What About The Women?.

We are starting to wrap up our series called This Is My Story. We have been talking about how each and every one of us are born into a story that has been told for generations. We have been looking at the life and the family of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, how God made a promise and a covenant with Abraham that was passed down for generations. Through the line of Abraham, eventually the line of Judah, we see Jesus, the Savior of the world, the Messiah, was born.

But today is Mother's Day, so we are going to talk about the women in the story. The mothers. Because sometimes when I read these scriptures and these stories, I can't help but pause and ask, what about the women? What is happening here in these stories?

We hear the stories about the men. And today we are going to talk about the women who gave birth to these men. The reality is that even though they are not always talked about, and when they are talked about it is not always in the best light, the women are there. Their stories are all throughout scripture. Yet they are often the ones that are mistreated, mistrusted, misrepresented and misunderstood. But we see glimmers throughout scripture. From Genesis and the creation story all the way through the resurrection and the early church, God makes it clear his plan and purpose for men and women to be co-heirs with Christ and to partner together in seeing his kingdom come.

Some of the women we see in the Old Testament and Genesis. We see Sarah, who is barren and longing. She often gets painted as desperate and controlling. She is the one that says to Abraham, "Let us have a son through Hagar."

Then we see Hagar, who was abused and taken as a slave during their time in Egypt. She is mistreated but often just gets painted as the mistress. Growing up I thought, oh, Abraham cheated on Sarah and had an affair with Hagar. But as you get older and read the stories, you see there is a lot more happening here. This is not just some affair.

Then we see Rebecca, the wife of Isaac. She is known more for her story of deceiving Isaac, but she too was a woman of faith. She too had a purpose and a plan in God's story.

And then we see Jacob's wives, Rachel and Leah, pitted against each other and put in really unfair situations. We are going to talk about that today. It is not all good, but there is a lot we can learn from these women. These are the mothers of the men of the promise. These women were the ones that made way for the Messiah to come. The women who are part of the genealogy of Jesus, even though for many of them, their names were not listed.

What about the women?

Why do we talk about them? Because we need men and women together. We were created in the image of God, and we together bear his image, his glory, and his beauty to the world around us.

Part of taking time to talk about this is so that we can collectively walk away feeling empowered to continue to empower and encourage all people to live as image bearers. To go and make disciples of all nations. To help usher in the kingdom of heaven and live as co-heirs with Christ. We need each other to do this.

So what about the women? What does God say? What did Jesus show us? And how can we live in a world where both men and women are equally encouraged, equipped, and empowered?

I took a lot of the things that I study. There are two book recommendations if you ever want to nerd out on some of this. A book called Equal by Katya Adams, and then The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Alison Beth Barr. These are two really great books that talk a lot about the role of women in the Bible.

What does God say about women?

We are going to turn to Genesis chapter 1. This is going to be our anchoring passage. Genesis 1:27-29 is a part of the creation story.

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Genesis 1:27-29

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground, everything that has breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all he had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

What I want you to notice is that God creates man and he creates woman. He said in his likeness, in his image. And then after that, there is authority for them to rule and reign. This is before the fall, which happens later. But this is where we start to get a little confused. Many people interpret this text and talk about man and then authority given and then woman, thinking that the authority is given over woman.

But what you see here is that man is created, woman is created, and then after that, the authority to rule and reign is given. This is God's original intent for women to rule and reign alongside with men.

But then if you read later in Genesis, we see the curse that takes place after the fall, when sin enters the world.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die.'" "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:1-7

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they hid from the Lord among the trees of the garden. But God said to them, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid."

"Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it."

Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe. With painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life."

Genesis 3:14-17

This is where we see sin enter the world, the fall of man, and the curse come upon women. Why is this important for us to note? We see God created man and woman in his own image. Then he gives them authority to rule and reign. It was after the fall that sin entered the world and the curse came on women. It says that because of this, men will rule. But what do we see? Jesus. The first thing that he does when he is raised back to life is he breaks every single curse.

His death and his resurrection broke every single curse, including the curse that was put on women. This is why it is significant for us to note that the first people to go and find Jesus after he was raised back to life, the first people that preached the gospel, the good news that Jesus died and paid the price for our sins and broke every curse, that the veil was torn and it made way for relationship with him, that he was raised back to life. It was women who did that. Signifying in this beautiful picture and representation to us that the curse was broken and it is no longer that we live and breathe under that curse.

But for generations, and we read it in the Old Testament, people struggled to fully free and empower women. God says from the beginning of creation that women were empowered, that authority was given alongside men to rule and reign. Yet for generations they struggled to live in this reality because Jesus had not yet come. And then even after he came, there is still this residue.

And to be honest, we still kind of live with a little bit of that residue and that misunderstanding of the role that women have.

The American church and women in leadership

According to a national congregation study done in 2019, only 13.5% of United States congregations have a female lead pastor. Little did you know what a minority we are here. Some of you are like, I have never known any different. I know there are some people here where you are like, I have only had female pastors. That is amazing. That is not normal at all.

That means only 7% to 4% of people in the United States attend a church where a woman is a lead pastor. Not a lot of people see women leading. Though women are estimated to make up about 60% of the population who identify as Christian in the United States. So you see here how this is not adding up. It is a little bit troublesome. It means that people are not seeing women lead in the American church.

But what is hopeful about that is that this is just the American church. This is not the global church. We see quite a different story in the global church. I personally have been to a church in India where I witnessed a woman leading a church of literally thousands. She has been there for years leading as the senior leader as a woman. I have seen schools and orphanages in places like Haiti and other countries where I have seen women leading the charge.

I was recently in Thailand and Cambodia. I often have to ask as a woman in church leadership when I walk into spaces, sometimes I ask like, "Hey, can you give me a rundown? Is this safe for me? Is it okay for me to say I am a pastor?" Because not everyone is okay with that. They are like, "Oh, nobody is going to even bat an eye." And I watched men and women pastoring, leading, teaching together. Like it is no big deal. And it is the most beautiful thing to see the church in that way.

I do walk through this today, recognizing that when I say we are living in this residue, this is also here in America and the United States. But around the world, a lot of places are getting it right. You look at the UK, they seem to be okay with having a female leader.

But imagine with me a world where men and women were fully empowered and encouraged to be all that God created them to be. To share the good news and the hope of Jesus in all places. What would our world look like? What would our neighborhoods look like? Our schools? This is why we are talking about this today. It is because I want us to be people that follow Jesus and know how to empower all people to follow Jesus too. To recognize that no one is a second-class citizen, but that we all have equal access to relationship with Jesus and are empowered to go and participate in seeing his kingdom come.

Women in the Old Testament

We are going to answer a few questions about women in the Old Testament. Why were things passed down from father to son? Because we see those names, Abraham to Isaac. Why was that passed down? Well, part of that is going to stem from the curse. The curse is put on women. And then we see this culture of patriarchy that comes into play, which then in turn became even more of a curse to women.

This is some of the residue that we still can fall into and live under, this culture of patriarchy. But I want to be very clear that the culture of patriarchy was not the culture of God. Honestly, it was probably one of the biggest parts of the curse that came to be. In the Old Testament, inheritance practices were patriarchal, meaning they favored male heirs. The males were always the heirs over the females.

There are several societies that still function like this. This meant property ownership, social status, marriage. When you were going to marry, a dowry would be paid. In many ancient cultures, marriage served as a means of transferring wealth and property between families. Often women were considered a piece of this wealth and a piece of property.

When we read through the lens of the Old Testament, we are reading it through a patriarchal lens. But going back to the garden before sin entered the world, that is not the lens that God wanted it to be. There are some exceptions we see in scripture and variations to this patriarchal way of living. But essentially that is the context we are reading the Old Testament through. A culture of patriarchy. But that does not mean God is patriarchal.

This is the culture it was written in after the curse. However, right after it says men will rule and reign, we see in the book of Judges Deborah, who is leading and ruling, a woman ruling over men. We see that God continues to give us examples. But this is my hope for you. This is my desire, that we are in this together, that you are all strong, that you are all courageous. God's plan for women, men and women, were co-heirs. That was his plan.

We have to read scripture, Old Testament to New. Whether we are interpreting texts about women or any other text in scripture, it is always important for us to read scripture through the lens of what happened in the garden before sin entered the world, and then the life of Jesus after every single curse was broken. Everything in between that, we have to read through that lens.

God sees men and women as equally empowered. But the problem that we see a lot throughout scripture and even today is that they are not equally encouraged or equipped. They are not equally encouraged or equipped. Women's main purpose in the Old Testament was to bear children. Women needed to give birth to an heir. That was a real thing for them. That was their purpose. That was their whole point. We need to give our husbands an heir, our family an heir.

The heir was not only a way for them to have that pride of "I gave birth to a son," but that was also their hope of provision. Having a son to provide for them. So this was a big deal. They needed a man to provide for them.

We were talking at a Mother's Day lunch about how it was the seventies or something when women could get credit cards for the first time. It is crazy. Some of the things that we have still had to make way for were like, that was not that long ago that we still could not have access as women to some of our own money here in this country. And that still goes on in other places.

So there was a real need for women to give birth to a son. Abraham, God made this promise with Abraham where he said, "I will bless all nations through you." Here is what I love about this. You see God continuing to show like it is a partnership. We need each other. Abraham needs a woman to do that. He needs someone to bear that child, to carry that child, to give birth to that child.

Sarah cannot get pregnant. She tells Abraham to sleep with Hagar, his maidservant, who is thought to have been a slave that they acquired in Egypt. None of this is great. But Sarah's only purpose, her only way to contribute, was really to give birth to a son. So you kind of feel for her in that moment. That was all she was going to be good for. And then you see that Hagar is cast out by Sarah. And we see that God provides and cares for her in the desert place and in the wilderness.

We see Rebecca, the wife of Isaac. Her first scene is carrying a jug of water that she ends up giving to one of Abraham's servants. You see her doing hard work. She is a working woman. She is out there serving. We continue to see these glimmers of like, okay, we are in this together all throughout scripture.

And then Rachel and Leah. Jacob showed favoritism to Rachel and it says he loved her more than Leah. And God compensated for that lack of love for Leah. He opened up her womb and enabled her to have children in a way that Rachel was not able to at that time. You see again this moment of God being like, "Hey, I see you. I see you in your longing. I see you in your barrenness. And I am with you in this."

But all throughout the story of these women, the mothers of the men that the promise was passed down to, we see that they were so misunderstood that they were often really mistreated. Put in these unfair situations. Overlooked. There were these unrealistic expectations of who they had to be as women and ultimately really misrepresented. They were not represented well.

But a common theme that we see is barrenness and longing. We see all throughout the women in the Old Testament this common theme of barrenness and longing. Because to have children was purpose. To have children was to have someone to pass that promise down to. To have children was to have someone to provide for you and to please your husband. To be accepted. To have worth. To have value.

I cannot help but wonder about the longing that we all as men and women can relate to with these women. We long to have purpose. We long to pass down the promise of God. We long to leave a legacy and to be a part of a story that goes far beyond the life that we live. We are desperate to be provided for. We do not want to live in that space of lacking. And ultimately we do desire, whether we name it or not, to please God. We carry those longings for generations.

That is something we can relate to with these women. But we have to recognize that when Jesus was raised back to life, we now on the other side of the resurrection have all purpose in him. Our identity is found in him. We are all empowered and encouraged and equipped to pass on the goodness of Jesus to the people around us. We do not have to long anymore. We do not have to find our identity in bearing children. But we can identify as sons, as daughters, as children of God that are invited to partner with him in seeing his kingdom come.

God equally empowered women. He equipped them to lead in moments like we see with Deborah. He encourages them along the way, even in the stories of Hagar and Leah. He finds ways to encourage them.

Jesus and women

Now the New Testament is where this gets really fun. The creation story commonly uses the story to share Adam coming first as ruling over Eve. People often talk about when Adam is formed and then Eve comes out of the side of Adam. There is this phrase in Genesis where it says, "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh."

We have to remember, because of the patriarchal lens that we were reading the Old Testament through, it is often interpreted as this authoritative, like "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, you are mine." That is how it is often interpreted to support this idea that men were to rule and reign over women.

But let me rethink that. Let us interpret it not through a post-fall, sin-has-entered-the-world, the-curse-is-put-on-women, patriarchal lens. Let us filter that through the lens of Jesus, who broke every curse, died on the cross, was raised back to life. And the first thing that he does was empower women to lead and to teach and to preach.

What if instead it is saying, "You came from me, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. Same bones, same flesh. We are equal. We are the same." And after that God says, "Okay, now male, female, rule and reign together." That changes how we read passages like that and how we continue to interpret scripture.

When Jesus enters the scene in John chapter 4, in his early ministry, he encounters a woman at the well, a Samaritan woman who at the time would have been mixed blood. She would have been not only scandalous because she was known to have been married several times and was an adulterous woman. She was also known as a Samaritan woman. It would have been so scandalous. And Jesus has conversations with her and welcomes her.

We see other stories like Jesus and the woman with the issue of blood. When a woman was having her monthly cycle, it would have been like you go into hiding, you do not do anything. If someone touches you, it is unclean. And she touches Jesus. And instead of shaming her, he welcomes her into that moment. Jesus empowered women. He encouraged women. He did not push them away, even when it was seen as scandalous.

I love N.T. Wright. He talks about the story of Mary and Martha in such a beautiful way. It is in Luke chapter 10. The story of Mary and Martha. There are these two sisters. Jesus is coming into their home. Martha is the busy body. She is trying to get everything done. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. She just wants to be with him. We often talk about that story as like, you know, there is always stuff to do. But the main thing is to be with Jesus.

But N.T. Wright, who is a scholar, talks about this. In Turkey, the Middle East, and different parts of the world, the male part of the house, rather than being kept in back rooms with other women, the men would have been kept in different parts of the house. He is looking at this story and talking about it. It was less about Mary not working and just being with Jesus.

But the fact that she would be in a room with Jesus alone, at his feet in that moment, would have been seen as completely scandalous. Like that would have been, you do not do that. You do not sit at the feet of a man. Absolutely not. It was almost like if a man was off in his bedroom and a woman is like, "I am just going to go hang out with you. Do not do that." It was scandalous that she would have been sitting at his feet.

But Jesus welcomed her because she wanted to learn from him. She wanted to spend time with him. She wanted to be with him. Jesus continued in his life and his ministry to break these gender barriers and to say, "No, actually, you are welcome. And actually I am going to empower you and encourage you to continue to come." He modeled and made way for the curse to be broken.

The curse is broken. It is no more. So then why would we still live under this curse? Why do we still struggle to fully free and empower women, equip them, encourage them along the way? And what would the world look like if we did?

The cost of restriction

A lot of it has to do today in our modern American church. I am going to continue to say the American church, because it is not the global church. We have got hung up on a few select passages in scripture. We are so hung up on these few things that were said that we have used them to keep women in a box. We have used them to even abuse women. And it is time for us to say, "What does it look like to free up the church and say, let us go and be all that God created us to be?"

Because what we see in the New Testament is that there were women leading in the church. I want to read in Romans. There is a passage where Paul, in Romans 16, he is writing and saying,

"I commend you to our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people."

Romans 16:1-2

In verse 3, he says,

"Greet Priscilla and Aquila."

Romans 16:3

This is really important to name here. Aquila and Priscilla are married. They are mentioned other times in scripture. Because we still have the residue of a patriarchal lens, name order would be important. Typically the male's name would come before the female's in a marriage. So it should be Aquila and Priscilla. But in this, the ministry context, the name order switched. It says Priscilla and Aquila, which shows us that Paul is naming her as a ministry leader, as someone of authority.

There are several other women named in this passage, in verse 6 and others. We see here that these women were named as people that were leading the early church. There were female leaders in the early church. So even today, when I tell people I am a pastor, they are like, "Oh, what is it like?" As if it is a new thing. I am like, it is really not. This is not a new thing. But some of us are still trying to catch up to it a little bit.

There are a couple different passages that we have gotten so hung up on in the church. I want to talk about just a few of them. There is one in 1 Corinthians 14 that addresses women in the church. There are certain things that we get hung up on, like the head covering.

When we read a passage, it is important to look at the cultural context, the historical context, what is going on in this moment, and not just take one verse and say, okay, now we are going to base everything off of this. 1 Corinthians 14 is one of the common passages that is kind of used, and it mentions head covering. But here is a dimension that N.T. Wright points out about this passage that I love. He says a dimension of the problem may have well been that in Corinth at that day, women who appeared in public without some kind of head coverings were prostitutes.

So this is not suggesting directly here, but it may have been in the back of Paul's mind as he is writing this. And so that is a cultural thing. That point in time, the only people that would have not had their head coverings would have been prostitutes. So in a way, it is almost like, "Hey, let us cover our heads. Let us be careful here in these moments." Almost could it have been rather a concern for their reputation in that moment than it was for women to submit to men and to have their heads covered.

But I do want to touch on 1 Timothy 2, which is what we are going to really dive into as a New Testament passage. Let us look at the context first. The entire book and letter of Timothy is corrective. It is a corrective letter to the church. The church had gotten off. They had done some wacky stuff. This is being written to correct the church.

Why is it important for us to know this? In our everyday life, we do not base how we live off of correction. Tone is really important. An example is parents. If you have a child and after dinner they are sneaking more snacks and you are correcting them and saying, "No, you cannot eat. No food, no food." Are you saying your child can never eat? No. You are saying in this moment, it is not appropriate for you to have more snacks or more sugar or more treats after dinner, after you just ate. There is this corrective nature here.

We are not going to think and take that one conversation of correction and think that in all situations, that parent never wants their kid to be fed. That is terrible parenting. That is what is happening here in Timothy. Timothy is bringing correction to the church on a specific situation that they all would have understood in the moment, but we do not really understand here. And we have gotten it far, far off.

"Therefore I urge the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. I also want the women to dress modestly with decency and propriety, adorning themselves not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds appropriate for women who profess to worship God. A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man. She must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not the one deceived. It was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, holiness, and propriety."

1 Timothy 2:8-15

The context is a corrective book written to this church. What is the cultural context that is happening? This is when Ephesus is taking place, which was ground zero for Gnosticism. Gnosticism got its name from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge. The roots of Gnosticism trace back at least to 400 BC and Plato. Plato taught that the cosmos had two aspects, the world we see and the unseen world of forms and ideas.

Plato came up with this idea that the unseen forms were perfect and unchangeable, but the things we see in our world are only crude imitations of the unseen forms. And part of this was that there were all these other gods and deities that were being worshipped. At the time of Paul and Timothy, Gnosticism had found its way into Judaism, which then meant it had found its way into the church. They were starting to mix the theology, the pure gospel of Jesus Christ with Gnosticism, as well as worshipping other gods, specifically here, female gods.

They were starting to worship female gods. One of the big gods that they worshipped at the time was Artemis, which is known by the Romans as Diana. This is huge for us to recognize here in this moment when the women are kind of being called out. It is not just because Paul is anti-women in the church and worshipping. But they were worshipping female gods and they were starting to teach a gospel that was not that of Jesus Christ. That is the first thing we see. He is not anti-women in the church in worshipping, but more anti-worshipping other gods.

I also want to note a few other things. In this passage, he is also calling out the men where he is basically saying, "Do not fight as you pray." That is another thing that is kind of happening in the passage. There is a little back and forth here.

The word that is often used to say that women must be quiet within the church is in scripture. But when it comes to the Greek language, which is what the New Testament was primarily written in, we have to recognize that not every word is going to translate perfectly to our understanding today. This word "quiet" is not quite the same word that we have for quiet, but it is more closely tied to the word "peaceable." It is more closely tied to the word "peaceable." So he is saying, "I want the women to be peaceable." Like I want the women to be at peace with each other and with the men.

And then you even look at the point where he says "in full submission." It does not say to full submission of men. It says full submission, which if you line that up with all the rest of Paul's teaching, you see the full submission to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is kind of the point that he is getting to here.

But then he does something that also gets really twisted. He references Genesis. Why walk through the Genesis creation story? Not to show the authority of man. But rather to remind us of what happened. Adam was the one that was given instructions. He had the educational advantage, if you will. In the same way that culturally at that time, men would have had the educational advantage. Why? Because of the curse and the culture of patriarchy that came across the Old Testament. That they were living under. Everything is interpreted under that lens.

The residue is there. Jesus broke the curse, but the residue is still there. Men would have had the educational advantage. Therefore, what he is saying here is reminding them that Eve was the one that was deceived and then deceived Adam. So he is not saying women do not teach. But more so he is saying women be educated. Educated. Like women, learn. Be in full submission to the gospel.

If we are going to take this text and say that it is meant for everyone, that this is a universal, women are always to be quiet within the church, then we have a lot more work to do on all the other times that we see Paul empower women to teach. Or the times even when we see, read in the New Testament, saying to those who are pastors and prophets and evangelists and teachers. In those passages it does not say, "But remember, it is only for the men." Like we do not see those things.

It is important for us, even though recognizing like not every woman here is going to be a woman maybe teaching in this capacity, but to know for us as men and women. To understand these passages. So that we can continue to empower all people to preach the gospel and partner with God fully in seeing his kingdom come. That is huge for us.

Paul is saying, be educated, be peaceable so that you can teach. He is presenting this passage not to say that women should not be allowed to study and learn, but so that they should be allowed to study and to learn.

Reading again through the lens of scripture, old to new, we see it is not excluding women, but rather it is empowering them. And as Elena comes and we get ready to close, I want to touch on a few other key things that are important for us to know. When you are translating the Old Testament and the New Testament, one of the best ways to translate word for word is to know what translation of the Bible you are using. Because there are different translations. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament in Greek. And then through the years, there have been other translations that have been written with agendas.

One of those is the ESV. The ESV was one of the translations that specifically was written to strengthen the male dominant language in scripture. If you read out of the NIV translation, or if you read out of the NLT, you will see "brothers and sisters" or "children of God." But if you read in the ESV, it is going to be very male dominant language. That is because people who wanted to make sure we continued along these lines of men having authority came up with this whole translation to strengthen that language.

It is important for us to note that when we are reading scripture, to know what translation am I reading. Word studies are so important too. Going back to that world. What does it mean? What was Paul actually saying? Women be quiet in the church. Was he saying like, this is sinful for someone to preach the gospel? No. He is saying like, be at peace. And probably should not teach people to worship any God other than the Lord God, Jesus Christ. That is what Paul is saying here in these moments.

The word about women

God created women as equals. Jesus empowers and calls them to preach and teach and lead. The early church equipped them. Paul was equipping women to teach and to preach and to encourage them every step of the way.

What are the dangers if we do not? Women will continue to be mistreated, misrepresented, misunderstood. I want to take a minute to name, maybe there are ways even today as we have talked about some of the stories of the women that you kind of related to. But to remind you that if you feel this way, God sees you. You were created in the image of God. And gender should be no barrier to us following Jesus and partnering with him and seeing his kingdom come.

I hope that if anything from this, there is a freedom and a sense of freedom to be all that God created you to be. As an equal, empowered, and equipped to go and to preach the gospel.

Hagar, when she was cast out and mistreated, we see that God provided her shade and water and provision in the desert land. When Rebecca was barren and was longing, God provided her with twins. When Leah was mistreated and misunderstood and misrepresented, she gave birth to Judah, who was the tribe that Jesus came from.

We are born, yes, into the story of Abraham, but also Sarah. We are born into the story of Isaac, but also Rebecca. The story of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. We are born into the story where men and women for generations have been making way for Jesus. We are born into the story where Jesus came, where God chose a woman to carry the Savior of the world, where Jesus trusted women to preach the gospel, to carry the gospel.

And so in that same way, even today, if we relate to the pain, to the longing, to the grief, whether you are a man or a woman. To recognize that we were created in the image of God to bear his image. And that is good news. I just want to leave us with this encouragement. We are welcome. In the same scandalous way that Jesus welcomed Mary to his feet. We are welcome to come to the feet of Jesus. We are welcomed fully as all that we are to come and to be with him.

And he empowers us through his death and his resurrection and his Holy Spirit to continue in that journey.

My cousin is also named Abbie, and we are named after the same great grandmother. It is like super strange. Not everybody in my family is in the church and religious and following Jesus. But for whatever reason, me and my cousin are both females in the church. I am a pastor and she is a professor of Old Testament theology, which is pretty random. Out of all the cousins and all the grandkids and great grandkids, the two Abbies are the ones that are in church leadership and study the Bible.

But she posted a Facebook status recently and I messaged her and said, "That is so good. I am stealing that with your permission, of course." She said, "Please do." But she rewrote a song that we sing even here at church. It is called Same God. It says, "I am calling on the God of Jacob. I am calling on the God of Moses. I am calling on the God of David."

And at one time it says "Mary" and it has, "We got one girl. There is the woman. We got her in there." But she rewrote the lyrics. And then I went and rewrote it again because I thought it was so powerful. It reminds us that yes, we are calling on the God of Jacob. But even in that song, we see how there is still this residue of us continuing to sometimes favor men over women. And even in the way we read scripture, thinking, well, it was just Abraham and Isaac. But there were so many more people involved in those stories.

Men are never going to be who God created you to be if you are not partnering with women. And women, we are never going to be fully who God created us to be if we are not partnering with men. As people that together bear his image. Together are co-heirs to rule and reign with God for all of eternity.

I just want to invite you to stand. And I am going to read these lyrics. I just want you, if you are here and you are like, yes, God, I need you to be that God to me in this moment. I just want you to invite the Holy Spirit to come and call on that God today.

I am calling on the God of Sarah, whose womb gave birth to generations. I know that you will keep your covenant. I am calling on the God of Hagar, whose God gave provision in the desert. God, I know that you will do the same thing for me.

I am calling on the God of Leah, whose favor rests upon the lowly. I know with you all things are possible. I am calling on the God of Mary, who made a young girl courageous. I may not face that same great anguish, but God, I have sorrows. So God, I need you now.

I am calling on the God of Phoebe, of the Samaritan woman, of Deborah, of the nameless that gave birth to all the men that were named.

God, we need you. And so God, I thank you for the ways that throughout the Old Testament and all throughout scripture we see the ways that you have created us and designed us. Formed us in the palm of your hands. The way that you continue to empower us as women and as men to lead together.

And so God, I pray that you would continue to help us to see ourselves as made in your image. To bear your image. God, would you continue to encourage us in the times where we feel like we have been mistreated. Where we have been misrepresented. Where we have been misunderstood.

And Lord, I pray would you continue to burden us to be people that say no longer will this be. But that we are committed to making disciples of all nations. We are committed to seeing people come to know you, Jesus. To know you as the hope of their lives, the one that can truly satisfy.

God, that we are people that are committed to ushering in your presence. To seeing your kingdom come right here in this city, in Madison, as it is in heaven. And recognizing that we need sons and daughters to prophesy. That we need sons and daughters to come and to heal the sick and to raise the dead to life.

God, and so would you help us. God, would you pour your spirit out on this church, on this people in this moment. To be those that say no longer will we believe the lies of the enemy. No longer will we be people that restrict women or anyone from being who God created them to be.

But may we be people that go and empower and encourage and equip. And are committed to the long haul of saying that we are made to bear your image. And we want nothing more than to glorify you in that way. And so we thank you, Lord. We ask all this in your name. Amen.