WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.919 So, women, we're going back to this subject this evening. 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:14.720 Truly terrifying subject for a guy to preach from, actually, believe it or not, I take 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:17.719 no pleasure in preaching from this. 00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:21.039 Well I do actually, I will. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:27.519 But it is a huge subject and obviously we're only going to touch a very small part of that 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:36.799 subject this evening from Proverbs particularly and laterally from Proverbs 31. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:46.159 But I think it's important to put some things in context as we do so, particularly as we 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:55.120 live and preach in Edinburgh, in a secular environment and we work and live among people 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:03.599 who genuinely have a secular presuppositional mindset in their lives. 00:01:03.599 --> 00:01:09.920 And I think we need to acknowledge from the very beginning that God's gift of gender and 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:19.599 the biblical emphasis of gender in His word is increasingly at odds with what society views 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:21.359 gender as being. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:27.399 Increasingly and very rapidly that is happening and that is the case. 00:01:27.399 --> 00:01:34.280 But right from the outset we recognize and we must recognize that in all of our discussions 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:43.079 about gender sin and the brokenness of sin has entered and has distorted what God intended 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:53.200 for us so that male domination and female subjugation is wrong and is brutal and should 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:59.079 be opposed at every turn by Christians. 00:01:59.079 --> 00:02:06.319 But it is naive to think that the brokenness of sin in this world hasn't affected gender 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:13.439 and gender issues, of course it has, and massively so in the society in which we live today. 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:21.400 And I think sometimes, for us, there's two opposite extremes that we need to stay very 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:28.079 far clear from in our interpretation of Scripture and our understanding of the Bible. 00:02:28.079 --> 00:02:35.799 And at one extreme we need to be careful of rejecting or ignoring or manipulating what 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:42.920 God's word says to such a degree that it has, in other words, nothing to say to us 00:02:42.920 --> 00:02:51.719 that is maybe either transformational or challenging to the philosophical mindset of the world 00:02:51.719 --> 00:03:01.800 in which we live, where we are driven by and we find our authority from the current views 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:09.000 of society and we try and twist and turn and mold Scripture into these views. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:15.400 Or we simply reject what the Bible says as being irrelevant, out of date and maybe culturally 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:17.560 bound. 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:23.160 The danger at that extreme is that we're picking and choosing the bits of God's truth, either 00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:31.759 that we like or that is unchallenging for us or unchallenging to the society and its thinking 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:34.159 in which we live. 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:38.960 We need to be, and I mentioned this this morning in preparing these two sermons, which were 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:44.400 the hardest two sermons I've ever had to prepare, let me tell you. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:51.519 As I mentioned this morning, it's important that we use our brains when we consider what 00:03:51.520 --> 00:04:00.160 the Bible has to say on any matter, whether it be in creation or beginnings or gender or 00:04:00.160 --> 00:04:01.760 whatever it happens to be. 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:08.439 We can't just ignore what truth says, even if for us sometimes it's unpalatable. 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:18.840 We need to not allow ourselves an easy, slapstick or spineless attitude towards our faith and 00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:23.560 towards God's living Word and His authority of living Word in our lives. 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:24.560 That's one extreme. 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:30.479 The other extreme, and this is maybe particularly relevant in this area, is misunderstanding 00:04:30.479 --> 00:04:45.079 and abusing God's Word to justify or to condone inequality, racism, misogyny or gender oppression 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:54.959 to bring about, in other words, where we use the Bible to justify positions that extremes 00:04:54.959 --> 00:05:03.240 in society or comfortable positions for us, maybe particularly as men, want to take that 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:07.919 I would allow, for example, a philosophy of male domination. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:17.280 That can be a hugely damaging, simplistic, thoughtless and culturally driven interpretation 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:18.280 of the Bible. 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:28.439 I think as men, we have to acknowledge that there are many things that we need forgiven 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:35.480 for in regard to our attitude to women and the way we treat women and have treated women 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:39.200 for a long time in the Christian church. 00:05:39.200 --> 00:05:47.879 And as men and as Christians, we should recognize that there is a great deal about women's 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:56.759 rights that as Christians and as Christian men, we should support and defend wholeheartedly. 00:05:56.759 --> 00:06:07.759 Use and ugly male domination has no place in the Christian church and should be categorically 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:09.480 condemned by us. 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:17.560 Should never be passively condoned and above all, it should never be justified biblically 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:20.839 with warped theology. 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:25.000 So these are two opposite dangers that we need to be aware of. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.879 Now thinking briefly about today's reality, we must, I think, put it in context. 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:39.480 God generally speaking in the academy and generally in the places where thought and 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:44.959 society is being driven, there is an atheistic naturalism. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:50.879 There's that deep presupposition that there is no God and there's a great antagonism towards 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:57.120 His authority, towards His word and towards His moral order. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:03.360 Now there is a movement always, I think, towards gender equality in the society in which we 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:05.159 live. 00:07:05.159 --> 00:07:09.800 But it would go further, much further than what I believe in, I'll go on to say, is the 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:15.519 unique biblical position of gender equality, where the general equality in society allows 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:20.360 for no role distinction whatsoever between men and women or any role distinction based 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:28.120 on gender, which is moving towards and leading towards gender neutrality, a non-binary understanding 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:30.120 of gender. 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:36.759 And interestingly, that is a move, paradoxically, it's a movement towards uniformity. 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:43.680 It's a movement away from diversity and away from distinctiveness and difference and seeing 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:50.920 these things as social constructs towards homogeneity, towards everyone being able to 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:58.960 be the same, whatever gender they may be born with, there is that movement towards no difference 00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:07.480 between the sexes and an interchangeableness between them that is neither biblical nor 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:11.280 rational or practical. 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:15.639 So the challenge, and we looked at this when we looked at creation and Corrie looked at 00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:19.599 it last week, so it's kind of been, it's been a triple whammy. 00:08:19.599 --> 00:08:25.079 We've looked at in the last three weeks, we've recognized and seen that there is in God's 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:28.959 order a gender distinction. 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:33.679 It's a gender distinction and a gender reality that is broken, we recognize that and we see 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:42.000 that within which there is dysphoria, but we see that we are created by Him and for 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:49.079 Him with distinctiveness as men and women, and that has been accepted both biblically 00:08:49.079 --> 00:08:56.759 and in society over millennia, even though it is tainted and broken by sin. 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:03.720 So that's kind of the world we're living in, I think to some degree, made us agree with 00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:04.720 that. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:10.200 But what's God's reality then in terms of gender for us, and particularly in terms of 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:14.840 going to speak about women, and obviously it's a huge area, I'm just going to touch 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:21.200 the surface of it here and I apologize for that if you want me, wanted to get something 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:26.759 a bit more thoughtful and deeper, but I would hope that encourages some thought and debate 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:30.520 and prayer and discussion. 00:09:30.520 --> 00:09:36.160 So I would say that there is distinction within equality, there's equality within distinction, 00:09:36.160 --> 00:09:37.160 equality of the sexes. 00:09:37.160 --> 00:09:44.000 Genesis 1, 27, which we looked at last Sunday, God created man His own image, in the image 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:54.000 of God He created him, male and female He created them, and there's that implicit recognition 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.639 of equality in that image bearing reality. 00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:04.000 In Galatians 3 verse 28 which Cori read from, said, in Christ there's neither dune or Greek, 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.480 there's neither slave nor free, there's no male or female, for you are all one in Christ 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:09.480 Jesus. 00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:16.200 So, fundamental equality is restated in the New Testament and it's restated as significant 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:20.000 and important within the Bible. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.639 Within the image of God we recognise there is absolute and complete equality between men 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:33.159 and women, and that is reflected in the equality within the trinity of which we are image bearer, 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:36.159 same in substance, equal in power and glory. 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:42.399 There's not different modes within the trinity, there is not subordination within the trinity 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:49.240 eternally, but there is this recognition of equality, distinct, equal, eternal beings 00:10:49.240 --> 00:10:51.919 within that order of the trinity. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:59.919 But in the incarnation we see Jesus willingly and lovingly subordinating Himself to the 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:10.639 will of the Father without damaging the equality, the inherent ontological equality He has with 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:12.360 the Father. 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:23.159 And that unique distinctiveness within equality is played out in the Bible in the relationship 00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:27.839 of men and women, made in God's image reflecting that same equality. 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:38.399 But as it were, incarnationally recognising a role where there is familial headship within 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:44.000 the family, within the human family and within the church family, within the family of the 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:54.120 church, there is headship of man, unique understanding where there is equality but a difference of 00:11:54.120 --> 00:12:00.440 roles within these contexts of the Bible, within marriage and within leadership of the 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:01.440 church. 00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:09.840 There is this position where because of man's first creation, man being created first, there 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:17.879 is headship, there is that position within the Bible delegated to man. 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:25.279 And that is of course a nuclear bomb today, an absolute nuclear bomb because all other 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:32.519 subordination will be on the basis of gifts or talents or abilities rather than gender. 00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:38.320 But it's the teaching of Scripture, it's the teaching of the Bible, it's rooted in 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:45.840 creation and it reflects the relationship between the Incarnate Christ and His church, 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:53.200 Corinthians 11 verse 3, tells us that if that is on the screen. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:54.200 Hello? 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:55.399 Yep, great stuff. 00:12:55.399 --> 00:13:00.040 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife 00:13:00.040 --> 00:13:02.720 is her husband and the head of Christ is God. 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:09.040 So within that pattern, within that model, that is the basis for which we recognise that 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:18.559 and of course there's a huge area of submissive servant leadership for men to consider within 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:19.719 that. 00:13:19.719 --> 00:13:26.039 So we recognise within that model that Christ is crucial and He needs to be the lens through 00:13:26.039 --> 00:13:31.519 which we see everything, through which we understand leadership and through which we 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:38.759 are willing to yield to that leadership that He reflects and gives in the Bible Ephesians 00:13:38.759 --> 00:13:43.960 5, 22, also speaks of why submit to your husbands as to the Lord for the husband is 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:49.080 head of the wife even as Christ is head of the church His body and is Himself a Savior. 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:58.240 It's a hugely challenging, a hugely, the model that we're given both for men and women is 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:08.000 hugely challenging for a servant leadership and a willing, loving submission and partnership 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:13.720 and recognising God's order and God's position. 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:21.320 Now I think within that language is a real problem for us because if you go to any dictionary 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:29.240 today, either a paper one or an online one, you will find that all the connotations of 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:32.480 submission are really negative. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:38.360 It has become a very pejorative term today, almost entirely negative connotations like 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:43.879 passive, plying, subservient, servile, differential. 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:53.279 And none of these definitions parallel or match the position of Christ with the Father 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:57.399 and His willing submission so that on the cross He would say, not my will but yours 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:03.840 be done in that act in His human perfect will of submitting to the will of the Father and 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:06.759 the role of the Father in that. 00:15:06.759 --> 00:15:08.559 There aren't really any current definitions. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:14.480 In fact, there's not even a word that we could probably use that reflects the truth 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:19.360 behind the role relationship between men and women as it is reflected in the relationship 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:25.279 between Christ, the Son and Christ the Father in His incarnation. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:34.559 So there is that reality of role difference, role separation and role uniqueness and God 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:38.159 given role in the word. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:44.480 Now biblical womanhood in Proverbs, this last chapter, we're only going to look at this 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:48.120 last section of Proverbs. 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:54.439 There's quite a lot of different bits in Proverbs that speak about quarrelsome wives and dripping 00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:56.200 and nagging things. 00:15:56.200 --> 00:16:00.320 I'm not going to deal with them at all because that doesn't affect anyone here at all in 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:02.080 any way whatsoever. 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:09.240 But let's look at this last passage of Proverbs and remember the context of the book generally 00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:10.840 as we've been looking at that book. 00:16:10.840 --> 00:16:20.520 It's a book written to young men, to boys, young men from their father in a position 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:26.759 of royalty and they're being given advice and they're being shown about how to become 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:34.679 men and yet we've seen that there's a broader application of all of the pastries in Proverbs 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:36.960 to all of us. 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:46.480 But here the mother of King Lemuel is speaking about the kind of woman that he should look 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:57.120 for as a life partner and she is modeling here a wife of nobility, a wife who would 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:01.560 be within the royal household generally speaking. 00:17:01.560 --> 00:17:07.400 Certainly a woman of considerable means and privilege and there's an aspirational aspect 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:16.039 to this chapter clearly but also a spiritual reality that is attainable for women and for 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:18.920 men as well in many ways. 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:24.319 But and there are great principles to make up the word that I often make up as principal 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:28.000 and there are great truths for us to take from it. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:30.200 So for a moment let's look at it. 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:34.159 What is the foundation of this woman's life? 00:17:34.159 --> 00:17:41.799 What makes her someone that is significant and someone that God honors and God models 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:43.000 here in this passage? 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:46.920 Well verse 26 really is the key I think to this passage. 00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:53.440 She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:56.839 And that fits in with all that we've been saying all the way through Proverbs about 00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:02.960 the importance of wisdom and the importance of faith or grace. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:06.400 The teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:09.240 The teaching of grace is on her tongue. 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:15.079 Yes that great Old Testament word, loving kindness, a great word that describes the grace of 00:18:15.079 --> 00:18:20.079 the living God primarily in Jesus Christ is a grace that is at the very heart of her 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:21.079 life. 00:18:21.079 --> 00:18:27.000 She understands herself in the light of God's redemption of her life. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:31.160 Now that applies to all of us as Christians that the foundation of her life, everything 00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:37.799 that we see, the perspective that we have comes from the grace that we have received 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:42.759 and her priorities, her loves, her submission to the truth, her love for the family and 00:18:42.759 --> 00:18:48.200 others is based on this kindness, is based on this grace that she has received that she 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:54.399 knows and that comes clearly out in her life. 00:18:54.399 --> 00:18:57.079 It's a grace that's fused with wisdom. 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:02.960 It's the same verse but also in verse 30, a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:10.680 And in Proverbs we've seen that that goes back to the woman and the men and all who 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:19.799 fear the Lord in that respectful, submissive, salvation love are those who have found wisdom, 00:19:19.799 --> 00:19:22.039 boys becoming men. 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:30.960 As we saw last week, we're going to wisdom personified as a woman and all that that had 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:32.240 to say to us. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:33.960 And it's the whole foundation, isn't it? 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:40.160 Not just of this chapter but the book, that trust and that faith and that grace. 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:45.359 That is where, if I can veer into manhood for a moment, that's where your beauty lies 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:46.359 as a man. 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:48.599 That's where manliness lies. 00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:52.519 That's where your courage and strength and your ability to be a man, sorry, I'm going 00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:57.240 to end your territory, Corey, but also a woman, it's absolutely the same. 00:19:57.240 --> 00:20:00.120 It's having that foundation of grace. 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:08.079 That is, as we see in this chapter in verse 25, strength and dignity is her clothing. 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:10.199 She laughs at the time to come. 00:20:10.199 --> 00:20:16.759 Wisdom gives you as a woman, grace gives you as a woman strength. 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:19.359 We hear a lot about the strength of women. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:28.119 Women are strong, but they're at their strongest when they have the vulnerability of grace 00:20:28.119 --> 00:20:30.199 at the very core of their lives. 00:20:30.199 --> 00:20:31.879 That's where their beauty lies. 00:20:31.879 --> 00:20:34.039 That's where their dignity lies. 00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:40.039 And that's what gives them a positive perspective that enables them to laugh at the future. 00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:42.239 It's a great phrase, isn't it? 00:20:42.239 --> 00:20:47.159 That she's able to laugh at the future at the time to come because her foundation is 00:20:47.159 --> 00:20:48.679 in the right place. 00:20:48.679 --> 00:20:54.319 And that is true for us all, that grace remains where our identity must be. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:21:01.839 As if you're a woman, that is the foundational identity that will make you a woman, that 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:07.359 will make you a unique woman, that will make you a free woman, that will make you a beautiful 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:12.319 woman as you have that grace and that wisdom that comes from God. 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:20.679 That's her foundation that God is alluding here, and it's the foundation that sets women 00:21:20.679 --> 00:21:23.159 in their greatness apart. 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:25.160 Now, what's her focus here? 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:26.160 What's her focus? 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:33.960 Now, I will confess that some of the women may howl when I say this, that her focus is 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:35.360 here as a homemaker. 00:21:35.360 --> 00:21:36.360 Okay? 00:21:36.360 --> 00:21:38.800 Now, I'm going to go on and explain a little bit more. 00:21:38.800 --> 00:21:39.800 Let me finish. 00:21:39.800 --> 00:21:40.800 Okay? 00:21:40.800 --> 00:21:41.920 I want to say several things. 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:47.600 The first is the context is because that's the context. 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:58.959 It's envisioning a wife, a wife of considerable resources as we've seen, who in her context 00:21:58.959 --> 00:22:06.039 and in her culture would have found homemaking as the greatest opportunity and as it were, 00:22:06.039 --> 00:22:07.719 career move for her. 00:22:07.719 --> 00:22:11.319 And it is what this chapter is envisaging. 00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:13.559 I know it's a very different society we live in. 00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:20.919 I'll say a little bit more about that in a moment, but for her, for anyone in that position, 00:22:20.919 --> 00:22:29.279 home was security, home was ambition, home was where she would be freest. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:35.279 There weren't the opportunities and the paths open to women today as there are now, there 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:37.720 wasn't then. 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:39.440 So she is here a homemaker. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:42.919 I would say a homemaker with a difference. 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:48.560 And I think sometimes the danger is for us that we have devalued that entirely in our 00:22:48.560 --> 00:22:54.000 society and the value of homemaking in our society. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:03.640 Motherhood may be particularly seen as secondary, a second rate and as not something to be 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:06.480 aspired to. 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:14.240 And yet having seen, and many of you will have seen and I have seen, that motherhood 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:20.160 and homemaking can have the greatest of all influences in society. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:25.960 Creating a home as a mother and as a wife can both be the most challenging, fulfilling, 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:32.839 gifted, stimulating and powerfully influential work on the planet. 00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:36.460 It can be. 00:23:36.460 --> 00:23:39.279 So does this get nothing to say to any other women? 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:40.279 Absolutely not. 00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:42.400 What about single women? 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:47.079 It doesn't speak about single women here. 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:53.160 I certainly would not patronize any single woman here by assuming that God has given 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:56.559 you the gift of singleness. 00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:01.559 I'm not sure if preachers should say too much about the gift of singleness to women 00:24:01.559 --> 00:24:12.399 or to men who are in that position, I think we leave that between God and the individual. 00:24:12.399 --> 00:24:21.359 Or is their pursuit of a career secondary to the pursuit of homemaking or marriage? 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:31.579 Not so, is following a career secondary or unbiblical if homemaking is so significant 00:24:31.579 --> 00:24:32.579 here? 00:24:32.579 --> 00:24:33.579 Absolutely not. 00:24:33.579 --> 00:24:36.979 Is following a career within marriage unbiblical? 00:24:36.979 --> 00:24:38.379 No. 00:24:38.379 --> 00:24:43.379 We apply all the wisdom of God's word to all the different situations we find ourselves 00:24:43.379 --> 00:24:48.859 in and it may well be that the principles that we will finish with looking at here of 00:24:48.859 --> 00:24:55.419 this woman apply broadly within the context of life and of careers and of singleness and 00:24:55.419 --> 00:25:02.059 of marriage that we are aware of around us. 00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:11.139 Or maybe there's a deep pain of wanting this, wanting this position, wanting marriage, either 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:21.100 in guys or in girls and longing for the intimacy that is reflected in that. 00:25:21.100 --> 00:25:32.140 And we seek to support and love and pray for and embrace everyone within the congregation 00:25:32.140 --> 00:25:34.300 of whatever situation they find themselves in. 00:25:34.300 --> 00:25:40.140 But the encouragement is not to make an idol of that position but recognize and seek God's 00:25:40.140 --> 00:25:48.580 wisdom and God's grace to be a godly woman or a godly man in the situation that God has 00:25:48.580 --> 00:25:52.259 you in today. 00:25:52.259 --> 00:25:58.860 And maybe for some of the, if I may, in my old age and I've spent a weekend embarrassing 00:25:58.860 --> 00:26:03.380 people, it's okay, I did it last night in Aberdeen and I'll do it again today. 00:26:03.380 --> 00:26:11.860 But can I just say a very brief word to some of the single men here that, can I just encourage 00:26:11.860 --> 00:26:13.460 you to open your eyes? 00:26:13.460 --> 00:26:18.900 Because there's some absolutely spiritually beautiful women here, or physically beautiful 00:26:18.900 --> 00:26:26.780 as well, but spiritually beautiful women here that really should blow you away. 00:26:26.780 --> 00:26:27.780 Get in among them. 00:26:27.779 --> 00:26:34.539 I say no more in that particular subject and I will leave quickly at the end. 00:26:34.539 --> 00:26:41.059 But within that whole different context of different scenarios, different situations, 00:26:41.059 --> 00:26:49.899 different cultures, different expectations before finishing with the characteristics, 00:26:49.899 --> 00:26:56.180 we need to remember the brokenness of the world in which we live and also the reality 00:26:56.180 --> 00:26:58.259 for many women. 00:26:58.259 --> 00:27:04.220 And I finish at this point with single mums in a very different position to what we find 00:27:04.220 --> 00:27:09.980 here and I simply salute them in a broken world, the battle that they face. 00:27:09.980 --> 00:27:17.500 That we as a church should be absolutely supportive and in a sense replace the failed and absent 00:27:17.500 --> 00:27:21.980 father in their lives by the support and love that we can show them. 00:27:21.980 --> 00:27:29.660 Because they of all women in my estimation reflect the strength and courage and perseverance 00:27:29.660 --> 00:27:33.579 that is lacking in so many men. 00:27:33.579 --> 00:27:40.259 But let's finish with the characteristics here that apply beyond the circumstances of 00:27:40.259 --> 00:27:50.220 being a homemaker or being a wife and that God lords as great characteristics and I think 00:27:50.220 --> 00:27:54.500 it revealed us a little bit of the mind of God with respect to women. 00:27:54.500 --> 00:27:57.339 Just say a few things here very quickly. 00:27:57.339 --> 00:28:01.460 One is she inspires confidence versus 10 and 11. 00:28:01.460 --> 00:28:05.860 The heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain. 00:28:05.860 --> 00:28:13.579 There's this great sense that those closest to her, those around her are inspired by her. 00:28:13.579 --> 00:28:19.140 There's great love, there's great goodness, they're not suspicious and there's not jealousy. 00:28:19.140 --> 00:28:24.420 She has the great ability to bring out the best in her husband or others who are in her 00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:27.460 sphere of influence whether she's married or not. 00:28:27.460 --> 00:28:29.300 She inspires confidence. 00:28:29.300 --> 00:28:34.500 The best of women inspire confidence in those around them and God's grace enables us to 00:28:34.500 --> 00:28:37.340 do that, enables you to do that. 00:28:37.340 --> 00:28:45.940 She's also clearly in this passage hard working and practical 12 to 14 speaks about doing good, 00:28:45.940 --> 00:28:51.140 working hard, seeking wool and flax, working with her hands and then in verse 19 she puts 00:28:51.140 --> 00:28:56.700 her hand to the distaff and her hands to the spindle. 00:28:56.700 --> 00:29:04.460 The great woman that God is modelling here for is a hard working person and all of us 00:29:04.460 --> 00:29:12.259 in ministry know that nearly all of it, 100% of our churches would collapse in a moment. 00:29:12.259 --> 00:29:20.859 But it not for the hard working women and grace filled women that inhabit the churches 00:29:20.859 --> 00:29:25.900 and do so much of the work in the churches and in the home. 00:29:25.900 --> 00:29:32.619 And that is acknowledged by God and it's lauded by God and it's praised by God. 00:29:32.619 --> 00:29:39.619 It may not be noticed by belligerent, careless, lazy, fat men, but it's acknowledged and seen 00:29:39.619 --> 00:29:45.500 and recognized by God and I hope it's recognized by us also here. 00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:50.419 It seeks the good, she seeks the good, the best for those around them. 00:29:50.419 --> 00:29:56.379 Verse 15, she rises while it's still night, she provides food for her household and portions 00:29:56.379 --> 00:29:58.939 for her servant girls, her maidens, her servant girls. 00:29:58.939 --> 00:30:04.139 So that gives you the idea of the kind of woman that's been spoken of, a woman who employed 00:30:04.140 --> 00:30:09.860 people in her house and she seeks their best. 00:30:09.860 --> 00:30:17.420 She's a great employer, she's a great person to be responsible, she looks after her children 00:30:17.420 --> 00:30:20.740 and her employees and those under her care. 00:30:20.740 --> 00:30:26.820 Absolutely believe that can apply to a business woman in a business context or a woman in 00:30:26.820 --> 00:30:28.620 any other context. 00:30:28.620 --> 00:30:33.660 Clearly she's someone who God gifts with leadership ability and with influence and she 00:30:33.660 --> 00:30:41.019 has these gifts and she uses these gifts in the home and among those who she is influenced 00:30:41.019 --> 00:30:50.940 by showing them grace and love and provision and care, great attitude of a giver of a servant 00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:53.060 of people. 00:30:53.060 --> 00:30:57.820 And she's also within the context here, clearly entrepreneurial. 00:30:57.819 --> 00:31:03.819 This is 16 to 18, tells us that she considers a field and she buys it with the fruit of 00:31:03.819 --> 00:31:10.220 her hands, she plants a vineyard and it goes on in verse 24 to speak of her making linen 00:31:10.220 --> 00:31:13.619 and selling them, she delivers sashes to the merchants. 00:31:13.619 --> 00:31:17.859 This is an entrepreneurial woman, a business woman. 00:31:17.859 --> 00:31:20.619 There's no shackling here of scripture. 00:31:20.619 --> 00:31:27.700 There's no kind of submissive woman in the corner just making the teas all the time. 00:31:27.700 --> 00:31:29.220 That's not the picture we get here. 00:31:29.220 --> 00:31:34.580 There is someone here who understands commerce and business and profit and the right use 00:31:34.580 --> 00:31:43.220 of profit who's successful and God blesses this woman and blesses her gifts and her abilities 00:31:43.220 --> 00:31:45.220 as she uses them for others. 00:31:45.220 --> 00:31:47.460 There's nothing selfish about her. 00:31:47.460 --> 00:31:52.740 There's nothing self-seeking about her gifts and her use of gifts and the way she spends 00:31:52.740 --> 00:31:53.740 her time. 00:31:53.740 --> 00:32:02.420 There's a great submission to her role and also to her freedom in Christ, in God. 00:32:02.420 --> 00:32:04.420 It's entrepreneurial. 00:32:04.420 --> 00:32:08.579 And she's also generous and influential. 00:32:08.579 --> 00:32:15.779 20 to 23 talks about helping the poor, reaching out to those who are needy. 00:32:15.779 --> 00:32:19.819 She's not afraid for her household because she has already clothed them. 00:32:19.819 --> 00:32:25.299 And in verse 28, her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, he praises 00:32:25.299 --> 00:32:26.299 her. 00:32:26.299 --> 00:32:33.859 So there's a generosity in her life that makes her influential in all she does. 00:32:33.859 --> 00:32:40.179 Those in need and her family, those around her gain respect because of her. 00:32:40.179 --> 00:32:42.339 Isn't that interesting? 00:32:42.339 --> 00:32:49.220 They gain respect because of her, because of what she does, because of the way she lives. 00:32:49.220 --> 00:33:00.059 The people around her, kind of, they're sunbathing in her light, as it were. 00:33:00.059 --> 00:33:05.579 There's reflected glory on others because of the kind of grace-filled life that she 00:33:05.579 --> 00:33:06.940 is living. 00:33:06.940 --> 00:33:09.019 She's blessed by those closest to her. 00:33:09.019 --> 00:33:16.059 In this case, the children bless her for what she is and for what she's done. 00:33:16.059 --> 00:33:24.740 And that is true of wider relationships for you as a woman in your life, making and sharing 00:33:24.740 --> 00:33:33.500 and living with a servant heart, whether it's in the home or as a wife or as a single person 00:33:33.500 --> 00:33:36.220 or in your career, whatever it happens to be. 00:33:36.220 --> 00:33:42.940 And many of these characteristics can also be striven for by men, of course. 00:33:42.940 --> 00:33:52.620 But I think this is a releasing chapter within Scripture for our understanding of what God, 00:33:52.620 --> 00:33:59.940 the freedom and the gifting and the influence and the significance that women ought to have 00:33:59.940 --> 00:34:07.420 in their lives and often do have in their lives. 00:34:07.420 --> 00:34:14.539 So the temptation for women, possibly, and certainly for men much more, is to look for 00:34:14.539 --> 00:34:18.059 beauty that is skin-deep. 00:34:18.059 --> 00:34:20.619 That's a real man problem. 00:34:20.619 --> 00:34:25.900 But I think increasingly as, maybe this is not accurate, and the women will tell me here 00:34:25.900 --> 00:34:31.940 later on if this is not accurate, but maybe as the gender distinctions are blurred more 00:34:31.940 --> 00:34:45.860 and more, I think paradoxically it's also a temptation for women to only be concerned 00:34:45.860 --> 00:34:52.820 about their skin-deep beauty, which is not insignificant. 00:34:52.820 --> 00:35:00.860 But God is looking for something that is far deeper than that. 00:35:00.860 --> 00:35:06.740 Freedom is deceitful and beauty is vain or fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is 00:35:06.740 --> 00:35:09.140 to be praised. 00:35:09.140 --> 00:35:12.900 And so there's this whole significance of the beauty of grace. 00:35:12.900 --> 00:35:17.340 Did I ask, did I put, no, I didn't, I don't think I did ask for 1 Peter, I didn't, no, 00:35:17.340 --> 00:35:21.500 okay, let's see if I can find this just at the close. 00:35:21.500 --> 00:35:31.380 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 4, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of 00:35:31.380 --> 00:35:34.980 hair and the putting on gold jewelry, the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be 00:35:34.980 --> 00:35:41.579 the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which 00:35:41.579 --> 00:35:43.579 in God's sight is very precious. 00:35:43.579 --> 00:35:47.780 It's not saying that we're not to be concerned about our outward beauty, but it's to say 00:35:47.780 --> 00:35:58.300 that our deep-seated beauty comes from our heart, from kindness, the kindness of grace, 00:35:58.300 --> 00:36:04.740 of knowing Jesus and knowing the difference Jesus makes in our lives with others and finding 00:36:04.740 --> 00:36:15.060 our identity as women, not in our physical beauty, not even in our identity within society, 00:36:15.059 --> 00:36:19.779 not primarily within our identity as Christ, in Christ. 00:36:19.779 --> 00:36:27.219 And I would finish and give the same advice to the women as Cori gave to the men last 00:36:27.219 --> 00:36:32.420 week, plagiarizing the great Cori. 00:36:32.420 --> 00:36:39.539 A life of repentance, you look for the two characteristics in a godly woman, a good, godly 00:36:39.539 --> 00:36:48.579 woman is in a good, godly, mature man, a daily life of repentance and being a spiritual athlete. 00:36:48.579 --> 00:36:57.500 That is living in such a way that is self-controlled and disciplined because we value the prize 00:36:57.500 --> 00:37:01.539 of knowing and serving and loving Jesus Christ. 00:37:01.539 --> 00:37:10.860 That's transformative and makes our outward beauty so much more significant because it 00:37:10.860 --> 00:37:18.340 is matched by an inner beauty that Christ alone can give and enables us to be this superwoman, 00:37:18.340 --> 00:37:32.700 you to be these superwomen of Proverbs 31, which is a kind, wise, sacrificial life for 00:37:32.700 --> 00:37:34.700 the glory of God. 00:37:34.700 --> 00:37:35.700 Amen. 00:37:35.700 --> 00:37:36.980 Let's pray briefly. 00:37:36.980 --> 00:37:47.140 Lord God, we ask and pray that you would help us to understand who you are. 00:37:47.139 --> 00:37:59.739 Give us when we try and make you in our own image, in our own broken image, either as 00:37:59.739 --> 00:38:09.219 men we do that so often and also the temptation is for women to do so also. 00:38:09.219 --> 00:38:18.099 When we pray that we would see the value of where you have us, the people we are, the 00:38:18.099 --> 00:38:26.379 gender we are, we ask that we would be gentle and compassionate with those who have gendered 00:38:26.379 --> 00:38:33.139 issues, who have sexuality issues, who are struggling in ways that we might never be 00:38:33.139 --> 00:38:34.659 able to fully understand. 00:38:34.659 --> 00:38:40.500 Help us a great love and a patience and a gentleness and a kindness with them and help 00:38:40.500 --> 00:38:54.219 us not to be bullshay or arrogant or dismissive of either sex in our lives. 00:38:54.219 --> 00:39:04.139 We as men not given to the temptations of abusing our position, abusing strength or 00:39:04.139 --> 00:39:12.779 abusing our attitudes in ways that are ungodly or especially un-Christlike. 00:39:12.779 --> 00:39:19.219 We pray that you would forgive us when that has been the case, either institutionally 00:39:19.219 --> 00:39:22.739 or individually in our lives. 00:39:22.739 --> 00:39:28.420 Lord God bless all the women who are here and all the women in the church who rejoice 00:39:28.420 --> 00:39:35.860 and give thanks for the phenomenal work of leadership, of pastoral care, of giftings 00:39:35.860 --> 00:39:43.340 of one way or another and of sacrificial service without which this church would certainly collapse. 00:39:43.340 --> 00:39:48.659 We pray for them and give thanks for them and ask that they would be blessed in their 00:39:48.659 --> 00:39:49.659 day-to-day living. 00:39:49.659 --> 00:39:55.579 And may Christ have the honour and the praise and the glory in our lives for Jesus' sake. 00:39:55.579 --> 00:39:58.579 Amen.