The Value of Life

00:02 Bring your greetings this morning in the name of Jesus. It's a joy to be here in the Lord's presence this morning and share together this morning's service. Trusted you have been blessed. Thank you, Justin, for those songs. I would invite you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures this morning to the Book of Genesis. 00:22 I'd like to read several verses this morning on the value of a life. I want you to know this morning that all of you are valuable, every single one of you. From the baby yet unborn, if there are any among us, to the elderly, to the oldest member, 00:41 to those who are not able to come but are elderly and not able to get out in the cold and the snow. Every one of us is valuable this morning. Why? Because somebody decided that on a scale of 1 to 10, you're a 10 or a 9 or an 8 or a 7 or a 4 or a 5, but you got some value in there somewhere. 01:02 Is it because everyone has a work to do or a job to do? What if you don't have a job to do? What if you're incapacitated and your job is to simply lay in a hospital bed or in a recovery, in a convalescence home? Does everyone have value? And according to God's Word this morning, 01:22 everyone has value. Life is valuable. And I think we probably err too much on the side of not speaking about the value of human life often enough than what we do. 01:36 We have every year, and we're not governed here by the Christian calendar or by what the rest of the world or the church says, "You need to do this this Sunday and this that Sunday." But every year there is a Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in the churches in America, and we kind of overlook that. 01:53 We kind of miss that, kind of assuming that everybody knows that human life is sacred. But why do we know that human life is sacred? And what makes it sacred this morning? 02:04 And how does that apply to the issue of abortion, the issue of euthanasia, which is the mercy killing of the elderly and infirm and those in pain and the handicapped and those who "cannot contribute to society"? What does God say about all this? I want to read in Chapter 1, 02:26 verse 20 through 27. And God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that half life and fowl that may fly above the heaven and the open firmament of heaven." God created great sea monsters and every living creature. I want you to pay attention to that word, every living creature that moveth, 02:48 which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas and let the fowl multiply in the earth." And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature." There's that word again, 03:08 the living creature after its kind, cattle, creeping thing, beasts of the earth after its kind. And it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after its kind and the cattle after their kind and everything that creepeth upon the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good. 03:25 And God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." So God created man in His own image. 03:47 In the image of God created He him, male and female created He them. Now turn over to Chapter 2, verse 7. This is the more detailed account. Chapter 1 is more of a general account. Chapter 2 follows that with a more detailed account. So we get a little bit more involved in how God did this. 04:06 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Notice that phrase, a living creature, verse 21, a living creature, verse 24, 04:27 a living soul, verse 7. For every heartbeat that you experience today, somewhere in the world, a baby is aborted. You realize that? 04:45 Every time your heart beats represents an abortion in the world. Worldwide, 42% of all deaths are from abortion. 05:01 That's almost half. Worldwide, 40 to 50 million abortions or 125,000 abortions per day are performed. And the World Health Organization claims that the number may actually be upwards to 73 million. Since 1973, 05:21 worldwide, 1.5 billion babies have been aborted, and that's the ones we know about. The top 10 countries of the world, the abortion countries, are Russia, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, 05:42 Estonia, Belarus, Romania, Ukraine, Latvia, Cuba, and China. Now in the U.S., 22% of all pregnancies end in abortion. Those are the ones that are reported. 06:00 I'm not sure if that includes those who use the morning after pill. In the U.S., in New York City, among African Americans, more babies are aborted than are born. That means that over 50% of the African American population in New York City is being killed before ever seeing the light of day. 06:24 Of those many, many abortions, only 1.5% are from rape or incest. Nearly 1 million babies per year in the U.S. are aborted, with an estimated 62 million abortions since 1973's infamous Roe v. 06:43 Wade. Staggeringly, 25% of women in the U.S. have had abortions. And in several states, it is entirely legal to have an abortion up to the time of birth and even includes the killing of live births, which is overlooked in some states. 07:05 So you see, this is a problem, not only in America but in the world. And that flies in the face of what God says in Chapter 1, verse 26. God said, "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness and let them, not just one man, 07:25 not just one woman, but them, many men, many women, many boys and girls, fill the earth, subdue it, replenish the earth, and have children, have babies, have more people who can give honor and majesty and glory to God." And yet we, as a society, 07:45 are so wrapped up in other things that we forget of how off balance we are. I share this by way of information. I found a Canadian survey. It was a read poll who asked 1528 Canadians for their moral perspectives on a wide variety of issues, 1,528 Canadians. 08:06 I doubt if it's any better in the U.S. Among the findings, 51% thought that using plastic straws is always or usually morally wrong. Only 20% thought the same of doctor-assisted dying. 08:26 And only 26% believed that it is always wrong or usually morally wrong to have an abortion. So more people today in Canada and probably here in the States are more concerned about whether or not what kind of straw you use than whether or not you abort a baby who's made in the likeness and image of God. 08:48 People are rejecting God's law and are creating their own substitutes in an attempt to justify themselves. Sure, I may just have had my elderly mother euthanized or my unborn baby aborted, but I'm a good person because I use a bamboo straw instead of a plastic one. 09:08 We are way out of line. Every baby this morning, every baby is a gift of life. 09:19 Every baby is a gift from God and deserves to be protected and defended because it bears the image of the Creator and is as precious to God as you and I. We use the term sanctity, the sanctity of human life. Let me add that word, human. 09:39 I know I've said it before, but we're not talking about the sanctity of animal life. We're talking about the sanctity of human life, which is specifically different than animal life. So that word sanctity means sacredness, sacredness. So what makes it so? 09:57 What makes a human life sacred and an animal life not necessarily sacred? While it may be a gift from God and reflects the Creator's life-giving ability, it may not be a sacred life. But we look at our text this morning. What makes a human life unique? What makes it different? 10:16 And we see here that is the difference in the fact that it's alive? Is the difference in the fact that it can think? Is the difference in the fact that it can interact with its surroundings or with its relationships or have a certain amount of intellect or pain or things like that? 10:36 Is that what makes mankind unique? If so, then all we are is just a little further developed creature in the food chain. Now I want you to look at verse 21, the word living creature. Verse 24 or 24, the word living creature. And verse 7, 10:56 the word living creature or living soul. All of those in the Hebrew language are the same word. So when he's talking about the sea creatures and he's talking about the land creatures and he's talking about the man creatures, they all have some sort. Now don't go off until I explain. 11:17 Have some sort of a soul. They have some sort of a soul. The word is kachi nephesh. Kachi means something that's alive. Nephesh is a breathing creature. 11:31 And so when God gave the breath of life into Adam and he gave the breath of life into the sea creatures and he gave the breath of life into the land creatures, he made them living, breathing, alive beings. 11:43 You cannot say that man became a living soul is any more unique than man became a living creature in the text because they are the same Hebrew words. So we have to look beyond the fact that he's alive and breathing to what it is that's alive and breathing. 12:04 What it is that's alive and breathing is one made in the image of God, verse 26. There is no other place where we see that the creatures, the sea creatures, the land creatures, the plant creatures, the tiny creatures, the mighty creatures are made in the image and likeness of God. 12:25 This is uniquely man and woman, those upon whom are indelibly stamped the image of God by virtue of being human. So we believe and argue for the sanctity of human life. 12:42 If we don't understand this, we fall prey to the fact that there are similarities in the human structure with certain animals. So it's got to be more than just the similarities that make us special. You go and you look at the apes and the monkeys and, 13:01 well, there's a certain commonality between the creation of that and the creation of a physical body. I mean, you've got arms, you've got legs, you've got different proportions, and you certainly have an animal and a man being of different value. But what makes them of different value when they look so much the same? 13:23 Well, in some cases, 13:25 I hope we don't look like an ape or orangutan or a monkey. But nevertheless, you get the point. The only thing that reveals is that our Creator is the same Creator. And he has a similar blueprint over some of the animals and some of the creatures, some of the creatures and some of mankind. 13:47 But it is not the similarities that make us similar or different. It is the fact that one is an animal kingdom, one is a human being. So we cannot fall prey to the trick that because there are similarities, that that means common ancestry. 14:06 What we have here in the text are two words that pretty much lump the man-animal or the mankind and the animal kind as being both living creatures. Now go over to Chapter 6 and Chapter 7, and you'll see it again. Different words, 14:26 one different word and one the same. 14:28 But in Chapter 6, verse 15, talking about the flood and leading up to the flood, God speaking, "And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die." Now 14:47 the word all flesh there that has the breath of life is again the word kachi, but it uses the word ruach, which again means a wind or breath or mind or spirit, something that is consciously alive. Now you see, 15:08 he talks about those things that are breathing as opposed to those things that are not breathing, like plants and those vegetation, so on. He was not here necessarily to destroy the vegetation, which he did, but he was going to destroy specifically everything that breathed, including humans. You go over to Chapter 7, 15:29 verse 15, and he uses the same word. "And they went unto Noah into the ark two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, ruach kachi." Again, it means a breath, a wind, exhalation, 15:49 a puff, or a living, alive, moving, breathing being. Everything that was alive, that was moving, living, breathing being was brought two by two of all flesh that had the breath of life. Then you go to Chapter 7, verse 22, "And all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, 16:11 of all that was in the dry land died, including animals and people." So he kind of makes this thing, and it's a little bit different word here where he talks about a word which kind of represents everything that is alive, everything that is alive. 16:30 And these words are kind of used interchangeably, but it has to do with something that's living and breathing and moves and has consciousness and awareness. It all got destroyed. He pretty much lumps every living, breathing thing into the same category. 16:46 What does not get lumped in the same category is this issue that mankind is made in the image of God and in the likeness of God. That is the distinguishing characteristic or that which distinguishes mankind from animals. So you may have the most intelligent animals. 17:06 Boy, they say that dolphins are really intelligent. Dogs are really intelligent. Cats, not so much. But I've never seen a cat bring a man his slippers. But they may be too smart for that. Who knows? But we don't see those. 17:22 They may be so intelligent and have so much instinct that they can be trained to do this or that or the other thing, and you can tame the wildest of beasts. But he's still a beast. He's not a man. He's not a human. And he does not have the image of God stamped upon him. And so in the Christian faith, 17:44 we believe in what's called imago Dei, the image of God stamped on every human being, no matter how wretched, no matter how mighty, no matter how lowly, no matter how infirm, 18:04 no matter how incognizant or unconscious. We believe that the image of God has been indelibly stamped, ingrained in that human being that is different from animal kingdom. So what is this image of God? And what is this likeness of God? 18:24 Well, there can be a number of things. It can exercise. Man can exercise dominion. By the way, theologians have debated this thing of what the image of God is in man for millennia. It can be that he's given dominion. He can exercise care and creativity. He can be in relationship and in an intimate, 18:45 emotional, and spiritual relationship. He can communicate. He can express feelings and articulate and form responses. He has intellect. He can reason. He has rationality. He has memory. He has thoughts and ideas and can interact with those thoughts and ideas, 19:05 things that animals cannot do. He has a moral code. He has a consciousness of God and a relationship to God. He has a morality, a code of ethics, a code of morality, a code of conscience, a code of love. He can make choices. All the others can make choices also, 19:26 but that's ingrained in instinct. Man can make choices of his own free will. Primarily, what the image of God is, I believe in man, is the fact that he can have a relationship of intimacy and meaning and communication with the God of the universe that will live forever, 19:47 eternity, eternity. 19:49 We have nothing in scripture that would give us any indication that dogs and cats and animals that we know here on earth will be alive in heaven. I remember we're hearing about a young lady when she was a little girl. In fact, it was a sister of one of our congregation. If you want to know who it was, I'll tell you later if you think it was your sister. 20:11 There's a sister of someone in our congregation who told her dad one time, "If my dog or cat," and I'll forget what it was, "isn't in heaven, then I don't want to go." Well, sorry. We can kind of think that maybe they will be, but they're temporary. But the soul, the soul of man, the spirit of man is eternal, eternal. 20:30 Go ahead and love the children. Love on your cats and dogs and your pets. But just realize that they are special gifts to you from God for here and now. That is the people in our lives that will live and breathe and spend eternity either with God or with Satan. God defines what is valuable, 20:51 who is valuable, and who has the authority to take life. And we're going to have to cut this shorter this morning because there's some more things I want to get to. But in Chapter 4, God rebukes, but go ahead to Chapter 4, verse 10 through 12, the first murder of man, Cain and Abel, 21:13 has something interesting to say about that, what God values of the human life. Verse 10, "And he said, 'What hast thou done,' speaking to Cain, 'the voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground.'" Can you imagine that one innocent man, 21:33 Abel, being so valuable to God and so innocent in death, meaning that he really did not deserve to die. He was innocent in the fact, in the sense of not having done something worthy of death, being killed, 21:52 his blood being shed on the ground, and the ground crying out for vengeance. He said in verse 11, "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. 22:12 A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." There was a punishment as that blood cried out from innocent Abel. 22:22 And really, what we have in the sin of abortion and of euthanasia and of exterminating people groups and genocide is the severe hatred that God attaches to shedding innocent blood. May I remind you of Proverbs Chapter 6, verse 16 through 19, which says, "These six things doth the Lord hate. 22:45 Yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, and a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren." By the way, 23:05 all of those are put in that package of things that God detests. God speaks severely of those who shed innocent blood. He speaks severely. 23:21 Joel Chapter 3, verse 19, "Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness because of violence against the people of Judah, for they have shed innocent blood in their land." Psalm 94, "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?" I want you to think about this as an unborn baby crying out. 23:41 "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence." Doesn't that sound like an unborn baby that is being terminated? Is there anyone who will stand and represent the unborn, 24:02 the handicapped, the orphan, the widow, those of different people groups that are out of sorts with the majority? "Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship with you?" He's talking there about those people who make the laws. I'm here to tell you this morning, 24:22 not on the basis of my word, but on the basis of God's word right there in that passage, that there is no politician alive who makes a law or supports a law supporting abortion that has fellowship with the Father. Now, is that too strong? There is no abortionist alive that has fellowship with the Father. 24:44 There is no politician alive that supports abortion on demand and does so without fully knowing what they are doing, does not have fellowship with God. They've gathered together against the life of the righteous and condemn innocent blood. "But the Lord has been my defense and my God, 25:05 the rock of my refuge. He has brought on them their own iniquity and shall cut them off in their own wickedness. The Lord our God shall cut them off." There is a judgment coming. Isaiah 59, verse 7 says, "Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. 25:25 Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths." Jeremiah 19 says, "They have also built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into my mind. They even sacrificed their sons," Psalm 106 says, 25:46 "and their daughters to demons and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus, they were defiled by their own works and played the harlot by their own deeds. 26:02 Therefore, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people so that he abhorred his own inheritance, and he gave them into the hands of Gentiles." Ezekiel 16 says, "Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters." People, this is serious what is happening in this world and in our land. 26:22 "Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter that you have slain my children?" God speaking and offered them up to be up by causing them to pass through the fire. 26:42 What is more innocent than a baby? What is more defenseless than a baby or a handicapped child who is totally dependent upon nourishment and sustenance from some loving caregiver? 27:00 Let me say this, and I say this without reservation, but I want to say it graciously, that babies today are literally being sacrificed to the gods of sex, pleasure, and greed. It is very much known that there is a collaboration between the god of sex, 27:21 the god of greed, and the god of pleasure. It is an unholy trinity which demands the worship of a godless world. 27:33 It has been proven over and over that the abortion industry has its agenda, as its agenda, financial profit by creating conditions that contribute to as many pregnancies and abortions as possible. 27:47 It is no longer a secret that the abortion industry literally has been behind the excesses of the sex 27:58 education movement in our land, in schools. They have been behind it. They have been pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. Not sex as God had intended it to be, procreation as God intended it to be, bearing the image of God, male and female, producing children and loving homes. 28:14 But the exploitation of young people to arouse sexual curiosity, promiscuity for the purpose of the almighty greed and dollar. 28:28 It is not a secret anymore. 28:32 At its very core, it is an evil industry that thrives on innocent blood, ignorant mothers, confused, victimized young women. I don't hold the young lady completely responsible, although she is responsible. But many of them are functioning under lies from the system, from the enemy himself, 28:53 distortions of the truth. Now, let me talk about another unholy trinity, and that is pornography, sex trafficking, and abortion. 29:08 Pornography, sex trafficking, and abortion. I have an article here. It's part of a chapter of a book called Counterculture by David Platt. The chapter is The Gospel and Sex Slavery. 29:24 This is particularly meaningful today because the Super Bowl is one of the greatest sex trafficking parties in the world ever. 29:38 Research continually demonstrates a clear link between sex trafficking and the production of pornography. Federal legislation has acknowledged this. Participants in the production of pornography have confirmed this, and there's documentation. 29:52 And while exact figures are hard to pin down, one anti-trafficking center reports that at least a third of victims trafficked for sex were used in the production of pornography, and that ties right into the abortion industry. 30:07 Another study on the relationship between prostitution, pornography, and trafficking found that one half of nearly 900 prostitutes in nine different countries reported pornography being made of them while in prostitution. Now, I'll tell you one of the things that gets my students' attention at EBI when they read this next reality, 30:28 that if you are participating in pornography, you are participating in the sex trafficking trade. You can either say amen or ouch. I hope it pricks our conscience this morning. Do you realize what you're doing? 30:43 Every time a man or woman views pornography online, we are contributing to a cycle of sex slavery from the privacy of our own computers. We are fueling an industry that enslaves people for sex in order to satisfy selfish pleasure in our living rooms, our offices, and on our mobile phones. 31:05 It's not a game. It's not a joke. It's reality. They sell, they buy, and sell these innocent girls from third world countries who are eager and looking for a way to make a life, and they lie to them, and they dupe them, and they deceive them to come to America or to the West, 31:25 and they will be taken care of, and they will have jobs, and they can send money back to their families, not knowing that while that's happening, they are being trafficked to be somebody's prostitute, somebody's pornography object. And when we indulge in looking at those pictures, we are participating in that very sin. 31:46 That gets the attention of my young students. I hope it gets our attention this morning. By the way, did you realize that this morning there are more people enslaved in slavery today, and much of that is the sex trade? 27 million people are enslaved today. 32:07 That is more than 400 years of transatlantic slavery industry between Africa and the West for 400 years. In other words, all of that slavery, which was terrible, it was heinous, things done that should never have been done to anyone, 32:27 any color, any shape, any size, any person. There are more people today being trafficked in sex and slavery than has been for 400 years of that slave trade. That's the figures. You can look them up. What are the judgments that come on a nation, 32:49 that come on a people, that come on a person? Number one, the cheapening of human life. It came for the babies. They're coming for the old people. They're coming for the handicapped. You realize that there are very few people today being born with Down syndrome? Why? 33:08 Because in vitro investigation, 33:13 study, and observation, they can see what a Down syndrome baby is in the womb, and they are being slaughtered only because they're Down syndrome. 33:23 And it has cheapened the value of life. If they can do that to an innocent baby, and they can do it to a Down syndrome person, they can do it to a handicapped person, they can do it to an old person, they can do it to a Christian, they can do it to a Jew. You say that's unbelievable. No, it's not. It happened. It happened. 33:38 Nazi Germany was built on this whole idea of getting rid of those who were 33:47 a menace to society and those who were unusable in society. Get rid of them, exterminate them, and we're doing that today in our world and in our land. The cheapening of human life is a judgment. The increase of violence against children and the poor, 34:07 the gruesome procedures have desensitized us to violence in our world. 34:16 If man bears no image of God and no likeness of God, if he is just a little bit more advanced animal on the food chain, as it were, then really it's the survival of the fittest among people. And the fit have the resources and the power to determine who is valuable, 34:37 who is invaluable, and to exterminate those who they consider invaluable. And it's a spirit of death. It is a spirit of death. There's economic impact. Have you thought about the fact that we're seeing help-wanted signs all over the place, everywhere, all over, across this land? 34:58 What do you think it'd be like if there were 62 million extra workers and taxpayers 35:06 that had been exterminated in the last 49 years? The world is bearing a price. China is bearing a price. The one-child policy makes them number 10 in the abortion country industry countries. China is bearing an economic... So we have Russia and Ukraine. 35:27 Interestingly, Russia and Ukraine are fighting with each other and both coming under divine judgment because they are number one and what was it, four or five in the abortion industry? Interesting. Not justifying a takeover of any country, but it does remind us that there is a judgment when God no longer protects you and defends you. 35:49 There's an economic impact. There's a judgment on those who stand by and do nothing. There's the sin of omission as well as the sin of commission. There is a judgment on those who pray on the weak and exterminate the innocent. 36:12 I want to ask you this morning, if one man's innocent blood cried out for vengeance and God judged that perpetrator, that murderer, 36:24 what do you think 1.5 billion babies plus all those who have been victims of genocide, who have been, because of their ethnic inferiority, as the world describes it, 36:44 brutally massacred, brutally killed, innocent blood, what do you think all that blood is saying when it comes to crying out to God? Well, rather than be negative, let's ask these things that we could be doing. What could we do? 37:03 What do we do with this? I want to give you three things which involve quite a bit. Number one, we should pray. Pray. Pray against the real enemy who is the spirit of death. 37:21 Pray against those enemies who take the lives of babies. Pray that life would win and be celebrated and embraced and protected. Pray against the exploitation of the weak and the vulnerable. 37:39 Pray that righteous laws would be enacted and unrighteous laws would be overturned, and those in power would have the courage and conviction to protect the defenseless and the unborn. 37:50 By the way, I'm sure you're aware the Supreme Court, by this June, will render some kind of ruling that'll either rein in abortion or allow it to continue as the law of the land. It would probably kick it back to the states. We should be praying. I should be praying more for our Supreme Court. 38:12 Pray that men and women would be set free from sin and oppression. Pray that truth and righteousness would be established. That truth would be shown to the minds and hearts of those women who find themselves in need of help and seek abortion because of their sense of need. 38:32 Pray against the greed, the sexual promiscuity, and violence. Pray, as God directs you, for the unborn. But then secondly, let us promote and affirm. Promote and affirm pro-life causes. I'll be honest. I haven't been against things like RETA. 38:54 It hasn't been on my front burner. But I'd love to see somebody in our church get involved in RETA, which is our local crisis pregnancy. Reason Enough to Act is what it stands for. 39:09 Value every person, from the worst criminal to the most vulnerable child. That doesn't mean that I'm not against capital punishment. That's another subject for another day because that is a civil responsibility to bring justice in response to the shedding of innocent blood. 39:29 Old Testament, I assure you, civil government, and so on, another subject for another day. But even the most violent criminal has on him the image of God. It has been defaced, but it has never been erased. 39:46 We need to reach out to women in crisis. We need to minister to families and families with handicapped children. We need to promote adoption. Promote adoption. 40:01 Blessings on Aaron and Jenny in our church who are a living example of the blessings of parents who believe in adoption. Others, I'm not thinking of any others this morning of our church that have adoption, but consider it. Consider it. Affirm it. Every chance that you get, 40:20 affirm adoption, providing a home for those who are weak and vulnerable and homeless. 40:28 We should affirm and promote active love for all mankind and remind the powerful of their responsibility, which includes fathers taking our responsibility, young men taking your responsibility as men, as youth, as leaders, 40:46 as men who promote purity and who take responsibility for the protection of women and children at the expense of our own personal agenda and pleasure. 41:02 In his book, Flesh and Machines, MIT Professor Rodney Brooks writes this, that a human being is nothing but a machine or what he calls, "A big bag of skin full of biomolecules." Interacting by the laws of physics and chemistry. 41:21 In ordinary life, of course, it's difficult to actually see people that way, but he says, "When I look at my children, I can, when I force myself, 41:31 see that they are machines." Is that how he treats them, though? Brooks admits, "That is not how I treat them. I interact with them on an entirely different level. They have my unconditional love," the furthest one might be able to get from rational analysis. Sadly, Brooks' love for his children has no basis within his worldview. 41:51 It sticks out of his box. In other words, he's got this cognitive disconnect between how he treats his children and what he really believes about humanity. Brooks ends by saying, "I maintain two sets of inconsistent beliefs." He has no defense. We, as a church, have one set of consistent beliefs. 42:12 That is every soul that is from the moment of conception until that body is laid in the ground represents the image of God. And number three, proclaim the gospel. It is the gospel that is the answer to all of this. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 42:32 It is Christ who is the answer to all of this. All humans, from conception to burial, are dignified with the image of God. That's part of the gospel understanding. 42:44 But that man has sinned and sinners sin and need to be delivered from sin, that Christ came to redeem and to forgive and to restore and to save, that forgiveness is readily available. I don't know the deep, dark secrets of anyone here today. 43:02 I would doubt that there's been anyone here that has had an abortion, but I never know. Sometimes these things come out later in life as life begins to fall apart for husbands and wives and women. I would say this. 43:20 It's not unheard of in our circles for women to have abortions, unfortunately. I want them to know that forgiveness is available, but that it is a gospel of Jesus Christ that will set them free from guilt. And the gospel, which provides heart transformation, 43:42 which includes sexual purity and includes the power to overcome and includes the power to love others rather than our own selfish will and desires. By the way, lest you not be aware of it, there is a huge connection between abortion, 44:02 those women who have had abortions, and those who have inner turmoil and psychiatric problems. A study was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which reviewed data from 22 published studies and found a link between abortion and mental health difficulties. 44:21 This study involved over 877,000 participants, which 163 plus thousand of those had undergone abortion. And this was the finding. Women who have undergone abortion experienced an 81% increased risk of mental health problems. 44:43 The study found increased risk of the following mental health issues. 44:50 Those who have had abortions experienced increased 34% higher anxiety rates, 37% higher rates of depression, 110% higher rates of alcohol use and abuse. 45:08 They have marijuana abuse and use disorders up to 220% times, those who have not had abortions, and are 155% more apt towards suicide. 45:23 Women having abortions were 60% more likely to seek psychiatric care in the 90 days after their abortion than women who had delivered their children. And they found that frequency of psychiatric treatment was significantly higher for at least four years following the abortion. And the gospel is the answer to even that. 45:43 Jesus Christ setting people free from guilt and shame and justifying us, sanctifying us, healing the inner heart of the most hurting woman that he can find. 46:04 I want to bless you with one final thought. I think it'll be a blessing. The scripture talks about, in Revelation 7:9, about that number which no man can number, which are surrounding the throne. 46:25 And when John looked down through the corridors of time and into eternity, he saw this amazing mass of humanity. How do you square that with the idea that Jesus had that gave us, that the way is narrow and few there be that find it? 46:45 It says that a great multitude, all nations, kindreds, peoples, tongues stood before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried, "Salvation to our God," and worshiped the Lord. Some time ago, the Lord, I think it was the Lord. I'm not smart enough to think of these things sometimes. 47:05 I think the Lord reminded me of that multitude that you see in heaven. How many of them are going to be aborted babies? And how many of them are going to be miscarried babies? How many miscarriages? It'd be interesting to know from medical workers. 47:28 I see Ashley here this morning works with pregnancies all the time. How many abortions or how many miscarriages have resulted from before the flood till now or after the flood till now? How many of those babies? If we believe that life begins at conception, 47:51 then that means that all those spontaneous abortions, which is the body sloughing off a pregnancy that would not be healthy or what for whatever reason miscarriages happen, along with all of the aborted babies, I'll tell you what, it's going to be billions. 48:14 Billions. So God's going to have the last word on all this. What's our word? What's our word? Let's pray. Father, thank you for the children this morning. Thank you for the babies. 48:34 Thank you for life. As I gaze out this morning over the audience, I see little ones. 48:44 I see big ones. I see young marrieds. I see families. I see grandparents. I even see some elderly and those of us that are quickly on that road. 48:57 Thank you, Lord, that every single one has meaning and value and purpose. And we celebrate each other's life. We celebrate life, God. Oh, we raise dogs and praise God for the dog raisers. 49:18 It's a means of making a living, earning an income, making somebody happy with a new pet. Lord, let us never miss out on the most important thing that we raise is children. Not for purchase, not for financial gain, 49:39 for they come at great financial cost, but for the glory of God and the preservation of the image of God, the Imago Dei, 49:53 indelibly stamped 49:56 on our children. Lord, I pray that you'll raise somebody up here at Living Water that would develop or would come forward with a passion to do ministry, anti-abortion ministry within the proper realm and confines with scripture. 50:17 Lord, 50:17 we realize that getting involved in marches and getting involved in legislation and all that stuff that the church has tried for the last 50 years really hasn't had that great of an impact. What has had an impact is people getting involved in people's lives. And so, Lord, 50:36 I pray that even here at Living Water, you'd raise up somebody that would have a passion for the pro-life movement and would be a front burner issue with them. 50:48 In Jesus' name, forgive us of our passivity. Forgive us of our apathy. 50:56 Forgive us of our participation. 51:01 In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.