August 11, 2024 | Heirs of Life

Transcript:

This morning. We're going to continue in first Peter beginning in chapter three. As we do that, children, if you're headed out the back door to children's Church, you're more than welcome to do that. We're also love to have you here. If you want to stay in here with us.

As we begin the first section of First Peter, chapter three. Peter is continuing to shepherd his readers. That's really been his whole point. You can hear the heart of Peter throughout this entire book, where he is saying all kinds of glorious big truths, but then his real desire for those truth is not to let people just check off the box and know some things.

It's because he cares for the souls of the people he's talking to, and he wants to shepherd them through all kinds of things. So from the middle of chapter two, there's a very simple framework that he applies to multiple specific situations. He says talking about government, talking about servants and masters talking about marriages. In this section proclaim God's glory.

Guard your soul and act with honor before others. That one sounds a whole lot longer, so I would like to shorten it. But I want you to know when I say act with honor, he's saying do good so that they see your good deeds and so glorify your father which is in heaven. So if you were going to take Peter's framework, and if you were to say, I'm not married, if you were to say, I'm not a servant, I'm not sure how that works.

Maybe you don't have a boss, particularly that you work for. We're all under government in some way. But if you were to say these situations don't seem to quite apply to me, what you need to remember is the reason Peter is bringing these up is for shepherding your soul with that framework. Proclaim God's glory doing that. Guard your soul.

And as you do that, and live that out in front of other people, act with honor so that they see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. That's the framework for all of these sections. But as we get to this section, he talks about marriage. Did you know 100% of marriages are between two sinners?

I feel safe on that statistic. That's why we have to talk about it. That's why I can look at this text and say, I can preach on marriage for the next year. I won't. For the record, I heard that. But because all marriages occur between two sinners, that means there's two people who are tempted to be self-centered, proud in their assumptions towards one another.

Who are idolatrous, sometimes towards each other, sometimes towards all kinds of other things. And they live in the same place. That's why there's challenges.

I don't have to tell you that marriages are under attack in our world. In fact, we could start with just the whole definition of what marriage is is under attack in our world. That's not Peter's point here, although it's true. More specifically. People within marriages are under attack. And you know, if you're married, your marriage is not always a safe haven in that attack.

Sometimes it may feel that way, and it may feel like I can go to my spouse and it feels like safety. And sometimes it doesn't.

Because your battle against sin is not absent within your marriage, and your spouse is battling against their sin, is not absent within their marriage. So as we come to this section of first Peter. I'm going to split it into two sections. So this is part one titled This Sermon from verse seven. It says heirs with you of the grace of life.

When you think about your marriage, you are heirs of life together. I want that to sink in to us. We're not walking alongside each other so that we can maybe cope with life or so that just makes my life better.

We're walking alongside each other as joint heirs of the grace of life. And neither husband nor wife is any more of an air of life than the other.

So this week, Peter begins by addressing wives. That's what we'll talk about today. So, women, if you're mad at me after this week, wait until next week and your husbands will be mad at me then. Okay?

Seriously, though, I want to ask you to resist the urge to do two things that you might have already started doing, and I hope not. Don't listen for your spouse.

Husbands, when I say things about what this text says to your wives, don't go, oh yeah, she needs to hear that. You need to hear that. Don't listen for your spouse and don't think that you have nothing to learn from this text. Husbands, just because it happens to be addressing wives for the other group who might be listening for somebody else.

Those of you who aren't married yet, maybe you're this tall and you're like, why am I sitting in this room? If you're going to play sports, when do you do conditioning practice? Right before the championship game? No, before the season starts. If you're not married yet and you think I'd like to be one day, this is the best time for you to work on learning.

Just like you should run your sprints before the soccer season starts. Because in the soccer season, it's going to wear you out. Learn now if you say I'm not married, maybe you were and you aren't now for whatever reason. Or maybe you say, I'm not married. I might like to be, but I don't think that's going to happen.

Again, I would say don't listen for someone else. God has truth from this passage for you because it's not really only about marriage. It's about the framework of how you interact in all of life. Proclaiming his glory, guarding your souls and acting with honor. And you have friends who are married and they need you. They need your perspective when they walk through challenges in their marriages.

So as we come to this text, my prayer is that all of us would say, God has this text in this scripture for me in different ways based on your situations. So let's see what he has to say. Starting in verse one, Peter says, likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one 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 and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, 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.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own 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 are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

God, we ask for your wisdom, for your help. Show us what this text means. Apply it to our lives. Protect us. Guard us. Only you can do that. And you, in your great wisdom, have given us this book. You breathed out every word so that it is perfect for what we need to know. For the lies. We need to not believe.

For what we need to do. For what we need to not do.

So use it for what you have promised you will. And we trust your promise that your word never returns empty, but it accomplishes the purpose for which you send it out.

Do that today, Lord, in your name. Amen. He starts with this word likewise, which is the reason I made a big deal about saying we're pointing back to proclaim his glory. Guard your souls because otherwise you'd say he just talked about slavery. Then he said likewise, is marriage like slavery? Now, that's not his point. His point is to say, here's the framework.

Here's how you guard your soul. Now let's apply it to this situation. Likewise, let's apply it to this situation. Likewise, let's apply it to this situation. That's why that word keeps coming back over and over and over. And he starts with this three words that maybe makes you uncomfortable. Wives, be subject to your own husbands. The word submit or submissive probably brings a lot of ideas to your mind, and some of them are not what Peter meant at all.

In our world, we're never going to hear this text rightly if we don't think about some of the ways it's been abused. So I want to start here and say some things that submission is not, according to this text. First, submission does not mean that the wife does not try to change the husband. How do you know that?

Well, if you read the text, it says. Even if so, in the most extreme case, even if some husbands don't obey the word, that's a phrase that Peter has used earlier in the book. He uses it later to say they're believers, even if some are not believers. Then he says you're to live in a certain way. And the goal into verse one that they, the husbands who aren't believers, may be one to Christ without a word, by the conduct of their wives.

So in other words, he's saying, be subject to your own husbands so that your husband will come to see something that you've already seen, so that you will influence him by your conduct, so that he will be one. So submission in this text cannot mean that the wife doesn't try to change the husband. In some areas, because clearly he's calling for her to do what God says is the best way to influence him about the single most influential choice in her life.

She has chosen to put her faith in Christ. That's why she's addressed here. She's a believer. That's the the one choice of your life that impacts every other area of your life. It should doesn't always, but it should. And she wants her husband to come share that. That's right. And that's not being un submissive.

Text says she wants to win him. She should want to win him without a word. Does that mean she's never going to speak to him? Okay, let's let's talk about that a second ago. That seems like a weird way to say it. No, I don't think it means she would never speak to him. Couple reasons. Because you shouldn't just listen to me.

What's the text say? It's probably silly to think of. She's going to walk alongside him and never speak. That's not going to work. Probably impossible for her to really know. Like, why did this sudden change come over you? And she goes, well, I hope somebody tells him no. I think she's going to tell him because I put my faith in Christ.

But if we go just to this text, okay. Verse two, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. So if somebody comes to you and says, I see this great change in you, in this great character, what's going on? Not going to tell you that's not pure conduct. Verse six says she's going to do good and not fear anything that's frightening.

So in this context, it's not saying literally don't speak at all and just hope he figures it out. The implication is, as a believing wife, even if notice, it's not only about unbelieving husbands, but it says even if it's an unbelieving husband, the the kind of pestering word. Come on, put your faith in Jesus. Come on. Put your faith in Jesus.

Come on. Do like the pestering over. That's not the thing that's going to be powerful here. That's what he means by without a word. Now, I've already implied it, but I want to say it again a little different way. Another thing submission is not submission does not mean you agree on everything. Again, obviously she can sing in Christ alone.

He can't. Not from his heart. Well, obviously they don't agree on everything. How many things will they not agree on? A lot. So submission doesn't mean we're going to agree on everything. If a husband told a wife you can't believe in Christianity, she should humbly and submissively not submit to that.

Doesn't mean shake my fist in his face. Does it mean fly off the handle and say all kinds of bad things to him? Just means my Lord. Is Jesus. I follow Jesus. Submission doesn't mean that the wife lives. Then, without thought or opinion, I can point back to the same truth over and over here, but because things get distorted in different ways, I want to say it several different ways.

Really, it's a perverted and distorted view of leadership. Leadership is about a leader taking initiative to say, here's the direction we should go based on the gifts and abilities of his team. Take an athletic leader. Take a coach. If he says we're going to play in a certain way, but he doesn't have any of the players who can play in that way.

That's bad leadership. He should take into account the gifts and opinions and abilities of his team. That's what's going to make good leadership. Same thing is true here. Husbands. You need to lead in your family. But that leadership is not you ignoring your wife's gifts and opinions and abilities and saying, here's what we do. Boom! Now, good leaders look at the team and say, this is the direction I believe we should go.

Now, how do these gifts and abilities work together to accomplish the purpose?

That means wives do not live without thought or opinion. In fact, husbands. I know I'm jump into next week a little bit. Husbands, you need the opinion and counsel of your wife if you don't know that already. Husbands and I tell you, you do, and you should look for it. Look for opportunities there. God's given you that wife, wives.

Your husbands need that. They don't need you to sit back and share no opinions.

I know it's easy to hear some of those statements and go. What about this? What about this? What about this? What about this fair. These principles in these this text and these two chapters. The principles are really not hard. What's hard is all the specific applications.

For that, we need grace and wisdom. We need each other.

We need God's Spirit.

Last thing. Submission doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that the wife gets all of her spiritual strength and understanding through her husband.

That's not true. Which is a good thing, because I don't have enough for my wife, and neither do you. Men.

Think of all that said about wives in this section. We'll come back to some of these, but it says they are to have gentle peace in their souls. They are to do good and be fearless. That's not weakness. That's strength. That's spiritual strength. How are they going to know what's good and what they should do? Well, in this context, it's not going to be from their husband because he's not even a believer in Jesus.

So wives, don't look to your husband for all of your spiritual strength.

Or spiritual understanding.

Husbands, if your wives pursue God for spiritual strength and understanding, praise God every day for that. Don't ever feel threatened by that. Praise God for.

Husbands are leaders, not idols. Husbands cannot give their wives everything their wives need spiritually. That would be an idol.

All right, so, Peter, if submission isn't all those things. And yet the word be subject sounds very restrictive to us. Why on earth did you use such a restrictive sounding word? Peter? Couldn't you have figured out something better? Well, we need to think about his context. I'm going to read a paragraph. A description of what the. This is from a historian of the Greco-Roman view of women.

I'm going to say very clearly, this is not my view of women.

Dominant among the elite of that day was the notion that the woman was by nature inferior to the man because she lacks the capacity for reason that the male had. She was ruled rather by her emotions, and was, as a result, given to poor judgment, immorality, intemperance, wickedness, greed. She was untrusting of the contentious, and as a result it was her place to obey.

That feels terrible for me to read those words. That is the Greco-Roman overall view of the intellectuals who wrote. Not only was that the general plan of society, but women were expected to just go along with their husbands beliefs from a religious standpoint. If he converts, you convert. That's just what happened. That means when Peter says, you continue following Christ so that your husband will be one.

That is an unbelievably freeing statement for what they believed. I know it feels restrictive to us sometimes, but for what they believe, Peter is like absolutely shaking the foundation of what they believe about genders. Not only there, but there's another step in ancient law codes like this when they address people, government, citizens, masters they don't address women. They don't address wives.

They do not say wives. Here's how you should do it. They say, husbands, here's how your wives should act. Make sure they do it.

For that world. When Peter says first, by the way, not before. Not after he talks to husbands first. Likewise, wives, here's how you should live. He's blowing their minds.

Not what I believe about women. They're sitting here saying women aren't really able to make independent religious moral choices. That's the way they viewed women. Peter comes along and says, you made the perfect choice. Now you stand on that choice fearlessly.

So when we read Peter, Peter is not thinking. My readers might think I'm restricting women too much. He's not thinking that direction at all. He's thinking I am blowing apart some of what society around me believes about women.

All right, so all of that leads us to then, well, what is submission like? Okay. Great submissions. Not all those things. What does it mean when he says be subject. How do we talk about that. I'm going to say it a couple of different ways. Some of these are modified from other people. I say it a couple ways because it's a hard concept to get in, you know, three words.

So submission in marriage is the calling of a wife to honor her husband's leadership and to help carry it through according to her gifts and wisdom. Again, what's leadership? Is that just I made authority. No. It's saying here's where I think we should go. I think this is good. Based on the counsel I have, based on my wife's opinion, based on all the things that I can work through.

I think we should go this way. And she says, I want to use my gifts in order to help us pursue those goals where she can in a way that follows God ultimately, I'll come back to that. Or we could say it's a posture that wants to honor and follow leadership wherever possible for one who belongs to God.

We know there's a difference between somebody who says, I'm going to just wait and see what you want to do, and then I'm going to decide if I think I should follow it or not, or if I think it's dumb. We know that's very different from one who says, I want to follow this leader. They're not perfect, so there might be something wrong here.

Submission is the difference of that posture.

As with the other texts, the other case studies. Submission is not unlimited. This is not unquestioning obedience. So how does this text limit it? Well, first, as we saw in the previous section, wives, be subject to your own husbands, we could have separate questions about how women and men relate in society in general or in a workplace. We could talk about all those things.

Peter's not talking about those things here. Peter's saying, those of you women who are married wives be subject to your own husbands. That's what he points to. So there's a limit there. He's not talking about women to all husbands. He's talking about women to their husbands. There's a second limit in verse two. Your conduct is pure and grounded in the fear of God.

All right. Now, I've had to explain why I said it that way. He says when they see your respectful and pure conduct, I'm going to disagree a little bit with the ESV here. The word respect is the word for fear. You can look in some other translations. They'll translate it for fear. It's just the basic word for fear.

So you go, what is it saying? You're supposed to be afraid of your husbands. No, I don't think so. For three reasons from these texts one, the pattern of Peter back from 213 through the end of chapter two. In each of his two situations there, he says, be subject to a human authority because of your fear of God, because of your ultimate allegiance to God.

That's his pattern. Each of the other times. So here when he says fear, I think that's what he's saying. Notice verse six. He says, you are Sarah's children. If you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. So I don't think he said, have your conduct be full of fear for your husband, but don't be afraid of anything frightening.

Five verses later, as if he forgot. Also, the word fear is not an adjective here, like fear and respectful and pure are not the same part of speech when it says when they see your respectful and pure conduct. You could literally say when they see your pure conduct in fear, it says in fear, not fearful. So I believe he's limiting this again, telling you be subject to your own husbands, but that's underneath your fear and allegiance to God, so that if a husband says you can't believe in Jesus, you say, I'm sorry, I want to follow you, but my allegiance is to my King.

If a husband says, come help me commit murder, you say, I'm sorry, I would like to follow you, but my allegiance is to my king. I'm using easy examples on purpose because the harder ones are ones. We'd have to sit around a table and talk about.

But this be subject is limited by the fact that you're under God. First. Now we need to follow the flow of his passage because next it could seem almost out of nowhere. Peter says, now let's talk about clothes and jewelry and hair like Peter. Where? Where's this coming from? Notice verse three do not let your adorning be external.

The braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear. 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. So put yourself ancient Greco-Roman world with all of that, and put yourself here for a minute, and then be really glad you're not there.

With all of that view of women. And she says, my husband is going to be shamed because I believe in Jesus and he doesn't. I'm going to be shamed because I believe in Jesus and he doesn't. I really want to convert him. Now, how on earth can I do that? It might be tempting to say, what about some physical appearance?

If I can put a little crassly, can I be beautiful enough to win my husband to Jesus? Peter says that's not how that's going to work. That's not going to bring about spiritual transformation.

So Peter takes the idea that these women want to see their husbands converted, and he goes to a more fundamental principle. This principle is true. Those of you who aren't married, for whatever reason, this is true for you too. He says, don't let your adorning be these things. Okay, first the easy question because I see some gold jewelry here.

So if anyone goes, wait, are we supposed to braid our hair or we're not supposed to braid hair? We're not supposed to wear gold jewelry. How's that work? Okay, no, you know for sure that's not what he means. Because afterwards he says the clothing you wear and he's not telling you not to wear clothing. So therefore, he's not telling you not to wear gold jewelry or braid your hair.

He says it the way he does specifically. You can't pursue these things as your adorning. That's not what makes you beautiful or attractive or valuable, or in this case, persuasive to your husband. That's not the thing that is going to convince him. Or we can say this way he's pointing you to the fact that a a beautiful woman is a person, not a body.

I'm just going to say that one. I'm going to leave it.

But it's worth going back to because our world says otherwise.

A beautiful woman is a person, not a body. So instead he talks. He uses this phrase, the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. He points to the internal character related to your heart of what you love and what you hate. That's what he points to. Says that is beautiful. That is that adorns you.

That is what people look at and say, that is good. Not only people God looks at and says, that is good. And this phrase, this phrase, imperishable here in the context of first Peter, this is stunning. He uses this word more than once. Let me tell you what else he says is imperishable. Our eternal inheritance of joy filled hope in God, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, the precious blood of Christ that ransoms you from all of the futile ways of your forefathers.

That's imperishable, the living and abiding Word of God that's imperishable.

And this kind of internal beauty for wives that's imperishable. That's the whole list. Peter uses. So if you sit there, and especially our world will say, well, the inner character stuff. Okay, sure. But physical beauty sure seems to be really important. And if you're tempted to downplay that, he lists it right alongside your inheritance, the blood of Christ and the Word of God.

With the same word and says that imperishable.

He uses gentle and quiet. What's gentle? Does that mean she's supposed to be weak? No. Jesus was described as gentle and lowly in heart. By the way, the word gentle is not even just a feminine quality man. You're supposed to be gentle to. Matthew five in the Beatitudes uses this same Greek word here's what you should be. Matthew 11 does it again as a goal for all believers.

You should be gentle. He's not saying she's supposed to be weak. He's saying she's supposed to be peaceful. Second word quiet is used that way. Doesn't mean that if you say I'm kind of a loud woman, does that mean I'm less godly? No, the word doesn't. It has nothing to do with volume here. It has to do with the fact.

Are you peaceful? Think quiet, like sitting by a quiet lake where you rest in the tranquility.

He says the kind of woman. That is undisturbed because of her hope in God. That's what's beautiful.

And he says, this beauty which in God's sight is very precious. Notice he does not say which in your husband's sight is very precious. Now, ideally, it should work like that.

But it doesn't always.

So, wives, he looks at you and says, if no one else notices, and if they all want your braided hair and gold jewelry and physical appearance to be the best thing about you. They're not speaking for God.

Teens, teen girls. Your world is going to tell you the best thing about you is the way you look.

God is going to say, this is what is precious in my sight.

So then we get this example of Sarah. Say, well, Peter, you're taking us a long ways around, and now you're going to give us a whole Old Testament lesson here, too. But it's just one specific example and not just Sarah. Notice in verse five, this is how the holy women who hoped in God. I hope that's one thing you'd like to be described as, as a woman.

A woman who hopes in God.

Says this is how those women adorned themselves. And he gives you this example. If you aren't careful here.

What you'll read here will undo some of what we've already said. Because it says Sarah obeyed Abraham. And you think, well, so is that really unquestioning obedience after all? All this talk about posture and inclination to obey, but you're obeying God first. Well, it's as Sarah obeyed Abraham, and maybe your brain goes too well. I remember some time Sarah obeyed Abraham, and it didn't seem very good, like when he said, let's say you're my sister and go be part of this ruler's harem.

Notice that's not the example he gives, because we might forget this is actually a specific example. This is not Sarah's life. Overall, there's exactly one time in the Old Testament where Sarah calls Abraham Lord. When he says she obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. Here's the scenario. Abraham's there, and these men come and they're telling him you're about to have a child.

He wants to be a spiritual to them. So what does he do? He goes and tell Sarah, Sarah, let's make this meal for them. In other words, he sets the goal. This is a good plan. And she says okay. She obeys. She makes the meal. For the record, he's also not going off and sitting in his easy chair while she does all the work.

Because if you read that text, what happens is he says, make this meal. She starts making that meal. He goes out and gets an animal from the flock and is helping to make the meal. They're both pursuing a goal. She's inclined to follow when he says, hey, let's do this. She doesn't go. Really? I have to make a meal for these people now.

We haven't don't have that recorded at least. And so then when she's standing in the door of her tent and she hears this prophecy, you're going to have a child. She says. Am I really going to have a child? She's laughing at that point. She's not sure how much she trusts in God's statement. Right then, from God's prophet.

But she says, shall that happen to my Lord and I? That's the only time in the whole Old Testament, the only time Peter would have looked at and known. This is where Sarah called Abraham, Lord. And so here's the point. Her posture towards Abraham is one of respect. No wives. You don't have to go call your husbands, Lord, this afternoon.

You could try that just to get a weird look on their face. That could be fun. No, he's not saying that. He's saying in the way that was culturally appropriate. Right then Sarah was showing respect even at a moment where she was kind of struggling with her faith. She said, I want to respect him. I want to follow him.

That's what Sarah is commended for.

And you are her children. If you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. He's not calling her to blind obedience. He's saying your allegiance is to God first. But your posture and your desire is not one of suspicion or rebellion, but one of I want to follow my husband. I want to show respect to him.

Now, I want to conclude this way. What is the first six verses of this text say to husbands? Nothing. That doesn't mean it's not valuable for husbands. It means none of it's addressed to us husbands. It means your job is not to go, you know, prod your wife about how she should submit.

Wives are the ones who are addressed here. Does this text guarantee husbands are better, smarter, wiser? Absolutely not. Has nothing to do with that. What this text does is it drives you to the fact that this is what God wants women to have, wants wives to have.

I'm going to work backwards through the text as I say this. He wants you to be fearless. If you do good and are not afraid of anything, that's frightening. He wants you to be committed to do good no matter what. At the very root of what's best about the women in this text, it's phrase in verse five, they hope in God.

He wants you to have such an ironclad hope in God that when there's challenges around your husband's leadership, you are still able to be gentle and peaceful because you're trusting in God, not because you're trusting in your husband, but your hope is found in God. He wants you to be more concerned about your character than your appearance. He wants you to be willing to be part of God's work in your husband's life for his spiritual growth.

Now, I suspect that that list, there's probably not a wife in this room who would say, I don't want to be that.

So don't let the last one change that for you. He wants you to have a heart of willing submission.

He says all of those things together.

Wives, I hope you long to follow your husband everywhere you can as a Christian. To follow his leadership, to use your gifts, to say, sometimes I think this is a really bad idea. Can we talk about it more to say, I know you've thought about this. Can we address this decision a little bit more? And husbands, you should say I might be wrong.

Let's talk.

Why does God tell you all that? Because he cares about your soul. And because, again, the attitude that would say, no, I don't want to submit to my husband using our definition of submission. I don't want to submit to my husband. That's dangerous for your soul. Just like if I say I don't want to submit to government, I want to rule my own life that's dangerous for my soul.

But the root cause of a woman's beauty or greatness in this text is not how much you get done this week. It's not your physical appearance. It's not how many people like you or your children's opinion of you, or your husband's opinion of you right now. It's not how much you think you have your life all put together.

We can look for value and worth in all kinds of things.

And plenty of those things can be good. But the root cause of the beauty of any wife or any woman. Is you're a woman who hopes in God. That gives you confidence to be fearless. That gives you confidence to be adorned with peaceful gentleness. That's what leads you to act the way this text tells you to act.

Part two is next week. So, husbands, you'll hear more about your role in. But I want to say this. If that's what God's called our wives to do. And he's also called us to love our wives as Christ loved the church. That's a really high calling men husbands. Some of you are men who aren't husbands right now.

So let's pursue it. Trusting in God's grace. Let's take a moment, then respond in prayer. Then I'll close.

Father, as we come to your word. I am aware, and I'm sure many of us are aware. Of so many times that we have failed in our relationships.

Because 100% of marriages are between two sinners.

Except. The marriage of Christ and His church. And where we fail over and over and struggle with our communication. Where our hearts pull us aside. And wear your church as your bride still pulls aside and rebels against you. Sometimes and and chases after idolatry, you are the perfect husband. Never abusive towards your wife. Never failing in love and mercy.

So we throw ourselves on you. We ask you for the forgiveness that only you can give.

And we pray that you would guide us in our lives. In Jesus name. Amen.