JAN 21 2018 | Genesis 1:26-28

Sea Change Church · "Genesis 1:26-28" · Adam Stadtmiller · January 21, 2018
Genesis 1:26-28
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Hi there, I'm Noelle. I'm one of the new elders and I also help out with the youth, hence the bruise I got a little carried away during a game of cops and robbers. Anyway, to some serious stuff. The scripture reading is out of the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26 through 28. Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. The word of the Lord.

Good morning, everybody. How are you going? Good. I went full senior pastor dress today. Did you notice that? But I went mega church mohawk, so... I don't know if I like him or not. He might be too conservative. No, he's too aggressive. Keep him on their toes. Good to see you all. We're in Adam's new series called Adam Tries to Offend Every Person in the Church.

We got one email last week. It was awesome. It was a really good email. It was really good. The title of today's sermon, and this was just to poke the tiger, it's called The Problem of Women. And it doesn't mean that women are a problem. It means they have some problems that they want fixed desperately. We see that in the world today, right? We see a lot going on in regard to women. What's Adam going to say?

We'll see what Adam's going to say. Let me read through this. Lord, I pray you would direct this message. And God, we just thank you for the freedom that you bring in Christ and the goodness. I just enjoy church a lot. God, I'm so thankful for this little corner. God, it's so fun. And we love you. And we just keep doing what you're doing, God. And I pray you would multiply it tenfold.

Lord, just the blessing and the anointing and the cloak of your anointing upon this church. In Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to read over this again, and then we will get into it. Actually, before I do that, I'm going to tell you about a conversation I had with Pastor Jim. About four years ago, when I was auditioning to be your head pastor with my mixtapes, and they were interviewing me, I saw something I agreed with but couldn't biblically really get behind, but I agreed with it.

And that was the role of women in leadership in the church. I had been discipled and brought up a certain way and said that Scripture says this a certain way. But it didn't really sit right with me. And the reason, and one of the things I'm very committed to is making sure I follow the Scripture, whether I like what the Scripture says or not, if that makes sense.

And so I'm walking with Jim. And Jim has made it a life's calling to pursue, if I may speak for you, to pursue the liberated role of women within the church. Is it my clue? Okay, good. Affirmative thumbs up there. So we went on a walk around the neighborhood, and we were praying and talking. And I said, you know, Jim, because I inherited this job where this was already in place, and the American Baptists were part of the suffragette movement to help free women.

They were one of the first denominations to have women in leadership. You will see women elders here. You will see women pastors in the American Baptists. They were also, Martin Luther King Jr. was part of the racial discrimination that the American Baptists fought to come against in the 1960s. It has been a very biblically conservative movement, but I would say a progressive, and I know those terms are more loaded today, and so let's remove what that means in our popular society, but they were progressing on the areas of releasing women and releasing people of color into the freedom that Christ brings.

That's what they have done. And so I've pretty much always agreed with that, but I couldn't find a place for it biblically. And so Jim and I were walking, and he was laying out his case, and I said, Jim, I just can't find it in Scripture. Can't find it in Scripture. So I've inherited this, so I'm not here to change it because I feel like God called me here, but I can't give you a biblical support for it.

So over the last three years, we have gone back and forth as we go to the broken yoke and have our breakfast and talk and do whatever. And I've begun to ask God, God, if my spirit tells me one thing, but I can't find it in Scripture, could you please bring some alignment between Scripture and where I feel like the Spirit of God is telling me?

Can Joe Brandy or somebody else close those doors in the back because it feels like the Shekinah glory is on my face with that silver car out there. Thank you, Pastor Joe Brandy. You are a true servant, Dilly Dilly. Thank you. True friend of the crown. Over the last three years, God has begun to give me a, I think, a very solid biblical context for where the Baptist got to long before I did.

And so one of the things I will say as I go into this is I don't see this as a salvific issue that you split the church on. I think that there are, it can be interpreted different ways. And I think you can find a home within a very solid, beautiful Christian fellowship that can back up what you feel about this. And it is not something like the atonement or the blood of Christ.

It is not something about the virgin, like the virgin birth of Mary. It is something that is close to the heart of God, but I would not put it, this discussion up there with the core tenets of the faith of what brings you salvation. You can disagree that women should have a more liberated role into marriage, church, society as a whole. You can still do, you can still love them, I believe, and get to heaven.

And I think you're not going to be diminished for that. It isn't like saying, I don't believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. So let me just say this is a context that I think there is room to let people decide and kind of categorize themselves where they want to be. I want to tell you where this denomination has been and where I've come to and what I think is some pretty strong biblical arguments for it.

And I'd love to have a larger conversation on this. So speaking out from the crowd is not allowed. Dilly dilly. But let me tell you where I've kind of landed. I believe that man, not mankind, man, me, has a role in liberating women, that men have a role to liberate women from the curse. I believe that there were some things that were foisted, not foisted, that were chosen by man and women at the fall of mankind.

And God brought a curse along with those things. That curse was put upon them. And we'll talk about what those tenets of that curse are in a moment. But I believe that, just so you know where we're going, spoiler alert, that didn't Jesus die to set us free from the curse? And so as I'm, you're going to get a lot of amens from Jim. I appreciate it.

He's over there with a big smile. I believe that Jesus set us free from the curse. And I think he set us free from all parts of the curse. So anything that a woman was cursed with that you see is actually a curse. And the Bible says it was a curse. When Jesus dies, I believe that it is our job to liberate them from the curse. It isn't like, well, you're free from guilt, sin, shame, hell, and even death.

But women, you still have this curse thing going on. So we will talk about that. And that might be a new thought or an idea for you. It has been for me, but it's somewhat well thought out, I think. And it's worth a good discussion. First of all, I would say with this, I'm going to read through it. Then God said, let us make mankind. That is anthropos.

That's the Greek word. This is in the Hebrew, obviously. But all of mankind in our image. So there is a duality of purpose there of the man and the woman both being made like God. So they are like God and in our likeness. It isn't like he made man in his likeness and then had an afterthought with women or vice versa. They are both created in the image of God so that they may.

Now this is key. Circle this. Because there is a commission here for men and women, pre-curse. That they may rule over, or the word is dominion. That they may rule over or have dominion over the fish in the sea, the birds of the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals. Over all the creatures that move along the ground. Now there is a calling there to both men and women to have co-dominion together.

That they both are in a rulership position. It's right there in the scripture. They are called, pre-cursed, to rule together. Both rulers, king and queen. Mutuality of leadership. That's what I see in scripture. If you think that I'm wrong, then you can talk to me afterwards. But that is what I see here in scripture. So God created mankind in his own image.

He restates that. In the image of God, he created man. No. He created them. Male and female, he created them. So we see this mix, this purpose of God being infused into man and woman. Then, here's a key thing. Circle that word blessed. God blessed them. So this way of doing things, this commission that he gave pre-curse, had a blessing upon it. It had a blessing that caused fruitfulness and it caused unity.

There was no enmity between the two. It is the way it was. The owner created the two sexes to work together. To work in a mutual partnership of co-dominion over creation. That's what I see happening in scripture here. Looked into the Hebrew as well. I'm not a Hebrew scholar. I wouldn't even say I'm a Greek scholar. But I'll get a better grade on the Greek test than I would the Hebrew test.

Actually, I'd get an F on the Hebrew test. But I looked into it. And then it goes on. It says, now God blesses them. So he gives them a blessing in regard to this commission. And now he said, be fruitful and increase in number. So part of this co-dominion is resulting of a production. A fruitful, the bringing of life. It's fruitful. That the way that God intended it, pre-curse, would bring the most fruitfulness.

And you'll see that in creation. And it says, be fruitful, increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Is he speaking to just man? No. Speaking to men and women. I'm reiterating that point. But it reiterates it over and over again in this passage. Rule over. So that is speaking to both of them. It's speaking to women as well. So women, you have a original calling, pre-curse, to rule with man, rule over creation.

I would suggest that we get back to women being more part of that co-dominion rulership. At least I see. Because that, I think, is one of the things Jesus died for on the cross. Rule over the fish and the sea and the air and the birds of the sky and over every living thing, creature that moves on the ground. So God repeats himself. One of the things you're going to see in scripture is when God repeats himself, it's because he's trying to get the point across.

God need not remind himself of what he's saying. But he is saying something for the sake that this matters. And I want to say it. So I would say, as you'll see in your notes, that man's role would be to help women continue to be liberated from the curse. Now, we know that the curse is still upon the world. We know that in Christ we are no longer under the curse, but the outworkings of the curse are still seen in society.

Part of the curse was God will greatly increase the pain of childbirth. So there was already pain. There was a pain, and I think that was meant to be, that there's a cost in childbirth and there's a pain that's here. He will greatly increase it. One of the things you're seeing with medical technology and things and throughout the years that the pain of childbirth is what?

It's decreasing. I would say that that probably is in alignment with Christ breaking the curse on those things and bringing those some back. Some ladies raised their hand. Not with me. I don't know what you're talking about. That hurt. The curse created a disunity between man and woman. But I would say in verse 26, like we said, then God said, let us make mankind our image so that they may rule over.

I already spoke about that. God created mankind that they might come together and partner and in unity, man and woman, ruling over creation. Now here's the question. How do we know that God intended man and woman to be co-equals? Well, I would say besides it showing this right here and saying that they were called to a co-purpose, that they were called to the same purpose together, that it also shows this unity was to be lived out in the flesh.

It was not only to be a metaphor or a way of doing things. It was actually meant to be, there was such a unity, such a centrality of purpose where the couple together would be so together and unified. There would be no disunity that they would become one flesh. So there is just a thing where God said, I'm going to put an exclamation point on the unity that I want to happen in male, female, especially marriage relationships, so that they will actually become one.

There will be no difference. Now there is a difference, obviously, because they're individuals in the sight of the Lord. But that in regard to this one flesh language, is that God sees them as completely unified. This is one of the reasons God hates divorce. We'll talk about divorce next week. And by the way, I was going to speak on divorce this week.

Had to switch it because this is a central building block on marriage and divorce that we had to get to first. It also was a great weekend to do it with the Sanctity of Life March this weekend. You had a Women's March this weekend. You had a whole bunch of, it's in the news, so it's not a bad time. So question, it creates this greater unity. So, if you go to the next part in your notes, you're going to see that what mankind did was they discarded this blessing I talked about.

The blessing of not fighting amongst each other. The blessing of not being able to come to a unified decision. The blessing that comes with one person not ruling over another person. They discarded this blessing for a curse. This is what you see happen in scripture. You see this discarded. And woman, because of her part, and man and woman both had a part in this, because of her part according to scripture, the scripture says that all of a sudden you lose, because of the curse, pre-Christ, dying on the cross, you lose the ability to be in co-partnership.

You lose your ability to rule. And not only that, not only will you lose your ability, the scripture says, don't hate on me, the scripture says that man will rule over you. Now, this is something that we have seen played out throughout human history, even in cultures that are disconnected. And while we have some matriarchal communities, perhaps in some small enclaves of the world, and there are a few, the majority of human history, whether it be China, Japan, disconnected pygmy communities in Africa, aboriginal communities in Australia or colonial England, we have seen man rule over woman.

And these are disconnected, that we're not connected by ships, the internet. You see this happening all over the globe. The question is, why is that happening? I believe it happens because God created a curse, and he cursed woman, and as he cursed man, we were all cursed. The primary curse was death, by the way. So these are like some bad curses.

But the fact that we're going to die and go to hell, that's like a way bigger one, by the way. So, FYI. And so, we see this curse, and this is one of the reasons that, and I'm going to break this down some more, but I think that you see male patriarchal dominance in the world. Now, I fully believe that it was within, a lot of people have said, well, you know, why didn't Adam step up?

He was the leader. He should have stepped up. And he abdicated his responsibility as a man before, no. He wasn't called to be in charge. He was called to be in co-dominion. She had an equal right to talk to the serpent, and to shut him down and say, no, this isn't how we do things. And he was standing there right beside her. And I have heard it argued that man should have stepped up.

Well, maybe he should have as an equal partner, but it wasn't man's place to do the negotiation with the female. It wasn't man's place to jump in the way of that negotiation, but he should have not agreed to it. So a woman was in her rightful place to have that discussion, but because of, according to Scripture, female failure in that situation, and according to Scripture, it was an absolute failure, that there was a curse that caused them to be in subjection.

And I believe that we have seen that throughout society, but I believe we are continuing to see that curse be broken. And so as we move on, God blessed them for this task. Let's look at the blessing first I talked about. Verse 28. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and increase in numbers. And so part of the blessing is the fruitfulness. Marriage, in its best place, best stance, in its best position, is not only fruitful with children.

I mean, maybe that's part of it. Well, it is, obviously, because the Scripture says. But it's just fruitful. Life comes from it. Relationships come from it. Blessing comes from it. It's alive. Somebody said to me today in the foyer, the church is so alive. That is a blessing. You will know the tree, the root, by its what? Know the root, by the fruit.

And so something that is healthy and alive will be fruitful and productive. And I would say if you are married, the key that if your marriage is operating pre-curse, post-cross, that it is going to be fruitful in more ways than just biologically. It is going to be fruitful in so many ways. And that was part of the blessing. Be fruitful. Increase the number.

Fill and do what? Subdue the earth. So women had a part of that. Rule over. And there's this call to women and to men to have rulership together over. Mankind's disobedience, the note says, ushered in the curse. To woman, he said, I will make your pains in childbearing very severe. Interesting that there was pain in childbearing before the fall of mankind.

That God sees that pain is not always a bad thing. We try to run from pain. That's why we go to our pills and our booze and these different things. We run from them. But pain actually has a maturing effect that leads to perseverance, the scripture says. Proven character. Proven character leads to the destination of pain. And the scripture is where?

Hope. Bing, bing, bing. Good answer. To hope. And so God knew that there was something spiritually, qualitatively creative in pain that it would bring us and it would forge in us an understanding of who he was. So it ushered in the curse. Now, here it says, as we move on to the disobedient ushering, here's the curse. And this is a curse, I believe, that was put upon women.

And I asked you why I thought, I asked women, I had one woman contact me, I had one email. I'm not asking for a thousand emails, by the way. But I had one and I asked, in a culture where we have a Me Too movement, where people are obviously being abused against their will, why is it that one of the best fictional sellers to women is a misogynistic, abusive novel about a woman who signs a submission contract with a man so he can beat the crud out of her in some sexual fantasy?

I just, I'm not trying to be trite. I'm not trying to offend anybody. I just don't understand how those two relate. Ask a lot of people. And by the way, I want you to know, I don't just get together with all my man friends and ask and figure this talk out. I talked to Chris Harrell this week. I talked to Drea. I talked to my wife. I talked to my 15-year-old daughter.

I talked to other people in the congregation, somebody who emailed me. We talked a little bit. I want you to know, I'm looking to women to learn and to hear. And there's a lot of great thoughts on that. So I just want you to know, I don't get my little mansplaining camp together. I hate that word anyways. But I do want to look at scripture. And I literally, look, I believe this is what scripture says.

And the answer to that question of why women are so fascinated by that novel, I think, goes back to the curse. I think the curse, God put something in a woman, in their, I wouldn't say it's DNA, but something, I don't know, spiritual, whatever, where they desire to be ruled over by men. Whoa, watch out. Hashtag, Adam's a hater. I wouldn't have done it that way.

Let me show you the scripture. I'm just going to show you the scripture and present to you. My job is to print the scripture, whether I like it or not, or whether you like it or not. FYI. So here we see mankind ushers in this. To the woman, he said, I will do. I'll make your childbearing a little bit more painful. So all of a sudden, her ability to produce life got suffocated.

The enemy loves that. And he says, your desire, now this is NIV, your desire will be for your husband. I mean, you will have this desire to have a dude in your life. You will have a desire to have a man. You will have this desire that will just, you'll see it all throughout culture. This desire to be married. This desire to have a boyfriend. To find your worth.

To find your validation. That's what I think this is saying. And I'm going to give you some other scriptures and thoughts of why that is. That God will put that in you. And man will take advantage of it. And man will dominate and rule you. Now, man is not supposed to dominate and rule. Okay? A woman can have a desire for a man. And the man can steward that with love and generosity and kindness.

And call a woman back into the fullness of who God has created her to be. But this has not been what mankind has done. Because we know that people love power. And women have been oppressed. And I believe if you look at, look, women have been oppressed all over the world in multiple cultures. If you're a sociologist and anthropologist, you're going to see that.

I believe that it goes to this curse. I'm a, I try to be a biblical purist. And I believe that you see those two things. So part of the curse is no longer will you want to be your own entity. You will find your worth in a man. Look, the eye test and the high school tests and the college tests that I took showed me that that's true in a lot of places.

Not for everybody. But I have seen so many women not find their worth unless they're validated by a man. Now, you can tell me I'm a hater. The eye test tells me I'm 48 years old. I have seen that. I'm not saying it's right, but I see that over and over. And I see a greater desire for women to be validated by a man than I see men desiring to be validated by a woman.

And I think it's one of the biggest wrongdoings and curses upon society. It's better when we do not need anybody but Christ to find our self-worth and awarenesses. And we come together as co-equals and take dominion and bring blessing and life together. That's the marriage I want. That's the woman I want. And I believe that that's the woman that I have maybe not found, but she has become.

And so we see that this in society. Now, that might be uncomfortable, but that is what it says. The curse instilled in women desire to be ruled over. The word here in the Hebrew is teshuka. I'm not pronouncing it probably right, but teshuka. That means that you will have a desire. This word desire. It says a desire. That means a desire, a longing, a stretching out after a wanting.

A wanting. And the last definition, if you were to look this up in the Hebrew lexicon, you would find that it means the desire is the same that a wild beast has. I'm not calling women beast. This is the definition. It's the same desire that a hungry, wild beast has to kill its prey that it might be satisfied. That is the strength of the language here.

Now, this idea of a woman would have a desire for a man was challenged in the 1970s as feminism came forward. And there was a woman, a theologian, named Susan Foe who came and presented that this final definition, and usually the final definition has the least strength to it, that this idea of wanting to devour actually isn't a desire to be ruled over her husband.

She's saying it's a desire to rule over her husband and to consume him. And maybe you've heard that before, that this scripture has been translated to say, your desire will not be for your husband. It'll be contrary to your husband. And so she would say that the curse didn't put a desire in woman, everything that I just said. She would say, Susan Foe, 1974, in her paper on the role of women, you can look it up and read it, in church and the curse, says that woman wants to control and be over her husband.

Now, this translation and this understanding did not come from what I can see until about the mid-1970s, and a lot of it was from her paper, and it was picked up by three biblical translations that I know of. One is the New Living Translation. It's a fun translation to read, not one I would put a lot of, you know, it's good. It's fun to kind of give some ideas.

But it also is the ESV. Now, I love the ESV, and I think it's an incredible translation. But you would see that they picked it up as well. And then also the New English, I think, Living Translation. But they were picked up by two translations that were from England, bloody English, right? So they picked this up. But only three texts that I have seen have, so probably about less than, you know, 2%, 3% of the biblical translations that are out there have picked up this understanding.

What is so interesting is that a lot of Christian movements have picked this up to show that, hey, women want to overcome a man, and a man really needs to rule over his wife. And so some of the most fundamental, dogmatic Christian organizations have adopted this to show that man should be, and I believe this, but man should be more of a domineering head of the household, okay?

What is so interesting is that if they were to trace that back to where that ID came from, that teaching came from a woman. And the majority of those people feel that you shouldn't allow a woman to teach. So I thought that was a little bit of irony in that. If you want to look up Susan Foe, F-O-H, you can read into this. So this is a disagreement in this meaning, but I would say that the vast majority of biblical translation, King James Version, NIV, 1984, which I like the NIV, 1984, different translations.

If you go look through this on BibleHub, you're going to see that the vast majority have translated this, that women have a desire to be basically validated by their husbands is what it says. Now, you can totally disagree with that. I'm just telling you what the scripture says. Don't kill the messenger. It's quiet in here today. Disagreement. Should we have a break?

Another five-minute break? All right. I already talked about the eye test. You know, one of the things as we move on, we're going to go to the next page here, and I'm going to keep moving. And the curse hindered production, we see that. Now, the question that I asked earlier, and this is the thing that really stuck out to me, is I spoke with Jim, and I saw that the curse brought these things upon women that were not supposed to be.

I just kept asking myself the question, did Jesus' finished work on the cross destroy the curse or not? I mean, it's a question I can't get around. It's like a massive rock in the road. When I was in sixth grade, I came home during the 1983 rainstorms, and a giant rock had come down over our little country dirt. Well, it wasn't a dirt road, but our country road up on Mount Helix.

It was a smaller area then. And I couldn't get around the big rock that was there. And I have found that when it comes to the role of women in the church and being freed and more liberated to go back to the original calling upon their lives, this idea of Christ's finished work on the cross, destroying the entire curse, has been a massive rock for me.

And in the end, I think I just have to say, if he can destroy death, then I think there is a role. Now, we're going to get to Pauline text here in a second. So I know, what about Paul? What about Paul? I'll get there. But I just believe that Christ died to bring us back into a fruitful production of unity together as men and women. I just think. I think it works best that way.

Thank you, Dave. Appreciate it. Dave, my applause over there. I don't know if he offended me yet. I think he did. Here we go. Galatians 3.13. It says in the scripture there that women were cursed. Man was cursed as well. And production of food and the land does not battle us like it used to. It's slowly getting worked out. But Jesus died to break the curse.

And it says this was a curse. So I guess I would ask anyone who wants to disagree. My question is, why did Christ's salvific work on the cross not break that element of the curse? That would be my question. Take a week to think about it and come back to me. All right. What about that pesky Pauline literature? Well, what about it? It's a little pesky, isn't it, Paul?

Women in church and society. First, Timothy. A woman. Now, there are a few scriptures that I don't allow at weddings anymore. This is one of them. And 1 Corinthians 13. I just, every non-Christian who comes to a wedding has to have 1 Corinthians 13 memorized by now. So I want to ask you to raise your hand if you use it in your wedding. And God bless you if you did.

But in my weddings, and I do because it's my wedding, right? What will I wear? I don't allow it anymore. A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. Interesting. Now, this is interesting. I, interesting. I do not permit a woman to teach or to what? Assume authority. So to assume authority. Now, I'm going to argue later that a man can invite woman.

If man is leader, which I believe that God has called him into initiative relationship, to be an initiator into the relationship. And I do believe that man is called to have a headship role. I do believe that in all this. But I believe in that headship role, man has the ability to call women back into a co-dominion position. If in that leadership, as an egalitarian style of leadership.

It says, not to assume authority over a man. She must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, and then Eve. And Adam was not one who was deceived. It was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith. Now, what does that mean? Women will be saved through childbearing. By the way, who birthed Jesus the Messiah?

It wasn't a man, right? That scripture does not mean if you have babies, you're going to heaven. Okay? FYI. It means, ironically, that even though women will have a harder time producing life, the life that they do produce will be the salvation of the world. And the salvation of the world, women will break the curse themselves in a way by birthing Jesus Christ, the Savior of the universe.

It is an amazing, beautiful picture of God allowing us to be a part of the redemptive salvation of our own curses that we allowed to be put upon ourselves. And so, in regard to that, it says, If they continue faith, love, holiness, and propriety. Well, that's true for men as well. I believe that this, like other scriptures, where Paul says, I do not permit, he is very specific over and over again with saying, This is something I think is right.

This is something I will do. This is something for me. So, I believe when he puts this in here, he is saying, This is something I would do, but I would not call this something that Christ has told me specifically. I think when he says that, I think there's enough scriptural validity to show that this, perhaps, is one of Paul's opinions, but he has some pretty good opinions.

And he goes on to show another example of this in 1 Corinthians 7.25. Now, about virgins. I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment here as one of the Lord, who, by the Lord's mercy, is trustworthy. So, here Paul is even saying, God didn't command me to say this. This is just something that I think is going to work, that works for unity, that works within our culture.

This is an argument. Now, this argument is well known in society. It's just one that I agree with. The reason I think that Paul is such a radical in regard to the liberation of women is found, actually, in a scripture that a lot of people misuse. It's in Ephesians. It's in your notes. 5, 21 through 24. 4, when talking about marriage, Paul says something that is so radical to the Jewish mind of the day.

Okay? Before he gets into the thing of the headship and women submitting and this whole thing, he starts the entire premise by saying this incredibly radical statement. Submit to one another. Out of reverence for whom? He is saying at the beginning of this, men submit to your wives, women submit to your husbands. Why? Pre-curse. Because before the curse came, the leadership role that they had worked in submission.

I've got to tell you, a leadership role, if you were the head of a company, and, you know, it becomes an authoritarian dictatorship if you never submit to the opinions of those that work for you. I'm not saying women work for men. But so oftentimes, and I really, I mean, with our staff, our staff will come to me, and they will say, I disagree with you.

Our elders will come. And look, I am the central kind of head of the church, although in a congregational church, no one's in charge. I don't know if you know that. No one's in charge here. No one has authority to, I can hire my staff. That's the only real power I have. But we all have to vote together. So no one's actually in charge in a congregational church.

But in regard to leadership, I have found the best way to lead is to submit to the opinions, when they're right, of those who would be considered subordinates to me. Now, I would say the same thing. If man is called, which I believe they are, to an initiative relationship, as a head of a relationship, and the Bible doesn't say this, but I believe that women are the heart of a relationship, and I think it's equally important, by the way, FYI, in a body, that it is the, it behooves man to submit to his wife's opinions, especially when they're better than his, which I find out, oftentimes my wives are.

There's a scripture in Proverbs 31 that says this. It says, the husband of the godly wife has what? Noble, of noble character, has, has, has full confidence in her. I gotta tell you what, I have full confidence in my wife. I do. I don't remember the last time I said no, and in 20 years of marriage, I have never once pulled, I'm the head ship, I'm gonna make this decision, whether you want me to or not, because God put me in charge.

Never once. I think our marriage is working out pretty good. I think we're doing okay. I think, you know, the fruit by the, the root by the fruit. I have never once had to do that. And I have conducted my marriage over and over again, understanding that she has a lot of game to bring to the table. And if I passed away, I fully trust that she could run our household in a, in a godly way and perhaps make better decisions than myself.

I also choose as, because the Bible says I am head of the house. I choose to submit to my wife, like Paul says, on a regular basis, because I found that it just brings unity and peace. And so what I will say is in the calling that Paul has to, for men to be ahead of a relationship. And as Corinthians says, there's really no difference in the body, in the different body parts.

They're all pretty much equal because the foot doesn't say to the hand and that, you know, you're better than me. They all work together. Why? Because there is one head. And by the way, Christ is in submission as well. Do we know that? Who is he? Does it say he's in submission to the father? God, I don't, and he doesn't complain about it and he doesn't Lord.

And the father doesn't Lord it over him. There is a mutuality of submission to one another. And so we see that inscription. Now, once again, you can prove me wrong and I would love to have a conversation. We're coming in for a landing on this. I say when both partners are in step with God's will and desire, there will never need to be a reason for non-mutual submission.

When both partners are following God, there never needs to be a trump card to throw down on the table that says, yeah, but I'm the head. I believe I, I, in 20 years, I've, I personally have never had to do it. It doesn't mean that there won't become the situation where, where it could happen, but I personally have it. Moving on. As we see, it says, submit to one another a reverence for Christ.

First Corinthians 11, three, but I want you to realize that the head of every man is what? Christ. And the head of every woman is man. And the head of Christ is what? God. There, God, Christ doesn't have an issue with either being the head of man. And I've never found that Christ has forced me to do anything. Have you? Have you ever found that Christ forces you to do things?

Me either. He's a pretty gentle headship. I have never experienced Christ saying, you're going to do it my way. Now you can do it your way and suffer the consequences, but I'm going to force you to do it my way because I am the head of you, dude. He's never done it to me. Never that I know of. He put me in some sticky, allowed me to be in some sticky situations for sure.

And I never see in scripture where he complains with God about it. Why? Because the whole point is to be in unity together. And with my wife and I, and not look, it's just a marriage and we're not, you know, we're not the greatest example in the world, obviously, but I have found that we, we don't move until we have unity. I did. I've, I've paid the price too many times for her saying, well, I disagree, you know, I might disagree, but I'm more than willing.

And I'll be like, well, you know, she says, I'm willing to, to, to do it. And I will say, okay, I've just paid the price way too many times for that. And now I just wait. I gotta say, by the way, patience guys. Try that one. Awesome. Works really, really well. Patience and prayer. So here's the deal. Final, here's where we're coming in for a landing. And I, I do believe for anyone who's going to challenge me on this, I do believe that men are called to a headship position.

I just don't think headship means domineering. I think headship means initiative leadership role. And I believe that there was a crisis of masculinity and men do not initiate enough. They do not initiate prayer. They do not initiate intimacy in regard to feelings, in regard to emotion. They do not. They just don't initiate enough. And so I do believe that we do have a headship calling upon our life.

And we have the ability to choose how we want to use that headship calling. You can use it to be a dictator, or you can use it for egalitarian leadership. And I want to have egalitarian leadership because I believe it's the most fruitful. And we're seeing it fruitful in this church. You know, the root by the fruit. Final statement, understanding the calling of men's of terms of Christ, Christ curse breaking work on the cross.

Man's call is to replicate Christ. We know that for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church and his body for which he is what? The savior. I've heard it, you know, like, man, we're, Hey ladies, we are your savior. Check it out. You know, check this out. I don't think that's what it means. I think it means dying so that you can be set free.

I think that's what Jesus did. And so it means that we are constantly dying. We are constantly crucifying ourselves so that you might be free, so that you might become all that you can be. What I want more than anything for my wife is that she becomes the exact representation of Christ on earth, that she can be in all of her talents and all of her giftings.

And I've gotten to the point where I'd pretty much give everything up. My own calling, my own purpose, my own desire, and my own dreams. I would, I would give away every desire and dream I have other than life with my children and the core ones so that my wife can succeed in hers. It wouldn't even, it wouldn't even take me 10, it wouldn't even take me a second.

I'm already there to say I would give it all up to see her fully satisfied in her calling upon her life and who God has called her to be. And I think that's how Christ feels about you. Matter of fact, he felt that way so much about you that he gave up equality with God, equality with God as something to be grasped, that he might die on a cross so that you might be set free.

And I got to say, that's what I think Jesus did for me. And that's what I want to do for my wife. I want to set her free. I want to set her free to run and play and enjoy. I want to see women get set free. And I still want to see a man take an initiative role and being an initiator and a headship role in releasing women. If I am going to have a headship role in my life, then I choose as God making me the head to release my wife and to release women as best I can into a role that is salvific and life giving.

Now we're going to have 99% women at church next week. Men, it was great knowing you. They tend to be the ones that tithe anyway. So preach, preach to the right crowd, buddy. Last, last thing. And then we're done. We've gone long, but these are key. It's not true. Men are very faithful. Men are very faithful. No hate. We see equality. The crisis initiator, savior from what?

The curse. Can it not be argued that man's role in society as well as marriages to restore women to their precursor position? As co-rulers living in dominion over the created order. If we insist then, my final question, you can write these down and we can talk about it later. If we insist on man being the leader, which you can do, which I do, can he not as a leader choose a form of egalitarian governance?

As the leader, can you not choose the form of leadership, which you choose, which, which will release your relationship and life and the creation back into a dominion where God is having the most fruit and production? And that's what I see in the scripture. You can definitely come back and ask me some questions. It is a difficult conversation, but one I think is liberating.

Amen. Let's stand. With this, I do want to, maybe I'll speak on men next year, but the amount of men that act like children in the world is ridiculous. And I want to, to give a call because we have some, look, ladies, by the way, we have, we have some phenomenal men in this church. I mean, there's a culture of very strong, healthy, loving, kind, prayer filled men in this church and quality.

Yeah, right on. Thank you. I hope you see it. Um, I mean, I could probably, I just, off the top of my head, I probably named 40 right away. I mean, the faces I see here. Um, and I want as men, I want us to continue to lead, uh, in a way that is compassionate and strong and steps up in, in prayer and initiates and to show the world that a man can be strong and that a man can be prayer filled and take initiative.

So I want to continue to see men just step up here. And if, look, if you've added the abdicated men, your, uh, position of initiative authority in regard to prayer and these different things, step back up. There's never too late a time. Find another man in this church. There's a ton of them here. You look at the Dave Petersons of the world, you know, other people that have been here, Bob Ogren, some of the originals that were here.

Find a man that you, that you really respect and say, bro, teach me how to do it. Teach me how to love my wife like that. Teach me how to be a dad like that. Teach me how to love the word of God like that. So man, this is a step up, uh, to that. We are not abdicating responsibility here at this church for men. And I'm, I'm very strong in what we want to see and work with Adam Boji and the other guys.

So guys, hopefully you'll join me.