Sermon artwork

Colossians 3:18 - 4:1

Preached by Bart Erlebach on 9th March 2025

Scripture

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

4:1 Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

(ESV)

Generated Transcript
Wives submit yourselves to your husbands as is fitting in the lord. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children obey your parents in everything for this pleases the lord. Fathers do not embody your children or they will become discouraged. Slaves obey your earthly masters in everything and do it not only when their eyes are new and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the lord.

Whatever you do, work it with all your heart as working for the lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the lord as a reward, it is the lord cry wise you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. Masters provide your slaves as what is right and fair because you know that you also have master in heaven. Thank you, Rachel, for reading that for us.

I'm Bart Elbeck. I'm pastor here at Hope Church. And if you're new, it's great that you're here. We're going through the book of colossians, and this is the bit that we've got to. So if you've, not opened the Bible, do open 1.

There are some scattered around, and turned to page 1184, and you can follow through in that passage. And let me just lead us in prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for your words. Thank you that you teach us. You teach wonderful truths about you, wonderful things that we've been singing about.

And you teach us how to live as your people. And so we pray please now as we come to this list of, commands, father, please, would you help us to know how to apply these to our daily lives? Our men. And what difference does it make being a Christian? What difference does it make to your day to day life if you are a Christian?

Does it make a difference? Does it make a difference to maybe some of the more mundane things? Things like, I don't know, doing the dish wash or the way that you relate to your boss at work, or how you deal with your children if you have children. And the answer is whether it it should have a an impact on all of things. It should have an impact on day to day things.

Sometimes people assume that Christianity is really just you and god. And you come to church, maybe, and, it's just you and god. That relationship. That's the the only thing it is and doesn't really have an impact on then Monday to Saturday. But as you read through the new testament, as you read through the Bible, what you see is there are wonderful theological truths, wonderful truths about you and your relationship with the lord, what he has done for you.

And then it goes through to the real details of what you are to do day by day, how we are to live for god. And Paul said in, the passage that was preached on last week, if you've got the the Bible open in front of you, chapter 3 verse 17, he says, whatever you do, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, Do it all in the name of the lord Jesus, giving thanks to god the father through him? So he's saying everything that you do, whether in word or deed, that's still everything, isn't it? Diswasher, where you are at home, cooking the dinner, whatever it is, do it all in the name of the lord Jesus. And you think, okay, but how?

How am I to do that? What's it actually gonna look like? Well, it's important that we keep our passage in the context of the whole letter. Otherwise, you end up with just a list of rules, a list of do's and don'ts. And that's, again, why lots of people maybe think Christianity is just a list of rules, a list of do's and don'ts.

But it's important to keep this in the context of the whole letter, it's towards the end of the letter, and you need to keep it in the context of the whole. Last week, then very, hopefully, preached on on the previous passage, and he began by saying that a Christian is first someone who has changed their address, which was a great way of putting it. But before you think about what you've gotta do, you need to know you've gotta change of address. So if you just cast your eyes back to chapter 3 verse 3, it says, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in god. If you're a Chris if you're a follower of the lord Jesus, that is true of you.

Your address has changed. You are your life is now hidden with Christ in God. That is true of you. And it's very important that that that you, first of all, that that is the case, that you have changed address, that you recognize that. And then you need to think about a change of clothes he thought about last week.

In other words, things you're to take off, things you're to stop doing, things you're to start doing. So it's change of address first, then you think about your actions. And that's consistent throughout the whole Bible. That god, first of all, makes people his, and then tells them how to live for him, not the other way around. He doesn't first off come to you and say, live like this He says, first, I'm going to make you 1 of my people.

I'm going to change your address. I'm going to make you mine. I'm going to win you. I'm going to wash you clean. Make you 1 of mine.

And then tell you how to live. That's very important. And now in our passage, Paul says, okay. Now as my people, this is how you're to live in 3 pairs of relationships that you will have seen in the verses. 3 pairs of relationships, husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and masters.

And what you'll have seen straight away as, as that was read, maybe you spotted it there, that in each of those 3 pairs of relation relationships. Paul says there should be submission in each of the 3 pairs of relationships. Wife submit to husbands, children, to parents, and slaves to masters. Paul is saying, doing everything in the name of the lord Jesus is gonna mean people submitting to and obeying other people. Now that doesn't sit well with our culture maybe particularly the husband's and wife's bit.

It doesn't sit well with our culture. We don't like this idea. Now just to before we get into the details of the passage, I think it's helpful to see that we have generally observed absorbed 2 things from our culture, which are not biblical truths. We've absorbed 2 things. Now if I swipe across here, is he gonna change that?

Okay. Let's see if it up. Okay. Here's the first thing that we have assumed. Thank you.

Sorry, I'm still getting familiar with it. First thing we've assumed, those who are under someone else are in way inferior to them. That's the thing that our our culture will say. It's not a biblical truth. Our assumption is the higher up you are, if you have people submitting to you, that you are in some way superior to others, and those who have to do the submitting are somehow inferior.

But, publicly, that is not the case. It is not the case that someone, who submits to someone else is therefore inferior to them. Jesus always did in in the godhead, father, son, and holy spirit. Jesus god, the son always does what the father says. So he submits to his father.

But that does not make Jesus in any way inferior to his father. So submitting doesn't make you inferior. The Bible will say. So we've got to get rid of that idea. The second thing that that maybe we're, we've absorbed from our culture is freedom from restraint is the way to happiness.

Again, that's what our culture will assume. To be happy, you need to get rid of all restraints. I've just gotta be me. Let the inner me flourish. Don't strain me, don't restrain me, and then I'll be happy.

But again, biblically, that that is not the path to happiness. You know, the fall in Genesis 3 was mankind's great attempt to become free from god and put him ourselves on a level with god, and that led to the greatest disaster that there has ever been, the fall of mankind. So, biblically, it is not the case that the way to freedom is through lack of restraint, it is rather having the right restraints in place and submitting to the right thing. So we need to be careful not to go with our culture on this, but to see what the Bible actually says is. Submitting doesn't make you less than someone, and it is not the path to unhappiness.

So we're gonna go through these, pairs of relationships. We're gonna go through each 1, so 6 things. And And, as we go through, what you'll see is, Paul, Paul just gives 1 sentence on each, basically, apart from slaves, slaves he goes into in more detail. And so he just fires out the sort of 6 things, and sort of leaves it at that. And to a certain extent, that's what we're gonna do, because we wanna get through all 6, but each 1 you could spend longer on.

So I'm gonna just sort of tee it up throw it out there, let it explode, and then move on. And, and if afterwards, you wanna come and ask me questions, that's fine. Feel free to do so. But that's the way Paul goes. So let's go his way.

Uh-huh. So first 1, he says, wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the lord. Now notice that, he says wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the lord. So he's not saying this just because of the culture of his day. I take it actually.

If if this wasn't an issue in his day, he wouldn't have needed to have instructed the wives on this. But he commands the wife to say, submit to your husband as he's fitting in the lord, not because of the culture of his day, but because it's fitting. Now, in our church context, at our first vision evening, we were thinking about the roles of men and women in the church, which is a a slightly different thing or can although connected, and if you want to talk about that with 1 of the elders or with myself, feel free to do. So today, we're focusing on marriage, though, and wife submitting to husbands. What does it look like?

Well, We need to be aware, don't we? What Paul is not commanding? He's not saying wives should be forced into submission. He's not commanding husbands to make your wives submit, but rather he's commanding wives. Wives, this is your free gift to your husband that you submit to your husband joyfully.

What's that going to mean in practice? When Beve and I got married, we met with the minister of the church who was going to take the service, to talk about the vows what we were going to be promising. And 1 of the questions was, so, you know, are we going to have both, say, love, honor, and obey? And we, we're trying to be smart. Said, well, could we go with the biblical word and say love, honor, and submit?

For which the minister quite wisely then said to to us, but it's the same thing, isn't it? And we sat there and thought, yeah, actually it is, isn't it? It is actually the same thing because you can't submit to someone else without a bank. So he was quite right on that. And the primary place that this, that you see this happening within a marriage is within decision making, isn't it?

And now it isn't that the in the marriage, it should simply be the husband just makes all the decisions without referring to his wife. That would just be profoundly unwise of the husband because the wife may have more knowledge. May be wiser on some things. But it is saying, husbands, when you've talked it through, or wives, sorry, when you've talked it through, where there's still disagreement between the husband and wife. The wife is to submit to husband.

And the difficulty will be for the wife, not simply to go along with the decision, but to do so in a supportive way because it'll be difficult at times. Now are there limits to this submission. Yes. Because Paul says, as he's fitting in the lord, so it's not right for a wife to submit to abuse or to go along with sin. That wouldn't be right.

That is not fitting in the lord. Now just some do miss here this pattern, misread it as saying it is calling on wives to submit to abuse. It is not. That is not fitting in the lord. So wives, what difference will this make to you?

What difference will it make to put this into practice? It's also got make a difference the way you speak about your husband, I would say, in other contexts, where you're, where you're speaking with others about your husband, maybe? What difference does he make? Were you not gonna do them down? You're not you know, undermine them.

It's horrible thing where, where wives, you know, publicly, doing down their husbands. Of course, it's equally ugly when husbands do it to wives. So that shouldn't happen either. But we've got to be careful the way we speak about our spouse. Paul's saying, do all things in the name of the lord Jesus.

That will mean 5 submitting to husbands. And if you aren't a Christian and you hear this, and you're thinking, this just thing? Hang on a moment. Let's see what he says to husbands. Second, husbands love your wives.

That's what it says. First 19, husbands love your wives and do not harsh with them. So husbands are to love, sacrificing, giving yourself for your wife. And in Ephesians, Paul expands on this to say, love your wife as Christ loves the church. How much does Christ love the church?

He died for the church. So husbands, that is your model. That is how you are to love your wife to sacrifice your health for her. And husbands, you might think, yes, I could do that. I would die for my wife.

You think? Good on. Yeah. Absolutely. The that's unlikely to be 1 that is cashed in at that level.

This is gonna have an impact on the day to day that we're prepared to sacrifice ourselves for our wives. In day to day life. So are you going to go out of your way, husbands this week? Can you go out of your way to love your wife? You almost had a short sermon there.

Can I chat you, husbands, what are you going to do this week to love your wife? And part of that will be making sure that we have enough time with our wives. And not to let other things crowd in because lots of other things can crowd in company. Work can crowd in. Hobbies can crowd in.

Ministry can crowd in. If you're too busy doing ministry, it can crowd out time with your wife. Now, of course, we can be over indulgent, so we never do other things. That's less likely to be our problem, though it could be for some. But we've got to guard the time with our wife, with our wives.

And husbands, do you know how to show love to your wife? Do you know how to do that? What are things that she, will, will help her to know that you love her. People have talked in the past. Do you know about the 5 love languages, heard about that?

No one's shaking or nodding their heads. Great. You all drifted off. Your love language is sleep, and I am showing love to you by letting you do it. No.

No. 5 love languages. It's a helpful thing. People talk about, you can look it up online, that people give and receive love, in 5 ways, 1 of 5 ways. And you're probably your love language may be different from other peoples.

In other words, you may have 1 of them as yours, is your primary 1 that may not be true, your spouse. And the 5 are time, touch, words, gifts, or service. And you need to know what your spouse is love language or primary love languages, because you might be trying to communicate that you love your, your wife. I say, I'll give you gifts. But if their primary love language is time, it's not gonna hit home in the same way.

You think I'm showing you love. And they're going, you don't you're not showing me love. I need you to be with me and spend time with me. Okay. So, husbands, this week, here's a challenge for you.

Talk to your wife about about these things. Find out what makes your wife feel loved. And then don't just know what it is, do it. And that's the challenge, isn't it? I I did speak to her husband once some time ago, who I about this kind of thing, and and he said, it was struggling.

And he said, yeah, I'd I know what I need to do. I know actually my wife's love language is service. I said, okay. What's that gonna mean in practice? He said, doing the dishwasher.

I said, are you gonna do it? He said, quite honestly, he said, that probably not. Okay. You've actually gotta do it. Or I don't know if you I saw a clip recently of her husband, of, yeah, her husband ringing on a neighbor's doorbell.

I don't know if you've seen this on social media. Her husband ringing on the neighbor's doorbell, furious with the neighbor. Really furious with the neighbor. And he said to his neighbor, I'm so angry with you. You've come between me and my wife because you've sent her flowers, and he'd sent her flowers because she come out of hospital thought.

He wasn't trying to, you know, make advances. He said, I am furious with you for doing that because I never buy my wife flowers. I never take her out for a meal. I never buy her anything. And now she's saying, if the guy down the road can do it, why can't you?

I am furious with you. Really? Seriously? That poor wife. If you know what you need to do to show love to your wife.

Husants need to do it. How about about this week. Now I also want you just to see, just to put together these 2 things. Wives submit to your husbands, husbands, love your wives. I want you to see how beautiful that is.

It is a seriously beautiful thing when this is happening when both are doing this that we are called to do this even if your spouse is not a not doing their part in it, you to do it anyway. But where it comes together, it is a really beautiful thing because you've got the wife submitting to the husband and the husband sacrificing himself for his wife. What a lovely situation to be in? And wives, I would suggest if you've got a husband doing that, who wouldn't want to submit to that? What will that mean in in in the decision making things, that must be husbands.

You've got a yes. You you might be the 1 you've got to make the judgment call, but you're doing it in a way that lifts up your wife and sacrifices for her. Sacrifice your desires and your dreams for her. Okay. Take a trivial example.

This evening, let's say a couple you decide, yes, we're going to spend a bit more time together. Lovely. You're going to watch a film together. Lovely. And let's go with the gender area types.

She wants to watch a rom com, and he wants to watch an action film. Which are they going to end up watching? Which are they going to end up watching? Something completely different, man. No.

No. Should end up watching the wrong commotion. Time, I mean, okay. It's gonna vary, but If she's gonna submit to him, he's gonna sacrifice for her. They can do what she wants.

Hey. Gotta work it out, but that's generally the way it should be, shouldn't it? This kind of it's not ugly. It's not horrible. It's not domineering.

It's it's a beautiful thing where it's happening. Let's leave it at. Okay. Husband's a wife. Okay.

Take a moment. I'm gonna pause for a moment. Just think what do you need to put into practice this week if you're married? Take a moment. It's going to be silent.

It's going to be awkward. But just take a moment and think what you are actually going to do. Okay. Next 1. Children.

He commands children. First 20. A Bay your parents in everything for this pleases the lord. The fact it says in everything, commentators will say property points to the fact that this is, speaking to children who are a bit younger. So this is not sort of adult children as it were.

This is children that they are to obey their parents in everything. And children here and a ticket if you're under 18, you're a child. That means you need to obey your parents in everything, whether it seems reasonable or not reasonable. And parents can get caught up in this. It's easily done where you feel that you've got to justify all your commands to your children.

When you say you've got to do this, that you feel you have to follow it up with an explanation. And sometimes parents get caught up in that that they feel they always have to give an explanation. But that's then kind of conveying a thing to the child of saying that you've got to do this when you think it's reasonable or for this reason. Actually, there is a reason, which is just because your parents are telling you to. No.

It's not wrong, obviously, to give reasons reasons is a good thing. But you don't have to do it every time. And children, you don't have to obey only when you think it's reasonable. This is saying, obey your parents, and note I mean, that you're not gonna enjoy that, aren't you? But note is the motivation.

Children obey your parents in everything for this pleases the lord. You do it as part of your worship of the lord. That's how you can view it. I obey my parent because I'm worshiping the lord. It's easy actually to separate out.

You think, okay, there's my relationship with god and my relationship with my parents, and this pushes the 2 together and says, actually, you can worship the lord by obeying your parents. So children, how are you gonna worship the lord this week? How are you gonna talk with others? Maybe talk with your friends about your parents? Again, they should be respectful.

Okay. Parents, we need to come to you. Verse 4, verse 21, sorry, fathers do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged. Now, of course, this does apply to moms as well. It's not okay for moms to embitter their children, but fathers are a big picked out here, head of the household, but also maybe because fathers are more likely to do this to embit of their children, maybe.

Now for some, the instruction needs to be, they need to be at home more, to be more involved with their children. Them. Again, as with marriage, so with parenting, sometimes work can be a great excuse not to be around. And it does seem in our culture that if we say a just got a lot of pressure at work. That seems to be a valid excuse for saying, therefore, I'm not around.

You know, that 1 seems to be valid. Okay. That's alright. Well, obviously, there are different pressures at different times, and sometimes you've got to just sort of, you know, there needs to be a bit of leeway on it. However, if it's consistently the case, well, that's not good.

We need to be around. We need to be with our children. I remember 1, 1 grandfather who I spoke to some time ago, who looked back on his time when his children were growing up, and he said, he admitted there were times he just deliberately stayed at work longer because he said it's just easier than coming home. And he was a really good dad. He was a really good dad, a godly dad, but he said, look, it was just easier to be at work.

So sometimes that's just stayed a bit longer. Actually working from home, I think makes it harder. Because it's all too easy to say, I've just got that bit more to do. I've just got that bit more to do. I stay in the study just that bit longer.

I think it can make it even harder. Some need to hear that they need to spend more time with their children because absent fathers can cause bitterness. And all of us need to to be careful. We're not embittering our children. And there can be many reasons why we might be overharsh with our children.

My might be harsh with our children. Some maybe it's the way you were brought up. You're just sort of that's what I'm used to, so that's what I do. It's just harsh. Sometimes, the way we deal with our children is more determined by the way others are viewing us what we think they would approve of.

Sometimes, it's because we've got hopes and dreams for our children, and they're not meeting them. And they're not playing for England football team yet at the age of 5. Come on. And maybe it's just an outflowing of your own frustrations in other parts of life. So how do we not embitter our children.

Not by avoiding discipline, I believe we need to discipline. And every child is different. But I think it is through as we picked up from others along the way, it's picking your battles and being really good at praising. Picking your battles, there are times where children are just difficult, just more difficult, where there are just lots of things that you could pick up on, and you could say, well, there's this, and there's that. And you got to pick your battles at times and say, oh, we're going to focus in on this.

You maybe need to talk about it. Dads and moms together say, what are we, what are we actually just going to focus on at the moment? And you've got to pick your timing for dealing with things, picked up from someone else another dad 1 time in saying, don't discipline your children in front of other children in front of their friends. Don't do that because that embarrasses them, and it makes it hard for them to back down. You know, just 1 on 1.

Pick your battles and be masters of praise. Got it. We gotta be masters of praise of going, actually. You did this well. And particularly when they're maybe being they're going through phase have just been more difficult.

You can pick somebody and go, you did that really well. I'm not. You did that really well, but, just you did that really well. That was really good. So can you just take a moment again?

Children, parents, what difference is this gonna make this week? What difference is this gonna make to you? Okay. Long last pet, slaves and masters. Now you might think here, okay, easy.

We don't have slaves and masters, so that's alright. This isn't so difficult. And we can think, Paul here is condoning slavery, big problem because we know that's wrong. And therefore, where we can't take Paul seriously, that wipes out, anything. Thank you.

Anything that from the Bible, we can't take it seriously at all. But we do need to note slavery and Paul's Day is probably different from the slavery you've got in mind. So generally, when we think of slavery, we're probably thinking of eighteenth century slave trade, probably thinking of African slaves kidnapped taken from their homeland, taken to another country forced to work for the rest of their lives in cottonfield. It's that kind of view that we have of slavery, you get that wasn't the slavery of Paul's Day. Just to give, some information about slavery and Paul's time.

I mean, I'm not saying slavery was easy there. I mean, not saying it was an easy life. It was still difficult, but, slavery was very common. So apparently in Rome, at the time, 80 to 90 percent of people were slaves or former slaves. It's a high proportion in that.

Most people, vast majority were. Slaves had some rights under Roman law. Slavery was not race based, so it wasn't just 1 race that we're subjugating. And there were various ways for slaves to gain freedom. So in some cases, slaves could expect freedom after 7 years.

And under Roman law, a slave could expect freedom by the age of 30. So, okay, that's just very different from what we would normally have in mind when we think of slavery. I'm not suggesting it was easy. They were harsh slave masters at the time. But what Paul is talking about here is not the slavery we normally think of.

Now you still might think, well, okay, how can we apply this? I think we can apply these principles to the workplace. Maybe you feel like you're a slave at work. Well, okay, then you can resonate a bit more with this. But I think you can apply these principles to, employees and employers.

So that's what we're going to do. So slaves, obey your masters. First 22, slaves obey your earthly masters in everything and do it not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the lord. They they were to be genuinely obedient not 2 faced, not just eager to please the boss when their eyes on them, but speaking badly about them behind their backs, that is not what they were to do. So how about you in the workplace?

How do you, apply this? Well, it is to be sincere in your work and to do what you're instructed to do with sincerity, and not then speaking badly about the boss. And that is, that is a challenge for us because we live in a society which doesn't like hierarchy, doesn't like authority, it's very commonplace for people to complain about the management or about the boss. It's just very common, isn't it? Be different.

Don't be like that. Not just when their eye is on you. It's easy to become a grumbler and a moaner when the boss is not around. And notice the motivation again, verse 23, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you were even inheritance from the lord as a reward.

It is the lord Christ you are serving. Very strong emphasis there, isn't it? When you're at work, when you're slaving away, it's Christ you're serving. That's who who your boss is. So do it with since severity.

That's a shift in thinking. We're told very little in the Bible about what job we should do. You'll find it doesn't tell you it doesn't rank jobs. It doesn't say it's better to be a doctor than to work at Sains, but it doesn't say anything like that. But it does say who to work for, you're to work for Christ in your work.

And we know we're gonna reward from Jesus. That's what he says. First 24, slaves would have had no reward. No payment, but Paul is saying, you will get your reward from Jesus. Your real boss will reward you.

So work this week for Jesus, for his pleasure, for his reward since seally under those over you and working with all your heart. On the flip side there is in verse 25, anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. Last 1, last command, last people to think about, masters, be fair. Chapter 4 verse 1, masters provide your slaves with what is right and fair because you know that you also have a master in heaven. So similarly can apply this to to the situation where maybe you're a line manager, you're a boss, you're an employer, and the instruction here is that you are to be fair to do what is right.

And the motivation again is because you have a master in heaven. So just as slaves have a master in heaven, so you have a master in heaven if you're an employer or a line manager. However, high up, you are in the workplace. You're still under the lord, and all of us submit to him. So what is this gonna mean in practice I, got some help on this.

I asked Andrew Griffithfitz, who, in his, working life, had people working for him. I said, Tim, okay. How does this work out in practice? So if you're a line manager or if you're an employer. Here are some things for you from Andrew.

Have a chat with him afterwards. If you want to talk further about it, if you want to find out more. Here are a few things for you. So ensure your workers are fairly rewarded in comparison with each other. So can you demonstrate equal pay for equal value of work?

Next 1. Do those who work for you have equal opportunities within the workplace? For example, additional training, annual leave, and sick pay. Next 1, do you have a system for allowing grievances to be properly investigated? Do you have a system which ensures equal opportunities in recruitment?

Do you ensure sure that fair disciplinary action is taken when necessary. And last 1, can you be someone who's available for staff or workers to speak to about personal things as well as work things? To that you're concerned about them, not just their work and what you're getting from them. Okay. So, employees, employers take a moment.

What difference is this going to make to you? Is there an action that you need to take or an attitude you need to change. Just take a moment. Okay. I would hope that you might need to take more time to think about that.

And that you might talk about it afterwards with people to say, okay, how what difference does this make to you? How can you live this out? Maybe you feel overwhelmed. Maybe you think I am in loads of those categories. And you've got loads of things to apply.

Maybe take it 1 at a time, step at a time, and pick 1 of them. I would go go for the marriage first and apply it there. But it might be that you feel got off Scott free on this 1 this week, because I wasn't in any of those categories. Okay. Can I encourage you?

Can I ask you, please, to pray for those who are? And maybe to go through this week. And you could take, I mean, you've got 6 6 things there, 1 each day this week, to pray for those who are, to live out what it is to do all in the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Let me lead us in prayer. How many father?

We pray please that you would help us to live out your word, not just to be hearers of it, but to be doers of it. And far that that's tough at times, that's hard. And sometimes it's a great joy. But we pray, please, it would be a joy to us to do all in the name of the lord, Jesus, and that you would us therefore to live that out in marriage, in parenting and being children, and in the workplace as well. While the police help us to live this out this week and beyond.

Our man.