1 Peter - Lesson 4 | Wade Branch

Good morning, everybody. It's good to see everyone who's

here today. I'm excited to study with you a

little bit of God's word. We are continuing on in first

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Peter chapter 2, and this is where we'll be taking lesson 4

from. So if you're just jumping in

with us, we want to welcome you. We want to encourage you to go

back if you have a chance and read some of this because it

will provide you all the context that we lead up to today.

Now, just a very brief, I'm not even going to have slides on it

because I know it gets a little bit cumbersome to go back.

We learned that he's writing this letter to people who are

dispersed because of the persecution under the Roman

Empire. And those people were thrown

into the countryside, so to speak, and they were spread out

and persecuted. Christians were literally being

burned at the stake. Christians were being utterly

persecuted by people that had no respect for God, had no respect

for this Jesus that they claim to serve.

And so he's giving them writings of encouragement.

We talked about how he assured them that they are a chosen

generation, that they're a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his

own special people, no matter what it might look like in their

current circumstances, no matter what it might seem like or feel

like. He says, you are my special

people and they have a purpose here in this suffering, that you

may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness

into his marvellous light. And this is Peter writing.

But we learned about Paul, right?

Who? Paul was persecuted by the

government, and he eventually had a chance to go before

governors and teach to governors of Rome because of the

persecution he suffered. We never know where this

persecution can lead to. We never know where some

suffering might put us in a place to spread the gospel, to

teach about God, and for in this case, for them to proclaim the

praises of him who called them out of darkness into his

marvellous light. These people might have felt

scattered, but they were actually the people of God and

have obtained mercy from God. We learned about how He wants

them to because of that, because they're not really permanent

citizens of this earth, but they're pilgrims.

He said He wants them to fight a war against the thing that are

temporary, He wants them to fight a war against these lusts

that might hold them back and to have conduct that is honourable

among the Gentiles. The quickest way to silence

people, he says, is to have good works.

And our ultimate goal is that they will turn to God and

glorify Him because of the good things that we do.

All things we covered. And the last lesson we really

focused on was these verses regarding submission to

government. And he's in the flow of thought

as we progressed into lesson 4 of submission.

And, and we talked about this in the Ephesian letter.

And I was starting to feel like, man, we, we've covered this

recently, You know, I do, I wanted to skim through it.

And then I looked at the date on the letter of Ephesians where we

covered submission, especially in the home.

It's been a year and a half. I don't know if you can believe

that if you, if it's fresh on your mind, but for me, I

couldn't believe it's been a year and a half.

So these concepts are repeated in the Ephesian letter and the

letter from First Peter. They must be important.

They must be something that we humans struggle to do.

We struggle to submit to a lot of different things.

And the the authorities we've been given are the government or

all those who are put in place above us.

As we talked about before, that honour of authorities extends to

our even our bosses, and we're going to see that more in this

lesson. We talked about the disconnect

that exists between different levels of authority and how we

can bridge those gaps and make things work better when we

simply will submit to wherever we're at.

Now there are times when we need to get out of a bad situation,

but Scripture often shows us how to live and thrive in the

situation we're in instead of always just trying to get out of

a situation because there are times where there's no way out.

Praise God that we have a society where we are free and

where we get to do many things according to our will.

But there are times where we can't get out of a bad

situation. And So what do we do?

We have to learn to make the best of wherever we are at at

the time sometimes. So we talked about submission to

government and we talked about honour, maintaining honour of

authorities, maintaining goodness, humility, he says, and

we'll get some verses leading up here.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put

to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free, not using

liberty yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bonds,

bond servants of God. And this is the kicker we

learned last time. Honour all people, love the

brotherhood, fear God and honour the King.

This extended us may be far beyond what we're comfortable

doing, honouring everybody around us whether they deserve

it or not. We looked at this this idea of a

graph where we might only honor a few people, but he tells us to

honor all men. And here's where we pick up in

this flow of thought. Verse 18, he says, servants, be

submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good

and gentle, but also to the harsh.

So here is the here's the, the flow of thought.

He's talked about our submission to authorities and he's he wants

us to maintain the same level of goodness regardless of who they

are, what they are, what they do.

We are to be submissive not just to the people who are really

good, but to all of those who are in authority over us in our

work. OK, He's addressing servants

now. We look at that and we say,

wait, you mean servants? You mean somebody who waits on

somebody in their house? Labour in the course of human

history is not as simple as I have a job at a company, Labour

is someone else needs a job done and they're going to pay me to

do it, or they're going to give me food to do it, or they're

going to give me somewhere to live to do it.

We are in kind of a a special important history where we have

protections, we have laws that protect us, We have things that

will keep us safe if our boss tries to abuse us.

There's a lot of things in place right now that we can treat like

what? I'm my own person, I need

respect. It hasn't always been that way.

We all, though, in some way or another, exist in a place of

servitude. Labour unions, government

manifestos and basic protections come and go, but there will

always be servitude. And if we are only willing to do

good to a sliver of people, we will not have our full potential

to show the goodness of God and to show godliness in our work.

Verse 19, he says. For this is commendable if

because of conscience toward God, one endures grief,

suffering wrongfully. This is where the good stuff

happens. There's a lot of things in your

life where you may never get noticed for doing good things.

Like Jesus says, you do good to those who do good to you.

Congratulations. So do the Gentiles.

So do the heathens. Everybody is good to those who

are good to them. But we have a special

opportunity for impact on people when we will do this this

goodness and endure grief when it's wrongfully that we are

suffering. Let us adjust our gauge.

We need to adjust our gauge from being focused on what might seem

right to us, to focus on what is right in the eyes of God.

And God says this is the commendable thing.

This is the thing that we're going to get good credit from

God where we might say, you know what, bodily exercise, getting

super buff. That's that's great, right?

The Bible says that's little profit.

What about gaining the world's wealth?

The Bible says, yeah, it's fleeting and pointless.

So we have to adjust our view of what is good and commendable and

right and impressive. God says the good stuff.

The thing that is really impressive is suffering

wrongfully because of your goodness toward toward God.

And anything you go through wrongfully goes to this account.

If you're going through good times, great.

If you're going through hard times and you're enduring the

suffering because of that, it's commendable.

So it's even better in the eyes of God, the ultimate authority,

He says. For what credit is it if when

you're beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?

He wants them to suffer for a good thing.

But for us, that feels wrong. I need to stand up for myself.

I need to make sure I am. I'm taken care of, I'm doing the

right thing here. That's how I feel.

I feel like I need to justify myself if I'm being treated

wrongfully. That's not what he says.

This is part of the process, he says, because if we're beaten

for wrongfully, he's like for if we're beaten for our own faults.

Yeah, we got that coming. May we never suffer that way.

Why? Because God doesn't want your

suffering to be wasted. There's going to be a certain

element of suffering our lives and God's intention is that

every bit of that go to His glory and to your credit, He

wants you to be honoured by Him and by others because of your

suffering. So if I suffer for things that

are my fault, it's just a waste of time.

It's a waste of a suffering. It's like going to the gym and

exercising and then doing nothing for you.

You're feeling the pain but you get nothing out of it.

God doesn't want us to suffer for no reason.

A good parent will cause their children sometimes to feel pain

and to suffer a little bit in consequence so that they learn

something better out the other end.

You know what abuse is? Abuse by a parent is when

they're doing something to their child that's not going to

benefit them, that's giving them some kind of hurt or pain or

consequence negatively, but it doesn't do them any good.

It's just irritation. It's just abuse.

God doesn't want us to suffer for no reason because he is a

good father. So instead he wants us to do

good. So it's not a waste of time.

He says this is commendable before God.

Now I want to establish, if we haven't already, just a basic

principle. We all know that controlled

suffering is good. All of us on some way or another

put ourselves through this suffering.

It feels bad at 1st and the first time you exercise hard, it

feels awful. Or if you climb a mountain and

you're not used to climbing mountains, it feels horrible.

But you realize that's a certain amount of suffering is good for

you. Or there's even projects we will

put ourselves through, maybe around our own house that we

voluntarily do because it's worth whatever challenges we

might meet that we're going to get something great out of it.

We're going to get a new piece of landscape, you know, we're

going to get a new feature on our home.

And we put ourselves through that struggle because we know

it's worth it in the end. We eat vegetables and for a

while that's that's suffering on some little amount for many of

us because we don't like vegetables naturally always.

But we put ourselves through it to make us better.

But you know what this is? This is just suddenly

surrendering to self. This may seem impressive when

people get great discipline about controlling their own self

to the point where they will go extreme feats of physical

endurance, where they will eat healthy with no cheat days or

whatever. You might say we think that's

amazing. But you know, in a spiritual

perspective, that's still just self will.

It's current self. And what I want right now is

surrendering to who? Future self.

So it's still about me. So this is great, but it's not

the ultimate. What is the ultimate?

The ultimate comes when we are called to suffer, but somebody

else is making us do it. Why is that?

Because when we are controlling the suffering, we trust

ourselves. I trust myself to stop it if it

goes too far, but whenever somebody else, if it's a boss

over me, is pushing me, or if it's a parent making a kid eat

their vegetables, they're pushing me.

And you start to doubt in your mind, do they have what's good

for me in mind? And as soon as we start doubting

the authority that's over us, we don't trust anymore.

That's where it gets really hard to reconcile the suffering when

we are no longer in control. But you know what?

This is when it's necessary for us to submit.

This is when it's hard though, because when someone else wants

you to do it, we are no longer in control.

And so the command is patient submission.

What does patient submission say?

Well, this may be a silly image. AI helped me out with this.

It may or may not land. It's kind of corny, but but the

principle is that when we are being treated by a certain way

by somebody else, we have the spiritual perspective to look

past that authority and see God and see someone who is higher

commanding us to submit. And that we don't trust our

employer enough to submit. We trust God enough to surrender

to the authority that's over us and put it in God's hands.

Because when we are just relying on our boss to treat us well, it

may or may not happen, but we if we are spiritually minded, we'll

trust that God is in control and the God is above this.

If God is commanding me to submit, he will watch over me in

this. And if I suffer in this, God's

still in control. And if I think I'm hitting my

limit, God is still in control. And in this process, we learn to

really see God in each situation.

We learn to actually put into practice what we say, which is I

just going to trust God in life. What does that mean?

And work? It means trusting that he's

there, that I look past my employer and see a God who is

trustworthy. Here are the statements of

patient submission. God, I believe you're in

control. Even though it looks like my

boss is or God, I believe you are powerful enough to refine me

for the better and bless me through even the hardest things.

Even though it's pushing me past a place I'm comfortable with,

God, I trust you are powerful enough to do some refining on me

that I need It says God, I believe you are wise enough to

teach my boss and my Co workers about Jesus through my

sufferings. Maybe more importantly, God I

love these people enough to teach them about you through my

suffering. This starts to really sound like

what Jesus did, isn't it? That I love the people around me

enough that I will suffer if it means they're going to get a

picture of God that will show them what God really is like?

That's powerful, and it comes in the most undeserved or

undesirable circumstances. We don't want to do this, but if

I love people enough to teach them about Jesus, I will allow

it to come through me. Isn't that what Jesus did?

I'm going to suffer for the world so they will see my love.

To teach our bosses to teach our Co workers about God's love.

Sometimes it requires suffering. It says God, I believe you are

deserving of their praise enough for me to suffer, so maybe they

will glorify you too. Because the problem is, if I

don't think these people are worthy enough, I'm not going to

care if they learn about Jesus. The problem is if I don't think

about God being worthy of their praise enough, then I'm not

going to care if I bring them along to Jesus.

But when I honour God enough, I will do anything to make him be

praised. I will do anything to bring

people to his throne. And this may be it.

It says, God, I believe you are faithful enough to give me

strength to bear up this weight. That's what the surrender says.

But what do statements of not having a submissive heart to our

boss say? They say I want a world where I

am the authority to decide what is right, good and fair.

What does that sound like? Does that sound like the devil

who said, I can see all the glory of God and I've been given

all the blessings of God and I'm an Angel in the presence of God?

But no, why do you have to be in charge?

Why do you have to sit on the throne?

I will sit on the throne is what the devil says.

In the Old Testament, we learned about how how that situation

transpired. That's what this sounds like.

I would have decided when suffering is enough.

Didn't know I could do that. I want to decide when I can when

my suffering is enough. I want to decide how I can show

people the right way instead of surrendering.

And it says all the exact opposite things.

It says God I don't believe you're faithful enough to give

me strength to bear up this weight if we don't surrender and

send. It says God I don't believe

you're deserving of their praise enough.

It says God, I don't love these people enough to teach them

about you through my suffering. God, I don't believe you are

wise enough to teach my boss and Co workers about Jesus.

God, I don't believe you are powerful enough to refine me

through my suffering. May we show our faith through

the act of submission in work. Verse 20.

So he said, if you take impatiently, this is commendable

before God, you know what that phrase sounds like?

It sounds like when Jesus says in Matthew 25, well done and

good and faithful servant enter in to the joys of your Lord.

This is where Christianity gets good.

It gets hard, but it gets good and I got to learn this because

I want to hear well done, good and faithful servant that is

commendable before God. Verse 21, he says for to this

you were called. He's like, if we get surprised,

as he going to say later, well, we'll come back to that.

He says, if you get surprised by the suffering, just remember

This is why you're here. This is part of the process.

You know, Peter, when he was tempted to abandon Jesus, he ran

from him. It's like he forgot the point

that the suffering was part of it.

And so he's trying to remind us, this is this is what you're

called for. You're called to suffering.

I'm not calling you to a good easy life.

I'm not calling you to become a Christian so everything can get

smooth, he says. I'm calling you to this

suffering, he says. Because Christ also suffered for

us. Becoming a Christian and not

wanting suffering is like going to the gym, hiring a trainer and

being surprised when they push us hard.

The trainer would say that's why you're here for suffering for a

benefit. You could be dealing with pain

for no reason at all. At least we're dealing with pain

for a purpose and Jesus suffered also for us, leaving us an

example that you should follow his steps.

It says who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth.

Every bit of Jesus suffering was wrong, but he loved us enough to

teach us about God through his sufferings.

He loves his Father enough to give him praise through the

people who had learned from his suffering.

If I wake up every day expecting things to be good and then

someone comes through and messes it up, I'm going to have a hard

life. An even harder life.

But if I wake up expecting some level of suffering every day,

I'll be all ready to handle it. And if I don't suffer that day,

praise God that He gave me peace today.

Praise God that He gave me some rest from my struggles.

And that is the gauge that will help us from Scripture.

I don't have all that said in my brain for the record, and I am

young and learning a lot, but this is God's guidance and I

trust that this will be the best for us.

Bible says come, let him take up his cross and follow me.

So Speaking of this, Jesus in verse 23, who when he was

reviled did not revile in return.

When he suffered, He did not threaten, but committed himself

to him who judges righteously. There it is again.

We are not focusing on the person who's causing us the

suffering. We have to over commit beyond

the power of the adversary or the person who the pain is

causing, the person who's causing us pain.

We have to commit in a stronger way beyond that counterforce to

himself, to him who judges righteously.

We have to commit stronger than the adversary.

And when we commit ourselves to God through this, that's where

the strength lies. That's where the money is.

It becomes doable. But if you don't look at God, if

I don't look at God and these sufferings, it becomes

impossible. Who himself Speaking of Jesus

bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died

to sins, might live for righteousness.

By whose stripes you were healed.

We sing the song, they give us a good visual of this.

It says O to see my name written in the wounds.

For through your suffering I am free.

Death is crushed to death. Life is mine.

To live one through your selfless love for you are like

sheep going astray. Sheep wonder.

They have no direction, they have no purpose.

But now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your

souls, going on to chapter 3, verse one, wives likewise be

submissive to your husbands. Wait, what?

He was just talking about people who are suffering persecution,

thrown out into the furnishes of the world.

He's telling them to submit to those government, the

government. OK, I understand He's telling

them to honour people to submit to their bosses.

How are Christians and suffering called?

Why are we talking about submitting to the authority of

the whole? Because the bottom line, number

one is the recipe is the same for all of us.

If you're in a place of suffering, focus on the things

you can control. Focus on your place and your

surrender to whatever position you're in.

That's part of it. But also another layer of this

is maybe in this dispersion and in their suffering.

There were women who didn't have faithful husbands.

There are women whose husbands did not believe.

He's going to talk to them in just a minute.

And so maybe those women are asking the question, do I

surrender to this man? Do I need to leave him because

now I'm a Christian? Am I better than him because

he's not a follower of God and the guidance to them?

No be submissive to your husbands, that even if some do

not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct

of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied

by fear. So I like how the NIV says this

a little bit better when they see the purity and reverence of

your lives. It's just it's elevating the

woman's example to how much impact she can has in purity and

reverence on the husband. Now the command and the

principle is being carried over, right?

It's submission. It's being submissive.

At this point you're starting to feel like, is this an over

everything? And it is.

It's kind of like the secret sauce of the Christian life.

You ever get that secret sauce that you like to put on

everything? I found this Thai chili sauce

that goes good on any meat you put it on.

It goes good on rice, potatoes. I love it on everything I eat at

at this point, pretty much. I remember growing up my mom,

when she discovered turmeric, everything started turning

yellow and orange in our foods. Our chicken turned yellow, our

rice turned yellow, our beans turned yellow because she found

the stuff that was good flavour, but it was good for us and it

became the secret sauce that became part of everything.

And that's how submission is. If you're wondering where do I

fit into all this process, Maybe I don't have a job.

Maybe I don't have a spouse. Submission is going to come in

at some point in all of our lives.

It's the secret sauce of being a Christian.

In some ways, submission works because you know what happens

Sometimes you know this better than I do.

There are relationships where the husband is not a Christian

or is not a good Christian and his wife can try to tell him and

can try to tell him and can try to tell him.

But you know what happens? He starts to get bitter towards

it. He starts to get hardened

towards it and pretty soon he's calling her a nag.

He's calling her things that are not nice.

And you know what? A woman, there's nothing worse

than being called a nag because you don't feel loved, you don't

feel valued, you feel like a bother.

How wise is God to give us this instruction without a word?

That's not saying you can never say anything, but that's saying

what's really going to affect him is not the words.

What's really going to affect your husband is the conduct.

How so? As we just mentioned in that

last slide, with purity and reverence you can win over his

heart. We can spin our wheels for a

long time trying to make things happen, but if we surrender to

God's way, it may be frustrating, but it will work.

Does it say when submit to the husband when he is deserving?

No, just in this little sliver of time where he happens to

measure up? No, says submit, and that's

hard. We're going to come more to in a

minute that is difficult to do and we'll talk about that.

But you might be wondering, well, I have a husband who

believes. So is this talking to me?

Yes, because it says even if some don't obey the word, so if

they do obey the word, you can still have the same effect on

them. When Taylor is a certain way

with her attitude and her actions, it makes me like, man,

I got to, I got to straighten up.

I got to be better. Even though I might not say it,

I'm realizing I got to be better when I observe her conduct.

How much more does this apply to the godly marriage for the

woman's example to impact the heart of the man?

So to the wives, when you show patient submission, you are

saying, God, I trust you even when it is difficult to submit

to my, you name it, husband. That's not.

It's not a place for a cuss word for my frustrating husband, my

rude husband, my stubborn husband.

God, I trust you. The woman has to do the same

thing that the employer does. They have to look past the

authority of the man and see a God who they're willing to trust

enough to surrender herself to a man that is faulted and fails

her. And this is a hard ask, but it

shows an even greater trust in God.

Now I'll be clear. We started by saying this, This

is to your own husbands. This is not a general command.

We've said this before. It's not a general command.

Woman submits to man, It's wives.

Submit to your own husbands. OK, we're going to come.

We're going to go deeper in a minute.

So if you're wondering, well, what about this, give us a

second. Verse 3.

He says do not let stalking to the woman.

Do not let your adornment or your beautifying be merely

outward arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine

apparel, he says. Don't let me merely that if it's

only that you're going to be in trouble.

You're going to be always trying to make yourself something that

you're never going to arrive at, he says.

But instead, rather let it be the hidden or the inner person

of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle

and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God.

It can be scary from what I understand and from what I hear

for women to lose their beauty as time ages then.

And it's makes sense because God created woman to be beautiful.

It even says that woman is the glory of man.

Man is just like wow, it's the glory of man.

You are made to be beautiful. God wants you to be beautiful.

He even gave you a desire to want to be beautiful.

I believe that's why women want to, to make themselves look that

way. That's why they want to make

their homes look that way. God gave woman a desire for

beauty to create beauty. It's good, but he wants them to

let it transition in their life from just being outward to being

an inner beauty. Now I put, I made sure to put a

translation here that says enter because it can seem like it's

hidden. No one's ever going to recognize

it. That's how some women feel like.

No one's ever going to recognize what I do.

It's not hidden in the sense that no one's ever going to see

it. It's inward, hidden in the sense

that it's not on the outside. People see what's on the inside.

The hidden person or the inner person of the heart with the

incorruptible beauty, the transition in beauty from when

you have it as a young woman to being beautiful in your soul.

It gives you comfort to know that this beauty is

incorruptible. It's never going to go away.

It's going to be forever. What is it rooted in?

It's rooted in the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.

It will 100% be noticed. I guarantee you it'll be noticed

by people, but regardless of whether they recognize it, God's

going to see it. That's where our ultimate trust

is. That's where the faith comes in.

But you know what? We have consequences in this

world, the business world for generations.

And our culture for generations has pushed women to carve out

their place in the business world.

And by doing that, they have devalued what women are gifted

with by God the best. Now I want to be clear, women

can do so many things in arts and science and and construction

and all these things. My dad recently got one of a new

project manager and he said this girl is like the best project

manager he's had. Women are capable of of all

these things. They may not be blessed with the

physical strength. That's just a fact of nature.

But women are capable of so many things.

It's not that they're not capable, it's what are you

designed to serve? What is your most valuable

service? The world has pulled women away

from the glorious nurturing disposition.

It said. You need to go out and you need

to take what's yours in the business world.

The business world requires you in many ways to be harsh and

cruel at times, because unless you step out and you go get

what's yours, you're not going to get a raise.

You're not going to get that better job.

In some senses, it's true. Studies have shown when a woman

will go out and go get it, she will get more money.

But some of those dispositions are not encouraged of gentleness

and nurturing to the point where they get lost in her soul.

She stops valuing them, and so she stops becoming them.

I'm not saying you can be a career woman and a good, good

woman, a good godly woman, but the world doesn't encourage it.

The world wants to pull you in another direction.

It's brilliant on Satan's part, of course.

And you know what the result is? We have the most depressed,

anxious, sad generation in the world.

We have on record depression rates.

Suicide is through the roof. Why?

Because we've pulled women from the nurturing heart of our homes

and our lives. And we've said you're just

another salary, go get some more money so we can buy more stuff.

And you know what happens? People are not supported.

People are not cared for and loved.

And what's the benefit if you have a house or a car, if you

don't have peace and support and love women?

You outclass us every day of the week and you're nurturing.

A world without nurturing becomes cold, robotic, sterile

and stoic. You outclass us in emotional

awareness and empathy. We as a culture have not

honoured that in you, but in the church.

We must honour you in that, and we must encourage you to be

that, because that's what your most valuable role is.

We've got men here who can design you a building, build

that building, and fix things in that building if they go wrong.

But we're not always good about building people up.

May we learn from you and that, then may we learn from them, and

may you show us how to support people in a way that this church

needs desperately. Sometimes we might think of men

being the framework that's holding all things together.

But there's a biblical perspective in which the women

are the ones supporting all the work being done.

So it's just you could, you could draw it up two different

ways. Scriptures tell us we can't do

without you. You can't do without us.

It just goes hand in hand. We need your support.

Nobody can do it like you. And in this context, you might

be thinking, I don't have a husband or maybe mine's past.

You can still do all these things even if you don't have a

family right now. You know why?

Because in the church you have a place to provide the warmth,

support and love that so many need.

Where I grew up going to church, it kind of became like a halfway

house for the young men. We had so many young men, like 1

after another who were coming to Christ and they were treated

with disdain from their parents kind of in their later teen

years. And so it was a formative time

where they still needed love and care, and these young men were

just kind of broken, rejected by their own families and missing

love. And you know where they found

it? Often times with the women in

our congregation, they found camaraderie, brotherhood, and

iron, sharpening iron with me and other brothers, they found

that. But they found a comfort with

the women that they didn't find in US.

I saw young men rest in the presence of a godly woman's

home. Yes, in my mom's home.

But in other ladies homes, we'd go to the house and you could

just see it on their faces. They relaxed.

They had peace. They had just a calmness about

them that I didn't see anywhere else until they were in the

nurturing presence of a good woman, an older woman.

Maybe our home has even turned into that in a little bit.

I we joke about sometimes Taylor, the way she'll, she'll

take some of these young men who come and stay with us and she'll

make him a good meal. They can talk about their

struggles, their breakups, their their women troubles and then

get back on the right track and get going.

It's real. There is something that women

can provide that we can't do the same way you remember in the Old

Testament when Elijah was alone and depressed and he was on the

run. He didn't have a woman there.

And you know what God did? He gave him food.

He gave him a good night's rest and he got him on his way and

that restored him. He went on from there to do his

work. And we don't read of that

happening the same way again. The women helped provide that.

The women are the helpers that provide that kind of thing.

But you know what these women in in the congregation I grew up

in, it wasn't just their homes. I would see these young men

talking to the women after services and the women would ask

things about them that they knew they cared about.

Why? Because they're emotionally

intelligent and pay attention to what people care about.

And when they did that, they had these young men all of a sudden

who were crossed armed at 1st and and frustrated, opening up

about their problems and talking to them about everything.

They had an effect on them. And sometimes you're a Marian

and sometimes you're a Martha. Maybe you're a better host, but

maybe you're better about getting something out of people

and supporting them emotionally. Do it all.

Do whatever you can do. It needs to be done.

We need it. We've even got a brave soul that

does the honourable of work, of caring for foster children here.

But that can be done in this home.

The church can be a foster home for people who need love and

nurture. Adults, young, old, we need you.

I've heard this quote and it may have some.

There's plenty of criticism for it, but there's a truth to it

that is kind of striking that someone said God gave the man

the mind of God, but he gave the woman the heart of God.

There's a lot of what ifs about that, but the point is not easy

to dispute. These qualities of a godly woman

may not seem honourable to people for a long time in life,

but I've yet to see an 80 year old criticize another woman

who's surrounded by people who love her, whether it's a

congregation or children or grandchildren.

I've never seen any year old woman get criticized for that.

You know why? Because it stands the test of

time. It is incorruptible beauty.

There's a lot of loud party animals type who've lived their

life for them who I've seen a lot of regret out of and a lot

of misery. But this is an incorruptible

beauty. For in this manner, in former

times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorn

themselves being submissive to their own husbands.

There it is. They're trusting in God.

They're not trusting in the man. They're trusting God enough to

submit to what he says. Now we haven't even talked about

there's a place where abuse needs to handled by the

authorities of the church and the authorities of the law.

We're not getting into that. That's a whole other

conversation for another time, but if we will focus on these

virtues, they will change us. As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling

him Lord. That word means master.

I'm surrendering to you doesn't mean Lord God, it means leader,

Master, whose daughters you are, if you do good and are not

afraid with any terror. Hey terror, what is he saying?

The NIV says, I think a little bit clearer and do not give way

to fear. Remember Frank said not long

ago, there's a way to live a faith driven life and a way to

live a fear driven life. When you put your surrender to

the authority God has given you are standing in the way of fear

and saying no, I'm not going to be afraid.

I'm going to trust in you God. I'm going to put my faith in you

instead, and I hate to stop this because the men need a talking

to from verse 7, but I I got to we're we're we're on a time.

I have to pause here. The men are going to get it and

we have to provide the other side.

We have to provide support and love.

But maybe you haven't even started this walk and maybe you

are just needing to begin the surrender process, not just to

all these other areas of life that you will learn to surrender

in, but first to God. What does it mean to surrender

to God? Well, we first have to

understand what He wants to say and we have to hear Him

according to Romans 10/17. That's where faith comes from,

and that will hopefully produce belief in us.

There's required. We cannot serve God without

believing in Him and believing in Jesus Christ.

We have to be willing to do what we've talked about today, to go

from what I want to do, to submit and surrender to God's

will and to repent according to Luke 13 and three, and to

confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

That is the source of our salvation.

You can't be a Christian and be a Muslim because they don't

acknowledge the same source of salvation.

So we must confess Jesus and be baptized for the remission of

our sins according to Mark 1616, where we get that fresh start or

we have our sins washed away. And if you've done that, now

it's time to live faithfully. And if you need to start the

process and be baptized for the remission of your sins, or

whether you need help getting back on the right track to live

faithfully, we'd be happy to support you in one of these

ways. Always stand on what we see.