A Biblical View of Womanhood

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As most of you know, our church hosts a group every Monday evening called the American Heritage Girls.
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American Heritage Girls, AHG as we call it, is a program that is designed around teaching young girls godly behavior and providing for them an example of what it means to be a godly woman through the various women who donate their times as group leaders and coordinators.
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And I truly believe that this program has been one of the most beneficial programs that we have ever had and supported as young girls today are so exposed to bad examples and to bad role models on television and on film.
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And by providing godly examples, we are helping to combat the onslaught of secularism which is so pervasive in our culture.
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Now, I mention AHG this morning because the sermon is somewhat tied to our troop and the troops number.
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The American Heritage Girl troop that we support is Troop 2345.
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Now, the first time I heard that, I thought, well, maybe it's just a generic number.
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2345 is pretty easy.
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But then upon talking to the leadership, the reason why they chose Troop 2345 was based on Titus chapter 2, verses 3, 4, and 5.
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So this morning, I felt like being that it is Mother's Day and being that we have the mothers who are here and the people who have come with them, whether they're husbands, fathers, or they are children.
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I wanted to discuss this issue that is raised in the book or raised in this chapter and in these verses.
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I want us to examine this text of Scripture because it tells us about the value of having a godly example of womanhood for the next generation.
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With that, let's stand together, turn in our Bibles to chapter 2 of the book of Titus.
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We'll read verses 3 through 5.
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Titus chapter 2, verse 3.
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Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
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They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
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Our Father and our God, as we enter into the study of this subject this morning, look at this passage which talks about the women who are to train the other women by example and through godly wisdom.
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We pray that you would, first and foremost, as I pray every week, God, keep me from error as I am a fallible man capable of error.
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God, also, we pray that you would open up the hearts of the congregation to hear the words that are being said and to apply them to their heart.
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As Lord, this message is one that, in our culture, would easily be reviled and easily be rejected.
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But, Lord God, as believers, we are not bound to the culture, but we are bound to the Scripture.
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So, Lord, let us be bound to that Scripture as we study this morning.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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One of the most common objections to the Bible that I hear, and I hear this ever more all the time, as I spend dealing with young people and, well, people of all ages, but working at the schools that I substitute at, I spend a lot of time hearing young people talk, exercising my pastoral prerogative and eavesdropping, listening to conversations and hearing what people think about certain things.
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And it's amazing how much young people actually do talk about spiritual things.
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It is an often intelligible conversation, but they do have a yearning often to talk about those things, the eternal things.
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But one of the most common objections to the Bible that I hear is that the Bible is no longer culturally relevant.
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And I hear this not just from outside the church, but I hear this being said within the church, not necessarily here, though it has been said here in the past.
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But in many churches, we have heard that the Bible is not culturally relevant.
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In fact, one of the most prevalent movements in our society today that objects to the Bible's relevance is a movement that is called feminism.
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Now, ladies, I want to very quickly say when I talk about feminism, I'm not talking about your individual rights to vote or to speak or to own property.
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I'm talking about the social movement called feminism, which is actually robbing women of womanhood.
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That is so, so culturally pervasive in our society.
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And when I say robbing women of womanhood, let me maybe explain that in such a way that you'll understand.
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Feminism says that it fights for women's rights when in actuality it robs them of the purpose God intended for them.
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Feminism claims that a woman who seeks a prosperous career outside the home is to be exalted.
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And a woman who finds her place as a keeper of the home is to be degraded or degraded.
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Rather, I'm sorry, is to be degraded.
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And I don't I don't know this because I've read it in a book somewhere.
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I know this because I see this all the time.
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My wife, as you know, is a domestic engineer and she has friends and family, as we all have friends and family, people that we know that are outside the church, outside of God's mandate, don't care what the Bible says.
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And when they heard that she was going to be coming home full time, that she was going to be working at home and going to be a full time housewife and mother and homeschool teacher.
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They said that she had given up her opportunity for success.
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Think about what kind of a culture says to a woman that because you don't go out and work a 40 hour workweek that you've given up the opportunity for success.
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It is a culture that is steeped in what is called feminism, but is not in any sense of the word.
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Feminism sees any language of submission in marriage to be tantamount to indentured servitude and seeks to demonstrate that men are too foolish and too immature to truly be the heads of the household.
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And if you don't think that that's the case, if you don't think that that is what is being pushed by the movement called feminism, you go home and you watch any television show today that portrays a modern family.
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And what you will see is the mother is the sage word wisdom of the household and the father is the foolish one.
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And he's just as much under the mother's authority as all the children.
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He is not anymore the ward cleaver of the house who is coming home after a hard day's work and sits down to give wise advice to Theodore.
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No.
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Now he's the one who's even more foolish than the children, because the children usually outwit him.
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But you see, this is the culture that we have convinced ourself we live in.
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Feminism claims that abortion should be legal because of the reproductive right of a woman to her own body.
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And that childbearing is a burden.
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Oh, they would never say childbearing is a burden.
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Our sitting president said that childbirth is a punishment.
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You want the context of the statement? This is the context of the statement he was saying on behalf of abortion, that he thinks abortion should be legal because of his daughter's ever made a mistake.
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He doesn't want them to be punished with a baby.
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That's the culture that we live in, a culture that has been so confused by the roles of men and women.
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The lines have been so blurred that we no longer even understand what biblical manhood and biblical womanhood is supposed to look like.
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And most people don't care.
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Now, as I said, that is not to say that everything that has ever been touted in the women's rights movements is incorrect.
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But what I'm saying is the movement itself has really been a movement to undermine God's intention for the family and replace it with one that is actually in opposition to the scripture.
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I know that what I'm saying is not popular in our modern culture.
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When I put the videos up of what I usually say in sermons, I put them on YouTube.
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Sometimes I have to cut the comments section off because people are not happy with what is being said.
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And they can't express themselves with anything but expletives.
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It doesn't matter because the truth is the truth.
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I'm also aware that some folks may get offended by me challenging the status with which feminism has attained in our culture.
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However, I counter this by saying that my job is to preach the Bible.
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And when the culture disagrees with the Bible, we must as Christians disagree with culture.
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If it is scripture or culture, we must go with scripture.
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I've had many conversations about this topic with people, men and women.
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And I've had many conversations about the role of women and the role of men in the house and in the church.
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And many of the conversations I've had have been very fruitful.
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But on the same side, I've had many times where I have just been called a sexist.
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I remember distinctly a conversation wherein a person I was addressing heard that the Bible taught something about women and men and the distinction in their roles.
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And I said, well, the Bible says this.
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And I quoted from one of the books written by the Apostle Paul.
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And they said, oh, well, Paul didn't like women.
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Paul was a sexist.
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Now, such a statement is not just erroneous, but it also speaks to the very heart of how people often view the Bible.
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To many people, the Bible is not the infallible rule of faith and practice, but instead is simply a compilation of varied opinions of men who lived under a primitive first century patriarchal social construct.
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And if that's what you see the Bible as, it's not the Word of God.
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Thus, to these people, when the Bible addresses the roles of men and women, it's not speaking of God's ordained will.
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It's not speaking about how these roles should or will be in the world.
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But rather, it's a skewed vision of the world created by men who were in power during the time of the writing.
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They say, well, that's just what those men said back in 2,000 years ago.
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And because the Bible is written by men, of course they're going to say this about the role of women and the role of men.
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So we don't have to listen to that at all.
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So really, before we even address the role of womanhood and the role of manhood from a biblical perspective, one thing we must all at least come to the conclusion on is where we stand on the Bible.
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Before we can address biblical manhood or biblical womanhood, we have to ask ourselves the question, is the Bible the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the believer? And if it is the sole infallible rule of the faith and practice of the believer, and it offends you, then you are the one who are wrong.
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The Bible, the Apostle Paul says, all Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.
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As such, when the Bible addresses a subject like manhood and womanhood, then it is the final word.
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If it challenges the societal views and current trends, then we need to be willing to jettison them for God's constructed plan.
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For to do life the way the Creator of life intended is obviously the best way to do life.
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Hear that again.
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To do life the way the Creator of life intended life is obviously the best way to do life.
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So this morning, we're going to examine this text of Scripture.
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We're going to look at the context.
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We're going to look at the content.
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And we're going to look at the application.
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People ask all the time, what is expository preaching? That.
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Read the text, explain the text, apply the text.
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That's what expository preaching is.
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It's just that simple.
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So that's what we're going to do.
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We're going to exegete this passage.
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And because we have not been studying this book verse by verse, I do have to help you understand the context.
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If we had been going over it like we've been going through Hebrews verse by verse, it wouldn't be as important to focus so much on where we are.
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But because we haven't been, I want to very quickly give you a little history on the book of Titus so we understand what this is.
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The book of Titus is one of three that we refer to as the pastoral epistles.
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It goes along with first and second Timothy.
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And all three of the books deal with how the church is supposed to function.
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You'll remember that first Timothy gives us the outline of what an elder or pastor is supposed to look like.
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First Timothy three.
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It gives us an outline of what a deacon is supposed to look like and tells us how the church is supposed to function.
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That's why we call it the pastoral epistles.
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It's for pastors to understand and to be able to apply to the church.
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And Titus contains these words at the beginning, chapter one, verse five.
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The apostle Paul says to Titus, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.
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He says, that's what I want you to do.
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I want you to appoint elders in every town.
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And he gives them the requirement for the elders.
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And that's what the first part of Titus is about.
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Here is what is required of a man who you are going to call pastor or elder.
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And then he goes on to warn Titus about those in the church who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers.
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And he encourages Titus as a church leader to silence them.
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Something you never talk about today to actually silence someone.
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To tell them to be quiet because what they're saying is not true.
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And he says, if you've got somebody in the church who speak in false truth, you quiet them.
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You shut them up.
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And he says that in the first part of Titus.
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And he's telling us what to do in the church, how to behave.
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The truth must be proclaimed from the church.
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Then in chapter two, at the beginning of chapter two, Paul begins to talk about what Titus needs to be teaching within the church.
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He says that he needs to teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.
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Which is the first command of anyone who is to preach the word.
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If God has called you to preach the word, whether it is in pastoral ministry, as an elder, or whether God is calling you at this moment and you have yet to do it.
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May I just say this? Your responsibility is to preach what is in accord with sound doctrine.
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And then he goes on to say.
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He goes on to list the various attributes that need to be taught to the various groups in the church.
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And he begins by talking about older men.
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And then he goes to talk about older women.
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And he focuses on the behavior of both groups.
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And how older men and older women have such a profound influence on the younger generations.
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And how they can be used in the church as vehicles for instruction to the next generation.
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How the older men and the older women have a responsibility to those that come after them.
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So in this context, Paul is exhorting to Titus to teach that the older be a godly example to the younger.
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That is the context of where we are.
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And then we get to chapter 2, verse 3.
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And he says, Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
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They are to teach what is good, and so train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
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Now, we're going to break this passage down.
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This is how we teach.
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We look at a passage.
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We break it down for understanding.
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But before we break it apart, I want to show you a common thread that runs through this passage.
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Something that was recently pointed out to me, and I thought it was very beneficial, and I want to show it to you.
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If you look at verse 2, it says, Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and in steadfastness.
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Look at the word self-controlled.
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The word self-controlled, if you're looking at a New American Standard Bible, it is the word sensible.
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In the Greek, that is the word Sophron.
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Sounds like something you'd sprinkle on a pizza, but it's not.
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Sophron is the word which means to be of a sound mind, in your right mind, sensible, a self-controlled person.
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And then if you look down in verse 12, you will see it says, Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live Sophron, self-controlled or sensible.
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So the word Sophron appears at the beginning of the passage.
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And then the word Sophron appears later in the passage.
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And we see this word and we see that it sort of sets up a theme.
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Because the whole idea behind the older instructing the younger is that the older will set the younger in their right mind.
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In fact, if you look at the word in verse 3, I'm sorry, verse 4, it says, And so train the young women to love their husbands.
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That word train, if you underline your Bible, you might want to underline that word train because the word in the Greek there comes from the same root word Sophron.
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And I believe it's so.
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Let me see here.
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I have it in my notes.
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Sophronizo and it means to make a person of sound mind.
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That's what it means to train.
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It means to set a person in their right mind.
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So you older women and older men, but we're going to talk mostly to the women because it's Mother's Day.
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That's a part of the part of the passage we're focusing on, but the older.
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First, you have to be in your sound mind.
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You have to be in your right mind.
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You have to have a right mind about the things of God.
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And then your responsibility is to the next generation, the younger women to help set them in their right mind.
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Now, that does not mean to give them a piece of your mind.
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And honestly, that's how it's often that's how that is as as a people.
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And sadly, it's not the church is not inoculated from this as a people.
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We have become a people that we think that's the only way to correct someone is to give them a piece of our mind.
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But when it says to set someone in the right mind, this is talking about loving, encouraging correction.
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And, you know, the difference between somebody who gives somebody a piece of their mind and somebody who set someone in their right mind.
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The difference is the intended result, because if I just tell you what's wrong with you, all I'm trying to do is condemn you.
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But if I tell you what's going on in your life that I might be able to help you grow out of.
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Then I want you to grow out of it.
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I want to help you out of it.
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That's the difference.
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That's the attitude we need to be corrected.
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No doubt we all do.
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But the difference is whether we're going to give them a piece of our mind or whether we're going to seek to set them in their right mind.
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And love and patience, mercy and grace, how we always treat one another.
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So the job of the older generation is to come alongside the younger generation of women and men.
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But in the context here that we're talking about women and to teach them godliness and to train them in what it means to be a woman of self-control.
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Now, I do want to make mention of something very quickly.
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Titus 2 is often used to make the argument that women are supposed to be formal teachers in the church as long as they only teach other women.
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Thus, some use this as a justification for women's ministry teachers.
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And there are some women who have whole ministries of that.
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That's just what they say.
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We only want women to come because we're only supposed to be teaching women.
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First of all, not to get into that argument right now, but this passage is not talking about that at all.
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This passage is not addressing.
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This is not giving a mandate for women's ministries or women's Sunday school classes or women's conferences or anything like that.
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We can talk about that.
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We could discuss the value of that.
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But don't go to this passage and say that's what this passage is.
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It's not what this passage is talking about.
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This passage is talking about how older women are supposed to mold the younger women in the church through the process of mutual upbuilding and loving correction.
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It is about giving the godly example and the godly edification needed among the younger women.
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Again, consider what the job of the elder women have in this passage.
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Consider the job that they have there to set the younger women in their right mind.
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But first, they have to be in their right mind.
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It takes a godly first generation to produce a godly second generation.
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And as such, Paul begins with these words.
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He says older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderous or slaves to much wine.
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That's the first thing.
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Ladies, if you're older and you're supposed to be the example, right there is the example given to you of what you are supposed to be.
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You are supposed to be reverent, meaning becoming of holiness.
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That's what it means to be reverent.
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To have an attitude that is becoming of holiness.
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That would mean that you would avoid things like slander and drunkenness.
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Slander is something that I find so difficult to convince people of the immensity and how wrong it is.
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Because it is so easy to fall into.
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The drunkenness thing.
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Yeah, there are people that deal with that.
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And yes, that is a problem.
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But drunkenness is something that you can see and you can mark out.
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And you can say, OK, this is a problem that a person has in their life.
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And it's easily divided.
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Those who are drunken and those who are not.
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But see, the slanderous part is a little bit more difficult to pin down.
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Because slander is something that you do.
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And you can do it in an instant.
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And you can do it without thinking about it.
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And it happens and it's out there.
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And what it's saying here about those who are supposed to be an example to others.
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Is it saying, first and foremost, do not be a person who is known for slandering others.
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Do not be a person who is known as the big mouth who can't keep it shut.
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Who feels like they always have to pin other people down under their failures.
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Because it helps you feel better about yourself.
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And of the two, the drunkenness and the slandering.
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I would say the slandering is the one that is most prevalent among people.
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Because it is so, such an easy and slippery slope.
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This is kind of a practical thing.
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One of the things that I find is how slander.
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And I realize there's a difference between slander and gossip.
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But I'm going to interchange the two just for this second.
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This is how things often start.
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Slanderous and gossipy behavior and speech.
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Often times somebody will come up and they will say something negative about another individual.
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And all they need is that person to respond in kind.
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And now there's a conversation.
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For instance, if I walk up to Brother Jim and I say, man, Nathan's shoes really look bad today.
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Who cares, I'm just using this as an example.
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He sure looked tacky in them Nike shoes.
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Now Brother Jim responds, yeah, they looked horrible.
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Now we have a conversation.
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If I went to Brother Jim and I said, Nathan looked tacky in them Nike shoes.
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And Brother Jim said, actually, I kind of like them.
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The conversation's over.
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Do you realize how easy that is to stop other people and help them, encourage them not to say those things.
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If you would just come behind and encourage them not to say those things by disagreeing with them.
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They're not going to fight you over it because they realize they just hit a brick wall.
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Now that's a practical application.
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It really didn't have anything to do with this text, but it's something that came into my heart because it's so easy to find ourselves talking about people.
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It's so easy to slander one another.
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When as the body of Christ, we have the responsibility for mutual up building, not mutual bringing down.
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He goes on to say that the older women, they are to teach what is good.
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And so train the young women to love their husbands and their children.
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I found it interesting when I read that passage that it says they are to train them to love their husbands and love their children.
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And I thought to myself, but wait a minute.
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Don't most women love their children and love their husbands? Maybe maybe what we need to be considering here is that what the apostle Paul is saying is to train them how to love their children and train them how to love their husbands.
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Because, beloved, what most people think is love today is not love.
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Some parents choose never, ever to discipline their children.
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And, you know, they'll say, oh, I love them too much.
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I don't have the heart to discipline them.
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The Bible says whoever spares the rod hates his son.
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But he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
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You don't love your child too much to discipline them.
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You love yourself too much for the pain that it causes you to have to discipline.
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It is a form of narcissism.
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You're in love with yourself because that's the only reason why you wouldn't discipline that child when he needs discipline.
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It's because it does hurt you to spank a child.
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It hurts you to discipline a child.
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It hurts you to watch your child have to go without something because he was bad.
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First, because the bad behavior makes you feel bad.
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And because you're having to impose upon him a punishment also makes you feel bad.
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And when he's sitting there and he's sad and he's crying and you're like, oh, I just can't watch him cry.
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I'll give him everything he wants.
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That is not love.
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You're more concerned with how you feel than what he or she needs.
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And it's a form of narcissism.
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You're in love with yourself more than you're in love with your child.
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Because you're more concerned with how you feel than what your child needs.
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Likewise, the same thing can be said for the love of the husband.
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Men need certain things from women just like women need certain things from men.
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And these things are different.
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Women think that men need from them the same thing that they need from us.
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And ladies, I have a little secret for you.
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Men don't want what you want.
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They don't.
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Not at all.
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Not ever.
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This is why my wife and I can't go to the movies.
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Because I don't want to watch what she wants to watch.
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And she doesn't want to watch what I want to watch.
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But she still wants to hold my hand.
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And I want to hold her hand.
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So until they have a theater with an arm hole in it.
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Where I can watch what I want.
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And she can watch what she wants.
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I'm going to have to continue to watch things about people who are going through love stories.
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And are continuously sad.
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Why does anybody watch a movie that makes them cry? Ain't the world sad enough? Okay, now.
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I don't know, but seriously.
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Do you know what women...
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I'm going to tell you a secret.
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This is a secret.
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It's going to go out on the internet.
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So maybe it won't stay a secret long.
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But I'm going to tell you what your husband needs more from you than anything else.
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And this is going to be hard to hear.
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More than your man needs hugs.
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Or kisses.
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Or Hallmark cards.
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Or even physical intimacy.
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What your husband needs from you is respect.
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I don't care if he's a CEO.
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Or if he rides in the back of a sanitation truck.
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He needs your respect.
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The Bible says in Ephesians 5.33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself.
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And let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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You will never see a more pitiful marriage than one in which the husband is not respected by the wife.
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You'll never see a more pitiful marriage than a wife who publicly berates her husband.
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And godly women who are older know this.
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They know what translates into love.
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Because respect translates into love for men.
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It demonstrates love.
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And they model this for the next generation.
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You may say, my husband isn't worthy of respect.
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And for some of you, it's a difficult situation.
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And I know there are men out there that are very, very unworthy of a lot of respect.
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But you know what? You're in a covenant relationship with that individual.
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And you stood before God and before the world and said you would be with them till death do you part.
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And maybe part of the problem is that he's not getting any respect.
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I'm not saying that's the whole problem.
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And I don't know your individual situation.
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I'm speaking to a crowd of people.
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I cannot address your individual situation from the pulpit.
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But I can say this.
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Every man needs to be respected.
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It is innate.
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It is part of who we are.
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So the older women train the younger to love their husbands and love their children.
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And to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
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The word, again, you see the word self-controlled there.
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Set them in the right mind.
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Four things are noted here.
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And I'll go through these briefly.
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There are four things noted here that are very important.
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The first, set them in their right mind to be pure.
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The word pure there means innocent, modest and chaste.
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And let me tell you something.
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Purity is a punch line in our modern culture.
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The idea that you would train your little girls to be pure little girls has gone out the window.
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It's been replaced with Lady Gaga and Britney Spears who have made their entire careers on immodesty and indecency.
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They built a fortune on exploiting their bodies because they can't sing.
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Your older generation are to teach the younger generation purity.
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The second one says working at home.
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And surely this one is offensive to so many people.
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And it indicates a priority in the responsibilities of a woman.
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Literally, it means to be the guardian of the home.
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And I will say this.
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It is not necessarily forbidding that a woman work outside the home, but it is a reminder of the responsibility of the wife.
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The domain of the wife is the home.
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She is the keeper of the home.
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She is the guardian of the homestead.
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Does this mean you don't have to do dishes, guys? No, that's foolish talk.
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I really hate dishes.
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But what it means is that God has specifically equipped women for the task of nurturing children and maintaining the household economics.
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That is how God has equipped them.
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Some people say that women that have decided to be homemakers have given up their chance of success.
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But I say to you this, that if you do what God has created you to do, you cannot be any more successful.
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It's impossible.
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The third word is kind.
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And the word kind there is so important because the word kind in the Greek actually means to be beautiful in behavior.
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So much that the world sees as beauty is simply based on aesthetic appearance.
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Beauty is a pretty face.
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Beauty is a slim waistline.
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But true beauty is found in godly character.
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Truly kind people show forth their inner beauty by how they treat others.
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We need to teach our little girls that type of beauty.
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And the fourth thing that goes along with this is submission to their husbands.
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And if working at home offends people, this one will turn their stomach.
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Because I've heard every attempt in the world to dismiss the meaning of this passage and those like it.
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That this command can be removed from the Bible.
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It should be removed from the Bible because it teaches some type of indentured servitude for women.
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But you can't take it out of the Bible.
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And in the end the meaning is clear.
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Men have a specific role in the home and that role is to be the head of the family.
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And while no man is to lord his authority over his wife, the wife is also not to subvert the authority of her husband.
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He is ordained by God as the head of his house and he will be judged one day for how he manages his house.
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So I turn now to the men.
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You will be judged by how you manage your household.
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Don't get overly excited with authority without reminding yourself that with authority comes responsibility.
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Men have the responsibility to provide.
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Men have the responsibility to work.
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Men have the responsibility to be spiritual leaders.
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Your wife ought not have to drag your end out of the bed and to church on Sunday.
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You ought to lead your family to church, not follow your wife.
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And you have the responsibility to demonstrate to your wife the love she deserves so that when your daughter watches it, she will know what kind of man she ought to find.
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And when your son watches it, he will know what kind of husband he should be.
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And now for the application.
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It seems to me that the application of this passage is rather self-evident.
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With every generation of women, there is a generation beneath you which is in need of a godly example.
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Godly womanhood is something that a young girl is not going to find by accident.
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It's not something she's going to stumble upon.
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Specifically, if she's surfing the television set, she's not going to find it.
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They have to be trained.
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They have to be molded.
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And this only happens when a godly older woman sees the responsibility to be the example and makes the decision to come alongside them and train them in godliness.
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Now, I know the focus of today was on mothers and women and womanhood because today is the day that we honor mothers.
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But I want to conclude by reading this passage in its entirety because it speaks also to the older men who have an equal responsibility to be examples of godliness to the next generation of men.
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My desire, in fact, is on Father's Day, which is a few weeks from now, to preach on what it means to be a biblical man.
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To follow up this message.
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And this passage gives us both.
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This passage speaks to you if you're a man.
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It speaks to you if you're a woman.
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It speaks to you if you're old.
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Or it speaks to you if you're young.
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Because if you're older, you need to be encouraging the younger generation.
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If you're in the middle, you need to be looking up to those who are over you and down to those who are behind you.
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And if you're a young child, you need to be looking up at that next generation.
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So we all can learn from this verse.
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So let us read the verse together.
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Verses 2 through 8.
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And with this, we will close.
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Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.
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Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
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They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
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Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
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Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.
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And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to have examined your word.
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And I pray that your word will not just be absorbed into the heart and to the mind, but also, Lord, into our behavior.
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That we would not just know what the word says, but that we would do what the word says.
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We thank you for so many of the families who are represented here today and for the godly mothers.
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And we pray for their example to the next generation.
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O God, how we pray that our church would seek to be a multi-generational church where we are discipling the next generation, so that this church does not go away with one generation, but continues to perpetuate the cause of Christ.
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We pray, Lord, for your mercy upon our church, on our families, on husbands and wives and children.
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Grant them your mercy and grace, O God.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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If you have a need for prayer and you'd like to come, we are now going to sing our song of benediction.
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And you may come.
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Let us sing.