This sermon was
given during one of the Women’s Ministries/Shepherdess meetings at the 2005 GC
Session in
TRANSFORMED BY
GRACE FOR SERVICE
By Ella Smith Simmons
Theme: God’s
Transforming Power
Call to Worship: #795, Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, The
Christian Life
Opening
Song: #249, Seventh-day Adventist
Hymnal, Praise Him! Praise Him!
Closing
Song: #578, Seventh-day Adventist
Hymnal, So Send I You
Scripture: Romans, 12th chapter
This
sermon was originally given on
------
Transformed by Grace for
Service
All Dressed Up for Such a
Time as This
By Ella Smith Simmons
Our
scripture lesson is from Romans, the twelfth chapter. Let us read together versus one through eight,
and to make the passage more personal for our purposes this morning
substituting feminine gender language where the masculine gender language is
used. I will read aloud from the New
International Version of the Bible as you read quietly:
Therefore, I urge you, sisters, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any
longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. Then you will be able to test and prove what God's will is—His good,
pleasing and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to
every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but
rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of
faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and
these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many
form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different
gifts, according to the grace given us. If a woman's gift is prophesying, let
her use it in proportion to her faith. If it is serving, let her
serve; if it is teaching, let her teach; if it is encouraging, let her
encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let her give
generously; if it is leadership, let her govern diligently; if it is showing
mercy, let her do it cheerfully.
We pray that the Lord will focus
our thinking on these things as we proceed.
Many
of you have heard of the Kentucky Derby that is held in
All
have something else in common also. The
This
year as I cast my gaze and admiration from one splendid head covering to the
next, I was drawn to a much more serious consideration. Those heads were beautiful on the outside;
but what about the inside? With what had
those women filled their heads? What
thoughts did they entertain? What were
their purposes in life? Did their
existence make a difference to the world beyond this grand display? Were they more than just eye-candy or did
they add sweetness to their families, neighborhoods, towns, and nations?
Jesus
came upon a grand display of foliage beauty and apparent wealth of fruit one
day when, as Matthew and Mark tell us in Matthew
However,
just as the Lord turned my thoughts during this past
Ellen
White tells us in her elaborative extension on that encounter between Jesus and
the richly-adorned, but barren fig tree that there is even a second, more
contemporary lesson in this Biblical account of Jesus’ hunger. She says that “He [Jesus] represented a
people hungering for fruit that they ought to have had, but did not receive
from an apparently flourishing fig tree [God’s people – us]. The spiritual necessities were not supplied
to satisfy the people whom Christ had pledged His life to save by His grace and
righteousness.”
Mrs.
White goes on to say that “when the Lord is with the people who have knowledge
and advantages in spiritual enlightenment, and when they impart that which they
have received from God they are fruit-bearing branches. They receive God’s rich blessing, and are
producers of fruit.” “As a sure result,”
she says, “in the hand of God and under the influence of the Holy Spirit they
are mighty men [and women]. Constantly
they represent before the world the great goodness of God, not only in
spiritual lines, but in temporal lines as well” (MS 65, 1912).
Let
me then expand a bit more specifically on Mrs. White’s observation in
consideration of the Gospel message as including the relief of pain and
suffering and improving living conditions for every person at every place in
the world. Current projection data from
international sources tell us that world conditions will grow worse over the
next decades. Their fifteen-year
projections for years 2000 through 2015 are already proving accurate, and if
Jesus should tarry for two more general conference sessions the world will be
in turmoil. The National Intelligence
Council projects for example that:
1. While food
sources should be adequate to feed the world, the number of malnourished people
will increase and many areas will experience devastating famine due to
conflicts and natural disasters – Will you bear the fruit to feed these hungry
people?
2. They
forecast that nearly half of the world’s population, more than 3 billion
people, will live with water shortages and in some countries utter
drought. Will you bear the fruit to
water their crops, bathe them, and quench their thirsts?
3. They tell
us that AIDS and other diseases will decimate the working adult populations
leaving huge groups of orphaned children in many nations. Will you bear fruit that will relieve their
distress?
4. Predictions
are that sick, starving, fearful people will flee into the cities in droves,
doubling in some cases the populations of the world’s largest cities in search
of health-care, food, and shelter. Will
you bear the fruit that will provide for them there?
5. They
suspect that criminal groups will increase the scale and scope of their
activities – trafficking in narcotics, smuggling aliens, trafficking women and
children, and smuggling arms, and toxic materials, and creating many
humanitarian emergencies. Will you bear
fruit that will meet these emergency needs and bring safety to the people?
6. Data
indicate that internal conflicts will be vicious in many nations, long-lasting,
and difficult to terminate. Will you
bear the fruit of peace and healing for your nation?
7. They predict
also that terrorism will increase world wide achieving mass casualties. Will you bear fruit that will ease the fears
and bring aid to the people?
And there is much much more with
the breakdown of family units and increases in intolerance and hatred. God needs us to bear fruit that is mature for
these times.
Women
of God’s Kingdom, I am convinced that we are living in the last of days and
that God is searching high and low at all stations of life for men and women
who are prepared and willing to take up responsibilities of service in this
doomed world, to give one final loud cry to the dying masses. God seeks to enlist an expanded band of
servant leaders in His cause that are not limited in their contribution by
race, ethnicity, national origin, social station, economic status, age, or
gender. In fact, I believe to a great
degree that those most naturally suited for this servant leadership are women.
In
planning this message over the course of the past year, I sought not to use as
my example Queen Esther, thinking of course that is what is typically
expected. However, I am compelled to
hold up Esther as our example today. The
Bible tells us in her name-sake book that Esther had risen from a quiet,
perhaps obscure, life to become queen of a world empire and achieve the heights
of heroic action. It portrays her,
according to one commentator, as a beautiful woman of clear judgment,
remarkable self-control, and noble self-sacrifice.
Yes,
Esther was a beautiful woman and was richly adorned no doubt, but as her story
demonstrates there was much more to Esther.
She possessed in head and heart the exemplary attributes of a selfless
servant leader. She was intelligent, was
a good listener, was a good communicator, had a pleasing personality and
charisma, was sociable, was psychologically healthy, possessed a strong belief
in God, had great moral strength and general courage, was secure, and held
unusual sensibilities to the needs of others.
All
these attributes came as gifts to Esther.
The talents, characteristics and personal traits all came from God to be
used in His cause. Yet, Esther, during
her childhood, youth, and even early adulthood probably had no idea, no clue of
her purpose for life. She could not
boast as Samuel, Jeremiah, or David of having heard God’s call to her while she
was yet young. She was not even expected
by her peers and her people to operate as a leader in service for Esther was a
woman. She was not expected to speak up
at any time without being spoken to for she was a woman; not to take a stand on
any issue of importance for she had no political authority since she was a
woman. She was privileged and not
expected to even concern herself with the plight of the masses for she was a
woman, meant only to be a delight for the eyes of the people and an ornament on
the king’s arm. Her only worth was her
great beauty and splendid adornment for Esther was a woman.
There
is no doubt that this woman was gorgeous and impeccably clad, but as we have
noted, Esther’s great worth was more than met the eye, and when the time came,
when conditions in her world had reached crisis, God sent a word, His divine
call, to Queen Esther. After
investigating the situation from which she had been sheltered and understanding
the plight of the people, through prayer and fasting Esther recognized God’s
call and realized her life’s purpose.
The Bible tells us that Esther boldly declared that she would take up
the cause, that she would initiate an intervention and we know that she did so
without concern for her personal comfort and safety. She was willing to give herself for others,
even at personal risk.
Some
have defined “calling” as a divine summons.
You know when you get a summons to appear in court, you do not decline
the invitation, but you just show up on time.
So, Esther answered God’s call, the divine summons, with an unhesitating
and resolute yes, Lord. Her actions
demonstrated that although she knew that while God could save His people
through a variety of means, He had chosen her as His instrument for that
time. Only Esther could do the job in
the appointed way and she knew that.
Esther
knew also that if God called her He would sustain her, in life and in
death. Yet, she still had to exercise
great faith, however, because as with most of us God had not revealed to her
the outcome of her actions. She did not
know if she would be victorious or perish in the confrontation with evil. She simply knew what God wanted her to do and
that was all she needed to know. Like
Gideon, Esther had begun life as the least of the least but had allowed God to
transform her by His grace and to change her ordinary existence into
extraordinary service for God’s kingdom.
Our
people – our families, our neighbors, our church members, our country people –
all over this world have been targeted by Satan for annihilation and God calls
once again for women who have been prepared, women who have something under
those beautiful head pieces and artistic hairdos, women who will hear His call
and realize that they were brought into God’s kingdom for such a time as
this. Now that we have been transformed
by God’s grace for growth and for daily living, that is self-improvement, God
wants to achieve another transformation in us – one that results in service for
and to others.
God
calls women who will give all to His commission to servant leadership. Through His gift of grace God calls us today
to take up His cause; our church calls us to greater service to humanity; and
the world calls us to care. Further,
this church will not be most efficient and effective in achieving its purpose
until it draws upon the full array of talents and gifts that God has placed
within its body. It will not be
triumphant until women everywhere are free to fulfill the purposes for which we
were born.
Ladies
we have a responsibility as well in this regard. We must rise up and come out, not to upset
the church or the world or overthrow established structures necessarily. But we must arise from our places of
privilege, emerge from our comfortable zones of labor and take up our crosses
in servant leadership being willing to suffer discomfort, pain, frustration,
fatigue, and in some instances face death for the cause of God in service to a
challenged church and a doomed world.
Now and in the years to come the
world needs servants who go beyond what it has known in the past. As the projections indicate past actions will
not be sufficient for the times to come.
We who are here in God’s garden have been chosen to take on leadership
levels of service. No matter what we
have accomplished in the past, we have a much greater work to do today and in
the future. Here we are at the gathering
of our world church, at the General Conference session hoping to hear something
from the Lord. We are all dressed up,
looking the part, but are we truly prepared for such a time as this in the
world?
In
You know Esther wore the finest
fabrics in her long flowing skirts, but also was wrapped about with the
truth. Her skirts were complimented by
the most delicate and elaborate top coverings, but also she was fitted in the
breastplate of righteousness. Esther
wore the finest, most stylish shoes of her day and probably had a closet full
of hand-crafted footwear, but more importantly her feet were shod with the
preparation of the Gospel of peace, and although she carried a most dainty fan
in her hand, as we considered earlier she surely carried the shield of
faith. Then to complete her outfits,
Esther’s head adornments were always elegant.
Yet, over them all she wore the helmet of salvation. And while Esther must have carried exquisite
handbags of the most precious stones and metals, we know she wielded the sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians
Yes, it is important to be dressed
properly for the occasion. Are you dressed
for the occasion? Are you wearing your
Ephesians 6 designer attire as you march into the realm of greater
service? It requires daily grooming, you
know, and is quite costly. How then can
we as ordinary women of limited means and influence achieve and maintain that
standard of dress?
As I close, let’s consider what
Ellen White says in one of her analyses of Romans 12 (and again I will
personalize the passage substituting feminine gender language for the
masculine):
“Women,
fallen, women, may be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that she can
‘prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. How does she prove this? By the Holy Spirit taking possession of her
mind, spirit, heart, and character.
Where does the proving come in?”
Ellen White says, “We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to
angels, and to men.” (Surely she penned
this for women!)
“A real work,” she says, “is wrought
by the Holy Spirit upon the human character, and its fruits are seen. Just as a
good tree will bear fruit, so will the tree that is actually planted in the
Lord’s garden produce good fruit unto eternal life” (MS 1a, 1890). She says an entire transformation will take
place in our lives. Though expensive, it
is really free! It is God’s gift to
us. Let us hasten, therefore, to say
with Isaiah, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send, and who
will go [in service] for us? And we
said, here I am Lord; I am dressed and ready to serve, send me.
May
God bless us all as we act to fulfill our life’s purpose through service for
such a time as this.
---
Biographical
Information on the sermon Writer: Dr. Ella Louise Smith Simmons was recently elected
as a Vice President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists—the
first woman to hold this position. Shortly before, she retired from her
position as Provost and Vice President for Academic Administration and Tenured
Professor of Education at