As we studied last Sunday night, we are the Bride of Christ. We are anticipating the coming of the Groom. He is coming soon take us to be with Him, forever. Revelations 19 tells that we will be clothed in “fine linen, clean and bright”. We will see Christ in His strength and power taking vengeance on those who have persecuted and attacked his bride. We will see Jesus as He is.
Likewise, we must make ourselves ready for His coming.
We have a lot to do for this preparation, but we also must be willing to serve Him and call Him Master and Lord.
Tonight, I want to look at what the Lord expects from His Bride.
Text: I Peter 3:3 thru 6
Prayer:
At the first of this year, I was impressed that this year would be the year to “Mature the Bride”. I have sensed that has happened to many of us. No matter how long you have been a Christian, this year has been a time to grow in the maturity of Christ. None of us have it all figured out how to live for God, but we continue to learn.
It won’t be long before we will join our husband, Jesus Christ, in the heavenlies. We have learned from Revelation 19 that we must begin to adorn ourselves with righteous deeds, and we must make ourselves in subjection to our future husband.
Our passage gives us where to look for to find the bride(s) we should model ourselves after.
It refers to the “old time (and) the holy women…who trusted in God.” Let’s look at one of those women. Rebekah.
She was the bride to be to Isaac.
In Genesis 24, the servant to Abraham was sent to Nahor with 10 camels and all of the great wealth of his master. In verse 4, Abraham told his servant to,
“…go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac."
When the servant arrived, he began to pray and ask for God’s guidance. Afterwards, he saw a beautiful young woman come to the well for water. Prayer opens doors of opportunity.
Read Genesis 24:16 thru 20;
Rebekah gives to us the model of the willing bride. Not just willing and wanting to marry the first guy that comes along. Rather, she is willing to serve someone in need, even though she has never met him before. This man was only a servant, but Rebekah truly loves to help people who are weary.
We have seen people like this. People who are in need of help. We do not concern ourselves with whether or not we will gain anything in return for what we give them.
I have seen most everyone in this church give to others on many occasions not expecting anything in return.
May I compliment you on your compassion and love for people?
Don’t get the big head, but you should know that what you people do for people is not the norm in most churches these days.
I have sat in many churches with dear saints of God who were lazy and uncaring about the needs of others.
Oh, I know you are not perfect. None of us are. We all are trying everyday to better understand the things of God.
But I do see a compassion like Rebekah in most everyone here that calls this their church home.
I am a blessed preacher to have a congregation like this.
I will correct you some other time, but tonight I want you to know you are adorned of the Lord. God had a great opportunity planned for Rebekah, and He has a great one planned for you.
Rebekah gave the servant of Abraham water to drink, and then decided (on her own) that she needed to fill-up the bus he drove in with. The servant could have been the type to take advantage of Rebekah, I don’t think this bride to be was being naive.
When Rebekah got out of her bed that day, she knew there would be an opportunity to help someone. She was not prejudice with whom she would help. She had a good heart of love and compassion for anyone in need.
Rebekah had a heart for doing what she knew was right. She did things enthusiastically and with joy.
She was a blessed woman and she knew it, so why not help others to be as blessed as she was. She loved life and found fulfillment in being a part of helping people. She had other responsibilities.
She was aware of everything she had to get done that day. So in order to help Abraham’s servant, she was going to have to pick up the pace in order to get everything done.
Rebekah did not have a lazy bone in her body.
This is the kind of bride Jesus is looking for.
His bride doesn’t complain. She isn’t lazy.
Rebekah went to work that day anticipating that today would be the first day of the rest of her life. She is going to finally be introduced to Mr. Wonderful, Mr. Marvelous, her Master and Lord. What excitement? She knew that she was about to receive her greatest blessing.
Folks, listen. There is nothing mundane about waiting on God:
We can be assured that the King is coming. He is not only good looking, but He is the wealthiest man in all of the universe.
We are going to share (with our new husband) in all that wealth on those 10 camels.
It is easy to see that this is the King we have been expecting to come and take us home!
Read Verse 22. Rebekah was adorned in expensive gifts.
We are adorned by our Lord and Master with blessings beyond our imagination. Sometimes we appreciate them and sometimes we don’t even know we have them.
We should never take our gifts from the Master for granted. They are priceless items He wants us to cherish and show responsibility for. Our Master is good with His gifts.
Acts 2:38
Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As a result of the gifts she was lavished with, Rebekah wanted to now meet with her Groom personally. It was time for her to be taken away to meet with him.
Read verses 54 thru 61
