The Proverbs 31 Woman (05/14/2023)

Good morning, everyone, and happy Mother's Day. We have some special roses for our moms today, and Abby and Parker are going to help us pass those out.

So let's do that at this time. I would just hand them a couple at a time, because they're beautiful but fragile.

Just give them a couple at a time, and they can come back and get more. All right, Parker, hand those to a mother.

Let's have all our moms stand so Parker can see who we are. I wouldn't swing it too much,

Parker. It's very fragile. That's okay.

She can have one. Good job,

Abby. Looks like we had a wedding in here. There's petals all up and down the aisle.

Abby. Abby, give all the ladies one, why don't we?

So moms, you may be seated, and give Miss Pam one. There we go.

There you go. Now we're fixed up.

Now, if we just had some white ones, we could give the gentlemen little boutonnieres today, and we'd be all fixed up. Did you get one,

Miss Mitchell? All right. Very nicely done.

Nicely done. That's awesome. Good job. Good job, young people.

We wish we had some for you guys out there, but our hearts are with you, and we have so many thoughts of appreciation for all the mothers today, and everything you do, it's the most important job in the world, and if there's going to be any hope for this nation at all, you're raising up the hope in your homes, and the

Lord did not dish out any greater jobs than the job of a mom.

Let me read you a poem here. I don't do that real often in my preaching, but we haven't started preaching yet, so I'm going to read one from an old

Quaker poet named Greenleaf Whittier.

He lived in 1807. He said, A picture memory brings to me.

I look across the years and see myself beside my mother's knee.

I feel her gentle hand restrain my selfish moods and know again a child's blind sense of wrong and pain, but wiser now, a man gray grown.

My childhood's needs are better known. My mother's chastening love I own.

So he's thankful for every whooping he ever got. Isn't that a nice way to say that? All right, and here's one from Carl Sandburg, I think.

Everybody had to read him in college if you went to college, probably even in high school. He lived in 1878, and he was in a carriage going through the city looking at things in the city streets and wrote three poems that night, and the third one had to do with home, and it says,

Here is a thing my heart wishes the world had more of. I heard it in the air of one night when

I listened to a mother singing softly to a child restless and angry in the darkness.

Think about that. Isn't that great? He was just going through town in a horse -drawn carriage and heard a baby crying and the mom singing to her.

He wrote a poem about it. Pretty cool. But there is no greater thing that a human being can do, and only about half of us can do it, and that's the moms, and so thank you.

Thank you. We should say to every mom like we do our military people, thank you for your service. You bring all of the light and joy and tenderness and half the love, maybe a little more than half the love into every home.

All right. Well, let us go to the scripture now.

Let's have a word of prayer first. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We ask you to once again bless it as you always do.

It never returns void. It will do a work in our hearts today, and we thank you for that. May your

Holy Spirit be in complete control of our service today. We thank you for the music we've already heard, and we ask you to bless the preaching now in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, we've been talking about some of the most important things in the whole

Bible are things that women did, and I remember last time I think it was really interesting as we talked about the fact that when the

Marys went to the tomb and the angel met them there, it must have been quite a frightening experience, this glorious, strong angel who meets them there and says, he's not here, he's risen.

But they were chosen to be the two messengers that took that message of the risen

Savior to all of the apostles. And you have to keep in mind in that day and time, there was probably no society and no world religion that existed that would even allow women to testify in court.

So the status of women at that time was very, very low in the world except Jesus Christ lifted to the level it should be in his lifetime, his short lifetime on the earth.

And so the Lord had his messenger to send to women with the witness that Jesus was still alive.

Now, isn't that interesting when you think about it in that day and time? So we talked about a lot of things that women were called to do in the

Scripture. And, of course, this part in Romans 16, verse 1 and following, where a lot of people, about 35, actually more than that, people are commended by the apostle

Paul for helping him in his work, and many of them were women. And that's kind of the context we're in.

We've sort of diverged out into a topical study off of these verses that has to do with the proper role of women in the church.

And we took three Sundays and talked about the improper role. Some people took issue with that, not in this room, but some did.

And that's okay, because all I did was read Scripture. But I made it clear when

I started that, that we were going to end up talking about the commendation of Phoebe and the other women and the wonderful things that the

Bible teaches about the role of women in the church. So we've done that now for, what, one Sunday or two, a couple?

And now today I wanted to end on Mother's Day because we're going to go into Proverbs 31 and talk about the

Proverbs 31 woman. So you can be turning in your Bible to Proverbs 31. And this is really a remarkable passage of Scripture.

It is even different, I think, than a lot of Christian pastors.

As they take a look at the role of women in the church, I think you've got two different kinds.

You've got the false preachers who preach that it's okay for women to preach to men in the congregation and teach them the

Bible and have authority over the men. Those are false prophets, false teachers who teach that, false churches, false groups who believe that.

But then you have the other side of people that understand the Bible forbids that, but they take it way over on the other side of the pendulum swing, and they just practically act like women can't do anything, like they shouldn't be involved with anything.

And we made it clear that the passages that talk about women not teaching men or usurping authority over the men or being silent in the church are specifically talking about the ordained church service on the

Lord's Day, not talking about at home, in the home, or anywhere, in the workplace, at the restaurant, where we're witnessing to people.

Women have just as much a right to witness and to disciple as men do. I do think it's wise when a woman is with her husband, if you're teaching doctrine, or at least you're teaching the good doctrine that you've heard and learned at church and from your husbands, if you're witnessing and discipling, if he doesn't have to be there and the

Lord leads you, then you should do it. And so that's a little different than what a lot of the hardliners believe, but that is what the

Bible teaches. In fact, it was such a wonderful example this week in our home. If you were in Sunday school, you heard a little bit about this already, but Ben wanted to go over part of his lesson with me before he taught it this morning because he had a couple of thoughts on positions that a certain passage in Malachi, I think it was chapter 3, starting with about verse 4, it seemed like it changed to a parenthetical where he changed who the prophet was talking about and the time frame.

And Ashton was sitting over on the couch, probably holding a baby, and Ben and I were going back and forth with this theological discussion, and she's over there just reading the

Bible. And so I told Ben, no, I don't think,

I think actually he just started talking to the people in front of him instead of going out to the first coming of Jesus and the second coming and all that.

I think now he's just talking to the crowd right there because I could tell he was talking about Jews, not the whole world, but Jewish people in particular.

And Ben agreed, yeah, it does look like that. And Ashton said, well, I've got another thought.

And she ended up getting it right. She ended up with a third idea.

She said, couldn't it be talking about in the millennial kingdom when Jesus rules with the rod of iron?

And that ended up being, I think, exactly what the Bible was teaching. So that's a great illustration of how women can, and we talked about it in scripture about Mary and Martha, how

Mary would sit at Jesus' feet, study doctrine, and get deep into the word, so to speak.

Not all women will do that, but not all men do it either. But it's perfectly wonderful when women do that.

It's fine when they do it. There's nothing wrong with that. It's great. And so there's so much positive, far more positive to the role of women than negative.

And the only negatives have to do with the church service, where for all of history of the

Jews and the church, since God started the world with Adam and Eve and brought

Eve from Adam, and Eve was the first who was deceived, the only one of the two that was deceived, and for those reasons, and because the man came first and the woman from him, for those reasons, she is not allowed to teach men doctrine in the church, ordain church services, and what we do up here while we're having church on the

Lord's day. Now, that's like two things that are disallowed. If we have a church business meeting, they're not allowed to speak in the meeting.

They can whisper to their husbands and get their husbands to speak. And I've seen again and again churches that don't go by that, where the women will bring up stuff that creates an out -and -out fight in the business meeting.

And so God is right. It shouldn't be done. And what we do in our church is we'll have men's meetings and discuss the issues, especially if there are going to be differences, and I'll let them argue with each other.

And before it's over, we will come to a consensus, and then we will say, okay, let's go home and tell our wives what we discussed and get their thoughts too, and let's meet back again next week, and we do it again until we come to a consensus, and then we make a decision in the church.

And I think that's very biblical. That's how we do it here. So those are three things listed, but all of the things in Christian service that I can think of as I stand here before you are open to women other than those three issues.

It's very specific, and so it's very positive, and I think some churches make it a negative thing.

We don't do that here. But today I want to talk to you about perhaps the most powerful passage in the whole

Bible about the role of women, and I do want to preface it with this. Some of what the

Scripture says, you may sit there and think, well, it doesn't look like our household exactly, or you say that part looks like ours and this part doesn't.

So this is an ideal, and I will have to say this. It's also in the context, and we talk about this a lot at Tradeway, about how the

Lord promises wealth to his children, but it's a conditional promise.

It's not unconditional. It's conditional. It's an if -then proposition. God says, if you do this, this, this, this, and this, then

I will bring wealth to your family. Now, there are quite a few conditions listed.

We teach them in Tradeway quite often, and probably once or twice I've taught through some of them up here, but conditions such as diligence.

You have to be diligent. You have to learn skill sets in the business that you're attempting to do. You have to be closer to the

Lord this year than you were last year, and there are several conditions, and we teach through those sometimes in Tradeway, powerful things, and so this proverb, it's a family that has achieved that probably over several generations, and sometimes it takes a couple or three generations to create family wealth if you're starting from poverty.

You know what the interesting thing about that is? Also in Scripture, it teaches that every wealthy family that ever existed started in poverty.

Everyone did, and so someone in that family at some point says, you know what?

I'm going to pray and ask God to let me be the person that takes our family out of poverty toward wealth, and a lot of times that person doesn't reach it completely in his lifetime because we only have so many years, you know, but then if he passes those skill sets to the children and the grandchildren that keep building on that by the third generation, it can be totally wealthy, and then that's when the world looks at them and says, oh, they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

They never had to work for a living. See, the world's got that wrong because the family started in poverty. With my family, it started with my great -grandfather who had a sixth grade education, was a junk dealer, totally dirt poor, and by the time he died, he owned an oil company in an oil field.

The largest oil field in the world at the time was the Mahia oil field, and he owned it, but when he started out, he had nothing, and he died probably five years after some wealth was created in his lifetime.

He didn't get to enjoy it, but maybe five years. He died of lung cancer pretty quickly, but the rest of our family has benefited from it, so this has happened, and this family that we're going to read about has already happened maybe for a couple of three generations.

You need to understand that, but still in your family, I don't know where each of you are.

You may be the person that's starting that, or you may already be in the second or third generation, but there are things in here that apply to every family, but you need to kind of know that to make this make a lot of sense, so let's start here with Proverbs 31.

Start with about verse 10, and please follow along with me. Who can find a virtuous woman?

For her price is far above rubies. So if a man in particular can find a virtuous woman to marry, it's more valuable than any amount of money he could ever make, but even to the world itself, it says, if the world can find a virtuous woman, the value of it is beyond rubies and gold.

Verse 11 says, the heart of her husband does safely trust in her. So now we start to see a little bit about her character, and we see there in verse 10 that it talks about she is virtuous.

She has many virtues in her life that I think come from this book right here and from the

Lord, from the Holy Spirit, and from this book. So she is studying the word.

She's in the word. She also has her own private devotion times during the week, and she's in the word.

So first of all, she's virtuous. That is her character. Now, when we get into verse 11 and 12, it starts to talk about her relationship with her husband if she's married, and it says that the heart of her husband does safely trust in her.

So the husband is not worried about her going out into the world and meeting some other guy and hanging out with that other guy inappropriately.

The husband's not even worried about it with his wife because he knows she's virtuous, and secondly, he just knows that he can safely trust her to be faithful so that he shall have no need of spoil.

Now, that's interesting because the book of Proverbs says that if a person commits adultery with a man's wife, that man may well go kill that person.

It doesn't say it's okay to, it just says he may do it. God just puts down human nature, and that is a fact of life.

That could happen. It's a very grave situation when adultery is committed in a family.

It can create, wreak all kinds of havoc, but here, when this man is married to the

Proverbs 31 woman, this virtuous woman, he has no fear of that happening, and therefore, there's no need for him to ever take spoil from anything.

He's not gonna have to go out and wreak havoc in the world because of something that his wife did. Secondly, she will do him good.

So, it says, first, she won't do him any harm, and then it says, she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

Now, gentlemen, that's the kind of wife that the men in this room have, and young men, that's the kind of wife you wanna look for if you're not married yet.

And so, now, it starts to talk about her qualities as a businesswoman, both within and without the home.

Now, what's interesting about this is most churches, if they take the side where they look at the role of the woman where she's not supposed to preach, she's not supposed to do these things, sometimes they take it so far that they think she's supposed to be a little woman who just stays at home, and all she does is just serve the husband, serve the children, serve the meals, clean the house, and that's it.

Now, if you're a woman who does that, which we looked at last time in Titus, it said the older women are supposed to teach the young women to be keepers at home.

The thing about it is, it doesn't say that's all that they're supposed to know how to do, and Proverbs 31 clears that up.

That is the primary job, and Mother's Day is a great time to talk about that.

The primary job is to keep the home, to keep it nice and clean and things in place so that everyone can be more productive, to keep the meals going, and so forth.

That's the number one job, but it's not the only job, and most preachers

I don't think ever talk about women being entrepreneurial. They may even act like that. Well, they shouldn't leave the home and go do anything, but let's see what the

Bible says about it. It says here that, speaking of the qualities of a businesswoman within and outside the home, verse 13 says, she seeks wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands.

So here she is working at home, making the clothing for the family because back then they didn't have malls and department stores, and they did have places of business where you could buy clothing, but it'd be very expensive, so sometimes the woman of the house would serve by actually creating the clothing for the family.

Now, in the context of this, I hadn't gotten to it yet, but as we read through, you'll start to see it. This is a wealthy family, so this woman has other people working for her as she rules the household.

She runs the household, and she has people working for her. She can even have people helping her make the clothing, but she oversees it and makes sure it gets done, and in this case, she's doing some of it herself.

So look at verse 14. She's like the merchant's ships. She bringeth her food from afar, so she goes out into the market, and she knows how to cut a good deal.

Now, over in the Middle East, even to this day, you never pay the price that's asked for anything. You bargain.

Now, we've sort of lost that in America, unfortunately. Now, my dad's generation did it on everything. My dad's dad made it through the

Depression by being a horse trader, so that's where my dad learned how to bargain.

He would sell horses and cattle, and he always had food. My dad always had food in their family going through the

Depression because of his dad, who was a good trader, and so here this woman goes out in the markets and gets a good deal and buys the food that the family needs and brings it home, and it says she's like the merchant's ships, which tells me she may be involved in other merchandising as well.

We'll see. Let's keep reading. She rises also while it is yet night and giveth food to her household and a portion to her maidens.

So now we start to see that she has people working for her, and we don't know how many.

It could be a lot, and she's like the CEO of the household, and I've always called my wife the

CEO of our ranch, and she does do that. That's exactly what she does. She makes sure everything is in its place, and everybody gets fed, and everybody has clothing and takes care of all those things, and she has people that work for her, and that's how that goes.

If you're not to the place yet where you can afford that, then work towards that, and maybe the next generation in your family will be at that place, but the

Scripture says this is the ideal. This is where we get in our families eventually if we do the conditional things we have to do to create wealth in the family.

That's all part of God's desire and will for his children. If you happen to be the first person in your family line that saw that in Scripture, you're starting from scratch, though.

It may take your whole lifetime just to set up the things so that you can teach those to your kids and grandkids and see that start to formulate over time.

So here she gets up early in the morning and makes sure everybody has breakfast, including the people that work for her, and she takes care of all that.

She considers the field, and she buys it, considers a field,

I should say. So now she's leaving the house, going out into the world, finding a piece of land, maybe near where her family lives because she probably wants to plant some things to create more food for the family, and she looks at it, she goes out, and she buys it.

Not her husband, she does it. So she has a lot of entrepreneurial skill sets.

She knows how to bargain, she knows what land is worth, and she has the money, along with her husband, to purchase this land, and she does so.

With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. So now she's going to plant a vineyard, and she's turned that field into a factory that creates wine, and she sells it to the whole community.

Now she's got a business that's creating wealth. But she had to buy the field first, then she had to plant the vineyard, and in the meantime, she's running her household, taking care of the children, making sure they're fed, they have clothing, and all this.

Do you start to get the picture that this is a completely different picture of a woman's role than the world in the time of Jesus ever would have talked about, but this was written 600, 700, 800 years, maybe 1 ,000 or so years before Christ came into the world.

I should know the exact date, but I just didn't look it up. But at the time of Solomon, they already knew this role of women.

And so this goes back beyond the role of women in the church. It's the role of women in the world from God's viewpoint.

So here, let's see. What? Hold on, give me a second.

I've got the date. 2 ,700 years ago. So for 2 ,700 years, this is when

God revealed this to humanity. This is the time of Solomon when he wrote

Proverbs. So this was, what, at least 700 years before Jesus, maybe more, somewhere in that ballpark.

All right, so, thanks though, Ben, you're looking it up for me, but I found it.

I just happened to have my Schofield reference Bible, which has the date when approximately every book was written, which is nice to know.

All right, so, she gives meat to her household. She considers the field. She buys it. She plants a vineyard.

Verse 17 says, she girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms.

Now, I want you to stop and think about that, ladies, in particular. What is that saying?

She's got strong arms. She's got a strong body. She takes care of herself physically. She does things that keeps herself strong and fit and able to do more and more things because she's healthy and strong.

Isn't that interesting that it puts that in there? So, that is from the Lord, and that is something to be pondered.

And then, she goes on and says in verse 18, she perceiveth that her merchandise is good and her candle goeth not out by night.

So, she's gotten up early that morning, taking care of everything she's supposed to, getting everybody fed, and she goes out.

She buys a field, and then over time, she plants a vineyard, and she's taking time to make sure she stays healthy and strong and keeps her body fit.

That takes time, maybe not every day, but every other day or so to work on the strength of your body, and now she's staying up late at night.

So, her candle goes out late at night, and she's still doing things for the family.

And verse 19 says, she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distiff, and so that has to do with, you know, actually creating cloth that she's weaving cloth that she can later sew together and make clothing for the family.

She's doing that late at night before she goes to bed. Now, it starts in verse 20 to talk about her religious activities, and I say religion in the right sense, the good sense.

Verse 20, she stretches out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

And you know, in the book of James, it says true religion is if you take care of widows and orphans, and this is what she's doing, and she is doing this for the

Lord's sake, and she takes time to take some of the wealth that God has blessed her family with and help others with it.

Verse 21, she is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

So she doesn't worry about when bad weather, cold weather comes. She's made sure that plenty of clothing is available to her family where they can dress up warm and be warm even when it's snowing.

She maketh herself coverings of tapestry. Her clothing is silk and purple. So she makes herself some clothes to dress up in so that when she goes into the city and does things where it's appropriate, she can dress up nice and maybe take care of some of these business matters in appropriate apparel and so forth.

Now it starts to talk about her personal inner strengths. Look at verse 23. Her husband is known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders of the land.

So she has chosen a man to be her husband who is a leader in the community or a leader in synagogue or a leader in the church and sits with the elders of the land and contemplates doctrinal issues, problems in the world and how to solve them, problems in the community and how to solve them.

And that's her husband. So she has a strong leader at home.

And part of that is because of her good character, she chose the right man, not the wrong man.

And so young ladies here in the room, think about that one because you may make that choice at a very young age.

Some of the most important choices we make are when we're very young, seemingly less equipped to make those kinds of choices and yet God has willed that that's when we make them.

So guess what? That's why God gave you parents and pastors too and teachers to help you.

So never be afraid to ask for advice from your parents, your pastors, your leaders in the church that are older than you that have already seen some of the problems you may face and decisions you may have to make.

Get some help. The Bible says there's safety in the counsel of many. Isn't that interesting? So as you seek a young man, young ladies, it's really good to let some of the ladies, especially your mom, take a look at the young men and see what she thinks and then let the dad, because he knows guys really well, see what he thinks.

That'll be the tough one to get past sometimes is the dad, right? But still you gotta make a good choice and this woman made an excellent choice.

Verse 24, she makes fine linen and sells it.

So now she is, we're back to entrepreneurial abilities again here. She's in the market.

So some of the clothing that she makes above and beyond what her family needs, she goes out in the marketplace, marks it up at a retail price and sells it for a profit.

And now more money is coming into the family through this business that she's got selling clothing. And it doesn't have to be selling clothing.

It can be whatever entrepreneurial ideas you have. It is not bad for women to have entrepreneurial ideas and do things.

They have to put the home first, but with spare time, especially as the kids get older, you have more spare time.

And there are many things, very many times that you can have great ideas that benefit the family financially.

So when you do, talk with your husband about it and pray about it and see if the

Lord wants you to do some of these things. All right. So she makes fine linen and sells it and delivereth girdles unto the market.

So she's manufacturing underwear. It doesn't always mean that in their vernacular, but it can mean that.

So the part of the clothing that goes around are loins. So who knows what all she's making there, but she's manufacturing and selling at retail in the marketplace.

Very, very fascinating. I think in today's understanding of the role of women, a lot of people don't see these things.

All right. Now let's see. Verse 25, strength and honor are her real clothing.

So here back to the inner strengths and character. She has virtue. We know that she is faithful to her husband.

We know that. But now it says she has strength and honor, and it's talking about inner strength and honor means if she says she's going to do something, she does it.

She's honorable. She tells the truth. She follows through with things that she plans to do and she gets them done.

And she's strong enough in character where she doesn't quit. She's not a quitter. She pursues it till she gets it done.

And so strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in times to come because of it, because of her character.

It will bring good things to her life and her family's. She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

So when she does open her mouth and speak, she thinks before she speaks. She thinks before she speaks and she says things that are wise that will help the family and other people with the words she says.

Her words bring grace to the hearer. And it says her tongue, in her tongue is the law of kindness.

When she does speak, she cares about how it makes the other person feel.

You know that a lot of people don't know that. There are a lot of peoples in the world.

This is specifically talking to women, but so many people are unkind in how they say something.

What they're saying may be totally right, but they don't know how to say it because you're not going to open your mind when a person's not kind to you.

You'll close your mind. You won't even do. They'll never get you to do what they want you to do. This woman is wise enough to know that if I need to persuade someone to change their actions,

I need to say it in a kind way. Isn't that great? Now, this applies in the home, but also in the world, in the church, in business, everywhere.

This is such a wonderful characteristic that she has. Verse 27, she looks well to the ways of her household.

Isn't it interesting that it sandwiches all of this outside -of -the -home stuff, this entrepreneurial stuff, in between take care of the home and then it ends it with she's still taking care of the home.

Both sides of the parentheses, if you want to turn it this way, take care of the home, take care of the home. With your other time, do this stuff.

It's very fascinating where the emphasis is. She looks well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness.

Her children arise up and call her blessed. Isn't that beautiful? Her husband also and he praises her.

Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Now, think about that, ladies.

You've got a lot of women in the world who are doing things, but if you can do things with this inner character that this woman has, that so many women don't have, faithful to the husband, faithful in everything that you say you will do, that you will do those things, strength and honor, wisdom when you open your mouth, wise things come out, kindness when you speak to people.

Most women don't have that. Many women don't, I should say, but you can and when you do these things, you begin to do these things that are listed here by the

Holy Spirit as he writes the Bible, then you will excel the other women.

You will excel the women of the world by far. Now, they may think they're better than you, but they in God's eyes, they certainly aren't, but even in your family's eyes, there's no comparison and you will rise up and be noted for your character and the things that you do in your life and you'll be praised for it by your children, by your husband, by your family and in some cases, the world, although they don't particularly like Christians, so you can't depend on that or even look for it.

Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the

Lord, she shall be praised. So the world looks, you know, they'll deceive you in order to get the stuff they want.

The world just does that all the time, but this woman does not get the things she needs that way.

She gets it through honest hard work and integrity and brilliance and skill sets and all the different things she needs to be this woman.

That's how she gets it, not through deceiving people and she wants to look beautiful for her husband, of course, but it's not like she's in competition with all the women in the world and that that's the big thing in her life.

The big thing in her life is virtue and the big thing in her life is fearing the

Lord and when she does that, the Bible says she'll be praised and then 31 says, give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates.

So to review, it talks about her character. She has a force for good.

She is a force for good in her family. Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies and when you talk about virtue in the

Hebrew, the word virtue means a force. It means wealth.

It means virtue. It can mean valor and strength and when you look at it in English, it's interesting to look it up in the

Webster's Dictionary. It speaks of morality, strong morality, in particular moral excellence, beneficial quality or power and it can even mean valor which kind of indicates strength, strength like manly strength, like muscular strength.

So it brings into the equation physical health, being fit, taking care of oneself even in the

Hebrew word itself. A commendable quality or trait such as merit, capacity to act, potency.

It talks about chastity, being chaste and faithful to the husband and then it spoke of her relationship with her husband.

She's the most valuable thing in his life. Verse 10, second half of verse 10.

He trusts her. She does not increase the need for additional assets but rather brings additional assets to the table.

So it's pretty amazing when you look at some of these things. She's a good bargainer. She's a good merchant, good in the business world of being able to buy and sell.

She's willing to work with her hands at home to provide for the family and also to create products to sell in the market.

She goes out into the marketplace and is frugal. She provides meals at home.

Make sure that gets done. She may have servants working for her that does that. That's okay too if you get to that level of wealth in the family.

She is the CEO of the homestead and has employees. That's when you get to that stage in the family.

It might be second, third generation when that happens. She can do business in trading or real estate and own an entrepreneurial business while overseeing the homestead.

She maintains physical health and fitness. She is diligent and burns the midnight oil.

These are the tools that she uses for weaving and symbolically speak of the woman's role as the

CEO of the homestead. Then her religious activities, she helps the poor and she has these remarkable inner strengths that we talked about.

When you look at what Scripture says about the role of women in the church and at home and in the community, most churches probably miss it on one of two sides.

They either say the women should seek leadership roles in the church that God does not allow. They might be on that side or they come over to the far other side and they say, well, she's just supposed to sit quietly and do nothing.

When you look at what the Scripture actually says, it's quite amazing. If you study Proverbs 31 closely, maybe go back and re -read it yourselves and make your own notes like I did, there is so much breadth there in what the

Lord can enable you to do in your home. You and your husband or you yourself might be the person who says, you know what,

I'm gonna change this family's trajectory financially. You may start thinking about some entrepreneurial things and teaching your kids and your grandkids these concepts and principles and see where God takes that in the next few generations.

It's really a remarkable thing to think about. So that concludes our study of the proper role of women in the church, in the world, in the home.

And we looked at quite a few New Testament examples and this is, in my opinion, the greatest Old Testament example that there is in the whole

Bible. And so now you know everything that you can do, everything that God allows, everything that God ordains that you can do.

But this I can tell you, you, women, are the light and the love and the tenderness and the kindness and, in many measures, a great, great strength in the home.

Don't let the world ever tell you different. Don't let any preacher tell you different. You've got the

Bible in your lap. Read it and you'll see that I'm right about it. You are such a huge, huge strength.

There's nothing that any man in this room could accomplish or do without you. Nothing. In fact, if you're like me, you wouldn't even mess with it.

You wouldn't have any reason to go do any of it without your spouse. And so it's wonderful the way the

Lord has set everything up, isn't it? It is not good that the man should be alone, the Scripture says.

And when the Bible calls you a helpmeet, that includes everything in Proverbs 31 and more.

And it pictures you and your husband working together to change your family and the world and the church for the better.

And if this world ever needed it, this is the generation where it needs it. You've gone the wrong way for too many generations.

All right, well, let's stand and have prayer together and we will go celebrate our moms with a nice meal here in a few moments as well.

Lord, thank you so much for your word and for how you show us your mind on everything that you want us to know.

How to be a great father, how to be a great mother, how to be a great husband, a great wife. The role of the children is even discussed in the

Scriptures. And Lord, you give us everything that we need to lead a joyful and productive life and to be salt and light in this world.

And so help us to do that and keep us on track right in the dead center of your desires for our lives.

Thank you so much for the meal we're about to have together and we ask you to bless it in Jesus' name.

Amen. You are dismissed. I have, someone did put a thought in my mind.

It happened to be Charlotte and a couple of other church members. We're about to finish

Romans 16 pretty soon and that's the last chapter. And usually between books, before I pick another book, because that takes some prayer and thought,

I might do a couple of topical studies. And one thing, several people have asked that I do something on marriage and family.

So I'm leaning that direction and so pray about that and it might be very interesting and beneficial to all of us.