What ever happened to Ice tea and Front Porches?
Part 3- Men are from Mars Women Are From Venus
Romans 12:1-8
Pastor Ryan Akers
Me- In my short life I have learned many things. rewind an electric motor, change oil in a car, build computers from the ground up, properly mow a yard. I have read countless books on philosophy and theology. I have studied under PHD Professors.
You- Do you guys know what I mean? Is there any man here that would be bold enough to say they understand the wonderful complexity of the beautiful ladies sitting in this room.
If you say yes then may God have mercy on your soul.
*Rules of Engagement- Story about a married couple, engaged couple, and single guy- single guy always jokes about not wanting to get stuck in a serious relationship and believers the married and engaged couples are trapped. The engaged guy is always looking for advice for a successful relationship from the married guy who is cynical about marriage. An example would be when the engaged man is looking to understand how to have good communication and get along. The married guy says its all about compromise. He says, “For example, I didn’t want a cat, she wanted a cat. So we compromised and got a cat.”
Just an example of how society jokes about our differences.
*Rules that guys wished girls knew
Learn to work the toilet seat: if it’s up, put it down.
Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not quests to see if he can find the perfect present!
If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, expect an answer you don’t want to hear.
Don’t ask him what he’s thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as navel lint, the shotgun formation, and monster trucks.
Dogs are better than ANY cats. Period.
Shopping is not a sport.
Anything you wear is fine. Really.
Ask for what you want. Subtle hints don’t work.
Most guys own two to three pairs of shoes - what makes you think we’d be any good at choosing which pair out of thirty, would look good with your dress?
Anything we said 6 or 8 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. All comments become null and void after 7 days.
Christopher Columbus didn’t need directions, and neither do we.
Video- Men vs. Women- found on sermonspice.com
All around us we hear jokes about how different we are. Men believe women should quit nagging and accept who they are and women think men should be more sensitive to their needs and take time to really listen to what they have to say.
Differences should not be joked about. Our differences should be celebrated.
Week 1: Power in community- Without unity there is no community- practice relationships
Week 2: When community hurts- how to overcome it- forgiveness is me giving up the right to hurt you for hurting me
Week 3: A community’s strength is found in its differences not its similarities.
God- God created us to be different because if we were all the same nothing would get done. Nobody could work together as a team. Most everything would fail.
God created us differently…
Men: passion to provide, to hunt, to feed his family, to build, to rule.
Women: sensitive, to show compassion, to nurture.
In the beginning God took the best traits of himself and gave them to man and woman. We were both created in his image yet both created differently. We are both opposite and parallel at the same time. Where men are dominately providers, hunters, builders by nature women also have the ability to be providers, hunters and builders and vice versa. It is not something to joke about it is something to celebrate, to grab hold and to come together as a unified community to make our differences a strength to help build up the Kingdom of God.
God’s word celebrates the differences between men and women all through scripture.
Turn to Romans
Romans considered by many early church fathers to be the purest epistle.
Chap. 1-8- Faith or doctrinal chapters, 9-11 are hope or dispensational chapters, 12-16 are love or duty chapters.
Martin Luther says about Romans, “…the true masterpiece of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, which is well worthy and deserving that a Christian man should not only learn it by heart, word for word, but also that he should daily deal with it as the daily bread of men’s souls.
Chapter 12 is all about real authentic community because the writings are focused on the importance of our relationship to God, gifts of the holy spirit, other believers, and unbelievers.
Romans 12:1-8
1-2, Paul is begging us to yield ourselves to God-goes back to releasing our pride to Him. Remember we are holy we are set a part we are different. We are to yield our lives to Christ each day.
3-5, Don’t try to do more than you think you can do. Don’t think that you have to be in a leadership position to be a successful servant. God created all of us uniquely different and it is because of that uniqueness that anything can be done for the Glory of God. Don’t think you are better than someone else because your gift is seen publicly and theirs is not.
6-8- Paul speaks about the gifts of the spirit in three other letters besides this one. Every believer needs to test that gift. Analyze your effectiveness. Are you a blessing to people? Are you building up the church? Or are you dividing the church?
Prophecy- not prediction but refers to any message from God.
Service= ministering- covers many areas. This is about practical implications. Setting up chairs, greeting, folding bulletins, helping people move, fixing and building, putting together communion, running sound, making meals.
Teaching- small groups, seminars, new member class- the ability to effectively communicate God’s Word to a group of people.
Encourage- comfort- there are some people who just have the gift to make you feel better and make your faith stronger when you are going through a tough time.
Giving- some people have the gift to make money and they should use that to bless others
Leadership- They need to exercise that gift within the body of believers so that everything will be done decently and in order.
Kindness- gift of mercy. If you can show love and kindness to people practice that.
You- A community’s strength is found in its differences not its similarities.
Foundationally men and women are different in that men are naturally wired to be providers and women are naturally wired to be nurturers. But with the gifts of the holy spirit we can become even more connected. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or women all of us have the potential to serve, to minister, to be kind, to be teachers, leaders. God doesn’t look at man and say well man is naturally the dominate leader so only man should be given the gift of leadership. Many women possess the gift of leadership and will lead just as well if not better than men. In the same way women are wired to nurture but that doesn’t mean that only women will have the gift of compassion or kindness.
God wires us to be completely different yet work together to achieve something that can only be described as supernaturally amazing. Its beautiful, it should be celebrated.
Embrace community, embrace who you are, embrace your gift and do what you were meant to do. Don’t do more than you need to.
We- Imagine a body of believers that truly grasped the importance of authentic relationship, that understood how to work through conflict and used their gifts to help build each other and the lost up. You would become the church that God always intended. A family of believers that care more for others than themselves. That would be the most contagious church around.
