Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / 1 Timothy 2:8-10 - How Should Men and Women Behave and Dress?

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1 Timothy 2:8-10 - How Should Men and Women Behave and Dress? · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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you to know Christ, grow in his Word, and show his love to
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others. Let's dive right in.
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Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in First Timothy
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chapter 2 verses 8 through 15. First Timothy chapter 2, verses
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8 through 15. We have been walking with the
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apostle Paul and his son in the faith, Timothy, through this
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letter that Paul wrote as Timothy was in the church at
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Ephesus and Paul had a mission for him while he was there.
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Paul had started the church, but there had come some false
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teachers into that collection of believers and they were teaching
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false things and they were behaving in some bad ways.
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And that's going to be a bit of what we're looking at today.
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Last episode we looked at our call to prayer for those that
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are in government and authority so that we can lead a quiet and
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peaceful life and all godliness and honesty so that we can share
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our faith, so that the gospel can go out, so that people can
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be saved because that is the Lord's desire.
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As we would read even in Second Peter 3, God is not willing that
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anyone would perish, but that everyone would come to
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repentance. And in verse #7 Paul said the
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gospel message. This was why I was appointed as
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a herald, an apostle, and a teacher.
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Someone that would shout out to others about this wonderful
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truth and in connection with the gospel message.
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Here's what we read in verses 8 through 15, he says.
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Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up
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holy hands without anger or argument.
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Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing,
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with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold,
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pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works, as is
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proper for women who profess to worship God.
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A woman is to learn quietly with full submission.
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I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man.
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Instead she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then
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Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and
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transgressed. But she will be saved through
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childbearing if they continue in faith, love and holiness with
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good sense. OK, now if you are anything like
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me, you're like, oh man, here's a doozy.
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What in the world is going on? This particular portion of
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scripture is one that has been the it's been the source of
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content for tons of books, theological systems, countless
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podcast episodes and articles and all sorts of things.
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My goal and my prayer today is that even as we're walking
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through this in Tabernacle talk that I'd make what the point of
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the passage is, the point of what we're talking about.
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There's a lot of specific applications and thoughts that a
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person could go over or draw out from this passage.
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And part of the difficulty in these particular verses,
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especially the end section about women and teaching and authority
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and all of that, is that there has been great abuse of this
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passage at times by people and a degradation of women made in the
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image of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit that that people have
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overstepped some bounds on what these verses mean.
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On the flip side, there are many people today that would say, oh,
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well, listen, Paul wrote the letter of first Timothy.
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And so it doesn't really matter what Paul says.
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You know, Jesus didn't say these words.
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And so I don't have to listen to it, which would fly right in the
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face of the fact that Scripture is not at its essence the words
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of man, though mankind wrote it. But we would echo the testimony
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of Paul in Second Timothy 3 and Peter's declaration to us in
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first Peter or in second Peter one that the words of Scripture
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were given to us from the pen and hand in mind of man through
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the Holy Spirit of God's work. That it is God breathed and that
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what we have is not simply one guy's thoughts or here across
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all of Scripture, 40 guys thoughts.
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But this is what God wanted us to hear and to know.
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And so we need to, even as we approach these verses say God,
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whatever you declare is good and is right.
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And so it doesn't matter if I don't like it.
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What matters is what you said. Now we want to understand it
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rightly. And so that's what we're going
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to head into right now. I'll I'll, you know, put all my
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cards on the table right at 1st. I believe the significance of
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this passage, the goal of what Paul wants Timothy first here
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and then us to understand is that there are right and wrong
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ways to behave in church, that there is a way that the church
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is supposed to operate. And we'll see some of the ways
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that in Ephesus, the church was not operating that way.
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And so that's what Paul is speaking against.
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He is speaking against a wrong way of, if you will, doing
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church. So let's dive first into verse
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#8 and as we walk through, I think you'll see some of that as
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we walk together. He says, therefore I want the
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men, because of the gospel in every place, to pray, lifting up
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holy hands without anger or argument.
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So Paul here does not start by saying, here's all of the things
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that I really dislike about the women.
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He starts here by saying, men, you have a place of authority
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and importance within your homes, within your churches,
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within society. And he says, if you want to, if
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you will, if you want to be the head of something, start by
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leading and directing and being the head of your own emotions
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and being in charge of your mouth and your words.
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A lot of guys struggle with these two things.
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They're angry. They are angry people.
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Sometimes that can result in physical violence in worst case
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scenarios against people, but then very often in some other
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ways, violence directed against things, smashing things,
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breaking things, punching holes and things.
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And that is totally against the gospel.
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It is totally against the Holy Spirit living and moving inside
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of us. And so I want to encourage you,
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if you are a man listening to this or watching this, choose
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that if you are Holy Spirit indwelt, if you are a Christian,
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if you are on your way to heaven, if God the Savior has
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redeemed you, then choose that your life is going to be
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categorized by prayer and by a innocence, A cleanness to who
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you are, not by your anger and your arguments.
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So as opposed to anger, you pray instead of being furious at
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another person for what they say or what they didn't say or what
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they did or what they didn't did.
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You are going to be categorized by prayer that someone goes, all
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right, well, how would you describe Brian, man?
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He's just angry all the time or no, Brian is praying all the
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time. You know, I, I mentioned, hey,
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there's this thing that I really dislike in politics and Brian
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said, hey, let's pray together about that or I have this health
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need. And Brian went, oh, let's pray
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about that. That's the kind of person that I
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want to be. That's the person that I need to
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be, that I need to be pushing myself more and more towards.
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Because the good, if you will, the good antidote to an
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unbiblical, unproductive anger is prayer.
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How many times have we been mad at someone when the appropriate
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response should have been, no, I'm going to pray for that
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person. And you know, even as we went
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through book 5 of Psalms, there's several of theme
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regulatory prayers. We can bring our anger to the
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Lord and be like, alright, God, I am furious with this person
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right now. I can't believe that they said
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this. And so God, I'm bringing this to
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you and I'm asking for you to bring justice, to bring
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vengeance. But also I recognize even as I'm
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talking with you, that you are the God who forgave me.
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And so I need to forgive them. The antidote to our anger.
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There can be many anecdote antidotes, but at least one is
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prayer to the Lord. So he says.
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I want the men to pray everywhere in every place.
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Don't ever feel like there is a place where prayer is off limit
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for you. I have a corner store over by
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over where by I over where over by where I live.
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I apologize I just got stuck on that loop and couldn't get out.
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I have a corner store over by where I live and the man that is
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the business owner there is a Muslim individual.
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And so five times a day he actually locks his store door
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and he prays and he prays for 10 minutes there.
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And I wonder, or I, I've been amazed seeing that at times, you
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know, he'll lose out on business because people will come while
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he is praying and they won't be able to get into the door.
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But he's serious about his faith and his God and he chooses to
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pray. And I wonder for us, we are the
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children of the living God, of the one true God.
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How shy are we about praying, about praying with people?
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How often do we shirk the tremendous privilege that we
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have to come boldly before the throne of grace and ask for
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God's help? So here, instead of being angry,
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we pray. And instead of arguing with
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others, He encourages us to lift up holy hands that we here.
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It's a picture. This isn't necessarily saying,
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OK, if I do this with my hands for those watching or for those
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listening on audio, I'm physically lifting my hands up.
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It's not that if I raise my hands, I'm holier.
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And if my hands are down, I am less holy.
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It is a picture of the fact that God, you see my hands
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metaphorically, figuratively, and God, I need you to in the
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same vein as like Psalm 139, God, search me, know me, try me
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and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the
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everlasting way that that's what we do, that we say.
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God, I don't have to. I don't have to convince this
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other person. I don't have to argue with this
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other person because God, you see me, you know me, you know my
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heart. And so God, I'm bringing this
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situation to you. And here Paul does not say, I
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want the pastors to pray everywhere lifting up holy hands
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without anger or argument. He says, I want the men in every
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place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.
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If you're a guy, you have this responsibility.
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You are to be a prayer warrior. We can do lots of stuff after we
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have prayed, but we can truly do nothing meaningful until we have
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prayed. OK then verses 9 and 10.
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This is the easier part of this section, he says.
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Also the women, So the guys have this encouragement to pray, to
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not operate in anger or argument.
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Says the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing
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with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold,
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pearls or expensive apparel, but with good works, as is proper
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for women who profess to worship God.
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Much could be sad about like modest apparel, how we tend to
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talk about it today. That is how much is OK for
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people to see of your body or different things like that.
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That is not what Paul has in mind here.
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That is not what he's instructing you about
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specifically. What we read is there were
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people dressing in lavishly expensive and rich ways.
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This would have been very commonplace for the priestesses
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there at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, that the like
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richest of the rich, they would have some of their virgin
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daughters that were there at that temple and they would be
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totally decked out with incredibly expensive clothing.
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Paul here tells Timothy, let the Ephesian women know, Yeah,
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that's how Artemis does her stuff.
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But God, our God does not care about how expensive your
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clothing is. There was a, a phrase that I
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think kind of took took off in the late 1800s or early 1900s
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and the thought went something like this.
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You need to quote UN quote, dress your best for God.
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And would you show up to the White House in, you know, a, a
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tank top and shorts? No, So you need to dress your
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best for God when you come to church.
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Now, different avenues of like respects, cultural elements,
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1000 different things could be said on the clothing that we
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wear to church. But at the very least church is
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not a place where you go to flaunt your wealth through the
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clothing that you wear. And that goes on multiple ends.
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So I've seen some people that they wear ridiculously expensive
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nice, you know, a suit or a three piece suit or something
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like that that is incredibly expensive and people might look
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at that and say man, that that's really expensive.
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I feel like that's not the modest apparel that's being
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talked about here or in a couple of other places.
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The same thing though, can be true for people that they wear
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extremely expensive clothing that is more popular or more,
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I'll say more stylish in today's day and age.
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So you read or hear about the preachers that have, you know, a
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$10,000 watch and they've got, you know, a $3000 pair of, you
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know, very fancy tennis shoes from whatever big name brand
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that you would find. Tennis shoes isn't the right
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word. But you guys know what I'm
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talking about. Or they might wear a, you know,
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T-shirt from Gucci and they'd have a jacket from Balenciaga.
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And so even though they don't look as quote UN quote formal as
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the person in a suit and tie, their clothing can be much more
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expensive. Now, I, I don't want to lay down
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any sort of definitive law. I just want to say if you see
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someone that online, you know, they purport to be a great
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teacher, but they are consistently flaunting their
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wealth, that is probably someone that you need to watch out for,
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not someone that you should be listening a lot to.
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When someone has enveloped a lot of greed and they have begun
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stocking their own cultural image through having just a lot
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of riches and clothing themselves in riches, that's a
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great indication. Maybe that's not something that
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I should spend a lot of time listening to here.
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This is what's in mind for these women, that the gospel is for
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everyone. The gospel isn't just for the
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rich. The gospel isn't just for those
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that can look their best. The gospel is for the poor.
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The gospel is for the homeless. The gospel is for those that
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have 10 million in stocks and those that have, you know, $5 in
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their bank account. The gospel is for everyone.
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And so don't come to church to flaunt your wealth.
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Yeah, now I will say this is something as Paul is telling
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Timothy that a pastor can have you know, some some teaching
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exhortation on that's what I'm doing right now is teaching you
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guys. Don't use this as a club to beat
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other people in your church with.
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Don't use it as a Ave. for slander or for gossip for others
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within your local congregation. You know, don't tell your
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spouse. Oh man, did you you see those
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shoes that he has? I bet they cost at least $50.
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Doesn't he know that you can get a $5 pair at you know the thrift
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store? Don't don't do that to people.
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This is not a legalistic thing here of if someone wears
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something nice you should tear them down for it.
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But it is something that even as I pastor this church, I want to
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be careful to recognize, like the area of the world and the
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area of Maryland that I'm in. And I want to make sure that I
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am not, if you will, I'm not dressing far above where anyone
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would feel like, OK, well, I couldn't talk to Brian.
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Like, he's way too fancy. I, I think he's, you know, way
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above my level. I want to make sure that the
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clothing that I wear is accessible, that no matter if
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someone is 80 years old or if someone is 18 years old, that
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they could feel like, OK, this is a person.
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They are wearing clothes similar to perhaps what I would wear.
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No, it might be what I wear when I go to the bank.
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It might be what I wear when I'm at, you know, a family get
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together or something. Family reunion.
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But I know there's some attainability there that we are
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part of the same family, if you will.
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We're on the same social status. And that social status is team
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Jesus. That all together, the rich and
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the poor, we come to the foot of the cross and the ground is
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level there. And instead of the riches, Paul
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says, I want the Christian women to clothe themselves with good
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works. So let yourself be known not for
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how much your dress cost. Let yourself be known by the
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good works that you do. That someone says, man, they are
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always volunteering. They are always caring for
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people. They're always speaking good
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words into people's lives. They are just always there when
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you need a shoulder to cry on. They are always ready to pray
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for you. That ought to be what typifies
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the people of God. Not anger, not arguing, not
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material wealth or goods being flaunted in the face of others.
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No, what ought to characterize us is prayer and good works.
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I'm going to shoot straight with you guys.
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It is already way too late. I cannot do verses 11 through 15
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in adequate time in this episode, so this is going to
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need to get pushed over. Part 2 is next episode and
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unfortunately for me, it is going to be over verses 11
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through 15, the most difficult part of this passage.
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So wish me luck, pray for me, and look forward to joining you
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next episode for verses 11 through 15.