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Wimpy Theology Makes Vulnerable Women · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Mother's Day was yesterday. Happy Mother's Day to all the
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  Speaker 1: moms out there. I hope you got breakfast in bed
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  Speaker 1: and flowers and a day full of love and all
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  Speaker 1: that to celebrate the immense selflessness that you've shown to
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  Speaker 1: your family. And today we're talking about women in theology
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  Speaker 1: and a question that comes to us from Audrey. Dear
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  Speaker 1: pastor John, Hello, and thank you for this podcast. I'm
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  Speaker 1: a gen Z listener and I greatly appreciate the teachings
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  Speaker 1: you share each week. After listening to you and John
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  Speaker 1: MacArthur messages over the years and living in the times
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  Speaker 1: we are now, I've started to realize how twisted the
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  Speaker 1: world has become. People identify today as non binary, glorify
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  Speaker 1: themselves on social media, and as Romans twelve nine says,
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  Speaker 1: hate what is good and love what is evil. The
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  Speaker 1: darkness seems to grow by the hour, and I'm struggling
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  Speaker 1: to navigate a world that feels so countercultural. As a
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  Speaker 1: young woman, it's difficult to discern right from wrong, especially
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  Speaker 1: when many churches are endorsing practices like women preaching and
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  Speaker 1: teaching in mixed contexts. I want to understand my biblical
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  Speaker 1: role as a woman and especially as I'm considering pursuing
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  Speaker 1: ministry in the future. What advice would you give to
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  Speaker 1: a generation living in such challenging times, particularly young women
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  Speaker 1: trying to find their place in God's will? Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: I preached a message years ago in which the main
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  Speaker 2: point was wimpy theology makes wimpy women. Yeah, and of
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  Speaker 2: course wimpy theology makes wimpy men too, But it was
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  Speaker 2: a woman's conference, and Audrey is a woman, and she's
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  Speaker 2: asking the questions. So let me say it again. Wimpy
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  Speaker 2: theology makes wimpy women. So the first and most important
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  Speaker 2: thing to say to Audrey is that she will be
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  Speaker 2: made strong and able to stand against the wiles of
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  Speaker 2: the devil and against the cultural pressures of this age
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  Speaker 2: if instead of wimpy theology she has a big God
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  Speaker 2: Bible saturated christ exalting theology with deep roots that go
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  Speaker 2: down into sovereign grace and high branches that reach up
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  Speaker 2: into the sky to absorb the brightness of the glories
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  Speaker 2: of God and thick bark on her tree. So that
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  Speaker 2: she's not easily offended or has her feelings easily hurt
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  Speaker 2: or her ego easily wounded by those who try to
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  Speaker 2: manipulate her by playing the victim or making her a victim.
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  Speaker 2: And if she has a solid, healthy, biblical church where
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  Speaker 2: she can exult week in and week out in the
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  Speaker 2: expository heralding of God's Word. And if she has a
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  Speaker 2: few good, strong, crazy Christian friends who are utterly out
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  Speaker 2: of step with the world. And if she has a
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  Speaker 2: vital prayer life that keeps her personally in touch with
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  Speaker 2: the creator of the universe as her omnipotent, caring father,
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  Speaker 2: and if she suited up with the whole armor of
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  Speaker 2: God so that she has the strength to embrace and
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  Speaker 2: exult in a thoroughly biblical, countercultural vision of what it
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  Speaker 2: means to be a woman and not a man. That's
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  Speaker 2: my general prescription for Audrey as she tries to navigate
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  Speaker 2: this debased and God ignoring culture. But there's a passage
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  Speaker 2: of scripture that the Lord I believe brought to mind
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  Speaker 2: as I pondered her question that relates even more specifically
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  Speaker 2: to this kind of world she's asking about and the
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  Speaker 2: specific challenges of women that she's asking about. And the
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  Speaker 2: text is two Timothy three one to seven. The first
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  Speaker 2: verses are very familiar, the next three are not so familiar.
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  Speaker 2: Let me read them all. This is verses one to seven,
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  Speaker 2: addressing these two things that she's been asking about the
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  Speaker 2: world and her role in it. Understand this, Paul says,
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  Speaker 2: this is two Timothy three to one. Understand this that
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  Speaker 2: in the Last Days, that's Paul's day and our day.
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  Speaker 2: The last days extend from the coming of Christ to
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  Speaker 2: the coming of Christ. It's not just like those last
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  Speaker 2: years just before he comes. Although I think it is
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  Speaker 2: true that there will be an intensification of this kind
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  Speaker 2: of thing nearer to the second coming. But this is
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  Speaker 2: true in every age since Jesus. He says, in the
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  Speaker 2: last days, people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive,
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  Speaker 2: disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self control, brutal,
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  Speaker 2: not loving good, treacherous, wreck us, swollen with conceit, lovers
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  Speaker 2: of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, having the appearance
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  Speaker 2: of Godliness but denying its power. There it is, that's
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  Speaker 2: the first part. Here's what he says next, avoid such people,
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  Speaker 2: for among them are those who creep into households and
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  Speaker 2: capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by
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  Speaker 2: various passions, always learning and never able to come to
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  Speaker 2: a knowledge of the truth. So you've got this devastating
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  Speaker 2: description of Paul's day and our day, with twenty labels
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  Speaker 2: of the kind of corruption he sees and we see.
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  Speaker 2: And he concludes this list by saying, avoid such people.
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  Speaker 2: That's really what he said in One Corinthians fifteen thirty three.
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  Speaker 2: Bad company corrupts good morals. So Audrey don't fit in
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  Speaker 2: with people whom the world considers edgy and cool. Study
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  Speaker 2: this list of twenty Study this list of twenty forms
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  Speaker 2: of sin. Spot them in social media, movies, advertisements, workplace, neighborhood,
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  Speaker 2: spot them, and be courageous enough not to envy them.
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  Speaker 2: But the most provocative part of this text as it
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  Speaker 2: relates to women is the three descriptions that it gives
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  Speaker 2: in verses six and seven of the women whom these
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  Speaker 2: sinful people in verses one to five are taking advantage of.
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  Speaker 2: And this is where Audrey can really go to school.
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  Speaker 2: Among the people marked by those twenty sins, there are
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  Speaker 2: some who quote creep into households. What in the world
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  Speaker 2: creep into households? They creep, They're sneaky, they're deceptive. Their
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  Speaker 2: targets are a certain kind of woman, and they are
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  Speaker 2: trying to take that woman captive, presumably for their own
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  Speaker 2: false teaching and recruiting. They are after a certain kind
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  Speaker 2: of woman. Gunaikarion is the Greek. It's the diminutive of gunai,
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  Speaker 2: which is just simply woman. A gunaikrion it's a little woman,
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  Speaker 2: which is translated elsewhere in all kinds of ways, like
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  Speaker 2: little women, idle women, foolish women, weak women, sort of
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  Speaker 2: like the oligopsukous people, the small souled people of first
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  Speaker 2: Thessalonians five fourteen. So these targeted women are described in
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  Speaker 2: three ways that make them vulnerable. So every woman should
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  Speaker 2: have her antenna up and say, am I this? Am
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  Speaker 2: I vulnerable? Like this to these creeping guys. The word
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  Speaker 2: is masculine, but it could be women, I suppose too.
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  Speaker 2: These creeping people who come in trying to take advantage
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  Speaker 2: of me. Number one, they are burdened with sin. Number two,
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  Speaker 2: they are led us stray by various passions or desires.
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  Speaker 2: Number three, they're always learning and never able to arrive
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  Speaker 2: at a knowledge of the truth. Those are the vulnerable,
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  Speaker 2: weak women. So Audrey, take note of these three descriptions
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  Speaker 2: of weak You might say wimpy, wimpy women. That's what
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  Speaker 2: I mean, wimpy women, and prioritize the biblical strategies for
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  Speaker 2: not being like that. For example, burdened with sins, that's
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  Speaker 2: their first characteristic. Oh, how vulnerable we are to quick
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  Speaker 2: fixes and false teaching when we live under a crushing
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  Speaker 2: burden of guilt. The biblical did you hear is know
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  Speaker 2: the Gospel, exult in the Gospel, glory in the sufficiency
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  Speaker 2: of the blood of Jesus to cover your sin. Get
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  Speaker 2: in Satan's faith when he accuses you of guilt, and
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  Speaker 2: tell him there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ,
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  Speaker 2: Jesus none. This will make a woman invulnerable to the
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  Speaker 2: creeping false teachers and the self exalting messages of the media.
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  Speaker 2: They're always appealing to our pride, as if we don't
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  Speaker 2: have any guilt to be sorry for at all. Second,
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  Speaker 2: these wimpy women are described as led astray by various
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  Speaker 2: desires or passions. Maybe the passion or the desire to
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  Speaker 2: be seen as striking and attractive and having sexual power
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  Speaker 2: over men to get their eyes, or maybe the passion
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  Speaker 2: to medicate misery with food, or the passion to have
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  Speaker 2: a boyfriend, whether he's a believer or not, or the
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  Speaker 2: passion to prove you can make your independent way in
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  Speaker 2: the rough and tumble of the marketplace, the passion to
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  Speaker 2: read romance novels or veg out in front of sitcoms.
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  Speaker 2: Over against these destructive passions and more, of course, put
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  Speaker 2: Audrey put Romans eight thirteen, which says, if you live
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  Speaker 2: according to the flesh, you will die. But if by
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  Speaker 2: the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
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  Speaker 2: these passions that are taking over your body and making
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  Speaker 2: you do things that you shouldn't do, if you put
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  Speaker 2: to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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  Speaker 2: So take the sword of the Spirit, the word of God,
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  Speaker 2: and in the power of the Holy Spirit, kill those passions.
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  Speaker 2: Stick them become with a sword with a superior promise
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  Speaker 2: of God. That's what we get from the word. God
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  Speaker 2: gives a superior promise in his word that becomes a
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  Speaker 2: sword by which we can stick those crummy promises that
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  Speaker 2: the world makes, which seems so powerful and yet over
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  Speaker 2: against God's promises are as nothing. God has something better
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  Speaker 2: for you. And finally, this is really interesting to me.
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  Speaker 2: At least I'm going to commend something that I've thought
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  Speaker 2: about this. These womby women are always learning and never
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  Speaker 2: able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Why
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  Speaker 2: would that be? Why would that be? I have a suggestion,
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  Speaker 2: and I've seen this in real life over and over
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  Speaker 2: again in the last fifty sixty years. Many people do
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  Speaker 2: not move from learning to conviction about truth because they
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  Speaker 2: are afraid. They shrink back from the truth, because they
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  Speaker 2: are afraid of what it would mean to claim to
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  Speaker 2: know some truth. They're afraid. They are afraid of losing
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  Speaker 2: the ability to write their own script in life, to
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  Speaker 2: make reality what they want it to be, to define
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  Speaker 2: their own essence, and to create their own sense of
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  Speaker 2: right and wrong. They know intuitively that the truth is
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  Speaker 2: going to get in the way of all this freedom
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  Speaker 2: and self determination, self creation. To arrive at a knowledge
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  Speaker 2: of the truth means you can't be the creator of
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  Speaker 2: truth anymore. The inevitable outcome of embracing truth is the
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  Speaker 2: introduction of humility. I must now submit to reality instead
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  Speaker 2: of creating reality. And as long as people are in
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  Speaker 2: the bondage of self exalting rebellion, they will never come
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  Speaker 2: to a knowledge of the truth. So Audrey, love the
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  Speaker 2: truth in spite of everything the world says, It's still true.
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  Speaker 2: You will know the truth, and the truth will set
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  Speaker 2: you free a man.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Wemby theology makes wimpy women. I remember being at
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  Speaker 1: that two thousand and eight conference that you mentioned earlier,
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  Speaker 1: followed by the Q and A panel two. I added
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  Speaker 1: all of that to the EPJ book on pages two
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine to two forty one if you have it
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  Speaker 1: handy and you want more on that conference, The Q
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  Speaker 1: and A panel and what you said the pastor one
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  Speaker 1: of the funniest moments I've ever seen in a conference
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  Speaker 1: setting with Pastor John, and there are a lot of those.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: Have a question to ask Pastor John. Find a link
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  Speaker 1: to email us and find our complete episode archive at
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  Speaker 1: Askpastor John dot com. Well, next time we hear from
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  Speaker 1: a sixty five year old disabled man facing unimaginable loss
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: after loss after loss in his life and speaking of spine,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor Johnny's gonna walk through the seven precious, powerful truths
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  Speaker 1: that put steel in our spine even while we weep.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Rankey, see you on Thursday.