Godly Honour

Firstly, to mothers, to foster moms, to women who work out motherly roles today, we bring honor and respect to you. It's not what you do, it's who you are, the two gods called you to be in. You use your heart that God has for family and you show your children and you show other children in the body of Christ, the love of God in the way that you love others. We want to thank you for bringing that to our community and to your families. To every woman, every woman of gateway, we honor and respect you today for being who you are. You are created in God's image. We're going to talk about this this morning, created in God's image. You're valued and we thank you for what you bring to this community of believers, showing your heart for God in loving others, in caring, supporting, leading, ministering. We catch your glimpse of God's nature when you're at work for the glory of the Lord. And we're stronger because of you. Amen. Would anyone else agree with that? Man, you better hurry up right now. I also want to make note today, to those of you who were met with maybe a deep struggle at attention, what today represents on a calendar hallmark day. I want to encourage you with this. May today be the first or a continuation of healing, redemption, miracles and godly understanding. God loves you. God loves you so much that He wants to lead you on a journey into fullness and wholeness that He has for you. So today we acknowledge more than one narrative, amen. I think it's important that we do that. The spectrum of celebration and sensitivity towards loss and grief and hearts that are also healing and everything else in between. Mother's, spiritual mothers, we thank you for standing in the gap. Now within the church body, spiritual mothers, thank you for standing in the gap for those who don't have a mother present today. It's a gifting that's required in the body of Christ. I also want to say this, women are church, thank you for being women of faith. Amen. Thank you for being women of faith, standing in the gap. You bring glory to God through the way that you love and the faith that you have. And we're so grateful for that. We celebrate you today. You make us better. And now also grow that. You make us better. Now I want to spend a brief moment today orientating us towards the scriptures around today. You know, the world we live in, and I say this with all boldness and confidence this morning. The world that we live in is currently committed to tearing apart the image of male and female and anything remotely attaining to God. God's called us to be part of the redemptive work that happens on planet earth. And so I want to remind us today why we're celebrating and honoring women who are part of our church and our lives. Biblically I want to remind us. You are part of God's created design. You have been perfected and created in the image of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Genesis 1 says it like this, we've got to go back to the beginning to get a clear picture of this. Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all creatures that move along the ground." Verse 27, "So God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God He created them, male and female He created them." Be reminded today. We were made in their image, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Men and women have been created in His image. But then I also agree with that. If you believe the Scriptures are true, then you should be agreeing with that this morning, amen. But male and female are unique. We don't know what else to agree with that. Unique. We are different, but our different differences are complementary. Why? Because we're made in the image of God, Father. Because our unique facets mirror those of our Creator. Take heart this morning. We were never meant to be the same. We were never meant to be opposing forces, either. We were created in the image of God the Father. Genesis 2, 20b to 25 says it like this. But for Adam, there was no suitable helper. So the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord made a woman from the rib. He had taken out of the man and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. You shall be called woman." For she was taken out of the man. That is why the man leaves his father and mother as you know it with his wife and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. Sin had not entered the world. This is God's beautiful perfection of creation right here. You know that word helper in the Hebrew is Ezra and I think maybe different parts of society, culture over thousands of years have used this teaching to say that women are sub to the man. That word helper in the Hebrew means something else completely different. Anyone who has studied this before? A couple of people have studied this. We mean something completely different. It talks about assistance beyond the recipient's own ability, extra strength that is required. When to become one, there is this strength that abounds because of what God has created to come together. So women you are not simply a blessing from God, you are not a helper, you are the fulfillment, you are the completion of God's creation. Humankind we were all created from Adam and so when we honor you women, we honor God's creation. We honor that God saw fit that his completion of his creation was for his perfection to be man and woman to come from God to be united as one in marriage. Within marriage we are not called to out do each other. Anyone competitive? A little bit competitive? Should say Naomi and a tennis court. She swings for that ball like she's got the shoulders of a 14 year old. Jesus like there is going to be no pain tomorrow. I've got this. We are not called to out do each other. We are not called to exert dominion over each other. We're called to be helpers, supporters, champions of each other. The world would say you don't need to be one in marriage, you just need yourself, you just need your needs met. You are the author of your own journey. I say this this morning, we truly need God's perfect plan for our lives. We need the scriptures to come true in our lives. I want to speak to singleness for just a moment. The journey of singleness. Singleness is also a gift from God and we're going to talk about this in the coming weeks in our relationship series. Singleness is a gift from God. When your single God goes about authoring this formation in your heart, when you're single you can do things that marry people can't do. At the drop of a hat you can be at. I'm going to drive to box here. I want to have some dark on rice. I don't have to ask anyone about it. But also when we're single God teaches us these significant things that we need to understand. He takes us to the beauty of platonic relationship, biblically, the beauty of brotherly and sisterly connection within the body of Christ. This is what we're meant to learn in our singleness, amen. When we do this, we bring glory to God as we co-labor in the kingdom of God, brothers and sisters together, we learn how to build strong and healthy relationships. It's like a way of talking about this because we're going to talk about what it means to honor each other as we go on this morning. Romans 12, 10 puts it like this and we heard this a couple of weeks ago. Love each other in a way that makes you feel close like brothers and sisters and give each other more honor than you give yourself. humble hearts towards each other. You know, this picture is God's design for the church. And a healthy image of what singleness is meant to mean within the church, the body of Christ and the biblical narrative, but also what it's meant to mean when people are married and the way they relate to other people within the body of Christ, amen. In the bounds of marriage, we'll find biblical oneness that's available for men and women if it be in the will of the Lord. And men, I want to bring this to your attention today. Women quite literally were created from the ribbone of Adam. They're uniquely part of original perfect creation. There's a responsibility in us to make sure as men that we honor women. Maybe that's not something that's happening in our world at the level that it should be. Within the body of Christ, it should be happening with the heart of God. Maybe that's not something you reserved as a young person within your family home. Well, God wants to do a deep work in you so that you can learn to honor what God created, what God put into place. So there's a responsibility on us to do so. When we dishonor women, we dishonor ourselves. Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. When we dishonor women, we're ultimately dishonoring ourselves. You understand where we're coming from today? This is an heavy teaching. This is going to break open your understanding of God's perfection for relationships within the body of Christ and marriage. And so this morning I'm feeling abnormally brave and bold. So I'm going to bite off some scripture that we can all chew on for a little bit. That we can all chew on for a little bit. Oh, just me. The scripture that God has for us this morning that I want to just chew on for a little bit. And then husband's God is speaking directly to our hearts and our minds in this passage of scripture, 1 Peter 3.7. So his husband's in the same way your husband's must give honor to your wives. It's a biblical truth. Now just something that I made up this morning. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. Here at first today when it says that word weaker, it's only talking about physical stature. Maybe for some people who cross fit that's not entirely true. Equal as a partner, not less equal. The way we see it, the way we understand it, the way we out work it is important. Maybe you haven't seen this example in the family that you grew up in. It's important you get God's biblical understanding of this. You will have a blessed marriage and blessed relationships in the body of Christ if you get this. And your prayers won't be hindered. That's what the scripture says. Ponder that for a moment. This is the new testament speaking to new believers. I would like to say that we learn to give honor to our wives before she's our wife. The way we treat our fiance, the way we treat our girlfriend, the way we treat the girl that we find very interesting. Just the journey, right? The way we give honor in those moments, that's where we learn it. We learn to give honor to women when they're our friends. We learn to give honor to women when we're a youth and that woman is our mum. That's what we learn to give honor. We learn to give honor to women when we don't settle for just being accountable. We begress to see women as sisters in Christ. When are we called to no longer see a woman as no longer just a sister in Christ? This is meant to only happen when that woman becomes our wife. Amen? Past your ground taught on this a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to go a little bit deeper this morning. I've already dug a hole, so let's just go a little bit deeper. Ephesians 525-32. "So husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word. And to present her to Himself a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies, who who love their wives, their wives love Himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body. But they feed and care for their body just as Christ does the church. For we are members of His body." Verse 31, and we see this passage of Scripture again. "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. The two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. They're called to love and honor our wives as Christ loved the church. This is our responsibility. This is our calling. This is the anointing that you carry. Christ saw the church so worthy of His love and His care that He made the ultimate sacrifice to put her first in every way, amen? Anyone want to agree with that truth? See when we honor our wives in this way, we let her know that she's worthy of love, honor, and sacrifice. Young men, if you want to have a great marriage, start learning this now. Don't wait until there's a ring on your finger. Start learning this now. Look to people who get it right more often than not. Look to those who model good practice. Your future wife and the women in your world will be so grateful that you show honor, respect, and care. Is it counter-cultural right now to pop culture? Absolutely. Everyone's out there just living for themselves. That's not the way that God's called us to live as disciples and followers of Jesus. We're called to imitate Him, amen? Galatians 6, 7 to 9 this morning. Don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he soes. Whoever soes to please their flesh, from their flesh will reap destruction. Whoever soes to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good for the proper time we reap harvest if we do not give up. Learning to live life well, be committed to it. Learning to live life in the image of our Creator. We're called to love our wives as we love ourselves. And I want to encourage you, men, if you don't like yourself, looking back at verse 28 there, if you don't like yourself, you're not going to like anyone else. If you're not this person, maybe you've met someone like them. Just always grumpy, just always angry at the world. Just always taking out their hatred of themselves on people around them. God has not called you to live that way. In Jesus Christ, you find freedom from that. You find the image of Jesus and it begins to outwork through you and you begin to learn to love yourself in the same way that God loved you first. This is an imperative, men. You want to love a wife, you want to love a girlfriend, you want to love your mother well, you want to love the women in your world well, you want to love your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. You need to let this healing out work. It's an imperative. How do we do that? Well, first of all, we come to God the Father. There's moments of healing, moments of encounter. Maybe you need to speak to someone about it. Maybe you need to sit down and talk through some things that led you to the place that you currently in. Could be a counselor, could be a pastor, could be a psychologist, whoever you need. In your world to walk that journey spiritually and sort out what's going on up here, can I encourage you to go for it? I'm not direct here to do something that I haven't done already. I would not even dare stand up here and talk about these things if I hadn't allowed God to intervene in the very real problems that I had from the scriptures that we're talking about today. God is for you, not against you. He wants to see you set free for yourself and for the generations to come. God wants to heal you. God wants to reform you from the inside out so that you can honor women in your life in the same way that Christ honors the church. You know the mother's day wasn't always a card day. It wasn't always a flower's day. You know the concept of celebrating and honoring mothers was actually an original commandment in Exodus 20. Some people just found a way to make some coin out of it. This makes some money out of the one of the tanker moments. Wonderful. And this teaching about honoring mothers and fathers is also echoed by Paul in Ephesians 6 also. Where does honor come from? Is it something you can just pick up at the local store like flowers or a card? Is it something you can just go to bed one night and pray a little prayer? It's like, oh, I want to wake up in the morning. May I be full of honor? Can you go to a drive through? It's like, I'll have three honors and a little bit of Jesus on the side. No, no, that's not where honor comes from. Honor comes from the character of Jesus. When we accept Christ, we take on the character of Jesus. But for that honor to come out, there may be some healing that needs to take place. Honor also comes from seeing the fruit of the spirit activated in our lives on a daily basis. But I tell you what we need to do for honor to become a very real reality for every single one of us. We need to choose to activate it. It's not something that's miraculously you just wake up one morning and you're like, I am an honoring human. I honor the world. No, we have to get up and we have to when we're feeling a little bit tired, we need to honor the people in our world. This is for all of us today. So when we're struggling a little bit because work got hard, we need to choose to activate honoring people in our world. When someone says something that we disagree with, I'm going to choose to honor them right now. It doesn't mean we won't have a conversation to talk about things. It doesn't mean that we choose silence. Silence is a brutal weapon, amen. I don't find that in the spirit and in the scriptures. It doesn't mean that we yell a lot crazy together at a point across. We need to learn to sit down and talk because when we do that, when we do things in a biblical way, we honor each other and we ultimately honor God in the way that we carry ourselves, amen. Today, maybe a hallmark day, but it reminds us that God calls us to be for each other in our families, in our church families, to be people who love each other, who care for each other, who honor each other. May we also understand that if we arrive on today's like today and our heart aches a little bit, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter, to be our guide. God placed us in family so that we could be comforted. Now God has a journey, whether it be grief, loss, anger or anything else, that God wants to have us walk in a redemption story. That's what it's all about. Your story has not yet been completed. It's still being written. But anyone agree with that? Aren't you glad that your story is still being written? So grateful that I'm not going to be held to account for five years ago, my story is still being written, that God's redeeming me and reforming and reshaping me even still. My encouragement to you today is, can you allow God to pick up the pen? Can you allow the great author of your story? Can you allow him to pick up the pen? He has a better ending to the story than you could ever imagine, but you need to allow him for your, the pen is you this morning. Can you allow him to author what he wants to do in your life and through your life? One last passage of scripture that we're just going to look at today, we're not going to read through the whole thing, but as we get ready to wrap up this morning. I want to encourage you, women, young women, young adult women. I've got some thoughts this morning. It wouldn't be Mother's Day if someone didn't mention Proverbs 31, would it? But I'm not going to go where you think, I'm going to go. It wouldn't dare. You see, Proverbs 31 in its entirety is a teaching for both men and women. The first part of Proverbs is teaching men to exercise wisdom, to learn wisdom, to learn personal accountability, to understand justice, to have moral fortitude in the Lord. And the second part of Proverbs 31 is, is encouragement to Godly women, to find yourself in a place of pursuing wisdom, not perfection. It's important. Men and women, I would hate for you to avoid Proverbs 31 because it feels like a to-do list for perfectionism. See, rather than a higher bar, the example is meant to be a model of wisdom and character. A woman who skillfully adapts her use of time and talents to fit her unique life situation. A woman who is exercising Godly wisdom in order to try and find the balance between nurturing her family and engaging in productive work and executing her unique abilities in private, public and professional life. Being encouraged today, women, you are God's anointed. You're God's anointed. And we esteem you today as women of God. Maybe you thought to exercise this level of wisdom, you needed to go to came-art and buy one of those live-life love posters. Maybe this would bring the breakthrough that I need for this season. Women God has got you. God has got you. He hears your cry, he hears your laughs, his power, his authority, his wisdom is more than enough, especially in our weakness. Yeah, I don't want you to interpret Proverbs 31 as a brief for a job application that you need to attain to. That's not God's heart. We're not looking for supermums, we're not looking for wonder women or even the greatest women of life in the world. We just want you to be all that God has created you to be. Let it be known women when God created you. He did so to complete the perfect set. We together are God's prized pinnacle of creation. So women in honouring you today, we give glory to God for the wonderful creation that you are. In honouring you as men, we also honour ourselves. I say this here, this man, men with honour, honour women, men with honour, honour women. Maybe this is a journey that God's called you to work on. Step into it. If you're already on the journey, keep on going. Keep on going. You'll be blessed because of it. So women we say, may you be crowned with honour today. May you be crowned with honour today. Now before we finish today, you might be in this room, you might be online and you've heard me speak about that we as men and women are God's greatest creation, created in his image. If something happened in the book of Genesis, around three chapters in, because of some decisions, sin crept into the hearts of humankind, that sin separated us from relationship with God. But that wasn't the end of God's story, aren't you so grateful that that was not the end of God's [BLANK_AUDIO] story. He sent Jesus, his son into the world because he loves us. Jesus walked earth without sin, blameless, went to the cross as a sacrifice for our sin. He was buried and God raised him on the third day that we might be saved, that we might have eternal life, that we might be known by God the Father. Now the Bible simply states this, if you don't want to be separated from God, if you're not walking your own sin anymore, it simply states that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believing your heart that God raised him from the dead that you'll be saved. How do we do this? We use our voices. It could be a prayer or it also could be as simple as Romans 10 and 13 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You're putting your faith in Jesus, acknowledging that God sent him so that we could all be saved and be known by God. And so I want to give everyone in the room today the opportunity to be no one to be forgiven once separated, now found. If we can close our eyes for just a moment, if that's you today, if you don't know God personally, maybe you've been off walking your own journey, you're like, I can't do this anymore. I need to know the forgiveness of God. I need to know the love of a Savior. If that's you, we're going to prayer prayer in a moment. We're going to call on the name of the Lord. But if that's you, I want to invite you in just a moment with everyone's eyes close to put your hand up and say, yeah, that's me. I want that. I want everything that God's got for me. On the count of three if that's you, just pop your hand up. One, two, three. Anyone this wants to say, I need God. I need everything that He has for me. I want freedom. I don't want to be trapped in sin anymore if anyone just put your hand up once you put it up, you can put it straight back down. Anyone today, if you online, this is for you as well today, don't let this moment pass you by. Holy Spirit. We're going to pray a prayer this morning, just with our eyes closed for a moment. If you put your hand up, if you didn't put your hand up, it's okay. God's not interested in that. He's interested in you coming back into relationship with Him, being forgiven and knowing as a son or a daughter of God. Let's pray today. Dear God, thank you that you sent Jesus, that He went to the cross, went to the grave, and rose again on the third day. I surrender my life to you. I repent of my sin from this day on. I choose to walk with you for all the days of my life in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We pray that that message was a blessing to you. If you made a decision to follow Jesus, first of all, congratulations. We think that that is incredible. And secondly, if you go to gc.org.au/firsteps, our team is put together some resources as well as their information there for how you can get in contact with one of our pastors because we'd love to encourage you and connect you into the life of the church.