you. ♪ We're in reality ♪ You so so Yeah. so so Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Well, good morning, everyone. If you want to come in and find a seat, we'll be reading Psalm 43 this morning as our call to worship. So if you'd like to turn there in your Bible, Psalm 43. Psalm 43, Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. From the deceitful and unjust man deliver me. For you are the God in whom I take refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God. to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God my God. Why are you cast down on my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." So this psalm contains an earnest appeal to God to assist the suffering author and protect him from the efforts of an ungodly nation and from the designs of a deceitful and ungodly people. And it's an appeal to God as a strength within the language of anxious inquiry of why he has cast him off, why he has rejected him, and why has he allowed him to go on mourning because of the oppression of his enemy. And it's an earnest prayer that God would interpose and send out his light and truth and permit him to go again to his holy hill and to the dwelling place of God and to the altar. And it's also a self-reproach that he has thus rejected and dispirited an appeal to his own soul to arouse itself and put its trust in God. It is a psalm like Psalm 42 was last week of great practical value to those who are saddened and despondent. He starts out with, vindicate me, O God. This is a familiar theme in the psalms, a cry for vindication. He feels unjustly accused, but he takes that to the right place, to the throne of God, and leaves his vindication up to God. And he cries out to deliver from the deceitful and ungodly people. But then he turns out in verse 3 to send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. This is a prayer of submission. He wants to submit himself to the light and the truth of God and let them lead him. And that's where his proclamation of praise starts. When he's led by the light and truth of God, and He asks to bring them to your holy hill, to the dwelling, to the altar of God, to the God of my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre. That's where God's light and truth lead us, to praise Him. Under the new covenant, we no longer offer animal sacrifices at the altar, but Hebrews 13, 15 says, therefore by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. That is our call today, that's why we're here, is to praise God as well. And then he ends this, why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? The psalmist here has hope of, has the hope of God's redemption, but it hasn't come yet. In the meantime, he will not give into his feelings of depression and discouragement. Instead, he'll challenge those feelings and bring them before the Lord. says to those who are cast down and disquieted. She says to those cast down and disquieted feelings, hope in God. He will come through again because he has before. We see at the end of the psalm, none of the circumstances for the psalmist have changed, but he is hoping in God. And he's praising God because God's light and truth has directed him to the proper place. So that's our hope for today too, that we'll see God's light and truth. We'll hear them preach and we'll praise God through song, through our worship here this morning. So let's pray. Lord, thank you that we have the ability to gather here as your people before you. Lord, I pray that your light and your truth would guide us today and that we would, you would be our God of exceeding joy, that we would take exceeding joy in knowing that you are our God and that our praise today would reflect that, Lord. Would you work in our hearts and our lives as we hear your word preached, as we sing psalms of praise that it would all be done to your honor and glory, and that you would be at work in us, Lord, that our hope too would be fixed on you, Lord, that whatever happens in our life, whatever we're going through, whatever trials, whatever state of mind we're in, Lord, we would turn our eyes to you again today, Lord, as we gather here as your people, and that we would sing your praise, Lord, that our hearts would be singing your praise, As we meet, as we talk, as we sing, as we hear your word preached, Lord, that all would be done with an exceeding joy knowing that you are our God, Lord. So be with us this day, Lord. Give us a great joy in the salvation you have bought. Lord, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you all here. Welcome to everyone. I know some of you have come from a long ways, and welcome to all our guests this morning. Whether this is your first time or whether you're back again, it's good to have you with us. And good to be with all of you, brothers and sisters in the Lord, the church here at Grace Community. I notice on the overhead, there's a different song than we had planned to sing first. That's okay. Class, could you skip us to the next one? Thank you. My soul finds rest, so please stand. So, My soul finds rest in God alone, my rock and my salvation. A fortress hung down against my throat, and I will not be shamed. O lips make blessed, and hearts make cursed, and eyes like arrows pierce me. O kiss my heart of righteousness, I'll look to Him who hears me. Oh, praise Him! Hallelujah! Mighty God and mighty Lord! Everlasting, ever living, our Redeemer! I'm not alone. ♪ O set your heart upon Him ♪ ♪ O lift up, O privilege I sow ♪ ♪ Our harvest day in heaven ♪ ♪ O praise Him, hallelujah ♪ ♪ My delight and my reward ♪ my soul The wine is but a fleeting breath, a sigh to bring to measure. My king has crushed the curse of death, and I am his forever. Oh, praise him, hallelujah, my divine admirer. ♪ My Redeemer, my God. ♪ ♪ Oh, praise Him! Hallelujah! ♪ ♪ My delight and my reward. ♪ ♪ Everlasting, ever quivering, ♪ ♪ My Redeemer, my God. ♪ All right, please be seated. Thank you. Good morning, brothers and sisters. Good morning. Are you sleeping? It's not time for that yet. It's always interesting in the providence of God how the morning goes sometimes. We just said, should we take a song out this morning? Because we have a lot of announcements. No, we'll leave it in. No, the Lord took it out. So we'll sing it next week. I would like to call up Nella and Tina Wolf. They're here. Good. We're going to start this morning by bringing them into membership a number of weeks ago, maybe about a month ago actually. We were at Park Lake for your baptisms and it was wonderful to see. And this morning we want to officially have them brought into membership with us. But what we haven't done for a while is read through the covenant together as a church. And this is what all of us have, who have become official members here, have agreed to do with and to one another here at Grace Community Church. And this is also another great opportunity that if you have been coming for a while and you feel that the Lord has brought you here and that maybe this is a place that you would like to stay and continue attending, that you talk to one of the elders and we can start the process of bringing you into membership here to join in the community that is Grace Community Church. So I wanted to read this morning as a refresher for all of us what it means to be a member here. It's an important thing. We need one another very badly so that we continue on in admonishing, watching over one another so that we might not fall into sin. We need one another to spur each other on to greater sanctification and holiness, to uphold the name of Christ together. A Christian can't do that properly on his or her own. So let's read together The covenant, it's up on the screen if you want to follow along. Having as we trust been brought by divine grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus and to give up ourselves to him and having been baptized upon our confession of faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, relying on his gracious aid, solemnly and joyfully renew our covenant with each other. We will work and pray for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We will walk together in brotherly love as becomes the members of a Christian church, exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion may require. We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for ourselves and others. We will endeavor to bring up such as may at any time be under our care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by pure and loving example to seek the salvation of family and friends. We will rejoice at each other's happinesses and endeavor, with tenderness and sympathy, to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. We will seek, by divine aid, to live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and remembering that as we have been voluntarily buried by baptism and raised again from the symbolic grave, so there is on us a special obligation now to lead a new and holy life. We will work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in this church as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines. We will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry the expense of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations. We have read, understood, and agreed with the church's constitution and policies found within. We will, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's Word. May the grace of our Lord Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. That's what we're in this together, brothers and sisters, for those things. That's a wonderful document. that reminds us of our obligation to one another and our obligation to Christ as we serve and live in this world. So we're delighted to bring you sisters in this morning. I have here two copies, one for you and one that we will take. So I will get you each to sign both. There's a pen there. What's today? 15th. See, we need one another. Thank you, sisters. Welcome. Welcome here. Take time and welcome our sisters officially. Before I continue with announcements, I'm just going to have Nathan pray. Father, as we Take time to remember our covenant with one another. A covenant that is founded upon the principles of the Word, how we are to relate to one another. We give you thanks. You've brought these two sisters, sisters in Christ, to us. Tina and Mellon Wolfe. And Lord, we just earnestly pray that as we receive them into membership with us, that they would know that they are part of the body of Christ in truth, that it would not be a mere covenant of words, covenant of human construction, but that it would be, that they would know that they are in Christ's body, serving and being served by the church, as living stones being built up together with us as spiritual house so that we might become the temple of the living God and represent Christ faithfully in this world and then be united with Christ for eternity together as His body. And Lord, as we think about our body this morning, this body of believers, and we think about all the different people that you brought together in covenant with one another, people from so many different tongues and tribes and nations, people from so many different backgrounds and even languages, Lord, and you brought us together. We ask, Lord, that your Spirit would fill us, your Spirit would unite us in Christ, that we would love and serve one another with earnest love, fervent love, not merely saying the right things, not merely showing up with a smile on Sunday morning, but praying for one another, supporting one another, helping one another, suffering with one another, rejoicing with one another, and admonishing one another, and encouraging one another. Lord, we pray to you. Because in and of ourselves, we're not strong enough to do this. Sooner or later, our sins and our shortcomings and our failures will get in the way. But Lord, we pray for your help to do this in a way that honors you. We need you. We need your spirit. So rest upon us. Rest upon Tina. Rest upon Nella. Stir them up to love and good works among us. and help us to show them through our love and through our service to them that they are daughters of the King, part of the Bride of Christ, and help us to glorify Christ together. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm going to call up Ashley and Lazar. They also have some announcements for us while they come up. Just a few other announcements. This fall, we're going to start off a new season of Grace Groups, probably sometime in September. And we're actually going to work through the church membership manual. This is a document that's been put together, and it's growing and changing. And anyone who comes here has to work through it. And there's many people who have been here for a very long time who maybe never had to go through such a thing and so we thought it would be advantageous for us as a church to work through the whole membership manual this fall in our grace groups. I think it's going to be very beneficial for us. Also, immediately after, we're going to have a fellowship meal. And we are celebrating and mourning and seeing off Peter and Zoe, who are taking off. This is their last Sunday here with us. And so we just want to wish them well. We want to celebrate the good times that we've had together with food and fellowship. And just a call. Let's be in prayer for them. They're off to Kisbee. Saskatchewan, and they have jobs in mind, but jobs are not necessarily lined up per se, so let's pray for that. And also that they would be able to gain a good foothold in the community, as the reason they're moving there is to help plant a church there. And so that God would open up the doors and connections of friends and acquaintances, that they might let the light of Christ shine there. Next Sunday is the Lord's Table, so if you are bringing a visitor or you are here new this week and you would like to partake with us next Sunday on the Lord's Table, please contact one of the elders. We would simply like to hear your testimony and a brief understanding of the Gospel from you. Also, prayer meetings continue online and at Caitlin and my place in Lethbridge. And as I read through the covenant, I noticed there were two times in there, a commitment to pray for one another. And a great way to do that is to join in some way into a prayer meeting to keep this church as the focal point of our prayers. With that, I'm just gonna hand it over to you two for a few more. Good morning. So on behalf of the Ladies Committee of the Church, I have a few announcements to make. The first is that we're going to be starting a new cycle of Secret Sister. For anyone who's maybe new to the Church and doesn't know what Secret Sister is, it's a program that pairs up women participating with a Secret Sister in the Church. This is someone who you will pray for, you will seek to encourage them, and get to know them better throughout the year without letting them know that you're their Secret Sister. And at the same time, there will be a woman in the church who's doing the same thing for you. So this has been just a great way for women of the church to get to know one another, to encourage and build one another up. And at the end of our Secret Sister program, we like to have a reveal night where you will find out who your Secret Sister has been. So we want to invite all the women 18 years and older to participate. There are Secret Sister forms to fill out at a little table near the mailboxes. And once you've filled that out, you can put it in my mailbox, Ashley Van Manen. The deadline to get those in will be September 9th. And this cycle of Secret Sister will run until the end of the Bible study in the spring. But again, you don't have to be part of the Bible study to participate in the Secret Sister. It's open to everybody. The other thing we want to announce that we're doing this year is we're going to be running a friendship slash mentorship program for the young ladies of our church. So if you are 12 to 18, this is for you. We know that having a friend is such an important thing at any age. and we know that you guys have great moms and aunts and grandmas around you. Sometimes it's nice to have a friend and mentor in the church as well. Your friend slash mentor would be a lady in the church who is committed to praying for you, getting to know you, and building you up in your walk with the Lord. This program will run for one year, and if this is something that you're interested in, please talk to your parents about it, and you can let myself or Wilhelmina Habor know, and we will get the form for you to fill out. One last note is that the books for the Bible study on Esther are now in. They're also at the table by the mailboxes. So you can purchase one today. You can purchase that from Cheryl Burgess and you can pay her in cash, check or e-transfer. The cost of them is $12. Just lastly, all this information I've just gone over, as well as the Bible studies, Deanne has put together a little newsletter with all this information, so you don't have to remember it. She's been giving them out this morning, but you can find her after the service if you didn't get one, and we'll also probably leave some at the little table there by the mailboxes. Thank you. Greetings. Yeah, I just wanted to announce that Bible quizzing will be resuming this fall. So our registration and Introduction evening will be on Tuesday September 7th at the church here 6 30 p.m. And then we'll have practices from 6 30 to 8 30 each Tuesday after that until the end of April Some of you may be wondering and have heard of you know quizzing like what is quizzing? If you're not familiar with it, it's it's a program where youth known as quizzers, they'll memorize verses in specific books of the Bible. So this year we'll be going through the books of Romans and James. Quizzers commit to memorizing from 50 key verses to some even memorizing the entire books of Romans and James by the end of the quizzing year. This is a commitment of about two verses, two entire chapters a week. So each week we'll have practices, we'll have a devo on the week's verses, we'll have practice quizzes. So a quiz is a game where The quizzers will compete answering questions on the verses that they've memorized. And there's opportunities to... We'll be... We'll be traveling to different cities in Alberta throughout the year. So there's tournaments. We'll have five of them competing against other church quizzing teams in the province. So the province is known as the district. So there's other teams in other churches. And yeah, there's opportunities for quizzes, even to quiz outside of the province, known as internationals, against other districts in Canada and the US. If that all doesn't make sense still Yeah, please Yeah, you can just show up at the registration evening on September 7th at 6.30 here at the church. There is a minimum age turning 11 by March 1st next year and also being in grade 6 this coming year. And the maximum age is turning 19 by July 31st next year. There is a cost. It's about $80 for the initial registration and there's also some fees for each tournament, for food and gas as well as for the finals. So if you're interested in registering, let me know. We're also needing some help this year for coaching. So a coach is a leader in the program when there's other roles and opportunities to help as well. So if you're still interested in that, come talk to me as well. Again, if that doesn't make sense, come out on September 7th, 6.30 here at the church. Thank you. Thanks, Lazar and Ashley. I told you there were a lot of announcements this morning. Well, we're going to move on to our consecutive reading. So if you prefer following along in your own Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 3. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the ax is laid at the root of the tree, Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with the water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water. And behold, the heavens were open to him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my son with whom I am well pleased. So many people coming to John to be baptized for the giveness of their sins, and yet when our Lord came to John, it was not for His sins. For our Lord is sinless. It was the beginning of His ministry. A ministry in which He would end by dying on the cross. Taking all of those sins that we have. putting them on his shoulders, taking them, taking the penalty that we would deserve for us. This is our Lord who always pleased the Heavenly Father. It's a wonderful, wonderful story. Well, we're going to move on and we're going to continue in singing and then in the preaching of the Word this morning. So Nathan, would you come? Alright, please stand with me if you can. And we're going to sing another song before the throne of God above. I'm free, I'm free to take His love. There never is a place for me. My name is written on His hands. My name is written on His heart. I know the God in whom He stands. ♪ No cloud can make me less divine ♪ No cloud can make me less divine ♪ When Satan tempts me to despair ♪ And tells me of the hill within ♪ A bird I look and see it there ♪ Give an end to all my sin ♪ ♪ Because the sinless Savior died ♪ ♪ My sinful soul is bound and free ♪ ♪ For God and justice satisfied ♪ ♪ To our God, Him, and pardoned be ♪ ♪ To our God, Him, and pardoned be ♪ ♪ Behold Him there, the risen Lamb ♪ ♪ The perfect Son of His righteousness ♪ ♪ The King of change, of who I am ♪ ♪ The King of glory and of praise ♪ ♪ The living self, I cannot find ♪ ♪ My soul is purchased by His blood ♪ Wonderful. Alright, our next song is Take My Life and Let It Be. Take my life and let it be a sacrifice Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my voice and let me sing. Always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee, filled with messages from Thee. Take my silver and my gold, not of my wood I withhold. Take my intel and my music. Every power as thou shalt choose. Every power as thou shalt choose. It shall be our royal throne. It shall be our royal throne. Take my love, my Lord, Let that be our prayer today. Good morning. If you're able, please open up your Bibles to 1 Peter 3. And when you've found it, please stand for the reading of God's Word. 1 Peter 3, verses 1 to 6. This is God's Word. 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 in 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, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And you are her children. if you do good, and do not fear anything that is frightening." This text may appear to be quite frightening, so let's go to the Lord in prayer. It has an immense blessing for me just to think through this and study and meditate. This is a rich text. Husbands, it's for you next week, so don't get too high-minded. Father, We ask this morning that the very words we sung would not just be something that we agree on in word, but our lives would bear the very marks of Christ as we submit to the will you have for us so clearly delineated in your word as citizens, servants, as wives and husbands and even children. Would we truly be able to say, take my will and make it thine? Father, I ask, as we work through this text, that you would be ministering to everyone, whether single or married, whether male or female, whether young or old. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to see what your word has for all of us to hear this morning and as a gathered congregation to pray especially for the wives in this church. So Father we pray, cause your word to work powerfully in our hearts and oh how glorious would it be that even Christ would be calling to himself sinners to repentance like we saw in Matthew 3. Father, we love you and we thank you. Help us now to honor you as we reverently sit under your word, not merely being hearers, but doers, submitting ultimately to you and expressing that submission through obedience. Father, help us to do what is naturally impossible. Would you fill us with the Spirit, not only this morning, But in our lives, that our conduct would be holy, would be different, that others would see that our lives are radically different because of Christ, irrespective of gender or age. And help us, Lord, to have the gospel ready on our lips. And may it be visible also in our lives, we ask, even as we will see this morning. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. I'll have a quote for you this morning that I'll probably read to us husbands next week as well. It's from C.T. Studd. And he says this, if Jesus Christ be God, and he died for my sins, then no sacrifice for him can be too great. If Jesus Christ be God, and He died for my sins, then no sacrifice for Him can be too great. And what I want you to see this morning, especially wives, is that submission to your own husbands is a sacrifice. It's not easy. But you need to, therefore, intentionally keep the gospel before you. We saw it, or at least Charles preached it two weeks ago, when Peter encouraged slaves to submit to their bosses or masters, irrespective of if they were good and gentle or unjust. And the reason they were to do so is because they were following in the steps of Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to understand, as we work through this, there's different perspectives by which we can see things. And the world would say, no wife, You need to champion your own will, and we've seen that in feminism, and it has wreaked havoc on our society, because it has now mutated into something even more ugly in post-modernism. So you need to understand that doing the impossible requires grace. But understand this. that as you submit to your own husband, this is a gracious thing, maybe not in the sight of pagans, but in the sight of God. In the sight of God, we're going to see this is extremely costly. Not just precious, that Greek word is costly. And so I want to encourage you, if you want to put on costly adornment, it's in the inner person of the heart. It's not with nice jewelry, which he's not condemning, but understand that you're trying to ultimately be beautiful in the sight of God before a watching world. If Christ be God, and he died for me, then no sacrifice is too great for you. And husbands, you're going to see that next week, so I'm not letting you off the hook. But let's get into the text. Likewise, Likewise, Peter's going to continue on his old commandment, starting in verse 13. Be subject. Be subject. In verse 13, that's an imperative, it's a command. In chapter 3, verse 1, it's not a command, it's a participle. Meaning what? Well, you'd say this, likewise, wives, being subject. So how do you show your subjection to God? Right? You see that in chapter 2, verse 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake. Be subject for the Lord's sake to your own husbands. That's the likewise. Your submission to your own husband will look a little different than our citizenship to our submission to our government or to a slave submission to his master. But it's the same heart and it's the same motive. Submitting to your husband ultimately is not submitting to your husband. It's submitting to God. It's submitting to God. I have an excellent definition I found last week of submission, and I thought it would be worth sharing with you. So let me find it here. Submission carries the idea of voluntarily yielding to a recognized God-ordained authority. Let me read that again. Submission carries the idea of voluntarily yielding to a recognized, God-ordained authority. I want to unpack that before we get into our text, because if you think that this is just something foisted upon a woman by a man-centered culture, you'll have a hard time submitting. If this is a cultural mandate, you can say, well that was for back then, but obviously we've progressed to a time where we don't need to do that. And of course, if you're familiar with the Bible, you know, starting all the way back in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, that God created all things, and the God who created all things is a God of order. And God puts authority over different realms. Now, he is the God of all things. He rules, and he's the head over all things. But then in his perfect wisdom, he has instituted various spheres of authority to keep this world running the way it should. And so he has ordained leaders over the civil realm. And he has granted them authority. And so before we go against, say, our cop, or against our premier, or against our prime minister, we need to understand that they have been placed there by God. And insofar as they do not cause us to disobey God's commands, or they do not cause us to sin against God, we must understand that we are to yield voluntarily, submissively, to their God-ordained authority. We're also to do that with our bosses. I was talking with somebody this week, and it was quite interesting. He was talking about how different it is having immigrants who have moved to Canada as co-workers. He was the boss. And it was interesting. He said, the people from the Middle East, they have no problem saying, yes, sir, I will do what you've said. See, they've not deviated so much as North American culture has, with our raised fists. They do what their master says, insofar as it does not cause them to sin or go against conscience. Well, likewise, in the most intimate, and I would say even most important sphere, the family, which Satan loves to attack, he has granted the husband headship. And so you need to understand that, ladies. Yes, I get it, husbands can abuse it, but we're so quick to run to the exceptions or the abuse of it. Peter's saying likewise. In yielding to God and his perfect wisdom, in ordering the world as he has seen fit, and putting a husband to rule, servant-like, lovingly, sacrificially, in the household, you are to be submissive to him. And that's not easy, because we're fallen creatures. And we'll look at it maybe more next week, because I want to speed through these six verses. But we'll see maybe next week in Genesis how sin broke into the world, and it has wreaked havoc on the family, and the wife seeking to usurp that headship and authority, or the husband being a tyrant or a pansy. It's sin. And so, wives, I want you to understand, first and foremost, that your act of submission to your own husband is ultimately an expression of worship and reverence and obedience to God. Likewise, that's a better translation, I think, than in the same manner. Likewise, likewise to us, submitting to the government. Likewise to the slave, submitting to his master. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands. So this is the exhortation. The exhortation, it's that Greek word, cupa tasso, come under the ordering. Who has ordered all things? God. God has ordered all things. And the reason why Peter is spending six verses on this command to the wives and only one verse on the husbands is because at that time, in Greco-Roman culture, for a wife to not worship the household gods of the husband was seen as a great act of rebellion. It's helpful to know the context back then. And so here you have a pagan woman worshipping all the idols of her husband. And all of a sudden now, she hears the word of God. She hears the gospel. And she is wonderfully and supernaturally converted. And she becomes a Christian. And that's made public. through her baptism, as she makes a pledge to follow Christ obediently. However, now, that causes great friction because now her husband does not hold those same convictions. There's a tension. And the husband was to, as it were, say, why are you not submitting to me? And all of the husband's friends would be like, you have a non-submissive wife. And she was to do everything within her power to say, I am a submissive wife. However, when it comes to the realm of the Lordship and supremacy of Christ, I cannot bow the knee to him. And that's the same for us even with government. We want to show we are submissive in every way possible, even to discomfort and self-humiliation and say, we will submit insofar as we cannot deny the exclusive lordship of Christ over our worship and our allegiance. It's the same thing. It's the same thing for an employee who doesn't love his or her job. I will submit in every way possible, insofar as I do not bow my knee before any other lord or master. Likewise, wives. This would put a lot of pressure on the husband. He could lose positions within the government if his wife was not following his God's word, because they were pagans. And they believed that if there was unrest or a famine or some calamity, that is because the gods, small g, were mad. And guess who got blamed? The Christians. And so if there was anything going on in society, they'd say, it's the Christians' fault. John, it's Paula's fault. Bring her under subjection. And so there's a lot going on here in Peter's few words. Likewise, wives. to be subject to your own husbands. It's important. Idios. Wives are not to be subject to other husbands. They're to be subject to their own husbands. And that's important because we need to remember Genesis. God has not made men better than women. We're all created in the image of God. Men have a tendency to abuse this passage. And Peter's doing something that is remarkable here. See, in those times, philosophers and writers would not address slaves and they would not address women. And you see what Peter's doing. As he's addressing the household of God, he's addressing and giving meaning and identity and value and worth to those that were scorned, like slaves. To those that weren't seen as equal, wives. Jesus came to set us all free, and Jesus restores the dignity that has been lost through sin that God gave to women in the beginning. Please don't see this as a chauvinistic passage. Women, we're going to see next week, are co-heirs. They don't receive a lesser inheritance in the kingdom, and they're not of any less value than the man. Just as Christ is not anything less than the Father, neither is a wife anything less than the husband. Is Christ less than God in value and dignity and worth? No, Christ is God, fully God. A wife is fully human and fully blessed. However, within the economy of the household, As she seeks to honor God in her obedience, this is expressed in submissiveness to her husband. And this is not easy. Just as it's not easy for a husband to lead and love sacrificially, it is not easy for a wife to submit to her husband. Which is why you need grace. Which is why you must preach the gospel to yourself. You must understand that even though this husband is imperfect, and I don't fully agree with everything he does or even how he leads, insofar as he is not causing me to sin against God or conscience, I will be submissive to him. It's a great sermon that you preach. It's a great sermon that you preach not only to him, but also to others. Now, in the immediate context, Peter is addressing wives who have been converted and are still married to pagans. This is not addressed right now to wives married to Christian husbands, though we will apply it, trust me. But I do want to say this, that as Canada and North America become increasingly pagan, we're gonna see a lot more of this, I believe. Especially as a church that hopefully goes out and preaches the gospel to unbelievers. Because we're gonna have to know how to counsel This godly wife who's struggling. Do I leave my husband? No, that's not what Peter says. Nor does Paul in 1 Corinthians 7. If anything, you actually now need the community of faith even more. Do you shame him for not being a Christian? Off-handed remarks? Of course you don't understand why I need to go to church on the Lord's Day. You're a pagan. No, you don't leave him and you don't shame him. You submit to Him. That makes no earthly sense, does it? But Isaiah 55 has something remarkable. God's ways are not on par or equal to our ways. You're right. They're higher, as high as the heavens, or higher than the earth. So are God's ways. We're saved by a crucified Savior. And we put our hope in a resurrected God-man. Do we expect everything will always make sense to us? This is how God shows his power, through the yielded submission of his people, who follow, as Charles preached, in the footsteps of who? Their pastors, hopefully, but ultimately, King Jesus. Do you see him as a pansy? You see him somehow less than? Absolutely not hanging on the cross. culminating what we saw in Matthew 3, yielding his life even in baptism, and so identifying with the Father's purpose and his people's sin. Wives, you are to be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word. So here's the unbelieving husband. Some translations like the NIV say, so if they do not believe the word, that's okay, if they do not obey. And why do I make that distinction? Because obedience flows out of faith, the same way disobedience flows out of unbelief. So let me just quickly apply that. The reason why you disobey, either in not submitting to your husband or to the government or to your boss, or the reason you disobey in any other command ultimately stems not because the command is too hard, but because your heart is. You might say, well, my husband just needs to be this, or just needs to be that, or if my wife was this, or if the government, no. You need to put your hope in God, like the women of old, and like Peter constantly reminded us in chapter one. Set your hope fully on what? your changed husband, your transformed culture, your different, no, you set your hope fully on the grace that will be revealed to you. As you keep your eyes on Christ in heaven, it transforms how you submit on earth, irrespective of the sphere you find yourself in. So here you have it. Some are not obeying the word. Why should you be subject? Why should you submit? Why should you recognize the authority and act on it? Well, here's the explanation. Exhortation, be submissive. Explanation, why? So that. So that these unbelievers may be won, how? Without a word. By the conduct of their wives. This is mission. Let your eyes gaze up to verse 11 and 12, which is sort of the thesis of this section. You remember when we looked at verses 11 and 12, I said we move now from the theology to the application. Beloved, I am urging you as sojourners and exiles, remember, you're living differently. Wives, your beauty is so different as a Christian. I'm not against rings or braided hair, please don't hear that. But there's an unfading, imperishable beauty that you are to display. Whether to an unbelieving husband, or an unbelieving spouse, or unbelieving children, or unbelieving co-workers, or unbelieving neighbors. It's radically different. Because you're a sojourner, you're in exile. And he is urging them all, whether a slave, or a citizen, or a wife, or a husband, as we'll see. Okay, this is for us all. Please don't zone out because you're single, or because you're a believing husband. Please don't zone out. I urge you to abstain from the passions of the flesh. What are one of the passions of the flesh for males? To dominate unbiblically and tyrannically over their wives. That needs to die. But we must admit also that inherited from Eve, and ultimately being in Adam, that wives often can struggle with this passion of the flesh. to not submit to their husbands. I get it. I've thought about this for a week, and I know the culture that I'm enmeshed in, and I can only imagine the scoffings of, say, a university professor, or some of your coworkers. Your pastor actually said that? Like, are we living in the 1400s? Can I put it before you that the reason why there's so much chaos in the world right now in 2021, when we have more information on a little device in our pocket than the world ever had, and all the progress that we boast about, that we're living in the darkest time perhaps in world history, because we've fallen away and begin to scoff at God, claiming to be wise. We've become fools, like we know better than the God who created all things perfectly. and in perfect wisdom. These passions of the flesh, irrespective of being a male or a female or young or old, they are waging war against the soul. The very thing that God wants us to adorn. We're too busy adorning our body. Peter's saying, oh, adorn your soul. You can adorn your body, but let me just give you a little bit of a breaking news headline. It's gonna get old, break down, and die. And no amount of adornment is gonna hide the fact that you're getting old, and wrinkly, and saggy, and sore. It's the truth of it. I got wrinkles in my forehead, and they're just gonna get worse. But godliness is of value in every way as it holds worth and value, not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. See, there's a war going on. And women, my guess is that this is a war for many of you. And you're quick to say, but if you only knew my husband! That would be like the husband saying, well, if you only knew my unsubmissive wife, you'd know how hard it is to love her sacrificially. God-centered. Obedience is God-centered. It's not husband-centered. Please don't see that. If your obedience is husband-centered, you're gonna have a hard time because that's an imperfect man. Struggling with his own passions. Mortifying his own sins. Especially if he's an unbeliever. Keeping your conduct. That's the word we see twice in our text this morning. Epistrophic. Keeping your conduct among the Gentiles. Here the unbelieving husband. Honorable. Good! Do good. Let your conduct be good. Why? So that even if they speak against you as an evildoer, remember the context, your wife is disrupting the family and she is bringing harm to society. She is an evildoer and the wife is doing everything within her power, yielding herself up to God's will to do good, to honor her husband. So even though this pagan might say things, it says here, they may what? See, that's the exact same Greek word. Behold, observe, watch closely. They see what? Your good deeds. They will do what? Glorify God on the day of visitation. Now expand that now. Whether it's children or maybe grandparents, fill in the blank. you are to win them over with a godly life, that they are one without a word. Let me quickly give you a warning here. Some people are saying, see, you don't need to preach the gospel. Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words. This is probably a text where that comes from. Now, I don't want to say that's a useless quote, but it's an incomplete quote. See, the wives have preached the gospel. They have demonstrated it by their public immersion. The husband knows, that's the reason he's struggling, is because he knows that the wife is believing the gospel. What Peter's saying though, is that you're not nagging and haranguing and badgering the poor guy. Right? You know, writing in the dust, repent or perish. Or putting little tracks under his pillow, but honestly. No, you have preached the gospel. He knows the gospel. And now you are trying to win him, to see his conversion without a word. Not without the word, but without here, as it were, preaching to him. This is what I would call the silent sermon of a loving wife. Sometimes you wish I would preach more silent sermons. But this is to be your silent sermon. Let the message your husband has heard, or your neighbor, or your children, let that be not replaced with a silent sermon, but accompanied by the silent sermon. Okay? That they may be one without a word. How? By the conduct. The conduct of their wives when they see your peer conduct in fear. Peer conduct. We live in a world that's very impure. The Greco-Roman culture was no different than our own. It was full of debauchery. It was full of impurity, you might say. And here's the soldier, this exile, this one who is different or holy, living purely, so that when people say, oh, your wife, she's dressing like a prostitute, or your wife is dressing this way to undermine your authority, he would say, no such thing. My wife is chaste. She is pure. She is like this Christ she tells me about. Turn back to chapter 1, verse 15. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. See? Peter's all about these old passions that we've inherited, these futile ways of conduct that we've inherited from the world. Be very careful when your kids go to school and university and work. They're slowly being immersed in this futility. And as obedient children, so this week, wives. Next week, husband. We're all children. We're all equal as children. But I'm applying it this week because the text calls me to do it. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as the Holy One who called you, you also be holy in what? All your conduct. And I think what Peter's doing in this is applying that. Wives be holy in all of your conduct. What does holy conduct look like for a wife? Purity. I don't like how almost every translation makes it two different things here. It says here, when they see your respectful and pure conduct, as if they're two different things. That's not what the Greek says. When they see your pure conduct in fear. In fear of whom? Well, if you're still in chapter one, look at verse 17. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, here's that word, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. You might feel your marriage is in exile, but conduct yourself with fear. And that's what Peter's saying here. As you fear God, as you respect Christ, it will transform your conduct. Pure. Your pure conduct doesn't produce respect for your husband. Your respect and reverence and fear of God produces pure conduct in you because you're focused on Him. Not your husband, but on your King. as the husbands, the unbelieving husbands, see your pure conduct in fear, they will be one. Let me quickly apply this now to husbands who won't lead. I know that Peter's talking about unbelieving husbands married to believing wives. But Kelvin, I think, was very pastoral when he said, well, it's the same struggle for a wife who struggles with submitting to a husband who won't lead and sometimes even acts like an unbeliever. This is just as true for you, wife. insofar as he's not causing you to sin against God or conscience. This is true view. And do you want your husband to lead? Wife, do you want him to lead? I know you do. Because I listen to polls and I read lots of articles and I know that wives long for a godly man to pull up his pants and lead the way Christ would have him, sacrificially, loving and giving himself and making decisions. She wants that man. But wife, that will not come about through you pestering him and reminding him of how this guy is such a great leader or that guy is. It comes through submitting to him. Because God supernaturally transforms that man's heart as well. Is it easy? No. Which is why Peter says, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. This week, wives. Next week, husbands. Exhortation, be subject. Explanation, that you may win him as an unbeliever to faith, or if he's not leading the way he should, win him to the way he should be. That this change will happen as he observes your silent sermon. Verse three, I would say expansion. He's gonna expand upon what it means now to submit to him. Do not let your adorning, that's the Greek word, kosmos. Matt would have liked that in Sunday school. It's where you get cosmetics from. Some translations say, do not let your beauty. I like adorning. Do not let it be what? External. Oh, if we as men, and especially women, spent as much time working on the inner heart than the outer flesh and adorning that. Oh, how winsome would we as a people be. Do not let your adorning be external. And it gives three examples. Now, be very careful of taking this too literally, right? Because some of you are like trying to unbraid your hair quickly. Wife's putting her gold ring in her pocket. But if you take this literally, Peter says, don't wear clothing. What? No, don't wear fancy clothing, so that when people see you, that's not what they think about. Oh, she's got the most ornate braided hair. Check out all the bling on her fingers. Peter is not against that. He's not saying, just let yourself go, and who cares what you look like. He's not saying that. He's just saying what you need to focus on. You have, in the words of 2 Corinthians, a perishing body. And we spend so much time trying to keep that sucker from perishing. And we have an imperishable soul. And we spend so little time on it. And in light of what Brother Matt preached last week, there are differing rewards. All of that adorning, wood, hay, stubble. Why not adorn yourselves, women? with the imperishable beauty that will never fade. It's the same word in chapter one. We have an inheritance that is what? Imperishable, unfading, undefilable. Focus on that. And men too. Men too. Do not let your adorning be external. The braiding of hair, the putting on of gold. Do you have to go and sell your gold? No, that's not what Peter's saying. Please don't hear that. Or the clothing that you wear. This is going to sound legalistic, but whatever. I've been accused as a legalist many times. I would encourage you, even the young women in our church, how much time are you spending on the Lord's Day preparing for church? externally and internally. Because we spend an hour getting ready, we're barking at the kids. Imagine if we spent a little more time reading Psalm 43, reading Matthew 3, singing a psalm with our kids. I'm guilty too, please don't hear me pointing fingers. But do you imagine how different? I bet you there'd be a lot less yelling in the van. Or car, I mean. Not like we own a van and yelling happens on Sunday morning. But this is what Peter's saying. If we want to win the world, let's focus on the invisible, but eternal. Not the visible and perishing. Rather let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart. Cardios. Is he saying make sure that you're eating healthy so your heart is well? No, in Hebrew and in Greek, the heart is the true person. It's who you really are. Who you really are, woman, is not what you wear. Who you are is your daughter of Sarah, and ultimately a daughter of the king. That's who you are. Don't come here comparing yourself, either with how another person is dressed, or with men. You're co-heir of everything in Christ. The hidden, but not hidden. Right? The jewelry is just everywhere. It's like, bang, in your face. That ain't hidden. Peter's saying, let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart. And though it seems hidden, your husband will see it. And in God's electing purposes, trust him that he will use that, not your seductive clothing, or the way you care yourself about? No, no. What God will use to draw His elect is a beautiful inner person and beautiful disposition. With, or I translate, in the imperishable beauty. So you've got this sphere of imperishable beauty. Put yourself in that sphere. Here's the perishing external beauty. Don't spend too much time there. Right? I'm not saying you need to demolish that. Right? Spend some time. You can comb your hair. That's alright. The pastor gives you permission. But spend your time in this one. Imperishable beauty of what? Gentle and quiet spirit. And in God's providence, I'm working through my Greek New Testament devotions in the book of Matthew, and I found myself in Matthew 20. Prost. What a great word, it almost sounds Dutch. Humble, you know who that word is ultimately used of? Christ. Gentle, meek, mild. You saying he's a pansy? You saying he's not strong? You know what a strong woman looks like? It's not a feminist shaving her head, wearing rainbow colors. That's what the world thinks a strong woman is. This is what Peter says a strong woman is. Voluntarily, out of worship, submitting herself to the God-ordained and recognized authority that God has put over her. That is strength. It's the counter-cultural gospel of Jesus Christ. Same thing for you men. Strength ain't lifting weights and walking around in tights. It's loving your wife and dying for her. This is Christ's attributes. Gentle. Please don't hear quiet as not speaking. Right? Some of you say, I'm a strong-willed woman. This is hard for me. I'm not naturally disposed to be shy, or I'm an extrovert, not introvert. Peter's not talking about introversion versus extroversion. This word for silent means confidence, peace. Don't need to nag with my voice, because I have peace, like we sang from Psalm 62 today. These are not attributes of weakness. Don't hear that. These are attributes of Christ. He opened not his mouth. Matt read it this morning in Isaiah 53. Is he weak? No, because he's submissive. He's not returning insult for insult. This is the adorning Peter says as he further expands upon his exhortation. So exhortation, explanation, We have extension or expansion, and finally I'm gonna close with example. Oh, I thought hard on that. I thought so hard on that. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God. If you put your hope in anything other than God, it is going to be hard, right? We read in Psalm 42 last week, Psalm 43 this week. Hope thou in God, why art thou so troubled? Pour it out, the Hebrew word is. Why are you melting away? because you're putting your hope in other things. And so my prayer for you, wives, is that God would send forth His light and His truth in the Gospel, and you would put your hope ultimately in God. For this is how the holy woman who hoped in God used to adorn themselves. And so where are these Gentiles who have now come into the covenant family? And they don't feel like Jewish women. And Peter's saying, oh no, you're Gentile, but insofar as you submit to your husbands, you're just like the holy women of the old covenant. And how did they adorn themselves? By submitting to their husbands. These are hard words. Don't get mad at your pastor. Say, is this true in the text? Is he just being a chauvinist? I hope to God I would never be that. This is just what the text says. This is how they displayed their hope in God. Not just, I hope in God, I hope in God. No, the silent sermon. How do you know somebody's hoping in God? By their obedience. What credit is it, Peter says, if you suffer these things for being foolish, but if you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For this is a gracious thing when, I hope you memorized the text, Charles, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. This is where submission comes from, being mindful of God. Being mindful of God is the same thing as hoping in God. It's the same thing as being fearful or reverent towards God. This is how they used to adorn themselves, by submitting to Abraham. Oops, sorry, by submitting to their own husbands, even as. Here's the specific example. Man, there's all those women in the Old Testament. I don't know who they are. Well, here's one. Who is the founding father of the covenant community? You'd say Abraham is, right? Genesis 12. Faith of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Well, fathers need to have mothers. And this is what Peter is saying. Here's a specific example, even as Sarah submitted to Abraham. Like, I've got my nose in my Bible. I'm not one of those people who bring my phone and just never see what the pastor's preaching. I got my Bible open. I bring my Bible, my physical Bible, I bring it on Sunday and I got it open on my lap so when pastors preach and I'm following him. That's right, Joe. I didn't say by submitting to Abraham. I said by obeying Abraham. Because Peter says that. Which means what? That submission will manifest itself in obedience. I submit to God, but I never obey him. Then you don't submit to him. You don't have a working definition or a biblical definition of submission. Again, you want to jump there. But what if he's... as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. So what is it gonna look like for the fellowship meal? Honey, can you get me a plate? Yes, Lord. No, that's not what I'm asking for. I'm not saying that. But I caught this from Alistair Begg, and it's the one thing that's stuck with me. It shows her heart. Because this takes place in Genesis 18, 12. And I know we preached that two years ago. And this is when Sarah is visited Remember, there's a theophany. And about this time next year, you will have a son. And she laughed. Can even my Lord have children at this age? And you say, well, that was an offhanded remark. She's not honoring Abraham. And Alistair Begg said this, it's often in the things that we say under our breath where our heart is truly revealed. It's not always what we say publicly. Right? Sarah wasn't like, yes, my lord. Yes, my lord. I'll get supper ready, my lord. I don't see that often, but in her heart, even in an offhanded comment that no one heard but the angels, she saw Abraham and voluntarily submitted to his God-ordained and recognized authority. Now, if you read Genesis, you remember Sarah was outwardly beautiful. She was. That's why Abimelech wanted her. That's why Abraham was afraid of Pharaoh. Remember that in Genesis 12? She was something to look at, and Peter says that is not Sarah's beauty. Her beauty is a gentle and quiet spirit expressed in her submission to Abraham, and ultimately to God, calling him Lord, and you are her children. So do good, that's maybe how I would translate it, taking those participles as commands. And you are her children if you do good. This is used over and over and over in Peter. Men are to do good, women are to do good, and we express doing good in our different roles. Wives do good, why? Because you show that you are a daughter of Sarah. And the doing good here is specifically in submission. Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children if you do good, and this is a tricky phrase, and if you do not fear anything that is frightening. There are many things said by many commentators, and I will tell you what I think it means. That she doesn't fear anything but obeying God. She doesn't care what her friends might say. She doesn't care what others might think. Right? Because in those days, for her to do so would make her look like this or that. In 21st century, you want to fear someone? Fear the Lordwife. Who cares what your university friends say? Who cares what your unbelieving relatives say on Facebook? The audience have won. You could say she doesn't fear maybe an abusive husband. To which I would say this. If you are undergoing verbal, emotional, spiritual abuse from your husband, you come and talk to your pastors. That is church discipline. If you are endearing wife, physical abuse from your husband, you go and you talk to the authorities because Romans 13 says that's their jurisdiction. There's nothing godly about endearing this and calling it suffering or sanctification. I do want to say that this text can be greatly and has been tragically abused. by men in the past who abuse their headship and maybe even strength, which is no strength at all. Okay, I wanted to sneak that in, that's where I snuck it in, but I don't think it's the woman cowering, I think she's just saying, I will obey God no matter the cost. I had a couple of extra verses that I wanted to show, but I think we'll get there and I'll refer to them, but this is how you display that you're an heir of Abraham and Sarah. Keep doing good, and fear only God, and express that fear of God in obedience to his commands, and for you wives, that involves submission to your husbands insofar I keep saying this, if he's asking you to sin, that's not submission. You submit only to God. Because remember the tension. Her Lord is Jesus. If she gives in to that and submits to him to say don't worship him, then that breaks the tension. Okay? But in so far as this pagan or maybe even immature believer asks of you and leads you, submit to Him and pray to Him. Let me apply this quickly. Men, what are we communicating to our women and to our daughters of beauty? Be very careful, because if they just hear this on a Sunday, but they see it the rest, the other 51 weeks of the year, that men think beauty is physical, then they will be drawn to be concerned about making themselves physically beautiful. But if they hear men saying, what a beautiful woman. What a gentle and quiet spirit. Oh, that strength harnessed as she obeys God. That's beauty, maturity, and purity. That's what I want you young girls and young women to aspire to. Not Sarah's outward beauty. Sarah's inward beauty. And so men, and boys, and teenagers, remember that. Let's be quick to encourage and exhort this kind of beauty within our congregation. And men who are looking for a wife, is this on your radar? Young girls who are thinking about husbands, you will be called to respect them and submit to them. And they might be rich and full of brawn. Can you respect them? That's the most important attribute you should look for in a husband. Is he godly? Or is it going to be attention constantly? Respecting to an unbel... You should never marry an unbeliever, whether you're a female or a male. Wives. Continue to entrust yourself to a faithful creator and judge while doing good. That's what Charles preached on. Let your adorning be inward and spend time. What will be the result? By God's grace, I hope many people will be one to the Lord, perhaps your unbelieving husband. And let me just apply this now broadly. Why does Peter talk so much about slaves, or here, wives? Because the Christian church as a whole could identify more with those who weren't in, as it were, positions of authority. Those who were maybe being abused by those in positions of authority. And so as the Christian church begins to suffer more and more and more, I think 1 Peter 3, 1-6 will be a lot more practical, not only for the wives in our church, but I think for all of us, because these very things are how I will win the unbelievers in my life. Gentle spirit, quiet spirit, focusing on the inner man, working on my heart, trusting God, fearing God above all things. trusting that he will save his elect by doing so. I hope this is practical. Wives, you can give your husbands an extra nudge and say next week's for you. But we're co-heirs. This is the last thing. Husbands, are you praying this for your wives? Church, are we praying this? Cliff, put this on our prayer requests for Wednesday. Let's pray that we would have a church full of submissive wives. And I know part of you is probably like, eh, that's uncomfortable. It was for me. Can you imagine if an unbeliever saw we're praying to have a church full of submissive wives? Oh, that's like the first chauvinist church on earth, whatever. No, we just need to be biblical. We're sojourners, and exiles, and we look to him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, your infallible, inerrant, and all-sufficient word. that enables us to grow up into Christ, that you've given us everything that we need in your precious promises, including this. I pray, Father, that in all of our conduct, not just the wives, but in all of our conduct, we would be holy, we would be different. I pray that our marriages would look different. That how we shepherd our children looks different. That how we interact with the government seems different. How we go to work would be different. That others would ask us, what is this hope? And our hope isn't in a transformed government or in a nicer boss. Our hope is in the return of Christ. So Father, would you help us to keep our eyes fixed on Him? It's so easy to preach that. But would you show us at a heart level how practical it is? whether a wife or husband or a worker or a child, for all of us to really live out the time of our exile in a reverent conduct, in fear of Christ, ultimately submitting all of us to the Lordship of Christ, even as you, Christ, submitted to your Father as well. Would you help us to see this is beautiful? Would you help us to see Sarah on the cover of of Sojourner's Magazine, and not what the world says beauty is. Oh, Father, I pray for the women in our church, that their adornment would be this kind of adornment. True beauty, lasting beauty, imperishable, which in your sight, try you and God, is very costly. Not easy, but worth it. Oh, help us to invest, Lord. Not only wives to invest, but help us as husbands. and single people to invest into the wives of this church. Bless us now, Father, as we continue now to worship you in spirit and in truth. Take your word and give us a great confidence in it, despite what the world might say. We love you and we thank you. Use our submissive obedience to win, Lord, the elect and to glorify your Son, we ask in his name. Amen. But before we close in song, I'm actually going to call up Peter and Zoe. The elders wanted actually not only to pray over them, but as it were to see this as an acknowledgment, a descending off, that we're working together with the church in Weyburn and God willing, the future church in Kisbee where they're going to live, that we're working together as churches. And Peter and Zoe are not merely just moving location, but actually being sent off and blessed, not just by the leaders, but hopefully by all of us, from one church giving a gift to another church, and that we're gonna see the solidarity within the kingdom of God. So come on up, Peter and Zoe. We wanna lay hands on you guys, and we wanna pray. If I can bring up Marvin and Charles as well. This is a glorious thing. And I would encourage you, if you're able to, stick around. There's way more food probably than we need. If you know what Charles brought, there's lots of food. And I want you to encourage Peter and Zoe and ask them how you can pray for them this week. And we will keep in touch with them. And they will be, as it were, interacting with us. But we thought this would be a great time. And I was very selfish. I wanted to actually lead in prayer, brothers, if that's all right. I pray I won't say anything that you disagree with. But as we lay hands on them, we just pray that, as it were, your hands would be symbolically laid on them as we send them off, hopefully with our church's blessing, and that they would be fruitful. So let's pray. Oh, Father, how we love you. How we praise you. We thank you for Peter and for Zoe. Lord, how we've seen your work in them. How we've seen them as single. How you drew them to one another. And Lord, how you've been working on the imperishable beauty of Zoe and of Peter. And we pray, Lord, that they would increasingly become holy. even as you, Father, who called them are holy, that they would follow in the steps of Jesus Christ. And it seems, Father, that your Spirit is leading them out east. Father, I want to thank you for their desire to obey you, to give up filthy lucre, and to go out into the unknown, to move into a house that needs lots of work, to a place where Peter doesn't have a fixed income. But Father, this is showing us and I pray the church and even the neighbors and their future neighbors in Kisbee that they walk by faith and their hope is not in a fancy house and their hope is in the living God and their desire is to see Christ's sheep drawn. We pray, Lord, as they go, that we'd watch over them. I pray that they would recognize and even sense the smiling countenance of you, Father, upon them. because you smile upon them in Christ. And Father, I pray for safety this week. I pray that in all of their traveling to and fro, taking all of their stuff and leaving so much behind, that they would know your presence, that you would lead them to Christ as we read in Psalm 43. Your light and your truth would lead them, not to a Jerusalem on earth, but to the ultimate Jerusalem, Christ. Father, we pray, may they go with not only your blessing, but even the blessing of this church. Lord, even as Paul says, I know that I come to you with the blessing of God and he was sent by a church. And Father, I pray for greater unity within Grace Community, a greater working together in this church and with other like-minded churches that want to see the kingdom expand and churches planted, the gospel to spread to the ends of the earth and the elect to be drawn in. Give Peter wisdom, help him to lead his bride well. Help him to be sacrificial like Christ. Help him to love her supremely under the Lordship of Christ. And Father, I pray that Zoe also would be a shining light in Kisby and even to the other sisters at Weyburn. Lord, we just ask that this would be a sweet time as I say goodbye to family and church family. Father, as we sing this final song, would you remind us that there is a great gathering that we set our hope on, when people from every tongue and tribe and nation and family and people group gather around and we no longer say goodbye, that we have this eternal and never-ending fellowship with Christ and with His Bride. Father, how we love you and how we thank you even for a taste of eternity as we pray for and even send off Peter and Zoe. Oh, that when they come to visit that we would see increased holiness, increased godliness, greater love, and we would hear of many tales and many stories of how you have used them and how you are blessing them. Father, help us as a church now to not just pray now publicly, but help us to keep in touch with our dear brother and sister and to encourage them and to pray for them going forward. All things are possible, Father, by your grace. And so we ask, pour out your grace. Multiply your peace and your grace to Peter and Zoe. Do so, Father, for the sake of your son. We ask in his name. Amen. They are sticking around, so please visit them as we're eating. I think we're close with the song now. A very warming song. If you're not familiar with it, I pray you'd fall in love with it. All right, let's sing Must Be the Tide that Binds. Let us be the triumph of hearts in Christian life. The fellowship of faith with life is life to man among. We fold our head, we're strong. We fold our heart in prayer. Our fears, our hopes, our aims, our woes, our numbers and our hands. We share each other's woes. Each other's breath and hand, and all before each other flows a symphonizing tune. When we have sunken far, it gives us meaningless pain. But we shall still rejoin in heart and hope to be again. All right. We said one last song, but we're actually going to sing Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow. ♪ Praise Him, all creatures near below ♪ ♪ Praise Him, above the heavenly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ Let's pray and give thanks for the meal. Father, we thank you for this time again. This time as a church where we've worshipped you and we've heard from you. You've taught us and we pray that you plant your word deep in us. Father, as we've tasted this little picture of what it will be for eternity, where you will speak, and we will be fed in your green pastures, and we will fellowship together in our Lord and Savior. We pray that that would just increase our longing to be with you. to be forever with you, forever with your people, with no more parting, no more separation or going different ways, even in love, feeling the call to do that. And Lord, I pray that you would just sharpen our desires for eternity, for heaven, for your goodness. And Lord, I pray that as we gather together around these tables this afternoon, and we enjoy the food that you've provided, that we would give you thanks, and we would build one another up in our faith. And we just give glory to you. Thank you, Father, for what you've provided for us. In Jesus' name, amen.