Well, all three of these verses are directed to women. Women, particularly those who are married, the wife of a husband or mother of children, those who have a role within the home. And in God's wisdom, he opted to isolate these particular verses to a specific gender, that being the women. And what I want us to notice are the metaphors that these three passages use to describe what it's like to live with a quarrelsome or contentious woman. Proverbs 21, 19 says that it's better to live in a dry desert where your parched throat aches for water and all you have is sand. Proverbs 21.9 says it's better to live outdoors in a corner of a rooftop exposed to all the harsh and inclement weather while it may be stormy outside. A contentious woman creates a storm within her own house. Anger thunders from her mouth. Lightning bolts flash from her glare. She rains on everybody's parade. And her presence makes the home such an inhospitable place for her husband and children to live that he and they would be better off dwelling outside on top of the roof. And Proverbs 21, 15 says that living with a contentious woman is like the maddening dripping, dripping, dripping of water. And this reminds me of the Chinese water torture technique. The Chinese developed a machine that drips individual droplets of water onto the head of criminals and prisoners of war. And the patterns of the dripping are irregular, which has the effect of causing anxiety as a person tries to anticipate the impact of the next drop on their head. And after prolonged exposure to this erratic, continual dripping, the subjects become begin to suffer emotional and mental breakdowns, psychosis sets in, the victims experience delusions, hallucinations, and lose touch with reality, all within the span of about 20 hours. This is how the inspired word of God is describing life in a home with a contentious woman. And one of the questions we ask ourselves is, how does a woman end up like this? Does she derive pleasure from making her husband live in a parched, dry, inhospitable environment? Does she conscientiously decide to be bad weather in the life of her family? And are her relentless and erratic drips of water intentional? Is she trying to inflict pain and turmoil? Understand, brothers and sisters, that a woman doesn't become contentious overnight. Her life, like everyone else's life, is made up of many individual moments of decision. These are small moments of decision, but they build upon each other to create a mountain of material that defines a character. And I don't think many women set out to become the person others want to avoid. I don't think many women intentionally want to be that person that others flee to the desert or the rooftop to gain refuge from. Most women probably aren't aware that they have become contentious because that's not what she set out to be. But when her heart is filled with strong desires for things that she cannot attain, she will become contentious. She'll develop habits of nagging, complaining, and quarreling in response to the things that she wants but does not have. As James 4, verses one and two explain, what causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not your passions at war within you? You desire but do not have, so you murder. You covet but cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. So according to James, the reason people fight and quarrel, the reason a contentious woman fights and quarrels, the reason a woman is contentious is because there's something she's coveting and cannot obtain. Maybe she wants to rule over her husband. Maybe she wants the picture perfect family. Maybe she wants respect from her community of people. Maybe she feels deprived of joy or comfort or security. Maybe she's struggling to understand her purpose in life. Maybe she wants her husband's attention. Maybe she wants wealth and status. Whatever it is, her contentious behavior is a response to not obtaining what her heart is coveting. Her discouragement and disappointment drives her to nag, criticize, complain, and disparage the people in her very own home. She's frequently telling her husband what he should be doing differently, berating him behind closed doors. She frequently lectures her children when they do something wrong, telling them how disappointed she is with them, how much they hurt her by their disobedience, making the issue about herself rather than their correction. She sulks. She pouts. She lashes out. She vents her frustrations on the people who are closest to her, and in so doing, she pushes them away from her. Proverbs 14, verse one says, the wise woman builds her house, and the foolish woman pulls it down with her hands. The contentious woman featured in our reading of God's law this morning is the foolish woman who pulls her house down with her own hands. And at the bottom of all of this, at the bottom of all of her contention, her relentless criticisms of her husband, her lecturing of her children, her critique of her parents, the blame shifting onto her parents and onto her in-laws, at the base of foundation of all of this is really an expression of her outrage against God. As she complains about the inadequacies of her living conditions, the scarcity of money, her outdated clothes, not having a nice car, having to put up with old appliances in the home. As she complains about her living conditions, what she's really doing is displaying her discontentment. And discontentment, when understood from a biblical perspective, is a sinful form of entitlement that comes from a critical assessment of God. Discontentment is a sinful form of entitlement that comes from a critical assessment of God. So the contentious woman is really contending with God. Whether she recognizes it or not, she's shaking her fist in the air while screaming, God, I am angry at you because you are not giving me the things that I deserve. It is a sinful form of entitlement that comes from a critical assessment of God, specifically God's providence in one's life. So she takes it out on her family because they happen to be there. Like the man who kicks the dog when he receives bad news, the dog just happened to be within striking range when the man became angry. Well, the woman who contends with her family is doing the same thing. The family just happens to be within striking range. But her real frustration, her real anger is with God. Ladies, if this description of a contentious woman hits close to home, then look for idols in your heart. Look for idols in your heart. It's the idols that are driving your contentious behavior. It's not your husband. It's not your children. It's not your in-laws that are provoking you. It's the idols in your heart. Your passions are at war within you. You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. The biblical remedy for this type of contention is the gospel. You are unable to deliver yourself from your sin. but you can be delivered from your sin by Jesus Christ. And so acknowledging your sin by means of confession is the first step in that deliverance. Acknowledge your sin by means of confession, confess your idolatry and discontentment to the Lord, confess your critical assessment of God, your anger with God, your contention with God, confess that to the Lord, and confess your contentious attitude and behavior to your family members. In the same way that the man who kicks a dog needs to confess his sin, not necessarily to the dog, but certainly to God. In this case, because the sin is committed against other humans, the contentious wife must confess her contentious attitude and behaviors to her husband and to her children and to any other family members if she's truly going to seek to be repentant. And of course, Not everybody here is a woman, and not everybody here is a contentious woman. And so if this shoe does not fit you this morning, then apply these same gospel principles to whatever sin that the Lord has put upon your heart this morning. For certainly the Lord has shown you where you have gone wrong. His word is active. It cuts deep into, it penetrates deep into our very soul, separating the soul from the spirit as the bone is separated from the marrow. So God's Word penetrates so deeply into ourself and to our own beings as to reveal our own sin to us. And so where God has shown you your sin, whether that's the sin of contention or any other sin, the remedy is confession in the name of Jesus Christ. So let's pray. Let's have a time of silence, and let's confess our sins to the Lord. We have the great privilege of coming in the name of Jesus Christ and confessing our sins. In order that we can hear the assurance of pardon that God gives to all who repent. And so let's begin that process right now by praying privately a prayer of confession, and I will then lead us in a public prayer of confession as well. Let's pray.