Margaret Atwood in the 1980s wrote a book called The Handmaid's Tale. In this book, a fundamentalist, patriarchal Christian community subjugates women and treats women like sex slaves. From what I understand, I thought was it Netflix, has kind of a raunchy series based on this called The Handmaid's Tale. Well Chad, have you ever watched it?
No, I don't need to take the lid off a sewer to know that it stinks. And so, but this whole thing of Handmaid's Tale, that seems to be the way our culture views conservative Christianity, like us. In fact, this whole thing of The Handmaid's Tale is so big that when there are pro-abortion marches in Washington, the ladies will dress like the ladies from Handmaid's Tale. When there are these pro-feminist marches in Washington, have you seen this? They dress up like the ladies from Handmaid's Tale. Can I tell you, just between us, a secret fantasy seems like a creepy word, but it's a secret like little fantasy I have.
I have this fantasy of going to one of these marches and going up to one of these ladies and saying, now sweetheart, calm down, take a deep breath, stop being so emotional, and let's think about this rashly. The one thing you're not supposed to say to a woman. So I want you to understand, this is a caricature. In reality, Christianity over the last 2,000 years has not subjugated women, it's elevated women. Sociologists like Rodney Stark from Baylor University, Dr. Jeffrey Myers, says it was Christians, not the secularists, who elevated women 2,000 years ago. In the Roman history textbook, Carey and Schulard said that technically Roman husbands could put their wives to death because wives were property. Christianity taught, no, men, they're not property, they are joint heirs in Jesus Christ. You are to honor your women. You are to honor your wives.
You are to honor your daughters and your sisters. In the first century, men had the right to force abortions on women, or if a woman had a baby girl, the men had the right to kill the baby. Christianity prohibited abortion and infanticide. In the first century, men could have sex with whomever they wished, prostitutes, slaves, mistresses. However, Christianity came along and told Christian men, no, you're to be faithful to your wives. Sex slavery was common among the Greco-Roman world as weak and poor women had no rights. Nancy Piercy in her book on this subject said it was Christianity that abolished sex slavery. It was not secularism, it was Christianity that abolished sex slavery. William Carey is known as the father of modern missions for his decades of work in India.
Carey fought for women's rights. In India, he ended things like infanticide, child marriage, and female illiteracy. He ended the practice of sati. In India, traditional India, when a man would die, they'd put his body on a funeral pyre and burn the body, and they would expect the wife to be placed on that pyre as well, and she would be burned alive along with her dead husband.
Carey, with the Christianity, abolished that practice. The New Testament's teaching about women were considered counter-cultural in the first century. Women ministered to Jesus during his ministry, Luke 8, 1 through 3. Women were the first witnesses to Jesus' resurrection. In the book of Acts, we meet strong women in the early church, women like Dorcas and Lydia and Priscilla and Phoebe.
And so I want you to look at today's teaching not as a way of subjugating women, I want you to look at this as a continuation of the 2,000-year history we have of elevating women. That's what Paul's trying to do in this passage. Now, 1 Timothy chapter 2, we've been going through the book of 1 Timothy. And at 1 Timothy 2, remember the background of this? Paul is telling Timothy, his protege, he said, Timothy, I started this church in Ephesus a few years ago, and it's blowing up.
Things are not good there. So Paul sent Timothy to Ephesus to try to lay a strong foundation, reestablish the base, and calm things down going in the church. And evidently, this feminist revolution that we know was going on in the Roman Empire at that time had infiltrated the church. That's evidently why Paul's having to deal with this. So look at 1 Timothy 2, 9, and I'm going to be reading from the English Standard Version today.
I think it captures the Greek a little bit better. Paul says, Timothy, likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain silent, for Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. And so today, we're going to look at the clothing of a Christian woman. We're going to look at number two, the character of a Christian woman. And the next week, we'll look at number three, the calling of a Christian woman. The clothing of a Christian woman, the character of a Christian woman, and the next week, the calling of a Christian woman. And I want you to understand this.
My wife used to teach this to our kids. What you wear says something about who you are. See, clothing and attire is not neutral. What you wear says something about who you are.
Now, we always throw this verse around. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. Now, we use that, I think, just to justify the fact, hey, don't worry about what man looks at. The Bible is trying to tell us something. Now, the important thing is God's seeing your heart, but the Bible is saying, but also, human beings, whether you like it or not, do make a judgment call based on outward appearance. And so Paul says, as far as the clothing of a Christian woman is concerned, Timothy at the church at Ephesus, Chad at the church at cross assembly, tell the folks, tell the ladies that your clothing is to be, number one, jot this down, respectable.
Do you see that there in verse nine? Your clothing should be respectable. The Greek word is cosmos. We get the English word cosmetic from that.
The word literally means organized, systematic, decorum, orderly, not slovenly, slobby, not slovenly in the first century of sleazy women. Here's what Paul is saying, there ought to be a sense of, now here's the word, propriety among Christian women. Women ought to dress properly in a messed up world where everything goes, women of God ought to look like proper women of God. Let me give you the opposite of that. You're 40 years old, you leave your kids with your husband or your mama so you can go out clubbing until two o'clock in the morning and you post pictures of yourself on Facebook clubbing with drinks at the bar and I know all your friends are commenting, you go girl, on your Facebook post.
Can I just be honest with you? You know what they're really saying? She looks ridiculous.
That's what they're saying. It's not cute anymore. You're a 40-year-old woman, it's time to start acting like a 40-year-old woman of God. That's what we mean by dressing with a sense of propriety. Yes, I love that quietness because I'll be honest with you, the one thing our culture doesn't like is for, forget about a man, the word of God telling them what to do. That goes back to Genesis chapter 3 where God says, from now on, women will fight any man, any word, any preacher from saying, thus saith the Lord. I know we don't like this and it's a reflection of how twisted our society is but there are standards of godliness. You say, Chad, this is a gray area. No, it's not.
It's clear in the word of God. You remember there's a song back in the 1990s. You remember the song, I like my women a little on the trashy side?
You remember that song? You know what I found? Honestly, I found this with Christian men.
I found this with pagans as well. Maybe the based animal instinct of women like everything to be shown and everything. But can I tell you something? There is something about properly dressed women who cover and conceal.
There's an attractiveness there that the world just can't quite understand. And so Paul is saying to Timothy, Timothy, tell the ladies there at the church at Ephesus, number one, I want you to dress respectably. That's number one. And then number two, do you see this in verse nine? I want you to be modest. I want you to dress modestly.
Now, we've got to acknowledge something for a few moments. This idea of modesty has really been abused in some parts of Christianity. In fact, there's a book out there called Lovingly Abused by Heather Grace Heath. It discusses her experience in a fundamentalist organization where they used her curriculum called Advanced Life Institute Curriculum.
Some of you all know that it was started by Bill Gothard. And she said she felt like her upbringing had cultic overtones. In this super fundamentalist Christian organization, Heather writes, women held full responsibility for whether or not their bodies caused a man to lust and sin.
So if a woman was sexually abused, Heather said she was taught it was partially the woman's fault. That's wrong. So, fellas, you need to listen to me. I don't care how a woman is dressed, you still, as a Christian man, have the biblical mandate to walk with clean hands and a pure heart, to keep your eyes pure. It doesn't matter what they do. You still have a biblical mandate not dependent on how they're dressed.
Does that make sense? In fact, I tell you all this all the time. When somebody asks me, Pastor, how can I pray for you? If there's nothing major going on, I'll just say this.
Pray that I walk close and clean to the power of the Holy Spirit. We have a biblical mandate to do that whether the ladies are dressed appropriately or not. I don't know if you've heard about this. There's a pastor in North Carolina who made international news a couple weeks ago.
Did y'all hear about this? Because he was preaching. He was talking about women dressing modestly.
And he said, now, if there was a rape case, or a woman is raped, and I was on the jury, and I found out she was wearing shorts, I'd let the man off because it's her fault because of the way she was dressed. Okay, Preaching 101 and Pastoral Care 101. Never say anything like that from the pulpit, okay?
That's not true. I told y'all last week I'm trying to raise an army of men of chivalry in this church. Chivalrous men, you say yes, ma'am, to them, you open doors for them, and you don't rape them. That's part of being a man of chivalry, okay? So let's just make sure we're not blaming the women for this.
But having said that, Christian women, there is a biblical standard of modesty. Look, is it getting worse out there, or am I just getting older? I feel like I'm turning into my grandfather. I think it's getting worse out there. It's getting crazy. I want to go up to some ladies out there and say, we get it. You got breasts.
Now, can you put those things up? It's just, it's crazy. There is a biblical standard of modesty. We ought to look differently, act differently, carry ourselves differently. That's what Paul is saying to Timothy right here. And I'm asking ladies, you, to be modest out of respect for three people. Number one, Jesus. You claim the name of Jesus, but you dress like a tramp, that makes him look bad. Dress however you want, but don't claim the name of Jesus if you're going to dress like that. Out of respect for Jesus, can you dress modestly? Secondly, out of respect for your fellow brothers in Christ, can you dress modestly? Men are fighting this fight to remain pure in a flesh saturated world out there. They ought to be able to come to the body of Christ and be able to escape that for at least an hour one time a week. And, well, they're struggling with lust, not my problem.
It's real loving. Your brothers in Christ are saying, I'm wrestling here spiritually, and your responses, ain't my problem, I'll dress however I want. No, no, out of love, say, I will restrict my freedom because I love my brother in Christ. I'd ask you to dress modestly out of respect for Jesus, out of respect for your brothers in Christ, and also your sisters in Christ. This isn't fair, but in a culture, you're allowed to get old, fat, and bald as a man, and that's okay. Ladies are held to a different standard.
It's not right. And here's what's happening with a lot of ladies. A lot of ladies in the body of Christ throughout America are coming to church, and they're already self-conscious. I'm getting a little bit older, a little grayer. There are wrinkles here where there weren't wrinkles before. I've put on a couple of pounds, and I'm self-conscious. And then a scantily dressed girl walks by your husband, and the woman says, I can't compete with that.
And that breaks their heart. And so I'm just saying, out of respect for Jesus and your brothers in Christ and your sisters in Christ, can we dress modestly? And so Paul says to women, women, number one, be respectable in your dress. Number two, be modest in your dress. And then he says, number three, ladies, be self-controlled in your dress.
Do you see that there in verse nine, dress with self-control? The Greek root of that word is sophros, S-O-P-H-R-O-S. We get the English word sophomore from that. Like in a college, a freshman, they're crazy. They don't know what they're doing. They're all over the place. But they're expected after their freshman year to settle down and get a little wisdom and a little bit of common sense and a little bit of self-control.
That's where we get that English word sophomore from. And Paul is saying to ladies, just be wise. Just be self-controlled and sensible in the way you dress. On the one hand, don't be weird, flashy with your dress. On the other hand, I'm not saying, ladies, let's all start wearing 1860s hoop skirts and veils when we come to church. That's not wise. That's not sensible. You know, let's come to cross assembly and ladies, wear your doilies and your long dresses and let's churn goat's milk and make our own butter.
That's not what we're saying. We're saying be kind of in the middle here. Just be sensible.
Just be self-controlled in the way you dress. And Paul gives, incidentally, the antithesis of that sensible self-controlled woman. Do you see in verse nine? He says, not with braided hair and gold and expensive pearls.
It's interesting. Twice the Bible warns against braided hair here in 1 Peter 3, 3 through 4. Now, I'm going to say this. There is nothing wrong inherently with women braiding their hair. There's a cultural thing I'm going to explain here in just a second. So if you hear me saying, you know, all you ladies who came to church today with your hair braided, some of the most conservative-dressed women I know braid their hair.
Okay? So he's not speaking against braiding your hair, unless you're a man. And, in fact, the original Greek literally says, not with a man bun. I'm joking. So, man, the Bible says no man buns.
Okay? Now, here's what's going on. And we know this culturally in the first century. It was popular for women in first century Roman Empire to braid their hair in these circles and pile it up higher and higher and higher. And you would see these pictures of these ladies with these huge bouffant hair. And then they'd take gold lace and they'd take pearls and tortoise shell combs and stick it in. And if you look at some of these pictures, it looks like something from Ringling Brothers Circus.
It just looks weird. And Paul is saying, ladies, don't draw attention to yourself. Don't wear your hair like that. I know it's stylish, but don't walk into church dressed in a way that's designed to draw attention to yourself. And in verse 9, he says, and don't dress with costly attire.
What does he mean by that? Well, keep in mind, there was no middle class in the first century. You either had the very wealthy or you had the lower class and slaves. It's interesting, the church was comprised of both groups.
Did you know that? I can take you to Romans 16 where Paul is greeting different people at the church at Rome. Some of the names he mentions are slave names. Some of the names he mentions are aristocratic names.
Isn't that great? Only in the body of Christ can God take slaves and aristocrats and bring them all together and make them brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Now, imagine you've got a church where three-fourths are poor slaves, one-fourth are the wealthy.
And we know from history that there's an account of women's clothing in the first century that would cost one and two years' wages for a blue-collar worker. Now, imagine you've got a church with men and women just barely scraping to get by. And then in walks in the church a lady with her hair three-foot high, you know, looks like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from the 1970s, is this high.
She's walking in and she's wearing an outfit that costs $70,000. Can you see where that would be distracting in the body of Christ? Apostles don't do it.
In fact, it's interesting. The best kind of modern equivalent I can think about was I got an acquaintance that says, my family, my family name, we're royalty in the Assemblies of God. Now, this isn't just the Assemblies. All denominations dealt with this stuff back in the 1980s. He said, I'm dying to rule Assemblies.
And he said, I'm glad we've corrected, but he said, in the 1980s I would go to our national gathering of the Assemblies of God. He said, these women would come in wearing these dresses that cost thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars and they were trying to one-up each other. Look at her dress. Well, look at her dress. Look at her dress. Look at her.
They're not real. Yeah. And so these women were just kind of catty with each other. He said, I actually remember limousines pulling up in front of the national gathering and pastors and their wives getting out of the car. That's the kind of stuff Paul's speaking against right there. He's like, there needs to be a sense of self-control, modesty, and propriety. Paul says, I'm not trying to get weird on you.
I'm not trying to lay new legalism on you. I'm just saying, for the sake of unity in the body of Christ, when people come to worship on Sunday, help them focus on Jesus, not the style of clothes you're wearing. I told my wife, I said, aren't you glad those days are over with where when we go to the national gathering with our denomination, you know, people aren't wearing, you know, thousand-dollar dresses.
She said, yeah, now they're wearing thousand-dollar jeans. We like to kind of look like we're low-key now, but here's the point. The point is you dress with modesty. You dress with propriety.
You dress with a sense of self-control. And listen, God's commandments, here's what the Bible says, God's commandments are not burdensome. God actually has a purpose for this prohibition, ladies. And I think part of the prohibition where God is saying, ladies, you dress sensibly, you don't go off on tangents, you be self-controlled, God is saying this.
This is rooted in love. You're a woman of God. You're a princess of the most high God. I'm trying to help you maintain your dignity. I want you to maintain your dignity as a woman of God. That's why I'm telling you this. I don't want you to look back on Facebook pictures 15 years from now saying, dear God, what was I thinking dressed like that? That's ridiculous. God is saying you're a woman of God. I'm trying to maintain your dignity here. I saw this a couple years ago, and I'm not laughing.
This breaks my heart. There's a woman, country singer, entertainer. She was in her 70s, but she was actually, and she claimed to be a Christian, whatever, she's actually a beautiful lady.
She had been growing old gracefully. But then her last public appearance, I can't remember, it was some country music award show. I saw her, and it broke my heart. It was over the top, just a gaudy, garish outfit. And I was angry, not at her. I was angry at this weird system that plays with women's minds.
Saying you've got to be weird, and you've got to do this to fit in. Have you noticed this lady, the standard is this one day, and it's that the next day. See, our society is playing mind games with you. And I saw that poor lady, and it broke my heart. And it's interesting, a few days later she committed suicide. Now, I know she had mental illness, I get that. But I can't escape the sinking feeling that maybe she saw herself after this was over and said, it's over with.
I can't return back to my 20s and 30s, it's over with. And so God is saying, ladies, y'all belong to me. You're my daughters. I'm telling you this because I want to preserve your dignity. Tertullian said in the early church, the pagans called Christian women, I love this, modesties, priestesses.
Isn't that great? Even the pagan world looked at women and said, there's something different, there's something about you. Ladies, God is saying, let your outward appearance reflect that. So that's the clothing of a Christian woman. But I also want to look at very quickly the character of a Christian woman. Look at verse 10.
Ladies, don't dress like that. Dress like this, verse 10. But with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works. See, Paul's getting to the heart of the matter here.
Paul is saying, let's talk about your character because your clothing will be an external manifestation of what's going on in your heart. And Paul points out two things about a woman's character. Number one, he points out a woman of character has good works. She spends her time doing good things, blessing others, speaking into the next generation of women. She is a woman of God who abounds in good works. That's how she spends her time. Not on the next door app trying to stir up fights in the neighborhood.
Not on Facebook trying to look up old boyfriends from high school. No, she spends her time in good works. That word good is interesting in Greek is agathon. There are two words for good in the Greek language.
The kaios, which means morally good, and agathos, which means beautiful or lovely. And Paul says right here, I want you to be a beautiful, lovely woman of God. That's the kind of good works I'm talking about.
Does that make sense? Look, we're in a society that is subjugating women. We think we're liberating women. We're not liberating women. We are subjugating and degrading women.
And we are giving up our biblical mandate for godly femininity. I saw a car the other day. I was riding down the road, and this car, the lady's driving it. Here's what the bumper sticker said.
It said, car powered by B-I-T-C-H dust. That's reveling in this brutal anti-feminine thing. I was watching. I can't remember which MMA fighter it was. Ronda Rousey or somebody. After an MMA fight, her eyes are swollen shut. Her nose is over here. Blood's going all over the place.
She's being interviewed. Well, it's a pretty good fight. We could have done better out there today. And I watched myself. I said, what have we become as a society? We're not paying money to watch women beat the crap out of each other. That's barbaric.
That's brutal. And God says, no, no, no. Women, you have a different drumbeat that you're marching to.
There is agathos works, beautiful, lovely works. You are women of God. Carry yourselves like beautiful women of God. The character of women of God, number one, there's good works. And then number two, there's godliness. Godliness. Before I get into godliness, can I just share this with you since I got a few minutes?
I think I've told you this. Years ago, I'll never forget this. I was in a hospital. Second church ever pastored. Visiting the family of a man that was dying. He was 75 to 80 years old. Lots of money.
Lots of money. And you walk into that room, and you could just feel the chill. There was an iciness there.
I was there. The guy was not my parishioner, but his son was. And the son was stoic. The wife is stoic.
The father is dying. And I tried to, hey, you got any good memories of him? No, I don't.
Any kind of, nope. He didn't want to talk about that man. And I'll never forget, the nurse finally came in, and she said to the family, you see that line right there on the screen? That line means he's gone.
And as soon as she said, that man is dead. He fell on his dad and began to pound the mattress. And I'll never forget, he's crying. He said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I don't know what he was sorry about. I don't know what happened to that family. They were a wealthy family. And it was a miserable experience. And after being there for a while, I left that room and started to walk down the hall. And across the hall, there's another lady, ironically, or God, she was about the same age as the man who just died. And she's there in the bed. And the family's gathered in there. And I didn't know them, but I could hear them laughing, so someone was going to go on. And I kind of stood in the doorway. And they said, yeah, I remember when Grandma tried to teach me how to drive the straight drive, and da, da, da, da, da.
And everybody started laughing. I remember when Granny knit me this blanket. I said I wanted this kind of blanket, and she knit it for me. She was such a wonderful lady. I remember when I was going through a hard time in college, and I just got a letter in the mail from Granny just saying, I'm praying for you. Just person after person after person talking about this lady who's laying there unconscious, dying. And then somebody said, you know, why don't we just sing one of Granny's old hymns? I can't remember what hymn it was, but they all just joined in and started singing one of Granny's old hymns. And I stood there thinking, the contrast.
This man with all the money in the world, dying in a cold, emotionally stoned environment. And this lady, who evidently didn't have a lot of money, she was kind of a country lady, surrounded by granddaughters and grandsons and children and great-grandchildren who were rising up and calling her blessed. That's what Paul, Paul's saying, why, ladies, would you trade your birthright in for that when you could have that? That's what it means by good works. And then he says, not only is the character of a woman marked by good works, it's number two, marked by godliness, godliness.
The original Greek means someone who honors God, respects God, fears God, worships God. In other words, a woman of character has such a heart for the Father, has such a respect for God, honors God so much, if he can't help it, that love of the Father manifests in the way she dresses and acts. See, if you're saying, ladies, all right, I'll start dressing more modestly so Chad doesn't use me as a sermon illustration, that's not a good motivation.
If it's, I'll start dressing modestly so, no, your motivation should be this. I belong to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I am his treasure possession and I want everything, even the way I dress, to reflect that. I know, look, I'm not a royal watcher. Any royal watchers in here? I'm not a royal watcher, but I love Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth was a neat lady, just passed away. And Queen Elizabeth, she never got over the fact, we're part of the royal family. We got this legacy.
We got this history. We're part of the royal family. And she never understood why, like Charles and Diana, remember when all that mess happened? All that stuff happened and I heard that she'd bring Charles aside and she said, Charles, why are you acting like this?
Man, you got a different standard. You're part of the royal family. You're bringing disrepute on this great institution. Charles, why are you acting like that? You belong to this great royal family. Don't you understand? Harry and Meghan would do their stuff.
She'd bring them in. Kids, don't you realize? You're not just part of any family. You're part of the royal family. You're held to a different standard. You have the privilege of being part of a family that's different than the rest of the world.
She could never understand why her kids and grandkids did what they did. Do you not know you're part of the royal family? I wonder sometimes if the Father looks at us and says, look, you're part of the royal family. You're my daughter. Carry yourself like royalty. Put your head up.
Lift your shoulders back. Walk with a sense of dignity and decorum because you're not just part of any family. You're part of the royal family. You're a princess of the Most High God. Look, I know a lot of the stuff that I've shared with you today.
Some is preferential. I just teach y'all a little bit. I look like long hair in a man bun and all that kind of stuff. Pastor Pepper, I tell him all the time. I said, Pepper, the Bible says you're not supposed to covet.
I covet your beautiful long hair. Listen to me. I think if we can all just start saying, let's just understand who we are in Jesus and whose we are in Jesus, all the other stuff would just start falling into place. Don't you believe that? When you start understanding that you are royalty, when you start getting it from here to here, the reality, you're a royal son or daughter of the Most High God.
The dress stuff, all that stuff will take care of itself. You belong to Jesus. I want you to stand with me now. I want you to take a moment and let's pray over the ladies in our church.
I just feel like there is a, I'm gonna use this term, but I'm using it specifically. There is a satanic, demonic attack on biblical femininity today. I've talked to you about the attack on masculinity.
There's an attack on femininity. I want to speak blessing over you ladies right now. I want ladies for you to receive this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You belong to the Father and no one can snatch you out of the hand of God. From the foundation of the earth, ma'am, God has known you by name. And the moment you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you were adopted by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, which means right now you stand in this congregation as a daughter of the Most High God. I speak against the lies of this culture that says you're not good enough, you're not pretty enough, you gotta do something to merit being who you are.
Those are lies. You are who you are because Jesus is who He is and you've been adopted in Jesus Christ. Can we take a few moments right now and just lift up holy hands and can we just start worshiping Jesus? Men, women, boys, girls, let's lift up our hands and worship Jesus, the King of Kings, as royal members of the royal family. Let's worship the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Just for the next few moments, let's worship Him right now. Sing Jesus. Jesus, the name above every other name. Sing Jesus.
Jesus, the only one who could ever see. He's worthy. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. We live for You. Oh, we live for You.
Sing holy, holy. There is no one like You. There is none beside You. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are and fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love to those around me. Holy, there is no one like You. There is none beside You. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are and fill me with Your heart and lead me in Your love to those around me. Every now and then, we need to stop looking at the world's perspective of us and we look at God's perspective of us. And that's why God said to Moses, Moses, in this messed up world, I need you to get the God's people together.
Every now and then, they need to let Aaron's mouth be my mouthpiece so I can express to them how I really feel about them. If you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, here's what God says about you. Yavarekaka Adonai v'ishmerekah. Ya'er Adonai p'nyav, elekavikuneka. Esau Adonai p'nava lecha, v'yasim lecha shalom. Which means the Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord turn His countenance to you and give you shalom, peace, wholeness, mind, body, soul, and spirit. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and Amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ.
