We see the humor of God in two ways today. Number one, of all the weekends he chose to have us in this part of 1 Timothy, we're right here on women's weekend.
I'm talking about how women ought to dress and act and all this stuff. That's the humor of God. And then secondly, God chose a bald, middle-aged, slightly overweight man to talk to women about how to be women of God.
You just can't get away from the humor of God, can you? But we are now in that place in 1 Timothy where we have to talk to the church about gender roles. I'm just telling you, this gender role thing, it is decimating our homes, our church, and our society.
Now, I'm going to be very clear about this. The Bible speaks about gender roles in two areas, family and church. That's what the Bible's focused on. I think the Bible is perfectly okay with a woman being president and a woman being a vice president.
As long as she doesn't have an annoying laugh that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, God's okay with that, okay? And so today, we're going to talk about gender roles, but it's within the family context and the church context. Now, we're at 1 Timothy, Chapter 2, Verse 9. You really have to go back to Genesis, Chapter 3, because in 1 Timothy 2, Verses 9 and following, Paul is referring to Genesis 3. So if you don't understand Genesis 3, you're not going to understand what Paul's saying in 1 Timothy 2, Verses 9 and following about women.
Does that make sense? So let's go back to what Paul's referring to and go, if you would, to Genesis, Chapter 3, Verse 1. And it says this, And then any of the beasts in the field which the Lord God had made, and he, the serpent, Satan, said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband, look at this, he was with her, and he ate.
Now skip down. So God says, Okay, because you guys have rebelled, here are the repercussions. God made meats out the repercussions, and then in verse 16, to the woman, he says, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Now, when we talk about this doctrine, it's in the Bible called the fall of man. You all heard of that doctrine before? The fall of man?
Here's what we mean. God created earth, a perfect place. Perfect place Perfect creation, perfect weather, perfect physical bodies, perfect marriage.
Everything was perfect. The fall of man means this, when the human race rebelled against God, we introduced sin into the world, and at that point, everything was corrupted. Nature is now fallen. Romans 8 says that. God never created cataclysmic hurricanes that would kill people, but now we live in a fallen world, and we have that kind of stuff. God never created birth defects. But now that we live in a fallen world, our bodies have physical birth defects. And God created marriage to be this perfect, harmonious relationship, and since we've introduced sin into the world, even our marriage relationships are now corrupted and tainted by sin. Does that make sense?
All right. And so in verse 16, God is now handing out repercussions, and God says in verse 16, to the woman, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and conception. In pain, you will bring forth children. Now, that's a lot more than it's going to hurt to have babies, okay?
You can get an epidural for that. It's more than that. I was reading an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and he has an incredible take on this thing. I wish we had time to get into this today, but we don't. But it's a lot more complex, and it's just going to hurt to have babies.
That's one of the things. We don't have time to get into that. But then God says this. Here is another repercussion. I made y'all's marriage to be a perfect marriage. Now that you've introduced sin in the world, look at this.
Your husband, Eve, he is going to rule over you, if you're into marking in your Bibles. Beside that, put this word cruel. C-R-U-E-L. As a result of the fall, men will tend to be cruel toward women. Men will tend to use their biologically stronger physical bodies to subjugate women. And we see this in all cultures, in all generations. There's a density of cruelty toward women.
Men will tend to use their position to subjugate women. We did all that stuff. I don't know if y'all saw this. And then somebody caught on their ring camera or ring video, this video of him, he was vicious toward his wife. Did some of y'all see this? You know what I'm talking about? He was just mean and vicious and cruel.
And that thing went viral. And I watched that, and I said, I wouldn't talk to my dog the way he's talking to his wife. And I don't like my dog.
I'm just keeping it because Darla wants to keep it. I wouldn't even talk to the dog I don't like the way he talked to his wife. A guy was crazy. I said, something's wrong with his medulla oblongata. There's something wrong with this guy. Well, what's happened? It's that Genesis 3 thing.
Because of the fall of humanity, now there's going to be this cruelty. I saw it yesterday. Well, my wife was here at the women's conference. Now, here's what I said at the first service, and they laughed, so let me clarify this. While she was here, I was out shopping. Time out, I was shopping at a place that sells guns, okay?
So don't laugh. But I was out shopping. But I was in line behind this young guy, probably 30 years old, and he's just being a jerk to the checkout lady.
Okay, whatever, people are jerks. And his wife, beautiful wife, probably 30 years old, little three-year-old daughter, she's there just trying to kind of corral the daughter while he's buying stuff for himself. And I'm not joking. When he got through buying it, like, let's say the wife and the daughter's right here, here's what he did. He went like this.
Almost like she's put up with this enough, she knows. That's your sign. You better follow me. And so I saw him walk out in the pouring rain. And I thought, well, he's a jerk, but at least he's getting the van to pull around and get his wife and daughter.
No, no, no. He walked out there in the pouring rain. He gets in the vehicle, shuts the door, and he sits there while the wife is trying to manage this little daughter in the pouring rain. And I'm parked right next to this guy, and I'm looking in, and he's irritated that he's having to wait on his wife who's trying to corral this little kid. And I'm looking around on that thing and say, get you lazy.
Behind, out of this vehicle, and go out there and help your wife. But see, that's what Genesis is talking about. As a result of the fall, there'll be this propensity toward cruelty. Now, let me say this.
Time out. This is very important. When the Bible says in Genesis 3.16, ma'am, your husband will rule over you, that does not mean that male leadership in the family is a result of the fall of man. We have male leadership in the family before the fall of man.
Because some left-leaning Christians will say, no, no, no. Male headship is a result of the fall. When we get saved, Jesus reverses the curse. Now men aren't the leaders of the family.
No, no, no. That's not the result of the fall. We see God positioning Adam as the leader of the family before the fall. You say, where do you see that? Well, first of all, the order of creation. The Bible consistently says the fact that man was created first, the Bible makes it very clear that is God's way of saying, males, you are to lead the family. You are created first. Secondly, male leadership is found on the fact that in Genesis, God names the human race after Adam.
Did you know that? Not Eve. The Bible calls Adam, Adamma, which means man or mankind. Adam is the one who is the de facto leader of the human race. The Bible names the human race after Adam, not Eve.
That's before the fall. That's male headship. Adam named Eve. Eve did not name Adam.
In the Hebrew mindset, if you name something, that means you're the leader. And so that's before the fall. Genesis says that woman was created as a helper for Adam. That's before the fall. God rebukes Adam in Genesis 3 for giving up his role as a leader and listening to his wife.
Did you see this? Eve is rebelling and she gives the fruit to Adam. And it says Adam's standing right there with her. And God rebukes Adam. He says, Adam, you gave up your role as spiritual leader of the family and you listened to your wife. And finally, the Bible compares Christ's leadership to the church as a husband's leadership to his wife. And the Bible says that's a good thing. That's not a bad thing.
So y'all with me on this thing? The result of the fall is not the man is now going to lead the family. That's not what he's saying. The result of the fall is instead of exercising godly tender leadership, there's now going to be this propensity toward cruelty, okay? And it's important that the body of Christ understand that. And it's also important to understand that somebody is always going to be the leader of the organization. I'll have people say, well, I don't believe in one person leading anything. The church, the country, the family. No, I believe in collaborative leadership.
Why don't you listen to me? Collaborative leadership is fiction. It doesn't exist. One person will always lead the organization. In the book of Acts, you see Peter leading the church. And then after that, James leading the church. Paul was the leader to the outreach to the Gentiles. One person is always going to lead. I learned that in a hard way when I came here 21 years ago.
None of these people are here, so I can talk about them behind their back. But when I came here 21 years ago, it was a board-run church. We have deacons now. We don't have a board of directors. We have a business model onto the church.
It never works. So I eventually got rid of board of directors. We have deacons and elders now. But when I came here, look, we're not a pastor-led church. We don't believe in one person leading.
We are a collaborative leadership team. The board of directors leads the church. Which of the board of directors did not lead the church? There was one alpha male on the board, and he ran the show. So he was the de facto leader of the church. My point is, one person is always going to lead the organization. And God says, part of my divine plan is, when it comes to the family, listen to me, I believe in Godly. God ordains Godly male leadership. Y'all beyond that?
All right. Now, look, when it's bad, it's bad. But when Godly male leadership works the way the Bible says it ought to work, it's a beautiful thing. In fact, I don't read this from a... He's a pastor. I won't tell you his name because he's gone woke and I don't want you to look him up. But he was right about this.
This is before he went off the rails. This pastor said, man, years ago, I was at a wedding, a rehearsal dinner. You know what I mean? So they'll have the wedding on a Saturday, but Friday night, we got the rehearsal dinner. So I'm there at the rehearsal dinner, and there's these little girls, the young girls at the table saying, you ask them. No, you ask them. No, you ask them.
No, you ask them. And finally, a young lady asked the pastor. She said, pastor, I heard a preacher say one time that the man had to be the head of the home, and his wife is to submit to him.
Is that what you believe? That the man is the head of the home and the wife is to submit to him? The pastor said, here's the gist of what I said, which I directed it to the girls who were asking the questions. He said, before I answer your question, imagine you're married to a man who genuinely believes you are the most fantastic person on the planet. He's crazy about you. You have no doubt that your happiness is his top priority. He listens when you talk. He honors you in public. To use an old-fashioned term, he cherishes you. He's not afraid to make a decision, but he values your opinions. He leads, but he also listens.
He's responsible. As I was saying all this, the folks at the other end of the table tuned in and began to listen. The longer I talked, the more I sensed their resistance. When I finished, I paused and I asked, would either of you have trouble following a man like that? The girl to my right blurted out, I'd have no problem following him. In fact, I want to meet him. He genuinely has your best interest in mind. There is no fear and there's no reason to resist.
Isn't that great? When the Bible says, man, you're the spiritual leader of the home and the church, that's the kind of leadership he's talking about. Genesis 3 16, now the human race has fallen. Men are going to be cruel. Then what does he say to the women? He says, if your desire will be for your husband, write down the word controlling.
Men, cruel, women, controlling. Now, when it says your desire will be for your husband, some people have mistakenly said, well, what the Bible is saying is, part of the fault is the woman will have a sexual desire for her husband. That's not what it's saying. In fact, if you want to know what a word means, see how that word is used elsewhere in the Bible. That word desire, your desire will be for your husband, that word is also found in Genesis 4 7, where Cain, remember who killed Abel? Cain is a woman. Cain is about to sin and God stops him and says, Cain, listen to me. Sin is crouching at the door. You better guard your heart because sin desires to control you.
Same word that's used right here. So here's what he's saying to Eve. The husband will have a tendency to be cruel and the wife will have a tendency to say, why should he lead the family? He's an idiot. He doesn't know what he's doing. I'll lead the family. Why should I follow him?
I'm more spiritual than he is. I want to lead the family. I want to lead the church.
I want to be in charge. And the Bible's very clear. There's that tension. It goes back to the Garden of Eden, where men have a tendency to be cruel and women have a tendency to rebel against their leadership, to fight against their leadership, and to say, no, I want to be the one in charge and calling the shots.
And the Bible makes it very clear, it all goes back to the fall of man. Maybe on the outside, but on the inside, I'm laughing at you. A lot of guys will be like, well, I'm the spiritual leader of the family. I call the shots. No, we're not. Because our church is like most churches.
Listen to me. If a family visits the church and the husband loves this church and the wife does not like this church, nine times out of ten, they're going to leave the church. If a family comes to the church and the husband really doesn't like it, but the wife really does, nine times out of ten, they'll stay. We don't lead our families. And even in evangelical, Pentecostal, Bible-believing families.
But there's going to be a tendency toward cruelty and there's going to be a tendency toward being controlling. So that's the groundwork to 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 9. So now that we've laid the groundwork here in Genesis 3, go back, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 9. And now Paul is talking to the church, okay?
And he's using a lot of references from Genesis 3. And Paul says, in like manner, Timothy, teach that the women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over man, but to be in silence, for Adam was formed first. Then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.
Nevertheless, she'll be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. So for the next, maybe two weeks, I don't think I want to push into more than two weeks. And I got my letter of resignation ready. In case y'all come at me with pitchforks and torches here. We're going to talk about, for the next two weeks, we're going to talk about three things. Number one, a godly woman's clothing. The clothing of a godly woman.
It's getting summertime. It's a great time to start talking about the clothing of a godly woman, okay? Secondly, we're going to talk about the character of a godly woman. And then thirdly, we're going to talk about the calling of a godly woman.
The clothing of a godly woman, the character of a godly woman, and the calling of a godly woman. We're going to be hitting over the next three weeks. So listen to me. Here's the important thing. Why are you talking about this? Well, number one, it's in the Word of God, so we've got to hit it.
Number two, listen to me. When you think you're better than God, smarter than God, more innovative with God than God, and you throw things out and you decide, we're not going to do it God's way, we'll do it my way, everything starts to break down. That goes with everything, including gender roles. When we start to violate and disregard God's gender roles as it pertains to family and the church, everything starts to break down. When that happens, when we disregard gender roles, number one, there is more disorder.
There's more disorder. You get away from biblical gender roles, you end up with things like Facebook's 58 gender options. If we now have all these options, when you start to violate God's gender roles, there is more disorder. We start doing stupid things like putting tampons in men's bathrooms, because men can menstruate just like women can menstruate. When we start violating biblical gender roles, we don't call them mothers anymore, we call them birthing persons, because mothers imply that only women can have baby and we know men can have baby as well. My wife has said, if men could have baby, our population growth would be at zero.
You men couldn't handle what we go through. When we get away from biblical roles, our whole society breaks down. In the late 1960s, Lyndon Johnson said, we're going to have a war on poverty.
We're going to have this. $22 trillion fighting poverty. The result is we have more poverty now than we had when we started this thing over 50 years ago. It's interesting, very interesting, when the government now has stepped in, it is now more financially advantageous for a woman to have a baby out of wedlock. Actually, we penalize women and men when they have babies, you know, God's way in the inner city, in a lot of our communities, it's actually more financially advantageous to have a baby out of wedlock, which is why in 1964, 7% of kids were born out of wedlock, now it's over 40%, and we're creeping closer to 50%, and in some communities it's 95%.
Why is that important? Because fatherlessness and having children out of wedlock is the greatest indicator of crime, suicide, drug addiction, and we go on and on and on. When we stop doing it God's way, everything starts to break down. And so when we get rid of gender roles, biblical gender roles, number one, there's more disorder. Number two, there's more dishonor.
Now here's what I mean by this. It is a true historical fact that anywhere Christianity has gone in the world, the status of women has elevated, not been subjective. In fact, I was reading an atheist guy says I'm an atheist, he's a journalist, I'm an atheist, I don't believe in Christianity, I don't believe any of this stuff, but I'm just telling you, as an atheist, I've done a sociological study of Africa, and he said in Africa, the places where Christianity has taken root, the status of women has elevated. When there's no Christianity, the status of women remains low. Don't let the left deceive you. The left likes to lecture us on how we treat women.
It's the same left that knew that Harvey Weinstein was a dog, they knew what he was doing to women, they knew about that guy, that billionaire's island, they know about all that stuff, and yet they lecture us on how to treat women? That doesn't make sense, church. We know how to treat women when you do it God's way. Here's this word, chivalry. You ever heard of that word, chivalry?
CH something. And so chivalry. Godly men open doors for women. Godly men call women man. Godly men respect women. And so when you get rid of those biblical roles, listen to me, there's more disorder, there's more dishonor, and then number three, there's more depression.
I shared this with you a couple weeks ago. Gallup now says, we've been studying depression in America for years, it's higher now than it's ever been. I mean, it is off the charts high.
Now, what is the cause of that? I know it's multifactorial, but I do believe this. The greatest causes of depression in our society today is the breakdown of the family. Doesn't mean that if you come from a strong family, you'll never be depressed.
And I'm not saying that. I do think the epidemic can be traced back to the breakdown of the family. When you don't have a strong, stable family, with strong, 75 years ago, we had strong, stable families in communities surrounded by strong, stable grandmas and great grandmas and aunts and uncles and cousins, and everybody was supporting each other. Now that we've moved that out, I think that's one of the big causes for depression and anxiety that we're facing today. Listen to this study.
I read this. Two studies, neither one of them are Christian studies. One comes from the American Sociological Review, another study is from a sociology review out of New Zealand, and here's what these two different studies said. They said that there are more people here than people who are in nontraditional marriages with nontraditional gender roles.
How about that? Maybe God knows what he's talking about. I've been telling y'all about this book I've been reading about a former lesbian. She was a professor at Syracuse University, just a radical lesbian, and got radically saved.
And it's interesting. She talked about her life before Jesus as this radical lesbian. She's miserable. She gets saved, gives her life to Jesus, does it God's way, and you sense this contentment now that has washed over her. There's something powerful about doing it God's way. Now here's what I'm asking. I'm asking you to do two things over the next two or three weeks as we study this.
Number one, I'm asking you to do this. Let the word of God speak. Genesis 3, here's what Satan says to Adam and Eve.
You know Satan's a lot of things. He doesn't seem to be very creative. He's using the same tactics he's used for the last several thousand years, which I don't blame him.
If it worked 6,000 years ago, go and use it today. Adam and Eve, did God really say, fill in the blank. You know what he's saying to cross assembly when it comes to biblical roles and masculinity and femininity.
Cross assembly, did God really say. Here's what I want you to do. Instead of standing over the word of God and reading into the word of God your own beliefs and society's beliefs and what society has said is right and wrong, instead of standing over the word of God, reading that into the word of God, why don't we stand underneath the word of God and let the word of God shape our mind and our thinking and our beliefs. That's all I'm asking you to do is let's be submitted to the word of God. Do you want to be in the vehicle, wear these kind of clothes, listen to this kind of music. Hey, everybody in your generation has a tattoo, drives that kind of car, listen to that kind of music. If you want to be absolutely counter-cultural, do what the word of God says.
That's counter-cultural. And that's what I'm asking you. See look, something's not working. We live in the most affluent society in the history of the world and yet we're the most miserable society in the history of this world. Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain. Meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure. And that's what's happening to our society. We have pursued all these things supposed to make us happy and we're miserable. Let's be counter-cultural.
What do you mean by counter-cultural? Well there's a story attributed to the existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard said that one time some thieves broke into a store in the middle of the night. And while they're in this store in the middle of the night, the thieves didn't steal anything. What they did is they switched the tags all over the store. They took this price tag off, put it on here, this price tag off, put it over there. And Kierkegaard said this, the point of my parable is obvious, is it not? The people of my day have no ability to tell the truly valuable from the virtually worthless.
And I want you to listen to me. They have changed the price tags in our society. They said the important thing is what car you drive, where at in North Raleigh do you live, what is your annual earned income, what is your title, those are the valuable things. They changed the price tag and said no, the valuable thing is for me to raise kids who love the Lord Jesus Christ and walk with clean hands and a pure heart. Let's switch the price tag and say the important thing is not what kind of car I drive, the important thing is what's my marriage like? Is it honoring the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I being good to my wife?
Am I being good to my husband? Church, let's switch the price tags back and put the value on the things God puts the value on. Let's switch the price tags and put them back where they belong. It's a church stand of me right now. Man, I want to pray.
I want to pray for you and your marriage and your family. I said this to the other, I was going to say the other service, the other two services. I'm worn out. I'm tired. I'm going to start taking speed before I'm not going to do that, but I am tired. Sorry. Okay.
I told the other two services. The old days, when everybody watched Andy Griffith in the 1960s, they drove Ford's and they saluted the flag and everybody loved it. Those days are long gone. You might've been able to stand for Jesus. I don't know, in those days without the Holy Spirit, you can't stand without the Holy Spirit today. I've said this before, Satan, he knows, you know, Satan knows prophecy better than you know prophecy. Satan can read the signs of the times.
He knows his days are short and he's like a cornered animal and he's starting to lash out. I, I was going to say, I don't know, in my humble but correct opinion, it's never been a harder time to raise your kids and to have a godly family. And without the power of the Holy Spirit, I don't think we can do it. So can you lift up holy hands and let me just pray for your family to receive a fresh infusion of the power of the spirit. Father, it is not by might and it's not by power. It's by your Holy Spirit that our families are going to stand in these last days. That our marriages are going to thrive in these last days. God, we freely admit we can't do it.
We're just too weak. God, through the power of your spirit, we can be bold and strong and uncompromising. Father, I got a broken heart over families who've done it wrong and now they want to do it right.
And Satan is lying to them and saying, well, God could never use you, you messed up. Father, I thank you that you're a god of the second, third and million chances. So God, I pray for those families that have fallen down, lift them back up again and strengthen them through your Holy Spirit. Fill us again. Fill us afresh and anew. And God, for the next few moments, we choose to get our minds and our eyes off this crazy messed up world.
Father, this political season is always ramping up already. We get our eyes off of all that stuff. And we lift our eyes 100 miles, 1000 miles, a million miles, a trillion miles into the heavenly realms. We put our eyes on Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father, the author and the perfecter of our faith. And we just worship him right now. Church, can you get your mind off all this stuff? Can you worship Jesus for the next few moments? Let's sing it out. From our homes, from our families, day and night, night and day, let incense arise.
Day and night, night and day, let incense arise from our lives, day and night, night and day. You are worthy of it all. You're worthy of it all.
For from You are all things, and to You are all things. You deserve the glory. You are worthy of it all. You're worthy of it all. For from You are all things, and to You are all things.
You deserve the glory. Amen, amen, amen. Hey, in a few minutes, I'm going to go out and hang out with y'all in the lobby. I want you to do this. So when somebody asked my wife and I was like, look, we want to start having a Jesus centered home, kind of an oasis, a lighthouse in this messed up world. What advice do you give us?
We always say this. Make your home as inhospitable to Satan as you possibly can. Like, you know, we'll put scripture on the wall. We'll play worship music.
I want to get to the point where Satan is like, I can't stand being in this place. There's worship music, there's scripture. I'll go to that house over there. And part of worship music is you've got to have good worship music. And so when you leave today, Mission House is going to have a table out there.
They actually have some really good worship music. I'd urge you to go by and just check out some of their stuff. I'm not getting a kickback, I don't think, am I? No, I'm not getting any. So, but go by and express your appreciation.
Check out their stuff. Man, I'm just telling you, you think it's tough now. It's going to get tougher.
I told you, my spiritual gift is not encouragement. It's going to get tougher, but greater is he who's in us, that rascal who's out there in the world. And so I say to you, the same thing that God says to Joshua about 3,400 years ago. As Joshua was about to take some new territory for God, come up against some demons and some Nephilim and all that kind of stuff. He's a little bit nervous, a little bit scared. What's going to happen to our kids?
What's going to happen to the next generation? And God says to Joshua, Which means Joshua, cross assembly. Be bold, be strong. Do not be afraid and do not be terrified of anything.
Why? Because the Lord your God is going to be with you everywhere you go this week in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and Amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world with Jesus Christ.
