Becoming a Man/Woman of God

(Excerpts from a sermon preached at Journey Baptist 09/20/09. To hear that sermon go to www.journeybaptistchurch.com it is dated and titled, "Boys and Girls".)

It is interesting the degree of fear and timidness that I am struck with concerning this topic. The only way in which I have been able to approach it is through personal prayer and the prayer of others. I have also studied as hard for this sermon series as any I have ever preached. This is an incredibly difficult topic to teach on because of the incredible sensitivity about it. I also believe strongly that the enemy of Christ followers does not want to see us living out as men and women of God.

From the outset let me assure everyone that I do not believe that women should be "barefoot and pregnant". My mother was a working mom my entire life and I believe her to be one of the most Godly women I have ever been associated with. I also am not focusing in this series on the lines of authority in the church and home. I do believe that there are lines of authority within the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) itself. I believe that the authority given us in life is meant for our good, is set up by God, and has the potential to be used for great good or great evil. These are not sermons about authority however.

The purpose of this sermon series, "Boys and Girls" is to teach us what the world, family, and church need most from women and from men.

2 truths we must believe to be Men/Women of God

1. Men and women reflect the glory of God in equally important ways; yet unique and differently!

Genesis 1:26&27 ²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Both men and women reflect the image of God! This is critical to understand. When men are not living out the story that God is calling them too; then something of who God is goes untold. The absence of men living out His purposes means that their is a living sermon that is not preached, there is an awesome wonder that goes unseen, His fame and wonder is not known in the way that He wants it to be known.

Also, when women do not live out the purposes of God as He wants them too, living sermons go unpreached, awesome wonder goes unseen, and something of the image of God is unknown the way He desires it to be.

Men and women are different in physiology. That is obvious by simply opening your eyes. They are different in many other ways as well. We are different mentally, we are different emotionally, we are different relationally, we are different at the core of our being. Notice I said we are different; not better or worse. The reason we are different is because God made us differently to accomplish different aspects of the grand story He is telling in history (His story).

2. We need each other!

Genesis 2:18 ¹⁸ The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Genesis 2:24 ²⁴ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

I Corinthians 1:11-12 ¹¹In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹²For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.

I know that our culture has taught us that it is weakness to say we need anyone. If you really want to be weak then just say you need a woman as a man or you need a man as a woman. True strength according to our culture is to be John Wayne and just do everything by yourself, for yourself. This is the same culture that would tell us that dependence on God is also weakness! We know they are wrong about dependence on God being weakness. Paul said, "When I am weak then I am strong because God's strength is perfected in weakness". Many times until we realize we need God we will still try to do life without Him which leads to our weakness; not strength.

Somehow to say that you need somebody still seems weak to many Christ followers though. God is telling us through His word that despite what culture teaches us we do need one another. The unique strengths and weaknesses of men and women work best together in the home, the church, the government, and everywhere else. God has created men and women to need one another. Little boys need a momma and a daddy. Little girls need a momma and a daddy.

Unless you are given the gift of singleness then God wants you to be married. God said "it isn't good for man to be alone". We need men and women in the church, in the home, in government and everywhere else. Listen to the sermon for clarification here. I am not saying all single people should run out and get married. Use the common sense God gave you as well as His guidelines for marriage. What I am saying is this incredible push toward being independent in our culture is not from God. This is not the story God is wanting to tell. This is us trying to tell a different story.

So that is it in the way of preliminary truths for this series. This weeks sermon is titled, "Wounds and Curses". We will look at the barriers that keep us from living out Gods specific plans for our lives as men and women. The following 2 weeks will be, "What the world needs most from men" and "What the world needs most from women".

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson