Connected (to Others)

Connected (to Others)

Several years ago, on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, there was a painting by Norman Rockwell showing a woman buying her Thanksgiving turkey. The turkey is lying on the scales and the butcher and the customer, a lovely lady of about sixty, are both looking up at the scale watching the weighing-in. Each of them has a pleasant look on their faces as if each knows a secret joke. There’s nothing unusual about a butcher and a customer watching as a turkey is being weighed, but the expression on their faces indicates that something unusual is going on. ​​ Norman Rockwell lets us in on the joke by showing us their hands. The butcher is pushing down on the scales with his finger while the woman is pushing up on them with a dainty forefinger. Neither is aware of what the other is doing.

Cecil Myers, who reminds us of that painting, says, “Both the butcher and the lovely lady would resent being called thieves. ​​ The lovely lady would never rob a bank or steal a car. ​​ The butcher would be indignant if anyone accused him of stealing; and if a customer gave him a bad check, he would call the police, but neither saw anything wrong with a little deception that would make a few cents for one or save a few cents for the other.” Rockwell gives us a picture of how we all at times seek to live, trying to manipulate life for our advantage. As sinful, human beings, each of us live life contrary to God’s laws wanting life to come out our way. And that’s what the Ten Commandments are all about – they are to remind us that there are eternal laws in the universe by which we must live if life is going to come out God’s way. And God’s way is the way of holiness and obedience.

Last week we began our look at the Ten Words that God spoke to the Israelites. We learned that the first five words focused on us being better connected to God. We are to have no other gods before Him, we are to not make any idols to worship that represent God, we are not to take God’s name in vain, we are to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy and we are to honor our father and mother. These commands had to come first because if we don’t love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, then there is no way we can love our neighbor as ourselves. We must first be connected to God before we can be connected to each other.

The next five Words from the Lord, that we will look at this morning, are shorter and more general than the first five. They prohibit the worst of the actions, speech and thoughts that God’s people would commit but in doing so they also prohibit everything in between as well. There is no motivation mentioned for keeping these commands and no punishment mentioned, in this text, for not keeping them. The punishment for violating these commands will come later in what is called the Book of the Covenant starting in chapter 21. The Ten Words were God’s instructions to His chosen people, that they were to follow to live properly connected to God and to each other. Words six through ten were intended for legal use, but they are addressed to the believer not the lawyer. These last five words will start out with the greatest sin that can be committed against another person and end with the sin that encapsulates the other nine. These “words” are foundational for human society to flourish in community together. And God spoke them directly to His chosen people to prick their consciences so that they would obey the Lord their God.

If God’s people were going to live in covenant with him, they needed to not only worship him and him alone, they needed to live moral lives in harmonious relationship with those in community with them. They needed to approach the Lord in reverence, awe and holiness, worshiping Him alone, if they were going to be properly connected to Him. And they needed to approach their neighbors with integrity, honesty and morality if they were going to be properly connected to them. By being connected to God and to each other in total obedience to His Ten Words they could truly be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. They would be distinguished from the nations around them and be able to bring honor and glory to God’s name. As we come this morning to meet the God who gave the Ten Commandments, the Lord will reveal His nature and character to us and the reality of life as he has created it. We must approach Him in reverence, awe and holiness, worshiping Him alone. And we must live lives of integrity, honesty and morality in our relationships with each other. We are to live holy and moral lives because our God is perfectly holy and perfectly moral. The One who created us and saved us from our sin and eternal separation from himself demands that from us. The way that we show that we love the Lord is by obeying His commandments. Our obedience to his holy character and to His moral law will help us to be better connected to God and to each other. Last week we talked about how God desires to form His holy character in His people and this week our big idea is that God desires to form His moral character in His people.

Let’s pray: Lord God, pour out your Holy Spirit on us this morning and open our hearts and minds to what you want us to learn and share with others. May your Word be a light unto our paths, and it may lead us, guide us, correct us, rebuke us and train us in righteousness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our first point this morning is Connected by Actions found in Exodus 20:13-15. This is what God’s Word says, “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal.

The Ten Words spoken by God to the Israelites were what they were to obey in order to be the kind of people he wanted them to be in the Promised Land. By keeping His commands amongst the godless and pagan people there, they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and this would translate into those nations coming to know the one True and Living God. Words six through eight have to do with their actions toward one another living as members of the same covenant community.

Last week I mentioned that the word “commandments” is not found in Hebrew. In Hebrew they are called the “Ten Words.” So I will use “words” and “commands” this morning as we talk about these prohibitions that God gave to His people. The sixth word in the Hebrew is stated simply as “no killing.” There are eight Hebrew words for “kill” and the word used here means an “unlawful violent killing of a personal enemy.” The NIV translates it as “murder.” This word speaks to the “sanctity of life.” Life is a gift from God, and it is only God’s to give and God’s to take away. At creation we were made in the image of God and it is never right for someone, acting on their own, to decide to take the life of someone created by God. The Lord is sovereign over every life’s beginning and ending. The sixth word refers to any type of killing that God disallows which you can imagine would have taken wise discernment and interpretation on the part of the Israelite leaders.  ​​​​ 

This commandment included the prohibition against accidental deaths, voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, and premeditated acts of murder. It also included negligent homicide resulting from recklessness and carelessness. It also prohibited euthanasia, mercy killings, assisted and unassisted suicide and abortion. Psalms 139:13-16a says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body.” As Christians we realize that God is the God of life, and we are instructed to not take the life of another made in the image of God. This command would also find guilty those who stood by and did nothing or were silent as someone was killed.

Now there were “killings” that were not prohibited by the sixth word. They included killing during wartime, killing in self-defense and killing by capital punishment or the death penalty. God addresses the death penalty in Genesis 9:6. “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.” Paul speaks about this in Romans 13:3-4, “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” What makes some types of killing lawful? When the goal of “killing” is not the destruction of life but it’s preservation, then it is lawful. John Calvin says, “The purpose of this commandment is: the Lord has bound mankind together by a certain unity; hence each man ought to concern himself with the safety of all.” From the time of our conception until the time that we pass from this earth, we have a duty to preserve both our own lives and the lives of our neighbors, who have been made in God’s image.

Now before we move on, we must talk about how this command was changed when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” Not only our actions, but our thoughts can make us guilty of violating the sixth word. When we envy, hate, are angry, have a desire for revenge, put people down, make racist or sexist remarks, and smear people’s reputations, it shows we have murder in our hearts. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it like this: “I am not to dishonor, hate, injure, or kill my neighbor by thoughts, words, or gestures, and much less by deeds” (Big Idea)

The seventh word is “You shall not commit adultery.” Just like the prohibition against murder, the prohibition against adultery comes from creation. Genesis 2:23-24 says, “The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The marriage covenant was between one man and one woman, and they were to be one flesh. Adultery breaks that relationship and causes problems within the family. Also, the prohibition against adultery, like murder, was known long before the law was given. We see in Genesis 39, in the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, that adultery was wrong and against God’s law. In verse nine, Joseph says, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God.” After protecting the sanctity of life, it is of next importance to protect the sanctity of marriage. If we are willing to be unfaithful to our spouses, then we will inevitably be unfaithful in other human relationships and in our relationship with God.

The fifth word, to honor your father and mother, when obeyed, guarded the family from internal conflict. This seventh word, when obeyed, guarded the family from external conflict. The Lord required that the relationship between a husband and wife be marked by faithfulness and love. This relationship is compared to the relationship between God and his covenant people which was also to be marked by faithfulness and love. The marriage covenant between husband and wife was to be as sacred as the covenant between the Lord and his people. Wilson states, “Adultery is treason against the family, and God hates it.”

Sexual sin involving persons where at least one was married was considered heinous in the ancient world and was actually called “the great sin.” Sexual sin hurts all involved; even those on the periphery. The Lord wanted his people to be different from those they would be coming in contact with within the Promised Land and this meant maintaining sexual purity. In Israel’s patriarchal society, this “word” would have been speaking to the unmarried or married man, but it would have also included the unmarried or married woman. The sixth and seventh commands demand us to surrender our needs, wants and desires to the Lord. The desire for revenge and sex can cause us to give in to our human nature but God calls us to a different standard. We think we can supply our own needs, wants and desires but actually God is the only one who can do it for us perfectly and in the proper moral way. Again, this word expresses God's character and nature as he is a God of faithfulness, purity and joy. Just like life is a gift from God, so is sex. God gave this command to preserve and protect sex within the marriage covenant.

The Lord chose adultery to condemn any sexual activity outside an exclusive, committed heterosexual marriage. Ross says, “Sexual behavior that undermines and denies covenant faithfulness flies squarely in the face of what sexual behavior was designed to do.” This command, although not explicitly mentioned, would have prohibited all sex outside of marriage, whether before, during, after, or instead of a person’s actual legal marriage. This “word” was so serious that violation of it was considered a capital crime and the punishment was severe. Leviticus 20:10 says “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” Both parties were guilty, and both were punished by death.

The Ten Commandments explicitly prohibited the most extreme form of every kind of sin and implicitly ruled out the lesser sins that were the root cause. So, anything that led to adultery was considered sin as well. This would include a married person flirting with someone not their spouse or someone seeking emotional support from the opposite sex not their spouse. Any sexual sin that violated the marriage covenant was covered by this word. Again, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turned it up a notch, showing that the problem is with our sinful hearts and thoughts. In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “The Seventh Commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior.” Lust is dangerous and deadly, which is why the medieval church called it one of the seven deadly sins.

The eighth word is “You shall not steal.” The Hebrew word for “to steal” literally means to carry away by stealth. The prohibition was also against taking something by force or any other unlawful way. Stealing is the taking of something that belongs to our neighbor without authorization or permission. After protecting the sanctity of life and marriage it is of next importance to protect the sanctity of possessions. God has given us the right to own property and possessions, and no other person has the right to take what is ours in secret or by force. We see some truths in this command. Everything belongs to God and he has entrusted some things to each of us and we need to respect his distribution of all that belongs to him. When we steal from our neighbor, we steal what God has personally provided for someone else and so are actually stealing from God. This command was to keep unity within the covenant community. This again speaks to reigning in our needs, wants and desires. We must trust that God is going to provide all that we need when we need it and so we don’t need to steal from others. Even those who don’t read the Bible or believe in God or Jesus know that stealing is wrong just as murder is wrong.

Again, this word is stated in general terms, implying that there are many ways to violate it. It would include injury to another’s property, fraud, embezzlement, and extortion. It would also include all kinds of theft: burglary, robbery, larceny, hijacking, shoplifting, and kidnapping. It would also speak of subtler ways of stealing such as taking office supplies from our work or other businesses. This command also requires us to use what God has given to us in ways that are pleasing to Him. God allows us to work and make a wage and we can steal such things as time from our employers, when we falsify time cards, or give less than our best work or call off sick when we just want a day off. It speaks to our time and talents as well because even our abilities and opportunities come from God and are to be used for his glory. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” When we waste our time, fail to use our talents for the Lord, or don’t develop the gifts he’s given to us to the best of our ability, we are stealing from God.

But it’s not just about stealing, it is about stewardship. Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of what God has entrusted to our care. Bridges has observed that there are three basic attitudes we can take toward possessions. The first says, “What’s yours is mine; I’ll take it.” This is the attitude of the thief. The second says, “What’s mine is mine; I’ll keep it.” Since we are selfish by nature, this is the attitude that most people have most of the time. The third attitude—the godly attitude—says, “What’s mine is God’s; I’ll share it.” As Christians we are called to live generously and stewardship means that we meet the needs of our family, our church, the work of the Gospel and of those in need. Malachi 3:8-10 speaks about not withholding our tithes and offering. Deuteronomy 15:10 speaks to helping others in need: “Give generously … and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.” Jesus even speaks about not stealing in Matthew 19:18 and Ephesians 4:28 gives us the antidote for stealing: “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”

There are actions that we can take against our neighbors that are harmful and don’t create the kind of connection with them that God wants us to have. When we commit them, we are hurting the unity and community that God wants us to have in order to bring the lost to Him. When we act in these ways, we show the Lord that we don’t care about the sanctity of the life he has given to us and others, that we don’t care about the sanctity of marriage that he instituted at creation, and that we don’t care about the sanctity of the things he has graciously and generously provided to each one of us. Let us be people, who by our actions, show that the Lord is forming His moral character in us. (Big Idea) That brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card which is Show, by my actions, that God’s moral character is being formed in me.

Our second point is, Connected by Speech & Thought, found in Exodus 20:16-17. This is what God’s Word says, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

The ninth word is “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” This word was mainly talking about giving evidence in a court of law, but it also includes all kinds of truthfulness. A disregard for the truth leads to a breakdown in society just as murder, adultery and stealing do. This again tells us about the character and nature of God. He is absolute truth and dependability, and he demands the same from His covenant. 1 Samuel 15:29a says “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie.” The Lord is true in all he is, says, and does.

It was important in those days to give true evidence in a court of law because all they had was the testimony of the witnesses to be able to decide a case. Due process would be violated if the evidence given was false or distorted. Giving testimony against a neighbor had to be completely truthful. The court system of the nation depended on the honesty of its covenant people. In a nomadic desert society where nearly all crimes were capital crimes, a “false witness” was the equivalent of murder. In the ancient world, those charged with a crime were considered guilty until proven innocent. But Israel was to be different. There had to be two witnesses to a capital crime and the witnesses were also to be the executioners. Deuteronomy 17:6-7 says, “On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.” The reason for this was if the witnesses were later found to have given false testimony, they would incur the same punishment they had meted out. Think about this: if you gave testimony as a witness to a murder, you would be the one to execute the judgment on that person. If it was later found out that you lied, you would be judged in the same manner. Gives us a new outlook on “casting the first stone” doesn’t it?

With this command, God was forbidding every form of falsehood in their speech. A blatant violation of this command would be telling a lie that harms someone else in some way, slander, tale-bearing, gossip, spreading false rumors and even staying silent if they had vital evidence of what really happened. Leviticus 5:1 says, “‘If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.” The prohibition against lying includes big lies and little lies, half-truths, flatteries and fibs. When we mislead, misquote, misinterpret, twist people’s words or take things out of context we violate this command. With this command, God was not just forbidding falsehood in our speech; He was also demanding truthfulness in our speech. This meant thinking and saying the best about someone, defending others who are being unfairly attacked, and speaking the truth in love.

The seriousness of this command is seen in James 3:5-6: “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” Our tongue can cause us a lot of trouble especially if we don’t take this command seriously. We need to watch our speech and allow it to better connect us to each other instead of letting it tear our unity and community apart. This command means we need to have integrity of character because a lot of the lies and falsehoods we tell are not heard by those we are speaking against. We usually speak behind other people’s backs, not to their faces. But imagine if everything we said in a days’ time was broadcast for everyone to hear. If everything we said about someone was heard by that person. Now sometimes what we say does get back to the person we were talking about, but we know that everything we say is heard by God himself. He hears it all. So let’s be a people who don’t bear false witness against our neighbors and let’s “speak life” in every place we go and to every person we know.

My friend Greg is a coach and youth pastor who instills in his youth and players what he calls SpeakLIFE. This means to speak the life of God’s Word to each other. Because speaking life is the character of God and his son Jesus, we should do the same. The word LIFE is an acronym for Love, Inspire, Focus and Encourage. These are four-character traits that Jesus exemplified in his ministry. We can’t be fully connected to each other if we aren’t doing these things. Some questions to think about: How did Jesus show and speak love to others and are we showing and speaking the same love to our neighbors? Are we showing the character of Jesus, inspiring others in what we speak and how we act? Are we inspired by others who show the character of Jesus in what they speak and how they act? How are we helping each other stay focused on God and not on the world around us? What are we doing and saying to be an encouragement to those around us? That brings us to our second next step on the back of your communication card which is to Speak LIFE (Love, Inspire, Focus and Encouragement) to those around me.

The tenth word is “You shall not covet.” It goes on to explain the things we are not to covet that belong to our neighbors: his house, his wife, his male or female servant, his ox and donkey or anything that belongs to Him. The ninth word talked mainly about violations coming from our speech. The tenth word is talking about violations stemming from our hearts. Coveting starts in our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says, “guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Coveting is a consuming desire which is not always wrong, but becomes a violation when we desire to possess in the wrong way something that belongs to another. It’s not simply wanting something we don’t have; it’s wanting the something that someone else possesses, for ourselves. The desire is stimulated by the beauty and desirability of that person or thing. It starts with forbidden feelings but is dangerous because it usually leads to forbidden acts. It is the last command because it is the root of the violations of all other commands. Mark 7:20-23 says, “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Covetousness can be the starting point for murder, adultery, stealing and even bearing false witness.

Like stealing, being covetous, speaks to being discontent with what God has provided for us. In Ephesians 5:5, Paul identifies covetousness with idolatry which brings us full circle back to the first commandment. Covetousness can also come when we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Ryken says, “We are always comparing ourselves to others, and frankly we resent it when we don’t get what they have.” James 4:1-2 says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.” We are given tangible examples of what we aren’t to covet, but we are also not to covet other people’s attributes: age, looks, brains, or talents. We are not to covet their situation in life: marriage, singleness, children. And we are not to covet their spiritual attainments, like a more prominent place of ministry in the church or wider recognition of our spiritual gifts. We are not allowed to covet anything at all. God’s law rules out every unlawful desire. Jesus condemned coveting, listing it right up there with theft, murder, and adultery in Mark 7:21-22.

The tenth commandment proves that God judges the heart and when that happens there is no human being on this earth who is righteous. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Martin Luther said, “This last commandment, then, is addressed not to those whom the world considers wicked rogues, but precisely to the most upright—to people who wish to be commended as honest and virtuous because they have not offended against the preceding commandments.” As Luther recognized, this commandment—more than any other—convinces us we are sinners and that we are in need of a Savior. If you are here this morning or listening online and the Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin and of being in need of a Savior I ask you to mark “Send me info about becoming a follower of Jesus” in the upper right on the back of your communication card. And I will be in contact with you about that. ​​ 

So what can we do to keep from coveting what others have? We need to be content. 1 Timothy 6:6-7 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” And we need to have our heart in the right place. Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And I want to read Proverbs 4:23 again: “guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

Let us be a people who are content with what God has given us and store our treasures in heaven and not on this earth. Let us be a people who strive to be better connected to each other through our actions, our speech and our thoughts. That brings us to our third next step this morning which is to Strive to be better connected to others through my actions, speech and thoughts.

In December 2001 George O’Leary was on top of the world. He had just been named head football coach at the University of Notre Dame—the Fighting Irish. It was the dream of a lifetime. O’Leary was in charge of one of the most prestigious sports programs in the world. Then two days later, at the end of his first day on the job, the call came. A reporter had been trying to contact some of the guys who had played college football with O’Leary back at New Hampshire. The strange thing was, nobody could remember anyone named George O’Leary. So Notre Dame’s sports information director telephoned to find out what it was all about. O’Leary reluctantly admitted that he hadn’t actually played football at New Hampshire. But years before, when O’Leary applied for a job at Syracuse, he had been asked for information about his athletic background. Some of what he provided was true, like the high school football championships, but somehow it didn’t look impressive enough; so the applicant decided to improve his résumé. There it was twenty-one years later, in his own handwriting: “College—Univ. of New Hampshire—3 yr. lettered.”

It was just a small lie, really, but it was big enough to turn O’Leary’s dream into a nightmare, costing him not only his job, but also his reputation. Perhaps the most telling response came from the coach’s brother, who said, “Is anyone trying to tell me that résumés are truthful? In the America we live in, the willingness to lie on a résumé is an indication of how much you want the job.” We all know that lying is wrong. Yet we are so used to massaging the truth for personal advantage that we have trouble holding the line against falsehood. A columnist for Time magazine wrote: “The injunction against bearing false witness, branded in stone and brought down by Moses from the mountaintop, has always provoked ambivalent, conflicting emotions. On the one hand, nearly everybody condemns lying. On the other, nearly everyone does it every day.”

The Ten Commandments display the character of God. They reveal his sovereignty, jealousy, justice, holiness, honor, faithfulness, providence, truthfulness, and love. When we see how God has poured himself into his law, it becomes obvious that he could not have given us any other commandments than the ones he gave. The Ten Commandments express God’s will for our lives because they are based on his character. This helps answer an ancient dilemma, one that Plato posed in one of his famous dialogues: Does God command the law because the law is good or is the law good because God commands it? The answer is, both! The law, with all its goodness, springs from the goodness of God’s character. The law is good because God is good, and his goodness penetrates every aspect of his law. Let us be people who long for God to form His holy and moral character in our lives, being obedient to His commands, which will help us to be better connected to God and to each other. (Big Idea)

As Gene & Roxey come to lead us in a final hymn and as the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for the truths found in it. Help us to take your Word into our hearts and be obedient to it. May we show by our actions, speech and thoughts that your holy and moral character is being formed in us. May we speak life to those around us and may we strive to be better connected to you and to each other by what we do, say and think. In Jesus’ name, Amen.