Grace Agenda 2018 | Women's Seminar: Question & Answer

okay how can I set a radical and strong Christian precedence in a particular friendship with a needy woman who is a Christian but currently battles secret sin and not long ago had been living in Grievous secret sin okay one thing is if you're not an authority always escalate it if they are not if they are not like say well let's bring in let's talk to Pastor let's bring in more help like you shouldn't be harboring one person's major spiritual drama as a secret like that should not be the case in Christian relationships and bring in another believer bring in the pastor bring in an elder if they tell you I'm still struggling with this it's it's really like well I'm gonna go tell mom you know I'm gonna go pass this on up the authority chain because if they're struggling long-term with secret sin they need to be under church discipline right so you got to get it up there you and so the radical precedence you need to set is that of you being willing to call them on it being willing to say we're moving this death on okay how would you encourage a woman who goes to church where women's ministry feels like the needy black hole that you described read your Bible that's my plan read the Bible try to get as many people as you can to read the Bible try to not get bogged down in emotional things just turn to the Word of God turn the subject to the Word of God stop exploring your own heart all the time keep bringing it back to the basics the reality is that women who actually know God want this right like they want it they want to know him better so it's there's a lot of Christian women who I think are just bogged down in these weird emotional cycles where you think that that's what it means to be a Christian woman is to a Moute all the time and have this this moment together and and many of them would be relieved to get out of that they're just stuck there and it's okay couple here the first one you address the worries and selfish or sinful thoughts that we should always be striving to fight off but could you talk a little about the balance of our minds filling up with good things such as family work school and how to continually be renewing our minds to still stay focused on Christ in the midst of these things thank you for that question because after I sat down I thought I wish I had explained that I don't mean when we set our mind on things above and on the lovely and pure and good that it's always a scripture verse or meditating on spiritual truths I mean those obviously are things above but it could be just the good things to think about maybe you are planning your garden and you just you need to get your mind off of this dumpster-diving thing and put on something good and maybe it's what you're fixing for dinner it's it's those are not worldly things those are not I mean they're they are in a sense but that's I don't think they're the problem so in the midst of school and family and work and everything else you can't just be thinking about spiritual things in a sense like oh I shouldn't think about dinner I should be working on that memory verse you know he gave us a lot of things to do but we honor God in them and we're just thanking God cheerfully in them and walking with him through those things so I hope I don't think you have to stay focused constantly on a Bible verse you know but think about good things and I have a lot of lists of good things I can think about that are not worrying about the grandkids and then what about if you're in the church that does preach the word but it's more like skim milk I do desire the word but is getting skim milk at church enough I'm hungry is it just up to me to drink cream at home to make up for it I would say a couple of things ask God to feed you you know maybe it isn't a world-class preacher but I bet if you go in there with a hungry heart and you're praying for him say lord please bless pastor so-and-so this week as he's preparing his sermon please you know in other words you're invested in him and praying for him and his family and maybe he has issues and troubles and you just pray for him and we should all be doing that anyway pray for those people that are feeding you every week but then just go in with that a sweet attitude that's say maybe I just was being too critical sitting somehow above and judging like oh I'm I'm not saying you're doing this but I'm just saying week we could our hearts could do this like I'm so above this you know I I'm used to really John Owen level sermons and this is you know or he's just given me a PB&J and I'm used to prime rib well that PB&J may be very sustaining and be thankful for it so I think thank God for what you're getting and don't underestimate the power of what you think is skim milk so there's two questions here can you do a conference challenge webinars on prayer well I don't know maybe someday but the good thing is that we've been like that has been one of the things that I've even like trying to insist a lot like we pray we pray as we read and we read the more we pray you know like it's just like two things together you cannot separate the two so I think it goes together like if you are in the word you're gonna be praying more and you if you're like if you're praying more than you will be drawn to the word more it's just like inseparable so you know I don't know if we're gonna be do one specifically maybe one talk over here there but but though you know like that is something that we've been insisting so just keep the more you're in the word just pray more do you like pray what you reading and pray and pray and read reading what you pray and another question is what is the biggest problem with the women of today's society and what can we do to help well this is very broad like Donna would say in France she sees some things in Mexico I see some things Lisa I would say that in Africa they see some other you know knits and the woman but I think the main need in every society for every woman its Christ and the word so that is something that we can tackle and we can in you know like if we see if you see what any other in need you see these needs and your friend or these need or this need it can always be solved with going to the word because everything is there like we don't need anything more it's just the word so if you find yourself in that circumstance in which you see a situation and you want to help just bring your friends say let's go and read the Bible together and I think that's where you can you can find the solution whatever innate that is okay so this one is what is a good balance between engaging with literature song lyrics movies as healthy moral exercises and just interacting with too much garbage at what point do you choose to not engage in something because you suspect it will be all garbage what cultural trends do you just say no - and then there was another one actually that was similar to that see do you believe that a piece of literature that has some worldview issues should we not read it or study it at all even if it has other redeeming qualities so those are those are similar and I would say well no I mean I'm a little weary lots of garbage um and I think that um you have to really I mean it's like if you don't engage with it at all like if you just opt out completely I think that it's that's really burying your head in the sand and also the next generation will have no immune system whatsoever right so if you don't teach your children how to engage with it then they won't know how to engage with it and they will be sitting ducks really for anything and so I don't think that opting out of it is an option but of course yeah there's plenty of stuff that doesn't need a close analysis you can just reject it altogether but I do think it's important it's important to learn how to do it because we're surrounded by this stuff all the time we can't not engage with the world it's it's everywhere so you might as well learn how to do it and I would also say that as you learn how to do it you also realize that there's a bunch of stuff you want to avoid and you just learn how to not not go there um so clearly I you know some movies just sir not they're just not on the table at all for watching you just don't go there remember what was dad's thing about how many slugs do you need to have in the salad before you decide the salads not really worth it so but if you start looking for the slug then lo there they will be and you get better at recognizing them and avoiding them so I think I think that it's inevitable that we will have to engage with this stuff so it's valuable to learn how um do you have any practical daily ways that we can consciously work on submitting our likes and dislikes to the Word of God um I guess I would just say that's being conscious of the question you know like when you hear yourself saying I love that movie I love that book I love that song whatever it is then just stop and ask yourself you know just run through those questions why do I like it is it good that I like it should I think about whether I ought to like it you know so whatever it is that you're sort of drawn to the things you naturally find yourself gravitating towards because you like them I would just ask yourself those questions in those areas and it would be yeah different for everyone do you still you want to do some Oh hmm keep going what is your favorite song and what does it say true confessions I'm seeing it I'd be good I don't know it depends on my mood you know what I turn on to listen to um but I I would say that I think it's important to understand that this creation this world is God's world and the song does not have to be about precisely Sunday morning worship in order to be a good song you can have a fantastic song about whatever you know if it's in God's created world we can appreciate it love it so I don't think that a song has to be you know like a worldview song in order to actually have a good worldview right it doesn't have to be talking about a worldview to have one and and to have a good one so I don't know there's lots of artists and bands and things that I like and very few of them are actually what would I mean they're not like Christian artists so I don't know I have lots of favorite songs it's not evading the question I don't know what my favorite song is well sometimes Bonnie rate is good stuff yeah hmm yeah I don't know actually the other day though I did tell Ben so maybe this is what the answer is I was like I think if I was just gonna listen to any album my go-to would usually be dire straight to communique from like 1978 it's just good it's like solid stuff um mmm do you believe the Book of Numbers should be studied just as much as other books of the Bible by every Christian ooh well it should be read just as much as every a you know I think we should be in the word but I I wouldn't have a problem with somebody reading the Gospels more often than the Book of Numbers but but it's in there for a reason and I think we need to I mean God put it there and obviously it's there for our benefit and so yeah we need to we need to study it and see what it's saying and and lots of times there's there's pieces of the Old Testament that when you actually give yourself to it and study it it really does open up then the New Testament in lots of ways and I don't know that some of the just funky obscure things that you wouldn't have really thought of suddenly it gives a whole new fuller look at the Gospels themselves so yeah I think I think Book of Numbers is in there for us um let's see would you be so kind as to explain worldview and personality tests how to engage critically I'm somewhat hampered on this because I don't I'm not interested in personality test so I don't read them or do them or take them or anything so I think my point with that one is that they are they are trying to explain you right they're trying to explain your soul the way you operate and often those are coming from a very unbelieving place sometimes from a very materialistic place like they don't actually believe you have a soul you're just a you know a sort of chemical reaction that is behaving in particular ways so you could have a really materialistic take on it or you could get into weird other spiritual you know very non-christian spiritual ways of looking at it and I know that there's plenty of those as well so the Enneagram for instance I know is is full of all kinds of bonkers religious material so you really need to like it like how to engage her they're critically ask those questions what is this telling me and is this actually in line with the word of God and should I then trust myself to it in the way it's asking me to do I do I buy this as an explanation of me or should I be holding myself up to standards of Scripture and I don't have any problem with personality tests I mean clearly we have personalities and they're different from each other and stuff so of course there's nothing wrong with looking at personalities but and I think in a lot of them there's there's a whole undercurrent of stuff happening there and you could just swallow it without really thinking too much about it and I think that that's that's a dangerous way to go umm can you show from the text of scripture what it means in first Timothy 2:12 that a woman is not allowed to teach or exercise authority over a man are the words subjective in our church women are not allowed to be elders or pastors so no preaching but women are allowed to read the scripture and offer prayer during worship why is that according to the text how is praying reading scripture or playing the piano not an exercise of authority or teaching um well I would say that those are all sort of different categories so we would we would believe that obviously you're not to teach or exercise authority over a man so preaching is definitely out I playing the piano is I don't see any way in which that's exercising any authority at all so I wouldn't have any problem there but reading the scripture and praying I think are in different categories the text itself actually tells us how a woman is to pray when so I mean it sort of assumes if a woman prays or prophesies with her head uncovered she just honors her head which assumes crane you know and so I would have I I mean I think it puts parameters there and and then reading the scripture though I would have more problem with I you know standing up and expanding the scripture or reading the scripture I think scripture is authoritative so if you put a woman out front in a worship setting reading the scripture then she is she's bringing the authority of the word and I think that that's what the text is telling us not to do so so I think yeah I would just go to the text and look at what is it specifically talking about sighs all right one last one all of mine were kind of related on the topic of needy women how as women's ministry leaders can we strike a balance between being encouraging women to be fit between encouraging women to be fed strong and joyful well at the same time recognizing we all have real and genuine needs yes to the word so feeding on the word but how do we also minister to those who are who are truly needing hurting woman women this is kind of I feel like I need to explain something quickly which is that as if you're in leadership at all I think sometimes we laugh about how contrary and how I'm very contrary and not just me and my whole family is wildly contrary and so I can easily imagine a circumstance in which I would be the one saying no like some of these people are truly needy and you need to reach out to them I do think it's a situation kind of like being a sheepdog you have to run around the flock invite the other ankle right like you have or else we're all just gonna stop this way and so you I don't feel like right now a weakness in the church is ignoring neediness right that's not a weakness that's like all over the place we're talking about how needy we are how we ignore strength we ignore opportunities for spiritual growth and actually overcoming things and and what I said earlier about women's ministries actually creating a job description for people that is dependent on women continuing to need you right like they want you to keep coming back and keep wanting to by your staff and wanting to do like if they're invested in anyway and not actually equipping you to walk away from them to go do your own work then they are whether or not they know they are there's some level of entangling you know it's like we'd like this to go on forever this relationship we also all know that sometimes somebody was very legitimate needs it's very in a hard place can totally derail a whole bunch of Christian women from their own work from their own focus like the best thing we can do for truly needy people in our midst is be faithful in our own lives and reach out to them as they are right next to us as we can and not take on all of their weight and baggage and burden and till we no longer can see our way out of it that's a common thing that is common for women to get there and nobody asked me about this but it's gonna add this to beg us to comment about personality tests um I do I do have this isn't this is just an interesting thing because there's a lot of different genres in which women can just kind of veer off but I can tell you Becca says she's never taken a personality test I did today I did take one personality test have hunted me a long time with what it is that is like what's going on here but one I took wasn't it before I had any idea what the indian graham was this is just a good example of what world you thinking ought to do for you it was some kind of an Engram test and what you took was a brief test no big deal it tells you your results and it is true what people say that an India gram is way way way more accurate in terms of your own sins right you'll see something that comes up or you think well that's pretty insightful like that actually put the finger on something about myself that I would not have been able to tell you before I saw that but I recognize it like I see that I acknowledge it I believed when I took it it was the one that said does not handle people feeling sorry for themselves well and I was like oh oh that might be true I was like it may be that my I can be compassionate but not if the person is feeling sorry for themselves it's like you're already doing it you don't need anyone else to whatever but at the time I would have thought it was more me being frustrated with their sin and not as much like this is my own this is my own baggage I bring to the situation where they feel sorry for themselves so his insightful so then the next thing I do is well I should find out how they knew this right you know like I know that that was accurate how do they know it oh here's how they know it it's a whole bunch of New Age junk right like it's not it's descriptive of radical new age and for me from start to finish was probably like 15 minutes of this has no authority in my life this is nonsense and I'm done here it doesn't mean I couldn't have it's like I walked by a mirror and saw yeah there's a big piece of spinach in my teeth good to know walk away this is not my new framework for interpreting life the problem with the india graham many christians buy into it because of that that part of it where it touches on your sinful nature right they think this has got to be christian because it revealed something sinful about me but the reason it reveals something sinful about you is because it is proposing a different way to bettering yourself right it is a different gospel it is saying if i if i assume i am this number and then I can try to self-actualize into that other number leaving behind this other stuff so I'm going to generate through my new framework of the universe and how things go I'm going to make myself better right I'm going to do this and there's the big there's the book I believe it's by Richard Rohr that says it's the Christian perspective on the Indian gram but he is a Franciscan monk who leads some some place in Arizona of self-actualization that incorporates the teaching of Buddhism and all kinds of other things it is absolute false gospel but because we're putting little tags on it like oh my sin and this helped me with this and it helped me with this we think were engaged in a Christian work when we aren't so that's what I would say you look at it and you say this is proposing a different way to sanctification that is not Christ it's garbage right like this has no authority in my life and on that final grenade note thank you all for coming you

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Length: 22min 13sec (1333 seconds)

Published: Wed May 30 2018