i want to talk to you for a few moments about women in ministry
and hungry gen the church that i have the privilege of being a part of and also leading
we have women strong women anointed women ministering a lot of times preaching the word
teaching teaching sunday school leading different teams and a lot of times we get these responses
from people that women shouldn't speak a woman should shut up in the church and be silent as
apostle paul taught in timothy and in corinthians and why do we allow these women to teach
in the church if the bible is very explicit that women should not be speaking in the church
and so i just would like to answer that share kind of some of my ideas and some of the things
that the scripture teaches first of all i am not a theologian i am not an expert in all of these
things i'm just a pastor and i would like to share with you some things from the word of god
in the old testament there is five women prophets and i'm going to read them to you mariam was
mentioned she was called the prophet deborah hulda or hilda and then isaiah's wife and now diya who
was actually a false prophetess so prophetess is like a female prophet and so these five female
prophetesses they were the voice of god pretty much in their generation god would empower them
through his spirit and give them the ability to speak not just to write but to speak his word
to men women children and the nation i don't think god made a mistake when he allowed that
in the old testament for example deborah was one of the people whom god used as a prophetic voice
in her generation not only she was a prophetess but deborah was also a military leader and she was
actually telling the military general barack to go and fight these wars on behalf of god and children
of israel and barack you know was a humble man and he said deborah if you don't go with me
i'm not going and so not only she was used to speak god's word she was actually used to tell
men in the old testament where women's rights were not like they are today where women did not have
the privileges and the positions in the society like they are today and this debra she occupied
not only a leadership position she occupied a position of a judge over a whole nation and was
used by god and if you read the account of deborah and book of judges you never read it with this
kind of a feel like oh my goodness deborah just took completely went out of her place she should
have never been doing that what is she doing she doesn't belong in that position you know what kind
of man are these who are listening to this crazy woman in fact we're reading it as a a great woman
of god used mightily by god not only to speak his word but also to lead his people now jesus he
included women in his ministry now it's true that the guys that jesus had the 12 guys were dudes you
know they were not there were there were no girls there but women were a part of his ministry they
followed his ministry some of them supported his ministry some of the women who were wealthy for
example we see that jesus always regarded women and he respected and always lifted their dignity
not only he forgave women but he also healed them the woman with an issue of blood the girl that was
12 years of age we see that peter's mother-in-law jesus always ministered to women he did not remove
them or push them aside i find it interesting that in his encounter with the woman at the well
we call her the samaritan woman we don't know her actual name but she's called samaritan woman
jesus you know has a conversation with her and then he tells her about the living water
this woman she leaves her jar and then runs to the city and tells everyone at the city all the men
in the city about the messiah jesus that was the first encounter that where jesus actually plainly
reveals himself to people that were that were not part of his inner circle that he is the messiah
and not only he reveals himself as the messiah this lady's revelation of the messiah causes her
to go and tell everyone that jesus is the messiah and she brings many men to jesus i don't find
jesus rebuking her and saying hey woman you should have not been doing that you should have not been
telling anybody about the messiah that's not the women's job that's the man's job plus you're
not educated plus you don't have the rights you know you're not you're supposed to just stay at
home and be a baby factory just making babies and taking care of the household and that's it nothing
else jesus complimented we see that as a good thing that this woman used her mouth to tell other
people about jesus now i understand you might look at me and you're like well that wasn't you know in
the church it was outside of the church well the church that you and i called the church didn't
exist for at least 300 years churches didn't have buildings they just had communities they just had
people who loved jesus and lived for jesus and so at that time that was like a community where
she met the lord and she goes and brings the whole city to the lord you know she had better success
than a lot of the pastors that we know today she she used her mouth the lord used her mouth
to reach the city the other evangelist that jesus highly lifted was mary magdalene
mary magdalene has a very unique story when she came into jesus ministry she went through
deliverance and jesus cast out seven demons out of mary magdalene she was also one of his financial
supporters most likely she was pretty wealthy maybe somebody left her a lofty inheritance but
she spent a lot of her inheritance or a lot of her money on jesus's ministry
and then she was very involved all the way till the end she along with mary the mother of jesus
she came to the tomb on sunday morning you know to to see jesus and probably you know
maybe anoint his body again or something like that she saw the tomb empty and then she she met
the resurrected lord who gave her this commission and i'm going to read to you where jesus tells her
he says that go to my brethren and say to them and mary magdalene the bible says
told the disciples that she had seen the lord and that he had spoken these things to her now keep
in mind at that point women's words were not as trustworthy as they are today a lot of women were
not educated women were not trusted to be people who bear news it was just the culture that they
lived in jesus meets this woman who went through deliverance and he tells her go tell my brothers
my brethren my disciples this this and this and she goes in and tells them you know for those of
you who feel like a woman should shut up and say nothing because that's not her place to talk about
the things of god to men i want to challenge you with that jesus chose a woman to be an evangelist
of his resurrection jesus chose a woman to reveal himself as a messiah who goes and touches the city
you know if you are drowning i'm pretty sure you're not going to care on the gender of the
person who will throw you a life jacket when you are hungry and pulling to a
a restaurant i'm not sure you're going to be like oh was this burger made by a guy or a girl
no i'm not gonna eat it why because it was made by a girl if you are thirsty you're not gonna pull up
to a coffee shop or a place where you get a drink and say no i'm not gonna take it why because i
want to know which gender was the one involved making that drink because people who are hungry
who are thirsty and who are desperate they care very little about the person's gender that their
answer comes from my wife worked in the post office as a lady who delivered mail you know
if you were the recipient of the mail that she would deliver i'm pretty sure you wouldn't come
out of the house and say no i am not going to receive that package why because you're a female
no you don't care why because it's not about the gender of the person delivering the package it's
about the package that is being delivered and the real question is you know are they delivering it
right instead of just which gender that is now i understand i've used a lot of personal or
earthly analogies what about the verse in first timothy chapter 2 verse 11
and 12. let me read it to you let woman learn in silence with all submission and i do not permit a
woman to teach or to have authority over a man but be in a silence now at first when you read
that you're like oh wow that's kind of strong it is it is strong but you have to understand
the context of first timothy paul sends timothy his disciple to ephesus to combat false teachers
who are spreading all kinds of heresies in ephesus church you see that in the first
chapter when paul tells them he says rebuke them sharply because they would spread all kinds of
heresies and all kinds of lies about the gospel they were they would teach all kinds of myths and
a lot of kind of crazy stuff so timothy goes in there and then paul tells timothy to begin to
involve the church in prayer he tells timothy to begin to correct women who you know dress
up flamboyantly and really show off and to really dress modestly and not to dress all fancy causing
other women who are poor not to feel very insecure and then paul begins to correct this idea that
women should not teach in the church you have to understand that in ephesus there was a temple
to a goddess diana in this temple the leadership positions were occupied by women not by men a lot
of the activities in this temple were very promiscuous behavior by women seducing men
and etc so when women from the ephesus culture would come into faith into religion if i could
use that word they immediately associated that the same thing happens in christianity
that if you're a woman you hold a leadership position but in christianity it's not like that
you don't hold the position because of your gender you hold the position because you're equipped and
because you know how to do things in the kingdom of god for example you know if you are a surgeon
in the market world in the hospital the moment you become safe you don't necessarily become a
pastor because you have a doctor's degree in the medical science you know because being a surgeon
is different than being a pastor or maybe you run a multi-millionaire company you don't become
automatically a pastor when you get saved because the qualifications in the marketplace are not the
same you have to be equipped you have to know the word of god you have to go through the process so
these women were i believe and some historians believe that these women automatically started
to occupy leadership positions in the church because that's what they've seen
happen in this temple built for diana now another component that we need to highlight in the area of
ephesus or in this place in the church is that these false teachers who would spread all kinds
of heresies in the church they would target women mainly because in that day in culture women were
not educated as they are today so it was easy to draw them in into whatever that you can teach them
the reason why is because they were more susceptible in fact if you even read the gospels
or you read the book of acts you will see apostle paul many times would preach the gospel and the
women would be the first ones to respond because the women are more open to spiritual things
and so these false teachers started to target these women and these women became susceptible
and they started to continue spread these lies of false teachings in the church of ephesus and this
is i believe one of the reasons where paul says we have to stop letting these women teach why
because the false teachers are continuing their teaching through the mouths of these women now why
i believe in that because paul did not necessarily practice not allowing women to speak in the church
paul's ministry was surrounded by strong women if you for example read romans chapter 16 verse
one you see that there was a woman leader serving in the church there was priscilla
working along with paul's coworker and her husband they both raised their life and they led church
in their house in romans chapter 16 verse 3 and 5. you see there was mary she was a laborer for
christ we see that there was a junior his fellow prisoner who was an apostle even before paul you
know came to christ in romans 16 7 you see also other women in verse 12 of romans chapter 16 where
paul constantly involved women he mentions them in his epistles they lead positions they some of them
led churches some of them let home churches and so for paul to be able to say that women should never
do anything would go contrary to his lifestyle because he actually involved women in ministry he
co-labored with them some of them were in prison with him and some of them he called you know
servants of the lord so it's not a contradiction that paul says one thing in ephesus but he does
another thing completely everybody else and then paul you know is the one that taught us that
in christ there's no more male or female in christ there's no more circumcision or no circumcision
what i believe is that this scripture in timothy specifically deals with the church in ephesus
where there was a spread of false teachings that women picked up who were not educated
who needed to be equipped under the leadership of timothy so that they can become people who will
teach healthy doctrine to their children first and to other people in their household and as
well if they have opportunity to do that in the church i believe that women should be silent
in the church this idea is practical advice but it's historically conditioned not universal and
timeless and for those of you who are going to fight me right now and say start commenting or
oh my gosh this is wrong you know pastor vlad you went off the rails let me throw you a challenge
the same apostle paul who said that also passively accepted slavery if you read the epistles you will
see paul did not oppose slavery he encouraged people if you can get out of slavery do it
but he passively accepted it so does that mean that we should also do the same thing
should we have the same view on slavery today as they had a thousand years ago of course not
and i believe same thing with the women's place in ministry just because in that day and age
in roman culture the customs of roman culture that the women's rights and their place in ministry was
kind of belittled and not allowed today you know women can have access to the same education as men
today women some women have an amazing gift to communicate and preach they have a prophetic
gift upon their life and to deprive them because of this background of the ephesus church or the
church in current and not allow them to minister would go contrary to what apostle paul lived
it would go contrary to you know philip had four daughters they all prophesied it would go contrary
to the practice of jesus where he allowed women to spread his good news to men and to other cities
he would go country to god who used women to be even leaders in his nation empowered them with
his spirit gave them a voice and gave them a word and instruction and keys to winning battles now
i want to encourage you with that that if you are a woman god wants to use you god wants to empower
you i am no in no way believe in the feminist movement i think it's it's a movement of a jezebel
where it wants to dethrone everything and stuff so that's not what we're talking about we're talking
about giving a woman a voice so that when god anointed her and she has a voice from god she
has a word from god to let her minister you can start ministering to your children you can start
ministering in kids church you can start singing you can start prophesying you can start sharing
your faith you can start doing blogs you can start you know going live on social media you don't need
the church to acknowledge women in ministry for you to have a place where you release your voice
for us you know hungry gen we believe in that we allow women to minister for the glory of god
now the head or the overseer of hungarian in our church the way it's structured is it's still male
my pastor who's also my uncle but we see pastors in our church as couples not just one guy doing
it like when i'm doing the ministry even though the weight of the ministry rests on my shoulders
as a male the weight of responsibility in my house rests on me as a male it's in no way diminishes my
wife or reduces her value takes her personality out of the picture or makes her complete some
kind of a subject or my slave in the same way that jesus submits to the father it's in no way makes
jesus not valuable in fact jesus is equal to the father yet he submits to the father it's the order
it's the pattern that god has set things in motion for creation and he has exemplified
that in trinity for us and so when the pastor you know the the male servant leader he carries that
responsibility it's not because he's more worthy it's because god puts more weight upon him and god
holds him responsible but in our church we do it with our spouses it doesn't mean that our spouse
carries the whole weight but she also participates in that calling and in that vision and it's not
because we are better it's because god places more responsibility on man and he then requires of man
in the house and also in the church requires of us and so i pray god will bless you if you
are a woman god wants to use you if you're a man i want to let you know to begin to
lift your wife up give her a voice this does not mean that we have to put women on the stage just
because they're women okay we have to allow people to minister who have an anointing to
minister if they don't have the anointing to minister whether they're a guy a woman
they shouldn't be you know ministering until that calling is very evident in their life