Do not murder

[0:00] Well, Lord, you know our hearts. You see through this body of flesh, and you see the imagination, the inclinations of our hearts. And Lord, as this song says, you know how messed up we can be, that we can leave and we can be prone to leave the God that we love and the God who loves us and who's done everything to save us.

[0:22] Lord, help us in our need. Help us in our brokenness. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You may be seated. So just this week, I received a phone call to pick up a package that I had ordered.

[0:45] And so I thought I had the option to just have it delivered to my place or I can just go pick it up. And I thought I'll just, if I go pick it up now, I'll have it sooner, so I'll benefit from it.

[0:57] I'll just go pick it up. That's fine. You don't need to deliver it. So I leave. And I live in Vanier. So if some of you know what Vanier is like, you'll understand what I'm about to say. So I leave my house.

[1:09] About one minute after I left my house, I'm still in Vanier. There's a lady who comes up to me. And I'm in my car, but she comes up to me. And she's probably mid-50s.

[1:20] And so she's dressed up in a bathing suit top. It probably cost about 10 cents to make. It's very, very small. And she has these jeans that goes up here.

[1:32] So I'm just wondering what's going on. And that's not everything. She has a big gas tank or gas can in her hands. And she comes up to me and she says, can I get a ride?

[1:43] And I'm just like, I thought I saw, I thought I knew I didn't see, I've never seen everything that has to be seen. But this is something else. Anyway, she comes up and she's very insistent.

[1:54] So I'm like, okay, just get in. She's like, I need a ride to the gas station just down the road. And she's already in my car. And I'm like, well, let's just go. It's not far, right? So I drive her there.

[2:04] And she's explaining to me how her car is out of gas. And how I'm probably thinking that she's a hooker with a gas can in her hands. And in my head, I'm like, well, yeah, sort of.

[2:14] But no, no, it's okay. It's fine. I understand. I'll drive you there. So I drive her there. And once we get there, she thanks me. She's very grateful. And she says, God bless you.

[2:26] And so I say, God bless you, too. And then she says, your good deeds will come back to you. And I'm like, we were there. God bless you was good enough. You didn't have to say your good deeds are going to come back to you.

[2:37] I don't believe that. It's not true. But anyway, I left that place. And just thinking about what she said, your good deeds will return to you. And so I go pick up my package.

[2:48] And I get there. And I didn't bring my number, the little code that you need to have to pick up your package. I deleted the call that they gave me, the voicemail that they left.

[2:59] I deleted it on my phone. I didn't have it with me. And so I'm there. I drove out a little while. I thought it would be a good drive. Didn't pick up my package. I was pretty frustrated.

[3:11] And then I was like, well, you know what? I'll just redeem my trip out of my way. So I'll go to the store and pick up this thing that I need. Wasn't there. I thought I'd just go grab a slice of pizza right next door.

[3:21] Well, it turned out that I would have to drive about two miles out of my way because of all the one ways to get to that restaurant, which I could see from where I was parked. Anyway, if this was a sci-fi movie, I would have taken on my huge blasting gun thing.

[3:34] And I would have just, like, destroyed something. I was so frustrated. So, with a story like this, it might seem a little bit odd that we're going to look at one of the commandments, the sixth commandment on you shall not murder.

[3:50] But I think there's something pretty insightful when we look at the Bible. So let's look at that. If you have your Bibles with you, you can turn to Deuteronomy. We'll look at the Ten Commandments.

[4:00] And we'll look at the sixth one today. You shall not murder. Sorry, just flipping over here.

[4:17] Okay, so with the opening words of the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not murder.

[4:30] So we come in a place in the Ten Commandments. We're doing a series in the Ten Commandments. And we come to this place where it might seem a bit strange. You shall not murder. As Canadians, we think, you know, we're not murderers.

[4:44] The murderers are over there. And that we're fine. And this might not apply to us. And so what we need to do with this commandment is that we look at the first few commandments that teach us to love God with all of who we are, all of our being.

[4:59] We love God. And now we love our neighbor as ourselves. And part of loving our neighbors is not murdering them. That seems to go without saying.

[5:09] And in fact, when Israel received this commandment, they weren't the only ones in the land where they believed that murder was wrong. Their neighbors also believed that murder was wrong.

[5:21] But here's the difference. How do we define what is murder? See, their neighbors might have had their definition of murder.

[5:33] But they were commanded not to murder. So you would think things are all right. Correct? I was having a conversation with a co-worker about what is right and what is wrong.

[5:45] And in that conversation, when I asked them if they could define what is right and what is wrong, they started telling me what they believed. And so they said, you know, stealing is wrong.

[5:59] Murdering is wrong. Lying is wrong. And so I said, you're saying like the Ten Commandments, right? Like, is that what you're trying to say? And they're like, no, no, of course not. But isn't that pretty obvious?

[6:10] Like, isn't that what our society believes? We hold on to some of the things of the Ten Commandments because they seem so true and so proved in time and in history.

[6:23] So in looking at this commandment, how do we define murder? How do we understand murder in the Canadian context? Those are questions that we're going to look at today.

[6:35] So first of all, it's not hard to convince people that murder is wrong. We can build a lot of bridges with people in our culture that murder is wrong. And even in Canada, we have laws that provide consequences for murder, despite the fact that they might be a little bit loose if we look at what the Bible says.

[6:55] But anyway, in a time when we're trying to avoid referring to the Bible, it's hard to come to a good conclusion of what is right and what is wrong.

[7:06] And in a time when the culture is shifting so quickly and deciding to put the Bible in a box or put it beside and not refer to it, it's difficult to come to a true understanding of right and wrong.

[7:19] And so when we open the Bible and we cross-examine our Canadian laws and what the Bible says, we'll probably come into a contradiction or some tension.

[7:31] And in fact, if we really look at it, we'll quickly see that in our age of moral relativism, there's a lot of conflict with what the Bible says. So, first, let's define what is murder.

[7:43] If I can have the first slide, please. So, murder, according to the Bible, is the act of killing a human being for personal and illegitimate reasons.

[7:56] The fruit of withholding forgiveness and harboring anger. Can we say that together? Let's just read that together. Murder is the act of killing a human being for personal and illegitimate reasons.

[8:13] The fruit of withholding forgiveness and harboring anger. Just last week, I was in Toronto and I was reading the news and there was a man in Peterborough, as you probably heard the story, who got into some road rage with a cyclist and got out of his truck and took a bat and started beating the man.

[8:35] And the other man was full of blood on his head. He was so angry that they both couldn't come to a right understanding of how they should divide the road and how they should drive and share the road together.

[8:48] And his anger led to that. And so, when we take revenge into our own hands and we continue that flow of anger that starts in our heart, the conclusion, the logical conclusion of that is death, is taking death away or taking life away from the person.

[9:09] However, the opposite, withholding revenge, invites God into our circumstance. How tangible is the presence and power of God in our lives when our perpetrator expects retaliation, yet there is nothing, there is no retaliation but forgiveness.

[9:32] How powerful would God seem when we withhold revenge and show forgiveness? See, taking revenge in our hands is easy, but it does never repair the damage or the hurt that's already created.

[9:51] And so, we see here that the Bible defines murder as killing a person for personal and illegitimate reasons. And you might be wondering, well, what about things like war or capital punishment?

[10:04] Well, we can't really go too deep into that today. There are other things we're going to look more in depth. But just very basically, the Bible says that capital punishment is a thing that can be done.

[10:17] It's talked about in Genesis chapter 9. And I was having a conversation with someone saying, you can't be pro-life because you Christians believe in capital punishment. I said, I never said that I believe in capital punishment.

[10:31] Like, I don't know if I would want to apply that in our land these days. But, so anyway, we got to talk about that. And the person was saying that's inconsistent, being pro-life and pro-capital punishment.

[10:44] But here's the thing. If we don't value the life of an innocent person to the point where we would take away the life of the one who took it away, doesn't that devalue the first life that was taken away?

[10:59] Shouldn't there be a price that is paid? And if there's no price, then the value of that life is reduced. And so, what about war?

[11:10] What about when two nations go to war? Doesn't the Bible say, do not murder? But then two pages later, it gives prescriptions on how to have war. Isn't there a contradiction there?

[11:23] Well, the Bible gives permission for nations to have the sword for justice. So, when other nations try to destroy innocent people or try to abuse and oppress those who are vulnerable, then another nation has the authority from God to come and establish his justice as long as they are following his path and following his rules.

[11:53] So, trying to understand all these nuances, I'm just giving a little bit so that when you look at the Bible, you'll be able to navigate through those pages in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy.

[12:04] When we try to look as Christians, and even for non-Christians, how does the Old Testament provisions for these things apply to Christians now?

[12:16] How do we understand that? Is there a link there? Is there no link? A lot of Christians seem to say that there's no link. How does that work? Well, we have a commandment that says, you shall not murder.

[12:32] And I'll give you this example. When I was young, I loved to play with Legos. And I loved it so much that I always tried to extend the amount of time I would play with Legos. So, I'd always try to go later and later and try to push the boundary.

[12:45] But my parents would say, put your Legos away at 7 o'clock because you need to sleep. Okay. So, I'd do that. Now, what if they would have told me, Jonathan, you have to put your Legos away before 7 o'clock when I was 15 years old?

[13:00] It wouldn't have worked. I didn't play with Legos then. So, they would say, Jonathan, turn off the computer. Turn off the video games at 10 o'clock or something like that, right? But the principle underneath all of these laws that my parents would try to, you know, maybe not that.

[13:16] It wasn't that bad. But that they would try to give me was to protect that sleeping time that I needed. I needed rest. I needed to protect that so that I wouldn't be so tired the next day.

[13:30] So, the principle of Jonathan needs rest was translated at one age, put your Legos away at 7 o'clock, and then translated to another age.

[13:41] When I was older, turn off your computer. Turn off this. So that the principle is weaved in through this. So, it applies throughout. But it looks different.

[13:52] So, I think this is similar to how we're going to look at you shall not murder, which is the clear commandment, the clear principle, and is given specific applications.

[14:06] And so, here we have specific applications in the Old Testament. How does that look like in the New Testament times? How does it look like for the church? How does it look like for the church? Well, so we're going to look at that.

[14:17] But right before, I want to talk about the opening story so that this will help us understand what comes after when we're looking at murder in our day and age. So, thinking about the opening story, I was so frustrated.

[14:32] I was so angry at the circumstance, the things that happened. What produced my anger in the opening story? What produced my frustration?

[14:47] See, I imagined to myself that I would be a winner picking up my package. I idealized a picture-perfect scenario without conflicts or errors.

[14:59] See, I imagined, although it was going to cost me in gas and maybe a bit of time, that, you know, I would go out for a drive and it would do me good. You know, I can use a bit of a change of scenery from the downtown.

[15:10] I could go out for a course and, you know, I would get my package sooner. I would waste minimal time because I'm going to be efficient, right? And I would do two or three things at the same time in the same trip.

[15:21] And I imagined myself to be a winner at the end. But here's the problem. When things don't work my way, I feel like I was cheated. I feel like something was robbed from me.

[15:33] As though the universe now owes me something. Or dare I say that God owes me something because I was a good boy this week. See, I was good. I was a good Christian. I obeyed God.

[15:45] I said no to some of the sins that I was able to see. And, you know, doesn't God owe me? And oftentimes in life, we'll look at the big picture of life and we'll say, you know, this is what life ought to look like.

[16:02] You know, we'll do well in high school. We'll go get ourselves a university degree. Get a good job. We'll have a good pension plan and good health care benefits. And then we'll, you know, get a nice house.

[16:14] We'll marry and have two kids. And there shouldn't be anything that interrupts that plan because that's my goal. Right? And so, without even knowing it, without even noticing, we can refute the first three commandments by thinking in the depths of our hearts.

[16:34] No, there isn't just one God. I am one God too. I am the master of my own destiny. And no one can stop me. No one can prevent me from achieving what I want.

[16:47] And God will have to accept me for my reputation. My name and my reputation will go on forever. And no one dare prevent that. So what is the logical conclusion of this mentality, of this line of thinking?

[17:04] What happens when something interrupts this trajectory that we're creating, this plan that we have? What if someone comes along the way and is a disturbance, very inconvenient to us?

[17:20] Well, when one loses all sense of God's supreme authority, they will take their destiny in their own hands, even at the cost of others' lives.

[17:32] So here's the second slide. Here's my second point. Murder is an attempt to assume God's role as Lord and giver of life.

[17:46] Murder is an attempt to assume God's role as Lord and giver of life. See, when we try to tell God, no, you don't have any room in my life, and that we're the ones who create the destiny of our lives, and we don't allow God to have his word in it, we can assume his role.

[18:12] And the logical conclusion of that is that if anyone dares to prevent us, we will take God's role in anger and in wrath against this person and try to eliminate them from our lives, even at the cost of their lives.

[18:32] So let's look at what is considered murder. And who is worthy to decide this? So when Israel received this commandment, I mentioned earlier that they had something in common with their neighbors.

[18:48] But at the same time, as their Canaanite neighbors believed that murder was wrong, they also sacrificed children for the worship of their gods. See, part of their worship was to offer their firstborn child or some of their children to these burning altars.

[19:07] They would place them on there so that the child would burn to death, and that would be their form of worship. And so when Christians today live in Canada, they and their Canadian neighbors believe that murder is wrong.

[19:21] But is there a parallel here? Like in the days of ancient Israel, are there things that Canadian law allows that the Bible would consider murder? Is there a disguised form of worship in Canada that demands the lives of the innocent?

[19:37] So when we open the Bible, we look at texts that just appear there. We'll look through a book of the Bible, and we're going to look at what the Bible tries to say.

[19:51] And sometimes it maybe feels more positive, and other times it feels more negative. And as you've already noticed, today we're going to look at murder, and we're going to talk about some things that are quite dark, and things that I believe that the devil would not want us to talk about.

[20:08] And I would share from firsthand experience that the devil doesn't want us to talk about these things. And so let's just try to talk about things that involve life and death, and how in Canada we might even support the killing of innocent human beings.

[20:32] And so we're going to look first at abortion. And I understand that some of you might not be pro-life. You might not believe that abortion kills a human being.

[20:44] And I understand. I was there a few years ago. I didn't really care. I didn't really think about it. And I didn't really try to understand.

[20:54] So I understand where you're at. So let's just, you know, if you can give me a few minutes, we're going to look at a case for life. And this might be the first time you hear this. It might be the first time you hear a case for the pro-life position as to why abortion is the killing of a human being.

[21:14] So what is an abortion? Is it actually killing a human being? If you ever had a conversation about abortion, you probably heard the slogan, my body, my choice.

[21:27] Now there's something very insightful about these words, my body, my choice. First, it says two things, that science is important, and that human rights are important to understand the issue.

[21:42] When we talk about my body, it talks about a scientific claim. When we talk about my choice, we're talking about a human rights claim. So first, it says something about science and rights.

[21:53] Second, it assumes a definite scientific position. I've talked to a lot of people about abortion, and I've talked to people, and they would often say, well, we don't know when life begins.

[22:07] Well, the slogan, my body, says that the pre-born child is definitely the mother's body. It's not saying that we don't know if it's the mother's body, we don't know when it begins or whatnot.

[22:19] It's a claim. It is a claim. And the third is that it assumes, if it is not the same body as the mother, that it is not her choice. If it is her body, if the baby is the mother's body, then it is her choice to do what she wants to do with her own body.

[22:37] If the baby is not the mother's body, then, by implication, it is not her choice. That's just the logical implications of what that claim is saying.

[22:51] And so first, let's look at the science. When we look at biology, the claim is that an embryo or fetus is no different than the mother's tooth or nail.

[23:03] It is her body. But is that really true? Is that really true? If we were going to go on a crime scene investigation, what would we look for if we wanted to find the criminal?

[23:17] We'd look for evidence. We would look for pieces of hair, handprints. We would look for, you know, maybe a piece of skin that got scraped off. And what do we do with them? We bring them to the lab and we examine.

[23:30] And we look at the DNA because the DNA is unique for every human being and is the same in all of our bodies. So I have one DNA code that is throughout my body.

[23:44] My nails have it. My eyelids have it. Everything. Okay? So if the baby is the mother's body, then we should expect that the DNA of the baby is the same as the mother's.

[23:58] So here's the thing. When an egg is fertilized by the seed, there is a fusion that creates a new human entity.

[24:14] At that very moment, there's no such thing as a fertilized egg, by the way. It doesn't exist. The process is so fast that instantly we have a new human being, a whole, a distinct, and a living human being.

[24:33] But, and here, continue with the rights claim. So a claim that following, a claim following and depending upon the premise to allow the killing of a pre-born human being.

[24:44] So if that is true, then we cannot give the right as a nation to the mother to take away, or to the physician, to take away the life of their child.

[24:59] You can look at science textbooks, even Dr. Christopher DiCarlo, who came to do a talk just last year, I believe, at Dig and Delph at the Ottawa Little Theatre.

[25:12] He's the professor of bioethics at the University of Toronto. He will say that life begins at fertilization, and he's an atheist. Christopher Hitchens is an atheist. He would say that abortion is killing a pre-born human being.

[25:26] So, just to give a last illustration about the argument that we don't know when life begins. We don't know if it's a whole, distinct, and living human being.

[25:40] So let's suppose that it's not clear. Let's suppose that we don't know when life begins. If you've been to a construction site, and they have to demolish an old building, they'll place DNA in the building and they'll have people, you know, put a, sorry, did I say DNA?

[25:56] Sorry, dynamite. Close. They'll place dynamite throughout the building and then they'll explode the building. They'll go poof, like you've seen in the cartoons. So, let's imagine that the person who's in charge of blasting the building asks his fellow workers, asks his fellow workers, so do you think there's anyone left in the building?

[26:18] And the person comes back to him and says, well, I don't know. Should we just go anyway? Maybe. Let's just do it. See, that would not pass, right?

[26:30] That would not pass regulation. You have to make sure that there's someone in there or not. You have to make sure that no one is left in the building before you blast it. Because we err on the side of caution.

[26:42] So, if we don't know, if we're not sure if it's a human being or not, wouldn't we want to err on the side of caution in the mother's womb to say that we're going to take away the life of this entity or not?

[26:58] Wouldn't we want to be more careful than just say, I don't know. Wouldn't we want to look at science and see if it is a human being, if it is whole and distinct and unique?

[27:08] So, here's the next slide. If I could have that, please. So, abortion is the intentional and deliberate killing of a whole, distinct, and living, pre-born human being.

[27:29] So, I'm just saying what science is saying and even the Bible says that, that human beings are human beings in the womb. That Jesus was called Jesus and Lord when he was in the womb.

[27:43] that John the Baptist leapt for joy in the womb and the Holy Spirit fills human beings and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. So, he was a human being, little John the Baptist, not born yet, human being.

[27:58] But, when we look at science, we know that fertilization marks the beginning of a human being's life and that from that moment on, they are whole because they have the DNA to grow into being full-grown adults and they are distinct because their DNA makes them unique and they are living because they are growing at a rapid pace.

[28:27] So, even if, if you are pro-life, you might not be pro-life in every case, you're, you're thinking, well, you know, it is a compassionate answer to some circumstances, isn't it?

[28:40] Like, isn't it the more compassionate thing to offer when, say, a woman was raped? And I'll use that example because that's usually what people bring up.

[28:53] And so, we'll talk about that. First of all, rape is a horrible thing. Absolutely horrible. And as a nation, we don't do enough to prevent that.

[29:05] We don't do enough to punish that. And so, we should do a lot more to punish the rapists. But here's the problem.

[29:20] What if the child of the mother who was conceived by rape was born, was brought to term, was born, and, and the mother found out, discovered, or just thought that the child looked a lot and reminded her of the rapist.

[29:35] Would it be okay for her to kill the child now after the child is born? Of course not. That would be wrong. So, what's the difference between that and a couple weeks earlier or a few days earlier or a couple months earlier when the child was in the womb?

[29:56] Science says there is no difference. That they are the same human being except they're smaller, maybe less developed. Do we give more rights to people who are more developed than others?

[30:08] My nephew is about this tall. He's a little bit quite less developed than I am. Do I have more rights than he does? No. I asked this question to a university student who was clearly on the football team.

[30:21] He must have been 6'5", 350 pounds, just a big guy. I asked him, do you have more rights than I do? No. Just because you're bigger, you're more developed, you're probably older than me.

[30:32] No. That's not how it works. So we can't base our arguments on those things. So, where am I here? Yeah. Okay, so the question is, if a mother delivers her child and the child reminds her of a rapist, is it okay for her to kill the child then, after the child is born?

[30:52] No. Why would it be okay before the child is born if the child is the same? So what is the difference between a human being in the womb and one out of the womb when we have already established scientifically that a human being begins at fertilization?

[31:09] Now, some of you might have had an abortion because a medical practitioner encouraged it to you, saying that in order to remove the cancer or maybe an ovarian cyst or different circumstances maybe even alleviate some cultural pressures and maybe even to save the mother's life, that it would be necessary to have an abortion.

[31:37] Well, I can't spend 20 minutes to give a full case on that, but there are medical practitioners across the world who will say that there's never an actual need for abortion, that there are other procedures that can take place, but there's never actually a need for that.

[31:55] So, if you have had an abortion, Jesus can bring forgiveness. Jesus can cleanse you from that and send you off clean and free.

[32:12] I was talking to a man who, you know, big guy in the streets of Toronto about abortion and he said, you know, like I had a girlfriend back in the day, he was, I think he was 50, he looked much younger, but he said, back in the 80s, we had two kids and, well, she got pregnant twice, rather, and the child, she decided to abort the children both times and here I am today, 20 some years later, and I was just thinking about it last week and, like, what do I do?

[32:45] Do you think God can forgive me? The answer is that there is good news, that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we come to him and confess them to him.

[32:59] So, if that's you today, if you've been through that, you can confess it to God, confess it to a friend, I would be more than thrilled to talk to you about that and to go through that process with you.

[33:12] Now, you might be wondering, Jonathan, are you saying that, actually, no, I'll skip over here. Sorry. I know that this is an issue that's on your mind because it's coming up a lot.

[33:25] What about euthanasia? What about physician-assisted dying? Some of you might be thinking, why not help the people out of their misery if they have the right laws in place with proper limitations and safeguards?

[33:39] It can be done safely, right? So, that's where we're heading with our Canadian laws. So, in a culture that used to consider the needs of the vulnerable and the dependent people, such as the young, the elderly, the suffering, the disabled, it's hard to believe that when we can simultaneously offer special parking spaces, wheelchair accessible ramps, senior discounts, children's hospitals to provide care and alleviate possible barriers to the more vulnerable population, yet offer death as an alternate solution.

[34:17] at the same time. So, let me propose to you a scenario. Just recently, I called the suicide helpline for a friend, but I want to create a hypothetical situation here.

[34:33] Usually, when you call them, they give you two options, but we'll talk about three options. First option, they'll say, I will equip you so that you can talk to your friend and that you can counsel your friend.

[34:45] Second option, you tell your friend to call me and I'll take care of it and I'll talk to your friend. But let's think of this other option. Bring your friend over and we'll help them out of their misery.

[35:00] Wouldn't that be strange? Doesn't that give you, doesn't that make your stomach twist? That's what the laws are right now in Canada, is that we want to protect those who are in crisis of suicide and yet at the same time offer them death.

[35:17] My friend, who's a police officer, came back from work one day when I was visiting and said, well, I asked him, like, how was your day? And he said, you know, I was on the highway, gave a ticket and brought three people to the hospital because they tried to kill themselves.

[35:32] And that's what we do as a society. We want to protect those who are thinking about suicide. So, it is a bit strange.

[35:44] And when we think of the word euthanasia, in the original language, it talks about good, you, good, death, thanasos. So it's talking about suggesting a good death.

[35:58] For some of us, death might feel like a compassionate solution to a crisis or undesirable situation. But let's remember what the Bible says about death.

[36:11] That the Bible teaches that death is not a solution but an intruder. And that death will be completely eradicated from the created order. If I can have my second point, please.

[36:27] So death is the emblem of human rebellion against God. To side with death is to side against God. who creates and sustains life.

[36:39] So what do I mean by that? Death is the emblem of human rebellion against God. In the garden, when human beings rebelled against God, God cursed creation and limited their days.

[36:50] Death was on the earth now for the first time because of human sin. So death, when we think of death, when we think of human rebellion, death should be the first thing that comes to mind.

[37:05] death. And to side with death is to side with that human rebellion against God who creates and sustains life.

[37:18] Now, it is an awful reality when suffering is so difficult and overbearing that death seems to be a better friend than the suffering.

[37:29] suffering. But in the Christian worldview, suffering produces perseverance. Suffering is something that God uses to create in us his image that in our suffering we are not doomed to destruction but God is there, he's alive, he's active in our lives to produce in us something, a new creation that we've never seen before.

[37:58] And it can seem helpless and hopeless especially when the glory of this life is what we live for. See, for the common person, our hope is usually centered in the goodness of life, the things that bring us great joy, maybe a particular time of health in our life or a great achievement or the breathtaking experience of beauty and pleasure.

[38:25] Those are the things that we can live for and once that seems no longer attainable, it seems like the best option is to cease from existing. But for the Christian, our hope is centered on the person of Jesus and his promise to make all things new.

[38:44] And we are always looking forward to this future glory. Paul summarizes the future glory in 1 Corinthians and I'll read that. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.

[39:02] When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on the immortal, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

[39:14] O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[39:32] And so what we have in this situation of, you know, you call the suicide helpline, we want to help the person who is thinking of killing themselves and offer to kill the person who wants to kill themselves.

[39:44] we have a contradiction, a dissonance here in the way we perceive the crisis. But euthanasia or assisted or physician-assisted suicide lessens the value of the life and suffering of the other person in crisis seeking help.

[40:04] It lessens their life and their value. So here's what I would suggest is one of the big problems in our culture.

[40:17] We often weigh our lives next to the American dream or the Canadian dream and we lose control or when we lose control or independence or we are abandoned to loneliness when we feel indignity or lose our self-image and feel as though we are burdens to others.

[40:37] we this place we come to a place of struggle where we cannot live up to the expectation that we set ourselves to live up for.

[40:51] And so we strive for success in the eyes of the world or people that we seek to please whether it is the best grades at school or a university degree a promotion at work a particular lifestyle and so on so forth.

[41:06] let's have our next point our next slide our worth is not measured by our interests abilities knowledge success or relationships but by the costly death of Christ on the cross there's a problem there's a problem in our culture and that wants us lures us to place our worth in things in activities in different pleasures and experiences of life but God is calling us to put our worth our value completely on him not half and half completely on the death of Jesus Christ when we think of that value of the life of Jesus that God himself would die to save sinners that place is value that is far surpassing anything on this earth and anything that can try to define your worth that the person of Jesus dying on the cross for you for me to make us right with him so that he can have us for all eternity and that we can have him for all eternity

[42:22] I'll read these words of one of my favorite songs as of late from the Gettys it's called My Worth Is Not In What I Own My worth is not in what I own not in the strength of flesh and bone but in the costly wounds of love at the cross my worth is not in skill or name in win or lose in pride or shame but in the blood of Christ that flowed at the cross as summer flowers we fade and die fame youth and beauty hurry by but life eternal calls to us at the cross I will not boast in wealth or might or human wisdom's fleeting light but I will boast in knowing Christ at the cross and here's probably my favorite line two wonders here that I confess my worth and my unworthiness my value fixed my ransom paid at the cross see when when we try to inflate our worth beyond what we are and try to make ourselves into gods or whether we try to deflate our value and our worth and make ourselves like

[43:50] I don't know insects and think that we're no longer we no longer possess any worth we look to Jesus we look to the cross and we cling onto Jesus he's our only hope he's the only one who places value on your life on my life and so let me ask you what competes with Christ in your hearts this day to be the worth of your life and what competes with with that that will make you in five years from now believe it believe the lie and not hold on to Christ as the worth of your life if the gospel grips you are you willing to surrender your ideal life to God will you allow him to move you to inconvenient places will you pray for God to show you his power in your weakness let's pray

[44:56] Father we're thankful that that you are God and that we don't have to pretend to be or try to make ourselves into God but that you are God and at the same time you are holy and you love us you love us more than we can imagine Lord even in the depths of our sin and our sinfulness even though we can't see it all Lord you see it all yet you love us and you sent Jesus to purchase all of us for all eternity Lord would you grip us with that truth Lord would you help us to come to you when it's difficult to seek forgiveness for things that we'd rather keep secret and to allow you to do the mighty work of cleansing in our lives Lord thank you for your love would you grip us with your gospel this day in Jesus name Amen