Is It Really Mother's Day?

God’s Creation

Most Pastor’s are not fond of Mother’s Day - so many reasons one being it comes every year - only so many Mother’s in the Bible.

This Mother’s Day, since it’s my first here, let’s just start with the first one - Eve.

If you don’t know much about the Bible - Eve is named by Adam - the first man, her husband - calling her the Mother of all living. Let’s learn from the Real Housewife of Eden, the OG of motherhood. The first lady Married with Children.

Open you Bibles to the very beginning - where we find God’s creation -

LET’S STAND HONORING OUR CREATOR AS WE READ ABOUT

his divine design - in:

Genesis 1:26–27 NKJV

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Now turn over to:

Genesis 2:18–25 NKJV

18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

PRAY WITH ME PLEASE

When I sensed God’s leading and calling me to be a pastor and preacher of the gospel, it was after attending a youth conference in Birmingham. The speaker was a guy, if I remember right looked to be between 60-65, and he was hilarious. Seemed to be a comedian turned preacher.

Here is one of the jokes I remember him telling and me re-telling the next Sunday as I revealed my calling to the church:

Illustration: I believe He recalled his childhood something to the effect of his mother asking his brother where he was, and his brother responding, “He’s in the living room building a fire,” to which his mother responded, “What!! That would be fine if we had a fireplace in the living room.” Then she came running in, stomped out the fire, snatched him up, and took him behind the woodshed.

To you younger folks, that means he got a serious spanking or as we called in Beulah a butt whooping.

That illustration has stuck with me since I was 14. I tell it because I thought it was funny, but also to illustrate the seriousness of what I am about to discuss. It illustrates how, if I am not careful I might be in the hot-seat or find myself behind the woodshed.

Womanhood: God’s Intended Design

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines womanhood as: the state of being a woman; having the distinguishing character or qualities of a woman or of womankind

Mankind - the translation of Hebrew word for Adam - some translations say Adam, some Man - speaking of the human race - emphasizing the fact that though male, as head -the source and leader - it takes both sexes/genders together to express what God means by human

This morning I am going to attempt to address the subject we jumped into on a bit on Wednesday night,

And for some men, woman are meant to live out that role differently than they have in mind, because scripture has often been sinfully misused to abuse

You all need to hear this.

Infant baby girls to adult ladies are not property of a man to be his pleasure toy or punching bag. Any form of abuse must never be acceptable in the Body of Christ.

Teen age girls and adult women are not some objects to be stared at, stepped on, or spoken to in any manner unbecoming of the worth and value of womanhood given to them by God.

Women are not to be demeaned, dismissed or demoralized as the inferior gender. Men we should never look down upon any woman in our life or our church.

According to Paul’s teachings in Galatians 3 and 1 Corinthians 12 We are equals in salvation and women are gifted for the service in the body of Christ just like men are. His Word prescribes the roles we each can fill and the boundaries we cannot cross.

This sermon is not really about women in ministry but whether your a mother or not, this is about how God wants you to bear his image to the fullest in your current state of life: single, married, motherhood, widowed, divorced, single mother, retired woman.

Womanhood is a gender role designed by God, seen in Eve, but affected by sin.

Which is the reason for my fireplace illustration:

A fireplace, even though good for building fire in, can burn a house down when it is not used properly.

In the community where I grew up, there stood the most impressive and regal looking historic home. It was situated in the corner of where one road ended into the main road through the community. Hundred and hundreds of people passed by it each day. This house was about 150 yrs old or better when I was a young kid. The elderly couple eventually had to move into a care facility, so the family rented it out since they lived far away.

The son of the family who rented it went to high school with me. He was home alone one night, as the story goes, and had a fire starting in the upstairs fireplace. He didn’t think it was going/burning like he thought it should, so he takes a solo cup full of gas and tosses it at the fireplace. Only problem was he didn’t let go of the cup properly to land it in the fireplace. Some of the gas goes in the fireplace, but probably not as much as what fell on the carpet and stayed in the cup.

The house, several minutes later, was in ashes, burnt to the ground.

God’s church, and the representative of His church, the marriage relationship, gets burnt to the ground when womanhood is not lived out by women according to His creation design, and when women are not honored and upheld by men as the worthy and valuable image bearers of God he designed them to be.

3 views that exist out there. The first 2 are gas on the fire in the fireplace.

Feminist or egalitarian - Donald G. Bloesch compares this view to a race competitors running the same race in different fashions based on personal desires for self where they aspire to realize their particular aims and dreams in the framework of mutual support

hierarchicalism - the abuse of scriptures like Gen. 3:16 and the NT writings on submission and women in church compared best to the military march with the commander leading in front and the subordinates obediently following in step behind

Both are a sinful distortion of God’s intended creation design. God warns this will happen in his pronouncement against their sin of eating from the Tree.

Genesis 3:16 CSB

16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

The Hebrew word for desire is only used 2 more times; once in Song 7:10 and in the next chapter of Genesis 4:7

Genesis 4:7 CSB

7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

The negative tone of Genesis 3:16 makes the connection better with 4:7 than the verse in Song. Sins desire is to control and conquer. God was saying a woman’s will be also. God is warning that womanhood lived outside its intended design would burn the house down. and when women are not honored and upheld by men as the worthy and valuable image bearers of God he designed them to be it goes up in flames - a disgrace to God. There will always exist in the flesh this strife and struggle between the two genders - but lived in the Spirit woman and man both live up to the intent of God’s design.

When Paul and Peter both in the New Testament, write for the wife to submit to the husband, Wayne Boulton suggests, “the submission of wife to husband is not an imposition but an invitation. This would indeed mirror the voluntary submission of the Son to the Father in the Trinity and the Spirit to the Father and the Son for the purpose of the creation and redemption of the world.”

As women you are a needed part of the whole, not a lesser part rather an equal but different part with your own part to play.

God intended the marriage relationship to represent to the culture the relationship of the bride (church) to the bridegroom (Christ).

That is why the 3rd view is the biblical truth that sets men and women free:

Complementary or Covenantalism - since Biblical marriage was intended to be not a contract but a mutual decision to work together for an intended goal - God said Gen. 2:18 he would make Adam a helper comparable to him. The Hebrew word for comparable or fit - means a front facing counterpart - compared to a dance with a one partner lovingly and willingly taking the lead and one partner dutifully yet willingly following. The result = a beautiful display for the enjoyment of those watching as much as for those participating.

Some women have represented some churches well but not in a good way - where both have sought their own way and have gone their own way unwilling to follow the loving lead in the dance. Neither is a beautiful example of the gospel to the world

As I said some pastor don’t like mothers day because not every female is a mother for various reasons and not every female is a wife. Every female though is a woman.

You can celebrate womanhood today because of Eve, and you can honor God today when you live out womanhood in the ways God intended by his design.

What defines a woman is how well she bears the image of God, not what she or others think about her image or her responsibilities.

Conclusion: I am sure many sermons today will be preached on Proverbs 31:10-31 - about the Virtuous wife. I recently read something interesting about this passage and may do something never done before - Preach from it on Father’s Day.

Another author shared: what she did not model for us.

The Proverbs 31 woman:

wasn't a woman who worked strictly in her home with her children

didn't remain silent when she had an opinion

wasn't weak and passive in her presentation

didn't refrain from making her mark on the world

She said she came to realize that the Proverbs 31 woman exemplified great qualities because she really was strong, intelligent, capable, giving, resourceful, efficient and spiritually minded. But, Unfortunately, if women today are striving to be all of those things at all times, they will feel like they failed.

She said - Much of what is noted about this woman is what you women are growing into as we become more like Christ by getting Rooted in His Word.

"The holier a woman becomes, the more she becomes a woman." -- Elizabeth Elliott

Dr. Tony Evans and his daughter give a more practical list:

She honored and respected her husband.

She fed and clothed her family with the healthiest and finest she could afford.

She invested the use of her skills in a personal business.

She spoke wisely and kindly to others.

She dressed herself attractively.

She helped the poor.

Some of those you have to be a Mother to do, but not all, some you can do simply as the woman God designed you to be.

It may be helpful, then, to realize that most women in the Bible were not frail and quiet. - And you shouldn’t be either unless God leads you to be. I want to encourage my wife and daughters to be exactly who God designed them to be, not how the world or the church tells them to be. Let me encourage you in the same manner.

Use your God-given strengths and talents wherever the Lord is calling, according to His Word, to use them, no matter what part of life you are in. Strongly and courageously serve your family if you have one, and if God places you in a career then pursue that with all our heart.