Manning Up (part 4)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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We had a great time yesterday, and this is the session on the church And I guess you ladies were invited for the controversial part if you thought yesterday was controversial

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This really is because we're talking about the church and issues related to masculinity in the church

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But I'm sure that if you're a godly woman you'll appreciate these things and so let's get on with it

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But let's pray first father. Thank you for this morning and for These men and women and boys and girls where we can gather together in the name of Jesus Christ Seeking to exalt him and not ourselves

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Lord, thank you for your grace and for your loving -kindness for calling us to yourself Even as Mike said giving us new affections and new desires and it all points toward your greatness

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And it points to the fact that you are God, and we are not and you are worthy of our praise

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And we would want to do that even now as we open your word together even in speaking about this important matter regarding men

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Leading in the local church I would ask that you might motivate these men to be godly so that they might lead by your grace

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So that Christ is exalted in his name. We pray well according to the

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DSM for Gender identity disorder is defined as follows gender identity disorder

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G ID or transsexualism is defined by strong persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort with one's own assigned sex

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People with G ID desire to live as members of the opposite sex and often dress and use

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Mannerisms associated with the other gender for instance a person identified as a boy may feel and act like a girl

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Now sadly, I think the G ID Sounds way too much like the church

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It seems like we have a gender identity disorder when it comes to roles in Christ's Church men don't act like men and lead with humility and boldness and sadly, then

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Women are left to not act like women and they end up leading And so what this session really is is a call to serious role

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Reformation we need role reformation in Christ Church so that he's glorified

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And so we're gonna focus on that, but let me begin by reminding you that Jesus Christ has every right

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To tell us what to do in the church because the church is his church

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Acts chapter 20 verse 28 is crucial for us in ministry in life and perspective because acts 2028 teaches us that Jesus Christ bought the church with his own blood

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Jesus Christ owns the church it is his it is not mine

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It is not yours and therefore we want to say Jesus. What do you want to do what us to do with?

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What is yours? Even in the area of roles and so let's have this not be a matter of well

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That's your opinion or someone else's opinion or maybe we're free to do whatever we want to do because it's our church

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What a good thing it is to be reminded of the fact that it's Christ Church He bought it. He owns it.

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And so we're gonna do what he says So with this in mind, we're going to look at three essential convictions for role reformation

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Conviction conviction number one about the text conviction number two about violation

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Violation of the text text of Scripture. I mean and number three conviction about glory and that would be the glory of Christ The first essential conviction if we're gonna have role reformation in Christ Church Number one, we need to have convictions about the text.

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What does what does the Bible say about roles in the church? And so turn with me if you would to Genesis chapter 1 and let's just remind ourselves

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What we probably know is true. Maybe some of you don't know that this is true. But what does the Bible say about roles?

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What does it say about men and women in Christ Church? And I'm doing all of this with a view toward trying to exhort you men

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Especially because this is the carryover to the men's conference To act like men and to lead with humility and boldness

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Genesis 1 27 says so God created man in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and Female he created them

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So let's let that sink in men and women, but let's let that sink in male and female

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He created them. So the text emphasizes equality It absolutely does and in the eyes of God we are made in his image men and women.

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We are image bearers Now if you turn to Galatians chapter 3 and then I'll read first Peter chapter 3 verse 7 for the sake of time

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But Galatians chapter 3 is another very important passage if we're talking about convictions about the text of Scripture Let's make sure we know that we are equal in the eyes of God Equal before the fall equal after the fall equal in Christ So when

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I stand before God with my wife, he sees us as the same in Christ Galatians 3 28 familiar passage says there is neither

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Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free There is neither male nor female For you are all one in Christ Jesus first Peter 3 7 says we're heirs with our wives husbands heirs of the grace of life and so it would be sinful and I'll speak just directly to the men at this point in time.

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It would be sinful for you men To act as if somehow you are different from your wife in the eyes of God when it comes to being in Christ Joint heirs co -heirs equal in Christ equally saved equally sanctified

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Or perhaps your wife is more sanctified than you are, but eventually you'll catch up by the grace of God But it would be wrong and sinful for us to somehow look down on someone who is not of the same gender as we are

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It would be sinful It would also be sinful to fail to recognize something else regarding conviction from the text and that would be

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Distinction so turn with me if you would to first Timothy chapter 2 we're just laying a basic groundwork here, but let's assume nothing

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There's a distinction first Timothy chapter 2 talks about distinction first Corinthians 14 talks about distinction

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First Corinthians 11 talks about distinction. So we are equal we might say positionally

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But we are Distinct when it comes to roles I have a different role in the church than my wife has or other women have because men are in fact called to lead even though we're equals positionally first Timothy chapter 2 verse 12 says

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I Remember who's the I there Paul but not just Paul Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus So he speaks with the authority of Christ chapter 1 verse 1

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So really our Bibles are red -letter Bibles. All of our Bibles are red -letter

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Bibles. I Do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man rather she is to remain quiet Remember that's the same

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Paul that wrote Galatians 3 There's neither Jew nor Greek slave nor free male nor female

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But when it comes to roles and he's talking about roles in the context of the local church based upon chapter 3

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There's a distinction now. Just help me understand according to verse 12 What's unclear about that?

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Well It's not really great. It's not really unclear at all. It's really straightforward.

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And again, it's Paul the Apostle of Christ Jesus So it's red -letter if you will Then comes the rationale verse 13 for Adam was formed first then

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Eve and Adam was not deceived But the woman was deceived and became a transgressor So he gives the rationale for it.

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So this is tied to creation This is tied to creation and the fall not one or the other but both of those things

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So this is what we would have to say is our cultural it is supracultural because it's not tied to anything other than creation and And the fall those are those are things transcend culture so we have to keep that in mind

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Well further support would be elder qualifications in first Timothy chapter 3 Which I won't take the time to read for the sake of time, but it's husband of one wife

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It's he he his his his he he

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He and I probably missed some of them First Corinthians chapter 14

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We see something emphasized that is similar versus 34 to 35 and if we're tempted to say well

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Who is the Apostle Paul anyway again? first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1

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Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and Every time you see the word apostle the word that should jump out in your mind is the word authority

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He's not just a messenger of Christ Jesus He's an apostle of Christ Jesus an apostle is one who speaks with the authority of the one who sends them

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Wow Jesus bought the church with his own blood it belongs to him and he sent his

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Apostle to say here's how role should look in the context of the local assembly All right, then pretty clear pretty straightforward nothing controversial about that at least in Christ's mind

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And so men you're supposed to lead

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Doesn't mean you're qualified to lead. I like it that the ladies are here according to the providence of God.

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Maybe there's extra pressure Thanks ladies Men you're men, but that doesn't qualify you to lead look at the qualifications for leadership

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You're supposed to lead. I'm supposed to lead and we should feel that good sanctified pressure

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We need to not only be men as in biologically but if we're

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Christians We actually need to act like Christians because because we're supposed to lead and Christ has called us to lead and and and this is his church

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That's that's motivating Now I remind you that We have the power to do these things in Christ if we're

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Christians We're not somehow gonna do this on our own, but by the grace of God We do have the

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Spirit of God and dwelling us the fruit of the Spirit Empowering us to be able to do these things

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But you've got a big big responsibility guys, and so do

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I? We not only have a responsibility ourselves, but how about thinking about this man?

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If you by the grace of God are a follower of Jesus Christ And you are seeking his glory and his honor and seeking to lead as a servant leader in your home and in the church

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What about the next generation? What are we doing by the grace of God to train up the next generation who would be humble bold Christ following leaders?

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What kind of plan is in place? What kind of discipleship is going on because? Somebody's gonna take the baton for the next generation, so it's not just a matter of us.

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We are Breaths away from having a dead church and who wants to be part of a dead church that is offensive to Christ That motivates me that really motivates me

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Well, thankfully by and large. There's a lot of honoring to Christ going on from what I can see at BBC Church There are some men wanting to act like men and not just bark out orders

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But to truly genuinely be followers of Christ and submit to his leadership so that they might be able to leave

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I Say praise God for that Doesn't mean you've arrived though, and it doesn't mean that everyone is where?

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Bethlehem Bible Church is for every one Bethlehem Bible Church That is at least trying by the grace of God and seeing some fruit.

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There are literally thousands That have no conviction about the text and therefore have no honor for Christ who has every right to tell us what to do

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So by the grace of God you want to let that light shine and not for your own glory

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But for Christ's glory because you're gonna motivate others and you're gonna smoke others out By the grace of God and for the glory of Christ.

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Well, let's move on. Let's move on to the controversial part convictions about violations convictions about violations both historic and contemporary and What I hope happens here is not so that we can just be controversial

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But what I'm hoping is is that we can use some of these violations to stoke the flames

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That we can throw more fuel on the fire of our hearts

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So that we might say there must be a royal reformation and on my watch by the grace of God I will not stand for Christ being dishonored

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And so I hope this appeals to your Anger if it's a righteous anger,

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I hope this appeals to you so that you are motivated to stand up and say that's not right

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And by the grace of God, I'll pursue Christ and Christ likeness because we want to honor

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Christ and have men leading well in Genesis we see that there is violation historic violation of men not acting like men and leading and it goes

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Downhill from there And we see biblical examples and we could take the time to start looking at biblical

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Examples where we see men not acting like men and leading and humility and boldness

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Once we get past biblical history Well, I'll just reference Genesis and we could go to 1st

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Corinthians and see it. But let's let's keep moving again and look at some historical examples

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And the 1200s there were the Waldensians founded by Peter Waldo They had women preachers in the 1700s.

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John Wesley had women preachers in the 1800s the Salvation Army had a group of women preachers perhaps my my favorite title if I was a if I were a woman and I was going to be in an alternative rock band.

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I'd probably use this for the name The Salvation Army in the 1800s had a does anybody know what they were called?

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Free no -compromise t -shirt if you know what they were called The hallelujah lassies

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I Bet they could rock But they ought not have been preachers Mid 1800s

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Charles Finney would have had women preachers Charles Finney the heretic The pseudo -christian cult very popular in this this neck of the woods

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Seventh -day Adventists had women preachers Ellen G white being the biggest name of all sometimes they try to hide it

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It's EG white, but it most certainly is Ellen white Mainline denominations have gone the way of the dodo bird

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Theologically and many times what has led that and that demise has been

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Compromise on roles to begin with so you look at a dead mainline liberal church, and you say

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I wonder what started that What started that was a denial of Christ authority and typically where it starts is with roles

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How did they get to the place where they're denying Jesus is the only way to heaven How did they get to the place where they're denying the deity of Christ?

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History is very very interesting it starts with rejecting authority the authority of Christ and usually the first thing is a rejection of men's and women's roles

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It's very troubling Charismatic movement has always been riddled with this problem

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Amy simple Macpherson would be an example Catherine Coleman would be an example how many of you have ever seen

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Catherine Coleman on television You haven't look at her YouTube video And if you wonder what Catherine Coleman looks like and you're wondering because not very many hands went up How many of you have ever seen

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Benny Hinn before? Benny Hinn is Catherine Coleman Okay, I kid you not you watch

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Benny Hinn and watch Catherine Coleman, and you know who discipled him He is the I think

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I can say male version He is the male perversion of Catherine Coleman, and it is absolutely amazing

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Amazing to see where this takes you theologically well. It's a growing problem in the present

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It's not just for the for the Catherine Coleman's. It's not just for the the liberals It's not just for these kinds of offshoot group cultic kinds of groups

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It's become the norm in our world It's become the norm and evangelicalism the quote -unquote

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Bible believing mainstream conservative evangelicals considered this to be normal and if Wayne Grudem is right in his writings

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It is going to Ravage the church It is going to ravage the church

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His book evangelical feminism a new path to liberalism is a book you really should read

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I Remember when Mike your pastor said Pat you've got to read this book

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You've got to read the new Grudem book, and I basically said I don't need to read the root new Grudem book I've read way too many

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Grudem books. I already know what the issues are He said trust me Pat. You've got to read this book because I think

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Wayne Grudem did us a service in that book because he started naming names and pointing out violations

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Perhaps so that some of you would stop sending your money to these institutions that have rejected the authority of Jesus Christ and it is alarming

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I Have to tell you in one sense the book is appealing to your flesh Because it's like some sort of drama going on and you're thinking

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I cannot believe these people say these things What would Lewis Perry Chafer do if he were still in his grave?

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He's not well He'd be turning over in his grave. What is Daryl Bach at Dallas Seminary doing writing an endorsement to some super liberal?

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Feministic kind of book it is crazy to see what's going on And if it's happening the

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Academy the next place for it to come is the church because they're the ones training the pastors

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It is absolutely Staggering and amazing to see what is coming down the pike

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Some current examples would be the Willow Creek Association Which is a little bit passé now, but they still boast of 12 ,000 churches from 90 denominations in 35 countries and they are aggressively

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Egalitarian you can believe just about anything and be a member of Willow Creek Church, but you have to believe that it's okay to have women pastors and elders a pastor friend of mine

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Is about ready to get kicked out of his denomination and they're gonna take his building I think because when a woman missionary was slated to preach at his church an evangelical church historically associated with a

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W Tozer He said we can't do that And he wasn't mean about it. He was nice about he said, you know after the service

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We can arrange a meeting and we can meet with her because we want to hear about what God is doing But we will not give the pulpit to her and here's the email he received from his district superintendent and he said, please pray for us

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Although your position on women in ministry is a bit extreme for the Alliance. It is workable

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Your extreme view does fit within the Alliance, but it puts you at the edge of the big tent

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It is our hope that you will soften your position and be more open in the time to come extreme position

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Oh Like the biblical position Oh Like the one that Christianity is held to historically based upon the

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Apostle of Jesus Christ in Christ himself I guess it's no wonder that it's an extreme position because the popular

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Bible teachers today are Evangelicals and they teach men even if they're women whether it be

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Kay Arthur or Beth Moore or Anne Graham Lots whose father said she's a better preacher than I ever was.

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I Guess it makes sense We are the weirdos If we say we believe the

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Bible is true We believe we should say Jesus Christ bought the church it belongs to him

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And so we're gonna do what he says when it comes to men's and women's roles I don't know about you But I'm getting fired up about this kind of stuff and my blood pressure goes up a bit because it's not just about roles

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Again, historically, here's what's gonna happen Compromise number one happens there, but we've already denied the authority of Christ and it's just a matter of time that the other ones go

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Mark Dever Made a great observation about this when he said of course, there are issues more central to the gospel than gender issues

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This is not what the hill we want to die on however, there may be No way the authority of Scripture is being undermined more quickly or more thoroughly in our day than through the hermeneutics of Egalitarian readings of the

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Bible and when the authority of Scripture is undermined the gospel will not long be acknowledged

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Mark Dever knows something about history He most certainly does

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What I want to do for the next several minutes is give you some samplings from Grudem's helpful little book because he helps you think through the

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Emptiness of the arguments that are typically used and if you're gonna be a man men And you're gonna want to humbly stand up and say that's not right

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You'd better be equipped to be able to say here's why it's not right The Bible says that's the ultimate issue

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But let me help you to maybe think through some of the rationale and the ridiculousness of the rationale with the help of Wayne Grudem There's the textual criticism argument saying that women should be pastors

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And he goes after Gordon Fee in his first Corinthians commentary because Gordon Fee in his first Corinthians commentary basically says

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This part doesn't belong in the Bible now Gordon Fee is a textual critic

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He's a scholar and his job if you will is to make good and helpful decisions about which manuscripts are the best ones

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And so we want to trust Gordon Fee, but listen to what? Grudem says when the verses that he throws out of the

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Bible are missing from no manuscript and Also happened to be the very verses that show

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Paul's insistence on male Governance of the church's meetings in all the churches of the Saints verse 33

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Then it seems to me to be another example of a pattern in many Egalitarian writings a pattern of using sophisticated scholarly procedures in order to evade the requirement of submitting to the authority of God's Word Isn't that interesting there are no manuscripts missing that section

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But we trust Gordon Fee because that's his job to make those important decisions Or how about the claimed ignorance method of justifying obedient disobedience to Christ listen to Grudem here think again about what is happening when people say

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I don't know what the verses mean Because that's what scholars are saying you know we just can't really know what these verses mean

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Here's what Grudem says it's something like this God's Word I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man

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Evangelical feminists, we're sorry God. We can't understand what you mean Incidentally we have women teaching and exercising authority over men in our services

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That is because we can't understand what you mean when you say not to have a woman teacher exercise authority over a man

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God's Word therefore an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife Evangelical feminists, we're sorry

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God. We can't understand what you mean incidentally We have women who are overseers and elders and pastors That is because we can't understand what you mean when you say elders should be the husband of one wife

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By contrast the response of complementarians to these verses is simple look at this God's Word I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man complementarians

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Okay, God We won't have a woman teaching or exercising authority over men when we assemble together as believers to worship

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God God's Word therefore an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife Complementarians, okay,

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God. We will only have men as overseer seers elders and pastors or how about the

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I just can't decide method of justifying Disobedience to Christ which is what scholars do you know there's a lot of evidence both ways, and we just can't really decide

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I can't decide this, but they go on to decide it they decide to adopt an evangelical feminist view

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Contrary to the sense of those passages that has that have been plain to millions of readers for centuries in doing so they take their churches toward liberalism or how about the she's under her pastor and husband's authority argument of Justifying disobedience to Christ here's what

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Grudem says is it really true that women in obeying the Bible excuse me

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Is it really true that a woman is obeying the Bible if she preaches a sermon quote -unquote under the authority of the pastor and elders?

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The question here is what does the Bible say? It does not merely say preserve some kind of male authority in the congregation

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It does not say a woman may not teach men unless she is under the authority of the elders

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Rather it says I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man first Timothy 2 12 can a pastor or husband or elders

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Give permission to disobey the Word of God and have it not be disobeying the Word of God It's ludicrous.

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It's crazy But we're acting as if Christ didn't buy the church and in essence what we're doing we're denying the atonement

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Acts chapter 20 because if Christ bought the church it belongs to him and he has the authority to do whatever he wants to do

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Or how about the actual meaning is that women teachers were not to abuse authority method of justifying disobedience to Christ and I'll stop

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Previous meaning I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man rather. She is to remain quiet new

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Egalitarian meaning I do not permit a woman to teach her Abuse authority over a man or to commit violence against a man etc.

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Rather. She is to remain quiet And I just have to say make it stop already

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Just make it stop already Let's not be belligerent

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Ego maniac guys who are just on an authority trip, but let's turn our minds on And when someone says the opposite of what the scriptures say, let's say that's not what the

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Bible says Let's just call it like we see it and say Jesus Christ needs to be honored here

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And that's not honoring to Christ in a spirit of humility. You say that's so arrogant for you to be so dogmatic

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Why have we redefined arrogance When God has spoken and it's clear and it's been clear to millions of Christians for centuries

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I would suggest to you arrogance is to say God lacks the ability to make himself clear and Only now have we we have figured out that all of these

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Christians for all of these years have been stupid Because we've got it figured out

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Which one's arrogant? Let's encourage pastors to do the right thing.

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Let's pray for pastors like my friend. I quoted let's pray for other churches Let's pray for this church.

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Let's be part of the solution. Let's be well -informed. Let's be ready to give a defense How about this men?

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Let's be godly men who fear Christ and honor Christ Because then actually your leadership will be appealing

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Maybe part of this whole disaster. We're in is our fault because we've been

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Jerks and who wants to follow the leadership of a jerk Who's not godly, but they say

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I'm a man. So I lead in the church It's why there are qualifications That's why we want to follow

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Christ and be humble and yet as I keep saying bull Then your wife will say that's appealing to me you're acting like a man and leading

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The kind of man Christ would want you to be giving yourself a sacrificing leader

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Like we talked about yesterday the Ephesians 5 kind of man who understands that Christ Gave himself up for his bride

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And we're gonna have that kind of Demeanor toward women and not some sort of double standard hypocrisy kind of leadership

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It's very convicting. So I hope you have can basic convictions about the text and convictions about violation against the text and Do you want to do something about it and not let it go now

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Let's move to a third essential conviction for role reform in Christ Church And that's conviction about glory

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Which may strike you as odd But it won't in a second if you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 42

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As you're turning there, I kind of have a an encouraging story It sounds a little it sounds a little twisted at first, but it makes sense.

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I Man who was visiting the church is a number of years ago in Omaha and I Wasn't really sure how it was gonna go.

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I wasn't really sure where he was theologically In fact, I had somewhat of an idea and I actually knew that he wasn't very happy at the church as a matter of fact

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And we're having lunch together and he asked for this meeting and he said I just have to tell you what my wife thinks of the church

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You know, so I put my fork down Brace yourself He said

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My wife calls Omaha Bible Church a man's church, you know, then

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I Took a deep breath and he said and my wife loves

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Then I took a bite Then I exhaled

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And I still didn't really know what he meant. I was just happy to know that his wife liked the church He he really didn't and and so I said so so what do you mean by that?

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and he said she Really really appreciates the church.

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She calls it a man's church not because it's all about the men She sees the women in ministry

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Appropriate ministry. She sees godly women and godly men and she sees all that's going on But she loves it because there actually are

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Men who have a spirit of humility, but they're willing to stand up and act like men and have a backbone

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Not to mention the fact that the sermons aren't psychobabble as what he said.

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I Really really like that guy's wife There should be some strength there should be some honor there should be a good healthy strong passion

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To exalt Christ by submitting to the authority of Christ, even when it means culturally doing some of the hard things

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That's how it should be Well, you say what does Isaiah 42 have to have to do with men's and women's roles in the church

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Well in one sense, it doesn't in another sense. It has everything to do with it verse 8 says

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I am the Lord remember Christians confess

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Jesus as Lord in light of Romans chapter 10 and it's quoting the Old Testament Isaiah So I'm not stretching anything to say this is

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Jesus. I am the Lord That is my name my glory,

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I I Give to no other my praise to carved idols the

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Lord of the church says I Am not into Sharing the

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Lord of the church in essence for shock value says I don't play well with others Because I'm the only

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God and So therefore I don't share my glory my honor.

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I alone am God Jesus Christ bought the church it belongs to him and he says here's what you should do

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Here's how you should handle what is not yours to begin with it's mine and Men and women when we do what

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Christ says We're acknowledging him as Lord We're acknowledging him as God We're giving him glory

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Right When you do what Christ says sometimes when it's the hard thing maybe that's when it really shines forth

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You're gonna say I'm gonna do what Jesus Christ says who's Lord of the church no matter what you are

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Glorifying him you are acknowledging his lordship for all to see he's being exalted

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He's being put on display because here's what's not happening You're not being exalted put on display, and that's how he wants it because he's

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God it's his He's worthy. He's wise enough to give us the right plan and we need to remember that We need to remember this issue when it comes to anything

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But as you feel the pressure To cave in to compromise. I don't know if we should do that.

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It's gonna rub people the wrong way It's not sure Stop acting like the church is yours

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Stop trying to steal glory from Jesus He doesn't like it, but when you say this is a hard truth

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Especially where I'm living right now in this circumstance, but Jesus is infinitely wise

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I've read Colossians Jesus loves us cares about us

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He's not mumbled or lack the ability to be clear With humility we're gonna do what

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Jesus says We're gonna go to the wall for what Jesus says He's glorified, and he's exalted and lifted up as he ought to be and he is pleased

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He's pleased I Love Isaiah 42 a Because I love

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Christ, and that's a good kind of fear inducing text my glory

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I Give to know Whose church is it

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It's Christ Church It's not your church. It's not my church.

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It's not the elders church. It's Christ Church So we're gonna be careful We're gonna be careful.

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I don't even like to call Omaha Bible Church my church I Don't even like getting used to saying it that way

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That's mine because I belong and I'm a member and I love it But I very seldom say it's my church,

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I don't even want to get used to that Because I don't treat my stuff perhaps the way

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I should sometimes Just a trivial illustration, but maybe it makes the point

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If you were to get in my Toyota pickup truck you'd find protein bar wrappers You'd find diet

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Mountain Dew bottles You'd find a bunch of you know sports equipment in the backseat

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Gym bag probably who knows what's in the gym bag and how long it's been there You get the idea

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But if I borrow a friend's car, I don't even want to have a soda in the car

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I want to borrow that car and get it back to them at least as nice as I borrowed it

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Maybe I'm gonna top off the tank with some extra gas Because I really appreciated the fact that I had won't belong to them so I was extra careful

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The church is not yours, it's not mine and to the degree that we need to we need to stop acting like it's ours

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It's not ours. It's Christ. It belongs to him acts 2028. I love the

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Lord Jesus Christ I love the fact that by his grace. He's called me as a man to be a leader and I pray for other men to be leaders, but principle and point number one is

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It's not your car scratch that it's not your church

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And so let's deal with it the way he wants us to deal with it And glorify him and honor him even when it's hard to do it

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Let's pray father Thank you for these men and women and thank you for a great time yesterday with the men and I am

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Praying for them that they would be godly and humble wanting to serve and love their wives living with them as co -heirs in your kingdom

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Seeking your glory and seeking your honor above all other things that the men who have children would

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Love their children enough to commit to training them and pointing them to christ the great savior

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Lord i'm also thankful for this opportunity. We have to consider what your word says about the church and there's obviously more

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But it's all so simple in one sense It all comes back to christ and it all comes back to him and his gospel his church his glory his honor

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May we think in such simple terms? And lord i'm thankful for the women who are part of this church who

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Pray for their husbands Even for those women perhaps who are here this morning who are longing to have a husband who actually follows christ

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Encourage them Help sustain them have them look ultimately to you for sustaining

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Use other people in their lives when they're hurting and grieving And lord also encourage the women who are here today to be able to allow their husbands to grow

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And to encourage their husbands as they grow and not to be there to beat them down or Continue to bring up the past They might see the fruit of the spirit in their husbands lives and they might find tremendous encouragement

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And they might glorify christ who is the lord of the church as a result of that and then lord we pray for Opportunities for bethlehem bible church not to show off or to show how great it is

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But by your grace, we would pray for opportunities for bethlehem bible church to impact other churches for the glory of christ

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That they would have a zeal and a passion not to tell others what to do But to to testify of the grace of god in their midst

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To strengthen and encourage that other pastors who are really struggling where there is a role crisis in his church where he's serving

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That he might find encouragement to stand firm for the glory of christ that this community would be impacted and This country and this world would be impacted even according to your grace through this local church