Created For Excellence
May 9, 2010 Proverbs 31:10-31 Colossians 3:10-17
Today is Mother’s Day which is a time in which we say thank you to all the mothers and special women in our lives who have made us better than what we were. God chose to send everyone of us into this world through a mother. We came into this world already owing a debt to someone who paid a sacrifice for us to be born. Then God placed little girls, young ladies, and women in our lives who touched us in very special ways and to them all we can say thank you. If you’ve been blessed by at least one woman, say amen. If you’ve been blessed by two or more shout Hallelujah.
When God created women, God did so with a plan of excellence in mind. I want every woman and every girl in here to say. “I am a work of excellence.”One of the great tragedies in the world today, has been the failure of the world to recognize that when God created the woman, God was creating excellence as a gift to the rest of all creation.
Imagine with me for a moment, if you had a beautiful picture in your home that was worth over a hundred thousand dollars because of the artist who had painted it. It was a one of a kind masterpiece. The artist had put excellence into every stroke of his work The colors were awesome. The depth perception was amazing. It was the final work of the artist who was abruptly killed in a car accident. You knew the painting was going to continue to increase in value. You gave it a place of honor in your home.
One day you come home and the lock on the door is broken. Petty thieves have broken into your home and stolen several electronic items including the painting. You report the items to the police. Fortunately for you, you had the items marked and numbered. A few weeks later, the police inform you that several of the items showed up at a large local flea market. You go out in the rain in search of the painting hoping against hope that it there.
You look and you look. Finally you see the frame of the picture sitting in some mud, in the rain with about five other pictures that you could purchase at any Salvation Army for less than ten dollars. The picture itself is now torn. It is obvious that whoever had taken the picture did little to protect it. There’s a shoe mark where someone stepped on it, and there is hole where someone poked something to hard in the back of it. There is a rip going across the bottom of it where something sharp had caught it.
As you see your magnificent piece of art, laying there among cheap imitations, battered and bruised, what kind of thoughts go through your mind. Are you angry at what has been done to the picture? Are you angry at those who stole it and felt it was there’s to do with as they pleased? Do you feel sorry for the one who is trying to sell it at far less than its true value? Are you grateful that you found it and will have the opportunity to restore to its former position of excellence?
Saints, when it has come to the beautiful painting that we call women, far too often we have hijacked them for own purposes, failed to realize their true value, and injured them in ways that have left them feeling stepped upon, wounded, stabbed and torn in various pieces. If you are a woman and you are feeling like this today, I want you to know there is a God who created you, who has been searching for you, and who is willing to heal you, mend you, and put you back together again with the glory he intended for you to have. When you read the gospels, you discover that Jesus had a special place in his heart, for women who were being used and trampled upon.
God intends to use each of us here to assist in the process of undoing the damage that we ourselves have caused.
When God created Eve, she was created with the intention of bringing excellence into the world. Without the presence of a woman as a separate identity, even though all was perfect in the world, God was able to say “something here is not good.” There was Adam, the perfect man, and yet he was missing something that was good. Something that could empower him with excellence. The good he was missing was Eve.
Eve had been created for glory and honor . Her mission was to move things from being good to being excellent. There was something special about woman from the very beginning of creation. Adam knew instinctively that He was to honor this woman.
In Hebrew, the word for man is ish and the word for woman is isshah. Adam recognized Eve to be on his level and that honor was due to her. That same honor has been due to all of Eve’s descendants because every woman has been created for glory and honor to bring about excellence. There is a beauty all about yourself as a woman, because you were created in God’s image with the purpose of bringing good into the lives of others.
We live in a day in which the glory of the woman has been hijacked by the advertisement industry, and she has been reduced to the role of being a sexual object by which we sell things and use for our pleasure. Did you notice how the Bible does not give us any idea of what Eve looked like. Was she tall, short or somewhere in between? Was she skinny, heavy or shaped like a coke bottle?
Was she dark, pale or somewhere in between? What color were her eyes, and what was her hair like? What about her nose and her lips, how were they formed? We may get caught up on all of that, but God did not. Eve’s glory was not to be defined by her physical appearance. Eve was beautiful because of whom God had made her to be. She brought into the world a new possibility of personal relationships that had it not been known before. God created her with the ability to build good relationships.
When God created Eve, he had a larger purpose for her than sex for Adam. You will often here preachers stress that God created Eve to be a help meet and that’s why women should listen to men. She’s there to help. But that’s not true to the text. In verse 18, the King James Version uses the word help meet. The NIV uses the world helper. But the Hebrew word simply means help and it is found in Psalm 33:20 when it says, “We wait in hope for the Lord: He is our help and our shield.”
Being help does not mean you are beneath someone else. At times you may be the stronger one, but at other times you may be the weaker one. Some times you are on the exact same level. Eve was a help suitable for Adam. That means she could rise to whatever level of help Adam needed for the situation.. I think a more accurate description of what God created Eve to do than help is the word empower. Women have a great ability to empower and inspire others to rise above where they are.
God created woman in such a way though for her to be a help and empower in many different ways and situations. A woman does not have to be married to be an empowerer .Even if there is not an Adam in a woman’s life that does not reduce the glory and honor God created for her. Because she still is an empower for excellence; sometimes she’s an empower to other women, sometimes to children, sometimes to situations, sometimes to the church, and sometimes to God’s plans for the kingdom.
The first commandment I found given to us all concerning women is found in Exodus with the fifth of the Ten commandments in which it says for us to honor our mothers. It is repeated again in the New Testament on a couple of occasions. Jesus got upset when the Pharisees found a way to get around this commandment
To honor means to treat with respect, to look upon with favor, to do good to, to look out for, to be a blessing to and to lift up. The interesting thing about being a Christian, is we are commanded to do certain things without waiting for the other person to do something to deserve it. We do not wait for our mothers to deserve to be honored, we honor them because God says this is what we are to do.
Here is God’s will for us toward our mothers and toward women. For some of us, it is a lot more difficult for us than for others. But this commandments is just as a much a benefit for our own well being, than it is our parents. For at the heart of it is a willingness to forgive our mothers for the mistakes they have made and may be making and- the chance to bless our mothers for whatever good they have done be it small or great. Without them, the good we have done would not have been done.
Men, how do we honor women. We do it by recognizing that all women are special and deserve our respect. They may not look like it, act like it or dress like it. But as men of God we are called to look upon all women as Jesus Christ sees them. She may see herself as a sex symbol but we are called to higher level and see her as one for whom Christ died and wants to change. Not as objects for our sexual desires, but as God’s precious gifts that can be a tremendous help in life. We do it by recognizing that God created them to be just as smart and at times even smarter than we are.
We honor them by listening and valuing their opinions, realizing that our way might not be the best way to proceed. We honor them by being careful in the tone we talk to them, recognizing them as our equals and not as our children. We honor them by the names we call them, we honor them by standing by their side, and we honor them by admitting we were wrong and apologizing when we should apologize.
We honor them by doing the little things that are important to them. We honor them by not asking things of them, they do not feel comfortable doing. We honor them by lifting them up before others, by offering support and encouragement, by saying thank you and by being faithful to whatever vows we have made to them. We honor them by accepting them as Jesus accept us. We honor them by being as much like Jesus as we can possibly be.
Young people how do you honor your mother or your grandmother or the woman in your life. You honor them by doing what is right. Proverbs 29:15 tells us that a child who does whatever he or she wants to do brings disgrace to his or her mother. You honor your mother by the way you behave in school.
Your mother should not have to be coming to the school because of your behavior in class. You know how to respect your teachers and to do your work. Why bring pain and heartache to your mother by not doing your part at school.
You honor your mother by doing the things she asks you to do at home. She needs your help. You should be willing to help just as often as you’re willing to eat, sleep in a bed, or ask for something. You have the potential to be a great blessing to your mother by the way you behave and speak to her. You honor her by speaking to her with respect. She is an adult and you are the child. You honor her by sharing some of the struggles you are having and some of the things going on your life. Most mothers really want to help you. They’re not just trying to get into your business.
You honor her by showing that you are trustworthy. You go where you ask to go and you leave when you know things are going in the wrong direction. You listen to the advice she has to offer you, and you admit you do not know everything there is to know about life. You honor her be recognizing she will often have to pay a great price for the bad and wrong decisions you make for your life. Before you do something by taking a chance, ask the question, when something here goes wrong, what will be the price my mother will have to pay.
You honor her by saying yes to the will of God for your life. Satan is intent on making sure that you do not succeed in life. Even though you may not understand why your Mom appears to be strict, you honor her by recognizing, she’s just trying to help you get through some very difficult years in your life with an education and no little child calling you mommy or daddy.
Young adults and even middle age adults, how do you honor your mother. You do it by recognizing, now is the time I should be giving back even more for all that she has done for me. If you’re still living at home and have a job, you should be paying rent to her, just like you would any landlord. You honor her by paying her the rent before buying you a car you cannot afford, getting you some sound system or walking around dress to kill.
Even if she does not ask for rent, you should offer it to her because it’s the right thing to do. If she wants to give it back, that should be her decision. You know it costs money to live somewhere else and to eat somebody’s food. To honor your mother is giving to Mom, what you would have willingly given to strangers in terms of your own support. Romans 13:8 says give everyone what you owe him.
If you’re living at home, and do not have a job to help pay your way, then to honor her means everyday you’re doing the housework, the dishes, and whatever else needs to be done. If you know how, you’re cutting the grass and shoveling the snow. Not only that, you’re not asking for a few dollars for doing the jobs.
You honor her by recognizing your children are your children, and they are primarily your responsibility. Sure Mom may be a help, but you don’t drop the kids off without asking her in advance. She may have some plans for herself, even if those plans are to just be alone to think. She loves her grandchildren, but she was not called to have to be their mother or their father. If your plans include her doing something for you, then let her know about it as soon as possible.
Sometimes she may need financial help or assistance from you. Don’t embarrass her by making her ask you for it when you can see the need. If she tells you once, it’s been a struggle making the ends meet this month, take it as a hint she needs some help. Go ahead and build her into your financial budget and send something on a regular basis. She did the same for you for at least 18 years and maybe even more.
Women you were created for glory and for honor. But there comes a time when you must choose to honor yourself. There are many who are looking at you for only what they can get.
You have to set some boundaries for your life. You have to choose to not be abused or misused. You have to choose to have the respect and admiration for yourself that Jesus has for you. Sometimes that means saying no to demands that others would place on your life. Sometimes it means getting out of a relationship.
There comes a time when we have to let others pay for the choices they make with their lives. God did not tell you to work three jobs to get a lawyer for your child arrested for selling drugs. You can do it if you want to, but at some point your child or adult child needs to know, you are not going to make all the sacrifices. They’ve got a part to play as well.
You honor and respect yourself by standing up for your children when they are right and being willing to admit they are wrong. Let your kids know that you love and accept them and will fight for them when called for if they are wronged by others. But, If your child is wrong at school or somewhere else, simply admit it and apologize to the school staff. Let them know you will not try to excuse their bad behavior. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes “Do not stand up for a bad cause.”
You honor and respect yourself by knowing that you are of incredible value, and if a man wants to have all of you, you must have all of him which includes both of your names on the same marriage certificate. Simply shacking up together is not an option for you. Living together prepares a couple for divorce, not for marriage. You’ve already determined, you have a way out of the relationship.
You honor yourself by doing all you can to build up your home with words of encouragement and support to everybody in the house. You honor yourself when you strive to be the woman of God, God has called you to be to everyone you meet. The real key to your joy, is the relationship that you share with Jesus Christ. No one wants you to be more complete and rewarded more than Jesus does.
God created you for glory to bring about excellence. No woman is perfect, but you are a work of excellence. Be willing to accept the place that Jesus Christ has for you. When Jesus went to the cross, he was dying for everybody to be able to receive all that God had for them. He knew how wanting to have our own way would destroy our lives and the lives of those around us. That’s why God wants to give us a new nature by making it possible for us to become more like Jesus. All of us need the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. What decision are you making today.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
“Created For Excellence” 5/9/2010
Proverbs 31:10-31 Colossians 3:12-17
A. We Thank The Lord For Women
1. The Debt That We Owe
2. The Painting Of Excellence
3. A Theft, A Loss, A Search
4. Anger To Joy
5. There Is A God Of Hope
B. God’s Purpose For Creation
1. It Was Good But Not Excellent
2. Adam & Eve
3. Ish To Isshah
4. Innate Beauty
C. What Does It Mean To Be A Help
1. Help Meet, Helper, Help
Genesis 2:18 (King James Version) 18And 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 (New International Version)
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
2. Psalm 33:20
Psalm 33:20 (New International Version)
20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
3. Help On All Levels
4. Empower Others
D. The Fifth Commandment
1. Honor Our Mothers
Exodus 20:12 (Today's New International Version)
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
2. When It Is Easy & When It Is Not
3. Forgiveness Is Essential
E. Men Honoring For Excellence
1. Viewing Woman With New Eyes
1 Timothy 5:1-2 (Today's New International Version)
1 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
2. Observing What We Say
3. Being Thankful
F. Youth Honoring For Excellence
1. Doing What Is Right
2. Proverbs 29:15
3. Being Dependable & Helpful
4. Being Trustworthy
G. Young Adults & Middle Age
1. Choosing To Give Back
2. Looking For Ways To Bless
3. Your Children Are Your Children
4. Offering Help
E. Women Striving For Excellence
1. Remember To Honor You
2. Setting Some Boundaries
3. Let Others Pay For Their Mistakes
4. Stand Only For Just Causes
5. Respect Yourself
6. Biblical Standards For Relationships
7. Becoming Like Christ
F. For Us All
1. Jesus Really Makes The Difference
