open your Bibles to Proverbs 31. Now, Proverbs 31 is obviously a text that is dealing primarily with married women. There are principles that can of course be drawn for women who are not married. But the idea of a married woman, and this context of the married woman, we need to remember what the purpose of marriage is. We need to remember that man is created for the work of dominion, to glorify God, right, by filling the earth with the knowledge of God. We need to remember that that involves adding to attainments, and that involves preserving attainments that have been obtained, right, working and keeping. And then in addition to those things, we need to remember the fact that The wife is created as a helpmate for the man, a helper who is suitable. So not just a co-laborer like oxen who are able to do physical work, but rather a rational being, right? A woman is created in the image of God that man is created male and female so that there is rationality that is displayed with knowledge, holiness, and righteousness. And so those are the outworkings of rationality. They're necessary inferences of rationality. And so in marriage, there is this working together to grow in the knowledge of God, to pursue the purposes of God, being devoted to the glory of God, and to do that with the means that God has appointed, righteousness, what the law commands. And so in that context, right, we have Marriage is for the purpose of being friends, co-laborers in this work, where you're committed to pursuing the knowledge of God together in holiness with the means appointed by God. From there, you fill the earth with the knowledge of God by having children who are raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And marriage also in the context of the fall now, is a hedge, a protection against sexual uncleanness. And so those are the three principal things to remember about marriage. The wife in that context, right, she is a rational co-laborer, a friend for this work. And we have this idea that she's to be a keeper at home, which does not mean she cannot leave the home. It means she's a keeper of the home the way that a shepherd is a keeper of sheep. She is to be a guardian of the home, a person who is focused on the work of the management of the home, the household. The home is not a location as much as it is an institution, the household. And so then there is also the reality that this implies authority. And so she's a manager of the home. She's a one who has authority in the home. Wives have a station as the queens of the home. And that is an office that cannot be removed except for things that are cause for divorce, right? So there is, there's this reality that just as elders and deacons are officers that are appointed by God, that are established by God, Husband and wife are officers in the home and they each have authority. And we should not treat any office as though it is totally subservient to some other human officer. But rather that even when there's higher authority, there's a realization that the institutions of God of themselves have authority and responsibility assigned to them. So help suitable to the husband. a keeper of the home, a manager of the home. Those are the principles there. Now Proverbs 31, I didn't bring this up when we were starting here, but I want to now. Having talked about marriage some, let's look at the reality that Proverbs 31 doesn't begin with verse 10. It doesn't begin with verse 10. And so verses 1 through 9 tend to not get much love. Why do we have verses one through nine here? Let's look at it. Let's read verses one through nine. The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him. So this is his mother. His mother's teaching him. What does his mother teach him? What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows? Those triple questions are designed to gain attention. Sort of, what are you thinking about, son? What are you thinking about, son of my womb? What are you thinking about, son of my vows? There's the realization here that sonship includes, there's a natural order, right? Parents have a duty by having children to provide for them. And there's also the realization of the legal arrangement, the covenantal institution of the household. Son of my vows. We have baptismal vows, right? When we baptize children, that we are reaffirming covenantally that we as a congregation have a duty and we're reaffirming as parents that there's a duty. Circumcision did that in the Old Testament. In the new administration, we have baptism. Those are outward signs. They point to the covenant. And so, here, this mother is emphasizing the relationship, the natural order responsibility, the covenantal responsibility. And then she immediately goes into, do not give your strength to women. nor your ways to that which destroys kings. Remember kings are given three major warnings. Do not multiply horses and chariots. Do not multiply wives. Do not multiply gold. These are false views of the good. These false views of the good include power, pleasure, and money. is they're counterfeit gods. And elders are warned, also, don't be violent. I don't have a love for power. They are warned, do not be enslaved to wine. Love of pleasure. And they are warned, also, to not be lovers of money. Right? And so those are qualifications for office. And so those are the triple thing. Now, the issue here that's being emphasized is the love of pleasure and putting women above God. If you give your strength to women, you're not giving your strength to God. The call to work and keep, to glorify God. And so the woman is instead to work with the man. They are to work together, to give their strength together to this work. But if the man makes the seeking of pleasure and womanizing to be the thing he's pursuing, he can squander his strength. And that destroys kings. So we think about Solomon and his many wives. We think about David with his many wives. We think about Abraham with his many wives. And there are troubles that come from that. And so the idea of marriage as between one man and one woman points to Christ and the church and the faithfulness of Christ. Verse four, it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor princes intoxicating drink, lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. Again, pleasure-seeking as a destroyer of discernment. Pleasure-seeking as a destroyer of discernment. and the intoxication that prevents one from exercising a rule well. You can give your strength to pleasure-seeking. You can give your strength to trying to drown out troubles. You read Ecclesiastes. Solomon, he's very wealthy, very powerful, but he finds all of his revenues insufficient to solve all the problems. So there's this warning here against the pleasure-seeking. What is the proper use of wine and strong drink for those who are perishing, for dealing with pain? The bitterness of heart. You don't want to go into oblivion, but there can be a proper place. Wine gladdens the heart, we're told. And so there is a way in which things like eating, drinking, friends to console, bringing these various ordinary means to be used for blessing in times of difficulty, with moderation, they're appropriate. Let him drink and forget his poverty. Remember his misery no more. This is not commending drunkenness. Again, this is commending the idea of using these things as temporary helps, strengths. So then what is the king to do? Verse eight, open your mouth for the speechless and the cause of all who are appointed to die. You're careful here to rescue those who are on the way to death. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. So there's no partiality here to the poor and needy, but rather... The poor and the needy have a tendency to be overlooked. And so there's an obligation to give attention to those who are poor and needy. The orphan and the widow, the king seeks out their cause to make sure they're being treated justly. Not to try to make it so that they are treated better than everybody else, but to make sure that they are not being abused, not being mistreated because of their position that is tending towards being abused. So in this context, this work of a king, the mother is saying, don't give your strength to women. Don't give your strength away and your discernment away to pleasure-seeking. Use pleasure as a proper place for people in their proper condition with moderation. And here, do this work. Open your mouth. Open your mouth. Open your mouth to the speechless and the cause of all who are appointed to die. open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." So this is the duty of right judgment to speak commending what is good and condemning what is evil. That's the duty of a king. And so you need a wife who is a woman of valor. And this phrase goes back to the men of valor who are those men that can fight, that have strength to do their duty. The woman of valor is someone who, like the men of valor, helps the king to do his job. So, last time we focused on the middle of the text, last Lord's Day evening. There's an introduction to this section, and that is 10 through 12, verses 10 through 12. Who can find a woman of valor, a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above Ruby's. The heart of her husband safely trusts her, so he will have no lack of gain. So he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. Now that introduction, the woman of valor is valuable. The woman of valor is a friend that the husband can trust. The woman of valor gives gain to the husband. And that gain, there's going to be all sorts of lesser gains, right? Those lesser gains can include Things that bring pleasure. Things that bring monetary improvement. Strength of power. But the main thing is going to be growing together in the knowledge of God. The gain is going to be that gain of wisdom. And the husband, we read in Ephesians 5 about the duty of washing the wife with the word. And then the wife, as a glorious bride, we are told in Proverbs chapter 12, She's a crown to the husband, a crown, a sign of his authority, a sign of his power, a sign of his glory. And woman is the glory of man. And so we are able to see this, that he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil. This requires her to know the difference between good and evil. He has to know God, pursue the glory of God, and use the means appointed in his law. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. There's a steadfastness here. All the days of her life. Marriage is a one man, one woman, lifelong commitment. It's a life or death thing. So the text between, I'll do an overview in a second again, we have verses 13 through 26. And there's a conclusion. We didn't really talk about the conclusion last time. Let me touch on that briefly and then we'll do an overview of the middle. 26, I'm sorry, 27. 27 is the beginning of the conclusion. The stuff in between are particular examples that it draws out, helps us to understand applications. But the beginning piece gives us a general overview. And 27 says this, she watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. That kind of summarizes that whole middle section. Okay. she watches over the ways of her household. That's the oversight obligation that I've mentioned to you, right? There's the manager of the home. It also suggests that's where her focus is, right? So she's a keeper at home. So she's focusing on the household and she is managing the household. She's not idle. She's not an idle manager. She's not sitting back and having others just serve her. She's using her authority. It's servant leadership. She's using her authority to serve. And so that, watching over the ways of her household, and avoiding idleness. We have the examples of what that looks like in the verses that proceed. Now the result of that is this. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also calls her blessed. He praises her. And here's an example of the kind of praise. Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. I mentioned to you last time, it's sort of like the statement where Paul says, I am the chief among sinners. Right? Every one of us can say that because we're more aware of our own sin than of other people's sin, unless we're proud. Right? We should be more aware of our own sin than other people's sin. And so we can honestly say, I am the chief among sinners in terms of my perspective. I'm more aware of sins that I have committed than sins that other people have committed. Think about the perspective that requires on your own sin in order for you to look at Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin or Mao, right? And say, Those guys are pretty bad, but I'm worse. And so, think about now the perspective on your wife. To be able to say, there are many godly women. There's Ruth, Esther, Mary. There are women who have done great things. But if you have a godly wife, you ought to be able to say, many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. Because just as you know yourself better than other sinners, you ought to know your wife better than other saints. And so you look for things to praise, to commend. They're there. The Holy Spirit gives them. There's fruit that will be born. If she's not a believer, well, then you need to work on that. It's your duty to wash her in the Word. But you should be able to honestly say, if your wife's a believer, many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing. But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. So we have charm and beauty being put forward. And I want to suggest to you that these are actually both priestly things. These are both having to do with beauty, eloquence, things like that, that are the display of things in a way that is pleasant and encourages affection and relationship. I'll explain those in a second. But the woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. That emphasis there, the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, which is the beginning of knowledge, the recognition of the knowledge of God as the thing that makes a person great. That is the emphasis there. And so we'll consider those And then, give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates. There is the need for reward, and there is the need for her to be honored. So we talked about that some, so I'll emphasize that. So let's remember verses 13 through 15. How do we get down to here? Verses 13 through 15. We have in verses 13 through 15 a A view of provision. There's a providing of goals, a providing of organization, and a providing of tools. She seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands. She is like the merchant ships. She brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portion for her maidservants. So what we've got, the wool and flax is something to work with. She herself is working, so she's giving an example. She is doing organizing work and she's doing this trading work. She's finding deals to bring the material from afar and she is making sure that she's not idle. She's rising early to do the work and providing for her household and a portion for her maid service. We talked about the direct reports idea, right? There's people that are reporting directly to her. she's providing generally, she's helping to make sure this is dealt with. And I gave you the example, you know, I don't report to my wife, but she helps to make sure that I've got food ready in the morning, which makes it so that I can do my work. And then the kids that are reporting to her, she's helping to make sure that they've got food available to them as well. And so there's this being done, and this is again, a sort of here's work that can be done. There's goals. organization of the materials and the portions that people need, the daily bread, she's organizing that. And there's this, the tools for being able to create more wealth versus 16 through 19. We have example insight and risk taking. which is necessary. It's a type of courage. Verses 16 through 19. She considers a field and buys it. From her profits she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good and her lamp does not go out by night. She stretches out her hands to the distiff and her hand holds the spindle. We talked about how verse 19 is sort of like going down the value chain. It's a supply chain from verse 12, or sorry, verse 13, right? There's wool and flax, and then there's the distiff and spindle. So she's now refining that. And so she's purchased goods from a raw materials provider, right? Who has sheep or a field where they can grow flax. And so then buying that and refining it. She's working down the line. And then from there, she is doing this work. She is an example of hard work, which we need to remember is an important part of leadership. Remember 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, it tells us that there are ways in which the word of God is profitable. And there's four things that are told to us there. It's for instruction. We have doctrine that's given. Then there's rebuking to say, don't do this, to put off, put this off. And there's the correcting, put this on. And then there's the training in righteousness. And that training involves rewards and penalties. And it involves example. Right. And so there's this coming alongside to do. So you're not just saying do this, you're giving the example. And so we have that here. We have the fact that she is doing this sort of work. She's doing it at a higher level, right? Her servants obviously are not probably going to be the ones who are going out and finding a field to buy and then deploying the capital for it. But she's giving them an example that she wants them to look for profitable ways to deploy what they've got. She's taking risks to do that. And so she's girding herself with strength. She's strengthening her arms. This has to do with actually having strength. And later on, we're going to look at the fact that She's clothed in strength, which has to do with reputation. Here, she's got the reality that results in reputation across time. So she's, she's preparing herself, she's girding herself with strength. And then she's strengthening her arms, she's putting her arms to use. And so when we think about our stewardship obligation, right, we have a duty to steward our souls. We have a duty to steward our bodies and to steward property. That's what she's doing here. And the way she's doing that, she's furnishing her mind with wisdom, which allows her to pursue good ends so that she can train her body by working, and that allows her to improve the estate. And so she's preparing herself to do work, and then she's doing work, which gives strength. The performance, the ironic thing is, you think, if I work, I'm going to get tired. The reality is, if you don't work, you get tired. When you work, It gives you energy to continue working. There's a training of the body for usefulness. And so you put your arms to use. It's easier to do it the next time. You become accustomed to doing a task. It's easier to do again. The first time you do the thing, you're like, I don't even know what to do with my hands. Is this more natural? What am I doing? You don't know what to do with yourself. You're just fumbling all over the place. Things become easier as you do them. Work makes work easier. So, She strengthens her arms in that, and in perceiving that her merchandise is good, she's again taking risk making things. She's got to know what she's going to make, and she's choosing to do work. If you think you can avoid risk, you're lying to yourself. The only way to avoid risk is by being God. He knows everything. He knows what's going to happen. He chooses the end from the beginning. No risk. You're a creature. You're making choices based upon guesses. You have general principles that are revealed to you. The general direction of history, we win, works out pretty well. But in the short term, there can be disaster. So what does she do? In the next section, we are told she's doing all this work, but verse 20 through 22, she extends her hand to the poor, Giving your stuff away is a risk. You don't have it anymore. She reaches out her hands to the needy. Give a mouse a cookie. He'll ask for a glass of milk. When you try to help people, you know one of the reasons people don't like to help people? It's because you can't measure how much help they're going to ask for. When you help them, they tend to ask for more help. Right? And so there's this Job is committed for, he seeks out the cause of the widow. And so that idea of looking for ways to help you, you, you look to help and you don't know we're going to find into the stone when you lift it up. And so there is this risk of going to help other people. Verse 21, she is not afraid of snow for her household. She's providing well for her household. For all her household is clothed with scarlet. We talked about how that also implies if you're doing expensive dye, it's going to be good fabric, so it's going to be warm. That's why you're not afraid of the snow. She makes tapestry for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. Now it goes down all the way to verse 25 and it says that she'll rejoice in the time to come. She's not afraid, she will rejoice. She's not afraid, she will rejoice. She's looking into the future and so she knows that even hardship and suffering are things that she cannot be afraid of because she possesses the knowledge of God and she can rejoice in the face of suffering. And so she is doing work in verses 20 to 22 to beautify. She's beautifying the poor, she's beautifying her household, and she's beautifying herself. Now, I want to give an outline for you of what I believe a godly society does and how it feeds into itself. There's a virtuous cycle I want to point to you. A godly man, he dwells on the Word of God. He has the Word of God in his soul and he's growing in the knowledge of God. From there, that results in him taking a concern to find others to work with. And with working with them, they are able to then do more. They create. So there's this concern to care for his own soul, his own body, his own estate. Now that results in typically the pursuit of marriage. And that's going to then result in having children. And so that man, in caring for himself, doing prophetic, priestly, and kingly work, is going to result in him then also taking responsibility for his household and helping to do that for his house. He creates a covering. He is a guard for, a protection for his household. He creates a space under which they can take shelter. And there is the ability to form a culture there. He is the elder of his home. He's the teacher of his home. It's his duty to do that, to provide and protect as a king and to teach and correct as a prophet. And as a priest, he's creating a place where love can abide. He is making relational space that is safe for children to be cultivated and grown. Now in that space, the woman, if she does not take up her work, if she's not a deacon of the home, if she is not one who makes sure to beautify those under her care, if she is not doing that, the home will be a place where there is only teaching and work without there being a unity of working together in that in a beautiful way. There's this need for her to create a space where there is love, where there is a concern for each other, where there is a making beautiful the space under that covering. And so there's an attractiveness there that allows for those children to have affections that are trained to this godly atmosphere. Now, there, the husband is encouraged and able to trust in his wife to care for that estate and to build it and to extend that dominion, to work as a partner and to care for those things there. The children are raised up. Hopefully they will be able to go and do work to assist. But the husband is ready to go into the sphere of the church and to be useful as a man who can give public service. He sits in the gates with the elders and because his home is in good order, he is able to give public service. If your home's not in good order, you can't give public service. You need to give focus on your home. And so when your home is in good order, you can give public service. And so the church then is a covering, the elders provide covering, protection, where there's space for those homes to be preserved. So there's kind of this guarding of those guardians. And there's space there where the children can then interact with children of other homes and where wives can have friends of the wives from other homes. And there's this ability to make that beautiful. And the deacons of the church help to make sure those who are vulnerable are cared for. Orphans and widows are provided for. They're beautifying those people who would be without by helping to provide for them. And it creates a place where it looks like there is love there. And so, in the beautifying there, it makes it so that you say, the pagans look on to the church and they say, look how they love one another. Right? The right doctrine, a concern for holiness, for relationship, for caring for each other there, and then for righteousness to be done. And so this is able to be displayed in the earth so that even the pagans look on. And so that care, that unity in the church, the Psalm 133 type of blessing of unity, the appearance there of that, that allows for the world to be able to be credibly testified to. And if they can be testified to, they are able to hear that and they give ear to it. And even if they don't agree, there's a certain degree to which there's a subduing that allows for a Christian state, which allows for the law of God to be applied for the protection of the church. There's a virtuous cycle. Okay. Now, this, the woman's role, that's the breakdown point a lot of the time, where a man who cares about the things of God, he doesn't wash his wife in the Word, doesn't do those things, and the woman doesn't do her job, and as a result, the home does not allow for the kind of work that needs to be done, and that falling apart prevents the whole thing from moving forward and prevents the spread across generations. So this is extremely important. This is extremely important. And a part of feminism's goal is to destroy the beauty of this, which is ironic because this is destroying the beauty of the beautifier. Okay, so here's this role of beautifying by work inside of this space that's under this covering that's provided by the husband. So verse 23, her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them. There's the final role in that supply chain. She's getting wool and flax. She's making that into something useful. She's providing that useful thing to her own household, and she's also selling additional outside to the merchants. But what we have in verses 23 through 26 is honor. The husband is honored. Her selling is honorable. causes her to be clothed in strength and honor. In other words, her reputation is that. Think about being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. She's clothed in strength and honor. She has a reputation. She's accounted as that. She rejoices in the time to come because she has expectation that there will continue to be blessing on the work. And she speaks words there. So there's, there's a, she actually has wisdom. She's acting according to that wisdom and she's speaking according to wisdom. She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness. So then we get to the conclusion. Okay, so we talked about all those things in greater depth last time. We're now at the conclusion. The conclusion is this. She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. That right there, that verse is so important. She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Watching over is work. Watching over is work. You have to give attention. You have to make wise decisions. You're going to take risks. Sometimes you're going to make the wrong call. Sometimes you're going to make the wrong call. But in general, we can expect that with wisdom, we will have fruitfulness from our choices. Sometimes we might have been able to make a choice where we could have had a hundred times yield and instead we only get thirty times yield. That's still great. She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Every time we make choices we're choosing to not do everything else. There's an infinite number of things you say no to when you say yes to something. So that being the case, She is taking that responsibility. The man is obviously doing that too, but having been freed to do public service because his house is in good order, more and more is falling to her. The more he's giving himself to public service, the more she is taking authority, responsibility in the house to make sure things run. This happens again by the washing of the word that the husband does. She watches over the way of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. So, husbands, it's your responsibility to care for your wife, to wash her in the word, to provide, protect. But wives, I want you to understand there's a way in which your own pursuit of obedience to God encourages your husbands in this. And you can tear down your house You can furnish your house, or you can make it empty. One wise spouse can sometimes, by the grace of God, accomplish more than you'd expect. But also, one foolish spouse can destroy. But the strength of one foolish spouse of a wise husband and a wise wife working together is extraordinary. You have these children who see the reality, not just the forms of godliness, but the power of it. And having seen and lived there, not just with the ordinances and oracles, but the power of it. They have a strong loyalty and affection for the things of God. They see them not as just hypocrisy, but as things that are powerful. And a love for them. They want to pick them up and take them into the world. And that's how you have children that are like arrows in the hand of the mighty warrior. Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. We talked about that already, chief among sinners type of thing. I want you to make sure to associate that in your mind with that statement of Paul calling himself the chief among sinners. Verse 30, charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. I want to spend a couple of minutes on this. Think about charm for a second. Charm, I want to commend to you as being the grace of manners. And beauty, I want to suggest to you, is grace of form. Okay, so you have the physical form being beauty, and you have the grace of manners being charm. Neither of these things is bad by themselves. In fact, you ought to have them. As women, you can be far more effective at commending the knowledge of God to others by having a grace of manners and a grace of form. But the thing is, there are many people who have the appearance of goodness without the reality of goodness. And that's the danger. And that's what early on in the book of Proverbs, there's this, there's this warning about the strange woman. And she tries to have the forms without the reality as a way of seducing. And we go back to man's tendency to pursue pleasure over what is good, right, choosing Eve over God. Not in a selfless sort of way, but in a pursuit of pleasure way. And so charm, the pleasantness of personality, the grace of manners. Think about wit, poetics, art. You think about a easiness of manner. Think about people that are hard to be around versus people that are easy to be around. Civility. Do you encourage ongoing conversation? Do you, even in the midst of disagreement, do you make it kind of easy to keep talking? Civility comes from the Latin word for city. You think about being polite, it comes from the Greek word for city. It has to do with the idea of a place where debate can occur. So civility and politeness are about being able to encourage the ongoing life of the civitas or the polis and being able to have discussion there so that you can have a place where wisdom dwells that has the ability to continue on without collapsing on itself. That can be used to draw people to evil. And we kind of see that with the cult of niceness that exists now, right? The great virtue is niceness. And so charm, this pleasantness of personality, grace of manners, this is not what is good for a woman as an end. It's a virtue that fits into the purpose of glorifying God. But it's deceitful. And when you find someone particularly pleasant and easy to interact with, you need to be careful to guard your affections to avoid just trusting them like the simple. The simple is drawn in by that charm. At the same time, men are particularly prone to be drawn in by physical beauty. Now there's kind of an order to this, right? Physical beauty draws in. and then charm keeps you there. So physical beauty, the grace of form, there's the pretty face, the body that is in good shape, the clothes that are a delight to the eyes, a demeanor that is enjoyable. You might say that maybe kind of even moves into charm, right? There's maybe a blurring there, but you can increase beauty by charm. They work together. The bearing that one has, right? One is slouching or whatever, as opposed to sitting in kind of a noble or regal way. Movement. If you move clumsily or whatever, as opposed to a graceful movement, then there's graceful speech. And so, again, that goes into charm. So there's this bleeding and connection. But I think that we can distinctly talk about physical beauty versus, you know, pleasantness of personality. They connect to each other. They relate to each other. These things are powerful to draw people in. They're powerful to draw men in. They're also powerful to draw women in. And women, I think, tend to be drawn to charm. and men tend to be drawn to beauty, but both are important to both. Let's not pretend like there's only one that either one cares about. Both are drawn to both. And so there's the reality here that these things get commended. Women often get praised for these things. It's the duty of the church to encourage an atmosphere where women who fear the Lord are the ones that are praised. This is what will happen. This is the reality that will end. This is what will happen with the church. The church will be praised as the bride of Christ because of the fear of God. But there is a need now to praise our women for that. To encourage it. Because the world emphasizes charm and beauty. And charm is deceitful, and beauty is passing. It doesn't last. When you are 85, though Abraham's wife, Sarah, apparently was able to attract men at that age, I doubt that any of the women of our congregation will be able to draw men in by their physical beauty by the age of 85. It is passing. A woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." So that praise looks like this. It looks like saying, many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. That's with the words of the mouth. It looks like giving of the fruit of her hands. It looks like helping her to enjoy rewards, right? That's a type of praise. And it looks like giving her publicity of her work in a certain way. And so that displaying, letting the works themselves bring her honor. So having children, leading to grandchildren, that brings praise. Having a household where there's hospitality, that brings praise. Hospitality puts the home on display. Hospitality. It's the place of ministry. And men, if we don't do hospitality, what we're doing is we're saying all that matters is the public ministry. All that matters is the preaching ministry. All that matters is public worship, public government, public teaching. And if there's not hospitality, we're saying there's no place for Priscilla. Because she doesn't get to teach at the pulpit. Where does she get to benefit Apollos? In the home, in private. The way her own works praise her in the gates is those things. The visibility of the work of the home, hospitality, the husband being beautified by the wife helping him, and the children. So the work of the home in general, what that does, the dominion work of the home, the good management of it, the beautifying of it, hospitality, where that's put on display, where ministry can be done, the husband being honored, and the children being honored, the husband and the children praising her. Okay, so I mentioned this last time, children, it's your duty to praise your mother. If you've got a godly mother who's got anything you can praise, praise her. Find it. Find those things. If you're not finding, if you're not writing them down, that's important to start getting into your mind things to praise her for, that will encourage her. Husbands, praise your wives. Praise them in private. Praise them to other people. Praise them in public. Now, I don't know about your experience. My experience was as a single man, I basically bumbled around wasting time. And when I got married, I found a whole new calling of importance. Now I would do things like pursue wisdom by reading, but my consistency of fulfilling duties, my consistency of realizing what I needed to do, my consistency of building was weak. And I have been able to grow by the help, support, agreement of my wife, and by the way in which having her as a crown, I have sought not only to bring honor to myself, but to make sure to not blemish the crown. And so there is a way in which there is this calling that stirs us up. And so our own example is important because Do you know where women get most of their place and honor? Feminists hate this. It's by how their husbands do. If the husband does not do well, the home does not do well. And so she will not have her home to praise her. She will not have hospitality to bring her praise. Her husband will not bring her praise. In all likelihood, the children will not bring her praise. So to close out here, I want to emphasize what I have been trying to emphasize. Women, to be women of valor, here's your call. You are a helper suitable to a man. You are man and you're suitable to a male man. I don't mean with an I, A-I-L. Now, Being suitable means that you are rational. And so you are first and foremost a thinker. And you think and pursue goals. And you make choices in the pursuit of those goals. You are to focus on the home as the means appointed to you. And you are to be ready if you are not married, you're getting ready for this, or if you are married, you are already this, to be the manager of the household. And so that's the call here. And that is how you display the fear of the Lord by pursuing the calling he has given to you. And that is what we ought to honor here. And so we should praise that. And so let me commend that to you and also commend to everyone here to encourage and support that. So comments questions objections from the voting members. Let's pray. Father we ask that you bless the preaching of your word that you would help us to believe those things that are true and to reject those things that are false. And I ask that you would help us to have a thirst for knowledge and to hold to these things, to hold these things in our heart so that we can think upon them, speak them, and do them. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.