Wednesday recap - God’s High Calling for Women

Wednesday the crowd continued to grow to the largest we’ve had, as I spoke on God’s Heart and Plan for Women (Thursday will be men, and Friday will be the family). Some ladies came for the first time today, and some men brought their wives. Toddlers and infants were present for the 3.5 hour-long teaching session (again no break just straight sitting and the nursery and nursing lounge is wherever you are sitting :) Didier said after the ladies were “very encouraged” and this teaching is “reviving” and has awakened from spiritual sleep and given new life. I told him it has done the same for my heart that neeed that and I pray it will do the same for our church that needs this awakening. Lunch was delayed till 1:40 today as Didier implored me not to stop as he felt the Spirit leading to keep going (we started at 10ish after music). At the end there was a special time of corporate and individual prayer. We haven’t done this at the end of other sessions, but Didier asked the to pray in light of what they heard and how the Spirit was moving.

In the front row of the video above is a woman in yellow and a man next to her across the aisle. He’s a police colonel who had been very kind to help with rides while Didier’s van is having problems. After sitting in on some of the sessions, he invited his wife the last couple days, and Didier said he thinks they will start coming to his church this Sunday. Praise the Lord! 

In the afternoon we went to town as Didier wanted me to meet the Chief of Social Services who is key in the adoptions that Didier prays and trusts will move forward after the elections at the end of this year. We just met briefly but Didier thinks it’s good for adoptive parents to come back and show pictures of their children and how they’re doing, like the Wilmarths did with the judge years ago (there’s a new judge now). 

For our meal we went to a restaurant where all of the workers were deaf, except the manager. Ironically, it was one of the few times in town I’ve been able to communicate with people besides Didier as I know a little sign language (as opposed to no French). They were excited to see an American signing to them. Their signs are a little bit different but many signs are the same. I was reminded of when Jaime was with me at the Lubumbashi airport many years ago and there were some people signing sitting in our same small waiting area. Jaime’s bachelors degree was in Deaf Studies, focusing on American Sign Language. It was an amazing connection as Jaime rarely has interacted with deaf people in the foothills where we live but she got to share about our Christian faith with deaf people in a Congolese airport. It’s a small world and we have a big God. 

Like I did on yesterday’s blog, I thought I’d include the teaching outline and the questions I recalled from Q&A time to help you get a fuller feel of the teaching time Wednesday morning

TEACHING NOTES FOR Week 2 Day 3 Notes

Review Day 1 and Day 2

GOD’S PLAN FOR WOMEN

Tomorrow: Men, Friday: Family (Marriage, Parents, Children)

God’s plan for women is bigger than just being a wife or mother

We will start not with what a woman does in the home but who a woman is IN Christ and who a woman is TO Christ

We’ve been talking much about the man of God, but we must also talk about the woman of God

Why should men be here? We need to see women as God sees them

We need to see how important women are to God’s plan

We need to speak of women and to women as Jesus does

We need to support women and be thankful for all they do

Also if you are a father of girls, this is who you should raise them to be

If you are a single man, we’ll see the type of godly woman to marry

If you are a young woman, we’ll see the type of godly woman to be

My sisters in Christ, I hope today will encourage your hearts

Before I teach I would like to ask a sister in Christ if she would pray for this time

Turn to gospel of Luke chapter 1 and you’ll want to keep Bibles open

We’ll be looking at just 1 gospel to see God’s plan for women

This will be very different than man’s plan for women

Man’s plan was to use or abuse women to fulfill the desires of man

In the OT men would have multiple wives and would not love them

In the OT men saw woman’s job was to just serve man and give them sons

If a woman could not have children, man saw her as cursed and good for nothing

Many times women were not even mentioned in the family line, only the father and his sons names were given, not the names of women

When a woman was old, some would see she no longer had a purpose

If you look at the first few verses of Luke 1, who can tell me a woman’s name you see there

V. 7 says Elizabeth was old and could not have children

But v. 6 says she and her husband were righteous in God’s sight

The start of the gospel highlights this godly obedient woman

V. 5 gives her family line also, not just her husband, she was from the family tree of Aaron, the brother of Moses

In this chapter an angel says Elizabeth will have a son, but not just any son, the one who would introduce Messiah!

Can I ask one of our sisters here if she can read v. 24-25

So she understood the Lord looked with her in favor in a special way

From the beginning of the gospel we see the Lord’s favor to women like her

In the next verse and next section we see another woman the Lord favors, what is her name?

Mary was a young virgin probably the same age as some in the choir this AM

I would ask a brother in Christ to read v. 28-31

I would ask a sister in Christ to read v. 38

This is the pattern for a woman and all believers, “I am the Lord’s humble servant, whatever your Word says, let it be done in my life”

She is an example of trusting God even when it doesn’t make sense

She is also an example of purity for young women, pure until marriage

She is also an example of young women spending time with older in the next section

Summarize v. 41ff - before joy to the world, it’s joy to the women

Notice the first “gospel song” in the NT is by a woman

We remember OT songs of salvation by Miriam after the Exodus, Miriam is the Hebrew name for Mary

Mary’s prayer is using language from the psalms and the prayer of Hannah in the OT

Mary teaches women (and men) here how to pray in a God-centered way

Notice how much of this first chapter of the gospel is hope and joy for women

Read v. 57-58 - the joy is spreading from these women to many others

Paraphrase, expound 2:10 in relation to “all people” including women

Emphasis on Mary first in v. 16, 19

Summarize v. 34-38

Notice in v. 36 it again gives the family line of a woman, the tribe she was from (earlier it said Mary and Joseph were of the family line of David)

This woman was a widow from many years but she was so faithful (note v. 37)

She was serving God at the temple all the time for all her life

Only 2 people in the temple understood who baby Jesus was, and she is one who God honored in this special way

It says she was fasting and praying all the time (talk about women’s prayer group at GCBC including several faithful widows)

Notice in v.  38 her ministry —- this is an example for every woman

She didn’t preach from the pulpit but she spoke of Christ to many

Luke 4:25-26 - first sermon of Jesus in Nazareth his first illustration was God’s grace to a widow who was a Gentile

V. 38-39 - heals Simon’s mother in law and she immediately serves them

Luke 7:11-16 - summarize and expound

Luke 8:41-56 - summarize and expound

Later He will heal a crippled woman who had been bent over for 18 years

Later He will say one reason God will judge Israel’s leaders is because of how they have been mistreating and taking money of widows

Other examples (not to turn to): Woman at well

Gentile woman with suffering daughter in Mt 15 - “woman, great is your faith!”

Teaching “kingdom of heaven is like...woman taking some flour...woman putting leaven or yeast in dough and it expands and becomes bigger...woman who has lost her coin...woman coming to a judge pleading for justice...”etc.

View of women and teaching before NT - read from DNTB in binder

Summarize end of Luke 7 - transition to sermon notes in binder on “Discipleship and Women in Ministry” (preached at GCBC this summer, adapted portions)

APPLICATION:

Women be encouraged!

Men you need to encourage and thank women for their service

If you have not been seeing them as Jesus does, repent, ask him to change you

If you have not been honoring women in your life, ask them to forgive you

Application to young women, unmarried men, married men

HOMEWORK FOR TONIGHT: READ TITUS 2 AND PRAY FROM IT

Young women for older in life, older for younger 

Young men to for older in life, older for younger

[QUESTIONS FROM AUDIENCE:

When Paul tells Timothy women shouldn’t preach or teach to men, do you think it was just because that would be a scandal in their culture? 

Follow-up: are any of the gifts in Ephesians 4:11 for women or only men?

Should a woman be a politician?

When a man is preaching, if only a woman can interpret, is that ok?

I was doing door-to-door evangelism and the man said I shouldn’t listen to you teach me the Bible as you’re a woman, what should I do?

A young man asked “how do I begin to view women rightly instead of lustfully?”

Follow-up: What are the things I should be attracted to for a future wife?

Applications on growing in attraction and affection to your spouse as you choose to love and seek to make self decrease