In our country, over 60 million abortions have happened since Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973.
!
60 million.
That's been 45 years ago now.
Just some quick math, and that will show you that on average, 1.3 million babies have been legally killed by abortion each year in our country alone.
Right here in the U.S.
That's around 25,000 babies a week.
3,700 babies a day or 152 babies an hour.
Between two and three babies a minute.
About one baby every 24 seconds.
This is in our country.
This is legal.
This is legalized murder.
One life every 24 seconds.
Three or four years ago, I think it was in 2014, Nathan preached a sermon on Sanctity of Life Sunday, in which he had, I think it was Reese Winkler.
He was sitting in the back, and every, I think it worked up to 30 seconds.
Every 30 seconds, Reese would hold up his hand, and Nathan would throw a baby figurine into a trash can to symbolize those lives that are lost even as we speak.
And as we are distracted by them hitting that trash can, just a reminder of the lives that are being lost.
So many.
Just to talk a little bit about reasons why.
Why is this happening?
Many people state that pro-life advocates are cold.
They don't want to hear about circumstances or events that cause unwanted pregnancies.
They may bring up rape or incestuous relationships.
And those are hard situations.
There's no, no doubt about that in anyone's mind.
But we must question, do any circumstances allow us to say that our life doesn't matter?
Do any circumstances give us the right to take something that was never ours to take?
In a survey I saw of 1,209 post-abortive women from nine different abortion clinics across the country.
This was taken in 2004.
957 provided a main reason for having an abortion.
Let's think about these stats for a minute.
I'm going to start with the lowest one.
Half a percent a victim of rape.
Three percent fetal health problems.
Four percent physical health problems.
Four percent said it would interfere with their education or career.
Seven percent said they were not mature enough to raise a child.
Eight percent said they don't want to be a single mother.
Nineteen percent said they were done having children.
Twenty-three percent said they couldn't afford a baby.
Twenty-five percent simply stated that they were not ready for a child.
That's what we're dealing with.
That's what the abortion issue looks like.
So there's really, really hard, hard, hard situations of rape or incest are few and far between when we're looking at the big scale numbers.
And yes, looking at all these other situations, all these reasons they mentioned, those are undeniably hard situations, I'm sure, as well.
But when people are feeling that way, when they think they're unable to raise a child, that is where the church should step in.
We are needed.
We are needed in all of those situations to care for the lives of the unwanted.
We'll talk about that quite a bit more in our study as we keep going.
I could go on and on and on about statistics, but I think this crowd is very aware of this issue and very aware of where it stands in our country.
So I don't think that's the biggest push our crew needs.
So instead, here's how I'm going to organize it today.
So three main parts.
Really simple.
So here they are.
First, the reason help is needed.
That was the reason help is needed.
Secondly, a plea for help.
A plea for help.
And third, ways to help.
So the reason help is needed, a plea for help, and then ways to help.
So that's how we'll tackle it this morning.
So like I said, I think many of us are aware of how rampant this issue is in our country, in our state.
And we realize, I think, that how devastating of an issue it is because these are helpless human lives that are being murdered illegally here.
Now, praise the Lord, the numbers have gone drastically down, if you track it, since the 80s.
At some points, there was more than a half million being murdered a year, if you look back in the 80s.
And now it's closer down to the 600,000 mark.
But that's 600,000 lives.
Taken a year.
Many pro-choice advocates state that they form their position because a fetus, a baby, cannot be considered a human life until it is born.
Some even talk about the idea of fetal viability.
The idea of thinking about whether or not a baby could survive outside the womb at a certain age
and try to use this as their justification for supporting abortions occurring at certain spots during a pregnancy.
Because apparently, if a baby could not survive outside the womb, it must not really be a human yet.
Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who served on the court who passed Roe v. Wade,
which legalized abortions in the U.S. in 1973,
often talked about the first trimester being a critical point in the pregnancy.
The court thought and decided that certainly before that trimester is over, abortion must be illegal.
Blackmun also stated in 1973 that the selection of the first trimester was pretty arbitrary.
Pretty arbitrary.
But suggested that any other point would be as well.
Now, why would any point be arbitrary?
Why couldn't we come up with a set point and say it's okay before this, it's not after that?
And why'd they have to leave it up to the state?
Why not?
Because all of us, all of us know, we try to suppress it,
all of us know that an abortion at any stage is the destruction of a human life.
That's why people think it's so arbitrary to pick a point.
Because it's already a life.
Life begins with conception.
Now let's think about the argument they have a bit about the viability of life for just a minute.
There are a lot, lot, lot of young kids at our church.
Saw this floor full up here just a few minutes ago.
Quite a few of them are just really young.
A lot under the age of four.
Now if we left any of these kids, even two days, without any assistance, no adults around,
could they fend for themselves?
Could they make it?
Could they survive?
Maybe for a couple days, but not very long at all.
Absolutely not.
So they don't seem able to survive on their own.
So why do people not think about killing them off if they're unwanted?
The scary thing is, that's the logic people buy into.
That is the logic that people buy into.
That's where it falls apart.
Any young human needs help surviving.
Absolutely some more than others, but what gives us the right to say that just because we don't want one around,
that we can just kill them?
Nothing tells us that.
We can't.
Nothing gives us that, right?
Life begins with conception.
All other points would be arbitrarily drawn.
You don't make any sense.
So let's look at the scripture a little bit on this.
Turn with me to where Tyler read this morning, Psalm 139.
Now this is a very, very commonly cited passage when thinking about this issue.
And for good reason.
It speaks some really, really good truth into it.
What I want us to look at here is verses 13 through 16.
Picking up in verse 13, it says,
For you formed my inward parts.
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works.
My soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance.
In your book were written every one of them.
The days that were formed for me.
Then as yet there was, when as yet there was none of them.
There's so much we can pull out of this passage.
The first thing I want us to note is that we can see that God is hugely involved in the lives of the unborn.
It says that he formed David as he was in his mother's womb.
David praises the Lord for that, that he was already involved in his life as he's in the womb.
Praises the Lord that he was fearfully and wonderfully making him.
Then looking down in verse 16, we see something incredible.
Something I think is so cool.
David explains that even as the Lord is developing him in the womb,
he already has all of his days planned for him.
Look at that.
In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me.
Every one of them.
He had a plan for David while David was still in the womb.
It's incredible.
The Lord is not waiting around for him to be born so that he can be considered a human life and then making a plan for him.
He has those days planned.
Way back.
Okay?
So the second takeaway we can get from that is that because of the Lord's involvement, his plan there,
the Lord considers that a human life.
The Lord considers that life in the womb a human life.
So if the Lord considers that, we should too.
We can't draw some arbitrary line somewhere.
One more place for you to turn on this one.
Genesis 1.
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them.
There's a certain thing about us as humans that makes us different from anything else the Lord made.
Anything else in all creation.
We're special.
We're different.
Anything else.
God values our lives much more than anything else in all creation.
And that difference is that we're made in God's image.
And that difference gives us so much more value.
I love the way that the biggest story, a children's book that we used to read in Aletha Way a lot, puts it.
They describe the image of God as we're like little mirrors meant to reflect God's glory to everything around us.
That's a great way to explain that.
That's exactly what being an image bearer means.
We're to reflect God's glory to all in everything that we're doing.
Just here in this text, the Lord mentions a way in which we do that.
Having dominion over the earth.
That's a really, really big one.
The Lord has created us to be sub-rulers governing his earth that he's put us on.
That's a huge way that we reflect his glory.
Think about some other ways.
We rule.
We love.
We have justice.
And we are given a role in creating life.
The Lord has told us to fill the earth and subdue it as part of our sub-governing.
Now, when a baby is killed, we're not only being unjust.
That baby is also missing that part of image bearing that was given the right to.
The part of showing God's image to everything around it.
Major, major loss.
So, from both simple logic and the scripture, we can see that human life begins at conception.
And the Lord values that life so, so much.
So, there's a great need, great need to be troubled.
There's hundreds of thousands of these lives are taken away each year by abortion.
Now, we as Christians have an obligation to help with this devastating issue.
And so, that brings us to our next section.
So, this section is a plea for help.
A plea for help.
Turn to Luke 10.
Spend a lot of time here.
Luke 10.
Here in verses 25 through 37, we have what is commonly called the parable of the Good Samaritan.
This has been an incredibly convicting parable to me, especially in light of this issue.
So, let's read it together and then talk through it.
Pick it up in verse 25.
It says,
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying,
Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
He said to him,
What is written in the law?
How do you read it?
And he answered,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.
And he said to him,
You've answered correctly.
Do this and you will live.
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus,
And who is my neighbor?
Jesus replied,
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
Then he set him on his animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying,
Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I'll repay you when I come back.
Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?
He said, The one who showed him mercy.
And Jesus said to him, You go and do likewise.
Let's talk through this passage a bit.
So Jesus here, when he gives this parable, is in route toward Jerusalem, which we know would ultimately culminate in the cross.
And he's slowly making his way there to that culminating point.
And as he's going, he's continuing his ministry of teaching, of healing, and of making disciples.
So he's on his way there.
And we get this insight about an event that happened.
It was a lawyer who came up to Jesus.
And it says here in the text he just wanted to justify himself.
He wanted to declare his own righteousness.
And he wanted to tell everybody how good of a person he had been.
And so he asked Jesus a question.
Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
I can imagine Jesus responding like, Well, what's the law say?
What do you think from that?
The man knew what the law said, right?
He replied with, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
And Jesus is just like, Yep.
Yep.
You've got it.
That's right.
Do this and you'll live.
Now in his heart, this man knows that he's not truly done this.
He knows that he's not fully loved God 100% of the time.
And he knows that he definitely has done that with all of his soul, all of his strength, all of his mind.
And I'm confident that this man is aware that he has not, in all circumstances, counted his neighbor as just as important, if not more important, than himself.
Confident of that.
But he's still trying to find a way out, right?
He's still trying to find a way to justify himself.
Still trying to test Jesus here.
Still trying to find a way out of fully obeying.
So he asked the question, Who is my neighbor?
Now let's think about why he would phrase that question this way.
Because that's an interesting thing to ask.
He might be expecting to get the response, Oh, of course, you can't help everyone.
You can only do so much.
You're so busy.
If you just help these few people.
Something like that.
That's something we hear all the time.
Right?
But that's not what he gets at all.
Instead, Jesus goes on to tell this story.
And let's think about it a bit.
So there's this guy.
Right?
He's heading down the road.
And he ran into some really rough people.
They proceeded to rob him and left him half dead.
Later on, a few people come down this road.
Okay?
First off, we see a priest.
Someone we think would be sure and stop and show compassion to this man.
He didn't stop at all.
Instead, it says he just completely avoided the situation.
He goes on over to the other side of the road.
Not even to have to pay attention to this man.
Next person comes along, a Levite.
Another person we'd expect, yes.
He's going to stop.
Show compassion.
No.
Same thing.
Okay?
The next person came along, a Samaritan.
Someone that the Jews did not get along very well with.
Someone we would not expect to show compassion.
He sees the man.
And what does he do?
He has compassion.
What we would not expect.
He had a heart for this man.
He cared.
He took some time out of his really important busy routine, I'm sure.
And made time to help someone who needed it.
And didn't just give him a couple of bucks and mosey on his way towards Jerusalem.
It says he bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
Took him to a place to stay.
Paid for his stay and was even willing to give some extra money should he need anything else.
Now, why would Jesus answer this man's question this way?
Why would he tell this story when, you know, he could have just made a quick one sentence answer?
Why not?
Let's look at the driving point.
Verse 36.
Look at verse 36.
It says,
Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?
Which of these three do we think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?
That is quite the statement.
Quite the statement.
Jesus completely turns this man's question around on him.
Completely.
The man was looking for that response of, oh, you only have to help this many people.
You can only do so much.
Jesus completely turns it on him.
Instead of explaining who his neighbors are, he goes and asks, what kind of person are you?
Are you going to be somebody that helps?
Are you going to stand idly by and watch as people suffer?
What are you going to do about it?
Quite the turn.
Now, why?
Why would he do that to you?
Because what does this man's first question reveal?
The text tells us a couple things about it that we can be very clear on.
We know that he was trying to test the Lord and we know that he was trying to justify himself.
Now, in light of that, that tells us a few things.
When he's trying to figure out who his neighbor is, who he needs to serve, he's just trying to justify himself.
He's trying to check out all those good boxes that he's helped this many people and helped these groups.
Trying to get enough good points.
Get on that high school or leaderboard, right?
Get that eternal life that he's been wanting.
Now, what mindset can we see from that man?
He's trying to earn his salvation.
He's not had a heart change.
He's just all ready to work, work, work, work to earn those good points.
He didn't care about serving those around him.
He just cared about making sure that he came out on top in the end.
Didn't care at all.
Now, Jesus saw this.
Jesus saw this and Jesus cut right his heart.
That's why he flipped that question around on him.
He saw that heart issue in that.
So, when he changes that question from who do I have to serve to how should we think about helping people?
Jesus changed it from an action question to a heart question.
At the end, he's really asking the question, which of these men had the right mindset in helping?
Which of these men had the right heart?
Which of these men truly fulfilled the law?
And that cut him.
That got him.
That revealed his heart.
Now, why am I talking about this today?
How often do we think, oh, is it really my responsibility to help this time?
Or, I'm too busy to help with this.
Or, oh, someone else can do that.
Or, that's their job.
Not mine.
Or, even, I'm already involved in so many other ministries.
Or, no, I can't.
I can't do that.
That I'm exhausted from all the other ways I've been helping the church.
And how often do we want to hear the response from others that, oh, you're doing enough already.
Don't worry about it.
Or, oh, I'll get someone else to help with this.
Yeah.
Somebody else has got it.
Then we feel our conscience.
We feel the Holy Spirit working in us.
Longing.
Our new nature wants to serve.
Wants to help.
Wants to do anything we possibly can.
To help the body and to help the world around us.
We feel that, yeah, we can make that happen.
Or, yeah, we'll be there.
Now, am I saying in all of this that we need to work 24 hours a day.
And be involved in every ministry.
And for college students to be involved in every campus ministry.
And, you know, try to go to three or four in one night.
And help every single person ever in need.
Help in every opportunity placed in front of us.
Absolutely not.
I've seen so many people try to go down that path and burn out.
Burn out, burn out.
So what am I saying?
I am saying, brothers and sisters, that if we don't want to help in any way we possibly can,
we need to be concerned with our hearts.
If we don't have that longing to help, we need to be concerned with our hearts.
If we have that mindset of, I already do enough and I don't want to help with that.
Got too much already going on.
We should be concerned.
Our Lord, the God of the universe, came to this earth.
And when he came to this earth, he humbled himself to be a man.
And what did he do when he got here?
He sought to serve, not to be served.
When we get into the mindset of, I'm already doing enough, we're in the wrong mindset entirely.
We're called to follow the mindset of our Lord.
When we get the mindset of, I'm doing enough, we need to check our hearts.
When our initial reaction to an opportunity to serve is, I already have too many things.
Or another thing, we need to check our hearts.
Again, I want to stress this, that I'm not saying we need to be involved on every ministry team.
Or take every opportunity to serve that we possibly can.
Or stop every time we see a homeless person.
Or that there is never a time to say no to something.
That's not what I'm saying at all.
There's very often, sometimes, where we need to say no.
But I am saying that if our mindset becomes one of, we're already doing this, that's someone else's job, someone else will do it.
We're not thinking the right way towards serving.
It should hurt when we hear of a great opportunity to serve, but we're already completely booked and we can't do it.
That should hurt.
So often our hearts are like, this man's.
And instead, we're feeling like, am I really required to help in this way?
Or what do I have to do to be just good enough?
Do I really need to help this time?
No, that should not be our mindset at all.
We follow our Lord who laid down everything, more than we could ever imagine, to serve us.
And we were called to serve in the same way that he has.
So often we try to justify ourselves and say we're doing enough.
That's not what our mindset should be.
We should want to serve in any possible way we can.
And we should not be looking for the bare minimum of what we're required to do.
We should be the leaders as Christians in service.
We should be the people that prove to be those good, true neighbors to those around us.
So why all of this today?
Why am I bringing this up now?
What does this have to do with the issue of abortion?
60 million human lives have been taken away by abortion in our country since 73.
That means that over a million babies on average are murdered legally each year.
Tens of thousands of these come from our very own state.
If there's an issue we need to be involved in, this is it.
Another place for y'all to turn.
Proverbs 24.
I'll look at verses 11 and 12 here.
Picking up in verse 11 it says,
Rescue those who are being taken away to death.
Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, Behold, we did not know this.
Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?
And will he not repay man according to his work?
There are tens of thousands in this very state, our state of Georgia, that are being exactly what this passage says.
Being taken away to death.
They're heading towards the slaughter.
And we so often, so often do exactly what verse 12 says not to do.
We say, We did not know this.
We weren't aware.
We try to just ignore it.
Pretend the issue doesn't exist.
Pretend this isn't something that's happening right around us in Georgia and Atlanta and Gainesville.
Dahlonega.
But we can't ignore it.
We know it does happen.
And the Lord knows it.
The Lord sees our hearts.
The Lord knows whether we are helping or not.
Think about James 1, verse 27.
It says that religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this.
To visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
And to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Now, why does James, led by the Holy Spirit, decide to cite these two, widows and orphans?
Because they were considered to be in a really particularly helpless state.
He states that true religion, true faith shown through its outworking,
is to visit these orphans and their widows and to care for them.
Because they're in such a helpless spot, what about the unborn?
They're in the most vulnerable spot and helpless state that anyone possibly can be.
We have such a great duty to protect those.
So what can we do?
This brings us to our third section.
Ways to help.
First way is to vote.
To vote.
Abortion is an issue that should be considered as one of, if not, the most primary issue when we think about voting.
Because we're losing this many lives every year.
When we vote, we should do some actual research about where people are at with the issue.
And what they've actually done about it in the past.
I believe it's many of our temptations to simply vote for a candidate because they're part of a certain party.
And that's the party we always vote for.
That's not bad in all cases.
But we should challenge ourselves to research, to study, to see where candidates actually are with an issue.
Before just choosing to vote for them out of tradition or allegiance to a party.
I think there's another just as dangerous temptation for a lot of us too.
And that temptation is to vote for a candidate because they have very subtly different views.
That truly do match up much closer to our own.
That's definitely not bad in all cases either.
But again, we must challenge ourselves to see where they truly stand and see what they can actually do given their position.
In short, we should vote in light of the issue of abortion.
Simple as that.
Second way.
Physically serve.
Now here are two incredibly sometimes true and incredibly important to think about complaints that pro-choice supporters often have against us.
First one is that they often say that we want the children to be born, but we give no assistance to helping them get to that point.
Big one.
Second one is they also often say that once the children are born to parents who can't raise them, there are no options, no help, no support.
Now if these things are true, if they have legitimate complaints, and I think in a lot of cases they are,
these are things that it is the church's responsibility to help with.
There's no getting around that.
The church's responsibility to help with.
It's our job as a church to educate, to provide support and assistance to mothers in crisis pregnancy situations.
And it's also our job as a church.
We just read the passage on orphans and widows.
When a child cannot be taken care of, it is our job to care for them.
It's our job to care for them.
These are huge, huge, huge needs in our country, and even in our four-county area, Lumpkin Hall, Dawson, White.
Huge, huge, huge needs.
And I'm sure that many of you guys are aware, and I'm sure there's some of you that aren't, of how involved our church is in both of these efforts.
First off, in giving assistance to expecting mothers right in town, there's the DeLonga Care Center,
which offers free ultrasounds, counseling, and a lot of other services to mothers in crisis pregnancy situations.
We've had multiple people in our church involved there throughout the years and still do.
If you're interested in helping in that way, which is a great thing to do, see Miranda Keough or see Sarah Stubbs.
They're both very, very involved there.
They can always use more people there and need help.
Second way is helping the children whose parents are unable to raise them.
I think all of us that have been here a couple of years have seen an explosion of the AVA initiative.
So, so, so great to see.
We've seen the church's efforts explode in helping with foster care.
If you're not involved in some way of serving the AVA initiative, you should be.
We have three families in our church that are currently fostering children, have a family that has adopted children.
There are care teams that need help.
To support these families.
And these needs are simple.
They're not complicated.
They're making a meal once a month.
Babysitting every now and then.
Doing some yard work.
Simple as that.
Contact the Stubbs or the McSpaddens if you all are interested in that.
It is our responsibility to help children when their parents are unable to help them.
Get involved with the AVA initiative.
Get a baby bottle on your way out.
Make sure you do that.
So there are plenty, plenty, plenty of ways to physically serve and to help make those complaints untrue.
We do not want those complaints to be true, and so often they are.
So many ways we can help, and we have that responsibility to help.
Third way.
Third way to help is to speak.
This is, in my opinion, the hardest way.
Abortion is an issue that is shied away from so often in conversation, but it's an issue that should be talked about much, much more.
Nathan, a couple years ago, in the sanctity of life sermon, summed up the way we should speak about it in three ways.
I'm going to borrow those this morning.
First way is we should speak about it with compassion.
We should speak about it with compassion.
So often when we as believers talk about abortion, we can come off as harsh or unloving or full of truth, but lacking any concept of grace.
A couple years ago, I was talking about the issue of abortion with somebody that I'm really, really, really close to.
Looking back, I was talking really harshly, showing incredible small amounts of grace.
A couple minutes into the conversation, she was cheering up and getting really, really, really noticeably upset.
And she just started saying, can I be forgiven?
Is this sin forgivable?
I had absolutely no idea that that tragedy was part of her past.
No idea at all.
I was dumbfounded.
I was shocked.
I was frustrated with myself for how I had been talking, especially to someone as close to me as she was.
I had to clarify.
I had to remind of the truth of the gospel.
That when we were at our worst, Christ died for us.
He did not die for perfect, all cleaned up Christians.
He died for us while we were yet in our sin.
While we were still sinners.
While we were filthy, dirty, capable of nothing good.
That's when he died for us.
We must speak about it with compassion because the Lord has shown us so much.
So much.
So for those that have had an abortion, they can be forgiven.
They can be cleansed.
They can be made free from that guilt.
All through Jesus' blood shed on your behalf.
Secondly, we should speak with clarity.
We should speak with clarity.
As I was just talking about, one of the last things that we want to do as believers is to make our own sin seem small and to make the sin of others seem large.
We don't want to walk around thinking that we have a little speck in our eye and the log is in somebody else's exact opposite.
There's a huge way in which we often just fail to be clear with this issue.
We forget that this is a forgivable sin.
We forget that even murder, even abortion can be forgiven.
Third way, in light of as we're speaking with that clarity, we also need to speak with conviction.
Speak with conviction.
We must be clear that the Lord can forgive all sin, but that that is sin.
That is murder.
The killing of someone who is completely just defenseless.
The act of taking away something that was never our right to take.
It is truly murder.
We must speak with that conviction.
Fourth and last way to help for this morning is to pray.
To pray.
Pray for expecting mothers.
Pray for moms to get wise counsel.
Pray to be put in those moms' lives to speak truth into the value of their child's life.
Pray for moms and dads to support their baby, to give it the chance to live life and be an image bearer for our Lord.
Pray for our leaders.
Pray for those that are in the government.
Pray for their hearts that they would see the value of life and take steps needed to make our country a place that values it.
Pray for the church.
Pray for each other.
Pray for the church to vote well.
To think about the candidates they choose in light of this.
Pray for us to be motivated to serve physically.
To do anything that we possibly can to serve this issue.
And pray for us to speak.
Our silence on that issue is so often just pathetic.
Pray against apathy.
And pray for the diligence to speak with compassion, with clarity, and with conviction.
Now, I've sat under quite a few sermons on Sanctity of Life Sunday.
And even in the process of preparing for this sermon, listen to quite a few more.
And it's very, very easy for me when dwelling on this issue and thinking about it for a long time to get down.
To get caught up in the frustrations when we see how far this world has to come.
How far it's gone from the garden.
And how sin so often just seems to be taking over.
When I get frustrated, I start believing that the task is insurmountable.
We can't do it.
But that's a lie.
That's a complete lie.
Those are lies that the devil has designed to try to make us apathetic.
He's trying to make us give up.
But brothers and sisters, he is not the one that is ruling this earth.
He is not the one ruling.
Our God is in the heavens and he does as he wishes.
Our Lord is in complete control.
Let's remember that when facing issues like these that seem like we can't do it.
As the song says,
This is my father's world.
Oh, let me never forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my father's world.
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is king.
Let the heavens ring.
God reigns and let the earth be glad.
We can trust the Lord that he is bringing, ushering in that kingdom even now.
And we are part of that.
We are part of that.
I think we so often just are like,
Yes, Lord, come back.
And we don't do anything to usher that in.
We are part of that rule.
We're part of that reign.
We are to be serving by helping eradicate sin.
We have no right to sit idly by.
We must do something.
I'm going to end with a William Wilberforce quote,
the man who tirelessly worked almost his whole life to end the slave trade in England.
And he says this.
No man has a right to be idle.
Where is it that in such a world as this,
that health and leisure and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct,
some wrong to redress,
some want to supply,
some misery to alleviate.
No man has a right to be idle.
Let's pray.