Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] So sisters, I want to ask you a similar question that I asked the men last week for you to consider. And men, this is a remaining question for you as well.
[00:00:19] And the question is, what kind of legacy do you want by the grace of God, to leave behind?
[00:00:26] We think a lot today about the idea of longevity. Live as long as you can, be as healthy as you can, take as many vitamins as you can, and none of those things in and of themselves are bad things. It's just a very new thing for a people to think that way.
[00:00:43] It's a very new thing in society for individual people and communities and nations to think that way.
[00:00:51] People have not thought that way. They haven't tried to put off death for as long as possible.
[00:00:57] What drove many, many, many, like millions upon millions of women and men for thousands of years was not longevity, but legacy.
[00:01:07] What kind of legacy, by the grace of God, will you leave? So, Eliza Spurgeon Charles Spurgeon is one of my favorite preachers. Named my oldest son after him, Eliza Spurgeon. His mother was a mother of 17.
[00:01:26] Nine of those children died in infancy.
[00:01:30] Charles, one of her sons, would go on to say this about his mother.
[00:01:35] He would say, I cannot tell how much I owe the solemn words of my good mother.
[00:01:43] Augustine, who is another 4th century, who was a 4th century theologian. After his conversion to Christ in his early 30s, his adolescence and childhood were steeped in paganism and sexual deviancy. His father was abusive and adulterous, but his mother throughout the duration of his life was a godly woman.
[00:02:04] He said this of his persevering and prayerful mother. He said she was walking steadily in the path in which I was at, yet feeling my way.
[00:02:15] So throughout the duration of his life as a non Christian, he's not able to look at the example of his father who should have been the spiritual leader of his home.
[00:02:24] But he's looking at the example of his mother who prayerfully and in perseverance walked out the steadiness of the way in which God would eventually call him into sable, look back at his mother for that. And it was said that after her passing, Augustine would go on to say, now gone from my sight, who for years had wept over me that I might live in God's sight.
[00:02:53] So years of perseverance and prayer and tears to God for the salvation of her son. There isn't much known about her, but her son went on by the grace of God, not just to be saved and become a Christian, but to become one of, if not the most prolific theologian in all of Christian history, maybe outside of the apostle Paul.
[00:03:17] And in many ways, it was the way in which God, in his kindness and in his grace, used Augustine's mother, simple, quiet, unknown, for these eternal, glorious purposes.
[00:03:32] John and Charles Wesley.
[00:03:34] John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and Charles, his brother, a famous hymn writer who wrote over 6,000, some say 6,500 hymns, it said. Story goes, there are many historical documents to attest to this, that their mother, who had 10 children, all at home, often in the midst of the busyness and the chaos, would actually take her apron and throw it over her head. Have you guys heard the story? She would take her apron and throw it over her head, almost as if to build a personal tabernacle with God.
[00:04:07] So you think about the tabernacle that Moses would go in and he would spend time alone with God. The Bible says that Moses was a friend of God, which is an amazing way to think about our relationship with God. We don't often think that way. It's very transactional. God gets us into heaven. That's kind of the way that we think about who God is. A friend of God.
[00:04:28] He's your savior, he's your judge. He's your father, he's your friend. Moses knew friendship with God, and so he would go into this sacred space in order to spend time with his father and friend.
[00:04:40] And she would do the same. She would tabernacle herself by throwing her apron over her head. And her kids knew not to disturb her while the apron was over her head, lest who knows what happened to them. It doesn't say.
[00:04:56] But what did these imperfect, ordinary, but godly women have in common?
[00:05:02] And it wasn't merely motherhood. Not everybody in the room is a mother.
[00:05:06] Motherhood in no way, as I said about fatherhood last week, dignifies you as a person in any way.
[00:05:14] You are worthy.
[00:05:17] You have worth. You have worth. You're worthy in Christ.
[00:05:20] You have worth and value and dignity and purpose and meaning and all of those things on one hand, simply because you are made in the image of God.
[00:05:33] And so every single person you encounter today, from the people in your home to the people outside of your home, to the person experiencing homelessness on the street, it is divine royalty in a sense, because we are made in the image of God. And if you're a daughter of God through faith in Christ, then that's exemplified eternally.
[00:05:58] Not that you have more value than a non Christian woman. That's not what I'm saying. But you're a daughter of God.
[00:06:04] That's where your worth lies. Your worth lies not in what you do, but in Christ, as is the same for you brothers, your identity, your purpose, lies not in what you do, but in Christ.
[00:06:16] And so this is true.
[00:06:20] What was it, however, that all of these imperfect, ordinary, but godly women have in common? And I want to propose to you through Proverbs 31, that it's simply this, that they lived out by God's grace, their God given womanhood.
[00:06:36] They lived out by God's grace, their God given womanhood. And so I want to do the best I can to try to define that for us a little bit, because the reality is, and many of us know this and are experiencing this in real time, you and I live in very interesting times culturally. And we're not here to bash the culture. There are a lot of beautiful things about the culture, and there are problems with every culture. So you can go back throughout all of history and see just crazy things that happen in the culture, because people are crazy. All of us, we're crazy, but by the grace of God, right? And so. But one of the interesting and unique things about our culture is this confusion of what manhood and womanhood are. And so much so that we have attempted and are attempting to redefine ontologically what a woman is.
[00:07:27] So before we get to discussing what is womanhood? What is biblical womanhood, femininity in the biblical sense of the word, we, because of the nature of where we live, have to define what a woman is.
[00:07:40] You can Google this right now if you want to, or when you get home. But if you Google what is a woman? This is the answer that you get, at least the first one. And then it goes into all sorts of confusing things after you get to the initial statement. But here's the statement.
[00:07:55] A woman is an adult female person.
[00:07:58] That's what a woman is. A woman is. Thank you. A woman is an adult female person. That means biological, social, and cultural.
[00:08:10] The reality surrounding all of those things. And this means simply, friends, and I'm not saying this in jest or to, like, try to be juvenile or pick on anybody, because the reality is sin and suffering and all of these kinds of things are.
[00:08:24] The whole transgender debate is filled with sin and suffering and filled with people made in the image of God that God loves and has sent Christ his son to redeem.
[00:08:34] So that's the framework that we're saying these things respectfully and maturely. We're not being juvenile about these things. Nancy Pearcey, in her really helpful book called Love Thy Body says this to protect women's rights, we must be able to say what a woman is.
[00:08:52] If postmodernism is correct, that the body itself is a social construct, then it becomes impossible to argue for rights based on the sheer fact of being female.
[00:09:04] We cannot legally protect a category of people if we cannot identify that category. Does that make sense? If we can't define clearly what a woman is biologically, culturally, socially, we cannot defend that category of people. It's impossible to do that.
[00:09:21] So a man cannot be a woman. A woman cannot be a man. God created both genders and sexes, okay, both out of his image, for his glory.
[00:09:34] Both men and women highlight the reality of who God is in different, but in complementary ways. And I would argue that this conflation of these two realities of masculinity and femininity and the villainization of both of these things really has not made women happier.
[00:09:55] I would argue that it's actually done the opposite, that it's made women more anxious and more fearful and more confused.
[00:10:03] It's led to all sorts of distortions and pain and trauma and even death in some cases.
[00:10:11] It has not led to flourishing of women. It hasn't led to the happiness of women. But by the grace of God, God has given us a book.
[00:10:20] He's given us a book to show us not just who he is, not just how one can enter into a relationship with him through faith in Jesus, not just what he will do when he returns at the end of the age and makes all things right and all things good, eradicates sin from the world, not just to do those things, but to show us how life on this side of heaven works best for our flourishing and our joy.
[00:10:48] That's really what the book of Proverbs is about, is to show us that wisdom is not just knowledge, but it's the skill by the power of the Holy Spirit, to live out that knowledge.
[00:11:01] So it's not just what we know, but it's the skill by the power of the Holy Spirit to actually live us out. Because when we live according to God's good design, we. We do flourish. Does this make sense so far?
[00:11:12] So what does God say about womanhood is really the predominant question that I want to answer for us today. And then, sisters, for you specifically, I just simply want to ask you, how will you respond?
[00:11:26] So how will you respond? So in a similar way that I gave the men an encouragement, a gospel encouragement of who they are in Christ, and then a call to live out their biblical masculinity with a question of What. What kind of legacy will you leave? By the grace of God, I want to do the same thing for you today. So what does.
[00:11:45] What does the Bible say about womanhood? Because it does, as with every topic in life, provide a more true, good, and beautiful picture. The Bible is not just true, but it's good and it's beautiful. So it's a better story than the story of the culture.
[00:12:01] So what does it say? Well, let's look at Proverbs 31, and we're really going to spend the bulk of our time starting in verse 10. But I'm going to give you a very quick contextual highlight of verses 1 through 9.
[00:12:14] So Proverbs 31 begins by saying the words of King Lemuel, an oracle that. Listen to this. His mother taught him.
[00:12:24] So we don't know anything about King Lemuel or even if that's how to pronounce his name. We don't know.
[00:12:30] We don't know who this man is. We don't. Many suspect that he wasn't even Jewish.
[00:12:35] Okay, so who is this guy? We don't know. We're not gonna spend any time talking about it. But what we do know is that the one instructing him with these words of wisdom comes from a woman, comes from his mother. His mother is the one instructing him by saying things like, what are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women. That's not just any woman. That's a particular kind of woman.
[00:13:05] Your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel. It is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to take strong drink. On and on and on she goes, talking about, avoid promiscuous women who do not have your best interest at heart. Be careful with alcohol. She actually gives right context for alcohol, which I'll talk about in a couple of weeks on a sermon over that.
[00:13:25] But she's like, hey, if you're dying or if you're in pain, use alcohol. But for a king, for a leader, for someone who has responsibility over actual dependence, probably not a great idea.
[00:13:39] And so she goes on and on and on, talking about these things of being a good judge of right and wrong. And then when we get to verse 10, she shifts focus into defining an excellent wife. But, of course, as I said earlier, and I'll say again, this is not exclusive to women who are married.
[00:13:58] Here's the thing about Proverbs 31, and maybe you can Attest to this. I am not a woman, obviously, so I don't know this experientially in the same way that many of you do, that if you grew up in the church. There have been entire ministries called Proverbs 31. There have been books written, thousands of books about Proverbs 31. You've heard sermons about Proverbs 31. And I would imagine that maybe there's a little bit of like, oh, Proverbs 31.
[00:14:21] And in reading Proverbs 31, you see a list of all of these characteristics and godly traits and all of these different things, and you're sitting there examining that to your own life and just seeing how short you fall of those things. And so I hope in the midst of this, maybe to reframe the way that we think about this passage a little bit.
[00:14:39] Proverbs 31 is not simply a list. It is not a list of do's and don'ts.
[00:14:45] The Objective of Proverbs 31 is not for you to leave this place and think I have to redouble my effort to live out the things listed in Proverbs 31. That's not the point of this particular passage of Scripture. As we'll see, Proverbs 31 really can be summarized in verse 30.
[00:15:01] So if you look at verse 30 with me, it says, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
[00:15:13] That's what Proverbs 31 is about.
[00:15:16] Proverbs 31 isn't a list of do's and don'ts. Proverbs 31 is an overflow. In the same way that if you with sunglasses on, hopefully look up in the direction of the sun and you see the rays of the sun shining off of the sun, you can differentiate between the rays and the sun.
[00:15:35] It's because of what the sun is that its rays permeate from its essence. That's kind of what we're talking about here. A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. And out of the overflow of the life and the heart of a woman who fears the Lord comes all of these things that we're about to talk about. Does this make sense so far? All right, so what are those things? What does wise womanhood look like according to, According to Proverbs 31? I just want to kind of go through each verse with you, talk about a few things, and then we'll, we'll summarize it with how, how these characteristics, how wise womanhood is cultivated in the heart of the daughter of God.
[00:16:23] All right, so starting in verse 10, virtuous, wise woman is virtuous. The word virtue just means moral excellence, goodness, chastity, power and courage.
[00:16:41] There's a contrast between this idea of charm and external beauty. The kinds of things that our, the vanity of our culture champions as saying, this is what you should make your life about.
[00:16:56] There's a stark contrast that this wise mother is painting the for her son and for us as to say that true beauty really is a matter of the heart.
[00:17:09] And so she begins in verse 10 by talking about this idea of virtue.
[00:17:18] The second thing is verse 11 and 12, that the wise woman is marked by trustworthiness, specifically as it pertains to her husband. The third thing, and I'm just gonna kind of fly through these and I'll stop and talk about a few. The third is hardworking. Verses 13 and 14, she says, like sailors who sail the length of the sea to provide food for her family. Which is not to be confused with this kind of like idea of secular progressivism of our modern era. But in the same way the wise woman, the daughter of God is hard working in all that she.
[00:17:55] All that she does.
[00:17:57] Verse 15 talks about how she is a prioritizer or nurturer of her family. It says that she rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidservants.
[00:18:12] She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household.
[00:18:19] So I'm not going to be able to go into everything I want to go into today.
[00:18:23] But I will say this, that there is this modern concept of. Of you find your worth for women, for our sisters.
[00:18:31] That the way for you to find worth and value and purpose in your life is to do everything you can outside of the home.
[00:18:39] And anybody that tells me otherwise, that it's actually good and profitable and dignified to do hard work in the home on behalf of the woman is culturally anathema. Do not tell me, do not confine me in that way. But I think the Bible, the picture. One of the pictures that the Bible paints is there's actually freedom and beauty that comes from the wife, the woman primarily, firstly, caring for those closest to her.
[00:19:07] Titus 2, 3, 5 says this. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and their children, to be self controlled, pure, working at home.
[00:19:28] Says it does not.
[00:19:32] I'm sorry, quick note with that self control, pure working at home. First note, if you are one of our sisters in the room who is a little bit older, as we said with the men last week when we were talking about generational discipleship, like, sisters, I really want to encourage you to get in on the game of discipling those who are younger than you in the room.
[00:19:51] I mean, this is one of the best justifications or reasons I can give you for getting involved in a community group, which all of which are intended to be multi generational, multicultural, is because the older women can speak into the younger women in these particular areas of life.
[00:20:08] This also pastoral note, this also does not insinuate that it is always a sin for a woman to work outside of the home, especially when we're talking about single women or single mothers. So we can't read this text as some sort of a binding on every person in every situation, no matter what. That's not the point of what we're talking about. Okay? What I'm talking about and what I want to pastorally encourage you sisters to consider is for those who are mothers, the priority of the people closest to you, it's easy. And it's easy for men, too, to overlook those that are closest to you, that God's called you to serve for the sake of those who are outside the realm of that sphere. Does this make sense?
[00:20:54] And so children are neglected.
[00:20:57] Matthew 28. The call to make disciples of all peoples starts in your home, sisters.
[00:21:06] It starts in your home.
[00:21:08] That's where it starts. And what a beautiful calling that is.
[00:21:14] Generations upon generations upon generations of men and women have embraced this calling.
[00:21:20] And who are we in our modern era to shun something like that?
[00:21:27] It's a wonderful, beautiful, amazing, dignified, eternal calling.
[00:21:34] Think at the statement from Spurgeon about his mother. Think about the statement from Augustine in regards to his mother.
[00:21:42] It's a wonderful invitation for us in that regard. He goes on in verse 16.
[00:21:50] She's skilled in business. She has wise judgment. He says in verse 16, she considers a field and buys it, when with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
[00:22:03] Verse 17. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. I know this because I've heard it from the mouth of my own wife. And I'm sure that it's maybe applies to some of you as well. Like, Sidney is like, she's not here right now, so I'm gonna be careful with what I say. But Sidney is like, man, I've just. I've never seen myself as this, like, quiet mousy person. And she isn't. She isn't that. She's not a quiet, mousy person. It's okay if you are that, but you don't have to be that. Because Proverbs 31 just opens up this wide plethora of characteristics and personality wiring and all of these kinds of things, but testifies to this reality that this woman who fears the Lord is strong, she's hardworking, she has wise judgment, she's able to consider a field and then purchase that field, and it not be a stupid purchase.
[00:22:56] Like the belief that the Bible somehow imprisons women and that the culture and the ideologies of the culture are the freedom that women need is absolutely, ridiculously false.
[00:23:11] There is no ancient book in the world that dignifies women the same way that the Bible does.
[00:23:17] Not even close.
[00:23:19] There's no person, there's no man person in the whole world that builds up and lifts up and dignifies women the same way that Jesus Christ does and did in his earthly ministry.
[00:23:36] Says in verse 18, she perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.
[00:23:45] She puts her hands to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. She's creative in what she does.
[00:23:51] She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She has a cognizance and a mindfulness of those without.
[00:24:00] She's not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. So again, there isn't this hyper focus on everybody outside of the context of her home at the expense of the people within her home. And if you're single, if you're one of our single sisters, the principle behind this is that there isn't a neglect of the people closest to you for the people furthest from you.
[00:24:28] She takes care of the people within her sphere of influence.
[00:24:34] Says she makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. So there is an allude to her external clothing that is really a reflection of her internal beauty.
[00:24:49] So she's not finding her worth and value as a person, as a woman in her external beauty. Her external beauty is an overflow of the inward beauty of her heart.
[00:25:00] Says in verse 23, her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. So her internal beauty, her moral excellence, her virtue out of a fear of the Lord, is so spectacular that it actually drives the reputation of her husband.
[00:25:18] Her husband is built up, her husband is encouraged. Her husband is motivated to go out and be the man that God has called him to be. This is the beauty of the complimentary relationship between men and women. And again, you'll hear all sorts of things probably today that are antagonistic to what I'm telling you now.
[00:25:39] And so my question remains the same. Which ideology leads to flourishing?
[00:25:45] Which ideology leads to actual freedom and actual happiness?
[00:25:51] Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. It says in verse 24, she makes linen garments and sells them. So again, she's participating in business.
[00:26:03] She's buying and selling things. She's doing it for the good of her household. She's doing it for the flourishing of her husband and her children.
[00:26:10] She delivers sashes to the merchant. And then in verse 25, strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. I love that statement because it reflects almost directly something said about God himself in Psalm chapter 2.
[00:26:27] So Psalm 2 talks about wars and chaos going on in the world, and it says that God breaks the bow and he shatters the spear, that one day all war will come to an end at the return of Jesus Christ. Amen.
[00:26:40] Yep. So we can hope in that, if you're a Christian, we don't leave this place hopeless. We leave with all the hope in the world because Jesus really is king, as Pastor Matt said, he really will return and make all things new.
[00:26:51] And so in light of all of the things going on and all of the governing authorities in the world and the different people trying to make threats, and this is what's going to happen. And this is what's going to happen, all of those things. Psalm 2 says that God sits in the heavens and he laughs.
[00:27:05] He laughs not flippantly, but he laughs because he knows within himself, because he's determined at all that's going to take place at the return of Christ.
[00:27:20] And in a similar way, this woman whose life is marked, if we were to boil it down, her life is marked by the fear of the Lord, can laugh at the time to come, Whatever that time to come may mean.
[00:27:34] So whatever fear we have about what the future holds, that what if analysis, that we all have a tendency to play in our minds.
[00:27:43] What if this thing happens? What if there was a way that in the midst of that what if analysis, you, sister, were actually able to laugh at the time to come because your confidence in Christ and his sovereignty and his providence was so deeply embedded within your heart that rather than being driven to despair and anxiety, you were filled with joy.
[00:28:05] Will brought up memorizing scripture earlier, and I was Going to say this at the beginning, but I'll say it now. I'll go even one step further than what Will said, which was really good.
[00:28:15] And to say that scripture memory really, I think, is a matter of spiritual life and death.
[00:28:22] I mean, hey, listen, there are Christians all over the world who don't have 10,000 copies of this book that you and I have.
[00:28:30] And all the different translations we want, all the different copies. We want leather bound with our stinking name on it, like, grateful for that.
[00:28:39] But there are lots of brothers and sisters around the world who don't have that.
[00:28:44] They have to memorize, has to live in their heart.
[00:28:50] And I will own that. I feel like in some ways I have failed as a pastor over the last five years and not emphasizing it more, you must memorize Scripture not because God loves you more when you do it. We should just not have to qualify that every time we say something like, We memorize Scripture because we need it.
[00:29:12] You need the word of God to dwell in you richly. How else will you laugh at the time to come?
[00:29:20] You're gonna be just like the world, frantically freaking out over every news article that comes across your feed.
[00:29:31] What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? What's gonna. Like that's.
[00:29:35] Brothers, sisters, we're invited to something much better than that.
[00:29:41] To both care deeply about the sufferings of the world and to have legitimate concern over a variety of things and at the same time have such a deep disposition of trust that it's all going to be okay in the end.
[00:29:53] Because the word of Christ dwells in us richly.
[00:29:57] We can learn much from this sister in Proverbs 31 and that one statement, she laughs at the time to come. This is true of Augustine's mom.
[00:30:08] She had a lot to be stressed about. Abusive husband, wayward child, chaos going on in the world.
[00:30:18] And yet he can look back at her life after she had died her legacy, and say, I see the steadiness in her life and that's what I aspire to be.
[00:30:29] She laughed.
[00:30:31] She laughs at the time to come.
[00:30:34] So she opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Her life is not marked by harshness and rudeness, but by kindness. Kindness and niceness, by the way, are not the same thing.
[00:30:49] Niceness often is rooted in the fear of man.
[00:30:53] Kindness is rooted in the fear of God.
[00:30:56] So a person can be kind and say hard things out of love in a kind way.
[00:31:03] Her mouth permeates with kindness.
[00:31:06] She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
[00:31:11] Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her. For those who are mothers in the room.
[00:31:20] And again, we'll apply it to everybody in just a moment. But for those who are mothers in the room, the next time your child sings, you should stop and take note of that.
[00:31:30] Why do you think they sing?
[00:31:34] They sing because they trust you.
[00:31:38] I don't sing around people I don't trust.
[00:31:42] But if a child's walking around the house laughing and singing, take note of that, sister.
[00:31:47] Good job.
[00:31:49] Good job.
[00:31:52] Her children rise up and they call her blessed.
[00:31:57] Her husband, too, calls her, calls her blessed.
[00:32:02] He praises her, says, many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.
[00:32:09] Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gate. So I could go on and on and on for the next five minutes that I have, honoring so many of the women in the room that I know, I mean in a similar way to the men of rhc, like, I am deeply honored to be one of the pastors of RHC because of who you are.
[00:32:36] Deep honor, deep praise in all of these things. And if we could summarize all of what I just communicated through all of those verses in Proverbs 31, Again, this is I. What? What Solomon? What? What? Not Solomon. What the mother of King Lemuel is doing is she's articulating what a life that's rooted in the fear of the Lord looks like, a life that's rooted in the fear of the Lord looks like these things. Not all of these things, but some of these things over the course of a lifetime. So how do we cultivate this is the question that we'll close on today. What do we say at the end of this? How do we not walk out feeling, not only do I not do all these things, but I am not this, as I would imagine some of you sisters feel when you read or listen to something about Proverbs 31. I don't do many of these things.
[00:33:20] I am not this. And listen, that is called shame.
[00:33:25] Guilt is, I did the wrong thing. Shame is, I am the wrong thing.
[00:33:32] So if guilt has to do with your actions, shame has to do with who you are as a person. And I would imagine that there's a little bit, when we hear these kinds of things, of shame associated with it. So the first thing that I want you to. That I want to encourage you to do. I want to give you three things in closing. The first is this is I want to encourage you sisters to read Proverbs 31 not as a checklist, but as a mirror.
[00:33:59] As with anything else in the Bible, we can read the Bible as a set of binoculars by which we're looking through the text out at everybody else, or we can see the Bible first and and foremost as a mirror, highlighting for us the reality that we all need a Savior.
[00:34:14] Proverbs 31, before it's a description of what a life steeped in the fear of the Lord looks like for a woman, true womanhood. Before it's that, let it serve you as a mirror, pointing you to the one who truly is the excellent one.
[00:34:30] So there is one that over 2,000 years ago, lived a perfectly virtuous, excellent moral life who knew no sin, but became sin on your behalf.
[00:34:43] So that's your hope today. Your hope today is not in listening to these things and reading these things and going out and trying to first and foremost be these things. The invitation for you is to turn your eyes away from yourself completely and put them onto Jesus, the truly excellent one.
[00:34:58] He's the one who fulfilled the law on your behalf. He's the one who became sin and and in him, and by the grace of God, you are the righteousness of God in Christ. Which leads to the second point, if the first is to read Proverbs 31 first as a mirror pointing you to Christ.
[00:35:14] The second is I want to encourage you to pray daily that the Spirit would remind you and satisfy you not primarily in who you are, but whose you are.
[00:35:28] So in other words, true womanhood for you, sisters, is going to flow out of one realizing that none of us live up to the standards as placed as communicated in the Bible. And so it drives us to the foot of Christ and his person and his finished work on our behalf.
[00:35:46] And then it's recalibrating our brains not to think so much about what is my identity. Again, that's kind of a cultural way to think about things. But whose you are, you don't have to go out and find your identity.
[00:36:01] Your identity has been found.
[00:36:05] You don't have to go out and find God because God found you.
[00:36:09] 1 Corinthians 6, 20 says, you are not your own, but you were bought with a price.
[00:36:17] So sisters, it's not about what the culture says about you and what you should be.
[00:36:22] It's not about what your internal workings tell you you should be.
[00:36:29] It's not about you finding anything. Honestly, it's not even about you finding God.
[00:36:36] It's you settling more and more into the reality that you've already been found.
[00:36:41] You have been bought with a price.
[00:36:45] You are not your own. You belong body and soul and mind, to the Father of all creation. This is who you are. You are in Christ.
[00:36:56] That's where your worth and your dignity and your value lies, is in Christ.
[00:37:02] And then the final thing, and I want to just leave you with a quote, the final thing is you have as a woman, you have a uniquely glorious calling that's unique from men.
[00:37:17] Not different in all of the ways, a lot of similarities, but you have a uniquely and glorious calling, as men have a uniquely glorious calling to lead and to protect and to provide as the spiritual leader of their home. And in the church, you have a uniquely glorious calling. And it's this in part to reflect Jesus as an instrument of transformation to those closest to you.
[00:37:45] To reflect Jesus as an instrument of transformation to those closest to you. So I want to just leave you with a quote from Abigail Dodds, and it's simply called this be an instrument of transformation. And here's what she says.
[00:38:05] She says the unique influence of a godly woman transforming things.
[00:38:12] A woman is to be compared to a crown on the head of her husband. Proverbs 12:4.
[00:38:20] This is not because she's merely decorative, but because she is the thing that makes her good man great.
[00:38:30] She is the thing that makes her good man great.
[00:38:35] She transforms a promising bachelor into a purposeful, respectful husband.
[00:38:41] He gives his seed, and by some miracle and mystery, God has designed her body to nurture and grow a new person.
[00:38:50] In this transformative role, whether single or married, a woman mimics her savior.
[00:38:58] She mimics her savior. Like him, she submits to another's will.
[00:39:04] And also like him, God uses her to take what was useless on its own and shape it into glory.
[00:39:11] Dirty things, clean chaos turned to order. An empty kitchen overflowing with life and food. Children in want of knowledge and truth, and a mother eager to teach. A man in need of help and counsel and a woman fit to give it. Friends and neighbors. So this is both for married and single sisters, friends and neighbors with a third truth and a woman opening her home and heart to share it with them.
[00:39:37] Single women of any age are meant for full godly womanhood.
[00:39:44] So if you're not a mother, to be a mother in the deepest sense, that is spiritually nurturing and growing, all God has given to her. So, sisters, what kind of legacy will you leave?
[00:40:00] We choose to buy into the cultural lie that says, live as long as you can.
[00:40:07] Do everything you can to live as long as you can. Make life all about you.
[00:40:12] In Christ.
[00:40:14] We've been delivered from one of the most formidable foes of all of our life, which is ourself.
[00:40:20] He died so that we would, what, no longer live for ourself, but for him who, for our sake, died and was raised so. Ladies, don't view Proverbs 31 as a checklist. View it as a mirror. Remind yourself of whose you are right now.
[00:40:41] That's where your worth and your dignity and your purpose and your value lie. And then, by the grace of God, whether you're married, whether you're married with kids, whether you're single, whether you're married without kids, be an instrument of transformation in the hands of God to those closest to you, for the glory of God. This is how cultures change.
[00:40:59] When, by God's grace, men are men and women are women in the complimentary sense, this is what displays who God is. So what kind of legacy, sisters, will you leave? Let's pray together.
[00:41:15] Father, we love you. We trust you. We thank you for the opportunity to gather again in your name. I thank you for.
[00:41:22] I thank you for the women of Redemption Hill. I thank you for those who are guests today, for those who are members, who are not members, for those who are Christians and those who are not yet Christians in the room.
[00:41:33] Father, I thank you that fundamentally, we can experience a level of rejoicing in being reminded that our worth and value as people does not lie in our accomplishments, our failures.
[00:41:51] God, thank you that you created us in your image after your likeness for your glory. And I thank you, God, even more that in so doing, you sent Christ to redeem us. And I pray that by your grace and by your spirit, you give us the wisdom that your word calls us to ask for, to live out our manhood and our womanhood for your glory, for the men to live out our manhood and the women to live out their womanhood and to do so with eyes set on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We thank you for Jesus. We love you, and we pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.
