Thank you, John.
I would like you to turn your Bibles this morning to Proverbs chapter 31, verse 30.
! Proverbs chapter 31, verse 30.
This is Mother's Day, and I know that all of you are aware of it for a number of different reasons.
For one, our culture, I think rightfully, makes a great deal of it.
And if any of you try to go to the restaurant and I hold you over for, let's say, three or four minutes,
you'll probably find that you are on a waiting list.
Isn't that right?
I was talking with one family that actually intend to go have an early,
you could call it either an early supper or a late lunch.
They're going to go at around about 2 o'clock, 2.30.
They're hoping that the restaurants would have cleared out,
and they'll be able to get in and find a table and have dinner together as a family.
This is a day when we celebrate and remind ourselves of the blessing that all of us have received
through the ministry of godly women in our lives.
It is a day that in some churches they are going to ask questions like,
all right, we want the mom who has had the most children to stand up.
How many of you remember doing that at one point or another, being in church?
The most, the youngest, et cetera, et cetera.
And there are a lot of different ways to go about that.
But this morning what we want to do is really focus our attention on the effect
and the impact of a godly woman.
And that's the reason that this morning when you're going out,
there are going to be people at the door handing out flowers to every woman who is 18 years and old
or older, and there will be no carding, okay?
So, you know, if you're kind of on the bubble, nobody's going to say to you,
hey, can I see your driver's license before you get a flower?
We'll just give it to you.
And we trust that it's an encouragement to you.
I want you to look at a passage this morning that we find in the Word of God
that is just a very practical reminder to us of truth that is undeniably critical and essential in our life.
And as I look at this passage, I'm reminded at the very outset of just how beneficial it is
for us to focus on the Word of God and allow the Word of God to affect the way we think.
As we were singing that last song in particular,
one of the things that I was doing is as I was working my way through the song, singing it,
I was also cross-referencing along with the song.
How many of you are working on that now?
A little bit more.
Raise your hand and wave at me so I can feel like I'm making some moderate traction
on getting you to think biblically.
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Can anybody help me with where that's found?
Colossians chapter 3.
When I run the race before me, where does that come from?
1 Corinthians chapter 9 would be one passage.
Looking unto Jesus, where would that come from?
Hebrews chapter 12.
We could go on and on and on.
And the reason I do that is I want you to be a people who, when you think, think scripturally.
Do you follow that?
And this morning, we are looking at a passage that is undeniably valuable and precious.
And I trust influences your thought.
Now, come back again and make the point that the Word is our life.
It's valuable to us.
And as we think about that statement that I made here just for a moment ago,
that the Word is our life, I trust one of the things that goes through your mind is,
where did pastor get that idea?
I was talking with another pastor, and he made the statement, which I thought is entirely true.
Pastors are ultimately plagiarists.
You know what we mean by that?
They're borrowing information that came from somewhere else.
And I trust you never think that I'm reciting something that I thought about creatively on my own.
The principal source is the Word of God.
And so when I make the statement that the Word is our life,
I think about a couple different passages in relationship to that.
One is over in Deuteronomy chapter 32.
And I want you to follow with me just for a moment.
Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 46 and 47.
This is Moses preaching to the nation of Israel his concluding sermon.
He knows after this he's dying.
And there towards the very end of the book, he makes this little statement.
He says,
Take to heart all the words which I am warning you today.
And he goes on a little bit and he says,
It is no empty word for you, but your very life.
And so when we handle the Word of God, when we think about the Word of God,
we recognize that it is our life.
We depend upon it for all that we are and all that we do.
I think about another passage in which we see a very similar concept appear.
And if you turn in your Bible to John chapter 6, we're going to look just for a second.
We'll come back to Proverbs, but I want you to think with me of John chapter 6.
It's a long chapter.
And it begins with Jesus ministering to a group of people.
And in that context, he feeds a large crowd.
And they love the idea that they had free din-din.
And Jesus did it.
I mean, it had to be the best bread and fish that anybody ever had.
I open cans of sardines periodically in the office,
and I am seldom appreciated by anybody else but me.
I happen to like them, but I can tell you I'd much rather settle for fresh fish
that had been produced by Jesus on the spot than those cans of sardines.
And here was Jesus, did this meal.
Everybody was excited.
And as an outcome of that, he went ahead and took advantage of all this interest
to preach a sermon.
And guess what the outcome of that sermon was?
Everybody left.
They were offended.
They didn't like what he had to say.
And at the heart of it, as everybody's going away, he turns to his disciples,
and he says, are you guys leaving too?
And that brings us to a little statement that Peter made.
He said, Lord, to whom should we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
Where else?
And I want you to think with me just for a moment, because I am stunned.
I am stunned when I find out how often professing believers rely on every other resource for
information other than the Word of God.
Here's Peter.
He says, listen, where can we go?
You've got the words of life.
And so if the Word is so essential, it makes sense, and I want to say this slowly so you don't miss it,
it makes sense that it is our first and most important resource in dealing with the questions
and challenges that life throws at us.
Now, we're at a day today where we celebrate Mother's Day.
And as I said, our focus is not just on mothers, but our focus is on godly womanhood
and the blessing that godly women are in all of our lives.
And that's why we're in the book of Proverbs.
Actually, if you were to ask me the question,
what book in the Bible has the most to say about women,
it would be the book of Proverbs.
Now, you'd have to admit, if you're a student of the book of Proverbs,
that you know a fair number of the texts in Proverbs do not give a smiley, happy face on women.
Would you agree with that?
Now, I'm not going to go overboard on this,
but you remember that Proverbs has a comment to say that living in a house with a nagging, whining wife
is like living in a house where there's dripping, dripping, dripping water, right?
I mean, don't go there, but let's just leave it at that.
It talks about the fact, I saw some people looking around and going,
stop, just listen.
Don't get yourself in trouble, guys, okay?
And it goes on and says this, and there's a lot that Solomon,
I'm wondering about this, why did Solomon not practice the wisdom that he wrote about?
He had a lot to say about ungodly women who would cause heartache in young men's lives.
Proverbs has a lot to say about the danger of ungodly women.
It's interesting as well, and by the way, Proverbs was written to give advice to men,
to young men in particular.
It's very interesting to recognize that the book of Proverbs closes off essentially with one final chapter,
and it is all about women.
Beginning in verse 10 and carrying on to the very end of the chapter,
Proverbs chapter 31 gives us some very careful instruction about women,
and it is given to us in a very interesting fashion.
There are 22 verses, and the first verse, if you were reading in your Hebrew Bible,
does anybody have one here today?
Hebrew Bible, it's back in my office.
But if you're reading in your Hebrew Bible, it would begin with the letter Aleph.
Caleb, you have yours.
Is that what you're saying?
Oh, okay.
It begins with the letter Aleph, and then it goes to the letter Beth,
and then it goes to the letter Gimel, and then it goes to the letter He,
Wow, Zion, Heth, Death, etc.
Do you know why it's done that way?
Any idea?
It was written alphabetically with the first part of every verse starting with the letter.
A is for apple, right?
B is for boy.
See, it was there for alphabetical structure for the sake of memory work.
And the understanding was that little Hebrew boys were going to memorize this passage
so that eventually, when it came around to kicking tires for a girl,
they had an idea of what they were looking for.
Huh.
And it was also memorized by little girls so that they knew what they should be.
Now, in our culture, I was thinking about this, we go out of our way to kind of give to,
am I going to cause a problem, John?
We move this way over here.
Are you?
Okay.
We go out of our way to kind of equip our girls to have an idea of what they should look like when they're adults.
Now, what do I mean by that?
How many of you have ever seen a Barbie doll?
A Barbie doll, you know?
Now, what is it about, I'm not going to ask you to explain out loud,
but have you noticed that a Barbie doll is not the way that most everybody we've ever known looks like?
But it communicates to little girls, this is what is really attractive,
and it says to little boys, that's what you're looking for.
Hmm.
We've got a problem, don't we?
The truth of the matter is, is that is not what the Scriptures want us to think about,
and we are looking here, and we have an understanding that as this passage is laid out by the Spirit of God
in the book of Proverbs, chapter 31,
it is given so that God's people will know what to look for in a godly woman,
and so a godly woman knows what to be.
In the larger context,
if you want to recognize the overflow of what we find in the book of Proverbs,
we'd put it this way,
a godly woman is a great help,
and an ungodly woman is a great harm.
So, in that we are looking at the very last words in the book of Proverbs,
and it's a summary.
By the way, chapter 31, 22 verses about women,
but we come towards the very end,
and one of the characteristics of a good teacher is that they give you a summary.
They give you a closing statement, something to remember.
Am I right?
Generally, one of the principles of good teaching is you tell people what you're going to teach them about,
you teach them what you're going to teach them about,
and then you remind them what you're going to teach them about,
and we're dealing with the little summary, the little reminder at the very end,
and here's what it says.
Look at it with me.
It says,
First, I want to recognize the clear cautions that Solomon gives to us.
The Holy Spirit takes the two most commonly valued feminine features and turns them upside down.
It's interesting, isn't it?
Charm is deceitful.
The Hebrew word for charm is actually referring to that external elegance of the feminine form
as well as the charm and the allure of feminine grace.
I do remember that Proverbs was aimed primarily at a son, the male of the species,
and ever since the day that God brought Adam, his wife,
men have been profoundly affected by what they see with their eyes.
Do you know what Adam said when he saw the woman that God had created?
What did he say?
In practical terms, he said,
Wow!
You got it?
And here's the truth.
Every man born of woman is deeply affected by what they see with their eyes.
It's the way it is.
And it's the reason that advertising is the way it is, right?
You don't sell toilet paper without using the beauty of women to do so.
Now, everything associated that goes along with sales, we're always kind of floating the eye.
If you want to get the man to look, guess what we use?
We use the feminine form.
We use the female to draw and allure.
And here is Solomon saying,
Let me tell you something.
Charm is deceitful.
And so here's what we have.
We have the Spirit of God reminding us that what we see on the surface is actually deceitful.
Does that mean that every beautiful woman is a snake and a liar?
And the answer is no.
That's not what it's saying.
But it does mean that what we see on the surface is undeniably deceptive
and trusting in what we can see with the eye is profoundly dangerous.
Often, the more beguiling and attractive the external features are,
the less well-developed the internal features and spirit are.
Do you understand that statement?
Can I say it slowly so you don't miss it?
Often, the more attractive and well-developed the external features are,
the more deficient what is inside is.
It's just the way it is.
Nobody, say this slowly so everybody unfollows me,
nobody gets to be the complete package.
And so if all the attention is put on the exterior, guess what?
You're putting all that attention on the exterior
because you think that's what you have fundamentally.
And at the end of the day, it is not what lasts.
I was thinking about this issue of charm as deceitful.
I was thinking about Judith and I being in a restaurant some time ago,
and the waitress was just, well, she was charming.
And Judith made her choice of the menu first.
And the young lady, sweet, spirit, and so effervescent, bubbly, you know,
and she said, excellent choice.
Wow, Judith, that's a good choice.
And I didn't do it, but I was thinking, you know,
what if I said I would like fried chitlins?
Do you know what chitlins are?
Does anybody know what?
Raise your hand if you know what chitlins are.
What part of the hog are they?
They're the intestines.
Anybody here besides me ever eaten tripe?
Do you know what tripe is?
It's not from the loin of the cow.
Okay.
So if I had said, you know, I'd like fried chitlins,
and I would like pickled pig's feet,
and I would like sardines on the side,
and she says, excellent choice.
Here, charm is deceitful.
Do you follow what I'm saying?
I thought to myself, actually, when this girl went to another table
and we're eating our meal,
and I heard that little saying at the end of,
and I'll have blah, blah, blah,
and I heard her say, and the enthusiasm was just kind of,
excellent choice.
I thought, gag.
You know?
Yeah, perfect example.
Excellent choice.
So here's the deal.
If as a man,
you think the value and the sum of a woman
is what you see on the surface,
or if as a woman,
you are consumed with your outward appearance,
you are deceived,
and you're a deceiver.
There's a second thing that we find in the passage in Proverbs,
and look at it here.
It says, charm is deceitful,
and it says, beauty is vain.
The Hebrew word for beauty here
refers more to the physical beauty,
while charm has to do with the,
with more of that abstract business
that goes with being feminine and alluring.
It's just talking about that physical beauty
that when Adam was brought his wife,
he says, wow.
And I've got to tell you something.
If you kind of work your way
through the various days of creation
at the end of every day,
what does God say about what he'd made?
Good.
We're getting to five, I think.
Good.
And then he comes to the last day,
and he makes woman,
and what does he say?
He says, here's the go,
very good.
Solomon says, let me tell you something, guys.
That beauty is vain.
The word vain is a word
that is really talking about something
that is not lasting.
And you have to understand,
I have to understand that what Solomon is saying
is that that physical beauty
of the 21-year-old that is marked
by beautiful shining hair
and smooth skin
and no wrinkles,
and there's that wonderful feminine features
that are just undeniably attractive to a man.
I want you to know
that surgery and Botox
can kind of keep it there temporarily,
but at the end of the day,
it all runs downhill.
Still.
I think I can tell this story
and not get in trouble.
Not too long ago,
we were in a small group,
and we were talking about things
you have to give up for Jesus' sake.
And I was asking questions,
and one of these little girls says,
we have to give up bikinis for Jesus' sake.
And I thought that was interesting.
I'll say it loud
so some of you in the back can hear me.
We have to give up bikinis for Jesus' sake.
And I decided that I would
step into the pool a little bit
and kind of add to that statement.
And I said,
honey, let me tell you something
about using bikinis
to draw attention to yourself.
When you're 80,
I don't have to say anything else, do I?
I did ask the little girl.
I said, honey,
have you ever seen an 80-year-old woman
that is gorgeous on the outside?
And she shook her head no.
That's true.
You see,
what Solomon's saying
is that outward beauty fades.
If you are uncertain about that,
here's what I want you to do.
The next time you go to the grocery store,
don't open the covers or anything,
but just look on the outward side
of People magazine
or all the tabloids.
How many of you see,
just, I mean,
can't look at it long,
but I mean, there it is.
There are 80-year-old women,
just one picture after another
of elderly people, you know?
At the beach,
you know,
exercised.
And by the way,
if you're 80
and you've been sunbathing too long,
do you know what your skin looks like?
Huh?
What's it look like?
It looks like some kind of extrusion.
Worse than leather.
So here's the point.
Let's just go to the end of the story.
Outward beauty will not last.
And it's well worth remembering.
Outward beauty will not last.
And those who rely on it,
those who are seduced by it,
those who buy things
because of the packaging
rather than the product,
are not wise.
So what really counts?
Look at the passage.
A woman who fears the Lord
is to be praised.
Proverbs compares charm and beauty
with a distinctly different mindset.
And so before we actually go on to that,
here's a question I have.
I raised two daughters.
I've been here long enough
to have watched many of you raising daughters.
And I got to tell you,
you don't have to work hard
at teaching them
how to put on makeup
when they're little girls.
Do you realize that?
They begin to experiment
without you coaching them.
They understand
that's part of what's important.
And they usually come out
their first couple tries,
you know what they look like?
Lipstick all over the face,
rouge and big blotches.
And you have to tell them,
if you're going to be beguiling,
you need to do
a little better job.
Unfortunately,
we seldom put as much energy
into teaching young ladies
how to have beautiful hearts.
Look at what Solomon says.
He says,
a woman who fears the Lord.
So what does fearing the Lord mean?
Let me have you work through this with me
by helping you understand.
First of all,
fearing the Lord is the fruit of His grace.
I want to say that carefully.
Fearing the Lord is the fruit of His grace.
I'm not going to have you look at the passage
this morning,
but let me make a reference
to what it says in Jeremiah 32,
verse 39 and 40.
It makes the statement
that really it is the work of God
to help us fear Him.
Now,
it's interesting that
the unbeliever
is terrified of God
at the end.
But for most of their life,
guess what they're thinking?
Where's God?
I don't care.
He's not going to mess with me.
I'm on my own.
One of the things it says
over and over again in Psalms
and also appears,
I believe,
in Proverbs
is that one of the characteristics
of the unbeliever
is they have no fear of God.
That's the way they are.
And so if you're sitting here this morning
and in your heart
there is a wholesome,
honorable fear of God,
that fear is there
because the Spirit of God
has worked to give it to you.
And so when we think about
the fear of God,
we need to recognize,
first of all,
that it's something
He has to do in us.
Secondly,
fearing the Lord
means getting the first things right.
Turn in your Bible,
if you're there
in Proverbs chapter 31,
I want you to turn in your Bible
back to Proverbs chapter 1,
verse 7.
The book of Proverbs
actually has a lot to say
about the fear of the Lord.
In Proverbs chapter 1,
verse 7,
at the very beginning
of this book,
it says this,
the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge
fools despise wisdom
and instruction.
You will not fear
what you do not know.
I want you to recognize that.
You will not fear
what you do not know,
but if you know God
and you seek His face,
you will grow in your fear of Him
and at the same time,
very interestingly,
you grow in your love of Him.
You'll grow in your fear of God
and you'll grow in your love of God.
And if you're sitting here
this morning
and the truth of the matter is
is that you have no fear,
the fact of the matter is
you also have no love.
The two are linked
and cannot be pulled apart.
Curiously,
but that's the way it is.
And so we find here
that the fear of the Lord
is getting the first things right.
The fear of the Lord
also means being profoundly affected
by His person.
I want you to look at
Matthew chapter 10, verse 28.
There has been some effort
by some to kind of water down
the theology underlying this issue
of the fear of God.
And there's some people that say,
well, this business of fearing God,
it's overplayed
and it really isn't to be taken
the way that some have taken it.
The word fear of God
is just talking about
having a reverential trust.
Now, I wouldn't diminish the fact
that having a reverential trust
of God is important,
but that is not the first
and primary thought
behind the concept
of fearing God,
scripturally at least.
Matthew chapter 10, verse 28.
Jesus makes this statement,
do not fear those who kill the body,
but cannot kill the soul.
It says,
rather fear Him who can destroy
both soul and body in hell.
Now, what we have in this passage
is a perfect comparison.
How many of you have been terrified
on certain occasions
at the prospect of something bad
happening to you physically?
Yeah, you probably have.
I remember some time ago
actually being on top of a ladder
that was stretched out
about 25 feet in the air
and having been a paint contractor,
having an inordinate amount of confidence
in my ladder placement,
I scampered right up there
and didn't anchor it off.
Painters are always moving the ladders.
And even at 60-something,
I thought,
I've got this down.
And I got up there
way up high in the air.
And after I got up there,
guess what happened to my ladder?
It shifted.
And in that little shift,
it must not have been more than
probably six inches up there,
about 24 feet.
I've got to tell you
that for a moment,
I thought my life was passing
in front of me.
And I got that,
you know,
what is known as the death grip
on the ladder.
You ever been there?
It's like...
Okay.
Here's Jesus.
He's saying,
hey,
don't be afraid of those
who can kill the body.
Don't be afraid of that.
You need to be afraid
of the one who can do you in
in this life
and deal with you
in the one to come.
Now,
what we see in that passage
is that this business
of fearing God
means fearing Him,
being afraid of Him,
being terrified
at the reality
and the prospect
of who God is.
It's very interesting
as you read the Scriptures,
you find a very consistent picture
that those who became
intimately aware
of God's presence
and glory
were always in every case
marked by an abject fear
and trembling.
They're just overwhelmed by it.
This idea of floating around
through Christianity
that God's some kind of
good old dude in the sky
that we can kind of be flippant with
has no scriptural structure to it.
The fear of God
means to be terrified
at the reality of who He is,
awed, inspired, but afraid.
It means being more afraid of Him
as you look at this passage here
than you would be of a thug
or a tyrant
who wants to kill you.
Fearing the Lord
means also caring a great deal
about what He thinks.
What He thinks.
Proverbs 16, verse 6,
and I'll have you
just track this passage with me.
It says,
By the fear of the Lord
one turns away from evil.
Fearing the Lord
means caring a great deal
about what He thinks.
And the one who fears the Lord
turns away from evil.
How many of you realize
that evil oftentimes
ends up being something
we begin to think about
and we move from
kind of thinking about it
to eventually doing it?
Isn't that a shame?
One of the things
that always kind of,
you know,
I think,
Man,
I can't believe I did that.
I have to tell you,
when I think back over my life,
I recognize that in every case,
the things that I did
that were wrong,
I move from thinking
that that might not be
a good idea
to thinking that it would be
a good idea.
But it says this,
The one who fears the Lord
turns away from evil.
That's not right.
I know what God thinks.
I don't want to go there.
I don't want to be involved in that.
I want to avoid that
because I fear God.
You know,
one of the things that
I have to tell you
goes with years of ministry
is I've lived long enough
and I've watched enough
people's lives
that I've watched
a lot of people
over the years
eventually
kind of drift away
from the Lord
and drift away
from the church
and drift away
into their own little
experience and whatever.
And here's one of the things
I've said over and over again
to them.
One point or another,
I'll have a conversation
with them
and I'll say,
I don't know
if you're a believer or not.
Now, why is that true?
Yeah, I can't read
anybody's birth certificate.
Do you follow that?
Tim Kenoyer's not
in birth certificate business.
I'm in the business
of sharing the truth.
But what I will tell you this
is if you're a child of God,
you will not get away with sin.
You can't
because the Father loves you.
And those who are his children
grow in appreciating the fact
that they can't get away with it.
You ever compare yourself
with other people
in your neighborhood
or other people
that you work with
and you're thinking,
why are they getting away with that?
Don't do that.
The fear of the Lord
gives to you
a sensibility
to the seriousness of sin
and a desire in your heart
to get away from those things
that would harm you
and cause you pain.
I want you to come
to one other thought with me
in relationship to this.
Fearing the Lord
means being dominated
by his supremacy
and his glory.
Dominated
by his supremacy
and his glory.
Fearing the Lord
means being dominated
by his supremacy
and his glory.
We live in a day
and age
where
a disproportionate
percentage
of our population
is absolutely
consumed
with self.
Would you agree with that?
Here's the sad thing.
I see people
who are professing believers
that are only about
a half step
behind the unbelieving world
in their same affections
and interests.
Doing the same things.
Buying into the same logic.
Taking the same medicines.
Listening to the same
theoretical propositions
on how to deal with life
and having no connection
whatever
with the word of God
and the sufficiency
of his grace.
I want to tell you something.
Fearing the Lord
means being dominated.
The thing I want
is the glory of God.
The thing I care about
is that he would be first.
Fearing God
means being dominated
by his supremacy
and his glory.
It's very interesting
actually
that the Bible
gives to us
two great responses
that we owe to God.
One is to fear him
and the other
is to love him.
And remember I said
earlier
the two go together?
They're linked.
You fear God.
You grow to understand
who he is
and you have this
respect
and terror
of his awe
and majesty
his glory
and his power
and at the same time
you are
drawn towards
that power
and as you grow
in knowing
that power
you grow in loving
who he is.
Do you follow that?
You can't love someone
you don't know
and when you know him
you will be terrified
at the reality
of who he is
and yet we grow
to love him.
So let me come back
to the passage
in Proverbs
and have you think
with me.
Go back
if you've turned away
from it
to Proverbs chapter 31
and as we look
at this passage
let me remind you
again that
what this passage
was written for
is so that
little girls
would know
what they should
grow up
and look like.
You got that?
Not Barbies.
And little boys
would when they
eventually reach
the age
that their dad
would look to them
and say
well I think
you're at the age
you probably
can begin thinking
about maybe
who you might
ought to marry
someday.
Do you know
what you're looking
for?
Yes I do.
I have 22 verses
beginning with Aleph
going to Beth
and carrying on
that tell me
what I'm looking
for.
And dad
by the way
the end of this
string says this
charm
is deceitful
and beauty
won't last
but a woman
who fears
the Lord
she's a keeper.
That's what it says.
So let me put it
this way.
The most valuable
thing
to look for
in a woman
is the depth
and heart
that she has
for the Lord.
The most valuable
thing to look
for in a woman
is the depth
and the heart
that she has
for the Lord.
Is the Bible
practical?
What's the answer?
Oh yes.
Is the Bible
life?
Oh yes.
And this morning
as we think
about this
small segment
of God's
wisdom for us
where it relates
to the matter
of what a
godly woman
is.
I want to
broaden the scope
just for a moment
and ask you
if you're here
today
and you don't
know Christ
let me tell you
the Bible
has more
to say
that's valuable
than just
what kind
of woman
to be.
Here's what
the Bible
tells us.
The Bible
which is our
life
tells us
that all
have sinned
and come
short
of the glory
of God.
Do you know
what that means?
It means that
every one of us
apart from
the grace
of Christ
will stand
condemned
before God
and spend
all of eternity
in hell.
Last week
as I was walking
my dog
I bumped
into a
neighbor
and in the
course of
conversation
we were
kind of
sharing
information
and eventually
came out
where they
were going
to church
and then I
said where
I was going
and they
said well
that's one
of those
fundamentalist
churches
and we
got beyond
that just
for a moment
and I
began to
share well
you know
fundamentalism
is really
I wouldn't
call myself
a fundamentalist
but I said
you know
a fundamental
believes in
the fundamentals
of the faith
and at the
heart of our
faith
is a belief
that Jesus
is real
and that
hell's real
she immediately
stopped me
and said
I don't
believe in
that
really
you will
someday
the scripture
says
there's none
righteous
no not
one
and we
all stand
condemned
before a
holy God
but here's
the sweet
truth
knowing
our
inability
to save
ourselves
God sent
his son
to die
in my
place
and to die
in your
place
that what
the scriptures
say might
be true
whosoever
believes in
him
do you know
what it
says
shall not
perish
but have
everlasting
life
I gotta tell
you something
you can't
figure out
how to
fear the
Lord
if you
haven't
come to
faith
and believed
in Christ
and so
if you
want to
grow
to be
a godly
woman
and you're
sitting here
today
and you
don't know
Christ
my appeal
to you
my plea
would be
that you
confess your
sins
and believe
on the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
who came
to pay
the penalty
for you
in your
place
and he
offers you
everlasting
life
if you'll
trust him
and if
you're here
this morning
and you're
a young
man who
who does
not know
Christ
or you're
a father
or a man
who needs
Christ
and the burden
is on you
this morning
let me
encourage you
to know
this
here's what
it says
in the
scriptures
whosoever
calls upon
the name
of the
Lord
that person
will be
saved
it is
profoundly
simple
but it is
profoundly
humbling
because what
a person
has to do
is say
I know
I stand
condemned
before God
and I
need
Jesus
to forgive
me
and save
me
and so
what I'm
going to ask
what we do
is we just
bow our heads
right now
just quietly
where we are
I want you to
think for a moment
to yourself
do I know
Christ as my
savior
and if you're
here today
and you know
Christ as your
savior
but you recognize
that your heart
has grown cold
and you're here
today
and there is
not an interest
in the things
of God
whether you're
a man or a woman
or a boy or a girl
I would ask
that you would
quietly
respond
if the spirit
of God
is prompting
you
and you just
raise your
hands
and you're
asking for
those
any
!