YP Sing Address—N. Simon
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Anyone.
Well, I really don't mind if you forget my name.
I I won't hesitate to tell you that I'm quite nervous standing up in front of the were you young people? I've only been to a couple of young people things myself. I did not come into the assessment.
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Emily until I was in my 20s and I had only been to a couple of things.
Before I was married and I guess that disqualified me from attending until today.
So.
Let's let's start by reading some verses by way of introduction and.
And I don't really intend to speak from the verses that I'm about to read, but just to introduce my thought. And they're found in Timothy, First Epistle of Timothy, First Epistle of Paul to Timothy in the second chapter.
Beginning in the eighth verse.
First Timothy, second chapter eight first. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest insane placidness and sobriety. We could read that modesty and discretion not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness.
With good works that the woman learned with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to assert authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. I'll stop there.
Now, I'm not intending to stand here tonight and to lecture you on what you should or shouldn't wear.
But there is a walk that's becoming to a Christian.
And when I read these verses.
Some time ago and struck me as rather odd the juxtaposition of the two subjects.
It goes from men praying everywhere and then says to the women in like manner also and then it starts talking about dress, what a woman should wear. What has prayer and what a woman wears got to do with each other? Well, in First Timothy we have the church in order and as I said, I believe there is a walk that is characteristic of the Christian.
And that's really my subject tonight, not to give you something negative.
You know, there's two ways that I could tell you how to get to the motel. We're staying at the motel. I could say don't go down the street.
Don't go down that street, Take this road, do this, do that. There's another way I could say.
And that is, well, I'm driving down there. Follow me now. I don't want you to follow me tonight. I'm not important, I said. I didn't mind if you didn't remember my name. I want, if anything, tonight, I want to point you to one that I want you to follow. Follow him.
Now let's look to the Lord in prayer.
Now.
We've all heard and enjoyed some very good ministry. And my question to you is, is what are you going to do with us? What am I going to do with it? Tomorrow? I have to head back home to Colorado. And Tuesday, Lord willing, if we're left here, I'm supposed to be back at work and the week goes on just like the week that I left. What am I going to do with it? What are you going to do with it now if you leave this conference thinking to yourself?
But I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to vow to live a better life. You are going to be disappointed, bitterly disappointed. You're going to be like Jacob. He couldn't keep what he vowed.
We need to.
To give up, to surrender ourselves.
To as we have in Romans, to reckon ourselves dead, let's.
Well, in these verses that I read, it spoke about men that spoke about women. Tonight you are here. Young men, Scripture calls you young men. Scripture calls you young women. I don't know that I ever mentioned young people, but there's other two terms are found in Scripture. Now, young men, you are characterized by strength, and I would also suggest that young women, you are characterized by beauty.
Scripture does not hesitate to mention that the women in it were beautiful.
But it's interesting the first mention of the beauty of the woman is found in in Genesis chapter 6. I believe it is.
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In the days of Noah, when things were going astray.
And the second verse of Genesis 6, the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. I don't intend to go into what that verse might mean in its entirety, but next mention of a fair woman was Tara, and it doesn't mention her beauty until it causes Abraham to stumble.
Rebecca it mentions that she is fair, but not by Isaac. Not until Isaac is stumbled by her beauty and then it mentioned that she was fair.
In those verses that we read in Timothy.
I would like to suggest that beauty for a woman is not what you put on. It's not what you do with your hair. There are those points covered in that verse. It's what's on the inside, a young man. I said strength characterized the young man. We have strength in Genesis again in Nimrod that says push the GAT Nimrod and he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter.
Before the Lord. Now that wasn't a good thing. That may sound like a good thing, but Nimrod went out in his own strength to a mighty hunter. Hunting involves cunning. Mighty involves strength. Strength and cunning. He went out to make a name for himself. And is that what you intend to do with yourself tonight, young men?
You want to go out to make a name for yourself.
Let's. In those verses we had in First Timothy, it said for.
The men.
To pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. You want to lift weights? Lift your hands up in prayer. You know this book here, Paul also says to Timothy.
Bodily exercises profit us for our level. It doesn't say a profit of nothing, but the value of it in your life overall is going to be small.
If you want strength, then find it in prayer now. I was told that I had about 15 minutes to speak.
And I was given some liberty to go overtime, but I don't want to take that liberty too far, so I want to keep this short.
But I wanted to look at one person in scripture and it was a woman.
You know, we had some examples today and I believe that all of men of service, but I want to bring before you a woman.
Now your sisters.
Your presence in the assembly is important.
Now I said originally that I always found it odd that a connected praying with how a woman should dress. A man's place in the assembly is public. He prays publicly. A woman's position in the assembly is not public speaking. But.
She can show by her adornment and that verse, those verses doesn't just mean what she wears, it means her whole department, how she carries herself.
She can be a testimony. Your place in the assembly is very important and as you go on, if the Lord should leave us here, if you have families, the place of the husband and of the wife in that family is very important. Don't think just because you're a woman that you don't have to think about these things, that you'll have a husband that will take care of them.
And husbands. Potential husbands.
Don't think that your physical strength is going to carry a marriage through. So anyway, before I drag this out longer than I intended, let's look at this example. Example I had in mind is Mary.
Let's look in Luke.
Chapter 10, the end of the chapter. Now all these verses are very familiar to you, I'm sure.
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But we find Mary.
At Jesus feet, I said I wanted to point you to one to follow.
I want you to point. I want to point you to one at whose feet.
You should find yourself. Mary is found at Jesus feet three times. This is the first occasion to the end of Luke chapter 10.
Now Angel passes they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. But Martha was coming about with much serving and came to him and said, Lord does not doubt care that my sister has let me to serve alone. Bit her therefore that she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needful when Mary has chosen that good part that shall not be taken away from her.
So where is Mary found? Mary is found sitting at Jesus feet hearing His word and that's where you and I have to start hearing His word. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We had a gospel there tonight.
The sound went out.
We can't make you take it in.
Face cometh by hearing. You have to hear it and receive it into your house.
There's many scriptures I could point you to about the importance of this word, and I would encourage each one of you to read it.
No, in when I grew up, I grew up in a Christian home, I said. I didn't come into the assembly until I was in my 20s. I moved here from another country.
And but I grew up in a Christian home, and it was our custom to read the scriptures.
Together as a family every day. And the only times that we didn't, there are so few in my memory that they stick out in my mind. So you are now reaching an age where perhaps you've already gone out on your own. You're going to have to stop making decisions for yourself if you haven't started to make them already. And should you marry, you're going to have to stop making decisions, young men, for your family.
And you're going to need to have the word of God before you if you want to go on.
And even as a single person, you need to start reading this book, if you haven't already for yourself.
Now it's so easy.
To be discouraged in reading it, to put it off. I mean this.
I'll admit.
I can pick up a story and I can start reading that and not feel tired. And before I know it's late, I pick up the scriptures and I start reading it and I don't know why, but suddenly I stopped feeling tired. Maybe this wasn't the night for me to read. You know that the enemy has all sorts of ways of.
Having a.
To take us away from this.
This book, this precious book, sitting at his feet, listening to his word.
Time is moving on. I was.
Well, let me my watch is fast so.
We got three times I said that Mary was at Jesus speech. So we got two more to go through. But I just wanted to point you to some verses in Song of Solomon in the 5th chapter. This is a book that I really have enjoyed. You know, properly speaking, that's not the Christian.
Experience.
I'm not sure I put that exactly right, but nevertheless, I see my own heart in this book.
5th chapter of Song of Solomon.
This is how we are. The third verse across my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall we file? How shall I defile them?
We're laid out in peace, relaxing.
Why should I make the efforts?
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door. My bowels were moved for him. I rose up. You see she was lying down. I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped with murder, and my fingers sweet with sweet, smelling mirror upon the hammers. As I lost, I opened to my beloved, but my beloved hath withdrawn himself.
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Now, is this the manner that you take up this book?
In your leisure.
Let's read on. She goes out.
The Watchmen that went about the city, you know, let me read the.
The rest of the sixth verse I saw him, but could not find him. I called him, but it gave me no answer. The watchman that went about the city found me. They smoked me, they wounded me. The keepers of the wall took my veil away from me, took my veil from me.
Is this how you search for your office? Are you searching them a in the wrong way?
It's your leisure. Are you searching for them in the wrong place in the city? Is that what you're looking for? Your answers? Are you asking the wrong people? The Watchmen you know? And since they took her veil away, the world is going to find out whether you're real or not.
I can't tell what your hearts are. I can't tell whether you're blessing or not.
The world has a way of finding that out. You know, I went through university and I like to fit in. I, I, I was a shy, very shy child. I don't find it easy to stand up and talk to people.
And a lot of times the shy people, they don't like to stick out and be noticed, and I like to fit in.
And one day a girl says to me at college, well, I know for a fact you're not a Christian.
You know that smoked me.
That's smoking.
The world has a way of finding out whether you're real or not.
Let's continue on to the next.
Point in Mary's life where we find her at Jesus feet.
Tennis in John.
The 11Th chapter, I have a little bit to say about Master Two. You know, we just saw Martha. She pointed her finger and said, what about her?
You know Peter pointed his finger at John and said, What about her? And tonight I want you to point the finger but this way and say, what about me?
What about me?
In the 11Th chapter of John.
Beginning with well, we know the story Lazarus side.
Beginning in the 21St. And Martha, Martha is kind of a busy person. She likes to be busy. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you don't point your finger and say what about her?
Mother is busy, and so she she says in the 21St And Master, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went out and met him, that Mary sat still in the house. Vincent, Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou would ask of God, God will give it to the givethe Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall raise again in the rise, again in the resurrection of the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life he that believeth in me, though he were dead.
Yet shall he live, And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth sell this she sayeth unto him, Gaylord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which thou which should come into the world. And when she has so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister, secretly saying, The monsters come and call us for these.
And as soon as she heard that, Mary arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
The Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary, because she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goes under the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying, Lord, that thou hast been here, my brother has not died.
The next time we find Mary at Jesus feet, it's weeping.
Let's back up just a little bit and talk about Masa.
You know the Lord has a conversation here with Martha.
And perhaps his mother had been sitting at Jesus feet previously. She might have understood.
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It's not clear in our scripture here because in English.
We have one word for ask, but in Greek there's more than one word. And Mary says here, if thou wilt supplicate of God, see, she doesn't really understand who the Lord Jesus is. The Lord Jesus never uses that word. When he asked something of God, He asked for God as an equal. He never supplicates God.
The MASA doesn't quite understand.
The Lord Jesus, and she doesn't understand what he's saying to her now that sometimes when we speak, we don't quite use the right words. And I don't want to discourage you from speaking because you might happen to use the wrong right word or you might use the wrong word. I stumble over my words and I trust you'll give me that liberty too.
So I don't want to discourage you.
But Masa doesn't really understand and she says something.
But I never read, she says.
The Master is come and call us for thee. Where in what I read was the Lord calling for Mary? Martha recognized something in her sister that told her. Mary will understand this. I don't.
I'll go get married and she gets married. We find Mary at Jesus feet weeping. You know, in the first example, where was that? His feet listening to his words. Back in Colorado on Thursday night, there's a reading meeting.
And no doubt the assembly that you go to, there's a reading meeting. I'd encourage you to be there.
There's also a prayer meeting.
At his feet, weeping. If he listened to his word, when the trial comes, you know where to turn and you'll be at his feet, weeping, praying, and trials will come. You know again, you're at an age where I can talk to you that marriage is something that.
Is possibly in your horizon, you know, when you're young.
Get off your sights. Not that far out. So you're at an age where.
These thoughts are going to come through your mind, young men.
It's so important that you pray.
And when you have a family that you pray together, that you pray with your wife.
Prayer has a way of revealing who you are. It's not the only reason why we pray, obviously.
But I've said it before in our own assembly, I find it hard to pray publicly.
I find it hard. I can talk and I can pretend to be something I'm not, but when it comes to prayer, I cannot pretend to be something I'm not. And when you kneel down with your wife, should the Lord leave us here and bless you with a wife? When you open your heart in prayer and she opens her heart in prayer, you have to be honest with each other. You know, there's a verse in first Peter that says likewise your husband's dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto wife under the wife as under the weaker vessels.
And as being heirs together of grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. It's important that the prayers in the marriage relationship are not hindered.
You notice it mentions the wife of being the weaker vessel. It doesn't say the weak vessel, it says the weaker vessel. That means that I am weak. It merely says the wife is the weaker vessel.
God does not want us to be ignorant, he says. Well, according to knowledge.
You know, I, I wondered whether I should mention that.
And I I trust with the Lord's strength I can get through it. But.
I said this another couple months that were contemplating marriage. You know, when trials come, there are a whole lot, and I speak particularly to the young men. When trials come in your life, there are a whole lot easier when you're single.
But I think you understand what it means, the weaker vessel when you have a wife and trials come and it's not probably what you're thinking right now.
When we were married.
My wife and I, we had anticipations of a happy family with children and I have children. I have 3 beautiful children.
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But the first child we lost.
Young men, when you enter marriage, don't enter it. Likely don't enter unprepared.
You need to have your life in order.
You need to know what it is to be at Jesus feet listening to his word.
You need to know in your life what it is to be at His feet in prayer.
Because your wife will depend upon you.
To help you. It's not that she won't depend upon the Lord.
She will, but she'll expect you to be there too.
Let's look at the last point in Jesus.
When Mary was at Jesus feet as found in John.
Chapter 12.
And excuse the personal reference to I. I don't want to set myself up to be something I tell you this because I was not prepared.
You know the other thing too, I want to tell you with prayer and trials, you know Mary was at Jesus feet weeping. She was in a trial. You know, you can worry about the trials that might come up in your life. You can worry about all sorts of things. It says casting your care upon him. Care actually, it says having cost your care singular. It doesn't contemplate that we have lots of cares.
Cast your care upon him.
So don't. I don't want you to be imagining all sorts of things that might happen to you in your life. The law doesn't treat us like that. He treats us like a kind father. You know, I read a book recently by someone that you probably all know and have heard of, and maybe you've even read their book. Corrie 10. Boom. She went through a concentration camp. Who in here can imagine what it's like to go through a concentration camp?
Who else in here can prepare ourselves for such a thing like that? But when Carrie was a very little girl, she worried about things and her father said to her, when you catch a train car, when do I give you the ticket and car? He said Just before I get on the train. She was a little girl.
The Father held on to that ticket. Just before she got on the train, he handed her that ticket. We have a heavenly Father like that too.
When we need the strength.
He gives it to us.
But do you know where the term?
John, Chapter 12, the last.
Place we find Mary last time we find Mary at Jesus feet.
John 12 verse one. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, a mass of served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment, a spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and to seek with the hair and the house was filled with the order of the ointment. You know, I said to your sisters, your presence in the assembly was very important. You may not speak publicly, but the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. You know we had Mary at Jesus feet listening to His word because think of that as the reading meeting. We have Mary at Jesus feet and weeping. We can think of that as the prayer meeting.
We have Mary at Jesus feet with the ointment, the breaking of bread, worship, worship and this is your presence in the breaking of bread can fill the house with the odor of the ointment.
Now, young man, I haven't forgotten you, and clearly many of the things that I've said are applicable to you. And I said what characterizes a young man is strength.
And I thought that the address we had this afternoon was so applicable.
You know, as young men we want to go out with zeal. We see so much wrong, we want to change things. I had a young man in my house once. He and his wife so recently had not been married too long, and he was all fired up in zeal. He might say, as far as the reading meeting goes, well, there's hardly anyone there. I don't get anything out of it. So he talks on and off. I don't understand them. So let me ask you this. If you ever read the portion before you've gone to the reading meetings, have you prepared before you've gone?
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You know, this young man in my house was full of zeal. He could see all the things that were wrong in the assembly.
He's no longer in the assembly.
You know you need to get things in order in Exodus. You know we had this in Peter.
It talked about.
You don't have to turn to it because we had it in the Reading meeting. It took about the holy priesthood and the brother said that was vertical worship comes first, then we have the royal priesthood that goes out, service comes next.
We have it in Hebrews.
By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Worship comes first that which is vertical.
But to do good and to communicate forget not service comes next.
In the book of Exodus, we have redemption, and that's really the starting point.
You know, if you don't know Christ in your life tonight, then none of the things that I have told you are going to help you.
You know one thing I thought.
About prayer to talk to that prayer, Hezekiah was in trouble. Grab Shaka sent him a nasty ladder and said don't trust in Jehovah. None of the other nations that trusted in their gods would say basically he said just turn over Jerusalem to me. You know the world does not understand your Christianity.
Does not understand it one bit. And so tonight, if you don't have Christ in your heart, you don't understand what we're talking about. You need to start in Exodus with redemption, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. That's where you need to stop.
What book follows Exodus? Well, you all know we've sang it probably since children. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. Leviticus is upward.
It's worship.