WEBVTT 00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:17.269 I just wanted to share a message with you tonight entitled the Great Mystery of the Last Day Church, and I'm going to be speaking out of two scriptures that are normally taken a very specific way and I am going to come at them in a different way tonight. 00:00:17.269 --> 00:00:27.826 And those scriptures are out of Ephesians 5 about marriage and the church, and also Proverbs 31 about the virtuous woman. 00:00:27.826 --> 00:00:48.789 And before you think that I'm only going to be talking to married people or I'm only talking about women tonight, I want to broaden your horizon, because every time you see a strong and godly woman in the Bible, she is a symbol, she is a testimony of the last day church, the bride of Christ. 00:00:48.789 --> 00:01:00.810 And let me remind you what it says in Ephesians 5, 27 that the husband loves the wife so that he might present her to himself, just like Christ is presenting the church. 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:12.450 That he, christ, might present her, the church, to himself, a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 00:01:12.450 --> 00:01:19.887 And then later, in verse 32, the apostle Paul says but this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 00:01:19.887 --> 00:01:21.665 This is a great mystery. 00:01:21.665 --> 00:01:22.902 Remember those words. 00:01:22.902 --> 00:01:23.885 A great mystery. 00:01:23.885 --> 00:01:30.507 I love a great mystery, waiting to see what God has in store in these last days. 00:01:30.507 --> 00:01:44.891 But I believe, because women and because families stand as an allegory, they stand as a symbol of the way Jesus loves the church and the way the church should respond to his lordship. 00:01:45.799 --> 00:01:49.629 Those things are under attack in our society so hard and heavy. 00:01:49.629 --> 00:02:03.343 If we have a sitting Supreme Court justice that cannot define what a woman is, this is definitely a new attack in our society that we've never seen before to confuse the population, to deceive people. 00:02:03.343 --> 00:02:12.389 If we can't even define the roles of men and women, then how can we understand the way God loves the church and the way we're supposed to relate to him? 00:02:12.389 --> 00:02:25.368 So we can obviously see the attack of the enemy against families, against men and against women that is strong and masculine and protective. 00:02:25.368 --> 00:02:32.591 That's under attack and of course, the feminine idea is severely under attack. 00:02:32.591 --> 00:02:48.080 And so let's look at what those roles should be and no matter who you are, if you call yourself a part of the church of Jesus Christ, if you are a born again believer today, then we can take some of these things that we learned tonight. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:56.311 We can get some hallmarks from them and understand what God is looking for in his bride, the church, and how we should be acting. 00:02:56.311 --> 00:02:59.430 So I hope we can take our minds up higher. 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:02.429 Yes, you will probably hear some practical things that might relate. 00:03:02.429 --> 00:03:06.711 If you are married, you can probably get some good marriage advice out of these scriptures tonight. 00:03:06.711 --> 00:03:12.179 If you are a woman, you can probably get some good, just real practical advice. 00:03:12.179 --> 00:03:17.230 But you can also zoom out at large and let's all live some of these things today. 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:27.129 So let me go to Proverbs 31 and we'll zoom out a little bit in a minute, but let me focus on this scripture, proverbs 31, 25. 00:03:27.129 --> 00:03:31.149 Strength and honor are her clothing. 00:03:31.149 --> 00:03:36.251 So if you're a member of the last day church, god wants strength and honor to be your clothing. 00:03:36.251 --> 00:03:43.229 She shall rejoice in time to come or she will laugh in the face of adversity. 00:03:43.229 --> 00:03:47.162 Some versions say and this verse? 00:03:47.162 --> 00:03:51.891 You will find this verse in the halls of Hobby Lobby. 00:03:51.891 --> 00:04:04.490 You will see it on T-shirts, you know, maybe bedazzled with bling, and you'll see it on the coffee cups, you know, on the mama in the carpool line. 00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:09.519 Sometimes she is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs in the face of adversity. 00:04:09.519 --> 00:04:10.966 Or strength and honor her clothing. 00:04:10.966 --> 00:04:15.329 But I want to just take that out of a meme for a minute and just completely. 00:04:15.329 --> 00:04:18.803 I mean, this is godly truth right here. 00:04:18.803 --> 00:04:20.910 That goes far beyond women. 00:04:20.910 --> 00:04:23.548 This is what God wants for his last day church. 00:04:23.548 --> 00:04:24.261 What? 00:04:24.341 --> 00:04:46.408 Listen to what strength and honor really mean when you break it down in the Hebrew, that word strength means, obviously, you know she's strong, but she's powerful, she's mighty, she has boldness, she is loud, whoo, and she is. 00:04:46.408 --> 00:04:47.911 Listen to this. 00:04:47.911 --> 00:04:55.130 She's clothed with strength, she's got might, she has material and physical strength. 00:04:55.130 --> 00:05:01.790 So we do care about our body and how strong we can be. 00:05:01.790 --> 00:05:04.100 That God wants that for all of the church. 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:05.483 But then listen to this. 00:05:05.483 --> 00:05:10.471 It also means personal, societal or political strength. 00:05:10.471 --> 00:05:21.646 God wants his church to be strong in all of those different ways, to be united and to have power and might in the earth. 00:05:23.612 --> 00:05:27.502 Okay, so she's clothed with strength and honor. 00:05:27.502 --> 00:05:32.096 Here's what honor means Majesty, beauty, comeliness. 00:05:32.096 --> 00:05:33.180 That means she's attract. 00:05:33.180 --> 00:05:38.536 The church should attract people, it should attract attention from the world. 00:05:38.536 --> 00:05:51.600 Excellency, glory and goodness, ornament, splendor, majesty, honor, glory these are things that clothe the end time church. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:06:03.822 And it's okay if we wanna be clothed as women too, with something pretty, with something nice, but I'm telling you, god wants to dress his end time church in his glory and clothe her with that. 00:06:03.822 --> 00:06:07.898 She is clothed with it and I tell you that's a whole message right there. 00:06:07.898 --> 00:06:14.312 But let the glory of God wrap you let's. 00:06:14.312 --> 00:06:23.031 On days when you don't feel strong, when you don't feel mighty, when you don't feel powerful, when you don't feel glorious or splendiferous or whatever. 00:06:23.031 --> 00:06:27.218 You don't feel those things, you can put on his glory. 00:06:27.218 --> 00:06:29.177 We are clothed with it. 00:06:29.177 --> 00:06:40.017 And so there are many verses, and especially in the New Testament, the apostle Paul says to put off the old man and to put on the new man, which is renewed in righteousness and pure holiness. 00:06:40.017 --> 00:06:41.677 That's in Ephesians 4. 00:06:41.677 --> 00:06:44.959 In Ephesians 6 it says to put on the whole armor of God. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:47.759 We can put on and we can take off. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:53.499 And so there are just things in our day that we have got to take off, this mindset of weakness. 00:06:53.499 --> 00:06:59.077 It's because we are called to walk in strength, we're called to be clothed with strength and honor. 00:06:59.077 --> 00:07:10.141 If there is anything shameful, if there is anything sad, if there is anything weak, we are not to focus on it, we are to cast it away and we are to put on these things. 00:07:10.141 --> 00:07:18.285 God is arraying the church In 2005, I believe it was January 2005,. 00:07:20.550 --> 00:07:33.278 We got to interview dad talks about it a lot that he was asked to go and interview a wonderful man of faith and a leader of the church At that time, brother Oral Roberts. 00:07:33.278 --> 00:07:35.416 And most of us have heard of him. 00:07:35.416 --> 00:07:39.637 He is an absolute father of the faith and he has since gone to be with the Lord. 00:07:39.637 --> 00:07:52.841 But in 2005, I got to sit in his living room while my dad interviewed him and I heard him say out of his mouth that God told him the church is not ready for the second coming of my son. 00:07:52.841 --> 00:07:59.314 The church is not ready, the world is not ready, america is not ready, and he said the church. 00:07:59.314 --> 00:08:00.959 That was the most heartbreaking thing. 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:09.341 If God can't look at the church and say they're ready to come be my bride, then something's wrong and something was right. 00:08:09.341 --> 00:08:13.480 It was a wake up call for the church way back in 2005. 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:22.798 The church is not ready and we just read in Ephesians five that I mean God wants to present us to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. 00:08:22.798 --> 00:08:26.312 But we got some spots and we got some wrinkles in the church. 00:08:26.372 --> 00:08:32.299 At large, people aren't reading their Bible, they're not praying. 00:08:32.299 --> 00:08:40.333 I pray that that's not true in our church, but I know, at large, most people who call themselves Christians barely ever go to church. 00:08:40.333 --> 00:08:48.178 Very few of them tithe maybe 10% a tithe of the Christians actually tithe to their church. 00:08:48.178 --> 00:09:07.418 So in other words, they're saying, yes, I'm a Christian they'll mark I'm a Christian on there on some interview form but they're not praying, they're not reading their Bible, they're not engaging with the Lord and they don't have the strength and dignity and beauty of the Lord clothing them. 00:09:07.418 --> 00:09:09.754 They are apart from him, they're not ready. 00:09:10.710 --> 00:09:24.360 And in 2018, I remember sitting here just worshiping God on the in church on one of the night services and the Holy Ghost spoke to me and he said what are you doing to dress the bride? 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:36.717 And I immediately knew that he was talking about his glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, that I had a part to play in equipping her, in getting her ready, and I believe that's one of our missions, of our church. 00:09:36.717 --> 00:09:44.631 Dad's called to wake up the church and work clothes to equip her and outfit her. 00:09:44.631 --> 00:10:00.730 You know Jesus whenever he talked about the end of days and we can all look around at certain situations and I think we all feel that we're nearing that time and Jesus used that imagery of the wedding feast, the wedding supper, of the lamb. 00:10:00.730 --> 00:10:16.893 He used wedding imagery throughout whenever he talked about the end of days and I believe it's in John 14 where he says I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there, you may be also. 00:10:16.893 --> 00:10:19.131 I go to prepare a place for you. 00:10:19.184 --> 00:10:26.989 Well, that was something that a bridegroom would say to his bride after he had asked her to marry him, and she said yes. 00:10:26.989 --> 00:10:31.211 He said okay, well, bye-bye, I'm gonna go prepare a place for you. 00:10:31.211 --> 00:10:38.134 And that was something that in that day that a bridegroom would do. 00:10:38.134 --> 00:10:46.374 He would go onto his father's property and he would usually add on like a marriage or a little honeymoon suite. 00:10:46.374 --> 00:11:04.712 On his father's house he would build out a little honeymoon suite and one day, when his father said that that suite and when his father would look at it, he would assess the work that was being done there and when the father decided that that honeymoon suite was ready, then he would allow the wedding to take place. 00:11:04.845 --> 00:11:07.152 And that could happen in the daytime. 00:11:07.152 --> 00:11:13.932 In the nighttime that bride had to stay ready for her husband to come get her and get married at any time. 00:11:13.932 --> 00:11:17.345 And that's the way we are. 00:11:17.345 --> 00:11:26.552 We have to stay clean, we have to stay pure, we have to stay ready, because the Lord is coming at any time and the marriage supper of the Lamb can be at hand and we don't know. 00:11:26.552 --> 00:11:27.924 No man knows the day of the hour. 00:11:27.924 --> 00:11:34.705 Even the bridegroom wouldn't know, but the father would know, and so only the father would know when that wedding would happen. 00:11:34.705 --> 00:11:40.051 So the bride had to stay ready, she had to have her dress pressed and hanging up on the hanger. 00:11:40.051 --> 00:11:52.351 She had to stay clean and pure so that at any moment she could just put that on and marry and there could be a big marriage party and feast for that and sometimes lasted seven days. 00:11:52.924 --> 00:12:03.735 But so Jesus put that imagery all through that the family, that this marriage would stand for something bigger than just a family on the earth. 00:12:03.735 --> 00:12:07.355 It's an allegory for the way Christ loves the church. 00:12:07.355 --> 00:12:12.437 And so let's go to Ephesians five and just read this. 00:12:12.437 --> 00:12:35.600 You know you can always and I have read this verse many times and I am guilty of overlooking the Jesus part and focusing on the marriage part, because this is a verse commonly read at weddings and I just, you know, I'm focused on the marriage part. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:37.753 There's a lot of great, wonderful advice. 00:12:37.753 --> 00:12:52.013 But tonight, when I read these verses, I want you just to put that aside for a minute and I want you to focus on the Jesus part, because that's a role that we can all improve, right. 00:12:54.325 --> 00:12:57.836 So it says wives, submit to your own husbands. 00:12:57.836 --> 00:12:58.849 This is verse 22,. 00:12:58.849 --> 00:13:04.529 As to the Lord, so if we're a member of the church, we are to submit to the Lord. 00:13:04.529 --> 00:13:14.414 Okay, for the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church and he, jesus, is the savior of the body. 00:13:14.414 --> 00:13:23.831 So if we're in the church, jesus is our savior, he's the head of the body and we are subject to him. 00:13:23.831 --> 00:13:30.731 And then, of course, then in verse 25, it says husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church. 00:13:31.044 --> 00:13:37.451 So if you're a member of the New Testament church, if you have been born a grand, know this that Jesus loves you. 00:13:37.451 --> 00:13:44.052 He gave himself for you that he might sanctify, sanctify and cleanse you. 00:13:44.052 --> 00:13:49.356 Sanctify means to set apart, to call out from a big group. 00:13:49.356 --> 00:13:52.794 And now Jesus has separated just you to himself. 00:13:52.794 --> 00:13:54.672 He separated just the church. 00:13:54.672 --> 00:14:01.952 There are many other spirits at work in this world right now that are against the church, but Jesus has called us out. 00:14:01.952 --> 00:14:07.472 He has brought us to himself and he wants us to be holy and pure. 00:14:07.472 --> 00:14:16.011 He wants to cleanse us that he might cleanse her with the washing of water, by the word. 00:14:17.504 --> 00:14:20.905 His word cleanses us, his word, I mean. 00:14:20.905 --> 00:14:35.131 This world is so dirty just, you can't even click on, you can't even go online now without some algorithm showing you some nasty thing on your screen sometimes, or just some distraction. 00:14:35.131 --> 00:14:44.110 Or somebody posts some terrible something on social media and you're just scrolling, you're minding your own business, and then this thing assaults your face. 00:14:44.110 --> 00:14:48.312 I'm telling you, god will cleanse you from any distraction, from any. 00:14:48.312 --> 00:14:51.072 I mean those thoughts that come in our minds. 00:14:51.072 --> 00:14:52.370 God is here to cleanse us. 00:14:52.370 --> 00:14:53.366 How does he do it? 00:14:53.366 --> 00:14:54.230 With his word. 00:14:55.264 --> 00:14:59.488 And that word word is not just the logos. 00:14:59.488 --> 00:15:02.817 You know there are two words in the Greek whenever we talked about the word of God. 00:15:02.817 --> 00:15:08.317 Sometimes the Greek word used is logos, which is just the book. 00:15:08.317 --> 00:15:10.445 You know the, the letter on the page. 00:15:10.445 --> 00:15:15.427 But this word here he'll cleanse us by the washing of water, by the Reima, the. 00:15:15.427 --> 00:15:22.105 The Reima word is a God-breathed word, the alive word from the Holy Spirit, that he speaks just to you. 00:15:22.105 --> 00:15:27.033 And if you will be faithful to read the pages of the Bible. 00:15:27.033 --> 00:15:35.345 If you will put the logos in your heart, then Jesus himself, the Holy Spirit, will breathe on that logos. 00:15:35.345 --> 00:15:41.985 He will give you a Reima for that day that will leave you feeling so clean, so close to him. 00:15:41.985 --> 00:15:50.965 There is no sin that can get between you because it's washed away Whenever there is a revelation of God's word in a different level. 00:15:50.965 --> 00:15:54.796 I'm telling you that's the way he wants to be close to you every day. 00:15:54.796 --> 00:15:58.591 Okay, that he might present her to himself. 00:15:58.671 --> 00:16:00.796 A glorious church, not having spot a wrinkle. 00:16:00.796 --> 00:16:08.009 So she's pure, she is pure, she's devoted, holy, without blemish. 00:16:08.009 --> 00:16:11.217 So husbands ought to love their own wives, their own bodies. 00:16:11.217 --> 00:16:21.153 So know this if you're a member of the church, you're nourished verse 29 Because the husband is supposed to nourish and cherish his wife, and so you're. 00:16:21.153 --> 00:16:24.259 The Lord nourishes and cherishes you. 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:27.711 You are fed by him every day. 00:16:27.711 --> 00:16:30.926 He is not letting a need go by Unnoticed. 00:16:30.926 --> 00:16:34.095 He will meet every need according to his riches and glory. 00:16:34.095 --> 00:16:37.510 By Christ Jesus, he loves you and he cherishes you. 00:16:37.510 --> 00:16:47.773 And he nourishes you not just Physically, not just your physical needs, but he knows your emotional needs, he knows what you need and he nourishes you. 00:16:47.913 --> 00:16:57.738 Church, know that you are nourished and cherished by God and know that you are one flesh with him, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, of his flesh bone, of his bone. 00:16:57.738 --> 00:17:00.070 The two shall become one flesh. 00:17:00.070 --> 00:17:03.977 Verse 31 says we are one flesh with Jesus. 00:17:03.977 --> 00:17:09.320 So it's not a stretch when he says the works I do, shall you do also in greater works. 00:17:09.320 --> 00:17:10.565 Hey, that's not a stretch. 00:17:10.565 --> 00:17:16.345 We're in him, we're one with him, we are his and we are, we are in covenant with him. 00:17:16.345 --> 00:17:23.372 We so what, everything we do on this earth is as his agent, as his spouse, as his betrothed. 00:17:23.372 --> 00:17:25.819 We have power and authority just in that. 00:17:25.819 --> 00:17:27.305 We're one flesh with Jesus, and. 00:17:27.305 --> 00:17:31.695 And so this is the great mystery I speak concerning Christ in the church. 00:17:31.695 --> 00:17:32.647 Listen to this. 00:17:33.028 --> 00:17:44.087 Nevertheless, let each one of you in in particular, so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she Respects her husband. 00:17:44.087 --> 00:17:58.998 If you were to go through and read these verses again, you would see that that the husband is commanded to love the wife, but the nowhere is the wife commanded to love the husband. 00:17:58.998 --> 00:18:00.422 I think it's cuz he doesn't have to. 00:18:00.422 --> 00:18:03.518 I mean that love, the love part, is kind of easy. 00:18:03.518 --> 00:18:18.644 But we are, are the wives and and especially the church is commanded to respect the husband, and so I believe in this, in this society that you see, now there is a push. 00:18:18.644 --> 00:18:20.828 I Mean the love part is so easy. 00:18:20.828 --> 00:18:22.673 Oh, we can talk about the love of God. 00:18:22.673 --> 00:18:25.709 Oh, I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus. 00:18:26.371 --> 00:18:33.913 I grew up hearing a preacher by the name of Norville Hayes and he said you know bluebirds, so does bluebirds love the Lord? 00:18:33.913 --> 00:18:35.557 He would say I mean, so he? 00:18:35.557 --> 00:18:40.997 Yes, we love Jesus, but that does not activate his word in our life. 00:18:40.997 --> 00:18:51.631 We need to honor, respect and revere him and, just as a practical point of view, this is, it's true in marriages. 00:18:51.631 --> 00:18:56.365 Men, they need respect, they need it even more than they need love. 00:18:56.365 --> 00:19:01.816 They need to be respected and, and women, we need to give them that, that respect. 00:19:01.816 --> 00:19:11.108 At the same time, men, be that man that we can respect and look up to, and Because we're commanded to do that. 00:19:11.108 --> 00:19:13.914 So make it easy for us, amen, amen. 00:19:13.954 --> 00:19:15.577 But Jesus makes it easy for us. 00:19:15.577 --> 00:19:17.675 Jesus makes it easy. 00:19:17.675 --> 00:19:26.078 He is faithful and true, he is strong and mighty and we should revere and fear and respect him even more than we love him. 00:19:26.078 --> 00:19:28.093 That is more important to God. 00:19:28.093 --> 00:19:34.317 He's showing us what's more important to him and and we need to have the fear of the Lord. 00:19:34.317 --> 00:19:41.933 We need to talk about the fear of the Lord, we need to reverence him and, in put him first place in our lives. 00:19:41.933 --> 00:19:45.505 You know, jesus is my homeboy, jesus is my bestie Well, that's really good. 00:19:45.505 --> 00:19:47.770 Jesus is my best friend Well, that's really great. 00:19:47.770 --> 00:19:49.335 But do we honor him? 00:19:49.335 --> 00:19:52.949 Do we respect him and reverence him? 00:19:52.949 --> 00:19:55.154 So those are good questions to ask. 00:19:55.194 --> 00:20:11.190 No, let's, let's turn over to, let's turn over quickly to Proverbs 31, because I want to Okay, well, you know what? 00:20:11.190 --> 00:20:15.153 Let me set this up because I don't want to end on this note. 00:20:15.153 --> 00:20:16.336 So let me put this in the middle. 00:20:16.336 --> 00:20:18.611 We just talked about the. 00:20:18.611 --> 00:20:36.519 We just talked about the Bride of Christ, the church as the bride of Christ who reveres and honors her husband, who loves, who loves the Lord, yes, but who honors him, and who is pure and separated and set apart. 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:39.471 There's an opposite of that. 00:20:39.471 --> 00:20:47.391 There's a mystery of lawlessness there is In Revelation 17,. 00:20:48.011 --> 00:20:57.156 Let me go there real quick to just read here is that sometimes we can learn about the word of God by looking at the thing that the opposite. 00:20:57.156 --> 00:21:05.118 And there's the end-time church, but we all see the attack against the end-time church and this is the spirit of this age. 00:21:05.118 --> 00:21:10.470 Revelation 17 3, and John, the Apostle John, says so. 00:21:10.470 --> 00:21:19.855 He carried me, he, god, carried me away in the spirit to into the wilderness, and I saw a woman Sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy. 00:21:19.855 --> 00:21:22.182 So here's everything against what we just said. 00:21:22.182 --> 00:21:28.789 We said you know that the end-time church loves the Lord, fully committed to him, reveres him. 00:21:28.869 --> 00:21:32.993 And here's this, this, this woman is full of blasphemy. 00:21:32.993 --> 00:21:39.527 She speaks against the Lord, she blasphemes and speaks perverse and twisted words. 00:21:39.527 --> 00:21:59.771 Having seven heads and ten horns, the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, so all in a, she is cloaked in an air of riches and authority and she and it looks really night adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. 00:21:59.771 --> 00:22:03.683 You know you can put less sick on a pig, but it's still a pig. 00:22:03.683 --> 00:22:19.726 And she had in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of their fornication, and on her forehead a name was written mystery, mystery, babylon the great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. 00:22:19.726 --> 00:22:26.481 Now I saw that woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, and when I saw her I marveled with great amazement. 00:22:27.163 --> 00:22:36.073 Now, later, we read that Jesus overcomes this woman and this beast and all of her friends and people. 00:22:36.073 --> 00:22:39.682 You know all the people fighting on the side of evil. 00:22:39.682 --> 00:22:45.124 But I just it's notable that there is a that the female figure is not. 00:22:45.124 --> 00:22:52.409 We're not only the bride of Christ, but there here is the harlot of the anti-Christ. 00:22:52.409 --> 00:22:58.286 You have the pure, separated, holy bride of Christ who fears God. 00:22:58.286 --> 00:23:10.496 And then here's someone who blasphemes God, who stands for lust and iniquity, corruption, and who is a mystery from the other side. 00:23:10.496 --> 00:23:12.201 We're a great mystery. 00:23:12.201 --> 00:23:24.545 And here's another great mystery from the dark side, and I just wanted to show you that, because that's the spirit of this age that we're fighting, and you will see that over and over again. 00:23:24.545 --> 00:23:26.921 And she came to make war against the saints. 00:23:26.921 --> 00:23:28.508 You can read about it further. 00:23:28.508 --> 00:23:32.824 But she's made war against us and we're not gonna let her win. 00:23:32.824 --> 00:23:36.537 Amen, amen, purity and the fear of God win. 00:23:36.537 --> 00:23:37.097 Alright. 00:23:37.117 --> 00:23:47.076 So now we can go to Proverbs 31, and and then I just don't hear a lot of preachers in church preach on this scripture, and I understand why. 00:23:47.076 --> 00:23:58.847 The reason they don't preach on Proverbs 31, the virtuous wife is because it alienates single people, they think, and it alienates men, you know. 00:23:58.847 --> 00:24:07.751 So then you just only hear about this ever, ever hear about this verse if you go to a special women's Bible study somewhere in a dark room, back room somewhere. 00:24:07.751 --> 00:24:13.635 But I want to bring it out and show it to you that it is an allegory for the end-time church. 00:24:13.635 --> 00:24:20.580 This is how God wants us to live, all of us to live, and and just listen to that with this ear. 00:24:20.761 --> 00:24:24.195 With that ear in mind, it says who can find a virtuous wife? 00:24:24.195 --> 00:24:26.520 For her worth is far above Ruby's. 00:24:26.520 --> 00:24:33.042 The heart of her husband safely trusts her, so she's faithful, and we ought to be faithful to God. 00:24:33.042 --> 00:24:35.428 Amen safely trusts her. 00:24:35.428 --> 00:24:38.522 He will have no lack of gain. 00:24:38.522 --> 00:24:40.710 So she is also very productive. 00:24:40.710 --> 00:24:43.396 She is prosperous. 00:24:43.396 --> 00:24:46.222 Amen, god wants you to prosper. 00:24:46.262 --> 00:24:47.525 Here is yet another example. 00:24:47.525 --> 00:24:50.138 She does him good and not evil. 00:24:50.138 --> 00:24:56.828 All the days of her life she seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands, so she by. 00:24:56.828 --> 00:25:01.769 In other words, wool and flax are raw materials, and you'll see what she does with these words. 00:25:01.769 --> 00:25:05.179 She gets raw materials and she makes something out of them. 00:25:05.179 --> 00:25:20.477 She's always turning the nothing into something exquisite, and and that's what we're doing as a church amen, we can work with something that's a raw material and we can put out a finished product with excellence. 00:25:21.018 --> 00:25:25.196 It says that she is like the merchant ships she brings her food from afar. 00:25:25.196 --> 00:25:33.873 Moms, you ever drive to two or three grocery stores just to get that one special brand of granola bar that your kid has to have in their lunch. 00:25:33.873 --> 00:25:37.548 I mean, have you ever done that, amen. 00:25:37.548 --> 00:25:41.556 But but I'm telling you, the end-time church is gonna be. 00:25:41.556 --> 00:25:45.894 We're gonna have sustenance that comes from the four corners of the earth. 00:25:45.894 --> 00:25:48.202 Amen, god's gonna supply our needs. 00:25:49.006 --> 00:25:57.217 And it says she also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and a portion for her mage servants. 00:25:57.217 --> 00:26:04.907 All right, so on a practical level, god bless all the women who get up and put meat in that crock pot in the morning. 00:26:04.907 --> 00:26:07.920 By dinner time she's got her food ready, amen. 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:09.365 But it's beyond that. 00:26:09.365 --> 00:26:10.510 I'm telling you it. 00:26:10.510 --> 00:26:18.614 Look at that provider mentality, look at the church being a provider mentality, a distributor. 00:26:18.614 --> 00:26:20.859 And she's not lazy. 00:26:20.859 --> 00:26:27.499 She rises while it is yet night, she is awake, she's alert, she is ready for action. 00:26:27.499 --> 00:26:31.494 She's not sleeping in unaware of what's going on in the world. 00:26:31.494 --> 00:26:37.171 She is engaged fully in taking care of those charged to her. 00:26:37.171 --> 00:26:38.675 Amen, and that's the. 00:26:38.675 --> 00:26:42.704 That's the end-time church, all right, and so she can sit. 00:26:42.704 --> 00:26:43.287 I like this. 00:26:43.467 --> 00:26:49.186 She considers a field and buys it and from her profits she plants a vineyard. 00:26:49.186 --> 00:26:54.761 So the end-time church has an entrepreneurial edge to it. 00:26:54.761 --> 00:27:06.797 They are able to assess market opportunities in the world and turn them and then make profits and reinvest them again. 00:27:06.797 --> 00:27:07.781 Okay, so she got. 00:27:07.781 --> 00:27:09.611 She made some money over here in real estate. 00:27:09.611 --> 00:27:11.538 Now she's gonna plant a garden. 00:27:11.538 --> 00:27:16.454 She's got a lot of things going on and so does the church. 00:27:16.454 --> 00:27:22.500 Amen I just believe God for multiple streams of income for every tither and givers over seed in our church. 00:27:24.247 --> 00:27:29.546 She girds herself with strength there's that word again with strength, and she strengthens her arms. 00:27:29.546 --> 00:27:38.872 She perceives that her merchandise or her profit is good and her lamp does not go out by night. 00:27:38.872 --> 00:27:44.869 She is busy because it is the last days and so it's not a time for sleeping. 00:27:44.869 --> 00:27:53.397 Where people of the day, it says in the New Testament, she stretches out her hand to the distiff and her hand holds the spindle. 00:27:53.397 --> 00:27:57.031 In other words, in that day and time she was good with needle crafts. 00:27:57.031 --> 00:28:00.904 You could sew, she could knit, she could do needle crafts. 00:28:01.346 --> 00:28:06.259 But in this day and time, I believe that we are to be productive about the kingdom of God. 00:28:06.259 --> 00:28:16.775 We're to be good at using the tools that are in our marketplace, in our society, tools that help us care for others and for each other and for ourselves. 00:28:16.775 --> 00:28:19.140 Where to be skilled? 00:28:19.140 --> 00:28:24.436 So it's a time to find our particular skills and put them to work for the Lord, amen. 00:28:24.436 --> 00:28:28.694 And it's a time verse 20 to be generous. 00:28:28.694 --> 00:28:33.971 She extends her hand to the poor, she reaches out her hands to the needy. 00:28:35.012 --> 00:28:35.554 Listen to this. 00:28:35.554 --> 00:28:42.433 She is not afraid of snow for her household, all her household, is clothed with scarlet. 00:28:42.433 --> 00:28:53.161 So earlier we talked about the mystery of Babylon, we had the spirit of this age, the ungodly woman, and she also was clothed and she looked really great. 00:28:53.161 --> 00:29:06.555 But it's not wrong to look really great, to take some time to care for yourself, women, to to clothe verse 22,. 00:29:06.555 --> 00:29:11.010 She makes tapestry for herself and her clothing is fine linen and purple. 00:29:11.010 --> 00:29:23.107 It's not wrong to clothe yourself, ladies, and your whole family, and that way we're prepared for what is to come and God wants to prepare the church at large. 00:29:23.107 --> 00:29:28.526 We know there is a dark time coming, we know the snow is on its way and it's okay. 00:29:28.526 --> 00:29:30.069 God has prepared us. 00:29:30.069 --> 00:29:35.361 We have laid a foundation against this day with our giving, with our sowing of seed. 00:29:35.361 --> 00:29:38.053 God supplies every need, amen. 00:29:38.053 --> 00:29:40.459 And so we don't have to be afraid of those things. 00:29:40.459 --> 00:29:43.874 Listen to this, verse 23,. 00:29:45.159 --> 00:29:48.892 Her husband is known in the gates and when he sits among the elders of the land. 00:29:48.892 --> 00:29:56.211 So, in other words, why would it talk about her husband being a notable person? 00:29:56.211 --> 00:30:05.403 I am reminded that behind every strong man is a strong woman who is supporting him. 00:30:05.403 --> 00:30:18.125 And and just think about the end time church, if we would really support the work of God if we would just brag about Jesus, if we just brag about what he's done for us. 00:30:18.125 --> 00:30:21.194 Brag about him, talk about him. 00:30:21.194 --> 00:30:24.482 I'm telling you he should be. 00:30:24.482 --> 00:30:26.347 He has to be honored and praised. 00:30:26.347 --> 00:30:30.901 His name is not to be taken in vain in our, in our presence. 00:30:30.901 --> 00:30:33.911 No, we are to speak out for the Lord. 00:30:36.255 --> 00:30:39.240 And then it says she makes linen garments and sells them. 00:30:39.240 --> 00:30:40.142 Here she is again. 00:30:40.142 --> 00:30:43.273 Just always turned into profit, always make. 00:30:43.273 --> 00:30:44.938 She is well supplied. 00:30:44.938 --> 00:30:47.282 She supplied sashes for the merchants. 00:30:47.282 --> 00:30:49.655 You know, merchants wear the really nice clothes. 00:30:49.655 --> 00:30:52.452 In the Bible they're the ones who are rich, the merchants. 00:30:52.452 --> 00:30:57.153 And here she is, she is fit, she is so skilled that she is able to make clothes for them. 00:30:57.153 --> 00:31:01.065 So the world will want what we have. 00:31:01.065 --> 00:31:03.290 Amen, the world will want what we have. 00:31:04.132 --> 00:31:33.996 And and and I like this again on a personal level, on a on a very practical level women, many of us do work outside of the home now, and what I see here is a woman who is very productive, she is very profitable, she is making money outside the home, but her family doesn't feel regretful about her. 00:31:33.996 --> 00:31:35.680 Her family does not feel neglected. 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:37.172 They have every. 00:31:37.172 --> 00:31:39.803 She's already she got up early to make their food. 00:31:39.803 --> 00:31:46.406 She's already she already made them clothed, clothed them with scarlet, so if it snows they're covered. 00:31:46.406 --> 00:31:57.664 She's already doing all these things and she shares these profits with them and it enriches them and blesses them and they don't feel they still feel loved, they still feel valued. 00:31:57.664 --> 00:32:04.049 So I believe it is best for a woman to be able to stay home and raise her family when she can do that. 00:32:04.049 --> 00:32:15.901 But there are those women who are called to do something else or whose life has has a different path right now and and it's necessity for them to work outside the home. 00:32:15.901 --> 00:32:25.976 Look God, he's got a plan for you, and you can still, your family can still feel blessed, they can still feel cared for, even in that situation. 00:32:26.356 --> 00:32:28.361 Okay, and she has wisdom, verse 26. 00:32:28.361 --> 00:32:32.315 Well, we already read verse 25 earlier. 00:32:32.315 --> 00:32:34.630 Strength and honor, we know that that those are her clothing. 00:32:34.630 --> 00:32:38.218 She's clothed the glory of God. 00:32:38.218 --> 00:32:40.142 She rejoices in the time to come. 00:32:40.142 --> 00:32:44.039 She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness. 00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:46.848 And, and so she is. 00:32:46.848 --> 00:32:54.262 She is kind, she's generous, she's wise, she's productive, she's pure, she's faithful. 00:32:55.203 --> 00:33:01.492 And and even since her children rise up and call her blessed, I'm telling you, the church, the last day church, will be fruitful. 00:33:01.492 --> 00:33:13.712 We will have, we will have offspring, we will be continually have bringing more people into the kingdom and, and we're going to, we're going to see the blessing come. 00:33:13.712 --> 00:33:14.334 Amen. 00:33:14.334 --> 00:33:24.094 And charm is deceitful, beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. 00:33:24.094 --> 00:33:26.459 Give her verse 31. 00:33:26.459 --> 00:33:31.957 Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates. 00:33:31.957 --> 00:33:34.663 So I hope that encourages you tonight. 00:33:34.663 --> 00:33:42.213 I I just want there are a lot of practical things right there for women, but there are also just a lot of good. 00:33:42.213 --> 00:33:52.642 Just there's meat for the church today that that God doesn't want us poor, he doesn't want us unproductive, he certainly doesn't want us lax and asleep. 00:33:52.642 --> 00:34:00.093 He wants us awake and clean and set apart for him and ready for the marriage supper of the lamb. 00:34:00.093 --> 00:34:01.902 Amen, amen. 00:34:01.902 --> 00:34:03.368 So I hope that blessing tonight.