Welcome to our final lesson in the series on biblical womanhood. It has been such a privilege for me to share these 18 lessons with you as we have examined God's unique design in the creation of men and women. And then taking note that after 3,000 years and a completely different culture in ancient Israel, as we studied Proverbs 31, that God's plan for men and women had not changed at all. And then we saw, as we delved into Titus chapter 2, that after another thousand years and yet a completely different culture and setting, God's plan for men and women was still the same. And then in our last lesson, we began to look in the New Testament at the woman's role in the church. And we see that God's design for men to be leaders and women to be submissive helpers still was the same. Now, as I said last time, we began to look at the very important topic of the woman's role in the church. There has been an extensive and growing movement aimed at erasing the gender distinctives. So it's crucial that we understand the biblical positions that men and women are to fill. We learned that there are two primary views on the issue of gender in Christian circles. The first is the evangelical feminist or egalitarian view. This position teaches that men and women are equal, and true equality requires equal authority in the home, as well as identical ministry opportunities for both men and women in the church. The second point of view, the complementarian view, also teaches that God created men and women equal, but that he created them with different gender-defined roles. This stance emphasizes not only the equality of the sexes, but the complementary differences between them as well. In our study of the creation account in Genesis, we saw that God created men and women equal in worth, but different. He designed them to fill distinct roles in the home as well as the church. Next, we saw clearly from the scripture that some teaching and governing responsibilities in the church are reserved only for men. 1 Timothy 2.12 tells us that women are not permitted to teach men nor exercise authority over the men in the assembled church. It's also clear in 1 Timothy as the requirements for elders are listed that this office is only to be held by men. We know that this teaching was not cultural or temporary, as egalitarians would claim, because it was based on the order of creation. The Apostle Paul's reasoning in 1 Timothy 2 was that women were not permitted to teach, nor usurp authority over men in the church, because Adam was formed first, and Adam was not deceived as the woman was. By basing his directive on the order of creation and the way in which Adam and Eve sinned, it's obvious that this command applies to all churches for all time. We also consider that Jesus appointed all male leadership for his church. In perfect submission to his father's will, he personally chose, appointed, and trained 12 apostles. He could have chosen men and women, but he didn't. He only selected men for this position of authority and leadership. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we only see men teaching and governing over the people of God. In fact, we do not have one single example from Genesis to Revelation of a woman publicly teaching an assembled group of God's people or serving as a pastor or elder over a congregation. So from the Bible, I can only see two restrictions on women serving in the church. When there is an assembled group of Christians, women should not teach men the Bible nor exercise governing authority over them. So this of course means that they are not to hold the position of pastor or elder in a local church. But there is so much more that women can do and should do. And that is what I would like for us to consider in this lesson. You know, our tendency is to always focus on what we can't have or what we can't do. When my grandchildren play together, one of them can have 10 toys, but they will want the one that their brother or sister has. Because of their sin nature, what the other person has always looks more appealing. And you know, we're not so very different from little children, are we? When I'm dieting, My mind keeps wandering to the things I'm being deprived of. Cake, ice cream, donuts, fried chicken, pizza. I don't naturally focus on all the delicious things I can still enjoy, like melon, fresh pineapples, salmon, veggies out of the garden, and coffee. We can get so caught up on the few restrictions placed on women in the church that we overlook all the wonderful opportunities there are to serve. Now I want to make it clear that women are not being told that they must never speak in church. Some folks think that women should never make a sound in a church service. They take 1 Corinthians 14, 34, let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. But they are to be submissive, as the law also says, to mean that women are never to utter a word in the church. But in its larger context, this passage of scripture is instructing the women to be silent in regard to the subject at hand, speaking in tongues and the judging of prophecies. This passage and others similar to it aren't teaching that women can never speak in church at all. We know this to be true because in other texts, the women are permitted and even encouraged to speak. For example, in the same letter to the church at Corinth, Paul says, every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. It seems to be implied here that the women were permitted to pray and to speak in appropriate ways as long as their heads were covered as a symbol of submission. We know that Paul was not absolutely prohibiting women to teach because in Titus 2, the older women are actually instructed to teach the younger women. Nor is evangelism restricted to men in the Bible. The scripture tells us in John 4 that the woman at the well told her entire village about Christ. There were a number of ladies who played a significant role in the ministry of Jesus, and women have continued to make a great impact on the world throughout history. we can read stories of many courageous ladies who have carried the gospel to other lands. I read one such story about a missionary named Joanne Shetler who served with Wycliffe Bible translators in the Philippines. She tells her interaction with a man in the village who had adopted her as his daughter. She was reading pages of the New Testament and producing them. And as she produced them, he would read the New Testament. She writes, I continued translating in Timothy with my daddy. As we came to the verse where Paul says to Timothy, I don't allow a woman to teach men. She said, my daddy didn't even bat an eyelash. But that afternoon after we'd finished work, he said to me, now what is it that we're going to study on Sunday? She recorded, I just thought he was curious. I didn't know what he had in mind. So I told him. And Sunday morning came. But before I could stand up to speak, he stood up and told the congregation, my daughter knows more about this than I do. But we found in the Bible that women aren't supposed to teach men. So I guess I have to be the one. And she wrote, that was the end of my career and the beginning of their teaching. I love that true story because it's a beautiful picture of the proper response of both the man and the woman as they saw this truth from scripture. Joanne's daddy didn't make excuses for his inadequacy, and she didn't demand that she be allowed to teach simply because she was more learned and educated than he was. They both individually bowed to the authority of Scripture, and it was a key turning point in the establishing of a congregation with male leadership naturally taking place. I'm sure most of you are familiar with Jim and Elizabeth Elliott, missionaries to Ecuador. After Jim and four other missionaries were martyred in 1956, Elizabeth realized that she was the only missionary left who could speak the language of the Aka Indians. But rather than violate God's word, she taught one of the Aka men the sermon each week, and he preached it in the church until there were male leaders. She realized that she could teach better than any of the native men, but that was not her role to fill. Just because a woman is an extraordinary public speaker does not mean she's qualified to pastor a church. Frustration with men not fulfilling their responsibilities in leadership can tempt women to go beyond their biblical roles. But God has established proper gender-defined roles in his church. And when a woman assumes a man's role because he has neglected it, she only compounds the problem. A few years ago, my husband and I conducted a biblical manhood and biblical womanhood conference in Sweden, which is one of the most feministic countries in the world. After I talked on the woman's role in the church, a beautiful young woman approached me. She informed me that she was the pastor of a fairly large international church in the city. And she shared with me reasons why she felt it was just fine for women to pastor. The problem was not one of them were biblical. One thing she mentioned was that there were no men to pastor the church she was leading. While I don't doubt that may have been true, and it's a very sad state if it was true, the need never constitutes the will of God. It's never right for us to disobey the clear teachings of scripture simply because we see a need. As I already mentioned, giftedness does not necessarily necessitate a call of God either. As I was preparing this lesson, I thought of two female, single female missionaries that serve with HeartCry in Romania. They know their Bible every bit as well as their male counterparts. They conduct evangelistic Bible studies and discipleship Bible studies for young women who've come to Christ. They're involved in various evangelistic and discipleship endeavors, and they're both very theologically minded. They have a solid and sincere walk with God, but in spite of all these wonderful gifts and ministries, they're very conscientious not to usurp male leadership. I'm thankful for their conviction, and I'm privileged to get to serve alongside them sometimes in ways that honor God's design for men and women in his church. So what is a woman to do, whether at home or abroad? There are many things that women can do and every born again woman is to be engaged in some of these. Every child of God has been blessed with at least one spiritual gift and we should be using those gifts to serve God and to serve his people. In addition to that, we're all called to pray. We can and should intercede for those who are serving Christ all over the globe, for our churches, for lost people. We should be asking the Lord to send laborers into the harvest. Every one of us is responsible to read, study, memorize, and meditate on scripture. We should be able to defend our beliefs and instruct others. We also share the duty as well as the privilege to evangelize. According to Titus chapter 2, as we've looked at, the older women are instructed to teach the younger women. In some form or fashion, they are to be discipling and training and mentoring younger women in the faith. And most of us can give something financially to our local churches as well as missions. Those of us who are married are not to neglect our primary responsibility to care for our husbands. And those who have children have another key ministry in their home, in caring for, training, discipling, and disciplining their children. Now, please hear me. I'm not saying that you cannot be involved in any other ministry when your children are young. However, I am challenging any mother of small children to be very careful not to neglect the crucial ministry that you have to your own children. There will always be ministry opportunities available, but the ministry to your own young children will never be available to you again once they're grown. There are many faithful women who have served the Lord on the mission field in a variety of ways while refraining from leading in the church. There are many women who have served here at home without taking positions of leadership in the church. Women can publicly share a personal testimony of God's work in their lives or the life of someone else. They can sing or play a musical instrument, either alone, in a group, in an orchestra or choir. Ladies can serve as church secretaries or treasurers. They can write books and Sunday school material. Women can teach domestic skills to other women and exercise hospitality. They can counsel other women. Women can teach children or women or conduct Bible studies for women. They can serve as doctors or nurses in remote places that are in desperate need of medical care. And I haven't even mentioned a multitude of mercy ministries that are such a blessing to the poor, needy, widows, orphans, unwed mothers, and I could go on and on and on. Gladys Alward, a missionary to China, along with her co-worker Jeanne Lawson, founded an inn to provide hospitality for travelers. They would share the gospel with those who lodged there. Gladys took in orphans and adopted several of them. And in 1938, when the region was invaded by the Japanese, she led more than 100 orphans to safety over the treacherous mountain terrain, even though she herself was wounded. She personally cared for them and many of them converted to Christianity. Ann Judson, the first wife of the first American missionary Adoniram Judson, helped translate the Bible into Burmese and opened a school for girls. Amy Carmichael founded an orphanage in southern India and rescued children from forced prostitution in the Hindu temples. Conrad Mbewe's wife, Felicity, and a group of women from their church in Lusaka, Zambia, minister to the prostitutes in the city. They take them diapers, toilet articles, and other things they might need. They share the gospel with them and try to get them off the streets. And when one comes to Christ, they have sewing machines in their church where they teach them an honorable trade. There is so much kingdom work for women to do, and a good deal of it can be done better by women because of the way God designed us to be helpers and nurturers. The ladies in the first churches didn't pastor, but they were actively involved in serving the Christian community as well as evangelizing the lost. Their efforts played a vital, indispensable role in the Lord's work through his church. They were active in advancing the gospel and caring for God's people without violating his divine pattern of male leadership in the church. Paul mentioned a number of these women in the final chapter of his letter to the saints in Rome. He specifically mentions 29 individuals of whom at least eight or nine were women. He first commended Phoebe in Romans 16, 1, calling her a servant of the church in Sancreia. He doesn't tell us specifically about her service. She may have ministered to the needy widows in the congregation or the poor and sick among them. She may have served the church through giving, hospitality, prayer, evangelism, teaching other women, counseling, or benevolence. There's some indication that Phoebe may have been a woman of means who used her wealth to help many Christians, including Paul. The second woman he mentioned was Priscilla, calling both she and her husband Aquila, his fellow workers in Christ. It seems that Aquila and Priscilla were an evangelistic team, and I am inspired by their ministry as a married couple. Like Paul, they were dedicated to the spread of the gospel. Some have attempted to use Priscilla as a justification for women serving as pastors or elders, because in Acts 18, we find her, along with her husband, explaining the word of God to Apollos. But this wasn't done in the church. The scripture says that they took him aside. It was done privately, probably in their own home. There were other women that Paul praised because of their hard work for the sake of the gospel, but time will not permit me to elaborate on all of them. Suffice it to say that the principle of male headship does not in any way diminish the significance and necessity of the active role of women in the Lord's work. Women throughout the ages have served as bold evangelists, faithful prayer warriors, compassionate ministers of mercy, loving caregivers, influential teachers of women and children, and devoted lovers of Christ and worshipers of God. In the last two lessons, I have attempted to place before you a biblically accurate presentation of the woman's proper role in the church of God. Every one of us has been called to serve the Lord in some capacity. You may not be called to open an orphanage in India like Amy Carmichael was, or to serve as a doctor in Africa like Helen Roosevelt did, or to teach tribal people in South America as Elizabeth Elliott did. But you are called to pray for those who fill these and many other roles in distant lands. And you are called to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus first to your own family, and then to all those who are in your sphere of influence. And what a glorious privilege we have been given. We don't have to have a spectacular Saul of Tarsus conversion experience in order to share our testimony with others. We don't have to be married to Hudson Taylor in order to serve in ministry. We don't even have to have a seminary degree to be able to teach. Like the woman at the well in John chapter four, we simply need to go and tell others what great things the Lord has done for us and what he is able to do for them. Well, ladies, we've only scratched the surface of this subject of biblical womanhood. I trust you will dig into God's word and grow in your understanding of what it means to be a godly woman. Thank you for joining me as I've shared these lessons, and I trust the Lord will bless each one of you and bring glory to himself through your lives as you fulfill the role, joyfully fulfill the roles that he has designed you to feel in obedience to his word. God bless you.