Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 Well, my name is Michael fueling. I ended up lead pastor here at the village church. And before we jump back into Exodus, I want to just take a moment. And I want to say to all of our incredible mothers happy mother's day. Now this is where all the men in the room give a big, big round of applause. Mom's
Speaker 1 00:00:25 A little hesitant, but I'll take it typically
Speaker 0 00:00:29 On mother's day, we do not preach like a mother's day sermon or father's day of father's day sermon. We usually preach through a book of the Bible. And so we're going to be doing that this morning, but I want to just take a moment and say moms you're welcome because almost always the text that lands on mother's day is about the judgment of God. Hell the wrath of God, the discipline of God. It's actually pretty hilarious. Um, almost every single year, um, these subjects come up and said, today is a little more tame in terms of subject matter. I think I hope we'll cross our fingers, but moms you have had a really challenging year. Can I get an amen from every mother in this room? Right? And on top of COVID you had to figure out public school, homeschooling private education. Some of you, your husbands have been home all year long and you've lived with each other in a way that you never, ever quite imagined.
Speaker 0 00:01:25 God bless you. Uh, counseling, uh, counselors are all just literally filled up. It's like impossible to get in anywhere, which we're all realizing how nuts we are, but moms you're on the front line of it. You are the first ears that get to hear it. You're the first eyes that get to watch it. You have been faithful. You have made it through this year. You've had to figure out vaccinations and COVID and mask wearing and try to train up your children to love Jesus and the process and to keep the main thing, the main thing, and then elections and politics and news like it's unending and you have been faithful.
Speaker 1 00:02:00 Perfect. Now, faithful. Wow, that was so good. Highlight of my morning right there. Well,
Speaker 0 00:02:11 But you have an amazing insight. I just want to take a moment and I want to read a passage of scripture. It's from Proverbs 31 and don't let anybody just tell you. This is some antiquated woman. The woman from Proverbs 31 is a rock star. I mean, this is a woman when you watch her character and her work ethic and her life unfold in this text. It's amazing. And so I want to just take a moment. I'm going to read a portion of scripture from Proverbs 31 verse 25 says this strength and dignity are her clothing. And here's my favorite line in all the Proverbs 31. She laughs at the future, she looks at all the onslaughts of life, all the threats, all the realities, all the to-do lists. And she looks at it and says, this is my home. These are my children. I got this.
Speaker 0 00:02:59 And she looks at all of the possibilities with confidence, despite all the fears she might even feel at the same time. First 26, she opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household. She does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and they call her blessed her husband. Also, he praises her some other day. It's just a gamut of emotions. But today we stop. Some of you, you had incredible mothers and they've passed away. And this was a day to remember, this is a day to remember the good gift God give. He gave you. And today some of your mothers are alive and you have the opportunity to either be in their presence. Some of you are here today because your mother dragged you to church, praise God for moms, right?
Speaker 0 00:03:47 Some of you, this is a day where you just go out of your way and you just spend this time today because you make the most of the time because you never know how long you're gonna have your mom with you. Some of you would give anything to have your mother back with you today. So this is a day where you just stop and you saver and you remember, and you think God. So I want to take a moment and pray for moms. And I want to ask you to do me a favor. If you're sitting next to your mother or grandmother and you were in the same family, I just wanna encourage you to put your hand on their shoulders or hold their hand or something gentle and just not praying. And if you don't know the woman next to you, don't touch her.
Speaker 1 00:04:21 Um, just let that one go.
Speaker 0 00:04:24 Um, but I want to just take a moment. I'm gonna pray for you. And if you're, if you don't even like touching just maybe your right knee is touching. That's cool too. We'll take, we'll take anything we can get right now. So let me pray, father, thank you for revealing such beautiful and unique aspects of your nature and character. Not just through femininity, but through motherhood every time we experienced a faithful sacrificial, nurturing, persevering, strong and tender mom, we experienced a reflection of you. So today, may you comfort the grieving? May you encourage the exhausted and the tired and you point every mom to Jesus, the source of a mom's superhuman strength. And we pray this in Jesus name, all kids and everybody living with a mother or having a mother say, amen. Amen. Love will just take it. All right. Amen. Amen, mom. These are amazing.
Speaker 0 00:05:23 Thank you. We love you. I don't have to fake that in any way because I have a great mother-in-law. I have a great mom who birthed me, brought me to Jesus. So I can look at you with all sincerity and say, you guys are amazing. Most of us would have no idea what to do in life. If it weren't for you. All right, we are relaunching back into the book of Exodus. And so today we're starting a four week series called decisions. We call the series decision because there are some decisions in life that unless it was legislated or made law, you and I would probably never do them. So let me give you a couple illustrations. The speed limit. Now, are you the person who drives too slow or too fast? I'm going to say on the count of three, either say too slow or too fast.
Speaker 0 00:06:07 Let's see what the consensus is. One, two, three. Yeah. Like there was one or two people in the room are like too slow. I mean, most of you, the speed limit is there, you know, fine. But most of us would blow past the speed limit if it wasn't there to regulate us. All right. Taxes. Okay. Rhetorical question. If it wasn't mandated, would you pay taxes to say rhetorical people? Like what does the rhetorical even mean? It means don't answer, but Hey, most of us in this room would not pay taxes if it was like, if you want to go for it, right. Nobody would do it at all. Okay. Here's the fun one murder.
Speaker 1 00:06:47 Happy mother's day. I'm just waiting to, someone's going to get good.
Speaker 0 00:06:52 If it wasn't illegal, would you have killed somebody by now? Don't answer the question. I here's a better one. If it wasn't illegal, would you have been killed by now? Oh
Speaker 1 00:07:04 Yes.
Speaker 0 00:07:06 He's like, oh yeah. I would have been murdered multiple times by that. Here's a different issue. Tithing. Many, many Christians are really grateful that American law doesn't mandate by law that you tied. But if you went back to the nation of Israel, it was actually legislated by law that you would tie because the human heart is not inclined to give generously, but to keep and to horde as much as humanly possible. All right. And that spirit opened your Bibles up to Exodus chapter 21 and Exodus chapter 21 to 24. It's the first detailed set of laws. After the 10 commandments, these laws are written sort of erotically. Like if you just start reading, it sort of feels like somebody with ADHD started writing these into the American eye. There's no rational order to them, but all of these laws can pretty much be clumped into four major different kinds of groups.
Speaker 0 00:07:57 The first group is called justice laws. That's what we're going to deal with this morning. We have neighbor laws, stewardship laws, and separation laws. That's going to goddess over the next four weeks, but we learned two really, really big deals about justice laws. As we look at each of these laws through Genesis chapter or Exodus chapter 21 to 24, number one, we learn that God cares deeply about political and social structures because evil structures oppress and kill people. So God actually cares about how political systems are structured because political systems either make for human flourishing or make for oppression. The second thing we learned about God, his heart from these justice laws is that God cares deeply and personally for those who cannot protect themselves. So I want you to just hear me for a moment until Yahweh established the nation of Israel all over the world. It did not matter where you lived. It did not matter what century you were living in. It didn't matter what content you were in, what tribe you're in all over the world. Every single civilization before Israel functioned, it functioned under this law, the law of social oppression, justice for the rich and the powerful basically here's what it means. Power is kept through oppressive laws, fear and war. And so here's the mantra of social oppression. He, with the most power wins and who were its greatest victims, historically
Speaker 2 00:09:41 Slaves, refugees, foreigners, women, children, and the disabled murdered
Speaker 0 00:09:50 By the millions throughout history, exploited treated like utter refuse and trash. In other words, the victims are what Jesus would call the least. I'm going to call them the vulnerable it's those who do not have the ability to protect themselves. And so social oppression, this is the best the ancient world could ever come up with. And it was to be honest, all the nation of Israel had ever known. And so the expectation is that if God didn't intervene and change the way they did things, not just by gentle encouragements, like maybe you shouldn't treat people like dirt and enslaved them, but through law with severe and harsh penalties, what was the nation of Israel going to do?
Speaker 1 00:10:38 They were going to repeat
Speaker 0 00:10:39 To the next generation what was done to them. I mean, you've heard the phrase hurt people, hurt people, right? And so what did the Israelites just emerge out of 400 years of oppressive, evil, terrible, dehumanizing slavery, and what was going to be their impulse. If God didn't help them create a better nation, they were going to go and do the very same things to other people. So God is looking to establish in Israel for the first time in human history, a nation
Speaker 2 00:11:13 Of justice,
Speaker 0 00:11:15 Not justice for the rich and not justice for the poor but justice for every single person, whether you're born in this country, whether you're visiting this country, whether you and your, you were in your mother's womb, whether you were about to die, whatever color you were, it did not matter. The people of God were to be a place of true justice, such as the world had never seen before from top to bottom, from left to right, this was going to be a miracle. If this would work now in the Bible, there's, there's a word justice, but in the Hebrew, there are two Hebrew words for justice and they have different nuances. I wanna help frame this discussion for you with a biblical sense of justice. Uh, the first word is mish pot image. Poverty simply means to make wrongs right without partiality. So whether by punishment or payment, it is a response to injustice.
Speaker 0 00:12:09 So when you see an injustice in front of you, mish pot acts, the people of God are just, we act with mishpat when there is a wrong in front of us. When somebody is treated as less than human, the people of God should be the first ones to rise up and say no, in this community, we don't do that. Let me give you an illustration of mish pot to any playground in the world. From about two to three years and older, what do you see? Social oppression? The strongest winds, the weakest is marked male or female. It doesn't matter. That is the greatest <inaudible> of social structure is the playground. And you need someone to watch the playground because what happens if you don't have somebody legislating the playground, you get violence. Don't you, you get punches, you get tears, you get black eyes, you get broken limbs.
Speaker 0 00:13:00 So here's what, here's what I do with my kids on a regular basis. They'll pull up to the school and I will look at all of them and say, okay, kids, I have one big job for you. Here's what I want you to do today. I want each of you to find one person who is hurt, left out sad, or being made fun of. And I want you to personally go take care of them. And w that's your job, find it, look for it. And one of my kids recently said to me, well, dad, like sometimes they don't always see that. I said it is always there. And if you ask God to give you eyes to see it, he will give you eyes to see that. And lo and behold, they come home and they say, oh, this thing happened in school. And I was able to go do this.
Speaker 0 00:13:45 Why? Because the law of social oppression is alive and real. And it is in every single one of us. Some of you go to work and you see this. It is like, it is like power plays left and right, who has the most social collateral who has the most power. And we use this against each other, and then you put it into politics. Lord Jesus help us mish pot. We go in and we make wrongs, right? The second word, it's a little bit different. It's I can never really quite say words that have T and Z next to each other, but Sidak and Sidak is to live rightly this is less of a response and it's more of a lifestyle. Um, in fact, we, when we get up as believers in Jesus Christ, as followers of God, as the people of God, we choose to live a life.
Speaker 0 00:14:31 That is just, that is fair. That is honest. That treats every person, whether they are a waiter or waitress, whether they're broke on the street or their CEO without partiality, because every person has made in the image of God and they have dignity. And we don't show partiality because that is not how people of God act. Now, if everybody had Siddiq mishpat would never be needed, but every single one of us in our heart struggles with power and to oppress, that's what we do. It's in our DNA. And so the Jesus, what he wants to do is he wants to transform us into lovers and servants. And when we have power to use it to love, well, now Exodus chapter 21, here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at five categories of people represented by justice loss,
Speaker 2 00:15:24 And
Speaker 0 00:15:24 Each of them are uniquely vulnerable for very different reasons. And I want to just tell you why I want to highlight these categories. Well, number one, because we're teaching through Exodus and there it's part of the next portion of scripture. But number, number two is I want to show you this list because I don't want anyone ever to trick you into thinking or saying that the God of the old Testament promoted slavery and was just killing people left and right. And his unjust and the God of the new Testament is different and kind and merciful. There's a whole new line of argumentation against Christianity that rips this old Testament stuff out of its context and makes the next generation of Christians feel like they are struggling. I want to show you these things, because I want you to know with certainty that there will be people who'd rip the Bible out of its context, try to make your God look horrendous.
Speaker 0 00:16:18 But really when you just look at the text, it's actually astounding the level of justice that God is integrating for the first time in human history, into this society. And here's a question for you as we go through each of these categories of the vulnerable, does your life actively seek justice for the vulnerable? Now, here are the categories that God draws out. Number one, the indebted Exodus chapter 21 verses one through three. Uh, so the Hebrew language actually has a word for this group of people. This is a group of people who through either borrowing money or some set of circumstances, found themselves in debt to another person and unable to pay it. And here's how the word is translated in English. If you're a debtor who could not pay off your debt, the English Bible translate. It translates it as
Speaker 2 00:17:15 Slave pause for a moment. Is that how you understand American slavery or they were just in debt. So they paid it off. No,
Speaker 0 00:17:26 I need you to understand something. What the Bible talks about in terms of Hebrew, slavery is fundamentally categorically. Absolutely almost the opposite of a gypsy slavery, which all of these Hebrews knew and American slavery, which is the context that we have for this kind of language. So here's what I want to do. I want to read you these port, this portion of scripture, I'm going to draw some highlights. I'm going to show you what the nature of biblical slavery actually like, and then we're gonna apply it to our context. First one. Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years. That's interesting. That's not life. And in the seventh, he should go out free for nothing, no selling him. If he comes in single, he should go out single. If he comes in married, then his wife should go out with him.
Speaker 0 00:18:12 There are multiple multiple laws regarding and protecting what they would call the slave or those who had debt that they couldn't pay off. And the biggest thing that you need to understand, I'll say this again is American and Egypt in slavery have no real correlation to what was happening and what God was building in ancient Israel. So here's how you would become a slave. You would voluntarily go to someone and ask them if you would be, you could be their slave. And you would go to that person because you had the money because you had a significant amount of debt and an adjustment. <inaudible>
Speaker 0 00:18:55 the one who loans needs to be paid back. And the one who gets the money needs to pay it, both parties and adjust society, get what is fair and right. And so here's what would happen. The person would go to their lender and say, I can't figure this out. I need to work for you for maybe a year. Most of the law would allow would be six years. And that was it. And then here's what would happen if you were a part of their, if you were their quote unquote slave, you'd become a part of their family. You would not be paid, but you'd be given food lodging, you'd be taken care of. You could have a family. You were treated with human dignity. You were given shelter and more, in fact, you would become a part of the masters family. And then no longer than six years, you would absolutely 100% be set free.
Speaker 0 00:19:42 The other way that one would become a slave is if the court ordered you to go become someone's slave, because you owed them enough money that you couldn't pay back. And because this was a land of justice, you had to make, right? The debts that you owed somebody, but it was always temporary. Now this is interesting. There's another highlight of slavery. What slavery did this process of slavery prevented someone from drowning in debt, and then handing off that debt for generations and generations to come. Like, I'm not going to have you raise your hand rhetorical question, but how many of you have made foolish financial decisions? Well, the people of Israel had made foolish financial decisions. They actually didn't come from a culture where they were wise and good stewards of money. God had to train them from the ground up, how to be wise.
Speaker 0 00:20:27 And so here's what God did he put into the law that no matter how dumb you are with your money, no financial decision will haunt you in generations. After you've got six years max, you pay it off and then you're done and you go and you rebuild your life. But what happened historically is that honestly, if you had debt, it would just go to your, and then to your grandkids. And it was this whole economic system that would oppress people. And God's like, Nope, Nope. In this place and this country, we know and expect, you're going to make bad decisions you can't get out of, but these will not haunt you and be passed down from one generation to the next, the system. Also novel idea, reward hard, work, it rewarded wisdom. It rewarded good character, but it never ever punish somebody for generations to come because of the ignorant decisions they made.
Speaker 0 00:21:16 Sometimes even in a bad moment, slavery is not the right word. So when somebody comes to you and says, look, the Bible had slavery. They are ripping an American concept and they are transferring it, importing it onto the Bible. And that is not what the Bible is talking about. In fact, the Bible slave laws go out of their way at every single corner to protect the dignity, the humanity, and the future of every person who found themselves in financial trouble. So the best modern day equivalent to the slave or the indebted would be those in debt, in bankruptcy or losing everything limit. Let me share with you. This might be a little odd for some of you, but let me share with you a justice ministry that gets overlooked. A justice ministry is the ministry of helping people financially manage their assets.
Speaker 2 00:22:08 They, you, you
Speaker 0 00:22:09 Are wise and you know how to do these things in this context, in this place. And you can sit down with somebody and you can teach them how to spend, how to save. You can literally take a person and transform their trajectory for generations by entering into their life, in their lowest financial moments and teaching them how to do something vastly different. This is one of the most significant issues. And so this is what the Bible would say, listen, we don't do this. We don't treat these people poorly. We elevate them and we treat them with dignity. There's a second category called the traffic Exodus chapter 21, verse 16. And I want you to pay attention to the way of these words,
Speaker 2 00:22:49 Whoever steals a man sells him and anyone
Speaker 0 00:22:56 Found in possession of him shall be to what's the word, death. Hello? Whoever thought you'd shut out death. In the middle of mother's day, sermon
Speaker 2 00:23:08 Nations were renown for oppressing stealing
Speaker 0 00:23:13 People and slaving them, murdering them, selling them, treating them as cattle as less than human. And God's like, listen, never may. It never happen in my nation. You will never steal another person. This is not how we function. The people of God are just people. And we honor and protect the dignity of every human being. Not only does the Bible not advocate American or Egyptian slavery, it actually says caught doing it. You will be killed. The modern day. Equivalent would be the human trafficking industry. It is disgusting. It is global. This is why we partner with ministries like Ray Hub's daughters, to do whatever we can with the little influence that we have personally. And as a church to help women and children and young men be freed from this kind of slavery. And it is a vial and the people of God, we don't put up with this.
Speaker 0 00:24:12 How in God's green earth, a couple of hundred years ago, Christian men and women could read the Bible and use it to justify American slavery is insane and it shows their theological incompetence. The word of God from the old Testament to the new it's clear on, it's not even fuzzy on the, these issues. Here's the third category, the unborn Exodus chapter 21, first 22 to 24. I'm going to read this and then I want to draw some distinctions here. So when men strive together, they hit a pregnant woman. They're fighting so that her children come out, but there's no harm. The one who hit her shall surely be fine. As the woman's husband shall impose on him. And he shall pay as the judge determines. But if there is harm, I want you to pay attention to this as the unborn child, then you shout, pay life for life, eye for eye tooth for tooth hand, for hand, foot, for foot burn, for burn wound for wound Stripe for Stripe. I don't want you to miss a little covenant. Law is communicating the
Speaker 2 00:25:25 Preborn RF, completely equal legal value and every other kind of value. Then the born there
Speaker 0 00:25:35 Is zero distinction and the kingdom of God born children are fully made in the image of God, fully human, nothing less than, and the people of God advocate for the life and the dignity of the unborn. And so the modern day equivalent to this would be the abortion industry. We have a major generational challenge right now. I want you to hear this. Our current cultural moment has succeeded in numbing, the minds of millennials and gen Z to the weight of abortion. And it's been interesting because there have been some arguments that have happened and some ways of thinking some attacks on Christianity. And, and so one of the most common attacks that seems to be effective with Christian millennials and gen Z goes something like this. You Christians, you say you're pro-life, but you're only pro unborn. You don't care about anybody else in the other stages of their life.
Speaker 0 00:26:33 All churches care about is the unborn. But what about the single mother? What about the suffering? What about the refugee? And let me just pause for a moment because the implication is somehow that the secular world has an edge on care and compassion for the least of these. And all we care about is the unborn. Maybe there's a church or two or 10 that that's all they care about. Okay? I'm glad they care about something, but let it never be said that our heritage and our history has only ever been concerned with the sanctity of life. For the unborn. I was reading an article this week, and here's what the author said. Who built hospitals, who founded rescue missions and decaying, inner cities, orphanages soup kitchens who founded charitable societies, taught literacy were tirelessly to end slavery campaigned for equal rights ended child
Speaker 2 00:27:25 Labor. Christians did men and women
Speaker 0 00:27:29 Who understood the sanctity of human life and the urgency of guarding human dignity. That's who then he can say, well, why isn't the church doing more? Let me just tell you my circle. I get to watch people in all different industries of justice who are believers in Jesus, do incredible things all around the world. And the church is on the front lines of justice ministry globally. Do not let anybody tell you differently. Then there might be a narrative out there that doesn't elevate those kinds of stories. But I am telling you across the world, you will find on the ground. It is followers of Jesus who started in our sustaining. Most of the justice initiatives across the world, or at least the ones that the Bible would call justice initiatives. The number four, there's a new category, widows and orphans. I love the law is so concerned about every kind of person who's vulnerable, who cannot protect themselves. Exodus chapter 22 verses 22 to 24, the widows and the orphans, those left without provision and protection, 2222 says you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. Why does, why does a law even need to be made? Because what was their human instinct to mistreat and take advantage of a widow and a father was child, but I love what's next. If you do mistreat them
Speaker 2 00:28:57 And they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry and my wrath will burn. And I will kill you with the sword
Speaker 0 00:29:09 And your wives shall become widows. And your children fatherless is that, is that like the response you expected from God? Oh, you're going to mess with him. I will kill
Speaker 2 00:29:20 You. He's serious. Isn't he?
Speaker 0 00:29:23 But he is not playing games. This nation will be just, and if you are going to exploit those who cannot protect themselves, you will hear from the Lord. Let me give you the modern day equivalent here. This is the foster care system. And those kids who are in this is why we love to partner with safe families. That's why we love to support any families pursuing adoption, whether it's financially or in resources. This is why those of you who are in the foster care system and taking foster families. So proud of you. Let me just tell you that I get to watch in this church and churches in this area, a passion, a real passion, that sacrifices for children who cannot fight for themselves and for every one of you, who've engaged those systems. I want to tell you, we are really proud of you. Keep it up. And the Lord puts that on your heart. Whether it's foster, whether it's safe families, whether it's adoption, we will love to come alongside of you and support you in any way we can. But let it never be said that the church is not on the front lines of foster care, safe families and adoption in America and around the globe. Number five, here's the fifth and last category, but definitely not the least the foreigner Exodus 23, verse nine. He says this, you shall not oppress a Sojourner.
Speaker 2 00:30:39 You know,
Speaker 0 00:30:41 The heart, a Sojourner for you were sojourners
Speaker 2 00:30:44 In the land of Egypt. The best
Speaker 0 00:30:49 Modern day equivalent of this would be refugees. Those who don't speak our language, they find themselves in America for whatever reason,
Speaker 2 00:30:59 Immigrants. And we
Speaker 0 00:31:02 May just meet them. We may not, but when they pass by us or we have the ability to integrate, we give honest work and we help people because when you're in a foreign place without resources, it is really hard to figure out how to start over. Particularly when you don't speak their language, world vision. We had a great partnership with them. In fact, there's some of you in this room, you were refugees and you came here through
Speaker 2 00:31:22 World vision. Some people
Speaker 0 00:31:24 Come into churches through partnerships like this, and you don't speak the language. You don't even believe in Jesus. But the church is the only place on the ground that is willing to put their arm around somebody who is in a country. Who's fleeing something to an another nation that sought to kill them or harm them and their children. They finally come over here and guess who is on the front lines of taking care of refugees left. And right, once they get out of government tension agencies, it's the church and in America, and this moment, that's not an exhaustive list, but you can, you can see God's heart all over these laws. And you can see that our God is a God of justice and his heart bends to those who are uniquely vulnerable
Speaker 2 00:32:12 In Christianity
Speaker 0 00:32:14 And Western culture. We have intentionally sought to build imperfectly yes, nations on the Judeo-Christian framework that uphold this ethic and wherever this ethic is birthed in nations, imperfect as they are freedom and flourishing are there. Now what's interesting is there's an implicit warning for us because as Christian and Western nations generally put aside, these Judeo-Christian ethics, historically there are three political options left. Here's the first communism, which will likely be the end result of the European landscape. If things keep going the direction they go, oppressive, theocracies and dictatorships, which will likely take over religious countries in the middle east and in Africa, typically through Islamic countries, implementing Sharia law, and then finally tribal warfare, which would likely be the result of not just multiple African countries, but let me just go on a limb and say, America, I'm not advocating anything. When I say this, I'm saying we are not a people to be taken over easily.
Speaker 0 00:33:26 There's a lot of guns in this country and doggone it. There will be tribal warfare. If somebody tries to take over this nation again, I'm not advocating. I'm just acknowledging and observing what is real and true in this place. Americans love freedom in a way that Europeans don't quite get. And when we talk to Europeans, they're like, Hey, you guys just love freedom. I don't understand your obsession with freedom. It's a thing it's just culturally, very, very different the way this nation was birth. And so once Judeo-Christian ethics begin to be set aside, historically, there are three governmental structures that humanity will live under in every single one of them revert back to social oppression where people die.
Speaker 2 00:34:05 That's not a political
Speaker 0 00:34:06 Conversation that is biblical ethics applied to the way social structures function. And now we have thousands of years of human history to watch as these things play themselves out. Now over the last hundred years, there's been an idea and I think it started off really well. And the idea you may know of this as social justice. And it's interesting if you try to define social justice with the last a hundred years, but every 10 years there seems to be like a new definition of what this is. It's a moving target. And it has a really good motivation. The motivation of social justice is to go after injustice. And that is a valid and noble motivation. The human heart desires justice without a biblical worldview. We begin to define justice in some very strange ways. Now here's what I think. I don't care what news agency you watch.
Speaker 0 00:35:04 If you're an Al-Jazeera MSNBC, CNN Fox news, OAN it doesn't matter what news source you watch. I think if you just listen, you're going to notice that over the last few years, particularly as two, three, four, five, there is another new emerging definition of social justice. Now I don't know how these trajectories are going to end because we're kind of right in the middle of watching this, this whole discussion really begin to take root and to get more and more clear, but gosh, anything could happen in America as we've seen in the last year. And so I'm not being a prophet here. I'm just going to identify a few things for you that I think are really important. And so there has been something emerging, which is a new version of social justice. Like 15 years ago, a pastor could get up and talk about social justice and nobody would cringe or maybe three or four people would because we had a lot of commonality even with non-Christian organizations.
Speaker 0 00:35:58 Like, do you want to see the end of human trafficking? Yes. Do you want to see the end of we'll call it? I mean, you name it. We could agree on a lot of things, but it's interesting because now the last couple of years, we actually don't mean the same thing anymore. And so, as we said, social justice, it's a moving target. And now it has a kind of a new emerging meaning. And so social justice going after injustice, I want you to pay attention to the emerging definition of injustice and justice is anything that produces or allows an inequitable outcome.
Speaker 2 00:36:28 Meaning that a, an organization,
Speaker 0 00:36:32 A family, a society, a culture, a world is not just, unless everyone has the same amount of everything. That's the end result of it. Equity, not equality, equity. It's a new word that you start hearing. And the political landscape, it actually has deep theological meanings, which is why we're talking about it. And so social justice has a problem in justice and that is their problem that they are now defining. Now, this is kind of a new definition of injustice over the last few years. This might be new to you, but this is the emerging definition and their solution to this is very logical. Given their definition. Their solution is the redistribution of power, wealth, and opportunity. And so it's interesting in social justice is that you, you see this moving, that there is a taking from some allocating resources to other taking power for some reallocating to other. And if their definition of injustice is correct, then their methodology is appropriate. The problem is that as a Christian, we fundamentally disagree with their definition of injustice.
Speaker 2 00:37:34 Then nowhere in
Speaker 0 00:37:35 Scripture at all, do we find a value for equity? Meaning the equality of outcome for all people. Now, if you're not a Christian, I don't expect you to uphold a biblical worldview. But right now we're talking about a biblical world views of Christians. We don't just buy hook line and sinker everything. The culture in the world. And the media says, do we, we think critically and we evaluate all of it through a biblical worldview. And so the biblical worldview is pretty much different, but I want to just say this never in the old Testament, in old Testament law. And if you ever wonder if God has opinions on political structures, the system, he built an entire nation, right? With laws that are detailed, never once is the redistribution of power, wealth, or opportunity ever advocated, promoted, or even dabbled with under old covenant law. Jesus is teaching.
Speaker 0 00:38:22 He had plenty of opportunity to go after this issue because his sermons were to one of the most oppressed people groups in the world under Rome, which was the Jewish people. And he had every opportunity to call for the redistribution power, wealth, and opportunity. But he didn't now is, is the modern emerging. I call it emerging because not everyone's on the same page, but it's going in a direction is the modern, emerging, social justice movement. Like, are they really trying to do the right thing for sure by and large, but if you define injustice wrong, then all of your methodology therefore follows and is probably not going to be right. Social justice is the best a secular culture can come up with, but God offers something better. So you know what? We used to fight over the term, the world, count the term, let's have a new term, biblical justice.
Speaker 2 00:39:17 It's better. Okay. Biblical
Speaker 0 00:39:20 Justice, biblical justice defines injustice like this. It's, it's interesting because it's a lot more simple, but it's harm done to anyone because of sin. So whether it's the system or the structure, or it's a relationship where it's the playground or it's oppression, or it's the government structure, anything because of sin that is harming somebody, this is injustice. And the reason we've defined it this way is because there is zero injustices that Jesus will not make, right? No matter how big or no matter how small, because when we make injustice, these big categories exclusive for a couple of people, we miss that Jesus, his justice is going to be total global for everybody, no matter how wrong it was, how little or how big, whether you're black or you're white, whether you live in the first century or you live in the 21st century, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 0 00:40:11 Jesus will execute justice for all biblical justice for all. And the solution is interesting because the solution follows to address the core of the problem. And here's the solution. The biblical justice solution is we care for the whole of every person with the hope of the gospel. So it doesn't matter if you are unborn or you're old. It doesn't matter if you're a refugee or you're born in America or wherever you are. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, the color of your skin. As a follower of Jesus, we are going to treat you with human dignity because you are made in the image of God. And he is passionate about you being protected. If you are especially vulnerable, doesn't matter who you are. That's what we do. Biblical justice. Doesn't discriminate. It, doesn't pick and choose it. Doesn't pick animal rights over abortion rights.
Speaker 0 00:41:06 If there is a vulnerable person, it doesn't matter where they are. God cares about them. Therefore, we care about them. That's biblical justice, social justice picks and chooses its causes. Biblical justice cares and has concerned for every human being. And we seek to not redistribute wealth, but to bring the gospel into their life, to bring healing and redemption to their mind, to their soul, to their body, to the money, to their sexuality, to the relationships, every single part of the human being we care about it doesn't matter who you are and it doesn't even matter.
Speaker 2 00:41:41 You did, to me
Speaker 0 00:41:43 As a follower of Jesus, God cares about you. I care. Biblical justice has the following convictions. And I want you to just hear how they contrast with the modern social justice, emerging definitions. Every person I encounter is worthy of dignity. Even the ones that have harmed me, God has a deep affection for every person I encounter. Therefore, I will treat them with dignity. Every single person I speak with can be and needs to be transformed by the power of their gospel of the gospel. Every part of them mind, soul, body, sexuality, relationships, finances, marriage, the gospel wants to invade every single part of their life. Biblical justice affirms that power and influence are good gifts. That must be used to love art partiality, biblical justice affirms that the church has uniquely been given the power of the gospel, the spirit and the word to bring about personal and communal transformation. These are our primary weapons and they are powerful to transform human hearts. Typical justice affirms that every human and every organization and every institution is flawed because we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. It also affirms that our soul's craving for ultimate justice
Speaker 2 00:43:21 Is good, but it will
Speaker 0 00:43:23 Not be fully satisfied until Jesus. It comes back and he judges the living and the dead and all the secrets are unveiled. And he in justice and righteousness makes right every single day wrong ever done. Justice has a short view. It just looks at human ability to make right institutions and maybe relationships, but we are looking for something way bigger. And so we do what we can now by the power of the gospel and the word and the spirit in our spheres of influence, whether we have political influence or just personal social, whether we own a business or we manage or whatever we do, whether it's with our neighbors and our family, we seek miss pot and Sidak everywhere we go. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:44:14 This is what we do. And we don't discriminate.
Speaker 0 00:44:18 We are for particularly the vulnerable because God is for them. And we just affirm everybody who wants justice. Our soul wants it. They do. What we say is that Jesus will bring, and we see the world a little different. I want to show you a couple of silhouettes. As we come to a close number one is be aware, be aware of justice ideologies that negate the power of God and create division. Social justice is going to change. It's going to merge. It's going to, it's going to take some clarity over the next couple of years. And then in 10 or 15 years, it'll get a brand new definition. Again, it's a moving, it's a moving target and where we can figure out how to partner for the good of people. If their soul for the gospel, we'll figure stuff out. But, uh, it seems to be a moving part target, but I just want to encourage you any idea, ideology that puts aside the power of God and the gospel negates it or presses it. We just need to watch out for that. That's not how we build the kingdom of God on earth. If you're worldview, if you're a form of
Speaker 2 00:45:21 Justice leaves, you defeated
Speaker 0 00:45:27 Looking to take from other people, bitter and angry and identifying as a victim. I just want to, I just want to suggest that maybe your worldview
Speaker 2 00:45:37 Isn't great.
Speaker 0 00:45:40 I think the, I think what biblical justice does is it offers a much more beautiful worldview. It acknowledges the pain and the suffering of every person,
Speaker 2 00:45:51 And it tells you to bring
Speaker 0 00:45:52 Your pain and suffering and to pour it out on Jesus, who wants to bear your burdens with you
Speaker 2 00:45:56 And cares for you.
Speaker 0 00:45:59 And if your view of, of justice and pain moves you for not being a victim, although you may have been victimized to somebody who by the power of the gospel is overcoming for the glory of God and you are not left in a state of bitterness and hatred towards those who are different than you. I contend at the batter
Speaker 2 00:46:19 Is more life-giving
Speaker 0 00:46:22 And that's what biblical justice through faith in Christ offers us. I am not identified at my core as a victim, but as an overcomer by the power of Jesus Christ, I am not a victim for the rest of my life, but I'm one who is called to bring healing and redemption and to experience that healing and redemption. Here's the second. So what seek biblical justice in your
Speaker 2 00:46:49 Sphere,
Speaker 0 00:46:51 It starts in your own personal life and in your family, it starts with a conviction that we will not treat people anyone as less than made in the image of God. And then as the Lord gives you opportunity. Again, some of you may have political influence, online influence, whatever we are fighting for biblical justice, which when somebody experiences the benefits of biblical justice always brings flourishing and life to them. But number, number three, my last, so what I think I want to just kind of free some of you up here, because, um, do you ever feel like you look at the world and there's so many causes, you don't know what to care. It's like almost so much happening at once and you feel guilty for not caring about every single call simultaneously. Like there's people over here dying. There's people over here dying. There's people over here, oppressed.
Speaker 0 00:47:38 And you're like, what do I do with all this? So here's the third one, seek biblical justice as the Lord leads. You personally, the Lord loves people far more than any of us ever could. But what I found is that the Lord often with a family or the person puts one specific ministry of justice on your heart and gives you a calling to that. For some of you, it might be foster care and adoption and safe families. For some of you, it might be abortion for some of you might be human trafficking for some of you might be race relations or something different. But here's what I found is that for most people, rather than getting suffocated by the weight of all the brokenness, that's in the world, ask the Lord, what do you want me to do? So it's interesting when somebody has a passion for this, right? They almost want everybody in their life to have the same passion. It's like, Hey, will you come over to this food pantry with me? Ah, not really sure. I want to go. Why don't you love the poor
Speaker 2 00:48:29 And the homeless? Well,
Speaker 0 00:48:31 Yes. I mean, so there's an interesting tension here, which is like, not everybody may have your passion, but it doesn't mean they don't love the vulnerable and the least. And so just go before the Lord and say, Lord, would you give me a passion for justice in this world? And when you show me how to maybe rise above the way the world does this, and maybe fight for something that increases human flourishing and draws people to Jesus through the power of the gospel, would you help me figure that out? And I think the Lord wants to mobilize the people of God for the good of this world, to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. I have a hunch. If you go before him and you ask, he'll bring some clarity to this. So what I gonna do is I want to take a moment and I want to pray for you. And I wanna pray for us and we're going to celebrate communion together. And by the way, guys, we talked about communism, Sharia law, social justice, human trafficking, abortion, and slavery on mother's day. It wasn't so bad. It's better than the wrath of God, right? Let's pray, father.
Speaker 0 00:49:32 There's so much insanity in this world in evil, and it can just feel overwhelming, but God, you are up to something. There's no corner of the world that you turned a blind eye to Lord. Your justice is patient, which confuses us a lot. Lord, would you give us eyes to see
Speaker 2 00:50:04 The ideas that are emerging
Speaker 0 00:50:06 In our current world? Would you give us the wisdom to process them through a biblical worldview? Would you also get God, give us eyes to see the things that we can do? And the difference we can make starting with the playground, which for many adults is our work or our neighborhood, or may we be known as people who practice mishpat ends the deck?
Speaker 2 00:50:28 Would you help us
Speaker 0 00:50:29 Lord, some of us, um, we've never trusted in Christ. Maybe it might be somebody in this room or somebody watching kind of pray that you would first and foremost, draw people to faith in Christ so that the power of the gospel and the holy spirit would take root and begin that transformation that each and every one of us need. Lord, we confess you are God, you are good. You are just, and you are right. And we release all of the lack of control. We have over this world to you and ask us, ask you, would you give us that next step? You want us to take to be people of true biblical justice. We love you. We pray this in Jesus name.
