In Praise of Godly Women, Part 1

Hello and welcome to this Monday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Thanks so much for making this part of your day. In just a few moments, Pastor Paul will share his message in praise of godly women.

But before he gets started, he joins me now from his studio in California to share a few words about this special message, which will air for the next four days here on Destined for Victory. It's the month when we get the opportunity to honor our mothers and we kick off the celebration here on Destined for Victory with a special two-part series entitled In Praise of Godly Women. Now tell me, why are these messages more important in our culture today than ever before? Well I wanted to share this series now because I think affirmation and honor for moms and mother figures is somewhat difficult to find these days. People seem to be so preoccupied with themselves and their plans and their future that they don't look backwards and see that if it weren't for moms and mother figures, they would not be where they are. So I'm hoping to help people rediscover the value of honoring and affirming moms and mother figures. You know, the Proverbs says who can find a virtuous woman? Well these days I kind of think the better question is who can find a kid or a dad who has sense enough to praise the mom? And we've really got to understand that she plays an invaluable role. Even people who had challenging relationships with their moms or mother figures need to realize God used them in a significant way to get you to the place.

Even if you think you're living so much better and you have so much higher set of values or whatever, you'd have never had the chance to show that if they hadn't gotten you to the place where you could be better. So we need to honor moms. I'm hoping that people will really get that and hear it as I unfold this teaching and they take advantage of this month's resource. I'm so glad that you included mother figures because I think that we don't often think about that. There are lots of women who have all kinds of influence in our life that we need to be thanking God for.

Absolutely. I'm so glad that I was raised not only by a godly mother but raised in a community of faith where I had so many moms in the church. In fact, you know, there were so many moms around you that if y'all were goofing off too much and my mother was all the way on the other side of the church, she'd look over there but I knew she wasn't going to get up and come get me but she knew she had backup and somebody sitting behind me would pluck me in my head and say sit up and act right. That's how she had eyes in the back of her head. Exactly.

That is exactly true. So the church was full of mothers and I so thank God for the privilege of having had many women who helped shape my life. And speaking of mothers and mother figures who have had a positive influence in our lives, Pastor Paul has a special gift for you this month.

Yours for a generous donation to Destined for Victory. It's a booklet called Traits of a Virtuous Woman. Based on Proverbs 31, this booklet was written to honor mothers in particular and godly women in general. It's a penetrating look into some of the most important traits all women should embody and a great companion guide to the messages you'll be hearing in the next few days.

That's Traits of a Virtuous Woman, our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online.

You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Now, let's get to today's message. Here's Pastor Paul with his sermon in praise of godly women. Some Bible reading plans call for the reading of one chapter of Proverbs each day. Such plans take advantage of the fact that there are 31 days in several months of our calendar and there are 31 chapters in Proverbs.

So, many people follow a Bible reading plan that encourages you to read the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the particular day of the month. And if you do that, then you will read about this woman seven times at least in a given calendar year for their seven months that contain 31 days. So, many of us are familiar with the Proverbs 31 woman just by virtue of the reading of the Proverbs. But today, I want to go beyond just taking another look at the fictitious Proverbs 31 woman. And instead, I want us to recognize the fact that there are many real live women in the body of Christ today who are striving every day of their lives to reflect more and more of the virtues and the values of this woman. For this is certainly, as you read these verses, this is certainly a woman of great character, of wonderful virtues and values.

She is ideal in so many ways. And I want you to also note that this was not the concoction of some man's fantasy, but rather you are told in the first verse of Proverbs 31 that these are the words of a mother who has spoken to her son. In the first nine verses, she speaks to him about his own life and some of his choices and decisions. And then from verses 10 through 31, this son is simply sharing with us the kind of woman his mother suggested that he marry. So the Proverbs 31 woman is not the product of a male idea of the ideal woman, it's the product of a woman, a godly woman herself, speaking to her son about getting involved with and committing his life to a godly woman. And there are women in the body of Christ today who are striving to reflect these virtues and values, their prayer and their desire as they come to passages like Proverbs 31 is Lord, make me more and more like this kind of woman who brings you glory and honor. And so I want us to take some time and to examine these values and these virtues because we need to thank God for the fact that there are women in many of our lives today and many women listening to this message who are striving to live just this way and you are to be praised and held in esteem just as we are told in Proverbs 31.

I want to first of all say thank God for women of nobility, strength and power. Look at verses 10, 25 and 30 with me. Verse 10 says a wife of noble character who can find, she is worth far more than rubies and let me mention here that these virtues can certainly be active in the lives of all women regardless of your marital status. And so while wife is mentioned in verse 10, we can easily say a woman of noble character who can find, she is worth far more than rubies. Look at verse 25, she is clothed with strength and dignity.

She can laugh at the days to come. Look at verse 30, charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Thank God for women of nobility, strength and power. King James says virtuous women. And this Hebrew concept of virtue or nobility, this particular word used here is really a term that very often when you see it in scripture, it speaks of military strength. It speaks of a person of valor in war, a person who knows how with nobility and strength to win a battle.

And that's the exact same word. Very often you see it spoken of a man of valor in scripture. In fact, over 200 times in the Bible when this word is used, you'll see it referring to a man of valor or to an army, a strong and well prepared army. Well that exact same word is used here to describe a woman of God. Thank God for women who have nobility, strength and power. Now if you'll note, this power is derived according to verse 30 from her relationship with God.

She is a woman who fears the Lord. And so we're not talking about strength as a mere natural quality because everyone knows that your natural abilities are going to run out in the face of real spiritual struggles. And that's why we as people of God must learn to rely on the power of God as He imparts it to us.

Ephesians 6 says, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. And that is the strength that such women draw on for their lives. Thank God for women who draw on the strength of God and as a result they are women of nobility, strength and power.

They fear the Lord. Thank God for women who have come to know the Lord for themselves and who now are reflecting their relationship with Christ as they live their lives from day to day. Many of us were privileged to be raised by such godly women and it's a wonderful thing when you have a godly woman bringing you up in the things of God. Timothy in the Bible had a godly grandmother and a godly mother. And he was well prepared to walk with the Lord by the example that they set so that when God sent Paul into his life as a spiritual father that just made complete the process that already began as he was brought up in the things of God. Thank God for women who didn't send their kids to church but took their kids to church.

And thank God that that still continues in our world today. Women who fear the Lord and are teaching their children to fear the Lord. Now it's wonderful if a man will do the same but of course we all know women who even if the man wasn't walking with God she saw to it that those children knew the things of God.

If he wouldn't pray with them she prayed with them. And to thank God for women who know the Lord. These are women of nobility we are told here.

Nobility that is to say they are women who live right as a matter of resolve. Thank God for women who live right as a matter of resolve. I hope you've figured out by now that any of us who are going to live right we have to do it by resolve. You don't luck up on living right.

Have you noticed that? You don't luck up on being sexually pure for instance. You don't just wake up one day and say what do you know? No, no if you're going to be sexually pure in a wicked and perverse generation such as we live in you're going to have to live your life by righteous resolve. Drawing on the strength of God saying Lord help me to be the woman you have called me to be. And thank God for women who have decided that they're going to live right because it pleases God.

And they're going to defy many of these cultural changes that have made acceptable what God says is unacceptable. Thank God for women who are living by resolve. Thank God for single women who have decided to be virtuous before the Lord. Who are not giving their bodies to people who have not given their lives in full commitment to you because that is the will of God for you to be pure. For you to be a woman of nobility. Thank God for women who have resolved that my kids aren't going to be exposed.

Single women who even if they're single parents now that they're in Christ they are living right and they are making godly decisions and they're not going to have their children seeing you in the house month in and month out every few weeks as a different uncle in there. Different uncle meeting in there. This is your uncle Sam.

He's in there in the spring. Now in the summer this is Johnny. Uncle Johnny. Say hi to Uncle Johnny.

No, no. Women who have decided to live by resolve that they won't have some man stopping by for a period of time to help out with the finances and the playhouse. It's becoming more normal in our world but the word of God won't change for anybody. Still ahead the second half of Pastor Paul Shepherd's Destined for Victory message in praise of godly women. Remember you can always listen to our program on your schedule. It's on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

Or listen and subscribe to the podcast at Apple podcast at Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Well we live in a world of compromise where truth is widely considered relative instead of absolute but godly women are those who live by conviction not compromise. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message in praise of godly women.

And thank God for women who have decided to do it God's way. For women who have decided that in order to be morally pure as a single woman I am going to set the guidelines for my life and any man who can't measure up to these he can't be with me. Because her price, your price is far above rubies and you have made up in your mind that if I'm more valuable than rubies then no you can't just come into my life without being the man you ought to be. I'm valuable.

I'm too valuable to depreciate with you. And you live by resolve. You have to make up in your mind. You don't live by lies. You know the world has these lies.

Some folk when they hit a little season of loneliness you know they'll buy into some of these lies. Well you know having somebody is better than having nobody. Not necessarily. And women of nobility are women who have decided that I'd rather have Jesus alone than to step down just to bring somebody into my life. And thank God for women who are living on a high level.

Who have made some high level decisions. Sometimes they're painful decisions. Sometimes you bring suffering into your own life when you make such decisions. But you have decided I am going to please God first and foremost because she is a woman. Verse 30 tells us who fears the Lord. Who is reverent when it comes to her relationship with the Lord. She cares more about what God thinks about her than what you think about her.

And so she is a woman of nobility. Thank God for women who are living right as a matter of resolve. They've made up in their minds that they're going to do that which pleases and glorifies God. They've made up in their minds that they are going to be people whose lives are pleasing to Him. They have decided that they're not going to wait for a crisis to come before they figure out what they want to do. See if you're going to live right you've got to live by resolve which means you make up in your mind before the crisis comes. Here is the way I live my life. Here are the standards.

Here are the values. So that when you get into temptation when you get into crisis you're not trying to figure things out. Cause some of us know by the time you get into crisis very often it's too late to make a good and quality decision. So you want to make it in advance ideally and you want to be like the Hebrew boys and Daniel who when the king created the golden image and wanted everyone to bow and they refused to bow he calls them in and said listen I'm going to have the music play one more time give you all a chance to bow.

But if you don't please understand that you're going to die. And they said oh king we are not slow to answer you in this matter. We're not slow to answer you in this matter. They said the God we serve is able to deliver us and He will deliver us. But we want you to understand that our resolve isn't even based on the assurance of deliverance. For they went on to say but if not if He chooses to allow us to die we will not bow we will burn before we will bow. That's living by resolve and thank God for women who have made the quality decision to live by resolve.

To decide I'm going to please God and I'm going to make decisions that are consistent with my goal of pleasing God. And they're living on a high level of nobility. Thank God for that. Thank God that they're also living out with strength and power. You know in the Bible in one place in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 7 where Peter is talking to husbands about you know how to treat their wives and he says give them honor as the weaker vessel. And some of us are familiar with the term of referring to women as the weaker vessel.

But it's only in a very limited context. Peter was saying give them honor because all things being equal women tend to be weaker physically than men. And that is to say if both a man and a woman train for a particular event that would involve physical strength or that sort of thing that well just look at the records and track or whatever it is in the weightlifting men tend to hold the higher records the records that reflect more physical strength.

It's the way God designed their bodies. All things being equal a very strong man and a very strong woman if they run a race the man is going to win and the records reflect that. That's the limited sense in which Peter makes the point of the weaker vessel.

Don't overwork that because let me tell you something. It takes strength to be a woman of God. It takes strength to be a woman of God. And many of these women are strong not only spiritually but physically as well.

See we're talking all things being equal but you all know as well as I do it's not always equal. I don't get some of these abusive men. First of all if you're an abusive man you need help from the Lord. And if you're seeking that help in a godly context God bless you.

Get the help you need. Get into a Christian healthy well balanced church a Christian fellowship places where people can teach you to go from being a male to being a man. Being male is a matter of birth but being a man is a matter of choice of learning to make choices that please God submit to his will line your life up with his purpose.

And so just because you're 21 or over as a male that doesn't make you a man. But I don't get some of these males who go around beating up on women. I don't get it because first of all I don't know what you think you're accomplishing by that but more importantly don't you know that some of these sisters now are in training. I just want to give you a heads up now.

You are going to write a check you can't cash one of these days. Put your hands on the wrong sister and she been somewhere in the gym pumping iron and taking these classes learning how to hit you and where to hit you. So don't overwork that weaker vessel thing it'll get you in trouble. But the fact of the matter is it takes strength and power to be a woman of God.

This is a military term you find here in verse 10. This is a woman who spiritually and in terms of her intellectual prowess and emotional stability she is a strong woman in Christ. She is strong enough to go through disappointments and come out with a smile. Thank God for women who have lived through heartbreak and all kinds of trouble but it hasn't made them bitter it's made them better because they drew on the strength of God. See that's where this strength comes from when you see this term that speaks of strength and power we're talking about drawing on the strength of God. These are women who have learned to draw on his strength.

They've learned the lesson of Isaiah 40 where that verse says they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. When you look at the Hebrew their weight is actually a term that speaks of being woven. It's the concept of those who have woven their lives to the Lord. They are so tied to God until you don't know where they stop and where God starts. They are woven.

See the concept even with the hairstyles if you get a hairstyle that involves a weave these days if you get a good one if you get a good one we don't know where you stop and what you bought starts. And let me tell you something that's the exact concept you find in Isaiah 40. That's the exact concept you find in Isaiah 40.

You don't know where one stops and the other starts. Those whose lives are woven to the Lord shall renew their strength and godly women have learned not to let trouble drive them from God but let it drive them to God. And as a result they have drawn on his strength to get through their difficult times. They've drawn on his strength to deal with people who have not always respected them or treated them properly. It takes strength to be a woman after God's own heart.

It takes strength to be a woman who's been disrespected but you speak respectfully in return. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message in praise of godly women. If you'd like more information about Destined for Victory or this month's special offer, a booklet from Pastor Paul called Traits of a Virtuous Woman, be sure to stop by our website pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net. Secondly, thank God for women with strong family values. I want you to note here in Proverbs 31 the strong family values of this godly woman. Look at several verses with me, verses 11 and 12. It says her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message in praise of godly women. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ you are destined for victory. You