So are you breathing right now? Not a trick question. If so, then that means that right now in this moment, your breath is declaring something and, and not just that you had biscuits and gravy this morning. All right, your breath is declaring one of the most stunning and amazing realities anywhere in the universe. And that reality is this. You are alive. You are alive. Your life is sacred and precious and valuable and not just your life. My life is sacred and precious and valuable. The person sitting next to you, their life is precious and sacred and valuable. The person driving by in a car right now outside of the sanctuary on 12th Street. Their life is sacred and precious and valuable and not just them. The politician in Washington DC, his life, her life is sacred and precious and valuable. The political aid, the farmer, the Air Force pilot, the army Ranger, the grocery store clerk, the cancer doctor, the cancer patient, the introvert, the extrovert the Israeli hostage, the Palestinian refugee, the unborn child and the wife of a young mother, the young mother who is terrified with that young child. All of them sacred, precious and valuable human life is sacred, precious and valuable. And there is one way, 11 action, one particular unique, universal, emotional expressive action that every single one of us can engage in as a way to rejoice and acknowledge that we are breathing right now. There is one action that helps us to enjoy the reality of our breath right now. The reality that we are alive, the reality that we are sacred and precious and valuable. There is one action that we can engage in to prove that we believe that and that we enjoy that. And what is that action? Well, we continue our series 10 ways to change the world where we're looking at the ultimate laws of the universe known as the 10 commandments. And as we engage with the 10 commandments, we're asking a question. We're trying to fuel our minds with a question. And that question in all of the commandments is this, how would the world be different if we obeyed? If we truly evade the 10 commandments, how would it be different? We've arrived at the sixth commandment and it is in the sixth commandment that we find this action, this emotional, expressive, unique, universal action that helps us enjoy and acknowledge that we are breathing right now. And what is that action? Well, let's find out together. Our sermon today is titled Love Life. And we're looking in Exodus chapter 20 God is giving a, a mos a message to Moses for Moses to give to the people. Remember God has delivered the Hebrew people from slavery and now He is setting up life for them and their new life. And in that new life, he gives a message to Moses. And this is the next part of His message. In verse 13, God commands you shall not murder. The one intense, unique, universal, expressive, emotional action that we can use to ignore, to acknowledge and enjoy that we are breathing right now is to not take the breath of someone else tonight. Murder tonight, unlawfully take someone's breath and that that's the key. Murder, by definition is premeditated, deliberate, unlawful taking of life. Now let me go ahead and say at the beginning in case you don't know, this is one sermon. And if I preached 100 and one sermons on Exodus 2013, we would not even be able to scratch the surface of all the questions and scenarios and circumstances and opinions that are wrapped up with the sixth commandment. So many things, things that can be argued and debated and analyzed and discussed over and over again. So this is just one sermon. So all of the questions you have about murder, all of the questions you have about honoring the sixth commandment will not be answered. In this one sermon, they may not even be addressed. However, it is my hope that in our time together, we will be able to discover and enjoy the deep rich truth of this command from God. And why it is so helpful to our life right now. And the first reality of this command is that it has not always been honored and it is not always being honored right now. And until Jesus returns, it will not always be honored. Just a brief, look at history, a brief look at, however you get news and and we will see that this holy command of God to look at human life is sacred and precious and valuable. This this one command, it is ignored and even hated by many people in many ways in many places. Should we be surprised by that? No, no, we shouldn't, shouldn't be surprised at all. About 3500 years ago, the psalmist wrote these words, Psalm 33 8, let all the earth fear, the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood firm. God made the world and everything that is in it. But what if you don't believe that? What if you don't believe that? Well, if you don't believe it, then it is possible that you will not morally or practically believe that human life is sacred and precious and valuable. See, there's nothing new under the sun today, what we are experiencing in, in our generation, in this time and, and society and culture, what we are experiencing is what every single generation from the garden to now has experienced a reality. That is true of every generation of every person from the garden to now. And that is that we are living in a time where there are people who say, I do not believe in the authority of God. I do not believe that he is the one true creator. In fact, statistically speaking among the 8.1 billion people that live in the world right now, most of the people in the world do not believe that the God that Jesus calls Father even exist. But there's no such thing as the one true God. And why? Well, maybe one reason is if God does exist and if God is the creator of, of everything that is, then it kind of stands to reason that maybe he's in control of everything he created. And if he's in control of the universe, then maybe we have to listen to him and we have to kinda abide by his rules and his plans. But if God's dead, if, if we ignore God, if we deny God, then we don't have to live by his rules and his plans. We, we don't even have to deal with him. He can just be non-existent and we'll never have to deal with his rules and his plans. At least that's what a lot of people are really, we could say, most people actually think that one day Jesus turned to his friend Thomas and said this in John 14 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one, no one comes to the Father. But through me, the only way to get to God is through Jesus. Jesus is the only way to God. So do you know Jesus Jesus of Nazareth? The one who was miraculously born in Bethlehem, the one who at the age of 30 began to teach and preach about the kingdom of God. He began to heal people. He began to change people's lives. The Jesus that at 33 was brutally executed on a cross outside of Jerusalem. The Jesus that three days later was raised from the grave. He is alive right now at the right hand of God and he is coming again. Do you believe in that Jesus? Have you repented and turned to that Jesus? Are you believing in and relying on Him? Are you trusting in and yielding to him? Are you clinging to that Jesus as your ultimate hope in this life and your ultimate hope in death? If so then you're delivered, you, you are free, you have been rescued and redeemed, live in it. Enjoy it and don't let a single political economical or any other headline today or tomorrow change that there is no human being on this planet who is ever elected, who is ever reigning whoever wages war who can ever for a millisecond change? The fact that if you are in Christ, you are delivered and free Christian, stop being afraid. Do not fear over and over and over again. The scripture says, do not fear who's elected, do not fear. What happens to your body? Do not fear because you've been delivered, you've been freed. And if that's true, live in it, enjoy it. And if not, if it's not true, if you've never turned to Jesus, then, then we would graciously plead with you to, to believe this one reality. Actually, we would graciously plead that the spirit of God would help your heart be quickened to believe in this reality. And that reality is this, that the greatest terror in the universe is waking up on the other side of death and discovering that God is not just some nice gray haired old man sitting in a rocking chair, passing out candy to anybody whose religion is based on being baptized as an infant or being baptized as an adult. But rather discovering that when you wake up on the other side of death, that there really is one true God and he really is the ultimate judge of the universe and he is perfectly and unswervingly just if you have never been delivered by the one true God, we plead with you believe that reality. And, and in that reality of believing in the one true God of repenting following after his son Jesus. There's math in that. And the math is this, if a person places a low value on God, if they place a low value on the authority of God, the existence of God, then it is possible that eventually or maybe immediately that they will also place very little value on human life. Genesis 127 says this. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them because God created man in his own image. There's this picture of, of God saying that that man, humanity is, is sacred and precious and valuable. So if we refuse to value God as creator, if we refuse to value him as the one who created all that exists, then in certain ways, we are kind of declaring that we also do not value human life because God values human life. What you think about the authority and the value of God, the existence of God. It matters greatly in some of the most impossible feeling. Moments at the doctor and the hospital and the nursing home are at home with hospice. What we believe about God matters. Someone once noted that if our decision making in life is primarily based on the emotions of the moment, if our decision is, is based on what's the most practical thing we can do right now. What's the most conservative thing we can do right now? What's the most radical thing we can do right now? If it all is in the moment, then we can convince ourselves to be comfortable with just about anything as long as we relieve the pressure of the moment. So what value do you place on knowing and following God? What value do you place on His authority? It matters if our decision making is only based on the moment with, with no understanding, no thought of God's value and his authority. If we do not value God's authority, the pressure of the moment or the pressure of things in life will begin to drive how we do everything and it'll drive us sadly. And unfortunately, but almost automatically toward the wrong crowd or at least thinking like the wrong crowd. And what's the wrong crowd? Paul gave us a picture of it. In Romans chapter one, people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed and evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. That that's the crowd. We don't want our minds associated with. We don't want to move in that direction, which is why we listen to this not confusing clear command from God. You shall not murder. That's the opposite of what the bad crowd so to speak is thinking when a person makes God worthless, human life can become worthless. And when the concept of human life becoming worthless, it, it moves us toward taking life, not only as an option but an acceptable action unlawfully taking life as an acceptable action for medical clinics to road rage to gang violence in big cities, to family arguments in small country towns, the very nature of premeditated, deliberate, unlawful taking of life. It takes on many, many forms but no matter what form it takes, there's, there is one thing that it is guaranteed to produce and what's that one thing I was reading a story about a man who was talking with a male nurse at a female prison and the male nurse began to, to talk about just some of the horrible things that he experienced at the prison. He described things like like cocaine babies and, and A I DS babies. He described inmates that were pregnant multiple times and, and had no interaction whatsoever with their kids. He talked about Children being taken out of the abusive home of, of prisoners and he turned to the man and he said this abortion at least relieves some of the misery to which the man turned to him and said, killing people is not a good way to relieve misery, whatever form the unlawful premeditated, deliberate taking of life may take. The one thing it will produce is some level of devastating misery. Someone may say, you know this, this message doesn't apply to me. I I haven't killed anybody. I hadn't murdered anybody. I'm I'm good with this and we, we can move on to the next one by the way the next one's adultery. So you know, welcome to homecoming 2024. One day, Jesus was teaching his closest friends and, and he was teaching them about the 10 commandments and, and listen to what he said, Matthew 521 you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not murder and whoever commits murder shall be answerable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court. And whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing shall be answerable to the Supreme Court. And whoever says, you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. This Jesus talking. You know, when Peter, when Paul this, this was Jesus speaking. Now it's been noted that to call someone a fool in, in the time of Christ is to say that they're a nonperson. It's not just oh you fool. It, it is a declaration that you don't exist. You're, you're, you're not even a human to me. So the language here of what Jesus is saying is that when you call somebody a fool, when you, when you have this type of heart attitude towards someone, you are saying that person is not sacred, they're not precious, they're not valuable and in your heart, you're murdering them. So Jesus in a very non confusing way says whether it's with your hands or with your heart, you shall not murder In fact, Jesus goes so far as to say, if you start murdering people with your heart, then you are guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Now that should change how we watch the news maybe. Right? Because it's so easy for us to say, oh, this has nothing to do with me. Well, I'm not as bad as that mug shot. Jesus just doesn't let us off. He makes sure that our hearts understand that the sixth commandment is, is not confusing. It's it's clear you shall not murder with your hands or with your heart. It may be helpful to consider this question though, it's not murdered. What's what's not something that's considered premeditated, deliberate, unlawful taking of life. Now, as I said earlier, this is one sermon and again, if I had 100 and one sermons on Exodus 2013, we we would not cover all the different questions and scenarios and debates and everything else that surround the concept and the issue of murder. So in taking the whole of scripture, the comprehensive truth of scripture, just just a few kind of general comments. Generally speaking, if you're driving down the road and something goes wrong with your car and there's an accident and someone is killed in that accident, the scripture would not describe that as murder. Likewise, generally speaking, if there is a just war and life is taken in the, in the midst of just war, the scripture would not describe that as murder. And likewise, if, if there is generally speaking, legal and, and just recourse connected to capital punishment and the scripture would not define that as as murder. Now again, regardless of, of what your personal or corporate feelings or opinions may be on accidents or, or war or, or the legal process. The reality is this without some system of justice, the world would always be mired in murder. The world always be mired in chaos and injustice. In fact, the reality is we are all so selfish and so sinful that there has never been a time, past, present or future with any humans. Nor will there ever be a time? Nor is there a time now where we will not need to debate the concept of what it means to take life. We have to engage with it. Every generation has, we're just selfish and sinful enough that we have to have the conversation. But the commandment is not confusing. The commandment is clear. You shall not murder. Now, what do we do with that today? I mean like today, February 25th, 2024 what what, what do we do? How how can we, how can we take this somewhere into the rest of this day? Well, this is what Jesus said, John 1010, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came so that they would have life and have it abundantly. So what we can do today. The action that we can take so to speak is to make sure that when it comes to the attitudes and actions of our hearts and our hands that we would not turn them over to the enemy, that we would not turn them over to the one who longs to steal and kill and destroy. Rather, when it comes to the attitudes and actions of our hands and our hearts, we would turn them over to the lover of your soul. Jesus Christ loves your soul. He gave his life to rescue your soul, your being your existence. That sounds good. What's one kind of practical way that could show up in real life? Like, like how can we take this notion of Jesus wanting us to live in the abundant life that he's planned instead of stealing and killing and destroying the, the way the destroyer and the enemy would, how, how do we do that in like a, a real practical way? Well, there's thousands, maybe millions of ways we could do that. Here's just one, just, just one way. Maria Bear for years has been volunteering at the community pregnancy resource center in her community in Ohio. She's a married mom, I think has two daughters and she said this about volunteering at the pregnancy center. This is what she said while I frequently feel nervous, sad, confused and at a loss for solutions. There's one concrete thing I've learned. Most women seeking abortions aren't uber political. They aren't members of the aggressively pro abortion Twitter argument waging, shout your abortion crowd. They aren't calculating murderers. They're afraid no matter which form the premeditated, deliberate taking of life comes. Someone's always afraid. Maria says we should remember that we should remember that, that those young women that come into those pregnancy centers, they're afraid and why this is what she said, this will help us love her, empathize with her, encourage her to choose life for her baby and ultimately point her to Jesus. And why should we do that? Why should we empathize with her? Why, why should we try to plead with her to keep the life of that unborn baby? And why should we point her to Jesus? Because that's what Jesus did. That's exactly what Jesus did. Jesus took the law of God and he used it to help people find the love of God. And then Jesus fulfilled that law by giving his life on the cross to satisfy the penalty of sin. Jesus truly paid it all for lawbreakers like me and lawbreakers like you, you're a lawbreaker, you're a lawbreaker. I'm a lawbreaker. None of us could possibly obey the 10 commandments. You can't do it, you'll never be able to do it. You need to be rescued from the law doesn't mean the law is not good. The law is great, but the law is what God uses to help us. See, we need him. So Jesus fulfilled the law to rescue us from the law and lead us to the love of God that can only be seen through the law. We are rescued and redeemed and saved by the love of God forever through Jesus fulfilling the law. Kevin De Young says this, the 10 commandments are the way for God's people to love one another. You know, again, back to our series title, 10 Ways To Change the world. It, it may sound, you know, pie in the sky. So what I, I don't know about you. I need a little pie in the sky. You know, it'd be nice to have a little something to shoot for the 10 commandments are the way for God's people to love one another. And by the way, when God's people love one another, it just stays here, right? We're not supposed to love other people. The love that we would have for one another only applies to Holland Avenue Baptist Church. We're not supposed to love anybody else. Just people at church. Right? No. Now we're supposed to love all people toward Christ because they are sacred and precious and valuable by the creator God. And I've said this before, I will say it again in this world of declaring your orientation and your identity and your political party and whatever else it may be. Please understand this. You have value, period. You are sacred and precious and valuable. Don't li listen to anyone lie to you and say that you are not valuable until you have an identity. You are identified with the one true creator God. You are sacred and precious and valuable in his eyes, even without Jesus Christ, he created you and he longs to save you. The world is lying to you. When the world tells you, you have to declare yourself something. I I would even jokingly say, even declare yourself Christian. It's not in the title, it's in the person of Jesus Christ. You are sacred and precious and valuable as a human being. And the one who created you sacred and precious and valuable. Longs to be your God and longs for you to have all of your identity wrapped up in His love that will never end all other identity will end. He leaned. I will not be voting for president for the rest of my life. One day, I will not be an American one day, I'll be with Jesus. My identity is wrapped up completely and totally in Christ. He is the ultimate identity and Jesus Christ is precious. He is the most precious treasure in the universe. Kevin De Young says the 10 commandments are the way for God's people to love one another. When we love, we fulfill the commandments and when we obey the commandments, we are fulfilling the law of love it, it all works together. We, we don't blow these things off, we don't blow scripture off. We don't say, oh, it's an ancient book and we're in modern times. No, these truths still work. They're still good, they're still helpful and it is the law of God as we obey it that helps us actually fulfill the love of God to others. And what does that mean? It means that when we hear the sixth commandment, you shall not murder. We go man. If I can pursue that, at least, maybe right around my little world with my hands and with my heart, I might be able to change some things at home and work and school because I would be living out the law of love.