Chapter 31 is a very famous passage where God lists a lot of the attributes of what a virtuous woman is.
What God basically wants a woman to be in her life and some of the characteristics that she should have and so forth.
And really it's a lot different than what the world would tell you that a woman should be.
The image that the world puts out of a successful woman or of a woman that's righteous and doing the right things
is a lot different than what we find in the Bible.
And so I want to compare and contrast those two things.
But first, if you would, flip back to Genesis chapter 3, the first book in the Bible.
Genesis chapter number 3.
Because you see, God created men and women for different purposes.
And God has a plan and a will for our life that He has revealed for us in the Bible.
And it's a lot different than what the world will tell you to do with your life.
I mean, the world's program for your life is a lot different than God's program for your life, whether you're a man or a woman.
But we're dealing with women this morning because it's Mother's Day.
And so look at Genesis chapter 3.
By the way, I was out soul-witting. I was out knocking on doors a couple weeks ago.
And I knocked on this Jehovah's Witnesses door.
And it's funny, you try to give these Jehovah's Witnesses the gospel.
You try to get them saved.
And they always want to get you on some other subject.
They try to get you on some other subject that doesn't really matter that much.
And this lady I'm talking to, she says, let me ask you a question.
You know, I'm in the middle of going through the plan of salvation, showing her how salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Not when it works, just when He made us supposed.
And she's, you know, she's telling me keep the commandments and all the stuff that they're taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watchtower Society.
And I say to this lady, I say, well, or she says to me, I'm sorry, do you celebrate Christmas and Mother's Day?
And I said, well, I said, that doesn't really matter to me.
I said, I don't care about that.
I said, the Bible doesn't mention either Christmas or Mother's Day.
So that doesn't really matter.
And she's like, well, because she said, you know, I'm a Jehovah's Witnesses and they tell us that that we should not celebrate Mother's Day.
Now, come on.
I mean, I can understand that they can find fault with maybe Christmas or Easter and these things they find fault with.
But they tell them that you can't celebrate your birthday.
You can't celebrate Mother's Day.
You can't celebrate Thanksgiving.
And so I said to this young lady, I said, I said, well, can you show me in the Bible or give me some kind of a Bible verse or some kind of a rationale or reason why we shouldn't celebrate Mother's Day?
And she just sat there and said, I have no clue.
And I said, but they told you that, didn't they?
She said, yeah, did they tell you somewhere in the Bible?
No.
And I said, well, you know what?
I said, maybe a lot of the other things you've been taught also don't come from the Bible.
You thought about that?
Because I said, all I believe is what the Bible says.
It doesn't matter what my church says or your church says.
And she ended up getting saved about, you know, it took about 45 minutes just because I had to go through so much different doctrine with her about the Jehovah's Witnesses.
She ended up getting saved because I showed her, look, your religion does not come from the Bible.
And that's why we should always be careful that everything we preach and teach, we can back it up from the Bible and not just make up arbitrary rules like Mother's Day is a bad holiday.
Come on.
I mean, give me a break.
You're real.
But look at you went to Genesis chapter 3, verse 20.
This is a very telling verse.
It says in verse 20 of chapter 3, and Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living.
Now, what's interesting about that is that Eve's name basically meant that she was the mother.
So basically the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, the first woman's name was derived from the fact that she was the mother.
It's funny.
He didn't name her, you know, businesswoman.
Right?
Adam and businesswoman, you know.
Adam and career woman.
No, he named her basically after the fact that she was a mother because that's what most women spend most of their time and their life doing.
Okay.
Look, if you would, at 1 Timothy chapter number 5.
1 Timothy chapter number 5.
You see, in our society, young girls are growing up and teenage girls and young ladies are growing up with the idea that having a child is maybe a bad thing.
Or maybe something that they want to put back as far as they can into their 30s or something like that.
When in reality, it's part of God's will for their life.
It's part of what God created them to do.
I remember the famous statement that Obama made where he said he didn't want his daughter to be punished with a child.
You remember that?
He said, if my daughter, he said, you know, I want to keep abortion legal because he said, if my daughter makes a mistake, I don't want her to be punished with a baby.
You know, the Bible says that children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
And by the way, sometimes maybe it's a reward for going out and fornicating and sleeping around.
You're going to get rewarded for that with something that's going to basically make you grow up and be responsible and be mature and have to take some responsibility in your life.
Maybe that's why God allowed that baby to be born to someone who is not married, to someone who made a mistake, which the Bible calls sin, committed that sin of sleeping around outside of marriage.
Maybe God designed them to have that child now so that they could have some consequences and that could help them grow up and learn to do the right things and maybe get their life on track and so forth.
Because it seems like a lot of women who've done those kind of things, once they have that child, it kind of causes them to think things through a little more and grow up and move forward in their life.
And therefore, you know, we shouldn't sit there and say, oh, just kill it, you know, Obama's answer.
But the sermon's not about Obama.
But it says in verse, where did I have to turn?
I'm sorry.
I got on this ranting gig there.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, 1 Timothy chapter 5, this is talking about the widows and they're going to take care of the widows in the church and they wanted to make sure that they weren't taking care of any widows that should have been taken care of elsewhere.
And he explains what kind of widows they should be taken care of in the administration.
And he says in verse number 9, he says, Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works.
Okay.
Then he begins to describe what some of those good works are, right?
He says this woman should be well reported of for good works.
Then that semicolon, he's about to tell us what those good works are.
Look at the first thing that's listed.
If she had brought up children.
That is a good work.
That's something that God looks at and says, hey, that is a job.
That is something good.
It's the most important thing you could be doing as a lady.
And so it's listed first here, if she had brought up children, if she had launched strangers, and he lists these other good works.
If she had washed the sage's feet, if she had relieved the afflicted, if she had diligently followed every good work, and so on.
But the younger widows refused, and it goes on to explain why.
But the Bible is clear here that this is a great job.
It's a work.
So many times, my boss, my former boss used to say to me, why don't you have your wife do this or make these calls or do this paperwork?
And I said, my wife already has a full-time job of being a mother, and it's a full-time job.
I said, she's busier than I am sometimes, and she has to take care of the children.
We have five children, and our sixth is on the way.
And let me tell you something, that's a full-time job.
But really, this verse in modern Christianity could be changed around.
Instead of saying, if she had brought up children, if she had launched strangers, it would say, she's launched children and brought up strangers.
Because that's what a lot of the Christians of today will put as a model.
They'll say, oh, don't have too many kids.
Put your kids in daycare.
Go teach in the Christian school.
Go run this daycare.
Go watch somebody else's kids.
Go raise them, and the children will launch at your house.
But God says that you are to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Look at Song of Solomon, chapter 1.
Song of Solomon, just shortly after the book of Proverbs, where it was worth.
You see, being a mother is a glorious thing.
Being a mother is the greatest calling that a woman can have in her life.
Not being, you know, running for president of the United States.
Not being the CEO of a successful company.
Not being a career businesswoman.
But being a mother is what God designed women to do.
By the way, while we're in 1 Timothy 5, you're turning back to Song of Solomon.
You know, we can't leave this chapter without reading verse 14.
It says, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
That's a great program for a woman's life.
Marry, bear children, guide the house.
And that doesn't fly today with the women's lib and all the worldly stuff, but that's what God's Word has told us.
That God's will is, God's perfect will for a woman's life is to marry, bear children, and guide the house.
Now, there are women who've gone a different path in life.
And wherever you're at in life, God can still use you.
Whatever mistakes you've made, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before the Bible says,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Remember the woman at the well?
She had been married five times and divorced five times, and then she was living with a guy that she wasn't married to.
Now, that story used to sound crazy.
Nowadays, you're like, okay, where's the punchline, you know, because that's so common.
But that woman was greatly used by God after Jesus Christ gave her the gospel and got her saved.
She went and got a ton of people in the town saved and brought them to Jesus.
So God can still use you no matter what your past is like.
Don't let that hold you back.
But those of you who are earlier in life, get on God's program for your life.
And don't get on the world's program for your life.
The world's going to try to make you be something that you weren't designed to be.
God wants you to be what He created you to be.
Look at Song of Solomon chapter 1.
The Bible says in verse number 5,
I am black but comely, O you daughters of Jerusalem,
as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun had looked upon me.
My mother's children were angry with me.
They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
Tell me, O thou, when my soul loveth where thou feedest,
where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.
For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?
Now, when she's saying she's black, she doesn't just mean like,
Hey, I'm black, you know.
She basically is talking about being out in the sun,
working out in a field, working out in a vineyard,
and being blackened by the sun.
You know, you get darker and darker the more you're out working in the sun.
She's exaggerating a little bit here, okay.
And she's out working in the vineyards, and she said,
I kept everybody else's vineyard, but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
You know, God has called women to keep their own house,
to keep their own vineyard.
And so many times, there are all kinds of forces
that are trying to take women out of the home
and get them to keep everybody else's vineyard,
keep everybody else of it, and neglect their own household,
neglect what God has for them.
And that's what this verse is teaching.
Now, let's look, if you would, at Proverbs, since we're in Psalm.
Let's go back a few pages where we started, the virtuous woman.
Let's see God's idea of a virtuous woman,
God's idea of what a woman should aspire to be.
Now, if you're a young woman, a young girl,
this is what you should be reaching toward.
This is what you should try to aspire to in your life,
the principle set forth.
Let's say you're already married,
or let's say you're past being married,
or wherever you are in life.
You're a mother, or you have children at home,
or your kids are out of the house.
These are principles that you can apply to your life.
Now, the first thing I want to bring out of this chapter
about what it is to be a great mother and a great wife
and just a great Christian lady,
is that, first of all, she taught her children.
The first part of the chapter,
a lot of people separate out the first nine verses.
But really, it's all about being a mother,
because look at verse 1.
The words of King Lemuel,
the prophecy that his mother taught him.
So really, this whole chapter can be applied to ladies,
even though most ladies start reading in verse 10.
The first thing we see about this virtuous, righteous woman
is that she taught her son the Word of God.
Now, you say, Pastor Anderson,
I thought women shouldn't be teaching and preaching the Bible.
Well, hold on a second.
In the church, the Bible says
that women are supposed to keep silent in the church.
But you know what?
Women do have a job
to preach and teach the Word of God to their children.
They also have a job
to go out and preach the gospel to the lost.
Look at Acts chapter 2,
all the women that God used
to go out and preach the gospel to unsaved people.
And that's why I thank God that in our church,
we have a church where the ladies go soul-willing.
And I hope it's always that way.
I hope that ladies always will go soul-willing in our church
and not just say, oh, we'll leave that to the men.
God said upon the maidservants,
He said that the men and women in Acts chapter 2
should be out preaching the gospel to every creature.
But here we see a woman who taught her son the Word of God.
She taught him two things in this particular passage.
Number one, she taught him the dangers of alcohol.
She explained to him not to drink.
She said, it is not for kings, O Lemuel,
it is not for kings to drink wine,
nor for princes strong drink,
lest they drink.
And what's going to happen when they drink?
And forget the law
and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
In Proverbs 23, it says,
when you drink that your eyes will behold strange women
and your mouth will utter perverse things, Proverbs 23.
But here she says,
give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish
and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
Let him drink and forget his poverty
and remember his misery no more.
Now, you know what's funny?
I've actually seen Christians take this verse
and try to use that as a justification for drinking.
That's me, I just want to drown my sorrows.
Why don't you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of great glory?
The Bible says, rejoice evermore.
The Bible says that we should rejoice in Jesus Christ.
Are we ready to perish?
I thought, whosoever believeth in him shall not perish
but have everlasting life.
You say, oh, that's just talking about kings and priests
shouldn't drink.
Well, Revelation 1 says that he has made us unto our God,
kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth.
You see, give wine, give strong drink
to the guy who's about to perish,
the guy who's living a miserable, crummy life.
Let him go drown his sorrows.
But that's not the Christian life.
The Christian life is not a life of drowning your sorrows
and reality escape
and just forgetting how miserable my life is.
Hey, I'm rejoicing in the Lord.
I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize,
the high calling of Christ Jesus.
I'm winning people to Christ.
I'm reading the Bible.
I'm doing things for God.
And so, no, alcohol is not for me.
I don't want to pervert the judgment of anything afflicted.
I don't want to behold strange women.
I don't want my mouth to utter perverted things,
as it says in Proverbs 23.
Therefore, I don't drink.
Thank God for a mother who taught their children that.
And mothers need to teach their children
about the dangers of sin
and not just expect church to do it,
not just expect the pastor to do it,
but to take the Word of God themself
and to teach their children
the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
You know, I grew up going to a few different churches.
And I can tell you something.
Many of the children who came out of that same church
turned out dramatically differently.
Like, same church.
Many of the children turned out really well.
And many of the children turned out really poorly.
But you know what?
You can notice it was the parents
that made the difference.
You know what I mean?
It's not enough to just bring them to the right church.
The parents are the ones that day in and day out
should be teaching that child.
And the book of Proverbs says that a child
that is left to himself will cause his mother shame.
His mother to shame if he's left to himself.
And so teach your children the Word of God.
The next thing that she did was she warned him
basically about the dangers of the strange woman.
And all throughout the book of Proverbs
he describes women who are promiscuous,
who will try to basically seduce you and so forth.
And she basically says,
Give not thy strength unto women,
nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
And the two go hand in hand
because almost everybody that I personally know
that committed adultery,
alcohol was involved.
Seriously, I mean the people that I personally know
or that are in my extended family that I know
where adultery has taken place,
it was always, always alcohol related.
I've even known unsaved people,
listen to me now,
I've known unsaved people who said to their wife,
You're not allowed to drink except when you're around me.
Who's ever heard of somebody saying something like that
or having a rule like that?
Yeah, they say you can drink
but only when you're around me
because they know that when somebody's drinking
they can become promiscuous,
they can start getting flirtatious
and start hanging on other men.
Don't tell me that it's right to drink, okay?
The Bible warns about it again and again
and women who are drinking will become promiscuous.
Men who are drinking will commit adultery
when they normally wouldn't have committed adultery.
It's so common,
it's related almost every time to people committing adultery
because you justify things.
I've talked to people who drink,
that's what they told me.
You justify things that you normally wouldn't justify
when you're a little bit drunk.
You start making excuses for things.
You start telling yourself that it's okay
and it's not a big deal
because the first thing,
even in traffic school,
and man have I been to traffic school about 25 times,
they say the first thing when you start drinking to go
is your good judgment,
just your decision-making
goes out the window.
But let's keep going,
let's get into the famous part of the passage.
Verse number 10, the Bible says,
who can find a virtuous woman
for her price is far above rubies?
Far above a big income, guys.
Oh, I want my wife to go out and make a bunch of money.
I want her to contribute to the pie.
Get off your lazy rear end
and go make the money yourself.
The Bible says that a man should provide for his own house
and if he doesn't, he's worse than an infidel.
That's what the Bible says.
1 Timothy 5 again.
Man, I love that chapter.
But it says here,
you know, her price is far above rubies.
Better than having your wife out
bringing home a bunch of rubies.
You know, this is the kind of woman
that you want to have at home.
It says in verse number 11,
the heart of her husband does safely trust in her
so that he shall have no need of spoil.
He doesn't need that other income
that she could be bringing in.
She will do him good and not evil
all the days of her life.
She seeketh wool and flax
and worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchant's shiv.
She bringeth her food from afar.
She riseth also while it is yet night
and giveth meat to her household
and a portion to her maidens.
You say, well, I see women working.
Yeah, women working in the house.
And let me tell you something.
A hard working woman,
God says that's a virtuous woman.
That's a righteous woman.
A hard worker.
Not a woman who sits in front of the TV
on the soap operas all day.
Not the one that's in a sweatsuit
with a tub of ice cream
in front of the television all day.
And the husband gets home
and says, what's for dinner?
And she said, take me after dinner.
You know.
We're talking about a hard working woman.
I mean, the Bible says,
she arises also while it is yet night
and giveth meat to her household
and a portion for her maidens.
She worketh willingly with her hands.
It's talking about wool and flax.
Basically, it's talking about, you know,
sewing, making clothing,
cooking, doing all these things around the house.
That's what God looks down and sees
and is impressed by.
It says in verse number 14,
she's like the merchant's ships.
She bringeth her food from afar.
Now, let me break down that verse for you.
The merchant ships that would bring in
food and goods from afar,
why would they do that?
Well, why is everything made in China?
Same reason.
Because back in those days,
they would basically get on a ship
and go somewhere and buy stuff
where it's really cheap, right?
Then they would bring it back into civilization
and sell it.
You know, they wanted to go into India.
They wanted to go into China
where they could get things for really cheap,
spices and different things.
And then they would bring those back into Europe
and sell them for a lot more.
What's the Bible saying here
when he's comparing a woman to a merchant's ships?
Basically, she's finding the deals.
You know, she's not just blowing money, wasting money.
She's finding the good deals.
She's going out and finding the best prices and so forth
to, you know, not out maybe making an income,
but saving money.
Now, think about this.
Did you know that most big, giant companies
have what's called a purchasing agent?
You know what I'm talking about, a purchasing agent?
A full-time person in big companies
and even mid-sized companies.
A full-time person,
their whole job is just to buy things.
Just to buy things and get the best deal
because a penny saved is a penny earned.
And with the way we're taxed,
a penny saved is like three pennies earned.
And so, therefore, if you can get better deals
and find good deals...
Now, my wife does not work outside the home.
And since we've been married,
she's never had a job, thank God, you know,
which is almost ten years now.
And, you know, it's been tough sometimes
and sometimes it's been not as tough.
But, you know, what's been great
is that my wife has probably saved me more money, get this,
than she ever could have earned during that time.
You know, after all, you factor in all the taxes
and all the expenses of extra vehicles
and everything that are involved in having a job,
childcare, daycare, whatever's needed.
She has saved me so much money.
This suit that I'm wearing right now costs $5.
You're like, I knew it looked like a crummy suit.
No.
Every suit I ever wear costs about $5, $10.
You're like, well, you're always dressed crummy.
But, you know, and some of my suits are Italian suits.
I mean, they're nice suits.
And really, you know,
if you look at the clothing that my family wears,
you know, we wear nice clothing.
None of it.
None of it was bought at the department store.
None of it's bought at the mall.
None of it's bought in fancy stores.
Everything is $1, $2.
And my wife has literally saved me
tens of thousands of dollars in clothing
in the last 10 years
by going out and bringing the clothing from afar.
You know what I mean?
Driving to the thrift store.
And, you know, you say, oh, but it takes so long to go through all that.
You know what? But she went through, she found the deals,
and she saved me tens of thousands of dollars.
She cooked meals, as the Bible said here,
at home, ready-cooked meals.
Not hungry man, not banquet dinners,
not frozen pizza.
But by actually cooking the meals,
it was both cheaper and healthier
and saved us money on healthcare, you know,
because we were eating better.
I mean, my wife has saved money,
and that's what a virtuous woman will do.
She'll spend her time, you know,
sewing and cooking and searching for the deals,
bring her food from afar.
God looks down at that frugality
and is impressed by that and wrote a chapter about it.
Let's keep reading.
Let's see what else God has for us here.
She riseth also well as yet,
and I have giveth meat to her household
and a portion to her maidens.
She considerth a field and buyeth it.
With the fruit of her hand, she planted the vineyard.
Here's gardening.
You know, she's gardening, she's growing things,
she's growing the vineyard.
It says, somebody said, oh, yeah, see,
she's a real estate agent.
Here's a little hint.
Real estate agents sell things.
They don't buy things, okay?
If you just buy things,
you won't make a lot of money as a real estate agent.
It says, I bought a house.
Does that make me a real estate agent?
It says in verse 17,
she girdeth her loins with strength
and strengtheneth her arms.
Now, you say, well, is she down at the gym?
You know, is she one of those kind, you know,
that's bench press?
But hold on, she strengthened her arms by working.
You know, it's funny because my wife,
you know, I don't think I've ever seen her,
I think she went to the gym like twice
in our marriage or something.
You know what I mean?
She's not exactly down at the gym every day pumping iron.
But let me tell you something, you know,
she's strong.
Because she's carrying one kid in this arm,
one kid in this arm, you know.
She's carrying big sacks of flour.
I mean, she works.
She works hard.
She strengthens her arm.
The Bible says a little bit later down in the chapter,
she eateth not the bread of idleness.
Idleness means sitting around and doing nothing.
Let's keep reading.
It says in verse 18,
she perceiveth that her merchandise is good.
Her candle goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the spindle,
and her hands hold the distaff.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor,
yea, she reaches forth her hands in needy.
She's generous, she's considerate,
she's spending her time helping others.
The Bible says in verse 21,
she is not afraid of the snow for her household
because she lives in Phoenix.
She's not afraid of the snow for her household.
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry.
Her clothing is silk and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates
when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
She maketh fine linen and selleth it,
and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
This is basically her making clothing
and even making an excess
and giving it to someone else to sell.
You know, giving it to the merchant to sell
and, you know, make a little extra money
from home like that.
It says in verse number,
let's see, what verse was that in?
24.
She maketh fine linen and selleth it,
and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and honor are her clothing,
and she shall rejoice in time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom.
She's intelligent.
She knows the Bible.
She knows the Word of God.
And in her tongue is the law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household,
and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Her children arise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also, and he prays with her,
Many daughters have done virtuously,
but thou excelest them all.
Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman that feareth the Lord,
she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her own works praise her in the end.
That's God's image of what a woman should strive
and aspire to be.
Now, no woman is perfect just like no man is perfect.
But this is the standard right here
that God sets forth and says,
this is what you should strive to be in your life.
This list right here.
Turn, if you would, to Psalm 139.
Now, the Bible said that favor is deceitful,
and beauty is vain,
but a woman that feareth the Lord,
she shall be praised.
It says that she openeth her mouth with wisdom,
and her tongue is the law of kindness.
I wonder if ladies would spend as much time
on cultivating their spirit,
reading God's word,
getting wisdom from the Bible,
speaking God's word,
as they do on cultivating their outside appearance.
Think about it.
I mean, ladies get up in the morning,
and they might spend an hour,
two hours getting ready,
applying all the makeup,
putting on clothing,
doing the hairdo,
but how much time do they spend reading the Bible?
Think about that now.
How much time do they spend on working on the inside,
what really matters, the spirit,
and being who God wants them to be,
instead of putting on a facade
so that they can be what the world wants them to be?
You see, the world not only has a lifestyle for you ladies
that's contrary to the word of God,
and yeah, I'll just get up and say it.
I've not been afraid to say it before.
I'm not going to be afraid to say it again.
I don't care what anybody thinks about this.
The Bible doesn't change.
I don't care if our culture changes.
I don't care if everybody changes.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
And the preaching in this church shouldn't change.
God's word didn't change.
What I heard growing up out of this book
should be the same thing that's coming out of my mouth right now.
And let me tell you something.
God's plan for women is different than the world's plan.
The world's plan is to send them off to college
to go live in a bunk with another girls,
and these girls are living together in a dorm.
There's no father there.
There's no parent.
There's no authority.
There's no husband.
It's just women living on their own,
and then they go out and do whatever.
There's no authority figure.
Then they go out and they get their degree and their career,
and they go to work,
and the kids are raised by somebody else.
You say, how can you tell?
What are you talking about?
I'm talking about God's word
that says that men go out and make the money,
men bring home the bacon,
and women have a greater job of staying home,
guiding the house,
bringing the food from afar,
and raising children
and bringing them up in the nurture of the admonition of the Lord.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's God's program.
The world looks at a successful woman.
They look at Sarah Palin.
Right?
They see the business suit and the caked-on makeup
and the bangs or whatever
and the little outfit,
and she's a politician.
She's the governor of the state.
You know what?
The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 3,
woe unto you when women rule over you.
That's what it says in Isaiah chapter 3.
You forgot to read that part.
I know.
You're still reading through the book of John for the first time.
Read the whole Bible.
You'll find some interesting stuff.
Isaiah chapter 3 says that you're cursed
when women are ruling over you
and children are ruling over you.
And today, that's the picture of a successful woman.
While she's out running for vice president,
her daughter's out getting pregnant out of wedlock,
it looks like she failed at what really mattered
and succeeded at something that didn't matter.
You say, oh, I don't get political.
This has nothing to do with politics.
I don't care what Sarah Palin's policies are.
I don't care if she's conservative or liberal or libertarian.
It means nothing to me.
What matters is that she ought to be doing what God called her to do,
being a wife and a mother,
and sit down and shut up and let a man run this country,
and let a man run the state of Alaska.
Amen.
That's right.
But the world has a totally different program for women.
They want them to go out and get all this godless education
at Devil's State, at Satan U,
where they can learn that they came from a monkey
and learn that the world's overpopulated
and learn all the nonsense that's taught down there.
Science falsely so called.
When God says that they ought to be the kind of woman in Proverbs 31
that has wisdom, that works hard,
that does homemaking skills,
that has a husband that she loves and follows and takes care of,
and children that she brings up in the urgent amicus of the Lord.
But not only that,
not only does the world have a different program for women
than what the Bible does,
it has a different program for their appearance than what God has.
Basically, the world, ladies,
wants you to live up to a certain appearance
that they've decided is how you should look
instead of the way God made you.
Look at Psalm 139,
and I'll show you what I'm talking about.
The Bible says this in verse number 13,
For thou hast possessed my reins,
thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise thee,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
marvelous are thy works,
and that my soul knoweth right well.
My substance was not hid from thee
when I was made in secret
and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect,
and in thy book all my members
members mean body parts
were written,
which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them.
Basically he's saying,
when I was in my mother's womb,
even before I had all my members...
You know, and if you look at pictures of a child in the womb,
they don't start out with all the fingers and so forth.
First it's just a circle,
and then it kind of becomes a head and a body,
then you kind of see the feet form,
the fingers, the hands, and so forth.
The Bible says that God is continually
fashioning the child in the womb.
He didn't just kind of set the ball rolling
and then just step back,
and it's just, you know, whatever the DNA,
whatever nature takes place,
you know, just mix the DNA of a couple people
and see what comes out. No.
The Bible says that every child is formed
and fashioned in its mother's womb,
continually.
And so it says here that in continuance
we're fashioned when as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them,
they are more in number than the sand.
When I awake, I am still with thee.
And so here David says that he was created,
he's fearfully and wonderfully made.
In Ecclesiastes, the Bible says
he had made all things beautiful in his time.
And yet today most people will say that,
you know, well 99% of women aren't beautiful,
it's just these certain women
that meet the criteria of looking like some Hollywood slut,
you know, and being skinny and caked in makeup
and a certain hairdo and a certain style of clothing,
and they just fit in with what the world
says they're supposed to be.
And ladies, if I were you,
I would get as far away from that image as I could.
Why do you want to be like these whores and whoremongers
of Hollywood anyway?
Whether you're male or female,
why you would pattern yourself after these kind of people
is unbelievable to me.
Why you would want to have a role model,
some godless person who cares only about themself
and loves themself,
but today young teenage girls and young ladies
are being taught look like so-and-so,
look like Angelina Jolie,
look like Jennifer Aniston.
Somebody help me out here,
I'm tired of preaching against a shame.
Yeah, look like Miley Cyrus
who was in a bunch of Indecent Photos scandal.
She was in a scandal proposing for Indecent Photos.
We can tell which way she's going in life.
Help me out here, what are there?
Britney Spears.
Yeah, Britney Spears, exactly.
Real winner in life.
Making out with Madonna on stage.
The filth of this world is not going to be a role model
for my two daughters, Miriam and Rebecca.
They will grow up with a role model
that doesn't look like maybe they were peeled out of an egg,
doesn't look like they're anorexic or whatever,
but they're going to be following someone
who is a virtuous, righteous, godly woman
and not be on the world's program for their lifestyle
or for their appearance.
Because the Bible says that God created people
the way that he wants them.
It's not an accident the way that you look.
If your hair is brown, God gave you brown hair.
Isn't that, I know this is really radical doctrine.
If your eyes are blue, God created you with blue eyes.
If your eyes are brown, you've been created with brown eyes.
Your eyebrows are the way that God created your eyebrows.
But you have to pluck them so that you can look like
Britney and Angelina and whatever.
Plucking the eyebrows.
And you know what's fun?
Women will pluck their eyebrows.
And what happens is they pluck too many.
Because as women get older, it depends on who you are,
but most women as they get older,
their eyebrows thin out naturally.
So what happens is they start wishing
for some of those ones that they plucked.
And then pretty soon they just have to get out a pencil
and just draw the eyebrows off.
Okay?
It's true.
And you know what?
It's because they just have to modify their appearance
to fit some norm.
Who said, who told you that a woman
with just these little tiny eyebrows
is the only way a beautiful woman looks?
Now have you noticed that people are of different races
and they look dramatically different?
Like for example, if you look at women that are white
versus black versus Chinese,
isn't there a big difference in the way that they look?
There's a big difference in the way that their hair is.
There's a big difference in the way their eyes are.
You know, of course, Asian's eyes
look a lot different than Caucasian's eyes.
The way their eyes are, the way their nose is,
the way their mouth is, the way their hair is,
everything about them is totally different.
Okay?
Now stop and think about this.
Maybe that's because God created people a certain way,
a certain package, okay?
A certain grouping of characteristics
that looks good the way that he made it,
you know, the way that he put it together.
But then everybody of every race, every size,
every height, every build tries to look the same.
Same eyebrows.
You know, if you're black,
you're going to look different than you're white.
If you're Chinese, you're going to look different.
But they could be just as beautiful in their own way
that God made them.
You know, there's a certain beauty of the Chinese,
a certain beauty of the black,
the beauty of the Native American.
Okay, everybody has been made the way that God has made them.
And you know, the natural beauty is there in every single woman.
It's true.
You know, you'll let the world tell you,
oh yeah, they're all ugly.
Paint your face, you know, cover it up.
You know?
You've got to change the way you look.
You look terrible.
You know, I find it so offensive, by the way.
And my wife's beautiful, you know.
I think my wife's extremely beautiful.
And you know, she never wears any makeup or anything.
To me, it's insulting when somebody says,
oh, you look good with makeup.
It's like, you look good now.
You don't need makeup.
And yet, people just will tell you,
oh, you've got to put on this makeup.
And now, literally, we've got 11 and 12-year-olds
are already getting into it.
They're already messing with it.
And you know what?
You want to know why your complexion's bad?
Because you're putting chemicals on your face
since you were 10 years old.
I was reading the history of makeup.
I didn't bring it with me today.
But boy, you've got to go back and get one of the sermons
that I preached a couple years ago off the internet.
It's called Body Culture, OK?
And I went through a whole bunch of scriptures on this.
And I read, like, a 15-minute, the history of makeup.
And it was talking about how women
were putting, like, lead and arsenic
and putting drops of lemon in their eyes
to make their eyes twinkle.
That'll make your eye twinkle a little bit.
It was off, like, the Revlon website or something.
I got it off one of these makeup websites.
It was explaining how women were dying from their makeup
because they were putting all these poisonous chemicals
and everything on their face.
And then other women were literally
taking blood out of their body to make
themselves look more pale so they could have a whiter look.
And today, everybody wants to be tanned.
You know, but then there was a time
when everybody wanted to see how pale they could be.
And it's just whatever society tells you looks good.
Instead of just saying, you know what?
How God made me, he must think I look good
because he made me like this.
You know, and most women who are not beautiful,
it's because they've altered their own appearance
by caking on a bunch of chemicals
or by, you know, putting on several hundred pounds
or removing too many pounds.
But, you know, if you would just be what God made you
and quit letting everybody tell you that you're not beautiful
and that you have to live up to some standard of Hollywood
or a Barbie doll, why don't you just decide,
hey, God made me who I am.
I don't have to be skinny.
Not every woman is designed to be skinny.
Not every woman is designed to be full-feared.
God made everybody different.
Be who you are.
Have your hair the way God made you.
You know, and I used to dye my hair.
I used to have bleached blonde hair when I was a teenager.
I bleached my hair and everybody liked it better
when it was bleached and so forth.
But then finally, when I became a man,
I put away childish things.
And I basically just said, you know what?
If God gave me brown hair,
this is the hair that God wants me to have.
And so I'm just going to have brown hair.
I'm just going to keep it real.
I'm not going to try to be somebody that I'm not.
And women today are being told to be someone that they're not.
They're designed to do one thing in the home.
They're designed to have a certain function in society.
And everybody's telling them, oh, you're a feminist
if you tell women to dress like a man, act like a man,
go to work like a man, and talk like a man.
That's called feminism.
Can somebody explain that to me?
Feminism is making women be more like men.
Okay.
That sounds kind of opposite.
Wouldn't that be like masculism?
But see, that sounds catchy of a slogan.
You know, a masculist.
Cut your hair short like a man.
You know, wear pants like a man.
Go be a ditch-digger like a man.
And that's freedom.
That's women's liberation.
Go clock in every day and have surveillance cameras pointed
at you at your job.
And have your boss on your back all day telling you what to do.
And then you'll be free.
Then you'll have women's liberation.
You know, you'll have more freedom
when your husband's at work all day.
You can do whatever you want.
I don't know what my wife does all day.
I don't have a clue.
You know, I'm at work for 12 hours a day.
I don't have a surveillance camera pointed at her.
I don't pull it up on my cell phone or something.
Like, honey, why are you still in bed?
I can see you on the camera here.
You gonna take that other night down at some point, you know?
I don't sit there and micromanage her life.
She has more freedom.
But the devil will always tell you, oh, be free.
You know, nobody's going to tell me what to do.
I'm going to go join the army.
You know?
I'm going to get away from my mom and dad
and get some freedom and do my own thing.
So I'm going to go join the military.
I'm going to go join the police academy and live my own life.
You know what I mean?
It's like, oh, yeah.
Nobody's going to tell me what to do.
I'm going to dress how I want.
That's why I'm going to put on all the clothes
like everybody else, sag my pants like everybody else,
get an earring like everybody else,
get the same tattoos like everybody else,
because I'm an individual.
Just by being normal, you'll be an individual in 2010.
You'll stand out at your school.
You want to stand out?
Don't dye your hair green.
Just be a normal person.
Go to school looking normal and people will be shocked.
Then you'll be individual.
You know, but the devil always promises you freedom.
Yeah, you're free.
You're an atheist.
You can do whatever you want,
but then drinking will enslave you.
Then drugs will enslave you.
Then gambling will enslave you.
Then everything, TV, will enslave you.
You'll get all these addictions and so forth.
The person who's free is the person who gets up
and says, I do what I want to do.
And what I want to do personally is the right thing.
I want to go to church.
I want to go soul-wanting.
I want to go to work.
I want to pay the bills.
I want to be with my wife only.
I want to raise my children.
I do what I want.
I'm free.
The person who's out drunk and on drugs,
they're not really free.
They're just a slave to that lifestyle.
They're just a slave to those addictions.
Whosoever committed sin, the Bible said in John chapter 8,
is the servant of sin.
You'll become a slave.
Women want freedom.
They want liberation.
They can't stand one person telling them to be their husband,
telling them what to do.
So then they go out and get a job,
and the job just tells them, do what you want.
The job hands them a bunch of rules and says,
here, sign this.
Where would I tell you to wear it?
Their husband can't tell them what to wear it,
but the job will tell them what to wear it.
The hot dog on a stick will make them wear a weird, goofy hat.
That's what I'm talking about.
I've never made my wife wear it.
I never would.
But you know, what I'm saying is that
God's program for your life, ladies,
is different than the world.
Don't get the world's philosophy that says,
oh, you're just a stay-at-home mom or wife.
Do you feel like you've missed out on something in life?
That's what people have told my wife.
Her family has told her.
They said, don't you feel the need to realize
some greater potential in your life?
Don't you want to live to your full potential?
She is living to her full potential.
She's doing what God called her to do.
And you know, ladies,
if you would just keep your appearance
the way that God made it,
the closer to the way God made it,
the better you're going to look.
Well, who's a man in here who agrees with me?
Put up your hand.
If you keep your appearance the closest to the way God made it,
because remember when God created this world,
he said everything he made was very good?
You remember that?
He looked at everything he made, and he said it's very good.
I just believe that God knows more about beauty
than Revlon or Mary Kay or Max Factor.
That's what I believe.
You know, God didn't, you know,
make your eyes look like an insect's eyes
with all these weird circles around them, you know?
God didn't give you that look.
Why not just be as close to the way...
Like, when I eat, I'm not a healthy food nut,
but you know, I try to eat food as close to the way God made it.
You know, not partially hydrogenated
and sodium benzoate and all that kind of stuff.
I try to just eat it as close to the way God made it.
You know, I eat meat like the Bible says.
I eat grains and bread like the Bible says.
But I don't like to modify the chemically enhanced
the genetically altered,
because I just feel like God made it a certain way.
I want to eat how God made it.
And when it comes to the way I want my wife to look,
I want her to look the way God made her.
I thank God that he created my wife the way that he did.
I'm not trying to change anything about her.
I want her to just be how she is.
Okay? And ladies, just be secure in yourself
and say, you know what, this is who God made me.
This is who I am.
And I'm happy with it.
I'm not trying to be a man.
I'm not trying to live like a man.
I'm not trying to dress and look and act like a man.
I'm not trying to look like, you know,
the supermodels and the Hollywood stars.
I'm just going to be who I am.
I'm going to live the life that God has for me to live.
And instead of just worrying about my appearance
and the vanity and deceitfulness of beauty,
I'm going to focus on the inside.
Right? Cultivating the spirit.
Reading God's word. Memorize the Bible.
Because see, you don't need to do anything with the outside.
It's already done.
Are you getting it?
The outside is done.
God created it the way it is.
Just take a shower and call it good.
Okay?
Brush your teeth, take a shower.
You know, you're good to go.
And instead of spending all the time
trying to make the outside look like someone else,
just say, hey, this is how I look.
This is who God made me.
And I'm going to work on the inside.
I'm going to study God's word.
I'm going to be a woman who fears the Lord.
I'm going to strengthen my arms.
You know, I'm going to get something done.
I'm going to build something and do something with my life.
I'm going to work for something.
I'm not going to just sit there
and try to make myself look like something I'm not,
try to live a life of someone that I'm not,
be who you are, be glad you got created.
You know what? I know who I am.
You know, and I'm not trying to be somebody else.
You know, I grew up when I was growing up.
I'm an average height now, but when I was growing up,
I was very short for my age.
I was the shortest kid in the class,
tied with two other kids.
One of them was a Filipino.
One of them was Hispanic.
And we were these three tiny kids in the front.
Everybody else was taller than us.
But you know what?
I thank God that I was the shortest kid in the class.
You know, I didn't like it at the time,
but who knows why God had a purpose in doing that.
I believe he had a reason why.
And you know, once I got older, you know, I grew to normal height.
But the point is that God made me who I am.
Are my teeth perfect like Joel Osteen's? No.
No.
I have cowlicks on the back.
You know why I keep my hair so short?
Because I have these severe cowlicks on the back of my head.
You know what I'm talking about?
If my hair grows at all, I have these weird cowlicks thing on.
I look like I'm from the Little Rascals or something, you know?
I've got like a cow... I look like Dennis the Menace.
I have like Dennis the Menace hair in the back.
Okay?
So I cut my hair short to cut off the cowlicks.
You know, I'm never going to have that bouffant hair either
Joel Osteen has. I'm not going to have it.
As much as I want.
I've had to come to grit with this in my life.
It's not going to be me.
But you know what? I'm just glad with who God made me.
You know?
I am who I am. I look how I look.
You know, whether you think I'm ugly or not, you know what?
It is who I am.
You know, and we need to quit being brainwashed by the world.
And now let's quickly get on the men and then we'll call the servant good.
Okay?
Let's get on the men quick because this is servant geared toward ladies.
And really, just to put it all in a nutshell, ladies, if you're a mother today,
you know, thank God we're honoring you today
because you're doing the job that God gave you.
And you're doing the most important thing you could be doing.
You know, let's get on the men now.
What kind of girl are you looking for, guys?
Single guys?
What kind of girl are you looking for?
You know, is it the one that's in Proverbs 31 or is it just all about the outside?
It's all about the looks.
You know, you need to get your head screwed on straight and say,
you know what? I'm looking for a woman that fears the Lord
because favor is deceitful and beauty is vain.
And you say, what about the married guys?
You know what? The Bible says that her husband also praises her.
You know, you should be thankful for your wife
and praise her for the good things that she does,
for the great qualities that she has,
and love her and appreciate her and take good care of her
because you know what? She works hard.
She does a lot, you know?
Give her of the fruit of her labor, you know?
Take care of her, you know?
Buy her something nice or, you know,
take her out for a nice evening or something
and show some appreciation to your wife
because you know what? I know you're out, you know,
working out in the sun all day and working hard,
but you know what? She's got a job too that she's working hard at home.
And so, let's get our perspective biblical.
And a lot of people are probably offended by maybe something that I said
somewhere in the sermon or maybe not.
But you know what? There's no reason to be offended
when somebody just gets up and just tells you,
this is God's program. This is God's plan, you know?
And just because we were raised in a different society,
who do you think is wrong? Us or God?
You know what I mean? I say our society is wrong.
Let's get biblical in our personal lives.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your word, dear God.
And I thank you for the wife that you've given me, dear God,
and the excellent mother that she is.
And I thank you for all the ladies that are here today, dear God.
They're in all different situations in their life.
Not all are mothers. Some are young. Some are older.
But all the different ladies that are here, dear God,
I pray that you would just help them to get a biblical philosophy
and a biblical perspective in their life,
and not to let the world dictate to them who they are,
but to let the Bible tell them who they are
and to give them an identity as ladies.
And I just pray that you would help all of us to be in your word, dear God,
and let that form our opinions.
And God, please just bless us as we do our soul wedding this afternoon,
and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.