chapter five, and I looked this up, so I know this. It's page one, two, three, five. If you have a church Bible, kind of easy to remember, just skip four. One, two, three, five. And if you have a church Bible, that'll help you find the page that we're on. But 1 Timothy chapter five. And for the last two weeks, we've been looking at the topic of caring for others, or maybe three weeks, but the last two weeks having to do with caring for widows, kind of social aspect of a church ministry where you're caring for those that actually have a legitimate need and especially godly widows. And so last week, what we looked at, there were some good verses on godly manhood and godly womanhood. And it's good as whatever our gender is, to look at verses like that in the Bible, get a biblical worldview about what we're supposed to be like. world is very gender confused, and they've got their own ideas, but the Bible's very clear about how we should think about that. So godly men, we need to fulfill our duty as breadwinner, you know, provider, protector, is kind of a big part of our ministry to our family. And so verse 8 says, but if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. An infidel is somebody that blasphemes God and is against God, but somebody that lives a disobedient Christian life is worse than an infidel, because they say they profess they follow Christ, but by their life they deny him, and that's worse than an infidel that's clearly on the side against God, somebody that looks like they're on God's side, but by their works, they're obviously not. It's confusing and hurts even more than infidelity. So that's a godly man, be somebody that provides. A godly woman, Needs to fulfill her duty of good works. All right, so verse 10, well-reported of for good works. If she had brought up children, if she had lodged strangers, if she had washed the saints' feet, if she had relieved the afflicted, if she had diligently followed every good work. And we looked at those different aspects of that, but that's a great part of what a woman's ministry is, and some great things that she could be doing there for the Lord. Now, my cousin had a baby today, praise the Lord. And we were texting with my family about that, rejoicing in that. And I said, oh, how fun. You know, you've got the mom and dad, little boy there. And my brother goes, fun? Question mark? Childbirth? And I went back with the verse, the Bible says, you know, a woman that has gone through labor, She forgets the pain for the joy that a child has been born." And my mom chimed in and said, give her a couple days or something like that. And I said, yeah, it'd be probably good to have a woman commentator help us a little bit on that verse, because obviously men haven't experienced that. Sometimes as a preacher, I feel like that a little bit. As I look at different things, I can't obviously relate exactly to a woman, but the Bible can. So praise God for that, because what we're looking at tonight has a lot to do with womanhood, but praise God for the Word of God that teaches us about that. As men, it's good for us to understand godly womanhood, and for us, obviously, as women, to understand what God expects from us. So praise God for that gender-specific truth in the Word of God that we can look at. Let's pray. Ask the spirit of God to help us as we come to the word of God. Father, I am grateful tonight for the opportunity to be in the house of God. I'm grateful for the privilege of preaching the truth and unashamedly I trust and I hope and boldly as I ought because this is the word of God. And Father, you know, this sad thing is a lot of times, Father, in our world, Christians can feel like they need to apologize for God, apologize for the Bible because our world's perspective of things that are so contra-Christ, so anti-Christ, that we know that we think that we shouldn't say things that the Bible clearly says. And so I just pray, Spirit of God, give us grace to think biblically. Help us not to think in a worldly way. And we desire the power of God tonight where two or three are gathered together my name there in the midst we desire That the Spirit of God would have his way in our life. So I pray that for Mrs. Schor in her class with the kids. I pray that they would listen attentively I pray that they'd have a great spirit tonight. They certainly seem like they have a great good attitude tonight, and I pray that they'd have a quiet spirit as they listen to the Word of God, that they would really take it in. And Father, it's amazing to us as a church how many times we've seen a child accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. We pray for that, for the children that have not yet accepted Jesus, Lord God, that they get saved. And then for us in this time, Lord, I pray again, help us to put on our biblical glasses, Father, where our thoughts contradict your thoughts, help us not to be proud, help us to have the humility to recognize, let God be true in every man a liar, that God speaks infallibly, that our human heart is sinful in its nature, and that without our exercising the application of the word of God, that we would not think correctly. And so it's no surprise if we're not thinking correctly about something. I pray God fix that even tonight. And so God give us ears to hear. Help me as I speak. I can't speak without your enablement. So I ask for your enablement tonight. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay and so we're going to jump back into this idea of widowhood and Lord willing we'll finish it tonight and move on to other things next week. So let's start with the danger of handouts because that's what speaking about it's about handing out material things to help whether financial or food. to be a blessing to these widows. And so it starts out with, in verse 11, do not hand out assistance to younger widows. And we saw this last week, that there's an age cap, and it's 60 and above, all right? If you're younger than 60, then Paul says you're not supposed to be on this role for those that receive help from the church. So it says in verse 11, but the younger widows refuse. And you might think, well, that's kind of mean, you know, and think about it from the perspective of a church. You got a widow come and maybe she got tears coming out of her eyes and, you know, she's in agony and she's pleading for help. And I'm not trying to make it seem like Paul's heartless. I'm sure there would be a sympathy on the part of Timothy or anybody to look at that and say, we'd really like to meet your need. But sometimes it's better not to meet a need than to meet a need. And that's the consideration here, that it could be, there's a danger to handouts and that can hurt somebody. And so Paul is really being wise in what he's saying about not helping this young widow. There's a seal, I know this is gonna just be so interesting to us tonight, named Spearmint. Spearmint, and Spearmint the seal, as a young seal, started getting handouts. And so the people were feeding him donuts, I read that, and all sorts of stuff he's getting. Obviously, that's probably not good for him. Plus, he's losing his fear of men, and that's not a good thing, because that's dangerous to him. So they relocated him or her, I guess, maybe her, and It says, well, we all hoped she would rewild, but upon discovering Plymouth, that city in England, this became more difficult and the feeding began once more and bad habits remained. She more recently started to come onto roads and was becoming a real risk to herself and others. Why? Because she's getting handouts. Don Jarvis, Director of Welfare and Conservation at British Marine Life Rescue, told BBC Radio 4's Today program, he said, in Spearman's case here, the whole problem started when she started being fed. Okay, she's been given handouts by people in the wild, either from the pier or on boat trips last summer. Unfortunately, because she's quite a young seal, she was only a few months old at the time, this has potentially been life-changing for her behavior because it's made her quite habituated to approaching people and interacting with them. Now, that age gap, or age that Paul says, 60 and older. Now, in Britain, do people get handouts younger than 60? Yes, like very young. They could be 16, 17, 18. They could get their own provision by the government. I mean, the government give them money, give them a lot of things, which I suppose it's okay if it helps you get your toe on the rung and you're able to get on going on your own. But a lot of times what it does, it makes that person dependent upon that so that they're not working and don't learn how to work. And that's detrimental. to them. So real help would be, hey, you need to get a job and provide for yourself, okay? And so don't hand out assistance to younger widows. And then secondly, The danger of handouts explained. Okay, he's going to get into why this could be bad. And so a windfall of social help is going to cool their dependence upon God. Remember those older widows, they've learned to depend upon God. They are trusting God. They are godly. They're going to have a huge impact in the church. But he's saying a younger widow like this, the danger is that she's not going to respond that way. That this is going to be detrimental to her spiritually. Rather than becoming spiritual, she'll become worldly. And so, for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry, having damnation because they have cast off their first faith, okay? Now, there's some words that we don't use, okay? To wax wanton against Christ. It means, it has the idea of voluptuous living, and that means that relating to or characterized by luxury or sensual pleasure. So rather than becoming godly, depending upon God, she's begun to indulge the flesh and be a worldly person. Now when they joined up to the enrollment with the church, it seems like they were actually signing up to say, I'm gonna get involved in the work of the church. Like Dorcas, we looked at her recently. And so there was a commitment that I'm gonna be helping in this way, but this younger widow is more likely to have a temptation to worldliness and to reject that and turn back from that living for God. Now in the verse it says damnation. Sometimes when we read damnation in the Bible, we think hellfire, right? And that's that, we understand that's the way our world only primarily uses the word when they curse and usurp God's authority of damnation to somebody. But damnation in the Bible can mean judgment, all right? So they're gonna, it's not that they're not saved, they're not gonna be cast into hell, but they're gonna reap God's judgment or chastening because they're going into a worldly lifestyle. And notice it says that they're gonna marry, all right? And we'll talk about that, but they're seeking a relationship, and it's not primarily focused their life upon God, like the older widows is drawn in close to God. But they're gonna just seek to find a relationship, and it's not probably a godly relationship, as we'll consider. But Matthew 10.37 says, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And even in a good marriage, the priority ought to be God first. If I'm right, listen, if I'm right as a husband with God, and my wife is right as a wife with God, then we're gonna have a really strong relationship because that's gonna be a good relationship as it ought to be. But this young lady is not that way. She's going into a worldly relationship, maybe a relationship maybe with an unsaved man or something like that. and that's going to lead them astray. Now, I want to point out, it says they will marry and it says it like it's a bad thing. Why does it say it like it's a bad thing? Because again, it has to do with ungodliness. So that's very clear in the context. In verse 14, you can look down at it there in the word of God, he's going to give a high statement about marriage. We're going to get into it tonight. And so he's not saying, them getting married is bad. In fact, it's what he recommends, but what he's talking about here is they're getting married outside of the will of God and in a godly relationship, okay? And so they're going to corrupt themselves if you just give them money. Paul says that's the danger, so don't do it. Don't give them the help. Let them do the other things that he's going to talk about in just a second. So if you do, this is what will happen. They will also be educated in idleness. So look at verse 13. It says, and with all they learn to be idle. All right, idle means doing nothing. It's like a car that's sitting and it's running, but it's nothing's happening. It's idling, right? And they're just, they could get into a lifestyle where they're wasting their life. They're getting the handouts. Everything's fine. They don't have to work. Don't have to provide for themselves. And they got all this time on their hands. Now, should a Christian waste their life being idle? Absolutely not. God's given us a stewardship in life. He's given us gifts. He's given us abilities. And he has given us time. Time is something that I'm to be a steward of and use it for God. Now, Jesus himself, think about Jesus. Did Jesus work hard? I think you look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, rising yet a great while before day, going all day sometimes without eating, serving others. I mean, he worked extremely hard. And he said, John 9, verse 4, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. And so Jesus' idea was, I got to get it done now because the day's coming where it can't be done. And that's our life. We don't want to get to the end of our life and think, what could I have done with my life, right? I want to focus on what can I do with my life now? How can I use my life for the Lord? Colossians 3.23 says, So I'm to work as the Lord. If God was my boss, How would I work? That's how I ought to work, right? I ought to give my very best, as if God is watching, because He is, and to the Lord. Ephesians 4, 28 says, Somebody that wants to get ahead, Unjustly, like we talked about in our study of Proverbs, they ought to go get a job, ought to provide for themselves and give generously to others with what they are given. 2 Thessalonians 3.10, for even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. All right, if a man is in our church and he refuses to work, guess what the Bible says? That man ought not eat. He had to put some food on his table for himself, for his family. That's a God-given responsibility to men. Now, Calum, you liking McDonald's? Going well for you? Yeah, good. I'm glad to hear you say that. I worked at McDonald's when I was growing up. In high school and college, I worked at McDonald's. One thing I'll say about my McDonald's, they taught you to work. You didn't stand around without anything to do. If you didn't have anything to do at your location, wherever you're working, in the grill or up front, you grabbed a towel, you're cleaning trays, you're wiping off tables, you're doing stainless in the grill, you're always busy. Why? Because they're paying you to work. And I love that about McDonald's. They didn't let you be idle. They say, hey, go get something done. Now, the government gives a lot of money to a lot of people, but for doing what? Nothing. And so let me ask you, do we have a problem with litter on our streets? Yes. Do we have a problem with potholes? Do we have a problem with the grass not being cut on the verges of our roads? Yes, we do. Wouldn't it be better for the government to say, hey, we've got some jobs available and we'd gladly hire you, pay you money to go out and pick up litter. We'll pay you money to go out and cut the grass. We'll pay you money to go clean or something like that. The government would be better off to say, hey, you can't get a job right now. That's okay. We'll hire you and we'll give you some work to do. and will pay you, and that would be a good thing. Socialism, just giving money to healthy people, educates many to be idle. That's not a good thing if you're just sitting around with time on your hands because you're not working. By the way, is work part of the curse? No, hard work is part of the curse. Difficult work is part of the curse. Adam was working before the curse took place. Work is not part of the curse. Work is satisfying. God labored for how many days? Six days. On the seventh day, he rested and he was teaching us. And it's a good thing for a man to work. Listen, a man that doesn't work is unfulfilled. There's a lot of satisfaction looking at a job that you did. Say, I did that, and there's a reward to that as well financially. It's a great thing. And so we talk about men and women here. And a lot of this, by the way, it'll apply both ways. And certainly, it's not only a woman that gets paid. socially, it could be a man that gets paid socially, the same result's gonna follow. Idleness and then going on here. They're gonna have too much time on their hands. All right, verse 13. It says, wondering about from house to house, right? Nothing else to do. So I'm gonna go visit so-and-so. And it doesn't matter if they're working or not. If they are working, I'm gonna interrupt them. If they're not working, we're together. We're just both on the dole and just socializing here. Now, in our day, do you have to go to the house to get together with them? Nope, you got social media, you got texting. I mean, you got all these avenues to interrupt their day or to, you know, to get connected and chat rooms and whatnot. And so a lot of people that are on the dole can just get together somehow, some way, and spend that time together wondering about from house to house. Now, if you're a diligent person, then you're a person that's good at budgeting your time. You're somebody that can look at your day, kind of plan out your day and figure out how to get it done. Now I had a teacher, Dr. Salters. Dr. Salters was not only a German, but he was a Nazi, a former Nazi. He got saved. He's a tough man. He went through some tough things in the war that he experienced. And he would come in to our freshman class and there would be six, 700 of us. And he was saying, all right, freshman his first year. I remember, you're a stupid freshman, you know, him saying that and stuff. I mean, he's just a tough guy, but a great guy. Everybody loved him. But he would take us through this thing of a time budget. And I mean, it was every 15 minutes of your day, you'd plan it out, what you're gonna be doing with those 15 minutes. And I'm like, I'm just, you know, young and I'm at school and I'm thinking, oh, that's great, that's great. You know, I tried it for a week and then I quit. You know, I just can't live my life like that. I'd rather get up in the morning, spend some time in prayer, ask God to guide me in His perfect will for my day, look at my priorities, think about them, organize my day. But the thing is this, for us to be effective or efficient with our time, we have to have some ability to do that. to be a diligent person, examine what needs to be done, work it in so that we can get it done. That's a good thing. Right. It's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for us just to kind of sit around and fritter away time or wasting time. Now, is it OK to go to other people's houses? I hope so, because Nathan and Molly came over last night and we had a great time. You know, it's OK to do that. But there's a time to work and there's a time to play, you know, and we got to get we got to get our work done. All right, so they all have too much time on their hands. Then their tongues will want to work when their body does not want to work. Their tongues will want to work. And so there's a quote, it says, idle time is the devil's playground. If I've got time on my hand, what's the potential? Well, the potential is that it's going to lead me into sin, that I'm going to not just be idle, but Satan's going to give temptation to me because I'm not working, I've got extra time, and so extra time to fail into some sin. And so it says, verse 13, and not only idle, but tattlers also in busy bodies speaking things which they ought not. You know, I had a woman tell me, she said, The Bible is so chauvinistic. You know, Paul hated women. Well, no, Paul spoke highly of women. Read Romans chapter 16. I listened to it on my earbuds yesterday, I think, or today when I was out running. And Paul says, greet Phoebe for me. She's the one that carried the letter to the Romans for him. And he mentions all these women that were godly women helping in the church. He had a high view of women, and he would come hard at men at times, he'd come hard at women at times, and guess what? It's the Word of God. And see, read a verse like this, and the world would say, oh, he's chauvinistic. No. What he's warning about is a very real danger, not just for women, but I think from the context we'd say maybe more of a temptation to women because of their care and interest in other people's lives, that maybe they would be more interested in this, but these women could tell really juicy stories. You know? I mean, they had all the gossip, all the things going on. My wife and I, we went on a date last week, and we're sitting there at the restaurant, and two of the workers actually took a break right beside us. And the one worker was very verbal, and she's just, I mean, just going so fast, firing at the other person, but it was all about other people. I had to plug my ear. I was going to know a lot of stuff about people I don't know. It's kind of one of those classic opportunities to kind of see this in action, that all this stuff is being talked about. And so they weren't about their own business, but they're meddling in others' business. So let me just give you some definitions of these words that are here. Tatlers, you might have a guess at it. It's gossip, okay, gossipers. Busybodies, that's a meddler, you know, somebody that's kind of sowing some discord a little bit, getting involved in things they ought not get involved in, busybodies. Speaking things which they ought not, that means they're disclosing secrets. They found out something, and they're gonna pass it on. So that's what's happening. Now, our family likes to watch an old television show, black and white mostly, Annie Griffith's show in the United States. It was really kind of a wholesome show that was on, and it largely is a pretty fun type show. But they do one called, it might be called Those Gossiping Men, I think might be the name. The women were gossiping, and then all of a sudden the men begin to gossip as well. And you watch the show, and guess what? It is funny. I mean, it is funny. You're watching it, I mean, laughing and stuff. But in real life, if somebody takes something about your life that they wormed their way in, they tried to figure out, and they take it, and it's hurtful to you, and they go behind your back to somebody else, and they're telling somebody else about it, and they shouldn't even be talking about it. They're privy to it for some reason, maybe even. That's hurtful. Can you imagine what happened to a church or a family that has this kind of thing in it? And so Paul's saying, you don't want that. You don't wanna have that kind of environment. And so what is he saying? The danger of handouts is idleness, going house to house, gossiping, meddling, telling secrets. Stay away from that. So it's a good warning, all right? So he starts with that here as we're looking at it. That's the danger of handouts. But then secondly, the design of helpful instruction, okay? If there was a, say there's a godly young lady, widow or not, that comes to Paul and says, Paul, here I am, I'm young, you know, I'm seeking God's will for my life, maybe. What's your advice? What would you say to me? What should I do, okay? Paul's advice is given here. And he would say, seek a godly mate. Seek a godly mate. It says in verse 14, I will therefore that the younger women marry." Okay, is getting married a bad aspiration? No, no, it's a great aspiration. I know when I went to Bible college, that they said about some of the young ladies that were there at Bible college, that they were there to get their MRS, their Mrs. degree. And you could laugh at that, you know, whatever, but hey, that's great. And at Bible college, that's a great place. Cause there's a lot of godly people that are there as well, seeking God's will. And so that's a great thing. My wife and I met at Bible college. And so, speaking about marriage, obviously in the will of God, Paul would not recommend that a young lady just go out and seek somebody. And that's why we've seen him against marriage, and now he's for marriage. He's speaking about somebody that's godly. Why? Because if you get married to somebody that's not godly, there's a problem. 2 Corinthians 6 14 says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? So if you've got an unsafe spouse and a safe spouse, you know what you got? A lot of times it's difficulty. Because the Spirit of God is speaking to that saved spouse and saying, you know what, it could be about tithing, giving 10% of our income to the Lord's work and trusting God with that. And I can show you scripture about that. And God honors that. Our family has seen God bless us in ways that we look at and say, it's just God's goodness because of this truth, okay? But if only one spouse has that working in their heart, and they say to an unsafe spouse, I really feel like God wants us to give more to church, guess what? It's not gonna maybe fly real well, because that unbeliever's not gonna get that. Or, you know, honey, I need to go out and do evangelism. I need to get involved in some soul winning with the church. Well, again, I mean, she or he is going to look at that and think how, you know, what about our time and stuff? How can you give your time to God? A faithful church attendance, being in the house of God, separation from the world, setting aside some things, discipline of children and all that stuff. Just think how tough that gets. if as a husband and wife we can't agree to follow what God says and do what God says. And so, but Paul is definitely saying marriage is a great thing. That is a wonderful thing. And I was, again, listening to scripture this morning. I actually got into 1 Corinthians when I was running and listening to that. And Paul speaks about, you know, in our day, in the day of persecution, If somebody is not married and they can stay unmarried, that's great. You can do so much for God as a single person. But if they can't handle that, get married. And again, he's just, he's both, you could do both, but it's gotta be for God's glory. And so seek a godly mate. And then letter, in my notes, you don't have them, letter B, rejoice to bear children. All right, rejoice to bear children. It says, I will therefore that the younger women marry and bear children. Now is our world pro-life? By and large, no. Are they pro-motherhood? No. It's interesting to think about, and I want to get us kind of thinking, you know, biblically life works, but unbiblically life does not work. And so a world that has a small view of motherhood, and is pro-choice, killing babies in the womb, there's a problem. And the problem is this, the BBC spoke about it. It was an article entitled this, Remarkable Decline in Fertility Rates. It says, quote, countries need to have a birth rate of at least 2.1 children per woman to sustain the population. But the average figure in Europe is about 1.59. According to the UN, two-thirds of countries in Europe have introduced measures to increase fertility rates from baby bonuses and tax incentives to paid parental leave with varying degrees of success. Now, they're trying to fix it. How are they trying to fix it? With money. You know how they need to fix it? With doctrine. The problem is they've taught them wrong. What have they said? They have said that they can choose their gender. How does that work with God's plan of one man, one woman, and reproduction? They've said same-sex marriages. How does that work? I'm not trying to be crude, but it doesn't work because that doesn't produce an offspring. They don't honor marriage. They say just live together, just try it. So there's no commitment and therefore you don't want to have children because that leads to commitment. And so let's kill the kids because that's what our world says is okay. Let's just go ahead and kill the baby in the womb because that baby's really a problem, not a blessing. They say a woman ought to get a career, you know? that their body's their own. It's kind of like this idea that it's bad to get pregnant. That's my body and I don't want to get pregnant. Well, wait a second. Praise God. God made men and God made women and they're both vital and they're both wonderful. And the sexes are great in God's will. And we ought to teach this to young people that they ought to embrace their God-given identity, that God made them that way for a reason, and that it's a valuable tool that God has given to them. Right? And so rejoice to bear children. You know, I praise God that Shem, Ham, and Japheth and Noah's wives wanted to be mothers. What if they got off the ark and said, I want my career? I'm not trying to be overly silly, but the fact is, you and I had to get on our knees and say, God, thank you. Thank you that those four women obeyed God because God said to not just them, but their husbands, God said in Genesis 9, verse one, God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Okay, now think about this. What is happening in our world with the birthrate is a direct result of men casting away God. and it's gonna destroy our nation because it's unsustainable at this birth rate. By the way, I don't know how you have 2.1 kids. I recommend going for three, all right? But you understand how that works out. And so rejoice to bear children. And then be diligent as a homemaker. Be diligent as a homemaker. Notice what it says. It says guide the, what? Now, wait a second, I thought the husband's the head of the wife, the Bible says, so the husband's the head of the home. Is that biblical? Yes, it is. But notice what it says here, the woman, her dominion is over what? The house, the house, her dominion is there, that's her castle. And you know, I was thinking about this last night and I said to the guys as we traveled to get something for her house, it's a long story, but it has to do with tables and somebody selling a table and getting a table and giving a table and all these things happening at one time. But what I noticed about it was this, the wives were involved. There was a wife that was selling something that, I mean, her husband wasn't even sure about the price, because she put it online. And there was a wife that was buying something, right? All this is taking place, and guess what? The guys are just kind of like, whatever. OK, whatever we need to do. The guys are carrying a lot of tables and stuff. But it was interesting to me, because that's the way it works. because that's the woman's castle. She's got authority there in organizing those things. That's a great thing. And it's a great thing for a woman to do that diligently. Proverbs 31 says this, who can find a virtuous woman, a godly woman, her price is far above rubies. Verse 27, she looketh well to the ways of her household. She eateth not the bread of idleness. Doesn't that go with our verses? She eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excelest them all. Guess what? The word of God says that is a great woman. And there's great men, and there's great women. And praise God for that. She's somebody that gets in there, she guides her house. And then he's warning them, do not disgrace your position of godly womanhood. It says, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Don't get into idleness, don't get into gossip, don't get into these things. Be a homemaker or be into that position. Verse 15, for some have already turned aside after whom? Satan. So when we see a generation of young people that are on the dole, they're not working, they're not providing, and I'm talking men or women, regardless, they're not getting their job done. Who are they following? Satan. And Paul warns you about that and says, get back and think right about this. You know, we ought to do everything in our power to wipe the smile off of Satan's face. How? By embracing the position that God's given to us as a provider, primarily as a man, or as a woman providing as need be, if that's God's plan, but not missing out on what God's plan is within that home. And so embracing our position in the family, first of all, father, provider, protector, mother, nurturer, manager of the home. And then Paul summarizes, okay? So here we go. Just this last verse here, he summarizes. He says, men and young women take care of your own family. Look at verse 16. If any man or what? Woman that believeth have widows. Okay, you got these elderly widows, but they're not, you know, they're in their family. Let them relieve them, no matter what their age. The church isn't responsible for 60 and over if there's young people that can provide for them. Does that make sense? Going back to our previous instruction. So there's a responsibility there. You know, I've heard of missionaries that have left the field to go back to care for their parents. You know what? That's biblical. If there's nobody back there to take care of them, that's my responsibility. My mom and dad, and praise God for me, I've got family in the States that are a strong support team for my mom and dad. But if my mom and dad ever need me, guess what? I go back there because I've got a responsibility to take care of my parents. I certainly need to be aware of their needs. And then, The second thing, free up the church to care for those who have legitimate need, okay? So it says, let not the church be charged. It shouldn't be their bill that they're covering. Why? So that they can relieve them that are widows indeed. If the church is caught up providing for a bunch of people that ought to be provided for by somebody else, then those that have a real need, guess what? their needs aren't being met. And it's the same with the state. Think about the social government again. Are there people that aren't having their needs met in Britain? Yes. That have a legitimate needs? Yes. Why? Because so much is being put into maybe other people that don't have legitimate needs that there isn't enough to maybe meet a legitimate need. So the government as well could benefit from our study even here tonight. So just a few questions as we conclude. First of all, is your view of social help a biblical view? All right, just thinking about government or otherwise, do you believe in a limited giving to the population, encouraging work for youngers? I mean, that ought to be our worldview. They ought to work, they ought to go get a job, not live off the government. Is your view of the family a biblical view of the family, that husband primarily is provider, that wife is primarily a mother and ruler of her home? And the third question, Will you repent if needed and change your view to God's view? And see, that's where the rubber meets the road, isn't it? When we come to the word of God and go, that's not the way I think. You know why? Because it's not the way the world thinks. But this is what God says. And if we want our family to work right, and also just everything to kind of work right, we got to take what God says and say, that's the way I'm going to think about it. And if we do that, praise God, we're going to think biblically. All right, let's pray. Father, may the spirit of God just take the truth of the word of God to our hearts tonight. It is good for us to look at this. It's good, first of all, because the world has a completely different worldview. And Father, that doesn't surprise us. Our world is anti-Christ, anti-truth, anti-authority. But Father, if we want it to work, then we need to obey the Bible. And so I pray for that. Lord, I long to see families in our church that are biblical families that really take up the positions that, God, you've given to them within that marriage and honor God with that. Because that is gonna make a strong family. And Father, it would be better to sacrifice financially so that we could have a biblical family than to have more money, less obedience to God, and to mess it up. We're going to look at some good truth about this even on Sunday about our family, but I just pray, Spirit of God, take those truths, put them into our hearts, put them into our lives, and we pray that we think biblically. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, all right.