THE LIVING WORD TRANSCRIPT

Program Air Date - 12-9-07

LESSON TITLE: "THE HOME AS GOD INTENDS: GODLY WIVES AND MOTHERS"

WELCOME

We are excited to have you with us today for the Living Word Program. What a glorious Lord's Day morning it is.

As always it is an honor and privilege to have you with us. We are thankful you have chosen to join us as we commit this time to the things of God. It is our hope and prayer this morning that we may each participate and do our part to make this time acceptable before Him and according to His Word. Now let's begin by talking to God through prayer!

(Prayer)

This morning we want to begin with a song that reminds us of our eternal reward. So, won't you join in with the congregation and do your part as we sing together, "A Mansion Over The Hilltop."

(SONG # 1)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

It is interesting to me to see how history continually repeats itself. You and I remember the many examples in the Bible of those that were faithful believers and followers of God the Father. However, when Jesus, God's son came, many rejected Him as a mere man.

It's hard to believe, but there are actual people today who say they believe in God the Father and that they are obedient to His will, yet they reject Jesus Christ as being his Son. In Matthew 3:16-17, we read the words of God. There it says, "when He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Wasn't it John who pinned the familiar verse, "for God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life," John 3:16. You see Jesus is the Son of God and we know this because God, inspired His own writers of the Bible to tell us so.

Another fact that people often like to deny about this Jesus is that He is also God! In the book of John we see that the very first chapter starts out by addressing this issue. In verse one, we read, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Here is a discussion about the Word. It says that it was with God and was God, so what is this Word? Let's look down in verse 14, there it says, "and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Obviously the Word referred to in this text is God's Son, Jesus.

You may still wonder how this can be so, that Jesus can be God and also be with God, at the same time? Well, my Father and I have the same last name, Sullins. We are one as a family, but still individuals, able to fulfill our own functions. We share a lot in common, but we are still separate and unique persons.

Another verse which really helps us to understand the deity of Christ is found in John 8:58. There Jesus said, "most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." In the text we see that the Jews were angry with Him because he referred to Abraham as one He knew. So in verse 57, they told Him that He was not even 50 years old, so how could He know Abraham? Thus He gave the above answer that He was before Abraham and was the I am! Also notice in verse 59, the response this brought from the people - they tried to stone Him.

In the book of Revelation, chapter 22, verse 13, Jesus further said, "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." So I ask you, "do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He is God?" Who will you put your trust in, God, His Son and His Word or the foolishness of man? As for me, I believe God the Father, that Jesus is His Son and is God!

This Lord's Day, we will continue our series on, "The Home As God Intends!" The topic this morning will focus on, "Godly Wives And Mothers." So, please continue with us and after our next song I will return with this study from God's Word.

Now let's join in our second song of the day. The name of the hymn is, "Fairest Lord Jesus."

(SONG # 2)

LESSON

By Ray Sullins

Already speaking about such things as a home and children... In fact, in the curse that God placed on woman and the curse that God placed on man after sinning in the garden, we clearly see that God had distinguished man and woman in different ways, and that really the jobs that He had designed them for are much different. Certainly we see that our bodies are different. Emotionally we are different. Intellectually and many different ways, men and women are made differently by God to serve different purposes. We find here in this text again the concept of a man going out and laboring physically to bring forth for the family and then the idea also of the woman having labor pains and childbirth, the concept of a good keeper of a home. But in connection to all of these things we can surely know that men and women are different in many different ways and many different reasons. We know that certainly that there are good things, there are bad things, positive things, negative things whether we are talking about men or women, strengths and weaknesses. And because of that it is important to know what God's Word says, what He tells us that we might be encouraged through it.

You know I heard a man say one time that, "Sometimes it is hard to live with them and it is hard to live without them." I know that ladies say the same thing about us as men at times because we can be just as tough and obstinate to live with. But at the end of the day that just shows us our differences. It shows us how much more important it is that we need to know the parameters that each other falls in, how we act, how we think in different ways, and therefore, what it is that God has made us for so that we might better accomplish that and work together. Certainly we know that God has made us to be one flesh and to strive to accomplish together all that is necessary to be a proper Christian home.

So if you'll think just for a moment about the wife. I think it's important for wives to understand that they are wives before they are mothers. They are wives and married to a man. As we have learned back in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 24 that "a man should leave his father and mother," and the implication there is that a wife should leave her father and mother and the two then become one flesh creating a new family unit. Well that idea is certainly important because what it tells us is that the wife is first a wife before a mother. Why do I emphasize that? Because when we begin to have children, the parameters again of the family change. The household changes. The relationship sometimes changes a bit because there is a new person who is desiring and needing attention and care. There is a new person who is needing love and wanting to be noticed and to be taught and to learn. And so the father and the mother have to do their part to accomplish this task, but I'm afraid that sometimes we do that and we neglect one another.

You know for many years, my wife and I had the opportunity to just be husband and wife before we had children, almost four years. So certainly when children came it was much different, and we certainly enjoyed those first four years together, getting to know one another and spend time together, but it was much different after our first child came, then the second and then the third. Certainly we all know this. We all know that it changes. Well, how can we make it better? When we are aware of it, to prepare and still know that we must love one another as husbands and wives, to know that we are committed to one another, that we are behind one another, that we will support each other, that we will be best friends even though there is a new child or children or others in the home then that certainly also need care and interest.

Not only then do we find the wife being something God intended, but that the wife become a mother, that the wife become something that was special, special just as Eve had. Eve was given a wife to Adam to be a helper, a helper, someone to work with him, to cohabitate, to work together to accomplish that under God's Law, under His sanctions and to do all that they needed to in relationship to the home as He intended it. But then we have also this next step of motherhood.

Boy, I tell you, ladies have certainly many things that men do not, and there are things that you experience and can share in and can know that we will never know as men created by God. Imagine to have a child. Many of you know that as ladies. Imagine what it must be like to carry a child around, to feel it inside of you and to feel it kick and to actually move and to be a viable life inside of you and then to deliver that child knowing that you have been a part specifically in bringing and giving life to that child as God intends. Well, it must be a special thing even though there is pain as Eve certainly committed the woman to. We know that still the joy that is found far outweighs the pain, the suffering because to see that new life, to see that miracle in the sense of God, that blessing that He has bestowed. Oh, what a wonderful thing that it must be.

Now Hollywood tries to sometimes present the fact that you can maybe have a Mr. Mom or a man that is going to be a mother. Certainly we know that this isn't the case because women are special. They are blessed gifts from God that have been designed from God in such a way, a special way to accomplish that task of being a perfect companion for man and being a perfect mother, a mother that all will nurture and that they will turn to. In fact, think about that for a moment. Who is it that children normally cling to? Mom. They want mom to show that love and compassion. Who is it that they call for? Mom. They want that one who they can even in later years turn to and know that they will have an open ear and not be so black and white about things. Maybe they have more emotion and care in certain areas instead of just saying, "Well, really this is the way it is." Well you see, moms and dads are totally different. That's why when we were growing up that sometimes we went to Dad for things and sometimes we went to Mom because God hath made each in a perfect and blessed way that we might fulfill the role and the functions and accomplish all that we can to be exactly what He wants.

Now what I want us to do is to turn to a very important book, I think probably one of the best examples that we have in the entire Bible of what a good and functioning wife and mother is all about. You probably know what I am talking about in Proverbs chapter 31. We know here the wisest man that ever lived, a man who had too many wives and also way too many concubines, was a man who now specifies what a true wife, in other words, for someone who had plenty, what a real and true wife would be like. Well, there are some things that stand out here that are very, very special in relationship to our study. So you might begin to notice with me there around verse 10 as it says, "Who can find a virtuous wife." Notice first of all the worth. "Far above rubies." You know we think about treasures and we think about finding treasures or having a lot of money. Well, it says that the wife, notice the wife first, not the mother, who was virtuous, her value was really unfathomable. We can't even know the value because she is so valuable to the husband, to the children, to the home, to also bring in income as we see in this text. But what value there is in a virtuous wife. But what else do we learn? "She is one who then loves and cares for her husband, who does good (verse 12) and not evil toward him in all the days of her life." Not just that but she cares for the household. She provides food for her family. As we continue to look there in verse 15, "Even rising early in the morning if necessary." How many of you get up so that you can wake your kids up and get them some breakfast before they get on the bus way early in the morning and then go to school? Way early in the morning getting up early to feed and prepare for her family.

It goes on to talk about how "she even gets involved to bring money or monetary gain to the household as she buys a field in her spare time, whenever that would be, and then sells it to make a profit to help the household. She then also (as it goes on to say) helps the needy with that money that she made." Not only does she help the home, she helps others. What a great wife. What a great example. What a great Christian. What a great mother. Then what it begins to lead into, "Then she clothes her family." Not only does she feed them and help provide for them, but it says, "She clothes her family," verse 21. They're not afraid of snow or bad weather or whatever it might be because she has given them the finest of clothing. She has prepared for them and made sure that when they are in the community, people know that they have been well cared for and that they have got a good mother. And when the husband goes and sits with the elders, as it talks about, the people see him as being well dressed and properly cared for. And when the children go to school, they see that they are well cared for and fed and that they have good nature and character.

Why? Why are these things so? Because a virtuous woman, a virtuous wife, a virtuous mother, a woman who puts God first will be blessed. Not only blessed as we find here in verse 28 by her husband, not only considered blessed by her children, not only considered blessed by her family, one who excels them all and not only because of her beauty or her charm or her ability, but I want you to hear verses 30-31. What is it that makes a woman what she needs to be in the eyes of God? Verse 30 begins, "Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing away, but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. Therefore, give her the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates." What was it that makes this woman, this wife, this mother, this great person in the community who is seen by all to be almost perfect? What is it about her? That she loves God and puts Him first.

You know that is what we need to do. That's what we must learn about the home that God intends, to be the proper father and husband, to be the proper wife and mother, to be the proper Christian example not only in the home but to other homes, to the world, to my co-workers, to all those that I come in contact with. Where does it start? Where does it begin? The fear of the Lord. Isn't that what Solomon also said in Ecclesiastes chapter 12? He says, "The conclusion of all things is to fear God and keep His commandments." That is what this virtuous wife and mother is all about.

I want to encourage you to understand that if you love God and you obey Him and if you'll study His Word, you'll be a virtuous wife. You'll be a virtuous mother. Your worth will be beyond anything of this world in life to not only your husband and children but to others that you come in contact with for you are willing to make a difference in your life. You are willing to make a difference in the lives of others, and you are willing to be motherly in nature to all that you can so that they might not only know you as being righteous, but that they might know your God. Oh how blessed it is to not only be a Christian wife but a Christian mother and to know that you have the promise of Heaven if you are found faithful in the end.

(SONG # 3 - "Face To Face!")

CLOSING COMMENTS

Again, let me thank you for choosing to be with us this morning. I hope we all have been encouraged through our time spent together. Please remember, you are invited to join us every Sunday morning at 7:30, as we commit ourselves to this service of God.

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Thank God for wives and mothers who do things God's Way. For they are not only able to turn to God themselves, but to encourage their family to as well.

(Program closing)