In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Amen, let's look back at verse 15, the Bible says,
but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know
how thou oddest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth.
So according to the Bible,
there's a way to behave in church
and there's a way to not behave in church.
Of course, this is in a particular chapter
dedicated to the qualifications of a bishop,
but what I want to do is I want to focus in
on this phrase of behaving in church
and that's the title of my sermon this morning
is behaving in church.
And I want us to all take application from this.
It's not just limited to one group, but it's all of us.
And I want to first start with the men
as that's kind of the primary context
of this particular chapter is the qualifications
of a bishop and how the pastor is to be an example
to the other men in the church.
It says here in verse number one,
this is the true saying of a man desired the office
of a bishop he desired the good work.
A bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife,
vigilant, sober of good behavior
given to hospitality at the teach.
Now notice that biblically speaking,
a church is to behave itself
where their pastors are a man
and the pastor is the husband of one wife.
And so a church that does not have a male
as their pastor does not have a man as their pastor
is not in good behavior.
A church that has a man as their pastor
that is not married or perhaps is been divorced
and remarried or has multiple women in his life.
This would be a pastor that's not in good behavior.
It's not, we're not handling ourselves properly.
And of course, this is a bad example for any man.
You know, when we look at the qualifications of a bishop,
what we must understand is that these are not special
things for just this guy.
This is what every man should be like.
Every man should be like.
I would say the one unique thing specifically to this
is one that desires the office of a bishop.
But you know, so not every man
needs the desire to be a pastor.
I don't believe that.
I don't believe that God wants every single man
to be a pastor.
And so that is what's separating him
from maybe other men,
but in general his qualifications quote unquote
What we look for in this particular individual
is something we should find in every man
that's aspiring to be married and have a family
that basically this is the type of a guy
that would be in charge.
Of course, we want a pastor that has a family.
The Bible gives us instructions here in verse four.
One that rules well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity.
From a man know not how to rule his own house.
How should we take care of the church of God?
Not a novice, let's being lifted up
with pride if all in the condemnation of the devil.
So he must have a wife according to the Bible.
Additionally, he has children
and he has rules for his family
and they're following his rules.
That makes sense.
It makes sense that you would have a guy that's married,
that a guy that has children
and he's enforcing rules on his own family.
Otherwise, how is he gonna be able
to enforce rules on a church?
And of course part of the job of a pastor
is not solely just to preach the Bible,
but it's to enforce rules
and it's to sometimes have church discipline
and sometimes have to counsel people
and have to basically make sure everything is running smoothly,
everything is running correctly.
Of course, a family is an important institution,
but church is a much more important institution.
And so it's saying if you can't even take care of that
which is less, how could you then take care of that
which is more important?
And so he is following these rules.
So as a man, what would be
how we should be behaving ourselves in churches?
We should have one wife.
Men in our churches have one wife.
We don't wanna have a church where everybody's swapping wives,
everybody's getting divorced,
people are not getting married
and they're just committing open fornication.
We want men to just have a wife
and if you have a wife and you have children
that you have rules for your family
and that your children are submitting themselves
and subjecting themselves to the rules of the father
and that the father is basically
taking care of his whole family.
It's not just taking care of himself.
It's much easier to be single
because you only have to take care of yourself.
Having a wife or having a children,
now you're forced in a sense
to take care of other individuals
and you wanna do a good job.
You wanna make sure that you're doing a good job
taking care of not only yourself
but taking care of other people in your family,
considering them, having good rules for them.
And of course, it's difficult to manage people.
I mean, I think anybody that in this world
has had to have a management position
or a leadership role
where they're telling other people what to do,
you find out very quickly that it can be challenging.
There's a lot of challenges to ruling over people,
to managing people because people are people
and at the end of the day,
that's why it's important for you to be a good example.
It's important for you to take your own life seriously,
to take care of yourself
so that you can take care of the others around you.
It's like the analogy on the airplane.
You have to first put the mask on yourself
before you can mask others.
And in the same way, it's like, hey, as a man,
sometimes you have to make sure you're taking care of yourself
so that you can then accurately or accurately
and appropriately take care of your own wife
and your own children.
So there's a lot of things being unpacked
in this particular passage.
Of course, as men, we shouldn't be strikers,
we shouldn't be greedy of filthy lucre,
we should be patient, we shouldn't be brawlers,
we shouldn't be covetous.
I mean, all these things aren't like,
well, the pastor's like that,
but I just get in fights and beat people up
and I just want to get rich.
You know, it's just like,
and I want to get rich or die trying.
You know, it's just like, just full of greed
and just full of covetousness.
This should be just the attitude
and the disposition of many men.
And I personally believe that ideally,
we should have many men in our church
that meet the qualifications of a pastor
but just don't want to be a pastor.
And that's okay, like there's nothing wrong.
Like we could find men and say, hey, technically,
here's a guy who, hey, he's saved,
he's been saved a long time, he knows the Bible well,
he has a wife, one wife, they have a good marriage,
here he has great children.
But you know, he's content, just serving God
in whatever capacity he has,
he doesn't desire to be a pastor necessarily,
he doesn't want to have to take that role.
That's great.
You know, it's not like every single guy
that meets the qualifications,
we just put him behind a pulpit
or we just need to make him a pastor somewhere.
And you know, I don't even personally believe like,
hey, if you're a pastor,
you're just a much better Christian than another guy,
even though they're the same on the qualifications
or the same in their life.
I mean, you know, when you get to heaven,
it's not just like, hey, here's the pastor's category
and here's the non pastor's category.
You know, a guy that's a dedicated soul winner
and going to church and serving God,
I guarantee he's gonna have much better rewards in heaven
than a pastor who did nothing,
was not very evangelistic, not accomplishing much.
I don't believe that just being pastor
just gives you some special privilege or special honor.
So you know, don't think like,
you know, children don't think like,
hey, my dad's not a pastor,
so he's not as spiritual as the pastor,
that's not the right outlook.
You know, your dad can be very spiritual
whether he's a pastor or not.
And so we want to have the right mindset though,
as a church that the men are behaving themselves
and even if you're not a pastor,
and even though you may violate these things
and you don't lose your job because you're not a pastor,
that doesn't mean you should just forego these instructions.
You should treat these as, hey, these are rules for me too.
And you know what, even if I'm not a pastor,
I just want to do my best to act like I am a pastor
and try to do what a pastor would do too
and just follow these same kind of instructions
because they're all good instructions anyways.
You know, we want a church filled with men
that sound like this.
We want a church filled with men where they're saying,
hey, these are guys that have one wife,
these are guys that have children,
their children are obeying them,
their children are in subjection,
this guy has rules for his family,
this guy is patient, this guy is not a brawler,
this guy is someone that's not greedy of filthy lucre,
you know, this guy is someone
that's taking the ministry seriously.
You know, this is basically what we should be
as a church and this is how men should be in the church.
We want to behave ourselves in church
and you know there's the apostle Paul saying,
hey, I wrote all this stuff onto you
so you guys would know how church should operate,
what church should look like, what should it be like?
This is what we should be describing.
And then he gives a secondary office here, deacons.
He says likewise, must the deacons be grave?
Grave meaning serious.
And when it says likewise, it's saying in the same way.
So it's like everything we just said about the pastor,
the deacon needs to be the same way.
And he needs to take his life serious too, okay.
And again, a deacon is pretty much,
if we were to think about the word deacon,
it's kind of like servant,
is kind of like what we would think of
is what that word is meaning.
So it's someone that's like a servant of the church.
A lot of people take deacon
and they kind of elevate it to a position of authority
in the sense that like this guy is like
in charge of the church
or this guy's ruling over the church
or this guy's ruling over the pastor.
Whereas the Bible is more painting it
of this guy's serving the church
and ministering to the church.
It's a different idea.
I'm not saying that the deacon
doesn't have some level of authority,
but that's not really the primary focus
of this person's role.
This person is someone serving in the church.
And it says, not double-tongued,
not given to much wine,
not greedy of filthy liquor,
holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience
and let these also first be proved,
then let them use the office of a deacon
being found blameless.
Even so must their wives be grave,
not slander or sober, faithful in all things.
Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife
ruling their children their own houses well,
for they that have used the office of a deacon well
purchased themselves a good degree
and great boldness of the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
So notice again,
it doesn't explicitly mention the wife
in the pastoral section like what she's like,
but it does specifically in the deacons.
And if the deacon is supposed to have a wife like this,
how much more would the pastor in the same way?
And so obviously the deacons also, according to the Bible,
kind of have to meet all of these qualifications
prior to even becoming a deacon.
It's not like, hey, you know,
you just finally clipped the mark,
you just now met the qualification.
So now you're a deacon.
It's like, no, you have to meet the qualifications
for a while and be proved.
You have to be tested.
We had to make sure that this guy is a legit guy
before we give him, you know,
position in a church to be serving.
And of course, you know,
the deacon is someone that's going to be
serving the church, helping the church,
you know, just the daily functions of the church,
just whatever's in relation to the church,
helping the church do church things.
And so of course, if we ever had a deacon,
you know, on staff,
then we would want them to be paid.
We would want them to have been a part of the church
for a while, have proven themselves, have met,
you know, this kind of a standard here.
Now, things that I don't think necessarily overlap,
I don't think the deacon has to be someone
that's at the cheat.
I don't think the deacon has to be someone
that desires the office of a bishop.
You know, there could be someone that says,
you know, I don't really want to preach.
I don't really want to fill the pulpit.
I don't really want to pastor.
I don't really want to do those things.
But you know what?
I just love church.
I just love the gospel.
I love church.
And I just want to serve in that capacity.
And so, you know, hey,
we could have somebody that's like that
and we elevate them to a deacon.
And you know what?
A church is growing or has a large size.
It makes sense to have a deacon
or more than one deacon potentially,
just so that the pastor can focus on his giftings
and what he's supposed to be doing.
And then the deacons can help
just make sure other things are going well in the church.
You know, we have a title in our modern idea
or modern record of like an assistant pastor.
And in many cases,
I almost feel like many times assistant pastors
kind of what we see is a role of a deacon
where, you know, they're simply just assisting in
the duties of the church and another thing.
So these are two official roles in the Bible.
This is how a church should behave itself.
It should have pastors and deacons that are men
that are married that have one wife
that are having children that are obeying them
that are in subjection.
And of course they're found blameless in general.
Again, blameless here is not perfect.
No one would qualify, obviously.
But I've heard what some people will do
is they'll take this word blameless
and they'll say, well, see,
since it's blameless, no one qualifies.
So then they just ignore all the qualifications.
So there's just like, well,
if we had to meet all the qualifications,
then no one would qualify.
So then they just like,
it doesn't matter that he's divorced.
It doesn't matter that they don't have kids.
It doesn't matter that he's not even safe.
It's just whatever.
It's just like, it doesn't matter that he's a drunkard.
It doesn't matter that he's a convict.
It doesn't matter that he murdered his father.
It doesn't matter.
Some of these things sound like hyperbole.
They're not even hyperbole at all.
And so it doesn't matter that the guy
got thrown out of his last church for being a drunkard.
Let's have him start Second Chance Church.
This is the guy from New Spring.
He was like, got kicked out of his church
for being a drunkard, some kind of evangelical.
And then he started a second church
called Second Chance Church.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
I don't know, I'm trying to remember this.
What's the guy's name?
Dang it, I was trying to remember this guy's name.
All right, I'll think of it after the service.
He started one of his church services one time
with a highway to hell or something like that.
So like for their first song for the church service,
it was like highway to hell.
Some weirdo or whatever.
But it's just funny, it's like, you know,
Greg Locke, he divorces his wife,
runs off with the secretary, you know,
and then starts another church, starts another ministry.
You know, these type of things just shouldn't even be done.
It's not behaving yourself in church.
You know, it's not the correct behavior.
And then of course, if the pastor
is divorcing his wife and running off with the secretary,
what kind of signal is that gonna be
to the rest of the men in the church?
And isn't that gonna almost green light
other men to potentially excuse that type of behavior
or act in a certain way?
You know, we should have some standards.
We should have some example.
And again, I think when we say blameless,
I'm not saying it doesn't mean something.
I just don't think it means perfect obviously,
but it's also not gonna just contradict anything
we just read that's clear, plain qualifications.
I think that the blameless would just be in general
that this guy doesn't have
just some real obvious big issue.
You know, some big obvious public issue.
Like he murdered his father, you know.
Like I would say, hey, it kind of seems like
he's probably not blameless, right?
If they were caught in some big public scandal
or they have some big public issue
or they're just some major thing
that everybody has kind of seen,
it would just be shameful to just take somebody
that it's like, why are we having this guy be the pastor
when he has this really obvious big issue?
There's this big sin, you know.
And again, I'm not saying like let's cover him up
or hide him, but I'm just saying in general,
this guy's got a bad reputation publicly.
And now, it's not that after he becomes pastor
and preaches hard against the sodomites
and gets evicted, he's now not blameless or something.
What we're talking about is prior to being a pastor
and nothing associated with the word of God
or persecution, just something that in the world's eyes,
they would be upset about whether you're a pastor
or not, you know, something where they would say,
hey, this is something that's just kind of a big
obvious issue and we just, we don't want that guy
to be the quote pastor.
So, you know, you should go to a church
that fits the subscription so that you also
will then behave yourself likewise.
So you have a good behavior.
Of course, there's many, many churches
and many people where the pastor just doesn't have kids
or is divorced or, you know, all these weird scenarios.
And some people will say like,
well, that's your interpretation, that's your opinion.
But you know what I noticed?
I never noticed those guys being the great leaders
of the spiritual condition of our country.
They never seem to be the evangelistic leaders typically.
I mean, they're usually the ones that are kind of bozos,
have other issues, other compromising situations.
And so you know what?
I think you should have a decent standard here.
And I get that our culture is so wicked and so evil
that it's hard to find people
that meet these like qualifications.
But honestly, it should be like a large percentage
of the men in society.
Like it's not like it's that hard or that crazy to think
that there could be men that have only had one wife
and men that don't have like some criminal record or something
or men that, you know, I guess in some communities
that's like crazy to think about, okay?
But it shouldn't be crazy to think
that men have some criminal record,
they just have one wife and they have some kids
and they obey them.
Like that should just be like a basic standard.
You know, it's just kind of crazy.
It'd be like thinking like, oh, Walmart has a high standard
saying you have to have shoes and a shirt on
when you go inside or something.
It's just like, this isn't a crazy standard folks, okay?
But we should have at least some standard.
We should have like at least some idea here.
And of course, the fact that the pastor can teach well,
why do we want boring crappy preachers anyways?
You know, like, I mean, do you really want that?
I mean, I've listened to some people
and I'm just thinking like,
I don't even understand how anybody
could say you're at the teach.
Like you're one of the most boring people
I've ever had to listen to in my entire life.
You don't make any sense.
You're not good at articulating things.
Like, oh, but your dad ordained you.
This is like, yeah, of course, you know?
It's like, hey, we shouldn't just ordain people
because they're the son of a pastor.
You should be at the teach.
And I'll be honest with you,
and over time I've kind of given more emphasis
to this point than in the past
where I've realized like, hey, this is not a point
that I'm going to be more gracious on anymore.
Like if you're not a great preacher,
like I just don't want to ordain you anymore, okay?
You could be a great guy, great evangelist.
You could be someone that I look up to.
You could be someone I really like.
But if you're not just knocking out of the park,
buying the pulpit, I'm just not gonna ordain people.
You know, and again, I just,
for me it's just too important
and you know, we don't need
another boring preacher anyways.
Or someone that can't articulate themselves well.
Let's go to Titus chapter number two.
Go to Titus chapter number two.
Say, well I want to be a pastor, okay?
Well then learn how to preach well.
Read the Bible a lot, study scripture a lot,
memorize a lot of scripture,
take, take Toastmaster classes.
I don't know.
Learn how to speak well though.
You should be able to capture people's,
you know, attention.
And you don't have to preach just like me.
There's tons of different styles
and there's tons of different ways
that people can be engaging while preaching.
You don't even have to yell or scream to be engaging.
But if you're not engaging, then you know,
what's the point?
You know, I've been, no one's gonna listen.
You know, we want somebody
that can articulate themselves.
And not in this fake way that the old IB does.
And I feel like it's almost like
only old IB preachers that are like this.
Maybe Pentecostals a little bit too,
but just that like fake over the top,
just like, praise the Lord.
You know, it's just like, what are you doing, dude?
Like they have a preacher voice or something.
And I'm just thinking like, that's weird.
Or I've seen some guys where they, when they get mad,
it's just like totally out of character.
It doesn't seem real at all.
It was like, it was like, were you mad?
Or is this fake?
Or like, what is it like?
Like, you're just like, what are you doing, bro?
Like you're trying too hard.
You know, if you get mad while preaching, thumbs up.
If you have to pretend like you're mad, thumbs down, okay?
It's awkward.
You can feel the energy.
It's uncomfortable.
So, you know, don't try to be dynamic when it's not real.
I hate that.
It's fake.
It's just like bad acting.
It's like watching one of these Christian movies
or something like that.
You know, it's like, why do we know
that Christian movies are Christian movies
and real ones are real ones?
It's because of the bad acting.
Okay, and again, don't be a bad actor behind the pulpit.
I like somebody that's energetic.
I like someone yelling and screaming.
I like someone getting excited.
I like that, but I like it when it's real.
And if you're not like that, then don't be like that, okay?
But definitely don't be fake
because you really can't convince anyone.
I'm sorry.
Titus chapter two, look at verse one.
But speak the other things that become sound doctrine
that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate,
sound and faith and charity and patience.
Now, Titus chapter two,
let's get the big picture for a second.
This is the apostle Paul telling Titus a pastor
what he's supposed to do.
What is he supposed to do?
He is supposed to speak.
So we have somebody speaking in this particular chapter.
It's Titus.
Titus is the one speaking.
Titus is the one preaching.
Titus is the one instructing.
And who is he instructing?
He's instructing older men or aged men,
as the Bible describes it here,
that they are what?
Sober, grave, temperate, sound and faith
and charity and patience.
And notice he says,
speak things which become sound doctrine.
I think that obviously we wanna make sure
that everything that is spoken behind the pulpit
is accurate according to the Bible
and is what the Bible says.
But additionally, any applications
that are driven by the text
or decided by the text
should make sure it's based on the text.
Don't get up and give your application
based on nothing, based on whims
or forgetting that it's actually
even contradicting clear scripture in the Bible.
And unfortunately what you'll see is sometimes men,
they think something sounds good or sounds right.
And maybe it's something the world even repeats.
And so they'll preach behind the pulpit,
but they didn't think like,
is this what the Bible says?
Or is there a Bible verse that actually supports this idea?
Or is there Bible verses that say the opposite of this?
And so what he's trying to tell the pastor here
is make sure that the things you're saying
fit the biblical narrative.
Fit biblical principles are not just your ideas
or the world's ideas or contrary
specifically to what the Bible says.
Now, I think as a pastor,
you have the liberty to give application
within the biblical principles that I think we should.
That's what preaching is.
We can't just sit up here
and we're not gonna just get up
and just read the Bible and walk home.
I think we should give a sense of the reading.
I think that is the point of the Bible.
Obviously there's principles in the Bible
that do not apply to us directly
and then we have to derive meaning from them.
You know, when it talks about Old Testament laws
and Old Testament principles,
sometimes we don't really necessarily have an ass
and a donkey and we don't have these type of things.
And so we have to then take that
and apply it to what we have.
We have cars and we have vehicles
and we have houses and different things.
So it's like, hey, someone kills someone
through negligence of their animal
could be then applied to, okay,
how about negligence with your car?
You know, that could be a similar parallel
and so we're expounding on that.
We're giving a sense of the reading.
We're trying to explain what the reading is saying.
But what I do not believe the Bible is saying
is that pastors should get up and give TED talks
and just get up and give their personal opinion
on every subject and matter
not based on any biblical principles
or specifically if they're against biblical principles.
And so it's important for the pastor to get up
and expound things and give the sense of the reading
and make sure everything he's saying is sound doctrine
that it fits what the Bible is actually saying.
And so that what, the older men can be sober.
What is that?
Serious.
We want the older men in church to be serious.
Take your life seriously as an older man.
And you know, this would be an example to me
of aged men not being serious
is when you see pastors in America
that are 40, 50, 60 years old
and they're wearing skinny jeans
and a T-shirt behind the pulpit.
Wouldn't you say like,
wouldn't you just almost automatically be like,
this guy's not serious?
Or I'm not gonna take this guy seriously.
Like I mean, I don't even think,
I haven't even explained this point.
You probably already agreed with me.
But then if you automatically just think like,
this guy is somebody I'm not gonna take seriously,
then wouldn't you think that other men
should follow like example, whether you're a pastor
or not, and that maybe the aged men
should consider dressing seriously?
You know, I don't necessarily expect
all the single guys to dress that great.
I mean, they don't have their wives to help them.
All right, I get it.
But you know, at the end of the day,
maybe you could dress in a way that's serious.
And again, does the Bible say
thou shalt wear a suit and tie?
No, it doesn't say that at all.
But you know what?
You know, if you were gonna go for an interview,
you'd probably dress a certain way
because you were taking the interview seriously.
You know, if I have an interview or a job
and I just come in and just, you know, my pajamas,
they're gonna say, hey, this guy's not taking this job,
this job application seriously.
Okay, I don't wanna take the house of God
as something is not serious.
So you know what, I try to dress in a way
that seems like, hey, I'm taking church seriously.
Okay, I don't think that it means
you have to wear a certain type of clothing.
I'm not saying, and I'm not gonna get up here
and say, thou shalt wear this type of clothing
because I don't believe that.
But what I do believe is that
if you were gonna follow this example,
you should be serious.
And maybe you should take church seriously.
And one of those ways would be how you dress.
And oh, how dare you say this?
Well, you know what, that's just reality.
Now as far as our leadership, you know,
behind the pulpit, you know, whether it's a song leader
or the announcements or the Bible reader
or someone preaching, I want them
to have at least a shirt and a tie as a bare minimum.
I'm not saying they have to have a jacket,
but you know, at least having a shirt
and having a tie is kind of a bare minimum
as some kind of standard
because we want it to be serious.
You know, I don't want it to be like,
hey, we're just letting any random person get up here
and just say whatever they want.
It's like, hey, we're taking church seriously.
We're taking the instruction of the church seriously.
And I guarantee someone up here
and a Metallica t-shirt,
you're not gonna take very seriously.
Someone up here and a wife beater,
you're not gonna take very serious, okay?
It's just like, hey, we should make sure
that we have appropriate standards for the church.
And again, if there was a church where a pastor
is not wearing a suit and tie,
I can't say that he's sinning.
I can't say that he's doing something wrong,
but I would say this.
I don't think he's taking it as serious
as I would like for him to take it.
And you know what?
The Bible says that, hey,
we should be instructing the aged men
to what, to be sober,
meaning they're taking things seriously.
Hey, if you don't have a King James Bible,
you're not taking Christianity seriously.
We need the aged men to have a King James Bible
because look, you're old enough
and you've had enough time to realize
there's a difference in the text,
there's a difference in the Bibles,
and anybody that's serious about Christianity
is gonna have a King James Bible.
All the other Bibles have mistakes,
all the other Bibles have issues.
You know, we need men that are sober.
Hey, they're gonna carry themselves well.
Hey, they're taking care of their families.
They're working hard.
You know, as an older man,
we need to be behaving ourselves in church.
You know, that they work with quietness
is what the Bible says,
meaning that they're not someone going around
bumming money off of everybody,
constantly complaining about not having any money,
can't take care of themselves.
You know, the aged men
should be able to take care of themselves
with a dress, the way they talk,
what kind of Bible they have.
They should be people that are examples
and leaders in the church,
not needing handouts,
not the one needing everything from everybody else,
but rather taking care of everyone else.
You know, the Bible says here,
if we keep going, grave,
again, this is very similar, sober and grave.
Hey, not being a drunkard, taking your life seriously.
You know, if you're drinking alcohol
and doing drugs, you're not serious.
If you're a pothead,
if you're an older man in your pothead,
you're not serious.
You're not grave.
You're not taking your responsibilities as a man
as something to be considered.
You know, I think another thing that you should do
is, hey, take your health seriously,
because you know what?
Hey, it's important.
And if you want to last a long time,
you know, health starts to actually factor in
the older you get.
You know, taking your health seriously,
being temperate, being sound of the faith,
charity, patience.
I'm not going to go through every single one of these
because I have a lot more than I want to say this morning,
but in general,
these should be the things that men should be doing.
Obviously, they don't need all the attention.
They don't need all the flash.
They don't have to necessarily be the star of the show.
They're temperate.
They're sound and faith,
meaning they're good on doctrine.
It'd be kind of a shame if you're 50, 60, 70 years old
and you still don't even know the doctrine of the Bible.
Obviously, if you got saved last week, we get it,
but I'm just, in general,
the aged men should be ones that know the Bible,
understand the doctrine.
They can expound on it.
You know, they're an example of love.
That's what charity is.
They're the example of love in the church
of people that are doing good unto other people
and that they're very patient.
You know, as a younger man,
you might have a little bit more testosterone,
a little bit more spunk,
but you know, as an aged man,
you should be someone that is patient
that you can talk to that's not gonna easily temper.
You know, temperamental,
someone that's just losing their cool.
You know, you should be someone that can take things well.
And even when there's problems,
here's the thing, there's gonna be problems in life
and not just church.
There's gonna be major problems in life.
There's gonna be major ups and downs
and you know what, we need an anchor in our lives
and it's the aged men that are just patient.
They're like, hey, let's not freak out.
Let's not make any rash decisions.
Let's consider what's going on.
Someone that's patient, let's wait.
Let's figure it out.
Let's take our time.
Let's not be rash.
Let's not just bounce around.
You know, someone that's very patient,
they can endure things.
They're not easily swayed over.
They're not easily offended, not easily provoked.
I mean, that's what the whole charity chapter is about.
There's someone that's very patient and can deal well.
Younger people sometimes are very impatient,
very immature, very rash, very quick to make decisions.
And so we need the aged men to not be like that.
Not someone that's just gonna jerk the chain
when something goes awry.
And you know what, praise God,
our church has had a lot of ups and downs
and it's nice when there's some people
that are just like, what's new?
You know, it's just like, hey,
is it another day I said I'm gonna have this church?
No, I'm patient, I can deal with this.
Let's wait, let's figure out all the facts,
let's figure out what's going on, let's not panic about it.
It's like, hey, we might move the church
and you just hit the panic button instantly
and it's just like, that was a bad move.
And you know, that's not being someone that's patient,
that's someone that's just kind of being immature.
Now, as we continue in this narrative,
it switches gears to not just the aged men,
but to the aged women.
Look at verse three, the aged women likewise.
So in the same way that all the men
were supposed to behave,
all the aged women should behave in the exact same way.
Now, what is it saying here?
It's saying that the aged women
that they be in behavior as we come to the holiness.
Now here's the thing,
who is telling the aged women to be in behavior
according to this narrative?
The pastor.
It's the pastor speaking to the older women,
telling the older women how they should behave.
So who is it that is supposed to tell women to behave?
It's the pastor.
It's the pastor telling the men to behave.
It's the pastor telling the women to behave.
It's the pastor basically having guidance
and rules and everything for everyone.
And again, I'm speaking sound things.
The pastor speaking sound doctrine
so that the aged women would be in behavior
as we come to the holiness.
So how should the older women know how to behave
from what the pastor is preaching behind the pulpit?
And again, expounding on the word of God.
It's the Bible that's guiding all of us, of course.
But it's him guiding and giving instruction
and application for how they should behave.
How should they not behave?
Not false accusers, right?
They should be in behavior as holiness,
not a false accuser.
This would be the exact opposite.
So we don't want the aged women to be the false accusers.
We don't want them to be given to much wine,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things.
Now think about how this is showing together.
Not a false accuser, not given to much wine,
teachers of good things.
So what's the implication in this particular verse?
That by being a false accuser
and by being given to much wine,
you're teaching bad things.
Not in some kind of a formal way,
not in some kind of an instructional manner,
but by example, by your example of being a false accuser,
by your example of giving much wine,
you're not a teacher of good things,
you're a teacher of bad things,
you're a teacher of evil things.
So what should the women be?
They should be teachers of good things.
And then it's gonna give us an idea here
that they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be discreet, chase, keepers at home,
good, obedient to their own husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed.
So if we take this whole sentence together,
because it's, notice one sentence.
Did you notice that verses three through five
are one sentence?
How does the sentence start?
That they are in behavior, okay?
And then it's saying, it's giving examples
of bad behavior, teaching bad things,
and then it's giving examples of what good behavior,
teaching good things.
It's not really saying like, hey,
we need to start a lady's Bible study.
We need to start a woman's Sunday school.
That's not really in view of this passage at all
because the person teaching in this epistle is Titus.
Titus is the one preaching.
Titus is the one instructing
and he's instructing the men how to behave
and he's instructing the women how to what, behave.
It just fits so perfectly.
And of course, by their example,
through the teaching and through the example
of the older ladies, that's teaching
the younger women how to behave as well
because they're seeing the example.
So we have old men, older ladies.
We have younger women.
And then of course, here in verse six,
young men likewise exhort to be so reminded.
So we cover the entire group.
We have the older and younger men.
We have the older ladies and the younger ladies here
are clearly addressed in this particular passage.
So let's just take these things
and apply them for a second.
Now I have it on the board
just to kind of help us keep these things in view
but I believe the Bible, it gives us boundaries.
Anything inside boundaries is up for discretion
but the Bible has clear boundaries as far as women
and how we should behave ourselves in church.
Now we read in first Timothy chapter number three
that the pastor is to be the husband of one wife,
that the deacon was to be likewise
the husband of one wife.
So for women, they are number one,
not to be the pastor or deacon in a church.
That's not my opinion.
That's just clearly what the boundary is set in scripture.
There's no arguing over that
unless you just don't care what the Bible says.
You know, it's not an interpretation.
It's a fact.
Okay.
Now number two,
that they're not supposed to usurp authority over the man.
Now keep your finger here.
I will come right back,
but I just flipped back a few pages
to first Timothy chapter two
and notice what it says in verse number 11.
First Timothy 2, 11,
let the woman learn in silence with all subjection
but I suffer not a woman to teach
nor to usurp authority over the man
but to be in silence.
So according to the Bible
women are not to usurp authority over men.
That's again, not a pastor Shelley opinion.
This is a biblical fact.
Women are to learn in silence
and they're not to usurp authority over the man.
Number three, they're not to teach in church
which would be in coordination with what we just read.
That's the whole silence, learning in silence.
But let's go to 1 Corinthians 14
as a second proof text of this particular doctrine
that women are to learn in silence.
1 Corinthians chapter number 14
that women just shouldn't be the teachers in church.
Now, again, let's be clear about what the word church means.
Church is not a building.
Church is an assembly of the believers.
So anytime you have an assembly of the believers
who should not be teaching any woman.
Yeah. Okay.
Now again, some people will be like,
oh, that's sexist.
Yeah, but look, it's not like just they are the only ones
not supposed to be getting up and teaching
because frankly speaking,
we're not gonna have kids get up and teach either.
So no kids, no women.
And then of course, you know,
it's not even just every man's gonna get up and teach.
We want men to be apt to teach and a good standing.
We don't want just any random dude
getting up and teaching either.
We wouldn't want someone that's not saved.
We wouldn't, I mean, every guy that's not saved
not eligible either.
Okay. Every guy that's just got saved.
We don't want him getting up
and just teaching the whole congregation on a regular basis.
I get it that we have preaching classes and stuff like that,
but that's a super rare thing.
But we're just saying in general,
it's not like only, you know, women
where we're pressing them.
There's a lot of people
that we're not gonna have get up and teach.
Okay.
So it's not just like limited to one classification,
but what does the Bible say?
I mean, do you just care what the Bible says or not?
Verse 33, for God is not the author of confusion
but of peace as in all churches of the saints.
Let your women keep silence in the churches
for it is not permitted under them to speak.
But they are commanded to be under obedience
as also say it the law.
And if they will learn anything,
let the master husbands at home for as a shame
for women to speak in the church.
I mean, I don't know how much clear Paul,
or like what did he have to say?
Like, you know, for these women pastors out there,
I'm just thinking like,
what did Paul have to pin down for you to get it?
I guess, even if it said like not a woman pastor,
he'd be like, well, that's in their day
that they didn't want a woman to be a pastor.
You know, it just, it doesn't matter what it said
because it really doesn't need to be clearer.
It's clearer than it could possibly be.
And yet it's just saying,
hey, they're not supposed to be teaching in church.
So again, we have all the church gathered together.
They're not to be the pastor.
They're not to be the deacon.
They're not supposed to use super authority over a man.
And they're not supposed to be teaching in the church.
They're supposed to be in silence.
And notice, it clarifies even what that means.
It says they're not even allowed to ask a question in church.
It says if they have any question,
did you notice what it said?
If they will learn anything,
let them ask their husbands at home.
So are they allowed to ask in church?
No, they're not allowed,
not allowed to ask questions in church.
They are to be in silence.
That is what the Bible is saying.
So when we gather,
and I'm sure somebody is gonna be offended.
It's like, we have an opportunity.
Sometimes I say, hey,
does any guy have a question in here?
We're not opening it up for the ladies to speak.
Yeah.
Oh, how dare you?
You're a misogynist.
Oh, you're a sexist.
You know what?
I just love the Bible.
Yeah.
Hey, if you don't have it said,
let every woman ask a question,
then I would just do that.
If it said only let women ask questions,
I would do that.
I'm just gonna do what the text says,
because you know what?
This is the shepherd of our church.
I am a pastor, but I'm not the chief shepherd.
And we have the true bishop,
which is Jesus Christ,
and he's right here,
and he's telling us how to behave.
So if you don't like what I'm saying,
you just don't like Jesus.
Yep, I mean it.
You don't like the word of God.
You don't like God.
And you just don't like authority.
Because everything about God's authority.
And for some reason, just people just don't like authority.
Nope.
It's like, hey,
children are supposed to be their parents.
Ah, why?
Because women are supposed to be speaking in church.
Why?
Because.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, divorce men shouldn't be the pastor.
Why?
Because.
Yeah.
You know, it's just how it is.
And hey, pastors,
you don't get to tell the Bible what to do.
Why?
Because your opinion is lesser than God's.
We have a hierarchy.
We have a structure.
And we should obey the higher powers
and those that have rule over us.
And we should be subject to them.
And you know what?
Why would you want a pastor that gets up
and says, I don't care about this part of the Bible?
Huh, right.
Because if I don't care about this part,
if I'm willing to excuse or be like,
this is kind of mean to women,
then what other concessions will I make?
Yeah.
What other weird feminist ideas will I
bring into the church or into other people's marriage?
I mean, do you really,
if I can't even get up and say,
women are allowed to ask questions in church,
do you really want me to give you marriage advice?
I mean, think about it logically.
If I'm unwilling to just offend people
by saying what the Bible just clearly says,
do you think I'm going to be able to give good counsel
and good advice to people?
Like, no, we want to make sure that we believe
every verse and every line,
whether it's comfortable, uncomfortable, popular,
not popular, in season, out of season,
we're supposed to approve a buc
and exhort with all-long suffering and doctrine.
And you know what?
If you don't like the Bible, you can go anywhere else.
Yeah.
But we like the Bible here, okay?
So number four, they're not allowed
to ask questions in church.
Number five, go to 1 Peter chapter three.
There's to be meek and quiet.
1 Peter chapter number three,
let's read verse four,
but let it be the hidden man of the heart
in that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price.
So if we're going to interpret anything in the Bible
and pertainings to women,
we need to make sure we consider all of these factors, okay?
So I just put this on the board
so then we could just think about things
and say like, okay, does it,
how does it do on this little boundary list, okay?
Because if you're playing soccer,
you know, there's multiple boundaries.
There's a boundary at the end of the goal,
there's a boundary on the side.
It doesn't matter which one of those you cross,
you're out of bounds, okay?
It's not like you have to cross all of them simultaneously.
If you cross any of them, you're out of bounds, okay?
So again, if you cross any of these,
it's out of bounds,
meaning it's not in play, meaning it's not an option,
meaning you stop playing the game, okay?
So what is okay?
What about a woman uploading a video
about how to sow a dress?
Was the pastor a deacon?
Nope.
Is she usurping authority over a man?
No.
Is she teaching in the church?
No.
Is she asking questions in church?
Nope.
Is this potentially still within being meek and quiet?
I don't see why it wouldn't be.
I would think that's totally fine.
Yeah.
That doesn't seem to bother me.
How about her putting other videos up
or posts about clothes, recipes,
cleaning, homemaking, homeschooling, any of these things?
Would any of those cross any of these quote boundaries?
In my opinion, no.
I don't see how it could possibly,
I mean, obviously we're gonna have to use discretion
on number five,
but in general, I don't see how that's violating
anything that we said there.
What about a woman having a social media podcast
to influence and expound the Bible?
Well, number one,
that doesn't mean she's a pastor or deacon, okay?
What about usurping the authority over the man?
Well, I think that's kind of getting
in dangerous territory here,
but more specifically, how about not teaching in church
or not even asking questions in church?
Now again, you say, well, it wasn't in a church building,
but yeah, but if I have a platform
of several hundred thousand people
and I'm teaching the Bible to them,
how is that, what is the whole point of these commandments?
It's like, well, we just didn't want it to be in a building,
but if you're teaching hundreds of thousands of people this,
it's fine.
It's like, no, no.
The whole point is that you just don't want women
getting up in these big social gatherings,
teaching a whole bunch of people
because it's just not the right format.
It's not the right way to behave yourself.
It's totally usurping this
and just pretending like church is a building
instead of an assembly or a congregation
or a gathering of people.
And now all of a sudden, it's just crossing into these lines.
Plus, it doesn't even seem like
you're being very meek and quiet.
It doesn't say, hey, if a lady
wants to learn something about the Bible,
ask ladies outside of the building.
Ask ladies before the church service
in a different church service, right?
Have women's church.
That would be the answer.
It wouldn't be like, hey, ask your husband at home.
It would be like, hey, ask the ladies.
And again, the whole context of Tim,
I'm sorry, Titus chapter two,
let's go back there if you would,
says teaching the younger women.
So then you're like, well, how do you interpret that?
How are the older ladies supposed to teach
the younger women if you're not gonna let them have
a formal way to teach them?
It's because they're teaching them through their behavior.
They're a good example of loving their husbands
and loving their children and doing all these things.
So they don't have to necessarily get up and teach.
But did it say, I mean, let's just be honest
with the text for a moment.
Does it say that they may teach the young women doctrine?
Does it say they may teach them the law
or their testimonies or thy commandments?
I mean, pretty much it doesn't say any of those things.
It does say to be obedient to their own husbands.
Wouldn't that kind of,
if being obedient to your husband, it would be what?
Not asking other people questions,
but asking him at home.
When it comes to the Bible,
when it comes to Bible doctrine,
when it comes to these matters.
If you think about 1 Corinthians 14, when we read,
it said, as also sayeth the law.
It sounds like what the apostle Paul is saying.
And it's clear.
He's not saying that this is actually
coming strictly from the church.
It's coming from the law saying they're not allowed to speak.
So he's saying from the principle
of them not being able to speak in a lost context,
should be the same as in a church context.
Because he's saying as also sayeth the law.
He's not saying because of the law,
he's not saying the law saying,
he's saying as also sayeth the law.
Meaning here's another context
in which women are not permitted to speak.
And what is that under what the law is saying?
Saying hey, the law's having them be silent.
The law's having them not deal
with these particular issues.
So again, what does the teach good things,
teach young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, love their children,
to be discreet?
That sounds similar to being meek and quiet,
not broadcasting your opinions on the Bible,
criticizing pastors and doing whatever.
And again, who are some of the biggest names of this?
How about like Candace Owens?
Getting out there and just giving her opinions
on all kinds of matters.
How about Allibeth Stuckey who has some channel
where she's constantly talking about theology,
the Bible, salvation, Calvinism, all of her beliefs,
everything you could possibly think about
teaching from a theological perspective,
just some lady with hundreds of thousands of followers,
hundreds of thousands of people
are paying attention to this kind of content.
And look, when you're doing that,
you know what, you're forcing the situation
where if you teach something wrong,
men of God should get up and correct it.
Because you can't just allow people to get up
and teach hundreds of thousands of people lies
and false doctrine and then just expect
the men of God to be quiet about that.
Men are supposed to be in the gates,
men are supposed to be out there
combating the false prophets, naming names,
marking people, publicly exposing them,
taking them to task.
Now look, what if a lady got up and made a video
about how to sew and she just totally butchered it?
Like she just doesn't even know what to do.
She's just like a total bad way to sew.
Do you think I need to get up behind my pulpit
and be like, don't listen to this lady about sewing?
No, I don't care, I don't give a rip.
Like that's silly, okay?
What if she gives a recipe for Texas chili
and she puts beans in it?
I'm not gonna get up and have the need of being like,
hey, this woman's teaching false doctrine,
Texas chili needs to have not beans in it or something.
But you know what, what if she's getting up
and saying, hey, it's okay to divorce your husband?
What if she's getting up and saying it's okay
to abandon your family and run off
and do all this kind of stuff?
Yeah, well then, you know what?
I think it's reasonable for a pastor to get up
and say beware of this woman who's getting up
and publicly telling people to leave their husband
or to become Catholic or to become a Calvinist
or teaching all this false doctrine.
Like it makes total reasonable sense to correct that.
And that's why women should stay out of that lane.
They shouldn't be teaching the Bible.
And I get that, hey, this is the primary context
of when we're assembled, but don't usurp that
by creating your own online church
and your own online congregation,
your own online assembly,
and then pretend like you're not
violating this particular principle, okay?
Here's another thing.
What about women just getting up
and giving their commentary on political, criminal,
social commentary, what about that?
Well, this is where I would say,
I think what I just said clearly violates this,
the previous statement.
This would be my personal judgment
that it's somehow violating this as well,
because I don't think it's being meek and quiet
is my judgment, okay, my discernment.
And then secondly, if you actually kind of think
about what Paul said, and I go, it's a derived meaning,
but he says, as also say the law,
it sounds like women shouldn't really be talking
about the law either.
And that kind of makes sense to me that you didn't,
you're not having women be the judges of our society,
they shouldn't be the governors,
they shouldn't be the rulers,
they shouldn't be the one enforcing criminal justice.
And you know what, it doesn't make sense
to have women getting up there
and criticizing the criminal justice system,
criticizing lawyers, criticizing what's really going on.
You know, do we really want that?
You know, how about the death penalty?
I guarantee there's way more women
that are empathetic towards murderers than men are.
It would get up and it's like,
oh, this guy deserves a death penalty,
like, oh, but he's such a sweet guy or whatever.
You know, what is that, like Luigi or something?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
I can't say his last name, stupid.
Something Maggie, something, you know, whatever.
Luigi Maggiano or whatever, I don't know.
It's like, Maggiano's little Italy or something,
you know, it's like, hey, this guy,
it's like all these women were fawning over this guy
and acting like he's not a bad guy.
It's like, look, murderers should be put to death.
How many women right now are getting up
and just condemning the justice system
for the idea that Lindsey Clancy
would be found guilty of murder?
Not even getting the death penalty.
We don't even know if that's on the table.
We don't even know what the sentencing would be.
Just even facing prison
or just facing any kind of criminal justice
for murdering all of her kids.
It's just like, I bet if we had a poll
and it's like, dudes, it's like, hey,
should she go to jail?
It would be a really high percentage.
And women is a lot less.
And it's like, hey, maybe they just shouldn't be
the ones commenting on criminal justice.
Maybe they shouldn't be the ones commenting
on political and social commentary.
And look, it's hard to detach
political, criminal, and social commentary
from theology anyways.
I mean, we derive our morality from the Bible,
from the legal code of God.
And so if we're gonna say like, oh,
women can now get up and rip on lawyers
in the criminal justice system
and talk about all these different things,
well, how are they not usurping the authority of the man?
How are they really being meek and quiet?
And if they say these things,
I think men of God are gonna have to get up
and combat that nonsense and call it out
and say, hey, this isn't what the Bible says.
This isn't right.
And so you know what?
For having us as a church,
we're a church, we're supposed to behave ourselves.
Not only when we're here, but when we're not here.
And you know what?
I don't wanna have a bunch of women in my church
that are social and political commentators.
I don't want a bunch of Candace Owens in my church.
I don't want a bunch of Allie Beth Stuckey's
in my church getting up there.
And think about it, you know,
the Bible is not saying in Titus chapter number two
that the pastor's wife should do these things.
It's just saying older women.
So if you were to actually interpret this
the way a lot of these people are doing,
they would have to believe that virtually
every older lady in our church
should be a social media influencer and commentator
and giving all their public opinions and whatever.
But no, it's usually just a feminist pastor's wife
that wants to get up there and take all the power
and authority in themselves and then point to this verse.
Even though it has nothing to do with the pastor's wife.
The pastor's wife is told not to be a slanderer
and be sober and grave,
but then it's just like older ladies
can teach younger ladies by example, of course.
And then it's like, okay,
so you're saying women can't teach anything?
No, no, I never said that.
Teaching your children,
is that a violation of anything in here?
Absolutely not.
In fact, that is instructed in the Bible.
That's a commandment of the Bible.
It's from the teach their children.
What if a lady in the church
asked another lady a question?
Yeah, answer the question.
That's silly.
It's like, oh, what about Debra?
Well, here's the thing.
Debra doesn't have the Debra show.
Yeah.
Did you realize that?
Debra is like sitting under a tree
minding her own business.
And then a guy comes up
and asks her a question and she answers it.
Yeah.
The Bible's not saying women are not allowed
to answer questions at all.
It doesn't say that at all.
That's silly.
Obviously a woman being asked a question.
It's not saying she can't quote the Bible.
She can't point to what the Bible says.
Of course she can.
But you know what?
It's not saying they should get up
and give unsolicited advice,
be a public commentator,
be a public teacher,
be the pastor,
be the deacon.
Obviously the Bible points to women
going out and being evangelistic
and preaching the gospel.
I get it.
Obviously they point to oh,
Priscilla is teaching Apollos.
But it's like her and her husband
in an evangelistic setting.
Yeah.
You know what?
It makes total sense
that if me and my wife are talking with people
and they wanna ask my wife a question,
they can do it.
And then my wife usually gives great advice.
It's not even that women can't give good advice.
It's not that women can't be wise.
It's not that women can't
help younger ladies.
But you know what?
It's just saying hey,
maybe they should just stay in their lane.
And again, not violate any one
of these clear biblical principles.
And you know what?
We wanna have a church where the men are behaving,
the women are behaving,
everyone is behaving.
It's not some weird formal instruction.
It's just really simple.
You know what?
And again, my political social commentary,
that's kind of my personal interpretation,
my judgment of this verse.
If you have a different judgment
and you want your wife to be the lawyer of the family
and go online and give all this political commentary,
I can't necessarily say you're in sin,
but I'm just telling you, I don't like it.
And I wouldn't agree with it.
And I would stand in judgment of that, okay?
I can't necessarily take you to task.
But go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 for a moment.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
Let me show you some more evidence about this point.
And we'll move on.
I know you love this point, but we'll move on, okay?
1 Corinthians chapter 11, look at verse number 14.
Now, I want to read this because I want you to show you
that there's verses in the Bible that use the word teach,
and it's not a formal instruction.
Let's see.
Does not even nature itself teach you
that if a man have long hair, there's a shame on him?
Now, whenever you sat down
and had a nature teach you something,
what is it saying?
It's saying just the example of natural circumstances,
of natural experiences,
just show an evidence for you that it's gross.
You know, just seeing a dude with a long, nasty mullet
or these Fabios or whatever,
with their hair flowing in the wind,
there's somebody that you look from behind,
you kind of thought it was a woman,
and then they turn around and you're like,
ah, what is that?
Okay?
It was like, no one taught me that was gross.
It was a natural reaction to it being gross.
It was just, I was taught by just experiencing it.
It was like, no one had to show me,
I didn't have a class in school where they're like,
okay, now, children, when there's this really long hair
on the guy, you say gross.
I say long hair, you say gross.
It's like, never happened.
It was, I saw it and I was just like, wow, it's gross!
Which is obvious.
Now, in the next verse,
it says, but if a woman have long hair,
it is a glory to her for her hair is given over her company.
The Bible's crystal clear.
Women should have long hair,
men should have short hair.
And it says, even nature teaches you this stuff.
You don't even need the Bible to teach you this,
just natural experiences teach you
this kind of obvious thing.
But here's the thing, did the Bible say what long hair is?
It didn't give a measurement, did it?
Okay?
So that's where discretion comes into play.
Just like, does it spell out what meek and quiet means?
No, we don't have a length.
But man, when you're just posting online every day
your social and political commentary,
it doesn't, it's like having a butch haircut
trying to tell me it's long.
And it's just like, well, how do you know?
Well, nature teaches me that.
Okay, it's just nature, it's just,
it's natural to realize there's something wrong
about this and we all kind of see it
and we all kind of get it
and we're all just kind of like, wow,
that's gross, I don't want it.
But of course the people they want to sit here
and argue about hair length
and they're always flirting with the line
and always crossing lines for most people
and then they just try to pretend like they're not.
Okay, well the Bible, I mean, I've had people get up
and say, the Bible commands the women
to teach the younger women.
And I'm just like, sure, but like in a behavior sense.
Yeah.
I don't think you have to ever verbally instruct
other people to be in compliance with that.
I don't think any older women have to sit
any younger woman down
and have some kind of a verbal instruction time
or let me share everything that I know with you.
Like just be a good example
and that's what the Bible's telling you to do.
And then who's gonna tell you to do that?
The pastor's gonna tell you to do that.
The pastor's gonna tell you how to be in behavior
so that you can set a good example for the younger ladies.
And you know what?
I want the older women to do what I'm saying
so the younger women will fall like suit
because let's just be honest,
you older ladies didn't grow up
where social influencers was even a thing.
Yeah.
Do you realize that?
Like you maybe you do or don't remember
you didn't have a smartphone.
You didn't have the opportunity to do all this kind of stuff.
So if you just continue to not do it
you'll set a good example to the younger ladies.
If an older lady then just decides
now I need to be a social media influencer
bad it's gonna set an example
to this younger generation like
we need to all be like that then.
We need to all fall like suit.
I want to be like her too.
I want to be Candace too.
I want to be Ali Bestucky too.
I just want to be Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore
and Paula White and I want to be the one
and I want to be the one that is the spiritual
Guider of the President of the United States.
I mean Donald Trump said that his pastor
was Paula White at one point.
Like we're supposed to believe
that the most powerful man on the earth
the person that is his spiritual guidance is a woman.
Wow.
Wow I mean it's just mind boggling.
How is that not usurping authority over the man?
I mean wouldn't that in a sense
almost make you the most powerful person in the world?
Like if you're the one guiding
and instructing the most powerful person
sounds like you're the most powerful person
why are we giving it to Paula White?
Divorced and just nonsensical
Pentecostal flavor you know woman pastor.
It's just nonsense.
It's nonsense, it's ridiculous
and you say this is what someone will do.
Well I'm not Paula White.
Well you can still be in violation of these things
and not be Paula White okay.
So let's have good behavior in the church.
Good with division six.
You know another verse to just bring up
while you're going there and transitioning
is notwithstanding I have a few things against thee
because thou suffers that woman Jezebel
which called herself a prophetess to teach
and to seduce my servants to commit fornication
and to eat things sacrifice and idols.
You know one of the things that the Lord Jesus Christ
because that's who's speaking in Revelation
I don't know if you remember that
said that he didn't like about this church
is that there was a woman teaching.
I mean that's just what he said.
So I kind of I like Jesus' opinion.
I'll just be honest with you.
So last group that I want to address
is children for a moment
and Ephesians chapter number six
tells us that children are to obey their parents.
I want to read verses one through three.
So you know obviously the parents need to be in behavior
so that the children will then be in behavior okay.
Look what it says in verse number one
children obey your parents and the Lord
for this is right honor thy father and mother
which is the first commandment with promise
that it may be well with thee
and thou mayest live long on the earth.
So according to the Bible your link of life
in many ways is directly tied to how you treat your parents
and how well you listen to the instructions of your parents
and for those who disregard their parents
don't obey their parents don't care what their parents
have to say in many cases their lives will be cut short.
I don't think that means they'll die as a child necessarily
but they could die in their 20s their 30s their 40s
because of living such a rebellious wicked lifestyle
and look this is a promise from God
that hey you want to live a longer life
well you should honor your father and your mother
you should obey them you should do good unto them.
Look at chapter five verse one be therefore followers of God
as dear children you know we should all also realize
that even though if you're not an actual child
you are a child of God
and so therefore we should take the same principle applied
to our children and apply it to ourselves
that we are in the house of God
God is our father we are his children
and we are supposed to be followers of God
so we want to make sure that we are behaving ourselves well
in the house of God.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter five as well
go to Ecclesiastes go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number five
we should treat the house of God with respect
and you know in your house I guarantee you have rules
I don't know what they are
I'll just speculate that some people might have rules like
I don't know no jumping up and down on the bed
no jumping up and down on furniture
just from my sanity's sake
who in here would tell their kids to stop jumping up and down
on your furniture in the living room?
Okay what about if they're jumping up and down
on the furniture in church?
Maybe you should say no
maybe you should be like hey that's not acceptable
hey kids you're not allowed to jump up and down
on the furniture in church
you shouldn't be running across it like little mice
and jumping across like Super Mario
okay just like you shouldn't be doing that in house
I mean if you're not gonna do that in your home
how much more in the house of God?
And you know children this is one thing you should learn
you should behave yourselves better
at someone else's house than your own
if you're a guest in someone's else's house
or you're invited to one of your friends' houses
you should be better behaved there
than you would be at home
and then how much more at the house of God
should you behave yourself?
Now Ecclesiastes chapter five look at verse one
keep by foot when they'll go us to the house of God
and be more ready to hear
than to give the sacrifice of fools
for they consider not that they do evil
now again it's using metaphoric language here
but we should at least just consider the analogy
that's being used here
is that you should watch your step
you should be careful
and again literally but again
there's obviously more metaphorical
and more pronounced expounding on this particular verse
but hey we should be careful come into church
we should be serious about coming to church
we shouldn't take things lightly
you know we have a nice church
we have nice things we shouldn't be coming here
it's not a jungle gym
and look I get it
hey as a kid everything's a jungle gym
I love it too
you know you watch those videos
some teenagers think this way too
it's called parkour or whatever
they just like they think everything's a gym
and they just wanna run around everything
hardcore parkour
it's like that's not the church building
okay we wanna be things
and look we're filling up
where we have a lot of people on Sunday morning
sometimes we like almost run out of chairs
and I get it
but you know and then it gets tight
after the services
but this would still be a time
to act on your best behavior
hey I'm not saying don't talk to your friends
I'm not saying don't have a good time
I'm not saying don't hang up
but what I am saying is don't play parkour
what I am saying is don't run around on the furniture
what I am saying is don't jump up and down
what I am saying is hey we have rules no running
cause you know we don't want you to get hurt
we don't want other kids to get hurt
because here's the thing
you're gonna run
and you're gonna hit another kid
and there's other kids really sensitive
and they're gonna be like
ah I'm so injured
and then they're gonna go tell their parents
and these parents are gonna get mad at those parents
and they're gonna get mad at everybody
and it's just like stop
you know just don't run
the sensitive kid can't handle it
okay we get it
and look you say the sensitive kid
that's all of them okay
they all have their sensitive day
there's always that one day
and it's you know they don't even hardly get
they're all like soccer players
it's all fake injuries and stuff you know
they're just throwing themselves on the ground
because they got injured
or someone pushed them
or someone hurt them
and it's just like
they should all get red cards or whatever
you know they should all be ejected out of the game
but it's just like seriously
we don't want the rough housing
we don't want the running
we should be careful
obviously there's older people here
there's women that are pregnant
I mean have you seen the pregnant list?
yeah
it's a lot
like I don't even remember every time
when someone's pregnant or not
and we don't even always know
some people don't even necessarily broadcast it
and they could be potentially expecting
so we want to be careful
that we're not injuring people
we have a space
look I would love to have a larger church building
and I would love to have a dedicated playground
that the kids could go run
and jump at
but we don't
I'm sorry
you know I'd love to have one in my house
I don't
but you know we don't we don't want to let them
just trash our furniture and trash our house
just because they want to have a playground in there
we don't want to do that in the house of God
we don't want to do that in church
we want to behave ourselves
and be appropriate
you know the Bible says let all things be done decently
in an order
I want to go to Proverbs 22
just flip back a little bit
you know the Bible says God is greatly to be feared
in the assembly of the saints
I mean can you imagine going in the Old Testament temple
and letting your kids just run around
and pull on the curtains
and just do cartwheels
and just wrestle and throw stuff
I mean just like
just pick up the incense and throw it around
I mean but you know you come to church here
and it's just like throwing stuff around
I mean it's just like a party at the water fountain
I usually find just like five cups
just in the water fountain
with water and I'm just thinking like
I don't even know what's going on here
you know it's just like
we're just filling up poor offerings or something
I don't know
like what's happening
and hey I get it
we want to keep the church available for everybody
if the people want to have lunch
or they want a fellowship
that's fine but you know
don't just like go hide in a corner
and let your kids just run
you know and rec havoc everywhere
chips everywhere
and popsicles everywhere
and candy everywhere
and popcorn and what it
it's not Logan's Roadhouse
yeah
we're not like
please throw the peanuts on the floor
okay
it's like hey why don't you clean up after yourself
and here's the thing
I get like oh I can clean up later
just don't even let it happen
just do some damage control
yeah
you know make sure your kids are well behaved
that they're not running around
they're not left just unattended
and of course a lot of the parents that
do watch their kids
will continue watching their kids
and the ones that don't care what I'm saying
will continue to not care what I'm saying
yeah
but care please
okay
and of course you know our ushers and others
sometimes they help us
don't get mad at them
if they're just trying to keep the house of God in order
okay
and you know here's another thing we should all do
Proverbs 22 verse 15
foolishness is bound on the heart of a child
but the rod of correction shall drive it far from them
you know we all need to be disciplining our kids physically
on a regular basis
so they're well behaved
and
you'll kinda notice a pattern it seems like
parents that are not watching their kids
and the kids that are really rowdy
I can only speculate but it seems like they're the ones
probably not applying the rod very often either
and so
you know we need to we need to do all of it
you know we need to be watching our kids
we need to be telling them no
and we need to be physically disciplining them
because they're gonna be foolish and you know what
I'm not really that shocked
when kids act silly
I'm not really that shocked when kids
wanna wrestle and run around and scream and yell
and get excited and whatever
that's being a kid
and look they're doing great during the service
I know you can do it
and I've reached some really long sermons
I know you can do it even past the sermon
okay
but you know what I'm not saying you have to be completely quiet
we're not trying to be a library here after the service
but you know what
we shouldn't be a jungle gym either
and I think we all know
there's a difference between those things
we should behave
we should treat the house of God with respect
and look
you should want this to be you
not just here everywhere
when you're invited to someone's house
you should want this to be the case
you don't want them to be like
I don't ever wanna invite them back again
because they tore up my house
or those kids never listen
or these kids are too difficult to be around
so I don't wanna invite them over
I like them
but I just don't wanna be around them
because they're just too
they're too lax
and they're parenting
and it makes it unpleasant
you don't wanna go to the restaurant
you know
I'll be honest with you
we go to the restaurant
and you see how big my family is
we get a lot of bad looks when we first walk in
and it's because people are just prejudging us
they're just thinking like
oh here we go
oh they're gonna be awful
or we have to sit by the kid table
you know usually you're putting us in the back corner
by where the waiter entrance is or something
or like off somewhere
because they're just like
oh it's gonna be the kid table or whatever
but then like by the end of the meal
everybody's like coming up complimenting us or whatever
I guess they're like shocked
that you know
our kids can actually be quiet
without a tablet or something like that
but you know we don't wanna be the stereotype
that's just like oh look at all these big families
that can't manage their kids
can't dress their kids
their kids can't behave
their kids are a train wreck
because then we're just discouraging people
from having a lot of kids
you know I want people to be like
wow
here are seven kids are better than my one
meaning it's not the number
there's something else
that's the main impact here
and unfortunately we live in a society
where we're trying to excuse
the reason for women to not have kids
and we should be doing the opposite
we should be a poster for having kids
yeah
I wanna go to one more
go to Luke chapter two
this is the last verse I'll have you go to
you know
I it's sad but
we were out
me and my wife and all the kids
and we were in a furniture store
and we were leaving
we were leaving the furniture store
and there's a lady with one child
and I don't know the age
three, four, five, somewhere in that range
and it was near like a ferris wheel
like you could see it
and he's like hey can we do the ferris wheel
and she's just like no
she's like we're not doing that
I'm more likely to drive off a cliff
than take you to that
and I'm just like what in the world
kind of society do we live in
where a mom is saying something like that
to her kid and she has one
and I'm thinking
you know me and my wife
we always like reminisce
when we had like three kids
or two kids were like man how easy it was
man how like it was just carefree
I mean to have one kid
like I can't even imagine
even like even one of some of our hardest kids
we have a few kids that are harder than others okay
but like the one kid that's difficult
when I just have only him it's awesome
like it's not even a problem
it's just it's usually that
you can't give him as much attention
when there's all of them
or he's the instigator or whatever
but usually when you just have one kid
he's just like dang this is like fun
this is easy okay
but unfortunately our society has gotten
so weird that they think just even one kid
you know is somehow so awful and so difficult
that's just being really selfish person
it's really gross person
and look you're not having postpartum
when they're five years old okay
can we can we stop with that nonsense
okay when they're five
I think you finally stop that
that era or whatever
but you know as a kid
you know what would a
what would a kid look like
if he was being well behaved
well what if we just look to Jesus as an example
Luke chapter two look at verse 46
and it came to pass that after three days
they found him in the temple
sitting in the midst of the doctors
both hearing them and asking them questions
Jesus isn't going around causing a ruckus
in the house of God
he's sitting down quietly asking questions
wanting to learn taking church seriously
hey you know as you get older in church
don't just be sitting here coloring
looking on your parents phone
you know you should be doing as a kid
should be paying attention
maybe taking notes and look it's
if Jesus is the one doing that
how about the men
how about the women
hey I'm pro you taking notes in church
and look I don't think you have to necessarily
get out of pen and paper or whatever
hey if you want to write down a note on your phone
go for it
I do that all the time
when I'm listening to sermons
and something hits me or strikes a quarter
whatever all right down you know that thought
hey you guys that want to get better at preaching
and you come up with a sermon idea
while it's just write it down
hey if you want to take physical notes
go for it I'm for that too
I'm just saying like
hey when something strikes a quarter
you remember something
write it down
bring it up throughout the week
you know Jesus is thinking about
you know we should take church seriously
this is an opportunity to learn
don't just let it all just go in one ear
and out the other
this is not an opportunity to take a nap
hey you young teenagers
the decisions you're going to be making
are going to affect the rest of your life
whether you're lazy
whether you work hard
whether you do a savings
whether you do retirement
whether you not do retirement
who date
who you don't date
who you think of marrying
who you're not going to marry
what kind of education you pursue
what kind of career you pursue
like everything you're doing right now
is going to impact almost the rest of your life
you should be taking it seriously
and considering it
and not just
not just have to go to church or whatever
hey learn something
that's the behavior of yourself in church is learning
paying attention
learning
growing
implementing
hey you're going to have verses come to mind
you're going to have applications come to mind
you write them down
you think about them
you pray about them
you implement them
you know how can you go home and search the scriptures daily
whether those things are so
when you don't even remember what the sermon is about
and I'll just be honest
like
it does bother me
I'll just be honest with you
it bothers me
when you ask somebody like
hey
what was the sermon about
and they're like I don't remember anything about the sermon
I mean I
it was an hour and a half
I mean you didn't remember anything
it's like
or it's just like
one time you said something about beans and chili
it was funny
you know
just like okay
thanks
you know maybe like
think about something
in the sermon
and meditate on it a little bit
you know walk
walk away with at least one thing
okay
that's how we should behave as a church
we don't want to be a church
we walk away and we forget everything we hear
we don't be a forgetful hearers of the word
we want to be doers of the word
that's right
we want to be people that are going home
and searching the scriptures
whether those things are so
we want to be men that are going home
and having rules for our wives
we want to be women
you know not me
but obviously
we want the women of our church
to be good examples
you know not going out
and usurping authority over the man
and trying to be a political blow hard
but you know what
being sober
being meek
being quiet
you know being a good example
loving their husbands
loving their children
you know what we want the children
to care about their lives
and be serious
pay attention to the service
and before and after the service
not acting like hooligans
treating the church with respect
and you know what
we need the parents to help with that
you know
please take care of your kids in the church
let's just
you know
hey at lunch
don't be wild
don't be messy
don't be running
don't be crawling on the floor
don't be getting cups
so you don't need it
don't mess with all the soul winning materials
don't be wrestling
don't be rough housing
you know
let's behave ourselves
and let's be appropriate
and let's treat this institution
as a house of God
an house of learning
an house of prayer
an house of focused
serious attention to the things of God
schools of prayer
thank you Heavenly Father
so much for our church
thank you so much for the men
and the women
and the children in this room
I pray that we take all of our roles
and our jobs seriously
that we take church seriously
we take our Bible seriously
I pray that you would help us to learn
during the sermons
to take the instruction
as something that we should apply in our lives
I pray that you would help
the men to rule over their families
and have rules
and enforce those rules
I pray that you would help the women
to be submissive
and their husbands
to love their husbands
to be obedient to their husbands
to be meek and quiet
in their homes
I pray that you would help them
to love their children
I pray that you would help the children
to love and obey their parents
to do good on their parents
I pray that you would help us all
pay attention to the things of God
and respect
the church
and respect the things of God
and that you would continue to bless us
in Jesus' name we pray
Amen