1 Cor 11:1-16 | July 19, 2026 | Will Rutt

Well good morning.

I love being here on a Sunday and equipping was so good, thankful to Adam, and equipping us to think biblically about God life and culture.

Love being in here uh during the greeting and uh passing by people who are actually introducing themselves to people they didn't know.

Love that love being able to see missionaries who are um serving around the world.

Then we get to see them here sometimes unexpectedly and just give them a big hug.

Uh grateful for them.

Grateful to hear uh I heard stories today about some mission in normal life environments, like on a tennis court, uh, and I'm just thankful.

And we gather as as we're singing, I'm thankful for the loud, thought loud, thoughtful offerings of praise to God.

Grateful that I can hear us singing.

I'm grateful when my daughter uh today she said, uh, what does it mean that uh God's glory is my good?

I'm thankful to be part of a church where when we are singing things, we're not just kind of going in and like uh autopilot and just coasting, but thinking about who God is as we sing praises to him.

Just thankful for it all.

And I'm thankful for the text that we have today.

If um, if you know 1 Corinthians 11 and any of my pastor friends who I've talked to, uh when I've said to them, hey, I got 1 Corinthians 11 today, you know what they've said?

Some sort of version of ha! Bummer for you.

And uh so I want to read the text, and actually, um as we read, I uh now that I've kind of poisoned the well a little bit, I actually think that all of God's word is inspired and it is good for us and it is sweet for us.

And I hope that this morning we actually feel that today as we get clarity on who God has called us to be as men and who God has called you to be as a woman.

So, are you ready?

Let's read the whole text together.

We'll start back in verse one.

Verse one is actually connected more so to what he's finished saying in chapter 10 about doing uh all things for the glory of God and to win the lost, and then he brings up the new thing in verse two.

So be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ.

That's dealing with what he already talked about.

Verse 2.

Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head.

Okay, now we can look around in judgment for any guys who have a hat on, just kidding, but let's keep going.

Verse five.

But every woman who has some who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head.

Now we can look around at the women who have their heads uncovered.

Okay, just kidding.

Let's keep going.

For she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.

For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off.

But if it's disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off, or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God.

But the woman is the glory of man.

For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man.

For indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.

Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

Doesn't that just clear it right up?

Because of the angels.

Verse eleven.

However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is sorry, uh however, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is the man independent of woman.

For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God.

Judge for yourselves.

Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a dishonor to him.

But if a woman has long hair, it's a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Alright.

Um, what did we just read?

Uh we just read that it is wrong and disgraceful for men to pray or prophesy with their heads covered.

This is disgraceful.

And some of you right now are thinking, yes, it is.

Get that off.

Okay?

I will in a little while, but I just want to let it sit for a little while, okay?

It also says it's wrong and disgraceful for women for women who pray or prophesy to do so with their heads uncovered or to have short hair.

This is disgraceful.

Some of us actually grew up in a tradition where this was um understood, taught, and practiced.

Uh, if you come from a Mennonite background or a brethren background, some of us actually grew up in churches where women would attend with their heads covered, and you definitely would not wear, if you're a man, you would definitely not wear a hat like I just was.

So what is what is all this about?

I want to help us understand what 1 Corinthians 11 is about, and actually, I hope get to a point where we finish this morning.

It's like, man, I actually think 1 Corinthians 11 has some real sweetness for me and instruction for me and help to me.

That's where I hope we land.

So let's make sure we understand uh uh 1 Corinthians 11 and where it falls in the context of the book.

We know that chapters 1 through 6 is rebukes, chapters 7 through 16 is replies.

He's uh with each issue that he addresses, he gives instruction, but he doesn't just give instruction, he weaves the gospel through it, and we can't miss that.

Then he answers questions.

Questions about marriage, questions about meat sacrifice to idols, and now we've finished chapter 10, we're moving into chapter 11, and he's moving, this is gonna be important for us, he's moving from in chapters 8 through 10, personal conscience, into in chapters uh 11 through 14 is going to be, he's gonna be addressing questions related to corporate worship.

Corporate worship.

The reason that we see corporate worship in what we just read is you can pray pro pray privately, but what he's talking about is praying or prophesying.

You cannot prophesy privately, like in your room by yourself.

And we'll talk more about prophecy later in chapter 14, because he writes a whole chapter about prophecy.

But we understand that he's moving from personal conscience now to corporate worship, and he's giving instructions for that.

So we're talking about corporate worship, the gathering of the saints, what we would call church.

And so, what's the deal with hats in Corinth?

Why is he bringing this up?

Okay, well, here's what we understand about hats.

Hats talk, right?

They say something.

If I came in and uh came into church and had a camouflage hat that would say something about me, what would that say about me?

I'm a hunter.

All right?

Um if I came in with a yarmulke on my head that would say something about me, what would it say?

I'm a Jewish.

If I came in with a Jacksonville Jaguars hat on me, what would that say about me?

Uh yeah, it would say I am constantly disappointed in life.

Hats talk.

It was true then?

Or it was it's true now, and it was true then.

So the question is, uh, what did hats say then and what did no hat say in Corinth?

Here's what we know for a man to cover his head, this said something.

It said, I am either a temple priest or I'm going to the temple to make a sacrifice to the gods.

This is how you would dress in your in your worship of the idols in the temple.

A man would wear a hat.

What about for a woman?

For a woman, a head covering, which would have been uh more like a sort of veil on the back of their head, for a woman to wear a head covering was a sign of modesty, of um, and of submission to her husband.

That's that's what the head covering was.

And people across the Greco-Roman world, the the women wore their head coverings.

This is how they dressed, and it was a sign of modesty.

In some ways, it's a little bit like a wedding ring.

The wedding ring is something that I would wear that says something about me.

Okay.

What would it mean, or what could it mean, to intentionally take my wedding ring off?

If I'm intentionally taking it off, now that is also saying something about me, isn't it?

If I'm intentionally taking it off.

For the women in Corinth to remove their head covering was saying something.

And what is saying, if the the head covering represents modesty and submission to her husband, to remove it was to say, um, I am promiscuous.

And actually, we've talked about the temple that was in Corinth that had these thousand temple prostitutes.

One of the ways you could identify a temple prostitute is how?

No head covering.

No head covering says, I'm available.

This is what head coverings said in Corinth.

For a man to wear it, I'm going to worship in the temple.

For a woman to remove it, I'm available.

This is what head coverings said then.

So why are the women in the church here in their gatherings ditching the head coverings that are so much a part of their culture?

Well, he doesn't say.

But what many commentators suggest is that they are um they're ditching the head coverings because of this new gospel identity that they have.

This sort of Galatians 3 gospel emphasis in Galatians 3.28 says there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, male or female.

We're all one, and if we're all one, then there doesn't need to be any distinction between how you dress or how I dress.

So let's ditch the head coverings.

That appears to be what's happening here in their worship services.

The head covering that says modesty is also the head covering that creates distinction between men and women, and so let's ditch it because we're all one in Christ.

Praise the Lord.

And I think this is really, really important that Paul and recognizes this and says, Hey, church, and ditching the head coverings, you are saying something that isn't actually true of you.

You're getting together, and your women are saying we are available, and they're not.

You're saying something in how you dress, and it's actually not true of you.

I've used the wedding ring illustration because I think it helps me.

Like the the wedding ring is not nearly as obvious now for us as what the head covering would have been then.

But imagine if all the ladies came to church and it was like, oh, kind of leave leave your wedding ring at the door.

What do you guys do here?

That that would be a practice.

See, that would be saying something or indicating something that actually isn't true.

And so Paul is going, hey, there cannot be this, um we cannot be saying something about ourselves that actually isn't true, and head coverings, ditching them says, I'm available.

And um, and that's not true.

Here's the point Head coverings do not equal for us today signs of, they're not symbols of submission or modesty.

Today, they are fashion statements, they don't say what they used to, and because of that, we believe that head coverings are not something that women need to be wearing in the worship service.

We're not going to bring the ushers down with um with uh new Sandhurst hats for all the ladies to wear when they're here, nor are we bringing scissors down for any of you men here who have long hair.

Now, in some ways I may have just relieved some tension for us.

Uh I just said that head coverings don't say what they used to, so we don't need to wear them.

And we're like, yes.

That's good.

But in some ways I might have just created a lot more tension.

Because do you see what I just said?

What I just did.

What I just did is I took some, took a passage and I took some clear teaching.

Women should have their head covered, men should not have long hair.

And as an appeal to culture, I said, um, well, things are different now, so we don't need to obey that.

And if you didn't catch that I did that, then we need to uh let's let's listen carefully because I hope our BS meters ringing a little bit like, well, I see what he just did there, because this is how uh false teaching happens all the time, and how people are led astray all the time.

You take a particular uh something that the Bible calls sin, and one of the ways that it gets watered down and to a point that is unbiblical and not true, and um is an appeal to culture.

I mean, it it is one of the ways that homosexuality and the practice of homosexuality gets flipped into something that's not bad because in the culture back then, homosexuality was linked to idol worship and or molestation of a younger male child.

That's what it was then, but it's not that way anymore.

Now it's between two men who love each other and it's consensual, things aren't now how they used to be, so now it's okay.

I am not saying that that is true.

I'm saying that that is the argument that people make.

I'm also so then what do we do here?

If I just took 1 Corinthians 11 and said, hats no longer say what they used to, so we don't need to wear them in our worship.

They're fashion statements, they're not symbols of modesty and submission.

How do we read the Bible then in a way that is where we are here and not here?

Well, that's a good question, and I hope we can answer that really clearly.

As here's what we always do.

When um when we want to read the Bible here and we come to a passage that makes our makes our uh scratch our heads a little bit, we always let the Bible interpret the Bible and we ask, okay, where else does the Bible speak to this issue?

You could take it uh from homosexuality, since I use that as an example, Romans 1.

There's lots of different places in the Bible where we can go, okay, what does the Bible say about this?

Take 1 Corinthians 11, head coverings, and we go, okay, what else does the Bible have to say to bring clarity to the issue of head coverings?

And if you're going to turn in your Bible to further teaching or elaboration on head coverings in the church or just in general, you know where you would go?

Nowhere, really.

The Bible doesn't actually speak to it anywhere else.

What we do get is um people, particularly in the Old Testament, as symbols of mourning would cover their head.

So what does that tell us?

It tells us maybe that's not the point, and actually, where the Bible doesn't speak to head coverings outside of 1 Corinthians 11, it does speak to something that's more core to the issue than the head coverings.

Go to chapter 11, verse 16.

Everything that we read is bookended with one concept that has two different words to describe it.

Verse 16, but if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other.

What word do you have?

Practice.

Okay.

That word practice is the word custom.

It's the same word that Pilate used when he's saying, You have a custom on Passover that I release one of the prisoners to you.

Same, same word.

This this word that practice is a custom.

Okay?

What we've read about head coverings is bookended with chapter uh verse 16, custom, and they go to verse 2.

Because remember, he doesn't really start this in verse 1, he starts at verse 2.

Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the what?

Traditions.

Traditions.

So he bookends this talk on head coverings with traditions in verse 2, with customs or practices in verse 16.

Now we go, okay, well, does the Bible say anything to us about customs and traditions?

Well, actually, yeah.

Let's see what Jesus says about this, because Jesus really um targets traditions very specifically.

Uh w wanna I want us to see it.

So uh turn your Bible with me to Mark chapter seven.

And as we look at it, let's define tradition, okay?

A tradition is a practice that's meant to uphold truth over time.

That's what a tradition is.

Uh it's a practice meant to uphold truth over time.

Many of us, when we come to Sunday morning, we have a tradition of coming to church of dressing more nicely than we would on throughout the week.

Okay?

That's what's what truth is behind that tradition?

Well, you could say it a couple different ways.

One is that we want to honor God by kind of bringing him our best.

Okay?

That's the truth behind the tradition, because the tradition is a practice meant to uphold truth over time.

We stand for the reading.

We have a tradition there.

What truth is behind that tradition?

It's respect and reverence for God and his word.

Okay?

Standing is a way of upholding that truth over time.

That's what the tradition does.

Jesus is going to be confronted with a tradition and the truth behind it, and we're going to see how he interacts with it.

Okay?

Mark chapter seven.

Oh, sorry.

Mark chapter seven.

This is what it says, verse uh, verse one.

The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Jesus when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of his disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed.

For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat, uh do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders.

And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves.

There are many other things which they had received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.

The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walking according to the tradition of the elders?

But eat the bread with impure hands.

Pause there.

The discipl the Pharisees are like, hey, we've got a tradition, and this tradition upholds truth.

The truth behind all these ceremonial cleansings is they actually took the washings that happened in the temple and their sacrifices, these um cleansings that upheld holiness, and then they applied them to their normal life environment, to home life.

And the the the truth behind it is holiness is not just.

A temple thing, it's an everyday life thing, and so we're gonna we're gonna have these traditions of washings.

They're not Old Testament commands, they're just traditions.

So, verse six.

And he said to them, Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men, neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.

He was also saying to them, You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your what?

Tradition.

So did Jesus hate traditions?

No.

What did he hate?

Jesus hated when the truth took a backseat to the tradition, or when the tradition began to distract from the very thing it was initiated or started to uphold.

When the when the tradition distracted from the truth, Jesus was like, hey, you guys, you put the truth in the backseat, you made the tradition the main thing, and the main thing wasn't the tradition, the main thing was the truth behind it.

So Jesus was quite happy to be antagonistic towards the tradition that was distracting from the truth.

So this is this was actually really helpful to me.

1 Corinthians 11, we got head coverings, we got these customs, we've got traditions, things that in their culture head coverings said.

And when the tradition was distracting from the truth, Jesus was like, we need to get rid of it.

So that leaves us with the question, okay?

And the question is this what was the truth that the tradition, the head covering, was supporting?

What's the truth behind that?

And we see it in verse 3.

Um But before we go there, uh I do want to make sure that I don't miss this.

What I've what I've tried to do so far is uh help us think about, okay, the Bible doesn't speak to head coverings, it does speak to traditions, and Jesus was able to do away with the tradition for the sake of the truth.

And therefore we can do away with the head coverings for the sake of truth.

That's what I've tried to do so far.

Um but I I don't want to miss that it was important to Paul that they not, that they not ditch the head coverings because he didn't want them to say something about themselves that wasn't true.

And we can do that in the way we dress or in the way we behave in a church.

We can say things about ourselves that aren't actually true about what we believe or about God.

When I first came here in 2013, um the students had a tradition on a Sunday morning, and the tradition was they would sit up in the back corner of the balcony, which was convenient for not paying attention.

And I felt like, man, uh what we were saying as students was we are disengaged, we don't care, uh, we are separate from.

I felt like that that's what we're saying.

But that's not true.

That students aren't and don't need to be disengaged, they're not separate from the body.

So here's what I did.

I said, we're gonna change the tradition.

And in order to say with our actions what was actually true, we are engaged, we're leaning in.

We went from up there to boom.

We said we're going from back road to front row, not because there's anything bad with, not not because there's anything bad with back row, but because we wanted to say with our bodies what is true about corporate worship and and my involvement in it.

I want my body to say, I'm here, I'm leaning in.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not just kind of like, hmm.

I'm like, hmm.

That's what I wanted to say.

And and and Paul really, really, I think it's important to him that people be able to see alignment between what they do, how they dressed, and what they actually believed.

We want there to be alignment.

There needs to be alignment in in the church between what we do and what we say.

I appreciate what Adam said about giving.

Do we actually believe that everything I have is from God?

Okay?

Well, if I believe that, then what?

I need to give back joyfully to actually believe that God is worthy of my worship.

Okay?

Oh, if I do, well then what?

What is consistent with that?

It means I sing praise.

Not like this, but like like from the gut.

Want things in in the worship service, it's important that what we experience and how we engage it is in alignment with what is actually true.

Okay.

So in terms of the head covering and the truth behind it, let's go back to chapter 11, and what was the truth behind the traditional head covering?

It's 1 Corinthians 11, and we read it in the reading when we stood up.

And the truth is this.

We'll pick up, we'll start in verse 2.

Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to understand, here's the truth behind the head covering, the head covering that in the culture represented modesty and submission.

I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

So here's the truth that God has created a structure of order, a structure of authority in the church.

And here's what he says: God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, man is the head of woman.

Does anybody dislike what you see there?

It's like, wait a second.

I thought we were like taking some good ground here.

I thought the tradition was the problem, now we're gonna get to see some truth, and the truth is gonna be like, oh great.

What's up with that?

Okay.

Um here here's here's what we're gonna see.

We're gonna see Paul tie this authoritative structure up to God and back to creation in a way that actually affirms gender equality, gender distinction, and interdependence.

That's what we're gonna see Paul do.

Uh, if we have time and whatever we don't have time for, we'll do it in the podcast, okay?

But the tension is obvious.

Who's at the low end of the totem pole?

It just feels that way.

But this is this is really helpful to me, what Paul does.

He ties the authoritative structure first into the Godhead.

See, we have tension.

What why are women below men?

And then we look at Jesus below God, and we don't have tension there.

Why do we not have tension in the top two, but we do in the bottom two?

We don't have tension, tension in the top two for maybe for two reasons.

One, it doesn't feel like it applies to us that much.

But two, because I think we actually have a correct understanding of and theology of Jesus and the Father in the context of the Trinity.

That in that Jesus and the Father, that they are equal yet distinct.

Okay?

So in in the New Testament, we see, and throughout the scripture, we see that Jesus is co-equal to God.

He is God.

By him are all things, and through him all things are created.

Jesus is creator.

Only God does that.

Jesus forgives sins.

Only God does that.

Okay?

Jesus rules over nature.

Only God does that.

Spirits bowed to Jesus.

That's only for God.

Jesus is equal to God.

And yet, in John 14, 28, Jesus says, the Father is greater than I.

It's like, wait, wait, wait.

What?

Two verses later he says, um, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father says.

So equal to God, yet distinct from God, distinct in his role.

To submit to the Father.

Equal to God, yet equal to the Father, and yet distinct.

So Jesus then in chapter 17, he'd say, I've accomplished, um, I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished your will for me.

John 17, 4.

Having accomplished everything you've given me to do.

So Jesus and the Father, equal in Godness, yet distinct in their role.

This is the Godhead.

Paul takes that and then he applies that to the authoritative structure in the church gathering and says, men and women, just like the Godhead, equal in value, varied in role, so men and women in the church, equal in value, varied in role.

Different roles in the church.

So if we are called to be distinct in our role, what is the nature of that distinction?

Well, in the church, the nature of that distinction comes up in roles, and uh namely the role of pastor-elder.

And when we look at what the New Testament has to say about gender distinctions and the roles that God has given men and for men only in the church, that is pastor-elder.

And we see that in the qualifications that Paul gives.

This is a role that God has given men in the church.

Now, Jesus was under the Father.

Was that because Jesus was less than?

Okay, I was expecting an answer.

Is that because Jesus was less than the Father?

No, no.

We really have to get that.

Uh to be greater than does not mean to be better than.

When I drive home today, if I just whoop down third loop speed and I see the little cherries and blueberries in the back, man, pull over.

The police officer may not be better than me, but he is greater than me, and I will submit because not better, but greater in that context.

Okay?

Jesus, not less than God, but the Father greater.

Okay, so in the church, the distinction of role is not about competence, it's just about roles that God has given to men and then to women.

It's not about competence.

So, what Paul does in tying the authoritative structure up to God, and we'll see him do it back to creation, he's affirming gender equality.

In the same way that Jesus is equal to the Father, men and women are equal in value and giftedness, but varied in role.

And the role in the church for men is pastor-elder.

What do pastors and elders do?

Um, we take ultimate responsibility for direction of the church, for doctrinal purity in the church, for praying for the church, for how we spend the church's dollars.

We take ultimate responsibility for those things.

That's the role that God has given elders, and therefore the those men in the church.

We are made in the image of God and like the Trinity, equal value, varied in role.

Okay, but he doesn't just tie it to the Godhead, he ties it to creation as well.

Go join me in verse 8.

For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man, for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.

Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

By the way, we are going to talk about that in the podcast, and he's gonna tie it to nature later.

We'll talk about the podcast too.

Verse 11.

However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

For as the woman originates from the man, talking to Adam and Eve, so also the man has birthed through the woman, and all things originate from God.

What's he saying there?

He's saying, hey, uh men, just because you there's distinction of role, don't get on your high horse because uh without your mom, you would not be here.

And so he goes back to creation to highlight interdependence.

We need each other.

Men and women in the church.

We need each other.

Thank you, Wick.

Good to have you back, man.

See, uh there is distinction of roles, but that is not a sidelining of women in the church gathering.

This is not a question of if women should pray or prophesy in the church.

This is a question of how and how they should dress and what that would say about their modesty and their submission to the leadership in the church.

But this tying it back to creation, then it affirms interdependence that we need each other.

We need each other.

And I'm so grateful for all the um ways that our women engage our church and especially for our elders.

There's uh there's actually two groups of women who pray uh who gather together to pray together every day that the elders meet once a month.

I'm thankful for that.

As elders, we do well to lean into the wisdom of our wives and to lean into the wisdom of women in our church when we have uh sort of uh something that we're tackling, like I tackled this uh basically a church health team trying to lean into the wisdom of our women, interdependence.

And we have really, really, really gifted women in our church.

And we need you.

Okay, so let me let me um let me close here.

Well the the things that I haven't I haven't been able to be clear on, I hope to clear up later.

But here I do have wanted to keep the big picture in mind.

Don't ditch the head coverings that's saying something that isn't true about you.

Don't ditch them.

And yet, to the extent that for us, head coverings are fashion statements, not symbols of authority and submission, then we're fine to ditch, but not fine to find to ditch the tradition, but not fine to ditch the truth that it highlights.

A truth tied up to God, back to creation that affirms gender equality, that affirms gender distinction, and uh interdependence.

So I wanted to think and speak to us in closing.

I wanted to speak first to our women and then to our men.

Men and women, we uh created equal in the image of God.

And yet distinct.

And our culture is trying to erase all the distinctions.

To women, you're made in the image of God, you are wired to be like God in terms of your help and your nurturing care.

Just as God gave Eve as a helper to Adam, and then God called himself that helper, so you bring God's help to those who need strength.

Your kids find great comfort and joy in your embrace and in your words of encouragement, and your husbands do too.

You're distinct.

While men are usually stronger, you possess an inner strength that often comes out in times of crisis.

Like Esther who said, if a parish, I perish or the woman who stayed by Jesus' side when the men hid, or the women, the women who came early to the tomb, you tend to find yourself in the place of need.

There's a reason more women serve in church at that women serve in church at higher rates than men.

You are distinct.

You tend to have bigger emotions.

You like Mary, who anointed Jesus with perfume, the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears, like Hannah, who prayed before the Lord so passionately she appeared to be drunk.

You have a tenderness before the Lord that expresses itself in worship that Jesus called legendary.

You're distinct.

We need you.

Your help, your care, your inner strength, your emotions, your tenderness.

You reflect the God whose image you bear.

You're distinct.

And we need that.

We need the women to be women.

The church is better for it.

The culture is saying that the most empowering way for a woman to be a woman is to be like a man at his worst.

A bully, abusive, domineering.

That's not true, womanhood.

God made you distinct.

Men, we're made in the image of God.

We are wired to be like God in terms of providing and protecting and loving and leading.

God made us bigger and stronger, that our strength would get leveraged to protect the vulnerable, to run in the direction of bullets or burning buildings.

Man, we are protectors.

We're distinct.

God made us that way.

Men, we're providers.

Yes, in terms of physical necessities, but more so in terms of emotional stability.

Our emotions tend to be more steady, and we can be a stable bulwark that our wives can crash against without us being moved.

Men, we're distinct.

Men, we are wired for a purpose, for chasing something bigger than ourselves.

Like Moses, Joshua, David, and the apostles, many of us have the desire to create and sustain movements that take ground, that make a difference.

Men, we're distinct.

In our marriages, we represent Jesus in terms of sacrificial love, who gives preference, the one who humbles himself over to the point of death, the one who dies that others might live.

Men, we are distinct.

In our protection, our provision, our love, our leadership, we reflect the God whose image we bear.

We are distinct.

And when we erase the distinctions, we blur the image of God.

Men be men, women be women, be who you're made to be.

And when we see God, who is not idle in our need, who ran to us in our need and placed himself in the middle of it to rescue his children and glorify the Father.

So I know I know I'm reading a lot, but just want to get it from a heart.

He carried the cross and maintained the inner strength to do what no man or woman could do.

Absorb the wrath of God as our righteous and loving substitute.

Only God could do that.

He is distinct.

He was crucified, buried, and rose again that he might give his righteousness and his spirit to those who call on him in faith.

That his spirit in us might make us distinct, more than just men and as women, but supernaturally distinct as ones in whom God dwells to help, to care, to love, to lead, to provide, to protect to the glory of the Father.

Knowing you are distinct in your gender and supernaturally distinct by his spirit.

Be who you are.

Be who you are.

Let us not be a church where there is a difference between what we say and what we actually believe.

Let's be a church where you see who we are, tied back to the up to the nature of God, back to creation.

Equal, yet distinct, and interdependent.

Pray for us if you'll stand with me.