Notes from tonight's teaching

Project 31 Notes – SoS 4:12 – 5:1a
"You are a garden locked up, my sister, my Bride: you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.
You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water steaming down from Lebanon." Vs 12-15

1) You are a Garden…(what you should be)
a. Becoming a garden- as women, single or married, we should be gardens: full of life, beauty, variety, and wealth. The garden described here is full of all those things.
i. Full of fruit (vs 13)
1. Gal 5:22 "but the fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Let God develop your character – RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
2. Picture of life and abundance
ii. Full of incense and spices (vs 14)
1. Rev 5:8b "Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayer of the saints." Is your prayer life rich and fragrant?
2. Picture of riches – had many uses, perfume, cooking, healing, etc. (saffron – cooking, still one of the most expensive spices. Aloe – healing) The woman pictured here is not ordinary – has something that sets her apart.
3. They have intrinsic value – they can be trusted

2) Locked up –Walls and gates…(protection and covering)
a. High walls – imagine the garden from "A Secret Garden" walls all around
i. Chastity – definition: 1) the quality or state of being chaste: a – abstention from unlawful sexual intercourse. C- Purity in conduct and intention. D- Restraint and simplicity in design or expression. 2) personal integrity
It is bigger than just "not having sex", it is a heart attitude of wanting to be pure in all things. Sex is not just vaginal penetration…it is anything cause arousal and leads to climax…whether alone or with another person. Our desire to be pure starts with the Holy Spirit working on the inside first. We must allow him to make us clean and let our continuing relationship with him be where we change and grow. It is only when we start here that the next two points can be real walls…
ii. Propriety- definition: 3: the quality or state of being proper.
More than just out dated rules of society and class, propriety is doing what is right, because it is right. Not hard and fast rules, but wisdom. In a dating and pre-dating relationship "don't be too available". How you speak, how you joke, how you sit, how you treat the opposite sex, are all areas that you need propriety in.—Like manners, propriety is about respect and remembering that you try always to honor and never to cause the other person 'discomfort'.
iii. Modesty – Definition: 1) freedom from conceit or vanity. 2) propriety in dress, speech or conduct .
Dress in a way that flatters not flaunts. 1 Peter 3: 3-4 "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
b. Gates – Biblical picture of Authority
i. Rom 13: 1 "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."
Who are the authorities that God has put into your life? 1) parents; 2) Church leaders; 3) mentors.
The people (dating relationships or just friends in general) in our lives should go thru the gates. John 10:1-2 "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the date, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep." Anyone that pulls you way from family, friends, and authority (gates) should cause you to worry – RED FLAG- "don't let people climb your walls"

3) Spring enclosed, a sealed fountain/ Garden fountain, a well of water streaming down from Lebanon…(what comes out of you)
a. Water! Water was life to desert people w/o it nothing would grow, animals and people would die, they could not clean, or cook. They did not have pipes and faucets to bring water to them, they had to go to the water, in rivers or wells, or wait for rain. A garden spring would have been real wealth. John 4:10 "Jesus answered her, 'if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.'" 4:14b "indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 'Living water' was idiomatic for water that flows … as in a river … and is therefore clean and safe for use. An active relationship with Jesus and a flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the picture of living water (also John 7: 37-39)
b. Jer 2:13 "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." Cisterns are like big clay pots that were put in the ground to hold water. The water in them would not be fresh, it would have stagnant, and would have needed to be refilled constantly. Is that you? Are you always needing to have other people pour into you? Or can you access the Holy Spirit thru the word and worship for yourself?
c. Gen 26: 12-33 Isaac and his servants dig wells, and when they are fought over, they dig new wells until they have peace. Now, while you are single, it is important to be able to "fill/dig your own wells". It will continue to be important when you marry. There will be times when your husband will not be able to give you what you need. Also, you and your husband are going to be responsible for your children's spiritual education. Duet 6: 6-7, Matt 28: 19-20. You are going to need to be able have fresh water for them.

"Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits." Vs 16

4) Awake North Wind…(how to pray)
a. Beautiful picture of inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives – not only to fill us, but also of allowing him to be the one that brings attention to us. Ladies, you should not be chasing after guys, but rather we should allow the Holy Spirit to spread our fragrance abroad. (You might add that a girl's character, personality, and especially relationship with God are like perfume…that is what should and will attract the right kind of guy.) Goes back to modesty…

"I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk." Ch 5:1

5) I have eaten my honeycomb…(after marriage picture)
a. When the lover talks about coming into the garden, he says "my garden", "my honeycomb" etc. When we get married we are no longer our own. (Corin 7:4)
b. The items listed are indirect products of her garden: Honey comes from bees that fed on the flowers, Milk from a cow that could have been fed in the garden, Wine from the fruit of the garden. Not only is the garden beautiful, it is productive, and the beloved is industrious. Prov 31, Matt 25 14:28

It is important to be a whole person, someone secure, whose life brings something valuable to relationships…and doesn't just hope that "having a guy" will make you feel worth while.