Love Life Sunday
Christ Culture Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Prayer for the Church
Prayer for the Church
-Its been a week since Israel has responded to terrorist attacks from Hamas and now a brutal war is being waged. This along with other impending world conflicts feels urgent enough to talk about but I have to be honest, as a pastor I am still wrapping my head around all that is going on…So for right now I just want to take a moment and pray for our world, for Israel, for the innocent Palestinians who are caught up in all of this and really for the powers that be in the world
Opening
Opening
Good morning welcome to River’s Edge today. As many of you know. We have been in a series on the book of 1 Corinthians for a few weeks now and today we are taking a brief pause from this story as we have been sharing with you,
we have an exciting day today to make a huge impact for the future of the church and for Sacramento.
Today we have the opportunity to impact a generation that is not yet even born
But before we get into all of that…
I just want to break down with you for a few moments, The Biblical position that we as christians take on life & the unborn...
Now I have said to you before…We are not about Politics, but about people...
And what I am speaking about has become inherently political…But before it was ever political it was Biblical....So that means it’s fair game for me to talk about
I want to share this with you because as you remember the number one core value of this church that we laid out to you this year is Biblical Authority
I want to read this and put it up for us all to see
Biblical Authority: The Bible is God’s Holy word. It is the highest source of written authority regarding God's plan for His people. It reveals how to live out that plan, individually and corporately. Beliefs, practices, priorities, and our mission are to be anchored in clear biblical teachings. (Psalm 19:7, 2 Timothy 3:16, Luke 24:44, Luke 4:18-21)
Biblical Authority: The Bible is God’s Holy word. It is the highest source of written authority regarding God's plan for His people. It reveals how to live out that plan, individually and corporately. Beliefs, practices, priorities, and our mission are to be anchored in clear biblical teachings. (Psalm 19:7, 2 Timothy 3:16, Luke 24:44, Luke 4:18-21)
So everything that we do is anchored in scriptural values…That means we tie our actions back to the Bible.
This is actually in contrast to the Corinthian Church…See in the series that we have been in the church in Corinth slowly and over time begins to take their cue’s from the society around them rather than scripture
This is why we always say, read scripture on a daily basis! Because when you do, it begins to have authority in your life over cultural ideals
In my own life I have had these moments tons of times when a personal thought has come in conflict with scripture and I have had to say, why do I believe this? I have had to do the deep dive into scripture and say those words that I made you say a few weeks ago
I WAS WRONG!
And I need to repent and make my life align with God’s word...
So today I want to clearly lay out for you what the Bible has to say about life and then I want to introduce for you a ministry that we want to partner with to make a huge difference in the Sacramento area
As always, it begins here in Genesis
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God molded humanity after his own image
Every human caries with them an inherent dignity because they are made in God’s image. (Gen 1:27)
Every human caries with them an inherent dignity because they are made in God’s image. (Gen 1:27)
Now of course the Bible talks about how we as humans have messed this all up…
We have exchanged the truth of God for a lie...
Humanity has constantly worshiped other idols or images and has not reflected God well.
But every human, and in the Biblical perspective, born or unborn caries with them the dignity of being image bearers of God’s image
The Psalms reflect what God thinks about human life and Biblical poetry artfully expresses greater realities so please flip with me to Psalm 139
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Now Psalm 139 is not a work of science rather a theological reflection on the way God relates to persons.
It is about how we live in a “God bathed world” that the presence of God is all around us...
Now a way to visualize this is to recognize that we live in an oxygen bathed world and if all of the sudden that oxygen was completely taken away from us then we would all suffocate and die
Psalm 139 reminds us that in this world, God is Sovereign and each one of us are intimatley known by God.
That we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Look at verse 16:
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ps 139:16.
Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (The All-Creative (139:13–18))
It means that the that my embryonic members were planned and known before the many stages of their development.
This is a powerful reminder of the value he sets on us, even as embryos, and of his planning our end from the beginning.
Psalm 139 is a Psalm of worship that affirms and celebrates prayerfully the goodness of God and a purposeful human life as ordained by God.
Psalm 139 is a Psalm of worship that affirms and celebrates prayerfully the goodness of God and a purposeful human life as ordained by God.
And it doesn’t say this right in Psalm 139, but we know that this all comes to be because the human project is all God’s idea and he loves you
He loves all of humanity
mean what was the motivation of God sending Jesus into the world?
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
LOVE! Because GOD SO LOVED!
And the role of Jesus was to save and not to condemn and whenever we talk about very difficult issues such as Abortion that needs to be on the forefront of our minds.
Psalm 139 among many other biblical Psalms remind us that God ordains life and gives purpose to it
It means all of you here have a god ordained purpose
Now I want to keep pushing forward...
Because Psalm 139 show’s God’s omni presence…Not just for those who are breathing air but for those in the womb.
Now lets move to the New Testament because not only do I want to show you how Psalm 139 was lived out but Jesus’ ethics on all of this
So Before Mary was ever pregnant with Jesus, there is a woman named Elizabeth who was a relative of Mary the Mother of Jesus...
Elizabeth and Zechariah were not able to have children and in their old age, God answered this long prayer of Zechariah and Elizabeth to have a child.
God tells them that this child will be significant, it will eventually be John the Baptist who will prepare the way for the Lord.
So as God tells Zechariah that he is going to have this son, here is how he describes it:
He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit before he is even born....
Did you catch that
In the womb, John the baptist is known by God and the spirit of God is not limited by those of us who just breathe air but can even be on those who are in the womb.
The Bible affirms the personhood of those in the womb
You can almost hear the words of Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
A few verses later when Mary is pregnant with Jesus.
Which is by the way, an unplanned pregnancy that would eventually bring great joy and suffering to Mary’s life
Mary is pregnant with jesus and goes to see her relative Elizabeth and this is what the text says happened....
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
That Spirit filled baby had a good jump in the womb of Elizabeth and she would be filled with the spirit too.
So lets re-cap.
The Bible from its beginnings shows that we are made in God’s image
that God knows us in the womb
Then we now have an example in Luke 1 its sort of the tale of two wombs...
Between Mary and Elizabeth
and now we need to get to Jesus’ ethics on the matter because they are so impotrant
Now we know that in the earliest manuscripts and documents that we have of the early church that the church was known for being against abortion and infanticide But the new Testament doesn’t specifically address this
What we know is that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus laid out the Ethics of his kingdom...
And in this sermon here are a few examples
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Now while abortion is not specifically touched on in the new testament,
Jesus is very clear about cycles of death that humanity gets into
Jesus is the author of life and one of his core teachings on the Sermon on the mount is that through him and in his kingdom, cycles of violence must end
Jesus, the author of life, taught that humanity gets stuck in cycles of violence and death, and that through life in his kingdom these cycles can end. (Matthew 5:21-26; 38-42;43-48, Acts 3:15)
Jesus, the author of life, taught that humanity gets stuck in cycles of violence and death, and that through life in his kingdom these cycles can end. (Matthew 5:21-26; 38-42;43-48, Acts 3:15)
Think about industries that bring death:
War! Guys I’ve read the Bible multiple times…in fact I just keep reading it over and over again and I can tell you that God is more intiristed in life than death
Death is always a punishment
Death is always a result of sin
When I look at Israel and Palestine right now and I just see this death march to destruction…and guess what…There is a war industry that is getting rich off of people dying
Drug Abuse: We have a crazy Fentanyl addiction problem in the United States
In 2022 an average of 200 people a day died from Fentanyl overdoses…that is 73,000 a year
and people are getting rich off of this
This is an industry of death!
Abortion
in 2020 there were 930,160 abortions in the United States …Now this is down from the high in 1990 of 1.6million
And Since Jesus is the author of life, since we know from all over scripture that the value of Jesus is that He loves life
Jesus wants these cycles of death to end
This is a cycle of violence and death…Jesus has come that we may have life and have it to the full!
A summary of Biblical Ethics on the unborn:
A summary of Biblical Ethics on the unborn:
The human child is a deeply-to-be-desired creation and gift from God
The Bible recognizes the mystery and majesty of the process of fetal development and articulates God’s role in forming the unborn child.
God has knowledge of those who will be born, even before they are born.
The developing child in the womb was treated as worthy of some legal protection in the Old Testament Law
The incarnation began with the miraculous conception of Jesus, not just his birth.
Mary showed hospitality to welcome a child that she didn’t expect and whose presence brought great suffering into her life.
Are we going to sit on our hands?
Are we going to sit on our hands?
So in the church world often times many of us talk and complain about things that happen in the world but we dont act.
We get fired up in a sermon but we end up going home and sitting on our well folded hands.
Well today I want to introduce you to a ministry that is making a difference and to Sophia Gavino. Sophia is a missionary for a group called Love Life and we would like to partner with them to make a difference in Sacramento. So can you welcome Sophia Gavino
The great reality is that I want to see REC get involved in helping to end an industry of death
I want to see REC to get involved in helping people choose life
WHY?
God loves
God loves
Because fundamentally Jesus loves you,
And Abortion breaks people...
Abortion researcher David C Reardon 68 (author of Aborted Women: Silent no More) studied a sample of women who had abortions and who suffered negative after-effects. From these women, "60% had experienced suicidal ideation, 28% had attempted suicide and 18% had attempted suicide more than once, often several years after the event."
He goes on to say that, "actual data suggests that abortion is far more likely than pregnancy and childbirth to drive an unstable woman to suicide." He also quotes statistics from a chapter of Suiciders Anonymous and concludes that 1400 of 1800 post-abortion women who sought help from this support group were between the ages of 15 and 24. Reardon, a clinical and research psychologist, also suggests a reason why post-abortive women may develop suicidal tendencies.
Just like any sin: what seems like freedom is really bondage
I want REC to get involved in working with this dark area because you are the light of the world
You