Who's In Charge Here? Series

I CORINTHIANS 11

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE?

I Corinthians 11:2-16

S: Women

C: Women’s participation in worship

Th: Live the Difference

Pr: WOMEN HAVE A PROPER PLACE IN WORSHIP.

?: What? What is being said?

KW: Subjects

TS: We will find in our study of I Corinthians 11:2-16 three subjects that give us insight on the role of women are to have in worship.

The _____ subject is…

I. CONNECTIONS (2-3)

II. CULTURE (4-7)

III. CREATION (8-16)

PA: How is the change to be observed?

1. Women are to be involved in the service of worship.

2. Women are to be modest, and not distracting.

3. We are to honor the roles given men and women.

4. We are to celebrate the essential equality of men and women.

5. We are to glorify God.

Version: ESV

RMBC 25 July 04 AM

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever noticed that men or women are different?

ILL Notebook: Gender (flies)

A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Hunting Flies" he responded.

"Oh!, Killing any?" she asked.

"Yep, 3 males and 2 females", he replied.

Intrigued, she asked. "How can you tell?"

He responded, "3 were on TV remote and 2 were on the phone."

Which goes to show you, there are some genuine differences between the sexes.

But with the advent of the feminist movement, there have been those that have wanted to minimize these differences, if not eliminate them altogether.

For instance…

ILL Notebook: Gender (bus seat)

A radical feminist was getting on a bus when, just in front of her, a man got up from his seat.

She though to herself, "Here’s another man trying to keep up the customs of a patriarchal society by offering a poor, defenseless woman his seat," so she pushed him back onto the seat.

A few minutes later, the man tried to get up again. She is still insulted so she refused to let him up again.

Finally, the man said, "Look, lady, you’ve got to let me get up. I’m twelve blocks past my stop already."

Well, in a moment, we are going to give further consideration to the differences God has made.

TRANSITION:

But first, let us be reminded of the context of our study…

1. We are to give glory to God.

Two weeks ago, when we were studying I Corinthians 10, our conclusion was that we are to give glory to God.

The text said…

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

It is important for us to understand this about life.

We are not here for ourselves.

It is our responsibility and joy to serve the Lord.

So, giving glory to God is our ultimate goal and must serve as a background to all that we do.

It also serves as the backdrop of our study today.

And along with that…

2. We are to be imitated.

After declaring that we are to give glory to God, Paul declares…

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

That’s a pretty bold statement.

You have to be real confident that you are living a life worth following.

You have to be real confident that you are following Christ.

Now if you were here two Sundays ago, you know that this thought was how we ended our last study.

Alongside of that, it is a great way to start our study.

Because this idea of having an example that is worth following, serves as a perfect transition verse.

For chapters 11 – 14 establish a new context of worship.

Paul is saying, then, that his example of worship is also worth following.

You see…

3. When it comes to our corporate worship, we are to do it right.

Doing worship correctly is a matter of holy living.

Now the church in Corinth was experiencing some incredible worship.

It was exciting and emotional.

The full breadth of the spiritual gifts were being used.

The Holy Spirit was active in their midst.

But it wasn’t necessarily holy worship.

As Paul begins to note in this section, there was disorder.

There were a lot of bad motives and selfishness taking place in the worship services.

So, it is Paul’s goal to get that back on track.

Now before we venture into the passage itself, let me say this to you.

This is a difficult passage.

And not every phrase and word that Paul uses is as clear as other texts that he has written.

So my attempt in this study is to give you as broad a perspective on the topic as time will allow, to be definitive where I feel I can be, and to not push the text to say more than it is.