Define the Church according to God's Word. Mark 11:15-19
This is the first principle of Religion, so listen closely. Jesus said My House, my Father’s House shall be called a House of Prayer. The atmosphere of My Father’s House is supposed to be prayer. The atmosphere around the things of My Father must be that aroma of people opening their hearts and coming to my Father in worship and in partition and supplication.
The thing that is supposed to distinguish Christian Churches and Christian people and Christian gatherings, is the aroma and the atmosphere, of prayer. God’s work, God’s House, the Christian religion is always supposed to have the aroma of prayer.
Have you ever noticed that the Christian Church was not born while someone was preaching, but while people were praying? Have you ever noticed that in the second chapter of the book of Acts, when the Church was born, they were doing nothing, just waiting on God and praying? And they were just sitting there as they were praying, and worshiping and waiting and having heart communion with God. And God was shaping them and cleansing them out and doing those heart operations that only the Holy Spirit can do, the Church was born, the Spirit was poured out. My House shall be called a House of prayer. In the 4th Chapter, Peter and John are arrested, and they are slapped around and threatened, don’t you preach anymore in that name. And what do they do? They don’t go and protest, they don’t go to court, they don’t try to get some political leverage, and they went back to a prayer meeting. They went back and said OH God, look how there’re threating us, but Oh God we lift our voices together to you, Oh God behold their threats and give your servants boldness that we might preach in the name of Jesus. And the place where they prayed was again shaken, and they all were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness. My House Shall be called a House of Prayer. They had this instinct that when in trouble pray, when intimidated pray, when challenged pray, when persecuted pray.
And we have in the day that we live in allot of revisionism going on, but it’s not coming for the Church Conferences, or Government, it’s coming from the Church. We are revising what a Church is today, the Bible says and they continued, this early Church they continued steadfastly in the Apostles Doctrine, and in fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayer. Now we have revised that and said, if you can get people for one hour on Sunday morning in a building, that’s the Church, that’s not the Church. We can use every device we want to get people for one hour, and keep it early, and keep it moving, and keep it going, because people have important things to do that day. That’s not the story of the Christian Church, that might be the story of your Church, but that’s not the Church Jesus built. In the history of revivals down through the ages have taught us that whenever things have grown craze, commercial, secular and hard and worldly, God sends a revival. And what’s always the sign of a revival? Behold, they pray, the Church begins to pray. Moody goes somewhere in England, and they begin to pray. Finney goes to upstate New York, and they begin to pray. The great awaking happens in America, and they begin to pray, who was the fancy preacher? Nobody, they prayed. Where was the great music, awe they made great psalms, but that was not the great thing about it, they prayed. Prayer preceded it, prayer kept it going, and the minute prayer ended, the Spirit of God lifted and we got back into tough times for the Church of Jesus Christ.
So bless the women that work side by side with men and are an explanatory example of servitude. Lets not argue about yes or no, because we have been instructed not to argue unless it's to defend the birth, life, death or blood and the most important the resurrection, in all other subjects, let the ignorant remain ignorant. Be blessed because we are the blood bought and greatly loved. Is that not enough?