Women in the Church (Ladies' Session)

I'll give you a bio to you just so you have some information about her.! Susan Heck was married for 46 years to her beloved husband and pastor, Doug Heck, It's called With the Master Bible Study Series.

Also written several other books on discipleship and counseling issues. She also won't brag about this, but she has the entire New Testament memorized and is working on the Old Testament now.

So she's a treasure trove of scripture. She's stored it up in her heart. And she has two children, one who went to glory in 2024, and she's the proud grandmother of seven grandchildren.

So please give it up for Susan Heck. Thank you. Thank you. All right, ladies.

All right. There we go. Can you hear me? Oh, that's really poor. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. That's good. Well, it's good to be here this afternoon and to open God's word with you and especially to talk about the woman's role in the church, which is a subject I do enjoy speaking about and I think it's lacking in our churches today.

So I'm eager to open God's word with you. So if you would turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2 where we find the classic passage for the woman's role in the church according to what God said.

And I do believe his word is sufficient, authoritative, and has everything we need for life and godliness as our brother Peter says. And so I hope you also hold to those tenets of faith that God's word is sufficient and authoritative.

So 1 Timothy 2. There we go. Is that better? Can you hear me now? Okay. 1 Timothy 2, 9 to 15. So let's pray before we start and we'll get into the text.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this opportunity to speak to these young girls. And Lord, what a great opportunity to be instructive in their lives at a young age.

And Father, I do pray that your word would penetrate their hearts and their minds. And Father, that they would not buy into the things of the world or the culture that teaches them contrary to your word.

I pray that you would raise up many strong young women to teach other women the truth of God's word. And I ask this in your precious name. Amen. Well, I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

My father was a Baptist minister. And in the lobby of the church, there was a book that often caught my eye. And it was entitled Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers.

And the title was certainly a catchy one, but the content was far from biblical by any means. With that in mind, what is the role specifically and what is the role of the woman in the church?

Well, thankfully, you do not have to read Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers to find out. But we do need to look into God's word to find out. So I want to read 1 Timothy 2, 9 to 15.

And I have an outline of where we'll be going in our brief time together. So if you'll notice what Paul writes to his young son in the faith, Timothy, 1 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 9.

He says this, So we're going to look first of all at the woman's role, or excuse me, the woman's clothing in the church.

Then the woman's character in the church. The woman's conduct in the church. And then the woman's created order. And last but not least, the woman's calling.

The woman's calling. Now, Paul, I wish we had time to get into 1 Timothy. Paul wrote 1 Timothy, or to his son in the faith, Timothy. And he begins in chapter 5, verse 23.

He's telling him why he wrote this epistle. He says, So why he's writing this letter is to instruct Timothy on the church and how we need to behave ourselves.

He's already addressed the men in the previous verses. They're to lift up their holy hands without wrath and doubting. And so he gives instructions for the men and how they are to behave in God's house.

And now he turns to the role of the women in the church and how they are to behave. And that's why he says, In like manner. In other words, I've addressed the men and what they are to be doing, but now I am addressing the women.

And so you might say, Well, what does this mean in like manner? Well, it could be one or two things. In like manner, the women are also to lift up their holy hands when they pray without wrath and without doubting.

So that could be one interpretation. We know that women pray in the church. In fact, Paul addresses that in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 when he deals with women praying in the church.

But in like manner could also mean how she conducts herself in the worship service. Like I said, he's already talked about the men and what they are to do in the worship service. And now he's talking to the women and what they are to do in the worship service.

Both views are accurate. And so you can take either one. I wouldn't split hairs or fellowship over this text. So Paul goes on to say, Women are to adorn themselves in modest apparel.

Interesting word. The word adorn means to arrange in an order. To put in order. So it means our clothing when we go to the house of the Lord should be placed in some type of order.

An interesting Greek word, modest, means sense of shame. In other words, when I go to worship on Sunday morning, when I'm dressing for church, I should not feel any shame in what I am wearing.

I should look at myself in the mirror and say, Would I wear this to church if Jesus was going to be there? And ladies, he is going to be there because he is omnipresent. He will be there when you go to worship on Sunday morning.

So that is the Greek word, modest. Do I feel a sense of shame? Ladies, you should not feel guilt with what you are wearing to church.

And by the way, you shouldn't feel guilt about what you're wearing even right now, right? We don't want to cause a brother to sin. I remember when my daughter and son-in-law were out at the Master's University and they were going to a certain church and they had to quit going there because my son-in-law said the young girls were wearing short shorts and halter tops and he had a hard time standing behind them trying to worship while they were flaunting their bodies.

And so you don't want to cause a brother to stumble. The scriptures are very clear. It's a very serious thing to cause a brother or a sister to stumble. In fact, Jesus says that we're better that a millstone be hung around your neck than to be causing someone to stumble.

And so we're to be dressed in modest apparel. The word apparel here means a dress or something like a flowing garment or a robe. Now, that doesn't mean that you and I have to wear long flowing robes.

I was confronted one time and labeled a false teacher because I didn't teach that women should buy togas and wear them to church every Sunday. And so they said, you're a false teacher because you don't believe that women should wear head coverings and, you know, be covered from head to toe.

That's not what it's meaning here. But it does mean that we should be modest, that we should look like women. Ladies, it means that you should dress to go to church with the thought in mind you're going to worship the Lord.

You're dressing to meet the Lord. So Paul goes on to describe the way that we should dress. Notice what he says. With propriety and moderation. Propriety and moderation.

Now, what does that mean? Well, propriety is with soundness of mind. Good sense. Good sense. And moderation means we're not to be extreme in our dress.

We're not to be extreme in how we are dressing. Ladies, when you go to worship the Lord, you don't want to show off your body. That's not the reason you go to church. You go to church to worship the Lord.

The Lord is the one that should be put on display. Not you and not me. So we don't go to show off our body. So that means you don't have to shop the latest fashions to show up at church on Sunday morning.

So everybody can wow what you are wearing. We should not be drawing attention to ourself. And the women in Paul's day did just that.

And so Paul goes on to describe what they were doing to show off their bodies when they would come to public worship. He goes on to say, notice how they overdid it.

The first way they overdid their outward adorning. Notice what he says is the braiding of the hair. Now, maybe some of you say, well, should I not have my hair braided? Because I noticed some of you girls have your hair braided.

No, you can have your hair braided. He's not saying you can't wear braids. In the biblical world, what the women would do often, they would have these ostentatious hairstyles. And so they would braid their hair.

And sometimes it would be this high. And then they would have these little tortoise shells and different kind of combs in their hairs. And so when they would walk into the synagogue to worship, that was the first thing you would see is these ostentatious hairstyles that they would have.

And the pens were made of all these kinds of jewels and gold. They had little animals, tortoise shares, tortoise shells, and things like that. In fact, braids in Paul's day were expensive and gaudy.

Now, I will say this. This doesn't give license to us to come to church with our hair looking, you know, like we stuck our finger in an electrical socket either. When we come to church, we should look nice, right?

But we don't want to draw attention to ourselves. Now, the second outlandish adornment that they would do in the biblical world, Paul said not only the braiding of the hair, but gold and pearls.

And what they would do often in the biblical world, women would wear bracelets and they would wear them all up and down their arms. They would have rings on every finger. And so when they would walk into the worship service, they would not only have these ostentatious hairstyles clear up to here, but they would have this jewelry all over their body.

And so Paul says don't come to worship to draw attention to yourself. One man, according to church history that was living in Paul's day, said that he saw the wife of the emperor covered with emeralds and pearls gleaming all over her head, her hair, her ears, her neck, and her fingers to the value of over a million dollars.

That's ridiculous, isn't it? And so you can see what Paul is saying. You don't come to worship the Lord to draw attention to your body, to yourself, to your hair, to your jewelry.

Now, I will say this. I do think we should come to church looking nice. I don't see anything wrong with wearing jewelry. But it should be worn in such a way to not draw attention to ourself.

Our jewelry should be attractive. It should be becoming. Our clothes should be attractive and becoming, but not to draw attention to ourself. Now, Paul lastly mentions that women should not wear costly clothing to church.

Some women in those days wore dresses that would cost up to 7,000 denarii. That doesn't mean much to us, but that's $140,000 in U.S. money. Now, can you imagine buying a dress?

Yes, I'm getting married a month from today, and I just bought a wedding dress, but it didn't cost even $140,000. But can you imagine wearing a dress to church that costs $140,000?

That's a lot of money, right? I don't even think my whole wardrobe is worth $140,000. Ladies, when we come to worship the Lord, we don't show off our bodies. We don't show off our clothes.

We don't show off our jewelry. When we dress in the morning for worship, we need to be mindful of dressing to please the Lord. Ladies, we should not dress to attract the attention of men, but we dress to show the inner attitude of our heart.

Ladies, do not allow your culture to dictate to you, as a believer, what is appropriate for you to wear. Don't worry about what other people think of you. Don't dress to please someone else.

Don't dress to please the Lord. Do not be like the woman in Proverbs 7.10 that Solomon says about her. There was a woman who met him with the attire of a harlot and a crafty heart.

Ladies, your inner dress reflects your inner heart. Let me repeat that. Your outer dress reflects your inner heart. And by the way, I think we should be careful about how we dress in other places as well, even at a camp that you all are at this weekend.

Debbie and I travel almost every weekend, and I almost dread every time we have to get on an airplane and fly somewhere, because usually while we're waiting to catch our flight, we have to look, or unless you want to wear a mask over your face, many, many young girls that are dressed very inappropriately.

I often think about what Scripture says. How will a young man keep his ways pure? Well, not by going to the airport and watching people waiting for their flight. And so often it's very embarrassing to me to see how some young girls dress.

Well, Paul moves from the clothing women wear to church to the character they should wear to church. And by the way, I believe we should wear this character at all times. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who I named my firstborn son after, said this, What you are at home is what you are.

And so, ladies, you can come to church and pretend to be holy and pretend to be separate and pretend to be a religious person, but what you are at home in the privacy of your home when no one is around is who you truly are.

It's who you truly are. And so I believe our conduct should be this way, not only at home but at church. Otherwise, it's just hypocrisy. And we know, according to Jesus, all hypocrites have their place in the lake of fire.

So let's look at our conduct that is to be in the Lord's house. Notice what he says. He says instead of dressing ostentatiously, he uses a word but.

Anytime there's a but in scripture, it's usually a contrast. And so in contrast to dressing in a way that draws attention to yourself, you are to dress this way.

Notice what he says. You are to have conduct that is proper, professing godliness with good works. And so, ladies, instead of dressing provocatively, we are to dress properly.

We are to dress properly. Instead of dressing ostentatiously, we dress moderately. And Paul puts it like this. He says that which is proper for women professing godliness.

Ladies, I hope all of you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior. You repented of your sins, given your life to his lordship. And so you want to represent Christ, right?

We want to be God-fearing women. As Proverbs 31 said, charm is deceitful, beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord, she will be praised.

And so Paul says we want to wear what is proper. We're professing Christ. In fact, the word professing here, interesting Greek word, it means to convey with a loud message.

A loud and clear message. You know, women today are dressing with a message that is loud and clear, but it's far from godliness. I don't know about you, but I dread not just going to the airport.

I dread going other places, knowing there's going to be women who are dressed inappropriately. It's very challenging. And I do feel, I have seven grandchildren, five of them are boys, and most of them are in college or high school.

And I feel for them. Because what a temptation that is constantly before them because of young girls today that are flaunting their bodies and dressing seductively.

Ladies, that should not be for women who profess godliness. Now, having said that, I will also say this. A godly woman, a godly young woman should look nice at church, right?

You don't have to have the latest fashions in order to do so. You don't have to shop all week spending money on jewelry and the latest trends so you can shock everyone at church on Sunday.

Ladies, we should realize, and I hope you do realize this. I've buried a husband now, I've buried a son. One day, we're all going to end up in the grave, right? Unless the Lord returns to take us home.

Why do we spend so much time on our bodies that are going to end up a bunch of ashes? It's all going to burn up someday, right? Everything is going to burn up.

As Charles Haddon Spurgeon says, What does it matter if you have a beautiful body, if you have a perishing soul? What does that matter? And so, ladies, a godly woman, her heart is not set on her outward appearance, but it is set on her inner attitude of a meek and a quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

In fact, Paul puts it like this. We are to be women professing godliness with good works. Now, did you notice he didn't say good looks? He didn't say good looks, did he?

He said good works. That should be our adornment. Ladies, if you want to attract a godly man, if you want a godly man to marry, it's not by your outer beauty.

It's going to be your inner beauty. That will attract the attention of a godly man. It will be your inner beauty. Not your clothes, not your jewelry, not your makeup, not your hair.

In fact, I think of Dorcas in Acts chapter 9. Remember what Luke says about her? She was a woman which was full of good works, and she was known for that. And I hope that's what you're known for, a young woman who is full of good works.

In fact, remember before Peter raised her from the dead, remember the widows were all sitting around weeping and crying because of all the beautiful clothes that she had made. And so she was known as a woman of good works.

A young woman of God will focus on her good works, and that is what she spends her time on. One man says this, and it's excellent. It reflects a right attitude of mind, for Paul was shrewd enough to know that a woman's dress is a mirror of her mind.

A woman's dress, in other words, the way you dress is a mirror of your mind. Ladies, a woman's adornment in short lies not in what she herself puts on, but in the loving service she gives out.

Remember what Peter says in his epistle in 1 Peter 3, he says, Do not let your adornment be merely that of wearing of gold or putting on a fine apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart. That is that which is a meek and quiet spirit in the sight of God, which is precious.

Ladies, your meek and quiet spirit is more precious in the sight of God than your jewelry. It's valuable. And by the way, meekness is not weakness. It's strength under control. And quiet doesn't mean you have to have duct tape over your mouth.

It just means you're calm. You're calm. You're self-controlled. It's precious in the sight of God. Well, Paul now moves from her conduct in church to now from her, excuse me, he moves from her character to now her conduct in church in verses 11 and 12.

Notice what he says. Let a woman learn in silence with all subjection. Now, Paul also addresses this when he writes the church at Corinth. He says the women are to keep silent in the church.

They're not permitted to speak in the church. They're to be submissive, as the law says. And if they want to learn anything, they're to ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church. Now, I know a lot of you right now are probably saying, I don't like the Apostle Paul.

He's a male chauvinist. He doesn't, you know, he's not with the culture and what's going on. But we need to understand culture. And I hope you are a good Bible study student. And so when you're reading passages like this, instead of casting stones at the Apostle Paul, we need to go back to culture and what was going on.

If you know anything about the order of worship service in the biblical world, people would stand up. Someone would stand up. They had a psalm. They had a prophecy. They had a tongue. And so they were bouncing up and down.

And often women would be out of control and spout off things that they shouldn't be spouting off. Paul is not saying in either passage that women are to be mute in church.

He's not saying you have to wear duct tape when you come to church. But what he is saying is we're to be quiet. We're to be calm. We're to be under control.

And I know several years ago in one of my husband's churches, actually a woman was disciplined out of the church for violating this in the sense that many times she would be sitting in the back of the auditorium and challenging everything that my husband was saying out loud.

She was very boisterous. And eventually we found out she was on drugs, illegal and legal drugs. And so she was causing a lot of disruption in the church. That's why Paul comes to the end of 1 Corinthians and says, let everything be done decently and in order.

Why? Because the church of Corinth was out of order. They were out of order. And, you know, if you give a woman an inch, she'll take a mile if she, some women will. And ladies, we also need to understand this.

In Paul's day, it was unheard of in the Jewish world for a woman to even attend public worship. She was not even allowed to learn. And so for Paul to even be accepting women in the worship service to be learning shows that he is not a male chauvinist.

Remember, in Christ, there's neither male or female. We are all one in Christ Jesus. But in the biblical world, women were discouraged from learning.

Women didn't even come to meals. They never appeared alone in public. So people who called Paul a male chauvinist do not realize what is going on in the biblical world at this time.

Paul is actually commending women to go to church. He's commending us to go to church. He's commending us to learn. And yes, women can learn theology. Women can learn doctrine. But where we are prohibited is in our role.

And that's what he's going to say next. There are roles for women that we must adhere to. Notice what Paul says here. Let a woman learn in silence.

Now, the word learn here means one who listens to being taught. Now, does silence mean she's to be muzzled? No. The word silence here means she is to remain calm.

She's to remain calm. Ladies, we come to church to listen. We don't come to be in the pulpit to teach. In fact, Paul says we do this with all submission.

What's he saying? With those that are in authority over us, we are to respect them. We are to submit to them. We should not be rebellious in our heart or even in our actions.

That our calling in life is a woman. And ladies, it comes with limitations just as a man's does. Men have limitations also. Now, can a woman teach other women?

Can she teach children? Of course. Can she talk to people at church? Of course. We had a woman one time leave our church because she took this verse literally that women were to remain silent and she didn't even believe she should talk in the sanctuary.

She shouldn't even talk in the lobby. And finally, my husband said, well, do you think it's okay for you to talk in the parking lot? And she finally left the church because she took this literally that she was never to say a word to anybody in the church, not even in the ladies' bathroom.

And that's taking this a little bit too far. Paul's just saying we are to remain calm. Ladies, there's a lot of things women can do in the church. A lot. As I said, they can teach children.

They can teach other women. They can be very involved in the Titus 2 mandate, mentoring other women. The Bible says old women teach young women how to be sober-minded, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be pure, keepers at home, good and obedient to their own husbands.

That's a high calling right there. That's a lot of instruction that women can do with women. But, ladies, we do have limitations. What are they? Well, Paul tells us next in the verse.

What is this in verse 12? Notice what he says. I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence.

I think one of the questions that I'm most asked about as I speak at women's conferences and retreats is, what is the woman's role in the church? Why can't women be pastors? And I've received a lot of flack for my answers, and I've made many men mad because I wouldn't let them stay in the audience while I was teaching.

And I usually end up saying, you know, the scriptures are clear on this matter. These are my convictions. At the time my husband was alive, that was his conviction, and the elders in my church. Sometimes it makes them mad anyway, but that's okay.

But notice what Paul says. I do not permit a woman to teach a man. Now, I'm not sure what the opponent's issues are with this verse. This is a command.

This is a command. It's not an option. Remember, why did Paul write this epistle? So you know how to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of God, the pillar and ground of the truth. He's talking about in the church.

In the church. This is how women are to behave themselves. We're not permitted to teach men. What it means is we're not to play the master.

We're not to have the authority. That's what the Greek word authority means. It means to play the master. We're not to play the master. We're not the preacher. We're not to interrupt the preacher while he is preaching, evidenced by what Paul says next.

We're to be in silence. Silence. We're not to stand up and interrupt the minister as he is speaking. So I know some of you young girls might have the question, can a man learn from a woman?

Sure he can. Men can learn from women. I know men watch my YouTube channel. I know men read my Bible studies. We have preference of this in Acts chapter 18. Remember when Paulus was in error about the baptism and it says that Priscilla and Aquila, husband and wife, took him aside and explained to him the way of God more excellently.

And the Greek order there is Priscilla was mentioned first and in the Greek order there, most people believe, according to church history, Priscilla was more educated than her husband.

And so she did most of the talking. She did most of the explaining to Apollos about baptism. Men can learn from women. Don't ever think they cannot.

But women are not to teach in the public assembly. In fact, this is the second time the word silence is mentioned, so it must be important.

And again, ladies, silence is not muzzle. Silence does not mean muzzle. It does mean we're to be peaceable. We're to be quiet. We are to be calm.

You might be saying, well, Paul's a male chauvinist. He makes me angry. He's not a male chauvinist. I'm sorry he makes you angry. But he does give a reason in verse 13 as to why we as women are not to behave this way in the church.

And ladies, it has to do with the created order. Look at verses 13 and 14. Why is it true? Why is it this way? Notice what he says.

For Adam was first formed, then Eve. Ladies, the first reason that women are to be silent in the church is because Adam was created first, not Eve.

This is the order of creation. The head of the home, the man, was created first. In fact, Paul says very clearly in 1 Corinthians 11 3, I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of every woman is man and the head of Christ is God.

And later on he says, man was not made for the woman, but woman for the man. Ladies, we were created, Eve was created from Adam.

Woman was taken out of man's side to be his companion. She's not to be his master. She's not to be his Lord. She's not to be his Holy Spirit. She's not to be his mother.

I went into my marriage as an unbeliever, even though I thought I was a believer. And the Lord didn't save me until the age of 30. And I remember, you know, I was not the excellent wife the first 10 years of marriage of the 46 I was married to my husband.

And I know he used to say often, Susan, you're not my mother and you're not the Holy Spirit. And I was trying to be his mother and the Holy Spirit. And we're not their mothers. We're not their Holy Spirit.

We're not their masters. We are to respect those in authority over us. Well, Paul then gives a second reason why women should not teach men in the local assembly.

Notice what he says in verse 14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. So, ladies, the second reason we're not to usurp authority over a man by teaching in the local assembly is because the woman was deceived in the garden.

The woman was deceived in the garden. In fact, the Greek word here means she was seduced completely. She was completely deceived.

In fact, I would like for you to turn back to Genesis chapter 3. We need to look at this. It's very important as we think about our role in the church and even our role in the home. Genesis 3, look at verse 1, if you would, with me.

Now, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, Oh, we may eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

Then the serpent said to the woman, You're not going to die, for God knows in the day you eat of it your eyes are going to be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make her wise, she took its fruit, she ate, she gave it to her husband with her, he ate, and the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and they made themselves coverings.

Ladies, Adam disobeyed. The woman was deceived. She was deceived by the serpent. In fact, listen very carefully. Paul says in another place in 2 Corinthians 11, 3, listen very carefully.

I fear that somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity in Christ.

She was deceived. She was deceived. In fact, Paul will write a letter in 2 Timothy 3 regarding false teachers that creep into silly women's houses.

He talks about this, and he says they're silly women laden away with various lusts. Silly women. Ladies, you have to recognize our weakness as a woman.

We are more gullible. We're easily deceived. That's one reason I go around and teach women the scriptures, because I have a passion for women to know the word of God. If you will look at the audience of false teachers, it's filled with women.

It's filled with women. And ladies, it behooves us as women to know the word of God so that we will not be deceived. What Adam did, he did on his own with a willful choice.

He knew what he was doing. Eve was deceived. And because of that, she fell into transgression. And ladies, I pray that you recognize your weakness.

Peter even says we are the weaker vessel. We are the weaker vessel. We're more emotional than men. We're more vulnerable than men. We're weaker physically than men. And you know what?

Satan knew that she would be the easier of the two to tempt. And so he did. And she fell into sin. Ladies, we as women should realize Eve was the one who was deceived.

And because of that, we should take a humble attitude. Now, maybe all this sounds pretty bleak to you. But my friend, it is not. Paul leaves us with a wonderful outlook in verse 15 as he gives us the woman's calling.

The woman's calling. Notice what he says. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if she continues in faith, love, holiness with self-control.

Paul says she will be saved through childbearing. Now, we know we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone, right? So he's not talking about salvation. In the Greek, there's two words for salvation. One is salvific, meaning salvation.

The other one just means to be delivered, which is the Greek word that is used here. What is Paul saying? Women are delivered from the stigma of Eve's sin.

Through what? Through childbearing. We've been set free from the stigma of Eve's sin by delivering children and raising them to the glory of God.

So we don't have to carry around her stigma. One man says this, the pain associated with childbirth was the punishment for the woman's sin, but her joy and privilege of childrearing delivers women from the stigma of that sin.

In fact, Paul will write later to Timothy. He says, I want that young women marry, bear children, rule the house, give no occasion for the adversary to speak reproachfully. Why?

For he says, some of women have already turned aside to Satan and they're going from house to house speaking things they shouldn't talk about. And so that is the role for women. We're to marry, bear children, rule the house, give no occasion for the adversary to speak reproachfully.

Ladies, a Christian woman role is not to be a female pastor, but to be a female parent raising godly children. She must, however, just like a man, notice what Paul says, continue in faith, holiness, and self-control.

What are these things? Well, faith is her faith in the Lord. That's the only way you're going to continue in any way in this life is faith, faith in the Lord. Love would be what? Love to the Lord, love to all.

And holiness would just be what? She's set apart. She's set apart to God. And notice, she does all this with self-control, which means she is to be of a sound mind, to be sober.

In fact, in Titus 2, that is the first thing an older woman is to teach a young woman, is to be self-controlled, have control on all of her passions, all of her lusts, all of her emotions.

And ladies, this is a high calling. And Paul reiterates this, as I said, in Titus 2. So, what is the woman's clothing in the church? From verse 9, Women are to dress in modest clothing and jewelry that is becoming the profession of her faith in Christ.

What about you? What about the way you dress to come to worship? Do you stop to look at yourself in the mirror and ask if what you are wearing pleases the Lord?

Would you dress in that manner if Christ was going to visit your church this Sunday morning? Well, let me tell you, he is. He will be there. Are you secretly trying to draw attention to yourself by the way you dress?

Do you purposely dress seductively in tight-fit clothes and low blouses to attract the attention of a man? And what about what you're wearing right now?

Is it too tight, too low? One woman told me one time we should never wear anything that would attract a man that we could not fulfill righteously.

For those of you that are married, you might ask your husband. I don't know how many of you in here are married, but you might ask your husband before you leave the house if you're appropriately dressed. And for those of us that are single, make sure that we're dressed appropriately.

Secondly, the woman's character in the church. Verse 10, Women are not to focus on their good looks, but their good works. How much time have you spent this past week focusing on your inner heart?

How much time have you spent in the word, in prayer, and with God's people in comparison to the time you have spent on Google, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and I can't even keep up with all the social media anymore.

It's amazing to me through the years how many women I've counseled and discipled that will not spend five minutes in God's word or prayer, but they'll spend five hours every day on social media. And then we wonder why we're crawling around in our spiritual diapers.

We help exercise our muscles. How much time do you spend on the inner woman versus the outer woman? What good works have you done this week for the master?

And then thirdly, the woman's conduct in the church. Women are to learn with all calmness and submission to those in authority over her. Are you guilty of overstepping your boundaries?

Do you secretly wish you could be the preacher in the pulpit? Remember what is said in other places? If a man desires the office of a bishop, right? Not a woman.

If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good thing. And it goes on to say he's the husband of one wife. So it'd be a little hard to have a female pastor, right? Unless you're of the LGBTQ vein.

The woman's created order, verses 13 and 14. Have you embraced the God-given truth that the woman was created second for the purpose of being a helper to her husband?

Do you dwell on the untruth that you are a second-class Christian? Do you enjoy in the fact that God has created you to be a woman?

Next, the woman's calling from verse 15. We are called to be delivered from the stigma of Eve's sin by rearing children to the glory of God and by continuing in faith, love, and holiness.

And we do all this with a serious mindset. For those of you with children, are you rearing your children to God's glory? Do you take your parenting seriously?

And are you rearing your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? For all of us, does our life exhibit faith, love, holiness? Would others say about you that you are sober-minded and calm in your spirit?

So ladies, instead of being known as women with bobbed hair who are bossy wives and women preachers, how about we be known as women who properly dress, perform godly, produce children, and then pass it on to the next generation by fulfilling Titus 2.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, I do thank you for calling us to be women, young ladies. I thank you for the young ladies that are here this afternoon.

And Lord, for some of them, this may be a very offensive message. But Lord, I would pray that they would see the beauty of being a woman, the beauty of being able to teach other women and to teach children and to grow and learn and to be in subjection to those in authority over us.

Father, I pray that you also would work in each of our hearts in the way that we conduct ourselves at church, especially the way we dress, the way we act. But Lord, not just in your house, but Lord, in all places that we would be at home what we are at church and what we are everywhere, that we would not be hypocrites.

So Father, I pray that you would use this message for your glory, for your purposes. And Lord, that you would stir our hearts to think very clearly about what we have learned and what things maybe we need to change in our life to be more conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ and his will for us as women, not only in the church, but in the home.

And we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Well, y'all thank Susan for being here. Thank you. All right, we are headed to small groups.

Feel free to stop by her book table and get some books or look at them. Great resources over there. A reminder, as you go to small groups, the guys in your small groups will not have heard this message.

Be prepared to kind of summarize it for them and they'll hopefully do the same for you, okay? So stop by the book table and then go to small groups. because of the book table and see as with that.

You just had to take me and see as with that. You just had to take me and see as with that. You just had to take me and see as with that. You just had to take me and see as with that. Thank you.