WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.719 Okay, I ask you to turn back. If you have a church Bible, there's Bibles at the back 00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:13.560 if you want to take a Bible, but we're going to, I'm just going to read from Exodus, chapter 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:18.719 20 and verse 15. If you're visiting with us tonight, we're going through the Ten Commandments 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:26.800 in our evening worship. And this evening is, You Shall Not Steal. And please remember also 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:36.240 the reading from John, chapter 10. So I'm going to ask you a question. How's your heart 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:44.040 tonight? And I don't mean your ticker. Okay, my old boss in Ruskin, Kenny McDonald, told 00:00:44.040 --> 00:00:50.280 me a story of visiting an old man and he was asking, How's your heart? And he was meaning 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:54.079 spiritually. And the old man said, Well, I got it checked out last week and it's as good 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:58.479 as ever. He had no idea that he was meaning spiritual, but I'm not meaning your ticker. 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:05.000 I'm not meaning your physical heart, obviously, spiritually. How are you spiritually? All 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:10.680 of you. Ask yourself that question. You know, because it's the key to your life, isn't it? 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:15.920 It's the key to everything that you do. It's the focus. It will be that you will focus on 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:21.079 what you love in your lives, because what you love will inform your mind and it will 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:28.799 drive your will and will be what prioritizes all that you will do. And I think when you 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:33.200 come to church, when we come to church, that should be a question that every single, each 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:39.000 one of us should ask as we come to church. How's our heart today, before God, as we come 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.319 under Him in His living Word? You know, Corey and I were just talking about preaching last 00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:51.439 week. And have you ever asked yourself what you think preaching, why preaching is part 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:59.159 of worship? And what is the intention of this half hour of preaching? It's really declaring 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:05.079 the good news of Jesus. That's what we're doing with authority and in the power of the 00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:11.759 Holy Spirit to enliven our hearts. That's what it is about. It's about enlivening our 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:18.159 hearts, who warm them, to challenge them, and to lead to transformation. So each time 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:26.439 we come, we should really come and we should leave with a view to being, if not actually 00:02:26.439 --> 00:02:31.139 being transformed in the evening. As we apply God's Word to our lives, we should see it 00:02:31.139 --> 00:02:36.759 transforming our hearts and our lives. So I'm asking several questions this evening by 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:41.639 way of a long introduction. As you consider in the last month, or even the last week in 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:48.279 your Christian life, can I ask if there's anything that you specifically pray for regularly? 00:02:48.279 --> 00:02:51.759 What would maybe be, if you would, I'm not going to ask anyone, obviously, saying, but 00:02:51.759 --> 00:03:00.639 what would be the two things that you regularly, maybe daily, consistently pray for? Or maybe 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:04.639 that question exposes the fact that you don't really pray very much at all as a Christian 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:11.759 and you can't think the last time you prayed. Well, intentionally, if you can't think of 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:20.359 anything specific, can I ask you to consider praying two prayers every single day? Lord 00:03:20.359 --> 00:03:29.560 Jesus, help me to love you better. And Lord Jesus, help me to love other people better. 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:35.800 You can make two prayers, intentional prayers every day. You're really saying, Lord, please 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:43.039 change my heart. I want you to change my heart. Why? Why is that such an important prayer? 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:48.400 Because it sums up everything God demands of us. It sums up all the law and the prophets. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:57.920 It sums up life actually to the full. Really? Like life to the full? Yeah, loving God and 00:03:57.919 --> 00:04:07.039 loving one another. John 10 describes as life to the full, to the brim is when we know and 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:14.799 recognize that in our lives. And I'm asking that we pray that because it highlights God's 00:04:14.799 --> 00:04:22.000 law, the Ten Commandments, highlights everything we aren't. And it drives us towards Jesus, 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:29.480 everything He is and what He has done for us. And it alone enables us to receive His 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:35.279 redeeming and transforming love. So for us, it needs to be a measurable reality in our 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:43.959 lives when we live as Christians. We can't allow ourselves to week to week be static, 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:51.959 unchanging Christians. That's really insulting to God. It's a real denial of His love. It's 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:59.879 a real denial of His promises. It's because I'm okay. I'm fine. I don't need any more. 00:04:59.879 --> 00:05:03.639 And when I speak about love, it's nothing to do with sentimentality or softness. It's 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:10.120 the meaning of everything in our lives. It makes us complete. It enables us to live life 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:17.079 to the full. And from the very beginning, Satan's work has been as the enemy, as John 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:26.359 10, 10 reminds us, to steal and to destroy that life in us. He is the ultimate thief. 00:05:26.359 --> 00:05:31.439 He is the one who stole humanity's innocence in the very beginning. And we've been complicit 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:37.159 with Him ever since. Complicit with Him ever since. So I guess in a sense, preaching, when 00:05:37.159 --> 00:05:43.199 we talk about preaching, preaching is about presenting the big picture. It's about recognizing 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:50.399 and trying to remind ourselves when we get hung up on just what's right in front of our 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:57.920 eyes every day. Sometimes the minutiae that just fills up our lives as if it's massively 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:04.120 important. And I guess preaching is there to remind us that some of these things, many 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:11.360 of these things will one day mean absolutely nothing. And it's so important to be reaching 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:16.199 out to God in Christ and recognizing what life to the full is through Him. 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:21.120 So I'm going to ask another question and try and answer it honestly just in your own 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:28.120 heart as we're here this evening. If you're not a Christian, it's a really big question. 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:30.800 And if you are a Christian, it's probably an even bigger question because you know the 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:36.920 right answer, and I know the right answer, but I struggle with it. It is, what does life 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:42.480 to the full look like for you? If anyone is to ask you this evening, how would you describe 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:49.080 what life to the full is for you? How would you answer that? Is it a comfortable life? 00:06:49.080 --> 00:06:55.680 Is it a conflict-free life? Is it just having lots of friends in your life? Often think 00:06:55.680 --> 00:07:00.160 of friends of the series, and the very sad reality of Matthew Perry's death this week, 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:06.000 kind of shattered the image and the dream of eternal youth and the friendship that it 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:14.600 spoke about in so many disordered ways, didn't it? It attracted in so many ways but disordered 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:21.160 ways of friendship and security and family and laughter and love, searching, but searching 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:30.040 in the wrong places. What would describe fullness of life? Passing your exams, success and 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:34.240 work, pleasure, there's lots of different things. I wonder how many of us would say, 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:41.079 knowing Jesus better in Christ, knowing God better through Christ and knowing His love 00:07:41.079 --> 00:07:50.199 in a more deep way. Okay, lots of questions thrown out just to make us consider this eighth 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:57.759 commandment. So I'm going to make a statement now, rather than ask a question, because stealing 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:05.240 in God's eyes is all about the wrong priorities. It's about having the wrong priorities. And 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:09.319 that's really what the Ten Commandments do. They expose the fact that in so many ways 00:08:09.319 --> 00:08:15.639 we love but our loves are disordered and they're in the wrong way facing the wrong direction 00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:22.039 to the wrong people and they're broken and self-centered. The Ten Commandments expose 00:08:22.039 --> 00:08:27.120 us. That's what they're intended to do. They tell us about the level of love that God requires, 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:32.240 which is perfect love for God and perfect love for one another. And it reminds us that 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:37.360 we fail and we fall miserably short of His standards. The Old Testament people is a great 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:43.000 testimony to that record of failure. But we're no different. Naturally, we're no different 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:51.919 from that whatsoever in our lives. On the scales of God's justice, we are failed lovers. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:58.039 That's what we are, what it matters. And maybe you think, well, the eighth commandment, I'm 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:06.279 not okay with that one. I don't steal. I'm not a thief. And we kind of brush over it 00:09:06.279 --> 00:09:11.599 and think it's probably not that significant a one, but I would beg to differ on that. 00:09:11.599 --> 00:09:18.039 Because the sobering reality that God reveals in His commandments and this one also, to 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:25.919 put it differently, is that we're all thieves. We're a gang of thieves. Naturally, humanity 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:33.240 is a company of thieves and beggars. That's what we are. Because we've stolen from God 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:39.679 His rightful place. And we've put self at the center instead of God being at the center. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:44.559 We have stolen His Lordship and we've taken... And there's quite a lot of dovetailing between 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:50.759 me and Kory tonight. And I promise we didn't speak to one another to share our sermon. 00:09:50.759 --> 00:10:00.399 But there is that reality that at a human level, sin has made us either put ourselves 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:08.759 or material things or something else above God and above other people. And what does it 00:10:08.759 --> 00:10:14.119 look like? Well, it looks like that we take God's gifts, as we were reminded this morning, 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:22.560 as of right. And we use them without reference to Him at all, humanly speaking. Our talents, 00:10:22.560 --> 00:10:27.919 our health, our time, our opportunities. We take them. We take them. We take them at 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:35.320 the expense of a relationship with God and a relationship with others. And we see it 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:39.680 all the time in the society in which we live, don't we? At all kinds of different levels, 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:47.439 as employers, as employees, as from the government or by the government. We see it with goods 00:10:47.439 --> 00:10:51.359 and services. We see it with shoplifting, with armed robberies, with property theft, 00:10:51.359 --> 00:10:56.399 with contracts and politics and business. We see it between nations as they steal land 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:02.519 off one another, shoot at insurance scams and online abuse, identity theft, copyright, 00:11:02.519 --> 00:11:11.199 bribery and hypocrisy of scale. Sometimes it's the little thieves that seem to be exposed, 00:11:11.199 --> 00:11:19.000 but theft on a grand scale seems to be okay politically or governmentally or economically. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:26.600 There's a fantastic... One of my favorite lines of all time in music is from Bob Dylan 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:32.039 in the great album Infidels, Sweet Heart Like You. And he says, steal a little and they 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:38.120 throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king. And that's such a great summary 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:44.959 of some of the perverse and hypocritical thinking we have around if thievery. And the Bible 00:11:44.959 --> 00:11:50.839 makes clear that it's actually a spiritual issue. It's a heart issue. Not primarily 00:11:50.839 --> 00:11:55.639 a material one where we maybe steal something from somebody else, although that obviously 00:11:55.639 --> 00:12:02.199 is part of it. It's saying God is not worth obeying. God's not worth making Lord. God 00:12:02.199 --> 00:12:11.960 is not worth giving the glory to Him. We do not respect Him or love others enough to not 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:22.879 steal from them. It's about believing a lie. It's about choosing to believe the lie. And 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:30.279 every day we are prayerless. Every day you go into work without praying. Every day you 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:37.159 live your life without praying to God as a Christian. Every time we harbor a grudge against 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:44.439 a fellow believer. Every time we accept a culture of stealing in the workplace or treating 00:12:44.439 --> 00:12:51.240 an unbeliever with disdain or sit in the throne of judgment, we're stealing from God. We're 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:59.320 stealing from God. Prayerless Christian life is the life of a thief. We're saying that 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:05.759 we don't need Him. And we are lords of our own lives, and we're not dependent on Him. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:14.080 So what is God calling you and me to do this evening in the light of that great command? 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:23.280 Well, in the first place He's encouraging us to see Christ in a new light. I want you 00:13:23.280 --> 00:13:32.000 to see Christ as a despised thief. We're told in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 12 that 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:38.560 He was numbered with the transgressors, numbered with the thieves. Now it's not insignificant 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:43.719 that it was a thief that was on either side of Jesus Christ, and He was numbered with 00:13:43.719 --> 00:13:51.839 them. Martin Luther said there was three thieves on Calvary Hill. It was the two thieves, and 00:13:51.839 --> 00:13:59.479 there was Christ who became, as it were, a thief, who took all the thievering from God 00:13:59.479 --> 00:14:05.599 symbolized in sin and took it upon Himself. God in the flesh became numbered with the 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:13.800 transgressors. And that's a powerful recognition of His association with us in our guilty humanity. 00:14:13.800 --> 00:14:20.480 And it pierces the very heart of Satan and his thieving destruction, because Jesus takes 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:28.519 on Himself the human consequences of all that we have done in rebelling against God, and 00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:34.080 all the thieving that was involved in that, all the stealing of the glory of God and taking 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:39.440 it from Him. He receives it. Our death and the hell we deserve, the selfishness and the 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:46.240 thieving mentality, He carried them. Isaiah 53 says He was crushed by them. He was wounded. 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:54.400 He was punished. But He rose again to offer life and peace with God, and the ability to 00:14:54.399 --> 00:15:07.679 have a new heart of love for Him and for one another that dissolves this motive of thieving 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:15.840 and taking from God His glory and His right. So we see Christ in a new light as the commands 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:20.319 all point us towards Christ in His finished work and also the way and the burden that 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:29.040 He took. But also to pray with a new perspective, to pray with that perspective of wanting to 00:15:29.040 --> 00:15:37.200 live life to the full. I wonder if you're praying a prayer about living life to the 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:43.600 full, what that would look like for you? What is the... If loving God and loving one another 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:48.920 is not the focus of your prayers, what is the focus of your prayers? If we believe prayers, 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:54.799 God answers prayers for us because He loves us. Do we treat Him like the genie in a lamp? 00:15:54.799 --> 00:16:01.839 Are our prayers based on our material lives or our circumstantial lives? You know, Lord, 00:16:01.839 --> 00:16:11.679 change what's happening around me. Make it better or make my own life better materially. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:17.199 None of these things are wrong. But let's pray with that perspective of saying, Lord, 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:25.280 Jesus, help me to love You better and love my fellow believer better in church, not in 00:16:25.280 --> 00:16:33.440 church, not in the building. I just mean in community. Awkward, the difficult, the struggling, 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:40.200 the needy to love them better and to love my enemy. God's Jesus' great extension of 00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:46.800 the Ten Commandments that we love our enemy in a remarkable way because that's the whole 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:52.399 law and that's life to the full. That's where we enjoy life to the full. It's the best. 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:59.120 That will always involve confession and renewal. It must. That's why prayer is so significant 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:07.240 because it does mold us and transform us and change us because we need in our sanctification 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:16.759 to become more like Jesus. Lord, help me to listen to the right voices of the true shepherd. 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:21.759 Don't listen to the lies, the destruction, the thieving of the false shepherd that's 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:27.960 spoken about in John 10, but the true shepherd. So pray with a different perspective. See 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:35.400 Jesus in a different perspective who becomes dirty and a thief on your behalf to make 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:42.039 you clean and to make you one who loves God and loves your neighbor. And then lastly, 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:49.879 I think the practical implication is, as we love with the love of Christ in us, we will 00:17:49.879 --> 00:18:01.039 practice honesty. We will practice honesty in the workplace. As an employer, you give 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:08.039 your employees a proper wage, not steal from them in our great capitalistic way. We're 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:14.559 not to use dishonest scales as Hosea 12 or 7 says. Remember, the laborer is worthy of 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:21.599 his wages for Timothy 5, 18. Employee. Many of your employees, some of your employers, 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:27.720 probably many more of your employees, don't steal from your employer. Don't be lazy in 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:37.240 the workplace. Don't steal time. Don't steal your expenses. Don't steal property that belongs 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:43.559 to your employer. Remember, these are the small practical things that trigger people 00:18:43.559 --> 00:18:48.839 to say, what is the reason for the hope that's within you? Why do you live like that? Why 00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:53.240 don't you just do what everyone else does and steal from the employer because they're 00:18:53.240 --> 00:19:01.000 doing all the time anyway to you in the workplace as a citizen in the society. Go away from 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:09.640 here and recognize our responsibility as bladers to stand up against corruption, against dishonesty, 00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:15.920 against the oppression of the poor. Don't support policies or practices that take advantage 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:23.759 of the poor or encourage corruption. Pay the taxes that you're due. Don't avoid or evade 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:30.440 because it's just acceptable. Stand against fraud. These are the kind of ordinary everyday 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:35.920 things that we might be challenged within a very difficult work environment. I'm not 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:46.039 suggesting any of these things are easy. In practice, generosity. We see that, don't we, 00:19:46.039 --> 00:19:53.000 as a practical outworking of the way Jesus transforms Zacchaeus' heart, who had stolen 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:57.680 from the people all the time, didn't he, to make himself rich? What was the response of 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:06.440 Zacchaeus when he was overwhelmed by the generosity of Jesus? He gave it all out. He gave it back. 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:12.840 It didn't mean anything to him. He didn't hoard wealth anymore. And that's the command 00:20:12.840 --> 00:20:19.759 of God through Paul in Ephesians 4. 28, when he talks about the Christians in the church, 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:25.560 he said, if you've been stealing, don't steal anymore. Don't break any of the other second 00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:33.039 table of the law commands, but change. Be transformed, he says. Once you are like that, 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:39.279 but you're not like that anymore, he says, work. Don't be lazy. Do these things as you 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:48.119 can. Be generous. Recognizing that all that we have is a gift from God. And not stealing 00:20:48.119 --> 00:20:54.559 it from Him as if it's a right and hoarding it to ourselves. When we keep all that we 00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:01.639 earn, when we keep all the gifts that we've been given, we're robbing God. Malachi makes 00:21:01.639 --> 00:21:10.839 that clear. We're robbing God, because it's all from Him anyway. And lastly, I think, 00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:17.679 a broad practical application, think about your use of time. Think about how you use 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:24.920 your time. Time's God's precious gift. Precious gift from us. We never get it back. We can't 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:31.680 repeat it. It's limited. It's the one thing we can't buy back. And those of us who are 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:37.279 getting old or know and recognize that even more than most, you will never be in the context 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:42.920 you are in ever again. It's only a short time you're in the workplace with the colleagues 00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:47.880 you have. It's only a short time you're in the neighborhood. You only have a short time 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:54.360 with your family before they've grown up and they're away. Short time, God gives it to us. 00:21:54.360 --> 00:22:02.360 And He gives it to us to live life to the full in Him. Loving Him by loving one. That's 00:22:02.360 --> 00:22:09.480 the priority. Living His way for the short time. Giving Him the glory. Growing and being 00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:18.200 transformed because it will not happen anywhere else but here. Are we stealing the time that 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:27.480 God gives us with relentless scrolling, with mindless pleasure, with a careless, reveling 00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:36.240 and hurtful tittle-tattle, or simply for selfish ambition? To build bigger barns. What are we 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:42.240 doing with our time which is God's greatest gift to us in many ways other than His love, 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:52.519 of course. And I just want to finish by reading some words from Romans chapter 13, which I 00:22:52.519 --> 00:23:00.039 think helped sum up what I've been trying to say this evening in many ways. Oh, no one 00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:08.680 anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:13.759 For the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not 00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:20.240 steal, you shall not covet. And any other commandment are summed up in this word. You 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:26.039 shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore. Love 00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:32.639 is the fulfilling of the law. Can't finish with better words than that. Let's pray. Father, 00:23:32.639 --> 00:23:39.319 God help us to understand you, to understand your love and to understand that it's not 00:23:39.319 --> 00:23:47.000 an insignificant thing, it's not a soft and a sentimental thing. It is what transforms 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:54.680 us at the very core of our being that motivates and transforms our will and our mind. And 00:23:54.680 --> 00:24:00.519 we pray and ask that we would see each of these commandments not simply as separate individual 00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:08.279 commands, but we would see them as a whole. And we see how they are interlinked. The first 00:24:08.279 --> 00:24:16.920 table of the early commandments reminding us of how we, in Christ can love you and only 00:24:16.920 --> 00:24:23.880 in Christ and reminding us that only in Christ can we love one another as we're called to. 00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:29.920 So keep us Lord from being thieves. Keep us from stealing the time that is yours for 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:38.920 our own selfish ends. Keep us from enthroning ourselves as Lords of our own lives. Make 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:47.120 us humble, we pray, and gentle and respectful and with great serving hearts to love you 00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:53.239 and to love one another. And transform us, we pray, as we pray every day that you would 00:24:53.239 --> 00:25:01.639 teach us to love you better, to love one another and to be forgiven and to repent of when that 00:25:01.640 --> 00:25:17.680 is simply and clearly not the case. We ask it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.