Let's open our Bibles to Titus 2. And there were 10,000 of us inside the church and there were hundreds of protesters outside the church. Every week you almost couldn't make it in the services because hundreds of Californians were standing with these great big signs, chanting and protesting and marching back and forth in front of Grace Community Church. Why? Simply because John MacArthur dared in the 80s to tell the Californians that God actually has expectations that are gender specific. And that just riled them up. The LA Times used to show all these protest pictures and a joke started in the 80s. The LA Times, the big paper of the whole basin there, they would come and they asked John why he was preaching all this controversial stuff. He said, because God said so. And so they started coming tongue-in-cheek and they'd say, what has God said lately? Does God have anything to say? They'd come and put the microphone up to John and he would always answer fittingly from the Word of God. So as you open the Word of God, Titus 2, I want you to think about this. We're going to read in just a moment the first eight verses. But one of the most amazing dimensions of the Christian life is that you and I, this morning, can actually know exactly what God expects from us individually, according to how he designed and made us. And we don't have to doubt because he doesn't infer it or imply it. He actually wrote it down in simple, plain words. So if you think about it, God has designed each of us who know and love him with gender-specific roles. That means half of us this morning, actually 50.3% of us this morning if we're like everyone else are men and 49.7% of us are women according to the CIA who counts things like that. So there are just a touch more men than women in the world. But this morning, if you're a man, God has gender-specific roles, desires, and expectations. And if you're a woman this morning, God has gender-specific roles, desires, and expectations. That's how clear the Bible is. And by the way, they're desires that He expects a response from. They aren't suggestions. That's our culture. We like suggestions. We don't want to have anything real tight. We don't want to get locked into that. Well, God is locked into this. What we're going to read now, he said, is forever settled in heaven. That's how important it is to him. And God tells us that every day we can live either disobediently displeasing Him or obediently pleasing Him by the little choices. Did you know that the little choices you make in how you live your life as a man or as a woman either are obediently pleasing the Lord or disobediently displeasing Him? In fact, the Apostle Paul when he wrote his first letter The best-selling author of all time, Paul, his first letter was to the Thessalonians. Do you know what he summarized his whole three-week, possibly six-week ministry with them? You know what he said? He said, I taught you how you ought to please God. He reduced the Christian life to getting up every day in the first century, going out as a slave, or as a businessman, or as an army officer, or as a whatever, and I'm going to please God. And it's not just an attitude. What we're looking at here are simple choices. These are clearly defined choices we can make to either every day say, yes, Lord, I want to incrementally, I want to systematically, I want to inch by inch have those things showing up more and more in my life, or I can say, I don't really care. It doesn't even matter to me. I'm just going to kind of live the life the way I want to. You say, what difference does it make? Well, amazingly, neither obedience or disobedience changes God's love. There is nothing as a believer I can do to make God love me more or cause him to love me less. You understand that? Sin, disobedience, does not make God's love meter go up and down. He is not like us. God's love never fails, never changes. My sin, my obedience, he doesn't say, oh, I love you a little more because you obeyed me a little more. He says, I love you with an endless everlasting love. But, our choices do determine our eternal reward, and Jesus adds to that our eternal status in heaven. You say, ooh, yeah. The scriptures tell us that those who live for God in obedience by their example in ministry and influence others to follow God, will forever display, in fact Daniel puts it this way, those that turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever. But those that don't, won't. In fact Paul adds, He says, there are some that will suffer loss when the judgment seat comes and the rewards are given. In fact, the Apostle John adds one more thing. He says, there's those who because of their unwillingness to respond to the Word will be ashamed before the Lord at His coming. So because of that, Titus 2 this morning, we see a simple, easy-to-comprehend list of words. And those words, and by the way, we strongly hold to the words of the Scripture that God inspired, not ideas and thoughts, that are not completely connected to words. And those words that are inspired by God, that were chosen by Him, those words express clearly what God expects from us. And this list in verses 1 through 8 is the only complete set of choices that God desires from us that's ever completely in one spot in the whole Bible. Many other passages give general teachings for everyone, or give specific teachings for a certain group. But this is the only place where older men, older women, younger women, younger men, in other words, everybody, is systematically in the same context addressed. It's wonderful. And so we have a choice. Either live according to God's desires, and shine forever, reflecting Him in glorious rewards, or choose to live for self, and simply disregard. Not be against, not oppose, just disregard God's simple and specific desires for our lives. And we will suffer loss, and we will not reflect Him. And so this morning, we begin looking at the total woman, the 21st century woman of grace that God wants lived, God wants modeled, God wants taught, and God wants to be obediently lived out in the life of 49.7% of our church. and in the life of every single woman that wants to honor and please the Lord. This is the pathway the Lord desires. I'm going to read the first eight verses, but while you listen, transform this from just being something you know. to actually hearing God breathing out through his servant Paul his desires. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, That the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. Verse 3. The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women. And then, verse 4 continues, the young women, here's what they're to be admonished, here's their list, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands. Why? that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. Verse 6, Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded in all things showing yourself, and now he includes Titus among the young men, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility. Verse 8, sound speech that cannot be condemned. One who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Wow. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, how I ask that you would open our hearts to hear, open our wills to choose, and may we from the very depths of our being say, Lord, I consecrate, surrender myself to you. I want to live the way you desire me to live. Show me how. Strengthen me. Assure me of your love even when I fail. But may I confidently know that you would never call me to do a life of this magnitude without giving me the gracious power to live it out. O Lord, may you stir many hearts and especially may every one of our ladies, young and old, say this is what I want. I point my life, O God, toward your desires. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray this. Amen. This is what God set in motion through Paul to be continuously taught in the church. Long before there was Zondervan and Scripture Press and all the other Christian publishers, this was the curriculum that was taught, that was discussed, that was from house to house. studied. This is what the early church used to measure the spiritual leaders, the servants, those who were to be honored. In fact, when it talks about the widows that were to be brought under the care of the church, this is what they were examined against to see if the church should support them if they had no husband so they could continue ministering. It was a set of simple words. Everyone in the early church could comprehend it. And it was so specific. Verse 2, look at it. Older men. If you've never circled anything in your Bible so that you don't lose this, you ought to get those four groups so you can see it. Verse 2 says older men. Verse 3 says older women. By the way, what is an older woman? Well, in the first century, a young woman was a woman of childbearing years. In the first century, that was someone in their 20s or younger. And so if you were in your 20s or less, you were a younger woman. If you were 30 or older, you were an older woman. Now, of course, our culture keeps moving that older marker. I think it's about 98 right now. Everybody else is young, but, you know, maybe that 98-year-old would be older, you know, for whatever reason. But I'm talking spiritually, the mark was those who were Unmarried or newly married and just into the childbearing years are younger. And those who have born children and onward were the older. And those groups that meant every woman in the church were described here. So in that third verse the older women and then in the fourth verse the younger women. And by the way, this was not to be reserved until the week before their wedding and say, oh, by the way, this is, as a younger woman, this is what you're supposed to be. This was from the earliest days. the model that was held up to little girls. If you want to be great in God's sight, this is what you want to be looking like. And if you want to be great and useful for the Lord, this is what you should be considering. It was amazing. And then in verse 6, the non-negotiables for the young men. Exhort them, the young men. Well, this morning This is just the first of 12 words, 12 weeks, 12 expectations and desires from God. And I can't think of anything more thrilling to know as a young woman, under 30 in the biblical world, or as an older woman, 30 and older in the biblical world, that God has spoken directly to me. about who I am, what He designed me to be, and what He desires me to be. Not just His design, but His desire. I can't think of anything more thrilling, and I can't think of anything more wonderful than to have the choice every day to reflect by my lifestyle back to God. from the moment I'm consciously awake, till the last thought before drifting into unconsciousness and sleep, to say, I want to reflect your desires, God. That's what a consecrated life is about. So this is God's desire for every woman of grace. Now, if you think, ladies, and specifically, if you look at verse 3, 4, and 5, ladies, think of the immensity of what's on the paper in front of you. You know, sometimes when we really comprehend how big something is, it stops us in our tracks. About, I don't know, three or four weeks ago, I got a phone call on Skype from my son. He was over at a plant in China, but he had taken a few days and hired a car with a friend of his, another fellow that works with him, and they drove or were driven by a driver up to the 18,000 foot camp of Mount Everest. There's a monastery there, it's the highest spot you can go without climbing ropes. And he just, since he was close, he said, let's run up there. I thought, huh. And so he got up there, he was in this monastery, and he told me, he said, it was horrible, Dad. He said there were about 20-some Americans there from all over the country. Everyone comes to see Mount Everest, not climb it, just look at it. And he said this monastery they were staying in, he said all you could hear through the paper-thin walls was the sound of altitude sickness vomiting. I said, oh, thanks for calling me and telling me that. I can just feel it right now, you know. He said it was worse than you could ever imagine. He said the place stinks, they don't have any toilets, the people were vomiting all over the place, he said, and I couldn't stand the sound of it. So he said, I put on my coat and it was two in the morning. And he said, we're at 18,000 feet and the people are gasping. They can't breathe. They're writhing on the floor from altitude sickness and their inability to breathe and all that other stuff. So he said, I got out of there. And he said, I walked out of the monastery. And he says, I turned the corner and he said, and I looked up and he said, when we drove up, it was shrouded in clouds. But he said, every cloud was gone. And he said, you could see six mile high Mount Everest. And he said, but what stopped me? And he had his camera and he was going to take pictures. He said, did you know it's like you're in space? He said, the air is so thin. He said, it's like you're in a spaceship. He said, you can see not just stars. He says, you can see galaxies. He said, I've never seen, and he said he couldn't take pictures. He said it was so immense and so overwhelming that he said he just broke into how great thou art. See that's what happens to us when we get struck with the immensity of who God is. Now think about who wrote the words that you're holding in your lap. God is the greatest person in the whole universe. He made Mount Everest and everything else. He's the most influential, important, and special thing of all. And He laid out His desires. And He's actually interested in watching. And it's His desire for your personality, for your goals, for your priorities, and for your lifestyle. if you're a woman or a young woman that cares about what He thinks about your life. And then what you're holding is God's Word. It's perfect. It's errorless. It's infallible. It is changeless. He says, I have it settled forever in heaven. And it's clear. It's direct. God doesn't beat around the bush. And it's personal communication. When you open your Bible in the days ahead, if you want to, you can just tune right in and God says, if you're an older man, an older woman, a younger woman, or younger man, you can hear God saying, do you know what I'm interested in seeing in your life? It's right there. It's clear, it's simple, it's direct, and it describes choices and habits and the personal agenda that every 21st century woman of grace should have. That's how simple it is. And with our life ceaselessly running by us, our time, it's like a river, You know, when I drive home every day, there's this little creek that runs underneath one of the 650 whatever's I'm on, and it just goes right through. And I watch that thing and I think, that is a visual of the river of time that flows by every day at 60 minutes per hour. And did you know the only way to reach down and redeem time is by obedient living in response to God. And when we reach into our lives and make choices, we redeem our lives for eternity. Okay, let's look at the text starting in verse 3. I'm going to just read these titles of what God wants and explain them. And this is where we're going to look at each one of these in depth in the weeks ahead. As I'm reading this, ladies young and old, do you know This is what God wants you to plan and find a way to see in your life. What I'm reading is what God wants. So as I'm reading this list, ponder. Is this the direction my life's pointed? And if not, today? Did you know today you can do one of these? Did you know what we can do? We can have a change in our mind that changes the direction of our life. It's called repentance. And in any one of these that I read, that you're headed the wrong way, did you know right where you're sitting you can say, Lord, I want to go that way. My life isn't pointed toward that quality. I want it to be. And that's what grace energizes us to do. Number one, that the older women, verse three, that they be, and here's the highest priority for every woman, because it's first on the list of twelve. And it's not an accident. It's not like Paul put all these in a bag and like the lottery balls, you know, and he reached in and got one. I don't even know if they do that anymore. That's how they did it in New England. They had ping pong balls and he grabbed one. Paul didn't just do that. God says, this is the order I want these listed. Because I'm inspiring you to put down my thoughts. So number one, the most important priority of every woman is to be reverent in behavior. The older women likewise, that they be characterized by reverent in behavior. Now, that's the word. That's what God wants. How do you apply it? That means God wants women who will live wholly in an unholy world. You see, reverence is having our life that is lined up to God's standard, not the world's standard. See, every day we get to either be conformed to what the world wants us to be, and we squash our lives into that, or we conform ourselves to what God's Word wants us to be. 21st century total woman that has God's grace in her life says, Lord, it's like when you measure the kids and you line up to the wall and you say, pull in that stomach, put those shoulders back, put your heels back, you know, get straight there. You know, and you use the wall to straighten up against. God says, use my word and back up and see if that's where you are. And in the first place, for every woman is God wants us to be consecrated. Now, how does he describe that? A living sacrifice. Romans 12. Galatians 2.20, crucified with Christ. Galatians 6.14, I line up to Christ so the world becomes crucified to me and I to the world. However you want to put it, surrendered, yielded, totally His. That's God's highest priority for every woman. Now, when you woke up this morning and you looked in the mirror, if you did, Is that what the person in the mirror you were looking at, did you say, today my highest desire is to be reverent in my behavior? That's what God wants. That's more important than any other thing we could do, because God put it first on the list. Secondly, he doesn't stop there. By the way, I'm glad he did this list. If I was doing the list, if they invited me to speak to all the women of the church, I would not speak on this, if I had to invent my topics. Look at the second one. Okay, ladies, no slandering. I mean, is that even, what is that for? I mean, when I look at this list, I say, why'd you put that in there for? In fact, it's not even the word slander. You know what? It's the personal name of Satan. It's Diabolos. It says, Ah, Diabolos. Not like Satan. I mean, we're talking about the most important women in the universe. And the first thing God says is, be reverent. And the second thing he says is, don't be like the devil. Wow, you know what that shows me? The greatest tool that women have is their nurturing words. A lot of men are like cavemen, you know, they grunt and groan and point, you know, they don't say much. Women, they say too much, you know, and sometimes you have to say, wait, wait, just could you start over, just say a little slower, a few words, tell me again what you want, you know, comes out. Did you know that there's such a power in those words that God says don't let any of them get in the control of the devil. Slander. There is a lot in the Bible for all of us about the power of our words. And what God says is, God wants to harness the tongue of every woman and He wants no usage of their tongues surrendered for purposes that don't please Him. And it's a lifelong process. David put it this way. He said, I'll set a watch at the door of my mouth that I do not sin against you with my lips. And James says, the tongue is a little member, but it lights big fires. So be careful. And if you have your tongue under control, your whole life's under control. God wants to harness the tongue of every woman of grace so their words are used by God for his glory. So that's number two. Number three, not, again, I mean, if I was teaching a seminar to women, this is not, what is this? Not given too much wine. I mean, just skip right by that one, right? Why did God put that right up there in the top three? And then you talk about the final four, this is the top three. This is, God says, reverent in behavior, not slanders, and not given too much wine. And what God's talking about is, He's saying, I'm looking for godly, mature women who will discipline all their appetites. In the first century, the temptation was that they had so much not to look forward to that they were always trying to find something to make themselves feel better and so that they would get too happy from overindulgence in wine. I'm not sure that that's the majority of our problems this morning. You know what's bigger? God says, I want all of your appetites under my control. There's some people have appetites not for wine, They have appetites for finer things, or they have appetites for shopping, or they have appetites for projecting an image that they're willing to go into debt to pay for. Those are all appetites that need to be disciplined. And God says that this reverent, a word under his control woman has appetites that are disciplined in an undisciplined world. Do you remember the whole that no one will blaspheme God? God says, I want my people to be different than the world. Nothing is more important, no priority is higher than God. An appetite is something we have a priority for. We think about it all the time, we seek and we want it. God says, I don't want you to have anything you desire, any appetite that is more important than me. Make me first, it will subdue all your other appetites. Number four, teachers of good things. God is looking for mature women who model godliness in an ungodly world. See, they go beyond knowing the truth and they express it. Education is leading others toward the truth, educo, to lead them from where they are to where they are. And this woman wants to model godliness in an ungodly world and she won't let anybody go by her. She'll see them and she'll say, anybody that's in her sphere, her life, whether it's her children during those years or whether it's others, she says, you know, Did you know what you're doing God talks about? And did you know that what you're doing displeases God? Did you know that? I understand because I struggle with that too. And you know what? The Lord completely changed my life and He can change yours. See, they model godliness. And look at the next part. It goes so far that in verse 4, It says that they admonish. They teach good things, but they don't just teach them kind of like on the PA system to whoever, you know, is listening. You could just do it generally over the radio. No, it says that they admonish. That's targeted investment in people. Not only does she model godliness, she lives the walk and teaches action even before words, but she invests in others. It's not enough to think these thoughts. It's not enough to know them. This woman doesn't stick to her chair, her study with all of her books. She leaves the study. and invests in others in a detached world. Did you know we have a detached world? Remember the case in New York City where an entire apartment building, they figured that 250 people watched a woman beaten to death on the sidewalk. It said before the lady finally expired, almost every window had people peering out. Someone lifted their windows. They were watching. People took pictures. Not one of the 250 called the police. Not one of them yelled out their window, stop that! That's murder! It's none of my business. I'm not going to get involved. I'm detached. This woman is not detached. She invests in others. Her core value built into her by God is nurture, and it never ends when the kids are no longer home. She wants to see Christ growing in everyone whose life she can touch. And she doesn't just tell them. She nurtures them. She admonishes them. She comes alongside of them. And she says, I'll help you. I'll show you. I'll go with you through this change that's needed. Then he starts talking to the young women. By the way it was in this part that the protesters came in Los Angeles. So wow. Verse 4b. The young women. Number one. The highest priority from birth that a little girl is to be taught is to learn to have not loving the husband she's never met, but learning to have self-sacrificing love in a very selfish world. When little girls are growing up, They are to be raised in an environment where they're taught the power of self-sacrifice and the allure of a self-centered world. And the self-ish, self-centered world is to be resisted. And the self-sacrificing lifestyle is to be embraced. Now, what Paul says is, teach the young women how to love their husbands. But you know what that's all about? That's about a lot of sacrifice. It's about a lot of, I mean, I already told you women are basically more spiritual than men and they communicate much better, you know, by and large than the men do. Do you know what it means for a woman, who actually is probably smarter, quicker and more spiritual than a man, to follow him? It's kind of like following someone dawdling down Red Arrow at 35. I mean, pass him up! You know, who wants to follow that slowpoke? And you know what? That's what happens in myriads of marriages. Because she has not been taught to sacrificially love that husband. She's been taught to do all you can for yourself and get out there and if he's not going to be spiritual, you be spiritual. Pass him up. That's not God's plan. And this godly young woman goes against the tide. She dies to selfishness. She learns to mortify self-centeredness. She learns that self-indulgence is not a virtue. And she begins to let the love of God, who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to die, to be what characterizes her life. That's self-sacrifice. And that becomes something the world sees. They see God through her self-sacrificing life. And then, secondly, the second priority for young women is to love their children. These women continue as mothers who demonstrate nurturing love in a loveless world. Did you know that it has always been hard to raise children? Children have always been enough to drive you to distraction, enough to make you go crazy, everything else. I mean, they just... It's exciting, and I've had a lot of them, so I know. I am a real expert on, you know, with children. But you know what? It's built into us by God that those children need to be nurtured. And this godly young woman has been trained from her earliest days that the moment she has children to nurture, there is nothing, no ministry. that exceeds loving her husband and nurturing her children. And she would never, she would rather lower her lifestyle than surrender nurturing her children. Now that brought protesters to Los Angeles because they said, no, work, get out of that home, put the kids somewhere, live your life. God says, no, sacrifice your life for your husband and nurturing your children. That almost sounds as bad as 7th century Islam, right? It's 1st century God that hasn't changed. Number three. He says, I want you to be discreet. Young women, in tune with the Lord, focus on God in a foolish world. While everybody else is distracted and amused and living, you know, in the romance novel world, she cultivates a deep and transforming focus on God. In fact, she is very cautious to not let the television, or the magazines, or the internet, or the Facebook, or the scrapbooking, or the showing off her kids to supersede and excel God as her focus. In fact, she limits all of those things. So God isn't limited. And she just doesn't come on this on her own. She's nurtured in this. And while everybody else is distracted, she's discreetly focusing on God. And she's chased. The next word. That means she pursues modesty in an immodest world. And if you think our world's immodest, it was far more immodest in the Roman times. People in the theater were real living people and they performed much of their theatrics absolutely naked. They did the same in sports. They did the same, you could, you know, it wasn't scantily clad ladies, it was not clad ladies that would serve you at the bars. So things are really not worse. We're just getting close to what the ancient world was like. And in that context, far more loose than ours, God says, I want women of grace to be chaste. And what that means is, literally, she'll never choose to display her beauty in a way that would displease God. So no matter what the culture says, no matter what everybody else is doing, in fact, I commented, I don't know if it was in church or what, but I actually watched one of the final 20 or 6 or 3 or whatever it was and I was watching, remember the black suits and the white suits with the blue letters, I can't even remember the names of the teams, but I was watching the game and I commented to the staff, I said, When did the cheerleaders start... I mean, they've always had... When did they start this bikini thing with little... I said, I haven't watched TV in so long. When did they start that? I mean, the cheerleaders, there's not a connection between their bottoms and their tops. They said, oh, we don't know. It was a long time ago. I said, wow. But that's nothing compared to first century cheerleaders. But even in that environment, the godly women chose, by God's grace, to never display their body in a way that displeased God. No matter how strong the cultural tug was that everybody wears that. If you're going to be on that team, everybody wears that. You know what the Christian said? I won't be on the team. Because the team is not as important as the Lord. And that's what she's taught from her earliest age. And then, number five, to be a homemaker. She would pursue homemaking in a hostile world. A world where the home was not a place of nurturing. She transformed even the most menial household duties into offering worshipful obedience to God. Do you know how hard it was to be a homemaker in the first century? You had to carry your water from the well. You had to grind the food. You didn't go to Walmart and it wasn't pre-done frozen and you just zapped it. You had to think about it and cook it and kill it and skin it and whatever, you know. Do you know how awful that is? But yet, God's grace transforms even the most menial works. into worship to God. I remember when we lived in California many years ago. Houses are so close out there. Our first day in our house in Van Nuys, I remember standing in the shower. It has that kind of that swirly opaque glass, you know, that you can see a little bit out, but no one can see in. And I was looking out my shower little window here like this. I went, I could see a head and shoulders bottle in the house across the strip. It was only four feet away. I could see head and shoulders in their shower window. And I thought, That house is that close? And you know, Bonnie was standing at the kitchen window and all you could see at our, where the sink was, all you could see is the air conditioner of the house next to us sticking out of their window. And I said, honey, you have to stand there for hours every day. What do you think about? She says, you know what I think about? I don't think about how close the houses are and how jammed everything is and how unbeautiful it is. She says, when the kids are crawling around the floor and making a mess and I'm changing diapers and I'm cooking and that was back when they had cloth diapers. That shows how old we are. They were white and this big and you folded them, you know, and you had to go like this. Oh, you know, it was awful. It was hard to be a mother back then. And I said, how do you do it, honey? Because I roared in, you know, wearing my suit and air conditioning and everything. And she says, you know, when I'm standing here washing this dish for the 3,000th time, she said, I remember that my homemaking is a sacrificial offering like incense rising before God. Whoa, where did she learn that? From a godly older woman. that said, you weren't raised in a Christian home, you probably have a warped view. This is what God expects. Wow. Homemakers. Number six, to be good. That's pursuing kindness in a harsh world. Obedient to their own husbands. Boy, did the protesters come that time. This woman is liberated by lining up and living out her gender-specific role. You know what it is? It doesn't say obey. It says, submit means to line up behind. Now, I can line up behind anyone. It doesn't mean I'm less than them. It means I'm obedient. And that's what she knows. That God's gender-specific roles are not value or worth. They're having to do with obedience. So she's liberated by taking the gender-specific role God chose for her. And she lives out His will. Well, that's the pattern that God has for us. And so this morning I want to close in this way. I'm going to, in just a moment, be praying. I'd like you, right where you sit, ladies, to make a decision. Now, either you're going to repeat an old decision that you have already made, or maybe this morning you made it, or maybe you haven't made it yet, but I'd like you to consider, are you going to choose? Now, I did this to the men. This is, a member of the men said, are you going to do this to women? I said, yep, I'm going to do it. I read the list of the men, and I said, if you have decided that God is so awesome and majestic, that you're going to say, God, I don't even fully understand all those things, but it doesn't matter, one thing I'm sure of, they came from you, they're in clear, simple words, and I want your spirit and your grace to show me how to How to do that? I might be trying some, might be failing in some, but I want to do that. That's all God wants. And He will utterly transform your life. So this is what I want you to do. Close your eyes and bow your heads. No peeking. Men, no peeking, okay? I'm going to read this list and as soon as I start reading it, if you are a woman of any age and you say, I agree with God. I'm not saying I'm all this stuff, but I am saying that's what I want. I want what He desires. As I read this list, I would like you to stand and remain standing. We're all going to keep our eyes closed, and before I pray, we'll all stand. But just for you to kind of silently put a little marker in your life, You can look back when it gets hard and say, God, I stood before you and said, I want this, and I still do. So women, I invite you, as I read this, as the Lord touches your heart, if you agree with Him to stand. This is God's desire for every woman of grace, that they be reverent in behavior, to live holy in an unholy world. and to say I don't want to ever slander, I want to speak gracefully. I never want to be given too much wine. I'm going to discipline my appetite even though the whole world is undisciplined around me. I'm going to be a teacher of good things. My life is going to model godliness even if I don't say anything. And I'm going to admonish. I'm going to learn to invest in others in a very detached world. And even before I get a husband, I'm going to learn how to be self-sacrificing so I can love my husband in a selfish world. And whether or not I have children, I'm going to love children and nurture in a loveless world those around me. And I will be discreet. I'm going to limit my focus so that God is my priority in a very foolish and wasteful world. And I'm going to be chased. I'm going to pursue modesty in a modest world and never allow my body to be displayed in a way that displeases God. And I want to be a homemaker and pursue homemaking in a hostile world. And I want to be good. And I'm going to pursue kindness in a harsh world. And finally, I want to be obedient if I ever have a husband. And I want to pursue submission that God wants me to pursue in a rebellious world. And women, as you are standing with a surrendered heart and life, Whisper to the Lord, ask for his grace, and he will work in every one of those areas. Father in heaven, great and awesome God, creator of the galaxies beyond the mountains, and right down to the intricacies of our bodies, Thank you for speaking, capturing your words on paper, breathing them out through forty holy men of God who spake as they were moved by your Spirit. And thank you that we have that treasure in our hands, in our hearts this morning. And this morning we all stand as men and women, And those of us with hearts attuned to you say, Lord, this is what we want. Change whatever needs to be changed to conform us to your glorious plan. In the name of Jesus and all of God's people said, Amen. God bless you.