1 Peter - 2022

If you'd like to turn now, if you've got a Bible to 1 Peter, chapter 2, 1 of the things that Craig just referenced or mentioned in his prayers was marriages. And as we've been seeing in these last couple of weeks, and we'll see Today, Peter, who is this wonderful pastor, is writing and addressing different people in different situations and different needs. In these scattered churches. And we've come now to chapter chapter 3, but we're gonna start our reading in chapter 2 verse 21. So 2 verse 21 and then we're gonna read through to chapter 3 verse verse 7 and then Pete's gonna come and open these words to us.

So verse 21 to this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed.

For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.wives in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be 1 over without words by the behavior of their wives when they see the purity and the reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in god's sight. For this is the way, the holy women of the past who put their hope in god used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

Husbands in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers. Well, good morning. My name's Pete Woodcock, I'm 1 of the pastors of the church if you're visiting and it is great to have you with us. We're going through 1 Peter, as Tom says. And we're looking at this husbands.

Husbands, are you ready? Sure. Isn't it? Who's not ready? Let me pray.

Father help us, please, to listen to your word. There's 1 verse here for those who are husbands. And we pray pleased that you would help us to take this and seriously listen. We need your spirit to do so. We really do need your spirit.

To help us to be obedient to your word. So please, may your spirit be here that we may bring glory to your name? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. See if you recognize this conversation. I I guess you will.

If you're a parent, you will if you're even a a a kid, you should recognize this conversation. It goes something like this. Dad, Can I stop their son? I am not talking to you until you go and say, sorry to your mother. But dad, I just want go and say, sorry to your mother, and then I'll speak to you.

If you go, Now that's a really, really important conversation actually. It's very, very important that children learn that actually. They learn that how you treat 1 member of their family affects your relationship with other members of their family. They need to learn that. And they need to learn that because that's the way God works.

God works like that. God will never allow us to separate our relationship with him, from our relationships with others, how we treat other people. Your relationship with God affects the way you treat other people, and your relationship with other people affects how you treat God. Your relationship with God. There's there's a really false spirituality that separates our relationship with God from our relationship with people.

That's a false spirituality. You could spend hours on a mountain top, and I don't know why these people always want to go up a mountain or island or something. You could spend hours on a mountain top or on an island. You could read scriptures for hours upon hours. But if you're mean and cruel and rude and unkind and unthankful to the people that God has put around you, He's not going to listen to you.

Jesus makes it very clear in the sermon on the mount, that magnificent sermon. He says that if you come and offer your gift at the altar, in other words, he's using old testament imagery there. If you come to God with a gift to bring you into god's presence. And you remember at that point that your brother has something against you that a member of the family, the member of the kingdom of God has something against you. Leave the altar.

Leave that relationship with God and go back and be reconciled to your brother, then bring your gift. There's going to be no authentic worship, he says. There'll be no authentic or effective prayer If you treat people badly, leave your gift there in front of the altar says Jesus, go first and be reconciled to them and then come back and offer your gift. Now look at 1, Peter, chapter 3 verse 7. Hushbonds in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives.

So he's talking to husbands and then look at the end. Look at the end of the verse. So that nothing will hinder your prayers. So that nothing will hinder your I'm not listening to your prayers. Until you go and treat your wife properly.

See what he's saying? Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 12, which we're we're come onto, but just have a look. For the eyes of the lord are on the righteous. The eyes of the lord are on the righteous. And his ears are attentive to their prayers.

Who's prayers? The righteous? The 1 he looks at? But the face of the lord is against those who do evil. God's ears are attentive to the prayers of the righteous, but he will not listen to those who do evil.

Jane says in his book in the bible, the prayers of the righteous man is is effect the prayer of a righteous man is effective. In other words, you can't separate right living, which is how you treat people around you, and prayer and God. Don't be 1 of these super spiritual people that thinks that you can have super spiritual experiences. It doesn't matter what experience you have. If you're treating people wrongly, God's not listening.

That's the principle. And it runs right the way through the bible and Peter takes it up in this passage, his husband's and particularly talking to you husband's although this will relate to all kinds of relationships, but husbands. If you are relating to your wives in an unrighteous way, your prayers will be hindered. I'm not talking to you until you go and sort that out with your wife. If you're not treating your wife right at home, Don't think that God will listen to your prayers here in church.

God will press the mute button. Click it off and your head can be talking a hundred miles an hour. There are all kinds of stuff, but he's pressed a mute button. I don't wanna hear until you go back. So how am I to be a righteous man?

How am I to treat my wife as a Christian husband? So that God will be happy with my prayers. Now I realize that coming to church can be a tense moment in families, particularly when the stupid government takes away an hour or whatever it is. There's suddenly tension. And I guess, and let me just sort of, you know, say the elephant in the room.

There's been some drop on the way coming here. And why didn't you know what? Why didn't you do the clock? You shouldn't have done the clock or something. Where's the sandwiches on?

Where's the biscuits We have to get the kids in the car. Oh, we're gonna be late. There's all of that sort of already happened. Okay? Let's let's try and put that to a side so that we can then hear this and then you can repenter that later.

Okay? But you do need to repenter that. So how am I going to live? Well, here's the first point. Here's the first point.

Be like Christ. Notice he says, in the same way. Be like Christ in the same way. Look versus 7 husbands in the same way. The path of Christian living is not different for the husband or for the wife.

They're they're the same. It's the same path for the husband and the wife. Both are called. In fact, we're all called to follow Christ in humble, compassionate love, and forgiving grace. That's what we're called to husbands.

That's what you're called to wives. We're called to be humble, compassionate in our love, and have forgiving grace. So back to the powerful illustration of Christ at the end of chapter 2. Go back to chapter 2 of Peter, and you'll see that in the same way. It means in the same way as Christ did this.

Christ behaved like this. Husbands you following that example. So look at chapter 2 verse 21. So this you were called. This is your calling.

This is your high calling. This is this is the calling above every other thing you do in life. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats instead entrusted himself to him who judges justly, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. So that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, we bet have been healed for you were cheap going astray, but now you have returned to the ship at the Overseas of your souls. Now there's so much stuff in there, but it's how Christ lived. And we are called to be like him.

No 1 had more authority than Christ, the king of kings. No 1 has more power than the creator of the universe. And yet look how he responded to ill treatment. Look how he responded to cruel people. Look how he responded to unjust sufferings.

He was sinless. He was innocent. He was perfect. Christ denied himself. He could have grumbled.

He could have said, you treat me like that? And I'll treat you like this. He could have clicked his fingers and angels would have been at his disposal to take anyone off that was disagreeing with him. He could have embarked out his orders. And we're not meant to do that.

We're meant to be like Christ without retaliation, without threatenings, not doubting the mission of God, trusting the mission of God are calling. So husbands in the same way, deny yourself. Don't abuse your authority. Don't bark out your orders. Don't lose your temper with your wife.

Don't force obedience. Whether that's physically, powerfully, or that that horrible, passive aggression that some of us have. Where you go grumpy or moody if you don't get your way. It's an aggression, but it's called a passive aggression. Christ didn't do any of that.

No sin. No deceit. No insults. So that is your job. Your wife is given to you for you to love and to lead so that together you can serve him.

Like Christ, He loved the church and gave his life for the church. You do the same. The the heart of a godly man then is to imitate his savior. Follow his savior. Use all his powers to serve his wife not demanding his rights, but serving his wife so that together You serve.

There's you'll notice there's a lot of togethers in this in a minute. We'll see that. Together we serve God. Just go back to Ephesians chapter 5 and see Paul sort of developing this same thought. So in Ephesians 5, it won't come up, it doesn't matter.

We need to learn to open our bibles. Ephesians 5 and verse 26. Listen to this, there's so much here, and I can't really open all this up because we are in 1 Peter. But nevertheless, look, husbands love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

You see that? So husbands, your job is to give yourself, give your life. You are to save your wife as it were. You are to give your life. For her.

What why? To make her wholly cleansing, It's a beautiful word. It's a delicate word. It's cleaning. It's dabbing.

It's cleansing her. Washing her like you would a sick person. You would dab them, you would wash them, you would clean them, you would move them into the right position, like a nurse cleansing your wife. This There's a gentleness there. But but how do you wash her?

By the washing with the water through the word, you're you're using the word of God And you're you're ministering to her the word of God, not shouting at her, not not just saying, look what a Bible says. That's that's not caring. That's not washing. It's ministering the word of God. How do I treat my wife?

What am I supposed to do here? Adapt her here, a washer here, or turn her over here like a nurse bathing, a sick person, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, your job man is to wash your wife and clean your wife with the word of God so that you're gonna give her to another man. It's extraordinary, isn't it? Your job is to give her to another man Your job is to prepare her for Jesus. 6 not not for you, Not so you can dominate her.

You're preparing her for Jesus and then look and to present her to himself as a radiant church without staying or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless. In the same way, there's the same phrase that Peter uses. In the same way, husbands or to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no 1 ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church.

For we are members of his body, For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and the 2 will become 1 flesh This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ of the Church. However, each of you must love his wife. As he loves himself and his wife must respect her husband. Love, give, wash, concerned that the wife is becoming more like Christ. How do I minister to her?

How do I wash her? How do I how do I deal with this? Not in some authoritative, shouty way, but loving, caring, leading. That's my job as a husband, Peter, is saying. It it's not that I go to work and I've done the work and I've earned the wages and so therefore I come home and now it's an opportunity for me to be served because I'm pay paying the maid to serve me.

It's it's I I I come home from the secular work to serve my wife. To minister the word God to her, to listen to her day, to dabber with the water of the word. Yeah? So in the same way as Christ is committed to the church, you husband you'd be committed to your wife. That's the first point.

Okay? Here's the second that Peter says, be considerate. It means knowledge. Look at verse 7 again. We'll read 7 quite a few times, husbands in the same way, say where is Christ?

We've seen that as the first point. Be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life. So that nothing will come into your prayers. Be considerate. Now the word there is is knowledge.

According to knowledge, So look at your wife according to knowledge. It's an intimate word. It's a word that's often used where a man knows his wife. It's often used for sex. But Peter isn't going on about sex here.

He's not suddenly, you know, talking about slaves and wives and all now men sex. And everybody's ears are up. Oh yeah, this is the bit I wanna hear. I don't think this is about sex. Even though 1 commentary I read said is all about sex.

But that was a bloke who wrote that. But it's intimate, it's personal, it's knowledge, it's rationally knowing, it's intimacy in the sense of a best friend. I know this person. I understand her. It's amazing, isn't it that 2 married people can live together and not really know each other.

Ignorance is is a danger in any area of life, but particularly in marriage. Apply your mind to your wife. Peter is saying, there's nobody else in the world like your wife. She's like no other woman that God has made. I'm just treated like a woman.

She's your wife. You need to know her. Your job is to know her. Your job is to know her and to know the scriptures to help her. You know her and you know the scriptures, you're not ignorant of them, and you know how to help her.

Understand your wife. What makes her happy? Discover what hurts her and avoid it. Understand her struggles, her fears, her emotions, her hopes, her dreams, let knowledge shape the way you relate to her. I heard an American pastor say this.

It has to be Americans. Everybody has a shrink and a council. I don't they. But he said this. To husband's, never let it be said that her best friend or her counselor understand her better than you.

I thought that was amazing. There should be no 1 who understands your wife better than you. That's God's calling for you, a lifelong calling to understand her and understand her today. Know, people talk nonsense to her. She's not the woman I married.

Watch whether you're not the bloke. She married. It's just nonsense, isn't it? You've got to understand her today and the thing she's going through today and the circumstances in her life and the circumstances that are changing her today. Know her, know the scriptures, and shape your relationship with her around that.

You know, some blokes know their football team better than their wife. Oh, yeah. He's got big toe problem. That's why he's not playing today. A metatarsal issue.

Who had ever heard of that until football came along? Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. Of course, we're not playing him today because we're in for the game tomorrow.

You know, it's got the We know our football team. We can talk about it like you know, he's gonna play yeah. He's he's I'm so pleased he's playing today. How's your wife? Oh, don't know?

But he's really good. Or some people, you know, go bird watching. And they can tell you everything about the bird, oh, that's a that's a that's a gray a gray magpie. Or as I saw around here, in fact, there is 1 here. That's a gray wax tail.

And you know, gray wax tails are yellow. There's a yellow wax tail as well, but the yellow wax tail is not quite as gray is the gray waxed out because the gray waxed out has got a little bit of gray out the front. And you'll notice this is a Now look at the lovely plumes here. That is he's he's obviously a a male. He's got nice yellow things.

So how's your wife? I don't know. But look at the see see oh, no. See you know what he's doing. The tail goes up and down in time.

Do you know once? I watched the gray wack tail, which is yellow. And I I noticed that it was in with my house, your wife, I have no idea. What's she doing? I don't know.

No. She's out with some friends. All people know about fish, Trench, Oh, you get the lovely tinge. Tinge is at the bottom feeder. You left.

You gotta catch a tinge. You gotta get go into the troughs in the because they're in the troughs. They're a bottom feeder. Their mouth is lovely tension. There's there's orange tension.

There's very tension. But if you look at the eyes of a tension, they've got lovely orange eyes. How's your wife, Antenna? What's she doing? That's humming.

Know your wife. Study her. Get the binoculars out. Actually, that would be weird. But study her.

Watch her plumage. What Anyway, let's move on. I'm gonna move on. Yeah. Be considerate, so know her.

That's what it means. As you live with your wife, live with your wife in an understanding way. That's what he's saying. But those words there, Live means dwell or house and with means obviously together. So it's dwell together, house together.

And it's a command from the apostle Peter. Husbands, you are responsible for the togetherness, the living togetherness, of your marriage. It's not her job. It's your job. If there's drifting in your marriage, if there's distance or a dullness in your marriage, it may not be your fault husband, but it might be.

But even if it isn't, Your job is to sort that drifting out. Do well live together in understanding. You're not flatmates. This isn't a flatmate that you have sex with. This is someone that you dwell together with.

She's not a flatmate. She's a helper of the lord for you to do god's work. She's not there to serve you or to serve your plans. She's there to help you together do god's work. There is such a thing as as mental separation.

I've noticed this in marriage over the years. Largely, when people go for divorce, there's been a mental divorce before before physical divorce obviously. Mental separation. Adam did this. Was very clear.

So there's Adam and Eve. They're married. They've become 1 flesh. God comes and says, have you eaten of the fruit? And Adam, instead of saying, look, Eve and I are 1 here, Eve was taken out of my side.

My side. She's bone of my bone. She's flesh of my flesh. And therefore, this is my fault. This went wrong.

That we together at this fruit. What he what he does is he commits mental divorce immediately. The woman you put here, it's her fault. And he starts thinking of his wife as separate to himself. God made the 2 1, but now it's no.

It's he's mentally separating. It's her fault. And when you get to that situation, then it's not wrong before there is a divorce. What God has joined together, let no man separate. Not even mentally.

So be careful. We're to dwell together. We're to have the same ambitions and plans. We are, and it's not around a nice sofa and a nice house and good children. It's together to serve God.

So that's the second thing. First, be like Christ in the same way he says second. Be considerate. That means that you live with 1 another according to knowledge and you're about the same mission. Here's the third point.

Respect or honor. See, verse 7 look. And treat them with respect as the weaker partner. Respect means honor here. Honor them.

You place her in the highest place of honor. She's chosen to submit to you. Make sure that you treat that with sacred trust. Cherish your wife, honor your wife. Use your strength to support her, to bless her, to speak to her in a way that makes her feel honored, that she's honored, speak to her in a way that exalts her, and when you're out, And when you talk about her, speak to her in a way that exalts her.

I remember when Tom and myself were talking to a fisherman, back to fish, and downtown Bakersfield Bridge. And we were chatting to a blokes and what you're catching mate, fishermen are very wily people. They don't like to give away much. You've got to talk to them in a particular way. And they don't like young blokes.

They prefer older blokes. So I think Tom asked that it shut it down straight away I have to ask in an old bloke way. Yeah. Yeah. Where are they?

Oh, you fish fish. Yeah. Yeah. Tench, you know. You you've sort of got to talk like this.

And and I said, oh, what bait are you using? And a bloke came along and said, I would chop my wife up and use my wife as bait. And it was like flipping egg. It was it was, like, shocking, and it it wasn't even funny. And you know, I wanted to move away from this bloke.

It's fishermen always say things like Yeah. Well, it gets me away from the wife. It's always the wife. It gets me away from the wife. This bloke was saying it gets me away from the wife, and I'd like to use her as bait.

No honor there was there. It was quite shocking. You treat her as if she's got a very high price tag. Proverbs 30 one:ten says an excellent wife who can find for her worth is far more far above jewels. If you've got an excellent wife, you treat her like jewelry.

Yeah. We we haven't. We treat them with respect as the weaker partner The weaker partner here, the word part really means vessel. It's like a vase. So husbands, This is how you were to treat your wife.

Precious. You treat your wife as a precious, beautiful, expensive fragile Vase. It's not necessarily saying she's fragile, but it although I think it will receive that in a minute. But at this point, you treat her like that. You treat her as the fragile, weaker 1.

Don't handle roughly. Look at look at the bottom and you'll see them the manufacturer's instruction, fragile. Handle with care. You treat your wife as a treasure pot. A mean vase.

You don't throw around, roughly treat her You treat her especially as if she's got great treasure in her as the weaker partner. She's not weaker intellectual She's not weaker morally. She's not weaker spiritually. She's submitting to you. So you treat her with great respect as god loves to treat the weak and the vulnerable with special hands of love and delicacy.

The Greek goes like this. Let me tell you the literal Greek of this little bit of the verse. Dwelling with according to knowledge, as with a weaker vessel with the female. Right? Let me read that again.

This is this is the literal Greek. Dwelling with according to knowledge, we've seen that. As with the weaker vessel, with the female, And the word female there is the word feminine, and it means belonging to women. So you treat her as a woman. She's not a man.

So don't treat her like a man. You treat her like a woman with that which belongs to a woman. She's different to you. So you treat her like a treasure pot But you treat her like a treasure pod, who's different to you. Now this is where we men find it quite hard.

So for instance, if you come to the hub, it's quite manly there. And unfortunately, for the women that work there, for Safran and Cass They have to put up with a lot, and we've got to rethink this sometimes. But Tom, Dean, Ben, we're all men And we like men company, and we talk like blokes. Yeah? And we can have fun together and speak to each other.

But I mustn't go home and treat Anne like that. Why? Because she's not a man. She's a woman. So we've got to be careful if we're surrounded by blokes all the time.

We're bloody, come home, you know, you know, I'm like, what? Yeah. Hell, yeah. I had. Here.

Alright. What are you doing? You know, if if I treat her like I treat Ben and Dean and Tom, my goodness. So what he's saying is dwell with a court dwell with according to knowledge. So you're living together, working together, with knowledge in your head as a weaker vessel, she's pressured, but she's a female precious 1.

So husband's don't treat your wife like a man. As if they they are a man, they're not. In nature and in Constitution of Woman is more vulnerable. She's weaker. She's more vulnerable.

A treater like that. In grace, your wife is exactly the same as you. Same grace that worked in your life works in her life. Same life that Jesus Christ has given you. She's he's given to to her.

All the privileges of the gospel that are given to you or given to her, and so that leads me to my fur fourth point. As together, do you see that? Ayes together. Be like Christ serving your wife. Be considerate live with 1 another.

You live with her according to your knowledge. Respect, honor her as a woman, as a wife, Now your airs together, first 7. And as airs with you, of the gracious gift of life. What you have she has. Your joint heirs, your co inheritors, with the lord Jesus Christ.

You may have different roles. You do have different roles. But don't think that 1 is lesser than the other. Let's get rid of that lie that's around today. So if women are lesser beings and and we're saying because they've got a different role they're lesser it's absolute nonsense.

We've seen the word submission and how strong that is. Meekness, under control. Your equal ears, you have equal city. You have equal gifts of life. You have you're equal in the kingdom of god.

You may have different roles. Your partners, you're not competitors. Please remember that. You're working together for God's Kingdom. You're encouraging each other to be about God's Kingdom.

And we we saw last week, if you heard last week, if you didn't, then go and listen to it. That Abraham needed Sarah to fulfill his God given mission. He couldn't have done it without Sarah. How could he? Have a baby without her.

He needed Sarah to fulfill her calling as a wife so that he could fulfill his calling as a husband and a man of faith. Adam. Adam was made to go into god's world, under god's word, to do god's work, and he needed Eve. As a helper to do that, it wasn't competition. They weren't about different works.

It was like the man is about the kingdom of god and the woman's at home about the children. There was no division here It was about the kingdom of God. They all work together. They need each other to do the work of God in the world. I have to say that I would genuinely genuinely not be able to have done my ministry without anne.

And is actually pretty talented. Way more intelligent than me. Way more I'm not I'm not being humble here. And if you know, you know, way more intelligent, much nicer personality, doesn't get ourselves in trouble, follows the laws of the world, which is very frustrating. When you're the opposite to that, She could have gone very far in the literary world, but she's not a competitor She's been behind the scenes person to support the work of God, a submissive strength An is a covenant woman who's got a contract with the lord and way up yonder woman she'll get a great reward.

Your wife is a covenant woman. She's got a contract with the Lord as you have. An air together with the Lord about god's work together jointly And that leads me to my fifth point. It's the last 1, so husband's in the same way. Say, where is Jesus?

Be considerate, understanding, as you live with your wives, and treat them with Becton as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, why? Well, all the reasons I've given, but here's the punch line so that nothing will hinder your praise. So now we're back to the overall mission that I think Peter is talking about, which is Chapter 2 verse 12. Chapter 2, verse 12 says this, live such good lives among the pagans, non Christians, that though they may accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. So Peter is wanting us to live in a way that reaches the hard pagan for Christ.

We've seen that in the various things that we've looked at, slaves and obedient to authorities and wives and so forth. So now we're back to his overall mission. If we're going to achieve that overall mission, the the pagan the hard person that's against the gospel will come to faith and bring glory to Christ. If we're gonna do that mission, you need to pray. You can't do that mission without prayer.

We need help from our heavenly father. We can't live without prayer, without a relationship with God, we can't do that. And if God's saying at our point, the way you treat your wife, I'm not going to listen to you and therefore you'll never reach the lost. What will happen is we become hippocrits. We become religious lawmakers.

We become self righteous, angry people. We can't do it without prayer. And if we can't pray, we won't be able to do this work. We need to pray, listen to the Lord's prayer. That's so often called the Lord's prayer.

It's so helpful. This is the prayer of the couple This is what we want to be praying. There's a couple. Our our father in heaven. Father, you're our father.

You're in heaven. We're both children of God. Hallowed to be your name. May your name be honored around us? Well, God's gonna say, I'm not gonna listen to that prayer if you're not honoring your wife.

Stop talking about honoring me if you're not honoring your wife. Our father in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is as it is in heaven. How could you pray that prayer when you're not honoring your wife? How could you say your will be done in heaven?

When you're saying rude things to your wife or mistreating your wife, you can't pray that prayer. Forgive us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors and lead us not in attemptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. Except, miss treaty, my wife, please. That's the prayer as a couple. That's what we're together.

That's where we're together, working together, not in competition. We got different roles and and maybe they're different at different times in our lives, but we're working together for the glory of God If God doesn't hear our prayers, there's no hope for us to follow in the footsteps of Christ because he prayed Critical to our mission is how we relate to others in the home and in the church. And if you are badly relating, you won't be able to pray, you won't be about the mission. So that nothing will hinder your prayers. Listen to Isaiah chapter 1.

Just listen to it. Isaiah chapter 1 versus 15 to 17. Listen. This is God speaking to his people. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you.

Even when you offer many prayers, I'm not listening. Your hands are full of blood. Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sights Stop doing wrong. Learn to do what is right, seek justice, defend the oppressed, the weak ones.

The vulnerable ones. Take up the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widows. How you live and how you treat the vulnerable, if you treat them badly, God won't listen. So how husbands are you treating the weaker vessel? The root of the word hinder.

It's a very hard word that Peter uses here. So that nothing will hinder your prayers. It's very harsh. It means cut down, cut off, it means to render something fruitless. If you treat your wife badly, I your your prayers will be fruitless.

It's not a passive thing. It's an act active thing that God does. He said god is actively not listening to your prayers. So it's very strong stuff, isn't it? I don't know whether you've prayed and you realize you're not praying.

I remember we we we had to deal with a a woman once. And it was shocking what she said about another Christian woman. It was shocking. I mean, breathtaking. Be shocking.

And I, to be honest, didn't know what to do. I was both embarrassed, shocked, I felt dirty. I actually went home and I know this sounds odd, but I went home and had a shower. I felt so dirty. At the way this woman was talking about another Christian woman.

The interesting thing is, She was all mouthy and said, let's pray. Why don't you pray? Shouldn't we pray? You should pray. And, unfortunately, I didn't I really didn't know what to do, but I couldn't pray, really.

Although I did, it was just words coming out of my mouth. Her life was so horrible. What she was saying about another Christian was so horrible that I faked a prayer. And that's what made me feel so dirty because I didn't really mean it. What I wanted to say is god bless this woman.

Bring down your wrath on this woman and upon her mouth. But I prayed something I owe, let us be loving and let us be kind. Wasn't real. When relationships are broken, it's hard to pray. If you're not praying, Could it be the way you're treating people, and in particular, we're dealing with husbands and wives?

So brothers, Look at your precious wife. Yeah? She's pretty precious. Yeah. I mean, who else would wanna be married to you?

I mean, they're a saint. Aren't they? When Anne started at a good book, they used to call a Saint Anne because I knew the founder of the good book company. It's extraordinary, isn't it? So we have to Do these things' husbands in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and there's errors with you of the gracious gift of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

The amplified Bible, it's a funny it's a funny name for a Bible because it sounds you know, it's really you open it up and it's like a Harry Potter thing and it shouts at you. But what it means is that they add the words to show you the Greek because the Greek word's been so much I actually really like this. I'm gonna read it. Let me read it. In the same way, you husbands live with your wives in an under standing way with great gentleness and tact and with an intelligent regard for the marriage relationship.

As with someone physically weaker since she is a woman. Show her honor and respect as a fellow heir of grace of the grace of life. So that your prayers will not be hindered and ineffective. I'm gonna read it again because it's so good. That's what it says here.

You need to holy spirit now. You need to repent of how you've treated your wife right now will give you some time because you know, it was tense coming today perhaps. And you need to tell your wife, that she's a great blessing to you and lets together recommit to serve God together. There's not be competitors anymore. Let me read it again.

In the same way, you husbands live with your wives in an understanding way with great gentleness and tact, and with an intelligent regard for the marriage relationship. As with someone physically weaker since she is a woman. Show her honor and respect as a fellow heir of grace of life so that your prayers will not be hindered. Or ineffective. Do you need to confess to God?

Men, let's do that right now. Father, we thank you for your word to us this morning. And we we want to take an opportunity, whoever we are, but especially his husband's to say, sorry, to you to confess the ways in which we have failed to be like Christ in this area. For the ways we failed to be considerate as we live with our wives We're sorry that we have not thought hard about how to know them, studied them, to live according to knowledge with them. We'd pray that you would forgive us for not showing the proper respect, the proper proper honor is due to to to wives, to our wives.

We pray that you would forgive us for those times when we haven't recognize that together they are ears with us of the gracious gift of life, that they are equal in grace, that we are children of the king, that we need you together as much as 1 another. And we thank you, lord, that in your in your kindness and in your severity, you will even go so far as to block our fellowship with you in order to lead us to repentance and to draw us up short and to show us that you will not have sustained hippocrits as your children. Really, and you you want to lead us back to you. And Lord, we thank you that we come to you this morning, knowing that there is there is big grace for failures like us. We thank you for the Lord Jesus.

For what we read of him in chapter 2 that he himself bore our sins these sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. We thank you that through the wounds of Jesus, failed husbands, failed wives have been healed of our sin and have been made right before you. And we pray that you would help us to live lives that are worthy of that great salvation to to live out who we are. Has forgiven children of the king. And we thank you for for that in Jesus' name, amen.