"Who Can Find a Virtuous Woman?" By Brother Parrish Lee May 24th,
2015 So wonderful to be here in the
House of God. It’s so wonderful to know
God, here in 2015, May 24th.
It’s so wonderful to know Him in our hearts and lives and know Him to be
real and truth; not a mystery, not a fable, not something that you kind of
wonder about, but to actually know the living, true, One wise God. I love that song that they sang about don’t
take my burdens or my cross away. For
then I would grow weary, and what else? And idle. Can you imagine if God didn’t let you go
through anything; everything was roses and cotton candy, peaches and cream,
well, actually, pralines and cream? And,
you know, you could say, “Thank You,” but you wouldn’t know how to appreciate
it. But, once it’s taken away, you know,
and then you go through a little something.
When you get healed, whey u get restored, when you encouraged after
being discouraged, you tend to day, “Thank You, Lord! Thank You, thank You, thank You.” This month has been the month that
we are focusing on women in the bible, women in the Scriptures. The scripture that we focus on for the month
is: Proverbs 31:30 Favour is deceitful,
and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Giving honor to God, Who is the
Head of my life, our Maker, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Comforter, our Maker,
our Bridge over troubled water, our Light in the darkness, our Way out of every
way that we don’t have a way out of. The
Person who makes all the mysteries be known to us and gives us sufficient for
what it is we need that day. Giving
honor to Him. Giving honor to You,
Almighty God. Giving honor to those who
have gone on before us: Our founding
pastor and his family, our pastor—who was here last week, and what a privilege
and joy it was—he and his family, and for all those who have come who come to
stand in the gap and make up the hedge.
It is not a simple task to allow God to move in your life; put your
flesh aside, and say, “Not my will,
but Thine be done, Oh, God.” Giving
honor to them. And, giving honor to all
of y’all, who come and present yourselves before God that we could have a
blessing from Him. We’re going to start opening with
our first scripture: Proverbs 31:10 Who can find a
virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies. If we could just bow our heads for
just a moment. Lord, at this time we
come, and we just start off with a thank You, Mighty God, for, truly, there is
none like You; full of goodness and full of mercy and full of grace, and full
of truth. God, we thank You for the
blessing, knowing that we could come before You and worship You. You are the giver of all good and perfect
gifts. Lord, we ask, at this time, as we
present ourselves to You, that You would imbue and teach and share and reprove
and correct and strengthen us with your Word that comes from You. And do, as it said in Your Word, that it
would not return unto You void, but truly, surely, do that which You sent it to
do. This we do claim and pray in Jesus
name. And everyone said amen. Amen. So, we said that this is the month
for learning lessons from women in the Bible.
Women in the Bible. When I first got
saved, some years ago, I was a brand-new Christian; I wanted to share with
everybody. After all, if I can become a Christian, anybody can become a Christian. I’m from Baltimore, for those of you that
don’t know, Baltimore Maryland—of course, they’ve been in the news a little bit
lately, and, yeah, amen, thank God I’m saved—but I wanted to share with everybody about this—to them it wasn’t
new, but to me it was new; I didn’t know the ways of God. So, I call people and I tell people and I
know they’re going to understand it, because if I can understand it, you
can understand it. So, I called my
friends and my family, and one of the friends I had talked with—a lady friend—I
was telling her about the greatness of God, you know, “Jesus Christ is
real! And being a Christian is
exciting! And you need to know that!”
and she was none too well impressed; none too well impressed at all. I thought that was kind of strange, but it
didn’t stop me. Anybody that knows me,
sometimes I get on a train, I just like being on the train-track; if somebody
tries to stop me, we’ll blow the whole thing up—BOOM! You just keep going right on through it, and
that’s what I was doing; I just kept sharing, and she said, “Well, Parrish, you
know, you know, I really can’t get all that excited about Christianity,
because, you know, the Bible does have a problem with women.” I had never heard that before. It was like somebody slapped me right in the
face. I was a brand-new Christian; I
didn’t know nothing but a few Scriptures—enough to know that you can be saved. I had never heard that before. I only wish I could have that conversation
with her, today. Aaah. Oh, but to go back. I was able to share with her some time later,
but, by that time, I was a little bit older in the faith, and she was a little
bit longer away from what I had to share. So, anyway, we’re
moving on to our first subject, here.
Our first subject is going to be: Lessons from Women in Worship Exodus 15:20-2121 And Miriam
the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the
women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD,
for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into
the sea. “And Miriam the prophetess, the
sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand…”
So, Miriam, she took a timbrel in her hand, and she went on to sing and
dance. As we talk about the lessons from
women in the Bible, we have to go to this sister right here. Now, Sister Miriam, she was not just a
prophetess—and a prophetess is pretty great, all by itself; prophetess, one who
could share the ways and the Word of the Spirit of God—but, she also as a
teacher. Yes, Miriam was a teacher.
Brother Jesse talked about Miriam a couple of weeks ago, and how she got a
little beside herself—that comes later.
Before all that happened, that Jesse talked about, Miriam was a
Prophetess. Now, this prophetess stands
out for a real important reason. You
see, Israel was in bondage, they were slaves.
And, as they were slaves, God brought deliverance. And, as God brought deliverance, He brought
it in a way they had never seen before.
When that came about, yeah, they were just slave people. They might have been strong, but they weren’t
warriors; they were not fighters. And
these people were being delivered by God, to come all the way to the edge of
the Red Sea, and then the Egyptians—the mightiest nation on the planet—chased
after them, to bring them back into bondage.
But God did a marvelous thing; He opened up the Red Sea, they travelled
across on dry ground, the Egyptians followed them, but God closed up the Red
Sea on them, but He let the Israelites go across on dry ground, and they made
it to the other side! And, as they made
it to the other side, you have to imagine that, these people who were slaves,
are now delivered. “What do we do? we’ve
never been free before! What do we do? How do we govern? We don’t know anything about this
stuff!” You kind of have to imagine,
they’re being brought to a new land.
They’ve never seen this land before.
“How do we find this land? What
about the rock? Where do we settle? Where do our families and stuff go?” And, as they had all those wonders in their
minds, Miriam took a timbrel and she began to play. She didn’t ask permission, she just took a
timbrel and began to play! And she
played before the Lord. And the Bible goes
on to say she danced, and she played, and she talked about the victory. The Bible goes on to say, in verse
twenty-one, “And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for He hath
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” Now, when Miriam went to do this, playing her
timbrel, she didn’t care if people would follow here, but, it just so happened,
people did. So, where they had doubt and
confusion and anxiety, she brought in praise and worship and encouragement and
direction. And now, people are starting
to follow her. But who, according to
the Bible, who starts to follow her? In
verse number twenty, it says, “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron,
took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels
and with dances.” All the women. Can you imagine, one woman, here they’ve been
delivered, and they say, “We don’t know what we’re going to do,” and she says,
“Well, we’re going to start off by thanking and praising God. That’s how we‘re going to start this thing
off.” And all the women caught that
clue. I don’t know where all the guys
were, but that’s another matter. Anyway,
all the women caught that clue! They
joined in with timbrels and dances throughout the nation of Israel, celebrating
their deliverance. There’s a lesson in
that. There’s a lesson in that: You start it, people will follow. People who want to, they’ll follow. But, can you imagine what it must have been
like? Can you imagine, all the women are
following this Miriam? They’re singing
the songs, they’re praising, dancing before God. They come up, and they follow here; I don’t
know how long it went, but, it must have gone on until the evening. So, after they had finished, after they had
done all this worshipping, praising, singing songs to God, they must have gone
home. It said, “All the women,” so that
would have been the mothers, and the wives, the sisters, and the daughters. All of them. So, now that they have followed Miriam, now
it’s to go back to their places, to their families. So, as they went back to their families, what
do you think they talked about? Oh, they
would have said how great it was to get out there and worship. Oh, how wonderful the fellowship, this one
spirit must have been, with all the other ladies just clapping, and praising
God. So, this one woman, yes, this one
woman, because of what she did, she encouraged the other ladies, who took it to
their homes and their families and their dwellings. She encouraged a nation. She encouraged a nation, because she allowed
what was in her life to be used for an opportunity of God. Yeah. That
must have been something. Some years ago a brother came to
me and he said, “You know, I got something to tell you.” He said, “You know, after service…” I’ve told this story before. He said, “You know, after Sunday service, we
went home, me and my wife, and she didn’t hardly say a word the whole way home.
Drive in the car, walked up to the
door; didn’t say a word.” He said, “She got in the door…” This is what he said, “She got in the door, and
she wasn’t more than two steps, three steps inside, she dropped her purse,
books, everything. She didn’t even take
her coat off, she raised her hands and started praising and blessing God in my house. She brought service home with her.” I’m listening to what he’s going to say,
because this is, you know, this is going to—you start telling me a story, I’ve
got to hear the end of it. I’ve got that
problem. I can’t stop a story in the
middle of it. If I go to the movies, if
I watch two minutes of a movie, I’ve got to know how it ended. I got to know! And, if I have to go somewhere, I have to ask
somebody or look it up. So, I want to
hear what this brother has to say. What
did he say? He said that, "I was convicted! Ooh, she blessed God. Ooh, she praised God. I was convicted." And I’m listening for the next thing that
he’s going to say, and he changed the subject.
He changed the subject. Yes, yes.
He changed the subject, and I thought, “Oh, Lord, oh, Lord, did he join
her?” No, he didn’t. Did he thank God? Did he pray to God, “Get me to the place
where she is, that we could worship as a husband and wife together, and that we
could show our children how bring things to God together, and God could bless
us all?” No, he didn’t. He just changed the subject, and I had to
pray, “Lord, please, please give that brother a blessing, that, if it ever
happens again, she won’t be the only one, and why couldn’t he do the
leading? Why did it have to wait for a
certain walk-in; why can’t they just do it together, bless God together as a
family, and let Him just pour out a blessing into the whole house? Let the kids be raised knowing how to bless
God. Let it not be a mystery to
them. Let them not look at mom and dad
like, ‘What is wrong with you?’” There was another brother one
time—I’ve told this story before, but I gots to tell it today. There was another time when we had a brother,
he was telling me, “You know, that day, when y’all was up there in the altar…”
because, see, at the old building we had an altar, and after church service was
over and things had died down, we’d go in and clean the classes, go in between
the chairs, and set them up, and all that stuff—you had to get ready for the
next time. And, as we were doing that,
some people who had finished whatever their task was, just went to the altar
and started worshipping, started thanking God.
No musicians, no singers, just started praising and thanking God. And that small group that was in the altar
doing that, started growing. Other
people would walk by, and they felt like they had opportunity, and there was
some praising going on and gonna join that boat. And a few more people came. And pretty soon, the vacuuming wasn’t so
important, and neither was how straight the chairs were. People didn’t run to the altar; they stood
where they were and started blessing God.
All throughout the sanctuary. And
he said, “You know, that’s not really my style.
I really don’t all that carried way and excited. Our family didn’t do that sort of
thing.” And I kind of understood; not
everybody’s the same. As he was talking,
he said, “Yeah, you know, I was kind of ending a conversation I was in, because
I could hear it was really starting to pick up in there, and it’s time to get
the family together and head home.” And,
as he started to go down where we had the overflow, as he was about to turn the
corner, he said, “Man, somebody out there is really carrying on. Somebody’s really making a whole lot of
noise.” And he said, as he got closer,
the voice sounded familiar. Because, in
the hallway, he discovered, much to his amazement, it was his wife that just
broke out in praise, and couldn’t take another step before she had to break out
and praise and worship God for all that He’s given to her. And he said, “Wow. I just didn’t know it was in there. Well, I guess I’d better go get the kids, and
we’ll just kind of wait until she’s done.”
I said, “Well, you ain’t gonna get no kind of pat on the back from me,
because I am not a quiet worshipper. I’m
going to tell you that if your wife was in there calling down the graces of
God, you should have gotten your kids and took
them up there beside her! You say,
‘kids, this is how your mom breaks it down when she comes before the
Lord.’ And you should have joined her,
so that they can see how a family that loves, and praises and worships and is
not ashamed to come before the one true and wise God that we talked about.” Amen.
And that was my prayer; that was my prayer. After I talked to him, that was my prayer for
him, “God make a way for him.” I’m one
of those people, sometimes I’ve got to be pushed out! Sometimes somebody’s got to give me a little
boot in the butt, and give me a little encouragement. Throw me out there so far that I don’t have a
way to make it back. Make me
worship. Make me pray. Make me come before God. I will thank him once I get done. I will thank whatever it was that got me into
that spirit was. So, that’s one woman of
worship. Our next woman is going to be a
polar, yeah, a polar opposite to the one we just read. 2 Samuel 6:15 So David and all the house of Israel brought
up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the LORD came into the city
of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw King David
leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. So, the setting is that the Ark of the Covenant had been
taken away from Israel. Israel had
really been messing up, so their enemies came, and they snatched what they had. That’s one of the things that they used for
victory; snatched it away. So, Israel no
longer had their Ark of the Covenant, where the Mercy Seat was, and where the
glory of the Lord would come and dwell.
This is important, because, without the mercy seat, how can the people
be encouraged? Without them seeing he
Ark of the Covenant, how do they know that God is real? So, as the Ark of the Covenant comes back in,
there’s great joy there. There’s great
joy among the people, and, as it said, David danced before the Lord. 2 Samuel 6:19-23 And he
dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well
to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh,
and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed every one to his house. Then David returned to bless his household.
And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious
was the King of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the
handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth
himself! And David said unto Michal, It
was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his
house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore
will I play before the LORD. And I will
yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the
maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no
child unto the day of her death. So, the setting is that the Ark of
the Covenant has come back into the camp.
Who wouldn’t be excited about the Ark, the Covenant of God coming
back? You being restored to God; who
would not be excited? Who wouldn’t be
excited about that? So, to set the
setting, Michal wasn’t just any old lady, she actually was the daughter of
Saul, who was a king. Well, that made
her a princess, a princess. David married
the princess, and, now that Saul is out of the picture, he is the king. So, Michal, she is the queen, and you know
she must have had the softest lotions, and herbal things, and she must have
been gorgeous, because they would have made sure she was gorgeous. So, there she was, the influencer of women
all around; women all around would love to be like the queen. “Oh. Man, my skin would be soft as butter. Aww, they’d put all the nicest flowers all up
in my hair. Oh, I’d be decked out to the max.” And here is Michal, and there she goes before
King David, and, you know, David had something going on—where I come from, they
would call it, the old folks would call it—I’d hear them talk about it when I
was young—they said, “He got happy.”
They would say David got happy, or they would say he got a little
touched. Whew! He just couldn’t hold it, and he just,
“Whah-hah!” He just had it going on all
around the place—that’s what they call it.
We would call it, “He got excited.”
David got excited there because the Covenant was coming back. And Michal, Michal saw this. And he talks of dancing before God, and you
might say, “Well, Brother Parrish, that stuff ain’t needful because the Bible
says let all things be done with decency and in order. The Bible speaks about that.” And, you know, the Bible, absolutely, speaks
of all things done in decency and in order, but that same Bible that speaks of
decency and in order, talks about getting caught up to the third Heaven. And that same Bible says, Apostle Paul talks
about, “I don’t even know if I was in my body, I was in such a place with God.”
And then he says, “I had such an
experience with God, I can’t even tell people. It’s not even lawful for me to let it come out
of my mouth. It was just me and God
somewhere.” That same Bible. So, yes, being excited and happy in decency
and in order is absolutely of God. But, see, Michal had a problem
with this. She had a problem with this
because, maybe, you know, once you get a little housebroken, once you get a
little regal, once you get a little hierarchy, or a little prestige, you don’t
have to get so base. Because it—and
several of you know what I’m talking about, because you’ve seen God do some
wonderful things in your life—precious things to you—and sometimes when God
does something for you, something to you, something with you, it seems like the
devil says, “Okay, they just got blessed; I’m going to send somebody over there
to discourage them, try and take it away.”
Some people here know what I’m talking about. You know, just when God is pouring it in,
somebody comes along to stop the flow, quench the Spirit, to get it out of
you. That’s all at the same time. So. Michal told him, Michal said, “That’s
doing the thing of a vain fellow. We are
so high up, we don’t worship and come before God like that!” But David went on to teach her, ad to show
her something very important. David
said, “Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh. You see,
this is me and my God. I will praise, I will sing, I will give
worship, I will knell, crouch, I will cry and weep. Whatever I do before me and my God it is with
me and my God.” God even had a better
answer than that. You see, the problem
was the attitude. The attitude put on
the people of God, doing something for God, and God addressed the
attitude. God addressed the attitude to
tell her, show her with her life, that it will bear no fruit. That attitude cannot bear fruit. Yeah, you might make money in your life, and
yeah, you might maybe be a little successful, and get a few things here and
there, and other people might say you are successful, but as far as God is
concerned, it will bear no fruit. You
won’t see your ministry grow. You won’t
see your anointing increase. You might
learn a few more things, but God isn’t going to flourish that land, because it
is a land of restriction in God. A land
of restriction in God. So, there we have
the lessons of two: The lesson of
Miriam, who led a nation to be encouraged because of praises, and the lesson of
a queen who would have stopped everything if her husband would have listened to
her. Part 2:
Lessons from Women Who Teach Yeah, lessons from women who
teach. We’re Judges 4:4-5 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of
Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in
mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And, now a different teacher: 1 Kings 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a
light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he
took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went
and served Baal, and worshipped him. Now, here, we already see, it’s
talking about, “…as if it had been a light thing…” This is talking about King Ahab, and it says
that King Ahab was a wicked king. He was
a very wicked king, and it goes on to say, as though it were a light thing, he
took to wife a woman of the Zidonians.
The Zidonians. A woman by the
name of Jezebel. If you ever see any of
the old-time movies, one of the biggest swear words that somebody will call a
bad woman was, “Ooh, you Jezebel. You’re
a Jezebel.” They used that term because
way back when, everybody knew, “Ooh, Jezebel; she’s evil.” 1 Kings 19:1-2 And Ahab told
Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets
with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a
messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I
make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. So, we just read how Ahab took her
to wife, and we read how Elijah had slain all the prophets of Baal. It was a great big old show-down. They came down, and they were going to prove
who was God. One prophet against eight hundred
and fifty prophets--four hundred and fifty were prophets of Baal, and the other
prophets were prophets of other gods—and there was one Elijah. They cried all day, and at the end, Elijah
said, “Get me twelve bullocks, lay them up, we’re going to offer them up to
God. We’re going to wash them, and let
the God who answers by fire be God.” So
they did, and God did. So much so, the
fire came down from Heaven, the Bible said, licked up the sacrifices, and licked
up the water that washed them. And then
the people went off, and they took care of all the eight hundred and fifty
prophets that were not prophets of the Lord.
2 Kings 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel
heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a
window. So, it says when Jehu was coming,
Jezebel took some painted, and went all over her face, and then she went and
looked out a window. Yeah, we’re setting
the stage for something here. She went
and looked out a window. 1Kings 21:25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did
sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife
stirred up. So, we see the path was, first Ahab
went and got Jezebel, who was from a whole ‘nother land. Not some land of our God; she was going to
bring in other gods. And, then, when the
prophets had a showdown, and the prophets of Baal lost, she said, “I’ll take
care of Elijah. I’ll make sure that I
get him killed. And then it says that
when Jehu came down, she went and painted her face, and then looked out a
window. And it says that there was none
like Ahab, who sold himself to do wickedness, and that his wife stirred him up. And, you know, if we want to, we could
imagine some bad stuff. We can imagine
some bad stuff, but, you know, every now and then you come in contact with
somebody and they might say something and, “Ooh! Man, how did you think that you could do
something like that?” A whole ‘nother level
of crazy. A whole ‘nother level of
wickedness, or sin, or degradation or whatever.
Just a whole ‘nother level of something that, as bad as you thought you
could do, somebody could outdo you. So,
here it is: Jezebel. And we learn that she is a queen and a
manipulator. She taught all the ladies
around how to manipulate the household.
How to bring folly, other gods, into her home. “This is how you do it.” And, I am certainly not against make up. Make up—she was not the first one to use
make-up. Make-up had existed in other
cultures before that. They used
different things, whether it was berry juice or whatever. They used different things, but she purposefully
used it to subvert, to seduce, to change the thought-pattern of things going on. Jezebel.
Yeah, Jezebel; that’s why she’s talked about like this. And the Bible says that she stirred up her husband; you know, he
might get tired of doing some bad stuff, “Stir him up! I think I can get a little bit more. Ha ha ha!”
So, these are the lessons of Jezebel.
And, no, of course we’re not against make-up if it’s used in decency and
in order. Amen? And, and, because soap is a form of this;
hey, without soap, we’re going to have some real offenses going on around
here. Hey, you know what? that goes for
cologne, too. That goes for perfume; that
goes for hair dressings, yes. With
decency and in order; with decency and in order. Not used to seduce or subvert or change
thoughts to be something that is so ungodly.
And, Jezebel taught something
else: she taught you better be careful
who you marry. You better be careful who
you marry. The Bible says, “…as though
it were a light thing…” Ahab brought this in his house. In his house!
No, I’m not preaching about marriage; that’s not my thing. But I am saying, the Bible says, as though it
were a light thing he brought her into his house, so you gots to be careful who
you marry. Yeah, if you’re going to get
married, you should have some worn out callouses on your knees. “God!
You better bless this, Lord. Lead
me, guide me, show me, tell me, use me, God, I need to know!” “But what if I already got married?” Then you ought to put callouses on the other
side of your knees. “Lord, we need some
help! Absolutely God, because I want You
to bless me. I want You to bless my
husband or my wife. I want You to bless
my children. I want You to bless my
house, my car, my job. God I want You to
bless my ministry, my life, my health.
God, when things aren’t going well, I don’t somebody like Job’s wife,
saying, ‘Curse God and die,’ I need somebody like Debra who can teach me the
ways, or Tabitha, who can come over and say, ‘We’ve got the healing of God
going on here.’ I need somebody who’s
going to come over and bring godliness into this house.” And that goes for men and women, by the way. So, that’s the lesson that we
learn from Jezebel. We’ve got one more
lesson to learn from Jezebel, and this one’s in the New Testament. And, after this, there’s just one last
person. Revelation 2:18-21 And unto the
angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who
hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass; I
know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy
works; and the last to be more than the first.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest
that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce
my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto
idols. And I gave her space to repent of
her fornication; and she repented not. So, you mean that this Jezebel,
who committed this stuff way back in the Book of Kings, the Bible is talking
about her way down in the Book of Revelation.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes, because God
sees everything at once. And God is
saying—not to just a group of people—He’s saying it to the church. He’s saying it to the church. I know your works and your labor, but one
thing I have against you, because you’re suffering that woman, that Jezebel, who
calls herself a prophetess, you’re
suffering her to be in your church. This
is what we know as the spirit of Jezebel.
The spirit of Jezebel. The spirit
of Jezebel teaches that anything is okay.
“I can do anything I want to do, and God will forgive it.” The spirit of Jezebel says, “You know that God
is full of mercy and grace and truth, so whatever you want to do, your loving
God will let you get away with it,” and it’s a lie. He’s telling the church—Sunday morning
message. Sunday morning message, yeah, but
we’re talking about lessons from women in the Bible. So ingrained was tis woman that the spirit of
her went to one of the churches, as in one of the churches. “Notwithstanding,” in verse twenty, “I have a
few things against you, because you suffer that woman Jezebel, which calleth
herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication,
and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” So, that spirit is teaching seducing. “Oh, you know, have relations with whoever
you want. God will forgive it.” The spirit of Jezebel is in the house. Thyatira gots to get it out. And then He goes on to say, in verse
twenty-one, “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she would
not.” The spirit of saying no to
repentance, the spirit of saying, “No, I’m going to do what I want to do,” that’s
the spirit of Jezebel. “I’m going to
keep doing what I want to do, no matter what God or anybody else says,” the
spirit of Jezebel. One last woman to talk about;
lessons from women who teach. Of course,
the first one was Debra, governed a whole nation; judged a whole nation. The second one was Jezebel, who taught a
whole different level of sin. The last
one is a woman here, and this one is a woman that we not only have to admire,
but we have to aspire to be like. We actually
have to want to be just like this woman. Part 3: One Last
Woman- The Woman We Need To Aspire To Be, Men And Women. Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. It must have been awesome; it must
have been glorious, the way he talks about it.
That new city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God, from Heaven. From Heaven.
Prepared as a bride, which is the church of the Living God. We are the bride of Christ, for the Son of
God is the Groom. Prepared, prepared—not
any old way, but there’s a preparation that happened. There was a washing that happened. Cleansing with the blood. There was an understanding that happened,
thank God, with the communion. There was
knowledge and acceptance, and agreement; there was a whole adhesion that happened. Coming down as a bride… And our last Scripture: Revelation 22:17 And the
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let
him that heareth say, Come. And let him
that is athirst come. And whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely. Prepared as a bride for her
Husband, and that bride says, “Come.”
That’s what evangelism is all about.
Learn, get to know the Lord you serve.
That’s what fellowship is all about.
“Come, come, we have some more to learn and talk about. Let’s go over the awesomeness of that great
God.” That’s what prayer is all
about. “I’m having a problem getting
over something.” “Let’s pray about it,
brother,” “Let’s pray about it, sister,” “Let’s pray about it, family. We’re going to bring God in.” And let him that is athirst, drink of the
water of life freely. And whosoever will
come, let him take of the water of life freely.
Prepared to know that the Groom is coming again, and He’s coming again
to take His bride away. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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