The Indispensable Mother

There is a reason why we celebrate a national holiday called Mother's Day.

Indeed, there's a reason why many, I think probably the majority of the nations around the world, likewise have their own particular celebration of Mother's Day on different days of the calendar. And the reason for this is not to bring sadness to women who desire to be mothers, but who for various reasons are denied that privilege. Nor is it to exalt motherhood as the only purpose for women, for that is emphatically not true.

But rather, it is to honor the unique and significant contribution that mothers make in this world. Obviously, we cannot all be mothers. Men will never be mothers despite the insanity of modern wokeism. Nor will all women become wives, for it is not God's intention that all of them be. Nor will all wives become mothers again by God's providential design.

But this much is undeniably true. Everyone within the sound of my voice is here today because you had a mother who gave you birth and nurtured you in early life. And so today we desire to honor the mothers among us, but also the mothers represented here today by your presence, the offspring of many, many, many other mothers. We desire to commend and encourage those who are mothers and to honor and celebrate all the mothers who, from a human standpoint, are responsible for the existence and, in most cases, the well-being of every single person who is gathered here today. God gave each of us a mother. And we desire to acknowledge and honor God's infinite wisdom in designing motherhood and to reflect upon the glories of that noble and exalted role in human society.

And in honoring mothers, we desire to more greatly honor the God who designed the human family and who gave mothers an exalted role in our well-being. Today we're going to begin by looking at the portion of scripture I read earlier in the first chapter of Proverbs as we consider the purpose of these proverbs. First of all, what is a proverb?

And the shortest definition that I found was a proverb is a brief popular saying, a brief popular saying. And there are a lot of proverbs. We've all grown up with proverbs. I don't know what proverbs you remember from your childhood, but a lot of a lot of proverbs I heard come back to mind from time to time. A stitch in time saves nine.

Did you ever hear that one? There's a lot of truth, a lot of wisdom in that little proverb and many others as well. But the ones that we are concerned about today are these proverbs, that is the inspired ones, the ones that are included in the canon of scripture, the 66 books of the Bible, all inspired by the Holy Spirit of God who used different men to write these words, but guarded and guided what was written so that what we have is both at the same time the words of men, but also the word of the living God. And these proverbs of Solomon, therefore, are not only the wisdom of Solomon, and he was an unusually wise man for God gave him wisdom, but they are the wisdom of Almighty God that are given to us for our well-being. And what are the purpose of these proverbs?

And we find the answer to that question in the verses that we read that opened the book of Proverbs. The purpose of these proverbs is, number one, to impart wisdom. Verse two and three, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity.

To impart wisdom. Wisdom is the skillful use of knowledge. It is possible to have knowledge and yet not to know how to use it wisely.

There are a lot of well-educated fools in this world because knowledge they have more than the average amount of most people, but wisdom they have little of and they don't know how to apply the knowledge which they have acquired in a profitable way. But wisdom is the skillful use of knowledge. And these proverbs are given to us not only to impart knowledge, and they are given for that reason, but also to guide us into wisdom, the proper, the beneficial, the right use of the knowledge which we are able to inquire. So first of all, in order to have something to apply to life, to have anything that we can wisely use, we have to first acquire knowledge. And one of the purposes of the proverbs is to instruct in knowledge, to teach words of knowledge, words of wisdom. And it is therefore to give us information that we can use in life, but more than that, information that can be guided wisely into proper application throughout life. And so the first purpose of these proverbs is to impart wisdom by equipping us with instruction, by enabling us to understand. It's one thing to impart facts. It's another thing to be able to understand them and to absorb them into our useful knowledge.

But it is also important that we learn wisely how to use this information. And if we do, the result is found in verse three, when the last part of the verse to receive the instruction of wisdom, and then these three words, justice, judgment, and equity. It seems like I hear a lot of voices in our world today that are saying we want justice.

We want sound judgment. We desire equity. There's a lot of injustice in this world, isn't there?

Indeed there is. There's a lot of inequity in this world, and indeed that is true. There's a lot of unsound judgment that we witness day by day, and all of that is very true. And we who know the Lord and know his word know the reason for that. It is because men and women come into this world not as righteous beings, but as sinful beings. And that sinfulness touches every part of our life, including our minds, our thinking, our ability to understand knowledge and to apply it properly. And for other reasons, because of selfishness, because of pride, because of covetousness, because of hatred, we have plenty of inequity, plenty of injustice, plenty of wrong judgments in this world.

But the Bible tells us that if we will learn to apply God's word to life, we can achieve, even in this broken world, a much greater measure of justice and right judgment and equity. A lot of people crying for that. A lot of people demanding that.

Some people even setting up encampments as, for example, on college campuses or other places and demanding equity. And yet it seems very few know where to find it. Very few understand what that's about. Very few know the judgments that are necessary to bring about true equity. But this book will give us that.

Amazing. We've had it for hundreds of years. It provides the answers that we say we want. And yet there's something in the sinful heart of man that rejects the truth and righteousness of God and prefers to believe a lie than to believe the truth. But if we will listen to and apply ourselves to the word of God and for our purposes today to the Proverbs, then we will know how to bring justice and right judgment and equity to this broken world.

That's a noble goal, but it's an elusive accomplishment that is to bring justice and judgment and equity. But to impart wisdom is the purpose of these Proverbs. Secondly, to train a rising generation.

Notice verse four. To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. To train a rising generation, the word simple, in some translations it's translated naive, means those who have limited knowledge and experience. We don't start out with a lot of knowledge.

We certainly can't start out with a lot of experience. We have to live life to experience life. And so these Proverbs are directed particularly to those who are young, who are inexperienced, who still need to gain a great deal of knowledge and a great measure of experience and hopefully a good supply of wisdom in order to know how to apply all of these things to life. It is given, as we are told also in this verse, to young men. Again, pointing to the younger generation, to children, to young people.

Some translations, instead of saying young men, say youths, plural, including young women as well. So these Proverbs are given to train a rising generation. The generation that is coming up after us is the generation that needs to be taught the wisdom of God. These Proverbs are given, number three, to prevent retrogression. Verse five says a wise man will hear and increase learning and the man of understanding will attain wise counsel to understand the proverb and the enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. Now this instruction is directed not to the naive, not to the simple, not to young men, not to children, but to the older, to those who are wise.

And it tells us that people who are truly wise know that they need continual instruction. You don't reach a place in life where you say, now I've got it. I've got all the knowledge. I've got all the instruction. I've got all the wisdom I need.

I've got it. Let me give it to you, but I don't need any more. That's a demonstration that you do need more wisdom. You haven't learned how much you need yet, how deceived you are. But wise men and women recognize their need for continual instruction throughout life and they desire to be taught. A wise man, we're told in verse five, will hear and increase learning. A man of understanding will attain wise counsel. So the wise know that they need continual instruction throughout life. The wise desire to be taught all throughout life. The wise know the source of profitable instruction.

It is indeed the word of God, because if you come to the place where you say, I don't need that anymore, you don't stand still. You start to regress in wisdom, in knowledge, in understanding. You're either growing in wisdom or you are declining in wisdom. And so a third purpose for these proverbs is to prevent decline, to prevent retrogression for those who have already attained a measure of wisdom and knowledge. And then number four, the purpose for these problems is to establish a solid foundation for all of the above to take place.

And what is that? Verse seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. What's the solid foundation that must be in place if true wisdom, if correct knowledge, if profitable instruction is going to be in our lives?

We must begin with God as the source. We must acknowledge that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We must acknowledge that we must have a right relationship with our creator or we cannot understand truth or right. We cannot understand God's word or right because all true wisdom, all true knowledge comes from God, the source of truth. And those who fear God benefit from this supreme source of wisdom.

I hope you're one of those continuing to benefit and benefit and benefit and benefit from the source of truth, which is God himself and the deposit of truth which he's given us in his word called the Bible. But those who ignore God forfeit supreme wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction because fools are those who live as if there is no God. So that, dear friends, is the purpose of these Proverbs. Now, what is the foundation of this process, this process of teaching God's word, of understanding God's word, of applying God's word, of getting God's wisdom into our hearts and into our communities, into our country, into our world?

What is the foundation of this process? And we learn what the foundation of it is in verse eight. My son, hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law of your mother. All of these verses about instruction, all of these verses about acquiring wisdom, all of these verses about getting God's word into our minds and into our hearts. And then we are told, and this instruction that true wisdom comes from God, and then this verse that tells us where this instruction begins and what is the foundation of this instruction, the God-designed foundation in the lives of young men and women who need this truth. The foundation is the home, the family, as God has designed it. What is sometimes called in this modern world the nuclear family, meaning by that, father, mother, children. The central family, the smallest family unit, we call a lot of things family today, and it's not erroneous to talk about the church family, to talk about other groups as being family. There's some truth, some reality, some application of that to our lives, but this text is obviously talking about the home where there is a father instructing children and there is a mother who is instructing children.

That, we learn, is the foundation of this process of teaching people the word of God, the knowledge that they must have, the wisdom which comes from God. Which explains why this unit called the family is under such attack today in our society. I never thought it would go to where it is today.

I mean, really, that was beyond my comprehension not too many years ago. It's been clear all along that the family is under attack, but the extent to which that is true, the various directions that that is coming from, the greatness of the perversions that we are seeing in our world today in order to tear apart the family is unbelievable unless you understand where it's coming from. It's coming against the home because of its central role in an orderly society as designed by God.

Our adversary knows that. He knows what God has designed as the central unit of society and of the foundation for this instruction which is necessary. He knows that it is the home and therefore he is attacking the home with all of his might because the home is designed by God for the benefit of mankind, for the benefit of us individually and for the benefit of society as a whole. And therefore, because God has designed the home as the foundation of this process for instilling truth in the lives of people, then the home is being torn apart on every hand. Lies are being told to people about the home to cause them to think erroneously about what God has designed. And the goal is to eliminate the nuclear family from society, to eliminate the roles of mothers and fathers in the lives of their children, to turn the instruction of children over to someone else besides their parents, and to terrace under the bond between husband and wife and father and mother and the unit in the home that God has designed for the good of society.

The home. This text talks to us first of all about the role of fathers and secondly about the role of mothers. My son, hear the instruction of your father, we are told in verse 8. What is the role of the father? To instruct his children according to this text. Is it the father's role to provide financially for his family?

Yes, indeed it is. We learned that elsewhere in God's word. Is it the role of the father to protect his family from harm and danger to the extent of his ability to do so? And the answer again is yes, that is certainly an important role of the father. But evidently the most important role of the father is to teach his children the word of God, the instruction, the knowledge, the wisdom that this chapter is talking about.

He is to teach that to his children by example and by precept, by setting a proper example before them and by opening his mouth in wisdom, instruction, in knowledge in his home. That's the role of fathers. But we are also given the role of mothers. My son, hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law of your mother.

Sounds a lot of light, doesn't it? Different words to give it a little bit of poetic interest, but it's basically saying the same thing. What's the primary role of fathers? To instruct your children. What's the primary role of mothers?

To instruct your children. Teaching children must be very, very, very important if we believe the Bible. And so as teaching his children is the most important role of the father among many other important roles, so the teaching of her children is the most important role of the mother among many other important roles. We can't really dismiss the importance of childbearing. Nobody would be here if the mother did not, by the design of God, carry that child in her womb and bring that child to birth in this world.

That is vitally important. The whole future of mankind depends upon that function of the mother being carried out. But beyond childbearing, beyond physical nurturing, and again mothers have a special role in that from the beginning, usually nurturing, nourishing that little child from their own body and taking care of the physical needs of their children, the younger the more needs that need to be taken care of, and that is vitally important.

And furthermore, mothers as well as fathers generally look for ways to bring temporal advantages to their children. We want to expose them to music in many cases, give them music lessons. They may not be virtuosos. They may not be great musicians, but it'll be good for them to learn some music. It'll be good for them to play sports. It'll be good for them to do other things.

I read something like this recently. It said there's less than one in one thousandth chance that your child will ever become a professional ball player, but there is a hundred to one hundred certainty that your child is going to face the judgment of God. So keep your priorities right.

Don't forget that. I love sports. I played sports when I grew up. I played every sport I could get into by hook or by crook. I played every sport that was offered to me. I played little league baseball. I played, I don't know what kind of football they call it.

I played for a while. I played soccer. I played basketball. I played volleyball. I played tennis. I played every sport that was available to me. But I want to tell you something. That has faded away long ago. This old body can't do that anymore.

I enjoyed it and it was beneficial at the time, but I can't do that anymore even while I'm still living. And in eternity, how important is it that you played sports and won a trophy? I've got a bunch of those cheap trophies somewhere. I haven't already thrown them out.

A bag full of them somewhere. What is that in the light of eternity? So am I going to march into eternity and stand before God and dump out my bag and say, here are my trophies for playing sports?

No, I think not. But I'm going to stand before God and give an account of how I have received his word, how I have received or not his son, how I have submitted myself to his authority, how I have walked according to his ways. I'm going to give an account for that. And so are you and so are every one of your children. So the role of the mother in its most important form is to teach biblical truth to your children. That's the father's primary job.

That's the mother's primary job. And what's the result of this kind of biblical parenting? In the last verse of this section that we read, we find that in verse nine, it says, for they will be graceful, be a graceful ornament on your head, this law of your mother, this instruction of your father, speaking out to the children. They will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck. And of course, that's poetic language.

That's symbolic language. But what is it saying? They will be an ornament or many translations say a wreath, a victor's crown, the kind of olive branch wreath that Olympic runners earned back in the Greek and Roman days. In other words, this ornament, this first one in this verse is a crown that symbolizes achievement.

And then chains. And that is in reference to like gold chains, like jewelry, lots of gold chain around the neck. And that kind of ornament is an indication of status, position, influence in society. And so what this is saying is that the result of biblical parenting is that your children parents will attain influence, maybe not, in fact, probably not the kind of influence that the world looks at as influence, not by manipulation, not by ladder climbing, not by the ways that people in the world attain influence, but by wise, godly living. Your children will end up to have an oversized influence upon the people around them as a result of the training which you gave them if by the grace of God that is received into their heart and minds and they follow that in their lives.

That's the result of biblical parenting, children who truly have an impact on the world in which they live. So now I come to my third point. My first one was the purpose of these Proverbs. The second one was the foundation of this process, which is the home. And my third point is the heart of the home, namely the mother. The home is the foundation of this process. Now, what is the heart of the home? And by saying this, I'm not in any way diminishing the importance, the significance, the leadership, the importance of the father.

But that's a subject for another day. Come back on Father's Day. I might have something for fathers along those lines. But today we're talking about mothers, and I think we can all understand that the mother truly is the heart of the home, however you want to look at it. She's the center of the home.

The father is the leader of the home, but the mother is the center of the home. She's the heartbeat of the home. She creates the atmosphere in the home.

She sets the emotional tone of the home. The mother is so significant in the kind of home that children are going to be reared in. And to consider the heart of the home, the mother, let's consider a mother's worth, a mother's task, and a mother's reward.

A mother's worth. We can see the worth of a mother in the divine design that brought mothers into this position. God designed mothers in such a way that they would bear the children. They would nourish the children from an early age. They would train the children as they were young toddlers and growing up within the home. They would set the tone in the home.

God designed it that way. And therefore we can see that God placed a worth upon mothers that is not the worth that the world usually looks at, but it turns out to be an even greater worth that we can see by God's design. But not only can her worth be seen by divine design, but it can also be seen by her universal respect. I mentioned earlier in the introduction, which I wrote out word for word and read word for word, very unusual, as most of you know, I seldom ever do that, but I just felt like I needed to in this case. And I mentioned in that introduction that Mother's Day is celebrated all over the world.

How did that happen? By a universal acknowledgment of the worth of mothers. But a mother's worth is furthermore seen by the value of the children which she brings into the world. Children, which I remind you, are created in the image of God. Or to put it another way, are created in the likeness of God.

Now we have to understand that correctly. We don't want to misuse that concept into some kind of heresy as if we are little gods or anything like that. The distance between the eternal triune God and the creatures that he made is infinitely vast, and nevertheless, by God's design, the crowning creature, the crowning example of his creation turns out to be mankind, Adam and Eve. And God didn't say that he created elephants in the image of God. God didn't say that he created the majestic lion in the image of God. God didn't say that he created anything else in the image of God. But when it came to Adam and Eve, to men and women, the Bible tells us that they were created in the image, in the likeness, in some regard, some ways that we may never fully understand until we get to heaven. But there's something about the human being that was created in the image of God.

And even though that was very much damaged by the fall, it wasn't erased by the fall, because this reference to man in the image of God is found several other times in scripture after the fall of man in the garden. We are still creatures created in the image of God. You, mother, have brought into this world one or more children who are created in the image of Almighty God. You talk about worth, children created in the image of God who, and let this thought sink deeply into your soul, who will never, ever cease to exist. They will live in this world, the days appointed them by Almighty God, and when they die, they're going out into eternity, and some of them, we trust, will go into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and others, sadly, are going to go into a Christless eternity, and they will never, ever, ever, ever, ever cease to exist. The animals that God created, when they die, they cease. But human beings, when they die, they live forever.

They have a never-dying soul. Again, think about the value of a mother in producing a human being whose soul is going to live for all eternity. That's value.

That's worth. And a mother's worth is, thirdly, seen by the value of her children. Mothers are the primary means of producing the children that we just described. God could have designed another way to bring people into this world. There's a lot of things God could have done.

Look at the angels. God evidently created all of them instantly at once to never die. There will never be any fewer than he created on the day he created the angels.

There will never be any more than on the day that he created the angels. But God created one man, one woman in the beginning, one father, one mother, that became the father and the mother of every other human being that's ever been born in all this world. And every mother that has had a child, and you have to have a child to be called a mother, obviously, every mother who has produced a child has been an instrument in the purpose of God to bring that child into existence.

That's amazing. And mothers are the primary instrument of shaping these little persons. Again, fathers have a very important role. Our hats go off, our hats are tipped to those, thankfully few in proportion, number of fathers who end up, for whatever reason, raising their children without a mother in the home. It's not impossible. That's very difficult. We also tip our hats to the larger number of mothers who, for whatever reason, are raising their children without a father in the home.

And neither of those is the ideal, and neither of those is what I would wish upon anyone. But I think it's clear that when that situation develops, mothers handle that situation better than fathers do. It's an indication of the value, the worth of the mother. So that's a mother's worth. What's a mother's task?

Well, we've already seen it. It's to instill truth in her children's minds, truth about God, to respect God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We start by teaching our children to respect Almighty God and God-ordained authority. But we teach them the truth about God, who He is. We teach them the truth about ourselves, mankind, men and women, and who we are, created in the image of God but fallen in sin by our forefathers in the Garden of Eden and born into this world as sinful creatures in need of redemption. We teach our children about Jesus Christ, the one that God has given to redeem us, this high and holy standard of perfection that God requires to be in union with Him and to live with Him forever, which now has been wrenched from us because of sin that has destroyed that relationship. But the God who requires a perfect righteousness has Himself provided the perfect righteousness in His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We sang about it today, didn't we? The perfect righteousness of God is seen in, is provided in the Savior's blood.

I'm going to find that and read that. The perfect righteousness of God is witnessed in the Savior's blood. It is in the cross of Christ we trace His righteousness, yet wondrous grace.

Both are seen on the cross of Calvary. Why did Jesus have to die? Well, in one sense, He didn't have to, except that the Triune God had agreed to do it. It was a voluntary act on His part. It was an enormous sacrifice for the Father and the Son.

Why did He do it? He did it because that's the only way to satisfy the righteous justice of a thrice holy God in a way that could redeem sinners and preserve them in eternal life. And so Jesus Christ took upon Himself on the cross the judgment that is due unto sinners and by the perfect life that He lived, perfect obedience to the law of God, which none of us have done, those who trust in Him have that righteousness imputed to their account and have that judgment placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so our judgment has been paid, it has been satisfied, nothing left is due. Paid in full and in the courts of heaven above as righteous as Jesus Christ Himself. And that's stunning because we know ourselves to be anything but righteous and yet that's the gospel and this needs to be taught to our children. This is the truth they need to know, truth about God, truth about man, truth about Jesus Christ and beyond that, truth about right living. And what is right living? It is righteous living. And what is righteous living?

It is living according to the word of God. And we teach them that. That's the chore. That's what fathers are to teach their children in the home. That's what mothers are to teach their children in the home. To instill truth in their children's minds, to endeavor to lead their children to faith in Christ. Knowing that we can't save them. Knowing that inducing them to pray a prayer, to ask Jesus into their heart is not a guarantee of their salvation. Knowing that God the Holy Spirit must create a new heart within them.

God the Holy Spirit must perform the new birth that makes an old creature a new creature in Christ Jesus. God the Holy Spirit must change the heart to give a true heartfelt repentance toward God for sin and a true heartfelt faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A true Holy Spirit wrought desire for Him to be their Savior.

That isn't triggered because they say the words that they're taught to say. That's triggered because the Holy Spirit changes their heart and gives them that desire. But what is the truth that God uses to create that new heart? It's the truth of His word that is taught to them primarily and first of all in the home by the fathers and the mothers.

How important is this? And that's why a mother's task is to teach and to pray. Teach them the truth, instill it in their minds so it's there, it's ready. But pray that God will apply it to their hearts for only He can. And we teach them fervently and we pray for them fervently and we pray for them fervently as we teach them fervently.

And we teach them as if this depended upon us. But we pray knowing that it depends upon God and that's what God uses. That means of instilling the word of God and praying for their souls and a God who delights to answer prayer will many times answer that prayer according to our desires. A God who is gracious, a God who is loving, a God who is merciful, a God who designed the home, a God who gave to children, Christian parents.

There's a reason for that. There are many reasons to believe that God will bless these efforts and bless these prayers and bring these children to a saving knowledge of Christ. And for those of you whose children are grown and are still not within the arc of safety, keep praying, keep praying. And keep instructing as you can. It's not as easy now that they're not in the home, but you still can keep pointing them to truth. But keep praying, praying, praying, praying. As long as they're alive, they are still candidates for the powerful, gracious transformation which the Holy Spirit of God can bring. That's not only a mother's worth and a mother's task, but finally a mother's reward.

What is that? A mother's reward is children who demonstrate godly character. That's what she desires, and when she sees that happening, what a wonderful reward. What is a mother's reward? It's children who benefit society, who truly make a difference in this world. Not because they necessarily make a lot of money, not because they achieve great success athletically or in any other endeavor that the world applauds, but because of their life of truth, of righteousness, of equity, of justice, of godly wisdom, of integrity that bears a testimony in this world, that bears truth in a world where truth is so largely lost. Children who benefit society, children who make a difference in this world because of the truth that is in their hearts. Children who bring honor and glory to God, that's what this is all about, isn't it? We want our children to honor the Savior that saved us and saves them.

We want our children to honor the God who created us and created them, and so we pray for that. And children who, if this is carried out in the home, children who will rise up someday and call that mother blessed. And we hear that all over, all or everywhere in this time of Mother's Day, don't we? We see it on the internet, on Facebook, here and there, we hear children who say, I want to thank God for my mother, I want to bless God for my mother, I want to give honor and praise to my mother.

That's a mother's reward. And like Mary, she will cherish that in her heart. Children are an heritage of the Lord, but mothers, by God's design, are an indispensable component to a healthy society. And if our society seems to be falling apart at the seams today, I can tell you one of the reasons, because we don't have as many godly mothers as we had in years gone by, and we don't have as many Bible taught children as we had in years gone by. And would anyone deny the truthfulness of that statement?

That's the truth, we can see it, and now we see the result of it, which is a backdoor way of confirming what I'm saying. If we get back to more homes where the Bible is believed, more parents who are taking their responsibility with their children, more children who are being taught the Word of God, we'll see the beneficial impact of that throughout all society. Mothers are an indispensable part to a healthy society. Mothers are an indispensable component to godliness in society.

But let me say these four or five things in closing. The child rearing that I have described this morning is not an easy task, you know that. In fact, in many ways, it is an impossible task, because none of us are entirely sanctified. We are redeemed sinners, but we still are wrestling with our own flesh, aren't we? And so it is in many ways impossible, but here's what I want you to understand. God will enable what He commands if we seek His grace. If God tells us to teach our children, God will enable us to teach our children.

If God tells us to instill instruction and wisdom in their hearts and minds, He will enable us to do that if we seek Him for the help we need. And this is also wonderful to know, God blesses imperfect endeavors that are consecrated to Him. Is there any mother here this morning that says, I did everything right? I've got my hand up, but I'm not a mother. I'm just doing that to encourage you. Are there any fathers here this morning who will say, I did everything right?

Not this father, nor any father, nor any mother. So how do any kids turn out decent? By the help and grace of God.

God blesses imperfect endeavors that are consecrated to Him. And so the great need is to establish and maintain godly homes as designed by the Bible. If you have children in the home, the instructions that I gave you this morning are yours. If you have grandchildren to influence, then you are to endeavor to apply these instructions to the extent that you can. If you have concern for the society in which we live, then these are your instructions.

You'll impact society a whole lot more by working on these things than you will by campaigning to get somebody into office. Now I voted. Did you know we have a primary on Tuesday?

Most people aren't even aware of it. A second primary to break a tie. Marty and I voted early. We believe in voting. We believe in the political processes.

We believe as Christians we ought to utilize these as best we can for the glory of God. But I'm here to tell you, you will impact your society far more by doing what I've told you this morning than by getting any certain person into office. Because haven't you learned by now, you get somebody in and punk, you're disappointed. You get somebody in and punk, they're disappointed.

You get somebody in and punk, you're disappointed. You say, well, if only this, if only that, he could have. What we need is biblical truth and righteousness permeating our society.

That will do more for America than anything else that we can do. And so if you are concerned for society, these are your instructions. If you feel your need of assistance in what we've talked about this morning, then involve yourself, and you should do this anyway, in a word centered church where you've got other people who are endeavoring to do the same thing and can encourage and help you, can instruct the wise in lifelong instruction, can counsel one another in parenting. You need to be a part of a word centered church to help you with these things. And if you feel your failure, seek forgiveness and renew your obedience. Shall we pray? Father, thank you for the instructions of your word. Forgive us for not taking them as seriously as we ought at times. Oh, Lord, cause these truths to permeate our homes, to permeate our churches, to permeate our nation, to permeate this world. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.