Sermon on the Mount – Do Not Commit Adultery

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Shabbat Shalom, everybody. Did we ever get it settled on who had the best golf swing, or is that just continuing? We're continuing our series in the Sermon on the Mount through the revolutionary—or insane, depending on how you're approaching it—teachings of our master, Yeshua. The Sermon on the Mount is the most radical sermon ever preached, but the least popular because it's hard. Because Yeshua opens up, and he has a few of his disciples there, and we have people in the distance, but he's beginning his ministry and his teaching, and he's kind of giving a glimpse for what he's about to do for the entirety of his earthly ministry here, as well as what's going to come and what he expects to happen in the future through us. And it's hard.

The Paradox of Blessing

Blessed are the oppressed. They have the good life. What are you talking about? They have the good life. Well, they're going to be the landowners one day. They will be blessed. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted. These are the people who have the most understanding and the most yearning to cross the threshold of the kingdom of God. And he's saying they're there. They're right there. They are the closest ones. And yes, happy are they because of that. Because they will be fed. They will see justice. They will see righteousness. And he goes through the Sermon on the Mount, and he's undoing the way that people have come to look at the Torah.

And he says it's about viewing the Torah as not simply laws and a bunch of checklist items that you can check off, but as wisdom. Wisdom. The wisdom from God. Because there's a deeper virtue than simply checking off all the commandments. Go through the list every day. I didn't kill anyone. Righteous. No, it's more than that. Do not murder. Easy. Again, most of the time. But hey, I didn't obey my intrusive thoughts today. This is great. Check. And Yeshua says you're missing the entire point if that's what you're focused on. If you have anger, if you have a form of contempt for another human being in your heart, you deserve to go to the same place, the same court.

It doesn't make sense. If you call someone dumb or say they have no value, you're worthless. You've aligned yourself more toward people who sacrificed kids than the righteous. These are some of the shocking and jarring expressions Yeshua uses in his teaching. And he just loved to mess with folks in the best way. Love it. He would say things in a way that you could not unhear them—so shocking that with all his hyperbole, you would be forced to meditate on what he actually said to decipher the point. It's genius. What a teacher. What a teacher. He wanted to get people thinking a little bit differently than the rest of the world had taught them to think.

A world that says murder is wrong, but belittling someone else's value is not really that big of a deal. If you strip someone of their status as an image of God by calling them names and saying that they have no worth, he says you've aligned yourself with the same people that burned in the Valley of Gehenna, as we discussed last week.

The Core Motivation

In other words, the reason you don't murder should be because you don't have contempt in your heart toward another human being to begin with. But I like having the contempt in my heart for certain individuals, especially when there are certain things going on in the world or especially during certain seasons in the U.S. of A. Yeah, it just keeps me warm at night to have a little bit of hate going toward certain people. And Yeshua says, that's fine. I mean, you're doing exactly what the world expects you to do and you're contributing to the world controlled by Satan's power. So it's good. It's cool. It's expected. It's not cool. And it got me thinking, why would we have contempt in our heart? Why do you get contempt in your heart? Jealousy, pride, envy. Maybe you're envious of something someone else has or does. Maybe because someone hurt you, did evil toward you. Maybe because of violence. Maybe because someone else wanted to be more powerful than someone else. Or because someone else wanted to be more powerful than you.

And when you're more powerful than someone else, there always comes a sense of entitlement to control them. And I would dare say that's the theme of what the Bible, the story of the Bible is against.

The Pharaoh Pattern

Stop trying to be Pharaoh to every single person you meet and every single person you come across. And stop trying to be Pharaoh as a way to give yourself value because it's a farce. The entire story of the Bible is about defeating the Pharaohs and freeing people. And you can't do that while you're Pharaoh. That's the premise of the Sermon on the Mount. There are those who are privileged to have power and who leverage it to control others for their own profit or benefit. And then there are those who are oppressed, enslaved, and persecuted because of others' greed, envy, and covetousness. And the Sermon on the Mount challenges us to ask ourselves a very hard question.

Which of the two do we fall more in line with? If you turn with me to Matthew chapter 5, we don't have slides today. It was my fault. Starting in verse 27, we'll read from the Word. This is in the Sermon on the Mount, and this is the next section. That's difficult because it talks about something that's hard—it's actually talking about the same thing. But through the context of something that everybody struggles with in one way or another, on some level or another, but nobody wants to talk about it.

The Intimate Teaching

And in verse 27, here's what Yeshua says: We go into likely the most intimate section of the teachings of Jesus. This is the section of having lust in your heart. Lust. Sex. In evangelical traditions of Christianity, often you find that lust is made synonymous with sexual desire. Anyone who grew up, especially in the 90s, knows this was taught—yes, it's equivalent. It's the same. And this leads to a lot of problems and a lot of confusion about a lot of things because lust is not the same as sexual desire. It's the abuse of it. Sexual desire is not a bad thing—I can't say that, right? You can't. It's not a bad thing.

Someone needs to talk to God if it is. It's quite the opposite. And when we read through the Bible, we find two reasons for sexual desire that lead to sexual experience. One of them is procreation, to have children. One of the main functions and desired outcomes of sex for many is to have offspring, progeny, children, right? And the second is connection with your covenant partner. So many church communities disagree with that or do not want to support that. Yeah, the Bible has lots of examples where people engage in sexual desire with partners, covenant partners, hopefully, for purposes other than having kids.

Surprise. Because it's been taught so heavily that sex is bad, sex is dirty, it's corrupt. And I get it. But there's an issue of having such a rigid stance like that. And the issue is the Bible. Because in the Bible, we have an entire book of erotic poetry. That is not about having kids. And if you want to see a beautiful portrayal of what sexual passion and desire looks like when it is depicted from within a committed covenant relationship, it's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing to have a connection with your partner, with your spouse.

Wisdom in Scripture

Y'all want to see how someone 2,500 years ago or more described the passion and the connection they had with their committed lover? Sometimes we get used to seeing the Bible. Everyone's so quiet. I know. We get used to seeing the Bible as just something we read all the time, and it's just this book, and it's a religious dogma, and that's how we view it, and we just got to go over it. We forget that someone wrote this. Like somebody sat around thinking of their cinnamon bun, whatever nickname. I don't know. That was a bad one, but whatever. Cinnabunny honey, whatever. Yeah. Someone sat around daydreaming about the intimacy and the connection and the life that they have with another individual.

And if you've never been married, there is something different about a connection with someone that is sexual. And I believe it was intended that way. Because you have so many chemicals that are released. You've got dopamine, which is the addicting chemical. Same chemical you get when you eat a Snickers. Oh, that was really good. And your brain actually creates pathways when you experience a dopamine hit. Some of us have a problem with binging really bad foods in the pantry with the door closed after 9 p.m. It's because we have engaged in this very pleasurable experience so many times that we've carved pathways into our brain, and now we have a type of routine addiction.

It's very hard to break. It's really good if you can have that with your spouse, right? It's really bad if you get in the habit of experiencing that through other means outside of your spouse because you will find yourself in hell, right? And not realizing how to break this routine and this habit in your life.

Oxytocin is another one. You ever get that feeling like when you give Pete a hug, he gives such warm hugs, doesn't he? And you just have that, man, I'm safe. Yes, that and Zach. Zach's my favorite hugger. Whenever you engage with someone physically, hug, whatever, oxytocin. It's just that when you hug your child and you're overwhelmed with emotion and connection that's indescribable. Oxytocin, the love drug, love chemical. When you engage sexually with a covenant partner, it is really good that your brain is screaming, this is the one, this is your person, this is the connection that you have, this is it. It's really good for those chemicals to reinforce that. And so here we have a man who is daydreaming about everything about his woman.

The Language of Love

I said that in a way that almost sounded objectifying, his lover. Y'all ready? Here we go. We know how to do this. Roses are red, violets are blue, right? Okay, here we go. How beautiful are your feet and sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled by lilies. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus. And the author goes on to speak about the rest of the anatomy of his partner, which we're not going to read here today. And we laugh because this is funny, right?

Like, your belly's a heap of wheat. I felt more attractive when I read that. I'm like, yeah, this is great. This is good. But he wasn't trying to be funny. He was trying to reach for whatever he could to articulate indescribable connection with another human being. And that's just so next level. That's so awesome. He goes on to speak about the taste of her lips being like wine and different experiences, sexual experiences. And it's really cringe because if you're taught sex is bad, right? But if you're mature enough to read this for what it is, it's beautiful, right? And the author nails it just using his own relevant metaphors.

It's a beautiful thing. It's exciting. It's poetic. It's part of God's plan. God created it to be beautiful because it's holy. And everything holy always has boundaries.

Boundaries and the Fall

Sex can be good or bad. Just like fire, I guess. I heard someone say that once. King Solomon asked for wisdom. God gave him everything else on top of it. I think as a test, he failed. Because he used his wisdom to pursue more and more of the things that he wasn't supposed to go after. But he builds God's temple. He brings Israel to a place of security and safety. It's going well for Israel. And then 1 Kings 11-13, he falls into the trap of sexual desire outside of boundaries. So easy to do. And Solomon was not alone. This is why we have whole portions of Scripture, like Proverbs 5 or 7. Job says, right? The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk. He thinks, no one will see me. And he keeps his face concealed as long as we don't talk about it. And that's exactly what Yeshua is talking about here. Just because no one sees what you're doing to another human being in your heart does not mean it's not killing you. It doesn't mean it's not pushing back heaven from invading earth.

Temptation, Lust, and the Crossroads

Lust. What is lust, really? We like to think lust is desiring sex, right? It's easy. Don't desire sex. I don't know. As we observe, it gets confusing. Sexual temptation is not the same as lust. Noticing things that you're attracted to is not sin. Both men and women notice and find things that we're attracted to. We glance, pretty flowers, pretty people. It's human nature. It turns into lust when we say yes. That moment when you make the decision that I'm going to take something that does not belong to me, and I'm going to take a living human being, and I'm going to force them to become an object in my mind, and I'm going to strip the status of image-bearer from them so that I can force myself upon them in my heart.

That's when lust occurs. Temptation is not a sin. Temptation is an opportunity to grow. Temptation is an opportunity to push back on the hellfires that have been instigated in this world. Temptation is an opportunity to have a victory in the kingdom of God. Yeshua is dealing with something very heavy that he knows is extremely familiar with us. That moment when you are tempted, when you are enticed to proceed forward, and you have to make a decision. And this isn't just about sex. I mean, is it really? This is temptation. We're familiar with these crossroads. We're familiar with what it's like to have this playing out.

We want this. We have the opportunity. And it's a fight because we have to make a decision. And it's usually a difficult decision when we say no, because I know I'm better than this and I know I'm called to be different. I know I'm not the old man. I know that if I'm born again, then I'm going to live as a new creation in this world. I'm going to live as if heaven has fully engulfed earth. Or we are very familiar when we make the decision to get the dopamine and say, you know what? I see it and I too want to take it, just like in the garden.

The Pursuit of Power

We talk a lot about sex trafficking, horrible thing that exists in the world that we all stand against until we do it in the safety of our own minds. And that's what Yeshua is pointing out. One is directly linked to the other. If I can feel comfortable taking and objectifying another human being to violate them, then you're not too far off from the other thing, as you may think. And this is the common theme of the Sermon on the Mount, the pursuit of power over other people. I desire something, I want something, and therefore I'm going to leverage power in my favor to take it from someone else. Because in order to lust in the context of sex, you are required to strip them of their value.

You're required to strip them of dignity and status as a child of God. You have to turn a living person into an object, a thing, not a person. Because if they were a person, they would have a say. And here we are standing in the same place as we were last week. You are worthless to me except for how it benefits me. That's the whole thing—the fruit of the garden, the fruit of determining good and evil for yourself.

The Fruit of the Garden

Because in that pursuit, apart from God, it's going to look different. Everyone determines good and evil for themselves. That's the story of the Garden of Eden. That's the whole portrayal of what set everything off. You can be like God, which is ironic because Adam and Eve, they were already like God. They were created as his image, right? As his image. You can be like God, determining good and evil for yourself. Having supreme say. They were already told to rule together, rule over the world. How much more power did they want? So they saw and they took. She gave to her husband, who was right there.

And that's the thing: if I believe I'm the one that can be determining good and evil for myself, apart from God and God's wisdom, then what's to keep you from saying, you know what? I can determine good and evil for myself, apart from the wisdom of the Father. And you, and you, and you. And now everybody has a different standard for what is good and evil, which is going to turn into who is good and evil, which is going to turn into oppression, persecution, violence, which is going to turn into war, which is going to turn into death on the premise that someone else thinks that they're better than everyone else.

The Spiral of Violence

Oh, that's exactly what happened, isn't it? Cain saw Abel and says, you know what? I'm better than him. I deserve more than him. I'm entitled to what he has. And so Cain strips the status of humanity and worth from his brother so he can justify killing him. Because he was envious. And the next thing we know, Lamech's talking about killing people on the way home from work. He sings a whole song about it. He's talking to his wives. He's like, guess what I did today? Killed everybody. They were in my way. They didn't use their blinker. It was great. And it says the whole world erupted in violence to the point where God looked and said, this is not what was supposed to happen. I regret ever doing this. How do I fix this? He floods the world. To get rid of violence caused by the heart of people feeling entitled to have their way with or over others. To force whatever their ideologies are on other people. And the beauty of the story of the flood is it didn't work. The Bible is a story, but it's also a teaching tool. So violence doesn't work to stop violence.

Ruling Together as Equals

We love to rule over others, don't we? Yeshua's ethic goes back to the beginning. When male and female were created as equals, they were created to serve one another, and they were created to rule over the world together. That's Genesis 1, 26 through 28. Both male and female. Never says anywhere they were meant to rule over each other. This is the pure ethic of God. The account of, oh, this is good. They will rule together. And God said, let us make mankind in our image, our likeness, so that they may rule. Be fruitful. Subdue the earth. Because if you're ruling, then you have power over. And if you have power over, you have the power to control. And if you have power to control, well, they were meant to be equals. And that's why God said this is good. This is good when human beings are respecting and valuing each other as equal images of God.

The Theft of Objectification

And here Yeshua is speaking about thinking about sex with someone that you're not entitled to. He's speaking about being a thief with someone else's body through your thoughts. That's rough. It's rough to be called out like that because it's so easy to do. You know, it's interesting because there is a place where it does mention that man will rule over the female. Where was that? Oh, that's right. It was part of the curse after they fell because y'all have done this. Yeah, your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.

It's just interesting. I don't know. You see, at this time in Judean history, 2,000 years ago, it was considered the woman's fault if man sinned, right? Of course it is.

Blame and Worth

Who else would it be? Here, wear a head covering. You got to be modest. Why must you be modest? So you don't cause me to sin. I don't think any time in my life when I've ever heard that, it has ever been less of a cop out. You're going to blame a human being that you stripped God's value away from so that you could have sex with them in your mind and are going to blame them for you doing that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. She was wearing shorts, and I've never actually confronted myself about how awful my heart is because I don't need to. I read the Bible.

I use the Bible in very responsible ways like justifying having power over other people, and therefore it's her fault. Modesty should absolutely be a priority. Men, y'all have a habit of just taking your shirt off and showing off everything all the time, very casually, right? You need to be wary of that because when you start exposing things to the world that are not normally seen, guess what happens? Oh, it's a lot of skin. I'm not showing any privates. Neither was the woman that caused you to be a sinner. Hopefully, man, we can do better. And ladies, as you've likely been shamed and lectured your entire life, showing body parts that are typically covered attracts people to look.

So we all need to be wise with our bodies and our clothing. And that is difficult to do depending on the culture you're in. It's extremely difficult to do because different cultures have different standards. Be wise. Be wise. For many reasons than just being attractive. Because you're not an object. No one here is an object. And so no one here should be dressing like one, right? And I wasn't joking about the men thing. I know that's always—"oh, he's just trying to buffer it." No. No, men have a bad habit of disregarding modesty because we can't be immodest. You have lied to yourself. Good sir, you are made as the image of God.

You have so much value. You have so much value that Jesus said they're totally worth dying for. That's how much worth they have. Don't strip yourself of that worth and do not strip others of that worth. But that's not the sin Jesus is speaking about right here. That's just a side point because we always bring up that discussion.

The Real Issue: Your Heart

It's always the people that didn't read this that end up pointing fingers at others for things that are their responsibility. Yeshua here in the Sermon on the Mount, he's speaking to men specifically. And he's saying that if you're blaming a woman for your refusal to confront yourself, you're kidding yourself. Because the real issue is not being tempted. Being tempted is not the issue. Someone has shorts that are an inch above the knee. There's a temptation for some reason. There's a temptation that comes from that. And your decision to respond to the temptation is what Yeshua is talking about. The real issue is not being tempted.

It's embracing the temptation. If a guy or girl gets your attention because you find something about them attractive, that is the moment that Yeshua is cheering you on to be strong and represent the kingdom of God that you claim to be a part of. What are you going to do when you notice that thing about that other person? Whatever. Whatever. Pretty eyes. Whatever. Doesn't have clothes. What are you going to do? Because it shouldn't matter what a person is wearing for you not to strip them naked completely. In synagogues, women were separated from men. They were segregated. Why? Because you don't want to cause the man to lust after you when you're trying to read the Bible.

Stick all those objects in the second floor so we don't see them. And Yeshua's inviting his disciples and followers to follow him and take a hard look at your hearts and the things that your hearts produce. And he's saying that if you are truly committed to a discipleship in Yeshua, there's no desire for another without love. And this is obvious. We know that. Again, Yeshua's addressing men because during this time in the culture, it was the guys. This was a huge issue. We know this is a problem among both men and women, especially today where culture has made sexual appropriation common and acceptable for both men and women because we're a culture of empire, and empires always seek ways to structure power and privilege and to control others.

Cut Out Your Heart

Yeshua goes on to advise how to prevent this from happening if you are really struggling with it. He says, "...take your fingers and stick them in your eye sockets..." and pull your eye out if it causes you to sin. And if it's your right hand, you get a machete. You don't blame other people. You get the machete, and you chop off your hand. That's what he says. Because it's better that you lose a few members, appendagi of your body, instead of your whole body going into hell or going into Gehenna, which we discussed last week. And that's when we're like, okay, well, Yeshua, awesome sermon. It's a little too far.

It's a little too far. No, it's not too far, right? Not too far. Yeshua is asserting hyperbolic metaphor here. It's an exaggeration that's intended to shock the hearers to get their attention of the severity of what he's actually trying to say. Listen, if you have trouble doing this, I want you to take a sawzall with one of the short demolition blades. The short ones, you don't want the long ones. You want the short demo blades that can do both metal and wood. And you want to shove this into your eyeball and pull the trigger if you cannot control this. We're laughing because we realize it's like, gosh, that's so much.

Yeshua is attempting to say that that is not as extreme of an issue for a believer to have unchained lust engulfing their entire body and life and the hell it will produce now and later. Stop it. And it's beautiful because it's meant to make you meditate on that, right? So many times we read that and we're like, oh, okay, yeah, we'll just cut our hands off as if it's an alternative. And Yeshua is laughing here because he knows his followers are like, how does that even work? Because it doesn't. Because your eye or your hand didn't cause any of this. It's not your eye's fault that your heart produced this.

It's not your hand's fault. It's not any other thing's fault. It's your heart. It's what you chose to do with the temptation. That's what Yeshua is saying here. You can cut, you can nibble all of it, and it's not going to solve the problem until you cut out your heart, which should be reformed as a new creation according to Ezekiel 36, which should have a manifesto of the kingdom of God engraved on it according to Jeremiah 31.

The Time Has Come

Yeshua's teachings are amazing. They weren't so hard. Was Yeshua's mission to bring hell to earth or bring heaven to earth? Heaven to earth. And he's saying here, you are perpetuating hell spreading now by allowing these things to happen in your heart. God created male and female to be his image bearers, the reflection of his goodness, his mercy, his reign, his justice, his love. And the moment that you gaze at someone in order to foster a sense of entitlement toward their body, you objectify an image of God. You take what God made to reflect heaven and you distort it to reflect the selfish desires of your heart.

It's better to cut off the appendages than to allow that to keep happening. Yeshua is saying that the time has come for a new humanity spoken about in the prophets to rise up in this world today. It's time for a new people of God embodied by this new heart and this new spirit, as Ezekiel says, to claim that status of a son and a daughter of the king, to claim that status as a follower of the righteous one, to claim the status of those that will be ambassadors of justice and righteousness and change the world alongside each other, following their king. He says, the time has come. Repent, because it's happening now.

It's starting now. And he's saying, do you want to be a part of this? This thing that you've yearned for throughout history? Then we need to push back the way that the world tells us heaven should feel and look like.

What Heaven Should Look Like

It's amazing, because growing up, we always talk about going to heaven, going to heaven, right? That's what the gospel is all about, is what happens after you die, when Yeshua really doesn't talk about that at all. He talks about all of this now. But it's so funny, when we fantasize about heaven... Generally, what do we fantasize about? We fantasize about gold streets and big mansions and infinite junk food. Right? No? Come on. Right? We fantasize about having overindulgence of all the things that our flesh wants now in heaven. Is it hidden? We have a distorted view of heaven because that's what we want.

That's what it looks like when our heart creates in the name of God. We need to come to a place where we no longer turn these creations of God with insurmountable worth into objects. Simple, right? No, we don't turn people into objects to fill the damning desires of our own hearts. We don't do that as followers of Yeshua. We push back against that and we stand against that. And that's hard when we live in this world. And the biggest motivation that I find to keep going is to know that you were made to be better than that because you are better than that. So men and women, just because it's in private does not mean it will not destroy you along with everyone around you.

And so I really don't know how to conclude the message because the message is about what the rest of the Sermon on the Mount is about. It's about what a new world is supposed to look like. It's about what God's good creation is supposed to look like and what it did look like until we saw and took. And it's a message about what it should look like for a soldier of Christ, as Paul calls us, to stand firm with our shield and our sword and to push back and to refuse to belittle another human being, to refuse to strip someone else of their value and worth. That's the Sermon on the Mount. It's not just about sexual desire.

It's about having hatred in your heart. It's about having contempt towards others. It's about judging others so that you feel better about yourself. It's about having humility and killing your pride. And Yeshua says, you've grown up in a world that represents hell, and I'm giving you the opportunity to step into heaven on earth right now. Follow me. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. I'm sending a helper. You can do it. And as new creations in Christ, fulfilling the mission of the image bearers to rule and reign over creation as God intended, you have the authority to say no. You have the authority to say, I will not be forced into choosing something that I don't need to choose.

You have the authority, just as Yeshua did. Hebrews says he endured all temptations that we do. You have the same authority to speak to Satan and say, no, no, be gone. You don't have authority anymore. And so I encourage you, know that you can. Not only do you have permission to say no to the world, know that you can, and know who's behind you and who supports you. So please stand today. If anybody needs prayer today, we have a prayer team on either side. We have an altar here where you can lay something down and leave it today.

Come to the Altar

And it's always one of those things because, of course, sex and lust is the sticky, that's the icky sin in our society. And so you do a message on it, and then you say, hey, we have a prayer call. And then it's like, whenever I have an altar call or whenever we do something at the end of services for prayer, I have lived life enough to know that just because a sermon's about something doesn't mean that you didn't go through something completely different this week and it would be really good to have someone pray with you. Just because I do a sermon on lust or something like that doesn't mean every single person who comes up is dealing with that. It shouldn't matter. It's so dumb, church culture at times.

The Crossroads

The entirety of the Sermon on the Mount and this message is about you choosing to not lower the worth of other people in any regard. If you have contempt for another person in your heart today, I encourage you, make a decision. I'll give you a crossroads. Make a decision whether you're going to leave here with it or whether you're going to leave it here and try to take steps to change. If you have a problem with stealing or hatred or anger today, you can leave it here. Or you can make a decision to take it with you. If you have a problem with coveting other people as objects in your heart today, I want to make a crossroads.

I want you to face the decision because that's exactly what Yeshua is saying. It's not the temptation. Face the decision today, the crossroads. Will you leave with it or will you leave something here today? That's the Sermon on the Mount, guys. And that's why it's so hard because we like to have power to strip people of value to make ourselves feel more empowered—it's a farce. We act as if it's a real thing. I am more valuable than someone. No, you're not. The world teaches us to start on top. And to stay on top by pushing down others, Yeshua says start at the bottom. And we're going to work our way up, and we're going to take over the world for the name of God, not using force, not using the tools of the world, but we're going to do it through peace and love and mercy and understanding that God loves you and everybody else.

So, Alvino Moccano, our Father, our King, Father, we thank you for this opportunity to once again dive into the radical words of Yeshua, our King, that these words would cause us to stop and meditate on where we are today, where the world is today, what the world wants us to do, and what we know you want us to do. And that we would remember that we already have the power, we already have the authority, we already have the blessing and your seal to say, no, I will stand for something greater than that. We thank you, Father. In the name of Yeshua, our King, we pray. Amen. Let's sing the Shema together.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. May the Lord also cause you to increase and overflow in love for one another and for all people in order to strengthen your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Yeshua with all of his holy saints. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his peace. In the name of our Tsar Shalom, our Prince of Peace, Yeshua HaMashiach.

Amen. Shabbat Shalom, family.