Order in Worship

I thought someone sent me a memo today that this is dress up Sunday.

Did I get the wrong memo?

What's up with that?

They said, hey, dress as nicely as you can and do not be a distraction to anybody in the church.

So I thought I would just dress as nicely as I could and not be a distraction to anybody in the church.

How are you guys doing?

Ah, come on.

You guys doing well?

You know, I think about...

Now, if you're new to Watermark, this is how I dress all the time.

This is how all the pastoral staff dress all the time.

My name is Tobin.

I'm one of the pastors.

I'm a teaching pastor here.

I'm joking.

This is not how I dress all the time.

But, you know, we're having fun as a family of God,

and we're trying to figure out what does it mean for us to go on a journey with God

and to worship Him.

And we've been looking at this...

You know, this is terrible because it's like the first Sunday back.

Everybody's new back.

Everybody's coming back.

And we've got the passage that no one ever wants to preach on, right?

So when I tell other pastors in America what we're going to preach on today,

they're like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my whole life.

You should go to do something fun.

But I think that one of the things about preaching through a book of the Bible

is you don't skip a chapter.

So we're hoping to teach God's worth faithfully.

And I'm looking at the first verse, and I just keep thinking through my head,

what does it mean for us to imitate Christ?

Because Paul's saying, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

So don't imitate me if I'm not imitating Christ.

But if I'm imitating Christ, imitate me.

Therefore, imitate Christ.

Christ.

And been praying for that as a church.

You know, when we prayed about starting this church,

we prayed that God would allow us to start a church family that just loved each other,

that we accepted each other, that we were going on a journey together,

and that we were going to learn from each other.

And we knew that when we came together as a church family,

we were going to be different, coming from different backgrounds and expressions.

And I fully assume that a lot of people in here aren't in the family of God yet.

They're here exploring, and they're trying to figure out what it means

to be a follower of Christ.

And there's probably some of us in here who thinks that we're in a family of God,

and we're not in it yet either because we're kind of misunderstanding

what it means to walk with the Lord.

But in this passage and in this book, one of the things that comes out is

as we walk with the Lord, we imitate Him, and we act like Him.

And so we're in this book of Corinthians,

and the Corinthians are just this crazy group of church people.

I mean, they're planted in probably the most immoral city in all the ancient world.

It was wealthy.

It was just out of control and everything that did, excess to the max.

It was a lot like Hong Kong.

It was a major shipping port.

And in the middle of this, this small little church community came in,

and all these people came to know the Lord.

They came to Christ.

They became Christians, and they were experiencing this freedom

of what it meant to be a Christian, what it meant to walk in grace,

what it meant to have God's forgiveness,

what it meant not to be performance-based in their lives.

And as they got this freedom,

they still had this old nature that they were trying to deal with,

and they didn't do very well in dealing with it.

I mean, they had these Christian freedoms,

but they used it to the abuse of other people.

And when the church didn't imitate Christ, it confused people.

It confused people within the church,

and it confused people outside the church.

And that's what these chapters are all about.

It's about confusion.

It's about freedom and confusion

and people not acting the way they're supposed to act.

And what we see as Christians is that we always struggle with these ideas.

We struggle with balancing these ideas of authority and discipline,

knowledge and love, freedom and responsibility.

We struggle with these, and we kind of vacillate.

We go back and forth.

What does it mean to be gracious?

I struggle with them as a parent.

How am I gracious to my kids?

But then how do I also bring authority in there?

And this church, this Corinthian church,

they did terrible at that.

I mean, every time they tried to do that,

it always turned out about them.

It was always about their pride.

It was always about their self-centeredness.

It was always about their ego.

It was always about their selfishness.

It was always about their self-authority.

And these themes led throughout all the life of the church,

and it just caused mass chaos and confusion,

and it was hurting people in the church,

and it was hurting people out of the church.

And in chapter 11, we get to another one of these stories

of people doing what they want to do,

and they're causing this chaos,

and they're struggling again with,

what does it mean to have freedom?

And their pride is coming in,

and it's hurting their worship.

It's hurting a fellowship like this.

It's hurting their families.

Their families are getting hurt.

And people aren't obeying God,

and they're not giving God the glory.

They want themselves the glory.

And so this is what's happening in this church,

and you're going to think this is like the dumbest thing ever.

But there are women who are praying and prophesying in it,

which is great.

I mean, if you looked at any culture in that time,

the Greek, the Roman, and the Jewish culture,

the women had no authority.

They couldn't speak in congregations.

They couldn't speak in the fellowship.

They couldn't speak in the temple.

They were subservient to everybody.

They were basically treated as property.

But when Paul and Christ came in in the Gospels,

what they did, Christ did first,

and then Paul took on the mantle of preaching the good news.

They broke down all these barriers of sexes.

And so in the Christian church,

for the first time in the history of the world,

there wasn't a difference between man and woman.

There wasn't a barrier there that man and women

were seen as equal in essence and dignity

and everything they did,

so that when we stood before the Lord in church,

and this never happened,

we read these things and we go,

yeah, so what's the big deal?

It's a huge deal.

For 2,000 years, people did not do this.

And so this is the first time people are actually doing this.

And they're trying to figure out,

well, how do we do this?

And how do we do it well?

And so they're, for the first time,

they're standing in this freedom of grace and forgiveness,

and they're struggling.

They're struggling with their faith,

and they're struggling with their freedom.

Now the church, what we've talked about throughout this whole time

is their motto has been,

everything is permissible,

which is probably not a good motto for a church.

But the Corinthian church's motto was,

everything is permissible,

everything is good,

we have freedom in Christ.

And so what happens was that there are these women

who came in,

and they were probably married,

and they're praying,

and they're bringing prophecy.

Prophecies are words of encouragement,

instruction from God.

This is what God's doing.

But when they did it,

they stopped dressing culturally appropriate.

I mean, they just felt like they were free

to do whatever they wanted to do.

And so they went into these gatherings,

and they are dressing actually in ways

that were provocative,

like me.

Before I got up, my wife said,

wow, you distract me.

I said, thank you very much.

But that's what these women were doing.

They were dressing in provocative ways.

But what they were,

not just dressing in provocative ways,

but culturally,

and listen to my heart here,

this is what these women were saying

in their culture.

They were saying,

we're dressing this way

because we reject the idea of authority.

We reject the idea of submitting to authority.

We don't want to be treated as women.

We want to be different within creation.

And the church struggled with this

because when Christ spoke

and he set up this idea of equality,

it changed the world,

and specifically,

it changed the world in the church

and in marriage.

And in the church

and in marriage,

everyone was seen as equals.

But these ladies came in

and they were expressing their freedom

in ways that were just kind of

freaking people out.

And so when the people saw that

and they came in new to the congregation,

they didn't know what to do.

I mean, they were like,

whoa, that's how the barmaid dresses

in the pub.

And oh, wow, that's how the prophetess

dressed in the temple

where I used to go have sex

before I became a Christian.

And it was causing all this tension.

And when you went to the women

and talked to them,

they would just say,

like they should say,

we're free.

We can do whatever we want.

We're equal.

We're on the same platform.

And so we are going to push aside

all these cultural boundaries.

But as they were doing this,

it was just causing mass confusion

in the church.

I don't know if I can,

I'm saying it very well.

My wife tells me sometimes

I'm not a very good communicator,

even though I like to think I am.

But when Christians came in,

they were confused.

And when non-Christians came in,

they were confused

because how these women were dressing

and how they were acting,

they were just blurring all the lines

of gender and gender differences

and authority.

And basically when you came in,

people said they're attacking God.

They're attacking God's creation.

Now you're going to laugh

when you hear what they did

because when we think about this,

we think,

well, that has to be

the dumbest thing in the world.

But they did this.

And what they did was

they stopped wearing

their head coverings in worship.

Because before,

in all these cultures,

Roman, Greek, and Jewish,

all the women wore head coverings.

And so these women

and their freedom in Christ

and how God has changed them,

they stopped wearing

their head coverings.

They stopped wearing them

in the worship

and they stopped wearing them

in the public.

And you know what?

Some of them even let

their hair down.

Wow.

And you're thinking,

well, that has to be

the dumbest thing ever.

But that's what they were doing.

And you know what?

Some of them even cut

their hair short.

And when they did this

as Christians

and they came into this community,

they just were causing confusion.

And Paul doesn't ignore it,

which is very interesting to me.

But Paul talks about it,

but he doesn't necessarily

talk about exactly

what's happening,

but he talks about

the motives behind

what's happening.

and Paul looks at our heart.

And he talks about our heart

and he talks about

the hurts that we have

and the struggles

that we have

with our hearts.

And he tells me

and he tells us

and he tells the women

in this church

and in our church

and men in our church

and in that church

that you and I

are always going to struggle

with self-interest.

That you and I

are always going to struggle

with pride.

That you and I

are always going to struggle

with our willingness

to place ourselves

apart from God.

We're going to strive

for our own glory.

We're not going to strive

for God's glory.

We're going to strive

for our own glory.

And that's what we talked about

last week in church.

That you and I

have this continual struggle

of are we going to follow

our own selves

or are we going to follow

the Lord?

And in this situation

the women were perceived

as following themselves.

So what I want to do

in just the time remaining

I want to talk about

two or three topics

in this passage

that stick out to me

before I get in trouble.

I want to talk about

headship

and what headship means.

I want to talk about

head coverings

and what they meant

back then

and what they mean now.

And I want to ask

us some questions.

Okay?

Is that okay?

So hopefully I'm not

distracting you.

But you know

you look at this

you notice in the passage

right after Paul

if you look at your Bible

or in the passage

you look at it

right after Paul

teaches to them

in the beginning

he basically tells them

to be imitators of Christ

and very first

verse two

he gives them a praise

he encourages them

because they've been

trying to follow

his teaching

and they're trying

to do exactly

what he said to do

but in verse three

he comes in

and he basically says this

but I want you

to understand

that Christ is the head

of every man

and man is the head

of a woman

and his wife

not every woman

a woman

and God

is the head

of Christ

so before you get angry

I just want to break this down

really quickly

and I want to tell you

what I've been learning

the first thing we see here

is that God

is the head of Christ

that means that Christ

submits to God's authority

and to understand

how we live in church

and society

as God's people

and how we

we live

in the family

we have to understand

this idea of authority

it's God

it's Jesus

it's man

and it's woman

and if we get these things

out of whack

and we just focus

on the bottom two

then we lose focus

on what God

has meant for us to do

and I believe

we lose the blessing

that God wants us

to have

as God's people

because I think

this is about blessing

and God wants

to take you and I

to a place

where we flourish

and we feel

his presence

but we struggle

with that

because we want

to have our own authority

as we do that

so Jesus

who is God

submits to God

the Father

so God

is Jesus' head

so God

the Father

is Jesus' authority

now just play

with me here

okay

so Jesus

is 100% God

he's 100% man

he's eternal

he's a creator

he dies on a cross

he's one

in the same essence

of God

but he defers

himself to God

God the Father

is his head

and as he

defers himself

to God

what we see

here

is it does not

make Jesus

any less

it doesn't make

Jesus any less

than he can be

it doesn't diminish

who he is

or his character

it doesn't take away

his value

it doesn't take away

his worth

it doesn't take away

his dignity

it doesn't take away

his identity

it doesn't take away

his competency

it doesn't take away

his significance

all these things

I've struggled with

and I've heard

people struggle

with me

on these things

but in the Bible

the idea of headship

just doesn't do that

headship has nothing

to do with superiority

and headship has nothing

to do with value

the Father and Jesus

have the same essence

they have the same value

but what we're told

is they have different

roles

and different functions

and somehow

in eternity past

I don't understand it

but Jesus said

in the triune Godhead

I'm going to submit

to God the Father

and he willingly

submits to God's

authority

so my question

as we look at

this text

and we just understand

the Gospels

my question is this

does that make Jesus

weaker

by Jesus submitting

to the authority

of God the Father

does that make him

less than God

it doesn't

because headship

and authority

have nothing to do

with greater

or lesser

it's just a role

that's being played

there

okay look at

verse 3 again

Christ is the head

of every man

so men

you have the

responsibility

to submit your lives

to the headship

and authority

of Christ

do you know that

I think sometimes

as men

we just want to

skip this verse

and we want to

go to the next verse

because it's more sexy

but this is what

he says

he says

men

Christ

is the one

who leads

you

are the one

who follows

Christ

is the one

who leads

you are the one

who follows

this means

that men

are not

led by

their job

men

are not

led by

their career

as Christians

men

are not

led by

their feelings

men

are not

led by

their competencies

men

are not

led by

what they

do good

at

men

are not

led

by

Cafe

Pacific

men

are not

led

by

JP

Morgan

men

are led

by

God

so men

what Paul

is telling

us

is that

you

as a

follower

of

Christ

in

everything

that you

do

as a

man

you

are led

by

Christ

so here's

my question

is that

true

men

is it

true

maybe

I should

ask

your

wives

your

wives

would

be able

to tell

me

if it's

true

or not

but this

is what

we have

to ask

ourselves

as men

under

this

authority

of

God

Jesus

man

and

woman

this

means

that

men

cannot

lead

their

family

as

they

feel

like

this

means

that

men

have

to

submit

first

as the

head

to

Jesus

as the

head

of

their

lives

it

means

that

men

are

humble

servants

to their

wives

and their

kiddos

it

means

that

men

represent

God

in their

home

you know

if you read

the Hebrew

there's this

play on

words

it's

almost

like

that

men

are

this

mirror

and

men

reflect

God's

glory

and

so

as

God

shining

his

glory

before

the

brokenness

before

our

mirror

was

cracked

we

just

reflected

God's

glory

to

our

wives

and

our

kids

and

everything

else

but

when

sin

came

in

it

just

broke

all

these

things

and

we

have

a

struggle

with

that

and

the

problem

is

that

we

often

forget

our

responsibility

and

we

just

think

about

our

authority

we

think

about

what

we're

supposed

to

do

in

our

responsibility

but

we

forget

that

we're

called

to

serve

and

love

and

nurture

and

take

care

of

our

spouses

verse

three

guys

are you

feeling

it

I

feel

it

verse

three

now

Paul

says

that

man

is

the

head

of

the

woman

Paul

teaches

this

in

verses

three

and

verses

eight

and

verses

nine

and

Paul

as

he

always

does

he's

like

the

perfect

teacher

he

doesn't

just

give

you

an

opinion

he

just

goes

back

to

the

very

beginning

of

how

things

are

meant

to be

and

how

they

were

created

in

the

beginning

and

he

goes

to

this

place

called

a

garden

and

in

chapter

two

of

Genesis

what

you

see

is

that

God

created

man

out

of

the

dirt

man

is

like

a

mud

clod

right

and

he

created

woman

out

of

the

side

of

the

man

that

Eve

the

woman

was

created

to be

a

partner

to

man

in

Hebrew

it

actually

says

these

words

same

but

different

and

actually

if you've

ever

heard me

do

a

wedding

ceremony

I did

it

for

Oscar

and

Celeste

just

recently

one

of

the

Hebrew

words

basically

says

that

woman

is

a

rescuer

of

man

that

the

man

needed

rescuing

that

the

man

was

not

complete

and

so

the

woman

was

created

different

and

she

was

given

different

roles

as

a

helper

for

the

man

now

I've

gone

back

and

forth

on

this

helper

Christina

and I

were

talking

about

this

we

can't

do

this

in

this

culture

because

the

helper

has

a

bad

connotation

in

this

culture

and

no

one

is

going

to

miss

it

here

and

they're

going

to

freak

out

and

they're

going

to

think

of

their

helper

but

in

the

Bible

that's

just

the

best

word

there

is

you

know

that

the

Bible

only

uses

helper

four

times

it

says

that

woman

is

the

helper

of

mankind

it

says

that

Jesus

is

the

helper

of

man

it

says

the

Holy

Spirit

is

the

helper

of

man

so

woman

God

Jesus

Holy

Spirit

that's

that's

I would

say

that's

pretty

good

company

right

I

mean

that's

that's

that's

the

all-star

team

that's

that's

that's

that's

as good

as it

gets

you're

on

the

all-star

team

if

you're

with

Jesus

and

the

Holy

Spirit

and

God

you're

you're

you're

on

the

all-star

team

but

there's

a

struggle

here

and

the

issue

is

that

women

were

given

different

giftings

and

they

were

given

different

giftings

so they

could

help

the

man

and

I'm

going

to

say

this

because

I

believe

it

with

all

my

heart

and

you

know

when

I

was

studying

medicine

so

this

would

have

been

I

graduated

in

87

I

was

going

to

medical

school

women

are

exactly

the

same

they're

typically

identical

the only

problem

the only

issue

of

difference

was

because

of

culture

but

if

you

just

look

at

them

yeah

biologically

he's

a little

different

but

everything

else

is

just

culturally

they're

just

different

and

you

know

now

no one

ever

talks

about

that

now

in

medicine

they

say

that's

terrible

because

there's

a

massive

difference

in

how

the

different

sexes

are

wired

and

how

they

work

and

you

know

I

believe

that

God

did

this

for

a

purpose

and

we

believe

this

in

this

church

this

is

what

God's

word

says

there's

a

gender

differences

are

massive

and

they're

important

and

that's

how

God

made

it

if

Christina

were

just

like

me

we

would

be

so

boring

and

we

would

never

get

anything

done

and

think

about

this

too

right

you

know

by

definition

a

helper

has

to have

two

things

going

for

them

one

is

the

helper

has

to

know

how

to

do

something

that

the

other

person

can't

get

done

and

the

second

thing

is

the

helper

has

to

be

willing

to

help

so

if

you

come

to

my

house

at

six

o'clock

at

night

I

tutor

my

kids

I'm

their

helper

and

I

tutor

them

in

math

and

science

and

geometry

and

the

reason

I

tutor

them

is

because

I

know

more

than

they

do

I

can

fit

in

and

I

can

do

things

that

they

can't

do

that's

what

makes

me

a

helper

I

help

them

because

I

have

the

ability

to

do

things

that

they

cannot

do

now

I

do

not

help

them

with

Canadian

history

who

knew

there

was

so

much

about

Canadian

history

right

I

just

thought

it

was

a

part

of

northern

Montana

and

anybody

didn't

like

Montana

they

just

went

up

into

Canada

but

I

cannot

help

them

I

cannot

be

their

helper

in

Canadian

history

because

I

cannot

even

pronounce

all

the

French

names

correctly

but

I

can

help

them

in

everything

else

and

so

to

be

a

helper

to

my

kids

I

have

to

be

having

something

that

they

can't

do

on

their

own

I

have

to

be

able

to

do

that

and

then

I

also

have

to

be

willing

to

do

that

you

know

there's

sometimes

I'm

just

not

willing

they

come

in

can

you

help

me

with

that

I'm

like

I

just

don't

have

enough

time

I'm

tired

can

you

just

go

do

it

on

your

own

I

just

can't

do

that

you

know

but

we

see

in

this

passage

that

woman

was

created

differently

and

she

was

man's

helper

and

if

there

are

differences

my

belief

and

I

think

the

Bible

teaches

really

clearly

that

these

differences

must

be

good

they

must

be

good

because

God

wouldn't

create

anything

bad

the

problem

is

in

Genesis

chapter

three

one

chapter

later

sin

comes

in

and

sin

comes

in

and

just

totally

devastates

us

and

it

takes

these

differences

and

it

twists

them

and

it

corrupts

them

instead

of

nurturing

the

woman

now

the

guy

is

ordering

the

man

and

all

these

things

are

a

concept

of

sin

coming

in

and

just

taking

these

giftings

and

these

differences

and

just

twisting

them

and

changing

them

if you

look at

the passage

again

in verse

11

he says

however

in the

Lord

neither

woman

is

independent

of man

or man

is

independent

of woman

that

there's

just

this

sameness

in

their

identity

and

their

essence

and

their

values

they have

different

functions

and have

different

roles

can I

be honest

with you

and I

try to

be very

honest

and you

know

you

laugh

at the

things

I

share

and

98%

of the

stories

are

true

I

change

some

names

sometimes

just to

protect

people

I feel

like we

need to be

honest

as a

family

right

Christina

is so

much

better

than I

am

I

mean I

think she's

so much

more

gifted

than I

am

she's

funner

than I

am

if I

were

God

I

would

have

made

the

woman

the

head

of

the

household

because

after

counseling

men

for

30

years

I

just

think

women

just

think

so

much

clearer

and

guys

can

focus

on

one

thing

and

then

they

can't

get

their

focus

off

that

one

thing

but

there

was

something

in

it

that

I

would

have

said

it

makes

more

sense

and

sometimes

Christina

is

doing

stuff

and I

just

want

her

to

do

I

just

want

to

follow

right

and

she

looks

at

me

she

goes

hey

no

that's

not

what

God

meant

for

us

in

our

roles

you're

to be

the

leader

you're

to

lead

where

is

God

taking

us

what's

he

calling

us