Spiritual Renewal:women's Challenge To The Church

Spiritual Renewal: Women’s Challenge To The Church

Women’ Day 9:30 September 20, 1992 Text Judges 4 Ps19:1-7

Romans 8:31-39

TOBY

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Speak to us O God, that which we need to hear this day

concerning our spirittual renewal as your people in this world

today. May we respond with yes. So that the power you offer us,

will be unleashed in, among, and through us. Amen

When we look at the church, more times than not, there will

be more women than men in church. Often times this is seen as a

failure on the part of the church. In reality it may be the

success of women being in MORE tuned with the Spirit of God. If

there is to be a great awakening in the church, it will take

place because we, the women in the church will see begin to see

ourselves as God sees us. Women may hold the key to unleashing

the power available in the church.

When Jesus got ready to start a revival in the city of

Samaria, he did not send Peter, James or John. Jesus chose to

send a woman who had been a prostitute that was changed by spend

ing time with Him. Without the power of Christ in her life, no

one would have bothered to have given this woman the time of day.

Yet because she believed that Jesus was the Son of God, The

Anointed One, The Christ, she went and told others about Him.

The Scriptures says in John verse 39, "Many of the Samaritans

from that town believed in Jesus, because of the woman’s testimo

ny." You see you don’t need a degree or months of training to

touch others for God. You simply do what she did, and that’s to

tell others what Jesus has done for you.

RICK

Jesus delights in reaching out to use women to make a dif

ference in this world. Creation was not complete until God made

Eve. It’s interesting that God spoke the animals into existence.

Yet when it came to Adam, God made Him out of the dust and

breathed into the breath of life. Yet when it came to Eve, God

took even more care and totally involved Himself in the process.

Instead of dust, she was made of more complicated living flesh.

She is the only part of Creation that God personally introduced.

Even when God seeks to reestablish creation through the

powerful resurrection of Jesus Christ, God uses women to announce

this great event to the world. When the disciples were scared,

depressed, and ready to give up all hope, God sends two women

with the soul reviving message, "We have seen the Lord, and He is

risen from the dead." They brought back spiritual renewal and

hope to the disciples, simply because they were willing to go and

anoint the body of Jesus properly, regardless of the cost in

volved. Whereas the disciples were hiding behind closed doors.

TOBY

Since today’s theme For Women’s Day here at GPC is Spiritu

al Renewal: Women’s Challenge to the Church, this morning we are

going to look at how God uses the women Deborah and Jael, to stir

up a spiritual renewal in the land of Israel at a time when the

people had completely turned their back on God and decided to do

evil. As attractive as sin may be for the moment, the cost in

the end is unbearable. Someone has said, "the wages of sin are

always too high." Our text this morning comes from Judges the

fourth chapter.

We find in verse 1, "After Ehud died, the Israelites once

again did evil in the eyes of the Lord. So the Lord sold them

into the hand of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.

The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth

Haggooyim. Because he had nine hundred chariots and had cruelly

oppressed the Israelites for twenty years by destroying their

crops, dishonoring their women, and slayiing their children, they

cried to the Lord for help."

The nation of Israel did not have a king during this period

but was ruled by various judges at different points in time. A

judge would be raised up by God who would teach the people how to

live. No sooner than the judge died, the people would be off to

sinning again. When God sent judgment for their sin, then they

would think about crying out to God. They are now crying out to

God after a 20 year period of intentse oppresion. Sisera is a

commander of the enemy’s army, and he and the Caananite army

have truly been letting God’s people have it.

God is about ready to move and come down to deliver his

people. The judges were appointed and chosen by God. Look at