Conducting Worship in the Church

Alright kids, it's time for superchurch, so third grade and under can go. Good morning again. Isn't that a great song? I love to sing about our good God, our gracious God, our faithful God, and how good it is when we walk His ways and we give Him glory It's just not just glory for Him. It's good for us. Take your Bibles and turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 2 with me this morning. We've been going through this book a little bit several weeks. We've been going through this book and

It's been good. It's really about how do we conduct ourselves in the household of God? That's the theme of it. In chapter three, verse 15, we read basically the theme of this book. And though we haven't got there yet, we've seen it lived out. And we started in chapter one where the apostle Paul through the leadership of the Holy Spirit is telling Timothy, I urge you to teach certain men not to teach false doctrine. And we talked about that quite a bit and how important it is for us to teach the truth of God's word. If you teach false doctrine, whether to appease your desires or to appease society or to twist the word of God, whatever you do, you bring harm upon the people you're teaching.

You bring harm upon families that don't know what it means to have a relationship as a husband and wife or how to be parents or how to treat your parents. You bring harm on churches. You bring harm on society where you're leading people astray away from salvation through faith in Jesus Christ or away through worshiping the Lord God. I mean, there's all kinds of detriment that comes through false teachings and so we're encouraged to teach the truth and to speak the truth and And we learned in chapter two last week that in response to teaching the truth and standing against false doctrine that we should pray, right? I mean, what really makes a difference in this world in ministry or in for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is prayer.

And so we learned last week that we are to pray for everyone, and we're to pray for kings, and we're to pray for all those who are in authority over us. Then we learned that if we do that, we're praying for us to have a tranquil, quiet life in all godliness and dignity. And that sounds great, doesn't it? Quite honestly, most of us want that anyway. We don't always pray about it. And we certainly don't always pray for everyone. That is such an all-encompassing statement, praying for our neighbors, praying for our co-workers, praying for family members, praying for enemies, praying for those that are different than we are, that disagree with us about things, certainly praying for kings or for us, for presidents or for those that are authority over us.

I mean, we think that, you know, praying sometimes It brings about something selfish, but here it's talking about praying for all and for kings and for those in authority, so that we'll have tranquil, quiet lives and godliness and dignity. And for many of us, that translates into having quiet, selfish, godless lives. I mean, that's what most of us want. lives where we could do what we want and how we want to do it, when we want to do it, have what we want, go where we want where nobody bothers us and nobody asks us of anything.

But that's not the quiet, tranquil life of Godliness and dignity he's talking about because we learned last week that God wants us to pray for everyone and for kings and authorities because God wants everyone to be saved. That's a huge difference. But do you understand that when God says, I want everyone to be saved. You really want to have a tranquil life. That's how you have a tranquil life. When people get saved and they walk with God and they love like God does and they care like God does and they forgive like God does, then men all kinds of peace and all kinds of blessings come into this world and you and I get it backward.

Blessings are not found in selfishness. Blessings are found in godliness. blessings are found in Christ. So then we're praying, right? And as a church, we're praying. We're not praying against people. We're praying for people to be saved. We're not praying just for God to judge people. God's going to judge people. He's going to judge people. He's just. He's judge. We've been reading through and studying Revelation in my Sunday school class and some of that's tough because it's judgment. And we try to find reasons that we can make it softer, make it nicer when we read about judgment, but judgment's coming against sin. That's not what we have to be concerned about. We are a church.

Now, we should be concerned about lost people. We should be concerned about the glory of God in our nation, in our city, in our home. Now, we should be praying for godliness and dignity for all, right? Well, that's a corporate thing. This whole passage to chapter two is a corporate thing. And so as we move into this passage this morning, we're gonna talk about basically, how do we conduct ourselves as men and then as women in worship? And it's one of those passages that it's fairly simple. I won't lie, but it is controversial because, again, quite honestly, sometimes we just don't like what God wants for us.

Oh, I forgot. We're talking in the college heights. You guys don't have any of those struggles. I know the most amazing group of people. It truly are. I love you guys. But man, I want you to hear this. We have to listen to God's word. It's God's word.

And we have to see what he desires from it. And it goes all the way back to praying for those, everyone and for kings and for those in authority over us. This whole thing is how do we then live in worship and live in prayer and be a church that makes an impact in this world. It's all together. So, first Timothy chapter 2, we'll begin reading in verse 8 this morning.

Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess to worship God. A woman is to learn quietly with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man instead she is to remain quiet, for Adam was formed first then Eve. and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed, for she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with good sense.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you've given us your word that we might know how to walk with you and how to walk together and how to be a church. But I'm thankful for this passage of Scripture, and I pray that you'd speak to us And Lord, that you'd enable us to hear and then to apply and submit to what you've taught us.

Not just so that we can walk together as the body of Christ, but so that Lord God will have an impact in this world and be able to lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. Lord, your desire is for us to be set apart, different. A testimony to who Christ is, people who walk by faith and trust you. And I pray that you enable us to do that, Lord, as we look into your word today. And I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

So here we have this, like I said, transition from the first part of chapter two. And it begins with, and it's specific, if you will, instruction to men. It says, therefore, I want men in every place to pray. And what's the therefore? I mean, what's he transitioning from? And it's not hard. He's saying because we are called to pray for everyone, because we are called to pray for kings and all those who are authority over us, because God wants everyone to be saved as we pray. then here as a group of men, as we gather together in worship, then we are to pray men lifting up holy hands. Now Here's what we need to understand about this passage.

God obviously has insight into men, he has insight into women. And so he's teaching us, right? Men, where are these areas in your life that you might struggle with as we conduct ourselves together as the body of Christ, as a household of God? Well, apparently the Lord God Almighty knows that when He's calling people to pray for everyone and for those in authority, apparently He knows that we men need to be instructed to pray. Now, that's not a big revelation if you've been around church. When it comes time to pray, if we have our, we do a quarterly time of prayer during our Sunday school hour, a lot of times, a lot there be far more women than there are men.

Why is that? Because men bail. They bail. They don't want to pray. If you get together with us as men, just men, and we sit around the table, there are some men that simply won't pray.

Why is that? There's probably lots of different reasons. Some of these reasons seem reasonable to us, men, right? Like, I don't know what to say when I pray. And we think that's a good enough excuse. Well, that's on you. If you don't know how to pray, that's because you haven't been praying. And you don't even understand the purpose of prayer. Prayer is simply communicating with God. It's not that hard to understand. So to use the expression, I don't know what to pray is a pretty cheap excuse for not praying, especially when we read here that God wants men in every place to pray. Like men should be the leaders in prayer. They don't have to be sitting back and waiting for their wife to do all the praying.

They should be the leaders in prayer because they're the leaders of the home. And sometimes we don't want to be leaders either. Amen. Amen. Let somebody else do it. Sometimes guys say, well I'm too shy to pray. That's on you too. That's on you too. I know shy people that do amazing things. I know shy people that stand up and preach. That's me. I know some of you really don't believe that, but I'm telling you, I didn't want to be a preacher and choose to be a preacher. I wouldn't take speech class in college because I wouldn't speak in front of people. Listen, you being shy is no excuse for you being ungodly.

The word of God says, men need to pray. Men are supposed to pray. When we gather together, men should be taking the lead in prayer. It doesn't mean that the ladies aren't supposed to pray. He's just dealing with things that men struggle with. And he says, not only should men everywhere pray, but they should lift up holy hands without anger or argument. Now, I know some of you just went, there's no way, pastor. You're never going to get me to raise my hands in public.

Please hear me. I didn't say this. This isn't me writing this. I've never been one that is good at outwardly expressing myself around other people. I'm not that good at that. You probably noticed that if you know me. I mean, when I pray by myself, I do some different things. Sometimes, depending on where I'm at, a lot of times, if I'm really hurting or I'm really in need, I'll get flat on my face and put my hands above my head. I pray or cry or sometimes I sing, sometimes I'm on my knees. It depends on what's happening. I mean, I can raise my hand when I'm by myself. That's a whole lot easier when I'm by myself to express myself before the Lord.

But the Lord is talking about expressing ourselves by lifting our hands. Now people say that was how they did it in those days. Listen, we have to establish right now that the excuse that we use for not listening to the Word of God that says we don't have to do it because it was a cultural thing for their day is ridiculous. Because if that is true, then we shouldn't listen to anything in the Word of God.

Do you understand me? It was all a different time. It was all a different culture. It was all a different setting. But I don't know about you. If you've read the Word of God, it's powerfully impactful and applicable to our lives today because it's living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's able to divide the bone and the marrow, the soul and spirits, able to adjust the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. It's alive. We don't get to say, lifting up hands is something we don't have to do because it wasn't designed for us today. There's a reason for it. Lifting up hands while it might be uncomfortable around other people, and it is for me.

Lifting up hands means, first of all, we need you, Lord. We need you. We are devoid of what we need and you are the one we need and we lift up hands to acknowledge our need. We also lift up hands as ways to praise him to say, Lord, you are above us and you're worthy of worship.

I know by lifting up hands, we think we call attention to ourselves, but that's the wrong motive for prayer. Prayer is about the Lord. Matter of fact, this whole passage is not about men, it's not about women, it's about us acknowledging him and worshiping him the way he deserves to be worshipped. And so he tells us to lift up holy hands. Now, here's the problem. Hands are not even the beginning of the problem. The problem is we have to lift up holy hands. Holy hands means that they are set apart hands, that they are pure hands. And really what that means is that our hearts are pure in relationship with God when we come to prayer.

See prayer can be empty. You ever prayed when you thought it was empty? Prayer can be hypocritical. You can be saying something without meaning it in your heart. And prayer can be manipulative, right? Where we tell God what we think God ought to do and what God ought to be thinking and how God ought to act. That's manipulation of God, though you can't manipulate him.

So when you're gonna pray, man, it starts with a pure heart, which is why he says without anger and without arguing. Now, I wouldn't say that every man deals with anger. But apparently God who knows us as men realizes that one of the things that hinders us in prayer and in worship is anger. Men get angry. A lot of times they get angry because they get hurt.

Sometimes we think we're tough when we're angry, when most of the time we're angry because we've been hurt and we're weak and we want to be frustrated, we want to lash out. Maybe we want justice. I don't know what the deal is, but the truth of the matter is, is when you come to pray and when you come to worship men, God knows that if we don't deal with our anger towards other people, or possibly toward God, then worship and prayer are pretty ineffective. See, anger toward another person separates us from another person. But that then also causes a separation between us and God. Obviously being angry, God causes a separation between us and God.

How effective is our prayer when there's a ton of anger? Anybody got, don't raise your hands. Anybody got any anger today? Men? You've got to deal with that. You've got to get rid of it. How do you get rid of it? You forgive the person you're angry at. You trust Jesus to take care of the problem rather than trying to handle it by yourself. You humble yourself before God. Humble yourself the Bible says under the mighty hand of God that He may exhaust you at the proper time, casting all your anxieties upon Him because He cares for you. First Peter chapter five,

That's how you do it. But you're not gonna lift up holy hands and be filled with anger. You're not gonna lift up holy hands and want to argue. And He meant like to argue? I know, that's right. You guys, I tell you, college heights are so good. I like to argue. I won't lie to you. I like to argue. I've told you about my oldest son. He loves to argue. He's been a debater since I think the day he was born. I've always blamed it on his mother. If she just shape up and get that right,

Maybe a little bit of it came for me. We like to be right. Men, do you like to be right? Because we like to be right. We like to argue, right? Except right and being right and proving ourselves right, prideful. How can you come in prayer and in worship while containing pride about who you are though? You know, you've fallen short and know what you really need is Christ and His heart and His way and His glory in your life. We start this by God saying to me, and if we are going to worship. And if we are going to pray for everyone and for kings and for those in authority, if we're going to see people save, then men, when we come together, we have to pray and lift up holy hands.

Let's try it. Come on, men. Some of you, you did one, some of you did two. Some of you are like, still, I don't make me do it. Good job. We could even woo, woo, woo every now and then and here.

Listen, I know, I know some of us are like, well, I'm never going to really do that. Please, please don't do that. Please, man, don't do that.

I probably is, it was uncomfortable with this stuff, maybe as you are, maybe more, but don't do that. Don't say I don't have to pray that way. The word of God says we should pray that way. And let's not, Minimize what the word of God says. Let's just take it at what it says. Amen. Can we work on that, man?

Well, then he goes on. He begins to address women as we learn to conduct ourselves within worship. This is also the women who address themselves in modest clothing with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess to worship God. So we know that he's addressing women in their specifics because he says, also, this is the way the men are supposed to come together and work together and conduct themselves in worship. This is how the women are supposed to do it. And he starts with dressing themselves in modest clothing and not being concerned about fancy dress or fancy

Ornaments or any of those things. And apparently God knows he's so wise, he sees all things. He knows that at least in general, this may not be true of every single woman. I don't think he's trying to say that, but in general women struggle sometimes by being distracted by outward appearance.

They worry. When they get ready to come to worship, instead of thinking about, hey, this is about God, and this is about honoring God, and this is about worshiping God, and this is about encouraging others to worship God. They apparently worry about external appearance. And when they worry about external appearance, they're not worried about worshiping God. And so he tells them, he tells them, man, women are to dress themselves modestly and decency. are decently, and with good sense. And he gives some understandings of what that looks like. And I gotta tell you, I'm sure over the years, people have taken too much liberty with this.

There's churches, if you would go to them, they would tell you you gotta wear this kind of clothing, and you can't wear this much makeup, you can wear this much makeup, but not this much makeup. And you can have this hairstyle, and not that hairstyle, and that's not what we're saying. That's not what this is about. This is about the condition of your heart. Just like it was about the condition of the men's heart. The condition of the men's heart, they need to be pure. They need to be ready to lift up holy hands. They need to be willing to pray when they're uncomfortable to pray. They need to come under God and do what God calls them to do.

This is about worshiping God. This is about praying to God. This is about being used by God. The same thing is true for ladies. I mean, I'm not going to be the guy that tells you what it means to dress modestly or decently. I'm not going to tell you that. Usually in Wyoming, that's not really an issue. Maybe we got ladies here with hoodies on. We got ladies here with t-shirts on. We got ladies here with sweaters on and dresses on and Halloween. I don't usually pay attention to that stuff. I don't usually pay attention to how your hair looks. I really don't. And usually, if I find out that I see something different about a lady's hair, I'm like, oh, shut up.

Shut up. Because, man, maybe she got her hair changed. Maybe she didn't get her hair changed. Maybe she did it six weeks ago. I don't know. But if I speak up, I'm going to show I don't pay attention. I'm looked like an idiot. It doesn't matter to me. What matters, and I believe what matters to God is your heart when you come to worship that you're not worried about, hey, this woman's gonna say this about me, if I don't look this way or maybe if I look this way, then I'm gonna look better than all the other ladies, right? I don't know. I don't know what you think.

But apparently God knows it's a problem. The truth of the matter is, as God teaches ladies how to come together and how to conduct themselves in worship, and He says in verse 10, with good works, with good works, as is proper for women who profess to worship God. Now, He's not just talking about coming to church and doing good works. He's talking about how you clothe yourself on a daily basis. and how you close yourself then as you come to worship and you close yourself in good works. I mean, good works are those that are given to you by God, how you treat your husband, how you treat your children, how you are as a coworker.

I mean, just how you are with your heart and what you do. And I always go back to Romans 121. I urge you, therefore, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. All right, God's talking about how you lived your life. You lived your life as a sacrifice for Jesus. You do what he calls you to do. You put him first. You follow him. You walk his ways. That's what good works are. Well, you live your life with good works. Ladies, as is appropriate is proper to those who worship God. And then when you come to church, and you gather together, you're still concerned about God's glory.

You're not concerned about outward appearance. You're concerned about your heart. Then when the women come together in church like that, the men are lifting up holy hands beside the ladies as they pray. Everybody's focused on Jesus Christ. Then God gets to glory, right? Then we pray for those that we should be praying for. People get saved and God changes the world. It's powerful. But man, it's about him. It's not about us, which is important as we continue through this passage because he goes on in verse 11 and says, a woman is to learn quietly with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or have authority over man instead. She is to remain quiet.

Now, I know as I read that, there's some of the ladies who are like, all right, Mike, watch your step, right? because we're not gonna put up with you putting us down,

Right? First of all, let me just say this, if that's your heart toward the Word of God, it's the wrong heart. It's the wrong heart. This is the Word of God. This isn't my opinion. I didn't write this. This is not about trying to suppress women, This is not about trying to keep women from attaining to what they want to be or what they'd like to achieve. This isn't about harming women in any way. This is about worship. This is about what God says. for ladies to have this kind of heart in order for them to worship the living God. Now, get it. Let's be honest. I can't tell you that men haven't abused this and used it inappropriately.

I don't know why. I don't know why we would. I don't know why men think they ought to be bigger or better or stronger or in charge of women. Man, there's some roles that men play. So be it. We should do those with grace and kindness like Christ does in all of His glory and all of His authority. I don't know why sometimes guys would say that women are less important to God than men are. That's ridiculous. Christ came to die for the sins of the world. He died for women just like he died for men. Women are forgiven just like they are for men. They're given a home and heaven just like men are.

I mean, there's no inequality with God. That does not mean that God does not have roles for men and roles for men. It doesn't mean that at all. And quite honestly, who are we to tell God that his roles are incorrect? So we should enter this with care, right? And understand that God has good in this. When he says that a woman is to learn quietly with full submission,

Sometimes women go, okay, I'm not gonna buy that. I'm not gonna listen to that. Because first of all, I'm gonna do what I want to. No man's gonna tell me I can't. The only way to hear that that's not what this is all about. Did you know, when you want to go culturally, if you want to go culturally, so you say that we don't have to use these kind of things, did you know in those days that women normally, for the most part, weren't allowed to learn with them in? Did you know that? They weren't allowed.

So here the Bible's telling us that in the church and in the setting of the church the women are to be allowed to learn, to sit next to the men that are learning, to sit under the word of God as they're learning, to have the same experience the men are having and it was an incredible blessing. in the world outside the church was not allowing women to do this, the church was allowing them to do this. They were encouraging them to do this, and they were to learn quietly, and all that meant was they were to learn without causing a problem. They were learned without causing disturbance. They were there to be taught by the Lord in His Word through the people that got it placed before them, through their pastors, through their teachers, and they were to learn to be blessed for the glory of the Lord, that there would be no problems within the body

Of Christ, within the Church. They conduct themselves quietly. Not only that, but they were to learn, and this is the heart part for some of us, right, with full submission. Any of your ladies wrangled just right then? How many of us love to submit? Do any of your men, you men like to submit? Do any of you ladies really like to submit? I know some of your go, I do pastor.

Well, aren't you awesome? Even though you might be a bit of a liar. Submissions a tough thing. But I want you to hear this. He's not saying I want you to submit to the man teaching. He's saying, I want you to learn quietly with full submission to the Word of God. That's what he's saying, to the Word of God. Amen. God has, for whatever reason, I have really sometimes no idea why there isn't somebody better, godlier, smarter, sweeter, stronger than me, pastoring this church. I don't know. I truly don't know. I've prayed so many times, Lord, I know there's better men. If you want somebody better than me, raise them up and send me somewhere else.

I truly don't always know. But I know, yes, sometimes God has given me authority, but I don't ever seek to carry out my authority to hurt somebody. Kwanasi, what a ridiculous, painful, serious offense that would be for me. Right, that's something I desire. Truth be known is I would always rather say, this is what the word of God says, so we're gonna stand on the word of God. Now, have people gotten mad at me for doing that? Yeah. You better believe it. And I'm not going to change for that. Because it is the Word of God that dictates to us who we are as a church. So therefore, we're going to stand on the Word of God.

And ladies, it should not be offensive for us to call you to submit to the Word of God. That's a gift to all of us as we do that. So to learn quietly, without causing disturbance to be in full submission to the Word of God leads us into what he says then he says I don't allow a woman to teach or have authority over a man instead she has to remain quiet he's talking about corporate worship right when he says I don't allow a woman to teach he says I don't allow a woman to teach a man that is because to teach a man means to have authority over a man That's what that means.

Teaching is a way of having authority, of speaking with authority in that once people hear the word of God, they respond to the word of God. And he says, I don't allow a woman to do that. That is not her role. He gives us a couple of reasons here in a minute. They may not be sufficient for you, but they are sufficient to God. And so he says, okay, I don't let a woman teach a man. That doesn't mean a woman can't teach. There are some women that I know that are fantastic teachers that know the Word of God that are able to speak and convey the Word of God in powerful ways, but it's not their role to teach a man, specifically in corporate settings, but even in smaller groups, I

Still believe it's the role of the man. It's God's Word. He chose it. Make it stop right here and go, I don't really know why God chose it this way. The truth is, I don't need to know. Isn't it enough that it's God's word? Ladies isn't it enough?

It should be enough. His word is good. We love his word. We love the powerful passages that we have in God's word. Why would we want to rip out some that we decide we don't like? Why not take him as good? He says a woman is not allowed to have authority over a man. She's not allowed to teach. She's not allowed to have authority. That means she's not to have this role that holds this man accountable, if you will, to what's being said and what's being taught and what's being done. I know we kind of go, well, I don't really like that. It's not about us. Ladies, it's not about men. I mean, I hear this resonating in my head sometimes as I'm preaching as a man to

You ladies. Well, it's easy for you to say you man. Well, I'm sorry. Whether you like it or not, that is what God has called me to. It's my role. It's not because I don't love you that I preach truth to you. It's because I love you. If I didn't love you, I'd skip things like this. and you'd go on in your own ways with your own understanding of God's word and you'd go on into struggles and heartaches that keep you from the Lord.

It's not about loving you. Men loving you means I speak truth to you. Amen? After the first service, I get done doing Lord supper in this woman immediately walks up here and she goes, can I see you? I love her, she loves me, so I'm not really scared, but I'm kinda. I'm like, oh, good. And she goes, so I know a guy who's dying, and I'm gonna go witness to him,

Does what you just preached. I mean, I can't witness to this man. I said, no.

Honestly, please let's be careful. The Bible calls us to be witnesses. The Bible calls us to go make disciples. The Bible calls us to care about the laws. The Bible calls us to do that. If this man is dying, please go tell him about Jesus. This is not what this is talking about. This is talking about teaching in public over men, having authority over men is to tell them what to do. And even that is a struggle for us sometimes. I'm going to pick on Brenda again. I don't mean to and that's not picking on her. I know she just doesn't like me to talk about her.

But it wouldn't be hard for us to say to Brenda, you be our worship leader. As Brenda's incredibly godly, she's incredibly smart. She's incredibly gifted. She's incredibly talented. I love everything about her. I do. But this passage scripture tells me that that's not her role. Even though it'd be tempting, and it'd be easy because I trust her. It's not that I don't trust her. And she does a lot. She puts our worship services together. She does a lot of things. He's incredibly gifted. And I'm so very thankful for it. And I would never truly ever want to hurt her ever. I promise you. But I don't know the freedom in that doesn't say to Brenda, I'm going to put you in a place where God says I shouldn't put you.

And put in our church things that aren't supposed to be there. I can't do that. I just can't do that. No matter what my sensibilities might say, it is not about us. It's about him entrusting him in worship. Ladies, it's trusting him in no way demeans you because there are so many women I'm thankful for my wife. My wife is incredible. We talked about this pastor's scripture last night and she has so much insight and so many questions, things that I don't know. I don't know how to answer. All of you are going to have those questions when we're done. And I can just tell you right now, I don't have all the answers. So I ask, if you will, but know that I am a limited man for sure.

But I'm not limited in what the word says. It says it, so we can trust it, right? So then he goes on and gives us a couple of reasons why this is true. Why women are to remain silent in the corporate setting. It says, for Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. So the first reason he gives us that there's an order in creation, Adam was formed first, and then Eve. Apparently that has something to do with God saying that a man has the role of teaching and authority and the woman does not. That has part of it that there's an order in worship and an order in creation.

The second one, this is a little tougher, says that Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. And all of you go, well, I thought Adam was deceived. No, Adam was sinful. I don't know the Adam was deceived. Adam was handed the fruit and said, eat it. I ate it. You should eat it too. Now maybe he was deceiving him but he saw the fruit, right? So okay, he sinned. Matter of fact, all sin goes back to Adam, not Eve. But because she was deceived by the serpent, because he talked her in, convinced her, deceived her into eating and she transgressed. Apparently that has part of what God says is why women aren't to teach and have authority over men.

Now, again, we can go back and go, well, that's just not good enough, Pastor. Good enough for God.

Good enough for God. Ladies, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to skirt the issue. These aren't hard verses. Somebody said to me, hey, Pastor, I'm praying for you today because you're preaching a hard passage. Nope. Only one verse in here is hard. And that's the next one.

These verses aren't hard. They say what they say. What they mean is it's hard because when you say it, people aren't going to like it. Well, I hope you'll hear it. I hope you understand it. I hope you'll submit to it because it's what God wants for ladies. And apparently, let me be very, very blunt. God knows that there are some ladies that struggle with submission.

Apparently, that's true. Or this wouldn't be in here. Amen. So then let's look at this and finish up this passage. it says, but she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with good sense.

That's a hard verse. Holy cow, you can read about what it means to be saved through childbearing for page after page after book, after book, after confusing statement, after confusing statement. So here, as I've prayed, this is what I believe the Lord is telling us. I believe it's in context with this passage scripture. First of all, the first thing that we know is that people are not saved by bearing children. They're not saved, they're not born again by bearing children. If that's true, if you can be saved by bearing children, all of us men are out.

Right? And it's not what the Bible teaches anyway. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, for you are saved by grace through faith and this is not of yourselves. It's a gift of God not from works, let's say, man, should boast, right? Salvation, eternal salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone, what he did on the cross and through his resurrection. That's it. So is he talking about eternal salvation here? No. He's been telling the ladies, here's where you are, here's how you're to act, here's how to conduct yourself in the household of God. And he's continuing to do that.

He says, but she will be saved through child bearing. Now, some women are going to get mad at me about saying this too. That really one of the primary gifts and one of the primary responsibilities of women. And I know it's not true of all women. It's child-bearing. Men can't do it.

Men can't do it. Even in the screwed up world we live in today, they claim that somehow men can have children. Men can't do it. They don't have the plumbing. They don't have the ability. They can't do it. So when you look at ladies and what God has given to them, they've been given the gift of bearing children. There's all kinds of nuances, and there's all kinds of thoughts about this. But I believe what he's saying is, is walk where God has given you the gift to walk. walk in childbearing and show your life in Christ through how you live for Christ and what He's given you to live in. And He expands this to the place where we understand what He's talking about.

He says, if they continue in faith and love and holiness and good sense, faith and love and holiness, their demonstrations of who God is in a person's life. Their demonstrations of those that have been saved. So the woman that lives her life in the role that God has given her through faith and with love and in holiness and with good sense or with self-control, that woman then demonstrates the godliness and the righteousness that he's pointing to in this passage. The kind of Roman, then, that praise for everyone and praise for kings and praise for those in authority. The kind of woman that cares about people being saved. She lives in her place where God has given her to live.

Like the men should live in the place where God has given them the place to live. It's not about us. You see, it's not about us. It's really about him. It's about worshiping him the way we should worship him. It's not about promoting our rights. It's not about promoting ourselves. It's not about trying to be bitter. It's not about trying to change the roles and change the ways and change God. It's not about that. It's about actually coming to God as a good God who's faithful. moving to the place that he wants us to move to by faith, trusting him, walking well with one another.

Matter of fact, it's about this. I mean, it's about this. Here we are, about to remember what Christ has done for us. We're about to say that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. His body was broken for us. His blood was shed for us. He saved us. And we want to remember His sacrifice for us so that every day we can worship Him and honor Him and love Him. And then we want to say somehow,

But I'm only going to do it the way I want to. No, that's not remembering Him. That's not honoring Him. That's not worshiping Him. When we come to Christ and we see His Word, we can trust it to be good even if we don't find it easy to follow. We can come to His Word and know that it's good because He gave His life on the cross for us and demonstrated His love toward us in that while we read Sinner's Christ died for us. So then in response, to his word and his goodness, we can lift up holy hands. We as men are uncomfortable doing that.

So lot. And women, right? You can learn quietly in full submission without speaking because women aren't allowed to teach in the corporate setting or have authority over men according to God's word. And you can walk in your ways in holiness and righteousness, where you are ladies and where you are men, and we can worship the Savior.

Can we work on that together? Can we do that for His glory? Can we put aside our pride, put aside our bitterness, put aside our rights, and just worship Him? We're about to do this. While these guys decons you guys, come on down. While they're coming down, while the praise teams coming up, I want to say this, while they're distributing the bread and the juice, may it be a great time for you to lift up some holy hands.

And I'm not going to watch whether you do it or not makes no difference to me whatsoever, but it will make a difference to you and to the Lord God Almighty. Ladies, if you've been recoiling or even rebelling in your heart against some of the things that God has said in His word today, why not take this time and go, Lord, I'm sorry. I don't want to have a rebellious heart. I want to have a heart for Christ.

Why not work on that? And then as we come to the Lord's table, man, we can really worship Him. Amen. All right, man, go ahead and pass out the elements. Please rest of us. Let's pray. Let's worship.