10x: 10x Life with Rev. Caz Minter

I spend a lot of time with college football on Saturday. It's good for my prayer life, and so that's what I... You know, I'm I'm in there. And... But as of watching those games, all the political ads that are just...

I mean, they're just rolling constantly throughout the day. And I caught myself. What's going on in me in my heart, I caught myself saying the politics, there's so much vitriol. It is so crazy that I just want to duck and bow out and have nothing to do with it. And I recognize that actually the calling from the scripture is not to do that, but to lean in.

That as Christ followers, we're actually called to be good citizens, to live into the politics and the discourse of the day because what happens in our community, it matters. It matters to the people of our community and to our nation. And so our calling, rather than my tendency just to have nothing to do with it, actually is to lean in and be Christ followers in the midst of all the political conversations that are going on. And this is what I mean by that, that calling is a lot harder than it looks because what it means to be a Christ follower in the middle of the political conversations of our world, it means to lead with the fruits of the spirit. That's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self control.

That's what it should look like as followers of Jesus who are part of political conversations, whether that's on Facebook and Instagram or any other place that we are. And I wanna encourage you to do that. I wanna encourage you to vote. I want you to be, I encourage you to be a part of our community, to be followers of Jesus in everything that we do in every area. And as we vote, we do it as followers of Jesus.

And so that's just my little encouragement to you today to lean in during the season. Alright? Everybody okay? We're alright. Okay.

Good. This is important. It's important. So I'm gonna pray for us. We're gonna dive into Scripture today.

We're continuing in the 10 Commandments, and we're gonna talk about murder, so it's a good one, alright? Let me pray first. God, this season, would you help us? It's a tough world out there. And the politics of the day seem so that everybody's emotions are so heightened.

Father, would you help us to exhibit and live out the fruits of your spirit? In every arena of our world. Would you help us to vote and to lean into our communities? And father, to to be followers of you in everything that we do. Today, god, as we open your word, speak to us.

This is your word and it was given to us, a a blueprint for the way to to live life. Father, may every decision I make, every direction I step, be guided by your scripture. Speak to us today. May we be people of your word, and may we live it out. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen. This summer I was getting on a flight and I downloaded a movie onto my phone just to watch. I wasn't paying a lot of attention. I just grabbed one really quickly and it was this movie called Worth and it was a movie about this team of people that were part of the September eleventh Victims Compensation Fund. I know that sounds exciting, but I'm gonna give you a little piece of wisdom.

Nineeleven movie's not good for flights. Okay? Just bad choice, and I was all kind of emotions. It was actually following this team that had to figure out... There was a victim's compensation fund after nineeleven.

They decided to give every family of victims some financial money because of their loss and this team had the task of going through and deciding how much each person was worth. They didn't give just a blanket amount of money. They looked at different people and what their capacity for earning financially over their lifetime was, and they had to value and weight different lives. And so they looked at different lives differently, and the movie was about the emotion. Imagine telling these families, hey, we've decided your loved one was worth this, we've decided your loved one was worth that.

If that feels icky to you, it's because of this commandment that we're gonna look at today. It actually traces all the way back to the Scripture. To say we're putting a value on life of any sort just kinda makes my stomach turn, but then to look at different people and say their lives are valued differently, I mean, it's just unthinkable. But in the day that the people of Israel were getting the 10 Commandments, that was actually normal. We see Hammurabi's code is something we can see in history.

It actually predates the 10 Commandments by hundreds and hundreds of years, and that was more than the norm of the day. In Hammurabi's code, it actually goes through, it's one of the ancient laws, it goes through this list of different people, and if there is a murder committed, if someone's life is taken, well if they're in this class of people, the punishment is great, but there are three classes of people, and if they're in the lower class of people, the punishment was minor. You just had to do some reparations and it was no big deal. They valued people differently. And it was into that world that God is now giving His covenant, His commandments, His law to this group of people.

And remember, this covenant is defining the relationship. He's saying, I'm gonna be your God, you're gonna be my people, and if you live this way, you'll thrive, and you'll thrive as a people and as a nation and as a community. And he gives them this list, he says, Live this way, and some of those commandments he gives a lot of explanation to, but I want you to look at the one we're looking at today. This is Exodus chapter 20, and it's verse 13, and this is what this command says. You ready?

You shall not murder. Period. That's it. And what's actually surprising isn't that it is so short. No shocking.

All the other codes that were out there in the world that they lived in had all kinds of qualifiers, but this didn't. Actually the shortness of it would have caught them off guard. They would have been surprised. You mean we shouldn't kill certain groups of people? I said, No, you shouldn't kill.

They said, Well you mean it matters differently if you kill these people versus those people? No, it doesn't. You shall not murder. This is the law. Now it comes right from the beginning of the story, right from Genesis.

In Genesis, we're told god creates people, male and female and he creates them in his image. Everyone of us is a reflection of the image of god that that we're created with that intrinsic value and worth that's just given to us by god. It's It's who we are, and it's baked in right at the beginning of the story. That's the definition of who we are, the sons and daughters of God. Each life is sacred and holy.

By the time Genesis gets to chapter nine, it's after the flood, and and god's giving instructions to Noah's family and he says, for every life, there will be accountability. Right? Every life matters. Every life is every life is in the image of god. It it's in a way holy and sacred you're accountable for each other's lives.

And so the command that comes down in the 10 Commandments is that all lives, all people matter to God. Now this has huge implications. And it has Christians have thought about this really carefully for years and years and we don't just pass over this quickly. Has implications for all the areas where life is at stake. And so we have to think carefully about war.

What does war look like? It's not a matter of retribution. There are times when we have to defend and we to make sure that freedoms are allowed causes great consternation, and it should because every life matters, but we should wrestle with this. We wrestle that every life matters. It matters that there is justice and yet we don't take the death penalty lightly.

That is something that matters and we hold on to that. You know, in the Old Testament, it it says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Did you know that that was actually given not as here's the prescription of the punishment but it was actually a limitation because if you hurt one of my family, I'm gonna hurt 10 of your family and that's how it went in the world that this was given into. Noah said, no, this is not about retribution. Justice matters but we have to hold that with the weight of life.

We have to understand that life matters, so it matters and it has implications for war and for things like the death penalty and for euthanasia and it matters for the unborn. Unborn life matters to God, is holy and sacred. Did you know that the early Christians lived in this world, it was the Greek and Roman Empire, the Greek culture around them, and in that time, if you, your firstborn wasn't a male, that was a problem. They would often take these little girls and and say, hey, they're probably going to die anyhow. The infant death rate's pretty high and they would leave these babies out on the rocks just to die exposed because they were the wrong kid, born to the wrong family at the wrong time and you know the Christians became famous for hiding behind the rocks and waiting and when they would see babies out there would sneak out and grab those babies and adopt them and bring them into the family.

That's who Christians are because they said, all life matters. These are children of God, so they would grab them and adopt them. That's an unbelievable value that we're given right here from the scripture. All life matters. And it's not a small thing.

You know, sometimes I feel like, well, if I'm just going through the 10 commandments and I'm going through the list, this one, I'm doing pretty good on, you know? Making sure I carry the name of the lord well. Sometimes that's hard. Honoring mom and dad well, sometimes that's difficult. Don't murder.

I'm doing pretty well, right? I've got pretty good grade on that. I would think most of you, in fact, turn to your neighbor and let them know if you struggle with murder. Do you have a, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

Don't tell. Don't tell. Okay. We're like, oh, you know, that's an easy one. Yeah.

We don't murder. When my oldest son was in middle school, I was with him and two of his friends and their dads. And we were in Texas and we were out on one of the guys' ranch and we were doing a little rabbit hunting. Now, I I don't do I don't do man things that well but we were doing man stuff that day, you know, and I'm just not good at it. I don't I have water guns.

I don't have real guns or anything and so he hadn't really shot anything. And so we're out there being manly and we're riding around on the back of pickup trucks and doing manly things. We're shining a light on these rabbits and they'd freeze, and the boys would try to get them. And it was my son's turn. And they froze a rabbit, and he got out with a gun, and he aimed it all up, and everybody's going shoot, shoot, it's gonna run, shoot.

And he's holding it, and then he puts the rifle down, and he turns around kind of defeated. You know, I mean it's a guy room, right? You know, with the dudes. And he goes, Dad, I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it.

Now you know me as a pastor who has a heart for all of God's life, you know what I said, right? I said, son, don't embarrass us here. This is man's... Hey, we gotta... Come on, Get out there.

And one of the other dads, a good friend of mine, looked at him and said, actually man that's really cool. Like it's really cool. You value life. That was a cool moment. And start to recognize that the implications of this command actually they matter about how we treat any matter of life and death, but it actually has far reaching implications.

And those implications actually come close to home.

This is not something that we can just check

off and go like, hey, I don't I don't do this. When Jesus taught about this, he went a lot further than I would have expected. What I want us to do today is is look at Matthew chapter five. You actually it'll be up on the screens and you can follow along that way but there are Bibles in your pew in front of you and and sometimes I like to just have it out so I can look at this passage. So that's on page seven eighty six of that Bible in front of you if you wanna look at it there.

This is Matthew chapter five, and we'll start in verse 21. So Matthew five verse 21. That's what he says. You have heard it said. Now Jesus is teaching, right?

And this is the Sermon on the Mount. And so he's got a bunch of people in front of him and this is the longest, most complete sermon that we have recorded of Jesus. And he's walking them through how to live out the faith in every area of life, and some of it, it's sort of commentary on the 10 Commandments. So you have heard it said, He's talking about the 10 Commandments. You have heard it said, it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment, but I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, Raqa, is answerable to the court and anyone who says, You fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you're offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them and then come and offer your gift. Woah. All of a sudden that command that seemed really easy to keep, I'm doing pretty good on not murdering, all of sudden it comes right into my life.

Jesus says, this isn't just about the boundary of the law. So often we think of laws as just, well, it's a boundary, like don't go that far and that's true, 10 Commandments gives us boundaries, but it's not just the boundary. Jesus says no, it's not just a boundary, it's the direction that it takes you. This is the intent of the law. Where does this take you?

How do you live this out? Jesus starts to get really close to my life. He goes, hey, if you're just angry, if you're even angry with a person, well, you're headed in this direction. He says, if you use the word rakah. Now, rakah is an Aramaic word.

Aramaic is the language that was kind of spoken locally around the time of Jesus in his area and so he he throws that word in there. It would have been used commonly. It was a common pejorative. He says, if you use this word raka, it means to pour out. It means you're empty.

You're worthless. You're you're you're nothing. He goes, if you tell somebody they're worthless, if that's the way you're saying to other people, well, you're headed in this direction. He says, if you say, you fool. If you say, you fool, you're in the dangers of the fire of hell.

He's not messing around. This is not a small thing, a slight thing. It's huge. Jesus says, your relationships, every relationship you're with, this is a person who is created in the image of God. And you're walking with them, and as you walk with the people around you, as you have relationships, you're helping to point them in one direction or another.

It either leads to life or to death. If you're leading people towards death in your relationships, you better fix it. Jesus gets real practical. He's like, let's say you're at worship and you've brought a gift to give. He goes, and you realize right there in the middle of worship that you have a broken relationship.

He says the value of that is so high that matters so much, you should leave your gift there. Now as a pastor I appreciate that, Don't take your offering. Just leave that offering right there. That's not what he meant. This is a sacrificial system he's talking about.

He goes, leave the gift and go take care of that relationship and do that first, And then come back and give your gift. Last week we took a look at honoring mother and father. So the first relationship of our life. And we recognize that we're to consider them, weight of them, the gravity of who they are and that relationship that we have. Then we learned that was to go out from there.

It wasn't just about mother and dad, it's about families and it goes out. This week, we learned that not to murder actually means has implications on like it spreads from there. It's not just the boundary but it's the direction that we should live. It gets into every one of our relationships. It's the intent and the direction, what it means to live in the way of Christ.

In fact, later on in Matthew chapter five, by the time you get to verse 44, Jesus continued to talk about this, and He says, You've heard love your neighbor or hate your enemy, but I tell you even love your enemies. That's how far Jesus takes this. When my littlest guy, Augie, was in like first grade, he had a little girlfriend that he would he would talk about. I don't remember if her name was Jenny or Sally or you know, one of those names. And one day we were having a big church event and I was like, You should invite everybody to this event.

Should invite all your friends. And I said, You should invite everybody. He goes, Everybody? I said, Yeah. He said, Even your enemies?

I said, Yeah, invite your enemies. He goes, Even Sally? I was like, I thought Sally was your girlfriend? He said, Same thing. There's a lot of wisdom in that.

Hey, there's some truth there. Every relationship matters. And we're walking with people. And our relationships, interaction are leading towards life or they're leading towards death. There was an author many, many years ago named Joy Davidman.

She wrote a book called Smoke on the Mountain. It's a reflection of the 10 Commandments when God, the 10 Commandments come down from that smoky mountain. And in it, she's just thinking about this command, you shall not murder. And she says, can we murder simply by passing by on the other side of the street while thugs are beating someone? Now she's referring back to the story, the parable that Jesus told to teach of the Good Samaritan.

When people are walking down a road and they see someone's, they've been robbed and they're being beaten by thugs and three good people didn't want to get involved. They just crossed over to the other side of the street and walked on by. Only the Samaritan stopped and and helped this person who was in need. And just her reflection just got me thinking. Like, what, can I murder by just ignoring?

And not caring? Just headed to the other side of the street. Later, she says, is it murder? When we twist and bully someone out of human shape. That hit me hard.

How often do I find myself just getting upset with somebody and I twist my even view of them and my interaction towards them doesn't even see them as a human. I'm twisting them out of human shape. You see, the implications of this command, they run close to home. Joy Davidman later married C. S.

Lewis. C. S. Lewis, a great Christian author and writer and thinker. And he wrote a sermon called The Weight of Glory.

And in that sermon, he starts talking about this idea and he says that everybody we've met is either headed in one direction or the other. They're they're either headed towards glory and being glorified to such an extent. He says that if we saw him today that in their glorified form in heaven that we would be tempted to bow down and worship them like they were gods or something. I mean, people are headed that direction Or they're headed the other direction. They're headed towards hell.

They're headed towards something so hideous and broken that we would see it only in nightmares. But Lewis says we've never met a person that's not in one direction or the other. We we've never met just an ordinary person. No no one's ordinary. They're they're all on this path.

That's how that's the people that we interact with. Each person that you interact with, they're they're created in the image of god And then the wording of what he says, I want you to hear it. So this is a quote from this Weight of Glory. This is what it says. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities.

It is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all our dealings with one another. All friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. You have never met an ordinary person. Friends, that sits heavy on me, that every one of our relationships matters with this kind of great weight that Jesus gives it in Matthew five. Every person that we interact with is created in the image of god and that and that we're in in some way helping people and pointing people either towards glory or towards death.

If that sits heavy on you, recognize if the weight of that, when we see this, if we start to recognize how lofty it is, what God calls us to, how incredible that is, how high that is, but also what the gap looks like between how I really live and what God calls me to. As we recognize that gap, that's actually a good thing. The old reformers used to say, you know, what's the purpose of the commandments? Why do we get the 10 Commandments? The New Testament's all about grace.

Why the commandments? And they would answer it this way, the commandments help us recognize our need for a savior. And today as you you hear the weight of this command to what it looks like to live this out, I start to recognize really really clearly how badly I need a savior. How how how big the gap is between what god calls me to, the kind of life that god calls me to, and the way that I actually live. I mean, it's an enormous gap and I cannot bridge that myself But I have good news for you today.

If you feel the weight of this, I have some good news. It's the gospel that Jesus Christ has come. God himself knew I could not bridge that gap. He entered into our world, went to death on the cross for my sins and for your sins to bridge that gap, to take away the guilt. He gives us a Holy Spirit to begin to work inside of us to make us new and to help us to live in this way, the way of God, to help us to start making changes and walk in the direction that God would call us to.

This is incredible news, and it's incredible news for you. As you hear this command, don't murder, that's a massive thing. It matters in every relationship, but also recognizes that I can never get there myself, and what I need is Jesus. And so for some of you today, I want to invite you. You you maybe never taken a step.

You you never said, Jesus, I I need you. I I I need your forgiveness in my life. The gap is massive. I want to invite you to become my lord and savior and some of you need to take that step today. For others of you, you you say, I've had a relationship with Jesus for a long time, as long as I can remember.

All one hundred years I've been here, you know. I've I've I've I've had a relationship with Jesus. But still you recognize that there's a lot of work that god has to do in your heart. And so your prayer today is come Holy Spirit. Start to produce those those fruits of the spirit that we talked about earlier.

Start to produce those fruits in me so that I can walk in your way. Would you pray with me? God, right now, we pray. For every person in here that has never taken a step to say, Jesus, I want you to be my lord and savior. God, today, some of us take that step.

We we pray that prayer. Become my lord and savior. I need your grace.

I need it. I I can't I can't I can't live this way on my own.

And for others of us, god, we we we could see the work that belong to be done in our hearts And we pray, come holy spirit. Come holy spirit. Live in us. Make me, mold me. Help me to walk in your way.

God, we pray all of these things in the matchless, mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Would you stand with me?