Women-God’s Gift To The World
5/13/2007 Genesis 1:26-28 2:15-25 Galatians 3:26-29
Today we celebrate Mother’s Day, in honor of all the women who have played an important role in our lives helping us to move beyond where we were to where we are today. We say thank God for the women who taught you how to have a queen inside of you. Chances are, no matter who you are, you could not have reached the point in life you are without the assistance of some woman somewhere in your life.
How many of you can think of a woman in your family who made a difference for you either your mother or someone else? How many of you can think of a teacher, a coach or a guidance counselor, who encouraged you a long the way? How many of you can think of a friend, a co-worker, a sister in Christ who was there for you when you really needed a friend? How many of you can think of a woman who has gone on, but you wish you could talk to them one more time and say, “if you could only see me now.”
What is a gift. A gift is something we do not earn nor can we demand it. A gift is always freely given and must be received for it to truly be a gift. Gifts can come in all shapes, sizes and packages. Gifts can be very expensive or not expensive at all. What makes a gift a gift is the heart of the giver and the heart of the receiver. The heart of the giver wants to bring joy and excitement to someone. The heart of the receiver welcomes the gift.
The greatest giver the world has ever known is God. Everyday God gives each one of us something that we need. We did not create the air, the water, the food, the love and the life we receive each day. God arranged for it to be there as a gift when God created the universe. Creation itself is a gift. If you read the creation story, God’s final gift to the rest of Creation is a woman as separate entity from a man.
Suppose you had the car of your dreams given to you as a gift. And you parked that car while you went into the bank to get out your life savings so that you could fill the car up with gas and get some insurance. While you were in the bank, a semi truck smashed into your car and kept going. Your car was completely wrecked but it still moves.
You have no insurance. You take a picture of your wrecked vehicle. A friend of yours takes the car to his garage and takes it apart. But has a heart attack before he can start to put it back together. Another friend looks at all the pieces and says he can put it back together if you show him a picture of what it originally looked like.
Which picture are you going to show him in order to get the best results from him. Are you going to show him the picture of the car after it was hit by the semi-truck or a picture of the car when it first came off the assembly line. Which picture will give you a better idea of what the original designer had in mind for the car?
Okay we can pretty much agree, if you want to get back the original gift as it was intended, you need to go back to the original design before the semi-truck came smashing into it. What if I told you, that most people wanted to rebuild the model based on what it looked like after the truck had smashed into it? How many of you would be thinking they’re making a mistake? Now the fellow putting the car back together may be able to make it run, but it’s not going to run or look like what it originally looked like?
Now God created women as a gift to the world. In Genesis chapter three, there was a semi-truck that came crashing into creation, and it was called sin. It smashed directly into the first man and woman who were called Adam and Eve. It hit their relationship really hard with pieces flying all over the place. Things were never quite the same. In Genesis chapter 3, we see the fall out of being struck by this semi-truck. First the woman would have pain in childbirth. 2. The woman would have a strong desire for her husband, but he would rule over her. 3. The man would have to work hard as a farmer. 4. Both of them would die.
Now many people who study the Bible, and want to see how men and women are to relate to each other, base their theology on this third chapter of Genesis. But Genesis shows us what the relationship was going to be like after the semi-truck had hit. It was after the semi-truck of sin entered their relationship that we had this hierarchy of male domination of females. If we truly want to understand the gift as it was originally given, then we have to look at the original blue print.
Many biblical scholars believe that we have two accounts of the creation of humanity in Genesis chapter one and again in chapter two. Chapter one gives us a brief account and chapter two gives us a more detailed account. But both accounts provide us with a picture of what God intended in giving women as a gift to the creation.
Let’s look first at Genesis 1:27 in which it says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Notice that this first man is a combination of male and female. This text says male and female he created them. Which means God has now made a division of this original being into distinct male and female entities.
It is this new division that receives God’s blessings. God gives them both the exact same commands which are to be fruitful by having children, to populate the earth, and to take charge of the earth. They are to rule over all the living things on the face of the earth, in the seas and in the air. Both the male and female are empowered by God to do His will. In this picture of creation before the semi-truck of sin hit, there is no hierarchy between man and woman. There is no person in charge over the other one. They are working together to do what God wanted them to do. A King and a Queen on a throne.
You see at this point, since sin has not entered into the world, there is no such thing as selfishness. There’s no such thing as I want my way no matter what. There’s no such thing as doing what I told you to do. All attention is on pleasing the Lord, and acting in a way that God is going to be pleased. This is what it was like before the semi-truck of sin destroyed the gift that God was giving.
The second account of creation gives us a little more detail of the division that God had brought. In chapter two, each time God had done some part of creation it says, “And God saw that it was Good.” It was not until after God had created man into male and female that it says in verses 31, and God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Chapter two’s account of the creation of humanity gives us a glimpse between God creating man, and God splitting man into male and female.
In Chapter two, we find that after God created this man type figure, God put this man into the Garden of Eden to work. God put limits on the man, by telling him never to eat from a specific tree in the garden, because if he did he would die. All of the animals on earth had some kind of partner in life, but Adam. God looks at all of creation in which everything is operating perfectly. There is no semi truck around to crash into anything. There is no sickness, no disease, and no death. In this perfect environment, God says in verse 18, “it is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now if you read this verse backwards by starting in chapter three, and then coming backwards into chapter two you will find support for your position that the man was always the ruler of the woman, because she was created to be his help. When we think of help, we usually think of a hired servant. Or someone that we can instruct to do certain things. An employer may think of his workers as his help.
So we can come away with the idea of God creating women as a gift to the world, to be there to simply meet the needs of men. Some of us treat women like this today. They are simply our servants. The problem though is we are reading chapter three into chapter two. It would be more logical to read chapter one in understanding chapter two, because chapter one tells us what things are like before the semi truck crashes.
Chapter one tells us of males and females operating as equal partners in carrying out the will of God. So when we come to chapter two, we see God is creating the woman as gift that is to remove all that is not good from his creation. I want you to also recognize, that this man creature could not remove what was not good on His own. God had to intervene.
So we have in verse 18, God saying “I will make a helper suitable for him.” Keep in mind that we are reading English and not Hebrew. Someone has to decide how a word is going to be translated. Sometimes a translator is influenced by his culture. In the King James version of the bible, we find the word help-meet or help-mate for the word helper. But in the Hebrew, the words are actually “I will make help.”
This word help is not talking about an unequal relationship of help. We see the exact same Hebrew word in Psalm 33:20 when it says “We wait in hope for the Lord, he is our help and our shield.” We see it Psalm 70:5 in which it says “yet I am poor and need; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help my deliverer. We find it again in Psalm 115:11 which says, “You who fear him, trust in the Lord, He is their help and shield.” This is the understanding of help that we must have if we are to appreciate the incredible gift of women to creation. They are there to stand with us in the place of God, to get us through difficult situations.
The second part of the verse says “I will make a helper suitable for him.” The use of the word suitable itself can imply some kind of preeminence of the male, but the actual Hebrew says I will make a help corresponding to him. Corresponding means someone just like him, meaning what applies to him also applies to her. That’s what we saw in Genesis 1:27. God gave them both the same instructions. The New Living Translation translates verse18 as 18 And the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him."
You get a different picture of women as a gift depending on whether you start with the phrase “I will make a help meet suitable for him” or the phrase “I will make a companion who will help him.”
We get a more detailed version of the division which took place in chapter one in chapter 2 in verse 21. It says, “so the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s rib and he had her taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.”
What can we learn from this passage. The word we translate rib, can mean a rib or it can mean a side. We know that when God wanted to create this gift, he used not the original dirt used for man, but rather a higher dimension of flesh was used. He was bringing this new form out of the existing form so there would be no question as to the unity involved.
God himself fashioned this new being with all that was necessary to make creation good. This was a being that was corresponding to the first being. Which means they would compatible with each other. What one could do for the other, the other could do for the one. At some point this new being and God had time of being alone with each other.
Just as the first Being Adam had seen and heard was God. This new being’s first vision was of God and the first voice speaking to her was God. We do not know what all God said to her while they were alone. Maybe God told her about Adam. Maybe God did not, but I find it difficult to believe God would not have said something about him.
This new being was of such importance, that she is the only living thing in all creation that God personally brings to Adam. Here is a queen of such magnitude that Adam had to have shouted, “Praise God.” His identification of her uniqueness and of the quality of the gift that God is giving to Him is immediate. Wow, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.”
Before the semi-truck hit the garden, the first man recognized the tremendous gift and worth of a woman. Adam saw the queen inside of her. She was worth giving up everything for in order to be true to her. He saw a gift from God to be cherished. She was not something to be used. She was not something to be abused. She was not something to be tossed to the side. She was a queen who was to sit together with him on the throne as they subdued the earth, built a family, and ruled over the creation.
She was not a competitor to overcome, but rather a companion to walk with. She was not a threat to his ego, but a help of whatever was needed in a time of crisis. She was God’s gift to the world to establish that all God had created was very good. This is the model that we should seek to restore in relationships between males and females. Not the fallen model and judgment of chapter three. Chapter three is not lifted up as the model to aspire, to rather it’s a sad picture of what resulted from disobeying God.
You see there was a period of joy and happiness between God, Adam, and Eve. Adam and Eve experienced such a oneness with each other it was incredible. They were naked in front of each other, and did not worry or think anything about it. For they fully accepted each other as God intended for them to do so.
And then came that day when the king and the queen, chose not to bring a creature in subjection to God as they were instructed. They subjected themselves to the deires of the creature. God had told them they could eat from any tree in the garden, except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Satan or the devil, was in the garden in the form of a snake. He told them, the only reason God would not allow them to eat from the tree, was that God was holding them back from having a good time. As a matter of fact, if they ate from the tree, they could become just like God themselves. They had a choice to believe that God wanted the very best for their lives, and all they had to do was to follow God’s rules, or they could believe God was holding out on them, keeping them from a good time.
We face that decision every time we are tempted to do wrong. Is God looking out for our best interest or is God keeping us from a good time? Like us, they wanted to find out if God was holding back something. Eve ate some of the fruit, and she turned and gave Adam some of the fruit and he ate it with her.
That act of disobedience allowed the semi-truck of sin to come roaring through the garden and crashed into their relationship. They immediately became ashamed in each other’s presence and sewed together some leaves in order to make clothing for themselves. Sin kept them from feeling one with each other, and one with God.
When God confronted them about their behavior, they wanted to blame someone else. Adam tried blaming God and his wife. Saying “God the woman you gave me, she gave me some and I ate it”. The woman said, “well that serpent tricked me and I ate it.” God did not buy any of it. All three were punished and removed from the garden. Sin was now a part of the world, and everything changed. The king and queen of the world no longer shared their unity. God’s gift wanted to try to restore it because we find God saying to her, ‘you will desire your husband as before, but this time he will rule over you.”
Everybody lost with that semi-truck coming through. But God made a promise that through the woman, God would send an offspring that would crush Satan and is impact upon the world. That crusher that would undo the work of the semi was Jesus Christ.
Jesus came into the world, to put us back in a relationship with God and in a right relationship with each other. When we come to him, he asks us, “what have you done.” We cannot be like Adam or Eve, pointing the blame to someone else. We simply must confess, I have done wrong. There is nothing I can do to undo it. Please forgive me.
The good news is that Jesus can take those who know they have done wrong and turn them into gifts to the world. There was a lady with five former husbands, and a boyfriend that she was shacking up with in sin, and Jesus turned her into a gift of leading Samaria back to God. There was a woman who was considered unclean by everyone because of a sickness she had. She came and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. Jesus touched her and gave her as a gift to the world of what faith in Jesus can do.
There was a woman who had lived as a prostitute, who went and sold what she had to buy the most expensive anointment she could find. She brought it and poured it on the feet of Jesus after she had washed his feet with her tears and wiped them her hair. Jesus turned her into a gift to the world as to the depth of forgiveness that he offers.
Jesus wants to make you a gift to the world and a gift to God. You can’t be all that He desires you to be without knowing Him as your lord and savior. You can’t make your world, your family, your situation right without knowing Him. Jesus does not offer this message of being a gift just to women.
For the word tells us, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. We all need to get back to the picture of seeking to first and foremost pleasing God in our relationship to Him and our relationship to others. Please allow God to help you to become a gift today.
The Following Is A Poem Read Before The Sermon
The Queen in Me
When I look in the mirror at myself
I see the essence of royalty
I see the daughter of the ultimate father
I see the queen in me
In all of my dealings I take time to see
Who I am and who I am created to be
I am not arrogant but please understand
That I am not just a common woman
And if any dealings between us are to be
You don’t have to bow or rise, but you must recognize
The queen that lives in me
My hair is my glory; pinned up or let down
Intelligence and dignity are the jewels in my crown
Grace is my fragrance; beauty is my glow
Sweetness is my taste; rhythm is my flow
Power is in my hands; determination in my stride
Confidence in my eyes; my stand is with pride
I am to be cherished, appreciated but never owned
Although with the right king I’d gladly share a throne
I am sister of Cleopatra, Esther and of Nefertiti
They are the heritage of the queen in me
I may be your neighbor, your friend or your sister
I may call you honey, Miss, Mam, Sir or Mister
I see your worth and ask that in your dealings with me
That you recognize the queen in me
Copyright © 2005 Vernon D. Lloyd
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
“Women-God’s Gift To The World”
5/13/07 Gen. 1:26-28 2:15-25 Gal. 3:26-29
A. Praise God For Mother’s Day
1. Chance To Honor All
2. They Made A Difference
3. If You Could See Me Now
B. The Arrival Of A Gift
1. There Are All Kinds Of Gifts
2. The Greatest Giver Of All
3. The Gift Of Your Car
4. The Collision Of The Semi-Truck
5. Which Picture To Rebuild From
C. God’s Creation & Gift
1. Choosing A Broken Model
2. Effects Of The Curse
3. Semi Truck In The Garden
D. Two Accounts Of Creation
1. Genesis 1-17Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.
2. God Makes The Division
3. The Same Commands Are Given
Genesis 1:28 (NIV) 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
4. Sin Has Not Entered-No Selfishness
5. God Said It Was Good
E. The Second Account Of Creation
1. Adam-First Man Type
2. Let Chapter 1 Interpret 2, Not 3
3. Equal Partners In The Will
4. What Was The Purpose
5. A False Understanding Of Help
Genesis 2:18 (NIV) 18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
Genesis 2:18 (KJV) 18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Genesis 2:18 (NLT) 18 And the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him."
F. What Is Help
1. Psalm 33:20, Psalm 70:5, Psalm 115:11
Psalms 115:11 (NIV) 11 You who fear him, trust in the LORD-- he is their help and shield.
2. Suitable Or Corresponding
G. The First Operation
Genesis 2:21 (NIV) 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
1. Rib Or Side—Highest Quality
2. Woman & God Alone Together
3. Adam Says Wow- What A Queen
4. What She Was And Was Not
5. Open, Naked, Honest
H. The Semi-Truck Is On The Way
1. Does God Want The Best For Us
2. The Impact Occurs—The Nakedness
3. The Blaming Begins
4. God Offer Curse & Promise
J. The Coming & Work Of Jesus
1. I Admit, It Was My Fault
2. Three Women Become Gifts
3.Jesus Wants To Turn You Into A Gift
4. How To Make It Right Again.
