Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Today on Richard Ellis Talks, nowhere in scripture does it say a man is better than a woman or more important than a woman. There are just different responsibilities in different authority chains of command. I promise you, I'd like to come observe your home for a while. Listen close, because I'm not trying to be mean. If a woman is running your house, you're not doing your job.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Here we are in May already as schools are getting ready to finish the school year and summer vacations are being planned. At the same time, there are many right now who feel like their train came off the tracks. They're shooting up the prayer flares and hoping God is listening.

Maybe that's you who's calling out, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday." That's where we come in. We want to be that safe place of hope and encouragement to you. I'll share more for you at the end of the program, but for now, let's jump right in with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Born of a Woman." Okay, go to Genesis chapter one. So, I am obviously a man and I'm going to talk a little bit about some woman stuff. I'm no expert, but I've been married a long time, three girls, lots of women stuff. I actually met a lady here today who's got four daughters, and I looked at them, and they said something to me, and all I had to say was "double whispies."

How many of you know what double whispies are? Please raise your hand if you know what double whispies are. You girls have got to get out more often. If you've had to go to a drugstore to buy double whispy eyelashes, then you've got too many women in your house. If you'd like to know what they are technically, they are two sets together so you don't have to double stack or use the magnets. They go wild with the magnets. That doesn't work. The things I have been sent to the store to buy, and we will just leave it there.

So, Genesis chapter one. If you really don't know, let's say you don't know anything about God or anything about the Bible, it would be hard not to know that the world is screwed up. You're a human being, and so you look around and go, "What happened?" If you're one of these fools who thinks there is no God, you're in a heap of trouble anyway. I used to be more gentle about this, but the Bible says the fool says in his heart there is no God. You have to be a fool.

So you go, "Well, then if God made all this, and He's perfect and He's holy and He's all these things that you guys say He is, then what happened? What did He not plan for? What did He not allow for? What went wrong? Because this is a mess." So you start in Genesis and you start reading. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Keep going. Day one, boom. Day two, three, four. Just bam, God speaks and things, the cosmos appears.

It's been as big as it's always been. We just have finally figured out ways to measure it, and we still can't even figure out how big it is. So this God up there somewhere that loves us, cares about us, made this universe. Everything from the micro to the macro.

Day six comes along, verse 24. Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind." And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." People ask where you get this Trinity thing. It's in Genesis. You don't use the word "our" unless there's more than one. "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. Then God blessed them.

Now, people say chapter one says He made male and female, but then He makes them again in the next chapter. He does it on day six. He says that's what happened, and then you get the details of how that went down. So He makes man and a woman, and He blesses them. What could possibly go wrong? God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food." And it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Done. Everything's fine.

Chapter two, verse one. "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

The title is "Born of a Woman." So how do you get on the planet? Obviously, you don't have to be born of a woman, because Adam was not born of a woman. Now, if God wanted to do that, He would have made Eve first, planted a seed in her like He did with Mary for Jesus, and then Adam would have been born of a woman. But He makes Adam first.

This is kind of like preaching on obesity. You go, "What if I say something and somebody's a little overweight and they take it wrong?" My job is not to take those sensitivity training classes in seminary. As tough as this is, and some of the things that I'm going to say, it's in the Bible. Here we go. This is not just Old Testament.

So God makes a man, a male man. He makes that man in His image. And it's just the way it is. People say, "Does that mean men are first and men are better than women?" I'll read you some verses from the New Testament. Men are not better than women. But the scripture literally says that a man is the glory of God, and a woman is the glory of man. She's made from a man.

Now you say, "I don't like that." Let me tell you something about the Bible and about life. You aren't always going to like all of it. And so women sometimes, I get the feeling, think, "I don't like this. I don't like being a woman." You'll see what happens when sin comes into the picture. It's just the way it is. There are things about being a man we don't like. So you say your life sucks, the consequence, there are things that went down for men too that are not pleasant.

But God set things up, male and female. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is Euphrates.

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Everything's good so far. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Now, who did God tell that to? Adam. So how did Eve find out about that? From Adam, probably.

So now verse 18. Everything's been good so far. Now God says something is not good. This is one of the best verses in all the scripture, and I agree with this 1000 percent. A planet without women would be a terrible place, because we'd have killed each other a long time ago. The Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."

So you've got these species of animals, everything, male-female, male-female. We've got an Adam, we don't have an Eve. We need an Eve. This is not going to work. If I'm Adam, I'm looking around going, "Okay, they've got equipment. They've got equipment. I've got equipment. There's nobody with..." I need somebody with equipment. That's a technical Greek term there, but we're using it today.

Let me just parenthetically say this. I would not and I do not do well alone. It's just the way it is. Part of the reason it's so hard for some people who are not married and they want to be married is they're not doing well alone and they wish they had somebody to share their life with. I wish I could tell you I've got verses that guarantee that everybody that wants to be married will be married. They're just not in there.

So, it's not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast. Then go down to verse 21. "The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place." First anesthesia, first surgery. This was probably a moment. Not sure what all the animals thought about this.

And He closed him back up. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. What a day. Holy cow. Can you imagine finally something made for you? Something made opposite you and you go, "Okay, this is all going to work." But even Eve's not born. She's made from a man.

So everything's good. Verse 23. Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Chapter three. Trouble. Now you know, I just think, "Okay, God, if You're God and You are and You knew all this..." It looks like, this is what's really kind of perplexing to me. Because He is so much God that He makes this world, He makes the universe, He gets Adam done, He gets Eve done, and it's all good. So chapter three. Why chapter three?

As it turns out, Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. So You knew this. You knew before any Genesis. So You've already had the conversation. We're going to go through this thing, we're going to go through this exercise, we're going to do all this, but we already know what's happened, what's going to happen, and we're going to have to send Him in.

What's this about? I'm grateful because if this thing hadn't been done, I don't exist and I don't even have a shot at saying yes to God. But because of all this mess, somehow by faith He reveals Himself. As a young boy, He showed me who He was, and I'm His kid. It doesn't mean it all went smooth. It doesn't mean I didn't have questions and a lot of sorrow and challenges, but now because of all this, I will spend eternity in that heaven that He's prepared for me and for you as a believer, and I'll get to know Him forever.

But there's no way for there to be a me without this mess. So you say, "Is it worth it?" Some days it's tough, because it's hard to be in this temporal body that you wrestle against. Not flesh and blood, principalities and powers, but then you wrestle also with your own flesh and you're just like, "I want to get out of here. I don't want this battle forever." You won't have it forever. The day comes that you'll be there.

So, chapter three. The serpent, more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, and this is dirty pool, for whatever reason he picks her. He attacks her. "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" There's nowhere in scripture that it says that. He said don't eat it; he did not say don't touch it.

The serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die." And all of a sudden, kaboom. She bites. She believes that maybe he's right. Now, this same old silliness, stupidity, evil has been going on for millennia. It's the same snake. He comes in different forms, but it's the same enemy. And what is his no-brainer tactic? "Oh, so you're going to quote scripture? So that's what God said? That's not right."

And you engage with them and entertain lies, and then you wonder why you end up screwed up. Read the scripture. Find the answers in the scripture. Stick to the scripture, even if you're persecuted, even if you're rejected, even if you're told you're the fool. You say, "Well, I just don't like to feel bad. I don't want to be rejected." You've got to get over yourself. You've got to get your legs up under you and say, "No, this is not happening."

She bites, literally, gives it to her husband, and then all hell breaks loose. And so now they're hiding. Verse seven. The eyes of both of them were opened, they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Who are they hiding from? From Him. You say, "Well, I'm not ashamed with this person." That's not your problem. Your problem is now that you've got sin, you're ashamed to be in front of Him. Why do we run from Him? Because we're ashamed.

So here comes this gracious God. Verse eight. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. That's the kind of relationship and access they had. Literally, God would come walking through their garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. I doubt that had ever happened before.

This happens every once in a while. Your cars are in the driveway, someone knocks on your door, rings a doorbell. They know you're there, and you act like you're not there. "Hello? I know you're in there. Be quiet." You don't want to see those people. You don't want to engage. People do this with God every day.

He's kind to us. He's trying to woo us back. We're living in sin, we're a mess. He sends somebody along to try to speak something into our life. No, no. Don't want to hear it. Like you're going to hide from God. Where are you going to hide?

The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" Not exactly in that voice. Seriously, You're God, You know exactly where they are. Why would He say "Where are you?" Give them a chance to out themselves. So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you're naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Then the man said, "The woman."

Here we go, the blaming. "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate it. So this is really Your fault, God, because if You hadn't made this crazy woman, I wouldn't be in this situation." And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you've done?" And the woman points to the serpent. The serpent. She won't even take responsibility. So before you women throw men under the bus, how about you taking some responsibility for blaming somebody else?

The serpent deceived me, and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed." All of a sudden, immediately a reference to Messiah. Women don't have seed. So how's she going to have seed? God will put seed in her. "He shall bruise your head, you shall bruise His heel."

And to the woman He said, now this is where it gets tough. So now the consequences are coming as a result of the sin. "I will greatly multiply your sorrow in your conception, in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. You will work, and it's not going to be easy. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

Adam called his wife's name Eve, Life, because she was the mother of all living. Nobody in this room or listening to me today got here except for Eve. We are all a product of that womb, that woman. A lot traceable to one woman, one man. Then they get taken out of the garden. In Genesis chapter four verse one, now Adam knew his wife, knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord." And she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And game on.

I've got more verses, but let's do John chapter 16 really quick. Take a couple minutes. I love that this is mentioned because it shows the mercy of God even in what went down for women especially back in Genesis. John 16 verse 17. Then some of the disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us? 'A little while you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me'; and 'Because I go to the Father'?"

They said therefore, "What is this that He says? 'A little while.' We do not know what He is saying." Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said? 'A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me'? Most assuredly I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy."

A tremendous principle. You say, "Well, I just have sorrow." I promise you, your sorrow will be turned into joy. Then He gives this example. "A woman when she is in labor has sorrow, pain, anguish, because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world." How many women, you think they've lost their minds? They just had a baby and you could say, "What do you think? You'll have more?" Maybe. Like you almost died. What are you talking about?

But somehow in God's kindness and His mercy, He builds into a woman the ability to push a human being out of her body and then have a conversation about doing it again, like she doesn't remember the pain. And then He says, "Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you."

Now go to Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four and then we'll shut it down with this. You know what? Let's actually do the end of three verse 26. "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Therefore, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise."

You say, "Wait a minute, it says here that there's not male or female. We're all one in Christ." There's no distinction. Nowhere in scripture does it say a man is better than a woman or more important than a woman. There are just different responsibilities and different authority chains of command. I promise you, you say, "I don't agree with that." I'd like to come observe your home for a while.

Listen close because I'm not trying to be mean. If a woman is running your house, you're not doing your job. There are a lot of men out there saying, "Well, you don't understand. If I step up and lead, she'll withhold something-something." So you're going to abdicate your position of leadership over that? That's not man talk, that's boy talk.

Whatever it is, my responsibility is to lead. Now you say she's not going to follow. I'd give the woman a chance. You don't know what she's going to do. Then you say, "Well, you sound like women aren't made to lead." Women are some of the greatest leaders on the planet. I am talking to you about Christian homes.

You say, "I'm a strong woman. I am married to a weak man." What am I going to tell you? You picked him. If you're so strong and smart, why'd you pick that guy? If I get really to the core of it, you might have thought, "Because I can manipulate him and I can get my way." And how is that working out for you and your children and everybody else around you? This is really harsh stuff. I'm trying to help you. If somebody doesn't say it, you don't know what's up, and then you don't know how to fix it. Then it's chaos.

The healthy women that I've seen love being around a man in a home that leads, and that cares for them and is gentle and sensitive but will make tough decisions and move it forward. You say, "What if a man screws up?" That's on the man. I understand everybody has consequence involved with that, but that should cause a man to say, "I don't believe I want to do this again, because it's not only affecting me, it's affecting everybody that I'm responsible for."

Galatians chapter four verse one. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The coolest thing in the world is with all the chaos in Genesis, how did Jesus come? Isaiah 7:14 prophesied it: a virgin will conceive and bring forth a Son. So God decided in all of the mess that even though a woman had eaten the fruit and the man didn't step up, Jesus Messiah would come. How? Born of a woman. Become a man, God in a man, and redeem the whole problem.

If you go read 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it talks about Adam being the first man, and it talks about Christ being the last Adam and then calls him the second man. You looking for a do-over? Get you some Jesus. Because what Adam screwed up, Jesus made possible again.

If you go back to Genesis, one of the things it said is that God walked in the garden in the cool of the day. I'm not in that garden yet, but because of what Jesus did, I can walk with Him every day. Cool of the day, heat of the day, whatever you got. I don't have to be ashamed. I don't have to hide because my relationship with Him has been restored through Him.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We deeply appreciate you taking the time to be encouraged by Richard's unique way of challenging us to become more like Jesus every day. Here we are in the month of May, and we want to take a different kind of twist to these days. There's a common distress signal that is used for life-threatening emergencies where those who are facing dire circumstances declare, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday," in hopes that someone will come to their rescue.

Even though it's primarily used for aviators and mariners, we know that some of you are going through some really hard times. We want to be a part of your buddy system that will support you in prayer and in encouragement to help your heart land safely. So let me encourage you to go to our website, RichardEllis.com, and click on the prayer link under the "More" tab at the top. You'll go directly to our prayer wall where you can share your prayer request and know that we will be praying for you.

For those who want to pray as well, you can click on the "Pray" tab at the bottom of the request. Because of a faithful donor, we have a substantial matching gift where your contribution will be doubled right now. Help us by becoming a prayer partner and by contributing to this ministry. Someone may have been there in the past to help you during challenging times. Now it's your turn to partner up with those in need through prayer and support.

Let's make this day a great day in someone else's life. Go to RichardEllis.com and support this mission today. That's RichardEllis.com. You can also send us your gift by calling 855-6-RICHARD. 855-6-RICHARD. Thank you. Until next time, thank you for listening. We look forward to coming alongside you again for more Richard Ellis Talks.