I want to start with those mothers who are great grandmothers to start with. If you would stand and remain standing, please. If you are a great grandmother, whether it's great, great, great, or just great, we know you're all great, but are you a great grandmother? So just give you a moment to look around and see the great grandmothers in our crowd this morning. If you are a grandmother, would you please stand? Never thought I'd see my wife stand on that. Wow. Now all mothers, would you please stand? All mothers. We've got one who's got a real little one, Jamie. And ladies, thank you for that day yesterday. That was great, I hear. I wasn't there. Thank you, ladies. Remain standing because we have a special gift for you today. And so men, if you would please get those out to the ladies, would appreciate that. And then I'll tell you about this gift in just a moment as you remain standing. I think we kept it secret. I think we did a good job on that. You are holding in your hands a gift from Brenda Leisman. She made every one of these, and it took a lot of time for her to do that. To me, that makes this extra special. and just wanted to make this presentation from her to you in honor of Mother's Day, Grandmother's Day, whatever. I hope that you'll treat this as a special gift. And I just wanna pray for you right now. Lord, thank you for these ladies. Thank you for Brenda and what she has done here. This means so much more from someone who I'm sure wished that she could be a mother. But Lord, I pray that you would bless her, bless our mothers. May they glorify you in their homes, in the homes of their children who have children. And Lord, use them in our church, use them in our nation, Lord, to draw us closer to you. I thank you in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I've got my own up here. I was gonna show it to you, but I thought if I showed it to you first, wouldn't mean as much, but I'll keep that one for later. I want you to turn to Proverbs 31. By the way, it's good to have Brian Garnhart with us today. This is Judy's son. So good to have you here, Brian. Thank you for coming. Honor of Mother's Day. Proverbs chapter 31. Of course, every woman knows what this chapter is about. Proverbs 31.10 starts off this way, who can find a virtuous woman? That question starts, comes with a probing question, who can find? I've heard men say, yeah, who can? I sure can't. I would tell those men to compare yourself with another who can find in the Bible. Here's what it says in Proverbs 20, verse 6. Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. So before you men complain about not being able to find a virtuous woman, just understand something. The ladies have the same problem. Who can find a faithful man? What you have here in Proverbs 31 seems to be an impossible standard. And I know that ladies sometimes don't even like to hear that text announced. Oh, no, not Proverbs 31. Because I can never meet that standard. Well, that's the Christian life. Can you ever, on a daily basis, meet the standards of the Christian life? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect? So please don't bemoan the fact that there are standards in here or a bar to try to jump that you say is beyond your ability. Lemuel's mother, you look at verse one, and these are the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. His mother taught him what is written here. It could not be impossible necessarily, she taught it to him. And as you look at this chapter, just having your eyes on the verses, beginning in verse 10 to verse 31, you have 22 verses. And there are, in the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters. And each of these verses correspond to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. And so you have an alphabetic acrostic here. Verse 10 starts with alpha. Verse 11, and on through, bathe down through to verse 31, starting with each letter of the alphabet. This, we believe, facilitated the memory of this passage, and perhaps King Lemuel's mother made him memorize this and gave him that mnemonic device. He could always remember, well, the first word starts with, well, this is alpha, that's verse 10, and so forth and so on through this chapter. You'll also see through this chapter the pronouns she and her. I mean, just let your eyes peruse over this. Look at all the hers and the she's that you find in this chapter. All of those refer back to the question presented in verse 10. Who can find a virtuous woman? She and her now follow throughout the chapter. What is a virtuous woman? When you see that in verse 10. When it's used as an attribute of a woman, it refers to her character, her integrity, her uprightness. It's found here in Proverbs 31.10. It's also found in two other passages when it refers to a woman. And each time it's found, interestingly enough, it has something to do with her relationship with her husband. Understand something. not with her children, but her relationship with her husband. For example, one of the other two, it's found in Proverbs 12, four, a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. And then there's a lady who is mentioned in the Bible as actually being a virtuous woman, and her name is given. It was said by her future husband, for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. That's Boaz speaking of Ruth. All the city know that you're, and she was a Moabite, not even a Jewess, a virtuous woman. And so in this chapter, you'll see as I've preached years ago, that the virtuous woman is a good wife, verses 10 through 12, and again verse 23. She's a good worker, in verses 13 to 29 and verse 27. She's a good waiter, in verses 20 to 22 and 24 to 25. She's a good winner, in verses 28 to 31 and verse 26. I don't expect you to remember all that, but that's just the outline, a quick outline of this chapter. But the one verse I want us to look at this morning And it's often quoted on Mother's Day is verse 28. Her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. Here is a recognition of truly deserving mothers. And I want to present to you three main points from this verse. They all have to do with appraising. We see in this verse the appraisers. the appraising, and the appraisal. It's got to be a three-point outline, but that's really what we see in this verse. The root of the word appraise has to do with to evaluate, to estimate, to estimate the quality, to judge. In fact, the English word appraise comes from a Latin word that means to set a price. Notice what it says in verse 10, I haven't finished the verse. For her price is far above rubies. To find a woman who is virtuous, her value is far above rubies. So this message is about truly deserving mothers, the virtuous woman. Let's look first of all at the appraiser. Now when I call this the appraiser, we're looking at somebody who judges, somebody who evaluates, somebody who estimates, who sets the price. And I want you to notice who the appraiser is in just a moment. But there are many appraisers of mothers today. There are many outside the home who cannot know what happens in the home. Like the government. They have something called social services. And they come to those who have adopted kids, perhaps, at least foster children, and they come and they appraise the home. But they're not there all the time. So that's really not a good appraiser. You've got schools. And sometimes the school, especially the principal, can tell somewhat of what's going on in a home by the way the kids are acting in school. But even they are not good appraisers because they don't know everything. the church, the pastor, outside the home. Sometimes people say, boy, if only you knew what was happening in that home, you would never know it. Because you can put on an air, you can give a false impression. And since Mother's Day falls on Sunday, it's often left to the church to recognize mothers, as we did this morning, rather than to those who know her best, her children and her husband. I'm so glad for the nice gift from Brenda Leisman. And I appreciate her putting on it the verse, Proverbs 31, 30. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. But it's unfortunate that mothers have come to expect from a church tokens of appreciation since we may not know who really is deserving. The best we can do is recognize all mothers. as we will on Father's Day, all fathers. But do you, along with me, sometimes cringe because you know that being a mother is something most women have the privilege of participating in, but sometimes they do it reluctantly? Because they're more dedicated, perhaps, to their careers than to the rearing of godly children? And many times they're not good mothers because they don't discipline as they ought. And you may know a mother and you go, oh, man, she was recognized right along with this mother who I know is a godly mother. So for a church to indiscriminately praise all mothers is to put all mothers on the same level. Why? Because that's all we know. You're a mother. With apologies to Brother Paul, it's like giving a trophy to every child. A participation trophy. God himself does not indiscriminately praise all mothers. He had inscripturated for us this very verse where he gives the two most qualified people on earth to appraise a woman, her children and her husband. Let's look first of all at her children. Her children is how the verse starts in English. Her children. I was really shocked as I was studying this to find out that the word children is literally her sons. Her sons arise up. True, the word sons is sometimes used idiomatically for children in general. But the word here is Ben. Ben, emphasizing the sons arise up. Only the son eventually becomes a husband. So his appraisal is very unique. Lemuel, hearing this from his mother, is apparently able to bless his mother. Her sons arise up. Well, you say right off, well, what if I don't have any sons? Well, one day you may have sons-in-law. He gets to know his mother-in-law through his wife. I believe that men should appraise their girlfriend by prayerfully appraising her mother. possibly his future mother-in-law. You've heard all the mother-in-law jokes. There's the reason for that. And it goes on both sides though. It could be her mother-in-law or his mother-in-law, the mother-in-law jokes. A virtuous woman makes a good mother-in-law. The man should appraise his girlfriend by looking at how she treats, how her mother treats his future father-in-law. Is she submitted? How does she speak of him? How does she respond to his authority? Buddy, you're gonna get the same thing in the daughter. because she's been learning from her mother. This puts so much tremendous pressure on mothers to be careful in raising their children. I know there are exceptions to where young ladies have a mother who is not a virtuous woman. I'm thinking of one right now, not here. And it's like, oh my. And yet the daughter is a beautiful, godly woman. In many cases, perhaps due to a father who recognized what the mother was and tried to circumvent that in his daughter's life. So her sons are the appraisers. Also is her husband. Her husband also is mentioned in verse 28. A mistake that Women make a lot of times is focusing on their children and having their life revolve around their children. But this woman's focus, the virtuous woman's focus, folks, if you look at this chapter, is not her children. Her focus is her husband. Good mothers are first good wives. And except for what you find in verse 28, Children are not even directly named at all in verses 10 to 31. But who is directly named? Well, the passage in verse 11 begins with the husband. The chapter almost ends with the husband in verse 28, and the husband is mentioned in verse 23, right in between. Her husband is highlighted in this chapter. And I want you to notice that the appraisers, these two appraisers, the sons and the husbands, are in agreement. You won't find children arising up and calling her blessed if the father is not praising her. And if the father is not praising her, you won't find children who arise up and call her blessed. They are in agreement. There's the appraisers. Number two. In verse 28, we have the appraising. This is the process of judging. This is the estimating. And it's found in the two words, arise up. Her children arise up. The Hebrew word for those two English words, arise up, is the very first word of the verse. So literally, if you were to read this in Hebrew, it would say, arise up. her children are doing. They are rising up. I want you to see the implication of that word in Hebrew, arise up. Remember, this is an alphabetic acrostic, and this is the 19th letter of the alphabet. And the sons rise up, or literally stand up. They come to fruition. It means they are established. Her sons established, and it has to do with the fact that they are grown into adulthood. This is when they have come to fruition. Their life and what the mother has done in their life, they have now come to the point where they are establishing homes of their own. This tree is no longer a sapling. This tree now bears fruit. He has come to fruition. The tree has arisen up. Her sons arise up, they become established. There's the implication of the word. But I want you to notice, secondly, the initiative of the word. The fact that the sons arise up expresses initiative. They're not told to arise up. They simply do it. You see, a good appraisal is not something that is done out of obligation or duty. These sons don't have to be told, they take the initiative. They don't do it just because it's Mother's Day. Now my intent is not to belittle observing Mother's Day and I'm sure it's going to come across that way to some of you that way. I think it needs to be observed. I'm glad in this country that we have a Mother's Day, that we do have a Father's Day. because we need to be reminded. Isn't this a good reminder to set that day aside and say, you know what? It makes me think so much about who my mother is, Father's Day, who my father is. The scriptures are full of feasts and festivals that are intended to remind. Have you ever read the Old Testament? Man, these people love to eat. Feasts and festivals and they always almost always had to do now. Well, you need to remember something So we need the reminder To remember our mothers Because we tend to take important people for granted Especially the Lord Jesus Christ we tend to take him for granted and that's why he said I Take the bread and take the cup in remembrance of me. I'm glad we have Armed Forces Day, which is coming up. I'm glad we have Memorial Day at the end of this month to remember those who gave their lives for our country. I'm glad we have Independence Day. I'm glad we have Veterans Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day. All of these days are important to remember. People are trying to attack In our society, our woke society, they're trying to attack the very things, the very foundations of something like Mother's Day. I was reading an article this past week of a school in Sydney, Australia, K through six, and they're changing the name Mother's Day to Family Day. Why? So that they can be more inclusive because some students have two dads, they don't have a mother. or they have no mother. And from this article, it was in the Daily Mail Australia, I'm quoting, this shift in thinking is sparked by early childhood Australia advocacy group, which provided educators with a guide to including diverse families on Mother's and Father's Day by calling it Family's Day. Mother's Day is too female-centric. So we want to use non-gendered words now like parent. Oh, Satan attacks in so many ways. Satan destroys in so many ways. But don't forget who the two main appraisers are. It's the children and the husband. And don't forget the appraising. They arise up. It's taking the initiative. But now we're getting to the main part, It's the appraisal that's given in verse 28. Her children, her sons arise up and call her blessed. In other words, her established grown sons, her children, bless her. There are two verbs in Hebrew that mean to bless. Let me give you those two Hebrew words. One is Barak, our son's name, Barak. The other is Asher. Jacob's son, through his concubine, Zilpah, Leah's maid. When Asher was born, listen to what Asher means. Genesis 30 verse 13, Leah said, happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher. There's the Hebrew word that's used right here in verse 28. Her children will rise up and call her Asher. So the Hebrew word Asher has in it not just blessed, but to consider fortunate, to call her happy. All of us know who sets the home atmosphere, right? Help me finish this. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Yeah. If mama ain't Asher, ain't nobody Asher. But her children will rise up and call her Oh, I can't believe I have these kids always under my... Happy Mother's Day. Quite challenging, isn't it? I was thinking about this and I thought, you know, a happy Mother's Day might be considered a statement. Happy Mother's Day or a wish by the children. Happy Mother's Day. I wish you were happy. What would your children call you? To be blessed with this word, the theological word book of the Old Testament says the recipient has to do something. For a mother to be called Asher, she has to do something. Exactly. Her children arise up and call her happy because of something she has done. That something is not in becoming a mother. That something is that she is a virtuous woman. There are literally billions of women who have become mothers throughout history. The virtue in Proverbs 31 is not in being a mother. The virtue is not being a mother, rather it is being a certain kind of mother. A mother who is a virtuous woman. The word mother is not even mentioned in verses 10 to 31. The virtue, folks, is not being in a mother. Rather, it is being in being a certain kind of mother, one who is a virtuous woman. Literally, what we should be able to say is, happy virtuous Mother's Day. Just like on Father's Day, we ought to be able to say, happy faithful Father's Day. Notice, there is not a command here for the children to arise up and call her blessed. Children, get up and call your mom blessed. Children, call your mom happy. And the children say to dad, dad, praise mom, praise mom. This is not a command. that is put here. And yet there are some who interpret that. I was reading a liberal commentator this week who said, quote, this passage reminds children and husbands of their duty to offer the encouragement such a woman deserves. But folks, this is not a duty. This is a desire. This is a statement of initiative on the children's part, on the son's part, and on the husband's part. It is something they want to take the initiative to do because she deserves it. So she is blessed by her children. That's the appraisal of her children. Here's the appraisal by her husband. She is praised by her husband. Her husband also indicates that he too takes initiative, not out of obligation, not out of duty, but out of desire. And he praises her not because she expects it, but because she deserves it. I hold both positions that are mentioned in this verse. I am a son and I praise God for my mother. I am a husband. I praise God for my wife. My mom deserves it and my wife deserves it. Truly a virtuous woman. The word praiseth is halah. How would you finish halah? Hallelujah, but that's praising God, Jehovah. This is just halal. Her husband arises up and halal her. He praises her. And that praise is not for her relationship with the children who are not even named here, but with him. That she is a good wife. But it all really boils down to what we find in verse 30. The verse that Brenda Leesman had with that gift that you were given. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. But now folks, who is the woman who was praised according to the last part of verse 30? A woman that feareth the Lord. She shall be praised. The thing that makes a virtuous woman is a woman who fears God. Truly fears God. Not somebody who just says, oh I fear God, but somebody who truly fears Him. Wants to please Him. Wants to live a life that pleases Him. obviously starts with someone who is saved, living a sanctified life. Favor is deceitful, beauty is vain, beauty fades, but something that does not fade, folks, is someone who fears the Lord. Notice verse 29, many daughters have done what? Virtuously, and virtuously is the same word as an adverb as you find in verse 10, and it says many. Many daughters have done virtuously. In other words, many women from time to time may practice one or more of the virtues that are listed in verses 11 to 28. But the virtuous woman, she excellest in them all. And thus, her appraisers, her sons and her husband, appraise her when they're established and they take the initiative by appraising her, the sons with happy, the husband with praise. I cannot say that my mom just happened into a virtue every so often. But my mom, who truly fears the Lord as a virtuous woman, Now, you hear this, and you go, man, I just can't, wow. To attain the standard of a virtuous woman is impossible. I know what you mean. In this life, we will never attain perfection. But it didn't keep the Apostle Paul from saying, but I press toward the mark. I neither, I have not apprehended, I have not attained, but I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Preaching a sermon like this is somewhat difficult because You look at mothers and grandmothers who that time has passed, their children are grown and, oh, I would have done things so much differently. And so pastor, please don't preach a message like that. No, it's up to the pastor to preach a message that shows up in the word of God, because there are ladies who are in the process of raising their children and they need to be challenged with this. And the older mothers need to be able to tell them, as I think you were challenged from Titus chapter two yesterday at the pampering shower. You need to be able to challenge older ladies, the younger ladies, to teach them how to love their husbands and to love their children and to keep the house. You say, that was sexist. Not any more than the Bible. That's found in Titus chapter two. A virtuous woman is the one who is recognized by her children and by her husband. Now trying to practice Proverbs 31 doesn't make you a virtuous woman. It's really a very simple start. Fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord we know is the beginning of wisdom. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of you being on the road to being a virtuous woman. All of those things that are mentioned in verses 10 to 31 that are such a high unattainable standard, we think. Fear the Lord. So Lord, I pray.