Virtue Open House - (Riv)

that is who he is right aren't you guys grab a seat you have no idea what a beautiful sight it is standing up here seeing all your faces it's just been a long three weeks hasn't it oh it feels like it's been much longer and that's because a lot of life has happened to a lot of us joe broke his leg other people have issues and their families health issues coming up some of us have just been running around like chickens with their heads cut off through the holidays and um you know there's a lot that has gone on tiffany had her baby right that's why she's not here today she may be listening i hope she's listening we want to all say we love you tiffany she had her baby and um so today is what we call a virtue open house and i know there's some of you out there that may be coming to virtue for the first time and you are like well i don't know somebody invited me to come check this out no commitment step in see what's going on here with the ministry for women and uh you know maybe you're not even comfortable in this setting it may feel very strange and bizarre to you can i just say we all had our moments feeling that way when we started bible study we all felt like i'm not smart enough what if i don't fit in what if i don't click what if this is not for me i'm not i've heard one time a lady say i don't relate to women i am a businesswoman i work as a corporate lawyer and i thought i don't really want to be here and by the end of the year we heard her testimony and this is what she said i didn't know what it meant to be a woman until i joined virtue and you know what it's not because we're all that great because we're all pretty messed up but i will tell you we have a great god who has given us his word that tells us exactly who we are and what is going on and how to live this life and we do it together as you see back here life develops best in circles not in rows let me tell you can sit in circles all your life but if jesus is not at the center of that circle and god's word is not informing you on who this jesus is that you worship then it doesn't matter how many circles you sit in it's not going to be life transforming so we're here this ministry is here and has been here as a part of harvest ever since i was 25 years old and i had a little guy who was about five years old and my mentor k smith started a bible study for women and it wasn't just a topical study it wasn't just whatever she had on her heart that day it was a bible study where we studied through books of the bible and we had this thing called a lesson well what in the world was a lesson well i kept hearing as a young believer what a quiet time was all about let me tell you i had no idea what a quiet time was what is that what is a quiet time what a strange thing if you've never heard that i'm supposed to have quiet time with god well this lesson took me by the hand and helped me break it down so i could hear god's voice speaking to me in my ear not through somebody else because doesn't jesus want to have a personal don't we say that all the time he's your own personal savior well what does it mean to have a personal savior if you've never heard his voice and how do you hear his voice if you never pick up his book and if you pick up his book how do you understand that book so that's why we're here in virtue we want a community of women to gather together with the main purpose and central focus being the study and understanding of the word of god and then applying it in our lives and seeing it how it works in the community that god has placed us in that's our objective here today so we are gonna do things gonna be a little confusing because we're gonna do things a little differently like okay is this what virtue was like on every day this is different we started in september with the book with the book of exodus because we were studying the life of moses and we call this series water fire stone and if you don't understand that when you go to your small group you can ask your small group leader why we called it that but anyway so we started in september and we have studied and we're going to begin with chapter 17 of exodus so we have 16 chapters that we've already done and many of us have already forgotten them because that's how our brains work we are a sieve the information goes in and it goes out so we have four amazing women up here today that are going to be coming up in just a second i'm going to introduce them who are going to catch us up on that and share from their hearts how those specific passages that they're going to be sharing on applied to their life and the lessons that they learned so that you can see what god words god's word says but also how god's word applied to them in the various situations and circumstances of their lives so it's going to be brief little little synopsis but by the end of the morning you're going to have been caught up so next week when i start in chapter 17 i don't have to do the review so um and that's going to help me a lot because we have amazing two chapters to look at next week and you'll all be given the lesson for that today so with that um i would like to invite our panel up here on the stage and let's all welcome them as they come and can i just tell you these ladies they are just like you we don't have a professional on staff or on the virtue team we have all grown up into the ministry and god has through the study of his word and working this out in community helped us to discover our gifts and all of these ladies have been given amazing gifts and i'm going to tell you this is zenovia and she is one of our virtue teachers all of you ladies that uh that come to virtue and came last year already know that but zenovia is oh my goodness she's just they're all yummy they're all my dear friends but zenovia is a public school high school teacher and she teaches spanish which she speaks so beautifully and fluently but um i tell you if you're teaching in the public school system you know a little bit about communicating and she but it's not just that she's a great communicator that god's word is deep in her heart and did you know that zenovia came to harvest when you were what 17 and gave her life to the lord here in the ministry i was so surprised when i was introducing the panel in orange county and i was looking here how many of these ladies either grew up at harvest in the children's ministry or accepted christ at harvest and stepped into the ministry it's really a homegrown group we've got up here we do not import we don't need to import anybody these girls have been here so that's zenovia i know you're going to love her and then this is larissa and okay zenovia is single by the way i know she would want to say that but it's awesome it's awesome to have the perspective too of a single woman speaking and seeing how god's word is there for her in this phase of her life okay and this is larissa luisa is here on staff i mean she's actually paid to work in the virtue office not very much unfortunately but she is full-time as the uh what do we call it administrator administrator over all that we do so if you got a handout today if you see the screens behind me today if you saw the worship team today the office girls of whom um not zenobia but larissa is the administrator over that it's because she's doing the work behind the scenes to make this happen if you have a lesson that's right and so we need to pray for her because we are functioning on the smallest staff we've ever had and she is a mom with two with three three little kids in elementary school and she works full-time and she also steps in and does things like this in front of all of us so those of you who are young moms out there i feel like each one of these ladies represents a different phase of life but it's so important to see we don't have to wait for god to use us or to understand god's word and say well i'll do that when i'm a little older or when my kids are grown or it's so awesome to see okay so that's larissa and then um oh and she's been attending harvest since she was 10 years old so she grew up in the ministry here and this is my sweet christy who has been i i think of the panel here you've been in bible study the longest almost from day one right and and christy is an excellent teacher she is the coordinator in all these terms like what is administrator coordinator support leader oh and zanovia is a support leader as a leader of leaders christie is the coordinator over the morning study and this is a very important position because she heads up our support leaders who head up our leaders as well as she's a teacher here at virtue and christie is married and she has one son and she's hoping for grandbabies someday but until that time she has on her phone her granddog is so cute she showed me and that's what she called him her granddaughter but anyway she's an excellent teacher and she speaks and she writes and she's it's so great to have christy on the team as one of the regulars and this is our beautiful trish and one of our pastors wives in addition to serving here at harvest she she accepted christ at harvest in 1990 and jeff was called into the ministry um as a pastor's wife she has a very busy and full life just doing that but she's here faithfully on thursdays and is our regular in our regular teaching rotation and then she leads our very wild and special small group when you guys are in small group we thought we don't really have a group we need a group so those of us that are teachers and administrators trish leads us in our small group and she has the most sensitive heart and she hears the lord speak to her and when he speaks to her it's beautiful and so we're excited to hear from you guys today and so i'm going to turn it over to this beautiful panel and they're going to start zonovia do you need this microphone or is that okay good morning ladies well i'm going to be giving a recap of chapters one to four at this point in time a new king had been raised up in egypt joseph and all his generation have died but the children of israel were still in egypt and the lord was blessing them they were multiplying and becoming stronger and this king known as pharaoh was fearful that they would eventually outnumber and overtake egypt so he decreed that the hebrew midwives would put to death any hebrew babies born to the hebrew women baby boys but these midwives feared god and did not kill the babies so pharaoh went a step further and instructed all people to cast any hebrew baby boy into the nile river so he would drown that's precisely the time when moses was born his mother loving her baby boy hid him for three months once it became impossible for her to do so any longer she wrapped him up and set him in the nile river in a basket his sister miriam watched and followed that basket with her baby brother as it floated down the nile now pharaoh's daughter was bathing in the river at the time when the basket came by she took it saw the baby and recognized that he was a hebrew rather than kill him like her father had commanded she decided to keep him so she ends up hiring moses mother to be his wet nurse and to raise him until he could be weaned girls isn't the lord amazing there are no coincidences with god moses was born with a purpose and god orchestrated all of this and it's important to learn from the example of moses mother when she chose to hide her baby and sent him down the river she did so with some serious faith in god i don't believe it was just to say a little prayer and hope for the best kind of moment for her when she sent her baby adrift in the river it's very likely that pharaoh's daughter took a bath every day at the same place at the same time i mean i don't know about you girls but i don't go hopping from shower to shower in my neighborhood i bathe in the same place every day so it's possible that moses mother knew that pharaoh's daughter could be the one to find her baby boy can you imagine the type of faith that it took for her to send him off knowing he could possibly be found by the daughter of the man who wanted to kill him that's bold faith girls and that was my first takeaway bold faith in god requires bold moves with god it's now 2020 it's a new year and i want bold faith in god greater than i've ever had before don't you girls want the same thing well that's going to require us to make bold moves with god your bold move may not be the same as mine your bold move may have been your choice to come to the study today for the first time or that you're choosing to stand for righteousness against almost unbearable opposition in your workplace or your school or even your home or that you're choosing to not give up on your marriage despite how hopeless it may appear but bold faith in god requires bold moves with god now time has passed moses has grown he committed murder and went into hiding because the new pharaoh now wanted to kill him but god forgave him he's married now and he has a sincere love for god's people who are under deep oppression by the egyptians it's then that the lord speaks to moses through a burning bush he tells him that he has seen and heard the cries of the people and that he knows their sorrow what comfort that must have been to moses knowing that the lord sees hears and knows and that he has a plan one that was formed long before moses was ever born god tells him that he's the one whom the lord has chosen to lead the children of israel out of egypt moses was born with a purpose this was always the plan now moses is feeling completely unqualified and ordinary and doesn't get on board with god's plan right away it took some discipline from the lord and a shift in perspective for moses to understand what became my second takeaway he sees he hears he knows and he plans long before he calls us we can trust him completely and just like moses you and i were born with a purpose that should give us a greater confidence in whatever season of life we're in right now to fulfill the purpose that the lord has planned for us so i'm choosing to approach this year with bold faith and bold moves knowing that wherever i go he's already gone before me and he goes with me amen so good i was kind of hoping that you're gonna do it in spanish for us so i am covering exodus chapters 5 through 10 and the kind of the heading was moses commissioned with a plan so a quick recap of the place exodus 5 we see pharaoh go and he questions moses when moses approaches him with a request to let the people go and pharaoh's response is who is the lord that i should obey him and then pharaoh proceeds to make life a lot harder for god's people and that question that pharaoh asked is still so relevant in today's culture where we see our world going we see everyone asking who is this lord that i should obey him and sometimes we even in our own walks when we're faced with difficulties ask the same question in exodus 6 we see god answer pharaoh's question god says who am i i'm the lord of all pharaoh included egypt included he reminds moses that he was faithful in the past he is faithful in the present and he's going to continue to be faithful in the future and then exodus 7 through 10 is when we see the plagues and one by one with each of the plagues god slowly dismantles all the lies and the evil that the egyptians have built their empire on and god reveals himself to be the one the only true god and sovereign over all we see the israelites react to their increased suffering in a way that's not much different to how pharaoh reacted to moses's request they questioned god why are you allowing this to happen to us lord you said you were going to rescue us and the opposite is happening why did you lie to us and how often are we that way with god when things get hard in our lives we question god and what he's doing we forget who he is and allow our sinful hearts to take the lead and dictate our actions and dictate our response and trials have a way of really revealing and exposing what's truly in our hearts i heard an illustration once it helped me really understand this let's say i'm up here holding a cup and the cup is full with liquid now if one of you were to come up to me and give me a good shove chances are whatever was in that cup would spill out and it's not my fault that you decided to come push me i'm not held accountable for that part but what i am held accountable for is what was in my cup what did i put in the cup so in our lives as women in the workforce or in ministry as wives or as moms as sisters in christ we're going to have moments where we get pushed where we get knocked down even we can't stop that from happening it's pretty much a guarantee especially in a christian walk but we can't control those things they're going to happen but what we can control is what's going to spill out from us in those moments what are you filling your cup with when life pulls another rug out from under you what flows out of your heart is it anger fear or doubt when your kids just push that one more button that need didn't need to be pushed what's your response or when your husband has one more request when your plate feels full what is your what does your face do what do your eyes do are you so saturated in his word and dedicated in prayer that when those moments come those hard ones that knock you down grace and love are what pour out selflessness and forgiveness are what pour out joy and thankfulness pour out we're representatives of christ in the gospel to the world and life's troubles can be an opportunity to show how the gospel has changed us because when you know him when you truly know our god by diligently studying his word daily and constantly just having an open dialogue of prayer with him meeting together with his people like we are today or just even out in your community you become a vessel that fills with things that are of him and those are the things that are going to pour out moses was commissioned with a plan but so are we to share and be the gospel to the world in our homes at our local starbucks or for me at target so my takeaway was this be be aware of what i'm filling my heart with be intentional with it be careful with it so that what pours out is pleasing to him and fulfilling the commission that we've been given thank you larisa yeah that was a lot of territory to cover and i have a lot of territory to cover too i have chapters 11 through 14 like all of this really big stuff happens we have that last plague the death of the firstborn and the lamb and the blood and the deliverance and that pillar of cloud and that fire and then we have the red sea it's all big stuff but what strikes me most about that tenth plague you know why one more plague well with those nine plagues that came there was so much destruction to egypt that nation was literally destroyed and yet pharaoh would not let god's people go it wasn't until the blood of a lamb flowed that pharaoh finally let god's people go that's when the deliverance came it came when that little lamb was slain and that blood flowed because the power for deliverance is in the blood it was then and it is today it is today exodus 12 13 says this this is god speaking and receive it from him hear his voice right now when i see the blood i will pass over you and this plague will not be upon you the blood of jesus has delivered us from the power of sin and death and when i'm in my prayer time every morning and i think about that blood i can see it in my mind's eye it's over me and that's how our father sees me through the precious spotless blood of his own dear son i'm cleansed and i'm saved from death from eternal death that eternal damnation you know what no sooner were the israelites delivered that they then were brought into an impossible situation they were led out and they were led to an area where there were mountains on one side the red sea on the other and then came the egyptian army they wanted their slaves back and so the people were afraid and they cried out to the lord and that was a good thing that they cried out to the lord but then they began to point fingers at moses why did you lead us out here weren't there enough graves in egypt you know that we have to come out here they're thinking this is it they're thinking i'm just gonna die right here in this situation they didn't understand they didn't know god they didn't trust god you know i got a an sos prayer request yesterday christy please pray for me i'm at my red sea right now it was urgent it was big and you know what i know that many of you you're facing your red sea right now it's an impossible situation you've got it all around you and there's nothing you can do your hands are tied god's got to do something while i can understand that i was in an impossible situation over the summer my dad had a recent diagnosis of cancer from the time of his diagnosis to the time that the lord took him home it was nine weeks he was in south corona on hospice during that time my brother was taken to emergency in loma linda he had had a heart attack he was in heart transplant rejection from his first transplant four years ago so i was taking care of my dad in south corona and then on the same day going to loma linda and attending to my brother you know nurses so much so many details and i'd literally leave my dad cry all the way to loma linda and then cry all the way home early mornings late nights and this is the thing that i want to share with you that's not the important thing because we all have stuff we all have big stuff impossible situations but the days and most of the days where that stress and that anxiety was so high in me i felt like i had an elephant on my chest literally day after day after day and i can remember driving up van buren you know my last leg home feeling this like i'm gonna explode i'm just gonna explode in my car you know and all of a sudden it would just dissipate every time every time i would get to that peak level it would just dissipate and i can't explain it except to say this he that is in me is greater than he that is in the world that's first john 4 4. it was him but what i do own is the word of god that bubbled up in me in those situations because for decades i have not nibbled at god's word i have gulped it down ravenously you know when you're hungry you take that plate of food and it's here and it's gone right when you're not interested in eating when you're not hungry or maybe you don't like what's served you just kind of pick at it i never pick at god's word i devour his work i crave his word it is life i need to hear god speak to me every day and his word counsels me it is wisdom it is comfort it is strength and his word because it was already in me bubbled up and preached to me and i had lots of precious precious friends who would text me scripture what they're praying for me or i would get a note card and oh i savored those verses but what was so powerful was god's own word inside of me hebrews tells us that the word of god is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword it's able to divide the joints and the marrow it's able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart and that's what his word did for me and that's what being in this bible study has done for me i did not know how to eat and consume god's word to digest it to take it for my own until i became a part of this bible study 30 years ago that's what this bible study did for me and the great takeaway from all of these verses was very very personal it's in exodus 14 verse 15 where the instructions were just go forward just go forward that's all they had to do god did everything else we just obey and we let god deal with all of the other stuff you know what god changes things and he changes the meaning of things god turned water into walls and you can't even hold water in your hand see he turned water into walls that's how they got through and so you know what he can take that red sea whatever it looks like whatever name is on or how many names are on it and he can change it and he can make it whatever he wants it to be but the point is he will get you through as you go forward and the bottom line is we all just want to know it's going to be okay right we just want to know it's going to be okay well guess what in the end it's gonna be okay and if it's not okay it's not the end so encouraged by each of you sharing and it builds on one another so i have the privilege of reviewing chapter 15 and 16 with you uh egypt had or egypt the israelites had just been delivered through the red sea i love that picture god turned water into walls wow it it was so miraculous indeed uh kathy taught that message and her title was wilderness training and i have to tell you ladies i was sick that day at home with a fever so i watched online i watched again in the archive and let me tell you i'm so thankful that we have that available if you ever miss a lesson or want to watch which i encourage you to do watch a lesson again virtue.harvest.org and so much there in our website recipes and crafts and things to do with your kids articles of encouragement but that's just a little side note but i have to tell you i missed out i missed out it couldn't be avoided you can't come i am a sub at the school so i know if you have a fever within 24 hours you're not supposed to be on campus so um that was what the lord allowed but i missed out i missed the corporate worship i missed hearing and taking notes just no distractions or side thoughts or sounds i really missed our group time i'm looking at my lesson which was complete at home and i wondered what did other ladies get for this and share so that's just a side note of encouragement that we do have that option but it's not the same so chapter 15 we're all kind of struggling with these seats up to be ladylike which i have a hard time anyway i'll get to that oh man and you know this is a day i never thought i would do hold a mic in my hand so forgive my shaking my little three-year-old grandson yesterday again said grammy why do you shake like that's why my god made me anyway so i'm gonna grip it chapter 15 was a worship song they were communicating praise to god for what he had done they were lifting each other up they were building each other up in their most holy faith it was the song of deliverance a song of praise exalting god recognizing his power that he alone is worthy they said and this is right out of chapter 15 the lord has triumphed gloriously he is my strength and my song he is my salvation he is steadfast love in this song they cited and remembered and recorded for us today specific details of this deliverance it's preserved for us that deliverance in the impossible that red sea deliverance who is like you lord they asked and challenged each other and that question was resounding no one is like him he's awesome in glorious deeds his strength his guidance the enemies tremble and they are defeated they saw evidence and they end in that portion of chapter 15 sing to the lord the lord will reign forever and ever but you know there was a turn the last part of chapter 15 and 16 there was a sharp contrast and this was three days later they were not looking for praising god seeing his power thanking him there was grumbling there was complaining there was disappointment in what god brought god brought them to in that wilderness they were communicating not praise to god but complaints to god and to their leadership the whole congregation this this was like a cancer that fed on each other they were all disgruntled they were disgruntled at their leadership they were tearing down the morale in the camp they said death in egypt would have been better how could they forget so quickly difficulties that they didn't plan on they didn't expect they didn't foresee happened life happened specifically they were three days without water when they got to water it was bitter i understand that that would have been a hardship and there'd be some some complaining about that the memories though were distorted from what they had left in their life before deliverance they romanticized their earlier life they were hungry then they just wanted food they remembered the delicacies in egypt well god heard the praise and he heard the protests but by grace he made provision he gave them good water he gave them quail and manna which was just miraculous provision he did that because he's faithful he's good he's god in the journey they changed their tune they changed their song from personal praise and corporate worship to grumbling and just spreading my takeaway from these chapters is we're all on a journey aren't we kathy's title was so perfect wilderness training we're all there and she said in her message they were out of slavery but it was harder to get the slavery out of them it's a process they would experience enormous blessings as we all do the stories and accounts of miraculous provision and divine deliverance but they're also encountering sorrows hardships difficulties how to maintain that song of praise to god to resist the temptation to grumble or or complain can you hold that for a second as life happens well i'm a visual learner very much so so let me share with you how the lord showed me one way a step in maintaining a song of praise i've been doing a bullet journal which is just it comes empty for three years now and i literally draw in the calendar and i color it up i have my whole box of crayons and pencils and markers and and i enjoy doing it i enjoy thinking about things that i want to do that have planned and 2019 was no different than the first year i did that in 2018 and i inked in a lot of things that i had planned and that were on the calendar in the books um but you know 2019 came and i was right out of the gate uh approached with an unforeseen death sudden death of my sister my beautiful sister martha that i was very close to 63 years old died of a sudden heart attack watching a hallmark movie the lord took her home and i'm thankful i have a future with her four months later my brother-in-law passed away after a long illness in between that time i had a knee replacement and i thank you for your prayers i can't imagine what it would have been like without him because it was horrible it was not what i had inked in you know i still oh kathy i'll still be able to teach my last lesson i was back in the hospital with sepsis and i still waddle around but those are things god allowed and when i was thinking as i'm doing my journal oh i can't wait for 19 to be over you know turn the page 20's gotta be better then i remembered you know what in 2019 i had two more grandchildren that were born why is it ladies that we remember and think about and grumble about the hardships and then the praise of the miraculous birth of two healthy babies is secondary i'm just being real with you you know so lord i sat there with my calendar as i was doing this and i thought this year as i set up my journal show me how to approach life because life's gonna happen and he gave me this picture pencil and ink pencil and ink joyful anticipation of what he wants to do unknown to us but known and planned and led by god much of what i had inked in last year either didn't happen so i exited out or i had to make an arrow well i'll do it this time you know next week or next month or next year or it just has a question mark around it will when how god allowed those reasons they were beyond my control but he's sovereign he can do that this year my plans are in pencil it's good my calendar is going to look a lot neater because i want him to direct to plan to take me wherever he wants you know lady it's good to plan plans are good it's responsible we need to redeem the time we it's been said if you fail to plan you plan to fail it's good to make and keep commitments i want to do that i plan on doing that more than ever i want to be respite responsible a woman true to her word but my desire is to fully yield to what jesus has for me to make and keep those commitments in this journey in the wilderness to the promised land god's word his promises ministry those are in ink those are things that are my time in the word that's in ink and i will put down in ink what he shows me each day to remember to hold close at the close of the day the week the month the year i want to trust god with what he keeps on the calendar and what he moved added or changed to record the living word of god on paper and in my heart to remember he's faithful to be surprised by his grace even in the difficulties to see his supernatural provision when i don't see a way we make our plans but god ordains his steps how to have a calendar that has a song each and every day the beautiful intermingling of my pencil marks and his ink his love towards me to remember to sing praise to god with where and how he leads that he triumphs gloriously you know the pages i didn't have enough room so sadly my bible is on the ground but those are pages preserved in ink for us today it's truth that can't be altered or changed it doesn't change even though some would like to say you will be will you hold that lesson up oh we'll see how you get out of your chair [Laughter] you're going to be given a letter a letter well it's a lesson it's an ink put down virtue in ink in your calendar and according to god's will be here each week fill that lesson out in ink each week color it up spend time meditate ponder pastor greg said sunday how we begin a year no how we end a year will determine how we begin a year you guys know where i'm going with that he said it so beautifully go back and watch the message decisions we make today we're going to reflect back on what we look like at the end of this year in 2020 make good decisions in your penciling and in your inking sing praise to the lord and just a little epilogue after my message was in ink yesterday i was playing with our grandchildren the two older boys and i got walked in the head by a teeter-totter so i was at urgent care and they glued my nose back together and i had to laugh because i had the phone and i'm thinking about texting kathy saying maybe you should get someone else i anticipated raccoon eyes but we live our message that's right my message was in ink and i'm gonna be here whether i had two big circles under my eyes you know it's amazing what makeup will do you know some people up close or might have thought oh maybe trish had some work done i care i guarantee if i have work done it's not going to be gluing my nose together so anyway ladies god bless you commit commit to singing praises to the lord as he pencils and inks our calendar this year amen amen

Channel: Harvest Virtue

Views: 91

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Virtue, Women, Virtue Open House, 2020, Women's Bible Study, Cathe Laurie, Greg Laurie, Christi Robillard, Zenovia Bernier, Trish Dietz, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Harvest Virtue, Moses, Water, Fire, Stone

Id: M6XK2f9geZ0

Length: 44min 35sec (2675 seconds)

Published: Wed May 26 2021