INTRODUCTION

This lesson should be profitable to every person in this audience.  the topic is womanhood.  The need for this lesson is seen in the headlines of the newspapers and from the screen on the television day by day.  We will look at woman as a daughter, wife, mother and christian.

Dealing with a woman as a daughter might be a waste of time if it were not for the fact that some are mothers that have children and daughters who will need the instruction which we will deal with in a short time.

In this audience we have ladies that are single and are in the unmarried state seeking companions.  These remarks then certainly will be applicable.  For those of us who will be teaching our children, grandchildren, these things need to be impressed upon our minds.

                                    WOMAN AS A DAUGHTER

The first thing I would notice is the instruction of the Apostle Paul to the brethren in Ephesus.

Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

Immediately we see the word children that word turns everyone off.  If you are above twelve years of age that applies to only those twelve and under.  If you are twelve and other that applies only to those six and under.  If you are six it doesn't matter to you to whom it applies.

However Paul is addressing those amenable to the law of Christ.  This means old enough to be responsible in their disposition of what he is saying.  Children

My Granddaddy had a pretty good rule of thumb he said if you stick your feet under my table and sleep under my roof then your going to take my orders.  That's fair enough.

The word is children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

Paul did not write obey your parents because they are always right.  No, no, parents are not always right.

Parents are many times wrong.  Parents are people that make mistakes.  Parents have the same difficulties, weaknesses, flaws, lack of knowledge, that characterize all people and any human being.  Parents aren't always right, no, no.  Paul is talking to children.

The apostle said obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.  That is the reason.

Did you know that we in America are on the verge of losing our freedom?  The reason we are losing freedom is because we do not know the price of freedom.  If we understand the price of freedom we are not willing to pay it.

Somebody says, preacher freedom is free.  Friend, if there is one lesson or thing that the human race needs to learn it is that freedom is not free.  Those unwilling to pay the price will not retain it for a long time.

Until we get back to doing right in America for no other reason that the fact that it is right we will go into oblivion as a civilization.  We cannot continue going the course in our present form of government it simply cannot be.

This fact does not take a solomon to know this, and I am not a prophet of doom.  I am very optimistic, this is a great time to live, but in our present course we cannot continue in our present form of government.

We are seeing changes take place today right now.  Somebody says, our freedom is being eroded away.  No erosion is contingent upon the incriminate weather.  Our freedoms are being bulldozed away not eroded.

Small well organized movements well financed lobbyist are destroying and deliberately undermining our freedoms.

The homosexual movement, women's liberation movement, education removing morality all this things are taking our country into a hedonistic civilization that cannot stand.

The feminist movement are saying there is no distinction in the basis of gender or sex.  This is destructive and no way can this profit a nation.  Woman is not equal with man anymore than a dromedary is equal to a pachyderm  No a camel is not a elephant.  They don't even look alike and they are not used the same way.  Listen to this illustration.

In the rodeo a cowboy comes out of the chute right behind a bellowing calf doing about 25 miles an hour, twirling a loop in the air.  The cowboy is not riding a Clydesdale ever notice that.  That horse is not 18 hands high with hoofs as big as a ten gallon hat.  This horse doesn't weigh 2,200 pounds.  The cowboy is riding a quarter horse.  Slender, agile, sleek this animal can move. A quarter horse is not equal to a Clydesdale.

A woman is not made like a man.  A woman is not equal to a man.  If this was the case this would be the biggest piece of folly that anyone had engaged.  Since God is responsible for womanhood we don't attribute to God folly.

It is dense on the part of humanity to suggest that woman is equal to man.  One is a male the other is a female.  This borders on the simplicity involved in the birds and the bee's.  It is not all maleness just to be a man.    God did not create man to become what he could in and of himself.  It is not all femaleness just to be a woman.  God did not create a woman to become what she could in and of herself. No, No, no, he created each for what each could become in their involvement one with the other in the legitimate relationship known as marriage.

You see there is the male and his female.  If they were equal the whole thing would be prosperous.  Did you notice I said man and woman are not equal, I am not talking about inferiority or I would deal with the man first.  We are talking about equality.

There has to be a distinction between male and female based on sexual gender or the human family would be extinct, that's the end of it.
 

Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.  We forgotten what's right.

We talk about equal rights, civil rights until we have no idea of the term rights.

A pretty good rule of thumb is your freedom ends where my nose begins and we will get along all right.  That's how this thing works.  Now we are somewhat communistic in our philosophy.

Somebody says well communism in its purest form is not so bad, no,no, no.  Communism in its modern form is one wishing to divide the pie into equal shares and then eat it all himself.  That's it, I don't want equal rights I want to control your life.

Civil rights?  Hogwash, we have forgotten the whole thing.

The greatest right or thing that a man can entertain is to forgo his right for the good of others.  Until we in America learn to do things that are right for the simple reason that it is right we are gone.  Unfortunately we are traveling rapidly toward the brink of oblivion as a civilization as we are know today.

Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is the right thing to do.

If I were talking only to young people instead of people seeking also to guide and instruct younger people I would point out the secret of success.  The way to live and to be happy.

I guess its good that a forty year old head is not on a 15 year old shoulder.  This would be a situation my granddad described in crude language like this.  Son, you have the world by the tail on a downhill pull.

It is clear that the secret to living is the simple amenities like common courtesy.  Thank you, no thank you.  Yes sir, concern for those about you, attention to older and giving heed to self discipline and direction.

Maturity is made manifest not in having what you want, but how to deal with disappointment.  Therein is shown the degree of maturity that can be analyzed in a very positive way.

AS youngster comes in after reaching the ripe old age of sixteen.  He has drivers license, a heavy date, and says dad, can I have the car.  Dad says no, how he deals with this determines maturity.  Far greater than the keys being tossed to him with 20 dollars.

Somebody says I don't want my children to have to do without things like I have had to.  Friend, if you are anything at all and what little you are worth likely it is because of what you did without than with what you possessed and used.  We learn maturity in disappointment.

Sometimes people enter into marriage saying they will live on love.  If they do then they are dead with the present philosophy and definition of love.

Sure love is powerful and nothing equal to love.  Yet if your idea of happiness in marriage is laughter, song, vacation, recreation, sunshine, then forget it.

You are drawn closer together and love becomes stronger more through the tears you shed together and the problems you share and bear together than in the things that promotes happiness as the world defines love and happiness.

A couple is closer when they need each other.  That is why you are married the two become one flesh no longer two but one.

Daughter obey your parents, keep yourself pure and virtuous.

We live in a society that laughs and scoffs at virtue and purity.  We live in a promiscuous society but this is not to change a thing in the world.

Somebody says. it is almost impossible to grow up as a young person today.  No, its the same process as it has always been.  Biological in nature and they will get over fool's hill despite the world, but they might be dead when they do.  That's very sad.

They can engage in those things which are permanently destructive.  However the only avenues that Satan can approach the human family is the same three from the beginning.

I John 2:15-17     Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man
                          love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that [is] in the world,
                          the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
                          but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that
                         doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The same antidote for sin is the one from the beginning only we have a superior quality through Christ we can overthrow the kingdom of darkness.  In our own lives we can establish Jesus Christ as Lord.  This will take a lot of doing, and we cannot listen to the populace generally and be successful in the doing of it.

Parents are concerned, normal parents that is.  Now we read more and more of ungodliness on part of parents, and people that themselves have no home environment, background, no training from God.  Now they have gone through adulthood and have no feeling of responsibility or obligation in a moral way at all.  But by in large parents are concerned with the moral purity of their offspring and that's the way it should be.

Today it is very difficult for a youngster to come into the adolescent years with new biological changes and experimentation that is so strong desiring them to leave purity.  This big old world seems brand new and unless they are instructed through parental love and instruction exemplified by their parents thus taught from a morality in the parents, its not likely they will remain pure, but it is vitally important.

Preacher, I know when you grew up prudish teaching taught you that sexual purity was important, yes, they had that idea, and people still have that idea.

The most profligate, pervert, ungodly person on earth still has this idea, they just don't live by it.  That's why suicide rates are rising.  That's why alcoholism is rising and increasing.  People still have that idea they just don't live by it, they just don't live by it.  It is still right.

The forces of liberalism, atheism are suggesting this in classrooms in higher halls of learning, if we can eradicate all these moral superstitious, religious thoughts we can remove guilt complexes and emotional problems./

Hold it, you are not a dog, you don't even bark you talk.  Have you ever noticed this, you put words together and make sentences, have you ever seen a dog do that?  No we are made in the image and likeness of God.

there is not a way under heaven that we can sin with impunity.  We will suffer the consequences and the punishment of our sins.  If there was no eternity but there is.  This is the way we are made.  We cannot scar your soul without suffering, there is just no way you  this can be done.

Somebody says, I will override this, I am going to live like I want to.  I am young, and I am going to do my own thing.

It can't be done.  Never has there been a mother going into the valley of death, bearing and bringing a child with a immortal soul into this world without a father, or a family name but that she will suffer the scars and consequences as long as the day that she lives.  That is just the way it is.  This is how it is arranged.

A person growing up in the Mid-West had a home that had a father  that made his sons carry a 16 penny nail down to the old gatepost and drive the nail up to the head.  Every wrong was disciplined and then a nail had to be driven into the gate with an old claw hammer.  On the day of his 21st birthday father called the boy to him.  Said son, you are a man of your own now, you will never have to drive another nail into the old gatepost.  I want you to do one more thing for me son. Closing out your formative and boyhood days,  go to the old corral gate post and pull out all the nails please.  In two hours the boy came back with a sad look on his face.  He said dad, I pulled all the nails out of the post, but it sure is scarred up.  It sure is.

You can be forgiven, the Lord wants you to be saved.  It doesn't matter who you are, from whence you may have come, with whom you may have ben associated, or whatever kind of ungodliness you may have been engaged in.

You are an immortal soul, there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, God loves you and wants you to be saved, but you are going to suffer.

Galatians 6:7-8  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that
                         shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
                        corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Keep yourself pure, physically and spiritually.  This is very important have you ever wondered why nearly half of the marriages in America are breaking up today?  Of course all of them are sinful, misunderstanding. misconception, lack of training, selfishness, lack of love, ect. ect. ect.  right on down the line.

But basically, we are seeing many young people entering into marriage and 80% of all teenagers that enter into marriage are pregnant when they marry.  Many young people enter into marriage having saved nothing for that relationship.  This becomes rather meaningless.  The of course when the diligent years come, and the man puts himself into his business and is gone long hours, way back in the depths of the mind the monster of suspicion begins to rear his ugly head.  Whereas if you had not thus engaged in premarital promiscuity, you would not have that suspicion. If you had saved yourself for the marriage relationship, if you had maintained your virtue then you wouldn't have that problem. This is destructive.  One of the rules of life that simply cannot be changed nor will not be altered.

Another thing young ladies need to be instructed in this fact, it ought not to be this way but it is.  The young man will go just as far as the young lady will let him.  It ought not to be that way, there is no double standard but that's the way it is.  Young man is is aggressor.  The lady is retiring and is the pursued, the guardian of her virtue.

Preacher, hold on, I don't like that, it doesn't change it, it doesn't change it.

Have you ever wondered why America has endured as long as she has.  Major principles having to do with the nation of Rome and other existing civilization prior to this one have just about gone to seed in America.  We are further down the road that Rome when she rotted and fell within.  Ever wonder why what maintains a nation?

Men can be knot headed, stubborn, wicked as the devil himself.  This is not good and God doesn't like it.  Once in a while one is salvaged,  through a good woman another is brought to a higher plane of recognition, acceptance of responsibility.

But let me tell you something.  When you corrupt the womanhood of a nation, it needs to go to hell that day and God sends it.
Lets get the facts straight, we are not living in a fantasy world, we are living in a very hard world.  The facts of life are just this simple, when the womanhood of a nation is corrupted it is totally completely corrupted.  This will not do for a nation to endure too much longer and God takes it out of existence.  Maybe even bashing in the heads of their little ones in the streets, ripping up their women, destroying their men and trampling that civilization into the ground.  This has polluted the land on which it lives and it cannot survive and continue, God will not allow it.

There are as we said small but well organized and financed powerfully politically influenced forces working for the disillusion
of the peace of mind that characterize our women, then you better raise your head and open your eyes.

The feminist movement is pushing lesbianism and many other.  Our nation promotes lesbians to high influential positions to press their agenda's.  No question about this.

Our women are being troubled and disrupted by the so called alternate lifestyle.  They seek to take away the womanhood that should characterize womanhood in every nation and used to characterize the womanhood of this nation up until recently.

When womanhood is corrupted a nation is dead.  This needs to die and in a hurry.  I hope that if the womanhood of America is ever corrupted to that degree, to a position that we cannot right ourselves,  to recover that we will not remember God, then I hope he drops atomic bombs just as frequently as they are needed to clean the whole place off and melt the surface of the ground.

If we endure then there are things a lot worse than death and that is the corruption of the human family.

We need to read and study some of the things God has said about his punishing corrupt mankind.

Daughters must be very careful in their selection of a companion and mate in marriage, please be very careful.

As a christian marry only a christian.

Preacher there are not that many available, I know the difficulties that are involved. and some that are available are um, um, uh, less desirable than others elsewhere.  I am aware of all this.  I know of the power of attentiveness, courtship and genuine love.  I am not condemning or being critical of anyone but I am saying Paul instructed something that is needed to be heard.

II Cor. 6:14    Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
                     righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

But preacher, that doesn't apply to marriage.

No, that doesn't apply to marriage exclusively, anymore that it means the peanut business, exclusively or any other business exclusively.  What it applies to is what it is talking to.

Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.

What portion does the believer have with a unbeliever.

II Cor. 6:14-18    Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
                          hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
                         with darkness?   And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part
                        hath he that believeth with an infidel?  And what agreement hath the temple
                        of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said,
                        I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall
                      be my people.  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,
                      saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing]; and I will receive you,
                    And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith
                   the Lord Almighty.

What portion has a believer with a non-believer?

Preacher, I still say that doesn't apply to marriage.  Well what does it apply to?

This applies to any relationship where a christian may enter in with a non-believer where undue pressure is brought to bear to cause the christian to renounce his faith in christ.

That is it exactly.  And when you show me one relationship in which one person exercises a greater influence over another than in the relationship of marriage I will agree with you it don't apply.  Until you do it does, so please don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Somebody says, why that's no problem at all.  Did you know that there is a 7-4 ration of christians that marry non-christians.

That is that for 7 christians that marry non-christians 4 leave the church never to return.  49 christians marry 49 non-christians  28 of them leave the church never to return.  21 remain faithful to the church but of the 21 that remain faithful of the 21, 12 are unable to convert their unbelieving companions to Christ, and are forced to live a religiously divided life as long as they live together in this world.  9 out of the 49 are successful.

Preacher, I don't believe those statistics, I know more people that have been successful converting unbelieving companions than the other way around.

Like on a farm the bay horses ate more than the whites. Bays have to be deep red you remember.  Well, why do they eat more than the whites?  More red horses.

You don't talk to the people gone, you talk to the few that continue in the faith.  28 are gone they never return.

The Old Testament taught this equally applicable.  Daughter be careful in your selection of a companion.

Remember that if you marry a non-christians Eph. 6:4  probably will never occur in your homes.

Eph. 6:4     And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture
                  and admonition of  the Lord.

                               WOMAN AS A WIFE
 

Wife, love your husband.   Preacher you didn't need to say that.

I repeat,  wives love your husband.

On occasion a couple is middle-aged, the children and family are good people.  The last child is in college, the others married and gone.  The couple comes into the office and it is soon revealed that this good lady, pure, virtuous, and upright, has been exposed to so much filth.  Everything today is advertised with nudity from soups to soap.  Immorality is used to illustrate, exemplify, advertise and display. This woman feels dirty and defiled and devalues womanhood.

The woman has seen so much impurity from television, newspaper, magazines even the lyrics of songs.  Prostitutes. sex, drugs, and other unGodly things are glorified.  These are written for this purpose.  Today we call evil, good, good evil,  bitter sweet, sweet bitter,  prostitutes are glorified, divorcee's are highly esteemed, virginity is made fun of, purity is mocked.

Did you know that in Alabama at a college campus that the girls are referred to openly and publicly as the worst terms for a prostitute or frigid, and they are talking to the girls in this way and this is a horrible condition prevailing in America.

This lady has seen and heard so much of this kind of filth that she is sorry she is a human being.  This lady feels filthy and is in dander of ruining her on marriage.
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Now let me tell you something.  Straighten up, breathe deep and sit still.  Sex is not something you do, sex is something you are.

God placed every drive and every propensity within the human frame.  God gave the legitimate relationship in which they find free uninhibited expression.

Hebrews 13:4  Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and
                         adulterers God will judge.
 

What do we have here?  Marriage and the free expression of the appetites and drives of the flesh.  Any other sexual contact, relationship, or activity will damn your soul;  We need to understand this.

In the arrangement of marriage it is absolutely necessary, it is holy, it is beautiful and essential to happiness, the peace of mind, the well being of the contracting parties.

Sometimes people even misunderstand what marriage is all about.  I am aware that procreation is a prime purpose designed for marriage.  The first purpose of marriage is found in the book of beginnings.

Genesis 2;18- And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will
                        make him an help meet for him.
 

Genesis 2:7      And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
                     into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Wives your first responsibility, I don't care if you become a mother, your first responsibility is to your husband and that is why you were made in the first place.

Anytime you transfer your affection from your husband to your children or to anyone or anything else you are making a fatal mistake.  Your marriage will be headed for trouble.

Your first obligation is to your husband.  No longer 2 but 1 flesh.

A couple stood before the altar and watched their last daughter rush down the aisle with her newly acquired groom.  Big ole tears running down her mother's cheeks and face.  Mom said there goes my last reason for living.  The husband was taken aback said, well you still have me.  Three months later they were divorced.  She had forgotten why she was made.  She was made as a companion for her husband.

I hear shallow, knot headed men, saying well, just me and the old lady sitting around the house.
Why don't you take a honeymoon, why don't you grab her up and take her out.

I am not rushing my children to grow up but if they grow up and make lives for their selves, I am going to kick my heels together and pick up Lisa if I can, because I have 5 feet and 6 inches of paradise.  The most wonderful person in the world.

We had a half a day when we got married the first time and that was the only time, never had a vacation, over a week-end, but Lord willing I'm going to take her on a honeymoon, but we have been on a honeymoon all this time.

That is marvelous and this is what marriage is all about.   Our children, wonderful, thank God for them, they mean more to us than maybe anything else  but She was made for me and I am hers.  We were made for each other.

We got married no longer 2 but 1 flesh.  Keep yourself to your husband companionship.

There is another design and purpose for marriage.

I Corinthians 7:2  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife,
                              and let every woman have her own husband.
 
What Paul is saying is that to avoid fornication marriage is one primary reason for marriage.

There is a very strong appetite and drive within the flesh and God provides this relationship unashamedly, free expression. This is vital to the welfare of both.  Not essential to the ongoing or happiness as such, but a part of the relationship in the bond of marriage of the male and his female. God has so ordained that it is not to be disrupted.  That's what life's all about.

Sometimes people get the idea well  I am a Christian with no need for this aspect.

No,  you don't quit eating because you are a christian. You are living in a physical world with a physical body that has certain physical needs.

The divine arrangement of marriage resulting in the home which is the basic unit of society antedates the church by several thousand years.

If you destroy the home, then friend you don't have anything.

Those who are in the church recognize the sanctity of the home and uphold the holiness of marriage.  If we don't then we aren't if the home is destroyed.  Then you don't have the church.  You may have a bunch of people playing church.  You may have a bunch of people thinking they are pleasing God.

The more brethren make arrangements for ungodliness in the relationship of marriage, the sicker it makes me.

We have people that teach baptism makes an adulterous marriage scriptural.  Friend, baptism won't even make thievery scriptural, you can't keep on stealing when you are baptized.  Baptism does not make sin good, baptism remits past sins of which you repent.

Acts 2:38       Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name
                       of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Wives love your husband.

If your husband is not a Christian let me give you some advice, no, let me give you what the scriptures say/

Quit nagging, let him alone,

Hey, preacher, wait a minute, my strongest desire is that my husband become a christian.  Well, then get out of his way, quite hindering him.
 

I don't hinder him,  I'm just..... Nagging, quit it you'll never win him or do the job that way.
 

What am I going to do throw up my hands? No just follow the scriptures.  Listen wives if your husband is not a christian listen closely.

I Peter 3:1-2    Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not
                        the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
                        While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
 

If your husband can't be won by the word, then don't nag but live properly before him

Be the best house keeper in the state.  Make him happy, be devoted sincerely to christ.  Out of your love for God your going to make him the best wife in this entire country.

One day that guy may wake up and ask, how is she so nice, why is she so kind and soft and loving.

When the man starts investigating he see's what Christ can do.

Rom. 12:1-2 I  beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present
                     your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
                    service.   And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
                  of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
 

   Wives you are to  prove the good and acceptable will of God.

Not quoting scriptures but by living what the Lord has instructed.

Give your body an active, living aggressive, moving..

Sacrifice I can't define that in this part of the century in America.
Holy not wholly but dedicated exclusively for the accomplishment of the will of God.

reasonable service not pressed or conformed in the image of the world.

Men are stubborn and nobody will knock a man to the cross he must be drawn by the power of example and teaching.

You can't be nagged into the church, or browbeaten in heaven.

Through love and example, Christ leads me to the cross, that is the power of the gospel and christianity.

This is the irrististable power that a wife has in her grasp to win her husband to the Lord.

Sure he has all the qualities.  Sure, he is a good man, maybe hasn't ben brought out yet but it is there.

How is it brought out with a slap or fist, no that brings out rebellion, demonstrate and show him what he needs to be by your behavior.

                       WOMAN AS A MOTHER

Somebody says preacher, we live in a hurry, scurry world all of us are in the job market and I just don't have time/..

No time for a family?  Then you will miss out on life, what a horrible thing, what a terrible thing.

It is sad that some are unable to have a family, but by in large many are making choices not to have a family.

This is a bad mistake.  If everyone made that decision  then in 1 generation there would be no people.

Those that make this decision let themselves be open for many problems.

Somebody says I would not bring a child into this world.  Same old world its always been.

Light reflecting from early spring foliage appears to be green, the mountains, spring waters all like they have always been.

No I mean the society situation, moral, problems and politics like they are today.  Then pick me out and put your finger on the point of time that was any better,

You don't want the responsibility and that is the plague and bane of our land today.

I am afraid of the pressure and influence of the world that will cause my child's soul to be lost.
 
What we need to do is train and give our child to the Lord like Hannah dedicated her son Samuel.

Preacher, that doesn't work, you can't do that!

Don't tell poor ole ignorant Hannah that poor misguided woman.  Hannah the wife of Elkanah that was barren had prayed to the Lord that he give her a son and that she would give him back to God.

When Hannah was worshipping at the tent of meeting in Shiloh, which was where God's people worshipped before Solomon built the temple at Jerusalem.

Hannah stood at the door of the meting house and prayed from her heart, not audibly her lips moved but she was speaking in her heart.  Eli the high priest thought she was drunk and reprimanded her.

She said, I'll have you know you old rascal, I am not drunk.  Sounds like a typical lady of today doesn't it?

No christian women and even Godly women of that day don't and didn't react that way.

Hannah told Eli, she had prayed for a son and if she received one she would dedicate and lend him to the Lord all the days he would live.  Eli said, God grant thee thy petition and sure enough she conceived and brought forth a son and called his name Samuel.

Hannah weaned the son, and they weaned them late in those days.  Samuel was brought by his mother to Eli and he was turned over to eli.  This young boy grew up and she continued clothing him every year, keeping up with his growth,

When Samuel was an old man in Israel before he died, not one man could lay one charge at the foot of Samuel.  Why?  He had a mother that dedicated him to the Lord.

How many mothers today are encouraging their sons to preach the gospel.  the greatest and most important work in the world..

Somebody says, well we have a lot of important areas that need to be filled.

When the elements melt with a fervent heat and the earth and all the works therein shall be burned up, the marble monuments of memorabilia will fade into the dust.  The gospel saves soul.  God is concerned with the salvation of immortal souls.

There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, eons after all this shall cease to be you will be somewhere in eternity.

Yeah, but gospel preaching doesn't have that much glamour to it,  You better believe it it's not a glamorous thing at all.

Well, two preacher, you don't make much money preaching.  Yeah the lord keeps you humble and the brethren keep you poor., sure.

You could go into another field and be outstanding making a name for yourself with great income and high position,  Yeah you sure could, but what about souls, what about  salvation and the work of the Lord on earth?  This is the only thing that counts.

Each person reaching their majority being normal will be in heaven or hell in a few days.

How many women in spiritual Israel, the church, do you know that are urging and praying for their sons to become preachers.

We like for our sons to have the glamour, big income, we don't want our sons to go through the problems that exist in churches.  the narrowness, the bigotry, division and ignorance and all the problems found in the church.

When I read the book of I Corinthians, I take heart.  Paul was dealing with, correcting some use, misuse or abuse or existing sin in practically every chapter.  That's people just like us.

In the second Epistle he said, you are all reprobates, you have had it and boom, pow, your all going to be lost.

No, he called them brethren.  He commended them for the corrections that had made.    Still there was many problems in
Corinth in the church there.  But they were growing and developing, coming alone.

The reason he wrote these epistles was to help them, teaching them.  Have you ever met anyone that gets to be perfect?  I never have met one yet, have you?

II Peter 1:5-11  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
                          And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
                         And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
                         For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be
                        barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
                       But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten
                      that he was purged from his old sins.   Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence
                     to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
                      For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
                     of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
 
How many people do you know that have developed all these to the point of absolute perfection?  They can't be added too anymore, its just a natural reaction.

We must go on all the time with diligence adding to our faith these divine attributes or qualities.  How does this go on?

Through teaching, through correcting mistakes, settling arguments, through setting brethren at one again, exercising discipline if need be with many tears for the good of the person exercised therein.

You see this is what its all about.  This is better than being a financier that never makes mistakes, and makes millions for his company, winds up with a big bank account, dies a miserable recluse or wretch goes to hell and his children destroy themselves over what he has left.  There is more misery and ungodliness to come.

So much better to work with people, attempt to solve problems, teaching the word of God.  That's peace of mind, that's peace of mind.

How many mothers really love their sons?  If they are loved we will want them to follow the Lord that's the only way to make it.  Richest people on earth is those that have the best this world has to offer and give, some don't have a dime but that's not the point.

Money is just a medium of exchange.  The money in your pocket just represents a service you have rendered and a service that will be rendered unto you for which you will pay .  Money is neither good or bad.

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 

I Timothy 6:10-12   For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they
                                have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
                                But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness,
                               faith, love, patience, meekness.   Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life,
                               whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Matthew 6:33   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be
                          added unto you.

God says you seek first his will and kingdom and his righteousness and I will throw in all these things in too boot, interpreted literally.  God knows what we need and he will supply our needs not greed.

faith transcends time everything of the senses taste, smell, hearing, touch, sight is going away its all temporary here, it will not last.

We need to encourage our children in the love of God.

                                WOMAN AS A CHRISTIAN

Honor the Lord.  That's a little nebulous preacher, what do you mean.  honor the Lord.

Matt. 26:6-13   Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
                          There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious
                          ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.  But when his
                         disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
                        For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.
                       When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman?
                      for she hath wrought a good work upon me.  For ye have the poor always
                    with you; but me ye have not always.  For in that she hath poured this ointment
                    on my body, she did it for my burial.  Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel
                   shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done,
                   be told for a memorial of her.
 
Jesus is here prior to his arrest and crucifixion Lazarus is there, Mary and Martha and they are in the house of Simon.  This is a feast before his death.

Mary took a cruse of pure nard or spikenard in a alabaster bottle.  Mary took this precious ointment and poured it on the Lord's head.

Judas the practical minded and stingy man that was not spiritual this was a messy waste.

Judas screamed, why the waste of this ointment it could have been sold for 300 shillings about 53 or 54 dollars which was more than a years wages for a common laborer of that day.  To Judas it was a waste and a mess to clean up.

Jesus said let her alone, she has done what she could.  This would be a memorial for her.  I just told you about her by this incident.  For nearly 2,000 years we still hear what she did.  What did she really do?

Mary expressed her love for the Lord. the best way she could with what she had.  This is how it works.  This is service, living in accord with God's will.  The question is not what would you do with millions if that were your lot, but what are you doing with that ten dollars you have?  This is service this is the way to honor the Lord, doing what you can with what you have.

Is there a grouch you know of in this community.  If there is, maybe in the morning just bake them the finest pie or buy the finest you can find.  Take this pie to the grouch with a smile.  What will he say, probably come in and maybe you can change there life.  It is not natural to be a grouch.

Somehow or other we build a shell of negativism and then we construct a complex and become bitter and grouchy.  All that is needed is for people to know we really care.

People commit suicide because of sinking to an unbelievable depth of despair, degradation, and ungodliness in the muck and mire of sin and immorality.  They can't take it anymore.

What they need is one person that sincerely, really cares, we have to have it.  Everyone needs someone to care.  That's what sustains us in life, that's what its all about.

Christians flavor this world with love and care, we are the salt of the earth.

Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
 

Christians make life palatable and worth living, we are the daily demonstration of the qualities that flavors life.  The world needs an enthusiastic, happy, optimistic example of Christian living.  Somebody that cares, that crosses the track, someone interested somebody that says hi, can I have you.

We must reach and help the poor and the downtrodden as Christians.  How do we do that. like , Dorcas, Tabitha

Acts 9:36-41  Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation
                        is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.
                        And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had
                        washed, they laid her in an upper chamber.  And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to
                       Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent  unto him two men,
                     desiring him that he would not delay to come to them.  Then Peter arose and went with
                      them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows
                       stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while
                       she was with them. But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning
                       him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
                      And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented
                      her alive.
 
All I know about Dorcas nearly 2,000 years ago is what she gave the poor.  I don't know how good a seamstress she was or the quality of her work.  I do know about the quality of her heart.  That's all that's really important.

Whether with little or much she had done what she could, not what she would have done if she could have done.

She did what she needed and could do little or much.  We need to open doors of opportunity and the Lord if he wants more will broaden our scope and give us more opportunities.

Woman was the first in the fall, she can be the first in righteousness.  Please use your influence  to strengthen the weak.  You can exercise your influence and destroy the strong but please use your influence to edify, strengthen and lift up the weak.
 

CONCLUSION

  Men and women must obey the Lord's commands.

                                              Believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, John 8:24
                                              Repent and turn from sin,  Acts 3:19
                                              Confess Christ with the mouth, Romans 10:10
                                              Be baptized for the remission of sins, Acts 2:38
                                              Live faithful unto death, Revelation 2:10
 
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