Our Rule of Life - Witness Pt2

I have just loved the theme of this morning, 'cause I've not,

um... what Adam has shared in the open time, and even, like, the

prayers that were prayed for Sarah.

There's just such a beautiful thread that is coming through, um, in

this word that I f- really feel God put on my heart for this morning.

And so the title of, uh, my message for this morning is this: Jesus

through the eyes of women, and women through the eyes of Jesus.

And so this is our key passage of scripture for this morning.

It's from Isaiah 52:7, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those

Isaiah 52:7

who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim

salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" And so this day of Mother's

Day, it is a complex day, is it not?

Uh, you know, f- probably the minority of us here, uh, Mother's Day just

falls into a ni- n- nice neat box where everything in the realm of mothering and

motherhood is just, you know, as society deems it should be, and it's all very

simple, and, and it's all very nice.

Um, but that's probably not the story for the majority here.

It's a complex day, right?

Uh, some go, you know, I find it hard to honor my mother.

For some, your heart's breaking, 'cause, you know, your mother has passed on.

Uh, for s- for mothers who are going, oh, gee, you know, there's, there's, there's

strained relationships with children, or perhaps you've even lost children.

It... Or you... Perhaps you've wanted to be, you know, a

mother and that hasn't happened.

It's a complex day, isn't it?

But all of these complexities aside, it is good to have a day of honor.

It is good to honor.

It is good to honor, and today we want to expand it outside of, ah,

motherhood, specifically to women, to the bigger picture of women, to

honor women who give and who nurture life in all its different facets.

And what does it mean to honor?

So the Hebrew word kavod is to honor someone, is to recognize the weight

of their God-given dignity, to value, to esteem, to assign worth.

This is what it is to honor.

And so to honor mothers, to honor women, it is more than just appreciation.

It is recognizing the hidden sacrifices, the strength, the

beauty, the faithfulness, and the image-bearing dignity that so often

goes unseen by the world around us.

And last week, Luke did such a beautiful message on the topic of witness, and

in many ways, uh, where we're gonna go this morning, I anticipate will stoke

the flames of much of what Luke had to share about, um, witnessing last week.

Because When you see something as beautiful, you naturally

become a compelling witness for that something, don't you?

I was just thinking about, you know, Adam just announced Word & Way,

and so Word & Way last Wednesday night where we started our new study

in Ephesians, Alex kicked it off.

And one of the things I so dearly love about Alex is his

passion for the word, right?

You get Alex around the word and you're just going, "Why

don't I love the word so much?

What am I not seeing that, that Alex is seeing," right?

He makes you want to dive into the word just because of his sheer,

utter delight and passion for it.

And that should be the case for all of us with the person of Jesus, hey?

Witness is easy when we see Jesus as beautiful and compelling.

And as we look at Jesus through the eyes of women, and as we look as women

through the eyes of Jesus this morning, my anticipation, my ege- hope and

expectation is that Jesus will become even more beautiful to you all this morning.

And that is an amazing thing to see, the beauty of Jesus.

And so may today help us all in being salt and light, which is what Luke talked about

last week, by leading us to fall more deeply in love with Jesus, and to have

our sight awakened or reawakened to how beautiful and utterly compelling He is.

So I've got this quote here.

When we see Jesus through the eyes of women in the Gospels,

we are given a perspective of Jesus that is truly beautiful.

When we see women through the eyes of Jesus, how he loved and honored and

served them, we are given a perspective on how we are to see and serve those

around us who need the love of God.

And so through this word today also, women who are here present, may you be so

deeply encouraged by how Jesus sees you.

There is no greater honor than to be truly seen and truly loved and truly

accepted just as you are by one who is perfectly good and holy and loving.

And men here this morning, may you come to appreciate even more deeply the

women around you because of the example of how Jesus related to and saw women.

And may you hear a call through this word today to step into what is

actually a part of your calling as a man, as brothers in Christ, to raise

up the dignity and worth of your sisters in the same way that Jesus did.

So back to that scripture for a moment.

How beautiful are the feet.

Throughout the Gospels, we find over and over again women at the feet

of Jesus, and we're gonna look at some of those accounts in a moment.

And why were so many women found at the feet of Jesus?

Because women knew in a way, I think, that men just did not the truth of the

words of what Isaiah was talking about.

They knew at his feet was their salvation.

At his feet, they were welcomed, they were seen, they were loved, they

were cherished, they were beheld.

His feet were beautiful to them because in his presence, combined with their posture

of humility, there was the good news.

There was the life that their hearts had been so longing for.

So Jesus' response to women and even the writing of Matthew, Mark, and Luke,

and John about women and the ministry of Jesus, because that is one of the

stunning things about the Gospels that sets them apart from writings, other

ancient writings at the same time, is the prominent place that women

played in these biographies of Jesus.

It is everywhere through the four Gospels accounts, and yet

it can be so easily missed.

So striking how prominent the role of women were in the life and the ministry

of Jesus, yet sadly, Christianity in the church is so often seen as oppressive to

women, and often it is, and it has been, but not Jesus, and not the scriptures.

Totally the opposite, in fact.

Just some quotes from different scholars and writers here, N.T. Wright, "The early

Christians did not invent the idea of dignity of women, Jesus did." Tim Keller,

"Jesus was the most pro-woman figure in the ancient world." Daniel Strickland,

"Jesus didn't merely include women, he restored them to full humanity."

Craig Keener, "Jesus shattered cultural norms by treating women as persons of

dignity, intelligence, and faith." John Ortberg, "Wherever Jesus went, women who

had been marginalized found dignity." Beth Allison Barr, "We can't claim to

follow Jesus while ignoring the way that Jesus treated women." See, the Gospels

do not merely include women incidentally.

They repeatedly position women as models of faith, witnesses of

truth, and recipients of honor.

If you're a man in here this morning, and I just want to s- I hope this

isn't making you uncomfortable.

I hope you're not hearing some kind of judgment coming through, right?

I hope you don't hear this as some kind of, you know, women's

liberation message, where it's down with men, up with women, okay?

Because if that's what you're starting to hear, you are mishearing.

Okay?

Don't tune out.

Keep tuning in, all right?

Please keep tuning in.

Don't tune out.

So I want to quickly, just for a moment, visit the creation fall narrative that's

found in Genesis one to three, because this gives a lot of context to Jesus'

posture that we read about in the Gospels.

Uh, in the creation accounts- In chapters one and two of Genesis, we

see men and women created in the image of God, and both are commissioned.

C- equal co-laborers, counterparts.

There's no hierarchy.

Women, the woman is called the ezer kenegdo.

She is the strength, the completion that the man needs to be able to

fill the divine creation mandate.

Genesis 1 is the ideal, the foundational vision, this shared

vocation, mutual stewardship, collaborative rule over creation.

Genesis 3 is de-creation.

The Fall introduces alienation from God, from self, from creation, between men and

women, and male domination then becomes part of the curse, the consequence of sin.

It is not the intended original design.

So Jesus comes, and he comes to reverse the curse, doesn't he?

He comes and he reverses Genesis 3, so in Christ, domination is

overturned, mutuality is restored, the image of God is renewed.

Jesus comes and reverses the curse, a brother who honors and raises

his sisters up, not dominating or treating them as inferior,

restoring their Genesis identity.

And not just for their own good, but because the whole world is

blessed when the honor and the dignity of women is restored.

This is not an anti-man message.

Please do not hear this.

It is the total opposite of that.

The Genesis identity of women cannot be restored without men.

Brothers in Christ, you are needed in this mission.

Women can do an awful lot on their own.

We are highly capable, highly competent.

But in this, we cannot restore our Genesis identity on our own.

Men and women are counterparts.

The restoration of Genesis identity is inextricably li- linked and connected.

Men raise and champion the true identity of women When you do that, is to

simultaneously raise and champion and see your own genesis identity restored.

You know, I think about this phrase, and I've been thinking about it a lot

recently 'cause I think we need a better vision of it in the church, what it means

to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

And just during worship, I was reflecting on the preciousness of

my brothers in Christ, that those who are genuine brothers to me.

And, uh, you know, I think of Luke, Luke Bates, one of my

dearest brothers in Christ.

A man who sees me, who calls out my identity, who

champions my calling in Christ.

He is not just a faithful friend, he is my brother and I cherish that deeply.

I see Anthony Hocking here.

Okay.

These guys, they're visiting, and I love it when they come and visit.

Anthony has been my faithful brother in Christ for years now.

Such deep affection.

You see me, you champion me, and you are such a blessing to me.

And I started to think about it during worship.

I go, "I am so blessed to have these brothers in Christ." You know, Don

Regal, you are a brother in Christ to me.

You encourage me, you see me, you...

I value you so much.

Every man of God, every man here, you are called to be a brother in

Christ to the sisters around you.

Caleb over here, you're my little brother in Christ.

Same thing.

You see me, you champion me, you encourage me, you correct me.

It is so valuable, and I cannot do what I do without it.

And I was just deeply actually convicted.

I go, "Oh, I think I've taken this for granted." But men of God, what

does it mean for you to rise up and be brothers to your sisters in Christ?

May a vision for that begin to unfold in this place.

You know, we challenged our young adults with this the other night at Red Talks.

You know, because being a young adult is really hard because you're

just like, "Who am I gonna date?

Who am I gonna marry?

Who's gonna choose me?

Who am I gonna choose?" And it's all at this romantic level.

But it's like, stop.

Get a vision first for being a brother in Christ who champions

your sisters to become women of God.

Women, get a vision of being a sister in Christ who champion your

brothers in Christ before you ever start worrying about this other

stuff, because man, we need it.

To have that creation identity, that genesis identity restored in us.

So good.

All right So these women who are found at the feet of Jesus throughout

the Gospels, who were these women?

How did they see Jesus?

How did Jesus see them?

So we're not gonna look at all of the accounts because there's just too many,

but let's look at Mary of Bethany for a moment, because here is a woman, so

Mary of Bethany, who is Mary and Martha.

She is always at the feet of Jesus, this one.

She's at his feet learning, she's at his feet grieving,

she's at his feet worshiping.

So let's look at her at his feet learning, and we did look at this account just a few

weeks back, but let's look at it again.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where

a woman named Martha opened her home.

She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet,

listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.

She came to him.

She asked, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left

me to do the work by myself?

Tell her to help me.

Martha, Martha.

Look, even, even here, Jesus, Martha's losing her mind, right?

She's on her little high horse here, and Jesus still answers

her with honor and dignity.

He doesn't go, oh, stupid woman, you're missing what's going on here.

Shush, back in your box.

No, he honors her with dignity, even in, in how he responds to her.

Martha, Martha, the Lord answers, you're worried, you're

upset about many, many things.

Few are needed, only one.

Mary has chosen what is better, and it's not going to be taken from her.

So Mary's at the Lord's feet, a position and a posture of discipleship,

radical, very, very radical for the day.

The picture of a woman in the disciples' position at the feet

of Jesus would have been startling in a culture where women did not

receive formal teaching from a rabbi.

You think about Jesus calling the 12.

You know, such was the honor of the call of a rabbi that they left everything.

They left everything to follow him, family, their jobs.

Such was the honor, and here Jesus is defending Mary's right to take that same

place at the, as a disciple at his feet.

What an honor in a culture where women were not honored in this way.

In Jesus' eyes, Mary was worthy of being his disciple.

Through Mary's eyes, we see Jesus as the one who welcomes women and

defends their right to learn from him.

And so women here today, have you been told maybe perhaps you're not smart

enough to learn and to know, even to become a teacher of the deep truths of

God, to become a minister in that space?

Have you heard a message somewhere that that's not for you?

Hear Jesus this morning defending your right to be in that place.

And men, are there women in your world who you know- Have a sense,

have a call of ministry through the word of God that needs your

encouragement perhaps in this space.

You can call that out of them, that you can lend them strength and encouragement.

Go, I see this in you.

Get at his feet.

Learn from him.

You are one who can step into a deep and profound ministry in this space.

Men, are there women in your world that you can champion in this?

Next, we see Mary at his feet grieving.

John 11, 32-35.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and she saw him, she fell at his

feet and she said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

So this is the account of the death and the raising of her brother Lazarus.

And so when Jesus saw her weeping and Jews had come along with her

also weeping, Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and he was troubled.

And he says, where have you laid him?

He asked, come and see, Lord.

They replied, and Jesus weeps.

The shortest verse in scripture, Jesus wept.

So how do we see Jesus through Mary's eyes through this account?

As one who weeps with her.

As one who enters into her pain.

How do we see Mary through Jesus's eyes?

Her pain matters to him.

Her pain moves him.

He doesn't chastise her for a lack of faith.

He grieves with those who grieve.

Women here today, what griefs are you carrying?

Jesus grieves with you.

Jesus grieves with you.

You might be hearing maybe the voice of significant other men in your life

and you think that's the voice of God just telling you to stop being

so emotional, you know, just to stiff up a lip and get over it and move on.

That's not the voice of Jesus.

Jesus enters into your grief.

He grieves with you in your places of pain.

Men, do you know the griefs of the women in your life?

Do you know the griefs that they carry?

Are you a safe person for them to share their griefs with or do

you just try to fix and correct because the whole thing just frankly

makes you quite uncomfortable?

Are you a man like Jesus who can weep with the women in your life?

Not fix, not correct, but to honor them in their grief by

weeping and grieving with them.

What a ministry that is.

What a powerful thing it is as a woman to be able to share your grief

with a brother in Christ and have them just hold that space with you.

To not fix you, to not correct you, to not tell you how to do it better.

You know, and if you can't, if you're a man here, if you're a dude here in

this place this morning and you go, oh, I find all that very, very awkward.

My intent here is not to shame, but just to call out the man of God

that is in you that can do this.

You utterly can.

To resist the way that culture has deformed you to fear

vulnerable displays of emotion.

That's a deformation that our culture has inflicted upon our men.

You want to know what a real man is?

Look at Christ.

Look at Christ.

Next we see Jesus, um, Mary at Jesus' feet worshiping.

In John 12, it says this, "Six days before the Passover, Jesus comes

to Bethany, where Lazarus lived.

Mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume.

She pours it on Jesus' feet.

She wipes his feet with her hair, and the house is filled with

the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot..." What a loser, man.

Just, just, just his interaction with... Just, just don't get me started.

Um, "Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,

'Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?'"

What an obnoxious douchebag.

"'It was worth a year's wages.'" Oh, yeah, you're so great.

"He did not say this because he cared about the poor,

but because he was a thief.

As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it.

'Leave her alone,' Jesus replies.

'It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have

me.'" So Mary's devotion to Jesus is contrasted here with Judas' betrayal.

While Mary spends her wealth lavishly in love upon Jesus, Judas is stealing

from Jesus' ministry and takes money from Jesus' enemies to betray him

after this point, and so Mary is the disciple that Judas should have been.

So how do we see Jesus through Mary of Bethany's eyes as one who merits

all her extravagant love, the one on whom nothing can be wasted?

And how do we see Mary through Jesus' eyes in this account?

Well, one worthy of being defended in her extravagant worship, as

one worthy of his validation.

He saw her act as true and as good and as beautiful.

And so women here today, if you feel misunderstood, belittled, or

criticized in your desire to how you want to worship Jesus extravagantly,

too wasteful, too emotional, know that Jesus defends your impulse and

desire to worship him in ways that may make other people feel uncomfortable.

Don't let those with a religious spirit shut you down in your

worship of the Lord, women.

And men, where are the women in your world who have a call to worship

in ways extravagant like Mary?

How can you encourage them?

Mary displays a beauty, a humility, a purity of devotion

and worship that is stunning.

And where do you see this in the women around you, and how can you call it out?

How can you encourage it?

Because this is what men of God do.

This is what true brothers in Christ do for their sisters.

They see the unique heart of a worshiper in the women around them, and they call

it out and they champion it, because the world needs this kind of beauty, this

kind of witness, this kind of worship.

It is stunning to behold.

All right, the final account that I want to, I guess, draw our attention

to, and now we move away from Mary to an unnamed woman, but one of perhaps the

most beautiful stories in the Gospels.

And this is a woman at the feet of Jesus, reaching for Jesus.

This is from Mark's Gospel.

A large crowd followed and pressed around Jesus, and a woman was there who had

been subject to bleeding for 12 years.

She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors

and had spent all she had.

Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd.

She touches his cloak because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I'll be

healed." Immediately, her bleeding stops.

She felt in her body she's free from her suffering, and once Jesus realizes

that power's gone out from him, he turns around in the crowd and he asks, "Who

touched my clothes?" "You see people crowding against you," his disciples

answered, "and yet you ask who touched me?" But Jesus kept looking around.

He kept looking to see who it was, and then the woman, knowing

what had happened to her, came.

She falls at his feet, and trembling with fear, she tells him the truth.

And he says to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and

be freed from your suffering." So, Jesus here stops for this daughter of God.

He's on his way to heal another daughter in this story, Jairus's

daughter, a little girl.

But in the midst of that going, he stops for this woman.

This woman who was in the place of the deepest suffering.

Physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, her condition

caused her to be in the place of the deepest, deepest torment.

It's hard to imagine how lonely, isolated, rejected, shamed

this woman would have felt.

To be deemed permanently unclean, she could not go to the temple.

She could not participate in worship.

She couldn't even touch another person, because to touch another person in her

state would be to make them unclean.

Can you get a picture of the depth of the loneliness and the

shame that this woman carried?

And yet, in faith and desperation, she reaches for Jesus.

In her torment, in her suffering, she knows if she can just be connected to him.

Somehow there's going to be an answer for her pain, and there

is, but there is so much more.

She shouldn't have touched Jesus.

In touching him, she was technically by law making him unclean, but Jesus

doesn't hesitate to reach for the one who risked so much to reach for him.

The shame she was potentially exposing herself to was enormous, and Jesus

calls her out not to humiliate her even further, but to vindicate her

faith and to make her healing complete.

This is such a powerful story because it brings a fullness to

the healing ministry of Jesus.

See, you know, Jesus, we think Jesus should just heal us because physical pain

is difficult and hard and unpleasant.

Jesus has such a bigger picture for healing.

It's never just about the physical pain.

It's always restoring people to unity with the Father and with community.

And so what is the point of being physically healed but to remain

ultimately separated from God and others?

So Jesus' purpose here in calling her out is to bring her into

wholeness, unity with her Father in heaven and with her community.

So how do we see Jesus through this woman's eyes?

The one who accepts her when everyone else had rejected her.

He was her healer, her deliverer, her redeemer, her restorer,

the one who made her whole.

You know, James 4 verse 8 comes to mind, draw near to God

James 4:8

and he will draw near to you.

And that's exactly what happened in this story.

So how do we see this woman through the eyes of Jesus?

Jesus does something stunning here other than healing her.

He does something stunning in this passage.

He calls her daughter, the only person in all the Gospels who

get called daughter by Jesus.

The only person who has that honor is this woman.

He calls her daughter.

What an honor, what dignity in calling her as such.

In calling her daughter, he is saying she's family.

She's got the right to reach out to me.

So instead of condemnation, which she was fearing, Jesus gives her

the deepest of affirmation, the deepest act of dignity and honor.

So women here today, what shame are you perhaps carrying?

What rejection, isolation and pain?

May you be encouraged by this daughter of God to reach for Jesus in faith.

May you find him turning to you in your shame and may you see his gaze toward

you, his gaze of love and acceptance.

Some women have learned to hide their wounds because shame has taught

them that your wounds are a burden.

But in the Gospels, Jesus stops for the bleeding, the grieving,

the overlooked and the silenced.

Men, for your sisters in Christ, who can you be the gaze of Jesus for?

What woman in your world can you behold in her pain and her shame

with eyes of love and acceptance?

To see her suffering and to meet it with grace and kindness rather than

offense or judgment or even more shame.

Men, do you know the depth of the shame that most women carry?

Most women, even in this place, carry a depth of shame because

our culture heaps it on us.

Many women carry a quiet shame formed by years of feeling unseen, not enough,

too much, too emotional, too broken, too strong, too weak, too fat, too skinny.

And Jesus constantly moved toward women with honor instead of shame.

That's what heals.

That is what heals.

How many, even on a day like today, how many women even in this room

right now, the sense of mum shame probably pile it up to a pretty

significant mountain in this place.

'Cause again, it's a place of deep shame.

Our culture likes to shame us in this place.

Why is our culture so big on shame?

It's how we control people, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's how we get them to buy stuff.

It's how we control them, through shame.

It's an awful thing.

It's an awful thing, and I, I just sense that even in this room right

now, there are mums here experiencing a deep shame and the, for all the ways

they think they've failed in that role.

And so to have a brother in Christ look them in the eye and say, "I

see you, and you are a good woman.

You're a good mum, and you're a good friend, and you're a good

sister, and you are a good daughter.

And you are beautiful, and you are brave, and you are strong, and I see

your sacrifice, and I see your effort.

And I see you trying so hard to be a good mum, to be a good

wife, and to be a good friend.

I see you and I honor you." I think that could be the very best Mother's

Day gift for so many women, just to be eyeballed by a brother in Christ

and have them say, "I see you.

I see the goodness and the truth and the beauty in you.

I see you trying so hard, and it matters." Oh, my gosh, what a gift that is.

What dignity, what honor.

Men, you have the capacity in you to do what Jesus did

for the women he came across.

No, you are no woman savior, right?

That is Jesus's role.

But you can be the voice, the face, the bearer of the love and the truth and the

beauty of Christ to the women around you.

You have the high and noble calling of being one of those who can bestow dignity

and honor and worth upon the women around you, your sisters around you.

But to now bring this back to Jesus as I do bring this home, one of the clearest

ways we see the beauty of Jesus in the, is in the way he saw women, not as objects

to use, problems to avoid, or voices to dismiss, but as image-bearers to honor,

disciples to teach, and witnesses to trust You know, one of the, uh, some other most

compelling accounts we see of a woman at the feet of Jesus is Mary Magdalene.

The first woman to carry the message, the first person to carry the message

of the risen Christ, and she falls at his feet before that tomb, and she is

the one who then carries the word, "I have seen the Lord, and he is risen."

That message is entrusted to a woman.

Nobody else would have done that in Jesus' day.

This woman, Mary Magdalene, who was what?

Delivered of how many demons?

Seven demons, who was a part of Jesus' discipleship

entourage, and the first person.

What honor and dignity to bestow upon women.

First person to carry that message, he is risen.

He is the Lord, and he is risen.

And you know what?

Just to highlight,

'cause I've got time, so I can go on a tangent.

I do so love to do.

I've been so well-behaved, haven't I?

You know, there is this notion, there is this myth, there is this lie that

is perpetuated throughout the church for centuries about Mary Magdalene.

You know, that she was a prostitute.

Doesn't say that anywhere in scriptures.

But this is the kind of crap that gets made up about women.

You know, I highlighted this with our young adults the other night at Red Talks.

I talked about Bathsheba.

How often is Bathsheba sold as this temptress who was complicit

in what happened with David?

How much has that lie permeated the church?

Because, well, she must have been, because he was a man of God, so it

must have been somehow her fault.

She did nothing.

He was a Peeping Tom on top of his roof.

She was not on a roof.

I don't care what Leonard Cohen says.

David was on the roof.

She was not.

She was doing what she was supposed to do.

She was ritually bathing, and he was a gross Peeping Tom, and he abused

his power, and this awful myth has perpetuated about Bathsheba.

She was a daughter of the oath.

He had no choice, no say, and yet this is what happens so often

with the story of women, isn't it?

Like, somehow it must be.

Oh, man of God, rise up.

Do not stand for this crap for the women around you.

That stories like this get perpetuated, and they do even to this day, right?

Man of God, the power that you have to raise up the honor and dignity

of women in this world, not just within the church, but without.

My gosh, imagine what could happen if men of God rose up in that way.

Dignity of women is restored.

Man, if you want to read an amazing book, Half the Sky, I would encourage

you to read a book called Half the Sky.

There's a, uh, ancient Chinese proverb that said, "Women hold up half the sky,"

and half the sky is falling because women across this globe Are just treated

in the most awful, despicable ways.

And again, this is not an anti-man message.

This is a pro-man message, right?

Because men, the way you restore your creation identity is to set about creating

a vision for your own life of how you become a man who restores the women

around you to their creation identity.

Oh, gosh.

So good.

All right.

Let, let... Okay, good.

Well done.

I didn't take up too much time.

Oh, what's happening right now?

Is this good?

It's bloody good.

So seriously, if you're a man here today and you wanna stand up and

answer the call of what my wife's just stood up and said, then I want

you to stand to your feet right now.

What you're standing for is to be a man who accepts the

women and sisters around you.

What you're standing for is to bring dignity to women around you,

to honor them, to encourage them, to tell them they matter, to enter

their pain, to see their calling, to understand her story, to understand her

vulnerability rather than weaponize it.

You are beautiful and worth fighting for.

Is that the message that your heart is speaking to the women around you?

This could be a wife, this could be a sister, this could be

any of the women in your life.

Will you stand and wash her with the word of God to cleanse

her from the shame she carries?

Will you see her through the eyes of God rather than seeing

her through your own eyes?

Will you see her the way Jesus sees her?

Will you see the beauty of Jesus living inside of her?

Will you stop trying to fix her but release her into the

God-given gifts that she carries to make this world a better place?

Will you men?

What you're looking for is, "I will." Oh, no, it's okay.

So Father, for every man standing, I thank you right now in Jesus' name for

a fresh spirit of confidence to rise up in every single one of us, that we

would not shrink back out of fear or out of our own insecurities, but to rise up

and to call out the women of God in our lives, that they would step into the

fullness of who they are created to be.

In Jesus' name, amen.