Touré Roberts - Year of The Woman - Part 2

Right now, we’re entering week two of the final installment of the series called «The Year of the Woman,» or rather, «The Age of the Woman.» It’s a powerful, transformational message that is going to bless your life. Many have never seen this before, even though it was ministered 11 years ago, and it is going to change your life. So let’s get into it. Last week, we dealt with some misconceptions about the identity of women, including misconceptions that the church itself has embraced in their humanity, or rather, in their carnality. The first misconception we overturned scripturally was the idea that a woman is less than a man. Man was created in the image of God, so it was thought that man was the full expression of God’s image while the woman was simply an extension of the man. In other words, it has been viewed as God, then man, and then woman, almost as a third-tier situation. I see I have to touch on that a little more. Hallelujah! I love it! I can tell by the bewildered looks that what we’ve subconsciously embraced is that the woman is kind of the third expression of God—an almost second-class figure. Yet, God is followed by man, who is seen as the primary, and then woman is viewed merely as an extension. If there were an organizational chart, it would have God at the top, followed by man, and then woman as an offshoot, down and diagonal. For the most part, that is how society has trained us, even quote-unquote Christian society. Are you hearing me? As I mentioned before, I love everybody, and I respect everyone’s house rules regarding church. I may disagree, but I will respect and honor that. However, I grew up in a culture where a woman couldn’t even walk in the pulpit. You couldn’t, and you certainly couldn’t dare try to take a microphone or suggest that you had been called to preach in any capacity. Seriously, in my generation, I have seen it. And that wasn’t the only place; there are many other examples I could give. Yet even in the church, the identity of women has been mismanaged and assaulted. When I say assaulted, I do not always mean physical violence—though often it is, particularly in some countries. When I say violent, I mean it is a form of violence whenever someone stands against your identity. It is violence towards you to tell you that you are less than who you are. That’s the worst type of violence, and what makes it even worse is if you happen to believe it. I was—I’m sure if you were here Wednesday night, you learned that my bike got stolen. Come on! Yeah, my bike got stolen! So I waited a few days to see if, by God’s grace and goodness, this custom, very nice bike would be retrieved by the authorities, but it did not happen. I found myself at the bike shop yesterday, where they make your bike custom. While I was there, a lady was helping me. I’m not telling you where it is, and I’m not mentioning anyone’s names, so this is not gossip; I am not putting anyone’s business out there. However, something happened there that I think is relevant to what we’re discussing today. I was at the bike shop, and it’s a custom bike, so you pick the frame, wheels, seat, and everything—they build it to specs. It’s a husband-and-wife-owned shop; you need to know that. So, the wife was helping me. I’ve bought bikes there before, and she was showing me different things. Then something strange happened in the shop—an exchange between the husband and wife that blew me away. She asked, «Where do you want me to put this?» and he went from zero to ten, basically cursing her out, calling her stupid and telling her to put it over there, you stupid. It came from nowhere, and the customers in the shop were all looking like, «What just happened?» We looked at her, thinking, «Do you need me to hold him for you?» It was so ridiculous. I thought, «Oh, it is about to go down in here!» He just went off on her, and it made no sense. It was so wrong and disrespectful, and he did it in front of everyone in the shop. I was ready to intervene for her! We all looked at her, anticipating she would start breaking fingernails or taking off shoes. I knew she would. It was almost as if she realized that injustice had just occurred; for a moment, it was like she was poised to respond to the truth, perhaps because we were interacting a lot and we carry the presence of God. We carry the atmosphere.