WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.480 Now, for those maybe who haven't been here over the last number of weeks, occasionally 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:08.560 it was in the evening, or once it was in the evening, but the rest in the morning, we've 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:16.440 been doing a short series, I've been doing a short series of teaching about planning 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:17.960 and praying in our lives. 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:25.280 So the importance of planning Christ and the gospel into our lives, both personally and 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:34.799 as a church, and in the world in which we live, being thoughtful and positive and thinking 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:40.719 through who we are and why we believe what we do, and praying about all of that. 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:50.880 So it's about really thinking through who we are and being positive in seeking growth 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:57.920 and seeking development and seeking to make a difference, taking initiative spiritually 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:05.840 in our lives rather than sometimes just treading water or just being in a rut. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:13.320 It's that focus of moving forward, both individually as a church and also within the society in 00:01:13.320 --> 00:01:14.840 which we live. 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:22.840 And I wanted to finish the series with two potentially controversial, well not controversial 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:28.439 subjects, but ones that are not often preached about with the view of we've looked at planning 00:01:28.439 --> 00:01:34.560 and praying our life individually, committing our lives to prayer as a church, praying for 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.120 the city in which we live, we looked at that last week. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:40.359 And today I want to think about two issues, or I want to think about one issue and next 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:45.319 week, another issue that are significant for us in the society in which we live and how 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:48.079 we deal with them as believers. 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:53.480 Today we're going to look at abortion and next Sunday morning God willing we look at 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:59.599 how we can reach into the LGBT community with the gospel of grace and love of Jesus Christ 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:05.400 as it seems very often to be shut off to us because of their maybe preconceptions of the 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:09.079 gospel and sometimes our preconceptions of them. 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:14.480 So it's really about, today it's about the whole subject and I recognize it's a sensitive 00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:18.720 and a difficult subject really to speak about. 00:02:18.720 --> 00:02:22.880 The title was The We Ones and Christ. 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:32.760 And I didn't, I made that title, but I didn't realize till this week that the Latin for 00:02:32.760 --> 00:02:38.480 little ones is fetus, or fetus is the Latin for little one. 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:43.239 So the we ones, the Scottish version of that, the we ones, the little ones for Christ. 00:02:43.239 --> 00:02:49.359 And I want to think about that today as we focus our prayer life and our spiritual life 00:02:49.359 --> 00:02:56.039 as believers in the church and in the city to which we belong. 00:02:56.039 --> 00:03:05.199 Now I recognize and I know that in the society in which we live abortion is really a given 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:07.239 in most circles. 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:15.439 It's not really up for discussion in many places whatsoever and the rights of a woman 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:24.680 to do what she must do with her own body is a basic, seen as a basic human right completely 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:28.879 normalized in the society in which we live. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:33.000 Now I know and I recognize that I've only got 25 minutes. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:34.719 It's a huge subject. 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.919 You could address it in lots of different ways. 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:40.879 You could come at it from lots of different angles. 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:45.360 I'm not going to do a lot of statistics. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:48.599 I'm not going to integrate detail in various ways. 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:53.759 But I would encourage you as a Christian to be informed about it. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:55.960 It's really important to be informed. 00:03:55.960 --> 00:04:01.120 And if you're not a Christian to consider some of the things that maybe you'll be challenged 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:04.319 to think about today. 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.239 So my initial question is why do we need to pray about this? 00:04:07.239 --> 00:04:12.079 Because the whole focus of this series is praying, planning, praying into action, not 00:04:12.079 --> 00:04:20.240 praying in a kind of monastic way, praying from a distance and then just getting on with 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:23.319 things but praying in a positive way. 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:25.000 Why do we need to pray? 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:30.800 I think we need to pray because as Christians we've got a God-centered view of the universe. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:37.879 A God-centered view of the universe that vitally clashes with the philosophical mindset of 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:40.480 the day and generation which we live. 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:43.120 And we know that very few people care about that. 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:47.720 Very few people care about the view that we would have of God and of God as the Creator 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:49.879 in the universe. 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:51.319 So we need to pray about that. 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:57.720 I think we need to pray because we need to know how to speak into a secular society about 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:01.320 abortion in a gospel-centered way. 00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:03.320 That's hugely significant. 00:05:03.320 --> 00:05:11.240 I simply don't think shouting the loudest or condemning from the parapets is the way 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:16.960 that we deal with issues that we find morally difficult to deal with. 00:05:16.960 --> 00:05:24.040 And I don't think we need to move beyond silence and we need to move beyond separatist 00:05:24.040 --> 00:05:32.680 rage and I don't have the answers which is why I'm encouraging myself and all of us to 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:33.680 pray. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.160 I've got many questions. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:41.200 I think we need to pray because we need God's wisdom to engage with society again and individuals 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:49.720 to consider why it is seen as worthy in a sense of celebration that removing life from 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:58.680 the womb is a positive response from a liberal and sophisticated society. 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:02.400 And I think we need to pray in repentance. 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:10.120 Repentance is confessing our own sins, repent for our lack of concern for life after birth 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:15.240 and to be challenged about the cost of our responsibilities if we believe in the value 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:23.920 of every born life, to repent of a careless and disinterested and insular and selfish 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:28.639 and pleasure-seeking life that sometimes we do when there's so much hurt and pain and 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:30.160 suffering in the world in which we live. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:32.800 So that's, I think, some of the reasons we need to pray and I'm going to come back to 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:34.879 that at the end. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:36.199 What does God say about human life? 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:40.000 Now, we didn't have a reading from Scripture today because I'm going to take various readings. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.480 So it's a theme today rather than working through a specific passage of Scripture. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:48.360 And so we're picking different truths from throughout the Bible about this. 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:50.160 What does God say about human life? 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:55.920 Well, that, we go back to the very beginning for that, for Genesis 1, 26, 27. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:00.080 Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion 00:07:00.080 --> 00:07:03.400 over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens over the livestock and over all the 00:07:03.400 --> 00:07:06.040 earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:10.680 So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them male and 00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:12.720 female, He created them. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:17.080 That's the very beginning of the Bible, it's very foundational for us and it's very important 00:07:17.080 --> 00:07:20.320 for us to recognize that that's there for a reason. 00:07:20.320 --> 00:07:22.000 It's our starting point. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:27.880 Life matters for us in this world because God breathed life into us and humanity bears 00:07:27.880 --> 00:07:30.000 God's image. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.640 Now there's a huge, there's another 20 sermons within that itself, whatever it fully means 00:07:36.640 --> 00:07:41.880 to be image bearers of God, it's certainly no less than being people who are morally 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:48.519 accountable to the God who made us, who are beautifully reflective of His image, who are 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:57.199 sentient, creative, relational, self-conscious, with a sense of a never-ending existence as 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:04.959 image bearers of God, the triune God, who gives, and that for us gives us dignity and 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:09.480 purpose and belonging and a propensity to worship. 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:13.759 We feel we need to worship the living God because it's with it, it's just built within 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:17.879 us as those made in His image. 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:24.920 And within, you know, within the expression of marital love is the procreative act, which 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:29.640 is the coming together of two people who love, and there within that is the forming of a 00:08:29.640 --> 00:08:37.399 glorious, mysterious, intricate, awe-inspiring, unique and precious being, image bearing its 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:45.519 parents who in turn image bear their parents and the God who made us. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:50.480 So we go back to the beginning to be image bearers, and that image bearing we believe 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:54.720 from Scripture begins at conception. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:09:01.559 The life begins at conception morally, ethically, spiritually, if not legally, in the world in 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:03.559 which we live. 00:09:03.559 --> 00:09:09.079 Matthew 1 verse 20 speaks of the coming of Jesus, as you consider these things, Joseph, 00:09:09.079 --> 00:09:12.359 behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, 00:09:12.359 --> 00:09:17.799 do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:18.799 Spirit. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:25.559 The Jesus we know from the biblical account is conceived miraculously, but that is when 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:31.279 his life began as our Savior with all the mystery of that. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:37.159 Saying that we attribute to Jesus' humanity all our theology, all the significance of 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:44.039 him being a representative of the human race, all the suffering that he went on to experience, 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:51.759 all that enabled him to know what it was to be a human being began at conception. 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:56.120 He didn't fall into the manger, boom. 00:09:56.120 --> 00:10:00.319 He didn't arrive in some divine chariot at the age of 30 years of age to do his public 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.640 ministry and then head back to heaven. 00:10:03.640 --> 00:10:12.879 He was conceived in the womb of Mary as an individual unique in every way. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:19.200 And there's not only the postnatal life of Jesus and of others in Scripture, there's 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:21.840 also prenatal references at different points. 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:25.680 We sung some verses, or I mentioned some verses at the beginning, I want to finish 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:34.159 by singing verses from Psalm 139, but in Psalm 139 verses 13 to 16, this amazing message 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:39.079 of the psalmist for you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 00:10:39.079 --> 00:10:43.039 I praise you for I'm fearful and wonderfully made wonderful are your works, my soul knows 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:44.039 it well. 00:10:44.039 --> 00:10:48.599 My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in 00:10:48.599 --> 00:10:50.599 the depths of the earth. 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:56.840 Isaiah 49 verse 1, listen to me O customs and give attention you peoples from afar. 00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:03.399 The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother He named my name. 00:11:03.399 --> 00:11:11.680 These prenatal recognitions of the individual within Scripture, the complete and unique 00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:18.160 creation from conception of a new individual with all its unique DNA code from the very 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:23.759 beginning, the color of their hair, the color of their eyes, the way that they're likely 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:30.919 to think fully dependent at this point on its mother, absolutely internal, completely, 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:33.480 but also distinct. 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:41.799 That life is not a kidney, it is not a liver, it is an individual life, fully dependent on 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:43.799 its mother. 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:52.439 And that conception reality, bearing the image of God seen in Jesus Christ, gives equality 00:11:52.439 --> 00:11:55.159 and value to all of human life. 00:11:55.159 --> 00:12:01.519 It gives the basis, the foundation for our respect, worth, uniqueness, the rights and 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:04.679 the responsibilities of every human being. 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:10.359 You know, no matter how unpromising or unhopeful that life might appear, the child in the womb 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:14.800 is the image bearer of God, like each of us within our mother's womb, the image bearer 00:12:14.800 --> 00:12:19.840 of God, that safest and most protected of all environments in the world in which we 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:22.800 live. 00:12:22.800 --> 00:12:28.639 But when God is taken out of the equation in a materialistic world, human life is still 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:32.560 valued, but it's not sacred. 00:12:32.560 --> 00:12:39.279 And it doesn't have this foundational reality of being made in the image of a divine being. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:47.919 And nothing, therefore, external on which to base our value and even our equality. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:49.559 You know, that there's no Creator. 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:52.720 There can be no moral accountability outside of ourselves. 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:57.819 Where would it come from if there was nothing except the world in which we live and nothing 00:12:57.819 --> 00:13:07.079 except the material world, so that utilitarianism, usefulness becomes one of the great foundations 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:14.560 or feelings or whatever developed social strata and structures are based on the individual 00:13:14.560 --> 00:13:16.720 human right becomes significant. 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:18.720 Who decides these things? 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.560 Who decides who has rights and who has responsibilities? 00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:27.480 What happens when these, in community, when these rights clash? 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:35.720 And ultimately, why defend the weak and the vulnerable, the costly and the sick in a world 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:40.480 without ultimate value? 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:49.480 A Hubert Humphrey building dedication in November 1, 1977, Washington, D.C. 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:53.759 Former Vice President Humphrey spoke about the treatment of the weakest members of society 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:55.160 as a reflection of a government. 00:13:55.160 --> 00:13:58.480 Now, I don't know if his quote of his was original to him. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:03.200 It seems to have been flowing about a lot of places over a lot of time, but I couldn't 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.960 find any further originality beyond him. 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:10.040 The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn 00:14:10.040 --> 00:14:15.440 of life, the children, those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly, those who are 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:21.200 in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the disabled. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:22.440 I agree with that. 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:29.840 And I think that comes soundly from biblical principles and a recognition of the image 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:31.340 of God. 00:14:31.340 --> 00:14:35.840 So we're made in the image of God, but we are broken image bearers. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:38.160 We also recognize that, don't we, as Christians? 00:14:38.160 --> 00:14:39.600 That's the message of the Bible. 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:47.879 The tragedy of humanity is that we have rejected God and rejected His love and His life and 00:14:47.879 --> 00:14:51.879 are under the just judgment of death, separation from God and from life. 00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:52.879 We're dying. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.759 We're not dead, we're dying. 00:14:55.759 --> 00:15:02.919 Death and destruction, taint, overtake, and mar every aspect and characteristic of life 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:05.120 that we rightly celebrate. 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:10.399 We celebrate so much and it's good to celebrate, and it's good to celebrate life and the common 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:16.080 grace of God and the beauty of what we see around us, but we do recognize that that celebration 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.080 and our lives are at best fragile. 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:22.399 All of us are lives that are at best fragile. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:26.199 And there's always this shadow that feeds into our longing. 00:15:26.199 --> 00:15:32.120 There's a shadow, we feel, or an image in life that feeds into our longing for something 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:38.799 more wholesome, more permanent, with more meaning and belonging and identity and hope. 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:46.000 Because death brings a despair and a hopelessness, and it's a spiritual problem. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:49.079 It's not ultimately a medical or a physical one. 00:15:49.079 --> 00:15:51.879 It's a spiritual reality for us. 00:15:51.879 --> 00:15:57.480 And our Christians can't be, and we mustn't be idealistic in a naive way. 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:00.759 We know we don't live in a sanitized world. 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:05.919 We know it's not clean cut world of happy families skipping around with sugary sweet 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:06.919 smiles. 00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:11.840 It's a broken world, it's a world of abuse and division and selfishness and exploitation 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:19.039 and greed and hate that infuses all the goodness and the beauty and the love that we also see 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.360 in the lives that we live. 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:28.839 So we live in a broken world, and we need to apply our grace into a broken world. 00:16:28.839 --> 00:16:33.639 The greatest danger for us, again I repeat this, making easy moral judgments from the 00:16:33.639 --> 00:16:41.959 grandstands that ignore our own broken hearts and our needs and the pain of not just our 00:16:41.959 --> 00:16:47.959 lives but the lives of others around us who make difficult, traumatic, wrong or confused 00:16:47.960 --> 00:16:49.960 choices. 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:57.879 We don't wag our fingers from a distance rubbing our hands at their folly because we know more 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:03.759 than anyone we should that we are broken image bearers at Romans 3.23 reminds us of that, 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:07.440 all of sinned, all of sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:09.840 It's a spiritual problem. 00:17:09.840 --> 00:17:15.039 We also know that Christ brings restoration into this brokenness. 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:18.599 That's the message of the gospel, it's the message that we preach, that we hope to live 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:21.200 and that we hope to put into practice in our lives. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:27.240 Now the bulletin sheet has a longer version of what I'm going to read here from verse 00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:28.960 30 but we're going to read from verse 39. 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:32.200 This is Luke chapter 1 again going back to the birth of Jesus. 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:37.559 In those days Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country to a town called Einduda 00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:40.480 and there entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:47.519 When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, Elizabeth is Mary's cousin. 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:53.559 The baby leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed 00:17:53.559 --> 00:17:58.720 with a loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:02.039 Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for behold when 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:07.880 the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy. 00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:12.640 As a she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:13.640 the Lord. 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:20.840 And it's a beautiful declaration of the gospel message from within the womb. 00:18:20.840 --> 00:18:28.600 Isn't that interesting that Jesus in the womb causes John his cousin in the womb to 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:39.439 leap for joy with the good news that Christ was going to be the Lord of Mary and Elizabeth 00:18:39.439 --> 00:18:42.000 and everyone who believed. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:48.719 The hope of forgiveness, of understanding life and suffering and death and restoration 00:18:48.719 --> 00:18:49.719 and healing. 00:18:49.720 --> 00:19:01.160 It says out of the mouths of babes, even before birth there's this amazing prenatal praise 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:03.880 for the coming of Jesus. 00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:10.160 And in his life that we know of, his public ministry from the age of 30, who did he consistently 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:12.079 reach out to? 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:19.500 The broken, the vulnerable, the outsiders in society, women, the insignificant, the margin 00:19:19.500 --> 00:19:25.599 of lies, those rich or poor who were aware of their own spiritual need, who were broken, 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:28.160 who felt sinful and lost and guilty. 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:29.960 And he came to them. 00:19:29.960 --> 00:19:32.119 That's who Jesus came to. 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:38.240 And in his death he bridged a gap that needed to be bridged. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:43.160 The cross isn't a hypothetical quick fix for us. 00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:49.119 It's not a realignment of, oh, this great moral leader died in a cross. 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:54.079 Spiritual need to make something religious and significant from it to make right what 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:56.399 was done wrong. 00:19:56.399 --> 00:20:00.079 This is Jesus Christ who from before the creation of the world did this in his purpose and his 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:05.359 plan because he is the answer to death and we sung at the beginning of the resurrection 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:12.679 which we celebrate every Lord's day, which is the first day of the resurrection morning 00:20:12.679 --> 00:20:17.439 because Jesus himself was exposed to the full extent of the brutality and the judgment and 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:25.880 the horror of death and the wrath of God and ultimate forsakeness in our place. 00:20:25.880 --> 00:20:38.039 So the gospel always for us must be the starting point to unravel the illogicality of abortion. 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:39.880 It's always the gospel. 00:20:39.880 --> 00:20:43.320 It must always be the gospel that Jesus came to of. 00:20:43.319 --> 00:20:49.639 We are not to be moralists, we are not simply ethicists, we are those who believe in the 00:20:49.639 --> 00:20:54.559 power of the gospel to transform and to change. 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.279 Therefore I close with returning to prayer, planning to pray. 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:04.639 So I probably haven't made this very clear but I am wanting us to think specifically, 00:21:04.639 --> 00:21:12.720 to pray specifically over the next year deliberately, consciously, regularly about the gospel changing 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:19.240 our lives individually, congregationally as a community and in this is how we live in 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:22.240 the society in which we live with the gospel. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:26.519 And to me this is an area where I have so many questions and know the great need for 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:27.519 prayer. 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:34.120 Coming to Christ Jesus for prayer, to cry for mercy and to come to Him with some of our 00:21:34.120 --> 00:21:37.319 questions provoking a response of grace. 00:21:37.319 --> 00:21:38.880 And I finish with some of these questions. 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:43.720 I am not going to give answers because I don't have them. 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:49.160 How do we reach out as we pray with this question, how can we reach out in love to women who 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:53.840 despair of their situation of bringing a child into an abusive home? 00:21:53.840 --> 00:21:58.360 How can we do that? 00:21:58.360 --> 00:22:04.000 How can we speak to those riddled with guilt over past procedure, broken and grieving, 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:09.079 those who don't recognize it as a life, those who recognize it as their right? 00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:10.079 How do we deal? 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:11.880 How do we pray into that? 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:13.799 How do we cope as people? 00:22:13.799 --> 00:22:20.039 How do we protect and pray for wisdom to protect the rights of women, value them, but also 00:22:20.039 --> 00:22:28.799 defend the rights of the unborn girl, the unborn child, the voiceless, the most vulnerable? 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:31.240 How do we do that? 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:38.200 What value as we pray and question, what value do we place on life after birth? 00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:43.000 Do we care equally about the squalor and poverty and abuse and rejection of children in the 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:45.440 world in which we live? 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:48.599 And others, not just children. 00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:53.160 It doesn't just, it begins at conception, but it doesn't end at birth. 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:57.279 A responsibility doesn't end there. 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:00.480 It's almost like becoming, definitely becoming a Christian. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:03.599 People become a Christian sometimes, well that's fine, they become a Christian now. 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:06.200 And we just leave them to go on with their life with God. 00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:09.680 It's only the beginning of the Christian walk, which is why we'll preach about discipleship 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:11.360 for the next six or seven weeks. 00:23:11.360 --> 00:23:15.680 It's only the beginning of a new life that we walk together in. 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:20.799 What about the life of children? 00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:24.839 And I throw out a huge challenge to families here, Christian families. 00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:28.920 Are we on the forefront of adoption and fostering? 00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:32.519 It's a huge need, massive need. 00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:39.120 There are so few adopters and fosters in the Highlands that children are driven hundreds 00:23:39.120 --> 00:23:43.360 of miles to the central belt to find foster homes. 00:23:43.360 --> 00:23:44.560 Because there's none in the Highlands. 00:23:44.560 --> 00:23:47.160 It's just one example. 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:50.039 Are we as churches, are we as individuals? 00:23:50.039 --> 00:23:54.440 Am I, are we at the forefront of that great work? 00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:56.440 Do we champion? 00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:01.519 And how do we champion the great value of parenthood, the spectacular and significant 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:13.880 value of the maternal love and the paternal care and the influence for good in the world? 00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:18.759 How do we, and I've tried throughout this not to use emotive language, I've tried not 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:23.000 to, because I know it's a hugely emotive subject. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:32.000 But how do we get people to consider the barbarity of the actual procedure, which is unspoken 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:35.359 of in polite company? 00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:37.119 How do we do that? 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:45.440 How do we get across the damage of seeing abortion as a means of contraception? 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:47.960 How can we stop the law of unintended consequences? 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:50.640 We see that in the world all the time, don't we? 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:59.000 The law of unintended consequences where people, seeing people's value only in what they can 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:05.920 offer society, where will be the next step towards infanticide or the destruction which 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:13.400 already happening of an unwanted sex, unwanted baby girls, and maybe in some places unwanted 00:25:13.400 --> 00:25:14.400 baby boys? 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:16.720 How does that get stopped? 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:23.360 And how do we rather move towards laws that aim to ensure every child born is fed, loved, 00:25:23.360 --> 00:25:25.440 secured, and provided for? 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:27.240 How do we do that? 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:31.000 How do we pray and support our nurses and our doctors with all the pressure to conform 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.680 and perform against their ethical and spiritual beliefs in the society in which we live? 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:39.200 Huge pressures. 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:48.160 And how do we simply not fall into despair over this matter? 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:52.960 We cry out into the brokenness with the love and light of Christ. 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:59.400 That's all we can do at one level and work out on a one-to-one basis as we have the opportunity 00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:02.160 of sharing grace and compassion. 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:13.640 And believing at least that heaven is populated by at least 8 million extra souls whose lives 00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:19.480 will be taken in the womb since the 1967 Law Change Act in the UK. 00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:23.320 That's one of our hopes. 00:26:23.320 --> 00:26:26.800 And praying about how to make a difference. 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:32.839 How do we make a difference for good and for the gospel? 00:26:32.839 --> 00:26:40.319 And it's something for all of us to consider in the light of the gospel and in the light 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:42.720 of what Jesus has done for us. 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.319 Let's bow our heads and pray. 00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:54.480 Father, God help us to live with compassion and with grace and recognize and know our 00:26:54.480 --> 00:27:00.839 part of belonging to a broken and confused and difficult world. 00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:03.400 And often we are broken and confused and difficult. 00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:05.519 We're not aloft from it. 00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:07.120 We're not separate from it. 00:27:07.120 --> 00:27:08.960 We're not looking down on it. 00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:10.640 We recognize and see it. 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:12.000 We see it in our own churches. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:14.279 We see it in our own Christian communities. 00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:20.920 We see it in our own attitudes and in our own lives and in so much of what we do, we 00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:27.240 pray and ask that you would help us just in all our weakness to cry out for wisdom and 00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:37.000 for strength and for impossibilities to happen for people to value life so greatly that it 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.400 transforms and changes even the most difficult of circumstances. 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:45.360 But we do cry to you, Lord, because we don't have the answers. 00:27:45.360 --> 00:27:47.759 We certainly don't have all the answers. 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:54.319 And we pray for wisdom and humanity and humility and ask that at a very practical level in 00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:57.759 our lives that we would make a difference, one to one. 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:06.519 Very few of us will have the opportunity to do kind of remarkable things that will change 00:28:06.519 --> 00:28:11.720 society, but we do in Christ know that we can change our own circumstances and the life 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:18.319 around us by grace and by our attitudes and our responses and our choices. 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:29.839 We pray for those that are broken themselves here, secret, hurt and pain and sorrow. 00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:45.839 We ask this wouldn't be a place of sniveling kind of unnatural, judgmental or careless 00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:52.679 spirit or thoughtlessness that we would reach out to one another and confess our needs and 00:28:52.679 --> 00:28:56.399 seek our support and love from one another. 00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:03.519 Help us to be a real community, we pray and bless us in our worship as we conclude our 00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:09.200 worship today, publicly singing in praise and honour of the God of life. 00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:27.680 Amen.