What's She Got That I Ain't Got?

John 15:7-8 [amplied version] "If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.”

Introduction: The story of the Tortoise and the Hare is a very familiar tale. It is the story of an over-confident rabbit that puts so much faith in her gifts of speed and good looks, until one day she challenges a slow-moving, ugly turtle to a race.
I am sure to the surprise of the hare; the tortoise takes her up on the challenge. At the starting line, the hare takes off like a bullet – leaving the poor tortoise in the proverbial dust.
After a while, when she looks back, the hare could not see the tortoise at all. Over-confident rabbit that she was, the hare decides to lie down and rest for a while. She awakens just in time to see the tortoise cross the finish line, and win the race.
Body: Have you ever looked at a woman, and in your opinion, she was a plain Jane? She was nothing to brag about or to write home about? As a matter of fact, she was not someone you would have wanted to befriend in school, or hang around with. She was the one that got teased and looked at funny.
But through the years, our plain Jane seems to blossom. You begin to notice that she has a kind, radiant smile and an easy-going spirit that seems to draw others naturally towards her.
Our plain Jane eventually marries a man who lets say, is pleasing to the eye – and who seems to love her very much. And you wonder, “What’s she got that I ain’t got?”
We’ll call her the tortoise. The woman who started out slow, but who appeared to gain the right momentum as time and life went on. {Everybody knows one – or two}
And then there’s the hare - the woman who seems to have it all together from the git-go. She is the one who starts out in the fast-lane of life. She is part of the in-crowd at school; invited to all the parties, and hangs around with the smart crowd. She wears nice clothes and has the most popular boyfriend. Then she graduates and goes off to college, and ends up marrying the best looking guy in the bunch. But even though her life appears to start off on the fast tract – with making all the right choices – Somehow, after a few years, the hare in our story, seems to end up with just a bunch of broken dreams.
She doesn’t talk about trying to go it alone because her man’s gone (mentally or physically) – or all the secret questions like, “Where did I go wrong?”
She doesn’t speak about the loneliness, or the fear of not having enough money to pay the bills, or the frustration of not being able to get off work and go to the school and see about her child. [You know there always seems to be one who needs more attention than you have to give.]
She doesn’t want to hear, “I told you so,” so she just keeps on smiling, while praying for a better day.
Our Scripture lesson today is not about getting to the finish line. It’s about making that one single divine attachment – the attachment to the nourishing source of life, Jesus Christ.
Although the Bible teaches us that we can do nothing without the Lord, many people start out on their own – without God. And they appear to bear good fruit – with everything going their way. But when you check them out years later, their lives are in bitter ruins and they have a bitter tongue to match. So what happened? They were in the fast tract for success, but they were in the wrong lane.
The Bible tells us there is a way that seems right to a man, but the way thereof leads to death.
To be a winner in life, you must be attached to the right source - Christ Jesus. Christ is the vine and God is the vinedresser who cares for the branches to make them fruitful. The branches are those who claim to be followers of Christ. But not every branch is following the teachings of Christ. The fruitful branches are true believers who by their union with Christ, produces much good fruit.
Have you ever seen someone who upon first glance, you thought was very pleasant and you wanted to get to know them? You had a good impression - until they opened their mouth? Then you found out they are gossips, and liked to pick at other people? God calls them unproductive. And God gives us a formula for knowing who His true believers are. He says, “And you shall know them by the love they have one for another.”
Those who understand the pruning and cutting back process are the ones who remain consistent no matter what’s going on in their lives. They are the ones who cast down imaginations and have determined to let nothing turn them aside from remaining attached to Jesus Christ. They’ve learned to cultivate a view from the Cross. They love even when no one loves them back. They listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit instead of the voice of the world. They understand that the harvest cannot come without the vinedresser’s cutting back dead things in their lives and separating out people that don’t belong in their lives or within the body of Christ.
Consistency means keeping a song in your heart – a sacred place where you repeat over and over again, “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me!” And God says, “Because she knows my name, I will answer her!”
Being a woman of God means always abiding in the Lord, - not sometimes but always - no matter the circumstances. It means understanding that if there is no Cross, there can be no Crown!
It means leaning not to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledging Him and allowing God to direct your path.
I want to ask you something today church. Are you saved?” Do you know that God has no obligation towards you if you are not under a covenant agreement with Him?
Remember Ruth? She was a widowed, Gentile woman who attached herself to her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, and in so doing, she attached herself to the entire Jewish nation. What did Naomi have that Ruth did not have? She had God. How did she do it?
Ruth attached herself by speaking covenant language to Naomi: “Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people. Where you die, I will die, and here I will be buried” (Ruth 1:16,17).
The results of this powerful, God-ordained attachment were more far-reaching than Ruth could have ever known.
She attached herself to God’s people, but most importantly, she attached herself to the genealogy and lineage of Jesus Christ.
Through her marriage to Boaz, she gave birth to Obed, who became the father of Jesse, who became the father of King David . . . through whom Jesus Christ was a descendant.
Ruth cooperated with God to change her life and to change the world through making one decision – a divine attachment. You may not know God’s plans for your life. But you do know that He has one.
I am reminded of a song: Must Jesus bear the Cross along, and all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for everyone and there’s a Cross for you and for me!”
“Do you know the Lord, Jesus Christ? Are you saved?” Sometimes we attach ourselves to men and to things. When these things disappoint us, it is then that we know the truth of the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other god before me.”
Are you attached to the giver of life – not only the author and finisher – but the editor of your life?
Do you put him first in your life? If you’re on the fast tract of life and feel nothing but disappointment and frustration – you feel something is missing, I’m here to help you out today – to tell you what is missing.
I want to encourage you, and tell you that you can have joy and peace through union with the giver of life today. Attach yourself to God, and abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will come into your heart today. He will send His Holy Spirit to comfort and teach you all truth.
If you will abide in Him, He promises to move mountains and give you the desires of your heart. But apart from Him, you can do nothing.
Let us pray: From John 15:7 “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Focus Statement: “What She Got That I Ain’t Got?” And the answer is the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Father help us to know that we are powerful Women of God – Ones who have resurrection power within. We have been given the ability to believe You through Faith, and to move mountains if we would only believe... In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Benediction: And now to Him who died and rose again. To Jesus Christ, the only wise God our Master who has washed us in His own blood. To the one Who is able to make us stand faultless before His Father in Heaven; to Him be majesty, power and dominion forever, and ever Amen.