welcome back to true women 201 so far we've covered all sorts of elements that relate to true womanhood today we're talking about the element of responsibility a true woman maintains the right work priorities she esteems working at home ho ho now there's a concept that's counter cultural and abrasive to modern sensibilities women working yes at home what about working out in the marketplace at a career what about a paycheck is Paul implying that every woman at every stage of life should only be concerned about cooking meals and washing floors that God's ideal woman is perpetually
barefoot pregnant and tied to the kitchen sink well lean and tight because in today's session Nancy and I are going to tackle these thorny questions [Music] well Mary we're over halfway through this series on true woman 201 interior design and we've been looking at one at a time these elements from Titus chapter 2 that make up a beautiful woman of God the Apostle Paul says that older women are to be reverent and behavior not slanderers not slaves too much wine they're to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands
and children to be self-controlled pure and then we come to this next one which sounds like a dinosaur absolute diamond ring working at home at home working at home now there's some others we'll come to in the next week's kind submissive to their own husband's that the Word of God may not be reviled but this word working at home actually in the original language is one word it's a compound word that's right and it combines the first part of it is a word for house or home and then the second part of it is a
word that means to work or to keep guard to watch art over watch over it so working in the context of her home as some other translations say it busy at home I think the NIV says that yet one of them says homemakers and another says the old King James that we grew up on says keepers at home goes to back to that part a keeper or a guard but in essence working at home means what working at home means that women women have a unique responsibility tied to the home in a unique way to
guard and to have a heart for the home to keep it as a priority so it has to do with being devoted to the home with being now here's another old word domestically inclined that is an old word and it conjures up images of for me it's canning canning fruit like feeling that your whole life revolves around doing household things that's right being I don't even know how to survive domestic because I'm it's not me I actually cook dinner for us last night that is I told you I've got two recipes you had one of
them it was delicious so thank you it was a really good recipe but if these women who I have friends who can cook up a storm who'd have spotless homes who are beautiful too you're a great decorator and to be domestically inclined makes you think you've got to be good at all those things or like Martha Stewart right you know have everything in order everything pristine and I don't think that's exactly but it's more of the word heart yeah home heart for home and we'll see that there's a lot of ministry that can flow out
of that one commentator we read on this said that this worker at home means an efficient management of household responsibilities and so we've called this element responsibility its what is a what are a woman's responsibilities in a given season of her life and how does she maintain the right work priorities because work is important I think that I'm often asked by people who come to Conte women who come to conferences what should women work and go I just go what woman doesn't yeah yeah women should work and and we all work and work is important
to God and God values work and God is the greatest worker of all jesus said my father is about his business he's always working he's always working on our behalf and so work is something that when we do work for the glory of God we are really demonstrating who God is and so work is a very good in a very positive thing it puts the nature and character of God on display it does in fact I think of the Lord Jesus himself you know he had his earthly ministry for three years beginning about age 30
but what was he doing before that well he was in a carpentry shop so we had less significant cutting boards and hammering nails and flexing his muscles moving things and and and probably being told what to do often in in his apprenticeship as he learned how to be a carpenter so he was doing the work that God gave him to do at that season that's right and what a great example that is that is the example because it has to do with what season of life we're in and what our responsibilities are in any given
season and that's how we decide where to put our energy with work because work is good and work is honorable in the eyes of God and God values work but we need to be intentional and strategic in the way that we use our time we've only got a certain number of hours in a day a certain amount of energy and not just existing not just surviving but fulfilling those good works that God has created us for in fact I love that verse in Ephesians 2 that says in eternity past yeah God ordained good works that
we should walk in them that's right so he has set out a path for us of works that glorify Him and everyday it's getting up and saying what is the good work you have for me to do today and that's not always obvious and I think that sometimes we divide work into these categories of this is spiritual stuff this is stuff that honors God and this is just mundane ordinary stuff carpentry carpentry right cleaning a house making a badge going over a schedule driving our kids to school that's Monday and that's not that's not really
work for God and then there women who are doing those in a seasonal life where they're doing a lot of that who are coming to us and saying but I want a ministry mm-hmm and we look at him and say you have a ministry the work you are doing at this season of life in in serving your family well is good work its ministry work it's for the glory of God it is for the glory God and and God calls us to to work hard and not to be idle that word idle is important and
and it came out a lot as we were studying this concept because there are a lot of warnings in scripture about not being idle in fact Paul says numerous times if you don't work if you're gonna be idle then you don't eat you're as bad as an unbeliever that's what he says if you don't if you're not working and you're not looking after your family the ass of your family yeah so so the point here in the passage when it says working at home I think there's there is that emphasis on work and that work
is a good thing and that work when done for the glory of God glorifies God regardless of how trivial or inconsequential we might think that work is that when we do it with with our energy and and with all diligence and according to our responsibilities for that season in life then that work glorifies God so if if a woman is in the marketplace and she is a single woman and has a career and is balancing a spreadsheet or or doing something else her work is meaningful her work matters to God and his her work is
for the glory of God and for women also who are married and various seasons work can happen in different locations and let me back up just for a moment and because this passage talks about women being workers at home and that least is something that I think is very controversial and not understood well in even among believers in our day and that is in Scripture you do see back to Genesis and then into the New Testaments you see a a gender specific emphasis on work responsibilities now this can get a little thorny but let's unpack
that for just am i that is so true I mean we we saw that as we studied true women 101 and went through Genesis and walked through the first three chapters of Genesis that even in creation as God created us God created man he created woman and he gave men a distinct responsibility for provision for providing for the home providing for the family now that doesn't mean exclusive that doesn't mean that a woman cannot provide financially or that there are not situations in which she does or she cannot but it does mean that he bears
the primary responsibility yeah to see that the provision is taking place to see that everything's well met well looked-after in terms of the financial needs of the family a woman on the other hand has this this specific or unique rather connection to the home to nurturing and to mothering and to looking after the the environment that is the home to make that a place of life and growth and vitality and that doesn't mean that a man doesn't do that as well of course he does that as well and and he contributes but there is a
unique responsibility on the shoulders of woman that woman is tied to the home in a unique way and that is a totally culturally inappropriate message a countercultural message to the hilt to say that male/female roles are not identical and they're not interchangeable no we need both we need both and there are situations where a woman is under circumstance where she is having to raise her family alone where there isn't a man and God gives grace for those exceptions but we I think we have to keep going back to his ideal is that in the home
there is a husband there is a wife and they are bearing responsibility for overseeing different parts of the whole equation and when they do that well together then they have a home that can bring great glory to God I always talk to my daughter-in-laws and say you know you have to understand they're young and and they're just entering into marriage and and into the whole journey and the whole adventure you have to understand the seasonal nature of a woman's life that a woman's life goes through these seasons and there's a there's a season often of
singleness there's a season sometimes where where you're married and yet there there are no children there and then there's a season when you have young children there's a season when you have older children there's a season when your children are all leaving home as as mine are and and then there's a season when everyone's gone and no one's coming back on a regular basis so it's it's very seasonal and I think that impacts a woman's life in a different way than it impacts a man's life in terms of the daily what her daily changes job
description does and what your priorities are exactly will look very different from one season to the next and that's why we entitled this responsibility because it has to do with what our responsibility is given that season of our lives and yet Paul I think is saying here make sure that these women older women teach the younger women whatever you're doing don't neglect the priority of the home and it comes back to again God has a heart for home he really does and that's a context in which life is nurtured life is formed the gospel is
shaped the legacy is passed on the beauty of God's family plan is seen and comes to play so don't feel like what you're doing out there where you're earning a paycheck you may be getting more food and Pat's on the back don't get deceived and think that that is monumentally more important or more significant or more valuable than what maybe more unseen unfeigned what you're doing in the context of making your family a priority I think we need to remember also that that the physical speaks to the spiritual and so home is important because home
is important to God because our Heavenly home is important to God and and scripture talks even about Christ going to prepare a home for us that that's an important I think thinking about the fact that he is a homemaker yeah yeah he's making a home preparing a home for us and home is important family is important and we live that out as redeemed people we live that out as a stunning example and countercultural example to the world of what redeemed womanhood looks like but I think we as women need to be asking questions based on
our season of life based on the priorities that God has given us in that season am i making sure that my home is cared for and does my home reflect the beauty and the order of Christ and does it make is a place where people are ministered to where they are blessed where they are encouraged so it's not ultimately about cooking or clean no not all those things can be big contributing parts and I'll tell you Mary as a single woman I have been so blessed to have families in my life who include singles in
their home in their family who make a home for those who maybe are without family in the area and I have some dear friends who have four young children and they have a tiny little house a little kitchen and a little adjoining dining area and a great big long table and they put a zillion people around that table they bring in students they bring in middle-aged women like me they bring in couples and families and children it's a beehive it's full you could hardly make your way around because it's so full of people and I
do this often and they eat together and they fellowship together and they talk together and it's not fancy it's not anything you'd put in a magazine but it's rich and then I saw real menace happening it is a mystery that's what we often lose in terms of the home as we forget that it's a place for ministry and I know that that when when I think about my home just the the number of times we've announced in the living room with someone who's going through a tough time to pray over them and to wrestle with
them through some difficulty in their life to minister to the needy into the broken to the hurting to the lonely to those less fortunate and and we lose that when we lose focus that of the importance of the home we lose this huge venue for ministry because it's not not quite the same taking someone out for dinner is not quite the same as inviting them into your home and that can be done by women in every season of life married single lord has blessed me with a home and I'll use it so well using it
to bring people and I've had people live in my home I had at different holidays and anytime spontaneously just bringing people and it may be one or two it may be a whole house full but to bless them to pray with them to serve them and you know you can get all hung up on the I have full days a full life and so for me to cook a full meal for a lot of people doesn't happen very often but I've said I'm good at two recipes out of two recipes and I'm good at acquiring
food I can find it it doesn't have to be a spread it can just be very simple but to say I'm opening my heart to you I'm opening my home to you and this is the context in which so much life takes place not only for those who are guests in our homes but for those for your own family for your own children you think of how many children are growing up today in a home where the family never eats sits down to eat together hmm where they never have anything but fast food and I'm
not saying everything has to be made from scratch or in it but if your home is also a place of ministry that's a way of disciple in your children of teaching your children that life is not all about them oh that was such a huge thing in my growing up because we were blessed with a large home and I can remember my dad always saying this is not for us we don't need all this this is for us to be a blessing to others and they would invite people in by the droves there were always
people coming into our home and my mother had an amazing gift of hospitality and we would help we would haul strawberries for the dinner or we would be involved in the cleanup or the setting up and we see people coming to know the Lord we'd seen marriages getting repaired we see and hear conversation about the Lord and that put into my heart such a sense of the value of the ministry that takes place there your ministry that takes place in the home and I think that that sometimes when we talk about women and home and
that there can be some women that go to an extreme where they idolize home and they idolize family and they idolize marriage and they forget that to which it points and they focus so much on the earthly things on having a pristine home or of doing this and that for their children and they forget that ultimately the reason for home and family is to expand the home and family of God so that it points to our heavenly home and to teach people what that is like so I think we want to say to women first
of all realizing that so many women today are very frazzled they're over scheduled they're over committed they're overwhelmed and we don't want to say this is one more thing you need to do with your life is come home and do all this you know start making biscuits and for hosting dinners it's ask the Lord based on my season of life right now what are your priorities for exactly and am I giving adequate attention to what happens in my home to my own family if I've got a family living in my home to others that I
can show hospitality to and is this a season of life for me to be doing a ton of other things outside my home or should some of those things maybe wait till a different season and also I think we need to affirm and bless women who are in the season where they can they are contributing in various venues in whether they're you know they're out at a missions agency whether they're in the marketplace in the secular marketplace and and the the energy is there it has to do with our responsibility what our life looks like
if God has blessed us with husband and children and what our season of life looks like we need to be responsible and to to check our priorities and see if we've got things in the right order and are giving the right priority at the right time and I would say on that we want to challenge women not just to go with the flow mm not just to mindlessly follow the culture so ask the Lord I think it's so important for us and for the for other women to say Lord what is the season of my
life right now and what do you want me doing where do you want me working what is your priority and responsibilities are see to have grace for those single women who are just doing the best that they can the single moms who are if their situation is less than ideal and and they they are listening to the program and saying I wish I wish I could be more at home I wish I could be more at home and know that that God has a special place in his heart for you and is the church are
we as the body of Christ supposed to maybe step in more that's going to help out to lift some of the load that that woman's experiencing in that season yes well workers at home it means a lot we've just barely scratched the surface a lot more here we unpack a lot of it more in our in the study buddy and but Oh Lord I pray that she would show us what it means in our season of life to be workers not idle but glorifying you through work and to make the priority that you want there
to be for our homes and most of all we just want to thank you that you are a home making God mm-hmm you have been our dwelling place through all generations the Psalms tells us and so Lord we want our lives in our homes to reflect your home and to make people hungry and thirsty for an ultimate eternal home to point them to the Savior who is preparing a place for us to live forever in heaven the Lord help us to keep that in mind may our homes reflect the beauty and the glory of that
ultimate home I pray in Jesus name [Music] you [Music] you
