Leftovers - Biblical Womanhood

Happy Monday. Pastor Matt is here with you,

Pastor Chris as well. His earring holes are open for

business. Looking for ideas for the

earring holes for Pastor Chris. Why is this how we started?

What is happening? It's what the people want.

Chris, we had a weird staff meeting this morning.

To be honest with you, what should be the most telling part

about how our morning staff meeting was, was that it's

spilled well into the afternoon. So.

Oh. My.

Gosh, yeah, you're welcome for that.

Open for business. Kristen said.

I can, I, I can see your earring holes today.

I was like. Yeah, yeah, Well, you know, fun

fact is I think I, I think I got my ears pierced when I was like

12:00-ish, give or take, you know, 'cause now at this point

we are in the very early 90s and made sense for me at the time

and stuff, but I pretty continuously wore earrings into

my late 20s for sure, maybe even into my early 30s.

And so, you know, you do that for 20 years and they're never

going away. So, you know, every once in a

while they make kids laugh. I guess if the opportunity

arises, I'll put in dangly earrings and make them laugh.

And because I do things like that.

But yeah, you're right. They're they'll, they'll always

be there. I think Valentine's Day dinner

fundraiser next year pick Pastor Chris's earrings.

Don't you dare. Oh no, Oh no.

I can't believe you said that. You're welcome.

And it's it's, it's out there now that you said that.

Yes, it is. Oh my gosh, Matt.

Someone else has to do the work. I'm not doing the work.

Someone else has to make that dream a reality.

No, but that's your idea. That's my nightmare.

What are we doing? Oh my gosh, Matt is just hanging

me out to drag today friends and this.

Wow. Dang it.

I see. I still need to think of a

hilarious way to make sure that you have a weird Valentine's

dinner next year. Or maybe, maybe I'll just enlist

the help of the people. What would, Matt?

Just. It's not so embarrassing that

like it that it makes you feel bad, but it's embarrassing

enough that you don't want to do it, you know?

Yeah. You could try that.

You could try. I need your help people.

Yeah, I'd be interested in hearing some of those.

I just, I don't leave myself like as open to that as as you

already have through your life choices so.

Dang it. I don't for example, I don't I

don't have earring holes so. So, OK, never, OK, never thought

about any kind of period. And when you were younger, you

know, whatever, never even considered it like.

Anything. No.

Oh my God. Never.

Never tempted, never drawn towards that.

I don't know why. And I don't like.

I don't think it's weird that you that you do, sure, but I

just don't. So yeah.

OK. Yeah, I mean the world I grew up

in, like fairly normal for. A lot of guys, yeah, of.

Course, yeah, I don't know. Weird.

Oh, sorry, you were saying the piercings were.

I thought you were saying you were fairly normal.

Oh, oh, I don't know if that's ever been true.

No. Yeah, you would.

You would laugh at me correctly if I ever said I was normal,

because you'd know I was a terrible liar.

So never been that. Yikes, we've barely, barely even

started. This is the ERC Leftovers

podcast. We will get to reviewing the

sermon on Biblical womanhood this week that Pastor Chris

preached and and that was great. I thought you gave a really good

overview of God's design for women as as helpers, as

partners, as they're created being though too, because that's

what first and foremost their their identity that God was

given they they are independent, which I which you can take that

several ways that they're, as I said with men last week, like we

are raised to be dependent on God and in ways women are

created to also be dependent both on God and on men and men

also, as you were talking about the the complementary opposites

are also made to depend on women in certain ways too, in in areas

of our weakness and their strength.

So. Yeah, I love that word.

I I've typically glossed over. You know, you read Genesis 218

and you catch that word helper and that kind of gets your

attention, but I've typically glossed over that word helper

fit for him. And I was just amazed at the

depth of that word and how that actually works.

And you know, then you look at the larger world and how God has

created it and the fact that there are so many opposites that

they never destroy each other. In fact, if they weren't

opposite and equals, we wouldn't even exist on this planet.

And so there are science, there are science brain minds and, you

know, engineering minds among us that would probably have 1000

examples of equal opposites that if they didn't exist, none of it

would work at all. But anyway, yeah, so I just, I

was very, very intrigued by that this week.

Yeah. So we have a couple of

follow-ups continuing some thoughts that came out of the

sermon yesterday. We've got a few questions that

you all submitted in in response to the sermon too that we'll

kind of work through. Before that, we are going to

resurrect a segment here adulting with Pastor Matt and

yeah, it's going to be on socks today.

Socks. He's called adult day.

I'm adult. He sells authorities.

I'm adulting. I'm an adult.

So the start of this was I love my wife and that's a good way.

It's a good thing to say it's. A good way to start anything.

Yeah, really any sentence that I say if I start with I love my

wife, it's probably, it's probably a safe start anyway.

It's a really good day if she when she does her laundry, all

of her socks come out. Having a match, like a matched

pair. That would be a good day.

Like cause for celebration level like happens way, way less

often. Most of the time her socks come

out not all having matches and it so you're looking at me like

that's fairly normal. Yeah, but please keep going

before I have my rebuttal. For me, and this is maybe just

the person that I am or you guys, you guys got to let me

know out there, am I the crazy person?

I do my laundry like before they go into the washer.

I know that every sock in that basket has a match.

How could one even confirm? That Oh my.

Seems like an impossibility, Sir.

No, it doesn't. That's what that's what I don't

understand that it seems like an impossible task to keep all the

pairs of socks together. They came off your feet in

pairs. Did, did they did somewhere they

should have. And that's we did have Kristen

this morning saying one of one of her kids runs around with one

sock on and one sock off and that's just madness.

But I'm not even going to get into the mismatched socks.

I'm not even talking about the mismatched socks.

You can. Everything should still have

like there shouldn't be an odd number of socks coming out of

the laundry, right? I mean, no, no, no, there's not

room for interpretation there. There should not be an odd

number of socks. On this segment do.

You have an odd number of feet. Yes, I'm just hopping around

because I have one. Like what?

That's what I'm saying like that's you took them off in

pairs. I I don't understand how they

should be able to vanish between your feet and the hamper then.

Do you have a gremlin that's rooting around in the hamper

just. Stop Gremlin.

Just disappear in the socks before you put them.

No, that's that's why I know that they're in pairs before

they go in the washer because they came off my feet in pairs.

They went in the hamper in pairs.

Thereby they went from the hamper to the washer in pairs.

But here's the thing. There's there's several steps I

think you missed a if you see the floor, if you have a dog

like I have a dog, then you'll know that sometimes socks do

just really disappear and I'm like, that's weird.

Now, The funny thing about. How though?

Where are you leaving the socks? Well, that might be a different

problem. So here's the thing, hampers in

my house are located in the bathroom and in the laundry.

Room. Two hampers.

That's where they're located. All right.

Well, I, in my sometimes not perfectly sanctified state, will

take off socks and I'll just kind of throw them behind the

door along with other dirty clothes.

And then either I or Alyssa, like we're kind of walking

around the house gathering things up.

And it's Lisa. We know it's Lisa.

It's OK. Not every time.

Most of the time. Most of the time, Not every

time. I like that you tried to say it.

Me or Alyssa. It could be either one of.

Them could be even up the house, you know, 9010, you know.

Whatever. I throw this stuff, but I come

back to clean it up later. Yeah.

Seems like that fits your personality.

OK. OK, Yeah, exactly.

So, I mean, so socks apparently disappear.

Their pairs of socks disappear. Now here's the The other thing

is that I think you've missed sometimes when OK, if the if The

Dirty laundry hamper is very full, right?

OK, maybe you just. You waited too long to do your

laundry, but OK. Maybe you just grab like an

armful of seemingly light colored things and you throw

them in there and you start washing and oh man I missed a

sock or two along the way. So therefore when it's clean now

I've got random single socks on top of my dresser waiting for

their perfect match. Wow, wow.

So what I hear from you actually in explaining how this is

possible is really we're just uncovering a treasure trove of

other problems, really. Are they problems too?

I mean, we're using a hamper as like a general target that if I

toss the clothes that way, good enough.

I mean, and if the Sox happened to disappear, well, I couldn't.

There was no power within me to stop that so.

No, none whatsoever. Wrigley might be rooting around

the hamper, too. Just trying to dig the Sox out

of there. But.

She does like dirty socks. It's weird.

The the overflowing laundry is again just to We could have done

the laundry yesterday before it was over.

Impossible. Right.

Yeah. Impossible.

You have no idea. I did not have 4 minutes to

spare to go do laundry. So I.

Throw it in the washer. That I guess that's the other

part of this. I don't you all have to let us

know and you can roast me. Feel free to roast me because I

don't live my life in a way that is I don't how many times in

your life and I know you're out there.

I know, I know, there are those of you listening that are out

there. I have the feeling that there's

one of these people sitting right across the desk for me.

But we're going to say this might be far too accusatory.

How many times in your life have you done laundry because you're

out of underwear? Oh.

Like there isn't if I don't do it today, there is not underwear

for tomorrow because for me, for me, that's a big fat 0.

Never once never once have I done like my laundry on D-Day as

it were like, well, what are you going to do tomorrow?

OK, OK. OK, I.

Got to stop. I'm going to answer the

question. I'm going to, I'm going to, you

know, pretty open book. Here's the thing.

I that certainly did happen when I was younger.

And by younger, I mean probably like mid 20s and below.

OK. But then again, I don't think

I've necessarily gotten better about doing my laundry as

frequently as I should, simply because now I just own more of

the things. Unless it was it, I don't know,

man. If if there's anything that's a

little bit more evenly split, it's probably that Well, because

I can just jump in anywhere and be like, oh, there's clean

clothes haven't been folded. I'll do that.

I got 10 minutes or, oh, the other day it's like, oh, we got

a bunch of towels. I'll just wash them real quick

and whatever. How many towels do you have?

Oh, so many. So many towels.

So. Many different different topics.

Sorry, that was a different day. So many towels, Matt.

We'll work on it. Yeah.

But anyways, no. So I, yeah, I, I don't run into

that kind of level of thing very often.

So if. Ever.

Now in the context that you're describing, though, yeah, I feel

like you are. There are a lot of explanations

for how the socks got lost. They didn't make it into the

hamper. The hamper was overflowing.

They may not have been matched to begin with.

It's just setting yourself up from failure.

Failure from the get. So is it, is it perfectly

possible? Then what if you are the kind of

person who's like, I'm only going to buy one kind of sock,

Like I'm going to fix this by only buying one kind of sock.

I still, I still say to you Sir, it is very possible, and at

least in my house for me likely that I would just have an odd.

Number socks. So I could have all the same,

but it's going to be an odd number.

It's also mystifying to me, but again, odd number of feet.

Did you? Did you lose a foot in the way

that you lost a sock like? Perhaps.

Perhaps I do. I do bull fighting on the

weekends. It could have happened.

So I don't, I don't have a specific prescription, I guess,

for, for how to solve that. I was just that was one of the

things this week that was men and women are different.

I I was, it just makes her day. And she did it like they'd

happened this past week. She she did her laundry and she

was like, I have all my socks. I was like, I don't understand

how that was a surprise. Emily and I, and there have to

be so many others. Emily and I would have the same

excited joy of that for sure. And that's and she doesn't

understand how I don't have joy for it and it's I don't because

I was planning on all the socks being there.

So anyway, this has been adulting, Pastor, man, I'm an

adult, all right? We are getting into some

biblical womanhood, I think. Yeah.

You gave us kind of a 5 point overview of conclusions.

Yeah. Things, things that you wanted

us to ruminate on and think about for God's divine, designed

for women. It was funny the way you decided

to pose it and phrase it. Why women?

But I think you did. Yeah, you did a great job in

narrating that sort of helper but equal opposites sort of sort

of way, which is really good. We had a pretty good discussion

on that with with Life group last night too.

And it makes it makes a lot of sense.

And not to call out I, I think that's best illustrated in a

healthy marriage like you, you feel those equal opposites best

when when you see a marriage in its best place, right?

Absolutely. Well, you know, and, and there's

so many even in our life life group last night, it was so fun

to kind of look around the room and see where these these men

and women were so complimentary to each other in terms of

personality traits and whatever, you know, so somebody is

incredibly decisive and the other person is like, go with

the flow all the time. And that works really well.

And I don't know, there's just so many different ways that that

came out even in that small group of people that I was like,

this is really impressive. God's design is in fact well

created in these things. And you know, we also kind of

talked about the fact that it's really good that we're opposite

in a lot of ways. It's so helpful.

Would I want to live with somebody who's just like me?

No. No.

I don't want to deal with my level of madness.

So God bless all of you for doing that for me, with me.

I don't know. But I wouldn't want to live with

me. And so I'm so thankful my wife

is who she is and that she is incredibly different than me.

And that's been a gift. Yeah.

I love your word dive on azer helper.

I get I I'm most well this passage and also then Jesus

passage of well I am going and there is one who's coming who

who will be your helper who who will do through you even greater

things than I did those two key passages and you dove into is

there in the Hebrew in the Old Testament.

I think it was 15 out of 211616 out of 21 references are that

that word is used as helper is in reference to God himself as

the helper for his people right. So in that same vein, God is the

helper for his people, the Holy Spirit as a helper like when

they use that word. It is not, it is not derogatory.

It is not less than it is, it is not in fear.

That's actually key cog in all the things, right.

So I, I thought that was a really excellent conclusion that

you had or that yeah, just a research conclusion there to to

teach about that, that it is more about a partnership than a

hierarchy. Again, going back to last week,

I talked to the guys about how God, God has placed them in

headship, right as as head of household.

And that comes with a good and a bad that's you're, you're in

charge, but you're also in charge.

And there's, there's accountability that comes with

that too. There's extra responsibility

that comes with that. So, but with this understanding

of the word is there, we do, we do see that more as a, as a

partnership rather than a dictatorial ship.

Just just when, when it comes down to it, the the man is in

God in God's hierarchy of things is is given kind of that

deciding tiebreaker if if we can if I can go there with that.

That's not to you pointed out some of the later passages in

Proverbs 31 about the capable, entrepreneurial, wise and

intelligent, strategic woman as as provider as as, yeah, as, as

all of those things. So that's not to say that a

woman can't act that way, but it also isn't designed, I don't

think, for those actions to to supersede her husband, again

assuming that the husband is also acting in godly manhood.

And that's where you have to, and that's where you have to be

very nuanced in both of these topics.

Not because you're trying to walk carefully and not offend

people unnecessarily, although that's helpful.

But The thing is, like all of all of these things, both the

best things about women and the best things about men, as the

Bible would describe it, it is describing this is what this

should ideally look like, right? So.

In perfect design. In perfect design, this is what

it's going to look like. And so we, we get this kind of

stuff messed up all the time simply because I don't even, I

mean, we could, we can talk about perfection from God's

perspective on these things, but I don't know if we ever see it

even like close up enough because we don't examine it and

we are not trying really hard to be this.

So I, I think it gets messed up a lot just because we've never

probably seen it in real time. And you can't negate the fact

that, again, I talked about it briefly yesterday, we all come

with baggage and we come with background beliefs and all that

kind of stuff. Imagine the background beliefs

that any man or any woman come into a marriage with based on

what they've seen from their own parents and that and what that

relationship look like. So, I mean, you know, in the

case of how how often would have even happened today

statistically that both parties coming into a marriage would

have had, would, would both come from households where neither

parents were divorced. Is that even statistically

probable anymore? So one of the two people comes

into the new marriage and they've seen divorce and they've

seen breakups and they've seen all this kind of cast.

The other one comes in, they have very different background

beliefs because their parents stayed married.

And so like it's difficult for us to even come into some of

these like textual truths because of all of our background

bags and all of our background information that we came with

that we didn't even necessarily create ourselves.

They were put on us by who we were raised by and what that

looks like. So it's very difficult.

I, I, I, you know, I, my heart goes out to people who are

honestly seeking God's wisdom in their marriage and God's like

framing for what that's supposed to look like.

Because man, it's good what God says.

But you have to know coming into this that you are fighting an

uphill battle against your own background beliefs, against what

culture says in all in everything in between.

It's very difficult. Yeah, 'cause you like, like

you're saying, we might not even have grounded experience in what

this is supposed to look like. So then how do we, how do we

pull it off in our own lives necessarily?

But and that's going to get us into kind of, I thought the

touchiest of your 5 was kind of this next point .3 of a husband

and kids and use the word is that necessary with the with the

subtitle the fullness of calling.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but what I heard you say is that

husband, husband and kids do not complete the design of

womanhood, but that a woman is fully equipped in God's design

for being for marriage and parenthood.

So they they do not, they do not make her a complete woman in

God's design, but she is fully equipped and able for those

things. She, you know, as God creates

Eve obviously again and I I want to go back to something real

quick. If you go back to Genesis 316 at

the second-half of that verse, we see God laying out, oh, this

marriage thing is going to be a problem for you because God

states your desire will be contrary to your husband and he

will rule over you. Do you see what God has just

predicted that like there's, there's no longer this sense of

equality. One is always going to try and

Lord something over the other. And so anyway, if you start with

that understanding that sin has become a part of these

relationships, well, again, now everything is pretty skewed and

it's going to be more difficult from this point on.

So anyway, as far as the, the woman having like, I would say

like rather than complete, I would say it like a really

fulfilled life can, can women have truly fulfilled lives, you

know, as single people who maybe don't have kids?

The Bible absolutely points to the fact that that is a yes,

because it gives us all these examples of that.

And so I mean, like, that's absolutely.

And the same thing for men, Jesus, Paul, you know, etcetera,

etcetera. So we, we definitely see that

this is a reliable biblical way to live.

So there shouldn't be any shame in it.

Yeah, I, I don't know, I, I wondered how many people might

struggle with that or might have had questions about that.

But I just think there's too many biblical examples of, of

singleness and how the Bible supports that to, to, to have

any other stance. So I'm sorry if I missed

whatever your question was. No, that's.

That's fine. And I just wanted to jump into,

I think 2 of the touchier situations.

Not only that yeah, what's the what's the worth in marriage and

parenthood Is that what completes me, but also the

brokenness of what what about single moms?

What what about what about that married or not.

If we're leaning into this design for manhood and womanhood

that children as a part of that the perfect design for children

in God in God's design is marriage, right?

Is, is, is a mom and dad who stay together.

And that's not, I'm just calling it, calling it like it is.

That is what it is. And if you're not in that

situation, either as a kid or as a parent, you probably know

pretty well the brokenness that comes with not that situation

that, that come, that comes with a mom and dad who haven't stayed

together through marriage with, with the kids.

And I'm not, I'm not condemning, I'm not judging in that.

And I don't need to point that you've lived, you've lived it,

you've lived the awkwardness of those situations.

That's a testament to God's design that, that, that, that

this is the way it was supposed to work out.

So single moms, I, I think of are, are in a pinch because

they're, they're trying to wear both of these hats.

They're, they're trying to wear the design of manhood and

womanhood. And in a way, God, God can

redeem and restore and strengthen any, any situation in

a way. They are acting as mom and dad

in, in both ways. And, and sometimes they just

have to and that's amazing for to, to have that, that effort

and intentionality and and energy for that.

But there's also there's also the orphans and widows

mentality. I know I'm not, I know I'm

stretching that a little bit, but God's church as theology

man, you're gonna have to check me if I'm stretching, if I'm

stretching that passage too much.

I I hear that passed in the New Testament, though, as as those

in need, those that the the widow doesn't have the husband

anymore. The orphan doesn't have the

parents anymore. So in in the case of single or

in the case of single moms, we're missing a husband, the

child is missing a father. How can the church community,

then the church village, then surround that individual with

with love and support and care and try and try to again

imperfectly the perfect. That's that's still not a

perfect solution, right? The perfect solution is man,

wife, man, woman, husband, wife, and and kid.

Short of that, though, we as the Church can can act to supplement

and strengthen that right even in brokenness.

Actually, I think that is a beautiful picture of we we spent

so much time in Romans 8, but God working all things for good

for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

I think that is one of the places where the church can

shine is for single parents, whether male or female, the

church can shine and it can be that village that both the adult

needs as a support system socially and otherwise, and what

that child potentially needs in terms of a support system.

So, you know, you could be, you could be somebody in the church

who man, every single week or, or you just become really

intentional about pouring into and loving on a kid or a parent

who's who's doing this kind of by themselves.

And if the church is functioning that way, man, now that's an

amazing picture of the gospel. That's an amazing picture.

And so to whatever degree that, you know, any church, including

us, can lean into, we are the village that helps raise that

helps raise kids and supports parents.

That would be amazing for us to continue to do that in a way

that I don't know. It's, it's a beautiful picture

of not an ideal situation, but God can redeem it all.

God can redeem it all. And, and as long as we don't

doubt that, and as long as we actively seek to be good

ambassadors, meaning hands and feet of Jesus man, we can, we

can actually help kids and, and, and single parents do really,

really well together. Yeah, the other sort of awkward

side of this, of this topic of #3 the parenthood and, and

wifehood, as it were, we got, we got a question about this too.

It's submitted after the service.

My husband and I are not equally yoked.

What do I do now? And this is kind of in response

because you talked to the, the point of in entering into

marriage, the. But the Bible commanding us to

not be unequally yoked. Sorry, pointed question though.

OK, I'm in this. Maybe maybe maybe we did still

get married. Or maybe we were equal.

Maybe we were both unbelievers when we got married.

I've since come to faith, but I'm married to an unbelieving

husband. What do I do now?

Yeah, it's interesting. That could have very well be

been. Listen, I story because we were

both unbelievers when we got married.

She wanted to come into the church and I was like,

absolutely not. That's just part of my story,

our story together. And if I just hold, you know,

held my ground and said, no, you can take the kids.

I'm not going. You know, she could have done

that. And I think that actually

happened somewhat frequently. It could have it could have

turned out that way. God, God moved in this stubborn,

stubborn man's heart and to soften it.

And so that's not the case today, but the the New Testament

does address this very topic and it does a very clear job of it.

So if you go to 1st Corinthians Chapter 7, I believe starting in

verse 12, yeah, let's start in verse 12 and we're going to read

through 16. Here's what it says to the rest.

I say I not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is,

who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he

should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who

is an unbeliever and he can sense to live with her, she

should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is

made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made

holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be

unclean. But as it is their holy but the

unbelieving. But if the unbelieving partner

separates, let it be so. In such cases, the brother or

sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

For how do you know wife whether you will save your husband?

Or how do you know husband whether you will save your wife?

Wow. So very specific actually for

this situation. There is a there is a gospel,

there is a New Testament response for this scenario.

I don't, I don't know if this question was asked.

I don't I don't think it was expecting a answer of get out.

I don't, I don't think they were expecting the answer of of find

a new husband. But it is I understand how it's

a what do I do with that from Paul.

Here is again, this is First Corinthians 712 through 16.

Whatever, whatever it is, as as long as your faith is not

something that is driving him away right?

I think I think that's I think that's what we're hearing if if

he is willing to accept you in your faith in his household and

doesn't want to divorce you because of your faith.

Paul encourages those wives to to stay in that relationship, to

bring God's freedom and sanctification and and holiness

to your household. Yeah.

Well, and you know, you look at this and we talked about this,

we've talked about this at various times, at various times,

but your household is your first mission field.

Yep, it is. And your household are the first

people that you are called to disciple.

And so I mean, like to the degree that maybe you were not

on the same playing field in terms of our faith life, well

now this is OK because we can still have these open and honest

conversations about faith and how that affects my priorities

and what I'd want to do and what I want to do in the future or

what or what I want to try and achieve.

Those are conversations that can be had amongst A believer,

unbeliever, somebody who's more in, you know, that that faith

moves them through their life versus somebody's very casual

about it. I think, I think those are

conversations that you get to have, you know, doing that

missionary and disciple making work.

And there's nothing wrong in terms of like if the woman is

doing the disciple making great because God has called women to

teach and make disciples. So there we are.

I think that's OK. Yeah, and there are further

thoughts on this in first Peter chapter 3 verses one through 6.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husband, so that even

if some do not obey the word, they may be 1 without a word by

the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and

pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be

external, the braiding of hair and the putting on a gold

jewelry of the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be

the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of

a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

This is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn

themselves by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah

obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.

And you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything

that is frightening, Paul, or I'm sorry, this is Peter, God's

word here. Also pretty peaceful and calming

in this situation. Acknowledging do not fear

anything that is frightening, acknowledging that this is an

awkward situation that this is an unclear situation that that

people can find themselves in couple Nuggets here.

Even if they do not obey the word.

They may be 1 without a word by the conduct of their wives.

This is and we might have a little back and forth here.

What what I understand that to be saying is not even a

directive to be like hey, we should go to church.

I'm in love with Jesus. You should love Jesus too.

I need you to love Jesus, which I have a little internal tension

with that actually, but that's, that's what I'm seeing in the

word. It's what I'm reading in the

word here, that it's not even actually the wife's place to win

their husband over in this way, which that feels like a lot of

tension, honestly, in that. So I'm, I'm not 100% that that

feels weird that the wife shouldn't be able to evangelize

to her husband. And I don't think that's what is

absolutely being said here. But what's interesting is the

evangelism is being done what, by your respectful and pure

conduct. Let your adorning be the hidden

person of the heart, with the imperial beauty of a quiet and

gentle spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

And that begs the question then, does evangelism always look like

speaking truth and content? Or can it look like my life is

my evangelistic tool, how I live is my witness to the gospel?

Because, you know, you can consider any number of people

who, man, maybe they're just not great with words and speaking

and convincing arguments and all these kinds of things that Paul

uses in the New Testament. He's very convincing rhetorical

arguer. Not everybody's built like that.

And so God calls us to use how He has naturally crafted us.

Maybe that's through service, maybe that's through love and

care, all these kinds of things. Like those are ways to

evangelize inside your household or even outside in your

workplace or other places. That's ways to show what God

looks like. I watched.

I've watched people in my life do that subtly.

So again, I've shared this before so I'll be brief, but

when I was coming into faith, the pastor who is here, Jason

Lang, he was evangelizing me by allowing me into his life and

just showing me what life looked like.

He never like beat me over the head with the Bible or talked

about Jesus all of the time or whatever.

No, he just like evangelized me by allowing me to see his life

and it was attractive and there was something interesting about

it. And so I do think that God

allows us to do that kind of work without beating people over

the head with it. And if in fact that's where

First Peter is kind of pointing at, that is perfectly legitimate

and valid way to continue to disciple and draw people into a

relationship with Jesus. Yeah.

So from this a couple of just practical conclusions I would

draw your your relationship with God is still first and foremost

your your husband not being involved in that aspect of your

life of your faith should not detract from your faith.

It's not your husband is not going to keep you from the

fullness of God. If I can be bold enough to say

that. So you still have your original

intent calling as image bearer of God in and in and of

yourself. Pursue peace and and unity in

your household within that aspect of your relationship.

Don't make your faith or your church attendance at a point of

contention in your marriage. He certainly can know where you

stand on it if you're if you're coming to church regularly, even

if he's not like he certainly knows that it's it's an

important thing in your life. And and and pray faithfully and

and persistently over this situation too.

Over, over your husband, over your household, over your kids.

If if you have kids, I I think those are the still powerful but

less abrasive actions. You know, and, and for the

biblical woman who wants to take Ephesians 5 super seriously and,

you know, head of household, husband, that kind of stuff.

Here's the thing, like if if somebody is actively working

against the gospel in overt and aggressive ways, that is a

moment where as a Christian, whatever situation you're in,

you get to put your foot down and say no because God's law,

God's word, comes first. This is why Martin Luther King

Junior was able to work civil rights with a clear conscience

because other pastors along the way were writing letters to him

and, and just trying to beat him up on like, well, the Bible says

you're supposed to respect civil authority.

Well, Martin Luther, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King

Junior, he comes back with this amazing truth, which is this,

yes, we are supposed to respect those put in place leadership

over us, etcetera. However, I have to honor God's

word above that authority because God is the greatest

authority. So you know, and so then he

protests against unfair and unjust laws.

All right, Well, same thing in any given relationship or

household. And we would even say this to,

you know, students or kids, to parents.

If your parents are honoring God, man, you, you better be on

track with them. You better be on track with

them. Now, if they're telling you to

do something that is breaking God's law, it is not breaking a

commandment to disagree with them because we are honoring

God's law above all things. Now you have to do that with

love and respect so you can honor your mother and father.

But even inside of a, a marriage relationship, there's the same

thing of like, I do want to be a servant and, or submissive to my

spouse and what they want. And you know, but if what they

want or what they're asking me to do is breaking God's law,

absolutely not. There is a higher authority than

you, and that is what I am to respect and honor.

Right, Those are still your primary boundaries.

And so so the answer to this question is not on the surface

seek a divorce that that's not that's not what we're saying.

Absolutely not. If if your husband's stance is

contentious and strife and and he's outraged and he he wants

out because of the faith that you have, that's maybe a

different conversation. But if if you largely are in

faith in peace in your household about that.

I know it sounds frustrating to say watch and wait, but that's

that's the role right now be be praying for God to be working on

his heart. Continue to pray over the rest

of your household and and walk in godliness.

Walk in the gentle, quiet spirit first Peter three one through 6

and that's that's God's strength and design for you in that even

even to and what's encouraging is he did write words for this

situation, which means his strength, his endurance, his

perseverance apply here too. And you may not always be

strongly felt, but it's true. It's it's true that he enabled

and equipped and designed you as woman, as wife to weather this

storm. Yep, God has made women uniquely

strong and you know to maybe give an additional cap to this

thing that verse 16 and 1st Corinthians sevens for how do

you know wife whether you whether you will save your

husband or how do you know husband whether you will save

your wife. In other words, there is always

hope in the gospel. God doesn't stop working on any

of us. He's always pursuing us always

always that never stops. He's always seeking a

relationship with us. And man who knows?

Who knows whether you are the impetus, you are the driving

force behind softening a heart, you know, for the gospel, for

Jesus Christ. I've seen it happen.

And I just don't doubt that, you know, the godly person, man, the

gospel, it's just so the love of God is so powerful.

I'm losing my words. But the love of God is so

powerful that we just ought not doubt that power, especially if

even in a current situation, it may look bleak or weird or we're

opposites. Now, God can do this too, and he

most likely wants to do it through you.

So that's a pretty amazing thing to be a part of.

All right, so that was a lot of time on on point #3 your fourth

point from yesterday, a biblical woman looks like and you gave

just many prescriptive. You didn't even not a knock, but

you didn't elaborate a whole lot on much of these because they

are pretty clear and clean cut. Proverbs 31.

We didn't even go through the whole chapter, but that that is

a rife context for there's Proverbs 31 ministries is

literally a ministry for women of what a Proverbs 31 woman

looks like. Luke 10 and and judges four and

five are also passages of sources for those things.

We talked a little bit about the, the entrepreneurial ship

and and strength and courage there.

There's also verses in there about her being the, the crown

jewel of her, of her husband, right?

Yeah, a faithful wife who who can find the crowning jewel,

which is more precious than jewels, again, in the context of

a godly biblical manhood. But that's it's interesting that

it I hear it working that way. You pose the question our our

husband and kids completing the picture of womanhood in some

ways that the godly wife completes the picture of

manhood, right. And it doesn't exactly work the

other way for women, but for men like this is something to lead

and pursue. And that's why that's kind of

the downside of being in charge because you've got one to bring

along with you. The the the wife who loves God

is the is the crown jewel of the husband.

I'll tell you what, man, if you, if you pressed me and you were

like, hey, man, what, what is, what is a great achievement in

your life? Like, you know, if you died

tomorrow, what would you brag about?

What would you be incredibly hopeful about, Number one, like

man, I, the Lord has given me a woman worth bragging about all

the time. Somebody who really does can.

Well, somebody wrote in quotes, you complete me as one of the

notes. But as cheesy as that is, Jerry

Maguire, there's some real truth to that.

And so if I was going to brag about anything in my life, it

would be first and foremost that, you know, God has sent his

son for me. And immediately second is that

God has sent one of his daughters to love me and that is

my wife. And that is a huge gift.

And that I, I don't have words for that, right?

And then, you know, third would be like, I'm so proud of who God

is shaping my kids to be that he allowed me to steward, even

though they're his. And so I mean, you kind of go

down through that, through that those things that matter to you

most, right? It was never about career.

It was never about the stuff I got out of the house.

I lived near the car drive. Like it's never about any of

those things. It's always about this pecking

order of greatness that God has put into my life.

So my wife is certainly the direct thing person behind the

Lord himself. So there you go.

I hope you heard that, honey, because I meant it.

And the final point, God's trusted witness your your fifth

point on women in redemptive history.

Obviously Mary Magdalene being the the first witness to Jesus,

his resurrection at the tomb, equipping women with this

message affirming that that there is teaching and and

discipleship as part of their gifting and charge and design as

well. And so we want to women, we want

you to hear you built up in that as well, because there are there

are strengths and weaknesses even within that that even even

Pastor Chris and I don't do don't do perfectly in our

teaching. We don't we don't assume that

all the time at all. And there are aspects of of

teaching a discipleship for women in the church as well.

Again, as the those equal opposites kind of where we where

we maybe have gaps or we maybe have weaknesses.

There's there's room for that in the church.

Many many parts. 1 body too. One of the things that I, I, I

find remarkable about where ERC is right now in its, in its life

is I've seen from, you know, a short distance so many of the

women of our church just growing in their faith and growing in

holiness and growing in relationship.

And that in a lot of ways is primarily happening through the

teaching of other women, in the leadership of other women,

through that woman's ministry. I am so thoroughly impressed by

those who lead that and those who are just super courageous

for the gospel and have a heart for teaching and leading and

disciple in that. I think that's incredible.

Now, the really cool thing is when that also spills out over,

and it does into other parts of our faith community, and I've

watched that happen too. And I think that's a remarkable

thing. And so I'm just super impressed

by what what God has allowed. Well, what has got it, what God

has intentionally done by making Mary Magdalene the first

witness. What a remarkable thing and how

radical in that culture. And I think we've maybe we've

talked about this before. Women weren't even allowed to be

witnesses in court cases in any way, shape or form.

And yet here God is saying, Oh, no, I will take the person that

even the courts won't hear and I will make them the first witness

to the greatest news ever. That is a remarkable, remarkable

compliment to give somebody and and a huge responsibility.

So, I mean, how can we look at that and not just go, wow, God

has called women into an important calling.

Yeah. Good thoughts, good thoughts.

If I can turn it right back to you, Do you have a summation of

the Sunday for Mere Mortal Monday?

Mere Mortal Monday. Yeah, I'm going to try and say

this as concisely as I possibly can.

There is no inferiority in women in relation to how God has made

them next to men. There is a completeness to them,

and it is only together that we see a full reflection of God's

character, because God's character shows that both male

qualities and feminine qualities work together for a total

picture. Love it.

Nailed it. We've got one more week to go.

Next Sunday is going to be about how we're children of God and

how we still have that posture. We have responsibility to raise

up children, but we ourselves also are God's children

throughout this life. So hope you join us for church

next week. Pastor Chris is closing out the

series. With that.

Thanks for hanging with us on the ERC leftovers today.

Just really thrilled and excited.

Blessed to be a part of this growing community.

Hope you have a blessed week, Church.