One Woman's Openness (Mother's Day 2022)

Good morning and happy Mother’s Day! I’m Bill Connors, Senior Pastor here at Eastern Hills, and to those of you in the room and those of you online right now, I’d just like to welcome you to Family Worship. Thank you for being here, and I want to take just a moment to thank my lovely wife, Melanie, for being a great mom, and to thank my mom, Teddi, and my mother-in-law, Linda, for their investment in Melanie and I.

I also want to thank our praise band for their leadership every week. You might now know how hard these guys work each week, but I do. Thanks for leading our congregation to the throne in musical praise and worship each Sunday.

Announcements

Last week, I mentioned at the close of service that we are going to be having a special time in the life of the church during our Family Worship service on May 22. We’re working with a church consulting group called Auxano, and part of what Auxano is doing for and with us is called a church assessment, evaluating our mission, direction, and readiness for the next steps that God has in store for Eastern Hills. Part of that assessment is a church survey that we will take all at the same time during Family Worship on May 22. We’d like to make this a high attendance Sunday, so we can get as many people to complete the survey as possible. You will be able to take the survey if you are online. To this end, the group that Auxano asked us to put together for this process has created a document called our “Case for Support,” which sets out the direction that we believe God is calling us as a church to in the years to come. This Case for Support will be available for you to download, read, and pray about on our website beginning tomorrow morning at 8:30 am. Please make sure you read it thoroughly and pray about it between now and May 22. If you need a printed copy, you’ll be able to pick those up in the office starting tomorrow morning. I’m really excited to share this with the church family!

Today, we’ll be taking up our special one-day offering supporting the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home in Portales, NM. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Children’s Home, but it’s such a great ministry, which has served thousands of children in need since 1919. Our goal as a church for this one-day offering is $5,500. Please pray and give as the Lord leads.

Opening

For several years now, I have opened my Mother’s Day message with an acknowledgment for those who struggle with Mother’s Day. This year is not going to be any different.

Mother’s Day can be a very difficult day for many. For those of you for whom this is the case, let me just start by thanking you for braving being here today. You have had every opportunity, especially given the fact that we stream our services every week, to not come, either online or in person. You could have decided to skip today and listen to or watch a past message. But many of you are here in the room, and perhaps many more of you are here right now online, watching and desiring to worship with the body of Christ and to hear from the Word of God, and my hope and intent is to make good use of your commitment and dedication this morning.

To you ladies who want children, but for some reason cannot have them, my heart goes out to you. I know that a Mother’s Day service can be especially hard, and perhaps already has been. Please know that you are loved, and we don’t take you for granted or downplay or ignore your very real pain. And some of you are “mother’s-in-waiting,” and you intend and plan to have children at some point, but you’re just not there yet. We wait expectantly (no pun intended) with you. For those of you who experienced the pain and heartache of miscarriage, we pray for you as well.

This day can also be difficult for those who have lost their children tragically. You are moms. You’re moms who cannot mother your child right now. I am so sorry for your loss. You also are loved and cared for by this body, and we mourn with you this day.

Finally, this day can be frustrating for those who have no desire to have children. This is a very real thing, and you may struggle just being here this morning with so much focus on children and motherhood, which is just not something you’re concerned with, at least not at the moment. I get that it may not feel particularly useful for you. Thank you for being here anyway, and I really hope that my message this morning will be useful for you as a woman, not just for moms.

And for those who have lost their moms, especially in the past year: we mourn with you as well.

I can’t understand what these women are going through, and I want to be sensitive to and respectful of that struggle, and just not mentioning it isn’t right. So, Lord willing, it is my intent to open every Mother’s Day message with this kind of acknowledgment, and I pray that this message is useful to all who are here with us today.

So for our focal passage this morning we’re going to look at a woman in Scripture who doesn’t get a lot of air time, but who was actually pretty important. Her name is Lydia, and we meet her in Acts chapter 16, and she is only really a part of four verses of Scripture. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we bring our attention to our focal passage this morning and pray:

Acts 16:11–15 CSB

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there. 14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

PRAYER (fires throughout New Mexico, Awaken Church in Rio Rancho, Pastor Matt Flores)

You know, I think that Christianity gets a pretty bad rap from culture regarding women. People who want to condemn the church as patriarchal or misogynistic lift a few particular verses out of the Bible and divorce them from their context and decry the church, saying that the church doesn’t allow women to use their giftedness, doesn’t allow women to lead, doesn’t allow women to serve, and (gasp) ask that they submit to their husbands. Okay, that last one is true. The Bible does do that: Ephesians 5:22.

But for the most part, these are the perspectives of people who don’t have a good understanding of either the incredible shift Christianity brought to women or the importance that Scripture places on women. Women are not second-class Christians, and they never have been. Women were incredibly important in the Old Testament: think about women like Rahab, Ruth, Deborah, Jael, Hannah, or Abigail, to name a few. Women supported Jesus’s ministry both personally and financially in the New Testament. Women were the first to witness and testify to the resurrection, and Paul’s letters are replete with greetings and affirmations of the women in his ministry. Women have always been and will always be a vital part of God’s working in the world and in His people.

Lydia is one of those women. We see in Scripture that she was originally from Thyatira and that she was a dealer in purple cloth or the expensive purple dye that was used to make cloth for royalty. She was wealthy, or at least very well off. We don’t know if she was a mom. She likely was, but might not have been. We just read in verse 15 that “she and her household were baptized,” which could have certainly included servants as well as children, but we don’t really know for sure. It is likely that she was a widow, but again we can’t know with certainty. Therefore, today’s message and focus on this figure in Scripture applies to all women, and really to all of us for that matter.

In Lydia, we see the impact of one woman’s openness. She had open ears, an open heart, and open hands. First, her open ears:

1) Lydia was a woman with open ears.

We see that Paul met Lydia in Philippi on his second missionary journey, at a prayer gathering of only women (likely because there were very few or even no Jewish men in Philippi, not because they were separated from the men somehow). Since the prayer gathering was taking place in the open air by the river, and since there were no men present, we can believe with some confidence that there was no synagogue in Philippi (a synagogue required at least ten Jewish men to commission). These were Jewish women and Gentile converts to Judaism meeting together to pray and worship the Lord outside of the city. At least Paul, Silas, and Luke (note the first person plural “we”) sat down and shared the Gospel with these women, and Lydia listened to what they were sharing:

Acts 16:14 (CSB)

14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening.

The Greek word for “listening” here means more than just that Lydia heard the sound that the men were making as they talked. This word specifically emphasizes the fact that the listener accurately understands what is being spoken. I think just about any parent, and probably most wives, can relate to the difference between “hearing” and actually “listening.”

So our first question is this: Do we listen to the Gospel? Notice what Lydia did: she carved out intentional time and was available for the hearing of the Gospel. Now, we might argue that we’re here, aren’t we? Sure, but what are we doing while we’re here? Are we focused on hearing the truth of God’s Word? Or are we focused on other things, perhaps even intentionally distracting ourselves from really engaging in the Word with the rest of the church family? And what about at other times? Are we intentionally engaging in listening to God through His Word on a regular basis? Are we seeking to understand it as well?

Twice in the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus taught the people using parables (the parable of the soils and the parable of the lamp being under a bowl or a basket), He said this:

Mark 4:23 CSB

23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen.”

Lydia’s ears were primed for listening.

Ladies, let me address you specifically this morning. I know this might be a tough one. There’s a lot of things vying for your attention. You’ve got a lot of things that want to keep you from listening to the Word of God, both necessary things and unnecessary things. But the truth is that we can cultivate our appetites through what we want to listen to and feed our hearts. What are we feasting on mentally and emotionally?

But then our second question is this: Do we preach the Gospel? Paul and his companions did exactly that. They preached the Gospel so that it could be heard by Lydia’s open ears.

There’s a saying that has been floating around for a long time that has been attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel at all times; use words if necessary.” St. Francis almost certainly said no such thing, and neither should we. How do you preach without speaking? You don’t. You might be an example of a helpful person or a caring person or a loving person, but without the vocal proclamation of the reason for your helping, caring, and loving, you’re not going to point people to Jesus.

We are called to preach the Gospel, so that people would hear it:

Romans 10:14 CSB

14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

Hearing is vital to our understanding and application of the Gospel. Our ears need to be open to hearing what God has to say to us. But more than her ears:

2) Lydia was a woman with an open heart.

One thing we know for sure about Lydia: She was the first recorded convert to Christianity on the continent of Europe. Paul’s standard practice on his missionary journeys was to go first to the Jews of the city, and I think that it is safe to assume that Philippi was no different. As there was no synagogue, they went where a Jewish prayer gathering might be held in order to meet with any Jews before going to the Gentiles of the city. Even though Lydia was a Gentile, she was already “God-fearing,” meaning that she believed in Yahweh. She listened in order to understand what Paul was saying, but we also read in the Scripture that God was at work in her life.

Acts 16:14 (CSB)

14 The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.

For the Greek mind and the Jewish mind, the heart was the seat of the emotions, the center of the will, the source of life. We still use this kind of terminology today. “I love you with all of my heart,” we might say.

Through hearing the message of the Gospel, Lydia understood the reality of what God has done for us in Christ. But she needed a heart transformation: she needed the source of her life to change.

The Bible tells us that it is God Himself who works to open our hearts to regeneration through faith in Christ, just like He did with Lydia. In John 6, Jesus said:

John 6:44 CSB

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

The Father, through the convicting work of the Spirit, draws the lost toward Jesus. Paul would later explain this work in his letter to Titus:

Titus 3:4–7 CSB

4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

Because God loves us and made us to be in relationship with Him, He takes the initiative in saving us. We need to be saved because of our sin—the fact that we don’t relate to Him the way that we should—and for God to be fully just, He must punish our sin, because He is completely sinless and perfect. But Romans says that none of us seek God on our own, we’re altogether corrupted by sin’s influence. So Jesus, God’s own perfect Son, took that punishment we deserve, even though He didn’t deserve it. And it is by His work in the world by His Spirit that He convicts us of our need for His saving grace according to John 16, drawing us.

The Bible says that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to respond to the message of the Gospel. While it was completely God’s work to give Lydia understanding of her need for Christ and to draw her to faith, she then responded to the message of the Gospel through surrender: She trusted that Jesus died for her to save her from the judgment she deserves because of her sin, and she surrendered to Jesus as Lord. She didn’t earn her salvation in any way. She just gave in to what God was already at work doing by surrendering to what He had already done.

Is God doing a work on your heart this morning to understand and respond to the Gospel? Is He opening your heart so that you might respond to the work of Jesus on the cross, surrendering to Him as Savior and Lord? Respond to that drawing, that opening of your heart right now in the pew or at your house, wherever you might be. Surrender to Christ and be saved this morning.

So Lydia had open ears and an open heart. But then we see that following her conversion, she opens one more thing: her hands.

3) Lydia was a woman with open hands.

As I shared in the introductory part of my message, Lydia was rather wealthy. Trade in purple dye and cloth was very lucrative at the time, and dye and cloth from Thyatira was kind of the “gold standard” for the purple trade. After Lydia and her household came to faith in Christ and are baptized, she immediately invited her newfound brothers in Christ to come and stay at her house:

Acts 16:15 CSB

15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Her heart of hospitality is impressive. She had the space, she had the means, so she opened her home to the missionaries. She even went so far as to use their acceptance of her offer as a kind of litmus test for whether they believed that she had truly been converted. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord...” she said. So Paul and his companions acquiesced to her invitation and apparently make her home a kind of base camp. How do we know this?

We aren’t sure how long Paul and his group were in Philippi. But sometime after this episode with Lydia, Paul and Silas were arrested after they drove a fortune-telling demon out of a poor slave girl, and they were illegally beaten and placed in prison (because they were Roman citizens, it was illegal for them to be beaten as punishment for a crime without being tried and found guilty of the crime). God used even that for a saving purpose in the jailer’s life, and when Paul and Silas were released and asked to leave the city, they first went to visit the church of Philippi to encourage them before they departed. And where did that church gather? In Lydia’s home:

Acts 16:40 CSB

40 After leaving the jail, they came to Lydia’s house, where they saw and encouraged the brothers and sisters, and departed.

The brothers and sisters in the church at Philippi met in Lydia’s house.

Now, I’m not going to make application of this by saying that we all need to invite a bunch of people to stay at our houses, or that we’re all going to show up at your house next week for worship and your house the week following. This happens to be what God prompted her to do when faced with a need. The point is that Lydia was open to God’s right to use whatever she had at her disposal for His purposes whenever He requested she do so.

We are all to be willing to use what God has given us for His purposes and for His glory, especially for the blessing of the church. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of a little, we all have something that God wants to use for His glory

Galatians 6:10 CSB

10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.

So what has God given you? Is it time? Is it a particular talent? Is it a certain skill, or perhaps a resource? Is it a financial resource? Lydia held her resources loosely, and as a result, was instrumental in the founding and growth of the church in Philippi. You might think that this is a stretch of a statement, given what we see in the book of Acts. But we need to remember that Paul later wrote a letter to the church at Philippi, and we can learn some things from that letter as well.

Philippians 1:3–5 CSB

3 I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, 4 always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Notice in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. He must be referencing Lydia to some extent here: “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” What was the first day of the church at Philippi’s partnership in the gospel? The day Lydia came to faith in Christ. Now, he doesn’t mention Lydia by name, and we don’t know why. 10 or 12 years have passed since Paul’s second missionary journey, and he’s writing Philippians from prison in Rome in about 62 AD. So perhaps Lydia has moved back to Thyatira. Perhaps she had died. Regardless, she was the first one in Philippi to partner with Paul in the gospel ministry. And not only that, but we can also see later in the letter that he references the early generosity of the Philippian church, which was Lydia’s generosity as we have already seen:

Philippians 4:14–18 CSB

14 Still, you did well by partnering with me in my hardship. 15 And you Philippians know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone. 16 For even in Thessalonica you sent gifts for my need several times. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that is increasing to your account. 18 But I have received everything in full, and I have an abundance. I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided—a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

Thessalonica was where Paul went immediately leaving Philippi, and he was only there for three weeks… They sent gifts “several times!” That had to be at least somewhat Lydia’s doing! And Lydia’s example of using her resources for the benefit of the church and to support the gospel ministry lived on in the church at Philippi, because Paul here was acknowledging that he had just received a gift that Epaphroditus delivered from them—a gift that left him “fully supplied.”

Eastern Hills is an incredibly generous church. We are consistent in our missions giving and other ministry giving. This is just one way that we are making an impact in our world. But the challenge for us this morning, and perhaps particularly to the ladies in the congregation due to the example of Lydia in today’s message, is for us to look for how God is working around us and calling for us to join Him in that work, perhaps work that is difficult, or inconvenient, or seemingly unimportant to us. How does God want to use each of us for the building up of the church in His love and grace? This is the first family for us to minister in and to. Our brothers and sisters in Christ.

But not only that, we need to ask ourselves how we can use what God has given us to be a blessing to those we live near, those we work with. How can we be active participants in serving and reaching our neighbors? Remember what the Great Commandment is:

Mark 12:30–31 CSB

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

Think for a moment about your church family. What time, talents, and treasure do you have that can be useful for the body? Think about your neighbors near your home. How can God use you in that location to be a blessing to those around you? Think about the neighbors of the church building. How can we make a difference in the lives of those in this neighborhood through what God has given to us?

Closing

Like Lydia, God wants us to have ears to hear and understand the Gospel message. If you are in Christ, God has also opened your heart like Lydia’s, so that you could be saved. And how, like Lydia, is God calling us to open our hands and be ready and willing to use whatever we have for His purposes and glory.

Salvation: Listening and understanding. Is God opening your heart for response?

Church membership: A place where you can engage and serve with the resources God has given you?

Repentance

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Business meeting would normally be 5/15, but we have moved it to 5/22

Bible reading: 1 Kings 17

Next week: New series: Signs, looking at the signs that proved Jesus is the Messiah in the Gospel of John. I hope you’ll plan to be here each week.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Romans 12:11–15 CSB

11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. 13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

Great instruction for today, and every day. God bless you all, and have a wonderful rest of the day.

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