Likewise Wives and Likewise Husbands

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Father we thank you for your word and we thank you for the clear instruction that it gives help us to be able to obey that and to be able to Understand it and apply it where it needs to be in our own lives So we thank you for these things and we thank you of course most of all for your son Amen. So I am a terrible title maker and I I gave Shawn a title that I really thought through, but he thought I gave Ed a choice. And what I was trying to do is build off of Shawn’s thing of the one title or this title. So my whole title, see, he edited my title. Okay. Oh, by the way, if you don’t like this, you don’t get your money back from this morning.

Okay. So what I wanted the title to be was, Likewise Wives Be Subject to Your Husbands, or Likewise Husbands Show Honor to Your Wife as the weaker vessel. Now I can sit down, okay? So the passage is 1 Peter 3, 1 through 7, and the passage says, Likewise, wise be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, They may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or putting on of clothing, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable beauty of gentle and a quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their husbands as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And you are her children. If you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they errors with you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Pretty straightforward, pretty straight ahead. There’s a few things that are kind of interesting to start off with. So the first verse, the verse 1 and verse 2, which go together as a sentence, likewise, wise be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word they may be won without without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

First thing here is notice that wives are to be subject to their husbands. There are some people that say wives or women need to be subject to the men in the church. No, no, no. Wives be subject to your husband, okay? And most of the time, younger women are underneath their father till they’re given away. And then once they grow up, they have their own thing. But really, I think most of those women, if they’re single, they’ll come to the elders to be shepherded over them also, or a pastor that they know in some way to have that covering over them. So not to be a lone ranger out there, basically. And then the other thing that’s big in here is that there are to be examples to the unbelieving world to see.

In that unbelieving world, in this particular thing, may be that husband that you have that is not a believer. This would be where the woman got saved and the husband didn’t, and Peter had that happening. And in that society, most of the time, the household would follow the father’s belief, whatever it is. But if the wife got saved, she was kind of in a difficult situation, but she needed to be still under that man and yet not disobeying God. So she needed to obey him in everything except things that would be directly against what God said. So also in 1 Peter 2, 12 it says, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

So he’s already stated that you’re in an unbelieving world and be out there and be Christian and showing things. Don’t be hidden, but when the opportunity is right, say those things. And then in 1 Corinthians 7, 14, for the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise, children would be unclean, as it is, they are holy. So this is the whole structure of the family in a believing household. Those children do live under a covering and a blanket of the words, so to speak, to keep them hearing what’s right. So there is a blessing in that, even when the children haven’t come around to faith at this point.

And the whole thing here is be submitting to one another in Christ. This gets onto the same thing we talked about last weekend that I did, the idea of sanctification and the idea that you are under the lordship of Christ and basically be obedient and be that light to the world. And most of the time when you’re following your own drive, if you’ve let that get away from you, you are not submitting in a right Christian way. So So this whole thing is put down to a localized version of wives and husbands, but there’s still that bigger picture of how you should act in the world, you know, when appropriate. I’m not saying get out to your job and preach in the middle of some bunch of pagans, but there are those times where you can say, because they will ask, why do you do that?

And that gives you an excellent opportunity to say. In Ephesians 5, 21, it says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. That’s the big picture, right, that we would be doing. So one by the conduct you exhibit, respectful and pure conduct, is evidence of lordship living. So this woman, if she is respectful and her conduct is pure, that unbelieving husband is watching that going, wow, she is really being a great wife and what the heck is going on? I even knew her probably before she was saved, and she’s different now. And those of us that came later to the Lord in life, where maybe you got married in an unbelieving marriage, there is that time where the other one goes, something is happening here.

And maybe I want that, or what is going on? And then in this particular case, the woman with the man says, her fear of God being displayed by obedience, whether he is nice or not, only if he demands what God’s prohibits will she refuse classic lordship demonstration. So she can do all these kind of things and only if he’s gonna, you know, tell her let’s go out and steal something or let’s disobey the law. And most of the time, even the biggest jerk goes, well, I really don’t want you to do what you don’t want to do. It’s rare that the person is that hardened in this. And there are those cases and those places where you have to step in with church discipline to protect the woman and all of that.

And I’m not saying that you need to not do any of that. But most of the time, if you have this kind of behavior, you will break down that person in a good way. Then we move on to verse three where it says, do not let your adorning be external and the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold and the putting on of clothing. So the idea here is all of this is your internal heart, not your external. And the external, a lot of times, is what the pagan world wants, you know, oh, she’s beautiful, she’s got it all down, she’s always got her act together and all that kind of stuff. And the real thing is inside what she gives and what she brings to that marriage is what makes it that powerful.

And in that, her strength is much stronger, really, than somebody that wants to boss things around. That quiet submissive spirit will get more things done than somebody that’s barking orders and just pushing ahead. So the other thing about this, the braiding of the hair and the gold and the putting on a clothing, in this particular context seemed to be spoken to women that were wealthy, not slaves. Most of the people in the first century, if you were a slave, you didn’t have a bunch of gold and jewelry to put on and another set of clothes. You probably had one set of clothes that you wash and put on the same thing.

So he’s probably talking to citizens that are doing all right in these towns where this letter gets submitted. And he’s speaking to those people that have those kind of possessions. Acts 17, 12 says, is an interesting little side comment about that. Many of them therefore believed, This is talking about Paul, you know, speaking to the Areopagus and all of that. Many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. So many believed at that time, and they went back to wealthy houses and that kind of stuff. So Peter could be speaking to them because their whole life had been built on getting these positions.

So now that I know God, maybe I’m supposed to demonstrate that I’m even more queenlier. I have more stuff to put on, all those kind of things. But again, this is all internal stuff that needs to be put out in the world. The other thing that can happen is people can get tricked in by all the beautification and all the good things. Men can be deceived that aren’t of a sound mind by, you know, all this getting dolled up.

A funny kind of sidetrack is this, in this history of country music I’ve watched and Dolly Parton says, do you know how much money it costs to look this cheap? Which, you know, says something about what I think Peter’s getting at. And the whole idea is, what is your heart? What do you really wanna do? So in 1st Timothy 2, 8 through 10, it says, I desire that in every place men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling. Likewise also, women should adorn themselves in this respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

Her strength is inside, faith and death to self and the demonstration of her lordship living. Simplicity and dress in life can be a great tool in the revival of a pagan culture. Everybody is out trying to outdo the Joneses and if you just show up and you’ve got your head on straight and you can talk with people about things, they know how empty this stuff is. You know, what I need is the newest car. Well, after you get the newest car about a week later, oh, I need a better car than this one. Now I need this thing, now I need that thing. All these people are in that endless cycle and they’re looking for something more.

So there is a witness to this stuff, to just be straight ahead, moving in the right direction. Then of course, the obvious verse of Matthew 6, nine through 34 is do not lay up treasures on earth. Regularly your treasures up in heaven. The other thing in this that gets to the core of it is in Proverbs 31 woman in verse 25, it says, strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come. So if these people are organized, they have their relationship with the Lord right and everything, that calmness through all the turmoil that can happen and that dignity will cause people to look and say, that’s what I want.

And that’s the great thing in the church is where the older women are to teach the younger women these things and not be that themselves. Now, are we all perfect and do we do these things exactly right? No. But again, this is one of those things where you gotta be upwards and to the right and correcting that kind of thing.

So then in 1 Peter 3, 4 it says, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. Virtue is the one garment that any Christian woman can wear with pride. Virtue is the one garment that any Christian woman can wear with pride. Inner Christian character that expresses itself through the body is way more powerful than what the world wants. And that is something that everybody does want. They want that team, especially in a marriage, they wanna be part of a team working to do what the Lord wants. And then of course when the children come along, you have that additional thing.

They’re watching you like crazy. So now you gotta do this and you gotta do that. And sometimes they can be great little checkpoints. How are mom and dad doing? And that can be rewarding and humility can cause you a little bit of embarrassment. But a lot of times they might say something and you might go, oh, maybe I shouldn’t think about that and not do that and do it in a different way or whatever. So take advantage of all those things because that whole inner working of this family unit is also doing these things that we’re talking about. Matthew 15, 18 says that, by what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and this defiles a person.

This gets to the don’t give smart remarks. Try to be gentle with your comments. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be honest. But don’t try to find that really jab way to really get at somebody. Find a pleasant way to state what you want to do and have a discussion that doesn’t elevate. And that can be hard because if you’ve lived in a bad habit for quite a while, it can be hard to break that habit. But that’s all right. Say, I realize I’m starting to get here. I need to stop here a minute. I need to think about this. I need to back off. And at that point, I would say back up and pray and go off a little bit and then come back to the situation.

but don’t let it escalate because as those words happen, especially if you’ve trained your relationship to be that way, it’s not good. Romans 7, 20, 22 says, now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand, for I delight in the law of the Lord and my inner being. So if your inner being is right and that alarm bell is going off in the back of your head as you’re starting to get angry, back up, don’t do it. Just calm down, put it together. Because what you may want might be a good thing. The problem is the thing gets elevated up where the whole thing gets blown out and you can’t even talk about the real circumstance that you’ve got in front of you.

Corinthians 4 16 says, so we do not lose heart though our outer nature is wasting away. Our inner nature is being renewed day by day. If you’re a Christian, the outer nature, the sin, is wasting away. But your inner nature is being renewed day by day. You are becoming more Christ-like if you’re a true believer. And when that happens, you shouldn’t be doing these things. So this is all, you know, I’m talking to everybody in a marriage situation, not necessarily married to an unbeliever or that kind of thing, but the principle here works for everybody. Now, if you’re married to an unbeliever, it’s even more powerful because the issue is, obviously you love that person, you got married to them, and maybe you are that vehicle that will bring them to the Lord.

So Galatians 6.1 says, brother, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Again, back to that spirited gentleness. A quiet spirit is not the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit coming out of you who are Christians. You have the Holy Spirit in you, That spirit of gentleness is not God’s Holy Spirit who lives inside of you, it’s you transferring that change in you from that spirit. That’s why it shouldn’t be capitalized in that thing.

Suffering evil with the spirit of gentleness without bitterness. If people are being evil to you, it’s hard, but don’t be bitter. Now, does that mean you ignore them? No, I think you should try to confront them the best that you can with, you know, trying to stay calm and confront the issue, get it all out in the open so that people understand. But it’s hard not to get bitter about that. And that’s the, like Sean was saying, the fellowship of the fog, the fellowship of the grievance. have these things and hold this thing in. We talked about this three times now and now it’s been four weeks and it’s still not done. Don’t do that. Don’t get better.

Just okay, how can I help you remember this or how can I be of assistance in making this happen would be a way to do that. So you suffer evil with the spirit of gentleness and virtue would be pleasing to the unbelieving husband. So your virtue in doing these things and taking this on as the example of the wife, your example of Christian living will win that person over or at least making go, wow something’s wrong with her, I don’t understand how she can do that. And it is interesting how unbelieving husbands of true Christian women, they will say that in counseling situations. You know, they’ll come in and they’ll say, the problem is me. And you know, you’re looking at these people as the person that you’re talking with and you’re going, yeah, and how do you solve that? Well, I solve that by becoming a Christian, but I’m not ready to do that.

Now at that point you’d think, well bust out your Romans road and get this guy saved. The problem is there are times where that person just he sees how good it is but there is no way he wants to hear it at that time and that’s where it’s really tough on the woman married to that guy and it’s tough on the people that know him because usually those people are hanging around church and and they just don’t get it. Okay? And it’s interesting, I was told this morning, we know a couple that the husband just never really got church.

And we’re finding out that they changed the church they were going to and now the husband is listening and excited about the gospel. And these are people that are in their 60s. And so this can happen at any point. And so pay attention. Live the right way. 1 Peter 3.5 says, for this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their husbands. as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And you are her children. If you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.” The interesting thing here is notice all the sudden Peter is calling all these people that he’s speaking to, who are probably mainly Greeks, not Jews, that they are you and you are her children, speaking to the believing wife.

How has that happened? Because they are children of Abraham through faith, right? We’re part of the family through faith. So Christians are children of Sarah and all of that kind of thing. So Peter’s speaking to the Gentile believers to being Sarah’s children in faith. So not only does he have non-Jews, but he has these pagans that get saved, but they are children of faith, so he’s speaking to them and all of that. And to those who fear God both in the Old Testament and the New Testament are the same in Peter’s comment. Notice that too. And you are her children. Sarah is the example of the woman that, you know, Abraham was her Lord and she did some crazy things and obeyed him.

And God blessed it in a bizarre ways in some of those times. But she obeyed him and they are Old Testament people. He’s talking to New Testament people and showing that all of these are all together. So there’s no New Testament way, Old Testament way. The ways are the same when you’re in faith.

These women know that God will reward them and set everything right and demonstrate the virtue of gentle submission where Christianly possible. The only part where she doesn’t do what she should be doing is if it’s something, yes, or that would be illegal or obviously sinful. That’s the escape hatch. And most of the time, that’s not what’s happening. Most of the time, it’s other things that might seem to be overdrawn, but if handled correctly, they can be toned down and be made acceptable. and given the opportunity for you to live that way and be that good in those respects. So then we get to the last part where it says, 1 Peter 3.7, where now it turns to the husbands, likewise, husband, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as a weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

husbands need to live out their marriages in a loving and considerate way. Now this situation, I think it changes a little bit here in that the first part is he’s telling the wives to live even with an unbelieving husband, but now this switches and it says likewise husbands live with your wives in an understanding way. I think he’s talking mainly to Christian husbands here. Now if the unbelieving husband was in the audience, He would hear this and understand that difference. But the Christian husband has way more power to live in this way than the unbelieving husband does. But the unbelieving husband may be convicted by these words, but I believe that we as believers have way more power than that guy would have.

So that you have to show honor to your wife as the weaker vessel. Now, what does the weaker vessel mean? Generally speaking, that of the two human creatures of God, male and female, the woman is weaker in body and generally more vulnerable. Now, I’m speaking to people, I’m married to one that is a brick, okay? She’s tough. And, but, she’s also soft on the inside. And most women that are really tough and get things done are actually very soft on the inside. And that whole thing, you want a woman that’s strong and able to do things, but that raises up because inside of them, they want to conquer. That’s all part of the curse.

So you have to battle that. But as they battle that in a proper way, and you battle that, is supposedly the husband, right? You’re above her. you’re responsible for her sin in a strange way in this relationship, that she is weaker and more vulnerable. But they are equal heirs with us in the grace of life. And as the closest human relationship, the relationship to one spouse must be carefully cherished if one wishes a close relationship with God. And that’s the thing about your prayers being hindered. If you don’t covet that and share that with your wife and keep yourselves together on the road of what you think God wants you to do, your prayers are just bouncing off the wall.

Now, will God answer your prayers sometimes in the reverse way? Yeah, and these bring up interesting things in marriages where, you know, well, I’ve prayed about it, honey, and I don’t think we should do that. And the husband would go, can’t you see? This is right, this is right, this is right, this seems to be the way. I just don’t feel right about that. This is where I think the husband needs to listen and understand that that partner of theirs, that they just, God gives them that motherly thing where they just, in their gut, know something’s wrong. Every time I have disobeyed, and it’s only been twice, when Gail has said, well, in this particular, yeah.

That was in the last hour, you know. But where we were looking at a very important decision, and she said, you know, I really don’t have a good reason, I just don’t think we ought to do that. And I went ahead and did it, and it was wrong. And that’s happened twice.

twice. And hopefully I’ve learned in that. Because when you look at things, there are arguments to be had, especially, you know, when you’re working together in your family business, if it’s that, or in your home. And I just don’t think we should take that away from, you know, this son or this daughter at this point. I think that’s too strict or it’s not strict enough. And one or the other doesn’t agree. That’s when you do need to sit down and be together and decide that together because I can guarantee if one of you and you can’t really explain it just feel that something’s wrong and you are confessed up and all of that and you’re not going on some kind of greed trip or something like that those feelings are put in there for you to just kind of understand it I mean there are crazy things happening in our world I mean just the idea of wearing masks or not wearing masks.

Just think about all the things we’ve been through in the last couple of years that could cause families to split and cause people to not be friends with other people, you know, because you’re going to infect me with this terrible disease and all this kind of stuff. And so you have to be calm and reserved, but you have to be together when you do that kind of thing, especially in a family. I mean, are we going to obey this mask thing? Are we all going to wear a mask at the house, or are we going to make each other sick, or what are we doing here? Those are not easy decisions in our crazy world. With all the information we can get, you can pretty much argue both sides, but you have to put that through the strainer of God’s word also.

So, you have to carefully look at those things and understand and put them in the proper perspective when you’re looking at them. Colossians 1, 9 through 12 says, and so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

If we have that, what I read, think about that. That’s like mind boggling that kind of power that we have. And we can’t decide what color to paint the bedroom or if we gotta throw away this stuff or we gotta pick this up or we have to, You know, maybe do we buy another house because now we got 10 kids living in one little room with all the bunk beds piled up? You know, what do we do here? That’s, you should be able to handle that with all of that power, and that’s the thing. Most of us don’t even think about, we have cosmic power to understand these things with God living inside of us, and most of the time we get hung up on stupid things things like did the trash get taken out and stuff like that.

So try to keep it at a better level. Ephesians 4.20 is my favorite verse for counseling and it’s 4.20 through 24. But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as a truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and be renewed to the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness.

I hate it that I do this. Stop doing it, right? The Bob Newhart thing. If you’re so miserable doing that, stop doing that. It’s just that simple. Now, that simple thing needs help, and people need to stand alongside and be that helpful friend. But it’s a basic ingredient to all these things. Stop doing that behavior and replace it with this behavior. Those verses in Ephesians go on to say, him that steals, steal no longer, and earn something and be able to give something away. So reversing that whole behavior and earning something honestly, and then being generous with that gift that God has given you. All of those things.

Turn your world upside down if you’re in that kind of thing. And it’s a joy when people do that and get victory over that. And it’s a real heartbreak to see it sometimes cause people to fall down and just keep falling down. Now a lot of times we’re counseling un-Christian people to behave like Christians. That’s most of the trouble in discipleship. You’re trying to give somebody Christian advice that isn’t even a Christian. They’ll tell you they are, but when you see over and over and over how they don’t obey things of Christ, then you have to make a judgment. Well, maybe the problem here is this guy needs the gospel.

So your whole counseling thing turns back to the gospel. So that’s a big problem in counseling. And those sessions that can go on for years, most of the time the person isn’t even a Christian. And you’re just trying to make him behave that way. The verse that I should have used last week in talking about sanctified living, I didn’t use, but I’ll use it this week, is Galatians 2.20. I’ve been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up to me, or gave himself for me. That verse is like mind boggling, right?

I have been crucified with Christ, the old self. It’s no longer I who live, but the new person who lives through God’s Spirit in me, because it’s Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. That principle is the principle you need to bring to these marriage disputes on both sides. And as the husband, yes, you’re in charge of your family, and you can be a jerk, but don’t be a jerk. Why would you want to be a jerk, right? And that’s easy to say up here because I can be a jerk. And when you do that, you need to ask forgiveness and understand, okay, I need to stop being a jerk about that and do that together.

But the thing is, when you’re both in a marriage walking in the same footsteps and and moving toward the same target, it’s a joy. There’s a whole pattern that happens, and you get on the flow of it, and when you have friends that are doing the same thing with their wives and everything, or you have a congregation that on the whole is doing this in their families, you see a great things happen. I think that’s one of the big things in starting our school by not being an evangelistic school where we ask people, do you believe that you’re a Christian? Do you understand these things? And they sign the paper that they do.

Now we can treat them as Christians. So in a sense, we can go to them and say, do you understand little Johnny here is being bad and he’s not behaving in this way, so we need to get that behavior corrected. And because of that, everybody wants to live to that higher standard. And when that starts happening and people are doing that all along in that thing, the whole body of that school or that church or that community is blessed by it. And even though a lot of the community isn’t saved, they get the blessing of that. And that’s a great thing and one of the byproducts of all of these things. So the whole thing to this, it’s very straight ahead.

Okay? If you’ve got problems, you need to sit down, put them, you know, in a list, talk about them, how do we get this done? Is this goal something that is good? If both sides agree they want that goal, they should be able to come up with a plan that both of them can work on and work through to get that done in that way. And that plan, especially in in a family when you have children involved in that thing. I mean, the husband may want the crazy kid’s bedroom picked up, or like in our house when we have multiple families in it, the idea of going in the kitchen with the dirty dish that you just used, then you’ve got to rinse it off and put it in the dirty dishwasher to keep it going.

Well, we got eight people all with crazy different schedules. And so if you don’t do that, then the thing quickly piles up. Then the person that gets that, they go in thinking, oh, now I’ve got time to cook this wonderful thing or make this thing. And all they got is this big mess. So every person has to train themselves to do that. And I’m trying to get better at it. And I have failed before, and I’m working on that. But that thing’s little simple things like that are a help. And you can be a help to your wife, especially those of you that have little kids. You can imagine, I mean, I know what it was like as a dad to have little kids.

And we actually brought our kids to work with us, because Gail did our books also. And every time I watched her taking care of the little kids, all I could think of is, I got to get out and make a sales call and get out of here, because I can’t stand the insanity here. And so it’s just, you know, it’s a big job raising all these little souls. And women have that big responsibility. And that’s a thing we as dads need to step alongside and be that help in a way that sometimes is hard to do because they just reach the end of their ability to cope with that, and that’s hard. And it’s true, and it’s not wrong that you did.

Things are that tough. The kids can get that squirrely, and you can be that tired, or not feeling that great, or whatever, and you need that help. And that’s the other great thing, is having families come along and cite each other to help, and take the kids somewhere, or something like that. All of those little things are huge blessings, and it’s all part of the body life that we hope to develop here and have. So that pretty much does it.

Just likewise, wise be subject to your husbands, and likewise, husbands show honor to your wife as the weaker vessel. And I do wanna say I think the biggest responsibility in this is the husband. You’re the head, you’re responsible, You actually are responsible in strange ways for your wife’s sin. So you have the toughest job in this kind of thing. So pray that God would show you better ways to do it. And as that happens, I think we’ll have a better community and a better life. So let’s close. Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for the clear instruction in your word. And yet, sometimes those clear things are the hardest things to do.

Help us to be people that can do those hard things and people that can do them with a laugh and that we can do it to be able to laugh at ourselves and laugh as we try the hard things. Help us to be that way. We wanna be happy in our struggles. And it is hard and we live in a sin-cursed world. So help us to be that light to that world and those people that can bring a better day. So we thank you for all of these things. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.