Mother, Worship Leader, Prophetess and More
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Good Morning! Today, we honor not just the mother’s among us, but all the women of this congregation. God has blessed us with many, smart, talented, loving, strong and gifted women who without you, we would be missing a lot. In fact, those gifts have been given to you by the same Spirit that has given me my spiritual gifts and his intent is that we shall use them to build up the body of Christ.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
I was watching a great movie called “Hell and Mr. Fudge last night” one of the lines attributed to Edward fudges father is
"If the Bible says it, it's true--even if the whole world is against it."
What if I told you that what you have been taught about Spiritual gifts is wrong. What if its meaning was in plain sight, but had been hidden because of wrongful teaching.
How does verse 7 begin...
Now to each one…Not to each man…Not to each leader…Not to each woman…but to each one. Everyone in the body of Christ has received a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Two years ago, I was writing a paper for a Restoration History class and wrote these words, that I believe today are still true.
Hermeneutic of Commands, Biblical Examples and Necessary Inferences, we have been limiting the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our local context, the neighborhood church? What if we are allowing our fear of being wrong, our fear of change, or even our fear of allowing women these new roles in the church to impact our willingness to honestly examine the evidence on this issue? How will we answer God when asked someday about our oppression of women’s service in his kingdom?” This paper will set out to examine this very question: “What if we got it wrong?” In fact, I believe the answer is that we did get it wrong, and the is that we have been limiting the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our local context by not using the full power given to the body of Christ, the church, to seek and save the lost. Furthermore, I believe that if we continue to stay on this path, we will remain largely ineffective in the world around us, because they will see our oppression of women in the same light that we retrospectively view slavery as morally wrong and irresponsible for those who call themselves the body of Christ.
So, I ask myself, “What if we got it wrong? What if by using and applying the Biblical Hermeneutic of Commands, Biblical Examples and Necessary Inferences, we have been limiting the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our local context, the neighborhood church?
5 The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
What if we are allowing our fear of being wrong, our fear of change, or even our fear of allowing women these new roles in the church to impact our willingness to honestly examine the evidence on this issue? How will we answer God when asked someday about our oppression of women’s service in his kingdom?”....
4
Furthermore, I believe that if we continue to stay on this path, we will remain largely ineffective in the world around us, because they will see our oppression of women in the same light that we retrospectively view slavery, as morally wrong and irresponsible for those who call themselves the body of Christ.
What I have come to understand the more I look at the Biblical texts is that there are biblical examples of women being given opportunities by their very gifts to lead, to be strong, to encourage and be the women that God called them to be.
to stay on this path, we will remain largely ineffective in the world around us, because they will see our oppression of women in the same light that we retrospectively view slavery as morally wrong and irresponsible for those who call themselves the body of Christ.
Let’s take a look this morning of two of these women from the Hebrew Bible.
In judges 4-5, we learn of a woman named Deborah, who was a judge of Israel.
Judges 4:1
Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.
Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’ ”
Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
“Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.
So, Let’s observe the facts. Deborah, a woman, a wife, a leader, is a Judge of Israel and know to be a prophet. As a judge, Deborah exercised complete religious, political, judicial, and militaristic authority over the people of Israel.
It is evident if the fact that she held court and that the military leaders came to her for advice. It is also, if you read between the lines, proof that she had the Lord’s favor, for Barak wants her to go with him to ensure victory.
Is she the only female leader we see in the Hebrew Bible. No, Let’s look at Miriam, the sister of Moses. Yes, we know she as a child helped launch Moses in a basket down the Nile. We know she followed him until he was found by the princess and bravely asked the princess if she would like for her to fetch a Hebrew Nursemaid, in which she got her mother. But what you may not know, is that she is pointed out by Micha as being a leader in Israel and also led the people in corporate worship.
Micah 5
I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
Exodus 15:
Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them:
“Sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.”
This is one of those verse where we don’t get the full picture in English.
In verse 20, Miriam apparently leads the women in dancing and celebrating Yahweh’s victory. However, the imperative "sing" [Heb: shiru] is a masculine plural form (not feminine). Since Hebrew uses masculine forms for mixed gender groups, this implies that she led all the people in celebrating their victory and worshipping Yahweh, and not just the women.
Within these few verses it is clear, she was a leader with her brothers Aaron and Moses. She is also identified as a prophet of God and a leader of the Israelites in worship.
Are these the only ones:
No, we could speak of Esther and her plan to save the Israelites from Haman.
We could speak of Huldah, the prophet in , who is also a prophet who that Hilkiah and others went to on behalf of Josiah. She not only prophesied the destruction of Israel and that Josiah would end his reign in peace, but also confirmed that this was the book of the law.
We could look at several other female prophets mentioned throughout the Hebrew Bible (there are several.)
We could look at the prayers of Hebrew women like Hannah, that are recorder for us. Beautiful prayers that are an example of how we are to pray.
The Bible is full of men and women who lead, encourage, equip, teach, admonish and do many other things in service of God.
Let us go back to the verse from to close.
"If the Bible says it, it's true--even if the whole world is against it."
I want to acknowledge that we have all been raised that women have certain roles. I acknowledge that women and men are different, but I believe that we have been misled to not see all of the roles and gifts given to women by the Spirit.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
1 Corinthians 12:
So, I want to challenge all of us this morning to do:
Figure out what spiritual gifts are given to you by the Spirit and what gifts He is developing in you. Ask yourself, what gifts has God given me to be used in His kingdom? Take an online spiritual inventory test. Try out different things. But don’t limit yourself based on a misunderstanding of scripture.
Use them for the common good. I know sometimes it is hard to get out of your comfort zone, but I am going to ask all of us to do that for our children and for others around us. Let us show them by our example that God has determined our gifts and he expects for them to be used.
Pray that God will clarify our paths and give us opportunity to do the “good works he prepared in advance for us to do.” God has bigger plans for Seven Hills then we have for ourselves. He is preparing us for good works as individuals, but also as a community. Pray that we will be ready when he presents the opportunities to us and that we will be courageous enough to receive them.