Worship Service: Mother's Day 2020

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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May 10, 2020

Message: The Redemptive Quality of Motherhood Text: 1 Timothy 2:15 SGFCjax.org

00:10: Everyone stand together.
00:13: Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King.
00:17: His love endures forever.
00:21: For He is good, He is above all things.
00:25: His love endures forever.
00:29: Sing praise.
00:34: Sing praise.
00:36: the mighty hand is love endures forever for the life that's been reborn is love endures forever sing praise sing praise sing praise sing praise forever God is faithful forever God is strong forever God is with us forever forever we're rising to the setting sun His love endures forever and by the grace of God we will carry on His love endures forever sing praise sing praise sing praise sing praise forever God is faithful forever God is strong forever God is with us forever forever God is faithful forever God is strong forever God is with us Forever, forever, amen.
02:43: And I want to invite our reader to come forward.
02:45: We're going to be reading from Romans chapter 15.
02:49: And since we do read an entire chapter, we do invite you to sit if you would like to listen to the reading of the Word of God.
02:55: This is our call to worship from the 15th chapter of the book of Romans.
02:59: If you remember last week, Brother Mike read chapter 14, and he stated that the apostle was dealing with Christian liberty and our conscience and being fully persuaded.
03:10: And as we read chapter 15, Paul sums up thoughts concerning Christian liberty, the use of our conscience, the strong brother, the weak brother.
03:17: So let us hear the Word of God.
03:20: We who are strong, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the fallings and the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
03:32: Let each of us please his neighbor for his good and build him up.
03:36: For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
03:43: For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.
03:52: May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord in Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.
04:09: For I will tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written.
04:27: Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.
04:31: And again it is said, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.
04:34: And again, praise the Lord, O you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.
04:38: And again Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come.
04:41: Even he who rises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.
04:47: And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
04:54: I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all the knowledge and able to instruct one another.
05:05: But at some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder.
05:11: Because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
05:27: In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.
05:31: For I will not venture to speak anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed.
05:41: By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way to Illyrium I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus I make in my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.
06:13: And this is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.
06:18: But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, hoping to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to help you on my journey there for a while.
06:33: At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints.
06:37: The saints of Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.
06:44: For they were pleased to do it, indeed they owed it to them.
06:48: For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.
06:57: When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way to you.
07:07: And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
07:12: And I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I will come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.
07:34: And may the God of peace be with you all.
07:37: Amen.
07:38: May God bless his work.
07:39: Amen.
07:41: It's such a wonderful thing that we are able to read the Word of God for ourselves, that we're able to be free to read the Word of God in our churches, and I am grateful that we can continue to read through the New Testament together as a church.
07:54: Today is a particularly special day for many of you.
07:59: Today is Mother's Day, and I wanted to tell you that if you're a mom here today, I'm very grateful for you and for what you do for your family and what you are as a representative of our church.
08:09: Later in the message, we're going to talk about the redemptive quality of motherhood.
08:13: But now as we sing, I want us to consider in this song, this is a song of challenge.
08:18: It's a song to call men and women and the church to rise up and shout the name of the Lord.
08:25: So let us stand together and sing.
08:38: Men of faith, rise up and sing of the great and glorious King.
08:47: You are strong when you feel weak, in your brokenness complete.
08:57: Shout to the north and the south, sing to the east and the west.
09:09: Jesus is Savior to all, Lord of heaven and earth.
09:19: Rise up women of the truth, stand and sing to broken hearts.
09:29: Who can know the healing power of our awesome King of love? Shout to the north and the south, sing to the east and the west.
09:52: Jesus is Savior to all, Lord of heaven and earth.
10:04: We've been through fire and we've been through rain.
10:08: We've been refined by the power of His name.
10:13: We've fallen deeper in love with You.
10:18: You've burned the truth on our lips.
10:25: Shout to the north and the south, sing to the east and the west.
10:34: Jesus is Savior to all, Lord of heaven and earth.
10:46: Rise up church with broken wings.
10:51: Stand this place with songs again of our God who reigns on high.
11:01: By His grace again we'll fly.
11:09: Shout to the north and the south, sing to the east and the west.
11:20: Jesus is Savior to all, Lord of heaven and earth.
11:29: Lord of heaven and earth.
11:34: You are Lord of heaven and earth.
11:41: Amen.
11:42: We come now to our time for the offering.
11:46: And during the offering, rather than passing the plates, what we have done is we have set offering plates in the front on the communion table.
11:54: We've set one near the back door and another near that door.
11:57: So during this song, as we receive the offering, please exit your seats, drop your offerings in the offering plates as they are available, and then return.
12:08: And we'll do this as we sing.
12:09: Now just a reminder of what the Scripture says.
12:13: It says each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
12:24: Let's pray for our offering.
12:25: Father, that you might lay upon our hearts a desire to give back to you a portion of what you have given to us.
12:32: Lord, make us good stewards over what you have entrusted us with, knowing that everything that we have, every penny in our bank accounts, every dollar in our wallets, everything that we own, Lord, is not truly our own, but Lord, it is yours.
12:45: You who own the cattle on a thousand hills, you who own the entire universe, we are but stewards, Lord, make us faithful in our stewardship.
12:54: We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.
12:57: Amen.
13:14: Sing out with us.
13:17: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
13:21: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
13:25: Blessed be the name of the Lord most high.
13:33: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
13:37: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
13:41: Blessed be the name of the Lord most high.
13:47: The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
13:55: The righteous run into it and they are saved.
14:03: The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
14:11: The righteous run into it and they are saved.
14:20: Glory to the name of the Lord.
14:24: Glory to the name of the Lord.
14:27: Glory to the name of the Lord most high.
14:35: Glory to the name of the Lord.
14:39: Glory to the name of the Lord.
14:42: glory to the name of the Lord most high the name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous run in they are saved the name of the Lord is a strong tower righteous run into they are saved holy is the name of the Lord holy is the name of the Lord only is the name of the Lord holy is the name of the Lord the name of the Lord is a strong ♪ A strong tower ♪ The righteous run into it ♪ And they are saved ♪ The name of the Lord is ♪ A strong tower ♪ The righteous run into it ♪ And they are saved Amen, and you may be seated.
16:25: And Brother Mike, is it your day to pray? Then come and pray for us, please, brother.
16:36: Let's take a time of silence and then we'll go to the Lord in prayer together.
16:57: Holy Father, Sovereign God, King, Savior, and just as we sang a strong tower, Father God, thank you that you have invited your people to gather corporately to worship you in spirit and in truth.
17:21: Father God, I thank you for this opportunity to come to you boldly before the throne of grace, not with arrogance and pride, but Father, knowing that you hear our prayers and that you will answer our petitions according to your will.
17:33: And that, Father, we can pray in the name of your Son, who is the true intercessor between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ, the righteous.
17:41: Father God, I wanna lift up those in this room, Father, that are struggling with illness.
17:45: And God, I pray that you would strengthen their bodies.
17:48: I pray that you would send forth healing.
17:50: I pray that, God, that you would comfort them in these difficult times, and that, Father, you would administer grace upon grace and show them mercy, Father.
17:59: And I wanna pray for those also in this room, Father, that are struggling emotionally, Father, in these difficult times and emotional times and times of financial struggle and spiritual depression.
18:10: God, I pray that you would comfort them with the power of your word and that you would comfort them with the power of your spirit, and that you would send them grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy, that they would lean not on their own understanding, God, but in all of their ways that they would acknowledge you.
18:27: And, Father, that you would direct their paths.
18:30: Father God, I ask that you would be with Brother Keith as he preaches today, God, that he would preach with power and he would preach with boldness, he would preach with clarity, and that you would anoint his words with the power of your spirit, and that as they leave his lips, that, God, they will go across the ears of those that are in this room and that the believers would be conformed to the image of your son, and that they would be made honorable to you.
18:54: And, God, for those that are in this room that do not know you, God, I pray that you would quicken their dead spirit, and that you would awaken them from their spiritual deadness, and that you would grant them repentance that leads to life, and that, God, you would grant them eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone, and that, God, you would be honored in so.
19:14: God, I wanna lift up our deacons.
19:16: Father, as they minister to the needs of this body, God, I pray that you would continue to strengthen them, give them wisdom, give them discernment, give them clarity of mind and understanding as they go about the affairs that you have given them to do through your word.
19:33: And, God, I pray for the elders of this church that, Father, as we make decisions for the direction of your people, as we, as undershepherds, lead your people, that, God, we would do it in such a way that it brings honor to you, that it would be glorifying to you, and that, God, it would be beneficial to your people.
19:50: God, be honored in all that's said and done today in this time of worship, in Christ's name, amen.
20:19: I wanna invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to the book of 1 Timothy, and go to chapter two, and hold your place at verse 15.
20:46: The title of today's message is The Redemptive Quality of Motherhood.
20:54: For the past several months, we have all gone through constant reminders of the importance of washing our hands well, much to the joy of mothers and grandmothers everywhere, by the way.
21:10: Videos on how to wash your hands properly have flooded the internet.
21:15: Hand sanitizer has become a very hot commodity.
21:19: Some facilities that produce alcohol to drink, having converted their facilities to now produce alcohol for the cleansing of hands.
21:28: But what's most interesting about that is that the cleaning of one's hands for the purpose of not spreading disease is a relatively recent discovery.
21:39: It was not until the late 1800s that hand washing among physicians was recognized as needful, and even then, it was not universally accepted as necessary.
21:49: It was Dr.
21:51: Ignaz Simmelweis who first recognized that there was a connection between the increase of disease and the increase of death in patients where doctors were not washing their hands, and it's interesting that it was learned, it was recognized in a maternity ward.
22:08: You see, where Dr.
22:09: Simmelweis worked was in Vienna, and in the hospital that he was in, they had two maternity wards.
22:14: One of them was attended by physicians.
22:17: The other was attended only by midwives, and the one that was attended by physicians had a much higher rate of death and disease than the one that was attended by midwives, and what Dr.
22:28: Simmelweis recognized was what was happening was that the doctors were going to perform autopsies, and then they were going to deliver babies, and they were not washing their hands in between the participation in one and the participation in the other, and there was a high rate of fever, a high rate of disease, a high rate of sickness because of that unhygienic practice.
22:52: Upon, again, if you think about it, just it's amazing to consider that countless deaths and countless mothers and countless children were the purpose or what happened as a result of not recognizing what seems to be to us today a very basic reality.
23:10: You should wash your hands.
23:12: But since the fall of mankind, childbirth has always been a dangerous endeavor.
23:18: We live in a time where, a time and a place where childbirth is relatively safe, but for much of human history and for many around the world, that's not always the case.
23:29: Think for a moment about the centuries which preceded our own lifetime.
23:33: Think about what it was like to give birth just 200 years ago.
23:38: No painkillers, no cesarean sections, no antibiotics, no sutures, no hygiene, and often no recovery.
23:51: Countless women and children died and that danger is still real and present in places where modern medical advances are not available today.
24:00: Around the world, approximately 800 women die every day as a result of pregnancy-related issues, still today.
24:10: In the areas like Nigeria, a woman is 200 times more likely to die from pregnancy than a woman in Sweden where there's excellent medical care.
24:23: Childbirth is an amazing and frightening event.
24:28: It signifies the moment when a life springs forth from the womb.
24:33: It's been growing for nine months and now it's introduced into the world, yet that introduction comes not through a calm and serene passing from womb to room, but rather the baby comes into this world accompanied by travail, accompanied by screams of agony, accompanied by immense pain.
24:49: The mother engages in an embattled ordeal, often lasting several hours, sometimes even more than a day, with few moments of rest between incredible bouts of horrific suffering.
25:03: Yet, at the same time, few mothers, having held their babies after they were born were ever dissatisfied.
25:11: They were happy, they were thankful.
25:14: They say it's worth the pain once they get the baby into their arms.
25:18: The touch of the baby's hand, the smell of its newborn skin, the look in its eyes ease the comfort of the recent pain.
25:27: The reality of now being a new mother is a balm for what it took to become one.
25:36: When our passage today, the Apostle Paul speaks about the subject of childbirth and motherhood.
25:43: And I wanna say before we read it, this passage is difficult.
25:48: And I imagine some of you, by the end of this sermon, are going to be wondering, why did he pick this one for Mother's Day? Why did he pick this one, which is so difficult? And it is.
26:03: Well, I can't always tell you exactly why the Lord leads me in the directions that he does, but I do believe this is the passage he wants me to preach this morning.
26:10: And I have spent many hours thinking through what I'm going to say, and I pray that it will be accurate to his truth.
26:18: But again, I wanna say it's a difficult passage.
26:20: And there are some confusing elements to it.
26:24: And I hope that by the end of the day, we'll be able to better understand it.
26:29: So let's stand together and let's read the word of God, and we're going to read just verse 15, because this is the passage that we are studying today.
26:40: But the focus, actually the context, begins all the way back at verse eight.
26:44: We'll read that in a few moments.
26:48: Verse 15 says this.
26:51: Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
27:02: Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
27:06: And Father, as now I begin to preach the word, I thank you that my brother has already prayed that I would preach with boldness and with power.
27:12: And I pray the same.
27:13: And I pray also, Lord, that you would please keep me from error.
27:17: For Lord, I am a fallible man, and I am capable of preaching error.
27:20: And I don't want to do that.
27:22: For the sake of your people, for the sake of your name, and for the sake of my conscience, I pray that you would lead me, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit.
27:29: And I pray that the Holy Spirit would be the teacher today.
27:33: And Lord, where I speak truth, I pray the truth would be applied to the heart.
27:36: And Lord, if I err, I pray that it would be erased from the mind.
27:39: Lord, that your truth may be proclaimed, and that your truth may go out from this place and lead us into a better and wiser walk with you.
27:48: We thank you, Lord, for this time.
27:51: In Jesus' name, amen.
28:02: As I already mentioned, this passage is difficult.
28:06: It's difficult first because of what it says.
28:09: It proposes a truth that's difficult to understand.
28:12: But it's also difficult because of the current situation in which we now live.
28:18: Our culture today is at the height of the equality movement.
28:26: The push to level the ground between the sexes and remove not only any inequalities and opportunity, but to remove any distinctions between the sexes.
28:38: Therefore, this passage and this entire section of Paul's writing to Timothy is often maligned as an example of Paul's misogyny.
28:49: Over the years, I've heard it said many times, well, Paul just didn't like women.
28:54: Paul didn't like women in the church.
28:59: He didn't like women in the ministry.
29:01: And so we don't need to listen to Paul when it comes to the subject of women.
29:07: There's nothing further from the truth.
29:10: The Apostle Paul is speaking, he is writing.
29:14: The words that are on this page are from the mouth of God himself.
29:20: The Bible says, all scripture is theopneustos.
29:23: It means it is God-breathed.
29:26: And therefore, when the Apostle Paul writes and we have what he has written, we need not take that and say, well, this is just one man's opinion and a man to say the least.
29:38: No, this is what God has said.
29:41: And therefore, we need to take it as such.
29:44: But at the same time, when we come to a passage like this, we have to recognize that sometimes there are passages in scripture that are difficult to understand.
29:53: There was a principle during the Reformation called the principle of perspicuity.
29:58: And that simply means the principle of clarity.
30:00: It means that the Bible is relatively clear in what it says about salvation.
30:04: It's relatively clear in what it says about how to be saved.
30:07: And so the Reformers said, we need to look at the clarity of scripture and know that it's clear in what it says.
30:12: But even the Reformers would say, it's not always equally clear.
30:16: There are some passages that are not as perspicuous as others.
30:20: There are some passage that require us to dig a little deeper to find what they are really trying to say.
30:27: So what I'd like to share with you today, and this is sort of gonna maybe seem a little odd to you.
30:31: I wanna share with you how we can try to arrive at the right understanding when we come to a difficult passage.
30:39: As a Bible teacher at heart, my favorite thing to do is to teach people the Bible and to teach people how to study the Bible.
30:46: And so what I wanna share with you today are three, a process of three steps that you can take when you come to a difficult passage to help you rightly understand what that passage means.
30:58: I'm gonna put them up on the screen.
30:59: These are the three things that we're going to do today.
31:02: First, we're going to examine the context of the passage.
31:05: What are the other verses around it say? Then we're going to eliminate the unreasonable, meaning we're gonna look at what it says and we're gonna say, okay, what can it not mean? Based upon the rest of scripture and based upon simple reasoning, what does it not mean? And we're gonna eliminate the nots, the unreasonables.
31:22: And then we're going to examine the possibilities.
31:25: What could it mean? And then hopefully we're going to come to a proper and better understanding of the text.
31:32: I will say this, this is one of the passages that honestly, every time I've ever been in a Q&A where Bible verses was the subject and people got to ask about difficult Bible verses, this was one of them.
31:46: Somebody inevitably would say, hey, what does that mean when it says women are saved through childbearing? So that's what we're gonna talk about today.
31:55: First, let's look at the context.
31:57: The context of this book actually begins back in the first chapter, of course.
32:03: The apostle Paul is urging Timothy to wage the good warfare of faith with a good conscience.
32:09: That's the call.
32:10: He's urging Timothy to continue the fight.
32:13: Paul knows that he is getting close to the end of his life and he's got this young man, Timothy, and he's charging him to move forward and to be a pastor of the church and to be a good pastor.
32:23: And throughout the book of 1 Timothy, there are all of these stipulations for how the church ought to operate.
32:29: How should elders be chosen? How should deacons be chosen? What are the qualifications for such men? How should husbands treat their wives and wives treat their husbands? And all of these things are found within the books of 1 and 2 Timothy.
32:40: We call these the pastoral letters along with Titus because they're written to show us how the church ought to function.
32:48: Well, then we get to chapter two and Paul begins to call the church to prayer.
32:52: He calls the church to pray for leaders, for kings, for those in authority.
32:58: He calls us to pray for those over us and to pray for their salvation.
33:04: Then in chapter two, verse eight, Paul begins to make a distinction between men and women in the church.
33:12: Let's begin reading at verse eight.
33:16: I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.
33:27: Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.
33:43: Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
33:46: I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.
33:50: Rather, she is to remain quiet.
33:52: For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
33:58: Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love, holiness with self-control.
34:07: The context here is the distinction between men and women.
34:13: He says that men ought to use their hands, not for quarreling, but for praying.
34:19: Why do you think he would say that? Could it be that men have a problem with how they use their hands? Could it be that men are known for throwing hands with one another and lifting their hands in ways that they shouldn't? So Paul says, let us not use our hands for quarreling, but let us use our hands for raising them in prayer.
34:37: And then he turns to the women, and he says, women, you ought to adorn yourself with godliness rather than godliness.
34:44: Why do you think he would say that? Could it be that there was a problem and maybe still is a problem where we concern ourselves too much with the exterior beauty and not enough with the interior beauty? And so Paul addresses that issue.
34:56: Then he makes an observation about the authority in the church and the teaching within the assembly.
35:01: And he says that the teaching is to be, and as I said already, very controversially, to be men only.
35:08: Boy, that's a hard thing to say in 2020.
35:11: It's a hard thing for people to accept.
35:13: And many people have just absolutely repudiated these passages.
35:17: I mean, we look around our land and we see women in the pulpit.
35:21: And as I said a few weeks ago, if there's one thing we learn from 1st and 2nd Timothy, it is this.
35:25: There are people in the pulpits all around that should not be.
35:29: It's not always just women, but women should not be.
35:32: And again, if that offends you, please know that I am not making this up out of whole cloth.
35:38: This is the apostle Paul speaking on behalf of almighty God.
35:42: All I'm doing is repeating what he has said.
35:46: And to undergird this, because oftentimes people will say this.
35:49: People will say, well, see, Paul was a product of his culture.
35:55: And the culture of the day was that women were a second-class citizenship and that women were not allowed to teach.
36:02: And therefore, Paul is just expressing the culture of his day.
36:06: Well, there's a couple of problems with that.
36:09: One, it's not exactly true that the culture of his day would suppress women.
36:13: There was a lot of situations in Paul's day where women were exalted.
36:18: There were goddesses that were exalted, that were worshiped.
36:21: There were women who taught in various situations and even women business owners, as we see with Lydia in Acts chapter 16 in various places.
36:28: So the idea that women were absolutely not given any type of position in society is actually not the case, but even more so, notice that Paul does not use culture as his reasoning.
36:44: Paul doesn't say that women ought not to teach men or have authority in the assembly.
36:49: And he goes back not to culture, but to creation.
36:53: And he says, see, look at the way God created the world.
36:57: He created Adam first and then Eve.
37:00: And by creating Adam first, he gave Adam a position of authority in the kingdom.
37:04: He gave Adam a position of authority in the garden.
37:07: When I get back to preaching Genesis in a few weeks and I look forward to it, I'm actually gonna begin preaching about the creation of Adam because we're gonna be in Genesis two.
37:16: And in Genesis chapter two, Adam is expressed as being created and made vice regent with God.
37:21: He's given an authority over the garden.
37:23: And part of the reason for the heinous nature of the sin of Adam was that Adam allowed sin into the garden.
37:33: Adam was supposed to be managing that garden.
37:35: He was supposed to have authority over that garden and he allowed it in.
37:40: There was a serpent in the garden and Adam was unaware or at least unwilling to deal with it.
37:50: So the serpent was allowed to tempt and to deceive his wife.
37:58: And Adam's wife was deceived.
38:00: Verse 14, it says, Adam was not deceived.
38:03: And you might think that that's Paul's saying Adam was better.
38:06: No, that's worse.
38:08: Mike and I had a conversation about that this week.
38:10: It's actually worse because Adam was rebellious.
38:13: He knew not to do it.
38:17: Eve was deceived.
38:18: She was tricked.
38:18: Adam was not tricked.
38:20: Adam did what he did in rebellion.
38:26: But the point of it is in this situation, Paul is using the example of Adam being created first then Eve and Eve being deceived as his argument as to why women are not to be teaching and having authority within the body of Christ.
38:44: And by the way, just a side note.
38:46: This is one of those times where the Bible is clearly assuming that Adam and Eve are real people.
38:53: Because a lot of people believe Adam and Eve are fictional mythological characters.
38:58: But Paul's not using them as fictional or mythological.
39:01: Paul is saying, look at Adam and Eve as the example.
39:05: They were created.
39:06: I mean, he's not using them as a myth.
39:07: He's using them as a historical example.
39:11: So that's the context.
39:13: Paul is discussing the distinction between men and women.
39:16: He's using Adam and Eve as the example.
39:19: And what happened as a result of the fall? What happened as a result of sin? Man and woman were both cursed.
39:27: What was the curse of man? That his work, which up until that time had been a joy.
39:32: Don't think that Adam didn't work before the fall.
39:34: He did work before the fall, but his work was a joy.
39:37: He didn't work and toil.
39:38: He didn't work with thorns and thistles.
39:40: He didn't work by the sweat of his brow.
39:41: He worked to the constant enjoyment of the kingdom.
39:46: And then when he sinned, his work became displeasurable and he hated it.
39:50: And now it's tiresome, it's burdensome.
39:52: And he hurts and he hunches and he doesn't feel good.
39:57: That's the curse.
39:58: Work is not the curse.
39:59: The curse is the displeasure of work.
40:02: The same way with the woman.
40:04: The woman receives a curse, but it's not childbearing.
40:11: It's the pain in childbearing.
40:15: You understand? The curse is not that she would bear children.
40:19: That's the blessing.
40:20: Just like work is a blessing, but what is accompanying work? Pain and suffering and toil and back pains and ripped fingernails and all those things that we hate.
40:31: What's the difficulty of childbirth? Nine months of morning sickness and stomach pains.
40:44: Nine months of growing to a point of discomfort where your hips hurt and your back hurts.
40:55: And then when it does come time, it's absolutely horrific.
40:58: I've been there three times and she did not look happy.
41:09: Of course, there's other things that happen.
41:13: The possibility of death, the possibility of miscarriages.
41:17: Just all of those things are products of the fall.
41:25: So that's the context.
41:27: Paul is addressing Adam and Eve.
41:29: He's addressing men and women.
41:31: He uses Adam and Eve as the example.
41:32: And he says, there's a distinction between men and women.
41:36: And then he says, and women will be saved through childbearing.
41:38: So that's the context.
41:41: So based upon the context, we can now begin to try to arrive at a meaning when he says in the next verse, yet she will be saved through childbearing.
41:54: Well, there's two unreasonable understandings that I'd like, now we're at part two.
41:58: There's two unreasonable understandings that I'd like to at least get out of the way.
42:04: The first unreasonable interpretation would be this.
42:08: All women who have had babies are saved from their sins by having babies.
42:13: Anybody believe that? No, you shouldn't, because that is not the gospel.
42:19: It's not as if you can be saved by grace through faith or childbearing.
42:23: That would be a heck of a way to go around and share the gospel.
42:27: You can either believe in Jesus, or you can go have a baby.
42:32: Certainly that's not the proper understanding of the text.
42:38: That's not what Paul is saying.
42:40: But there is another that I would say is equally unreasonable.
42:45: And that is this, someone who says that what this is talking about is physical healing, and therefore a woman who is a believer will never suffer death in childbirth, that she'll be saved from death in childbirth.
43:06: I don't think that's right either.
43:08: In fact, I would say it's absolutely wrong because there have been faithful women of God who have died in childbirth.
43:14: There've been faithful women of God who have suffered horribly and had bad pregnancies and the children have died and the women have died.
43:21: So we can't say that it's saving from sin, childbirth, and we can't say that it's saving from the physical dangers of pregnancy.
43:33: So neither one of those, I think, would be a proper understanding.
43:37: I think both of those would fit into the category of the unreasonable.
43:40: Unreasonable from scripture and unreasonable from experience.
43:46: So now we begin to examine the possibilities.
43:49: And the possibilities are numerous.
43:51: And if you look up this passage in commentaries, you're liable to find more than what I'm gonna give you today, but I wanna give you three possibilities as to what this passage might mean.
44:02: And then I wanna help you understand why I think I believe what it means is correct.
44:07: But again, I wanna say this from the outset, I am in no way being dogmatic today.
44:13: I'm trying to help you learn how to study.
44:17: And sometimes as a pastor, when I study a passage, sometimes I have to arrive at a conclusion there where I say, I think this is the best way to understand it, but I could be wrong.
44:26: And if we don't have the humility to say that, then there's something wrong with us.
44:30: If we don't have the humility to say, I could be wrong about this, then I think we got a problem because there are some passages that are difficult.
44:37: So I'm gonna give you the three possibilities and then explain to you why I think the one that I think is correct.
44:44: First, the first possibility is this, that the childbirth in reference here is the birth of Jesus.
44:54: Okay? This is a very popular understanding that Jesus is the one being born.
45:03: And so if we read it that way, it would say this.
45:06: In verse 15, it said, yet she being Eve will be saved through the birth of the child.
45:14: And if you read it in the Greek, there is a definite article there.
45:17: It doesn't say childbearing, it says the childbirth or the childbearing.
45:20: And therefore some people would say, this is the birth of Jesus because it has a distinct article referring to a birth, a specific birth.
45:31: And so this would go back to Genesis 3.15.
45:35: Do you remember in Genesis 3.15 what the promise was given to Eve? It was during the curse of the serpent.
45:44: God curses the serpent.
45:46: And he says, there will be a seed of the woman and the seed of the woman will crush your head.
45:52: You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head.
45:55: We call that the Proto-Evangelium or the first reference to the gospel because it's a reference to Satan's work being destroyed by the seed of the woman.
46:06: And therefore some people would say, that's what Paul is saying here.
46:11: Women, even though they're dealing with childbirth and the pain of childbirth, they can know that a savior is coming.
46:19: And this of course would be looking forward to the savior.
46:21: Now we can say a savior has come.
46:23: And so in that regard, the childbirth here would be Jesus.
46:27: So that's the first of a possible interpretation.
46:32: However, I wanna simply say, it's not without difficulty.
46:36: If you take that position, there are two things that need to be considered.
46:41: Number one, this would be a unique way of phrasing how we are saved, because the Bible does not normally express salvation through the birth of Christ, but rather through the death of Christ.
46:53: And so the fact that it says saved through childbirth would be unique to say the least, but also somebody might say, well, but in Genesis 3.15, it does talk about the coming of the seed.
47:03: So that could be the answer to that.
47:06: But moreover, the thing that I think is important is that this is speaking specifically to women.
47:13: Notice again, it says yet she will be saved through childbearing.
47:18: And therefore, if it's referring to the birth of Christ, which is not limited to women, but would be for all, then I think that this would have, again, a difficulty in saying, why is it making a distinction between men and women? And why is it focusing on the woman? And then yet saying that the childbirth will save her and save them, referring to women.
47:39: So again, can it mean the birth of Jesus? Yes, that is one possibility.
47:45: It's not the position that I take, but it is a possibility.
47:49: Number two is a little bit more difficult.
47:52: Number two takes the position that we should not focus on the word childbirth, but that we should focus on the word through.
47:59: Read the text again with me.
48:00: She will be saved through childbearing.
48:05: And so the word through there would be translated basically like this.
48:10: She will be saved even though she has to go through childbearing.
48:16: So here's how it would be understood.
48:18: What's the curse of women as a result of the fall? They're gonna suffer in childbearing, yet they can still be saved.
48:26: That curse does not rob them of the ability to be saved.
48:30: Maybe a woman might look at her situation, having to go through pregnancy, and say, oh, God has cursed me because look, I'm having to bear this pain.
48:39: I'm having to bear the suffering.
48:40: I'm having to bear the shock.
48:42: And how could God love me? And the apostle Paul could be saying, no, you can be saved even though you have to go through childbearing.
48:50: You may think that's an odd interpretation.
48:52: That's actually the interpretation John Piper gives.
48:55: So just to say, it's not so far out there that it's so weird that nobody takes that position, but it's not the position that I take.
49:03: But I wanted to express it because basically what he's saying is in 1 Corinthians 3.15, it says that there will be some who are saved yet as through fire.
49:12: That word through there means having to go through the fire.
49:17: And basically Piper says this.
49:18: He says that word through is being used in the same way here.
49:21: They'll be saved yet as having to go through childbirth.
49:24: It's not exactly the position that I would take.
49:27: I don't think it's necessarily unreasonable, but it's not the position that I would take.
49:32: But I wanted to share it.
49:36: So we have seen two positions.
49:38: One, the childbirth refers to Jesus.
49:40: Two, it's not about the childbirth, but having gone through the childbirth, and that's the position, the second position.
49:47: Now I want to share what I think is the proper understanding with, again, the caveat of saying, if you take one of those other positions or maybe you have one I've never heard of, that at the end of today, I would hope you would not want to break fellowship with me over a relatively obscure verse.
50:08: But I want to, again, point you back to the context.
50:12: The Apostle Paul has just discussed the distinction between men and women.
50:17: And one of the most radical distinctions between men and women in the church is the difference of authority.
50:24: Men alone are to teach within the assembly and women are to learn, as the passage says, with quiet submissiveness.
50:34: And we know that in our day, that kind of thinking can be labeled sexist.
50:39: And that's not a new problem.
50:40: Even in Paul's day, there were arguments over authority.
50:44: 1 Corinthians 14, the Apostle Paul had to write to the church in Corinth.
50:49: May the women be silent in the churches.
50:50: Why? Because there was an issue of argument over authority.
50:54: Who's gonna be able to speak up prophecy? Who's gonna be able to stand and speak? And Paul says the women ought to be silent.
50:59: People take issue with that, but it's clearly there because there was a problem.
51:05: And to prove his point regarding the distinction between men and women, Paul points to creation.
51:10: He notes the priority of Adam being created first, then Eve.
51:14: And he notes that Eve sinned first before Adam.
51:17: And it is based on that reality and not on his culture that he distinguishes between the authoritative roles.
51:24: Men alone are given the duty to govern and teach within the body of Christ.
51:30: And one might ask the question, this is the natural question to that.
51:36: Where does that leave women? Do they serve no other purpose than to simply sit quietly and shut up? And I think Paul is answering that question in verse 15.
51:55: And I think that he's using the word saved here in a way that he does not use it elsewhere.
52:02: And this is what makes my interpretation difficult because I believe the word saved here is not in reference to salvation from sin.
52:10: The word saved can be used in other passages to reference being delivered from some kind of problem or to be delivered from some kind of issue.
52:20: And in this situation, I think it's deliverance from shame.
52:24: Because what has he just mentioned in the previous verse? That the woman endures a certain stigma or a certain shame having been the first one to sin and having herself been deceived.
52:41: A woman may feel indignity because she cannot teach or have authority within the church.
52:47: She may feel lesser or even stigmatized by the fact that she was the first to have sinned, but yet she has a gift which is unique to her.
53:02: And that gift is a gift that men do not have.
53:07: It is the gift of the ability to bear children.
53:12: In the act of bearing children, the woman shows herself not only as necessary, but absolutely necessary and valuable, absolutely valuable within the body of Christ.
53:27: No one could ever look at a woman in the body of Christ and say, you have no purpose here.
53:31: Just sit down and shut up.
53:33: You have no purpose here.
53:35: All you need to do is sit down and be quiet.
53:37: No, a woman does have a place.
53:39: A woman does have a purpose.
53:40: And the highest expression of the purpose is her purpose in bearing children.
53:47: You see, she may not have an authority in the church, but where does she have a great authority? In her home and with her children.
53:57: They say the first evangelist to the children is the mother.
54:02: And the great mission field of the mother is in the home.
54:07: And so there is something that though there was a shame, though there was an indignity, though there was a part of her history that is embarrassing, that is no more to be considered.
54:20: That is no more to label her with a stigma because now she is able to show herself to have the greatest of all importance within the body of Christ, because it is through her womb that the next generation will come.
54:35: I wanna give you a few quotes just to encourage you in this direction.
54:41: The first one is from an author that I listened to and read.
54:44: He says this, he says, it's the most likely interpretation that takes into account the immediate context is that rather than abandoning their intended roles by demanding teaching and authoritative positions in the church, women will find true fulfillment through childbearing.
54:59: Paul is saying God calls women to be faithful, helpful wives, raising children to love and worship God and manage the household wisely.
55:09: So that's one commentary that would agree with what I'm saying.
55:13: Another one is believer's Bible commentary.
55:15: This is the one that I've encouraged many of you to purchase.
55:17: This is one single volume commentary that I use a lot.
55:20: And here's what it says.
55:22: From what Paul has just said in this chapter, the impression might arise in the minds of some that the women have no place in God's purposes or counsels.
55:30: She's reduced to a non-entity.
55:32: But Paul would dispute this claim.
55:34: Although it is true that she has no public ministry in the church that is assigned to her, she does have an important ministry.
55:41: God has decreed that woman's place is in the home and more specifically in the ministry of raising children for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
55:51: So again, agreeing with what I've said.
55:52: But I wanna, one more, and I know not everyone in here is the same agreement on how much they love John MacArthur, but most of us appreciate John MacArthur and his ability to speak in regard to the word.
56:05: And this is what he says about this passage.
56:08: Paul is teaching that even though women bear the stigma of being the initial instrument who led the race into sin, it is through childbearing that women may be preserved or freed from that stigma by raising a generation of godly children.
56:27: See, when we compare this passage, 1 Timothy 2.15, to other passages that mention women and childbirth in scripture, it is obvious that there is something about childbirth, there is something about motherhood that has great value within the kingdom.
56:42: Titus 2, three, four, and five.
56:44: Brother Adam knows this is the, you name the troop after that verse.
56:48: Our American Heritage Girls Troop.
56:49: And here's what it says.
56:51: It says, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
56:56: They are to teach what is good and train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
57:10: Older women, by the way, that's your responsibility.
57:13: To teach the younger women how you are to manage your home.
57:18: That's why there should not be a disconnect between our older generation and our younger generation.
57:23: There should not be the old ladies and the young ladies.
57:26: There should be an interaction between the older and the younger.
57:29: And there should be learning that takes place between the older and the younger.
57:33: There should be ministry that happens because what you are doing is valuable and you need to know what happens when you make a mistake.
57:41: Who do you talk to? What happens when you need help? Who do you go to? Do you go to the GQ magazines? They're not GQ, what is it? They're the Cosmopolitan.
57:50: Whatever, GQ is Gentleman's Quarterly.
57:51: You go to the magazines and you read the...
57:54: No, you go to the women in the church who've been there.
57:58: You're suffering a loss.
57:59: You go to the women who've suffered loss.
58:01: You're having trouble with your knuckleheaded husband.
58:03: You go to the women who have knuckleheaded husbands and you ask them, what do you do? And they'll say they don't know either.
58:09: But the point is there's great value in motherhood.
58:21: And I believe there's a redemptive quality in motherhood.
58:24: Not redemptive from sin or from hell, but redemptive in this sense.
58:31: No mother who raises her children in faith and love and holiness and self-control, no woman who does that should ever feel in any way or in any situation that she is in some way inferior in the body of Christ.
58:50: And that she is somehow unnecessary in the body of Christ.
58:56: Because raising children in godliness is one of the most precious things that you can do in your life.
59:04: Now, I wanna take a moment before I get to my conclusion and say this, you may be a woman who is not married and don't intend to be married and you've been given the gift of singleness.
59:13: The apostle Paul says that's great and you can do things that married women cannot do.
59:17: And I am not in any way downplaying your ability to minister within the church either.
59:22: But today's not about you because that's not the passage.
59:25: If I was in 1 Corinthians 7, I'd be talking about you.
59:27: So just understanding, I'm not downplaying anyone who can't have babies.
59:30: Or maybe your body won't let you have a baby.
59:33: And you have to minister in another way.
59:36: Maybe you'll minister as a foster parent or an adopted parent or maybe you won't be a parent, you'll be a missionary or something else in the church.
59:42: Don't think for a second that what I'm saying is that you don't have value either.
59:46: But because this is the passage, because this is the focus, I wanna focus in on the value of motherhood.
59:52: You see, the world teaches that motherhood is not enough.
59:59: It demands that women abandon motherhood and family to find true success outside the home.
01:00:08: And if you don't think that that is true, you have not been listening.
01:00:13: You just go and ask a young lady, what do you want to do? And listen to how people respond to what she says.
01:00:21: You go to a young lady, you say, what do you wanna do? I wanna be a business owner.
01:00:25: Praise the Lord, that's great.
01:00:27: I wanna be an attorney.
01:00:29: Praise the Lord, great.
01:00:30: I wanna be a journalist.
01:00:32: Praise the Lord, great.
01:00:34: I wanna be a wife and mother.
01:00:36: Well, what else do you wanna do? And you think I'm lying.
01:00:42: I have heard that come out of y'all's mouths.
01:00:45: I'm not talking about, I've heard you guys say it.
01:00:48: Not all of you, but I've heard it.
01:00:50: I've heard people say to young women in this church, when they say, what do you wanna be? I wanna be a wife and a mother.
01:00:56: What else? Why is that not enough? Why is that not the highest of aspirations? You see, the world doesn't understand any redemptive value in motherhood.
01:01:14: The popular culture has labeled motherhood a prison and marriage slavery.
01:01:19: But the Bible exalts marriage and motherhood as the highest of aspirations for women.
01:01:23: The secular world wants to destroy the family and replace it with the community.
01:01:29: But the Bible exalts the family, it exalts mothers, and it shows that nothing can replace the value of a godly set of parents in the home.
01:01:40: Ladies, if you're a mother today, you are employed in the most important job that you could have.
01:01:51: Do not let the world devalue what God has called you to do.
01:01:55: And men, I encourage you this, to understand the value that is invested in your wives.
01:02:01: And if you've treated her as anything less than the most valuable person in your life, I encourage you to repent and let her know the place that she should have in your home and in your heart.
01:02:09: Amen.
01:02:12: And if someone were to ask you, ladies, what do you do? Never be embarrassed to say, I manage my home and I take care of my children.
01:02:29: Because I want to tell you this, if somebody asked you what you did, and you said, I care for the children of the CEO of Bank of America, they'd go, oh, wow.
01:02:42: Or if you said, I care for the children of the President of Google or the President of Amazon, they would say, wow.
01:02:51: Or if you said, I take care of the children of the President of the United States, they would say, wow.
01:02:59: You must have a job that's really important and you must be really responsible.
01:03:07: Are your children any less valuable than the ones of the President of Google or Amazon? Are your children any less valuable than Donald Trump's child? Not at all.
01:03:27: You are caring for the children God has put in your home and they are his.
01:03:38: And therefore, you are a steward of God's children.
01:03:45: Never, never let anyone question the value you have either in the church or in the home.
01:03:56: Beloved, it's a gift from God.
01:03:59: Let's pray.
01:04:01: Father, I thank you for your word.
01:04:04: I thank you for this opportunity to study it today.
01:04:07: And I pray that there's been accuracy in what has been preached.
01:04:12: And again, Lord, if I have erred, I pray that you would just wipe that from our minds.
01:04:16: And Lord, the areas, the truth that has been spoken, Lord, I pray that you would just help our hearts to really invest an understanding of that truth.
01:04:27: Lord, I pray especially for the moms among us who feel overwhelmed by life.
01:04:34: And there are moms among us who are suffering, some who can't even be here today who are hurting.
01:04:41: And Lord, they need ministry from you.
01:04:45: They need to be reminded, Lord, that in Christ, there's no shame and no need for shame.
01:04:53: There's no embarrassment or need for embarrassment.
01:04:56: For Lord God, he, our all in all has come and he has granted us a place in his kingdom.
01:05:05: And Lord God, when we do what you've called us to do, even in the smallest of things, Lord, we are fulfilling the call of God on our life.
01:05:15: Not as missionaries necessarily, not as pastors necessarily, but in whatever you call us to.
01:05:23: Lord, let us do it all to the glory of God.
01:05:28: In Jesus' name.
01:05:36: Beloved, we're going to now do something that we haven't done in almost two months.
01:05:43: We are gonna respond to the preaching of the word by participation in Holy Communion.
01:05:51: Brother Mike and I prepared the communion this morning.
01:05:55: We wore gloves, we didn't touch anything.
01:05:57: And you'll see that it's set out on the table, spread apart.
01:06:01: What we're going to encourage you to do, if you want to participate in communion, please come and line up, take your cup back to your seat.
01:06:09: And once I'm done playing this song, everyone will be back to their seat and we'll share in communion together.
01:06:14: If you don't feel comfortable taking, no one is urging you to, but we wanted to make it available.
01:06:20: What a thing to miss, the ordinances of God's church.
01:06:24: So let us consider that as we sing together.
01:06:27: ♪ Amazing grace, how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ ♪ I once was lost, but now was found ♪ ♪ But now I see, it was grace that taught my heart to fear ♪ ♪ And grace my fears relieved ♪ ♪ How precious did that grace appear ♪ ♪ Beyond my first belief ♪ ♪ My chains are gone, I've been set free ♪ ♪ My God, my Savior has ransomed me ♪ ♪ And like a flood, His mercy reigns ♪ ♪ Unending love, amazing grace ♪ ♪ The Lord has promised good to me ♪ ♪ His word my hope secures ♪ ♪ He will my shield and portion be ♪ ♪ As long as life endures ♪ ♪ My chains are gone, I've been set free ♪ ♪ My God, my Savior has ransomed me ♪ ♪ And like a flood, His mercy reigns ♪ ♪ Unending love, amazing grace ♪ ♪ The earth shall soon dissolve like snow ♪ ♪ The sun forbear to shine ♪ ♪ But God forever reigns ♪ Ladies, y'all wanna come? On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and he broke it.
01:10:33: And he said, this is my body which is given for you.
01:10:36: As often as you eat this, do so in remembrance of me.
01:10:41: And then he took the cup after supper and he blessed it.
01:10:45: And he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
01:10:49: As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you show forth the Lord's return, or show forth the Lord's death until he comes again.
01:11:01: This is an opportunity to remember the greatest event in the history of the world.
01:11:06: The time when our souls were in black darkness and God sent His miraculous light into the world.
01:11:15: And we have the light of Christ and we enjoy that remembrance as we share together.
01:11:25: May we share.
01:11:42: ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Praise him above the heavenly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ And you may be seated.
01:12:58: At this time, we have a very special opportunity as a church and we're thankful to get to finally do this because it was at the beginning of the year that we had a congregational meeting and we recognized Brother Gary Childers as a deacon in the church.
01:13:15: The church affirmed him.
01:13:18: Everyone who voted, voted to affirm him as a deacon.
01:13:22: But we have since then been unable to meet in a normal fashion and been unable to do our, have our opportunity of actually installing him.
01:13:32: The process of installation is not something that we have created out of whole cloth, but it's something that we see in the Bible.
01:13:38: The process of installation began in the book of Acts where we see people being assigned to ministries within the church and they are brought before the elders or the apostles at that time and they laid hands upon them and in doing so symbolized the conferring of the ministry to that person through the laying on of hands.
01:13:59: Brother Gary, if you would come forward, please.
01:14:03: And if you would stand right here and I would like for our elders to come and please stand to his back on either side.
01:14:16: Now, if you look up at the screen, you'll notice that we have the words that we're going to say.
01:14:21: These words will have a portion for you to participate as a church.
01:14:27: So I'm gonna have a part, Gary's going to have a part and then you all will have a part where you affirm him and then we will lay hands upon him.
01:14:37: Yes, we are gonna lay our hands on you and we are going to, and then we'll all go wash our hands.
01:14:45: And we're going to pray for him.
01:14:48: So let us now begin.
01:14:50: The Lord has established two offices within his church, one for teaching and the other for service.
01:14:58: The office of deacon is a servant's office, one meant to provide an example for the entire church body.
01:15:04: Do you who are being presented commit to faithfully discharging this office? Would you like to read here? I commit to faithfully discharge the office of deacon within this church.
01:15:24: I will minister to the needs of the congregation and submit to the leadership of our elders.
01:15:28: I know that I will never be perfect in my efforts but will continue to strive toward conformity to the perfect example of Christ as God gives me grace.
01:15:38: Any person who takes the responsibility of a deacon takes on a serious and indispensable role within the church.
01:15:46: It is essential that the body of believers support him in that role.
01:15:50: Do you as the congregation of the church agree to support this candidate in his work as a deacon? And I ask you to repeat together.
01:16:00: I urge his work as a deacon and to pray for him to be able to diligently discharge his duties as God gives him grace.
01:16:11: Amen.
01:16:12: Brothers, may we lay our hands upon our brother and I will lead a prayer.
01:16:18: Our Father and our God, you are the one who calls us to works of ministry.
01:16:26: You say that we have been saved by grace through faith but we have been saved unto good works for the very purpose of doing good within your kingdom.
01:16:36: Lord, we are so grateful to have already seen so many good works come from the hands of Gary and his wife.
01:16:42: We are so grateful for what they have already shown in demonstration of willingness to minister within the body of Christ.
01:16:48: And I pray that even now that you would begin to encourage him even further and even more boldly in the ministry to which you have called him.
01:16:57: Lord, give him the wisdom to serve well.
01:17:02: Give him speech that encourages.
01:17:05: Give him, Lord, hands that serve.
01:17:08: Give him feet that run toward needs.
01:17:10: And Lord, give him a mind that is the mind of Christ.
01:17:15: A mind of humility.
01:17:16: For Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but came as a man.
01:17:22: And he humbled himself by death, even death on the cross.
01:17:25: And Lord, I pray now for that spirit of humility to be within our brother.
01:17:29: That he would walk in this church and in this world a deacon, a minister of your gospel.
01:17:36: Lord, thankful for what he has been called to.
01:17:38: Grateful for the service that he gets to provide and humble as he provides it.
01:17:43: Lord, may we all encourage him in this.
01:17:46: And may we be encouraged to follow after his example of service.
01:17:51: Lord, we thank you, we praise you.
01:17:53: May you fill him with your spirit as he serves.
01:17:56: In Christ's name, amen.
01:17:59: Amen and amen.
01:18:00: Praise the Lord for that.
01:18:01: Yes.
01:18:03: We're thankful.
01:18:07: Well, we are at the close of our service and I want to give the benediction.
01:18:12: But before I do, I wanted to just make a quick announcement.
01:18:16: If you did not receive the emails or if you're not receiving our emails, but you would like to, please touch base because there are two things that we announced this week and I announced them in email.
01:18:25: The first is that our academy, Sovereign Grace Academy, which is our seminary class that we teach, starts back on June the 4th.
01:18:33: The class is introduction, or excuse me, Survey of the Old Testament.
01:18:37: It is an eight week course, very intensive course on the study of the Old Testament.
01:18:42: I would encourage you, if you would like to be a part, to come see me.
01:18:45: There is an application process to be involved with the academy.
01:18:49: You do not have to be, you don't have to pay, but you do have to be, you have to go through the application process.
01:18:54: So come see me because I want to talk to you if you want to be a part.
01:18:57: The other thing that we're doing is we're going to have a Bible conference.
01:19:01: Sort of a way to bring things back together and try to begin to look forward to the rest of this year and all that God has for us.
01:19:11: So on June the 27th, we are going to be meeting here.
01:19:14: It's a Saturday.
01:19:15: It's a one day Bible conference.
01:19:16: It's for men and women.
01:19:18: Last year we did this and it was a men's conference.
01:19:20: This year it's for men and women.
01:19:22: Brother Mike, Brother Andy, and myself will all be sharing messages on the subject of the sovereignty of God.
01:19:28: That is the conference name is the sovereignty of God.
01:19:31: And we're going to be looking at the sovereignty of God from the Old Testament.
01:19:34: Brother Mike is going to preach that message.
01:19:35: From the Psalms, Brother Andy will preach that message.
01:19:39: And then from the New Testament, that will be my message.
01:19:42: So I would encourage you to please mark that date on your calendars.
01:19:44: We're going to have a meal that day.
01:19:46: We're going to have a lot of enjoyable time of fellowship.
01:19:49: And it's almost two months away, so hopefully a lot of this distancing and things will have been a part of the past at that point.
01:19:56: But in any way, we're going to do the conference and we can do it just like this if we need to.
01:20:02: So is there any questions about either one of those? Are you glad to be here today? Well, I'm thankful to see everyone.
01:20:09: Again, mothers, I'm so grateful for all of our good and wonderful mothers.
01:20:14: And I'm hoping that you have an enjoyable day with your families.
01:20:20: Every other year, we would have a gift.
01:20:21: This year, we did not do gifts for several reasons, one of which, of course, handing things out.
01:20:25: We're trying to do is limiting our handing of stuff out as much as we can.
01:20:28: But I do like to recognize our oldest mother.
01:20:31: Who is the oldest mother here today? Miss Mary, are you it? You're it every year.
01:20:41: All right.
01:20:42: How about the mother with the most amount of children with her today? Is that Amy? Six? Anybody beat six? You're the winner.
01:20:52: You're the winner.
01:20:53: All right.
01:20:56: Well, it's always fun to have those little points and point out those little things.
01:21:00: Well, again, I'm so grateful for all of you.
01:21:02: Love you all.
01:21:02: Let us stand and I'll give a benediction and then we will dismiss.
01:21:11: As Moses said in the book of Numbers, May the Lord bless us and keep us.
01:21:14: May the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us.
01:21:17: May the Lord lift up his countenance to us.
01:21:19: May he give us peace as we go in his name.
01:21:22: Amen.
01:21:23: Please welcome your neighbors this morning without touching them.