In Praise of Godly Women, Part 2 (cont'd)

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. Here's what Deuteronomy chapter 5 says about how children should treat their parents.

Honor your father and mother so that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Today Pastor Paul wraps up his teaching on godly women by sharing a few more character traits of the Proverbs 31 woman. Along the way, he'll also remind children that they are called by God to honor their mothers and fathers even in those times when they fall short. Today's message is straight ahead but remember you can stop by pastorpaul.net anytime to hear recent Destined for Victory messages on demand.

That's pastorpaul.net. Right now let's join Pastor Paul as he shares today's Destined for Victory message in praise of godly women. Proverbs 31 and 26 it says, she speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. So not only does she give financially to those in need but she also gives wisdom to people who need it. In other words she is so resourceful that God has blessed her with wisdom that she's gained over the years of walking with the Lord and she sees that as a stewardship. So that when she finds people who need to know what God has taught her she develops a relationship with them.

And you know that's the way it ought to be in the body of Christ. People mentoring one another in the things of God. And so this is a woman, this godly woman shares not only of her material and financial resources but she shares of her wisdom. And she makes sure that if there are younger women or there are people who need to know what she knows that she considers that a stewardship and she shares it faithfully with them. Now there's a third thing that demonstrates her resourcefulness and generosity in the text and it's found in verse 27. It says she watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

The third way that she demonstrates her resourcefulness is by contributing to the welfare of her family. Now when you look at several of the verses here in Proverbs 31 you see that this woman was very much an entrepreneur. She worked very hard, she was very industrious. Please understand that industrious women is nothing new.

It was way back in Bible times. But her priorities were of such that again she made sure that all of her work, all of the work of her hands, all of the time and energy she invested as a business woman. Obviously a highly successful one according to the words we read there but she made sure that those things were a means and not an end. I often say that the problem in today's business and corporate environment is that we don't understand why God would prosper us. And there are too many people who think prosperity is the end rather than the means. When God blesses you to be successful and he blesses the work of your hands it is so that you'll have resources to bless yourself and your family but also to bless the kingdom of God and other people who are in need. And this woman contributes to the welfare of her family.

Let me speak a word about this. Now some women do that by partnering with their husbands and working outside of the home. That is completely in order when it fits in with the overall family goals and family plans. But please understand that that's not the only way a woman can contribute to the welfare of her family. Because there are many women who just bring their resources and their managerial skills home and they run the family corporation. I had one of those mothers who rarely worked outside of the home but I tell you our family would have been sunk if it wasn't for that woman. Because my father knew how to go out and minister and to earn a living but boy he was not a manager. God hooked him up with a woman who knew how to stretch things and make things work and knew how to improvise, knew how to pay bills on time.

He didn't even know where the checkbook was. Listen, if God blesses you, if you don't have strength in one area, that's why you need to appreciate your partner. Because God normally will bless you to be able to find in another person that you give your life to strength where you have weakness. And so if you're not good at managing, if you're not good at paying on time, then quit trying to do it. Hand it off to somebody who can take care of business and you don't have to feel like you have to do it.

Whoever is the best suited in the house who can get your credit rating where it needs to be, that's who needs to pay the bills. And some women just use their skills to contribute to the family's welfare, to run the family enterprise, to make things happen. You see these women juggling all these schedules and soccer and dance and school and all these events and pulling it all together. I want to tell you folks that we owe praise and honor to such women because God uses them to make our lives strong, to make our family effective so that we can do those things that we need to do. Thank God for women who are resourceful and generous. Now, fourth and finally, thank God for women who have earned their reward.

Look at verse 31 of Proverbs 31. It says, give her the reward she has earned and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. Give her the reward she has earned. Thank God for women who have earned their reward. How did they earn their reward? Because they were diligent in the years of sowing.

Do you know God always gives us the principle of sowing and reaping? And in the years of sowing, when she was a younger married woman or a younger parent, even if she's a single parent, those years of raising children demand that you work hard. You have to give a lot of time and a lot of attention to detail and you can't be lax.

You've got to be on it and you've got to work very, very hard. And those are the years when your light doesn't go out much at all. And if you do it right, you're working hard in sowing season, just like a farmer, a lot of work going into preparing the ground and tilling the ground and ultimately planting the seed and then making sure the seed is nourished and watered and receives the right amount of heat and making sure that the seed is not compromised by bugs or anything else.

There's a lot of detail that goes into that. But if you sow properly, there is another season coming called reaping, called harvest. And I want to say that we need to thank God for women who sowed well in the sowing years. 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. You owe her honor. The Bible says honor your father and your mother. It doesn't say honor them if they did everything you think they should have done. Because see these are days when you have a lot of people blaming all of their trouble on their parents, sitting somewhere on a couch or in a counselor's chair and rehearsing all the ways that their parents messed them up.

Now there's some legitimacy to issues of childhood and to be sure you have some things to work through and because you're in Christ, God will see to it that you work those through. If you don't understand something in the process, you've got to say, okay Lord, you told me to honor her. I don't think she did everything she should have. I don't think she was the ideal mother in the Proverbs 31 sense, but she got me to adulthood and now I'm here to share how wonderful I am with the world. The fact of the matter is you owe her honor and especially those of us who had godly women in our lives, godly mothers and godly women of influence over us. We owe them honor because they sowed into us and in those sowing years, God blessed them to do so much that now benefits us. And so you need to understand that they have earned a reward because they worked hard in those sowing years. Now please understand then that we owe them praise and honor and that's what you see in verses 28 through 30.

It says her children arise and call her blessed. In other words, children owe their parents such praise and such appreciation. You owe it to them.

It is time for you to say it to them. Not only children, but it says husbands also and he praises her. This is the ideal that she now has moved into reaping season and the fruit of her labor is obvious. And we're told here that her children and her husband owe her praise.

These are the days when we need to thank God and express our appreciation for godly women. Don't just think it, but say it. Don't just think it, but if they're still living, pick up the phone and call those women, those mothers, those grandmothers, those women of godly influence.

Call them and say, you know, I was just thinking about you and I want to thank you for all that you did for me. You want to say it. Don't just think it. Say it.

Give them their flowers while they can smell them. Stay with us. The second half of Pastor Paul Shepherd's message is coming right up. We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support. Gifts that help Pastor Paul share the joy of the gospel with a growing audience.

Destined for Victory is supported entirely by friends like you. And today, as we find ourselves recovering from the pandemic and the challenges of the past year, your support is more critical than ever. Please prayerfully consider making a gift to Destined for Victory today. Give online safely and securely from our website, pastorpaul.net, or give us a call at 855-339-5500. Again, our number 855-339-5500. Some years ago, there was a television commercial in which a well-known public figure said, Be sure to tell your mother how much you love her.

I sure wish I could tell mine. To remind us that today is the day to give praise and honor to the women in our lives. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message in praise of godly women. It's sad when you go to a memorial service and people, everybody wants to talk. Question is, who said what you're saying now when they were alive to hear it? It's a shame when you think that there's some folk who are being memorialized, who if they could hear who was speaking at the service, they would say, Now, they said no such thing to me. I never knew that they felt that way.

That shouldn't be, folks. We ought to say what we have to say now while they can hear it and appreciate it. Don't wait till it's too late to say, I love you. I appreciate you. You did a lot for me. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Don't wait till it's too late to say that. Memorial services always have flowers expressing love, but it's better to give the flowers while they can smell them. Then when you give them at the end, it's just yet another expression of the praise and the honor that you gave all along. You've heard me tell the story about the man who died named Sam. Some of you have not heard it, plus I want to hear it again, so let me tell it real quick. Sam had a neighbor whose soup he enjoyed eating, and so she would bring it by every now and again and give him this favorite soup, and oh, he loved it so much. Well, one day Sam died, and the family was having a quiet hour awake, you know, where the casket was there so his body could be viewed and friends were coming in. They would view his body, and then they would greet the family, express their condolences, and sit quietly with them. Well, this neighbor came in with a pot of soup, and she took the soup and sat it there in the front of the room alongside all the flowers that had been sent by family and by loved ones. Family was incensed, and one of them spoke up and spoke out and said, how dare you mock this occasion. You know Sam is dead.

You know Sam can't eat that soup. And the lady simply said, well, if Sam can smell these flowers, Sam can eat this soup. The fact is, whatever you want to do for somebody, do it while they're alive, so after they go, you will know that whatever expressions of love you share afterwards are simply an extension of what you already gave. But make sure that you're showing that love and appreciation and honor while they can enjoy it. Godly women deserve praise and honor. Finally, godly women deserve to enjoy the fruit of their labor. The fruit of their labor. I want to say to the godly women who are in reaping season, those of you who worked hard when it was sowing season, you raised your children, you worked hard, your light almost never went out, you managed their schedules and all of that, and now you've gotten your children up and out of your house and they're off and on their own.

There is a disturbing trend that I want to address. You are in reaping season and some of you are so used to sowing until you are spending a lot of time looking for ways that you can keep sowing. And there is some sowing, indeed you can do it this season.

But I'm talking about those of you who feel like you don't know what to do with yourself if you are not burdened down with heavy responsibilities. Can I speak a word to you in Jesus' name? This Bible says that you have earned your reward. What is your reward?

Your reward is I worked hard when I had to and now that I don't have to, I won't do it all the time. Some of you are now raising your children's children instead of leaving your children to raise their own children. I want to tell you, they're in sowing season.

For God's sake, let them sow. You're in reaping season and so you ought to be there to provide help and support but make sure it is a hand up and not a hand out. Some of you are carrying heavy burdens well over. You've hit that place where you can get senior discounts.

You can travel less expensively than you used to be able to. And some folks, not you but people I know, refuse to even go on a decent vacation because they've taken on other people's full-time responsibilities. I want to let you know when you're in reaping season, there's only one thing you ought to be majoring in and that's reaping. Enjoying the fruit of your labor.

I want to challenge you, go and enjoy this time in life. You who are grandparents, don't you know my father and mother are downright excited and have been all the years that they've been grandparents because they said we can still enjoy the children, watch them come over and run around and we can spoil them because you all have to go home and train them. We'll spoil them, watch them run around the house but they say the good thing about it is when you get tired, you can call up your children and say come get them. Why? Because they're in reaping season.

They've done their sowing. There were a couple of years where my wife and I lived next door to her mother. For a couple of years, we lived right next door and I'm talking about Philadelphia, a section of Philadelphia that had these row homes. Also I mean right next door, joining walls. We couldn't even argue well in those years because they could hear us.

Had to whisper your arguments. Right next door, joining walls. I mean I could walk out on my porch, walk a few steps over, just step over the banister and you were on her porch. But when we moved in there, she let us settle in but one day she said now I just want to make sure we're clear. She said every now and then I might want to watch the children and in that case you all feel free that evening to go out and enjoy yourself. She said but don't think because you moved next door that you have built in babysitting. There was a wise woman who was in reaping season. She said I gave you your wife, I raised her. Now y'all raise your own. And she takes trips and goes where she wants to go and that's the way it ought to be.

I want to encourage some of you who are in reaping season, for God's sake reap. God made a big beautiful world. Go enjoy it. Some of you all need to go to the beach. There is water that is turquoise.

Oh it would shock you. There are places you can go get on a plane. In a few hours you are in paradise. Don't even have to get used to the water.

Hope the temperature is right. Just walk on out there wonderfully warmed by the sun. You can enjoy yourself. Sit in the place. The people feed you all that you want. Just come wait on you hand and foot. You're sitting somewhere while your children are taking all the trips and you're watching their children, some of whom haven't been taught good manners yet. And they're driving you crazy. Something's wrong with that picture. You are in reaping season.

And you're anointed to reap if you'll just do it. You can travel. Go to Europe. There's an Eiffel Tower. Go on up there.

Lead in Tower of Pisa. Go look at it sideways. Go somewhere in the world. Travel. Doesn't matter where you want to go. Go see the glaciers in Alaska. Go.

God has made a big wonderful world. And you talk about your children. Get them to get together and sponsor your trip. Call them up.

Listen, I'm not telling you what I think. My father called us not long ago. He says, a trip I want to take, I'm calling all the children.

And I've calculated it. If all of you all give such and such an amount, I can go where I want to go. And I thought to myself, if he's crazy enough to call me and ask for money, I'm crazy enough to send it to him.

I wrote my check and sent him his money. I said, go on. Listen, you've got to stop laying down your life for people.

You've done your sewing. Now you're taking on brand new burdens and seeing these people bogged down with all these new responsibilities that they're letting their grown children and other people just heap on them. You ought to do what you want even if it's serving and working, but do it at your own pace.

And don't overburden your life with new responsibilities now because this proverb closes by saying you have earned your reward. Thank God for women of nobility, strength, and power, for women with strong family values, for women who are resourceful and generous, and for women who have earned their reward. In many ways, our culture has encouraged women to abandon their God-given role as mothers and as godly influences in the lives of their children. As we approach Mother's Day this Sunday, be sure to thank your mother, your grandmother, and any woman who has helped you become the person you are today. As Pastor Paul said earlier in today's message, we owe them honor.

What better time of year to pay them tribute than right now? Do you need prayer today? Visit pastorpaul.net, click contact us, and let us know how we can pray for you. While you're there, be sure to ask for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, yours at no cost or obligation. And here's something else, a booklet from Pastor Paul Shepherd called Traits of a Virtuous Woman. Based on Proverbs 31, this booklet dives into some of the ways that godly women can have a profound impact in the lives of her family and those around her. Women will find biblical instruction on what a godly woman looks like, and others will be strongly encouraged to honor those women who have sown seeds of wisdom and grace in their lives. That's Traits of a Virtuous Woman, a booklet from Pastor Paul and our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Just call 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, CA 94538.

Once again, Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. God needs you to stop and pay attention to his activity in your life. He is at work, but do you see it?

Do you notice it? Are you taking the time to say, wait a minute God, what exactly are you up to here? Some of us are busy and the busyness is not serving God's purpose in our lives. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul's message, The Flipside of Futility. Join us to learn that sometimes we can get more done by not doing anything at all. But until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.