O.K.
As requested by some folk. An outline from the sermon given last week on Biblical Femininity.
Different things to take note of before reading -- it is an outline, mainly mine. It is long, it contains most of what was said. Short of doing an actual transcript for your edification, I did an outline.
This was an excellent sermon that I think the general (Christian) public should hear.
Also, please keep in mind that this is a topical sermon, not expository as is Kevin's usual style. The text that was used is important to the sermon as a whole, but it is not what the sermon is based on.
This is a sermon on Biblical Femininity, not what Paul thinks, necessarily. This also not for the faint of heart. On my word document that I typed this in, it came to be just over 3 pages single spaced.
Its long, its good.
Now that I have viewed it after I posted it -- it does not look like an outline and I don't know why. Where there were automatic tabs in my word document, I went and manually spaced things, even now as I look at it in the editing box it is as I left it. So, you might just have to cut and paste into word
I. Instructions are letters of love from our heavenly Father
A. In embracing these principles there are some that will disapprove
B. The Bible almost always makes reference to biblical womanhood in the context of marriage a family
C. The Bible also acknowledges the fact that some women never marry
D. Circumstances vary
E. In application there are differences
F. We have been conditioned in values that are either wrong or only tell half the story – often within the Church.
II. The Bible’s perspective of femininity as the colors of redemption
A. Biblical beauty
a. Satan was created as the most beautiful angel in heaven, but he fell. He fell taking pride in his beauty. He sought to express his beauty sinfully. And from the beginning he has sought to leash an attack of hatred on women, leaving them unprotected.
b. The Church often thinks of femininity as wearing jumpers, crafts, cooking
c. The notion that if a woman can cook who cares if she can read
i. A false dichotomy
ii. There is much, much more to it
d. God made women to long for the drama of rescue. The drama of being the most beautiful in the eyes of her prince
e. He created Eve as the climax of creation.
f. The fall happened
i. Her husband failed her
ii. In Christ she finds the one who made her beautiful for all of eternity
1. A woman who knows she has been made beautiful in Christ
(a.) She is confident, bold, and assertive
(b.) She is not afraid to love, to suffer, to surrender, to sacrifice
2. The one who sits upon the white horse, the one who has rescued her says “I have made you beautiful. Now, live in holy boldness . . . as a woman of God.”
3. Identity in Christ
(a.) He promises to restore her in beauty and holiness
4. What might this look like?
(a.) More than sewing and cooking!
(b.) It seeks the honor and glory of those she serves
(c.) As the godly woman . . . she conforms to the life of the Savior.
B. Submission
a. (Our) discussions often center on the call of submission
i. The woman’s call be to helper to man
1. The same word used of God himself (we wouldn’t want to think that it is a degrading term)
ii. Good discussion, but fail to captivate the spirit of the Bible’s calling to God’s women
iii. To define the Bible’s view of godly womanhood of such things . . . is to lessen their place in the kingdom
1. Example: playing dress up as a little girl wanting their father to say “You are so beautiful!”
2. They like Sleeping Beauty want to be rescued by the Prince – God made them that way
iv. An author argues that Biblical femininity is best described as vulnerability
1. Vulnerability comes from the Latin word “vulnus” meaning “wounded”
b. The Proverbs 31 woman
i. This is poetical and is set before the Church to teach us the principles
1. The husband is respected because of who is wife is.
c. God has made men to be risk takers
i. God has made women to stand beside the risk takers
ii. Femininity is says “The Lord is our trust. Be bold. Be strong”
1. It gives strength, boldness
2. It is not weakness, passive, weepy, wish-washy, manipulative, seductive, sentimental, or smothering.
d. Men are always wondering if they are good enough
i. True femininity fuels their men to say “Yes, by the grace of God I am.”
e. Timidity and passivity are not jewels for your crown
f. Femininity is bold and tenacious to love – almost blindly fierce.
i. It will fight against injustice
ii. Tenacious defender at the good name of her man (husband).
C. Boldness
a. When the Biblical woman finds her Prince she is bold and courageous to provide rest
i. Timothy is told that there is certain criteria for providing care for an older widow
1. Godly widows were those who understood the life of rest, surrender
2. They seek to minister that to the rest of other people
b. Femininity
i. It is that which bows to the feet of others.
ii. It is willing to be put out even for those it doesn’t know.
iii. It is that which is consumed with giving up its life so as to serve and minister to those around it.
1. To those who need their feet washed or their affliction cooled.
D. Rejoices in the provision of God
a. In the Garden Eve was made for the man
i. His calling was their calling
ii. He was better with her than he could have been without her
iii. Eve was the compliment
iv. It was when she was tempted and finally fell to step outside . . . and express her beauty outside of God’s design.
v. Her chief sin is discontentment
1. She had it all – the perfection of the work of God’s hands
2. There was just one tree from which she could not have.
3. Her attention was drawn from all that she had to the one thing she could not have.
4. This is a great and insidious evil
(a). They are most often discontent with her husband
(b.) It breeds a bitterness that it is destructive to your life.
vi. It is profoundly grateful and thinks nothing about what is provided for her by God in Christ.
1. He who did not spare His own Son – will he not also give you all things?
vii. Biblical femininity makes much of blessings
E. The influence of femininity
a. What does she do when her covenant head is not following the Lord?
i. Your conduct as a woman who fears and obeys God in humble and quiet submission . . . will be used to win him to obedience.
b. Femininity glories in redemption
i. She is as belonging to Him
c. Circumstances cannot squelch it.
d. Not thinking it is up to self, but up to the One who has made you beautiful
i. Bold and humble communication . . . serve(s) the husband’s authority.
e. Esther was put in the place she was that she might influence for righteous she told her husband, the most powerful man in the world, “You are getting ready to do a very wicked thing.”
F. “Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul” by John and Stacy Elderidge
a. When God creates Eve . . . she is a ezer kanigu (Hebrew)
i. This phrase is difficult to translate
1. Various translation “helper”, “help me”, “companion”
2. Sustainer beside him
(a). Every other place in the O.T this Hebrew term is used to describe God when you need to him to come through desperately
3. Most of the contexts are life and death and God is your only hope – it’s a matter of life and death.
4. God calls you to a life that involves many risks and dangers
(a.) Why else would we need to be our “ezer”?
(b). You don’t need a life saver if your mission is to be a couch potato
G. Arwyn in LOTR
1. It is she that rides the glorious steed
2. She is Froto’s only hope and entrusted with his life
a. She is his ezer kinigu
b. The longing in the heart of woman to share life together as a great adventure it comes straight from the heart of God
i. He does not want to be an appendage, to be a tag along
ii. Neither does any woman
iii. He is essential, he wants us to want Him desperately
H. This is Biblical Femininity
a. Bold, courageous, trusting, and loyal
b. “Ladies, so adorn yourselves”
Wow...its been a while since you wrote this :)
There were two things from the comments that actually do uphold the "women want rescuing" theme:
1) Ruth did indeed take the initiative (at Naomi's insistence) in marrying Boaz. However, Boaz still rescued Ruth. Don't forget that There was a relative closer to Ruth's husband than Boaz was. It was Boaz's responsibility to give that man the first oppurtunity to marry Ruth, which he could have done. I don't exactly remember the exchange between the two men, but Boaz created a contract with the man, giving himself the right to marry Ruth. He did, in fact, rescue her.
2) Funke mentioned that the perfect embodiment of relationships is found only in Christ - not in the relationships of other people in the Bible...and not in our own lives. So, if the relationship that Christ is in is that of Christ and Church, where the Church is the Bride. Marriage is described as the example of Christ's relationship with the Church, where men are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and women are called to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ. Continuing with this Biblical analogy, if the Church is in need of rescuing by Christ (which I'm sure no one would argue), then the woman would be in need of rescuing by her husband. If every person, in his or her heart, has an innate need to be rescued by Christ (whether they recognize this or not), then the woman would have an innate need to be rescued by her husband (whether she recognizes this or not). Still biblical, not relying on mythological stories or Disney Princesses, and yet upholds the pastor's points about redemption.
The Eldridge's use of the myth and ancient stories to emphasize this need was not an attempt to prove something of the Bible. They were trying to make a point that the attraction people have to stories is rooted in how we identify with stories. So, if from the most ancient of times, our stories have involved men rescuing and women being rescued, before there was any such thing as social conditioning, then there must be some truth here concerning the matter of our hearts. Young children, who haven't been around long enough to be "socially conditioned" have a natural proclivity to fall into these roles. Their point was that it is natural - not conditioned.
Personally, the argument about my views on feminity and masculinity being a result of my parents' "conditioning" me has always been insulting. It is very degrading and derisive and is incredibly invalid. And I think the Eldridge's did a fine job showing how there doesn't need to be social conditioning for men and women to fall into these roles.