GYC 2016: When All Has Been Heard

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

For Women Only: Living a Life of Significance

Janice Watson

1. Significantly His

This message was presented at the GYC 2016 conference, When All Has Been Heard, in Houston, Texas.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

We're glad that you got in before we started.

For those of you who don't know, my name is Janice Watson.

I currently teach at Oakwood University in Alabama.

Something that was a great surprise to me.

I never thought I'd ever be living in the South.

And I'm learning to enjoy some things about living in the South, after New York and Minnesota and Michigan.

It is a great joy for me to be here and to be with you.

In a minute, I'm going to tell you briefly about the miracle of my being here.

And I'm going to tell it to you not because you need to know about me, but because I want you to understand that God has planned something special.

I don't know what he's planned, and I don't know why you're here, but I know that he has something he's about to do, and I'm excited that we can share this experience together.

Can you see me in the back so I don't have to get up on the podium?

I'm gonna share something with you and then we're gonna pray together a little more, all right?

And then move into what it is that we're about to accomplish over the next, what is it, 4 sessions today and 2 more sessions Thursday and Friday.

We are here, Lord, because we are your beloved and we come to you grateful for the opportunity to be in your presence, grateful for your word and what it is you're about to share with us and what you want to do in us.

The Holy Spirit is already here but we're asking for a double portion.

Make me transparent so that what you have to say and what you have to share will flow freely through me to your people.

And we give you all the honor and all of the glory.

It has taken me, I think, what, 6, 7 years to get here for this session today.

Several years ago, they invited me to come and do this session.

And I planned for it and I prepped for it and all kinds of wonderful things.

And about 3 days before I was due to come, my father had been ill and about 3 days before I was due to come, I felt very strongly that I should go home to my parents in Ohio.

And I called them and I did something I'd never done in my speaking career before, and I canceled.

I was due to speak on Friday and on Sabbath, and on Sabbath afternoon, my father died.

And it was a blessing for me to be at home and with my mother at that time and with my father as he went through that part, that stage of his life.

And so you know I was worried, I missed it, I'm so sorry, I let them down, and so forth and so on.

And at the beginning of December, I think it was December 5th, my mother had a stroke.

She had a major stroke and so we spent that period of time in the hospital, so forth and so on, and I called them and I said, I can't come.

And I have to be honest that I had to think about it.

Interesting things happen when they call me to come to GYC.

Third time, you're asking me again, I'll go.

And it was interesting to me because this is not the area that I study, this is not the thing that I spend my life doing.

Like, okay, Lord, I'll do it, I'll do it.

And I told them I'll do it and I all I prayed my way through the fear and so forth and so on what I'm gonna come Early in December this year my mother by the way had been on hospice and so forth and so on was doing better and Early this December my mother had to be taken to ER.

You know, we prayed and we prayed and I decided I'd come.

And there are people in place who are praying and looking and they're going to go and visit her and so forth and I'm calling in and so on.

Well, you know, I spent the last 3 weeks at the hospital so there's not a lot of prepping in a sense that you're doing there.

But, and here's what's really interesting.

In the last 3 weeks, the toe that I broke a month ago suddenly started doing crazy things.

On Sunday I suddenly got sick and on Monday the world is spinning and on Tuesday the Lord allowed me to get on a plane and come.

I'm delighted to be here because I believe God designed for me to be here at this moment with you.

And I believe God designed for you to be here at this moment.

So I don't know what you came to get or what the package is that he has wrapped and labeled and put your name on for this session, but I'm eager for you to get what he has for you.

I'm eager for you to take away whatever the gift is that is wrapped for you personally.

I'm going to ask you to turn to a woman next to you, and we're going to do very, very short prayers.

What I'm asking you to pray for, in addition to my voice hulling out, what I'm asking you to pray for is that God would prepare us for what he wants to give us, and that each of us individually will get the gift that God has for us.

So if you would just take a moment, pray with someone next to you, and I know that there are times when we do these wonderful, beautiful, long and extended prayers?

Could we do this 1 in a couple of sentences?

There are times when I love for us to just pray freely, but I would like to share some things with you that I believe God has for us.

But let's take the moment and just fill this room with our prayers and our praise to God.

Father, each woman in this room has come with a particular need, with a particular burden.

Some of us came knowing why we came, and some of us weren't sure why we came, but we're here by your spirits prompting and leading.

2. Significantly Beautiful

Some of you were here at the previous session.

So in either case, we're delighted that you're here.

We're going to spend a little bit of time, open God's word, look at some things that God has to say about us and about beauty and what it means to be a beautiful woman and what beautiful women look like as well as who they are.

Father, we thank you that you have chosen us as your daughters.

We thank you that you have chosen us not only to be your daughters, but also to be your witnesses.

And we ask, Lord, as we turn to this topic, that you will guide us, that you will direct us, That you will help us to fully understand the things that you want to share with us.

Amen When I Received the invitation to come and speak they actually sent me a list of things that they thought would be helpful for me to talk about.

And 1 of the things they said was, would you talk about attire and modesty?

And I thought about that and I thought, you know what?

Perhaps that question ought to be a different kind of question.

But let's talk about it in terms of what I'm calling dressing or beauty from the inside out.

When you get up in the morning to get dressed for the day, you don't start with your jacket.

That's not the first thing that you put on.

However, I think sometimes as Christian women, when we think about our appearance, when we think about modesty, We start with the jacket.

And we address it from the outside first.

And I think that some of the challenges that we face in addressing it have to do with coming from the outside first.

So I'd like to start with beauty from the inside and then build through it.

And you notice that I ask this question a lot in sessions.

Where in the Bible would you send someone to talk about beautiful women?

What passage, what place in scripture Might you go?

You know, whenever you talk about women, the answer always seems to be Proverbs 31.

But perhaps, Shall we start somewhere else for an opportunity?

And Titus is 1 of those passages that we often read when we talk about women.

But let's turn to Titus and look in Titus chapter 2.

And in Titus, Paul is talking to a young church still through Titus, And he's talking about some of the ways that we live and the things that we do and the things we ought to do.

And he talks to old men and he talks to aged women, and then he talks about young women and then he talks about young men.

And he says In chapter 2, verse 2, teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in endurance.

Teach them to be, depending on the version you may be reading, to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderous or addicted to much wine, to teach what is good, then they could train younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, to be subject to their husbands.

And Paul is beginning to talk about woman and what it is that 1 looks for, what it is that 1 expects in a woman.

We're gonna come back here, so stick your finger or a marker there.

Let's go to Colossians 3 and let's look at verses 12 to 17.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you have against another.

Forgive as God forgave you, and over all these things put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, since as members of 1 body, you are called to peace.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish 1 another with all wisdom as you sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.

And Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all to the name of the Lord.

I want to take those 2 passages for a moment and just walk us through it, step by step.

We're talking about beauty from the inside because you know how they tell you about health?

That if you have a healthy body, it shows in your skin, in your hair, right?

The health of your body shows in the beauty of your body.

If you drink water, it's going to make a difference in how you look.

It's going to make a difference in what kind of hair you have, so forth and so on.

And in scripture, in the same way, what's in you makes a difference in the outer you.

So let's start with the inner you and walk our way through to the outer you.

And When Paul starts talking about Older women who are going to demonstrate for younger woman.

Have you ever seen a beautiful older woman an older woman that just really glows And Paul says, you know what?

It would be a wonderful thing if the older women in the church were beautiful, and then they taught the younger women how to be beautiful.

And then we have a whole church of beautiful women who can look at each other and think, look what God has done, look what God has done.

By the way, have you ever seen an older woman who's bitter and angry and upset and who seems to have that written on their face.

You know, my mother used to say when we were a child, if you fix your face like that, it's going to be like that permanently.

But you see some people and you know that they've been smiling and it shows.

And then you see other women and you think you've been frowning a lot for a long time.

So Paul says, here are some things that will help to make beautiful older women who can train beautiful younger women.

And he says, you know what, their behavior should become holiness.

Titus 2, verse 1, teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.

So he says, look, first you have to have a foundation.

You've got to teach the women and they have to learn what is in accord with sound doctrine.

Beauty begins, according to Paul, with knowing the word.

What's the connection between knowing the word and a beautiful inside?

When I ask questions, they're usually not rhetorical.

So, 1 of the connections is that the word renews the mind.

Another connection is that the word gives us the standard.

3. Startlingly Clean in a Grimy World

Father, we started by asking for a double portion of your blessing.

We started Lord by turning to you as our God, as our Father, as our beloved, as the 1 who not only created us but redeemed us and then chose us to be in partnership with you.

So Lord, we come with great humility, asking again, that you would continue to do for us that which you have planned for us, that you would continue to gift us.

Every good and perfect gift comes from you, and we are here in need of your gift.

So we come open hands, open heart, open minds.

Please Lord, do for us that which you know we can't do for ourselves.

Lord, I stand before you with all that I have of worth and of trash, asking that you would clean out, that you would purge, that you would empty, so that then you can fill and pour through me to your daughters.

And Lord we promise that when we have received what you are going to give us, we'll give you all the honor and all the glory.

This morning for those of you who were here, we talked about a couple of things, and actually, you know what, teachers do this all the time.

Somebody tell me something we said this morning or learned about identity.

And we spent some time this morning talking about what it means to be created in God's image, what it means to be redeemed by him, but also what it means to be called by name.

We spent a little bit of time in Isaiah 43 this morning looking at how God tells us how precious and valuable and honored we are.

And then in our second session, we talked about beauty.

We talked a lot about what that means to be beautiful from the inside out.

To be beautiful in terms of the character, the image of God that he is developing in us, what beauty means from that perspective, and how that then influences how we see ourselves, how we see our bodies, and how we clothe those bodies that God has gifted us with.

And so I promised you this morning that we would continue the conversation and that we would continue it around the issues of purity.

Remember that we started several of our discussions this morning in Titus 2?

And if you'll go with me back to Titus 2, we'll look at what Titus 2 is saying to women.

And we'll build from there into that idea that we want to discuss.

Because we started with the beautiful older woman who were training and developing and nurturing and mentoring beautiful younger woman and those of you who are sitting out there and saying you know I'm not an old woman so I don't have to mentor and nurture and train.

If there is anybody younger than you in your sphere of influence that makes you an older woman.

If there's anybody who is around you who might look at you, you're an older woman.

Now, There will be a point where you get to the point where you're gray-haired and you look around and a lot of people are younger than you.

But for all of us, there's someone who's coming behind us who needs from us our nurture, our mentoring, our example, and our teaching.

It says, likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way.

Teach them to be in behavior as becometh holiness, if I'm reading from the King James.

Not false accusers, not given to wine, and we talked about some of that as not given not only to wine, but to addictions in general.

Teachers of good things, so that they may teach the young woman to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, and if you look at many versions of verse 5, it says to be self-controlled and pure.

And this morning we talked about self-control and the importance of self-control for beautiful women.

And this afternoon, I'd like to talk a little and look at the word of God a little on the subject of purity.

Godly women, the Bible says, beautiful women are beautiful partially because they are pure.

And if there was ever a time in Earth's history when thinking about purity was important, it is probably now.

We have probably never lived in an age when there were so many opportunities to be impure.

When there were so many, not only opportunities, but advertisements and encouragements to impurity.

Think about any typical day that you have.

And we understand that this is a context in which impurity is now the norm.

That all around us, surrounding us, and so here's this interesting question.

The Bible calls us to be in the world and not of it.

How do we do that and what does that mean?

And I'm gonna look very specifically in the time we have together about some of the specific things that I think we may be struggling with or people around us are struggling with, and that it's useful to speak to during that period of time.

But before we do that, let's talk a little bit about purity itself.

And we'll probably do a lot of running up and down in the Bible this afternoon as we look at various things.

And I love that when I come to GYC and I say that, people whip out their phones, people whip out their paper Bibles, And we're all in this together.

My students have come to the conclusion that we better have a Bible on our phone because Dr.

Watts is gonna say in the middle of class, now let's look this up.

All right, Proverbs 16, verse 2, where it says, all the ways of a man are clean or pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits.

Because 1 of the things that the Bible says is let's not make the assumption that we automatically will look at something and know this is not pure, this is not clean.

Why can we not make the assumption that that's automatically gonna happen?

Whenever you see something impure, you know it?

I'm going to take us back to this morning.

Remember we talked about the Word of God, the Bible as mirror and standard?

I'm going to argue that the only way that we would know is if we are indeed grounded and based in the Word.

There's nothing about us that naturally says, you know what, I got it.

Have you ever been exposed to something that in the beginning you thought was terrible and horrific and really really bad and then over time it seemed less and less and less so.

You got so used to hearing it or seeing it that you almost didn't notice anymore that it was there.

And so our assumptions that we automatically know what is pure and impure may not always be true.

That possibility of sliding into something that we didn't quite catch, And 1 of the things that I'm gonna suggest as we talk today is that there are some things that over time have also slid slowly and gently from where they were into a new place.

And that it's easy sometimes to miss that new place.

And so, look what the psalmist says in Psalms 26 verse 2.

And then we'll look at Psalm 139 as well.

But in Psalms 36 verse 2, the psalmist talks to that point.

He addresses that issue for himself as he looks at.

And I think I might have someone else read that for us.

Let's get you involved in some other ways.

4. Leading Significantly

Welcome back and welcome to those of you who are here for the first time in this session.

We have been together now, what is this, our fourth session for many of you?

And we have addressed a number of issues that in working with young people and young women particularly have emerged as being important, significant, or of interest as women try to live godly lives, as they try to be prepared for the end of time and the judgment, because we are at that point now where time has progressed in such a way that there's not a whole lot of time left.

And the theme for this conference is so important.

Because if we don't now remember the creator, If we don't now make the choices, you're having trouble hearing me.

And I don't know if we can get someone to increase the mic.

And when I forget that I'm talking and I get soft again, then somebody let me know and we'll yell some more.

And hopefully there'll be a voice tomorrow, but God has been so good anyway so far that I'm just in awe of what he's done so far.

I'm praying that you feel warmer, and if it gets unbearable, we'll do something else, all right?

But for Now, Father, we love you and you love us.

And you speak to us particularly as women, not because we're more than, but just because we are and you made us the way that we are.

So we come to you as your daughters 1 more time, asking Lord that you would bless us, asking Lord that you'd continue to feed us, because how can we grow if we're not fed?

Series

For Women Only: Living a Life of Significance

5. Single and Significant?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Testimony

So You Asked Now What?

58m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

5. Victory in the Final Conflict

1h 4m

Unraveling the Gay Spin

2. Identity Matters

1h

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Gay Puzzle: Loving Gays to Christ

06-Turn Around: Q&A

1h 16m

Plenary

Here’s Your Church Back

2h 13m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

2. Encountering God

1h 5m

Distinct Advent Message- A1

A Moment or A Millenium?

2h

For Women Only: Living a Life of Significance

4. Leading Significantly

56m

The Power of God's Word

6. Power in Personal Bible Study

1h

Evening Devotional

The Practical Nature of Scripture

1h 34m

Making Sense of Last Day Events

4. God’s Final Call

1h

Knees, Keys, and Please!

1. To Know Christ

1h

Sound Doctrine