Chosen for Women’s Ministries
By
Theme: God Has Chosen Us
Suggested Call to Worship:
Primary Bible text : John 15:16
Opening Song: Not I But Christ,
#570
Closing Song: Rescue
the Perishing, #367
I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go, #573
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I am honored to stand before you who have been
chosen by God to lead the women of this church.
As He called Sarah to leave her homeland…to become
the mother of a great nation…so He has called you to become a mother to train
other women to serve God….
As He chose Deborah to judge
As He called Esther to risk her life to save her
people…so He has brought you to a position of influence for such a time as this…to take risks if
necessary to save women in this land…to use all of your feminine skills for
building up Christ’s kingdom on earth….
As God chose Rahab to
become a woman of faith and courage…so He has chosen you to become a woman of
faith and courage…to stand up to
committees if you have to … to get done what needs to be done for the
women of our churches.
As He called Abigail to be a peacemaker, He has
called you to the role of peacemaker.
As God called young Mary to surrender herself so
that Christ could come into this world through her, so He calls each of you to
surrender yourself completely…to be His handmaiden…to allow the Holy Spirit do
what He wills with your life…to use you how He chooses to bring Christ to those
who know Him not…. Especially to the women of this land…
“God has a work for women as well as for men to
do,” Ellen White tells us…And God has chosen you—selected you—picked you out of
the crowd—called you…to the position you hold today…. It is a sacred trust—a
holy responsibility—one that you need to take seriously….
What has He called you to do? John 15:16
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…that
ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you.
“I have chosen you,” Jesus says… “To go and bring
forth fruit.” What fruit do you have to
bring to Christ from your work of the past year? What have you accomplished for
His cause? God has called you to be a woman of action.
“I have chosen you,” Jesus continues…”that
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you.” Has God heard your prayers for the women
under your care? What miracles has He wrought in answer to your prayers on
their behalf? Do you care enough for the hurting, wounded, and broken women? helping them to find solutions for their problems? God has
called you to be a woman of prayer.
God has called you to be His disciple—His
leader—one of the chosen ones…to make things happen…to spend much time in
prayer….
Who were these words spoken to? “I have chosen you?”… (Response)
Name the disciples… what? Only men?... Were there no women disciples?
Let us look at Luke 8:1-3 (NIV)
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and
village to another, proclaiming the good news of the
It is extraordinary that there were women
traveling with the men from village to village…. Hebrew men and women were not
supposed to worship in close proximity…But Jesus welcomed the women to His
traveling evangelistic company...and it says they were women of wealth who used
their money to minister to the needs of Jesus and the other disciples…women
using what they had to help spread the gospel…women
sharing…giving…caring…Arranging accommodations… meals…seeing to the laundry
perhaps…encouraging the mothers with children…. making people welcome…Here is
one illustration of what Women’s Ministries can do…seeing to the physical needs
of people….
Let’s look at one of the women disciples, Mary
Magdalene, a woman in torment until Jesus came and cast out the demons, a woman
known as a sinner. Many think it was she who was the woman caught in adultery,
that she was the sinner who brought the alabaster box of perfume to wash Jesus
feet, that she was the wayward sister of Martha and Lazarus who loved to sit at
Jesus feet. She was was there at the tomb on Sunday
morning (John 20:1). It was she who gave the first witness of the risen Lord.
God entrusted a woman disciple with the wonderful news that He was alive (John
In these various experiences of the disciple Mary,
I see different aspects of Women’s Ministries—Women’s Ministries then…and
Women’s Ministries now…
1. Traveling with Jesus Ministering to the physical needs of people
2. Sitting at Jesus feet The devotional life, spending time with God and His
word…Talking to Him in prayer…
3. Washing Jesus feet with perfume Giving of ourselves in
love…expressing appreciation
Through gifts of love giving encouragement…
4. Standing at the cross Being there with others in times
of crisis—death…sickness…childbirth…accident…
famine…disaster…pain…depression…discouragement… just being
there…
5. Telling the resurrection
story... Christ
entrusted the proclamation of His good news to a woman…and He still is doing
the same…part of Women’s Ministries is sharing the gospel with those who have
never heard…through literacy programs, …Bible
studies…evangelistic meetings.
This, then, is Women’s Ministries in a nutshell! Service, devotion, encouragement, support, and proclamation.
You have come here because God has chosen you.
You have come here to learn how to lead your women
to better service in the community, how to become women of the word, women of a
deeper devotional experience, women of prayer.
You have come here to learn how women can use
their talents to build up the church through encouragement and support of their
sisters in the church and the women in the community. You have come to learn
how to lead your women into doing something significant for others in times of crisis.
You have come to learn how women can be disciples
in every aspect of the term. Entrusted with the proclamation of the good news,
women are winning thousands of souls through cottage meetings and public
evangelistic efforts in
The need to educate, train, and mentor women for
service is great. This is why God has chosen you…This is your job… to train,
encourage and mentor women in your sphere of influence to be all God wants them
to be…
(Note to presenter: It is best to present the
story of a woman from our part of the world. If you do not know of stories,
check past issues of Mosaic or use the story as listed here).
When I think of what marvelous things happen when
God chooses a woman…and that woman accepts His call and follows where He
leads…I think of Pandita Ramabai…Revered
by many as India’s greatest woman of the century…she died in 1922 but her work
lives on in Mukti Mission, at Kedgoan,
Poona District.
The Bible that she spent fifteen years translating
into Mrathi was revised in 1958, the centenary of her
birth; the women at Mukti helped to revise, set in
type, print and bind the new edition. In the history of the church there has
probably never been another Bible that is entirely the work of women, and as
far as I know Pandita Ramabai
is the only woman who has translated the entire Scripture into another
language.
The mission is a beehive of activity…800 people
live and work there…Besides the teaching and administrative staff there are
unwanted babies, the blind, child boarders, unmarried mothers, crippled
children, sick and destitute women, widows with nowhere else to turn,
prostitutes who want to start a new life, and
women who have suffered violence.
They are fed, clothed, taught skills—helped to
find a new way of life. They are educated…and learn about Jesus and His Word.
They have over one hundred eighty acres of farm
land with irrigation. They have cows, goats, buffaloes for milk. They grow
their own vegetables and grains. By bullock
1.
Pandita Ramabai was a woman
of action.
In the room Pandita Ramabai used you can still see her low tables and chairs.
The bed and covers show her simplicity of life. Like Mother Theresa, she owned
little except a few cotton sarees and some chapples. Her open Bible with pages worn and marked, and
with long prayer lists containing hundreds of names of those for whom she
prayed individually, are there. This was the secret of her greatness. She was a
devoted student of the Bible
and a great woman of prayer. Like Mary she loved to sit at Jesus
feet.
2. Women’s Ministries must start with our being
great women of prayer and devoted students of the Word.
In 1899 Pandita built a
large cross shaped church out of stone that seats 2,000. The women themselves
helped to built it, hauling the stones and mortar.
There was seldom enough in the bank account for
more than one month’s expenses but in the many decades of Mukti’s
history money has never failed…and the mission has no debts.
How did this all happen? How was it that God
called Ramabai? Let me tell you the story:
Pandita’s father, a Brahmin priest, scholar,and reformer, was a forty-four year old widower when
he married her mother, the nine-year-old daughter of a Brahmin pilgrim. He took
his child bride to his home in Mangalore and decided to educate her so that she
could recite the puranas. However, his mother was
very much opposed to her daughter in law getting educated, so he took his wife
into the
She was a bright girl and the father decided to
teach her as well. By the time she was 12 years old she had committed to memory
18,000 Sanskrit verses with all of their rich stores of wisdom and knowledge.
She learned to read and write Marathi, Kanares,
Hindi, and Bengali, and four other languages.
Because of family debt and misfortune, the father
had to sell off all of their property and the family set forth on a pilgrimage,
visiting shrines, temples, and sacred rivers. Then famine came and priests at
the shrines welcomed them as long as they had money, but when that ran out they
were sent away with cold and empty words. They wandered about often hungry and
in distress. It was during this time that Ramabai
witnessed the suffering among child widows and women and felt her first call to
serving these women, although she had no idea how she would ever do it.
Her father died of starvation first, then soon
after her mother and her older sister. Only her brother was left. With him she
wandered more than 4,000 miles on a pilgrimage to many famous temples and
shrines across the
“We had no blankets or thick garments to cover ourselves
and when traveling we had to walk barefoot without umbrellas and to rest in the
night, either under the trees on the roadside or the arches of bridges, or lie
down on the ground in the open air.
“Once on the banks of the
During those wanderings, faith
in her father’s idols were shaken. While in Calcutta she was introduced
to Christ who knew no cast and who she was told gave neither man nor woman
dominion over the other—who loved all people of all nations. This aspect of
Christ appealed to Ramabai because at that time in
By this time she had determined to devote her life
to raising the standards of women. She wrote, “Child widows have no place in
the abode of the gods, and no hope of getting liberation, except perchance that
they might be born among the higher class after having gone through millions of
reincarnations.” She had seen women turned out of their homes, and often
sacrificed on the funeral pyre with their dead husbands. She saw in
Christianity some answer for these problems women faced.
About this time her brother died and she married
his friend Bipin Bihari Medhavi, a graduate of
Then her husband died of cholera, leaving her with
a baby girl, Manarama, “Heart’s joy.” She was now one
of
About this time she decided to go to
There in that story of Christ and the woman who
had five husbands, and the way He treated her with such respect, she found the
God for whom she had been searching. She was baptized while in
After two years in
In May 1888 she sailed for
Although Ramabai kept
her school nonsectarian, she did invite any who wished to share in her private Bible
studies. More and more began to join her and soon a good number of them had
become Christians. This caused vicious rumors and newspaper stories and attacks
made about the conversions in her school. It became dangerous for her to remain
in
Then famine came. Disguised as a Hindu pilgrim, Ramabai set out to find impoverished widows and bring them
back to the mission. She came back with six hundred widows who had been used as
temple prostitutes and then in the famine caste out into the streets to fend
for themselves and to die. Hundreds more appeared from all over the country.
Every day these women came for prayers, and although none were required,
hundreds of them accepted Christ. On one occasion Ramabai
observed 17 cartloads of new believers being taken to be baptized in the
She called her mission “Mukti
Sadan” house of Salvation. She wrote, “Many hundreds
of the girls and young women who have come to my home ever since its doors were
opened for them have found Christ as I have. They are capable of thinking for
themselves. They have had their eyes opened by reading the Word of God, and
many of them have been truly converted and saved, to the praise and glory of
God.
In 1900 another famine hit. She had 2,000 people
under her care—1,400 of these were young girls under the age of 20.
On one day 200 starving people showed up at her gate.
She had no work and no food for them, but she invited them into the campus and
took them to the barn to pray. They prayed for food and she assured them that
God could provide for hundreds as He could for 2 or 20. Funds came for food
just in time and she could put them all to work and feed them all. Each day was
a miracle in answer to prayer.
She bought more land and built the house of mercy,
a home for single mothers, abused women, and youth offenders. She took in blind
and orphans and crippled and her work expanded more and more. She taught skills
and began small cottage industries and the making of handicrafts, then set up a
store for selling the things they made. She had a weaving school, blacksmith
shop, tinshop, tannery, shoemaking and carpentry shops.
She set up a print shop and book bindery and it was here that thousands of
copies of the Marathi Bible she translated were printed and bound.
On one occasion former Brahmin friends threatened
to destroy her place, but God gave Ramabai the
promise, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” Sometimes the
treasury was empty. Storms came and fire broke out, but she knew that God
answers prayers in famine, fire, and storm.
In the last 15 years of her life Pandita Ramabai learned Greek and
Hebrew and translated the entire Bible into Marathi. In the last months of her
life she spent long hours in proof reading and the first pages of the 50,000
copies of the Bible were already being printed by her girls. Then she became
ill and she realized her time was drawing near to die. She prayed, “God, please
grant me ten more days, just ten more days, and I’ll have this proof reading
done and the Bible can be printed. Ten days later when the last page proof was
read, she lay down to sleep and never woke again.
Pandita Ramabai was one women
God chose. What glorious results followed her acceptance of the call to Women’s
Ministries.
God called Pandita Ramabai. He chose her and ordained her that she should go
and bring forth fruit, and that her fruit should remain, and it does to this
day. And whatsoever she should ask of the Father in His name, He would give it
to her, and hundreds of stories are in her biographies—stories of God’s miracles in answer to
her prayers.
We could name other women God has called… Amy
Carmichael who established Donavur Fellowship for
abandoned girl and child prostitutes and orphan in Tinnevelly
District of Tamil Nadu. Amy Carmichael has died, but her fruit
remains; her books are still in circulation telling of hundreds of answered prayers
in her work for women’s ministries as God had called her.
Mother Theresa is a woman God called to show His
love and compassion to the destitute on the streets of
And now God has called you. He has chosen you to
be a woman of action and a woman of prayer… a woman reaching out to help others
with love and compassion, walking in the footsteps of such women as Mother
Theresa, Amy Carmichael and Pandita Ramabai.
I believe you are here because you have accepted
His call. May God bless you as you learn how to lead the women in your sphere
of influence to do mighty things for God. I pray that
you will bear much fruit and that whatever you ask of God He will give you. I
pray that you will be a woman of action and a woman of prayer.
Biographical Information on Sermon Writer:
Dorothy Eaton Watts is an
administrator for her church headquarters in
Dorothy is also a freelance
writer (having written more than 20 books), editor, and speaker. Her hobbies
include gardening, hiking, and birding (with over 1,400 in her world total).