Hey everybody. Happy Mother’s Day and welcome to Valley Creek. I am so glad that you’re here with us today. And today, we get to celebrate women. You see, Mother’s Day isn’t just a celebration of mothers, it’s a celebration of who God created women to be. And so today we wanted to take some time to declare and celebrate how God designed women, what He made them for, what He put in their heart, how He designed them and how He feels about them. And so we have four of our women communicators, four of our women leaders that literally are going to show us what the Bible has to say about who women are, how God created them, and what He designed for them to do. This is the story of woman.

In the beginning, God created woman. But before that, He created everything else, the animals, the plants, the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky. Everything that we see and everything that is, He created. And as God was looking at everything He had made, it was good. The plants were good, the animals were good, the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky were good, good, good, good, good, except for one thing. When God suddenly said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” You see, God had made Adam or man in His image and likeness, but man alone could not reflect the fullness of the glory of God and so God in His wisdom created another. And not just any other, God created someone that He could give unique qualities of Himself to that couldn’t be brought to their fullness alone in men, so God created woman to help man reflect the fullness of the glory of God to the world.

So much so, that upon seeing her the man exclaimed, ”At last,” like a sigh of relief for now all of creation had been made complete as the majesty of God made its home in the feminine form. And that’s why in Genesis 1 27, we’re told that, “God created human beings in His image, in the image of God He created them male and female he created them,” which means that everything that is masculine and everything that is feminine is the nature of God. Everything in men and everything in women were and are contained in the heart of God and God is so big that he could not be fully expressed through just one gender. Sometimes we can get lost in the fact that God created everyone that we almost overlook the fact that the female blueprint was God’s idea.

Women were God’s idea. And one of the defining features about women is that they can give birth, yes, something even more important is that the idea of womanhood was born in the heart of God. God created women. In the image of God, He created her. Female, He created her. God created women, not as an afterthought and not out of leftovers. She was intentionally fashioned without mistake, inherently different than her husband, but they both stood before their creator equally loved, equally known, and equally responsible to go and fulfill their purpose on the earth. Think about the value that God has for women. God entrusted to women the gift of Himself, gave them unique aspects that if they didn’t care for or bring to their fullness, the world would not have the full expression of the nature of God, attributes such as beauty, wisdom, graciousness, comfort, kindness, love, compassion, sensitivity, and creativity.

All of these attributes, everything we enjoy about women are actually the nature of God because God is beautiful and is pleasant to behold. God is the ultimate source of wisdom. The longing of God’s heart is to be gracious to you. He comforts us in our time of trouble. He draws us with unfailing kindness. There’s a mystery and an emotional intelligence to God. So to ask a question, can you imagine God without these qualities? That is why women don’t need to try to be men. Women shouldn’t be like men because women were created to be uniquely women and to carry the feminine aspects of God. Femininity is a gift from God to the world.

Femininity, it’s not lesser. It’s not weakness. It’s not shameful. It’s not old-fashioned. And in Jesus, femininity is no longer broken. It’s through femininity that women can uniquely glorify God on this earth. And the more we value women, we’re actually valuing God. And the more we value God, the more value we should have for women as his unique image-bearers. And in essence, to reject women is not only to reject the nature of God, but it’s to reject God Himself. And that is why God is fiercely protective of women. While sin since the beginning has tried to taint the feminine identity, Jesus came to restore it. Everywhere that Jesus went, He advocated for, He believed in, He empowered women. And the Bible tells us that everything was created by Jesus through Jesus and for Jesus, meaning that women were created and redeemed by Jesus through Jesus and for Jesus.

Women belong to Jesus. They were His idea. They bear His image. He empowers them, which means that no one but Jesus gets to say who they are. It’s like in Ephesians 2:10 where it says that, “We are God’s masterpiece created in Christ Jesus to do the good works that God prepared in advance for us to do.” So women are God’s masterpiece. Women are created in Christ Jesus so that women can do the good works that God prepared in advance for women to do. And when you think of a masterpiece, when someone is a master of a piece, they know every aspect of it. They know how each part plays together in depth and only the master of the piece can decide its purpose.

The Bible tells us that women were woven together by God. That when God was making women, He made them like someone makes a tapestry, using intense effort and focus into making sure that every thread is in its proper place so that the picture it creates can be clearly understood. So God, when He was making women, was thinking through every shape, every quality, every characteristic, saying, “I want this in My daughter, I want this in her heart, I want her to carry My beauty, My wisdom, My comfort, My care.” Everything in women, how they look and who they are, was intentionally placed so they can clearly reflect the glory of God to the world. God created women. They were His idea. He wanted them. He empowered them. Women belong to God. God loves women. Almost, what more needs to be said? God loves women.

In the beginning, God created woman, not as an afterthought and not out of leftovers. She was intentionally fashioned into the female form so that in it, God’s glory could richly dwell. And when God created women, everything was very good.

So God not only created women, He designed women to be givers of life. In Genesis 3, it says, “Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living.” See, the very first woman was named Eve which literally means “living, mother of life, life giver.” There was no question in the Garden who women were called and created to be: givers of life. It described both their function and their destiny. So God named woman and then mandated her to multiply or increase in number.

Genesis 1 28 says, “God blessed them, Adam and Eve and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’” So He designed women and then commissioned her. You see, He said that together, man and woman, male and female, would take authority. They would fill the earth and subdue it, they would rule and reign with God. So catch this, women were empowered by God in the Garden to rule and reign with Him. And they were designed specifically to reflect and reveal the life-giving nature of God as mothers of life. And when we think about women as mothers of life or givers of life, we often think about it in terms of the birth of a child, which is true. But the God-given design of a woman as a life-giver goes far beyond that. See, all women were created to be fruitful and multiply. It’s part of their design and the mandate here is for women to reproduce the life of Jesus and others.

Women were called to give life, spiritually, emotionally, with their words, with their actions, with their life itself, and this is why a woman will always multiply or make more out of whatever it is that she’s been given. It’s part of her design. Think about it, like, if you give a woman a house, what does she do? She’ll take it and multiply it, turn it into a home. If you give her one person to work with in the marketplace, she’ll turn it into a team. If you give her ingredients, she will take it, multiply it, make a meal out of it. You give her a husband, she builds a family. You give her one person to disciple, and she turns it into a Circle. God designed women to be multipliers, givers of life, and they’ll always reproduce in others what God has entrusted to them, and God’s given them life. Think about it, it was a woman who birthed the Messiah.

It was a woman who physically gave birth to Jesus, the Savior of the world. I mean, we all loved Joseph, but he had very little to do with it. God designed women to give life. And Satan knows this. And this is why Satan hates women, why he tries to stop them from bringing life into the world. You see, when Adam and Eve sinned and fell, God declared the consequence of sin. And so God said to the enemy in Genesis 3:15, “I will cause hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.” This is why since the fall of man, there’s been hostility between the enemy and women, because women are part of the way that the enemy’s been defeated. When God announced the consequence of sin, He said that, through Eve, through a woman, the Savior was going to come and save the world.

And so this verse was a declaration of what Jesus was going to do on the cross. You see, Satan was going to strike Jesus, his heel, on the cross, but Jesus was going to crush the enemy’s head on the cross, defeating him once and for all. And so from that point on, Satan waged war against women, because he knew that through women, life would be released to destroy the kingdom of darkness. He is the king of death and darkness, he hates all things life, and so he’s been after women ever since, trying to oppress them and destroy them and shame them and mistreat them and silence them. Why? Because through women, life is released. But you see, Satan hasn’t been set against women. No, women have been set against him. Satan is terrified of women because they have been empowered to give life. The design of women, the beauty of women, the nature of women, all reflect the life of God. 

Everything about how God designed women was intended to release life into the world. And so not only does Satan hate women, he hates everything that carries the feminine characteristics, that reflect the life of God to the world, including the church. So see if you can catch this. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. And then there was Jesus, the second Adam, and in a sense, the church is like the second Eve. And in the same way that Satan hated Eve because she’s the mother of life, he hates the church because the church has been empowered by God to give life to the world. Have you ever thought about this? That the church is the bride of Christ. That in many ways, what the mother is to the family, the church is to the world. And the enemy knows that through the church, the life of God, His love and His grace and His mercy will be poured out to the world.

You see, this is why Satan tries to stop women from living out their God-given identity as givers of life. And that’s why you’ll talk to women in any season of life and they’re often questioning their identity, asking things like, “Who am I?” “Do I matter?” “What am I doing?” And you’ll even hear women say things like, “I’m just raising my kids.” So wait a minute, you’re just raising up the next generation, teaching them to follow Jesus? Or, “I’m just working in the marketplace doing my job.” So hold on, you’re just a hope carrier, empowered by God to bring life and light to the place that He’s placed you in? Or, “I’m just a student.” So you’ve just been called by God, set apart for the good of others and for the glory of God to bring light and life in darkness? Or, “I’m just an empty nester.” So wait, God’s just given you supernatural wisdom to lead others in your life with grace and truth?

Yes, that is what women are designed for. Yes, they were designed to give life to the world, to multiply the life of Jesus in others. And too often, because women don’t know who they are or forget what it is they’ve been given, they get sidelined, they give up, they quit. And when women quit, the world suffers. And so God is constantly inviting and reminding women to stand up again and be who He’s called them to be, mothers of life, givers of life. In fact, there was a woman in the Old Testament named Deborah who did just this. She was a wise woman, a fearless leader, living in a really challenging time. And it’s described like this in Judges. It says, “The highways were abandoned, travelers took to winding paths, villagers in Israel would not fight, they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.”

Deborah lived in a time where cities had been destroyed and pretty much everything was in need of rebuilding and reviving. Does that sound familiar? In other words, they needed life, someone to rise up and to give life. And you see, it was Deborah, a woman, who stood up as a mother in Israel and gave life. She knew who she was, she knew what she had been given and she multiplied it. She didn’t minimize what God had mandated. She did not question what He had declared. You see, when women stand up in who God designed them to be, multipliers, givers of life, they reflect the life-giving nature of God and they reveal His life to the world. God designed women to be givers of life.

Not only did God create women and design them to give life, He also made women for relationship. You see, before creation, God existed and He existed in relationship. In fact, His very existence was communal in nature. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three in one. And they lived in constant fellowship, constant relationship, loving, submitting, preferring, honoring each other. So if you think of it, everything begins in relationship. So when God fashioned and created Adam and placed him in the Garden, it was beautiful, it was lush, everything had function and purpose. It was perfect, except for one thing, Adam was alone. And God wanted Adam to experience relationship on earth as it is in heaven.

So check this out. In Genesis 2:18, God says, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” It’s not good for man to be alone, no one to be in relationship with, no one to be with him, no one to support and champion and encourage him. So God created woman, a helper, a helpmate, a partner, to do what? To come alongside of Adam to help him fulfill what God had created and designed him to do. God created women to help other people fulfill their calling, their destiny, through relationship. Often this verse has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. But here’s the thing, this declaration that God made happened before the fall, before sin entered the Garden.

And God is good and everything He says is good, everything He does is good, everything He makes is good. And so God’s declaration over women is good. But sin destroyed everything. Sin distorted God’s design for women. Sin has tried to make women feel like they need to be in the background, unseen, and inferior. But that’s not true. Women carry the relational heart of God. Women are created to help others accomplish their purpose. In fact, in the original mandate that God gave in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it,” it could not have been accomplished outside of relationship and God knew it. That’s why He created woman. And when he created woman, that’s when He said, “Ah this is good, a complete representation of My likeness and My image, a picture of relationship.” 

That’s why women are so highly relational by nature. It’s design, women love and nurture and support, they build relationships and community wherever they go, at work, at home, at school, in their families. It’s design, they’re good at it, women champion and support whomever is in their lives and when you hear all those qualities, when you hear that, doesn’t that sound like the Holy Spirit? In John 14, Jesus says that, “He will send the Holy Spirit.” He says, “I will ask the Father and He will give another advocate to help you, to be with you.” An advocate, a helper, a partner, to come alongside us to help us accomplish our purpose, our destiny, our calling, to be in relationship with us. 

And doesn’t that sound like Genesis 2 when God said, “I will make a helper suitable for him,” the restoration of God’s design? So in many ways, women carry the heartbeat of the Holy Spirit, a helper, an empowerer, a lid lifter, a destiny releaser. That’s the character and nature of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit carries the attributes God placed in women that make them helpers, that enable them to come alongside, to help others accomplish God’s purposes in their lives. And here’s the crazy thing. When women help other people succeed, they’re not living in inferior existence, they’re living with purpose, walking out their calling and their destiny. No one would call the role of the Holy Spirit, the helper, inferior in any way, but in a lot of ways, we think of relationships as inferior. 

Sin has distorted, devalued and demeaned relationships. Satan hates them. Why? Because they remind him of God. Satan wants to do whatever he can to make relationships which can be characterized by love and sacrifice, servanthood, compassion, forgiveness and kindness feel weak, feel inferior. So women have been tricked into thinking that their lives would be better lived independently or in isolation. “I’m going to do my thing my way,” or “I can’t trust anyone or anything, so I’m going to remove myself and hide.” And many times women from a place of hurt, a place of feeling unseen or unheard will say things like, “I don’t want to serve,” “I don’t want to be in relationship,” “I don’t want to be a helper.” 

But that’s broken. Jesus came to redeem and Jesus came to restore and renew all that was lost in the Garden. He came to bring back the purity and the power of woman as helper. In fact, Jesus Himself was empowered by the Holy Spirit to help, to serve with humility, with tenderness, with kindness. When women push back or try and manipulate or change their created purpose, in a sense, they’re saying they don’t want to carry the heartbeat of Jesus, they don’t want to be in relationship like Jesus. But Jesus exists in relationship. Truth and freedom and healing are only found when women align themselves with what Scripture says instead of trying to align Scripture to what they want it to say. 

What a privilege, what an honor women have to carry the relational heart of God. Women are made for relationship. Women are made to help other people succeed through relationship. And ultimately, isn’t that the Biblical definition of success? Jesus came and gave us everything. He laid down his life for us. And when women lay down their lives, their pride, their insecurities, their preferences, their fears, that’s when women begin to flourish, that’s when women begin to walk in the fullness of their calling. God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. So I will make woman and she will carry My heart.” 

Not only did God create women, design them to give life, made them for relationship, but God also empowered women to advance His kingdom. You see, in the Garden of Eden, God realized that His mission could not be fulfilled without the creation of woman. And today, His mission is being fulfilled, His kingdom is being advanced by both man and woman. In Acts chapter 2, Peter was explaining how the local church would be established and empowered to share the gospel. And he was reminding them of the words that God spoke when God said this, “Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

You see, God made it very clear that both men and women were qualified and empowered to serve Him. And He backed that up by the declaration that He would pour out his Holy Spirit in all fullness His supernatural power into men and women. And notice, He didn’t say he would sprinkle it out. He said he would pour it out generously to the point of overflow, the supernatural power of God poured out into women. Why? Because He empowered them to prophesy. Prophesy, to share, to communicate, to convey something that can only be known by divine revelation. You see, God wanted women to have a part in advancing the gospel so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved. I mean think about it, God thinks so highly of women that He gave them His Spirit for empowerment, His gospel message to share and His kingdom to advance. 

God has been equipping women in unique ways and you see it all through Scripture beginning in Genesis. God created Eve and then He empowered her for her role to fill the earth and subdue it. He empowered Esther to be the queen over an ungodly nation. He empowered Mary to bring Jesus into the world. God even empowered a group of women to use their financial resources to support the ministry of Jesus. And then God put an exclamation point on His empowerment of women when he chose a woman to be the first person to declare the news of the resurrection. Jesus is not dead, He is alive. Talk about empowerment for women. The single most important moment of history got entrusted to the voice of a woman. And even though, even though God has fully empowered the voices of women, often times women can still feel under-qualified. 

They can feel overlooked, they can feel unseen. Like the best days are behind them where they don’t really have anything to offer, but the truth is, while man may overlook women, women are always seen by God. He delights in raising up humble and unlikely members of the family to empower them for great things. And not only does God empower women, He also equips them. It says in 2 Timothy that “The servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Thoroughly equipped. You see, in Acts 2, it was servants who had the spirit poured out on them and now it is the servants who are thoroughly equipped. What does that mean to be thoroughly equipped? It means to be made ready, fully prepared for a specific assignment. Well, what are women thoroughly equipped for? They’re equipped for God’s good plans for them. How are they equipped? They’re equipped by God, by His Spirit, by His gifting, by His revelation to them. 

They are equipped by God for God. Women are not empowered and equipped for their own purposes or anything outside of the plan of God. They were not designed to build their own empire, they were designed to advance the kingdom of God. In fact, God gave so much empowerment to women that the Bible gives a specific warning to women to not be idle because there’s too much empowerment for their hands to be without a purpose. See, God wants women to know that He created them, empowered them. They were made on purpose for a purpose. So women have nothing to prove, they just have empowerment to release. Women were designed to be on mission, fully invested and involved in purposeful lives. But if their life purpose drifts from God’s plan, well, that’s when what was intended to be a blessing, it can become a burden. 

And because women are designed for purpose, they will seek out activity, but activity for God is not the same as an assignment by God. And you know there are plenty of voices in the world today that are trying to speak into what the assignment of women is. The world says women can do everything. Religion says women can’t do anything. But Jesus says women are empowered to do a kingdom thing. The world tells women what they should do, you should have your own business, you should have a million followers, you should be the perfect size. Yes, the world tells women what they should do. And religion just says you can’t do that, you can’t do that, and you really can’t do that. But God reminds women, He reminds them of what He empowered them to do, what He created them to do. You see, the world is demanding of women. The world demands perfection from women. But God gave perfection to women when He gave them Jesus, because His plan for them was to have a powerful voice to prophesy.

And because of that, women’s voices are powerful and the enemy knows that, and he will try to steal the voice of a woman and he will give all kinds of false promises to do so. I mean, isn’t that what happened to Eve when she was in the Garden? Didn’t she believe the lie of the enemy as she was trying to get something in the world that she already had in God? Listen, everything that every woman could ever want, it’s already hers to claim in Jesus’ name. She is already believed in, she is seen, fully valued, fully empowered, and that is God’s heart for women. He desires that she would reproduce that heart in all of the areas of life. Women are empowered in the area of business and in government, in sports, in technology, in church. Women are empowered to carry hope and release it wherever they go. 

Can you imagine -- can you just imagine a world where every single woman was walking fully empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out her destiny? She would walk confident, she would know who she is, who God is, and what she was created to do. You see, women who are empowered to advance the kingdom, they are women who walk free. And there is nothing better than being empowered by God for what you do, and being fully loved by God for who you are. Women are empowered to prophesy. He gave them His Spirit to tell His story. So may every woman’s voice be heard so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

So come on, that is so good. That is God’s heart for women. That is just some of what the Bible has to say about women. God created women. He designed them to give life, He made them for relationships, and they are empowered to advance God’s kingdom. And so we celebrate women and we declare who God says they are. And so right now, if you’re with a woman, whether she is single or married, a daughter, a mother, a sister, a friend, we just want to pray for all of the women right now. And so, would you maybe, lay hands on her? Or if you’re by yourself, would you just stand up and let me go ahead and just pray for you right now?

So God, we celebrate who You have made women to be. God, I thank You that woman was birthed in Your heart, that You love her, that You have created her and designed her, that You have made her for relationships, that she is not an afterthought, that she is not in the background, but that You have empowered her for Your kingdom in this time, in this place. And so I just pray for every woman right now, that she would see herself the way that You see her, that she would walk in the victory and the authority and the freedom of Jesus, that no weapon that’s been formed against her will prosper, that she will flourish in life, and that she will walk in the confidence of who You have declared her to be. Today, Jesus, because of You, we celebrate women. 

And we declare that they are who You say that they are. Thank You, Lord, for Your creation, for Your design, and for Your heart. In Your name we pray, amen.