OPEN: (We opened the sermon with about 30 seconds of a video showing a group of modestly dressed models walking down a catwalk at a fashion show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPq4nMA2ZI)
(Then we switched to a youtube video of a veteran fashion model describing the purpose of the catwalk in the fashion world. We began at the 33 seconde mark of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQQjB7XNidw&feature=related and ended at approximately the 1:10 mark - before the speaker gets into difference between various kinds of fashion shows)
APPLY: A catwalk (also called a “runway”) is a narrow, flat platform that runs into out into an auditorium. Models walk on this platform into a crowd of media and potential buyers, wearing special clothing and accessories that are made by the fashion house they represent.
According to the expert we just showed few seconds ago, this type of modeling isn’t about the model. The models try very hard to be low-key in their walk down the catwalk so that they don’t distract from the major objective of their job.
That purpose? A fashion catwalk is a tool that fashion houses use to show off their best products to potential buyers. To the fashion houses, catwalk models are not the focus for the audience… it’s the clothing, handbags, footwear and other accessories.
Now, the Bible tells us that God has His own kind of Catwalk. And He uses that catwalk for an entirely different reason than fashion houses do. God has an entirely different mindset/ entirely different set of priorities.
So, what’s God’s catwalk like?
Paul wrote: “… thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ…”
2 Corinthians 2:14
We are walked down a catwalk. We are put on display as we’re led in a triumphal procession. God is not showing off our clothes, our handbags, nor our footwear. God is not showing of the outer garments of his models… He’s showing of the inner spirit of His people.
God is literally putting US on display.
WE are the product He wants to walk down the runway.
He is showing us off to the world.
And He does that because He wants the world to see what He’s done in our lives.
Throughout the Bible God displays the people that impress Him. He shows off to the world the kind of folks that are His finest products.
I. Since today is Mother’s Day, a good example of how God does this is found in Proverbs 31. Turn there with me!!!
Proverbs 31:10 starts out saying
“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.”
This is a rare person.
This is someone God wants you to try to be like.
She is the kind of wife/mother that God holds in highest regard.
And so I want you to visualize this walking down the center aisle this morning. I want you see her in your mind’s eye as I read the description God gives us of this remarkable woman:
(READ Proverbs 31:10-31)
God is leading this woman before us in a triumphal procession.
And God tells us – not only is He impressed with her – so is her family.
(vs. 11) “Her husband has full confidence in her...”
(vs. 28) “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her”
This woman is not a pampered princess nor a welfare queen.
She’s woman who works with her hands.
(Vs 15) “She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family….”
(Vs 27) “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.”
This is a woman who takes her family seriously. She is a woman who works at making sure her family is well taken care of. And it seems that she sets the tone of what takes place in the home.
You’ve heard that the man is the “head of the house” and that’s true. But this woman is the moral center of the family. She sets the example for her children in how to be busy and in how to be kind to others.
(vs 20) “She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.”
She sets the moral tone for her children.
ILLUS: According to research published in “Psychological Science” (October 2004 issue), children who have the good fortune to interact with their mothers a lot develop healthier consciences.
These researchers conducts a couple of experiments where they encouraged toddlers to imitate their mothers in such simple activities as playing tea party or playing with a stuffed animal. As the researchers monitored this interaction, they classified the children based on their readiness to imitate what they observed in their mothers and then graded them on a sliding scale.
Then, in subsequent sessions, they enticed those same young children with prizes for games that they could win only by cheating or breaking an object that had some value to them.
What they found was: Toddlers who eagerly imitated their mothers were more likely to follow the rules and more likely to exhibit a sense of guilt when they broke something.
Translation: the mothers who were most interactive with their children, built a moral standard into those children by their very presence.
A good mother sets the moral tone in her home.
But her focus on her family means more than her children.
It means she wants her husband to be successful
Not only does… “Her husband has full confidence in her...(vs. 11)
He has reason to have full confidence… because she makes him look good.
Right in the middle of this inventory of this woman’s qualities we read this:
“Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.” (vs 23)
What’s her husband doing at the city gate?
Well, back in that day, they didn’t have court houses and paid judges. The city relied upon the most respected men in the community to sit at the gate of the city and arbitrate differences between the citizens.
The man in Proverbs 31 is a judge… people come to him to get his opinions.
And why do they come to him?
Because his wife made him look good.
So God, parades this woman in front of us.
He shows her off and says – this is noble woman… and she’s rare.
She’s a great mom/ and a great wife.
But why does she do what she does?
Why is she this kind of mother/ wife?
Is it because she’s a nice lady?
Well, yeah, but it’s more than that.
Verse 29 says "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."
There’s a lot of nice ladies out there, but this woman surpasses them.
Why does she surpass all those other women?
Because (vs. 30) “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who FEARS THE LORD is to be praised.”
You see – this woman does what she does because she’s mindful of God.
She’s driven to take care of her family and she works at being a great mom/wife because she knows God’s paying attention.
ILLUS: This is extremely important because your kids aren’t always lovable (can I have a show of hands from mothers who’ve noticed that?). And husbands aren’t always going to be someone you get all that excited about (another show of hands?).
There are going to be times in a woman’s marriage where she isn’t going to feel all that much love for her kids or husband.
That’s when it’s critical that she is mindful of God.
That’s when she needs to be motivated by her commitment to Christ.
Because when she’s a woman whose life is dominated by her faith in God, she’ll be a good mother/wife even when she doesn’t feel like it.
And so God brings THAT kind of woman out on the catwalk and has her model how HE has changed her life.
II. But she’s not the only woman that God does that with.
God is not satisfied by just having a RARE woman live like this.
He wants to have MORE JUST A FEW good women.
Turn with me to Titus 2:3-5
“Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.
Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”
Once again, God brings special women out on the catwalk.
Once again, He wants to show off the kind of moms and wives that impress Him.
Because these ladies don’t just walk the walk, they talk the talk.
They teach other women how to please God:
“…they train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands”
Now, why would older women need to focus on training younger women to do this?
Well, let’s focus for a moment on the instruction to have these older women teach the younger women to love their husbands. In much of our culture today, there is tendency for men and women to make fun of their spouses.
ILLUS: Small boy to sister as both read old letters in attic:
"These aren’t the names they call each other now."
In our culture men and women have gotten into the habit of publicly criticizing their spouses.
As Christians we MUST NOT do that.
That’s what pagans do.
ILLUS: Last week we talked about a study that found that divorce is contagious. When you are to hang around people who are divorced enough, and listen to their repeated complaints about their spouses, there’s a danger that your own attitude toward marriage can suffer. The researchers talked about divorce ‘breaking out’ in certain settings where one person spends their time complaining about their spouse while the other are her audience.
ILLUS: But according to a study done just a few years ago “Faith helps hold couples together by encouraging selflessness and stressing the need to give as much as one takes.”
According to one of the researchers: "We know that for love to last, it must evolve from romantic love, which is the basis for many marriages, into something more mature and less selfish,… Faith may help couples make that transition says Gary L. Hansen, PhD, professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington.
One survey of 161 men and women published in 2003 in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion found that inner religious commitment coupled with church attendance was associated with a reduced tendency to engage in extramarital affairs, or "mate poaching."
Why would that be?
Why would faith be such a powerful protection against sexual immorality?
Because in church (hopefully) women are more committed to their marriages than the women of the world.
BUT because we live in a culture where men and women do make fun of their spouses it’s extremely important that older women set the example and actively train younger women to respect and love their husbands.
As well as to love their children.
As well as the importance of being pure and self-controlled, etc.
ILLUS: Do you women often get together and just talk? Of course you do. And it’s in those get togethers that you’ll sometimes be faced with the decision of how to respond to a woman who complains about her husband.
Now I have all kinds of discussions with people as a preacher. And sometimes I feel the need to tell them what God says about something. And you know, sometimes that’s not well received. Sometimes people don’t want to hear what I’m going to tell them.
You know, that just too bad.
That’s my job.”
I’m supposed to tell people what God thinks, even when they don’t want to hear it.
And you know – sometimes you older women need to stop “just listening” and nodding your heads when other women belittle their husbands, and begin telling them what God thinks of that. You need to train younger women in the faith to love and respect their husbands. That’s your job. If they don’t like it… that’s just too bad.
Older women who take this task seriously are the kinds of women God admires.
And so He leads them in triumphal procession in front of us… so we see what He wants.
III. Getting back to II Corinthians 2 where Paul wrote
“… thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” 2 Corinthians 2:14
Paul’s not JUST talking here to the women.
Because it’s Mother’s Day I’ve been focusing on the women today, but God wasn’t talking just to the women in that passage. He was talking to the men - and to the teenagers as well.
What God is saying in this passage is – He wants to show you off!
He wants to parade you before this world and say
“This is my servant in whom I am well pleased”
ILLUS: God’s like a parent who takes their son/daughter over to a friend and says
This is my kid. Let me tell you what they can do.
And then he gets out all the pictures in his wallet of his child playing a sport/ singing in a choir because He’s so proud of what that child has done.
Or (nowadays) they’ll just pull out their smart phone.
Or – like one dad I know – he’ll post their accomplishments on Facebook.
God is like that.
He wants to show us off.
He wants the rest of the world to look at us – and get jealous.
He wants the rest of the world to look at us – and want what we have.
So He shows us off
He takes us on a walk down His catwalk.
Now I said earlier that God’s catwalk isn’t about clothing.
The fashion world makes the model almost invisible as they display their clothing and accessories, and so I said God wasn’t interested in showing off our garments.
But that’s not entirely true.
You see, the thing that makes us stand out for Jesus - is the kind of garment we wear.
And what kind of garment is that?
Paul wrote in Galatians 3:26-27 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
Being clothed in Christ is what this is all about.
Because being clothed in Christ is what sets us apart from the rest of the world.
It’s being clothed in Christ that changes who we are on the inside and makes us attractive to God.
The garment can make all the difference.
ILLUS: About 4 years ago, a burglar who broke into a funeral home. But the police came.
So, he tried to fool them by playing dead – in one of the caskets.
But there were a couple of things gave him away.
First, he breathed. (Dead people ought not to breathe)
Secondly he was dressed in grungy street clothes.
You all know that when people are buried, they’re dressed in their finest clothes.
And the Bible tells us that when we “put on Christ”/ “Clothed with Christ” that this is a representation of Christ’s death/burial and resurrection (Romans 6:1-5)
Baptism is a burial.
So you when you are buried with Christ… God puts His best garment on you.
He clothes you in Christ.
“All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”
CLOSE: God’s fashion show is all about what’s on the inside.
God doesn’t care about outward fashion or attractive clothes.
And that’s one of the messages of baptism.
Bob Russell once noted: “ Baptism is the great equalizer. No matter who you are, how successful you are, or who you know... all have to go under the waters alike. There are those who come forward in expensive suits, dangling gold jewelry, and $100 hairdos. But the suits are exchanged for a humble white robe, the jewelry comes off, and they may as well say goodbye to their $100 hairdo.”
Give the invitation.
