And we are going to talk today about what it means to be reverent in behavior. And that is what your handout is talking about. So let me share a few things, and then I'll explain to you how your handout works. We may do one or two together, and then you can finish it on your own. Maybe as part of the quiet time, or when you have some extra time, you can finish that. Okay? So when we talk about being reverent in behavior, what are we talking about? This is September 8th, and we are on Yom Kippur. My daughter helps put these recordings onto my husband's website and it really helps her if we identify the topic and the date so that she knows how to organize things. By the end of October, all of the conference messages and all of these times that we have talked with y'all and the men have talked will be on the GCI website. And if you are interested in downloading them or listening to them, you can do that right off the website. So that's why I identify myself that way. So when we talk about being reverent in behavior, the word behavior in the Greek Describe a position or a condition. It's something you are, not just something you do. A lifestyle that becomes holiness to itself, to the extent that there is no separation in that person between what is her and what is holy. They are one and the same. And in Titus, it talks about older women being reverent in their behavior. And this is one of the qualifications of the Church, for these women to be teaching younger women. That you don't become reverent in your behavior just by aging. It is something that begins as a process when you are young. The Greek word for reverent describes someone who is set apart, dedicated in their behavior. to manifesting the same holiness that is a part of God's own magic. So as God is holy, He desires us to be holy. 1 Timothy 4.12 says, Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. So we're not just talking here about older, established women, but all women, whether you are young or old. Even those who are young, God wants us to be reverent in our behavior, and as you develop this in your life, when you reach a point where you are a grandmother, yourself, you are in a position where you can begin to help people. This cannot be faked. We can fake piety. Do you know the difference? Piety is acting religious. Going to church, maybe even participating in the church service. but our hearts aren't involved. Piety can be something that we put on, but it's not internalized. We can't fake holiness. We can be religious. by our actions that we can't become holy on our own. Isaiah 29 verse 13 says, This people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by Rome. So, God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, was rebuking Israel for going through the motions of following him, but not really giving him their part. They said that they would honor God, even went through some of the rituals of sacrifice, but they were not truly obeying Him from their hearts. And their reverence for God was only tradition, not something that they truly believed themselves. Their hearts were renewed. They were not captured close to God. So, who is this holy God? The God you worship. Leslie, would you look at 1 Samuel 2, chapter 2, verse 2? And Lois, would you look at Isaiah 57, verse 15? And Bashir, would you look at Leviticus 11, verse 44? And Lois, would you look at... Grace, I'm sorry. I'm probably got the wrong name. Grace, would you look at 1 Peter 1, verse 15 and 16? And Amy, would you look at Ephesians 1, verse 4? Lois and Grace. Kati is very gracious to put up with this English thing from my poor attempt. Okay, so let's learn some things about God's holiness. 1 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 2. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides Him. There is no rocket other than God. So is there anyone who can compare to God in terms of holiness? No. I mean, He is so holy, it is beyond our comprehension. That's the God we serve. No one holy like the Lord. Isaiah 57, 15. Isaiah 57, 15. For this is what a high and exalted one says. He who lives forever, whose name is holy, I live in a high and holy place, but also in the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. OK, thank you. Our name is what identifies us in this. other people by your name. And God's name is holy. So it is impossible to separate holiness from God's nature. It's not something he turns on or off. It is just him. Leviticus 11, verse 24. Now it starts getting personal. He calls us to be holy. Be holy for I am holy. And what does 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16 say? I will stand in your name. That's exactly right. So God says, be holy yourselves in all you do. That's what grace just read for us. Be holy yourselves in all your behavior. So God wants us to be holy and because We have that holiness as a part of our nature, and we are going to act on it. In Ephesians 1 verse 4, Amy. We trust in Him before the creation of the world, and in Him we trust in Himself. So God's plan is for us to be holy. So we understand that God is holy and that He wants us to be holy, but the big question is how do we do that? I certainly don't feel holy all the time. How do we become holy and reverent in our behavior? How do we bring this into our lives? The first aspect of that is to become women of the Word. What that means is that God's Word is such a part of our lives that it infiltrates. Do you know what that means? It's like it's absorbed into our skin. It's impossible to separate who we are from the Word of God in terms of its truth. That means we know it, we study it, we apply it, we do it, we think about it. Every aspect of our life, the Word is involved. The Word of God, the Bible. So we are women of the Word. And I'm sorry, I have forgotten your name. Tell me your name again. Sadak. Sadak. Sadak. Sadak. Sadak. Psalm 119, verse 38. And Rose, would you look at John 17, 17? I love this verse in Psalm 119, 38. Good. Establish thy word to thy servant as that which produces reverence for thee. So how is reverence for God going to develop in our lives? by the word becoming an established part of our lives, just like I was saying earlier. Everything that you do, everything that you think, every decision you make, revolves around the truth that is in the Word of God. Okay? That the Word is that central to our daily living. God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His Word. The more time we spend in it, the more we see of who He is, who we are, and of how He wants us to live. The more we see, then the more we are drawn to worship Him and to recognize His holiness. What does John 17, 17 say to us? And what does it mean to sanctify someone? Yes, to cleanse them, to make them holy. When you are sanctified, you are holy. And this says, sanctify them in the truth. His word is what sanctifies us. Thy word is truth is the last part of that verse. So time in the word is what makes us holy. As we read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, it becomes a part of our thinking. It teaches us how we should live. the things we should say and do and how to talk to other people. God's Word becomes just an integral part, a very important part of our lives. Okay? So how do we become holy and reverent? Maybe your first thing is become one another worthy. Then what's the second part? How does His Word make us holy? We learn to recognize and deal with sin in our lives, because the presence of sin keeps us from being holy. We have talked this week and last week about different aspects of the Gospel that explain how Jesus took our sin unto Himself. so that we could die to sin and live to righteousness. How He died for us on the cross. How He gave us His very own righteousness so that we could live holy lives. But as we deal with the sin that the Holy Spirit reveals, I'm not talking about the sin that Christ has covered with His blood in our salvation, but just areas of need and things that the Holy Spirit brings to mind. So 1 Peter 2, 11. And then, Katia, if you could look up Philippians 12, and what does that say about it? Philippians what? 320. 320. I'm sorry, I didn't get this category. It's recognizing and dealing with sin in our lives. It's the second step to becoming whole. Recognize and deal with sin. So, 1 Peter 2, 11. To urge literally means to call out to one side. It's as if the Holy Spirit is saying, I want you to step aside for a moment. How often we get swept away into sin just because we don't pause and think about what we're doing and the consequences of it. So I urge you. As aliens and strangers, we need to recognize that we are foreigners on the earth. There's a popular Christian song that talks about how the earth is not my home, or this is not my home. That's true. We will always feel a little bit strange, a little bit uncomfortable, because our home is in heaven. It's not here. What does Philippians 3 verse 20 say? Our citizenship is in heaven. You are a citizen of Cameroon. I am a citizen of the United States. But in God's perspective, we are all citizens of heaven. That's our true home. So, we should not be at home in the world. Our actions and our attitudes should be different. We are permanent aliens in a foreign land. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust. Literally, this means to hold oneself back, to restrain. Don't even begin the process. Don't even go near. Sometimes we are tempted to see how close not be overcome by it. But this verse says that we should hold ourselves back from even getting close. What about a situation that you know could potentially be compromising? Avoid it. What if watching TV makes it difficult for you to use your time well? Or maybe some of the programs put thoughts in your head that are not healthy or that don't draw you to God. They make you want to do things or think things or desire things that are not what God has for you right now. Just don't watch the TV. No way. Hold yourself back. Often sin is a result of a series of choices. If we looked at the example of Eve at the Garden of Eden, there was a whole series of events where she, at any time, could have turned her back on Satan, the serpent, and avoided the whole situation, but she didn't. She put herself in a situation where she crept closer and closer and closer until she was in the sea. So, sometimes we just need to remove ourselves from the situation. We can choose not to even start down that road. 2 Timothy 2.22 says, Now flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. With those who follow the Lord with a pure heart. God says to run from sin, to flee from it. Do not stop to consider it, to think about it, just run. There are instances in the Bible where someone was in a compromising situation and they fled from it and they were safe. And there are other instances like you, David, who's on the rooftop and spotted Bathsheba and ended up committing adultery with her. If he had not stopped to look, if he had gone back inside when he realized she was out there bathing, There are a lot of things that could have prevented that whole situation from happening. Because two people died as a result of that. Her husband, because he was put in the front line of battle where he'd be killed, and their baby. Neither of those things would have happened, necessarily, if Damon hadn't allowed himself to get entrapped by sin. So, don't do it. Run from it. 1 Thessalonians 5.22 says, abstain from every form, literally it means every appearance of evil. So, as a teacher, in my school there was one room where all the teachers went when they had their break. And they would eat lunch together, or they would just sit and visit. And I went the first day to that room, but the conversation was so negative. It was all gossip. It was slander, some of it. It was talking about the students, which we were not supposed to do. Everything was supposed to be confidential. Some of it was inappropriate and immoral. I just made the decision that I wouldn't eat my lunch in there. So I ate my lunch in the cafeteria bring it to the students to eat their lunch. In the U.S., students eat their lunch at school. They either bring it, or they are able to buy it there. So they don't leave the school during lunchtime. They stay at the school to eat, and that's what the teachers do. So I went to eat with the students. I would rather eat with a room full of 10-year-olds than put myself in a position of hearing things and being drawn into segments that are not good. So sometimes we have to literally flee from sin. And then the last part of this, it says, abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. This pictures the enemy poised for battle to begin. It's a planned attack. It can start at any time. When we are serious about dealing with sin, we will view it as a battle, and a battle that we intend to win. Because Scripture tells us that he who is in you is greater than he is in the world. We do not have to fear Satan's attacks, but we do have to be prepared to battle. And going back to the Word of God, that's our primary goal, the sword in the spirit. So, 1 Corinthians 10, 13, who can share that? Who has memorized that about temptation? No temptation? Can you do that Leslie? If you're brave, you can start it and I'll help you finish. No temptation has ceased you except what is common to man. But God is peaceful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He promises to always provide an escape. He doesn't leave us stranded. He doesn't give us more than we can handle. But we do have a choice to make. Okay? And in verse 14, you may not realize what verse 14 says right after that, but it says, Therefore, my beloved, flee from pedology. So God will not let you be tempted beyond your strength to resist, but that doesn't mean you should hang around and think about it either. You can flee. Flee. So, we're talking about how to become holy. We determine that we are going to become women of the Word. We learn to recognize and deal with sin. The next thing is just begin the process. We've talked about the Word of God. Immerse yourself in the Word of God. Read it, pray it, meditate on it, study it, listen to it, memorize it. Romans 12, 1 and 2. I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transferred by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. I memorized that verse in 1970. This is 2016. So we are talking about 46 years ago. Now, I still have to review it, and I'm not perfect at scriptural memory by any means, but God has used that verse over and over, bringing it to mind, helping me to think of new ways to apply it, or studying it, or learning new things from it. You know, that is a life verse. When we are willing to take the time and make the effort to allow the Word of God to become part of the way we think, it becomes a part of our value system, where what you decide is important to you and the things you give your life to are things that God says in His Word are important. Because we've studied it, and we know what they are. We've committed ourselves to following God, so He teaches us how to do it. And year by year by year, you grow closer to the Lord, and you learn more about what the Bible says, and we become more and more like Christ. The word in there, transform, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. It's the same word, and I think I shared this the other day, but it's the same word in the Greek that's used to describe Jesus at his transfiguration. And it is also the same word that's used in 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Glory to God, justice from the Lord the Spirit. So that is a powerful word, isn't it? Transformation that is complete from within, that makes us into more and more like Christ. So God's plan for building holiness and reverence into our lives is for us to first present ourselves to Him, to make ourselves available to Him. Then He begins to transform us through renewing our mind, changing our thought patterns, so that what we used to think was important is no longer the first thing important. So that how we used to respond when people were unfair with us is no longer how we respond because we're learning to do things according to how the Bible teaches. When someone says a harsh word to us, we are not quick to respond in anger. Not by anything but the power of the Holy Spirit as it uses God's word to change our thinking and our values. God uses His Word to transform us to become more like Him. And then we become more transformed into His own image until the day we meet Him face to face in Heaven. It's a process that will continue through however many years God gives you. Being in this process, according to this verse, is what His will is for us. It is good, acceptable, pleasing to Him, and perfect. So this habit of holiness is a quality of life which is developed by God in a woman who chooses to reverence Him daily as she spends time with His Word. And let me share with you one more verse. Rose, would you look at Philippians 1 verse 6. God promises that His goal for us is to complete us, to complete the work that He began in your life when you accepted Him as your Lord and Savior. His desire is for our success and His desire is for us to become more like Him. So that 46 years from now, some of these verses that you are studying and learning now will be so close to your heart and will become so much a part of your thinking that you cannot imagine your life without Jesus Cross being a part of it. That becomes a reality. So let's look at, I gave you, did you get that? I gave everyone two worksheets. We're almost through with our time because I don't want to keep you all out after it's dark. But let's talk through a little bit how you complete these and then you can complete them on your own. Look at this one first. From this passage, it lists all the ways that we can show reverence from God. Okay? And you've got lines from this passage in 1st Chronicles 16, and you can read this part of it, and then come up with a way that we can reverence God. Okay? So let's look real quickly at 1st Chronicles 16, verses 8 through 12. We're actually just going to look at verse 8. So 1 Chronicles. Actually, I'm having you look it up. It's printed on this page. You can just use what's on your page, okay? So 1 Chronicles 16, that first passage, okay? Sharon, read that for us, please. You can read it from your sheet. You can look at it in your Bible. I'm just saying now to save time. It's the same thing. I just typed it out on this page. Let's stop and just look at that very first line. What in this line describes a way that we can show reverence for God? Okay, giving thanks to Him. Good. Good. What else? Anything else? What does it mean to call upon His name? To pray to Him. Okay, to pray to Him. And how does that show reverence for God? Exactly. You're relying on him. We know that he is the one who is going to meet our needs and answer our questions. And we want to get to know him, don't we? We want to see him as he is. So that's the idea of how to do this page. Okay? You can read this line. and then come up with a way that we can show reverence for God from this. And what that will do, I hope, is give you some ideas of how you can develop this quality, how you can see God develop. Okay? Second page is a little bit different, but it's the same idea. How can we develop the habit of holiness, state the principle from each verse, and then give a practical example? So the first verse here is Psalm 119, 9 through 11. Who knows that? Are you bold enough to share that with us? Nothing like being put on the spot. How can I help my two pieces of flesh? It's right in the middle of this room here. I seek you, oh my God, in the name of the Holy Spirit. I have a hidden word in my heart that I will not say against you. Good, she's memorized verse 10, too. So that's good, okay. So, what is, can you do verse 11 just by itself? I have laid out your plan. What's the rest of it? Oh, okay. Okay. The translation may be a little bit different, but when I memorized it, the translation I used said, I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. One of the translations now says, I have treasured your word in my heart. Okay? So what would be the principle about how we develop the habit of holiness. In this verse, it's talking about avoiding sin, God protecting us from sin. So what in that verse does it say is a principle behind learning to become more open? What does it say is the principle of that verse? The principle is kind of like the main idea. Yes, that's good. Living according to God's Word. You could say treasuring God's Word in our heart, putting His Word in our heart. And then an example of that would be what? How do we do that? Memorize, meditate, study, all of those things. So that's what you do with the rest of these verses. You read it and you come up with what is the main idea, behind this? How would this help me develop the habit of holiness, where holiness becomes a major part of my life? And then come up with a practical example. This is the truth behind the verse. Now, how do you do it? How do you make it real? So that is what we have been talking about is reverent in behavior, how we participate in God's holiness by knowing him and by allowing him to transform our lives through the renewal of our mind in this area. And I hope this has been helpful to you.