Authority, Interpretation, and Order: A Review of ‘Let Her Speak!’

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Good morning.
[00:00:53] So as I told the first service this morning, believe it or not, I have not spoken in five days.
[00:01:02] I had laryngitis all week and so they were gonna get somebody else to speak for me and I was like absolutely not because that's not how I play the devil tries to hit me I'm gonna hit right back so I sound a little like Demi Moore today or a prank phone caller one or the other and uh but I'm I'm not
[00:01:25] Not Speaking, this message.
[00:01:27] And you'll know why when I give you the title of it, why I feel like the devil tried to hit me pretty hard today.
[00:01:35] But I will say this, I was like, it's either the devil or my husband's prayers being answered, I'm not sure.
[00:01:43] Five days of my wife not speaking.
[00:01:46] I'm not sure.
[00:01:47] But I got through the first service and I was so excited.
[00:01:50] Are you my friends from Florida?
[00:01:52] All right, stand up, my Florida friends.
[00:01:56] All right, you guys give them.
[00:01:57] So they are super hard workers.
[00:02:03] They are here all summer long and they sell home security systems, right?
[00:02:08] Yeah, so if you need a home security system, come and find them after church and they will hook you up, right?
[00:02:16] Okay, perfect, thank you guys.
[00:02:20] I told them last week, is there like 40 in your crew?
[00:02:24] Yes, see, I told you Pastor Adam, where is he?
[00:02:28] He didn't believe me.
[00:02:29] I told him there was 40.
[00:02:30] Did y'all see his head shake, yes?
[00:02:33] There was like 40, right?
[00:02:35] See, do y'all see that?
[00:02:37] Do I have witnesses?
[00:02:39] Okay, good, good.
[00:02:41] Pastor Adam didn't believe me.
[00:02:43] But anyway, all summer long, we are in a series called The Hot Seat.
[00:02:49] And it's all the questions that most churches don't wanna touch with a 10-foot pole.
[00:02:55] You know, all the ones that are controversial, all the ones that people might have to do a little deeper explanation on.
[00:03:03] We're gonna be talking about things like the marriage bed and what the Bible has to say about it.
[00:03:08] Can some of the men say amen?
[00:03:09] Oh you guys, we're trying to help y'all out and y'all acting all, come on.
[00:03:16] You know, we're a non-denominational Bible believer.
[00:03:19] We are not, we are not like Presbyterian in here, come on.
[00:03:23] So we're talking on the marriage bed.
[00:03:27] There we go.
[00:03:28] We're gonna talk about things like heaven and hell, angels and demons,
[00:03:35] You know, and if God is a good God, why is there even a hell in the first place?
[00:03:41] If he's good, why do bad things happen to good people?
[00:03:46] You know, what is this whole speaking in tongues thing?
[00:03:49] Is that for today or has that passed away?
[00:03:52] Does God still heal?
[00:03:54] All of those types, and there's a whole bunch more.
[00:03:57] That's just a few that I'm throwing out there to you.
[00:04:01] But actually, you know what?
[00:04:04] I've gotta say hey to all of our people from around the world.
[00:04:07] Kenya, hey, so good to have you.
[00:04:10] Georgia, South Carolina, New York, Connecticut, Arizona, Maryland.
[00:04:15] Man, you guys give it up for them.
[00:04:19] we we can't forget you and if you're just tuning in I am just getting over laryngitis and I was not about to sit this one out because I felt like it was a ploy of the enemy and I don't take too kind to those so thus here I am and I got through one service and I plan on getting through another one right even if I have to do some sign language I actually do know
[00:04:48] Actually, you know, I've been texting my husband sitting right beside of me.
[00:04:53] I thought he would actually enjoy this.
[00:04:55] He's actually annoyed.
[00:04:59] Whatever.
[00:05:01] All right, so in order for me to explain to you the course of where we're gonna be going this summer and where I'm going today, I want to first explain to you what apologetics is.
[00:05:11] Apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith.
[00:05:15] And there are many people that are in this room that know what you believe, but you might not know why you believe it.
[00:05:24] So this summer, what we're gonna do is we're not just gonna break down the what, we're going to go into the deep why.
[00:05:34] Why you believe the way you believe.
[00:05:37] What the Bible has to say specifically about each topic.
[00:05:42] And we're gonna go deep.
[00:05:44] So Christians need to know the why, not just the what.
[00:05:50] and Apologetics is all about things like deducing reason.
[00:05:54] It's evidence-based, whether it's scientific or whether it's historical.
[00:05:59] It brings up philosophical arguments and objections.
[00:06:04] And so when we are looking at the Bible, there are several tools and practices that I wanna give to you today.
[00:06:11] You might wanna write these down.
[00:06:14] but they're wonderful and incredible for us to have and to know when we are looking at scripture so we can understand deeper meaning because sometimes we just read through things and we don't know what does the Bible really mean here?
[00:06:30] What is really at the center of this?
[00:06:33] What is really going on here?
[00:06:35] And so an exegesis is a critical explanation or an interpretation
[00:06:44] of a biblical text.
[00:06:46] In essence, it means the text, you can draw meaning from the text itself.
[00:06:53] And you can do word studies, like the use of lexicons, which you will see today in the message I've prepared, you will see that.
[00:07:03] Syntax, which has to do with the arrangement of the words and why they are in a particular order.
[00:07:09] Because in the Bible, order matters big time.
[00:07:14] It matters big time.
[00:07:16] The grammar and the punctuation, cross-referencing this scripture with that scripture and what do they mean, and then doing a contextual analysis.
[00:07:26] So it's gonna be, instead of preach your penny, you're gonna get more Bible school.
[00:07:31] Teacher.
[00:07:33] Also, we're gonna look at sociocultural backgrounds.
[00:07:37] We're gonna look and examine the customs, the gender roles, the social structures, and the politics of the time.
[00:07:45] We're gonna look at some biblical theology, in essence, tracing
[00:07:50] Congruent themes throughout the Bible, whether it's New Testament or Old Testament, looking for those threads that combine things together, the New Testament and Old Testament holistically.
[00:08:04] And then we're gonna talk about hermeneutics.
[00:08:08] and that is basically the art and science of biblical interpretation.
[00:08:14] Hermeneutics helps us read carefully and faithfully, not just literally.
[00:08:23] Let me give you an example.
[00:08:25] Jesus in one scripture says that if your eye causes you to sin, to pluck it out.
[00:08:33] Was Jesus being literal?
[00:08:35] Jesus is using what's called hyperbole, right?
[00:08:39] He's making a generalization.
[00:08:41] Hey, anything that causes you to stray from me, get rid of it.
[00:08:47] He's not saying literally pluck your eyeball out, right?
[00:08:51] So you have to understand the author's intent when you're looking at things.
[00:08:56] Understand also the original language that it was written in because there are differences in languages and why things are said or done the way that they are.
[00:09:07] So is this in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic?
[00:09:11] What is the relevance to the audience?
[00:09:14] So why is this being said to this particular audience?
[00:09:18] What is the literary genre?
[00:09:20] In essence, is this poetry that we're reading right now in the Bible?
[00:09:23] Is this narrative?
[00:09:27] Is this a law?
[00:09:29] What is it that we are looking at right now?
[00:09:32] and then we're gonna basically take Old Testament and New Testament together and find out what is the common thread in this and the historical and cultural context because it matters what is happening in the day.
[00:09:49] It matters what is going on so we can help interpret.
[00:09:52] So knowing that, today we're gonna look at two quote unquote problem scriptures.
[00:10:00] They are scriptures that people have used in the past to try and say the Bible says this.
[00:10:10] Now, I'm ready to tell you what I'm gonna talk about today because I thought it was so apropos based on what happened to me this week with my voice.
[00:10:21] But the thing that we're gonna talk about today, the title of this message is called Let the Women Speak.
[00:10:29] And I think what's interesting is there is a long-standing misinterpretation of Paul's words in the New Testament and his stance regarding women.
[00:10:42] But when we look at Scripture faithfully through careful hermeneutics, understanding syntax, and comparing Scripture with Scripture, we find that not only did God allow women to speak, He called them to.
[00:11:00] Now this is very passionate for me and kind of kicked up in me again.
[00:11:05] Listen, I did not grow up in an environment where I was told that half of the population had no voice.
[00:11:13] I thank God that as many things were wrong in my childhood and things I needed to heal from, that was not one of them.
[00:11:21] I never thought that as a woman I didn't have a voice.
[00:11:25] whether it was in corporate America or whether it was in the church world.
[00:11:29] That was never something that I grew up under.
[00:11:33] But what I see is I see different little groups of people, denominations that wanna fight with other Christians and say that women should sit down, they shouldn't lead and that women have no place of authority in the church and they take certain scriptures and they try to back it up.
[00:11:55] So what I'm gonna do is I'm literally gonna go scripture by scripture and we're gonna debunk this, not based on opinions, but based on the word of God.
[00:12:05] So the problem we're assessing today is women cannot speak or teach in the church, nor should they lead men.
[00:12:15] So that's our context here.
[00:12:18] And the thing that really piqued this for me is that Pastor Troy addressed this on his social media and you saw all sorts of people chiming in.
[00:12:27] There was like 700 comments on it.
[00:12:31] It was like calling him a clown, calling him a false prophet, saying you're going to hell.
[00:12:38] Like literally both of us were told we were going to hell.
[00:12:41] And he's like, oh, my wife preaching the gospel and getting people saved is sending people to hell.
[00:12:46] Good to know buddy, good to know.
[00:12:49] So we're like looking through all of these comments and there's two scriptures that people love to post over and over and I'm just chuckling because I'm thinking they have no clue what they're even saying.
[00:13:02] And they're like women shouldn't lead anything, women should just be submissive, women just need to stay home and have children.
[00:13:10] And listen, I loved staying home and having children.
[00:13:16] until a certain age.
[00:13:19] Then I said, you know, I had everything done and finished by like 9 a.m. And I was just like, okay.
[00:13:27] I have always been involved with ministry with my husband.
[00:13:30] And I saw all these people.
[00:13:32] The one I thought was the funniest is where someone said, you are such an effeminate man.
[00:13:39] I was like, that is hysterical.
[00:13:41] I have never in my life
[00:13:44] I've never heard anyone call Troy Allen Maxwell effeminate.
[00:13:50] Y'all know him, he's like a beefy hunk of a man.
[00:13:53] I was like, this person is hilarious.
[00:13:57] But I love that my husband has always been a defender of women and women standing up in a healthy and balanced way alongside of the men.
[00:14:08] I could tell you this church would not even be in existence
[00:14:12] If I did not have the role that I have in standing alongside my husband, because when something happened and he took a hit, I was standing up.
[00:14:24] When I took a hit, he was standing there.
[00:14:27] The Bible is very specific in Ecclesiastes.
[00:14:30] It says that a threefold cord, Troy Maxwell, Penny Maxwell, connected to Jesus Christ, a threefold cord is not easily broken.
[00:14:46] So we've talked about the quote-unquote problem.
[00:14:50] Let's go to the first quote-unquote problem passage in the Bible.
[00:14:56] There's two main ones.
[00:14:57] So we're gonna talk about the first one.
[00:15:00] It's 1 Timothy.
[00:15:02] Chapter two, verses 11 and 12.
[00:15:06] It says, let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
[00:15:11] And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man but to be in silence.
[00:15:20] Now,
[00:15:21] I have taught on this subject before, but I've never taught like I'm going to teach today.
[00:15:28] So there's some things I'm not gonna hit into, just for time's sake, because I've taught on them in previous messages.
[00:15:35] But you see here where Paul is saying a woman
[00:15:40] Amen.
[00:15:41] There's something going on here deeper, and I have covered that previously, so I'm not gonna go into that today.
[00:15:47] But I do want to talk about this word authority.
[00:15:50] Everybody say authority.
[00:15:51] Authority.
[00:15:54] So that word authority, it's the only time this particular word is used in the entire Bible.
[00:16:02] Old Testament, New Testament, the only time, and it's in the New Testament, so it's in Greek, and this Greek word is Authentine is the word, and it means to exercise authority, but because it's such a rare, rare word that they just didn't use often, the only time you even see it in Greek literature is when somebody is being domineering,
[00:16:30] whether they're trying to seize control, act with violence, act independently or authoritatively in a forceful way.
[00:16:40] That is what that word authority means.
[00:16:45] So, which is very interesting because Paul, he uses the word authority a lot
[00:16:52] But that's the only time he ever used that particular word for authority.
[00:16:57] Now, we've seen him use Prosthempi, which means to lead with care, authority.
[00:17:02] We've seen him use Episkopos, which means overseer or bishop, that word authority, or Poiemen, which means shepherd or pastor.
[00:17:13] Those all are uses of the word authority.
[00:17:18] But only one time do we see that particular word, which is to domineer, to be out of control.
[00:17:26] And honestly, to me, it sounds a lot like a Jezebel spirit.
[00:17:30] It sounds like a woman that doesn't have a covering,
[00:17:34] because maybe her husband Ahab, like we know with Jezebel and Ahab in the Old Testament, Ahab didn't put his foot down, he didn't lead, he was a wuss, right?
[00:17:45] And that's what's wrong with the United States of America today is they're trying to turn all of our men into wusses.
[00:17:52] Right?
[00:17:53] When we turn our men into wusses, then how are we as women supposed to stand alongside of godly strong men and lead?
[00:18:01] No, what ends up happening is there's a hole and the women start to rise and it can get out of control.
[00:18:07] What God wants to see is men and women standing alongside of each other and leading.
[00:18:14] Let's keep going a little bit because what's interesting is Paul uses those three Greek words that I told you.
[00:18:21] He actually, those three words for authority, he calls out multiple women for exuding those characteristics like Phoebe and Priscilla to lead with care.
[00:18:33] and to rule with care.
[00:18:35] And then you've got overseer or bishop, Junia, Priscilla and Lydia.
[00:18:40] Paul actually publicly says to these women,
[00:18:46] that they are in these roles leading.
[00:18:50] We also see where Lydia and Priscilla and actually Mary Magdalene, he uses that word poiemen, shepherd or pastor.
[00:19:01] So how does it make sense if he's saying that women should be quiet and they shouldn't speak,
[00:19:09] and their husbands, they need to be in submission.
[00:19:12] Now understand, I do believe women need to be in submission to godly men, but the way that some have interpreted that is abusive.
[00:19:23] And that is not what God intended.
[00:19:26] My husband is my covering, okay?
[00:19:29] Think about this ceiling, right?
[00:19:32] It keeps us from getting wet.
[00:19:36] That is what a covering is supposed to do.
[00:19:39] Protect you from the storms.
[00:19:41] Equally though, those steel beams that go up along the side of this building and hold that roof on, that's where we are.
[00:19:48] That roof ain't getting held up without those steel beams.
[00:19:52] Just letting you know.
[00:19:53] Without the steel beams, it would collapse.
[00:19:56] But if all we had was steel beams, we'd still get wet.
[00:20:01] It's the combination where the magic is.
[00:20:05] and the enemy knows that and so he's tried to silence women for a long long time and what Paul is doing right here is he's saying hey I don't allow women who are domineering out of control to teach in a way that abuses their authority and you know what I don't disagree with Paul one bit
[00:20:29] What Paul is doing is he's warning against a power grab and he's warning against improper leadership.
[00:20:37] And in this particular culture, this letter in Timothy, we'll dive into this deeper, but this is going to Ephesus.
[00:20:46] And in Ephesus, there was all kinds of false teaching going on.
[00:20:50] They had lots of cultural confusion and it was running rampant.
[00:20:55] And he's saying, listen, I don't allow women to do this.
[00:21:01] And we're gonna dig in a little deeper and find out more, but I want to just make a few things clear.
[00:21:09] Some of the silence that has been assigned to women from men was never a silence that was intended by God.
[00:21:17] God did not do that.
[00:21:20] We know also that women taught men because, and I'm gonna very clearly explain this to you, and by the way, the couple that I'm about to tell you about lives in Ephesus where this letter Paul sent went.
[00:21:43] So let's read Acts.
[00:21:46] We're gonna read 1824.
[00:21:47] It says, now a Jew named Apollos, Apollos meant incredible man.
[00:21:55] He was a native to Alexandria, and he came to Ephesus, and he was an eloquent man, competent in the scripture.
[00:22:03] He had been instructed in the way of the Lord.
[00:22:07] He's competent, he's been instructed in the ways of God, and we know that this man is an incredible man.
[00:22:15] He's fervent in the spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
[00:22:29] In essence, we're reading in the book of Acts, he did not know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
[00:22:36] He only knew about the baptism of John, which is prepare the way salvation is coming.
[00:22:43] Okay, you tracking with me?
[00:22:45] Okay.
[00:22:48] And it says, he began to speak boldly.
[00:22:50] What are those next three words?
[00:22:52] In?
[00:22:53] Okay, y'all.
[00:22:59] The faster you speak, the faster we get to lunch today.
[00:23:05] All right, you ready?
[00:23:08] He began to speak boldly in?
[00:23:11] The synagogue.
[00:23:12] What is the synagogue?
[00:23:14] It's the church.
[00:23:16] He began to speak boldly in the church, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, only Aquila took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
[00:23:27] Does it say that?
[00:23:30] Who does it say?
[00:23:32] They, Priscilla and Aquila.
[00:23:37] They pulled him aside and said, hey, your teaching is amazing, but we, the pastor couple, which is who they were, they were a Troy and Penny Maxwell, they were a pastor couple, they had a church in their home, the temple was being attacked constantly, so they had little house churches everywhere and they were trying to assemble and grow in a society that was predominantly worshiping false gods.
[00:24:08] Ephesus.
[00:24:09] So the interesting thing too is that this pastor couple, Priscilla and Aquila, you always see her name first.
[00:24:19] That matters in culture because the more prominent one, they always put first.
[00:24:28] Now in this setting, in the church setting, Priscilla was more known than Aquila.
[00:24:35] Think of it like this.
[00:24:37] Pastor Troy and I, we have different gifts, different talents, but we do a lot of political things because we don't believe that just letting our country go to hell in a handbasket.
[00:24:49] We believe that policies matter because people matter.
[00:24:53] So we are involved in the policies that affect people's lives.
[00:24:58] Can I get an amen?
[00:25:00] So in Washington D.C. and across the country, I have done TV show after TV show after TV show, spoken on platforms with some of the top leaders in our country.
[00:25:15] We have dinner with presidents.
[00:25:18] That is something that is a regular thing in our life.
[00:25:23] In those circles, Troy Maxwell is Penny's husband.
[00:25:31] And he's like, what do you want me to carry?
[00:25:33] You want me to carry your purse?
[00:25:34] What do you need me to carry, baby?
[00:25:39] They know me and they know him second.
[00:25:42] Now, he is powerful in those settings, but they know me first.
[00:25:48] Now, if we were to rock up into a country club, I don't care which one, I don't care what golf course, they're gonna know me as Troy's wife.
[00:25:58] because my husband is a legend in golf, right?
[00:26:03] I mean, the only people that have ever given him strokes are people that are professional golfers in our church.
[00:26:09] He's like a plus one.
[00:26:10] Apparently that means he's good.
[00:26:15] Bogies are bad, birdies are good.
[00:26:17] That's all I know about golf.
[00:26:19] I don't know a lot.
[00:26:21] There are different circles where one of us is more prominent than the other.
[00:26:28] In this scenario, Priscilla is the one who is more prominent and Paul says to both of them, you are co-laborers in the gospel.
[00:26:39] He says that publicly.
[00:26:42] So it's kind of confusing because I thought women weren't supposed to speak, but yet women were leading all through the New Testament and even in the Old Testament.
[00:26:53] So let's talk about this.
[00:26:54] Lydia in Acts chapter 16, she led a church and a ministry.
[00:26:59] Nympha in Colossians 4.15, same thing.
[00:27:04] Chloe in 1 Corinthians 1.11, same thing.
[00:27:08] Paul said, hey, give me a report of the church that is in your home.
[00:27:12] And she's like, man, we got some divisions going on, which is why he teaches a whole chapter on division.
[00:27:19] Women were leading, but
[00:27:21] Hey, don't take my word for it.
[00:27:23] We're gonna go deeper.
[00:27:25] We're gonna like dig deep, all right?
[00:27:27] So we know who this letter was to.
[00:27:30] It was to Timothy.
[00:27:31] Let's talk a little bit about Timothy.
[00:27:34] Timothy was half Jew, half Greek.
[00:27:38] And what is so interesting is he is in this area, and it's perfect, which is why he's a young pastor, and Paul is trying to coach him.
[00:27:47] Right?
[00:27:48] And in this area, in Ephesus, there's between 250,000 to 300,000 people in this city.
[00:27:56] The majority of them, between 70 to 75%, are Greeks.
[00:28:02] The next one down, Jews is 10 to 15%, Romans 10%, others 5 to 10%.
[00:28:13] The majority of everyone is Greek.
[00:28:17] And Paul's encouraging him, man, you use both sides of your heritage.
[00:28:22] You know, kinda like they tried to do with Barack Obama.
[00:28:27] He's like, man, you use it all.
[00:28:29] Use whatever you can to reach the people.
[00:28:32] And so this was, letter was sent to Timothy, and we know it was sent to Ephesus, but let me help you understand a little bit about Ephesus.
[00:28:44] which again, Priscilla and Aquila live in Ephesus.
[00:28:49] It was a major, major Roman province of Asia.
[00:28:53] It would be modern day Turkey, okay?
[00:28:57] And what was going on in culture?
[00:28:59] It is so important to know that because the Ephesian culture, these Greeks worshiped the Greek goddess Diana, known by her formal name as Artemis.
[00:29:13] They had the temple to Artemis.
[00:29:16] And in that temple, she was a goddess that was served by female priestesses who held rituals to invoke Artemis' blessing on people.
[00:29:29] So you got a bunch of women running everything in this temple, this God-forsaken temple.
[00:29:38] And Paul is basically saying, hey, yo, we gotta look a little different than that.
[00:29:45] What he's trying to do, his language about women, Paul's language about women was corrective, not restrictive.
[00:29:56] There's a difference.
[00:29:59] Well, let's even dig deeper because we're gonna go right before our troubled scripture and then right after, because we've gotta like get a whole picture of what's going on, right?
[00:30:10] We're going through all the tools I told you that we need to see to figure out what's going on.
[00:30:15] So let's go right before.
[00:30:19] in verses nine and 10.
[00:30:21] It says, in like manner also that the women adorn themselves.
[00:30:25] Okay, hold on, let me just do this.
[00:30:26] I need all my women, all my women, stand up on your feet, all my women, every women in the room, and only real women.
[00:30:33] We don't do the identify stuff here.
[00:30:39] Okay, all right.
[00:30:41] So, I'm gonna read to you
[00:30:45] where Paul is giving instructions of what the women aren't supposed to do.
[00:30:49] And if you have done this, or if you're doing it right now, I'm gonna have you sit down, okay?
[00:30:59] And we'll see how many are standing up at the end.
[00:31:01] You with me?
[00:31:03] Okay, so he's telling them that you need to adorn yourself in modest apparel with propriety and moderation
[00:31:11] Not braided hair, you can't braid your hair.
[00:31:13] If you've ever braided your hair, I need you to sit down.
[00:31:21] Okay?
[00:31:23] You can't wear gold.
[00:31:25] If you have or you are wearing gold, you need to sit your old patootie down.
[00:31:31] You've never worn gold before?
[00:31:35] Have you ever worn gold?
[00:31:37] What'd she say?
[00:31:40] Oh, then if you've worn gold or pearls or costly clothing, you have to sit down.
[00:31:50] Pearls, gold, or costly clothing.
[00:31:54] You've never worn pearls or gold?
[00:31:57] Never braided her hair?
[00:32:00] Wow, you could go to this church.
[00:32:08] But you're the only one that could.
[00:32:10] So what Paul is saying is, which is proper for women professing godliness with good works?
[00:32:21] Okay, well, if we do all these things, except for one of us, why would we believe
[00:32:32] that we should be silent in one scripture, but then the one that's right before it, where it says you can't wear, well, we don't think that is for today.
[00:32:44] Scratch my head a little bit, okay.
[00:32:46] Well, let's figure out what's going on in culture.
[00:32:49] Well, if we go back and we look at the temple of Artemis, what was going on?
[00:32:55] Well, all of these priestesses, what were they doing?
[00:33:00] They would braid their hair and they would wrap it around their head and stack it up high and they would attach pearls and gold and little trinkets all around their hair.
[00:33:14] Their hair was used as a form of worship.
[00:33:20] And so what would happen is they would attach all of these things and they would make it like this is how you worship.
[00:33:30] And so Paul is saying, hey, please don't come in here like that.
[00:33:35] With the gold, the pearls, the all.
[00:33:39] Don't come in here like them.
[00:33:41] We need to look different.
[00:33:44] Because 75% of the culture is looking to that.
[00:33:49] And so when you come in here, we gotta differentiate ourselves and we gotta let people know, because see, a lot of people were getting saved.
[00:33:58] And when you get saved, you come in and you bring your culture with you.
[00:34:05] For example, if you are in here today and you grew up Catholic, the first time you came, you might have been like, why are we not kneeling and standing up and kneeling and standing up?
[00:34:14] And where's the communion every week?
[00:34:16] We need communion every week.
[00:34:17] And by golly, where's the crucifix?
[00:34:21] We should have the crucifix.
[00:34:23] And I tell people from that background, I say, hey, listen, guess what?
[00:34:27] Jesus isn't on that cross anymore.
[00:34:30] And some people will be like, there should be a cross on this building.
[00:34:34] How are people supposed to know it's a church?
[00:34:37] A church should have a cross on the building.
[00:34:40] And to which I say, okay, let's talk that out.
[00:34:44] Why did churches have crosses on the building and steeples?
[00:34:48] Because they didn't have GPS.
[00:34:50] That's how you found it.
[00:34:51] You'd look up in the sky and you'd go, there it is.
[00:35:00] it's like we make stuff doctrine that isn't doctrine we bring our stuff with us because it's familiar right all right let me see let me i gotta pick on everybody i'm an equal opportunity offender um let me go to the baptist you're coming in and you're like where's the hymnal what is this like electric stuff they have like where's my organ
[00:35:24] right what's up with where's the choir with the robes where's my pew they're like this is different all right oh let me go so see i grew up in a black church so let me tell you
[00:35:44] You come in and you've been in a black church.
[00:35:47] You come in and all my brothers and sisters, you know I'm speaking the truth.
[00:35:51] You come in, right about now, we hadn't even finished worship yet.
[00:36:00] I'm preaching, aren't I?
[00:36:02] I'm telling the truth, right?
[00:36:04] As a matter of fact,
[00:36:05] Sister like the Holy Spirit hadn't even hit yet.
[00:36:10] She hadn't even begun to do her lap.
[00:36:12] She gonna do a lap, right?
[00:36:15] So we're like the 15th song.
[00:36:17] That's where we're gonna do the lap, right?
[00:36:21] And that's why you see in culturally like the big Sunday meal is cause they're hungry.
[00:36:28] You've been at church four hours, right?
[00:36:31] That's how I grew up.
[00:36:33] And then we'd go like Bojangles or something afterwards and do takeout.
[00:36:39] So understand, everybody tries to bring their culture because they think the way that they did it was right.
[00:36:47] That's what Paul is dealing with.
[00:36:49] 75% of these people, they were worshiping in a place where these women were out of control, and they were worshiping this goddess, Artemis, which also, her name is also called Diana, who is at our South End campus.
[00:37:11] So, he's wanting to differentiate.
[00:37:14] He's wanting to set themselves aside.
[00:37:18] Let's go to the scripture after, after our troubled scripture.
[00:37:23] It's 1 Timothy 2.
[00:37:24] It says, For Adam was formed first, and then Eve.
[00:37:29] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.
[00:37:34] See, right there tell you women shouldn't be leading.
[00:37:38] It's her fault.
[00:37:40] She's the reason.
[00:37:42] But actually, two things I would say about that.
[00:37:46] Let's go on back to the garden.
[00:37:48] First thing about her eating the fruit is the Bible says that she took the fruit, she ate it, and she gave it to her husband who was standing right beside of her.
[00:38:03] So whose fault is what?
[00:38:07] If it was Troy Allen Maxwell he'd be like girl you better put that hand back don't you be reaching for that fruit you better get that hand back God said we don't eat that fruit and I don't even want you like don't even stretch your hand out there you pull that hand back right now pull it back when we actually go back to the beginning of creation before the fall
[00:38:32] God called Adam and Eve.
[00:38:35] He said, you are to rule and reign together.
[00:38:41] It's where the curse came in that women got put under foot of man.
[00:38:45] And some people would like to still keep women in that place.
[00:38:49] But if you're gonna keep woman cursed, then men's gotta stay cursed too.
[00:38:55] But my Bible says that Jesus came to redeem us from the curse.
[00:39:03] The headship of men does not equal the suppression of women.
[00:39:11] But it is not okay when women run wild.
[00:39:16] Women have a lot of power.
[00:39:19] And when it is not wielded in the right way, you get crazy stuff happening.
[00:39:25] Right?
[00:39:26] Some of the movements that we have fought hard against, women started them.
[00:39:32] This whole I am woman, hear me roar, no.
[00:39:36] You do need to be quiet and you do need to sit down.
[00:39:41] And I'd be the first to say that.
[00:39:43] But what we have to understand is anything that's out of order doesn't please God.
[00:39:51] and we need to restore order where order is neat.
[00:39:54] So what Paul is doing is he's correcting spiritual role confusion between Christian worship and pagan gender roles.
[00:40:03] That's what he's doing.
[00:40:05] This isn't a message, please understand, about rebellion.
[00:40:09] It is a call to alignment.
[00:40:12] I am submitted to my husband.
[00:40:14] He is my covering.
[00:40:16] And the whole reason I can stand up here today is because I am covered by him.
[00:40:23] I am not rogue, although sometimes on social media I can get a little feisty.
[00:40:27] I want you to understand when men and women join together and stand alongside of each other, the enemy shakes in his boots.
[00:40:40] He is a threat, he is threatened.
[00:40:44] It is a threat to him and his kingdom.
[00:40:47] Now, let's take this conversation even further because here's a scripture that, again, we're still in Timothy, that people would, again, use, and this isn't even our second troubled scripture yet, right?
[00:41:00] We're still debunking the first one.
[00:41:03] But here's another scripture that people would try and use and say, see?
[00:41:09] Women have no place leading.
[00:41:12] 1 Timothy 3, one through four.
[00:41:16] This is Paul saying, this is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.
[00:41:25] A bishop must then be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded.
[00:41:31] Oh!
[00:41:32] The husband of one wife.
[00:41:35] A woman cannot be the husband of one wife.
[00:41:37] Therefore, women cannot lead or teach or pastor or have any position in the church.
[00:41:44] And it goes on to give more qualifications of being gentle, not quarrelsome, having your children in submission.
[00:41:50] But this is a scripture that people would use to say, see, husband of one wife.
[00:41:57] But when we really start to understand the scripture,
[00:42:03] We know Paul wrote this to Timothy.
[00:42:07] Paul is not the husband of one wife.
[00:42:11] He's not married.
[00:42:16] Okay, so maybe there's a deeper meaning.
[00:42:19] Paul doesn't have children.
[00:42:23] Let's take it a step further than that.
[00:42:26] Who does he send the letter to?
[00:42:27] Timothy.
[00:42:30] Timothy is not the husband of one wife.
[00:42:34] He's not married.
[00:42:37] Timothy doesn't have children.
[00:42:39] So if we're gonna take this by the letter in which it is just at face value, neither one of them are qualified.
[00:42:50] So what might Paul be actually trying to say?
[00:42:57] Well, husband of one wife is a Greek idiom.
[00:43:04] You know how we talked about syntax and grammar mattering?
[00:43:07] Well, husband of one wife is a Greek idiom.
[00:43:13] An idiom, for example, would be something like, cat got your tongue?
[00:43:18] Did the cat really get your tongue?
[00:43:21] No, it's an expression that we use to mean, why are you being quiet?
[00:43:27] It's called an idiom.
[00:43:30] Right here, husband of one wife is a Greek idiom.
[00:43:33] It's a moral phrase.
[00:43:36] It is not gender exclusive job description.
[00:43:40] What Paul is saying, he's like, hey, if you're gonna take on this role, you need to be sexually pure, because look at what's happening over there.
[00:43:49] You need to be monogamous.
[00:43:51] You need to have moral integrity.
[00:43:53] You need to have character.
[00:43:55] and Greek masculine, if you understand the Greek, often includes the whole group.
[00:44:00] So when Paul says brethren, is that just for the men?
[00:44:05] No.
[00:44:07] He doesn't go brethren and sisteren.
[00:44:09] It's meant to be inclusive, right?
[00:44:14] Also, you see phrases where he'll say, you are all Christ's sons.
[00:44:19] You are all God's sons.
[00:44:21] He's speaking to all believers.
[00:44:23] Those are masculine words that are inclusive.
[00:44:27] Again, let me bring it modern day and just help you out a little bit.
[00:44:30] If I just walked up on this platform and I go, hey guys, how are you today?
[00:44:35] Am I only speaking to the men in the room?
[00:44:40] Is guys a masculine word?
[00:44:44] Yes, but in our language, we understand I'm being inclusive.
[00:44:50] When I'm saying, hey guys, I'm including everyone in that vocabulary.
[00:44:56] That is what is happening here because gendered language is often used to describe universal spiritual truths.
[00:45:05] So lastly, if Paul was commanding women to be quiet,
[00:45:12] Why would he publicly, publicly commend Phoebe who was a deacon?
[00:45:21] And coincidentally, let me see how smart everybody is, but the most important book that Paul wrote, there's not one scholar that would differ on this, the most important book that Paul wrote was
[00:45:44] Y'all are good, like the front row.
[00:45:46] Is that why y'all are up on the front row?
[00:45:47] Okay, so the most important book that Paul wrote was Romans.
[00:45:55] And guess what he did?
[00:45:56] He asked Phoebe to go and deliver that book.
[00:46:04] That book contains our Christian doctrine in it.
[00:46:09] Why, if Paul felt that women shouldn't speak, would he have given that book to Phoebe?
[00:46:16] Because when you give that letter, that book,
[00:46:20] When you show up in that city, you are responsible to read it out loud, deliver the message and you represent now the person who sent the letter and you are responsible to answer questions and give doctrine from what is in that book or letter.
[00:46:41] Why would Paul use Phoebe to deliver his most important book if women were to be silent and to be quiet?
[00:46:53] Why would he commend Priscilla, a pastor and teacher, publicly?
[00:46:58] Why would he say to Junia, you're an incredible apostle?
[00:47:04] A lot of people don't realize that Junia is a woman apostle.
[00:47:07] Now, a couple hundred years after these biblical texts were written, they didn't like the fact that there was a woman apostle, and they tried to go in and make it Junius and change it.
[00:47:18] But then they realized, hey, there was actually nobody historically in context named Junius, so we gotta leave it like it is.
[00:47:27] It was a woman.
[00:47:30] Right?
[00:47:31] It is extremely important for us to understand also that Mary Magdalene was the first person to proclaim the resurrected Jesus, the foundation of our Christian faith, a woman, the first on the scene.
[00:47:50] And as a matter of fact, Jesus says to her, Mary Magdalene, I need you to go and tell the other disciples
[00:48:01] and she goes to them in John 20, 18.
[00:48:04] She goes, I have seen the Lord.
[00:48:09] Interesting.
[00:48:12] Now let me give you this next debate in scripture.
[00:48:15] And this one I don't need as much because I'm gonna show you what was going on with culture and it kind of nips this one in the bud.
[00:48:21] 1 Corinthians 14, 34 through 35.
[00:48:26] All right, here we go, you ready?
[00:48:30] Let the women keep silent in the churches.
[00:48:35] If you're a woman and you spoke today, when you walked in here, you're automatically at face value disobeying the scripture.
[00:48:47] And then he says, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive as the law also says.
[00:48:56] 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.
[00:49:07] Let's break this bad boy down, you ready?
[00:49:10] All right, we've heard this scripture used to silence women for a long time, but let's understand syntax and grammar and what Paul is saying here.
[00:49:19] First thing out of the gate, you can look it up.
[00:49:24] It says, as the law also says, there is no law, whether it was Old Testament or New Testament, that prevented women from speaking in church.
[00:49:34] There were some traditions, but there was no written law.
[00:49:41] So what is Paul saying?
[00:49:44] Well, some scholars say he could be referring to the order of creation and trying to understand what was going on.
[00:49:55] They also know that Jewish traditions very much put women under foot.
[00:50:01] because of the curse.
[00:50:02] And they were to be silent in religious settings.
[00:50:05] A lot of it had to do with the fact that women were cranking out babies in this time.
[00:50:09] They had no education.
[00:50:11] They could not read.
[00:50:12] They could not write.
[00:50:13] They could not interpret things because they literally could not read.
[00:50:19] So we know this is playing a part, but I wanna take it even deeper in this letter and explain to you who was this letter to.
[00:50:29] This letter wasn't like the previous one was to Timothy.
[00:50:33] This letter was to the entire church, the whole church.
[00:50:38] And this letter was sent to Corinth.
[00:50:41] Now, if you're familiar with Corinth, Jesus has a lot of things to say about Corinth in the book of Revelation when the seals are getting opened.
[00:50:51] And you're gonna see why.
[00:50:53] Now let me just give you some stats on this city.
[00:50:56] It's not as big as Ephesus.
[00:50:58] It's about 100,000 to 200,000 people.
[00:51:01] Even though they are about 250 miles across the Aegean Sea from each other, Corinth was smaller, but they did a lot of trade, and so they mingled a lot together.
[00:51:15] The Greeks are still the dominant population, 50 to 60%.
[00:51:18] Romans, 25 to 30.
[00:51:21] Jews, 10 to 15.
[00:51:24] Others, 5 to 10%.
[00:51:27] So let's take this and let's start going through.
[00:51:29] It was to the whole church body.
[00:51:32] It was sent to Corinth.
[00:51:35] What is going on in context of culture?
[00:51:40] They had a god.
[00:51:42] Y'all are familiar with the Greek goddesses.
[00:51:44] They had one here as well.
[00:51:46] Her name was Aphrodite.
[00:51:49] They literally had hundreds of women who again, even across the sea, were the priestesses of the temple of Aphrodite.
[00:52:01] What they would do is you would come in and you would have relationship
[00:52:10] You understandin'?
[00:52:10] I don't see any kids, but you understand what I'm sayin'?
[00:52:14] You would come in, you would be intimate with these women, and in doing so, you now got a connection to their God.
[00:52:27] Sexual promiscuity in this area was through the roof.
[00:52:33] It was the Sodom and Gomorrah of the New Testament.
[00:52:36] as you see Jesus talks about in Revelations when he's condemning them.
[00:52:41] Hundreds of priestesses that you would actually pay to have sex with and that way you could worship and connect with the divine.
[00:52:52] The women were the leaders in this temple.
[00:52:55] There was division in the church, because I understand, like Paul's just like establishing little churches, right?
[00:53:03] And that's the culture people are coming from.
[00:53:06] And he's trying to like reverse some of the stuff that is going on.
[00:53:11] You've got all these new converts and he's needing them to not repeat what they had been raised in.
[00:53:18] Wow.
[00:53:21] He's also trying to correct disorder in the church and confusion.
[00:53:25] And here's the thing, if women were not to speak in church at all, then why in the exact same book did Paul say, hey, when you speak in church, let me tell you how to do it?
[00:53:40] You understand?
[00:53:42] 1 Corinthians 11 5 but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved what does that mean well prostitutes and these the the priestesses in Aphrodite they were called temple prostitutes
[00:54:05] And you could always tell a prostitute, and you can go through the entire Bible and see this, they were always distinguished because they didn't have a covering on their head.
[00:54:14] And so you and I came in here today without a literal covering on our head and we're sitting in church.
[00:54:24] Why?
[00:54:24] Well, because in this culture, if you didn't, you were a prostitute.
[00:54:31] Look over in the Middle East now.
[00:54:33] The women still cover their head.
[00:54:36] and you're considered promiscuous if you don't.
[00:54:39] So we have to understand culture and what's happening.
[00:54:42] Now, if we understand that Paul really meant women shouldn't speak, then why did he tell them, hey, when you do, make sure your head's covered, because we don't wanna look like them.
[00:54:58] Do you understand how some things you've got to, he was addressing people who come to church who,
[00:55:05] are looking like a culture they just came out of.
[00:55:09] Paul didn't say they can't speak.
[00:55:11] He's like, hey, when you do, let's make sure there's honor and order.
[00:55:16] Paul was not building a cage.
[00:55:19] He was correcting chaos.
[00:55:23] Women spoke, prayed, prophesied, you name it, pastored in the New Testament.
[00:55:30] They were apostles.
[00:55:33] All of it.
[00:55:34] Women were included in the day of Pentecost.
[00:55:37] It says, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, all people.
[00:55:42] Your sons and your daughter will prophesy.
[00:55:47] That's in Joel and in Acts.
[00:55:51] The Spirit doesn't discriminate by gender.
[00:55:54] The gifts of the Spirit are not gender-based.
[00:55:58] They are mission-based.
[00:56:02] It's important we understand that.
[00:56:04] And then we see in Galatians, it says, there is neither Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female.
[00:56:10] In other words, that curse, it's broken.
[00:56:14] Because it used to be only the Jews had access to God.
[00:56:17] But we're in here today, most of us aren't Jews, most of us are Gentiles.
[00:56:22] Because the curse was broken.
[00:56:24] So if we're not gonna penalize Gentiles, why do we penalize women?
[00:56:29] because of where culture had them at the time.
[00:56:33] To muzzle women is to rebuild what Jesus tore down.
[00:56:40] Paul wasn't silencing women, he was trying to amplify order.
[00:56:45] You see, there's a silence that came from man that God, God had never belonged to him.
[00:56:55] The legacy of women who speak is not rebellion, it is obedience.
[00:57:02] And what I love is Deborah.
[00:57:04] I mean, we're just gonna go Old Testament for just a second.
[00:57:07] But she was a prophet and a judge.
[00:57:10] She literally led men on a regular basis, also in military.
[00:57:17] She was the one that would deliver the law.
[00:57:22] And she was a prophet.
[00:57:25] She guided men and women in the way they should go.
[00:57:28] And when men looked for a king, God said, now I got one better for you.
[00:57:33] I'm gonna give you a judge and her name is Deborah.
[00:57:38] Village life ceased until I, Deborah, arose a mother in Israel.
[00:57:45] She didn't keep silent.
[00:57:47] Esther didn't keep silent.
[00:57:48] She saved an entire generation of people.
[00:57:52] Miriam in Exodus 15, 20 was a prophet.
[00:57:56] Huldah, 2 Kings 22, was a prophet.
[00:58:00] Philip's four daughters, Acts 21, 9, were all prophets.
[00:58:05] And even when culture tried to silence
[00:58:09] God still called them to rise.
[00:58:11] You see, when women are silent, the church suffers.
[00:58:16] Wisdom is lost.
[00:58:18] Discernment is withheld.
[00:58:20] Worship is quieter.
[00:58:23] The image of God is only half reflected.
[00:58:27] You see, when God said it is not good for man to be alone, he wasn't just talking about marriage, he was talking about human wholeness.
[00:58:38] Men and women need to stand alongside of each other.
[00:58:41] The enemy loves when silence keeps half of the population.
[00:58:49] In the time where we should all be in the field harvesting, half of the population silenced.
[00:58:56] You see, a healthy home has the voice of a mother and a father.
[00:59:01] There's a masculine and a feminine voice.
[00:59:04] And God's home is no different.
[00:59:07] And I want you to know today that in this house, you have a masculine and a feminine heart that lead together.
[00:59:14] Now, at the end of the day, the buck stops with Troy.
[00:59:19] But I tell you what, he's the head, but sometimes the neck can turn that head.
[00:59:27] There are times when he's like, man, you were right.
[00:59:30] Thanks for talking to me about that.
[00:59:32] Or times where I go, man, I'm really glad
[00:59:35] that you're leading our family, because I didn't see that.
[00:59:39] The point I wanna make today, as you all stand up on your feet together with me, is that in God's body, in God's church, we need to make sure that all of us, man, woman, doesn't matter, are using our voice and we're standing in the place that God has called us to be.
[00:59:59] Because there are a lot of people that are gonna try and talk you out of,
[01:00:04] What you know God has called you to.
[01:00:07] And if you listen to those voices, you will sit down when there's a generation you should be saving.
[01:00:15] So with every head bowed, with every eye closed, I wanna ask you this question today.
[01:00:20] Again, doesn't matter if you're man or woman, I wanna ask you this.
[01:00:28] Are you taking your rightful place in the kingdom?
[01:00:33] Because you can't take your place in the kingdom unless you know the one that rules it.
[01:00:42] If you know today, across this room or across our audience that is joining us online, that there's a distance between you and God.
[01:00:54] Again, I don't care man, woman,
[01:00:57] and you want to close that gap.
[01:01:00] You want a fresh start.
[01:01:02] You want a do-over.
[01:01:03] You want your relationship with God, the Almighty, the King of Kings to be where it needs to be and you know that you need a fresh start today.
[01:01:13] You know you need a do-over.
[01:01:15] If that is you, right where you are, lift your hand up in your seat.
[01:01:18] Let me see you.
[01:01:19] Right where you are.
[01:01:20] Thank you.
[01:01:22] Thank you.
[01:01:22] Thank you.
[01:01:23] Who else?
[01:01:24] Thank you.
[01:01:25] Thank you, sir.
[01:01:26] Thank you, ma'am.
[01:01:27] thank you ma'am up in the balcony who else i'm looking over here thank you ma'am who else as i'm looking around thank you ma'am i appreciate you thank you sir who else online i know this is a a big step it is the best next step for your life is making sure that you and your heavenly father are tight
[01:01:55] For everybody that lifted their hand or maybe people in the room that wanted to or maybe online, I want us to say this all together loud and strong.
[01:02:07] Say, Heavenly Father, we come before you today.
[01:02:11] You are the King of kings.
[01:02:13] You are the Lord of lords.
[01:02:15] And we want you leading our life.
[01:02:18] We welcome you in.
[01:02:21] We welcome your power.
[01:02:23] We welcome your presence.
[01:02:26] and we turn away from our old life in Jesus name amen give a big clap and a shout hey