Dear citizens, you can open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 6. There are two parts to read. 1 Corinthians 6, from verse 12. And 1 Corinthians 10, from verse 14. 1 Corinthians 6, from verse 12. And 1 Corinthians 10, from verse 14. Let's listen to the Holy Scripture, the Word of God. Everything has been promised to me, but not everything is useful. Everything has been promised to me, but I will not be dominated by something. The food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for the food. But God will make the one as well as the other, and the body is not for your own use, but for the Lord's, and the Lord's for the body. And God also raised the Lord, and will raise us through his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a whore? No, I will not. Or do you not know that he who is a whore has not one body? For the second, he says, shall be one flesh. But whoever follows this, is one with the Spirit. Run for your life! Any sin that a man commits is outside the body, but whoever commits sin is sinning against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you, that you have of God, and that you do not own yourself? For you have bought the animal. Then glorify God in your body and in your spirit that belongs to God. Let's go to verse 14, chapter 10. Therefore, my beloved, hasten to the service of repentance. I speak as with sensible people, especially what I say. The cup of thanksgiving, what we see with thanksgiving, is that not the community with the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is that not the community with the body of Christ? Because it is one bread, we are all one body. Because we are all part of the one bread. Pay attention to Israel, to the flesh. the sacrifices do not have anything to do with the altar. What do I say then? That a sacrifice is something, or that a sacrifice is something? No, but that the sacrifice of the saints is a sacrifice to the devil, and not to God. And I don't want you to have anything to do with the devil. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, nor can you cut the cup of the devil. You cannot share the table of the Lord, nor can you cut the table of the devil. Or do you want to wake up the servant of the Lord? Are we perhaps stronger than he? Everything has been promised to me, but not everything is useful. Everything has been promised to me, but not everything is bad. Let no one seek his own advantage, but everyone the advantage of another. Eat all that is sold in the storehouse, without asking for it, for the sake of the wise. For the earth belongs to the Lord, and the fullness of it. And if one of the unbelievers is hungry, and he is willing to go, eat all that is put before you, without asking for it, for the sake of the wise. But if anyone says to you, This is a sacrifice, Then you should not eat because of him who gave it to you, and because of the knowledge. For the earth belongs to the Lord, and the fullness of it. I mean the knowledge, not of yourself, but of the other. Because why is my freedom judged by another's knowledge? And if I enjoy something with thanksgiving, why am I burdened with something for which I thank? Whether you eat or drink or do anything, do everything for the glorification of God. Do not be a cause of strife for Jews or Greeks or for the community of God. Just as I am content in everything and do not seek my own advantages, but those of many, so that they may be saved. Amen. This is the Holy Word of God. Beloved community, we now have the blessed sermon. We are now at the seventh prayer. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Last week we talked about the principles that peacemakers need to take into account when they are living in a world where there is so much conflict. I thought we would go through each principle one by one. Then we'll do the first one today, glorify God. Glorify God in your conflict. A principle for peacemakers is that they want to glorify God. It's a very basic principle. Dear viewers, we have now looked at two parts in one Korinthian, the first letter to the community in Korinthia. Actually, if we look at this first letter, we can see that it was a letter that Paul had written before, but the Lord has decided not to give it to us in the canon. And there was possibly another letter he wrote to the municipality. You get the impression from those two letters that there were at least four letters to the municipality in Corinth. But two of them are for us to keep. Two are kept to be part of the canon. If we talk about one Corinthian, we're talking about the first one in the canon. Not least the first one Paul wrote to the municipality. Now, what we have to do with this is a community that was in a state. This was a community where there were big problems. And among other things, there was also a big conflict, a big battle. Paulus will often praise the community for something, and then he will reproach them for something. And he also praises the other communities for their love, In this community, he doesn't praise them for their love. He praises them for their hope. He praises them for their faith. He says, nice, I see there is good hope in you. I see you have faith. But he doesn't say that about their love. There was a lack of love in this community. And then, that's why there are these main passages that go so beautifully about love, because that's what the community needed. It was a loneliness in the community. They didn't live in love. They didn't have love for God and didn't have love for each other in the community. So much so, that Paul said at the end of this letter, chapter 16, verse 22, If someone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be a curse. At the end of the letter, he claims again how important it is to have Christ's love, and because you have Christ's love, you also have your fellow believers' love. Now in this, In chapter 6 and 10... There are a few parallels, I'm sure you've heard of them. If we look at verse 12, we hear, Everything has been promised to me, but not everything is useful. Everything has been promised to me, but I will not be overrun by anything. We get the same thing in chapter 10, verse 23. Everything has been promised to me, but not everything is useful. Everything has been promised to me, but not everything is bad. The phrase, everything has been promised to me, claims something of a type of Christian freedom. That people can say, but as a Christian I can do anything, I am free, I am free, I can do certain things. And then Paul is busy here, not just Paul, God the Spirit, is busy saying here that Christian freedom also has perks. There are perks for Christian freedom. And then there are a few phrases he uses for that. Or I won't let anything control me. Or not everything is rigid. Three phrases that embody the freedom of the Christian. I don't just have to ask what I can do, but what I can possibly do will be useful, will bring benefits. What I can do will I can't let anything control me. I can't let anything control me. The spirit must control me. Not my desires, my desires, or other things. Not lust or sexual desires. That can't control me, because the spirit must control me. And not everything is rigid. Not everything is rigid, not everything builds up. Not everything builds me up, but not everything builds me up next to it. And from that I can be sure, when I'm standing in front of a choice, what should I do? How should I act? Then you can ask yourself this question. Is it useful? Is it something that puts you in a hierarchy of other things, like the spirit? And is it something that is rigid? Is it something that builds up? Am I going to build up my neighbour through this? Or am I going to break down my neighbour? Now, there is one thing that is already there in the two parts. The second thing that is already there is an assignment, two assignments. The first assignment is, hurry to the jury in the first part of verse 18, or I should say verse 18. Run, run away from horror, from the sexual sins. Run away, make the tracks behind you look like dust, as if you were running away from sexual sins. The same is said for the apostasy service, verse 10, verse 14. Run for the apostasy service. Walk away from any form of apostasy. Don't play with it. Don't play with the apostasy. Don't give the apostasy any ground in your heart. Don't be involved with apostasy. Just like you have to run away from the sexual sins, you have to run away from apostasy. So that's the second thing that plays such a role in the two parts. But the third thing is a principle that Paulus laid out for us. A principle that Paulus laid out here, which is relevant for all the assignments he would give in Chapter 6 and also in Chapter 10. He's trying to take the same principle, And to say that this principle is applicable to a variety of situations. To a variety of things that you will have to deal with. This is a principle that governs everything. It is fundamental for the Christian life. And we can make a lot of applications from this principle. In this situation, how is this principle Fundamentally, how does it determine how you should act in this situation, and in this situation, and in this situation? This is a fundamental principle for the Christian life. In chapter 6 it is mentioned in verse 19 and 20. And in chapter 10 we read it in verse 31. Verse 6, verse 29. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and which you do not own to yourselves? For you have bought the Lord God in your body and in your spirit, which you own to God. Go straight to verse 10, verse 31. Whether you eat or drink or do anything, Do everything to glorify God. In verse 20, God glorifies you in your body and in your spirit. In verse 31, whether you eat or drink or do anything, do everything to glorify God. In verse 6, it's a bit more elaborate. You get more information than in verse 10. If I say, he asks a few times, or don't you know? Or don't you know? Or don't you know? This is basic good that a Christian should know. Paul asked his fellow Corinthians, don't you realize these things? And one of these basic good that a Christian should know, What the human race should know, what any community should know, what any Christian should know, what you should teach your children, what you should teach your friends, what anyone who is a Christian like you should teach, is this a fundamental aspect of being a Christian? Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you? And that you don't belong to yourself? Because you were bought expensive. Now, in these same two parts where he speaks, the earth and it's fullness belongs to the Lord, that is the Lord's will. The whole creation, everything that is, is the Lord's will. He possesses everything. There is not a piece of ground, there is not a piece of man, there is not one being, anything that exists, that is not God's will. But we already see in the Old Testament, that from this whole creation, and from all the nations that are under the Lord, without exception, he has his special possession. In a different way than the others. In the Old Testament he is very limited to the people of Israel. The people of Israel is now this special possession of the Lord. But in our faith, you can take the true believers in the Old Testament, you can also take the true Israel, but you can also take the church, the Old Testament church. The people of the Lord in the Old Testament, the Old Testament church, the believers of the Old Testament. They are God's special possession that He has separated for Himself. And now, in the Old Testament you would have asked, but how did He do it? How did he separate them for himself? You come to the New Testament, and then what was already there in the Old Testament, but it was still hidden, it was still there, is made more clear in the New Testament. How does God get these people to be His special possession? He buys them. He buys them. And it is the same in the New Testament. Old Testament church, New Testament church, one church through all the ages, was bought by God to be His special possession. To belong to Him. Verse 20, because they were bought. You have been bought at a price. You have been bought at a price. A price has been paid for you. And then you have to ask yourself, what did God pay? What did God pay to give us His property? Well, the three-one God, He bought us with the blood of the Son. The blood of Jesus Christ. God the Son took on the human nature so that He can pay the price with it. So that He can be the price, so that He can be the payment. And that through His life and through His death, He can pay the price that is enough for these people, through all the ages, Old Testament and New Testament, to buy them for the Trinity God, that they will be His. That is the price that is paid. You no longer belong to the enemy. You don't belong to yourself. You belong to One. And it is the only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So that means, this body is no longer mine. This body is not the world's. This body is not the devil's. My understanding is no longer mine, my understanding is no longer the world's, my understanding is no longer the devil's. My thoughts, what my head has been doing, it has implications for that. These hands, these feet, this heart, my emotions, my will. It doesn't belong to me anymore, it doesn't belong to the devil, it belongs to the One who bought me. It was made for Him, and for Him alone. You can see how this has far-reaching implications for how the Christians think, for how the Christians feel, for what the Christians want, for what the Christians do. This basic principle is that I belong to someone, I belong to God. This body can no longer be used against God and against His Kingdom. This body must be used for God and for His Kingdom. And it is stated in verse 19, in a beautiful way. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you? You should see that picture in the Old Testament. First of the tabernacle, later of the temple. Of the almighty, triune God who comes to dwell in His glory under His people. If you stand on your head and you see the tabernacle in the middle, the priests around it, and the tribes around it. What do you see there? You see the Lord is in the midst of his people. He has come to make dwellings among them. He is with them. God is with the people. That is what you see. You see the Lord who wants to be with His people. He is the center of them. He can make a dwelling among them, and He is the center of them. Their whole existence is with Him in the center. He is the focus. He is the most important. Later, a temple was built. You can no longer see that beautiful picture of the tents surrounding the tabernacle. You can no longer see it, because the people are scattered all over the promised land. But that principle that was taught with the tabernacle, had to still be in the thought, had to still be in the heart. And the ceremonies in the Old Testament had to be imprinted, let sink in. Where do you attract the people all the time? Where do you attract the people when they need to come together? They come to the temple. They come to the Lord. That is what our life is about. It is about the Lord. So when the people need to come together, they come together at the temple of the Lord. Because He wants to live among His people. And then in the New Testament, you have this revelation. of the Word that became flesh. The Word that represents the 2nd person of the Trinity. He is the 2nd person of the Trinity, not just representative, he is the 2nd person of the Trinity. And when he stands before us as a human being, and he comes under us as a tabernacle, his body is then the temple that is prepared. That's why when he speaks to the enemies, he says, break down this temple and I will rebuild it in three days. Then they look at this cliff temple, which is bigger than the temple of Solomon. And they think, how on earth is that possible? That you can break down this building and rebuild it in three days. It took us so many years to do that. But in the meantime, Christ was talking about his body. The true temple of Immanuel, God with us. Break this body. And then he will build it up again in three days. That's exactly what he did. God with us, God among us. And then it goes another step further in the New Testament. See how this, which was already there in the Old Testament, is being made more and more open to you. The treasures are being shown to you. What was always there, you see more and more clearly now. when God makes the Holy Spirit dwell in us. We are not saying that the Spirit was not already working in man in the Old Testament. But this line was not yet so clearly revealed in the Old Testament. What happened in Acts, to make it even clearer, is that God does not want to dwell in a building with dead stones. He wants to live in a building that is made of living stones. He is building a temple made of living stones, of which Christ is the cornerstone. And so the Spirit comes and lives in the church of all ages, Old Testament and New Testament, all true believers. The Spirit comes and makes His dwelling in them. And again, this is a way to say, this building, I'm not referring to this building, I'm referring to this building as the church, the true believers. They don't belong to anyone else. Imagine that you would, in the Old Testament, in the tabernacle, if someone would dare to step into the tabernacle with his possessions, with his bed and his disciples, and he goes in there and says, well, this is my place now. I'm going to use this place for exactly what I want to use it for. It's far-fetched, you can't even imagine it. I mean, the fire of the Lord went out when there were two men who went in to bring sacrifices, but they went in with strange fire. With strange fire, I mean. They went in for the altar, in the ten-foldness of the Lord, and the Lord turned them away. The Lord is constantly trying to make it seem like this place is holy. Holy! It is a Holy Tabernacle, a Holy Temple. What does it say? It says that it is for Him. It is His. It cannot be used for anyone else. This is how we should think about our bodies and the Church as a whole. Our bodies, as a temple of the Holy Spirit, are holy, are separated, are put aside for God and for God alone. And the church, as the assembly of the believers, is holy, is separated, is put aside for God and for Him alone. It is a basic principle of what it means to be a Christian, to be a believer, and what it means to be a Church. You are bought through. So what flows from this basic truth, glorifies God in your body and in your spirit, which belongs to God. Here you have the foundation. The fundamental aspects of the Christian faith. If you believe in Christ, then you belong to Him. You belong to the Trinity God. And what does that mean? Your body, your spirit, your mind and everything that you are, must be used to glorify this God. It is sanctified for Him. That is fundamental of what it means to be a Christian. If this is something that goes against you, that bothers you, then you have to realize, you have to repent. You have to repent. If you say, I want to use a part of my life for something else. I don't want to use it in a sacred way. Then you have to realize, you have to repent. Everything you are, everything you have, everything you do, has to be done for this one. It has to be done to glorify God. If you think about the goal of your work, of your marriage, of your upbringing, of everything you are doing, what is the ultimate goal of it? Then it should ultimately come down to the goal of glorifying God. That should be the ultimate goal. You can talk about intermediary goals, But that intermediary goal also has to be a means to work to glorify God. That has to be the ultimate goal of everything we are doing. We can also hear that in verse 10, verse 31. Whether you eat, or you drink, or do anything, ANYTHING, it doesn't matter what, ANYTHING, EVERYTHING that we do, do everything to glorify God. Do everything for the glorification of God. The word here is DOXA. You will, again, as a community, have chosen this for your name. DOXA DEIO. DOXA DEIO. It's a mixture of the Greek word and the Latin word. DEIO is Latin for God. And DOXA is Greek for glorify. To glorify God. That's the name of that community. I think it's a beautiful name. But it must be our basic starting point for Christianity. Everything is to glorify God. Everything is to worship God. To glorify God. To honor God. To make Him great. Now here we must add a little footnote. When we talk about glorifying God. To be clear, because we will say, we will also be glorified by the Lord, the Lord will glorify us. We mean exactly the same thing when we say that we glorify God. It's the same thing. It's very important to make it clear, it's not the same thing. When God glorifies us, then he makes something of us that is not us. He changes something in us. He makes something new in us that wasn't there in ourselves. We don't have this in ourselves. This is something that God will do to us. This is something that God will make with us. But when we glorify God, we are not trying to make God a little more, or a little bigger, or a little better, or a little higher than what He is. Because He is the highest in His being, and who He is, is He not the greatest? Is He the highest? Is He the Forgiven One? We do nothing when we do not glorify Him. We simply recognize who He is. He is this risen, great, mighty God who is worthy to be praised, glorified and honored for all eternity. But how do I glorify Him then? If I express it with my words or my deeds. If it becomes known who this God is, then I am busy with my words and deeds to glorify Him. Just as I am busy speaking, In my conversations with people, I can hear that this one God, this man, this woman, this young child, their God, is a great and holy God. The way you speak, the way you talk, you have glorified God. And also in your behavior, in the things you do, you can glorify God. If people look at the decisions you made, the principles you live by, the good and right, the ethical judgment you make, the way you conflict, if people look at that, they should say, this one's God is great. Then you glorify God in your words and in your deeds. You give recognition to who He is. Beloved, this is fundamental. This is the basis of the basis. And how often is this a place where we still have to grow? We can sometimes think, we have to get to the more difficult things. Sometimes we have to look back and look again, but let's do the basic things. Let's do the basic things right. It's so important that if you look at the policies, you see it coming up over and over again. In every one of the policies. This aspect of honouring and glorifying God becomes more and more important. I'll just mention a few cases. I won't go through the whole article, because I don't have much to say about it. Article 2. Secondly, through His holy and divine word, He makes it even more clear... more fully known to us, and as much as is necessary for us in this life, to His honor and to His holiness, and to the holiness of those who belong to Him. So, here it is said, how much weight is there? Why did God give His revelation? Why did He reveal Himself? Why did He give the creation as revelation? Why did He give the Holy Scripture as a revelation? Why? Why is it there? So that you can receive what you need to honor Him. This is the answer to NGB article 2. To honor God is the reason for revelation. It is the reason for this Scripture. It is the reason for the creation around you. Why did God give everything? So that you can honor Him. NGB article 25. We will continue to use the signs of the Law and the Prophets to establish ourselves in the Gospel. And also to live in all honor to the honor of God and according to His will. So again, why did the prophets prophesy? Why did the apostles proclaim the gospel? So that there are people that God honors. We have already referred to Sunday the 33rd to the definition of good works. A part of what a good work is, is to do it to God's honor. If you don't do it to God's honor, then no matter how good it looks on the outside, it's no longer a good work. That must be the fundamental goal of the work, to do it to God's honor. So I can look at Sunday the 34th, at the first commandment. I have to have love, fear and honor with my whole heart for the first prayer on Sunday the 47th. Why do they let us be sanctified in your name? Give us further that we may put our lives, thoughts, words and works on it, that this name may not be burdened around us, but may be honored and praised. You can look at it this way, the German teachings are very different. They are not Westminster confessions, which are not our own beliefs, which are not within our own tradition. They are not the same. What you need to hear in these historical documents, It is the Fathers who went before us, the faithful Fathers, who are also working for the offspring. This fundamental aspect of being a Christian, to claim for you, to say over and over again for you, children, offspring, realize this is where everything is going, is to honor God, to glorify Him. As it comes to conflict, What are the implications of this for conflict? If we take Paulus as an example, and if I say 6, it applies to one type of situation. If I say 10, it applies to another type of situation. If we apply this to conflict, what are the implications of this? Well, one, and it may sound strange at first, But it makes you see conflict as an opportunity. As an opportunity that is being given to you. It sounds a bit strange. We should think of conflict as something that shouldn't be there at all costs. But what does conflict bring? It brings an opportunity for you to glorify God. And how often does conflict arise? You are also the point where a lot of people start to come around you to discredit you. I am now on the community WhatsApp groups. If there are sparks on that group, then a lot of people will start talking about it after a while. Did you see what was said there? Did you see how these two people got stuck together? Did you see how, if they were together, they pulled each other's hair and shed blood? Because they are angry with each other. That's conflict. There is very little that is heard. And what an opportunity it is for the Christians, to in conflict, reveal something about how great and good their God is. It is an opportunity to glorify God. Even though the one with whom you are in conflict, but also, even though all those who are watching, you can glorify God. So what do you ask then? You ask, when you enter this conflict situation, in that moment, may the Lord give you the grace to, like Nehemia, just before he enters the throne room, he prays fervently. He sometimes speaks of a prayer of fire, a fervent prayer that you pray to the Lord, oh Lord, help, and then you go in. Because Nehemiah did not just pray like that. Long before, he was busy praying and praying and praying, and just before he stepped in, he prayed a fine prayer for the last time. May the Lord give you grace, when the conflict comes, to pray, oh Lord, help. Help me to see how I can comfort you in this situation. How I can honor you, how I can glorify you. Help me to control myself, to choose my words carefully, to use my body so that I can honor and glorify You. Help me not to fear people, or to be selfish, or to be honest, but to focus on God, God's honor, God's holiness. I know Sander and his book, Peacemakers, as two striking contrasts. Every time you encounter a conflict, you will inevitably show what you really think of God. It's quite a striking statement. You're going to have to show what you really think of God in your conflict situation. A second statement. If you do not glorify God, then when you are involved in a conflict, you will inevitably glorify someone or something else. By your actions, you will show either that you have a big God or that you have a big self and big problems. To put it another way, if you do not focus on God, you will inevitably focus on yourself and your will or on other people and the threat of their wills. Treffende aanhaling, waar is je focus in die conflict? Is your focus op God? Or is your focus on you, or is your focus on the one with whom you are in conflict? As he said, if you do not glorify God in this conflict, and it is not necessary, then you glorify someone else. Or you glorify yourself, or you glorify other people. As far as thought is concerned, there was still a lot I wanted to say, but then we have it for the next sermon. Four practical things that you have to do when you are in a situation like this. And in the race, at Eidskot there was someone who... Most of them fought in the border war, but one of them enjoyed the border war a lot. So he was often talking about all the adventures they had in the army. And one thing he often claimed was how a soldier needs to be drilled into things. It needs to be drilled in. When the shots hit the front, you don't have to think about how to get your gun back. How should I fall? How should falling and movement work? You don't have to worry about those basic tactics of making war anymore. You don't have to worry about that anymore. It has to be so ingrained beforehand, that when you hit, you don't do it. You don't do what you've learned. And something of this should also be true for the Christians. There are certain parts of the Christian life that you have to ingrain, that you have to practice. What you have to say in advance, like this happened, what should I do now? What is the priority that I have to think about? Is this, this, this. So that when you get into the situation and the shots start to hit, that you don't... What was it again? You're probably not going to think about that. If it's not so ingrained, he's not going to be like the soldier where the rifle is just put in his hand, and he comes to the front, and the shots start to hit, and he gets panicky, and he shoots his own fellow soldiers dead, and he makes a lot of trouble, and he finally dies himself. That's going to be your end. If you don't practice this good foresight in prayer, in your mind, that it's stuck in your mind. For example, you now say, I have to glorify God. This conflict is an opportunity to glorify God. It's something you have to tell yourself over and over again. Whenever I've been in a situation, it's an opportunity to glorify God. It's something you have to tell yourself over and over again, so you can do it when you get into a situation. But I would say, four thoughts under that, are trust in God. So, what is going to help you to be faithful to God, if you don't trust Him? How foolish is it that people in such a situation are more concerned, more the what if, ask, ask, than what they say, but I'm going to trust God in this conflict. He is good. He has never let me down. And so I'm going to enter this difficult situation and I'm going to know that I'm going to hit the jackpot. But I have to trust God. I have to do it in confidence. A second thing to add is that the Christian life is not based on outcomes. When I was at school, it was a hot topic, how the school system changed to outcomes-based education. The Christian life is not based on outcomes. What do I mean by that? Your question is not, when you enter a scenario and you wonder, what should I do? Should I do A or should I do B? That you should think, if I do A, then probably this and this and this and this and this and this will be the consequences. And that I'm going to make ethical decisions based on what I think might be the fruit, what might be the outcome. That is not the basic starting point for the Christian in ethical decisions. The basic starting point is, What does God say? Not what I think. Not what I think is going to be the outcome. But how am I going to be loyal? Loyalty is how the Christians distinguish between right and wrong. What should I do? What shouldn't I do? So ask in the first place, What does it mean to be obedient in this situation, in this scenario? No, what will the outcome be? A third one, be followers of God. God has already shown you so much, how it seems to make peace. He showed you in the Gospel, He showed you in Christ. Christ also showed you how He walks on earth. He showed you what true peace is. Not superficial human peace. But be followers of God and how He, as the God of peace, made peace. And also give recognition to God. It sometimes happens that if you have done something in the right way in your life, that people come to you and say, yes, but you are dealing with this person. And what you have already practiced, to immediately point it away. Not, yes, yes, I'm there to keep a gift. But to be clear with an answer that directs the attention to God. Then you are honouring Him. To glorify Him. Be prepared. Work a certain type of answer in advance in your mind. In these types of scenarios where someone is going to say something like this, how am I going to seize this opportunity to direct the attention to God? To point at Him. So you can say, for example, simple statements like, it's all out of the grace of God. It's God who works in me to work, both to want and to work, to his will. This is God who does this in me. It doesn't come naturally. Do you know God? Do you know this God in this way? I can give you a key to have a good conversation with someone else. Or you can say... If someone comes to you and says, you've created this conflict, you've created peace. You can say, I'm trying so hard to follow God, because He is the God of peace. Can I tell you about Him? Can I tell you how He creates peace? Between me and him. How does God make peace? Look, this conversation went so quickly away from you and went to God. To who you are and what He has done. Beloved ones, we conclude one of the most fundamental aspects of what it means to be a Christian is this realization that I was bought at a price. I don't belong to myself. I belong to God, body and soul. And it means, this body, this soul is there to serve and glorify Him. In every single scenario in your life, you have to think of it as an opportunity to do this. So does your conflict. As well as the conflict that is happening right now. As well as the conflict that is still brewing here in the background. And you can still feel how it's like a fire. If you're going to make a fire to cook meat and you're going to stand a little closer, you're standing in a conversation and you can feel the fire behind you. It's not in front of your eyes anymore, but it's still here. It's still here and you can still feel it. So also that conflict. How is that an opportunity to glorify God? How are you going to handle this? As someone who says, but I am a Christian. Amen.