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6.16.21 Empowered Session #1 Hallie Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Hello, thank you for joining us. Welcome. If you are listening to this, you know that this is Hallie Gardner and I am doing the introduction to our summer series for Thrive. And full disclosure, this is not the live version. This is my third run through and I am just sitting at home in my upstairs room.
• 0:27
  Just me and the turtle, our pet turtle. And I didn't get it recorded the night that we did it at the church. And so I wanted to record it to put it online. So I just wanted you to know that. In case you don't hear anybody laughing, it's just me and the turtle. And that's why it might seem a little different. So it's just you, me, and the turtle. But I'm glad you're listening. And I just want to pray for you before we start.
• 0:57
  God, thank you for the opportunity to share this online. I pray that you would use it. I pray for whomever is listening that it would be a blessing to them. Lord, that you would use your word and your power to strengthen us according to your might and your purposes. In Jesus' name, amen. This summer, we are going to be doing a series called Empowered.
• 1:24
  In the past couple of years, we have gone through Ecclesiastes, 1 Peter, 1 Thessalonians. And although we chose a more topical idea this summer, it is going to be a look at the women in the Bible that God empowered to do His work and mighty things. And I want you to know it is a blatant stab against what the world is pushing as the empowered woman.
• 1:49
  Each week we're going to look at a woman or women from the Bible and how God empowered them through his Holy Spirit and then apply that to our lives. The question we want to answer this summer, or at least consider, is what does an empowered woman look like? I don't know if you know this, but the world is urging you to live the life of an empowered woman. The world wants to empower women.
• 2:14
  and has been attempting to do so actually for a long time with lots and lots of methods. But currently there is a push for women to be empowered, and a push and a scramble for them to make their way to the top to prove their power. Can we just get one thing straight? Ladies, the world is not your friend. The world is not where you should find your wisdom, and it's certainly not where you get your power. I'm actually kind of sick of the pictures that the world keeps putting forth for us to follow.
• 2:44
  hoisting women up that they want us to mimic our lives after. In fact, I'm going to refrain from saying their names and I refrained from making slides of their faces and showing you who I'm talking about because I think you know who I'm talking about being posted on televisions and billboards and who have books everywhere and being written about constantly.
• 3:10
  being touted as who we should look to for inspiration and wisdom and exemplary behavior. You know who I'm speaking of, the politicians, actresses, musicians, influencers that are hoisted up as powerful women. My goal this summer is to hoist up the women of the Bible for you to see what true empowerment looks like. I'm going to give away the ending.
• 3:36
  Here at the beginning, God does want you to live an empowered life. He does want to use you and make you strong for his name's sake. The power that he gives is the only empowerment you need. The power he uses is for his glory and your good. This is a good place for us to consider the idea of feminism. Because as the world claims to be the one to give us our girl power, it isn't.
• 4:04
  The world talks about women empowering other women, and I do agree. Women should be great encouragers of other women, and sometimes they're not. They should be, but they're not. That is not the kind of empowerment that gives you real power. Encouragement, yes, but not empowerment. We need to stop letting the world and feminists act as if somehow they achieved our equality.
• 4:28
  We need to understand it is and was Jesus who gave us equality. He is the one that lifted us up in a culture that did not. Here's a quote. The idea that women are equal to men is not a feminist idea. It's a Christian idea. What Paul said in Galatians 3.28, that we are all one in Christ, that was 2,000 years before women's rights even started.
• 4:55
  Women being treated with respect is fruit that grows on one kind of tree, and that tree is a cross. Of course we believe that women are equal to men. Not only is this belief not a compromise with the feminists or something we learn from them, it's actually one of our distinctives. I've spent quite a bit of time studying some of the passages in the Bible.
• 5:22
  that would give us an indication of what character traits an empowered woman exemplify. And we are going to look at those right now. Now these passages are familiar to all of us, but as I heard a pastor say, I think it's only their addresses that are familiar. We know more about the address of these verses than we do about the content of these verses themselves.
• 5:48
  As we read through these familiar passages, not all of them are specified to women, but I want us to read them and challenge ourselves to draw out some of the key character traits we see. We're going to start in Proverbs 31. I'll give you a second to turn there. We're going to look at Proverbs 31, and I realize this passage addresses wives specifically, but the character traits mentioned here are goals for all of us.
• 6:17
  proverbs thirty one starting in verse ten an excellent wife who can find she is far more precious than jewels the heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain she does him good and not harm all the days of her life
• 6:34
  she seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands she is like the ships of the merchant she brings her food from afar she rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens she considers a field and buys it with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard she dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong she perceives that her merchandise is profitable her lamp does not go out at night
• 7:00
  She puts her hands to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for all her householder clothes in scarlet. She makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them.
• 7:24
  She delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain.
• 7:51
  But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates. So let's just talk about a summary. I've written a summary of the character traits that I'm pulling out from these passages. I've written a summary for each one. So in this one, I would say hardworking, obviously. Dresses with strength and dignity. Not afraid of the future.
• 8:22
  Wise. Teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Not idle. Fears the Lord. She's renowned for praying, greeting, listening, encouraging. The next passage we're going to go to is Galatians 5, 16 through 26. And this one will be really familiar. It's the fruit of the Spirit's passage. Galatians 5.
• 8:52
  verses 16 through 26. I'm going to read those for you. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident.
• 9:18
  sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
• 9:48
  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. So I would say, obviously, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the summary. But really, the big summary of all of them is Spirit-led, right?
• 10:18
  If you're going to be an empowered woman, you're going to be spirit-led. And we're going to talk about that more in a minute. I have two more sections for us to read. Colossians 3, 12 through 17. Colossians 3, 12 through 17. And the way I explain this is there are lots of verses that I could have pulled. And I studied many.
• 10:41
  And I pulled these ones. I think of it like if you've ever taken a jar of cream and you shake it really hard for a long time and the stuff that comes to the top is butter. You know, you make butter by shaking this cream. I've done it with my kids before. And I feel like these verses were kind of the cream that rose to the top for me as I was studying what an empowered woman looks like. So here we are at Colossians 3, 12 through 17.
• 11:07
  put on then as god's chosen ones holy and beloved compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the lord has forgiven you so you must also forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony
• 11:29
  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So the summary for this one is,
• 11:56
  Just another list of words, chosen, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, living in the word, forgiving, love, teaching, admonishing. Let's look at one more famous address, Titus 2, 3 through 5.
• 12:24
  And it's interesting to note that each one of these, one of the words that comes up in each one of these is kindness. And we're going to talk about that in the next session, how kindness and hospitality are what an empowered woman looks like. So Titus 2, 3 through 5, we're going to read. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
• 12:52
  to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. So the summary for older women would be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to wine, and teaching the younger women what is good. Younger women are to love husbands, children, be self-controlled, pure, working at home, and kind,
• 13:22
  submissive to their own husbands. And this verse is important to me, a big deal to me. I think we don't see enough Titus 2 modeling going on. In fact, I read this quote earlier this summer, and it said, did you know what is a pandemic? Do you know what is a real pandemic or another pandemic? Okay, the lack of Titus 2 women.
• 13:52
  It affects every part of our society. And then it said, we need you, signed young moms. So in other words, another type of pandemic we're facing as a church is the lack of Titus II women, women willing to pour into the generation that's below them. I thought that was interesting to note. Okay, so here we've made quite a list with our passages. It isn't like there aren't other ones. But again, these are the ones that I studied.
• 14:23
  And the ones that rose to the top. And for our purposes for the summer, I think these are the things we're going to consider what an empowered woman looks like. These are the things that I see her dressed in. So how does the Lord want to empower you? How can we put on display the glory of God and his salvation? Number one, empowered women know that when they are weak, he is strong. Do you know what a paradox is?
• 14:51
  It is something that seems absurd, but when it is tested or understood, it turns out to be true and makes sense on the deepest levels. The Bible has many. For instance, in the world, but not of the world. One of my favorites in Luke chapter 9 is, in order to save your life, you must lose it.
• 15:13
  And here for our point number one, that when we are willing to come to the end of ourselves, God fills us up and uses us in ways that we couldn't have imagined. Your being empowered doesn't rely on your own strength. Empowered women know that when they are weak, he is strong. Number two, empowered women choose the word over the world. Don't use the world as your standard. Don't look to the world for your wisdom.
• 15:43
  You have to be biblically literate. You must be able to dig into and depend on the bread of life. It is how the Lord will lead and guide your heart. Jen Wilkin wrote a book, Women of the Word, and I highly recommend it, especially if you just need a new...
• 16:03
  a new vision on how to read your Bible, or maybe you don't know how to read your Bible, or maybe you just need a new challenge or redirection. This is a quote from that book, again, by Jen Wilkin, Women of the Word. For years, I viewed my interaction with the Bible as a debit account. I had a need, so I went to the Bible to withdraw an answer. But we do much better to view our interaction with the Bible as a savings account. I stretch my understanding daily.
• 16:30
  I deposit what I glean and I patiently wait for it to accumulate in value, knowing that one day I will need to draw on it. And I read this quote too. Bible literacy matters because it protects us from falling into error. Both the false teacher and the secular humanist rely on biblical ignorance for their messages to take root. And the modern church has proven fertile ground for those messages because we don't know our Bibles.
• 16:59
  We crumble at the most basic challenges to our worldview. Disillusionment and apathy eat away at our ranks. And women in particular are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers. So number two, empowered women choose the word over the world. Number three, I like this one. Empowered women choose the Holy Spirit over the self-guided tour. The empowered life.
• 17:27
  is spirit-led. It just is. You have to get off your own self-guided tour. Galatians 5.16 says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. I actually just read that a minute ago when I was reading the Fruit of the Spirit passage.
• 17:55
  How about Proverbs 3, 5, and 6? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Empowered women choose the Holy Spirit over their own self-guided tour. Number four, the last point is empowered women walk in freedom.
• 18:18
  This summer we are going to be talking about women in the Bible and how they displayed the empowerment that God gives. How they wore the kind of character traits we talked about earlier. While tonight has mostly been an introduction, I want to give you a brief biography of an empowered woman from the Bible. We don't know her name, but I think she demonstrates for us this last point, walking in freedom. Ladies, you cannot be used of God. You cannot be empowered.
• 18:45
  At least not the way he intended if you do not walk in the freedom that he gives. I felt like we needed to start with this biography to set the stage for the things God wants to show us this summer. Because walking in the freedom Jesus gives is, I think, step one. The woman whose story I want to share tonight is the woman at the well. One of the most famous interactions with Jesus in the New Testament and one of the most powerful. Now, if you...
• 19:16
  were sitting with me, I could show you a picture of the well. This picture that I have, I took when I was in Israel because I got to go and this, the well is there, you guys. Like it's, it is Jacob's well. And there are lots of historical reasons why it is and lots of things.
• 19:39
  that make it accurate that it is undisputed. It is the well. And it is in the basement of a Greek Orthodox church in the West Bank. Jacob's well was located on a plot of land that Jacob purchases so he could pitch his tent in the land of Cana. And you can find this in Genesis 33, 18 and 19. This property and this well have a significant history in the Bible and in Jewish tradition. It's a major landmark.
• 20:07
  You guys, this well is so deep. And the reservoir below is the spring, and it always has fresh water. And it's well known in the area for being the finest water. Which, if you know what Jesus is talking about in the story of the woman at the well in John 4, that is unbelievably...
• 20:29
  stirring no pun intended but it's amazing that that is the finest water when he's talking about living water and when we were there we got to drink out of it we got to draw water up out of it and like i said it's at the at this basement of this greek orthodox church and just in this small little basement room and it was just overwhelming and i know this is an aside
• 20:56
  But I'm reminded how our faith is grounded in real history. Like you can actually see and test it. And our teacher in Israel said that several times. And he also said something that I had never considered before. He said if the Muslims or Mormons or any other false religion were to set up museums of artifacts or museums in general or sites to see, they would be empty. They wouldn't be real. They wouldn't be there.
• 21:26
  because they don't have them. And yet we do. I mean, just tons of museums full of things that give proof to the validity of our Bibles and to what we believe. And so that sticks with me. I often think about that, that my faith is grounded in real history, and I'm so blessed that I got to be able to see it. So we're going to talk about the woman at the well. And so you can turn to John chapter 4, 1 through 26.
• 21:55
  And so I'm going to read that. I'm sorry I'm reading a lot to you on this recording. But my voice is so beautiful, you'll be okay with it. John chapter 4, verse 1.
• 22:10
  Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
• 22:31
  Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from this, his journey was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. And a woman from Samaria came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is. Sorry, I lost my place.
• 23:03
  Okay, if you knew the gift of God, sorry, and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
• 23:31
  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. And Jesus said to her, Go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, You are right in saying I have no husband for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
• 23:59
  Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and it now is here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
• 24:27
  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. And the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all the things, all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Okay, and then the disciples come back, and they're confused because they're always confused. They're confused at why he's talking to a woman. They're confused about a lot of things. Let's skip down to verse 39.
• 24:55
  Many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days, and many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. So, there we have it, the story of the woman at the well.
• 25:27
  And a couple of important points about the Samaritan woman. The first one is that in verse 4, it says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. Well, actually, he didn't.
• 25:39
  Actually, the Jews and Samaritans always avoided each other. The rivalry and strife between them had been forever. So the usual way to travel from Judea to Galilee was not this way. The Samaritans were considered unclean. So any self-respecting Jew would always travel a different way. But Jesus did have to go this way. Only because he had a divine appointment with this woman at the well.
• 26:05
  The Samaritan woman had obviously had a rough life, made some bad choices, and you can almost sense her heaviness here with her sin and the consequences of it. It seems to me she was used to feeling mocked and ridiculed and looked down upon. She shows up at the well, which she purposely went to at a time of day that is not the time everybody would have gathered. It was in the heat.
• 26:27
  And most women, it was commonly the woman's job to draw the water, would have come in the cool of the day so that they could chat together. You can think of it as the original water cooler, the water cool up gossip, but not her. She didn't want to have to talk to people. This isn't even the well that she was probably supposed to go to. She most likely showed up at this well because she was avoiding anyone knowing her. And here she shows up and this rabbi speaks to her.
• 26:54
  Rabbis weren't supposed to speak to women, let alone Samaritan women. Men weren't even permitted to speak to women casually like this in the first century. But here's Jesus, breaking down the walls again, paving a way for the empowerment and equality of women. I have this pretty long quote, and I'm going to read it to you, but it's so good. I wish I had a screen for you to read it on, but just try to hear it.
• 27:21
  Virtually everything about the setting of John 4 is remarkable. It is unusual to find Jesus alone. It is amazing to realize that God incarnate could grow physically weary or become thirsty. It is startling that Jesus would intentionally seek out and initiate a conversation with a wretched Samaritan woman like this one. It was astonishing even to hear that any Jewish man would speak to her.
• 27:44
  It was equally shocking for the disciples to find him speaking to her. It would have been considered outrageous for him to drink from an unclean vessel that belonged to an unclean woman. It seems odd for a woman like this to enter so quickly into an extended theological dialogue. But what is staggeringly unexpected about this whole fantastic account is that Jesus chose this time.
• 28:08
  and this place and this woman to be part of the setting where he would be for the first time revealing, formally and explicitly unveiling his true identity as the Messiah. Our Lord explains to this woman about salvation. He explains to her about living water. He gives her the gift of eternal life. He gives her freedom. Galatians 5.1 says, For freedom Christ has set us free.
• 28:34
  Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. John 8.36 says, So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Consider what the Samaritan woman's new life looked like. Consider how she now would live. No longer living in condemnation with restrictions. She would go to whatever well she wanted to. Talk to whomever she pleased.
• 29:02
  She would turn from her sin and pursue a righteous life. The woman at the well had been set free, free from her past, free from her sin, free to walk in obedience. She had been given new life, living water. So have we. Are we walking daily in that freedom? A couple of years ago, someone asked me, and I don't tell you this to sound like I'm bragging.
• 29:37
  But someone asked me after a church service, and I had greeted a bunch of people or something. I don't even remember the exact circumstances. But they said, hell, you just, you seem to love so freely. Talk to everybody. And I just, I was perplexed by that. I thought about it and wondered, okay, what is that? Why do I feel that way? And it is, it's because of this. I've been set free.
• 30:06
  I am free to love freely. I am free to not be bound by somebody else's expectations or perception of who I am. I'm called to what God is calling me to, and I try to do that freely. I try to live freely that way. Walking in freedom means you can love freely. I'm convinced that believers don't act like this.
• 30:33
  Because they don't walk in the freedom that Christ gives them. They are bound to their worry. They are bound to other people's expectations. They are bound to comparison. They have decided they aren't good enough. Or maybe they've decided they're too good. The woman at the well went back and told all of the people. People that I don't think typically cared much about what she had to say. But she was walking in her new found freedom.
• 31:03
  Walking in freedom also allows us to worship freely in spirit and truth. And you were made to worship. Do it freely. This freedom doesn't mean you are free to do whatever you want. It doesn't mean that you are free to sin. If you are on the Holy Spirit tour and in the word, your freedom will not be selfishly motivated. You have been set free. We have been set free, just like the woman at the well, to worship in spirit and truth.
• 31:32
  We can throw off all the sin that entangles. You've been set free. You are freed from expectation and judgments. You are freed from criticism. To be empowered by God, to have real strength for real life, you are called to walk in weakness, walk in the Word, walk in the Spirit, and walk in freedom.
• 31:56
  That's what empowered women look like. And I hope you'll join us for the rest of the summer as we study different women from the Bible who teach us what an empowered woman can do and what she looks like. Thanks for joining me.