What up, Crossing Family? It is so good to see you.
I want to welcome all of our different locations.
Those of you watching online and those of you are part of our
Crossing Inside family. We just got to celebrate 13
inside baptisms from this past month of ministry, praising God
for that. This weekend is a special
weekend here at The Crossing because our friends from the
Solomon Foundation are here and the Solemn Foundation has been a
big part of the Crossing story. Doug has been one of our biggest
and best ministry partners here at The Crossing because of
Doug's leadership and faith in God and the Crossing.
He helped us start so many of our campuses.
In fact, this weekend our McComb campus is celebrating its 16th
birthday and he came in at just the right time and help us get
that campus all the way to completion and then helped us
start every campus after that. And then we entered into our
most strategic partnership with the Solomon Foundation.
We gifted them five of our locations and in turn they paid
off all of our remaining debt allowing us to become a debt
free church and gave us money to help further our mission.
It is a 30 year partnership and we immediately as a leadership
team set aside money principal amount of money that will grow
with interest to be able to purchase back a pre agreed
amount at the very end of the term.
We did this partnership for two reasons.
The first, we want to be debt free and retain the full usage
of all of our properties for a highcapacity ministry.
But the most important reason that we did this was that by
giving them our assets, they're able to make loans 20 times the
value of our assets to help other churches grow and expand
and have stories just like The Crossing.
Jennifer and I have our retirement at the Solomon
Foundation, so does our staff. In fact, 247 people who sit in
the seat just like you at our church have over $11 million
invested there. This allows them to continue to
help churches while giving your money a chance to grow and work
for you to expand the Kingdom of God.
Would you please put a warm crossing welcome together for
the TSF family? Mr. Doug and Mr. Ryan.
Come on up, guys. This is special on so many
fronts, which I know we'll get to in just a second.
Come over here, Ryan or. Yeah, you come over here.
Well, otherwise, I'll be the Oreo.
I'll be the. I'll be the cream.
OK, question cuz there's a lot of people paying attention to
us, Doug, what is the Solomon Foundation?
So the Solomon Foundation, Clayton is was called the Church
Extension Fund, which basically we're a notforprofit.
And what happens is people that sit in the chairs and pews of
the Restoration movement, Christian Church and Church of
Christ all across America can deposit money at Solomon
Foundation. Then we pool that money and we
make loans to churches. All over the United States in an
Eastern Europe. So if somebody in our church was
going, you know what, I want my money to work for me and work
for God. How do they get involved with
the Solomon Foundation? So it's real simple.
We're based in Denver. You can go on our website, you
can pick up some information from us this weekend.
But basically we offer certificates just like you would
get at the bank. So a six month, one year,
three-year, five year, 7 or 10 year certificate that you can
purchase, you get a good yield on that.
And then again, that money's going to go help build churches
now. What has been the impact of the
Solomon Foundation? Because this is going to blow
your mind. This is what motivates guys like
Ryan and I every day. Yep, okay, here's the deal.
In over 13 years, we've helped over 600 churches.
We took a snapshot of the church when we made them alone.
We took a snapshot today. And those 600 churches now have
over 160,000 more people in church.
Come on but. But there's a but that's not the
best number I know. Here it comes.
Are you? Come on, give it to them.
Those 600 churches have baptized over 65,000 people.
Come on. Absolutely.
Awesome. Now do you want to do it or you
want you you talk about? Ryan OK, so the Solomon
Foundation went on a national search.
Yeah. To find a new president.
I serve as the CEO. And we decided we needed to find
a younger person to come in and and really help guide the
organization forward. So we went on a national search.
And this guy right here helped me a lot because he introduced
me to Ryan. So the new president of the
Solomon Foundation. Actually came from McComb.
He came from our church. Ryan Riggins and Ashley are
actually dear friends of Jennifer and I.
They were a big part of our church.
They are incredible encouragers, dear friends.
I'm not going to go into the whole story, but they've got
really serious about their faith because of the faith of you guys
making a campus happen in McComb.
And now Ryan gets to help churches just like us all across
the country through a partnership with the Solomon
Foundation. If you want more information
about the Solomon Foundation, there are people from the
Solomon Foundation family at most of our locations in the
lobby. If you don't, there's
information brochures. They are a first class
organization that you can interact with and by partnering
with them you get a partner with us to help the Kingdom of God
grow and expand. Ryan, come on real quick.
Just tell us what's your experience been in just two
months being in Denver? Yeah, two months being in
Denver, it's been quite an honor.
It's an honor to work with Doug. It's God's quite the author to
to be a part of the McComb campus and learn that that was
one of the first loans that Solomon Foundation made upon
being formed. And to get the call from Doug
and and talk to Clayton and Doug about this opportunity and and
now I was talking to somebody in the lobby and every day at work
we just get to talk about helping churches grow.
It's an honor. That's exactly right.
Would you guys give a big round of applause?
Okay. We got a lot of work to do.
I want to give you some ground rules.
I'm going to read my sermon. The reason I'm going to read my
sermon is because I don't want to screw it up.
So just deal with the lack of jokes and you know what I
normally provide for you. Second thing I want to tell you
is please, please, please come to church next weekend and bring
a friend. I just finished the sermon for
next weekend this morning and I cannot wait to preach it because
it is going to wrap this entire series up.
It's going to put a bow on it that I think we are all going to
really appreciate. But before we get to week five,
we need to deal with week four. We have been in a sermon series
called Truth and Tension, Balancing faith and love on Hot
Topic issues. And here's what I've noticed,
and I think you've noticed it too, that the closer you are to
the sin, the situation and the person, the more you tend to
bend on the truth. And the further you are from the
sin, the situation and the person, the harder you hit with
the truth. And I don't think this comes
from a bad place. I think it comes from a well
meaning place. It's hard to balance these
issues. The situations and the people
are complex. What parts of the Bible get
highlighted often depends on how close you are to the person, how
close you are to the situation. Good, well meaning people like
you, like me, can get this wrong.
At the beginning of the series, we laid some ground rules.
I just want to recap them. One no clapping.
We're not going to clap for a sin that we don't struggle with.
We've reached the gospel every single week here at The
Crossing, and if we're not going to clap for the power of the
cross, we're not going to clap for a sin that put in there.
Well, #2 no emails. We want Facetoface
conversations. Feel free to reach out via
e-mail. But I want you to know in
advance that our response is going to find a time to get
together and look at the whites of your eyes so you can see the
whites of ours. So we can hear your tone and you
can hear ours. We will get coffee, a meal.
You picket our treat. Rule #3 First, Peter 3:15.
But in your hearts, Revere Christ as Lord.
He's in charge. Always be prepared to give an
answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope
that you have. But there's a way that we're
supposed to give that answer. But do this with gentleness and
respect. The overarching theme around
these topics are these hot topic issues has been this God's way
is the best way. We believe that to the core of
our being here at the Crossing that no matter the question, no
matter the situation, no matter the struggle, God's way is the
best way. God has a better way for us, not
just in how we live our lives, but in how we respond to sins
and situations and people. Today we are going to talk about
abortion, and I'm going to take a really long way around the
barn. I want you to pay close
attention because some of the things that I'm going to talk to
you about, you're going to be like, where is he going with
this? But it will help provide a
foundation for you to view the framework that you're perceiving
through the news outlets and secular culture.
A pastor in Kansas City got up in June of 2022 and his church
celebrated the overturning of Roe V Wade.
After the service, a young woman came up to him in tears and she
said, why didn't anyone ever tell me that abortion was wrong?
She had no idea. I made the decision that we must
take a clear stand on this issue and educate those who call the
crossing home about God's design and direction for our lives.
To be silent on this issue would be to sin.
It made me realize that while I have avoided sermons like this
because they're not the ideal sermons to reach people in their
pain in the meantime, the world has never stopped talking about
these issues. It might help to realize how we
got to where we are today. There has been more change than
ever in recorded history over the last 65 years.
This is especially true in the realm of human sexuality,
marriage and gender. Think of how out of place you
feel right now compared to 18 months ago, five years ago.
This should actually create a little bit of empathy for us
when we're interacting with our parents or our grandparents.
I need you to hear me say this. The world was different 60 years
ago. It was a completely different
place before the 1960s. What happened in the 60s?
A lot. You have the civil rights
movement, you have black power, Chicano power, feminist
movement, antiwar movement against Vietnam, the legal push
for secularization which included prayer being removed
from schools, the teaching of evolution.
This became the seedbed for a revolution around human
sexuality. Thus the sexual revolution was
born. And this was the mantra.
If we stop making sex such a big deal, it won't be such a big
deal. Many civil rights activists have
indicated a level of jealousy over the amount of progress the
gay and trains movement has made culturally over the last 60
years because their effectiveness and efficiency are
profound. Society has experienced 4 major
shifts and how we think about sex and sexuality since the 60s.
Shift Number one, sex was separated from childbearing.
Before the 60s, that wasn't the case.
You're going to go Clayton saying a lot of stuff, rewatch
it because listen to what I'm about to say.
It wasn't until 1954 that clinical test began for the
pill. It was approved by the FDA in
1960, but it was not until 1965 that the Supreme Court ruled
that the Constitution protects the liberty of married couples
to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction.
Up to that point, it was illegal to use any drug, medicine, or
instrument to prevent contraception.
It wasn't until 1972 that laws were passed that allowed single
people to buy contraceptives. It was illegal for unmarried
people to get contraceptives before 1972.
Then in 1973, Roe V Wade ruled that the Constitution protects a
woman's right to abortion. Shift #2.
Sex was separated from a lifelong marital covenant.
Legalizing gay marriage is a modern Western phenomenon.
Religious history is unanimous on this.
Moses and the Jews, Jesus and the Christians, Muhammad and the
Muslims, Dalai Lama and the Buddhists all contend that sex
should be confined to opposite sex.
Marital covenants and the world as a whole is almost unanimous
on this. Outside of predominantly white,
progressive Western cities, marriage between a man and a
woman is the accepted mandate. What may be the most profound is
that secular world superpowers like China and Russia are also
in lockstep with the rest of the world.
On this, the views of progressive, Western, mostly
white, rich society around marriage are an aberration on
the global scale. So why protect marriage?
The common logic surrounding the argument for protecting marriage
is societal flourishing. This is actually an area of
agreement between secular governments and the religious
organizations. You may, if you pay attention to
politics, heard these famous lines not just in politics but
from the church. You ready?
The healthy family is the backbone of a healthy society.
Interestingly enough, they're right and have enormous data to
back it up. History shows that societies
flourish when marriages are strengthened and encouraged,
sexual impulse restrained, and parents take responsibility for
their children. All the teachers are like
preach. Study after study shows that the
ideal child rearing environment is a biological mom and a
biological dad. And it's not even close.
This was actually the logic used around the creation of divorce
law in America. It was decided that it was in
the best interest of our collective future and the future
of our children to do everything we can to keep parents together.
Marriage laws and the benefits along with divorce laws and the
benefits were designed to incentivize people to invest in
their marriage and their family. That's why I'm so thankful we
have a marriage retreat center and offering marriage help and
ministries at many of our locations.
A strong family impact society positively on so many levels.
However, sadly, over time these benefits became to be viewed as
promoting inequality more than social flourishing.
The cultural message of today is that sex is no big deal.
We have hookup culture, friends with benefits, Netflix and
chill. We have entire apps and
algorithms, websites and social media platforms dedicated to
propping it up. They don't just facilitate
hookup culture, they have monetized it.
Shift #3, sex was separated from male, female relationships, and
shift #4, all of this was framed up as moral progress.
So sex was separated from childbearing, sex was separated
from a lifelong marital covenant, sex was separated from
male female relationships, and it was all framed up as
progress. And this is what became known as
the sexual revolution. If we stop making sex such a big
deal, it won't be such a big deal.
The question we should probably ask 60 years later is were they
right? Are we healthier sexually as a
culture today than we were sixty years ago?
And the evidence points to this being an impossible argument to
make. The meteoric rise of abortion,
the invisible father epidemic in her culture, the explosion of
the porn industry, the Me Too movement, body image issues, and
depression and mental health that are that's being caused all
point to it didn't work. It wasn't good for us.
Nancy Pearcy is a scholar at Houston Baptist University, and
in her book Love Thy Body, she suggests that there is one
broken theory underneath the world view of those today who
are pro abortion, pro transgenderism, pro L GB sexual
relationships, and euthanasia. And the theory is personhood
theory and personhood theory answers this question.
What makes a human body a person?
And somebody going? That's a confusing statement.
Check with me now I'm going to use a phrase called upper story
and lower story. Now here at the Crossing, we
talk about the upper story, which is God's plan, and the
lower story, which is our sinful reality.
And so we've used those terms a lot.
Here, she uses these exact same terms, but she is simply talking
about your body. So just kind of forget
everything we've taught you about upper and lower story for,
you know, the last 25 years at just for the sermon to talk
about your body. OK, that's an agreement we have.
Here's the upper story. The upper story is personhood,
and the lower story is our physical bodies.
Personhood theory divides humans into two parts, their internal
dispositions, which is their personhood, their upper story,
and their physical bodies, their biology, the lower story.
And then it teaches us to prioritize what our internal
dispositions say over what our physical bodies say.
You're going to want to hold on to that because it's going to
help you understand a majority of the rest of my message.
The result is that our internal dispositions become the basis
for our human rights and our identity over our physical
bodies. The upper story Trump's the
lower story. The authentic you is found in
your personhood, not your biology or an integration of
both. This is what philosophers would
call the fact. Value split.
Here's how this plays out. the Enlightenment in the 17th and
18th century contended that there are two parts to the human
story, the upper story and the lower story.
The lower story has empirical science, and the upper story
deals with morality and theology.
And since the lower story can be tested with the scientific
method, it resides in the realm of fact, while our morality
resides in the realm of values. But you can't argue with facts.
They're binding on everyone but morals, values.
Those are subjective, and so they elevated the lower story.
Then the Romantic movement took place at the turn of the 19th
century, and they pushed back against the devaluation of the
upper story. So these sinker our thinkers
swung the pendulum in the exact opposite direction, and they
focused on questions about justice and freedom and morality
and meaning. This is where a lot of the isms
of our day came to be. This is where you get idealism,
Marxism, existentialism, and postmodernism today, all of the
tension that you and I feel is these two groups pushing back on
one another. People are trying to figure out
how to integrate the upper story and the lower story.
Let me give you an example. That's why you can have a group
of people screaming trust the science, wear a mask, and then
at the same time saying who cares what bodily science says
you are? Whatever gender you feel like
what you see. There is someone trying to
harmonize the fact value split. They're trying to figure out
what do I do with the upper story and the lower story and in
what situations does science win and in what situations do my
upper dispositions win? How does this play out with sex?
Well, this is where the whole idea of sex isn't that big of a
deal comes from. When the Bible says that a deep
emotional, spiritual level, two people become one in the sex
act, this is just simply regarded by them as not true.
You don't have to make sex emotional if you don't want to.
You don't have to make it spiritual if you don't want to.
Just do what you want. If you want to have an open
marriage, go ahead. If you want to have sex without
marriage, go ahead. If you want to have lots of
partners, go ahead. It's just sex.
It's just pleasure. Do what feels right to you.
But this, again, is a low view of the body, and people you know
this are regularly hurt by and through sex.
While schools may be incredibly smart to have sex education
programs that point to the value of contraceptives and condoms,
there is no contraceptive. There is no condom big enough
for your heart. It just might be smart to teach
alongside of that, a biblical view of sex as an option for
them to choose as well, a view that teaches that we should be
careful, respectful of sex. And in doing so, we just might
protect them from the emotional fallout that comes from a porn
addiction, multiple partners and abuse.
Personhood theory might also give us insight on the why body
image issues continue to rise in America.
Billions spent each year on cosmetics, fitness and surgery,
not to mention what's spent on fashioning with fashion, with
slimming technology. Add to that special foods,
minerals and diets. The reason people hate their
real bodies? They want one that doesn't have
fat, doesn't age, and they will never be comfortable in their
own Godgiven skin. They will never be comfortable
in their body. Their lower story?
They hate it. That's how personhood theory
plays out in sex. What about in transgenderism?
Leah Thomas in 2022 won the 500 yard freestyle NCAA championship
in Atlanta by a full second, which is a huge margin.
But before Leah transitioned from male to female, she was a
D1 swimmer in the men's division and as a man he was a decent
swimmer in D1 competition. But he wasn't winning any
titles. The question our society is
wrestling through right now is is this OK?
And many trans activists are speaking and saying of course it
is. If she says she's a woman, she's
a woman. You decide your own gender.
Upper story. But on the other side of the
argument, check this. Feminists and women's right
activists are saying we've had our rights violated by men long
enough. These two categorically
different definitions on how to determine gender and sport are
taking place right now. One appeals to the lower story,
your body, your biology, and the other one is appealing to the
upper story, what's in your head, how you feel, your
personality. And there are lots of different
situations regarding people and gender fluidity.
Transgender people often say they are trapped in the wrong
body. This perceived mismatch between
physical sex and psychological gender is called gender
dysphoria, and while many advocate that it must have some
biochemical basis, perhaps there's a hormonal cause, There
has been no clear scientific evidence uncovered.
But what's most surprising is most transgender advocates argue
the opposite. Their position is to deny that
gender is rooted in biology. In the lower story.
To them, gender is completely independent of the body.
It is simply a judgment of the heart.
The problem with this position from the trans activist is that
the body, the lower story, is not seen as having any value,
any purpose. And if it does not operate as
and it does not operate as a signpost to the way that they
were created by God, or if they don't believe in God evolution
in order to flourish as individuals and as a society.
It just doesn't matter to them. It is simply your body is simply
a collection of physical systems.
It's just muscles, bones, organs and cells that should be and can
be operated on, shifted, rewired when one becomes or feels
disoriented with them. If you feel a separation between
your upper story and your lower story, you operate on your lower
story to bring it in alignment with your upper story.
Gender is not something derived from the body, it is something
we impose on the body. Thus, gender becomes a social
construct. If you wanted to go home and do
this, you can search gender Unicorn on Google.
An organization called Trans Student Educational Resource
published this cartoon that deconstructs sexuality into five
separate factors that can all contradict one another.
OK, this is like the Rosetta Stone.
If you're trying to understand what's happening in our world
right now, this is how they separate you.
There's your gender identity, how you identify, then yours
expression, how you want to be seen by other people.
Then there's your sex assigned at birth, which for Christians
there's only been this one. And then you have your sexually
attracted to and then you have your emotionally attracted to.
What they're saying is this is how you get all the names is you
can be have your sex assigned at birth, being a male, but your
gender expression can be a female but your identity can be
male but you can be attracted to men but you can be emotionally
attracted to women. This is how you get all of the
labels as you pick from here where you actually are and then
you impose it on the body. It is designed to appeal to
young children, and it's being used in public school district
around the nation to teach students that there is no
unified self. Why should someone care about
the structure of the body? Who should?
Some are. Why should someone let that
inform their identity? Why should someone's sex body
have anything to say about their moral choices?
This disassociates completely the body from people as humans.
It leaves the body with no intrinsic, no intrinsic dignity,
no purpose that we are obliged to respect.
This is such a profoundly low view of the body.
It is widely accepted today that if a person senses A
disconnection between biological sex and sexual desire, the
proper course of action is to accept the psychological state
as the authentic state, thus elevating the fleeting nature of
our feelings over the created natural facts of the body.
The biblical worldview, on the other hand, leads to a unified
view of the body. While I may be seen or treated
as harsh and judgmental, biblical morality and sexuality
show a deep respect for the body being an integral part of who
you are. Since God is behind nature, that
means it provides a reference point or a natural law for
morality and human flourishing. Christians believe that there is
purpose in the physical structures of our bodies that we
are to respect, not disregard. This is the teleological
argument. If you remember from week 1
where I talked about kitchen knives and lawn mowers and
washing machines, the teleological morality says that
nature bodies science. The lower story matters too,
because in the created world we see the Creator and His purpose.
How does this show up with abortion?
There are two key steps to how prochoice people apply
personhood theory. The 1st is at conception.
The baby is just a fetus, so it's in the lower story, it's
just a body. Then at some undetermined time,
it becomes a person that has rights.
People debate when that time is. Some say it's when the baby has
a heartbeat. Others say the viability line is
about 20 weeks because that's when the baby can technically
live outside of the mother's womb.
Some say it's not a person until it's born.
Some philosophers suggested that we should allow abortion up to
several days afterwards because it takes 3 days to see if the
baby has certain deformities or disabilities.
They are completely separating in a baby, the lower story from
the upper story. It has a body.
It's not a person. Here's the interesting thing.
Science has now proven that life begins at conception due to
advances in genetics and DNA. Virtually all professional
bioethicists all agree that life begins at conception.
An embryo has a full set of chromosomes and DNA.
It is complete. It is a whole individual capable
of internally directed development in a seamless
trajectory from the moment of fertilization.
The science on this issue is settled.
Why then is the science not treated as fact?
Personhood theory. This is literally the logic of
Roe V Wade. In ordinary conversation, you
and I use the phrase human being to mean the same thing as
person. Their synonyms, the two terms
were ripped apart by the Supreme Court.
And it's 1973 Roe V Wade abortion decision, which ruled
that even though the baby in the womb is human, it is not a
person under the 14th Amendment. Thus we have a new category of
individual, the human non person.
In fact, in the Supreme Court's ruling, Justice Harry Blackburn
or Blackman asserted point blank, the word person as used
in the 14th Amendment does not include the unborn.
The implication of this is that it is simply being human is not
enough to qualify for rights until the baby becomes a person.
It is a disposable piece of matter.
They can be used for research experiments, tinkered with
genetically harvested for organs, and then disposed of
with other medical waste. Personhood theory promotes a
very low view of the human body, which ultimately dehumanizes us
all. Having a body is inherently or
is not inherently valuable or worthy of life.
This is the worldview that we're talking about.
But biblical morality expresses a high view of the body.
The biblical view of sexuality is not based on a few scattered
verses. It's based on the teleological
worldview that encourages people to live in accord with the
physical design of their bodies. By respecting the body, the
biblical ethics seeks to unite body and person.
It heals self alienation. Over time, it creates integrity
and wholeness. Our minds and emotions are
brought in tune with our body. Christianity holds that both
stories matter. The upper story of our souls
matter and our inner life matters.
However, it also holds that your body matters.
In Genesis 126 to 31, the creation narrative unfolds, and
through the inspiration of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit
emphasizes a few things about humans.
We are created in God's image. This is where the inherent
dignity of every human being finds its origin.
Therefore, enemy, love, forgiveness, generosity, care
for the least of these become more than just hallmarks of the
Christian faith. They're baked into the
foundation of our theology. All of this and more are built
upon the dignity of humankind because they were made in the
image of God. They are not just image bearers
of God, but they are children of God.
And inside of this we find our cultural mandate that we are to
have dominion, a vocation, to rule and reign and fill the
earth. Out of this comes work and
vocation, calling and career, government and ordered
civilization. We were created with gender
complementarity, male and female.
He created them. In fact, that burst is directly
attached to the idea that humans were created in the image of God
and are called to be fruitful and multiply and fill.
The earth is part of it, and this is where the themes of and
guardrails of marriage and sex and family are formed.
And when God finished all of this, God saw everything he had
made, and indeed it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning.
The 6th day, the starting point of the human story proclaims the
goodness of the material realm in our gendered bodies.
God could have chosen to make His angels spirits without
bodies. He could have created us in the
spiritual realm for us to float around in.
But instead God made you in a material universe with a
material body. Why?
Because God values the material dimension.
He wants us to value it as well. He values it so much that Jesus
put a body on and came to earth on your behalf and on mine.
And Scripture tells us that one day at the redemption of all
things will include our resurrected what bodies.
God values both the upper story of your soul and the lower story
of your body. The Bible clearly teaches that
we are created by God and have value from the moment of
conception. Psalm 139 says this 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. At day 22, the brain and nervous
system have been forming for several days, and the heart it
begins to beat. At day 40.
The eyes and ears continue forming and the hands and feet
and legs are easily discerned. At week 8, the external
genitalia start developing, and within a week, the baby will be
recognizable as a little boy or a little girl for parents to
have a gender reveal party. At week 11, the baby's fingers
begin moving independently and fingerprints have appeared in
baby girls. Her tiny ovaries already contain
all of the eggs she will ever produce, over 2 million of them.
At week 12, she'll start sucking her thumb.
At week 13, she will sense light and turn away from the bright
light. At week 17, they hear sounds
beyond the womb. No wonder John the Baptist
leaped in his mother's womb when Mary arrived with the pregnant
Jesus. Luke chapter one records the
story. At that time, Mary, who's
pregnant with Jesus, got ready and hurried to a town in the
Hill Country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and
greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's
greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice.
She exclaimed. Blessed are you among women, and
blessed is the child you will bear.
But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to
me? As soon as the sound of your
greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
In the Mosaic law, the law of retribution is prescribed for a
person who injures or kills an unborn child, showing that the
unborn child is viewed with the same dignity and value as one
who has already been born. Exodus 21 records it like this.
If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives
birth prematurely, but there is no serious injury, the offender
must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the
court allows. But if there's serious injury,
you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound,
bruise for bruise. Proverbs Chapter 6 has even
stronger language. There are six things the Lord
hates, seven that are detestable to Him.
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood.
A heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to
rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person
who stirs up conflict in the community.
To put in context the loss of innocent lives, I want to show
you this graphic. If you were to go to Washington,
DC and you were to go to the World War 2 Memorial Memorial,
which I'd encourage you to do, you will be struck by the amount
of lives that were lost in World War 2.
But this data only takes us to 2014.
This is 9 years old and this is how many abortions have been
have taken place and this is how many were lost in the Second
World War. There is a battle being waged,
and the battle is this who counts as one of us.
And there are those who are convinced that it is
performative in nature. You have to be able to do
certain things, whether it be feel or whether it be feeling
pain or be a certain age, or have certain skills or cognitive
abilities. Today, modern medicine is
creating a genocide among those with chromosomal issues.
Prenatal screenings and diagnostic tests are frequently
performed to identify potential genetic disorders and
developmental or developing babies.
These flawed tests are then used to justify determination of
those who might have a disorder. Those who are thought to have
Down syndrome in Iceland are all aborted. 98% suspected of having
Down syndrome have been aborted in Denmark, 90% in England, 77%
in France and 67% here in the United States of America.
A nation that proposes to be under God are participating in a
prenatal genocide against precious innocent individuals.
However, there is another world view, a biblical 1A worldview
that states that you were made by God and you were endowed.
It's not performative. You were endowed your value by
your Creator, it was given to you by Him.
You were made by Him and you were made in His image.
Your value is not based on how much money you make, your color
of your skin, your IQ, your athletic ability, and praise
God, your BMI. You were stamped with the image
of a God, and you are precious in his sight, and you are
precious in the sight of anyone who claims to be a Jesus
follower. Hear me to those of you who paid
for abortions, drove people to an abortion, told your girl to
take care of it, or had an abortion, You murdered an
innocent life. But I need you to hear me say
this. We have an incredibly good God
because Romans 5/8 says this, but God demonstrates his own
love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. When you were on your way to the
clinic, God was willing to send his Son to die on your behalf.
Your value is not dictated by what you've done.
Your value is dictated by the cross of Jesus Christ. 2nd
Corinthians 521 says this God made him who had no sin to be
sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God. Some of you who participated in
abortion, Jesus paid it. He covered the cost for it, and
he will forgive you for it. And I also need you to hear me
say this because I don't want you to get this wrong.
Romans 323 says this for all of sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. Every single person who's
sitting in the room with you right now has sinned.
And our sins have hurt innocent people too.
And that's why here at the crossing we glory in the cross
of Jesus Christ because there is no sin, God will not forgive and
there is no Sinner our God will not save.
And that is a gospel message that we proclaim.
We're moving to a time of decision.
Romans chapter 8 says this. But you were.
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live
in fear again. Rather, the Spirit you received
brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him we crawl
ABBA, Father. And the Spirit himself testifies
with our spirit that we are all God's children Who would have
adopted me. I don't know about you, but I
would have passed on me. Too many problems, too many
demons. Too much pride.
Too much anger. Too much impatience.
Too much lust. Too much idolatry.
But God didn't pass on me. That means he didn't pass on
you. And if you're here today and you
have never started an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, I have such good news for you.
You can have it. He is ready right now.
He is not surprised by what you've done.
He already paid for what you've done, and he paid for what
you're going to do. There's no greater message, and
if you want it, you can start it today at your campus, at your
location, in the room where you're watching this from,
there's going to be a staff member over by the baptistry,
and they love to talk to you and answer any of the questions.
Maybe you want to turn to a person who came with, who
brought you. I would just tell you, don't put
it off. And to those of you who are
Christians, we must stop believing the life from Satan,
that our sins don't impact other people.
We must also start believing that tomorrow is the best day to
get right with God. There is no better time than
right now. We have the most beautiful
message to share, and God's best way to take hold of it is for us
to do it together. If you would during this
invitation time, whether you're going to lift your voices and
sing or you want to come up to the steps and get down and pray,
would you spend just a little bit of time thanking God for
dying on your behalf, for your sins and help us create a
community where people who are far from God can find him here?
Would you stand with me, God? We have no hope, no chance
without you and God. I know there are people right
now who are angry and some are sad.
For some, we just unearthed a memory that they had buried so
long ago. And God, the last thing I want
is for them to think that you don't love them, that you don't
care for them, and that this isn't a church for them.
God, we want your gospel, your power, your love, your cross,
your blood, to win every day, all day, and help us to be a
part of that. In your name I pray.
Amen.