Top Ten // Love Your Neighbor

Welcome to the Refinery Church Sermon Podcast.

We're so glad you joined us today.

Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your pursuit to love and follow Jesus for life.

If you'd like to learn more about the refinery, find ways to get connected, share a prayer request, or explore resources to help you grow deeper in your walk with Christ.

Visit us online at refineryohio.com.

Now let's dive in for today's message.

Alright, hey, so uh my name's Lannon, and sometimes I have mic issues.

Can anybody relate?

Anybody?

Thank you, thank you, appreciate you, appreciate you.

Hey, before we jump into the message and stuff this morning, I wanted to make you aware of our touch point survey.

We do this every October.

I think we started it in 2020, maybe 2021.

Um, but this is uh a great way for us as a church to kind of get um just gauge our health as a church.

Hey, what do we think is what's working well, what might be a point of struggle, uh, what might be something we need to lean some uh lend some attention to.

And so the way you can help us with this is when you came in, you got one of these cards.

If you didn't get one on the way out, go ahead and grab one.

Um you can also scan the QR code, and there's a short survey that is really helpful.

Our why is very central.

We exist to help people love and follow Jesus for life.

That's why we exist as a church.

And so this uh walks through kind of our how we do that as a the commitments of the church, and it's a chance for you to kind of say, okay, here's where I'm at in these things, and then collectively as a church for us to see, oh man, we're really strong in this area.

This is maybe a spot we could use some attention.

And so you might say, Hey, I've only been attending a few weeks.

Not 100% sure I'm gonna put down roots here.

Do you want me to fill it out?

We'd love to.

If you don't mind lending your voice, there's a spot where you can mark, hey, only been attending a few weeks.

Maybe you've been attending for years, fantastic.

Maybe you'd say, hey, listen, I'll be honest, I'm not really pleased with the church right now.

I'm upset about a couple of things.

Do you really want to hear from me?

We do.

We want to hear from you.

You might say, Hey, I love the church and I think it can do no wrong.

You're not right, but bless your heart, we'll take your voice too, right?

And so we really would value your opinion.

It takes five to eight minutes, maybe even less.

Um, but I also would ask you to prayerfully consider it for yourself because there is just kind of a chance to be like, oh yeah, how often am I in the scriptures?

Um, man, what kind of invitations am I making?

What do I see in these kind of spaces?

And it really does help us.

We'll give you the feedback to this, by the way.

Uh any comments that are shared, I share with the staff and I share with the advisory team, and then we will submit um the final results to the whole church so you can see, not with names, but with percentages and numbers and things like that.

So if you're kind of like, I think the whole church would think this way, we'll they'll actually be able to see.

Like, uh I marked this, but man, I'm kind of an outlier here.

Or yeah, that's kind of the consistent thought, and so we'd love for you to be a part of that.

It won't take you long, but it's a lot of value.

Um, and so as a church, our why is clear.

We exist to help people love and follow Jesus for life.

And so what we do then is we love God, we love people, and we help people love God.

And so those commitments then provide shape.

This morning, I'd like to talk a little bit about how one way that we um are living out that practically to love people.

And so I've got a couple friends are gonna join me, Jason Higgins and Christy Sigler.

And so, would you welcome them as they come to the platform, and Bailey and Joey for being our stage hands, our roadies.

The muscle.

Yes, the muscle.

Yes, Bailey the muscle, Joey the the beauty.

And so um, we all uh went to Guatemala this past year together, and I asked them if they wouldn't mind just sharing a little bit, uh, because this is one way that we love people, and so as you've heard already, uh a number of bags for Guatemala for Christmas presents that'll be opened up here in a few months.

Um, and both were first time with the church on the trip.

And so I kind of just wanted them to share their perspective a little bit.

And so, Christy, we'll start with you, this service.

Um, and so the first question is um, why'd you choose to go this time?

And then were there any barriers or obstacles that honestly kind of made it a little bit trickier?

Yes, we decided I decided to go this time because it was time for me to be part of my family's trips that we have gone on.

My oldest son was born in Guatemala, and so that's always been a commitment that we've made to find, and it's what brought us to refinery was the partnership with Guatemala.

And my husband has gone for years with and we've been on other trips with other churches, but this was it was a time that my husband had gone, and then we added my son, and then we added my other son, and so now it was it was my turn, so all four of us were there.

And the oh what was a barrier.

So the barrier for us really was if we do this, all four of us this year, this is a vacation.

Like the I mean, it's not vacation, but it it will be our vacation budget.

And so that was I think harder for me to kind of be okay with.

My boys, we're fine with that.

That was the remote.

They had a blast.

Yes.

Yes, they had a blast.

Yeah.

Jason, same question.

The reasons for going, there there's so many reasons.

Um I you know, we all hear about the tug.

I felt the tug saying, okay, this is where I need to go.

Um, my brother-in-law was originally from Guatemala.

He got very ill over time, and he always wanted to go back, but he was not physically able to do it anymore.

So I felt like I needed to be the one to represent our family for him, to go back for him.

And unfortunately, he passed in February of this year, and it made it even more like I need to go.

I need to go back, go for him.

So that that was it.

It was really just to kind of be there for him.

And you know, hardship, it was it, it's a financial burden, it was, and not just for me, but for my family.

My family had to, they had to make sacrifices to send me down on that trip.

Um, and then the travel.

It is it is not an easy travel, not an easy travel down, and it's not an easy travel home.

You are it it takes literally all day to get down there.

You know, 22, 23 hours of consistent travel.

So physically, it was it was hard.

Yeah, and there's uh I I love the honesty of this too, because it's not just one of those things like, oh, just sign up, it'll be easy.

Like it is, like it's an investment, it's a challenge.

Um, like we're asking you to rearrange your calendar, rearrange finances to make an investment, to stretch yourself, to push yourself in this way.

So, Jason, we'll talk start with you on this second question then.

Talk about how it impacted you.

So, because we talk about this, you guys have both been a part of refinery for several years, and we talk about the partnership and everything else, and it it is, it's just like I mean, my hope is everybody's like, yeah, I think that seems valuable and good, but there's a difference when you actually go there.

So, talk about how that changed uh or impacted your perspective on it being there with the kids in the village versus just hearing about it.

Passion.

Um, I always thought I was very passionate about my relationship with Christ.

Um they do passion in a different way.

Uh their service is volume.

Now, our band rocks, their music is at like 400 volume.

It is so loud.

They pray at the top of their lungs.

And I'm not like in their head, I mean physically praying at the top of their lungs.

You see the the women of the church, they get down on their knees and kneel on a hard floor praying, screaming their prayers to God because they have so much passion for what He does for them.

So seeing that passion is it was reassuring.

Okay, we're in the right place, we happen the right people.

And the kids, truly, the kids are awesome.

I'm a dad of four kids, uh, a grandfather to one.

Those kids are awesome.

They are the coolest kids you ever met, and they're just kids, whether they're from kids are from Columbus, Ohio, or La Planata, Guatemala, they're just kids.

They do the same thing, the same jokes, the same everything.

Um, the thing that really made me laugh, one of the first things I heard made me realize is they do the same jokes you can our kids do.

I heard one of the kids, all the boys, doing Stay Siete, which is 6'7.

That that's universal.

I was stunned.

Oh my, it's down in Guatemala, it's everywhere.

So kids are just kids, and they just want people, they want to know they have adults that love them and care about them and think they're as awesome as they think they are.

Yeah, 100%.

Christy, same question to you.

So over the last 10 or 15 years, I have had a lot more struggles with uh short-term mission trips and what those look like thinking about the ethics involved and our responsibility and what it means to go.

Because I've been on trips before that you go into a community and then you leave.

And then, well, did you is that better or worse now?

How are you leaving that community?

And the kids, we talked about the kids, are just in it that is all it is universal no matter what country you go visit.

If you go on trips, the children are just so drawn to you, and I think, I don't know if this is okay.

And how do we, you know, kind of wrestling with that, knowing, however, how important it was for our family to be a part of a church that ministered in Guatemala.

But and hearing all the stories about the amazing work that's being done, and even hearing you say and hearing Jay say and other people that we really are not going down there to do things for them.

It's with.

And but then actually going and seeing it really did make a difference, and it had a different kind of impact for me because I see the the leadership of Don and Lana, who are the um who run the El Puente, um who are there to help.

I know I didn't do it for John.

Jason represented today, I did not.

Um But the the work that they do that's like year-round, and then Philly and Nidia, who are the um you know, native Guatemalan missionaries and pastor, and that it makes such a difference that you uh that you do go and you see things long term.

And uh the other thing was when we so my family's been going for several years.

I have pictures on my fridge of kids and they get a little bit taller, a little bit older with my boys and um and my my son Gabe stays in touch with Philly's boys, and which is really cool to see that kind of carrying over.

And so we're pulling up in the you know back of the pickup truck, and we see all these kids, and uh, my two are getting out and by name, greeting all of these kids that are there.

And so seeing it really as this continued relationship, a continued investment that in who the children are and knowing their families and understanding how this impacts them and their faith and how to help them grow and know who Christ is, um, that it just it's different when you can be there in person and know that like we are just slipping in for a period of time and that to be able to the the honor and the privilege to be part of that.

Yeah, and it it really is.

So the reason um refinery chooses a partnership strategy uh here locally and internationally is because yeah, we we can't do this all the time.

So when we partner with food insecurity or something like that as well, like there's organizations that are doing meaningful work throughout the year.

And so we're not trying to replicate what they do, we want to partner with them in what they're doing, and at the same time, every single person's gonna have different passions that the Spirit of God stirs up in their hearts.

And so by tapping into different outlets and opportunities, we really do raise that up.

And there's something about just seeing some of the cultural expressions and and those things in other spaces that really matter.

Jason, you wanted to share about like your appreciation for the geography in particular.

So, not that long ago, this was one like the funniest part was.

When we came back from the trip, Landon was giving everybody an update on what happened.

So there was a story about someone potentially dying in a cenote, which is a hole in the ground that's deep.

And they told us the Philly said, It's it's gonna be a little muddy down there, be careful.

No, it was a lot muddy, and I was not careful.

So I found out how really good local Guatemalan mud is for your skincare, because I literally had it everywhere.

I don't know.

I fell, slipped once, no more than that.

Twice, more three, uh more, four, nothing.

It was like five ish.

Who's counting?

I didn't and truly, um Christie's son, Gabe, saw how much I was struggling.

He put his safety and his well-being and literally grabbed me under my arm, just like he would help your grandfather grabbed under my arm and and helped me out of that hole.

And that that right there realized that we were a team.

And Gabe, her sons are amazing.

To see them with those kids is amazing.

So it is one of those things too, like the the bond you form as a team, like is really cool.

And I I have Jason share that story, not for like the noble purpose of doing that, just because it was so funny to me to laugh at him in the cave.

It is now.

It wasn't.

While Gabe was helping him, I was just like, Lord, this is good, thank you.

You know, so like even for things like that.

But hey, would you show appreciation to Jason and Christy for sharing part of this game?

Oh man, I can I'm back in that cave right now.

Like there was a couple times he'd literally get up only to fall again.

It was wonderful.

Jason's a friend, so you can I can laugh at him just like he would laugh at me.

And uh, yeah, it's it there is just something about that.

But listen, so we love God, we love people.

Like we know this.

And over the past several weeks, we've been talking through the Ten Commandments as found in the book of Exodus, chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

And the commandments lay out this kind of framework in which one through three is really talking about how we love God, how we love God well.

And trust then uh with the Sabbath and implementing that in our lives, and then if we're gonna love God well, like it we're gonna love and honor our family.

It begins with our parents, obviously, but it doesn't stop there.

Love has this way of expanding.

And then if we're gonna love our family well, it really situates us well to love our neighbor.

And so this morning we're actually gonna look at four different um commands, and it's the most we've looked at because we want to know what meant well what it means to love our neighbor.

In Luke chapter 10, verse 25, it's not gonna be on the screen, Jesus tells this story about how do we identify who our neighbor is, and kind of simply put, our neighbor is anyone within whom we're reasonable proximity at any given time.

Luke 10:25

So when we're in Guatemala, our neighbor is the Guatemalan there, just like as we're their neighbor in your community, your neighbor lives in the next home, or the apartment across the way, or somewhere in your complex, the your neighbor at work is the individual sharing the cubicle or the office down the hall or along the assembly line or however that might look or in the classroom.

But we're to love our neighbor well.

And the next four commands are really just all built on this idea of what it means to love neighbor.

And we're looking at four commands on purpose.

There's a chart up here that um we'll show.

Week one, we looked at commands one through three.

It's 130 words in the NIV.

So it was the most ambitious effort we took.

In week two, it's commandment number four, all by itself, it's 97 words about how to rest.

It seems that maybe God really wanted to get that idea across.

I'm not sure it's fully sunk in, at least in the West.

Commandment number five is 31 words on its own.

Commandments six, seven, eight, and nine combined, just 21 words.

Just 21 words.

Then commandment 10, which we'll end with next week, is 33 words on its own.

So four commandments, 21 words.

None of them are difficult to understand.

If you've never heard the Bible, read the Bible, or anything about the Bible, and I gave you these four commands, you'd be like, Yeah, I get this.

You don't need to be a Hebrew scholar, you don't need to have a deep, abiding faith where you were raised by grandparents who took you to church and Sunday school and all the things.

Pretty straightforward.

The challenge isn't figuring out what God said, it's becoming the kind of people who actually live this way.

That's the difference.

And so, with that in mind, I'd love to invite you.

If you got your Bible, turn with me, book of Exodus, chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, we'd be happy to give you one.

It's the same one I use.

They're just out there at the connection hub.

We think scripture really, really matters.

But this is what it reads.

It's starting in chapter 20, verse 13.

You shall not murder.

Pretty obvious.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

Twenty-one words.

Four commands.

Don't kill your neighbor.

Not exactly a difficult one, right?

Don't engage in an inappropriate relationship with your neighbor.

Not confusing.

Don't steal from your neighbor.

Where'd you get your card?

Took it from my neighbor.

How'd you get the keys?

Broken to the house.

They hang in there.

That's crazy.

Don't lie about your neighbor, don't lie to your neighbor.

It's straightforward.

There's unlikely to be any question to clarify what that is.

Like if I was just kind of open up for a quick QA, say I'm kind of struggling with what's that one mean?

Like it's pretty basic.

21 words.

And yet, how commonly have these four commands been broken over thousands of years across cultures?

I was reminded by someone in the church last week about a great little book that details out the Ten Commandments.

It's Dancing with the Law, the Ten Commandments, it's by uh Dan Boone.

He was actually my pastor my first year in my undergraduate work.

And then Amy Boone Tallman, his daughter, wrote this.

It's a great little book if you'd kind of like to dive in a little bit more.

He contextualizes it so well within our current culture.

So if there's no great need to kind of ascertain the meaning behind each command, and my guess is, you know, nobody in here is murdering anybody recently, right?

I mean, that's not like on your to-do list.

Like we should be able to exhaust this pretty quick and we'll be okay.

We'll get you out maybe even early, right?

But since we've gathered all together, maybe maybe it behooves us just to dive in just a smidge, okay?

The commands are clear, and I think largely they'd go unchallenged in culture, most any culture.

If you're raising your kids, like it's not gonna be one of those things where it's like, all right, should we teach them to murder or not murder?

I don't know.

Like, there's so many things.

Like, do we want that to be one of them?

Yeah, let's let's do that one.

If we were to walk through the four, like this isn't complicated, this is straightforward, this is simple.

But I think there's more that we sometimes miss, so I want you to hang with me.

So Jesus actually speaks to the first two commandments explicitly in his Sermon on the Mount.

If you look with me to the book of Matthew, chapter five, it'll be on the screen as well.

This is what Jesus has to say regarding commandment number six.

He says, You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder.

And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment, as they should be, obviously.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Jesus, could we just leave it at the killing thing?

Because I'm good at that one.

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, Raka is answerable to the court.

It's uh this form of contempt that's shown.

It's devaluing, debasing, demeaning somebody else.

And anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Jesus unpacks the command by taking us beneath the act of murder to the posture of the heart.

There's a common cultural phrase that came to mind as I was kind of thinking and prepping for this, and I think it's nonsense, just so you know, right?

So, like I want you to know before I say it, that way, in case you're like, yeah, that's a good one, I use it all the time.

Don't don't say that.

Just hold it in your heart.

I may have to love them, but I don't have to like them.

Do what?

I may have to love them, but I don't have to like them.

What are you talking about?

I may have I may disdain them, I may have contempt for them, but I don't, I mean, but I still love them, bless their hearts.

What do you think love is?

There's this idea like in our world that like is somehow more lofty than love.

Now, don't misunderstand.

I mean, there are things people do that I dislike.

There's things I may do that you dislike.

There's actions people can take, there's words people can speak, there's things of that nature we may dislike, but to just say, oh, I dislike the person now is a way of devaluing them.

It's demeaning them, it's debasing them, it's holding.

Them in contempt.

You see, the love of God calls us to seek the good of others.

It's generous, it's kind, it's gracious, it's more.

Jesus leaves no room for contempt for a person, though.

Like I'm telling you, if you've even got an issue in your heart with anger toward the person, you need to deal with it.

I'm not killing anybody.

Good.

Like, but that shouldn't be the bar.

Jesus says, look at your heart.

How do you see others?

Do you see them as a neighbor to be loved, or do you see somebody beneath you?

Jesus wants to be sure we understand the heart behind the command.

Whatever circumstances surround an act of murder, another person has ultimately been devalued to the point where taking their life was acceptable.

Jesus says we're to not even step foot on this path.

Don't even start down the road of devaluing another person.

Nothing good grows there.

And so if it's a colleague at work, if it's a neighbor in your community, if it's someone who you just struggle with, somebody you don't know, don't even step down that way.

Instead, say, God, how do I seek the good of that person?

Man, this frustrates me what they say or what they do or how they conduct themselves, but God, how do I love them?

How do I care for them?

How do I express my concern for them, my interest in their life?

How do I do this, Lord?

Apart from the Spirit of God, I don't know that it's possible.

What about adultery?

It's another way we might devalue someone.

And I realize this is a sensitive topic.

Perhaps it's impacted your home.

It's impacted your family.

It's impacted somebody you care about, a friend.

I would tell you the grace of God is always greater than any sin we might commit.

Or that might impact our homes.

We know it's such a painful and difficult challenge that far too regularly occurs in our world.

Jesus speaks directly to this command as well.

He says this in Matthew 5, 27 and 28.

He says, You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, which isn't complicated, it's not confusing.

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Again, Jesus wants to get to the heart of the matter, and it's like, yeah, you gotta tell those guys not to, and it's like, that's not the way the Bible works.

Anybody who objectifies another person, guy for gal, gal for guy, whatever, is wrong and it's broken and it leads us down a broken path.

And yet, how prevalent is that in our culture?

We see serious issues with the decisions people make regarding faithfulness in marriage.

And if we open this idea up further, this heart level trajectory of somebody, a neighbor to be loved, or an object to be consumed, it challenges us, it stirs us.

And I even think in issues like this, yeah, and when somebody does that, I get so angry and I devalue them and I tear them down, and you understand you just broke the commandment that precedes it.

Twenty-one words, it's not complicated, it's fairly simple, it's fairly straightforward, but it's not easy.

But it is good.

Do I look at another person and love them?

Do I long for their good and value them as a dearly loved child of God?

Lust, however it presents, turns my attention toward what another person can provide for me rather than my concern for their good.

It makes the other person an object rather than a neighbor.

And it misses the mark entirely for who God has called the Israelite people to be as a nation and who God has called all people to be throughout the Bible.

Thousands of years old commands.

We've invented so much, discovered so much, we've been so enlightened, and yet all of these issues are still prevalent in every culture around the world.

I think the idea I'm wanting to consider around these four commandments is hopefully becoming more and more clear.

God is calling the Israelite people to a radically different way to be in the world than what they had known.

Love for God, for family, and for neighbor is to be central to who they are as individuals and as a people.

And they need to happen in that order.

Because if I love God well, I'm not gonna be able to help but love my family well.

And when they're difficult to love or it's a challenge to love, or I mess up in my love, I'm couched in this grace and this justice and this mercy where God resituates me and resituates them.

And if I love God well and I'm loving and honoring my family well, then it can't, it's just gonna, there's gonna be this outflow into loving my community well, to loving my neighbor well.

But what if I disagree and what if I can't stand what they do and this, that, and the other, and I remember that I'm a sinner saved by grace as well, and so my love for God shapes everything that I do.

It's a fundamentally different way to live in the world.

Not of who's the worst, but how might I love better?

It's this framework to better understand how to live fully and freely as God's chosen people.

And it's true for us today as well.

Let me briefly just touch on commands eight and nine.

We're not to steal because life is not found in taking more and more.

I value the other person, so how could I take something from them?

A friend told a story recently.

His son was driving through the drive-thru, pulled up to get his food.

They handed him his food, said, Have a great day.

He said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up.

I haven't paid.

Oh, yeah, sorry, thanks.

That'd be, I don't know,$45.

You know how much it is.

Why didn't you just drive away?

I mean, it would have been stealing.

Well, they gave me my food, yeah, but you knew you didn't pay, you would have stole.

Kind of a hidden blessing.

You know, God was providing.

No.

No, I I value, I want your drawer to be right.

I don't want you getting to the end of the day, and your shift is messed up because you forgot to charge me 12 bucks.

When we focus on the way of God, we recognize that God has abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.

Like we don't need to take somebody else's things.

It won't satisfy us anyway.

We're not to speak dishonestly about or to our neighbors because we love and value them.

We're to see them as people created in the image of God.

So I speak to them as though I literally believe that.

Love refuses to use words, whether false, exaggerated, or incomplete, as weapons against another person.

I just won't do it.

I didn't lie exactly.

So, like what, you lied casually.

Love for God and trusting his goodness will have a profound impact on the life of anyone or any people who genuinely leans into that truth.

It engenders a love for family, that most basic unit of all culture.

And that love finds itself ever growing out to this broader community.

When we're rooted in love for God, the inevitable byproduct is a love for my neighbor wherever and whoever they might be.

The four commands, like they're not difficult to get our minds around.

I mean, it only took 21 words.

Not complicated, not confusing.

You don't need to be a scholar to understand it.

However, as a matter of practice, for individuals, for families, for a community, for a nation, simple clearly doesn't always lead to fidelity.

Imagine how much different things would look if we refuse to disdain or hold somebody in contempt in our eyes.

We never even set foot on this posture where I'm better than them because of what they hold to or what they think or what they've done.

How dare they?

What if instead I said, God, what would have led them to this place of brokenness?

How can I be a source of healing?

How much different would our interactions be?

Just driving to work.

Come on.

How about the political ads?

Whew.

Apparently, if we vote for one candidate, there's a plague of locusts worthy land.

If we vote for the other candidate, the world like stops spinning or something.

What if we refuse to do that?

Well, Lane, you understand, like what they've done, like what they've like, they're such a terrible person, and you're such a great one.

In the eyes of God, God's like, lucky to have you.

Yeah, they're awful.

They're the worst.

But you, the commandments remind us that it's a dangerous road to start posturing myself above the other.

Imagine if we didn't make space to objectify people so easily.

As a culture, we just wouldn't make room for it in our homes and our families.

And when somebody did, we'd offer them a different way.

We wouldn't shame them and beat them up.

We'd say, hey, listen, there's a different way we can live, a way that's truer, a way that's more life-giving, a way that's fuller.

Imagine if how much easier life would be if we didn't have to lock anything up.

Come on.

Nothing's stolen.

Imagine how much better life would be if I never had to remember what I said to who, because my yes is yes and my no is no.

How much easier would business be to conduct?

How much is it?

Well, I need to make a profit margin of this, and so this is what I'm charging you.

Just imagine.

We cannot simply remove all four elements from the world by passing the right laws or setting boundaries in place.

Like good laws are helpful things, but laws don't change hearts.

And while we can't eradicate these four ways of broken living easily from our world, we can commit to the transforming work of God so they're eradicated from us.

To say, I will not devalue another person.

I will not scorn another person, I will not demean another person, I will not contemptuously look at another person.

I'm gonna live different.

I'm gonna be different by the grace of God.

And when I drop the ball, and all of us have dropped the ball, and all of us will drop the ball again.

Well, remember there's grace.

And when somebody else drops the ball, we get to be the one who extends grace.

Just 21 words.

Not hard to understand.

But there's so much life if we'll live them out.

One question.

Am I seeing the person in front of me as a neighbor, God calls me to love?

Am I seeing the person that's directly in front of me at work?

Am I seeing the person in front of me at school?

Am I seeing the person in front of me in my family?

Am I seeing the person in front of me in my neighborhood?

Am I seeing the person in front of me that I'm in open conflict with as a neighbor, God has called me to love?

Because if I do, it changes the way I view them, it changes the way I speak to them, it changes the way I speak about them, it changes everything about my interaction with them.

We sang earlier, I will build my life upon your love.

It is a firm foundation.

It's true.

It's just a better way to live.

A few uh actions to consider.

Check your anger, anger, don't let it grow.

I can't stand them.

I'm so take it to God.

See if God can't stand them either.

And if He can't stand them, then you don't have to stand them either.

How about that?

All right?

You make that as your pastor.

You find somebody who just God just hates and distests and is disdainful towards, you do the same thing.

That'll be great, right?

Now check your anger, don't let it grow.

You ever let your anger get out of control and something good came about from it?

Nah.

Honor marriage as God intended it.

We've already messed up.

Can't mess up things too much.

God has this beautiful way of taking broken things and making them beautiful.

God takes dead people and make them live.

Nobody's too far gone.

Cultivate a generous heart, give rather than take.

Stop trying to grab after everything.

Our culture is all about what can I get?

I need more, I need more, I need more, and the people of God say, I become, learn to become content in all circumstances, whether I have a lot or whether I have a little.

And speak well to and of others as much as you're able.

And you say, but what do I do if I can't, if I don't have anything nice to say?

Your mama already told you.

If you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut.

Depends on the translation, right?

Would you stand with me?

Commandments 6, 7, 8, and 9, they call us to value life, they call us to value marriage, they call us to value generosity, they call us to value our words.

They call us to value our neighbor.

When we devalue our neighbor, we demean and break something in ourselves as well.

And God says, that's not how I'm calling you to live.

It's just 21 words.

Not super complicated, not overbearing.

And by the way, God affords us his spirit to dwell in us that we might live this way out.

I'm gonna pray for us.

And then uh this Wednesday, by the way, we have our prayer watch meetup.

If you don't know what that is, it's our prayer ministry here at the church.

Uh we did night of prayer and we made a pivot this past year.

And so if you're like, hey, I'd be interested in kind of stepping into prayer more, what that means, just shoot me an email or come catch me after service.

You could join in the prayer watch this Wednesday, 630 to 730.

We can explain what that looks like if you're looking for a place to serve or you're just needing to grow in your own prayer life.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day, your love, your grace, your kindness.

God, I confess that there's been points where I've been angry and the way I've spoken of others has not been honoring.

God, I confess that I've not always been recognized the relationship the way it's meant to be understood.

God, I confess that at times I've grabbed after things as opposed to recognizing that you call me to be a giver.

God, I confess that my words have not always been honest and truthful, either about someone or to someone.

And I confess that as a people, I'm not alone in that.

But God, I'm so grateful that your grace is greater than all those things.

And that we can choose to value life, that we can choose to value marriage, that we can choose to value generosity overtaking, that we can choose to value the words we speak.

And so, God, I pray as your people, as we reflect upon just these 21 simple words, we'd recognize where the posture of our heart might need a coarse correction from you.

The enemy would attack us and the enemy would tear us down, the enemy would shame us.

But the Spirit of God, Lord, you invite us to say, hey, what if we looked at it this way instead?

What if we what if we did it this way instead?

Forgive each of us where we need that forgiveness.

Convict each of us where we need that conviction.

And help us to be a different people so that we might love our neighbors well in our workplaces, in our communities, in our homes, all over the world.

And we'll give you the praise, the glory, and the honor.

It's the name of Jesus.

We always pray these things.

Amen.

Thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast.

If you're ready to take a next step in your faith, please reach out to us through our website, refineryohio.com, or you can email us at office at refineryohio.com.

We hope you have a blessed day.