ITS TIME TO PUT WOMEN IN THEIR PLACE, ROMANS 16:1-16
JOKE--- Two fellas are fishing in a boat under a bridge. One looks up and sees a funeral procession starting across the bridge. He stands up, takes off his cap, and bows his head.
The procession crosses the bridge and the man puts on his cap, picks up his rod and reel, and continues fishing.
The other guy says, "That was touching. I didn’t know you had it in you."
The first guy responds, "Well, I guess it was the thing to do - after all, I was married to her for 40 years."
INTRO--- When I was growing up we watched family sitcoms like ?Ozzie and Harriet,? ?Leave it to Beaver,? or ?My Three Sons.? When my wife was growing up it was ?The Brady Bunch? and ?The Cosbys.? Back then, Gender roles were pretty clear, and parents were pretty much in charge of the home.
Now when you turn on the Tube there is a new genre of family sitcoms that turn the family on its head. Do you know what the highest rated family show is right now? It is not Ozzie and Harriet, nope! It is Ozzie Osbourne! His show, also starring his wife Sharon and kids Kelly and Jack, is now the most successful show in MTV?s 21-year history. You remember Ozzie, the guy who bit the head off a live bat while drunk on stage. Yup this is the same guy who was the lead singer for the band Black Sabbath in the late 70?s before leaving to make his own records with names like ?Diary of a Madman,? and ?Speak of the Devil.? Isn?t it amazing that with a history like that, he has become a role model for the all-American family?
PRAYER
TRANS--- Let me say that I would not want to face the pressure of being a woman in today?s world. First, the supermodels starve themselves in order to get into their clothes making just about all women feel like the Pillsbury Dough Girl. Next the movie stars with their own professional makeup artists, plastic surgeons, and costume designers make you feel like you have no value unless you look absolutely perfect.
Ladies just let me say at the start, the Bible is full of words of encouragement which show how God values women. The world may put you down, but God lifts you up. The world may expect the impossible, but God comes to you with grace and a heart that accepts you for who you are. You are important to God in many ways. There are 3 things we need to learn to accept and appreciate about a women?s place in God?s plan:
I. WE MUST ACCEPT THAT IN GOD?S PLAN, WOMAN?S PLACE IS IN THE HOME.
A. Now don?t go crazy on me here, it?s not what you think, I certainly don?t mean to say that a woman?s only place is in the home, but, it is her first and best place.
1. You see, God created the home as a place where we are nurtured, loved and encouraged because God is all about relationships.
a. Friends, it is in the home that we learn to live with other people in important ways.
1) We learn to forgive other people when they are wrong.
2) We learn to extend grace when they are difficult.
3) We learn not to set unrealistic expectations on others.
b. In the home, we learn that love is more than a feeling; it is a deep and abiding commitment that overcomes feelings.
2. That is why a woman?s place is in the home, because she is to be not only the giver but also the recipient of these divine gifts expressed through human agents ? namely her family.
ILLUSTRATION---I know that I cannot imagine what I would be like if it were not for my wife helping me to see the importance of responding in different ways. I would be uncouth and unmannered. I would be filing for bankruptcy. I would be wearing dirty clothes and eating fast food off of paper plates. She is what makes my life work, and she is what makes my life enjoyable. She brings a quality into my life that I would not have otherwise. I am a different person because of her. We have been married almost a year and already I appreciate her more. This year I realized I should have listened to her more. You see, Her place is in our home. She works outside the home too, but she is at her best when she is at home. And because she is there, I am at my best at home.
3. Those who believe that only what happens outside the home is important have missed God?s greatest calling.
a. As we, both men and women, minister to the people in our homes, we bind their emotional wounds.
1) We lift their sagging spirits.
2) We allow people to be themselves.
3) We show kindness when they have been beaten up by the world.
4) We give smiles and hugs.
5) We listen and try to understand.
4. Let me start by saying, a woman?s place is many places, but?
I. WE MUST ACCEPT THAT IN GOD?S PLAN, WOMAN?S PLACE IS IN THE HOME.
II. WE MUST ASERT THAT IN GOD?S PLAN, A WOMAN?S PLACE IS ALSO IN THE WORLD.
A. Listen as I read to you a portion of Proverbs 31---it describes and praises a Godly woman in the world.
1. The Proverbs 31 woman has her own business and takes her place in the marketplace.
a. She is dealing in real estate.
b. She is helping those in need, and providing for the needs of her family through her trading.
2. My friends, the whole point of the story of Adam and Eve is that man by himself was inadequate in this world.
ILLUSTRATION---Men, I want you all to close your eyes for a moment and day dream---that?s right, the pastor is giving you permission to do what you do every worship service anyway! What?s the catch? I want you to imagine for one minute a world with no women at all in it. If that does not scare you wide awake for the rest of the sermon, you were comatose when they brought you in.
3. The interesting thing about television sitcoms is that all the men get to be irresponsible slobs, while women have to keep themselves attractive while being the brains of the house.
a. When that happens, a man has not married a wife, he has just changed mothers.
4. Men look at me, we need women, but women are not able to live up to their full value when we treat them merely as servants.
ILLUSTRATION---How do I know we need women? According to the United Nation?s statistics: ?Women constitute over 50 percent of the world?s population. But women do three-fourths of the world?s work, receive one-tenth of the world?s salaries, and own one one-hundredth of the world?s land.?
Women are major players in keeping the world going, but get less than their share of the compensation. Yet, they keep going, because they are not doing it for the sake of monetary reward, but out of the satisfaction of being responsible. One bumper sticker read: ?Real women don?t have hot flashes, they have power surges.? I think that must be true.
I. WE MUST ACCEPT THAT IN GOD?S PLAN, WOMAN?S PLACE IS IN THE HOME.
II. WE MUST ASERT THAT IN GOD?S PLAN, A WOMAN?S PLACE IS ALSO IN THE WORLD.
III. FINALLY WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IN GOD?S PLAN, A WOMAN?S PLACE IS IN THE CHURCH.
A. We all know that the church could not exist without the women who do so much of the work of the church.
1. And they do this in spite of the fact that they have often been kept out of the positions of leadership.
a. In many churches women are not permitted to hold leadership positions of any kind.
2. Some of this has come about because of Paul?s statement in 1 Timothy: ?I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent? (1 Timothy 2:12).
a. But we have to remember the underlying context of every passage of the Bible.
1) You see Paul was starting churches in the middle of pagan cultures.
2) The particular pagan culture looked on women as the property of a man which could be discarded at will in these godless societies.
b. You see Paul knew that if a woman were put in a place of authority, it would have killed any chance for the church to reach out effectively in that culture.
c. But while these guidelines were culturally appropriate, this morning?s Scripture has made it crystal clear that women made up an important part of the leadership of the early church including the church?s prophets, teachers and ministers.
3. My friends, we would do well to also remember, while all the disciples were busy either betraying or abandoning Jesus in his darkest hour the women stayed by his side.
ILLUSTRATION---It was a woman named Anna who first preached to the world about the infant Jesus being the Messiah. The Bible says, the women were the last ones at the cross and the first ones at the tomb. The Bible says it was the women who were the first to tell the world about Christ?s resurrection. It was a woman named Lydia who was the first gentile convert during Paul?s missionary journey to the European continent.
CONCLUSION---
Tony Campolo?s wife is a brilliant woman. She has a Ph.D. and is capable of pursuing a profitable and rewarding career. But she chose to stay home with her children when they were young, and that decision did not bother her at all, although it seemed to bother other people. People would ask her, ?What do you do?? If she would answer, ?I?m a homemaker. I stay home and take care of my children and my husband,? people would look embarrassed for her and cut the conversation short. So she decided to come up with a different response. The next time someone asked her what she did, she said, ?I?m socializing two homo-sapiens in Judeo-Christian virtues so they will appropriate the eschatological values of utopia. What do you do??
So whether you are a woman who is teaching the eschatological values of the kingdom to the occupants of your home, or doing it in the church or in the world, the hand of God is on your life. As the Scripture says, ?And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him? (Colossians 3:17).
