surprise you. That today's sermon is going to be a little bit more PG than I
typically am. And that is not because of any vulgarity, that is not because of
anything unsavory or uncouth, but that is just simply because the topic that we
will be getting into is of a more mature topic. So that's upfront and
we'll get, I'll let you know a little bit more in just a second about what exactly
that is. Just know that as we progress, as I see, it may be something that if
there are little ones either watching online or little ones here, just
be forewarned. It's a little bit more mature today than typical, but I will do
my best to still keep it in the realm of comfort. So without anything else, let's
pray one more time. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for an opportunity to
search for truth in your Word. I pray that as we open up inspired writings,
that we would find your will for us and not insert our will for you. So I pray
for discernment, I pray for clarity of thought and clarity of words. Speak
through me today in your name, amen. Amen. Last weekend, in case you didn't know, was
the Kentucky Derby. Now as someone who lived for 13 years in Lexington,
Kentucky, I was surrounded by horse culture. In the state of Kentucky, there
are two primary racetracks. One is Churchill Downs in Louisville, where the
Derby happens, and the other is Keeneland horse track in Lexington.
Keeneland, every year, two months out of the year, horse races, horse sales, people
from all over the globe flew into Lexington on double-decker jets in order
to buy multi-million dollar horses. It was, I mean, you can't get around Lexington
without seeing the horses. So last weekend was the Derby. Now the Derby is
important in Kentucky because that means now you can plant your garden. That's how
important it was, at least for me, because by and large I don't care about
horse racing. It's just kind of the culture of it all. Has anyone here seen
the clips from last weekend's race? No one. Oh, you did. All right, so we know
about Rich Strike then. Have we heard of the horse Rich Strike? We've heard of
Rich Strike. Last weekend's Derby was historical. One, it started with a
last-minute drop-off in one of the horses that was supposed to be slated to
race. Then they picked a replacement, apparently at some sort of randomness,
and Rich Strike was the colt selected to fill in that now empty slot. Now Rich
Strike didn't have any significant pedigree behind him. He was not a
multi-million dollar horse. He did not come from a prominent farm. He did not
have really anything of him to speak of. So he was an 80 to 1 odds at winning the
Kentucky Derby. If you watch the footage, it's awesome. I don't get excited over
horses. This was exciting because as they're coming into the last turn and
the last furlong, Rich Strike is somewhere in the middle of the pack and
then starts to, with incredible precision, weave through the horses making his way
up to the front and by the time they cross the finish line, I believe it was
half of a length. An 80 to 1 odds beat out all the rest of them in the last
stretch and it was really exciting. Apparently some people did well on it
and it certainly shot that owner and that jockey and that trainer right up
into the top of everybody's interest. Unfortunately he's not going to go for
the Triple Crown. Last time I'd heard they're gonna skip the Preakness and go
to the Belmont. Those are the three races for the Triple Crown. Stay
healthy, better chance and so on and so forth. What brought to mind when people
watched Rich Strike do his thing during that race was the last time that people
got this excited over a racehorse. 1973 Secretariat, big red, jumped onto the
scene as I believe the last Triple Crown, I don't think we've had one since. We
have not had a Triple Crown winner since 1973 and if you want to see some
exciting footage, look up the footage of Secretariat. Secretariat defied odds,
especially at the beginning. He was too large, they said his heart wasn't healthy,
they said he was a slow starter and he was. Slow out of the gates, picked up
steam and by the time he got to the end he was the winner and the most exciting
one was the Belmont where he won by record lengths. Do we hear a correction
on some of our...
Okay, so since 1973 two other Triple Crowns, thank you for that, I want to make
sure that we're accurate. It was exciting, people got it, there's a
movie made about it and if you go around Lexington and just kind of
north of there you can actually drive by the farm where they filmed most of
Secretariat, beautiful horse country, rolling green hills and picket fences
and the whole deal. But 1973 was also a year that has come back up in recent
discussions for another reason. Very exciting in the horse race, it's not as
exciting, at least not for me, when discussing perhaps the most historical
and monumental Supreme Court decision ever in the history of the world except
for maybe things that have to do with slavery. Roe v. Wade was voted on and the
opinion put out in 1973, the early part of that year, overturning a all of
history's precedent in allowing states to decide the topic of abortion and what
they were going to do. Now a couple of judges, the majority of judges at the
Supreme Court took it upon themselves to discover, to discover in the
immunarations and the penumbras of the wording of the Constitution somewhere
hidden inside of the right to privacy, also not mentioned in the Constitution,
now a federally recognized right to abortion. Now I'm phrasing this in a very
particular way because one, the word abortion and that right doesn't appear
anywhere explicitly in our country's Constitution at all, and then two, the
right to privacy is also not explicitly stated in our Constitution. There were
quite a few legal backbendings in order to find these supposed rights, but then
they became, relatively speaking, the law of the land. So if you're keeping track,
that is two degrees removed from the wording of the Constitution, this
supposed right to abortion. That's the topic for today because a week ago, a
little over to almost two weeks ago, almost two weeks ago a leaked draft from
the Supreme Court about a potential overturning of the Roe v Wade decision
was spread out. As of the leaked draft, it seems that five justices are going to
vote in favor of overturning Roe v Wade and four are going to vote in favor of
keeping it. That's what the draft seems to think. So here's your second warning.
This is a topic that for some people might be uncomfortable. This is a topic
for some people that maybe you like to shy away from or it comes close to home.
Up front, I want to recognize that it is a difficult topic for many. Up front, I
want to express some compassion and I want to express some empathy and I want
to express a non-condemnational and non-judgmental attitude up front. Up front,
I want to recognize and I want to make sure that we're all on the same page.
This is not to point fingers. This is not to be harsh. This is not to be
unloving. This is not to be any of those things. It is, however, to look at this
topic from a couple of important and relevant positions. The most important
being how does the Word of God influence our relationship to such a difficult
topic? Because I firmly believe that as Seventh-day Adventist Christians it
works in that order. You read Genesis to Revelation, you humbly submit it to the
Word of God as you understand it, and that's the worldview and how you
respond to difficult, challenging, moral discussions. It's not the other way
around. It's not what's popular. It's not what society says. It's not what the
textbooks might tell you. When they conflict with the Word of God as
Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we start with the Word of God and then we
go the other direction. And so today I want to take a look at the Word of God
because I don't believe that this topic is preached on enough from the pulpit.
If you decide to get up and leave, you won't hurt my feelings. You won't. I would
encourage you in your own time to come back to our Facebook page and maybe
re-watch it. You can pause it, you can take your time, because I think we're
going to go through a few things that are necessary to touch on. So with that
last caveat, let's move forward. First, I would like to dispel a
couple of lies. One lie is that the church should not engage in
socio-political issues. That is a lie. If the church did not engage in
socio-political issues, you would not have had good, solid moral Christians
leading the abolition movement. You would not have had churches at the front of
the temperance movement, and even still today in some churches. You would not
have churches at the front of helping to take care of refugees and the homeless
and addicts and the list can go on, because every one of those are
socio-political issues that carry with them a moral concern that the church
feels obligated to be a part of. So it seems that if we are going to be okay
with the church speaking on those topics and the Word of God clearly leaning into
it, then we shouldn't make a carve out for one topic because we just don't want
to. So the church can speak on this, it's in the Word of God, the church should
speak on it. So we will. Two, one that is just a more technical and legal
understanding of things. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, which it is not yet, this is
just simply a leaked draft. It is not the decision, it is not the vote. If Roe v.
Wade is overturned, it goes back to its previous state of the states decide. It
takes it away from the federal and puts it back into the states. It doesn't outlaw
it wholesale, it doesn't turn it into a felony, it doesn't
automatically do any of those things. It actually makes a more democratic process
possible by allowing the states to decide it. So please don't listen to the
lie that says if Roe v. Wade is overturned, wholesale women are going to
get thrown into jail. Don't believe it, it's a lie. Three, three the Word of God
is very explicit about how we look at human life and the value of human life,
including when the human life begins and our role in protecting and preserving
human life. So we're going to take, we're going to take I believe one, two, three
of the most common reasonings spoken for in favor of abortion and we will dispel
them today. I do want to add that this is purposefully on the topic of elective
abortions. It is true that there are some women who at the risk of their own lives
have to make a decision about furthering a pregnancy. Sometimes the pregnancy
itself puts the ladies life in danger and so in those scenarios this discussion
please don't think that it absolutely applies. Okay?
According to the Guttmacher Institute who does the statistics for planned
parenthood, the number one abortion provider in the United States of America.
In other words, this Institute is pro-abortion so the statistics are the
best available to support the abortion position. According to the Guttmacher
Institute we find that pregnancy that results from an incestuous relationship
account for 0.001% of pregnancies. That the woman's life was endangered by the
pregnancy is 0.065%. It's a very, that's a difficult, challenging, and sad
circumstance and it's a fraction of a fraction of a percent. For the woman that
was raped it results in a pregnancy in 0.085% and then after that it's the
woman's physical health at 0.28%, the woman's psychological health was
threatened at 0.29%, a serious fetal abnormality at 0.66%, that the woman
aborted for social or economic reasons at 6%, and for no reason at all at 92
plus percent. And this is from an institution in favor of supporting
planned parenthood. So let's dispel one other misconception, that we necessarily
need to have Roe v. Wade or federally codified abortion rights because of
rapes and because of incest or because of the mental health of the woman and so
on. That is arguing from the point of the edge in order to make the point for the
whole. Because I can assure you that any of those who are fierce advocates of
this, if you were to say, we'll allow it for the edge but not for anything else,
none of them would be okay with it. No one. And that also doesn't bring up the
fact that there is a huge percentage, a significant percentage, of women whose
physical health is threatened by the abortion, that women's mental health is
threatened by the abortion at a greater percentage than the pregnancy. That's true.
The numbers do not match up that way.
One argument is that abortion is okay or on the farthest extremes should be
allowed is because the baby is just a clump of cells. Have we heard that
phrase maybe? That is true only to the extent that you and I as we are now are
still just a clump of cells. Just the fact that your clump of cells happen to
be at an earlier stage of development instead of a later stage of development
doesn't affect the fact that you are a human being. I'm a clump of cells. I just
happen to have mobility and rational thought. I happen to have joint aches. I
happen to sleep good and not sleep good. I happen to experience emotions, joy and
sadness and hunger and fullness and you name it. My clump of cells might be able
to experience more than the unborn child but that unborn child is no less a human
than me just because of where it is at the stage of development. That is
something like saying we can abort the child because they are just a fetus
which is why we don't do infanticide because they are they are an infant not
a fetus. That's akin to saying we should be in favor of euthanization because they
are just a senior citizen they are not middle-aged. It's true. Fetus is just a
word to describe a stage of development not a different of kind. You cannot be a
fetus in the womb of a woman and be the fetus of a lizard or the fetus of a cat
or the fetus of fill-in-the-blank an oak tree. I don't know. It's still the fetus
of it. It's a human being. It just happens to be at a earlier stage of
development than what it will be. Are we clear on at least that aspect of it?
Along that line the just a clump of cells you might also hear a phrase
something like it is just potential human life. Have we heard something along
those lines that at this earliest stage it's potential human life? Once
conception happens life begins because the cells divide and all of that
genetic code all of that DNA mapping all of everything is immediately in place at
the point of conception. It is a better understanding that that is now human
life with potential instead of potential human life because allowed to go through
the natural processes that earliest 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 etc. cells should
healthy bodies end up with a baby end up with a toddler end up with a young
person end up with a oh my goodness a teenager and so on. Generally speaking
and and and we're gonna touch on a couple of the not generally speaking but
generally speaking uninterrupted a pregnancy results in a baby. At the not
generally speaking is a result of sin. Sin in our world occur on at least two
facets one our actions lowercase sins so if you steal if you covet if you sleep
with someone who's not sure your spouse and so on those are sins actions. There
is also capital S sin the nature that infection that goes through all of what
is creation presently speaking. That's the result of thanks to our greatest
grandparents Adam and Eve as the overseers of creation allowed and they
opened up that door for capital S sin to infect everything that they oversaw.
That's why we have mosquitoes my friends. It is no fault of the elephant or the
giraffe or the cat or the trout that they experience death and suffering. It is
because of the humans that they experience that sin. It is because of
sin that now we don't just have babies and at a hundred and five percent
success rate everyone is born with all of their fingers and toes and mouths and
ears and etc etc. Sin entering into this world perverted God's creation.
And that includes things like emotional not emotional um various physiological
handicaps. There's the word trying to find a good word. The various the various
physical handicaps the various psychological handicaps the various
other forms of handicaps that we experience are not because we
necessarily wanted it. It's because sin as gross as it is has affected God's
creation. So let us let us not try and think that it is anyone's fault but
Satan's for the sad reality of miscarriages or the sad reality of
someone being born with a heart outside their body or too many kidneys or
they're born blind or they're born with stunted limbs or they're born. That is
not the parents fault. That is not God's fault. That is Satan's fault from way
back when all the way to today. It's a very sad reality but it is the reality.
And one thing that is not often talked about is that we do not have a promise
or really should have an expectation of a life in a world of sin without
wholesale without suffering. That's not going to be a reality until we are
glorified and walk in the streets of gold. Toughness is the norm in a sin-filled
life. Difficulty, challenge, hurdles, hurt, pain, death, loss, you name it, suffering,
ritz-sale is the reality of this world and there's nothing we can do to
completely get away from it. And if I had a choice between risking some
suffering for my child versus I'm going to end their life so they don't have to
risk some suffering, for me the choice is easy. I would rather allow the person the
chance to live to know their Savior even if it means suffering along the way. I
would rather see that. I would. There are some rather sad positions where
some of these activists and speaking of activists, it was within
hours of the leaked draft when shrieks and shrills went up from the hardest of
activists. The wild-eyed look on their faces and some of the signs and
arguments means that the only conclusion I can come to is that they are demon
inspired, probably in a similar way to the demoniac that met Jesus and then
hurled the swine off the cliff. Some of the reactions are that severe. That's
where we won't go because that's too far for this setting. It's heinous, the
reactions to some of this. The second argument that you might hear, the second
argument that you might hear is that a person is not a person until they
experience consciousness or a or viability. Have we heard of that one?
Viability and consciousness. Consciousness is easy because when you go
to sleep you have a greatly diminished state of consciousness. It is against the
law for me to kill you with a pillow because you're asleep and not conscious.
Families fight each other over pulling a plug off of a ventilator because someone
is in a vegetative state for years at times with zero hope of recovery. They
will say no, I cannot unplug my loved one and end of their life prematurely. Let
them be. That's consciousness. It seems that consciousness argument, the debate
around personhood and consciousness, people narrow way down and they only
apply it to the unborn. All other experiences of personhood when it comes
to consciousness we say no you can't just kill a person because they're
unconscious. Seems like we should stop the differencing, the differentiation.
Viability. Viability is an interesting thing because you will hear a couple of
different arguments. We know that with modern technology it is the year 2022 not
1922 not 1822 not AD 22. In 2022 at about 20 weeks I think is when they start to
count a baby outside the womb we can keep it alive and it could have a good
chance at living. 20 weeks that's only half term, that's midterm and that's with
our current technology. Viability also has something to do with geography. Have
you thought of it this way? If you lived one block away from Emory or one block
away from the best Institute in New York City you have a greater chance of having
a baby live in that facility than the backwoods of West Virginia two hours
away from the nearest hospital. So where is where is that discussion on
viability? It seems that viability would be geography related. Viability can also
be this if if you've ever had a child or been around a newborn just because the
baby has left the womb does not make it immediately viable. If that baby is then
just set there how long will the baby live? Not long. My friends not long at
all. After birth it's necessary for the parents to feed, to water, to change, to
protect, to house, to clothe, to etc etc etc for multiples of years
for that child to just not die. The viability argument does not last even
past infant, past toddler, past middle school. I could take my 14 year old right
now cast him out into the world and say go be viable. Now he might be able to eat
and breathe and find water on his own but he is not going to last long. That's
why parents are responsible in the United States up until 18 years. That
number was picked because I don't know 18. Parents are responsible legally until
18 years of age in the United States of America because it is recognized that
younger than that the likelihood of survival diminishes, diminishes,
diminishes, diminishes farther down and farther down you go. Two or three I've
lost count. Speaking of viability, the vote that was just turned down that was
an attempt at not codifying Roe but rather expanding abortion would have
permitted abortion all the way up to the moment of birth. The moment wholesale
across the country it would have overturned more than 500 state laws and
for any reason which means that the viability argument someone is going to
say that the baby at this part of the birthing process while in labor etc to
that part a distance of one is not viable the other one is viable. One can
be ended and the other one needs to live and the distance is only I think we know
this maybe by anatomy. That argument should not hold water. It should not.
If we are looking at the Word of God for our answers to these things and you would
like to take note we're going to touch on a few of them and then we'll get to
our final point. If you would like to take note of this Psalm 139 verses 13 to
16. 139 is a beautiful psalm about how the God of heaven knows you completely
and entirely no matter where you go no matter what you do he knows you
personally. It's beautiful. If you ever find yourself feeling like you are
entirely alone and God does not see you open up to Psalm 139 and the verses 13
to 16 speak of God knowing you from before or at the point of your earliest
existence. It reads like this. For the psalmist writes, for you formed my
inward parts you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very
well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret
intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed
substance. In your book were written every one of them the days that were
formed for me when as yet there was none of them. That's those days. Before your
days started to be counted God had you named in his book. In his mind he saw you
and if you were here when Elder Reed preached a couple of weekends ago one of
his things was may we see like God sees. Do you catch my drift? May we see like God
sees. From the earliest moments and even before you were on God's mind as
Christians that perspective matters. That should shape our thoughts and vision
rather than the other way around. Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 5 a well
known quote for topics like this. God calling Jeremiah to his prophetic
calling says this before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were
born I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Now Jeremiah was
making the argument I'm so young I can't do this. God is saying hold on a moment
I've known you since before you were in your mother's womb and I consecrated you
for this. In other words I'm with you from before your beginning and I'm with
you now. I'm with you moving forward. It's great. I love this verse. Going back
to Psalm 127 verses 3 to the first part of verse 5 and this is a this is a
connection to one of our core 28 fundamental beliefs number 23 which has
to do with marriage and the family. In our fundamental beliefs we recognize a
marriage between the man and the woman and creating that core family unit for
society. It was it was directed by God made by God blessed by God and so on. We
recognize that in our fundamental beliefs along with that is families. The
family unit continuing the generations blessing the young ones and even if if
you are unable to have kids or you've chosen not to you can still benefit and
bless the younger generations. That's a part of our church's main beliefs.
And it comes from the Word of God. Behold children are a heritage from the Lord.
The fruit of the womb a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the
children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.
A poetic language that just talks about a family is a good thing. It's a good
thing and it's not talked like that often in today's society. You will you
will hear words like the baby is an enemy to me. That child is going to keep
me from accomplishing things. Some of it some of it is is even more stark than
that. We've gotten to a point where for those in favor of the more activist
minded they look at an unborn child as an enemy to fight against rather than a
blessing of the Lord to propagate and to promulgate and to support and to love
and cherish and protect. That does not seem to be the making of a healthy
society when our younger generations are viewed as enemies. To be denied to be
rejected does not seem to be a healthy society. Ephesians 1 verses 3 and 4
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and
blameless before him. Now there's a secondary theological meaning to that
in regards to God wanted all of creation to be on his side that was his purpose.
That's why the sacrifice of Christ covers all including those who reject
him. It's not for the elect versus the reprobate. We reject that in the
Adventist Church. Christ's sacrifice was whole and complete for all of humanity
even the lost Christ bled for them. That's an incredible consideration but
that plan was made before the foundation of the world. God had you in mind if we
take all of these verses together.
The last main speaking point perhaps the most famous one for someone who is
pro-abortion maybe we've heard of it. My body, my choice. My body, my choice. At a
base logical and rational thought if you've already understood that at the
moment of conception you have you have
human being with potential human life with potential right. The only way that
it can be human life with potential is if that human life is its own of itself.
Its own separate DNA code from the mother. Its own separate genetic makeup
from the mother. It is not normal for women to have five ten fifteen twenty
fingers twenty toes four legs four arms two noses two hearts four kidneys etc
etc. That does not happen and if it does happen that's usually a different
type of medical condition. But when a lady gets pregnant we understand at our
base level of knowledge and understanding that it is different from
her. It is. The baby needs the mother's body to grow and to live and to be
sustained and to be protected until the time of birth but that does not make the
baby her. Do we see what I'm saying? If it were to be entirely my body my choice
and we meant those words as they were I would say okay okay because before the
time of conception do we realize how many choices have to be acted on that
only involve the woman's body? Quite a few. Shall I date? Shall I get intimately
involved with a man? Is it someone that I'm going to be married to? Is it
purposeful? Is it whatever? There are actions. Should we be using
protection of other options? A plethora of them many of which are free. Choices
ahead of the act. If it were truly my body my choice and we truly stuck with
that I would say okay. But the moment you put another person into the equation
which the unborn child is it's no longer her body. It's no longer that and she
should not be allowed to act as if it were. 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verses
19 and 20 at the end of a passage about sexual immorality so it fits for the
discussion. At the end of a passage about sexual immorality we hear this,
or do you not know so this is this is God saying you just you just can't go
about doing whatever you want with your bodies in an intimate way. You
just can't even do that and then he says this, or do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not
your own for you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body. The
Christian rejects the idea that our bodies are our own to do whatever we
want with entirely and completely. You are created, you are here because in the
great scheme of things God saw fit to either purposefully create you or allow
you to be. God is all-controlling and all-powerful and all-knowing etc. And
then 2 because we are born into a fallen state, Christ's blood redeems us from
that we are bought with a price. Twofold God has claim over you and that includes
your body. That's why you find elsewhere in Scripture you don't just get to drink
what you want or eat what you want. That's why when it comes to recreation
choices I might think that we would shy away from ones that can certainly
enhance the likelihood of broken bones or death. We should choose more
uplifting recreation instead of damaging recreation. Our body is not our own it is
bought with a price. You cannot as a Christian make the argument my body my
choice because God has said twice you belong to me. You belong to me. Which
means that at some point how we use what we are given, how we use what belongs to
someone not our own means that we will be held in account. We don't like to
think of that but the Bible speaks to that. You were bought with a price. I'm
glad that God bought me with that price. I am thankful for that. I am thankful for
that because not only do I have hope in eternal life with my Lord and my Savior
but I also have the assurance of a help in victory over sin in the here and the
now. He did it for me. I cannot do it. I'm glad that I'm his. On a society level we
also don't agree with my body my choice. We have laws against putting heroin
between your toes. We have laws against we actually have laws against self-harm
are you aware of that? We have multiples of laws that stop you from doing
whatever you want to your body. We have prostitution laws. We have laws that
completely throw this one-sentence claim out the window but like many of the
other ones they go boom right here super narrow. That's where it applies.
And it doesn't even apply. Many if not all of the arguments are wholly illogical
when you take them and consider them rather than repeat them like a bumper
sticker. If not all of them 99% of them. Now I want to talk just for a second
about the one thing that I haven't talked about and that's rape and incest.
Personally this is this is pastor Aaron Trelfe speaking only for himself. I know
family members and I have friends who disagree with me on this. I'm not
speaking for anyone but pastor Aaron Trelfe. I do not find in the Bible where
the value of human life is based on how they came to be conceived. I don't find
it. In fact you can probably find Bible verses that support rape and incest and
still the baby was born. There wasn't an excuse made for ending the pregnancy
early. For me this is my opinion the value of human life is based on the
value that God has given humans not on whether a pregnancy was accidental or
desired because it seems to come down to those two things. When you when you kind
of weed through some of the other arguments it often comes down to was it
accidental or do I want the baby? And for me those two things do not define the
value of human life. They don't. Again many people will disagree with me on that.
That that is a more strict position even amongst more conservative minded people.
So in other words I would not be in favor of abortion even in those arenas.
Even in those arenas. Now I want to show you I have a friend up here. I brought I
brought a visual object aid today. Do we know who this little guy is? Some of us
have figured it out. The great American author, one of the finest pensmans of
modern history, Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss wrote one of his finest works. Perhaps his
only I guess more political minded writings, The Lorax. This is The Lorax.
This is the protagonist of the story. We meet The Lorax when the Wunzler, the
antagonist of the story, when the Wunzler shows up and chops down a cool tree
named after my last name, the Truffula tree, because he realized that he could
take the the fabric, the leaves, the whatever was at the top, the feathers,
however the top of the Truffula tree was made of. He could take that, he could sew
it into something he called a thneed and a thneed has many uses and then he could
sell it he could make a profit. This was this the book essentially is an argument
against destroying nature for the purpose of consumerism. That's basically
the story in a nutshell. Well when the Wunzler chops down the first tree from
the trunk pops out The Lorax. This little guy. Well after some introductions The
Lorax says I speak for the trees. The trees can't speak for themselves.
That's my job. I am here to tell you please don't chop down the trees. Later
on he speaks for the fish and for the swami swans and for the bears and for
all of the other dispossessed animals from a forest being clear-cut. I speak
for the trees. My friends I believe it is time like our Bible verse says like the
Lorax can inspire. We open our mouths and we speak for those who can't. I believe
it is time that on a moral and religious and biblical foundation and it very
clearly is we speak for those who can't. The church regularly does for the abused,
for the fatherless, for the dispossessed. It seems that we need to speak for the
most innocent, the unborn. If Roe v Wade is overturned it will not completely
eradicate abortion from our society as much as I would like to see that happen.
But hopefully it will take the number of elective abortions down from roughly
150,000 a year greatly reduced. I believe that more life is a better outcome and I
believe that it is high time that God's people open our mouths for the mute, for
the rights of all who are destitute. I believe it is time for God's people to
open our mouths to judge righteously, to defend the rights of the poor and the
needy. I believe it is time for God's people to speak for those who can't and
that includes the unborn. I know this was a challenging topic thank you for for
sitting through it. If you have questions please don't hesitate to reach out to me.
If you have, if this comes close to home and we know what that means, I will pray
with you, we will talk about it, you can share and it won't go any farther than
sharing with me if that's your desire. We can pray that God look on
us lovingly and with compassion just like he does every other son and daughter
of his. This is not an exception to that rule but this should be a part of the
conversation. So please I will make myself available you can find my email
and my phone number on the back of the bulletin you don't have to throw that
away right away but I'll make myself available. Let's pray. Heavenly Father I
thank you very much for your word. I thank you that it has led and guided
your people from centuries of history past all the way to today's present
time. Lord I would ask that we be revived in its relevance that we not think of it
as as so ancient that it no longer applies but that you very much inspired
with the future intended. So I pray that we would look to your word to frame our
worldview. Lord I would ask that you come alongside ladies who
might be facing a challenging decision or have faced it. Please impress upon
them through the working of your Holy Spirit how much you love them, how much
you want to heal, and how much you want to draw close. Lord it's not the end of
things but it is something to consider and so I pray that you would help us
consider thoughtfully and according to your will. Lord be with us the rest of
today. May our time on your Sabbath be be reflective of you as our Lord in our
lives. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.