 Hey man, so keep your place in 1 Peter chapter 3, we're going to be there for at least the beginning part of the sermon. So my goal this morning is to give you on this Mother's Day 2021, to give you a biblical perspective on motherhood and what that means, you know, and what the Bible has to say about that. I hope I can give you a little different angle on things this morning. But in 1 Peter chapter 3, let's just go through a few verses here and see what the Bible is telling us, and then we'll get into the sermon. But in 1 Peter chapter 3, look at verse number 1, where the Bible says, Likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. While they behold your chaste conversation, coupled with fear, whose adorning let not it be that outward adorning of the plating of hair and of wearing of gold, or putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God a great price. So I want you to just focus in on a couple of things in verse number 4. The Bible here is giving some advice to wives and talking that they should be in subjection to their own husbands, talking about how that will be a blessing to their husbands and that they should not be worried about their outward appearance so much as the inward state of their heart is what they should be concerned about. And especially I want to point out this phrase in verse number 4, where it says that the woman is to be a meek and quiet spirit, the Bible says, which is in the sight of God a great price. Now I want you to underline or just remember that idea that a woman that has these characteristics, a wife that has these characteristics in the Bible is of great price to the Lord. So we'll see that a little bit later, but the Bible here says that wives are to be a meek and quiet spirit. And if we keep reading and we look at verse number 7, we see something else where the Bible says, likewise, the husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. So the Bible here is saying that the wife compared to the husband is the weaker vessel. Now right now all you ladies, all your moms are saying in your minds right now you're saying okay, oh great, a sermon on how I need to be in subjection to my husband and I need, you know, that I'm the weaker vessel and that, you know, I need to be a meek and quiet spirit. So yes, the Bible says all those things, you know, the Bible says that the man is supposed to lead the family. That's what the Bible says. The man is supposed to be strong and be in charge. That's what, that's God's plan for the family, folks. No matter what the world teaches, no matter what you hear every day of your life, this is God's plan for the family. And even in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse number 7, there's a reason that it's on the front of your bulletin. The Bible says the wife is to be honored as the weaker vessel. Okay, she's the weaker vessel, meaning that she's weaker than her husband. Okay, now ladies, ladies, for your sake, I hope that's the case. I hope that you are weaker than your husband. I hope that you are not stronger than your husband. I mean, how many times have you seen this or do you see this today? You know, this alpha wife married to the gamma male. You know, she's constantly, you know, just berating her husband and she's in charge and she's just beating that she's clearly stronger than him. And you know, she is just beating him. You know why she's mad at him all the time? She's mad at him because she's subliminally saying to him, why are you weaker than me? Is what this woman is saying. The Bible says the husband is to be stronger than the wife. And for all the ladies' sake in this room, the ladies that are not married, the ladies that are married, I hope that your husbands are stronger than you are. I hope that the single ladies marry a man who is stronger than they are for their sake because that's what the Bible says is God's plan for the family. But look, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's what the Bible is not saying here in 1 Peter chapter 3. Here's what the Bible is not saying. The woman is to be a meek and quiet spirit. The woman is to be the weaker vessel. But here's what it is not saying. Turn to Proverbs chapter 31. The Bible is not saying that the woman is weak or that the woman is to be weak. That is not what the Bible is saying here. We see that she's to be meek and quiet, humble, quiet, respectful. She's to be weaker than her husband, hopefully. That's more of a statement to the strength of her husband than it is to the state of the wife, by the way. Because the man is supposed to be strong, but guess what? The woman is also supposed to be strong. The title of the message this morning, if it had a title, is this, Meekness Not Weakness. Look at Proverbs 31 and verse 25. This is the verse that we're going to focus on for the entire sermon right here. Proverbs 31, first of all, Proverbs 31 is the chapter. If you're a woman, if you're a mother, if you're a wife, this is your chapter in the Bible. Men don't really have a chapter like this, where they can just point to one. This is, if you have a son, this is the woman you want them to marry. If you are a wife, this is the woman that you want to be. If you are a single lady, this is what you should try to attain to in your life, is the Proverbs 31 woman, the virtuous woman, who, by the way, is a great price. Her price is far above rubies, the Bible says. The same as 1 Peter 3, as a woman who has the characteristics in 1 Peter 3 is of a great price to God. But look, look at Proverbs 31 and verse 25. Meekness and not weakness. Look what the Bible says. It says about this virtuous woman, about this godly woman, the Bible says this. It says strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in the time to come. The Bible here says on the flip side that, oh, you know, women are, you know, to be weaker than their husband and all that. It says, no, no, the strength is her clothing, meaning it's with her all the time. That's what it's saying. It means strength is with this woman all the time. The Bible never says that the woman is to be weak. She's just weaker than her husband. It's a relative statement. It's a relative statement. I used to work with this guy from Austria. The guy was like 6'9". He was huge, and he talked like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, he was this huge, big guy, and we would have these meetings out in the plant where all the, you know, 20 guys are standing around in a circle. And I always told Andre. I'm like, Andre, you know, because look, I'm not a small guy, but I'm not huge. And when Andre stand next to me, I looked like an ant. So when we were having these meetings in the plant, I was like, Andre, go stand over next to those guys, because I didn't want to be sitting here and lining out these guys for the day. Well, Andre stand next to me, and I look like this tiny little guy. It's all relative. She's weaker than her husband. She's not to be weak. You see what I'm getting at here? I mean, if you think that women are supposed to be weak, I mean, look at the great women in the Bible. Look at the great women in the Bible. Turn to Esther chapter 4. Look at Esther in the Bible. I mean, some of the most courageous acts in the Bible were done by women. Look at Esther chapter 4, and look at verse number 16. Esther, married to the king, she's about, I mean, Esther was a Jew, and she was faced with the destruction, some wicked man was going to destroy her entire people, was going to destroy the entire nation. In Esther, look at verse number 16. The Bible says, go, and this is Esther speaking, go gather all the Jews that are president Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so I will go in unto the king, which is not according to the law. So she was going to go into the king's court and request something of him. And anybody that came into the king's court, he either put his scepter forth and granted them immunity, or they were put to death. So you didn't just walk into the king's court and just ask a question, because you were literally risking your life, and it didn't matter if she was married to him. I mean, this is the king of the entire empire here. So she knew the risks that she was taking to go in and make this request that she was going to make, but she was willing to take this risk, and she says, if I perish, I perish. Look, that's incredible strength right there. Think of Ruth in the Bible. Think of Ruth in the Bible. By the way, the only woman that the Bible actually calls a virtuous woman, which is probably, I mean, I'm not saying that, you know, Ruth is the only virtuous woman, but she's the only one specifically called out as a virtuous woman in the Bible. Look, Ruth, she was strong. Ruth was incredibly strong. She was spiritually strong. Naomi, after their husbands died, Naomi, her mother-in-law, was saying, go back, look, Ruth was not an Israelite. She was from Moab. She was from a heathen people. And Naomi, her mother-in-law, their husbands died, she's like, go back and get married. Go back to your country and get married. And Ruth said, she's like, no, she's like, thy God will be my God, Ruth said. Ruth was very spiritually strong. She was physically strong. She went back with Naomi and she worked from the morning to the evening, the Bible says, to support and take care of her mother-in-law. She was emotionally strong for her mother-in-law. Ruth was an incredibly strong woman in the Bible. And I mean, there's a reason that, you know, Boaz called her and Boaz said, Boaz said just to kind of recap the whole story. He's like, everybody knows you're a virtuous woman. She asked, you know, him to marry her and basically he says, everyone knows you're a virtuous woman. Everyone knew the strength of Ruth. And actually, I mean, look at Exodus chapter 2. Moses' mother, think of this. Exodus chapter 2. Throughout history and terrible times, wars, whatever, even in the Bible, women are constantly showing strength. Look at Exodus chapter 2 in verse number 15. Look at Moses' mother, Moses, who led the children of Israel out of slavery and into the promised land. Look at Exodus chapter 2 verse 1, and there went a man out of the house of Levi and took a wife to the daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bear a son. And she saw that he was a goodly child and she hid him three months. She hid him because Pharaoh was tired of the Israelites multiplying so quickly, so he said, kill all the male children. He told all the midwives of the Israelites to kill all the male children of the Israelites to stop this explosion of population amongst these people that were in slavery to him. But this woman, Moses' mother, she hid him. At risk of her own life, she hid Moses. And then verse number 3, and when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bull brushes and dobbed it with slime and with pitch and put the child there in. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, so now Moses' sister steps in to wit what would come to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river and her maidens walked along by the river's side and she saw the ark amongst the flags. She sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child, behold the babe wept, and she had compassion on him, Pharaoh's daughter, and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister, Moses' sister, to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go, and the maid went and called the child's mother. So here, Moses' mom and sister devised this plan to basically save his life. They devised this plan and they execute this plan to save Moses, and thank God that they did. They risked their lives to save the child. I mean, throughout horrible times in history, you're going to find women doing great, brave things. I mean, about a third of the martyrs in the martyr's mirror are women. They're women that just would not back down from their faith and they were executed. They were tortured. I mean, look, there's great strength to be found in women throughout the Bible, throughout history. So look, women are to be strong is what Proverbs is telling us. Women are to be strong. Why? Why are women to be strong? That is really the key this morning. Go back to verse number 25 of Proverbs chapter 31, Proverbs 31, 25. Women are to be strong. Why? Look at the Bible. Verse number 25, strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in the time to come. Because this woman is strong, the Bible is saying here, she'll rejoice in the time to come. Now put back to Proverbs chapter 29. What are the things about Proverbs? What are the things you've got to realize about the book of Proverbs? It's a book of maybe opposites, or maybe it's a book of cause and effect, maybe is a better way of putting it. You'll see a lot of verses in Proverbs that say if you do this, this will happen. And then you'll see other verses in Proverbs that say do this, but if you don't do this, this is going to happen. And then what I'm going to show you this morning is how Proverbs chapter 29, not only do the single verses themselves in Proverbs give you this contrasting cause and effect, but how even chapters and different ideas in Proverbs fit together to back each other up and show you the different consequences of what will happen if you do things and if you don't do things. Look at Proverbs chapter 29 in verse number 15. So just table Proverbs 31, 25 for a minute in your mind, keep your finger there, and look at Proverbs 29, 15. The Bible says this, it says the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Now I have always thought this is interesting. I've always thought this is interesting. It is proven to be true the more I live and the more I see in my life, but it's always interesting to me that the mother is singled out here. It is interesting to me that it doesn't say that a child left to himself brings his father to shame. No, it's the mother that will suffer the shame. The Bible says. It's true. I've seen that. I've seen that many times. The thing about Proverbs is we're talking about cause and effect. Here we see in Proverbs 29, 15, we see that there's one path that leads to wisdom and there's one path that leads to shame and there's shame for the mother. So look, because the child is not raised right, the cause, this causes great shame to his mother. Now go back to Proverbs 31, 25. Proverbs 31, 25. Look closely at this verse. What this is saying is the cause. The cause here is that the woman is strong. What is the effect? The effect is that in the time to come she will rejoice. So what is the time to come? That's the question. The question is what is the time to come? So the time to come is the future. Now we all know what the future is. We all know what the future is. If I ask you, what's the future? It's the time to come. It's things that haven't happened yet. It's what's going to happen tomorrow and next week and next month and next year and 10 years from now. That's the time to come. That's what the future is. The future is things that haven't happened yet but are going to happen. Now let me ask you this. We know what the future is. Let me ask you this. Who is the future? Who is the future? Now think about Proverbs 29. The future is the children. The future is the children. And that matches perfectly with what Proverbs 29 was saying. That the mother will be brought to shame. So here we see there's two opposites. There's one mother that has shame and there's one mother that is rejoicing because of the future. Because of the children. So what's the translation? What does all this mean? What this means? We're talking about strength. What this means is that the strong life, the strong mother will raise strong children. That's what this means. They're a strong children. But here's the flip side of that. Here's the opposite of that. And here's what's interesting. Even in, you know, whenever secular science or secular studies have figured something out by the way, and it turns out to actually be true, you know it's in the Bible somewhere. And you know the Bible has figured it out thousands of years before. And then somebody wrote a book 12 years ago that figured out some wonderful thing and it turns out to be true study after study after study. It's in the Bible. Strong women, strong mothers will raise strong children. But guess what? The opposite is also true. It is shown again and again and again that weakness, anxiety, panic, stress, these things are contagious. These things are easily passed on to other people. Look at today. Look at the pandemic times we're living in. Look how people panic and they panic other people. And pretty soon people that are all panicked, whether in the workplace or wherever, they're all so panicked they don't even know why they're panicked. Because it's contagious. It's contagious. As you raise your children, it is easy to spread panic and stress in situations. Think about the crowded, I mean the cliche of the crowded theater, and someone screams fire. What does everyone immediately do? They all panic right away, whereas if there was calm, collected, that's why you do so many fire drills all the time by the way. That's why you do fire drills in the office, in other places where there's lots of people. You do fire drills to stop the panic. You do fire drills so there's somebody who's leading in an organized fashion and nobody really panics. Hey, the fire alarm's going off. Let's go. All right, is everyone together? Okay, let's go meet out in the parking lot. There's no panic there, there's no stress there, whereas if the boss just ran out of his office and he's like, we're all going to die, why? Everybody would panic. But these things are contagious. I mean, look, the pandemic was easy for us, right? The pandemic was easy for us. Why? Because God's on the throne. That's why. Because you know, we just, God's running things. Not us. Simple. As you raise your children, moms, what are you instilling is the question. What are you instilling as you run your home? What are you instilling? Do you run the home in an organized fashion? Do you run the home like a clock or like a tornado? Which one is it? Do you get your family going at a certain time? Do you have a routine for everyone? Do you have chores? Do you lead in that organized fashion or do you run around screaming fire? All day long. For smaller children, are you defining boundaries? As in Proverbs 29, in exercising calm, loving, consistent discipline, are you doing that? This all must be done on purpose. Are you teaching them how to live? Are you teaching them how to exercise? Are you teaching them how to take care of themselves? Are you teaching them how to eat properly, cook healthy meals, live a good life? Look, this is all a lot of work. It takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of strength to be this type of mother. Are you teaching these women, are you teaching these women, are you teaching these children to have a spiritual life? Are you reading the Bible to them? Here's the thing about five-year-olds. Five-year-olds love sitting down with their mom and having their mom read the Bible to them. They love it. So do eight-year-olds. Children love it, but guess what? It takes a lot of explanation. It takes a lot of reading and teaching, and it's going to require some explaining what the Bible says. By the way, by the way, this is how your kids are going to end up getting saved. Because you're going to be reading the Bible to them, and you're going to be teaching them this spiritual life and explaining the Bible stories to them, and they're going to start putting this stuff together in their head. Look, you're not going to knock on your children's door when they're 10, like you're soul-winning. You're not going to knock on their bedroom door and be like, knock, knock, knock, and they've never seen the Bible, they've never been to church, and you don't just knock on their door and be like, if you died today, that's not how it's going to go. How it should go is you should be reading the Bible to them, you should be studying the Bible with them, and you know what, they're going to start asking you questions. They're going to start hearing the preaching, they're going to start being out soul-winning with you, you know, having you give the gospel to other people, they're going to start, these wheels are going to start turning by 10, they're 5, 6, 7, 8 years old, they're going to come up to you and be like, am I going to heaven? They're going to ask you, I believe in Jesus, can I go to heaven? It's pretty easy from that point, but you've already been priming that pump. You've already been starting to teach them that spiritual life, it's not just a blow to the face, you know, when they're 8, are you demonstrating to them the work ethic it takes to be a stay-at-home mom and to do this thing properly? Are you doing this? Look, I mean, or are they seeing this, how many times a day do your kids see this? What? What? What? Does that happen? How many times a day are you stuck on Facebook, don't get me started? You find something good on Facebook, let me know. You got your face stuck in your phone all day and your kids are seeing that, look, your mind is gone from them. I mean, you might as well be drinking. Go get a bottle of wine, what's the difference? Your mind is gone from them. Your mind is gone, you're in your phone, I mean they're seeing this. This is showing the opposite of strength. This is what you're teaching them. How about school? I mean, how are you teaching school? How are you doing school when you're like this all the time? How is that even possible? I mean, how about school? Are you teaching strength through school? You know there's a temptation when you're homeschooling, that now you have the total responsibility of homeschooling your children and there's this temptation when maybe things get tough or they get hard and there's this temptation that's gone through all of our heads. This temptation of they don't need to know all this stuff, do they really need to know all this stuff? Look, homeschooling, if done right, is going to take a lot of strength. And the danger is this folks, the danger, the danger moms is not that they don't end up not, it's not that they don't know advanced math. It's not, you know, the real danger is that you have made a mockery of this whole philosophy to them. That's the danger. That's the danger and when it comes, you know what, when it comes time for them to need that strength to withstand the status quo in their lives when it comes to their children, the work required to learn and translate, look, the work required to study and learn advanced math or chemical balancing equations or whatever. All that work, you know what that will transfer into, you're like they're never going to balance equations in their life but here's the thing, that will transfer into a work ethic that will allow them to teach and train their children. It's the ethic. It's not the equation. It's the philosophy. It's the strength. You're passing the strength on, not the equations. Look, if they don't have this strength and you don't pass this strength on to them, well they choose to live their life on half the money that everybody else around them lives on. No, they won't. Well they choose to buck the status quo of this world that is pressuring us all. No, they won't because you know what that takes? That takes strength. That takes strength to do that. Well they choose to sacrifice their lives, their time, their energy, their strength to protect their own children. If you don't show strength yourself, no, they won't. Let me answer it for you. They will not. And they'll have plenty of backup support to justify in their own minds their decision that they're making. Home schooling to me was watching mom on her phone all day. Home schooling to me was we didn't have to do anything. Home schooling to me, you know, staying at home, mom staying home, and a stay at home mom to me meant just a chaotic household. That's what it meant. Because guess what? And then they'll say, I'm not going to put all my kids, I'm not going to put my kids through that. Because guess what? Daycares are really organized. They ever been to one? Super organized. Public schools, they're organized. There's a definite routine there. I mean there's a definite, solid routine there. I mean this is where you end up with folks, folks, this is where you end up with the opposites children. This is what I call them. This is where you end up with the children who they get raised a certain way and they just go completely the other way. This is, I mean this is the question that Christian parents have been asking, why are we losing our children to the world? This is the question. But you know what? Proverbs 29 and Proverbs 31, they answer the question. It's not really opposites. What it means is weakness breeds weakness. But we have the promise that strength breeds strength. So when you have a kid that just completely abandons his Christian faith, you know, there's weakness there. He was raised in weakness. And the Bible's telling us here that that's what the problem was. If you fail, it will not be that your children don't know how to balance chemical equations. You will have children who are weak and they cannot and they'll have zero desire to raise their own children. Zero because it was a joke to you and something that you did not do well. You say happy Mother's Day. You say man, this is rough. But here's the flip side. Here's the thing. I mean, what kind of preacher would I be if I told you something that wasn't true? What kind of preacher would I be if I was like, oh, you know, just wonderful? Because you're a mother, because you were able to give birth, just, oh, everything's perfect. You're perfect because you were able to physically have a child. What in the world? What kind of spiritual leader would I be if that's the kind of thing that I told. But here's the flip side. And Proverbs 31, 25 is telling you the flip side. Look, while you can wreck this thing, you can wreck this thing, Mom, for generations to come, and you can pass on confusion and chaos and laziness and weakness, you can also pass on strength. Strong children will be able to withstand the wiles of the devil. You're like, this world, I mean, the world's getting better, right? I mean, I see a lot of three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds here. I'm sure that by the time that they grow up to be 18, that there's going to be less perversion in our world. I'm sure. I mean, it seems to be getting better to me. Are you crazy? I can't believe how fast it's getting bad, and worse, and worse, and worse. These children need to be strong. They are going to have to resist more than what an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old has to resist today. But the Bible is promising us here. Look, the Bible is promising us here that you can pass that strength on. The Bible works, folks. We know that. This is why, look, it's telling mothers how their strength affects the future generation. This is why Proverbs 29 and other places in the Bible, they explain the opposite side of that. It's the shame, instead of the rejoicing. So you say, OK, I believe you, but I'm just not strong. I'm just not strong. Well, here's the thing. Maybe you should consider it. Have I at least convinced you that you should consider getting stronger? One thing about the ministry that I've learned over the last year and a half, the good. Let me tell you the good about the ministry. The good about the ministry is this. You preach, and you encourage people, and you teach people what the Bible says, and then you see people put that into practice in their life. And you know what happens? They get strong. When people, they hear it, and then they do it, they get strong. If I went, let's say, that I wanted to get stronger. So I went to Barnes & Noble or Amazon or whatever. How's Barnes & Noble still in business with Amazon? Has everyone ever thought about that? Not the point of the sermon. The point is this. If I went and I got a book, I'm like, I want to be stronger. So I went and I got a book, and I went to GNC, and I got a bunch of creatine or whatever. And I just read this book, and read this book, and read this book on weightlifting. But I never touched the weight, and I'm just like, I don't know why I'm not getting stronger. I know exactly how to do all this stuff. Look, that's the downside of the ministry. That's the downside. When you sit here, and you preach, and you teach, and you see people do none of it. Look, I mean, read the Bible. Listen to preaching, but you must put it into practice. You must pick up a weight. You must pick up a weight, and you must exercise. Do you come here, and hear preaching, and walk out the door going, oh man, that was really convicting? And then you're just like, whatever. I mean, we've been here for almost two years now. I mean, think to yourself, where was I two years ago? If you're in the same place today, you're this person. If two years ago, if you're like leaps and bounds, I mean, you're the person that's stressing me out. You're the downside of the ministry. But if you're one of these people that picks up the weights, you're like, oh, here's how you do it, and you pick up the weights, and you start working out, guess what, you're going to get strong. And guess what, your family's going to get strong. And guess what, your kids are going to get strong. But you've got to practice it. That's how you get strong. You don't just listen. You don't just be a hearer, and not a doer. I mean, you've got to get out of your fantasy world. If you're in the same place that you were two years ago, you've got to get out of your fantasy world, and start doing it. Get up and change the way you're doing things. Go to Psalm chapter 103. This is the last place I'll have you turn this morning. In all these areas of your life, you can improve yourself. You can improve in your emotional life. You can improve your spiritual life. You can purposely improve yourself, but it takes action. You're like, these things aren't comfortable to do. Like, look, this is why change is so hard for people. Because it's not comfortable. Because maybe you were raised in weakness. So weakness gets weakness. You're raised in weakness, and that was passed on to you. Boy, it's hard. It's hard, and it's difficult, and it doesn't come natural to be strong. But look, you know how to do it. You know how to do it. You just have to do it. I'm trying to spark you this morning, mothers. I'm trying to show you what is at stake. And here's the real beauty of it. I mean, it's a promise. It's a promise. As I told you, the opposite children, just think about it. I know you all know somebody like this. You all know somebody like this, where maybe there was a brother and a sister. Maybe there were siblings, and they went, and they got married, and they had children. And one does things completely different than the way they did it when they were raised, than the way their parents did it. Now, look, this can work out in a positive way sometimes. This is the guy who was raised by a drunk and just will not touch alcohol. He's just like, no, I will never touch alcohol. But most of the time, weakness begets weakness. Most of the time, it goes where weakness just begets weakness. But look, the Bible is telling us here, you're like, the world is so bad. Like, the world is so bad. The public school system is so bad. What they're teaching out there is terrible. I mean, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. This is all true. But the Bible promises us, no matter how bad it gets, God's promise is generational to us. Look at Psalm 103 in verse 17. Look at Psalm 103 in verse number 17. The Bible says this. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. You're like, OK, God is everlasting. I get that. Upon them that fear Him and His righteousness unto children's children. You know what that means? That means that this, and look, this is the challenge of everyone in the Bible right here. This is the challenge that the kings failed at. This is the challenge that the nation of Israel failed at. How do you pass it on to the next generation successfully? And then have them pass it on to the next generation successfully? How do you pass on this fear of the Lord? Look, the Bible is telling you it's through strength. It is through strength, mom, that you can pass this on. And the Bible says that God's promise, look, God's promise is generational. It goes from children's children to children. That means that, look, this promise of if you raise your children in strength, you will rejoice in the time to come. Look, that means with your grandchildren and your great grandchildren, and if they do it right to their great, great, great, the promise is generational. If it doesn't work that way, it's because we messed it up, not because the Bible was wrong. This is what's at stake here. If we mess it up, and this, and I'm glad that you got saved. You know, I'm glad that you're saved today, mom. But you're just like, that's all it was for you. I got saved, and the children just, phew, gone. One generation. Or maybe you get your kids saved, but then that next generation is gone. The promise is there is you that messed it up. The promise was there. We had the instructions. That's the dumbest thing about it. We had the instructions on how to do it. We just did not listen. And that's the story of the whole Bible right there. We just didn't listen to God. So what I'm trying to get you to understand, moms, this Mother's Day, you don't fail alone. If you fail, you don't fail alone. But here's the beauty of it. And this is what I want you to carry throughout the day and carry into the time to come for you. Here's the thing. Proverbs 29 or Proverbs 31, the choice is yours. You don't fail alone, but you also don't succeed alone. I mean, think about who wouldn't choose rejoicing over shame. Who wouldn't choose to rejoice in their children? I'm really looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to the children's children being the crown of this old man. I'm looking forward to that. I don't want a life where my wife is filled with shame. And we have to be depressed on how our children, our children's children, are going in this Christian life that we're living. So look, it's all about rejoicing in the time to come. And the Bible promises you that it's possible. But you have to be strong. And if you're not strong, you have to get strong. And you don't get strong by reading a book on weight lifting. You get strong by lifting weights, folks. You get strong by practicing what's in the book. So we need to practice what's in this book. Help me out. Help me out in the ministry. If not for your own children, help me out. Do it for your children, please. Practice what's in the book. What's powerheads?