Celebrating Womanhood!

Genesis 1 (NIV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Let’s Pray….Today brothers and sisters I would like to broaden this celebration of motherhood to embrace something that flows from broader stream, and that stream is WOMANHOOD!

And that is why I would like to bring you a message this Mother’s Day morning that I’ve simply entitled:

Celebrating Womanhood!

I suppose the inspiration for this message flows from a three-fold conviction:

1) At the penitentiary I have spent untold hours walking the men there, through the concept of manhood, what it means to be a man biblically, not culturally, and as I have done so, my understanding of, and appreciation for womanhood has expanded and grown, because you cannot understand the one without the other. For our passage says that in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. And I have come to understand THE CROWNING JEWEL OF GOD’S CREATION – WOMAN in a whole new way!

2) And I would like to say this very carefully, yet TRUTHFULLY not all mothers became mothers according to the biblical parameters established by God, some have become mothers outside of the confines of wedlock, which is obviously not God’s ideal. The only passage that I could find that speaks specifically about illegitimacy is not very flattering or good!

Deuteronomy 23:2 No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord -ESV

Yet before anyone gets buried in a sea of condemnation, I like what Pastor Rick Warren said at a "Celebrate Life" event hosted by a pro-life an organization called CARE NET, which is a faith-based pregnancy center int Texas, pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church made a famous statement regarding this to which I wholeheartedly agree with…

Rick Warren –“There are illegitimate parents, but there are no illegitimate children. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did."

Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life -“You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. God knew that those two individuals possessed exactly the right genetic makeup to create the custom “you” that he had in mind. Your parents had the DNA that God wanted in order to create you. So, God didn’t need to create you. He wasn’t lonely, but he wanted to create you in order to express his love.”

Even in a fallen, sinful, mistake prone world, God still expresses his love in unfathomable ways. David and Bathsheba has a child out of adultery that died at birth, but the second son they had became the wisest’s man outside of Jesus himself, and eventually became a King named Solomon! Like the hymn says - God moves in a mysterious ways His wonders to perform: He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.

3) The third reason is perhaps the most important one - Not all woman are called to become mothers….Paul said in…

1 Corinthians 7: 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. -NIV

Why?

1 Corinthians 7:34 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. -NIV