So if you are a guest with us this morning or maybe this is your second time here, first
time was last week, the beginning of the new year we started a new sermon series called
Who's Sermon Is It Anyway?
And this is a little bit of the background for this.
I have improv in my background.
I was part of an improv troupe in college and one of the greatest, kind of most fun
games we would play when we would do an improv show is Scenes from a Hat.
And this is when people would come in and they would write down a different scene or
a saying or something.
Jess Fisher knows what that is as a fellow improvist, right?
You want to come up and do that right now?
Just kidding, we're not going to do that.
As fun as that would be.
And then you would kind of work a scene in.
I kind of thought to myself, what would that look like if you all kind of wrote down some
prompts and ideas of areas of the Bible, of culture, of faith, of theology, of kind of
DLV above, not because I don't have the material, believe me.
We have sermon series done now through the beginning of 2029.
But I thought it would be a lot of fun.
There's six weeks before Lent.
This would be a great way to start off 2024.
After I got all of your responses, I looked at it and said, what a giant mistake I have
made.
But I have already put it out to you that I'm going to do it and I can't take it back.
So actually it's been a lot of fun.
But we're going to come into, we have four more weeks.
We're going to come into the next three weeks really looking at, and I hate to say it this
way, controversial topics.
Always super exciting to preach on controversy because I know that, you know, the, I don't
know, almost 200 families that call Buster Church home, we don't all land on the same
spot.
And some of us do a really good job in coming together in gracious disagreement.
And if we're going to be honest, some of you are terrible at it.
And it is something that we need to learn the art of discussion, the art of disagreement.
Again, like we talked about last week, some of us are really good at being people of wrath.
And I don't think that's the way of Jesus.
But hear me, Jesus did teach.
Jesus did rebuke.
Jesus did correct.
Jesus saw when things were not going right or they were going in a sinful way and he
corrected them.
But understand, and a lot of us that maybe have kids or have ever babysat, you can do
a lot with a look, right?
Max in your household, well actually let me talk to Evie.
Is Evie here?
No, okay, I'll talk to you.
You probably with your sons and your kids, you probably had a look that would kind of
put them in their place, right?
And Evie would have a look for you that would put you in your place.
Many times over, still to this day.
So you could do a lot with a look, right?
Boys, whose look do you think is more, I'm not even going to ask that question.
But we can do a lot with a look.
We can do a lot with a very stern voice, right?
Danica is not here.
Kayden, when dad uses a stern voice, right?
In my mind when Brad disciplines you, it's not like high up like this, like hey Kayden,
go to your room.
Like I don't think Brad's ever said it that way.
But he probably has a deep voice and you know that he means business, right?
Yes, absolutely.
But we also know that there are other forms of discipline, right?
Some of you may have been growing up with something called the belt, right?
And I feel almost like I have to say that so cautiously in 2024, like someone's going
to call somebody on me for bringing that up.
But that was a very big form of discipline growing up.
Being in a single, having a single mom for a while, my papa would discipline me and it
would be the belt that also had the giant, what is that called?
Thank you, Joey, belt buckle.
He would not take that off.
Yeah, let that sink in.
And those aren't made of felt, right?
Those are big giant belt buckles.
And I was like you grew up in Blue Island.
Why do you have that?
You're not a cowboy.
But I never have.
I can say that now because he's in heaven.
But understand, we all grew up with different forms of discipline.
Jesus was about discipline.
He was.
And a lot of us don't like that.
But we got to get over ourselves.
He was.
That is we are and he was because his father was.
God was about discipline.
We learned that in the Hebrew series.
God chides those that he loves.
Discipline is active discipline with the lens of the gospel.
With the lens of love.
That you can lovingly discipline people.
Parents to kids, all of those things.
Now, you know, I don't know if any of you have ever said as you're maybe spanking your
kid or if you're my grandma popping in the mouth because it didn't leave a mark.
We've already talked about that.
I don't know how many of you said this hurts me more than it hurts you.
Which is such a lie.
An absolute lie.
I think that's just guilt for the parent, you know, and all of those things.
Or maybe it actually does for you because you actually have a heart.
But for me, I don't think that way when I discipline my kids.
Right?
But God always does.
God always has intention with his discipline.
God does not do anything just on a whim.
We've talked about that many times.
The same goes for the things we're going to talk about this week, next week, and the following
week and then we're going to end with a really fun sermon series that's going to be on something
that a lot of us don't really think about day to day except our small group, one of
the small groups that meet here at night.
They think about it a lot.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
But we got a couple weeks until then.
I entitled this sermon The Scale because the entire time as I'm reading about 13 of the
prompts that you all gave had something to do with the sanctity of life.
Or had something to do with murdering, which believe me, I noted that and who I think wrote
them.
Life means something to you guys.
And I think that's good because life means something to the life giver.
I think that's fairly obvious.
The one that breathed into dust and created life, I think God cares about the subject
of life.
And it's sad that I have to say that somewhat qualified that I know that it's a controversial
topic.
Step back with me for a minute and think how sad it is that the idea of life is controversial.
But who made it controversial?
If I, dimes to dollars, some of you blame God for that because some of the prompts were
if God cares about life so much then why in the world would he have the Israelites eliminate
an entire group of people?
Men, women, children, livestock, all of those things.
And the human side of me almost wants to agree with you and go, yeah, God, what's that about?
But then if I understand the faith side of me, I go, huh, I probably shouldn't ask that
question.
Because God, as we talked about, if you remember God behaving badly series, we did that like
three years ago maybe, that God in his infinite wisdom and his infinite ways, and we're going
to talk about it, God opposes the wicked.
He opposes the wicked.
And what is the greatest way God can oppose the wicked?
The one that calls all life into account.
And we have to submit to this the God that also takes life.
And I know a bunch of you just got uncomfortable.
A bunch of you wish you would have watched online today because you could have just turned
it off.
But we have to wrestle with that.
If you all didn't write about it, I wouldn't be preaching about it today.
So in essence, what I'm trying to say is it's your fault.
And so understand, we have to work through this, and there's a tension here.
And there's a tension here because of how we've built this polarizing group in the United
States and really in the world.
That there are these two polarizing groups that are completely politically driven about
money and power and authority and all manmade, I'm going to call it, for what it is appropriately
junk that we are dealing with every day.
Now there is a rated R version of this sermon.
I'm not going to give that one.
I'm going to give PG from the 1970s.
Because PG then to PG now is very different.
If you are confused about it, Google it when you get home.
But understand that there are, straight from this book, there is a very graphic understanding
of the life that is given and the life that is taken away.
But the umbrella that we ended with last week holds true that we are a people, and maybe
you're not, maybe today you're not here, maybe there's somebody here that does not claim
what I'm about to give of Lord's Day One.
What is your only comfort in life and in death is that I'm not my own, but I belong to Christ
in life and in death.
A proper understanding of that allows you to rejoice when life is born.
Oh my heavens, we rejoice.
We rejoice so much that we, as a church, we buy you all junk for your baby in the back.
We want to rejoice with you.
It's not junk, it's really good stuff.
And we do a good job with that.
But we also need to mourn then when life is no longer there, but if Christ is in the midst
of this, then like all of those that came yesterday to celebrate the life of Reverend
Besine, though we're sad, we can mourn with hope.
A world devoid of Jesus, no wonder we make a mess of it.
Because there is no comfort, there is no hope, there is no understanding, there is no peace.
And that is so difficult in a world where at times it doesn't really care about life
or it cares about it in a very inappropriate way.
But life means something.
There's a scale, that's why I called it the scale, that we weigh things in our lives.
We hopefully, the wise person, weighs the outcomes.
Or before they make a decision, they discern, they weigh.
And it got me thinking of kind of that lawyer scale, you know, the idea of weighing someone's
guilt to someone's not guilt, I guess.
Don't ask me to talk to Sarah or Garrett, they know more about that as they're in that
profession.
But that we weigh things all the time.
We weigh decisions.
But in the world we live in, the weight of life is always a topic of conversation.
How do I know?
There may be some prompts, eight of them had to do with life, some aspect of life.
So clearly it's on your heart, it's on your mind, so we need to set kind of a standard
of talking about it.
And I understand that there are going to be times you may not agree with everything that
I say or things that I don't say that you wish I said.
I touched on this two weeks ago.
That's okay.
We are two different people.
I don't have the exact same mind of you, you don't have the exact same mind of me, be thankful.
You don't want to get in here.
Understand that we can look at something very differently in scripture, it's called interpretation.
However, when the interpretation contradicts what is written, then we get into a lot of
issues.
And I know, looking out at all of you, there are differences of opinion and differences
of interpretation when it comes to this book.
And of the things that are non-salvitic, meaning Christ died, crucified, died, buried, and
resurrected of salvation, there is some room for disagreement.
Understand that.
But understand there is right interpretations.
There are, there is a heartbeat to this book.
And if we are about the heartbeat of this book, then even in our disagreements, we can
still sit down and have a cup of coffee.
We can still sit down and worship in church together.
We can still go and bring the gospel, the good news of life beyond life in Jesus to
other people.
One of the things I adore about this church is that we don't have a cultural uniformity.
That we all are different.
We all come with different experiences.
We all come with different stories, with different testimonies that in some ways or in a lot
of ways lead us, carve out for us why we think certain things.
And the biggest no-no or the biggest issue I see in our church is when we don't take
the time to get to know the story, the why, someone might believe what they do.
Or might they think or camp in a certain camp and all of those things.
So this is my encouragement for all of us.
I do not want to be a church that throws or lobs grenades over the aisle.
That's not a church.
We talked about that last week.
Jesus says, the world will know you're my disciples by how you wrath and judge other
people.
No, how you love one for another.
Even in our differences, we can come to a place of love.
However, the Bible also corrects.
Just because you want to believe it, just because it feels good for you and that's how
I want to do it, doesn't mean you're right.
It's the same way when we're kids.
Well, you know, I may or may not have an 11-year-old that doesn't think he needs a bedtime.
He does.
And we all do.
But maybe in his mind, he doesn't believe he does, but he does.
That his mom and dad do know better and we know what it's like when he doesn't get good
sleep.
So it's more of an idea of preservation.
But understand that we can believe something so hard, so deep, so often without being checked
on it that we believe it's true, though it may go in direct conflict with this book.
The last thing I'm going to say before I start my sermon is the understanding that our place
is never to judge.
We aren't.
It is not our place to cast the judgment of salvation on somebody else.
Oh, they believe that.
They're going to hell.
That should not be our place.
Because what you're doing at that point is you're disengaging, you're not loving, and
you're not, if you believe that, if you truly believe that someone is going to be spending
eternity in the fiery abyss and you go, I'm okay with that, you need to check your heart
because you don't value life the way God does.
If you are okay with someone's damnation, that's a problem.
And I put all this for this week and the next two weeks because we are going to talk about
certain things.
We're going to talk about topics that have been made in the political arena something
ugly, something far away from God that God ever really wanted to be.
And some of you are like, well, then why is it there?
Because of sin.
Because though God has foreordained the world and predestined, the friction of sin is still
there.
We know that.
Turn the news on for two minutes and you understand.
And then if you're really struggling with it, what are you actually struggling with?
Well then God just wipe them all out.
He did that once.
He said He's not going to do it again via water, but is that really the desire of your
heart?
Because if that's the desire of your heart, then I hope and pray you're perfect.
Because then whatever comes, that angel of death, maybe you'll be passed over.
Maybe you won't.
I don't know.
But we know that in the end, those in the Lord are going to be in the Lord.
And part of that is how you preserve life itself.
So let's dive in.
It gets very, very easy, right?
It's very easy.
We started in Exodus.
We're going to read it next week, but we're going to read it also today.
Honor your father and your mother that you may have a long good life in the land that
the Lord your God is giving you.
You must not do this.
But I'm going to ask you to.
You must not steal.
You must not lie.
You must not be envious of your neighbor's house or want to sleep with his wife or want
to own his slaves, oxen, donkeys, or anything else he has.
What's the word, maybe why I like it written that way?
What?
Must.
That is a understanding of a verbal commitment that to do what is right, this is a requirement.
You must turn in your homework in order to pass the class.
Now Mandy, I think you and I can both groan over that in 2024.
That's actually not a thing anymore.
Participation trophies.
But understand that there is a requirement here.
My boys must do their chores in order to get allowance.
Yes, even the one that asked to be shown grace for when he didn't want to do his chores yet
still wanted his allowance.
And that's where I said God gives grace.
Today I don't.
And so understanding that there is a requirement here, the must here, and I love how it's written.
The must here is that you value people's lives.
You must, you must, you must, you must.
If you're going to say the way Reverend Besine did for over what, 50 years in the ministry,
love God, love people, then you must uphold God's laws and you must value life.
Valuing life is loving people.
You can't say I'm a believer, I love Jesus, but I'm going to dishonor my father and my
mother.
I love Jesus, but I'm going to murder a little.
I love Jesus, but I sure love to commit adultery.
I love Jesus, but I'm going to steal all day every day.
You see where I'm going.
The world doesn't like this because this puts the world in order because God is a God of
order.
It's beautiful.
He's laid it out.
But the world, right, the prince of darkness taking over, he loves chaos.
But it's pretty clear.
So let's just center on the one I want to do today, right, and that's going to be verse
13.
You shall not murder.
This is the ESV.
This is what I preach out of.
So you have, you must not murder.
You shall not murder.
One seems to be the requirement.
One is the expectation.
Funny how we can look at the same verse with a different connotation.
You are required not to murder if you're going to be a believer.
The expectation of every believer is that they shall not murder.
I had that on Tuesday, blew my mind in the fact of not only is it the expectation, it
is the requirement of the same thing.
Now, we think very differently about this and I don't think that's a good thing.
I think that's where the difference is we struggle with.
And some of you know exactly where we're going to go by the end of this and a little bit
more next week.
But understand that the Hebrew from this means zero, you shall not kill.
You shall not murder.
Well, I already know and I probably know who you are.
You're already in the camp going, but God did.
God did all day.
That's the Old Testament, all day.
Well, let me ask you a question.
Who are these commandments for?
Kenny, who are these commandments for?
Just say your name.
Who are these for Kenny?
Right?
Reina, who are these commandments for?
Just say your name.
You said Alyssa.
That was mean.
Just kidding.
No, you said Reina.
Yeah, you said Reina.
Understand, are these for God?
No.
Yep.
We want to say, well, no, thank God's in this with us.
If we can't do this, God can't do that.
Who in the world do you think you are?
Just like one of my boys turning around saying, then Dad, you do your chores.
They have not done that.
Just so you know, they have not done that.
But notice how you all attach to that.
Right?
Paul, how would that have looked in your world if Justin, Steve, or Amber would have said,
well, Paul, you do your chores.
Now, not well at all.
But isn't that funny how we are reacting that way, yet we still get uncomfortable because
God is saying this?
Friends, stop putting yourself on God's level.
Because if you are going to try to put yourself on God's level, then God's salvation doesn't
mean anything to you.
Then God's foreordained, preordained, predestined plan for Jesus to die, to save us from our
sins means absolutely nothing to you because you don't value life.
And if you don't value life, then you don't value the life of Jesus.
Yet you'll take his salvation.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
This is part of submitting to the requirement and the expectation of God himself.
And I think we do a good job of living.
I think the Israelites, though they messed it up from time to time, and so do we, I think
these ten commandments and the six hundred other ones helps us be a good society.
A society where there is no murder, a society where there is no stealing, a society where
there is no coveting, there is no adultery.
How many people want to live in that?
Why isn't all of your hands up?
Some of you are like, well, maybe because you are okay with sin.
Sinning?
We shouldn't be.
Sin grieves God's heart.
If it doesn't grieve your heart, it's time to check that.
It's time to dive in.
What sin are you so in love with that you're willing to not value the life of Christ?
Understand as, oh gosh, I just forgot, he was a theologian in England, Jonathan Edwards.
Thank you.
One of the greatest quotes ever, the only part or the only thing you bring to your salvation
is your sin.
Let me say that again.
The only thing that you bring, the only thing you are accounted for in your salvation, the
only part you ever play, the only thing you could say, yeah, I had a part of my salvation
is your sin.
Are you still celebrating?
Are you still going, yeah, look at me.
No, you would be a fool.
The world loves to do that.
The world absolutely adores to do that.
Let's go to Genesis 1, 26.
Then God said, let us make man in our image, in our likeness, let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, over the birds in the heavens and over the livestock and over all
the earth, the creeping things that creep on the earth.
We are going to pause there.
This might be the first time he ever does this.
Jeff Naderberg, can I get an amen from you?
There you go.
You may be wondering like why?
Jeff wasn't there.
Like, he wasn't.
But Jeff is one of our fellow hunters.
I can say that now because I got my first deer this year.
Okay?
Clearly doesn't make me a hunter.
Colin knows it was all luck.
But understand, he has given us dominion.
We have dominion.
Purposeful dominion over everything on earth.
Now, that doesn't mean we get to go on a firing spree.
But what that means is we are to be good stewards of the other living things on the earth.
God did not create them by accident.
God did not create them to go, eh, no.
He created them with purpose because God is a purposeful God and he has set us to have
dominion.
And some of you love that word way too much.
Dominion doesn't mean control.
Dominion doesn't mean authority.
Do you want to have authority over all of the living things on the world?
No.
There are days you don't want to have authority over your family, let alone all the living
things of the world.
But Adam and Eve were set to have dominion over them to be good stewards of the world.
I could turn this into a pollution sermon.
I can turn this into apartheid sermon.
I could turn this into live aid.
This can go everywhere because it has to do with life itself.
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created them.
Male and female, he created them.
I would love it if we could keep it that simple.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.
This is Genesis 9.
A lot of you are like, that's not what it says next.
But this is Genesis 9.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.
For God made man in his own image.
Life matters to God.
He mourned over Cain and Abel.
He mourned over the senseless killing that was taking place.
He mourned it so much, and a bunch of you are going to be uncomfortable with this, but
I think it's good.
He mourned it so much that he wiped out 99% of it.
He sent the flood.
And the only one left was who?
Noah.
Because he was righteous.
Not because he was perfect, but he understood the value of life.
How bad what the world must be, or must have been, for one person in his family to be the
only one that valued life.
And understand, this is God setting the stage for creation itself.
And if we take two steps back, we have to understand that life is predicated on something.
Life is guarded by the life giver.
That life is protected.
There's a divine protection for life.
God has set a world, he wants a world where you will not look at somebody and go, man,
I wish they were dead.
Because Jesus even says the thought of that is murder as well.
Yet we do it all the time.
I know I have said it, and there are aspects of this I believe, and this is my road, right?
I, you know, when it comes to like the death penalty and all of those things, told you
we were going to talk about controversy, right?
The Bible actually makes it very clear about that.
That there is a protection of life, and as we see throughout the Old Testament, there
is a protection for the camp.
There's protection for the people.
Anybody that goes and tries to affect negatively the camp or the people, Old Testament law,
Levitical law, they should be put to death.
And there is a massive list of those.
Kids in the room, listen up.
One of the first ones in there, a way to try to destroy the camp or destroy the people
or destroy the congregation or destroy the whatever, the nation, is disrespecting your
parents.
Parents, feel free to use that the next time you have to have disciplinary conversations.
Like, thank God we don't live in Old Testament times.
I told you to shovel the driveway.
Gone.
No, just kidding.
I mean, don't do that.
Don't do that.
That might have been an Old Testament thing.
Don't do that now.
DCS will be called.
And so understand that there is a value and a protection done by God over his people.
Why?
And hear this please.
Each person belongs to God and God alone determines the matter of life and death.
Well, Jim, how can you feel good about shooting a deer?
He was delicious, by the way.
Because we have dominion over it.
It was done in a proper way.
And it wasn't a person.
Deers are not made in God's image.
And if you want to learn about the awesome stewardship of hunting, and babe, this is
not my way of coming out that I am going to be a hunter, but understand, I mean, talk
to Jeff, talk to Colin, talk to her.
It is amazing the responsibility and the respect for the life of the animals in that whole
world.
I forgot half of what Colin told me.
But it's fascinating.
But still someone was like, how can you respect an animal by shooting it?
Talk to Colin and talk to Jeff.
I'm passing that buck to them.
But understand that there is a divine protection on human beings.
God is the one because you belong to him.
He values you.
Jesus says, how many of you, if a son or a daughter asks for bread, you are going to
give him a snake.
Jesus is right there.
The son and the father, same will, same protection on human life.
Jeremiah 1.5 speaks to this.
Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
And before you were born, I consecrated you.
I have appointed you a prophet over the nation.
This is what he is saying to Jeremiah.
Leave that one up.
Because it also goes into Psalm 139.
Let me put the Psalm 139 one up.
We'll dive into that one.
This is God to you.
Whether it is a baby in the womb, whether it's Archie Besine at 97 and a half years
old, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
This is God's revelation to the Psalmist.
This is someone praising for the intricate nature.
But before I keep going, there is a third of you that just maybe tuned me out because
I said the word womb.
And I understand why.
I understand the political nature of that discussion.
Go talk to Cheyenne who is just down at the, or over in Washington at the Right to Life
March.
There are aspects of that whole movement I love.
I can't stand the politics of it.
And then you also have the pro-choice movement.
Told you it was going to be controversial.
But understand, right, one is based, I believe on godly things and one basis is not.
But understand that there is still a through line of life.
Because I don't know if I've ever met a believer that is pro-abortion.
Right?
I don't believe that's a thing in my world.
Maybe you know them and maybe you need to have a conversation.
And putting a sign up and a megaphone reminding them of all of their sin, probably not the
best way to do it, just saying.
But walking alongside them and caring for all.
Why do you think we do TMC?
Because so many churches will tout that pro-life, pro-life, pro-life.
And then do that when things get real.
I can't lead a church that way.
Monster Church is stepping toward that.
Saying, let us love you in this.
Let us walk alongside you in this.
And I understand there's a whole medical conversation that has to do with that.
And if I had more time, we'd go into that.
But understand, God values why?
Because we're fearfully, we're wonderfully made.
Keep going.
Or is that it?
I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works.
My soul knows that all too well.
That this process set forth by God in creation, it's not by happenstance.
It's not by coincidence.
It's not because of a mistake one night.
That God is involved in all of this.
And I understand we have an opportunity to walk alongside all of those people.
All of those people struggling.
All of those people that have come to a decision and maybe made more of a negative one.
Maybe ended a life.
Are we there to just throw those grenades?
Are we going to be a people of wrath to remind other people of their sin?
Because if that's the case, then get in line so we can remind you about yours.
I'll be right in there, you can remind me about mine.
Thank God, Romans says, while we will sinners, Christ died for you and me.
He died for those moments in those clinics.
He's died for those moments in Israel.
He has died for those moments throughout biblical history.
And I can only imagine that God's up there sitting on his throne just doing one of these.
And some of you want to say, then God do something about it.
Wow.
Who are we to tell God to do that?
And who are we to think that God's not doing something?
Who are we to think that God is an absent God when he has told us, and has told us a
hundred times over, he is not.
But until we understand that we are not our own, we need to have better stewardship of
life itself.
Because life in this world is going to be messy.
Life in this world is going to be dark.
In this world, I'll close with this.
In this world, friends, you're going to have trouble.
You're going to have trouble in some of your thoughts.
You're going to struggle on what side of things you are.
Take a step back over the next ten months and see how divided this country is going
to get.
Just take a step back and just see how divided it's going to get.
I think we'd all call that trouble.
At least we should.
And thank God when Jesus is sitting with his disciples before his life is about to be taken,
reminds us in this world, you will have trouble.
Is that a question?
No.
Is that a, oh, you might?
No.
You will have trouble.
The Munster Church, yes, this morning, those online, Jesus continues and says, take heart.
I have overcome the world.
More on that next week.
And may God keep you in good health forever.
Amen.
Thank you.