Be a Righteous Woman

In John 1, verse 1, it says that the Logos was at the beginning. He was with God. He was God. It is that Logos who was the God who created all things, and without him nothing was created. It is that Logos who is our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the one who came to earth and lived and died and is now the head of the church. We tend to see him in that role, but he also has another role if we stop and consider it. The Logos is the helper of the Father. The Father created all things, it says, through the Son. The Son helped the Father create. The Son interfaces with the physical creation and came and was the gift of the Father to humanity. The Son, on the Father and the family of God's behalf, lived a perfect example for us and served us and taught us and gave us all doctrine.

The helper to the Father is helping the Father and the God family produce children here on earth. Jesus himself said that, I will not leave you forever, I will not forsake you, but I will come back. I will come back to you as, as he called it, the helper through the Holy Spirit to live and to help and to teach those children of God to train almost like a loving mother to raise us up, to show us the way, to take our hand, to teach us to walk and to talk and to become the children of the Father. Always looking up to the Father and praying to the Father, Jesus Christ helps us. And in helping us, and being this Lord and Master, this parent type figure that we have, is helping the Father. If you stop to think about it, he is a great helper to the Father, as the Father carries out the overall work. It's a wonderful relationship. Let me ask you a question. This greatest servant of all is more like men or women. If you look at the description that I just gave, would you say that's more like the role of a man in the human life or more like the woman in a human life?

You know, it's interesting that here we have a helper of God the Father, that Satan's society disregards, discredits, minimizes, disrespects with the mouth and with the deed, ended up even killing, doing away with, and trying to forget.

Now, man was created in the image of God. And after forming man of the dust of the ground and making him come alive, God said, it's not good that man should be alone. He needs a helper. So he created a helper for man. And what a helper he created. A woman who serves and helps the man's business, the man's life, the man's family, actually makes a lot of it take place.

She helps from the time she wakes up in the morning to the time she goes to bed at night. Multi-talented, multitasking, able to humbly serve, give of herself, give of her mind, give of her body, give of everything that she can so that her husband is successful. And women in this world are kind of like Jesus Christ. The greatest servant always seems to be disregarded and disrespected by this culture, by the self-oriented, egotistical, get-take mindset that permeates humanity. And so just like Jesus Christ, women are often taken advantage of, ignored, they are despised, they are sometimes even killed easily in various cultures, just disposed of.

And yet, they are serving, loving, helpful individuals, providing assistance that humanity could not exist without. Is it any wonder that these two things are the state of the world today?

That just as Jesus Christ should be so highly respected, the Bible also says through Peter's lips, wives and women should be highly respected. And yet, is that what happens? Perhaps the greatest honor that a woman could have is the fact that the church itself is referred to as a woman.

The fact that the elect lady refers to a congregation in 2 John.

The fact that the Bible is filled with statements about holy women, virtuous women, prominent women, leading women. That the first fruits into the very family of God are called a bride. That faithful members at this time are referred to in Christ's parable as virgins, virgin ladies. And that Jerusalem above is referred to as the mother of us all. God, in his word, is very, very highly praising of the humble, serving attitude of righteous women.

The Bible talks about a woman whose worth is far above rubies.

Rubies have been said to be one of the most rare and precious special gems that you can find on earth. And jewels to the family of God. So here's a question. How can you ladies be a woman that God considers to be full of faith, faithful to your covenants, obedient to God's commandment, that as a woman so faithful and so well respected that her price is considered far above rubies by Jesus Christ when he comes back and is looking for a symbolic bride?

Today, I'd like to show that that doesn't happen by accident. It's part of a daily pursuit of godliness in your life, of building certain principles from the Bible into your life.

Humans are created uniquely in God's image, in both male and female, both having distinctly different roles. Society is all off track, totally askew as to what the purpose of male and female is, what the roles, what the respect should be, where the honor should be. I previously gave a sermon entitled, Be a Righteous Man, and that laid out some points for us guys to take a look at from Scripture, some things that we should be focused on so that we can be ready to be part of that bride. We can be fulfilling Christ's expectations as we grow in his image.

I was asked by many ladies afterward, would you please give one for us? Not knowing anything at all about what it is to be a lady, I've spent some time since that first message studying in the Bible and looking for points that the Bible says can help you be a righteous woman, which is the title of the sermon today. So let's look into Scripture for principles that would lead ladies to be a righteous woman as individuals.

Question. How can one gradually become a righteous woman, just like one would gradually become a righteous man? This is a process. How does that take place? Well, here are seven points to ponder and apply on a daily basis, hopefully not from my mind or anything to do with me, but rather from a study of the Scriptures and looking at what God says to you ladies.

Point number one is to know God and his word. Know God and his word. Now, I find a curious dichotomy, just digress a little bit from just an observation standpoint. Now, as you come up through school, the girls get better grades. They're more responsible. They study harder. They're smarter. They advance faster. They mature quicker. In society, we tend to find women are more religious than men. In other words, they attend church more than men tend to attend church. So that's the one half of this curiosity. On the other half, we can find examples. I'm not going to paint it with too broad of a brush, but we can find in the church that some ladies don't take the time to study their Bible. They don't take the time to be knowledgeable of knowing God's word or taking the time to pray. So why is it over here on the one end they're much better students and more responsible, but on the other end they tend not to do that always in Bible study and prayer?

I think the answer might involve, once one marries, she gets buried in helping.

And then when children come along, her life is just filled with the details that suck the time and the opportunity out of her. For those of us who have wives, we see very quickly their ability to jump in and serve and help is complicated by the level and amount of help that we need, and that society really puts on to a woman, including sometimes working outside the home, on top of managing the house, on top of trying to rear the kids, and there just simply becomes a priority issue and a lack of time. I would remind you that there is a parable about the seeds, the sower in the seeds and the soil. And Jesus warns that some seed will fall on the ground and it'll spring up, but it'll get choked. It'll get choked by the cares of this world. That doesn't necessarily just mean, oh, the cares of this world, but rather the cares of this physical world. I mean, the things we feel we have to do, the needs we have, putting out those three meals a day, dressing the kids, getting them on the bus, balancing the finances, cleaning the house, getting everything ready, the kids and the clothes and work and everything else, you know, that just sometimes you just can slack off and say, you know, honey, tell me about what's in the Bible again.

You come to church and, you know, you just starve for a sermon, but the kids are acting up and you have to go in the back room and they're talking and they're chattering and they're crying and they're throwing up and they're messing their pants. And first thing you know, church is over, and you think, oh, I missed. I haven't had another sermon again. And sometimes I've seen you ladies in tears because of that. Well, these are challenges, but still the first point is that a righteous woman will know God and His Word. A woman of faith is going to seek God, seek His righteousness in conjunction with His kingdom. You know, we find that spoken by Christ. Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What do you do with all that other stuff? Well, Jesus prioritizes it right there, doesn't He? Somehow it's got to be first. And you've got to take control of that. And I'm very proud for some of the ladies, one living in my house as well, that has come to the point of saying, I will not leave the bedroom in the morning. I will not even come out that door until I have prayed and studied. Then we'll deal with the rest. And hats off, because those ladies began to take off, and they began to really mature rapidly and internalize the Word of God and be able to use that in their lives. I'd like to give you a couple of examples. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5, Paul is talking to Timothy, and he's recalling his mother and grandmother. We can see through what he's saying here a little bit about them.

2 Timothy 1.5 says, When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice.

So we have a genuine faith. If we take this in timeline, which it may or may not have been, people could have been called at the same time. But if you take it in timeline, first you have a young lady with children, at least with one child, and she is strong in the faith. No mention of a father. She may have had an unconverted mate, may have been a single mom, but she's strong in the faith. She has a daughter. Her daughter's name was Eunice. Eunice was genuine and strong in the faith. She grew up at some point, and she became strong in the faith. She was also a mother, and she had a little baby boy, at least one, probably many. This little baby's boy was named Timothy.

And Timothy, he says, I'm persuaded you, Timothy, are also full of faith. So in these women's life, they were able to manage and put God first. Now, in 2 Timothy 3 verse 15, if you carry on a little more, there's more said about these ladies. Because Paul says, from childhood, you, Timothy, have known the holy scriptures. How did a baby know the holy scriptures? Well, Eunice had to teach him, and Lois, the grandmother, had to teach him. From a little child, he was taught the scriptures. These ladies knew their Bible. Now, when you think about that for a minute, remember two things. They didn't own a Bible. You do. And they had no New Testament. It wasn't written down and canonized yet. So what they probably had to do was go to the synagogue every Sabbath and listen very carefully. As the doors were opened, the scrolls were brought out, and the scriptures were read. They went home and taught their children without a Bible those scriptures, and they knew them from childhood. So there's some extra challenge that passes along. The important thing here, to know God and his word, is also shown in this verse. Verse 15, from childhood, you have known the holy scriptures. You ladies need them, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. There's no way around not knowing the word of God. You can't pass this off to someone else. You can't leave it for an article. You can't leave it just for a sermon. You really need to know the holy scriptures. Those are going to make you wise for salvation, a wisdom from above.

The Bible study my wife has encouraged me to tell you is, it doesn't just mean to sit down and get always real technical and deep with commentaries and Greek and Hebrew lexicons and things like that. It can be that. It can be a study. It can be a word study, a topical study. It can be a reading through the Bible. Or it can be going out and seeking what I might term the passage for me today. Passage for you today. What is there that's meaningful for you today? It might require three chapters to find that today's message. It might require three verses to find today's message. God, if you pray about it first and ask God for inspiration, God's word is just filled with much that can be digested and read. And in bite-sized chunks over a period of a lifetime, this word goes in, the wisdom grows from the knowledge coupled with the understanding by obeying it, the wisdom of applying it. You then become an individual who is wise and gets to know God, gets to know his word, and you're able then to apply it. So the first point is get to know God and his word well, personally. There's really no other way around you doing that for yourself.

The second point is to trust God and his word. It's one thing to read it. It's another thing to step out and trust it. All humans have to trust God, come to have the fear of God, even in those areas where you don't think it's fitting, you don't want to do it, it's not what feels right, etc. Come to trust God and his word. Jesus said in John 17, 17, sanctify them by your truth. Your Logos is truth. This is truth. The author of it, God himself, who inspired it, is truth. He is the Logos. Everything about God is truth. Now, when he said, your word is truth, notice he didn't say, your word and is truth. See, trusting this and trusting what he said is the best you can do in this life. Now, you ladies know all about trust, and you get let down quite often. This point is very important, and that is to realize who to trust. You need to trust God. That's what Jesus said. Your word is truth, so trust this. Everyone else and everything else you need to take an extra look at. You need to make somebody and some things earn that trust, improve that trust. The Bible talks about test all things, prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. This is an important point, number two, to trust God and his word, because you ladies are created somehow with an amazing sense of trust. You believe what you're told. Those guys can take you snipe hunting, and you'll actually go. You'll hold the bag and run around saying, here's snipey snipe, jump in the bag. That is trust. You'll believe what the mechanic says when he gives you his free 30-point checklist for your car. You'll believe what the person says who writes it over the internet, and you'll pass it along to everybody you know, just like it says to do.

It's an amazing thing, and yet it's an amazing quality for the millennium.

Not for the current, present, evil age, because Satan is out to buy into your trust like he did with Eve, remember? He deceived her because she was trusting. Adam wasn't trusting. Women get preyed on because of their easy trust by men in all sorts of ways, and they trust that the man, yes, you know, he's telling me, I trust him. That is a blessing to have people who will trust, but it's not wise in an evil age among individuals who are liars and cheats and thieves. And so preying on girls and women and using them and getting and taking is just common, and our whole society has shifted by getting women to trust, trust the authorities, trust the media, trust the guys to where they're being used now at a just a horrendous scale. And it's sad. It's very, very, very sad. If you're not careful, if you don't limit your trust, your absolute unchecked trust to God and his word, you can get left in a terrible, terrible situation. Hurting, shame, complicated, destitute, if things don't go well. The Bible contains the warning that people want your money. You know, back in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, in the first few verses, is just a statement about Western civilization at the end time. Lovers of money, selfish, lying, cheating, backbiters, unthankful. They're not faithful, etc., etc. And most girls, young girls, come up and they're too trusting of things other than God's word. Again, 1 Thessalonians 5, 22, 21, and 22 say, prove all things. Don't just accept all things, but test all things and hold on to what is good. This is truth. This is truth. Jesus even warns that people will come along using this and try to deceive you. You have to be careful. You have to be careful. Let me tell you a sad story. Women trust men more than they trust Christ.

That's a sad story. That's the point of number two here. Point number two. Trust God in His word. And yet women tend to trust people that they see more than Christ. Why do I say that? When a husband leaves the church, how many wives do you know that stay?

I think that's horrible. I think it's awful that instead of trusting here, a wife can be convinced to trust her husband and actually leave the church.

When the serpent spun his tail, did he receive the man or the woman? Did he receive the man or the woman? Did she believe God or something else? When the Jews at Antioch wanted to oust Paul, who did they deceive first? The prominent women.

When false teachers come along, who gets taken in by them? Not only women, men too, but let's look at 2 Timothy 3 and verse 6. Just note something that's said here.

2 Timothy 3 and verse 6. I say this totally out of love and concern so that you can understand that the trust that you have is a beautiful, honorable thing. But in this age, when Satan is loose, he's going to try to use that against you. It says in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 6, For of this sort, talking about false teachers, are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, or trusting women, women who trust men too easily. Don't prove and test. Down in verse 13. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

So it's not going to get better, is it? They'll grow worse and worse. Who do you trust? Trust Christ. And make everybody else, including me, earn that trust. Make sure we're held to the Word of God, which you come to know. You need to know the Word. You need to have a close relationship with God. Men can come along and say words that are about truth. We don't speak truth. We talk about truth. If you say the Bible, the Word, the Logos, and Christ are truth, then we can talk about that. But I am not pure truth. I can only talk about it. And I can talk about it in a right way or a deceptive way. You are responsible to know because Jesus warned you that that is something that will always happen in the Church. We all need to do what he says in verse 14 of 2 Timothy chapter 3. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. Who did you learn them from? A human?

Well, then you probably have a hopefully reliable source. But did you learn them from the prophets and the apostles on whom the Church is founded on? Then you have a solid, trusting source. Who is it that you learned them from? Verse 15, from childhood you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise through salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. That's who you should have learned them from. And the teachers who are true teachers.

Verse 16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is what you need. This is what you need. An article and a sermon and a Bible study, they can be helpful. But this is profitable for those things.

And this will make you wise for salvation. And this is what you trust.

And the stronger you ladies get in this and trusting this, the more righteousness you will be able to perform in your life as you live it. So trust truth. Trust the logos.

Believe and obey the truth. Whatever it says, just believe and obey it. Just do it. Trust it.

Even if it doesn't sound right, trust it and you will grow. You will mature spiritually. You will rise rapidly as a wise woman sound in the faith. Point number three.

Submit to God-instituted authorities. I'll repeat that. Submit to God-instituted authorities.

I think this point is going to surprise you in some ways. There's a tendency in some women, maybe all women, maybe little girls, we've raised girls, to get their way through charm, nagging, whatever. My girls have chided all on me and some of it worked. But there's a concept that's not just for girls. Guys do the same thing. We want to maneuver in a way that will bring my will to the fore. That I will end up having my will done, my way done. In a sense, a woman who's called to be a helper to her husband can end up getting her husband to help her by the end of life. You see that sometimes.

Submission needs to be understood in the greater context. Sometimes the women think, oh, we have to submit and that's our thing. We have a problem with that, etc., etc.

Well, let's put it in a context here. God wants everyone to submit to and honor authority.

Consider this. Jesus Christ at the right hand of God submits to the Father, does He not? Jesus Christ submitted to the Father's will that He go through and give His life for humanity.

Submission to authority is something that begins at the Godhead.

Submission and honor to authority is a learned mindset. It should begin at birth when a young child begins to learn to respect, to obey. They should be taught and disciplined so that that child grows up with a mindset of submission and obedience and respect for authority. Is that what happens in the modern world? Well, we're told as one of the Ten Commandments that children are to honor their parents. This is defined in Ephesians 6 and the first two or three verses as children obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. The commandment says, children honor your father and mother so that you may live long in the land. It's not about you as an individual. It's that Israel, the people, the civilization would continue. God wants respect and honor and obedience so the kingdom of God can grow and endure and live forever. Any nation must begin with families of little children who are taught to respect and honor and obey parents and then grow up and respect and honor each other and the society and the authorities and the laws of society. And then those societies are to respect and honor the society's neighboring them. And in that way you can have a world that's harmonized and at peace. If you teach, if you do not teach a child respect, the child dishonors and disobeys his parents and grows up to be dishonoring and disobedient and disrespectful to women, to men, to authorities, to teachers, to police, to laws, to rules. And as governments get filled, the nations get filled, they denounce, they discredit, they dishonor, they disobey the laws of civility to other cultures, to other races, to other people, to other countries. And you have a world that finally will break down into a chaos that will consume and kill itself off. And you have a world that finally will break down and consume and kill itself off if somebody doesn't intervene. That's the difference between the wonderful world tomorrow, where from the childhood level obedience and discipline and respect is grown in the entire population from birth and exists unilaterally all the way up to the Father in heaven. When we come down to 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 13, we can see how this respect is commanded of all. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 13. Therefore, submit yourself to every ordinance of man, everybody. You see, we are to have this mindset like Jesus Christ does. He wants this to grow within his church, which is going to blossom and grow into the kingdom of God, like the mustard seed, and the remnant of Israel, and those who are left over who fill the millennium that's going to grow from this mindset of submission to authority. 1 Peter 2, 13. Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. See, for the Lord's sake. For the sake of the mindset of the family of God is going to fill the earth. Whether to the King as Supreme, know any president that you just think is out of this world fabulous, and everything he says and does is just great, or any parent, a child thinks of any parent that's just fabulous and never makes a mistake, or a teacher, or company president, or minister, or husband, or whatever it may be. But rather, he says to do this to governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God. Verse 17, honor all people. Is that what we grew up learning in this society? Is that what it teaches us to honor all people?

This is a different mindset that God is trying to teach us. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the president. Honor the king. Honor authority. Now, with all of this as a background, ladies, don't break the chain. Don't be one who says, well, I don't have to. Just like God said to the children, don't do that. Like he says to the guys. He's just saying this to everybody.

And he says it to you once as well. It's found in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 through 24.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 22. Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church, and he's savior of the body.

Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their husbands and everything. So he's saying, just as the church is, just as we are all subject to Jesus Christ, don't break the chain here. You, you be subject to your own husband. And dropping down to verse 33, nevertheless, let each of you in particular, so love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Make this a mindset in your house, and a mindset in your life. And in doing so, you will fit in well in the first resurrection. Fourth point is serve like Christ. Serve like Christ. There are many ways to serve and many motives to have when serving. Proverbs 31 describes a woman that excels in life. When I read Proverbs 31, I sense a lot of personal benefit from doing so as a potential part of the Bride of Christ.

I think that's a very important part of the story. There's a lot of personal benefit from doing so as a potential part of the Bride of Christ.

It's a lot of discussion. It's taken place under who this is referring to.

But when I see this defined, verse 10, it's almost as if the Father is asking the question for his Son, Jesus the Christ, who is about to return, and is looking for a Bride. As you know, Jesus in some of his parables spells out what a challenge that is. How some really aren't prepared and aren't measuring up. If you read Revelation chapters 2 and 3 about the Church, Jesus is having challenges here with the future Bride. The question, who can find a virtuous wife, is quite a question in that scenario. Maybe from King Lemuel's mother, whoever that was, who perhaps raises this question. If we look in verse 11, it says, the heart of her husband safely trusts her, and he will have no lack of gain. She is a helper. She is a perfect complement to whatever husband is being referred to here. In verse 15, it says, she rises while it's yet night and provides food for her household. So when we think of serving, serving like Christ, what is Jesus Christ? He is the bread of life, isn't he? And he produces this spiritual bread that we live by and through.

A wife and a mother should rise and feed her family, but as we saw with Lois and Eunice, she also can feed them spiritual food as well. What a serving opportunity that is for little minds. In verse 20, she extends her hand to the poor. She reaches out her hands to the needy. As part of her responsibilities, like Jesus did, he goes out and helps where he can.

In verse 26, she opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.

There's a woman who knows God, knows his word, trusts it, lives it, is able to speak it to others.

You know, the Bible is full of self-serving women examples and also serving women examples. You have every type from, say, Jezebel all the way over to, say, Tabitha. But we know that it's the serving woman that will be honored by God. As we see here in verse 30, 31, give her the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gate. She's going to be praised for the serving that she does. You know, society does not honor serving. It's not cool. You know, when you see who's really chic in the lady world, it usually has to do something, you know, runways, and who's wearing what, and who's, you know, putting on what, and who's doing what. And it's all about a self thing, and when they chatter, it's all chatter about me, and things like that. It's not cool to serve. It's the focus on you and your image, the clothes, the shoes, the labels, the makeup. However, in the church, in the kingdom of God, the focus will be on imitating righteous women. The examples in the Bible, and they are way cooler than those, you know, airhead bimbos that, you know, come out in their teenage years, go through something in their 20s, and come out in their 30s some sort of a catastrophic mess of life. And you know what you're talking about, what I'm talking about, because it's all over the news. And yet those are the ones that tend to impress, and the other little girls will look at, and maybe imitate, as successes. We know better, because in here are the true successes. And as it says in verse 30, charm is deceitful and beauty passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Serving like Christ is fearing the Lord. Loving God and loving fellow man is obeying and fearing God. That's putting God's Word to practice. You know, the Bible describes several of your spiritual mothers and sisters, and they said a great example. They pioneered this way, and they're honored. They're going to be in the kingdom. Let's look to their legacy for some inspiration. In Acts 9 and verse 36, we find Tabitha. What a great name, Tabitha. It says, at Japa, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, and this woman was full of good works and charitable deeds, which she did. That's how it described her. She's a beautiful woman. In what way? Full of good works of loving agape, thoughtfulness, charitable deeds. And you can just see the admiration, the beauty of this person poured out.

One of the other languages of the day translated her name is Dorkus, but she was very special to her neighbors. The widows mourned for her when she died. In verse 39, we see that the widows in the neighborhood, when she died suddenly, were without her. They just couldn't go on.

It just tore them up because they depended on Tabitha. Tabitha was so loving and serving, what are we going to do without Tabitha? So they even journeyed and found Peter, and cried on his shoulder and said, you know, what are we going to do?

So verse 39, Peter arose and went with them. And when he had come, they brought him to the upper room, and all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorkus had made while she was with them. She sewed for them and helped them out. And they were crying.

Interesting thing was here, God honored her by bringing her back to life. He resurrected her, and she got to continue on. And through her example, many people came into the faith.

Another example is Lydia. Lydia was one of those ladies who didn't mind tackling things that were quite difficult. She made purple cloth. Now, you can study into purple and purple cloth back before chemicals and paints. You had to go into nature and get your colors. And purple is just one of those things that's not out there. Unless you want to dive in the ocean and go down and get some shellfish. And in those shellfish, you find some purple. And you want to somehow get this out in small amounts and dye fabric with it. Get a small amount of purple fabric dyed. Then you'll find out that only wealthy people can afford it in royalty. Purple is associated with royalty. Well, Tabitha was a maker of purple, so she did some very difficult work. I don't know if she did the diving. Doesn't say where all this came from, but it was a pretty typical way of getting purple was having to dive for shellfish. So she actually was then able to interface with a certain level of society. She kept the Sabbath. She was baptized. She and her households ended up becoming the very first Christians in all of Europe. And they came in and probably had relationships with people up and down through society in the area in which they lived. The church and the apostles met at her home. She was serving. She was helpful. She helped the work of God start in Europe. There's Priscilla. Priscilla opened her home. She taught the ways of God alongside her husband, Aquila. It's interesting that Priscilla precedes the name Aquila. Why is that? They served the Apostle Paul. She was a person who knew the Word of God. She helped Apollos learn it better than he knew it before. She and her husband ended up traveling with the Apostle Paul and helping out after he moved on in certain areas of the church. Then there was Phoebe. In Romans 16 verse 1, Paul shows his respect of Phoebe by just saying, Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cintreia, a servant of the church. He's serving is very important. Christ likes serving. And here are wonderful examples of beautiful ladies, gorgeous ladies. We don't know what their face looked like, but their hearts were the type that you want to go meet with them. You want to go see their house. You want to listen to them. If they died, you'd cry your eyes out. This is a great example, a great example, to follow the examples of the women in the Bible. The fifth point, God made you beautiful. You're more attractive than any tree. You know, we go to camp, high Sierra, and we take the kids to see the big trees. The biggest living things on earth are actually trees. They're huge. And you go say, whoa, there's a tree. Everybody says, wow, that's a tree. Within two, three minutes, they walk off. People come to the Grand Canyon here in Arizona. I read once that it was the most visited natural wonder park or whatever on earth.

We've seen people walk up to the Grand Canyon and say, wow, that's big. That's deep. And then turn around, go get in their car, and drive off. But a woman, I'll tell you what, a woman is much more pretty attractive than any tree or animal or canyon or anything else you can imagine.

You can retain that outward beauty that God created for your whole life. And thankfully, your husband doesn't have a great memory. So he can always think every day is a new day and think you just showed up looking like you do. And that's a great thing. But your outward beauty can get in the way of your proper focus. It can create a constant I, me. A lot of time, a lot of focus about me and how do I and where will I and what do I. It can go that direction.

Point five is to maximize your inner beauty. This is a biblical point. Maximize your inner beauty. Didn't say forget about the outer beauty. That is a real gift to your husband, to those around you.

And that's great.

But a mature inner beauty will endear you to everyone.

Just as we read of the biblical examples of these other ladies, it's the respect and the honor and the appreciation and the love. As we read back in Proverbs, charm is deceitful. Because, you know, in charming, you can kind of work something on somebody. It's not exactly genuine.

Beauty is passing. The outward beauty is passing. But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. So maximize the inner beauty. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 5. Here we see an example from the scripture of what to focus on.

1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 5.

It says, For in this manner, in this way, in this form, doing these things, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorn themselves.

So now we know how the holy women adorn themselves. Or do we? How did they adorn themselves? Well, you actually have to back up to the previous two verses and read that. It says, verse 3, Do not let your adornment be merely outward. Not only. Don't just stress that.

Arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel. Let's go back and read what he said. Don't let that type of adornment be merely outward. Oh, got my hair done, got my jewelry on, got my makeup on. Therefore, I'm all set. No, you're not. Okay? Do those things, leave it behind, and now go out and let the inner beauty show. Verse 4, Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. Leave. Once you do those things, step on out and maximize the heart. Here's who I am. Here's what I do. Here's how I help. Here's what I'm trying to be like. I'm trying to be like Jesus Christ. I'm trying to serve and love like He did. And if I break a nail, so what? And if this, so what? I'm focused now. If the wind blows my hair, you know, that's life. If the kid throws up on my dress, hey, it's an honor to have a kid. It's just, you know, you look good and now you go out and serve. You forget that and go out and serve. And let it be that hidden person of the heart. With the incorruptible beauty, incorruptible means it can't rot. It can't corrupt. It's the real deal. It doesn't matter what the outside looks like, it's whether it's impressive or something, but it's rather the beauty of this spirit, which the Holy Spirit, you see, the general, gentle or the gentle préos in the Greek, I believe, meek spirit that is fully trusting in God, fully looking to God to lead and to guide. You go out and say, okay, now God, show me, lead me, help me. I want to do your will.

Point number six. Let your speech always be with graciousness.

That's a quote. I didn't make it up. It comes from Colossians 4 verse 6.

Always let your speech be with graciousness.

A woman is a communication dynamo. Now, not every woman, but every woman that's been in my family from babyhood up and the little boys too, the grandkids, they can talk and they say, a lot of things, but the girls can talk. And I don't know, as a man, I just sometimes I'm riding along with my wife and I want to talk. I want to say something. Nothing's really coming to mind. We did the weather already and I want to talk. My wife steps over, meets another woman.

They just go on and on. I'm thinking, why can't I do that? I want to do that. Why can't we talk about something? I mean, sometimes we can talk, but other times it's like, I have to think about this. I'm not sure what to talk about. Women are really able to talk. I've seen women come through my neighborhood. They're two sisters and they walk in the morning, about 5 30 in the morning.

Hear these voices outside when I'm praying. I got the window. Oh, these gals are walking. When they go off the street, that's nice. Next morning?

Okay, that's two days. They could talk like that for their hour walk or whatever, for two days. They can do this year after year after year.

Why can't I do that? I like to be able to talk like that. The Bible speaks of a tendency in talking that is applied to the ladies that would bring this point from Colossians 4-6, let your speech always be with graciousness, since there's often a lot of speech to make sure that that speech is gracious and proper.

In 1 Timothy 5, verse 13, Paul talks about some young women. It says, Besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but gossips and busybodies saying things which they ought not. Men will do this at the same time.

Just turn on the news, turn on talk radio, listen to any guys. They're saying things they ought not as well. But here's a tendency that you might want to remember that as you talk, not to be gossiping or busy in somebody else's business. It's wrong for anybody to do that.

As we see back in James 3, verse 6, our tongue, whether it's your tongue or my tongue, is a challenge whenever we use it. James 3, verse 6, The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. It's so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by Gehenna. He's sort of using an interesting little... one thing bumps up to the next, if you look at that. It's a little member. In verse 5, see how great a forest a little fire kindles. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. It's set among our members so that it sets on fire the course of nature.

Okay, the course of nature, the world which is going to be consumed in the lake of fire.

It's quite a challenge. Verse 8, no man can tame the tongue. It's an unruly evil, full of deadly poison, but not in your mouth. It needs to be full of graciousness. Verse 10, out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Don't let it be so. Jesus said, back in Luke chapter 6 and verse 45, a good man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth good. Here, if your heart is good and it is good because you're learning God's word, you're trusting him, you're performing it, you're serving so the heart is growing, and your main focus is the inner beauty from the heart.

And so, out of the good treasure of the heart should be coming good words. As he goes on in Luke 6, 45, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

So listen to your words, and if they're seasoned with graciousness and salt, then you know what's in the heart. If not, continue to work on that day by day to have it all working together out of love. The mind, the heart, the word, the deeds, the focus, the good-hearted woman makes a great decaness. How do I know that? The Bible tells me so.

Let's look finally here for this point in 1 Timothy 3, verse 11.

1 Timothy 3, verse 11. This is talking about the qualifications of elders, and then it goes to deacons, and it includes decanesses. In 1 Timothy 3, verse 11, after talking to the deacons here for three verses, it says, likewise, their wives. Now, when it says their wives, it knows theirs in italics. It's not specifically in the Greek. Wives actually, you can refer to wives, but this word actually means women. It's not their wives. The number one Greek translation from Greek into the English is just women. So it's saying, likewise, the women. It's talking about deacons. Now it says, likewise, the women. And the Greek gives inference that these are women of position. Likewise, the women of position. It's talking about elders, then deacons, and it says, likewise, the women of position must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. So, not slanders, not using the tongue in any way that would not be fitting. Finally, point seven. Again, these points are coming from the Bible, including point seven. Point seven is become an at-home wife and mother, if you want to. I added the last part. Become an at-home wife and mother, if you want to. Now we're going to find that the Bible encourages you to do these things, and Paul adds the if you want to in 1 Corinthians 7, because he says you don't have to marry if you don't want to. But let's look at this. I think most of us would note that little baby girls, it's not long until they like dolls. And little boys, they like to play with other things.

We raise three girls, and the babies, and the daddy, and mommy, will you come play house? Daddy, you can be the mommy. You know, I'll be the baby, the dog will be the husband. Dad, will you perform our marriage? All these dress-up things. You come in the living room in its tent city with all the cheats that were on the line. Now we have the houses. Daddy, we're getting married again. Will you do the ceremony? I'm going to marry the dog, and this is going to be my baby.

You do a lot of this in life. You just can't take this out of a little girl.

And then they... well, this week, my wife and I are actually babysitting our three grandsons, ages 1 through 5. And it's very different. This morning on the Sabbath, I thought, now, I need to play, get on the floor, and play with them with Sabbath kind of toys. What would that mean? I looked through all the toys I could find, and I found a barn with animals, and a house, a little dollhouse that opens up, not a dollhouse, but a househouse, and it has little people and a baby and bathtubs and all this stuff.

We're going here. Found a little school bus with people in it. Aha! So I got the boys, and I said, okay, boys, let's play. And they looked at that stuff, and I kind of walked around the room, and one sat in a chair over there, and one over there. I said, now, here's some people getting ready for church, you know?

And, you know, like you got up this morning, you had to eat. They're going to have to eat. Who would eat here? I don't know. Probably that person would. And what about the horse? Would he want to eat anything? No. You know, one was way over there in the chair. I kept saying, come over here and let's play with these things. I said, look at this little van full of people that are going to go to church.

All these people are going to go to church. And I'm like, uh-huh. Okay. One boy came and sat and took all the people and crammed them back into the house and closed it up and locked it. This whole thing didn't go very far. But then they took the technical toys, you know, and dumped them on the floor and they were on them like, you know, dogs on a bone. This goes on that, and that goes there, and that'll bang that, and this'll make noise there.

It wasn't the way with girls. No, they like the dolls and like the getting married. They like the romance. As they got a little older, they're like, dad, do you think the boys are going to dance with me? And oh, dad, I'm in love. And my wife and I learned, yes, love it when those girls like somebody. There's peace in the castle. All the girls are happy. And when some of the girls, one of the girls got dumped, it was, oh, wow, there was hell to pay in the house, you know.

Well, you, how about this boy? You like him here? Look, he lives in Philadelphia. Long way away. It's love, you know, and then marriage and babies. Oh, I want a baby.

Like little girls will go, can I take your baby? Can I, you know, change your baby? They're all about babies. Point is, they want to be a helper. They want to have a family. They want a house. They want children. Romance fills the mind. You remember in Song of Solomon, chapter 1, verse 3. I am the rose of Sharon, the young Shulamite woman says, and the lily of the valleys, and like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the suns.

I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Ah, the beauty of romance, you know, fills the head, and it's just fabulous. Okay? Fulfill your dream and ignore society's desire, its vision, for what's best for you. Oh, no, don't get married. Oh, no, just sleep around and let everybody use you. Children? No, go get that taken care of. What you want is a career. You want to be in one of those big office buildings, up on the top floor, you know, with the big guys, you know, really fulfilling all of your abilities.

Is that what you dreamed of growing up? If it is, go for it. But if not, follow God's intention for you. Paul said in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 14, Therefore, I desire that the younger women marry, bear children, manage the house. That's where this point came from. Biblical. Marry, have kids, manage the house. That's where the greatest fulfillment a woman can have will come from. I didn't say it's the only fulfillment. I didn't say that's the required fulfillment. I didn't say anything except that's the greatest fulfillment. That's in United's marriage ceremony.

There is no greater joy than man can have than to have a godly marriage. That is from Genesis chapter 2. You know, leave your father, mother, be joined to your wife. That is what God wants for you. That's what you probably dreamed of as a child. Paul said right there in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 14, I desire that the younger widows or the women marry, bear children, and manage the house.

You know, there's no greater role that a woman can live besides that which God created for her.

It's through the union of marriage and the wonderful opportunity should God allow it to have children. And those children, to be the greatest creation that any human can make on this planet, is another human, not a building, not something that grows old and falls over or some car that wears out, not some clothing, but a human, a precious human life. Only you can do that. Finally, here's a passage that sums up the points of this sermon. It's in Titus chapter 2 verses 4 and 5.

Titus chapter 2 beginning in verse 4. I'm talking about that the older women admonish the younger women to love their husbands, submitting to them, helping them to love their children. Should God bless you with that wonderful, miraculous opportunity to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

In conclusion, I'd like to quote from an article in the United News written some time ago by Amy Stevens. Some of us know her by the nickname Ames. She wrote about women of faith and wrote these words.

The women that are righteous women, faithful women that we've talked about today, that you are, that you're striving to be, she said, they are a comfort, an inspiration, and a strength in a truly feminine way. These are women of faith who have gone before us. These are women we worship with and serve alongside each week. They are the mothers and sisters we love. They help us, they help make us the women, wives, mothers, sisters, friends, and leaders that we are.

So in conclusion, I hope these seven points from Scripture will help give you some encouragement and hopefully some guideposts in order to help you daily continue growing into a righteous woman. Let God's Word direct you in fulfilling your hopes and your dreams, both now and forever.