You're listening to Mountedee Church audio, Christ said you're teaching from the wilderness city, why horse you on? Here's this week's message. Every person enters the world connected to a chord that it didn't choose but couldn't survive without. It's called an umbilical cord.
And most of us never think about it after we're born. That is until we become parents. The biology of the umbilical cord is fascinating. It has three strands.
And the structure is so unique because you have two arteries and one vein. The two arteries carry waste from the baby, moving what doesn't belong out of the baby's body so development can happen. But the one vein carries oxygenated nutrient-rich blood back into the baby. Two strands moving out and one strand carrying life in.
Now if that one vein were to be cut off, squeezed, twisted prematurely. It doesn't matter how healthy the other two strands are, the baby will suffer and eventually die. God designed the umbilical cord to function this way. And it's actually a great picture of the three-fold cord of marriage that we've been exploring throughout this series.
My name's Jeremy and I'm the lead pastor of Mountedee Church. Today we move into the third and final week of our Nauded series, Exploring a Biblical World View of Marriage. We started this journey with the principle from a wisdom book of Ecclesiastes found in the Bible that a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. This three-fold cord is represented in a marriage with the first vital strand being Christ, preferably interwoven into the individuals before those two ever meet.
And last week we explored the creation of man that Adam was designed by God for God before a woman was even in the picture. And finally this week we move on to the creation of woman, securing that three-fold cord of marriage, fully enplined in a beautiful Christ-centered marital union. Hi, my name is Camila. Our scripture reading is Genesis 2, verses 18 through 24.
You are welcome to follow along with the physical Bible. Search the table of contents for the corresponding page number. Alternatively, you can download the Bible up or visit Bible.com. Then the Lord got set.
It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every birth of the heavens and brought them to the men to see what he will call them. And whatever the men called, every living creature, that was his name.
The men gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep slip to fall upon the men. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed off its place with flesh.
And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the men, he made into a woman and brought her to the men. Then the men said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of men. Therefore, a man shall live his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2 holds a single nuanced phrase that's incredibly important to the entire creation account. It reads, then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Did you catch that?
For context, every single moment throughout the creation account found in Genesis, God had proclaimed that the work he had done was quote, good, or even quote, very good. Six separate times, God looked at what he had made and called it good. But now he looks down at the man, he had formed in his own image, breathe life into, and given work and responsibility. And God says, for the very first time, it is not good.
For the context of the passage, we understand that this isn't because Adam is one, that's not it. God isn't saying that man as his creative being isn't good. It wasn't good because man was a broken or sinful or fallen. None of that had happened yet.
That was not yet. But from God's perspective, something wasn't complete. And so after God surveyed everything he had made, there was an absence in his creation that wasn't good, not fully complete yet. Now on the surface, there might be an assumption that God deemed the creation of human beings incomplete, which wouldn't be wrong, but it's different than that.
It's deeper. There's a deeper level to this text. If we jump back to Genesis 1, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them. Before the order of creation, laid out in Genesis 2 of human beings, chapter 1 notes, male and female together. Both man and woman would bear the image of God in the world. And that's the deeper level of God's statement that's not good.
It wasn't just about Adam being lonely or incomplete as a human being or relationship. It was bigger than that. It was about the image that God could not fully reflect who he was in the creation of man alone. Female, woman, needed to be there too.
There are distinct characteristics designed into women that display God's image and personhood in ways that man alone cannot present the world. God could not be fully reflected in Adam alone. So when we consider Eve as the first woman, she wasn't made to complete a man but to complete the image of God that he was creating in male and female. This is important because culturally we've been absorbing false positions about women that aren't healthy and aren't true, surferly.
There are actually two of them pulling in opposite directions. The first position is witnessed in the, shall we say, girl boss movement. And it's displayed everywhere from corporate culture to children's films where the creative shift over the last 15 years has been significant in a certain direction, purpose in a certain direction. The underlining message is that young women should discover themselves and become the boss or the hero without any connection to a man as part of their storyline.
Now, truth be told, women are strong and capable and can absolutely be heroic. We see that in surfer, through history and even in our modern context. However, the messaging shifts from you are strong to you are better or you are complete on your own without any male involvement. It celebrates female strength while severing it from the design and covenant that God created.
Now let's come back to center and move all the way to the other side. The second position is a pushback against the first really that we've witnessed in the past five years or so in what's called the trad wife trend or the traditional wife trend. And it's very popular on social media. The underlining message here is that a woman's greatest purpose is to find the right man, submit to him completely, build a home around him, and derive her in higher identity from the role as his wife.
This trend borrows a lot of language from tradition and history and even scripture, sometimes really pushed in church communities. And although there are great values to being a dedicated wife and mother, and we've witnessed that again, just like the first part in the Bible, throughout history and even in current culture, the problem with this extreme trend is that it can shift a woman's worth fully onto her husband. It can tie her completion to whether she has been chosen by a man or potentially by the right kind of man. Now coming back to Genesis, there's evidence that both of these extremes miss the mark on what God had designed.
The creation of man or woman wasn't primarily about independence or dependence. It was about designing a presentation of his image. God could not be fully reflected in Adam alone. So he designed something into the woman that complimented the design of man, not completing them as genders, but deeper, bigger.
It's completing the picture of who God is. She wasn't made to complete a man, but to complete the image of God. And that changes everything about how we read this passage. So if we look at this again, with that overarching theological understanding or concept in our mind, let's move into the term used to describe the first woman.
The Hebrew word Azar is translated into helper. Unfortunately, the English word can shift based on context. It can also shift based on the background and bias of the person reading it, maybe even you right now. For example, some read the term helper and they envision Adam's assistant.
A woman becomes the person who fills the gaps and supports the main person in the story. A deeper study of the word Azar reveals a lot. Azar appears 21 times in the Old Testament, 15 times speaking about God as helper, four times speaking about human or military help, but only twice is Azar used for the woman. And both of them are in the second chapter of Genesis.
Let that sink in for a moment. A woman is only called Azar helper, twice in the entirety of the Old Testament. And both of them are within that creation account. Now, add in the fact that scripture uses this term seven times more when speaking about God.
We have something to think about. It provides extremely strong evidence that the creation of woman wasn't about giving man an assistant, that the purpose of using that word was to complete the image of God in the human beings. And the word God chose to describe a woman's design is the same word used in scripture that he uses for himself described throughout the Old Testament. So God as our eternal Azar helper is displayed in the creation of Eve as Adam's Azar helper.
It's fascinating. It's amazing. It changes everything. And so with this theological understanding, let's come back to those two false positions that we mentioned before.
The first looks like a woman standing in front of the man or independent separated from man. The second looks like a woman standing behind the man, fully dependent on the man. But the Hebrew text doesn't present either of those. Now coming back to verse 18 again from Genesis 2, we find the Hebrew word translated fit connected to helper.
And this means a counterpart or mate. The positional picture of this term is a woman who stands opposite or face to face as a connected match to the man, not in front of or behind, but face to face. Man and woman reflecting the image of God to each other. How beautiful is that?
And so let's go a little deeper. What does this mean for a marriage? It means that a wife's purpose isn't a supplement to her husband. But it's also not intended to be fully detached from her husband's purpose either.
Husbands and wives are structural and integral counterparts. Men and women complete what God has declared as being made in his image. In practice, this means a healthy marriage isn't one where a wife quietly supports whatever her husband decides, nor is it one where she operates independently and in parallel to him in some other journey. The position is two people who never forget that face to face matters.
And then face to face they can then side by side face the world around them. The challenges, the valleys, and even the adventures, the experiences, the mountaintops. Speaking specifically to a wife who may be watching or listening right now, this positioning shapes your perspective and decisions. A wife's strengths cover his blind spots as he creates space for her to bring the unique design of female or woman into their relationship.
Neither one is the whole picture, but together they display something that neither of them could display on their own. If you can follow that. Now, it would be great if our marriages displayed this positional picture 100% of time. That's not reality.
At least it's not from my marriage and I assume for your marriage, it's not to say either. Although men and women were designed to be whole and together and beautiful and fully visible to the world, that's a great perfect picture that God's designed it. We also have Genesis 3, which tells us the rest of the story. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, the same two that God had created to be so perfect.
And sin has also entered into our lives through our fallen nature and the choices we make. Which means sin is impossible to hide in our marriage relationships. In fact, our spouses often know our deed to stark spots. And like unchecked, sin in the marriage will destroy the connection that we have for God, with God, and with each other.
And what God intended, it damages, destroys, distorts the entire design. How this often happens is like we said last week, the man who often is called to cultivate and caretake becomes passive, dismissive, and reflective. Now, on the other side, the woman who was designed as his counterpart loses the face-to-face position, pressured to either step out in front of him or maybe pressured to step away from him or the latter and just collapse in behind him. Sin breaks the image of God displayed in the marriage covenant, that face-to-face picture.
But thankfully, God didn't abandon this design. He sent his son to restore it from the inside out. Shrimps tells us that Jesus came as quote the second Adam. Paul writing the Corinthian church stated that the first man Adam became a living being.
The last Adam, sweet you Jesus, became a life-giving spirit. Then writing to the Roman church, Paul states, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, Jesus, the many will be made righteous. This brings us all the way back to our threefold chord.
Two strands, a husband and wife, twisted together. They will struggle because of sin, but they'll do far better if they've interwoven Jesus into the relationship. If you're a woman, you will be tempted to listen to one of these two false narratives. The first says that you're less than that your value is found in a man, that your purpose is to stand behind a man, and that your identity can only be built around him.
The second says that you are greater than that you don't need men in general at all, that any dependence on the attributes of men is weakness, and that the goal is to stand in front of a man or apart from him at all costs. The gospel shows us a better way outlined in Paul's letters and Ephesians. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Later on, he writes so that he might present the church to himself in sweater.
The church is the bride of Christ. She stands in a covenant relationship with him face to face in devotion and side by side in mission, fully known and fully valued by the one who gave everything for her. Therefore, a wife woven into Christ doesn't need a man to assign value to her, nor does she feel the need to overpower a man to feel validated. She stands face to face with her husband as his unique counterpart, securing the image that God wowed together.
So to all the wives out there and to those women who desire marriage one day, embrace that. You weren't made to complete a man but to complete the image of God. And now let's come also. Here's what this entire teaching series has shown us.
A man disconnected from Jesus will struggle to cultivate and caretate what God has entrusted to. He'll go passive when it matters most and he'll deflect when he should be stepping up. A woman disconnected from Jesus is open to the deception of false narratives. She'll believe she's less valuable if she doesn't have a man or convince herself she's greater or better than him if she's separated or in front of the design God intended.
Many of the problems we face in our marriage is traced back to these simple roots and we'll tell ourselves that it's incompatibility or it's circumstance. There's all sorts of lies we believe or even create on our own. But in truth, it's a disconnection from the strand that God gave us. We're disconnected from Jesus.
He is not taking the first priority. His voice isn't the loudest in our lives. So the solution is the same for both men and women, whoever you are, wherever you are, being face to face with Jesus first. That's so crucial.
Everything else flows from that place. And so, again, whoever you are, wherever you're at, if you're watching or listening right now, now's the time to get face to face with Jesus. And if you're ready to look into the face of Jesus, to submit and let him lead, would you pray this prayer with me? Dear Jesus, thank you for designing me with purpose and dignity.
Forgive me for the times I believe the false narratives. Forgive me for believing I was less than or that I was greater than the design you created for me. Today I'm choosing to stand face to face with you, Jesus. Secure me and weave me into your love and forgiveness.
Restore me and help me display your image to the world around you. In your name I pray. Amen. Thank you so much for walking through this series with us.
If you're new to our feed or you're looking to get more connected, we would love to meet you. And here for you, simply visit MountainView.church. Or you can find us on social media, at Mountain View Whitehorse and just drop us a message. And if you have kids, make sure you check out our Base Camp Children's Program.
We have downloadable video lessons and activities available every week at MountainView.church. Now here's a few more updates to make you aware of. Hi, Mountain View. My name is Haley.
I'm the Ministry Leader for the Young Adults Ministry. And this is an invitation for anyone between the ages of 18 and 35 to our June Young Adults event. This event is going to be disc golfing and ice cream. So we're going to meet at the Mount Mac Disc Golf Course, so the Dog Parking Lot at 2.30 on Sunday, June 28.
We're going to hang out for a bit, have a little ice cream tailgate party, and then we'll do disc golfing. So you've never been disc golfing before, and you want to. There'll be some people there who will be able to share their discs if you want to go to try and play. If you don't want to disc golf, you can also just come hang out and vote for a nice walk-in forest.
And yeah, we hope to see you there next Sunday. Next Sunday, we'll be taking a break from our online gatherings to host our new Fellowship Regional Director at Brent Chapman. So you'll have to attend one of our physical gatherings at 8am, 930am, or 11am to hear Brent's message and what's happening throughout our Pacific Region. And Brent's brother Todd, who also serves on our regional staff, will be visiting as well.
He'll be speaking to our Filipino congregation at their second anniversary gathering at 3pm, again on June 28th. Then, on the following Sunday, July 5th, we begin our new teaching series, Questions and Answers. In a world full of opinions, where every issue becomes a battle line, what does God actually say? Not louder voices, not better arguments.
True, true spoken with grace, truth lived with love, truth rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Join us as we explore hard questions through the truth of God's work. This is a two-month series addressing the hard questions that your friends, co-workers, and neighbors are asking. Questions like, can we trust the Bible?
What's the value of human life? Who am I and who gets to decide? Or what does love really look like? If you know someone who's curious about faith or someone who's walking away and still has questions, this series is strategically designed for them.
So make a plan now to invite them to this series, Questions and Answers starting in July. Now it's time for our discussion and prayer focus. Listening content is definitely helpful, and I'm glad you've done that, but discussing it and praying about it is actually what solidifies the message. So instead of turning off the feed, take a few minutes to reflect on your owner, discuss with a friend, and then spend some time in prayer.
Our discussion question is this, how have you been caught in false positions instead of God's design? How have you been caught in a false position instead of God's design? And then spend some time in prayer. Ask God to reflect His design in your relationship with Him and your spouse, or your fiance or partner.
Ask God to reflect His design in your relationship with Him and your spouse on your significant death. Thank you again for following our content and tuning in each and every week. We greatly appreciate your support and engagement. And remember, we're on a digital break next week, but we will be back the first week of July.
See you then.