We look at God's design. People come to a conclusion sometimes and they state that really that Paul's bringing this thought that maybe in the order it is the thought that women have just become lesser. in the thought of value. Paul does not do this. Matter of fact, this verse gives to us something even greater than the thought that it would be to downplay in the role of a woman in the idea of church or even in a family. It is not. One of the things you see, he says, he states that in the Lord, meaning that as people are united together as a church here, that we are interdependent. Interdependent. If you go all the way back into Genesis, you find in Genesis chapter 1, it says, God said, let us make man in our image. And then the verse later on from that verse says, and he made them male and female. One of the things you see is in the creation. Right from the very beginning in the gender roles, there is this point that, yes, man. Moses writes and he says man. Why didn't he just say, let us make men and women in our image? He writes in a past tense. He's declaring what God has declared. Let us make man, mankind. And then he says, and let them, and when you think of them, there he's speaking of men and women. And later on in chapter 2, we get the actual description that a woman is actually made from man. Man is made from the dust of the earth from God. So it may seem sometimes as though the thought that male have a superiority over women. That is not true. One of the things he is saying, he's directly stating the design that God has established engendered. He made actually man from the dust of the ground in his image. Then he turned around and took from man and he made woman. Well, if man is made in the image, if a woman is taken from man, then that would mean a woman also is made in the image of God. So creation and its design makes a statement for us. But he also goes a little farther here and teaches us something that's very important to see in the fact that we are interdependent, male and female. It's kind of an interesting setting here because that is in the way that as men we would find the head of man is Christ. In order for man to fully glorify God and to glorify God as God has intended with honor, we also see that he's also created woman. Now, we can say, well, as married people, we'd say, oh yeah. Because I will tell you, I have a lot of weaknesses. And some of those weaknesses are covered by Connie. In the sense where it comes to a place where if you want actually intellectual communication, you would need Connie. Part of my communication when it comes to writing something down and writing a paper. Now, I can put down and sometimes I just, I mess up on a few things here and there and with dyslexia, you kind of just, the thought is in your head but it doesn't make it to the paper. You may even read something and you don't necessarily get what the actual maybe direct meaning is and you need a little help comes along. Well, man was created and then woman came because woman was for man. Because man needed help. That's what the scripture says. And the woman was part of that help. We say, well, even in the church, that is part of the thought of the church. Even when it comes to the area, where even sometimes in churches, you know, as we think of role responsibility, sometimes guys are elevated to a certain superior point of the church. But I got to say, we have to be careful with that. Because in God's design, God has given to us women, even as in the part of the church, that we would understand that interdependency. And so even when it comes to this interdependency, it is what he states here. That where do men come from? Where do men come from? You say it with me. God! Yeah, you're right. Women! There isn't a person that's here that has not been born of a woman. So what does that mean? We need women just as much as you need men. And the interdependency is here. And the Apostle Paul is actually saying in this church, he's expressing this concept of interdependency. Is he saying there's a problem? He sure is. Last week, In the difficulty of last week, I had a migraine. It was like crazy. I love the fact I told Chris, I said, I'm so sorry. When he stood there with the juice like this, and I said something about, hey, let's give thanks for the bread. And I looked down, I was like, oh, my stars. And you probably all saw Chris going, sorry, Chris. And I was like, oh, but last week, As we look at even the whole part when it comes to interdependency and the woman and the responsibilities and recognizing here what Paul has to say and what he does with head covering, he is bringing home a point. And yes, does it deal with corporate worship? Yes. And it will continue through the chapters. And to understand this, as we see here, he sets it up with the idea. And I like this. I think Lou does this. And Julius does this. When you address my wife, what do you address her as? Sister. Is that right? Sister Connie. You got it from Julius. Don't take glory in it. Don't take some glory in it. But we do, when we talk about the church here, because this is what he's talking about, interdependency, he's talking about the church. We are brothers and sisters here, with the concept of a family. So sometimes, that's why you see here, the word here is sometimes women, and then sometimes it's wives. Because yes, he is talking about family and family relationships, even with husbands, even in the setting of the church. And so we get to the part here where he does this as brothers and sisters. It doesn't mean to ignore the idea of spouses or anything like that, but the role here is the idea of men and women in the church, in the church of Christ, and no one is superior over another. They all, when you think of all of them here, they have, every one of us, have been born from a woman. It's there. So you can say, well, wait a minute, that kind of removes the superior concept. because we are in need. And that's what he does here. He sets this with the idea that there is a role for men and there's a role for women. And it's good to see the idea of the role that he sets before us here. And so even here, we kind of come to the idea that God has given to the church, okay, men and women, and each one of them have certain gifts within the church. And we know this even in this passage because he says, he talks about a man who actually prophesies and his head's covered. And then he talks about a woman who prophesies and her head is uncovered. And what do you mean? Praying and prophesying. Well, today this is kind of what we saw. And you do see here in Oasis that we do this. And I will tell you, if you haven't caught this, it is a point. It's a point that I make as pastor. I know that's been conversation within our men. Our men actually are in full agreement with this, is that you'll notice that sometimes in some churches, women don't get up and actually read scripture or pray in the service in front of everybody. It's usually, in a sense, looked down upon. But this passage actually says that there's a place in the areas of ministry within the church. And one of them we see is the thought of praying and prophesying. But let me make a clear point here. When it comes to praying and prophesying, praying has the idea, of course, praying as we pray. And prophesy has the idea of the Word of God. So when a woman stands up here and she opens up the Bible and she reads the scripture and she reads it before you, you can put in that note with the idea that it has the concept of prophesying. It doesn't necessarily mean that the woman's getting up here and I have a new word from the Lord for you today and you need to hear what God has to say. No, she's stating the Word of God. Just like if you were to look on in Scripture, in other passages of Scripture, it says we're to go into the world and we're to preach the gospel. Men and women. In other words, to share the Word of God with others. Share. there's a little bit of a distinction. We'll get to it later. You have the different gifts, responsibilities, and other passages that may say, well, there is role responsibilities. And I'll just note this in a sense. You can note it. I do believe in a role responsibility in the scripture with the fact that it says that the pastor is the husband of one wife. In other words, the relationship of a man in the ministry of a pastor. Doesn't mean the woman can't speak the Word of God in church, nor does it mean she can't pray in church. Paul's not making an argument for that. What he's making an argument for is that the design of gender in this interdependency compels, once again, the thought of honor and fidelity. faithfulness In other words to be a faith church So we do And I will tell you I know probably some people that have come to this church and it has made them uncomfortable That I would probably invite a woman to come up and read scripture and pray in our service but according to the scripture I think we can see that it is an interdependency that we demonstrate within our church here as a church that desires to want to worship God with honor and fidelity, faithfulness. It's not something I'm just doing because I think it's just all right. It should be fair here. I think it's Scripture. You know what? You may disagree. And you know, the best thing we can do is to understand that disagreeing doesn't make one greater than another. Nor does it make in a sense that you have more favor with God than I have with God. The idea is that we would have a relationship that would honor God. And that's essentially important as we see this passage. As he says here, he says, And he sets this out because the truth is, We need each other. There's times when I would just rush into something and my wife would say, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. And she was right. There's times when she might rush into something and I'd say, whoa, whoa, whoa, come back here, come back here. And you know, we both don't always come back with all the kindness that we probably should demonstrate. But then later, you're grateful for this. And so then Paul actually does make another statement here. First of all, he recognizes the role in marriage. And even when we're together, he recognizes the role with each other as men and women in Christ. But then verse 13 says this. And this is where Paul makes a point. He says, Paul asks, and he says this question. Here's the point, excuse me. In verse 13, he says, judge for yourself. And then the question, is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Is it proper? You know, when you think of here, he sets before us that he has this persuading argument all the way to this point. When he sets up the idea of understanding head covering, the axe, and some of the things we've kind of made some discussion with here. And once again, it's this whole part that he draws into this, this idea of head covering. He keeps going with it, and he says here, to pray to God with her head uncovered. I think it's necessary to kind of see that this is something we just don't pass over, we dwell on, because it's important to God, it ought to be important to us. And so he does this, even in Corinth, as he sets here, that it is with this understanding that we have to see what he's got for us. And so I would think that sometimes the question would come up and you may say to me and say, well, Pastor, what do you think? What do I think scripture saying here? It's a good thing to do. when it comes to this. Because Paul's not trying to gain control or authority over a woman. He wants us to work through this. He wants us to find out here what is this idea of interdependency. And then he wants us to see a principle in it and walk away with it. And it's important. And so here's what he does, and the point is that for all generations, you know, what is it? Is the point for all generations that a woman should have her head covered? I don't believe that that's what the scripture is saying. I don't believe it. In order to have proper worship, a woman has to have her head covered. No, but he does use this because when you think of this, it is with a thought that it's a point, like we saw in the beginning, a point to show honor, to show fidelity to the idea of glorifying God in a relationship, even husband and wives, spouses, or even in the relationship of the church together as a spiritual family. But he also is with the idea here is don't forget your physical family. It goes together here because this comes into both of the relationships as we see here. And so Paul could say here that yes, he's mentioned men as an example. And then he turns around, he sets that example. But when you think here, So, of course, we all sit there sometimes and say, well, what do I do with it? What do I think? And so here, even in it, it's kind of important. But here's something. John sits here. He sits here right here. I'm gonna go to the book of James, John. And the book of James tells me, instead of this, I should kiss you. Did we shake hands or kiss this morning? We shook hands, didn't we? We shook hands, didn't we? But doesn't it say in James to greet with a holy kiss, like a kiss on the cheek? I have some Italian friends that that's the way they greet, male and female. And you're like, whoo-hoo. Or this one. How about this one? My stomach is really bothering me today. What did Paul tell Timothy about his stomach that bothered him? Do you remember what it was? Hmm? I'm sorry, excuse me. Drink alcohol. Drink wine. Take a little stomach, take a little wine for your stomach's sake. So does that mean we have wine on hand here? How many of you have wine in your house just for your stomach's sake? Oh, yeah. Thank you for your honesty. How many of you have Benadryl? Tums? How many of you have Pepto-Bismol? Alka-Seltzer? What happened to the wine? It causes heartburn. And some of it just doesn't taste good. I don't care what people say. Oh, just a good glass of wine just calms me down and rids me of my anxiety or the tension. Maybe. But he wasn't really setting a practice, but he set a principle. And so the idea even when you think about the head covering and the uncovering, he was setting a principle in a sense that came out of what was going on there. And I want to be careful about this because we don't interpret everything in the scripture with the idea, this is cultural. And we throw everything else because we're not doing this today. But you know, even today sometimes it's like little kids that come up to you and they heard this word on the bus. And they come home and they tell you, little Johnny said, or my best friend said this. And you're like, and it's like, that's, and you might even look at your child and say, well, that's not a very good word. And we don't say that. And you're kind of looking and say, well, why don't we say that? Well, it's a swear word. And then the kid asks you, it's like, if you've got this child, you understand. They turn around and they say, well, what's a swear word? What is a swear word? And then they're like, why is it a swear word? You know, and where did this word come from? It's like, oh man, I was just hoping to kind of skirt around it. But they kind of, and yet, sometimes some of those words, I mean, I think of this and I'm cautiously saying it because you can tell it's kind of, you know, but when my oldest son sat at the table and we were sitting there talking, and just out of the blue he said to me one day, he says, that just sucks. I'm like, Nate. We don't say that. Why? I said, because it's not a very nice word. Well, it does. It just really is. He used the word again. And I got to thinking, you know, the word probably today versus the word maybe back a few years ago doesn't have the same connotation. You know, and so we look at this. Paul is using what's going on in the culture right there. So even in this interdependency, he takes and wants to drive home the theological point that he establishes, but yet he also uses the idea of the culture here. So yes, you know, when we think of some of the things that are here in scripture, there is this part that, yeah, there's a thesis that's set, but then there's an antithesis that goes along. So we can state a truth, but then at the same time, that doesn't take away from actually the counter concept. And so he is using even a culture setting here and saying in this that the woman should not go uncovered. Because it goes along with the idea of associating. Even last week we talked about that if a woman was actually single and wanted to step out into an area and wanted them to know that in a sense that she was available, she might not wear a covering. But if she was in a Roman culture, she may actually wear a covering because if she was not wearing a covering, she would be looked at as that she was one of those, how do you say, loose ladies. Or even in the sense that she is stepping out on her husband culture. So the idea here is to take away any concept of dishonor or the lack of fidelity. And so he's saying, even in here, he makes this interdependency with the concept together, both men and women. But women seem to have been the problem at the moment in the church. And so he wants them to see the point as being important. It is not that we're setting up with the idea that this is to be a lifelong thing. Now I have, I told you back in one of the messages, I have a friend and she actually comes to church and she puts on a doily on her head for the service. I'm not going to sit there and tell her she's wrong or this and that, because some people really hold to a certain point. It doesn't make them lesser or actually greater in the areas of the value of God, but they practice. And sometimes we see there's some thoughts that come to this that, yes, you can say, Pastor, you see it this way. I don't quite see it that way. I understand it. And yet even when you think of here, the second point in this is that I thought that it leads to the sense of a culture terminology. So it's not written in other parts of Scripture, but then it comes into the idea of even culture. So everyone who prays or prophesies with their head covered, the idea here in the Greek was that they prayed and prophesied. Like as a man, prayed if he had a toga on he would take the looseness toga and he would place it on his head like the scripture says head covering is the idea to have something coming down from the head and the toga would go over but sadly to say he would do that in submission to an idol or the idea of idolatry. So Paul's addressing, once again, that something's very important within the culture, that there was idolatry going on. And then it was shameful for a man to have his head covered. Now, I went back there and I checked with Julius if I could do this. I'm not gonna call him up here, but how many of you know that Julius has long, wavy hair? How many of you notice that? I mean, you most generally just see the ponytail. I won't call it a bun, but the ponytail drawn in in there. But if he takes it off, I mean, we had a Wednesday Iwana program, and I stepped in the door and I looked out and I'm like, who's that? The first time ever seeing actually Julius's long hair. Whoa. Was he trying to be a woman? Absolutely not. it doesn't have the same connotation as it did even in the early church and what was going on in the early church. Now, maybe you might go somewhere other than our local area, maybe outside of it, or even go in another country, and hair, dress, stuff like that is very important. you would probably take a deep consideration of what would be being displayed. Just like here, whether it's men with hair covering, or women with not being covered, or even in the thought of here, he's kind of bringing the attention to even women being covered would even be the thought of modesty in church. And even outside of church. Why? Because there's outside of church that really need to see the honor and the fidelity of a believer. In other words, is your dress in church drawing attention to you and to you as a woman? And he's saying, look, This is the part when it comes to the idea, as in a culture, whether they had something on their head and they went out in public, or if they had their head shaved. Because if you look back in the Old Testament, the Nazarites, we talked about this, the Nazarites were actually not to cut their hair. And so if God would say to them, don't cut your hair, then to take long hair with the concept of saying it's sin is totally wrong. It's just not consistent with Scripture. For women, with the idea of the way they dress in the areas of public and worship that took away from honor and glory with God, then they ought to concern themselves with the way they dress. Now, I put this on this morning. I don't know how many people come up and say, I like that color. I like that tie. I like this. I put this on. One is to remind me of a tie, oftentimes, that I am the pastor. I have a responsibility. And as I display, I don't put it on with the idea here that I put this on that I may look better. Is that? It isn't the idea that I'm trying to say, I look better than him. Not at all. It's not that. Matter of fact, if we put clothes on for that reason, it's just wrong. If you put something on, that's why when you think of Oasis, you don't hear us talk a lot about what certain style clothes. You have to have a shirt and tie. I just looked back at a preacher on the other side of the valley and a message that he was living. He had not only a jacket on, but he had a vest on. He was in a three-piece suit with a tie. And I'm thinking, ain't no way. No way. No way. Although in some ways his people expect it. And yet sometimes it's an awful thing when you come on to church and you come in looking and you want to say, I look better than he does or she does. Paul doesn't want that. It wasn't the issue. What he wants is for whatever we're wearing, that we're honoring God. In other words, does it take away, you know, when it comes to the idea of your modesty or who you are? and as an individual and stuff. So, yep, we moved to Florida from Western New York, only to go to Florida and find that people come to church in shorts. It's just unbelievable. You might find that in Michigan, but I gotta tell you, it was just... And then to move to Arizona, a pastor friend of mine took his jacket off. He says, ah, I don't usually do this, and he took his jacket off in the service. Well, you ought to take your jacket off. It's 120 outside, and you look ridiculous with it on. So sometimes there's a culture part here, and I think one of the things you see is, even for the men, it was the idea of, was the culture related to idolatry worship? To idols? And so Paul says here, the design for gender was the idea that it compelled an honor, a faithfulness, a glory to God. And we were to do that. And we're helping each other as you go along. And so the last one there, too, also, I think it does have this thought that we have to be careful of in verse 14 and 15. It says, Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, he's a disgrace? Yeah, if I don't cut my son's hair, it's going to be as long as my daughter's. That's a disgrace. Well, you say, well, it would be natural in the sense that, yeah, our hairs grow. And then in verse 15, but if a woman has long hair, it's her glory. He does deal with this whole part that it's a careful concept of communicating cultural norms. I was looking at this thinking, nature, nature, nature. We must be talking about animals. So I went through the whole concept of animals and trying to think about, well, hair's not necessarily an issue with animals. And truth is that most male genders in the area of the animal world are prettier than women, or female, sorry. That's to the cowboy that loves his dog so much and says, I'm not separating from my dog, you know, for a woman, you know, I'm never giving up my dog. Well, you're weird. But anyways, In the woman's hair, it's for glory, for her hair was given to her for a covering. This was a culture thing, and it actually did set out with ideas here that we'd see that it was what it was being communicated, even in the culture. So today, we can look back and say, Julius, I like your curly gathered hair. Or if it's out and it's long, I like that too. So if you actually got something out of a couple messages and say, pastor's going to preach against men with long hair and women who cut their heads hair short. I will say we need to be careful, though, sometimes when it comes to the idea of our attire, is do we look more like a man or do you look more like a woman? You know, because that would be a concern when it comes to understanding even here. So even in the Old Testament, He did not command them to He didn't condemn them when he commanded them to have long hair. And so even as you think in this passage, even what's natural, well, because the idea of natural is like what is currently today. What is natural? What is going on today? Even sometimes when it comes to the idea of the concept, it's like looking out and Bill tells me this story and I'm so impressed by it, I just say to him, shut up! Like, what? Today that means he just says something I just couldn't believe. Is that not true? It is. I mean, you look at somebody and he says, just shut up, shut up. And you're just like, wow, that doesn't make any sense. But the idea of the culture, this is the thought when he uses, I believe, he uses with the idea of nature. We're not trying to compare nature, animals and all this and trying to figure out, although yes, the animals have it pretty good when it comes to the female gender and the male gender. And so Paul sets here even the idea with the church here, the wives at Corinth, that they should be in a sense here They should care about what the culture actually says or states. What's around them. And sometimes we do see sometimes culture removes modesty concepts. Totally. And we have to be careful too because one of the things you can see is sometimes you can say, well, you know, we think of this and we think of modesty and a woman should actually be really concerned about modesty because she could be the cause of a man to sin. Be careful about that. Is there some truth to that? But your sin is your sin. It's your sin. No matter how somebody is dressed in front of you, whether it's inappropriate, because it's what you do with your thoughts and your intent. And so, men, there's a responsibility to that. It's yours. And so you have to be working on your personal life. So what this does is this carefully communicates through culture norms that even in it, there is this responsibility we have. So there's a role responsibility that is set up in Scripture here. And the responsibility is that our actions do matter. There are consequences. So even if you think about immodesty, there is consequences for your immodesty. But just to put the sin on one person would be wrong. So to say, oh, it's the woman's fault. No, it's the man's fault, too. together and to work even in the church. And so the idea of worship in the early church was the thought that they were going to do it in harmony with each other, even if they weren't meeting in some public place, they were in their homes. If they were in their homes, they still were to hold to the concept that they should not be a distraction, that God should be glorified and honored in it. So here, we find that even as he sets here this part that the same with clothing for men and women, both together, it was simply to communicate the idea that it, how, you could say, how things generally are perceived. How are they perceived? Open shoes in church as the idea of flip-flops isn't a sin. You know, and they go, oh, that was back in the 70s when the hippies started coming into church and they had their flip-flops on and they had a different dress to them and stuff. And sometimes we went all over and we did some. But we do want to say, is this actually presentable? Is this what would be honoring and glorifying? So the passage in it brings us not to say that hair length or heads covered is the point, but to say that in it our actions are essentially part of Paul's principle here. that we are responsible for our actions, whether they honor or glorify God. And this is the communication Paul puts, even in the idea of cultural norms. So we could go back years. a couple thousand, to even today and come to today and say that the Bible is relevant for today. As much as it was relevant there, we apply these same principles. Your actions matter. Your actions are to glorify God. They're to honor Him. They're also to honor those in relationship around you as a family. So hope you see. And I think probably if we were to tie this even to Mothers and Mother's Day, many times we hear people say, my mom said. My mom. And moms often set some reasoning to our thoughts. Now I know that sometimes some people don't have good moms. I was in the parking lot the other day and I had this mom and this little boy and daughter. You would not believe the words that came out of her mouth to her children. And what do you think that that child's going to talk like? What do you think the actions are going to be? When we think of whatever we do, whether we eat, drink, or are clothed, we're to honor God. It's the principle Paul sets out, all of it, for the next few chapters. Together, corporately, we're going to see we're to honor God. And it really comes down to your actions. Are they honorable? Are they filled with faithfulness? Because Paul sees in this church that there is a problem here. And he wants them, even though they say, I've kept a tradition, he wants them to see that they need help in what God wants as important. Even in the midst of their culture, And so even here, you can see that Paul sets, even in verse 14, he says here, he says, If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the church of God. You know, when you wanna set out and just be contentious to start arguments and to create problems or to take your disagreements, it's wrong. And even when it comes to like sometimes nitpicking at other people, I think we have to be very careful. Because he says, it's not in the church of God. our actions do matter. And so here he sets forth. And now, as we look later on, we have to be careful in the fact that we take up a privilege, and that privilege is to glorify God in whatever we do. We can do that wherever we go and whatever we do, but as a body together, we're to denote these things.