As I mentioned already, I preached on this passage the last time we were in Timothy, and that was about honoring widows, and this is about honorable widows. So listen as I read this to you. It's 1 Timothy 5, and starting in verse 3, and I'll read to verse 16. This is the word of God. Honor widows who are really widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents, for this is good and acceptable before God. Now she who is really a widow and left alone trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. And these things command that they may be blameless. But if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Do not let a widow under 60 years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man well-reported for good works, if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. But refuse the younger widows, for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith. And besides, they learn to be idle, wondering about from house to house, not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies saying things which they ought not. Therefore, I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some have already turned aside after Satan. If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows. There we end the reading of God's holy word. We thank the Lord for his word. So last time I showed you that the honor of widows is spoken of in verse three. is especially talking about financial assistance. Not exclusively that, but it's talking about caring for their physical needs especially. You're to honor widows by supporting them financially then. I showed you that we have a responsibility to do this both as a church and also as individual Christians. As a church, Only certain widows who meet the criteria that Paul lays out in this passage are to receive regular support from our tithe money. Tithes belong to God, and he's particular about instructing us how to use them, how the money is spent. To eat from his storehouse, we see in this passage that a widow needs to be at least 60 years old, have no family to support her, and, interestingly, be a woman who is godly. Widows who do not meet the criteria for church support are to be supported in other ways. If they have family, their families have an absolute duty to support them. If not, then individuals should support them. And in times of crisis, special offerings should be taken up for the poor. So the idea here is that we don't just use regular church money that's given in tithes out of to support any widow just because she has need. We take up a special offering or something like that to do that if there's a particular need, but that's the idea. Last time we looked at our responsibility then to honor widows, but there is this other vein of instruction that runs through this whole passage that applies to the widows themselves and how they ought to live. So this week I wanna look at that. I know we don't have any widows in our church at this time, but the instruction here is applicable to women and girls in every stage of life, and as I mentioned earlier, it applies to us in principle as the bride of Christ, as the church. Someday you may be a widow, and if you are to be prepared to be a godly widow, then you need to be a godly woman today. Ordinarily godly widows don't just suddenly become godly when they become widows. If they weren't godly already, then they're not going to be godly when they become widows. It's not an automatic thing at all. The time to start is now. And really all of us need to think about that as we, you know, we're moving on toward getting older. And if we are godly when we're younger, then we're going to be godly when we're older. We're going to erode our character when we're, younger, then we're gonna have a harder time when we get married. And if we don't develop a godly character then, then we're gonna have a hard time when we get old. It's just the way it works. So there's much application for fathers and for husbands here too. The women also in a man's home are a reflection of him. So there is something here for all of us. So first of all, I want you to see that the godly widow pursues prayer rather than pleasure. Verse five, now she who is really a widow and left alone trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. Now don't misunderstand, this is not saying that a godly widow is supposed to be a sour killjoy. You know, oh, she's not supposed to have any pleasure. That would contradict all the passages that teach us to be joyful in the Lord. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit even. If somebody has the Holy Spirit, then they're filled with joy. Something that belongs to those who know that their sins are forgiven and that they have an eternal home in heaven with Jesus Christ. Joyfulness is an essential part of godliness. Everywhere we're taught to rejoice. The Old Testament teaches us to rejoice in God and in his salvation. The Jews were commanded to rejoice at their feasts, and they were to feast. They were to have big feasts. Jesus told us to rejoice when we're persecuted for righteousness sake, because our reward will be great in heaven. He also said that we should rejoice when one sinner is brought to repentance. Jesus even told us to count it all joy when we, or James rather, told us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials and afflictions. And because God is at work in us at that time, that's why we rejoice, not because we like the affliction. Later on in Timothy, Paul reminds us that God has given us richly all things to enjoy, the good things of this life. So don't get the idea that the condemnation of a widow who lives in pleasure is the condemnation of a widow who lives joyfully. Every Christian is to be joyful, whatever his or her circumstances. If you really believe the promises of God, how can you not be joyful? If you really lay hold of what he has told us. What then does the condemnation of a widow who lives in pleasure pertain to? Well, this refers to those who give themselves to self-gratification, who make their own selfish desires their master rather than Jesus. Of course, that's something that any of us could be guilty of, isn't it? It's the kind of philosophy that most people have when they say you just have to follow your own heart. What is my passion? What is it that I want to do? Instead of deny yourself and follow Christ, which is what we're called to do in God's word. A widow who lives in pleasure abandons herself to idleness, to pursue pleasure and personal comfort. Her whole life is characterized by serving herself. That's what she did when she was younger. That's what she does when she's older. She lives to follow her own selfish desires instead of to please Christ. There are many different styles of this sin in a widow. For some, it's characterized by a wild life of carousing and drinking and sexual immorality, a frivolous, vain, and silly life. For others, it's characterized by a cold, bitter, selfish spirit that is always complaining, always critical of others, never satisfied. In both cases, the widow's own desires are what drive her. and what ruin her. We're ruined by our own desires. We get swallowed up by our selfishness into our own little vortex. Very narrow, narrows us. We're there with ourselves. Verse six says that such a widow then is dead. while she lives, she's physically alive, but she's virtually dead. The idea here is that she is spiritually dead. She's dead in her trespasses and sins. She's dead to the real purpose of living, which is to glorify and enjoy God. And she's looking to find her life in other things, anything other than God. As Matthew Henry says of such widows, they're in the world to no purpose. They don't have a purpose. They are buried alive as to the great ends of living. That's quite a statement, isn't it? It's like they're in the grave as far as the whole purpose for living. They're just, they're dead. This is quite the opposite of the godly widow who has learned to lose, Matthew Henry says, lose her life that she may find it, and he says, to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. This is something about which none of you ought to be unclear. Do not think that you will find your life by self-indulgence. That's the lie that the woman, the ungodly woman in Proverbs tells. Come and indulge yourself and you will find yourself. You'll find, you know, you'll find your life. It's a great deception that leads millions to hell. You are not the center of the universe. The universe does not revolve around you, it revolves around God. So your feelings and desires are not Lord and Master. Jesus Christ is Lord and Master. If you're out of sync with Him, then you're out of sync with the universe. You are dead even while you live. Jesus told us this, didn't he, when he said in Mark 8, verse 34, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. There you go. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? I remember when I was a new believer and when I was in university, and this kind of passage was really, really hit home. Because all my life I had lived without real reference to God. I wasn't super immoral or that sort of thing, but I just didn't really care about serving God. And then when I was converted, then, you know, like, what will I profit if I gain the whole world? It doesn't even matter. I'm going to die. This is what matters. So the pleasure seeking or self-indulgent widow thinks she is finding her life by indulging herself, but in fact, she's throwing her life away. Again, she's dead even while she lives. In sharp contrast to this, the godly widow is described as one who trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. Now she has more free time than the married woman and the woman that has children that she's looking after, that sort of thing. Because the married woman, you see, she has these other responsibilities and she has to minister to the needs of her husband. It's right and proper, by the way, for the married woman to be devoted to these things because that's her calling as a married woman. It talks about that in this passage. But it does not leave her with as much time. for concentrated times of prayer as a woman that has no family. The question for the widow is, how does she use those quiet hours in the morning and evening when she is all alone? Does she just suck into some kind of an entertainment thing, or does she use them in ways that will honor the Lord? She has an opportunity to pray. I remember meeting widows before that were what you would call prayer warriors. and they were so engaged, you know, they knew, they stayed in touch with people, they prayed for them, and it was so pleasant to go and visit them, you know, caring people that reach out to everyone that comes their way and truly does care about them instead of just her favorite TV show or something, you know. It's a very, very different quality than what you have in the world. So how does she use those quiet hours? So the godly widow, rather than using that time then for self-indulgence, for the pursuit of her own selfish interests, devotes herself to supplications and prayers day and night. An example of this is Anna. The widow who rejoiced at the coming of Jesus when so many of the religious leaders in her day didn't even recognize that it was the time of his coming. They knew it was the time, but they didn't recognize that he had come. Listen to the account of her that's given in Luke 2.36. Now there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And this woman was a widow of about 84 years. who did not depart from the temple but served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem." This is a very refreshing account. The church is always filled with those who are dead while they live. They have no interest in the things that really matter, things like redemption. But so few rejoiced when the Messiah came into the world because they didn't savor the things of God. They savored rather the things of the world. But Anna reminds us that God always has his people in the world, even when so many have gone astray. She understood what God was doing in the world when Jesus came. even though so many didn't, even though the leaders didn't. She belongs to that great tribe of godly widows who truly do serve God all through history. The power and influence that such a praying widow has in the world cannot be estimated, but it will be revealed on the day of judgment. How surprised we'll be in that day when the last or first and the first or last. We may well find that the bulk of the work of God's kingdom was done by feeble widows who gave themselves to prayer and supplication night and day. And we'll be so surprised, it will be so wonderful. We think that prayer accomplishes little. Oh, I better go do something, not pray. This is why we don't pray the way we should. But the word of God tells us that the fervent prayer of the righteous man accomplishes much. We simply don't believe that God is the one who gives the increase. So we have problems in our home, instead of praying about them, then we just, like, churn. We don't cry out to our God. We have problems in our life, there's problems in the church, whatever. We don't call on the name of the Lord. We only half believe, if at best, that God really will answer our prayers. The widow who trusts in God knows that it is all up to him, and she shows her faith by continuing night and day in prayer. The overall idea here is that she does not have her hope in this world. but in the Lord. As it says in verse 5, she trusts in God. The kind of trust has to do especially with expectation that waits patiently for God to act and that looks to him continually. We saw that in the psalm that we looked at this morning in Halifax in Psalm 40, that I waited patiently for the Lord, waiting I waited. for the Lord, I was crying out to him. Not that I just waited passively, but that I continued calling on the Lord. I know it may sound strange to say this, but the godly widow is actually benefited by the loss of her husband and children in a certain way. I don't mean that her husband and her children were wicked, but remember that if you belong to Christ, God never does anything in your life that is not for your good. So if he gives you a husband and children, then he did that for your good. If he takes them away, he did it also for your good. When a Christian woman's husband and children are taken away from her, it gives her an opportunity to really totally rely on the Lord. She has nothing else to rely on. She learns to say, in the words of Charles Wesley, other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone, still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed, all my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing. So she's not under the shadow of a husband's wing, she's under the shadow of the wings of the Lord in a direct fashion. So you see that the godly widow pursues prayer rather than pleasure, but that's not all that characterizes the kind of widow that the church should support by tithes. The passage also teaches that the godly widow has given herself to good works rather than gadding about. The beautiful deeds of the godly widow are described by Paul in verse 10. 1 Timothy 5.10, she ought to be well-reported for good works if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. Before we look at these deeds in more detail, I want you to notice what I mentioned before. Paul does not tell us that a widow must become godly if she is to be supported by the tithes of the church. He tells us that she must already be godly. She must have a history of godliness. Again, that doesn't mean that we don't take care of other widows. But it means we don't support them with regular support from the church's tithe money. We take special collections for them or provide for them. And that way you regulate what you give them instead of it being just a regular stipend that you would give them. It's a different kind of approach. And see, people need that. That's where our government goes wrong in just doling out money. because there's no accountability. And people that don't have this godly record of past, they need accountability. They need to realize that they don't just have an entitlement to whatever provision is given to them. This is clear from verse nine where he speaks of her former marriage that she needed to already be godly. It says that she has been the wife of one husband. speaks of her faithfulness to her husband. It's parallel to the requirement that is given for an elder that we saw earlier in Timothy, the end of chapter three, or in chapter three, that he is to be a one-woman man. Well, the widow is to be, if you could say, a one-man woman. She is to have forsaken all others and devoted herself to her husband. She was not married to her hobbies or her friends, and certainly not to some other man, but to her husband. Her maturity to be on the church's support is measured by her faithfulness that she has shown to her husband while he was still alive. Obviously, this is not something that she has any control over now. But the implication is that if she is a godly woman, it is because she's been working at godliness for a long time. Certainly a person is radically changed at conversion, but it takes time for the kind of mature godliness to develop that Paul has in view. Widows who lack this kind of godliness and maturity would actually be harmed rather than helped by regular support from the church. They are not mature enough to handle regular support. The principle here is that mature godliness is something that is cultivated over the years by the grace of God. Women and girls learn from this that the time to start being godly is not after you become a widow. Godliness is something to pursue now. You girls who are not yet married, you should be pursuing godliness today if you want to be a godly wife in the time to come. Very important. And you who are married women, you need to be in pursuit of godliness today if you want to be a beautiful godly woman when you grow old. Whether you become a widow or not, you will not be beautiful when you're old if you don't pursue God today. The world's beauty is something that fades away with age, but the beauty of Jesus Christ increases with age. It only increases. Don't waste your time pursuing the wrong treasure. If you're a selfish wife, you will be a selfish widow if your husband dies. If you're a selfish single woman, you will be a selfish and ungodly wife if you marry. Of course, I don't mean to say that you can't repent at any time and begin to make real changes. Jesus Christ will begin to work in you at whatever stage of life you're in when you come to Him. But if you belong to Him today, you are to pursue godliness now. The sooner you get started, the better. Look at some of the things that the godly woman is characterized by then in verse 10. This shows you women what things you ought to be cultivating. It says, if she has brought up children, Interestingly, this is speaking of a widow who at least now has no children or grandchildren because they would be supporting her if that was the case. It is possible that she's a woman who once had children, but her children have died. That was not such an uncommon thing when this was written. And in history, many have lost all of their children, sometimes even having nine or ten children. Even a couple hundred years ago, there were many that were in that boat. Many dear Christian families lost their children before they reached adulthood. But the language here allows for other possibilities too. It doesn't say that she has given birth to children, but that she has brought them up. Therefore, it can also refer to her care of children that are not her own flesh. That is, she may have either helped other women to care for their children, or she may have cared for orphans or children that were rejected by their parents. You see so many needs today. I was just talking to a woman in our church that just moved here from China, and she's seeing problems in the school system here with her daughter in school, and she could use help with educating her daughter. There's all kinds of needs that people can pour into. Many godly women who are unable to have their own children have done this kind of service. I believe that there is a tremendous need for women to help other women as well who are perhaps in a time in their life when they're very busy with children. Older women are exhorted in Titus to teach the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands. I don't believe that this speaks of having women's Bible studies so much. That's how people always interpret it. Oh, we're supposed to have women's Bible studies. No, I think it's more the idea of an older woman going to a younger woman's home and helping her in the daily grind to learn how to serve and to do stuff. It's talking about practical things, isn't it? It's talking about hands-on. How do I take care of my home? I remember an older woman that came to help Mary out when she was first starting out, and it's when I was in seminary, and what a blessing it was. I remember coming home, and she's like in her 70s, and she's there scrubbing the kitchen ceiling, cleaning the kitchen ceiling and getting the oil and grease off or something from the stove. And then she would sit down and talk with Mary, and I remember I said to her, aren't you tired? And she said, I'll only get weak if I don't do these things. There she was working away. Perhaps. Perhaps one of the reasons that birth control has become so common in the last 40 years in the churches is because there's so little of this kind of ministry going on. People are overburdened. Sometimes they have ungodly parents or parents that are far away that are not there to help them. And it's really a huge need and I'm thankful that some of the women in our church are engaged in this sort of thing. And there's also the ones that are engaged in prayer that I might not even know about. or engaged in other ways. I'm actually, a lot of times, encouraged by that when I'll be talking to someone that's been going through a hard time, and I'll think, oh wow, they really need people to help. And then they start saying, oh, so and so came over and did this, and so and so helped me with that. Like, this is really good. And that's the way it needs to be. We learned, bringing up children is a very important ministry, and it is one that is particularly given to women. We learned that when we looked at 1 Timothy 2, 8 through 15, and saw that the woman is called to lead, or is not called to lead or teach in the church, but that she will be saved by childbearing, okay? It doesn't mean that a woman can't be saved unless she has children. It means, though, that she's involved in this whole thing of caring for children, bringing up children. She's got a ministry there. And this is such a need today, just even increasingly so, I think. Next, it says, if she has lodged strangers. This doesn't refer to picking up bums on the street who don't want to work. OK, that is not what the New Testament talks about. In fact, the Bible forbids feeding even those in the church who refuse to work. The strangers in view would include itinerant preachers, for example, like Paul, who traveled from city to city preaching the gospel and were giving hospitality to people, like Lydia, people who were gifted in that way, like Lydia at Philippi, opening her home. This is spoken of all through the Bible. In the Old Testament, Elijah was given hospitality by the widow of Zarephath. And Elisha was provided with lodging by the Shunammite woman and her husband. In the New Testament, we see how Jesus and his disciples were given lodging wherever they went by many different people. John commends this kind of thing in his third epistle. He says, beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth. When you open up your home to missionaries and visiting preachers, you are a fellow worker for the truth. This also would include persecuted Christians who have had to leave their homes and who have no place to live. Maybe they had to flee from another country or something. In Halifax, it could include those who have to travel from other places to visit loved ones in the hospital. And you find out about a Christian like that and you open up your home for them. A godly woman opens her home to such persons and she gives them lodging. Next it says, if she has washed the saint's feet. Washing of the feet was done when guests arrived at the home to see that they were comfortable. In Palestine, sandals were worn and the feet would become hot and sandy. It was ordinarily the job of the lady of the house to either perform this service or in a wealthier home to train her servants to perform this service. This does not mean that we're supposed to wash people's feet today when they come to our home. That would be a legalistic kind of interpretation. Paul is not commending a ritual here, but the kind of gracious service in the home that looks out for the comfort of the guests and make sure that their needs are met. It speaks of a woman who is willing to perform humble and lowly tasks in service to other people. Abigail is a great example of such a woman. Listen to what she said as recorded in 1 Samuel 25, 40 through 41. When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, David sent us to you to ask you to become his wife. Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth and said, here is your maid servant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. That was how she saw her function as coming into David's house. She was pleased to minister to the needs of David and to his men. The next characteristic of the godly woman is that she has relieved the afflicted. Here is a woman who cares for those that are in distress and who does all that she can to relieve them. Whether this involves caring for the sick or injured or encouraging the overburdened, the godly woman is there to help. The summary of the godly woman's life regarding her neighbor is given at the end of verse 10. She has diligently followed every good work. That's a nice summary. But don't misunderstand, this does not mean that she always does all of these things that we're talking about here. A woman with an armful of young children may herself be in need of the ministry of others. There are stages in your life where you will have opportunities to do one kind of service or another. There may be times when you're infirm and then you would be given to prayer and things like that more. There are other times when you have opportunities that come knocking at your door that you're able to meet in times when you don't. There's times when you're busy with your own children or, you know, caring for someone that's sick, an elderly relative or something. If you're busy bringing up children, you'll be more limited in other forms of service. But when your children are older, you'll have more time to relieve the afflicted and to show hospitality to strangers. The idea here is that she is diligent to maintain good works, such as these that were listed here. Again, the summary of her life regarding her neighbor is that she has diligently followed every good work. In sharp contrast to the godly widow is the widow who gads about. Rather than using her time to serve and minister to the needs of others, she is controlled by her own selfish interests. The worst thing that can be done for such a widow is for the church to put her on the list for regular financial support. Apparently, this had been done at Ephesus, and Paul is writing these things to put a stop to it. A widow who is not mature in godliness will be harmed more than helped by putting her on the list. Paul even says that some of the younger widows at Ephesus had already turned aside to Satan because of this. Verse 15, he says that. That means that they had rejected the faith and apostatized. This is not light. Rather than following Christ, they were now following Satan. This is such a serious matter that Paul forbids any widow under 60 to be put on the list for regular financial support. He wants to put a stop to this thing. You say, well, that's a good thing to support. No, it's not. It's not a good thing. It's something that should not be done. Verse 9, do not let a widow under 60 years old be taken into the number. When we talk about legalism and that sort of thing, supposing that there was a woman who was crippled and she was 55 years old. You don't say, oh, you're 55 years old. And she's a godly woman and she serves everyone. That would be a different story. There's some particular need. Of course, you minister according to what's going on. But he says that the rule is that you would deviate from it from time to time in the way I just talked about, is that you refuse the younger widows, verse 11. He does not mean then that these, again, should not be helped, the younger ones. Individuals should help them for sure. Their children are required to help them if they have children. But the younger widow should not be put on the church's payroll. Paul explains the nature of the temptations that the younger widows face. Unlike the older godly widow who devotes her time to prayer and service, a younger widow would be inclined to use her time pursuing relationships, men. As Paul puts it in verse 11, they begin to grow wanton against Christ they desire to marry. Now, it's not that the desire to marry is a bad thing or wrong, but that they grow wanton against Christ in their desire. In other words, their desire to marry becomes more important to them than their desire to please Christ. They're ready to disobey Christ if obeying him seems to be getting in the way of getting a relationship, of getting a man. That can be a snare. When that happens, they're said to be condemned, having cast off their first faith. That is, they cast off their commitment to follow Christ and to be his disciple because they've put something ahead of that. This is what Paul refers to as following Satan, and it can be a real temptation. Unlike the older widow, the younger widow needs the responsibility and burden of providing for herself. And if she can't fully provide herself, again, people help her and minister to her, but in a responsible way. If she doesn't have this responsibility, it will put her in a place of too great of temptation. Don't kid yourself, this is a very serious problem in our day, just as it was in Paul's day. Young women, even Christian women, will give themselves up to fornication in the pursuit of a man's love. Young women will disregard Christ's commandment to marry only in the Lord, and they'll join themselves to an unbeliever. Young widows are especially vulnerable to this because they do not have fathers to protect them. Of course, we don't understand how valuable a father's protection is to a young woman in our society because that protection is never exercised. We've completely neglected that response. Men completely neglect that responsibility. But God has given those responsibilities to fathers. And I want to say a few words about that. He's given fathers veto power about whom their daughters marry. In Numbers 30 we're taught that a young woman is not permitted to take a vow unless her father approves of it. Certainly that includes vows of engagement and vows of marriage, betrothal and marriage. Our tradition of the father giving his daughter in marriage is rooted in the Bible where sons marry and daughters are given in marriage. There's a difference. A Christian father who watches his virgin daughter marry an unbeliever sins by refusing to exercise his God-given responsibility for his daughter before God. Now, chances are he's probably sinned way before that and doesn't even have a relationship with his daughter where he can speak into her life. But if he doesn't, if he just stands by and doesn't exercise his responsibility, he is to be blamed. But his sin is not just in letting her marry the man that her heart has been captured by. Again, he was negligent long before that or his daughter wouldn't be eager for that. He didn't check the wantonness against Christ. When it started to appear in the early years, he allowed it to grow and get out of hand. Now she wants to marry the unbeliever or go to bed with her boyfriend, and it's true, there's not much he can do at this point. His problem is that he did not bring her up in the loving nurture and discipline of the Lord along the way, but allowed her to follow her own selfish desires and her willfulness. Let a two-year-old follow their own selfish desires and willfulness, they'll want to do the same thing when they're 12, and they'll want to do the same thing when they're 20. He did not help her learn to bring every thought captive to Jesus Christ. The problem began then from very early. And, you know, he didn't require to respect her mother when she was eight. He didn't help her to how she dressed and clothing that she wore, all of these kind of things. Let her go off alone with her boyfriend when she was 16, whatever. Young girls ought to have protection of their fathers. But a young widow with no family to support her doesn't even have the possibility of that kind of protection. And if she is supported by the church, it becomes too easy for her to use her time in foolish ways. If she has the burden of providing for herself, she at least has somewhat of a safeguard. And this is not the only problem that younger widows who are wrongly supported by the church fell into. In verse 13, Paul says that they also fall into idleness, where a godly older woman will use her time for prayer and good works. A younger woman with too much free time can learn to be idle. Idleness is when you use your time to no good purpose. Now, this could be older or younger women that would do this. But these godly widows, you see, they had already proven that they're not idle people. Idleness is a temptation that everyone who has discretionary time has to guard against. It's kind of easier to work for someone that tells you what you have to do every day. It can consist in spending hours on social media, playing computer games, watching TV, reading foolish books, playing sports. A million things that can be named that are substituted for prayer and good work so that you fill up your life and you don't have time for the things that really matter. Young women are especially prone to what Paul mentions here. Look at verse 13, wandering about from house to house. They don't have enough to do, so they fill up their time gadding about when there is no real purpose in their visits. Of course, there is a pretended purpose, but for the most part, it's just killing time, socializing. This is even easier today because you don't have to even leave the house. You can call on the phone or whatever. Listen to these wise words from another age. This is from John Calvin. Nothing is more becoming a woman than keeping the house, and hence, among the ancients, a tortoise was the image of a good and respectable mother of a family. But there are many who are diseased with the opposite vice. Nothing delights them more than the liberty of running from one place to another, and especially when being freed from the burden of a family, they have nothing to do at home. Such idleness is bad enough, but it almost never remains mere idleness. it develops into worse things. Verse 13 goes on to say, and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies saying things which they ought not. The idea is that they get overly troubled about the affairs of other people and they spread their concerns all over the place. They pay attention to things that do not concern them and make a sport of publishing things that they have heard to others. We all have to guard the use of our tongue. I was checking myself about that just recently. This is a great sin and one that is way too common. So what can you do if you find these problems in your life? Well, first you need to confess your sin to the Lord and seek His forgiveness. That's the first thing you should always do when you find sin in your life. Seeking forgiveness and grace is not the focus of the passage, so I'm not gonna dwell on it now, but it's certainly important when we see something that challenges us like this. Without the forgiveness and grace of God, you can't expect to make any progress and to go forward. Having confessed your sin and given yourself to prayer for the grace to change, then next you need to remove yourself from the place of temptation. You need to change the things you're doing so that you won't just keep falling back into the same sinful patterns. Paul gives specific advice in verse 14. Therefore, I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. So you see, he recommends that the younger widows marry and become diligent in their calling as a wife and mother, which is kind of interesting, isn't it? I mean, until that time, the young widow should not be supported by the church but encouraged to provide for her own needs as much as possible and to give herself to faithful service to others. She needs to be diligent in her calling rather than idle. Consider how this applies to any young woman, married or unmarried, who is having a problem with idleness. If you have a hard time with idleness and gadding about, it's probably an indication that you're not being diligent in your calling. Don't let the world deceive you. It's virtuous for a woman to be diligent at home. The world tries to make you think that you're worthless if you focus on the home. To complicate things, this criticism is often a just one. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, modern appliances and technology have made it easier for women at home. When it used to be a good part of a day's work just to prepare food, and where it used to take hours to wash clothes and even longer to spin the thread to make those clothes, to make a cloth, now those tasks can be performed with ease. We don't even have to do them. In the 50s, many women did not know how to handle this extra time. The result was that some women did not use their newly gained time to good advantage and became idle. Not only did they have less work to do, but institutions had taken over their responsibilities. Their children were in government schools. Their elderly parents were in nursing homes. The sick and the infirm were in hospitals. This was one of the reasons, though not the biggest reason, that many women began to pursue careers outside the home. The evil was not that they were working outside the home, but that they forsook their primary calling of childbearing and began to forsake their duties at home and pursue men's callings. They began to cease having children or even desiring to do so. The demise of the family has been the sad result, including the neglect of children that are born All of these things have come about because we don't know how to make a home anymore, and we don't know how to make homes because women don't know how to make homes. Today, a lot of Christian women are coming home again, and they need to do that because the home is in a mess. They're applying their wisdom to build their house rather than acting in folly to tear it down. The fact that they have more conveniences simply means that they can spend more time serving others. educating their children and doing such things. Rather than abandoning their calling because of technological progress, they ought rather to use the many tools that they have to do better in their calling, to fulfill their calling. If reformation comes to our homes and our communities, we will begin to see culture established again. What I mean by culture is that we don't really have culture today. meaningful art and music, feasting and gladness. We don't know what it is to feast anymore. Beauty and manners and customs and glorious Sabbath days. Western civilization is dying and it is bland because we have forgotten our God and we have forgotten His ways. but wisdom has built her house. She has hewn out seven pillars. She has slaughtered her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also furnished her table. Women are to reflect Jesus Christ in their homes. They are to bring wisdom, the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord. Wisdom brings people together around the table, the way Christ brings his people together, and they delight in each other's company. to the glory of God. Rather than driving people into isolation from each other, each with their own individual career and their own individual pursuits, you bring people together to honor and serve the Lord. Consider how this principle applies to anyone who is having a problem with idleness. We're all called to be diligent in our calling. Jesus Christ has taken us to be his bride, and he is the one who is making us beautiful. He loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. He is at work in us to make us beautiful in our calling. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So no matter what your calling is today, It is yours to be diligent in that and to draw from the nourishing grace of Jesus Christ, who has shown us personally how to live beautifully in a calling. Come to him and be saved. Come to him and be sanctified. Here is what Moses said long ago about the people of God when they had been called out of Egypt and were to go into the land and form a godly Christian culture. He said, Deuteronomy 4, verse five, surely I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason, we may call upon him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life, and teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Our Lord is in the business of helping us to live beautifully. Thanks be to his name. That is what he is interested in. Please stand and let's pray to our God. Gracious Lord, we thank you for the things that we have seen. Indeed, wisdom has built her house. Folly tears it down. We see, O Lord, that we are in a time in our society where more and more people are all isolated, each one in their own little cocoon. Each one living not with responsibility to other people, but in isolation from others, each one with their little computer, with their little room, with their little place, with their little things that they want to do and dreams that they have and none that are walking together, that are serving together. And Father, how we pray that you would help us again to see homes established. And we pray that you would help the women in our church, Lord. is they have a tremendous calling, and we don't even understand the half of it today. But we pray, Lord, that you might help them to cultivate these things, and that there would be beautiful, godly living going on. Father, we thank you that you have given us so much direction in your word about this. And we do pray for those who are widows, too, that you would help them, that they would be able to apply their wisdom to help other women that are younger to be able to to serve you and that they would be able to join in the burden of reaching out to strangers and showing hospitality, caring for the sick, all of these things, having hospitality where they wash the saints feet and bring joy and pleasure. Father, how we pray, how we pray, Lord, that you would work in us. We pray that the church would be a lovely place that would stand out in the world, that there would be homes that are harmonious and beautiful, where there is love that is so rare in the world. We just don't see it today. People just don't care about anyone else. And Father, we are Christians. We're supposed to care about each other the way our Lord Jesus has loved us. We pray, Father, that especially that we would learn to do this. Oh Father, we plead with you. Hear our prayers. Give us wisdom, Lord. We need your help. We need your grace. Oh Lord, please show us these things for your glory and honor. We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Our psalm of blessing is Psalm 145 C.