Concerned Women: Called To Holy Living

*EVANGELIST CAROLYN MALAIKA FOSTER-BROOKS

THE MINISTRY OF S.A.R.A.H.

(serenity*atonement*restoration & healing)

This sermon was preached at 1st AB Church

in Mount Vernon, Georgia on June 10, 2001

where Rev. F. Lee Carter is the pastor!

PRAYER:

My heavenly Father, God above, I thank You for Your love! I ask right now that you continue to reward everyone that is under the sound of my voice with the blessings You have for them and Father that they be humble enough to not only receive them, but to share them with others.

Father, remove me, Carolyn Malaika Foster-Brooks, Your prophetic evangelist from the sight of Your people and let them be a witness to You that dwells inside of me.

God, I pray that my sermon today be used for the uplifting of your kingdom and be pleasing to You. That only the gospel truth be told!

Thank You Father. In the name of my brother Jesus Christ, I pray.

Amen. And so it is!

SCRIPTURE:

(I Peter 1:16) FOR HE HIMSELF HAS SAID, YOU MUST BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY. (Luke 24:9-11) SO THEY RUSHED BACK TO TELL HIS ELEVEN DISCIPLES-AND EVERYONE ELSE WHAT HAD HAPPENED. THE WOMEN WHO WENT TO THE TOMB WERE MARY MAGDALENE, JOANNA, MARY, THE MOTHER OF JAMES AND SEVERAL OTHERS. THEY TOLD THE APOSTLES WHAT HAD HAPPENED. BUT THE STORY SOUNDED LIKE NONSENSE, SO THEY DIDN’T BELIEVE IT.

TEXT:

For those of you who would like to know, my sermon today is based upon your theme with it going a step farther....Concerned Women- WITH A CALL TO HOLY LIVING!! Amen?

I am talking about the church missionaries worldwide! And I’m going to still take it a step farther and say, CONCERNED WOMEN, DEVOTED TO GOD, WITH A CALL TO HOLY LIVING!!!

INTRODUCTION:

I am here today by calling, instruction and by invitation......by calling because Jesus said to His followers: " GO EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD AND TELL THE GOOD NEWS TO EVERYONE." (Mark 16:15)

I am here today by instruction of II Timothy 2:15- MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO GIVE YOURSELF TO GOD AS THE KIND OF PERSON HE WILL ACCEPT. BE A WORKER WHO IS NOT ASHAMED AND WHO USES THE TRUE TEACHING IN THE RIGHT WAY, and....

I am also here today by invitation of Sister_______and Sister _________, to whom I want to thank, along with the The First African Baptist Church Missionary Department!

To Rev. F. Lee Carter, a man of God who knew me when I was a child growing up in Miami, Florida and who, 38 years later allowed me to preach my very first sermon from the pulpit of St. Joseph Baptist Church in Lyons, Georgia in 1998 where Rev. Carter was then and still is now, the Pastor!

To all of you in this blessed congregation, I bring you Holy Greetings from Mount Chapel Missionary Baptist Church of the Oconee Zion Missionary Baptist Association, where Rev. Troy L. Grubbs is my pastor and Rev. James Love is my moderator....

The scriptures that come to my mind today can be found in I Peter, the 1st chapter, 16th verse and in Luke, the 24th chapter, 9th thru 11th verses.

TEXT:

I will always believe that it is important to have knowledge of your past in order to understand your future! It’s called history. Or better yet, His Story!...But the Lord has sent me by here today for just a little while to encourage you. To empower you. To talk about woman and Her Story!

It’s no secret and we all know that there has been a struggle. Not a struggle for women to deliver the Word of God, but a struggle for non-belivers to hear and to accept God’s Word from a woman!!! Luke 24:11 clearly let’s us know that since Jesus was raised from the dead, some men have been non-believers! But thanks be to God that it has not hindered Concerned Women, Devoted to God, With a Call to Holy Living!

Amen?

Throughout the centuries women have experienced a baptism of tears, anguish and indignities. But we have been recorded throughout the bible to be devoted to God and when Jesus entered upon His ministry, women responded to His teachings!!!

Our theme today, coming from Luke 24:1-11 focuses on the Resurrection of Jesus. But if you will , in your spiritual imagination, go back with me and take a closer look at the lives of the women disciples.... I am talking about Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and "certain women", healed of evil spirits and infirmities who had followed Jesus from Galilee. Women touched by Jesus Christ who showed their gratitude by ministering to His needs and the other disciples, by spending their substance. (Their money and opened their homes to Jesus.)

Can you imagine how it must have felt to stand back and watch the man who has done so much for you , carry a cross too heavy for one man to bear, thorns piercing His brow, people shouting, "Crucify Him!"- being stretched out with nails hammered in His hands and hammered in His feet??? Can you see the pain in His eyes as He was pierced in His side and suddenly....day turning into night as this man you have learned to love so much, shouts "FATHER, I ENTRUST MY SPIRIT INTO YOUR HANDS!" And then He dies....?