So we've had two great topics already. Scott began us with a talk about what real beauty is and where it comes from and the things that destroy it. And then Mike Davenport helped us with thinking about edifying with the tongue. And I was very helped and blessed by just hearing the word of God preached last night. I hope that we have a great continuation of that today.
The topic for this morning is industry. I said last night that when I hear the word industry I think about smokestacks and factories and I think maybe the world has influenced our thinking even about the term. The term is actually a term that's meant to be much more broadly applied than to factories and smokestacks. It really just means being fruitful, being productive. So while factories with smokestacks can be fruitful and productive, there are many callings that are fruitful and productive outside of that.
I just want to greet you this morning and say to our daughters what I said last night. Your fathers loved the Lord Jesus Christ. We were bound up in our sin and we were slaves to our sin and He came and He put His hand upon us and He set us free. We were weighted down and we became light as a feather because Jesus Christ liberated us. He raised us from the dead.
And we want you to know that, okay? We love you dearly And we love Jesus a little more than we love you, but we love you dearly, and we want you to know him. We want you to be free like we're free. We want him to put his hand on you like he's put his hand on us, and we want him to make you not of this world. The world is always trying to press you into its mold, and it has many pressures to bring to bear.
This is our memory verse, right? Romans 12, 1 and 2, Don't be conformed to this world. Well, you're always being pressed into that mold by the pressures of the world, and they're very intentional pressures, and they're trying to press you into the mold so that you'll look like the mold. You'll be conformed to the world. But God has a solution for that, and the solution is that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so we come, we bring our minds with all of the baggage that we've acquired in this life, and we beg for God to transform our minds through His Word.
So that's what we're hoping for today, that we'll become a little less like the world and a little more like the beautiful vision that God gives to all of us in his word. One of the ways that all believers are called to be distinctive is the way that we look at our lives, and I mean the actual passing of time. Not sort of a life view, not a perspective, but the way that we think about the passing of time, the ticking and the talking of the clock, how we think about seconds of time and how they're spent. In the world, the dream life is a life of ease, a life of entertainments, endless entertainment, a life of amusements. And if you're pressed into the mold of the world, you will amuse yourself to death.
The world has one amusement after another to engage you until the clock runs out. So the world has a vision for you and your time. And its vision is the dream life, ease, endless entertainments. Go try to exhaust the well of entertainments that the world is serving up. Try to exhaust it in a day, a week, a month, a year.
You won't even skim the surface. The world literally wants to amuse you to death, to run out the clock so that at the end of your life what you've done is you've entertained yourself. And we must be not of this world. Our lives were not given to us for us to be amused to death, to engage in an endless series of entertainments until the clock runs out. And so I'm going to be talking about five things.
The value of five things. The value of time, the value of rest, the value of preparation, the value of productivity, and then we're gonna get really specific, the value of a woman's productivity. God has called for a very specific kind of productivity in the life of his daughters. Let's pray. O God, may this day be consecrated to you, may it be set aside to be yours and only yours.
May you have all of our affections today, may you have the thoughts of our minds, may they be taken captive and brought under your good authority. Teach us from your word and make us different. Oh God, we know what the world is serving up. We know that we should be different. We don't want to run out the clock with the amusements of the world, but we want to live to the glory of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
May it be so. Help us in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, first, The value of time. I think a very strong argument can be made that time is our most precious resource, our most valuable resource.
Why would I say that? How would you make that case? Well, The other resources that you can think of in life, you can generally get more of them. Okay, if you love money, you can go chase money and get more money. If you love the things that money buys, then you just accumulate money, and then you can go spend it on the things that money can buy.
If you value friendships, you can go get more friends. If you value love, you can invest in a certain way as to get more love. Now try to go get more time. God has appointed exactly how many seconds we have in our lives, and nothing you do is going to get you one more or will get you one last second. You have an appointed amount.
You don't know what it is, but God knows what it is. He's always known what it is, and your allotment is your allotment. And so if you're making the argument that time is our most precious resource, I think you start there by saying that you'll never get one more second of it. There's not a way to get more of it. All the other resources in life, it seems like there's a way to get more, but not so with time.
In thinking about the value of time, I want you to consider four verses of Scripture. Are you ready? The first verse of Scripture is this. It's James 4, verse 14. In James 4, verse 14, James says this, "'For what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.'" James says, "'What is your life?'" Is your life a lot or a little? That's a really important question and James answers it from a biblical perspective. It might seem like you have such a long life in front of you. James says, that's not true. It's a vapor.
It appears for a little time. That's what James says about the time that is allotted to you. It's a little time. Even if you live a long life, even if you live into your 90s, it is a little time. And then it vanishes away.
So you have to know this about time. There's a micro view of time and there's a macro view of time. Now, when you're taking the micro view, you're looking through a microscope. Okay, you look through a microscope in your homeschooling exercises and you take pond water and you put it on the slide and things that are not even visible to the naked eye are gigantic. The little creatures in the pond that you have no awareness of until you put it on the slide and get it under the microscope look like monsters under the microscope, right?
Okay, that's the micro view of time. And in life, in the view of time, the microview says this, I'm bored. There's nothing to do. Okay? But the macroview, as opposed to looking through a microscope, the macro view is looking out the window from the plane.
The plane ascends, you're at 30, 000 feet, and you look down and the micro view was looking at the creature in the pond that you couldn't see with the naked eye and it looks like a monster. The macro view is going up to 30, 000 feet and you can see 100 miles in that direction and you can see in 100 miles in that direction. If you talk to older people, okay, They're done with the microscope when it comes to the view of time. They know that things that you can't see with the naked eye that look like monsters, that's not what's significant. They're up in the plane, they're at 30, 000 feet, they can see a hundred miles that way and a hundred miles that way, and what do they tell you?
Life's short. Yesterday I was your age. I'm 45, I'm halfway probably, something like that. If God gives me a long life, I'm halfway. Okay?
Yesterday I was your age. It was like yesterday. Okay, I'm starting to understand what the older people have been trying to tell me for 45 years and I've never really understood it. I'm starting to understand it. Okay, take the macro view and see that the micro view, I'm bored, there's nothing to do.
That's not the right view of time. That's not the right view of life. James is helping us think this way. Your life is a vapor. It appears for a little while.
That's the exact words of the text, and then vanishes away. When we come to the end of our life, we're going to say, I can't believe it's the end. Seems like yesterday I was a teenager. I know that's going to be true. And the sooner you get it, the sooner you act like that's true.
This is the whole point of this first text. It's time to act like that's true. It's time to act like we can't afford the mentality that says, I'm bored, there's nothing to do. Number two, Here's the second scripture verse that helps us think rightly about time. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20.
Listen to what Paul says. Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul is arguing for a life of holiness. A life of holiness is a life that set aside for God to do whatever he wants to do with it. That's what holiness means. If in your brain you've translated holiness to self-righteousness, then wipe that definition away.
Holiness just means set aside for God, for him to do whatever he wants to with that thing. So a life of holiness is a life where we just say, God this is your life, you do with it whatever is pleasing to you. So Paul's been arguing for a life of holiness in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and then he says this in verse 20, For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Now what do you have besides your body and your spirit?
Yeah, I don't have anything either. That's pretty much it. Your body and your spirit. You're supposed to glorify God if you're a believer, if you've been saved, cleansed by the Lord Jesus Christ, then an exchange has happened. His blood for your cleansing has been given over in exchange for your life.
He bought you. He owns you. He owns your body. He owns your spirit. He owns all of you, and that includes your time.
Paul and Peter are so clear about this. The preeminent apostles were so clear about this. When you go to their letters, how are they introducing themselves? Peter, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, a slave of Jesus Christ. How's Paul introducing himself?
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. He bought me with his blood. I'm his. My life is his to spend.
If you're born again, brothers and sisters, if you're born again, then God owns you. He bought you. He owns everything about you, including your time, including the seconds of time, including the microseconds of time. You thought you had seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks to waste. That's not true.
You don't own those seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. You don't own them. If you're a believer, Jesus bought them with his blood. He wants to spend them to bring honor to himself in the world. Here's the third verse, Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 and 16.
In Ephesians chapter 5 verses 15 and 16 Paul says this, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, Redeeming the time because the days are evil. I'm going to read that again. Ephesians 5, 15, and 16. See then that you walk circumspectly. There's a way that you're supposed to walk circumspectly in wisdom.
Not as fools, but as wise. Don't walk foolishly, walk wisely. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Paul's counsel is this, be wise, buy up the time. Buy it up, corral it, Get your arms around the seconds of time.
Okay? Redeem the time. Redeem. Buy up. Buy back the time.
Maximize the seconds. Protect the seconds. Don't let them leak out. Okay, seconds of time. Believers don't let the seconds of time leak out so that they find themselves having been amused to death at the ends of their lives.
No, no, no, no. That's conformity to the world. Paul is exhorting us to be wise, to buy up the time, to protect the seconds, and he says not to do that is foolish. Okay, you're walking foolishly if you're not protecting the seconds of time. We are here to advance the righteousness of our King in the world.
And we live in evil days, okay? He says, redeeming the time for the days are evil. We're here, the people of the Lord, to advance the righteousness of King Jesus in the earth, and it's not going so great right now, okay? The days are evil. There's a lot of evil in the earth, and there needs to be, there ought to be, a lot of worship and righteousness in the earth, okay?
So we live in evil days, we don't have time to fritter, okay? That's the point. You got to corral those seconds of time because the Lord's people have a mission to advance his interest in the earth and the days are evil so we don't have time to fritter. There's a lot to do. Finally, number four, 1 Peter chapter four.
Turn to 1 Peter chapter four. This one is a few more verses. I'll be reading verses 1 through 6. So turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 4. In 1 Peter chapter 4, Peter is arguing that unbelievers and believers live differently at the most fundamental level at the way they spend their time.
Okay, this is right on topic. 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, Arm yourselves also with the same mind, Christians, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.
In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who were dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. Peter is looking back on his unbelieving days, and he's exhorting his believing readers to look back on their unbelieving days, and he says, look at all the self-loving, self-serving that was done with those seconds of time. Look at all the lusts and personal appetites that were chased with those unbelieving seconds of time where we did the will of the Gentiles, where we were really conformed into the mold of the world.
The world had pressed us into its mold, and we were doing the will of the Gentiles. This is just worldliness, conformity to the world. And he says, enough. Okay, enough. We don't have seconds to spend that way anymore.
He says, we've spent enough of our past lifetime chasing our personal appetites. And the Lord's people can't afford to spend our lifetime that way. Brothers and sisters, now is the time to live for Jesus Christ. Today is the day to live for Jesus Christ, not tomorrow. J.C.
Ryle, my favorite commentator, says tomorrow is the devil's Day. That's so true. Tomorrow is the devil's day. The devil is happy for you to live for the Lord Jesus Christ tomorrow. And he'll tell you the same thing tomorrow.
Live for him tomorrow. Live for him tomorrow. Live for him tomorrow. When will we live for him? He died for us, he shed his blood for us.
When will we live for him? Tomorrow? No! Today. Tomorrow is the devil's day.
Today is the day to live for Jesus Christ, it's the only day to live for Jesus Christ. That was the first thing, the value of time. We will pick up speed. The second thing is the value of rest. The value of time and the value of rest have an interesting relationship.
God is very interested in the rest of his people, not only the industriousness, not only the industry, not only the productivity, not only the fruitfulness of his people, but he's also critically, vitally interested in the rest of his people. He's given us a day. It's the Lord's day. He's given us one commandment in ten which says that we are to observe and to keep holy a day. We observe it.
It means we give it its due. Don't steal from that day. Give it its due. Observe it. And we keep it holy.
That means it's God's. God has laid claim to that day. In Revelation 1 it's called the Lord's Day. If you don't think God has laid claim to a day in the New Testament era, then you just have to grapple with, well then what does that mean? Okay, so you say the Old Testament Sabbath has passed away, fine.
Then what did you do with the term the Lord's Day in the last book of the Bible? Okay, he still claims a day. If you think he hasn't laid claim to a day, then you have got to do something with that phrase. So one day in seven for restful worship. Okay, I'm summarizing a lot of things into a two-word phrase.
One day in seven set aside, made holy, set apart for God. And he said, here's the purpose of it, here's what it's set aside for, restful worship. You're supposed to rest and you're supposed to worship. Now this, our minds tell us, this makes us less industrious, right? Less productive, less fruitful, less game.
You can't set aside a seventh and have the same productivity, can you? Well, I want to consider two observations made by William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce lived until, I believe, the very late 1800s, and he was responsible for ending slavery across the British Empire. And here's what he observed, two quotes about William Wilberforce on the day of restful worship. He's making two points with these quotes, and they're vitally important to our topic.
Here's the first one. William Warberfore says, Blessed be God for the day of rest and religious occupations, wherein earthly things assume their true size and ambition is stunted." He's blessing God that God has given us a day for restful worship, to rest and to delight in God, to worship him. And he says it serves this great purpose, okay? It makes the world and the occupations of the world into their true size. If you don't have a day to have God enlarged, then you have a large world and occupations of the world.
Okay, but if you take a day and you look at God magnified, then the world shrinks. Okay, the things of the world take on their true proportions and ambition is stunted. That's a blessing. That is a blessing. Now here's his second quote and he's observing friends of his who he esteemed to have greater talents and gifts than his own, but he comes to the conclusion that he's able to outpace them to be more fruitful in the long haul because of the Lord's Day, okay?
Because he takes a day for restful worship to have the world put in its true size and to stunt his ambitions. So he looks at his friends who don't have this practice, and they never stop. It's go, go, go, go, go. No rest. And he says this about these friends who never rest, and he sees them breaking down.
William Wilberforce says, with peaceful Sundays, the strings would never have snapped as they did from over tension. Okay, did you get that? With peaceful Sundays, with Sundays of restful worship, the strings never would have snapped as they did from over-tension. He's seeing his friends snap. He says, they have greater gifts than me, But I can outpace them because of the Lord's Day.
He's using terminology about a bow, about a bow string. Here's what archers know about bow strings. You have to unstring it. You use it and then you unstring it. If you leave it strung where there's always tension on the string, then it'll snap.
Okay, now it's made to endure incredible tension, but it's not made for unbroken tension over the long haul. So you want your bow strings to last, you unstring it, you take the tension off, and then when you need it to bear the tension, it's ready to bear the tension. William Wilberforce is arguing that we should use the Lord's Day that way. It's one of the uses for the Lord's Day. It unstrings the bow, okay?
Your life is made to bear incredible tension. God has made us incredibly resilient, But it is not meant to bear unbroken tension over the long haul and God has given us a day to address how He's made us and wired us. It keeps us from the hamster wheel. Do you know what I mean by that? You've seen the fishbowl with the hamster wheel in it.
And the hamster is running, running, running, running, running, never making an inch of progress. Okay, life can be like that. The pressures of life, the requirements of life, the responsibilities of life can be just like the hamster wheel. Running, running, running, full of activity, not full of industry. There is a difference between activity and industry.
Okay, you can be very busy but not very fruitful. That's easy. That's easy to fill life, an unfruitful life with lots and lots of activity. And I would like to make this observation. Women are very susceptible to the hamster wheel.
Okay? They have a hard time getting their mind off of the requirements of life, the pressures of life, and they run, run, run, run, run, run, run. If they're not careful, if women aren't careful, they'll find themselves always running on the hamster wheel, never getting off. And you would think they would be more fruitful, but that's not the kind of life that's fruitful. Daughters, you're going to have to be careful about that.
Think about the hamster wheel. Always running, never getting anywhere. How discouraging, how exhausting, no progress. Daughters, let's try together to squeeze more out of the Lord's Day. More restful worship so that the rest of the week we're ready.
Okay, we're ready for action. A proper use of the Lord's Day makes you ready for action the other six days. Okay, use it well. Worship well, rest well, take your eyes off the world, put your eyes on God, let the world shrink, let God be magnified, and rest. Take the tension off the bowstring so that you're ready to bear the tension the other six days.
It will increase your joy and it will make you more productive. I'm arguing that a right use of the Lord's Day makes you more productive in the long haul. You can take out one seventh of your total time and devote it, as God says we should devote it and end up more productive. I think we'll find what Wilberforce says is true to be true. We'll outlast them, the ones who work all the time, who never get a rest.
We'll outlast them. We'll out fruit them. Okay, that was second. First was the value of time, second was the value of rest, third is the value of preparation. You don't go from unproductive to productive overnight.
So the life of a daughter should be the life of growing in productivity. And most of us, Me included, maybe me especially, aren't as productive as we know we should be. Okay, you're not going to go from what you are to productive overnight. I want to look at Proverbs 31, turn to Proverbs 31. You know we have to go there, It's a father-daughter retreat.
We must go to Proverbs 31, so let's do that right now. We've had whole sessions devoted to Proverbs 31, I don't think we have a whole session devoted to that this year, and so it's not going to get what it deserves, but I do want to read it and have us consider a few things about it. Proverbs 31, beginning in verse 10, about the virtuous wife, to the end of the chapter through 31. Proverbs 31, beginning in verse 10. Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her, so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands. She is like the merchant ships.
She brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night, provides food for her household and a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it. From her profits, she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms.
She perceives that her merchandise is good and her lamp does not go out by night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff and her hand holds the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with scarlet. She makes tapestry for herself.
Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies sashes for the merchants. Strength and honor are her clothing. She shall rejoice in the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her, many daughters have done well, but you excelled them all. Charm is deceitful, beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates. This diligent, pedal-to-the-metal, industrious life is learned. You know what pedal-to-the-metal means? The pedal is the gas pedal in a car. You press on it, you go fast.
The pedal is the floorboard, okay? All the way, so it's the gas pedal all the way to the floor, the pedal to the metal. Okay, the Proverbs 31 is a pedal to the metal lady. She knows how to put her foot on the gas pedal and go all the way to the floor. That's learned.
You're not going to go from you today to Proverbs 31 without growth and preparation. You should be growing. Growing to pedal to the metal. Growing to Proverbs 31. There are two things in view that I want to comment on in Proverbs 31.
There's her whole approach to life, okay? That's the first thing in view. The Proverb 31 woman's whole approach to life, up early to bed late, industriously working, here, there, everywhere. This is her approach to life. Who's the first one up?
She is. Who's the last one to bed? She is. Who's getting the most done? She is.
The second thing in view is her level of competence. She's so much more than just busy early till late. There are a lot of people busy early till late. There are not a lot of people who have the competencies of the Proverbs 31 woman. She's making garments, she's acquiring material, she's providing food, she's buying property, she's taking the profits and planning a vineyard, she's caring for the poor, she's running her household in a way that puts her husband at liberty to be in the gates.
This is one of the key things she's doing. She's putting her husband, by the way she runs her household, she's putting her husband at liberty to be in the gates leading the city and contending with adversaries. Only a man with a well-managed household run by an industrious, fruitful, productive wife is at liberty to go lead in the city gates, to go contend with enemies in the city gates. She has a husband and she's his secret weapon, okay? She's why he's as fruitful as he is.
She's why he's as industrious as he is, because she's industrious at home, and it puts him at liberty to go do that, and it's a blessing to the whole community. Okay, This is not the maid. Does that even need to be said about Proverbs 31? This is not the maid, this is the boss of the maids. Not the maid.
Verse 27 I think summarizes it all. She watches over the ways of the household. That's the summary of all of the other things that we see there. She's watching over the ways of the household. She's governing the ways of the household and does not eat the bread of idleness." That's verse 27, it's the perfect summary verse for the whole thing.
Watching over the ways of the household, she doesn't eat the bread of idleness because she doesn't have a second to give to idleness. She is the Apostle Paul's oico despotéo. Paul in 1 Timothy 5 speaks of who the church can support, widows that the church can support. So they have to be 60 or older and they have to fit certain qualifications or you shouldn't support them. A local church has obligations towards a widow who's 60 years or older and who fits a profile.
One of the key things in the profile is that she was an oiko despiteo. It's a Greek word, oiko, home. Despiteo is the root. We get our word despot. Despot is a dictator.
If you call a world leader a despot now, you've got to fight on your hands, because it means they have authoritarian control, not a democracy. A despot. If you have a despot, you're not in a democracy, dictator, authoritarian control. Home despot, a keeper of the home. Not like a maid, that's not a keeper of a home.
Like a home manager, that's how it's rendered in most good English translation, a manager of the home. A lot of responsibility and a lot of authority. It is delegated authority. She is her husband's helper, but he's not there most of the day, and so she's in authority. He's being productive in other ways, he's in the gates of the city, and she's at home being the despot, and she has too much responsibility and authority to be idle because she's sort of the chief operating officer in the home.
If you were gonna map this out as a modern-day corporation, you would say the husband is the CEO, he's the chief executive officer, and everything falls under his purview, but one of the people who reports to him, probably the most important person who reports to him, is the chief operating officer, meaning there are day-to-day operations and somebody has to own that and somebody has to manage that well and she's that, not the maid. Now many daughters here are at an age where being industrious is equal parts productivity and preparation. Okay, so you're young, you don't have your own household yet, but you still have an obligation to be industrious, to be fruitful, to be productive with your time. And in the life of a daughter, that looks like equal parts preparation for the future to be an oico despotéo. You get the picture.
You don't assume that role without preparation. Hello? Are you with me? You don't give somebody that role without a lot of preparation for that role. So you do need to be productive.
There does need to be tangible fruit from your time, so you should be productive, but you should also be prepared for the future. So there is a work ethic to acquire and to practice, and there are skills to acquire and practice, okay? So you have both of those things going, daughters. There's a work ethic to acquire and practice. The Proverbs 31 woman is up early, she's to bed late, and she's here, there, everywhere during the day.
You have to acquire that, you have to grow into that, And there are skills to acquire and to practice, because she's not just busy. She's incredibly competent. And you have to grow into being that competent. And daughters, you need to take both of those things seriously. You need to take acquiring the work ethic, okay?
Being able to put the pedal to the metal from early till late, that's acquired. Go acquire it. Take that seriously. Okay, you need to acquire the skills that you see in Proverbs 31. You have to grow into that, take that seriously.
When you put it in these terms, What the Bible says about not wasting time starts to make a lot of sense. Like, you start feeling like, I think I'm behind. I think I'm behind. There's a lot to be done here. Fathers, we and our wives need to help.
We and our wives need to help. Dads and moms need to give thought and to load up their daughters and their sons with meaningful work. You need to help them become industrious. If it's not meaningful work, you'll frustrate them to death. If you just leave the lowest level menial tasks to them, That's fine for your three-year-old, your four-year-old, your five-year-old, but when they start becoming more competent and all they get is menial, lowest-level stuff, you're going to exasperate and frustrate them.
We have a command not to do that. Okay, So you need to be growing them. You need to be giving them challenges. Husbands, we need to go and meet with our wives and figure out how we're going to load them up with meaningful work so that they can grow in both work ethic and in the skills that need to be acquired. Okay.
So first was the value of time. Second was the value of rest. Third was the value of preparation. Wow, I have more to say there, but I'm gonna move on. I might come back to it.
Fourth is the value of productivity. Make no mistake, all people are created for and called to productivity. Everyone who's ever been given a life by God is created for and called to productivity. Believers should have two texts of scripture firmly in their minds, okay? This is men, women, and children who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Get these firmly fixed in your mind. The first is Genesis 1 26 through 28. Genesis 1 verses 26 through 28 is known affectionately as the Dominion Mandate, and it's where God speaks to Adam and Eve and he says, fill the earth and subdue it. Be fruitful and multiply. Fill up the earth with worshippers and subdue the earth.
Bring it under your government. Govern the world on behalf of God. Now remember, Genesis 1, we learn in Genesis 3 that this is the time where God still walks with them in the garden in the cool of the day. We don't even have a frame of reference for that, but doesn't it sound wonderful? The day cools down, we're in the garden, God comes to walk with us.
I'm for that. So this is not some human autonomy, go do what you want with the world mandate. This is given during the time where they're still taking walks together in the garden in the cool of the day. God was always in the picture of this, okay? This was always mankind acting on behalf of God, acting as regents, as ambassadors of God, as governors in the earth for God and his ways.
This is about the spreading of the good government of God over the whole earth, okay? It's just that simple. So that's the first text we should have firmly in our mind, the Dominion Mandate, fill the earth and subdue it. The second is Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20 is affectionately known as the Great Commission.
Go into all the world, that should sound familiar, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all things that Jesus Christ commanded. This clarifies the Dominion Mandate and it brings into focus the Dominion Mandate. If you see them as two separate things, you're not seeing them rightly. The Great Commission is an extension, a clarification, a bringing into focus of the Dominion Mandate, and these two texts of Scripture require us to be industrious and productive. Do you got that?
Okay, these are marching orders for all people who have ever been born. The Dominion Mandate, the Great Commission, they require us to be industrious and productive, so everything in life has a relationship to this. You need to understand the relationship of the things you do in the seconds of time that you're spending, and their relationship to the dominion mandate, or you filling the earth and subduing it for King Jesus and with the Great Commission to go and take the gospel to the nations and disciple them, teach them to obey Jesus. It helps us to establish and see the connection to this. It helps you to get those things firmly in your mind so that you can see the relationship to your life and the spending of your time and what God has told you to do.
Once you understand the relationship and say, okay, I see the connection. Now there are going to be some things in your life you'll say, there's not a connection. That means get rid of them. But the things where you can establish the connection to what God has given his people to do, it motivates you. It helps you so much to have these things firmly fixed in your mind, as you say, okay, I am God's, I am bought with a price, and I'm here to do this, and I'm doing this.
Now, let's go further, faster. Okay, This is easily misunderstood. I think the Great Commission is easily misunderstood and translated in our brains to everyone should drop what they're doing and street preach. The Great Commission, like evangelism, like the nations are waiting. Drop what you're doing and go to a highly populated place and stand on a bucket and preach.
Okay, now that might be one application, But if we've reduced the Great Commission to that, help us. That is a tiny sliver of the Great Commission. Consider what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 is the chapter where he sends out his disciples for the first time on a preaching mission, okay? So this is a sending chapter.
The last verses of that chapter, Matthew chapter 10 verses 40 through 42, Jesus says, He who receives you, I'm sending you out, he who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward." Jesus is saying there's multiple places, there's places for multiple things in the Great Commission. The street preacher who's standing on a bucket in a highly populated place is only one of them. Somebody's gonna send him, somebody's gonna receive him, somebody's gonna provide for him, And they're going to work together.
I want you to see this in 3 John. So 3 John is right in front of Revelation. Turn there. 3 John. The only thing between 3 John and Revelation is Jude, and that's one page, okay?
So you've made it to Revelation, you're practically there. Third John, look at verses 5 through 8. John writes, Third John verse 5, 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." Okay, That's the key phrase, I think, that last phrase.
Fellow workers for the truth. So he's talking about co-laboring in the Great Commission. Okay, some sending, some going, some receiving, some providing, co-laborers in the Great Commission. Fellow workers for the truth. Now, so it's a partnership for the gospel going to the ends of the earth, but not just to the ends of the earth, we wanted to go to the street corner too.
We wanted to be established in our homes, established in our communities, established in our nation, established in our world, okay? And so that takes senders and goers and receivers and providers, and it's a partnership in the gospel. It's being fellow workers for the truth. Now think back to Proverbs 31 and what we saw there. Food preparation, making and acquiring clothes, making profit, investing the profit, caring for and managing the household.
Now who benefits from all that? Okay, the oico despotéo is doing that. The home despot is doing all that. Who benefits from that? Well, the household does, but not just the household in Proverbs 31, the poor benefit from that.
She stretches out her hands to the poor. The community benefits from that. Her husband's in the gates because he's at liberty to be in the gates. Her management of the home, her careful industrious management of the home sets him at liberty to go be a blessing in the community. They're being fellow workers for the truth.
Okay, you see how this fits together. You see how an industrious woman fits in that picture. Finally, on the value of productivity, work is worship. Don't ever forget that. Okay, work is worship.
Honest, diligent work is worship. It is serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says it couldn't be more clear, couldn't be more explicit in Colossians chapter 3 verses 23 and 24. Listen to what Paul says in Colossians chapter 3 verses 23 and 24, and whatever you do, okay, and all your work, all you're doing and whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ." Okay, your work is service to the Lord Christ in all you're doing. If it's honest and it's diligent, it's serving Him well.
Sometimes our work seems to be mundane. Daughters, I just want to look you in the eye and tell you that is not confined to the world of women. Mundane work is not confined to the world of women. I'm not even sure You've cornered the market on it. Every man in his work has mundane things and things that he hates to do.
And just like women do, he needs to learn how to do it anyway. Because not everything about a man's job. I'm in the best job I've ever had. I've had good jobs and now I'm in the best job I ever had and large portions of my day are spent on mundane things and things that I hate to do. Welcome to the life on planet earth where there are thorns and thistles associated with our work.
And there are going to be. There are things that will be wonderful, fulfilling, exciting about your work, and things that will be mundane and boring and that you hate to do about your work, and you should learn to serve the Lord in them. And that applies to the men and that applies to every daughter in the room. We're serving Christ with our work, Either serving him well or serving him poorly, but work is worship. What does your worship look like on the work days?
Okay, so one was the value of time, two was the value of rest, three was the value of preparation, four was the value of productivity, finally the value of a woman's productivity. We're culminating here. We're right here at the punch line of the joke. It's not a joke, but we're at the end. At the bottom line, the value of a woman's productivity.
In some ways, I can only think that it's more valuable than the work of men in some ways. How do I know? Because I've worked a long time. I had 19 years in a normal job. I liked the work, generally speaking, and they paid me more than they should have.
I was well compensated for the work. And for those 19 years, I can't tell you the number of days that I came home And I found that my wife had been teaching and shaping and encouraging and evangelizing my children. And I'm thinking, I sold circuit boards today. I sold electronics. I made it so the planet can have Xboxes.
Literally. There were times where the company I was working for was making Microsoft gaming consoles. This is my contribution to the plan of gaming. And I go home and Janet's looking tired, but I know what she's been working on, okay? Our children have been there and she's been teaching them and she's been shaping them and she's been encouraging them, she's been evangelizing them, she's been managing our household so that I could be out in the gates.
And I'm thinking, at what point do we get to switch? Just because I'm seeing the value, okay, I'm seeing the value of what she does with her seconds, and I'm thinking, I'm not sure my seconds stack up very well. Janet, for those of you who don't know Janet, is one of the most competent people I know. Okay, she could make a lot of money out there. Okay, she's got the skills, she's got the drive, and she spent seven years out there.
Okay, we would do things differently now. We see things that we didn't see then. She spent seven years in a professional career before we began having children. She came home and I'll just say this, for one of the most competent people I know, the workplace out there was not compelling enough to keep her out of our home. Okay, she didn't come home dragging her feet.
Okay, she skipped all the way home, knowing what she was coming home to. Out there wasn't compelling enough. In here was compelling enough. Daughters, arm yourself with that mind, okay? If you think out there is compelling enough to spend your life out there, you don't understand.
The world has used its pressures to press you into a mold that you have got to get out of. Okay, I've been out there, I've seen the women out there and what they're trading their lives for, and if you think that's compelling enough to spend your life that way, you're a fool. Women are indispensable. Indispensable means it can't be lost, like what they do, the thought of that being lost is unthinkable. What they do is so valuable in the world that that being lost is unthinkable to the Christian mind, it must be unthinkable to our minds.
They're indispensable. God has made households to be great commission outposts where we're fellow workers for the truth. We're either sending or going or receiving or providing for, usually a mix of all those through time. Okay? Our households are meant to be Great Commission outposts, and a wife is a central figure in that.
Women in the home are a central figure to that. Households are to be home bases for this co-laboring for the Great Commission, where the next generation is preached to and evangelized and hopefully discipled when God gives new birth, and sent, and co-laborers are received, and brothers and sisters, the field is white. It's white. Like our households have to be this and so women you have to be that, okay? Our households have to be this, Great Commission Outposts, so women you have to be that because they can't be that way unless you're there, working industriously.
Either the women do that or no one does it. That's why I say it's unthinkable that we would lose that. At the dome house, either Janet does it or no one does it. She can't be replaced in that role. Daughters, Please get this vision.
Please learn to think this way. The Bible paints this vision. I haven't made up anything, okay? This is all from the Word of God. Don't think this is second best, okay?
In talking about Janet, okay, I'm going to give you a metaphor, imperfect one. Like, she's a sports car. Like, she's really competent. She's high performance. Now, if you think her staying home to be an oico despotéo is like putting the sports car that's made to go 120 and corner like that.
If you think that that's like putting the sports car in a parking lot with a speed limit of 10 miles per hour. You just haven't seen it. That's what the world says. This is why the whole weekend is called not of the world because the world is going to say that and say that and say that. Get the sports cars out of the parking lot.
Like they're made for so much more. They're competent to do so much more. You've got these high performance sports cars and you just bring them into the parking lot. You just let them go 10 miles. No!
No! That is a lie! That's not true. You ask Janet if she can use what God has given her, okay? Oh boy, can she ever.
She needs every skill she has. She needs every second she has to make a great commission household hum. Okay, she needs it all. She needs to go 120. She needs to corner like that.
Okay, the sports car's getting a great workout being an Oiko Despotao. Two applications. I'm out of time, but two applications. Daughters. Okay, repent and believe the gospel.
All this is meaningless until you're new. Okay, You don't need to turn over a new leaf and try to do more. That's how the world does religion. I'm in trouble, I'm feeling bad, I need to turn over a new leaf, you know, Try harder, do better, think new thoughts. After you've been through that loop about 10 times, you know you can't get that to stick over the long term.
You need to be raised from the dead first. This only matters in the context of life, like spiritual life, life rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ. You must be born again, Jesus says in John chapter 3. Until you're there, the rest of this stuff couldn't be more irrelevant. Repent.
Don't trust yourself for a second. Only trust in Jesus, okay? You are a sinner, and you're probably a very respectable sinner, okay? Because we won't let you sin in all the ways that you have in your heart. We just won't let you do it in our homes.
It doesn't mean that you're not desperately in need for Jesus. Okay, you must know that. You must turn away from that. Trust Christ. Believe the gospel.
And then follow the Lord Jesus with all you have. Just know this, you're bought with a price. When he buys a daughter with his blood, he owns you. We should want to live every second for his glory, that he's known in the earth as great. So that's first.
Be saved, and then know that you're bought with a price. Once you're saved, you just live out of a deep well of thankfulness. Saved people. You know when the burden's been lifted. That's all I can say about the salvation experience.
You're free. You were a slave and you're free, And you're so happy that you want to live life to bring glory and fame to the one who set you free. Number two, get ready. Okay, Get ready, daughters. There's a lot to get ready for to be an oico despotéo, a home dictator, a home manager.
That's what it means. You're your husband's helper and man does he need the help. Get ready for that. Some of you have the gift of singleness. We probably have a few in the room maybe who have that gift from God.
There are ways to be incredibly industrious, fruitful, productive in the home if you have the gift of singleness. Most of you will be married. Get ready. Acquire the work ethic and acquire the skills you're going to need. Figure your behind, okay?
In both. In acquiring the work ethic, you've got to grow into Proverbs 31 schedule, up early to bed late. Figure your behind in acquiring that work ethic and act like it. You're probably behind in acquiring the skills. Look at the skill sets required in Proverbs 31.
You're probably behind. Get ready. Daughters, last thought, and we close in prayer. There's a compelling life waiting for you, okay? There's such a compelling life waiting for you.
I hope you can see the beauty of it. I can't. The compelling, beautiful life of the Christian woman. It's a life of gain, profit, industry, fruitfulness, productivity, following Jesus. And it looks nothing like the vision of the world.
You have to reject, comprehensively reject the vision of the world to have it. There's no dabbling between the two. You've got to chase one or the other, daughters. There's no dabbling between the two. The world wants to press you into a mold that's completely different than this, and if it's going to be this, the biblical vision which I say is compelling and which is worth any woman's life, you have to go for it.
You have to abandon this to go for that. Let's pray. God, I pray that you would give our daughters the boldness to abandon that and to go for the vision that your Word sets forth with all their hearts. Oh, Lord, give them grace. We love these daughters.
Help us to be faithful fathers to them. Help us to be so much more faithful fathers to them, and grant them grace, Lord. Put your hand upon them, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.