Strengthening Relationships Through the 10 Commandments

Today I'm going to be talking about improving relationships, maintaining relationships, maximizing relationships, based upon principles that God has already given to us in a quote. Very simple, but very profound and very deep. The more we think about it, the more we can say about it. Human beings were created as relationship-oriented creatures. Every single one of us is seeking, looking, and is part of a relationship. We're all looking for how we relate to others, right now, probably mostly with our peers, with those who are like us. We want to find out just what we're worth. We want to be able to maintain a relationship with a friend of the same sex and of the opposite sex.

We want to be liked, and we like others. During the time of camp here, relationships have been working and building. I know that some of you who have not known each other will communicate with each other on email and by telephone. Probably not by letters. Nobody does that anymore. It takes too long.

People who are not relationship-oriented are in the vast minority. Hermits, recluses are viewed as dysfunctional. When I lived in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota, there's this island between the two cities. It's called Pike Island. It's where the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers run together. They form an island.

It's become a state park now, but as it was becoming a state park, they had to remove somebody who was a hermit. He was a well-known hermit. And people just left him alone, who lived on this island. I remember it was a subject of some type of discussion about having to remove him, but he was almost a legend because he was a hermit, a recluse, who wanted to talk to no one.

I'm not sure what happened. He probably just ultimately died, and the area of Pike Island became a state park. But there was talk about him because he was a hermit. He didn't want to talk to anybody. He didn't want to relate to anybody. He just shooed everybody away from his place, a very famous hermit. But that's about one-tenth of one-thousandth of a percent of humanity, because almost everyone else wants to be somebody's friend.

He wants to have a friend. He wants to know where he fits in his or her family. And he's looking for relationships. He's looking for, ultimately, a marriage relationship, a close, intimate relationship with somebody. We're all seeking. We're all looking for. And we're all wanting to improve in our relationships. No one wants to be lonely. How many here just really look forward to being lonely, to where you can go by yourself and just suck your thumb?

Nobody. Nobody wants to be all by themselves. You all want to be with somebody. Either that means just sitting with somebody in the same room. You want to relate to that person. He gives us a sense of belonging and also a sense of worth. As the saying goes, you are known by your friends. The people who are your friends are part of your identity.

You hang around with certain type of personality or certain type of character. Your character is judged by that. And the book of Proverbs is full of examples and aphorisms about friendships, about the kind of people that you hang around with. Well, here at camp, again, we have been very aware of relationships. We've been aware of our current friends, but also we have been making new friends. When I was in grade school, I'll tell you something, I was an obnoxious person. I really was. I popped off with different things and I said things that irritated teachers and my peers alike. And I remember we had this book club, this book club that we ordered books from, that were a quarter apiece, a long time ago.

And I know that I ordered a book about how to make friends, because I was just wondering about why it is it that I was putting people off. I found out it was by the things that I was saying. Well, you know, there are a set of rules that are in the Bible about relationships that are very down to earth and practical. And these rules regulate. These rules enhance, improve, and maximize relationships. What's that magic list? It's not a magic list at all. You probably have it hanging someplace on a wall at home, in most homes. It's the Ten Commandments. Oh, simple. Should we just turn to Exodus 20, read them, and get them out of the way?

Those rules are not as simple from the standpoint of just being very, very surface as something that we can just say, okay, I know it, and I go on. Think again. They are rules that are very profound and deep, that regulate relationships not only between one another, but with our Maker in heaven.

They regulate relationships between strangers who are coming to know one another. They regulate relationships within a family. They regulate relationships within a marriage. And they're all right there in the Ten Commandments. We can take a look at the Ten Commandments in a very surface way as, Thou shalt not kill. And, you know, if you haven't killed anybody at camp here, you have a successful relationship, right?

Well, there's much more to that commandment than just keeping you from killing another fellow camper, or killing your counselor. I'm going to speak facetiously. But certainly, if one takes a look at the surface of these commandments, just atop the near, obeying them just on the surface, is not enough. And even in the book of Corinthians, it states that the letter, the letter only, kills.

The letter only is not profitable. Because the commandments have a letter of the law application, and they have a much deeper, much thicker, and much more of a perspective that's multidimensional when we get into the spirit of the law of God. When Jesus Christ might quote this passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6, this is the Apostle Paul commenting about the letter and the spirit. In the Old Testament, people basically were given the letter of the law to consider to chew on. When it came to the spirit, it was Jesus Christ who brought the fullness of the spirit.

And the maxim of the laws in that fashion. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6, Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. And we have been called upon as servants of God as ministers of not just only the letter of the law, but of fullness, the maximum effect, the maximum application, and the maximum understanding of the law of God. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

Jesus Christ came to explain that and to demonstrate it and to fulfill it. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17, Christ's first recorded sermon, he delves into the subject of the law of God and its application. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17. And among the first things that he said to be recorded forever was that there be no misunderstanding that what was in the Old Testament and what he was going to be talking about would not be done away. But that's only part of it, because not only did he caution not that it would be done away, but that it would be maximized. Do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

The word fulfill is very simple.

It means fill to the fold.

We have fulfillment centers. You know, when you send off a coupon to a fulfillment center, you get something back. You know, money, some piece of junk you don't want, whatever. You get fulfillment, you know, for that thing. But Christ came to fulfill the law. He came to fill it to its fullest over and over again, not just once. He didn't do it just once to fulfill it, and then not to be fulfilled anymore. I mean, when you love your wife, when you love your neighbor, do I just say, I love you, and then you don't do it anymore? No, you go over and over again. It's a continuation. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Verse 18, In Isaiah 42, verse 21, this was predicted, and this was prophesied, about Jesus Christ, about the fact that He would come to make the law bigger and greater and fuller, and that He would exalt it.

Isaiah 42, verse 21, the Lord is well pleased for His righteousness' sake, and this entire chapter is about Jesus Christ. From the very beginnings of this chapter, behold, verse 1, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon Him, He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. On and on. The whole chapter is about the coming Messiah, who is Jesus.

In verse 21, where we were, He will exalt the law and make it honorable. He will lift it up. He'll make it greater. And actually, I like the word of the old King James a little bit better. He will magnify the law. He will put a magnifying glass on it to where we become bigger. You know how we put a magnifying glass on something, and it looked small, and now it's bigger. Christ came with a magnifying glass to magnify the law. One example is right here in verse 21, where we're at here. Matthew, chapter 5. He gives an example of how this magnification, how this upholding, and how this upholding the law would take place. Verse 21, you have heard that it was said of old, and he's quoting from the Old Testament, you shall not murder, and whose who are murderers will be in danger of the judgment. He's simply quoting the Sixth Commandment. But I say to you, with my magnifying glass and the way that I'm upholding and fulfilling the law, that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. So you see, already, it's not enough just to keep from murdering someone, from killing somebody and taking someone's life. The spirit involves an attitude that precedes murder, and that attitude is anger without a cause. And whosoever says to his brother, Raka, or you fool, shall be in danger of the counsel. Whosoever says, you fool, you totally useless person, shall be in danger of hellfire. So he goes on and shows various levels of worthlessness and anger and hatred towards another human being. And if that's not repented of and not changed, it will bring about the same result as if you killed a person. It brings about death. So in that way, Christ is one who fulfills the law. I'll give another example, but we'll turn to that here in just a little bit. What I wanted to go through was the Ten Commandments and show you some of the depths and some of the spirit in the intent of how it was to be brought forth to us in the New Covenant, how it was to be understood and applied. And if you take a look at all the commandments, there's not a single one that is devoid of some component of relationship with someone else. Very quickly, the first four commandments have to do with the relationship between us and God. And the last six have to do with the relationship of one person to another at various stages of relationships. And each one is very, very deep. Each one is most profound. So let's take a look at those commandments. I'm going to start with the ones dealing with man-to-man. Kind of do it backwards a little bit. I'm not violating God. But I do want to talk about those that have to do with people first. Then we'll take a look at the more important ones, the first four that have to do with man's relationship to his maker.

Let's turn to Exodus 12, 20, I should say, and verse 12. This is the first time that God's cardinal commandments were given in an ordered fashion. That they may have existed in that fashion before, but it was not recorded. It was at this point that God puts them altogether in the order that we have them. And the last six begin with honor your father and your mother. The very first commandment dealing with man-to-man relationships has to do with honoring your parents. But, you know, I want to take a look more deeply, even, at the word honor. How the commandments begin. Honor your father and your mother. Now, most of the commandments are written in, you might say, a negative sense. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not commit adultery. Do not bear false witness. Do not covet. But not this commandment. This commandment is written differently. This commandment comes from a positive frame of looking as to its application. Honor your father and your mother. That your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Honor your parents. It's interesting because that application is probably most possible right here. I can't really honor my parents anymore. Both of my parents have died. Both of my wife Beverly's parents have died. We can honor their memory. But we can't. We don't send Father's Day or Mother's Day cards to our parents. We don't send gifts to our parents anymore because they're dead. But you have parents that are living, and you have parents that you can honor. But I'd like to focus even more on the word honor. That is a most important word as far as dealing with any relationship between person to person and person to God. You know one reason why relationships break down more quickly than anything else?

It's because of dishonor. If you have a friend, and your friend betrays you, if your friend disrespects you, if your friend says something about you that is not true, or true, for that matter, to someone else, that's disrespectful. And that destroys relationships more quickly than anything else. There was a very well-known book written about 15 years ago that I really treasure by Gary Smalley. It's called The Gift of Honor. Talking about how valuable this substance is that is called honor, that we can bestow upon another human being. Honoring a person, showing deep respect for them, is the basis of building a strong relationship. Whenever you come into contact with new people, honor is almost automatic. You come to new people, you're kind of on your best behavior, and you think the best of somebody else, and they're different. You come to camp here, oh, that person, he's famous, or I've never seen him before. They're just wonderful people, and people have instant honor. But you've heard the expression, familiarity breeds contempt, that as you get to know people, and as you get to know weaknesses, as you see lapses, as you see flaws in that person, and as they see flaws in you, and they see lapses in character, and things that come out of your mouth, what happens? It's very easy to become disrespectful, and when disrespect is shown, the relationship is already in trouble. All of us are bad friends. Just think of some relationship that you've had with someone that collapsed.

I could take a look at relationships that have collapsed in the not-so-distant past, or the distant past, or back in my high school years. They started off with a great honor and a great respect for that person's wit, wisdom, looks, intelligence, things they said, how they conducted themselves, their poise. When we had that respect towards them, there was a relationship. But as soon as we begin to pick and find flaws, and begin to criticize, and begin to say things that were dishonoring towards that person, or the other person found out that those things were dishonoring, the relationship began to be in trouble and ultimately collapse.

And take a look, and just think of a relationship that did finally collapse. You know where it ended? In total disrespect, one towards another. And so the commandments that have to do with man-to-man start with honor, respect. Because actually this honoring element affects all the other commandments of man-to-man as well, and of course, obviously, to God.

But more importantly to man, because with man, it's sometimes difficult to honor. Now, I can't disrespect God. I don't think a single one of us here would say that I disrespect God. Because God is perfect, and we know He's perfect, and we don't question that. And obviously any disrespect towards Him is bigger is our problem. But you know disrespect of a human-to-human is easily justifiable, because you find fault, and you find things that are wrong with that person, and you show that disrespect. In the book by Gary Smaller, he points out the gift of honor, and he focuses more on marriage than any other relationship in that book.

However, he talks about teenagers to children, teenagers to parents, I should say. He talks about parents to children of respecting our children for who they are and what they are and what they're going through. And even the biblical principle is that we're not to provoke our children to wrath.

That we have respect as a very, very important duty, because it is the basis of sound relationships. Whether it be marriage, friend to friend, peer to peer. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. This one here is specific to parents, and is one that is not based upon the fact that your father has flaws or even the fact that he may not even be a part of your family or that he's made big mistakes.

Honor your parents. I am very thankful in my life that I had decent parents. But, you know, almost so many people I talk to in my ministry, I talk to people that don't have decent parents. They have parents with big flaws and big problems, and in their home, those problems come out in abusive language, in unfairness. But, you know, we're still to honor our mother and our father. That's the beginning of relationships, and that spreads to others.

You know, one of the problems when we counsel people for marriage, let me give you a little secret. When we talk to people in marriage, I know Mr. Neutsman knows this very well, and there's a problem between husband and wife relating to one another. The habits that they develop in that marriage are the habits that they saw in their parents, and a model that was set by their parents, and the way that they reacted towards their parents.

And sometimes the answer to solving problems in a marriage is to look back upon the relationship between mom and dad, and the way you looked upon them, and the way you may be taking out frustrations upon another human being, namely your mate. The more you honor your parents, the more you honor them, because you are commanded to by God, because of the role they play in your existence, and how they relate to you, the more positively that you work towards striking that respectability towards them, the stronger your marriage will be, and the stronger relationships with other people will be, and the more mature that relationship will be.

Next commandment, you shall not murder. You shall not murder. We've covered that because Jesus Christ, in the two examples that he brings out when he talks about how he would fulfill the law, and how he said and cautioned about, think not that I have come to destroy the law, specifically mentions two commandments, to explain this concept. The two commandments were violence and sex, murder and adultery, which forms the basis of most of our entertainment in this country and the basis of most video games, the model that people look at to live by.

But, you know, even going this far, in this particular example about not calling a person worthless or a fool or you wasteful fellow, the commandment goes beyond that to even another level. Christ said, love your enemies. Ooh, that's hard. Yesterday, one of the questions that came up was, is it wrong to feel angry at a person who has emotionally hurt you? No, it's not wrong to feel that way, because that's a natural reaction. But you know something? We need to do something about that.

Every single one of us has been hurt badly by somebody, because of inconsideration, because of meanness, or just by plain being a jerk. And we know it. But you know, what does Christ say? Love your enemies. Pray for them that despitefully use you, showing that that person is not a nice person. God doesn't want to think of our enemies as being nice people. No, He tells us to love them, and He tells us to pray for those who despitefully use us.

So the commandment, as you see, the letter of the commandment, thou shalt not kill, is just a veneer. It goes further to not being angry, not calling them a fool, and even learning to love them, and to pray for them. That is the magnification of that commandment. My wife read a book several years back, and she read sections of it to me, which I had the name of it, but it was a book about revenge. And it talked about how in certain cultures and societies, it's a duty of that generation to continue its vengefulness against those who have defrauded it.

And feuds that have gone on for hundreds of years are not resolved but further intensified. Probably the greatest feud of all is between the Palestinians and the Jews. Those people will never, never lay down their arms in hatred to one another, going all the way back to Abraham and Esauk and Ishmael. Isaac, I should say, and Ishmael. The feud that occurred in that family has persisted to this day, and it will not go away.

I was in Jordan this past summer and stayed with Jordanians. Jordan is a country that's full of Jordanians. There are no people for all practical purposes who are Israelis. And it's one of the nicest of the Palestinian countries, and it's one who recognizes the Palestinians as citizens. Palestinians are not even regarded as citizens in Israel or Kuwait or in some of the other Arab countries. This Palestinian is one who's actually worked with the church for over two decades in helping travel.

And I got to know his family because I was invited over to his home for dinner at least twice and was driven down to Petra by him and really got to know a lot of what's in his mind. And we got to talking about Jews, and we got to talking about Palestinians. And you know, you can talk to somebody after a while after you get to know them.

He says, well, why do you really feel this way? And he talked to me about his roots, where he came from, and what others had done to his family. He said, how do you expect us to have peace when one group says, you can't even exist? You don't have a right to exist. And you say, I'm here. This is my home. And I can't be told this is my home and I can't exist. Then how can the other people feel free when they say, we won't rest until we drive you into the sea? And he said, that's the basis of our argument.

One side says, you can't exist. The other says, we won't rest until we drive you into the sea. That is so deeply ingrained. And no matter how it's negotiated, and no matter how many presidents and Western nations come together to try to solve something through some piece of paper, until the commandment in its spirit is fulfilled, nothing is going to change. In this book about revenge, it was amazing to what lengths people in certain nations would go to, to follow the instructions given by parents to hate another family, another nation, another race.

It's been ingrained in them. And what Christ came with was the total opposite. Love your enemies. Christ came to break down the barriers between nations and people. But that won't come until the spirit of God actually makes it happen, and the commandment is fulfilled in its spirit. So, we can talk all afternoon here about the commandment about thou shalt not kill. And we see that it's a far deeper commandment than just the surface letter of the law.

You shall not commit adultery. This is commandment 14. Let me ask you a real stupid question. Does this mean that you can't commit fornication, because fornication is not covered here? You all know that it does not allow for that, and that adultery is not the only issue that's faced here. But it's interesting that adultery is the relationship that is singled out, because there's something about the relationship of sex in a marriage that's important to God. That sex with somebody outside a marriage relationship is wrong.

Even if it's people who aren't married, if it's outside the marriage relationship, it's wrong. That the only boundaries and barriers of sex are within the marriage relationship. And anything outside of that, anything, is wrong.

And it's violating the spirit of that law. Because let's take a look at what Christ said when we were back in Matthew 5, and what he said on this issue when he was talking about fulfilling the law. Verse 27 of Matthew 5. We were there. You have heard that it was said of those of old, You shall not commit adultery. Again, just simply quoting the letter of the law commandment.

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So he says, it begins long before the physical act of adultery. Before sex. As you might recall, our former president, when he was asked about his relationship with an intern, he said, I did not have sex with that woman! Because what he defined as sex was different from what the questioners had.

Well, most people have sex with somebody else in their head as they grow up anyway. And he'd to repent of that. And understand they've got to rein in their feelings, they've got to rein in their desires to a relationship that is bounded by the markers of marriage. And that's where God wants to corral it into. Because that's where it's strong, that's where it builds, and that's where it shows appreciation, and where it's not selfish.

Anything outside of that is selfish. Anything outside of that is not caring about the other person, but caring only about yourself. Whosoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. These are some of the practical advice principles from Jesus Christ. He said, if there's something that is really causing you real severe difficulty in the keeping of this, do whatever it takes to stop it from repeating itself.

We tell people to stay away from people that they have wrong feelings towards. Stay away from the magazine rack at certain stores. Stay away from those websites that have pornography. Cut off whatever means that cause that person to sin. Once I had a person that I was counseling for pornography, addiction to pornography. And I have a psychologist that I... actually, she's a psychiatrist in where I live, that I talk to from time to time. She was a referral to a common person that we had talked to. And she in her office has specialists that work with sexual addiction. And I once had lunch with her and I wanted to talk to her about my client, so to speak, or the person that I was talking to, about what they do.

And, you know, I was really surprised as to the kind of evasive action that's taken by people who come in and ask for help with sexual addiction. They do about everything except change their name. Does he have an e-mail account with AOL? Well, get away as far as you can from AOL, because they will be hounding you and looking for you and they will find you with pop-ups and different other means.

If you do everything that it takes, they have a specialist who worked with this to get people away from the source of that sin. It was almost as drastic as what Christ says here. If your right arm, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. I mean, that's taking very, very severe action. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for one of your members to perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

And some of these sicknesses or some of these sins can become diseases that will require very severe action be taken. What I'm getting to here, my friends, is the law of God is pretty complete and pretty deep and quite surgical and has a lot to say about do's and don'ts. Thou shalt not commit adultery. That's a start. Cut off whatever it takes or cut off whatever offends.

Get away from whatever sin that would cause you to go into hell, into the ground, and to perish. So Jesus Christ came to magnify the law. And does it mean only that it's a man who lusts after a woman? I think we could go a lot further.

We could do it the other way around and go on and on. Actually, if you go to the Old Testament, you know that chapter that we read about Azazel on the Day of Atonement? About the high priest going in once a year into the holy place? Well, that's only the last chapter of a three-chapter set. It has to do with what sexual relationships were allowed and those that were not allowed. And they're pretty graphic. And you can read those chapters. They were actually read aloud in the Old Testament in the congregation. Don't have a relationship with this. Don't have a relationship with this combination.

It's pretty graphic all the way through. So just adultery is the tip of the iceberg. All the rest are also illegal. And on the other hand, to fulfill that commandment to its maximum is to maintain your relationship in marriage, the faithfulness, the love, the loyalty. That's in marriage. Continuing in the Ten Commandments, You shall not steal.

Verse 15. You shall not steal. So if you just kept from taking a dollar off the counter someplace in your dorm or just taking somebody's small thing that you have fulfilled that, that's just the tip of an iceberg. Where we lived in West St. Paul, Minnesota, my sister had a pair of skis in the hallway. And one day we came home after church, Saturday evening, and saw that they were gone.

Somebody had stolen them. Somebody had come into the house and taken her pair of skis. Who could it be? Well, we didn't find out until somehow one day we noticed that they were the neighbors. Neighbors who we had known for three or four years. You know, the relationship with our neighbors was never the same, even though they gave them back and there was, I'm sorry, nonetheless, we had to find it. And, you know, the relationship with those people was never the same.

It was such a dishonor to come into our home and to take these skis for themselves and to do that to somebody that they knew and said hello to. Now, we are to forgive, obviously, but nonetheless, when we show that kind of dishonor to somebody, it causes a rift in a relationship. Stealing is one of the most dishonorable things that you can do to another person.

You know, just taking their property. And who hasn't said when they have been burglarized how violated they have felt when somebody comes into their home and goes through all their drawers and, you know, takes money and jewelry and takes personal things? What a violation that is of a person. But the commandment goes further.

Six days shall you labor. Six days you will work hard for a wage that's fair and decent. And you will earn money so that you can pay for those things yourself and have a sense of worth. We had a question about gambling yesterday. Is gambling wrong? And it went in different directions from Penieni poker to championship poker on television. How, in God's name, is poker or gambling making a fair wage? How are you working hard to earn and to amass wealth?

You're conning, stealing, lying, deceiving. The people around your table are getting whatever it is to take what they have. Does a person who loses feel good about that? What kind of relationship do you have with that person? One young person came to me and said, I used to feel bad when I used to lose money in Penieni poker.

I felt bad just losing, you know, whatever it was. It is not something that produces good fruit. Gambling is a derivative of theft. I'll quote me on it, please. You shall not steal, and you shall work for those things that you have. Earn them through fair, hard work. Paying a fair price. Not taking, stealing, swindling, or conning somebody out of what they have. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. One question that came up yesterday, I'm not sure it was a question personally or whatever, about lies that are said about a person.

It is so difficult to defend yourself against a lie. Because I could go out and tell, you know, lying is the easiest way to really hurt somebody. Because I could go back to where I'm at and just say something really negative about Mr. Knutsman. Say something about him that was a twist on his character. He can't defend himself for a long time, unless it comes out. And then it's difficult for him to defend himself.

It's a way of really hurting somebody in a most unchristian way. And really has a tie-in to killing somebody. Because lies and hatred lead to murder and the extinction of somebody else. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. One of the biggest words that's been used in the last six years has been the word spin. You've heard the word spin. Spin is telling the truth, but lying, but telling the truth.

It is the most devious way of lying because of things that you say are true. Like being a defense lawyer, where you try to con a jury so they won't have reasonable doubt about your client's guiltiness. But it's telling only certain things that are just enough to make your side look the way it is, but the actual truth can be completely different.

In judging cases and in judging disputes between people, it's usually an exercise in shades of a story, where a person wants to shade the story by telling things about himself or herself that are true. You wouldn't want to say something that was untrue and be caught. That would blow your whole case. You want to say things that are true, but you want to put them in such a way to where those facts make you look different from the way you are either accused or the way you want to accuse others. A Christian person learns to tell the truth, learns to stay with facts, learns to tell the whole story.

A person who gives his word in the 15th Psalm, who shall dwell upon your holy hill. One of the attributes of somebody who will be in God's kingdom is one who, it says, swears to his own hurt. In our language, it would be one who gives his word, and even if it means to do something that's unpleasant, he will keep his word.

If he promises, he'll be someplace. If he promises, he'll do something. He will do it. It's interesting that that quality is important enough to be called one of the factors that define a person who will dwell on God's holy hill, who will be in God's kingdom, a person who, even to the point of pain, will keep his word.

We live in a society that just can't commit itself to too much, to relationships, and for that matter, to a church. One of the things that's spoken of so much right now, as far as even people committing themselves to anything, for more than a short time, is this sense of, I can just say I'll do it, but I may change my mind. And what you say you'll do means nothing. And you know that there are people like that around you, that when they say that I will be there, I will do this, I will fulfill this, I will pay this, they won't do it.

And that's a person who's not telling the truth. Well, don't judge him. Judge yourself. What are you doing? What are you saying? What are you committing yourself to? You know, one thing that we do when we talk to somebody about baptism, probably more than anything else, that we want to ascertain as a minister. Certainly repentance is a big factor, but also a sense of commitment. Of how committed are they to becoming a Christian? Are they going to say that they'll be a Christian and then back out? Because, you know, Christ said that, if any man come to me, he's got to put every other relationship in second place and regard me and worship me more than anybody or anything.

The words are probably very strong and even hard for us to understand. How can you hate your mother and father? We know that it means to put into second place, but everybody, everything's got to be in second place in comparison to your commitment to Jesus Christ, because you say that you'll be faithful to Him forever, and your word better be true.

And a minister really wants to know that. He can't perfectly know that, but he really wants to know that, whether you have counted the cost.

Part of repentance and keeping the law of God is to be true to your word and not bear false witness. Again, you can see that the Ten Commandments are far deeper than just one-liners that are easy to remember. They're the letter of the law, they're the spirit of the law, and they even go beyond in talking about not only hating somebody, but also loving the person. Not only keep from stealing, but also work hard to earn the things that you have. The last commandment, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Now, this commandment is a little different from the standpoint that it does not have a letter of the law component to it. Do you know that? This commandment does not have a letter of the law component to it. Because, you know, when you lie, you say something, you write something. When you steal, you take something. When you kill, you kill. But this commandment is all in your head. Every bit of it. You shall not covet. This commandment has no physical component. And in a sense, what God was doing when He gave the Ten Commandments, as a little teaser at the very end, He showed the spirit of the law coming. He showed that what's most important is the fulfillment in every bit of thought that you have. You know, in the physical world, we could look real good to one another. And we can act real nice to one another and smile, even though we don't feel like smiling. In the spirit world, or in the spiritual relationship with one another, we can think anything we want to about a person. We can have any kind of thought we want, and nobody really knows. Right? Wrong. God knows. And what's important in the spirit of the law is that Christ knows what you're thinking.

And what we repent of is not only the physical, but the spiritual violation of the law. And this commandment about coveting, because it's all in your head, is about removing this sin from your mind, from the spirit. Relationships are enhanced by the keeping of God's law. Today I talked to you about Vasil Polichko, the Savatarian minister and his wife, Irina, that have taken care of street children. I didn't have time to read this. It's not a very long letter from him, but it was a fax that was sent to me last Sunday, December 18th.

And we've helped his fellowship with meals and taking care of street children who were violent, the products of violence, abusive and hateful children, and were simply increasing it among themselves.

And I asked him to just say a few things about what are some of the outcomes of the relationship now that he has with those children, now that he's cared for them for going on four years. Actually, four years more. He says, the members of the Christian Fellowship Light of Love, with their best wishes and love, express their thankfulness to all who helped us, who watch out not only for themselves, but also for others who need material help.

The fellowship Light of Love continues its charitable work with children because it is one of our Christian values.

It gives material help, food and clothing to orphans and other children who are poorly cared for. From the records of our kitchen, we cared for 32 children from dysfunctional families and orphans.

From January 1, 2005, to December 14th, we served 6,045 meals.

Many of these children have overcome difficult situations and have stopped using uncensored language. I thought that was interesting the way you put it. Uncensored language, abusive and mean language. And much more than that, they have acquired, and much more, of things they had acquired with others treat children. At first, it was very hard to make the changes. But with God's help and the commandments of God, they have made good and meaningful changes and have become much better children. Today, these children, along with us, glorify God, study the Bible, sing Christian songs and pray, etc. At the same time when some of their former friends who behave badly are in special children's detention locations.

Among our children, who are part of our soup kitchen, there are two boys who could not read or write. But we helped them become literate, and now they are studying with their contemporaries. At this time, one of the boys is studying at an international college in the city of Housst.

This young man is an orphan, a complete orphan, and our fellowship took him under full care. He is seeking now to become a dental technician, and since the education needs to be paid for, we have sent him to college and, paying for his education, we are using funds that you have sent to provide for his education. In addition to this, daily meals at the dining room, we have organized day-summer camps where we have admitted 109 children. The length of our camp was 14 days that served three daily meals. And on he goes here. The children were all pleased, joyful, and happy, and we hope that we can do it again next year.

We thank you all again. The point I'm making is that there was a tremendous change in the behavior of these children, because they were brought within God's law, honoring and respecting one another. They stopped using abusive, mean language and became children that had a completely changed nature. This was very joyful to us. The first four commandments of God have to do with a relationship with him, and I will go through them quickly, because I was wanting to emphasize the importance of the commandments dealing one with another in our relationships. But, of course, our most important, vital relationship is with our God. And every single one of these commandments has to do with man and God. It isn't something that God is talking about, or something that's going on in heaven that doesn't relate to us.

No, it has everything to do with us and him. I am the Lord God. This is Exodus 5, 20, verse 2. Who brought you to the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me. God doesn't beat around the bush. I don't want anybody else standing between us, okay? It is just you and me. Okay, that's the relationship. He makes that very clear. You shall not make for yourself a carved image.

Any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God. I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation, and of those who hate me, but show mercy to thousands who have love for me and keep my commandments.

The first two commandments are kind of similar, but God is really trying to drive the point home. It's just you and me, okay? Get it? Then you better not have anything come between us. Nothing to block the path. Nothing to block the visual between you and me. Money, sex, other interests that divert us from our attention to God. I don't want anything that blocks our vision of you.

You have no other gods before me. Of things that are people, living, dead, carved, whatever. Anything that sucks time away from our looking to our God in heaven as our God. Verse 7, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, who takes his name in vain.

The question came up on our ship was fully answered about using the expression, Oh, my God! You know so nice to use God's name. You know so many people use God's name. Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Would you go to one of your friends who says, Oh, my God! And say, Oh, I'm so glad that you brought his name up. Let's kneel down and pray to him right now. No, since you talked about him, let's together sit down and just say, You said, Oh, my God! You were calling upon him, weren't you? Let's talk to him. I'm sure he wants to talk to us. They would be absolutely red with embarrassment, because they're using God's name completely in a useless, disrespectful way.

And if called to say that, Is this some kind of a relationship now to a higher deity that we're talking to now? They would be horribly embarrassed. It's interesting the things that God says don't do. Don't swear by things in heaven or on earth, whatever. People will find every single way to bring in Jesus Christ's name into the most vulgar of situations. Don't use God's name in vain. Make sure your speech is clean. And if you do say, Oh, my God!

It better be on your knees before God, and you're sitting down there focused and talking to him asking you to give you an answer right there. And that is some kind of a flippant expression. The times in which, oh, my God is used in the Bible are in deep reverence and prayer and complete focus upon God.

And finally, remember the Sabbath day. That's today. Don't forget this day. This is a day that we're here at camp, and we have remembered it well. We've done this one just right. We remembered it from sundown last night, in the change of pace of our activities, the Bible study, and even the way that our discussions went with dorm dads and dorm moms.

With the breakfast and the seminar we had this morning, that we were dressed a little bit different, a little bit better, showing honor and respect to God and respect to him, the way we had the singing and honoring him in songs and the hymns. We remembered the Sabbath day well. I'll have to say we can pat ourselves on the back for that one. It's not wrong to pat ourselves every so often.

Let's do it in this one. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, to keep it separate, which we have. And again, Mr. Knutsman and I were saying how good it's been to have camp at a time when the Sabbath fell in the midst of camp. It didn't detract from camp. It wasn't downtime, was it? Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. And that you shall do no work, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, for God rested on this day and made this day holy. This is a day also of relationships. God said, I want one seventh of your time devoted to me. Not on your job, not on email, not on paying bills, not on your daily, busy routine. I want you to shove all that aside, and I want you to focus on me, because the relationship is you and me. And with Sabbath as a day, we're going to really enhance that relationship.

So what I've tried to paint for you today and explain is that relationships are very, very important. We all want to be relational, because we are relational, and we want the best of relationships. But there are rules. There's a process. There's a code by which these relationships with our friends and with our maker can be made. By honoring, by obeying the letter of the law, obviously, but perhaps a little bit less obviously, understanding the spirit of the law and fulfilling it in its full magnification.

That's how you will have the best of relationships.