Scripture reading this evening is from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Titus. Titus chapter 1, we'll begin reading at verse 9, and read through chapter 2, verse 10. Continue tonight our series on the covenant and family. Last time we focused on the father, now tonight on the mother. Titus 1 beginning at verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Let the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women, Likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men, likewise exhort to be sober-minded, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." Read the Holy Word of God to that point tonight. I'm going to focus this evening simply on one phrase in verse 5, but let me read verses 4 and 5 again. Command is, in verse 3, that the aged women may, in verse 4, teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Beloved of God, last time in our series, we began a transition from focusing on the covenant and marriage, which is the foundation of a family, to speaking of the covenant and the family from the point of view of parents and children. Remember that we took the lead for that transition in our series from the way that God's covenant is pictured in Scripture. The two ways that God's covenant is pictured in Scripture. First, as a marriage between God and His church in Jesus Christ. And then secondly, as the relationship of parent to a child in Jesus Christ. The triune God is related to His church Not only in the covenant as a husband and wife are related to each other, but also as parents are related to their children. So last time we began that focus by considering the role of a father in the home, taking as our pattern for a God-fearing earthly father, the fatherhood of God to his children in the covenant of grace. Tonight, we focus on the role of a mother. And again, we have to take as our pattern for what scripture says about the calling of a Christian mother, the relationship of God to his church in Jesus Christ. Only this time now, we focus on the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. if the pattern of the fatherhood of an earthly father is found in God the Father and His work and role in the covenant of grace, and the pattern of what it is to be an obedient child in the home is found in the Son made flesh and how He functions in the covenant of grace, submissive to the Father, as we'll see next time. then it would make sense that we find the pattern of what it is to be a mother from especially the work of the Holy Spirit in the covenant of grace. Let me issue a caution right away in making that statement. The Holy Spirit is male, not female. Mom is female. Triune God is a he in all three persons in one being. But that does not stop us, it must not stop us, from saying and pointing out the very beautiful truth that the role of a mother in the covenant home is a reflection especially of the Holy Spirit's role in the covenant of grace. To talk about the biblical role of a God-fearing mother means that we're going to have to be completely counter-cultural. Since especially the rise of feminism, which is always pushing for the overthrow of any gender difference between the sexes or any role difference between the sexes, the idea of womanhood and the idea of motherhood has been drastically overthrown, changed in the culture so that the biblical view of womanhood and the biblical view of motherhood, although it's glorious and magnificent and dignifying to the godly woman, is now downright offensive to the modern and postmodern woman. Look what is here in the text and how against the grain all of this is. Self-controlled, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to husbands. None of that, absolutely none of it is the modern and postmodern woman's view of herself. There has been a social revolution that has occurred. The sole purpose of which is to overthrow that biblical notion of womanhood and motherhood. And so the role models that are put up for young women today are the precise opposite of all that scripture teaches here. Women who are completely lacking in self-control. who are crude and lewd and who are flaunting their deviant sexuality. Women who view the idea of expending your life's energy in the care of your home as torture, bondage, something to be despised. Women who are rude and brazen, not good and kind, humble. And women who want to have power over their man or over their woman, if that's what they choose, never subject to any man. This inspired calling given in the text is odd at best in today's world. Sometimes odd amongst people who named the name of Jesus Christ, too, sadly. or the world is influencing the church. So that as in many other areas where we don't like what the Bible has to say, too many Christians in brazen folly dismiss this word of Jehovah God. In fact, far too many preachers, even if they would preach this text at all, would dismiss this passage completely for fear of going against the grain of the culture today, and would say that the text doesn't really apply to us anymore today. It's a culturally conditioned piece of God's Word. This is the role of a Christian woman for a different era, not for today. This is just Paul's opinion for how it was supposed to be back then, but it says nothing to us in today's age. And the God-fearing woman who seeks to honor Jehovah God struggles against all of this today, has a difficult time giving herself to the biblical calling that God has given to her with all of this pressure coming upon her from so many angles. But you're not alone in that, God-fearing mother. Such pressure was there in the days of the writing of this text as well. The Apostle Paul brings up the God-ordained role of a mother in Titus 2, precisely because, he says in Titus 1, verse 11, there are those whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not." They subvert whole houses, whole households, and the order that God has created in a household by teaching things that they ought not teach. The pressure was great from false views of womanhood and motherhood then too as it is today. But I suppose then that all of that pressure Made the God-fearing woman and mother stand out, didn't it? As so precious, so beautiful, so lovely as it does still today. So that throughout the ages, Proverbs 31 verse 10 is true. Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies? And as that virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 there was so priceless and so beautiful centrally in that, quote, she looketh well to the ways of her household, so too that virtuous woman in Titus chapter two shines as priceless as the one who is the keeper of her home. Let's notice first tonight the calling, second the reason, third the pattern. Keepers at home, the calling, the reason, and the pattern. The text before us, beloved, gives various virtues that must be present in the Christian woman. The one that gives the most content to what that Christian woman is to be and do as a mom is that phrase, keepers at home. The command, love their husband, love their children, obedient to husbands, also gives something of what a mother is, of course, but all of that too can be contained under that calling, to be keepers at home. A home, a true scriptural home, is a wonderful and vitally necessary thing for a Christian family. A home is more than the building or the structure in which a family resides. A home is the place where the family lives covenant life together. The biblical concept of a home is a very covenantal thing, and it finds its ultimate fulfillment in the fulfillment of the covenant itself in the new heavens and new earth. Have you ever noticed that heaven is described as home? It's described as our ultimate home. And that makes sense. It's the place where God as Father dwells with us, His children, in love and fellowship forever. That's what a home is. David speaks of heaven, Psalm 23, that way in verse 6, when he says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord Jesus Christ taught us to think of heaven with this image. It's an image. literally what it is, but its image is God's house of many mansions. That is God's home where we are brought as His children, a home that has many, many, many rooms attached so that we all have room to be in the house of Jehovah God. Heaven is the true and ultimate fulfillment of the very concept of what a home is. It's where the covenant will be fully known and experienced by us children with God our Father. And the family home on the earth where there ought to be covenant life is to be something of a reflection of that heavenly home here on the earth in at least these four ways. Number one, it is first of all to be a place of protection, a refuge. as the heavenly home is a place of protection and refuge. In heaven, God is going to take us out of this spiritually dangerous, sinful, curse-laden world, and he's going to bring us into his home where there is safety from all sin and all curse forevermore. When he does that, the unrepentant and unbelieving world and the devil and his demons himself will be banished from that heavenly home. He's going to gather all of his children into his home and he's going to close the door, shut the door on the world and the devil and cast them out. Isn't that the word Scripture uses? cast them out into the lake of fire because this is home and the door is shut with the people of God with their Father inside. That can't come in. This is the place of safety and refuge and protection from the world and devil forever. And inside that heavenly home, God's will, God's word, God's truth reigns. There is no lie, no distortion of that that's going to endanger the children who are there. None of that is allowed in. That's the earthly home, too, in reflection. We live in an ungodly world, and increasingly so. But inside the earthly home, beloved, there is to be a closing of the door upon that wicked world. Inside here, the family is saved, protected from the ways of the world, from the warped thinking of the world and the warped lifestyle of the world. All of that can be shut out from the home. It's a place where God's will and God's word reigns. The parent of children can't do He sometimes wants to do. He can't make the Word of God and the will of God reign in every place outside of His home where His child is going to be. But He can do that inside of His home. He can ensure that God's will reigns here, so that when His child steps inside those doors, He steps inside the realm where Jehovah is honored and His will is obeyed. Or as much as possible, sin is removed. We're all sinners, of course, and so we bring sin with us into the home as soon as we walk through the front door. But the parents seek to remove expressions of sin as much as possible. In doing so, they make this home a place of spiritual protection, refuge, safety. It's the place where Family starts the Word of God in their mind, and then where everyone in the family comes back in from being in the world and sorts things out again under that reign and will of Jehovah scripturally. In that home, the children are able to experience that spiritual protection, and they know that in that home, protection that they desperately need. A Christian home, secondly, is to be a place of peace, as the heavenly home is a place of peace. Precisely because it is a place of spiritual protection, it is a place of peace. It's a place where all anxieties are gone forevermore, where there is rest. or there is laying down the armor of battle, or you are known, even as also you know, or the love of the Father is known so intimately, so too the Christian home in reflection. It's a place where the family members find peace. It's the place to return where there is rest, where anxieties are either put aside now or they're dealt with together and moved past together. It's a place where you are known and where you know even as you are known, where the love of father and mother are known so intimately and so there is peace and rest. It's the place where the boots come off, where the mittens come off from being out and there is rest in that love. And therefore, it's a place where the God-fearing children want to come back When they have to go out, rest and peace are found there. Christian home, third, is to be a place of Christian nurture. Heaven will be home that way, too. You know perfectly so. We will be sinless in heaven, of course, but we will still need to be nurtured in heaven. We grow in heaven, beloved. We grow constantly, sinlessly moving from one degree of knowledge and the experience of life with God to another level of knowledge and experience. of life with God. And so, too, that must take place in the Christian home and reflection. It's the place where parents teach their children the things of God, the language of God's people, the heart attitudes of God's people, the songs of God's people, the life of God's people, and share the experiences of God's people in the covenant of grace. That's where they grow, sinfully, but grow from one degree of godliness to the next. It's where the Christian home, it's where the Christian life is nurtured in children as they watch the example of dad and mom live that life before them and especially mom who is more there and around them more. Beginning already when they are tiny. Pick up those things, the example. Even subconsciously at first, as one old theologian put it, they suck in godliness with their milk. And the music that is played there in that home and the word that is studied there, let them see you study the word there, mom. And the way that mom lives, the way that mom responds, the way that mom handles things, and the way that mom prays at lunchtime. Godliness is learned by example and by discipline. Discipline in that home. That's part of the nurture of this home too, where mom holds to the ways of the Lord and will not allow rebellion against those ways to go unchastened. This is the way it will be in this home, because this is the way God says it must be in this home. And God's Word reigns here. This is a realm where God speaks and we listen. Your desires don't reign here, child. And you must conform to His will, and we must too. Mom and Dad must too. And that's what is best for us. and will be true happiness for us, and we'll start to show you that too as you grow up, and you'll see that it is. Discipline takes place here, that there might be nurture in the ways in life of the covenant of grace. The home is a place of nurture. Finally, fourthly, Christian home is to be a place where there is an experience of the bond of the covenant of grace, an intimate fellowship and friendship. in a very sweet way. You can almost feel this, can't you, when you enter into a godly covenant home, a deep fellowship, bond of union, love in Christ that's there. where dad and mom are embraced in that covenant bond of love and fellowship by their God, who therefore embrace each other in that bond of love and fellowship and extend that out to their children in the home, so that even in the discipline of the home, which is chaotic and troublesome sometimes, but even in that discipline of the children, it comes out of that covenantal love and is always unto that fellowship. A fellowship perhaps seen and experienced centrally at that table that stands at the center of that home. Our mom cooks, and there are meals together as a family around that table, and the family fellowships with one another about that table. where the family fellowships about the Word at that table, where the family speaks of life and the covenant as they all experience it at that table, where stories are read, where games are played, where talks are had. There is a taste of that bond, the fellowship, the union of the covenant in that home in a wonderful way. Because of those four things, beloved, Covenant home is a slice of heaven, a taste of paradise in the midst of the cruel desert of this world, a place where the godly husband and the godly child want to come home to. As William Cowper expressed it, domestic happiness Thou only bliss of paradise that has survived the fall." Exaggerating there because he's not thinking also of the church, which is this, but nonetheless, that's the idea of the Christian home. And now, Mom, you are to be the keeper of that place. You are to be the keeper of that life in that place. The word keeper, keepers at home. It means to be the watch, to be the sentinel, to be the guardian, to be the protector, the one who ensures that the home is this and remains this. You are the keeper of this domain, this spiritual oasis in the desert, a taste of paradise in this wicked world. Of course, of course it's corrupted by sin and wickedness. Of course, of course it's not heaven. But a taste of it, a small taste of it. The mother is the queen of the family, and this is her castle. And she works tirelessly to make it truly a home, a biblical home. It's never perfect, of course. It's not heaven. There's sin. But there's a taste of it, and she ensures it. The husband, father, has ultimate responsibility for the home, of course. Let it be what it should be, and let's not now forget the last sermon about the father's responsibility. But under that headship of father, mom is queen. Mom is queen. And the practical day-to-day responsibility of keeping this home a place of protection and of peace and of nurture and of fellowship is hers. Teach the young women to be keepers at home, to make this the focus of their energies, of their gifts, of their creativity, of their intelligence, of their education, of their love, of their nurture and care. teach them to spend themselves to make and protect and keep a home as a foretaste of glory for her husband and children and for herself. This is an astoundingly high calling. Astoundingly high calling. And children and husband need to find this, mom, when they step into the borders of your domain. These are human lives that are being raised unto God's eternal home in heaven, and they need this place. They need this Eden. They need this sanctuary as they go through this world, even as teenagers, and even beyond. It's a high and holy calling to be a keeper of the home. Calling takes a tremendous amount of work. And that very word for keepers at home contains that idea too. Workers at home. Workers at home. In other words, this home is the work of her life. This is her place of employment. This is her career to make her home this. Picture the mom who stays at home and is lazy. What does next to nothing is not anywhere near the calling that Scripture gives either. This requires a tremendous amount of effort to keep order in the home. It might be a place of peace, protection, to keep health in the home physically and spiritually that creates this protection and peace, to nurture in the home with faithful instruction and discipline, with talks and with hugs. cook meals that are healthy and regular, to create an atmosphere of peace and spiritual connection, to be helping others from the home with the children, so that this home is also a place that cares for others, to be about the word of God in this home, to even have a right attitude in the home takes work, the work of spiritual discipline and prayer and devotion, so that the home doesn't take on the atmosphere of strife and bitterness. A tremendous amount of work it is to be keeper of a home. Look at the Proverbs 31 woman. Read that text. She gifts herself. She gifts herself to be a homemaker. Remember that word? A home maker. A home doesn't make itself. It's not automatic. One who makes a home, a true home, a massive undertaking. An undertaking that used to be thought of as one of the highest and holiest callings that could ever be given to a human being on planet Earth. Have we forgotten that? Have we fallen to somewhat of the pressure to, we need to recapture the dignity of that word, of that calling to be a home maker, a home keeper, The Proverbs 31 woman works hard to do this right. She's smart, she's thoughtful, she's wise, she's creative, and she uses all of her God-given gifts and energies for and unto the keeping of her home. And of course, for her to do that means that she spends quite a bit of her time at her home, the home that she's making. Keepers at home. How can you fulfill this calling if your life energy is focused on something else or somewhere else? In addition to what mom does, mom herself Herself, she is, is a large part of what makes a home these things, a reflection of that heavenly home. Her presence in the home as a mother, mom as we'll see, is a large part of that bond of fellowship there herself, and the peace there, and the protection there, and the nurture there in herself. The daycare provider, no matter how nice she is, or even Christian of a woman she is, isn't a replacement homemaker for your children, Mom, and can't be. You are, Mom. You make the home this. Heaven forbid that we send our kids to daycare outside of the home that we are supposed to be making and keeping for them, and that they need while we pursue our own ends. Doesn't mean that Mom never leaves the house, of course. Of course not. Doesn't mean that she never needs breaks, never gets babysitters. Of course not. Doesn't mean she never does anything else than this. But this is the focus of her life. This is the focus of her energy and of her gifts. She gives herself and all that she is to this and doesn't let other things keep her from this calling as God gives her children. And whatever else she does is for this and unto this calling to be keeper of her home If you didn't have a good example, mom, then do it better than your mom did, following the lead of the word of Jehovah God. If you need help, talk together as moms. Or better yet, seek out the older, wiser women who you respect. You did this faithfully, isn't that part of the text, command of the text? It assumes that not everyone had a good example in their own mother. The older women must teach the younger women in the church to be this and to do this, and to do this for the right reasons. What is there in the text that would motivate a Christian mother to give her life's energy to this high calling? There are two motivations in the text. First of all, it's love. Verse four, teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, and then keepers at home. How spiritual, how heart-centered is the Word of God always as it instructs us. True Christian love that is given to her binds her to her husband and her children. She's been taken into the love of God in Christ herself in the covenant of grace. She's known this bond of commitment as God has taken her into the bond of His own love, committed love, and she seeks to extend that love and bond to her home and husband and children in that home, a sacrificial love. Love is sacrifice, as God's love for her has been a sacrificial love, a giving of His own Son for her sake. And she seeks to sacrifice herself, her husband and children, in the keeping of the home as God calls her to. Notice that It doesn't say teach the young women to love themselves and to do whatever will make them feel happiest, but teach them to love their husbands, to love their children. They are the focus of her life. She gives herself for them. She props them up. She sustains them. large part by creating this home for them. And it's happy to, for God calls her to reflect that sacrificial love of God, to them first of all. This is the heart of it right here, isn't it? This is what gives her to do this, even though it's hard, and not always fun, and it's not always fun. It's very difficult. This is what gives her to deny herself to do this, even if she would enjoy something else more. It's a ton of work. It's an almost constant subjugating of your desires to the desires of others. You don't even get to go to the bathroom when you want to half the time. But for love's sake, she's bound to keep the home for her husband and children. And it's precisely, of course, this sacrifice that is why the world despises it, hates it. The focus of the world is always to love yourself and to put yourself first. And the focus of the child of God is always the love of others, husband and father too. But here, sacrificing self for husband and children, mother, as God calls her to in the covenant of grace. And for herself, sacrificing love looks to the good of husband and children in the keeping of the home. Father and children, must be grateful and express that gratefulness. She doesn't give it just for that, of course, and is happy with God's smile upon her. Father and children must recognize this selfless love, be grateful for it and help her and support her and encourage her and appreciate her. Say something like, What Luther said, thinking of his beloved Katie, who, by the way, was a very gifted, intelligent woman, gave herself to this task with all that God had given her. Luther said this, quote, God's highest gift on earth is pious, cheerful, God-fearing, home-keeping wife. with whom you may live peacefully, to whom you may entrust your good, your body, your life. The second motive that drives the God-fearing mother to focus her energy here is her respect for the God who gives her this calling. To be discreet, says verse 5, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands. That the word of God be not blasphemed. This is the word of God to her, and she doesn't want the word of Almighty God to be blasphemed. Blasphemed by the world, first of all. As the world would say, Well, look. Look what your book from your God says. It says this, and you don't do it. You don't even believe this is the Word of God, do you? If you did, you would take it seriously. You people talk so much about the interpretation of Genesis 1 through 3 and how the literal Word of God for the creation account, but here you just ignore it now, and the Word of God isn't really to be honored in this case. Let the Word of God be not blasphemed by the world first of all. that it be not blasphemed by her either, which is worse. A Christian mother doesn't really have to be forced into this, because she loves the Word of God, and she wants to do what the Word of God says. That's her heart. That's her heart. It doesn't matter if she's a particularly domestic person, Not every woman is as domestic as every other woman. Not every woman has the same natural love of domestic things. And some women express their domesticity different from other women. That's okay. But none of that is what matters to her. That's not why she does it or doesn't do it. She does it because God's Word says that this is her life. She knows that God loves her and that God loves her family. And she knows that God knows. what must be done to carry on His covenant of grace in the line of generations, and that it must be then out of love for her, and out of love for her family, and out of love for the covenant that He says to her, this is what calling that I give to you. Keepers at home, love your husband and children. And so she says, God help me, I'm going to give my energy to this. And when she does, by God's grace, God makes her a very, very beautiful picture of the work of the Holy Spirit himself and the grand covenantal family of Jehovah God. The characteristics of motherhood, beloved, can be found early in some ways in all three persons of the Trinity. But they are especially found in the Holy Spirit, in His work and role in the covenant of God with His children. The Holy Spirit is the one who creates the bond of the covenant of God between God and His children, and between the children and the children. And the Holy Spirit is the one who keeps that bond, maintains that bond, when the Lord Jesus Christ prayed in John 17, that they, speaking of the church, the elect, God's people, that they also may be one in us, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, bound together, God and His children, children and children, in Christ, in God, in one bond, one covenant family. When he prayed that, God answered by giving him the spirit to pour out to bind them to God and to Christ and to each other. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13, for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. He is the bond of the family of the elect. He creates the unity and the fellowship and he keeps it. And don't you see God made the faithful mother and the godly home to be a reflection of him. She is the bond in the family. She keeps the union. She is the glue that holds the family close together. She creates, she maintains the fellowship in good times and in bad. She is this herself in the home primarily. Spirit. It's given to the church to nurture children of God in the covenant of grace. Romans 8 verse 5, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, things of the Spirit. The Spirit grows. The Spirit matures, the Spirit nurtures the people of Jehovah God as He applies the Word to mind and to heart. He sanctifies them from one degree of godliness to the next. He teaches, He comforts. applying the comfort of Christ's gospel to the hearts of the children, always assuring them of the love of their Father for them, so that in that love they can grow. He grants peace with the gospel of peace that he applies to conscience and heart and mind. He protects from the world of sin and evil by his indwelling power, preserving them unto the end. And by his work, we grow in grace. And God created especially the mother in the home to be a reflection of that work. She nurtures her children, leading them to grow from grace to grace. And as she nurtures her children, He nurtures her children in the covenant of God. And finally, the Holy Spirit, you notice in sacred scripture, does not focus upon himself when he works in the covenant of God, when he works amongst the family of God. If you say you don't know a whole lot about the Holy Spirit, that's why. His work focuses on the Father and the Son. He focuses the children's attention on their Father and on the Christ who died for them He stands in the background, does the Spirit, doing His work somewhat behind the scenes, shining the spotlight on them and not on Himself. John 15 verse 26, But when the Comforter is come, this is Jesus speaking, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me. He's not going to testify of Himself. He's going to testify of me. He doesn't focus on himself. He focuses on me. Galatians 4, verse 6, And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The Spirit doesn't lead you to cry, Spirit, Spirit, but Abba, Father. Always his work is to focus not on himself, but on the other two. So too. Mother in the home. shines the spotlight on the father and on the children. She props them up spiritually, emotionally, physically. She seeks to make them flourish, to make them shine. Teach them to love their husband, to love their children. She's often in the background doing her work as the Spirit is in the background doing His. But she is so often the power that makes them and that home what it is and what they are. and they and the church flourish in large part because of her work as the covenant life flourishes, because of the Spirit's work. The Spirit of Christ, beloved, is also the one who then takes the family home. Preserves by the sovereign power that he has all through this life. Keeps them all the way till we come. to the true home, heavenly home, at the earthly home pictures. And once there, it is He who keeps that home for us. There He still indwells us, granting us moment by moment the full life of Jesus Christ, keeping that home, God's house, pure from any sin, safe, the energizing power, keep it a place of peace, nurturing, perfect fellowship, and love. Beautiful things the Lord has done in creating the Christian family, beloved. It all hangs together. What a beautiful part of it. You are faithful mother in Zion. You are held in highest honor. We rise up and call you blessed this night. May God give you to see fruits of your labor this life and in the next. Amen. Father in heaven, we're thankful for faithful mothers in Zion. Bless them for their work. Encourage them in their calling. And may it redound to the praise of the glory of thee, our God. In whose name we pray, amen.