Glorifying God

If you don't rightly divide the word of truth, then you'll be ashamed. And that's important for someone like myself to make sure that I don't look back in ten or fifteen years and say, boy, that's shameful what I shared there or what I did or what I said and be ashamed of things that you've taught and passed on and those things were weeds or they were, you know, seeds that were, what are they called, NGO, NGOs, and they are like a hybrid, not able to reproduce. So study, study is very important.

Puts the word deep into the heart, brings conviction in the heart. Well I'd like to do something a little bit different, get off of 2 Corinthians here, and I'll probably do that next week. There's a desire here to preach on the resurrection next week.

Next week will be what we would consider or what some would consider Easter, and I think we're going to have some special guests next week. But this week, I would like to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and not address the Lord's Supper but actually look at what is commonly called a covering or uncovering of the head. It's been about seven years since I taught on this, and I don't know why this week, I just was impressed upon my heart and I began to ponder this.

So I'd like to share it with you again. There's a lot of things that I don't know, and that's why when I share this with you this morning, there's going to be some things that are going to be left undone. But what is something I'm sure of and convinced of, we can learn and move forward on.

I guess as I look at this passage, I've put a lot of time into it over the years. I've taught it numerous times, and even way back in the 1990s when I was first introduced to this, I was not brought up in an Anabaptist-type home. I didn't see anyone with head coverings on except maybe a few Amish in the buggies that were driving by or the nuns at the Catholic church.

Thank you. So it was a very unusual thing for me until I began to associate with some of the Anabaptist-type people and began to see things a little differently and went to the scriptures. I've told this story a number of times just by way of introduction, but I was in Bible school and I took first and second Corinthians.

They were classes there. They taught in the Bible college, and I was looking forward to a number of different things, especially the tongues issue for a Baptist school to teach on the tongues issue. I thought it was going to be interesting.

I was looking forward to first Corinthians, you know, and chapter 14 and all that was there and looking forward to getting these gifts down. And it was strange to me that we went through first Corinthians and got up to chapter number 11 here and went to class that morning. And the teacher said, because we're running a little late or getting behind schedule to finish, we're going to jump over chapters 11 and jump over, I think it was chapter 13 and 14 or maybe 11 to 14 and just move on to chapter 15.

I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but I think it's because they didn't want to have to deal with some of the things that were in there to deal with. So I like to just be honest and try to deal with the scriptures as they're put out here. So I'm going to share things from that perspective, honesty.

I've tried to study and try to understand this passage. So follow along with me here and we'll walk down through some of this and share it with you. Let's acknowledge the Lord first of all and just have a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word of God and we acknowledge the authority of it. This is the word of the living God. This is a pure seed and this word can bring forth life as it's cast into the hearts of men and women and children.

So we pray for this word today to find a place in the heart and bring conviction and belief and faith in your word. So we pray your blessing on us. Thank you for the privilege that we have of having the Bible, having this book in our possession.

We pray your blessing today. In Jesus' name. Amen.

All right. I'm going to start here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and I'm going to look at this a little differently today and you'll see that as we go down through here, but in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, starting in verse number one, it says, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you.

Now this word ordinances is a word that if you go in your vines and you look it up, the word there is transmission. Transmission is kind of an interesting word, but transmission, what is a transmission? In an automobile, a transmission is something that transfers power from the engine to the wheels. And I'm not a mechanic, but a transmission, transferring power from the engine to the wheels, ordinances, transferring something, and he's talking here about from the Old Testament into the New Testament.

You know, there are certain things that were passed from old to new, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, some things that were transferred, and I believe in traditions as long as those traditions are traditions from the word of the Lord, transferred from the old to the new, but not traditions of men. Those are ones that are warned about, the traditions of men. So here, Paul is addressing these traditions, these ordinances, as I delivered them to you.

But I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Now this is the idea of headship, and this is something that's being thrown out today in our society, it's been being thrown out for a while. But there are four heads here, or three heads mentioned.

God is a head, and he is the head of Christ, Christ is mentioned as a head, and he is the head of the man, and the man here is mentioned as a head, and he is the head of the woman. And so we have this headship, it's called headship order. And God is a God of order, and that's important for us to remember.

And even here in 1 Corinthians, as we start here in chapter 11, but there's a lot of disorder that's coming up. You have this disorder in the last half of chapter 11, where we have the Lord's Supper turning into a frolic, and things are all messed up, people are coming and eating, getting drunk, it needs some order. You have in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 these gifts that are being used out of order, and in the end of chapter 14, verse 40, it says this, Let all things be done decently and in order.

And so it seems like Paul is trying to set some things in order here. Put some things in order into the church, because God is a God of order. God is not the author of what? Confusion.

Whenever you see confusion, God is not the author of that. It's His heart that there would be order. There would be understanding.

He's not the author of confusion. So God has given this idea of headship order. God the Father, God the Son, the Man, and the Woman, and these things are given to bring order.

Order to the church. Order to society. We need authority.

We need to come under authority. We need to be in obedience. That's why there's authorities all over our land, all over the planet.

You take a place where there is no authority, there is chaos. And so authority is a good thing. And so God has established His authority, and He calls it a head.

Now look at me for a minute. What is a head? What is my head? And what is my head doing? You see, God made creation. He made man.

He made the worlds to teach us so many things. And so as you look at my head, I know it's not a very handsome one, but as you look at my head, what is my head for? And what is this concept of a head? Well, my head is used for the purpose of giving direction to the body. The brain is up here.

And the brain functions and sends signals. I'm not going to give you a biology lesson, but it sends signals to all the members of the body. And so the head is that which leads.

The head is that which gives direction to the body. It gives direction to the members. Now there are some sicknesses where the members don't get clear direction from the head, and therefore the body is, you know, the body is having all kinds of problems.

And those things are real. But when a body is functioning well, the head, the brain, is sending down through the spinal cord and all the nerve endings, the head is sending information. And that information, and God designed this whole thing, that information is to give direction and to lead the body.

And praise God, when the brain's functioning well and has its place and the members are functioning well, the whole body works in unity. The whole body works together. You know, my brain just said, Jerry, walk out in front of that pulpit, and every member of the body says, amen, and every member is functioning and I can move around.

Can you imagine when one member is not hearing right and one member's, the leg, one leg says go this way. The other leg says go this way. There is confusion.

And so God has made you to look at yourself in the mirror and say, oh, I have a head. The head has a purpose, and that purpose is to lead and give direction to the members. If you notice here on my head, the eyes are up here on my head because God intends for the head to give the vision, to see where we're going.

If you're going to lead someone, you better be able to see where you're going. God has also put the ears on the head. He didn't put them on the feet or down here on the side where the hips are.

He put the ears on the head because he wants the head to hear and get understanding from husbands right here and know the will of God for your wife and for your family. The Lord Jesus, we are to listen to him. He heard from his heavenly father.

So the ears are on the head. The mouth, the mouth's up here too. The mouth's not down here by the belly.

It would be an easy place to put the mouth there and it would go right into the stomach for the food, you know? But the mouth is up here on the head because the mouth needs to speak and give commandment, speak and give direction. And so these are, the design here shows us all that the head is supposed to be doing. So God is the head of everything.

Christ is the head of the man. And the man is the head of the woman. Now I want to comment on something right here because our society is struggling with this here.

So let's clarify, especially for the young people as they're growing up in a society that's getting very confused. But that does not make, thinking of a man being a head of a woman, that does not make the woman of lesser importance or of less quality than the man. There is an equality in all of these.

For example, the Lord Jesus, when he placed himself under the headship of God the father, he did not think he was less. As a matter of fact, the book of Philippians says he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He knew that he was equal, but he, for the purpose of redemption, for the purpose of God's plan, he took him, put himself, or he was placed under the authority of his father.

But he was equal with his father. My father and I are one. It was not a matter of lesser.

It was a matter of submitting to the purpose and the plan of God. And so Jesus was under his head. And so you, young ladies, and even us men who are under the lordship of Christ, and he's our head, it is not an issue of equality.

It's an issue of saying, Lord, this is your purpose in the world. This is your purpose for me. It's not about being less in quality.

It's about position. And that is for the sake of order in society. Because the Bible tells us, you know, in the resurrection they neither marry nor are married.

And so it's just for this life. When you get to heaven, you'll find yourself as the angels of God. There will not be any more of the husband-wife situations.

Galatians says there is no difference between a male and a female. But all are one in Christ Jesus. So, let me just share this out.

You're a soul and you've been placed in a body. And maybe that body today is a male body. And what you ought to do is say, Amen.

I'm in a male body. God placed me here. And so I need to function as a male.

Young ladies, God placed you in a female body. And so you need to say, Amen. There's a lot of people today in confusion, struggling about that.

Having a certain body but wanting to go in another direction. And that's just perverse. It's not right.

Accept the place that God has given you. It will not always be this way. You'll not be eternally in that situation.

And I don't know these new bodies, how all that will work out. But there is a quality. And so let's not rebel, Amen, against God's created order.

Let's say Amen to what He has for each of us. But this position is for the sake of order. Jesus Himself submitted Himself to His Father.

He submitted. I always, He said, do those things that please Him. So here is Jesus, God in a human body.

This human, fully submitted to His head. He obeyed His Father. Father, whatever you want.

Not my will but Thine be done. That didn't make Him any lesser a person. It simply put Him in a position where He's establishing and showing us what order is.

And something else I'd like to mention here, He was willing to suffer. And even though He thought it not right to be with God, He said, I'm going to take my place here that I have and under the headship of my Father, and I'm going to be willing to suffer. And so He suffered underneath the headship of His Father.

I thought about the Garden of Gethsemane when He said, Oh my, me? Father, if it's possible, remove this cup from me. Me personally, I don't think I would like to take this cup. But, not my will, but Thine be done.

So in His body, He didn't want to have to go through this suffering in that sense, but He submitted Himself to what His head said and wanted Him to do. Men, I'm talking to the men some today. I'm going to really challenge the men.

Maybe you can open up for me here in a minute and share what's on your heart here. Men are also called. They're underneath the head of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Jesus calls them to suffer. You know, sometimes you have to suffer when you're under the authority of another. And so Jesus said, if you come after Me, deny yourself.

He said you might need to forsake father and mother and wife and children. That's to men. You may need to suffer underneath the authority of the headship of Jesus Christ.

Wives, you also need to take that place underneath the authority of your husband. And, you may have to suffer. I don't want to go that direction.

That's a difficult direction like the Garden of Gethsemane. I don't want to have to go that way. But nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done.

And taking that place. You know, it's not always a bed of roses. And even Jesus said, He even found that out.

I'm under the authority. I'm doing everything that pleases Him. And I'm obeying in every commandment and yet, I've got to go through this suffering.

Being under my head. And yes, there are many people and I trust you're one of them that are obeying the Lord Jesus Christ and doing the will of God and many of them have been put on a stake and burned for it. Many of them are persecuted and hated in this world for doing what their head is telling them to do.

Suffering. Sometimes we have to suffer. You can read 1 Peter 2. I won't turn there, but 1 Peter 2 talks about Jesus and how He suffered.

And then it says likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands. You might have to suffer. That's okay.

We all have to suffer under our head in many ways. Now there's two ways we go down through this. Two ways this word head is used in these passages.

One is your natural head. This one up here. I can touch it.

My brain's in it. The other is your spiritual head and that's God the Father for Jesus. That's Jesus for men and that's a husband or a man for the ladies.

Now let me just throw this out here. I don't have this in my notes at all, but I do believe it says there that the head of every woman is the man. And I do believe that every woman ought to have a spiritual head, ought to have a male figure in which they look to for help and guidance.

And so if you're a widow, if you're single, if you're a young lady, there ought to be a father. There ought to be a spiritual leader. There ought to be someone that you look to.

I don't believe it's good for ladies to just be on their own for that purpose. Now that's not being a male chauvinist, but it's wisdom. And we could go into those things, but we won't.

So there's two heads. There's a natural head. There's a spiritual head.

And so God made this body as a teaching tool to look at us so we can learn from our bodies. Christ is the head of the church. So where do we all look for each member? We look to him.

And we don't look to the elders to be the heads of the church. By the way, the elders are not the heads of the church. Peter says they're not to be lords over God's heritage and to take the place that the Lord has in the church.

Husbands, you're the head of your family. You're the head of your wife. I want to read to you here something that kind of scares me.

Not scares me, but makes me share these things with you because I don't want to be in this position. In Isaiah chapter 3 it says, As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err and to destroy the way of your path.

I don't want to be in that position. O my people, they that lead you. I'm one of those that lead you, but I want you to realize that ladies, you have a head.

Children, you have a head. You don't need to take the place of your head. Just submit and stay under the authority of that head.

So let's keep reading here. I know these verses, many of you have gone through a number of times, but I want to share a few things here that hopefully will challenge us. Here in verse number 4 in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 it says, Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head.

Notice the two heads there. One is a physical head and one is a spiritual head. But I want to pay attention to this in verse 4 that you notice when Paul starts this out, he doesn't start out with women.

By the way, this passage I've always heard, it's probably 99.9% of the time, is the passage about the women's covering or the head covering. But the truth of the matter is this matter is as much a male thing as it is a female thing. It's a male thing and it starts out as a male thing.

Let me say this, if you're going to dishonor your head, and I don't think you'd dishonor either one of them, but if you're going to dishonor a head, men, it's probably worse to dishonor the Lord who's your head than for a wife to dishonor her husband who's a head. And so, men, it starts with you here. It says, Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head.

And so, this is not only a woman's issue, it's a man's issue. And I want to stress that here to start off. We always think of this passage as, well, it's for the ladies.

It's actually for the men. Look at this and how Paul goes back and forth. Verse 4, every man.

Verse 5, but every woman. Verse 6, for if the woman. Verse 7, for a man.

Verse 8, for the man. Verse 9, neither was the man. Verse 10, for this calls off the woman.

Verse 11, nevertheless, neither is the man. Verse 12, for as the woman. Verse 13, judging yourselves, is it a comely for a woman? Verse 14, doth not even nature itself teach it, if a man.

Verse 15, but if a woman. Verse 16, but if a man. Talking about both.

Both men and women. So let me ask you this. Men, what's your conviction in 1 Corinthians? Chapter 11.

Because, you know, one, if you don't do this properly and have conviction, you dishonor your head. And that head is the Lord Jesus Christ dishonoring your head. Look what it says in verse 4. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head.

Let me ask you this. Let's have some volunteers here and have some participation. Brother Cleat always liked participation.

How many of you men have a conviction from 1 Corinthians 11? How many of you men have a conviction out of 1 Corinthians 11 that I do not cover my head according to this and I do not want to dishonor my head which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when I ask this question, how many of you have a conviction and you raise your hand here in a minute, I'm going to ask you what your conviction is. How many of you have a conviction? Okay.

Brother Thomas, what is your conviction? Just curious. What is your conviction? What is your conviction when you read that verse? What does that say to you and how can you dishonor your head in that way? Okay, so when you pray, you were to take off your hat if you had a hat on. Or when you prophesy, meaning you're teaching the scripture.

And so if you would be in a room and you had a hat on and someone said, let's pray, it would dishonor your head if you left your hat on or your head was covered. Anybody else want to share their conviction here about this passage? What is your conviction? Yes, Caleb. So is that something that we ever think about as men? You know, I think we think about this as the ladies and we need to make sure the ladies wear a head covering.

But do we think about this much? I mean, I was out yesterday, the last two days, I was out working in my front woods and I had a hat on and a stocking cap on and I was talking to the Lord a little bit. Never thought about, never even thought about, am I praying? And I know I've thought when I oftentimes would go down with Brother John, we'd go down to the basketball games in January and February at Ohio State there in Columbus and preach to the people coming in there and sometimes we were down, it was five degrees and two degrees below zero and thinking about, is it right for me to be prophesying to these people who are coming to this game and have my stocking cap on? You know, I just, what is right here? What is, how can I establish a conviction about what I should be doing here? Is it foolish for me to be out with my head uncovered when it's negative two and preaching the word of God and is this something I should have a conviction about? How many of you think, man, can we wear a cap? Can we? Can we wear a cap all day in the cold? Now we're going to be consistent, we're going to be consistent here in a minute. Can we wear a cap? Let's look at another word here, it says every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonoreth his head.

Now why does he dishonor his head? What is dishonoring to the Lord who is his head when he has on a covering? Well, Paul, praise God, he tells us why it dishonors the head. So look down here to verse number seven. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head forasmuch as he is the image and the glory of God.

But the woman is the glory of the man. So if I had two heads up here and this head being a male head and this head being a female head and again, this is not equality issues, but God made the man first. Adam was first formed, if you go back there and read the book of Genesis.

The woman was made out of Adam. He took a rib out of her side and he made the woman with a part of Adam. And so it says here for a man indeed ought not to cover his head forasmuch as he is the image and the glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man.

God made man first in his image. Then he took a part of that man, a rib, and made a woman. So she is, in a sense, a part of him.

And he explains it here from verse eight down to verse ten. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. She came out of the man.

The man did not come out of her. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Boy, we need some more of those thinking here.

I was thinking right. It's not the husband was created for the wife, but the wife was created for the husband. There's purpose there.

In verse ten, for this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. So, it's about the glory of God. It's about the glory of God.

For this cause ought the man to have his head covered. Now, you have two heads up here. This is a man's head and this is a woman's head.

What is man's man was made in the image and what? The glory of God, right? So how many of you know that we should never cover the glory of God? Right? The glory of God, whatsoever you do, whether you eat, whether you drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. God's glory should never be covered. And so, Paul says, because you're made in the image and the glory of God, you should not be one that covers the head.

Now, I'm just a Bible teacher. I'm trying to understand these things myself, but it kind of makes me a little bit uncomfortable to put something off my head. I don't know.

Just reading that makes you feel like, well, maybe I shouldn't cover my head at all. I'm made in the image and the glory of God. I'm a man made in the image and glory of God.

And so God's glory is not to be covered. But, it says, the woman is the glory of the man. So here we have a woman over here, and she's made the glory of man.

And now, maybe this woman is competing or contending against the man, and, you know, she wants to have some glory, or he has the glory. And so what the Bible says here is for the woman to cover, to cover her glory. Man's glory should not be covered, and the woman's glory should be covered.

Now, I'm going to have to think here for a minute. I like to be consistent. How many of you like to be consistent? Especially when you study the Bible.

Should a man uncover his head all the time? And again, I'm having a hard time in my own heart establishing my own personal conviction, which I'm going to throw this out, and just ask you, does a man need to be uncovered all the time? Does a woman need to be covered all the time? I realize that no woman is covered all the time. And so if I'm the glory of God, should I cover myself at any time? And if you're the glory of man, sisters, shouldn't you be covered all the time? I like to be consistent. So it's about glory.

And not only that, it says here that if you jump down to verse number 15, it says, but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. So not only is this woman the glory of the man, but she's also got long hair that's her glory. So there's a couple of glories here that ought to be covered.

So it's a nature concept. It's a headship concept. It's a basic thing that goes back from clear back to creation.

So let me just throw this out. Some of you young people here, and some of you young ladies especially, and even young men, that's no big deal. You know, all this stuff's no big deal.

Well, I think it is a big deal. It's dealing with honoring your authority, your head, or dishonoring your authority, or your head. Verse 10 here, it says, for this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

Now angels are ministering spirits to us. They minister to us, and you represent to them a proper recognition of God given authority and structure. And you know, as they look at the human race, they want to see a God given headship and authority and structure.

So this issue is a glory issue. It's a glory issue that a man who is made in the image and glory of God needs to keep his head uncovered, and the angel who ministers back and forth, Bible talks about how there's stairways that are going up to heaven, and angels ascending and descending on those stairways taking our prayers to heaven. Remember when Jesus was praying, there's a stairway that went up to heaven, and angels ascending and descending on it, and prophesying God bringing revelation back to us that we can speak forth His Word, praying and prophesying.

And so a representation of understanding the glory of God, and that there is no competing glory. That glory is to be covered. So let's look at verse 5 here.

It says, But every woman that prayeth or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head, that's her husband, for that is even all one as if she were shaven. So if a woman is not covered, she is radiating man's glory, which is not good. But she is also radiating her own glory, that is her hair, which is given to her for her glory.

And so Paul said this, which makes common sense, if she's not willing to cover her head and the glory of man, then she should go ahead and have her hair cut off. If you look what it says here in verse 6, for if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. Let her glory be cut, but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

So when God looks down from heaven, my understanding is this, He says, there's man. There's man. The glory of God.

I made him in my image and my glory. Don't cover my glory. And I made a woman out of you, man.

I took her out of your rib there and I fashioned her and she's your glory and so I don't want that glory competing. Let's cover her. Let's cover her.

And I gave her her hair, her long hair as her own glory. And we'll cover that glory also. Verse 6 says, but if it's a shame for a woman to be shorn, which it is, then let her be covered.

Now I want to just mention something here about hair length. I still think that hair length is important. If you jump down to verse 14 it says, doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? Nature teaches you this.

But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. For her hair is given to her for a covering. And so hair length is important.

You know, it used to be a day when I was a young man that we used to wear hair way down. I see pictures of me when I was in college and high school. And yeah, we pushed those limits pretty good.

But nowadays, you know, the ladies are cutting their hair way up and getting, I see some of the ladies shaving, taking their hair way, way down and again, these things are against the natural order. God made things a certain way and not only did he make man in his own image, in his own glory, and he wants man not to cover himself, but he made the woman the glory of the man. She should be covered, but also he made a man to have short hair and a woman to have long hair.

And so, let's just remember that. Probably you young people are going to be challenged with some of these things more than not at all. You say, ah, it's just legalism.

Why don't you teach the Bible? Well, I am teaching you the Bible. And no, it's not legalism. It's a created order.

It's how things God designed them and yes, Romans 1 says you can resist the ordinances of God. You can resist his created order and say, I'm going to go my own way. That's fine.

If you want to go your own way, you know, prodigal son, he went his own way. But if you want to be blessed of the Lord, you ought to say, hey, I need to submit. I need to learn how to be under my head and submit to authority.

Now, let's get back here to the elephant in the room. And I'm going to say here, and the reason why I don't preach on this boldly and with, ah, yeah, is because I don't know where I'm at on this whole subject right here. And that's, ah, that's not because I haven't tried.

Believe me. Um, but verse 4, let's go back here and says here, every man praying or prophesying having his head covered. Every, verse 5, every woman that prayeth or prophesies with her head uncovered.

Why are these two words in here? Praying and prophesying. Maybe I can get some of your thoughts here in a minute, but why? I would have preferred this. Every man having his head covered dishonors his head.

That'd be nice, wouldn't it? Every woman with her head uncovered dishonors her head. But it doesn't say that. It says, every man who prays and prophesies with his head uncovered dishonors his head.

Can a man wear a hat or a cap and then take it off when he prays or prophesies? Is that right order, Brother Thomas mentioned here? That's right order? And if a man who's praying or prophesying with his head covered, that would be a shame or dishonor to the Lord. Can we at least go that far? Amen? Can a woman be uncovered and then put on a covering when she prays and prophesies? I like to be consistent. And I also, one of the reasons why I personally try to give a lot of room here is because I don't know where I'm at totally on the subject.

So it's hard to say, let's say it to the Lord. But I will say this. If a man's up here praying, he's got a hat on or his head's covered, I'll say, that's not good.

Don't do that. Or a woman who prays or prophesies and is teaching other women or is praying and she's got, doesn't have her head covering on, that's not good. Sometimes we'll be sitting at the table and it's time to pray and my daughter won't have a covering on and I don't know, my wife's sometimes giving her a towel or something to put something on.

Am I wrong in the last two days working? This is a question for you men. Am I wrong in the last two days working in my woods with a stocking cap on all day and in the process praying and talking to God? Help me out here. No.

I have a no. And why not, do you think? Yeah, that's fine. We want to learn.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I don't have a home yet. I was in a station. And I had that at all times.

It was really hard for me. It's also hard for me that I wanted to get out. I was bored.

And I think I'm a little bored. So I think, you know, I thought we were the most fortunate students in the community. Also, I see these guys.

One drop, one drop, there was no math. But they're only there to ask us. Those are the kids.

I mean, they're three people. And they're buddies. And I just think that poor guys, poor, you know, they're still teaching their students that it's still illegal for them to be warm in their hair.

Mm-hmm. And I just think that's kind of odd. And I have a condition about taking off your hat.

It's kind of like, that's wonderful. But you say that we can't wear a hat. Yeah, one thing that's been startling to me is the same group there.

The men, I've never seen oftentimes their hair, their head. They always wear hats. Summer, winter, maybe not the kind that keep them warm.

But they always have some sort of a hat on their head. Anybody else want to comment here and help us out? I think, you know, me personally, I can go as far as to preach that women should not pray or prophesy, men should not pray or prophesy with their head covered, and ladies with their head uncovered for the glory of, because of the glory of God and the glory of the man. And I can encourage women to wear long hair.

I can encourage the men to wear short hair. It's just getting beyond that. It's a little more difficult.

Brother Wolf, maybe he can help us out here. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's a good way to view that, is if you men, you men here, are made in the image and glory of God.

And so do your best not to cover that glory. You ladies, you're the glory of man. You have a hair that's your own glory.

Do the best to err on the safe side. Yes. Okay, we have whatever here, Sean.

That's a good one. Maybe that's the issue there. Sure, and the reason why I think it's important, especially for the young people, we need to have a conviction.

We have a conviction. Why do we, it's just because mom did it, grandma did it, all that, and our church does it. No, have a conviction.

You're the glory of God. Have a conviction of why you don't cover your head or you're the glory of man and have a conviction of why you should cover your head. And that'll carry you through all kinds of laughing and mocking and ridicule because you have a fear of God and you want to do the right thing.

So, yes, I saw some other hand. Did you have your hand up? Okay, Caleb. I always like, I don't know if you know my position as well, but I always like, in the beginning, God created the world for a purpose.

And I understand the fact that the world that they came to have, that it was perfect, it was a number of gardens, all around. And God created man and woman, including man and his father, the glory of God. But man came to the world and his sin first came.

And now this world is no longer a perfect garden that we want to help the climate. Some places are very cold, some places are very hot. And it's broken because of the curse.

And unless the curse comes in, they realize that they were naked. Man tried to cover himself and his poor job that God covered him. And in his sense, it's not his right for man and woman to go around naked.

And that may be too different in the New Kingdom where we have our new climate. But for now, where we're at, we're working with a broken world where there's still a beautiful reflection of what would be cool some day. And so I agree that, I believe also like you said that as a general rule, man should have his head uncovered in honor of God, in the glory of God.

And that when you have your head covered, that is the sign of that commission. But for a naked man, to be uncovered before God and a naked woman has long hair and that's covering for her. But we're not naked anymore because of the fall of the covenant.

And so when we're clothing man, that's kind of where I was kind of, you know, trying to figure it out myself. But obviously, we're in a world where things can always happen. And we're in a new form.

But when we're wearing it or not wearing it, we're not focused, or we look like we're not even focused, we can't be completely apart because there's a lot of love. And so this is what we like to do. And the weather is warming up and just a reminder that the Lord, man had this idea of covering himself with some fig leaves and probably looked like a bathing suit.

But the Lord said, that's not sufficient. We need to cover the whole body. And now is the time where people are starting to remove their clothing.

And I think it's for male and female. He covered them both. It says there in Revelation that Jesus had a garment down to the foot.

Down to the foot. John, did you have your hand up? Yeah. I was looking at that.

I was looking at the garment. But I didn't see the importance of the garment. I'm trying to think of that.

I'm trying to draw it together. It says, when Jesus was raised from the dead, that he was coming down to the land of Israel five years ago. But he was raised there and he had to cover everything that was going on.

And he's bringing now a guilt. He's doing that. Yesterday I was practicing all that.

Meditating and reading the Gospels. And I was blessed. I was really, really blessed.

And this is for you. I would say, when you get out of jail, you just try to do what you can. Or whatever you want to do.

You just do what you can. Some people, you know, there's a lot of personal issues. Some people have a job.

There's a lot of personal issues. And I think it's just their time. They get out of jail.

And they're doing what they can. So, I think it's sometimes, you know, sometimes, when you get really tired, maybe for a few weeks, you get a lot of free time. And that's the kind of time that you want to spend.

So, you get a lot of free time. So, giving people some room to grow and to understand where they're at. Anyone else? Okay, that's all I wanted to share here.

And I just wanted to remind us again that this is really more than a non-issue. It is an issue. And there are a couple of issues that are tied in with that.

Not only the uncovered head, but also the hair length. And also, as Caleb brought up, just covering your nakedness. Covering the nakedness of your body.

For the Lord's sake. All right, why don't we close? We'll have a word of prayer and then we'll take some announcements. Lord, we want to do your will and our heart desires to have even the heart of the Lord Jesus.

I do always those things that please you. And Lord, may we search these matters, study, find our place, find our conviction, and to be strong and stand in those convictions, Lord. And I pray your blessing on the congregation here, especially our young people who are learning and searching and preparing themselves for life and adulthood, that you would give them a soft, quickened heart.

That they can follow and love you and do the right thing for your honor and for your glory. Bless us as a congregation, Lord. May we truly honor you in all that we do.

And so we ask these things here in Jesus' name, amen.