Genesis 2:21-25

Speaker 1: Turn to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter number two is where we will start. This is chapter number two, as you find your place there, you wouldn't mind join me in standing in honor of reading God's word. Genesis, chapter number two. We'll begin, Renee, in verse number twenty one. Bible says in the Lord, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made. He, a woman, brought her onto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave under his wife, and they shall be one flesh? They were both naked, the man and his wife. And we're not ashamed. Let's pray or we thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity. We have to look into your word. Rachel, give me the words. You have me to say, you know, the folks that are here to listen and apply what they hear to their lives. What's in Jesus name? I pray. Amen. You may be seated. All right, we are in the middle of a series called Grace in Marriage, we dealt with some issues dealing with grace as it pertains to parenting, but I don't know if there will be another message in this series that will be as pertinent to the theme of Grace in marriage. Tonight, we're to talk about grace in a contentious marriage, grace and a contentious marriage. You know, the Bible talks in verse number chapter to hear of Genesis about the the idea that a man should leave his father, his mother and show Cleave and his wife. And I think I've said this before, and my idea here when I picture this has always been that that little boy that's outside and he wants to climb a tree. And I don't know about you, but some of our trees in our yard, we had like 200 trees in our yard. Some of them had branches that were very accessible, and some of them had branches that were very high off the ground. And so me and my youthful energy thought, OK, well, if I can just run, jump and wrap my arms and legs around this tree, I'll be able to scooch up to one of the branches. Well, of course, that doesn't always work out that way. But when I think of that word, Cleve, I think about a kid has run jump and grabbed on, you know, and he's holding on for dear life. He's got his arms wrapped around the tree, the legs are wrapped around the tree and he's just clinging to that tree, hoping he doesn't fall and break an arm. Now I I don't know about you, but you know, if I were to cleave wrap myself around this pulpit, you know, some of it's really smooth. But there are some points on here, there's some some rough parts that probably wouldn't be too comfortable after a little bit of time, right? If I was to run and jump onto that tree and just really hold on tight, how long do you think it would be before the bark of that tree maybe started to, you know, be abrasive on my on my face or cut the skin on my arms as I held on tightly? Right? There's just going to be some natural friction whenever something cleaves to something else. And the same is true in marriage. There will be contentions in any marriage, right? Yes. Now, I know Miss Britain is not in here, Brother McKay, but if I could remind you her parents are right down the row. Yeah. I mean, it's it's only a matter of time. You are sinful for your spouse is sinful. And so eventually your sins are going to cause a problem in your marriage. And so what we want to look at tonight is how does a person respond to contentions in marriage? How can we have grace when dealing with one another? And to do that, I want to look at four different marriages from the Old Testament and then will make some New Testament application. The first marriage that I want you to look look at is in second Samuel Chapter six. You have your Bibles open turn to second Samuel Chapter six. And you say, Are you going to turn up a bunch of places? You look, you know, the drill. Usually, I have you turned to one place. We don't go anywhere else. So every once in a while, it's good to get a little bit of exercise, you know, in changing your Bible pages. So second single chapter number six. We're not going to read a lot of the chapter, but looking at mid-summer 20, if you would. Second, Samuel, Chapter six, verse number 20, it says then David returned to bless his household, and Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the King of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncover it himself? And what punctuation mark do you have there at the end? Exclamation point, guys. This was not a calm conversation. This was not a timid little lady coming out saying, Oh David, now she is upset, she's fired up and she is going to let him have it. She can't even let him get in the house before she unloads some criticism, criticism on him. And so the first thing we're looking at is a a husband who had a wife that criticized him. Now the story that is background to this is that David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem for the first time ever. All right. This is a momentous occasion. This is a special celebration. There is all kinds of rejoicing and. And I want to say partying, but you're going to get the wrong idea when I say partying because our culture has messed up that word. But I mean, it is. It's a huge citywide party. It's a holiday there in Jerusalem as as as the Ark is brought back in. And David is just as excited or more excited than anyone else in the city because he gets to host God in his city. The Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God with his people. David is bringing that back or not back the end of the city for the first time, and there's this huge procession to mark the occasion of the art coming into the city of Jerusalem. And so David is out front leading the procession, and he is overcome with the blessings and goodness of God. I know it wasn't written that back then, but perhaps he could have sang as he was marching along the song. That was Tamara saying for us on Sunday night, not only is he is he rejoicing and just overjoyed, he is leaping and dancing before the Lord. Now my son Titus likes to do that. Dance the floss. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the floss. You know we do this thing and you go really fast. I'm not going to do it really fast. He likes to do it and he can do it to just about any song. David wasn't flossing in the streets of Jerusalem. OK, well, he was more likely doing is celebrating the touchdown. So they weren't playing football. I know, but have you ever watched somebody when their team scored a touchdown? I know touchdowns were hard to come by for. You seen her fans on Saturday, but you know, just go back in your memory and think a little bit. Imagine you're a cowboy fan playing the Falcons, and it's just touchdown after touchdown, after touchdown, and you're like, Yes, yes. You know, you asked my wife and I sit and watch a football game very stoic. I don't do anything, say anything until they score an interception or a fumble or something. Good happens and I jump up off the couch. That's David. He's out there just really excited. And he can't contain himself because he's so excited about what God has done. And so Michael, who, by the way, is also Saul's daughter, she sees David and verse number 16, if you were to look there, says that she despised him in her heart, despised him in her heart, man. You said, what a evil, wicked person. Oh, don't be so judgmental. I can guarantee I can guarantee I can almost guarantee you that every person in here has at one time or another despised somebody else in their heart. Every time you looked at that person, you were like a. Only problem is this is David's wife. She's looking at her husband and she is despising him, so she waits until David gets home at the end of the day to just unload on him. And David is unsuspecting of her anger. Now, this is not something that's unique to husbands having wives that are angry at them. Any spouse can probably relate to a time where they came in to see their their husband, their wife after a long day and you're expecting a cordial greeting, you're expecting a hug and a kiss. Hi, how are you? And it's not that way. And you're caught off guard. Right. Some of you are nodding and I'm like, OK, real people, some of you are looking at me like I got three heads and I'm like, I'm not being honest here. It comes to the House, these coming first number 20 tells us to bless his family. But before he can even get in the door, Michael comes out the inverse number 20. She goes on and on about how embarrassing David had act acted. He had behaved in a manner that was unbecoming of the king. She says, You acted like one of those baying fellows. Now, as I said before, you know, this was a heated exchange, because at the end of the verse, there's a big fat exclamation point. If she was sending him a Facebook message, it would have been in all caps. Verse number 21, though, we see David's response in, and I believe that I'm safe in saying this. David does not respond in kind. He doesn't match Michael's attitude in his response, well, mention more of this later. But a big part of dealing with contention in marriage involves a refusal to match a disgruntled partner's negative energy. All that Movieline, if they bring a knife, you bring a gun. If they bring a gun, bring a machine gun, they bring a machine gun, you bring a bazooka. You know, and you just keep one up in each other. A lot of people do that in their marriages. You know, one partner starts to raise their voice a little. The other partner has to match and go beyond. And so then the other partner has to, you know, elevate their tone and it builds and builds and builds. And before you know it, you're flooded with emotions and thoughts, and you can't even speak straight because you're so upset and you're just saying things that don't even make sense. You're going end up hurting each other. David doesn't allow himself to fall into this, this mode, David does defend himself, but he does so by explaining that what he had done he had done for the Lord. He says it was before the Lord which chose me before thy father and before all his house to appoint me ruler over the people to the Lord over Israel. Therefore, will I play before the Lord? I will yet be more vile than us and will be based in my own site and of the made servants which that was spoken of them, shall I be had in honor? You see, there's a problem here where one partner is thinking about spiritual things and the other partners thinking about carnal things. Now, hopefully, you and your wife, you and your husband stay on the same page when it comes to priorities and priorities in spiritual matters over carnal matters. But sometimes there's an imbalance where one partner is really concerned about the family's relation to God and the other partners really concerned about the family's relation to society. I make more money so I can keep up with the neighbors and we got to we got to make sure we do this because that's what everybody else is doing, and we got to give these opportunities to our kids because if not, well, then they're going to miss out. When that happens, there can be contentions in a marriage. The contention in this instance has to do with differing priorities. Michael prioritized image while David prioritized faith. So the first couple that we're looking at here is dealing with that matter of criticism. Criticism that came from contention over differing priorities. But I want you to see that when faced with personal attacks, David did not respond in kind. He did not respond to the way his wife was talking to him. Next couple, I want to point to if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Hozier. So David and Michael is number one, dealing with criticism. Hozier and Gomer are couple number two. Hozier, you see, he had a wife that had hurt him deeply in Chapter one, verse number two, the Bible says the beginning of the Word of the Lord by Hozier and the Lord send a Hozier girl taken to the wife of whore ms and children of whore Adams for the land has committed great hoard them departing from the Lord. In Chapter one, we see that God had directed Hozier to marry a prostitute. He married a woman named Gomer. And together they started a family. They had two sons and a daughter in their family. But if you were to look at chapter number two, verse number one, you will see that it wasn't long before Gomer returns to her old way of living. The Bible says in verse number one, Say Ye under your brethren, am I into your sister room? Plead with your mother, plead because she is not my wife. Neither am I. Her husband let her therefore put away her. Out of her sight and her adulteress from between her bat breasts, lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born and make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst. I will not have mercy upon her children, or they be the children of Horton's first, nor five for their mother has played the harlot she hath conceived them has done shamefully for, she said. I will go after my lovers that give me bread and my water and my wall and my flax, my oil and my drink. You see, in chapter number two, Hozier is pleading or sending the children out to plead with her to come back home there in verse number five. You see her motivation for leaving and going back to her old way of life was supposedly the inadequacies of her husband to provide. What did she say? I've got to go back to those after my lovers that gave me my bread, my water, my warm, my flax mine oil and my drink. So, Zosia, look, I mean, you're a nice guy and all, but this profit thing just doesn't doesn't do very much for me when it comes to providing all of the wants that I have. I mean, I've got a I've got a certain standard of living that I'm used to. And so if you can't do that for me, then I'm out of here. Have fun with the kids. The kids are pleading with her to come back and I can't really. I put myself in there, but just try to imagine the Real-Life implications of what Jose is experiencing here left with these three children. His wife has left him not just because, you know, she wants her freedom or anything like that, she has left him to go back to a life of prostitution. And her reason for all this is you haven't provided for me. Men, you know, that's and that's like a knife in your heart. All of those things. Can you imagine the amount of pain, the intense hurt and betrayal that Hozier is experiencing here due to the the actions of his wife? Then look at chapter number three. Then said the Lord on me and verse no one go yet. Love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulterous. According to the love of the Lord towards the children of Israel, who look to other gods and left wagons of wine. So I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver, for an owner of Bali and a half owner of Bali. And I said under her. Thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shall not play the Harlot, thou shalt not, thou shalt not be for another man. So will also be for the. See, in Chapter three, gods also desire to go. Take her back. The letter back into his life. Actually, it's it's actually harder than just letting her back into his life because she's not like knocking on his door, asking him to let her back in. Goma is not pleading with Hozier to to take her back and let her to come home. She is still actively living the life of a prostitute. And so Hosie is supposed to go out, find her in her filth and pay money that he apparently doesn't have to buy his wife back. She has been unfaithful. She has been horribly injurious to Jose. That's not how Hosier responds to her, is it? Even though she had cheated on him, even though she had injured him. Was there doesn't respond like that to her? Look at verse three again, these are the words of Hozier to Gomer. Thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the Harlot, thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for the C in this? Josie is saying You need to come home. Let's take care of you. You don't have to go from partner to partner to partner looking for someone to give you that attention. I will be faithful to you, even though you haven't been faithful to me. Ozone is certainly part of a contentious marriage. And yet somehow he did not respond. A reward unfaithfulness with unfaithfulness. Instead, he showed love, gentleness and kindness. Though it was not deserved. It's a really amazing story. There's a deeper picture there. Take your marbles now and turn back to first thing. Perhaps you ladies are like, yeah, well, this is a zadam message. He's just going to rail on these, these bad wives. Don't worry, I've got some real stinker husbands to. First, Samuel, twenty five. You are sure to. This is kind of a long story, so I won't read a lot of it, but says there was a man in May on. Whose possessions were in Carmel? The man was very great at three thousand sheep thousand goats, you're shearing the sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabl, the name of his wife, Abigail. She was a woman of good understanding of a beautiful countenance. The man was churlish and evil in his doings. He was of the House of Cayley. Nabl was a wealthy man in Israel during the reign of Saul. Saul had failed to fulfill the primary got appointed purpose of government, which is to protect its people. And so the enemies of Israel were coming in and they were attacking people like naval, killing his livestock, stealing from him. And so David, even though he was a fugitive, had stepped in to provide this service. And one of the people that he did this for was Nabl. Well, as a fugitive, David eventually found himself in a time of need. Many of the people who were. Outcasts and didn't fit in the rest of society had gravitated towards David, and so his is a little grouping of people, families, not just many women and children that were there with him. They'd all come to him looking for leadership, looking for belonging community. And so David's responsibility is to these people had grown and grown and grown. And so he sends Tony Ball for assistance. And and ask them for some food. And Enable basically says no way. David had a reasonable expectation that Naval would return his kindness enabled enable did not. I think it's pertinent. I'm not of the opinion that we should have no expectations in life of anybody. You've heard this, this probably before. The reason that you have problems of people is your your expectations are too high. Yes, so. I mean, I think there are certain people that we should have high expectations for. Don't you? You have high expectations of your pastor. Sure, you should. It's reasonable. OK. I have high expectations of my wife. That's reasonable. I hope she has high expectations of me. I don't think it's wrong to have expectations. That's point David had an expectation that here I am protecting you, protecting your livestock, protecting your workers, and now I'm coming to you, asking for some help in my time of need, Enable says no way. If you look at verse number 11, he says, Shall I didn't take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my years and give it on the man whom I know not wed be. I don't know you. Why should I give you my stuff? Well, of course, this insults David's men and insults David, it's an offense, it's ingratitude, and David is, of course, infuriated at Enable the Messengers. Come back to David in verse number 13. David gathers up 400 men and arms them and sets off to extract revenge on naval. There happened to be one young man. Who runs Intel's Abigail? What's going on? And Abigail. Immediately begins to go to work to defend her churlish, foolish, arrogant husband. Remember, it says in verse number three that he was evil in his doings. He's an evil man. What do you think the chances are that Abigail might have been the recipient of some of his evil doings?

Unidentified: What do you think?

Speaker 1: Yeah, but when she finds out that her husband's life is in danger, that he has gone and done something stupid. She says I've got to go. I've got to help him. I mean, it's it's kind of weak to say his reputation had been damaged. I mean, he's about to die. Yeah, his reputation has hurt. Abigail goes to save netball's life. She comes to David, having prepared a very sizable offering in verse number 18 and in verse number 20 as she comes to David says she came down by the cover to the hill and behold, Dave and his men came down against her and she met them. Now David and said, Shirley in Vietnam, I kept the fellow blah blah blah blah verse number 23. When Abigail saw David, she hated and light it off the ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground. She's going to go on. She's going to apologize for the offense of netball. She's going to supply him with a great amount of food and other supplies. And so David will be appeased and we'll turn back from his mission. He says I will no no longer seek to kill. Your husband? Now, if that was where the story stopped, we could already say that Abigail is most noble indeed. That's not where it stops because you can read on and find out that as Abigail goes home, she finds netball just absolutely drunk. Look at version one. Thirty six. So now Abigail came to enable me. Holy hell, a feast in his house, like the feast of a King enables heart was married within him before he was very drunk. Wherefore she told him nothing less or more until the morning light. And so she gets there. It's the shearing time, you know, they're getting all their wool, and so they're going to celebrate because they've had a great harvest, so to speak. You know, and so she gets home and there he is, drinking and getting drunk and and she decides she's not going to say anything that night. Good move. Right. Good move here on Abigail's part. For one, it wouldn't be fair to tell Neighbor what she had done. He is definitely not going to be in control of his emotions. And so why put her husband in a position to where he's going to do or say something that he's going to regret in the morning? She just decides, you know what? We'll wait. And it's sometimes hard to wait, you want to say something. I mean, it's just right there on the tip of your tongue. You just want to let it fly. You got to swallow it down. Well. So she does she does not like I say, anything goes bad. Joe wakes up the next morning. Over the size of Burslem at 37 says in the past, in the morning when the line was gone out of ball. He starts to sober up. It's had a couple of cups of coffee or whatever, I wouldn't know what to do, but whatever he needed to do, he starts to be sober again. And so his wife comes and begins to tell him these things so she doesn't tell him that night. She doesn't tell him in the morning when he's hung over. He waits until he's feeling more like himself. Then she tells all the things that she had done to save his life. Bible says when he heard these things. His heart died within him. He became as a stone. They came to pass about 10 days after that, the Lord smoking a ball that he died. It's a I we all had heard of David's plan, she had taken supplies, persuade them against the course of action that he was on. She has succeeded in saving her husband's life. The reverse number thirty seven, he hears all of this. He realizes how close he was to dying. Perhaps he realizes how good his wife has been to him, and he's all feeling a little emotional, you know, from the highs of the night before, and his heart just can't take it. Many commentators believe that what we see in verse number thirty seven depicts a naval having a massive heart attack. He is incapacitated for 10 days until God strikes him when he dies. How? Assuming Abigail had been the recipient of enables evilness.

Unidentified: I've seen enough. You know,

Speaker 1: movies about the, you know, a that's being abused and, you know, she goes and takes karate lessons and then she like puts a woman now on her nasty husband. She could say, Oh my, take it out. Yeah. David's coming, they'll kill naval now, be free. She doesn't do that. She goes and stands up for her husband, who had done nothing deserving of her loyalty. I mean, God was definitely in control, the guy died anyways. That doesn't take away from the fact that Abigail had. Performed a great act of love towards her undeserving husband. If anyone knew who he was, Abigail knew if anyone knew the kind of things that he had done, Abigail knew. And yet she did her best to prevent his downfall. In the end, Abel's life was in the hands of God. But for her part, Abigail had been a better wife. The neighbor had dessert. When you agree, she was in a contentious marriage. Now she had. Done things for him. He didn't deserve. Finally, one last marriage, take your spouse and turn to Esther. You know, the story of Esther, you know, that Esther definitely had an unstable husband. Esther was only with Tacirus to begin with because he had banished his previous wife. When she refused to come and show off her body to a bunch of drunken government officials. Hazardous was one of the most unpredictable men that you could find. What made it worse was that hazardous had all of the power that he needed to do whatever he wanted at a moment's notice if he had a whim. He acted on that whim. Then you were powerless to stand against it. So when Esther was forced to go before her husband unannounced, there was no telling how he would respond. Esther's situation is different than the other three marriages that we have looked at in each one, we have looked at real conversations that took place between the spouses, David and Michael when he came home, Ossetia and Gomer after he had bought her back. Abigail enable the next morning when she told him of all that she had done for him. In Esther's situation, however. She is facing contention in her marriage, but she approaches it in a different manner. If you look at chapter number four, verse number 15. Bible says then Esther Beetham return Mordechai, this answer. Go gather together all the Jews that are president and shoot Shannon fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three day's night or day. I also in my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go in under the king, just not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. Mordecai went his way in the recordings, all that Esther had commanded him. And Esther's situation, she deals with contention by first going to God in prayer. For three days, she and her people fasted and sought God for help. Sister had to have a difficult conversation with her husband. She had no idea how he would respond, would he be gracious to her when he listened to her? What do you allow her to have an audience with him or would he kill her on the spot? So before she went in, she wanted to be prayed up for the encounter. We know the rest of the story. As she goes into the king, the king allows her to speak. She invites him on to a series of banquets in his honor. This culminates in her asking for the lives of her people. Which the king grants a request. Esther and the Israelites are saying. When you look at Esther, you realize, you know, she had a choice at that point. She could have relied on her own skills, her own cunning. She knew. With a husband as unpredictable as a house arrest, she needed the favor of God to be upon her. Tonight, every spouse that we have looked at, I believe truly every spouse in this room. Needs exactly that in their lives, the grace of God, the favor of God in their life, every marriage needs an overwhelming portion of grace in order to deal with the contingencies that come with marriage, to deal with the issues that arise from having to sinful people trying to live together. Every marriage needs the grace of God, as well as grace towards one another. No matter the source of the contention, Grace is always the answer. Dealing with criticism, whether founded or unfounded. Joe Grace. Dealing with unfaithfulness. Show, Grace. Perhaps you're dealing with the fallout from damaging actions or damaging character. Show, Grace. Maybe it's an unstable personality. Instability, unpredictability in the responses that you have when you approach your spouse. So, Grace. Like you to turn to one last verse tonight, Washington's Chapter four. I understand that. The context here has to do with. Our relationship to those that are. Not saved or the outside, but. The verse does say always. Version four six, the Bible says let your speech be all way with what? Grace. Seasoned with salt, you may know how to answer every man. Grace, is what? Undeserved favor. Do you always deserve your spouse's favor? No. You sometimes criticized them needlessly. Need them to show Grace to you. Yes. Is it possible that you may at some point in your relationship, have to deal with the issue of unfaithfulness? And you'll stand in need of grace. Yes. Is it possible that your actions outside the home will bring a bad reputation upon your household? And you'll need your spouse to stand up for you and show Grace it is undeserved. Maybe you are unpredictable. Unstable. In your responses. You're going to need Grace. Every person in this message displayed the truth of collections for six. Let your speech be always with grace. They showed undeserved favor to their spouses specifically through their words. I know there's many forms of communication. You get married in those those wordless forms of communication become very magnified. You know? When you were living with someone twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, it doesn't take much for you to start to key in on the fact something's not right. Normally you all watch TV sitting close to each other on the couch. Now you're separated on opposite sides of the room. Normally, you know, you kiss each other before bad and you tell each other you love them. But now you just huff and roll over and go to sleep. You know. Say goodbye and hope you have a good day before you leave for the for work or for school or whatever the day holds. Now you're mad. So you say nothing as you storm out the door. Just be all the way with Grace. David? Showed Grace to Michael. Hozier spoke Grace to Gomer. Abigail acted in grace towards Annabelle and Esther, access the grace of God for her unstable husband. You have probably experienced some of the exact contentions that we have looked at tonight. You know what it's like to be criticized. You know what it feels like to be cheated on? You know what it's like to have to go and clean up someone else's mess? You know what it's like to try and approach someone who is unpredictable in the way they react? And all of these different situations, Grace, is the answer. Undeserved favor. Is the key to dealing with contentions in our marriage? You are. I'm just not exactly sold on this. I mean, I have rights. I mean, I have, you know, I have to stick up for myself. I want to be a doormat. By saying you have to be a doormat. Nobody's saying you have to put up with abuse. We're not. This is not what we're dealing with here. Why should I show Grace to my spouse when our relationship becomes contentious, when it seems to be so undeserved? Why should I show Grace then? I would take you back to our very first message in this series, but showing grace to one another is part of the primary purpose for being married in the first place. We are to display the gospel to each other and to those around us. And grace is a bedrock principle of the gospel, so much so that in twenty twenty four, the Bible calls it the gospel of the grace of God. So if we're going to live out the gospel in our marriage relationship, which is the primary purpose for being married in the first place, you have to show grace. And if you're not willing to show grace to your spouse, don't get married. Grace is the primary purpose of our relationship, but No. Two. Isn't Grace what Jesus did and does show to you? Think about this. Couldn't every single one of these marriages be a picture of our relationship to God? Have you ever criticized God? Maybe to a space. Again, a prayer, you know, not like. You went to heaven and criticized them flat on your face, you can say anything you know in a prayer, praying to God can sometimes be like talking to somebody online. You get really bold in the things that you would say you wouldn't dare some say some of those things if you were actually looking at God face to face it, just you wouldn't do it. To criticize him. Take issue with is care for you. Or maybe you just criticized him to others. God knows what it's like to be criticized. God knows what it's like for you to cheat on it. That's the whole purpose of Jose, after all the adulterous nature of the Israelites relationship to God, how they went after other gods. You and I go after other gods to not sit there like a Pharisee, say you get. You most certainly have, I have to. He shows his grace. How about this, as has has Jesus ever perhaps advocated for you when you didn't deserve it? Like, I mean, you made a real royal mess of things and Jesus advocated for you? I think that's like part of his job. He is our advocate. Kind of like Abigail was for naval. How about this? Have you ever been a little unstable spiritually? Unpredictable. I mean, I don't think God, it operates this way, but you know, what would God would Jesus be like nervous about approaching you? I really like to, you know. Work on this in. Cody, sitting in Cody's life, I mean, there's just this one thing I'd really like for Cody to do for me. I just don't know how he's going to respond. Cody, in a good place today or where is he going to like fly off the handle? I mean, I just don't know. God doesn't act that way, but we do sometimes. You take a teenager, you pull them away from all of the ungodly influences in their life and their phones and the TV and the internet, and you plop them down in a youth camp context, you know, and all of a sudden they're actually focused on the Lord and listening to him and God starts speaking to them and they're like, Oh yes, Lord, oh, they're crying. They got snot coming out of their nose, and they're just absolutely in tune with what God's trying to do, and they're all for it. Then God brings that same message back around when they get home. I don't want anything to do with that. I'm not doing that. That's that's done. So unstable, so unpredictable. Through all of it, all of the contentions that we put him through. His grace is constant toward us. We need to follow his example. When it comes to our relationship with our spouse. Well, they deserve it or not. We show them favor. Whether they deserve it or not, we show them Grace. It's a bedrock principle of the gospel. As what Jesus has done for us, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the good attention of your people. Thank you for these examples that we've seen in your word. Or I don't know everybody's situation and know what their marriage is like behind closed doors, and we're all sinful humans. So Lord, there's a very good chance that. There are. A few or several folks that are here tonight that are dealing with contention in their relationships, Lord, they've been wronged, legitimately wronged or I ask that you would use your Holy Spirit. Give them the ability to show Grace undeserved favor to their spouse. We don't know what the. Outcome would be we can see what the outcomes were in these these different episodes in your word. Lord, I pray that you would help the people that are here to take their responsibility as husbands and wives seriously, to show grace to one another, to show love to one another the way you have shown to us. God, I pray that you would strengthen the homes of our church. It would begin with the marriages here in our church. Boy, we love you so much. Thank you for all you do for us. Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

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