PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 48 – How Can We Change The World? - Part 14

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 48 - How Can We Change the World- Part 14

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies.  We are now up to . . .

No. 16. WILLINGLY SERVING THE LORD

God not only wants us to serve Him, but to willingly serve Him. We are finding in each one of these points an adjective that goes with them. God doesn’t want us to do anything ordinarily, but extraordinarily. In serving the Lord, He doesn’t want us to just serve Him just because we have to serve Him. No, but to do it willingly, out of our hearts. And of course, the greatest way that we are going to serve the Lord as mothers with children is in our homes—mothering, homemaking, and being a wife. They’re not mundane things. they are so powerful and, oh wow, when we can do these willingly, it just makes such a difference.

I wonder if we can go to that lovely Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15:58 where it says: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast. unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

This Scripture speaks to us as mothers because it’s talking about our work for the Lord. Everyone is working for the Lord in a different way.  If God has blessed you with children, you are a mother working for the Lord in your home, raising these children and making your home a beautiful place, a place that’s filled with the presence of God and doing many other things in your home. 

The home is such an amazing place to do so many projects, a place where you can bring people into your home to love them, and to feed them, and to show hospitality. It’s a place where you can create and make things to bless other people. Of course a lot of that depends on the season of your motherhood. When you have little ones, they take your whole life and you often don’t get much time to do anything else in your whole day. 

I can remember when I had three in 17 months, and then I had four children under four and so on. In those early days that’s all I did, was to mother these children and to care for my home and my husband. I would often write lists of things I wanted to do but I don’t think I ever got anything done at all. I don’t think I ever crossed anything off my list. Well, actually, I have to confess that even today I write lists and I still never cross everything off my list that I put down. Life is filled with so many things I want to do, but, the end, I had to realize that I am doing the most important thing. 

Then, as your children get older and they grow up and you get bigger ones and you get children in their teens, and you train them how to cook, run the house, and do many other projects, wow, the things you can accomplish in the home are absolutely amazing!

And many of these wonderful, creative things you will do to bless other people. Some will even be used to bring money into your home. You can do a business right there in your home and that can be a wonderful blessing, as long as you do it, as I said, in the right season.

Because when you do this, it’s doing it with your children and having your children to help and it’s usually a season of when they’re grown up with you and you have all these helpers who can help you in the home, can help you with the creative things you are doing, and that’s blessing them and enlarging them also. And so we wait for our season. Wherever we are, whatever season, we’re going to be doing it for the Lord, aren’t we? 

I must take you to this little passage here as I’m thinking of it, because I said how we can use our gifts and our creative talents and the projects we do, often to bless our home financially. But even in doing that I think we do have to be very careful that we don’t always do things for monetary gain.

What does it say? 1 Peter 4:9-10: “Use [or practice] hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

So God is saying here, as you’ve received the gift, not one of us have a gift of ourselves, every gift/talent that God has given to us, comes from God. He wants us to use the gifts that He has given us to employ them, to use them to serve one another. It doesn’t actually say in this Scripture to use it for your own, or your own monetary gain. Which, yes, there is importance in that, too, because we do have to care for our house or our households.

And although our husband is the provider of the home, in that season when we have older children we can continue to bless and do things in our homes. But let’s remember that our gifts are given to us, not just for monetary gain. Our gifts are given to us to bless others, to serve others. I think it’s a beautiful thing to do that, to realize, “Oh, Lord God, You’ve given me this gift, I want to use it to bless others.”

Erin Harrison and I, we do a talk show together. Some of you may have watched our Talk Show. We do it every Tuesday. It’s now on YouTube, Erin now puts it on YouTube. Just last week we were talking about this very thing and how important it is to do this, and to teach our children this too.

So many children today grow up with an entitlement mentality. Even if they do something in the home, or of course they have their faithful jobs and chores they need to do each day, but sometimes when we want them to do  something extra special or extra that needs being done, parents will say, “Well, look, I’ll pay you for that,” or “I’ll give you so much.” Well, that can be good.  But why is it that we have to pay our children for something special they do? We can do that sometimes. I love to do that! When our children were preparing at Christmas time and they wanted to earn money to buy Christmas presents I would think of all the extra jobs around the home—cleaning the windows (that didn’t usually get done) and all those kinds of jobs. I would pay them for it because they were working to get presents for Christmas.

We do have seasons when we’ll do that too,  but not everything. Not everything. Oh, I can’t believe the way children just expect things today. Dear ladies, don’t raise and train your children to grow up expecting things all the time, expecting something every time they go to town.

Or if you go out, “I’ll bring you something home!” I beg your pardon! Come on now, what are we training them for? We’re putting in an entitlement mentality that, “If mummy and daddy are going out for the night, then I’m entitled to get something because they went out.” Or if an extra job is needed to be done around the home because something is happening or someone is coming and we’ve got to get the place really cleaned up, well, they really shouldn’t have to be paid to do it. It’s part of family life.

Let’s raise our children to be those who will be employed to serve one another in the family, or even to serve outside the home. I think that is very important. That’s learning to serve the Lord willingly and aboundingly. 

Isn’t that what this Scripture says here in 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Always abounding in the work of the Lord. . . .”  That word “abound” is the word perisseuō and it means “to excel, to increase, to superabound, enough and to spare, over and above.” Do you understand how that word means “more than the necessary, over and above”? Let’s begin to do our mothering that way and to serve the Lord that way in everything we do and train our children how to serve in the family this way and to serve other people this way.

I love this Scripture because do you notice the end of it? We’re to be “Always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor . . . “  (Oh, did you notice that word? Your labor. What does that mean? Your work. Work, yes work. Did you get it? It is work, and motherhood is work. Yes, you’re not afraid of work, are you? I believe work is a wonderful thing and I think we should have the right attitude about it even in our homes.

Motherhood is not something where we just sit on the sofa and it all just happens. No, we have to work to keep our homes and manage them well. We have to work to mother our children. We have to work at homeschooling our children. It is work. But is work something that is a drudgery? Is work something that’s mundane? Is work something we just have to do until we can just relax and do what we want to do?

No, I believe work is life! We should embrace it and enjoy it and make it our lives. In fact, we really, I think, have it easy. Most of us have a weekend off in our lives these days, whereas God said, “Six days shalt thou work and on the seventh you shall rest.”

Some of us actually do have more rest than actually working six days. I believe that work is something to be enjoyed if we have the right attitude.

In fact I did write something else about work that I wanted to share with you. I’ve just been doing a study about “good works.” I started off with the word “good” and I’m looking up all of the Scriptures of the good things God wants us to do. My list is getting so long of all the good things that God wants us to do. Then, I have just noticed this morning about how He wants us to do good works and I found four different Scriptures that are related particularly to women specifically about good works.

Now there are loads of Scriptures that talk to everybody about good works.

In fact, Ephesians 2:10 says that we were “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” We are not saved through good works. Only through the precious blood of Jesus. But we are saved unto good works so that when we are born again, “not of works, lest any man should boast.” But then we come into showing good works so that we will glorify God. What does it say in Matthew 5:16? “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Let’s have a look at the Scriptures specifically to women, shall we?

1 Timothy 5:10 is the first one. And this is written about an older woman, about a widow actually. Paul was writing to Timothy about a problem they had in the church. They had a lot of widows and they did not know what to do with them all. So Paul says, “Okay, so if these widows have children or they have grandchildren, they must look after them and care for them. This is their responsibility.”

This is still our responsibility today, to care for our parents, especially for a mother if the father has passed away. It’s our responsibility now to care for her, that’s biblical. But then, there were obviously women who didn’t have family for some reason, or maybe they lived far away, or passed on, too. And Paul said, “Okay, those women, you can care for them, provide for them from the church if they have lived (well, they had to be 60 years of age or older) a certain lifestyle.”

Now, when we read about this lifestyle, we get an understanding of God’s heart for mothers, for women. It says: “Well reported of for good works.” Okay, there’s our first one written to women about good works. Now, what are these good works?

Let’s look at the first one: “If she have brought up children.” Now I find that very interesting because God always put’s first things first. Everything in the Word of God is not haphazard, it’s all just how He wants it. It’s all in order. And this is the very first thing on the list: “If she’s brought up children.” The word for “brought up” is teknotropheō. Teknon is “child” and tropheō is “to feed, to nourish.” So that word means that she has embraced children and she has fed and nourished them.

She firstly nourishes the babe at her breast. Then as her little one gets older and then more children come along, she’s feeding them and feeding them. It’s interesting that the Scripture uses this particular word about mothering because one of the biggest things we do as mothers is prepare meals. Anybody notice that? Yes, every breakfast, every lunch, every super time and in between as well, you will be feeding your children.

But darling ladies, this is a good work. Did you know that? You see, it’s good to know the Scriptures, isn’t it? So we know it’s not just, “Oh goodness me, I have to get some more food for these children.” And as they grow up, they have to eat more. If you’ve got teenage boys, you’ll know you can hardly fill them.

I can remember when my boys were in their teens, I’d cook this big dinner (of course, that was back in New Zealand days) and I’d cook a big dinner. Most likely a big piece of lamb and roast vegetables around it. That was a typical New Zealand meal. So I’d feed all these boys and the rest of the family. Of course they were in their late teens and early twenties, the older boys by then. We’d have this big meal, have devotions, do all the dishes and then be hanging around and suddenly, “Oh, where’s Wes and Steve?”

One of the others would say, “Oh, they’ve gone to McDonalds.” I mean, I’ve just fed them this huge meal, but then they had to go and top it off. It’s very hard to fill them when they’re in that stage of their lives.

And so, you are a feeder. Dear, darling mothers, don’t despise feeding.  It’s a powerful thing, it’s part of your mothering. It’s a good work.

Then it goes on to say, “If she have lodged strangers.” If she has opened her home in hospitality. Hospitality has always been a part of my home life. When my children were little, we still opened our doors in hospitality, and we’ve continued to do it throughout all our lives. It was one of the greatest blessings of our lives. It’s so wonderful to invite others to join you at your table. It’s so lovely to have other families with children your age.

As our children grew and they got into their teens I would invite wonderful godly families with children the same ages as ours to our home and around for a meal. The children would get to know one another and become great friends. It became such a powerful thing because they found friends that were of good caliber and kindred spirits. We could be happy that they were hanging out with them because we could trust them and that was such a wonderful thing.

You can do that with hospitality. And of course you can reach out to those who are needy and needing encouragement and love and just the joy of being enveloped and welcomed into a family. That is one of the good works of this woman. We see that her motherhood extended. As her children grew, her motherhood did not stop. See, ladies, motherhood is not meant to stop. It’s not just for a certain time. No, our motherhood grows, it enlarges, it extends so when our children grow and they leave the nest, we’re just bringing more into the nest. We’re continuing to reach out to those who are needing and hurting.

We see this beautiful picture here and it finishes here that “If she have diligently followed [not just followed, but diligently followed] every good work.”

All these things are good works. They’re the lifestyle that God intends for women. And so we can embrace this lifestyle.

In 1 Timothy, the same book, chapter 2, verse 10, it talks about the woman professing godliness with good works. There it is again.

Then we go to Titus chapter 2, verse 5, about teaching the younger women. In Titus 2:5 we see here that one of the things that the older women are to teach them is that they are to be keepers at home. Now, that’s an interesting one. Most translations are taken from either one of two ancient manuscripts. So different translations will have a different Greek word.

Now the one Greek word is this, it’s actually oikourogo and it’s from two Greek words: oikos meaning “home” and ergon meaning “to work.” So you will see that some translations say:  “workers at home.” That is true and that is good. I am a great believer in women working. 

Of course, I don’t believe that they’re meant to be out in the corporate world working. God wants them to be workers at home. Some translations say: “home workers.”

Now when we’re in the home, we’re not going to be just hanging around being lazy. We are working in the home, it’s a work. Here we see it—“Work.”

The other word is oikouros It’s from two words also: oikos meaning “home” and ouros meaning “to guard, to watch over, to take responsibility.” That’s a wonderful translation, too, I love both of them. “Home workers” and “Home Guarders.” We work hard in the home and we guard the home. You can’t be a guardian of the home, you can’t be a watchdog over your children’s lives, over their minds, their souls, their spirits, and their bodies if you’re not there. You have to be home to guard your home.

And interestingly, ladies, we see this very same thing way back in Genesis. We go to Genesis chapter two, verses 8 and 15 and it says there:  “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden . . . And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

So there were two things God wanted us to do in the home and, can you believe it? They’re exactly the two things that I just shared about! One is “work” and one is “guard.” Isn’t that interesting?

The first, “to dress it,” that’s the Hebrew word, avad and it means “to work, to serve, to labor, to toil.” It means to toil with the sweat coming down your brow! The same word is used for, “there was not a man to till the ground.” It’s man out there tilling the ground in the hot sun, the sweat pouring down his brow. It’s real work.

Then the other word, “to keep it,” is the word shamar which means “to hedge about, to guard, to protect, to watch.”

And so, those two initial things God gave for the home in the very beginning, in Genesis chapter two: to work, and then to protect and guard, are the same two things we see in Titus chapter two. We are to be home workers and we are to be home guarders, protecting and watching over our children. Isn’t that amazing how we get it in the Old and we get it in the New?

The other one that is specifically for women is Acts 9:36, where it talks about Dorcas who made these coats for all the needy people and it says she “was full of good works.” FULL of good works.

So, going back to our Scripture, we are to be always abounding in the work of the Lord. That means in our mothering, in our homemaking. “For as much as we know that our work, our labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Lovely ladies, your work in your home, sometimes you feel you don’t really think you’re accomplishing much. I want to tell you, it’s not in vain in the Lord. If you’re doing it as unto the Lord, it’s not in vain. You will receive your reward.

There is a reward day coming. I mean, you’ll get it in this life. I mean, I have my rewards. Oh goodness me, the blessings and the rewards of our children and their children and now their children—there is no greater reward in the whole of this world. This is the greatest life anyone can live with children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren around them. They are riches!

In fact, a dear friend was staying with us recently. They were passing by and stayed the night and she gave me a gift. It was a wall plaque with every month of the year written on it and then she gave me little cards that I could hang to put the birthdays of every one of our children and grandchildren and so on, on these little round cards. So I got my Above Rubies helper to help me in this. Morgan writes beautiful calligraphy. So I said, “You can do it with calligraphy.”

Well, my friend gave me 100 little cards and we have used every one of them, except two, and this year I think we’ll fill them! And so we are just on 100 people and starting with Colin and me. Isn’t that amazing? I mean, talk about reward in this life! It’s unbelievable! And I haven’t even got to the next life yet! Wow! Be encouraged ladies, be encouraged! Oh, you have rewards ahead and you will be so blessed.

Let’s pray, shall we?

“Father, we thank You so much for all of Your goodness to us, Your blessings, Your blessing of marriage, Your blessing of a home, just a roof over our heads, a home to make life in it, our children. Oh God, we thank You and praise You. Help us to be filled with joy and gratitude and thankfulness for all of Your goodness.

I pray Your blessing upon every daughter, mother, and grandmother listening that, Lord God, You will give them a vision to see beyond what they are doing today. Sometimes they don’t see much further than today. Lord, give them a vision of what is ahead and that what they are doing today is not in vain. There is a reward coming here in this life and in the eternal.

I ask Your mighty blessing on every marriage and every home and every mother and every child listening. In Jesus Name. Amen.”