Love & Judgement

All right, well, that said, we're gonna jump into the series that we're in, and we're kind of doing something different today.

We're starting something different.

We're doing like a series within the series.

And I'm gonna start by saying both another Happy Mother's Day and in a big giant, I'm so sorry, to all the mothers who are here today.

And you'll understand why in just a second.

Um, earlier this year we started a series, we've been in pretty much all year long.

If you're new to his hands, what we typically do is go through scripture.

We want to learn God's word.

We want to learn about God through what he has revealed to us in his word.

I could stand here on stage and give you my observations for life.

Uh, and I could tell you all the things that I've figured out on my own, and that's fine.

There's a place for that, I guess, in the world, but that's not this place.

This is where we come to learn what God has showed us, what God has spoken, his truth.

And so we open up God's word and we go through it.

And sometimes that's just an entire book of the Bible, other times it's it's really doing a deep dive through a big chunk of scripture.

And what we've been doing this year is going through the story of Abraham, this man in the Old Testament who develops this very close personal relationship with God, so much so that he's often described as the father of faith, like Father Abraham.

And we're calling this series Getting to Know God, because if you if you look at the story of Abraham, what you find is this is a person who believes in God but doesn't know him, doesn't know his character, doesn't know his nature.

You couldn't say at the beginning of the story that Abraham necessarily had a relationship with God, but as the story progresses, and bit by bit, he encounters God, he meets with God, God meets with him, God teaches him, God does things that surprise him.

Abraham does things that maybe don't surprise God because it's probably hard to surprise God, but they surprise us, that's for sure.

And he gets to see how God responds to him.

He develops this close understanding of who God is.

And through Abraham, we can do the same.

We want to get to know God, we want to know him better.

Well, today we're starting a series within that series, and it's gonna last us a few weeks.

We're gonna take our time with this, and it's called Love and Judgment.

Love and judgment.

And here's where I'm gonna say, I'm sorry to the moms.

Um, look, it's actually kind of becoming a running gag, and I'm not meaning it to, as far as how poorly I schedule things.

And so the Sunday after Easter, we talked about circumcision, because that's where we were in the story of Abraham, and my bad.

And today, we it just happens to be Mother's Day, and we're at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Uh and if you're not familiar with the the Bible, um just know it's it's it's not a very Mother's Day themed story, okay?

And I actually do feel I do feel bad for the timing of it because a few years ago we did this series, we went through the entire story of the Bible in a year, and it just so happened that on Mother's Day we started the series, we we broke the whole Bible up into like 13 different little series, and we made we had a lot of fun with it.

But the series that we happened to be on Mother's Day of that year was uh we launched a new one.

It was called So Much Blood, and it was uh it was a study of like the book of Judges and the part of the Bible that's pretty much just defined by people dying or animals, just a lot blood.

And we got to that on Mother's Day, and here we are again.

It's Mother's Day, and we're gonna start a study on Sodom and Gomorrah and just God destroying an entire city-state.

Happy Mother's Day.

Uh thanks for being here.

We would have set up a photo booth outside for all the moms, but it just didn't feel right after the, you know what I mean?

Uh no.

I don't know if at this point if I should just like make sure next year we do something very light-hearted and fun, or if we lean into this.

And just every year, as a tradition, on Mother's Day, we have the most difficult possible topic.

Um, we'll see what happens.

We'll see, I'll pray about it.

If it were not Mother's Day, though, I would have nothing but excitement talking about this.

Not because I have something wrong with me.

But truly because I think that these are the types of stories that if we if we do them justice and if we actually get into it and study it and think about it and maybe wrestle with it, these are the stories that help us grow.

These are the stories that actually help us develop a mature faith.

Jesus had this famous teaching, a parable of the four soils.

And in this parable, a farmer is planting seed, and some of the seed falls in different types of soil, and depending on the type of soil the seed falls in, it determines whether or not the plant grows.

And it's a real it's an analogy about how our hearts can be when it comes to receiving the truth of God.

And the second soil is described as rocky soil or shallow soil, and Jesus says this in Matthew 13.

He said, the seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy.

They're excited.

But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long.

They fall away as soon as they have problems or they're persecuted for believing God's word.

Like the second life goes poorly, the faith goes away, or maybe the second someone challenges their faith and says, wait, you believe in that?

You're telling me you believe in all of these things?

They go, ooh, I don't know about that, and their faith dwindles.

They don't have a mature faith, they don't have deep roots.

The only way for us to develop a mature faith is to handle the moments in Scripture where there's some tension.

It's to handle those moments where they're not just light and fluffy stories where, you know, we put them on t-shirts and we're like, that's my favorite verse.

No one's favorite verse comes from this story.

I promise you that.

But it's the tension that makes us grow.

And sometimes we we have a tendency as people to do everything we can to avoid tension.

That's just sort of human nature.

And it's actually really easy to do this in church, especially with stories like this.

And so you can do it a couple of different ways.

One, you could just skip it.

We'll just skip it.

We'll just be like, you know, technically Abraham's not really in Sodom and Gomorrah when it happens.

So we could have just been like, well, he's that's not, he's not really, we're skipping it.

We could do that, but we have a commitment at his hands not to skip the hard stuff.

So we don't.

We're not gonna skip it.

We could try to reframe it and make it seem way, way like happier.

I used to be a children's pastor, and I had to do that a lot with a lot of Bible stories that if you grew up in church, you think of them as children's stories, and then you read them as an adult, and you're like, this is an intense story.

And I gotta tell the story to little kids, but like in a different way.

So I was actually thinking about how I could do that, just having fun.

And so, like, if we if we wanted to animate this and we say we were gonna do like claymation, all right?

Everything's happy in claymation.

So um I I I did some fun just goofing around with AI, and so like this would be this would be claimation Noah's Ark.

Okay, let's look at this.

Look how happy that is.

Isn't that lovely?

Who wouldn't want to be on the Ark?

That is a that is a petting zoo cruise, is what that is.

That's great, right?

But then I started thinking about it and I was messing around with that this week.

Like, what if you did that, but with the really like the really dark stories in the Bible?

You know, it'd make them more fun.

And so, for example, like the plague of frogs with in the story of Exodus, frogs everywhere.

Look at how that's just that's fine.

You can even see the there's a frog on the guy's head if you zoom in a little bit.

Um, yeah, that's that's a really fun story now.

It's not a terrifying plague, just frogs covering every inch of yeah, it's great.

Okay?

Here, I got another one for you.

Put the next one up.

Let's let's look this.

This claimation makes everything better.

The Valley of Dry Bones coming to life.

If you've read that story and I there's a prophet that has this vision, it's a really intense story.

Those are just happy skeletons, praising the Lord.

Look at how happy they are.

I'm telling you, man, clamation makes everything fun.

All right, let's go to the next one.

I did this, I did some of these didn't make the cut, just so you know.

Uh, if you don't know, this is a deep cut.

Some of you guys, raise your hand if you know this story.

Ah.

Alright, so there's these uh young, young guys that make fun of Elisha, who's a prophet, and he's bald.

And then those bears get involved.

And I won't fill in the blanks, you can go read that for yourself.

It's a pretty intense story.

Okay.

I actually had a good friend that read that and it kind of rocked his faith when he was young.

He was in high school.

He's like, What do I do with this?

I was like, two things.

Don't make fun of bald people or prophets.

Pretty simple takeaways of that story.

Let's go with the next one.

Let's go with the next one.

Um this is uh Abraham, I had fun with this one.

I was like, Abraham telling Pharaoh that Sarah is just his sister and not his wife.

I love that.

Like, if we zoom in on Sarah there, I have seen that face so many times in my life.

I'm very familiar with that look.

Men, how many of you are like, I've seen that look.

I know that look.

Hopefully, you don't see it today on Mother's Day.

But here we go.

Alright.

So we could do this with with so many, right?

And again, there's some that didn't, there was some.

Jezebel's demise was depicted really interestingly.

If you know that story, it did not make the cut.

It was, it was not, I didn't think it was good.

All right, so what if we did that with Sodom and Gomorrah?

Let's go claimation, let's reframe it, let's make it fun.

Here's what we would get.

Still terrible, still, still horrifying, not less, not less intense at all.

Then I even was like, what if we animated it?

Okay, so this is what we would get if we animated it.

Um and yeah, also worse.

It is now worse.

Even claymation cannot make this a happy story.

That's how intense the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is.

I couldn't even get claymation to make it fun.

So that's the story we're gonna we're gonna be in.

We're not gonna reframe it, we can't try to pretend like actually, when you think about it, it's a really happy story.

It is not.

It is not.

Or the third option, I can skip it, you can reframe it, try to sanitize it.

The third option would be just to deal with it.

Just deal with it.

And I I have found over the years that it's best when you get to something really hard in scripture, especially as we're studying this stuff together, it's best to deal with it.

And it's actually best to slow down, not just get through it one week and be like, check that box, we did Sodom and Gomorrah.

But actually, guys, this is the stuff that makes us grow.

This is what forces us to wrestle with God.

And you don't grow in your faith if you don't do some wrestling.

And so we did this a few years ago.

We were going through Romans and we got to an interesting section in Romans where it talked about God's view of human sexuality and what's good and what's not.

And so instead of just skipping that or reframing it or whatever, we took our time and we actually did a little mini-series called The Biblical Sexual Ethic, and we spent three weeks discussing this and talking about it and getting into all the details, and it was, at least from my perspective, was really healthy and really good.

And we're gonna do that with this story because it's really a story of how love and judgment go together.

And how do we reconcile the idea we have of a God who is love and he is merciful and he is kind and he's forgiving and it's grace, and then there's the destruction of an entire city and really the way the world worked back then, like a civilization.

Because these city-states were kind of their own self-contained uh countries, like countries didn't really exist yet.

So this is this is a huge deal.

And if you're ever someone who struggles to reconcile those ideas to go, how do these things fit together?

Um, you're not alone.

Even even Abraham, as we're gonna see, has a hard time reconciling this.

Today's gonna be a little different.

Today we're gonna sort of set the stage, and I hope hopefully give us a foundation for how we even process some of this, and then over the course of the next few weeks, we're gonna get into it.

And um, I don't know if you're gonna come back next week or not, but we'll find out.

But I truly do believe that this is how we grow.

Does that make sense?

This is how we grow.

So let's wrestle.

Genesis chapter 18, verses 16 through 33.

Genesis 18:16–33

To set the stage here, if you you've been here the last few weeks, we kind of had to jump ahead when Madison taught.

And by the way, Madison did a phenomenal job, did he not?

He was really incredible.

I'm so grateful.

I really like I love that guy so much, and he's such a gift to our church in so many ways.

Um before Madison had to jump ahead so that we didn't, I didn't, I wasn't gonna give him Sodom Gomorrah, right?

Even though I kind of wanted to.

I maybe, I maybe test of the water is like, what do you think about that?

And he's like, please no, okay, all right, cool, I'll take it.

It should be me.

But we were in this place where God, along with two angels, that's the easiest way to sort of understand it.

You could look at it a few different ways, but the simplest way is God and a few angels show up and meet with Abraham and Sarah.

Like Abraham and Sarah wake up one day and there's God in like human form, and two angels with them, and they they bring them in and they they eat together, they have a meal with God, and God does an amazing thing, and he actually reiterates this promise he's made to them to have a child, and for the first time ever, even though they're very old, he gives it a timeline.

He says, You're gonna have a baby this time next year.

And and they laugh about it, and then God says, You know what?

Since you laughed, name him laughter.

And it's this really sweet story.

But then we learn what the ultimate purpose of God's visit actually is, and we get there in verse 16.

It says, Then the men got up from their meal and they looked out towards Sodom.

As they left, Abraham went with them to send them on their way.

Should I hide my plan from Abraham?

The Lord asked.

That's so interesting.

I wonder how often God does that with us.

Like, should I tell him?

We talked about this a few weeks ago.

Do you want to know God's plans?

Do you really want to know his plans?

God asked, Should I tell him?

And he says this, this is really interesting.

He says, For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation.

He's talking about the future of Abraham's descendants, his offspring, will become a great and mighty nation.

And all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

I've singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and what is just.

Then I will do for Abraham all that I've promised.

And so that's the mentality that God has.

Why is he going to tell Abraham what he's about to do or consider doing?

In the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, these two cities that are joined together.

Well, he's telling them this because he recognizes that one day Abraham's people will become a great nation.

And he needs them to know how important it is to do what is good and to do what is right, and what can happen if an entire culture devotes itself to evil, which actually happens often and has happened often throughout history.

So the Lord told Abram, I've heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin is so flagrant.

It's an interesting concept, right?

Flagrant sin.

I'm going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard.

If not, I want to know.

The other men turned and headed towards Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham.

Abraham approached him and said, Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked?

Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city, will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes?

Surely you wouldn't do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked?

Why?

You'd be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same.

Surely you wouldn't do that.

Should not the judge of all the earth do what is right?

And the Lord replied, If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.

Then Abraham spoke again.

Well, since I've begun, let me speak further to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes.

Suppose there are only forty-five righteous people rather than fifty.

What's happening is a reverse auction, as you're going to find out.

Okay, just to set the stage.

What if there's only forty-five?

Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?

And the Lord said, I will not destroy it if I find 45 righteous people there.

Then Abraham pressed his request further.

Suppose there's only 40.

And the Lord replied, I will not destroy it for the sake of the 40.

Please don't be angry, my Lord.

Abraham pleaded, Let me speak.

Suppose only 30 righteous people are found.

Now he's going by tens.

Right?

He's getting aggressive.

And the Lord replied, I will not destroy it if I find 30.

Then Abraham said, Since I've dared to speak to the Lord, let me continue.

Suppose there's only 20.

And the Lord replied, I will not destroy it for the sake of 20.

And finally Abraham said, Lord, please don't be angry with me if I speak one more time.

Suppose only ten are found there.

And the Lord replied, Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.

And when the Lord had finished his conversation with Abraham, he went on his way, and Abraham returned to his tent.

Now, Abraham goes to sleep, if he could sleep that night.

And what happens in Sodom and Gomorrah, we're going to cover over the next few weeks, but Abraham wasn't there.

So I wanted today to keep it just through the lens of his experience.

So the next time he shows up is in Genesis 19, 27.

Abraham got up early that morning and hurried out to the place where he had stood in the Lord's presence.

He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched as columns of smoke rose from the cities like fire from a furnace.

There were not ten.

I wonder what Abraham felt.

Because it's clear that he has a heart for people and he has family in Sodom and Gomorrah.

And we're going to learn about that.

His nephew Lot had gone to live there, which was an unwise decision.

But Abraham still loved Lot.

I'm sure Abraham was heartbroken.

I'm sure he was terrified.

All kinds of things probably flooded his mind.

Because you have to understand that Sodom and Gomorrah were powerful.

I mean, we have a tendency to look at these ancient cities, and from our perspective today, compared to what we have in the world today, they're just little villages, really, towns with walls around them.

But at this point in human history, these are, I mean, this is cutting edge.

This is, you know, top of the pack kind of stuff.

These are the alphas.

These are the most dominant, powerful groups of people on the planet.

And they're gone.

It's wiped away.

It's gone.

And as we'll actually get into, believe it or not, this is a really interesting story in that we actually have a lot of archaeological evidence that backs this story up.

Like a significant amount.

So we'll talk about that in the weeks to come.

It's interesting.

Sodom and Gomorrah is no more.

Sorry if I spoiled that.

If the acclamation video didn't do it justice, is gone.

It's gone.

And Abraham has to reconcile that.

And so do we.

Like, how do we reconcile love and judgment?

Because God is love.

I mean, I don't know if you've thought about how deeply God loves you lately.

Hopefully, every Sunday is an experience with that.

Hopefully, as we sing out these worship songs and we understand that God loves us, that He loves us.

Like, I don't know if you've ever stopped and really taken stock of who you are and the fact that God loves you.

He doesn't just tolerate you.

Like, I have a hard time tolerating myself.

And I'm not just, I'm not just saying that.

It's not just a playful thing.

Like, I do things all the time that drive me crazy.

Like, especially when I know that I'm in the wrong and my family is calling me on it in the moment and I know, but I'm just not ready to admit it yet.

That happens often.

That happened on Friday night for me.

I was just in a bad mood.

And like in the midst of it, my wife is like, you're not yourself.

And I'm like, you're not yourself.

You know what I mean?

I just double down.

And then I just hate myself for a few hours.

Like you can hate yourself and feel justified in that and simultaneously be deeply loved by God.

That's that's that's amazing.

His love is incredible.

And he loves you.

He is love.

I mean, the Bible actually describes him.

There's very few things that the Bible says God is, but not He is like.

But He is love.

1 John 4.8, God is love.

It actually says, whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

He's love.

And then there's fire that comes down from the sky.

What do we do with that?

Like I want us to have a foundation to process that.

And I think that today hopefully will help.

And if not, come back next week.

I want to look at a few scriptures.

Start with Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

A man comes to Jesus and he says, Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?

Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment.

A second is equally important.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.

We are called by Jesus to love everyone.

To love God, to love people, to love people as much as we love ourselves.

To be that focused on taking care of other people.

And we see this implemented so many times in the life of Jesus, even amongst his disciples, as he's closing his final teaching to them, he says, This is the command I give you, love each other.

Love each other.

He actually said that the world would know that we belong to him not by how outwardly righteous we appear to be, not by how we abstain from all the bad things in the world and we don't partake of those things.

He said, The world will know that you're my disciples because of the way you love each other.

We are called by Jesus to love and to love everyone.

Period.

That's why at his hands we have some words that kind of guide us in how we handle certain situations and honestly certain people.

And the words we use, it's love, accept, agree, endorse.

We love everybody.

We love everybody.

And we can love and accept people, even if we don't agree with them or endorse what they do.

We can do that.

We're called.

I have I as a Jesus follower, there is not one person I have a biblically justifiable excuse not to love.

It's really hard sometimes.

Because there are people that are really hard to love.

And you have to.

So we're called to love.

And God is love.

And Jesus shows us that.

I mean, who else exemplifies love like Jesus?

And then you have judgment.

And clearly we're discouraged from most judgment, as far as us setting ourselves up as the judge over someone else and feeling like we have the authority to determine who they really are and where they really stand with God.

You know, Jesus says this in Matthew 13.

He said, The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.

But that night as the worker slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.

When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

The farmer's workers went to him and said, Sir, the field where you planted, that good seed is full of weeds.

Where'd they come from?

An enemy has done this, the farmer exclaimed.

Should we pull out the weeds?

They asked.

No, he replied.

You'll uproot the wheat if you do.

Let both grow together until the harvest, then I'll tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, to put the wheat in the barn.

So this is a story, a parable that Jesus is actually talking about people.

And the harvesters would be like spiritual beings, angels.

It's like God and all his God and all of his army, right?

But the workers, that that's us.

And the workers are like, hey, should we should we like pull the weeds?

You know, there's some good people, there's some bad people, should we sort this out?

And he's like, nope, nope, not your job.

You'll mess it up.

You'll end up pulling out a lot of the good stuff with it.

Just wait, wait, and later more qualified individuals will do that job.

It's parallels to Luke chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, but the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem.

When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, Lord, shall we call down fire from heaven to burn him up?

And you've got to commend them for their faith.

And they have a biblical precedent for that, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from heaven, Elijah, fire from heaven, like God's done this before.

It's not even unprecedented.

But Jesus turned and rebuked them.

So they went on to another village.

So we're constantly reminded by Jesus that we're not the judge.

Now, caveat, real quick, sometimes there's nuance to things.

We have to address nuance.

Sometimes people use the language in the Bible that says, do not judge others, as almost uh, take it to an extreme where basically we're not supposed to have good judgment.

Where we can't look at something that's clearly wrong and say, hey, that's not okay.

Because like why don't you judge people?

No, we are absolutely called to be able to recognize good from evil, to call good what it is, to call evil what it is, to even in appropriate situations and in an appropriate way call people out and say, hey, what you're doing is not good.

That's not okay.

That's not the same as judging a person.

We can judge behavior, we can judge actions, we can judge moments, but we're not called to make ultimate judgment calls about people.

We're just, we're not.

So in our minds, like love and judgment, they don't go together, they're opposites.

But that's not the case with God.

That's not like love and judgment.

For God, they're very much together.

Because he is the judge.

And Jesus, by the way, was very comfortable with this.

While he told us not to judge or be very careful how we judge, he actually said, Judge lest you be judged, and the manner in which you judge people will be the same standard used against you, so be careful with that.

Jesus talked about himself as a judge, or God the Father as a judge, very comfortably.

So, for example, we can look at Matthew chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

He's talking to the Pharisees, the religious leaders, and he says, What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees, hypocrites?

For you build tombs for the prophets and your ants that your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed.

And then you say, Oh, if we'd lived in the days of our ancestors, we would have never joined them in killing the prophets.

And Jesus knows that at this very moment they're planning to kill him.

But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started.

Snakes, sons of vipers.

How will you escape the judgment of hell?

Therefore, I'm sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law.

You'll kill some by crucifixion, you'll flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city.

As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people of all time.

From the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah, the son of Barekiah, whom you killed in the temple between the sanctuary and the altar.

I tell you the truth, this judgment will fall on this very generation.

That's Jesus.

Same Jesus who says, Love each other.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

He's very comfortable talking about judgment and even wholesale judgment of a generation.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 25, When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

All the nations will be gathered in his presence.

And go back to his parable of the wheat and the chaff, the weeds.

And then he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He'll place the sheep at his right and the goats at his left.

Such judgment.

We see love and judgment as opposites, as contradictory ideas, but not Jesus.

Not God.

Ultimately it's it's a lack of trust.

And it's a lack of trust that we've all earned even in our own hearts.

Because where's the line?

Like where's the line?

How do we determine when something has gotten to a certain point where it doesn't need a gentle correction, but it needs something really, really strong.

Even destruction.

Where's that line?

And we don't know where the line is.

You know, Abraham, he's nervous, he doesn't understand what's happening.

In fact, we'll get into this next week.

There's a story with Abraham earlier where he comes upon this group of people.

And guys, if you study this culture, you're talking about a level of evil that a friend of mine and I were talking about this on Thursday, like a level of evil that would blow us away.

Like there are certain cultures that are just committed to evil.

That has been the case.

Look, look at the Vikings.

You know, they would just go from village to village and just burn it all and kill everyone and take slaves.

And none of us are like, oh, those were the good old days.

It's poor Vikings.

You know, they had cool helmets.

Like, we don't.

I'm glad the Vikings aren't around anymore.

Like, truly.

Well, I some of these cultures, I promise you, if the Vikings would have would have pulled up, they'd have been like, let's go.

Like, I don't want to mess with these people at all.

Like, they're it's crazy.

And God looks at one of those cultures and he tells Abraham, their sin has not yet reached the level of destruction.

He's like, it's bad, but it hasn't gotten to the point yet where it warrants destruction.

And we would be like, What?

How much worse could it be?

When God often finds himself in a situation like he has with Abraham here, probably with most people, where at some point in time we're like, God, why aren't you acting?

There's all this injustice.

Why aren't you doing something about it?

Come on, God.

And then he does something like, God, that was a little out of control.

I think you you were, it was a little much.

I mean, we we have a hard time discerning the lines.

And it's like that in our own lives.

Let's use an example I think many of us can relate to.

And since it's Mother's Day, let's go with this parenting.

If you're a parent, your job is to love your children and judge the heck out of them as well.

You gotta do both constantly.

You gotta make judgment calls every day.

You gotta determine when do I just look away and go, you know what, they're a child, they're learning.

They're learning.

When do you say, hey, that's gotta stop?

And you're gentle?

And when do you go nuclear?

And let's be honest, you need, there has to be a nuclear option.

There has to be.

Let's just let's do this.

Let's have fun.

Parents, how many of us would say, looking back at our kids' lives, we went nuclear at a time we should not have?

We were way too hard on a child at a certain moment in time.

Yeah.

Come on.

Man, I have so many examples of that.

And you know, sometimes it's it's just a misread of the situation.

Like when my oldest was in fourth grade, we were at this basketball tournament, and you know, I've always told him, like, you gotta play hard.

Like, the only I'm never gonna be mad at you if you miss shots, but if you're not hustling, if we, you know, all the work and time you put into this, if you're not giving it your all, like that's where I'm gonna be like, what are you doing?

So there's just this game, and here's what's so crazy.

He was in fourth grade, but I was also a first-time dad.

And when I used to go to basketball games as a first-time dad with my fourth grade child, I was like yelling at refs.

I was treating it like the pros.

And then now my my son Judah's in in the same, he's the same age.

And when I I go to basketball games with him, I'm like, this is really stupid, this is dumb.

Like all the anger and all the intensity.

I look at other parents, I'm like, what are you doing?

But I was that guy.

So anyway, this one game, even though he's in fourth grade, I felt like he just wasn't, he wasn't playing hard, he wasn't hustling, so in the car ride back.

I mean, I had a and dad, some of you have done this where you turn that mirror and you're using that mirror like a laser beam into the child's soul.

You know what I mean?

And you get close enough to the mirror where all they see is a certain part of your face, and you're like, oh, and I'm just giving it to him for not hustling.

Like, what's wrong with you and all this?

We get home and he had a hundred and seven degree fever.

No, 107, he would have been dead.

He had 103 degree fever.

103 degree fever.

I'm here there.

Why aren't you you weren't running hard, you weren't hustling, you weren't diving for Luke.

You looked like you were just in some different world.

He had 103 degree fever, and I'm shooting him out for that.

Yeah.

And I'm I'm great judgment call, dad.

Right?

Yeah, there's just there's times where where you go nuclear and you go, oh, I was wrong.

But but there's other times you go nuclear and you're like, that was warranted.

How many of you have had that?

Like, that was really hard on it, and that's what was necessary.

Anybody?

Like, yeah, it was necessary.

Dude, I did that a few months ago with my kids.

Like, I got to a point where I was like, this is my kids know it's like when I call all of them into the living room, everyone in the living room.

And they're like, what's going on?

And I I would say I lost my mind, but I didn't.

I'd never been more clear-minded.

Like, from their perspective, I was losing it.

Oh no, no, no, no.

No, this was me being like, let me tell you how it's gonna be from now on.

All right?

Megan was gone and she wasn't there.

Why are you laughing?

Um some of you have been in this moment.

She gets home and she's like, What happened?

And the kids are crying, and and she comes to me and she's like, the kids are freaked out.

I'm like, Good.

They need to be.

She's like, I told her, I was like, I want them to go to bed terrified tonight.

I want them to go to sleep.

I'm just telling you, what happened today, that's what's necessary.

And we actually had a disagreement as a husband and wife, and it was, I don't I don't even know if we actually had full resolution, but basically, she's like, I think you're that was too much.

And I was like, I'm telling you it wasn't.

You need me.

I was like, babe, you need me to be your nuclear option.

You need, you need to be able to say, when your father gets home, you need that.

Don't take this from me.

Um, I'm telling you it's what was needed.

And guys, I'm gonna be honest.

Like, I do believe in that moment, like they they needed a major reality check.

But maybe Megan was right.

I don't know.

That's the point.

I we we don't know, we struggle.

We we we don't know where that line is.

We try our best to find it, but oftentimes when we when we blow up, we do something intense, we're like, ooh, I regret that.

It was it wasn't how about this one though?

One more show of hands, if you don't mind.

How many of you looking back, maybe you've parented kids, and you go, I was not hard enough on certain things.

I let things go that I should not have let go.

Oh man.

I'm gonna give you guys a real story and just don't judge me.

I mean, you can, I guess, just find the line.

Um, you know, sometimes you have moments with your kids where you look at them and you have to go, who raised them?

And so when my when my oldest was, you know, when he was growing up, he still is, I guess, but we were pretty, I was pretty focused on him with like table manners, you know, elbows on table, I'm like, sit up straight.

And then as time has gone on, we just we just loosened up.

And now my youngest.

Yesterday we went to breakfast, and we were at this restaurant, he ordered a hot chocolate, and he he uh consumed it with a spoon.

Hot chocolate with a spoon, as if it was soup.

And then his meal came, which was clearly a meal that you use utensils for, and he ate it all by hand.

And I watched this child of mine that I've raised consume his beverage with a spoon and eat his clearly utensil appropriate food by hand.

And I'm like, what did we do?

Like, what?

And is it too late?

You know, those are the questions you start to ask.

And I just haven't been, I haven't been, I don't know, at some point in time I just got folks with it, and then there's the moments as parents where, you know, you just get over it.

You just like Meg and I will try to go watch a movie sometimes, and for us to watch a two-hour movie, it's like a four-hour experience because someone comes in our room constantly.

And sometimes we're just over it.

And so we get to a point where like, you know what, guys, just no, we're not, we're checking out as parents.

Leave us alone, and it's like Lord of the Flies, and you know, and then what'll end up happening is something because we've just completely neglected our duty to lead, things get out of hand, and then I hear a scream, and just because I'm tired and it's the end of the day, I'm just like, that whatever kid did that is the one that gets, and I just like coming out of the room, like, what is going on out here?

And it's just me losing it, being the judge, but being the judge because I completely and totally opted out of my responsibility and let it get to a point it should never have gotten to.

Does that make sense?

Anybody ever done that?

Can I?

Thank you.

All right, good.

Can we see why God tells us not to judge?

Not to put ourselves in a position of authority over other people?

I'm not talking about parenting or your jobs where you have authority, but we're not called to take authority over the lives of other people as if we are their judge because we are bad at it.

We're bad at it to such a degree that we are too soft when we should be more firm.

We're way too harsh when a gentle approach is what is needed.

We just don't find the line.

But I fully believe that God does.

I really do.

In fact, worship team, you can make your way out.

We'll we'll land the plane.

Um guys, God is God, and he knows what he's doing.

He knows what he's doing.

You know, Jesus once looked at a group of people who uh who came desperate and they were often rude to him, and and he said they're like sheep without a shepherd, and he had compassion on them.

But then when he went into the temple and they were making money and profiting off of people's desire to worship, he didn't look at those people and say, Oh, they're like sheep without a shepherd.

I just need to love them and lead them.

He flipped their tables over and he chased them out of the temple with a whip.

And the thing is, I've just learned this.

God is always right.

Like he is right, and there has to be a trust that's there, and I know that that trust is difficult for us.

But he's right.

When he shows mercy, he is right to show mercy.

When he when he brings judgment, he's right in his judgment.

He he walks that line perfectly.

He really does.

He knows everything.

And he's God, right?

He's the creator of everything.

He has the right to do whatever he wants.

That's an interesting concept to think through.

God can do what he wants.

You know, it's like in my house when my kids were playing with Legos and stuff.

If one of them built a Lego tower and one of their siblings knocked it over, that sibling was in trouble.

You don't have the right to do that.

But if the person who builds the tower knocks it over, it's like, fine, it's their tower.

This whole world is God's Lego tower.

No, seriously, like even my life.

I didn't decide to live, to be created.

I didn't have a say in that.

That was God's decision.

He has the right to do whatever he pleases.

And I think if you believe in God, you have to at least grant him the fact that he has the right to do what he wants.

But then the question for us is like what Abraham's wrestling with, but is he right?

Is he good?

I know he has the right, he has the power.

Abraham, I know you're God.

I know you permit me to just ask you a question, but are you are you good?

That's what he's asking.

Are you good?

Are you just?

Are you kind?

Are you gonna find the right balance?

And even Abraham can't land on the right number.

Like, what if it's this?

What if it's that?

And God's like, Yes, I'm good.

We'll see, I think, as we go through this story, that there is a trust that we have to have with God.

There is a recognition that he is a loving judge.

We don't usually think in those terms.

He is a loving judge, he is the loving, kind, merciful, gracious, forgiving judge of all the earth.

He's both of those things simultaneously, and he's perfect at it.

We're not.

So it makes sense that we project our discomfort with the balance between mercy and justice and punishment and forgiveness.

It's it's normal that we would project that onto God because we're so uncertain of it in ourselves, but but God is He's perfect, He is holy, He is righteous.

And just as you read the story of Jesus and the moments where Jesus is kind, you're like, yes, yes, that was the right approach.

In the moments where Jesus flips a table, you're like, yeah, that's the right thing to do.

He is right.

And I think as we explore this story, we'll see that.

The way that we wrestle with this tension and the foundation that we build is one of trust that God knows best.

And that's not a cop-out.

That's not me just saying God knows best.

He has proven it time and time again throughout history in our lives, he knows best.

And when he forgives and just says, you know what?

Fresh start, new chapter, it is it is not just loving, it is the right decision.

And when he says this ends now, it is the right decision.

And we have to trust that.

And it's okay if we struggle with that, it's okay if we wrestle with that, but I'll leave us with this.

I believe in my heart that if you wrestle with God, God will win.

If you wrestle with God truly, truly, for your entire life, you will learn to understand who he is, what he really values, what he's really about.

You will trust him deeply.

You will trust him with everything.

You will recognize that in all things he is right.

And there is a peace that comes from knowing that he is the judge.

And I'm glad it's him.

I'm glad it's no one else.

I'm glad Jesus is the one who will judge this world.

Because I wouldn't do it right.

None of us would, but he does.

And I think this story will prove that to us.

Does that make sense?

With that said, we're gonna take Lord's Supper.

And this is an interesting story to be exploring.

Destruction.

I mean, just wait, the next couple weeks are gonna be fun.

Oh, so much fun.

No more claymation, though, I promise.

Um This is interesting because this is both an act of love and an act of judgment at the same time.

This is love and judgment right here.

This meal that we take, and if you're new to his hands, we do this every week.

We take Lord's Supper together.

There's tables outside.

We also have some uh some cups with bread and juice at the four columns in the back if you want to grab those now.

But we take Lord's Supper together at the end of our gathering every week to remember what Jesus has done for us.

This meal is love and judgment all at the same time.

It is the love of God, the mercy that he gives to each of us, where he wipes away our sin, where it's paid for, where it's gone, where we don't have to live under the weight of our mistakes and failures, but it is also his judgment against sin.

Because that price that Jesus paid was not an easy one.

It is love and judgment all rolled together in one beautiful moment.

And it can be hard for us to reconcile that, but they go, they go together, and truly, when they go together, it is right, it is good, and it can even be beautiful.

Just like this meal is beautiful.

So, with that said, let's take the bread.

This is the body of your son, hung on a cross, nailed to a cross, killed on a cross.

And in that one moment, you judged sin and loved us perfectly.

You judged our sin, but you loved your children.

And we thank you for that, Lord.

And if we can't trust you, God, I feel this in my heart, if I can't trust you to be the perfect loving judge over all the earth, how can I trust this moment?

How can I trust that this is enough, that this is right, that this really pays the price?

I trust you, Lord.

As I take this bread, as we take this bread, we trust you.

Let's take the bread.

And now the juice.

For what it represents.

This is your blood poured out as an offering.

This cleanses us from our sin.

And what is uh graceful and merciful and kind and forgiving is also at the same time uh harsh and difficult.

And they go together, Lord.

We thank you for that.

We love you.

Thank you for what you've done for us.

Thank you for being the loving judge.

Let's take the juice.