By Dr. Tony Evans
SUGGESTED PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 11:8-10 (NASB)
8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from
man; 9 for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake,
but woman for the man’s sake. 10 Therefore the woman ought to
have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
MESSAGE GOAL:
This sermon will help people understand what God’s role for
women should be within the family unit.
INTRODUCTION:
Perhaps you have heard the story of a husband who was very
upset with his wife. She had accidentally left the car running
and he was livid. He bolted into the house and said, “I don’t
know how God could have made someone so beautiful and
yet so dumb.” Of course that made his wife angry so she said,
“I’ll tell you why God did that. He made me beautiful so you
would love me but he made me dumb so I would love you.”
I know many women feel unappreciated and unrecognized for
their contributions to the home, family, and society. But women
must have a kingdom view of what it means to be a wife. If
women adopt the view of the culture, they open the door to
Satan who will come into the family and bring disharmony.
When God made Eve, He did so as part of His covenant for
the outworking of His plan in history—His kingdom agenda.
God created Adam first and then He designed Eve because
Adam was to be responsible for the marriage. But Adam
was not to be alone. God fashioned Eve as Adam’s helper—
someone who came alongside him with all of her gifts, skills,
and abilities, to be recognized and appreciated, but to be
under Adam’s legitimate authority. Let’s explore what it means to
live as a kingdom wife.
SERMON POINTS:
1. WOMEN, GOD HAS A PURPOSE FOR YOU. (EPHESIANS
5:22)
• Biblical submission means that a woman willingly
places herself under her husband’s authority
because of her submission to the Lord.
• A woman has a greater obligation to the Lord
than to her husband.
• When a husband leaves the Lord, he loses his
legitimate authority over his wife.
• God’s design for marriage has nothing to do
with the equality and worth of the man and the
woman, but it has to do with a differentiation in
their roles and responsibilities.
• In the garden of Eden, Satan tempted Eve to
become the leader of the marriage and got Adam
to become the passive responder. When their roles
got reversed, chaos and sin entered the picture.
2. WIVES, REALIZE THAT GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO
SUBMIT TO YOUR HUSBANDS. (1 CORINTHIANS 11:10)
• “Wife” is a role designed by God, not just a title.
• The wife must submit to her husband “because of
the angels.”
• Angels have the role of assisting and supporting
mankind according to God’s will.
• When the roles in marriage get reversed, it
interferes with what God wants to do in the
marriage and it prevents the angels from providing
their supernatural assistance.
3. WIVES, FOLLOW SARAH’S EXAMPLE OF SUBMISSION. (1
PETER 3:6)
• Sarah recognized Abraham’s God-given authority
even though Abraham didn’t always follow God or
put Sarah’s best interests first.
• God honored Sarah’s faithfulness by blessing
her with a miracle baby, Isaac, at the age of 90
(Genesis 17:17).
• When kingdom wives place themselves under the
legitimate authority of their husbands, they open
themselves up to God’s blessing.
SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS:
BIBLICAL SUBMISSION: When you get onto the onramp
for the freeway, you have to follow some rules. If there is a
Volkswagen driving down the highway and an 18-wheeler
is entering the highway from the onramp, what happens?
Even though the 18-wheeler is stronger and bigger and has
more tires, it has to yield to the tiny Volkswagen because it
has the right-of-way. As a wife, you may feel like you are the
18-wheeler and your husband is the Volkswagen. Yet God has
given you the yield sign as long as your husband is exercising
legitimate authority.
MARITAL MISALIGNMENT: There was a businessman who
had a demanding day ahead of him and was already late for
work. He turned on the car, put it in reverse, and punched the
button on the garage door opener. Nothing happened. He hit
it again and again. Still nothing. Frustrated, he put the car in
park and called the garage door repairman. The garage door
repairman told the businessman to walk over to the garage
door and find what looked like canisters at the bottom left
and bottom right of the door. The repairman asked, “Are the
red lights at the center of the canisters pointed exactly at each
other?” The business man noticed that the red lights in one of
the canisters were not in alignment. The repairman said, “That’s
your problem. When the red lights are not in perfect alignment,
the door can’t receive the signal to open.” After the business
man shifted the canister a little bit, the red lights matched up,
the door opened, and he was off to tackle his busy day.
One of the reasons many marriages are characterized by
chaos is because many women push and push and push to
try to get their husbands to move. But as a kingdom woman,
you’ve got to determine if you’re in alignment with the role God
has given you. Husbands have to answer their own questions
before God. But if Christian marriages are going to function
as God intended, wives must operate under their husbands’
headship and they must affirm that they recognize the authority
God has given them.
QUOTES ATTRIBUTED TO DR. TONY EVANS:
“When God made woman, He did so as part of His covenant
for the outworking of His plan in history.”
“You can’t rewrite the Bible because people have misused the
Bible. We’ve got to give it its right interpretation.”
“The Greek word for submission means to willingly place
yourself under the authority of another.”
“Just as the man is not to overrule Jesus in his life, the woman is
not to overrule her husband in her life.”
“When Satan can reverse roles he can create chaos and keep
God out of the way and demonstrating his power in the family.”
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