Those who Practice STRIFE will not Inherit LIFE
07/29/17 (05/05) Video Broadcast
Today I am going to talk
about something that is
the very opposite of
shalom, the very opposite
of peace and the dangers
that exist for those of us
who are willing to
practice strife, strife as
in arguments, as in
hurling insults or false
accusations, things of that nurture. So today's study title is; Those who practice strife will not inherit life. That is the study title for today and I hope that you when you see the study title you will not immediately turn off the screen or tool down the whole thing because I'm gonna tell you something. What I am saying on this study title is the truth, it is the truth and it's important that you hear the truth, and so we are going to talk about war and I do not mean the war that any nations military may be engaged in and I do not even mean a war we are engaged in against the enemy, although that is somewhat related. I wanna talk about today a different kind of war, a war that never inspires a war between believers,
between a believing mother and a believing father, between siblings within a family of believers and sometimes between parents and children. I am talking about strife in the homes, in assemblies, in congregations, on Facebook groups, in discussion forums, in chat rooms and
so very few homes are new to it, very few homes are completely free of that but that are very few things more miserable than to be in the midst of it. It will be better just to be poor and have very
little to eat than to have a home filled with food and nothing but argument and fighting all day long.
Strife going on within the walls of the home is more common than many of us are willing to admit and it may surprise you, the scripture has a lot to say about strife an the reason why we should avoid it and
the danger of practicing it. It is so spiritually dangerous that many of the works of the flesh that are spoken of in Galatians 5 are centered around this very thing. In Galatians chapter 5, in verse 19 to 21 it says, Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, Idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, rivalries and the like of which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in time passed that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. So if this is your practice, all I am doing is quoting the scriptures with the study title today. If it is your practice to be contentious, to have
discretion, in your life, scripture says those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. Now, if that does not get our attention, I do not know what will. We are believers in Yahushua, we will be among those whom the Messiah would say you call me master but you do not do what I say, you call me mater but you do not do the will of my father in heaven, I do not even know you, depart from me you that work iniquity, you that practice, contention, dissension. The word translated contention what does it mean? It's pretty important for us to know what it means.
Greek Lexicon says, contention, strife, wrangling is translated strife four times, debate twice, contention twice, I mean we know what that is, that's is arguing. Another Lexicon has strife, selfish rivalry, fighting, quarrels, quarreling. And so this is
very serious if we practice fighting and arguing, quarreling, strife, wrangling, contention. If this is our practice, if this is what we do, we do it often it's a part of you know our life going on regularly the scriptures say you will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim.
That my friends should get our attention. Strife may not seem like a big deal on our culture today. Our entire nation is built upon the idea of arguing over who is going to win an election. Where issues... Everybody votes, everybody has their opinions. But Yahweh's government is not so. Yahweh's government is a monarchy. There are no arguments. There are no debates and fighting. Yahweh is the king, what He says goes, we do not fight about it. Now there is nothing wrong with reasoning together. There is nothing wrong with people conferring with one another and trying to decide what is the best course of action. But arguing and fighting. It's another thing altogether cripture says James 3:14, If you have bitter envying and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is an earthly, sensual, demonic, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Strife typically contains confusion, typically contains self-seeking, scriptures talk about it and say that's demonic, earthly, sensual, every
evil thing is there. This is it. Two people want something and they are going to fight one another and tear down one another and destroy one another in order to obtain what they want. Galatians 5:19-21, going back there, another word dissensions. Dissensions is used here. If we practice dissensions, you will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. You will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. What's worse more, this is dissension or division. Forever Lexicon has enmity, hostility, hatred, both as in as disposition an objective opposition. Plural of hostile feelings and acts, animosities, hostilities, discords, and feuds. Does this describe you and your household, this describes the way your assembly operates, that you are a part of? Confusion and every evil thing are there. Hostilities, discords, feuds.
Works of the flesh are evident. None of your Sabbath keeping, feast keeping,
using the right name, keeping Torah, means anything if you are willing to practice works of the flesh and these are examples and things like these and the like. I notice that many of these works of the flesh are also present during an argument. Hatred, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions and this hysteresis, and idolatry and sorcery are related (I will get to that later)but here all these things of the flesh seem to be centered around the kind of things that take place during an argument. Do not let Westernized
Christianity trick you into thinking that you can practice these things and enter into life, scripture says you will not. Now I am not saying this to condemn anybody, I am not thinking of anybody in particular honestly.
I am just saying, if this is our practice and this happens, probably most of our homes, I won't be surprised if I learned most our homes have these things going on maybe not practicing it but at one time or other people get weak and they fall into it. That's one thing If you are weak and fall into it on occasion but you immediately repent and seek forgiveness that's different.
Practising it, making it part of your character, a normal part of what you do, something that you jump into, on a regular basis, that's really falling into danger. Like twp balls bowling heads, nothing is accomplished, you just destroy each other. Now fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, these things are the antidote to strife. And scripture tells us this is how we overcome strife, we walk in the fruits of Yahweh's spirit. Peace is one of them. Long-suffering is one of them. Kindness is one of them. Goodness is one of them. Gentleness is one of them. Self-control is one of them. I promise you, these things are not present during a heated argument and yet these are
the fruits of Yahweh Holy Spirit. f His spirit is in you, let's see the evidence by overcoming through peace, through love, through joy, through long-suffering, through kindness and goodness. And says those who are Messiah's if you
really are Messiah's have crucified,(what) the flesh, all these passions and desires, if you are Messiah's all these things that are works of the flesh they are dead. They are crucified, they do not exist, they not part of who you are. So if you live in the Spirit, lets also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, means prideful, provoking one another which leads to strife, envying one another which leads to strife. Do you see how much emphasis is being placed on overcoming the temptation to practicing strife and the things that create strife? If we do not have self-control then the flesh is not crucified, if we do not have gentleness, long-suffering, peace, love, joy these things the flesh is not crucified. Scripture says he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Wow. That's strength, to take a city that's power, well who is the one that takes a city? Whose battle is it really? Is it our battle or is it His battle?
He is the only one, the battle is Yahweh. He is the one that can take the city, He is the one that can rule our spirit through us our spirit, and in us, our spirit can be ruled. We can be like Him, very slow to anger. Scripture says, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is necessarily good is necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Is our speech imparting grace? Or, is our speech corrupt? Is it edifying or is it tearing down?
And that's all reviewed by whats in the heartIf you ever want to know what the condition of your heart really is, listen to the words that you say, record yourself, listen to the words that you say and how you say them, you may not even realise it, the things coming out of your heart. Scripture says Luke 6:45, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil: for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
So whats in our hearts? If there are things in our hearts that are not pleasing to Yahweh we can say, Yahweh, create in me a clean heart, renew the right spirit within me, we can say that we can be delivered, we have to be willing to crucify the flesh, we have to be willing. Are we willing? I hope we willing, I hope that we are willing because if we are not willing we in grave danger before the throne of Elohim. Scripture says what is strife? Strife is exertion or contention with another; competition, contest, struggle or quarrel (That's Webster;s dictionary).
"Madown," in the Hebrew, strife contention, strife contention, the object of contention. retty obvious, pretty plain, pretty simple. Another Hebrew word Lip strife, controversy, dispute, controversy, cause strife, that's how it is translated, And, so, the Hebrew meaning is pretty much matched up with the English word strife. We see one example of strife then going all the way back to Abraham's day. Genesis 13:6 it says, And the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together: for their possessions were so great, that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanite and the Perizzite then dwelled in the land. So here are two brothers actually relatives drawn together in a land that could not support them and they are fighting over who is going to get one land, which land. I love Abraham's solution. So Abraham said to Lot, please let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. Let there be no strife. Abraham is a man of peace and not of war. He is a man of peace. And he says "is not the whole land for you? Please separate from me, if you take the left then I will go to the right, or if you go to the right I will go to the left for we are brethren. It was more important to Abraham that they would not be strife than for him to have his own gain. nd Abraham took the initiative here, he desired above all things they would be no arguing going on or contention, even if that meant him taking the lesser part and Abraham was blessed, you
know his son Isaac had the attribute,he argued over wells,who is going to have which well,he dug it himself and people argued over it and contended with him,so he went and dug another well,and they fought and contended over that one and so he dug another one and they did not fight over that one so this is well Yahweh has made room for me in the land. Esau and Jacob, Jacob gave Esau everything, yeah you can have it all, everything. Here, you can have it all. You want to find over possession? You can just have it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have their faults but they are men of peace. Now Yahushua says blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of Elohim. Peacemakers.
Are we peacemakers or are we starting fights over things we want and cannot have? or do not have?
That's an important question that we must ask ourselves, are we peacemakers or not? When Jacob was mistreated by Laban, ten times his wages
were changed and yet he just took it until finally, he says I cannot take it anymore and he separated company. He was humble, this is the antidote to strife. Yahushua says if you ever say an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. I tell you do not resist an evil person. Whoever strikes you on your right cheek turn the other to him also. Whoever takes away your tunic let him have your cloak also. That's like Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. He who compels you to go one mile, go with him two. ive to him who asks of you and to him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. It's
self demanding its own way that gets us in trouble when we are not really crucifying our flesh. Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see Yahweh: Peace and Holiness. Pursuing a peace and holiness, looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the
grace of Elohim, lest any root of bitterness bring up or cause trouble. And by this many become
defiled. And so they do not see Elohim, they are not Holy. They are defiled. There is a physical holiness defilement and a spiritual holiness defilement. And that which, when someone is not a peaceful person but they are a contagious person, they are not holy they are bitter. Some bitterness is probably in somewhere and is a root that grows a different kind of fruit. The fruits of the flesh you could say, the works of the flesh, and if we have bitterness and hatred or holding grudges in our hearts towards a person or persons some people they fight, they fight, they
fight, their contention is not with you. Really it's with themselves. They are not peaceful themselves and those not peaceful to anybody else either. They can't love themselves that's why they can't love their neighbor as themselves. They have no reference point. Romans 12:18, If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Now they are some people that just will not be at peace with you no matter how much you try.
But as much as depends on you, live peacefully with all men, wherever possible. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves (means do not take vengeance), but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says Yahweh. Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink: for in so doing you heap coals of fire on his head. This is Old Testament principle here. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So as much as possible is a peace with others. Be at peace with another person. Though you may not like him very much, you may not like him very much, but you have to love him. And, you know, I once heard a preacher you know, he gave a hard message. He said you may not like me, but you have to love me. Hmmm, that was a hard message, what he had to say but it was true and if one does not like the messenger or the message do not shoot the messenger. But the mailman just because he brought you the mail doesn't mean you should shoot him, he is just bringing the mail. And if the truth is being spoken by a person do not shoot the guy speaking it. What you are really doing is shooting the Elohim who gave it. And hating the Elohim who gave it. If it is a true message and you do accept it, you need to agree with it and humble ourselves. There are
some people however who will not be peacemakers they will stir up fighting, they will stir up strife. The scripture talks about them. Proverbs 29:22, An angry man stirs up strife, a furious man abounds in transgression. You have an anger problem it says you are bound in transgression stirring up strife. wrathful man stirs up strife. you have an anger problem, strife is always not far behind. He who is slow to anger allays contention (that means keeps it from happening) because he is slow to anger. So are we a wrathful person or are we slow to anger? Proverbs 30:33 says for as the churning of milk produces butter, and the wringing of the nose produces blood: so the forcing of wrath produces strife. Anger and strife are best friends. A person who is angry a lot is likely to have a lot of strife in his household, a lot of strife among people who are brothers and sisters in their faith, and such a person needs the humility to admit the problem and have a desire to stop. There are some people who are actually addicted to it like one would be addicted to a drug or alcohol. It becomes a part of their personality and who they are. It's where they quickly run to whenever they want something for themselves or whenever someone hurts them. It is just something they do not like, it becomes an addiction. It's a very very deceptive addiction, too. Because many times when you express your anger, everyone else who happens to be peacemakers will bow themselves and you know give you what you want. And so in your mind, you think it works.
ut it does not change their hearts it only damages them further. As a man we may feel that expressing anger towards our children may result in their hearts change and they may do what you tell them and you think the anger may have worked, but all you did was affecting their actions without changing their heart. Now there is a righteous indignation Yahushua never displayed anger out of
selfish ambition, out of something he did not get for himself or over self-focus. The one time He did express anger was when the hardness of hearts being expressed by Pharisees and scribes as he just healed a man by the power of the living Elohim and they are accusing Him of violating the Sabbath. Crazy, wasn't it Yahweh who healed the man So, if it was a Sabbath violation how could...If Yahweh obviously would not have approved of it, then why would Yahweh have allowed the healing. But that's how hard-hearted they were. Now righteous anger is rare, I do have a full study on
anger. It's on the transcripts page and actually three studies on anger; but we are focusing today on the end result of anger which is strife. Scripture says a perverse man sows strife, a whisperer separates the best of friends. A whisperer is one who tells secrets of another and therefore creates division and sowing strife.
He of a proud heart stirs up strife but he will who trust in Yahweh will be prospered. There is often a contrasts in 1st Peter 3 about why we should trust in Yahweh versus those who would stir up the strife. to get what they want. It's from pride. By pride comes nothing but strife, Proverbs 13:10, but with the well- advised is wisdom. For a perverse man, they sow strife wherever they go, they kinda like it, I think they like the competition, the fire and they are very, very good at arguing and making another person look bad and they're very skilled at it, very skilled at making another person look like he is a fool. And by that is this inner pride in the heart, Oh, I am better than the other person. Other people are not a measuring stick of how good a person is, Yahushua is a measuring stick. So
scripture says, once again, Proverbs 17:1, Better is a dry morsel and quietness than a house full of feasting with strife. So it is with a feast, feast of tabernacles or feast of Passover there is an inner fighting going on. I would rather have a dry Mossel during the feast. Then a whole table of food and people fighting with each other, likewise in households, they are houses of peace, shalom, love, maybe very poor in wealthy positions but very rich in their relationships with one another and their houses with plenty of money to go around and all they do is a fight. Money does not bring happiness and peace,
Yahweh spirit does. His presence in our life, that's what brings happiness and peace. So how do we avoid strife with someone who would happen you know to be practicing it often, how can we avoid it? Scripture says Proverbs 17:14, The beginning of strife is like releasing water: therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts. When you have a sense that something is about ready to brew and boil over, and the waters (ever seen men build those gigantic dams to stop water? Once that water starts out of the dam, it is going to break the dam. Once that water starts flying out of the dam, you going to have to get it really, really quickly, or you are going to be in a really big mess, right. So, what can you do to stop it, it says stop contention before a quarrel starts that means leave it, depart from it that's what the word is in Hebrew. So people, someone getting hot under the collar arguing and fighting and all these things, so stop the contention. Just refuse to argue. You may have to put up with verbal abuse, you may have to put up with her anger and then doing things and then trying to tear you down scripture says and the Hebrew word means to leave, to depart, do not be a part of it, so leave
the contention and sometimes that may mean leave the room, leave the presence of the one who is hostile. Also, we know a soft answer turns away wrath right. A caring heart, the wife is struggling with the husband and if the husband communicates love and care in the midst of the strive, sometimes that will solve the real problem. Not always but sometimes. At one time we were out of odds with Yahushua and yet he cared for us and loved us when we were not showing love to him, so we can overshadow evil with good, we can overcome strife with love. Because we are called to walk on a higher level. Proverbs 20:3 says, It is honorable for a man to stop striving: since any fool can start a quarrel. So if you just stop striving and we start loving a lot of times that will resolve the situation. It's more honorable for us to humble ourselves and cease from striving than to continue, anyone can start a quarrel that's easy. But we are called to suffer. Peter 2:21 says, But we are called to suffer: because Messiah also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps: When they are verbally abusing you with their hurtful words and their rude behavior, just take it, don't return in kind. Don't backbite, don't trade insults, don't it. That's contention, that's strife, that's anger. Rule your spirit and take victory over the city because if you have no rule over your own spirit it's like a city broken down without walls. So are we the one taking a city, are the one who has the broken down walls in our own city? The enemy can freely come in and recount it in our own spirit, and we have very little defense available because we are willing to be contentious, we are willing to express anger. We need the amour of
Yahweh around our spirit, around our hearts and if we have Yahushua the Messiah dwelling in us then the Holy Spirit is also dwelling in us because the Holy Spirit dwells in Yahushua and therefore we are able to bear the fruits of the spirit and be patient and be genuine we have Yahushua dwelling in us, we are focusing on keeping Him on the throne no matter the circumstances and we can overcome. Sometimes it means to just be understanding and to hold our peace Proverbs 11:12 He who is void of wisdom despises his neighbor: but a man of understanding holds his peace. Can we hold our peace when we are
being provoked? Can we do that? So, Yahushua when He was being provoked, when he was being mistreated and abused, physically, verbally every which way a man can be abused Yahushua says Father forgive them they do not know what they do,He was able to love them rather than being bitter towards them,He had to understand and was able to hold his peace. And even ask Yahweh to forgive them
for their wrong. And yet, too often, I think among brothers, one offers a little bit of disrespect toward another, and he lashes out like he has been slain. This should not be. Yahushua dwells in us. We should be merciful and then we obtain mercy. If we desire mercy from Yahweh lets make sure that we are dishing it out quite often. Yes maybe the other person is doing wrong but no matter how much you present your case, they do not see who you are talking about and frustration and anger may well up inside and at the time you may feel like you are justified in your anger, you start saying hurtful words but remember they may be times where Yahweh Himself has been trying to show you something for years and yet you do not see it.
an you extend the same kind of mercy towards the other person that Yahweh extends to you every single day? Are you a finished product already? I know I am not. I need all the mercy from Yahweh I can get. I know many of us have had things staring at us in the face, Yahweh is trying to get our attention and yet we do not see it. Now scripture
says blessed are the peacemakers they should be called sons of Elohim. You see two parties that warreth one another then you can bring shalom between them, that is awesome. That's being a son of Elohim, but then Proverbs 26:17 says, He that passes by, and meddles in a quarrel not his own, is like one that takes a dog by the ears. If you do not think you are going to be able to bring peace to the situation just be aware you may get attacked e who corrects a scuffle gets shame for himself, he who rebukes a naked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scuff list he hates you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give an instruction to a wise man and he will still be wiser. Teach a just a just man and he will increase in learning. Be careful whom we reprieve and whom we correct, you may not only harm yourself through the process, you are giving an opportunity for that person to sin yet again and therefore actually being a stumbling block to them.
Now Yahweh is an Elohim of peace, so He seeks to bring peace to us and between us. Our message is one of peace. The Gospel of peace, peace between Yahweh and man, and when there is peace between Yahweh and man it's only then that they can be true peace between man and man. And when there is not true peace between men there is going to be at least one of them, maybe both of them who are not at peace with Yahweh.
Alright, we are back HalleluYah, I apologize for the internet dropping. I do not know why It happened but I suspect the enemy does not want the message to go out. My question is can we extend the same mercy to another person that Yahweh extends to us daily because none of u are a finished product. And if we want Yahweh's mercy, we need o be willing to extend that mercy to others, and I know many of us have had things thrown at us in the face and we did not even realize it. And so we have to be humble about ourselves and because someone is not seeing the things we want them to see, if we are witnessing to somebody and you want them to see the importance of something you are trying to share with them,it won't work if you are going to resort to the flesh because the things Yahweh has revealed to you were revealed by His spirit not by some person's flesh and perhaps
a little dose of humility would say but there was a time I did not see it either so I am going to pray for them and let Yahweh lead them. They are Yahweh's workmanship, let Yahweh lead. Blessed are the peacemakers they shall be called sons of Elohim. If they are other people strafing and you can bring peace to the situation, fantastic, awesome do it. There are other people however he who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears. I have even seen and heard of situations where there were women who were being physically abused by a boyfriend or a husband and then a man comes along and tries to stop the man from physically abusing the woman and somehow hurts the man and then the woman gets angry at the man who was saving her from being abused. I know it sounds crazy but it happens and other people gang up on the man and that guy gets can be beaten up. So you know to be careful, be careful. If you can bring peace, bring peace. Scripture says he who corrects a scuffle gets shame for himself and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scuff list he hates you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give an instruction to a wise man and he will still be wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. Now, if Yahweh should lead you to bring peace, then bring peace. Our message is actually of peace. We are proclaiming peace, goodwill towards man. It's a gospel of good news of peace. Because there is no peace unless we are at peace with our creator and when we are at peace with our creator then peace with one another will come. No
stress. When there is peace between Yahweh between Yahweh and man only then can there be peace between two men or between a husband and a wife? When there is no peace within them but rather a sword. Yahushua predicted that. One will be a believer and one would not, they are ultimately at war with one another inherently because one is not at peace with Elohim and one is. One is at war with Elohim and the one is not. Of course, there will be instances where the unbeliever will act un-Messiah-like but we are the ones called to be like Messiah. Now what about peace in our own households? Speaking of that, why is there so much strife today even in homes of believers? The proverb is right about strife in the home quite often and also the new testament teaches us that a wife is supposed to submit to her husband so that they will not be strife in the home and I want to preface this however with a warning to us men. The scriptures do inform us, husbands love your wives as the Messiah loved the assembly and gave himself for her that he might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious assembly or congregation not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So Yahushua gave himself for us and that's how we are to conduct ourselves and our households. While a husband may not actually be the one being the contentious one, he is the one who is called to in such a way that wins her heart. Now wives are also called to die to self. We are going to get to that in a minute but, we going to talk to husbands. I talk to myself here,1 Peter 3:7, Husbands likewise, dwell with them with understanding try to understand why they are experiencing the things they are experiencing, make sure you give them proper honor, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered. And Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous: not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this that you may inherit a blessing. This is our calling. So, listen, we cannot use the behavior of our wives to use as an excuse for anger to mistreat them. Any failure for a husband to love, to
nourish and to care for his wife is his fault and his fault alone. He cannot blame her for being disrespectful. He cannot use his wife's behavior to excuse away the need to love them properly. Yahushua loved us when we were sinners, and when He loved us, He loved us to the extent of being tortured and giving His life for us. Because Elohim demonstrates His own love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners Messiah died for us, so please understand, when a wife is misbehaving it's an opportunity to demonstrate the love of Messiah, it's an opportunity. Now, it can very difficult if she is extremely contentious and abusive it can be extremely difficult to do so. Scripture says if you love those who love you what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them and if you do good to those who do good to you what credit is that to you, even sinners do the same. The one thing that marks and makes us different to the world is that we are willing to love those who do not love us.
If we are loving a spouse who is unloving then we are being like Yahushua who died for the unloving,
So, having this responsibility is a tall order that we all are supposed to be looking out not just the husband but all of us. Yahushua said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love is no one that destined to lay down ones' life for his friends and so we need to solemnly consider the words that are spoken here and lead our homes not with our anger, not with our abusive words or harsh or with abuse of any kind. But,
rather with the love of Messiah. Now, if you are in a home, I want to talk to the child here, where there is arguing between mother and father, the scriptures have a little encouragement for you. In
Psalms 31:20, it says, You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man: you shall keep them secretly in a sukkot (pavilion) from the strife of tongues. And this is a place all of us can go to, from one who is contentious, From one who is mistreating us, we can hide in the secret place. Even if we are being mistreated, we can hide in the secret place of Yahweh's presence, in his sukkot, in his pavilion, knowing He sees and knows all things and make them flee to His presence. The name of Yahweh is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe. So I want everyone to know I am not letting men off the hook here. I want everyone to know, however I cannot let the wife off the hook either. And the scriptures have a lot to say to women and having a contentious way towards a husband. But I want everyone to know what it really means to be a man is to be like Yahushua the Messiah and t live the way Yahushua the Messiah lives, we can through our leadership tempt our wives and cause them to stumble into sin, now they are still responsible for the sin, but we are still also going to be held responsible for being a stumbling block to them. And so I encourage you, watch this study on biblical masculinity I shared earlier last summer. It's called July 23rd, 2016, on the archive. Take a look there and watch the study on biblical masculinity. We talked about leadership. We talk about providing and all those kinds of things.
So I am going to shift here and talk about a woman's responsibility, a wife's responsibility in the family and I want the ladies out there to understand I am not picking on you, but I am going to talk about it because it is a part of the scriptures and I cannot neglect to talk about the things that scriptures teach. Proverbs 19:13 says, A foolish son is the ruin of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping. Proverbs 21:9: It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21:19: It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman. Now some look at these proverbs and they kinda chuckle a little bit. They think it's funny. They think it's humorous, I do not think Yahweh was trying to give us comic relief when we are reading the proverbs. I think He was ascribing the experience of leaving with a woman who is contentious. It is a miserable existence. It is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop, it is better to dwell in the wilderness, it's a continual dripping. These are only 3. There are other proverbs repeating the same thing. Proverbs 25:24 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than a house shared with a contentious woman. Now scripture doesn't often repeat itself, but when it does its Yahweh saying hey pay attention to what I just said. Pay extra attention to what I am telling you here, and so this is repeated we got one, two, three, four and then five. Proverbs 27:15:
Continual dripping on a rainy day, very rainy day than a contentious woman are alike. Whosoever restrains her restrains the wind, and grasps oil with his right hand. Can you restrain the wind? No. Can You grasp oil with your right hand? No. Try it...just pours in your hand and it just runs right out. You can't do it. There is no restraining the woman who chooses to carry on the character of contentiousness. The woman who is characterized as a contentious woman according to the Proverbs, quoted in the book of Galatians which we read earlier, she is practicing the work of the flesh which only leads to death. And so it's a very serious, its life and death situation. It's not something to laugh at. It's not something for humor. It is something very serious in the eyes of Yahweh. Proverbs 14:1 says, The wise woman builds her house: but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. Are we building? Are we pulling down? To be contentious is to pull down, but to build our home is to walk in peace. Proverbs 26:21 says As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. And if a woman is contentious, she is going to kindle strife, it's going to happen.Psalm 133:1 says Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron: running down on the edge of his garments. As the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion: for there Yahweh commanded the blessing, life for evermore. Beautiful, beautiful pictures of how life is like when we are in unity. Conversely, how awful and how unpleasant it is to be dwelling in strife. It's an ugly disgusting manifestation of the flesh, and if your home is full of strife between husband and wife, ladies if you are contentious with your husband do not be surprised if he finds his own rooftop somewhere. It may not be a corner of a roof, it may be outside. You know, playing golf or visiting friends, anywhere besides sitting with you and do not be surprised if your children, when they are of age, also want to escape
and go live with someone else. And I understand you feel unhappy inside, you believe the cause is your husband. But the foundation of joy and contentment is not rooted in our relationship with one another, the foundation of our joy and our contentment is rooted in our relationship with Yahweh the father. It's
rooted in the soil of thanksgiving and praise to Yahweh our king, and if we have him we do have everything we need, we may not have everything we want but we do have everything we need, can we trust that. But the discontentment often causes wives to want to take matters into their own hands, or out of fear, take matters in their own hands, especially if their husbands are not being obedient to Yahweh's word. A husband should not be disobedient to Yahweh's word, but husbands should be loving and compassionate and long-suffering and genuine and dwelling with their wives and understanding in love and all these things, but if they are not, scripture has an answer for you. Scripture gives specific instructions on what to do. 1 Peter 3:1 says, Wives likewise, be submissive to your own husbands; even if some do not obey the word, they--by your nagging and complaining? No-- without a word may be won by the conduct of the wives. Your conduct, ladies, will win them or lose them. Your conduct will win them or lose them. And so, if your conduct consists of contention and arguing with them over their decisions and things they are doing, you are not going to win them. Because you are trying to use your words to win them. Scripture says without a word you will win them. By your conduct, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Fear from what? Fear of them? No. Fear of Elohim. When you respect Elohim and the authority that He established in the home, and you allow your husbands to make mistakes, mistakes that you can even suffer for because you are giving Yahweh the reigns. You are not trying to play Holy Spirit. You are letting the Holy Spirit actually do the work rather than you try to play the Holy Spirit, That is the best environment for your husband to be won. So do not let your endowment be merely a word, arranging the hair, wearing gold, putting on apparel, rather let it be the hidden person of the heart. That's your adornment and I have to find sometimes the women are the greatest trouble with contentiousness, are trying to cover up that ugliness with the way they look, with their appearances, with putting on gold and fine apparel and all these things. Not always sometimes. So let it be the incorruptible beauty of a gentle, and quiet a spirit, a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of Elohim. Can you put that on? Could that be your adorning, a gentle spirit, a quiet spirit? Not a loud obnoxious contentious spirit, could that be your adorning? I tell you what, it's very attractive to men, it's very beautiful to men. It causes men to want to honor and respect you because as men, righteous men I should say, men who are even unrighteous as well. That's what he's talking about here, but especially righteous man, to want to protect you, to guide you and to not hurt you, but when woman chooses to rise up and fight against her husband then her husband sees her you know like he is dealing with a man and not a precious woman, a precious wife. Now Yahweh is the one who made this decision that
the husband would be the head of the wife. He is the one who decided that. The husband didn't decide that. It was not his call, it was Yahweh's call. In the same way, the Messiah is the head of the assembly and He is the savior of the body. Yahweh made that decision that Yahushua is the head of the assembly. And so, if a man was to fight against the Messiah, he will have Yahweh to deal with. Likewise, when a wife does not respect the headship of her husband, she will have Yahweh to deal with and if she is very contentious she could find herself facing a lot of judgment in her life. Because Yahweh is trying to get her attention, that He is the one on the throne, not her. 1 Corinthians 11 : 3 says, I would have you know, the head of every man is Messiah, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Yahweh. The husband is not in authority because he is so great, it's not because of the smarter or wiser or better, the husband is not in authority because somehow inherently men are better than women, no. That's not the reason why. The reason why he is in authority is because he is the one responsible; he is the one responsible for leadership. He is the one responsible for the outcome and responsibility without having the authority to execute that responsibility is a miserable existence. It's like being the leader of an army of insubordinate soldiers who do not want to listen to anything you have to say. And the man is responsible for guarding and protecting the victory and war against the enemy and he knows the general is holding him accountable for the outcome and yet his directions are contested, his soldiers are in disarray, there is no respect for the process of war, there is no understanding that in order for a victory to be attainable everyone has to listen to the leader of the platoon or everyone will fall. You may not like the guy very much.He may be self-centered, unloving or flat out wrong in his decisions, but I can tell you this. Failure is guaranteed unless there is unity among soldiers.
For a platoon leader to now have the authority, respected, yet still being responsible for the outcome is a miserable existence and what army would be victorious if they are fighting against one another instead of uniting together against a common enemy? No one. A house that fights against itself will not stand. And so there has to be an authority in a household.
And we are in an army together, together, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, and until you realize your husband is the platoon leader in this army and give him the proper respect, not because of how great he is but because of his office, that he holds. And I am saying, you know a police officer calls you over you start mouthing him, and contending with him and insulting him and belittle him that is wrong. If you were to disrespect a judge in a court of law you would be held in contempt of court, you would be punished for it. Because they have to be ordered in society, every human government has rank and there is rank in the
body of the Messiah. The husband is the head of the wife, and Messiah is the head of the husband and Yahweh is the head of the Messiah. You have got to have respect for the process of authority even if you feel authority is wrong you have to show proper respect. It's just commonplace therefore take up the whole armor of Elohim that you may be able to withstand all in the evil day, having done all to stand. Think about this, how many people would win
their fight with a manager at work? Wouldn't the company want to see to it that the insubordinate one was fired? Because he argued with the one that put the manager in that place of authority. Even the world has an understanding, even they realize that in order for anything to be a success there has to be authority in order and failure is guaranteed unless there is authority in order and every successful endeavour has authority involved, every organization, every non-profit, every company, every nation under the heavens, every military, everything and anything that involves a group of people trying to come together and accomplish some sort of goal, there are people in authority. And for some reason, people think you get into the household and there can be a two-headed monster and it will work. Whoever has a more dominant personality will happen to be the one that, it does not work that way. hey are CEO's, they are majors under them, supervisors under them, even the world understands that. Same is true with children and their parents unless the children respect the authority of the parents, if they do not respect and honor the authority of the parents there is a very good chance they will not respect and honor anybody. Not the one they're married to, not the work they are logged in and a lot of times end up going to prison because they don't know how to respect authorities. So when it comes to the home, do you see why Yahweh would put a person in charge, it is necessary for peace and unity, anything else is just asking for guaranteed failure and it's a miserable existence. It does not mean a wife's thoughts and feelings should be disregarded, no. The goal is that you have two people who love each other come together, have a consensus on every decision, and that consensus includes Yahweh leading both of them and both marriage partners are in tune with the Holy Spirit, then peace will come automatically. But if one is willing to engage in strife, debate and arguing and practice the works of the flesh, they are not gonna hear from Yahweh correctly. Because the works of the flesh are evident. And here they are. You are practicing these things. You not going to be able to hear from Yahweh properly. You are not operating in the spirit, you are operating in the flesh. And you're endangering your soul, because those who practice these will not inherit life. Scriptures say so. It's that serious to Yahweh. look at these works of the flesh for a minute, I want to show you how a large number here of these are all related to contention. It says here, one of them is idolatry. Well, putting your own will ahead of Yahweh's will by saying you are going to be the head of the husband and you are going to direct him what to do. That's idolatry. Sorcery, scripture says in 1 Samuel 15:21 rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft. 1 Samuel 15:23, rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft. Why is rebellion like the sin of witchcraft? Because rebellion is what Satan is all about. He is about rebelling against Yahweh's authority. That is what he is all about, that's what he does, that's part of, that's his character, that is the thing that he is trying to do. He is trying to rebel against Yahweh's authority and for that reason its witchcraft. And so if a wife was to rebel against Yahweh's established authority who is she imitating? What is she doing? She is practicing a form of witchcraft right there in the home, might as well do a scionce. Because that's what it is. Rebellion is a sin of witchcraft because she is not in agreement with Yahweh's decision of headship. And also hatred is often present during arguments and-and the enmity ultimately is with Elohim and his form of government according to Lexicons I looked up. You do not want to be under his government rule, you want to rule yourself. Contentions, we know what that is, strife, quarrel, and arguments, jealousies, the Greek lexicons I have read say fierce indignation or a jealous adult. Many arguments come out jealousies where the husband accuses the wife; wife accuses the husband of not being faithful. The outburst of wrath as anger, passion, and bowling over, of wrath and anger or selfish ambition. Striving to attain the high office is what the word means in Greek. ook into to do not great on yourself, trying to take the husband's office, division, hostile opposition, dissensions is all about hostile opposition. And heresies have to do with taking capture or choosing one's self and it's also politically related. And so what is this? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine of these works of the spirit are being violated when a wife does not respect the office of the husband and chooses to be contentious and practices these works of the flesh, it's that serious. We may not value order in our society. We live in a democratic republic, everyone argues about everything, and because of that, you know we think
that we can just you know tell the president what to do and tell the hosts in a government set up, but Yahweh's government is not a democratic republic, its a monarchy. Yahweh is the king, His word goes and He puts people in of office and just as all of Israel, they did not have an arguing problem. What the King said, they did. That's it. The king's word was final. And the judges who were under the king, that was the final word. It put an end to all contention and debate. And it was in the wilderness when the people tried to rise up against Moshe that he opened up the ground and swallowed of the Sons of Korah.
That's when Miriam tried to say hey isn't Yahweh also speaking through us, you know she got leprosy. It's that serious. So I am not putting the nail on the pedestal. There is no men on the pedestal, only Yahushua is the perfect one. But, Yahweh has a system in place to prove that contention and strife, and man that should make you rise up and go, you know what, well I may be held responsible here. will give an account of how I live my life, how I lead my family I better be right. I better be in tune with the will of Elohim. But too often we have Ahab men and Jezebel women, Ahab is like an all shocks kind of weak knee, you know, fragile, you do not confront anything, you are too weak. And women who want to rule. We do not want Ahab, Jezebel marriages, we want Messiah in the assembly. In the same way Messiah leads, man leads. The same way the assembly follows, the wife follows. And now it's OK for a wife to make an appeal in the same way Moshe himself made an appeal to Yahweh, when He said He was going to destroy Israel. He said well you know the nations around you will hear it, and they will think because you were unable to bring them in the land you know, that you killed them in the wilderness and your name will be damaged to that,you know, make an appeal,and make a wise appeal,make a humble appeal,as Abraham did to Yahweh when He said, supposed they are only 50 in this city that are righteous would you destroy the city? or 40, or 20, or 10, you know he was very humble in his appeal, it's OK to make an appeal. But not fight, not argue, two wrongs won't make a right, It won't. In fact it will endanger your own salvation so let it be the hidden person of the heart, the in crafted beauty of a gentle, quiet spirit, be what convicts him and this, Yahweh says is very precious in His sight,don' you want to be just considered very precious in Yahweh's sight? There you go, there is the key. For in this manner in former times, the holy women who trusted in (their husbands--No) trusted in Elohim, also adorn themselves being submissive to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him master, who start as you are if you do good and do not fear of any terror, not afraid of what? Afraid to trust Elohim.
So what if the husband makes a foolish decision, doesn't that affect the whole family? Yes, it does and if the husband has the fear of Elohim himself and he ought to, when he sees his family suffering from his decisions, it should convict him to be even more careful to hear perhaps a warning of his wife, an appeal she would want him or perhaps the check in his spirit that he got from Yahweh and you know, he needs to learn and be able to make mistakes in order to lead properly and know what to do. But you know they are foolish parents out there, bringing up children who suffer and t Adam and Eve sinned and we all suffer for their mistake. Even the animals that are under our authority because of Adam's mistake suffer to this day, in fact, the entire earth groans for redemption. So if a bad situation appears on the horizon as result of a perceived bad decision by the husband or the wife would desire that the husband change his mind on something, she can make a humble appeal and there is nothing wrong with reverently expressing a different opinion and to try to reason together and come to some kind of a consensus, but no contention, no anger, no strife, no nagging, but trust in Elohim for the outcome. And Sarah did. There she was, you know, telling everybody she is a sister in the harem of the king and in one night Yahweh delivered her. He said that to Abimelech, that dream, He said that indeed you are a dead man because of a woman you have taken, she is a man's wife, and all his wives were barren because of this. And so she had to trust in Elohim, through a not- so-good decision that Abraham had made, that is just the way it is. Yahweh was sold out in the end, this is Yahushua himself, and he learned obedience by the things He suffered, this may be an opportunity for you to learn to be like Yahushua. Yahushua suffered for the decisions that Yahweh made. He said not my will but you will be done. Now I am not suggesting a man has the freedom to be abusive to his wife, bet her up, smack her around and she just seats there and takes it because her husband is also accountable to the body of the Messiah, to the Messiah. They are elders in place with who you are to the council if your husband is abusing you. If he is verbally abusing you perhaps as well, you know, that's very subjective, the verbal abuse. But there is a system in place for accountability, he just does not have the free reign to do what he wants. But there are elders in place, Yahweh has put elders, accountability, we are all under authority, and we are under human government authority as well. And we are told to submit ourselves to every ordinance of men for the master's sake, and so men set the example and show submission to the authorities that Yahweh has put on the earth. Now in a home where a wife is being submissive, they
are zero arguments, none whatsoever between husband and wife. If there is ever an argument, is there submission happening? I meaan, think about it. If there is an argument, can a wife submit to her husband whilst arguing with him at the same time? I think submitting is the opposite of arguing with and striving with. t's the exact opposite, and so you not submitting, and you cannot have it both ways its one or the other, I mean if there is an argument it is not the
fault of the husband, I know that sounds arrogant but please, its common it's just logic. If the husband, can be cruel, husband can be unkind in his words and that is his fault and his fault alone,
and likewise, if she chooses to not submit, if she chooses to argue with him, that is her fault and her fault alone because she is not doing what she is supposed to do . we are all responsible for our own behaviour. Now husband can be terribly wicked, but again there is a carnability in place in the body of the Messiah, there ought to be, and in human courts, if he is being physically abusive then he will have to answer to human courts, because human courts were established and set up by Yahweh himself, and I know of men who have beat up their wives and went to jail and never did it again, because they faced accountability for their actions. So now most of the time if a wife is being submissive it will not
tempt the husband to be abusive, however, if he chooses to be abusive, he alone is responsible for being abusive, no one else. o matter what she does, even if she hits him, even if, you know she tries to hurt him, if he chooses to be abusive and beat her up he is responsible for his sin, she is responsible for her sin, her sin was her own abuse. And not being submissive and being physically abusive. His sin is also being abusive, both are guilty, but the husband is being as loving as he possibly can and she is being abusive with her words and arguing with her words then she you know she is responsible for her sin,either way, whether he is nice, whether he is not nice, it doesn't matter,Yahweh says this is what you are supposed to do and nobody can blame anyone else for anything. No one makes you angry, you choose to be angry. No one makes you angry, you choose anger. Now I want to
go back now towards the scriptures and what they have to say about strife in the body of the Messiah. Scripture says that there is a lot. I will tell you one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the Hebrew roots movement, is the fighting and the strife. It's one of the biggest stumbling blocks toward those in mainstream Christianity. They come in here and they see the truth of the Torah, they see these things and yet there are people fighting everywhere. Contention and strife and arguing in the body of the Messiah is a huge stumbling block which is why we cannot practice the works of the flesh men, women. We cannot do this. You can't claim to be of Hebrew roots unless you have the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, all these good things and so it grieves me terribly when I see it, people hurting one another, insulting one another, putting down one another, this ought not to be. I have seen Christians in the traditional mainstream do the same, go back and forth on earthiness forms and insult and name call and all these things. we are
called to reason together. Reason together, talk with one another, share with one another, confer with one another, only that can we be
persuasive towards one another. But there is hardly a place where there is not division. n fact, division was in the first century. 1 Corinthians 11:18 says First of all when you come together as an assembly, I hear that there be divisions among you, and partly I believe it. For there must be factions, this is going to happen he said, so that those who are approved may be recognized. The ones who are not willing to engage in the carnal debates and strife, those are the ones who are approved. The ones that can out insult the other person and win or think they have won, they are not the ones who are approved. We all need to do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh. Because they are tears among the weak, people who want to sow dissension and its one of the abominations, those who stir up dissension among brothers, is one of the seven abominations in brothers and so lets walk properly as in the day, not in rivalry, lewdness, not in drunkenness, not strife and envy but put on the Master Yahushua the Messiah and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Let's hear and not be among those who offend. Let's
hear and not be among those dealing in inequity. Let's be lights of this world and let nothing be done out of strife and wrangling. He said to the Corinthians, you are still carnal, I hear there is envy, strife, divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? By this, I will know you are my disciples if you have that love, if you are approved, it will be evident, you have that love. And be careful when you judge another person, with the judgment you judge, you will be judged, the measure you use will be measured back to you. We all know this scripture, I do not even have to read it. If you get judged by
another person in a debate or an argument make sure you can measure up also, otherwise you are just
wise in your own eyes, you think you know everything
and there is more hope for a fool than a man in his own eyes.
I am reminded here of John 21 it says, when they had eaten breakfast, Yahushua said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? He said yes master you know that I love you. He said to Him feed my lambs. Feed them, don't berate them, don't hammer them, don't abuse them, feed them. Three times this happens. He says tend my sheep, he says feed my sheep, if you love Yahushua, then you are going to feed his sheep. It does not say anything about shoving food down his throat you know, forcing it in there. Lead them to the place where they can be fed, the word of Yahweh. And let him do His work. Isaiah 40:11 says He will feed his flock
like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. That's how we need to lead, men. David says you have given me the shield of your salvation, your right hand has held me up, that's Yahushua. Your gentleness has made me great. That's how we lead. May Yahweh help us. Yahweh help us all to express the wisdom that's from above. Lets Pray. Heavenly Father Yahweh, thank you for your
word, thank you for the warnings, thank you for
the way you lead us so gently, thank you for your patience. I pray Father Yahweh, all of this will heed and that we will see strife every bit as an
awful thing as we would see fornication, would see witchcraft, would see all these other things and that we would seek to be people of peace, a people that trust in you, not try and manage everything with our flesh, but put things under your feet, for you to manage. And we trust father you can do a far better job than we can. Forgive us where we have failed you. Help us to work out repentance, help us to walk in love, in peace, in joy, in
long-suffering, in kindness, in self-control, in gentleness. We know that you Father, is an Elohim of great mercy and the battle is always yours. Father I pray that you would take the enemy who is seeking to kill ,steal and kill and destroy and divide and conquer that you would take him far from our camp, far from our households, far from our midst and that we will reject him in the name of Yahushua and choose to be a people who are swift to hear, slow to wrath, long-suffering and kind and humble, willing to care, willing to love, willing to walk in peace. That our households and our assemblies might
be a sweet smelling aroma to you. bring us into the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. For truly yours is the glory and power and majesty and all praise, honor, and worship belongs to you Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh all mighty one, forever and ever, in Yahushua's great name we pray. Amein
accusations, things of that nurture. So today's study title is; Those who practice strife will not inherit life. That is the study title for today and I hope that you when you see the study title you will not immediately turn off the screen or tool down the whole thing because I'm gonna tell you something. What I am saying on this study title is the truth, it is the truth and it's important that you hear the truth, and so we are going to talk about war and I do not mean the war that any nations military may be engaged in and I do not even mean a war we are engaged in against the enemy, although that is somewhat related. I wanna talk about today a different kind of war, a war that never inspires a war between believers,
between a believing mother and a believing father, between siblings within a family of believers and sometimes between parents and children. I am talking about strife in the homes, in assemblies, in congregations, on Facebook groups, in discussion forums, in chat rooms and
so very few homes are new to it, very few homes are completely free of that but that are very few things more miserable than to be in the midst of it. It will be better just to be poor and have very
little to eat than to have a home filled with food and nothing but argument and fighting all day long.
Strife going on within the walls of the home is more common than many of us are willing to admit and it may surprise you, the scripture has a lot to say about strife an the reason why we should avoid it and
the danger of practicing it. It is so spiritually dangerous that many of the works of the flesh that are spoken of in Galatians 5 are centered around this very thing. In Galatians chapter 5, in verse 19 to 21 it says, Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, Idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, rivalries and the like of which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in time passed that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. So if this is your practice, all I am doing is quoting the scriptures with the study title today. If it is your practice to be contentious, to have
discretion, in your life, scripture says those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. Now, if that does not get our attention, I do not know what will. We are believers in Yahushua, we will be among those whom the Messiah would say you call me master but you do not do what I say, you call me mater but you do not do the will of my father in heaven, I do not even know you, depart from me you that work iniquity, you that practice, contention, dissension. The word translated contention what does it mean? It's pretty important for us to know what it means.
Greek Lexicon says, contention, strife, wrangling is translated strife four times, debate twice, contention twice, I mean we know what that is, that's is arguing. Another Lexicon has strife, selfish rivalry, fighting, quarrels, quarreling. And so this is
very serious if we practice fighting and arguing, quarreling, strife, wrangling, contention. If this is our practice, if this is what we do, we do it often it's a part of you know our life going on regularly the scriptures say you will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim.
That my friends should get our attention. Strife may not seem like a big deal on our culture today. Our entire nation is built upon the idea of arguing over who is going to win an election. Where issues... Everybody votes, everybody has their opinions. But Yahweh's government is not so. Yahweh's government is a monarchy. There are no arguments. There are no debates and fighting. Yahweh is the king, what He says goes, we do not fight about it. Now there is nothing wrong with reasoning together. There is nothing wrong with people conferring with one another and trying to decide what is the best course of action. But arguing and fighting. It's another thing altogether cripture says James 3:14, If you have bitter envying and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is an earthly, sensual, demonic, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Strife typically contains confusion, typically contains self-seeking, scriptures talk about it and say that's demonic, earthly, sensual, every
evil thing is there. This is it. Two people want something and they are going to fight one another and tear down one another and destroy one another in order to obtain what they want. Galatians 5:19-21, going back there, another word dissensions. Dissensions is used here. If we practice dissensions, you will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. You will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. What's worse more, this is dissension or division. Forever Lexicon has enmity, hostility, hatred, both as in as disposition an objective opposition. Plural of hostile feelings and acts, animosities, hostilities, discords, and feuds. Does this describe you and your household, this describes the way your assembly operates, that you are a part of? Confusion and every evil thing are there. Hostilities, discords, feuds.
Works of the flesh are evident. None of your Sabbath keeping, feast keeping,
using the right name, keeping Torah, means anything if you are willing to practice works of the flesh and these are examples and things like these and the like. I notice that many of these works of the flesh are also present during an argument. Hatred, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions and this hysteresis, and idolatry and sorcery are related (I will get to that later)but here all these things of the flesh seem to be centered around the kind of things that take place during an argument. Do not let Westernized
Christianity trick you into thinking that you can practice these things and enter into life, scripture says you will not. Now I am not saying this to condemn anybody, I am not thinking of anybody in particular honestly.
I am just saying, if this is our practice and this happens, probably most of our homes, I won't be surprised if I learned most our homes have these things going on maybe not practicing it but at one time or other people get weak and they fall into it. That's one thing If you are weak and fall into it on occasion but you immediately repent and seek forgiveness that's different.
Practising it, making it part of your character, a normal part of what you do, something that you jump into, on a regular basis, that's really falling into danger. Like twp balls bowling heads, nothing is accomplished, you just destroy each other. Now fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, these things are the antidote to strife. And scripture tells us this is how we overcome strife, we walk in the fruits of Yahweh's spirit. Peace is one of them. Long-suffering is one of them. Kindness is one of them. Goodness is one of them. Gentleness is one of them. Self-control is one of them. I promise you, these things are not present during a heated argument and yet these are
the fruits of Yahweh Holy Spirit. f His spirit is in you, let's see the evidence by overcoming through peace, through love, through joy, through long-suffering, through kindness and goodness. And says those who are Messiah's if you
really are Messiah's have crucified,(what) the flesh, all these passions and desires, if you are Messiah's all these things that are works of the flesh they are dead. They are crucified, they do not exist, they not part of who you are. So if you live in the Spirit, lets also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, means prideful, provoking one another which leads to strife, envying one another which leads to strife. Do you see how much emphasis is being placed on overcoming the temptation to practicing strife and the things that create strife? If we do not have self-control then the flesh is not crucified, if we do not have gentleness, long-suffering, peace, love, joy these things the flesh is not crucified. Scripture says he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Wow. That's strength, to take a city that's power, well who is the one that takes a city? Whose battle is it really? Is it our battle or is it His battle?
He is the only one, the battle is Yahweh. He is the one that can take the city, He is the one that can rule our spirit through us our spirit, and in us, our spirit can be ruled. We can be like Him, very slow to anger. Scripture says, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is necessarily good is necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Is our speech imparting grace? Or, is our speech corrupt? Is it edifying or is it tearing down?
And that's all reviewed by whats in the heartIf you ever want to know what the condition of your heart really is, listen to the words that you say, record yourself, listen to the words that you say and how you say them, you may not even realise it, the things coming out of your heart. Scripture says Luke 6:45, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil: for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
So whats in our hearts? If there are things in our hearts that are not pleasing to Yahweh we can say, Yahweh, create in me a clean heart, renew the right spirit within me, we can say that we can be delivered, we have to be willing to crucify the flesh, we have to be willing. Are we willing? I hope we willing, I hope that we are willing because if we are not willing we in grave danger before the throne of Elohim. Scripture says what is strife? Strife is exertion or contention with another; competition, contest, struggle or quarrel (That's Webster;s dictionary).
"Madown," in the Hebrew, strife contention, strife contention, the object of contention. retty obvious, pretty plain, pretty simple. Another Hebrew word Lip strife, controversy, dispute, controversy, cause strife, that's how it is translated, And, so, the Hebrew meaning is pretty much matched up with the English word strife. We see one example of strife then going all the way back to Abraham's day. Genesis 13:6 it says, And the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together: for their possessions were so great, that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanite and the Perizzite then dwelled in the land. So here are two brothers actually relatives drawn together in a land that could not support them and they are fighting over who is going to get one land, which land. I love Abraham's solution. So Abraham said to Lot, please let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. Let there be no strife. Abraham is a man of peace and not of war. He is a man of peace. And he says "is not the whole land for you? Please separate from me, if you take the left then I will go to the right, or if you go to the right I will go to the left for we are brethren. It was more important to Abraham that they would not be strife than for him to have his own gain. nd Abraham took the initiative here, he desired above all things they would be no arguing going on or contention, even if that meant him taking the lesser part and Abraham was blessed, you
know his son Isaac had the attribute,he argued over wells,who is going to have which well,he dug it himself and people argued over it and contended with him,so he went and dug another well,and they fought and contended over that one and so he dug another one and they did not fight over that one so this is well Yahweh has made room for me in the land. Esau and Jacob, Jacob gave Esau everything, yeah you can have it all, everything. Here, you can have it all. You want to find over possession? You can just have it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have their faults but they are men of peace. Now Yahushua says blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of Elohim. Peacemakers.
Are we peacemakers or are we starting fights over things we want and cannot have? or do not have?
That's an important question that we must ask ourselves, are we peacemakers or not? When Jacob was mistreated by Laban, ten times his wages
were changed and yet he just took it until finally, he says I cannot take it anymore and he separated company. He was humble, this is the antidote to strife. Yahushua says if you ever say an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. I tell you do not resist an evil person. Whoever strikes you on your right cheek turn the other to him also. Whoever takes away your tunic let him have your cloak also. That's like Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. He who compels you to go one mile, go with him two. ive to him who asks of you and to him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. It's
self demanding its own way that gets us in trouble when we are not really crucifying our flesh. Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see Yahweh: Peace and Holiness. Pursuing a peace and holiness, looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the
grace of Elohim, lest any root of bitterness bring up or cause trouble. And by this many become
defiled. And so they do not see Elohim, they are not Holy. They are defiled. There is a physical holiness defilement and a spiritual holiness defilement. And that which, when someone is not a peaceful person but they are a contagious person, they are not holy they are bitter. Some bitterness is probably in somewhere and is a root that grows a different kind of fruit. The fruits of the flesh you could say, the works of the flesh, and if we have bitterness and hatred or holding grudges in our hearts towards a person or persons some people they fight, they fight, they
fight, their contention is not with you. Really it's with themselves. They are not peaceful themselves and those not peaceful to anybody else either. They can't love themselves that's why they can't love their neighbor as themselves. They have no reference point. Romans 12:18, If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Now they are some people that just will not be at peace with you no matter how much you try.
But as much as depends on you, live peacefully with all men, wherever possible. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves (means do not take vengeance), but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says Yahweh. Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink: for in so doing you heap coals of fire on his head. This is Old Testament principle here. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So as much as possible is a peace with others. Be at peace with another person. Though you may not like him very much, you may not like him very much, but you have to love him. And, you know, I once heard a preacher you know, he gave a hard message. He said you may not like me, but you have to love me. Hmmm, that was a hard message, what he had to say but it was true and if one does not like the messenger or the message do not shoot the messenger. But the mailman just because he brought you the mail doesn't mean you should shoot him, he is just bringing the mail. And if the truth is being spoken by a person do not shoot the guy speaking it. What you are really doing is shooting the Elohim who gave it. And hating the Elohim who gave it. If it is a true message and you do accept it, you need to agree with it and humble ourselves. There are
some people however who will not be peacemakers they will stir up fighting, they will stir up strife. The scripture talks about them. Proverbs 29:22, An angry man stirs up strife, a furious man abounds in transgression. You have an anger problem it says you are bound in transgression stirring up strife. wrathful man stirs up strife. you have an anger problem, strife is always not far behind. He who is slow to anger allays contention (that means keeps it from happening) because he is slow to anger. So are we a wrathful person or are we slow to anger? Proverbs 30:33 says for as the churning of milk produces butter, and the wringing of the nose produces blood: so the forcing of wrath produces strife. Anger and strife are best friends. A person who is angry a lot is likely to have a lot of strife in his household, a lot of strife among people who are brothers and sisters in their faith, and such a person needs the humility to admit the problem and have a desire to stop. There are some people who are actually addicted to it like one would be addicted to a drug or alcohol. It becomes a part of their personality and who they are. It's where they quickly run to whenever they want something for themselves or whenever someone hurts them. It is just something they do not like, it becomes an addiction. It's a very very deceptive addiction, too. Because many times when you express your anger, everyone else who happens to be peacemakers will bow themselves and you know give you what you want. And so in your mind, you think it works.
ut it does not change their hearts it only damages them further. As a man we may feel that expressing anger towards our children may result in their hearts change and they may do what you tell them and you think the anger may have worked, but all you did was affecting their actions without changing their heart. Now there is a righteous indignation Yahushua never displayed anger out of
selfish ambition, out of something he did not get for himself or over self-focus. The one time He did express anger was when the hardness of hearts being expressed by Pharisees and scribes as he just healed a man by the power of the living Elohim and they are accusing Him of violating the Sabbath. Crazy, wasn't it Yahweh who healed the man So, if it was a Sabbath violation how could...If Yahweh obviously would not have approved of it, then why would Yahweh have allowed the healing. But that's how hard-hearted they were. Now righteous anger is rare, I do have a full study on
anger. It's on the transcripts page and actually three studies on anger; but we are focusing today on the end result of anger which is strife. Scripture says a perverse man sows strife, a whisperer separates the best of friends. A whisperer is one who tells secrets of another and therefore creates division and sowing strife.
He of a proud heart stirs up strife but he will who trust in Yahweh will be prospered. There is often a contrasts in 1st Peter 3 about why we should trust in Yahweh versus those who would stir up the strife. to get what they want. It's from pride. By pride comes nothing but strife, Proverbs 13:10, but with the well- advised is wisdom. For a perverse man, they sow strife wherever they go, they kinda like it, I think they like the competition, the fire and they are very, very good at arguing and making another person look bad and they're very skilled at it, very skilled at making another person look like he is a fool. And by that is this inner pride in the heart, Oh, I am better than the other person. Other people are not a measuring stick of how good a person is, Yahushua is a measuring stick. So
scripture says, once again, Proverbs 17:1, Better is a dry morsel and quietness than a house full of feasting with strife. So it is with a feast, feast of tabernacles or feast of Passover there is an inner fighting going on. I would rather have a dry Mossel during the feast. Then a whole table of food and people fighting with each other, likewise in households, they are houses of peace, shalom, love, maybe very poor in wealthy positions but very rich in their relationships with one another and their houses with plenty of money to go around and all they do is a fight. Money does not bring happiness and peace,
Yahweh spirit does. His presence in our life, that's what brings happiness and peace. So how do we avoid strife with someone who would happen you know to be practicing it often, how can we avoid it? Scripture says Proverbs 17:14, The beginning of strife is like releasing water: therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts. When you have a sense that something is about ready to brew and boil over, and the waters (ever seen men build those gigantic dams to stop water? Once that water starts out of the dam, it is going to break the dam. Once that water starts flying out of the dam, you going to have to get it really, really quickly, or you are going to be in a really big mess, right. So, what can you do to stop it, it says stop contention before a quarrel starts that means leave it, depart from it that's what the word is in Hebrew. So people, someone getting hot under the collar arguing and fighting and all these things, so stop the contention. Just refuse to argue. You may have to put up with verbal abuse, you may have to put up with her anger and then doing things and then trying to tear you down scripture says and the Hebrew word means to leave, to depart, do not be a part of it, so leave
the contention and sometimes that may mean leave the room, leave the presence of the one who is hostile. Also, we know a soft answer turns away wrath right. A caring heart, the wife is struggling with the husband and if the husband communicates love and care in the midst of the strive, sometimes that will solve the real problem. Not always but sometimes. At one time we were out of odds with Yahushua and yet he cared for us and loved us when we were not showing love to him, so we can overshadow evil with good, we can overcome strife with love. Because we are called to walk on a higher level. Proverbs 20:3 says, It is honorable for a man to stop striving: since any fool can start a quarrel. So if you just stop striving and we start loving a lot of times that will resolve the situation. It's more honorable for us to humble ourselves and cease from striving than to continue, anyone can start a quarrel that's easy. But we are called to suffer. Peter 2:21 says, But we are called to suffer: because Messiah also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps: When they are verbally abusing you with their hurtful words and their rude behavior, just take it, don't return in kind. Don't backbite, don't trade insults, don't it. That's contention, that's strife, that's anger. Rule your spirit and take victory over the city because if you have no rule over your own spirit it's like a city broken down without walls. So are we the one taking a city, are the one who has the broken down walls in our own city? The enemy can freely come in and recount it in our own spirit, and we have very little defense available because we are willing to be contentious, we are willing to express anger. We need the amour of
Yahweh around our spirit, around our hearts and if we have Yahushua the Messiah dwelling in us then the Holy Spirit is also dwelling in us because the Holy Spirit dwells in Yahushua and therefore we are able to bear the fruits of the spirit and be patient and be genuine we have Yahushua dwelling in us, we are focusing on keeping Him on the throne no matter the circumstances and we can overcome. Sometimes it means to just be understanding and to hold our peace Proverbs 11:12 He who is void of wisdom despises his neighbor: but a man of understanding holds his peace. Can we hold our peace when we are
being provoked? Can we do that? So, Yahushua when He was being provoked, when he was being mistreated and abused, physically, verbally every which way a man can be abused Yahushua says Father forgive them they do not know what they do,He was able to love them rather than being bitter towards them,He had to understand and was able to hold his peace. And even ask Yahweh to forgive them
for their wrong. And yet, too often, I think among brothers, one offers a little bit of disrespect toward another, and he lashes out like he has been slain. This should not be. Yahushua dwells in us. We should be merciful and then we obtain mercy. If we desire mercy from Yahweh lets make sure that we are dishing it out quite often. Yes maybe the other person is doing wrong but no matter how much you present your case, they do not see who you are talking about and frustration and anger may well up inside and at the time you may feel like you are justified in your anger, you start saying hurtful words but remember they may be times where Yahweh Himself has been trying to show you something for years and yet you do not see it.
an you extend the same kind of mercy towards the other person that Yahweh extends to you every single day? Are you a finished product already? I know I am not. I need all the mercy from Yahweh I can get. I know many of us have had things staring at us in the face, Yahweh is trying to get our attention and yet we do not see it. Now scripture
says blessed are the peacemakers they should be called sons of Elohim. You see two parties that warreth one another then you can bring shalom between them, that is awesome. That's being a son of Elohim, but then Proverbs 26:17 says, He that passes by, and meddles in a quarrel not his own, is like one that takes a dog by the ears. If you do not think you are going to be able to bring peace to the situation just be aware you may get attacked e who corrects a scuffle gets shame for himself, he who rebukes a naked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scuff list he hates you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give an instruction to a wise man and he will still be wiser. Teach a just a just man and he will increase in learning. Be careful whom we reprieve and whom we correct, you may not only harm yourself through the process, you are giving an opportunity for that person to sin yet again and therefore actually being a stumbling block to them.
Now Yahweh is an Elohim of peace, so He seeks to bring peace to us and between us. Our message is one of peace. The Gospel of peace, peace between Yahweh and man, and when there is peace between Yahweh and man it's only then that they can be true peace between man and man. And when there is not true peace between men there is going to be at least one of them, maybe both of them who are not at peace with Yahweh.
Alright, we are back HalleluYah, I apologize for the internet dropping. I do not know why It happened but I suspect the enemy does not want the message to go out. My question is can we extend the same mercy to another person that Yahweh extends to us daily because none of u are a finished product. And if we want Yahweh's mercy, we need o be willing to extend that mercy to others, and I know many of us have had things thrown at us in the face and we did not even realize it. And so we have to be humble about ourselves and because someone is not seeing the things we want them to see, if we are witnessing to somebody and you want them to see the importance of something you are trying to share with them,it won't work if you are going to resort to the flesh because the things Yahweh has revealed to you were revealed by His spirit not by some person's flesh and perhaps
a little dose of humility would say but there was a time I did not see it either so I am going to pray for them and let Yahweh lead them. They are Yahweh's workmanship, let Yahweh lead. Blessed are the peacemakers they shall be called sons of Elohim. If they are other people strafing and you can bring peace to the situation, fantastic, awesome do it. There are other people however he who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears. I have even seen and heard of situations where there were women who were being physically abused by a boyfriend or a husband and then a man comes along and tries to stop the man from physically abusing the woman and somehow hurts the man and then the woman gets angry at the man who was saving her from being abused. I know it sounds crazy but it happens and other people gang up on the man and that guy gets can be beaten up. So you know to be careful, be careful. If you can bring peace, bring peace. Scripture says he who corrects a scuffle gets shame for himself and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scuff list he hates you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give an instruction to a wise man and he will still be wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. Now, if Yahweh should lead you to bring peace, then bring peace. Our message is actually of peace. We are proclaiming peace, goodwill towards man. It's a gospel of good news of peace. Because there is no peace unless we are at peace with our creator and when we are at peace with our creator then peace with one another will come. No
stress. When there is peace between Yahweh between Yahweh and man only then can there be peace between two men or between a husband and a wife? When there is no peace within them but rather a sword. Yahushua predicted that. One will be a believer and one would not, they are ultimately at war with one another inherently because one is not at peace with Elohim and one is. One is at war with Elohim and the one is not. Of course, there will be instances where the unbeliever will act un-Messiah-like but we are the ones called to be like Messiah. Now what about peace in our own households? Speaking of that, why is there so much strife today even in homes of believers? The proverb is right about strife in the home quite often and also the new testament teaches us that a wife is supposed to submit to her husband so that they will not be strife in the home and I want to preface this however with a warning to us men. The scriptures do inform us, husbands love your wives as the Messiah loved the assembly and gave himself for her that he might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious assembly or congregation not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So Yahushua gave himself for us and that's how we are to conduct ourselves and our households. While a husband may not actually be the one being the contentious one, he is the one who is called to in such a way that wins her heart. Now wives are also called to die to self. We are going to get to that in a minute but, we going to talk to husbands. I talk to myself here,1 Peter 3:7, Husbands likewise, dwell with them with understanding try to understand why they are experiencing the things they are experiencing, make sure you give them proper honor, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered. And Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous: not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this that you may inherit a blessing. This is our calling. So, listen, we cannot use the behavior of our wives to use as an excuse for anger to mistreat them. Any failure for a husband to love, to
nourish and to care for his wife is his fault and his fault alone. He cannot blame her for being disrespectful. He cannot use his wife's behavior to excuse away the need to love them properly. Yahushua loved us when we were sinners, and when He loved us, He loved us to the extent of being tortured and giving His life for us. Because Elohim demonstrates His own love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners Messiah died for us, so please understand, when a wife is misbehaving it's an opportunity to demonstrate the love of Messiah, it's an opportunity. Now, it can very difficult if she is extremely contentious and abusive it can be extremely difficult to do so. Scripture says if you love those who love you what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them and if you do good to those who do good to you what credit is that to you, even sinners do the same. The one thing that marks and makes us different to the world is that we are willing to love those who do not love us.
If we are loving a spouse who is unloving then we are being like Yahushua who died for the unloving,
So, having this responsibility is a tall order that we all are supposed to be looking out not just the husband but all of us. Yahushua said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love is no one that destined to lay down ones' life for his friends and so we need to solemnly consider the words that are spoken here and lead our homes not with our anger, not with our abusive words or harsh or with abuse of any kind. But,
rather with the love of Messiah. Now, if you are in a home, I want to talk to the child here, where there is arguing between mother and father, the scriptures have a little encouragement for you. In
Psalms 31:20, it says, You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man: you shall keep them secretly in a sukkot (pavilion) from the strife of tongues. And this is a place all of us can go to, from one who is contentious, From one who is mistreating us, we can hide in the secret place. Even if we are being mistreated, we can hide in the secret place of Yahweh's presence, in his sukkot, in his pavilion, knowing He sees and knows all things and make them flee to His presence. The name of Yahweh is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe. So I want everyone to know I am not letting men off the hook here. I want everyone to know, however I cannot let the wife off the hook either. And the scriptures have a lot to say to women and having a contentious way towards a husband. But I want everyone to know what it really means to be a man is to be like Yahushua the Messiah and t live the way Yahushua the Messiah lives, we can through our leadership tempt our wives and cause them to stumble into sin, now they are still responsible for the sin, but we are still also going to be held responsible for being a stumbling block to them. And so I encourage you, watch this study on biblical masculinity I shared earlier last summer. It's called July 23rd, 2016, on the archive. Take a look there and watch the study on biblical masculinity. We talked about leadership. We talk about providing and all those kinds of things.
So I am going to shift here and talk about a woman's responsibility, a wife's responsibility in the family and I want the ladies out there to understand I am not picking on you, but I am going to talk about it because it is a part of the scriptures and I cannot neglect to talk about the things that scriptures teach. Proverbs 19:13 says, A foolish son is the ruin of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping. Proverbs 21:9: It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21:19: It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman. Now some look at these proverbs and they kinda chuckle a little bit. They think it's funny. They think it's humorous, I do not think Yahweh was trying to give us comic relief when we are reading the proverbs. I think He was ascribing the experience of leaving with a woman who is contentious. It is a miserable existence. It is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop, it is better to dwell in the wilderness, it's a continual dripping. These are only 3. There are other proverbs repeating the same thing. Proverbs 25:24 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than a house shared with a contentious woman. Now scripture doesn't often repeat itself, but when it does its Yahweh saying hey pay attention to what I just said. Pay extra attention to what I am telling you here, and so this is repeated we got one, two, three, four and then five. Proverbs 27:15:
Continual dripping on a rainy day, very rainy day than a contentious woman are alike. Whosoever restrains her restrains the wind, and grasps oil with his right hand. Can you restrain the wind? No. Can You grasp oil with your right hand? No. Try it...just pours in your hand and it just runs right out. You can't do it. There is no restraining the woman who chooses to carry on the character of contentiousness. The woman who is characterized as a contentious woman according to the Proverbs, quoted in the book of Galatians which we read earlier, she is practicing the work of the flesh which only leads to death. And so it's a very serious, its life and death situation. It's not something to laugh at. It's not something for humor. It is something very serious in the eyes of Yahweh. Proverbs 14:1 says, The wise woman builds her house: but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. Are we building? Are we pulling down? To be contentious is to pull down, but to build our home is to walk in peace. Proverbs 26:21 says As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. And if a woman is contentious, she is going to kindle strife, it's going to happen.Psalm 133:1 says Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron: running down on the edge of his garments. As the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion: for there Yahweh commanded the blessing, life for evermore. Beautiful, beautiful pictures of how life is like when we are in unity. Conversely, how awful and how unpleasant it is to be dwelling in strife. It's an ugly disgusting manifestation of the flesh, and if your home is full of strife between husband and wife, ladies if you are contentious with your husband do not be surprised if he finds his own rooftop somewhere. It may not be a corner of a roof, it may be outside. You know, playing golf or visiting friends, anywhere besides sitting with you and do not be surprised if your children, when they are of age, also want to escape
and go live with someone else. And I understand you feel unhappy inside, you believe the cause is your husband. But the foundation of joy and contentment is not rooted in our relationship with one another, the foundation of our joy and our contentment is rooted in our relationship with Yahweh the father. It's
rooted in the soil of thanksgiving and praise to Yahweh our king, and if we have him we do have everything we need, we may not have everything we want but we do have everything we need, can we trust that. But the discontentment often causes wives to want to take matters into their own hands, or out of fear, take matters in their own hands, especially if their husbands are not being obedient to Yahweh's word. A husband should not be disobedient to Yahweh's word, but husbands should be loving and compassionate and long-suffering and genuine and dwelling with their wives and understanding in love and all these things, but if they are not, scripture has an answer for you. Scripture gives specific instructions on what to do. 1 Peter 3:1 says, Wives likewise, be submissive to your own husbands; even if some do not obey the word, they--by your nagging and complaining? No-- without a word may be won by the conduct of the wives. Your conduct, ladies, will win them or lose them. Your conduct will win them or lose them. And so, if your conduct consists of contention and arguing with them over their decisions and things they are doing, you are not going to win them. Because you are trying to use your words to win them. Scripture says without a word you will win them. By your conduct, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Fear from what? Fear of them? No. Fear of Elohim. When you respect Elohim and the authority that He established in the home, and you allow your husbands to make mistakes, mistakes that you can even suffer for because you are giving Yahweh the reigns. You are not trying to play Holy Spirit. You are letting the Holy Spirit actually do the work rather than you try to play the Holy Spirit, That is the best environment for your husband to be won. So do not let your endowment be merely a word, arranging the hair, wearing gold, putting on apparel, rather let it be the hidden person of the heart. That's your adornment and I have to find sometimes the women are the greatest trouble with contentiousness, are trying to cover up that ugliness with the way they look, with their appearances, with putting on gold and fine apparel and all these things. Not always sometimes. So let it be the incorruptible beauty of a gentle, and quiet a spirit, a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of Elohim. Can you put that on? Could that be your adorning, a gentle spirit, a quiet spirit? Not a loud obnoxious contentious spirit, could that be your adorning? I tell you what, it's very attractive to men, it's very beautiful to men. It causes men to want to honor and respect you because as men, righteous men I should say, men who are even unrighteous as well. That's what he's talking about here, but especially righteous man, to want to protect you, to guide you and to not hurt you, but when woman chooses to rise up and fight against her husband then her husband sees her you know like he is dealing with a man and not a precious woman, a precious wife. Now Yahweh is the one who made this decision that
the husband would be the head of the wife. He is the one who decided that. The husband didn't decide that. It was not his call, it was Yahweh's call. In the same way, the Messiah is the head of the assembly and He is the savior of the body. Yahweh made that decision that Yahushua is the head of the assembly. And so, if a man was to fight against the Messiah, he will have Yahweh to deal with. Likewise, when a wife does not respect the headship of her husband, she will have Yahweh to deal with and if she is very contentious she could find herself facing a lot of judgment in her life. Because Yahweh is trying to get her attention, that He is the one on the throne, not her. 1 Corinthians 11 : 3 says, I would have you know, the head of every man is Messiah, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Yahweh. The husband is not in authority because he is so great, it's not because of the smarter or wiser or better, the husband is not in authority because somehow inherently men are better than women, no. That's not the reason why. The reason why he is in authority is because he is the one responsible; he is the one responsible for leadership. He is the one responsible for the outcome and responsibility without having the authority to execute that responsibility is a miserable existence. It's like being the leader of an army of insubordinate soldiers who do not want to listen to anything you have to say. And the man is responsible for guarding and protecting the victory and war against the enemy and he knows the general is holding him accountable for the outcome and yet his directions are contested, his soldiers are in disarray, there is no respect for the process of war, there is no understanding that in order for a victory to be attainable everyone has to listen to the leader of the platoon or everyone will fall. You may not like the guy very much.He may be self-centered, unloving or flat out wrong in his decisions, but I can tell you this. Failure is guaranteed unless there is unity among soldiers.
For a platoon leader to now have the authority, respected, yet still being responsible for the outcome is a miserable existence and what army would be victorious if they are fighting against one another instead of uniting together against a common enemy? No one. A house that fights against itself will not stand. And so there has to be an authority in a household.
And we are in an army together, together, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, and until you realize your husband is the platoon leader in this army and give him the proper respect, not because of how great he is but because of his office, that he holds. And I am saying, you know a police officer calls you over you start mouthing him, and contending with him and insulting him and belittle him that is wrong. If you were to disrespect a judge in a court of law you would be held in contempt of court, you would be punished for it. Because they have to be ordered in society, every human government has rank and there is rank in the
body of the Messiah. The husband is the head of the wife, and Messiah is the head of the husband and Yahweh is the head of the Messiah. You have got to have respect for the process of authority even if you feel authority is wrong you have to show proper respect. It's just commonplace therefore take up the whole armor of Elohim that you may be able to withstand all in the evil day, having done all to stand. Think about this, how many people would win
their fight with a manager at work? Wouldn't the company want to see to it that the insubordinate one was fired? Because he argued with the one that put the manager in that place of authority. Even the world has an understanding, even they realize that in order for anything to be a success there has to be authority in order and failure is guaranteed unless there is authority in order and every successful endeavour has authority involved, every organization, every non-profit, every company, every nation under the heavens, every military, everything and anything that involves a group of people trying to come together and accomplish some sort of goal, there are people in authority. And for some reason, people think you get into the household and there can be a two-headed monster and it will work. Whoever has a more dominant personality will happen to be the one that, it does not work that way. hey are CEO's, they are majors under them, supervisors under them, even the world understands that. Same is true with children and their parents unless the children respect the authority of the parents, if they do not respect and honor the authority of the parents there is a very good chance they will not respect and honor anybody. Not the one they're married to, not the work they are logged in and a lot of times end up going to prison because they don't know how to respect authorities. So when it comes to the home, do you see why Yahweh would put a person in charge, it is necessary for peace and unity, anything else is just asking for guaranteed failure and it's a miserable existence. It does not mean a wife's thoughts and feelings should be disregarded, no. The goal is that you have two people who love each other come together, have a consensus on every decision, and that consensus includes Yahweh leading both of them and both marriage partners are in tune with the Holy Spirit, then peace will come automatically. But if one is willing to engage in strife, debate and arguing and practice the works of the flesh, they are not gonna hear from Yahweh correctly. Because the works of the flesh are evident. And here they are. You are practicing these things. You not going to be able to hear from Yahweh properly. You are not operating in the spirit, you are operating in the flesh. And you're endangering your soul, because those who practice these will not inherit life. Scriptures say so. It's that serious to Yahweh. look at these works of the flesh for a minute, I want to show you how a large number here of these are all related to contention. It says here, one of them is idolatry. Well, putting your own will ahead of Yahweh's will by saying you are going to be the head of the husband and you are going to direct him what to do. That's idolatry. Sorcery, scripture says in 1 Samuel 15:21 rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft. 1 Samuel 15:23, rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft. Why is rebellion like the sin of witchcraft? Because rebellion is what Satan is all about. He is about rebelling against Yahweh's authority. That is what he is all about, that's what he does, that's part of, that's his character, that is the thing that he is trying to do. He is trying to rebel against Yahweh's authority and for that reason its witchcraft. And so if a wife was to rebel against Yahweh's established authority who is she imitating? What is she doing? She is practicing a form of witchcraft right there in the home, might as well do a scionce. Because that's what it is. Rebellion is a sin of witchcraft because she is not in agreement with Yahweh's decision of headship. And also hatred is often present during arguments and-and the enmity ultimately is with Elohim and his form of government according to Lexicons I looked up. You do not want to be under his government rule, you want to rule yourself. Contentions, we know what that is, strife, quarrel, and arguments, jealousies, the Greek lexicons I have read say fierce indignation or a jealous adult. Many arguments come out jealousies where the husband accuses the wife; wife accuses the husband of not being faithful. The outburst of wrath as anger, passion, and bowling over, of wrath and anger or selfish ambition. Striving to attain the high office is what the word means in Greek. ook into to do not great on yourself, trying to take the husband's office, division, hostile opposition, dissensions is all about hostile opposition. And heresies have to do with taking capture or choosing one's self and it's also politically related. And so what is this? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine of these works of the spirit are being violated when a wife does not respect the office of the husband and chooses to be contentious and practices these works of the flesh, it's that serious. We may not value order in our society. We live in a democratic republic, everyone argues about everything, and because of that, you know we think
that we can just you know tell the president what to do and tell the hosts in a government set up, but Yahweh's government is not a democratic republic, its a monarchy. Yahweh is the king, His word goes and He puts people in of office and just as all of Israel, they did not have an arguing problem. What the King said, they did. That's it. The king's word was final. And the judges who were under the king, that was the final word. It put an end to all contention and debate. And it was in the wilderness when the people tried to rise up against Moshe that he opened up the ground and swallowed of the Sons of Korah.
That's when Miriam tried to say hey isn't Yahweh also speaking through us, you know she got leprosy. It's that serious. So I am not putting the nail on the pedestal. There is no men on the pedestal, only Yahushua is the perfect one. But, Yahweh has a system in place to prove that contention and strife, and man that should make you rise up and go, you know what, well I may be held responsible here. will give an account of how I live my life, how I lead my family I better be right. I better be in tune with the will of Elohim. But too often we have Ahab men and Jezebel women, Ahab is like an all shocks kind of weak knee, you know, fragile, you do not confront anything, you are too weak. And women who want to rule. We do not want Ahab, Jezebel marriages, we want Messiah in the assembly. In the same way Messiah leads, man leads. The same way the assembly follows, the wife follows. And now it's OK for a wife to make an appeal in the same way Moshe himself made an appeal to Yahweh, when He said He was going to destroy Israel. He said well you know the nations around you will hear it, and they will think because you were unable to bring them in the land you know, that you killed them in the wilderness and your name will be damaged to that,you know, make an appeal,and make a wise appeal,make a humble appeal,as Abraham did to Yahweh when He said, supposed they are only 50 in this city that are righteous would you destroy the city? or 40, or 20, or 10, you know he was very humble in his appeal, it's OK to make an appeal. But not fight, not argue, two wrongs won't make a right, It won't. In fact it will endanger your own salvation so let it be the hidden person of the heart, the in crafted beauty of a gentle, quiet spirit, be what convicts him and this, Yahweh says is very precious in His sight,don' you want to be just considered very precious in Yahweh's sight? There you go, there is the key. For in this manner in former times, the holy women who trusted in (their husbands--No) trusted in Elohim, also adorn themselves being submissive to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him master, who start as you are if you do good and do not fear of any terror, not afraid of what? Afraid to trust Elohim.
So what if the husband makes a foolish decision, doesn't that affect the whole family? Yes, it does and if the husband has the fear of Elohim himself and he ought to, when he sees his family suffering from his decisions, it should convict him to be even more careful to hear perhaps a warning of his wife, an appeal she would want him or perhaps the check in his spirit that he got from Yahweh and you know, he needs to learn and be able to make mistakes in order to lead properly and know what to do. But you know they are foolish parents out there, bringing up children who suffer and t Adam and Eve sinned and we all suffer for their mistake. Even the animals that are under our authority because of Adam's mistake suffer to this day, in fact, the entire earth groans for redemption. So if a bad situation appears on the horizon as result of a perceived bad decision by the husband or the wife would desire that the husband change his mind on something, she can make a humble appeal and there is nothing wrong with reverently expressing a different opinion and to try to reason together and come to some kind of a consensus, but no contention, no anger, no strife, no nagging, but trust in Elohim for the outcome. And Sarah did. There she was, you know, telling everybody she is a sister in the harem of the king and in one night Yahweh delivered her. He said that to Abimelech, that dream, He said that indeed you are a dead man because of a woman you have taken, she is a man's wife, and all his wives were barren because of this. And so she had to trust in Elohim, through a not- so-good decision that Abraham had made, that is just the way it is. Yahweh was sold out in the end, this is Yahushua himself, and he learned obedience by the things He suffered, this may be an opportunity for you to learn to be like Yahushua. Yahushua suffered for the decisions that Yahweh made. He said not my will but you will be done. Now I am not suggesting a man has the freedom to be abusive to his wife, bet her up, smack her around and she just seats there and takes it because her husband is also accountable to the body of the Messiah, to the Messiah. They are elders in place with who you are to the council if your husband is abusing you. If he is verbally abusing you perhaps as well, you know, that's very subjective, the verbal abuse. But there is a system in place for accountability, he just does not have the free reign to do what he wants. But there are elders in place, Yahweh has put elders, accountability, we are all under authority, and we are under human government authority as well. And we are told to submit ourselves to every ordinance of men for the master's sake, and so men set the example and show submission to the authorities that Yahweh has put on the earth. Now in a home where a wife is being submissive, they
are zero arguments, none whatsoever between husband and wife. If there is ever an argument, is there submission happening? I meaan, think about it. If there is an argument, can a wife submit to her husband whilst arguing with him at the same time? I think submitting is the opposite of arguing with and striving with. t's the exact opposite, and so you not submitting, and you cannot have it both ways its one or the other, I mean if there is an argument it is not the
fault of the husband, I know that sounds arrogant but please, its common it's just logic. If the husband, can be cruel, husband can be unkind in his words and that is his fault and his fault alone,
and likewise, if she chooses to not submit, if she chooses to argue with him, that is her fault and her fault alone because she is not doing what she is supposed to do . we are all responsible for our own behaviour. Now husband can be terribly wicked, but again there is a carnability in place in the body of the Messiah, there ought to be, and in human courts, if he is being physically abusive then he will have to answer to human courts, because human courts were established and set up by Yahweh himself, and I know of men who have beat up their wives and went to jail and never did it again, because they faced accountability for their actions. So now most of the time if a wife is being submissive it will not
tempt the husband to be abusive, however, if he chooses to be abusive, he alone is responsible for being abusive, no one else. o matter what she does, even if she hits him, even if, you know she tries to hurt him, if he chooses to be abusive and beat her up he is responsible for his sin, she is responsible for her sin, her sin was her own abuse. And not being submissive and being physically abusive. His sin is also being abusive, both are guilty, but the husband is being as loving as he possibly can and she is being abusive with her words and arguing with her words then she you know she is responsible for her sin,either way, whether he is nice, whether he is not nice, it doesn't matter,Yahweh says this is what you are supposed to do and nobody can blame anyone else for anything. No one makes you angry, you choose to be angry. No one makes you angry, you choose anger. Now I want to
go back now towards the scriptures and what they have to say about strife in the body of the Messiah. Scripture says that there is a lot. I will tell you one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the Hebrew roots movement, is the fighting and the strife. It's one of the biggest stumbling blocks toward those in mainstream Christianity. They come in here and they see the truth of the Torah, they see these things and yet there are people fighting everywhere. Contention and strife and arguing in the body of the Messiah is a huge stumbling block which is why we cannot practice the works of the flesh men, women. We cannot do this. You can't claim to be of Hebrew roots unless you have the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, all these good things and so it grieves me terribly when I see it, people hurting one another, insulting one another, putting down one another, this ought not to be. I have seen Christians in the traditional mainstream do the same, go back and forth on earthiness forms and insult and name call and all these things. we are
called to reason together. Reason together, talk with one another, share with one another, confer with one another, only that can we be
persuasive towards one another. But there is hardly a place where there is not division. n fact, division was in the first century. 1 Corinthians 11:18 says First of all when you come together as an assembly, I hear that there be divisions among you, and partly I believe it. For there must be factions, this is going to happen he said, so that those who are approved may be recognized. The ones who are not willing to engage in the carnal debates and strife, those are the ones who are approved. The ones that can out insult the other person and win or think they have won, they are not the ones who are approved. We all need to do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh. Because they are tears among the weak, people who want to sow dissension and its one of the abominations, those who stir up dissension among brothers, is one of the seven abominations in brothers and so lets walk properly as in the day, not in rivalry, lewdness, not in drunkenness, not strife and envy but put on the Master Yahushua the Messiah and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Let's hear and not be among those who offend. Let's
hear and not be among those dealing in inequity. Let's be lights of this world and let nothing be done out of strife and wrangling. He said to the Corinthians, you are still carnal, I hear there is envy, strife, divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? By this, I will know you are my disciples if you have that love, if you are approved, it will be evident, you have that love. And be careful when you judge another person, with the judgment you judge, you will be judged, the measure you use will be measured back to you. We all know this scripture, I do not even have to read it. If you get judged by
another person in a debate or an argument make sure you can measure up also, otherwise you are just
wise in your own eyes, you think you know everything
and there is more hope for a fool than a man in his own eyes.
I am reminded here of John 21 it says, when they had eaten breakfast, Yahushua said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? He said yes master you know that I love you. He said to Him feed my lambs. Feed them, don't berate them, don't hammer them, don't abuse them, feed them. Three times this happens. He says tend my sheep, he says feed my sheep, if you love Yahushua, then you are going to feed his sheep. It does not say anything about shoving food down his throat you know, forcing it in there. Lead them to the place where they can be fed, the word of Yahweh. And let him do His work. Isaiah 40:11 says He will feed his flock
like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. That's how we need to lead, men. David says you have given me the shield of your salvation, your right hand has held me up, that's Yahushua. Your gentleness has made me great. That's how we lead. May Yahweh help us. Yahweh help us all to express the wisdom that's from above. Lets Pray. Heavenly Father Yahweh, thank you for your
word, thank you for the warnings, thank you for
the way you lead us so gently, thank you for your patience. I pray Father Yahweh, all of this will heed and that we will see strife every bit as an
awful thing as we would see fornication, would see witchcraft, would see all these other things and that we would seek to be people of peace, a people that trust in you, not try and manage everything with our flesh, but put things under your feet, for you to manage. And we trust father you can do a far better job than we can. Forgive us where we have failed you. Help us to work out repentance, help us to walk in love, in peace, in joy, in
long-suffering, in kindness, in self-control, in gentleness. We know that you Father, is an Elohim of great mercy and the battle is always yours. Father I pray that you would take the enemy who is seeking to kill ,steal and kill and destroy and divide and conquer that you would take him far from our camp, far from our households, far from our midst and that we will reject him in the name of Yahushua and choose to be a people who are swift to hear, slow to wrath, long-suffering and kind and humble, willing to care, willing to love, willing to walk in peace. That our households and our assemblies might
be a sweet smelling aroma to you. bring us into the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. For truly yours is the glory and power and majesty and all praise, honor, and worship belongs to you Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh all mighty one, forever and ever, in Yahushua's great name we pray. Amein