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[0:00] me back to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Last week as I was preaching through the text, I at some point looked down at my watch and I realized my time was getting away from well, just to be honest with you, I realized time had gotten away from me past tense. And even my wife, you have a great pastor's wife, she looked at me later and she said, that was a lot of information.

[0:27] And I understand that I like to keep some portions of text together. I like to keep them because I think they are better understood within the context of the greater passage which they are at, but at times it causes us to revisit. So before we move into the 15th chapter, there are matters that we will revisit in the 14th chapter.

[0:47] So if you're physically able and desire to do so, I'm asking if you'll join with me as we stand together and we just get right into the word of God with one another. We're only going to read two verses. 1 Corinthians 14 verses 34 and 35 and then we will pray.

[1:05] Paul, in the context of the 14th chapter, which we will flesh out in just a little bit, says, the women are to keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves just as the law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Let's pray.

[1:29] We thank you so much for this day. God, so thankful for the opportunity which we have as your people to come together, to worship together, to sing together, to give alongside of other believers. Lord, what a grand privilege it is to read your word.

[1:47] We pray now as we come to the portion where we think and set our minds upon the things of God according to the word of God, that we would understand them with clarity, that they would come to us with certainty, that they would come to us with purpose and passion to enable us to live as you've called us to do it for your glory.

[2:05] And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. I have to admit my own leanings, at least for going back.

[2:18] Originally, and I knew it would be silent in the church, there are some messages you preach that you get butterflies more, sometimes you have monarch butterflies and sometimes you have little moths.

[2:28] This is one of those monarch butterfly times because you understand the passage which you've just read publicly. This is a passage which quite often has not been read, has not been declared, and it's kind of been shot away from.

[2:41] It is easy to wrap up in the grand scheme of scripture rather than to stop and to pause. Originally, I was asked a question as to clarifying some of the things that I had said last week.

[2:53] Not in a bad way, just continue to flesh it out because we were pressed for time at the end of the message and maybe I went a little quicker than I should have. So my original intention, I'll just go ahead and just be transparent with you, was to go back and elaborate and to clarify a little bit more of what was shared last week and then to move on into the 15th chapter.

[3:12] That original intention, gradually over the week, as I studied it and looked into it, moved to it, well, I should because I don't want anything or anybody thinking that I'm shying away from any portion of scripture.

[3:25] Now, I say that because I have staked my claim on the reality that I want to preach the fullness of the word of God, that I don't want to shy away from difficult passages or uncomfortable passages, but I wanted to be a person who declared the fullness of the word of God.

[3:43] And then that moved from the reality that this is something that I ought to preach because this is a matter in which churches ought to have clarification upon just as matters speaking in tongues, the office of the prophet, the office of the apostles, and all of those natures.

[4:03] So throughout the week and the course of my own personal study, I moved from, well, I'll do it because I need to clarify. I'll do it because I don't want to seem to be skimming over to the reality that there is a certain conviction that these things are contained in scripture and therefore they must need be declared from the pulpit.

[4:25] Now, when we get into that, we understand that quite often when this passage has been preached, that it has been understood and distorted, and we'll get into that in just a moment. The word of God is not silent on these matters and we will see them.

[4:39] And I'll say this at the very beginning. This message will probably be a little bit different than the majority of my messages in that I will allude to other portions in scripture because the best interpreter of scripture is scripture.

[4:53] I will not ask you to turn there, but I will ask you to turn to one other passage and that will be in the book of 1 Timothy. We will be looking at a very small segment within the book of 1 Corinthians and we want to make sure that we keep it in context.

[5:08] That is, we don't want it to say something that it doesn't say, but we do not want it not to say what it clearly does say. So we want to come to it and let the word of God be authoritative.

[5:19] We want it to speak clearly. We want it to speak to us passionately, but we also want it to speak to us graciously, honorably, and truthfully.

[5:29] So I want you to see this morning, the title would be A Place in Line with Purpose and Design. As Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and he begins to emphasize what's going on in the local assembly when the assembly is gathered together when they have church.

[5:49] He has spoken to them about their speaking out. He has spoken to them about their prayers in public. He has spoken to them about how they take the Lord's Supper together.

[6:00] He has spoken to them about their fellowship meals. He has spoken to them about the exercise of their spiritual gifts within the local body. And in the midst of that, we find this passage.

[6:10] So the reality is it is directly connected to the spiritual giftedness and that everybody has a place in the body. But that place must be properly aligned with purpose and design or we get in trouble.

[6:25] Now there's a few things that we must put a little asterisk there and we must make this at least assumption. And I say this in all sincerity and in all compassion.

[6:41] Just because we can point to things that have happened in the world that seem to contradict what we're going to see this morning and we can see God's blessings blessings or we can see how they may have succeeded by the world's standards does not mean it usurps the divine purpose and design of scripture.

[7:04] That is, just because something may be done wrong and it seems to succeed does not mean it is right. And we clarify that. Because there are a number of things that we can look at and say, well God, bless that exercise over there even though it is wrong according to this quote unquote legalistic interpretation of scripture therefore it must be right.

[7:26] We can't do that. We must let the word of God be true and align ourselves with scripture rather than align causing scripture to align itself with us.

[7:39] Now we start with that bedrock. This is where we differentiate because we will start at the end before we get to the beginning. because immediately when I read the passage it almost sucks the wind out of the room.

[7:53] It causes, as I said last week, everyone to want to hear what the pastor has to say because we want to be sure to interpret it by how we hear it. And I want you to give me at least this freedom.

[8:08] Words matter. I try to be very intentional with my words. Sometimes I stumble over them because I have a southern tongue and my name is Billy Joe and I'm from Belbuck when I preach at War Trace.

[8:19] Sometimes I stumble over them but I try to be intentional. Sometimes I understand my personality. I speak with my hands and it can seem offensive or argumentative and I don't mean it to be that way.

[8:32] Sometimes I put my hands in my pockets because I don't want to be perceived as being forceful. See, I did it already. And I try to hold myself back but I just want you to hear the words and not to read into it too much.

[8:43] The first thing that we see when we open up this passage and we really can't you say, well pastor, I don't see this in this passage. Oh, but you do. The first thing that we see, number one, are failures of grand proportions.

[8:59] We're starting at the end so we can get to the beginning. The first thing we see are failures of grand proportions. And the reason we see that is because instinctively we interpret this passage through the lens of our culture, our context and our experiences.

[9:19] That the moment we read a portion of scripture which seems to contradict what we believe, we think or we feel, we are doing that because of our life situation and our life circumstances.

[9:32] And the reality is passages such as this and this is not an isolated text and ladies, I don't want you to believe I'm picking on you or anything of that nature. This is just one of a number of texts and we start speaking of the sanctity of life or the sanctity of marriage and we begin to speak on the realities of the ugliness of divorce and we begin to speak on the killing of the unborn through abortion.

[9:53] It's the same thing. We filter these matters, these touchy subjects through our life circumstances which are inevitably always rooted in the society and the culture we live in.

[10:04] we cannot help but do it because when Paul was writing this letter to the church at Corinth they also were embedded in a culture and a society and they would have interpreted these passages based upon that society and that culture in which they were in.

[10:25] Now we try to be clear here because there are portions of scripture in which we would like to contextualize and say well that belongs there. this is not one of those passages. We cannot do that because this is not an isolated text.

[10:40] The only time we ever find Paul declaring that women ought to wear head coverings is in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. That's an isolated text. Therefore it has direct application to that place at that time and to wear a head covering was the same as wearing a wedding ring and all he was doing was telling the ladies that don't walk around acting like you're available when you're already married to a man.

[11:00] You're doing disservice to your husband. It's an isolated text. This is not one of those isolated texts. So therefore we cannot say it's direct application and it's only application belongs to that one location rather we have to look and see the truth that it is teaching us.

[11:17] But the grand failures that we have seen are in how we interpret this passage and we will acknowledge those failures and we need to.

[11:27] This is where we get into a little bit more teaching and preaching and I hope that you give me the freedom to do so. Unfortunately we interpret this passage and I said this last week and I will reiterate it this week it is like a full circle and you ladies are thinking well he's picking on us well by the time we're through with the message and hopefully if you listened last week you will understand that if we're picking on anybody we're picking on men because one of the grand failures that has happened is the abuse and the misuse and the twisting of this passage for the benefit of men.

[11:56] that this passage has been historically misused and abused not only in the church but also in society and unfortunately many view this passage in light of that misuse.

[12:14] I had an old pastor friend he has since passed to glory he was a former church planter and a dear friend of mine and he shared with me one time and he was from a different line of doctrine than I am and he had I believe he had three daughters and one son and he told me he said you know pastor what I used to do when my kids were little he said I would be down in my basement and my daughters would be upstairs and I would call their name with their brother sitting right beside me I would call their name to make them come downstairs just to send them back to the middle floor to get me a drink out of the refrigerator and bake it down to me so that I could teach them submission I said if I would have done that my daughter would have threw it through my ear I think that's an abuse of the passage I know where he was coming from but I think that's an abuse of the passage now let me tell you the rest of the story none of his kids were in church anywhere none of them not a single one and unfortunately they interpret passages based upon past experiences that is some of us interpret this passage because someone has done us wrong someone close to us has harmed us hurt us and the reality is is the greatest harm the greatest problem the greatest failure that has ever taken place it is the absence and the failures and even the passivity of men that is the greatest failure we can have and we see that because of that and as a direct result of that we interpret this passage wrongly the second grand failure we have really came in three waves and this may be where I get in trouble but you have to stay with me and it is the three waves of the feminism movement in my notes

[14:06] I have 1830 to 1920 but the dates are actually 1840 to 1920 was the first wave of feminism from 1960 to 1990 was the second wave of feminism and from 1990 until present is the self-declared third wave of feminism I told you that I got in trouble one of the early conferences I went to an old pastor sat beside me and he asked me he said pastor do you think the world went downhill when the women went to work and in my naivety and in my young 26 year old pastor mentality I answered the way that I thought I should answer and the lady across the table began to chew me out for the next 35 minutes and if I was there I would answer the same way but I would have an argument for what she says because see the grand failure of the feministic movement though originally here with me rooted in legitimate needs though originally legitimate needs that is suffrage movement the right for women to be able to vote the right for women to be able to recognize to be recognized in society to desegregate not racially but across the sexes the universities and have the application it originally began because of a lady's inability to enter into a university therefore she went to a secondary school completed her law degree was not allowed to pass the bar exam and therefore could not practice as a lawyer so she got really upset and she began what we start as the first wave of feminism the problem with that is that in that wave things began to pick up legitimate needs also often turn into selfish needs and the first movement that we have of feminism eventually led to what is declared as the women's bible the women's bible came out and it's major interpreter of the original language over two thirds of the women's bible was a self declared non-believer who used an atheist to help her interpret portions of scripture and in the women's bible she completely rewrote every passage of scripture and spoke to men and women she did great disservice to the greek and to the hebrew and she did great disservice to biblical interpretation to begin with so much so that the majority of that first wave said that that women's bible was not accurate though because they had legitimate needs though it still prevailed and became such a leading figure and you will know one of the leading figures who came out of that third wave and her last name would be Sanxon who was the founder of Planned Parenthood that is promoting a women's right to open abortion so what started as a right to vote ended in a right to kill the second movement of feminism in 1960 had nothing to do with the legitimate rights to vote or right in the workplace it was equality to be able to do whatever I want to whenever I want to and to believe however I want to it started with a book that was the self-declared women's bible interpreter and in that book it was simply degrading and defaming of the nucleus of the family saying how a woman's position within the family is really not worth anything time magazine declared it to be one of the grandest books of its time and therefore the breakdown of the family you should pay attention to these things because the first one began with legitimate need ended in the killing of life the second one began with the reality that the family is not important and when the family became unimportant we began to degrade everybody's position the founder of the second wave of feminism in 1960 is one who had suffered great harm remember what I said it all goes back to the man because her father had abandoned her and her mother at age 14 and in order for her to go to college her mom had to do very menial tasks had to work extensively and to work doubly more than anybody else and it really was the abandonment of the man that led to the degradation of the family and in that feminism we end up with this reality that you cannot tell me

[18:03] I am a female if I want to be a male I can be a male anytime I want to be because what I am sexually is determined by culture not by you that should catch your ear because that's still prevalent today at the root of it what happened in the second wave of feminism was homosexuality I want to love who I want to love how I want to love woman who are you to tell me anything other you can study these things the third wave of feminism from 1990 until present really has just catapulted the propaganda and the programs of the second wave you say why does all this matter because culturally that's how we're interpreting these passages of scripture each and every one of us sit in the middle of those cultures these things matter because they define how we hear it and they define what society declares to us is how we should interpret it whether or not we adhere to every one of these movements of feminism whether or not we adhere to every one of these theological implications the reality is is where we are at in society determines how we interpret the passages because each one of them made their way into our school systems and each one of them have been taught to us from our childhood up this is how we interpret these passages these things which have twisted scripture that have distorted scripture and they have rewritten scripture and quite often they rewrote it with non-believers and they rewrote it with people who neither knew the original languages and all they knew is they didn't like what it said so they wanted to say something different these are the failures of grand proportions so we are in a society that interprets scripture as something not historically accurate but as something historically inaccurate as a matter of fact the third wave of feminism which has tried to interpret scripture for us does not point to scripture alone it points to every great religious work the writings of the Hindus the writings of the Quran the writings of the LDS the writings of the Bible every great writing and tries to reinterpret how we view men and women in society based upon those standards we dare not because though we come with all these presuppositions and though we come with all this inundated material the reality is let the word of God be true and everything else be a lie so there's the failures of grand proportions it started with the abandonment and the harm of men and it ended from moving from a legitimate need to self promoting self serving needs if you read the history of them you can see them now now that we understand how we interpret it let's see if we can figure out what it says we see a failure of grand proportions the second thing we see is the foundations grounded in scripture if we can try to push past everything that we think this passage says and we allow the bible to speak and the bible alone to speak and we allow the word of god to declare the truth of god to us then we are coming to this reality of a foundation that is grounded in scripture not a foundation grounded in society paul declares here the women are to keep silent in the churches surely he is not speaking of praying publicly he's not even speaking of what he declared to be prophesying publicly because in the 11th chapter he said that when the women pray and prophesy let them have a head covering on their head to prophesy would be to declare like a testimony in today's time to declare what god is doing or what he has and it is this public speaking so surely it does not mean that women cannot speak at all in church in context what paul is writing about here is the public declaration of the word of god it is to serve as a leadership role of pastoral ministry is what we refer to today

[22:03] so therefore if we understand that context we can look elsewhere in scripture and see the grounding of that context but he makes this note we'll get to that in just a minute for they are not permitted to speak but are to subject themselves just as the law also says with that one phrase just as the law also says paul immediately unites himself now i need to make a a kind of a sub note here if you would allow me to some would say that paul is wrong and misguided and paul is not married evidently according to scripture and maybe paul they're looking down upon women's rights here maybe paul is looking down upon ladies maybe paul had been harmed and maybe maybe he had an agenda that he was promoting and i believe that the word of god is accurate i believe that the word of god is authoritative i believe in the literal interpretation of scripture i do i believe that with all of my heart with all of my soul with all of my might but here with one line as the law also says paul unites himself with another individual that we should probably pay very close attention to and that is jesus do you know that both paul and jesus point back to the creation narrative to define what it looks like to be a man and a woman both of them paul and christ himself point back not to what happened after the fall they point back to genesis 2 that is pre-fall because see you could say and most people do say this this is the egalitarianism position that the original design of god was that people would be equal in all aspects and the equality of the sexes in creation and there was no order in all these things but that was a result of the fall that's egalitarianism and they believe that when you come to christ they go and they point to galatians that they are neither male nor female again taking a passage out of context don't do that and they're making it say something they're not supposed to because in this text

[23:59] Paul is speaking about leadership roles within the church and that text he's talking about who we are as brothers and sisters in christ different text right different context we understand that egalitarianism the states and by the way this is the battle of the southern baptist convention today this is something that was happened at the southern baptist convention pass and if you want to understand it a little bit more here you go egalitarianism says that the moment i come to christ then it abolishes the sexes everybody's equal therefore if women want to serve in every capacity in every way in every part and portion that men do they have that right because in the beginning god didn't create this division that came after the fall the problem is that both paul and jesus point back to genesis 2 which was before the fall and if you're going to do that then you're going to have to change scripture and you're going to change it in more places than one now this passage is going to make you even more uncomfortable than the passage we've already read but i want you to see it for yourself turn to first timothy chapter 2 if you want to throw anything now's a good time to have it in your hand and you can get ready to throw it at me okay i'm just going to simply read the word of god i will keep my head down as i'm reading it and if you want to throw it make sure you're a good aim and you hit me and nothing else in the church first timothy chapter 2 start in verse 9 likewise i want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing modestly and discreetly not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly perfumes but rather by means of good works as is proper for women making a claim to godliness that is i don't want women coming in dressing in a way that's inappropriate that would tempt men and cause them to sin that's exactly what he's saying here verse 11 a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness i do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man but to remain quiet for it was adam who was first created and then eve that's genesis 2 by the way and it was not adam who was deceived but the woman being deceived fell into transgression but women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self restraint that's where you should have thrown something at me you could say pastor you're telling me all my job is just to have kids stay with me okay stay with me until i get to the end of the text but again this context the same context that paul is speaking about in first corinthians chapter 14 that is the role of leader the pastoral leader of the church and paul in uniting this text just as he did with he did there so now you have the church at corinth then you also have the church at ephesus some would say well in corinth women held a very low position in society and therefore paul could write that the problem is is historically and archaeology has the has really declared to us that in ephesus in ephesus women held very high positions they were actually in places of leadership in the city of ephesus and to the church at ephesus he wrote to their pastor named timothy and said the same thing therefore we need to pay attention and what he is doing is rooting it in genesis 2 and 3 as a matter of fact you can leave first timothy and you can stay there or if you want to but i'm going to stay back in first corinthians now he has already alluded to that reality in the 11th chapter in first corinthians where he had declared that the women were to have have head coverings when they pray as a sign of authority and he points back to genesis 2 says for it was not eve who was created first but man was created and the woman was created for the man he said well i have a problem with that pastor well then you have to also bring that up with christ because christ points back to the very same thing in genesis chapter 2 and in genesis 2 we're not going to go there but you could go there very clearly and you could see that god created man and he put him in the garden and he gave man a job to do he gave him he told him to to rule and to reign he told him to worship and to obey that his responsibility was to lead the creation and in leading that creation he was to to be there to worship god and to serve god and then it says it is not good for man to be alone let us make a helper suitable to him that word helper by the way as we're in the women's bible they had a problem with that i don't want to be told i'm a helper i want to be told i'm an equal equal so they began to change that word you have to do disservice to the original hebrew language if you want to mean anything else besides helper as a matter of fact in

[28:00] linguistics that is the study of languages there are is no one that would agree with you that that means anything but helper so god's as one lady wrote god's sovereign design listen to that word god's sovereign i'm sorry she said it this way god's sovereign discretion and deliberate design was to create the man and to create a helper suitable to the man that's god's discretion and god's design so what christ and paul both are saying that according to scripture if we have a problem with what scripture says we have to take it back to the creator not to creation because we see sovereign discretion and deliberate design and they put all of this on the solid bedrock foundation grounded in scripture i challenge you because we'll go ahead and just get right to the hardened matter what we're talking about here is the pastoral leadership role of the church i understand we're filming and i understand people going to watch this and this is probably be with any good fortune of your pastor the most viewed sermon that i ever preach and therefore probably be the most calls i ever get from it and that's okay but without a doubt paul is referring clearly to the pastoral leadership of the church he's using the same word submission that paul also uses in ephesians chapter 5 and he connects that with husbands sacrificially loving their wives as christ loved the church and the wives submitting to their husbands and honoring him and then paul makes this kind of this kind of hinted note as but i speak of a mystery he's speaking of families he said i'm speaking of a mystery not just speaking about families i'm also speaking about the church therefore what paul is saying and i've said this in my pre-marriage counseling i've said it over and over again the home is always to reflect the reality that's supposed to be displayed in the church and when the home does not reflect the reality of what's supposed to happen in the church then we begin to do church wrong and we begin to misinterpret passages because unfortunately again man i put it back on you when there's a problem in the home there's going to be a problem in the church you say well i thought paul was speaking about a pastoral leadership what does that have to do with the creation of man and woman in the first marriage because as is the home so too should be the church god is a god of order he is and his order stays consistent you need to understand this stay with me satan's desire is to hijack twist and distort scripture remember what i told you one of the first targets of the feministic movement was the destruction of the home if we can make the home a bad place then we can free ourselves from all these burdens and in freeing ourselves from all these burdens we've completely twisted distorted all of scripture and that trickled into the church that we have today admittedly the bulk of that responsibility falls on the men because while they may have been leading their homes they were not sacrificially lovingly leading their homes man we'll come back to you in just a moment so we see that both paul and christ himself go back and ground their stance in genesis 2 which is fall when you open up scripture we're going to get to the good news in just a minute ladies i challenge you when you open up scripture you will find exceptions to the norm in old testament you'll find a couple of prophetesses you'll find deborah right you'll find some that the women's movements have really promoted and put into place that they should not have been but what you will not find in

[32:01] scripture you will find a consistent order from the garden to the book of revelations that god has consistently called men to places of leadership to the exclusion of ladies does not mean that that's wrong it does not mean that it's mean it does not mean that it's distorted or that it should be suppressive stay with me okay you will not find any old testament priests that are women you will find a few prophetesses we'll get to that in just a moment but the majority of the prophets were men so that's because scripture is set in a context in a time don't let the word of god be true it transcends time it was written to time but it also transcends time the moment we begin to declare that that only meant something back then and it doesn't mean anything now then we're beginning to diminish the value of scripture when you turn your page from the book of malachi to the book of matthew and you meet your lord and savior you will find that he spends a night in prayer and he calls twelve men to be his apostles twelve men the lord and savior emmanuel god with us if he so desired to reinterpret passages of scripture because the fulfillment of all of scripture finds its ultimate fulfillment in jesus christ jesus christ and jesus christ alone yet we find there are twelve men that he calls his apostles you will not find a single church in the new testament that has a female pastor as a matter of fact the very standards to which this church held me in being called as a pastor those standards clearly declared in the book of totus in the book of first timothy make it impossible without the distorting and twisting of scripture for a female to fulfill that role because the pastor must be the husband of one wife it's very clear there is credible interpretation differences when it comes to deacons look at that in just a minute you can throw something at me there too if you want to but there are no credible reinterpretations in the responsibilities and the capabilities and the calling of the pastor very clearly defined nowhere but you will find a multiplicity of men serving in these churches it is grounded in scripture historically it is grounded in scripture biblically it is grounded in scripture lovingly let's listen to some good news number three we see freedoms gained in obedience freedoms gained in obedience for just a moment let's go back in our minds to that passage in which Paul said in 1st Timothy and I think you will probably spare me a few more minutes this morning so that you can hear it clearly at least I hope you do when Paul writes to 1st Timothy chapter 2 starting in verse 9 and going down to verse 15 the whole passage about the women will and they will be saved for the bearing of children

[35:16] Paul is not saying that your whole goal in life is to go have kids and therefore that is your salvation he again is pointing back to the Old Testament reality and he is pointing back to the reality that really compounds itself after the fall if you remember after the fall God gives a responsibility both to men and women right and the men and women it is a difficult passage it is and he says the man that he will work and toil on the ground by the side of his brow and he will do all of this stuff and he says and the women will have pain in childbirth and her desire will be for her husband but her husband will rule over her and that's the word that word rule seems to be oppressive and it has been used historically by men to be oppressive it just means that he will lead that's all it means that he will lead he will fulfill his God given responsibility to lead and so what Paul was saying there in 1 Timothy chapter 2 where he speaks of childbirth he says he alludes to it in the fall for it was not man who was deceived but it was the woman deceived so you are saying the fall is all man's or woman's fault well that contradicts scripture because God went to Adam right

[36:16] God held Adam accountable what was there what Paul is saying now again stay with me that normally and naturally men are a lot more rigid mentally therefore they hold this tunnel vision and Adam knew exactly what God had commanded him to do and he was to pass that on to Eve and they're a lot more rigid they're a lot more functionally oriented they're a lot more secure whereas naturally and normally ladies have more of a caring mind they have more of an understanding mind they have more of a compassionate mind they have more of all this I have a granddaughter you say well you've conditioned her to be this way no I haven't she just naturally is this way who called me all the way downstairs the other day and she was going pop pop pop pop pop pop and I went downstairs and all she wanted me to do was to walk around behind her holding a baby doll none of my sons ever wanted me to do that none my daughter did I had tea parties and all this other stuff oh girly girl stuff had it all the time at their bidding not at mine and she comes up just loving and holding this little dinosaur that we bought her that's all pink and all this other stuff my sons when I give them something like that they take it by the neck they swing it around they sling it why because that's what you do with cool things right it makes a noise naturally normally the feminine mind wants to care and be compassionate and loving and doting and concerning and that's not degrading that's fulfilling and you have to have this this is why

[37:38] Paul says that the men need the women and the women need the men but that natural caring including mind is what made Eve a little bit more we don't want to use the wrong word here but prone to being deceived because in a perfect garden when a snake starts telling you something if you're a man you're like be quiet snake I'm not going to listen to you but the normal caring mind of a woman says well this snake may have something worth talking about and there's this the possibility of deception and it broke the order of things and so that order is compounded and when we get to the fall and that order was that God had sent man to work and to lead and man has a responsibility to provide to protect to promote to support and to be all those things right and to lead the women naturally normally when we find in the scripture their focus begins at the home and moves out whereas the focus of the men begins outside of the home and moves in right it is not saying that women can't work

[38:39] I'm not sitting here saying that women can't work outside the home stay with me it is that the normal function of the feminine mind and the body is to have this compared this is why ladies when you leave your children home with your husbands they freak out because that's not natural right I don't care how old the kids are they're still kids you mean they gotta eat they're supposed to be clean and all this stuff I just wanted them to survive when Carrie wasn't there if they're still alive when you get home I did a good job right but that's just why and you say well that's who you are no that's just natural I've seen it across the board it is to begin at the home and move away Paul writing in context tells the older men to teach the younger men to work and to labor and all this other stuff and then he tells the older women to teach the younger women to learn to be workers at home to start at home to move from the home out right to have this concern and what he is saying is that the normal proper function of the lady is starts with the concern for the home and it moves there out it's not saying it's wrong for a lady to work outside the home that's for you and your husband to figure out that's for y'all to figure out but if we're looking at it biblically what God says is the concern starts at the home and moves out because the home needs mom it does and what a great ministry as we move from the

[39:59] Old Testament into the New Testament Old Testament seems to be very suppressive of the ladies and we're looking at this freedom gained in obedience so when we understand that right then all of a sudden we move from the Old Testament all this legalism all these rules and all these things about what happens when the woman does wrong and the man does wrong and all this stuff and it seems to continue this order and we move and we find redemption in Christ here's some good news we find redemption in Christ the redemption we find in Christ doesn't change purpose but it broadens the horizon of it the purpose is not rewritten because that's God's design but it broadens it because what we do find in the New Testament ladies stay with me what we do find in the New Testament are women supporting Jesus probably financially what we do find are the very first evangelists are women they declare the resurrection what we do find are prophetesses found in the book of Acts they are therefore going around declaring thus saith the Lord what we do find are both

[41:00] Aquila and his wife Priscilla teaching another believer outside of the church so it is okay for ladies to teach men outside of pulpit ministry what we do find are women praying publicly and prophesying in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 what we do find is this great ministry of the home being enlarged not shortened so we find all this greater purpose than we ever found coming out of the garden the closer we work to the fullness of the day of redemption the greater we see of the fulfillment of this purpose there's only one part that's reserved but I know us I say us because just like the garden when we can have anything we want but that one thing the one thing we want is that one thing you know what that's called it's called sin we do find that and we find this freedom many people believe that if we would orient and organize our lives biblically that it would be so restrictive as a matter of fact that book that was counted as the greatest interpretation of women's scripture in 1960

[42:17] I think it came out in 63 64 something like that was a kind of satire it was tongue in cheek where a lady had written a book because she took a whole year putting a bonnet over her head calling her husband lord and not speaking out publicly and her whole goal was to try to abolish the submissive role of women portrayed on scripture in CV shows like leave it to beaver how this is wrong and so she wrote this book about how wrong it was the problem is when everybody got what they wanted they didn't like what they got and in the end it wasn't about the home because she didn't even want a husband she wanted a wife and she wanted society to tell her it was okay for her to do what she wanted to do and we think that this legalism comes because we obey the reality is there are greater freedoms in obedience than there are in disobedience because in obedience we have the wonderful opportunity to do biblical discipleship starting in the home and moving out we have the wonderful opportunity to extend our horizons my wife loves to tell the story you know about the multiplication of the fish and the loaves right the sack lunch that was found the little boy had a sack lunch and gave it to the disciples of christ and he fed the 5,000 probably 10,000 men and women there and she loves to tell that story there are two great things that need to happen there number one boys don't pack their own lunch you all know that your sons will starve boys don't pack their own lunch so more than likely that boy's mama packed his lunch when she sent him out that day because a boy doesn't care if he eats or not but a mama cares because the second reality is too the dads don't care if they eat or not if a boy goes hungry it's his own fault how many of your dads said that right if that boy doesn't eat that's his own fault that's the woman's caring heart so more than likely the mama packed that boy's lunch and number two somebody had to teach that boy to give his lunch away and when ministry begins in the home that's the direct result God used that we'll never know that mama's name but we do know 10,000 people ate that day

[44:18] I want to ask you a question would you rather have your name known or would you rather know that you had a part in shaping and nurturing and forming something that God used in a mighty way see the freedom and the expansion of that that comes through obedience number four and finally and I'll be done with this one the great freedoms which fulfill their proper function leads us to the fourth thing the force of great advancement force of great advancement you want to know why these things are so instrumental and applicable to the churches because this is the way it's supposed to be I'm not saying that churches haven't grown when they've done it the other ways I'm not saying that things haven't happened when they've done it the other ways I'm just saying this is the order and this is what makes the body and the home a force for great advancement listen men let me pick on you for just a minute when men properly fulfill their legitimate role of provider protector and supporter and leader of the home and the church then these things get taken care of when men!

[45:22] when men accept the responsibility to become more present in the home and in the church these things are taken care of because see what you find in scripture and this kind of validated what I said a lot as a matter of fact this rebukes your pastor so many times I've told my wife this and then scripture kind of rebuked me what you find in scripture is that while the lady's job is to start at the home and move out the reality is the home the hub of the home is the man because fathers are to teach their children when they sit down when they walk along the wayside fathers are called to take their children to go worship fathers are called to do this fathers are called not to exasperate their sons and daughters fathers are called to love their wives in such a way that their prayers are not hindered fathers are called so the hub of the home are the men and if the hub is right everything else that's going on is the spoke so the spokes don't turn until the hub turns so men if we're not present and active in our churches this is why

[46:23] Satan has so distracted men through hobbies sports recreation and dare I even say it work but when the home becomes the greatest place that the man ever wants to be and he becomes the hub of the home then the wheels of the home begin to turn right and along with that the hub of the church is supposed to be the men and when they fulfill that legitimate role and they are present and they are active and they are engaged I'm not just saying be there because see what happened what happened following World War II when the men came home they were dealing with things that they saw in war that nobody else had ever seen the women had been forced to go into the workplace to support while their husbands were gone the men came home but the men didn't really come back home you can read it over and over again in history they were there but they weren't present they would go to work come home go to work come home go to work come home work became somewhere they went to rather than flowing from the home it used to be prior to

[47:26] World War II that work was based out of the home then it became somewhere they went to after away from the home and by the time they got back home the men were so tired they would sit down they would try to medicate their PTSD and all the problems that they had through various means and they were so tired by the time they got home they would sit down and zone out they were no longer throwing ball in the yard they were no longer engaged in the family and every decision began to be made by the mother and when every decision had to be made by the mother then the men began to be disengaged school systems began to be transformed because men were no longer present and they were no longer the hub of society and then all of a sudden we get these great movements I told you it's a big circle it all comes back to the men but when these legitimate roles and responsibilities are absolutely fulfilled and men begin to lead with a sacrificial loving leadership men I'm not giving you a right to go home and say well Billy Joe said so so we're going to do so what I'm giving you the right to do is to go home and to love your wives as Christ so loved the church that he died and gave himself up for her that if you will die to yourself and love your wife the way

[48:36] Christ loved the church then we don't have a problem with any of this it is sacrificial leadership and when we begin to do it in the home then it will naturally and inevitably flow into the church and then we begin to free the ladies to fulfill their grander responsibilities they find in redemption of Christ now all of a sudden the home is not a burden now all of a sudden the home is not wearisome the home begins to be a place of joyous service and that we can help one another do these things they're not forced to make every decision they're not forced to make to carry ever low because God didn't make them that way some of you say well I don't like that you say well that's just the reality right this is the way it happens and there's some things that men cannot do you cannot have kids this is why I have a problem when people who don't follow God's design talk about the kids they had because the reality is they didn't have kids there's only one way to have kids you have to have male and female and that's the grand design that's the grand order of it all and all of a sudden we begin to be a great force of advancement because discipleship genuine discipleship begins to take place at the home genuine discipleship begins to take place in the church because when the freeing burdens are lifted and all of a sudden the home becomes a be a place of loving and all of a sudden we can tell the other people that it's okay to be at home and it's okay to work at home it's okay to do those things and it begins to be passed on generation to generation to generation to generation what a great force of advancement you say well that's that's old school it may be but it's also biblical you say what about the single ladies or the widow ladies real quick I'll answer that one the greatest interpretation to that is the church is home right this is where we're a body we display those things inside the church fulfilling the same roles doing the same thing not minimizing but rather exalting not belittling but serving men we ought to lovingly sacrificially love every single every widowed every lady that walks in this door that's reality so that they can come beside us and help us with what

[51:01] God has called us to do and we push back against that it's because of how we interpret scripture but we see there's a place in line with purpose and design it's clearly laid out scripture let's pray Lord I thank you for this day I thank you for your word and Lord I understand that at times it can be difficult it can be challenging or it can even be trying so Lord may we accept the responsibilities that you've given us and may they be for your glory or may we fight against the temptation to abuse passages or to misinterpret Lord may we look at them with clarity knowing that your plans and your purposes are best for every time and every part and every portion of our lives just be glorified in all that takes place we ask it all in Christ's name amen so I'm so hon honking in so I'm so honking in so I'm so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in so honking in

[52:45] Thank you.