Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

A reading today is from Proverbs 31. Fverbs 31, the Sains of King Lemuel. The Sains of King Lemuel, an oracle his mother taught him, Oh, my son, o son of my womb, o son of my vows, do not spend your strength on women. You're bigger on those who ruin kings.

It is not for kings, oh, Manuel, not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish, let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly defend the rights of the poor and needy. A wife of noble character who can find. She is worth far more than movies.

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still dark.

She provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. 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 tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable and her lamp does not go out at night.

In her hand, she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and 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.

Her husband is respected at the city gate where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies the merchants with sashes She is clothed with strength and dignity. She can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her. Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned and let her work bring her praise at the city gate.

Thanks, Amy. Good morning everybody. My name's Philip Cooper. I'm 1 of the elders of the church, and we're flying through this morning. So do yourself a favor and me.

Don't tell Pete that it's possible to get him up this early in the future. So otherwise, we'll be here for a long time. It's lovely to everybody. Welcome to you online as well if you're if you're watching in. Can I just give another shout out to the seminar program that starts on September the fourth with the finance 1?

1 of the reasons we need you to book in is because we know which room to choose in size, because we don't know whether 7 people are gonna come or 40. And it's fine either way, but it's helpful if you book in. There's also a little comment section. So the people some people have booked in on the fine 1 and 1 person in particular has told us that they want to talk about pensions and whether you should put your pensions together, If you've got lots of little ones, that's very helpful. So that's why the comments section is there.

You know, please let us know if you've got a particular topic. So those start on September the the fourth. Okay. Let's pray, and then we'll turn back to this passage that Amy just read for us. Father the God, we thank you for bringing us here this morning.

Thank you for all the people that watch online. Thank you for the visitors and newcomers that we have with us. We pray now as we turn to your word that you'll help us to focus on you, that whatever's been going on this morning in our lives, we can We can put those things aside for this little period of time and just really concentrate on what you have to say to us. We pray lord that you'll speak to us through your word this morning and that you will speak into our hearts and our minds and that you'll change us. And make us more like Jesus.

In Jesus name, amen. So this morning, we're we're and next week actually we're looking at this Proverbs 31 chapter. And actually, this is the last these 2 are the last in our series of proverb. So you can imagine, I guess, the staff team on Monday, sitting there and thinking, who can we ask to preach? The pinnacle.

Of the whole series of Proverbs, Phil, they said. That must have been it. That's roughly what I thought the conversation would have gone like. The alternative is they said, who's not at contagious and is available. So whichever 1 you wanna believe, that that's up to you.

But we're gonna spend 2 weeks looking at this proverb, and then, excitingly, we're moving into Mark's gospel. And we're gonna be in Mark's gospel because of the run up as you know to the Mark drama and Share Life in November. Now, I guess, for some of you, Proverbs 31 is probably quite well known particularly the bits from verse 10 onwards. The wife or the noble wife, as it's called here, the wife of noble character. But before we get going on that, and that's really gonna be next week.

So come back for that next week. Really get before we get going on that, we're gonna look at verses 1 to 9. Because I want us to get a bit of context and see how that helps us understand the whole of Proverbs 31, actually. Because I don't I don't know about you when you when you read it or perhaps you've read it before. It feels as if it's almost tagged on.

To the end of the book. It says sayings of King Lemuel, and then it just sort of starts. And as there was no King Lemuel in history, as far as we know, it seems a little strange. But firstly, let's not forget that it's scripture. So whether or not we think it's strange, whether or not we're wondering, well, who is king Lamuel, if if they're you know, didn't exist.

It is scripture and scripture is inspired by God. So as it says in in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, I think that should come up. All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching for rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. So it can't be an error, can it? Can't just be an afterthought that there's somebody's just stuck with some random document onto the back end of proverbs.

But if it's parter proverbs, then I think there's several things we need to keep in mind for us to be able to understand it. Firstly, chapters 8 and 9 are probably, which you can remember back that far, tell us about wisdom. And this wisdom both in chapter 8, but also here, if you look at verse 10 onwards, is personified as a woman. Chapter 8 verse 10 says this, choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than Ruby's, and nothing you desire can compare with her. See, wisdom's female.

Just as it is when you get to verse 10 onwards in Proverbs 31. Now we know and has been talked about on several of the sermons. Ultimately, wisdom is personified in Jesus. So God's wisdom, if we seek it, if we follow it, if we want it in our lives, will make us more like Christ. And here in Proverbs 31, King Lemuel is writing down the wisdom he's given by his mother.

I'll just stop and think about that for a moment. If you had a few words of wisdom to pass on to your children, Or perhaps if you don't have children. If you were talking to the youth here, Sunday school, and you only had a few verses, a few words to pass on to them, What would it be about? What would you say to children in just a few verses? The most important thing they need to know.

Just think about that for a moment. What would it be? You see here The mother, the advice that she gives to this young king, is all about character. That's it. It's all about character.

She doesn't talk about achievements. She doesn't talk about a level results that have just happened. She doesn't talk about accomplishments or success or money. She talks about character that transcends, as we'll see next week in particular, both gender and circumstances. But you see, what's fascinating and I think about this little bit of proverbs is that it's entirely possible.

That the young king that's receiving this advice from his mother, King Lemuel, is in fact Solomon. It makes sense in the way that Proverbs are structured. There are verses here that are the same tone as earlier chapters. So for example, let me give you 1. The famous verse 10, a wife of noble character who can find, it says.

Well, if you look at chapter 20 verse 6, it says, a faithful man who can find. And those sort of same tones crop up all the time. In fact, the the description of the noble wife that as I said we're gonna get to you next week is pretty much a summary of a lot of the positive wisdom that we've seen over the last months. The noble wife is the book of proverbs in action. So if Lemuel is Solomon, then the mother that's giving him the advice would be bathsheba.

And she would have been really only too well aware of the pitfalls that a young king could fall into. Hopefully, you know the story. When bathsheba became David's wife in 2 Samuel. It follows David manipulating bathsheba's husband at the time, Yuri, onto the front line in battle ensuring that he's killed to get him out of the way, basically. Nathan the profit then comes to David, and he declares you have sinned against God.

And he says in 2 Samuel 12 verse 14. Because by doing this, you have shown utter contempt for the lord. The sun born to you will die. Don't you find that interesting? I mean, David sinned against you, Ryan.

And God says, because you showed utter contempt for me by doing that. Shortly afterwards, the boy does actually become sick and die. David and bathsheba are of course distraught. David's well aware that it's his sin. That's brought judgment upon them.

But later and it's only a few verses later, bathsheba and David that bathsheba conceives again, And it says in verse 24 beige, he gave birth to a son and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him. And then we read on in verse 25. And because the Lord loved him, he sent words through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedadiah. Now why is that so important?

Because Jedadiah, which is if you like Solomon's God given Hebrew name, means loved by the lord. So Solomon is God says is loved by the lord. And here in Proverbs 31, you have the name King Lemuel. And Lemuel means devoted to the lord. Love by the lord devoted to the lord.

So it's entirely possible that Lemio was bathsheba's pet name for Solomon. Also, as you see in verse 2, I I guess when bathsheba lost her first child. She would have prayed, wouldn't she for another 1? And God answered those prayers in the form of Solomon, and it says in Proverbs 31 verse 2, listen my son the answer to my prayers. So that's a little bit of context.

Is it tagged is is it tagged on? It looks like it's Solomon. It's the sayings of Solomon's mother to him that he summarizes and puts into these few verses. Now not everyone agrees. You might wanna take a different view.

I'm inclined to go with the idea that Lemuel is Solomon. And at the end of the book of Proverbs, very interestingly, he's summarizing his mother's wisdom to him. So like a lot of scripture, we have the direct context, the queen talking to a young king, and it remains relevant to us today as well. Because it's God given, wisdom in Scripture. Proverbs 8 verse 32, says this, listen to my instruction and be wise.

Do not disregard it. We're not to disregard it. God's wisdom in scripture. See, I guess we should want our ways, our life, if you like, to be like God's ways. And part of that and we're gonna see it all the way through this chapter is to learn to recognize what is of value and what is good and to turn away from the wickedness that the world offers and actually the wickedness that we find in our own hearts.

That's what I want us to really focus on this morning as we talk about various, almost illustrations of of character. Can we value what is good? Do we value what is good? Do we turn away from the world's wickedness? So let's look at these 9 verses.

And the first point is verse 2, which in my translation says, listen my son. Listen son of my womb. Listen my son. The answer to my prayers. Now look, parents here or listening, we need to pay particular attention to this, particularly mothers.

In evangelical circles, which is a sort of posh phrase for saying churches like ours. In churches like ours, we often emphasize the role of the far other in leading the family. And that is right. That is right, and it's biblical. But so many dads in our culture have checked out.

That's why we emphasize it. We heard I don't I don't know if you've been to any of the Wednesday testimony sessions, but this has come through quite a few times in these. People brought up by their mom or their grandparents having great influence on them. Because dad had left. But in trying to correct that and emphasizing the role of the father, We don't want to let the pendulum swing too far that way.

Mother's, this verse shows you that you have an opportunity. As you bring up your children to mold and affect the way they think. You see, there's a clear bond here between the future king and his mother. She's urging him. You know, there's quite a strength of feeling in this.

She repeats herself 3 times. Listen, she's saying, Listen my son. Listen son of my womb. Listen my son. She's using her position as his mother, the fact that she gave birth to him, the fact that she prayed for him to be born.

To reinforce the need for him to listen. Now look, most of you, even if you're you're not a mother. If you've got a brother You've got a husband. You're gonna know, aren't you? That 3 times is the absolute minimum for anything to go into their heads.

So that must be why she goes on. Listen. Listen. Listen. I can remember when we've we've got a daughter and a son.

Our daughter's older than our son. When when they were there in their twenties now. But you could say to Amy, look, can you pick up your clothes off floor, brush your teeth, go to bed, things happened. If you said to Matthew, those 3 things, he picks up the clothes because that's the first thing he's hurt. And then everything else already gone from his head.

That's fairly typical. So she's saying here, listen. Listen. Listen. Now other translations actually instead of listen have what What my son?

And in fact, the ESV has, what are you doing my son? So there's a whole slightly more sense of chiding in that. But in all of them, the repetition is there. In other words, she's saying to her son, look, is this really the course of life? That you intend to lead.

You need to listen to me. She's absolutely clear and it's worth noting She doesn't avoid saying stuff for fear of upsetting him. She isn't so blind because it's her own offspring. That whatever he does is fine. Very important we get that as parents.

Parenting with wisdom will include questioning the course your child is taking. It may involve calling the children to account when you see them taking the wrong path. And I know there's a lot of a lot of children as our parents in this church with kids, it's probably fairly easy at that stage. It doesn't get easier. As they get older, questioning what they're doing gets tougher.

And I know some of the moms here find this hard. So, yes, it's good if Dad's step up. I'm not saying Dad's, you know, forget it. It's the mom's responsibility. But that isn't what's happening in verse 31.

She's not saying in verse 31, listen son to your father when he gets home. It's not the old testament equivalent of wait till your dad gets home. Mums, you have the authority and the wisdom to do this. And it may be, maybe some of us, some of you need to just develop the courage as well. Now for the rest of us, if we're not moms, what's this about for us?

Where's the wisdom for us here? Well, it's the other side of the same coin, isn't it? We need to listen to those who are older, to those who are wiser, to those who love us, not for the world's wisdom. We can get that from anybody. Proverbs is all about godly wisdom.

So let's be open to a person who comes into your life, who's following Christ, and speaks this sort of wisdom into it. And let's not try and need it said 3 times. Before we pay any sort of attention. Somebody who's godly speaking to you God's wisdom, let's listen now. Forlemuel, it's his mother who stepped into his life here as giving him godly advice And so after getting his attention with the listen, listen, listen, after getting his attention, she says this.

And it's a very interesting first point from a woman, from a mother. Because her first point is beware of women. But where of women. Look at verse 3. Do not spend your strength on women.

You're vigor on those who ruin kings. Now bathsheba, of course, would have been well aware of the sin in the way that she became David's wife. And it's fair to say if this is, if Lemuel is Solomon, he didn't listen. With all the concubines and the wives, When she says do not spend your strength on women, what do you think that means? You see, I don't think it's saying.

Don't spend any time with women because they're very tiring. Wish they are, aren't they? Let's face it. All the chatting I mean, it's interesting. There's a lot more this next week.

It's interesting when I've as many times, I've left the ice cream section after the service. If you're if you're visiting, we have ice creams after this terrific. And I've wandered around to the car park, and there's a good Christian brother standing there. Kids are already in the car seats in the back, and he's just standing by his car. And I've said, what are you doing?

And he says, I'm just waiting for the wife. She's still talking. And I did well there not to mention names. That's not what she's on about here. That's not what she's saying.

She's saying, look, Don't spend your energy or your vitality on sexual immorality with women. That's what he's talking about. And the word spend rather than lose, which you get in other, that some other translations is actually the right 1. Don't spend your energy. Because Lou's makes it sound like it was an accident.

And just like David and bathsheba, sexual immorality is a choice. It's not a mishap. There's intent about it. If you think about the way David saw bathsheba bathing on the roof. He wanted her.

He took her. And then all the energy and effort that was spent to cover it up, get our husband killed, and it ends as we saw earlier in the loss of their child. That is the sort of entrapment that the mother is warning against to the young king here. Don't spend your strength. On women.

Don't let your lusts take over and ruin your life is what she's saying. The second piece of advice she gives is against alcohol. Verse 4, it's not for king's lemuel. It's not for kings to drink wine. Not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.

Now, you might need to substitute to apply it to you. Perhaps alcohol isn't your problem. I don't know. But, you know, any sort of addiction any sort of idolatry, any sort of issue for you, you you can try and interpret, you know, what we're talking about and apply it. So don't just get too focused alcohol.

But that is what she talks about here. It's basically the same theme. The mother saying to her son, don't lose control. Be disciplined. Now when I became a Christian, my my I grew up in a home, my father was a director of a brewery.

There was beer all the time. There's even photos of me having beer at 2. It's true. Now I like wine and beer. I'm not bother about spirits, but I like wine and beer.

And I didn't stop drinking when I became a Christian and I'm not teetotal now and I like them. But When I recognized in my life that I had I had responsibilities and that's similar to what the mother's talking about. We'll come back to that. I found it relatively easy, relatively to not have more than, you know, a drink. Now, in my case, that was becoming a father.

You know, because you don't know when you've got to suddenly nip out and buy Kalpov from some late night chemist. You know, or drive around on the a 3 to get the baby to sleep or drive everybody to a and e. When Amy, she's now 25 was when she was old enough to get a little birthday parties in the early evening and then obviously more serious parties later, I would often go and pick her up. So having more than 1 drink was was just a nonstarter. And by the way, it is a great time.

To chat to your kids when you're picking them up on those sort of occasions. So dad's here. If you are doing that, and you're lost in berrylands, which I regularly was, at 11 30 at night. Just remember in your head this is a good opportunity to talk to my kids. Even after 80, after she was 18, I'd get calls at midnight and so if she was stranded somewhere.

So it's always her actually never really Matthew. And off you'd go. Now look, the thing that reason I tell you all that is because we often pray or hope in some ways, that a desire in us to be godly, that a desire in us to be like Jesus is going to be enough for us to exercise self control in whatever area of life we're struggling with. But you see in verse 4, she's saying, about a king, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. It's indicating you see that there are times when you have responsibilities.

And in many ways, they can be helpful. In instilling discipline in your life, So don't devalue them because you think, oh, well, it's not a good motivation really. In fact, I've got to pick up my daughter. It doesn't make me more godly. Just because you prioritize something, and a side effect of that is you're more self controlled, don't dismiss it.

God uses all sorts of things in our lives. See, the writers being very specific saying there's a consequence for a leader, for a king, in liking alcohol too much. They'll govern badly. It's just like Tom was saying if you if you listened to that sermon a few weeks ago, you know, and he was talking about having beer goggles, seeing everything through beer goggles because you've you've had too much to drink. And he was preaching on Proverbs 23 verse 33.

I think it'll come up. Your eyes will see strange sites and your mind will imagine confusing things, if you remember that. How do you do that if you're a king? And govern well? Or even if you're just a a home group leader or an Eldor teaching in Sunday school.

We make bad decisions We don't see reality when we've had too much to drink. And if you were king, that's a disaster. Now look, if you're sitting there this morning thinking, well, that's fine but I'm not a king. I'm not I'm not an elder. Not even a parent.

So I don't have these responsibilities. Then let's just rethink that for a moment. See, we said at the beginning, didn't we? That these verses are all about character. They're all about godliness.

It's why the advice from King Lemuel mother is so valuable to us today. Church is family. And you know that the church is described in Scripture as the bride of Christ. And so let's take a Sunday. We gathered here, aren't we?

We gathered here together. Don't we have a responsibility for each other? To have had enough sleep and a measured amount of alcohol so that we can be on time here, not hungover, able to serve coffee if you're on the router, able to be in kids' work, if that's what you're doing. Not asleep in the sermon. Why?

So that we can encourage each other. So that we can build each other up, so that we can chat afterwards, so that we can greet new people. See, we all have responsibilities. There are benefits to being disciplined in life. So don't devalue it just because you don't think in some way it's, you know, godly or grace.

You know, if you wanna get an early flight in the morning to go on holiday, I mean, I was talking to Chris Tilly the day, loves getting up at like 3 AM to get a flight at 5. I don't know anyone else who loves it, but accept him. The rest of us, you know, need to get an early flight, we live with it. Don't we? If you wanna go to the gym before work, I guess you're prepared to go to bed a bit earlier or you're prepared not to drink too much knowing you're going to the gym or getting a flight in the morning.

Why won't we make the same preparation for each other on a Sunday? Every Tuesday, Every Tuesday morning, I play tennis with 3 older guys, so we're pretty old, all of us. 3 older guys in Raines Park. And we on court at 7 30 in the morning because they're retired and that's when they've been awake hours by then, I think. So that's when they wanna play.

And I've never missed 1 unless we were away on holiday. On the other hand, twice a month I have to go on Zoom at 6 30 in the morning for elder's prayer. Now the funny thing about that is, actually, the waking up time is identical. Because on Zoom, I roll out of bed and press go and we're there. In the tennis, I have to get up and get changed and get my work clothes and all that stuff.

But the Zoom 1, the elder's prayer, I've slept through the alarm. I've forgotten to set it. I've said yes to business meetings that clash with it. Just because I find it annoying. Now how do we do that?

Why why is it we can't, you know, we can't say, can we look discipline in the world? Discipline when I wanna play tennis is good, but it's just irritating when it's in our spiritual life. So discipline in your life, establishing patterns of behavior can help you. In the form of godliness. But and this is very important on the 2 things we've looked at.

Sexual immorality and alcohol. Whatever it is. This passage is not saying just a simple, be better. Be a better you, because that isn't Christianity. Just try harder with alcohol or whatever.

Is is no good to us really. It's not what the Bible teaches. I've been listening. I must recommend these. Catherine put me on to these.

I've been listening to the sister stories podcast. If this is a podcast that's been put out by the church, Sophie does them, And they've been real they are fantastic, actually. They're really just testimonies of the women in the church. They've been really good. There's a couple I was listening to this week which had sort of the same theme crept in, Lauren and Anja, I was listening to.

And they both comment on the fact that they they decided to try and change in a particular area in their life. But they did it in their own strength. They admit that and they said it failed. See, this passage isn't just saying, well, try harder. Do this.

Do that. It's making us ask the question as we think about it this morning. Do we want to continue growing as a Christian? Do we want to become more like Jesus? Is your heart full of Christ?

You see, is he your Savior? Or just your role model. Because if it's just your role model, you can take these verses here and you can say, oh, yeah, that's good. I'll I'll try a bit harder on those things, but we'll fail. If we're a follower of Jesus.

Yes. We need to be reminded what it looks like to be godly, but we'll respond out of love for him. We'll be self controlled in any area you wanna pick, but in the areas of sex and alcohol here because the Holy Spirit will help us, not because we try harder. Before we move off the subject of alcohol, just look at 6 and 7 because they're pretty shocking verses. We need to cover them.

Let beer be for those who are perishing. Wine for those who are in anguish. Let them drink and forget their poverty. And remember their misery no more. I I found these verses sad.

I hope I hope they make you sad, actually. Because they're saying that there is a role for alcohol as a sedative in life, for the person in anguish, for the person perishing. If you go back to Tom Sermon again when he talked about alcohol. In chapter 23, he says he read we talked about verse 35. I think again, that'll come up.

They hit me, you will say, but I'm not hurt. They beat me, but I don't feel it. Because the drunk person is desensitized. And that's what you need, isn't it, if you're perishing? You need a sedative.

But for us, as a Christian, it's not necessary. We have a hope. We have heaven. We have an eternity with Jesus to look forward to. Do we need to turn to alcohol to dull the pain now?

Just think about Christ on the cross. The agony he would have experienced hanging there separated from God, the father. Not for his own sin but for ours. Big nails driven through his hands and his feet. A crown of thorns, pressed down, blood flowing down his face.

He was whipped and he was beaten. And it says in Mark's Gospel chapter 15 verse 23, They offered him wine with Meur, but he did not take it. They were offering him there a strong drink. A real sedative. And if you're dying a painful death away from God, without Jesus as Lord and save you in your life, then you'd want all the sedatives you can get when you.

But Jesus refuses it because he knew exactly what was happening to him. Why he was there, and ultimately where he was going to sit at the right hand of God, the father. Terrible versus these. People who are perishing in anguish will they need alcohol. They need a sedative.

There's also an element of irony, you know, in them. In the sense, I think that we know that drinking and forgetting doesn't change anything, does it? Doesn't alter the road we're traveling on, it just dulls some pain. Briefly. Good verse 7, let them drink and forget their poverty.

And remember their misery no more. Does anyone think that's actually good advice here? See, no one's problems are forgotten. Well, they might be forgotten for a short while, but they're not solved. Are they?

So you'd be shocked or I hope you would be. If you came to see Catherine and me for some advice, I don't know on what. But if you came to see us, And the best we could offer is, okay, let's open a bottle of wine and get hammered together. There's a there's a phrase going around. I think it's quite an old phrase.

You get it a lot in economics at the moment. The phrase is a misery likes company. And it's referring to a lot of the doomssters out there saying the whole world is ending going to a financial off a financial cliff. And what they're really saying when they say misery lights company is those people like to be right. They like to Tell you it's all a disaster all the time so that they get more people believing it with them.

Cheers them up, weirdly. You see, it's not the job of the Christian to provide that company in the form of somebody to drown your sorrows with. Bothers and sisters, we help our friends and our neighbors not by encouraging them to deaden their pain but by encouraging them to seek and trust the lord and to lean on his word. We love people most by giving them the gospel. Not by being someone they can have a drink with.

So firstly, don't spend your energy on sexual immorality. Secondly, don't lose control because of alcohol or whatever else. You've got going on in your life. And thirdly, and much more briefly, open your mouth is the other piece of advice she gives. Versus 8 and 9, speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

She says you see that she wants her son to be more than a passerby, more than an observer. It's not enough she says not to do evil. It's not enough to be passive. It's not enough not to hurt people. You need to actually stand up for others.

You need to open your mouth in their defense. Now, don't you think this is interesting it comes from a mother. See, a lot of moms, I think, understandably, frankly, in London, scared for their own children, perhaps getting hurt. A lot of mothers would advise their offspring, don't get involved. Don't get involved.

Walk away. You know, mothers would worry, wouldn't they? That their children might get stabbed or beaten up if they interfere. It's not your business. We might say to our kids.

But not here. Not if you want to be like Jesus. If you see someone with no power, someone oppressed, someone not being treated fairly because they have few resources. Because they don't have a voice in society. Then some, she says, in verse 9, you need to stand up for them.

I don't know about you, but when I when I was looking at this, it immediately brought to mind a good Samaritan to me. The good Samaritan's interesting, because he doesn't walk past, does he? He doesn't ignore the beaten up. Bloke on the side of the road. He's actually a different race.

He's not from the same town. He doesn't know the bloke. And yet he still puts himself out to help. But the emphasis here is on using your voice is using your influence, your power, however much or little you have. And actually, you know, I wonder if we find that harder.

You see, isn't it easier? I don't think about this. Isn't it easier for you if you see somebody who's fallen over or see somebody hurt, to stop and help them in a practical way. Like the good Samaritan, somebody's been in an accident. Of course, you'll stop and help.

Isn't that easy in the standing up for somebody? Perhaps who's being mocked. Or bullied or treated unfairly at school or at work or wherever. Because we know, don't we? That if we do that, then the attention might switch to us.

That is a harder thing. That is a scarier thing to do. I don't know if you've seen this. I'm sorry about this. It really actually is a recommendation, if you haven't.

There's a great film called blindside. About American Black footballer. He's a kid who becomes a great footballer. And he's taken in by this white family in the south, quite quite posh, well-to-do family at a very nice school. And there's this great scene where he walks into the library, and he's huge this kid, and he goes over and sits on his own.

Because he doesn't know anybody. He's not from their sort of background. He said, you know, it's difficult for him. And his white teenage I guess new sister is with all her gang. And she gets up and walks over and goes to sit with him and gets abuse from her friends because she's doing something out of the ordinary.

But that is what this is talking about. She stood up and walked across the room and sat down with him and got abuse because he was on his own and he was effectively ignored. By them. Open your mouth, say something, Think about the people around you. That's what that's what she's saying.

So to finish, We can apply all of this on those detail. We can apply it to us because it is godly wisdom. And if we follow it, we become more like Jesus, because he was the personification of this. It's not just about trying harder. But, as I said, don't ignore the benefits of discipline in your life either.

But what we've really got to do is pray, isn't it? We've really got to pray that we will be more like Jesus. We've got to seek godliness. We've got to want the fruit of the spirit in our lives. Jesus can't just be our role model.

He has to be our lord and savior. So let's love him more. Let's think ahead to an eternity in heaven with him. And then all these other things will follow. Out of our love for Jesus.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for these words that they The mother speaks to her son that is so applicable to us today, help us to apply them. Not to get too bogged down in the in the detail of whether it's alcohol or something else in our lives. We just pray, lord, that your wisdom and will speak into us that we will understand that character reflects Jesus to other people. We want to be people that are trying to follow your ways that will be self controlled that will speak up for people who are oppressed, who are vulnerable.

Help help us not to be just hardened people if you carry on with our lives and come here on a Sunday. Help us want to bring these attitudes described that we've seen this morning into our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.