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Right. Amen. Judges chapter number five. So we're kind of going back in time a little bit in our studies. And while we were going through this neighborhood of the Bible, you'll notice that I did skip over this chapter and over dealing with Deborah for this day for this reason. So in judges, chapter five, we've got two examples of mothers and we're going to look at those this morning in the title of the sermon is mother of a nation, mother of a nation. So we're going to look at what made Deborah a mother to an entire nation. And we're going to learn some good principles from that entire story now. So that's mother number one. Obviously look down at verse number 28. Look at what the Bible says here. Okay. It says verse 28, the mother of Sisera looked out at a window and cried through the lattice. Why is his chariot so long and coming? Why Terry the wheels in or of his chariots? Okay. So just a quick refresher of the story and what's going on here. You remember the timeframe in which we're dealing with here. Children of Israel were, um, committing idolatry, going back into sin, worshiping false gods, war began, oppression came and the unique thing about this time in their history is that for the first time, God is not able to raise up a man as a judge right away. And so what happens is there's a ready woman. Her name is Deborah. She becomes a mother to the nation. She inspires a man by the name of Barak. We talked about him a few weeks ago and then eventually, you know, goes with him into the battle, goes with him to the war. Obviously they turned back to God. They are successful in that endeavor. And in the process, the oppressing King, the oppressing general, if you will, Sisera, he is killed by a woman named jail. And we dealt with those gruesome details not too long ago as well. And so we're left here with this verse and this mother, the mother of the enemy of the oppressor, and she is looking for her son and then eventually learns that he will never return home again. Okay. So we want to take a look at these two moms right off the bat, because obviously we all know which one we want to see, which one we want to facilitate. So in this story here, in this time period, we have one woman that arose as a mother. Remember, we're not told about her children. We're just told that she arose in Israel as a mother. We're going to deal with that here in a second. And then you have another one who obviously we're told has a child and grew up and became a leader and his name is Sisera. And he died in battle. He died as a bad guy, obviously a pagan, you know, worships false gods and things of that nature. And so we could say that one was victorious and the other was not glorious. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which one we need to pull principles from. Now, before we start, I want to look at a couple of definitions here. Okay. You type in mother in the dictionary, even today all over the internet and guess what pops up? A female. Okay. So we got that down. Okay. Only females can become mothers. Okay. But if you break down the definition, it looks like this. Okay. The first part of it is noun. Okay. What's the noun definition of a mother? Well, it's a woman in relation to her child or children. Okay. Well, what about the verb? Okay. Underneath that it says verb. It says to bring up a child or children with care and affection. Okay. I don't know about you, but I would look at anybody who's adopted children that brings them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I would never look at them. Oh, you're not a real mom because you didn't give physical birth. Okay. And I think that's what this story is teaching. We don't know much about Deborah's family. We only know that she had an husband named Lapidoth and he was just kind of there chilling. It's just kind of how the Bible leaves it. We're not told about children of any sorts, whether she had them or not. You know, it is what it is, but the point is, is how she mothered a nation. And so that brings a question. Are you moms, are you a mother by noun or by verb? Okay. Are you a mother by noun or by verb? And so we're going to say this, that being a mother is about what you do, not just about what you are or what you became. Okay. So we're going to keep that for the rest of the message here. Now you're in Judges chapter five. Let's back up to verse number seven. So the Bible says this in verse number seven, it says, the inhabitants of the villages ceased. They ceased in Israel until that I, Deborah arose that I arose a mother in Israel. Now remember all of the features about Deborah. Okay. The Bible says she was a judge. She judged the nation. She was a prophetess. She, she preached the word of God, not in sermon style, obviously. Okay. But she did judge the nation. She did put forth the word of God. Why? Because there was no man available to step up into that position. Okay. And notice here in this verse how she describes herself. She describes herself as a mother. She's not all proud and boastful. Like I'm a powerful, you know, big time woman here, you know, I'm just really killing it. And like the women that we have today, no, she says that I arose a mother in Israel. It's the narrator that tells us, Oh, she judged Israel. She prophesied the word of God. She motivated Barak to get off his butt and go into war. We're told these things by the narrator of the Bible. And so what are we left with here? Well, we're left with a woman who describes herself as a mother. She sees herself in that capacity. That's what she is. Why? Because she's doing the things of a mother. Okay. And so we have right off the bat, we have a nation that is at war, not just any kind of war. They have war in their own gates, which was something that was never supposed to be. Okay. We have a situation where people can't use the highways. They're having to sneak around, use byways, use alternate methods of travel. The villages are emptying out. People are afraid to be in their own homes because of the invader. Sound familiar? It's kind of where we're at today. Weapons are gone and men are weak. That is where she finds herself. And instead of looking at those situations as an excuse to fail, what does she do? She arose as a mother. She cares about the nation and she says, somebody needs to put a stop to this, but she doesn't do it by trying to step in the role of a man. In fact, you see the exact opposite with Deborah, right? She tells Barak like, Hey, didn't God tell you to go to war? Didn't he tell you to deliver the nation? He's like, yeah, he did, but I won't go unless you go with me. Okay. She didn't want to go. She wants to be a mom. She wants to be a woman. She wants to be feminine. That's how she wants to live her life and operate. However, the men of her day don't want that. They're weak and they need some prodding. And so that's what we're left with here. Now, the key phrase or the key word here in this verse is right after the second comma in that verse, look at what it says. So she says, you know, the village is ceased. They ceased in Israel. Now look at this word until, until I Deborah arose that I arose a mother. So these things would have continued on. Had she not stepped up to the occasions, everybody see that villages, emptying out, main routes of travel are compromised. So what does she do to put a stop to it? Well, you turn to Titus chapter number two. And the first point this morning is this, a good mother provides stability in times of chaos. Okay. The nation is in chaos. They are under oppression. There's no man. There are no men that can rise up by themselves and say, thus saith Lord. Okay. She takes it upon herself to rise up and to put a stop to this. Okay. She's singing this song and she's mentioning the conditions of her day. And she's like, people are afraid to live in their own homes or having to camp out over here, sneak around over here, hide foods because they don't have any weapons. This is chaotic. This is utter terrorism. I mean, being played out before eyes here. Okay. So what is the first thing that we can see that she does? Well, what does a good mother do? A good mother will seek to provide stability. That's what she does. She doesn't say, well, I'm going to start doing pushups with weights, take Anavar and just get real buff. And I'm going to get all my women and make a female army. And we're going to do great things because we don't need men. Hey, now that's not what she does. Okay. She becomes an exceptional mother and helps to deliver the nation from oppression. Okay. And so just let's, let's just look at this. What does the Bible say for moms, for mothers that they need to do in order to be a good mother in order to avoid blaspheming the word of God, because what you have to understand in judges chapter four and in judges chapter five, nowhere in the Bible does it say that Deborah blasphemed God by judging, by doing these things. Okay. They were just left with this as their only option. Okay. So let's take a look at this here. Look down at verse number one. Titus chapter two, verse number one, Paul speaking to Titus here, and he says this, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. So he's exhorting the young pastor here. He's exhorting Titus to learn the word of God and to have a mindset in which he can look out into society and say, Hey, that's not good. That's not biblical. Okay. And preach sound doctrine. Verse two, real quickly, let the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound and faith, and charity and patience. Now look at this here in verse number three, the aged women, likewise. Okay. Pay attention to this phrase here. The aged women, likewise. That is who we're talking about now. The aged women, likewise. Look at that. Look at that. After the comma there that they be in behavior as become of holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine teachers of good things. This is not a contradiction in the Bible. Paul said, I suffer not a woman to teach the context was being a preacher being behind a pulpit, leading a church that is unbiblical. I don't have time to expound beyond that, but the admonition here, the exhortation from the apostle Paul to Titus was to teach sound doctrine, teach the word of God to the men so that they could behave in a certain way, a godly way, so that it frees up the aged women to take on additional responsibility. And what is that responsibility was to make sure that they have behavior, which is holy, that they're not falsely accusing people of things that they did not do or do not believe that they're not given to much wine and teachers of good things. So what would those good things be? Well, they would be life lessons, husband lessons, child lessons, family lessons, in-law lessons and lessons from past mistakes. That's what those things would be. Why is this in the Bible? This is in the Bible because young moms are not automatically gifted this. That's why, that's why Paul said, Hey, this is a good thing. This is how it should be because aged mothers, mothers who are older, who have already been there and done that, have a lot to teach the younger generation. Okay? You don't know everything and therefore you want to listen to the aged women and you have to understand what he says next here. Look at verse four. He says that they may teach. Now, who's the they there? Who is it? It's the aged women. You following me? That the aged women, okay, look what it says, verse four, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. See, a lot of times people think that they're doing these things. Oh, I don't drink alcohol, so I'm sober. Are you puffed up with pride? Then you're not sober. It's as simple as that. Okay. Oh, I love my children because I give them hugs and kisses. Well, that's cute. That's great. Do you understand what the Bible says about providing correction, providing stability? Do you know what that looks like? Do you know how to execute that? These are things that we have to learn and they're only going to come from the word of God and they're going to come from people who have lived these things and made mistakes along the way. They can say, Hey, this is what I tried back in the day and it worked. This is what I tried back in the day and I failed, right? The proof is in the pudding. Look at verse five, to be discreet, chaste keepers at home. Now, are you going to come to me to really learn how to be a good keeper at home? I can give you the basics, but I'm gone at work all day. There's a whole lot missing in that category. Who's going to be the better teacher? Who's going to be able to give you those valuable jewels on keeping a home? It's going to come from the person who's done it. It's going to come from the godly, aged woman who's actually lived it. That is going to be the best thing for you to listen to as a mother. Okay, look at verse number five, to be discreet, chaste keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, not obedient to somebody else's jerk husband, okay? To their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed, okay? So, oh, I'm a Christian and I just always critical, my husband always critical this, you know, always just running off the mouth, being super loud, being disrespectful, okay? When women live like that, and that's how they are, they are blaspheming the word of God, okay? And that's not good. Go back to Judges chapter number five. And so to apply this, what we see from scripture, it's very clear, okay? A good mother seeks to provide stability in the home. A good mother seeks to provide stability, honestly, wherever she's at. And the aged women have a responsibility within the church. And that is to teach how to provide that stability. And so the process looks like this. If you're a younger woman, okay, you want to seek the best way to provide that stability in your home. And when you have that mindset that says, I want to learn, I want to grow. I really don't know at all, okay? Then guess what happens? That humility is there. And you are right to be able to receive information, to receive the word of God, to be able to execute the plan that good mothers do like Deborah did and provide that stability and say, there's all this chaos going on and it needs to stop. Somebody needs to put an end to it. So the younger woman is going to seek to provide that and then learn how to provide it and actually do it, actually provide it. And through that process, you will have learned so much that later on in life, guess what? You can go to step number three. Then it's your turn to teach those things to the younger woman, to the ones that are coming behind you. Okay? So the young women, we want to see you seek this information, provide it, and then someday be able to teach it to other women. You know, there's a story in the Bible, right after the book of Judges, about a woman named Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite-ish woman. Now, her mother-in-law was a woman by the name of Naomi. And during one of the cycles of the judges, they found themselves in famine. You know what happened after that? Well, Naomi and her husband, Olimelek, said, you know, we're going to go ahead and we're going to bounce. We're going to go and leave. We're going to go to the land of the Moabites or whatever, and just kind of get our food over there. The economy is better, seems, you know, more stable. We're going to go over there. Well, guess what happens to Olimelek? He dies. Well, Naomi's like, well, at least I still got my sons and their wives. I still got my son, Mylion and Kylion, and all things are well. Well, guess what happens to them? They die as well. So then she's left with two daughters-in-law, and of course, she's in distress. She's heartbroken. So what does she do? She says, well, both of you just go back to your land and just kind of do your own thing. I'm going to go back to my land because I've heard that the Lord has provided stability. The Lord has rescued my people. He's provided bread. And so she says, I'm going to go back. One of her daughters-in-law leaves, and Ruth says, no, your God's going to be my God and your ways are going to be my ways. Well, in the process of time, they wind up going back to the nation of Israel and Ruth meets a man by the name of Boaz. Boaz rewards her. And in that process, Naomi, being an aged woman, is able to recognize what's going on between Boaz and Ruth. And so she is able to teach her how to basically facilitate this relationship between her and Boaz. And they wind up getting married, having children. And then Naomi is a blessed, aged woman, and she's able to continue to coach Ruth and how to be that godly woman coming from, obviously, an ungodly nation. So I'm just saying that that is what we see right off the bat in this story. Deborah is aware of her surroundings, the nation's in peril. They don't have weapons. The men are weak. People are fleeing their homes. They've got nowhere to go. And she's like, this has to stop. So what does she do? Well, instead of just, you know, flexing her biceps, she says, OK, guess what? I'm going to basically implore my motherly instincts and I'm going to seek to provide stability. And her thought process is probably like this. Once I get stability and the men calm down, then maybe we can actually get them to do what they're supposed to do. OK, but at no point in time is she like, oh, no, no, no, I need I need to just be a man. OK, you don't see that whatsoever. So let's move on here. OK, look at Judges chapter number five now and look at verse number eight. So the Bible says this. They chose new gods. Then was war in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel? So pay attention to this, OK? They choose new gods. What's the next thing that happens? War in the gates. They choose new gods. Boom. War inside the gates. War in their home land. OK, so why bring this up here in the song? What is the point of Deborah saying this and reminding the nation of Israel that there was war in the gates after they chose new gods? Why do you think that is? We already saw that she provided stability. OK, so what does she do next? Well, she does what any good mother does, and she stops bad behavior. A good mother is going to seek to stop bad behavior. OK, now we're going to go through several Proverbs here. So keep your place in judges, but go to Proverbs chapter number one. Proverbs chapter number one, look down at verse number eight. So the Bible says right here, it says, My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. Forsake not the law of thy mother. Now go to Proverbs chapter six, and I'll show you something very interesting here. Proverbs chapter number six, look at verse number 20. And look at what this says, My son, keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother. What's that mean? Why is that in there twice? OK, I think the Bible is trying to tell us here that moms need to make sure that they are laying down the law. And so the question is, do you have law in your home? Do you seek to stop bad behavior? Because that is the next thing that Deborah does in the process of her judging the nation. Go to Proverbs chapter number 29. So remember, the whole point of laying down the law, so to speak, is so that when the kids deviate from that, OK, when those you're trying to mother deviate from that, you get them back on track. You get them back on track with the law and the word of God. Now, here's the value in doing that. Here's what you reap for what you sow. Proverbs chapter 29, look at verse 15. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. I'm a testimony of that. OK, I was an 80s kid. My mom and dad were just like, eh, you know, my dad were nice. My mom was just like, I don't know, just do whatever. OK, no problem, OK. And there were several times where I brought my own mom to shame. You know, I realized I could throw rocks pretty well as a kid. Well, it's pretty good here. It's pretty fun. I realized I like playing in the woods and camouflaging and hiding from people chasing me. And so that's what I sought to do, OK. So I'm telling you, this is true. The whole point here, the rod and reproof give wisdom. And you say, well, no, I think I like the world's philosophy of just gentle parenting. Well, we don't really say no. Well, good. Look at this verse again. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. That is what you can expect to reap should you not provide that. Again, the key word in Judges chapter 5, verse 7 is all these bad things are happening until, until, until someone decided enough is enough, I'm going to put a stop to this. And what happened? It completely turned the trajectory of the nation and brought them out of oppression. Now, go back a few chapters to Proverbs, chapter number 22. And look what it says here in verse number 15. Now, I know in our type of churches, you always hear correction. You go to any type of church like this, and there's always some point throughout the day or the service while we're here, where you hear correction taking place in various parts of the building. And so that's a great thing. But you got to understand, that's rare. You know, that's rare today, which is why we're in the situation that we're in. Because many parents have decided, I'm not going to play with this. I don't want to correct. I want to just love them. And that love is just going to be enough to actually bring wisdom. But that's not what the Bible says. Look what it says here in verse 15. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. This is a fact. This, look, you don't need science. You don't need anything. You know this. You take a baby who's just learning to walk or even before then, before they can even speak. OK. What do you learn from that? Well, you don't have to teach them to do bad things, do you? Because they figure that out themselves. It's already inside of them. OK. We have to be the ones that correct it, though. Look, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. OK. And I would say this, you know, because I've seen people, I've been doing this for a long time. I've seen people where they're like, man, you know, and they're not lying. Like, man, I beat those kids, you know, senseless. I spank them all the time for everything. Now that they're like in their teens, they're misbehaving, they're doing all kinds of crazy stuff, things I would never have even imagined. OK. And when I see that, and I've been seeing that, I step back and I think, man, well, what would happen? Then you read these a little more carefully. OK. The rod of correction is not just saying that the only method of punishment for infractions has to be hitting. OK. When they get to a certain place in life, do we ever stop and explain to them why what they did is wrong and where that's going to lead them? Do we sit down and have those conversations with them? Do we actually explain that behavior and why it's wrong? Do we show them from the Bible? Do we show them examples? Do we tell them stories? Do we take the time to actually connect with them and say, hey, we care about you and we don't want to see you go down this way? OK. And furthermore, do you provide the stability and the consistency needed to actually facilitate that correction? Or is it just, you know, in front of other people when you decide? OK, that's an error. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. So it looks like this. No rod. Foolishness persists. If we fail to drive that foolishness from our children, then they will grow up to be fools. And fools make foolish choices. Go to Proverbs chapter 23. And let's take a look at this. So why are you turning to Proverbs 23? I'm just going to read for you Proverbs 13, 24, which says, He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth betimes. OK. And so the Bible's telling us that we want to start this process early on. OK, you don't want to wait because the longer you wait, the harder it becomes. It's not impossible, but it's much harder. It is much more difficult if you wait. So we want to start this process early. And again, here is why. OK, so remember, Proverbs 22, 15, no rod, no correction, OK, no instruction, no anything like that. The result is foolishness. That is what the result is. Now, here's what that looks like or could look like. Proverbs 23, look at verse number 13. Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Why is that in the Bible? Well, because, you know, when they're, you know, crying and they're upset, you know, I'm sure, especially as a mom, that gets to your heartstrings. OK. And God's reassuring you, like, I'm not going to die. You know, he's not talking about fist fighting. I'm hitting him over the head with a club. Right. You know, that's what he's talking about. Talking about a little pain, a little spanking or maybe raising the voice. You know, I was a big one with that. You know, I didn't raise my voice. This is going to stop like right now, like intense. You better, you know, otherwise this is what's going to happen. You know, once you do that for them, be times early on, they grow up realizing, oh, I'm not messing with mom. I'm not messing with dad because this is just going to hurt. And it works out better, more beneficial for you later on. But look at verse 14. Thou shall beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from. What is that last word? Hell. This is where the phrase beating the hell out of somebody comes from. It comes from the Bible. You're literally beating the hell out of me. And not like, you know, it sounds bad when you, when you say it like that. But I'm just being a little facetious this morning. But the point is, again, Proverbs 23 is backing up Proverbs chapter 22, which is backing up Proverbs chapter number 13. No correction equals a foolish child. Okay. No correction equals that foolish child growing up. Why? Because foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. And if it's not extracted, if it is not taken away from them, you can expect that child to grow up and to make foolish decisions and foolish choices. And what is the ultimate foolish choice? Unfortunately, it is to not choose God. It is to do what the nation of Israel did and to choose false gods and to bring an oppression. And so the more we withhold correction from the child, the greater chance they have of dying and going to hell later on in life. Otherwise, this would not be in there. And remember, hell is packed with people that are undisciplined and have this just gimme, gimme, gimme type attitude. Okay. And of course, our government loves to facilitate that as well. Go to Judges chapter number four. And let's take a look at the mother of the nation here, Deborah. How did she administer this correction? Did she line people up and beat them with sticks? Spank them with paddles? Of course not. Okay. But look at verse number four. The Bible says this, and Deborah, keep in mind who is writing this. This is the narrator. This is the Holy Ghost telling you this. Okay. And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth. Okay. I think that the Bible is saying, like, this is how it was. Okay. This is just how it had to be. It would be better, obviously, if Lapidoth was the judge. If Lapidoth was the prophet, but that's not what it is. And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. Verse five. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Rama and Bethel and Mount Ephraim. The children of Israel came up to her for judgment. You know, and it's another thing, you know, kids, obviously, when they grow up, they have free will. They have the ability, you know, because there are people that do things right. Your kids grow up and they're just like, I don't want nothing to do with that. Well, if you did what you're supposed to do, you know, I wouldn't worry about it. But here we have the children of Israel. They respect her now. So they come up to her for judgment. Verse six. Look at this. And she sinned and called Barak, the son of Abinoham, out of Kadesh, Naftali, and Sadatam, hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, sang, go and draw toward Mount Tabor and take with thee 10,000 men of the children of Naftali and of the children of Zebulun. What is she doing here to this man, this warrior, this man who's listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews? She's correcting him. She's saying, why in the world have you not gotten off of your backside and actually done what God called you to do? What is your problem? And he's like, well, yep, I'll go if you go. She's not, she doesn't belittle him, right? She's not like, you're weak. That's what we're saying. She's not like, you're weak. You're pathetic. She's like, OK. However, these consequences are going to follow. Yes, God will deliver the nation, but it's going to be in the hands of a woman. And you're going to have to live with that for the rest of your life. And you're going to have to be OK with that. And he was OK with that. And, you know, thank God they were delivered. They turned back to God. We get that. OK, now go back to Judges chapter number five. And so we want to say this, you know, obviously a good mother is going to stop bad behavior. And so it's like this. You know, we want to decide, what do you want? OK, decide what you want now. Do you want tears of correction now and early or do you want fears of correctional facilities later on in life? OK, and obviously the ultimate correction facility, the one that lasts for eternity, the one that Proverbs chapter 23 talks about, that's the one that we're the most concerned about. That's the one that we don't want. OK, the way that we protect from that happening, the way that we stop that from happening is by correction. OK, remember, correction is not just physically beating the kids. OK, you can do that all day long. That's what the military does to people. OK, and it doesn't always stop bad behavior. OK, you have to explain to them. You have to teach them. And obviously, if they don't speak English, you know, it's a little bit different. But later on, OK, later on, that's what we want to do. Now, let's move on here. Look down at verse number nine. And we're just about done. We're just about done here. I just wanted to mention this here. Look at verse nine. She says this. My heart is toward the governors of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the Lord. Why would her heart be towards the governors of Israel? Well, obviously, because they sacrifice themselves. But more importantly, and what I want to focus on here, is that no mother wants to go at this alone. No mother wants to be like, yeah, I don't need a man. OK, I can do this all by myself. I'm strong. I'm independent. That might be true. OK, but in the end, you're going to crash and burn if you don't do things God's way. OK, so again, point number three is no mother wants to go at it alone. But she did. And she did not let the weakness of men be an excuse for failure. OK, so this, I don't know who needs to hear this, but any woman out there that finds herself in a motherly capacity, that is a mom, that is a mother by verb, and not just by default only, but by verb, that you do this. There are people that you are taking care of. OK, when you find yourself with no support from the male side. Yes, that sucks. You have an avenue to God that you can ask for help in that situation. OK, there's always that male figure there. The Bible says that the Lord is a man of war. OK, so you do have that support. But however, I want you to understand, you would be better off strengthening and building yourself up as that exceptional mother, rather than thinking that you have to step over and take on the qualities and so-called attributes of a man. Because that is what will pull you down. That is what will destroy you eventually. But if you stay in your own lane like Deborah did, what do we see? What's the result? Who's singing the song here and who's mourning for her son? OK, I think we all see that. We all understand the answer to that. So go back one more verse and we're done. Go back to Judges chapter number four. One more time. We already read this verse, but I just want to read it one more time. And of course, Father's Day will kind of leave off or I'm sorry, Father's Day sermon will start where this left off here with point number three, that no mom, no mother wants to go out this alone. But obviously we see that Deborah did. Hey, and she held her own. And here it is one more time just to prove that point. And Deborah, keep in mind, this is the narrator telling you this. And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. So what are we, what are we talking about here? How does she judge Israel? By using the words that they had at that time. My saying, you know, by having people come up to her, not belittling them, but chasing them, you know, chasing takes on many forms. It's not, again, it's not just the rod of Craig, not just beating, okay? You know, obviously, when the kids are older, you know, it doesn't necessarily work. There are some kids that you could spank them. They're just like, I got a friend in another church and, you know, when his son was younger, he's doing some goofy stuff. And he just like really turned his ear real hard, you know, just to let him know that what he did was dumb. And he just goes, and he looks at me, he goes, you see, brother, and nothing affects him. He's going to go to hell. You know, just something like that. He's just joking around, right? But he's like, you can't hurt this kid. I'm like, that's a tough situation. We're going to have to have lots of long talks with this little kid, you know, when he gets old. Of course, he's fine now. But, you know, it was just super funny, super funny. But anyways, going back to the point, no mother wants to go at it alone. Deborah did, okay? But she did it the right way. She did it by basically, obviously, I believe, just taking the word of God that she had. And I believe that God gave her wisdom. And she said, you know what, I'm just going to excel at being a mother, okay? I'm just going to, this is where I'm at. I'm just going to do the best possible job that I can do and pray and hope that a man will rise up and operate in his capacity so that it can make my job easier. And I can just go back and do the things that I was called to do as a wife and possibly a mother as well. Okay, so we're done right here. Just a quick review. So the first point that we talked about this morning is a good mother seeks to provide stability. That's what Deborah did. Remember, the verse says until, so all of these things are happening, until she arose as a mother, until she said, you know what, enough is enough. I need to stop this. And how does she stop that? She provides stability. She said, okay, I'm going to dwell right here, that under that palm tree at Rama between Rama and Bethel. What is that picture? That picture stability. She's always there ready to go to provide stability, to provide correction, to provide admonition for her children. Which happened to be the children of Israel, okay? And we said this, remember, a good mother is going to learn from that example and they're going to seek to provide stability. They're going to listen to the aged women. And then what are they going to do? They're going to execute that. They're going to live that out. And then they are in turn going to pay back the favor and provide stability to those that come after them. And the second thing that we saw is this, okay? We saw in verse eight that the children of Israel worshiped false gods. Then there was war in the gates. What did Deborah do? She put a stop to that. And so we said a good mother is going to seek to stop bad behavior. We looked at a whole host of proverbs that tell us if we fail to drive the rod of correction, it's not just mom, it's also dads, it's everybody. And if we fail to extract that correction from the foolishness that is bound in the heart of a child, that child will just grow up to be a foolish adult. And foolish adults make foolish decisions. And so we said we can decide right here, right now, are we going to have tears of correction now, be times early, or are we going to have fears of correctional facilities later on in life? And number three, no mother wants to go at this alone. Deborah didn't want to go at this alone, but she had to. And the way that she did it and the way that she was successful is she said, I'm just going to arise a mother. I'm going to be the best mother that I can be in hopes that the men will rise up and do what they are supposed to do. She did not use the weakness of men as an excuse to fail. And so, again, this does really apply to everybody, whether you've birthed children or not, because being a mother is about what you do, not just about who you are. You say, well, how can you say that? Well, there's lots of bad mothers. There's lots of examples of bad mothers in the Bible. There's examples of mothers in the Bible, boiling and eating their own children. I don't care how hungry any mom is here. I don't think any mom that I know here that saved would ever do that. But there's mothers that have done it and far worse than that. So being a good mother is about what you do, not just about who you are. So let's stop right there and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for all the mothers that you have given us in our church. Just pray you bless their day, Lord. And you bless our fellowship, soul winning, everything we have going on today and bring us back again safely tonight. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.