A Woman's Place

First, let me say Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. But let us keep in mind and in our prayers, that due to COVID, there are many who for the first time will not have their earthly mother and it will be hard but remember her love and care and know that she is still loving you from where she is.

Women hold a special place in our society, they have a unique ability that has only been given to them. The ability to birth children, while men possess the seed, the process takes both a man and a woman to be complete, and it takes the woman to carry, nurture and birth the child.

I must say though, it’s not necessarily the birthing of a baby that makes a woman a mother, for there are many women who have birth children yet are not mothers. On the other hand, there are women who have never birthed a child, and they are a mother, sometimes to numerous children. I heard for the first time just the other day, there are now Mother’s Day cards for bonus moms.

This message today is for the women, but men you should also take note.

Acts 2:16 - 18 NLT - 16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike— and they will prophesy.

The title of today’s message is, “A Woman’s Place”.

There are many who will attempt to tell a woman what she should do, where she should go, and what she should aspire to. There are also those who would attempt to tell a woman what she can’t do, where she can’t go and what she shouldn’t pursue.

The text from Acts is a portion of Peter’s sermon to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, the beginning of the church as we know it today. When he began preaching, all the people who were present understood in their own language. They were from a lot of different places and spoke different languages, but through God’s miraculous power they all heard in their language. God will speak your language, so you can clearly understand what it is he wants you to do. That is if you want to listen.

It’s important to note, that while it was Peter’s sermon that was recorded, he was not the only one speaking. The other apostles were also preaching and there were a total of 120 men and women who had gathered in that upper room before the ascension of Jesus.

When the apostles began to preach, the people thought they were drunk but Peter set the record straight, they were not drunk it was 9:00 in the morning and Peter begins his message with a quote from Joel 2:28-29.

When Peter says in the last days, he’s speaking of the days of the Messiah and the method by which God carries out his purposes towards his people.

Peter continues saying, “God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” There’s no regard for sex, age, rank or race. He continues, “In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy.”

We must remember this is a quote from the Old Testament book of Joel. God had his daughters in mind even then. Ladies and gentlemen, women were always a part of the plan.

So what is a woman’s place? Well, if we look at the fourth chapter of Ephesians beginning at the 7th verse, we’ll see these words, “7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. verses 8-10 speaks of the Christ the gifts came from, then we pick up at verse 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

Christ gave the gifts to the church, the whole church. He didn’t specify an age, a gender, a race, or a status. You don’t have to be rich, or have a degree, or live in a certain place or drive a certain car. Ministry is not tied to who we are or where we come from, it’s merely how available we are for God’s use.

So what is a woman’s place? Let’s look at some examples from the Word of God. Because of the customs, the region and the lack of status given to women during the time the Bible was written, there are many who belief that women were inconsequential, but let me tell you about a few and what we can learn from each one.

We can learn from everyone, sometimes we learn what to do as well as what not to do.

Let’s begin at the beginning with Eve.

1. Eve - whose name means the mother of all living. What she taught us is, the importance of trusting God.When we fail to trust God, we open ourselves up to the tricks of the enemy whose only desire is to kill, to steal and to destroy us. He wants to make you believe that God is holding out on you, that there’s something he’s not telling you. When in fact, God only wants the best for you. So, trust God, love him with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your body, with all your soul, and with all your strength and know that he’s working all things for your good.

2. Sarah - the wife of Abraham, taught us the importance of waiting on God. She also showed us that sometimes when God speaks, while we may laugh in disbelief, God is still faithful. It was believed to be a curse if a woman was unable to bear children. Others, especially women would be cruel to those who could not have children, but there are many instances we see in the word where women prayed for or God promised a child.

In Sarah’s case God promised her husband, Abraham, a son and she would be the vessel through which that promise was fulfilled. Sarah got impatient and took matters into her own hands and quite frankly, created a mess, but God was still faithful to fulfill his promise. Saints, isn’t wonderful to know that God’s promises are not always contingent upon our behavior. Despite Sarah’s plan, God gave her a son at the age of 90.

3. Rachel taught us patience. When her father tricked the love of her life into marrying her sister, she waited. The story is often told from the vantage point of Jacob and how he worked 14 years to get the woman he loved. But never have I heard it told from the vantage point of the woman who waited 14 years for the man she loved.

Even after she married Jacob, she was unable to have children at first, then she finally birthed Joseph who through God’s strength would be the one to save all of Israel. Then she birthed Benjamin, and that experience shows us how dangerous childbirth can be, because she died during that birth and unfortunately women are still dying today from complications in childbirth.

4. Miriam — Miriam was Moses’s big sister. Miriam teaches us to be resourceful. It was Miriam who stood by the bank of the river to ensure her baby brother was safe and at the right time showed up to offer assistance to the king’s daughter, bringing her brother back home to her mother to take care of him for the princess.

Not only was Miriam resourceful, she was a prophetess, a leader and a songstress. We see in Ex. 15:20–21 “Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.” She sang this song after the Red Sea miracle.

5. Deborah — Deborah taught us that sometimes we need to be aggressive.

There are times women are labeled as being too aggressive, but what we learn from Deborah—the only female judge mentioned in the Bible— is sometimes the situation calls for aggression.

Deborah is known for being a compassionate leader and there weren't many in Biblical times. At the same time, she aggressively pulled on the moral bridle of Israel to return to worship of the one true God, and ruthlessly purified the nation of those evil actors who were interested in keeping Israel spiritually complacent and under slavery to the Canaanites.

To get to where you need to be, sometimes you have to cut some people off and out of your life and the life of those around you if you’ve been given authority over them. We watch who our children become friends with because they could lead them down the wrong path.

Deborah was judge to the nation of Israel and she was responsible for teaching, preaching and sometimes leading the people to war against those who opposed the one true God. She was a judge who told the people what thus sayeth the Lord and then led them in the direction they needed to go.

Ladies if you’ve been called to lead—lead.

6. Ruth, one of two women who has a book of the Bible named for them, taught us loyalty.

Ruth was a Moabite woman who after she was widowed at a young age, rather than going back with her own people who were an idolatrous nation, she chose to go with her mother—in—law who was also a widow.

She gave up the ways of her people and professed Naomi’s God. When Naomi tried to get Ruth to go back to her own people she replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God”.

They didn’t know how they would eat, where they would live or who would take care of them, but they went believing God would provide. And he did. Ruth married Boaz and had Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David.

7. Then we have Hannah, shetaught us how to earnestly pray.

• Hannah showed us how to pray when all hope seemed lost — when she couldn’t get pregnant and desperately wanted a child.

• She showed us how to pray when your enemies taunt you — when Peninnah, her husband’s other wife, ridiculed her when she was having children and Hannah couldn’t.

• She showed us how to pray when others misunderstand and mislabel you — when Eli accused her of being drunk in the temple when she was pouring her heart out to God.

• And then she showed us how to keep our word and follow through when our prayers are answered — when she kept her promise to God that if he gave her a son she would dedicate his life to God. When God came through, she kept her word: and left her son Samuel to be raised in the temple.

8. Queen Esther taught us how to be courageous. She showed great courage by telling the Persian king about a plan to assassinate him, and later, a plan to have all the Jews in Persia killed. With the power of prayer, fasting, and bravery, she saved her people.

The thing that was so remarkable about Esther was initially, she was chosen out of the women of Israel to be part of the harem of King Xerxes. She used her political influence to destroy the antisemitic actors who sought to destroy the Jews in Persia. It was through her faithfulness; the Jewish festival of Purim was established. After she saved him and her people, Xerxes chose her to be his queen, and she ruled Israel as a Jewish queen of a gentile nation.

When you’re obedient to God, when you trust him and when you are courageous enough to move when he says move, you will find yourself in places you never thought you’d be, doing things you never thought you’d do.

Esther displayed courage like Deborah a thousand years earlier, and saved Israel from the consequences of its own spiritual folly. She established a safe place for Jews to worship in the land. Because of what Esther did, Judaism was allowed to flourish under Greek and Roman rule in the centuries to come, and the ministry of Jesus was able to thrive freely and openly in a public society.

These are just a few of the Old Testament examples of women doing great things. Then we have the New Testament women who also had much to teach us.

What is a woman’s place?

9. Mary of Nazareth taught us obedience

Her all-important role in the Bible goes without saying: she was the mother of Jesus. She gave birth to the world's savior when she was just a teen, as the angel Gabriel said she would.

Mary asked questions, she pondered in her heart what Gabriel had told her and she responded, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

When you are obedient to God’s plan for your life, he can do great things through you, even when you don’t understand how. Even when it’s never been done before and may never be done again. It’s OK to be the first.

10. Mary Magdalene taught us faithfulness. After being healed by Jesus, she followed him, she became one of his disciples. While she wasn’t given that title, when you look at the definition of the word disciple, which is any follower of Christ and another definition says, “a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower:”, Mary Magdalene certainly fit that description.

Mary Magdalene was with Christ to the bitter end, including the crucifixion, his burial, and his glorious resurrection. It was Mary Magdalene who would be the first witness of Christ’s empty tomb, it was Mary Magdalene who would run and tell the news of Christ’s resurrection, she would be the first person to tell of his miraculous return. It was her critical eye-witness testimony to Jesus’ resurrection that would later resource the gospel writers to give the church historical credibility.

Ladies, what you say matters, what you say has value, what you say carries weight. Watch your words, be intentional, be informed and be inspiring when you speak.

11. Our third Mary is Mary of Bethany, and she taught us to be avid learners. This Mary was the sister of Martha and Lazarus, she always put Jesus first. While she was hosting Him at her home with Martha, He commended her for "choosing the better" by sitting at His feet instead of being swayed by housework and entertaining duties.

Sometimes we can get so busy doing, that we forget to take time to stop, listen and learn at the feet of Jesus.

Ladies there are times we have to take time to allow God to speak to our hearts, to give us guidance and direction, to meditate on his Word and to simply rest. We must recognize everything doesn’t have to be done, right now—sometimes it really can wait, whatever it may be and sometimes they can wait, whomever they may be.

And then we have Mary’s sister Martha.

12. Martha taught us to be hospitable — While Martha was chastised by Jesus for putting her hosting duties above learning Jesus' word, she was still a devoted follower who wanted Jesus to be comfortable and waited upon.

If you have the gift of hospitality, it will be your nature to nurture, to make sure everything is perfect, to make sure everyone is taken care of and that’s OK, hospitality is a gift from God. What we have to be able to discern though, is when is our need to be hospitable is getting in the way of our need to sit at the feet of Jesus.

13. Priscilla was a wife and ministry partner—she taught us how to be co-laborers in ministry with our husbands. Priscilla is an example of a Godly wife in the Bible: Throughout her marriage to Aquila, the couple was known for their powerful ministry and generosity to those in need.

She and her husband, Aquila, led the church in maintaining theological purity, love for the poor, and mentorship of young, charismatic leaders such as Apollos, who were still figuring out how Jesus fit into God’s story of redemption. Apollos was speaking boldly in the synagogue, but his message was incomplete. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. They told him the rest of the story of the ministry of Jesus.

Priscilla represents God’s counter-cultural insistence on the dignity of women in church leadership. She portrays the power he plans to accomplish through women to revolutionize what it means to belong in the people of God. She shows what women can do to lead by example in faithfulness and hospitality.

Ladies, there is, was, and always has been a place for you to lead in the ministry and in the church of Christ if that is what you’re called to do. And if that is your call step out, step up and do so boldly, courageously and without apology.

What is a woman’s place? A woman’s place is to do that which God has called, equipped, and ordained her to do. And ladies when you find your place, I used the word find, to denote you need to be looking, searching, seeking what it is God has planned for your life and know this, whatever that is, it’s important.

If God has called you to be stay at home mother - you raise your children in the admonition of the Lord, teaching them who and what God called them to be. Teaching them that they are important to God, that they are the apple of his eye, that they can do all things through Christ who gives them strength. Teach them that are fearfully and wonderfully made. You may be raising a scientist, the person who will cure cancer, the person who will create a vaccine to eliminate a pandemic, the person who will bring peace to a nation, you may be raising the president of the United States.

If God has called you to be in the work force - do everything your hands find to do as unto the Lord. When you work to please God, man can’t help but by happy. It’s alright to be aggressive if the situation calls for it. It’s alright to demand equal pay for equal work, it’s alright to expect to be considered for the promotion when you are well qualified to receive it.

If God has called you to be in the political arena - go with the knowledge that it was people who elected you to work for and represent them. They have placed their trust and confidence in you and believe that you will represent them and act in their best interests. Never lose sight that you are a servant of the people.

If God has called you to pastor - know that your calling is divine. God has called you, equipped you, and anointed you to preach. When you preach, don’t attempt to do it in your own power, preach with Holy Ghost power and remember the mission.

• We are to preach Jesus and him crucified.

• We are to tell the people how Jesus came to earth, born of a virgin to be the sacrifice for our sins.

• Tell them that he came to be a perfect example of how we are to live our lives.

• Tell them how he healed the sick and raised the dead.

• Tell them how he always did what His Father said.

• Tell them how he had compassion for the sinner.

• Tell them that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, there’s no one that’s perfect, except Jesus.

• Tell them that Jesus was betrayed by someone in his own circle.

• Tell them that Jesus was falsely accused, tried and convicted. Sentenced to die a thief’s death on a cross.

• Tell them how they tortured Jesus, how they mocked him, spit on him, plucked out his beard and struck him across the face.

• Tell them how they placed a crown of thorns on his head.

• Tell them how the scourging went on all night long.

• Tell them how they made him carry is own cross and how in his human body he buckled under the weight.

• Tell them how even Jesus needed help as Simon carried the cross for him.

• Tell them how they put the nails through his hands and a nail through his feet.

• Tell them how they lifted him up on that old rugged cross.

• But don’t forget to tell them the good news that Jesus said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I’ll draw all me unto me”.

• Tell them how he hung from the sixth to the ninth hour to make sure all our sins were paid for.

• Tell them how the earth shook and the sun refused to shine at Jesus’ crucifixion.

• Tell them how they pierced him in his side.

• Tell them how he was put in a borrowed tomb, it was borrowed because he wouldn’t need it for long.

• Tell them how they can rejoice because after three days he got up.

• After three days he got up with all power in his hands.

• After three days he conquered death, hell and the grave.

• Tell them because he died and rose again, they have an opportunity for eternal life. Life in heaven where there will no more sorrow, no more tears, and no more suffering.

• Tell them after 40-days he ascended back to heaven where he now sits at the right hand of the Father interceding on their behalf. Jesus is praying for them, he’s praying for you.

• Tell them they can rejoice because Jesus is alive. Praise God he’s alive, praise God for the Holy Spirit who abides in us.

If you have professed Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you have opened your heart for the Holy Spirit to reside. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit is there to lead and guide you into all righteousness, to keep you on the right path, to protect you from hurt, harm and danger, to deliver you from the hands of the evil one who wants to destroy you. If you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior you have an advocate in heaven who is always watching, always praying, for you.

But if you’ve never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, don’t delay another day, another hour, another minute pray with me right now.

Lord God, I need you, please forgive me for my sins. Jesus, I’m asking you to come into my heart and be Lord of my life. I believe you are the Son of God, that you were born of a virgin and died for my sins. I believe that you rose again and now sit at the right hand of the Father praying for me. I give you my heart and my life, use me as you will, In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Now if you prayed that prayer for the first time give God some praise, if you prayed that prayer before give God praise for your salvation, and for that of your new brother or sister in Christ.

There are many who need to hear this message, share it on your social media. For more information about Love Christian Center go to our website at www.lovechristianctr.org to find out about us, how to join us and how to support us.

God has poured out his spirit on men and women so, “What is a woman’s place”? A woman’s place is anywhere God has anointed her to be, doing anything He has anointed her to do.

God bless you and Happy Mother’s Day