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[0:00] Lord God, we have Christ and we have hope forever.

[0:13] ! What an incredible gift, not only to save us from our sin, to save us from hell, to make us your child, but also to prepare in advance that you would lavish your kindness on us for all of eternity.

[0:47] Praise your holy name, God. You're so good to us. Father, we pray that you'd bless our time together in your word. May we take it seriously. And Lord, be excited that you've given us light.

[1:03] Lord, help us to love the light, even when it shows stuff in us that isn't right. God, please bless us as we read your word.

[1:14] Bless our kids as they are in children's ministry today. Bless the workers. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You can be seated. And yeah, we'll dismiss our kids to children's ministry. And if you want to open your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3, we'll be in 1 Peter chapter 3 today.

[1:35] I forgot to blow up the font on my sermon. So one of the reasons I use an iPad is that it allows me to make the font bigger. But I forgot to do that today. So I might have to use my glasses more than normal.

[1:47] In fact, let me just start. Let me just start there and I'll adjust if I get better. All right. 1 Peter chapter 3, beginning in verse 1.

[1:59] Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you.

[2:30] Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you.

[2:44] Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. and do not fear anything that is frightening.

[2:58] Now, because this text begins with a likewise, that tells us that we are supposed to have something that he had already said in our minds, and I would want you to think about this as the following.

[3:12] Peter is speaking to Christians who are all kind of sharing the same general kind of suffering experience, just in specific contexts. So he's speaking earlier in chapter 2 to citizens who are suffering under unjust civil authority.

[3:32] He then speaks to servants who are suffering under unjust masters. And now he speaks to wives who are under husbands who do not believe the word.

[3:43] So everybody that he's dealing with so far in the book, they're all suffering under some kind of unjust leadership. And before I get too much further into the text, I would just want to say, husbands, you know, obey the word.

[4:02] It's really hard to be married to a person who does not obey the word. It's hard to be married to a man who does not obey the word.

[4:13] You've been a citizen under wicked leadership before, men. You've been a citizen under wicked leadership before. Is that fun? Is it fun to be a citizen under a politician who does not obey the word?

[4:28] Then you've had bosses who were not great. They were taxing, and they weren't kind. They weren't obeying the word.

[4:40] Did you enjoy working for those bosses? The reality is, is that one of the clearest points that we should walk away from today is that Peter is speaking to suffering people, and he's speaking to citizens who are suffering under an unjust civil ruler.

[4:58] He's speaking to servants who are suffering under an unjust boss or master. And the next group of people he speaks to who are suffering are two wives married to men who don't obey the word.

[5:15] Like, that's a real hardship. Now, we can unpack this. Probably don't have a ton of time to do so, but we can unpack this in different levels. The first word, probably the main word that Peter has in mind here, is the word of the gospel.

[5:33] Believe in Jesus Christ as your righteousness. Believe in Jesus Christ as your righteousness. The first word, then, that we want to make sure that all of us obey, is that we are not striking out to be right in our own eyes, to achieve righteousness in some other way, other than submitting, bending our knee to the Lord Jesus, and saying, you can do for me what I cannot do for myself.

[6:01] That's probably the first concept Peter has in mind here. Men who are not obeying the gospel word. But, of course, you know, it doesn't stop there.

[6:13] The gospel indicative has all kinds of imperatives, and so we can extrapolate from that not only that we want to be men who obey the gospel, we want to be men who obey the implications of the gospel.

[6:26] And so, guys, I would just tell you, like, roughly speaking, the greatest gift you could give your wife is to be a man who obeys the word.

[6:38] And, roughly speaking, that will include times in which you are obeying things she doesn't necessarily want you to obey, including the call to lead her well and to help her to obey the word.

[6:52] But, if you want to give a gift to your wife, be a man who obeys God's word. Be compassionate, by the way, for those who are married to husbands who do not obey the word.

[7:05] It's striking that they fit in the same category of these other two sufferers that Peter has already talked about. But that, likewise, as you see at the beginning of this passage, is tying us back into all these other categories.

[7:21] The truth is, we've got three groups with one problem, and that one problem is they're all suffering under unjust, unwise leadership. And we also have another thing in common with the other two.

[7:34] We have three groups with one temptation. They're all suffering under unjust leadership, and they all have a temptation to react in a sinful way. Citizens under unjust civil authorities are tempted to dishonor those authorities and use their freedom as a cover-up for evil.

[7:52] That's earlier in chapter 2. Servants under unjust masters are tempted to recoil and respond and pay evil for evil. And wives who are under husbands who do not believe the word are tempted to control.

[8:10] They're tempted to control. I'll support that assertion here in a minute. We'll get into the actual exegesis of the text, but that is my understanding of what the women in 1 Peter 3, 1 through 6, are struggling with.

[8:27] They're tempted to engage in activities that allow them to control a situation that they feel is not being controlled properly.

[8:38] Now, before I get into supporting that statement, let's just talk about the idol of control. You ever noticed how, man, there are some sins that if you commit them, it's a big deal.

[8:51] You're going to have a pastor giving you a call. You know, there will be things said. There will be consequences. But there are other sins where, you know, we just don't see them.

[9:03] We don't call them out. Well, we don't recognize how devastating they are. We don't recognize how sinful they are. The idol of control would be one of those things that every once in a while we just need to stop and talk about.

[9:18] Because it's something, especially in our particular society, that, man, we kind of get a pass for. It's a sin that is very acceptable in our society and even in our church, to be fair.

[9:31] So let's just revisit what it means to have an idol of control. Paul Tripp puts it as bluntly as it could be put. He says, one of the most dangerous delusions for each of us is the delusion of our own sovereignty.

[9:48] And one of our most dangerous idols is the idol of control. In another place, he writes, I'm increasingly persuaded that there are only two ways of living, trusting God and living in submission to his will and his rule or trying to be God.

[10:10] There's little in between. Some of you are good at biblical theology. You go back to what Eve was after in the garden and see that David, Paul David Tripp's statement here lines up from the very beginning.

[10:24] Tripp goes further. He says, much of our regular anxiety, worry, fear, and discouragement results from thinking that when things are out of our control, they are out of control completely.

[10:41] David Pallison recently passed away, but for 30 years, he was the dean of biblical counselors at CCEF. And he pressed the same nerve from a different angle.

[10:53] One of his routine questions he would ask everybody he counseled is simply this. What does your anxiety reveal about what you're trusting?

[11:04] What does your anxiety reveal about what you're trusting? I have a guy who can pick up on that from time to time. I'm not that obtuse.

[11:15] I see myself fearing the loss of X, Y, or Z. Why am I fearing the loss of X, Y, or Z? Because I'm trusting in X, Y, or Z to bring me joy, hope, safety, and so forth.

[11:29] This is a universal problem. So that's the idol of control. David Pallison asks his people, what does your anxiety reveal about what you're trusting?

[11:41] Because anxiety is a tell. In Pallison's world, he treats anxiety like smoke, and the idol is the fire underneath that smoke.

[11:53] Nine times out of ten, when a Christian is anxious, the temptation will be toward control. So I'm saying that all three groups are suffering under unjust leadership, and all three groups have temptations to respond to that suffering, and I'm saying that the women in chapter 3, verses 1 through 6 have a temptation toward control.

[12:21] Now let me explain how I know that. I'm married. I have three adult daughters. One of them's an in-law daughter, but I pray for them all the same.

[12:35] And God has blessed me with dozens of sisters in Christ. It is one of the great privileges, to be honest, of getting older in the church, is to have sisters in Christ.

[12:52] Now, I would say that that qualifies me at least somewhat. I would also remind you that Peter was married. Peter had a mother-in-law. And so even without getting into the text, I would say, I think, personally, from my experience, that that lines up.

[13:10] When a woman fears the loss of control or is anxious or is in a tentative situation, there will be some effort made to control the situation.

[13:25] And that's what Peter's talking about. But I would also argue, just so we're clear, that every one of these groups is struggling with the same thing. They're all just trying to take control of a chaotic situation and make it make sense to them.

[13:40] And they're tempted to do that with their own sin. So I don't really think that there's anything exceptional about women in this respect. I think this is just the way we are.

[13:51] I think the ways we try to control things are different. I think that's what Peter's talking about here, which we'll get into. But go back to the text. This is so fascinating. Look, let's just read the text again.

[14:04] Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, may it be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

[14:15] Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, putting on of jewelry, or the clothing you wear. But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

[14:32] For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands. Now, the word adorning appears three times here.

[14:45] It's a really, really interesting word. I'm not overhyping it. You'll find this fascinating. All right, so the word is actually cosmetic. That's the word. That's where we get our word for cosmetic.

[14:59] Listen, cosmetic. What do you think the root of cosmetic is? The Greek word here for adorning is cosmos.

[15:10] It was used. It had this massive somatic range in the Greek. And for instance, in the Odyssey, makeup is described as cosmos.

[15:27] And it has this fun, it's like, well, how does that work? Like, they also use it to talk about what we think of with the cosmos, the planets and all that. It's like, how can a word mean, you know, makeup and planets?

[15:44] It's like, because they both take a really long time to get to. No, what's going on here? The fundamental meaning of the word cosmos is order.

[15:59] Ordering. Putting something together. And so, the ancients would look at the stars and the moon and the divine, the natural order, and they would say, this is the cosmos.

[16:12] It's the thing that has been made and prepared and put together and ordered. And women begin to use that word also to refer to putting themselves together.

[16:30] Ordering themselves. So, actually, the word cosmos has a lot of adjacency to control. It's getting things in order.

[16:43] It's putting things in order. And what's really interesting about this passage, I think this is an insight into creational differences between men and women. I think everybody in this whole section, all the sufferers, they're all reaching for weapons to fight their fear.

[17:01] I think that's, like, really obvious. And it continues. We'll see this as we move further into 1 Peter. They're all reaching for weapons to fight their fear. And like I said last week, you know, this whole book is basically don't fight like the world.

[17:15] That's what the whole book of 1 Peter is. So, all these people are reaching for weapons to fight when they're afraid. And it's really interesting that the assumption about women is that they will reach for the weapon of adornment.

[17:33] Ordering. Nesting. Putting things together. That's the impulse when things feel out of control is to adorn.

[17:48] Order. Cosmos. Now, this text says, don't let your adorning be external, but it doesn't say don't react to scary situations by adorning something.

[18:05] It doesn't say that. It assumes that that is a creational, pre-sin instinct given to women when they experience the unknown.

[18:17] It's like, what do you do in that situation? You go about ordering it. Guys, this is like, again, if you've been married, this is not rocket science.

[18:30] This is like the new apartment. Think back when you were young and you moved into the first apartment. Think about, it's just really super obvious that this is the case. Some are better adorners than others, but everybody, women know how to do this.

[18:45] This is their response. It's like, I will put this in order. Okay. The assumption here is that that is an appropriate response to disorder.

[18:56] What Peter is saying is, is you need to put yourself in order. Not your hair, not your makeup, not your clothes, your heart. It's really actually, I think, you know, I have a very poetic kind of imagination, but it's pretty simple, actually.

[19:14] Just think of the word cosmos and think, I want to create a cosmos here rather than trust the one who made the cosmos everywhere. That's kind of, really, what the passage is getting at.

[19:28] Now, people have talked for a long time about horse, or about jewelry and braids and what, you know, what is this passage saying?

[19:39] Like, can we wear these things? Can we not? I'll give you a really simple way of thinking about this. There are two passages. I'll hold them next to each other, and I think you'll see that braids and clothing are not the relevant issue here.

[19:52] I think we've got a slide for this. So, on the one hand, we've got 1 Peter 3.3, do not let your adorning, your ordering, be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is, which in God's sight is very precious.

[20:14] I think that is, there's no difference between the basic mechanics of that passage and what we read in the call to worship. Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

[20:27] I don't think there's any real difference between those passages. We're just changing the nouns. We're changing horses and chariots to clothes and hares, you know, hairdos.

[20:41] Don't, the point is not the thing he tells you not to adorn with. No one would read Psalm 20, verse 7 and think, well, we can't have chariots or horses are out.

[20:57] Hoses are out. Nope, that's not what's, that's not what's, that's not, we used to have a girl in our church who loved horses, but it's just hoses, hoses. Anyway, horses are out.

[21:09] No, that's not what, that's not what Psalm 20, verse 7 is saying. It's not saying don't have chariots, don't have horses. It's saying don't trust in those things. Trust in the name of the Lord. Don't use, we can mix these passages up.

[21:23] Don't use chariots and horses to order a disordered situation without first ordering yourself into a trust position with God.

[21:40] So, don't get hung up. Ladies, deck it out. This is not, this is not about looking good. It's not about putting effort or makeup or any of that stuff.

[21:52] It's about is that what you're trusting in to order your situation? And the reality is is that a lot of women do that.

[22:05] Immodesty, let's be frank, immodesty can be accidental. My pants don't stay up all the way in the back sometimes. That is not an intentional immodesty.

[22:19] I am not trying to gain anything in that situation. Not trying to flex or exert any kind of control. That would be super weird if that was my move.

[22:33] But I think we all have a category for dressing in such a way as to gain the upper hand in a situation. And that is not, that's what the Bible is talking about with immodesty.

[22:50] is using the gifts God gave you as a way of not trusting in the Lord but pulling the weapons.

[23:02] Like what weapons do I reach for when I'm feeling out of control? The answer is some women reach for their body. That's what they do. Their beauty.

[23:14] That's just one amongst many options that we as people can reach for. Other women will reach for food. Other women will reach for sleep. Other women will reach for self-pity or shopping or worry and rumination as if you think about it one more time you'll definitely gain control of it.

[23:36] Some women adorn themselves with rules. what you're doing is you are taking the shortcut around the work you need to do on your own soul ladies.

[23:55] That's that's all that this passage is saying. It's saying the same thing it's said to slaves and the same thing it's said to Christians suffering under the persecution of an evil emperor.

[24:06] I think we've all seen women who have everything together except themselves. Her physical cosmos is ordered.

[24:19] She looks put together. Her domestic cosmos is ordered. The decor of her home is on point. The task calendar is prominently displayed in the kitchen.

[24:32] but she herself is not in order. She herself is not in order. She's not in order under her husband.

[24:42] She's not in order under her God. She is trying to take the shortcut and building a cosmos that makes her feel in control.

[24:54] I've spent a lifetime it's weird not a lifetime but I'm I've been a pastor for 30 years and I'm 50 and it's one of the weirdest things is you see entire families start from zero and end with adult kids.

[25:15] Like it's a very interesting thing. I'll just tell you that a controlling mother or father that's not the problem.

[25:26] That's not ideal but the real thing that kills these families is that these people do not have control of themselves their heart their fear their anxiety and they are basically creating homes that will sort of dry rot by time their kids are older because for all of the scrambling they were doing to keep things together it was always the external cosmos never the submission to the one who holds the world in his hand so man I just tell you ladies and men boy you can mess up a lot in parenting I can tell you that first hand get your heart at peace with the Lord God through Jesus Christ and his righteousness in the gospel and his gospel call to obey him and walk in the works that he's prepared in advance get yourself ordered under the

[26:28] Lord get yourself ordered under the authorities that God has placed in your life be a person at peace with the Lord that's how you parent I mean that's the only thing that can tell you that kind of works is get your get your heart and your soul consolidated on the Lord you're faking it is not gonna like you're faking it's fooling us maybe but it's not gonna produce the fruit that you want as your kids get older so yeah Peter's being really kind to us here he's telling us hey I know this situation we've all been in this situation you're suffering things aren't great one particular application is you have a husband who does not obey the word there's a million other contexts that we could apply this to you're in a situation that feels out of control what do you do well it's interesting because all three groups are called to the same thing they're all suffering the same kind of deal they're under unjust leadership they're they're all struggling not to respond in sin they're all tempted in some way but they're all under the same prescriptive solution as well these are all kind of imperatives

[27:54] Peter's telling people what to do in these situations and what not to do but the central why is found in chapter 2 verse 21 if you'll look there chapter 2 verse 21 Peter has already talked about the citizens under corrupt leadership and the slaves under corrupt masters and then in verse 21 he says this for to this you have been called because Christ has also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps he committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly we need to hold that passage we preached on it last week we need to hold that passage in mind as we're seeing what Peter is telling people that's the fundamental pattern we're supposed to follow look at the verse verse 21 chapter 2 for to this you have been called because

[29:11] Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps I talked last week about hypergramos leaving you an example I talked about it being a stencil or like a handwriting tablet that's what the word was in the Roman world it was the teacher would come and give the writing and then you would come and follow in his writing and all Peter's doing here is he's saying you're going to be tempted to fight like the world when things are hard but there's a better way because you have been called to follow Christ's example you've been called to trace out the stencil of the cross as you are in an unjust situation and I didn't talk about this last week but he also says he makes it very clear he says he has given you the hypogramos the stencil that you might follow in his steps so we got double imitation happening here this image right but also footprints and you're walking in the footprints of Christ so what I need to do real quick as we begin to wrap up is I need you to turn your imagination dials up to a ten

[30:27] I want you to think about the footprints of Jesus for a minute okay try to get some pictures in your head as we think about this let's think about the actual physical footprints of Jesus let's imagine that the whole time we have this special device and we can see wherever he stepped we can we can see his footprints after he's already taken those steps okay those footprints first of all start off surprisingly small for the God of the universe they start off as little baby footprints he who was equal to God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but humbled himself to the point of a baby and so much more if they start off small get a little bigger we're tracing the footprints of the God of the universe circling around Mary's skirt running in and out of his father's workshop then in his very early teens the footprints are bigger now and of course we know the story there's a moment when the footprints of Jesus famously left his mom and dad's side and returned to the temple we trace those footprints back to the temple and see

[31:50] Jesus was here and he was interacting as a young man with the scribes and the teachers and then you know the biblical record kind of stops and we don't really see any footprints of Jesus for a while but then they reemerge on the banks of the Jordan and really all over ancient Israel we see the footprints of Jesus walking here walking there visiting towns proclaiming the good news into the villages into Zacchaeus his home at some point those feet were anointed with oil and tears so now we can really see the footprints but then we start to see them turn resolutely to Jerusalem and we see them leading off occasionally to places of solitude so that Jesus could pray we're just following the footprints he goes out to the wilderness to pray we follow him into the upper room we follow him back out of the upper room and out to the garden of

[32:56] Gethsemane and that's curious because there where we see his footprints we also see a little bit of blood on the ground well the dirt is a little wet with tears and sweat and blood and then we notice that Jesus his footprints are surrounded by big Roman boot footprints and he is taken away first to the house of Caiaphas and then to Herod and Pilate and we're following the footprints and around Herod and Pilate's time a little bit earlier we're starting to see a fair amount of blood a blood trail with the footprints and we follow these footprints as they go from Caiaphas to Herod to Pilate a lot of blood certain spots where he was flogged and so forth but we keep following Jesus' footprints all the way up till they stop and we look up and there is our

[34:03] Lord and Savior on a cross now he's up there and he has absolutely every option at his disposal he doesn't need to be up there at all he is completely in control actually and he can exert his control in any way he would like he could take himself down he could call on the angels he could smite every last person standing there he could spend his time on the cross in his final breaths arguing with his opponents justifying himself returning there reviling with his own much better reviling but that's not how he does it he he prays mostly and as Peter says he continued entrusting himself to God who judges justly and Peter says to this you have been called to walk in those footprints the ones who disappear at the cross this is just another way of saying what

[35:20] Jesus himself said if anyone wishes to be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me you have to follow in his footsteps that's the only way out of the suffering that pleases God and achieves what you really want is you got to follow those footprints all the way up to the cross and you have to endure the suffering that God has put before you that feels chaotic and out of control and tempts you sorely to exude your own exert your own control over it no can't do it you got to get on the cross you got to submit yourself to God you got to entrust yourself to him who judges justly ladies when was the last time someone told you that if you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must take up your cross daily and deny yourself boy there's a lot of money to be made and telling you the opposite a lot when was the last time moms you were told that what you're doing is following

[36:37] Jesus to the cross every day and that that's what you were called to do that's what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ that's all that Peter is saying here he's he's saying to the women look at verse 4 chapter 3 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which in God's sight is very precious for this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord and you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening Peter's just saying ladies entrust yourself to God who judges justly there's another million other weapons that you would like to grab here don't instead entrust yourself to God who judges justly now these three passages the citizens the slaves and the wives they have all these things in common including the word subject or submit every single one of these suffering people who are suffering under unjust leadership are told by Peter through the word of

[37:53] Jesus Christ to submit to the authorities that are unjust the reality is that nobody in this room can escape that requirement we all just submit to different people but every person in this room has submitted to an unjust ruler an unfair boss to someone who doesn't obey the word guys we're all in the same boat here we're all struggling with the same basic issue God is telling us to do the very thing that feels like suicide to trust him to refuse to take the wheel and to submit in ways that are highly uncomfortable given the credentials of our leaders that's in every single one of these things all three groups have a choice to make they can by faith see that

[39:04] God is in control of their circumstances and the authority structures that they are under and they can react by submitting to these authority structures as under the Lord or they can kind of make up their own rules grab some other weapon do it their way this is just the choice we face as human beings we sometimes hear about women with daddy issues you know the reality is is that every single one of us has daddy issues we all struggle to believe that God's actually in control of all things and he's for us and that the structures that we're in the environment we're in that seems so unfair and so unjust and so unmanageable is perfectly managed by someone we can trust not only in sort of our hearts and our minds but also by functionally getting on the same page with those people who God has placed over us and by the way if we follow the footsteps of

[40:09] Jesus we'll see the exact same thing do you understand that even as Jesus entrusted himself to God he was submitting himself to the Romans who were crucifying him he submitted himself to the process to the chain of command to the authorities and yet he knew what he told Pilate explicitly you would have no authority over me if it were not given to you by my father that's how we submit our way to victory you whoever you are you're an actor in a story I will do what you're calling me to do in so far as it aligns with scripture but let's be clear I'm submitting to God through you and friends this is actually the only way a civilization gets built you don't get indoor plumbing without leaders and followers like it's just the way everything's built and most fundamentally western civilization is built on the footsteps that the god of the universe took to

[41:29] Pilate's house where instead of snapping Thanos snapping Pilate into non-existence he submitted himself he entrusted himself to God who judges justly you know the whole concept of first Peter don't fight like the world it's it's all like it all gets summarized a lot of the ancient writers would put their summary statement or their their main thesis statement at the end of their letters and we have that in first Peter so real quickly look at first Peter five ladies this is this is this is for you this is for you men anybody who feels like they're in a situation that they are tempted to reach for one of their weapons of choice to control this is for you first Peter five six after dealing with all the specific people he says generally humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you see that's the thing if you follow

[42:35] Jesus' footsteps to the cross and join him there you also get to follow Jesus' footsteps out of the tomb and join him there but you don't get the crown without the cross you don't get the exaltation without the humiliation you don't get the name above all names without the submission humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you be sober minded be watchful your adversary the devil so interesting that our little garden companion that started this whole mess with Eve and Adam he's here again he has an agenda when we are confused and scared he wants to do a lot with our anxieties that will drive us farther away from the

[43:40] Lord be sober minded be watchful your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world after all after you have suffered a little while the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you to him be the dominion forever and ever amen amen this is a book about trusting God instead of turning to this or that tool that our flesh desperately wants to use to sort of feel in control and we're pointed time and time to the cross time and time again to the cross and it's great that we get to end by celebrating the Lord's table because he endured the cross forsaking its shame for the joy set before him we know where the footsteps of entrusting yourself to

[44:52] God lead they ultimately lead to glory and good and blessings is it a scary path yes and no yes we're only human no we can see how this plays out we can see the footprints we can see them disappear at the cross we can see them reappear outside the empty tomb so as we celebrate the Lord's table today what we use to remember every week that Jesus Christ who created the world died for us as we celebrate that I think we can find a really good reason to trust him as we move in to our week let me pray!

[45:37]  Father God praise your holy name for being so! faithful to give us such a savior not only to pardon us but to power our obedience Lord I thank you for every mother in this room I hope they don't feel too picked on I just pray God that you would help them to be holy and therefore happy in you God we pray that you would bless them as they walk out their salvation in fear and trembling as they daily take up their cross deny themselves and follow you as is what is called for a disciple of Christ please God continue to bless the women of our church give them grace upon grace we love them so much in Jesus name we pray amen come and take communion