Don't be a Proverbs 31 woman

Dustin Alley

Mother's Day 2021 • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented 4 years ago

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Baby Dedication

“Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

3Jn_1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Mother & Home when you mention one you just automatically think of the other.

A society is only as strong as the individual homes of that society, and in most cases the homes are only as strong as the individual mommas in those homes.

It just may be true - what Napoleon said, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

It is with great honor that I get to conduct this baby dedication service.

We call it a baby dedication service, but in reality, what we are really doing is dedicating (look at parents) you, the parents of these little ones to a commitment of training up these gifts from God in the way they should go so that they will walk in truth and one day rise and call you blessed.

Most women can become a mother, but it takes someone willing to fulfill a sometimes difficult commitment to be a mommy and a momma.

I am afraid that most parents only survive the years that their children are in the home instead of rearing their children with a purpose and with intent.

One mother said, "The joy of motherhood is what a woman experiences (pause) when all the children are finally in bed.” And every parent can relate to have days in which they feel that way.

A mom has to be both tender and tough.

Few things are tenderer than a mother’s hug or her gentle touch.

But when I think about how tough a mom has to be I’m reminded of the story of a Army recruit who was failing at getting through basic training.

A drill sergeant was frustrated in his efforts to make a Soldier out of a certain recruit. The trainee lagged behind on marches, used any excuse to go on sick call, grumbled constantly about the food, and never made his bunk properly. But one day, a noticeable change took place in the young man’s attitude. When asked to what he attributed the recruit’s change in attitude, the drill sergeant explained, "Threats and punishment didn’t work, so I had to resort to the ultimate weapon: I called his mother!"

No drill sergeant has ever put the fear of God in someone the way a momma with a wooden spoon has. Amen!?

When Jesus sent the disciples out to preach the gospel he said to them that they were to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves.

I don’t know of a better description of a loving, discerning mom than that.

I’m reminded of that great quote, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool mom."

Few things are more powerful than the tears and prayers of a mother.

Many great men of God attribute their Christianity to a praying mom.

Moms and dads I challenge you this morning to live out your faith in a way that can be seen by your children.

I challenge you today to make your life a living letter as to how to live successfully as a Christian.

I challenge you today to make your life capable and worthy of being copied by your children.

Do not ever do something that you would not have your children copy you at, because they will.

They will copy your spirit and your attitudes, they will copy your habits, both good and bad, they will take your priorities as their priorities and they will use you as the baseline in determining their commitment and devotion to God.

Grave is the task before you.

Great is the responsibility that is yours.

I challenge you to up your game and recommit yourself this morning the difficult yet wonderfully rewarding task of rearing your children for God.

Let’s pray!

Dear Heavenly Father, you are the perfect example for us to follow.

You love towards us your children is evident.

Your sacrifice for us your children is beyond reason.

Your commitment to us your children is long-suffering.

And your will for us your children is clear in your Word.

Father, I pray that these little ones here this morning have parents that look to you as their example.

Father, I ask that you give mercy and grace to each home represented here and that these little ones come to faith in Christ at an early age.

I pray that these little ones will have a daily example in their own homes of how to grow up and live as followers of Christ.

Bless these families that stand before us today and all of the families that are here this morning in this service.

Amen.

Certificate, Bible, Gifts.

Introduction

Happy Mothers Day

Thankful for all moms today.

Go ahead and open your bibles or scan that QR code to follow along. I’d like for you turn to Gal 2:20.

I know, it doesn’t point to Hannah, Esther, Ruth, Sarah, or any of the traditional Mother’s Day messages and if you know me, that shouldn’t surprise you. I’m not much of a traditional guy.

Today I plan to simply exegete some verses, including some from Proverbs 31 and tell you why you should stop trying to be a Proverbs 31 woman…

I read something recently about mothers I want to share with you.

Motherhood has truly set in when:

You offer to cut up other people’s food You hide in the bathroom to be alone You hope ketchup is a vegetable because it’s the only one your kids will eat You read that the average five-year-old asks 492 questions a day and you feel proud your child is above average You use your own saliva to clean your child’s face You count the sprinkles on each kid’s cupcake to make sure they’re all equal You hear your mother’s voice coming out of your mouth You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you You hire a sitter because you can’t remember the last time you went out alone with your husband, but then you spend half the night checking on the kids You say at least once a day, “I’m not cut out for this job,” but you wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Mom’s do so much.

Ladies, some of you may be moms, some of you may not have your mother anymore, some of you may be waiting on children, some of you may have never had children. I pray that whatever this day is for you, that today you will find it a blessing. I pray that you will see through this message that no matter what this day is to you or what motherhood means to you, you understand a little more about the God who loves you and accepts you.

We are going to read through 4 passages of scripture here and then I’ll pray and preach.

Galatians 2:20 KJV 1900

20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Isaiah 64:6 KJV 1900

6 But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Proverbs 31:10–22 KJV 1900

10 Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. 11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, So that he shall have no need of spoil. 12 She will do him good and not evil All the days of her life. 13 She seeketh wool, and flax, And worketh willingly with her hands. 14 She is like the merchants’ ships; She bringeth her food from afar. 15 She riseth also while it is yet night, And giveth meat to her household, And a portion to her maidens. 16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. 17 She girdeth her loins with strength, And strengtheneth her arms. 18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: Her candle goeth not out by night. 19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, And her hands hold the distaff. 20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. 21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: For all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; Her clothing is silk and purple.

Romans 6:15 KJV 1900

15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

PRAY

So let’s first examine Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20 KJV 1900

Ladies, and men as well. Take notice....

I. Your identity comes from Christ

Paul said “I am crucified...”

In Exodus when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush Moses asked him “Who should I say has sent me?” and God responded “

King James Version Chapter 3

I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

It’s been said

The statement carries a sense of necessity, simplicity, and absolute-ness. In using this particular phrasing, God identifies Himself as the self-existent One—the eternal, unique, uncreated God. God just is. He is the ultimate truth, the only necessary being, the beginning and end, the first cause.

When God uses this it’s an expression who he is. When we use it, especially here like Paul does, we are using it as an expression of ourselves. “I am...” What follows after these words is usually a description of how we percieve ourselves or how we feel about something.

Joel Osteen likes to tell you that “whatever follows the I am will follow you.”

You can say things “I am healthy, I am beautiful, I am wealthy, I am…insert humanistic thought here” and that thing will follow you. It will come after you.

the problem with identifying yourself with those types of I am statements is that you are identifying with the things of this world and pursuing what they have to offer.

One of the biggest problems with this type of thinking is that it doesn’t lead to what Joel says it does.

Follow me here. Moms, you especially as today is your day. Many here feel like a failure in one area or another. Even the most successful of people in life have areas they are failures. Maybe it’s in emotional maturity, relationships with others, showing love and kindness to those around you, maybe it’s in parenting....whatever it is you need to know a couple things:

You are not alone in your failure

Matthew 28:20 KJV 1900

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

While the specific context of this verse applies to being bold and going to everyone with the gospel, the principle of that final line “I am with you alway...” isn’t just when your sharing the gospel.

I had a mom recently share with me that she had thought of writing a book called “Tears in my dishwater” because she would be doing dishes and just crying literal tears as she cried out to God over her children and her parenting.

She realized then, she wasn’t alone. God was with her. Also, others were going through it as well.

That’s one reason why the church is so important to you as a Christian. It’s for you to see others going through what you go through. It’s for you to encourage them and for them to encourage you. That can’t happen from behind a TV screen.

2. Don’t find your identity or your worth in your actions or attributes.

Your actions, what you are capable of doing, will change over time. As time passes on and these physical bodies grow weaker you will not be able to lift and work the way you did years ago. That’s ok.

The way you look will change. Don’t find your identity in in your physical features.

With time comes various sickness or circumstances that could affect your looks and/or your ability to do things.

Your value and self worth are not found in your ability to wear a smile while your children are going crazy. Your ability to fold laundry the same day it comes out of the dryer. The amount of dusting your do in your home or even how your kids behave for others.

Isaiah 64:6 KJV 1900

6 But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Your value and self worth are found in Christ.

Psalm 139:13–16 KJV 1900

13 For thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; And in thy book all my members were written, Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

You were made as something to be revered and as something that is distinguished from all others in the eyes of God.

You were made to be that. Yes, sin separated you from God and without your faith in Jesus’ death burial and resurrection your worth isn’t found in Christ. It is tainted by the world. It’s tainted by your sin. This is to all of us.

But once we have trusted in Jesus, his righteousness is imputed onto us

2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV 1900

21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Philippians 3:9 KJV 1900

9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

When you are saved, no matter your role in life, you have the righteousness of Christ imputed onto you. God doesn’t sen your sin. He has cast them as far as the East is from the West.

That’s if you have faith in His Son. Because when you have your faith in the Gospel, you are not living for an identity, you are living from an identity. Because your identity is found in Christ.

What’s that got to do with Proverbs 31? Great question.

II. You are not called to pursue traits

Let’s read again

Proverbs 31:10–22 KJV 1900

Here is a list of 10 things we find in Proverbs 31. In your digital worship guide you’ll find a link to an article about being a Proverbs 31 woman that does a great job speaking about this topic. Ladies, I encourage you to read it.

1. Faith. She loves Jesus with all of her heart.

2. Marriage. She is a faithful bride.

3. Mothering. She is a loving mother and her children call her blessed.

4. Health. She takes care of her physical, mental, and spiritual health.

5. Service. She serves others with love and kindness.

6. Stewardship. She is a wise steward of the gifts God has given her.

7. Industry. She is industrious and works with willing hands.

8. Homemaking. She is a good manager of her home.

9. Time. She spends her time on that which is good.

10. Beauty. She is creative and embraces beauty and godliness.

https://avirtuouswoman.org/10-virtues-of-the-proverbs-31-woman/

^^^Digital Worship Guide

Ladies, I don’t know about you but to think I was supposed to have all of those things down and still get the laundry done…I’d lose my mind.

Can you imagine living underneath the pressure of this?

Ladies, can we be honest with each other right now?

Whether you want to admit or not, I believe, based on my conversations with women over the years, you are living underneath some if not all of this pressure. You compare yourself to everyones instagram posts, you see a mom handle her kids well and think “Man..or woman…I wish I was that sweet with my kids.” You see a woman wearing something you like and think “that won’t look good on me” and immediately find yourself upset about your appearance. You go to someones house and see how clean it is and think you wish yours was that way…not realizing they cleaned it that day and everything is just behind the doors you aren’t allowed to open?

Moms, ladies, really everyone here, when you are comparing yourself to someone else, what you are doing is saying “How do I measure up to them? How can I become like them? How can I be that sweet with my kids, how can I insert thing you want to do that someone else is here…We are making them the one we are pursuing after.

When you look at this woman described in Proverbs 31, you begin to compare yourself to her. You find yourself a failure because of this standard you have set up in your mind that you must get to in order to feel succesful, accepted, and loved.

The reason I’m tell you in the title of my message to not be a Proverbs 31 woman is because in all of the Bible there is not a time you instructed to pursue after this imaginary woman. You are not called to puruse after certain attributes or good looks.

I mean..Paul said

1 Timothy 4:8 KJV 1900

8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

I’m not telling you not to work out or exercise but remember that’s not what the focus of our life should be.

Stop holding yourselves under this weight of comparison to others and begin living from the identity you have in Christ.

In your pursuit of attributes, traits, or anything of this world you will find yourself neglecting what God called us to go after

Matthew 6:33 KJV 1900

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

1 Chronicles 16:11 KJV 1900

11 Seek the Lord and his strength, Seek his face continually.

Not seek the things of this world. Not seek to be like others. Seek God. Pursue God.

“Pastor, shouldn’t I want to be a Proverbs 31 woman?”

It’s not that you shouldn’t desire to develop the attributes of a Proverbs 31 woman, it’s that you should not find your identity in your ability to have them or your failure to attain them.

Be confident, Joyful, loving, caring, and kind not because you have attained to be a Proverbs 31 woman, but because you are a child of the king.

Remember

Romans 6:15 KJV 1900

15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

We do not sin because we are under grace nor do we neglect the wisdom of scripture because we are under grace.

Because Jesus died for you. Because God sent His only Son to rescue you into a relationship with him.

Young ladies in the room, teenagers specifically, don’t find your identity in what others say about you. Definitely don’t rest your self worth on how that guy you think is cute thinks of you. If he doesn’t value you for who God made you to be in Christ, he’s an idiot anyway.

You are not what others say about you. You are who God declares you to be. God declared you are loved, you are chosen, you are accepted, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Ladies, and everyone else here today, pursue after Jesus and not traits or attributes. Seeking after Christ will produce the traits and attributes you find in scritpure.

With faithful obedience to the Word of God comes the understanding and application of the Wisdom of the Word.

If you are here and want your life to please God, if you want your life to have a gospel impact on your children and those around you…don’t try to be a Proverbs 31 woman. Don’t try to be like Daniel, or David, or Paul.

Be a disciple of Christ and let Him work in and through your life. Seek to live by faith to glorify God through Jesus in your life and you’ll find alot of the problems and issues you face with traits and attributes no longer matter because you no longer identify yourself with those, you find your identity in Jesus and His death burial and resurrection and live from that.

Time of Response

Short Prayer…Don’t say Amen

Where is your identity today?

Is your identity in Jesus? Or is it in the things you do…or fail at doing?

Do you see yourself as God sees your? Or do you let others define who you are?

Christians in the room, I encourage you to stop living from others approval and live from God’s acceptance through your faith in the gospel.

Are you hear this morning and don’t know Jesus as your Savior. If you’d like to make the decision and cause for a party in Heaven and here on earth to take place as there is celebration and rejoicing.

The Bible says in

John 3:16 KJV 190016 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 3:23 KJV 190023 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Ephesians 2:8–9 KJV 19008 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 6:23 KJV 190023 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 10:9 KJV 19009 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:13 KJV 190013 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

“Dear Jesus, I know I’m a sinner, I believe you came to die on the cross and rose from the dead. I put my faith right now in you and ask you to come into my life and change me from the inside out. Amen.”

If you made that decision today I encourage you to fill out our digital connection card and let us know. Fill out paper next step card in the back of the chair in front of you or email me directly at pastor@lbcbristol.org