1 Timothy 2 verse 8 today. 1 Timothy 2 verse 8. One thing I want to mention before I preach is that Stacey had to take Steele to the emergency room today. He's had some inflammation in his neck. He had a little bit of an aggravation. of that on Friday night playing football. And so it's nothing, I just got a message from her, it's nothing that's serious, but they do seek prayer for it. They're pretty confident it's not serious, they're just making sure that it's not serious. And so keep him in prayer today, you know, as you think of it, keep Steele in prayer, that he would recover from that. Good to have Rule with us though, so glad you're here. All right, 1 Timothy 2, verse 8. He didn't leave it up to us to come up with our own good ideas. Although if you go to most churches today, you get the idea. that he did, that he left us without instructions, and whatever works, that's what we should do. That is not what we have in the Word of God. He has revealed his desire for the church in his Word. From Joel Beeky and Jones's book, A Puritan Theology, A Doctrine for Life, they say this, The Puritan stance, which came to be called the regulative principle of worship, was that nothing that is not explicitly commanded or sanctioned by example in the New Testament should be allowed in Christian worship. That's the regulative principle as they were defining it. This includes how we pray. And as we learned in 1 Timothy 2, 1-4, what and who we pray for in public prayer. But in verse 8, it also includes who is qualified to lead public prayer in worship. Who's qualified to lead it. We're going to get more into qualifications in chapter 3 when we get there, when it comes to elders and deacons. But right here in verse 8, we're talking about who's qualified to lead public prayer. And in the text, we basically have two instructions. This is one verse. I'm not sure that this is actually going to be shorter than any other sermon I preach. Maybe it will be. I don't know, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that we get the Word of God here, what it's saying. And in verse 8, the first instruction is that men lead the public prayer in the churches. Men lead the public prayer in the churches. I grew up during a time where that was not a controversial statement. You know, I'm old enough now to say that when I was younger, this wasn't a big deal. You'd say something like that, and everybody would go, yeah, of course. What else you got? But we live in a time now where, you know, I'm 50 years old, my lifetime, I've watched it happen, where we're not so sure about that anymore, whether that's just the way that it should be. Well, the text is clear. It's not ambiguous. This is not cloudy. It's clear as a bell. that men lead the prayer in the churches. And I want to provide you with several evidences for this from 1 Timothy 2, verse 8. The first evidence is that it's stated with apostolic authority. This is something that's stated not with just sort of Paul saying, I'm saying this for myself, this is what I prefer, but you can do something else if you want to. It's not what he's saying. This is stated with apostolic authority in verse 8. In the very first part he says, I desire then that in every place the men should pray. You could read that in the ESV where it says, I desire, and people do this. They read that and say, well, that's just what Paul wanted. He wasn't really saying it with authority. But you got to consider who is Paul, right? And in verse seven, it reminds us who he is. In verse seven that we looked at last week, for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling the truth. I'm not lying. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." It was Paul speaking as an apostle here, and he's saying that this is what should happen. He's not just saying, this is what I hope for. He's saying, this is what should happen. How do we know that? Well, because when we look at other places where that Greek word is used by the apostle Paul, that's what he's saying. So let's look at some of those places. Philippians 1, verse 12. Philippians 1, verse 12, it's the same Greek term. It's that word that's translated, I want you to know. I want you. He's saying, I desire, in that verse. And this is what I desire for you to know. that the fact that I've been imprisoned and persecuted has actually turned out to advance the gospel. He's not saying, well, you know, I kind of want you to know this, take it or leave it. That's not what he's saying there when he uses the term in Philippians 1.12. We have another example from 1 Timothy in chapter 5, verse 14, where he says, So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. Again, this is not him just saying, if you feel like it, if this is what I would like you to know what I think about, this isn't really me, this isn't really the Spirit of God talking through me as I'm writing the Word of God, it's just me expressing my opinion. No, that's not what he's doing there. He's not doing it there, he's not doing it in Philippians 1, and he's certainly not doing it over here in Titus 3, verse 8, another pastoral epistle where he uses the same term, And this is after he gets done explaining the gospel in verses 3-7 of Titus 3, verse 8. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. Where he says, I want you to insist on these things. He's not saying take it or leave it. You should insist on this thing that I desire. So he's speaking with apostolic authority. The word desire has to do with deliberate determination. The American Standard Version translates it, I desire therefore. They're not suggestions for Timothy and they're not suggestions for us. The Word of God says that men should lead public prayer. And so that's why we do it the way that we do it here, is that men lead public prayer. So Paul states it very clearly. It's stated with apostolic authority. The second evidence is that the text indicates that it's men that he intends to speak to here. It indicates that men lead in prayer, because it says there in verse 8, It has the definite article there. There's been some confusion, mainly because of the King James Version on this. They did not include the word the in the translation of the King James. on this. And so it just says men, so some people will look at it and go, well, that's just talking about humanity. You know, people in general should pray this way. No. In the Greek, it has the definite article. Even the Textus Receptus that the King James Version is based on has the definite article in it, the, but for some reason the translators left it out. The men. And in context with what he's about to say in verse nine, he's talking about women, right? So you're talking about men, and you're talking, roles of men, and you're talking about roles of women, and they're different. It's really okay to say that they're different, and it's okay, because that's what the Bible says. I don't care what the culture says. Culture can't even tell whether or not they're men or women to begin with, right? And we're supposed to listen to them? They're confused? Pretty evident, right? They tell you when you're born, it's a boy, it's a girl. There's no confusion. There's no confusion. But there is after they're born, I guess. I don't know. Whatever. It's ridiculous. The text indicates that men lead in prayer. Why did Paul have to say this? for the same reasons that we have to say it today. Go back to Galatians 3, verse, I think this is verse 28. I caught myself with this last night when I was practicing this, yep. Galatians 3, verse 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. It's possible that the churches there at Ephesus and in Asia Minor that Timothy was overseeing, it's possible they heard about Galatians 3, verse 28. And they said, well look, since there's no male or female, then anybody can just go ahead and lead this thing. That's very possible. And by the way, that's still the reasoning used today. They go to Galatians 3, verse 28, and say, well, women can do exactly what men can do in worship, in church service, whatever. They can do whatever because of Galatians 3, verse 28. No, they can't. Because 1 Timothy 2 makes it clear that in the issue of prayer, it's men, the men, definite article, the men lead in prayer. The word men is either, it's always in the Greek, it's always used for adult males or husbands. There is no general use for humanity there in the text. It's speaking specifically of biological males, not women who identify as men. It's talking about men, the men. Adult men, husbands. The context clarifies all of this for us in chapter 2, especially down there in verse 9 to the end of the chapter. It's very clear. Historically, in the context of the synagogues amongst the Jewish people, that's the way that it was always done. They wouldn't come and bring a new understanding to that. W. Robertson Nicoll, in his Expositors Greek Testament, says this, That's what the text is clearly saying. And we know from 1 Timothy 5, you go back to verse 17, that the elders generally led in worship. So, obviously, men. 1 Timothy 5, 17, We know from 1 Timothy 3 that these were men, because one of the qualifications is that you're a husband of one wife. Right? You cannot be a woman and be the husband of one wife. Now, again, when I was younger, you didn't have to say that wasn't controversial, right? But now it is, you know? You're narrow-minded, you know, or whatever, if you don't believe that a woman could be a man, you know, and that men can't be pregnant. I don't know if you've heard that or not. Maybe you didn't know. Men can be pregnant now. If you're a woman who identifies as a man, you can be pregnant. So you can't be so narrow-minded and say men can't be pregnant. I don't be so narrow-minded as to say that according to the Word of God, a woman can't be a man, and she can't be the husband of one wife, because that's what the text says, and that's what biology tells us, by the way. It's ridiculous, but we live in ridiculous times. So you gotta point out the obvious. That's what I'm doing today, mostly. Elders led the worship. So having said all of that, this is clearly what it says. What does the text not say? What the text does not say is that women can't pray. The text doesn't say that. It's the men that lead in public worship, but the women can pray in public worship. But they're led by the men. Okay, now we know that from 1 Corinthians. So go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Pastor Randall and I have actually talked about this. I can say with great confidence that this is the position of our church. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 5. We'll go back to verse 4. What's happening? Well, the woman's praying. And she's praying in 1 Corinthians 11 in the context of public worship, right? And so clearly, the Apostle Paul is saying it's okay for women to pray when they gather together in public worship, but she doesn't lead the prayer, if you look at what 1 Timothy 2 is saying. Does that make sense so far? Okay, so skip down to verse, where am I here, verse 13. Verse 13 in 1 Corinthians 11, judge for yourselves, is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Again, she's praying to God. Now I know there's a whole other sermon and probably a book to write here in 1 Corinthians 11 about head coverings. That's not my purpose today. I'm preaching 1 Timothy 2.8. But I am referring to it to say that clearly they were praying. See what I'm saying? So that's why we allow that here at the church. We do allow, during prayer meetings, women to pray. We don't allow them to lead in prayer, but we allow them to pray during the prayer meeting for biblical reasons. And this isn't the only place that we can see this. Go back to the book of Acts, chapter one. Acts chapter one, verse 13. The whole upper room scenario. So here you have a prayer meeting. And you've got all the apostles there, but then you also have the women there in the prayer meeting as well, and they're all praying. That's the idea here in the Greek, they're praying. And so again, they're not leaving, but they are praying. So, you know, there are people who will say, well, you guys are just a bunch of misogynists. I had mentioned, I quoted part of my sermon on Facebook last night, and somebody posted on there today and said, are you guys just a bunch of sexist misogynists? And I said, yes, go tell your friends. I don't really care what this culture thinks about this stuff, because the Bible has spoken. I'm not a misogynist, by the way. I'm not, I don't hate women, okay, that's what a misogynist is, but these days, you just gotta double down on stuff because they're crazy. So that is the second evidence here, is that the text indicates that men lead in prayer, and the third evidence is that this is established for all churches regardless of circumstances. He establishes this for all churches regardless of circumstances. How many of you have ever heard this? Well, you know, we would have men preach and pray and do all that in our church, but we just don't have any men. Anybody hear that before? Or am I the only one? Like, I've heard that. And so, you will hear that from time to time, wherever you've got women in leadership, they will generally say this, that we just, the men aren't stepping up, so the women have to do it. Well, look what Paul says, though, in verse eight. I desire that in every place, every place, the men should pray. What's he talking about? He's not talking about literally every place on the planet. Okay, that'd be kind of hard, right? What he's talking about here in his language, if you look at this term in the Greek and the way Paul uses it, he's talking about every place where the church meets. He said, every church, essentially is what he's saying. This should be the way that it is in every church that you're overseeing, Timothy. He says, that's the way it's supposed to be. Say, how do you know that? Well, let's take a look at the usage. 1 Corinthians chapter one, verse two. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, call to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Where it says there, in every place, is he saying that in every place around this planet, Jesus Christ is glorified? No. He's talking about where every place where the church meets together in context. And so he's saying there, that's what he's saying. The church, it's the context of the church. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Another example. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. Everywhere in the context of 2 Corinthians, he's talking about the churches. He's talking about his missionary work, where he's gone around planting churches all across the Mediterranean. Now, it's not every single place, but he's talking about where these churches exist, where Christ is being named, his word is being proclaimed, where people are gathering together to worship because they've heard the gospel and they've responded to it. And then 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 8, the last one we'll look at in this regard. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 8. It's the same word in the Greek. What's he saying? He's saying the testimony of the church in Thessalonica has spread not literally everywhere, They didn't know about it in Texas at that time, right? Wasn't happening. But they knew about it everywhere there were churches meeting. That's what he's saying. And so when we come back to 1 Timothy 2, verse 8, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, he's talking about in all the churches. And he doesn't say, unless of course there's no men around, then go ahead and have women do it. That's not what he says. And he's not a dummy. In Acts 14, verse 23, wherever they planted churches, they established elders. That's what it says in Acts 14, 23. They had leadership. The Reformers, one of their marks of a true church was whether or not you had qualified leadership. Now, if you don't have qualified men leading in the church, you don't have a church. You don't have a church. You have some club that meets together and talks about spiritual things, but whatever they are, they're not a church. Say, whoa, you know, tell Beth more, right? Somebody tell Beth more. Whatever, you know, I don't care. This is what the text says. So we go with the text. The text, Christ is king, but the text is a revelation of the head of the church to the church and how we're supposed to do it. We don't have the freedom to do what we want, to manipulate the thing. I've heard this stuff. When I first went to ministry, I was a assistant in a inner city ministry that had a evening series of Bible classes for local churches, for leadership of local churches, because in inner city neighborhoods, a lot of these churches, the pastors have never been to any kind of formal training. No seminary, no nothing. So we had a school there. Man, I was wet behind the ears. As they said, I still had carnation on my breath. I was 21, 22 years old, you know? young, right? And here I am ministering in this African-American community in the inner city of Rochester, New York, and I'm teaching these pastors who are like 40, 50, 60 years old, right? And I get to the text, and I'm talking about leadership and how it ought to be men. Well, there are people pretty mad. Who's this white kid, 21, 22 years old, telling us how to do church? It wasn't me telling them. This is the Word of God. This is the authority that we have. The irony was I wasn't even saved at that time, but I knew enough about the Scriptures to know what they taught on this. You don't have to be a genius on this. It's established for all churches regardless of circumstances. So that's the first instruction that we have here in 2.8. The second instruction is that it's not just biological men. that lead in prayer. Because the second instruction is that character matters. Not just anybody who's a man can lead in prayer. But they actually have to meet some basic qualifications. They're not as stringent as the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3. But yet, there are qualifications here in verse 8. And so character matters. And there are a couple of truths that we need to see here that are pointed out in the text. The first truth is that posture means nothing without integrity. Sometimes you'll be involved with churches that put a lot of emphasis on posture when you pray. Here there's a posture mentioned, it's lifting up holy hands. Probably based on different inscriptions, archaeological inscriptions, when they prayed, they probably held their hands up like this, off to the side a little bit. The idea was to imitate a little bit what Christ did on the cross while they stood there and they prayed like that, and they lifted hands. They also did it in the Jewish religion. That was part of prayer, was to have your hands lifted and looking up to heaven with your eyes open and beseeching God, pleading with God like that. But again, it's not even just the posture, because posture means nothing without integrity. He says, lift holy hands. Arthur Way, in his translation of the epistles, says, lifting heavenward unsullied hands. The idea of lifting hands in prayer was so much a part of prayer, that according to a dictionary of Christian antiquities, in prayer, the gesture was so universal, that to pray and to lift up the hands were almost identical. So if you're reading in the Old Testament, and you read of somebody lifting their hands, but they don't say pray, it means pray. Okay, so let's look at an example of that, just one. Lamentations chapter two, verse 19. Lamentations after the book of Jeremiah. He wrote Lamentations. He's called the weeping prophet. He saw all that was happening to his nation. Lamentations chapter 2 verse 19. Arise, cry out in the night at the beginning of the night watches. Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children who faint for hunger at the head of every street. He says lift your hands. What's he saying? Not just go out there and physically lift your hands, but go pray for them. It's synonymous is the idea. That's how closely connected it was. It was so closely connected that even pagans People who weren't biblical at all believed in lifting hands when you prayed. Aristotle wrote this. He said, Homer said something similar. Virgil said something similar. These are all pagan, classical writers that knew nothing of the gospel. But even they knew that when you were praying, you lift up your hands and you plead. with even the God that they believed in. There's something innately. God has placed eternity in the hearts of all of us. Ecclesiastes says that. And so we know there's a God, and even people that aren't Christian pray, and even when they pray, they lift hands. But the posture doesn't matter if the hands that are lifted aren't holy. Now when I'm talking about that, we all understand. We're all good Calvinists, most of us, anyway, I think. And so we know about total depravity, right? Romans 3, 9 through 18, how wicked our heart is. How can we lift holy hands ever? How can we lift holy hands? We can't, no one can, apart from the gospel. Praise God that Christ died for sinners. That a wicked sinner like me could come into the pulpit and preach is amazing to me. Based only on the blood of Christ. Based only on what he did in his death, burial, and resurrection. He's my only hope. That's the only way I have holy hands. But at the same time, I wanna say this, that there is some element of character involved with this. In the Reformed world, we are too quick to pass over the word holy and holiness. It does matter how we live our lives. Sanctification should be happening. If you're justified, you will be sanctified. If there's no sanctification happening, it's because you've never been justified. And so there ought to be growing holiness in our lives. Scriptures speak to it. And the scriptures warn us about what happens when we pretend that we are seeking God when we're really not. Look at Isaiah chapter one, verse 15. Isaiah chapter one, verse 15. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the... No, that's Jeremiah. What in the world? My Bible was broke for a second. Not really, it was me. I know. Bibles don't break. Isaiah 1, verse 15. I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. In the context of the time that Isaiah is writing, they were sacrificing children, their own children. Child sacrifice has always been a thing. And their hands are full of blood. And God's saying, when you come out and you pray and you spread out your hands, all I see on your hands is blood. You spread out your hands, you're doing the right posture, but all that's there is blood. Stop praying. Go clean the blood off of your hands. And then come back and pray. Even us as believers who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, we still need to take care how we approach God. Even in Reformed circles, there's not the reverence that we need to have. We need to be careful and understand we're dealing with holy things. Amos chapter five, verse 21. Amos 5, 21, I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps, I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. He's saying, even your worship services have become an abomination to me because of the fact that, here, there's no reference that they were doing them wrong. It's not like Malachi, where God's pointing that out through Malachi. Here, he's just saying, you're offering up these offerings, maybe even in line with how the Old Testament recommended that they be done, but God says, I can't even look at your offerings. So it matters. But there's a remedy. The remedy is this. The remedy is in James chapter four, verse eight. And if you find yourself hearing this and you feel some conviction, like we all do, we all should be feeling that conviction when we hear these things, consider James chapter four, verse eight. Draw near to God. and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord. He will exalt you. Cry out to God. If you're harboring secret sin, cry out to God. Read the words, see what it says, go to the word. The thing is, when you're living in sin, your tendency is to isolate from the word. Stop reading the word. Your tendency is to isolate from brothers and sisters in Christ and stop being around them, because even being around them makes you feel guilty. The tendency is to stop coming to church, because you just feel guilty, right? You feel that. Well, look, the answer isn't to isolate and to run. The answer is to run to God. And the times when you feel like you shouldn't go to church or you shouldn't read the Bible, you shouldn't be around Christians, that's the time when you need to go to church, read the Bible, and be around Christians. Because the longer you stay in that state, the further you go the other way by degrees. And then the next thing you know, you get into a deeper sin and it looks like you're not coming back. I say it looks like because God can do anything. God can do anything. I'm trusting in that for some friends of mine that have gone a long way away. So posture means nothing without integrity. Pray for your elders here. Pray for Pastor Randall, pray for me. Pray that we would be men of integrity. Pray that we would keep short accounts with sin and quickly repent. Because I know that both Pastor Randall and I both know that we're not above falling. I know men who have fallen who are way better than me. Way better. And they've fallen from ministry and they're disqualified. Pray for us. Because we live in the same world that you live in. Right? We're not supermen. Absolutely. We're not. And so pray that we would remain faithful so that we could say that with confidence. Psalm chapter 24 This will be the last comment on this and we'll move on to finish. Psalm 24 verses 3 and 4. So pray that we would be able to You know, live up to this high standard we can't live up to. Pray for the impossible. Pray for God to do that by his gospel in our lives. And then the second truth about character mattering. Is that a word, mattering? Probably not. Proper attitude. Proper attitude at the end of the verse. Lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. Well, anger is really easy to understand what that is. Arthur Way in his translation of the epistle says, Look at James chapter 1 verse 19. James chapter 1 verse 19. When you pray, you got anger in your heart towards a brother or sister in Christ, It's one of those things, God's just not going to hear that prayer. Right? James 1, verse 19. In this context, in James 1, I've heard this preached. I think Tom Pennington says this, who often speaks at the Shepherds Conferences and whatnot. He's a pastor over in Southlake. He says that in the context, he's talking about anger that has to do with what you're hearing from the Word of God. You're feeling conviction, so you get angry. Maybe at the preacher or whatever. And therefore in the context of verses 19 and 20, it's slow to speak, slow to anger, and the anger of man is in the context of hearing the Word of God. And so if you're getting angry about what the Word of God says, prayer is not effective in that situation. The right attitude towards the Word of God when you hear it, even when it convicts you, is submission. It's possible, I don't think, I was telling somebody this morning, I think I know my audience pretty well here. I don't think anybody would really get angry about me saying that men have to lead in prayer, that it's men that do that. But I might be wrong. I could be wrong. I've been wrong once or twice in my life. I know it's surprising. I've been wrong. So maybe somebody here is upset with that idea that men should lead in prayer. Your issue is the issue of James chapter one, verse 19. Don't be angry about what you're hearing from the word of God. Receive with meekness the implanted word. That's the attitude that we need to have. Instead of saying, I'm gonna rebel against that, I'm gonna rebel against hearing this thing about men leading. I'm gonna go find another church, I'm gonna do this or that. That path is a bad path. It's far better to receive with meekness the Word. What's able to do what? Save your soul. It's not just the preacher, you know, they used to say, don't shoot the messenger, right? It's the Word of God. I have no authority. Without anger, we receive it, and without quarreling. Go back to 1 Timothy 1.8. and it's translated quarreling. This is a very difficult word in the Greek, chapter 2, verse 8. It's a very difficult word in the Greek to translate. What can it mean? What are the possibilities? Well, in classical Greek, it meant to think through by personal thought, deliberation, and inward reasoning. So like you're logically thinking through something, is the idea in the original classical Greek. Kittel says in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, it can also be used for anxious reflection or doubt. The New English Bible translates it as quarrelsome thoughts. Arthur Way translates it, harboring no lurking skepticism. So the question amongst Greek scholars is, are we talking about something that is outward in any way, or is it completely inward? Is it completely that you're thinking things through inwardly and you're upset about something that you're mulling over inwardly? Or is it something that actually results in literal outward quarreling, outward fighting? Is it an internal or external conflict? I'm going with internal. And so the anger is outward that's being rebuked here, right? Don't be angry outwardly. But you know how it is, right? You could get mad at somebody and never say anything to them. You might get all passive aggressive, right? Make little shots at them and say, well, you know, try to get them back without me really saying it. Or you might not say anything at all and just bottle that up, right? Bottle up that anger. And so when you go to pray, if you're praying and you've got outward divisions within the church, right? Or maybe they're not even outward and straight up anger, but they're inward. Either way, God knows your heart. He knows what's going on. He's not dumb. He can see what's happening, both outside of you and inside of you. And so the person that leads in prayer can't be messed up with that. He can't be messed up with all this inconsistency. Why? A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. You can't have him saying one thing, oh, bless this church, all that, while inwardly they're going, man, I hope some of these people just disappear. You know, that is not the Spirit of God. And it's not the Spirit of Christ. And so that's what he's getting at when he's talking about holy hands in this context of all of this with lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. Now, we live in a time when seminaries, churches, and entire denominations want to blur the line between the responsibilities of men and women. In the culture, men are not sure that they are men, even though they're born with all the identifying features. Same thing with women. Culture is downstream from the church. A lot of times we act as if the culture does this and we're just following along. Uh-uh. The culture imitates what they see in the church. The reason why we have more genders than Baskin-Robbins has flavors of ice cream is due to the fact that so many churches, seminaries, and denominations have engaged in what amounts to spiritualized gender reassignment surgeries in the church. women preachers, women in other forms of leadership, and self-emasculated men that are willing to surrender their responsibilities to anyone with the pronouns she or her, have been confusing these roles for the last 50 years. Maybe longer. And now we're surprised that people cannot figure out if they are a boy, a girl, or something in between. Where did they learn that? In the church. in churches that wanted to be thought of as relevant over the last 50 years and decided to compromise on the revealed word of God. They learned it from the church because we weren't willing to stand on this because back then we thought it was offensive. And now we're reaping the whirlwind. The whole culture is reaping the whirlwind. While this culture tries to figure out whether or not they're really the gender that they're born with, by the word, Baptist Church will hold to the biblical roles of men and women in church leadership, including who leads in public prayer. Let's close in prayer. Lord, we thank you that you do not leave us without a guide. especially in a culture like this one, we are partly responsible for, if not mainly responsible for. Lord, I pray that you would help us to hold the line. Help us to hold the line on what is right in regards to men and women's roles in church leadership. No matter what, the entire denomination, Lord, no matter what, all the churches in the country, if every other one says we're gonna allow it, help us to have the resolve that we won't, because your word is true. Let God be true and every man a liar. Lord, help us to hold firm to truth. Help us not to be self-righteous about it. At the same time, to hold to it and to point people to it, not because we're smarter than everyone else, because that's not the case, but because your word has spoken. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.