Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 Well, we get to dive into the,
Speaker 1 00:00:07 The commandments one more time before I do we do that. Um, I want, I want to just spend a little time in prayer if that would be okay with everybody. Uh, once in a while we do this. And, uh, the Lord has been just very gracious to our church recently. Um, even through some of the very difficult times, the Lord has kind of walked us through and I'd like to just take a moment and, and highlight some of those things for you that you may or may not know about Darren, uh, you many of, you know, Darren, he has been struggling with, uh, cancer and Hey Darren, you're here this morning. So Darren is here this morning. Uh, we're so glad to see you, Darren.
Speaker 1 00:00:46 We've been praying for him. Uh, it was about two, three months ago. Now, three months ago, you found out that you had cancer and started treatments and started some pretty intense treatments. Uh, it was a hard ride for his family, still is, uh, but the Lord has brought him through and you have a very good visit this past week with a doctor and you are cancer free at this point. Yeah. So that's awesome. I think the Lord, uh, not only that, but we've seen, uh, other answers to prayers last week. We had a baptism, if you miss that it's online and you can watch that, uh, those, those were prayers that were answered as well. It was an amazing service and we baptized a father and his daughter and the Lord has worked in their lives in some pretty amazing ways. They shared some amazing testimonies with us, and I'm just glad that the Lord allowed us to continue to be a blessing in those lives.
Speaker 1 00:01:40 And it was our fourth anniversary to boot. Uh, we had a great time celebrating at KISE, uh, together. And if you made it, you know, that that was fun. And if you didn't make it well, you know, the fifth anniversary is right around the corner. So you can jump in on that one. Uh, also, uh, want to keep praying for those prayer requests that, uh, that continue. Uh, we have been praying for Sherry and, uh, Sherry's brother, Dan, who, uh, Sherry and Brent, uh, Sherry has, um, uh, asked us to continue to pray. Actually, we're just going to do it, whether you ask her. So not, uh, they are going to be doing a funeral for him on the 27th. And, uh, so that family, it, it happened so fast for them. If you, if you haven't been online with us or jumped on with us in a while, that that, that news came like less than two months ago.
Speaker 1 00:02:31 And then all of a sudden this, this family has just been dealt a really harsh blow. If you could remember Dan's family, uh, that would be great. I know that they would continue to appreciate your prayers. Uh, it is amazing. I mentioned last week, just really briefly at the end, how the Lord to use that man, uh, over his last few days on this earth and, uh, uh, both to bless his family with an incredible testimony for Jesus Christ, but also to be a for Jesus Christ. And, uh, and he was to the, to, to his end here. Uh, but it's such a blessing that he gave his family and you, and the larger circles, confidence that you'll see Dan again someday. And, uh, all we're, all we are is constantly reminded that this life is very, very short. It's like a vapor that appears for a little while and then fades away.
Speaker 1 00:03:21 Uh, and aren't you glad this is not all that there is a eternity as much longer than this little life we live here and all the promises are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. And because of him, we have promise of doing this for all eternity. And, uh, so there's a, there's a list of growing. Uh, there's a growing list of people in my life. I'm looking forward to seeing someday again. And, uh, Dan is now added to that list as well as your mom and your dad. And it was such a wonderful family sharing. So I'd like to just spend a few moments in PRI no, all of you have prayer requests of your own, you online have prayer requests of your own. Uh, one that I'd like to share is many of you at Bridgeway have been watching us. Uh, we, I don't know if all of you know, but we actually have a church online, uh, and Bridgeway community in, I always forget the name right by like, yeah, Bensonville, that's what it is.
Speaker 1 00:04:14 I've driven there a million times. I just don't know where it is. So a Bridgeway community they're online with us. Hello, all of you folks online. They are a wonderful, uh, group of people that I meet with and do a devotional with every single Tuesday. And, uh, many of them have been begun joining us online as well. So we're glad to see you online as well. And if you wouldn't keep praying for them, uh, these folks have been kind of stuck in that rooms for a whole year. And, uh, for us, we're able to get out a little bit, but for these guys, they, they got their four walls and that's about it. And so we've been praying for you, and we want to keep praying for our friends at Bridgeway as well. So let's spend some time in prayer, shall we, father God, I thank you for your grace and your mercy in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:04:59 Thank you for this church. Thank you for the way that you have allowed us to be a blessing to this community in Carol stream and even across the globe in some different ways over these four years of existence. Thank you for all of the hands that you have put to this good work for all of the gifts. You have blended together to make a family here. Uh, even this morning, going online, which was, uh, just, uh, a challenging morning. Uh, you, you brought different people together and use their gifts so that we could put this online so that our reach could grow further than these four walls. I'm grateful for that. Thank you father, for all of the ways that you continue to use our church. Uh, I think of the baptisms we had last Sunday, what a wonderful day, that was when we were able to baptize these, these, uh, devoted obedient followers of Jesus Christ, the father and his daughter, and, and the testimonies of how you change those lives and gave that family, this, this foundation that, that, uh, Maria, that mom has been praying for, the wife has been praying for just answered prayers are, uh, are wonderful blessing for us to continue to see.
Speaker 1 00:06:05 And now to know that we have another, uh, baptism coming up, you, you are good to continue, and I pray that you will continue to use us in 2021. Thank you for the way that you answer prayers that we've been praying for for our church family. I think of Darren, who is here this morning. It's so good to see him. Uh, I pray that you'll give him continue healing. Thank you for his good bill of health. He received this week for the way that you answered prayers and rallied our church around this family. We love them. We're grateful for them and ask that you continue to lift them up and show them your grace. And may you continue to show them whatever you have for them in the challenges that you have put into their particular lives, how their faith to be deeper than it's ever been before.
Speaker 1 00:06:45 And may you bring them out of this challenging situation, different people than when they went in. Thank you for Sherry and for Brent and for their extended family for, uh, just for the way that you have blessed us family through godly parents, Dorothy, and Jim, and the wonderful, um, uh, legacy that they have left for their children. Thank you for Dan and for his life that he has lived in for the, especially the last few months and pouring your grace over that family. And I pray now that as they, as they learn to live in, in a different way, I pray that you would give them an enormous amount of grace, help them to rally, help them to see each other in brand new ways. May they support one another, may they draw closer to you? And thank you for the way that you use Dan's testimony to influence this family and remind them that this life is not all that there is. I need for those last few days, he was, he was just saying, OB, Oppy why he wanted to go be with you. You are good to remind us in the most difficult moments that you never leave us, and you never forsake
Speaker 2 00:07:48 Us. Thank you for all the
Speaker 1 00:07:50 Promises in scripture that remind us that this life isn't all that
Speaker 2 00:07:53 There is. And thank you that
Speaker 1 00:07:55 If we have hope in Jesus, that that hope takes us into eternity. And you promise us an existence that we cannot even wrap our minds around. We look forward to that day when we will see you face to face, but until then, may you continue to use us, may you continue to help our circles grow larger and help our influence to draw more people to you. And especially in this dark day in which we live, where people are anxious to hear anything and follow any ideas,
Speaker 2 00:08:23 I pray father
Speaker 1 00:08:24 That your truth would ring louder and clearer than it ever has in these lives. And that you would turn this world upside down through the only truth
Speaker 2 00:08:33 That really matters. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1 00:08:37 The gathering that we have today, both online and in this house, uh, I want to remember our friends at Bridgeway. Thank you for each of them. Thank you for the way that they, they just persevere. And I pray that you'll continue to give them grace now is as they continue to have faith in you and trust in you and hope for the better days ahead. Thank you for the fact that they're getting vaccinated. Now that's exciting. And I pray that you would help them to get out of their rooms a little bit more and to, uh, to, to be outside when, uh, when it's a little more sunny and warm, like around this time of year and that they would get to enjoy, uh, their lives a little bit more outside of their rooms. Thank you for each one of them. May you bless them this morning? And now, as we dig into your word
Speaker 3 00:09:19 That your spirit
Speaker 1 00:09:20 Would speak to each one of us in only the way that he can help us to respond as those who would be true, followers of yours may remove every obstacle. Every, every, um, every, uh, uh, every obstacle that the devil would put into our ways to get our minds distracted over what you would have for us to learn, see, and hear, and respond to today. May your word be true and powerful? May you use the message that I bring, uh, to talk to hearts in ways that just might need, uh, a boost and encouragement,
Speaker 3 00:09:54 A reminder, a, uh,
Speaker 1 00:09:58 Whatever needs to be happening in the lives and lives of those who are listening you, your spirit be strong in our lives. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 3 00:10:09 All right. So the first question I have for you this morning is simply this, how are you doing liars? That's a terrible way to start. Is it well that little, so some of you may be true, but how many times have you been asked? How are you doing? And it's like, I'm fighting this. I don't want to have a big conversation at this point in my life. Right. We have a tendency to do that. We get to the ninth word and we come to this, this one, and it says, interestingly enough, uh, it does not say don't lie now. Hang on. Before you, before you jumped to conclusions on this, let me just say how many times we kind of dance around this idea. Uh, is that me banging? Can you hear that? Is that me? Sorry. And pull that away. Uh, how many times did we kind of dance around this idea of, uh, of not quite telling the truth?
Speaker 3 00:11:03 Like, do these pants make me look fat? Well, no, no, your hips do you know? It's like, uh, uh, so how about this? So Trent has his birthday today. Where are you trying, are you trying to train his birthday today? Trend trend is the, is the, uh, uh, the young man standing here on the edge of the stage who plays that really nifty guitar this morning. So it was, it was great seeing that this morning. So try not to get a birthday. Uh, he celebrated on Thursday. He is 24 today. Yes, I remember those days and he, uh, he loves quarter pounders. Now, Trent does not love quarter pounders, but I was just going to say, he loves quarter pounders. Now I know Trent loves quarter pounders. And Trent, I got you like a bag of quarter pounders today, but I'm telling you this because I need to use it as an illustration.
Speaker 3 00:11:50 Trent real, he's got pictures of quarter pounders up in his, in his dormitory. He dreams about quarter pounders, Trent lives for quarter pounders. So I actually got him a bag of quarter pounders, and I hit him in my trunk. I put them under a little blanket because Trent drives with us to church every day. And he sifts through the car every now and then just to see what's in my car, take some stuff home once in a while, but I don't want him to see the quarter pounders. We're going to have a little party for him afterwards. I'm going to pull the quarter pounder and I'm going to give him all a quarter. But now listen, if Trent were to ask me at some time today, Hey Craig, did you get me a quarter pounder? Because you know how much I love quarter pounders. And after all it's my birthday. Did you get me any quarter pounders? Should I, or should I not say to Trent? Yes. I bought you a bag of quarter pounders. What do you think now? Yeah, I know. Ha gotcha. Right. So if I say to him, no, I didn't buy you any quarter. Pounders is that line.
Speaker 3 00:12:48 You all have children, right? Have you had this conference? This, that line. Uh, but as for a good purpose. All right. Well, it's interesting. So apparently we don't have as much problem with lying. As I think interestingly enough, in scripture, there are several people who lied in scripture. Rehab was in the city of Jericho. And when Israelites came through, they sent in spies Rayhab was a believer in the God of Israel and hit the spies so that when the guards came by from Jericho and they knocked on the door and they said, is there any Israelite spies in here? Ray hub said, Nope, none here. And she even sent them out the back door to deceive the guards. Now did Ray have Bly? Mm, interestingly enough, you will find in Hebrews chapter 11, which is what we call the chapter of faith. In scripture, you will find that rehab is commended there as being a woman of faith.
Speaker 3 00:13:46 But here's the interesting thing we don't know of. Another thing that Ray had did, that's the only thing in scripture that she did. In fact, in Hebrews 11, it said rehab was a woman of faith because she lied to the guards and saved the Israelite spies. Interesting, right? There's there's several illustrations of this in scripture. When Samuel went to anoint David as King, David was anointed King, when Saul was already King, now that's going to be a problem for Saul because he had a problem with jealousy. So when Samuel says to God, Hey, wait a second. If the soldiers catch me and they say, why are you going to David's house? What's, what's your purpose in doing this? They're going to think I'm there to anoint the next King. What do I tell them? And God says to Samuel, you just tell him you're coming by to check out the flocks.
Speaker 3 00:14:43 Now, is that a lie? It sure. Sounds like it. So now that I've got your, your interest in of yourself, well is lying right? Or is lying wrong. We're not going to talk about that today. We're not even going to discuss whether line's right or lying is wrong. Although in scripture it does say God hates seven things. And one of them is a lying tongue. So there is a balance between there, but today we're not going to be talking about that because today the ninth word does not say don't lie. Did you know that? However, if you were to see the 10 commandments printed out on the walls of different places, you'll see in the ninth command abbreviated as don't lie. However, that is not what the ninth commandment says. The ninth commandment might involve lying, but it doesn't say don't lie. And by the way, I need to tell you this.
Speaker 3 00:15:38 If you're interested in finding out more about that whole, should I lie? Or is this a liar? Now? I've totally confused about what lying is and what lie. It, you can jump onto our Q and a. We are still dragging our heels on, on getting that launch. Some of you've been asking about it. It should come out after Easter. I'm sorry to keep telling you about this and keep putting it off. But it's a, it's a great Q and a, and what we're going to do is we're going to take stuff like this. Should I, is there a problem with lying in scripture or is this a lot, or I don't understand it. And we deal with it on these Q and A's. So those will be available. And we just did, actually, we just did this one last Monday, and we talked about this very subject.
Speaker 3 00:16:18 So we'll release those after Easter. All right. So keep your powder dry. They're coming very, very soon for now. Let's look at what this commandment actually does. Say Exodus 20 verse 16. You want to read it with me? Here we go. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Not a bear false witness against your neighbor is to testify with the seat full testimony. That's actually what that means to testify with deceptive testimony. The ninth command is to teach us not to be deceitful about things that involve our neighbor. The ninth command is primarily given so that a society doesn't operate in a crooked way. Remember, these were foundational for a moral law that would be developed for a brand new society. These Jews have come out of slavery. They have never had their own society. Israel has not really existed as a nation before they didn't ever have a place.
Speaker 3 00:17:27 Even where they're live. They're the promised land and they're not there yet. And so God has giving them these 10 commandments to build a moral base. No stealing is really important to have a moral ground for your new society. Don't take stuff. That's not yours. No adultery. That's a good one. Let's include that one, no murder. That's that's a good one. You want people murdering in a society, right? And this one's important to know bearing false witness against your neighbor. Now keep in mind. There's no cameras in this day in a lot of ways this morning, that sounds like Xanadu, but there's no cameras in this day. There's no surveillance tapes. There's no Alexa dropping in off, uh, in and out of your conversations at home. There's no way to keep track of tapes or videos or audio recordings. You had basically word of mouth and it's likely in your life. At some point you are going to be called in this society to bear witness about some crime or something that you have seen. You are likely going to be called to testify. There's no recording devices
Speaker 2 00:18:37 As people are it.
Speaker 3 00:18:40 So in this new society, God wants them to understand when you bear witness, make sure
Speaker 2 00:18:47 It is not false witness. Make sure what you say is true. It must be,
Speaker 3 00:18:53 Be accurate. And it must be a hundred percent true. Whatever you're bearing witness about needs to be accurate and a hundred percent true. Society will only work. If the people who are testifying against other people,
Speaker 2 00:19:10 People are honest and truthful. Make sense?
Speaker 3 00:19:17 Why number nine is there. Now that's the historical content,
Speaker 2 00:19:21 But there's also a character aspect of this thing.
Speaker 3 00:19:25 Like every other command in scripture, every one of these 10 commandments, these speak of something that's precious to God.
Speaker 2 00:19:33 Don't steal somebody. Else's life
Speaker 3 00:19:37 Murder. That's precious to God. Don't steal somebody. Else's spouse. That's no adultery. That's precious to God. Don't seal somebody. Else's stuff. That's don't steal. That's precious to God. And today it's don't steal someone else.
Speaker 2 00:19:52 Reputation is that interesting?
Speaker 3 00:19:56 We are not to harm somebody else's
Speaker 2 00:20:00 Reputation. This is okay.
Speaker 3 00:20:03 Direct command to respect and protect the name and the reputation of someone else. Matthew Henry says the ninth command concerns our own and our neighbors own good name. Don't bear false.
Speaker 2 00:20:19 So quick little activity, who is your neighbor? Church? Yeah. Look to your right. Look to your left. I'd like to introduce you to your neighbor. All right, whoever is around
Speaker 3 00:20:33 Around you is your neighbor. Jesus actually helped us with that one to make it nice and easy. Number two, now that you know who your neighbor is, what is a
Speaker 2 00:20:42 False witness? Here are
Speaker 3 00:20:45 Four things that I think a false witness involves false witnesses. Speaking falsely about any matter that pertains to another person. Okay. Now listen to these because these are going to land later on on us, or maybe they're already landing on us in a really interesting way, especially that speaks to our world today. So you don't have to just look at these through the eyes of an Israelite of a Jewish person. That's been rescued from slavery out of Egypt. Look at them through the eyes of a 20, 21 person today. Here they are speaking falsely about any matter that involves another person is bearing false witness. Number two, devising the means to deceive our neighbor through witnessing falsely to or about him. Number three, speaking unjustly against our neighbor in a personal prejudice of his or her reputation and number four, laying a charge against our neighbor that he doesn't know about.
Speaker 3 00:21:49 These are all ways that we bear a false witness against our neighbor. This is a command. If you haven't caught it by now, this is a command that speaks against slandering backbiting, spreading rumors about someone else. So as to call their character into question church, your words can destroy or build up somebody else's life. Your words can destroy or build up your neighbor's life. So be careful, little tongue. What you say you ever heard the phrase sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. There's no more untrue phrase in the human Lang in the human existence. I'd much rather get beat by sticks and stones and have somebody say words that destroy my reputation. I can recover physically in God's society. He makes no allowance for his people to elevate themselves by damaging the reputation of another person, not to protect the rich, not to protect the poor. This is protection of the reputation of all people.
Speaker 3 00:23:01 Exodus 23. If you were to read ahead in this a little bit, you will see that Exodus 23 gives a little bit more insight as to what this is about. Exodus 23, verses one to nine, give us a kind of, kind of opens it up a little bit, opens a book a little bit, helps us to understand what it means to bear false witness against our neighbor. In verse one, it says you shall not spread a false report. In other words, don't spread rumors about what might be true. If, if we are willing to dismiss, diminish the reputation of somebody else for what might be true, it seems like our value is no longer truth, but rather to discredit our neighbor. Let me say that one more time. If we're willing to diminish the reputation of somebody else based on what might be true, it seems to me that our value is no longer a search for truth, but rather an effort to discredit our neighbor.
Speaker 3 00:23:59 The word of God says you shall not spread a false report. Number two, don't agree with a witness. If you didn't witness, the thing goes on in verse one to say, you shall not join hands with a wicked man or a woman to be a malicious witness. In other words, the pool to go along with a story is very, very big on us. Isn't it? When somebody tells us a story, it, the pull on us to agree with it, to buy it and to sell. It is really strong. Especially if those people are our friends, especially if they say they've been hurt by somebody else, we have a tendency to take sides without understanding the whole story, right? Don't we in the, in the old Testament law, there was always two witnesses required. And in the new Testament, this would prevent unjust accusations. And in the new Testament, it's the same way Jesus takes us into the church setting. All accusations of Christians are to be corroborated by at least two witnesses. Did you know that Jesus constantly talks about this in scripture and Paul, the apostle takes it again into the new Testament. We'll talk about this a little later, but there's nothing worse than a situation where a church is so anxious to join and hold power that they're willing to join together, to lie about the reputation of somebody else. Now, you may think that that might not ever happen, but I'm here to tell you it happens all the time.
Speaker 3 00:25:31 People have a tendency to believe what they want to believe in order to gain power that they want to have. I've been in situations where people have said things about me that were absolutely not true, but because they weren't able to establish any sort of credibility, they went to their friends and told them belie, and then their friends were were, were like, well, what do I believe? Do I believe what my friend of 20 years says? Or do I believe Craig who? I just don't know all that much. It's amazing how much they come down on the side of believing the people that they say will never lie to them.
Speaker 3 00:26:10 This happens way too often. It happens in our neighborhoods. It happens in our schools. It happens in our government and it happens in our churches. People have a tendency to believe a lie without searching for the truth because the crowd pulls them along. God's nation. He says will not be one where we would receive justice at the sake of hurting the reputations of someone else. That brings me to number three, don't go with the crowd without evidence. Did you know this one was in there? Listen to this. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit siding with the many. So as to pervert justice, have you ever been in a situation where you've seen just a crowd go one way and it's so easy to go with the crowd that you just go, you don't need your verb.
Speaker 3 00:27:02 You don't need a version of the truth. You just need the version of the crowd. And the pull of the crowd is very, very strong because the bottom line is we would say, Hey, this many people can't be possibly be wrong. So the pull to go along with the crowd is very strong. And here's the truth of life. Church, angry crowds, rarely discern situations, properly angry crowds, rarely discern situations properly in Jesus' day. They did this too. This is not a new phenomenon. When Jesus came before the Sanhedrin and they wanted to crucify him, they had to accuse him of a crime. And they tried, Oh, they tried. They tried to accuse him. But with Jesus, with somebody that's perfect. It's really hard to figure out a crime, right? So they got a bunch of people and they said, listen, we need you to lie about this. Just come up and lie about it. And they couldn't get it. Even the lies they told about Jesus, people were going, ah, I'm not buying that.
Speaker 3 00:28:06 And because they couldn't find any witnesses, it says in Matthew 26, now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death. But they found none though many false witnesses came forward. And so what they did was they found two people that said, you know what Jesus said? He said he was going to destroy the temple. They took his words out of context. He did say that. He said, if you tear this temple down in three days, I'll raise it up again. They call him a terrorist. They said, he's going to destroy the temple. Let's kill him. And they got him on that because what Jesus was talking about was not the temple that Herod built. What Jesus was talking about was his body. You kill this body in three days, I'll raise it up again. They took what he said out of context to witnesses. And that's what got Jesus crucified.
Speaker 3 00:28:55 That stuff goes on all the time. Uh, just check out our judicial system. It's number four. Don't let your compassion for the poor or your hatred for the rich drive you in verse three, it says, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit? Why would somebody be partial toward anyone at all? What I want to tell you something, compassion is a great thing, but a dangerous thing to compassion is good, but can, it can be an Achilles heel because if you're not careful, compassion can lead you to be partial and hurt somebody's reputation because of your compassion misplaced. What do I mean by that? Compassion is rarely objective. I
Speaker 2 00:29:42 Could have great
Speaker 1 00:29:42 Compassion on somebody. And because of that compassionate, I'm thinking to myself, they gotta be right. What they're saying has to be right. I'm going to corroborate that because I feel so bad for their situation. I have such compassion for them. And what you end up doing is propagating a lie based on your compassion for somebody who is,
Speaker 2 00:29:58 Has been hurt in our world today, being
Speaker 1 00:30:04 Vandalized, being a victim is the greatest power you can have.
Speaker 2 00:30:07 I have because the victim calls for compassion, and this is compassion. Misplaced. The victim is not always right. The truth is there, but compassionate
Speaker 1 00:30:23 Can lead us to make bad decisions because we simply feel bad for them.
Speaker 2 00:30:28 The person who's been hurt. Competitor
Speaker 1 00:30:32 Israeli objective, bottom line is this. We are not allowed to speak falsely against somebody else because we feel badly for their services
Speaker 2 00:30:39 Stances.
Speaker 1 00:30:42 By the way, can you believe the Bible says that that doesn't sound like something the Bible would say, does it, the Bible should say always be compassionate. Nah, it doesn't. It says don't be compassionate to the point of breaking the ninth war
Speaker 2 00:30:54 There's truth to be found. On the other hand,
Speaker 1 00:30:58 You can go the other way. Jealousy can be a terrible thing as well. Jealousy can lead you to rage and rage can get you to say all kinds of nasty things about
Speaker 2 00:31:06 Your neighbor stuff. That's not true. Rage is rarely objective. You don't believe that.
Speaker 1 00:31:13 Revisit some of the stuff that happened last summer.
Speaker 2 00:31:17 Rage can leave
Speaker 1 00:31:17 People to do all kinds of things that are on godly
Speaker 2 00:31:21 Things. And they could say it's for the right reasons, but rage is rarely objective as well. It's amazing what you are willing to say when you against somebody else, when you're mad at them and jealous
Speaker 1 00:31:38 C is one of the ways that the world will get you to be mad at somebody else so that you call their character into questions. Don't let emotions drive you to destroy the character of somebody else. Let me remind you what the ninth word says. Don't bear false witness against your neighbor. It doesn't matter if they're poor,
Speaker 2 00:31:55 Rich there, whatever color you want to say, it doesn't matter. We're out for the truth here. Number five, don't throw the helpless under the bus. Okay?
Speaker 1 00:32:08 You shall not oppress a Sojourner verse nine. You know the heart of a Sojourner because you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. In other words, don't take advantage of those who cannot speak for themselves.
Speaker 2 00:32:20 It's amazing when we're at risk at being guilty. When we're
Speaker 1 00:32:23 Risk of being found out, we have a tendency to kind of find somebody vulnerable around us and blame them for whatever we're getting blamed for.
Speaker 2 00:32:31 We have a
Speaker 1 00:32:32 Tendency to blame those who cannot defend themselves so easily. The ninth command speaks to those who would steal their brothers or their sisters in
Speaker 3 00:32:40 Gossip or deceit in a way that brings that character to ruin. So why is this so bad? Why did this make the top 10 list in the 10 commandments? Why is this one included with don't murder? Why not? Don't lie. That's so much easier. Isn't it don't lie seems to be a big one, but God doesn't include don't lie. He includes don't steal the reputation of somebody else for personal gain or somebody else's game. This is about stealing somebody's reputation and it is not our right to do that. Does God value truthfulness? Absolutely. But truthfulness is not the ultimate value here. God values life. He values marriage. He values the stuff that we own. And according to number nine, he values my reputation and he values your reputation so much so that I'm not allowed to call it into question. And you're not allowed to call mine into question.
Speaker 3 00:33:48 It's easy to say, don't lie. It's harder to say don't bear false witness because I think we struggle with this one far more than we give ourselves credit for. How do I live? How would I live my life differently? If I realized it was my job to guard your reputation, let that sit with you just for a second. All right. How would you live differently if it was you, if you really considered it, your job to guard your neighbors reputation, what would you say differently? What would you, what would you share differently? What would you post differently? It's amazing to me, how life would change. If his church God's church would see it as our responsibility to guard the reputation of our neighbor, who, by the way, again, is sitting next to you is all around you. God values reputations. In fact, in Proverbs 21 or 22 verse one, look at this versus a great verse.
Speaker 3 00:34:55 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches and favor is better than silver or gold. God brings this rep this value into the lives of us, his followers, and says I value reputations and you should as well value them because God values them. You cannot bear false witness against your neighbor because it will turn us their reputation will Craig, what if their character is bad? What if they just have a bad character? That's a good question. True. This is about false witnesses. This is about bearing false witness, but church, we are still not free to share. Everything puts on our hearts about other people's reputation with anybody around us. You never listen. You never know what God is doing in a life. So make the journey home short. If God is working in their lives to change their lives, don't make the journey home harder for them by sharing what they have done badly.
Speaker 3 00:36:02 Even if it may be true with whoever will listen, because that just makes a prodigal son or a daughter, their journey home even longer, James five 20 says this. Let, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Isn't that a great verse. Whoever brings a center back from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Make sure you're you're. If you're sharing information, you're not making that journey longer for the, for the person, because what if they repent? What if God is changing them?
Speaker 3 00:36:47 Look at the why we have a problem with this in the first place, before we get to our soul Watts. Listen, the only reason we would break this, I think, unless you can help me with this and, and help me maybe change my mind on this. But the only reason I think we would ever break this one is in an effort to make ourselves look better. We damage the reputation of those around us so that we can get a laugh so that we can get in so we can get attention so we can be right, so they can be wrong so we can be proven correct. And they can be proven. I don't know, but it always seems to me, no matter where I approach this question from whatever I would use to deceive somebody else or to damage the reputation of my neighbor in the eyes of somebody else always seems to revolve around, pushing me a little further up the scale.
Speaker 3 00:37:41 We need to ask God to change the way we view and speak about our neighbors. Listen, just as God promised to give you a new name, God can give them a new name. Even if they are wrong, I've seen God change the hardest of hearts. I believe God can change any heart. I don't want to make anybody's journey difficult to repentance. It is our responsibility to help God in his, in his method of redemption in the lives of the people around us, Ephesians four 25 says this, therefore having put away faults, or this is speaking to us, the church having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. For we are all members of one another. I no longer bear the name that I did. God has given me a new name. And I got to assume that God is in the process of giving people around me a new name as well.
Speaker 3 00:38:34 And I don't want to damage that process at all. I love the baptisms. We did last week and hearing how God changed those lives. Don't you love that the journey to repentance for specially, for Chris, as he shared his, his challenges in his life, the journey to repentance was long and hard for him. But if people had trashed his reputation left and right, it could have been longer and harder than it was. You never know what God is doing in the lives of people around you. So what, number one, I am responsible to fight, to guard your reputation. I am responsible to guard your reputation. You are responsible to guard the reputation of the people sitting next to you. Isn't that an amazing concept? Like how would life seem different if you knew everybody in this room was out to guard your reputation in the eyes of people around us, then awesome.
Speaker 3 00:39:32 Imagine what a world would look like, where you knew that your neighbor was not only not going to damage your reputation, but was going to do everything to protect it as well. Would that be a great world to live in our world is much different. Listen, people are making money online by restoring the reputations of people who have been damaged. There are companies you can hire where if your reputation is damaged on online, they'll clean it out for you. And they'll give you a brand new name. It's a strange world in which we have. You heard of cancel culture, cancel culture is based on breaking this word. Not only are you wrong, we're going to tell everybody how wrong you are. We are going to destroy your reputation. We are going to destroy your life and we're going to make it so you never get a job again, that's not just damaging a reputation. That is, that is devastating. A person there's nowhere in scripture, that that kind of attitude is commended, nowhere. And yet in our world today, it's normal. We live in a world where breaking the ninth word is as easy as waking up in the morning.
Speaker 3 00:40:50 Even our natural tendency to throw others under the bus is a way that we break the ninth word. Hey, who, who, who made this mess on the floor? Who, who did this? Who, who made all us sloughed, all this stuff laying around. Uh, Jim did it. I mean, we have a tendency to just kind of grow up with the idea of I'm going to damage the reputation of somebody around me. Just because it helps me every time I do. You don't need a class to figure this out. It comes really natural. This is why gossip is not to be a part of a follower of Jesus. Jesus' life gossip makes it very difficult to build or maintain a reputation. The more you gossip about somebody, the harder it is for them to keep their reputation in the eyes of others.
Speaker 3 00:41:45 So, number two, I am responsible to be very cautious when exposing sin and others listen, sometimes sin does need to be exposed. You are not hearing me say this morning that my job is to protect your sinfulness. That's not what we're talking about. My job is not to call your reputation into question. However, if there sin in your life, I do have the responsibility as your brother in the Lord, to help you through that sin. Did you know that it is my responsibility, but in scripture it gives us specific steps to do this. And none of them include Facebook. Just FYI. You can find this several places in scripture where it talks about this, but one of the most popular is Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18 gives us specific steps that we are to take. If we know that our brother or sister is caught in a sin, that's damaging them or damaging those around them.
Speaker 3 00:42:45 Matthew 1815 says this. If your brother sins against you, brother, sister, go tell them their fault between who church, between who, you and him alone. That's where it gets hard. It's so much easier. If I tell Jim how you have a problem, it's harder for me to go to you and have a conversation with you. But in scripture, I'm supposed to go to you alone, because if he listens to you, you've gained your brother. You see all of this is about protecting you, guarding your reputation, helping you grow, making the journey short for you to come back to repentance. None of it is about proclaiming your faults so that the world can know what a loser you are. That is nowhere in scripture. The first step is you go one-on-one, I'm responsible to guard by neighbors reputation by confronting them in private verse. 16 continues.
Speaker 3 00:43:44 If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you. Now, does that sound familiar? You got the witnesses in here. Take one or two. Along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I am permitted to expose somebody sin to a solution oriented person. If and when that person refuses to repent, this is after I've gone to them. One-on-one and they say to me, Craig, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. You're wrong. I'm right. So you find somebody who's a witness. That means they have experienced what you have experienced. You don't get to call your friends of 20 years and say, Hey, we think Craig's an idiot. Don't you think Craig's an idiot. Let us tell you some stories about ways we think Craig has been an idiot and then getting them to believe you. If they've not witnessed it,
Speaker 2 00:44:34 That is sin.
Speaker 3 00:44:39 I am permitted to expose some and send to a solution oriented person. If and when that person refuses to repent
Speaker 2 00:44:45 Next verse, verse 17.
Speaker 3 00:44:48 If he refuses to listen to them, that's this small group. Now they've all come to him. And they've said, listen, we got a problem with you. We've all experienced it. We're begging you to listen to us so that we, so you can fix this. If that happens, if he refuses to listen to them, then you tell it to the church. Now keep in mind. We have no process in our church where you get to come up front and say, I've got something I'd like to say about Brett. Brett treated me really bad the other day. Here's what he did. And I like to tell everybody about that. I have been in a situation where meetings were called about stuff. I did not do it. It was painful at the time. I'm laughing about it now, but it is clearly breaking screen.
Speaker 2 00:45:33 And God brought judgment in that case, by the way, listen,
Speaker 3 00:45:37 This is verse 17. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. This means, tell it to the elders. Tell it to the people that God has put as in charge over that church.
Speaker 2 00:45:48 Keep the circle. Small.
Speaker 3 00:45:50 I'm permitted to expose L uh, someone send to local churches through the elders. After a second witness confirms
Speaker 2 00:46:01 What's been done.
Speaker 3 00:46:02 This is not hard to figure out. It's literally written to us in Matthew
Speaker 2 00:46:06 18. Okay. What if
Speaker 3 00:46:08 Craig doesn't or we'll use me as an example? What if, what if the person doesn't listen to you? Well, it goes on to say, if he refuses to listen, even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and as a tax collector. And what that says is only after all these steps are taken, should these circles
Speaker 2 00:46:25 Get larger? That's a lot of steps to take isn't it. Scripture makes it
Speaker 3 00:46:32 Very important that these steps are to be taken because it's our job to protect guard each other's reputation.
Speaker 2 00:46:40 The last thing
Speaker 3 00:46:40 We should do church, when we hear a rumor about somebody else's
Speaker 2 00:46:43 Go, who can I share this with? This is good stuff. How can you,
Speaker 3 00:46:48 How can I make these circles larger? That's what the world does. In fact, they put TV shows on. They get real popular to do that. Very often,
Speaker 2 00:46:56 Same thing. This is not in the church. This is all
Speaker 3 00:47:00 Breaking the ninth commandment.
Speaker 2 00:47:02 Now listen,
Speaker 3 00:47:04 Benton sin must have light Shaun up shown, shown upon it by the right people in the right time, at the right way. And sometimes these are legal matters and they should not be hidden.
Speaker 2 00:47:15 They should be exposed.
Speaker 3 00:47:17 A lot of churches have gone South on this. They don't expose legal matters because it damages their church. We are against that. That is not in scripture. We are mandatory reporters. So if there is a situation that needs to be handled legally, we handle it legally. Sometimes these matters. It might be at your workplace. It might be ethical breaches. You need to go through this, the system that's put in front of you to report these things. Some of you who are dealing with, uh, businesses that have HR groups or, or organizations, areas that you can go through in order to report what needs to be reported. And you should take advantage of all of those. However, if you're thinking yourself, I don't know if I should report this or not. I'm a little confused on this. That's why the churches here, you can come and talk to the elders and we'll help you through it. We'll walk you through the process. If you need an objective viewpoint, that's what we're here for. We want to make sure that we do everything we can to help you not break the ninth commandment. Number three, I'm responsible to not damage your name because I worked toward and pray for reconciliation. That's why I don't want to damage your name. I am praying that God makes your life life something he can rejoice over the bottom line is we don't damage reputations because we always hope and pray for restoration.
Speaker 3 00:48:42 All of these conversations need to start behind a closed door. One-on-one why, because church, we're not out to get our neighbor. We're out to love our neighbor. That's the point? Why would I damage the reputation of my neighbor? If I loved them? No versus ever give me the responsibility to destroy somebody. Else's reputation. Let me take you to one verse. This is the last verse I want to share with you. First, second, Thessalonians three. I told you the Bible is full of these verses. Here's one verse 13, second Thessalonians, chapter three. As for you brothers, don't grow weary in doing good. Listen to this. Now, if anybody doesn't obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person have nothing to do with them that he or she may be ashamed. And you may look at that and you go, Craig, see there. We're supposed to treat them in a way that rejects them to the point where they are full of shame. We're supposed to make them shameful about their behavior. And keep in mind, this person is a rebel to Jesus Christ. They're a rebel to God. And you might know that you might say to yourself, they're wrong. It's clear, they're wrong. So I need to treat them for the second festival and I need to treat them in a way that makes them shameful. Shamed.
Speaker 3 00:50:05 See the problem with that is you didn't read the next verse. Do you know what the next verse says in second Thessalonians, chapter three in verse 15, do not regard him as a what church do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a what church you see. There is a consistency in scripture about how we handle the reputation of those around us. Whether they are guilty or not guilty, we are responsible to honor the reputation that they have. We may have to go through legal options. May we have to go through our, our options at work, our ethical structure at work to do mandatory report. We may have to do all of those things, but ultimately church, our job is to love our neighbor, not be out to get them, whether they are mean individuals, whether they are, we are, we are full of rage at them. Whether we have compassion about somebody else that took it on the chin because of them, none of that gives us a reason to destroy the reputation of somebody else. Now does that rock your world?
Speaker 3 00:51:14 Even if somebody is a rebel to what God says in his word, according to this verse, I take note of them, but I do not regard them as an enemy. I treat them as a brother. Our goal is to love our neighbors as ourselves and not use our neighbors to get out of trouble or to make ourselves look better. My brother and I on the same day, learn the mother of all swear words. We were young. We were hanging out with friends, this crowd that we probably shouldn't have been hanging with and they taught us a brand new word. Didn't know what the word meant. We were too young to figure out what the word meant, but we discovered that it was fun to say that word. And so we came home and we were in our bedroom. My mother was down the hall vacuuming.
Speaker 3 00:52:11 And while we were in our bedroom, we started using that brand new word. We'd never heard before. And it was fun. We use it as an adjective. We use it as a noun. We use it as a verb. We use it in ways you shouldn't ever use that word. We were streaming that word at the top of our lungs. And all of a sudden the vacuum stopped and down the hall comes to my mother, the door flings open. And she says, what did you set as the wrong thing to say at that point in time? What did you say? Like she didn't hear well, the vacuum was running and it was way back in the seventies. So it was loud, vacuum cleaning. You know how I remember that? How that goes? Why did you say, where did you hear that word? And you know what we did, you know what we did? I remember this day because I remember two things. I remember what happened after she said, where did you hear that word? And I remembered what happened after we answered her, because when she said, where did you hear that word? My brother's standing there and I'm standing here. And both of us went, I'm not taking the fall for that. I didn't know what the word meant, but it was clear. My mother was
Speaker 1 00:53:26 Plenty ticked off and whatever was coming next was not going to be a time for me to, to relish and cherish. So I was quick to blame my brother and he was clicked quick to blame blame me and we both got a spanking, like I can rarely remember in my lifetime. I don't remember if it was at the same time. Maybe my mom was ambidextrous at the time. All I know is that we both got, we both got plenty,
Speaker 3 00:53:51 Uh, disciplined after that point. It's amazing to me how quickly we are to blame somebody else to trash somebody else to throw somebody else under the bus so that we look better. Do not bear witness, do not bear false witness against your neighbor because it's really easy to do
Speaker 1 00:54:13 That. It's amazing what we're willing to say to keep out of trouble ourselves. It's amazing what we're willing to post when we don't have to defend it. It's amazing to me, what we stick on our cars is a bumper sticker. So we don't have to defend it. We can drive away and make somebody read it at the stop sign. This is a world that is, this is a world that, that, that breaks a ninth commandment on a regular basis
Speaker 3 00:54:37 Because it, it just, it relishes the fact of trashing somebody else's character so that they can look better. It's amazing what we're willing, what damage we're willing to do just to put ourselves up a couple of notches on the ladder. Listen, church. My love for my neighbor needs to far outweigh my desire to use them, to get myself further in life. Stealing their reputation is not on the docket and church. I want to say this once again. If I really thought my job was to protect your reputation, I wonder how I would live my life differently. What conversations would I jump out of immediately? What text threads would I abandon? How would this change? My social media? How should we change about the way we speak of those who have really harmed us? We say, we love our neighbors, but I want to remind you and I'll throw this verse in last year, Matthew 1236. I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they speak. Does that not just kind of throw the fear of God in your heart. People were given account for every careless where they speak for, by your words, you'll be justified. And by your words, you'll be condemned in church. I'm here to tell you, God has
Speaker 1 00:55:56 Sent his son to redeem us body, soul,
Speaker 3 00:55:59 And spirit. I love the body part because that involves how I use this tongue. And God can redeem that as well. If you've got a problem in this area, you, you are just like the rest of humankind, but it's time to let God redeem that part of your life. And so I've come up with a little covenant I'd like to do to finish up here. Uh, before we
Speaker 1 00:56:24 Go into our communion service, uh, I came up with this covenant actually a while ago.
Speaker 3 00:56:29 Um, I did a message on the dangers of the tongue and wrote this covenant up, uh, in a situation where actually our church
Speaker 1 00:56:38 Was restoring a pastor who had been destroyed by that church, by the rumors and the gossip in that church. And on the day he came back and I brought him in front of the car
Speaker 3 00:56:47 Irrigation. I spoke on the dangers of the tongue and we read
Speaker 1 00:56:52 This covenant before he came up and closed. Our service in prayer is a wonderful day. It was a day that I know, Hey, he and his family were invited to attend, were invited back to this church that had hurt his reputation severely through spreading lies and rumors. And no, just not following Matthew
Speaker 3 00:57:09 18 and
Speaker 1 00:57:11 Who had not protected him. Like they should. And as a result, he just needed to be restored. And so on this day we were bringing him up. We're going to restore him. And before he came up, I had the church read this covenant. And I'd like for us to read it as well. And you online, I'd like for you to read it as well. Don't read it. If you don't mean it, this is not something I want to force on you. And if you don't read it, I'm not going to think anything about you, but I take a look at it and see what you think. And I think it's pretty biblical. I think it'll radically change our lives. If we're willing to say this together. So church, I invite you to read this
Speaker 3 00:57:45 Covenant together with me. Here we go. I will commit to the unity of my church
Speaker 1 00:57:53 And God's family by loving my neighbor in words and actions. That's a good one. Isn't
Speaker 3 00:57:57 It? If you mean that, would
Speaker 1 00:57:59 You say it together with me? Here we go. I will commit to the unity of my church and God's family by loving my neighbor in words and
Speaker 3 00:58:08 Actions. Here's the next one.
Speaker 1 00:58:10 I'll refrain from questioning the character of another, in my conversations with other people. I think that's a good one. And if you are willing to quote that with me to say that with me, would you covenant together with me with this one? Here we go. I will refrain from questioning the character of another, in my conversations with other people. Here's another one. If I have a problem with anyone, I will speak directly to them in private and seek restoration in a loving and respectful
Speaker 3 00:58:37 Manner. I like that one. I'm
Speaker 1 00:58:39 Going to say that one. You can join me in saying it. Here we go. If I have a problem with anyone, I will speak directly to them in private and seek restoration in a loving and respectful manner. Here's another one as God has been so gracious to me, I will seek to demonstrate grace in the way
Speaker 3 00:58:56 Speak to or about others.
Speaker 1 00:58:59 I mean that, would you say that with me as God has been so gracious to me, I will seek to demonstrate grace in the way I speak
Speaker 3 00:59:05 To or about others. Those of
Speaker 1 00:59:08 You that are home, that I hope you're doing this with us. The last one is this. I will actively seek out those who God is laying on my heart right now with whom I must repent and reconcile for my past words against them. I don't know. Maybe you're here this morning and somebody, God has laid on your heart and said, you've treated this person in a way that's damaged their reputation. You broke in the ninth word. You thought you had reason to do it, but it's clear this morning, the Holy spirit speaking to you and saying, you got to make things right with this person. You might've done it with their knowledge or without their knowledge. It
Speaker 2 00:59:35 Doesn't matter. This is where
Speaker 1 00:59:38 Being very careful with our tongues come into play. So if you can say this last one, whether you're here in the house or at home, will you say it with me? I will actively seek out those who God is laying on my heart right now with whom I must repent and reconcile for my past words against them and church. I would say, if you're willing to say that covenant, this would be my gift to you. This is a prayer. Uh, and you can say this with me, but this is where we receive the grace that God gives to us. When we ask for forgiveness, he is faithful and just, and he forgives us of all our sins. And so receive this from the Lord. I admit my sin and not allowing the Holy spirit to control my tongue and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I receive full pardon for my sin. And if you'd like to pray that with me this morning, this is where we would say it together. Here we go. I admit in my sin and not allowing the spirit to control my tongue and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I receive full pardon for my sins. Listen, there's not one of us in here that is not guilty in this matter.
Speaker 2 01:00:40 Every one of us struggles.
Speaker 1 01:00:41 And if the book of James three says, if you don't struggle with your tongue, you're perfect. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 01:00:47 Every one
Speaker 1 01:00:48 Of us struggles with the tongue. Nobody's perfect,
Speaker 2 01:00:51 But that doesn't mean we let it fly loose. It means we guard our tongue. We realize that
Speaker 1 01:00:57 Careless word will be held against us. And we protect our neighbors reputation simply because
Speaker 2 01:01:02 We love them. And we know that God might be doing something we cannot see and we're anxious.
Speaker 1 01:01:08 So instead of sharing all the ways that they've heard us with
Speaker 2 01:01:11 People that it doesn't matter to, we begin to pray that God changes their heart, brings him home. And we practice Matthew 18. If it's something that it needs to be confronted one-on-one, if it's something that's
Speaker 1 01:01:24 Hurting other people and just needs to be dealt with, we bring witnesses in two or three witnesses. We go to the elders of the church. These are the pro, this is the process we're called to go.
Speaker 2 01:01:36 And I pray that, uh, I pray that you walk out of here today, knowing that you have a renewed vision to protect your neighbors, reputation, father
Speaker 1 01:01:46 Grace, as we take communion now and help our hearts to be, to love our neighbors. So, as we want to guard their reputations, we want to guard their character
Speaker 2 01:01:57 And not malign that every one of us has been hurt in one way
Speaker 1 01:02:01 Another by people who have broken the ninth word concerning us every week,
Speaker 2 01:02:05 One of us. And it does deep damage to our soul. Help us not to be
Speaker 1 01:02:10 Guilty of the same, no matter what our excuses,
Speaker 2 01:02:14 No matter if they're
Speaker 1 01:02:15 Rich or poor or they're a victim or any, our compassion us help us to look at situations too. So that we see those around us. And we love
Speaker 2 01:02:25 Them. And we seek justice, not vengeance. I pray in Jesus name, amen
Speaker 1 01:02:34 That our home, we always finished both communion. We're going to do the same this morning. Uh, if you're at home, grab some bread or crackers or whatever that you have in your pantry. This is your time to do that. Grab some juice or whatever you have in your fridge. Uh, it does not, uh, really, uh, we're not told in scripture that we have to use any specific item in order to do this. Jesus used unleavened bread and Jesus used wine. We don't do those things. Uh, even in house, we use like juice in a Cracker that tastes awful. Uh, but it's not the thing. It's not the thing that changes us. It's not the thing we ingest that makes us loved by God. It's simply what it represents. And for those of us that take this together, whether we're at home or in house, we did this all, all last year during COVID. We did communion together because it is, it is the thing that unifies us. We are unified through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross. He, his body was
Speaker 2 01:03:28 Pierced through the sword
Speaker 1 01:03:30 In his side, the nails in his hand, in his feet, his blood flowed
Speaker 2 01:03:34 Out the Cracker, the
Speaker 1 01:03:37 Bread, whatever you're using that represents his body and the blood that flows is represented in the juice. When we do this, we are simply saying, we are brought together United through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is by the way, why we love one another and why we would never damage the reputation of each other is because we love
Speaker 2 01:03:56 Each other. If sin needs to be
Speaker 1 01:03:58 Confronted, we confront it, but we do so in a loving way as if we would not somebody to do with us.
Speaker 2 01:04:06 That's why it's love your neighbor as yourself. And it's only because
Speaker 1 01:04:12 Jesus shed his blood and he gave us his physical body. That was,
Speaker 2 01:04:16 That was pierced and bled for us that we can be a family like this. And not only
Speaker 1 01:04:22 In, in house, not only online, not only village churches, but with a family of God that exists around the world throughout time,
Speaker 2 01:04:29 All these brothers and sisters, all these, these neighbors, all of these people
Speaker 1 01:04:35 That have been United into one family through Jesus
Speaker 2 01:04:37 Christ. So I would,
Speaker 1 01:04:40 I invite you to take with us this morning, the band is going to come up and they're going to play, uh, through a song before they do that. We're just going to spend a moment in silence. And my guess is this message has probably landed kind of hard on people's lives. And at least I think that's probably the way it's come down today. And my prayer for you is that you would receive what the Holy spirit is speaking to you about. You receive it and that you make changes when it need to be made. And some of these changes might be hard. So I'm going to pray that God just really speaks to you and gives you the grace to get through this one. Some of this might be a radical
Speaker 2 01:05:12 Life change for many of us, we might have to change, might have to get off. Facebook
Speaker 3 01:05:18 Might have to change some social media stuff. But our goal again is not to, is not to damage our neighbor. Our goal is to love our neighbor as ourselves. And so I'd encourage you to just spend some time in prayer in the silence of this moment. And then we'll take communion together.
