Sermon
The Place of Revenge in God's Family
Romans 12:17
July 24, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

Throughout the summer months we have been discussing a subject that fills the verses of Romans chapter 12, and our subject has been "Behaving Like a Christian". A world around us filled with nonbelievers has some very high expectations as to how they think we as Christians should live, and they are very quick to pass their judgments when we disappoint them, and often we as Christians are not sensitive to the fact that the observing world will determine the value of our Christ and the quality of our Christianity by the way we live out our faith. And thus, what we're talking about is living like Christians in a world where our guidelines of living are quite opposite in many cases than what the world lives by, and this one today is a very, very difficult subject.

In Romans chapter 12 verses 17 through 19 Paul writes these words: "Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'"

Now in an Old Testament passage in Leviticus we find these words: "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." And Solomon says, "Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the Lord, and He will deliver you."

And then Jesus spoke these very, very difficult words: You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the evil man. Now the word for resist is the original, do not take an evil man to court. Do not resist the evil man [who injures you]: but if anyone strikes you on the right jaw or cheek, turn to him the other one too. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your undershirt (tunic), let him have your coat also. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two [miles].

Remember Jesus is writing, the Roman soldiers are standing on every street corner and often the Roman soldiers demanded that people carry their gear, so Jesus said if anyone forces you to go a mile, go with him two miles.

Give to him who keeps on begging from you, and do not turn away from him who would borrow [at interest] from you. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

And Peter again repeats the words almost exactly of Christ, "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing."

I open our lesson today with findings from a survey that was taken some time ago, and the findings of that survey resulted in a book that was written entitled 'The Day America Told The Truth'. That survey was a very massive survey because over two thousand people were involved, and each two thousand plus participants had to answer eighteen hundred questions, and they were given a week to do so.

Now when Gallup poll takes a poll normally there are a thousand to 1300 or 1400 people involved and usually there are only a half a dozen questions or so, so you can see the massiveness of this survey and many of those had not only answered their questions, but they were interviewed as to their answers, and so the survey in its scope was massive and at covered a lot of things. But one of the dominant findings in the survey, perhaps the most important of all, is that America no longer has a sense of right or wrong. "A letdown in moral values is now considered the number one problem facing our country," said the pollsters. And our politicians and our business leaders have betrayed us.

"Only 13 percent of us believe in all the Ten Commandments," so the book reports. And forty percent of us believe in five of the Ten Commandments. There is absolutely no moral consensus in this country as there was in the 1950s when all of our institutions commanded more respect than they do today. Today there is very little respect for the law, for any law at all.

And the number one rationalization or the reason people live as they do with lawless and immoral behavior is that they say, everyone else is doing it; why shouldn't I? And this is the society's argument for their actions. And thus, making the distinction between right and wrong is what civilization--not to mention right religious behavior--is all about. But that is what we have lost in America. We do not believe in right or wrong. And therefore it's against that particular setting in society in America and with a sense of loss of distinction of right and wrong even within the church.

Paul addresses the matter of how we live out our faith in this beautiful chapter of Romans 12 where he gives us many specific directives as to how we are to live out our Christian faith in our home, in our church, and in our world.

The subject today is revenge. The Amplified Bible reads: "Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is honest and proper and noble [aiming to be above reproach] in the sight of everyone."

The reason why it's a difficult subject is because the most natural thing that we do as human beings, we want to balance the books immediately if someone does us a harm, an injury, we want to get even. We want to take revenge.

Chuck Swindall in recent months has published a book. He went through all of the sermons that he had preached and he pulled out all of the illustrations, and so I have this massive book by a brother Swindall. And I went to the subject of revenge and he had these two illustrations; he said, Recently in a newspaper, this cartoon appeared. It depicted a tiny baby only seconds after birth. The physician had the baby by the feet, holding him upside down, and slapping him on the fanny. Instead of crying, the kid was screaming angrily, "I want a lawyer!"

We are born with a sense of revenge, and he writes, After a lengthy search through her purse, the lady who had just boarded a streetcar handed the conductor a twenty dollar bill. "I'm sorry," she snapped, noting the conductor's disapproving glance, "but I don't have a nickel." "Oh, don't worry lady," he reassured her. "You'll have three hundred and ninety-nine of them in a minute.

Revenge-yes-revenge does not long remain unrevenged. He who injured you was either stronger or weaker. If he was weaker, spare him; if he was stronger, spare yourself. Blowing out another fellow's candle won't make yours shine any brighter.

And when we commenced the lesson today I read these words of Jesus and I have to tell you that over the years these words have constantly challenged me. Listen to them again: "But I say, don't resist an evil person! If you are slapped on the right cheek, turn the other, too. If you are ordered to court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don't turn away from those who want to borrow."

Now that's a hard meal to swallow folks. Few passages of the New Testament have more of the essence of the Christian ethic in them than this one. Here is the characteristic ethic of the Christian life, and the conduct which should distinguish the Christian from the rest of society.

Now it's interesting in this text Jesus makes reference to an old law that was 2000 years old. It was part of the Code of Hammurabi who lived and reigned in Babylon. It was known as the LEX TALIONIS, which was a law known as the tit for tat, an arm for an arm, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. And it was part of a code that had been in existence 2000 years before Christ. But another interesting aspect of this part of the code, it was also written in the Old Testament.

Notice there are three different verses where it's almost the same. It says, "If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." Tit for tat - LEX TALIONIS.

And again in Leviticus, "When a man causes a disfigurement in his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has disfigured a man, he shall be disfigured".

And again in Deuteronomy, "Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

Now those who criticize our Bible say that's a blood thirsty law, but you have to understand the context and the situation in which this law came into existence. It was a time of tribal conflict and if one man from one tribe injured a man of another tribe, the retaliation was the whole tribe went after the whole tribe, and the result was that many oft times gave their lives just in retaliation for one injured person. Thus, this became a law which limited vengeance.

It lays it down not only that a man who committed the injury must be punished, but his punishment must be no more than the equivalent of the injury that he has inflicted. Now seen against this historical setting you can see that it's a law, really a law of mercy, because it limited retaliation amongst the tribes. Now also it was never a law which was used by a private individual for a right to extract vengeance. It was always a law which laid down how a judge in the law court must assess punishment and penalty.

And still further as you study the history of this law, even in semi-civilized society, it was never ever carried out literally. And the reason being, the Jewish jurists argued rightly that to carry it out literally might in fact be the revenge of justice, because it obviously might involve the displacement of a good eye and a good tooth for a bad eye and a bad tooth. So very, very soon what happened in the courts, and this was 2000-3000 years ago, they decided it's hard to really judge, I mean, to work this out in judgment so they came up with the idea we will assess a monetary value to the injury.

Now we find that in our courts today, but this started ladies and gentlemen 2500 years ago. They said, listen, what we will do if a man loses a certain amount of time, he gets compensated for his time. If there's a certain amount of pain, he gets compensated for his pain and so on, and thus the settlement was reached with monetary values assessed to whatever injury was inflicted.

I had a gentleman come to me just on Friday and he said, Pastor, the insurance company is trying to bring about a settlement and they have assessed certain values to how long I've been working with the doctor and my medication and so forth, and they are going to work out this settlement in accordance with their plan. And it really is just simply a plan that has been in existence because it was used to react against this tit for tat, this LEX TALIONIS law.

And when Jesus comes along the ancient ethics, which were based on that law, Jesus obliterated the very principle of that law because retaliation, however controlled and restricted, has no place in the Christian life. Remember our text: "Repay no one evil for evil."

For the Christian, Jesus abolished the old law of limited vengeance and introduces the new spirit of non-resentment and non retaliation. And what Jesus does, He selects three situations in life where retaliation or vengeance can be expressed and He tells us how Christians should react in those situations.

First of all He says if one slaps you on the cheek, you turn the other cheek so he can slap it too. Just a minute. That's so much against our human nature. But under rabbinic law it was a double insult to slap someone with the back of your hand. And if you popped someone on the face with the back of your hand you had the ultimate insult delivered to your enemy.

You know we live in a culture where very seldom do I see it, and I work with parents and children all the time, but very seldom do you see a parent slap a child on the face, usually on the buttocks, but not on the face. And it's interesting when you watch the child's reaction, if he's struck on the face, his reaction is totally different than when he is struck on any other part of the body. There's something insulting about slapping someone on the face. And Jesus brings in the rabbinic law, to slap with back of the hand was a double insult.

But Jesus is saying that even if a man should direct at you the most deadly and calculated insult, you must on no account retaliate, and you must on no account resent it. Now folks that's hard.

It will not happen very often, if at all, that anyone will slap us on the face, but time and time again life brings to us insults either great or small and Jesus is saying that the true Christian has learned to resent no insult and to seek no retaliation for the slight. You see what I said, it's a hard one, isn't it? Jesus just simply says you don't retaliate.

Now He demonstrated that. Jesus was called a winebibber. He was called a glutton. He was called a friend of sinners. He was called a friend of harlots, implying that He was like the company that He kept. The beautiful thing about Jesus is He didn't retaliate. In fact ultimately He went to the cross to die for those who spoke evil against Him. And thus, a true Christian behaves with a kindness, with a blessing as Peter has said, when insulted or when injured you do not retaliate.

Well, what else has Jesus got to say? He says if someone takes you to court and they want your tunic; give them your coat also. What's He talking about? Well in that day you wore an undergarment, which we would call our undergarments, but the undergarment was a sack-like soft material that hung over the person. There were holes for the arms and the neck and the head. That was called the tunic. You usually had a number of tunics in your drawer, but you normally most people only had one cloak. It was a blanket like wrap that wrapped around you and it was heavier than the tunic, and it was what protected you during the day from the heat or from the cold, and at night when you decided to go to bed that was your bedding; that was your blanket.

And because the cloak was such an important part of the garment of those people there was a law that was laid down in Exodus chapter 22, If ever you take your neighbor's garment in pledge, his cloak, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down. For that is his only covering, it is his mantle for his body and in what else shall he sleep?

So because the cloak was so important to a man's existence it could not permanently be taken from him. And Jesus goes further to say if they take your tunic just add the coat beside it. Now what is He saying? What Jesus is saying is that the Christian never stands upon his own rights. He never disputes about his legal rights. He does not consider himself to have any legal rights at all.

There are people who are for ever standing on their rights and clutch their privileges to them and who will not be pried loose from them, who will militantly go to law simply rather than to suffer what may be regarded as the slightest infringement upon them.

Now we think we live in a litigious society, but you go back to the time that Paul wrote his writings, you'll find that when he wrote to Corinth, I mean, it was a city filled with litigation. They were Greek people and they loved to go to law and they loved to argue legal arguments. In fact, you would find court cases going on in the streets, in front of buildings, down in the parks and I mean the whole city was a courtyard. And if you didn't have anything to do that day you would go down to the courthouse and they'd give you some shekels to pay you and you'd go out and find one of these court cases in progress and you would join them as a juror.

So everybody in town was a juror, and if the case was small sometimes it would have six to twelve jurors, but history tells us that on many occasions the cases were so large they had 2000 jurors. Can you imagine getting a settlement from 2000 people? But I mean they loved to litigate; they loved to argue; they loved to fuss over the smallest things, and the whole city was a courtyard.

Sad thing - those Christians from Corinth brought that love for the law right into the church, and I mean it turned at the church into an ugly mess. So Paul writes about it - I'm on page 6 - and he really gets very straight about this matter. He said, "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?"

You see in Jewish culture they didn't take their disputes outside the family. They would resent highly a Gentile judge solving their problems. And so what Paul is saying is, he said, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?"

In other words, you go out and get a pagan, godless judge to pass judgment upon your disagreements. He said, "I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!"

So Paul makes it very clear that Christians never take your brother Christian to court. And the implied is you don't use the courts for vengeance. Now you may have to go to court for protection, but you never use the courts for vengeance because the Bible says vengeance is Mine. I will repay. God takes care of the retaliation.

Now ladies and gentlemen this has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn in life and I'm going to tell you a story. Every time I read that, I remember the case. Years ago we had a gentleman who had another church and we became a part of that church, and as the result he had some financial involvements there so we said as long as that church exists the church will be responsible for this financial remuneration. That was agreed upon, and it was agreed then when we turned that church over to that congregation that they would assume the obligation to this gentleman.

But they didn't. They decided we're going to renege on our agreement, and we're not going to pay you a dime. So this man calls me one morning and says, Sheley? I said, yes. He says the other congregation has reneged on their agreement. They are not going to pay me, so you are. I said now just a minute. All of us made the agreement and we transferred the obligation and it was all agreed by everybody. He said I know that, but they've decided they are not going to pay, you are. And he said I've gone to my attorneys already, five of them, and I'm ready to sue you and plaster you, the church's name, across the newspapers and your name too.

And I said, now just a minute. Here's a negation of an obligation and you're transferring that to me, which made it totally wrong, and I said don't you read your Bible sir? He said, I do, and he said it says that brother shouldn't take brother, but he said I'm the brother and you're the sinner. And so it doesn't say anything about a brother taking a sinner to court, so I'm going to take you to court.

And I said well sir, if I have to walk the streets naked, if I have to sell everything I've got, I will never let the cause of Christ be injured in our community and I will never allow the church to be sued. Now what is it that you want? He lined out - I had to sell a home - tens and tens and tens of thousands were poured to this man, but that didn't please him. When I was out of money and broke then he said I want more from the church, and over a period of five years that man took tens and tens of thousands of dollars in vengeance.

I had a hard time with it folks. You know the things of God are very, very sacred to me, and here's a man wrongfully taking money that doesn't belong to him, but to save going to court - I wasn't going to go to court. I'm just like you. I would have liked to gone out and burned that guy's house down. I mean I could have cut every tire; I mean I had at night... I mean, I'm human revenge is natural. But finally I got over it and I said, God, You've got to help me. I can't carry this bitterness. I can't carry this anger and preach; they don't go together. So God just help me to forget it, solve it.

Years passed - years. Last year that man came and sat in this congregation. He was bent and he was dying. I didn't know who it was. After the service he hobbles up and said, do you know me sir? I said, no, I don't know you. He said I am, and he told me his name, and all of a sudden this history flashed across my mind. He said, pastor, I have come to ask you to forgive me, and I ask the church to forgive me. And I said well sir, I had to forgive you years ago. I put my arm around him and I said, you're forgiven.

And I can still see him as he hobbled out that walkway there, but I cried because he had five children and those five children observed how their father treated the church of God and a minister, and every one of them turned against their faith and to this day he's got five atheists on his hands. The price he paid for a dollar bill and to get vengeance cost him his family.

Our scripture text is very real. Vengeance is Mine God says, and I'll take care of the repayment program. I'll take care of the retaliation. I have observed over my many years that when people take vengeance into their own hands it always ends up a mess, and oft times they lose their dollars, they lose their soul, they lose their love, they lose their joy and it's gone while they're fighting this battle to try to get things evened up. It isn't worth it folks and the Scripture is still true - do not repay evil for evil.

Now there's an Old Testament story I want to tell you in closing. It's the story of Esther. It's a short book. You might want to read it for your lunch hour today. But there was a king in Persia and his name was Ahasuerus. That was his Hebrew name. His Greek name was Xerxes, and he had this massive empire from Ethiopia clear almost to China, 127 provinces.

So he calls all of his people and he's going to have a party and it's six months long. Now that's a party folks. And while he's drunk he wants to show off his wife, Queen Vashti. She was a lovely beautiful lady. So he sends his servants...go tell the lady to come I want to show her off. She said, no, I'm not coming. Now the Bible doesn't tell us, but maybe the history books do. The reason why the queen didn't want to come is because she was heavy with child, because history says the name was changed and she was the mother of Artaxerxes who was the next king. So to preserve her dignity she didn't present herself with her pregnancy.

The king gets mad. His wife won't come so he talks to his advisers...what should we do? Depose her, because if everybody learns that she doesn't obey you there's not a lady in the kingdom that's going to obey their husbands. So the queen is deposed and the old king when he gets over his drunken spell realizes he did a stupid thing. He lost his beautiful wife.

So they said well that's all right, we'll just have a beauty contest. We'll bring in all the beautiful gals of the empire and you can have a new harem, king, which he did. And out of that harem is a lady by the name of Esther. She is a Jewess, and it's implied in the text that these were conscripted. In other words these gals had to come. They didn't have a choice, and so Esther becomes a part of the harem. But the man who is in charge of the king's harem takes a liking to Esther. She is a beautiful lady, and so he makes sure she has a beautiful chamber, and she's got seven maids to serve her and he went through a year-long process of beautification. I mean they bathed them with perfume...and for one whole year, and so when that beautification process was over then they were ready to go to spend the evening with the king.

So Esther went to see the and he fell in love with her, and now she becomes Queen Esther. Remember, she's a Jewess in a foreign country with a Persian . Well what Esther does very quickly she elevates her uncle who was Mordecai who when Esther's father and mother died he adopted Esther so she is a part of the family. And Mordecai gets a nice position; in fact, they put him at the gate, which was a very high position in the town. So he knew what was coming and going in the courtyard, and one day he learned that two guys were trying to assassinate the . So he gets that message back to the through Esther, they catch the two guys, hang them, and that ends the plot.

But Mordecai is still out there walking back and forth taking care of things at the gate. But just a little while later the elevates Haman, and Haman is an Amalekite. Now the Amalekites are interesting. They were the tribe that came in from behind the Israelites when they were making their way out of Egypt into the Promised Land and attacked them from the rear, and as a result God placed a curse on the Amalekites and it's believed that old Haman was an Amalekite. So that's why Mordecai wasn't going to bow to him. And old Haman wanted everybody to bow to him. I'm the new prime minister and everybody's got to bow to me.

Mordecai said I'm not going to, and that made Haman angry. Mordecai said I'm not going to bow. Finally old Haman went to the and said, look at, it's time that you sent out an edict, and he wrote the edict so not only would he take care of his enemy Mordecai, he was going to kill all the Jews, and the history books tell us there were probably 15 million in the empire and on a certain day they were all to be slaughtered, and they sent out the edict to 127 provinces. And when Mordecai...it came down to his desk and he read it, it says that he walked back and forth in front of the 's palace weeping, wailing, and he's got himself dressed in sackcloth and ashes. And Esther hears about it.

What's wrong with my uncle? So she sends down some clothes. He refuses the clothes. Finally through the communication channel Esther learns that Haman has this edict out against all the Jews and on a certain day they are going to be killed. And old Mordecai said something which is a phrase that's been repeated down through the centuries - Esther, who knows whether you have come to the dom for such an hour as this.

In other words, God's placed you there. You're the only one that can get to the . But Esther knew that you never went into the presence of a without being invited, otherwise no matter who you were, even his wife, they would kill you. So she knew that it was going to be a risky situation to get the 's attention, but she dresses up beautifully and she goes down the colonnades and their sets the way down there on his throne, and God gave him good eyesight and he saw the beauty of his queen, and as a result he wants to see his queen and so he...come here Esther. What is it you want Esther?

Well I want you and Haman to come to a banquet tonight. Well that's good. So Haman and the have supper with Esther, and the said, now - I'm sure his curiosity must be really raging by now - why did you invite us? Well, would you have another supper with me, and Haman, would you come? So all right - tomorrow night we have another supper. Well of course when Haman leaves the palace he's so excited. He's had supper with the and the queen and he's gotten invited back for a second banquet.

So he goes home and he gets his family all excited and they say, now's the time to get Mordecai. So what we'll do, let's build a gallows 75 feet tall, and then you go to the and get the permission to hang Mordecai because he won't bow to you. So they are out spending all night building this 75 foot gallows, but in the palace the can't sleep. And finally he calls his servants; bring me the chronicles, which are the history books, and that will put anybody to sleep. The old servant brings the chronicles in and he's reading the chronicles and all of a sudden the old servant is saying, look at, this happened five years ago and you'd never ever said thank you to Mordecai. It's not even in the record. It's time we say thank you to him.

Well old Haman has finished his gallows and early in the morning he's running into the courtyard of the thinking that he's going to get this permit to hang Mordecai on his gallows, and the says, hey, it's good to see you Haman. What do you mean? Well what would you do to a guy who you wanted to really show your kindness to? Thinking he's going to be the guy, he said, well I'd dress him in your clothes and I'd put him on your beast and I'd take him down the middle of the street and have a ceremony.

He said that's good. He said you go get Mordecai, you put my clothes on Mordecai and you lead the horse down the street. I mean he spent all night building those gallows to kill old Mordecai. Can you see Haman walking down the street leading that horse? And here is Mordecai riding in palace splendor dressed in the 's clothes.

But when they get through with this ceremony old Haman goes home, and it's in the afternoon, and I mean he's torn to pieces. And while he's talking to his family (there is a knock at the door) the servants from the say, hey, it's time for your supper. So he straightens up his face, gets himself prepared, and he's going to that other banquet.

At the banquet the says, Esther, what is it you really want? She said, , if it pleases you I'd like my life. There has been an edict that's gone out - I'll put this in my words - and all my people and myself are to be killed on a certain day. And the said who would ever think about killing a lovely lady like you?

She turned to old Haman and said that wicked Haman, and all of a sudden the realizes he signed the death warrant for his own wife. She's going to be a part of this slaughter of all the Jews, and he's angry so he runs to the garden. And old Haman he now knows he's really in a fix, and so he goes over to the couch where Esther is and he's pleading with her and somehow he stumbles and falls over the couch. And so the comes back in and he said not only did you want her death, but now you have accosted her as my wife, and immediately he orders the servants to put a hood over Haman's head. And in the court when you hooded a man under the direction of the you know he's going to die immediately.

And now Haman is there with his hood over his head and the decides take Haman and hang him from his own gallows. Vengeance? And old Haman hangs from his 75 foot gallows and Esther gets his massive fortune. History tells us that the income was 15,000 pieces of silver, that was for the entire empire, and Haman paid 10,000 pieces of silver. So you can see he was a massively wealthy man. Esther gets all of his estate and turns it over to Mordecai to manage.

God is the God of retaliation, not us. If someone has done you an injury, don't retaliate. Don't give insult for insult and do not give injury for injury. Peter said just bless them, be Christ like, and turn the matter over to God.

Last night in our evening service I knew that a man has been wrestling with depression and I've been giving him books and help. I didn't know what the matter was and he teaches across the bay. And he came to me after the service and he said, you know pastor, I've learned this lesson myself. I said I'm a teacher in the public schools, and he said one of my students had accused me of molestation. He said I knew I didn't do it, and he said I have been praying, waiting before God, and I decided I'm not going to retaliate. I'm going to let God solve this matter.

He said, pastor, four weeks have gone by, but he said yesterday the young lad admitted he had lied, they took away the charge, and he said I'm free. He said it's true, if you leave the resolution of the matter in God's hands, He'll take care of it.

And I've learned that, and this is our lesson today - if you want to behave like a Christian don't retaliate, and don't repay evil with evil. Turn it over to God and He'll take care of it.

Father, we need Your help now. We know exactly what to do, but to do it takes tremendous courage. Give us that courage, give us that conviction, and help us to behave ourselves like Christians, in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.