When my brother got his driver's license he had saved up enough money to buy a 1954 Bel Air Chevy. Now this was not one of those cars that people considered to be a classic, this was an old clunker. It was a unusual shade of green. It had been restored and Mike bought it for $400.
One day before I was old enough to get my driver's license, it snowed and Mike and I went up to a church parking lot to see what the old green bomb would do.
We learned to drive on ice, in a church parking lot. That was not a problem and I became confident of my ability to be able to drive on icy roads.
The problem came when you got on the streets with other people and you had to watch the lines and the signs and the signals and most of all be aware of other people who never learned how to drive on icy conditions. When Houston had all of that ice on the roads last month, I told a friend of mine, I hope all of the Yankees who perpetually tell us we don't know how to drive are out on the streets of Houston and all of those Texans are out there running in to them.
My apologies to all of those who hail from north of the Mason/Dixon line.
The Ten Commandments is saying, "This is how you travel life's highway with other people. This is the way you make life work in living with other people and Me."
Now we have covered the first part of the commandments that Jesus said is involved in "You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength." Now as we begin this commandment, we're getting into the part that says, "You will love your neighbor as yourself. This is how you will live." From the mountain, there thundered through the smoke the words "You shall not murder."
Do you know what an "OOPS" abortion is? It's when there is a miscalculation about the fetus' due date, and the fetus survives the abortion. Something happens at that time, that I think must be quite disturbing. When the fetus survives the abortion, at that point in time, it is considered a baby and taken to a neo-natal emergency room, and they do all they can to help that baby live.
One pediatrician angrily said, "When they botch up the homicide, then they bring the baby to me and say, 'Fix it or get rid of it.'"
One day a doctor came into the neo-natal intensive care unit with a little baby that had survived the abortion. He told the nurse there, "Let's try the procedure." They tried to help the undeveloped lungs, and they could not. He said, "The baby's traumatized. He has no hope. Would you stay with him and try to make him as comfortable as you can while he dies?" The nurse said, "Lord, help." And she looked at that little tiny baby and realized every part of a functioning child was there and working. She reached her little finger in there, and the baby caught hold of her finger and squeezed it. She said, "You need to have a name," so she named him Tiny Tim. She saw Tiny Tim put his thumb in his mouth, and she prayed that would give him some comfort. She touched his toes and found out he was ticklish. As she was looking at him, she realized he was gasping for breath, gasping as though a truck was sitting on his chest. A nurse came and said, "He sure is putting up a struggle for such a tiny one, isn't he?"
After awhile as he gasped for breath, he squeezed her finger a little harder. She said, "I let him hold on because I wanted him to know somebody was there with him and who cared." After a little while, she began to stroke him very slowly as his breathing became less and less. She said, "Good-bye, Tiny Tim. Please know that somebody cared about you." And he breathed his last and passed away.
It is God's will that every living creature know they are cared for. When the thundering voice came from the mountain that said, "You shall not commit murder," it was saying life is sacred to God and should be sacred to us.
Everybody's life is sacred to God and should be sacred to us.
But would you read what the Author of those lines goes on to say in Matthew 5, beginning in verse 21? "You have heard that is was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,' and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin! But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."
God is saying life is so precious that when people learn to live on life's highway and function together, they will understand we are not just here to live and let live. We are here to live and help live.
You may say, "This is not a group of people to talk to about 'You shall not murder.' There are no murderers here," but we do need to hear the Lord say, "When you're angry with your brother, you stand in God's judgment. When you say to a brother or sister, 'Raca,' you should be brought before the court and punished." You may say, "Brother Bob, I've never called anybody Raca. I don't even know what Raca is." Let me tell you what the word is. It is an Aramaic term of contempt. It is exactly like the derogatory words used to demean someone of another race, and God says, "Do not use those words to another human being or you ought to be taken to court and punished."
He said, "Do not ever say, 'You fool!'" The word fool is the word moros in the language of the Bible. We get our word moron from it. When you call someone a moron, you are calling them a fool in a slanderous way. You are calling them something that is degrading, and Jesus said, "Life is so precious to Me that if you slander other human beings, you are in danger of hellfire." That's His word.
I could give you a lot of examples of people who have hurt others in many ways.
Of course, there are more ways to take a life than shoot a bullet or stab a knife in the heart. You can take a life by taking away its dignity. You can take a life by robbing people of the joy of life. Our Lord is saying you can hurt people, and that is what this verse is all about. It goes beyond, just the act of murder.
Let me elaborate just a bit. Don't ever be angry without cause to another person. I know some of you are thinking I always have cause for being angry, but that is not what God's Word says. Don't ever use a slanderous word toward another person. Don't ever use a degrading word to describe another person.
This is God's will. We are here not just to live and let live. We are here to live and help live.
There are a lot of illustrations I could give of people who have hurt others deeply in many ways, but I would be betraying confidences if I did that.
I think there may be a greater illustration in a much less dramatic story.
There was a boy who grew up on the south side of town. His family never had much, but they did the best they could. This boy had an older brother, and it always seemed as if they were competing. The older brother was faster, smarter, more popular, had more confidence, was always picked first before the little brother. Everywhere the big brother went the little brother followed along. It always seemed as if the big brother would accomplish something and then the little brother was come along and at least try to match him if not beat him. They grew up playing sports, football, basketball, baseball, track. Just about every sport there was, they competed in.
The older brother played his last year of football his junior year of high school on the JV and he never lettered. He was just too small. The younger brother had outgrown the older brother and he was making a name for himself on the football team. The older brother tried out for cheerleader that year and not only was he a cheerleader for the school team, he also became a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys football team. This was before they discriminated against men and had only female cheerleaders. It was also before they started wearing just their underwear on the field. The big brother also was voted most popular his senior year.
The younger brother played his junior year, and the coaches told him they had been contacted by Texas A&M and North Texas about his prospects for a college scholarship. The only problem was after his junior year, he was really tired of football. As a matter of fact, he had lettered that year and without understanding it, he had accomplished what he set out to do .... beat his big brother. Spring break came along, and with came the same grueling practices and brutality that goes with football. The difference was, this guy just didn't have the heart for it. There was not another goal in football that he cared anything about. As tough as high school ball was, he sure didn't want to try to play in college, although 10 of his team members received scholarships that year. So during spring training that year he quit, one afternoon just as practice was starting. The head coach came into the locker room and screamed at him, he called him a quitter and told him he would never amount to anything. He told to him get out that he was despicable.
I don't know why he felt that he had to demean me in such a way, but I know I have never gotten over the humiliation and the prediction of failure has haunted me all of my life. I saw him 20 years later, because he had married one of the girls in my class, who was 18, he was 35 at the time. They are still married by the way. He almost apologized at our 20 year high school reunion.
On that fateful day, I got a clear signal, that said, you are worthless if you don't fit into the mold that some people want you to fit into. I got a signal that day that has plagued me and my insecurity, all of my life because there are many ways to take life away from people.
I wonder are there any of you dragging around a little emotional baggage this morning? I dare say there are. Of course, a lot of people have changed that and made it so different, and there haav been so many people who have given life. All of you who work in Bible School and you who give up your Lord's Day time to give it to the Lord by teaching Sunday School. The things you are saying, the help you are giving, the encouragement you are extending ... all of these things are making impressions on lives you will never know about until you get to heaven. That is why it is so very crucial for you to be careful about the example you show.
Tommy Bolt was a U.S. golfer known for his graceful swing and his hot temper. On one occasion, while leading a clinic on golfing, his fourteen-year-old son accompanied him. During the clinic, Tommy turned to his son and said, "Son, show these people what I taught you." Bolt's son took the nine-iron out of the bag and threw it as far as he could. Your going to influence someone. You will determine whether that is positive or negative.
There have been Sunday School teachers and deacons, and pastors and youth ministers who have made me feel important, and made me to know that I was loved by them and by God. I think back to my ordination and recall all of the people from my past who came participated in my ordination; people who down through the years have encouraged me and loved me and prayed for me.
I can remember a deacon that came to the hospital the day our baby died and wept ... never said a word, just sat out in the hallway and wept and hugged me in one of the darkest hours of my life. It made all the difference in the world. You can help people. It's not just "live and let live." It's "live and help live."
That's what this commandment is about.
Young people, I want you to know today, that I love you. Some of you may have believed that I don't care about you or that I don't like you. You need to know that I care about each and every one of you. You have the most incredible opportunity ahead of you, and in spite of any problems that you may have growing up, God wants you to have a life like you can't even imagine today. One of the reasons why Mark Kirby is here is because I recognize that I do not have the gifts to communicate to you in a way that makes sense to you that God want's you to have a wonderful life. That is why our Personnel Committee has worked hard, and long, and been patient and waited until we reached the point that we believed that God had spoken to us about his coming. We want you grow up to become and godly men and women and we believe that Mark can help you do that.
We want you to become prepared to be the church leaders of tomorrow, because one day, all of the leaders of this church will die off, and it will be in your hands.
We want you to know the love of Jesus Christ that we have experienced over the years. We want you to learn the joy that comes from being obedient to God's Word. We want you to know the freedom that comes from the discipline of the Lord. There is so much in store for you and I hope and pray that one day, some of you will see that God has placed his hand on you and is calling you to become a pastor or a music minister like John Davis, or a youth minister like Mark Kirby, or a missionary or chaplain for a professional sports team, or a denominational worker like Bob Russell.
What kind of life do you want to have? I would never have dreamed to ask God for all He has given to me. I think He gives His best to those who leave the choices to Him.
You shall not murder. You shall not take a life by anger. You shall not take away life by calling contemptuous names. You shall not take away from life by gossiping and slandering people. Not friends, not strangers, not your wife, not your husband, not your children. God says we are not here just to live and let live. We are here to live and help live.
Some of you are here this morning and you have been assassinating people with your words. You have been burning people alive with fiery speech. You have been poisoning your family, your marriage and even this church. This morning, you have an opportunity to confess that to God.
