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May 14, 2023

The Faithful

The Faithful

Passage: Proverbs 31:10-24

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Stand Alone Message

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: truth, pastor, love, church, worship, prayer, faith, jesus, god, sermon, christian, bible, christ, gospel, scripture, hope, preaching, sermons, suffering, believe, spirituality, inspiration, purpose, jesus christ, the bible, faithful, lord, christianity, mother, bible study, mom, mothers day, the gospel, proverbs 31 woman, transformed life, mama, truth in love, bible teaching, 2023, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, faithful moms, bibly study

We celebrate mothers and mom figures today on this special day, and through scripture, we learn about faithfulness. Proverbs 31 dives into what a faithful and noble wife and mother looks like, her value and purpose in life, the sacrifice she makes for her family. We see that the faithful take action and serve their families and others and speaks truth while loving sacrificially. These are not just the marks of a good mother, but also a good Christian. We are all called to serve our family and serve others. We are to be servants in example of Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many. Who are you serving? Who are you speaking life-giving truths of Jesus to? How are you loving sacrificially? As always, we’d love to connect with you and answer any questions you might have. You can always reach out or take the next step by visiting burnthickory.com/next

So how's school today? I thought the two were still up. No, you do not. Hey, how was choir? Was. Did moms have it so easy? I mean, their lives are fun, simple, and so rewarding. Sometimes I wish instead of being the dad, I wish I was the mom. Another day of pedicures. Reading my magazines, making myself beautiful. This is the life, Mom. Mom, stop copying me and tend to stop typing. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Mom. Do something. Data. Are you serious? Yes, Mom. Are you serious? Why do I ever ask you to help me? I should have known you could fix my hair. I look like a freak. Look at me. Look at me. Hey, look who did this to me. Come on, Mom. Look at me. What's this? Mom? What? Look at this watch list for the week. Mom, I'm going. Is it all right? Mom, I was looking for to tomorrow, and I haven't read any of this. Mom, if you don't help me, I'm going to fail school and be a loser forever. You expect me to read all of my stuff? Do you? You don't expect me to eat this, do you? Seriously, Mom, what is this? Mom, I'm not going to eat this. Dad, please go out to eat. Please. Hey, kids, be nice to your mother. If I eat this, I'm going to throw up. Mom, I should never throw now. Yeah, Mom, I think I'm going to be sick, too. Oh, you're amazing. No, seriously, I don't know how you do it. I'm at a loss for words. Kids, come here. Get in here. Hug your mother. Tell her you love her. We're in the presence of greatness. Not now. Dad's on a roll. This is God's greatest creation, kids. You're smashing my fridge. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry because I don't say thank you enough. I mean, the truth is, I don't deserve you. We don't deserve you. And one day is not enough to honor you. We should honor you every day. But how do we say thank you to the woman? That means the world to us. I know. We're going to go right now and get you that vacuum cleaner. You've had your eye on nothing. Don't speak. This time we'll go in. Name brand, baby. Come on, kids. Let's go. Make your mom's dreams come true.

Well, happy Mother's Day. Did you know that 117 years ago, a lady by the name of Anna Jarvis in St Andrew's Church in West Virginia. Not a mom herself, but she wanted to come up with a way to honor her mother and some motherly figures in her life. And so she came up with this wild idea to have one Sunday a year that they honored mothers. Fast forward eight years after that and President Woodrow Wilson decreed a presidential decree that this day, every single year would be a day that we just said thank you to an incredibly special people in our lives, and that is our mothers. So today, if you are a mom or if you have a mom, we can just all at one time give a round of applause for all of the mamas in our lives. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, man. I just want to publicly honor my mother. She put up with a lot of stuff for a lot of years. And another mother, the mother of my children, Melissa, in the service. She has equally for almost the same amount of years at this point, put up with us as the Petty boys in our house. You know, moms are incredible. I read a thing a couple not too long ago that I kind of took back for this week. And it was an editorial kind of column that gave us some second graders that were being interviewed on who their moms were and they were giving answers that only second graders could. I want to give you a couple of them this morning just for fun. Here is the first question that they were asked. The first question these second grade boys and girls were asked was, why did God make mothers? And their answers. The first one said, Well, really, because mom is the only one that can find anything around the house. I thought that was really true. The second one said, Well, moms were made just to clean up after us. I thought that was incredibly true. And then the third one, this one's a little bit raw, said, Well, God made moms to help us get out of there when we were being born. I don't know what study they're having in second grade, but pretty raw but true, I guess. They asked another group of small girls in the second grade, what are moms made out of? And they got together and they came up with an answer. They said, well, moms are made out of clouds and angel hair, which I thought was like, Oh, that's so nice. And then they said, But they have one dab of mean. I thought that was pretty, pretty accurate to a lot of them. They asked a group of boys, they said, what kind of little girl was your mother? And one little boy spoke up really quickly and said, well, I don't know. I wasn't there. I thought that was pretty true. But he said, but if I had to guess, I would say she's pretty bossy. I would say she was pretty bossy, but people tell me she used to be nice. That's what he said to his teacher. I thought that was pretty cool. One girl was asked why did your mom marry your dad? She said, Well, that's easy. He got too old to do anything else with them. I thought that was pretty good. One little girl said, Well, what's the difference between a mom and a dad? And a little girl answered the question pretty quickly. She said, Well, well, that's simple. You see, Mom works at work and then comes home and works. Dad, he works at work. I thought that was pretty accurate. And then the last one was, if you could change just one thing about your mother, what would it be? And a little boy piped up and said this, I would love to get rid of those eyes in the back of her head. I thought that was just so good. You know, when we think about second graders and their responses to moms, they really are kind of a small microcosm of who moms are. They may have a little bit of a skewed image, but even in the second grade, we begin to notice how special our mothers are and what they do in our lives. And the reality is, moms, you guys carry so much weight in the home and outside the home and socially. And our mothers are incredible.

So today, especially, we just want to tell you thank you and want to just tell you thank you today. But I also know that in the joy of Mother's Day and the celebration of Mother's Day, there's also another side to the coin of Mother's Day. That's pretty hard. It's pretty raw and pretty difficult for a lot of people. You know, we walk with a lot of people here and we realized that today, for a lot of you, this is a hard day for you. It's a hard day because possibly this is the first year that maybe you're doing Mother's Day for the first time without your mother. And there's kind of a little bit of an emptiness in you and you don't know how to process today or what to do about today. Or maybe you're part of a group of moms that you've lost a mom in your life kind of back in the past. And you never had that relationship with her that you wanted to have. Maybe you're part of a group that maybe you lost a child in these last years and Mother's Day for you, you're not looking forward to today. It's just kind of one of those days you just even though there's joy in it, you want to get through it. Or maybe you're in a relationship with your mom that you just don't particularly enjoy. That's not there. There's not a lot of joy there. And today it's just kind of a tough day. Don't look around if that's you. But if it's just kind of a tough day for you today to be able to celebrate. Listen, if that's you today, we just want to say that we know today is hard and we want to walk with you. There's a whole other group that especially is in this service that you're not moms. You don't plan on being a mom anytime soon. You don't see the big idea for the day. And you're wondering if all we're going to do today is talk about moms right? To which I would just say, no, that is not the purpose of the day.

What I want to do today is to look at what it looks like to live a faithful life in Jesus, a faithful life that lifts up the name of Jesus that we're devoted to Jesus, but in the spirit of Mother's Day, but also because it's such a great passage. I want to take a passage out of the Old Testament, and I want us to watch this mother that is lived out in example, of not just a godly wife and not just a godly mother, but a godly person in general. A faithful person in general. In fact, if you've got a copy of Scripture this morning, I want you to turn with me already to Proverbs Chapter 31, Proverbs Chapter 31. You've been a Christian for a long time. You know that this is the Mother's Day passage, right? This is the one, a lot of you, you have studied this. A lot of you. You avoided this because this passage makes you feel bad about yourself. Right. And I would agree with you in that. But here's my goal this morning. I want us to walk through this text of an example of a godly lady. And I want us to see what it would look like if all of us took the wisdom from this passage, implanted it into our lives.

Now, for you guys that are out there, don't see this passage through a sexist view or some kind of chauvinist mentality. I want us to see this passage through. We are watching a faithful follower of God give us an example of what we are called to live. All right. That's what we're going to do. My prayer is that when we finish this message, you will be able to pick out maybe one to maybe all of these and plant them into your lives to see what it would look like to be more devoted to Jesus. All right. I'm going to give them all from the perspective of the faithful or the faithful mom or the faithful follower of Jesus. I'm going to give you the first one and then we're going to jump into the text and you're going to see why in just a minute. All right. Number one, I want to write this down, The faithful. All right. Here's the challenge. The faithful believer, the faithful follower of Jesus, number one takes action, takes action. What does that mean? That means that they're action oriented, which automatically, in my mind, brings me back to moms, brings me back to my mother, brings me back to the mother of my children. Why? Because moms are the model human beings of people of action, people that act, people that organize, people that keep the family running. In fact, I don't know if you've ever seen it before, but moms can not only act, but they can have some superhuman strength at times. Have you ever seen or maybe read those stories of when the mama bear comes out and something happens? I do. I lived the student ministry life for 15 years. I saw her for 20 something years. I saw a lot of mama bears and I watched Mama's of Action come out. I watched my mother. My mom would step in front of a criminal. She would push down any guy. She would get up in anybody's face, any mom, and I can say that, she's not in the service. She, I mean, she would absolutely say anything to anybody and go for why?

Because moms are people of action. But I want you to see this lady. Watch this in here, and I'm going to pull it into spiritually. Watch this Proverbs chapter 31, verse ten. Watch what it says about the faithful. It says, A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good and not harm All the days of her life. She selects wool and flax. That's the summertime and the wintertime clothing. Wool for winter, flax for summer. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She's like a merchant ship, bringing her food from afar. She drove a suburban. That's what that means right there. Verse 15, she gets up while it's still night. She provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. She considers a field and buys it out of her earnings. She plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong for her task. She sees that trading is profitable and her lamp does not go out at night. That just means she's prepared. She's thinking about the future. It's not like flipping a switch on. You got to put oil in it for the next day. Verse 19. In her hand, she holds the distaff up and grasps the spindle. That's what you make fabric with. That's you're weaving the fabric. Verse 20, she opens her arms to the poor. She extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in Scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed. She is clothed in fine linen and purple. Verse 23, Her husband is respected at the city gate where he takes a seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them. She supplies to the merchants, the sashes. Listen, I'm. I'm tired just reading it. Amen. But that's a normal day for this mom. And in fact, it's a normal day for a lot of moms. But I get it when we read this, it's contextually hard for us because most of you are not out there growing your own cotton and you don't have your own wool to steer and to weave. You're not out there planting your own vineyards. Your lights kind of last forever, and you don't supply Etsy with all the sashes that the people need. You're not making all your kids' clothes. Although there is a little movement in the weird world about that. But here's what I'm saying. The specifics are not the point. The specifics of what this guy, what the proverb writer is showing us here, is that he's giving us an example that a person that loves God, a person that wants to serve God, a person that wants to be honorable and to be devoted to God, are people of action. They're people of action. That means they're people that take what God has given them, take how God has made them take the skills and abilities and the knowledge and all of what God has placed in their life. And that translates into them not just sitting back and hoping that other people are doing something for them, but being a person of service, being a person of action, being a person of good. In the example that is given here, God is showing us through this text. Church Listen, we are to be some of the most industrious, some of the smartest, some of the hardest working servants that are out there in the world using what God has given us, using how God has created us. And it's showing us this idleness is not part of godliness. Listen, lazy Christians are not good. God has shown us here that we are to be people that serve others, that we serve others. In fact, that is showing us through this lady that we're to be people that serve in really primarily two categories, two specific ones that are laid out in this text. And that's what we want to walk through. First, what are we seeing that the state of mom number one, she serves her family. She serves her family. That's what we're seeing. And the text and I want you to notice. With the first thing when you began to read about this lady's life, the model believer, right. That she is not just a lady that is about herself. Do you see that in the text? You see this lady's life is not just about her. She doesn't see her life as a movie about her. And everybody else is just a supporting cast and pointing to making her life right and making her life go and making her life easy. But here's what our culture tells us. Our culture tells us that it's all about us.

It tells us all about us as individuals. It's all about us as a person. I just got back from Kenya last week, and one of the things that I enjoy most about that country is that they have a group mentality, a whole lot more than an individual mentality. Their individualistic life is not anywhere near ours. But what we're seeing in scripture here is that we are called as people that want to look into specifically at this moment in our family's life and begin to serve our family. If we find ourselves trying to live as lords and lordesses of our homes that just want to serve us, that is not godly living. It's not how God has designed us. You see, we're designed to be people of salt and light. What does that mean? That means that we're to be people that speak specifically, first off, our family's life. In fact, look at this lady. I didn't put these on the screen, but just let me walk through them real quick. Verse 13, 19 and 22 that we just read says that this lady sews for her family, verse 14 says that she shops for her family verse 15 says she cooks for her family. Verse 16 says, She buys a field and invests for the future of her family. Verse 16 says, She plants a vineyard for her family so that they can eat now and later on. Verse 15 says that she gets up while it's still dark to prepare food for her and the other people in her household. We didn't get there. But you can look down just a little bit of what's coming. Verse 27 says that she watches over the affairs of her household. She doesn't eat the bread of idleness, that means. And she's just not lazy. I think for some reason that we have slipped into a lazy mentality of Christianity that just says, Hey, I'm going to love Jesus, drink a lot of coffee and hope for the best. That's not godliness. Godliness says that we walk in a manner that serves other people.

Now, let me just mention this as a really big point. This is not this passage is not a sexist statement that just sets some tone that every lady should be the one that does all of these things here. That is not what this passage is. That is a misinterpreting, this is a message to all of us. If we want to be faithful followers of Jesus now, we need to be people who serve our families, who put our families in a prominent place in our lives, and in reality, serving our family in general is a result of me walking with Jesus. If you find yourself not wanting to serve your family, it's not a serving problem. It's a heart problem in your relationship with Jesus. Problem. Why? Because you're beginning to put yourself first and not others first. That's what she's showing us right here. We would all do better to watch our lives and see, how am I serving my family? Now, I know some of us are like, Man, I got that one down pat. Yes, you do. All right. There are some of you out there that your family is your tribe. I mean, your family is everything to you. You would do anything in this world for your family, but then you look out at the rest of the world and go, well hey, best of luck, right? But that's not where she stops. You see, the faithful not only serve your family, but number two. The faithful serve others. The faithful serve others or you could say that the faithful serve the greater kingdom of God. You see, this is what God has called us to do. God hasn't called us to just seclude ourselves into our family lives. Live this little, just family mentality. He's called us to be people of salt and light to our families, but also to those that are in need. There's a verse that kind of sneaks in that shows us this incredibly clearly. You know, we've watched all of these things that she's done for her family that just kind of makes us tired looking at it. But look at verse 20 and watch how this slides in. You almost just read right past it if you're not watching it. Proverbs 31:20 We just read it, but let me read it again. It says this. It says she opens her arms to the poor. She extends her hands to the needy. Now, let me just sit in that for a moment and let's talk about it, because, listen, as believers and Jesus, there is a biblical mandate on us that we are to help the needy. We're to help the needy. But here's the tendency in many of our lives, not yours, but other people. Just so you have this in your brain, right? The tendency in many people's lives is to fill our lives so much, to extend ourselves so much, or to commit ourselves so much that we forget, whether it's financially, whether it's time, whether it's socially or whatever, that we forget that it is our role and our calling as people of God to serve others.

You see, we place so much in our lives that when opportunities to serve others, when opportunities to stop and to minister, to begin to step into other people's lives, we fill it with so much stuff that automatically our first excuse is this man. I would really love to do that, but I'm just so extended. Let me tell you something. If you are so extended in your life that you can't stop and help the needy and serve others physically as well as spiritually. Listen, I'm just going to be honest. You're too busy. You're too busy. And it would do you well to do an audit of what is going on in your life to see how it is that God is calling you to be his hands and his feet. I can't tell you how many times we have made calls and we have made calls out to people to help, to serve, to go to minister. And automatically it's like, Man, I just wish I would. But you don't understand how busy my life is. And look, I'm a decent pastor, so I don't just kind of get in people's faces and go, well, you're too busy. Right? But that's the truth, isn't it, when we're too busy to act as Jesus acted. How many times did you ever see Jesus in a hurry? How many times did you ever see Jesus pass up somebody who needed something? How many times did you see Jesus just stop, even in the middle of chaos on his way to something and serve people? See, that's what Jesus did. In fact, serving is one of Jesus's biblical mandates to us. Listen to what Jesus said to the disciples. He said this in Mark ten, He says in verse 43. He says, Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you. You see, that's why we fill our lives with everything, right? Because we want to be great. We want our kids to be great. We want everything to make it. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all. For even the son of man did not come to be served. But to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. I think for some reason we have slipped into this all about me mentality where Jesus says, Listen, there can be a day where I gift you and I bless you and I give to you. But right now you are to serve people. Listen to what Peter said. First Peter 4:10 He says each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. To which I would just say, What are you using in your life to serve? What has God given you? What has God gifted you with? What has God got put in your life that only you can do for the Kingdom of God? You see, when Jesus saves us the reason he doesn't just automatically take us out of this world is that he's called us to serve others the reasonable response to our salvation. We don't. We're not saved because we serve. We serve because we're saved. This lady that we're reading is an incredible example of a person that serves. Two questions. I put in your notes just for you to be able to think through in your time this week with the Lord Number one, I want you to think back to the last week of your life. One week of your life. And I just want you to ask yourself this: What did you do to serve your family in the name of Jesus this week? I'm not talking about when I went to work Matt. I get that. I get it. But what did you do to serve them in the name of Jesus this week? What did you do? Number two, The second question I put in there, what did you do to serve others this week? Not part of your job, not part of what you called it. What did you do? What part of your life did you pause, whether it was physically or spiritually to say, Hey, right now, Lord, I just feel like you are pressing into me to stop what I'm doing and to serve this person this week. You see people that make a difference, people that are following Jesus, people that are full of the Holy Spirit are people, the faithful that take action.

Listen, gone are the days of us just kind of huddling together on a Sunday morning, hoping for the best, singing some worship songs here and somebody yells at us for 40 minutes and thinking that God is going to break out in revival in this place. It's not. What's going to happen is when the faithful begin to serve others, they begin to see that God has ultimately served all of us and given us life. Number one, the faithful take action. Number two, here's the second one. Number two, the faithful speak truth. The faithful speak truth. You see, it's not good enough to just live, right? That was kind of a mentality of the eighties and nineties. I'm going to live my life in front of everybody and everybody's just going to bow down and know who Jesus says, No, living your life is a good thing. I'm not saying that, but you've got to speak Jesus. You've got to share Jesus. Now, this is really going to make you think about your mom because Mama speaks. Hey, man, you don't know how to answer that question. Like, yes, she talks a lot, but I'm not going to say that right now. Right? Mamas speak. Honestly, think back about how much your mom spoke into your life. Think back. I know some of you. It didn't happen like this before. A lot of you did. Think back. You adults especially. Think about this. How many of your scars today would you not have if you would have just listened to your mama? Amen? Amen. I know. I can tell you in my life there's a whole bunch of them. You see, it's such a shame that it takes us so long to get to the point that we realize that our moms really did have a super power of knowing what was best for us. Right? But we don't realize that we have to worry about 30. You see, moms verbalize. So they verbalize a whole lot more than we do as dads, as a whole lot more than we do as males. But I want you to see this lady watch this example that she gives us. Verse 25. We're just marching to the scripture. Keep going in the text, it says this. It says, She, or the faithful. She is clothed with strength and dignity.

What does that mean? That means she doesn't shrink back. Her head is high. She is competent. She understands who God is. She understands who she is. Watch this so she can laugh all the days to come. You know what that means? I mean, she's not so serious about herself that she can't laugh. I mean, she's approachable, she's likable. People want to be around this lady. Why? Because she exudes who God is in the love of God. Watch this verse 26. Here's the point. She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. Now let's pull this into our lives. And then I'm telling you, I want this to be said about my life. I want this to be said among all others, a lot of other things, I'm going to say among a lot of other things. I just want to be known as a person that speaks wisdom into people's lives, that speaks truth into people's lives, that speaks hope and the people's lives. But here's the problem with us. Most of our culture runs away from this. Why? Because truth is in the eye of the beholder.

You see what this is showing us is that we, as faithful people, we have been given the responsibility of not only holding the truth, not only having the truth, not only taking action on the truth, but listen, church, we have to speak truth into people's lives because they're not getting it from anywhere else. They are hearing it from anywhere else, not experiencing it from anywhere else. We hold the truth of the word of God in our hands, and we have been called not only to know it and live it, but to speak it in people's lives. Do you know why this lady can laugh? She can laugh because she knows she's walking right in the middle of God's will. When you are acting on God's behalf and speaking on God's behalf, you are able to live in the winsomeness of who God has created you to be. That's where she is. She realizes some things that Scripture tells us all over. Listen to this. Proverbs 10:11 says, The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. Man, Can I just tell you I chewed on this for a long time this week. I chewed on this and I just ask myself over and over and over, do people see my mouth as a fountain of life or do they see it as a cesspool that doesn't bring life to anyone? Do people see my life as something that brings life into them, or does it suck life out of them? We are called to be people who bring life to people. She also realizes this, Psalms 19:14 says May these words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Now let me just ask you, are your words pleasing to God? Now, I'm not talking about you, just not having a potty mouth. That's it. Yeah, yeah, that's part of it. Right. But are your words your words please, God, or do they grieve God? That's what he's saying. Are you known as a person when you walk in the room of, Oh gosh, here he comes? Or are you known as a person that walks into the room that says They're probably going to speak something to me today that maybe fulfills my soul. That's what faithful people do, sort of faithful followers of Jesus do. Even Jesus talks about our words mattering Matthew 12:37. Listen to what he says. He says, For by your words, you will be acquitted. And by your words, you will be condemned. Now, that's a scary verse for a lot of us. I mean, especially a lot of us that talk a lot, right? That doesn't mean that your words save you, but it means this. There's a responsibility on our words that are going to bring blessings or curses into our lives. Let me just ask you a question. How are your words this week? Or I put this one in your notes. Here's a question for you. Who are you speaking the life-giving truth of Jesus to right now? Who are you speaking to? Well Matt, I'm just living my life and they're going to know Jesus. No, they're not. Who are you speaking Jesus to right now? You see, the faithful. They take action. The faithful. They speak the truth. And look at the third one. This one is implied through the whole text. Number three, The faithful love sacrificially. They love sacrificially. They don't just love. They don't just like they love sacrificially. What? Look at all that we have talked through in this text that is some serious sacrifice on behalf of this lady. Seriously. What? I mean, she is up early. She is up late. She's a provider. She is a constant source of other people. First, she's a constant source of sacrifice. Hey, listen, Mom, you do this well, You do this well. So should all of us. Listen, I believe there is a part of creation, when God created Adam and God created Eve, that when He created Eve in the creation of Eve, God showed us something about his character that we would have never gotten if it was just about us dudes. And ladies, he showed us what sacrificial love looks like. He showed us what laying down things look like. He showed us that through ladies in a lot of ways. And it would do us all good to emulate what we're seeing in this text. Look at this faithful Mom and watch what her family says about her right here. Look at verse 28. It says this. Her children arise and call her blessed. Man, that's what my kids say about Melissa every morning. Right. They wake up. They're like, my mom is blessed, right, Just kidding. But they should, right? Her children arise and call her blessed. Her husband also. That's what I do too. Right. And he praises her. Many women do noble things, but you, you surpass them all. Here's the point of this. This really is really hard to kind of bring it into our world, let me do it. When those of us that are closest to us, when those of us that know you best, that are around you the most, listen to this. When they begin to praise you and tell you how much it means, how much you love them and cherish them, that means something. That means you're doing right. That means you are doing it right. That's what that means. That means you're loving sacrificially. This lady has shown us how we love God, how we love our spouses, how we love our family. And she is teaching us that sacrificial love, listen closely, is a central message of the cross of Jesus.

Listen, believers, we cannot live without sacrificial love in our lives as Christians.

Why? Because that is the ultimate form of what Christ has done for us. What was the cross? The cross was sacrificial living on our behalf. In fact, let me read a couple of verses over you. Luke 9 verse 23 says this, and he said to all if anyone would come after me listen, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What does that say? It's saying that this world is not about me, This one is about me denying myself now so that one day Christ will gift me what I deserve. I'm denying myself as Christ told us. John 3:16. For God so loved the world. There's the sacrificial part. He didn't have to love the world. He so loved the world that he did what? He gave. That's sacrificial living. He gave his one and only son whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Romans 5:8. But God shows his love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There's the sacrificial part of his love. First John 3:16. By this we know love. Listen, it gets even stickier. We know love because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Ephesians five verse one says therefore be imitators of God's beloved children and walk and love as Christ Jesus loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Listen, sacrificial love is not a suggestion in Scripture. It is a symbol of what Christ has done for us and what he has called us to do for other people. It is a mandate and it's the bedrock of Christianity. And Jesus has called us to live lives with Him in the prominent place and us in a secondary place. His desires way in front, our desires way in back, making Jesus the object of our faith, the hope of our faith, the promise of our faith and our desires secondly. But culture keeps telling us you are in charge and you are the king and you and you and self and I. No, no, no. It is Jesus. And when we see that that is sacrificial living, we will begin to see Christ's power in our lives. We'll begin to see God's presence in our life. We will begin to see others noticing Jesus in our lives. And we will begin to see people begin to want to know the Jesus that we are following, because it's contagious. It's contagious. You see, making Jesus the object of our faith is us taking ourselves off the lordship throne and putting Him on the lordship throne and watching him be praised. And when he is praised, people begin to notice things happening in our lives and they begin to praise us. And it's not really us that they're praising, it's Christ in us. In fact, keep reading. Look at the final exhortation in the challenge that's in the text. Proverbs 31 verse 30, Here's where we're going to land. It says, charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting. But the woman, you can put the person, the faithful, who fears the Lord is to be praised. Now, that praise is not because of you. It's not because of anything that you deserve. It's because of who Christ is in you. Watch this in verse 31. Honor her for all that her hands have done and let her works bring her praise in the city gates.

Church, listen to me closely. Walking with Jesus today may not bring you praise in this moment, but what is going to happen one day is that Christ will hold you up and praise you for being his. Church, that's what God does in the faithful lives. Moms, we honor you today. But man, this passage right here is showing us that we are to be people who take action, people who speak truth, and people who love sacrificially. And when that happens, listen, mark my words. God will begin to move. God will begin to have honor and people will begin to notice this sort of faith. Let me ask something today. What's keeping you from this? What's keeping you from it? Man, I know this is so countercultural. When you start talking about denying yourself, man, our culture, it doesn't like that a whole lot. Why? Because our whole culture is built around fulfilling yourself. Listen, whatever you're trying to fulfill, if it's not Jesus, it's not going to work. It might work for a day or two, but it isn't going to work for long. When you start talking about speaking the truth, people are going to push back and go, Well, how do you know the truth?

Listen, I don't know the truth because of anything that I know, I only know it because of what God has given us. We've got to speak the truth. When we begin to love sacrificially, listen, people begin to notice. Do you know why? Because this is not where the world lives. So here's our invitation today. Which one of these this week do you just need to go hey, God, I need to lay this before you? Because I haven't been living it. God, I've been living in a world that's all about me. I've been living in a world that's just been totally silent and not proclaiming your truth. God, I've been living in a world that has not been loving sacrificially, but God today, show me how to step into that. Which one is it for you? Maybe it's one, maybe three, I don't know. Which one? I can tell you this. When you begin to ask God to move in them in your life, when you begin to offer him those parts of your life, he'll begin to step inside you and he'll go ok, that's what I've been looking for. Maybe today you came and you're not a believer. Maybe your mom bugged you so much, you finally came to church just to honor her. But maybe, just maybe, something in you is saying man, I'm none of those things because I don't know Jesus. I'm none of those things. I've never. I've never even thought about how God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. I never really thought about that until today. Maybe today Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart today. Maybe today Jesus wants to save you, wants to give you life. Wants to walk with you, Wants to rescue you from death to life. You say Matt, you don't understand what I've done. It doesn't matter what you've done, it matters where you're going. It matters what Christ can do in you.

Listen, this next minute we're going to have a time of invitation. And here's what that means. That just means that it's a time for us to deal with and process through what we just heard from Scripture. For some of you today, you need to pick one of those and go, God, this week this is me. For some of you today, man you need to get saved. You need to invite Christ into your heart and give him your life. Ask him to save you, forgive you of your sins and be yours. Listen, during this invitation, let me encourage you to do something. If you need to use this altar, it's open, of prayer. Maybe today you don't know what it looks like to give your life to Christ, but you want somebody to walk with you in that. And just something in you is just say, Man, that's me. Listen, I'm going to be standing by this next steps banner over here. Got some other people that are with me, and we'd love to pray with you. We'd love to walk with you. And we'd love to share with you what it looks like to be the faithful. Lord Jesus, move. And in these next couple of minutes Jesus, have your way, have your way, have your way. It's in your holy name that we pray.

Amen.

Let's stand and sing.

Follow Along with the Message

The Faithful

May 14, 2023

The Faithful…

1. Take .

Proverbs 31:10–24
10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. 11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. 12 She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. 13 She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. 14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. 15 She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants 16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. 17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. 18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. 19 In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. 21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. 22 She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. 23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. 24 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
2 Key Serving Areas:

1. Serve .

2. Serve .

Proverbs 31:20
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
Mark 10:43–45
43 “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
1 Peter 4:10
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
2 Questions:

1. This week, what did you do to your family?

2. This week, what did you do to others?

John 2:7
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

2. Speak .

Proverbs 31:25–26
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. 26 She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.
Psalm 19:14
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Matthew 12:37
For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.

QUESTION: Who are you speaking the life-giving of Jesus to right now?

3. Love .

Proverbs 31:28–29
28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 29 “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
Luke 9:23–24
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Romans 5:8
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 3:16
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Ephesians 5:1–2
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Proverbs 31:30–31
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. 31 Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
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