Women’s Rights | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

Numbers chapter 27, verse one, the daughters of Zolithead, that's a name, huh? He was the son of a heifer, that's interesting. And the son of Gilead, the son of Makar, the son of Manasseh belonged to the clans of Manasseh, son of Joseph, I'll get to the point. So the names of the daughters were Amala, Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Terzah. They came forward and stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance of the tent of meeting and said, our father died in the wilderness, so this was a great loss. He was not of the followers of Korah who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and he left no sons. Why should our father's name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our families or father's relatives. So Moses brought their case before the Lord and the Lord said to him, what Zolithead's daughters are saying is right. Everybody say it's right. It's right. So these daughters had rights. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father's relatives and give their father's inheritance to them. I wanna talk to you about women's rights.

Women's rights. I'm not gonna get caught up on maybe what you think that means, but spiritually speaking, it is clear, biblically speaking, it is clear that women have rights. This is a story of five women who are standing together, their promise, their inheritance, their future is at risk. And so the Bible says they pull together, they band together. This is an image of prayer. This is an image of them coming before Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting. It's an image of worship. It's an image of pulling together and unifying. And as they do this, the Bible says God honors their stand. God hears their prayer. God answers their prayer by telling Moses what they're saying is right. They have rights. They have an inheritance. They have a promise. And that is unchanged just because the family dynamic is in trouble. What I want you to get here is that women made the difference in this family and its future. In the beginning, the Bible says that God acknowledged that something was missing in all of creation

without a woman. Women were the last at the cross. In other words, everybody else had left. All the other disciples had ran and they're hiding in fear, but the women were those who stood till Jesus' last dying breath. Women would also be the first to show up at the tomb while the disciples, again, are still hiding in fear, many of them going back to their previous life. It was the women who were the first to show up at the tomb. We know that women are mentioned to be in the upper room. The children of Israel, when they left Egypt, the women were instructed to go borrow the silver and the gold, which would ultimately be given as an offering to make many things, but mostly the priority was to make the Ark of the Covenant, which is where God would put the manna, the Ten Commandments, and Aaron's rod that budded on top of the Ark of the Covenant would be the mercy seat where the blood would be sprinkled and God's presence would dwell. And this was all something that God made sure was in place to be a picture of Jesus, the manna representing bread from heaven. And Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I am the bread from heaven. The commandments speak of the word of God, the unbreakable word of God,

and then Aaron's rod that budded speaks of the resurrection. All of these things together, the power of the word, the mercy seat, the power of the cross, the power of the resurrection, the power of these things is what brings the presence of God, is what ushers the presence of God into our lives. I say that because it's consistent that women in scripture make up the difference. Whenever men are lacking. Whenever men don't take their rightful place, it's not like God throws the plan away and says, you know, I guess I can't do anything. God will use anybody. He does not care what your gender is. Now I know that people are like, well, surely he cares about this or that. And I don't know, maybe he does. But at the end of the day, you see a predominance when somehow men are not in their place. God is not afraid to raise up a woman and use a woman. It's important that you catch this, that women make a major difference in the earth, in the home and in the body of Christ. The Bible talks about how Jacob and Esau, you know the story, Jacob deceived Esau out of his birthright. Jacob goes on the run. He lives in hiding for decades.

Esau had been stewing for decades over what Jacob had done to him. He couldn't wait to get revenge. He couldn't wait to get even. And many years go by and both of them, Jacob and Esau had had their families. And Jacob says, I want to go home. I've got to make things right. Maybe there's a way I can restore things with my brother. And so he makes his way back. Esau hears about it. He gathers an army of men and he's on his way to kill Jacob. He's offering death threats. He is still angry from what his brother had done to him many years ago. And the Bible says, Jacob hears about Esau and his threat. So he sends gifts out. All kinds of financial gifts and all kinds of things that should be able to ease Esau's hatred towards Jacob. But the Bible says, Esau refuses the gifts. He wants nothing to do with any of the gifts. And so then Jacob sends some men out in front to talk to Esau, to negotiate with him, to try to find some middle ground, some settlement of some type. But the Bible says, Esau refuses to negotiate with these men. And then finally, as a last ditch effort, Esau is about to go into battle with Jacob.

And so Jacob, the Bible says, sends the women out front. And the women go out front and immediately Esau sees these women and it breaks his spirit and he begins to weep. And they build the bridge for that restoration to come between Esau and Jacob. What I want you to see is what money could not do, what men could not do. The presence of a woman made the difference. When it comes to your home, not just the home, but specifically with the home, I want you to understand, women, you have incredible leverage in the home. If Jacob would have made a decision to say, you know what, I'm not going to let a woman get involved in the battle, what would the outcome have been? What if the women would have said, you know what, Jacob, this is your fight, this was your mistake, this was your deception, you're the one that betrayed your brother, we don't wanna get involved, we're gonna just stay behind the scenes, we're gonna stay in the background, we're going to stay hidden, the family would have been destroyed. But the women made a decision that we're going to stand up and we're going to fight, and as a result, that family was preserved. I want you to understand that women make a major difference

and women have rights. You have spiritual rights, you have a right to say, God, you've given my family a promise, God, you've given my family a spiritual inheritance, you've given my family a future, and I understand that there are attacks and I understand there are losses and I understand there are times that it feels like the family's been torn apart, but God has given you the ability to take a stand and say, God, I'm standing right there before God, I have rights to every promise God has given in his word. The Bible says, the first thing that Satan would hear about a woman was out of her seed, she will crush your head. Make no mistake about it, there's a great attack on women. The reason I love this story in numbers because these women are not standing in a blessed place, they're not standing in a home where it's the leave it to beaver, perfect scenario. These women are in an unfortunate place, their father is gone, he's died, there's no man that stepped up in the family. The father wasn't a great role model. He had his failures and his sin. But it's amazing how these women didn't use that as a crutch. They didn't use that as an excuse. They didn't use that as a reason to become the victim

of how they were raised. And isn't it something how many people end up sidelining their life and their future because of a lousy man in their life? A dad that left, abuse that happened. I'm not making light of it, but you've been mistreated. You weren't loved the way that you needed to be. Wounded, hurt, maybe unprotected. Maybe you've lived your life looking for a man to do something for you and you're lying down, letting life pass you by, all the while wondering why didn't they come through and why didn't he stand up and why wasn't he there when he needed to be there when the truth of the matter is you have rights. You can stand. I hope that you have a great dad in your life. I hope that you have a great husband in your life. But we're not talking about that. That's a blessing if you've got that. But if you don't have that, you still have rights. These women were standing together and they were standing together and there was an absence of the kind of men that should have been there. Their dad, again, wasn't the greatest. He died in his sin is what the Bible says. So he never overcame his wounds so he could never help them overcome their wounds. It's a sad picture. It's a picture of loss. It's a picture that they would have had

every right to give up. They would have had every right to lay down and say what are we supposed to do in a world that was dominated way more than our world by men. They were limited, their rights were limited, but yet here you see them with no man to secure their future, no man like other families had, no man like other homes had. Nevertheless, they had a promise from God and they decided we're gonna take that promise and we're going to stand together on that promise. And hell is fearful of you realizing that you have rights. You can stand together. I don't care where you've been. I don't care what you've done. I don't care what you've been left. You might be divorced. You maybe have lost something. Don't let that control you. Be loosed from that need today and learn you still have rights. God can still use you. God can still bless you. He can still bless your family even if there's the absence of what you thought should be there. The genealogy of Jesus gives us four women, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Tamar. Rahab is a harlot, Ruth a Moabite, Bathsheba an adulteress,

Tamar seduced her father-in-law. God should be maybe asked the question, could you not find some better women to put in your son's family tree? I mean, surely you could come up with somebody that had a better background than these women, but I'm so glad he didn't. I'm so glad that he gives us a picture of grace that God desires to use people that the world has labeled unholy, unrighteous and ungodly, but God knows how to lift them up and say that's family to me and I don't care what your past looks like, I don't care what's happened to you, I don't care how much easier it might be to give up, you can take a stand and realize you have rights. You have a right to speak up like these women did. You have a right to dream for a better tomorrow and their situation didn't change because of a man entered it. Their situation, and I hope you get a great man. That's my prayer for many of you. And I believe in men and this is not a sermon against men. I got Father's Day coming and I'll take care of that. But nothing changed until they took a stand because God is not in what should have been or could have been or what should be or could be, God is in what is. You find him in what is. You'll never find him obsessing over the past,

obsessing over what happened, reminiscing over what you wished could have been. or should have been, you find him in what is, and then you move forward from there. These five women, in an unfortunate, devastated place, found God in what is. It's not a perfect situation, but yet God was found in it, and God used it, and God heard their prayer, and God answered their prayer, and this was the last decision Moses made before he went up the mountain, laid his hands on Joshua, and died. He made a decision to say, women, you have rights. You have a right to stand. You have a right to ask God for things. You have a right to say, my family may not have what they have, or this, maybe you don't have a godly man in the home, and maybe you dragged your husband to church today, and he's beating himself up right now, and maybe you dragged your kids here, but the point that I'm making to every one of you that maybe someone drugged you here is you have a godly woman in your home, and she makes a major, major difference. All right. Luke, chapter 15, the parable of lost things. We have three scenarios here that Jesus paints a picture of how discovery is made.

The first two deal with men going outside of the house to find something that's lost, the lost sheep. They leave the 99 and go find the one, the lost son or the prodigal. The father runs up to him and says, I'm gonna go find the lost sheep. He finds the prodigal. The father runs out and embraces the son that's still covered in the sin and the mess that he came from. But the third scenario I wanna focus on is a woman who is inside her house. Not saying that women don't have influence outside the home, but this is a parable about the power that you have inside of the home. Something had been lost, and the Bible says she looks around and there's no way, based on the condition of the home, what was lost could be found. So she opens the windows, lets some fresh air in. She lights the candles. She begins to clean the home. She begins to sweep out the dirt and the filth from the home. And she was absolutely determined. If I can set the atmosphere, what's been lost can be found. And this is important for you to realize that you have the power to create an atmosphere. And if something's been lost, maybe love has been lost.

Maybe romance has been lost. Maybe a sense of connection's been lost. Maybe a sense of closeness or maybe respect has been lost. God has given women a discovering anointing, an anointing to discover what's been lost and the power to set the atmosphere to find it. I think about the woman with the alabaster box who goes into the presence of Jesus and she breaks open that box. And the scent and the aroma fills the room. And God said, what this woman has done will be told as a memorial. As long as the word of God is preached, her ability to create an atmosphere, to set the conditions in the home. Mary ushers in the very first miracle of Jesus. Jesus is saying, it's not quite time. It's not my hour. But Mary creates the atmosphere for Jesus to step in to his first miracle. When Peter denies Jesus, the Bible says, it was a woman that triggered his denial. She created an environment, an atmosphere where the worst in him came out. You have the ability to pull greatness out of the people around you. Or you have the ability to pull the worst out of the people around you. According to the Institute of Family Relations, for every one positive thing in the home,

there are 10 negative things in the home. Every one good thing that happens, there's 10 bad things that happen. And this is what the study says. This family survey went on to say that it takes four positive things to overcome one negative thing. So you got to increase the positivity by 40 times just to level out the negativity. Open the window, light the candles, get the filth out, set the environment, set the atmosphere for God to do a miracle and for God to do, you have rights. It doesn't have to stay stale. It doesn't have to stay messy. It doesn't have to stay dark. You can discover some things that have been lost. Remember the Shenomite woman in second Kings chapter four, the Bible actually says that she goes to her husband and says, I want to build a room on our home. So whenever the prophet comes to town, we have a room in our home. And the Bible says she was a great woman. Why? She said, whatever we do as a family, let's make sure we have room for God in this. She had no idea in the future that her son would die and that her son would regain his life because she built that room. And in the same way, I don't know what your family's future looks like, but I can tell you one thing, the chance of that family being resurrected when it goes through the worst of times is, does God have room in the home? And you have the power to create a place for God's presence to show up in your home. You have rights. I love that Moses goes to God and says, what am I supposed to do here? And God said to Moses, what those daughters are saying is right. Give them that land, give them that inheritance. When they cross the Jordan and go into the promised land, they have just as many rights

in the promised land as anybody else. And it's the same with us. God's given us promises. And what I want us to do is two things in closing together. I want us to take a moment and look around at all the godly women that are here. All the women who've stood, all the women who've said, I'm believing for the promises of God to be true in my family, in my marriage, in my children's life. And can we take just a moment at all our locations and say thank you to all the godly moms and godly women. Can we put our hands together and say thank you for making the difference. And can we stand to our feet together and maybe for 30 seconds, maybe a minute, can we sing this song together, every voice, every heart. And I've got one more thing I want to do at the end. But can we lift our hands and as you worship, this is what I want you to do. I want you to declare rights over your family. The peace of God shall rule and reign in our home. Pray for the salvation of your children. Pray for the salvation of your family. Come on, you have rights. And this is beginning to create the atmosphere. Open the window, light the candles. Come on, let's get out the broom and let's start to sweep it out. Come on, invite God into our home. God, we welcome you. Thank you, Lord. For hearts you have changed. We lift you up with highest praise. Thank you, Lord, for all that you've done. Thank you, Lord, for all that's in come. We lift you up with highest praise.

Father, I pray over every family. Father, I thank you for the women in here who have stood. Thank you for the awesome presence of godly women. Bless our moms today, our spiritual moms, our spouses. Bless them today, strengthen them. We know the attack of the enemy is great on their minds. minds, on their emotions. We know that the attack is great on the relationship. And with great rights come great responsibility. And Father, we thank you for the women that today they're being strengthened and encouraged. In Jesus name, bless them, bless them and give them strength for every fight they need to fight. In Jesus name, thank you. Thank you Jesus for the awesome presence of a woman in the home. In Jesus name, every eye closed, every head bowed. Maybe you're here today and you'd say, Marcus, I'm not right with Jesus Christ. You're not right with God. I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to humiliate you. But it was my mom who in many ways struggled her whole life, struggled with abuse, struggled with addiction, never really recovered from it in that way. But I do know that my mom knew something about the Lord. And I know this because early on in my life, I was very young. We weren't necessarily, you know, the active church type people. You know, we weren't really the type of home that lived for God. But I remember one time I asked my mom about God. I asked my mom about, I can't remember if it was heaven or what. And I was a young boy, but I remember my mom grabbing a hold of my hand and looking at me, looking me in the eyes. And I remember, and it planted a seed, a seed that many years later would actually begin to grow and take root. And it was even many years after that, that I would go back and know a little bit more about how God works to know that that moment, even though I didn't really see it in her life a lot, that in that moment, God did something in my heart through the power of this moment that me and my mom had. And I, she's gone to be with the Lord now, but she said this to me in my question, she said, Marcus, you have to believe that Jesus is God's son. And then she grabbed, she put her fist on her chest and she pounded it. And she said, and you have to believe that with all of your heart. And she said, it was such sincerity again, probably 45 years ago, but I still remember that moment that a seed was planted. So with every eye closed and every head bound

in honor of that moment, I know many of you have had that moment with somebody that loved Jesus, but maybe you're here today. And like me, you never really took root. You've done your own thing. You've lived your own life. You've gone your own way, but you found your way to this church service today. And maybe you didn't show up because you wanted to, but you showed up out of respect and honor for your mom or your wife or somebody else. But God is here today. His presence is here today. And I can tell you that that woman in your life has some rights and she's gone before God, just like those women did. And she's pleaded on your behalf. God, don't let my babies go to hell. God, don't let my husband go to hell. Save them. Let them know the love that I know. Let them know that there's forgiveness. Let them know that you can do all things through anyone that would just simply say, I believe. And you're here today and you'd say, Marcus, would you pray for me? I need to get right with God. I need to be at peace with God. You don't want to walk out of this room disconnected. You don't want to walk out of this room distant from God, but you want to have peace with God. You want to have forgiveness. You need a new beginning and a new start on the count of three. If that's you, I want you to throw your hand up as high as you can. You say, why am I throwing my hand up? Well, it's between me and you for the most part. But the truth is, I believe this is a moment God sees. I believe this is a moment that should matter to you because it matters to him. That he went to the cross and he died a brutal death and he hung and he bled because of the sins in my life and the sins in yours. And when you lift your hand, you're acknowledging, I need forgiveness. You're lifting your hand, saying, God, thank you for going to that cross. You didn't have to. You shouldn't have. I deserve that kind of death. I deserved judgment. Jesus, you took it on for me. And when you lift your hand, you're acknowledging that and you're saying, God, I receive what you did on the cross for me on the count of three, you want me to pray for you? Lift that hand as high as you can. One, two, three, throw it up as high as you can. You'd like me to pray for you. God bless you. Several hands going up. Thank you. Anybody else you'd say Marcus pray for me today. I want to get right with God. I don't want to leave here Filled with unforgiveness. I don't want to leave here filled with All the things that have taken over my life I Want Jesus to be Lord. I want Jesus to come in and give me a new beginning

Let's put our hand on our hearts. Let's all pray this together say Jesus. Thank you for dying on a cross For shedding your blood For my sin. I ask you to forgive me Cleanse me. I invite you into my life. I surrender all to you I Turn from my old life And I turn towards your love and your grace In Jesus name, we all said amen. Can we give the Lord a good hand clap together?