 God broke something in the spirit. People have just been saying, oh, she's just hollered too much. And she just sweat too much. And she got all that holiness stuff and all that righteousness stuff. And so people were doing things quicker and it looked like they were getting ahead. But what God did, what he gave me that, is that it pays to be righteous. That the reason why he's let you be here this weekend is because he's going to call you deep. With the intention, if you'll follow him, of blessing you so big, of performing such an astounding miracle, that your outburst of gratitude will look more like just a silent implosion. I got back to my room and I'm just like, whoa! Lauren, honestly, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do, are you afraid you're gonna break me? And I had the strangest sense. And the reason why I believed it was God is because this could not have been further from my mind. And it sounds just like something he would say. God didn't call me to the world. I've been sent on assignment to do things in the world. But I'm called to the church. Jesus, let every, let every, let every, let every, We know that Biblically, women are not allowed to be pastors. Women are not allowed to hold certain roles in the church leadership. But does it also mean that Paul in his writings forbade men to listen to women when they preach or when they teach? Welcome back, smart Christians. I wanted to address something that has been brought up many times as something that people want me to address. It's talked about a lot. It's covered on different channels and different churches and so forth. And so I wanna address it mainly because it was also brought up during a recent live stream where the women took over. There was all women on the broadcast and they were speaking about their issues inside the home, outside the home as it pertains to their ministry and so forth. And some of the chats during the live stream required, a response. Some of the statements were men go ahead and sign off or log off or leave because women are teaching or men cover your ears when not allowed to listen to this. So the question that is asked, are men forbidden from listening to women when they teach or when they preach? Now, before we go forward, it needs to be clear. And we'll look at the passages that men are the only ones that have been given permission through the scriptures to hold the position of an elder or a pastor. Now, because we have those restrictions, that doesn't mean that every male that any old man or any old male can actually hold these positions. There are requirements. There are criteria that have to be met. Now, I understand how the world is today. And simply because we don't like something or agree with something, irrespective of our own personal feelings, we do not have the right to usurp what God's commandments are. Our job is simply to obey. That matter if we like it or not. He's God, we're not. For the proponents who believe that women can be pastors and that there should be no blurring of the lines, they tend to go to this particular passage. That is Galatians 3.28, where Paul says there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. But does that passage get rid of the fact that there are literally men and women? Well, no, there are still men and women. There are still, at this time, slaves and free, servants and non-servants, Jew and non-Jew, Jew and Greek. So Paul was not trying to eliminate any distinctions. No, obviously there still are. What he was trying to say is that as far as salvation's concerned, all can be saved, Jew and Gentile, free and slave, men and women. Now is there a hierarchy? Is there an order to leadership? Well, Paul, as a matter of fact, goes on after he writes this letter to the church in Galatia, he furthers, gives more instructions as it relates to the differences between men and women. And so I want to be crystal clear from my position that women cannot hold the position of pastors nor can they hold the position of an elder in the church. Now, does that mean that a woman cannot also hold the position of a deacon? Well, no, a woman can be a deacon. Remember, Phoebe in Roman was a deacon and all the term deacon means is to serve or to be a servant, to minister. And there's different capacities that women can serve just like different capacities that men can serve in. And so that's not necessarily a position of leadership, although many churches have made that into a position of leadership. But what it really is a position of serving, which is what we're all supposed to do, but there are those who are particularly in the position of serving certain needs for the body. Phoebe was one. Now, remember, as we look in 1 Timothy 3 and also Titus, that when it talks about the requirements of a deacon, as well as the requirements of a presbyterian elder or pastor, there's one particular requirement that's missing when we look at the requirements of a deacon. And that is that the deacon is not required to be able to teach. So there is no requirement in that regard. So that necessarily means that deacons aren't called to teach. That's not their role. Does it mean that they can't teach? Well, we all can teach, whether we be male or female or we're children, old, young, we all can teach. We all can preach. We can give the gospel. We'll talk more about that in a second, but just note that there are no requirements for deacons to have the ability to teach. Now, I'm gonna eventually get to the passages that we go to when we talk about the limitations of women in certain roles, about being silent and so forth and about their ability to teach or to preach. But before that, I wanna look at some issues or some instances where we see women speaking on behalf of the Lord, preaching, if you will. We won't look at the Old Testament. Now, that being said, people will bring up Deborah from the Old Testament. And what she did was not because Israel was in proper standing or things were going well, no, her judging was assigned or a rebuke to the men. It was to stand as judgment over the men because they weren't doing their job. And so there is no call from God to say women, if you don't think that men are doing their job then you stand up and do it. God will always have men there. And he had a man there who just at this moment just was not willing to, he was afraid, he was weak. And so as a sign of judgment upon him and Israel as well, Deborah judged. That's not the norm and that's not what God calls for. But when we look in John 4, we're gonna see something that I guess could be applied to today. In John 4, verse 39, says many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. And then drop down to 42, it says, they said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. So what happens here? Here's a woman, the Samaritan woman, at that. She goes and she speaks to the men, actually the entire village, the entire place where she is. And they go to her. They go to her because of what she said, what she preached, the revelation that Jesus gave to her, she in turn gave that exact same revelation to them. You need to understand what preaching is. To preach that there's a foretelling and a forth telling. All it really means is just to give a revelation of what God has stated. For some, the Old Testament prophets, for example, they gave a future telling of what God has stated is gonna happen. They also referred to some statements that God has made in the past that have current relevance. And in this case, she's speaking with Jesus and what does she do? She goes and she preaches to them about this man that she met, who happens to be Jesus. Was there any review of her necessary? Was she in violation? Were they in violation for listening? Now, I asked the question, I formed it a certain way, are men precluded or forbidden from listening to a woman who preaches or teaches? There's a reason why I formulated that question that way. I'll come to it in just a little bit, but here we see that she's speaking about Jesus. She's preaching to them and what do they do? They come running to her. Doesn't that sound like today's preaching? Again, don't think, don't get me confused in saying that I think or I believe it's okay for a woman to be a pastor or to preach in front of a room full of men and so forth. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just trying to get us to see what's happening here in the scriptures and to notice that what she did, she was not rebuked for by the men, nor by Jesus, nor by the writer, in this case, John. So now also recall what we see in Acts chapter two. The writer tells us that in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters, daughters are women, on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men dream dreams, even on my male and female servants, in those days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy. So the question, prophesy to preach, will women, according to this text, preach? Sure, will they prophesy? Sure, according to this text. Now, what are gonna be the context and how to do so? That's really the issue and also really the intent behind the people going to listen to them, but more than that, the intent behind the person who's actually preaching. Remember we see in Acts 18, we see Priscilla Nequilla, Priscilla's a woman, she is preaching, she is teaching. The gospel's being spread and she's being used to do so and again, there is no rebuke. Now, it's interesting to note that who is she with? She's with her husband, who is also there. Now, what is her husband to her? He's her covering, he's her head. And so there's this authority that has to be in place in many cases, especially in a formal church setting. Well, as a matter of fact, let's go ahead and look at why. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is talking about this whole issue. Matter of fact, let's start in verse two. Now, I commend you because you remember me and everything and maintain the traditions even as I deliver them to you. Verse three, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ. The head of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God. Now, notice the head of a wife. Now, this work could also be translated as woman, but it's not because the head of a wife is her husband. It's not the head of a woman is her man. Well, even if you translated that way, it would still indicate that he's talking about a wife and a husband. It is not to be taken that the head of a woman is every man, every other man, that is not true. It's not true that I'm the head of every woman out there. Now, in terms of ministerial rank, if I have that position in the church, well then that hierarchy needs to be observed and respected, but it's not that I can go up and tell any woman what she can and cannot do. I don't have that authority nor was it ever given to us by Paul, by Peter, by God. So that needs to be clear. So let's go back to the passage. Verse four, every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered, dishonors his head. But every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, dishonors her head. Since it is the same as if her head were shaving, where if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. So now what's the point here? The point is that, and you saw that happening in the Church of Corinth, that women were usurping authority. Women were acting out of order and women were taking over roles that were assigned for and reserved for men. Well, the point here is that to make sure that one, you don't stop women from doing what God has called them to do or have them or give it them to do, to do so in an orderly fashion, there has to be some sort of observation of headship. She needs to recognize that there has to be some sort of spiritual authority over her. And that she also in turn cannot take spiritual authority over a man, that's key. She cannot have spiritual authority over a man. And so by having her head over position covered, she indicates that I'm not trying to usurp that authority. Now, obviously we're talking about some customs from that church and we're trying to read them into our modern culture. And so women with short hair and so forth, it's not the same today as it was then. Women have cancer or have other issues that might preclude them from having long hair, who knows? And so it's not to say that a woman with short hair is a sin. That is not the point. Now in that culture, a woman who would shave her head voluntarily or do certain things would do so one to be a, to show that she's a prostitute, that she's for sale or that she's just bucking authority, which brings us back to the main point. She recognizes who is an authority and that she is not to take authority over a man. Now what some are gonna say and lean to is this, and it's a faulty reading. And that is to say that a woman, if she has a spiritual head, if her husband, let's say is the pastor of the church, could she then co-pastor or could she be the, the number two in charge or number three in charge as long as there is some man, her husband, her brother, her father, some male over her? No, this is not a loophole for a woman to go to the say that this particular man has given me authority to preach or to lead men. No, that is not the case here. She cannot receive some sort of command from the pastor or from her husband to say, you know what, I give you permission and since I'm your head, you can go and take 20 or 30 or 40 men and go lead them and teach them. No, you cannot use her authority in that regard. It's not a loophole, okay? So she can't do that. She is not allowed to have headship over a man. The point here is when she's speaking, when she's, when something comes out of her mouth. Well, in doing so, she has to recognize that there is authority over her. That's all, that's the main point of this passage. Now, let's see if we oftentimes apply this properly. I received an email from someone who was explaining to me that a particular woman who's kind of been in the news lately, I'm gonna say her name, but she is possibly a chaplain at a prison. Well, I know a thing or two about chaplains in prison. A lot of times in prison, you don't have a lot of volunteers to come in. You don't have positions filled in various prisons, especially one is in the religious service department. And so you might find that that department is lacking in chaplains. And so what will you have? At a prison, you might have a Catholic chaplain. You may have a Protestant chaplain. You may have three or four chaplains. You may only have one chaplain. Sometimes they're in such need for a chaplain that they'll hire a Muslim chaplain. Remember, the federal government or state governments aren't looking to promote a particular religion, a particular faith. And so they may say, you know what? We just want a chaplain here. Someone's gonna organize and keep things in order, make sure the doors are open, make sure these services happen. And so if this Muslim person wants to fulfill this role as a chaplain, he has to honor all the different faith groups. Obviously he won't go out and teach the men who are Protestant there, or if it's a women's church, I mean a women's prison, he won't go out and teach, or she won't go out and teach the women there, but they do hire Muslim chaplains. They also hire female chaplains. Well, what happens if you're in prison and the chaplain, the head of the chaplain services or religious department is a woman? Does that mean the men don't show up, the Protestant men don't show up to the chapel for their church service? No, not at all. Now there are some chaplains where the women are out there teaching and oftentimes the men don't show up or it's sparsely attended. Typically what happens is, she'll probably bring in someone who is a male to come in to preach to the men. If she's a chaplain at a women's prison, well, no problem. But if she happens to be a chaplain at a men's prison, well, two things. One, she certainly has authority by the nature of her position because she is an officer or staff member of that prison and the men are there in prison. And typically what happens is I say, as though she will understand, especially if she understands the scriptures, that her role is going to be to just order things, to make things, make sure things run right for what it's supposed to and that books are ordered, that positions in the chapel office are fulfilled and she wouldn't teach. But it does happen. That's where the men have to use their discernment, their understanding. Because we're gonna get to this issue of whether she is forbidden to teach and whether the men are forbidden to listen. But then something else comes up as well. A lot of times we don't think about the other sort of preaching that we listen to, that we listen to from women. Many of you are gonna play some music today and oftentimes there are gonna be women that are gonna be singing. Whether it's a choir, whether it's a hymn, whether it's praise and worship, whether it's an individual woman singing. We listen to her preach the gospel in song with instruments behind us. Is that any different? Does she have to keep silent when it comes to singing? Well no, and we don't take it that far. And so what happens is sometimes we stretch out the verses that we read and give them a meaning that was never intended. Can a woman praise God before men? Sure they can, they absolutely can. Can a woman join in with men praising God? Sure they can. Can a woman lead a song and then we listen to her and what she said was exactly what someone, what some sound teacher would preach. And we say, man too, we clap too, we rejoice with her with it. Yeah, that happens and it's okay. So I just wanted to kind of let you just, have you think about some things that we do sometimes and we don't call it preaching or teaching but it absolutely is. Now I also wanna be clear here. I wanna look at the motives of some men before we get back into the text. There are men who simply think that a woman should never be heard of or seen. There are some men who think that what's the old saying she should be seen and not heard from. In many cases because her understanding of scripture is better than his. And there is that factor that comes in where some men are just opposed to hearing anything from a woman because they don't know the scriptures as well as this woman. Well, not shame on her, shame on you men. You are required to be the head of your household and if you don't do so with the scriptures, well then that's on you, okay? The world should have to suffer because we don't have enough equipped men to teach. So what's the solution? Not go out and get women to teach. No, men step up. You do your job, fulfill your role in the home and outside of the home. Now, so let's go ahead and go to the passages, the two main passages that people turn to that deal with this subject even more so. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, 34, Paul says, Matter of fact, let's start from the middle of 13, 33. As in all churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak but should be in submission as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. So question, do you guys think that he was saying, I don't wanna hear people out of you ladies in the church. I don't wanna hear one thing that comes out of your mouth. You can't even pray. If you pray out loud, we got a problem. Is Paul saying that? Because if you're praying out loud, that's speaking. That's not what Paul is saying. Paul's point again is to deal with what's happening in Corinth and in this case, there's this disorder and this disunity in the body. Men versus men and then also women versus men. People trying to be something that they're not more than what they are or different than what they are called to be. Same thing here. And so he's not asking them to just shut up and be quiet, be seen and not heard. That's not Paul's point. Again, we've got examples of women who out of their mouth, they're praising God. Is that me? The moment that we hear a woman say anything good. Can't listen. No matter fact, let's go to the next passage. In 1 Timothy 2, 11 Paul is telling Timothy, let a woman learn quietly with all submission. Here it is with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Before I go further into the text, remember guys, if you want to treat her as the weaker vessel as the scripture say, then you ought to be protecting her. You cannot ask a woman to be submissive, but you don't protect her. You cannot ask her to do that and you don't guard her and you don't help her to grow. A woman as far as I've seen is willing to follow a man or men who are protective and who are guiding and who are wise. Well, so let's just not apply the scriptures to them, but let's also apply the scriptures to us. Again, women are not permitted to be pastors, which means men, if you're going to be a pastor, if you're going to sit into that role, then do so as a qualified male with your heart and your head focused on the Lord. Amen. So now I'm back to the passages. So he says, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. That's the whole point of her learning. You do so quietly. It's not the quiet part. That's the most important part is with the submissiveness. And here it is verse 12. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. There it is. Notice what he says. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Notice that this is what's called the infinitive to teach or to exercise authority. And so the word to teach over here, the das kane is in the infinitive, which means it is an infinitive, same as it is in English. And so I'm not allowing her to fulfill that role to teach a man. I do not permit her to teach a man or to exercise authority over a man. That's not your job, lady. Now, notice what he didn't do. He forbade women from teaching men, but he did not forbade men. He did not forbid men from listening to a woman who happens to be teaching or preaching. For example, let's just some practical states, some practical instances. There's a women's conference. There's all women there. What if the men are back there on the soundboard? Are there men in the choir or playing the drums with a guitar during their praise and worship time? Are there men running the lights or what have you? Can they be there? Do they have to plug their ears up or once she opens her mouth, leave? No. If she's teaching about something, if she's telling about something. See, it can't be that we can listen to a woman talk about everything in the world, but we cannot listen to her talk about Jesus. Well, again, in John 4, we see a woman going and talking about Jesus and they come to her. They didn't elect her to be the pastor of the church, a local pastor or one of the elders. They just heard what she said. It was truth. And so anyone can declare the truth. A child can preach the gospel. We are all called to preach the gospel. Priscilla and Aquila did the exact same thing, preaching the gospel. And men and women came to Christ as a result of that, okay? So the truth is this, a man is not forbidden from listening to a woman when she is teaching or preaching. Now, she cannot intentionally go to men and teach and preach because that's the understanding of this passage. I do not forbid. I forbid a woman to teach. So you can't go as a lady to teach. But if in the course of your teaching, men show up, you don't have to all of a sudden pipe down. You don't have, you know what guys, I'm sorry, a man just came in, gotta be quiet. I'm sorry, ladies. A few men just walked in the room. I cannot teach anymore. I cannot give my testimony anymore. I cannot pray anymore. That is not the point. Do you see how silly that would be if we take that passage and apply it to men listening voluntarily? Now, there are some women out there. There are women out there who actively go out and search for men to teach. Because again, this is what God said would happen at the fall when he's got the serpent, Adam and Eve lined up. And he says that her desire will always be after that man. And that's what it's been. But God is not going to change everything simply because it's the 21st century. And women have become more empowered in the workplace and so forth. And now men can declare themselves to be women and women can declare themselves to be men. Well, God has not listened to that falsehood, nor is he gonna change his word. And Paul has given the word and the word is coming from God. And all the other apostles agree that this is from God. And they declare, especially Peter, that Paul's words are scriptural or equated to scriptural. And so these are from God. And so Paul is making a statement that women, you are not permitted to exercise authority over men and you can't do so with teaching and preaching. If you happen to be teaching or preaching, fine. But you're not trying to do so with the intent of exercising authority. And it doesn't mean that a man can't walk into the room and if he does, you have to stop. So guys, the whole point of this is to get you to see one what the roles of women are because there are women that are gonna teach some males. Her sons, her grandsons, her nephews, her cousins. Now, is there a certain age that men need to transition or boys need to transition from listening to her to him? Well, if it's his mother, you don't listen to your mother all the time, right? Mama is not gonna stop preaching and teaching to you. That's not gonna happen. As old as I got before my mother passed away, she, I was always her baby. I was always her son. I happen to be her youngest son. And so she's gonna still talk to me as though I was four years old. I'm gonna still listen to her. Yes, mom, and I wouldn't get smart back with her. And if she ever wanted to backhand me or slap them on my head, that's mom, right? So her authority is still there. I'm gonna always respect her as mama, as grandma, what have you, or my aunts and so forth. However, there comes a time where boys have to transition to seeing men and therein lies the problem because we don't have enough men who are stepping up, who are training themselves, who are submitting themselves under God. Cause what we want to have happen is we say, women submit to men, but we're not saying men submit to God. We're not saying that there's our problem. And so yes, women are not to intentionally go out and to seek to teach men or to preach over men. They cannot exercise authority. But if a woman happens to be teaching or preaching, that's why I phrase the question that way that men are not forbidden from listening to her. If he didn't, how would he even know if she was in error? I'm sure this is gonna generate a lot of comment and so forth. If anyone disagrees, no problem. We'll talk about it later, but we'll do so in a godly fashion. Amen.