 Now, here's where I'm going to lose many of you. So just brace yourself. Number four, Jesus called on women to direct and lead men. Enemy has to do to get you to believe something that you shouldn't believe or to do something that you shouldn't do or just simply to sin is to distort the Word of God. Now, there are people out there who intentionally do so and then there are people who unintentionally do so. The issue is though, and the problem is it still has the same effect whether the person who's doing it is deceived or is intentionally deceiving others. The problem is when you move people away from what the Word of God says and that person doesn't have a full understanding of what the Word of God says. One of the areas that we're seeing this show up in is in this area with women in the church. What are their roles? Now, does the Bible teach or allow for women to be pastors? No, does the Bible affirm as this gentleman is going to say for women to be disciples? Jesus affirmed women as disciples. Some of you have missed this your entire life. Now, if he means by being a disciple in the sense that to follow Christ and so forth and to just adhere to his teachings and basically just to spread the gospel whenever they can to magnify Christ in their heart to be a follower, well then amen. But if what he means is for them to have a position in the body in terms of leadership, well then they're in lives of problem. And what's happening is more and more men as well as women are distorting or blurring the lines, the clear lines that the Bible has taught. It's not us and it's not up to us to tell God how the ministry ought to be ran. He tells us and if he states that this is the qualifications, this is the order. Well, then I think it best that we go with that. So in looking up what it says, the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3.1, this is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of a pastor. Now someone may say because it doesn't say man specifically, it uses the Greek word tees, which is a certain person. Well, then that opens up the possibility for a woman. Look what it says. If the aspires for the for the office of the overseer is a fine work that he desires to do. And overseer must then be above approach the husband of one man, one wife. I'm sorry. And the word that's used here is the Greek word for Andra. This is never to be used for a woman, the husband of one wife. And the word for wife is Gnaikos, which is for a woman. So the man of one woman that naturally eliminates the possibility of it being a woman. Now someone may say, well, what about in other areas, not as a senior pastor or the overseer? Well, this is where we find some problems because we see people using passages to kind of blur the lines. This particular person, I think he's a senior pastor of Sandals Church, I believe. I'm not sure, but this came across my desk and so I wanted to address this because this is happening more and more. We're taking the word of God and we're discounting what it clearly says in other areas, blurring the lines over here to say, well, this is how you can make this fit. This is how you can kind of circumvent what the scriptures are saying. And this isn't the case. Now notice what he says here and see if you can notice his technique in trying to push in the possibility of women leading. And who is Joanna? This is so important. Joanna, the wife of Shusa, listen to this, the manager of Herod's household. She was not a servant. She was a woman who was employed. She was a gifted woman who chose to end her career to serve Jesus. That part is fine. That part, what he's saying, there are women obviously throughout scripture who are used by God. God makes it clear that he has a place and a position for men and women. And in terms of being saved, there's no distinction, but in terms of roles and leadership, there absolutely is. But we'll see that many times that women do take a position to where maybe men should have been or they just took a position period where they'd be a male or female. And so we're seeing an account of a woman because are there accounts of women, godly women in the Bible who are following after God? Sure, just like there are godly accounts of men doing the same thing. And so here we see Joanna doing that. And he's going to also bring in Lydia and he's going to make a statement about Lydia that is just factually inaccurate. There is no basis for, but there's a reason why this happens. We meet these women in the book of Acts. Her name is Lydia, who deals in Fine Purple and linen. She owns her own business. She's running a synagogue down by a river. Now, some of you are thinking, wait a minute, is this true? Did Lydia, did she actually run a synagogue? Well, let's go to the scriptures and let's look and see in Acts chapter 16 verse 14. Starting off, we see a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyratira or Thyratira, a cellar of purple fabrics, a worship of God was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. Now, she's likely, I mean, we'll say this is probably the first recorded European to receive the gospel and come to Christ, which bows well in her favor. We don't take that away from her, but the issue is, if we're going to say that Lydia here ran a synagogue, well, that's a problem. We go to verse 40. We see her again. They went out of the prison. Paul went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia. And when they saw the brethren, they encouraged him and departed. But there's no passage anywhere that we can find anywhere in scriptures of Lydia running a synagogue. And so here she is. She's running, according to him, a Jewish synagogue. Would the Jews allow for that? No. Is she running a church? The Bible doesn't say that either. She did kind of implore them to implore them to beg them to stay at her house. But that's not her running a church. That's not her bringing them to her church. That is not the case. And so what we have is a clear distortion, whether it be intentional or unintentional. Someone can take this and run with that seat. We've got Lydia. We've got Joanna. We've got Mary. We've got all these people. You've heard the different discussions about Phoebe and about Juniya, which we don't know if that's a woman or a man. So don't let people take a passage that doesn't say what it doesn't say and make you believe something that's not there. Lydia did not run a synagogue. But there's a reason for him to want to say that. Why? Because he's trying to, I guess, be relevant. I'm not sure if I should say relevant, but make a point that society deems as necessary and there becomes a relevant discussion to the world that wants to infiltrate the church with its worldliness, with women becoming leaders, with bad doctrine, all these different things. You have to have someone to open the door on the inside to let the bad things on the outside in. And now we have a pastor who's doing just that. Now, I want to point out something. I want to show something he's getting ready to do. And it's not just a basic mistake. This happens to be, it has to be intentional because he's taking a word that's really not founded there or it is in some sense, but twist it. And there's just no reason for him to do so. There's no excuse for him to do so. So I'll let you hear him and then see if you can pick up where the gross error is. Now, here's where I'm going to lose many of you. So just brace yourself. Number four, Jesus called on women to direct and lead men. Now I'm going to play that again, but he says Jesus called on women to direct and lead men. Well, there are passages in the Bible that indicate that a woman can alert people and share the gospel and so forth. One such example is in John chapter four. Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well. He's gone down a list of her, her life. And so she is just open to what he's saying now. She's recognizing that this is likely or probably she's probably saying that this is the Christ. And look what she says in chapter four verse, let's see 28. So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ. Is it? So she's believing she's asking this. Can this be the Christ? This must be the Christ. What happens? They went out of the city and we're coming to him. So because of her, they go and meet him. Can a woman go and share the gospel? If there's a man around who is needing some help with understanding the Bible, does she and it's woman around. She understands and knows the Bible. Does she have to go back and, Hey, wait a minute. I've got to find a man to come tell you the answer when she knows the answer. No, she's obviously allowed to give the gospel. If someone's teaching bad doctrine or heresy out there, let's say it work. Could she correct them? Could she if someone's looking for a Bible verse, because you point in there. Sure, her job is to be a light just like the man's job is to be light. Now she cannot fulfill a particular position in the body that a man can have because Paul has clearly stated that a man cannot teach. As a matter of fact, the Bible is clear. He says in chapter two of 1st Timothy, likewise, I want verse nine. I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing and modesty and discreetly not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works as is proper for women making claims of guidance. A woman must receive instructions with entire submissiveness. I do not allow, here it is, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain silent. But is that what he's saying? That is what he's saying going counter to what the Bible is saying. Now, here's where I'm going to lose many of you. So just brace yourself. Number four, Jesus called on women to direct and lead men. I know you don't believe it, but listen to me, guys. How many of you have needed directions and you don't ask, amen? Come on, right? You won't even ask Siri. You're like, nope, I got it driving around in circles. There's a reason Jesus tells the women to tell the men where to go. Amen. Now, what he's doing is he's referencing at the tune the women there and Jesus tells them to go tell the disciples and bring them back. I wouldn't say that's the same as leading or teaching. I think that's him saying, hey, go tell them to come here. In other words, he's using them as a messenger. Can I want to be more than a messenger? Sure. But in this case, that's all the women are used for as a messenger. Not as someone to go teach Peter, teach John, teach Bartholomew, teach Thaddeus, teach them, lead them and lead them back. Now, as a matter of fact, he didn't tell them, go get them and bring them back. Tell them that I've risen and to meet me. That's what's happening. But he's making out to be more than what he is, what it says. And then listen what he is going to say, how he takes a word and makes it out to be more than what it is. Now, here's what many of you've missed. When Jesus says, go and tell in the book of Mark, in the book of Luke, and in the book of John, the word is Lego. So think of this, Lego my ego, amen, Lego land. Now you know little Greek. You're learning some Hebrew. You're learning some Greek. Here's what's interesting. How many guys have ever heard this saying? If you're a Christian, you've probably heard this. I want you to finish my sentence. I'm going to not finish it and this could fail miserably. But as Christians, we are called, I want you to finish my sentence. To practice what we, as a Christian, you need to practice what you preach. Did you know that's an actual Bible verse? It's not like a saying. It's not a slogan. It's not a bumper sticker. It's a teaching that Jesus gave and it's in Matthew 23.3. And guess what word for preach is in the Greek, Lego. What is Jesus saying? Go and preach to my knuckleheaded disciples. No, that's not what he's saying. That's absolutely not what he's saying. And you are taking the word, even if I were to give you the benefit or doubt of it being unintentional, which is hard to believe because you're looking at the word and you're saying that it means something more than what it means, that means you're intentionally doing so. That's not what's happening here. And so let's just go to the passage and let's see for ourselves. So in Matthew 23.3, it says, Therefore, all that they tell you do and observe. So I guess this is where he's getting the whole practice what you preach. Do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them. Now, here we're going to find the uses of the word. This word right here is a poison, which is from the Greek word Lego. It's not actually the word, but it is derived from the same word, which is to say or to speak. There are words in the Greek such as Lego and Epin, which means to say or to speak. So either one of those words can be used interchangeably, but this word is the word for Epin or Lego. Epin saying, you know what? I wouldn't make a real big distinction, but this word does mean to say. And then he says do and observe. So what they tell you, do and observe. Then say this practice what you preach, the portion that he brings in. That's not there, but do not do according to their deeds for they say the same things and do not do them. So he says, now don't do what they do. He says, do not do not do according to their deeds for they say things and don't do them. So in other words, what he's saying is they don't do what they said they're going to do. Or I guess if you want to make that to say that they don't practice what they preach. Well, this practice what you preach is an English idiom. This is something we say in Western culture. They don't have that. I understand that you think that that's, or some may think that that's really what they're saying. That's fine. But if you're going to make a word study out of it, that's not literally what it's saying. You know, by the way, the same word is used over here for the word say, which is legousin. But there is no practice what you preach and you do not take this word for preach, which is in the Greek word, cruxo, which means to preach or to pronounce or to urge. Or you could even say the word to prophetuete, which is to give a revelation to urge. There are other words that are used to preach. And if you want to use the word for gospel, you can use that as a verb. But this word to say or to tell, we don't use that word to mean to preach. This is a clear distortion. This is a clear moving of what the word means to make it say something that you think it ought to say. There is no example of anyone in the Bible being told of a woman, especially post-cross, being told that you ought to go and lead these men that you have been, or I should say that Jesus affirmed or is calling women to lead and to teach men. When clearly Paul says that cannot happen, that it's not the case. So the dangerous part is that you see this happening all throughout the body, more and more. Not just with women in leadership, but in other areas. Other areas of doctrine where people are taking the Bible and they're really dismissing it. Again, some of that happened from the very beginning in the garden. The enemy tells Eve, is that really what the Bible says? And then she recounts what he says. And he says, that's not really what it means. We have the same thing happening here. We have him saying, I'm going to shock you. That's not really what it says. We've been reading the Bible, but you haven't been reading it correctly. This is what it says is what it means in giving examples that really aren't examples. Guys, you need to be careful, be on alert. Stay in your word. When they give you a passage, go back and look. Is this word, does this word Lego? Does it mean preach? Does it ever mean preach? Are there ever any women that are commissioned by Jesus or by Paul or by Peter? Any other apostle to go and teach and lead men? No. Are there women that have been women that have been used to serve in the body? Sure. Do women have the ability or the physical gifts possibly to lead? I'm sure they do. But are they qualified biblically? No, just like every man is not qualified to lead or to preach or to teach. There are clear qualifications, there are guidelines. Let's go by what the Bible says and not by what someone else has to say. Amen.