Kingdom Authority

Sermon Transcript

Amen. Amen. I just want to encourage you. Open your bibles up today to first Corinthians, chapter eleven. First Corinthians, chapter eleven.

We're going to begin in verse two. And what Paul has been talking about, he's been writing this corinthian church that he loves with his whole heart, who has believed in the gospel. But what he's been doing over the last few chapters is he's been making correctives to their church. And he started by talking about marriage and singleness in chapter six and seven. And then he began spending verse chapters eight, nine and ten talking about the christian liberty we have.

And what we learned is in those three chapters, hey, we have liberty and freedom in Christ at all times because we are so loved that we may always at any place honor the Lord Jesus Christ in everything and serve one another. And Paul ended that section in chapter eleven and verse one by saying, be imitators of me, therefore, as I am of Christ. In other words, watch how I use my christian liberty to honor the Lord, and you do the same. And now he's going to dive into a section of scripture that's really, really important for us. And I want to read through the first couple of verses and let you hear the word of the Lord.

He says this now, I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. Delivered is the key word. Paul's praising them, and like any good parent, he's going to point out their good qualities before he points out some things that need to be corrected. And he's praising them and he's saying, listen, here's the thing. I praise you because you hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

Now, a lot of times we think of traditions as an act. But what he's talking about is the tradition he delivered to them is the gospel. That's the tradition. If you flip over in your bible to first Corinthians, chapter 15, verses three and four, he'll say this, for I delivered to you. What did you deliver, Paul?

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. That's what Paul delivered. I got good news for you this morning. Even if you've never been to church before in your life, Jesus Christ came. He's fully God.

He's fully man. He came to this earth, fulfilled the law, do what you could never do in that he paid the penalty for all of your sins. He died on the cross, was buried three days later. He rose from the dead, and he offers life to anyone, anywhere, at any time that would confess him as their personal lord and savior. Which means if you came in here today and you're like, I'm not even a religious kind of person, or I'm just way out there, I've sinned too much.

Great news for you. Jesus Christ loves you. He died for you. He gave his life for you. He rose from the dead and authenticated that he was God, and so he's willing to offer life to anyone.

Okay, that's great news this morning. And what Paul is saying is, I'm praising you, corinthians. Cause y'all believe that. You believe that. It's a really, really, really good thing.

Now comes the corrective in verse three. 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. Then he's gonna spell it out. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head.

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 is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. The word of God for the people of God. Right?

I mean, most people, when they think about this section of scripture, they say, that's the head covering passage. The head covering passage. And really, it's a lot more than the head covering passage. But I want to point out something, because the first thing it says in verse three is this. But I want you to understand.

What do you want me to understand, Paul? That Christ is the head of every man. That's the thrust of this whole passage. Then he says this, and the man is the head of a woman. He's not talking wife.

He's not talking husbands and wife. We've already done that in chapter seven, if you have a translation in the ESV, I think the message translates it as husband. It's not husband. It's just man. And God is the head of Christ.

He's pointing out Kingdom authority. He's saying this in the kingdom. Everybody answers to somebody. That's what he's saying. And there's kingdom authority.

And he's saying, hey, before we get to understand how to take communion, and before we understand all the spiritual gifts that happen in the church, and before we understand how to love one another, and before we understand prophecy in tongues and all the things that cause confusion, hey, let's make sure we get God's kingdom authority in line and that we understand God's divine order for things. Because if this is out of order, everything's out of order. A few months ago, Kim had me drive her car. She said, jeff, she said, my car rattles if I get over 40 miles an hour. There's just something wrong with my car, which her telling me something is wrong with her car.

I mean, she might as well tell the mailman, I don't know how to fix cars. So I got in her car, got on I 25, and I started driving. Sure enough, I got over 40 miles an hour. It started rattling. The faster I went, the more that it rattled.

I could feel the steering column move and all this stuff. And so I took it in, and what I found out was, there's nothing wrong with my car. Engine's fine, tires are fine, everything's fine. But the steering column was out of alignment. And because it was out of alignment, it made everything rattle and shake.

Let me tell you something. What I'm going to teach you today is something in our culture that is so out of alignment that everything is shaking and it's causing problems. And even though things are able to move forward, it's not moving forward the way God would want it to move forward. Okay? And so what God is saying here is this.

Number one, first point is that God has established a divine order of kingdom authority, and it's based on gender. God has designed divine order of kingdom authority, and it's based on gender. Now, you may say, well, why do we need to keep kingdom authority? Kingdom authority is the way God has established order for his blessing to pour through. And God has designed kingdom authority based on gender.

Chapter verse three of chapter eleven tells us, 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. So he's talking about there's distinctives in kingdom authority and those are based on gender. So I'm going to start by just making five comments about gender based upon the word of God that we need to understand before we even begin this topic. Okay? One is this, God designed and created gender.

God is the designer and he is the creator. Gender. If you go in the first chapter of your Bible, in Genesis, chapter one and verse 27, you will see God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.

Okay? God created and designed gender. Before he created male and female, he had to have an idea for what he was creating. Gender is God's design. He designed it.

He created it. Number two, know this. God loves both genders. God loves men and God loves women. He doesn't preference men and he doesn't preference women.

God loves both genders equally. You need to know that. Okay? Now, this third 1 may be the most shocking for a culture, but it's true. Notice this.

God decided your gender. Okay? God decided your gender. Now, I want to make a statement here from psalms, chapter 139, psalm 139, verse 13 and 14. For you formed my inward parts.

You wove me together in my mother's womb. I give thanks for you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it full well at about the 20 week mark. Ladies, if you're pregnant, or husbands, if you have a wife who's pregnant, oftentimes you go to the doctor to get a sonogram to check out what? You want to know the gender of your child, right?

I want to let you know something. Whatever the child's gender is at that time will be the gender of that person for the rest of their days. Okay? If in utero you are male, you will always be male. If in utero you are female, you will always be female.

No matter what age you get to, no matter what doctor you see, no matter what operation you have, you will always be the gender you were when you were conceived. Period. End of story. According to the word of God. And some of you may say, whoa, wait.

I know some people, or maybe you're one of them, that would say, I was created this, but I feel like I should be that. I'm not disagreeing with your feelings. I'm just saying that's not how God created you. What he created you for is what he wanted you to be. Okay?

Then he says this. God has a purpose for your gender. He has a purpose for your gender. If you're female, he's got a purpose for that. If you're male, he's got a purpose for that.

Everything God designs and creates, he has purpose for. There's reasons that he does that. And number five is God wants you to understand and follow his design for gender. God wants you to understand and follow your design for gender. Okay?

This is an important topic. Our world has blurred this so much that there is no longer a distinction anymore. We have women that are trying to act and be like men, and we have men that are trying to be effeminate and act like women. And God said, no, no, you don't understand. I'm the designer and creator of gender.

I gave you your gender, and I have a purpose for your gender, and I love your gender. And it's really important that you get this thing right, because if you don't get this thing right, everything's gonna shake. You don't get this thing right in your marriage. Your marriage is gonna shake. It may get down the road, but it's gonna shake.

You don't get this right in the church. The church is gonna get down, but it's gonna shake a little bit. You don't get this right in the community, it's gonna rattle. And I'll tell you right now, in our city, in Denver, the community's rattling a little bit. And this is one of the big reasons that it is.

So it's important for us as a church to say, well, then, God, what do you have to say about this divine order? And the very first thing it says, ladies, is that this is really about the first one he talks about. I want you to understand this. Who's he talking about? Christ.

Let's talk about Christ. And what does he say about Christ? Christ is the head of every man. Christ is the head of every man. This is not a passage on head coverings.

This is a passage on kingdom authority in divine order. So let's just spend a couple minutes and talk about the divine order of men. But before I go, let me just tell you why most people reject this outright. There's a lot of people that will say stuff like this. This doesn't apply to us.

And let me tell you why this doesn't apply to us. Because Paul hated women. Okay. Let me tell you something. Paul did not hate women.

Paul, along with Jesus Christ, elevated women. In the first century, women were thought of as little more than property. And both Jesus and Paul gave them dignity, honor, respect, and elevated them, just like any God fearing man would do. Okay? Some people will say, well, this is just cultural.

This is cultural thing. This was just cultural. No, because what Paul's gonna do is he's gonna go back to the order of creation in Genesis one and two and say, no, it's always been this way. And if you get this out of a line, you're going to have a messed up church, and you're going to have messed up homes and you're going to have a messed up community. Right.

There's people that say there's no way, but then there's other people that just say it's head coverings. I'll just do it. Well, why do you do it? Well, just because I was told to do it. And that's what we do.

We just do legalistic things all the time. I just wear a head covering. And so it's really important that we understand the principle in verse three, which is God talking about his divine kingdom authority as Christ being the head of a man, the man being the head of a woman, and God being the head, or God the Father being the head of Christ. It's really important. So let's talk about the divine design of men.

Let's talk about the divine design of men. If you'll flip with me in your Bible back to Genesis chapter two, after God created man and woman. In Genesis chapter two, we see that man was created a little bit differently. In Genesis two seven, it says, the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Man was created different than woman.

Woman, you're going to find out, was created from man. Man was created from what? Dust. So, ladies, you could always say, I knew he was nothing. That's why.

Because he was kind of created from the dust, and God breathed into his nostrils, and life came into the man. And God gave man specific kingdom responsibilities. If you drop down to verse 15, it says this, then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden, you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.

So what did he do? He put man in the garden and told him to do what? Work. Work. Men, you have kingdom, responsibility in the world, and it's called work.

We'll see here, as a result of the fall, that that work can become hard. But, men, you are God's agents on planet Earth to advance his kingdom through your work. And it's in the heart of every guy. I mean, I can speak authoritatively on the men from the time we're young. I mean, even when we're like three, four, five, what are we thinking about?

World domination, right? I'm gonna conquer the world. I'm gonna pitch for the Cubs. I'm gonna play quarterback for the Bears. I'm gonna do it all.

I'm gonna play three different professional sports. I'm gonna lead the CEO. I'm gonna do all the. Why do you guys think that way? Cause it's in your heart that God has put something in you for an area in his kingdom to steward.

Well, for God's glory. So that men, whatever you're doing in your work, would bring honor and glory to God. And as we grow up and we learn differences about our giftings and personalities and what we're good at and what we're not, we begin to align with areas that we can steward those things in different ways, where God gets glory through the work that we do. Now, keep this in mind. It means this because you answer to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's your head. It means we answer to somebody. It means there can't be anything in between you and your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the head covering thing's about. I mean, notice what it says.

I'm back in one corinthians. Now we're going to flip back and forth a little bit. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. Who's his head? It disgraces Christ.

What was going on in the first century is many of the pagan religions would have their priests put things over their heads to pray and do stuff. And. And the christian church, much like the christian church often does, adopts the culture and brings it into the church. And so many of the pastors were throwing something on their head. Cause that's what all the other religions do, too.

And Paul is saying, to have a symbol on your head, saying, there's something between you and God is always wrong at every single time. The cultural expression of putting something over your head would be the cultural expression of us as men having something in between us and our relationship to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In other words, there's something in our life that gets in the way of who the Lord is in our life. It's this area over here that we meddle in and say, yeah, I'm a Christian and I go to church, but I still dabble in that, and that gets in the way of Christ. But that's not a big deal for me.

No, anything that would hinder your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is exactly what Paul's talking about. And for the pastors in the first century, it was covering their heads. It was them saying, yeah, Jesus is cool, but I want to fit into what the other religious cultures do. Really? Interesting.

Who did God give the command to? Back in the garden. To till the garden. Who did God give the command to? Not to eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

He gave it to Adam. Why? Because man was God's agent of advancing the kingdom on planet earth. So he gave him work, and he gave him instruction to lead. Well.

And what does Adam do? Well, he blows it. Right? He blows it because Eve eats off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because she's tempted by the serpent. And then what happens?

What does God come and do? God does not come looking and say, eve, eve, where are you? What's he do? No, he says, adam, adam, where are you? Why does he come looking for Adam?

Well, because he gave Adam the instruction. Eve wasn't even created yet. At this point in time, he comes looking for Adam. The man called to him in chapter three and verse nine, where are you? Right.

And verse ten is hilarious because he said, when he heard the sound, I heard the sound of you in the garden. And I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. Who do you hide? I'm not hiding. Me and Eve, they both hid.

But as soon as Adam knew sin was in the world, what do you take care of? I'm taking care of me. You know what happens when something gets in the way of a man in his relationship with Jesus Christ? He becomes utterly selfish in every way. That's exactly what happens.

I'm not taking care of my wife. I'm not taking care of the world. I'm not taking care of my church. I'm taking care of me. Here's how you know that there's something in the way of your relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you think that the world was created for you, no, your head is Jesus. He put you here for him. And if there's anything in the way of your relationship to Jesus or anything in you that says, I'm not taking care of anybody but me, there's something out of alignment in your life that's hindering you from being God's best right now. As a result of the fall of man, you're going to see the punishment. One of the results for man was this.

Hey, you're still gonna work. And you're still my agent. I haven't changed the divine authority. But let me tell you something about this one thing that's gonna be painful to you. Work is gonna be really hard.

Now, guys, you ever experienced work being hard? Oh, yeah. I mean, you're gonna go to the gym, you're gonna have to work out hard at the gym now. I mean, I don't know, maybe the garden used. Got like six pack abs just by eating fruit or something.

I don't know. It's gonna be hard work. I mean, there's gonna be problems. There's gonna be thorns, there's gonna be thistles. It's gonna be challenging for you to accomplish your God given destiny so hard that for many of you men, oftentimes you're just gonna be like, whatever, I'm done with this whole thing.

I'm not gonna pursue this God given destiny thing anymore. It's just too hard to follow God that's a result of the fall, okay? But men, your divine design is to answer to the Lord Jesus Christ and have nothing in your way. And if we miss that one, everything else falls apart. Let's talk about divine design of women.

Divine design of women. Here's what he says in verses three and four. The cultural expression. Well, let's start with three. And man is the head of a woman.

That doesn't fly well in our culture. But I'm just telling you, on the authority of God's word, that's how he always intended it, that's how he always created it, and that's who it is. So, woman, your head is man, right? So let's talk about that. First of all, let me say these words.

Submission to an earthly authority doesn't relinquish your positive. It doesn't relinquish your worth. It's a positive thing. And it honestly forces God to go to work on your behalf. We already said God loves women the same way he loves men.

And what we see in the trinity, the godhead we have father, Son and Holy Spirit. Did Jesus Christ submit to the Father how often? Like 100% of the time. Even if he didn't want to do what the Father said, he always submitted to the Father. And because of his humility and submission and obedience, even to the point of what?

Death. Even death on a cross. The cruelest. What did God do? He elevated him and gave him the name that's above every name, Jesus always submitted to the Father.

He said, I only do what I see my father doing. Did you not know I had to be in my father's house? It's dad and I. What about the holy Spirit? What's the Holy Spirit's role?

The Holy Spirit submits to both the Son and to the Father. The Holy Spirit's ministry that we'll be talking about here in a couple weeks. What's his role. The Holy Spirit's ministry is to make Jesus Christ look good. It's to make Jesus Christ magnified, right?

What's the role of woman? It's to make man look good, right? Really interesting. In Genesis chapter two, when God decides to create woman, it says, for Adam, no suitable helper was found. And he said, I will make him a suitable helper.

And so he caused man to fall asleep, and she was called woman, for she was taken out of man. Okay? She's a helpmate. Okay, now let me tell you about that word. That word is the Hebrew word azer.

It means deliverer or savior. Okay, ladies, here's what it means. God put man on the earth to be his glory and his representative to accomplish things. Here's what it means. He needed a lot of help.

That's what it means. Man needs help. Ladies, that's a great place for you to say amen. I know he does, right? He does.

That's why God created woman. And isn't it interesting, based on your design, and I'm not authoritative on women, and I don't know your hearts. I just have a wife and two daughters, and I can see this. But isn't it true, ladies, in your heart, that when you see certain men doing things, perhaps it's your husband, or perhaps it's another man where you look, and just as you're watching, you're like, oh, boy, he could really use some help right now. I mean, isn't that part of your DNA?

And not just like a little thing, not just like a suggestion, but, like, there's seven things he's missing here. That if he could just figure this thing out and I could really help him with that, it's part of how God made you, and it's part of who you are, and it's God's intrinsic design, and you don't need to fight it. You just don't need to fight it. I mean, sometimes when I hear women talk, they're like, yeah, well, you're just talking down to us, and you're just saying that we're less than. I'm like, no, I'm telling you, this is how God designed you.

And it would be as silly as if an eagle complained that I don't swim as well as a dolphin, and a dolphin complained that I don't run as fast as a cheetah, and a cheetah complained that I can't fly like an eagle. It would be pointless. Live out your God given design. This is how God designed you. It's who you are.

And the reason it's really important we understand this before we get into gifts is that we need to understand that through sin, what happened in the fall, okay? Because some of you that are feeling uncomfortable with this teaching, it's because of what's happened in our world through sin that you're uncomfortable with. Here's what God says. He's going to curse the serpent and have him crawl around on his belly all the days of his life. And in Genesis 316, here's what he says is going to be a result of sin in the world.

He said to the woman, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children. Okay, ladies, is that true?

I'm not an authority on that, but I can tell you from what I've seen, it doesn't look very comfortable. I mean, it's very painful. So that's true. Then notice what he says to the ladies, too. He says to Eve, yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

Well, this word desire is the same word in Genesis four seven, where God is talking to Cain and saying, sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is full, but you must master it. What was sin's desire to overtake him? Sin's desire was to pounce on him. Here's the result of the fall, ladies. Listen, listen, listen.

As a result of the fall, when ladies live in sin and are not spirit filled, here's what your desire will be. Your desire will be to take over the man's responsibility and put men down. That will be your desire. And here's what the result of that will be. Men will crush you.

And here's how men will crush you. They'll do it very aggressively, like perhaps physically, perhaps with their mouth or something like that. Or they'll be very passive, like, if you're the type of lady that's at home, well, why don't you do anything? Why don't you help? Why don't you do anything?

Why don't you help? Why don't you, the spiritual leader, see? How well is that working for you? Right? Because men will either get aggressive with that, or they'll totally back off.

Because I'm not. Just do the whole thing yourself. I don't care. Men either get super passive or they get super aggressive when men aren't spirit filled. And women, when they're not spirit filled, they want to dominate men.

If you don't believe me, just watch any of the funniest sitcoms you'll ever see, to make a funny sitcom, all you have to do is make a man look like an idiot and have a woman affirm that and put him down, and you got a bestseller. That's our sinful world. That's what our world promotes. Our world tells you women that you're not valuable enough and that you're not good enough and nobody cares about you. So go ahead and put men down and elevate yourself.

Here's what the Bible says. That's 100% sinful. Now, let me make a couple observations here before we go forward, okay? A couple things, ladies, that you need to hear from me as your pastor before we move on, especially when it comes to submitting, because we're not talking about marriage here. That was in chapter seven.

We're talking about a general principle for the world, okay? So we're talking about, as men, like, even leading in the church, like in James 127, where it says pure religion, is this to take care of widows and orphans. It's a man's response to make sure we have a covering for women that need it, that we're a covering for single women, and that any man worth his salt will understand that being ahead of a woman is not their boss. Being the head of a woman is a spiritual authority to help them be elevated, to be the fullness of all that God wants them to be. And I know that hasn't been the case for all women.

As a matter of fact, I met with all the women on our staff this week, and I said I was going to say this in this message, but I think from my experience about every woman I know, agents 20 or older has experienced significant hurt in their life from some specific man. And you can trace all that back to the garden of Eden. It's just a fact. So I want to give you three ways in which women. You don't have to submit to a man three times.

Number one, if a man asks you to break civil law, hey, you need to cheat on this report for me. Hey, we need to lie on our taxes. Hey, we're going to go rob a bank. And you'd never have to break civilization law to be submissive to a man, ever. Never.

Okay? Number two, you never have to break the moral law to be submissive to a man. Ladies, if you're married and your husband's like, hey, let's spice up the bedroom, let's bring somebody else home with us. You can say no 100% of the time. You never, ever, ever have to change your moral authority.

And number three, let me give you another one, because you need to hear me say this loud and clear. You don't have to submit to abuse. Did you hear what I said? You do not have to submit to abuse. I'm not saying if a man's been abusive to you, he's punched you, he's been verbally abusive.

He yells at you, he screams at you, he does all this and then says, hey, you submit to me because I'm a man. That's not a godly, spirit filled man. You don't submit to that. As a matter of fact, you come tell one of our godly, spirit filled men about that and we'll help take care of that because that's what godly men do. Okay?

So that's what I'm saying. So we need to have that as a caveat, especially for some of you women in here that I know that have been hurt. And you're hearing me give this message and you're like, are you kidding me? That man is the most painful thing that's ever happened in my life. And now I'm coming to church and you're telling me to submit to that?

No, I'm not telling you to submit to that. I'm telling you kingdom authority was off because he wasn't living for Jesus Christ and that's why you were hurt. But it doesn't change God's divine design for things. It just means he needs to repent. Does that make sense?

And men, let me tell you something about being a spiritual head. It means when things go wrong in your sphere of influence, you're responsible. It may not mean you're at fault, but it means you're responsible. Like, I'm the lead pastor of this church. There are things that go wrong in this church, and I could look at them sometimes and say, well, it's not my fault.

It's the sound person's fault. That's not my fault. That's the youth pastor's fault. That's not my fault. It's children's workers fault.

That's not my fault. That's a greeters fault. Listen, perhaps it's not my fault, but I'm responsible for seeing it get fixed. Husbands, if your family's messed up, you may not be responsible for what caused it, but you're responsible for making it better. If you're in the workplace or you're in the world, you may not have been the one that caused the problem, but you're responsible for seeing it fixed.

And men, let me just tell you, we're not talking church here. How many times have you seen things in the world that are wrong? And you either are like, dude, glad I'm not part of that family. Glad I didn't help it. We're called to step in for the lordship of Jesus Christ and be his representative on planet Earth to take care of the things that are wrong.

Not to sit back and say, that's so bad. I wish somebody would do something about it. I wish somebody would do something about it. If you see it, God's saying you do something about it. Step forward and be a man.

That's what it means to be a man. It means you're making a difference in the world for the kingdom of God, for heaven's sakes. That's what it means. That's what being a man is. And most people haven't seen a great representation of that.

Secondly, let me tell you guys this. Guys, this is not to shame you or guilt you. Every single one of us as men, because of the sin virus, have fallen short in us. There's not one guy here who's been married that's done it perfectly with his wife all the time. There's not one guy who's led in church perfectly all the time.

There's not one guy who's led perfect in the world all the time. As a matter of fact, we've probably blown it this week. I know I have. Right? This is God.

I need you to help me become that man. And ladies, I need you to help me become that woman. Now, let me tell you, the reason I think Paul puts this in here and hasn't started talking about gifting yet is that we need to get divine order right before we talk about gifting. And here's why. Let me just say this, because you're going to hear me say it again.

Women, the Holy Spirit is just as resident in your life, as a Christian, as he isn't a man. And you can be as gifted, or in some areas even more gifted than men are in their gifts. Okay? You can. Just because you're a man and you're the head doesn't mean you're the most gifted.

Even in families. It doesn't mean because the man is the spiritual head, he's more gifted in other areas than his wife. That's just not true. I can tell you based on my own marriage, it's a fact. And so any good spiritual head will help elevate the gifts of others.

There's only two places in the Bible I don't see women serving. There's only two places one is in the Old Testament priestly line, never saw women serve in the Old Testament priestly line. And in the New Testament, what I see is elders and lead pastors in a church. I just don't see it. I don't see it anywhere.

And it may sound prohibitive. But think about Jesus. I mean, when he picked his disciples, he picked his twelve apostles. I mean, Jesus elevated women like nobody else had elevated them. He had women following all around.

Now some people will say, well, the reason he didn't pick any women to be apostles, it was a cultural thing back then and he wanted to fit in. Have you ever studied Jesus before? I mean, can you picture like, Joanna coming up to Jesus and being like, I'd like to be an apostle and I'm gifted. And Jesus saying to Joanna, well, I just hate to upset the culture. That's just not even close.

What it means is that God wanted men to be the head. And Jesus was consistent with the teaching in Genesis one and Genesis two, and also consistent with the teaching that Paul's teaching here, that men, your spiritual authority is Jesus Christ, and you're called to lead in the church. And here's why I say that, because in most churches I visited when I was itinerant, there's never a shortage of good godly women. As a matter of fact, 60% to 70% of most churches are made up of women who are serving well. The problem is we have a shortage of men who are called by God to lead in the church.

And most men think it's somebody else's job, not their job. I'm telling you, mental, it is your job. There should never, ever be a man that complains about what's wrong in the church. Even if your wife goes home and says, did you hear what happened down in children's ministry today? You as a man should be like, well, then we're going to start serving down there because I'm going to make sure it gets fixed.

Why? Because so go the men, so goes the church, and so goes the church, so goes the world. Men, we have a responsibility before God. And when you get to heaven, you're going to have responsibility and get to answer for how did I live my kingdom agenda between me and you, Jesus, between how I raised my family, between how I led in the church, between how I led in the world, because that was what you called me to do. And women, you are called to come alongside and serve like crazy.

What it doesn't mean is women don't have speaking gifts. Matter of fact, I've heard some women speak that are better speakers than about 90% of the men that I've heard speak. And by submitting to men, it doesn't mean you relinquish your quality or scope of what God may do in your ministry. Right? It just means that God set up a divine order so that women teach other women and that women teach kids and that men teach doctrine so that there's a divine order.

And God looks down and says, yeah, that's how I wanted it done. That's what God has. That's what this whole passage is about, the divine design of women and the divine design of men. I mean, in one Peter, chapter three, verses one to seven, it says that if this divine order gets altered, like some of you women are sitting here saying, well, if I had a godly man, then I could do that. Or I'm single.

I don't have a godly man. So how do I submit to this and all this kind of stuff? First, Peter three says here they can be won over without a word by seeing your godly behavior. And men, it tells you to love your wives, or your prayers will go unhindered. When you have divine order out of life in your marriage.

And you wonder, why is God not answering our prayers that we've been praying as a family? It's because the divine order's out because a husband's not elevating his wife and because a wife's not submitting to her husband, and everything's chaotic. This is a big deal. I was listening to my daughter this week. She was in the backseat of our car, and she just sprung this out of her mouth.

I'm like, great sermon illustration time. She said, dad, I want to be Brooke Schwarzentrab for the rest of my life. I don't want to take anybody's name someday, right? And I'm like, okay, cool, teaching moment. And I told her what I'm telling you.

I'm like, then don't get married. I said, because here's the deal. I said, you have my name now because I'm your authority, and I'm taking care of you and I'm raising you, and I'm elevating you, and I love you and I love you unconditionally. And until you meet a man someday that will do it to the same degree I am or better, you don't want anything to do with that guy anyway. And when you do, you're taking his name as a covering, and you're symbolically showing, much like what a head covering was he's now my head, right?

And then I told her, and being swores in tribe, you don't want to hyphenate that thing anyway, so just take his name. Right? But that's what it was like. And what you have in Corinth is women rising up and saying, no, I'm woman, hear me roar. And I'm doing this.

And by keeping their head uncovered, that was a problem. Paul was saying it was so disgusting that they had their head uncovered. And there was reason for that. He says, but every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head. 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 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. In the first century, to have your head uncovered would be an external exhibit of, hey, I'm not serving anybody, and I'm available to you. Prostitutes often had their heads shaved in the first century. Paul was telling the woman, hey, if you're gonna act like one who's available, like a prostitute is, why not just go all the way and shave your head?

Now, Paul used hyperbole all the time in the New Testament. I remember in the book of Galatians, when all these people were factioning over, should we get circumcised or not circumcised? Paul's like, it's not even a big deal. But for those agitators, I wish they'd just go the whole way and just call the whole thing off. Right?

That's not what he was saying to do. He's not telling woman, get buzz shears and look like your pastor. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, if you're going to act like a prostitute, which you shouldn't, then why don't you just go all the way? He's saying, instead, on the inside, internally, show respect for men.

Ladies, when you're out with your friends, they should hear from your mouth all the time how much you love and respect your husband, not a gossip session. For all the stupid things he did. Right? I mean, there's an internal thing, and out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And you should always be elevating men.

You should always be speaking highly of men and men. What we should be doing is we should always be elevating women and speaking highly of women. It's the divine order of things. And it's how God's created it. And it's really important that we live that way.

Right? And then notice what he says. And God is the head of Christ. I mean, if you want any model for how this is done, just watch Jesus, guys, Jesus submitted to his father fully, so we should do the same. Women, Jesus submitted to his father fully, so we're called to submit the same way.

Right? And notice what he says. I mean, these next three verses, seven, eight and nine, are the most politically incorrect verses I could speak in our culture today. Notice this. For a man not ought to have his head shaved.

Why? Since he's the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. Say what both men and women created in the image of God. Both men and women equally love. Man is the glory of God.

Why? Because man is put on the earth as his regent to advance his kingdom. And what is woman? Woman is the glory of man. Woman is put on to make men look better because men need to look better because men don't look all that good.

Right? And when man is doing his thing for the Lord and woman is coming alongside and doing that, there's a divine order of authority where people, people see in the world. Wow, look at how that functions. How could you function like that? And people would answer, only because I know Jesus and I have the spirit of God living inside of me, or I wouldn't be able to live like that.

Look at this. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man. Indeed, man was not created for woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake. Listen, men, you were not created for woman. The problem we have in the garden is Adam decided I was created for God.

No, I'm not gonna follow God. Eve's hot. I'm gonna follow Eve. I'm gonna listen to her. I'm just gonna keep Eve happy.

Man, you are not created for a woman. Single guys don't go around and say, well, who could I marry? And who will? No, you go after what God's going after. You and some godly woman will come along and fill in all the gaps because a godly woman wants a guy who's taken territory for the king.

Right? Men were not created for women. Women, you were created for men. That's just God's design. It's how he designed it.

It's his personal authority. Right? And notice this. Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, which is that what we've talked about? That's the outward expression of what's really going on in her heart.

You know, it's not saying men don't ever wear a baseball hat. Take your baseball hat off if you pray, man. I've been outside in 90 degree heat at the beach. I prayed on the beach with people. I'm not taking my hat off.

I'll get skin cancer. I think God will still hear my prayer. Ladies, you don't have to have your. It's not a head covering. It's an internal understanding of where I am in God's divine order so that God can get his greatest blessing in and through me and the people that I have.

But notice what he says. Therefore, women ought to have a symbol of authority on her head. Why? Because of the angels. Because the angels said what?

I'll tell you this. What were angels? What are angels? Angels are ministering spirits on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of hosts.

He's the lord of the angel army. What happened after creation? Well, about a third of the angels we find were what? Instead of serving the Lord, what did they do? They rebelled.

What do we call rebelling angels? We call them demons. They rebelled. They're demons. What about the angels?

The angels were at creation. Job tells us they were at creation. They were watching the divine order of things and they were watching Adam say, no, let's let Eve rule, and I'll come under her. And they watch the whole world get destroyed. They're ministering spirits on behalf of Jesus.

If you want God's fullest blessing in your life, ladies, men, if you want God's fullest blessing in your life, this is the order of authority that the angels do their best to minister under. Now, I know what some of you are going to say. Wait, wait, wait, Jeff, there are churches out there and people that are christians that don't believe any of this. I'm okay with that. I'm going to be a parent to you right now.

Parents, you ever had your kids say, well, their family doesn't do it that way? You ever had that? I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. I'm not worried about other families. I'm worried about what the word of God says.

And I'm teaching our family what the Lord Jesus Christ says so we can do it.

So listen, I don't have a personal agenda to change the world and run around, nor do you need to. It's an internal thing. How are you going to respond based upon the truth that God is giving to you? Let me give you another one. Christ is the answer for all of us.

We're all equal in our love, but we are not the same. And let me just say this before I give the next point. I could bring in a number of scientists that aren't even Christian that would tell you about the DNA. There's a big difference between men and women. And it's not just in your genitalia, in your anatomy.

It's every single place in your life. And notice what God says. When kingdom authority is followed, there is great harmony and blessing. When kingdom authority is followed, there's great harmony and blessing. Look at this verse eleven.

However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of a man or is 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. In other words, we need each other to propagate the planet and make disciples all across the world. We need each other.

There's beautiful harmony in God's people and in the kingdom when men see themselves under the lordship of Jesus Christ and are bowing their knee before him and elevating those around him. Because any true spiritual leader will elevate. Women and women submit to men. Men, your divine leadership role in the home, your divine leadership in the world, it's not something that you have to go ask permission for, okay? It's not like you go home today and say, baby, is it okay if I become the leader?

And it's not like you just, you just go take it. And by taking it, I don't mean you go home and say, hey, baby, daddy's home. Now I'm the leader. That's not it either. Here's how you take it.

You take it by going home and out serving your spouse. You take it by being in the church and elevating all those around you so that the women in our church feel like all their gifts can be used to the full and they feel loved, honored and cherished. That's how you know that you're ahead. That's how you know that you're a spiritual leader. Amen.

And women, you take it and say, you know what? Because of who I am in Christ, this is how I'm going to submit. Because this is what God showed me that I need to do and I'm going to trust them. Now, let me just tell you women, let me tell you something, because I know what you're thinking, especially some of you that are married. Like, dude, he is just dumb.

I mean, this decision he's making is just not good submission doesn't mean you don't help. Submission doesn't mean you sit quietly and be like, it's so dumb. I know it's dumb. He'll figure out how dumb it is. No, it means that you can have conversation.

And if you get to a place where he's still going to go a certain direction where you know, it's that you don't need to be and I told you so. Here's what you can be. Hey, sir, I'm going to submit. I'm submitting to you because of who I am in Christ. You've heard me think this is a very poor decision, but I'll follow you all the way until you figure that out for yourself.

And I will stand by you and I won't be and I told you so. I will serve you. That puts a lot of weight on men by the way. And here's what happens. God will honor that.

He will honor that. He will honor your submission to men. Okay, so here's the deal man. You take your authority. Now notice what he's going to make.

He's going to make a statement about nature here in verse 13. Judge for yourself. I mean just, just judge for yourselves. If there's not a distinction between the genders, is it proper for a woman to pray with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach that if a man has long hair it's a dishonor to him?

But if a woman has long hair it is a glory to her for hair is given to her for a covering. Now if I was teaching this 70 years ago, hey dudes, if you have long hair, cut it off because you're not acting manly. And you know, girls, grow your hair out and be really long. I don't think Paul's talking about cultural styles here. I think he's talking about if you're a woman, woman, be as feminine as you want to be and there's nothing wrong with being feminine.

You don't have to shut off your femininity to try to prove to somebody that you're worth is more important than that. And men, don't be effeminate. If you're masculine, like live out your masculinity. I've talked to some of the single girls in our church and I'm like, is it true for you that you're looking for like a real strong guy in the church but they're tough to find because a lot of the guys you're looking for act like a lot of times and they're like, yes. Why because our culture has taught that sameness is good.

Men dress like women. Women dress like men. Does not even nature teach you that that's wrong. That's what Paul's saying. I mean, I'm fortunate to raise two daughters and a son, and they're all different.

I mean, from the time my daughters were kids, I mean, they're still kids, but from the time my daughters were really young, they would always, like, steal Kim's makeup. And they play dress up, and they dress up in dresses, and they come, like, twirl around our family room for me, and they're like, daddy, don't I look beautiful? And I'm like, yes. My son's never done that. Praise the Lord.

But my son, when he wakes up every day, he thinks he's like a super action hero or something. I mean, I can hear him in the other room, like, jumping around, like, I'm like, dude, what are you doing? He's like, you know, I'm spider man, dad. I'm like, well, you're not, but he's punching things, right? And, like, when my daughters hug me, they just come up and hug me.

My son, like, sneaks around and I don't even know he's coming. And out of the clear blue, like 90 miles an hour, I get knocked over. Dad. I gotcha, right? I mean, does not nature teach you that it's different?

I mean, ladies, I mean, think about this sometimes. I've been on my wife's Facebook pages. Not very often, thank God. But sometimes, like, you ever notice how y'all are? I mean, somebody will post a picture of them with their kids on a beach, something.

And there's like a hundred comments, like, awesome. So sweet. You guys are the cutest family ever. Dudes don't post that. We just don't.

That's not how we think. Do you know why? Cause, women, your problem is your heart. And the question that you're asking all the time is, am I cherished? Do I feel honored?

Do I feel valuable? Is somebody elevating me? It's your heart. Women, let me tell you what our problem is. As men.

It's our ego. It's our head. Men always feel insecure in their head, like I'm not good enough. I mean, that's why from the time that we're young, men are always competing to be better at something. Competition, competition, competition.

Why? Because in our head, we don't feel good enough. Which is why, if you're married, woman, a man's desire to be respected and affirmed is insatiable you can't tell him enough how awesome he is. I mean, I just told you that three minutes. Well, tell me again, Kim.

Did you like the sermon? I told you that five times. Tell me again. It's insatiable. And for a woman, her heart is insatiable.

Just let me know that I'm honored, and let me know I'm appreciated. We went on a date last night. Yeah, but I need to know it today, and I want to feel it right now, in the moment. Right. That's the way God designed us.

And it's a beautiful thing. And nature teaches us that we're different, and God teaches us that our differences are good and that he designed them and created them. Amen. And so then Paul says it ends by saying this. God's word teaches kingdom, authority for all people, both inside and outside of the church.

Doesn't matter where you're born, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what religion you are. This is God's divine order of how things should operate. Notice what Paul says in verse. But if one is inclined to be contentious, that means if one's going to say, I disagree with all this, Paul says we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God. In other words, inside and outside the church, we don't have any other way that we can do this.

I mean, this is the only way we know how. Like, this is what it is. This is God's design, and it's a beautiful thing, and it's a good thing. Now, here's how I want to end men. There's not one of us sitting here today that's done this perfect every single time.

There's not one of us that says, I've always led well. I've always known my pathway to take. When it's come to women, I've always elevated them and raised them up. Hey, when it's come to my wife and kids, I'm there. You know, I'm always around, not one.

And I'm not asking you to dig up skeletons in your closet for things from which you've repented because those are forgiven by the blood of Jesus. But perhaps there's some things today that need to get realigned and reoriented, and we just need the spirit of God to fill us afresh again. And, ladies, for you, perhaps some of you have been hurt or you've been abused. I know you have, by men. And this is a hard message to hear, but it doesn't change the truth of it, that God's design is for godly men to be head and for women to be submissive to that.

And perhaps there's things in you where because of the way you've experienced things or because of the way you've been hurt, where there's a tendency in your own heart to be like, I just want to put men down. I'm going to always overtake. I want to do. And perhaps today God's been showing you you don't need to do that anymore. I'll get justice for you.

I'll vindicate what was hurt and maybe just need to release that to the Lord and just be submissive for his sake. So what I want to do today is just have you all stand. And we're just going to spend just a minute in prayer and just ask the Lord to fill us afresh with what he showed us so that we can live out his kingdom, authority, so that his kingdom, manifestation of the living Jesus, can take us down the road without shaking. Amen. Let's pray.

Lord, we just give you all the praise. Lord, we gather here today. And, Lord, some of us gather as men and we're here saying to you, Lord, we have not done it right all the time. And holy spirit, bring to our heart the things that we haven't done right, which we've never confessed. And, Lord, in this moment, whether it be our marriage or our dating life or in the workplace or wherever, Lord, we just confess those things to you.

Lord, we repent and want to turn. Lord, fill afresh our men in this room. Help them be godly men that elevate women, that honor women, that cherish women, that build women, so that, Lord, you be proud of us. And, Lord, if there's anything out of a line with you being our head, Lord, remove that far from us so that you can be our true authority. And, Lord, I just pray for our women here.

Perhaps you're here today and like, this is so hard. I was so hurt. There's no greater pain I experienced than this. Lord, I just pray that they would feel a healing touch of your power right now in this room, in this place, Lord, that you would touch these women and that you would bless these women and let them know that while men abuse through sin what you created, that they don't need to be afraid to take faith steps and move forward. And, Lord, for any woman here that would say, I've tried to put down men, I've tried to overstep my bounds.

I've tried to put men down, Lord, that right now it just stops, that these women would just confess that to you and they would live in alignment with your kingdom, authority and God. We give you all the praise. We thank you for your word. You put this in here for your goodwill. Lord, help us live it out, for your name's sake.

In Jesus name, amen.