Women’s Ministry in the Church
Modern Christianity parades diverse models of church ministry to women. But what is biblical women’s ministry? Women’s ministries are popular, yet controversial in our day, partly because the term itself is vague, ambiguous, and does not appear in Scripture. One might ask, “Why are women teaching in the church, Sunday School, seminaries, and numerous other venues?” What kinds of experiences does the Bible call for to minister to women in the church? Jeff Pollard takes an exegetical approach to these questions.

The Sufficiency of Scripture and Women’s Ministries Part 1: Teachers of Good Things 
the answer is often, “Titus 2 says that women should teach women.” But what does Titus 2 teach? God’s infallible and sufficient Word says that older women must be “teachers of good things.” What does God want them to teach? 

The Sufficiency of Scripture and Women’s Ministries Part 2: Keepers at Home
The inspired, infallible, and sufficient Word of God says that older women should be “teachers of good things.” Among the seven good things that the Apostle Paul says that older women should teach young women is to be “keepers at home.” What did the Apostle mean by this? How should we apply it today? The answers are crucial for building healthy churches. 

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Jeff Pollard with the message, Scripture is Sufficient for Women's Ministry, Part 2, Keepers at Home. Very thankful to see those of you that have returned. If you would stand with me please and we'll read the Word of God together. We'll be reading the same passage, Titus chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. Now brethren, let us hear the Word of God.

But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, sound in charity, in patience, the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed. Amen. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his good word and let's join our hearts in prayer. Oh Holy Father, You are so good and kind and gracious to us. We thank you for the revelation, the infallible, and the sufficient revelation you have given us in Holy Scripture.

We thank you for the revelation of your great gospel of grace in Christ Jesus. We thank you for loving us and we thank you for drawing us to him thank you for giving your children life eternal through the person and work of our glorious resurrected Lord and Master Jesus Christ now Lord we come to talk about your church. It is your church. You have ordained it. You have purchased your people by your blood, and your purpose is what we want to know.

Your purpose, your design, your desire for us as men and women is our hearts desire. Please teach us those here that are your dear sheep. I pray that you would feed them with your blessed word today. Encourage them. Encourage the men, encourage the women, and build us all up in the most holy faith may all that we do here Lord bring glory and honor to you and do great good to your people in Jesus name amen please be seated We are considering the sufficiency of scripture and Jesus Christ's purpose for older women in the life of his churches.

Older women play a crucial role as mentors of young women. Christ shed his precious blood and rose again for them. He saves them and sanctifies them and he places them within congregations so that they will be godly self-controlled teachers of good things Paul not only desired to glorify God in this he also sought to preserve God's Word from blasphemy. Let us consider then Paul's domestic focused qualities for women. I repeat what I said in the earlier message, especially for those that may not have been with us.

This is not an exhaustive list of womanhood, but this is clearly part of an older woman's ministry to younger women within the congregation of Jesus Christ. And we have seen that they are clearly domestic focused. So the first thing that older women should teach young women is to love their husbands. Now why would a woman need to learn this? Don't people marry for love?

Isn't that the main reason for getting married? Although this may sound foreign to our ears, past civilizations have viewed marriage quite differently than modern culture does. Secular writer Stephanie Kuntz wrote Marriage a History and entitled chapter one, the radical idea of marrying for love. She writes, for most of history it was inconceivable that people should choose their mates on the basis of something as fragile and irrational as love. Only rarely in history has love been seen as the main reason for getting married.

That may be shocking to us, primarily because of Hollywood and the culture that we live in. Women in Paul's day usually married between 12 and 18. Young ladies that are between 12 and 18 stand up. If you're between 12 and 18 stand up for us. Okay this was the primary age group of marriage at that time.

Thank you very much. Have a seat. All right. This protected their virginity so that they could bear legitimate heirs for the family property. How's that for a romantic reason to get married?

They did not choose their husbands who were usually 10 to 15 years older. Furthermore, the Greco-Roman world took for granted that the young men would be sexually experienced by the time they married. What kind of picture does that paint for you? Do you think that it might be difficult for a young woman coming into a situation like this to be fired up in love as she marries someone? Of course not.

Furthermore, my brethren, love had nothing to do with this. This is not to say that love could not or did not develop, at least in a human sense, between those who were married. But the idea of marrying someone because you loved them was simply not on the radar screen. That isn't why they entered into that important bond. Now, a godly older woman could be a godsend to young women in this kind of situation.

A godly older woman was especially a help if the young woman's husband was not converted. Even though things are different in our day, most people marry with our culture's false notion of love, including many professing Christians. They have no earthly idea what biblical love is they marry based on emotion and when that emotion goes away then the thrill is gone and love has departed so many of them think we need as they needed women who know Christ's love The love manifested to sinners in the gospel of Jesus Christ to teach young women what true love really is and how to walk in that. Secondly, they were to teach young women to love their children. The Word of God plainly declares, lo, children are an inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Psalm 127, 3. Experienced older women who love Christ Jesus can teach young women how to train up their children in the way they should go, how to govern a child's will and discipline him according to God's infallible word, not pagan or secular philosophies. Thirdly, an older woman was to teach a younger woman to be discreet. The word discreet comes from the same Greek word group that Paul used several times in the pastoral epistles. Discrete means to be in control of oneself.

Prudent, thoughtful, sensible. Young women often lack good sense. Empowered by the Holy Spirit and instructed by the word older women can teach and model good sense self-control for younger women. Fourthly, they were to teach them to be chaste. Chaste in Greek originally meant ritually pure, without moral defect or blemish.

Paul used it to mean sexually pure in thought, word, and deed. To be chaste applies not only to sexual purity and to faithfulness in marriage, It includes how a woman speaks, how she acts, how she dresses. Her clothing should speak of purity and modesty, not carnal sensuality. A godly older woman can be a great guide to a teachable younger woman in a situation like this. The next one is keepers at home.

That makes some people wince just to hear it. Keepers at home. What does this controversial term mean? Well keepers at home comes from one Greek compound word, oikouros. Oikouros.

Now, three things make this word challenging to translate. Number one, this is the only place in the New Testament that Oikouros appears. So we don't have anything to compare it to. Number two, what we call a textual variant appears here. In other words, when we look at the surviving Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that underlie our English translations, the authorized version with the KJV has the word oikouros, the one we're talking about, while others have oikougos, one letter different, a gamma gives us that G sound.

And thirdly, these two words have slightly different meanings. So depending on the translation that you're using, you may see something different than keepers at home. That being said, Oikouros, the very first word means watching or keeping the house keeping in this sense doesn't mean vacuuming the floor It means guarding the house Watching or guarding the house staying at home is one of the meanings. Domestic, homemaker, keeping at home and taking care of household affairs. That's what that word means.

Oikugas, with that one letter difference, on the other hand means domestic. Workers at home. One who works in the home. Home maker, devoted to home duties. Now one significant difference stands out between these two similar words.

They're almost identical but there's just a slight shade of difference and of course people like to make a great deal about that slight shade of difference. First of all the first word, oikouros, does mean staying at home. It was even used as a word that sarcastically insulted men who would not go to war. They stayed at home. An unmanly thing to do.

Those who do not believe that the woman's primary sphere of responsibility is her home often prefer oikougas. And the definition devoted to home duties. Now that's one of those pinholes that people try to run freight trains through, but they do all their best that they can. I will say this there are those who think that if we say devoted to home duties all a woman has to do is make sure that she's got someone taking care of the house while she goes on to pursue what she wants to do. You can see how just a little difference can become a huge difference in the way we understand a particular word in Greek, and especially when it's tied to a high-stakes controversy.

Now, either word makes clear that a woman's primary responsibility is in her home unless you attempt to drive that train through the pinhole. However, we need to be clear and I want everybody if you're drifting right now this is a good time to pinch yourself and sit up. You don't want to miss this. It's very important to understand we're on the razor's edge here. Whether we prefer staying at home, so the way some people understand it, it's a legitimate definition, keepers of the home, the guardian of the home, making sure that everything is taken care of in the home, or homemaker, I think everyone understands that term, we cannot force this word to mean that a woman may never leave her home or be involved with legitimate matters outside the home.

This would contradict other passages of Scripture. Proverbs 31 clearly reveals that a wife may contribute to the family wealth. She considerth a field and buyeth it. With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She maketh fine linen and selleth it and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

Verses 16 and 24. Now in light of this, we do have to remember at least three things. Again, when we come to a passage like this, we've got to remember when it was written and the context in which it appears. This is in the Old Covenant scriptures and number one the Old Testament makes clear that fathers and husbands were the heads of their home and a wife would not undertake the activities of Proverbs 31 without their husband's approval. Number two, the entire context of Proverbs 31 read carefully makes clear that this woman's primary focus and her primary work are her home and her family.

She clearly contributes to the wealth of the home under her husband's authority. And in those days It was not uncommon for a woman to work with her husband. Number three, Scripture sometimes characterizes a wicked woman as not staying at home. A man who didn't play his role, who didn't go to war and stayed at home was playing the woman's role staying at home and the woman who does not stay at home is sometimes plainly set forth as the wicked woman Proverbs chapter 7 verse 10 and 11 say, And behold there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot and subtle of heart. How was she described apart from her immodest and inappropriate sensual dress.

She is loud and stubborn. Her feet abide not in her house. The obvious understanding is that the proper place, not the only place ever, but the primary, the fundamental place, the focus of where she is to use the many gifts God has given her is in the oversight of the home under her husband's authority. In the New Testament, Paul reproves young widows for wandering about from house to house. Paul goes on to say, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house.

This is a realm of authority for women. Under God's authority and under her head, She is the one who oversees what's going on in her husband's home. And it is a genuine responsibility authorized by God, which means that when you act in this context, by faith in the living God, heaven stands with you. And they are to do this, Paul adds, so that they give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Even the pagans understood that a place for a woman was to be her home primarily.

Now in light of these and other passages, we just don't have the time to do a full survey of them, as well as Paul's clearly defined domestic focused qualities in Titus 3 through 5, older women should teach the younger women that their God ordained, their God blessed domain is their home. Next is the word good. The word good comes from a Greek word that means moral excellence. When it is applied to women, it often means kindness. In her house, in her church, in her relations, a woman needs to be good and kind.

Bearing and caring for children can be ceaseless, wearying, painful, and sometimes even dangerous work. The blessed labors of caring for home and family and overseeing the work of the house can be tedious and sometimes overwhelming. Now for a young woman with these daunting responsibilities, keeping her thoughts, words, and actions kind, sweet, is an important matter and sometimes a very great challenge. A gracious older mentor who has walked that road, who has walked with Christ and been blessed day after day, month after month, year after year, in the grace of Christ can sit with a younger woman who's wrestling with these things. Point her to Christ, pray with her, encourage her to keep going.

A gracious older mentor is a blessing from heaven. Next is obedient to their own husbands. What a difficult submission or what a difficult challenge I should say, submission to a sinful man, even a Christian man, can be sometimes. Nevertheless, this has been God's order from creation. Genesis records Eve's and then Adam's fall into sin.

As God pronounced, sentenced upon them, he said to Eve, thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. The Hebrew word desire is the same as in Genesis 4, 7, the next chapter. There, God said to Cain, If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." The Lord knew that Cain in his murderous anger wanted to kill his brother and the Lord said sin wants to have you sin wants to rule you but you must rule over sin you must govern your sin and of course we know that he didn't and he murdered his brother sin desired to rule Cain but Cain was to govern his sin therefore when we look at these two terms in their context, we understand that since the fall, women have desired to rule their husbands, to usurp their husband's authority, And in the case of some, to rule over men in general. Now you know your own heart and your fallen flesh, and it will certainly be a different degree of this matter with each of you, but it is part of the tragic fall.

Nevertheless, women transformed by the gospel of God's grace learn to submit to their own husbands as unto Christ. God in heaven blesses them, encourages them, strengthens them, and helps them to submit to unfortunately sometimes admitted blockheads. An older woman understands this well and she can be a blessing from heaven to younger women. The new birth restores the creation order in a woman's heart. And while it may be a great struggle for her, she will press forward with that.

And she will find that path sweeter when she has an older woman who has walked it before her. Now what's Paul's reason for these seven things? We've looked at them briefly, I would love to do a message on every single one of them. They're all very important and I know that I've not done them justice by going through them so quickly, But having set them before you, Paul's reason for domestic focused qualities is this. Paul wanted older women to teach younger women these things that the Word of God be not blasphemed.

This is women's ministry with a very high price tag. God's glory is connected to this. To blaspheme means to slander, to defame, to speak disrespectfully of. Now Paul constantly yearned for God's glory. That's the heart of a Christian.

He wants God's glory. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1st Corinthians 10 31. This too was Christ's teaching. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

That's what we're about as Christians. Our lives are to bring glory to the One who has given us new life, to the One who has shed the blood of His only begotten Son that we might be pardoned from our sins, to the One who sent His Holy Spirit to open our hearts, to bring us to repentance, to grant us saving faith in His Holy Son, to bring us into union for all eternity with the risen Christ. Everything about our lives as men or women is to bring glory to the one who loved us for all eternity. And so it is with the seven things set before us in this passage. Women who were disrespectful to their husbands, who did not love and discipline their children, or who were sexually unfaithful, would bring no glory to God in that pagan culture.

The pagans would look and say, they're no different from us. And dear brethren, I fear that we hear that from the culture around us. Y'all don't look so different. You don't act so differently. It's not the way it should be.

Our lives should speak that the God who made the heavens and earth reached down and drew us out of darkness into his glorious light and that his grace sustains our souls with joy and gladness. And that is worked out in our lives. It isn't just something we feel, but it is something that is done to us on the inside by the regenerating power of the Spirit and manifests in our lives on the outside. At the very least in the seven things before us. And there are others in Scripture.

Now, The on-looking pagan culture would only reproach the gospel of Christ if there were no significant changes in its women. The pagan pluralistic Cretans were liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. And if the gospel of grace did not transform Crete's women, the Cretans would find nothing attractive in it. Those who are truly converted are a mystery to those who are not. And when you find a woman who may even be married to a blockhead, and there is a smile on her face that she hasn't worked up in a phony way, that there is a joy in her heart and there is a glorifying God in her submission and in the way she walks with her family loves her family and honors Christ in her congregation the people of the world see that something is different and that difference is the power of God's grace in the gospel.

When those things are not manifest in the life, the gospel seems to be powerless. Paul did not want the name of Jesus Christ blasphemed by the lives of professing Christian women. And so one of the reasons he has given these things and set them before us with such clarity is that older women who are to manifest the truth of Christ's converting power should help younger women walk in these very difficult paths. Now what then are the doctrinal and practical applications that we may draw from these domestic focused qualities? Number one, this is where we begin to see how it looks in life and we can think about what this really means.

Number one, older women are one of God's great gifts. I repeat, the world casts off its old, it worships its young, but Christ's Church values The beauty of an older godly woman. She is one of God's great gifts for preserving biblical womanhood. Titus and the elders that he appointed in the Cretan churches were to preach and to teach the gospel of grace and the apostolic doctrine continuously. Under the power of the Holy Spirit they were to bring God's Word into these congregations.

However, neither the gifted Titus Nor the inspired Apostle Paul could convey to young women the truth of biblical womanhood with the same care, caution, delicacy, or experience as a godly aged woman could. I can tell you all about what an older and a younger woman should be. But you older women know how to live it. And a younger woman is more likely to hear some of these difficult discussions far better with the sweet voice of a godly woman than a stomping and a foaming preacher. Experienced older Christian women therefore preserve Christian womanhood for the next generation.

Blessed be God. Number two, older women are one of God's great gifts to his churches, inculcating sober-mindedness and sensibility to young women. The word inculcate means to impress something upon the mind of another by frequent instruction and repetition this is not something you get in a six-week class on Monday nights you can get together those six times and talk about them and learn some things that are wonderful but these are things that must be seen in the life. Older sisters here, the younger women are watching you. They've got lots of questions.

How have you answered them? Can they find in you those things that would encourage them as they walk day by day with Christ, loving their husbands, loving their children, living in modesty and purity. A virtuous older woman saved by the grace of Jesus Christ has come to her senses by the power of the Holy Spirit and she is a godsend to young women. Paul's words, they may teach to be sober come from one Greek word that means to instruct someone to behave in a wise becoming manner, to make somebody sober. There doesn't mean the opposite of drunk but it means in self-control.

Ladies, are you ever overwhelmed by your emotions? Do you lose rational thought by the volcanoes that come up in you sometimes? I can talk to you about that, but a godly older woman can guide you through that. What a blessing to the body of Jesus Christ. The heart of Christian living is spirit wrought, self-control.

By God's grace then, older women can encourage young women to understand that every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. Proverbs 14, 1. She can advise a young woman to be sensible regarding the way she spends her time and the way she spends her money. She can help her to be realistic rather than mistakenly romantic about loving her husband and children in spite of their and her own sins. She can help that young woman apply the blood of Christ to her failures as a mother and a wife.

She can say in a way that no man can if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness I know sweetheart I know that you're you're aching you're hurting I know things are not going well with you and your husband right now yes I know you're struggling with your temper I've had to wrestle with the same thing the first thing we've got to get a hold of is that our problems stem from sin and we've got a wonderful Savior from our sins now in the light of that Let me tell you how it was with me and my husband. That is a treasure beyond words. And we don't have many jewels like that in the modern church. A godly older woman can teach a young woman to depend upon Jesus for her satisfaction, not fallen men. Young women, when you married and you thought that that young man was so wonderful and then after a few weeks you realized, hmm, maybe he wasn't quite as wonderful.

You need to realize that your hope is not in the way that relationship goes, though we certainly hope that it always grows and becomes better and sweeter. Your satisfaction must be found in Jesus Christ and his eternal love for you or you'll become an idolater very quickly. An older woman has learned that and she'll know how to tell you that in the sweetest words. She can help a younger woman trust the sovereign God when sorrow, griefs, tragedies, and calamities fall on her. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Sometimes this just sounds like stoicism coming out of a man. Suck it up. God did it. Let's take it on the chin. Praise the Lord.

But women sometimes need a softer voice to hear that. And that's what godly older women are to do. What a ministry that is. And God has put it in his church. By the frequent instruction of her daily life and by privately advising young women, a godly older woman can help them to see that by wholeheartedly believing the gospel, by fervent praying, by soaking their minds with Scripture, and by earnest faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, they can govern their lives sensibly to the glory of God, to the good of their household, and to dominion over their hormones.

Number three, older women are one of God's great gifts to his churches by preserving modesty and sexual purity. Fathers and elders can and must instruct their wives and daughters regarding these important matters. However, a godly older woman can advise a young woman regarding modesty and purity more appropriately than a man can, especially if the man is not her father or husband. She can instruct young women discreetly and delicately about the dangers of impurity and the effects of sensual actions in clothing. Young women very often you don't understand the sexual signals you're sending.

The people that make the clothes that many of you buy are not determined to clothe you to look like the pure bride of Christ. They don't believe that purity is beautiful. They believe that sexuality is beautiful. And so they package you for sensuality. Whether you understand that or not.

That's their purpose. Read the books on fashion. Read the lost fashion designers. They see the body as simply something to expose and to cover, to reveal, to excite, but they have no design for your purity. An older woman can talk to a younger woman about that in a way far better than I ever could.

In fact my beloved wife in our own church has graciously sacrificed herself to take a young woman who was having great problems in her marriage. When she would come into the congregation, many of the men would just look down because of the clothing that she wore. She thought she was being modest, that she'd never been taught anything about it. My wife took her out to a lunch, took her out to a beautiful bayside park where we live in Florida and began to talk with her about her life and finally graciously begin to talk with her about what her clothes were saying in the congregation. She wept that someone would show her that kindness, that we never had a problem with it again.

What a blessing to the Church of Jesus Christ. Many of our churches today do nothing about immodesty. Jesus did not die in agony upon Calvary's cross to dress his beloved bride like a harlot. He did not. His enemies stripped him in public to shame him.

Professing Christian women today expose themselves voluntarily, without shame, in skimpy clothing, short skirts, swimwear, low-cut tops, obscenely tight clothing and pants. Yet the Word of God, which is sufficient for all things in life, plainly commands women to adorn themselves in modest apparel, because you're the bride of Christ, in modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety, self-control. Shame-facedness and sobriety, self-control. Our Savior clothes his bride in righteousness, good works, and heartfelt modesty. He gives her a heart for purity, not sinful sensuality.

Godly older women can advise young women regarding sexual purity in a way far more appropriate than men can, and by doing this older women actually help guard and maintain purity in Christ congregations and in their homes. She is like a wall that helps preserve purity in the body of Christ. Number four, this inspired text teaches that a woman's primary responsibilities are in the home. Now where did Paul get this idea? He did not spin it out of thin air.

He did not borrow it from the patriarchal pagan Greco-Roman culture that surrounded him, as some commentators believe. The notion that home and family are a woman's primary domain is rooted in the revelation of the Old Testament scriptures and in the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a former Pharisee Paul knew that Genesis taught God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Male and female.

Genesis 1 27. And why male and female? Why? Why not just two buddies? You know, conquer the world together.

Why male and female? Well, the answer lies in the revelation of the sufficient scriptures. God said be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Adam could not do this alone. He needed a helper to be fruitful and multiply.

God commanded male and female to have babies and to have dominion over the earth. In other words, God's eternal purpose reveals that the relationship between husband and wife should be reproductive and regal. Reproductive and regal. In other words, God ordained husband and wife not as master and slave, but as king and queen to have babies from the woman's womb that sacred place comes God's elect and from a woman's womb that blessed haven our Lord and our master came into this world Man cannot be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it without his queen. To bear children and to oversee their domain, a woman's primary responsibilities.

A woman's primary responsibilities. By the very obvious shape and function of your bodies is home and maternal and wifely and beautiful because it is exactly that. God did that. Number four, how does this blessed mentoring arise in Christ's churches? I will not be able to give the time to this either that I would like But let's just talk about this for just a few minutes Number one the elders of the church are responsible for godly older women mentoring younger women The Apostle makes clear that Titus is to teach sound doctrine so that it will bear the fruit of godly, reverent, self-controlled older women.

Now this is not an official title, head of the board of the directors of the older women of the church in the congregation. It's not a title. It's not a church within the church. It's not a parachurch organization. It should be just a natural functioning part of the body of Christ.

It is, it should be a part of day-to-day sanctification and the living for Christian women. Therefore, number one, if this is to be the case, the elders must teach and know the older women well. They must be faithful to what Paul commanded Titus. Preach sound doctrine, preach sound doctrine, preach the glories of Christ, preach his love for his people, Preach the glories of being in union with the most high and resurrected Lord of glory. Preach the truths of being men and being women to the glory of God.

Not the battle of the sexes, but the glory of God in the sexes. Therefore the elders have a very serious responsibility here. They should learn who is qualified to mentor. There are always women in a congregation, or at least it's been my experience, may not be yours, that just want to do something and they want to tell somebody how to live. We're not talking about people like that.

We're talking about those who've learned to walk with Christ, and they are delighted to help a younger woman walk with Christ. Does this woman have enough character to steer the younger women away from gossip, from husband bashing, from unnecessary private matters about husband and children. Sometimes we have to go into deep and dark places with people and sometimes we have to hear unfortunate and tragic and sad things but sometimes people like it and there's something in our deep and dark and wicked flesh that likes to go over all the bad details a mature woman knows where to walk and what to avoid Does she have enough humility and Christian character not to turn another woman's opinion against her husband or against her father or against the elders of the church? I know a man today who is no longer in the ministry because he brought in a counselor, a woman, for the women. All of the women went to her.

Within a few years she had all the hearts of all the women and as soon as the pastor made a decision that they didn't like she helped lead the brigade against him like Absalom at the gate stealing the hearts of Israel away from King David. It shouldn't happen in Christ Church. You have to be very careful. Doesn't mean it happens every time. Of course it doesn't.

But it's a real danger. Number two, elders should know whom She is mentoring. There are people that just want to get up into other people's lives and sometimes there were young and unstable Christians that need very good and clear mature sound counsel. And the elders need to know who those people are and who would be encouraging her and why. Number three, the elders should know why she is mentoring.

No woman should just take this responsibility on herself without at least discussing its need with the elders. I'm not saying she has to go and say everything that a young woman has said to her, not at all. Simply saying that when certain things are beginning to develop within the congregation there are times when the elders need to be alerted to what's happening, what's taking place, because any pastor knows things rarely are the way they look on the surface, even in family-integrated churches. Now, number four, the elders should know what she is teaching. Is she advising young women regarding the contents of Titus 2, or has she become a psychological counselor in the church?

Does it contradict the elders perspective on scripture or the church's confession? Does she understand and fully support the church's confession? Does she fully support her elders? In other words, is she a mature Christian woman who's learned the truth and has learned to walk in it and supports the vision of the church and its elders will she have enough humility to defer contentious issues or difficult doctrinal questions to her elders when needful when needful she mature enough to say you know I don't know how to deal with this one go talk to the elders or does she just have to keep hold of it does she fully support the church And can she keep discussions from going in the wrong direction? A mature Christian woman should not replace her Church's pulpit.

A home, a quiet place, a meal, coffee together are very wonderful venues for an older woman and younger women to sit and talk and to work through these matters biblically. Let me hurry to these last few things. Number two, godly older women are responsible to mentor younger women. Now there are some churches that get what I would say a little artificial about this. They begin to kind of train women then they start assigning women.

Okay you go handle her and you go help her. Now I leave all those things in elders hands to work out before the Lord but I'm saying you can get really mechanical about this and it can become something that actually causes friction. This should be something natural that develops in the life of the church. Pray older women, pray. God has taught you things and I can assure you if God has taught you things you can use them to bless others in the congregation you are a functioning valuable part of the body of Christ so pray how the Lord would use you and pray that he would open doors and this will help foster the mentoring discipleship and the advising that Paul refers to here this shouldn't be something artificial that is decided by a committee and a committee on the committee but something natural that grows in love for Christ.

We're seeing it begin in our congregation. It's beginning. Hope to see many generations of it. Number three, younger women are responsible to seek godly older women to mentor them. The Lord has provided this for you.

Pray and ask, Lord is there someone here that knows what I am struggling with? A woman that I could sit down with and pray with? There appears to be no need for a woman necessarily to lead an exposition of the Gospel of Matthew, the Epistle to the Romans, an exposition of Revelation, but God has appointed the elders to do this. However, Titus 2, 4, and 5 give explicit and detailed instruction regarding the kind of discipleship which is vital for preserving marriage, parenthood, sexual purity, Personal holiness? What family doesn't need that?

What church doesn't need that? Number four, godly older women who mentor young women should support and help apply the sound doctrine of the elders. They are not elders in name or in function but spiritual mothers as we discussed in our first hour. They must not undermine the authority of the elders. They must not help a woman undermine the authority of their fathers or of their husbands.

Unfortunately this can and does happen, especially when women with very strong personalities and very strong drives to do spiritual things suddenly gain the confidence of the younger women. She must not become her conscience. She must become her advisor and encourager and mentor. When the elders preach the sound doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone God's Spirit begins his transforming work, making sinners see how sinful they are. He makes them understand the Gospel, how much they need Christ's cleansing blood, and how desirable his salvation and lordship are.

As the Holy Spirit works in them, men and women begin to search the infallible, sufficient Word of God and they learn to see their manhood and womanhood in the light of Christ's grace and lordship in every area of their lives. Therefore by the regenerating grace of God's spirit and the light of God's sufficient word an older woman can help a young woman to love her husband and be faithful to him to love her children and to bring them up for Christ, to walk faithfully with her congregation and to preserve God's order in church and family. This is a crucial woman's ministry revealed in God's sufficient scriptures And as I said in the first hour, wherever we may disagree about what passages we can put together for women to do this particular thing that's not explicitly said in Scripture or that particular thing that's not specifically set forth in Scripture, we must not spend all of our time trying to legitimize things that are not clear in Scripture while overlooking and neglecting a vital ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ. Older women, may God richly bless you and use you as salt and light, a glorious preservative of womanhood in the churches of Jesus Christ.

And may the Lord Jesus get all the glory, world without end. Amen. Let us pray. Oh Father in heaven, you are so good you love your church and you have many jewels, you have many trophies of grace, And in the inspired text we have considered, one of those shining brightly, is godly older women. Oh, how we need them.

Father, awaken elders to these things. Awaken your churches to these things. Get glory to your Son by this blessed work in the body. And we pray it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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