We're going to sing, we'll do several quests. We're just going to go, hold I, B on you, and just do the first and last.
So the first one's going to be a song, 133.
You don't have one, folks.
So we'll do the first and last.
Of course.
Alright, so if you know what I'm singing out, here we go.
Safe wherever I go,
East the world cannot know.
Since I've been in heaven my home,
I'm safe wherever I go.
Safe wherever I go,
East the world cannot know.
Since I've been in heaven my home,
I'm safe wherever I go.
Alright, does anybody have another request?
You can stink this time.
I was joking, this is probably going to be the quietest room in the world.
It should be.
You can read the 90's, it's going to teach you how to read.
You can't do like the deep voice, very good.
He's not here.
Alright, 319.
So I'm 319 in the first slide.
I'm going to try it here, if you know it.
Can you try and get this?
I don't know.
Can you start saying it all at first?
I am weak, but thou art strong.
Jesus, keep me from all wrong.
I'll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee
Just a closer walk with Thee
Let's say Jesus is my plea
Lately walking close to Thee
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be
When my feeble life is o'er
Time for me will be no more
Guide me gently, safely o'er
To Thy kingdom sure, to Thy shore
Just a closer walk with Thee
Let it, Jesus, is my plea
Lately walking close to Thee
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be
This is my Father's world
And to my listening ears
Oh, nature sings and round me rings
The music of the spheres
This is my Father's world
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees of skies and seas
His hand the wanders brought
This is my Father's world
Oh, let me therefore get
That though the wrong scenes are so strong
God is a ruler yet
This is my Father's world
The battle is not done
Jesus who died shall be satisfied
And earth and heaven be mine
How about one more?
One twenty-one.
One twenty-one?
Four twenty-one.
Four twenty-one?
No.
Really?
No.
Oh, I haven't gotten there yet.
No.
No, see.
Now with me.
You can't get away without me.
Not a day before Thanksgiving.
Hey, what about one twelve?
One twelve.
Sorry, no offense.
Is this a song?
Nice try there.
I appreciate where your head is.
Where's the next one?
One twelve.
Sorry.
One twelve.
Oh man, how does this start?
Alright, here we go.
One twelve.
Is it all my soul?
The Lord is on my side
Bear patiently
The cross of freedom
Pay me to my God
To order and provide
In every exchange
Be faithful, will remain
Be still, my soul
Thy best, my heavenly friend
Through thorny ways
Leads to a joyful end
Be still, my soul
The hour is face me God
When we shall be
Forever with the Lord
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone
Sorrow for God
Love's purest joys restore
Be still, my soul
When chains and tears are past
All safe and blessed
The day shall be at last
Alright, we're just going to get right into the sermon today.
We'll go ahead and open up with a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for a great group of ladies that have come out, Lord, to get away from the very important work that they do every day of their lives.
Lord, I pray you bless their time here and help them to go back refreshed and renewed.
And Lord, I pray you help me tonight to be an encouragement for your word.
And Lord, I pray that you would just bless this evening and the fellowship that we have over the next few days.
In Christ's name we pray, amen.
So I'm going to preach a sermon tonight, obviously, to the ladies.
I was told you've got to go preach this, but it's got to be to the ladies.
It's got to be a lady's sermon.
Mrs. Anderson told me that.
I said, well, the woman's going to tell me what to do.
I am preaching a lady's sermon.
This might be my last sermon.
But I keep this up much longer.
My last sermon is taken.
But I thought, you know, when I started thinking about it, there's so many ladies in scripture that we can talk about.
The Bible talks a lot about ladies and women.
And I want to just look at four particular ladies tonight, all by the name of Mary in the gospels there.
If you want to go over to Luke chapter number two, Luke chapter number two.
Tonight we just go through and look at several different examples of the Marys, the four Marys in scripture,
and just make application as we go tonight.
Of course, the first one is probably the one we all think of, Mary, the mother of our Lord, the Virgin Mary.
And what I want us to know, first of all, is that, you know, I think Mary serves a great picture of somebody who obviously was used mightily by God, but wasn't perfect.
You know, sorry to any Roman Catholics out here.
But, you know, she's not perfect.
But she did a lot of great things for God, obviously.
And what we can learn from this is that as ladies, you need to learn to serve despite your shortcomings.
Really, that goes for everybody.
You know, we all want to serve God, but, you know, we're going to have shortcomings in our lives.
We're not going to be perfect.
So we should learn to serve despite our shortcomings.
And, you know, Mary, I think, is a good example of this.
And, of course, you know, she had a very humble attitude.
You know, she wasn't perfect.
And I doubt there's any lady in here that would say, well, I'm perfect.
You know, brother, you're wrong.
This isn't going to, you know, I hope you got a better point coming up after this.
You know, when Mary was confronted and told, you know, by the angel that she was going to bring the Lord into the world
and said that she was highly favored and that the Lord is with thee,
she didn't say, well, duh, you know.
Yeah, it's about time somebody acknowledged my better attributes, you know.
I've been waiting. How long did it take?
You know, the Bible says that she was troubled at that same.
You know, she was a very humble woman.
But, you know, she wasn't perfect either.
And I think, you know, an example of this, and we won't, we're not trying to pick on her or fall for her.
She might take me aside when we get to heaven, grab me by the ear, you know, and give me a what for.
But remember the story when Jesus was twelve years old and they went to Jerusalem at the feast.
And, of course, as they're going back there, it says, verse 43, in Luke chapter 2 where you are,
When they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child of Jesus was carried behind in Jerusalem,
and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
But they, supposing him to have been in company, went the day's journey.
You know, whenever I've read that, I've kind of thought, did you just let the Lord back in Jerusalem?
You know, I mean, it's one thing kind of where, you know, where's my child at? Where do they go?
Maybe let them go play around or whatever.
But when you go a whole day's journey and you're not, and you've left the Lord behind,
you know, it just kind of shows you that maybe Mary was a little absent-minded.
You say, well, no, but you got a reason here.
It goes on, and they saw him among their ginspo and acquaintance, you know,
because they assumed that he'd been in the covenant.
And they found him not, and then they turned back again to Jerusalem.
So, you know, maybe that's not, you know, the best example of how she isn't perfect.
We know she isn't perfect.
And she did, you know, kind of forget here that lost track of the Lord, basically.
And look, she's a humble woman and she loves the Lord, but you know, she wasn't perfect.
And she, and no mother is.
You know, no mother is perfect.
Again, there's no lady in the room that's going to say, no, brother, I'm perfect.
I've got this mothering thing nailed down.
But here's the thing.
I think that sometimes a lot of ladies might look at other ladies and say, well, they have it all together.
They're perfect.
Or they don't have the problems that I have.
Or I wish I could be more like them.
And look, we know what, it is important that, you know, we learn that the ladies learn from one another.
And that's taught in the Bible and you should learn from other ladies.
But you know, you should compare yourself to other mothers.
You should compare yourself and say, she's better than this and she's better than that and wish I could be more like that.
Now it's good to learn from them and things like that.
But I think sometimes ladies have a tendency to kind of put themselves down a little bit saying, well, I don't mess up.
I'm not this.
The fact is, no mother is perfect.
You know, Mary wasn't perfect.
You know, no mother is perfect.
They all have shortcomings.
They all have faults.
They all have trials and troubles.
You know, the thing is that, you know, people don't broadcast those type of things.
And we might get an idea of, you know, a thing goes, somebody, you know, they're perfect in every way.
That's because they're not telling you all the struggles that these people do.
Now again, we should definitely learn from the other ladies.
If you want to go over to Luke chapter 8, the Bible commands that the women teach, that the teacher of good things,
that they teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be discreet, to chase keepers at home, good or obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
So there are some things that the elder women are to be teaching the younger women.
And we should definitely learn those things.
You know, the younger ladies should be learning those things from the older women.
And they should never get this attitude of, well, I'll never be able to do that.
They're always going to be so much better than me.
You know, maybe there are some areas that some ladies are better than others.
But you know what?
Everyone has their strengths.
Everyone has other areas that they can excel in.
We don't want to get into this habit of comparing ourselves among ourselves.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians that those that do so are not wise.
That if we compare ourselves among ourselves, we are not wise.
It's great to learn, but you shouldn't turn that into, you know, a source of, well, a feeling that you're not going to measure up.
Like, I'm never going to be able to be as good as them or excel in this area like they do.
Learn from them, but we all have our different strengths.
Because here's the thing.
We all start out in different places in the Christian life.
No one starts out in the same place in the Christian life.
You know, some ladies are going to come to the Lord later in life.
Some ladies, you know, there's a lot of young girls in here that are going to grow up in a Christian home.
They're going to have a head start that maybe a lot of ladies in this room don't have.
You know, they're going to be brought up in a Christian home.
They're going to be taught how to be keepers at home.
They're going to be taught and they're going to see an example of a lady who is, you know, submissive to her husband,
loves her family, loves her children, goes to church, loves the Lord, and serves the Lord.
You know, the girls in here, they're going to have that advantage.
But look, we didn't all have that.
Not every lady starts out with that in the Christian life.
And I think another good example of that is Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene, which is the next Mary we've got to look at.
And I think what you can learn from Mary Magdalene is you need to learn to serve despite where you start.
Serve despite where you start.
It doesn't matter where you start in the Christian life as long as you start.
Now, I'll read to you from Mark 16.
It says in verse 9, when Jesus was risen early in the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
So, you know, that's saying that, you know, Mary had a past.
I mean, she had a pretty obvious past.
When you're having seven devils cast out of you, you probably have a very good life leading up to that point.
Your life is probably full of trials and tribulations and struggles and just oppression.
I mean, you're possessed by seven devils. Life is very hard.
But that didn't stop Mary Magdalene.
She decided to start serving where she was, even though she had a past.
And quite frankly, a past that might have been very obvious to other people.
You know, she might, everyone says, oh, there goes Mary.
You know, she's got those seven devils, look out for her, right?
But here's the thing, we shouldn't let our past stop us.
You know, ladies need to learn to start to serve where they start.
And here's the thing, Mary wasn't the only one in that case.
You know, this is probably the truth for the majority of people, not just in this room,
but it just, you know, churches like ours that most people are coming to the Lord later in life.
If you look there in Luke chapter 8, verse 1 and 7,
So look, this isn't just a rare thing.
And, you know, that's not really, it's unfortunate, you know,
we've wished everybody started out in a Christian home, started off with life on the right foot,
but the, you know, looking at the silver lining, the bright side means that, you know,
churches like ours are reaching people, are reaching people where they are, no matter where they are.
And it's great to see people coming in that maybe they don't have all their spiritual ducks in a row,
maybe they're not just, you know, dialed in on their Christian life,
but that's a sign of a healthy and thriving church.
When you have people like that coming in and growing and doing what Mary did,
where they just decide, you know what, I'm going to start serving where I am, no matter what my past is.
It didn't stop them from serving the Lord.
If you look at verse 3, it says,
So this didn't stop these ladies from serving the Lord.
They didn't say, well, you know, if I was more like, you know, Mary, the mother of our Lord,
you know, I probably, you know, she started off on the right foot, I could probably be more for God.
You know, I'd be more inclined to try and serve the Lord if I had a life like hers.
That didn't stop these ladies.
They went on and just kept on serving God anyway, despite the, you know, the rough past that they might have had.
So the application is this, you know, don't write yourself off because of your past.
Don't write yourself off because you've made some mistakes earlier on in life.
You know, there's somebody we all know named the Apostle Paul.
And, you know, he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a jurious.
You know, he was a pretty wicked guy before he got saved.
But, you know, he said he was the cheapest of all sinners.
And I'll just read to you from 1 Timothy.
He said in verse 16 of 1 Timothy 1,
Paul is saying, look, the fact that I was, you know, a sinner, the fact that I was a jurious,
the fact that I was the cheapest of all sinners and God saved,
is a testimony of the fact that God needs to use somebody like that.
He's saying he was a pattern to them.
That's being you.
Them which thereafter should believe on you and act to life of everlasting, that's us.
He's saying you should look to the Apostle Paul as an example of somebody who served God despite his past.
And I mean, Paul had a pretty bad past.
I don't know if there's anyone in here that's going to say, well, I'm a persecutor and a jurious,
the cheapest of all sinners, but that's what Paul said he was.
And that didn't stop him. He went on and did probably, you know, the greatest works for God that anybody has done.
That's my opinion.
You know, so no matter what your past is, you can still go on and serve God.
In fact, Paul's saying that's the pattern that God shows us in scripture.
That's the pattern we saw with Paul.
That's the pattern we see with Mary Magdalene, somebody who decided to start serving despite where they started.
Maybe it was, you know, it wasn't the ideal upbringing.
Maybe it wasn't the ideal early life.
But praise God, you got saved.
That's where you started.
So serve where you started.
And don't count yourself out.
You know, on that point, too, don't count other people out.
You know, this is something that I, you know, I have been in ministry a couple of years now,
and I've seen this time and time again in, you know, multiple ministries where people,
it's like they start writing off other people.
They just say, well, you know, they get, they'll start even going to the place where they'll start plotting against other people
and trying to get them through.
They'll come to staff members and say, well, so-and-so said this and they said that,
and, you know, Matthew 18, and it's like, well, here's the real answer.
You need to grow up and get over it and get along and be nice and be civil and all that.
So don't count yourself out, but also don't count other people out.
You know, don't count out some other lady who maybe you know she has a rough past,
maybe she has made some mistakes.
You know, be a blessing to that person.
Reach out to that person.
Be an encouragement to them.
Don't look down your nose at people like that.
So serve the Lord where you started.
That's the example of Mary Magdalene.
And, you know, serve with the substance that you had.
It said there in Luke that they served on them, they ministered on them virtually of their substance.
They took what they had, and that's what they gave them.
They took the substance that they had at that point, you know, and they ministered on the Lord.
Then say, well, I'll serve God later, you know, when I have more time and I have more ability
and I have more knowledge and I have more whatever.
They served them with the substance that they had at that moment when Jesus was there.
That's what we need to learn.
Don't wait to be ready.
Just start where you are.
Serve despite where you started.
And why is that?
Because, you know, the Lord, he doesn't, the Lord doesn't bless, you know, your perfect past.
The Lord, what he blesses is faithfulness.
That's what God wants to see more than anything, I believe, out of people.
It's just people being faithful.
That's what he does.
And that's really what Mary Magdalene did.
You know, she just started serving God where she was, and she was faithful.
And she got a really big blessing.
If you want to go over to John chapter 20, to John chapter 20,
she got this blessing of being able to be the first person who saw the resurrected Lord because of her faithfulness.
You know, and she was there ministering unto the Lord.
She got saved.
She got those devils cast out.
And then she started ministering unto him with her substance.
She started, you know, where she was.
And she was faithful all the way through, even under the crucifixion.
It says in Matthew 20 side that many women were there, holding them far off,
which followed Jesus from Galilee ministering unto him,
among which was Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.
So she was one of these ladies that was there at the crucifixion.
She was faithful with the Lord, even up unto that point,
where even it seemed like everything had just fallen apart and the world was going to end.
But she stuck with it, and then even beyond that, you're there in John chapter 20, look at verse 1,
she was one of the first ones to go to the grave.
And it says in verse 1, the first of the way come with Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark.
I mean, she's one of the first ones there.
You would think, oh, surely it's the Apostle Peter.
It's John that's going to be there first.
They're the ones that want to go and anoint the body and have this time of mourning and all of that.
No, it was Mary Magdalene, a lady who just started serving wherever she was.
Despite her past, she just stayed faithful.
And here she is, getting up early when it's dark.
She's going under the sepulcher and she sees the stone taken away.
And then, of course, we know the story.
They go and she tells the other disciples, Peter, John, and Tom.
And it says in verse 10, then the disciples went away and entered their home.
So they show up and they're kind of like, huh, it's not here.
And they just went home.
But Mary Magdalene, it says there in verse 11, but Mary stood without the sepulcher, had the sepulcher weeping.
That wasn't enough for her.
And she's like, well, Peter and John don't have any answers. I guess I'll just go too.
She had her own burden. She had her own walk with the Lord.
And she just stood there at the sepulcher weeping.
And it goes on and says in verse 11, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked in the sepulcher
and seeth two angels and white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet,
where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they said unto her, woman, why weepest thou?
That she saith unto them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had said thus, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou?
Whom seekest thou?
She supposing him to be the gardener saith unto him,
Sir, if thou hath borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary.
She turned herself and saith unto him, Ramone I, which is to say, Master.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father to go to my brethren,
and say to them, I will say unto my Father, and to your Father.
So she, through her faithfulness, gives this huge blessing.
I mean, wouldn't you want to be, I mean, if that were me, I would probably, I would boast about that a little bit.
You know, Peter and John were there.
I mean, everyone's there, gathered, a few days later, Jesus shows up in the midst.
You know, he eats some fish and some honey, and one's like, wow, this is cool.
And Mary's like, I've been telling you.
That's what I'm saying, right?
That would have been, that's a pretty big blessing.
Now, how did Mary get that?
Did Jesus just draw her name out of a hat and say, oh, I guess I'll show myself to Mary first.
No, I believe he chose Mary.
He allowed that to happen because of the fact that she was somebody who just started wherever she was in life.
You know, she didn't have that ideal upbringing, but she stayed faithful.
She was there, and she's the only one that's showing up early in the dark weeping here,
and she sticks around even after the disciples go home.
And she gets this blessing through what?
Through faithfulness.
That's what the Lord's going to bless.
He's not going to bless our perfect past.
Now, it's great to have the great upbringing.
You know, we need to do that for our children.
At the very least, we should do that for our children.
But here's the thing.
God's going to bless anybody who's faithful despite what kind of past they might have.
Now, if you would, go over to Mark chapter 16.
Mark chapter 16.
This is interesting.
She gets to see this.
Now, she's faithful.
Mary Magdalene's faithful.
She gets this blessing.
And then Mark 16 verse 9 says,
Then when Jesus was risen early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom had cast out seven nettles.
And she went and told them that had been with them,
as they mourned and wept.
And they, when they heard that he was alive,
and had been seen of her,
leaped for joy, and said,
Oh, great, I'm glad Mary came and shared the good news.
No, it said they believed not.
They heard her, she came, and they just were like,
Whatever, Mary.
What, did you get possessed again?
They just didn't believe her.
They're doubting Mary.
There she goes again.
Oh, Mary, Mary.
But here's the application.
Look, it doesn't matter who believes you
when you've seen the Lord for yourself.
Do you think Mary walked out of there going,
Oh, they don't believe me.
Feeling all down about it?
She's like, you losers.
Bunch of suckers.
She's like, you're the one's missing out.
In fact, her faith, she just kept right on believing,
she kept right on rejoicing,
and she knew it was coming.
So, look, when you've been saved,
you've seen God work in your life,
does it really matter
what other people say?
And here's the thing, if you're gonna be faithful,
if you're gonna love the Lord, and you're gonna serve God,
you know, especially as a lady,
in this culture that we're living in,
you know, you're gonna have some haters.
You're gonna have some people that are just gonna
not gonna like the fact
that, you know, you have a multitude of children,
you know, that you're submissive to your husband,
that you are a homeschooler and a homemaker,
but that's not what the world's promoting out there.
You know, they look down on you.
They're gonna try and make you feel bad about them.
They're gonna try to pass it out.
They're gonna be like these disciples here.
They don't want to believe that.
That really shouldn't be
what, you know,
what affirms you in your Christian life,
what other worldly people say.
You know, it should just be the fact that
you love the Lord, and you're faithful to Him.
If you've been saved,
and you know what God has done in your life,
it shouldn't matter what you say.
You should just keep serving God.
Now, I want to wrap this up here by looking at
just two more Marys.
Go over to John, chapter 12.
John, chapter 12.
We're gonna look at
Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.
We looked at Mary, the mother of the Lord,
Mary, the mother of the Lord.
You know, very humble woman.
Not perfect, but, you know, humble,
used mightily of God.
You know, had kind of an ideal situation,
you know, so to speak, spiritually starting out
from a very young time in her life.
Then you had another Mary, somebody who
had a very rough time, but through her faithfulness,
you know, was blessed of the Lord,
and got to have a real special blessing
from the Lord when other people were missing out
just for the fact that she was faithful.
But now we're gonna look at Mary, the sister of Martha
And what we can learn from this is that you say,
well, how do I serve? This is great.
You know, you want me to be faithful, you want me to serve God.
Well, you know, you serve by, again,
you know, making a sacrifice of your, what, your substance.
Of making a sacrifice.
And if you look at
John, chapter 12 and verse 1,
it says, then Jesus, six days before
the Passover, came to Bethany
where Lazarus was
which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead.
There they made him a supper.
Hey, I can relate to that.
They made him a supper and Martha served.
But Lazarus is one of them that
sat at the table with him, so
it says in verse 3, then took Mary
a pound of ointment, a spiker, very
costly, and anointed the
feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet
with her hair, and the whole house
was filled with the odor of the ointment.
So she's making this sacrifice
of, what, of something that was very
costly. Now, you know, you might not
have some super expensive
bottle of perfume.
And you know what, the Lord's not here
for you to do this. But, you know,
you can sacrifice something that's very, you know,
precious, which is time.
You know, your time invested in your
family, your time invested
in your church, your time invested in
other people, you know, that's costly. We only
have so much time on this
earth. There's only so much time that we get
to do what we're going to do. And
it's real easy to just be selfish with that.
Just say, well, I'm just going to go live it up.
I'm just going to make my life about fun, and
adventure, and traveling, and doing all
these things, and care nothing for the
things of God, care nothing for
my family, and let everything just kind
of go to pot there. But look,
you serving your family, you
taking care of your family, you're fulfilling God's
role for your life, that's, that is a
sacrifice of what, your time,
your abilities, and so on.
And
here's the thing. Why is it that
she was willing to make this sacrifice?
You say, well, it's just the right thing to do. I mean, obviously
it's the Lord. If I don't do this,
you know, I'm going to look bad.
No, this, the reason why she did this
is because of the fact that she was grateful.
The context is that he's showing
up to their home
where Lazarus was, which had been
dead. This is her brother. I mean,
she's just so grateful for what the Lord has
done in her life, and raising her
brother from the dead, that she's
willing to make the sacrifice.
And you know, in our churches, we
you know, really, just through
Bible preaching, you know,
ladies are going to probably, if you're not,
if you haven't heard already, you're going to hear some things that
are pretty counter-cultural.
Be a keeper at home. You know, have
kids. You know, that might
cause you to bristle. You might be saying,
well, I don't know if that's for me. You know,
that, and again, it's a sacrifice, but
just consider this, consider how much God has done
for you. You know, we can apply this,
you know, obviously I'm making
it specific to ladies, but this
goes for all Christians. You know,
we should consider what God has
done for us. Say, well, I know I should serve,
you know, I'm supposed to serve God.
I'm supposed to fulfill my role
as a husband, as a wife, as a mother,
as a father, as a soul winner,
as a church. I'm supposed to do all these
things. I know the Bible has all these rules. I've
heard the preaching, but why should I?
Well, that's kind of a selfish
attitude. The reason why you should
do it, at least it should be, your motivation
should be because of the fact that you're grateful.
You should look at what God has done in your life
if it's, you know, you being saved,
other family members being saved,
all the great things that God has given us
and blessed us with,
you know, that should make us want to make a sacrifice.
Even if it's some, you know,
something that's very positive like this.
You know, some people would look at that and say,
man, you're not only anointing the Lord,
I mean, she's anointing his feet.
You know, that's not exactly where you put it,
isn't it? It's like here, here,
I saw my mom doing it,
right?
Those are the scent spots or whatever.
It's not the feet, unless I missed out on something,
I don't know, right?
But look, it's, you know, when it's the Lord,
it doesn't matter what he wants,
when he wants it, it's the Lord.
And we should be willing to give him
whatever he wants.
And we will, if what, if we're grateful.
So, you know, if you're struggling in that area
of saying, well, it's hard to be
what, you know, the Bible tells me to be
as a wife and mother. Maybe you just need
to mark it a minute and just think about, well,
what has God done for me?
You know, maybe you need to kind of spiritually
try to look across the table and find Lazarus
in your life and go, well, at least he did that for me.
That might make you a little bit more motivated
to just give God what he wants.
Go back to, uh, uh,
well, I gotta move along.
Let's just go over to Romans chapter 16,
Romans chapter 16.
You know what?
I'm sorry, we gotta go to the tent.
We gotta go to the tent.
We gotta go to Mary Magdalene and not, or excuse me,
Mary, the sister of Martha and King.
Go to this passage, this is what everyone thought.
I was probably going to the image.
You know, again, the most important thing is,
you know, we have all these relationships
in our life, but the most important one
is the Lord.
You know, you're not going to be a faithful
Mary Magdalene.
You're not going to get those blessings
if you don't make the Lord
the number one in your life.
If you just start going through the motions
as a mother, as a Christian,
you know, it's going to be a hard life.
It's going to be a long, hard life
if your motivation is just because I have to.
But if your motivation
is, I want to, the Lord has done so much
for me, and you make him the number
one relationship, you know,
that's when things are going to go well.
That's when you're going to get that blessing.
Luke 10, verse 38,
Martha was covered about
with much serving.
I feel you today.
I came to pass and said to him,
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister
hath left me to serve alone?
Bid him therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her,
Martha, Martha, thou art careful
and troubled about many things.
Now, was she doing that, things?
I mean, she's serving, she's trying to get the meal
together, she's trying to minister to the Lord.
I mean, she's covered about all these things,
but she's kind of rebuking her,
you know, lightly here and saying,
but one thing is equal, and Mary hath
chosen that good part which shall not be
taken away from her.
You know, the Lord was, what he really wants
is not just our service, he wants our attention,
he wants that relationship that we can have
through prayer, through reading,
his word, through
fellowshipping, you know, in the Spirit,
but that's a real unique
opportunity that we have as Christians.
You know, this isn't just something
that we do out of religious formalism
or something, we believe
that we have a relationship
with God Almighty.
That's a pretty powerful thing when you think about it.
That we can fellowship and
we can come boldly before the throne of grace
to find help and trouble and time and need.
I mean, we say we're the only ones,
we say, well, you know, Jesus said, I have a way
and truth and life, no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. You know, if we really believe
that, we would appreciate what a unique
opportunity we have
to just pray to the Lord,
read his word, and have that relationship.
And look, you've got to have that.
That has to be the most important thing
in your life, having that walk with God.
Because, you know, being covered about
all these other things, even good things,
those are the things that are going to wear us down
and we're going to throw up
our hands and say, why am I even doing this?
And we might even forget why.
The reason why we should be doing all those things
is because we love the Lord.
So, let's look at the last Mary.
We're going to go over to Romans chapter 16.
Now, this last Mary,
all I can call her is Mary of Rome.
That's all we really know of her.
Of course, the book of Romans was
written to the Romans, Paul's writing to
those in Rome. And it says in
Romans chapter 16, verse 3,
Read Priscilla and Aquila, my
helpers in Christ Jesus, who
have for my life laid down their necks
unto whom not only I give thanks, but also
all the churches of the Gentiles.
Likewise greet the church that is in her house.
Salute my well beloved
Epinitis, who is the first roots of Aquila,
unto Christ. Verse 6,
Greet Mary, who bestowed a much labor
on us. And that's all you hear about this
Mary. Then it goes on and says,
in verse 7, salute Andronikus and Junia,
my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners,
who are of note among the
apostles, who are also in Christ Jesus
before me. So, it's just
interesting that you have this Mary in verse 6
that you really don't know anything
about her other than the fact that she bestowed
much labor upon the Apostle
Paul. And she's kind of sandwiching
you between these two powerhouses
of the faith. I mean, we know about
Priscilla and Aquila. We read the book of Acts
and all the great things that they did.
You know, this Andronikus and Junia,
his kinsmen, his fellow prisoners, who are
of note among the apostles. I mean,
these are kind of the big names, right? These are people
that were well known. And he's
kind of pointing out, also don't forget Mary.
And I just, I like
this Mary because I think this is pretty
relatable. Especially, you know,
maybe we're not going to be the ones getting up and
doing your preaching. We're not going to be the ones
that have the spotlight on us and have our
names mentioned. And
I guess you have coloring books made of us
now.
Right? We're not going to be the famous
ones, right? We're not going to be
the Priscillas. We're not going to be the Aquilas.
We're not going to be the note among the apostles.
You know? But we can all be the
Marys. We can be Marys if
we're willing to kind of just have that
position and do
what it took for Mary to get that
nod from the apostle
of Paul. To kind of get that
shout out, right? He didn't just say
greet Mary, period. He said
great Mary who bestowed much labor
upon us.
So, that's what got her that
shout out. Even among these others,
you know, giants, quote, unquote, the faith
of Paul's day. It's the fact that she
brought much labor on
us. So, she ministered
to, who? Paul. Now, look,
all the other Marys we talk about up to this
point are people, are Marys
that were there with the Lord when he was
on the earth. They were ministering directly to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously,
we can't do that today. Today,
we minister unto one
another. We minister unto the church.
We minister unto, you know, Mary ministered
unto the man of God. She ministered
unto Paul. We might
not serve as any
of these other Marys,
but we'll serve as the Mary of Rome
if what? If we serve by faith.
You know, we have to learn to serve
by faith. That's, you
know, what's going to keep you in it. You know,
I was talking about how we can have this
unique relationship. You know, we can be
like Mary who was sat at the
feet of Jesus and just,
you know, took in his word, listened to what he
had to say, had that relationship. But
look, that comes by faith.
It'd be pretty easy if the Lord just showed
up. I mean, we'd all, we could all just,
yeah, we can have that relationship. He's right there.
But that's not the case today.
We have to be like this Mary, who
after Christ is gone, after
he's resurrected, after he's ascended into
heaven, we have to believe that we're
laboring to him by faith.
And we do that by serving
one another. Go over to, uh,
go over to, uh,
Hebrews chapter 13.
We have to learn to serve by faith if we're
going to serve the Lord.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 1,
whom having not seen
ye loved, whom having not seen
ye loved, though now you see
him not yet believing
you rejoice with joy and speak full
and full of glory. I mean, if we
really believe the things that,
you know, we preach and teach and we
read the word of God, we
would love the Lord and we rejoice
by faith.
We serve him by serving
his people. The Bible says
in Galatians 5 that we should by love
serve one another. Hebrews
chapter 13, verse 15.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks unto his name.
So that's one way to serve God, isn't it?
We were just doing that through the
singing before the sermon tonight.
You know, we were offering sacrifices
unto his name. We were praising
God. We were giving thanks. We can do
that in prayer, but you know, that's not the only
way we serve God. Look at verse 16.
But to do good and to communicate, forget
not. You know, there's actions that we
have to take, too, if we're going to serve
the Lord today. By faith,
we have to learn to do good and to communicate
and forget not
to communicate. You know, we should be
ministering of our substance, giving of our time,
serving where we can,
and again, you know,
ladies, a lot of times, they might be discouraged
thinking, well, I can't really serve God because
I'm at home with the kids.
But that is the role of God. That is
serving God.
That is one of the most important things you could do
is serve the Lord. You know, I was
thinking, I was preaching another sermon recently
about Timothy, what a great
man of God Timothy was.
And when Paul finds Timothy, he was of note
among the brethren. You know, he found
him that way. Paul didn't make him that way.
Now, obviously, he took him under his wing and
taught how to, you know, start churches and all that.
But he took Timothy with him
because he was of reputation
among the brethren at that point.
But who got him there? Well, it was his
mother and his grandmother.
You know, it was his mother, Lois, and
Gunissi. They were the ones that
taught him the word of God and
taught him the scriptures that were, you know,
that he knew of a child that were able to
make him wise in his salvation.
You know, so don't ever think that, well, me
just staying at home and raising the kids
and keeping house, I can't
serve God. That is serving God.
That is the exact role God has called you to.
So do that well, you know,
and that's how you're going to minister unto the Lord today.
But you know what? You have to do that by faith, don't you?
You have to believe that. You have to
believe that that is serving God.
Now, the world's not going to tell you that.
The world's not going to say, oh, yeah, that's
what serving God is.
But you know what? You'll believe that by faith
when what? When you sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary.
When you sit there and you have that
relationship, then you'll get up and you'll serve and say
this is what God has called me to do.
You do that by faith.
Now, if you go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4, go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4, and we'll end there.
Here's the thing, you know,
ladies are kind of probably just
honestly
by the world, even by
in our circles for the most part,
it's kind of a
go unnoticed.
You might feel like that.
Obviously, ladies know one another
and things like that.
Again, like this Mary of Rome,
you're not going to be of note among the
apostles. You're not going to be
these great giants
of the faith. But here's the thing,
if you serve God by
faith, there is going to come a day
when you are going to get that
acknowledgement. The Bible says that the last
shall be first and the first shall be last.
And I believe this. I believe there's going to be probably
a lot of godly wives and
mothers that are way ahead
when it comes to rewards, even
of a lot of men of God.
Even of a lot of pastors, through just
their faithfulness and just loving
the Lord, having that relationship.
Go back to Mary Magdalene.
I mean, she was just a lady
who had a rough start, had seven devils cast
out of her, but she's the one that got to see Jesus
first. And the other, you know, the apostles,
you would think that would be his number one
priority of the event. You know, she
might not have been of note during
Jesus' ministry, but she got that blessing.
And look, a lot of ladies here,
you might not have the world praise you, lift
you up and acknowledge you.
You might go unnoticed.
But here's the thing, there's coming a day when
God will
reward every man according to his
works. Look there in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 5.
Therefore, judge nothing before
the time until the Lord come,
who shall bring both to light the hidden
things of darkness, and will make
manifest the counsel
of the hearts. And then shall
every man have praise of God.
So this isn't, you know, entirely negative
verse. Obviously, you know, when he's
going to bring to light the
hidden things of darkness, he's going to expose
wickedness. But he's also going to make
manifest the counsels of the heart.
And then shall every man have praise
of God. You know, God is going to exalt some
people. God's probably, you know, I
believe going to exalt a lot of godly
ladies on that day. There's going to be a lot of
ladies, but you know what? You have to
believe that by faith. I can get up and say
it. You know, I can get up and preach it
and you can even read it in the Bible for yourself.
But you have to have
that relationship with God
and you have to be in his word, you have to be
at his feet, you have to be praying, and you
have to believe that by faith.
And if you can do that, you know, you're going to be
like this Mary of Rome, who is going
to get, you know, get the nod one day, right?
But you've got to believe that by faith.
So, I hope that was an encouragement to you.
You know, these are just four ladies.
There's a lot of other ones we can look at in
Scripture and learn a lot of things from.
But we should learn that, what?
That not every, none of us is perfect.
You know, even if we think somebody
else is perfect, they're not.
We should definitely learn from everybody we can.
We should never, you know,
compare ourselves to other people
to make ourselves do what happens.
You know, we should learn to be like Mary Magdalene.
Just start where you are.
No matter what your past is, just be faithful.
God's going to bless that faithfulness.
And one day, you know,
you will have, you know, rejoicing
in that, in the presence of God.
Let's go ahead and pray.