Having Everything Revealed (H.E.R.), Part 1

“I am a voice for women who fell like they’re alone in these situations. This project came from an emotion, and that’s what I ant it to be about- not what I look like or who I’m with, but the raw emotion and support for women.”

“I feel like this is the era of the anti-star. I really just wanted it to be about the music, and get away from, ‘Who is she with?’ and “What is she wearing?’”

One who is constantly viewed by your outward appearances and continually being objectified

Illustrate: “Sight Unseen: Geder and Race Through Blind Eyes” by Ellyn Kaschak

“…thinking about the objectifying gaze that makes appearance so crucial and in doing so, creates all sorts of adolescent miseries and maladies, many of which continue throughout life, especially for women...”

“Consider what our world would be like if our human eyes could look inward as well as outward”

i.e. if we could look at people the way God sees people

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

“What if the defining sense of vision were absent?”

Illustrate: “Sacred Marriage” by Gary Chapman

Learning of his bias that women were meant for viewing but could not possibly have a mind of their own or were some how the weaker sex because they expressed their emotions more freely

Transition: In our passage today...

In our text today we began an exploration for the month of January 2019 of how we can view one another in ways that can impact our ability to serve one another effectively

Why such a message on first Sunday, Communion Sunday?

Because when we come to the communion table...

The message Of Queen Vashti for our mess age:

Looks Can Be Deceiving ()

The

King Ahasuerus wants to show off Queen Vashti like all of his other possessions like she is a prized possession or Trophy

bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown

in order to show the peoples and princes her beauty

for she was lovely to look at (but apparently not to speak to or to get her input or perspective)

but Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command- Queen Vashti has enough wisdom and sense to see the situation

Queen Vashti refused to be put on display in an indecent manner to be viewed by a group of drunk men

Value Your Dignity Over Your Status

Be Careful Of Whom You Take Counsel ()

Proverbs 16:18 ESV

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

Galatians

Galatians 6:3–5 ESV

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

Psalm 139:1–4 ESV

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Value Your Dignity Over Your Status ()

Proverbs 22:1–6 ESV

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all. The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

James 4:10 ESV

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James 4:1–10 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James 4:1

Psalm 139:13–14 ESV

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Psalm 139:

Do not allow yourself to be anybody’s object of affection

To my single sisters and brothers:

1 Corinthians 7:1–2 ESV

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:

Do not allow people to manipulate you and/or your emotions

Illustrate: Drake song “In My Feelings”

Do not make decisions based on your feelings, but base your decisions on what the Holy Spirit has to say:

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

Romans 12:1–4 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,

1 Corinthians 2:1–16 ESV

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:10–16 ESV

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:14–16 ESV

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Women Can Be Courageous Too! ( And )

Queen Vashti defies the kings request or rather order

We more people to stand up and show courage for what is right

Illustrate: Year of the Woman (1992 & 2018)

In both years, women ran for office to push back against sexual misconduct.

The record-breaking number of women candidates running for office in 2018 drew comparisons with the last time there was a so-called “Year of the Woman” 26 years ago: in 1992.

That year, as in 2018, a surge of women candidates ran for office and won. When the ballots were counted, America had elected a record-breaking four women as senators and 24 women as representatives to Congress. These included lawmakers who are still in Congress today such as Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Patty Murray (D-WA).

This past week, more than 100 women were sworn into to the House, with 22 who were sworn in to serve in the Senate, shattering a whole new set of records.

Judges 4:10

Judges 4:4–10 ESV

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

Judges 4:6–10 ESV

She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

We more people to stand up and show courage for what is right!

Queen Vashti’s courage made way for another women to come forth

Another women who would be used for the LORD’s purpose’s in order to save his people

Now you are going to have to come back next week in order to learn about that other woman

But I know somebody else who was courageous and who made way for someone greater to come forth

My bible says:

Mark 1:1–4 ESV

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

But John the Baptist knew and understood his role in the history of God’s saving grace

John 3:28–30 ESV

You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Mark 1:7–8 ESV

And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

You ought to thank the LORD for the Holy Spirit

Mark 1:7

your helper

your counselor

the spirit of discernment

You’ve been made in the image of God

In fact you are fearfully and wonderfully made- you got a little bit of God in you

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