In Praise of Godly Women, Part 2

These are days when many are listening to people who are suffering from mental illness by biblical standards.

Train up your child on the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. That is Proverbs 22 6 and this is Destined for Victory. Hello and thanks for tuning in for today's message One of which is by raising their children in accordance with the Word of God. Pastor Paul has plenty more to say on the subject. So stay with us or download the podcast at PastorPaul.net at Google Podcasts or wherever you go to get yours. Now, with this message in praise of godly women.

Here's Pastor Paul Sheppard. Now, there are a couple of points we've made and two more yet to be made. The first point is thank God for women of nobility, strength and power. Verse 10 talks about the virtuous woman or the woman of noble character.

And we established the fact that that is very much a military term. It has to do with one's strength, not only of body, but of character and of spirit to be a woman of God. You must be a woman who draws on the strength of God and thank God for all women who have learned to rely on the power of God day by day. Thank God for women of nobility, strength and power. Secondly, thank God for women with strong family values.

One of the things I love about the Proverbs 31 ideal is this is a woman who, despite our obvious resourcefulness, which we'll focus on in a moment, she is a woman who knows how to put first things first. And so godly women are to be praised for their strong family values, those who have chosen that they will prioritize their husbands in the case of married women and their children in the case of mothers. They will prioritize them above personal fulfillment and chasing some dream that would be really in the category of selfish ambition. And they have chosen to prioritize those things that are more important because the fact of the matter is many of our lives are better because we were raised by or heavily influenced by women who considered us important enough to put their values and to put their time and energy into our lives. And some of us are the better off because of such women. They could have been selfish. They could have gone out and done their own thing as so many are doing today and just kind of pushing family on the back burner and say, let them fend for themselves.

I'm going out so that I can fulfill my own personal dreams. Thank God for women who perhaps still have much personal fulfillment. But in terms of the order of things and the importance of things in their lives, they have chosen to have strong and biblical family values. And our world is better off because of such women.

Now, I want to pick it up and make a third and fourth point before we get away from this chapter. Number three, thank God for women who are resourceful and generous. Thank God for women who are resourceful and generous. I want you to pay close attention to the fact that this Proverbs 31 woman is a woman who is extremely resourceful. As we read some of these verses, you can tell that she is one who is very, very gifted by God and she uses all of her assets and all of her abilities in ways that bless her family, bless others, and glorify the Lord at the same time. We noted that she is a woman who is so busy that one verse, verse 18, said her lamp doesn't go out at night. Now, of course, that's not to be taken literally, but it is to suggest that she is a woman who well into the night, her mind is still geared up, she is still being resourceful, she takes care of her family and gets them settled in and she's already beginning to plan toward and think about the next day. Many of us know what it is like to be influenced by such godly women who prioritized us well and who used their resources to benefit our lives. And I want to suggest that we must give praise and honor to such women. Now, I want you to note three specific ways in which this godly woman in Proverbs 31 was both resourceful and generous.

The first is that she was resourceful and generous and demonstrated it by training her children properly. For verse 28 tells us the result of that. It says her children arise and call her blessed. Now, I don't know if you realize it, but children don't arise and call their parents blessed unless they have been well-taught and well-trained. And I want you to know that these are days when we need to call the generation of modern parents back to biblical standards of parenting because these are days when many are listening to people who are so-called experts, but they don't have wisdom because the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And I want you to know that this Proverbs 31 woman is a woman who's in the process of raising her children well. That is by biblical standards. There are many women today who because they don't understand or are not taking heed to the biblical pattern for raising children, your children aren't arising and calling you blessed.

Your children are rising and blessing you out. And I want to let you know that is not God's will. God would have us to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I want to read a few verses to you from Deuteronomy chapter 6 so that if you don't know what the biblical pattern is in child raising, you'll understand it.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 says this, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

There's the first thing. If you're going to be a godly parent, then the commandments of the Lord must first be on your heart. Thank God for those of us who were raised by women who had the commandments of the Lord on their own hearts. They didn't tell you one thing and do another. But they modeled godliness not only by what they said but by the way they lived. Always remember that your children are really good at spotting a phony.

And they know when you're all talk and no action. And so it is important that you understand that the commandments of the Lord are to reside in your own heart first. Then verse 7 says impress them on your children.

Impress what? The commandments of the Lord on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home. Some of you all can remember those talks at the table where godly parents were telling you and reinforcing things to you.

And when you walk along the road or these days ride in the car, when you lie down and when you get up. Look at verse 8. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your forehead.

Wipe them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. There's the biblical model for training your children in godliness. You, first of all, by precept and example, you live out the instructions of the Lord. Then you impress them on your children.

If you want to be like this woman who raised children, who rose and called her blessed, then you want to take seriously this mandate in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Impress them on your children. Do not buy into this modern idea that, well, you know, the children should be free to make up in their own minds. And so I let them explore all philosophies and I let them dabble in any old thing they want and they don't have to necessarily be overly exposed to Christianity. I want them to have a well-rounded understanding. I don't want them to resent church.

Listen, as far as I'm concerned, there's a Greek word for that, baloney. We are called, according to the word, to impress the commandments of the Lord on our children. And so this whole idea of, you can go to church if you feel like it, but you don't have to, that's something I am very unfamiliar with. I've heard Christian parents say it and I have no frame of reference. I just look at them with my mouth open, not believing what I hear. The whole idea that you would say to children who live in your house, you have a captive audience, that they're in your house, ask them, are they going to church with you today?

I have no frame of reference for that. I come from the old school and I'm sorry you just have to put up with me if you're new school. I come from the old school. Old school is, I never in my life heard my mother say, do you feel like going to church? I don't know what that sounds like.

I've never heard that. Are you going to church today? Now I'll tell you what I heard.

I heard y'all have 45 minutes to be out of this house. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd. Remember, you can always listen on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net and there you'll find a host of great resources at our online store, including books and DVDs from Pastor Paul. Stay with us after today's message when Pastor Paul joins me in the studio.

But first, let's join him for the second half of today's Destined for Victory message in praise of godly women. See, we lived in walking distance to the church when I was growing up. In those preteen years, we lived right in walking distance so they weren't even going to drive you. Y'all have 45 minutes to be out of the door and on your way to Sunday school. I'm not talking about the main church. You started with Sunday school. Come on, some of y'all remember 9.30 to 10.30.

Sunday school. That was the hour. Then you had a half hour break in my church and then 11 o'clock, Jesus was supposed to show up in the morning service. And so you had to be in there and be in there on time.

And I never heard, nobody asked me did I feel like going to church. Even when you got into your teen years and would hang out a little bit and your parents would give you a later curfew because it was the weekend, they would tell you, all right, now if you're going out somewhere on Saturday, all right, remember you're at church tomorrow. And you know, sometime we'd be out and it'd get a little fun and we'd stay out real late and all of that call in, say can I hang?

We're doing such and such. Are we going to the restaurant? All right, but remember you have church. And then some of you all know what it's like to go to bed real late and then you wake up and you are so tired on Sunday morning. And I don't care if you were hoping against hope that you might be given permission to stay home.

No such thing was going to happen. What you would get is a lecture. While they're telling you you have 45 minutes to be out of this house, now you're groggy and sleepy and complaining and they say see that? That's why I told you, you knew you had church this morning. You should have came in like you had some sense last night.

But it wasn't going to be an option. You were going to church by virtue of your address. By virtue of where you lived, you were going to church.

If you live in a household of faith, you were going to church. Their attitude was we don't even care if before you get saved you don't like going to church, why? Because their goal is to impress the commandments of the Lord on you because that's what the Bible said. Because they know there's going to be plenty of time later for you if you haven't come to faith by 18 or whenever you leave the house. They know there's going to be plenty of time for the Holy Spirit to deal with you.

But they will have put so much word in you, so much truth in you until even when you try to get away from it, it's going to be down on the inside troubling you. And if you had a true godly example in your parents, they were loving, they were balanced, and they were Christ-centered and Bible-based in the things they said and what they did, you were not going to be able to get far. Even if you try to stay in sin, some of you tried to go out into sin in the years that you got away from your parents' house. But it's tough to be a decent sinner when you've been raised that way. I mean, it's tough to be a decent sinner because they put so much stuff in you that conviction is constantly coming your way. And you understand that the Lord has other plans for my life.

And that's the way it ought to be, folks. And I thank God for the women in the body of Christ who are resourceful in terms of raising their children properly. For this is the will of God for us to so raise our children that they know the word of God. Listen, we need to understand that over 75% of people who are saved in the body of Christ today got saved when they were preteens or teenagers. Well over three-quarters got saved when they were preteens or teenagers.

What does that tell you? That this is the time for you to impress the word of God on them. The wise man said in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 to young people, remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come.

See, the days of trouble are coming. And if you haven't put the right things in your children by precept and by your own example, if you have not modeled the right things for them, they're going to hit those days of trouble, days of temptation. When they first get out on their own, they're adults and they're out there in the world, they don't have you now telling them what they have to do and where they have to go.

And so the enemy meets them and you've got to have so equipped them with the word of God until they know how to fend off the attacks of the enemy. And so it's very, very important that we praise women who have trained their children properly, given them not only spiritual grounding and training, but just good old manners. Do you all remember the days where you taught your children to have manners?

Do you know that's a dying art now? Do you know I am shocked when I run into a child with sure enough good manners? And I say, whoa, this child's being raised right?

Make me want to hug their parent. Just say, God bless you, I'm glad that there's still some folk left, there's a remnant left in the earth that still believes that manners count for something. So you got to understand the Bible said in 2 Timothy 3, in the last days, perilous times would come. And one of the things he listed there in 2 Timothy 3 is that people would be ungrateful, ungrateful as well as children would be disobedient to their parents. And the fact of the matter is sometimes you see both in a child, they're already ungrateful because they haven't been taught to be grateful. Some of you remember the days when if someone just gave you a little something, didn't even have to be much, but your parents taught you that even if you didn't feel particularly grateful or didn't want what they were giving you, you still had to show some gratitude because as we were so often told coming up, no one has to do anything nice for you. And so when they think about you and choose to do something nice, then you owe them a debt of gratitude. And thank God, thank God for women who put those things in us. Many of you as well as me, you were blessed with those kind of mothers and grandmothers and people who had that kind of godly influence in your life. I'm so glad I was raised with some good sense. I'm so glad because it kept me from some of the perils and pitfalls that I see.

Some of my contemporaries have fallen into. And you and I owe praise and owe honor to those women in our lives who have demonstrated their resourcefulness first by the way they properly raised us. Now secondly, I see in this text that they demonstrate their resourcefulness and generosity by giving to those in need. And this giving is twofold. In verse 20 of Proverbs chapter 31, it speaks of the fact that she is generous with regard to the poor, that there are many people that are poor in our world.

That's always been the case and probably will always be the case. And so we are told that this woman opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. Thank God for women who were resourceful enough to always look out for those who are less fortunate. In fact, some of us didn't even know how poor we were growing up because our parents did a good job of shielding us from that. And they made you feel like all of our needs are met.

God has us covered. And the fact is when you grow up a little later and you talk to them and find out what little money they made, you say God really blessed those folk because they had a way of stretching very little. And it not only happened in their generation but the generation preceding them. My grandmother, my dad tells the stories of my grandmother who was one of the poorest women in her church. But he said rare was the Sunday when their family went home alone. She was always looking around to see if there was someone who didn't have even what little she had.

And sometimes he said it wasn't even a matter of finding poor people. She just loved being hospitable. And so she would find somebody and say you have any way to eat today after church? Well, come on and go home with me. And my dad said my brothers and sisters didn't know how I would look.

And we see who she's bringing home this week. And if they look like they love to eat, he said we'd be especially mad. Because you know, back in the 30s and what have you, back in those days, sometimes the children, all this stuff we hear now, children first, that didn't apply back then. And he said sometimes we sitting there looking and they fixing all the guest plates. And they say oh, not going to be much left for me. But listen, they had a spirit of generosity. And their lives were rich because they shared what they had. And they had a sense of it's important that we share love and we share resources with one another.

They understood that you can't reap if you haven't sown. And so they looked for every opportunity to sow goodness into the lives of other people. Thanks for joining us for today's Destined for Victory message in Praise of Godly Women. To wrap things up, I'm pleased to have Pastor Paul join me from his studio in California. Pastor, I know Mother's Day is right around the corner, which is one reason why you've chosen to air this series in Praise of Godly Women this week.

But something tells me there's another reason. Share with us why these messages might be 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. Well, that resource, which serves as a great companion guide to the messages you're hearing this week, is a booklet from Pastor Paul called Traits of a Virtuous Woman. Pastor Paul wrote this booklet to honor mothers in particular and godly women in general.

As you follow along, you'll discover several important traits that all women should embody. That's Traits of a Virtuous Woman, a booklet from Pastor Paul based on Proverbs 31, and it's our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. So call us at 855-339-5500 to give over the phone or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, our address is Destin for Victory, box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. You need to thank God for mothers and grandmothers and women of godly influence in your life who worked hard to bring you to adulthood. Let me say something, even if you didn't have a godly parent, even if you didn't have a godly mother, if she was able to get you to the place where you were cared for enough to get up to adulthood, the Bible is clear, you owe her honor. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's 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.