"Women’s Day" By Brother Parrish Lee May 25th,
2014
I know what you’re thinking, “Oh,
no! Is he going to
talk? Yeah, yeah,
he ain’t no woman! It’s
our
day!” Look at what
good things the Lord
has done. I’m going
to be very
respectful of the time, because they nearly preached everything that
was on my
little list. Yeah,
I know; I know. So, giving honor to God, Who is the
head of our lives. Giving
honor to our
Savior, that water‑walking, that storm-chasing, that mountain-moving,
that
blood washing, that all-powerful, all-healing, all comforting, that God
Who
passes out words of Scripture and still loves us more and more anyway. Giving honor to Him. Thank You so much, Lord
for all that You have
done. Giving honor
to those who have
gone before us: In
the Word, from the
prophets and the priests, the elders, those who have left testimony,
and those
in the ministry, from our founding pastor, he and his family, our
pastor, he
and his family, and all those who have labored, and laid the path, and
been
faithful in what the Lord God called them to do.
Giving honor to all of y’all who are here
today, who present yourselves, and say, “You know, Lord, this is what I
need
for my life. It’s
going to be
incorporated in worship, because I attend to You, that when I go out to
do
things, You can attend to teaching me, guiding me, and leading me where
I need
to go. Giving honor
to all of those who
have made the path for us to have this country today.
Tomorrow being Memorial Day, honoring those
who were slain, given the ultimate.
There have been many that haven’t given a hundred,
they’ve given fifty;
come back with maybe one leg. They’ve
given so much. There’s
been many of us
who have given time, but many have paid the price that we are able to
enjoy our
freedoms in this country today. Giving
honor to them. And,
giving honor to our
ladies today. May
it be something that
blesses down to the innermost parts of your soul.
And, men, we are not left out.
Let me just say in advance, next month is
coming, and know that it’s our turn.
They have brought it today; we bring it next month.
Our theme of
the month is, of
course: 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore
if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold,
all things are become new.
But
our Scripture for today is in Proverbs 31.
Where else would we go to today?
I’m going to be very judicious, expeditious, and
complimentitious on
time here. Y’all
can clock me on this
one. I might set a
record. Proverbs 31:10-31
Who can
find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of
her
husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of
spoil. She
will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh
wool, and
flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants'
ships;
she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night,
and
giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She
considereth a
field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a
vineyard. She
girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. She
perceiveth
that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. She
layeth her
hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth
out her
hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She
is not
afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed
with
scarlet. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk
and
purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the
elders of
the land. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles
unto
the merchant. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall
rejoice in
time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is
the law
of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth
not the
bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her
husband
also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but
thou
excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a
woman that
feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her
hands; and
let her own works praise her in the gates.
Would
you bow your heads for just a moment?
Lord, we thank You so much for all that You’ve given
us this day, and
God, we pray that we might be able to take it into our lives, use it
that we
might minister to us, Lord God. That
we
could go forth to accomplish more of Your will, Your work, to do
exactly what
You have appointed us to do, for You are our Lord.
You are the Potter, and we are the clay. Lord, we thank You for
Your good and perfect
gifts. We both
thank and claim in Jesus’
name, and everyone said, Amen.
So
we have chosen this day to be set aside, that this would be Women’s
Day, and
this is not uncommon. This
is not an
uncommon thing. They
do this in
different ministries, and to different extents, but we have chosen
today to set
aside. Yes, it’s
good and proper, and,
the truth of the matter is, every day is Women’s Day.
And every day is Men’s Day.
And every day is Brothers’ Day.
And every day is Sisters’ Day.
The Bible says to do good, especially to
those of the Household of Faith (Galatians 6:10).
So, daily, we are to be good to each other. To day is the day that we
set aside to
highlight our women. Our
virtuous, our
awesome, our comforting, inspiring women.
So, from Eve to Hannah; from Sarah to Hagar; from
Miriam to the wife of
Manoah, the mother of Samson; Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Anna, Elizabeth,
and
Mary. With a legacy
the Bible shows us
and teaches us about the virtuous woman.
The Bible says that her price, or her worth, is
far—not just equal
to—but far above rubies. I
don’t know
how much a ruby is worth, but, just the fact that it says, “…far above
rubies…”
lets you know that they are a precious, precious thing.
Down through the ages, the Bible has taken up
time to talk about it and to highlight it.
Truly for us, it’s a wonderful thing, it’s an
awesome thing to be in the
presence of a virtuous woman. Now,
every
family—you can’t have a family without having a woman—I know they’re
trying to
do some experiments, but we ain’t talking about that garbage. You cannot be in a family
without a woman, so
everybody is subject to know the virtuous woman.
The virtuous woman is far above all the rest
of them. Down
through the ages, the
Bible highlights how precious it is.
If
you’re in the presence of one, that’s a beautiful, awesome thing, but
if you
are in the presence of many, then how fortunate and blessed you are,
because
there is something about this virtuous woman.
The bible even says—it compares her to a merchant
ship that bringeth
food from afar. It
says that when you
see—when I was in the Navy, when you’re out to sea for a while, guys
kind of,
you kind of eat a lot, you know? After
awhile, you start to run out of food.
You know you’re going to run out of food. You’re happy when you see
the supply ship out
there. You know
you’re going to get
pallets and pallets of something to drink.
You know, when you start running out of food, things
get mighty
hard. They start
scraping the bottom of
the pan, and throwing it on your plate, like, be happy, and you’re
like, “Hey,
where’s my provision?” So,
when you see
the merchant ship come, you know you’re going to have a refreshing of
the
supply. You’re
going to be glad, and
you’re going to be happy about it, because you’re not going to be
running out
so quick. That is
what the Bible
compares the virtuous woman to. It
says
that, when she comes, she makes that kind of provision for all those
around. When there
was dryness, and when
there was hunger, she brings it in, and she enforces that all around
her. The virtuous
woman. So, if
you’re in the company of virtuous
women, you ought to thank God. Thank
God
for that testimony. Thank
God for
that. It goes on to say who is blessed around her. Yes, her husband is blessed, if she has one. Her children are blessed. Yes, her friends, and extended family, in fact, all those around her are blessed. Have you ever been in a place, and someone just walked by, but there’s something about that person that walked by? They kind of have a wholesomeness about them, or a godliness about them, and they just walk by, and, “If I could just get a little touch of that. I don’t know what that is, but I sure would like to know more about it,” as they get in their car and drive away. It is that special. The Bible says that she plants. She plants, and she plants—you know, my aunt was taking my little great-niece out for a—she was teaching her how to garden, and she said, “Did you see the things we planted?” One of the bushes that she had planted, she said, “I hope it blossoms before you leave.” It came up, and it had these big flowers, and they call them pirrones or something—I don’t know much about flowers, but they’re big and they were bushy, and my uncle was complaining because he was trying to mow the grass, and they were out there doing all that, and I was like, “You might have planted some flowers, but you’ve planted more in your granddaughter’s life than just showing her how to garden, you’ve planted some time.” Th |