is to teach and train your kids and take care of your household.
And so when it comes to what you should be striving for, you should be striving to be a great mom and a great wife.
Now, look, you can still do the best you can if you're not in this situation and be the best mom you can and work very hard.
But in the ideal situation, that's what the Bible would have.
And so you're not throwing away your life if you decide you're just going to be a mom.
It's like, well, I couldn't make it in life, so I just decided I'd be a mom and have to raise kids.
I mean, what kind of a disrespectful statement is that?
But that's what the world will have you defend.
They're striving people to just, you know, men and women to be the exact same and everything like that.
No, there's a difference between men and women.
But this might shock you, but guess what? I'm stronger than my wife.
Imagine that, that, you know, there's a difference between men and women.
Imagine that the Bible's right when it says that men are stronger.
Okay? What a shock.
Look, men and women are different.
They're never going to be the same.
Look, I'm never going to have a child.
That's the way it works. You say, why?
Because men and women are different.
It doesn't matter what the world tells you.
Men and women are different, and guess what?
When it comes to working a job as a guy, there's a lot of work involved in that.
When it comes to having a job as a mom, there's a lot of work involved in that as well.
It's not just out there in the secular world.
No, there's a lot of work involved in being a mom.
Verse number two, what my son, what the son of my womb, and what the son of my vows,
give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
And she says in verse number three, basically just don't just spend your life just searching after women.
Now, wouldn't it God that Solomon had actually listened to this advice?
It would have really helped him out.
But she's giving him good advice.
Basically, don't just give your strength unto women.
Don't just say, well, I see a pretty face, and I'm just going to just whatever,
and make terrible sense in your life and destroy your life.
No, you know what? You've got to be smart.
And she's teaching her son.
She's trying to train her son, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
So one thing that destroys kings is women.
You marry some woman, and they can destroy your life.
And you say, does that really happen in real life?
Look throughout history at the most famous kings and leaders that there were.
Look at the story of Julius Caesar, who ended up involved with Cleopatra,
which was basically one of the leaders in Egypt.
If you're one of the leaders in Rome, and you link up with one of the leaders in Egypt,
it can kind of destroy you.
Then after he was killed, Mark Antony, who was basically the chief helper of Julius Caesar,
he did the same thing. He was with the same woman, Cleopatra.
And it's just like, guess what?
He's not the one who ended up taking over and being the emperor of Rome.
And maybe he would have been if he didn't give your strength unto women.
Even in secular history, those are some of the most famous names in history.
Look, they give their strength unto women.
King Solomon gave his strength unto women, and it destroyed him.
Whether you look at the Bible and the kings in the Bible,
who many of them do that, or secular history, the ones that aren't really mentioned in the Bible,
look, they make these mistakes.
And she's training and teaching her son.
Nor that waste to that which destroyeth kings.
Verse 4, it is not for kings, O Leon.
It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink.
And so basically, when it says that which destroyeth kings,
it's kind of in between giving your strength unto women and giving your strength unto alcohol.
So she's kind of hitting two things which destroy a king.
Guess what? Alcohol will destroy you, whether you're king or a normal person.
In the Bible, you know the story where the king's just drinking himself drunk,
and he gets taken over because of that.
Look, alcohol will destroy your life, and that's what she's telling you.
She's teaching and training her son.
Verse 5, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
And she says if you drink, you'll forget the law.
You forget the law of God, and you also forget the law of man, of the government that you live under.
And you pervert the judgment of the afflicted if you drink alcohol.
Verse 6, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
Now, I've touched on these verses recently, so I don't want to spend too much time here.
But I just want to highlight to you that she's teaching her son don't drink alcohol.
Say, should I drink alcohol? No, you shouldn't.
It doesn't matter who you are, why.
It's going to make you miserable, as we see in verse 7.
It's going to make you poor, as we see in verse 7.
It's going to make you ready to perish, according to verse 6, which means basically ready to die.
And it's going to give you a heavy heart, which is basically being miserable or in misery.
This is not justified drinking. It's showing you how foolish it is.
And for us in this room, the truth is, we are too good to drink alcohol.
If a secular king, and obviously this is King Solomon, but if a king, if it's too good for a king to drink alcohol,
you know what, we shouldn't drink. It's going to destroy our lives.
Now turn to Deuteronomy 6.
Ladies in this room, whether you're a mom or whether you're a young lady, whether you're married or not married,
the truth is that you need to learn the Word of God.
Even though you'll never preach a sermon, even though you'll never become a pastor one day,
teaching your children is as important as anything in this world.
Because if you do a good job teaching and training your kids, they won't be soul winners until the day they die.
That's the truth. You have that power. You have that ability.
You can either decide to take on that role as a mom and do the best job you can at raising your kids,
or you can just kind of say, well, I'll just shove them in front of the TV, shove them in front of the computer.
Now, here's the truth that, yes, we believe in homeschooling around here. We preach that.
We believe that's what the Bible teaches.
But just because you homeschool your kids does not mean you're going to do a good job raising your kids.
Because there are a lot of parents that honestly don't really spend much time with their kids.
They kind of use homeschooling as a way to just kind of hang out and relax all the time.
And they basically just say, well, you know, just have them in front of the computer all day,
but they don't actually spend any real time engaged with them.
And look, you know, honestly, the modern technology can be a good thing, but it can be a bad thing as well.
Just because you homeschool your kids does not mean they're going to turn out right,
does not mean that you're actually training or teaching them.
Because training or teaching implies that you're actually doing some work, the work of a mom, okay?
Now, you can homeschool your kids and just say, hey, watch this computer program.
It will teach you about, you know, Algebra II or whatever.
That's one way of doing it, and honestly, a lot of homeschool parents do that.
They don't really spend much time with their kids.
And guess what? I don't really see any reason in the Bible to expect that your kids are going to grow up and love the Lord,
even if they come to this church.
Because honestly, the number one decider of whether or not those kids are going to be godly and good kids
is whether or not their parents pass on good morals and teach them what the word of God says
and teach them right and wrong.
Now, look, my parents were not perfect, as no parents are perfect,
but I was homeschooled starting in middle school, and I can honestly say my parents spent a lot of time with us.
They didn't just say, hey, just watch this TV or whatever.
They actually spent time with us as a family.
Imagine a family that, you know, when you have dinner at night, everybody actually sits at the table and eats together.
I mean, that's so weird, isn't it?
Imagine that, that you actually just together as a family play games.
We would play games like cards or board games or things like that.
Imagine that a family, we actually spend time together.
See, that's what the Bible says we should do, but that's not really what the world does.
In the world now, people don't spend time with their kids.
And look, they can live in your house for 18, 20 years, and you know, you never even spend any time with them.
That's the way most people are raising their kids.
That's not the way that God would say you should raise your kids, though.
Notice what it says in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.
Or verse 6, I should say.
Deuteronomy 6, verse number 6.
And these words which I command you to say shall be in thine heart.
Now, when the Bible talks about being in thine heart, this is something that you actually really know well.
So it's really implied you're memorizing the Bible.
Because when it comes to teaching your kids, as we're going to see here in these verses, it tells you to teach them at all times.
You don't always have a Bible in your hand.
But when you're changing a diaper, it's not like in one hand you have the Word of God, and you're changing the diaper with the other hand.
But even though you don't have a Bible in your hands at all times, you should know the Word of God.
And so you can still teach at all times.
And so we need to get the Word of God in our hearts.
Now, in this room, most people are pretty good at explaining the Gospel.
And that's great.
But you ought to become good at explaining anything in the Bible.
Because if you're going to be a parent, all of that information should be passed on to your kids.
And there's also a proper time to pass on information.
I'll show you that here in verse number 7.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house.
So you ought to talk about the Word of God when you're sitting down in your house.
You're sitting down having a meal together, you're sitting down on the couch, you're doing whatever.
You should be ready to teach the Word of God.
It shouldn't just be that you set off ten minutes here to teach the Word of God during your homeschooling class.
But throughout the day, when you're sitting down, you're ready to teach the Word of God.
Then it says, and when thou walkest by the way.
So when you're walking, you need to be ready to teach the Word of God.
Look at my wife and I, and my son go out for a walk.
Let's say my son's like four years older.
And then all of a sudden we walk by some drunk person that's making a fool out of themselves.
You need to be ready to teach your children from the Word of God what's so foolish about alcohol.
Because that's going to help them understand when you're walking by the way and you see somebody acting like an idiot.
You're walking by the way and you see problems in this world, you ought to be able to highlight that.
You see kids acting rebellious and you can teach your kids, hey, that's what happens when you don't spank your kids.
That's what happens when you don't spend time with your kids.
So you must be ready to teach the Word of God at all times.
Because when you're walking by the way, you're seeing all manner of sin out there.
You walk by and you see these massive idols teach your kids about what's wrong with idolatry.
So you must be, whether you're sitting down at home or whether you're just out walking somewhere,
be ready to teach the Word of God. That's what it's saying here in Proverbs 31, or Deuteronomy 6.
Then it says, when thou liest down. So basically when you're taking a nap, you're at that time,
even then you should be ready to teach the Word of God and when thou risest up.
So when you get up, first thing in the morning, be ready to teach the Word of God.
Now notice what it said in verse number 7 when it says, shall teach them diligently.
If you're very diligent about something, you're putting great emphasis on it.
It's something that's very important. You're going to work very hard at it.
It's not that you just passively teach the Word of God. You're very diligent about it.
You're ready to teach the Word of God at all times.
Verse number 8, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
So basically you put the Word of God in a position where you have it in your hand as much as possible.
You basically put it before your eyes. One way to do that is to put verses in your house and things like that.
That's what it says in verse 9. Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.
But basically the Word of God is just always around.
Now in the past, you live in days where people didn't really have Bibles.
And having a Bible can be a very expensive thing. Bibles are not expensive in today's world.
When it comes to Bibles, we have a lot of Bibles in our house. We have them in pretty much every room.
You want the Word of God everywhere. You want to be ready to teach the Word of God everywhere and in all places.
Now go back to Proverbs 31.
You have to understand that in life, it took you a long time to learn everything that you know.
You didn't learn that in one day. It's going to take a lot of time to pass that information on to your kids as well.
It doesn't just happen in a short little amount of time.
If you're going to pass on all the knowledge that you have, it's going to take a lot of time.
And the number one thing we want to pass on is knowledge from the Word of God.
Now hopefully you have a lot of knowledge. And it's going to take you a lot of time to pass that on.
Because when it comes to life, if you have knowledge, you can help your kids not make the same mistakes that you made.
I got saved when I was 18 years old. I didn't get saved when I was 5 years old.
The truth is, yeah, I made a lot of mistakes.
And I listened to a lot of music that was bad and watched things I shouldn't watch before I got saved, before I started living for God.
I don't want my son to wait until 18 to get saved.
I don't want my son to be listening to Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses when he's a teenager.
I want him to be singing the hymns when he's young.
I don't want him to get those songs stuck in his head.
It's very easy to get that music in your head, but guess what isn't easy?
It's not easy to get that out of your head.
I don't want my son to struggle with that. I want him to basically, if he's just going to the store and there's some music playing,
he doesn't even think about it because he doesn't know the song. He's never listened to that song. He's never sung the song.
He just likes the hymns, and he's just offended by that music. He doesn't like that music.
That's what I want for my son. But the truth is that if you don't teach your kids,
then hopefully they'll turn out right like you turned out right. But quite honestly, in this room,
if you didn't grow up being saved and stolen or stuff like that, you are an exception to the world.
You made it and praise the Lord for that, but honestly, your kids,
you're basically just playing, doing gambling. Just roll the dice and hope it lands on a certain number.
There's a good chance they won't turn out right. But if you teach them the word of God
and keep away the ungodliness from them, they will turn out right. That's what the Bible promises.
And so I want you to see, and our third point is this, not only is it a 24-7 job,
not only should you be teaching your kids, but also you don't take the easy way out as a mom.
Proverbs 31 verse 11, the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil.
When it talks about no need of spoil, it's referring to money. So when it's saying the heart of her husband
doth safely trust in her, it's not saying that you trust her not to commit adultery.
It's saying that you trust her not to basically make you poor. That's what it's saying.
Now obviously, you need to be able to have that trust in your wife that she's not going to cheat on you
and things like that, but what it's saying here in verse number 11 is basically you can trust her
that you don't become poor. Basically, she doesn't waste all the money that you have.
And it says in verse number 12, she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. And that was our verse here for our verse of the week, verse number 13.
Now in today's world, you can go to the store and you can get clothes at a very, very cheap price.
I'm not saying that if you become a mom, you need to seek after wool and flax and make everything from hand.
We have a lot of modern things that are to our benefit. You can buy clothes at a cheap price.
The amount of time you would spend and the amount of money even from the material to make those clothes, it wouldn't really be worth the time.
So I'm not saying you have to do everything from scratch, but you see that with this virtuous woman,
she doesn't just take the easy way out and just say, I'm going to buy them for an expensive price and my husband can just work 10 more hours this week.
No, she actually seeks wool and flax and she's doing it by hand because she's saving her household money.
And so as a wife, find out how you can save the household money.
Don't just say, well, we need to buy this and here it is, so I'll buy it. No, find a cheap price for it.
Now obviously I'm not saying that you just drive all over, you know, Luzon to find the cheapest price for something.
I'm not saying go all the way down to Bicol to find, you know, some hat that's going to save you, you know, 50 pesos.
I'm not saying that. Obviously there's practicality about this.
But what I'm saying is, don't just immediately take the easy way out. Seek to save money, okay?
Now verse number 14, the Bible says, she is like the merchant ships, she bringeth her food from afar, okay?
So when it came to empires or countries or merchant ships, they find food from afar for a cheap price and sell it for a higher price.
Companies do the same thing today. Some companies, they buy something from another company and then they resell it at a higher price.
They're seeking it from a far distance at a cheap price so they can resell it for a higher price.
And what the Bible is saying here is that as moms, you should be seeking to save money.
Even if it means it takes a little bit more work. You say, well, that's a lot of work to do that.
Yeah, but we're talking about the work of a mom. And it said in verse 13, she worketh willingly with her hands.
And in verse 14, she seeks the food from afar. So don't just get at the most convenient place.
Because convenience costs you more money. Turn to Titus 2.
What I found interesting in life, and it's like this here or anywhere you go, I'm sure, is that you can honestly have the exact same product, basically.
Two things that are basically identical. And you know, one store maybe sells things that are kind of considered higher quality or whatever.
Another store has them at lower quality. But two products can basically be the exact same.
But one of them has like the brand name that's popular. And people will just buy the brand name and spend more money on it.
When it's basically the same thing. Like you have a cleaning material. And they both do the same thing. They clean your windows.
Look, I don't need to spend like ten times as much money for a material to clean my windows.
And then people will just go to the place that's a lot more expensive. Like, why would you do that?
It doesn't really make a lot of sense. You should be seeking to save money where you can.
And quite honestly, when you go to the grocery store, in today's world there's like a thousand options for paper towels.
You say, what do you do? You look at the paper towels and you figure out what's the best deal.
Now I understand some have better quality than others. But don't just grab whatever one you can. Actually look at the prices.
Now look, I understand that it takes some time and maybe you have to think about what's the better deal.
But look, you have two things that are basically identical. One's the brand name. The brand name's going to cost you more money.
Pay attention to what you're buying. Try to buy stuff for the better deal. Don't just buy the most expensive one necessarily.
Now I understand in some instances there might be ones that are better than others. I understand that.
But I'm just saying that when you go to the grocery store, there's like a thousand different types of toilet paper.
You don't just have to buy the most expensive one. You can find one that actually has the better deal.
You don't need to live like you're some super rich kid. In this room I don't think any of us are super rich in our lives.
We don't have to live as if we are. Why don't you save your money and be smart with how you spend your money?
That's what it's talking about here in Proverbs 31. Now in Titus 2, notice what it says in verse 3.
The aging women likewise that they be in behavior is become of holiness, not false accusers, not given to much blind,
teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.
Maybe say, brother, my kids are grown up or whatever, but look, even at a church you still have a role because the aging women,
women that are a little bit older, women that are a little bit more experienced, women that have had kids,
have learned a lot along the way and guess what? They can pass that knowledge on to the younger women.
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.
Now obviously you don't give advice if it's not wanted. So if somebody's not asking for your advice,
then you don't have to just go around and say, well, you know what, you should do this with your kids.
That's not appropriate. Let somebody else raise their own kids. But you are going to learn certain,
just basic advice on what to do when your son has a cold, what to do when they're going through teething,
things like that, things that I don't even know the interesting question. What's the best product to get them to help them out?
These are things that you can pass on. And honestly, these are things that in the past people knew these things.
But in today's world when we should be smarter than we ever have been with all the technology and resources, we're not.
And now people aren't passing on this information at the churches to help the younger women out.
Because when you first get married and have kids, there's a lot of things you don't even think about.
And then all of a sudden, look, it comes at like 11 o'clock at night, your son's having trouble breathing or whatever.
It's like, you know, honestly, it's tough to figure out what do I need to do?
Because if you're going through this for the first time, you don't know that.
Now the good thing is in today's world you can just text the other ladies at church or whatever.
Sometimes they can give you the answer. That is a good modern convenience.
What I'm saying is that honestly this information should be passed on from the aged women to the younger women.
I'm preaching a sermon about the work of a mom, but quite honestly the women in this room that are moms know more about this stuff than I do.
I'm showing you what the Bible says, but I'm not actually giving you the practical sense of what to do when your child has this cold or whatever because I don't know.
My wife probably knows that. I don't know that.
And that's why this information should be passed on from the aged women to the younger women.
You first get married and the aged women can teach the young women how to love their husbands, to love their children.
You say, I thought I would just automatically love my husband if I get married to him.
No, you know, honestly you need to learn how to love your husband better when you get married.
Because it's not something that's going to be immediate that you get married and every time he asks you to do something you're like,
No problem, honey. Sure, I'll do whatever you say. You know, the Bible says that I'm supposed to obey.
Whatever you say, I'll just do everything perfectly. It doesn't work that way.
I hate for the next sermon. It doesn't work that way.
Verse number five, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed.
And it says there, keepers at home, which means you take care or you keep the home.
This is something that the aged women pass on to the younger women.
And you have to realize that this is the only place here in Manila you're probably going to hear this sort of preaching or this sort of advice.
Because you leave the walls of this place and you hear that song on the radio, you turn on the TV, you turn on the computer,
they're going to say the exact opposite of what I'm saying.
And that's why this information needs to be passed on because if it's not passed on at church,
and if pastors don't have the guts to actually say what needs to be said because they're worried about fitting people,
then their members are going to make mistakes in life.
We want this information to be passed on so the younger generation can make the right choices,
so my son can grow up and not make the same mistakes that I made in my life.
We want this information to get passed on to the people that are younger here,
so when you get married you won't make some of the mistakes I made when I was married or some other people in this room.
But when you get married you're very prepared.
It doesn't mean it's going to be easy or perfect, but you're more prepared to be a mom.
You're more prepared to be a wife or a husband in these things.
And so this information should be passed on.
What the Bible said was to be a keeper at home.
And so God's perfect plan is for the wife to keep at home.
Turn back to Proverbs 31.
Proverbs 31.
Now obviously there's an ideal situation, but there's also other situations that come up as well.
What if both a husband and a wife work?
Well, if both a husband and a wife work, you as a husband cannot expect your wife to do everything at home by herself.
You say, why? Because she's working another job.
So if both the husband and the wife work, then as the husband you do have to chip in and help out with things.
You do have to chip in with helping out with the kids and things like that.
Quite honestly, as a guy, in your heart you ought to want to help out your wife anyway.
When you get home you shouldn't have this attitude that I'm just going to kick up the chair,
just sit down and do nothing and expect my wife to do all the sweeping and cleaning and stuff like that.
In your heart you should want to help her out and vice versa.
It shouldn't be something where you're just like, I did my job, and then just sit there and not care about your wife.
But if you're both working, then you do have to expect some crossover when it comes to roles that will happen.
Quite honestly, even at this church, there's some things my wife helped me out with, which are part of my job,
but she can do them easier because she's able to communicate better with people and things like that.
Quite honestly, I do help out with stuff at my house.
You could ask my wife that I do help out with changing my son's diaper sometimes and cleaning up and stuff like that.
Why? Because she's helping me out with my job, her stuff at church, and so I do allow some crossover of roles.
I'm not saying it's wrong for a guy to help out his wife, but when it comes to the work of a mom, it's a full-time job.
In the ideal situation, this is the job or the role given to the mom.
It's given to the wife, it's given to the mom.
Now I want you to see, though, in point number four, the last thing is this, that the virtuous woman, she helps her husband, as I just talked about.
As the husband should be willing to help out his wife, and an example of this is, let's say, for example, your wife's stressed out, she's had a tough day.
Look, it's not the end of the world if you just say, honey, I'll do the dishes for you.
Or you go out and buy some food for the family, give her a break every once in a while.
That's a smart thing to do.
From time to time, help her out if she's getting stressed out.
And so the husband should be willing to help out the wife, the wife should be willing to help out the husband with stuff as well in any way she can.
Proverbs 31, verse 16, she considerth a field and bieth it.
With the fruit of her hand, she planteth the vineyard.
So this virtuous woman, she's considering a field, she's considering buying a field, and she ends up buying it.
Now, obviously, most of us, we can't really afford to just buy a field, okay?
So I'm not saying you have to bid this woman perfectly, but what it's showing is that if she has an opportunity to make a very, very, very smart investment on something,
whether it's a small thing or whether it's buying a field, she basically puts thought into it, she considers it, and she ends up buying it.
She doesn't just rush into it, she considers it.
Now, look, when it comes to being married, you ought to actually talk about making purchases.
I'm not saying you get home from work and your wife's like, honey, I bought this field, we're going to build a house and start renting it out.
Well, obviously, that's a little bit foolish. That's ridiculous, okay?
But this woman, though, she actually has the brains to actually think about something like this, and she's helping out with money.
Because obviously, with this woman, she's only helping supplement the income of her husband.
The husband in Proverbs 31 is the one who's making the money and providing for that family, the husband, the father.
But she's able to consider a field and buy a field.
So what she's doing is she's helping out her husband, okay?
At the end of that verse, it says, with the fruit of her hands, she planted a vineyard.
So not only is she just taking care of the house itself, but she's actually going out in the field and she's planting a vineyard, okay?
If you happen to have a house and you have a bit of land or whatever, and the wife's able to go out and just basically plant fruits and vegetables and stuff like that,
that can help save the household money.
And she's able to actually go out and work and do something that would not be considered part of her role.
She's actually helping out her husband. Why?
Because the wife loves the husband and she's willing to help him out.
It's not that she expects him to work all day and just go home and just be outside the field the rest of the day.
She says, hey, this is something that all take care, all take this responsibility to help out the house.
Go down to verse number 24.
She maketh fine linen and selleth it, and delivereth girls unto the merchant.
And so here in verse 24, she's making linen and she sells it, okay?
Look, there's nothing wrong or sinful about a wife for her, okay?
We talk about how the ideal role is for women to stay home and the husbands who work,
but even in today's world, there are ways for women to actually work from their home,
and if they're able to work part-time and provide extra income, that's a good thing.
So I would be very clear with what the Bible says, because if you read Proverbs 31,
it's clearly what it says here about the virtuous woman.
She is actually out there working.
The difference is she's not just working all day long and having the kids in daycare.
She's doing the duties of her house, but she has a little bit of extra time,
so she's doing a little bit more.
Now, if you have eight kids, you probably don't have the time to do some of those things.
It doesn't say how many kids that she has, okay?
This can depend on your situation.
What I'm saying is whatever situation you're in, work hard and find something to do.
If you have five, six, seven, eight kids, probably all of your time is just raising those kids, okay?
But if you're kind of newer to being married and only have one kid, two kids,
depending on what age they are and things like that,
you might be able to provide some extra money at home by working online five, ten hours a week.
That adds up. It could actually help the household.
Don't just have this attitude, hey, it's all my husband's job.
It's not all your husband's job, okay?
When it comes to being married, you become one flesh,
and in any ways that you can help out your husband or any ways your husband can help out, too,
by all means, that's a good thing to do, okay?
Now, drop down to verse number 28.
What's the conclusion of this sermon?
Because this is a pretty generic and basic sermon.
We've all heard sermons on Proverbs 31.
We've all heard sermons about the work of the mom and things like this.
But what's the end conclusion when it comes to if you actually are like this person's mom?
Verse 28, her children arise up and call her blessing.
Her husband also and he prays in her.
When it comes to actually being like this virtuous woman and working really hard,
providing for your family, taking care of the home,
helping out with saving money and things like that,
the result of that is your kids are going to rise up and call you blessing.
And your husband's going to praise you.
When he talks about you, he's just going to brag about how great a wife he has.
He's going to praise you, okay?
Now, when it comes to being a mom, you know what?
You can sit around and do nothing with your time and just be lazy,
but what's going to end up happening is your kids aren't going to call you blessed as much.
See, when a child is growing up, they don't understand how hard their parents are working.
But when I was growing up and my mom was homeschooling me
and always cleaning the house and everything like that,
I didn't really think about that because I'm just like a teen or whatever,
just going outside and playing basketball.
That's what I did with my time, basketball, soccer, football, whatever.
I just went out and just was moving off all the time.
You don't really realize what your mom did.
I can look back at my life and say, man, my parents made some really big sacrifices for me.
And I can be thankful for what they did.
Look, there's going to be nothing more rewarding for a mom
than for her children to praise her and say how great of a mom she was.
There's going to be nothing more rewarding for a mom or a wife
than that her husband will talk about how great of a wife he has and how great of a mom she is.
You say, is it worth spending all this time?
Well, you have a couple of choices.
You can either reach a point in your life where you grow up
and your kids are growing out of the household
and they don't really care about you that much,
or you can put in the time to be a mom and your kids will always be thankful.
And your kids, instead of being in jail, are going to be soberly.
Instead of basically being deadbeats and losers in life,
they're actually going to be hard workers and godly people.
Is it worth the time? I think it is.
As a husband, I think it's worth the time to do everything the Bible says to be a good husband.
So my kids will grow up and say how great of a father that they had.
But that doesn't happen automatically.
Most kids grow up and guess what?
They don't really like their parents that much.
They don't really respect them that much.
Honestly, a large reason why is because of the fact
those parents didn't necessarily do the greatest job raising them.
And if you want your kids to bless you, you're going to have to put in the work.
Verse 30, favor is deceitful and beauty is vain,
but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates.
If you work hard at being a mom, you work hard at being a wife,
you have to understand that not only will your kids and your husband praise you
and talk about how great you are,
it's going to be very evident to everybody else around.
They're going to talk about how hard of a worker you are.
You say, why?
Because your kids are going to grow up and actually be good kids.
That's going to be one reason why.
They're going to be good kids.
They're going to see how hard you are at working.
They're going to see how kind you are and things like that.
If you actually work hard, people are going to praise you
and notice how great of a person you are and how great of a mom you are
and how great of a wife you are.
But look, if you don't put in the time to be a good mom,
it's probably not going to happen.
Let me say this, though, in closing.
When it comes to us in this room,
honestly, I think all of us can look back at our lives
and be thankful for what our moms did do for us,
even if they made mistakes.
Growing up, my parents did a good job raising me.
They were homeschooling me at a time that wasn't very common.
But quite honestly, they didn't know necessarily all the things in the Bible
that they could have learned maybe
because they weren't necessarily learning all these things at a young age.
But honestly, they did the best they could.
Quite honestly, no matter who you are in this room,
I think almost everybody can say that even if my mom made mistakes
and even if she did things that maybe the Bible didn't say,
even if I got vaccinated or whatever,
look, your mom tried to do the best she could.
And you can be thankful for that.
And what you should do today is tell your mom how much you care about her.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing me here in this room today, God,
and for getting to see what the Bible says about being a godly mom.
Let us all be thankful for the moms that we have
and the great sacrifices they made in life to raise this god.
Honestly, none of us were perfect kids,
and so we can't expect our parents to be perfect,
but they did the best we could, God.
Help us all be thankful for that.
Help us all to learn from this sermon.
Help the ladies in this room strive to be that virtuous woman,
whether they're married or unmarried,
whether they have kids or not, God.
Help all of us guys in this room that are married.
They'll be thankful for the wives that we do have
and also for us that are single in this room
to basically be looking for someone who actually fits these characteristics
of other versions of God.