A culture of Life

An old man went to the Doctor complaining that his wife could barely hear. The Doctor suggested a test to find out the extent of the problem. “Stand far behind her and ask her a question, and then slowly move up and see how far away you are when she first responds.”

The old man excited to finally be working on a solution for the problem, runs home and sees his wife preparing supper.

” Honey” the man asks standing around 20 feet away “whats for supper?”

After receiving no response he tried it again 15 feet away, and again no response. Then again at 10 feet away and again no response.

Finally he was 5 feet away “honey whats for supper?”
She replies “For the fourth time it’s lasagna!”

Have you ever realized that you might be part of the problem.

One thing I think that I have issues with some times is overcomplicating and issue when it is really very simple.

Vince Lombardi was one of the most outstanding coaches of
the Green bay Packers.

Due to his success each year the winner of the Super Bowl receives a trophy called the Lombardi Trophy.

Each year Vince would start each summer camp the same way.

He would get h is players together in a locker room and grab a football, hold it up in the air and say, “Gentlemen, This is a football.”

Then he began his training teaching the basics and fundamentals of the game of football.

When John Wooden would start basketball practice he always started with instructions on how to tie your shoe laces.

Each great coach left nothing to chance – he started with the very basics and then added detail.

MY BACKGROUND -

I want to share with you something from my background and I rarely do stuff like this. I know that it is not about me and I know that this pulpit is a sacred trust.

You let me speak to you and that is a special thing and I am mindful of that it is not my bully’s pulpit but let me share with you something from my background that will help you understand.

I grew up in a church setting – my Dad many of you know. I went to church every time the doors were opened. Every meeting, every service, every gospel singing. Church camp, Lad’s to Leaders you name it.

I knew my Bible pretty well because my Dad thought that was very important. That base would get me through some tough intellectual times.

When I went to college at UAB my faith was assaulted and it was not subtle.

UAB is known for its math and science dept and that is where I spent most of my time.

It is also known for its secular worldview and faith was not championed there. I learned early on that the beginning of our universe was a cosmic accident.

Humans were evolved from a primordial guu that produced life over millions of years.

Psychology class taught me that religion was part of the evolutionary process that man developed over time to cope with the world around him.

I had one professor tell me that I would not be a good science teacher because I was a Christian.

I had my advisor who was supposedly a Christian tell me that in his professional life he did not bring his religion to work that he taught evolution as truth.

He believed that he worshiped God a Church but in the real world evolution reigned supreme.

I would say that I was not prepared. I was reeling after a 2 years because I am wired to have to know truth. I have to investigate something all the way through to know it is right.

I set out to determine the question DO I believe what I believe because it is true or because my parents told me.
Do I have to put my intellect to sleep to be a Christian?

At this time God was so gracious to me. I started going to Palisades Church of Christ. It just so happened that the preacher at that church was one of the smartest men I have ever met.

He gave me some books. He gave me a stack of books and tapes by a man named Francis Schaeffer.

Schaeffer founded what was called the LAbri fellowship. This was thinktank in Switzerland that would invite the most hard core scientist and atheists to his home to discuss faith.

Schaeffer would prove to these men that the Bible was truth for all parts of life. Schaeffer brought many hard core scientists to faith in Jesus.

One day in class at UAB my professor came to my desk and asked me about a book I had under my desk. It was Schaeffer’s book a God who is there and is not silent.

I was terrified because I thought I was about to be intellectually assaulted about religious propaganda.

My professor’s face lit up and told me the story of how Schaeffer brought him to Christ. My professor went to LAbri and met Schaeffer and others.

He then started bringing me all types of materials that showed how the Bible answered these basic questions.

Now why did I share that with you? It is high time we start answering these questions with the Bible and stop shying away from it.

It is time we answer with truth and quit worrying about who we are going to offend.

We owe it to our young people because we better get them ready for the assault on their faith.

WE better start teaching this stuff or someone else will teach them something that is not the truth.

I believe there is something basic about the message of Judaism and Christianity that has been lost on our times.

Today I want to talk about an issue that has really come to the forefront of our national debate and conversation over the past 2-3 months.

That subject is the sanctity of life – what some call the Abortion Debate.

Does the Bible teach about that? Did the Early Church deal with this issue.

This is a big deal today and we need to decide as Christians where we stand. There are some things coming down the pike that will make you swallow your bubble gum they are so zany and scary.

The Sanctity of life is so very important to our faith. The worth of every human being is so critical to who we are as Christians.

You may think that this subject is not worthy of a sermon or that this issue is too political.

I will tell you that our early Christian brothers and sisters would vehemently disagree with you on this if you think that.

Let me share with you a study that came out of Oxford University – these guys are either current or former professors of medical ethics at Oxford University in England.

2 of these professors actually teach at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

This article was recently published in the Journal of Medical ethics. This is a very reputable journal and is really taken with great credence in intellectual circles.

In this article – these men and woman who are professors of ethics have proposed that we as a society should move to a point that it is okay to kill infants.

Their reasoning is the same that is used for abortion.

They claim that if abortion is the killing of a fetus that is not a human person then we can make the argument that a human infant is not a person yet.

They want to define a human person as someone that can contribute to their own success and survival.

Now if you take that current definition to its logical extension you come to the conclusion that you could kill invalid people and the very old.

In Europe the euthanizing of the very elderly has already been proposed. There are mobile assisted suicide stations in the Netherlands now.

The reason that drives all this is economics.

Maybe you keep up with politics and the current health care debate in Washington DC.

Recently Kathleen Sebelius the director of our National Health and Human Services department had a hearing before Congress.

This hearing took place on Thursday of last week and some of her comments were chilling to say the least.

She stated that one of the goals of this new health care initiative is that Americans will have less children and therefore lower the cost of insurance on insurance companies.

They want to have greater freedom in providing abortative contraception as well as contraception in general.

The article I mentioned earlier from the Journal of Medical Ethics wants to call this killing of infants Post-Birth Abortion.

Now I know that probably makes your blood boil but we are living in a time when common sense has gone out the front door.

You may think there will never be a day when we as a society will sanction the killing of infants but you know what they said the same thing about abortion.

We will never see a day when abortion on demand is legal but then we got Roe vs. Wade.

So what is our answer as Christians?

Here is the good news – the early church dealt with this problem head on. IN Rome in the 1st century Infanticide was widespread.

It was very common for families to kill unwanted babies and it was societally acceptable.

By 315 this practice was totally gone in Rome. When Constantine became Emperor and Christianity became the main religion of the Roman Empire Infanticide stopped because Christians did not allow it.
So lets get into the meat and potatoes of our argument against abortion as Christians and why this issue is so important.

I. OUR PRESENT DAY HOLOCAUST
A. On September 11, 2001 over 3500 lives were extinguished do the bombing of the world trade towers in New York.

In that crowd of people there were potential doctors, scientists, preachers, future leader whose lives were taken due to evil terrorists.

B.What did not make the headlines on September 12, 2001,

The very next day, was the 4000 lives that were extinguished by what is called pro-choice.
It happen again on September 12, 13, 14 etc.

Each day since 1973 approximately 4000 unborn babies are aborted each day, 28,000 each week, 112,000 each month, 1,460,000 each year.

1. One September 11, 2001 Terrorist killed over 3500 people, and the out cry for justice was heard around the world. There was swift and action as it should be.

2. 4000 unborn babies are being taken every day, but I see no weeping, no anger, and no outcry for justice.

3. The penalty for killing an unborn eagle in this country is a fine of up to $5000 and up to five years in prison

But, the killing of an unborn baby is not considered a crime at all, as long as the mother approves.

4. One in four women have an abortion and one in ten women in the church have an abortion.

5. AMERICAN WAR CASUALTIES
REVOLUTIONARY WAR 25,324
CIVIL WAR 498,332
WORLD WAR II 407,316
KOREAN WAR 54,246
VIETNAM WAR 56,655
GULF WAR 293
WAR ON THE UNBORN 31,000,000 since abortion was
legalize in 1973.
(6 times the number of casualties in all the wars combined)
C. Psalms 139: 13-16 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”

Does the Bible mean what it says? Does medical science back up this passage? God is specially involved in the development of the baby in the womb.

Does medical science back up what the Psalmist says in this passage. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Many times scientist make claims against the Bible and then we always find out that the Bible was right all along. For example scientists claimed for the longest that the Universe did not have a beginning but had always been here.

Then they prove that the universe had a beginning and basically all time, space and energy had a starting point – just what the Bible had always said. So in this abortion argument we see that the Bible teaches that God is active even in the womb.

To God Person hood is when you are conceived. What does medical science tell us about the development of a baby?

1. Within 21 days the baby’s backbone, spinal cord, and nervous system are forming.

A small heart is present and beating. At one month arms and legs are present.

There is a head with rudimentary eyes, ears, mouth, and brain. The digestive system has begun.

The baby is still only one-fourth of an inch long, but he is ten thousand times larger than when he began.

2. At 2 months the baby is fully formed. He will try to grasp a tiny instrument with his tiny hand.

He "swims" or moves about in the amniotic fluid. He has fingerprints.
By the end of the 3rd month, as one observer notes, "he can kick his legs, turn his feet, curl and fan his toes, makes a fist, move his thumb, bend his wrist, turn his head, squint, frown, open his mouth," swallow, and breathe.

WE MUST STAND ON THE TRUTH THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE SPECIAL AND SPECIAL TO GOD.

The Bible shows that God considers us human beings when we are in the womb.
Jeremiah 1: 5
5"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Before God sent Jeremiah out as a prophet he had plans for Jeremiah before he was even born.

In Luke chapter 1 we read of John the Baptist leaping in the womb of Elizabeth at the sound of the greeting of Mary.

If Babies in the womb don’t matter to God, why would this story be in the New Testament?

a.The lack of value for life today is the result of godlessness.

Many of our universities and schools have taught our young people that human beings are nothing more than highly organized, animated slime.

b. Our children are taught that they are cosmic accidents, nothing more than time + chance + matter.
Our society has rejected the belief that HUMANS HAVE INTRINSIC DIGNITY BECAUSE THEY ARE CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

1. The Psalmist tells us, “Behold, children are a gift from the Lord.” (Ps.127:3) God is the power behind barrenness, and the power behind conception

2. Listen to Moses’ words in Exodus 4:11: “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

3. Did you know that you are God’s crowning creation?
Did you know that you’re the greatest thing that God every created?

4.You Were Created in God’s Image.

Do you know why you’re so valuable to God?
Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image.
We are not worthless but we have purpose because God has a purpose for all of us.
6. You aren’t an accident. You weren’t mass-produced. You aren’t an assembly-line product.

Bob Hope was one of the great comedian of the last century. As he was getting along in years, he once commented that he’d been reading and was astonished to discover:

“Today my heart beat over 103,000 times,

my blood traveled 168 million miles,
I breathed 23,400 times,

I inhaled 438 cubic feet of air, ate 3 pounds of food, and drank 2.9 pounds of liquid,

I perspired 1.43 pints… gave off 85.3 degrees of heat… generated 450 tons of energy,

I spoke 4,800 words, I moved 750 major muscles,

and I exercised 7 million brain cells.

It’s no wonder I’m tired all the time.”
It is amazing what our bodies can do – we are not junk But we are special made in God’s image.

You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on this earth by the Master Craftsman.”

Psalm 100:3, “Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”

MAN WANTS TO PLAY GOD – WE WANT TO CALL IT CHOICE WHEN GOD CALLS IT EVIL:

At Ohio State University, Ravi Zaccharias did an open forum on a radio talk show. The host was an atheist. From the start, the callers were antagonistic. "I could feel the tension as soon as the lines lit up.

One angry woman caller said, “All you people have is an agenda you’re trying to promote.” Referring to abortion, she said, “You want to take away our rights and invade our private lives.”

Abortion had not even been brought up.
“Just a minute,” I replied, “we didn’t even raise the subject.”
“Ok,” she said, “what is your position on abortion then?”

I said, “Can I ask you a question? On every university campus I visit, somebody stands up and says that God is an evil God to allow all this evil into our world. This person typically says, ‘A plane crashes: 30 people die, and 20 people live. What kind of God would arbitrarily choose some to live and some to die?’”

I continued, “But when we play God and determine whether a child within a mother’s womb should live, we argue for that as a moral right.

So when human beings are given the privilege of playing God, it’s called a moral right. When God plays God, we call it an immoral act. Can you justify this for me?”

APPLICATION: WHAT MUST WE DO?? WHAT SHOULD WE DO??

CANT BE SILENT:

Martin Niemoeller, a German pastor imprisoned for opposing the Nazis, illustrated the gravity of remaining silent:

"In Germany, the first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

So let me ask you today- Do you think that God considers life to begin in the womb at conception?

We can see from the Bible multitudes of examples of babies being called children in the Scripture while they were in the womb.
Are YOU CONVINCED THAT ABORTION IS THE MURDER OF CHILD???
Imagine how God feels about the killing of innocent children in this country?

If the early church had the courage that they had to change the world for Christ, why cant we have the same courage?

We live in a façade of a free country that is just but we allow rampant injustice to happen to the unborn because it is out of sight and out of mind.

We must take action and there are many ways to do this.

1) Pray – Pray- Pray for our leaders – pray that God will send us leaders that have courage to take this issue on.
Pray that God will change the mind of Barrack Obama and convict his heart of this great evil in this country.

2) Preach the Gospel – until we change the hearts and minds of people nothing will change.
We have the gospel – we sale it short- we need to lead people to Jesus and bring our country back to God.

3) Be active in the political process and know where candidates stand on issues of life.
Know if they believe in a culture of life or a culture of death.
Let me ask you this question, do you think how you vote on the issues really matters to God? When you go into the voter’s both are you still a Christian?

Would you vote for a candidate that stood for something that you considered outright evil?

For example would you vote for a pedophile? Would you vote for someone that believed that drugs should be legalized?

Would you vote for someone that would not punish criminals for very bad crimes?

Of course you would not, but there are many Christians today that vote for candidates that whole-heartedly endorse abortion. As we head into an election season I encourage you, beg you, implore you to think about this.

Can you in good conscience as a follower of Jesus Christ cast a vote for someone that endorses evil and the killing of the unborn?

4) Love the young girls that are in trouble – love them as Jesus loves them and tell them that there is another way to go.

We must reach out to those that may fall into the trap of evil organizations like Planned Parenthood, we need to be there giving help and support to these girls, not planned parenthood.

Give them support – the Church should step in a provide an alternative to death – to live life more abundantly.

5) Adoption – we need more Christian parents interested in adoption – could you imagine anything more beautiful than adopting a child, loving them and leading a child to Christ that may never have heard of the gospel before.
James tells us that pure and undefiled religion is to take care of the widows and orphans.
Most of all – we need to show the world that Christianity is about Life – whole life – spiritual life, physical life and the sanctity of the life of a human being.
We must become a culture of life that stands against a culture of death.