The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'Gender Roles In The Meeting Of The Church,' explores the biblical foundations of gender roles, focusing on texts from 1 Timothy and 1 Corinthians. Dohm argues that women are to learn in silence and submission during church services, as the teaching role is reserved for men, grounded in the creation order and not cultural or capability reasons. He emphasizes that this structure reflects the relationship between Christ and the Church, where Christ is the head. Dohm challenges modern cultural norms of questioning authority and stresses the importance of adhering to scriptural teachings, suggesting that deviation leads to idolatry. He asserts that both men and women have limitations within the church, with leadership requiring rigorous qualifications. While acknowledging women's teaching gifts, he maintains that their use is outside the formal church assembly context. Dohm concludes by highlighting the significance of participatory worship and the spiritual importance of roles within the church community.

This is the word of God. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.

Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. We're completing a series of sermons on distinctives about our church. This is one of the things that makes our gathering more distinctive maybe than any of the others. The others are underlying, this one's right there on the service. You come here for a month of services and you're used to being in a quote-unquote normal evangelical church.

You're going to come away with the question, where are the women in leading the different parts of the service. So this is definitely something that is very distinct about us. This all flows from our understanding of this text and some other texts in the New Testament that we'll touch on. It goes without saying that this is a controversial text. You can just read it and feel the tension from having just read it without any comment yet on it.

Even in a group like this, a very conservative group theologically, we feel the tension created by a text which casts gender roles in such stark terms. Doesn't it cast gender roles in such stark terms? Such a stark contrast. It's hard to find another place that the contrast would be any starker. Now imagine if I had simply read that to kick off a sermon in any average American church.

What would happen? I don't know what would happen. It would depend. In some churches, you would certainly not be allowed to continue just having read the text and not even commented on it yet. I'm going to classify what we are as a post question authority bumper sticker age.

Now what do I mean by that? Here's what I mean. 15 or 20 years ago, Jeff smiling because he's old enough to know what I mean. Here's what I mean. 15 or 20 years ago or 30, 30, it was 30 years ago, a long time ago, many, many cars used to have question authority bumper stickers on the car.

Do you remember this? When was the last time? You don't. The young people are nodding. No, we've never seen one.

Why is that? Because no one thinks it's even necessary to put it on the bumper sticker anymore. The right to question any authority and question every authority is so ingrained in our thinking that no one sticks the thing on their car anymore to say question authority. The gray-headed and white-headed people in the room saw those bumper stickers all the time when we were in college, but you can't find one anymore. That's why.

It's because it's part of the baseline now. The old baseline has been overthrown and it is part of the baseline now. People can still possibly swallow that this person has authority in this context. But adding the inescapable inclination, that means that you have to submit to that person in that context is asking for trouble. You can say the general maxim, there are places where certain people have authority, but when you draw the conclusion, okay, now you submit to that authority, you're asking for trouble.

Adding, there are certain contexts in which you actually need to be quiet. You're not permitted to have your say in this context is completely unacceptable. So shame on Paul for having said it, right? But we're the people of God. We're a purchased people.

Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20. I love this. This tells us what we need to know in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20. For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's.

My body belongs to God. He bought it with the precious blood of His Son. My spirit belongs to God. He bought it with the precious blood of His Son. God owns me.

He paid for me with the blood of His beloved Son. And so Jesus is my King. And Jesus acts as King. He speaks as King, He acts as King, He has the power and the unquestioned right to command because I'm bought. And God is the object of our worship.

And as such, it is for Him to direct how He is to be worshiped and what worship is acceptable to him. He determines that. And if I overthrow that and begin to determine that, it ceases to be the worship of God and begins to be self-worship and that's just idolatry. God, I want you to like to be worshiped like this. No, no, no.

God says how we are to worship Him as a blood-bought people. So the people of God go to the Word of God to get our marching orders for how we ought to worship this God, how he desires to be worshiped, how he delights to be worshiped, how we should conduct ourselves when we meet. What should we do in these meetings? This hasn't been left up to our imagination. This has been left up to the Word of God.

Jesus the King has spoken and we are to do what He says to do. So as we come to the text that I read, it's actually in 1 Timothy 2, as we come to this text to begin to look at it slowly and carefully, let's ask God to help us. God, there's nothing better in this life than to be purchased by the blood of your Son. I remember what it was like to be dominated by my own inclinations and by the culture around me. What a tyranny.

Thank you God for setting me free. We don't have to live as slaves to the culture, live to the slaves of our own inclinations, but we're free to follow King Jesus, to worship you as you have said you desire to be worshiped and to follow our King. I pray this would be our heart that whatever is in your word we would be delighted to do. We know that we'll find those things to be the best things, help us to trust you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 2. I read 1 Timothy 2, 11 through 15. We'll get back there, but first a couple of points about context. In chapter 3, verse 14 and 15, Paul tells Timothy explicitly the purpose for his letter. So Paul hasn't left Timothy to wonder, why is Paul writing to me?

It's really helpful. He tells him, I'm writing to you because of this. Look at 1 Timothy 3 verses 14 and 15. Paul writes, These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." So this is why Paul is writing to Timothy.

Now, let's take that in reverse order. Beginning with what the church is. What is the church? The church is the house of God. It's the church of the living God and the pillar and ground of the truth.

In other words, it's God's repository for the truth. Where can people go to get the truth? Well, they're supposed to be able to go to the church because the living God has made this His people, and it's His church, and He's made them this repository for truth. He's given them this book and they're the caretakers of this word that He has entrusted to them. And so because of that, there's a way that we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God that preserves us as an entity that belongs to God that is God's and that is this repository for truth.

That's why we ought to conduct ourselves in a certain way. So it's ours to mine out. How does God say we ought to conduct ourselves in His house? This is the context. That is why Paul is writing and that is what Paul is writing as an authoritative apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He tells us how we ought to conduct ourselves in his house. Also, the chapter break of what we're studying in chapter two, the chapter break isn't particularly helpful. Meaning that what comes immediately after our text is about who should oversee the church. So it's about elders in the church, the beginning of chapter 3, and it isn't men in general, it is certain, very select men who have been tested and qualified by the brethren. So Paul's teaching isn't at all that men have no limitations and that women have comprehensive limitations and that so women you should just learn to like it.

That is not what Paul is teaching here. Men, you're unlimited. You can do whatever you want, say whatever you want. But women, you're comprehensively limited and that's just how it is because Paul said so, so learn to like it. That is not what we have here in this text.

It is actually that we all have limitations because Christ is the head of His church and He's given us His Word and since He is the object of worship, we should all understand these limitations, all of us, and operate within our limitations, all of us. Now let's look at chapter 2 verses 11 through 15, which does focus on women in the church. Look at verse 11. 1st Timothy 2 verse 11, let a woman learn in silence with all submission. So we have a natural tendency, I have it, you probably have it, I think we all have it.

We gravitate to the controversial part in that verse, in silence with all submission. Okay, like Your eyes immediately almost skip the first, at least skim and maybe skip the first half of the verse and go right to, ugh, you can't say, in silence with all submission. As a result, we skim over the top of the first part, let a woman learn. Paul's expectation is that Women are, but believing women, are present, worshiping God, and learning in the meeting of the church. They're supposed to be present.

Women of God are supposed to be there when the church meets. They are to be actively worshiping God when the church meets. They're to be actively learning when the church meets. The admonition of the author of Hebrews to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, that's Hebrews 10 25, is to all of the Lord's people. It is to as many women, probably maybe more women, I don't know, I don't know, of all Christians what proportion is men and women.

Let's say roughly half, maybe more than half. I don't know. All of the Lord's people are given this admonition not to forsake the assembling of ourselves, the Lord's people, together. Women are to be present, worshiping, and learning as members of the Lord's blood-bought people. And what should they be learning?

This is crucial. What should they be learning? Everything! Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and on and on and on until you get to Revelation. Everything, Genesis through Revelation, the whole Council of God.

There are no secret handshakes here. Where the men ought to know the deep things of God, but the women don't really have a need for that thing. You might say, why should I know the deep things of God if I'm never going to teach it? Well, first of all, I haven't said you're never going to teach it. And second of all, the deep things of God are about God.

This is the revelation of God. We need it for our worship. We need it to know this God. We need it to worship this God. Theology is simply the study of God.

It is for the Lord's people. All of the Bible for all of the Lord's people. And who are these daughters of Zion, these women of God to be learning from? Not just any man who wants to blurt something out no matter how ignorant or ungodly he is? No.

We keep reading into chapter 3 and find that she would be learning predominantly from men whose character has been verified to be exemplary Christ-like to a certain standard, short of the standard of Christ, but Christ-like to a certain standard, and growing in Christ-likeness. And who is able to teach, who has some level of teaching gifts to teach the Word of God and to defend the Word of God against false teaching, to defend sound doctrine. Now Paul in verse 12 adds clarity to what he just said. Look at verse 12. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.

Of course, it's implied that in verse 11, if a woman is learning in silence with all submission that she's not teaching or having authority over a man, but Paul does not leave it implied. He makes it explicit. Paul comes at it from both sides of the coin. He is very clear. She is to learn in silence with all submission.

She is not to teach or to have authority over a man. They equal the same thing, but one is from the positive side. She is to learn, but in silence and all submission. The other is from the negative side. She's not to teach.

She's not to have authority over a man. Then, Paul grounds what he is teaching. So he sits it on a foundation. He sits it on a platform for his teaching. This is the foundation of what he is teaching, verses 13 and 14.

Look. Verse 13, for Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. First, Notice what is not Paul's foundation. Culture.

Paul is not building on culture. Paul was writing to Corinth fresh out of paganism. They had a dim view of women. Women were not empowered in this culture. Yes, what Paul wrote was appropriate to the women in Corinth, but it doesn't really carry over today because the foundation of this is cultural.

No, there's not a word of that. He does not tie it to culture. Intelligence. Paul is not saying, does not say, is not saying, there's not one word of this. Men are smart, women aren't smart, so men should be the teachers.

He doesn't teach that and that's not true. Gifting. The teaching gifts have been imparted to men, they're not imparted to women. So men should be teaching because they have the gifts, women shouldn't be teaching because they don't have the gifts. Paul, there's not a hint of that here.

That also isn't true. It is not grounded in ability or inability. If not those things, then what is Paul's foundation? Creation. Creation.

God's own design and intent expressed in creation. We're getting ready to go to Genesis and we're going to be learning. God is telling us what he wants and intends in the way he goes about creation. This is what is so important about Genesis, this book of beginnings. God is communicating His design and intent and expressing it in His creation.

God made us in His own image and God made us male and female. Genesis 1.27. Gender is God's idea. The distinctions are God's idea. Genesis 1.27, God made man in his own image, male and female he made them.

God made man to lead and woman to help. Genesis 2.18, which is why in Genesis 3 Eve eats the fruit first but Adam is called to account first. Now this is tremendously, tremendously important. So who eats first? It clears the bell.

Eve eats first. When God comes to call for an account, who does he call to give an account? Adam. So, there are things that you can't wiggle out of in that. Now Adam did eat the fruit, just not first, and Eve was called to account.

Just not first. Eve ate the fruit first. God called Adam to account for that. Because God made Adam to be the head of his home and for Eve to be his helper. So the problem in the garden was not that Eve was more prone to deception.

I have heard 1 Timothy 2 taught that it teaches that. Well, Eve being deceived, that means women are more prone to deception. That's not what 1st Timothy 2 is teaching at all. This is my view of this text. It is not teaching that.

It is teaching that Eve overthrew God's design and intent by usurping the leadership of her husband. Paul is arguing in 1st Timothy 2 that it's Genesis 3 all over again when a woman teaches or has authority over a man in Christ's church. That's what he's saying. Genesis 3, all over again. When a woman takes to the pulpit in the meeting of a local church is Genesis 3, all over again.

God has designed the woman to be in a helping role and she is taking the role of leadership when that happens in the teaching or exercise of authority in the meeting of the church. Now, I want to make a connection to a truth that is outside of this text. So I'm telling you right now, I'm leaving this text, but I want to establish this truth that's outside this text and then use it as a lens through which to look at this text. Here's my question. What is the ultimate expression of gender?

I think the answer clearly is the approximation of Jesus Christ and His church. It's not the only thing to be said from the Bible about gender, but anytime we're thinking about gender, I think we ought to always have this in view, because Jesus is the ultimate man. The biblical kind of masculinity is found in Jesus Christ. He's the ultimate man. That's really what masculinity was designed by God to look like is what you see in Jesus Christ he's the ultimate man and the ultimate husband and What what God designed women to be like ought to be found in a faithful church, an adoring church.

So there's more to be said, I know that, in Scripture about gender, but that is the ultimate expression of gender, is the ultimate man and his love for the ultimate bride, the ultimate woman which is to be the church that is purchased by his own blood. This is what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5, he starts talking about husbands, you should be like this, you should relate with your wife in this way. Wife, you should be like this, you should relate with your husband in this way. And then at the end he says this is a mystery I'm speaking about Christ in the church. What makes husbands husbands and what gives them their roles is this reflection of Jesus Christ in his church and the same for women.

What makes a woman a wife and gives her the roles in the marriage is not grounded in anything except for that we are the bride of Christ. A woman should reflect that in her marriage. Both of these are tremendously honorable positions and roles to have and hold, but they are distinct. Now, how does that apply when the people of God, some men, some women, meet together to worship our God. I believe when we meet together to worship God, we're also approximating something.

When we meet to worship our God and men teach and women listen reverently. It is not reverence for the man preaching. It's reverence for the head of the church for Jesus Christ. When you come ready to hear the Word of God, that's what you're doing. You didn't come here to hear me.

I happen to be the channel for the preaching on a text of Scripture, but you came here to hear a text of Scripture explained. Scripture explained. You came here to hear God speak. I hope you didn't come here to hear me speak. I know you did not.

We are approximating something That I am here as a representative of Jesus by the command of Jesus. Jesus actually commands for preaching to happen in churches and for it to be men who have been tested by the church and installed into that duty in the church, and then the rest of us listen reverently and we're approximating something. And we're approximating something. And it is this. It is for Jesus to speak and it is for us to reverently receive his words and to carry out whatever he says.

This is a picture of that. And when we refuse to approximate that by bringing a woman into the pulpit, however gifted or knowledgeable she may be, we are still approximating something. So I'm saying God's intended picture is that a qualified man stands representing Christ and then we listen reverently out of honor for Christ and the commands that He's given to His people, and that if we refuse to be a picture of that, we're still picturing something. What are we picturing then? We'll have our say no matter what Jesus thinks.

The bride will take that spot and Jesus can listen to us. That's the picture. Jesus, you listen to us. That's the picture. No one would ever be bold enough to say that.

Doesn't that make you, don't you revolt at the thought? Jesus, you quiet down and listen to us. But I'm saying that's what's happening when you do that. That. When women replace men in pulpits and replace men in positions of authority in a local church.

It is to be the picture of Colossians 1.18. Listen to what Paul says in Colossians 1.18. And he, Jesus Christ, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. Preeminence just means the place of highest honor. Okay, so we are, to tie this back to 1st Timothy 3, we are to conduct ourselves in the local church in the way that affords Jesus Christ the place of highest honor as the one who speaks to us and we reverently receive his word and we reverently conform ourselves to his word whatever he says he's the king if he says it we're happy to do it we are bought at a price.

What it is not, having exclusively men in the pulpit, What it is not is a declaration that men are without limitation and women are under comprehensive limitations. What do you find in James 3.1? I'll tell you. Listen to what you find in James 3.1. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers knowing that we teachers shall receive a stricter judgment.

In James 3.1 you find limitation. It's not men, all of you go teach, women, none of you can teach. That is not the teaching of the New Testament. Let not many of you become teachers. Not only are not all men teachers, not many men are to be teachers.

What do you find in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1? You find long lists of qualifications, rigorous qualifications for church leaders. That friends is limitations. You find churches that take those lists, which are essentially identical. There's so much overlap between them, 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, who take those seriously and won't allow a man into leadership unless the church says they meet this list, then you find limitation.

You find churches who wish they had more. You find churches that struggle to have plurality in the eldership. What do you find in 1st Peter 5? You find Peter as a fellow elder, as a fellow elder exhorting other elders to shepherd the flock in a diligent humble way under the chief shepherd. Okay, so you have this phrase, I think I talked about it last week, chief shepherd in 1st Peter chapter 5.

Who is the chief shepherd? It's the good shepherd, Jesus. So no man, no church leader is the chief shepherd in any church ever. Jesus is always the head of the church, is always the chief shepherd, and it's appropriate to speak of pastoral pastors in a local church or overseers in a local church with shepherding language because the New Testament does. Only never forget they're never the chief shepherd, they're always under shepherds, meaning that they have marching orders and they're not free to do what they want.

They are limited. They are subject to limitations just like everyone in Christ's kingdom. Jesus speaks. We follow Jesus. Turn to 1 Corinthians 14.

As if Paul could say it with any more clarity, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. We'll spin, I'll read 1 Corinthians 14 verses 34 and 35. I have a few comments on it and then we'll apply it and we're done. 1 Corinthians 14 verses 34 and 35. Let your women keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak but they are to be submissive as the law also says.

And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for women to speak in church. We have similar or identical words and phrases here. Keep silent, not permitted to speak. Be submissive. Paul actually provides the clarity that this extends to question asking.

Not mostly silent, unless you have a question, or not usually permitted to speak, but if you have a question then you can ask it. Paul actually puts a high value on the theological unity of the home here. You should read it through that lens. Paul is promoting theological unity in the home by saying to a wife, if you have a question, ask your husband at home. He preserves the headship of a husband in his home.

Every husband is the chief theologian of his home. And this should terrify every man in every church, that his wife might start asking him her hard questions. Jason, I thought that's what we were paying you for. Actually, no. It's not what you're paying me for.

To answer all the hard questions that your wife has. You are for, does that mean that I can never be asked a question by a woman in any context? That's not what that's teaching here. But it is sending wives to ask these questions of their husbands with the expectation that the husband can give a Bible answer to a hard question. Lazy husbands, beware.

Christ's church is not for the faint of heart. Let me conclude with some associated questions and issues. This is the juicy part. So if you've gone to sleep, you can wake up now and get to the juicy part. One, what about a woman who is a gifted teacher?

That's a good question. Are there women who have teaching gifts? Absolutely. If you haven't run into one, you're not been paying attention. I'm going to answer that question with the question.

What does that have to do with these texts? To move me, you have to change my understanding that my current understanding is not a right understanding of these texts. If every woman on planet earth has massive teaching gifts, but you can't change my understanding of these texts, I don't feel like I'm at liberty to change my view of these things. Yes, there are women with tremendous teaching gifts. What does that have to do with what Scripture says?

The question we have to answer as Christ's people is what does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? Whatever it says, if I'm handling it incorrectly, correct me. But short of that, women with teaching gifts, which I freely acknowledge, doesn't change what these texts say. And our job is to answer, what does the text say?

What does it really mean? Handling it carefully. Two. What about a woman who has a calling from God to teach the church? Can you find a woman who says, God has called me to this.

Who are you to restrain me from this? God has called me to be a teacher in the church. The answer is yes. You can find many who say that. I want us to consider 1 Samuel 13.

We'll not go there. I'll just explain what's happening there. The Philistines have come to go to war against Israel. At least Some from Israel have come out to fight them. And Saul is at their head as their king.

And they're going to sacrifice to God, to call on God to help them in the fight. Only Samuel's late. So they're waiting. And warriors are starting to desert. Fear is setting in and people who have gathered to fight the Philistines, some of them are starting to leave as time passes by.

Saul sees this and says, we can't wait anymore. I know God has restricted this office, this activity to the priests, but there's no time for that. Saul offers the sacrifice. Then Samuel comes. He says, what is happening?

What are you doing? Saul tells him, This is the situation. This is why I did what I did. The army gathered, but you're late. Warriors were starting to desert.

Our numbers are being depleted. Here's what we read in 1 Samuel 13 verse 12. Just make a note of this. 1st Samuel 13 verse 12. At this point in the story, Saul says this, Therefore I felt compelled.

I felt compelled. I had to. God said, the priest does it. Only the priest does it. But didn't you see?

We had stuff going on. I felt compelled. I'm sure he did feel compelled. God took the kingdom from him that day. He did what he thought was right.

He felt compelled to do it. I have to do it. I need to do it. And he did it. And God stripped the kingdom from him that day for that.

It's not enough to feel compelled. You have to be standing on the Word of God. The question for us is, Are we willing to plant our feet on the Word of God to say, when a woman says, God is calling me to be a teacher in the church, that either self-deception or you're lying. You have the guts for that? You have the stomach for that?

I can't see the middle ground. I can't see a pathway to the middle ground. Either I understand these texts correctly, I'm handling them properly, it means what they mean, what they seem to mean. And so A woman who says, I have a calling from God to be a teacher in the local church is either self-deceived or lying, or you should remove me from the pulpit. I don't understand what the Bible means.

I don't know how to carve out middle ground. I told you it would be juicy. Three, If you have a pre-commitment to wiggling out of it, then you'll find a way to wiggle out of it. That's how it works. You can find Bible scholars who can explain it away and tell you why the text doesn't mean what it seems to mean.

You can always find that. Always, on any issue you can find that. The question is, are they using sound principles of interpretation? If they are, then come and flip me. If you have a pre-commitment to wiggling out of it, if you decide the answer is going to be this and you go to the scripture to substantiate that conclusion, then that's what you'll do.

You'll find a way to explain away the text. But be warned. When you then want to hold the line on marriage or sexuality or gender, remember that you taught them ways to explain away what is clear in the text. You taught them the tricks. So all you wanted was just women to be able to preach.

But you opened the door and taught the tricks on how to explain away texts of Scripture. They don't really mean what they seem to mean. And then when you want to hold the line on marriage or sexuality or gender, you can't look them in the eye and say that's not how you handle the Bible. That's not how you handle scripture. You can't say that.

You taught them the tricks. Four, where are the lines? Because what I'm teaching is that women are not to teach in church or exercise authority in the church just because that's exactly what Paul says. But we know that women do teach in scripture in certain contexts, so where are the lines? Because it is clear that women can and do and should teach in certain contexts.

We have Aquila and Priscilla teaching one of the most influential, powerful teachers of the New Testament. Priscilla, a woman, is teaching one of the most influential, powerful teachers of the New Testament. And yes, there are some other things to be said. She was doing this with her husband, at the elbow of her husband. It wasn't in the meetings of the church.

Yes, but she is teaching. A man, a powerful Bible teacher. Titus 2, older women are to teach the younger women. We're homeschoolers for crying out loud. We believe women should teach and have entrusted some of the most important teaching that happens on planet earth to them.

Here's how our church draws the lines. We think 1 Corinthians 14, we just read it, 1 Timothy 2, we just read it, governs what we're doing now. It's the Lord's Day. All the churches gathered for the authoritative preaching of the Word of God. And so, you'll not hear, when you hear a distinct individual voice in any of our services Here on Sundays, it will be a male voice, a man's voice.

Do we recite together? And women are reciting? Yes, that is not an individual distinct voice. We don't think that's a violation at all. Do we sing together?

So women aren't perfectly silent, but their voices aren't being heard individually distinctly. So we draw the lines like that. On Wednesday nights, we come together to pray as a church. Men are encouraged to pray. Women are encouraged to pray.

Children are encouraged to pray. We think that's like Acts chapter 1, where they're waiting for the Spirit to come on the day of Pentecost. And it's clear to me, it's crystal clear in Acts chapter 1, that the men and women are all praying together on one accord. You would have heard women's voices in that prayer meeting if I understand Acts chapter 1 correctly. So we think our Wednesday night meeting is like that.

You have to draw the line somewhere, and so these are the texts we go to to draw out patterns and principles to draw those lines. Five, I'll end with this. Comes in the form of a question. Why are we demeaning the normal participatory worship of God that never requires me to be up front speaking? Why are we demeaning the normal participatory worship of God that never requires me to be up front speaking?

So let's say, okay, Jason, take your own medicine. You can never teach again. You know what? I can live with that. You know where I'll be next week?

That chair. And I won't think it's nothing. In some ways, I'll think it's everything. I get to come meet with the people of God to participate in the worship of God. I think in some ways to say it doesn't count unless I get to fill the pulpit at some point is so demeaning to what actually we're all doing on Sundays and it is not nothing, it's everything.

In some sense, who cares who preaches? Let's hear the voice of Jesus and let's worship Jesus. Not only is that nothing, it's everything. It's what we're supposed to be doing on Sundays. It's not a small thing to come and be among the people of God And worship God from the heart to join into that.

That's not nothing, that's everything. Never requires you to stand in the pulpit. Let's pray. God, you ought to be worshiped. You're so worthy of our worship.

I thank you. I pray for my sisters. These things are different for them to hear, harder for them to hear. I pray that you would give them a fearless trust in you and a conviction about what your word says. You would help them to understand these texts rightly and to love the things that you've appointed them to in this life.

In some ways they're so beautiful, in some ways I envy them. I pray that you would see the glory of the things that you have set before them in life in Jesus name, amen.