War Of The Worlds: Different By Design Series

WAR OF THE WORLDS: DIFFERENT BY DESIGN

Reel Relationships - Week 3

Genesis 1:26-27, Jeremiah 31:3

INTRODUCTION: (Montage video clip from War of the Worlds - Mpg = 2:24)

That movie, War of the Worlds, is based on the best selling novel by H.G. Wells. The movie actually did very well at the box office. It is currently ranked in the Top 50 of all time. And although Steven Spielberg who directed it, and Tom Cruise it’s star, made it a very intense film, the reaction by audiences to it was nothing compared to the radio version of H.G. Well’s story in 1938. On Oct. 30, 1938 Orson Wells broadcast a version of War of the Worlds to an unsuspecting audience. It was done in a fashion that made people believe it was really happening. A meteor fell at Grovers Mill, NJ and Carl Phillips, a reporter tells the audience what he sees and what he hears.

{Play excerpt from War of the Worlds - 1:24}

People, especially in New York and New Jersey, heard this broadcast and thought this was really happening. People fled to their cellars, they loaded guns. Thousands of calls flooded police stations, hospitals and radio stations asking how they could flee the city or protect themselves from the aliens. People ran from their homes with their faces covered by wet towels to protect them from poisonous gas. Scores of adults were treated for hysteria and shock.

Now, we shake our heads at that but often times when we’re in a relationship with a friend, a colleague, a person that we’re dating, a spouse, we start thinking that because they’re so different, “I’m experiencing an alien invasion here. This person is from another planet. I don’t get them.” And we too sometimes panic and say things or do things that are contrary to the norm. But we need to realize that God made us as complex creatures, that He made us to be so different from each other. And no matter how hard, like in our drama, we’d like to make the other person the way we want, we can’t. People are different and it’s our differences that create wars in our relational worlds. And nowhere do those alien invasions become more evident than between men and women in marriage. So, today as we continue our series, we’re going to focus on this War of the Worlds, these differences that divide us.

Let’s face it. Men and women are just so different from each other. For instance, just look at your fingernails right now. Women are looking. Many of them have these beautiful painted nails. A lot of us guys have been biting our fingernails, you know, there’s dirt underneath, and did you notice when I said, “Look at your fingernails,” how many of you women went like this? How many of you men went…? We’re just different. So, let’s see if we can shed some light on these differences and in doing so, understand each other better and thus build stronger bonds. First, let’s look at:

I. UNDERSTANDING OUR DIFFERENCES:

Read this verse with me from Genesis 1:27. “So God created people in his own image. God patterned them after himself; male and female, he created them.” God created man and woman, it says both patterned after Himself. So, we are both very much alike in some ways. Both equally important and valuable, both equally loved by God, but it also it says He made them different. He made one male, and one female. And no matter your marital status there are some universal or kind of “hard-wired” differences that God created in men and women.

God created us emotionally different. All you got to do is look at our likes and dislikes, for example in movies. Men tend to like action, shoot ‘em ups, or Sci Fi - Star Wars - adventure, blood & guts or crass humor type movies. Women tend to like sensitive, weepy, someone’s dying of a disease, kind of love story, type movies. Guys tend to quote movie lines! Am I right? While, generally women are left wondering how they can remember a line in a movie yet forget a birthday. Maybe that’s why one study says that we are different in our TV watching habits. Women are more loyal to one program where they can build a relationship with the characters. Men are "channel- changers" going from one channel to the next, so we don’t miss anything!

God created us physically different. All you have to do is look in a Biology 101 textbook to remind you of that. We have different body parts. We have different levels of testosterone and estrogen traveling through our bodies. There is now scientific evidence that men and women use their brains differently. They tend to think differently when confronted with similar stimuli.